đ„Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo wins his third gold of the Games – in the men’s 10km cross-country skiing
Klaebo is now the joint most decorated Winter Olympian in history! And there are three more chances of gold to come, in the menâs relay, menâs team sprint and 50k marathon.
Franceâs Mathis wins silver, and Einar Hedegart bronze. Britainâs Andrew Musgrave finishes a fantastic sixth, bare arms and all.
Key events
Snowboard: Franceâs Julia Nirani-Pereira keeps her lead from the start to advance from heat four alongside the United Statesâs Stacy Gaskill.
Ice hockey: Joel Armia of the LA Kings has given Finland a 3-1 lead against a struggling Sweden. Slovakia now lead Italy 2-1.
Snowboard: Chloe Trespeuch of France wins the third heat, very impressive race given her start was quite slow. Faya Thelen of the US joins her in the quarter-finals.
Snowboard: Great start from all four snowboarders after a bit of a wait. Charlotte Bankes and Abbey Wilson are toe to toe before the former makes the move and takes the lead. She closes the door early on Sina Siegenthaler right at the end and finishes first in her heat! A good race for the Team GB hopeful before the quarter-finals.
Snowboard: The sun is shining beautifully in Livigno. Josie Baff of Australia and Eva Adamczykova of the Czech Republic advance from the first heat.
Charlotte Bankes is about to to race. She is in gate three, which has traditionally been the fastest gate âŠ
Snowboard: Right, we are moments away from the womenâs snowboard cross. Team GBâs Charlotte Bankes is in heat 2. She is attempting to make the Olympic finals for the first time.
We have eight heats with four snowboarders. The top 2 in each heat qualify to the quarter-finals.
ISU defends ice dance scoring after French scoring row
The International Skating Union says it stands by the judging of ice dance, where the scores from the French judge earlier this week played a big role in the French couple of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron beating the American team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
The judge, Jezabel Dabouis, favoured Beaudry and Cizeron by nearly eight points over the three-time world champions in the free dance, a margin so large that if her score was removed from the equation entirely, Chock and Bates would have won gold.
âIt is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judge in any panel and a number of mechanism are used to mitigate these variations,â the ISU said, adding it has âfull confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairnessâ.
There is little recourse for the US. team if the global governing body is unwilling to investigate the scoring discrepancy.
This is not the first time Dabouis has turned in questionable scores for Beaudry and Cizeron. At the Grand Prix Final in December, when Chock and Bates beat them in their only other head-to-head matchup, the judge had the Americans narrowly beating them in the free dance despite two deductions, including an egregious fall. The French team wound up with a silver medal.
Dabouis also had a wide margin favoring the French couple in the Olympic rhythm dance, when they also beat the US team.
âAny time the public is confused by results, it does a disservice to our sport,â said Chock, who along with Bates won a second straight team gold medal earlier in the Games. âI think itâs hard to retain fans when itâs difficult to understand what is happening on the ice.
âPeople need to understand what theyâre cheering for and be able to feel confident in the sport that theyâre supporting.â
More than 10,000 people had signed a Change.org petition by Friday asking the ISU and IOC to investigate the latest scoring controversy.
âWe did speak to our coach, and we did talk to each other, and we know how we felt on centre ice after we skated,â Bates said. âWe felt like we delivered our absolute best performance that we could have. It was our Olympic moment. It felt like a winning skate to us and thatâs what weâre going to hold on to.â
Ice hockey: Sweden get one back against Finland. Rasmus Dahlin makes it 2-1. The defenceman is captain for the NHL team Buffalo Sabres and was the No 1 draft pick in 2018.
Angela Giuffrida
Italyâs state broadcaster, Rai, has been accused of censorship after removing the genitals from the image of Leonardo da Vinciâs Vitruvian Man in the opening credit for its Winter Olympics coverage.
The image of the 500-year-old drawing appears at the start of the clip before transforming into the bodies of ice-skaters, skiers and other winter sports athletes.
The imperfection was first picked up by Corriere della Sera, which asked: âWhat happened to the Vitruvian Manâs genitals?â
The newspaper noted that all the other attributes of the Vitruvian Manâs body appeared to have been faithfully reproduced, âexcept for that one detailâ, which appeared to have been âredactedâ.
Backlash from the Italian opposition, which often accuses Giorgia Meloniâs far-right government of dominating the public broadcaster, was swift.
Read the full story below.
Angela Giuffrida reports from Rome
Thanks Tanya and hello all. There has been another goal in the ice hockey â Slovakia now lead against Italy thanks to Libor Hudacek.
Womenâs snow-board cross: The elimination rounds will start at 12.30pmGMT at the Livigno Snow Park where the sky is its usual dazzling Italian blue. Time for me to go and clean the bathroom, Iâll hand over to Yara who will be your eyes for the next two hours.
Menâs ice hockey: A couple of games are underway on the rink. Finland are 2-0 up against their Scandi rivals Sweden, while itâs 0-0 between Italy and Slovakia.
đ„Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo wins his third gold of the Games – in the men’s 10km cross-country skiing
Klaebo is now the joint most decorated Winter Olympian in history! And there are three more chances of gold to come, in the menâs relay, menâs team sprint and 50k marathon.
Franceâs Mathis wins silver, and Einar Hedegart bronze. Britainâs Andrew Musgrave finishes a fantastic sixth, bare arms and all.
10km skiing: Oh! Hedegart runs out of puff. Canât find the energy to keep his pace and collapse over the line behind both Klaebo and Desloges of France. Klaebo goes over, pats him on the back, helps him off with his skies. This now looks very much like Klaeboâs third gold.
10km skiing: Brilliant sunshine, glorious snow, Hedegart hauls himself up the hill, now only .7 of a second ahead of Klaebo. Musgrave has been pushed out of bronze position.
10km skiing: With just 1.4km to go, Hedegart is 2.8 seconds ahead of Klaebo. In his chair, Klaebo, sips from his water bottle and looks like a pensive Stefan Edberg.
10km skiing: Klaebo pulls his gloves off as he sits in the leaderâs chair, grimacing in pain. Meanwhile, half way around the course, Norwayâs Hedegart is ahead of where Klaebo was.
Team GBâs Musgrave is currently in bronze position! If he holds onto it, he will become the highest placed British cross-country skier in history.
10km skiing: Klaebo is currently the quickest man out on the course, long elegant strides up the hill, and he crosses the line in first place, 30 seconds clear of second placed Musgrave â for now. Klaebo collapses onto the snow, and must wait.
Menâs 10km ski-ing : This isnât the most elegant event, even the best in the world look like frantic ducks on ice as they set off. It is also time trial, rather than a scramble for the line, and not Klaeboâs best event.
The current leader is Matyus Bauer, who finished in 21.40.8, and collapsed as he crossed the line.
Cross-country ski-ing, Menâs 10km: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo will set off shortly. But weâve just seen GBâs Andrew Musgrave ski away wearing nothing but sleeveless vest on his top half.
Thanks to a BBC segment Iâve just learnt that your head hits the ice when you hit top speed in the skeleton, and that the G-force is similar to that experienced by a formula one driver. I think it rates as the sport I am least keen on ever trying.
But Matt Weston loves it, and heâs going for gold this evening, just after 9pm.
âItâs a broom!â writes William Cook, âand it has its own gate controversy.â
âCBC did an excellent podcast series on the broom that almost destroyed Curling: Broomgate: A Curling Scandal
âThe Broomgate scandal (2015â2016) was a curling controversy over high-tech broomheadsâlike the âHardlineâ model from BalancePlusâthat allowed players to significantly alter a stoneâs direction.
âAfter concerns about fairness and competitive balance, the World Curling Federation banned the directional fabric and standardized broom regulations.â
Thank you William, I stand corrected over my mop suggestion. And that podcast looks fantastic!
Britain lose 9-7 to Italy in round-robin curling match
Curling: Frantic brushing puts the Italians in an excellent position with two stones to go at the final end. Bruce Mouat shimmies the last British stone nicely into position ⊠but Italy have the hammer and knock it away with their final shot. Joy from the Italian crowd, and handshakes all round, as Italy take a cracking match 9-7.
Britain currently lie fourth in the table, with the top four going through to the knock-out competition. Plenty of games to go though.
Curling: Britain have drawn level, with one end to go! Italy have the hammer, but who will hold their nerve?
Italy’s Passler to compete despite positive test
Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler will be able to participate in the Winter Olympics despite failing a doping test, the Italian skiing federation (Fisi) said on Friday. Italyâs anti-doping body (Nado) upheld her appeal against a provisional suspension that followed a positive test for the banned substance Letrozole on 26 January.
Nadoâs Court of Appeal acknowledged the possibility of unintentional ingestion or unknowing contamination of the substance. âPassler will rejoin her teammates starting Monday, February 16, when she will be available to the coaching staff for the subsequent competitions on the Olympic programme,â Fisi said in a statement.
Italyâs National Olympic Committee (Coni) ordered the athleteâs exclusion from the team four days before the start of the Games, after NADO said she had tested positive. Passler appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), arguing that her positive test for banned substances resulted from contamination. But earlier this week Cas said it had no jurisdiction over the case and she needed to appeal to Nado.
âThese have been very difficult days,â said the 24-year-old Passler, whose best result was 11th in the womenâs 4x6km relay at the 2024 IBU world championships. âI have always believed in my good faith. I want to thank everyone who helped me â from the lawyers who followed my case, to the Italian Winter Sports Federation, to my family and friends. Now I can finally focus 100% on biathlon again,â she added in the Fisi statement.
The womenâs relay is on the programme for 18 February, while the womenâs 12.5km mass start event is scheduled for three days later. Reuters
Curling: Both Italy and GB were undefeated going into this game, and things are still running close on the ice. Weâre in the ninth end, and Italy still lead by just one point â 7-6. Incidentally, Iâve just noticed that what Iâve been calling a brush, is more like a mop.
In the other curling matches, Switzerland have beaten Czechia 7-3, Canada are leading their cross-boarder rivals USA 6-2, and China have just drawn level with Norway, 5-5.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo: cross-country skiing’s Usain Bolt
Later this morning, Norwayâs Mr Snow, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, goes for his third gold of the Games in the menâs 10km freestyle.
Heâs already pocketed the menâs cross country skiing sprint classic and the 10km skiathlon. If he wins, he becomes the joint most decorated menâs Olympic cross-country skier ever.
His secret? His 82 year old granddad and coach, who gave him a pair of skis when he was two, and wakes him up at 5.45 every morning for training. It works. Have you seen this man run up a hill in skis?
We went on a family holiday to Italy three years ago, which started with a Eurostar from St Pancras on a Monday morning and finished pulling into Milan the same evening, which seemed like some kind of magic. I loved every second of that two weeks, but most especially the cannoli. I hope our correspondents are tucking in.
Curling: In other news, the Italians have pulled away again in the curling, now leading 7-4 after seven ends. This a round-robin match, so Britain will still have an excellent chance of qualifying even if they do go on to lose.
A timetable of today’s medal events
Menâs cross-country skiing, 10km freestyle â 11.45am GMTđ„
Menâs biathlon â 2pm GMTđ„
Womenâs snowboard cross â 2.41pm GMTđ„
Menâs 10,000m speed skating â 4pm GMTđ„
Menâs Singles figure skating â 7pm GMTđ„
Menâs snowboard halfpipe 7.30pm GMTđ„
Menâs individual skeleton â 9.05pm GMTđ„
Curling: The comeback is on at the ice centre! After six ends, Britain have pulled the deficit down to just one point, the Italian leading 5-4.
Snowboarding: Britainâs Charlotte Bankes has made it safely through the first seeding run in the snowboard cross under the most perfect azure skies. Itâs a decent time, 1:14:21, and should sneak her into the top 20.
Straight to Cortina and the ice stadium, where itâs not great news for our plucky Brits in the curling. The menâs quartet are 5-3 down after four ends to the Italians, who are also winning the fashion stakes with their natty white tops, while the Brits brush away in sensible navy.
It could have been worse though, Britain won the battle of the ruler to take two points at the last end.
Latest medal table
Good morning! Itâs another heart-lifting morning in northern Italy as the Games roll into day seven. Fittingly, seven golds await todayâs athletes, and one could end up around a British neck.
Not to jinx Matt Weston, but he started the Olympics as this countryâs hottest chance of gold, and remains that halfway through the skeleton competition. In supreme form this season, after winning five of seven World Cup golds, he goes into this eveningâs medal run comfortably first after two of four races. Britainâs Marcus Wyatt lies seventh.
Fellow racer Vladyslav Heraskevych made an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport last night after being disqualified from the skeleton 21 minutes before racing over his âhelmet of memoryâ which honoured Ukrainian athletes killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But he does so with the competition happening without him.
Elsewhere, Norwayâs Johannes HĂžsflot KlĂŠbo goes for gold in the menâs cross-country skiing, as does another Nowegian, Johan-Olav Botn, in the shooting and ski-ing double-endurance biathalon. Heâll be chased by French World Cup leader Eric Perrot and Italian favourite Tommaso Giacomel.
British snowboarder Charlotte Bankes is searching for her first Olympic medal, either in French or British colours, when she sets off in the exhilarating snowboard cross. Australian Scotty James hopes to add a gold to his medal collection this evening in the menâs halfpipe final.
Then thereâ s the lactic acid challenge of the menâs 10000m speed skating final, and the artistic beauty of the menâs figure skating, free skate final, where all eyes rest on the USAâs Ilia Malinin and his marvellous quadruple axel.
For good measure, throw in menâs and womenâs ice-hockey, and curlingâ which kicks things off this morning. Britainâs in-form men play Italy, after beating arch-rivals Sweden yesterday, while the womenâs quartet, who lost to China last night, take on South Korea at lunchtime.
Do join us, weâll be here all day.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/feb/13/winter-olympics-2026-seven-gold-medals-up-for-grabs-gb-look-to-end-medal-drought-and-more-live
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