United States' Cory Thiesse, Taylor Anderson-Heide, Tabitha Peterson, and Tara Peterson react after the women's curling round robin session against Canada, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The U.S. women’s curling team was surprised to learn that their defeat of Canada on Friday marked an Olympic first.

“If that’s true,” caveated Minneapolis native Taylor Anderson-Heide said after the 9-8 nailbiter, “I think we just played a really good game. They’re No. 1 in the world.”

Since 1998, when women’s curling was introduced at the Olympics, teams from the U.S. and Canada have played at least once in each Games. The U.S. had lost every time — until Friday. The U.S. men have beaten Canada, notably in the Olympic final in 2018.

Canada’s Team Homan has for years been considered the best in the world.

In Friday’s match, the U.S. managed to capitalize on a few weak shots by Canada. After the win, the Americans walked together down the ice and back to their coaches, raising fists in triumph.

They have several matches left in the round-robin before the semifinals next Friday. The are 2-1 after Friday’s match, with a win against Korea and loss to Sweden alongside the milestone.

Skiing star wins eighth career gold medal

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo insists the 10-kilometer race is the distance he struggles with most because it forces him to race the clock instead of another competitor.

Funny, it didn’t look like it at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Friday.

The 29-year-old Norwegian star made his trademark late surge to win the interval-start race. His time of 20 minutes, 36.2 seconds gave him his eighth career gold medal, tying fellow countrymen Marit Bjoergen, Bjoern Daehlie and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for the most ever at the Winter Olympics.

The all-time mark could soon be Klaebo’s alone. He’s scheduled to compete three more times at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium.

On a warm day that left some skiers racing only in their bibs, Klaebo paced himself over the first half of the race before pouring it on late. The result was his third gold since arriving in Italy, and a small nod to the toll it’s taking. Klaebo fell into the snow shortly after crossing the finish line.

Baff wins gold for Australia in snowboardcross

Snowboarder Josie Baff gave Australia its second gold medal of the Games when she stormed to victory in the women’s snowboardcross.

The 23-year-old Baff, who finished a distant 18th in Beijing four years ago, beat Eva Adamczykova of the Czech Republic and Italy’s Michela Moioli to the finish line. Baff, the 2020 World Junior Champion, is currently the second-ranked racer in the world.

Cooper Woods earned Australia’s first gold in Italy by triumphing in men’s moguls earlier this week.

Teen speedskater takes gold

MILAN — Czech speedskater Metodej Jilek spoke with a straight face and not a hint of irony as he explained how he managed to win an Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10,000 meters at age 19 on Friday, adding to his silver in the 5,000 earlier at the Milan Cortina Games.

“I sacrificed a lot of things for this,” Jilek said, “basically throughout my whole life.”

Not a lot of calendar pages have turned for him so far, yet Jilek entrenched himself as the new, fresh face of the long distances in his sport. On Friday, bothered by a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat, he covered the 25 laps around the 400-meter track — the equivalent of 6.2 miles — in 12 minutes, 33.43 seconds to win the first Olympic long track title for a man from his country.

And when it was done, after he beat silver medalist Vladimir Semirunniy of Poland by more than 5 1/2 seconds.

At the other end of the age scale was the bronze medalist, 40-year-old Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands. The gold medalist in the 10,000 way back at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the silver medalist four years later in Pyeongchang, he is the oldest man competing in speedskating in Milan.