Generally speaking, the athlete stories that come out of the Olympic Games are about the countless hours spent on the ice, on the slopes, and at the gym; the multitude of personal sacrifices made and the support systems that made it all possible; the training routines and nutrition regimens they’ve adhered to with endless discipline; and how all of that comes down to these special moments.
But the stories coming out of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics so far are…weird. Unhinged, even. There’s a chaotic energy that feels different from previous years. Sure, there are always funny viral moments, but when was the last time there was teammate-on-teammate credit card fraud, accusations of dick doping, or public admissions of adultery in the first few days?
We have to ask: What the hell is happening in Milan? Is there something (besides norovirus) in the water? Are the Games simply being influenced by Italy’s commedia dell’arte, and this crop of athletes are the bombastic exaggerations of our most human follies?One thing we know for sure is that at these Games, the sports have become the sideshow and the stories of weird human behavior are the main attraction.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a quick rundown of all of the unbelievable, shocking, and gross things that have happened at the Winter Games so far (and we’ll keep updating this list as the Olympics go on):
1) Norway’s Sturla Holm Lægreid won bronze and admitted to cheating — not the sports kind.
Lægreid, a biathlete (not to be confused with a bisexual athlete), won the bronze medal in the 20 km biathlon and used his post-win interview to admit that he cheated on his girlfriend. “Six months ago I met the love of my life. The world’s most beautiful, sweetest person,” Lægreid said, crying. “Three months ago I made the biggest mistake of my life and cheated on her.”
The woman Lægreid burned has since responded to his bronze medal breakdown; she told the Norwegian tabloid VG that Lægreid was out of luck. “I did not choose to be put in this position, and it hurts to have to be in it,” she said. “We have had contact, and he is aware of my opinions on this.”
While Lægreid may be a new name to casual biathlon fans, the athlete has a reputation in the sport for erratic behavior. In 2023, he was banned from the Biathlon World Cup after firing a rifle in his hotel room, a violation of the sport’s safety regulations.
2) French biathlete Julia Simon medaled…three months after being convicted of stealing her teammate’s credit card.
On Wednesday, Simon won her second gold of the Games in the women’s 15 km biathlon. Two medals is obviously a remarkable achievement. But what makes Simon’s win more notable is that in October, a French court convicted her for theft and credit card fraud and she was promptly handed a six-month ban from the sport…but the French Ski Federation suspended most of her ban to allow her to compete at the Olympics, the AP reported.
Simon stole teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s bank card and charged more than $2,300 in online purchases, according to the Associated Press. During her trial, she said, “I can’t explain it. I don’t remember doing it. I can’t make sense of it.” Meanwhile, Braisaz-Bouchet finished in 80th place.
3) Some ski jumpers allegedly pumped their penises to cheat — the sports kind of cheating.
There’s a smirky little rumor going around that some male ski jumpers injected their penises with hyaluronic acid in hopes that they’ll have longer jumps.
The scientific explanation is that big ski suits are more aerodynamically advantageous because they function like sails. Athletes are measured for suits based on a 3D scan of their body. Theoretically, a bigger penis during this scan could create a size discrepancy on said scan, and allow the jumper to slide into a slightly bigger suit for the competition, leading to the sail effect.
According to a study published in the scientific sports journal Frontiers, “suit size greatly influenced aerodynamic performance, with drag increasing by 4 percent and lift by percent for every 2 cm increase.” No skiers have been busted yet, but apparently the World Anti-Doping Agency is on alert.
4) The Olympic figure skater who wanted to skate like a Minion finally won his legal battle.
Spanish skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate was very close to not being able to perform his Minions-themed (yes, the yellow animated characters from the Despicable Me franchise) short program for the world to see.
In 2014, the International Skating Union (figure skating’s governing body) loosened its rules and allowed skaters to use songs with lyrics in their programs. While it’s made routines more fun, it’s also become a headache when it comes to licensing, permission, and navigating copyright
Guarino Sabate’s program was one such headache. The Spanish star said he had submitted his music and had it cleared by the proper authorities, but when he got to Milan, Guarino found out that the Minions remix he had been using all season was actually prohibited, leading to an international outcry. The people wanted to see the man skate like a Minion! After a back-and-forth and pleas to NBCUniversal (the parent company to both the Minions and NBC, the Olympics broadcaster in the US) Guarino Sabate was eventually given the okay. He placed 25th in the short program out of 29 skaters.
5) Figure skaters danced to an AI music track.
Music rights were also a problem for Czech ice dancers Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek. For the 1990s-themed program, they attempted to skate to an AI-generated mix that ripped lyrics from The New Radicals’ 1998 hit “You Only Get What You Give” and pasted them onto a generic 1990s-sounding rock track. They had to switch, and chose a different AI-generated song that had new lyrics. The pair placed 17th out of 23 teams.
6) Hockey’s biggest rivalry might be the athletes against the dreaded norovirus.
One of the more disconcerting stories coming out of Milan is that Finland’s women’s hockey team is dealing with a norovirus outbreak. Anyone who has ever experienced the body horror that is norovirus knows just how miserable it is and how easily it spreads — which is why officials changed the match schedule and placed the infected in quarantine. But that might not be enough, as a Swiss player tested positive for the bug on Friday, February 6.
7) Breaking: this year’s gold medals.
American skier Breezy Johnson and figure skater Alyssa Liu have already won gold medals at the Games, and they’ve already broken them. “So there’s the medal. And there’s the ribbon,” Johnson told reporters at her post-win press conference on Sunday, noting that hers came off while she was jumping and celebrating her victory. “And here’s the little piece that is supposed to go into the ribbon to hold the medal, and yeah, it came apart.”
Liu, who won gold in the team figure skating event (even though she was delayed in arriving because of a JD Vance motorcade), posted on TikTok that hers broke too (like Johnson’s, the ribbon snapped off the medal). USA Today reports that the broken medal count is now at six, including Johnson and Liu. Olympic organizers told reporters that they’re monitoring the situation, but for now it’s probably not the best idea to, as Johnson noted, jump in them.
As you can see, it’s a lot! But perhaps the thing we should all remember is that world-class athletes are, at their core, people first. And if there’s anything that 2026 has shown us, it’s that we’re living in odd times and people (and institutions!) don’t really know how to cope, or to behave in public. Nothing is immune from that, and the Olympics are no exception.