As a figure skating super fan and a lover of the Olympics, I already expected drama in Milano Cortina. However, even I couldn’t have predicted all the drama that’s happened so far. I mean, let’s just take a look at one day in Cosmopolitan’s Olympics group chat:
11:18 AM - Breezy Johnson’s proposal video is shared.
12:24 PM - Ukraine’s Vladslsav Heraskevych is disqualified from competing in Skeleton over his helmet honoring coaches and athletes killed during Russia’s invasion.
3:02 PM - Chloe Kim is spotted by the slopes with her BF, NFL Star Boyfriend Myles Garrett.
4:56 PM - A Slovak man is arrested after returning to Italy to see the hockey team at the Olympics sixteen years after a warrant was issued for is arrest.
This is coming after now-double Olympic bronze biathelete Sturla Holm Lægreid revealed in an interview that he cheated on his girlfriend, the #PenisGate scandal surrounding ski jumping, and the news that we almost lost out on a Minions-inspired figure skating program. And over the weekend, a Canadian curling cheating drama blew up.
The Olympics always brings some major drama (I’m thinking about the 2022 women’s figure skating crash out after Kamila Valieva tested positive substance in her drug test, but was still allowed to compete). But on Friday, when Ilia Malinin lost his expected gold medal in men’s figure skating after messing up several of his jumps, fans were shocked. The winner? Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, who gives the country their second Olympic medal ever.
Right after stepping off the ice, the hot mic at the “kiss and cry” caught Ilia complaining that he wasn’t comfortable on the Olympic ice after being left off the team in 2022.
The Olympics drama has risen to reality-TV levels. There’s no script. No editing for the cameras or producers determining the results. Even if USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates’ controversial ice dancing silver medal was the result of judging bias, spectacle at the Olympics is always the real deal.
Venue feeds! Social media! Hidden mics! Heart rate monitors! Even the decision to hold podium ceremonies right after each competition brought a refreshing level of chaos because now the ceremonies are even more unscripted and unfiltered. Not only are the sports themselves giving us some incredible television with their fierce battles for medals, we can’t look away in case we miss the next great soundbite that will become a TikTok sensation.
Thanks to social media videos from the athletes themselves, the 2024 Summer Olympics felt like we were right at the Games; 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics have been even better. These are the kinds of storylines that even producers of The Traitors or The Bachelor can’t make up. We already have our villains and our heroes (shout out to the 54-year-old Rich Ruohonen who made history as the oldest Winter Olympian after subbing in a curling match last minute). But this is all real which makes it all the more refreshing.
I don’t know how my heart can handle more of this wild competition as we continue into week 2. But one thing is for certain, I don’t want to look away.
