Day 1 at the Winter Olympics: A Little Drama Already
A quiet opening day featured mixed doubles curling, training runs across multiple sports, and an early look at medal contenders. Edition #319
This is a slight deviation from our standard Winter Olympics format. With only four OFFICIAL games on the schedule today, I broke things down into one paragraph per game. This won’t be the norm going forward.1
You’re leading the entire match, then the other team finds a way to claw back and tie it up. That’s a story we see across all sports, and that’s what we saw in Day 1 with Curling.
Today wasn’t a huge day at the Winter Olympics. There were three sports in action, but only one official competition. The day began with men’s downhill official training in alpine skiing at 5:30 a.m. EST. Team USA’s Ryan Cochran-Siegle posted the fastest time, finishing in 1 minute and 56.08 seconds.
A couple of hours later, mixed doubles curling got underway, with eight teams in action: Sweden vs. South Korea, Great Britain vs. Norway, Canada vs. Czechia, and Estonia vs. Switzerland. This was the only official event of the day, with men’s and women’s curling set to begin after we find out the winner for this event.
By the third end, South Korea held a 3–2 lead over Sweden. The next three ends completely flipped the game, as Sweden scored eight points in that stretch. South Korea then offered the handshake, ending the match early.
Great Britain vs. Norway was much tighter. The game was tied after five ends, but Great Britain broke through with three points in the sixth. Norway responded with two, but Great Britain sealed the win with a single point in the eighth end.
Canada vs. Czechia was a blowout from the start. Canada scored five points through the first two ends and added five more over the next four, never letting Czechia back into the game.
Now, your comeback game is here. Switzerland controlled the match from start to finish, leading the entire way, but Estonia needed four points in the final end to force a tie. They got exactly that and pushed the game into an extra end, but that’s where the comeback stopped. Switzerland closed it out, 9–7.
The final event of the day was luge training. Sweden’s Kohala S recorded the fastest time at 54.159 seconds, while Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods and Gints Bērziņš finished second and third.
Medal predictions
Curling (Mixed Doubles)
Italy is the team to watch. Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner are the reigning Olympic champions from 2022 and also won the 2025 World Championships.
Alpine Skiing
Mikaela Shiffrin is my pick. She’s won 71 slalom races and 108 World Cup races overall, and her consistency still sets the standard.
Luge
Germany should dominate once again. Felix Loch and Julia Taubitz are my gold medal picks.
Curling Standings:
Outlook For Day 2:
The games really do begin on day 2, with Mixed Doubles Curling, Women’s Ice Hockey, and Men’s Snowboarding in action, while Men’s Alpine Skiing, Men’s and Women’s Luge, and Men’s and Women’s Ski Jumping are in the training stages.
In my opinion, the best game in the curling event on day 2 is going to be Norway vs Canada. Norway may have lost on day 1, but they are a very good team. They’re going up against the Canadian team, who some people consider the favorites for the event. This is going to be a true battle. Game: 8:35 AM EST
When it comes to Ice Hockey, mark the United States vs Czechia game. The US Women’s Hockey team is currently ranked #1, and Czechia is ranked #4. This is going to be a heavyweight battle very early into the tournament. Game: 10:40 AM EST
Now, for snowboarding. There’s limited data about the players in it right now, so I have no predictions/outlook for it. However, Yiming Su of China took gold last year, Mons Roisland of Norway took silver, and Max Parrot of Canada took bronze. Games: 1:30 PM EST, 2:15 PM EST, 3:00 PM EST
Once again, this is a little bit of a diversion from the coverage that we are actually going to do over the Olympics. We did it this way because we had 4 official games total today.
What are your predictions for Day 2? Put them down in the comments below. As always, if you have any questions about the Winter Olympics, or thoughts on the coverage or anything else, feel free to put them in the comments or DM me!
Thank you for reading Day 1. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!
I’m going to try to make the Winter Olympics coverage as simple as possible for all readers. When I do bring along writers to help cover, this is when things will get a little more advanced.