Monday, February 16, 2026

Bad performance? Shake it off. Shake it off.

What does Life of a Showgirl have to do with the Olympics? It made you look!

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• U-S-A! U-S-A! The US Women's Hockey team has people so excited that they're wearing eagle-head masks in the crowd. Today they beat Sweden 5-0 to advance to the final against… dum-dum-dummmm, Canada! That game is on Thursday.
• Mike Tirico is promising us drama at the Men's Slalom. Does that mean a US medal or a spectacular crash? Up to the mountains we go to find out!
• After the first run there are no Americans in the top 7, so it's probably not a US medal. The first skier we see it Tanguy Nef of Switzerland. Tanguy. There's a name I've never heard before. He's the first one we see, so naturally he's in first for now. The next guy makes it through about three gates before he skis over a gate and is out.
• Henrik Kirstofferson of Norway is next and he's your new leader. How about Armand Marchant from Belgium, a country that has never won an alpine Olympic medal. Never? That almost seems impossible, doesn't it? He finishes in second for now, but the fast skiers are following him. Norway's Timon Haugan follows. Now he's second and Marchant falls to third. Belgium's hopes hang by a thread. Up next, Austria's Fabio Gstrein. He has too many consonants in his last name and too much speed for the competition. He moves into first and Belgium, once again, gets nothing.
• Switzerland's Loic Meillard is next and now HE takes over the lead. Maybe this is the drama Mike was talking about. No lead is safe! Last up, Atle Lie McGrath of Norway, whose grandfather died during the Opening Ceremonies. Oh no! He missed a gate! And he is ANGRY! He stops in the middle of the run, hurls his ski poles over the fence, then hops the other fence walks off the course. He flops down next to the outer fence and just lies there, pondering. In his post-race interview, he was clearly disappointed having blown his lead. I don’t know if that was necessarily dramatic, but it was something I hadn’t seen before.
• The US women's figure skaters watch some home video of themselves as children. Yeah, yeah, yeah… I have seen this fluff before. Nothing new here.
• But now it's time for the Pairs Free Skate. Representing the US, it's Emily Chan and Spencer Howe. Ooo… Chan goes down. Not a good start. The rest of their routine is good, but they started out ninth and probably won't move up much. They're currently in first, but don't expect that to last.
• The next Americans are Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea. Oof. Kam stumbles on one jump then falls on her next two. It's too bad, because they have a lot of interesting moves, but three falls isn't going to get it done.
• Japan has never won a medal in pairs skating, says Terry, as Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara take the ice. They were pre-competition favorites, but had a bad day yesterday. But remember, second through ninth place were close, so they still have a medal opportunity. They were really good, and by "really good" I mean "no falls." They should move way up the leaderboard. And they do! The gap between second and third is five points. The gap between them in first place and second place is 23 points. So the other pairs will have a high bar to clear.
• Colin Jost is here from Lake Placid riding the two-man bobsled. He was not prepared. It's basically a minute-long video of him screaming. Looks fun!
• The HOUSE OF SPEED! Tonight it's the final two runs of the Women's Monobob. Or, for us, just the final run. There are three Americans who have medal potential. The first up is Kaysha Love, currently fifth. Oof. She slid sideways a couple of times and only moves up to third. That probably won't be good enough to medal.
• Next up is three-time gold medalist Kaillie Humphries. She started in third. Can she hold it? Just by the lack of weaving, you can see how much better of a driver she is than the previous racers. She's in first! Not bad for a 40-year-old.
• Elana Meyers Taylor, it's time for your fluff! She has two deaf children, so she had to learn how to sign to be able to communicate with them. Her kids try on her medals from Beijing as they play with Mom. So cute!
• Now it's time for her to race. Can she finally do well enough to win gold? Maybe! She finishes just ahead of Humphries, so now the US is one-two with just one racer left. Her kids are there with her. I don't know that they really get what's going on, but they should be proud.
• Last racer! Laura Nolte of Germany. She's sloppy on the upper track. I think Humphries bumped the wall once all the way down, Nolte has hit it at least five times. And it costs her! Taylor gets gold and Nolte has to settle for silver, losing by four-hundredths of a second. And Taylor is SOOOO excited in her post-race interview. She thanks her husband, her kids, even her nanny. Not bad for a 41-year-old.
• Let's eat with Stanley Tucci! He journeys to the Hotel Menardi, where he eats beet root pasta with the owner of the hotel. I can't say that beets ever sound appealing, but Stanley seems to like them.
• Around the Games! Megan Oldham of Canada wins gold in Big Air. What you want more results? Fine. Traitor Eileen Gu gets second. In Women's Hockey, Canada wins, so they move on to face the US in the final.
• Taylor Swift is here to introduce the US women's figure skaters. Team Rockwood daughter Sara is all about this. The three ladies, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, and Isabeau Levito call themselves the Blade Angels . Isabeau's grandmother lives in Milan, 13 minutes from the rink. Is this just a blatant tie-in to get Swifties to watch the Olympics, just like Travis Kelce got them to watch the NFL? C'mon. You know NBC loves the players and you love the game! Anyway, you can click on the link if you really want to see the video. Swifties probably have the whole thing memorized already.
• Back to figure skating. Who's going to catch Miura and Kihara? Not Hungary's Pavlova and Sviatchenko. What about Canada's Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud? Nope, they both fall, and we all know falls are bad.
• Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava from Georgia are the second to last skaters. Ooo… not a fall, but a stumble. Will that cost them? Terry says Georgia has never won a medal in the Winter Olympics in any sport, so even if it costs them gold, they could still get into medal contention, which would be significant for them. And they move into second, which guarantees them a medal.
• Last up, the big leaders, Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin from Germany. But nothing is inevitable, right Terry? Ooo… a stumble, a pulled jump… will that cost them the gold? Tara thinks it will. They still look really good to me, though. This will be close. Tara doesn't think so. She thinks they'll fall to bronze. Tara was right! Third place. So Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who were so distraught yesterday, are the gold medal winners today. Ryuichi is a sobbing mess, but Riku's has a blank expression on her face, almost like she can’t process she just won gold.
• It's time for some fast skating at the Women's 1000M Short Track final. There are no Americans in this race so we're just watching for crashes. I mean appreciation! We're watching for appreciation of the speed and athleticism of the skaters. Yeah, that' s it.
• Snoop time! Team Rockwood daughter Sara asks, "Is Snoop Dogg blind? He's always wearing sunglasses." Uh, no. But Snoop likes short track speed skating and he loves that when the Dutch short track coach is happy that he jumps up on the wall . Snoop likes the American fans at the hockey games, whether they’re shirtless with USA on their chests, or posing in their underwear. This segment is kind of lame. It's just Snoop cheering at various events. But then he and Mike try broccoli juice, which athletes drink after competitions to fight lactic acid buildup. I'm a big no on anything related to broccoli, but both Mike and Snoop say it's not bad.
• Mike talks to Elana Meyers Taylor. She's still speechless. How has parenting two deaf children helped her be a better bobsled driver? Because it gives her some perspective, and she's excited that her kids were there for her victory.
• And now her medal ceremony. Will she sing? Yes! Singing, smiling, and soaking in the celebration. And her husband is signing to their kids that that's mommy up there. Awesome. Elana Meyers Taylor is my favorite Olympian for today!

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What have we learned this year in figure skating? Don't count anyone out, even if you think it's inevitable. And what have we learned in bobsled? Moms are driven! And what have we learned about skiers? Skiers are weird. Why would you just walk off the course like that? Odd, but yet, entertaining. So let's see what weird things we get tomorrow when all the big money (women's figure skating) starts up. See you then!

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