Key events
Figure skating: I’ll give you the downsides first. Didn’t like their costume colour, a kind of drab green, and their instrumental music choice is like something from a sad third-act movie scene. But everything else… these two are two columns of corded muscle. They are so lean but so strong, and they use that strength in their holds and their lifts to make them seem so fluent and natural. They’re not two skaters really, they’re one skater. The move where he gets low and holds her almost sideways, so that it looks like she’s flying unassisted over the ice while he disappears, is extraordinary. They were beautiful together. Now we wait.
Figure skating: Last, the French. Laurent Beaudry Fournier and Guillame Cizeron.
Figure skating: Madison Chock and Evan Bates from the USA have the second-last skate. They’re using an orchestral rearrangement of Paint it Black, super drama. All black outfits but she has a dramatic red flamenco kind of half skirt attached to the back of her waist, and the way it flares out with movement adds a striking visual element. They’re doing a matador-bull kind of dynamic, she’s killing him by the end. She’s also tiny, so he’s really able to throw her around in the lifts, spinning her on his shoulders like a pencil on his fingertips. Some very original dance elements too at the close, not like anything else we’ve seen. Highly expressive, the way they locked onto each other, their eye contact.
They collapse to the ice when they’re done. It was perfect, and it was very much their own. What will the judges make of it?
134.67! They’ve outscored the Canadians by three and a bit. Total score 224.39. They can’t win less than silver.
Figure skating: Third from the end, here come Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier for Canada. Their routine is van Gogh inspired, music backing is Starry Starry Night, and Gilles’ dress is decorated as per the painting, while Poirier’s shirt has matching gold accents on the pale blue. They love the routine, they think they’ve nailed it – they both burst into tears as it ends. Not to be a downer, I thought it was less interesting than some of the others, but it was lovely and it was precise.
It’s good enough for a medal. What colour, we’ll see. But they’re top of the list on 217.74, having outscored the Italians in second by a full six points on that last routine. The Americans and the final French pair remain.
Lewis and Fear stumble costs a medal chance
Figure skating: Big hopes for Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear in the ice dance, with their world ranking and coming in at the business end of the program. They did a Britpop bit in the first round, now they’re dressed in tartan and going a Scottish theme, and they start strong… but in skating terms, there’s a disaster. Have to be perfect, and during the twizzle sequence, Lilah Fear loses her balance. Doesn’t fall, but stumbles and has to recover her footing, get back into time with her partner.
They come back remarkably well. Find their rhythm, she puts it out of mind and nails the rest of the routine. Music goes from the Proclaimers, to Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, then into an Edinburgh Military Tattoo style drums and pipes rendition of Auld Lang Syne. Their finale is spectacular, a spinning lift sequence that fans out into a dizzying series of spins for Fear.
It’s spectacular, but that one mistake will cost.
They clock 118 in the free dance, where those around them have been scoring between 120 and 125. And that leaves Lewis and Fear fourth, with three pairs to go.
She is devastated. Holding it together, just, at the judging table, but gosh, that is going to hurt for a long time.
Figure skating: After the long warm-up, we’re into the last five. Results keep proceeding according to placement coming in, with the Italians jumping a good three points clear at the top of the standings, after their routine based on the Italian movie Diamonds.
Figure skating: Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik with an athletic routine in the ice dance. Nearly decapitated a judge with one of their final lifts as Zingas got a shoulder ride and flicked her legs around like helicopter blades near the judges’ desk. It doesn’t cost them though, they’ve also scored a PB and have gone top of the standings.
Five pairs to go.
Curling: Mostly done in the men’s team round robin. Great Britain beat China 9-4. The US beat Czechia 8-7, and Italy beat Sweden 7-6. There’s an extra end in the tied Canada Germany game.
Figure skating: Best friendship with Canada ended, new best friend is Lithuania. That was so much fun. Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius nailed that one, it was more active, more dynamic, more fun. The lifts were inventive but looked effortless, the music was a pared-back version of the track I posted below but still gave them some drive, and the routine got clearly the biggest response so far from the crowd tonight, they were fully engaged.
Personal best for them! That’s 121.71 for this routine, 204.66 overall. They’re leading now ahead of the French.
Figure skating: What is more moody than a French figure-skating pair dancing to Björk? They’re less dramatic than some of the others, very technically smooth. Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud were a couple of my faves from the first round. And that first round takes them into the lead! They score lower than the Spanish in the free dance today, but their rhythm dance score keeps them ahead with 203.68 combined.
Seven pairs to go, and Lithuania are dancing to Faithless. Hell yeah…
Figure skating: Gorgeous, weightless, from Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha for Canada. Their routine ues the story of Rudolf Nureyev, and it really has that balletic feel. The lifts glide, the shapes could be dance on the stage rather than the ice. Bravo.
No deductions, they sit in second place overall with 120.14 for that routine. I thought they were better than the Dune one, more in sync, but I’m not judging. (I am however writing a stern letter to the IOC.)
Ice hockey: The last event of the day to begin has done so, Sweden and Italy 1-1 during the first period of their men’s group game.
Figure skating: We’re back for the next part of the program here, Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck for Spain doing an original take on the brief with a routine inspired by Dune. They use some of the super dramatic music from the film, costume it accordingly. I’m not one hundred percent convinced by the flow and synchrony of some of their movements. Some very athletic lifts in that routine though, starting in different ways to what you’d normally see. They’ve got their personal best score! And they’re top overall for now.
Snowboard: Louis Philip Vito crashes early, and that’s the Italian done as well as the qualifiers done. At least he’s wearing striking Italian blue. What is the deal with the snowboarders and their gear, by the way? Guseli wore Australian gold, Scotty James wore green, but everyone else is just neutral toned, beige, white, black. You can’t tell anyone apart, can’t tell who they’re representing. Why so bland, snowboarders?
Here are the finalists for Saturday.
Scotty James (Aus)
Totsuka Yuto (Japan)
Yamada Ryuso (Japan)
Alessandro Barbieri (USA)
Hirano Ruka (Japan)
Valentino Guseli (Aus)
Hirano Ayumu (Japan)
Campbell Melville Ives (NZ)
Lee Chaeun (Korea)
Wang Ziyang (China)
Josey Chase (USA)
Jake Pates (USA)
Curling: All of those men’s matches from before are still going. That sport takes a looooooong time. The scores are pretty close except for GB leading China 8-4.
Some extra info from our informal US correspondent Beau Dure on the speed skating champion. “USA’s Jordan Stolz won all six World Cup races at that distance this season. Stolz also swept the 500m, 1000m and 1500m in the 2023 and 2024 world single-distance championships, and he won a record 18 consecutive World Cup races before his illness in early February, which knocked him down to silver, bronze and silver at the 2025 worlds. He’s being hyped here as someone who could leave with three gold medals – maybe even more.”
Snowboard: Huge run from Wang Ziyang, but the Chinese rider is already in 10th so he’s probably safe… improves his score, though it doesn’t improve his standing, still 10th. Lee Chaeun in 9th doesn’t improve either, the Korean falling near the end of this run. David Habluetzel of Switzerland falls and will miss out.
Snowboard: A little movement! Jake Pates of the USA manages to improve his first score enough to sneak into 12th. Can he stay there? Nice camaraderie in this sport, it has always been a feature: Pates knocks out Lee Jio of Korea, bumped to 13th, and Lee is the first one up to Pates after his run to give him a hug and congratulations.
Christop Lechner, the German low in the standings, crashes out.
Figure skating: This is my favourite winter event. All of the figure skating really, but the extra creative element to the ice dance makes it something else, challenging the arbitrary boundaries between art and sport. Another stunning routine to take us halfway, Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko now take top place for the USA.
Snowboard: With 12 riders out of 24 progressing to the final, this is starting to take shape. Chase Blackwell in 14th spot crashes out on his second attempt. There are eight riders left outside that top dozen who could push their way into it.
Figure skating: The Finns get creative, a tango-inspired number telling the story of La Rubia Mireya, a kind of tango archetype of a woman who is admired and then undermined. Juulia Turkkila is resplendent in a sparkling red gown with a choker, Matthias Versluis is supposed to be a source of menace and contrast dressed in all black. There is a lot of drama in the way they interact, competing moments of power, ascendancy, descent. Quite the composition. It puts them into top spot for now, as the ninth pair.
Figure skating: Top of the pops now for Georgia, with Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin (I keep reading his name in the voice of The Mask, but don’t let that distract you). A huge 118.87 on their routine, they’re the eighth pair out of 20. Three American pairs coming up later for our Guardian US readers, and the Great Britain pair of Lewis and Fear.
Snowboard: Patrick Burgener of Brazil crashes out on his second run, as does Campbell Melville Ives of NZ. They’re 8th and 12th effectively. Now here comes Scotty James. The cab triple cork 1440 he lands to perfection, so much elevation on that first trick, but his second one he completes without nailing the landing, and doesn’t have the momentum going into his third elevation to try a trick there. Bails out and coasts down the rest of the run, but he’s through on the strength of his first run anyway.
Snowboard: A lot of fondness in Australia at the moment for Valentino Guseli, and he’ll do that no harm with a great second run. Some big tricks in there, including a triple cork cab 14, and he lands the lot. Doesn’t quite improve on his 86.75 from his first run, probably because a couple of the landings were a bit shaky, but he’s well placed.
Snowboard: If you’re ever inclined to be sniffy about snowboard sports, get over it, this is such spectacular viewing. I will not claim the slightest expertise but the halfpipe seems more advanced today than at previous Games. A couple of huge second runs from the Japanese riders Hirano and Totsuka who both improve on their first scores.
Barbieri doesn’t, he crashes out, but qualifying only takes your score from your best run, so he’s still in a good spot with an 88 first up.
Snowboard: Right! We’ve neglected the men’s halfpipe so far, given it was qualification time on the first run while there were medals being decided elsewhere. But some good news for Australians, Scotty James is top of the scores after that first run has been completed for all competitors. Yamada Ryusei is second, Alessandro Barbieri third, and the other Aussie, Valentino Guseli, lurking in fourth. There’ll be a second run, then the final happens on Saturday.
Italian gold in the men’s double luge
It’s an Italian double in the double luge!
Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer did it in the women’s event not long ago, and now Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner have done it in the men’s, but in very different styles. The women had the best first-run time and had to nail the last run in the competition. The men came back from third place after the first run, a remarkable result given how these competitions tend to go. They clocked a competitive time, then watched as first the Austrians, then Mueller and Haugsjaa for the USA, couldn’t match them. Nothing dramatic in those last two, just not the perfect run when it was time.
The Americans drop all the way back to sixth. And the second German team that improved their position, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, steal into third for bronze.
Luge: The Italians do their bit, Rieder and Kainzwaldner going off at the bottom of the course after a good run that means they can’t miss a bronze medal. Then the Austrians, Steu and Kindl… and they don’t nail their run! No major errors, no collisions, but they’re just a touch too slow, can’t get momentum, and now the Italians are guaranteed silver! The Austrians will have to settle for bronze. Assuming the USA team do their bit…
Luge: Results largely going as expected in the men’s doubles, though the fifth-ranked German team have hopped up into fourth spot, assuming the top three don’t mess up.
Figure skating: I would love to see a session of ice dance done on vibes-based judging rather than technical. Just watched the full Harris and Chan routine back, and to an untrained eye, they were perfect. The emotion of it, the aesthetics. A far lovelier thing than the cheesy 90s music demanded by the first round: they went Clair de Lune, twinkling piano, there was a softness to the routine, a gentleness along with the athletic skill. Go and find it if you can, that was beautiful.
For now, they go to top spot with a 108.64, though with only four pairs having danced, they will be passed as we go. Still, reward for their work, they can proud.
Belated gold for the USA in men’s 1000m speed skating
So that is Jordan Stolz’s night. An anti-climactic ending for him, he half celebrated earlier but couldn’t fully go for it, and now that his gold is confirmed he’s just getting his kit together, sorting his laces, and getting ready to exit the rink. No explosion of joy, but he’ll have his moment on the podium soon enough and that’s when it can hit home.
Jenning de Boo wins silver for the Dutch, and Ning Zhongyan bronze for China.
