U.S. Curling and Women’s Hockey Strong Start

This is Day -1 of the 2026 Winter Olympics and the start of this blog’s coverage of the Olympics.

We will be starting today with Mixed Doubles Curling as the United States duo of Korey Dropkin, who is originally from Southborough, MA but now currently resides in Duluth, MN, and Cory Thiesse take on Switzerland. They already picked up a win today against the defending silver medalist Norway to be 1-0 so far in these games.

We are off! Crowds are really enjoying the competition today.

United States starts off strong as they win the first set to take an early 1-0 lead after the 1st end over Switzerland. They gave Switzerland no options to score by boxing their rocks in.

Switzerland struck back as they got 2 with hammer to win the 2nd end.

United States fight back to make it 3-2 over Switzerland. This is turning out to be a real battle with brilliant shot making by both teams. My dog, Duke, is even enjoying this match.

United States steals another to make it 5-2 over Switzerland. This duo continues to be on fire.

So far, no power outages.

Switzerland gets a point after the 5th end, but the United States still leads 5-3 after mitigating the damage.

United States took 2 points to make it 7-3 after the 6th end. With 2 ends to go, it looks like Switzerland is running out time in this match.

Going into the final end, it is 7-4 as the United States is trying to lock this down.

To the cheers of the Americans in the stands, Switzerland concedes, and the United States is 2-0 in Mixed Doubles Curling.

We move on to the US Women’s Hockey team led by Hilary Knight in her final Olympics, who has become the first men’s or women’s hockey player to play in 5 Olympics, and Caroline Harvey of Salem, NH in her first Olympics taking on Czechia.

Early on, the United States is dominating this game outshooting, outmanning, and being physical with Czechia.

Aerin Frankel, an alumnus of Northeastern University is the goalkeeper for the United States in this game.

Czechia starting to find their groove, and it seems that the game has even out in the 1st period.

United States on the Power Play scores to make it 1-0! Alexandra Carpenter of North Reading, Massachusetts scores the first goal for the United States in these Olympics!

Frankel was lucky that the one of breakaway shots by Czechia hit the post thanks to a mistake by Harvey.

United States is leading 1-0 after the 1st period and they are outshooting Czechia 14-3.

The second period is underway and the United States scores to make it 2-0 thanks to Joy Dunne who is a rookie on this team.

United States scores again! 3-0 thanks to Hayley Scamurra!

Czechia scores to make it 3-1. The United States was unaware of the Czechia player coming out of the penalty box and as a result, they scored.

Hilary Knight scores to make it a 4-1 for the United States. The shot making has been very impressive so far for the United States.

Entering the 3rd period, it is 4-1 United States over Czechia.

United States scores again thanks to a missed tripping call by the refs and Scamurra gets her second of the game to make it 5-1.

The United States starts strong in Women’s Hockey with 5-1 victory over Czechia. That’s it for Day -1. United States has a strong start so far in the 2026 Winter Olympics.