MILAN — In a world where pro athletes are coached to be as deliberately dull as possible in their public statements, the Olympics are a refreshing throwback to an era when athletes spoke their minds, damn the consequences. NFL and NBA players will spiral out cliches like “keeping the main thing the main thing” and “going 1-0 every week,” as easy as breathing … and then a Norwegian Olympic biathlete will just go right on camera and confess to cheating on his girlfriend. Just a bit of a different energy there. 

Here are a few of the hundreds of classic quotes from this year’s Winter Olympics: 

"I know what my chances were before the crash, and I know my chances aren't the same as it stands today, but I know there's still a chance and as long as there's a chance, I will try." 

— Lindsey Vonn, three days before the start of the Olympics, on skiing with a torn ACL suffered the prior weekend

“That’s what I’m f***ing talking about!” 

—Team USA figure skater Alysa Liu, after skating the triumphant routine that won her the gold 

“I am greatness, and this is my moment.”

— Team USA halfpipe skier Alex Ferreira’s words to himself before winning gold

“Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S." 

— Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess, who  was later called a “loser” by President Trump

"I am tired of fourth-place finishes. Finishing fourth place three times this Olympics is heartbreaking.”

— Team USA speed skater Brittany Bowe, after her third fourth-place finish in her final Olympics

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"I still believe that we didn't violate any rules. From the beginning, I truly believed that it's just the wrong interpretation by some IOC representatives."

— Ukrainian skeleton pilot Vladyslav Heraskevych after being disqualified for wearing a helmet showing images of Ukraine’s war dead

“I think that in some ways he understood that but was very committed to his beliefs, which I can respect. But sadly it doesn’t change the rules. And the rules were that for certain spaces — the field of play, the ceremonies, the Olympic Village — should be spaces where athletes are safe from both sides and where there is no messaging of any kind.”

— IOC President Kirsty Coventry, on Heraskevych’s protest

“Six months ago, I met the love of my life, the most beautiful, kindest person in the world. And three months ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life and cheated on her, and I told her about it a week ago.”

— Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Lægreid after winning bronze 

“There's something so unique and beautiful about skating ... it's the best sport. But don't tell the other sports.”

— Madison Chock, Team USA ice dancer

“I don't want to be in life without my dad, and today was maybe the first time I could actually accept this.”

— Team USA skier and gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin, immediately after winning her first Olympic medal since 2018, on her father, who passed away in 2020,

“Every day training is exhausting because everyone's so good. I'm getting my ass handed to me every day.”

— AJ Hurt, Team USA slalom/giant slalom skier

“F*** off.”

— Canadian curler Marc Kennedy to Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson after accusations that Canada cheated during their curling match. 

“I really want to enjoy this with my family and friends. It's my last Games and my final season, and you always just want to hug your mum after the finish, no matter how it goes.”

— Team USA cross-country skier Jessie Diggins 

"It's a fight between the slope and you. Who is stronger?"

— Italian downhill skier Dominik Paris

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“I blew it.”

— Team USA figure skater Ilia Malinin after falling during his free skate and plummeting from first place all the way to eighth

“We're going all the way to 2034. I would love to end in the States. Is that possible? I don't know. Are we going to find out? Damn straight."

— Team USA snowboarder Nick Baumgarter, age 44 

“If anything was to come to the surface, we would look at anything if it is actually doping related.”

— Oliver Niggli, director general of WADA, on ski jumping’s “Crotch-gate”

STEFANO RELLANDINI via Getty Images

"For us this was just enjoying family time. We didn't realize that the cameras were there and that it would go viral. Things happened, and I guess he's the 'curling baby' now."

— Swiss curler Briar Schwaller-Huerlimann after son River caught social media’s eye after a match

"Norway taught me how to be an athlete, how to brave the cold. Brazil taught me how to be myself."

— Brazilian gold medal skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen after changing nationality from Norway to Brazil. 

“After those five seconds of running, you're some combination of an F1 driver, a boxer and a Buddhist monk trying to stay calm while everything is processing at 140 kilometers an hour.” 

— Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone on the challenges of his sport

"We have a tendency to want to film it all, but put the phone down and really absorb it in, emotionally. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

— Team USA freestyle skier Nick Goepper on the Olympic experience

“I had it.”

— Team USA figure skater Amber Glenn after missing a triple-loop jump that ultimately cost her a medal

“I’m looking at my team and maybe someone needs to be dismissed because I’m not aware of that.” 

— IOC President Kirsty Coventry, in a press conference, when asked about a report that the head of Russia’s 2014 anti-doping agency was in fact involved in that country’s widespread doping scheme 

“He had his arm around my mom. Like, get out of here. This is wild. I think Coach Mom was helping Snoop out, telling him all about curling.”

— Team USA curler Korey Dropkin on Snoop Dogg hanging with his mother

"He sent me a very long and well-written email [wishing me good luck]. His text messages are better than my high school and college papers."

— Team USA freestyle skier Birk Irving on his grandfather, novelist John Irving.

"I don't know how it is to be in third place here, because I'm normally either out or first."

— Italian skier Dominik Paris after winning bronze in men’s downhill 

“This was now my seventh summer owning and operating a window-cleaning business in Steamboat [Colorado]. It's the perfect place for it. There's tons of rich people that don't want to clean their windows."

— Team USA’s Cody Winters on how he funded his snowboarding 

"I should tattoo the whole track and then put a red cross over it. I’ll put it on my back or something. Me and Milano Cortina, we just don’t speak the same language, and we don’t like each other."

— Polish luge athlete Mateusz Sochowicz 

"The Olympics is a beast stronger than me, I just don't have it."

— Italian snowboarder Roland Fischnaller, who has appeared in seven Winter Games without medaling 

"If you're going through hell, you keep walking, because you don't want to just sit around in hell. And sometimes when you keep going, maybe you'll make it back to the top."

— Team USA’s gold medal-winning skier Breezy Johnson

"It was the most intense one minute of my life, just watching and wondering if I'm third or fourth."

— Bulgarian bronze medallist snowboarder Tervel Zamfirov, awaiting the results of a photo finish to determine the men’s parallel giant slalom. 

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"You saw me with my naked body. I think you can be super good in shape until maybe 50.

— Australian snowboarder Benjamin Karl, age 40, who celebrated winning snowboarding’s men’s parallel giant slalom by tearing off his shirt. 

"At the third turn I thought, 'Oh s**t, what am I doing? Come on, Emma'."

— German alpine skier Emma Aicher on her thoughts to herself during a downhill race where she would go on to win silver. 

“Push hard, drive fast, see what happens at the bottom. It’s pretty basic."

— Team USA bobsledder Kaillie Armbruster Humphries on her strategy. 

“What I yearn for most is a worthy opponent ... then I have a reason to be better every day. There's no better feeling than being a better person today than you were yesterday.”

— American-born, Chinese-competing Eileen Gu after winning silver in women’s freeski slopestyle

“I have so much anxiety but thankfully, I have matcha.”

— Team USA snowboarder Chloe Kim

"Honestly, it bores me. I try to concentrate on skiing or something else just to avoid getting lost in the woods."

— Italian biathlete Michela Carrara on focus during competition

“If I’m competing in the Salt Lake Games, it might be a medical miracle."

— Team USA bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor on her Olympic future.

“Just to throw one rock would be the greatest. It would be the greatest moment in my life. My kids know it and my wife knows it, so they're not going to be mad at me for saying it wasn't my wedding day.”

— Team USA curler Richard Ruohonen on making his Olympic debut at 54, becoming the oldest American Winter Olympian ever. (He would indeed make an appearance.) 

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"I wanted them to sit in the kiss and cry with me and experience the moment, look up at the scores. They deserve to be sat right next to me, like they always have been.”

— Team USA figure skater Maxim Naumov on his parents, lost last year in a plane crash

"Sometimes you just need a reminder. You're so focused on where you want to go that you forget how far you've already come."

— Canadian skier Riley Seger on falling short in the men’s super G

"[I was] dying. I had pain everywhere in my body. My stomach was hurting so much, and my legs too. It was difficult to ski because it was getting icy. And also my vision was getting darker and more narrow. It was hell."

— French biathlete and silver medallist Lou Jeanmonnot, describing her final lap of the 15km individual

"For 10 months everybody was asking, 'Are you racing in Milano Cortina?' I didn't know. I was not able to walk and didn't know if I was going to ski ever again."

— Italy’s Federica Brignone, who overcame catastrophic injury to win gold in the women’s super G. 

"The Olympics are huge and I was nervous. I can usually sleep before a game and I could not sleep. We are good at what we do, but we feel like kids at this tournament."

— Team Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon

"I think his honest opinion is to pick Johannes on the first leg, Johannes on the second leg, Johannes on the third leg and Johannes on the fourth leg."

— Norway cross-country skier Einar Hedegart on teammate (and six-time gold-medal winner) Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo’s fantasy Norway's men's 4 x 7.5km relay team

"It was the hardest 45 minutes. I ate my fingers, I think."

— Polish speed skater Vladimir Semirunniy on the long wait to see how his time in the men’s 10000m would stand up; he won silver

"The emotion I’m feeling right now is an internal sun inside of me that is shining so bright and towards so many people. It is the very light that brought me the power to be the fastest in the world today and to become an Olympic champion." 

— Brazilian giant slalom gold medallist Lucas Pinheiro Braathen after winning the country’s first-ever Olympic Winter Games medal

“You have to get to this mental state where you're basically a racehorse. You need to have horse blinders on and be calm because you're trying to do the most ballistic, violent running anyone's ever done, and, yet, it's very technical."

— Canadian bobsledder Mike Evelyn on how to push start a bobsled 

"Probably the pub."

— Great Britain’s Matt Weston on plans after winning mixed team skeleton gold

"If you get intimidated, you shouldn't be playing pro hockey."

— Czechia’s Radko Gudas on playing Canada in men’s ice hockey

"Having a medal at the Olympic Games is completely different from not having one."

— Japanese speed skater Ayano Sato after a bronze medal in the women’s team pursuit

"I told myself I did not want to buy one, I wanted to earn one."

— Chinese speed skater Zhongyan Ning on obtaining sold-out stuffed Milano-Cortina mascot; he got one by winning bronze in the men’s team pursuit 

“I had to show up today and believe I could do it, look at [Johannes Hoesflot] Klaebo’s butt and lock in and follow that to the finish line.”

— Team USA cross-country skier Gus Schumacher on how he won silver in the men’s team sprint free event

"I became famous with a dog that came across the finish line and everyone wants to interview me now. It is the first time I have given any interviews." 

— Greek cross-country skier Konstantina Charalampidou after meeting a dog named Nazgul at the finish line during team sprint qualifying.  

ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT via Getty Images

[No comment.] 

— Nazgul the Dog

“We are really proud of what we did, because we knew that, on paper, we would be able to reach the medal, but then on snow it's not exactly like on paper.”

— Italian cross-country skier Federico Pellegrino after winning bronze in team sprint 

“That's what we're going to remember when we get old. It's not necessarily the physical gold medal, but it's the gold medal of memories. And we had thousands and thousands of them these past weeks and months.”

— Norwegian biathlete Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen  

“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”

— Lindsey Vonn, in an Instagram posting following her catastrophic downhill injury

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MILAN — Sidney Crosby has been ruled out of Canada’s Olympic gold medal game against the United States. The news came about an hour before the start of the game. 

Crosby, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, suffered a lower-body injury during Canada’s quarterfinal victory over Czechia. His status for Sunday’s game had been in doubt right up until the official announcement. 

In the game against Czechia, Crosby was hit along the boards in the second period by Czechia's Martin Nečas and Radko Gudas, the third major hit he’d taken that period. He exited the ice soon afterward, limped toward the locker room, and was soon ruled out of that game. 

Canada head coach Jon Cooper had said on Friday that he believed Crosby had a chance to play in the gold-medal game, but clearly the 38-year-old Canadian captain did not recover in time to be in Canada’s active lineup.

“He’s Sidney Crosby,” Connor McDavid said after Crosby’s injury. “He’s going to have a big influence no matter what. In the lineup, not in the lineup, he’s going to have a big influence. That’s what he does.”

Crosby, the oldest player on Canada’s roster, has played in three Olympic Games for Canada, and has won two golds, in Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. Crosby scored Canada’s golden overtime goal in 2010 that sent Canada past the United States. He skated in practice on both Friday and Saturday but made no public statements, as both practices were closed to media. 

McDavid will again be the playing captain for Team Canada, as he has been since Crosby’s injury.

REUTERS / REUTERS

MILAN — Polish skater Kamila Sellier suffered a serious injury in the sixth quarterfinal of Friday night’s 1500m short-track speed skate and was taken from Assago Ice Skating Arena to a nearby hospital. Polish officials indicated that she was in good spirits, even raising a thumbs-up as she left the arena. 

Late in the quarterfinal, Sellier appeared to lose her footing and slipped, colliding with the United States’ Kristen Santos-Griswold. In the ensuing accident, Santos-Griswold’s skate caught Sellier on the face. Sellier slid into the protective retaining wall, and medical crews raised a sheet around her to protect the scene from the audience. She was stretchered from the ice. 

Konrad Niedźwiedzki, press attache for the Polish speed skating team and a 2014 Olympian, informed reporters at the arena that Sellier had suffered a cut on her cheek and eyelid that required stitches. Other reports indicated that Sellier had potentially fractured a cheekbone and suffered severe swelling.

“We are waiting for what the hospital tests will show,” Niedźwiedzki said, via translation. 

One of Sellier’s teammates, Natalia Maliszewska, appeared visibly shaken as she spoke with reporters. “My thoughts are with her,” Maliszewska said in Polish. “I can’t think of anything else.” 

“These aren't common accidents, but they do happen,” Sellier’s teammate Gabriela Topolska said in Polish. “Kamila already has one of them, from a skate on her face. Kamila has a cut in her skin, with stitches.” 

Sellier has won several European speed-skating medals, most recently a silver medal in the 2000m mixed relay at the European short track speed skating championships in January.

Santos-Griswold was disqualified from the race, which continued after the injury timeout.

MILAN — As she skated around the Assago Ice Skating Arena rink, moments before the most important routine of her life, Alysa Liu caught sight of her teammate Amber Glenn near the kiss-and-cry couch. Glenn, devastated after Tuesday night’s program, had skated a spectacular routine of her own nearly two hours before. As Liu drew close, she gave Glenn a congratulatory thumbs-up. 

“What are you doing?” an exasperated Glenn replied. “Go skate!” 

So Alysa Liu did. And she won herself a gold medal, smiling all the way. 

There are no record books to measure such things, but it’s entirely possible that no Olympian has ever smiled as much as Liu did on Thursday night, executing a brilliant, virtually flawless free skate that vaulted her from third place into first. She smiled when she stepped onto the ice, she smiled when she spotted Glenn, she smiled through her lutzes and loops and salchows, she smiled when she pointed her left finger to the sky to close out her routine. And she smiled — and giggled a triumphant laugh — when she skated right up to the rinkside camera and bellowed, “That’s what I’m f***ing talking about!” 

That is the entire joy of the Alysa Liu experience — giddiness, confidence, joy, serenity — and gold-medal-winning talent. At an Olympics where so many others have crumbled under the pressure, she literally laughed in pressure’s face. 

“She’s not like us,” her coach Phillip DiGuglielmo said, beaming in the afterglow of her victory. “The rest of us here would be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m nervous. I can’t do this. I have a million voices in my head.’ She has one voice in her head and it says, ‘I got this.’”

“The feelings I felt out there were calm, happy, confident,” she said after coming off the ice, drawing out pauses between each word. “Of course I had fun. But I’ve been having fun all the time.” 

REUTERS / REUTERS

Her story remains a remarkable one: a champion at the intermediate, junior and national levels from 2016 to 2020, she made the 2022 Olympic team … and then decided she was done with skating. Completely, thoroughly, slam-the-door done. She enrolled in classes at UCLA, she spent time with friends, she traveled the world … all the parts of a normal life denied to competitive figure skaters. 

Somewhere along the line, though, she decided to come back to skating, decided that this was the way she could best express her abundance of ideas, in fields far from the ice. Get her started talking about music or fashion or choreography, and she’s likely to spiral off in giddy delight about her latest inspiration or creation.

“I think I have a beautiful life story, and I feel really lucky,” Liu said. “I’m glad that a lot of people are now watching me so I can show them everything I’ve come up with in my brain.” 

Liu rediscovered a love of skating, and skating loved her back. In short order, she rose from retirement to world champion to, now, Olympic gold medalist — the first American woman to win an individual gold medal since 2002. 

“I 100 percent believe that if she had not stepped away, she would not be here right now,” DiGuglielmo said. “Giving her that break — not just stepping away, she shut the door — her body got healthier, her mind …. was sparked, all those things that make you into the person you are.” 

What’s most remarkable about Liu is this: for an Olympian, she’s remarkably unfazed by the Olympics themselves. She visualizes something larger, something beyond the Olympic stage, which is truly an achievement given that she’s still 20. 

“I don’t need this,” she said, holding up her gold medal. “What I needed was the stage. And I got that. So I was all good, no matter what happened. If I fell on every jump,” she said smiling, “I would still be wearing this dress.” 

Someday, a few more Winter Olympics down the line, we might look back on Alysa Liu’s 2026 performance as the start of a revitalization of interest in the sport of figure skating, the way Dorothy Hamill inspired thousands of young skaters after her 1976 gold. And even if not, we’ll still have this one true memory of one perfect night on the ice. 

“When you enjoy doing something, you can excel at it,” DiGuglielmo said. “She can really show that you can do what you love, do it really well, and win the Olympics.”

Her medal around her neck, her skates swapped for sneakers, Liu paused for a thought. “I felt so connected with the audience,” she said, and then laughed. “Oh! I want to be out there again!”

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MILAN — Redemption is possible, at least on the rink. After a single missed element in the short program doomed her best chance at a medal, Amber Glenn returned to the Olympic ice Thursday night and delivered a much more composed free skate. The audience at Assago Ice Skating Arena heralded her arrival on the ice with applause, and congratulated her on the conclusion of her program with a standing ovation. 

Starting the night in 13th place, Glenn finished her free skate with a score of 147.52, good enough for a conditional first place with 12 skaters left to go. She skated to a medley of “I Will Find You” by Audiomachine and “The Return” by CLANN, and appeared in control, confident and even grateful, pumping her fists and gratefully touching her heart as she skated off the ice. 

“This close,” she said to herself, knowing a slight bobble on her final jumping pass stood between her and near perfection on the routine.

She may leave Milan with only one medal, the team gold she earned last week, but she also leaves with her head held high and her self-esteem reclaimed.

Glenn and her Team USA teammates Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito arrived in Milan two weeks ago riding a surge of nationwide popularity. The “Blade Angels,” as they dubbed themselves, were a perfect trio — the heartfelt Glenn, the quirky Liu, the understated Levito. They’d shown so much talent, so much promise — all three are national champions — that talk of a podium sweep even took flight. At the very least, one of them would almost surely break the American medal drought that’s existed in women’s figure skating since 2006. 

For Glenn, the first cracks started to show in the team event. Tasked with handling the free skate element — Liu had handled the women’s short program — Glenn was uncharacteristically tentative, ending her routine in third place. 

"If an average person were to watch, they'd probably be like, 'Oh, it's fine. Just a few little things (went wrong), but as skating people we know, there were many, many, many points left out on the table,” Glenn said afterward. “I did not feel or perform the way I wanted to. I physically didn't feel great. My legs were feeling heavy, I was tired, I just didn't feel my best, and I've been practicing here incredibly.”

The United States still claimed the team gold for a second straight Olympics, but Glenn’s face betrayed her anguish and fear that she’d cost Team USA a gold right up until the final results were announced. 

“I think I had some fatigue and I need to really manage that going into the individual event,” Glenn said at the time. “But I'm really proud of the mental strength that I've built over the years to be able to get through some mistakes in the beginning and really fighting in the second half.”

She had no idea that much worse was yet to come. Glenn and her fellow Blade Angels had more than a week between the team event and their individual events, a long time to maintain Olympic-level intensity. 

When Glenn finally took the ice for her short program on Tuesday, she began with a triple axel, a jump so difficult only one other skater in this year’s women’s event landed it. After another successful element, she prepared to do a triple loop, a relatively routine jump; virtually every Olympian on Tuesday’s program completed one. But a slight loss of balance meant she only did two loops instead of three, giving her zero points for the entire element. 

That loss sent her plummeting down the standings; she finished the program in 13th place, more than 11 points behind leader Ami Nakai of Japan. She was visibly devastated, and left the arena after only the briefest of interviews. 

Glenn returned to the ice on Thursday night with an opportunity to rewrite her narrative. She executed the jump she missed two days earlier and rallied to put up a score that will certainly move her well up the leaderboard. But no matter how her final routine went, she would leave Milan as a gold medalist.