"We are always going to get other teams' best shots," basketball legend Sue Bird tells host Nick McCarvel on the latest episode of the Olympics.com podcast. The five-time Olympic champion has been named as the first-ever managing director for the U.S. women at a time when the game has never been more popular. But as the USA has won eight Olympic golds in a row, the rest of the world is getting better - quickly. "We always know people aren't always cheering for us," Bird said of that international challenge. "And that's just a part of putting on that jersey; it's a part the pressure. It's part of what makes it great."

What has the pre-Olympic season brought about in the winter sports of curling, ice hockey, snowboard and free ski? Host Nick McCarvel is joined by Olympics.com colleagues Chloe Merrell, Andrew Binner and ZK Goh in a special roundtable episode to give their reporting insights on those respective sports and their qualifying events for Milano Cortina 2026. Plus, exclusive audio from Olympic gold medallists Anna Gasser and Zoi Sadwoski-Synnott, curling world champs Grant Hardie and Rachel Homan, and rising American ice hockey star Taylor Heise.

Did Alysa Liu ever dream she could be world champion after two years away from figure skating? And what piques Ilia Malinin's interest about time-travelling to post-Milano Cortina 2026? Olympics.com contributor Gracie Gold, the 2014 Olympic medallist, got those answers and much more for this week's podcast, which features full sit-downs with both of the American champs from the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Boston in late March.

Jason Brown was unsure if he'd be able to compete at the World Figure Skating Championships. But after finishing eighth, the fan favourite is more hopeful than ever that he'll make his third Olympics at Milano Cortina 2026 next year. He sat down in Boston with Olympics.com podcast host Nick McCarvel for a one-on-one chat - including his advice for teammate Ilia Malinin, the two-time world champ. Plus, contributor Gracie Gold offers her takeaways from a memorable Worlds ahead of the Olympic season.

"We all want it bad," 19-year-old Canadian snowboarder Cameron Spalding tells host Nick McCarvel on the latest episode of the Olympics.com podcast. The teenager claimed the snowboard slopestyle Crystal Globe ahead of the World Championships in what has been a breakthrough season for him. He discusses how Olympic medallist Mark McMorris has motivated Canada's next generation of boarders, the power of visualisation, his love for golf and how he's aiming for the Milano Cortina podium. 

"It is way harder than I thought," says three-time Olympic champion in bobsleigh, Kaillie Humphries, about the challenges she's faced in coming back after giving birth to her son Aulden in June. Humphries and tennis champion Petra Kvitova join a special episode of the podcast, centered around International Women's Day (on 8 March), to reflect on their respective journeys back to the sporting stage - and much more.

We're less than a year away from next February's Olympic Winter Games. Host Nick McCarvel is joined by Milano Cortina 2026 ambassador Carolina Kostner and organising committee member Marta Pagnini to find out just what it feels like in Italy as the Games draw ever closer. Kostner opens up on her role as flag-bearer at Torino 2006, while both women - each of them Olympic medal winners - talk of how they're living out the spirit of the Games in these respective roles. 

It's been a tragic week in figure skating after 28 members of its extended community died in the D.C.-area plane crash on 29 January. 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano joins host Nick McCarvel to discuss how the skating world is coping with the heart-wrenching moment. Boitano also shares memories of the great Dick Button, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, who passed away (separate from the crash) at age 95.

It's set to be a big year in Olympic sport, with official test events ahead of Milano Cortina 2026 and quota spots on offer. Olympics .com reporter ZK Goh breaks it all down with host Nick McCarvel. Meanwhile, Alessandro Poggi checks in from the mountainous slopes of Cortina with an update from Lindsey Vonn and a one-on-one sit-down with New Zealand skiing superstar Alice Robinson. 

What an Olympic year it was. In our final podcast of 2024, host Nick McCarvel is joined by Olympics.com editor in chief Mary Byrne and news producers Andrew Binner and Chloe Merrell for a roundtable discussion on the moments we won't soon forget from Paris and beyond. Plus, our team of producers from around the world share the Olympic moment that stuck with them the most.