How to Watch the Games
The opening ceremony tonight will be shown live on RTÉ News Channel and Player from 18:55 with a nightly highlights programme on each evening on the same channels from Saturday 7th.
Live coverage of the Irish athletes will be available on the RTÉ Player, with a promise of over 40 hours, and if you really want to get into everything there will be coverage across all four of the TNT Sport Channels, if you are a subscriber to them or the Sky Sports Plus package, and on the BBC.
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
Tonight’s opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games will take place in, and serve as a fond farewell to the famed San Siro Stadium.
It will soon be demolished and replaced with a new stadium in time to Ital’ys hosting of the European Championship in 2032.
I was lucky enough to see Cristiano Ronaldo win a Champions League Final there but tonight it will play host to Mariah Carey, TV cameras carrying the opening to a global audience and the Olympic flame.
There will be some athletes but there opening is spread across three different parades in keeping with this distributed games across the mountains of Northern Italy.
Fashion, design and music will be linked with imagery drawn from the Dolomites and the long winter traditions of northern Italy.
The stadium’s looming stands and open corners, so familiar to football supporters, take on a different character under Olympic light. Few venues are allowed to say goodbye on their own terms, and fewer still do so on a global stage.
As the Olympic flame is lit and the Games are formally opened, attention will soon shift north to snow-covered slopes and frozen lakes. But tonight belongs to Milan, to San Siro, and to a moment where history, culture and sport briefly share the same stage — before the Winter Olympics move on, as they always do, leaving memories behind.
Norovirus Strikes
The Women’s Ice Hockey Match between Canada and Finland was postponed yesterday after 13 of the Finnish panel of 23 were decelared sick or in isolation following an outbreak of Norovirus.
There were uncomfortable echos of the Tokyo and Beijing games when Covid stalked the village, and the world.
The match has been postponed to next week.
The Richest Athlete
Eileen Gu is a 22-year-old freestyle skier who was born in America but competed for her Mother’s China in the Beijing Olympic Games, winning two gold and one silver medal.
So why is she of particular interest to our Winter Olympics Diary?
Well she topped up her sports earnings last year of $100,000, with a very handsome $23 million in endoresement deals, putting her ahead of Nelly Korda, Caitlin Clark and Naomi Osaka in the Forbes list of richest athletes.
Appealing to the two biggest consumer markets in the world helps and Porsche and Red Bull are among the host of brands to see her as a perfect spokesperson and ambassador for their brands.
Here is a day in her life…
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What’s On Today?
Opening Ceremony 18:55
Men’s and Women’s Downhill Training Runs 10:30
Curling: Italy Vs Switzerland, Sweden Vs GB, USA Vs Canada, 09:05; Czechia Vs USA, Italy Vs Estonia, Republic of Korea Vs GB, Sweden Vs Norway, 13:35
Ice Dancing: Rhythm Dance 08:55; Pair Short Programme, 10:35; Women’s Short Programme, 12:35
Women’s Ice Hockey: France Vs Japan, 11:10; Czechia Vs Switzerland, 13:40
Luge Training Runs 09:00 and 09:57
Ski Jumping: Women’s Training Runs 08:0008:45; 09:25
Image Credit: Sport for Business
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