Winter Olympics were again unrelatable and ‘useless’ and yet utterly astounding to watch

It was the Olympics of politics and penises, of JD Vance being jeered and of Ukrainian bobsledders being banned from the competition, of a convicted criminal beating the teammate she was guilty of defrauding, of Lindsey Vonn crashing out 12 seconds into the race and of Ilia Malinin making one mistake too many, of the internet became momentarily obsessed with slow‑motion videos of a Canadian stroking a curling stone with the tip of his finger, and it was the Olympics where the Norwegian ski‑jump team refused to dignify questions about whether or not they were injecting acid into their genitals.Like I said right at the beginning, Pierre de Coubertin never wanted a Winter Olympics. If that line sounds a little familiar it might be because you read it here a fortnight or so ago. “The great inferiority of these snow sports is that they are completely useless,” Coubertin wrote, “with no useful application whatsoever.” But it’s true, too, that over time he changed his mind

North Korea: world’s most secretive nation lands in spotlight at Women’s Asian Cup | Samantha Lewis

In 1986, when Norwegian delegate Ellen Wille stood on stage at Fifa’s annual congress in Mexico and demanded the creation of a World Cup for women, it sparked support from one of the room’s unlikeliest allies. Delegates from North Korea, so the story goes, were inspired by Wille’s speech and returned to Pyongyang with a plan: to use women’s football as a tool to reassert their collapsing power on the world stage.The plan was simple: starting in the late 1980s, the government would invest heavily in the women’s game, inserting football programs into school curriculums, establishing women’s teams in the military where players trained full-time, creating youth talent identification pathways, and constructing brand-new facilities across the country.As the nation became politically isolated, sport emerged as one of the only avenues through which North Korea could compete – and even succeed – internationally. So under Kim Jong-il, reportedly a football fan, the women’s game became a proxy platform for spreading North Korea’s political agenda

Even greater heights await Australia’s Winter Olympians after success of Milano Cortina Games | Kieran Pender

More than half of the 50-odd Australians who featured in Italy this month were Olympic debutants, suggesting a bright future aheadAustralia’s golden 2026 Winter Olympics campaign ended on Sunday not with a medal, but with a thrilling view of the future. Following the nation’s most successful Winter Games of all time, the denouement suggested that this might just be the beginning.Sixteen-year-old Indra Brown’s fifth place in the freestyle skiing halfpipe on the final day of Milano Cortina was a fitting conclusion to a remarkable Games for team Australia. While Brown missed out on a medal, her performance – just 5.5 points off the podium – was historic all the same

‘Hockey’s not hockey any more’: did three-on-three overtime ruin Canada’s Olympics?

Two Olympic finals between Canada and the US were settled by sudden death. The format made the showpieces feel more like a coin toss than a climaxTwo Olympic finals against the US, two strong performances, two sudden-death losses. Canada is so over overtime.While all good things must come to an end, it’s hard to fathom why hockey’s international rule-makers think that the very best things – huge clashes that were some of the hottest tickets of the entire Olympics – should be ended using three-on-three golden-goal overtime, a concept beloved only by people with a train to catch or firm dinner reservations.Forty-six years after the Miracle on Ice, the US men and women celebrated with a pair of huge assists from the Misrule on Ice

‘The Brits are coming again’: Team GB hail their greatest ever Winter Olympics

Team GB have hailed a “historic” Winter Olympics after Britain’s greatest performance in the 102 years of the Games left them 15th in the medal table – and warned their rivals the “Brits are coming again”.Zoe Atkin’s women’s halfpipe bronze medal on Sunday ensured that Britain left Milano Cortina with five medals – equalling the tally from Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018. However, Team GB also won a record three gold medals with Matt Weston winning two of them in the individual skeleton and the mixed event with Tabitha Stoecker. Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale also took gold in the mixed snowboard cross, while the men’s curling team won silver.“It is far and away our most successful Games ever, both in terms of total medals achieved but also the number of Olympic champions,” the UK Sport performance director, Kate Baker, said

Winter Olympics 2026 come to a close at Verona Arena after Norway top medal table – as it happened

Norway has once again topped the Winter Olympics medal table, surpassing countries with far larger populations.The Scandinavian country won more gold medals (18) and more total medals (41) than the US, who came second in both categories (12 golds and 33 total medals). Norway’s 18 golds were the most by a country in Winter Olympics history, while their cross-country skiing hero Johannes Høsflot Klæbo accounted for six golds on his own, more than the all but seven other countries at this year’s Games.The achievements of Norway, which has a population of about 5.7m, are all the more remarkable given that they outperformed winter-sports nations with far larger populations such as the US (342m), China (1