2026 Winter Olympics live updates: Gold medals in women's figure skating and hockey

The snow is really coming down in Bormio. We've just had the women's sprint semifinals in ski mountaineering, and France's Emily Harrop looks to be on pace for gold as she wins her heat with the fastest time of the semifinal stage. Team USA's Anna Gibson won't make it through as she finishes fifth in her semifinal. Her attention now switches to the mixed team relay on Saturday.

The finalists only have an hour to rest up before going for the first-ever SkiMo Olympic gold medal. Meanwhile, the men's semifinals are up next.

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Shortly after the women SkiMo’ers made history by competing in the sport’s Winter Olympic debut in Bormio, the men followed suit. 

Their sprint also consisted of three different heats of six competitors each. The top three racers from the first, second and third heats qualified for the semifinals, along with the next three fastest “lucky losers.” 

In the two semifinals, the top two racers advance to the finals along with the two fastest “lucky losers” for a six-person final field.

We've had a bit of a lull in live action over the last hour with the postponements of the freeski events in Livigno, but we're about to get underway with the ski mountaineering sprint semifinals.

Team USA's Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith made it through their heats earlier this morning as 'fastest losers'. In these semifinals, the top two athletes in each race progress to the final, with the fastest two skiers not already qualified also making it through.

Gibson faces a tough semifinal with gold medal favorites Emily Harrop of France and Switzerland's Marianne Fatton joining her in the first of the women's semifinals. Smith is in the second of the men's semis.

Today, for the first time at the Olympics, skiers will scamper uphill wearing carpet-like skins on their skis or just their stiff boots, then barrel back down an ungroomed course.

This is ski mountaineering — or skimo — the newest Olympic event. It’s a brutal high-altitude sport.

The Women's Sprint Ski Mountaineering heat 2 at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio today. Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images

“I think they are the athletes who have the highest pain threshold and can really suffer,” Dr. Volker Schöffl, the physician for the German ski mountaineering team, said in an interview. “They sprint, they run and then, you know, gradually everybody is dying around you until one man is standing and finishing first.”

Read the full story here.

Freeski superstar Eileen Gu's decision to represent her mother's birth nation of China has been a hot-button topic on social media throughout these Olympics, and now Vice President JD Vance has weighed in, suggesting Gu should have chosen to represent the United States.

Eileen Gu of Team China competes in the third run of the Women's Freeski Big Air Qualification on Saturday. Patrick Smith / Getty Images

Gu has become the most decorated Olympic freeskier of all time during these Games, adding two silver medals to her haul from Beijing 2022 when she won two golds and a silver. She was born and raised in San Francisco, but declared her intention in June 2019 to represent China.

"I certainly think somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America," Vance told Fox News when asked about the social media furor over Gu. "I'm going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans."

The 22-year-old is due to compete later today in qualifying for the women's halfpipe, her strongest event.

Team USA had faint hopes this morning of progressing to the men's curling semifinals. They needed three different results to go their way in the final round of round-robin matches, but Norway's win over Canada officially eliminates the U.S. squad.

Aidan Oldenburg and Ben Richardson of Team USA competing against Team Great Britain yesterday. Carmen Mandato / Getty Images

Unbeaten Switzerland will face Great Britain in the semifinals at 1:05 p.m ET, while Canada will take on Norway.

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History has been made this morning with the first heats in the new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering getting underway amid heavy snow in Bormio.

Anna Gibson competes during heat 1 of the Ski Mountaineering Women's Sprint today. Christian Petersen / Getty Images

The women are first up this morning with Team USA's Anna Gibson — a newcomer to the sport having only made her professional debut in November — taking part in the first heat. The top three in each heat qualifies for the semifinals — Gibson finishes fifth out of the six racers, but she secures one of three 'fastest loser' spots, so she will advance.

France's Emily Harrop, one of the gold medal favorites today, won that first heat to claim the honor of winning the first-ever Olympic SkiMo race.

The men's heats are up next, before semifinals and finals later today.

For the second time this week, we have very heavy snowfall in Livigno, which has seen some freestyle ski events postponed for today.

The men's aerials competition, due to happen this morning, was pre-emptively postponed last night given the forecast. That will now take place tomorrow.

We will also not see the men's freeski halfpipe qualifiers today — that has also fallen foul of the weather. The women's halfpipe qualifiers, featuring Eileen Gu in her strongest event of the Games, are still scheduled to happen tonight.

If you were planning to call out of work sick to watch the Olympics, today is the day to do so. We have curling semifinal action, finals in both women’s and men’s skimo, the bronze and gold medal games in women’s hockey, and Jordan Stolz going for another gold in speed skating. 

On top of all that? The final figure skating medal of the Olympics will be given in the women’s single event, with American Alysa Liu in contention for a medal.

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

3:05 a.m.: Curling, men’s round robin (Sweden vs. Czechia, Italy vs. Switzerland, China vs. Germany, Norway vs. Canada)

3:10 a.m.: Nordic combined, team sprint trial round

3:50 a.m.: Ski mountaineering, women’s sprint heats