Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games - Olympic Day 14 (Cortina)

We are just finishing our two days in Venice after the Olympics as we start on this blog post. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day as we leave Venice at 11:30 AM and fly to London (90-minute flight) followed by an 11.5 hr flight from London to San Francisco arriving at around 6:30 PM on the same day. Steve pays British Airways an exorbanant price for WiFi so that he could complete the entry before arriving in San Francisco. We hope that you enjoy it!

February 20

Today, we have the first two runs of the women's two-woman bobsleigh. We are typically not jingoistic when it comes to the Olympics and if anything, we have a preference of having unexpected teams win medals. Unlike the monobob a couple of days ago when the USA surprisingly took the gold and bronze medals, today we expect close to a sweep of medals by the German team. Why is there a difference? The main one is that in monobob, every team uses exactly the same sleds with exactly the same runners, so it comes down to the skills of the individual drivers. In all other bobsleigh races, each team provides their own equipment and it is basically a technology arms race. This gives the German team a huge advantage, because, as a member of the British team explained to us, Germany spends more money just on bobsleigh research and development than the British team spends on all of their winter sports combined!

Now that we know that the best place to get pictures (without a climb up to the top of the track which neither of us is up for) is on the big 360-degree Kreisel turn at the bottom of the course, we walk over and say buongiorno (good morning) to the OBS (Olympic Broadcast System) cameraman we first "met" during women's skeleton. We know that his requirements for an unobstructed view are what allows us to have an unobstructed view as well. We are just staking out our position next to the cameraman when a couple of women from Florida come up and ask us if this is a good spot to watch the race. We tell them that they have come to the right place! We are here quite early, and several people come up and ask to take pictures of Steve's pin outfit or to take selfies with him. Such is the life of an Olympic celebrity! A couple more come up and ask if they can have a pin which gives Steve an opportunity to keep emptying his pocket with giveaway pins.

The start order in the first run goes in order of world ranking so the current world champion Laura Nolte from Germany goes first, sets a start record and recorded a time of 56.97 seconds, breaking her own track record set last November. Her top speed on the track, close to where we are standing, is slightly less than 80 mph. Second up is Canadian turned American and two-time Olympic champion, Kaillie Armbruster Humphries. Kaillie just turned 40 so no matter how good her brakewoman is, she doesn't have a start time that can compare with Nolte's 5.09 seconds. Kaillie's start is 5.17 seconds. Conventional logic is that a tenth of a second at the start translates to three tenths of a second at the bottom, so Kaillie should finish up about 0.24 seconds behind Nolte. But this doesn't take into account how good a bobsleigh pilot Kaillie is. She sets the track record with a time of 56.92 seconds!

The rest of the first run goes pretty much according to the world rankings. Lisa Buckwitz of Germany is in 3rd place, Kim Kalicki of German is in 4th followed by two Americans, 41-year-old Elana Meyers Taylor and 28-year old and former push athlete turned driver Kaysha Love.

One of the reasons that Steve, in particular, loves the sliding sports is the challenge of getting a decent picture while standing a few feet from a track where athletes are flying by at 80 mph. In the "olden times" when people used film, Steve would have to wait until 2-3 weeks after the Olympics to find out if he even got any pictures with a bobsled in it - with bonus points if the sled was in focus (autofocus was not a thing then either). Now, it is like shooting ducks in a barrel. Steve's Nikon Z6iii has continuous autofocus and can shoot 20 frames a second. If he needs a shorter exposure time to freeze the sled in place, he can just crank up the ISO of the camera; then all he has to do is point the camera where he wants the picture and push the button when he hears the sled coming. Sure, he may have to erase 10 or 11 photos of empty track to get one with a bobsled, but that takes only a few seconds. Here are some of his pictures from the first run:

There is about a 45-minute wait between the end of the first run and the start of the second. We want to keep our position, so we just hang out. Steve trades a few pins and gives away a couple, but there doesn't seem to be much interest today other than from gawkers. Just before the start of the 2nd run, a guy with photo accreditations comes up, stops in front of us and asks if he can take a picture of Steve's pin outfit. Afterwards he asks Steve for his name to get his release to use the photo commercially. Then he goes over and talks to the OBS guy in Italian. It looks like he's asking if it is okay for him to stand here. Steve notices that unlike most of the Olympic photographers who use Canon equipment, this guy has a Nikon camera with a 400mm f2.8 lens - that's a $14,000 lens that, by itself, weights more than 8 lbs. His accent sounds like he is from New York, but when Steve asks him where he is from, he says France. We're not sure if he is putting us on or not. He takes a picture of one of the forerunners while Steve is doing the same. He asks to see Steve's image - and it is exactly the same except that Steve's bobsled is very small in the frame while in the photographer's picture, the sled fills the frame. Apparently, this was proof to him that Steve knew what he was doing and he was quite pleasant to us while he took pictures through most of the 2nd run.

Unfortunately for the American bobsledders, the 2nd run was much more like what we expected. Nolte, Buckwitz and Kalicki go 1-2-3 with Armbruster Humphries 4th and Kaysha Love 5th. Meyers Taylor made a major mistake at the top of the course (where you absolutely cannot make a mistake) and ends up with only the 21st best time in the 2nd run. Here are some of Steve's pictures from the 2nd run:

It is a little past 9 PM when the event gets over. We had a good-sized lunch because we knew that were not going to feel like eating after the event and then try to go straight to bed - and we need to get some sleep because our event tomorrow is the men's 4-man bobsleigh at 10 AM so an early start is required on our last full day in Cortina. We head for our room and munch on a couple of cookies before going to bed.

Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games - Olympic Day 13 (Cortina)

 February 19

After more than two weeks of winter-free Winter Olympics, we woke up to this:

Cortina looks quite nice in 6-8" of new snow! Steve went out to go out pin trading, but after about 10 min, his vest and hat were so covered with snow that no one could see his pins. Beth took several loads of laundry to the local laundry (no laundromats here - real people do the laundry!) so that we have some clean clothes to wear by the end of our trip. After these trips, we decide to stay in for the rest of the morning so Steve could blog.

We've got 7:00 PM tickets to the men's curling semifinals so we decide to try to get a fairly large lunch and then have something light for dinner at the curling venue. But before lunch, Steve has an errand to run. He has been texting back and forth with Yoon (the woman we met in the pizzeria several days ago) about when would be a good time to meet. She wants to give Steve some pins from her husband who works for the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland. We agree to meet just after noon in front of the big red 26 (as in 2026) that is right in front of the Olympic cauldron. After a bit, Yoon arrives with her son, who is more than happy to play in the snow while waiting for his mother. Here is a picture of the IOC pins:

along with four pins from one of the IOC sponsors. We really like the symbolism behind each of the pins. It was very kind of Yoon and her husband to go to this trouble to deliver them to Steve. We ask what her husband does for the IOC. She tells us that originally he came to Switzerland to represent Korea with the International Ice Hockey Federation but later transferred to the IOC. She tells us to please let her know if we are ever in Switzerland and that she will continue reading our blog. Another great memory to add to our Olympic experiences!

The snow had finally tapered off when it was time to head back to the curling venue. One of the security guards shows Steve that she is still wearing the pin that he gave her three days ago. We are surprised that the venue has not been completely cleared of spectators from the prior session by the time that we arrive, and they tell us that the match will be delayed about 30 minutes. It is not clear what caused the delay, but it does appear that a lot of people from the previous session went out to get dinner from the concession stands after the match.

Once we are allowed into the venue, we each get another mountain sandwich and decide this time that we will eat it indoors. It is easy to find our seats because they are exactly the same as the day before.

For the first time at this Olympics, they've got a group of pipers who bring the four semifinalist teams into the stadium. This used to happen at every curling match, but maybe the organizers decided that this showed too much favoritism to the Scots. But we think it is a nice touch.

The two matches are the #2 seed Great Britain versus the #3 seed Switzerland and the #1 seed Canada versus the #4 seed Norway. It is shocking to us how many empty seats there are for a playoff game - maybe as much as 50% of the stands are empty. The good news is that most of the fans who are here are hard core:

We are not sure what the reason for the empty seats are. Tickets are pricy - an A level ticket for this match is 100 euros. In addition, it isn't easy to get to Cortina and staying in Cortina is almost prohibitively expensive. Finally, we don't think that the Italian population knows much about curling and is therefore unwilling to spend a lot of money on tickets. If this were a soccer match, it would be another story!

Since we are mostly in the Scottish section (we are sure that there are English curling fans, but we haven't run into any!), we learn that they have a whole series of cheers taking popular songs and inserting a player's name into it. For example, for the Team GB skip, Bruce Mouat, they have taken the song from the movie Madagascar and come up with "We like to Mouat, Mouat". While the pipers who came into the stadium have left, we learn later that a Scottish supporter has managed to sneak his bagpipe into the stadium in a pram (baby carriage) and he is playing during stoppages in play halfway up one of the stairways to the upper-level seats to avoid being kicked out. We wonder if this is the same piper who was playing "Scotland the Brave" outside the venue when we left curling the other day.

Overall, the shot-making is first class. Most of the ends are really complicated with a lot of stones in play. No one led by more than 2 points at any time in the match until Great Britain forced Switzerland into a really risky shot and took 2 points to win 8-5. The Canada vs Norway match was even closer. This match went to extra ends after Norway got 2 points in the 10th to tie the score at 4 each. Canada had the hammer in the extra end and managed to get 1 point to win 5-4 setting up a Canada-Great Britain final for the gold medal. Here are some pictures from these matches:

This was our first late night in Cortina, and it was cool to see the place lighted up (the first photo is Italy house):

Now, it is time to get to bed as we have women's two-person bobsleigh tomorrow at 10 AM. Enjoy!

Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games - Olympic Day 12 (Cortina)

Our apologies. It is now February 22nd and we are in Venice getting ready to watch the closing ceremonies. Despite our best efforts to keep up with the blog, our schedule just didn't let us post in real-time. We hope that you will still find it interesting.

February 18

We made a command decision today. This morning, Steve went out to try to find someone who knew how to get from Cortina to Anterselva for biathlon on February 21st. He asked two different transportation volunteers and a person at the Cortina information center and got three different answers. We came to the conclusion that if it was this sketchy to get to Anterselva, there was a good chance that we would get stranded once we got there. So instead of Biathlon on Saturday, we are going to see the first two runs of the men's 4-man bobsleigh instead. While it is unlikely that our biathlon tickets will sell, seeing bobsleigh has the advantage of starting at 10 AM which means that we have the whole afternoon to pack instead of seeing Biathlon at 2:30 PM and then having to spend at least an hour to get back to Cortina.

Today, we are seeing curling for the 3rd day in a row - and that means seeing the stands full of people from Great Britain. Actually, to be specific, the stands are full of people from Scotland, the home of curling. We are sitting next to the wife, two children and it looks like parents of Team GB 3rd Grant Hardie. This is a good place to point out that it is not just the athletes that have to dedicate years of their lives in the pursuit of making the Olympics. Their whole families have to make these sacrifices as well, which is why so many of them are at the Olympics.

Today, we have Canada and Italy directly in front of us, Czechia vs China next to them, Switzerland vs Norway on the 3rd sheet and Great Britain vs USA on the far sheet:

Going into today's matches, Switzerland is 7-0, Canada is 6-1, Italy and Norway are 4-3, Great Britain and the USA are 4-4, China is 2-5 and Czechia is 1-6. All of the Team GB people around us are on pins and needles because they are currently middle-of-the-pack and only the top 4 teams make it to the semifinals.

While the stadium is not full, there are a lot of Italian fans present:

It seems like everyone else is happy to root against the Canadians, who have somehow become the villains due to the double-touch controversy. This must be shocking to Canada as they have a well-earned reputation for being a kind and tolerant people. To make matters worse, Canada called out Italy for inadvertently kicking a stone while sweeping one of their own and the stone was removed. The Italian fans, most of whom know nothing about curling, were incensed, thinking that those terrible Canadians had somehow cheated them. It did not get better for the Italians as the Canadians just kept making shots and both the Italian skip and his 3rd lost their cool. One threw a shoe-cover into the coach's bench and the other kicked a stone into the bumpers at the end the ice surface that it flipped over. Canada ended up winning 8-3 after Italy conceded after the 7th end.

The other matches were routs as well. Czechia beat China 10-5 in 9 ends, Switzerland beat Norway 10-4 in 8 ends and Great Britain, much to the relief of the people around us, beat the USA 9-2 in 6 ends. These were great results for Great Britain because they moved ahead of both the USA and Norway and now have a much better chance of making the semifinals. On the other hand, this was a really bad result for the USA who now have little chance of qualifying for the semifinals. Here are some pictures from today's event:

It is about 5:30 PM when we get back to the Olympic plaza and we're hungry. This has been our problem since we arrived in Italy. We tend to eat dinner around 6 PM, but Italians eat much later. In fact, most restaurants don't even open until 7 PM. This leaves us with pizzerias and trattorias, or we can eat aperitivos at bars. The bars are usually packed so we are happy to find a pizzeria. Beth is able to get a plate of raviolis and Steve has a pizza with a kind of Italian sausage and mushrooms. 

We attempted to have gelato for dessert, but the only gelatteria that we could find told us that they only sell ice cream in the summer! Outrageous! This is quite a letdown after having four gelatterias on the little street in Milano where our hotel was located - and we managed to try each one of them multiple times!

Disappointed, we head back to the room to work on the blog and catch up with the Olympic highlights. One note about watching the Olympics on Italian TV - they are just like NBC in the US. We see endless highlights of Lollobrigida winning one of her gold medals while some sports are hardly covered at all. Fortunately, the International Olympic Committee website has very good result pages - we can even follow results in real-time making it much easier to have an idea of what is going on around the Games.

Tomorrow, we are back for our final curling event: the men's semifinals. Enjoy!