Saturday, February 21, 2026

Slip sliding away.

We're nearing our destination and the snow and ice are friendly to some and unfriendly to others.

---

• Women's Biathlon kicks us off today. It's a 12.5 km mass start race. You ski, then you shoot. No Americans made it anywhere near the medal podium, so NBC showed us a quick highlight just to prove they were there.
• How about we stay with cross-country skiing? It's Norway's Johannes Klaebo is trying to go six for six in gold medals this Olympics. All he has to do is win the Men's 50km Mass Start race. If he wins, he'll pass Eric Heiden's record of five gold medals in a single Winter Olympics. We join in progress as Klaebo skis with two other Norwegians, and no one else is even in the picture.
• Klaebo fluff! He has a great relationship with his grandfather. Grandpa gave him his first pair of skis when he was two, and now he's Johannes' coach. Grandpa, an engineer by trade, has basically made Johannes his engineering project, tracking everything about his training. Johannes calls his grandfather his secret weapon. This is fluff, but it's actually insightful.
• Back on the course, now Klaebo is only with one other Norwegian skier because the second one couldn't keep up. The announcers add that when he's done with this race, he will have skied over 50 miles in the last week. This race has been going on for two hours even though we've only been watching for a few minutes. Klaebo is in second place right now, immediately behind Martin Nyenget. Is he just toying with him? They come to a hill and they're right beside each other, checking each other out, waiting for the other to make a move. It might come down to the home stretch. Oh! And here it is! The last big hill and Klaebo takes off running up the hill again. What is it with this guy? He was neck-and-neck 30 seconds ago, and now he's so far ahead that Nyenget is barely in the picture. Klaebo wins gold. Again.
• NBC does a recap of Stanley Tucci's eating. That's it. No new foods, just quick clips of all the stuff he's already eaten.
• Back at the speed skating rink for a new sport, the Men's Mass Start. Fourteen skaters race 16 laps. The top eight advance to the final. It's basically a really big version of short track speed skating. Jordan Stolz is in this race, so will everyone be gunning for him? It's a long race, so no one can break out to early or the whole pack will hunt him down. Ohhh… I didn't understand this correctly. The race is 16 laps, but it's broken into 4-lap segments, and if you win a segment you get points (3 for the winner, 2 for second, 1 for third). The eight skaters with the most points advance to the final. Stolz wins the first segment, so he has three already, and six points guarantees you a spot in the final. He lays out in segment two, but pushes in segment three and now he has five points. That will probably be enough to get him to the finals. He might not have to risk anything in this last segment. He's barely trying and still finishes fifth overall, fourth in points. I guess the final lap must be worth more points.
• In semi-final two, American Ethan Cepuran will be trying for his second medal of the Games. I would expect more of the same here, where skaters just jockey for position but don't really go all out because they're trying to qualify for the final later today but not use too much energy to get it. This sport has a similar vibe to track cycling, where you can't just race as fast as you want at the beginning because you'll run out of gas and get passed at the end. Cepuran gets one point after segment two, but he's in the back pack after segment three and needs to pick up his pace to make the final. Ohhhh… ninth place. He just missed it.
• Coming up tomorrow! US vs. Canada for the Men's Hockey gold medal. We need to bring out the big guns. Herb Brooks! Well, it's Kurt Russell, the guy who played Herb Brooks in "Miracle," narrating a preview of tomorrow morning's match. It's been 46 years since the 1980 Miracle on Ice, and the US hasn't won gold since. NBC interviews Canada coach Jon Cooper. Will Sidney Crosby skate tomorrow? He doesn't say. They'll evaluate him later. Sure… he's playing! We know he's playing! Stop trying to bluff us, Cooper! Let's Facetime Mike Sullivan, the US head coach and see what he says. Sullivan also talks in coach-speak. "We'll learn about ourselves." Whatever, Coach. Punch them in the neck! Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it!
• TO THE HOUSE OF SPEED! Leigh Diffey talks us through the third and fourth heats of the Two-Woman Bobsled.
• Kaillie Humphries gets some bobsled fluff. Awwww… she has a baby. So cute! Well, he's not a baby anymore, he's almost two. But since his birth she's had to rebuild herself to Olympic shape. She even takes him to the gym and training with her. She hopes he realizes through her training that he can do anything. Well, he's not even two, so I don't know how much of her current training will stick, but it's the thought that counts. Fluff!
• To the bobsled track. Humphries is a great driver, but she's still behind leader Laura Nolte of Germany. Not too far behind, though. She's currently in third and still has a great shot at a medal.
• Next up: Kaysha Love's sled. She's good but not great. She's fifth, but less than a second behind the leader. Elana Meyers Taylor is up now, but she had a rough run yesterday and is starting from 12th place. She'll need a miracle run to get back in contention. Wow. Currently sixth! Good job, Elana!
• Back to the mountains for Mixed Team Aerial freestyle skiing. This final is for the gold, and it's Team China versus Team USA. Lots of jumping and flipping here, but all I know is if someone sticks the landing or not. The first American up is Kaila Kuhn. She sticks the landing. That works for me, does it work for the judges? Good, but not better than the Chinese jumper. Next up, Wang Xindi of China who OUCH! Crashes his landing. Connor Curran follows him and now knows that just not crashing should put the US ahead. And he does (not crash)! And they do (take the lead)! The US leads by 25 points with the last two skiers to go. That should be enough to win. As long as they can stick the landing.
• China's Li Tianma goes first. He'll need a big score to pass the US. OUCH! That was a spectacular crash. He lost his skis and tumbled head over feet twice. The door is wide open for the US.
• Christopher Lillis is ready. Stick it and you win, Chris! And he nails it! Technically they still need to wait for the scores, but unless the East German judge screws them over, this match is decided. Gold for Team USA.
• And now for the final run of the Two-Woman Bobsled. Elana goes first. She crosses in second place, but there are way too many sleds left to go for that to be good enough. Kaysha goes next. And SHE has a great run. She moves to the top of the leaderboard and guarantees herself a minimum fifth place finish.
• Last up for the US, Kaillie Humphries. If she gets the lead here she's guaranteed a bronze. And she does! Just two sleds left to go, and she and Jasmine Jones are in first place. But the two German sleds that follow her both make fast runs, so Humphries and Jones have to settle for bronze. They still look happy, though.
• Time for the Event of the Night, the final of the Men's Mass Start speed skating. Jordan Stolz is the only American in this race, and this distance is unusual for him. He normally races shorter distances, so this will be a test of his endurance. Stolz is starting out in front, but with no US teammate to go with him, he's got to use some strategy here. Unlike the semi-final heats, where points were important, the only thing that determines medals in this heat are the final positions, so there's no incentive to burn yourself out quickly. I expected this event to have more collisions in it, sort of like short track, but there is a lot more jockeying for position here without attacking. Halfway through the race, two skaters have pulled way out in front of the other 14, but no one seems to be making a move to catch the runaway pair. With five laps to go, the big group in the back needs to make a move or they're all going to be racing for bronze. Three laps to go! Stolz is starting to pick up the pace, but is it too late? Two laps to go! The Netherlands Jorrit Bergsma is all by himself for gold. Denmark's Viktor Hald Thorup is all by himself for silver. The rest of the pack is competing for third! Stolz is charging but just misses out and finishes fourth to Italy's Andrea Giovannini in bronze.
• Mia Manganello is representing the US in the Women's Mass Start race. Hopefully she watched what happened in the men's race so she doesn't repeat those mistakes. Fortunately for her, she has an American teammate in Greta Myers, so maybe they can work together on a breakaway. I like the idea of this event, but it's too long. At 16 laps, there's way too much waiting for someone else to make a move. If it was shorter there would be more attacking. Or maybe there should be a 16-lap version and an 8-lap version. I don't know. But as long as this is taking I have a lot of time to think about it. With six laps to go, all the women are in one big pack. It's like nothing has happened over the last 10 laps. Three laps to go and there are 13 racers in contention. Finally in the last lap they race! Greta gives Mia a push to get her into position and Manganello outraces most of the pack and gets bronze. In her postrace interview, she's very grateful to Greta, her family, her coaches, her teammates… everyone! She's getting a little teary, but in a good way.
• And now it's time for some major league fluff, the Figure Skating Gala. Is it ads? No. Is it an event? Also no. So the only other choice is fluff.
• First up, Amber Glenn, dancing to "That's Life." An ironic choice given what happened to her this year. But she looks great and skates great. Maybe she can get the Olympic committee to retroactively apply this to her score so she can medal.
• Chock and Bates are next, burning a mannequin of the French judge in effigy. Ha ha ha ha… no, of course they aren't. Instead, they're dancing with a big, white sheet, signifying how the French judge has surrendered his impartiality. They, of course, look fantastic, like a pair of skaters that should win a gold medal.
• The return of the Quad God! Ilia Malinin is up next. He's traded his Road Warrior outfit for a hoodie, and now he's doing ice interpretive dance. There aren't as many quads in this show as there were in his Olympic routine, but there is lots of scowling.
• Alysa Liu hits the ice to, Johnny says, share her heart. Surprise! The reigning gold medal winner looks ecstatic on the ice.
• Medal ceremony time! This time for the Americans who won the Mixed Team Aerial freestyle skiing. Are they singing? No. But their parents in the crowd are. Wait! Kaila Kuhn starts singing about halfway through. Way to go, Kaila!

---

Not a good night for fluff, but we can blame that on the skaters. But a good night for the skiers. We can credit that to China's bad luck. But the big game is coming up in the morning! Go USA! See you tomorrow!

Back to home