With the 2026 Winter Games two-thirds complete, there remain several chances for Utah Olympians to ascend the podium.

The big picture: Athletes with Utah ties were sporting 12 medals in nine events as of yesterday — seven in skiing events.

The latest: 🎿 Utah's Mac Forehand landed a silver medal Tuesday after what is being hailed as a bar-raising final round of freestyle big air skiing. Local teammates Troy Podmilsak and Konnor Ralph ranked 4th and 5th.

• Earlier in the day, Utahns Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Conor McDermott-Mostowy joined individual gold medalist Jordan Stolz to win silver in the men's speed skating team pursuit.

Here's what we're watching in Italy, and what's defied our expectations so far.

Mamma mia!

Utahns' penchant for drama extended to the Alps with these exciting turns.

🏅 Downhill superstar Lindsey Vonn took a characteristically gutsy risk to ski sans ACL — but it didn't pay off, with a catastrophic crash ending in an emergency helicopter ride.

• Vonn's SLC teammate Breezy Johnson swept in, claiming a gold medal — and, a few days later, a silver engagement ring at the Super G finish line.

🤢 Skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who studied at SLC's Westminster College, "redecorated the gondola" — and the mountaintop commode — six times during an inauspicious morning of food poisoning before blasting to the Super-G podium, per NBC.

Non ci piove!

These Wasatch-trained returning medalists make their podium appearances all but certain.

🗻 SLC's Jaelin Kauf reclaimed the moguls silver she won in 2022 and grabbed another in dual moguls.

🥈Skier Alex Hall secured a silver medal in slopestyle after winning gold in 2022.

Non vediamo l'ora!

We can't wait to see these contenders in the Games' final days.

🏒 SLC's Hilary Knight has captained USA hockey through victory after blistering victory, with just one opposing goal in six matches so far.

• They're the favorites in tomorrow's gold medal game against Canada, who Team USA already shut out 5-0 in last week's round robin.

🙄 As of yesterday, the heavens were taunting Utah's freestyle skiing aerialists, with storms forcing delays for both men and women, including world champion Kaila Kuhn.

• Mixed-team aerials come Saturday, with Park City's Chris Lillis and Quinn Dehlinger expected to join Kuhn in last year's podium-topping trio.

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Health insurance costs in Utah ate up nearly 8% of the median family income, according to a new analysis.

The big picture: The findings show how tough it can be to afford health care, even with insurance, for many of the estimated 167 million Americans who get coverage through an employer.

By the numbers: Health insurance coverage made up 10% or more of the median family income in 19 states.

• The state-by-state breakdown of federal data by the Commonwealth Fund looked at how much people spent on premiums — their contribution to the cost of their insurance — and on deductibles, their out-of-pocket costs before insurance starts to pay for medical services.

Go deeper

⛷️ The University of Utah will host next month's NCAA ski championships after a lack of snow forced Montana State University, the original host, to relocate the competition. (KSL)

😷 Tooele County reported its first case of measles on Monday, bringing the statewide total to 300 cases. (FOX 13)

🌮 Taste of Red Iguana, one of Salt Lake City's most popular Mexican restaurants, is opening an outpost in Daybreak. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Nordic Valley Ski Resort closed temporarily last week amid Utah's unusually warm winter.

Why it matters: February is typically peak time on the slopes, but ski resorts across the western U.S. are facing one of their worst seasons on record.

What they're saying: "We've held on as long as we can with our current conditions, but we've made the tough decision to extend our temporary pause on operations until colder weather returns," an operations update posted last Friday read.

State of play: Utah's snowpack hit a record low earlier this month, with statewide levels at one-third of the normal annual peak, per a Natural Resources Conservation Service report on the water supply outlook.

Yes, but: Heavy snow this week is expected to last through tomorrow, with 1 to 2 feet forecast for the northern mountains and more than 3 feet possible in the upper Cottonwood Canyons, according to the National Weather Service.

What we're watching: Nordic Valley's general manager Cobalt Stromberg told the Salt Lake Tribune he expects the resort to reopen by Friday.

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