Bob Sledding 2026

​We watch the Olympics all day so you don’t have to.

Well, it’s not possible to not start with the Men’s Free Skate.  Before the event began, my thought was that it’s one thing to be a favorite and not win.  But to be considered the greatest in the world, to have it thought that you should maybe win by 30 points – when usually the margin is single digits, when a whole nation is looking at you…and you’re 21 years old, I can’t imagine the pressure, and the deep hurt if you don’t win.  I certainly thought that Ilia Malinin would win, but didn’t think that with the same certainty as experts.  Not in a sport that comes down to spinning in the air four times and landing a thin piece of metal a quarter-inch thick on ice.  Which is the one thing I don’t like about skating.  Yes, it adds great drama, but it’s not even what separates the best from the rest – since the two best, not just Malinin but Yuma Kagiyama both fell.  It happens.  That’s the sport.  But man, is that tough.  Ilia Malin not only didn’t win, nor finish in the medals, but plummeted to eighth place.  I will only add that I was impressed great by his reaction afterwards.  He must have been shocked and in agony, but he appeared so gracious congratulating the winner Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, and spoke to him at length.  And then gave a gracious interview afterwards to NBC, not hiding from anything, but answering every question and saying pointedly, “I blew it.”

I'm glad at least he skated so well in the Free Skate of the Team Skate competition and helped the U.S. win the Gold Medal.  Small comfort for what I'm certain he's feeling, but as far as "small comfort" goes, it's a big deal.

Before the Men’s Free Skate began on the USA Network, former Olympic Bronze Medal-winner and 2016 U.S. National champion Adam Rippon did a very good behind-the-scenes piece on what skaters go through before their program begins.  Hopefully NBC will show it before their evening broadcast. 

There also has been a controversy in judging the Ice Dancing.  I don’t know the specifics, since I don’t pay attention to Ice Dancing, but as far as I can tell, the American pair missed winning the Gold Medal by a very small margin to the French team – and the French judge had marked the U.S. team down by something like an improbably eight points.  This has always been a problem with sports that are judged, notably skating.  But the skating federation seemed to have dealt with the issue a while back.  Clearly not enough, though.  There’s an easy fix to it – once upon a time, the highest and lowest scores were eliminated.  That seems like a good rule to bring back.

As I’ve noted, when it comes to skating events, I like the short track races and standard sprints more than the long distances races, which can be a bit boring to watch as skaters go round and round in circles for several miles.

The short track races began, and were, as always, weird and fun, like a demolition derby with bodies flying along the track and crashing off it.  But the best race of the day was not short track, but probably the 5,000m race.  That’s because, once again, Italian Francesca Lollabrigida (who was planning to retire, except she wanted to compete in her home country – and is the great-niece of film legend Gina Lollabrigida) came back days after winning her first-ever Gold Medal in the 3,000m race to once again with her second Gold as the last skater in the 5,000m, winning by 0.1 second.

I like the skeleton.  What is the skeleton, you ask?!  It’s the poorly-named event that is almost identical to the luge, except athletes are on their stomach, except their back.  And I like the luge.  What I don’t know is why both events exist.  Once upon a time, high jumpers went over the bar using the “scissors” kick, stomach first.  Then Dick Fosbury went over the bar back first, and it was so good that eventually all high jumpers use the Fosbury Flop.  But the Olympics didn’t create two events – one for going over the bar with your back first, and one for going over it stomach first.  (And seriously, who named a sport this incredibly dangerous the “skeleton”??!!)  I also like the Bobsled, which is essentially the same, but the competitors are in a sled, too, just with sides and a driver’s wheel.  In fairness, yes, the Bobsled is different enough from the other two to justify it.  But still, three essentially-similar events (and two that are near-identical, just upside-down) is a wee-bit much.  But they’re all enjoyable.  Though, if you really want to get detailed, there is also two-man luge (which is ludicrous, the top man’s job is largely to lie flat) and two-man and four-man bobsled, which is basically a car race using a station wagon.  So, that’s five races for largely similar events. 

Worth noting, it was the skeleton event from which a Ukrainian competitor, Vladyslav Heraskevych, was disqualified for having photos of fellow athletes and coaches killed by the Russian invasion of his country.  Officials tried to reach a compromise, allowing him to wear the helmet off the ice but not during competition, but he turned that down.

Also worth noting:  I’ve brought up Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo a couple of times already.  Well, I must again.  He tied the Winter Olympic record by winning his eighth Gold Medal, this one in the 10K event.  It was his third Gold Medal of these Games.  And he still has three more races to go in Milan!

Finally, the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team against Italy had a strange start.  They outshot Italy in the first period something like 19-2…yet they were leading 1-0.  Everything came more into focus in the second period, and took the lead 6-0, which ended up the final score.  This increased the team’s scoreless streak to 271 minutes and 23 seconds – which is 4-1/2 games – the longest in Olympic women’s hockey history.  The U.S. women have now qualified for the semi-final round.

More to come…