Today’s Winter Olympics Predictions: Team events Ice Hockey and Curling head towards their conclusion (18 February)
General overview
When are the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics taking place? The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics is taking take place between 6th February, 2026 and 22nd February 2026, although some preliminary events in sports such as Curling and Ice Hockey have already got underway.
Where are the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics taking place? The Opening Ceremony for the games will be held at San Siro in Milan with the Closing Ceremony being held at the Verona Arena in Verona. There are events taking place across Lombardy and the north west of Italy with Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Alps hosting a lot of skiing events.
How to watch the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: In the UK, the BBC and TNT Sports are the main broadcasters. In USA, NBCUniversal and Versant are the main broadcasters for the games.
What’s on today (18 February) at the Winter Olympics?
Seven medal events take place on Thursday with the Ice Hockey finally reaching its end in the women’s tournament, while the Curling semi-finals in the men’s tournament also takes place.
Medal events
Figure Skating: Women’s singles | 6pm (UK)
Kaori Sakamoto won bronze in 2022 before a couple of silvers in team events but now the 25-year-old Japanese skater is expected to get her first Olympic gold in the women’s singles on Thursday.
Prediction: JPN to win
Freestyle Skiing: Men’s aerials | 2pm (UK)
Qualification for the men’s aerials takes place in the morning before the final runs in the early afternoon and, remarkably the Chinese present all four of the leading contenders for the gold medal.
Prediction: CHN clean sweep
Ice Hockey: Women’s | 6.10pm (UK)
In the women’s Ice Hockey, the bronze medal match between Switzerland and Sweden before the fierce rivalry between the USA and Canada is reignited once more in the gold medal contest.
Prediction: CAN to win
Nordic Combined: Team sprint | 1pm (UK)
Norway have been superb across pretty much all disciplines and sports at these games and they are expected to round off their Nordic Combined with a win in the team sprint, led by Jens Luraas Oftebro.
Prediction: NOR to win
Ski Mountaineering: Women’s sprint | 12.55pm (UK)
In the women’s sprint event in the Ski Mountaineering, there is a much clearer favourite as Alps-born French athlete Emily Harrop, who has English parents, is expected to come out on top.
Prediction: Emily Harrop (FRA) to win
Ski Mountaineering: Men’s sprint | 1.15pm (UK)
Spaniard skier Oriol Cardona Coll will be the favourite to back up his World Championship gold medal in this event, albeit he faces competition from Thibault Anselmet.
Prediction: Oriol Cardona Coll (ESP) to win
Speed Skating: Men’s 1500m | 3.30pm (UK)
The star man in the Speed Skating is Team USA’s Jordan Stolz and the 21-year-old has another chance for gold. He is the heavy favourite to take home his third Olympic gold medal here.
Prediction: Jordan Stolz (USA) to win
Other events
Curling: Men’s preliminaries and semi-finals & women’s preliminaries | 8.05am - 6.05pm (UK)
In the Curling, we are reaching the denouement of the men’s event with the preliminary round concluding on Thursday ahead of the semi-finals, while the women’s preliminary round also reaches its conclusion.
Freestyle Skiing: Men’s and women’s halfpipe | 9.30am – 7.27pm (UK)
The Freestyle Skiing is coming towards the end of its time but there is still some events to go and qualification for both the men’s and women’s halfpipe takes place on Thursday.
