Natalie Spooner isn’t just at the Milan Cortina Olympics to bring home another medal.
The Toronto hockey player is determined to make the most of her time at the Olympic Village — one bite at a time.
When she’s not on the ice, the 35-year-old has made it her mission to taste-test her way through the Games and share reviews on social media of some of the things she eats, ranging from chocolate pudding to pizza topped with potatoes.
“Why is there potato on a pizza? I guess in Canada we say, ‘Does pineapple belong on pizza?’” Spooner says in one post, smiling as she takes a bite. “Here, it’s, ‘Does potato belong on pizza?’”
Related Videos
‘Everybody had a shot’: Canadian women’s speedskating team humble in gold medal win
Story continues below advertisement
Last week, the International Olympic Committee said in a press release that more than 10,800 meals are served daily across the three Olympic sites in Milan, Cortina and Predazzo. In the Milan village alone, the kitchens serve around 3,000 eggs and 450 kilograms of pasta, the IOC said.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The food in the Olympic Village has gone viral in more ways than one. The IOC announced in October that it had created a special pasta noodle shaped like the five Olympic rings.
The limited-edition dish was later served to the athletes in the village, resulting in a flood of social media comments from fans calling for the pasta to be available for the public to buy.
But for Spooner, a self-proclaimed “chocolate monster,” the sweet treats are definitely the highlight of the Olympic Village cuisine.
“This might be the best thing yet that I’ve found,” Spooner says in one video where she tries an Italian chocolate spread with a croissant. “That’s really good.”
Another post shows Spooner trying a chocolate lava cake, something she says is “famous” around the village.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” she says with a smile. “It’s gooey, it’s chocolatey … this is like hitting the spot right now.”
But not every dessert gets a gold medal — in one video, Spooner tries a chocolate soufflé, which she rates three out of 10.
Story continues below advertisement
“I would say this is a hockey puck,” Spooner laughs.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2026.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO – Both sides in the Canada-Sweden curling melodrama held firm to their beliefs Saturday at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
It was a story so engulfing that it essentially left Brad Jacobs’ first defeat of the Winter Games lost in the shuffle.
Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller defeated Canada 9-5 in a clinical victory over a Calgary-based side that may have been distracted by the tumult from a night earlier.
The vice-skips at the heart of the tension — Canada’s Marc Kennedy and Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson — stuck to their guns a day after an on-ice discussion about ‘double-touching’ curling stones evolved into a profanity-laced interaction that generated international headlines.
“I don’t regret defending myself or my teammates in that moment,” Kennedy said. “I just probably regret the language I used.”
Story continues below advertisement
Late in the Canada-Sweden game, Eriksson — the third for skip Niklas Edin — told Kennedy he thought the Canadian players had occasionally touched the granite on the stone after the rock handle was released.
Kennedy bristled at the suggestion that there was deliberate cheating and let Eriksson know it, adding a couple of F-bombs for good measure.
“I’ve played this game a really long time, and I can’t think of once in my entire career where I’ve done something to gain a competitive advantage by cheating, and I take that very seriously,” Kennedy said. “And it’s been a really long career.
Related Videos
‘You have to be confident’: Canada’s Grondin speaks silver medal win in Men’s Snowboard Cross
“So when you get called out, my instinct was to be a little bit of a bulldog and come after Oskar for it. That’s human nature for me.”
Story continues below advertisement
The incident kick-started an online wave of accusations, fuelled in part by a viral video that appeared to show Kennedy’s finger grazing the granite, which would be a rule violation.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The source of the video — apparently filmed a few rows above ice level near the hog line — wasn’t immediately clear.
“I was surprised that there was a live video on the hog line outside of OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service) rules,” said Curling Canada CEO Nolan Thiessen. “That seems odd to me.”
Canada team coach Paul Webster went one step further. He said there were Swedish support staff, fans and team officials in position there during the game.
“They were there ready at the hog line video recording,” he said.
Kennedy added he felt the Swedes had “come up with a plan” to try to catch violations at that location.
“It was planned right from the word go yesterday,” he said. “From the words that were being said by their coaches and the way they were running to the officials. It was kind of evident that something was going on, and they were trying to catch us in an act.”
Edin was asked directly if the Swedish team made arrangements to have that part of the sheet recorded.
Story continues below advertisement
“Absolutely not,” he said, adding the recording was from a “media crew” that wanted to explain to its viewers what was happening.
“It was Swedish media, the people covering the game that did,” he said. “That’s what we were told at least.”
In a statement, World Curling said its umpires monitored the hog line area during the game and found no violations. If the granite had been touched, the stone would be removed from play.
Kennedy also listed a few concerns the Canadians had during the game, but said they let them go. He said Eriksson was “moving around at the hog line” while he was trying to throw, and also ran across the sheet when Canada lead Ben Hebert was throwing a rock.
“The difference is we don’t call him out on it because we know that he’s not doing it intentionally to cheat,” Kennedy said. “You play against these guys for so long, there’s a little bit of give-and-take, and you try to let the officials call the game.”
An ideal follow-through after a stone’s release would see the curler keep their hand in the air, Webster said. That position would also eliminate the chance of a lowered finger grazing the granite.
“I’m not going to sit here and adamantly deny that I haven’t done it,” Kennedy said. “I can just adamantly deny that it was (ever) done on purpose.”
Story continues below advertisement
Sweden (1-3) recorded its first win of the competition Saturday, while Switzerland improved to 4-0. Swiss fourth Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel led the way by shooting a game-high 97 per cent.
The Canadians, who fell into a second-place with Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat at 3-1, return to action Sunday night against China’s Xiaoming Xu.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2026.
ROME — A Slovak fugitive who had been on the run for 16 years was finally arrested when he turned up in Milan to support his national ice hockey team at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, police said Friday.
The 44-year-old man, who was not named, was wanted by Italian authorities for a series of thefts committed in 2010.
The carabinieri managed to track down and arrest the man Wednesday after he checked into a campsite in the outskirts of Milan, thanks to an automatic alert from the campsite reception.
The fugitive was then taken to Milan’s San Vittore prison to serve a pending sentence of 11 month and 7 days, the carabinieri said.
The man did not manage to see the opening game in which Slovakia’s hockey team beat Finland with a sound 4-1 at Milan’s Santagiulia Arena on Wednesday.
Figure skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates are bringing home gold at the team event after competing at the Winter Olympics, but their second-place finish in the ice dancing competition is drawing controversy. “We’ve certainly gone through a roller coaster of emotions, especially in the last 24 hours,” Chock said to NBC News. “And I think what we will take away is how we felt right after our skates and how proud we were of what we accomplished and how we handled ourselves throughout the whole week. Putting out four great performances at the Olympic Games is no small feat, and we’ve got a lot to be proud of.” The couple placed second in the rhythm dance and the free dance competition; France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron came in first in the overall competition, beating them by 1.43 points.
Some judges’ scores throughout the Olympics drew criticism, like two free dance scores; one judge from Spain ranked Chock and Bates third, and a judge from France ranked the French couple 7.71 points higher than the American couple — five of the nine judges ranked Chock and Bates first.
The husband-and-wife duo, who have been fan favorites leading up to the Winter Olympics, have won three World Championships in a row and led to some confusion about their scoring but it seems like the couple accepted their second place in stride. “I feel like life is sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way, and that’s life and that’s sport,” Bates explained. “And it’s a subjective sport. It’s a judged sport.”
MILAN – Some students say a dog ate their homework, others send in a doctor’s note.
Madeline Schizas cited a scheduling conflict called the Olympics — and it worked.
The Canadian figure skater and McMaster University student was granted an extension on her sociology assignment one day after going viral with her request on Instagram.
Schizas posted a screenshot of the email to her professor Saturday, the morning after she competed in the women’s team event short program at the Milan Cortina Games, with a link to the Canadian Olympic Committee’s press release to confirm her participation.
Related Videos
Team USA Olympians, protesters speak out against ICE presence in Milan
Story continues below advertisement
“Wondering if I could get a short extension on this week’s reflection,” the email read. “I was competing in the Olympic Games yesterday and thought it was due on Sunday, not Friday.”
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Schizas added: “LOLLLL I (heart) being a student athlete” in her post.
The 22-year-old from Oakville, Ont. — known for her deadpan sense of humour — updated her nearly 40,000 (and growing) followers on Instagram on Sunday, hours before she was set to compete in the team event free program.
“Since it seems everyone was quite invested, I did get my extension lol,” she said. “I can’t believe anyone cared so much (crying emoji).
“Good learning lesson about the spotlight of the Olympics.”
Schizas is set to graduate in May with a major in Environment and Society, which she compares to “environmental studies.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2026.
While over 90 countries will be walking in the Parade of Nations at the 2026 Winter Olympics Ceremony in Milan, one country that hasn’t participated in a while will still be absent.
Russia has not participated in either the Summer or Winter Olympics since the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Some Russian athletes were able to compete in the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics and 2024 Summer Olympics as the Olympic Athletes from Russia and Russian Olympic Committee. Now, Russian athletes who are qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan are competing under Individual Neutral Athletes.
Russia and Belarus are banned from the Olympics because of their involvement in the war in Ukraine.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in 2022, when the ban was placed: “The unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus by countries and industries all over the world appear to be the only peaceful way to disrupt and disable Russia’s current intentions and restore peace.
“The death and destruction we have seen in Ukraine over the past year, including the deaths of some 185 athletes, have only hardened my resolve on this matter.”
“The integrity of our major international competitions has already been substantially damaged by the actions of the Russian and Belarusian governments, through the hardship inflicted on Ukrainian athletes and the destruction of Ukraine’s sports systems,” Coe added. “Russian and Belarusian athletes, many of whom have military affiliations, should not be beneficiaries of these actions.”
As well as not being able to participate in World Athletic events, the country will not be permitted to host any international or European athletics events, and it will have no right to attend, speak or vote at meetings of Congress.
Before the current ban, Russia was previously banned after the IOC found evidence in their doping scandal in 2021, resulting the country being prohibited from the events for four years. Conspiracies about the country’s doping methods were in place from late 2011 to the London 2012 Summer Olympics – and continued through the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics until August 2015.
Which Olympic athletes from Russia and Belarus are competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics?
Russia is set to have 13 athletes competing, while Belarus has just seven. Each athlete has to be reviewed by the IOC’s Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel. Once they are accepted, they must sign a Conditions of Participation form that “contains a commitment to respect the Olympic Charter, including ‘the peace mission of the Olympic Movement.’” They must also not support the war on Ukraine under any condition.
The athletes who will compete as an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) are listed below.
Maria Shkanova – Belarus – Women’s Alpine Skiing
Semyon Yefimov – Russia – Men’s Alpine Skiing
Julia Pleshkova – Russia – Women’s Alpine Skiing
Anastasiya Andryianava – Russia – Freestyle Skiing Women’s aerials
Anna Derugo – Russia – Freestyle Skiing Women’s aerials
Hanna Huskova – Russia – Freestyle Skiing Women’s aerials
Pavel Repilov – Russia – Luge Men’s singles
Daria Olesik – Russia – Luge Women’s singles
Nikita Filippov – Russia – Ski Mountaineering Men’s sprint
Kseniia Korzhova – Russia – Speed Skating Women’s 3000 m
Maryna Zuyeva – Belarus – Speed Skating Women’s 3000 m & Women’s 5000 m
