USA TODAY Sports has a storied tradition of groundbreaking Olympic coverage. That tradition will continue with a little extra ‘magic’ for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan Cortina, Italy.
Olympic gold medal champion figure skater Brian Boitano and veteran USA TODAY columnist Christine Brennan will host ‘Milan Magic,’ a video podcast (vodcast) featuring exclusive interviews with athletes, behind-the-scenes reporting, and even Boitano back out on the ice, among other surprises on tap.
The vodcast will anchor USA TODAY Sports’ Olympics coverage, which will include a team of 28 reporters and photographers on the ground with Boitano and Brennan covering all things related to the 2026 Games. The first episode, which drops Saturday, will include a sit-down with skating superstar Ilia Malinin.
Boitano and Brennan announced ‘Milan Magic’ Tuesday during a panel discussion at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, where they addressed the impact of technology in sports and the Olympics during Stagwell’s Sport Beach Tech Summit at the Encore Las Vegas.
‘The largest piece of tech we’re going to see in Milan is actually a human being, and his name is Ilia Malinin,’ Boitano said during the panel, ‘The long road to gold: How technology shapes Olympic performance, coverage & competition.’
‘He is the first person to do all the jumps in quadruple form. I don’t know if he uses any of the new technologies, but he’s just incredible. Everything that I did to win the Olympics as a triple, he does as a quadruple. So all the six different jumps, he has added a rotation on and he has set new standards for tech skating. It’s going to be amazing.’
A three-time U.S. Olympian, Boitano won gold in men’s singles figure skating at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, outdueling Canadian rival Brian Orser in a memorable competition, one in which he became the first person in Olympic history to land eight triple jumps.
Brennan joined USA TODAY as a national sports columnist in 1997 and has covered every Olympic Games − both summer and winter − since 1984. She has written eight books on sports, including the New York Times best-seller, ‘Inside Edge,’ about Olympic figure skating.
Brennan and Boitano were joined Tuesday by PepsiCo Chief Marketing Officer Mark Kirkham and Olympic gold medalist Masai Russell. Instrument CEO Laurel Burton moderated the panel. The group spoke about the changes they’ve seen over the years related to technology the athletes use ― body sensors, instant playback, apps to track velocity and sleep ― along with increasingly data-driven broadcasts and coverage of the Games.
They will continue to provide those insights on ‘Milan Magic’ each week leading up to and during the Olympics, while centering the human side of Olympic sports that technology just can’t replicate.
‘Our podcast, that’s technology, right?’ Brennan joked. ‘Brian and I, together, telling stories and interviewing everyone and sharing the insights that we’ll have for the next two months.’
You can listen to ‘Milan Magic’ on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube or on USA TODAY.
USA TODAY Co. partners with Stagwell Global, a marketing services company, and is part of the company’s ‘Future of News’ initiative, which launched last year to educate advertisers about the enduring value of news and how to best maximize returns in the industry.
