Key events
Speed skating: Maltais falls, and is half a lap behind the pack by the time she’s got back on her skates.
Speed skating: they’re away first time (I’ve always wanted to write that) and process around the first lap, hands clasped behind backs like Merchant Ivory characters.
Speed skating: Ayano Sato, who must have survived a judges inquiry into her semi-final push, will be in pole position for this last skating race of the Games.
Speed skating: after the drama of the men’s race, the women line up for the mass start final. A third gold for Francesca Lollobrigida? Your guess is a good as mine. They mull about at the start.
Canada beat USA to take bronze in the women’s curling
Curling: Canada do it, with a stone to spare! Canada 10-USA 7.
Will USA make it honours even when the two do battle again in the big ice-hockey finale tomorrow.
Speed skating: Viktor Hald Thorup has a good old cry of joy, he absolutely wasn’t expected to get a medal but stuck with wily old pro Bergsma and gets his reward. Bergsma grins and waves the Dutch flag. Giovannini half-heartedly celebrates bronze.
Everyone else looks thoroughly pissed off. Outwitted.
🏅 Gold for veteran Dutchman Jorrit Bergsma in the speed skating
Speed skating: Age over young legs! 40 year old Bergsma conducts the crowd as he eases over the line, Denmark’s Viktor Hald Thorup holds on for second and Giovannini wins the scramble for bronze.
Speed skating: with two laps to go Bergsma breaks away and goes alone, faster and faster!
Speed skating: six laps to go and Bergsma and Hald Thorup are still ahead, way ahead, bent over, rhythmic and gaining.
Speed skating: back to the speed skating arena, where the men’s final is galloping into speed. There has been a breakaway, with Jorrit Bergsma and Viktor Hald Thorup half a lap ahead.
Curling: USA are still in it! They take two from the ninth end and go into the tenth just one point down, Canada 8, USA 7.
But Can-a-da fans are out shouting those from U-S-A, and Canada have the hammer.
Love this summary of the Games by Emma, including a very funny joke about Surrey:
Snow delays women’s halfpipe final
Snowy deluges in Livigno have delayed the start of the women’s half pipe. Those in charge are due to update in about an hour on whether it can happen today or will have to run into Sunday.
Women’s curling: Canada have a healthy lead, 8-5, coming into the ninth end. The USA have the hammer and need a little miracle.
Germany stay in race for 2036 Games, despite Nazi anniversary
Germany will remain in the running for the 2036 Summer Olympics despite its president expressing concern about the 100th anniversary of the Nazi-era Berlin Games, the nation’s Olympic sports head said on Saturday.
The German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) is due to decide later this year on putting forward a candidate from Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, and the Rhine-Ruhr region for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Games.
The first of the three dates could be contentious, however. “The president views the year 2036 as historically problematic for a German bid,” a spokesperson for Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday. But the DOSB president, Thomas Weikert, told reporters at the German House at the Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo that all dates remained open.
“The IOC [International Olympic Committee] decides when the Games will come to Europe. It could be that they say that 2036 is for Asia or Africa,” he said. “Therefore, my answer is that we have to be ready to organise the Games [whenever they decide]. This concerns all three editions. We want to show a positive Germany. This would also apply to 2036.”
Reuters
Speed skating: ignore me, Myers has been eaten up by the pack, with Lollobrigida in the lead, but they’re still bunched up like rush hour at Oxford Circus.
At last they go, just before the bell, stringing out in a line with Groenewoud first, and home favourite Lollobrigida second.
Speed skating: Myers looks behind her but she’s still got a lead and the main pack are all over the place in a block, looks like an accident waiting to happen.
Speed skating: Greta Myers of the USA accelerates off a sprint lap and soon has a lead of the back straight.
Speed skating: time for semi-final two: skin suits ready, helmets on.Sixteen laps of the track – the first is a procession behind Marijke Groenewoud, who gets that honour by being seeded No. 1.
Speed skating: replays show Ayano Sato gave Valérie Maltais a little shove on her way through – one for the judges.
Speed skating: the first eight go through to each semi final. It’s all about tactics, say the commentators: securing your spot while conserving enough energy for the final. A sprint finish at the bell and the race is won by Japan’s Ayano Sato with all the big guns getting through including Mia Manganello and Valérie Maltais.
Speed skating: let’s zip back to the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, where the first women’s semi-final mass start is already up and skating. It’s an intermediate sprint lap – which gives the winner three bonus points – before they slip back into Starlight Express formation.
GB’s Chef de Mission Eve Muirhead is crossing every finger for two more golds later today – in the men’s curling (18.05 GMT) and women’s halfpipe (18.30 GMT).
Great Britain Chef de Mission Eve Muirhead hopes a “Super Saturday” grand finale can put the seal on the nation’s best Winter Olympics. Bruce Mouat’s men’s curling team and ski halfpipe star Zoe Atkin both go for gold in Cortina and Livigno respectively on a day that could once again send records tumbling.
Britain’s biggest medal haul at a single Winter Games is five in both 2014 and 2018, and Mouat and Atkin could ensure Team GB match that tally in gold medals alone.
“I’m really looking forward to ‘Super Saturday’,” Muirhead said. “I think it’s important that we keep the momentum. We want to finish the Games on a high. One thing I came out here to do was make sure we had the same energy from start to finish and we’ll make sure we are doing that tomorrow.”
Victories for Mouat and Atkin could help shunt Great Britain alongside Winter Olympic giants like Austria, Japan and China in the medals table, which is usually ordered by number of golds.
PA
Women’s Curling: another north American match up as Canada and the USA play off for the bronze medal. A shonky final USA stone of the sixth end curls off and away, and Canada take three to leap ahead 5-3.
Guardian photographer Tom Jenkins turns his lens on Milan’s fashion parade:
Reader Erin Emme has a bone to pick with the commentators:
“Announcers keep saying so and so is from Jackson Hole, WY. It’s just Jackson, not Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole is the valley and the airport. Jackson is the town.
”If you could clarify that for the readers, this Wyomingite would appreciate it.”
Duly done and here is a picture of a local Jackson moose to smooth things over.
Speed skating: another man down, this time Wenger of Switzerland, who over balances and finishes tenth to miss out on a place in the final.
The race is won by Timothy Loubineaud of France, with Yu Wu of China second and the Netherland’s Stijn van de Bunt third. The quickest eight – yet to be confirmed – will skate in the final at 3.40 GMT.
Thanks Billy! a mindblowing amount of winter sports going on today. First to Milan where there are three laps to go in the men’s mass start. One Norweigan skater is down…
Tanya Aldred is back and will see you through the afternoon’s action on the penultimate day of these Winter Games. Enjoy.
Speed skating: We’ve just had the first semi-final of the men’s mass start event with Canada’s Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu winning the first of two. The American star Jordan Stolz is also safely through in fourth. The top eight from each semi qualify for this afternoon’s final.
Team GB ‘right in the mix’ for bobsleigh medal
Brad Hall has not given up on hopes of an Olympic medal for the British four-man bobsleigh team.
Hall and teammates Taylor Lawrence, Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett were third after their first run at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Saturday morning, but they dropped time and fell to seventh place after their second run.
Hall said: “The first run felt great but I don’t know what’s happened with that second run. It felt good, so I was pretty surprised to drop back four places. We’ll have a good look at what went wrong and hopefully put it right tomorrow.
“We’re a couple of tenths away, so it’s not all hope lost. This track is very tricky and, as you’ve seen in the other races – the monobob, two-man, two-women – things can flip on their head very quickly and you can lose half a second.
“You see a lot of people skidding out of the grooves and going way back, that sort of thing can happen. We’ve still got to come back tomorrow fighting, hopefully put these things right and make fewer mistakes than everyone else.
“It’s a tricky track, if you fall asleep or you’re not taking it seriously, sometimes it can catch you off guard.”
Lawrence added: “That first run was storming, all the boys were really pushing to the max and that’s where we need to be. We showed we are in medal shape and Brad’s driving was phenomenal. We feel we’re right in the mix.”
Britain’s team are 0.82 seconds behind the leading German team piloted by Johannes Lochner, with the other medal positions filled by German squads. Hall’s team are 0.23s off bronze medal position.
Three teams – from Austria, France and Trinidad and Tobago – crashed during their second runs, with the Austrian Jakob Mandlbauer taken to hospital for further medical checks. PA Media
Women’s biathlon: Germany’s 2025 World Cup title winner Franziska Preuss (28th) and Italy’s veteran Dorothea Wierer (5th) enjoy a lap of honour down the straight with their respective national flags. Everyone seems pretty happy.
“For both ladies this was the last race of their lives – both retire today,” emails Gisrenist. “Hence the celebrations, the flowers, the champagne, the hugs and banner reading ‘Danke Grazie Thank you’.”
Women’s biathlon: Lots and lots of tears at the finishing line. There are tears of joy in Michelon’s case as she hugs her mother, then there’s Vobornikova who dropped from first to third in the final stages.
🏅 Oceane Michelon (Fra) wins women’s 12.5km biathlon mass start
Oceane Michelon, 23, has time to celebrate as she crosses the line! Her French teammate Julia Simon put together a really strong finish to win silver, with Vobornikova hanging on for bronze.
Gold: O Michelon (Fra) 37min 18.1sec
Silver: J Simon (Fra) +6.6s
Bronze: T Vobornikova (Cze) +7.4s
That is gold No 6 from 11 biathlon events for France.
Women’s biathlon: Michelon makes her move and leaves Vobornikova for dead. The Czech athlete needs to fall into her slipstream because she’s behind chased by Sweden’s Anna Magnusson.
Women’s biathlon: Vobornikova is being screamed at by a Czech coach running by the side of the course. Michelon is right on her heels on the final downhill section. It’s looking ominous.
Women’s biathlon: We’re at the business end of the 12.5km mass start event with Tereza Vobornikova of the Czech Republic heading up the last climb in gold-medal position. France’s Oceane Michelon is right on her tail though! The gap is 3.1sec and there are others in the mix.
Lunchtime reading
Bryan Armen Graham runs through the craziest stories from Milano Cortina 2026, from the Norwegian biathlete who revealed he had cheated on his girlfriend to the wolfdog who took part in a women’s cross-country skiing qualifier.
Andy Bull writes up Johannes Høsflot Klæbo’s historic achievement from his vantage point in Tesero.
Yara El-Shaboury’s newsletter led on how a court room battle was put to bed in the women’s ski cross
… and the Swedish biathletes taking a swipe at their technicians after their failures in the men’s mass start.
Women’s curling: Canada level things up at 1-1 after two ends, hitting their hammer off one of the American stones to score a single point. Bronze is up for grabs in this one.
Klæbo reaction: Norway’s skiers have been speaking to the press after Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won his historic sixth gold medal of these Olympics in the 50km mass start.
Klæbo himself said:
It’s unbelievable. It still feels really good to race, and I’m always looking forward to going out there and fighting for the medal.
Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget (silver) said:
I’m starting to believe maybe he is a machine. It’s close to impossible to beat him in the finish.
A couple more events are getting under way this lunchtime. In Cortina, it’s Canada v USA in the bronze-medal match of the women’s curling. In Rasen-Anthol, the starting gun has sounded for women’s 12.5km mass start in the biathlon.
Bobsleigh: The Austrian pilot Jakob Mandlbauer has been taken to hospital after his bob turned over during the second heat. Mandlbauer was treated on the track for around 20 minutes and taken to hospital with neck pain. His teammates were checked at the track and apparently unhurt.
Bobsleigh: Let’s take a look at the 4-man standings after the second heat that finished in the last hour. Great Britain’s team led by Brad Hall have dropped down after finishing the first heat in third.
1. Germany (J Lochner) 1min 48.61sec
2. Germany (F Friedrich) +0.43s
3. Germany (A Ammour) +0.59s
4. Switzerland (M Vogt) +0.71s
7. Great Britain (B Hall) +0.82s
It’s tight!
Bobsleigh: Germany may be out front in the four-man bobsled, but the nation’s relative lack of success at the Milan Cortina Games from four years ago has seen them slide down the medals table, and an unwanted status as the team with the most fourth-placed finishes.
From ending Beijing 2022 as the second most successful nation, Team Deutschland headed into the closing weekend fifth overall. German athletes have finished fourth 12 times and the hope of finishing third overall in the table has gone.
Of the 22 medals won by Saturday, six were gold – behind the Netherlands on eight. Hosts Italy were in third place on nine golds and with 27 medals. Germany won 27 medals in Beijing, of which 12 were gold. Reuters
Skimo relay: That’s redemption of sorts for Emily Harrop, who was fancied to win the individual women’s race for France but finished behind Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton. It was her blistering first lap that set up Thibault Anselmet nicely, although his final lap was just as impressive.
Skimo relay: The USA are best of the rest, followed by Italy, Austria, Germany, China, Poland, Norway and Slovakia. Australia are miles behind with Phillip Bellingham still trudging up the steps.
🥇 France win the mixed skimo relay
Thibault Anselmet crosses the line and wins gold alongside Emily Harrop! Switzerland finish in silver-medal position.
Gold: France 26min 57.4sec
Silver: Switzerland +11.9s
Bronze: Spain +26.5s
Oriol Cardona Coll collapses in a heap and Spain will, as it stands, win bronze despite a three-second penalty for their handover.
Skimo relay: Anselmet heads up the steps. Kistler, chest exposed to the elements with his zip down, is 11 seconds behind on the final descent. Anselmet is celebrating already.
Skimo relay: Kistler gained a couple of seconds on the first descent of the final lap. Cardona Coll is 15 seconds further back in third but needs a big gap to fourth with Spain facing a time penalty.
Skimo relay: Anselmet has re-established a 10-sec lead on Switzerland’s Kistler after the first ascent. It was some climb from the Frenchman.