Day 8 of the 2026 Winter Olympics noticed the US return to the rostrum after a tricky Day 7 by which the People didn’t add to their medal depend. On Saturday, nevertheless, certainly one of Group USA’s brightest stars elevated his rising legend. And the U.S. misplaced out on one other gold, demonstrating how skinny the road between first and second place might be.
Listed below are the highest 5 tales of the day:
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Jordan Stolz speeds to second gold in Milan Cortina
Velocity skater Jordan Stolz got here into the Milan Cortina Video games with a possibility to affix Eric Heiden among the many biggest in U.S. historical past. He is midway to fulfilling his ambition of profitable 4 gold medals after sprinting to victory within the 500 meters.
Stolz set an Olympic file on his sprint to gold, ending with a time of 33.77. That overtook Gao Tingyu’s 34.32, set on the 2022 Beijing Video games, for the quickest in Olympics historical past. Stolz wanted that file time to win because the Netherlands’ Jenning de Boo was solely 11 hundredths of a second behind him. Laurent Dubreuil of Canada earned bronze, ending a half-second behind Stolz.
Males’s hockey beats Denmark
Denmark performed the U.S. powerful within the first interval and closed the margin to at least one objective on the finish of the second. However Group USA elevated its offensive strain within the Danish zone, leading to 5 objectives over the ultimate two intervals and an eventual 6-3 victory.
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Six gamers scored objectives for the U.S.: Matt Boldy, Brady Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Jack Hughes. Group USA fired 47 pictures on web, whereas Denmark managed 21.
Up subsequent for the U.S. is Germany as pool play continues Sunday at 3:10 p.m. ET.
Slight mistake prices Jaelin Kauf gold in ladies’s twin moguls
Regardless of tripping over a mogul, U.S. freestyle skier Jaelin Kauf completed her semifinal race in ladies’s twin moguls in opposition to France’s Perrine Laffont. Nonetheless, within the ultimate, Kauf barely bobbled when her left ski slipped out for only a second. That was sufficient for Australia’s Jakara Anthony to overhaul her to win on the scorecard, 20-15, and earn the gold medal.
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Kauf’s silver medal is her second of the Milan Cortina Video games and teammate Elizabeth Lemley took bronze over Laffont, including to the gold she received in ladies’s moguls on Wednesday.
Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen first South American to medal at Winter Video games
Historical past occurred throughout Saturday’s males’s large slalom with Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen profitable gold. As if that wasn’t spectacular sufficient, Pinheiro Braathen grew to become the first-ever South American athlete to earn a medal on the Winter Olympics.
With a mixed time of two:25.00, Pinheiro Braathen beat out Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, who received gold in 2022 at Beijing. Earlier than competing for Brazil, Pinheiro Braathen started his Alpine snowboarding profession representing Norway, his father’s house nation. After retiring for lower than a 12 months, he returned to aggressive ski racing for Brazil. He was one of many nation’s flag bearers on the Opening Ceremony.
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U.S. ladies’s curling continues ascent; American males rebound
After defeating Canada on Friday for the primary time since ladies’s ladies’s curling was launched to the Olympics in 1998, the American ladies improved to 3-1 in round-robin competitors on Saturday with a 7-4 win over Japan. In the meanwhile, they’re tied for second with Switzerland. Sweden is first and unbeaten.
The U.S. males’s group had dropped back-to-back video games getting into Saturday however returned to the win column with an 8-6 victory in opposition to a Germany squad that was 2-1 getting into the weekend. Now the People and Germans are tied for sixth, that means they’re each on the skin trying in on the four-team playoffs in the meanwhile. Spherical-robin play is way from over, although. The U.S. nonetheless has 5 video games left.
Group USA medal depend is now as much as 17
Spotlight of the day
Stolz’s thrilling end takes the cake. He barely held off de Boo and wanted fairly the ultimate push to win his second gold. 4 days earlier, Stolz overtook the Dutchman on the ultimate lap of the lads’s 1,000 meters.
Another factor
The Olympics are stuffed with inspiring tales, together with these of perseverance. One other of that sort was on full show Saturday when Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson raced on one ski for about half a minute through the ladies’s 4 x 7.5km relay. Sweden entered the occasion as gold medal favorites, and remarkably, nonetheless received silver. However amid the second leg of the occasion, Andersson fell — greater than as soon as, really, and in the end misplaced her proper ski. She retrieved it, besides it was damaged. She saved going, trudging by the course till a Swedish technician, after falling himself, handed her one other working ski. By the point Andersson reached the handover zone, Sweden had plummeted to eighth.
Frida Karlsson adopted with a robust third leg. Jonna Sundling introduced the relay house and Sweden all the best way again to second. Andersson’s relentless effort, nevertheless, can be remembered as nicely. She now has three silvers in these Video games.