Day 9 of the 2026 Winter Olympics didn’t bring any new medals for the United States, but there were several major team wins of note to keep the Americans in position to add to that count in the coming days. A few U.S. stars failed to reach the podium on Sunday, too.

Here are the top five stories of the day:

U.S. curling rallies to beat China

The round-robin session is far from over, but the American women’s curling team picked up a thrilling comeback win over China on Sunday. 

The four-person team of Tabitha Peterson, Cory Thiesse, Tara Peterson and Taylor Anderson-Heide rallied out of a 4-1 hole after the fifth end to somehow beat the Chinese team, 6-5. Two of the points came in the last two ends, too.  

Rui Wang missed her attempt to get a U.S. stone out of position in the ninth, which tied the matchup heading into the final end. While China built a total wall around the button, Tabitha somehow got her stone through traffic to box Wang out. Wang then left her last stone at the back of the house, unable to get enough of a push on it, to allow the U.S. to get a stone closest to the center to steal the final point, and the match, away.

The U.S. now sits at 4-1, which has them second in the standings behind only Sweden. The Americans will take on Italy next on Monday.

While this didn’t impact the Americans directly, the curling cheating scandal continued on Sunday. World Curling made changes to its umpiring setup for the rest of the event after both Canada’s women’s team and Great Britain’s men’s team had stones pulled from the sheet.

More disappointment for Mikaela Shiffrin

Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic struggles continue. After failing to medal in six events in Beijing (2022), Shiffrin started her Milan Cortina games with a disappointing slalom run in the team combined event last week. Her effort there knocked her and teammate Breezy Johnson off the podium after Johnson put them in gold-medal position with a first-place finish in the downhill section.

On Sunday, Shiffrin finished off the podium again with an 11th-place finish in the giant slalom. She stood in seventh place after the first of two runs and fell four spots after the second.

Italy’s Federica Brignone won her second gold medal of the Games (super-G) in the event.

Shiffrin, meanwhile, maintained a positive attitude on social media after the competition.

Giant slalom is not Shiffrin’s strength. But her finish off the podium puts her one race away from finishing a second consecutive Olympics without a medal. 

Shiffrin’s widely considered the greatest women’s Alpine skier in the history of the sport with an unrivaled World Cup record. Her Olympic legacy already features two gold medals and one silver from Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018. 

But she’s now competed in eight consecutive Olympics events without a podium. She has one more chance in these Games. She’ll compete in her speciality on Wednesday as a favorite to take home gold in the slalom.

Beijing gold medalist Erin Jackson finishes off podium

Four years ago, Erin Jackson was crowned the world’s fastest woman on skates with a gold medal in 500-meter speed skating at the Beijing Olympics.

She’s since relinquished that title to Dutch skater Femke Kok, who set a new world record in the event in November. And on Sunday, Kok secured Olympic gold with an Olympic-record time of 36.49, a full 0.66 seconds ahead of her Dutch teammate and silver medalist, Jutta Leerdam. 

Jackson, meanwhile, finished off the podium. Japan’s Miho Takagi won bronze with a time of 37.27, .05 seconds ahead of Jackson’s fifth-place time of 37.32. Italy’s Serena Pergher finished fourth (37.30).

Kok squared off against Jackson in a head-to-head race of the world-record holder and the reigning Olympic champion. 

Jackson appeared to get off to a better start off the gun. But Kok had secured the lead by the first turn that she expanded on the back stretch. When Kok took the inside lane for the final turn, she was in control. 

It was a disappointing finish off the podium for Jackson, but her remarkable Olympic legacy is secure. With her gold in Beijing, Jackson became the first Black woman to win an individual Winter Olympics medal in any sport. She did so having transitioned to the sport relatively late from her career as an inline roller skater.

Men’s hockey beats Germany

The U.S. men’s hockey team handled business with Germany on Sunday night. The Americans rolled to an easy 5-1 win after a first period in which they were held scoreless up until the final seconds. It was Zach Werenski who got the U.S. on the board with just 8.7 seconds left in the period.

While the Americans haven’t lost yet, they haven’t really impressed, either. They could face much tougher competition in the quarterfinals, where they’ll get the winner of a knockout-round matchup between Sweden and Latvia. 

Canada, meanwhile, has outscored its three group-stage opponents 20-3 — more than living up to the gold-medal favorite title it’s held so far in these Games.

Two American teams in top 10 in figure skating

It may not have been the best start, but two American duos are in position after Day 1 of pairs figure skating in Milan. 

Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam posted a season-best 71.87 in their short program outing on Sunday to open the competition. That got the pair, which already won gold in the team competition, in seventh in the standings. Spencer Akira Howe and Emily Chan weren’t far behind with an opening score of 71.06, which has them in ninth. 

The German pair of Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin took a commanding lead with an 80.01 in their short program, nearly five full points ahead of the next closest team. 

It will likely take a significant push for either American team to make the podium after Monday’s free skate. The Americans haven’t won a medal in pairs since 1988, either. While it could have been better, the United States isn’t out of it on the ice just yet.

Team USA medals remain at 17

Highlight of the day

Dual moguls are chaos.

Japan’s Ikuma Horishima botched the landing on his last jump in the men’s round of 16 Sunday, then bounced back up to ski backward over the finish line. And he still won.

Horishima, skiing on the right in the video below, started to lose control of his run after the first of two jumps. But he didn’t miss a gate and recovered in time to hit the ramp for his second.

He crash landed on the jump, but maintained his downhill momentum and popped back up skiing backward before the finish line, where he crossed just ahead of USA’s Nick Page.

It turned out that he didn’t need to cross first as Page missed a gate during his own rocky run and was disqualified. As long as Horishima completed a legal run, he would be declared the winner. 

It all added up to a wild finish. Horishima rode the win all the way to the gold-medal race, where he lost to Canada’s Mikaël Kingsbury to finish in silver-medal position.

One More Thing: A silver medal tie

picture alliance via Getty Images

Thea Louise Stjernesund and Sara Hector pulled off a rare feat on Sunday in the women’s giant slalom. They posted the exact same time, and left the mountain sharing a silver medal.

Stjernesund, of Norway, and Hector, of Sweden, finished with the exact same time in both runs of the giant slalom on Sunday in wild fashion. The two were in total lockstep. That gave them each the silver medal behind Italy’s Federica Brignone. 

While sharing an Olympic medal may not always be received well, the two seemed totally thrilled by their finish.

“We win together, for sure,” Hector said, via Reuters. “It’s like they say, feelings are better when they are shared.”