Skiing
fromwww.npr.org
3 weeks agoCortina d'Ampezzo mixes Olympic legacy with Alpine glamour
Cortina D'Ampezzo is a glamorous Alpine town known for designer shops, celebrity visitors, and a rich history in winter sports.
'Despite taking place in the high-altitude Italian Alps, centered around the town of Cortina, the 2026 Olympics will also require more than 3 million cubic yards of artificial snow,' Climate Central explains. 'With artificial snow becoming a regular part of winter sports, the challenge of ensuring adequate conditions highlights the central role that the weather plays in the Winter Olympics and Paralympics - especially for the reliability and safety of outdoor competitions.'
A day after the U.S. women captured gold in hockey, the U.S. men's team's quest for the same hardware continues Friday at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Team USA will face Slovakia in the semifinals after hanging on to defeat Sweden in overtime on Wednesday. Quinn Hughes, who scored the game-winning quarterfinal goal, called facing Slovakia in the next round "an extremely hard test." The No. 3 seed dominated Germany 6-2 to advance to play the U.S.
Hello! A golden morning for Team GB at last after Matt Skelton hurtled down the skeleton track last night to become the first British man to win individual gold since Robin Cousins at Lake Placid in 1980. It's all about the proprioception, you see. As the sun rises above the rooftops in Manchester (yes really) we can look forward to another haul of sparkling metal. Eight golds are on offer today across the slopes, the sliding centre and the ice .
Kim will compete in the women's snowboard halfpipe final with a chance to become the first snowboarder to win three straight Olympic gold medals. She qualified for the final on Wednesday while racing with a brace on her left shoulder due to a torn labrum suffered last month. The 25-year-old still managed to finish first, setting up a potential date with destiny. Shaun White is the only Olympian to ever win three gold medals in the snowboard halfpipe competition, but he didn't secure them consecutively.
The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are the most geographically spread out Winter Games in history, unfolding across 8,500 square miles of Northern Italy and the Dolomites. Rather than concentrating in a single host city, the competitions weave through alpine valleys, lakeside towns, the urban heartbeats of Verona and Milan, and some of the most breathtaking and iconic ski and snowboard terrains in the world. The 15 official Olympic venues are scattered across seven clusters. Instead of one Olympic Village, there are six.