Olympics Edition — Day 6: The snow is cold, but the tea is piping hot
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
Order up!
The Games are really getting cooking now, with medals and drama aplenty. Take inspiration from the competitors and get your carbo-load on as we prepare for another full day of watching ahead.
Country | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | Total |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 7 | 2 | 4 | 13 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 5 | 2 | 7 | 14 |
| 🇺🇲 USA | 4 | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| 🇨🇦 Canada (14th) | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
⛷️ Canada’s moguls king has done it again: Mikaël Kingsbury added a fourth Olympic medal to his trophy case in this morning’s moguls final, picking up a silver after narrowly being edged in a tiebreaker. No doubt that his biggest fan will still be proud.
⛸️ Tears were shed when Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won bronze yesterday, using season-best scores to secure a podium finish 15 years in the making. Pass the tissues.
👀🏂 Fan favorite American halfpipe snowboarder Chloe Kim will go for a gold medal three-peat today at 1:30 p.m. ET. Despite competing with a torn labrum, Kim recorded the highest score in yesterday’s qualifying round, much to the delight of her NFL boyfriend, Myles Garrett.
- Also in the (wintry) mix: Canadian Elizabeth Hosking, who finished eighth in qualifiers. Gnarly.
🥇💨⛸️ American speedskater Jordan Stolz has officially arrived, setting a new Olympic record in the 1,000m race to clinch gold yesterday. Not bad for a Milan debut — but Stolz isn’t heading back to the pond anytime soon: He’ll race thrice more in Milan, starting with Saturday’s 500m.
- Meanwhile, Canadian and 2022 Beijing silver medalist Laurent Dubreuil finished eighth in the 1,000m and will be out for redemption in the 500m, his best event.
🥌 Canada’s quest for a curling medal is off to a winning start after skip Brad Jacobs’ team earned a 7–6 extra ends win over Germany yesterday, while Rachel Homan’s rink posted a 10–4 win over Denmark while you were sleeping. Rock on.
⛷️ Team USA’s Liz Lemley and Jaelin Kauf won gold and silver, respectively, in yesterday’s women’s freestyle skiing moguls final, while the defending champ, Australia’s Jakara Anthony, landed eighth after skidding off course.
- As for the lone Canadian in the eight-woman field, Maïa Schwinghammer snagged a solid fifth-place finish in her Olympic debut. One thing’s for sure: She made Dad proud.
🏂 Australian snowboarder Scotty James inched closer to a long-awaited Olympic gold yesterday, finishing first in the men’s halfpipe qualifier. James made his debut at the 2010 Winter Games when he was just 15 years old and has won a bronze (2018) and silver (2022) medal in the event.
🥇💨 History was made at Cortina Sliding Centre yesterday with the Italian duo of Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer stunning the field to win gold in the Olympics’ first-ever women’s doubles luge event. Ceiling? Smashed.
TOGETHER WITH Snyder's of Hanover
💪 While the world’s best rack up medals across the Atlantic, we’re staying fueled up to keep up with all the action. Our go-to snack? Snyder’s of Hanover® Pretzel Pieces.
- When the sporting event is this big and bold, you need a snack that pushes the limits of flavour to match — and Snyder’s has punchy varieties like Honey Mustard & Onion, Cheddar Cheese, and Hot Buffalo Wing. You can’t go wrong with Snyder’s of Hanover®.
Men’s ice hockey
🏒 Ice, spice, and everything not nice
The GIST: As the women’s hockey preliminary round wraps up today, the juggernaut Canadian men are preparing for puck drop on the first Olympic tournament since 2014 to feature NHL players. And with star-studded lineups across the board, nothing is guaranteed…
👏 The return of the NHLers: The reason for their 12-year absence? Schedule disruptions and a lack of league benefit, according to the NHL. However, the pushback was fierce, and a new collective bargaining agreement in 2020 paved the way for the NHL’s (slightly delayed) return to the Games, much to the delight of players and fans alike.
- The Olympics are officially a best-on-best tournament once again, except for a small caveat: Russia is still sanctioned by the IOC for their invasion of Ukraine, excluding them — and superstars like Washington Capital Alex Ovechkin — from participation.
⚙️ How it works: The men’s tourney features 12 teams, divided into three groups (A, B, and C). Each will play three round-robin games, with the group winners and the best runner-up squad receiving a bye straight to the quarter-finals. The other eight teams will compete in a playoff for the remaining spots, all in hopes of reaching the gold medal game on February 22nd.
🇨🇦 Gold or bust for Team Canada: That’s par for the course for this hockey-loving nation, who’ll be backing one of the best skating groups Canada’s ever assembled. It starts up front, where a trio of generational talents — decorated captain Sidney Crosby, the inimitable Connor McDavid, and 19-year-old phenom Macklin Celebrini — headlines absolutely stacked lines.
- But this roster isn’t infallible: Canada’s biggest weakness is between the pipes, and that’s where their archrivals will thrive. American goalie Connor Hellebuyck is the reigning Hart Memorial Trophy winner (awarded to the NHL MVP) and a bona fide brick wall.
👀 Catch the Canadian men in action for the first time today at 10:40 a.m. ET against Czechia. Drop that puck.
Event | ⏰ | 👀 |
| 🏒 Women’s hockey prelims | Today at 8:30 a.m. | 🇨🇦 Canada vs. 🇫🇮 Finland |
| 🏅🏂 Men’s snowboard cross final | Today at 8:56 a.m. | 🇨🇦 Éliot Grondin, Evan Bichon, Liam Moffatt |
| 🏅💨⛸️ Speed skating women’s 5,000m | Today at 10:30 a.m. | 🇨🇦 Isabelle Wiedemann, Laura Hall |
| 🏅💨⛸️ Short track speed skating: women’s 500m and men’s 1,000m | Today at 2:15 p.m. | 🇨🇦 Courtney Sarault, Florence Brunelle, Kim Boutin, Felix Rousell, William Dandjinou |
🍵 We love mess
In addition to being one of the zaniest Olympic sports in terms of the action, biathlon has also turned out to be perhaps the messiest of Milano Cortina 2026. The snow is cold, but the tea is piping hot.
- Let’s start with Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid, who celebrated his bronze medal in the men’s 20km individual race by…publicly asking his ex-girlfriend to forgive him for cheating on her. For the record, she was not impressed.
- And then there’s France’s Julia Simon, who won gold in the women’s 15km individual event after being convicted of stealing her teammate’s credit card for online shopping. This wasn’t her first offense, and her defense during the trial? “I can’t explain it. I don’t remember doing it. I can’t make sense of it.” Stay weird, biathlon.
Today’s email was brought to you by Alessandra Puccio, Lisa Minutillo, Lauren Tuiskula, and Katie Kehoe Foster. Editing by Katie Kehoe Foster. Fact-checking and ops by Elisha Gunaratnam. Ads by Alessandra Puccio and Lisa Minutillo. Managing edits by Lauren Tuiskula. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.