Winter Olympics 2026 Day 14 recap: USA, Canada will play for men’s hockey gold; Alex Ferreira wins gold in freeski halfpipe
The Milan Cortina Olympics brought plenty of excitement to Team USA on Friday with a gold medal in the men’s freeski halfpipe and women’s 1,500m short track speed skating.
Additionally, Norway set a record for the most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics, with Johannes Dale-Skjevdal winning the men’s 15 km mass start biathlon. Norway won 17 gold medals at the 2026 Winter Games.
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Here are five of the main news stories from day 14 of the Milan Cortina Olympic Games:
US men’s hockey rolls over Slovakia, Canada awaits gold medal game
The U.S. men’s hockey team will leave Milan with a medal after beating Slovakia 6-2 in Friday’s semifinal. It would be the Americans’ first medal in ice hockey since the 2010 Vancouver Games.
But Team USA has its eyes on gold – its first since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team finished atop the podium – and its inevitable matchup against Canada comes in Sunday’s next gold medal game. Team Canada had a tougher time qualifying for the final, falling behind 2-0 to Finland before rallying for a 3-2 victory.
Get up early Sunday! The United States and Canada will drop the puck at 8:10 a.m. ET.
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Women’s curling team loses in semi-final to Switzerland
Beating Switzerland in back-to-back matches proved too difficult for Team USA on Friday. A day after beating Switzerland to advance to the semifinals, Team USA lost 7-4 to Team Switzerland on Friday.
Switzerland played a solid defensive game, limiting the American team to just one point in the ends in which they scored. Switzerland also controlled the hammer, forcing several aimless volleys to hold on to the last stone.
While the United States tried to make things difficult in the 10th end, Switzerland executed its hammer throw, collecting two points to seal the victory.
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With this defeat, the American team will face Canada for the bronze medal on Saturday.
Alex Ferreira wins gold in men’s half-pipe
Competing in his third (and likely final) Winter Olympics, American half-pipe skier Alex Ferreira won an elusive gold medal in the men’s half-pipe. His gold joins the silver he won in 2018 in PyeongChang and the bronze in Beijing in 2022. By achieving a 1620 spin in his last race (with a score of 93.75), Ferreira, 31, finished 0.75 points ahead of Estonian Henry Sildaru, aged just 19. Canadian Brendan Mackay won bronze.
The American team was almost two places on the podium, but Nick Goepper took a heavy fall at the edge of the half-pipe while attempting his last trick. Had he won a medal, Goepper would have been the first men’s freestyle skier to win in both halfpipe and pentestyle. Before moving to the halfpipe, he won silver in Beijing and PyeongChang, as well as bronze in Sochi in Slopestyle.
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Corinne Stoddard wins bronze in women’s 1,500m short track speed skating
The U.S. team added to its speed skating medal tally with Corinne Stoddard winning bronze in the women’s 1,500-meter short track competition. Stoddard’s bronze medal is the first medal won by the United States in short track since 2018.
Competing in his second Winter Games, Stoddard improved on his seventh-place finish in Beijing in the 1,500 meters with a time of 2:32.578 in Milan. This beat China’s Jingru Yang for bronze. South Korea took the top two spots on the podium with Kim Gilli (2:32.076) taking gold and Choi Minjeong (2:32.450) silver.
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Brittany Bowe finishes fourth in final Olympic race
Speed skater Brittany Bowe had one last opportunity to win a medal in Milan Cortina in what will likely be her final Winter Olympics. Competing in the 1,500-meter long track speed skating event, Bowe, 37, got off to a good start, but was unable to maintain her pace and was eventually overtaken.
Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands won gold, followed by Norwegian Ragne Wiklund, silver, and Canadian Valerie Maltais, bronze. Bowe finished fourth, missing the podium for the third time at the 2026 Games. Still, she had a memorable Olympics, getting engaged to U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight before the U.S. team won gold on Thursday.
The highlight of the day
Tage Thompson gave the U.S. men’s ice hockey team a 2-0 lead, shooting from a difficult angle. Standing almost parallel to the net, Thompson received a pass from Jack Eichel and found open space between Slovak goalie Stanislav Skorvanek’s right pad and the post.
one more thing
Lindsey Vonn is now the real-life 2026 version of 1970s TV character Jamie Sommers.
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“I’m really bionic now,” Vonn said on social media after sharing a scan of her broken left leg along with the myriad of plates and screws surgeons inserted to repair the injury. Vonn broke her leg in an accident while descending on February 8 and had to be airlifted from the slope. After undergoing several surgeries in Italy, she returned to the United States earlier this week.
In the 1970s television series “The Bionic Woman,” Lindsay Wagner played a professional tennis player who suffered serious injuries in a skydiving accident and received bionic implants from a government agency. She then becomes a part-time Operator who carries out missions with her enhanced abilities.
It’s unclear whether or not Vonn will become a secret agent now that her ski racing days are likely over. But if it happened, would she tell us?
