What we're covering today
• Vonn undergoes surgery: US skiing star Lindsey Vonn is in stable condition following surgery on a fracture in her left leg after she crashed nearly 13 seconds into the Olympic downhill final. Follow here for all the latest.
• Golds galore up for grabs: 8 medal events take place on Day 2 of the Games, among them the men’s and women’s snowboard parallel giant slalom and team figure skating.
• Outside the Games: A large protest against Olympic organizers in Milan yesterday ended in some clashes with police. Meanwhile, officials are investigating an apparent rail sabotage similar to disruptions at the 2024 Paris Games.
• Latest news: CNN Sports has the latest chatter from the Winter Olympics and incredible stories of athletic achievement. Click here to sign up for the “Milano Memo” newsletter.
Team USA wins gold in the team figure skating event, beating Japan by 1 point
Shun Sato doesn’t do quite enough and Team USA takes the gold medal!
Sato scored 194.86, just 5.17 points off of Ilia Malinin’s score, giving the US the 10 points in the men’s singles free skate.
Japan and the US shared the lead in the team event after Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto won the women’s free skate, but Malinin’s high score was just enough for the Americans to earn a one-point win over their opponents and defend their team gold from 2022.
Pure cinema as Ilia Malinin sets the mark for Japan to beat
That was four minutes of pure cinema.
US journalists had their heads in their hands after Ilia Malinin slipped on landing at the start of his routine, but those same people were banging the desk with pure excitement and adrenaline as he pulled off that incredible backflip.
The US team looks quite content with that score but perhaps it leaves the door open for Japan.
Shun Sato is now on the ice.
The "Quad God" puts the US in the lead
US favorite Ilia Malinin received a score of 200.03 after his performance, which puts him in the lead, 20.41 points ahead of Italy’s Matteo Rizzo.
The pressure was high on Malinin to score high enough to take a safe lead over Japan.
Shun Sato will be taking to the rink next, and his performance will determine which nation will bring home the team event gold medal.
Tears inside the Ice Skating Arena as Italy secures bronze medal
An amazing moment for Italy at this year’s Olympics.
Matteo Rizzo just brought the house down with a special routine in front of this home crowd. So happy with his performance, he produced a knee slide across the ice in celebration as the crowd chanted his name.
His score means Italy cannot be overtaken in third and it secures the team event bronze.
Italy’s coaches were in tears. Brilliant scenes.
Team USA has plenty of support
I’m sitting very close to Team USA’s bench which is overflowing with skaters and coaches at the side of the rink.
Alysa Liu just ran out and was giving people hugs, but there wasn’t enough space for her to even sit down.
There is equal support from the fans, with hundreds of Team USA supporters making their voices heard.
It’s almost time for Ilia Malinin to take to the ice.
Figure skating team event comes down to final two dances
The crowd is singing and dancing at the moment, but things will become very tense, very quickly in a bit.
It’s basically a straight shootout between Team USA’s Ilia Malinin and Japan’s Shun Sato for which nation will win the team event gold medal.
Malinin will be the fourth man to dance, with Sato closing the competition out right after.
The US is the reigning champion in this event, after beating Japan at the 2022 Games. Will it be roles reversed this time around?
The men are warming up on the ice now, and the atmosphere inside the stadium is the best it’s been.
What is curling, the CNN-favorite sport that is believed to have originated in the 1500s?
It may have wrapped for the day, but one of the staples of the Winter Games – which always seems to capture the hearts and minds of many (including everyone, it seems, at CNN) – is the sport of curling.
Believed to have originated in the 16th century, teams slide granite stones that weigh up to roughly 20 kilos (44 pounds) across a 150-foot long, 15-foot-7-inch-wide sheet of ice towards a target known as a house.
Each curler has their own brush and a specific type of shoe specialized for the sport.
In each pair of shoes, one sole grips the ice, while the other is more slippery – called a slider – allowing players to slide with the stone when they’re playing it.
The brush is used by players to sweep in front of the stone to warm its path, allowing it to travel further if desired.
A team scores one point for each of its stones in or touching the house that are closer to the center than any of the opposition team’s stones. A curling game is competed over ten ends and the team with the most points wins.
And this sport can project a fired-up atmosphere too. Check out Team USA curler Korey Dropkin’s reaction after this takeout against Sweden on Sunday.
Read more about “The Roaring Game” here.
The "Quad God" looks to impress in Milan
When an athlete is so dominant they have the word ‘god’ in their nickname, it would be accurate to say we’re watching a legend be born in real time.
For US figure skater Ilia Malinin, otherwise known as the “Quad God,” that is exactly the case. Despite having never competed at the Winter Olympics, the 21-year-old made a name for himself after becoming the first skater to ever land a quadruple axel jump in competition.
“It means something very special,” he told CNN Sports’ Coy Wire about the nickname.
“It’s not only just now a nickname, but it’s also part of me and there’s so many more parts of me to come in the future.”
On top of the remarkable jump, the Virginia-born star has won four straight national titles, is undefeated in competition since 2023 and one of the favorites for gold in Milan Cortina.
“I try to one-up myself all the time and I usually don’t really think about the outside noise or if anyone else is trying to come up close to me,” Malinin said.
“I’m always just focused on myself and really saying, you know, there’s always, you’ve achieved this, but I always see that there’s more improvements to be made.”
Japan and Team USA share lead in figure skating team event
You can tell Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto was happy with her performance and clearly so were the judges.
She receives a score of 148.62 which means she won the women’s free skating section of this team event. US skater Amber Glenn finishes third.
Perhaps more importantly, it means Japan is now level with Team USA on 59 points.
It’s now all down to the men and Team USA have the “Quad God” himself performing for them.
Amber Glenn looks disappointed as Team USA hunts for team event gold
Team USA’s Amber Glenn looked overwhelmed with emotion after that performance in the women’s free skating of this team event.
The 26-year-old is mobbed with hugs and smiles by her teammates as she leaves the rink, but Glenn doesn’t look happy with the score of 138.62. It puts Glenn into second place, with Japan hot on Team USA’s heels.
Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl on the same day: Does it present a "super" problem?
Sports fans and broadcasters alike have had Sunday, February 8 penciled on their calendars for quite some time, as it marks only the second time that a Super Bowl has coincided with the Winter Olympics.
But does it also give sports lovers a super-sized problem? Namely, US supporters who are currently in Italy to see the American Olympians in action at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games?
For starters, a very long day and night is in prospect for football fans among the US contingent who are watching Olympic sports with their own eyes at the various venues, before catching the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots kick off at – gulp – 12:30 a.m. Monday local time.
The Winter Olympics-Super Bowl clash also extends to American athletes, who most definitely have to keep a close eye on the clock, and their daily routine. The Associated Press’s Tim Reynolds has been looking at the crossover in further detail and has noted that 15 members of the US Olympic team hail from Massachusetts, another eight from Washington, and as he very reasonably puts it, “Who knows how many else with reason to watch?”
Sports administrators aren’t blind to the issue either, with new International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry explaining ahead of the Games, “You’ve got big events all working and overlapping … so, the next part of the question is, when are we all going to sit down as one big sporting family and have these conversations around how we prioritize … how do we make space for each of us so that we’re also not competing against each other?”
But that’s for another day.
For those of you following along online, it’s a bit easier: Keep up with CNN Sports’ live coverage from Super Bowl LX here!
Photographers in the firing line of teddy bear tradition at figure skating
One thing I love about the figure skating is the fact fans are allowed to throw soft toys onto the rink as a way of expressing their appreciation for a dancer’s routine.
What I love even more is that the photographers who sit near the edge of the ice have to duck for cover at the end of each performance in case they get hit in the back of the head with a teddy.
It’s the small things.
Madeline Schizas gets homework extension after Olympic excuse
Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas has just performed first in the women’s free skating section of this team event.
The 22-year-old has been a breakthrough star at this year’s Games after she shared her homework woes on social media.
The Canadian had asked her professor for an extension on a college assignment, with a decent excuse – being at the Olympics.
She later confirmed she did, in fact, get the extension. She scores 125.00 points for her routine tonight and seems happy with that despite a slip at the start of her performance.
“I love you more than maple syrup,” shouts a man from the stand waving a Canadian flag.
Schizas also became a meme for her reaction to getting her score at the weekend, but we won’t get into that just yet…
The blend of horses and skis that was the Winter Olympics’ first ever demonstration sport
A wild blend between horses and skis is an integral part of a sport which we won’t be seeing at the 2026 Winter Games.
Exhibited at St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1928, skijoring holds the honor of being the first ever demonstration sport at a Winter Olympics, yet the discipline’s origins extend well beyond its Games debut.
Practiced differently across continents, the history of skijoring is a complex one and comes in many different forms. But in recent years, it’s been the American version of the sport which has grown in popularity.
Western-style skijoring sees skiers hurtle around a course of jumps, rings, and gates while being pulled along by a galloping horse.
Megan Smith, a professional western-style skijorer, told CNN Sports all about the wild nature of the discipline.
“It’s super risky. Anything to do with animals is risky. You know, the horses really get into it, and they go really, really, really, really fast.”
Read more about the wild world of western-skijoring here.
Pita Taufatofua introduced to the crowd inside the ice skating arena
There was a bit of a lull in proceedings as fans wait for the women’s free skating section of this team event so organizers brought out Olympic cult hero Pita Taufatofua.
Don’t remember him? Imagine him topless.
The Tongan broke the internet in 2016 after he opted to go shirtless and oiled up while carrying Tonga’s flag at the Rio 2016 opening ceremony, and he did so again at the Winter Games in 2018 in South Korea.
He also took part in this year’s opening ceremony on Friday, helping to carry the official Olympic flag. This time, though, he was clothed and de-oiled.
Team USA stays just ahead of Japan in team event final
With all the updates about Lindsey Vonn’s injury coming through, it’s easy to forget about the other events going on today.
But the Americans are in the hunt for another medal in the figure skating team event.
Team USA’s Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea kicked the pair skating discipline off with a bang but they finished fourth overall.
We knew Japan would bring out the heavy hitters for tonight’s final and its pair of Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara topped the leaderboard with a giant score of 155.55.
Their reaction to that result brought a smile to everyone’s face inside this arena as they jumped, quite literally, on each other out of sheer joy.
We still have the women’s and men’s single skating to go before the team event medals are decided, but here is how the overall leaderboard stands:
1. USA - 51 points
2. Japan - 49 points
3. Italy - 45 points
4. Georgia - 41 points
5. Canada - 41 points
Maxim Naumov shows how "resilience" is one of the strongest Olympic values
One of the most inspiring stories in the build-up to these Winter Games has been that of US figure skater Maxim Naumov.
The 24-year-old tragically lost his parents – world champions and two-time Olympians in pairs figure skating Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov – in a plane crash in January 2025.
Since then, Naumov didn’t know if he would even put skates on again. But after overcoming immeasurable mental barriers, the American is qualified to compete at Milan Cortina.
“Lacing up those skates for the first time was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life,” Naumov told CNN Sports’ Coy Wire about skating for the first time since his parents’ death.
“But as soon as I stepped onto the ice, I mean again, just the overwhelming support, the hugs, the tears. … (The coaching staff and management where he trains) embraced me and they helped me out when I needed it the most.”
Despite the journey being a difficult one, Naumov wants to continue to represent his family in the best way possible when he takes to the ice at the Winter Olympics.
“I just want to show everybody the value of resilience in our family, never giving up, pushing and gritting your teeth and fighting tooth and nail for every single thing that you possibly can,” he said.
“That’s how I was raised and I want people to know that I want to be an example for those other people that might be going through something.”
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea bring house down in figure skating team event
What a start to today’s team event final. Team USA’s Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea were first up in the pair skating and nailed their routine.
Kam had her mouth wide open and then her head in her hands as the crowd, full to the brim of US fans, went crazy.
Numerous soft toys were thrown onto the rink, a sign of appreciation in figure skating, as the pair received a score of 135.36. Being the first on the ice, that score naturally puts them in the lead.
Now to see if any of the other pairs can beat it.
Lindsey Vonn underwent surgery on a broken left leg, hospital tells AP
Lindsey Vonn “underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg,” the Ca’ Foncello hospital in Treviso told the Associated Press in a statement. Vonn “completely ruptured” the ACL in her left leg on January 30 in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, ahead of the Games.
The Ca Foncello hospital is roughly 80 miles from the alpine skiing piste where Vonn was airlifted from.
“She’ll be OK, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” US Ski and Snowboard chief of sport Anouk Patty told the AP. “This sport’s brutal and people need to remember when they’re watching (that) these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”
First figure skating medals up for grabs in team event, US currently leads
After hot-stepping it from the speed skating stadium to the figure skating arena, we are all in place to bring you the highlights from the team event final.
We have three disciplines left to decide the medal positions – pair skating, women’s single skating and men’s single skating.
Those results will be added to last night’s ice dance scores, which currently sees Team USA at the top of the leaderboard.
Don’t forget, we’ll also see Ilia Malinin back on the ice after he made his debut on Saturday.
This is how the teams did last night:
1. Team USA – 10 points
2. Italy – 9 points
3. Canada – 8 points
4. Georgia – 7 points
5. Japan – 6 points
