What to watch on Day 16 of the Winter Olympics: Men’s hockey final, Eileen Gu in postponed halfpipe
The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics closing ceremony.
Well, this is it. The Milan Cortina Olympics wrap up Sunday with five events, all of which determine gold medals, followed by the closing ceremony.
In addition to the elation and disappointment that are inherent to the highest level of international competition, the 2026 Olympics had their own distinctive moments. Among them: a dog loping down the homestretch during the women’s cross-country skiing team sprint qualifying, the biathlete who confessed on television to cheating on his girlfriend and a skier who walked off into the woods after missing a gate on his final run.
Here are Sunday’s highlights:
Top events to watch
Ice hockey: United States vs. Canada in men’s gold medal game
Times: 8:10 a.m. ET, 2:10 p.m. in Italy
TV: Peacock
Not much to mention that hasn’t already been written. The women’s hockey gold medal game between these same two nations had the largest U.S. TV audience for a women’s hockey game on record, with an average of 5.3 million viewers. The men’s game? Probably safe to expect a number topping the 9.3 million who watched the 4 Nations final last year.
Canada will again be without defenseman Josh Morrissey. Captain Sidney Crosby, injured in the quarterfinals, hadn’t been ruled out as of Saturday afternoon.
Eileen Gu seeks to repeat as gold medalist in freestyle skiing halfpipe. (Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images)
Freestyle skiing: Women’s halfpipe
Times: 4:40 a.m. ET, 10:40 a.m. in Italy
TV: Peacock
What to watch for: Snow in Livigno led to the postponement of the final scheduled for Saturday night.
Eileen Gu, the 22-year-old who was born in San Francisco, attends Stanford and competes for China, is the defending gold medalist and qualified fifth for the final. Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin is the top qualifier.
Gu took silver in slopestyle and big air and is seeking to medal in all three freestyle skiing events for the second successive Olympics.
Cross-country skiing: Women’s 50-kilometer mass start classic
Times: 4 a.m. ET, 10 a.m. in Italy
TV: Peacock
What to watch for: This is the first time women will compete in the Olympics at 50km — a staple distance for the men — in support of making the 2026 Games what the International Olympic Committee has called “the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history.”
Fifty kilometers converts to a little more than 31 miles, which is longer than a marathon (26.2 miles). Based on results from 50km classic World Cup races, the top finishers in Tesero, Italy, are expected to take a little more than two hours and 10 minutes to complete the race.
The race will be the final Olympic appearance for the United States’ Jessie Diggins, who earned silver in 2022 in the 30km freestyle, which was the longest women’s race at the time. Diggins earned bronze in the 10km this month, the fourth Olympic medal of her career.
Sweden’s Ebba Andersson (two individual silvers in these Games) is among the favorites. Her teammate Frida Karlsson (two individual golds) withdrew due to illness.
Bobsled: Four-man, Heats 3 & 4
Times: Heat 3: 4 a.m. ET, 10 a.m. in Italy; Heat 4: 6:15 a.m. ET, 12:15 p.m. in Italy
TV: Peacock
What to watch for: German teams have the three fastest combined times through two heats. Germany has claimed gold and silver in each of the last two Olympics and won the event at every Olympics from 1994 to 2006.
The top U.S. team through two heats is ninth, a full second behind the leader.
Curling: Sweden vs. Switzerland in women’s gold medal game
Times: 5:05 a.m. ET, 11:05 a.m. in Italy
TV: Peacock
What to watch for: Sweden will collect its sixth consecutive Olympic medal and is hunting for its fourth gold in the last six Olympics.
Switzerland, runner-up at the 2025 world championships, is seeking its first gold medal in an event that has been an official part of the Winter Olympics schedule since 1998. The Swiss are in the Olympic women’s final for the first time since 2006, when they lost to Sweden.
Closing ceremony
Times: 2:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 p.m. in Italy
TV: Peacock
What to watch for: The Verona Arena, a Roman amphitheater dating to the first century A.D. and built for gladiator battles, has been renamed the Verona Olympic Arena and will host the closing ceremony. Verona, known as the City of Love, is between Milan and Cortina.
The arena will also be the site of the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Paralympic Games in March.
The next Winter Olympics, in 2030, will be held in the French Alps.
