There were no new medals for Team USA on Monday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
But there was plenty of high-stakes competition that sets up U.S. athletes in medal position with gold at stake in multiple events. USA women's hockey continued to cruise in group play ahead of a showdown with Canada.
Lindsey Vonn, meanwhile, released her first public statement since her devastating crash in the alpine downhill competition. She has "no regrets" from competing on a torn ACL and doesn't believe the injury contributed to her crash.
And ahead of the men's short program Tuesday, lia Malinin's cat is joining in on USA's gold medal in team figure skating.
Here are the top five stories of the day from Monday:
Chock and Bates in silver-medal position after rhythm dance
Madison Chock and Evan Bates' pursuit of their first Olympic medal in pairs competition is off to a strong start. But they're not quite where they want to be in their quest for Olympic gold.
Chock and Bates skated a strong program Monday. But a technical deduction on a pattern step placed them in second place, just behind the first-place French duo of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron.
Beaudry and Cizeron posted a score of 90.18, less than half a point ahead of Chock and Bates' score of 89.72. Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier leave Monday's rhythm dance in third place with a score of 86.18.
The scores carry over to Wednesday's free dance and will be combined with the free dance totals to determine medal winners. Since the scores carry over from the rhythm dance instead of the placement, the French and U.S. skating pairs are locked in what amounts to a virtual tie in what's expected to be a two-way battle for the gold medal.
Chock and Bates have team gold medals from this year's competition and from 2022 in Beijing. But they're still in search of their first Olympic medal in pairs competition after finishing in fourth place in Beijing.
They enter the Milan Cortina Games as the gold medal favorites after securing three consecutive world championships. But they'll have their work cut out for them against Beaudry and Cizeron.
Five teams including USA's Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik (6th place, 83.53 points) are within five points of the third-place Canadian pair in what's expected to be a competitive race for the bronze medal.
Lindsey Vonn's first statement since crash, surgery
Lindsey Vonn made her first public statement Monday since her devastating injury crash in the alpine downhill competition on Sunday, declaring that she has "no regrets."
In an Instagram post, Vonn wrote that her ACL tear didn't factor into the crash or her injury, which she described as a "complex tibia fracture."
Vonn explained that her crash and injury were strictly the result of her right arm hooking into a gate and a sending her flying through the air off balance at a high rate of speed β not because of her previous ACL injury.
"I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever."
Vonn, 41, added that she sustained a "complex tibia fracture" that "will require multiple surgeries to fix properly. She did not address her future in the sport.
USA Curling is medal-bound
USA Curling is guaranteed a medal. The only question at this point is what color it will be.Β
USA's mixed doubles team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin exceeded expectations just by advancing to the knockout round thanks to a 6-3 record in round-robin play. When they got to Monday's medal-round semifinal, they faced their stiffest test yet β a matchup against the reigning Olympic champion Italian tandem of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner playing in front of a friendly home crowd.
The Italians put the Americans to the test. But Thiesse and Dropkin prevailed in dramatic fashion with a final shot that secured a 9-8 win.Β
Thiesse had the final throw with USA trailing 8-7 and needing two points to win and advance to the gold-medal match. She delivered a perfect throw that Dropkin guided into place to knock out Italy's scoring stone and secure two points for the win.
With the win, USA advances to face Sweden at 12:05 a.m. ET on Tuesday with the gold medal on the line. The loser of Tuesday's match will secure silver.
Italy advanced to face Great Britain in the bronze-medal match Tuesday at 8:05 a.m. ET.
U.S. women blitz Switzerland ahead of Canada showdown
The U.S. women continue to cruise in ice hockey group play and are now 3-0 following a 5-0 blowout over Switzerland on Monday. Up next β a showdown with Canada.
Hilary Knight didn't score and remains tied with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King for the most goals scored by a U.S. player in Olympic competition with 14. But there was little to find fault with in a game in which Alex Carpenter, Haley Winn, Joy Dunne, Hannah Bilka and Caroline Harvey found the back of the net. Gwyneth Philips, meanwhile, made 20 saves in a shutout in her first start in goal at the Olympics.Β
USA has now outscored its Olympic competition, 15-1 in wins over Switzerland, Finland and Czechia. USA leads Group A with 9 points and a plus-14 goal differential.Β
Canada is 2-0 with a 9-1 goal differential in wins over Switzerland and Czechia. And it promises to provide a considerably stiffer test in Tuesday's showdown (2:10 p.m. ET) that's widely expected to be a preview of the gold-medal game.
USA misses speed skating podium as Netherlands goes 1-2
U.S. speed skaters Brittany Bowe and Erin Jackson entered Monday's 1,000-meter competition each with an outside shot of making the podium. They didn't get there.Β
The Netherlands' Jutta Leerdam set an Olympic record with a time of 1:12.31 to secure the gold medal and was joined on the podium by her teammate and silver medalist Femke Kok. Japan's Miho Takagi, the reigning gold medalist in the event, took bronze.
Jackson left her skate with the fastest time, but was surpassed by five others en route to a sixth-place finish. Bowe, the world-record holder in the event, was in podium position ahead of the final race. But Leerdam's and Takagi's medal-securing skates knocked her into fourth place.
Bowe, 37, set the world record in the event with a time of 1:11.61 in 2019 at the ISU World Cup in Salt Lake City in 2019, and it still stands. She won bronze at the Beijing Games. This is her last Olympics. She plans to retire after the Games. She'll also compete in the 1,500 meters (Feb. 20) and the women's team pursuit (Feb. 14, 17).
Jackson is a 500-meter specialist who began training for the 1,000 meters after Beijing. She'll seek to repeat her 500-meter gold medal performance from Beijing on Feb. 15.
Team USA medals
Team USA did not add to its medal count on Tuesday. Through three days of competition, USA's medal count stands at two golds: Breezy Johnson's in the alpine downhill competition and the team figure skating competition that concluded Sunday.
Host Italy leads the way with nine total medals, while Norway and Switzerland are tied for the lead with three golds each.Β
Highlight of the day
There was nothing at stake for Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud for her final run at Monday's slopestyle final.Β
Her first two runs secured her second straight gold medal on top of her gold medal from Beijing. So her third run was a true victory lap. She ran it in style while adorned with the Swiss flag.
With the Women's Slopestyle gold medal secured, Mathilde Gremaud wore the Swiss flag as a cape on a final run victory lap.
WHAT A FLEX. πͺ pic.twitter.com/kOmDjOtf7c
β NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 9, 2026
One more thing
Meet Mysti.Β
This is lia Malinin's cat joining in on the celebration after Malinin clinched for Team USA in the team figure skating competition Sunday night.Β
Malinin's hoping to bring home another gold for Mysti in the men's competition that starts Tuesday with the short program.