Key events
Curling: Great Britain take a 2-0 lead over the USA after the first end of their mixed doubles round-robin match. With two red stones already in the centre of the house before GB’s hammer, Jen Dodds is able to glide the stone down and secure the points.
Women’s ice hockey: Germany have beaten Japan 5-2 in Group B of the preliminary round, with Nicola Hadraschek finding the net twice and goalscorer Laura Kluge setting up another three. Germany bounce back from their 4-1 opening defeat to Sweden.
Emily Nix and Daria Gleissner were also on the scoresheet in a game that Germany led 5-0 by the halfway point of the second period. Yumeka Wajima and Mei Miura scored 22 seconds apart late in the second period for Japan, who beat France in their opener.
Curling: The afternoon session of the mixed doubles is about to get under way. Here are the match-ups in Cortina’s curling stadium, with their current round-robin standings:
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Great Britain (1st) v USA (2)
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Sweden (5) v Italy (3)
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Estonia (7, joint) v Norway (7)
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South Korea (9, joint) v Czech Republic (9)
The top four go through to the semi-finals. A win for Team GB and they will qualify.
Men’s downhill: “It feels like a movie,” said Franjo von Allmen after claiming the first gold medal of the Milano Cortina Games in front of hundreds of Swiss fans who had crossed the nearby border, finishing well ahead of pre-race favourite and compatriot Marco Odermatt:
I felt relaxed in the morning and tried to keep the good feeling from the training runs and fit all the pieces together. I knew it was a good run but to be seven-tenths ahead of Marco, I was surprised.
While Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni produced a near-perfect run to take silver 0.20 seconds back, the 36-year-old Dominik Paris bagged his first Olympic medal with bronze on home snow:
It’s great to have this home crowd here. It’s my fifth Olympics, and getting the first medal in front of the home crowd, that’s really special.
IOC insist ‘no norovirus outbreak’ at Games after five athletes test positive
Five players from the Swiss and Finnish women’s ice hockey teams have tested positive for norovirus but there is no wider outbreak at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday. The single Swiss case was confirmed two days after Canada and Finland were forced to postpone their opener when four members of the Finnish team fell ill with norovirus.
“We had a few cases from Finland with symptoms, dealt with. One Swiss case coming with symptoms, dealt with in the most appropriate way by the medical team,” the Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, told a press conference. “Let’s be very clear: no outbreak.”
Sometimes called the winter vomiting bug, norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis globally and has symptoms including diarrhoea and vomiting, according to the World Health Organisation.
Both teams have confirmed the cases. Switzerland’s positive case was discovered after they beat Czech Republic 4-3 in a thrilling shootout on Friday. Other Swiss team members were initially isolated as a precaution but were back practicing at Milano Rho arena on Saturday ahead of their game against Canada which was to go ahead as planned.
“Let’s not start to make a point of what is currently five athletes being dealt with. Please. Proper protocols, really well done,” added Dubi. The IOC’s medical chief Jane Thornton has said the cases are not related. Reuters
Curling: Great Britain are 6/6 in the mixed doubles after beating Canada 7-5 this morning. Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat top the round-robin standings and are on the verge of reaching the semi-finals. Next they face the USA (4 wins out of 4) at 1.35pm (GMT).
“We’re going to try and get a good rest between the next game because they’re obviously undefeated as well,” Mouat said earlier. “I think we’re just in a very good spot and we’re communicating really well and we now know what the ice is going to do for the rest of the event I think. We’re happy with where we are.”
🥇 Frida Karlsson wins the Women’s Skiathlon
Sweden have their first medals of these Games and it’s gold and silver! Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson made a breakaway from the main field midway through the race before the former launched an attack of her own late on, leaving the 2025 world champion to finish way back in second. Norway’s Heidi Weng, at the age of 34, wins her second Olympic medal and repeats the bronze she won at Sochi 2014.
Gold: Frida Karlsson (Sweden) 53min 45.2sec
Silver: Ebba Andersson (Sweden) +51s
Bronze: Heidi Weng (Norway) +1m 26.7s
Sean Ingle
News on Mariah Carey and lipsync-gate in the opening ceremony from our correspondent in Milan:
Someone asks about Mariah’s Carey opening ceremony performance at this morning’s press conference: “Mariah Carey was exceptional, she was not paid for the Opening Ceremony,” Maria Laura Mascone of the Italian organisers replies. “We are very honoured … we were extremely satisfied with her performance.”
Was she lip syncing, Matt Lawton from the Times asks: “During all the ceremony, we always record but this is something that is used internationally,” comes the reply. “But yesterday’s performance was really extraordinary and the images can prove it to you all, because there was magic. “ Doesn’t sound like a no?
The organisers are asked if Mariah Carey used a teleprompter. “Yes, we had a teleprompter, especially for those artists who sang in a different language as they needed some support,” they reply. “It is a way to support the talents on the stage.”
The IOC’s Mark Adams then suggests that Carey did sing live. “I have to take my hat off to anyone who sings in a language that isn’t their native language.”
Women’s Skiathlon: Karlsson is way clear of Andersson now and will surely take gold for Sweden. Weng has gone past Slind into third and is gaining on Andersson but the gap (about 40s) is probably to big to bridge from here. Just over 5km to go.
Women’s Skiathlon: Sweden’s Frida Karlsson is making a break for gold with two laps of the circuit to go having broken free of the main pack alongside her compatriot Ebba Andersson, who is in silver-medal position.
Astrid Øyre Slind has got a fight on her hands for the bronze, with her fellow Norwegian Heidi Weng on her tail.
British curling duo Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat have extended an open invitation to McLaren’s Lando Norris to swap the track for the rink, after watching the Formula One world champion struggle with a miniature version of their sport.
In a video shared by McLaren on social media on Friday, Norris tried his hand at ’baby curling’ with little success, prompting Formula One fan Dodds to offer some professional guidance.
“Lando Norris, you can come and try curling up in Scotland at the NCA (National Curling Academy) anytime,” Dodds said after their win over Canada’s Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman. “There’s loads of great coaches up there. We can get you on ice and you don’t need to do baby curling, you can do actual curling.”
Briton Norris joked in the video about having advice for Britain’s curlers, an offer which Mouat was still happy to take, adding: “Lando, if you have any tips, please give them to us! He said he had a couple of tips but I think he was joking obviously. But Jen’s a massive fan. She has like McLaren tops and all, like she’s a proper fan!”
Mouat and Dodds have had an incredible start to their mixed doubles curling campaign at the Milano Cortina Olympics, winning their first six matches to put themselves on the verge of qualifying for the semi-finals. Reuters
Medal ceremony: The first gold medal of the Games is put round the neck of men’s downhill winner Franjo van Allmen and the Swiss national anthem plays in Bormio. It’s his first Olympic medal, aged 24. Giovanni Franzoni gets silver and Dominik Paris bronze – both of Italy.
Summary
Here’s what’s happened on day one of the Games so far:
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Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen wins the first gold of Milano Cortina 2026 in the men’s downhill skiing. Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni and Dominik Paris complete the medal table.
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Great Britain keep up their 100% record in the mixed doubles curling with a 7-5 victory over Canada. Sweden beat Switzerland 13-7.
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China’s double Olympic champion Eileen Gu recovers from a fall to qualify for the women’s freeski slopestyle final along with 2022 gold medalist Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland. Britain’s Kirsty Muir qualifies in third.
Ice hockey: Germany’s women are giving Japan a bit of a hiding in Group B – they’re 4-0 up in the second period thanks to goals from Daria Gleissner, Emily Nix and two from Nicola Hadraschek. Germany themselves were well beaten, 4-1 by Sweden, in their opener while Japan edged France 3-2.
The Women’s 10km+10km Skiathlon has got under way in Tesero, with World Cup leader Jessie Diggins of the USA involved in a bit of a crash a few minutes into the race – she’s moving back up through the field as we speak. There are plenty of Swedes and Norwegians in the leading pack. It’ll be another half an hour before this one starts to come to a climax.
Thanks Barry. Let’s keep this rolling.
Men’s downhill: The glory is Franjo von Allmen’s but it’s a poignant moment for the Italian team with Giovanni Franzoni and Dominik Paris in the medals. No doubt they will be thinking of Matteo Franzoso, their teammate who died aged 25 last year after a training crash in Chile. Franzoni was close to Franzoso and dedicated his first World Cup win last month to him.
Italy had won just three medals in the men’s downhill since 1948 – now they’ve added two more. Switzerland will have to lick their wounds, with Marco Odermatt, considered the favourite for gold by many, finishing outside the podium,
Handover: After all that excitement, I’m off for a break but will leave you in the capable hands of Billy Munday for the next couple of hours.
🥇 Franjo von Allmen wins the Men’s Downhill
The 24-year-old takes the first gold medal of these Games on the Selvio with a time of 1min 51.61 seconds. He becomes the fifth Swiss to win this Olympic title.
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Gold: Franjo von Allmen (Switzerland) 1min 51.61sec
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Silver: Giovanni Franzoni (Italy) +0.20sec
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Bronze: Dominik Paris (Italy) +0.50
Von Allmen’s compatriots Marco Odermatt (+).70) and Alexis Monney (+0.75) were fifth and sixth, while Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr (+0.77) finished seventh.
‘Penisgate’ update: Norwegian ski jumpers greeted with scepticism suggestions that anti-doping officials must now police their anatomy as well as their equipment after regulators said they would stay alert to rumors of athletes artificially enlarging their genitals to exploit suit rules at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The World Anti- Doping Agency signaled it would watch for evidence of manipulation following reports raised fears of some male ski jumpers attempting to manipulate the 3D body-scanning measurements used to size competition suits by temporarily enlarging their penises. Skiing’s governing body also dismissed talk of competitors injecting paraffin or hyaluronic acid for aerodynamic gain.
For many of the Norwegian ski jumpers, talk of a creative attempt to gain extra inches in their jumps was met with skepticism and head-shaking, with several dismissing it as a gimmick and hearsay. “I do not think we need that kind of attention, and on the women’s side we are quite calm about the subject,” Norway women’s coach Christian Meyer said. “I have not seen anything like it, so I am also wondering whether it is true. I actually do not believe it, but if someone is that sick …“
Ski jumper Anna Odine Stroem said the controversy reflected poorly on the sport. “If it takes something like this to get people watching ski jumping, I do not know what to think. It is sad that we need controversy for people to find our sport endearing or exciting,” she said. “That is not something we want in our sport,” Johann Andre Forfang added, while fellow Norwegian Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal suggested the spotlight would be better directed elsewhere.“All interest is good interest, but I wish it came more from what is happening on the hills,” Sundal said. Reuters
Norovirus news: Members of Switzerland’s women’s ice hockey team have been placed in isolation after one player tested positive for norovirus, hours before they were set to play the defending Olympic champions Canada. The game against Canada on Saturday will go ahead as scheduled, a Swiss spokesperson said.
Switzerland beat the Czech Republic in a thrilling shootout 4-3 on Friday. Switzerland said that the positive test came after that game and that the isolation measures were taken as a precaution. Canada were forced to postpone their opening game against Finland on Thursday after several Finnish players also fell ill with norovirus. That game has been rescheduled for 12 February. Reuters
Women’s Downhill: Lindsey Vonn has completed another successful downhill training run at the Milan Cortina Olympicsthis morning after tearing the ACL in her left knee last week. The 41-year-old American crossed the line in third position, 0.37 seconds behind leader and teammate Breezy Johnson.
Vonn is preparing to race the downhill on Sunday with a large brace covering her injured knee. She had a partial titanium replacement inserted in her right knee in 2024 and then returned to ski racing last season after nearly six years of retirement. She crashed during the final World Cup downhill before the Olympics.
Curling mixed doubles: Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds have further strengthened their position in the curling mixed doubles with a sixth win in the round-robin stage of the competition, which should be enough to earn them a berth in the semi-finals with three matches to spare.
Mouat and Dodds beat Canada 7-5 with an end to spare this morning, maintaining their perfect record so far in Cortina. They face the only other unbeaten side in the competition, the American pair of Corey Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, this afternoon.
Men’s Downhill: With just 11 lower ranked competitors left to take their chance, Swiss racer Franjo von Allmen leads and is on the brink of winning the first gold medal at the Milan Cortina Games. On a picture-perfect day in Bormio. Von Allmen powered through the challenging course in 1min 51.61sec.
His time was good enough to withstand the charge of Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni, who is in silver-medal position. Franzoni’s teammate, Dominik Paris, had a fast run to take over third and knock Marco Odermatt of Switzerland off the podium.
Men’s Downhill: One athlete after another tries to beat Franjo von Allmen’s time but none of them are getting close and most of the Big Guns have already taken their chance. The time to beat remains 1min 51.61sec. Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni and Dominik Paris are currently in second and third place respectively.
Women’s Freeski Slopestyle qualifying: While qualifying continues, Team GB’s Kirsty Muir has booked her place among the 12 women who will contest Monday’s final with a score of 64.98, the third best of the day so far. China’s Eileen Gu will also be in the final despite a disastrous first run this morning that earned her a score of 1.26.
Men’s Downhill provisional standings
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Franjo von Allmen (Switzerland) 1min 51.61sec
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Giovanni Franzoni (Italy) +0.20
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Dominik Paris (Italy) +0.50
Men’s Downhill: The top three are separated by 0.5 of a second as one competitor after another hurtles down what is ostensibly a horizontal sheet of ice at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour. At one point, Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni took off and flew over 50 metres through the Italian morning sky before his skis touched the ground again. It is phenomenal, truly terrifying sport.
Men’s Downhill: Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni punches the air as he skis into the silver medal position, knocking Switzerland’s Monney down to third. Next up, Italy’s Domink Paris, another pre-race favourite, pushes Marco Odematt out of the medals to go into third.
Men’s Downhill: We have an all-Swiss podium as things stand. Marco Odermatt, onre of the race favourites, beat his compatriot Monney’s time to go top of the standings but has since been unseated by Franjo von Allmen. His time of 1min 51.61sec is the one to beat.
Curling mixed doubles: Despite a late wobble, Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat have competed their sixth consecutive win in the round robin stage of this competition, seeing off Canada 7-5. They will fac e the USA later today.
Men’s Downhill: Switzerland’s Alexis Monney pulls out all the stops to move into the gold medal position with a time of 1min 2.36sec, hitting a top speed of 87 miles per hour as he flew down the Selvio. Austria’s Daniel Hmetsberger is in second place, 0.22sec behind, while Canada’s Jack Crawford is 0.64sec behind in the bronze medal position.
Women’s Freeski Slopestyle qualifying: Having eaten snow in the very early stages of her first run, China’s Eileen Gu recovers to post a score of 75.30 to move into second place and bump Team GB’s Katy Muir down into third place with her second outing to come.
Men’s Downhill: To the fearsome Selvio piste, where only the bravest will duke it out for the first gold medal of these Games. A total of 35 men are taking to the gates on an incredibly steep, southern facing slope that rewards those who push to the very limit of their capabilities and courage. Austria’s Daniel Hemetsberger is first down the mountain, setting a time of 1min 52.58sec.
The longest course in the four alpine skiing disciplines, competitors in the downhill get just one run down the mountain. France’s Max Muzaton comes a cropper on his run down the mountain but is mercifully unhurt. In the leader’s chair, Hemetsberger points to an impressive shiner, sustained when he lost his helmet during a crash in training on Thursday.
Women’s freeski slopestyle: Competing at the Winter Olympics just two months after rupturing her ACL, Australian freeskier Daisy Thomas was ruled out of her first event after crashing at training. She has also qualified for the women’s freeski big air event which begins on 14 February and remains hopeful of taking part.
Opening ceremony: The US vice-president, JD Vance, was greeted by a chorus of boos when he appeared at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan on Friday, although American viewers watching NBC’s coverage would have been unaware of the reception, writes Tom Lutz …
Sean Ingle
Opening ceremony: Andea Varnier, the official Milano Cortina 2026 spokesperson, is speaking at the daily press conference. “We believe we have achieved the biggest number of tickets sold for an Opening ceremony, with 61,221 tickets sold, and another 10,000 people watched remotely,” he says.
The IOC’s verdict is delivered by Games’ director Christophe Dubi: “The feeling I had was how elegant and beautiful the imagery was but how profoundly Italian and universal that ceremony was,” he says. “Values are universal, right? Goosebumps.”
Gallery: Roll up, roll up for the very best of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony in pictures …
Curling mixed doubles: We’re in the sixth end and Team GB have extended their lead over Canada to 7-2. Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat are quite literally sweeping all before them in the round robin stages of this comepetition and heading for their sixth consecutive victory.
Women’s Freeski Slopestyle qualifying: The big news from Livigno Snow Park is that China’s Eileen Gu, a triple medallist at the last Games in Beijing, took a tumble on the first very rail of the course. As qualification for slopestyle hinges on the best of two runs she’ll get a chance to redeem herself but the nerves will be jangling. Among the favourites for this competition, Team GB’s Kirsty Muir, 21, finished her first run with a score of 63.18, which puts her in second place.
Curling mixed doubles: Team GB are currently in action against Canada and having won their opening five matches before today, Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds are not so much knocking on the door to a place in the semi-finals as battering it down. They lead 5-2 against Canada at the break, with matches against the United States (today), Switzerland and defending champions Italy (tomorrow) to come.
The Opening Ceremony: The showpiece to kick off the Games happened across multiple venues but politics and protests were also present, writes Bryan Armen Graham.
Yara El-Shaboury
The Briefing
Women’s Downhill: Lindsey Vonn passed a key test of her damaged knee on Friday as she completed her first downhill training run, keeping alive her hopes of a fourth Olympic meda. Skiing with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, the American clocked a time of 1min 40.33sec in her first official run in Cortina d’Ampezzo, and simply responded “yeah” when asked if “all good” by reporters.
The training was delayed for more than an hour owing to fog hanging over the Olimpia delle Tofane piste and Vonn entertained her teammates by singing along to some Usher. The Swiss team, including the reigning downhill Olympic champion Corinne Suter, passed the time by playing Yahtzee.
Italy’s Federica Brignone was the first to get all the way down the piste, with a time of 1:40.66, as she goes for a first Olympic gold after coming back from a double leg break just in time to compete.
“Some things were good, some things so-so,” Brignone said. “I’m trying to recover my leg because after skiing it’s always swollen and painful. I’m also working on my confidence because I’m still missing it.”
Curling Mixed Doubles: Jennifer Dodds said she and her partner Bruce Mouat had produced their best performances yet as the duo recorded another two wins in Friday’s round-robin matches in the mixed doubles curling competition. The pair beat Sweden 7-4 before a comprehensive 8-2 defeat of South Korea, with an end to spare in both games. “We said yesterday there were a couple of things we wanted to work on,” said Dodds. “We came out today and executed exactly what we wanted to do.”
The Team GB pair were also in a buoyant move after the American rapper Snoop Dogg asked for a photo. “We walked past and we were just kind of like ‘there’s Snoop Dogg’, a bit starstruck and we got ushered back,” said Dodds. “They said ‘he wants a selfie with you’ and we said ‘OK’. So, if Snoop Dogg’s team is reading this, can we please get the photo?”
Snoop Dogg, who was wearing a jacket that featured photos of the USA’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, is an honorary coach for the team and took to the ice himself to have a try at sweeping a stone.
Lizzy Yarnold: There is a huge buzz for the Games that are the pinnacle for the athletes but competing through illness and injury is all part of the test, writes the former Team GB skeleton star who won gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics.
The Briefing: Lovingly compiled, direct to your inbox and running throughout the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, sign up for our superb guide to the day’s highlights and the best that is yet to come.
What to look out for today
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.
Curling – 10.05am, 2.35pm and 7.05pm: more mixed doubles awaits. Great Britain and the US – both unbeaten so far – face off in the second session.
Freestyle skiing – 10.30am and 2pm: men’s and women’s freeski slopestyle qualification. Keep an eye out for Team GB’s Kirsty Muir and China’s American-born Eileen Gu.
Alpine skiing – 11.30am: the first gold medal event of the games is the men’s downhill. Switzerland may sweep the podium with Marco Odermatt, Franjo von Allmen and Alexis Monney.
Ice hockey – 12.10pm, 2.40pm, 4.40pm and 9.10pm: women’s games continue with Canada finally getting on the ice after their Finland match was postponed on Thursday.
Cross-country skiing – 1pm: women’s 10km + 10km skiathlon where athletes use classic and free techniques in the same race, swapping halfway through.
Speed skating – 4pm: the Dutch have won four of the last five Olympics in the women’s 3000m, the first of two long distance events.
Luge – 5pm and 6.32pm: two men’s singles runs get under way.
Ski jumping – 5.45pm, 6.45pm and 7.57pm: trial round and first round take place before the main decider.
Snowboard – 7.30pm: the men’s big air final promises to be one of the most show-stopping events. Japan are eying gold but Beijing 2022’s champion, China’s Yiming Su, will not let his title slip so easily.
Figure skating – 7.45pm and 10.05pm: two team events take place with the men’s single skating and the ice dance.
Preamble
Buongiorno! If last night’s spectacular opening ceremony at the San Siro was anything to go by, Milano Cortina 2026 is going to be a masterpiece of Italian flair. We saw the theme of Armonia (translation: harmony) come to life as the ceremony bridged the 250 miles between the urban chic of Milan and the snow-dusted peaks of Cortina d’Ampezzo. From Mariah Carey’s multilingual “Volare” to Andrea Bocelli’s always spine-tingling rendition of Nessun Dorma, it was a night that celebrated both the Renaissance and the rink.
But the party is over and now the business of “faster, higher, stronger” begins in earnest. We have five gold medals up for grabs on this day of competition.
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Alpine Skiing: The blue-riband Men’s Downhill takes center stage in Bormio. All eyes are on Marco Odermatt as he attempts to conquer the treacherous Stelvio.
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Speed Skating: The Women’s 3000m sees the first medals awarded on the oval, with Isabelle Weidemann looking to defend her podium pedigree.
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Cross-Country Skiing: The grueling Women’s 15km + 15km Skiathlon will test the absolute limits of endurance.
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Ski Jumping & Snowboard: Medals will also be settled in the Women’s Normal Hill and the Men’s Snowboard Big Air.
Beyond the podiums, the team events are heating up with Great Britain facing Canada in a heavyweight Mixed Doubles curling clash, and the US women taking on Finland in the hockey. Stick with us, your one-stop shop for every lunge, leap, and photo finish.