Ilia Malinin holds off resurgent Japan to seal repeat US team figure skating gold

The United States held off a late charge from Japan to retain the Olympic team figure skating title on Sunday, with Ilia Malinin delivering in the men’s free skate to secure gold after three days of competition. Japan finished with silver, while host nation Italy claimed bronze.The United States survived a final-day surge from Japan to retain the Olympic team figure skating title on Sunday night, with Ilia Malinin delivering under intense pressure in the men’s free skate to secure gold at the Milano Cortina Games. Japan finished one point behind in silver, while host nation Italy claimed bronze after three days of tightly contested competition.The final standings – 69 points for the United States, 68 for Japan and 60 for Italy – reflected just how narrow the margin was in one of the most dramatic Olympic team events since the format was introduced in 2014

Breezy Johnson embraces the beauty and madness of downhill to win Olympic gold

The 30-year-old from Wyoming has labored in the shadow of household names like Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin. On Sunday, she made history of her ownFor years, Breezy Johnson was the other American alpine skier. The one with the near-misses, the injuries, the suspension and the unfortunate timing to exist in the same stable at the same time as Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin. On Sunday, three weeks after her 30th birthday in the shadow of the Dolomites above Cortina d’Ampezzo, she became an Olympic champion.Johnson crossed first in the women’s downhill at the Milano Cortina Games by four-hundredths of a second – the slightest winning margin in the event’s Olympic history outside the dead heat in 2014 – to become just the second American woman to win the sport’s most prestigious title

Team GB dreams of Magic Monday and a hat-trick of Olympic medals

High in the Italian Alps, where the thin air and oxygen deprivation often does strange things to the brain, ­British accents have started whispering about the possibility of Magic Monday – and Team GB winning three medals in one day at these Winter Olympics.And the craziest thing of all? It’s not entirely out of the question.Late on Sunday evening, Mia Brookes, the 19-year-old British snowboarding superstar, dug herself out of a hole with the help of Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera and Judas Priest to qualify third for the Big Air final on Monday.Before then, Team GB’s mixed curling team of Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds will play in their semi-final in the afternoon, knowing they are odds‑on favourites with the bookies having lost just one game, against Switzerland, in the group stages. Win their last-four encounter and they will guarantee a medal

Olympic figure skating music dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan resolved after ISU review

A politically charged dispute between the Olympic delegations of Azerbaijan and Armenia over figure skating music has been resolved after skating and IOC authorities reviewed the matter and the official program listing was amended.The International Skating Union (ISU) said in a statement to the Guardian on Sunday that it had examined the matter with relevant stakeholders. “The situation has been reviewed with all parties involved,” the ISU said. “The official names of the tracks that will be used are listed on the ISU website.”The change follows a complaint from Azerbaijan’s National Olympic Committee, which said it had raised concerns with the IOC over the Armenian pair of Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin’s planned short program to Artsakh, a composition by musician Ara Gevorgyan, who was born Yerevan, the capital of Armenia

Winter Olympics 2026: Vonn ‘stable’ after crash; luge, speed skating and more – as it happened

And that is me done for the night. Thanks for joining today and see you tomorrow for another packed day of Winter Olympics action! Leaving you on a bit of a cliff hanger with Team GB’s Mia Brookes yet to complete her final run in the women’s big air qualifiers. Fingers crossed!Lindsey Vonn was airlifted to hospital but is stable after crashing in the early stages of her women’s downhill run. The 41-year-old damaged her ACL when falling in a World Cup contest at Crans-Montana just over a week ago, but was determined to compete today. Starting as the 13th skier, Vonn clipped a gate and somersaulted off the course just seconds into her run

Trump calls Hunter Hess ‘a real loser’ for skier’s ambivalence about representing US

Donald Trump responded to Hunter Hess on Truth Social on Sunday, calling the Olympian a “real loser” and criticizing comments the US freestyle skier made in a press conference days earlier.Hess was asked in a press conference on Wednesday what it was like to represent the US in the Olympics given the current situation in the country, which has included ICE raids in Minnesota and a number of geopolitical crises. Hess said representing the US at the 2026 Winter Olympics brought up “mixed emotions” and that it was “a little hard.”“There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t,” he said. “I think for me it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the US … Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US