WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN THE 2026 WINTER OLYMPICS

By now you know that the Opening Ceremony occurred.  What should you watch for over the next 17 days?

• Will Lindsey Vonn actually alpine ski on Sunday, February 8?
• If she's good enough:

• Women's downhill: Sunday, Feb. 8
• Women's team combined: Tuesday, Feb. 10
• Women's super-G: Thursday, Feb. 12

• 
  If you have any doubts, she has previously competed in 2013-14 with a torn ACl in her right knee.  She does wear high performance knee braces.
• Retired, but returned with a partial titanium knee replacement in 2024.
• She last week fell and tore her  left knee ACL.
• But she will need to ski downhill at more than 70 MPH.
• 
  By the way, Chloe Kim, also of the U.S., the two-time Olympic halfpipe gold medalist, suffered a torn labrum and dislocated shoulder after a fall in Switzerland in early January this year.  However she has returned to train and too said she will be good to go.
• NBC news anchor Savannah Guthries' mother Nancy, is still missing.  Follow live updates on our blog. 

• 
  Chances are you never heard of her, but Jessie Diggins is a three-time Olympic Mdalist and is the #1 ranked cross country skier in the world.  From Minnesota, she has won 33 World Cups heading into these final games for her.  Only 34, she will retire this year.  Her first event will be on February 7, roughly at 7AM ET, Saturday, in the Women's 20 km Skiathlon (10 km Classic + 10 km Freestyle.

There is something about the Olympics that carry important diplomatic power.

• For example, in the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Kim Jong Un sent 12 North Korean athletes to join the South Korean women's national hockey team., and they marched together chanting, We Are One.  This was followed by an invitation for South Korean President Moon Jae-In to visit North Korea, the first ever such breakthrough.

• 
  The first-ever Olympics in 776 BC, in the area around Olympia, Greece, two kings were at war.  However, they established an Olympic Truce.
• The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics were followed by half the global population.

• 
  Countries can also use uniforms to their benefit, like in the 2016 Olympics, when Tonga’s “shirtless Tongan” outfit worn by Pita Taufatofua led to 230 million Googlesearches for “where is Tonga?” With increased online searches about Tonga, Taufatofua used the moment to spread awareness about Tonga’s challenges with climate change.
• Japan used the 1964 Summer Olympics to show how technologically advanced they were as now a peaceful nation.
• China took advantage of the 2008 Summer Olympics to strengthen its geopolitical positioning among Asian and African nations.

Some memories:

• Remember when the USA won gold in the Men's Ice Hockey?
• I do, for I was in Squaw Valley in 1960 when four of us from Stanford drove there.
• Well we did not actually attend the finals, the first gold won by the USA in that sport.
• In fact, we did not see anything, but tried to ice skate.  I sprained one of my ankles.
• We went on to Reno, but could not gamble, spent only 6 hours in that city, and 4 of them watching the movie, Gone with the Wind.  Was an old 1939 film, which won 8 Academy Awards.  Rotten Tomatoes score now of 90/92.

• 
  Then there was that Miracle on Ice in 1980.  The last time the USA men's ice hockey team won a gold medal.
• The following year, there was a TV movie, called Miracle on Ice, starring Karl Malden as Herb Brooks.  Only 63 by Rotten Tomatoes.
• In 2004, Disney produced Miracle, with Kurt Russell as coach Brook.  Rotten Tomatoes scores of 80/90.
• 
  In calling the game, it was Al Michaels who blurted out, Do you believe in miracles? Yes! when the amateur American team beat the "professional" Soviets.  Here is that voice of Michaels from Miracle.  Why so memorable?  It was one of the greatest upsets in sports history and most famous line by a sportscaster.  Here is a longer 19 minute version leading up to the upset.  As you might know, there needed to be an earlier miracle against Sweden.
• 
  I might finally add that the Cold War was at a kind of peak, for the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and the U.S. later in 1980 boycotted the Russian Summer Olympics.
• You ask, why were those Olympics in the same year?  Well, from 1924 through 1992, they all held four years apart in the same year.
• I remember these details well, for I was in 1980 working in the U.S. Senate in DC.

Whatever happened to Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinsky?  They're back in Milan.  

• They first became a duo at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, covering with Terry Gannon, figure skating.
• However, they were also elite, top-tier figure skaters.

• 
  15-year old Lipinski became the youngest to win an individual Winter Olympics gold, in 1998, beating Michelle Kwan.
• Weir was a three-time U.S. National Champion, and won Bronze medal in 2008.
• Lipinsky has always remained "normal."
• Google AI says:

Johnny Weir transitioned from a relatively conventional, albeit artistic, competitive figure skater to an icon of extreme, high-fashion flair by consciously embracing his authentic self, defying traditional gender norms in skating, and leveraging his post-competition career as a commentator and personality. 

• They have become soul mates and best friends, and their chemistry on air is infectious.

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