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Barring a surprise, Canada is unlikely to add to its seven medals (three silver, four bronze) on Day 7. But the Canadian men’s hockey team plays its second game, the women’s hockey playoffs begin, and Canada’s curlers are on the ice a total of three times. Plus, U.S. figure skating star Ilia Malinin goes for gold in the final round of the men’s event.
Here’s what to watch, in chronological order:
Curling: Three games for Canada, starting at 3:05 a.m. ET
After opening with an extra-end win over Germany on Wednesday and then having today off, skip Brad Jacobs’ Canadian men’s team will play a double-header on Friday. They face Daniel Casper’s United States (1-1) at 3:05 a.m. ET before taking on defending champion Sweden at 1:05 p.m. ET. Swedish skip Nik Edin has won three consecutive Olympic medals and a record seven world titles, but he’s in trouble at 0-2 after losses to Italy and world champion Bruce Mouat’s Great Britain, which tops the standings at 2-0.
Rachel Homan’s Canadian women’s team needed just seven ends to dispatch Denmark 10-4 in their opener today. Canada faces the U.S. (1-1) at 8:05 a.m. ET.
Snowboarding: Women’s snowboard cross (eliminations start at 7:30 a.m. ET)
If you caught the snowboard cross bug today while watching Canada’s Éliot Grondin take silver in that heart-pounding men’s final, you can tune in for more thrills and spills in the women’s event. The favourites are Italy’s Michela Moioli and Britain’s Charlotte Bankes, who won gold and silver at last year’s world championships.
Unfortunately, Canada lost its top athlete when 2022 Olympic bronze medallist Meryeta O’Dine broke her ankle in training last week. That leaves only Audrey McManiman, a 31-year-old with one career World Cup medal.
The competition begins at 4 a.m. ET with the first of two seeding runs. The elimination rounds start at 7:30 a.m. ET and culminate with the semifinals at 8:24 a.m. ET and final at 8:41 a.m. ET.
Speed skating: Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen in the men’s 10,000m at 10 a.m. ET
Bloemen won Olympic gold in speed skating’s longest event in 2018 and has reached the 10K podium four times at the world championships – most recently in 2024 in Calgary, where he took the silver. But the 39-year-old is a longshot for a medal here after placing sixth at last year’s worlds in Norway and finishing 13th in the Olympic 5,000m on Sunday.
Italy’s Davide Ghiotto has won three straight 10,000m world titles and is favoured to win the gold after missing the 5,000m podium by just 0.35 of a second. His rivals include Norway’s Sander Eitrem and Czechia’s Metoděj Jílek, the gold and silver medallist in the 5K.
Today on the oval, Canadian medal hopeful Isabelle Weidemann finished fifth in the women’s 5K. Italian star Francesca Lollobrigida won by a tenth of a second for her second gold of the Games.
Women’s hockey: Playoffs begin while Canada rests
The Canadian women shook off their disheartening 5-0 loss to the United States on Tuesday to beat Finland by the exact same score today and finish second in Group A with a record of 3-1. The Americans (4-0) won the group, and the archrivals remain very likely to meet in the gold-medal game for the seventh time in eight Olympics.
Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin sat out her second straight game due to the apparent knee injury she suffered on Monday against Czechia. Head coach Troy Ryan said Poulin “felt well” but “not good enough” to suit up for the basically meaningless game against Finland. “An extra couple days will do her justice,” Ryan said.
Canada will face Germany in the quarterfinals on Saturday. The Germans went 3-1 to finish second behind Sweden in the much weaker Group B.
The quarters start Friday with Czechia (third in Group A) facing Sweden at 10:40 a.m. ET and the U.S. vs. Italy (third in Group B) at 3:10 p.m. ET.
Here’s more on Canada’s outlook for the playoffs from CBC Sports’ Karissa Donkin.
Figure skating: Men’s final round at 1 p.m. ET
The man to beat is of course Ilia Malinin, the 21-year-old American superstar who has captured back-to-back world titles and has not lost a competition in more than two years. Malinin led the U.S. to victory in the team event on Sunday and will now try to secure his first individual Olympic gold after posting the top score in the short program on Tuesday.
Malinin has a healthy lead over 2022 silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan. Kagiyama has finished second at the world championships three times and was also the runner-up at this season’s Grand Prix Final, where Malinin landed an unprecedented seven quads to break his own world record for the highest free-skate score.
On Friday, will the Quad God upgrade to the Quint God? Malinin has teased that he might attempt a five-rotation jump, which has never been seen in competition.
Canada’s Stephen Gogolev sits in 10th place as he looks to put the finishing touches on an encouraging Olympic debut. The 21-year-old placed third and fourth in his two skates in the team event, helping Canada to a fifth-place finish.
Men’s hockey: Canada vs. Switzerland at 3:10 p.m. ET
Canada’s NHL stars looked fantastic in their opener today, dominating a middle-of-the-pack Czech team 5-0. Nineteen-year-old Macklin Celebrini put Canada on the board just before the end of the first period with a nifty tip-in of Cale Makar’s high point shot, and second-period goals by Mark Stone (off a beautiful saucer pass from Mitch Marner) and Bo Horvat pretty much put the game away.
Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki scored in the third period, Connor McDavid finished with three assists and captain Sidney Crosby had a pair of helpers. Jordan Binnington got the nod in net and silenced his doubters (at least for now) by making 26 saves for the shutout. Here’s more on big-game Binnington from CBC Sports contributor Chris Jones.
However, there was one concerning development as defenceman Josh Morrissey left the game in the second period with an apparent injury and did not return. If Morrissey is unable to play on Friday, Travis Sanheim, a healthy scratch today, would replace him on the blue-line.
Switzerland opened today with a 4-0 win over France, the weakest team in Group A. Timo Meier of the New Jersey Devils had a pair of goals for the Swiss, who also feature the Devils’ Nico Hischier, a 35-goal scorer last season, and longtime Nashville Predators defenceman Roman Josi.
Three other men’s hockey games are on tap tomorrow: Finland vs. Sweden at 6:10 a.m. ET, Italy vs. Slovakia at 6:10 a.m. ET and France vs. Czechia at 10:40 a.m. ET.
The United States, expected to meet Canada for the gold, opened with a 5-1 win over Latvia today as Brock Nelson scored twice and Brady Tkachuk (assisted by his brother Matthew), Tage Thompson and captain Auston Matthews also found the net. Germany beat Denmark 3-1 with a pair of goals by the Ottawa Senators’ Tim Stützle and one by the Edmonton Oilers Leon Draisaitl.
A few more things to know
A Korean teenager upset Chloe Kim for the women’s halfpipe gold.
South Korea’s 17-year-old Choi Gaon overcame a nasty spill to put down a big final run and dethrone Kim, the American star who was trying to become the first snowboarder ever to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the same event. Kim had a chance to top Choi but fell on her final attempt and ended up with the silver. “It’s all about passing the torch, so there’s no one else I would have rather stood next to on the podium than her,” said Kim, whose parents emigrated from South Korea to the U.S. “I’m so proud of her, and I’m so excited to see what she does next.”
Canada’s Elizabeth Hosking went down on all three of her runs and finished 11th in the 12-person final.
Italian alpine star Federica Brignone completed her comeback with a super-G gold.
Less than a year removed from breaking multiple bones in her left leg at the Italian championships, resulting in two surgeries and months of rehab, the reigning World Cup overall champion returned just in time to compete in her home Olympics and today won the women’s super-G title in Cortina D’Ampezzo. It’s the fourth Olympic medal and first gold for the 35-year-old.
Downhill champion Breezy Johnson of the U.S. lost her balance and slid into the safety netting but was able to walk away seemingly uninjured. Canada’s Val Grenier and Cassidy were both unable to complete the course.
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified over his banned helmet.
During training, Heraskevych was allowed to wear a customized helmet showing the faces of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed since Russia invaded the country in 2022. But officials asked him not to wear it in the official men’s competition, which began today, because the helmet violates the International Olympic Committee’s rules against “athlete expression” on the field of play.
Heraskevych, considered a medal contender, refused to comply, and IOC president Kirsty Coventry couldn’t change his mind during a private talk this morning at the sliding centre in Cortina that left Coventry, a former Olympic swimmer, in tears. As a result, Heraskevych was barred from racing.
“No one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging,” Coventry said. “The messaging is a powerful message. It’s a message of remembrance. It’s a message of memory and no one is disagreeing with that. The challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just the field of play.”
In his daily Olympic notebook, CBC Sports contributor Richard Deitsch writes that Heraskevych sacrificed his Olympic dream for a larger principle. Read it here.
How to watch the Olympics
Along with TV broadcasts on CBC and its partner networks Sportsnet and TSN, you can stream all of the action from the Milano-Cortina Games live and on demand exclusively on CBC Gem, via the app or your desktop web browser. That includes *Air Canada Olympic Winter Games Today* with host Ariel Helwani, airing every night at 8 p.m. ET.
For a full listing of what’s on each day, see the full CBC Olympic streaming schedule.
And be sure to visit CBC’s Milano-Cortina Olympics website for the latest news, in-depth features, schedules, highlights and more. You can personalize your Olympics feed to feature your favourite sports, and get daily emails with news and schedules related to your choices.
