Thanks Geoff and hello all. Been a big day of Olympics action. Earlier today, Ester Ledecka was aiming for a three-peat in the snowboard parallel giant slalom but was knocked out in the quarter-finals. A stumble on a turn meant Austria\u2019s Sabine Payer pipped her to the finish line.<\/p>\n
Chris gets in touch via email to say:<\/p>\n
Well Payer beating Ester Ledecka definitely wasn\u2019t in the script \u2013 it\u2019s been torn up, ceremonially cremated and the ashes scattered on the course.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a> That is it for me, for today. There\u2019s been plenty already, and a lot more to come. Starting with the PGS semi-finals for women and then men. Taking you through what\u2019s next will be Yara El-Shaboury. Say hi.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Snowboard: Now for the men\u2019s parallel giant slalom quarters. Zamfirov falls, but only after he\u2019s crossed the line to beat Arnaud.<\/p>\n Fischnaller doesn\u2019t finish, he blows wide of one of the gates so that\u2019s a cruisy win for Kim.<\/p>\n Felicetti gets a fast start and is well ahead of Mastnak, but goes too wide on a turn and loses the lead, then loses control trying to catch up. Misses the last gate but he was already going to fall short. It\u2019s technically a DNF.<\/p>\n And in the all-Austrian bout, Benny Karl catches up Promegger and pips him at the line.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Snowboard: Hofmeister falls in her race against Maderova, and Miki loses by two hundredths of a second against Caffont, another photo finish to see whose glove crossed the line first.<\/p>\n So Caffont will give Italy a chance against Maderova in the semis, and Payer against Dalmasso.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Ester Ledeck\u00e1 is knocked out of the PGS<\/p>\n Snowboard: Gold medallist at the last two Olympics, blitzed through the qualifying stages until now, but she\u2019s gone! A little bobble early in the run, hit a rough patch that made the board bobble, and it cost her time. She\u2019s beaten by Sabine Payer, the Austrian who in comparison is a much more modest competitor. Ledeck\u00e1 almost makes up the disadvantage \u2013 she\u2019s almost a full turn behind Payer at the top of the run, and makes it very close by the end, but Payer holds on. That opens the field for everybody. Ledeck\u00e1 was the closest thing to a sure thing in this discipline. What a boilover.<\/p>\n Ester Ledecka is out! Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.02 EST<\/p>\n Snowboard: Into the women\u2019s quarters of the parallel giant slalom, and Krol-Walas has a big advantage early, but Lucia Dalmasso chases her down by the close and sneaks through. Another Italian progressing, to local jubilation. She thought she was done there, but clawed it back.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Snowboard: And the men\u2019s quarters will be:<\/p>\n Arnaud Guadet (Canada) Sangkyum Kimg (Korea) Tim Mastnak (Slovenia) Andreas Prommegger (Austria) That last one was a cracker, the reigning gold medallist knocking out the reigning world champ in a photo finish. Top seed and third seed, somehow ending up against each other this early in the comp, and they raced a borderline perfect race, neck and neck the whole way down. Maurizio Bormolini, the Italian who is knocked out, just beams a big smile and hugs his opponent, as if to say, we gave it everything, what else could I do?<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Snowboard: The round of 16 finals are done for the women, the quarter-final qualified boarders will match up like:<\/p>\n Lucia Dalmasso (Italy) Sabine Payer (Austria) Zuzana Maderova (Czechia) Elisa Caffon (Italy) In the qualifiers earlier, the placings were just done by time down the course. Now they\u2019re knockouts based on who finishes first out of each duo.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Breezy Johnson wins gold in the women’s downhill<\/p>\n The final competitor is in, Shepilenko in bib number 36. Grenier of Canada was disqualified, and is the fourth who doesn\u2019t record a final time alone with the three racers we\u2019ve mentioned who crashed earlier. So there are 32 times on the board, and the best of those at 1:36:10 is Breezy Johnson! She clocked that time so early in the day, then had to wait and wait for other competitors to keep falling short.<\/p>\n It will be a day of very mixed feelings, having watched her teammate and friend Lindsey Vonn evacuated from the course, so much of her attention will be directed there. But she\u2019s also an Olympic gold medallist for the first time, having come into these games as the reigning World Championship winner.<\/p>\n She had the most complete run of the day: a couple of stutters, but such a fast finish through the back half of the course, on a tough course that most competitors weren\u2019t confident to attack. She did, and she gets her reward.<\/p>\n Emma Aicher will wonder about the slight balance issues that cost her a few hundredths of a second into silver medal position, but she\u2019s on the podium for Germany. Sofia Goggia takes bronze for Italy, more remarkable for doing it two spots after that long, long delay for Vonn\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n Jacqueline Wiles of the USA would be well pleased with her fourth placing, after starting the event middle of the field and greatly improving on her two previous Olympic finishes.<\/p>\n Breezy Johnson is Olympic champion in the women\u2019s downhill. Photograph: Marco Bertorello\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.33 EST<\/p>\n Johannes Klaebo wins cross-country gold!<\/p>\n What a monster of a finish. That final four are travelling in a pack, as they had been doing for kilometres. And within a few hundred metres of the line, on the final climb, Klaebo goes into overdrive. He hurls his poles at the hill, finds more strength in his legs, and burns away from the rest, opening up a gap of dozens of metres in the blink of an eye, winning so comprehensively that he can slow up and coast the last few strides to the line, looking around and soaking up the feeling, the moment. The rest can only scramble after him.<\/p>\n Desloges gets in for the silver, Nyenget the bronze, while Lapalus blows up his engine at the last and finishes fifth behind Korostelev.<\/p>\n That\u2019s gold in the first of Klaebo\u2019s six events in these Games. Keep a very close eye on him, he might be on for a special fortnight.<\/p>\n Johannes Klaebo takes gold! Photograph: Lars Baron\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.23 EST<\/p>\n Cross-country: Klaebo is in the lead, with countryman Nyenget hanging in with him. Hugo Lapalus, the Frenchman, is still second. He has a very modest career compared to the other two. Another Frenchman, Mathis Desloges, is thereabouts.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Snowboard: The women\u2019s parallel giant slalom quarter finals are running as well. Ester Ledecka has breezed through by over a second.<\/p>\n Ester Ledecka is through to the semi-finals. Photograph: Cameron Spencer\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.15 EST<\/p>\n Cross-country: Back to the 10×10 while the downhill course gets cleared, this is a pretty familiar sight: Klaebo hanging just behind the leaders, very confident of his prowess in a sprint finish. He was ruthless in the previous Games. Sits behind a couple of Frenchmen on a flatter section, then surges back to the front on a climb.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiing: Ooof, another big crash now in the women\u2019s downhill. Cande Moreno, the Andorran flagbearer at these games, having also competed in 2022. She\u2019s barely got started on the course, there\u2019s a big downhill jump in the early stages and she crashes there at perhaps the steepest part. This one will require the medics, it looks like a knee injury.<\/p>\n At this stage, the rest of the field are the slower-qualifying skiers, so it looks very likely with 10 racers to go that the podium is already set. USA, Germany, Italy so far.<\/p>\n Cande Moreno is being airlifted to hospital after another nasty crash on the downhill. Photograph: Andy Wong\/APShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.07 EST<\/p>\n An email from Scott Wedel: \u201cOne of Vonn\u2019s attributes as a ski racer is a willingness to take big risks. At that speed on a choppy surface, a racer doesn\u2019t have precise control so a racer has to decide how much room to give to the flags. Vonn was always one to cut it closer than others. Often it gave her the edge to win races. Sometimes it results in crashes.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Cross-country: Scratch that, the Norwegians have been broken up. Russian independent Korostelev has gone to the front at around 7km of the first 10. Lapalus for France is in the mix too.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Cross-country: Meanwhile, the men\u2019s 10km + 10km skiathlon is well underway, and you\u2019ll be amazed to learn that three Norwegians are leading it: Stenshagen, Nyenget, and five-time gold medallist Klaebo. Another Norwegian is fifth. What is it about guys named Amundsen and travelling quickly across snow?<\/p>\n We\u2019re underway in the men’s 10km + 10km Skiathlon. Photograph: Lars Baron\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.53 EST<\/p>\n Beau Dure emails in. \u201cHow pivotal was the decision to allow the Crans-Montana World Cup downhill to proceed nine days ago? They finally called it off after three of the first six skiers didn\u2019t finish, but Vonn was one of those three, and that\u2019s where she picked up the injury. Is this a lesson for World Cup organisers to be a lot more careful?\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiing: A second crash in this final, but thankfully Nina Ortlieb is physically fine, just absolutely furious. The Austrian skier leans into a corner and hits a bump, overbalancing into the slope, and is able to at least land her fall safely and slide away the momentum. She skis down the rest of the course under her own recognisance. Jacqueline Wiles before that clipped a couple of flags, coming into fourth for the USA.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s Johnson, Aicher, Goggia on the podium so far, at the halfway mark with 18 skiers done.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiing: You can never know, but you wonder how much that wait affected the next skiers. Puchner is way outside the lead time, a second a half. Goggia starts powerfully, and skis herself into the bronze medal spot for now, but is 0.69 seconds down. There are four marker points: she was ahead, then behind, then ahead, then behind. Lost her line and went outside the course guidelines at one stage, which would have cost a bit.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiing: Spare a thought for Mirjam Puchner, second at the World Champs last year, and Sofia Goggia, silver at the last Olympics and gold before that. The Austrian and the Italian have been waiting all this time, watching all these scenes, delayed in waiting for their turn. Now they have to try putting this out of their minds, so they can take their one shot at the race they so desperately want to win.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiing: What a horrible turn to the story. There was so much excitement and goodwill about Vonn: a gold medallist in this discipline in Vancouver 2010, and then quitting the sport for years due to the injuries, only to come back following a full knee replacement. Qualifying to compete at this tournament at 41 years of age, then injuring her ACL only last month, and somehow stabilising well enough to continue with her plan to compete here. We\u2019ve no idea whether the knee injury had anything to do with the error that saw her overshoot that turn and hit that flag, but she had passed her fitness tests and was apparently ready to go. Now she\u2019s strapped into an evacuation suit, she\u2019s gone very quiet too which is probably the effects of sedation, and she\u2019s being flown away. We\u2019ll report more as we know it.<\/p>\n Photograph: Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier Marit\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.22 EST<\/p>\n Lindsey Vonn is being evacuated by helicopter<\/p>\n It\u2019s been over 10 minutes with her lying on the course, in the hands of medics. Now a helicopter medic is being lowered in on a winch. These are awful scenes.<\/p>\n Lindsey Vonn is being airlifted to hospital. Photograph: Marco Bertorello\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.19 EST<\/p>\n Alpine skiing: The cause of the crash is becoming clear: she lost control of her line coming into a turn, and got far too close to the marker flag. She caught her right arm in the flag, that arm going between the uprights rather than clipping the outside of it. The flags do pull apart when hit like that, but it was enough to twist her off balance. So she turned sideways in the air, and already going at prodigious speed, landed with both skis lateral to the slope while her body was falling backwards. So there was no good way to slide from there, her skis jammed and she went end over end rather than continuing down the slope.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiing: This is horrible. It\u2019s not like the cameras are out there sticking microphones into the situation, but you can clearly hear Vonn\u2019s voice across the slopes crying out in pain. They have a stretcher out for her and a team of medics attending, half a dozen of them out there. Neither of her skis came off when she crashed, that\u2019s the likely cause of the damage.<\/p>\n The fans react in horror after watching Lindsey Vonn crash. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.12 EST<\/p>\n Lindsey Vonn has crashed during the Women’s Downhill<\/p>\n That was a heavy landing. Not far out of the gates, she took off with ferocity, pushed herself into the course, but after getting a small amount of air from an early jump she has landed horribly, skis going sideways, and is yet to get back up. It looks very bad considering that knee injury. Staff are getting out onto the slope to tend to her. The crowd is silent.<\/p>\n Oh no! Lindsey Vonn crashes. This looks really bad for the American. Photograph: Joel Marklund\/BILDBYR\u00c5N\/ShutterstockShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.10 EST<\/p>\n Alpine skiing: A number of these racers have been ahead of Breezy\u2019s time through the early stages, but she must have had a phenomenal second half of the course, they keep losing touch as they go. Lindsey Vonn about to race.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Curling: Korea have beaten Estonia 9-3 in the mixed doubles round robin, and Czechia beat Norway 6-3. They\u2019re the bottom four teams in the standings though.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiiing: Emma Aicher of Germany misses out on the lead by four one hundredths of a second! Breezy Johnson gasps in relief, Aicher roars in frustration as she sees the clock. A couple of tiny wobbles coming out of two of the jumps might have been the difference.<\/p>\n Emma Aicher is currently in silver medal position. Photograph: Marco Trovati\/APShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.58 EST<\/p>\n Alpine skiing: Laura Pirovano, with home crowd cheers in her ears, comes in second for the time being, a couple of early twitches in her balance costing some time at the top of the course. Not sure if she looks annoyed or happy at the end, she lies down on the snow spent. There\u2019s been a warning over the official radio about the difficulty of the course where patches of shade are being cast by trees across the snow.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiiing: Breezy Johnson goes top, for USA. Had a twist in the air off one of the early jumps, had to battle to land it, but then comes through with a sizzling run on the rest of the course, improving on her training run time by a second and a half.<\/p>\n Breezy Johnson leads for Team USA. Photograph: Lisi Niesner\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.52 EST<\/p>\n Alpine skiing: It\u2019s a gorgeous day out there, blue sky. We\u2019ve had five skiers so far, Ariane Raedler of Austria is leading on 1:37:20, the Italian Brignone and three Swiss skiers following her. Janine Schmitt and Jasmine Flury both almost stacked, but recovered it, terrifying at that speed. Malorie Blanc went first and had a clean run, 1:38:77.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Alpine skiing: Women\u2019s downhill final. We are away! This event is spectacular. A long, winding track that the skiers take one at a time, racing on the clock rather than on the course. It twists and turns at great steepness, meaning these women are getting up above 120 kilometres an hour. They have to stay within a flagged course, as well. The shots from the cameras following them are giving me goosebumps, with the speed the athletes are travelling. There are multiple sections where they get serious air, not off jumps but just off the slope, and they have to land those jumps at that pace as well.<\/p>\n Jasmine Flury on her run in the downhill. Photograph: Joel Marklund\/BILDBYR\u00c5N\/ShutterstockShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.44 EST<\/p>\n Snowboard: The men\u2019s PGS qualifiers have just finished too, here\u2019s who made it.<\/p>\n Roland Fischnaller \u2013 Italy Roland Fischnaller is through to the final of the PSG snowboarding. Photograph: Marko \u0110urica\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.36 EST<\/p>\n Snowboard: Pretty remarkable sub-story in the women\u2019s giant slalom, where qualifying has set the final 16 boarders who will go into quarter finals, head to head. Ester Ledecka, the reigning gold medallist in this event from the last two Olympics (as well as a cheeky skiing gold thrown in there as well) has unsurprisingly finished fastest. That means she\u2019ll be drawn against the 16th qualifier, Claudia Riegler, who has qualified at 52 years of age.<\/p>\n This is her fifth Olympics, but her first was 2002. Later she competed in 2010, 2014, and 2018, and now eight years later is back for another crack. Go on.<\/p>\n The final 16 Share<\/a><\/p>\n Here\u2019s Bryan on the opening ceremony and the crowd disapproval of one of America\u2019s widely loathed regime. \u201cInformation asymmetry\u201d is quite the phrase.<\/p>\n I was saying boo-urns. Photograph: Andreas Rentz\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.08 EST<\/p>\n If you didn\u2019t catch Day 1 in pictures, do yourself a favour. There are some tremendous snappers out on the slopes. (Not the fish.)<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n If you want to get more summaries than I can give you, get hold of The Briefing, which is our daily Olympic mailer.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>What to look out for today<\/p>\n Times are all in local time in Milan and Cortina. For Sydney it is +10 hours, for London it is -1 hour, for New York it is -6 hours and San Francisco it is -9 hours.<\/p>\n Snowboard: The women\u2019s and men\u2019s giant slalom elimination runs are on now. Then from at about 1pm the women\u2019s quarter finals, 2:12pm the women\u2019s semis, at 2:19pm the men\u2019s semis, and at 2:26pm the women\u2019s final, with 2:36pm the men\u2019s final. Later, at 7:30 pm, we\u2019ll have the women\u2019s Big Air qualifiers. Get on up.<\/p>\n Curling \u2013 10:05am, 2:35pm, 7:05pm: The first mixed doubles matches are the ones underway now, Czechia v Norway and Estonia v Korea, then later on it will be Canada v Sweden and Great Britain v Switzerland. The Brits are already through, mind you, unbeaten from seven games played so far. They just have today\u2019s match and one against Italy to go, which will happen in the latest round tonight, as well as Sweden v USA, Switzerland v Norway, and Canada v Korea.<\/p>\n Alpine skiiing \u2013 11:30am: A 36-entrant field for the women\u2019s final, but much of the attention will be on American veteran Lindsey Vonn, racing on a damaged ACL \u2013 a knee ligament, which you would think you need to ski. Apparently not.<\/p>\n Cross-country \u2013 12:30pm: This is the men\u2019s 10×10 skiathlon event, the one where they switch ski styles halfway through.<\/p>\n Biathlon \u2013 2:05pm: Two women, two men, six kilometres each, plus both styles of shooting, which means standing and lying down for a rest. That\u2019s the relay.<\/p>\n Speed skating \u2013 4pm: The men\u2019s 5000 metres final, when they go round and round and round and round and round and round\u2026<\/p>\n Ice hockey \u2013 4:40pm and 9:10pm: Group games for the women between France and Sweden in the early match, and Czechia against Finland in the latter.<\/p>\n Luge \u2013 6:34pm: This will be the fourth and final luge run for the men, which will decide the winner. They had two runs yesterday, Germany\u2019s Max Langenhan is the current leader.<\/p>\n Figure skating \u2013 7:30pm, 8:45pm, 9:55pm: This will be a flurry of creativity. It\u2019s the final stretch of the team event, where national teams combine scores across a team doing all four skating events. We\u2019ve already had the ice dance, so today it will be the pairs first, then the women solo, then the men.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.57 EST<\/p>\n Preamble<\/p>\n Hello, friends and rivals, Italy enthusiasts and snow bunnies. We\u2019re about to embark on the second day of the Winter Olympics 2026<\/a>, and it\u2019s an exercise in contrast, with the first few medals already lodged in the tally from some ski, skate, and snowboard events, and about eight million curling matches yet to play before reaching the business end there.<\/p>\n What\u2019s up for grabs today? These are the medal events.<\/p>\n Alpine skiing: the Women\u2019s Downhill event, after the men\u2019s yesterday.<\/p>\n Cross-country skiiing: Men\u2019s 10km+10km skiathlon<\/p>\n Biathlon: Mixed replay 4x6km<\/p>\n Snowboard: Women\u2019s Parallel Giant Slalom <\/p>\n Snowboard: Men\u2019s Parallel Giant Slalom <\/p>\n Speed Skating: Men\u2019s 5000m<\/p>\n Luge: Men\u2019s Singles<\/p>\n Figure Skating: Team Event – Men\u2019s Single Skating<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be a busy one, building up from a relatively quiet start to a big finish. Right now we\u2019ve got the women\u2019s giant slalom boarding qualification runs going, and a couple of curling matches in the mixed doubles round robin.<\/p>\n![\"Geoff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Michael_McGowan.jpg\")
Geoff Lemon<\/p>\n
Tervel Zamfirov (Bulgaria)<\/p>\n
Roland Fischnaller (Italy)<\/p>\n
Mirko Felicetti (Italy)<\/p>\n
Benjamin Karl (Austria)<\/p>\n
Aleksandra Krol-Walas (Poland)<\/p>\n
Ester Ledecka (Czechia)<\/p>\n
Ramona Hofmeister (Germany)<\/p>\n
Tsbuaki Miki (Japan)<\/p>\n
Aaron March \u2013 Italy
Benjamin Karl \u2013 Austria
Arnaud Guadet \u2013 Canada
Tervel Zamfirov \u2013 Bulgaria
Sangho Lee \u2013 Korea
Dario Caviezel \u2013 Switzerland
Sangkyum Kim \u2013 Korea
Zan Kosir \u2013 Slovenia
Mirko Felicetti \u2013 Italy
Andreas Prommegger \u2013 Austria
Elias Huber \u2013 Germany
Radoslav Yankov \u2013 Bulgaria
Maurizio Bormolini \u2013 Italy
Tim Mastnak \u2013 Slovenia
Rok Marguc \u2013 Slovenia<\/p>\n
Ester Ledecka \u2013 Czechia
Zuzana Maderova \u2013 Czechia
Tsubaki Miki \u2013 Japan
Lucia Dalmasso \u2013 Italy
Aleksandra Krol-Walas \u2013 Poland
Elisa Caffont \u2013 Italy
Ramona Theresia Hofmeister \u2013 Germany
Michelle Dekker \u2013 Netherlands
Sabine Payer \u2013 Austria
Malena Zamfirova \u2013 Bulgaria
Julie Zogg \u2013 Switzerland
Aurelie Moisan \u2013 Canada
Jasmin Corati \u2013 Italy
Kaylie Buck \u2013 Canada
Cheyenee Loch \u2013 Germany
Claudia Riegler \u2013 Austria<\/p>\n