By Mitchell Northam
Publication Date: 2026-02-06 23:09:00
Feb. 6, 2026, 6:09 p.m. ET
When the Olympics roll around every four years, fans get exposed to obscure sports and unfamiliar phrases.
More than two decades ago when Kate Johnson was a competitive rower for the U.S. national team — winning a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens — she often found herself explaining to people who were new to rowing what the expression “catching a crab” meant. And then Johnson had more questions about it herself: Where did that come from? How often does it happen? What team does it happen to the most in the Olympics?
Now, Google can provide all those answers — and any other fans might have about sports at the 2026 Winter Olympics — pretty quickly with its new AI Mode tool in search.
For example, here’s what AI Mode says about catching a crab: “a rowing error where an oar blade becomes trapped underwater by the boat’s momentum.” It’s a phrase, according to AI Mode’s results, that dates back to the 1780s as a “humorous way…
