Klæbo's conquest, French domination and Olympic record falls: Day 2 summary

Klæbo's conquest, French domination and Olympic record falls: Day 2 summary

The second full day of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games delivered a whirlwind of high-stakes drama across the Italian Alps and the ice rinks of Milan, as the pursuit of Olympic immortality moved into a higher gear. With the first elimination rounds in team sports looming and the heavy hitters of the winter world stepping onto their respective stages, the atmosphere shifted from the pageantry of the opening to the cold reality of the scoreboard. From the lung-bursting climbs of the cross-country trails to the razor-thin margins of the sliding tracks and the pressure cooker of the Biathlon, Day 2 provided a masterclass in both the joy of victory and the brutal, unforgiving nature of a sport.

Snowboarding

Women's Parallel giant slalom:

The Czechs got their expected first Gold medal of the games, but it wasn't heavy favourite and double defending champion Ester Ledecka; it was Zuzana Maderova. This result showed the brutal nature of the Parallel giant slalom's knockout format as Ledecka was the fastest qualifier by nearly a second, but one mistake at the top of her quarterfinal run meant Ledecka couldn't recover, and Austria's Sabine Payer knocked her out and subsequently went on to lose to Maderova in the final to take the silver medal. In the fight for bronze, it was an all-Italian affair between Lucia Dalmasso and Elisa Caffont, with Dalmasso coming out on top by 0.11 to give Italy its fifth medal of the games, halfway through day two, an excellent start for the hosts.

Men's parallel slalom:

After the qualification, the Italians would have been really confident to add to their medal haul with Roland Fischnaller and Aaron March sitting pretty at the top, with Fischnaller in particular almost a second clear. But the brutal nature of straight knockout and no second chances came back to bite the Italians in this one, with March and another Italian, Mirko Fellicetti, losing in back-to-back rounds to Tim Mastnak, who himself then lost in the semi-finals and lost the small final in heartbreaking fashion in a photo finish to Tervel Zamfirov. The Big final was contested between Sangkyum Kim, who knocked Fischnaller out, and parallel giant slalom legend Benjamin Karl, who took home the Gold to repeat his triumph from Beijing, and he has medalled at every Parallel giant slalom Olympic event and if, as expected, this event doesn't return in 2030 Karl goes down as one of few athletes to always medal when their event has featured at the Olympic games.

Women's big air qualification:

The qualification for tomorrow's big air final took place with most of the big players making it through into what promises to be a very tight final, like the men's, with most of the 12 finalists within a chance. The main casualty was the 2021 big air world champion and 2022 Olympic slopestyle silver medalist Laurie Blouin, who ended up 14th after falling on her first run, so had to make sure she landed trick two and three and that wasnt enough to qualify, missing the final by 3.25 points. The finals look like a shootout between Zoe Sadowski Synott, Mia Brookes and the four-strong Japanese team.

Alpine Skiing

Women's Downhill: Triumph and Tragedy in Cortina

The women's event on February 8th was defined by a massive shift in the sport’s landscape. American Breezy Johnson secured the gold medal with a time of 1:36.10, holding off Germany’s Emma Aicher by a razor-thin margin of 0.04 seconds. Johnson, the reigning World Champion, delivered under immense pressure to claim her first Olympic gold.

The victory, however, was overshadowed by a horrific crash involving Lindsey Vonn. Competing at age 41 with a ruptured ACL sustained just nine days prior, Vonn clipped a gate only 13 seconds into her run and was eventually airlifted to a local hospital. This likely marks the final chapter for the most decorated woman in skiing history, who leaves the sport with 84 World Cup wins, three Olympic medals and nine world championship medals.

Sofia Goggia, the home favourite, managed to regroup after the 15-minute medical hold caused by Vonn's crash. Despite the disruption, she captured the bronze medal (+0.59), marking her third consecutive Olympic downhill medal.

Curling

Morning session:

Norway 3-6 Czechia: any chance Norway had to scrape into the semi-finals has now gone, with their fifth loss of these games against already eliminated Czechia will be disappointing. This win is a good experience for the young Czech pair, who will expect to be back for future games where they should be more competitive. But this loss and early exit could spell the end for Nedergrotten and Skaslien as Norway's Olympic pair after a deeply disappointing games.

Estonia 3-9 South Korea: Like Norway, this officially ends Estonia's slim chances of a medal, as they also suffered their fifth loss of the game, despite showing glimpses of brilliance in certain matches, especially against sweden they were simply too inconsistent end-to-end to compete for a medal. A second win in a row for the Koreans will be bittersweet, as if they'd shown this form earlier in the tournament, they could have been in the mix, but losing five in a row to start a tournament will never be enough to put you in medal contention.

Afternoon session:

Canada 6-7 Sweden: This was a hammer blow to Canada’s medal hopes, marking their fourth straight loss. Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant led into the late stages, but the Swedish siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wranå turned the game in the 7th end with a massive 3-point score. Despite having the hammer in the 8th, Canada could only manage a single point. This result lifts Sweden to a 5-3 record, which currently has them in 4th place and firmly in the playoff hunt, while Canada drops to 3-4, needing to win both their remaining games and get some help as they don't have the tiebreaker with Sweden or the USA above them, so they need a three-way breaker or a 2 way with Italy at 5-4 to have a chance at the top four.

Great Britain 6-7 Switzerland: In a high-stakes encounter, Switzerland simply had to win. Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann delivered a clinical performance to hand Team GB their first defeat of the Games. The British duo of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat entered the session with a flawless 7-0 record but were immediately put on the back foot as the Swiss built a commanding four-point lead through the first three ends. While the Brits mounted a resilient second-half comeback to snatch a one-point lead heading into the eighth, the Swiss held their nerve with the hammer to score two and secure the 7-6 victory. This result moves Switzerland to 4-3, keeping them in fifth place and firmly in the hunt for the 6-3 finish likely required to leapfrog Sweden for a semi-final berth. For the Brits, the loss is a minor blemish on an otherwise perfect campaign that has already guaranteed them a spot in the final four.

USA 5-3 Estonia: The Americans got back on track following a shaky Saturday, grinding out a low-scoring defensive victory. Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin kept the house clean, limiting the Estonians to single points and forcing errors in the middle ends. For Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill, this was their sixth loss, confirming that despite their high-profile win over Canada earlier in the week, they will not be advancing. The USA moves to 5-2, tying them for second place in the standings, meaning 1-1 in their final two games all but assures their progression.

Italy 8-2 Czechia: The defending gold medalists looked back to their dominant best in a shortened match. Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner blew the game open early with a 4-point score in the first end, followed by clinical steals that left the Czechs with no path back. The Italians shook hands after just six ends, moving to 5-2 and essentially securing their spot in the semi-finals. For Czechia, this loss drops them to 2-6, ending any mathematical chance of progression.

Evening session:

Canada 5-9 South Korea: In a stunning collapse, Canada has been eliminated from medal contention following a 5-9 defeat to South Korea, marking their fifth consecutive loss after a promising 3-0 start to the tournament. While the Canadians faltered under pressure, the Koreans continued their late-season surge, winning their third straight game after an 0-5 start to prove they are far better than their early record suggested.

Norway 6-3 Switzerland: Norway played the role of spoiler with a 6-3 victory over Switzerland, a result that officially ends the Swiss Olympic campaign. Despite Switzerland being the only team to defeat Great Britain in the round robin, their failure to beat an already eliminated Norwegian side proved fatal; they lost the head-to-head tiebreaker with Sweden, meaning they cannot reach the top four regardless of their final game.

Italy 6-9 Great Britain: GB secured the top seed in the round robin with a 9-6 win over Italy, though the scoreline doesn't tell the whole story of a competitive battle that served as a potential playoff preview. While the British look formidable at the top of the table, the Italians showed enough grit to remain confident heading into their seeding game against the USA, which will determine whether they face a rematch with GB or take on the Americans in the semi-finals.

Sweden 7-8 USA: The USA edged out Sweden 8-7 in a thriller that highlighted just how thin the margins are between the podium contenders. The victory keeps the Americans in the hunt for a higher seed heading into their crucial clash with Italy, while Sweden, despite the narrow loss, is officially safe from elimination thanks to their earlier victory over Switzerland and can now focus entirely on their upcoming knockout match against either the USA or Great Britain.

Cross-country skiing

Men's 10km + 10km skiathlon: 1/6 for Klaebo

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is a sixth of the way to replicating what he did at last year's world championships by winning all six events he competes in, as he claimed Norway's second gold of the games. Despite only winning by two seconds from Mathis Desloges in silver, this one was never really in doubt as Klæbo employed his usual tactic of trusting his sprint and absolutely destroying the rest of the lead group on the final climb, allowing him to coast down the final straight ahead of Desloges and Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, who took bronze just ahead of Savelii Korostelev and Hugo Lapalus in fourth and fifth. Harald Østberg Amundsen, a pre-event favourite for a medal, got tangled with Korostelev on the first lap of the freestyle leg and fell, ultimately never recovering and having to settle for 6th.

Leg two of Klæbo's quest for six gold medals is on Tuesday, as he is the overwhelming favourite for the Men's sprint classic.

Luge

Men's singles:

In a masterclass of speed and precision, Germany's Max Langenhan captured the gold medal in the men's singles luge at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, finishing with a dominant total time of 3:31.191 after four near-flawless runs. Despite battling a debilitating stiff neck that nearly forced him to withdraw on the first morning of competition, Langenhan managed to set four consecutive track records, eventually securing one of the largest winning margins in the history of the event. Austria's Jonas Mueller claimed the silver medal with a time of 3:31.787, while home-crowd favourite Dominik Fischnaller of Italy earned his second consecutive Olympic bronze by clocking in at 3:32.125. Pre-event favourite and Luge legend Felix Loch finished 6th in what was likely the final Luge event of his career. This victory further solidifies Germany’s historic stranglehold on the sport, marking their twelfth gold medal in seventeen Olympic men’s luge competitions and proving that even a physical setback couldn't slow down the reigning world champion.

Biathlon

4x6km Mixed relay:

The French Biathlon juggernaut rolled on, reclaiming its Gold medal from 2018 after Norway took it in Beijing with the French quartet of Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon-Maillet, Lou Jeanmonnot and Julia Simon. Only Fillon Maillet had any difficulty on the range, missing five, but crucially, he avoided the penalty loop and handed over to the dominant French women only 25 seconds behind and Jeanmonnot and Simon missed one between them to comfortably claim the gold ahead of Italy, whose men missed too many targets handing over to the women at the same time as France and although Weirer and Vittozzi shot well they couldnt match the French ski speed over the last two legs but Vittozzi did well enough to see off the Germans and Norweigans on the final shoot who both missed targets and ended up on the penalty loop after the final loop but Kirkeide missed five out of eight so had two penalty and Preuss only missed four meaning she coasted in to claim the bronze for Germany after the other contenders like Sweden and Switzerland missed too many targets early on to feature after the first leg.

Speed skating

Men's 5000m:

The men's 5000m took place in the Milano speed skating stadium, and it saw a second Olympic record in as many days, broken this time by Sander Eitrem of Norway, who set 6:03.95 to absolutely shatter the old record by 4.89 seconds. Metodej Jilek of Czechia took the silver and was also faster than the previous Olympic record. While the battle for Bronze was very tight, with two Italians only 0.35 apart, it was the most unfancied of the three Italians in the race, Riccardo Lorello, who edged Davide Ghiotto to claim the Bronze. Lorello is only ranked 16th in the world, so him claiming a medal is a major shock. Casey Dawson, former silver medalist at this distance, Ted-Jan Bloemen and Timothy Loubinead will be the most disappointed given their strong performances this season in finishing 8th, 13th and 5th respectively.

Figure skating

Team Event:

The final three segments of the figure skating team event showcased a fierce battle for the podium, beginning with the Pairs Free Skating, where Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan took the top spot with a score of 155.55. They were followed by Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava in second, while the Italian pair of Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii edged out the Americans for third. In the Women’s Free Skating, Kaori Sakamoto continued Japan's strong run by finishing first with 148.62 points, ahead of Georgia's Anastasiia Gubanova and Amber Glenn who was very dissapointed with her performance formance which led the scores tied heading into the Men’s Free Skating, and the presumed showdown between Ilia Malinin and Shun Sato took place in the men's singles in a straight shootout for the gold, where Malinin delivered for the USA by dropping a powerhouse performance to score 200.03 and take first place despite a fall on a triple axel. Shun Sato put down a season's best of 194.86, while Italy’s Matteo Rizzo thrilled the home crowd by finishing third with 179.62 to put to bed any Georgian resistance and secure Italy's first-ever medal in the team figure skating event.

Ice Hockey

Sweden 4-0 France: Sweden marched confidently into the Olympic women’s ice hockey quarter-finals with a clinical shutout of newcomer France at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena. The Damkronorna effectively ended the contest in a dominant period with tournament scoring leader Thea Johansson opening the floodgates just four minutes in, followed by a power-play tally from Sara Hjalmarsson and a clinical finish by Hanna Thuvik. Lisa Johansson added a fourth early in the second period to cap the scoring, allowing the Swedes to shift into cruise control behind a 14-save shutout performance from goaltender Emma Söderberg. While French goaltender Alice Philbert was spectacular under fire, making 45 saves to keep the scoreline respectable, the loss officially eliminates France from playoff contention and keeps Sweden perfect at 3-0 atop Group B heading into their final preliminary clash with Japan.

Medal table

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Norway	3	1	2	6
2	Italy	1	2	5	8
3	Austria	1	2	0	3
4	Germany	1	1	1	3
4	Japan	1	1	1	3
6	Czechia	1	1	0	2
6	France	1	1	0	2
6	Sweden	1	1	0	2
9	Switzerland	1	0	0	1
9	USA	1	0	0	1

After day 1, Norway had no medals today; they returned to their usual position atop the winter Olympics medal table