My Two Cents: Milano Cortina Winter Olympics

A Weekly Newsletter from David Pickler

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

TODAY'S TOPIC:

Milano Cortina Winter Olympics

Part 2

The 2026 Winter Olympics are officially underway! Team USA has already picked up five medals, and the momentum is only building. Below, find a closer look at the medal winners, highlights from their standout performances, and a preview of the events still to come.

Team USA's Medal Winners So Far

Breezy Johnson, Gold in Alpine Skiing — Women’s Downhill

Wyoming skier Breezy Johnson claimed gold right out of the gate on Sunday, February 8 to get the medal count going early for Team USA. Johnson dive-bombed the Women’s Alpine Skiing Downhill course to win the gold medal, her first-ever Olympic medal after missing the 2022 Winter Games with an injury. Women’s Downhill isn’t Johnson’s only event at Milan Cortina: She also skis in the Women’s Super-G.

USA Figure Skating Team — Gold in Team Event

The seven members of the U.S. Figure Skating Olympic team won gold on Sunday, February 8 on the strength of amazing weekend performances from real-life husband-and-wife ice dancing duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates. With strong competition from the Japanese team (who ended up taking home the silver medal), Chock and Bates helped the U.S. skaters eke out a narrow victory, assisted by solid individual performances from Team USA’s Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, and pair skaters Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam.

Ilia Malinin Clinches Gold for Team USA

Team USA Advances to Gold Medal Match in Mixed Doubles Curling

On Monday the curling mixed doubles team of Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse guaranteed another medal will join the growing tally.

Dropkin and Thiesse entered the semifinals of the competition needing to beat the defending gold medal winners, Italy's Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini -- a team against which they lost narrowly in the final game of the round robin.

It was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams, with Team USA getting a critical three points in the fourth end to take the lead, and then the match stayed on throw from there, with the Italians reclaiming an 8-7 lead in the seventh end with three points of their own. The Americans had the hammer in the eighth (and final) end and took advantage, with Thiesse delivering Team USA the two points they needed to win with the final stone of the match, doing just enough to bump Italy's stone out to secure the victory.

With the win, Team USA faces Sweden in the gold medal match, guaranteeing themselves at least the silver medal. Whatever happens in Tuesday's gold medal match, Dropkin and Thiesse will bring home the first American curling medals since 2018, when John Shuster's team won the men's gold in Pyeongchang. Team USA has not won a mixed doubles medal since it became part of the Olympics in 2018, but Dropkin and Thiesse are now in position to capture gold if they can beat a Swedish side they already won against in the round robin stage.

WATCH: Final Shot Sends Team USA to Gold Medal Match

Team USA Men's Ice Hockey Arrives to Milan

Team USA goes into the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 with high hopes of claiming their first men's ice hockey gold medal in 46 years.

Auston Matthews will lead a U.S. side packed with NHL stars, with Matthew Tkachuk and Charlie McAvoy named as alternate captains.

Team USA take on Latvia, Denmark and Germany in Group C, expecting to progress to the knockout matches and a potential gold-medal match at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on 22 February, the final day of the Games.

Matthews' men are looking to revive the spirit of the “Miracle on Ice” at Lake Placid 1980, when the U.S. stunned the much-fancied Soviet Union to claim the Olympic title.