Win Gold. Celebrate Carefully.
Day 5: It's a Big Day for the Olympic Medals
Today is the biggest medal haul of the games so far, with 8 Golds up for grabs, so I had already been planning to talk about the the Milan Cortina 2026 medals. As you would expect of Italian craftsmanship, they feature an elegantly simple design of two contrasting halves representing “the union of two parts in constant motion,” and the two host cities. And soaring metal prices mean that these medals are more valuable than ever, though a Bronze one is actually copper and only worth about $5.
And then the medals started breaking - literally and in the news. As medalists donned their trophies and jumped for joy, their medals began snapping off their ribbons. Word quickly spread, “Don’t jump in them.” That’s right, the loftiest symbol of athletic achievement is too fragile to wear while celebrating that achievement.
Fortunately, the problem is not going unaddressed. An unnamed source (for real!) says the culprit may be the legally-mandated breakaway cords - safety features that prevent someone from becoming tangled and choking on a necklace. Regardless of the cause, officials are taking the issue seriously. No less than Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for the Milan Cortina Organizing Committee, said “obviously we are paying maximum attention to this matter…, because we really consider it to be the most important moment.”
What To Watch Today
(All times Eastern. Full event replays available on-demand on Peacock)
Team USA goes for it’s first ever Mixed Doubles Curling Gold Medal. The Quad God begins his quest for individual Gold in Men’s Single Figure Skating. USA vs Canada is a battle of titans in Women’s Ice Hockey.
4:30 am - Alpine Skiing: Women’s Team Combined Downhill 🇺🇸
4:30 am - Short Track Speed Skating: Women’s 500m Heats 🇺🇸
5:08 am - Short Track Speed Skating: Men’s 1000m Heats 🇺🇸
5:53 am - Short Track Speed Skating: Mixed Team Relay 🥇 🇺🇸
6:30 am - Freestyle Skiing: Men’s Freeski Slopestyle Finals 🥇 🇺🇸
7:13 am - Cross-Country Skiing: Men’s & Women’s Sprint Finals 🥇
7:30 am - Biathlon: Men’s 20km Individual 🥇 🇺🇸
8:05 am - Curling: Mixed Doubles Bronze Medal Match - GB vs ITA 🥇
11:00 am - Luge: Women’s Singles Runs 3&4 🥇 🇺🇸
12:05 pm - Curling: Mixed Doubles Gold Medal Match - SWE vs USA 🥇 🇺🇸
12:30 pm - Figure Skating: Men’s Single - Short Program 🇺🇸
12:45 pm - Ski Jumping: Mixed Team 🥇
2:10 pm - Ice Hockey: Women’s Prelim. Round - USA vs CAN 🇺🇸
3:00 pm - Alpine Skiing: Women’s Team Combined Slalom 🥇 🇺🇸
🥇 = Medal Event
🇺🇸 = Team USA
In Other Olympic News…
A ski jumper with a fear of heights won gold.
What do the athletes think of all the camera drones buzzing around?
Lindsey Vonn has a complex tibia fracture that will require multiple surgeries.
TV ratings are up big for Milan 2026 from Beijing 2022.
Photos of the Day
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I’m having a really tough time finding hope in something like the Olympics. I’m left wondering how immigrants & the non-fascists felt during the 1936 Olympics where multiple fascist countries were allowed to compete while they actively were in the middle of harming & killing ppl. I think of all the buckets of money being spent for these “games” & reminded of the Gladiator events in Rome where the people were starving & barely surviving and were given a “circus” to take their minds off their hungry bellies & abject suffering. This current Olympics cost approx $4.2 billion. That’s JUST the cost for Italy. Not each country sending athletes over. What can 4.2 billion do? Well it could build 42,000 homes at $100,000 each. We could be helping 42,000 families have their first homes ever. Instead, we waste it on circuses, ballrooms, secret police abductions of our neighbors, & making the rich MORE rich. So, yea. I’m not feeling the Olympics this yr bc I’m finally seeing how we continue to allow the rich to pull the wool over our eyes while we can’t even afford the wool & have to put our own blinders on credit.