We are approaching the final days of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and we already know one of the biggest narratives of the 2030 Games: the redemption of Ilia Malinin.
“Going into that day, I felt really confident, really good. Stepping on the ice, I definitely felt that amazing environment, from in that arena, so much support, so much energy. Going onto the ice, I really had a nice day, excited to get out there.
“Of course, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but we can’t look at that now. All I have to do is just learn from my mistakes there and push to see how I can improve in the future.”
As commentator Johnny Weir explained, that seemed to be Malinin saying he could have avoided disaster had he been part of the Olympic team in 2022, when he was 17 years old but still finished second in the U.S. championships. With more Olympic experience, maybe he could have avoided disaster in Italy.
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Malinin reinforced that idea when asked about his emotions following his performance, essentially saying the pressure got to him, while also hinting he could take a different approach at the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps:
“Honestly, it’s not a pleasant feeling. The most honest way to say it is it’s just a lot on you, just so many eyes, so much attention. Not only from people, fans, media, it’s just so much. It really can get to you if you’re not ready to fully embrace it. I think that might be one of the mistakes I made going into that free skate was I was not ready to handle that to a full extent.
Looking back at that, I know now I’ll be able to understand how that feels, so that way I can take a different approach leading up to the next Games, hopefully.””
Plenty of skating fans can’t wait to see how he changes that approach. He’ll get his first chance at a bounce back next month, when he goes for a three-peat at the world championships in Prague.
After a 23-0 start to the season, things have gone downhill fast for Arizona.
The Wildcats have lost two straight since that start and fallen from their No. 1 ranking. And on Tuesday they revealed they’ll be without one of their best players for an extended period.
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Arizona announced that star freshman Koa Peat has a muscle strain in his lower leg. He’ll be re-evaluated next week without a precise timeline to return.
Koa Peat will miss at least two upcoming games against ranked opponents.
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
A five-star recruit, Peat has been a revelation for Arizona this season as the Wildcats have staked their claim as the nation’s best team. He’s Arizona’s leading scorer behind fellow freshman Braden Burries with averages of 13.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.7 blocks per game while shooting 54.2% from the field.
He’s been a spark for the Wildcats during their hot start that included wins over No. 3 Florida, No. 3 UConn, No. 12 Alabama, No. 13 BYU, No. 15 UCLA and No. 20 Auburn.
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Peat sustained the injury during Saturday’s loss to No. 16 Texas Tech, Arizona’s second straight setback following defeat to No. 9 Kansas on Feb. 9. Peat missed the entire second half and overtime of the 78-75 loss.
Now he faces an extended absence as Arizona approaches the stretch run of its season with four games against ranked opponents in its next five. Per the timeline provided by Arizona, Peat will miss upcoming games against No. 23 BYU (Wednesday) and No. 2 Houston (Saturday). His status beyond that is unclear with games against No. 8 Kansas and No. 6 Iowa State remaining on Arizona’s regular-season schedule.
The MLBPA is losing its leader months before the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is set to expire. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark has resigned from his position, the union announced Tuesday.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Clark resigned on the heels of an internal investigation, which revealed an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who worked for the union beginning in 2023. At an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon, union leadership did not vote on an interim executive director, according to Passan. That vote is expected to happen on Wednesday.
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Clark, 53, and the MLBPA were expected to start touring spring training facilities Tuesday. Their first stop — at Cleveland Guardians camp — was reportedly canceled, per The Athletic.
The reported news comes just months before the current CBA is set to expire on Dec. 1. The union and MLB owners are expected to engage in a furious labor battle ahead of the new CBA, which many expect could lead to a lockout ahead of the 2027 MLB season. There is speculation the owners will push hard for a salary cap, something the players have opposed for years.
Clark has played a major role in helping negotiate previous CBAs for the players. He reportedly took an active part in negotiations as a player before being hired by the MLBPA in 2010. He was initially a director of player relations before being hired as the union’s executive director in 2013. He oversaw negotiations ahead of the 2016 CBA and the contentious 2022 lockout, which resulted in Opening Day being postponed by a week as negotiations extended into March.
Deputy executive director Bruce Meyer also played a big role in the 2022 CBA negotiations. While Meyer is the most likely candidate to replace Clark as the MLBPA’s executive director, that’s not a guarantee. Players reportedly took issue with Meyer as recently as 2024, asking for him to be fired, per ESPN. The players who opposed Meyer reportedly wanted to put lawyer Harry Marino, who played an instrumental role in helping minor-league baseball players unionize ahead of the 2023 season, into the deputy role. Marino left the MLBPA in 2023, months after negotiating the first CBA for minor-league players.
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Despite the 2024 incident, Meyer is considered the most likely person to take over following Clark’s reported retirement, per ESPN.
Prior to working with the MLBPA, Clark had a 15-year career in the majors. A first baseman, he put up a career slash line of .262/.339/.485 with 251 home runs. He spent time with six MLB teams, with the majority of his playing career split between the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Clark’s resignation also comes amid a federal investigation into whether MLBPA officials used “licensing money or equity to improperly enrich themselves,” per The Athletic.
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New York Mets second baseman Marcus Semien, who is part of the MLBPA subcommittee, said Tuesday that he was unsure whether Meyer would continue as the organization’s lead negotiator.
Los Angeles Angels pitcher Brent Suter — another member of the MLBPA subcommittee — added that the MLBPA will likely go with an interim leader ahead of the upcoming negotiations, per The Athletic. Suter said the organization wants to keep things stable with the CBA expiring in a few months. He added that he has a sense of who will be chosen as the interim leader of the MLBPA but did not name a specific person.
The nation’s No. 1 team faced one of its toughest tests of the season in a road game against No. 7 Purdue on Tuesday.
It passed with no issue. Michigan opened up a 16-point halftime lead and went on to a 91-80 win over a Purdue team that entered Tuesday’s game with two wins over top-10 opponents and riding a four-game win streak.
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But the Boilermakers were no match for a Michigan team that continues to look like the best in the nation. The win will bolster Michigan’s case for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, a path that was cleared last week when previously undefeated Arizona lost two straight games.
Elliot Cadeau led Michigan with 17 points in a convincing win over No. 7 Purdue.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Michigan blows game open early, doesn’t look back
Tuesday’s game was close for only the opening minutes. The Wolverines turned an 11-10 deficit at the 13:36 mark of the first into a 26-11 lead with 9:28 remaining and never looked back.
They extended the lead to 48-28 before halftime and entered the break with a 48-32 advantage despite the best efforts of a raucous Mackey Arena crowd.
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Purdue eventually whittled the deficit to single digits late in the second half, but never got any closer than 86-78. Michigan’s lead was never in peril. Point guard Elliot Cadeau led the Michigan effort with 17 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds.
The Wolverines outshot the Boilermakers from the field 53% to 39% and were overwhelming from 3-point distance (57%, 13 of 23). Michigan secured a 39-31 rebounding advantage and assisted on 24 of its 30 made field goals.
Another impressive Michigan win
Now Michigan has another double-digit win over a quality opponent in a season filled with them. For the season, that adds up to 20 of Michigan’s 25 wins by 10 points or more. The Wolverines also have 14 wins by 20-plus points, 10 by 30-plus points and seven by 40 or more.
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This is all while playing in one of the nation’s best conferences and a preseason schedule that included No. 21 Auburn and No. 12 Gonzaga, which Michigan beat by 30 and 40 points, respectively.
Michigan’s only loss remains a 91-88 defeat to Wisconsin in January. It faces what may be its toughest test yet next — a showdown with No. 3 Duke in Washington D.C. on Saturday.
After a back and forth on the first few possessions, NC State opened the game on a 16-8 run and never looked back. The Wolfpack took a 16-point lead into the locker room at halftime, and then Matt Able pushed that to 20 with a tip-in near the midway point of the second period. From there, the deficit was too big for North Carolina to overcome. NC State rolled to grab the 24-point win without any issue.
Zayden High led North Carolina with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Jarin Stevenson added 13 points and nine rebounds. They were the only North Carolina players to hit double figures in the loss, and the Tar Heels went just 5 of 33 from behind the arc.
To North Carolina’s credit, it was extremely shorthanded. The Tar Heels were without forward Caleb Wilson, who is out with a recent hand fracture he suffered early in the team’s loss to Miami. He is on track to return “soon,” though it’s unclear when he’ll be back. Wilson is averaging 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Center Henri Veesaar was also ruled out with a lower body injury, which kept him out of the team’s win over Pittsburgh on Saturday. James Brown and Ivan Matlekovic were out, too.
The loss dropped North Carolina to 20-6 on the season. The Tar Heels will take on Syracuse next on Saturday. While they are still very much a NCAA tournament team, they are rapidly running out of time to get healthy and back on track before March.
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Quadir Copeland led NC State with 20 points after he shot 7 of 16 from the field. Able added 19 points off the bench. While it came against a down North Carolina team, it was easily the Wolfpack’s biggest win of the season so far. It also came after they had lost back-to-back games, including a 41-point loss at Louisville in which they allowed 118 points.
The victory, their second against a ranked opponent, got them to 19-8 on the year and very likely secured a spot in the NCAA tournament barring a late collapse down the stretch. The Wolfpack will travel to No. 14 Virginia on Saturday, and will still have to host No. 3 Duke to close out the regular season.
In an appearance on his friend Carmelo Anthony’s “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast filmed last weekend, Paul addressed the circumstances of his Clippers exit. The podcast posted only part of the interview on social media as of Tuesday night, but Paul’s comments painted a picture of a relationship that went from friendly to contentious at rapid speed.
As Paul tells it, he reached out to both Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank to signal his interest in finishing his career in Los Angeles, where he was a five-time All-Star.
The reunion made for a nice story. No one expected Paul to replicate his old numbers with the Clippers, but at worst he could give them depth at point guard while supplying veteran experience, cementing his legacy as one of the franchise’s greats and playing near his Los Angeles-based family.
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It was apparently going according to plan at one point in the season, as Paul claimed Frank praised his leadership:
“Earlier in the season, Lawrence Frank sent me an article about how great my leadership was, an article I had never seen. He texted it to me saying, ‘Man, this is great leadership right here.’”
However, as we learned in the aftermath of Paul’s benching, there were apparently some major communication issues involving Paul and Lue. The pair reportedly clashed over Paul’s attempts to provide his own guidance to members of the team and coach and player were allegedly not on speaking terms by the end, though Lue has denied that latter part.
Paul, however, confirmed that some members of the Clippers organization didn’t want him giving players advice:
“During training camp, I talked to one of my teammates for a while and then, as soon as I went in the meal room, somebody came and told me they didn’t want me giving players advice. So I told them, ‘You were my assistant coach, I know you.’ But it was a lot of back-and-forth.”
Paul is possibly referring to Lue with that “I know you” line, as Lue was an assistant on the Clippers coaching staff during Paul’s first tenure there.
Chris Paul’s second tenure did not go as well as his first. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)
(David Jensen via Getty Images)
When the subject of the Clippers retiring Paul’s jersey number came up — which would be highly awkward anytime in the near future — Paul said that Frank actually said his number should be retired … before dropping the ax. He also indicated Frank neglected to set up a meeting with Lue, indicating there might be something to the reports they weren’t talking:
“[Frank] said that to me before he sent me home. … Before I left the room, I asked him, ‘So L-Frank, you said you was gonna get me a meeting with T-Lue, right?’ He said, ‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t do that. Go home.’”
There’s no telling what Paul’s relationship with the Clippers will be going forward. The team posted a tribute video for him after he announced his retirement, so there might be a willingness to bury the hatchet on their side already, but no one’s going to blame Paul for keeping them at arm’s length as long as the current leadership is in place.
Former Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore will get an evidentiary hearing next month.
A judge granted Moore’s motion for the hearing Tuesday, which will allow his lawyer to challenge the basis for his arrest in their quest to have the case thrown out, according to The Athletic. That hearing is currently set for March 2.
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Moore’s attorney argued in court Tuesday that a detective did not disclose that the alleged victim in the case had worked closely with him within the Michigan football program. That, his attorney argued, presented a one-sided picture that was used to establish probable cause for his arrest in the first place.
“Judge Simpson got it right in this motion, and due process matters,” Moore’s attorney Ellen Michaels said. “Coach Moore maintains his innocence, and the truth will come out.”
Moore was fired in December and then arrested hours later in a massive scandal. The university fired him for cause after it said he “engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.” He was eventually charged with third-degree home invasion, stalking, and breaking and entering. Officials said Moore grabbed butter knives and kitchen scissors at the woman’s house after he was fired and threatened to take his own life.
In court Tuesday, Michaels argued that a detective told a court magistrate only that the alleged victim had been in a romantic relationship with Moore, not that the alleged victim also worked for the Michigan football program and needed to communicate with Moore regularly. That meant that repeated communication from Moore to the alleged victim, Michaels argued, may not actually constitute stalking.
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Michigan reportedly received a tip in October that Moore had been in a relationship with the alleged victim, though they initially denied it. Officials then said the woman broke up with Moore and came forward to the university in December to reveal the yearslong relationship.
Prosecutor Kati Rezmierski argued Tuesday that disclosing the working relationship would not have altered the underlying facts that justified Moore’s arrest, per the report. Rezmierski cited messages that Moore sent after his firing, including allegedly, “I hate you,” and “My blood is on your hands,” as evidence of the stalking.
“On Dec. 10, as was sworn to by detective Welker, there is more than sufficient probable cause for the issuance of a warrant that includes stalking,” Rezmierski said. “That’s my position.”
Moore had been Michigan’s offensive coordinator under previous head coach Jim Harbaugh, though he was promoted to take over for Harbaugh before the 2024 season. He spent two seasons as the team’s head coach. Michigan has since hired Kyle Whittingham as its next head coach.
Los Angeles Lakers center Deandre Ayton was detained and quickly released on Tuesday on suspicion of possessing a small amount of marijuana at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas, according to Reuters.
Ayton would have been returning to the United States from his native Bahamas as the All-Star break nears its end.
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In an initial report from TMZ, the central division of the Royal Bahamas Police Force claimed Ayton was searched after he was spotted smoking marijuana at the airport. Reuters also reports Ayton was found with the drug, which is still illegal in the Bahamas.
However, his lawyer Devard Francis said the suspected marijuana was actually in someone else’s bag and that Ayton was never arrested or charged, via Reuters:
“The investigators saw that the actual very small amount of marijuana wasn’t in Deandre’s bag, but they still went through their investigations and he was released expeditiously,” Francis said.
Ayton, a former No. 1 overall pick, is in his first season with the Lakers, who signed him to a two-year, $16.6 million deal. He entered the All-Star break averaging 13.2 points on 67.5% shooting and a team-high 8.5 rebounds per game.
MILAN — It happens every Winter Olympics, the curling renaissance. For two-plus weeks in February, Americans south of Canadian border states remember that curling exists. Riding a wave of patriotic fever and a strong belief that they too could be Olympic-level curlers, Americans fall in love with the sport … right up until the torch goes out.
This year, curling aficionados are planning to keep the love going. Shortly after the Olympics wrap up in late February, the Rock League will launch. A collection of 60 of the world’s greatest curlers, complete with team names, the Rock League hopes to harness the expected momentum from Milan Cortina.
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The new league might just revolutionize and professionalize curling as a sport. At the very least, it’ll be a fun watch with a couple beers close at hand. Win-win either way, right?
“It’s going to be a massive undertaking,” says John Shuster, the gold medal-winning skip of Team USA’s landmark 2018 squad, “but every single player I’ve talked to is really excited to see where this is going to go.”
John Shuster, who won a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, is one of the players set to compete in The Rock League. (Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP via Getty Images)
(LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA via Getty Images)
Where do you find curling after the Olympics?
“If you’re an American and you love watching curling every four years, but then there’s nothing to engage with after, well,” says Nic Sulsky, CEO of The Curling Group, “you’re gonna forget about the sport.”
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Sulsky came to curling from the gaming industry to co-found The Curling Group, which owns the Rock League. He calls the Winter Olympics curling’s “lightning-hitting-the-clock-tower moment” — referencing, of course, the instant in “Back to the Future” when a massive plan all comes together — and understands it presents a rare opportunity for national attention on a niche sport.
“We know that the whole world’s gonna fall in love with curling like they do every four years,” he says. The question he and other investors in The Curling Group asked is, what’s the followup? How can curling harness and sustain the nationwide momentum it gathers every Olympics?
Curling does, in fact, exist outside the Olympics, of course. The Grand Slam of Curling, for instance, which draws more than one team per country, features more talent top-to-bottom than the Olympics. That intrigued Sulsky enough that he and The Curling Group bought The Grand Slam of Curling, which hosts events throughout the year, from its Canadian media ownership. And then he and his advisors, which include former Olympic curling medalists and NFL Hall of Famer Jared Allen, set about creating the Rock League.
“The sport finally needs a platform to professionalize,” Sulsky says. “The players need an opportunity to actually make a little bit more money. Sponsors need a way to integrate into the sport in a more professional way. There needs to be a proper business strategy within the sport of curling.”
Korey Dropkin, who won a silver medal in the mixed doubles competition at the Milan Cortina Games, is among those who will compete in The Rock League. (Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
(Erick W. Rasco via Getty Images)
The Rock League: Meet the teams
Comprising six teams of 10 curlers apiece, five men and five women per team, including multiple familiar Olympians, the Rock League’s format will look familiar to team-oriented Americans. Each team — Maple United, Shield Curling Club, Frontier Curling Club, Northern United, Alpine Curling Club and Typhoon Curling Club — has its own logo and, eventually, identity. With a range of nationalities represented, each team also boasts an array of athletes for fans to follow, connect with and perhaps even imitate.
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“When I was growing up, it was like, I have this favorite hockey player, I have this favorite basketball player, whatever,” two-time curling Olympian Chris Plys said recently. “There’s kids out there that are 11, 12 years old, but there’s really been no pathway for them to see curling outside of the Olympics and think of that as a viable option for a sport to play. So having a professional league, it’s like, OK, I could do this.”
“Mixing players from countries and teams together is going to be a really refreshing thing for both us as players and for the fans, for sure,” says Shuster, who’s on the roster of the Frontier Curling Club alongside Korey Dropkin, who took sliver in mixed doubles at the Milan Cortina Games.
Sulsky also hopes the Rock League dispels a few of the misperceptions that have built up around curling. “When I walked into the sport, I was expecting old, fat, white guys, right?” he says while laughing. “I see the clips online of people smoking and drinking beer during curling events. I walked in and I was like, Oh my goodness, these are young, fit, attractive men and women who are real athletes.”
But Sulsky and the Rock League don’t just want to change outside perceptions of curling. They want to upend some traditions within the sport, too. At many bonspiels — the curling name for tournaments — the atmosphere is closer to a golf tournament than a football game, with rocks sliding in near-silence and crowds shushing talkers. It’s the traditional form of audience behavior, but some in the curling community believe it’s not the right play going forward.
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“We need energy,” Plys said. “When people are going to spend their hard-earned money, we can’t have these events where people just sit in silence. We’re not going to draw in new fans that way. We need to make it more exciting and have other things going on to bring people in the door.”
The Rock League will begin in April with a one-week “preview season” in Toronto. Then, beginning in January 2027, the Rock League will kick off its touring with a four-week January-February season that includes stops in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New York and Ontario. Future seasons could include Europe and other destinations outside the traditional curling footprint.
How to watch The Rock League
No sport can survive in the 2020s without eyeballs, though. Initially, the Rock League will be available on The Rock Channel, a FAST (free, ad-supported television) all-curling channel already up and running.
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“Visibility is what the sport needs to continue to grow,” Plys said. “The reason that it grows so much during the Olympics is because people in every household finally have access to watching it.”
“The reality is, a sports fan needs to be able to engage with content, or what’s the point?” Sulsky says. “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? You can have the greatest sport there is. If people can’t watch it, what’s the point?”
Plus, the Rock League will take into account the fact that U.S. audiences tend to be a little less familiar with curling nuance than, say, Canadian ones. A tip here, a secret there, a storyline or two laid out, and all of a sudden the world of curling opens up to viewers.
“We’re seeing the differences when you actually get full games in front of audiences with the right commentators,” Shuster says, invoking names like Tom Brady, Tony Romo and Greg Olsen in the NFL. “Getting people that are smart in the booth to bridge the gap between someone who’s never watched curling, or maybe watches it once every four years, to get them really going along with the game.”
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Future plans for the league include everything from sponsorship alignment to social media storytelling to betting opportunities. “It’s going to be different enough, and exciting,” Shuster says. “Nic and The Curling Group are really working hard, trying to make this not be a novelty.”
The Rock League’s first stones slide in April. Until then, keep telling yourself you could do it just as well as them.
Ski Mountaineering, or SkiMo for short, is a brand-new event at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and the only sport making its debut at this year’s Games. The sport combines elements of Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, uphill skiing (also known as skinning), and boot packing all into a single race with courses consisting of an ascent, descent, and a foot section. This year at the Olympics, there will be a men’s and women’s sprint event, and a mixed relay event. Representing Team USA this year in ski mountaineering are Anna Gibson and Cam Smith (and if you want to learn more about the sport and the two Team USA athletes, there’s some great info here).
Here’s a complete schedule of all Team USA SkiMo events at this year’s games. While every event will stream on Peacock, you can also find all of them broadcast on USA, too. (To see specific air times, check out the official NBC Olympics broadcast schedule, and toggle your search to “TV Only.”).
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If you want to learn even more about every event at this year’s Winter Games, here’s a guide to everything you need to know about the Milan Cortina Games.
How to watch Ski Mountaineering at the 2026 Winter Olympics
For $17 monthly you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Where to watch Ski Mountaineering on TV:
Team USA men’s and women’s SkiMo coverage will be broadcast on USA. (To see specific air times, check out the official NBC Olympics broadcast schedule, and toggle your search to “TV Only.”). You can stream USA on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more.
How to watch Olympic Ski Mountaineering without cable:
For $17 monthly you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Who is on the Team USA Ski Mountaineering team?
These are the athletes on Team USA’s SkiMo team:
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2026 Team USA Olympic SkiMo Schedule:
Thursday, February 19
Men’s and Women’s Sprints: Heats: 3:45 a.m. (Peacock, USA)
Men’s and Women’s Sprints: Finals: 6:55 a.m. (Peacock, USA)
Saturday, February 21
Mixed Team Relay: 7:30 a.m. (Peacock, USA), re-air at 8 p.m. (USA)
