What are figure skating's biggest storylines heading into the Winter Olympics?

There might be no story more awe-inspiring at Milano Cortina 2026 than that of Deanna Stellato-Dudek, a 42-year-old figure skater who left the sport for 16 years - only to return, and then win a world title.The Chicago native, who now competes for Canada, is the subject of a new Olympic Channel documentary called Deanna's Dream, which is available to stream for free now on Olympics.com."This story is way bigger than me," Stellato tells host Nick McCarvel in the latest episode of the podcast, which dives deep into Deanna's journey and the documentary surrounding it. "It's about all women at any age of life who feel like they want to change something and make something more of themselves.""I always think that my age provides me with a power," she adds, before laughing: "The only thing is that I have to put more work than my 20-year-old counterparts into just showing up the next morning."Stellato-Dudek and partner Maxime Deschamps are competing this week (9-11 January) at the Canadian Championships, where the duo is aiming for a fourth consecutive national title - and a berth to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.You can stream Deanna's Dream on Olympics.com now - for free.

8 Jan 40min

Executive producers Malala Yousafzai and Arian Moayed sit down to discuss the film, Champions of the Golden Valley, and its many themes as the documentary is now streaming exclusively on Olympics.com."This such a powerful story about the people of Afghanistan and how much they desire peace in their community," Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Malala tells host Nick McCarvel on the pod. "And how skiing, a sport, can give hope to our community."Yousafzai and Moayed also hit on the refugee experience, the power of sport for girls and women internationally, the IOC Olympic Refugee team and much more in a wide-ranging conversation.You can also stream Champions of the Golden Valley now, available for free on Olympics.com.

25 Dec 202535min

There is set to be just one new sport added to the Olympic programme for Milano Cortina 2026, but it is one with historic roots in the Italian Alps.Ski mountaineering will feature both a sprint and mixed relay event in its Winter Olympic debut, and on this episode of the podcast, host Nick McCarvel dives deep - or rather, scales the mountain - to understand this fascinating sport, often set in the most picturesque of outdoor courses.Skimo stars Emily Harrop, Cameron Smith and Johanna Hiemer help to explain the sport and its many challenges in exclusive interviews on the pod, while Olympics.com producers Nadine Regel, Guillaume Depasse and Annie Fast lay out the many storylines to watch out for, including French superstar Thibault Anselmet and the Spanish duo of Ana Alonso Rodriguez and Oriol Cardonna Coll - among others.You can explore skimo even more with the new Olympic Channel documentary, Into the Unknown, which is out now exclusively on Olympics.com.

11 Dec 202549min

For the first time in four Winter Olympic cycles, alpine skiing is making a return to some of its most famed downhill tracks.Tucked in the Italian Dolomites, Cortina (women) and Bormio (men) will host Milano Cortina 2026's downhill competitions. In this episode, Nick McCarvel is joined by Olympics.com skiing expert Alessandro Poggi to break down just what that means to the athletes ahead of February.Nick and Ales also discuss some of the biggest storylines of the alpine skiing Olympic season, and then turn the episode over to the athletes, with exclusive interviews featuring American superstars Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, Brazil's trailblazer Lucas Pinheiro Braathen and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway.

26 Nov 20251h 10min

Believe it or not, the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 are only 100 days away!Host Nick McCarvel is joined by Olympics.com colleagues ZK Goh, Chloe Merrell and Nischal Schwager-Patel for a special countdown roundtable, focusing in on their Winter sports: Ice hockey, curling and ski jumping, respectively.They preview the top storylines in those disciplines and beyond, including the NHL’s return to the men’s hockey event, the inspiring story of the Filipino curling team, a 44-year-old Swiss ski jumper and much more.Plus, Nick speaks one-on-one with U.S. women’s hockey legend Kendall Coyne Schofield, who has returned to the Team USA roster after giving birth to a son in 2023. The goal? Gold. “That is absolutely correct,” she laughed.

29 Okt 202554min

For the first time since last year's Paris Olympics, the biggest stars in gymnastics are set to gather in one place - this time for the 2025 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships - held in Jakarta, Indonesia."It's going to be interesting to see some of these new talents and how they step up into the spotlight," says Olympics.com gymnastics producer Scott Bregman, who joins host Nick McCarvel to help preview the event. Bregman is referring to an open opportunity for the women in attendance as Simone Biles, Rebeca Andrade and reigning U.S. champion Hezly Rivera are all set to miss the competition.Bregman breaks down the big storylines to watch out for, including the return of another American, Skye Blakely, who has proven resilient after injury prevented her from making the U.S. Olympic team - twice.On the men's side, Scott says it could be a three-way race among 2021 world champion Zheng Boheng and the two most recent Olympic champions, Oka Shinnosuke (2024) and Hashimoto Daiki (2021). Don't sleep on Filipino Carlos Yulo, either, who will have plenty of support at the first-ever Gymnastics Worlds held in Southeast Asia.

15 Okt 202533min

With World Mental Health Day set for October 10th, this episode of the Olympics.com podcast checks in on the mental health movement in the Olympic space - which has morphed by leaps and bounds over just the last five years. In a roundtable discussion, Olympic figure skating medallist Gracie Gold, an IOC Mental Health Ambassador, is joined by Scott Sloan, the IOC's senior project manager for mental health, in conversation with host Nick McCarvel."When we say mental health, it's about aspiring to have good mental health... something in the shift there [that] I think is important," says Sloan about the changing mental health world."I think athletes are [now] feeling more comfortable to say like, 'There's this problem and I don't know how to fix it,'" added Gold, who wrote a memoir that detailed - in part - her own mental health journey. Now, she says, the response is: "'Let's just continue to find the answers. And knowing that while it's okay to not know the answer, it's not okay not to do anything about it."

1 Okt 202537min