An Olympiholic's journal: Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games

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: