Two World Sporting Events

Winter Olympics 2026 Highlights & T20 World Cup Upsets

In this episode of Takaro Kids, Kiran and Debbie cover two major sporting events: the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo and the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. They discuss a controversy involving Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified for wearing a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed in the war, and compare it to Afghan breakdancer Manizha Talash’s disqualification at the Paris 2024 Olympics for a slogan supporting Afghan women. The hosts highlight standout Winter Olympics moments including Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Klæbo winning his eighth Olympic gold medal, and snowboard halfpipe star Chloe Kim being beaten by her 17-year-old protégé Choi Gaon after Choi recovered from a bad first run. They also note challenges caused by heavy use of artificial snow due to warmer winters and lower-altitude venues, and mention India’s two Winter Olympians Arif Mohd Khan and Stanzin Lundup. They share the current medal standings with Norway leading, Italy second, and the USA and Japan next. Switching to cricket, they describe the expanded 20-team T20 World Cup field and early upsets and close matches, including Nepal nearly beating England, Zimbabwe defeating Australia by 23 runs, and Italy’s debut win over Nepal by 10 wickets, along with results like UAE beating Canada and the USA beating the Netherlands. The episode’s prediction challenge asks viewers to guess which country will finish with the highest total Winter Olympics medal tally and submit answers by 19 February at 12 noon for prizes. They also announce last week’s quiz winner: 11-year-old Nadia Desai from Bangalore, who correctly answered that Shiva Keshavan was the first Indian to compete in luge across six consecutive Winter Olympics.

00:00 Welcome! Two Huge Sports Events: Winter Olympics + T20 World Cup
01:02 Winter Olympics in Milan & Cortina: Pronunciation, Places, and What’s New
01:30 Skeleton Controversy: Ukrainian Athlete Disqualified for Helmet Message
03:38 Olympics & Politics: Past Example and Why the IOC Stays Strict
04:20 Record-Setter Moment: Johannes Klæbo’s 8th Gold & That Uphill Sprint
05:26 Artificial Snow Challenges: Warmer Winters, Harder Surfaces, More Injuries
06:39 Halfpipe Heartwarmer: Chloe Kim vs Protégé Choi Gaon
08:30 India at the Winter Olympics: The Two Athletes and Why Participation Matters
09:56 Medal Tally Check-In: Norway Leads, Italy Second, USA & Japan in the Mix
10:50 Switching to Cricket: 2026 T20 World Cup in India & Sri Lanka (20 Teams!)
12:06 Underdogs Making Noise: Nepal Nearly Stuns England + Group Stage Format
12:54 Zimbabwe’s Comeback Shock: Beating Australia & What ‘Minnows’ Means
14:50 More Surprises + Cricket History: Italy’s Debut, UAE Upset, USA’s Old Cricket Roots
16:20 This Week’s Challenge: Predict the Winter Olympics Medal-Tally Winner
18:28 Last Week’s Quiz Winner + How to Send Your Prediction (Deadline Details)

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Transcript

Debkanya 0:00

Mics camera action! Welcome to another episode of Takaro Kids. This week we are going to focus on two very, very big sporting events taking place in the world right now. There's a lot happening way over in Italy and there's a lot happening here in India and Sri Lanka. First we gonna talk about the Winter Olympics.

Kiran Menon 0:26

And you know what's very interesting, Debbie, is that Italy is participating the event that's taking place in India and Sri Lanka and India is participating in the event that's happening in Italy. It's so cool.

Debkanya 0:40

Yeah. I mean that's how global sporting events usually work Kiran. Multiple

Kiran Menon 0:44

thank

Debkanya 0:44

countries participate.

Kiran Menon 0:45

Thank you. But it is the first time Italy is participating in this International T20 World Cup.

Debkanya 0:53

That is correct. On that front. Yes. I'll hand it to you. It is the first time for Italy. We will come to that in more detail in the second half of this episode. First, we will talk about the Winter Olympics. As we mentioned it started, it's going on in Milan and Cortina D'ampezzo. I figured out how to pronounce that. Last time I was struggling.

Kiran Menon 1:13

Yeah. She been practicing.

Debkanya 1:15

I have. I have, I have. So it's D'Ampezzo, I forgot. You know, that's how you're supposed to be like pizza and Ampezzo. That's how you say it. See?

Kiran Menon 1:24

Interesting.

Debkanya 1:25

Lots of interesting stories. Yes. Coming out from Milan and Cortina. One which caught my eye was about this, um, young 27-year-old called Vladyslav Heraskevych, who's from Ukraine.

Kiran Menon 1:40

Yep.

Debkanya 1:40

Remember we talked about a sport? Yeah. He made a statement, but we talked about a sport called Skeleton.

Kiran Menon 1:46

Yep.

Debkanya 1:47

Where you basically lie on a board and you race down. Um, you're lying down headfirst feet at the back on your tummy and race down this slide made out of, entirely made out of ice. It's called skeleton. Well, Vladyslav, was competing in that, but he was disqualified. The reason for that is because he's from Ukraine and he decided to wear a helmet, uh, with pictures of all the Ukrainian athletes who actually lost their lives in that horrible war that is going on between Ukraine and Russia, where Russia is trying to take over certain parts of Ukraine. Remember, we spoke about this story? Well, yeah. He decided to speak up and use this Olympics as a platform to draw attention to this and well, the organizers have always been strict about such political statements, haven't they?

Kiran Menon 2:33

Yeah, I. They, they actually had a lot of, um, you know, meetings with Vladyslav and they went back and forth. There were a few different appeals that happened. Initial sort of appeal went to the IOC, which is the governing body for Olympics globally. And then it went as a further appeal to the court of arbitration of sport. And both of them upheld the same decision, which was to dismiss the appeals and say, Hey, this is not okay. Because once you make it okay, for one, it becomes okay for everyone else. Right. So it's, it's a precedent. And so, um, it's interesting. I mean, it's, it's sad because he wanted to make a statement about the suffering of war and you know, how many athletes because this is a sporting event, had actually died. At the same time, I guess, you know, you can look at it from both sides saying on the other side, IOC also needs to make sure it's the same rules for everyone. You say yes to Vladyslav then the Russians hmm. can come in and, you know, do

Debkanya 3:35

Start making statements.

Kiran Menon 3:36

And so it just becomes really messy.

Debkanya 3:38

Yeah, and this has happened before as well. In fact, if you remember the 24 Paris Olympics, one interesting that stood out was this, uh, Afghan break dancer, Manizha Talash, she basically, uh, you know, was competing as part of the refugee Olympic team. So there's an Olympic team formed of countries that are in situations where the athletes cannot participate and represent their own country. So they form a team together. And she was disqualified because she wore a cape which said, which had a slogan which said, Free Afghan Women, because there's a lot of, um, atrocities happening in Afghanistan against women. Uh, so she wanted to draw attention to that, but she was also, you know, not allowed to do that.

Kiran Menon 4:15

Yeah. So that was the major controversy in the Winter Olympics over the last one week. Another amazing thing, I don't know if you kind of, uh, saw this, but Norwegian skier Johannes Klæbo. He is a country skier, he won his eighth Olympic gold medal, so he has the most number of gold medals winter Olympic history. But what was amazing is, and maybe all of y'all should go and actually look at this video. Cross country skiing, is when you actually wear skis and skis are meant to ski. Over here in cross country skiing, there are parts where you have to run and walk and tread over different, um, terrain. And is this video of his ending where he is actually running uphill in skis where all the others behind him are like, struggling. This guy is just like going, woo hoo. Like it's a really

Debkanya 5:11

easy

Kiran Menon 5:12

jog

Debkanya 5:13

Huh.

Kiran Menon 5:14

just seeing that because that's what kind shows you the amount of, I think, you know, talent, sporting, talent determination, how important it is for these athletes..

Debkanya 5:24

And conditions at these. I mean, speaking of running up, you know, it's not been very easy for a lot of these athletes, right? Because this is one Winter Olympics where, uh, there's been a lot of artificial snow that's been used to actually create the right conditions. In fact, I was reading about how it's been really hard. For a lot of athletes because, you know, snow, natural snow is soft. You know, it's made of many, many snowflakes. We know this, but artificial snow is created. Like you freeze water and then it's created into like these tiny balls. So it's much harder. It's um, you know, when you fall on this, it's a much harder surface. Uh, it's also much narrower normally, you know, when it's naturally snowing, there's snow all around you. Right. So even if you fall, you'll land in a snowbank on the side, but here

Kiran Menon 6:10

correct.

Debkanya 6:10

it's just a narrow trail, chances of injuries of you falling on the mountain side where it's hard surface is higher.

Kiran Menon 6:18

The reasons is also because, you know, winters are getting warmer.

Debkanya 6:22

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 6:22

also some of the events are actually happening at lower, uh, altitudes from a Italy perspective, so

Debkanya 6:27

Mm-hmm.

Kiran Menon 6:28

high up in the mountains. And they, that's why they're needing to pack more artificial snow into the arenas.

Debkanya 6:34

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's been, it's been very hard.

Kiran Menon 6:37

Korean as well, right?

Debkanya 6:39

Oh, yes, I did, because I mean, that's the other super, super cool story. Okay. This is from a, from the event, which is called a snowboarding halfpipe. Basically a snowboarding halfpipe. It's a freestyle competition where, you know, you have to do these acrobatic tricks and you ride back and forth inside this, uh, 22 foot high snow ramp, which is called a superpipe.

Kiran Menon 6:59

It's like a semi circle.

Debkanya 7:01

Yeah, exactly. So, the, the big star of this event, is this woman called Chloe Kim. She's from the US and she was all set to win her third gold medal, which would've been the highest, uh, tally gold tally for this event. But she lost and she lost to a 17-year-old girl from South Korea. Her name is, and I want to say it right, Choi Gaon. But she was not as upset as she should have been. Do you know why? I know you are going to tell us. Well, she was not upset because Choi is actually her protege. What does a protege mean?

Kiran Menon 7:41

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 7:42

She helped Choi. She mentored her. In fact, she, uh, Chloe and Choi met many years ago, uh, at another event. And, um, you know, Chloe and her dad realized how talented Choi was, and they actually supported her and helped her, bought her tickets to go to the US and train there. Right? So after all that support today, yeah. Choi actually defeated her mentor. So she came second, Chloe came second, and Choi took the gold medal. So it's such a cool story, right?

Kiran Menon 8:12

It's heartwarming story.

Debkanya 8:15

Yeah. And by the way, Choi really, she actually fell down pretty badly in the first run. Huh. So people were quite worried about that, but she had a flawless final performance and, uh, yeah, it's almost like passing on, you know, the mantle to the upcoming stars of tomorrow.

Kiran Menon 8:30

It is a very nice story and we had also kind of talked about the two Indians who are part of the Winter Olympics, only two people because Winter Olympics and winter sports is not really native to India. Right.

Debkanya 8:42

Hmm.

Kiran Menon 8:42

grow it. Hopefully in the next few years we kind of have more athletes competing. But Arif Mohd Khan and uh, Stanzin Lundup. I think Stanzin Lundup has actually finished. A medal without back in the back, so to say. Um, in his, um, in his competition, which is cross country skiing. I think Arik Khan con still has a couple of events to complete the downhill slalom as well. Um, so we'll take a look. I mean, no one is expecting India to kind of, you know, win medals over here, but just the participation itself is the first step towards building that entire sort of ecosystem in India, right? Going out and being Winter Olympics athletes. That is such an amazing thing.

Debkanya 9:27

It's, I think it's always nice to have someone to cheer for, right? And same way it applies to the athletes as well. It's always nice for an athlete to know someone is cheering for you. So do watch, do try and catch the sports, you know, the different events that are happening and cheer on. And it doesn't have to be someone from your own country. Cheer on all these different players, identify who your favorites are. I mean, there are some very young athletes here as well. Um, so yeah, I think it's, it's always good to cheer people on because that's what athletes need. They need that support. And with that, now let's round up the metal tally. So far the, it's still going on. It's gonna go until the end of February, but so far it has, it is Norway right on top of the list with the highest number of medals.

Kiran Menon 10:09

Norway.

Debkanya 10:10

Why do you like Norway so much?

Kiran Menon 10:12

I used to live in Norway,

Debkanya 10:14

Yes. Fair enough. And Italy is second. Yay, Italy because I love Italian food.. And third place is actually shared by US and Japan. Yay. Japan, because I also love Japanese food. And they're at 14 medals. Uh, of course, USA has more gold medals than, uh, Japan, so actually they're in third place. So it's Norway, Italy, US, and Japan. So keep an eye on that, uh, list. You'll know why very soon at the end of this episode. Yes.

Kiran Menon 10:50

Now switching gear, coming back home to India and Srilanka. We have the 2026 T20 World Cup happening. 20 teams. 20 teams!.

Debkanya 11:01

Hmm.

Kiran Menon 11:03

so teams.

Debkanya 11:04

It is a truly, truly global event. I mean, You have so many countries that have not participated or they have, but you've not really like paid attention to them because, you know, they're smaller teams. They're not traditionally cricket playing nations. Uh, you know, the greats are countries like of course, India, uh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, England, right? These are the great cricket playing nations I might have missed, uh, New Zealand. You have countries like Namibia, um, Scotland, Netherlands, Italy, they're debutantes, as we said, first ever World T 20 World Cup. Uh, you have Canada that's playing. You have Afghanistan, that's playing Oman. That's playing. I know, right?

Kiran Menon 11:44

Oh my God. Yeah.

Debkanya 11:45

UAE, Nepal, Ireland. So yeah, so lots of lots of countries participating this time. Very cool mix of the top dogs and the so-called underdogs. But the fun thing is it seems the underdogs are not really behaving like the underdogs this time.

Kiran Menon 12:02

They are really competing It is so interesting. Like for example, you know, I think some of the cool things that have happened in, um, the Cricket World Cup, it's still early days, right? It's still very early days. It's gonna be a month before the entire competition ends. This is still the group matches where everyone is playing each other in their own groups. what happens is the top teams kind of go into the knockout stages, right? And, uh, then from there you go into the semi-finals and the

Debkanya 12:29

eight. You have the Super eight. Yeah.

Kiran Menon 12:31

So, it's a long, uh, time before it actually gets done. But things like, um, you know, Nepal versus England, I mean, Nepal. Nepal, right?

Debkanya 12:41

It was a very good match, by the way.

Kiran Menon 12:43

Neighbors of ours. And they actually almost beat England. England won by just four runs. That is crazy.

Debkanya 12:51

close one. Superb. The other, uh, superb, uh, match was the one with the Zimbabwe in Australia, because again, Zimbabwe now has, okay, let's go into Zimbabwe a little bit. They've been a sporting, uh, cricketing nation for a long time, but unfortunately because of a lot of political tensions, a lot of other issues, financial constraints, Zimbabwe was no longer considered a full member. Okay, so in cricket you have the full member teams, which is, uh, ICC recognized teams. The big players who are, uh, who are also test playing, uh, nations. Zimbabwe used to be a full member team, was one of the top dogs, but then a lot of things went wrong for them, and they were, you know, made an associate team. The associate teams are the second rung, tier two,

Kiran Menon 13:38

Yeah.

Debkanya 13:38

right. Also call them minnows. You know what minnows are?

Kiran Menon 13:42

The underdog.

Debkanya 13:43

Yes, they are the OGs, they minnows are basically tiny fish. Right? So basically are the, you know, you don't really, it's the on. Yeah.

Kiran Menon 13:50

literal meaning.

Debkanya 13:51

Yes, yes, yes. That's why, see, because we take a lot of these phrases and terms from what we see around us, right? So minnows are tiny fish. So they're literally called the tiny fish, or, I mean that, like I said, it's.

Kiran Menon 14:03

underdogs.

Debkanya 14:04

Good story. Maybe somebody can get into the history of where underdogs and top dogs came from. I would think,

Kiran Menon 14:10

happened to dogs,

Debkanya 14:12

I am going to look into this for you, Kiran, and we shall take this offline and we will discuss it. If any of you want to know what it is, we will look it up and we will, uh, probably do a little video for you to explain what.

Kiran Menon 14:23

Can message us.

Debkanya 14:24

Yeah, maybe you could do that too. Coming back to the cricket, so as I was saying, the minnows, that's the unofficial term for the associate teams. So Zimbabwe is now considered an associate team, but they've come back and they actually defeated Australia, which is one of the best cricketing nations by 23 runs. This is their second T 20 World Cup win over Australia. And it's a major shock. I mean, Australia didn't know what was, you know, what hit them. So I think that was exciting. And then Italy, of course.

Kiran Menon 14:51

Italy competing for the first time they defeated Nepal by 10 wickets

Debkanya 14:57

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 14:57

Nepal just about, you know, almost beat England. So

Debkanya 15:02

Mm.

Kiran Menon 15:02

Lots of,

Debkanya 15:03

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 15:03

lots of very interesting matches.

Debkanya 15:06

Like UAE, beat Canada. Uh, that was a big to big moment for UAE again. Fairly new player in this. United States beat the Netherlands. The US is now suddenly growing, uh, as a cricketing nation. By the way, you know what I wanna quickly tell, so did you know United States at one point was one of the, um, biggest cricketing nations many, many, many years ago?

Kiran Menon 15:27

When was that?

Debkanya 15:29

So the US actually was a significant cricketing nation in the mid to late 19th century. So you're talking about 1840s and early. Yeah, early. Early 19 hundreds. Right. It was very popular at that time. And then slowly story, it got edged out

Kiran Menon 15:43

The

Debkanya 15:43

by,

Kiran Menon 15:44

were

Debkanya 15:44

yeah.

Kiran Menon 15:45

ones

Debkanya 15:45

Absolutely. Huge influence, right? Yes, absolutely. Uh, but it got edged out by another game, which is very similar to cricket, which also has a bat and a ball. It's called baseball.

Kiran Menon 15:59

Yes, lots happening. Make sure that you're watching, because sports is really, really exciting, exciting experience.

Debkanya 16:09

Mm.

Kiran Menon 16:10

teams, even if you don't have anyone you're cheering for, just to see that level of talent and the grit and determination that people kind of bring, know, it's amazing. Follow the winter Olympics as well, not just the cricket follow the Winter Olympics because is this week's quiz question.

Debkanya 16:31

This week's quiz question is not a quiz question. I mean, that's the first disclaimer I have to put out there. Yes. This week's quiz question has been replaced by this week's, uh, shall we call it prediction?

Kiran Menon 16:43

prediction?

Debkanya 16:44

you Yes. If you remember, we spoke about Paul, the octopus. The octopus who kind of predicted who would win the football World Cup. Well, we want you to be like Paul. Be like that super smart, intelligent octopus and keep an eye on the medal tally. Keep an eye on who's winning and predict which country will have the highest overall medal tally in the Winter Olympics 2026. Now, it doesn't have to be the highest number of gold medals. We just want to know, according to you, who will have the highest number of medals in total.

Kiran Menon 17:18

Right now it is Norway and Italy, but the Winter Olympics ends on 22nd February. We want you to send us your answers. By and

Debkanya 17:33

That's 19th. Yeah.

Kiran Menon 17:35

the 19th of February, you have to send us your answers by Thursday, 19th, February, and whoever gets it right will get a gift certificate, and goodies.

Debkanya 17:47

And Thursday 19th, uh, February morning, evening, afternoon, or midnight?

Kiran Menon 17:54

Thursday, 19th.

Debkanya 17:58

Noon Okay. Remember that? So if you're going to school, tell your parents in the morning to send it in. Okay?

Kiran Menon 18:09

Be like, who getting a lot of answers from. Who have been sending from school? Because schools are now playing Takaro in the classes for all the students to listen.

Debkanya 18:24

maybe that's a great idea. Something you can ask your teachers, uh, to do for you as well. With that, we are going to announce the winner of last week's quiz question. We had asked who is the first Indian to compete in luge, participating in six consecutive Winter Olympics from 98 to 2018, He's also the youngest luge Olympian in history, and we gave you options. Option one was Abhinav Bindra, option two, Arif Khan. Option three, shiva Keshavan and Option four, neha Ahuja. What was the correct answer?

Kiran Menon 19:01

The correct answer is Shiva Keshavan 16 years old in the 1998 Winter Games in Japan. I mean 16 years old guys, 16 years, and this person was already in the winter Olympics. And luge, by the way, one of the most dangerous sports

Debkanya 19:23

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 19:24

because it's going downhill in a confined space, in a whatever, you know, whatever you

Debkanya 19:31

Platform or board. Yeah,

Kiran Menon 19:33

whatever. there are no breaks going at like 100 kilometers/hr. crazy. So got a huge number of responses this week.. Again, keep your eyes peeled on the Winter Olympics because it's gonna be important for the next. Um, you know, as well. This week winner is Nadia Desai. Nadia who gave us, the right answer Shiva Keshavan. Nadia is a 11-year-old Bangalore, so congratulations, Nadia.

Debkanya 20:04

Well done Nadia. Thank you for participating. Your gift certificate and Takaro Kids t-shirt is going to be on its way to you very, very soon. So look out for that. We'll also be getting in touch with you and for all of you who want to be like Nadia and win. All you have to do is send in your answer, and this time we've given you a time limit on the 19th of Feb by 12 noon. Send it into www.takarokids.com. There's a place where you can enter your answer, or you can also DM us on Instagram.

Kiran Menon 20:36

Be like Paul and predict who is gonna win the with the most number of medals. From us it is bye.

Debkanya 20:47

Goodbye.