#hog-line

#hog-line

BRIAN KENNY: Welcome to Cold Call, the podcast where we dive deep into the groundbreaking ideas in Harvard Business School case studies. Today on Cold Call, we're looking at a sport where innovation doesn't come from flash or funding, but from rethinking first principles. The sport is speed skating and we're dropping this episode during the 2026 Winter Olympics. The US men's Speed Skating team is coming off years of disappointment, searching for a breakthrough in the team pursuit event. The innovation works.

I absolutely give you permission to learn what twizzles are, but if you're coming into this as a once-every-four-years viewer, I encourage you to appreciate these performances based on how the skating made you feel. For me, watching it reminds me of the first time I was taken to a classical music performance: "What am I supposed to do with my brain during this?" I thought.

The men's hockey tournament at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games is underway and many fans are hoping to see the exciting feat of scoring three goals in a single game, better known as a hat trick. "I'm curious to see over in Italy for the Olympics, if we'll see a hat trick to begin with, and then second will people throw their hats?" said Ty Di Lello, a hockey historian based in Winnipeg, Canada. The international sporting event will mark the return of National Hockey League players after a 12 year absence.

MILAN -- Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Canada are rolling into the knockout round at the Olympics as the best team in the tournament. They may have put the top seed out of the Americans' reach. Crosby and McDavid each had a goal and two assists in a clinical, businesslike 10-2 dismantling of France on Sunday, which included Tom Wilson fighting the player who delivered a forearm to Nathan MacKinnon's face.

If that's true," caveated Minneapolis native Taylor Anderson-Heide after the 9-8 nail-biter, "I think we just played a really good game. They're No. 1 in the world." Tara Peterson of Shoreview, Minnesota, chimed in: "It just always feels really good to beat [Canada skip] Rachel Homan. So any team to beat them, that's pretty impressive." Since 1998, when women's curling was introduced at the Olympics, teams from the U.S. and Canada have played at least once in each Games.

On June 24 2022 the International Olympic Committee 'IOC' announced the addition of two new disciplines to the Winter Olympics. These disciplines are dual moguls and women's large hill ski jumping. The addition of women's large hill jumping leaves Nordic Combined as the last men-only Winter Olympic event. Today we'll take a closer look at dual moguls, which will premier at the ski resort of Livigno, Italy, at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympics for both men and women.

We've all seen basketball halftime shows with highly trained poodles that can walk tight ropes and unicycle riders stacking bowls on their heads but we've never seen this kind of entertainment at hockey game.

Not everyone can skate, not everyone has been on skis, very few would dare to try ski jumping, but anyone who has ever played in the snow probably knows the feeling of what skeleton athletes get on race day. It's the thrill of being on a sled, picking up speed, trying to figure out how to steer without having anything to steer with, then getting up and doing it all over again.

Team USA men's hockey easily handled Latvia in their opening game of the 2026 Winter Olympics, securing a 5-1 victory. The focus now turns to their second round-robin game against Denmark on Saturday at 3:10 p.m. ET. Denmark lost their opener 3-1 to Germany but played better than the scoreline suggests. They outshot the Germans 38-25 but struggled to contain the star power of Leon Draisaitl and Tim Stutzle.

Olympic winter sports must be played on snow and ice, according to the Olympic Charter. But could a muddy field of play get its chance at a future Winter Games, even as soon as in the French Alps in 2030 or Salt Lake City in 2034? How about parquet in an indoor hall? Snow volleyball is ready and waiting. Those and other sports

The women's tournament is already underway, and the buzz in the Olympic village is the norovirus that appears to be making its way through the teams. Finland had to postpone the start of its games, as several of its players went into isolation to start the tournament. The Finns opened the games against the U.S. women on Feb. 7 and promptly lost 5-0, potentially feeling some of the after effects of the illness.