Olympics Edition — Day 11: Curling curse-outs and podium powerhouses
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
Missed ya!
Hope you had a lovely, controversy-free long weekend. The same can’t be said for Milano Cortina, where the Olympic drama rages on. From curling curse-outs to podium powerhouses, today’s newsletter has it all.
Country | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | Total |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 12 | 7 | 9 | 28 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 8 | 4 | 11 | 23 |
| 🇺🇲 USA | 6 | 8 | 5 | 19 |
| 🇨🇦 Canada (13th) | 2 | 4 | 5 | 11 |
🥇🎿 Canadian moguls king Mikaël Kingsbury is golden, winning the Great White North’s first gold of the Milano Cortina Games in the first-ever Olympic dual moguls event on Sunday. A good day for Dads, indeed.
🥇⛷️ Canadian freestyle skier Megan Oldham is an Olympic champ too, soaring to women’s big air gold yesterday and making history in the process. The 24-year-old didn’t even need her final run, posting back-to-back stellar jumps to finish ahead of silver medalist, China’s Eileen Gu.
🏒 To the surprise of absolutely no one, Thursday’s women’s hockey gold medal game will feature fierce foes Team Canada vs. Team USA. The icy, spicy rivalry continues.
- The red and white punched their ticket behind the Olympics’ all-time leading scorer — a little someone named Marie-Philip Poulin — who lit the lamp twice in yesterday’s narrow 2–1 semifinal victory over Switzerland.
🥅 As for the men, the Canadians locked up the No. 1 seed ahead of Friday’s knockout rounds, routing France 10–2 on Sunday to finish group play with a perfect 3-0 record and a casual +17 goal differential. They’ll next face the winner of today’s tilt between Denmark and Czechia.
🥈💨⛸️ Canadian short track speed skater Courtney Sarault added to her medal haul on Sunday, winning silver in the women’s 1000m event. Sarault has scored three total medals at Milano Cortina — two silvers and a bronze. Bruce mode, activated.
- 🥉 One day earlier, Laurent Dubreuil earned bronze in the 500m race after missing the podium by just 0.03 seconds in Beijing. Consider it checked off his to-do list.
🥌 Cheating allegations have dominated curling headlines, but both Canadian teams are rising above it and fresh off victories: Team Homan plays Sweden today at 8:05 a.m. ET after logging a pair of much-needed wins yesterday to stay alive on the women’s side.
- Meanwhile, Team Jacobs dominated Czechia 8–2 yesterday for their second straight dub and will take on Great Britain today at 1:05 p.m. ET.
💔⛸️ After last week’s shocking eighth-place finish, American figure skater Ilia Malinin addressed his unexpected men’s program podium miss yesterday, citing “vile online hatred” and “endless insurmountable pressure,” while promising a longer statement on Saturday.
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Olympics
🏅🇳🇴 Norway dominates the Winter Games — but why?
The GIST: You’ve probably seen the viral clips of Norwegian skier Johannes Høsflot Klaebo dominating the competition, but did you notice Norway is also running away with the medal count at the Milano Cortina Olympics? The small country with a population of just 5.6M has already racked up a Games–leading 28 medals, and 12 of them are gold.
- “Winning” the Winter Games is nothing new for the Norwegians, who also boast the all-time Winter Olympic medals record. Let’s discuss the secrets to their success.
🎉 Youth sports are centered around fun. Norwegians do not keep score, mark time, or rank individuals or teams regardless of sport until kids reach at least age 13. This aligns with the national philosophy that emphasizes the “joy of sport for all.”
😮 Norwegian kids are encouraged to play as many sports as possible. In North America, kids often specialize from a young age. Compare that to Norway, where it’s customary to compete in multiple sports through high school and even university, increasing kids’ all-around athleticism and decreasing the risk of burnout before their bodies have fully developed.
🙌 Norwegian youth sports are accessible and affordable. The “pay-to-play” model is pervasive across North America and creates prohibitive barriers to entry. In contrast, Norway’s athletics have public funding, not to mention a booming used equipment market that makes even the most expensive sports, like skiing, more accessible.
- TL;DR? Norway’s Olympic dominance can be traced back to the country’s focus on raising kids to love sport — not for competition, but simply for the sake of joy. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
Event | ⏰ (ET) | 👀 |
| ⛸️ Figure skating women’s short program | Today at 12:45 p.m. | 🇨🇦 Madeline Schizas; 🇯🇵 Kaori Sakamoto; 🇺🇸 Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu |
| 🏅⛷️ Freestyle skiing men’s big air final | Today at 1:30 p.m. | 🇨🇦 Dylan Deschamps |
| 🏅🛷 Bobsleigh two-man final | Today at 3:05 p.m. | 🇨🇦 Taylor Austin and Shaquille Murray-Lawrence, Jay Dearborn and Mike Evelyn |
🏒 This season’s hottest style
Jerseys aren’t just a way to represent your team and your bestie — as sports and style grow ever more intertwined, they’re a fashion statement, and that’s especially true in Milan. With NHL players allowed to compete at the Olympics for the first time in 12 years, the league’s jerseys are one of the hottest items at the Games, even for fans who live outside North America.
- And in Team USA’s men’s hockey locker room, one sweater takes on even more meaning: They hang the jersey of late Columbus Blue Jacket and NHL All-Star Johnny Gaudreau, who was killed by a drunk driver alongside his brother Matthew in August 2024. All love.
Question of the Day
There’s nothing quite like watching basketball’s best — but it’s even better in person. That’s why the NBA wants to send you and your partner-in-hoops to the Finals. If you scored this trip for two, what kind of fan would you be on game day?
Today’s email was brought to you by Alessandra Puccio, Lisa Minutillo, Lauren Tuiskula, and Katie Kehoe Foster. Editing by Katie Kehoe Foster. Fact-checking and ops by Elisha Gunaratnam. Ads by Alessandra Puccio and Lisa Minutillo. Managing edits by Lauren Tuiskula. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.