Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Olympic highs and lows: Mikaela Shiffrin’s historic gold, Amber Glenn’s costly mistake, and a sport fighting for equality—and survival

The Olympics are bringing us high highs and low lows.

Today, Mikaela Shiffrin broke her personal eight-year Olympic medal drought. She won the women’s slalom by a “massive” 1.50 seconds. She’s now the first American skier to win three Alpine golds. And it was in the same event she first won as a teen in Sochi 12 years ago.

The Blade Angels got a special intro recorded by Taylor Swift to promote the American women’s figure skaters—but faced some heartbreak on the ice. Amber Glenn missed a triple on one of her jumps and was docked seven points—a disappointing outcome for the 26-year-old making her Olympic debut. Alysa Liu is in third place heading into the women’s free skate tomorrow. Japan’s Ami Nakai, 17, is in the lead.

And figure skating proved to be a ground for an interesting bit of geopolitics. Adeliia Petrosian, 18, was unknown to many heading into the Olympics. From Russia, she’s skating as a neutral athlete because of Russia’s official ban from competition following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Not only did her fellow competitors and observers not know what to expect, Petrosian likely didn’t know what to expect from them as she hadn’t competed against any of them before. She delivered a stunning routine and is now in fifth place.

Nordic combined is the last winter Olympic sport to exclude women. U.S. athlete Annika Malacinski is ranked 10th in the world in the sport, which combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing, and is fighting for women’s inclusion. Agents tell her she could make $1 million “tomorrow” if her sport were in the Olympics, she says. But what started as a fight for equality in the sport has become a referendum on the sport itself—the International Olympic Committee says it will make a decision on Nordic combined’s future, for both men and women, after the Games.

And some happy news: Two Olympians are engaged! Hilary Knight, captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team, proposed to American speedskater Brittany Bowe. The pair met at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

More news below.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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