Saturday, February 14, 2026

Happy Valentine's from Italy!

Find someone who loves you as much as NBC loves Marco Odermatt.   

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• Let's wash away the memories of last night's events by starting out tonight on the mountain with the Men's Giant Slalom. First up is Lucas Pinheiro Braathen from Brazil. BRAZIL? Yes, Brazil. In the last Olympics he represented Norway, but now he's in South America. Why? I don't know. NIL money I guess. He entered the country portal.
• Next up, A.L. McGrath who is from Vermont and is representing Norway. Does anyone ski for a country they're from?
• This afternoon in Men's Hockey, the US beat Denmark 6-3. That was live this afternoon. I watched it. Go USA!
• Back on the mountain for the world's greatest skier who can't seem to win a gold medal, Switzerland's Marco Odermatt. This is just the first of two runs, but he's almost a second off the lead and he's only the fifth skier down.
• At number 15, River Radamus from the US is ready to go. He should win for his mustache alone. His Selleck-like abilities don't help him that much, because he finishes almost two-and-a-half seconds back.
• Stanley Tucci is in Verona talking about Romeo and Juliet for Valentine's Day. You can find a courtyard with a statue of Romeo looking up at a balcony. You can take a selfie there. Admit it, you're already planning your vacation, aren't you? Stanley Tucci is a heck of a salesman.
• Leigh Diffey is back calling the Skeleton races at – say it with me – THE HOUSE OF SPEED! First up for the US is Mystique Ro. Wow! The drone shot on this event is aMAZing! If you think the downhill looks fast, wait until you see the drone twisting through the skeleton track. Mystique is in first! American Kelly Curtis follows her. Now she's in first. But the Americans were early. Lots of Germans and Austrians follow and they're all fast. Austria, gold. Germany, silver and bronze. Curtis 12th and Ro 15th.
• Snoop is with the US Women's Mogul team. Grandpa Snoop gives them some advice. Stay together and do what got you here! Not groundbreaking, but they seem to like it.
• Back at the Men's Giant Slalom for round two. NBC pulls out the special effects, overlaying Pinheiro Braathen with Odermatt to show why Odermatt was slower. That's impossible! He's the best skier in the world (unproven)!
• River Radamus is here for his second run. Ted Ligety says he needs to throw down a flaming run. Woudn't that melt the snow? I'm being too literal. But maybe he was right. Radamus is currently eighth.
• There's a connection between the Italian mountains and the US Army. Soldiers trained in Colorado to prepare for the Italian Alps in World War II. When they returned, two of them set up ski resorts in Aspen and Vail. So to all you richies in those Colorado resorts, thank the Army!
• Here comes Odermatt again. Can he live up to the promises of NBC's announcers? Well, yes, maybe. He's in first for now, but Pinheiro Braathen is next. And Brazil gets gold! Pinheiro Braathen beats the best skier in the world (unproven) by over half a second. And in doing so, he is now the first South American athlete EVER to win an Olympic gold medal. He's interviewed by Heather Cox afterwards who asked him what he said to his dad right after the race. "Nothing. We just cried." NBC also has footage of the Brazilian announcers excitement as he crossed the finish line.
• Around the Games! Traitor Eileen Gu has qualified for the finals in Big Air. Figure skating… nothing happened but practice. And of course NBC showed us some practice footage. In Men's Curling, the US defeated Germany to advance. Women's Hockey: Canada beat Germany, advancing to the semifinal and bringing us one step closer to a US-Canada grudge match final.
• A brand new sport, Women's Dual Moguls. It looks just like the other mogul race, but now you're directly racing a competitor in the lane next to you. But not really directly, since there are still judges scoring each of the racers' jumps. Jaelin Kauf and Liz Lemley of the US advance to the finals.
• Back on the big track for the Men's 500M Speed Skating, the "fastest event on ice." Jordan Stolz is the favorite in this event having won the 1000M earlier in this Olympics, but the man he beat, Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands is also here and wanting the win.
• Stolz fluff! Jordan is so popular that the Dutch have a nickname for him, "The Firejet." He still trains in his home on a weight rack he built out of 2x4s. He likes to push himself until he's exhausted. Me too, Jordan. You know how hard it is writing this blog every day? I have to sit on my couch for hours. I'm spent!
• We're not to Jordan yet, but Canada's Laurent Dubreuil has just set an Olympic record, so if Stolz wants to win, he'll have to break it.
• He's up now, racing against de Boo. Wow! Both of them break the Olympic record, but Stolz outsteps de Boo and wins by a tenth of a second. Four skaters left and Stolz is in the lead. None of them are even close. The Firejet wins gold! Stolz is the first American since Eric Heiden, present in the audience tonight, to win two gold medals in one Olympics.
• And speaking of Heiden, let's meet him! He and Jordan get together after the medal ceremony and we even get some footage of Heiden racing – outside! – at Lake Placid.
• Back to the Women's Dual Moguls and disaster! American Jaelin Kauf was racing France's Perrine Laffont, when Laffont missed a gate. So, race over, right? But then Kauf crashed. Had Laffont stopped as soon as she missed the gate and got back on the course, she could have actually won. But since she was too far down the hill, Kauf was able to get up and finish, winning the heat.
• The last match is Liz Lemley and Australia's Jakara Anthony. Oooo… Liz crashes and loses a ski after her last jump, so Anthony moves on. Lemley is going to ski for bronze.
• Lemley is still banged up. Will she actually ski for bronze or is she hurt? She's going! It's her versus Laffont. Laffont finishes first, but are her jumps as good? Beats me. I don't know how you could award a slower skier a win, but I also don't know the rules. And it's confirmed I don't know the rules, because Lemley wins by a point. Go figure.
• For the gold, it's Kauf versus Anthony. Kauf is slower and I don't think her jumps were as good, but again, what do I know? This time I do know something. Anthony wins gold and Kauf is silver.
• How about some Short Track Speed Skating? It's the Men's 1500M final. There are no Americans in this race, but there are nine racers. NINE! So there will probably be some collisions. I'm betting five will finish, four will crash. One! Three crashes to go. Two-three-four! I might have underestimated. Nope. Four it is! Man, I love this sport.
• Women's Cross-Country skiing hijinx. In the 4 x 7.5km relay, a Swede lost her ski binding and blew her lead, which means what? Did Sweden fall of the podium? Of course not. They still finished second, between the teams from Norway (first) and Finland (third). This is my shocked face.
• Colin Jost is here. And by here I mean Lake Placid. So neither here nor there. He's telling some jokes about riding in a two-man bobsled with a professional driver. He's never been so terrified. And he loves Johannes Klaebo's hair. I'm glad we spent three minutes on this.   
• Jordan Stolz Facetimes with Mike Tirico. I'm not exactly sure why they couldn't bring him into the studio, given that he's right there in Milan, but whatever. I guess NBC wants the "raw footage" look.
• But it's time again to see if Jordan will sing at his medal ceremony. He didn't last time. Has he learned the words since then? Nope! There are a few times where he looks like he's about to sing, but he doesn't. Better luck next time, Jordan!

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How many races does Marco Odermatt have to lose before he becomes something other than the "best skier in the world?" I don't know, but I think we can all agree that Jordan Stolz is rapidly approaching "best skater in the world" status. In a few days he might cement that. See you tomorrow!

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