A look at five things to know from Thursday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games

MILAN – From a heartbreaking loss in women’s hockey that saw Canada lose gold to the rival U.S. team to a scary situation involving a Canadian athlete being stretchered off the halfpipe course, here are five things to know from Day 13 at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games:

SILVER HEARTBREAK

The Canadian women’s hockey team fought a closely challenged gold-medal game with the rival United States squad but fell short in a crushing 2-1 defeat in overtime. Megan Keller delivered the dagger when she scored 4:07 into overtime. Canada had been clinging onto a 1-0 lead after Kristin O’Neill scored a short-handed marker 54 seconds into the second period, but U.S. captain Hilary Knight tied the game with 2:04 left in regulation by tipping in a point shot from Laila Edwards. The game was the seventh Olympic gold-medal matchup between the two teams, with the U.S. previously winning in 1998 and 2018.

CURLING FOR GOLD

The Canadian men’s curling team will be going for gold this weekend. The Calgary-based rink led by skip Brad Jacobs defeated Norway in a 5-4 extra-end semifinal victory. The team will now take on Great Britain in Saturday’s final. Jacobs is the last Canadian men’s skip to lead his team to Olympic gold, having done so in 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Norway had defeated Canada 8-6 earlier in the day in the last match of round-robin action for both teams.

HARD FALL MARS QUALIFYING

Canadian freestyle skier Cassie Sharpe is in stable condition after suffering a hard fall during qualifying at the women’s halfpipe event, requiring her to be stretchered off the course. Sharpe still finished third overall and qualified for Saturday’s final, where the top 12 athletes in the event will compete. Also qualifying were Amy Fraser, of Calgary, who placed seventh, and Rachael Karker, of Erin, Ont., who sits ninth. A fourth Canadian, Dillan Glennie, of North Vancouver, B.C., did not qualify for the finals and finished 14th.

GHOSTBUSTERS

Early on at the Milan Cortina Games, it looked like star skip Rachel Homan and her Ottawa-based curling team were haunted by ghosts of Olympics past. Homan, a three-time world champion and five-time Canadian champ, had not made it to the medal round in either of her two previous Olympic appearances. But after a 1-3 start, Canada roared into the semifinals with five straight wins, culminating in a key 10-7 win against South Korea to close the round robin. She now can clinch her first Olympic medal with a win over Sweden on Friday.

SPANISH SKIMO STAR

The long-awaited Olympic debut of ski mountaineering proved to be the prefect opportunity for Spain to pick up its first gold medal of the Games. Oriol Cardona Coll skied to victory in the men’s race in the unique event known to its followers as “skimo.” The course includes an uphill ski through a diamond-shaped pattern and climb up a flight of on-slope stairs, while wearing ski boots. More climbing, with skis back on, sets up the final leg — a downhill race to the finish.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2026.