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After a nail-biting day at the Milano-Cortina Olympics, we turn to Day 13.
More excitement is in store on the ice as women’s hockey rivals Canada and the United States square off for the gold medal, while the Canadian women’s curling team plays for a spot in the playoffs and Canada’s men’s curlers can clinch a medal with a win in the semifinals.
Plus, the gold is up for grabs in women’s figure skating, U.S. speed skating star Jordan Stolz goes for his third title, and the Winter Olympics’ newest sport debuts.
Let’s get into all that in our daily viewing guide.
Top Canadians to watch on Thursday
Women’s hockey: Canada vs. the United States in the gold-medal game at 1:10 p.m. ET
Historically, this matchup has been too close to call. Over the past decade and a half, 12 of the 14 Canada-U.S. clashes in an Olympic or world-championship title game have been decided by one goal, including a whopping nine in overtime or a shootout. Canada won the Olympic gold in 2022 in Beijing with a 3-2 regulation victory over the U.S., and the Americans took the world championship in Czechia last year by beating Canada 4-3 in overtime.
Since then, though, the Americans have gained the clear upper hand in this rivalry, which is one of the most intense in all of sports. They swept this season’s four-game Rivalry Series by a combined score of 24-7, then thrashed Canada 5-0 in their Olympic group-stage showdown last week. As a result, Thursday’s gold-medal matchup no longer looks like the coin flip we’ve come to expect. In fact, oddsmakers now give the U.S. a better than 80 per cent chance of winning.
Having said that, today’s Canada-Czechia men’s playoff was a great reminder that anything can happen in one hockey game. The American women have looked like the younger, deeper, better team all season, but the Canadians are a proud group with a proven track record of delivering on their sport’s biggest stage, winning five of the last six Olympic golds.
Plus, Canada is still led by the best and most clutch player in women’s hockey history. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin, a three-time Olympic champion and the only hockey player in history to score in four Olympic finals, fought off a knee injury to score twice in Monday’s closer-than-expected 2-1 semifinal win over Switzerland. That gave the 34-year-old Poulin 20 career Olympic goals, breaking the all-time women’s record previously held by Canadian great Hayley Wickenheiser.
For more on what Canada needs to do to pull off the upset, read this gold-medal game preview by CBC Sports’ Karissa Donkin.
Curling: Men’s semifinals and a de facto playoff game for Canada’s women
Having already clinched a playoff spot, skip Brad Jacobs’ Canadian men’s team defeated Italy 8-3 today to improve to 7-1 and settle in to second place. The Canadians have one more round-robin game left at 3:05 a.m. ET against Norway, but they can’t catch first-place Switzerland (8-0) because they lost to the Swiss and they can’t be caught by any of the teams behind them. Great Britain (5-4), Norway (4-4) and Italy (4-4) are the top teams vying for the final two playoff spots.
Canada will face the No. 3 seed in the semifinals at 1:05 p.m. ET and will have the hammer. If the Canadians win that game, they’re assured of at least a silver medal.
Rachel Homan’s women’s team gave up three in the 10th end of their critical game against eliminated Italy today, but recovered for an 8-7 win when the skip (barely) made her draw to the four-foot with the final stone. Canada’s fourth straight win improved its record to 5-3, tied with the United States and South Korea in the battle for the final two playoff spots. Sweden (7-2) and Switzerland (6-2) have clinched.
Canada faces South Korea at 8:05 a.m. ET and needs a win to advance to the semifinals on Friday.
Rachel Homan and her Ottawa-based rink defeats Italy’s Stefania Constantini 8-7 at Milano Cortina 2026. Canada earns their fourth straight victory, improves to 5-3 in round-robin play and will clinch a spot in the semifinals with a win over South Korea on Thursday.
Other stuff to watch on Thursday
In chronological order:
Ski mountaineering: New Olympic sport debuts with two events
Skimo, as the cool kids call it, involves both an ascent and a descent. Each race has three components: athletes must trek up part of the hill with “skins” underneath their skis to grip the snow, then continue up on foot with their skis stowed in their backpacks before putting them back on to ski down to the finish line. The first one to cross the finish line wins.
Thursday’s competitions are the men’s and women’s sprints, where heats last about three minutes. The women’s competition begins at 3:50 a.m. ET and concludes with the medal round at 7:55 a.m. ET. The men’s starts at 4:30 a.m. ET, with the final at 8:15 a.m. ET.
No Canadians qualified for any of the skimo events at these Games.
Speed skating: Jordan Stolz in the men’s 1,500m at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The 21-year-old American’s quest for four gold medals continues. He’s already won the 500m and the 1,000m, both in Olympic-record time, and has the mass start coming up on Saturday. Stolz went undefeated in the 1,500 on the World Cup tour this season and won gold at the world championships in 2023 and ’24. But he took silver last year when an illness sapped his strength.
Canada’s Daniel Hall and David La Rue are not expected to contend for a medal.
Figure skating: Women’s final round at 1 p.m. ET.
Japan’s Ami Nakai leads after the short program, but her countrywoman and three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto is close behind along with reigning world champ Alysa Liu of the United States. Japan’s Mone Chiba and enigmatic Russian Adeliia Petrosian are lurking too as the gold seems very much up for grabs in the free skate.
Canada’s Madeline Schizas just missed the 24-skater final round, placing 25th in the short.
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