Gamestime Intelligence from Onboard Sports Advisory
With Onboard Sports Advisory on the ground in Italy and colleagues across our global offices supporting in real time, OBE is closely tracking the most important, dynamic, and conversation-shaping stories emerging from the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games.
TOP HEADLINES
Ukrainian kicked out of Winter Olympics over ‘helmet of remembrance’ (The Times, 2/12)
‘Are You Feeling the Vibe?’ At Italy’s Spread-Out Olympics, It Depends. (NYT, 2/12)
Breezy Johnson Gets Engaged After Boyfriend Proposes at Olympics Finish Line (People, 2/12)
BUSINESS, MARKETING & SPONSORSHIP
Icy Hot: New Curling League Seeks $25M on Olympic Buzz (Sportico, 2/12)
Minions Gets $20M in Olympics Exposure With New Film Coming (Sportico, 2/11)
The most important team at the Olympics isn't a country. It's the timekeepers. (NBC, 2/10)
FANS, CONTENT & MEDIA
Mike Tirico Went From the Super Bowl to the Olympics on Two Cups of Coffee (NYT, 2/12)
Why are drones everywhere at the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina (Washington Post, 2/9)
How Olympic Figure Skating Music Ended Up in a Copyright Quagmire (Front Office Sports, 2/11)
SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
The Physics Behind the Quadruple Axel, the Most Difficult Jump in Figure Skating (Wired, 2/10)
NHL returns to Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina after controversial buildup (CNN, 2/11)
Settling for Silver, Chloe Kim Is Happy to Pass the Torch to a Generation She Inspired (SI, 2/12)
FUTURE OF THE MOVEMENT
Fraser Bullock talks about Utah’s next Olympics with IOC President Kirsty Coventry (Deseret, 2/10)
OSA Gametime Observations
Whether you're a first-time Olympic Games attendee or a multi-timer, it can be a challenge to navigate transportation to and from a Host City's sporting venues. When you combine new competition venues, drivers learning their routes (many who are volunteers) learning on-the-job, and different security access points for varied attendees (from VVIPs to Joe Public) — getting around a Games city can be a source of agita.
But Milano Cortina 2026 sponsor Uber saw an opportunity to "surprise and delight" those sometime anxious users with a touch of Olympic flair. On the sometimes frustrating "Finding Driver" screen, Uber changed the usual car icons to skiers schussing around Milan — a visual that's even more fun with more drivers roaming around.
In a host city that many observers believe can use a bit more "Olympic feel", it's nice to see how Uber recognized that even small details (#easteregg) can create outsized and lasting brand connections.
Header Image Credit: Sportico.com - Design by Grace Hughes, Photos by Joosep Martinson - International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images, Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images, Kevin Winter/Getty Images