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!

Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games - Olympic Day 10 (Cortina)

February 16

Today, we have back-to-back curling events starting with women's curling at 9 AM. We were not sure what time to leave for the event and based our 7 AM departure time on how long it took us to make it through security at the sliding center, which seems to be about the same distance from where we are staying. We end up getting to the stadium so early that they haven't opened the doors when we arrive! But this gives Steve a chance to go into the Olympic store and buy a few more pins. In the meantime, Beth is having a nice conversation with a volunteer who is from Melbourne, Australia. Beth tells her that Australia is one of the few places in the world where we would be comfortable living if we had to leave California and that we would see her before the next curling session.

Today, we only have three matches: Sweden vs Switzerland, China vs Canada and Denmark vs Great Britain. The sheet closest to us is empty. The stands are also almost empty:

Sweden is currently leading in the preliminaries with a 4-0 record, while Switzerland is 3-1, Denmark is 3-2, China is 2-2, and Canada and Great Britain are both amazingly 1-3. They were expected to do much better! While we are waiting for things to start, Steve thinks that one of the Swiss coaches looks very familiar:

The woman in the middle is Mirajam Ott. She is a four-time Olympian (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014) and won silver medals in both Salt Lake City and Turino, becoming the first curler to win two medals. In 2006, we were staying in the town of Pinerolo, which was also the site of the curling stadium. In those days, it was not unusual to run into Olympians during dinner. One evening at dinner, we noticed that the Swiss team was having dinner at a nearby table. Sean (at Steve's urging) went over to give Mirajam an Olympic pin but was too scared to stay to get one in return. She laughed and waved Sean and Steve back over and gave us their team pin. She is now the assistant coach for the Swiss team.

While both Canada and Great Britain are both 1-3, they immediately show that they are not going to go away easily. Great Britain gets out to a 2-0 lead in the first end and goes on to route Denmark 7-2. China was up 2-0 on Canada after 3 ends (like innings in baseball), but Canada gets 4 points in the 4th end and cruises from there to win 10-5. The only close game was Switzerland vs Sweden. The score was tied 3-3 after 5 ends, but Sweden scored 3 points in the last 5 ends and edges Switzerland 6-4 to stay undefeated. Here are some pictures from these matches:

We were not sure what was going to happen when the event ended at around noon. We really did not want to go all the way out of the venue and have to go back through security again. By the way, the security in Cortina is way more thorough than in Milano. They have checked the focal length of Steve's camera lens every day while no one in Milano ever gave it a thought. Steve kidded with the security guard that in Rio, he was allowed to bring in a 300 mm lens, then in PyeongChang a 200 mm lens was okay and now, it has to be less than 200 mm. At this rate, he'll only be able to use an iPhone in the next Olympics!

Fortunately, the organizers had considered the possibility of people having tickets to successive sessions and had a place where we could stand for the 30 minutes or so that it took for security to make sure that the venue was cleared before allowing the next group in. Unfortunately, there was no one in this group that was interested in trading pins.

When we are allowed back into the venue, we stop outside the arena for lunch and choose the hot Alpine sandwiches after to checking to see that they are composed of speck (a type of ham), mushrooms and cheese. They key feature is that they are warm!

Back inside, we get to see all of the things that they do to get the ice surfaces ready. First, this guy (who we think is the head ice official) comes out:

Curling ice surfaces have tiny bumps all over them called pebbles, so this guy is the pebbler! The key ability of this guy is to be able to shuffle backward across the ice surface at a more or less constant speed so that the density of pebbles is constant. After the pebbler comes a machine that looks like a hand-operated Zamboni. It has a blade in the front that chops off the tops of any pebbles that are above a certain height. Third comes a guy pulling a wooden rack consisting of all eight curling stones of one color. Honestly, we are not sure whether this is for the benefit of the stones or the ice. Finally, a guy comes with something like a large, wide floor mop that is designed to remove any ice residue left after the first three steps.

We should also mention the purpose of the pebbles. Some people compare curling to the Italian sport of bocce, in that you are trying to get as many of your stones as close to the target as possible. The difference is that you have 2-3 people who are changing the speed and direction of the stone while it is moving. This is where the pebbles come in. If you scrape the pebbles away in front of the stone, it will go faster and further than if you don't sweep. If you sweep to one side of the path, the stone will turn in that direction. In addition, if you try to throw a stone along a path that has already been heavily swept, then you will have a very difficult time getting it to curl (curve).

Our second session is a men's event featuring Norway vs Great Britain, Canada vs Czechia, Germany vs Sweden and China vs Italy. Going into today's matches, Canada is 4-1, Great Britain is 4-2, Norway and Italy are 3-2, Germany is 2-3, Sweden is 1-4 and China and Czechia are 0-5. It is really shocking that Sweden is 1-4 given that their skip, Niklas Edin, is one of the best curlers in the world and competing in his 5th Olympics. He already has gold, silver and bronze medals from his first four Olympics.

You may have heard that there has been controversy in curling. In the first match, the Swedish third, Oskar Eriksson and the Canadian third, Marc Kennedy got into a yelling match over the Canadians allegedly double touching their stones. This means that the person throwing the stone touches the stone again after letting go of the handle. If done with force, this can improve the trajectory of the stone. If lightly touched, it makes no difference (a curling stone weighs 42 lbs). In reality, the stone and the thrower are both sliding along the ice at nearly the same speed so that the time when the thrower's hand is close to the stone is long. The rules say that double touching is illegal and the person throwing the stone should call a penalty on himself and take the stone out of play. Edin had been concerned that curling was not self-regulating this problem and decided to make this point. In the end, calling it out seems to have taken Edin's focus away from actually playing the game which could explain Sweden's position near the bottom of the standings.

As it turned out, three of the four matches were blow-outs. Canada beat Czechia 8-2, China beat Italy 11-4 and Germany beat Edin and Sweden 7-3. All three losing teams conceded before the full 10 ends were completed leaving Norway and Great Britain alone on the ice. The game was down to the 10th end with the score tied 6-6 and Norway having the hammer (last throw - a huge advantage). The Great Britain skip, Bruce Mouat, did all he could to make it hard for the Norwegians to score, but the final throw from the Norwegian skip, Magnus Ramsfjell, was good for one point and a 7-6 win. Here are some pictures from these matches:

Walking back from the curling venue, Steve was starting to feel a little like he was back in Nagano where everyone wanted his autograph or photo. Today, two little kids bowed down in the "we are not worthy" pose after seeing all of pins on Steve's vest and hat. A good number of people also ask for pictures. It is really a weird situation for an introvert! At least a good number of people are getting into pins and want to trade.

We still had leftover pizza from the previous night, so we had a quiet night at home and Steve worked on the blog. Tomorrow, we are back at curling for men's curling. Enjoy!