2026 Winter Olympics live updates: Chock and Bates skate, curling playoffs begin

The host country, Italy, is leading in overall medals heading into Day 3 of the Winter Games.

But the most gold medals so far have gone to Norway, which has six medals in total.

Team USA has two, both gold, after Breezy Johnson's victory in women's downhill skiing and the United States' powerhouse performance for the figure skating team event.

Over on the ski mountain at Cortina, we're about to see the start of the men's combined event, which comes to these Games with a brand new format.

Previously, this event would see one skier take on runs in both downhill and slalom. This time it is a team affair with one skier per team taking on the downhill, and a second skier tackling the slalom. Those times are combined to give a team its position on the leaderboard.

The downhill runs are first up.

Team USA will be represented by Kyle Negomir and River Radamus. Negomir finished 10th in the men's individual downhill on Saturday. It would be a shock if Negomir and Radamus contend for a medal. Switzerland are heavilly tipped for gold here, with downhill gold medalist Franjo von Allmen aiming to win his second gold medal of the Games.

Kyle Negomir of Team USA in Bormio, Italy on Friday. Dustin Satloff / Getty Images

The women's event — following the same format —takes place tomorrow with newly crowned downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson pairing up with Mikaela Shiffrin for Team USA in what will be Shiffrin's first appearance of these Games. Team USA will have four pairs in the field tomorrow.

There are five medal events today, including the slopestyle final in women’s skiing. Tonight, American figure skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates look to continue their dominant start in rhythm dance and the U.S. women’s hockey team faces Switzerland.

All times are in Eastern, and asterisks mean it’s a medal event:

4:05 a.m.: Curling, mixed doubles (Norway vs. South Korea, Italy vs. United States, Switzerland vs. Canada, Czechia vs. Estonia)

4:30 a.m: Alpine skiing, men’s combined downhill

6:10 a.m: Women’s ice hockey (Japan vs. Italy)

6:30 a.m: Women’s freestyle skiing, slopestyle final*

Team USA's Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse are on the ice in Cortina, and that means the action for Day 3 of these Games is officially underway.

Dropkin and Thiesse will get the final stone, known as the hammer, in the first end of this match-up, so they will be hoping to take an early advantage.

Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin celebrate their victory over Sweden yesterday. Andrew Milligan / PA Images via Getty

Team USA duo Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse have already made history in Cortina — they are already assured of a spot in the semifinals as the first-ever American team to advance in this event — but that does not lessen the importance of their final round robin match-up against defending gold medalists Italy this morning.

Victory would see Dropkin and Thiesse clinch the second seed going into the semifinals later today, which would see them face Sweden in the semifinals, a team they beat yesterday. Defeat would drop the U.S. duo to third in the standings and would see them face Italy again, a tougher route to an Olympic medal.

The action at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium gets underway this morning at 4:05 a.m. ET.

“I hope people can see my story and the stories of other Black women in winter sports and then, hopefully, we’ll have more coming up soon,” Erin Jackson said.  Jurij Kodrun / International Skating Union via Getty Images

When American speedskater Erin Jackson won the 500 meters at the Beijing Games four years ago, she knew, of course, that it was her first Olympic medal. She also was aware that it had been a while — 28 years, to be exact — since a woman from the U.S. finished first in that event.

What she had no idea about until days later: Jackson was the first Black woman, from any country, to claim an individual gold medal, in any sport, at any Winter Olympics.

Jackson definitely does not want to be the last.

“It was just really surprising, I guess, because I felt like, ‘How could that be?’” she said in an interview with The Associated Press at the U.S. Speedskating trials ahead of the Milan Cortina Games. “When you think about how many Winter Olympics we’ve had, I just thought it was really strange. I hope people can see my story and the stories of other Black women in winter sports and then, hopefully, we’ll have more coming up soon.”

Read the full story here.

Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea all earned their first Olympic medal, and it’s gold.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates are now two-time Olympic gold medalists.

This U.S. Olympic figure skating team is the strongest in years, so that medal count is only expected to grow as individual competitions get underway this week.

Both U.S. women recorded a top-three finish in the team event, which could signal an impending end to the American medal drought in women’s singles.

Go inside the rings and relive all the top moments from Day 2 of the Milan Cortina Olympics.