Day 1 - Part 1: Controlled Chaos, Heart-Stopping Drops, and "Chess on Ice"

 


❄️ Day 1: Controlled Chaos, Heart-Stopping Drops, and "Chess on Ice"

After four hours of sleep and a dangerous amount of coffee, I jumped with both feet into Day 1! From the pageantry of last night to the raw speed of the Bormio slopes, my heart rate hasn't settled once. Here’s the breakdown of a wild opening day in Italy.

🏂 Slopestyle Qualifiers: The Housekeeping of Chaos

Watching the women’s slopestyle qualifiers was bizarre. These girls make world-class tricks look like they’re just vacuuming the living room—so casual!


  • The Expected Falls: It was strange to see so many leaders slip up on the very first rail.

  • The Comeback Kid: Out of all our American skiers, only 17-year-old Avery Krumme (formerly of Team Canada!) showed the ice in her veins to move on to the Top 12. She’s going to be a fascinating story in the finals.

  • The One-Ski Wonder: I saw the scariest crash of the day—one girl flipped, her ski flew completely off mid-air, and she had to land on one leg before a "gentle" crash. She walked away fine, but man, talk about a unique landing!

  • Go Team USA (Men's): On the men's side, the tricks were bigger and the crashes were harder. Three out of our four Americans—Alex Hall, Mac Forehand, and Colby Stevenson—punched their tickets to Tuesday’s final.

⛷️ Women’s Skiathlon: The Grit of Jessie Diggins

This is the first Olympics where the men and women will ski the same distance (20km) in the Skiathlon! I have to say it was really nice to hear my favorite cross-country commentators again!  Keep up the great work Chad, Steve, and Kikkan!, This race was a thriller.

  • The Crash: Our #1 bib, Jessie Diggins, got tangled in a mess on the first lap. While she fought like a warrior, she couldn't recover the time.


  • The Nordic Sweep: Sweden’s Frida Karlsson took the Gold, her teammate Ebba Andersson took Silver, and Norway’s Heidi Weng grabbed the Bronze. Diggins finished 8th, showing massive heart just to climb back that far.


🏔️ Men’s Downhill: 90 MPH Adrenaline

If you need to wake up, skip the espresso and watch the Men’s Downhill. My heart went from 75 to 150 bpm watching these guys shoot down the Stelvio course.

  • Controlled Chaos: Everyone thought the Swiss star Marco Odermatt would take it, but his teammate Franjo von Allman was a freak of nature today. He took the Gold with a run that was pure madness.


  • Hometown Heroes: The Swiss sweep was blocked by two phenomenal Italian runs. Giovanni Franzoni took the Silver and the "King of Bormio" Dominik Paris secured the Bronze. The home crowd was absolutely electric!

🥌 Mixed Doubles Curling: The Chess Match

It was the battle of the unbeatens: Team USA vs. Team Great Britain.

  • The Result: It was 3D chess on ice, but in the end, the Brits just felt the ice better today. They handed us our first loss (6-4). We are still sitting pretty at 4-1 in the round-robin, but that one stung!


⛸️ Speed Skating: Italy’s Birthday Gold

In the Women’s 3000m, Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida completely floored the "Team Orange" favorites from the Netherlands. On her 35th birthday, she took the Gold in front of her home crowd, setting a new Olympic record (3:54.28).  No Orange on the podium for this race!


  • The Podium: * 🥇 Gold: Francesca Lollobrigida (Italy)

    • 🥈 Silver: Valérie Maltais (Canada)

    • 🥉 Bronze: Ragne Wiklund (Norway)

🏒 Women’s Hockey: USA Blowout! 🇺🇸

I just finished watching Team USA absolutely dismantle Finland. "Blown out of the water" is an understatement. The U.S. looked like they were on a different planet tonight, completely dominating every inch of the ice.

  • The Stats: We outshot Finland 49 to 11. To be honest, I think the Finnish skaters were asleep—the only one who showed up was their goalie. She had a great helmet and we definitely gave her a workout, but she couldn't stop the American wave.

  • The Goal Scorers:

    • Alex Carpenter (Power Play goal - Assisted by Laila Edwards & Megan Keller)

    • Taylor Heise (Her first ever Olympic goal!)

    • Megan Keller (Unassisted "five-hole" beauty)

    • Hilary Knight (Making history! This tied the all-time U.S. Olympic record with 14 goals!)

    • Abbey Murphy (The final exclamation point late in the 3rd)

  • Shutout: Aerin Frankel was a wall, stopping all 11 shots she faced for the shutout.



🕒 Coming Up: Primetime in Milan!

Don't put the remote away yet! The action is just moving from the snow to the ice for the late-night sessions.

  • ⛸️ Figure Skating Team Event: The men take the ice for the Short Program at 1:45 PM ET. This is the big one—Ilia Malinin makes his Olympic debut! We need him to fly to keep Team USA in the #1 spot before the cut.

  • 🛷 Luge (Men's Singles): Heats 1 and 2 start at 11:00 AM ET. These guys are basically human rockets on sleds.

  • 🏂 Snowboarding: Men's Big Air qualifying is coming up later this afternoon.

🍿 Primetime Teaser: Tonight on NBC, you won’t want to miss the recap of the Men’s Downhill (trust me, you have to see Von Allman’s run to believe it) and the full broadcast of the Figure Skating team showdown. Grab your popcorn!

Nap time for this Olympics Superfan.  Look for my Part 2 coverage later tonight.  



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