Milan Cortina 2026: The vibes are back at the Winter Olympics

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🚨 Headlines

🎿 Vonn speaks: In her first public statement since Sunday's devastating crash, Lindsey Vonn said she has "no regrets" about racing on her torn ACL, which "had nothing to do with my crash." Regardless, her father hopes she never races again.

🏀 Perfect no more: No. 9 Kansas handed top-ranked Arizona its first loss of the season, rallying in the second half for an 82-78 victory at home that marked the Jayhawks' first win over a No. 1 team since 2003. With that, No. 23 Miami (Ohio) is now the last undefeated men's team in the nation.

🏈 Pearce arrested: Falcons rookie James Pearce Jr. was arrested Saturday on domestic violence-related charges following a dispute with WNBA player Rickea Jackson. Pearce fled the scene before crashing his car at the end of a police chase.

🏀 Benches clear in Charlotte: Four players and Charlotte's head coach were ejected in the second half of the Pistons' win over the Hornets after a heated exchange following a shooting foul led to an all-out brawl.

⚾️ MLB moves: DH Marcell Ozuna is heading to the Pirates on a one-year, $12 million deal; the Red Sox acquired 3B Caleb Durbin in a trade with the Brewers; the Marlins signed veteran RHP Chris Paddack to a one-year, $4 million deal.

🇮🇹 Winter Games: The vibes are back

Interest in the Winter Olympics has declined precipitously after three straight editions in locales cursed by authoritarian regimes, COVID, a lack of real snow, and more.

Flipping the script: Milan Cortina 2026 offers a return to normalcy; a much-needed respite from the cynicism. And if the response to Paris 2024 was any indication, we could be in for the most enjoyable Winter Games in quite some time.

From Yahoo Sports' Dan Wolken:

On one hand, the Olympics are compelling no matter where you put them. For the athletes, who are mostly globetrotting anyway for big competitions, a gold medal won in Milan is no different than a gold medal won in Beijing. And for most of the world it's all just a TV show anyway. Who cares where you put the hockey rink?

But if you rewind to the summer of 2024, Paris was different. From the racy, bizarre and very French take on the Opening Ceremony to iconic Paris landmarks being used as the backdrop for competition venues, something clicked in the zeitgeist.

After several cycles of audience decline for its Olympic broadcasts, NBC rebounded with a whopping 30.6 million viewers per day across its platforms — an 80 percent increase over Tokyo three years earlier.

It felt like the Olympics as a big, galvanizing cultural force were truly back. Can Italy deliver the same irresistible experience?

Don't discount the possibility, albeit with one big caveat: The Winter Games are not the Summer Games. There are fewer sports, fewer athletes, fewer countries involved and most importantly fewer mainstream superstars.

But relative to the last three Winter Games held in Sochi, PyeongChang and Beijing, these Olympics are going to visually present like a storybook Alpine adventure in a way that you simply could not pull off at a Russian Black Sea resort or on the Korean peninsula or in a smog-filled megalopolis where it almost never snows.

Another difference: NHL players are back for the first time since 2014. With all due respect to the minor-leaguers who stepped in and put on a good show in PyeongChang and Beijing, the Winter Olympics were significantly diminished by not having the elite of the elite competing in one of its marquee events.

Milan is also going to be different because of what we don't have to talk about. We are not in a host country rife with human rights abuses like China. We are not in a host country getting ready to invade a neighbor. And, perhaps of utmost relevance from an audience perspective, we are not in the middle of an Olympics defined by COVID infections and empty stands.

Of course, these Games are not taking place at a perfect moment for the world either. Russia will not be recognized as the war in Ukraine rages on. Tensions in the Middle East are simmering. And if the recent Australian Open is any indication, American athletes should expect to be asked about ICE raids and Venezuela and other actions by the Trump Administration generating international headlines.

There will never be an Olympics without political tension. But all in all, it has been since Vancouver 16 years ago that a Winter Games was hosted by a Western country, in a true winter wonderland, without being served on a platter of cynicism.

Instead, this one comes on a big plate of pasta. Eat up.

💯 Big numbers

🏈 1 of 9

 Drake Maye is one of nine QBs to start in a Super Bowl as an NFL sophomore, joining Dan Marino, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson, Joe Burrow, Brock Purdy and Colin Kaepernick.

The long road back: "That group is an interesting mashup, showcasing that while some QBs are destined for more Super Bowl opportunities (Brady, Warner, Roethlisberger and Wilson), others either never again stepped on the biggest stage (Marino and Kaepernick) or are still trying to find their way back (Burrow and Purdy)," writes Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson. 

🏀 183 triple-doubles 

Nikola Jokić (183) has moved past Oscar Robertson (181) for second on the NBA's all-time triple-doubles list. He now trails only former teammate Russell Westbrook (207), who has added four to his tally so far this season with the Kings.

Rounding out the top 10: Magic Johnson is fourth on the list (138), followed by LeBron James (122), Jason Kidd (107), Luke Donćić (88), James Harden (82), Wilt Chamberlain (78) and Domantas Sabonis (68).

🏀 61 straight home wins

 Kansas loves Mondays. With their victory over top-ranked Arizona, the Jayhawks have now won 61 consecutive home games played on Mondays over a 25-year span.

 Their last home loss on a Monday? That came all the way back on Feb. 5, 2001, when the Drew Gooden-led Jayhawks fell 79-77 to Jamaal Tinsley and Iowa State.

📺 $65 per month

YouTube TV is introducing lower-priced bundles to allow subscribers to better tailor their plans to their interests. The Sports Plan will begin rolling out this week at $65 per month, which is $18 cheaper than the main YouTube TV plan. 

What you get: The Sports Plan includes "all the major broadcast networks," including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, as well as TBS, TNT, FS1, USA, NBCSN, CBSSN, NBA TV, NFL Network, all of the ESPN networks. Premium channels like NFL RedZone will continue to be sold as add-ons.

🏒 10 years

Boston College are Beanpot champions for the first time in a decade after dominating Boston University, 6-2, in Monday's championship game, which was also the 300th meeting between the rival programs.

The Battle of Comm Ave: BU still leads the all-time series, but it's incredibly close. 141 wins for the Terriers, 138 wins for the Eagles, 21 games ended in a tie.

✈️ 13 hours 

Roughly 13 hours after departing California where he called Super Bowl LX, Mike Tirico stepped into Studio A at the International Broadcast Center in Milan, Italy, on Monday night to host "Primetime in Milan."

The man behind the mic: "For an only child, raised by a single mom in Queens, growing up dreaming of being the next Marv Albert, Tirico is a sportscaster's sportscaster, with a rare dual ability to lead a studio and call play-by-play at the highest level. Headlining a portfolio of sports' biggest events now puts him on the path to be considered among the all-time greats in sports TV." (Andrew Marchand, The Athletic)

🇺🇸 Spotlight: Ilia Malinin

After helping Team USA defend its championship in the team event over the weekend, young figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin begins his quest today to win individual Olympic gold as the men's singles program gets underway in Milan.

• Age: 21

• Hometown: Fairfax, Virginia

• Fun fact: His parents were also Olympic figure skaters, competing for Uzbekistan in the 1998 and 2002 Games.

• College: George Mason University

The Quad God: The two-time defending world champion, undefeated in his last 15 competitions, dominates figure skating to an astonishing degree thanks to his singular ability to pull off the hardest move in the sport: a quadruple axel.

• In 2022, at age 17, the teenager who'd already nicknamed himself the "Quad God" became the first skater ever to land a quad axel in competition. And while he's repeated the move more than a dozen times since, he remains the only skater who's ever landed one.

• Similar to Simone Biles, Malinin is difficult to beat not only due to his immense skill but because the base values of his routines are so high. A few minor errors won't sink him like they would someone else.

What they're saying: "It's not a shoo-in. Ilia still has to skate well to win. His competitors are good," 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano told AP. "But yeah, as far as the advantage of being the favorite, it's him and — well, you know, he's far ahead."

Good read:The impossible jump, for all but one(New York Times)

More athletes in action:

• 🏒 Hilary Knight:The captain of the women's hockey team, competing in her fifth and final Winter Games, has scored an American record-tying 14 career Olympic goals. With another goal in today's game against Canada, the Idaho native will stand alone atop the leaderboard.

• 🛷 Ashley Farquharson:The Utah native sits in fifth entering today's final two luge runs. If she can make up the 0.113-second deficit separating her from the podium, she'll become just the second American woman ever to medal in the event (Erin Hamlin, 2014).

We'll be spotlighting America's best athletes throughout the Games. Follow Team USA's progress on their homepage, and for in-depth Olympics coverage, go to ours.

🥇 Medal table: Day 4

20 of 116 events completed. Full table.

📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, Feb. 10

🏒 Women's Hockey, Canada vs. USA

The world's top two teams square off in their group stage finale (2:10pm ET, USA) before likely meeting again in next week's gold-medal game.

Head-to-head: Canada leads the all-time series, 106-86-2, and has a 5-2 edge in Olympic golds. But the Americans are riding a six-game winning streak against them that includes last year's World Championship final and a sweep in their annual Rivalry Series. 

🎿 Alpine Skiing, Women's Team Combined 

Childhood friends and USA teammates Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson go for gold in the Olympic debut of this event that, ahem, combines two disciplines. Downhill began while you were sleeping, and slalom gets underway soon (8am, USA).

Heavy favorites: Johnson already won downhill gold on Sunday, Shiffrin is the most decorated slalom skier of all-time (by a mile) and the duo took the title last year in the event's World Championship debut.

🥌 Curling, Mixed Doubles Finals

Team USA upset Italy to reach the championship(12pm, USA), where Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin will face Sweden as they seek America's third curling medal ever — and first since 2018.

Third-place matchup: Italy and Great Britain will meet in the bronze-medal match earlier in the day (8am, Peacock).

⛸️ Figure Skating, Men's Short Program

American sensation Ilia Malinin headlines the men's singles, which kicks off today with the short program(12:15pm, USA). The top 24 skaters will advance to Friday's free skate, and the combined scores will determine the medalists. 

🥇 Medal events

• 🎿 Cross-Country Skiing: Sprint Classic Finals (6:10am, USA)

• 🎿 Freeskiing: Men's Slopestyle Final (6:30am, USA)

• 🎯 Biathlon: Men's 20km Individual (7:30am, Peacock)

• ⛸️ Short Track Speed Skating: Mixed Team Relay Finals (11:30am, USA)

• ⛷️ Ski Jumping: Mixed Team Normal Hill (11:30am, Peacock)

• 🛷 Luge: Women's Singles Final (12:30pm, Peacock)

Daily schedule.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Clippers at Rockets (8pm, NBA); Spurs at Lakers (10:30pm, NBA) … San Antonio (36-16) has won four straight to climb within four games of the league-leading Thunder.

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 13 Purdue at No. 7 Nebraska (7pm, FS1) … Boilermakers All-American Braden Smith ranks second nationally with 8.7 assists per game.

• ⚽️ Premier League: West Ham vs. Manchester United (3:15pm, Peacock) … The Red Devils are 4-0-0 under interim manager Michael Carrick.

Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events happening in your city. Get tickets now!

🌎 Olympics trivia

The United States has the largest delegation (232 athletes) at the Milan Cortina Games.

Question: Which country has the second-largest delegation (211 athletes)?

Hint: Host nation Italy is third (195) and Germany is fourth (189), so you can rule them both out.

Answer at the bottom.

📸 Photo finish

Biathlon (cross-country skiing + rifle shooting) is one of those sports that sounds fake until you watch it for five minutes and go, "Oh wow, this rules."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Trivia answer: Canada

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