2026 Winter Olympics live updates: Mikaela Shiffrin seeks to bounce back in women's giant slalom

Nick Page has a brutal draw in the round of 16, up against Japan's Ikuma Horishima, who won bronze in the standard moguls event earlier in the Games. Both of them press hard, both falling during their runs. But Page runs out of bounds, so he is disqualified. His Olympics are over.

We do have two Americans into the final eight, though. Charlie Mickel upset the gold medalist from the moguls, Cooper Woods — with the Australian bailing out of his final jump to hand Mickel the win. Dylan Walczyk is also through and faces Horishima in the quarterfinals.

The men's dual moguls are now underway, and after Jaelin Kauf and Liz Lemley medalled for Team USA in yesterday's women's event, there is hope that Nick Page, competing in his second Olympic Games, can claim a medal for the men.

Page is safely through the opening round, as is Canada's Mikael Kingsbury, widely considered to be the greatest moguls skier of all time. The Round of 16 is now underway.

Nick Page of Team USA competes in the men's dual moguls today. Hannah Peters / Getty Images

Dual moguls sees two skiers racing side-by-side down the course featuring two jumps and fields of bumps, known as moguls. While they are racing, being first down the course does not necessarily mean an athlete wins. A panel of seven judges evaluates skiers based on their technique in turning through the moguls, their aerial tricks and their speed down the course. Each judge focuses on one of those elements and has five points to award. The winner of each head-to-head advances through the bracket.

It was all looking incredibly tight at the top of the leaderboard in this first run. That was until reigning world champion Federica Brignone came along. She's posted a time of 1:03.23 to take over the leader's chair. She has gone 0.74 seconds faster than anyone else so far.

Federica Brignone crossing the finish line after her first run this morning. Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

Brignone is chasing her second medal of these Games having won gold in the super-G on Thursday. The home crowd favorite is coming back from tearing her ACL and suffering a double leg break in April last year, only returning to competition last month ahead of the Olympics.

The first seven skiers down the course this morning are the top ranked skiiers in the FIS World Cup, and there isn't much to pick between them after their first runs.

All seven are separated by less than half a second, with Sara Hector and Thea Louise Stjernesund sharing the lead, having both posted a time of 1:03.97.

Mikaela Shiffrin sits in third, 0.28 seconds behind. Austria's Julia Scheib has been dominant in giant slalom on the World Cup circuit ahead of these Games and came into today as the gold medal favorite. She is still very much in contention, sitting sixth so far, 0.39 seconds behind our leaders.

It's a solid first run from Mikaela Shiffrin — she is down the course in 1:04.25. That puts her 0.28 seconds behind our leaders so far.

Shiffrin competing this morning. Mattia Ozbot / Getty Images

Sweden's Sara Hector, the defending gold medalist in this event, and Thea Louise St Jernesund, of Norway, posted exactly the same time at 1:03.97, which currently tops our leaderboard.

The women's giant slalom on day nine. Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

Shiffrin was perhaps a little conservative on that first run, but it's a decent foundation to build upon when the medals are decided later on.

The women's giant slalom is about to get underway on the Stelvio in Cortina.

Mikaela Shiffrin will be one of the early runners as the third competitor down this morning's first run. Paula Moltzan, who won bronze in the team combined event earlier in the Games alongside Jackie Wiles, is another American to watch out for.

A reminder, this event sees each athlete take two runs, with the course modified for the second run, which is at 7:30 a.m. ET. The times from the first and second runs are combined to give each competitor their overall time.

Mikaela Shiffrin and the Olympic Games has not always been the smoothest of relationships.

There has been glory. Shiffrin won gold in her first two Olympics — in the slalom in Sochi in 2014 and in the giant slalom at PyeongChang 2018. But Beijing was an immense disappointment, going medalless in all of her six events, crashing three times, after years of dominating the sport.

Shiffrin has not been on an Olympic podium in eight years, and there has already been disappointment at these Games. Teaming up with Breezy Johnson, her childhood friend, in the new team combined event, Shiffrin was handed the lead by Johnson, only to post the fourth-slowest time in the slalom portion of the event, which left the pair out of the medals.

Team USA's men's curlers are on the ice bright and early this morning as they take on defending gold medalists Sweden.

Yesterday, the U.S. team beat Germany 8-6 to move their round-robin record to two wins, two losses after four matches. Victory this morning over Sweden would really boost Team USA's hopes of making the playoffs and contending for a medal.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen’s gold medal representing Brazil in the men’s giant slalom represented the first medal of any color for any South American nation in the history of the Winter Olympics.

It's another jam-packed day at the Milan Cortina Games, and early this morning all eyes will be on Mikaela Shiffrin as she competes in women’s giant slalom.

Later on, speed skater Erin Jackson will see if she can claim a second consecutive gold medal in the 500-meters.

All times are in Eastern, and an asterisk signifies a medal event:

3:05 a.m.: Curling, men’s round-robin (USA vs. Sweden, Germany vs. Great Britain, Norway vs. Italy)

4 a.m.: Alpine skiing, women’s giant slalom run 1

4 a.m.: Bobsled, women’s monobob heat 1

4:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s dual moguls 1/16 finals

5 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s dual moguls 1/8 finals