Sports Desk, (EFE).- The first Sunday of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games was marked by skier Lindsey Vonn’s shocking crash in the downhill alpine skiing event. However, the American’s misfortune was in stark contrast to the triumphs of new and veteran champions.
The most discussed event of the day was Vonn’s fall, which occurred almost immediately after starting her downhill run. The 41-year-old American, who was competing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) following another crash a few days prior. She was unable to complete her attempted comeback and had to be evacuated by helicopter.
The US Ski & Snowboard Team reported that she is stable and receiving medical attention.
Meanwhile, Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo took the first step toward an unprecedented record. The cross-country skier aims to win all six events in his discipline at the same Games (a feat he achieved at the 2025 World Championships) and on Sunday, he secured the first one in the 10+10 km Skiathlon.
This marks Klaebo’s sixth career Olympic gold, putting him just two away from the maximum ever won by a single athlete at the Winter Games.
The new Olympic champions also provided fresh storylines. In the parallel giant slalom snowboard event, the Czech Republic earned its third consecutive Olympic title, though this time not through Ester Ledecká, the champion in 2014 and 2018.
Ledecká had been the best in the qualifying round but was eliminated in the quarter-finals. She was replaced at the top of the podium by her compatriot Zuzana Maderova, ensuring a generational handover.
There has not yet been a changing of the guard in the men’s parallel giant slalom. In a sport often dominated by athletes under 25 (like Maderova herself, who is 22), the gold went to Austria’s Benjamin Karl, who turns 41 this year.
Karl successfully defended the medal he won at Beijing 2022 in what he has stated is the final season of his career, following five Olympic appearances.
Speed skating once again delivered a new Olympic record, this time in the men’s 5,000 meters. Norway’s Sander Eitrem, who also holds the world record, stopped the clock at 6:03.95. Concern is beginning to surface within the Netherlands’ team, traditionally dominant in this sport, as they have yet to win a medal in the two events contested so far.
In the women’s snowboard Big Air qualifier, Austria’s Anna Gasser, the only Olympic champion in the history of the discipline (it has only been on the Games program since 2018), qualified in ninth position. In contrast, New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott and Japan’s Kokomo Murase, the silver and bronze medalists from 2022, met expectations and advanced to the final with the two highest scores. EFE
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