Power outage halts Milan Cortina Olympics curling competition moments after matches begin

The highly anticipated 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics ran into an unexpected speeding bump arsenic contention opened connected Wednesday.

A little powerfulness hold interrupted the opening curling competitions aft lights flickered wrong the historical stadium. Several curlers stayed escaped by continuing to descent connected the crystal during the delay.

The instrumentality of the agleam lights drew cheers from the crowd. Officials said they were investigating the cause, though nary contiguous details were available.

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South Korea's Yeongseok Jeong sweeps a stone, during the mixed doubles circular robin signifier of the curling contention against Sweden, astatine the 2026 Winter Olympics, successful Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy connected Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Curling successful Cortina — 8 teams successful mixed doubles — began 2 afloat days earlier the opening ceremonial for this year's Winter Games.

American curler Korey Dropkin said he's looked guardant to this infinitesimal for a agelong time. 

"Being amongst the best, it’s a precise chill ambiance to beryllium portion of," said Dropkin, a first-time Olympian who volition statesman contention Thursday. "We’re looking guardant to being acceptable to vie and determination our hearts retired connected the ice."

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Opening nighttime successful this upland edifice was conscionable the archetypal of the round-robin matches successful mixed doubles curling, wherever teams with 1 pistillate and 1 antheral look disconnected against 1 another.

Sweden's Rasmus and Isabella Wranaa vie during a curling mixed doubles league against South Korea astatine the 2026 Winter Olympics successful Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy connected Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Fans person arrived successful Cortina successful anticipation of the archetypal matches. They clapped, rang bells and chanted for their countries and favourite curlers erstwhile their teams scored oregon determination was a interruption successful the action.

Some successful the assemblage held ample flags for the Czech Republic, whose squad was competing against Canada. Canadian fans wearing reddish waved handheld flags.

Preparations for the archetypal curling contention are made astatine the 2026 Winter Olympics successful Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy connected Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

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Italian duo Stefania Constantini, who is from Cortina, and Amos Mosaner are the defending satellite and Olympic champions successful mixed doubles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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