The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics are in full swing, and Friday will be another massive day in Italy:
Team USA faces Slovakia in men’s hockey semifinal (3:10 p.m. ET)
Both the United States and Canada are one win away from the matchup ice hockey fans have been anticipating since the Winter Olympics began. Canada plays Finland in the first semifinal at 10:40 a.m. ET and the U.S. takes the ice versus Slovakia in the late game.
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Slovakia went 2-1 in group play and advanced to the semifinal with a 6-2 win over Germany in the quarters. After going 3-0 in the preliminaries, Team USA had a tougher path to Friday’s game, grinding out a 2-1 overtime win versus Sweden. The winners here advance to Sunday’s gold medal final.
U.S. women’s curling plays Switzerland in semifinal (8:05 a.m. ET)
After finishing 6-3 in round-robin play, the U.S. advanced to the medal round for the first time in women’s curling. Team Peterson now has an opportunity for a spot on the podium by making it to the tournament semifinals. Switzerland also went 6-3 in the round-robin session.
The winner advances to Sunday’s gold medal game. The loser will play for bronze on Saturday.
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Brittany Bowe races final event, seeks gold in long track speed skating (10:30 a.m. ET)
After missing the podium in the 1,000 meters long track competition, Team USA’s Brittany Bowe has another opportunity to medal in the 1,500. (She previously earned bronze medals in team pursuit at PyeongChang and the 1,000 meter in Beijing.) At 37, this will likely be her final Olympic event.
If Bowe wins gold, that will cap off what has already been a memorable Milan Cortina Games. She got engaged to U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight before Thursday’s gold medal matchup, which Team USA won 2-1 in overtime. The two could both leave Milan with gold medals, in addition to their engagement.
Kristen Santos-Griswold chases gold in short track speed skating (2:15 p.m. ET)
In the women’s 1,500 meters, American Kristen Santos-Griswold pursues her first gold medal in her second Winter Olympics. (She finished short of the podium in heartbreaking fashion at the 2022 Beijing Games.) Her final chance at a medal in Milan Cortina comes in what is arguably her best event.
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How many medals has Team USA won so far? Check in with our medal tracker for the full breakdown.
Dates: Feb. 6 – Feb. 22
TV channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for all the news, events and medals from the Milan Cortina Olympics:
Live333 updates
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 7:06 AM PST
Chris Cwik
The Americans have some work to do against Switzerland late. Team USA is down 5-3 in the ninth end.
The Americans need to make progress now, as they hold the hammer in the ninth end. A trip to the gold-medal game is on the line, so Team USA will need to step up its game now if it wants to play for gold.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 6:50 AM PST
Sean Leahy
The American skiing legend has undergone multiple surgeries on her fractured leg, which she suffered just seconds into her downhill race after clipping a gate with her shoulder.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 6:48 AM PST
Sean Leahy
A similar ending to the seventh end as the sixth with Alina Paetz knocking the lone U.S. rock from the house for a second straight scoreless end.
Switzerland remains on top 4-3 with three ends left to play.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 20: Alina Paetz and Carole Howald of Team Switzerland compete during the Women’s semi-final match between Team United States and Team Switzerland on day fourteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on February 20, 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
(Richard Heathcote via Getty Images)Fri, February 20, 2026 at 6:34 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Alina Paetz cleared the U.S. rock from the house to keep the Americans from tying the match at four.
Switzerland will keep the hammer as we move to the seventh end.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 6:26 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Sidney Crosby will not be available for Canada’s Friday Olympic semifinal game against Finland after suffering a lower-body injury during the team’s quarterfinal victory over Czechia, Hockey Canada announced.
Connor McDavid will act as Canada’s captain as international rules require teams to feature a playing captain.
The 38-year-old, two-time Olympic gold medalist left in the second period after being hit along the boards by Czechia’s Martin Nečas and Radko Gudas. It was the third big hit Crosby took in the period after Gudas and Ondřej Palát connected on checks with the Team Canada captain.
Crosby recovered and took a stride following the Gudas and Nečas hit and was seen shaking his right leg before exiting the ice. After being attended to on Canada’s bench, Crosby limped down the tunnel to the locker room. He was ruled out for the remainder of the game early in the third period.
The game would need overtime and Mitch Marner’s goal after 82 seconds of 3-on-3 play booked Canada a spot in Friday’s semifinals with a 4-3 victory.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 18: Captain, Sidney Crosby #87 of Team Canada injures himself as result of the charge of Radko Dugas #3 of Team Czech during the Ice Hockey Men’s Play-off Quarterfinals match between Team Canada and Team Czech Republic on day twelve of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 18, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Xavier Laine/Getty Images)
(Xavier Laine via Getty Images)
Si
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 6:17 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Through five ends, Switzerland holds a 4-3 lead over the U.S. Despite grabbing a two in the fourth end, the Swiss can’t shake the Americans, who have kept the match tight and stayed in the hunt.
In the other semifinal, Canada and Sweden and tied at two after four ends. The winners of today’s matches will meet for gold on Sunday. The losers will play for bronze on Saturday.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 6:00 AM PST
Sean Leahy
The U.S. saw their last shot knock out a Swiss stone, but roll out of the house. That set up Paetz to deliver two points for the lead after four ends.
USA’s Cory Thiesse competes in the curling women’s round robin semi-final between USA and Switzerland during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo on February 20, 2026. (Photo by Stefano RELLANDINI / AFP via Getty Images)
(STEFANO RELLANDINI via Getty Images)Fri, February 20, 2026 at 5:44 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Skip Tabitha Peterson continues to deliver for the U.S. She grabbed a point in the third end to even the score at two.
So far through three ends having the hammer has been the key to getting at least a point on the board.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 5:39 AM PST
Jeff Eisenberg
Thirty-three times, the gold-medal-winning U.S. women found the back of the net over the course of seven consecutive victories in Milan. Thirty-three times, American crowds responded by pumping fists, waving flags, chanting U-S-A and dancing or mimicking playing the guitar in their seats, though the song was barely audible above the din after Megan Keller’s overtime goal lifted the U.S. to gold over Canada.
“Free Bird” has been the soundtrack to 18 goals from the U.S. men, including Quinn Hughes’ overtime game winner against Sweden on Wednesday night. The American men will have the chance to cue up “Free Bird” a few more times when they face Slovakia in the semifinals on Friday night in Milan.
“This is all player-driven,” USA Hockey manager of communications Melissa Katz said. “After how much it caught on during the [World Junior Championships], it was a no brainer to keep the momentum rolling with that goal song. From our under-18 teams to our Olympic teams, they’ve embraced ‘Free Bird’ over the last year.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 19: Megan Keller #5 of United States, Goalie Aerin Frankel #31 of United States and Hayley Scamurra #16 of United States pose for a photo with their gold medal during the Women’s Gold Medal match between United States and Canada on day thirteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 19, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by RvS.Media/Monika Majer/Getty
(RvS.Media/Monika Majer via Getty Images)Fri, February 20, 2026 at 5:37 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Knight is a two-time gold medalist with the women’s hockey team. Bates has two gold medals in team ice dancing.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 5:32 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Alina Paetz, on the final throw of the end, delivered a two for the Swiss, who now go ahead as went move to the third end.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 5:22 AM PST
Sean Leahy
A good start for the team of Tabitha Peterson, Cory Thiesse, Tara Peterson, and Taylor Anderson-Heide.
Holding the hammer, Tabitha Peterson, Thursday’s hero against the Swiss, delivered a one to take an early lead.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 5:06 AM PST
Sean Leahy
In a rematch of Thursday’s dramatic round-robin finale, the American women will look to boo a place in the gold-medal match for the first time since the sport entered the Olympic program in 1998.
Team USA entered Thursday with a simple task: Win, and you’re in. With a victory over Switzerland, the United States would guarantee itself a spot in the playoffs.
In the end, it wasn’t that simple, but Team USA secured its spot in the semifinals with a narrow 7-6 win over Switzerland that came down to a clutch hammer from Tabitha Peterson in an extra end. After giving up three points in the 10th end and missing on some early shots in the extra end, Peterson needed an expertly placed shot with the hammer to send the U.S. to the semifinals.
It nearly came down to a measurement, but Peterson did it. Team USA picked up the walk-off win to advance.
Canada and Sweden face off in the other women’s curling semifinal.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 4:42 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Christopher Lillis, Derek Krueger and Connor Curran will all go for gold.
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 4:05 AM PST
Sean Leahy
Thu, February 19, 2026 at 9:58 PM PST
Thu, February 19, 2026 at 8:34 PM PST
Dan Wolken
The undeniably cool part of ski mountaineering’s Olympic debut here Thursday was the visual spectacle. If you’re going to add a fairly ridiculous, counterintuitive sport to the Winter Games — why would anyone trek up a hill on skis in 2026 when Robert Winterhalder gave us the ski lift in 1908? — you might as well do it in the thickest, whitest, nastiest snowstorm Northern Italy has seen all month.
“We love winter, so I’m here for it,” said 26-year-old American Anna Gibson, who was almost certainly the happiest ninth-place finisher in any event at the entire Olympics.
BORMIO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 19: Johanna Hiemer of Team Austria, Marianne Fatton of Team Switzerland, Marianna Jagercikova of Team Slovakia and Margot Ravinel of Team France compete during heat 2 of the Ski Mountaineering Women’s Sprint on day thirteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Stelvio Alpine Skiing Centre on February 19, 2026 in Bormio, Italy. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Christian Petersen via Getty Images)
Gibson was here for it, and so were a couple thousand fans who packed the grandstand near the finish area and lined the sides of the course, many of them waving Swiss and French and even a few very wet Spanish flags. (Yes, Spain is almost a complete non-entity at the Winter Games but is oddly good at this event. There was even a Vamos! or two in the media center when Ana Alonso Rodriguez took bronze in the women’s sprint and Oriol Cardona Coll won gold in the men’s.)
As long as you didn’t care about getting soaked, and perhaps flash-frozen, watching these athletes go up the hill on skis lined with a traction-generating skin, navigate a few random obstacles and then ski back down, it seemed like a really good time. At least they got to see some action, unlike people who had tickets to postponed events like aerials or the freeski halfpipe qualifications on Thursday. What, you can’t ski off a ramp and do flips and twists 50 feet in the air because a little snow makes it too dangerous?
Ski mountaineering — skimo to the initiated — succumbs to no such wokeness.
Read the full story here.
Thu, February 19, 2026 at 7:02 PM PST
Jay Busbee
Amber Glenn rarely masks what she’s feeling on the ice. The reigning U.S. champion can’t help but let her emotions play out all over her face, whether elation or desolation. She’s probably a terrible poker player, but a magnetic presence as a skater.
Skating in Thursday’s free skate, starting from 13th position after a disastrous short program, Glenn strode toward the ice the moment her predecessor’s notes faded away. Wearing her Team USA warmup, she looped around the ice as the many United States fans in the crowd rose to their feet and waved American flags above her. And while her poise communicated confidence, her eyes looked more than a little nervous.
Still, she tamped down whatever anxieties were within. She handed her coach Damon Allen her jacket, clasped hands with him, and then skated to center ice. And then her music — a medley of “I Will Find You” by Audiomachine and “The Return” by CLANN — began, and there was no more time for second thoughts or anxieties.
The moment she landed her first jump — the triple axel, one that virtually no other female skater even attempts — the crowd at Assago Ice Skating Arena exploded in delirious joy, as if exhaling in relief. Glenn went on to skate a strong routine worthy of her skills. Not the routine of her life, not a perfect routine — “this close,” she said to herself over a slight bobble late in her program — but a redemptive one.
She finished with a free-skate score of 147.52 to give her a total of 214.91, good enough to claim the leader’s couch with 12 skaters left to go. And then she was left to wait to see if somehow, some way, it would be good enough to land her on the podium. It wasn’t, as a flawless Alysa Liu took gold with a score of 226.79 and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto (224.90) and Ami Nakai (219.16) won silver and bronze, respectively. Glenn finished in fifth place.
Read the full story here.
Thu, February 19, 2026 at 5:46 PM PST
With two golds (Alysa Liu and the women’s hockey team) and a silver (Jordan Stolz in the 1500m) on Thursday, the U.S. leapfrogged Italy to sit in second place with 27 medals, behind only Norway for total medals in these Olympic Games.