2026 Olympic Games: Canada misses podium in long-track speed skating, Vonn airlifted after brutal crash

Lindsey Vonn airlifted to infirmary after serious  break up during Olympic downhill

Lindsey Vonn's sis Karin Kildow on her comeback and crash: 'She put her whole heart into it'

American Breezy Johnson wins women's downhill at Milano Cortina 2026

NHL stars arrive in Milan

Despite crashing out, Canada's winningest skier Kingsbury says Vonn is still the downhill GOAT

Canada's Cassidy Gray finishes 26th in downhill at Milano-Cortina Winter Games

Maltais wins 3,000m speed skating bronze for Canada's 1st medal at Milano Cortina 2026

Maltais reflects on earning her 1st individual Olympic speed skating medal

Canada drops 3rd straight mixed doubles curling match falling to Estonia

Jack Crawford finishes 9th for Canada's top result in men's Olympic downhill 

Canada's Gallant, Peterman fall to Great Britain for 2nd straight loss in Olympic mixed doubles curling

Italy wins its 1st medals at Milano Cortina 2026 as Franzoni and Paris ski to silver and bronze

Lindsey Vonn finishes 3rd in final Olympic downhill training run

Ilia Malinin's 2nd place finish keeps Americans 1st overall in figure skating team event

Bloemen finishes behind France's Timothy Loubineaud. Bloemen's time is 6:17.97, landing him in 13th place, and Loubineaud's is 6:11.15. Neither are on the podium and Eitrem will take gold with that record.

Bloemen is slightly behind but gaining time, with six laps to go.

Sander Eitrem of Norway just beat an Olympic record in his skate against Czech skater Metoděj Jílek. Eitrem finished at 6:03.95, making it the time to beat today. Jílek finished with 6:06.48. U.S. Vice-President JD Vance is in the crowd. He's been spotted at a few Milano-Cortina events so far, including at the opening ceremony in Milan, where he received loud boos from some in the audience.

Ted-Jan Bloemen is up next.

Something to keep in mind, watching these skaters fly around the ice oval is that the blades on their skates are about the width of a dime. If you think of your typical hockey or recreational skate, that's quite a bit thinner. 

Also, this is the first temporary speed skating oval at the Olympic Games and the ice itself is refrigerated slightly differently. Some skaters have commented on the sound it makes — more hollow and tinny, like skating on a lake. 

The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team just released a short update on social media, saying Vonn "sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians."

Lindsey Vonn's sister Karin Kildow on her comeback and crash: 'She put her whole heart into it'

After Lindsey Vonn was airlifted off the course following a crash in the women's downhill race, NBC interviewed Vonn's sister Karin Kildow in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Lindsey Vonn is still being evaluated, her sister Karin Kildow told NBC. Kildow said it was unclear what had caused the fall so soon into Vonn's run, but said it was a hard one to watch for her family on the sidelines. 

"She always goes 110 per cent. There's never anything less so I know she put her whole heart into it," Kildow said. 

"It's a very dangerous sport and there's a lot of variables at play…. We're just hoping for the best."

Kildow said Vonn's team of surgeons and doctors is in Italy and will be tending to her.

What goes on between speed-skating groups?

Well, if you're in Milan, a techno cover of John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads. It blared over the speakers of the Milano Speed Skating Stadium as organizers cleaned the ice midway through groups in the men's 5,000-metre long-track speed-skating final. 

The lights were dimmed for several minutes, moving in a melodic swirl that cycled around the length of the speed-skating track as an Italian hype man succeeded in bringing most of the spectators to their feet for a group karaoke of Denver's iconic lyrics. 

Milan is known for its club music scene. That was on full display here. 

Speed skating is on a little break for Zambonis to treat the ice. There are five pairings left. Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen will be in the last pairing with a solid view of the times to beat.

Other Canadian skiers have raced in the Olympics and on the World Cup circuit after tearing their ACLs. 

Take Anna Goodman, for example. She raced slalom in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics without an ACL. 

Brian Stemmle also skied in the downhill in the 1988 Calgary Winter Games with the same injury. 

Kelly VanderBeek reacts to Lindsey Vonn's alpine crash: 'When your skis don't come off, it's bad'

Vanderbeek, a Canadian Olympic skier and now analyst, was emotional when watching the American skier's crash at Milano Cortina 2026.

The American had to be airlifted off the women's downhill course earlier this morning — the second time in nine days — leaving the crowd at the bottom of the course in Cortina d'Ampezzo in silence. 

(Warning: the first few seconds are hard to watch.)

Seconds after kicking out of the start gate, Vonn clipped a gate with her right shoulder and lost her balance, falling to her inside ski, before losing full control and ragdolling down the slope. 

Several metres later, given how steep that section of the course is and the speeds the racers are travelling at, she painfully came to a stop on her back. Her knees were buckled with her skis beneath her. She was unable to unclip her own bindings. Then, viewers could hear her agonizing screams, as she was in visible pain. 

"I don't claim to know what she's going through, but I do know what it is to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics, and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die," her teammate and Cortina downhill champion, Breezy Johnson, said after Vonn went down.

Johnson became only the second American woman on Sunday to win the Olympic downhill (after Vonn). It's the same course where she was injured in 2022 and forced to pull out of the Beijing Olympics. 

"I can't imagine the pain that she's going through. And it's not the physical pain — we can deal with physical pain. But the emotional pain is something else," Johnson said.

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