Here's what we're covering today
• Vonn latest: In case you missed it, Lindsey Vonn crashed 13 seconds into Sunday’s downhill race and fractured her left leg. She has undergone surgery on the same leg she suffered her torn ACL, according to AP, and we are expecting updates today. Stay with CNN for all the latest.
• Medals aplenty up for grabs: We’ve got a lot of action going today with five medal events in the Day 3 schedule, including freestyle skiing, speed skating, snowboarding and ski jumping.
• Curling and more: We’ll also have CNN-favorite curling and ice hockey, among other events, on the schedule, so stay with us to hear all the best stories
• Latest news: CNN Sports will have all of the greatest feats of achievement – and funny anecdotes – from the Games, so click here to sign up for our “Milano Memo” newsletter!
Most intense trust fall? How ski jumpers get ready
You could be forgiven for thinking cheerleading was a late addition to the program at this year’s Winter Olympics – but this is just how ski jumpers warm up.
In a move that is incredibly reminiscent of the famous lift from “Dirty Dancing,” the ski jumper explodes into the air before being carried above the head of their training partner.
To the average person, this looks terrifying, but if you’re willing to do ski jumping for a living, this must be nothing.
We’ve got the men’s normal hill individual final tonight at 2:12 p.m. ET / 8:12 p.m. local, so you will have a chance to see if the practice paid off for these competitors in just a few hours’ time.
Apple, biscuit and twig: Explaining hockey’s unique jargon you’ll hear at Milan Cortina
From brushing ice in curling to flying down an ice track headfirst in skeleton, the Winter Olympics are home to some unique and exciting sports that feature uncommon vernacular.
New sports have been added to the program and with that come new terms or nicknames for tactics, maneuvers or objects that beginner fans might not be familiar with.
Even in hockey – a sport that is extremely popular around the world – there are terms used by commentators or pundits that you might not be accustomed to hearing if not a regular to the sport.
So below, we look at some of the sport-specific lingo and explain what the terms mean so you’ll be ready to impress your friends and follow the action in Milan Cortina.
An apple: an assist.
Bar down: when the puck strikes the crossbar from a shot and ends up in the goal.
Between the pipes: where the goalie presides.
Deke: a skill where a player feints to draw an opposing player out of position or to skate by an opponent while maintaining possession and control of the puck.
Flamingo: when a player lifts one leg, standing like a flamingo, to get out of the way of a shot.
Lid: a player’s helmet.
Tape-to-tape: a very accurate pass going from the tape of the passer’s stick to the tape of the receiver’s stick.
See a full list of hockey jargon terms you need to know here.
Atmosphere is building ahead of curling
CNN is checking out the curling where Team USA is taking on Italy in mixed doubles. Chants of “U-S-A!” swapping with “I-TA-LI-A!”
It’s a pretty raucous atmosphere here in general with cowbells ringing and fans cheering.
The semifinals take place tonight with the US mixed doubles team having qualified and facing a rematch with the Italians at 12:05 p.m. ET / 6:05 p.m. local.
Home nation leads the way in men's alpine skiing team combined
After a busy start in the men’s alpine skiing team combined, the downhill half of the standings are set before we see the slalom skiers in the afternoon.
The event involves two skiers per country competing race in one discipline each – downhill and slalom. Final rankings are confirmed by adding the times from both runs together, with the quickest becoming Olympic champions.
And it’s Italy leading the way after a superb run from Giovanni Franzoni with a time of 1:51.80. Closely following the home nation are the three Swiss teams. Hot on their tails are another Italian team, France and mixture of Austrian entrants.
Team USA, though, will have a lot of work to do in the slalom if they want to be anywhere near a medal, as Olympic debutant Kyle Negomir’s run placed the team in 16th.
Here are the top five before the slalom competitors take to the slope in the afternoon to finalize the standings (downhill competitors in bold).
1. Italy: Giovanni Franzoni and Alex Vinatzer – 1:51.80
2. Switzerland: Alexis Monney and Daniel Yule – 1:51.97
3. Switzerland: Marco Odermatt and Loïc Meillard – 1:52.08
4. Switzerland: Franjo von Allmen and Tanguy Nef – 1:52.22
5. Italy: Dominik Paris and Tommaso Sala – 1:52.39
Lindsey Vonn’s 2026 Olympics journey, despite her crash, is anything but a failure
At 12:09 p.m. on a spectacularly beautiful day amid the breathtaking Dolomites, a helicopter cut through the sky, its yellow-painted body in bold contrast with the perfectly blue sky.
The chopper flew upwards, up beyond the treeline, stopping to idle between the small ragged peak of one mountain and the rocky face of another. At 12:11, a basket dropped from the helicopter and soon went back up with a medic holding onto an orange stretcher.
Three minutes later, the helicopter circled back toward the city of Cortina d’Ampezzo, carting Lindsey Vonn just out of reach of the finish line she never got to cross.
Vonn’s quest to do the impossible, to try for an Olympic medal a mere nine days after tearing her ACL, ended just 13 seconds into her run.
The crash was a gutwrenching flip of the emotional switch. As Vonn stepped into the starting gate, gripping and regripping her poles, stomping her right foot and then her left three times in succession, the thousands of spectators roared in excitement.
These fans had started queueing up hours earlier, the lines spilling across the street via a metal pedestrian bridge. They filled the bleachers facing the finish line, packed a standing room pit to the right of the run, and gathered in après-ski finery in the high-end hospitality tent.
When Vonn broke from the gate, it felt like the whole place cheered in unison. And when she crashed, the entire mountain went pin-drop silent.
Read more about how Vonn’s Olympic journey was inspirational.
The breathtaking sport that’s missing from the Winter Olympics
While some of these alpine skiers in the men’s downhill portion of the team combined competition currently going on are sometimes hitting speeds of roughly 80 mph – unfathomable for the laymen like you and I – they pale in comparison to a sport which isn’t at the Winter Olympics: speed skiing.
In fact, speed skiing has only ever been a demonstration event at the Games, wowing audiences at the 1992 Olympics. There are hopes, though, it could feature for real at the next Winter Olympics in 2030.
CNN Sports spoke to the world record holder Simon Billy, who was clocked traveling at 255.500 km/h (158.760 mph) in 2023.
“When I am in my helmet, on my skis, at that moment, everything is just so slow around me. I hear nothing. I don’t see anything either,” he says.
These women proved motherhood is not the end of a gold medal dream
When Kendall Coyne Schofield announced her pregnancy on social media, a rather puzzling rejoinder came along with the congratulations.
“A lot of people said, ‘Hey, congratulations on a great career,’” Coyne Schofield said at the Olympics media summit in October. “I was like, ‘Wait. I didn’t announce my retirement.’”
It is a uniquely female athlete’s quandary, the presumption that parenthood means the end of competition. Athletes-turned-dads return to their sport with a shrug, with nary a raised eyebrow about how they might juggle it all.
Yet somehow – through the feminism movement to the “You’ve come a long way, baby” campaign to the birth and eventual seismic growth in women’s professional sports – sports-star moms, not unlike those in the working world, still face the same age-old questions.
This month, six American women, including women’s hockey captain Coyne Schofield, will cart their baby gear along with their Team USA kits to Milan Cortina, pulling the double duty as mom and Olympian.
This American made history in Milan early on
Laila Edwards made history early on in Milan after becoming the first Black woman to feature in the US hockey team at a Winter Games.
Edwards made history when she took the ice at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena last Thursday, where she helped Team USA beat the Czech Republic 5-1 in its first preliminary round match.
“It means a lot. I take a lot of pride in it,” she told reporters after stepping off the ice in Milan.
“I’m just going to embrace it because representation matters, no matter how uncomfortable it can be. It’s for the next generation.
“I could not do interviews and not talk about it, but then the story doesn’t get out there. Maybe a little girl doesn’t see me, who looks like her. That’s what’s really important.”
Read more about Edwards’ life and career here, including how the Kelce brothers have helped her family.
Mystique Ro's Olympic journey involves being a "human penguin"
“Imagine a human penguin,” US skeleton slider and 2025 women’s world silver medalist Mystique Ro told CNN Sports back in October. “That’s the best I can give you.”
“And for the feel of it, imagine taking a trash can to the top of the mountain and kicking it down – that’s skeleton.”
The ringing endorsement of the sliding sport from one of its best current athletes is sure to bring some eyes to a competition which is also introducing a new discipline at the Olympic Games: the mixed team event.
It is here where Ro shines brightest. The American – who originally wanted to compete in track and field before being encouraged to participate in bobsled and finally skeleton – ended up winning the 2025 world championship in the mixed team with Austin Florian and is excited for its debut at the Olympics, particularly for the fans.
“A lot of hype, (fans should) expect to see a lot of tension,” she said. “It’s kind of new (and) we’re still kind of working out the kinks and quirks of it, but it’s a reaction-based start, so there’s going to be light strips – kind of like NASCAR or some kind of driving sport – and once it goes from red, red, red and then go.”
The prospect of an Olympic gold is something on Ro’s mind, but the journey from college track to Milan and Cortina is “a unique American dream” that she always remembers.
“Going from sleeping on a couch to now like, on the top of a podium,” she told CNN. “It was definitely a process and, in the moment, you feel like you’re fighting for your life. But you know, with the hard work and support around me, we got to this position.”
"Real loser": Trump lashes out at Olympic skier
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to lash out at Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess after the athlete said that representing the US at the Olympics brings up “mixed emotions.” CNN’s Julia Benbrook reports.
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to lash out at Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess after the athlete said that representing the US at the Olympics brings up "mixed emotions." CNN's Julia Benbrook reports.
What is curling?
Speaking of curling…
Whether it be the seemingly manic brushing done in front of the stone or the incredible skill needed to accurately slide stones into precise positions from so far away, the sport has become must-watch TV.
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.
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.
Watch the US and Italy face off in the curling mixed doubles round robin at 4:05 a.m. ET today.
Read more about “The Roarin’ Game” and the excitement it inspires here.
Korey Dropkin is looking for Olympic curling glory in his Games debut
Making your Olympic debut is a dream come true for athletes around the world, and US curler Korey Dropkin is no exception, telling CNN Sports back in October that “it means the world.”
The 2023 world mixed doubles champion said he “grew up at the curling club” where he followed his older brother’s footsteps before eventually surpassing him.
Dropkin – a realtor in Minnesota and Wisconsin by day – used the lessons of previously missing out on the Winter Games to make it to Milan.
“The big thing for me has been just working on my mind and working on the thoughts that happen between the ears while I’m in competition and trying to just focus on my process and doing me versus the things that I can’t control,” he said.
“If I can continue to do that and have a good energy on the ice, usually, I’m pretty successful.”
Helping Dropkin in the US’ quest for gold? His fellow 2023 world mixed doubles champion teammate Cory Thiesse, or “girl Cory” as their coach calls her.
“She’s an amazing teammate. She’s such a great curler, but just in general, a great human being,” Dropkin told CNN.
“She’s super kind, she’s very supportive. She’s got like that, the eye of the tiger. She is so clutch in the biggest moments and she’s always been that way.”
Given the duo sits in second place as of now and is qualified for the knockouts, American fans will be hoping Korey and Cory can channel the Italian Stallion’s energy from “Rocky III” to bring home the gold for the US.
This wild blend of horses and skis was the Winter Games’ first 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 Chamonix, France in 1924, 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.
In recent years, the American version of the sport has become especially popular.
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.”
You'll want to keep an eye out for these events today
There is no shortage of news as we move into Day 3 of the Olympics.
Yesterday, Team USA experienced a range of emotions following Lindsey Vonn’s crash and Breezy Johnson’s subsequent win in the morning, to the figure skating team’s golden victory in the evening.
Italy has the most medals so far with nine, followed by Norway with six and Japan with four.
The US has the second-highest number of gold medals with two. Norway has three gold medals, while Italy and Japan have one each.
Here are today’s events:
Curling: Watch the US and Italy face off in the mixed doubles round robin at 4:05 a.m. ET.
Freestyle skiing: Women’s freeski slopestyle finals will be at 6:30 and 6:59 a.m. ET, with the final run at 7:28 a.m. ET.
Alpine skiing: Men’s team combined slalom will be at 8 a.m. ET.
Speed skating: Women’s 1000m finals will be at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Snowboard: Women’s snowboard big air finals will be at 1:30 and 1:53 p.m. ET, with the final run at 2:17 p.m. ET.
Ski jumping: Men’s normal hill individual finals will be at 2:12 p.m. ET.
Ice hockey: Women’s US and Switzerland teams compete at 2:40 p.m. ET.
For more updates, follow CNN’s Milano Memo, the daily newsletter where we’ll cover this year’s Olympic Games from across northern Italy and beyond.
