Olympics.com Podcast

The conclusion of the Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 last Sunday (15 March) marked a historic finish in Italy, with 611 athletes from 55 delegations earning some 412 medals.

We highlight one of their stories in this episode: Czech para biathlon skier Carina Edlingerova, who explains how her guide dog, Riley, has shaped her life - as an athlete and as a person.

And with the ISU World Figure Skating Championships set to begin next week (24 March) in Prague, we feature Olympics.com contributor Gracie Gold's one-on-one sit-down with her good friend, Amber Glenn, from their last few days in Milan.

Milano Cortina 2026 is far from over. The Paralympic Winter Games are underway already, with the Opening Ceremony set for the Arena di Verona on Friday (6 March). Host Nick McCarvel is joined by his Olympics.com colleague Lena Smirnova to preview some of the biggest storylines, including 50 years of the Paralympics, the USA-Canada sled hockey rivalry and a set of high-achieving Austrian siblings in alpine skiing.

Nick also speaks one-on-one with Dani Aravich, a para cross-country skier and biathlete for Team USA, who has co-founded a sports media collective that focuses in on para athletes and their stories. Aravich believes it's important to platform herself and her peers to increase fan interest and engagement: "I'm willing to be the loudest voice in the room," she says. "It means it gets something done."

As an episode bonus, Nick speaks with athletics great Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who - along with her father Willie - is spreading the word about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a common, often inherited heart condition that Willie suffers from.

McLaughlin-Levrone also discusses her plans ahead of LA 2028... which include welcoming her first child later this year. "We're just excited for this new chapter," she says. "And hopefully it'll bring a new type of motivation for the next seasons to come."

The Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 are officially over. It's been a memorable and inspiring 16 days of Olympic greatness, and host Nick McCarvel puts the final weekend into perspective, with standout performances from the U.S. men's hockey team, free ski legend Eileen Gu and Norway's Johannes Klaebo. After six (yes, six!) golds this Games, Klaebo brings his tally to 11 overall, and is well and truly the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time.

Nick has one more exclusive for listeners on this episode too, American speed skater Jordan Stolz. The 21-year-old from Wisconsin set out for an unfathomable four medals across the 500, 1000, 1500 and mass start, and ended up with three - two golds and a silver. He reflects on his Milan experience and his unique approach to pressure, his one-of-a-kind coach, Bob Corby, his cat, Mitzi, and much more.

The Olympics.com podcast publishes every other week year-round. Subscribe and like to get regular stories of the Olympians you've followed during Milano Cortina 2026, as we round the bend to the Paralympic Winter Games, which are set to start on 6 March.

"The destiny for Cortina for me was to be peaceful, even if I didn't get a medal."

Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin is opening up after her first Olympic gold in eight years, revealing her mentality in a one-on-one sit-down with Olympics.com's Alessandro Poggi.

Another American gold medallist is also discussing her unique approach after coming back from retirement, as Alysa Liu won the Olympic figure skating title, making her the first American woman to do so since Sarah Hughes at Salt Lake City 2002.

"I don't really feel pressure," Liu says in her exclusive with host Nick McCarvel. The 20-year-old talks about how her two years away from the sport reshaped her thinking around external expectations - and how that's helped her flip the skating world on its head.

Plus, the USA women's hockey team completed a 48-hour gold rush for the Americans with a dramatic come-from-behind overtime win over rival Canada, and we hear from captain Hilary Knight and Megan Keller - who struck the game-winning goal - about their golden triumph. 

In the days since his Olympic debut came to a close, Ilia Malinin has been in a reflective mood. On Tuesday, he sat down exclusively with Olympics.com podcast host Nick McCarvel in one of his few post-competition interviews, the famous Milan Duomo in the backdrop. "Medals don't really define who you are," he said in a wide-ranging chat.

Malinin discusses the pressure that he felt at these Winter Olympics, his thinking around the quadruple Axel, his plans moving forward and the amount of support he's gotten - from Simone Biles to Tom Brady and beyond - after his performance.

The podcast also features a one-on-one with another high-flying athlete, freestyle skiing mogul legend Mikael Kingsbury, who led a trio of fathers on the dual moguls podium in the discipline's Olympic debut. Olympics.com reporter Andrew Binner chats with Kingsbury. Meanwhile, Nischal Schwager-Patel discusses the gold rush of cross-country skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, the Norwegian who now has 10 Olympic gold medals - the most for any Winter Olympic athlete - ever.

Plus, a tour of Casa Airbnb at Milano Cortina 2026, the debut of ski mountaineering, Mikaela Shiffrin's emotional gold and great French success in the biathlon.

A month ago, Federica Brignone wasn’t sure she could even compete at Milano Cortina 2026. Now, the 35-year-old skier is a double Olympic champion.

“I had no pressure because it was already amazing to be here,” Brignone told reporters after her second gold, captured in the giant slalom. “I just tried to enjoy every single moment out of it. I didn't feel the pressure, [which is] crazy because I'm at a home Olympics.”

Brignone has helped spearhead a thrilling hardware haul for the Italians: a record 23 medals with still five days to go. It's more than their previous best of 20 - at Lillehammer 1994.

Brignone features on the podcast along with another skiing champion, Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who claimed not only his country’s first Winter Olympic gold - but first winter medal of any colour for all of South America.

Olympics.com producer Alessandro Poggi joins host Nick McCarvel to talk all things alpine skiing, before Nick gets the lowdown from another colleague, Grace Goulding, on all things speed skating - both short and long track.

Plus, Grace sits down exclusively with short track great Apolo Ohno, who discusses Dutch dominance in the two sports - and one of the breakout stars of these Games, 21-year-old American Jordan Stolz.

Figure skating always has a flair for the dramatic - and this Winter Olympics has been no different. Mikhail Shaidorov's shocking gold medal in the men's event came as favourite Ilia Malinin fell to eighth place. In ice dance, the competition was one of the closest in history - with Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron edging Madison Chock and Evan Bates by just 1.43 points.

Olympics.com contributor Gracie Gold joins host Nick McCarvel to help reflect on both Shaidorov and Malinin, and she also sits down with fellow American Amber Glenn, with the women's event set to anchor week two of the Games at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

The episode also features exclusive sit-downs with Fournier Beaudry/Cizeron, Chock/Bates and bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, as well as 42-year-old Canadian Deanna Stellato-Dudek, who is set to make her Olympic debut in the pairs event.

"This is obviously my second chance at this sport," Deanna tells Nick, having been retired of 16 years. "So many stars had to align; so many serendipitous occasions had to occur in order for me to even be sitting in this seat. I just feel like I owe it to my younger self and to my current self to do absolutely everything I can, put all my chips on the table, like full throttle to [chase] this dream."

There is something about curling and the Olympics that captures fans’ imagination every Winter Games. Olympics.com curling reporter Chloe Merrell joins host Nick McCarvel from Cortina to help explain the phenomenon - and set the scene from the historic Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

Chloe breaks down each of the three curling events, including the mixed doubles, where Swedish siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wranaa surprised for gold. The men and women are underway, and we hear exclusively from three top stars: Reigning men’s Olympic champion Niklas Edin of Sweden; veteran Alina Paetz, a multi-time world champion from Switzerland who is looking for her first Olympic medal; and 2018 Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg, another Swede.

Plus, Nick gives a medal count update, and discusses emotional podium finishes for Federica Brignone, the Italian Alpine skier, and American snowboarder Chloe Kim.

It's a big Winter Olympics for ice hockey. Why? The stars of the NHL are back on Olympic ice. And women's hockey is riding a wave of success from its record-breaking new league, the PWHL.

Olympics.com producer ZK Goh joins host Nick McCarvel to break down the men's tournament, and we also hear from hockey great TJ Oshie, who believes NHL teammates will have no issue facing off against one another in the best-on-best format: "I think hockey players have a pretty easy time with that switch," he says. "When the game is on, it's whatever it takes. And when it's over, you shake hands and hug and hang out."

On the women's side, the USA-Canada rivalry is one of the fiercest in all of sports, with the two teams facing off in the last four consecutive gold-medal games. Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin sits down one-on-one with Olympics.com producer Grace Goulding to discuss how the Olympics has shaped her as a leader - and why women's hockey is having such a moment.

"It's been amazing to see," she explains of the explosive growth. "And I'm really excited to see what's ahead, too."

Four years ago, Shane Pitter didn't know what bobsleigh was. An athletics teammate told him, "It's a thing where you get in a tiny little box and you push it down the ice."

At Milano Cortina 2026, Pitter pilots not one but two Jamaican bobsleighs, while compatriot Mica Moore competes in the women's monobob. It marks a continuation of a fairy tale program for the Caribbean nation, with echoes of the 1990s cult classic movie, "Cool Runnings."

"That movie inspires me," said Pitter, who is a spearfisherman back at home in Jamaica when he's not training on the icy track in Lake Placid, New York. "And it inspires me to do better at these Games."

Jamaica's best-ever finish at an Olympics is 14th. Can they go better? "We want to make history," Pitter said.

Listen to their respective stories, as told to Olympics.com team members Andy Elliott and Sinead Nelson. Plus, host Nick McCarvel checks in on some of the other feel-good stories from the first few days of the Games, gives an update on Lindsey Vonn, and explains just why tennis great Novak Djokovic couldn't believe what he was seeing on a visit to figure skating.