Olympics
2026 Winter
Olympics
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Abbey Murphy celebrates with teammates after scoring the Americans’ third goal against Sweden in Monday’s women's hockey semifinal. David W Cerny / Reuters via Imagn Images
The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The rematch is on. A pair of goals by superstar Marie-Philip Poulin powered Canada to a harder-than-expected 2-1 victory over Switzerland and into a gold medal clash with Team USA on Thursday. This will be the seventh time the North American superpowers have faced off for gold, with Canada winning four of the previous six gold medal matchups.
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Poulin’s first goal was her Olympic record 19th, and her 20th in the second period proved to be the game-winner.
The Americans didn’t have to work nearly as hard in the earlier semifinal as they routed Sweden 5-0. Sweden will face Switzerland for the bronze medal at 8:40 a.m. ET Thursday.
For a complete rundown of the day’s major moments, scroll through our live updates blog here and catch up on the medal count here.
Undefeated Team USA continued to steamroll through the women’s hockey tournament, blanking Sweden 5-0 Monday to secure its spot in Thursday’s gold medal game.
The American women have netted at least five goals in all six of their games and have outscored their opponents by an incredible 31-1. The U.S. side hasn’t allowed a goal since the second period of its first game against Czechia on Feb. 5, a stretch of 331 minutes and 23 seconds.
Team USA got goals from Cayla Barnes, Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra. Aerin Frankel turned away 21 shots to record her third shutout of the tournament.
“It’s one shot for gold,” said veteran defender Lee Stecklein, a three-time Olympian who won gold in 2018. “And then if you don’t get it, you have to wait four years, if you’re lucky, to be there again. So it’s a whole different sort of pressure. I think this group is ready.”
The U.S. trounced Canada 5-0 in the final match of the preliminary round on Feb. 10.
Team USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor was already a legend in women’s bobsledding, and now, at last, she’s a gold medalist.
With five medals in previous Olympic competitions, the 41-year-old mother of two claimed the elusive gold in her fifth Winter Olympics, winning the monobob by a whisker over Germany’s Laura Nolte. The German was just four-hundredths of a second behind Meyers Taylor for silver, while Team USA’s Kaillie Humphries, who was seeking her fourth career gold medal, claimed the bronze.
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Meyers Taylor was already the most decorated Black Winter Olympian in Games history. Her sixth medal ties her with speedskater Bonnie Blair as the most decorated U.S. female Winter Olympian in history.
Both American medalists have talked publicly about the challenges of returning to competition after giving birth. Meyers Taylor had her second son in November 2022, while Humphries had her first child, a son, just 20 months ago.
Eileen Gu came up short in the defense of her freeski big air title, settling for silver as Canada’s Megan Oldham produced a sensational performance to win gold in a final that was delayed by more than an hour by a snowstorm.
In her third run, Gu, the San Francisco-born model and skier who represents China in the Games, landed a left double cork 1260 with a toxic grab — a standout move and a different exit than most other riders. Judges awarded her an 89.00 for the run, enough to climb all the way from seventh after the second run to the silver-medal position, but still 1.75 points short of Oldham’s total of 180.75.
Italy’s Flora Tabanelli, the 18-year-old world champion competing at her first Olympics, took bronze.
A costly mistake during their short program Sunday left Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan stunned and sobbing on the ice, but the duo rallied Monday with a spectacular free skate to win the pairs gold in a runaway fashion.
Kihara sobbed while standing next to the rink in the arms of Miura once their score held up against four other pairs. But unlike Sunday, when they stumbled in the free skate, this time they were tears of joy.
Their skate Monday was nearly 12 points better than the next highest scoring pair. Their combinations were high and well executed, essentially a perfect run.
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia won silver, and Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany won bronze.
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Curt Anderson is a staff editor on the Daily Desk for The Athletic. Before joining The Athletic, he spent more than a decade at The Washington Post as a National Homepage Editor. He was the last news editor of the Rocky Mountain News prior to its closure. Anderson grew up in Marshall, Minn., and was a Kiplinger Fellow in Public Affairs Reporting at The Ohio State University, where he earned a master’s degree in journalism. Follow Curt on Twitter @CurtAndersonDC
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