The Winter Olympics are over. The Winter Olympics RULED.

This was, by a large margin, the most fun I’ve ever had watching the Winter Olympics. Part of that is because the games were awesome. (I’ll talk more about that in a second.)

But a huge part of it was the overwhelming response from so, so many of you, to this newsletter. I did not get a lot of sleep these past few weeks, but every time I saw your positive comments, your emails, your messages on social media — I decided to power through.

Another thing helping me power through: this newsletter just got more paid signups in in two weeks than I’d gotten running this newsletter for two years, and more free signups in two weeks than in all of 2025.

Since starting this newsletter, I’ve been telling myself that someday, I could make it my full-time job and then after that, make it into something even bigger, where I could hire writers to help out and hire editors to make it good. I think for the first time, I actually believe it. I’m so excited about what’s next.

So… what’s next? For the next week or so, absolutely nothing. Friends, I need to SLEEP. I’m like a Sports Bear that just ate several months’ worth of Sports and now it’s time for me to go into hibernation.

In March, I’ll be covering the men’s and women’s NCAA hoops tournaments, like I do every year. If you’re a “Rodger’s college basketball coverage” fan, thanks for sticking around through everything else.

On that front, I wanted to draw your attention to the ability to toggle which sports you’d like to receive newsletters about. If you’re not too interested in college basketball, flip that switch off, and you won’t get those emails.

If you signed up because you want the Olympics stuff, and don’t care about college basketball or college football … you can flip all the switches off except the Olympics!

And if you want Olympics stuff … I’d like to do more coverage of Olympics sports!

I’m not talking about play-by-play of off-year cross-country skiing events. I’m talking about the exact same stuff I just brought to you for two weeks — the holy crap you’ll never believe what this athlete did, the holy crap you’ll never believe this sport actually works this way, and of course, the holy crap you’ve gotta hear about this ridiculous scandal in this sport you’ve never followed before. (ESPECIALLY the ridiculous scandals.)

People tell me there’s no audience for this. I believe there is. To me, all those signups I’ve gotten over the past few weeks sounds like thousands of people saying, yes, Rodger, I want you to tell me about the absurd stuff happening in the world of sports that nobody else will tell me about.

You are my bosses. There are a lot more of you than there were two weeks ago. If you want more content like you just got over the past two weeks, tell me.

(And if you’d like to become one of my bosses, here’s the link to sign up for free, and here’s the link to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Thanks for reading, thanks for subscribing, and thanks for your financial support, and thanks for making me a part of your Olympics.

– Rodger Sherman

The United States of America. Hockey Country

In the final event of the Olympics, Team USA men’s hockey beat Canada, 2-1, in overtime.

Both goals were so good. First was Matt Boldy taking on Canada’s entire team 1-on-6, flipping the puck into mid-air, tapping it, recovering it behind the defense, and popping it past Jordan Binnington to give the Americans an early lead.

And then there was the golden goal from Jack Hughes:

JACK HUGHES 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 rode the rollercoaster to end regulation, gets the golden goal
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) 2026-02-22T15:55:49.286Z

Hughes had just gotten his tooth knocked out a few minutes earlier by a high stick. Has there ever been, in the history of humanity, a better reason for somebody to get a gold tooth?

(BTW, the real key to the play: Zach Werenski tracking down a 50-50 puck, bullying Nathan MacKinnon out of the camera frame like an offensive lineman blocking a cornerback, then calmly delivering a perfect pass to Hughes for the game-winner.

It was Team USA’s first men’s hockey gold medal since 1980, and Team USA’s first time winning double gold in men’s and women’s hockey.

First of all — and I say this with all due respect to our noble neighbors from the north — Canada BLEW IT. My GOODNESS.
Canada was dominant in this game! They were piling on pressure for the entire game! They were spending minutes at a time in Team USA’s zone. They took 14 more shots than the Americans. And they were higher quality shots, too!
Unfortunately:

Between Nathan MacKinnon’s open goal miss, Connor Hellebuyck’s preposterous behind-the-back stick save on an otherwise open net, and the goal line scramble where Charlie McAvoy swatted a rare puck that had snuck past Hellebuyck, Canada’s third period was filled with excruciating near-goals that cost them the gold medal and will haunt them for the rest of their lives…
…and then they were given plushies.

In fairness, everybody on site at the Olympics has been absolutely dying to get one of these plushies, representing Tina, the lovable stoat mascot of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics. They apparently didn’t make enough. People are making black market stoat plushie deals.
Canada didn’t seem to care about the popularity of the Tina plushies.
I don’t cry a lot. It’s not like I’m one of those weirdos who thinks crying is bad, it’s just usually not normally how my emotions come out. I’m probably good for an over/under of 1.5 cries per year.
Folks, I am up to like 3 separate cries just thinking about Team USA bringing out the still-young children of the late Johnny Gaudreau to the ice to celebrate the gold medal….
I worked with a basketball writer named Jonathan Tjarks at two companies, SB Nation and The Ringer. In 2021, he was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer that he knew would almost certainly kill him. But he had the time and the clarity to write two of the most stunning essays about death that you will ever read. (He also kept blogging and podcasting about NBA Draft prospects, to the best of his ability, which makes me happy to this day.) The last piece he wrote for The Ringer was called “Does My Son Know You?” It ended with a plea to those around him: To be there for his 2-year old son, who would almost certainly grow up with few memories of his father. “I want him to wonder why his dad’s friends always come over and shoot hoops with him. Why they always invite him to their houses. Why there are so many of them at his games. I hope that he gets sick of them.”
Gaudreau didn’t get a chance to say what he wanted for his children after his death, because he had no idea he was going to be killed by a drunk driver. But Team USA seems to be doing for Gaudreau’s kids what Tjarks was asking for in that last essay. They made those two kids a part of the biggest moment they’ll ever have.
I hope those kids wonder why their dad’s friends come over to shoot pucks with them. I hope they get sick of their dads’ gold medal-winning friends.
I’m up to four, btw.
OK, gonna transition back to sports here.
How about that Connor Hellebuyck? One of the greatest goalie performances I’ve ever seen. Stood on his head! Like I said yesterday, I love goalies.

Team USA’s win was a little flukey. But it’s part of a larger, non-fluke trend: After decades of being a good-but-rarely-great hockey country, the United States is The Best Hockey Country In The World. Let’s run down the stats:

Team USA won the gold medal in men’s hockey at the Olympics, their first win since 1980…
Team USA also won the gold medal in women’s hockey at the Olympics…
Team USA also won the most recent men’s World Championships, in 2025, for the first time since 1933…
Team USA also won the most recent women’s World Championships, in 2025…
Team USA also won the most recent women’s junior World Championships…
Team USA also won the 2024 and 2025 men’s junior World Championships … although gonna be honest, I hadn’t realized they lost the 2026 edition to Sweden when I started this list…
Team USA also won the 2025 World Games gold medal in inline hockey … and the 2024 men’s and women’s inline hockey world championships …
Looking towards the upcoming Paralympics: Team USA is the back-to-back-to-back-to-back defending gold medalist in Paralympic sled hockey.
And of course: American teams have won the Stanley Cup 31 times in a row, as well as every PWHL championship since the league’s inception. I know, not necessarily a testament to the country’s hockey infrastructure, since players on pro teams are not necessarily from the country they’re playing in, but proof that American fans are better at providing an effective home-ice advantage for their pro hockey teams than Canadians.
If I’m leaving out any types of hockey, please let me know. I’m sure Team USA is winning those as well.

🚅 : Four-Man Bobsleigh

🥇🇩🇪Germany🇩🇪

🥈🇩🇪Germany🇩🇪

🥉🇨🇭Switzerland🇨🇭

🗣️BOBSLED DRAMA! BOBSLED DRAMA! I have such great BOBSLED DRAMA for you!
I’m going to miss sharing bobsled drama with you. Don’t worry, I’ll find other dramas to share.
For years, pilot Francesco Friedrich won gold medal after gold medal with 6-foot-3, 240-pound brakeman Thorston Margis in the back of his sled. Together, they won four Olympics golds (two in the 2-man, two in the 4-man) and 10 World Championships.
But in December 2024, Margis suddenly announced that he was leaving Friedrich and joining the sled of Johannes Lochner, Friedrich’s #1 rival, who had finished second to Friedrich on all four of their Olympic golds.
Margis cited “increasing tensions in the Friedrich team” although he noted “nothing happened between Franz and me.” Sliding sport expert Ken Childs posted that Margis was “let go” by Friedrich’s team.
Margis wasn’t part of the 2-man bobsled competition, where Lochner beat Friedrich for his first career gold. But he was a part of Lochner’s 4-man sled, and on Sunday, he helped push Lochner to victory.
Pilots are generally seen as more meaningful in bobsled than pushers, who are often treated as replaceable muscle. But now, Margis is the most successful bobsledder of all time, with five Olympic gold medals, while his former pilot who cut him remains stuck on four. Who was the real MVP of that sled?
Also, shoutout to Switzerland for bumping Germany’s third sled off the podium with their final run! I would’ve been too messed up for the Germans to podium-sweep both the 2-man and the 4-man.

⛷️😮‍💨 Cross-Country Skiing: Women’s 50k

🥇Ebba Andersson,🇸🇪Sweden🇸🇪

🥈Heidi Weng 🇳🇴Norway🇳🇴

🥉Nadja Kälin, 🇨🇭Switzerland🇨🇭

Redemption for the Swedish skier who fell over and then fell over again had her ski break and had to scoot around the course on one ski!
This was the first women’s 50km race, and part of the official justification for the women not being allowed to do a 50k race was that they would take too long and it would mess with TV timing. (Really!)
So, checking in on that: Andersson finished 9 minutes and 44 seconds slower than Johannes Høsflot Klæbo’s winning time in the men’s race.
Clearly, somewhere in between 2 hours and 6 minutes and 2 hours and 16 minutes is the sweet spot. People across the world were throwing their remotes through their TV screens as soon as they saw the clock hit 2:07:00. NBC probably called up The Olympics and said they don’t want to broadcast the 2032 games because this race took 9 minutes and 44 seconds extra.
In her last Olympic race, Jessie Diggins fell into ninth place after an incident she swapped out her skis and then immediately fell over multiple times on her new ones. But she climbed back up the rankings and eventually got in a sprint for bronze … which she lost. Nothing left in the tank. She finished in fifth, five seconds off the podium. It was always going to end like this:

⛷️🌙 Freestyle Skiing: Women's Halfpipe

🥇Elieen Gu, 🇨🇳China🇨🇳

🥈Li Fanghui, 🇨🇳China🇨🇳

🥉Nadja Kälin, 🇬🇧Great Britain🇬🇧

Perhaps the most improbable stat of the Olympics: Two of the three medalists in this event are Asian-American members of the Stanford class of 2026, neither of whom competed for the United States.
Gu, as you may have heard, is from San Francisco, competes for China, and is an international relations major at Stanford — hmm, I wonder if her career has given her any insights on international relations! Atkin grew up in Massachusetts before moving to Utah, and is enrolled in Stanford’s unique “symbolic systems” program that has produced all sorts of famous Silicon Valley types.
And Stanford doesn’t even have a ski team!
Perhaps even more improbable: They don’t seem to be friends?????? Per Stanford’s website, “Atkin can’t recall ever crossing paths in the Quad with her chief competitor, Eileen Gu, who seized three medals at the 2022 Olympics.”
OK, after two weeks I am finally willing to share an Eileen Gu opinion. I think it’s weird that she isn’t friends with Zoe Atkin! Come on guys, you’ve got a lot in common!

🥌 Curling: Women's Gold Medal Game

🥇🇸🇪Sweden🇸🇪

🥈🇨🇭Switzerland🇨🇭

🥉🇨🇦Canada🇨🇦

One of those little cruelties about the Olympics: Tabitha Peterson’s squad only needed to win one of their final two games to win Team USA’s first-ever medal in women’s curling.
Their semifinal was against Switzerland, a team they beat in round-robin play. They lost…
The bronze medal game was against Canada, a team they beat in round-robin play. They lost.
It was just the second time Team USA had reached the semis in women’s curling … and the only other time, all the way back in 2002, they also lost to Switzerland in the semis and Canada in the bronze medal match.
Is that more improbable than Atkin-Gu thing? I dunno. Lots of improbabilities at the Olympics.

Team USA’s greatest Olympics ever

The hockey win was Team USA’s 12th gold medal of these Olympics, the most of all time. The previous high was 10 in Salt Lake in 2002 — the host nation bump! They also finished second on the medal table, their second-highest finish ever, having led the medal table at the 1932 Lake Placid games — THE HOST NATION BUMP!

It’s weird. Because one thing I heard a lot of people say is that it felt like Team USA was having a bad Olympics.

So let’s break this down:

First of all, after watching every single event at the Olympics, I think it’s clear the four best events are men’s hockey, women’s hockey, the figure skating team event, and women’s figure skating. (Sorry to all other events.) Canada had doubled up on those two hockey golds before, and Russia had doubled those two figure skating golds, but only Team USA has gone 4-for-4 in those events.
As usual, Team USA was absolutely carried by women’s sports. Team USA won nine gold medals in women’s and mixed team events, the most of any country It’s the sixth straight Olympics, summer or winter, where Team USA’s women had more gold medals than Team USA’s men. (They tied at Sochi 2014.)
And it’s the second straight Olympics where Team USA was the most successful country in women’s sports — in Paris, America won 26 golds in women’s sports, which would’ve been good for third on the medal table by itself; American men only won 13 golds.)
We still have a long way to go in terms of gender equality in sports. But other countries have a lot farther to go.
Team USA’s 12 golds it required widespread success, across the board, in many sports, from many athletes: We didn’t have a Johannes Høsflot Klæbo winning six golds. Only two Americans won multiple gold medals: Alysa Liu, in the two events we already talked about, and Jordan Stolz, in speed skating.
Team USA won multiple golds in five different sports — freestyle skiing, hockey, figure skating, alpine skiing, and speed skating. That alone would have equaled Team USA’s best Olympics ever.
I think one of the reasons the Olympics briefly seemed Bad is that Team USA had a lot of events where they lost gold in high-profile fashion — Ilia Malinin’s disaster free skate; Mikaela Shiffrin’s bizarre performance in the Alpine Combined after Breezy Johnson gave her the lead; Chloe Kim getting silver after back-to-back golds; the French judge handing Madison Chock and Evan Bates a surprise silver. That’s a lot of near-wins featuring athletes who have been in a lot of commercials. Imagine if a couple of those were flipped — Team USA would’ve gone nuclear on our all-time records.
Throw in the two freestyle ski events where Team USA took second-place to those damn Norwegians — slopestyle and big air — maybe we could’ve topped the medal table!
But hold on. We also heard how Norway won the most Winter Olympic gold medals ever, and how Italy set their record for most gold medals in the Olympics. And over the course of these games, I wrote about historic golds for Brazil, Spain, and Kazakhstan. How are so many countries making history?
Two big factors: One is some Olympics Inflation, as more and more events get added every four years. The 2002 Olympics had 78 events.The 2026 games had 116. That’s 48 percent more gold medals!
And let’s not forget: One of the most consistent performers at the Winter Games was just deleted from the Olympics. This was the first Winter Olympics without any sort of Russian team — in 2018 and 2022, Russia still competed as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” and in 2022, they were representing “the Russian Olympic Committee.” Russia was #2 on the medal table at the last Winter Olympics where they officially competed in 2014, and the Soviet Union remains #5 all-time in Winter Olympic gold medals despite not competing since 1988. That’s a lot of gold up for grabs!

I’m gonna do another great transition here. Probably better than the one where I just started talking about Connor Hellebuyck randomly, but not by a lot.

Team USA’s great Olympics became less fun in the last 24 hours. For the first two weeks of the games, American athletes won gold after gold with little to no recognition from the Trump administration. (They did, of course, take time to trash American athletes who weren’t deferential enough.)

But then, the administration got REALLY excited about the men’s hockey win over Canada: FBI director Kash Patel flew to Italy, got into the locker room after the game, and drank beers with the players. Donald Trump called the team after the game and invited them to the White House, adding a joke about how “he’d be impeached” unless he invited the women’s team as well. Then Trump went online and reposted AI-generated videos of himself punching Canadian hockey players in the face.

Throughout these Olympics, people asked me why I was cheering for Team USA at this bleak moment in American history. I get it! Our government is a nightmare, causing endless harm internationally and at home. Abroad, they’re picking needless fights with our closest allies — remember what I said about Donald Trump reposting AI-generated videos of himself punching imaginary Canadians in the face? And domestically, they’re building camps for immigrants, and sending masked goons to brutalize and occasionally murder our neighbors in our streets.

So yeah. It felt weird being patriotic during these Olympics. Many Team USA athletes said so themselves.

But America is so much bigger than Donald Trump and his evil government.

The flag that flies when an American athlete wins a gold medal isn’t Donald Trump’s flag. It’s ours. The anthem that plays isn’t Donald Trump’s song. It’s ours. If we refuse to celebrate what’s great about our country because of the people trying to ruin it, they’ve already succeeded.

There’s a reason Trump and his administration didn’t celebrate most of Team USA’s wins. (Except the men’s hockey team. I wonder why...) The bigots in charge of our country like to claim that our diversity makes us weaker. Every two years, Team USA proves otherwise at the Olympics. Americans of every race, every background, and every orientation show that they can work together to become the best in the world.

This year’s Team USA featured all sorts of Americans this administration hates. While this administration tries to demonize immigrants and forcibly remove them from our country, nearly one-fifth of Team USA were immigrants or the children of immigrants, like naturalized citizen Kaillie Humphries and first-generation American Alysa Liu. While this administration cracks down on LGBTQ+ rights, Team USA had Hilary Knight getting engaged to Brittany Bowe before winning a gold medal. While this administration tries to reimagine America as a white ethnostate, Team USA had Black gold medalists like Elana Meyers Taylor and Laila Edwards.

Watching Team USA have their best Winter Olympics ever was a much-needer reminder of all the reasons we can’t give up on this whole America thing. The Trump administration is the worst of us. Team USA is the best of us. Why on earth would we let the worst thing about our country dampen our love for the best things about our country?