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The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are off and running with 16 sports taking over 25 different venues. Here's a look at the TV schedule for Thursday, Feb. 19 and how to watch all the action. The games are exclusively airing across NBC's suite of networks with many events airing live on its streaming service, Peacock, which you cansign up for here.

USA TODAY Sports has a team of more than a dozen journalists on the ground in Italy to bring you behind the scenes with Team USA and keep you up to date with every medal win, big moment and triumphant finish. Get ourChasing Gold newsletterin your inbox every morning andjoin our WhatsApp channelto get the latest updates right in your texts.

All times Eastern and accurate as of Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, at 2:02 p.m.

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Feb. 19 Winter Olympics TV Schedule

• 1:30 AM - ALPINE SKIING (REPLAY) Women's Slalom: Run 1 USA NETWORK

• 2:00 AM - ALPINE SKIING (REPLAY) (Medal Event) Women's Slalom: Run 2 Final USA NETWORK

• 2:45 AM - SNOWBOARDING (REPLAY) (Medal Event) Men's Slopestyle Final USA NETWORK

• 3:50 AM - SKI MOUNTAINEERING (LIVE) Women's, Men's Sprint: Heats USA NETWORK, PEACOCK

• 5:00 AM - FREESTYLE SKIING (LIVE) (Medal Event) Men's Aerials Final USA NETWORK, PEACOCK

• 6:55 AM - SKI MOUNTAINEERING (LIVE) (Medal Event) Women's, Men's Sprint: Finals USA NETWORK, PEACOCK

• 8:20 AM - NORDIC COMBINED (LIVE) (Medal Event) Team Sprint/Large Hill: 2x7.5km USA NETWORK

• 8:45 AM - FREESTYLE SKIING (REPLAY) Men's Halfpipe Qualification USA NETWORK

• 10:30 AM - SPEED SKATING (LIVE) (Medal Event) Men's 1500m USA NETWORK, PEACOCK

• 12:00 PM - FREESTYLE SKIING (REPLAY) (Medal Event) Men's Aerials Final NBC

• 12:00 PM - ICE HOCKEY (LIVE) Switzerland vs. Sweden (Women's Bronze) USA NETWORK, PEACOCK

• 12:30 PM - SPEED SKATING (REPLAY) (Medal Event) Men's 1500m NBC

• 1:00 PM - FIGURE SKATING (LIVE) (Medal Event) Women's Free Skate NBC, PEACOCK

• 1:10 PM - ICE HOCKEY (LIVE) USA vs. Canada (Women's Gold) USA NETWORK, PEACOCK

• 4:00 AM - FREESTYLE SKIING (REPLAY) Women's Halfpipe Qualification USA NETWORK

• 5:00 PM - CURLING: Best of Curling (Feb. 19) CNBC

• 5:30 PM - NORDIC COMBINED (REPLAY) (Medal Event) Team Sprint/Large Hill: 2x7.5km USA NETWORK

• 6:30 PM - FREESTYLE SKIING (REPLAY) Men's Halfpipe Qualification USA NETWORK

• 8:00 PM - PRIMETIME IN MILAN (REPLAY) Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Freestyle Skiing, and more NBC, PEACOCK

• 8:00 PM - CURLING (REPLAY) Men's semifinal USA NETWORK

• 9:30 PM - CURLING (REPLAY) Switzerland vs. USA (Women's Round Robin) USA NETWORK,

• 11:35 PM - OLYMPIC LATE NIGHT (REPLAY) Freestyle Skiing, Ski Mountaineering, and more NBC, PEACOCK

Feb. 19 Winter Olympics Streaming Schedule

Sign up for Peacock here

• 3:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) China vs. Germany (Men's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 3:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) Italy vs. Switzerland (Men's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 3:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) Norway vs. Canada (Men's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 3:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) Sweden vs. Czechia (Men's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 4:00 AM - NORDIC COMBINED (LIVE) Team Sprint/Large Hill: Large Hill PEACOCK

• 4:30 AM - FREESTYLE SKIING (LIVE) Men's Halfpipe Qualification PEACOCK

• 8:00 AM - GOLD ZONE: DAY 13 (LIVE) Digital Exclusive PEACOCK

• 8:00 AM - BOBSLED (LIVE) Two-Woman Bobsled: Training PEACOCK

• 8:00 AM - NORDIC COMBINED (LIVE) (Medal Event) Team Sprint/Large Hill: 2x7.5km PEACOCK

• 8:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) Canada vs. South Korea (Women's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 8:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) Great Britain vs. Italy (Women's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 8:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) Japan vs. China (Women's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 8:05 AM - CURLING (LIVE) Switzerland vs. USA (Women's Round Robin) PEACOCK

• 8:40 AM - ICE HOCKEY (LIVE) Switzerland vs. Sweden (Women's Bronze) PEACOCK

• 1:05 PM - CURLING (LIVE) Men's Semifinal PEACOCK

• 1:05 PM - CURLING (LIVE) Men's Semifinal PEACOCK

• 1:30 PM - FREESTYLE SKIING (LIVE) Women's Halfpipe Qualification PEACOCK

Meet Team USA 2026:Get to know the athletes behind the games

More 2026 Winter Olympics

See the full Milano Cortina Games schedule

See the 2026 Medal Count Here

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Winter Olympics TV schedule today: How to watch every event on Thursday

MILAN —Jordan Stolzis "the greatest speed skater of all time."

So declared Laurent Dubreuil, a Canadian speed skater, this week at the2026 Winter Olympics.

Well, not so fast, Mr. Dubreuil and others making such proclamations.

Stolz, the 21-year-old from Wisconsin, has won two Olympic gold medals, leaving him halfway home to his quest for four golds at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

The next step: Stolz will compete in the men's 1,500 meters at 10:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 19.

Peacockwill provide coverage of what could be another Olympic record for Stolz to go along with the two he set in his other races –the 500 metersandthe 1,000 meters.

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He enters the 1,500 as the clear favorite, having won the race in each of his five World Cup appearances during the 2025-26 season. He won gold in the 1,500 at the World Single Distances Championships in 2023 and 2024, and took silver in 2025.

American speed skater Jordan Stolz wins gold, sets Olympic record

Jordan Stolz thoughts on 1,500

This week Stolz said, "I think if I have a good 1,500 — it should turn out well — I'm hoping for gold in that.''

His final race will be the mass start on Feb. 21, when Stolz potentially could become only the third person to win four gold medals in a single Winter Olympics.

Eric Heiden, the legendary speed skater, became the only person to win five golds in a single Winter Olympics in 1980. But Stolz's performance here so far has been dominant and before it ends could rival Heiden's feats.

And maybe even prove Dubreuil right.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jordan Stolz resumes quest for four golds at Winter Olympics

Hey look, everyone. We're hand-wringing again!

Those mean coaches and players, fresh offa high-intensity gamewhere their very financial livelihood is dependent, are bullying the poor, misunderstoodclowns from the standsjust trying to post their latest TikTok and chase social cred, that's all.

Or as we like to say in these most wonderful United States, storming the (insert your playing surface).

Here's what I call it: a world of no rules.

Not to mention reckless, dangerous and a false sense of security.

Yet with all of that, and even afteranother dolt from the standsshoved a phone in the face of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg seconds after a loss to rival Iowa, and screamed at him; even after Hoiberg tried to knock the phone from said dolt, missed and his swing connected with an Iowa staffer in the handshake line, we refuse to end this nonsense with clear and unambiguous rules.

Save the cash:Kansas State is embarrassing itself not to protect basketball, but help football

Bracketology:Who is rising in latest March Madness predictions

If you storm the court (or field) before players and officials have exited, you'll be arrested and lose ticket privileges forever. Period.

Instead, university presidents have decided to fine each other. The ACC fined North Carolina $50,000 earlier this month when its fansstormed the courtafter beating rival Duke, and the Big Ten will no doubt fine Iowa for its latest breach of rules.

The same North Carolina that is currently fueling its football NIL to the tune of $20 million. That 50K might be a bridge too far, baby.

But as the NCAA (also, collection of university presidents) has shown decade after decade, having rules and enforcing them are two distinctly different things.

This isn't a matter of want, it's a mater of will.

Know why the NFL doesn't have problems with field storming? Because the most successful sport in the history of the planet doesn't put up with it.

There's a police presence, and there are rules. There's no gray area about what happens when you enter the field of play at an NFL stadium.

You'll spend the next few hours in the local lockup, for starters. And just might get a shoulder pad to the solar plexus by one of 100-plus players on the field before the cops toss you in the back of a wagon.

College sports has decided to fine the universities, not the actual perpetrators. College sports has decided to fine each other, and move more fungible money between schools within the conference, instead of targeting the offenders.

I'm shocked, absolutely shocked, something much worse hasn't happened on one of the many court and field stormings. Because the law of averages says it will, and when it does, college sports will do what it does best.

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Feign disbelief, and reactively make sweeping changes at the horror of it all.

Here's a novel idea: Try proactive steps to eliminate the problem. Not a dopey fine, or an announcement over the PA system.

This isn't about the "tradition" of storming the field, or running on the court at a buzzer-beater. This is a few hundred students on the field with phones lifted high, recording for prosperity.

Or Instagram. Whichever comes first.

This isn't about eliminating what makes college sports special, or the purity of college sports over homogenized professional sports. No one is taking away your precious look-at-me moment.

Just making you wait three minutes so players and officials can exit the joint. Hell, we'll throw a countdown clock with a horn into the equation, so everyone can run on the field or floor and get stupid at the same time.

TikTok to your heart's content, everybody.

Or we can keep doing dumb, and the next incident won't be so simple and eventually forgettable.

The next incident might be much closer to what happened three years ago, when Alabama wideout Jermaine Burton took a swing at a coed who ran by and yelled something at him after Tennessee beat the Tide in overtime.

Some player or coach somewhere will directly connect at some point, and when the clown holding the phone hits the deck and is seriously injured, we'll scream and yell about it for weeks, post about it on social media and demand change.

When we knew the answer all along.

There are rules, and there are consequences for those who don't follow rules. Despite what you may have heard, that's not a foreign concept.

Coaches ask players to compete like a pack of wild dogs on the court and field, expending every ounce of energy like you're livelihood depended on it. Because now, in the new era of NIL, it does.

But don't mind clowns with their phones, picking at the fresh wound during your lowest moment of the week or year.

They're just kids, and it's tradition.

There are no rules.

Matt Hayesis the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Network. Follow him on X at@MattHayesCFB.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:College basketball court stormings don't need to stop, just wait a minute

The United States may be on the cusp of launching military action that would mark the most decisive moment in its near half-century showdown with Iran.

Yet there's little public debate about what could be a weekslong assault with consequences that are impossible to predict.

There's no full-court press from top national security officials. President Donald Trump is making hardly any effort to share the rationale for the potential or why military personnel might be asked to risk their lives. And the White House is giving no public sign that it knows what may unfold in Iran if its clerical regime is toppled, an eventuality that could cause enormous reverberations in the Middle East.

The president has made no final decisioneither way, sources told CNN.

But every day, and following the failure of histepid diplomacyto make breakthroughs so far, Trump is being dragged inexorably closer to a fateful decision point. The military has told the White House that it could be ready to launch an attack by the weekend, following a buildup of aerial and naval assets, CNN reported. But one source said that the president has privately argued for and against action and has polled advisers and allies on what he should do.

Given the stakes, and the potential risk to American personnel, the lack of a specific public rationale for any war with Iran seems surprising.

This narrative deficit was reflected in the White House briefing Wednesday, ironically on the eve of the first meeting ofthe president's Board of Peace. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked the pertinent question of why Trump might need to launch a strike on Iran's nuclear program, which he has insisted he alreadytotally obliteratedin a round-the-world bombing raid last year.

"Well, there's many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against Iran," Leavitt said, offering no specifics.

Trump's explanations extend only to repeated warnings that Iran will face the consequences if it doesn't make a "deal" with the United States. Last week, he saidregime change in Tehranmight be the "best thing" that could happen.

Ordering the military into battle is the most somber duty of presidents. Their assumption of the highest office comes with an obligation to explain why force might be necessary. And fuzzy thinking could imperil the mission.

Leavitt implied that Americans should just trust the president. "He's always thinking about what's in the best interests of the United States of America, of our military, of the American people," she said.

This would be a thin foundation on which to launch a major war that might end up costing billions of dollars and unknown numbers of American and Iranian lives, and that could trigger huge military and economic repercussions in the Middle East.

It could also worsen Trump's already stark domestic unpopularity in a midterm election year.

An emboldened Trump sizes up his tolerance for risk

Trump wouldn't like any comparison with the Iraq war that began in 2003, given its disastrous aftermath. But before that conflict, the Bush administration spent months in a PR offensive designed to convince the country of its later-debunked rationale for the war. It also managed to win congressional authorization for the invasion — at least securing a domestic legal basis for its actions.

If Trump persists in failing to level with citizens and Congress and then takes military action, he will be prolonging a trend of his second term. And he will be leaving himself politically exposed in the event that strikes go wrong.

But it also appears that Trump is emboldened by his successful ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in a spectacular operation last month that killed no US troops. His tolerance for risk may also be heightened because the US assassination of Iranian military and intelligence chief Qasem Soleimani in his first term failed to trigger the kind of regional conflagration and Iranian attacks on US allies that some experts predicted.

In recent weeks, Trump's strategy on Iran has seemed to mirror his playbook in Venezuela, where he amassed a huge naval armada and demanded concessions. This is 21st-century diplomacy backed by aircraft carrier groups and cruise missiles.

But he risks creating a box for himself that it will be difficult to exit with credibility intact if it turns out that his repeated claims that Iran wants a "deal" are wrong.

The kind of deal that Trump can offer Iran may be unacceptable to its clerical regime, whose top priority is perpetuating itself. And a deal Tehran could offer Trump may be one he'd never accept, since it doesn't want to talk about its ballistic missiles or regional proxy network, which he sees as red lines.

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Iranian concessions on a nuclear program that is already severely disrupted in return for sanctions relief would be unacceptable to Trump. He can't afford politically to emulate the nuclear deal agreed by the Obama administration that he trashed. And lifting sanctions could help the regime survive.

The New York Times quoted Iranian sources as saying that Iran has indicated willingness to suspend enrichment for three to five years in return for sanctions relief. But Dennis Ross, a former US Middle East peace envoy, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that this was a symbolic concession. "It's pretty hard to see them enriching while Trump is still in office. And what they're seeking is the lifting of economic sanctions, which is a way of … giving them a kind of lease on life."

Why now might be the moment to strike Iran

The White House may not be telling Americans why it might be time to go to war with Iran. But that doesn't mean there are not strategic rationales for doing so. In that sense, Leavitt is right.

Trump's obsession with naming buildings after himself and erecting new ones — such as the planned White House ballroom — suggest he's increasingly preoccupied with his legacy.

Ending the often-hot cold war with Iran that has bedeviled every American president since Jimmy Carter would secure him a true place in history. And it could put a historic capstone on an estrangement with revolutionary Iran that began with the humiliation of Americans held hostage in 1979-81, which scarred US global confidence and prestige.

Trump might never get a better opening. The regime has arguably never been weaker. Its regional proxies, like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — which were once an insurance policy against an outside attack — have been shredded by Israel.

Iran's government is facing its worst-ever domestic crisis. It's clouded by doubt over the revolutionary succession after 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dies. The economy is wrecked. Desperation recently drove protesters onto the streets amid food and water shortages and grinding economic conditions. The resulting crackdown may have killed thousands. Trump could make good on his pledge to protesters that the US was "locked and loaded" to defend them by toppling the clerical regime.

While Iran may not pose an immediate deadly threat to the US, it has killed scores of Americans in terror attacks and through militias during the Iraq war. Its leaders have long threatened to wipe Israel off the map — a threat that would become even more grave with nuclear weapons. And a stable, democratic and unthreatening Iran would boost the emergence of a new Middle East, powered by the growing global influence of US allies in the Gulf.

Trump would, of course, be a hero of Iranians if he delivered them from repression.

Why a strike against Iran would be such a risk

But there are many reasons why he might be smart to blink.

A serious attempt either to decapitate the Iranian regime or to devastate the military capacity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij paramilitary militia would likely require a multi-day air campaign. This could lead to significant civilian casualties. It would raise the possibility of US combat deaths or the capture of US pilots, which could turn into a propaganda disaster.

While some critics have pointed to Trump's vows to wage no new wars in the Middle East, an Iran conflict would likely not lead to the kind of massive land invasion that turned Iraq into a morass. But as in that war, the best day for the US might be the one when it fires its first shock-and-awe volleys.

It's also unlikely that any strike against Iran's clerical leaders would be as clean as the special forces mission that spirited Maduro out of Venezuela.

There is also the problem of what might come next if the revolutionary government were to fall. Failing to anticipate the day after haunted US regime change efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya this century.

"My question is, after all is said and done, if this lasts for weeks, what happens next?" Colin Clarke, executive director of the Soufan Center told Isa Soares on CNN International. "Then you're dealing with a power vacuum, then you're dealing with the potential for insurgency. And, you know there's a range of states and non-state actors that would look to exploit that."

Iran, the seat of the ancient Persian civilization, is less plagued by sectarian divides than Iraq, which splintered after the US invasion. But the loss of central authority might be devastating. And the lack of a coherent umbrella leadership for protesters or organized internal opposition raises further questions about a smooth transition. Any US and Israeli joint military action would be certain to include wide-ranging attacks on IRGC facilities and forces. But sources told CNN this week that US intelligence community still believes that the most likely candidate to fill a leadership void would be the hardline guard corps. So ousting theocrats in Tehran might just lead to an equally radical anti-US replacement.

And longer and more complex military action in Iran than in Venezuela with uncertain consequences would increase political pressure on Trump at home amid multiple polls showing majorities of Americans oppose a new Middle East war. It could also test Trump's bond with the MAGA movement, since he's spent the last 10 years telling his base there will be no more foreign quagmires.

While officials said that forces would be positioned to strike Iran at the weekend, US action is not guaranteed. The start of the Muslim holy month Ramadan could augur a delay. So could Trump's annual State of the Union address Tuesday. Trump prizes the unpredictable, so Iran will be on full alert.

But unless Iran capitulates to terms that Trump is still yet to fully explain to the public, more time will not ease the most fateful dilemma yet of his second term.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

By Andrew Hay

Feb 18 (Reuters) - New Mexico's Department of Justice said on Wednesday the state was investigating an allegation, which emerged from documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice, that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ordered the bodies of two foreign ‌girls buried outside his remote New Mexico ranch.

New Mexico Department of Justice spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez said it had requested from the U.S. ‌Justice Department an unredacted copy of an email in 2019 containing the allegation.

The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined comment.

"We are actively investigating ​this allegation and are conducting a broader review in light of the latest release from the U.S. Department of Justice," Rodriguez said in an emailed response to queries about the case.

A day earlier, New Mexico's legislature launched the first comprehensive investigation into accusations that Epstein sexually abused girls and women at the Zorro Ranch 30 miles (48 km) south of Santa Fe for more than two decades. Pressure from Democratic lawmakers to uncover Epstein's crimes has become a major political challenge for President ‌Donald Trump.

The redacted 2019 email, contained in the latest ⁠release of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Justice Department, had been sent a few months after Epstein's death to Eddy Aragon, a New Mexico radio show host who had discussed the Zorro Ranch on his program.

The sender, claiming to be ⁠a former Zorro Ranch employee, requested payment of onebitcoinin return for videos that the email said had been taken from Epstein's house and showed the financier having sex with minors.

Aragon said in a phone interview that he believed the email to be legitimate and immediately forwarded it to the FBI. He said he did ​not ​receive any payment from or have any further contact with the sender, although he recently ​tried to respond to it for the first time but ‌the address was no longer functioning.

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The redacted email to Aragon said two foreign girls had been buried on Epstein's orders "somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro" and that the two had died "by strangulation during rough, fetish sex."

A 2021 FBI report, also contained in the latest Epstein file release, said Aragon visited an FBI office to report the email, which offered seven videos of sexual abuse and the location of two foreign girls buried on Zorro Ranch in return for one bitcoin.

A Reuters search of other documents among the Department of Justice's disclosures did not find any other references to the allegations in the redacted ‌email or what investigators made of its claims.

The Justice Department warned last year that some ​of the files it disclosed from its investigation of Epstein "contain untrue and sensationalist claims," and ​that they include anonymous accusations that investigators did not corroborate, or in ​some cases determined to be false.

In an interview on Wednesday, New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said her ‌office had found the redacted email during a recent search ​of the latest Epstein file release.

Garcia Richard, ​in a February 10 letter to the U.S. Justice Department and a statement, called on federal and state justice officials to fully investigate allegations of criminality on Epstein's ranch and state lands adjacent to it.

Epstein leased around 1,243 acres (503 hectares) of state lands around the ranch in ​1993. Garcia canceled the leases in September 2019 after ‌her office determined Epstein did not use the land for ranching or agriculture but as a privacy buffer around his ranch.

Epstein died ​in a New York jail in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Additional ​reporting by Brad Heath in Washington; Editing by Donna Bryson and Edmund Klamann)