What we're covering
• US snowboarder defies Father Time?: Will 44-year-old American Nick Baumgartner set a new Olympic record for oldest snowboarder to win a gold in the mixed team snowboard cross?
• Shiffrin looks to seize “The Moment”: Mikaela Shiffrin has had a difficult start to these Games, continuing her bad streak at Olympics which began at Beijing 2022. She looks to jump over her mental hurdle in the giant slalom today. She is currently in seventh, 1.02 seconds behind the leader.
• Norwegian looks for history: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo looks to win his fourth gold medal of these Olympics in the men’s 4x7.5km cross-country skiing relay. If Klaebo does it, he will set a new Winter Games record of career golds with 9.
CNN Sports has all of the greatest feats of achievement – and funny anecdotes – from the Games, sign up for our “Milano Memo” newsletter.
In Pictures: Thermal imagery shows contrasting Olympic temperatures
One thing you can always expect from the Winter Olympics is cold weather and ice – that’s just a given.
But Getty, one of the world’s biggest photo agencies, has looked to show the contrasting temperatures that play out within venues across Milan Cortina.
Their series “Winter Heat” looks to explore the extreme temperature changes seen during competition.
One picture shows just how hot a pair of skis can get after a run on the slopes, while others show the difference between the body-warmth of hundreds of fans and the frigid temperatures of the figure skating ice rink.
Robots and Xbox controllers: Inside the world of Winter Olympic photography
After the madness of the men’s figure skating event on Friday night, I spent Saturday morning visiting Getty Images’ Olympics hub and talking to its VP of Global Sport, Michael Heiman.
As one of the world’s biggest photo agencies, Getty has set up a base in Milan to help document the events in the most creative and timely way possible.
The team consists of 39 editorial photographers across Italy, who capture all the action from the different venues. In addition, it has 24 commercial photographers tasked with capturing content for sponsors.
Getty predicts that its cameras will capture more than six million photos at the Games and they work quickly to get them available for use. For a major event, such as Ilia Malinin’s routine last night, it’s often under 30 seconds between a shot being snapped and it being processed.
But in addition to the traditional approach, Getty is also experimenting with robotic cameras. These are hung from different areas of the venues to capture the action from above, used notably at the opening ceremony and during figure skating or ice hockey events.
The cameras are operated from within the venues themselves or from back at Getty’s base in Milan and are often controlled with an Xbox controller.
The novel approach allows the photographer to take rapid-speed photos, which are then uploaded to the server and lightly edited by people working remotely.
During an average hockey game, Getty predicts these robotic cameras might take as many as 35,000 shots, with only a fraction ever making it on the website.
Sweden's Martin Ponsiluoma wins gold in men's 12.5km pursuit after impressive comeback
The men’s 12.5km pursuit in the biathlon is complete with Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma finishing in first to take home the gold medal.
Ponsiluoma completed a big comeback to win the gold in a time of 31:11.9, finishing ahead of his nearest rival by 20.6 seconds.
There was another medal won by Norway with Sturla Holm Laegreid skiing his way to a silver. Laegreid has had an eventful Olympics so far, we’ll stay tuned for his post-race press conference.
The Norwegian was then followed by Emilien Jacquelin of France who finished in third to win the bronze.
Cursing and cheating accusations: The feisty curling saga at the Winter Olympics
A brewing controversy is arising in the Olympic curling competition, involving accusations of cheating, denials involving F-bombs and an international governing body having to explain why it effectively relies on the honor system at times.
So why did a game involving Canada and Sweden’s men’s teams devolve into this situation?
Canada took the win in an 8-6 thriller, but the drama wasn’t just on the ice.
In Friday’s round-robin game, Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson suggested that Canada’s Marc Kennedy broke the rules by touching the curling stone after it was released.
Kennedy shot back, Eriksson rebutted, multiple F-bombs were dropped and Kennedy eventually earned an inappropriate behavior warning from World Curling.
Yet nothing officially happened on the day, with the judge essentially saying “beats me” when asked if he saw the touch.
Replays and some still pictures do appear to show Kennedy’s index finger extending, not unlike the finger of God connecting to Adam above the Sistine Chapel, to glance the stone, but it’s not necessarily conclusive.
Memes have since been made, accusations hurled and defensive positions taken. Social media was full of people accusing Canada of sullying the great sport and sportsmanship of curling.
Mikael Kingsbury wins gold in last Olympic Games outing for the GOAT
HE’S DONE IT!
In his final Olympic Games, Mikael Kingsbury has won gold in the men’s dual moguls.
Kingsbury was up against Japan’s Ikuma Horishima and delivered a near-perfect run to take the win.
The Canadian – the greatest men’s mogul skier of all time – took the win 30-5.
Whenever Kingsbury takes to the top of the hill, it seems like the pressure becomes too much for his opponent. For the third race in a row, Kingsbury’s competition has failed to deliver a real challenge to “The King.”
In the small final, Australian Matt Graham beat Takuya Shimakawa 20-15 to complete the podium and secure the bronze medal.
The dual moguls big final is up soon and the GOAT has booked his ticket
“The King” is into the big final and has a chance of signing off from the Winter Olympics with another gold medal.
Mikael Kingsbury beat Takuya Shimakawa 33-2 to ease into yet another final in his illustrious career.
In the second semifinal, Matt Graham of Australia was up against Japan’s Ikuma Horishima.
Horishima advanced to the big final with a 21-14 win.
Graham and Shimakawa will be up against each other in the small final to decide who goes home with the bronze medal.
Coach Snoop is having a blast at the Olympics
After delighting onlookers with a series of stylish cameos at the Paris Games in 2024, Snoop Dogg is back at the Olympics with a new, slightly more official, job: coach. The gig comes with a fresh wardrobe of looks cooler than the snow-capped Italian alps.
So far, he’s been spotted draped in a full-length, white fluffy coat and fire engine-red hat and gloves, watching the women’s downhill race, and casually chatting with onlookers at the curling mixed doubles, adorned in a zip-jacket emblazoned with Team USA players’ faces.
Wandering the icy streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo in a furry hat, houndstooth coat and enough swagger to make the snowflake medal hanging from his neck jangle in agreement, Coach Snoop (as one of his beanies reads) appears in his element.
It’s the first time Team USA has had an honorary coach, a volunteer role that involves Snoop lending “his signature humor and heart to help motivate Team USA athletes,” according to the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
The rapper-turned-hype man is a longtime sports fan, popping up in sometimes unexpected ways.
Last July, he became co-owner and investor in Welsh soccer club Swansea City. He was a torchbearer at the 2024 Paris Games – and did so again at this year’s Winter Olympics.
Much like in 2024, Snoop is reprising his role as a special correspondent for NBC, bringing his distinctive bold and flamboyant style and a genuine enthusiasm for whichever sport he happens to be commentating on – or throwing himself into, flailing limbs and all.
Read more about Snoop Dogg around the Olympics here.
Semifinals set in men's dual moguls as US hopefuls fail to advance
The semifinals are now set in the men’s dual moguls.
The first matchup will see Japan’s Takuya Shimakawa against the GOAT of men’s moguls, Mikael Kingsbury.
Kingsbury is looking to add to his already impressive medal count and made it look easy in his quarterfinal victory.
But there won’t being any US representation in the semifinals.
Team USA’s Charlie Mickel failed to advance after losing to Matt Graham of Australia and American Dylan Walczyk lost to Ikuma Horishima from Japan.
Italians in the lead after first GS run; Shiffrin in the hunt
Enjoying the support of a very happy home crowd, Italian’s Federica Brignone and Sofia Goggia threw down the gauntlet on the first giant slalom run here.
The two stand first and third after the early morning run against a stiff wind blowing up the mountain, much to the delight of the flag-waving Italians who watched from the stands.
Brignone happily waved to the crowd after finishing. Mikaela Shiffrin is 1.02 seconds back from Brignone and stands seventh – though that’s a bit of a misnomer. Wildly, three skiers tied for fourth, with the exact same time of 1:03.97.
Just a week ago, the 35-year-old Brignone said that her body remained far from 100 percent after she crashed at a race in April 2025, suffering multiple fractures of her leg, as well as a dislocated knee and ligament tears. Ordinarily requiring a multi-year recovery, she returned to competition in November and raced to a stunning gold medal in the super-G here on Tuesday.
For Shiffrin, just getting across the finish line was a victory. The GS is not only one of the events that she failed to finish in 2022 in Beijing, it’s where she suffered a terrifying injury in January 2024.
Competing in Killington, she lost an edge and slid into two gates before stopping near the protective fencing. She underwent abdominal surgery after enduring a puncture wound that narrowly missed her colon. Shiffrin has said that the crash left her with serious trauma, and she did not make it back to a GS podium until January of this year.
Shiffrin, who finished a disappointing 15th in the slalom portion of the team combined and out of the medals with teammate Breezy Johnson, raised her poles toward the crowd before leaving the finish area.
Team USA’s Paula Moltzan, the bronze medalist in the team combined, is in 13th after the first run.
The second run begins at 1:30 p.m. local, 7:30 a.m. ET.
Men's dual moguls is firmly underway and it's starting to heat up
We’re into the quarterfinals of the chaotic men’s dual moguls and it’s up for grabs with the gold medalist from the individual moguls failing to advance.
Australian Cooper Woods won’t be adding a second gold to his tally after being knocked out by Team USA’s Charlie Mickel.
Mickel will also be joined in the quarterfinals by teammate Dylan Walczyk who beat another Australian in George Murphy.
But it won’t be a clean sweep for the US in the round of 16 as Nick Page was knocked out by Japan’s Ikuma Horishima.
This is madness.
The mental hurdle of "The Moment" affects even the greats like Malinin and Shiffrin
The great ones make it look so easy that we forget how hard it is to be exceptional.
Secretariat running like a machine in the Belmont and Michael Phelps gobbling up gold medals in 2008; Tom Brady engineering seven Super Bowl victories and Simone Biles coming back for more golds after battling the twisties; Carl Lewis winning golds in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996 and Katie Ledecky lapping Olympians like she’s out for a rec league swim.
There is, however, a fragility to true excellence. As thin, you might say, as a skate blade or a ski’s edge.
What Ilia Malinin failed to do in his free skate at these Olympics and what Mikaela Shiffrin has struggled to do at her last Games and in her first event here do not erase anything that they have accomplished elsewhere. They are champions.
Alas, the reality of sports demands that true greatness is measured only on the biggest stage, where the physical strength and innate talent gifted to every superior athlete takes a backseat to mental fortitude. It becomes more about compartmentalizing while simultaneously absorbing the moment, blocking out the noise and still embracing the pressure.
It is true for every athlete in every sport, the delineation between having an asterisk – the greatest who never won – to just being the greatest.
But reaching that singular plateau is especially tricky for Olympic athletes. Like Malinin and Shiffrin, they can achieve record-setting numbers in the off years between the quad cycle only to have it all rendered irrelevant by one misstep in the Games.
Read more about the pressure of “The Moment” here.
Team USA is flying after first heat of women's monobob
Heat 1 from the women’s monobob is complete and it has been an incredible start for Team USA’s bobsledders.
The US has sliders in second, third and fourth with a potential medal sweep on the cards.
But Germany’s Laura Nolte is currently putting a stop to the American dominance. Nolte sits on top of the leaderboard just 0.05 seconds ahead of Elana Meyers Taylor in second.
Meyers Taylor is then followed by teammates Kaysha Love and defending monobob champion Kaillie Armbruster Humphries.
After a disappointing few days for US gold medal hopefuls, this represents a serious chance to win big for Team USA.
But there are another three heats to go and a lot can change. Stay tuned.
How to order coffee in Italy
All corners of the world have descended on northern Italy as the Games are underway, and there’s one key ritual that all should become familiar with when they’re here: How to order a coffee.
You begin with the easy part, finding a shop that sells coffee. Once you enter, there’s no formal queue. Instead, you will have to try your hardest to catch the barista’s eye.
After that incredibly awkward task is complete, open with a greeting like “bongiorno,” which is “hello” in Italian.
With the countdown to the Winter Olympics Games underway, Italy is gearing up to host athletes and tourists alike. One Italian ritual is essential for visitors to understand: the unwritten rules of Italian coffee. CNN's Antonia Mortensen shows you how to order the perfect cappuccino.
Now, the important part. “Un caffè” is an espresso, “macchiato” is an espresso with a spoonful of hot and foamy milk. DO NOT ask for a latte, otherwise you will end up with a glass full of milk. Instead, for what you are used to as a latte, ask for a “latte macchiato” and your order shall be served.
Fortunately, to save you the stress, cappuccino is pronounced the same in English as it is in Italian.
If you didn’t pay at the start, you can exchange the money on your way out. With that, the ritual is complete, you are now fully set to engage in one of Italy’s proudest traditions.
Yeah, boooyyyy! Flavor Flav sits down with CNN Sports in Cortina
It’s not just sporting stars who are wandering the streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo during the Winter Olympics. CNN Sports’ Coy Wire caught up with the veteran rapper and Team USA’s biggest fan, Flavor Flav.
The pair talked all things Winter Olympics and the similarities between sport and hip hop.
“I’m looking to watch my girl Kaysha Love do her thing,” Flav told CNN. Love goes in the women’s monobob and is currently third after heat 1.
“The reason why too I said Kaysha Love is because I went up to Park City and I took a bobsled ride and the four-man bobsled. Coy, that ride was crazy, but I really enjoyed it.”
And it wasn’t just the bobsled that Flav tried out, the rapper took it one step further.
“See, I’m an adrenaline junkie. I’m a big kid, I never grew up, you know what I’m saying? I like exciting things and then I saw the skeleton. I said, ‘Oh my God, I gotta try that.’ Yo, Coy, you let your boy Flav get on the sled. I topped out at 66 mph, bro. I enjoyed it so much, Coy. I joined the team.”
Flav also explained how he can relate to a lot of the athletes at the Winter Olympics.
“Well, it reminds me of how I wanted to be accepted when people saw me perform and when I go out there and I perform, I give it my all, and I just wanted people to really recognize that and embrace it,” he said.
“It takes a lot to get out there and try. You know there’s a lot of people that are scared to get out there to do that, but the ones that’s out there doing it are the ones that have the heart, you know what I’m saying?”
Federica Brignone has incredible run on giant slalom to move into first
Wow. OK, that was great. As the broadcast commentators were saying, no one was having a flawless run at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre, that is, until Federica Brignone.
The 2026 Olympic super-G champion had a fantastic run 1, finishing in a time of 1:03.23 to move clear of the pack and put a giant smile on the faces of the Italian fans in the crowd at the bottom of the piste.
Brignone was still feeling residual pain from a horror crash she had at the Italian championships in April 2025 – where she had multiple fractures of her leg in addition to tearing her right ACL – ahead of the super-G and was a doubt to even compete.
But the Tigre delle Nevi (“Snow Tiger”) pushed through the pain to win an incredible gold and is now in prime position to win a second gold of these Games.
In just 25 years, dozens of places will be too warm to host the Winter Olympics
Jessie Diggins is an endurance athlete. The Olympic cross-country skier describes the intensity of suffering her sport can inflict as a “pain cave.” It doesn’t frighten her; she’s used to digging deep, she can control the pain. What does terrify her, however, is how rapidly her sport is changing because of something completely out of her control: climate change.
She sees the effects everywhere. “I’ve raced World Cups where it was pouring rain and there was barely a strip of snow to ski on, entire seasons were reshaped overnight,” Diggins said. It’s become impossible to hold a winter sporting event without fake snow, she wrote in a blog.
The Milan Cortina Winter Games in the Italian Alps, which will mark Diggins’ final Games, are no different. Snowmaking machines were busy pumping out snow for weeks.
As humans continue to burn planet-heating fossil fuels, winter is changing: Snowfall is declining, snowpack is shrinking and temperatures are rising in many places. Where once mountains were blanketed in thick white powder, many lie bare well into winter.
For those who rely on snow for their livelihoods, every ski season is a nail-biter. For the Winter Olympics, it’s a high-cost, high-stress disaster. Climate change is “reshaping winter sport as we know it,” said a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee.
As athletes compete in Italy, the future of the Winter Olympics hangs in the balance. People are not just questioning how to keep the Games alive, but whether they should be kept alive at all.
Read and see more about how climate change is imperilling the future of the Winter Games here.
Mikaela Shiffrin safely makes her way down the slope in the women's giant slalom
Mikaela Shiffrin has finished her first run in the women’s giant slalom, albeit not at her very best.
But the American skier will be delighted to just make it down the hill. The 30-year-old has now given herself a chance ahead of the second run just by being there.
Shiffrin has often disappointed at the Olympics – despite her two Olympic gold medals – and she’ll be hoping this is the year she can turn things around.
She currently sits 0.28 seconds behind the leader after just four athletes making their way down the slope.
The world of sled dog racing keeps on barking, despite not being in the Winter Olympics
One sport which won’t feature at Milan Cortina is the fun and furry practice of sled dog racing.
After debuting as a demonstration sport at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the sport never returned, but 94 years later it’s still alive and barking as dogs pull their harnessed drivers, or mushers, around courses across the globe.
Blair Braverman is a long-distance sled dog racer based in Alaska and hopes that, one day, the extended version of the sport will make an Olympic return.
“I would love to see distance mushing in the Olympics. A race takes weeks. And so it’s hard to imagine a single Olympic event that takes weeks at a time,” Braverman told CNN Sports.
“They could send off the teams during the opening ceremonies and then at the end, see who emerges.”
Read more about sled dog racing here.
Events to keep your eyes on today
Welcome to day 9 of the Winter Olympics! Here are some events to look out for today:
Curling: Watch the US and Sweden men’s teams play at 3:05 a.m. ET. The US and China women’s team round robin is at 8:05 a.m. ET. The US and Norway face off in the men’s round robin at 1:05 p.m. ET.
Biathlon: Men’s 12.5km pursuit finals will be at 5:15 a.m. ET. Women’s 10km pursuit finals will be at 8:45 a.m. ET.
Freestyle skiing: Men’s dual moguls finals will be from 5:46 a.m. ET.
Cross-country skiing: Men’s 4 x 7.5km relay finals will be at 6 a.m. ET.
Alpine skiing: Women’s giant slalom finals will be at 7:30 a.m. ET.
Snowboard: Mixed team snowboard cross finals will be from 8:35 a.m. ET.
Speed skating: Women’s 500m finals will be at 11:03 a.m. ET.
Skeleton: Mixed team finals will be at 12 p.m. ET.
Ski jumping: Women’s large hill individual final will be at 1:57 p.m. ET.
Bom dia a todos (Good morning, everyone)!
Olá, olá! Good morning to all our CNN readers! I have selected Portuguese today to welcome you all for three reasons: 1) one of my dearest friends is Portuguese, 2) one of my favorite players on the greatest football (sorry, soccer) club in the world is Brazilian and 3) unlikely Olympic history was made starring another man from Brazil.
If you missed it yesterday, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen became the first person – man or woman – to win a Winter Olympics medal representing a South American nation when he stormed to a stunning giant slalom gold over some incredible pre-race favorites, like Marco Odermatt of Switzerland.
“I’m not even able to grasp reality, as I stand here right now,” Pinheiro Braathen said after his win. “I am just trying to get some sort of emotion here and translate it into words, even though it’s absolutely impossible.”
Truer words have never been spoken. Following your dreams, while sometimes not ending up the way you wanted it, will never leave you wondering “what if?” Lindsey Vonn evoked the same message with her daring attempt to ski at these Games, as my colleague Dana O’Neil eloquently wrote about, and while it ended up poorly, she says she has no regrets.
So as we get into Day 9 of these Olympic Games, take one step towards following your dreams today, whether that be reading a book on that thing you always wanted to do or pick up a set of skis and become the next Lucas Pinheiro Braathen.
