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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Shortly after a De’Aaron Fox buzzer-beating, left corner triple lifted Team Stripes to a 42-40 win over Team Stars in Game 2 of the new-look All-Star Game, a sweat-drenched LeBron James subtly summarized his most important takeaway from a back-and-forth contest with the younger generation.

“Old heads, 1-0,” James said with a wide grin.

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In a nutshell, the four words uttered by the greatest player of this generation were powerful. Not as a foreshadowing — Team Stars lifted the trophy after a convincing 47-21 thrashing in the final — but for the mere significance of the level of play on display. For all the talk — from social media to national television segments and podcasts alike — surrounding All-Star weekend and the lack of excitement, for all the gimmicks, format changes and incentives put on the table, the problem and the answer were always the same thing: the players.

Yes, these players endure an absolutely grueling schedule for months out of the year, pushing their bodies to their physical and mental limits. And yes, everyone deserves a break every once in a while. But in an era where effort and expectations were deemed to be at an all-time low, giving it an actual go, abandoning the idea of a passive, dull kickabout, would do a world of good. The upper echelon of NBA players got to this level by being better than the rest of the field — more intense, smarter, faster, stronger and more competitive. What better way to showcase that than amongst peers?

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“I think they ain’t really going to take in what I’m saying, but I like this format,” All-Star MVP Anthony Edwards said, with 10 out of 14 possible votes. “I think it makes us compete because it’s only 12 minutes, and the three different teams separate the guys. I think it was really good … I feel like the old heads played hard, too. They were playing real good defense.”

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For the basketball purist and casual fan alike, Sunday afternoon offered up the best the NBA has to offer. Players picking up opponents at the point of attack, with real defensive intensity on and off the ball. Edwards picking defenders apart like a hyena dissolving a carcass, going right at James and Kevin Durant. Victor Wembanyama’s insatiable drive to win, visibly frustrated at missed rotations, less-than-optimal shot selection and losing. Jaylen Brown manifesting his desires for a 1-on-1 tournament, inviting anyone who dared to step up to challenge. And Kawhi Leonard, putting phenomenal belt to ass to young whippersnappers and the international cream of the crop, reminding the world — in front of his home crowd — that he remains one of the best to lace them up. Sunday was special.

“It was great,” Leonard said. “Happy that Adam [Silver] let me in. That’s what the home crowd wanted to see. I’m glad I was able to do something in that game. … It’s always fun to go out and compete with those guys and just cherish the court with them. They’re all legends, and they’re playing great basketball.”

Moving the conversation forward, seeing the likes of Edwards and Wembanyama raise their games on one of the biggest stages, as ambassadors of basketball, is critical for the future of the sport. One of the topics discussed over the weekend, as an aside to the futures of the LeBrons, Durants and Currys of the world, is the crowning of the face of the league. Both Edwards and Wembanyama offer different vantage points as it pertains to the league dynamic, but collectively, they represent the best the NBA has to offer. In Wembanyama, a reminder of the beauty in being different and the growth that accompanies that realization. In Edwards, the boldness in being apologetically yourself and discovering your true power and influence. Together, the recipe for carrying the league for the next generation is as clear as day.

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“It’s something that’s got to be natural, of course,” Wembanyama said. “Obviously, social media, the NBA can promote whoever they want. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be the best players and who the people ask for. Being the face of the league, it’s something that can be manufactured but only to some extent. It’s only going to be the best players. This is what it’s all about.”

There is a very real storm that the NBA finds itself in, with illegal sports gambling, alleged financial misconduct and tanking at the forefront of the issues. But if Sunday was a microcosm of what it means to be in the eye of the storm, it’s phenomenal. The blending of the fiery youth and the very present aging stars still gracing us with their presence is why folks pay inane amounts of money to come out in droves. Perhaps seeing the success of the All-Star Game inspires some of the most prolific dunkers to rethink their lack of interest in entering the contest. Maybe watching Dame Lillard lift the trophy forces great shooters — like Steph Curry did — to find love for the competition again.

“It felt good,” Durant said. “Hopefully we just build upon this and the weekend becomes more and more competitive, and the fans start to enjoy it more and more.”

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Kevin O’Connor gives his seven biggest takeaways from a star-studded NBA All-Star Weekend. Was the new format a success? Is expansion back on the board? Kevin gives his thoughts.

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Next, Ben Golliver joins the show to break down the tanking crisis and which teams are most guilty of tanking the most.

Plus, Cedric Coward joins to share his lessons from his rookie season, his progression as a player and the toughest players to defend.

0:28 Seven biggest takeaways from All-Star Weekend
15:41 Ben Golliver joins the show
45:23 Cedric Coward joins the show

🖥️ Watch this full episode on the Yahoo Sports NBA YouTube channel

Check out all episodes of The Kevin O’Connor Show and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

LIVIGNO, Italy — Eileen Gu is probably going to win another medal Monday in the women’s freeski big air final. And she’s probably going to come to the press conference, as she always does, and sidestep any questions about the true nature of her citizenship, the political implications of her choice as a 15-year old to represent China — not her native born United States — at the Olympics and the various human rights atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party.

And then, 5,000 miles away back in the U.S., the rage will begin — directed both at Gu for disloyalty to the country where she was born and even toward those here to document her achievements because we aren’t spending our time pursuing a dozen dead ends about the Uyghurs, Taiwan and the conviction of Jimmy Lai in social media’s thirst to create a viral gotcha moment that will put Gu on her heels and expose her for the fraud some think she is.

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Eileen Gu, now 22 and an international relations major at Stanford, is many things. She’s an opportunist. She is outwardly ambitious in ways that make you wonder how deep her inner cynicism runs. She presents her complicated life story through the lens of a saccharin-coated world that does not exist and becomes evasive the moment anything controversial is brought into her orbit. She can talk a lot without saying very much.

She is all those things and probably much more.

But she is not dumb, and she is never undisciplined enough to get on the wrong side of a government that has made her very, very rich.

So to the extent that she has committed her life to being a rank opportunist, perhaps it really doesn’t matter what country she represents when she puts on skis because her ability to play the system for everything it’s worth is as American as apple pie.

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The answers that many of you seem to want? Sorry, but they’re not coming — certainly not in a press conference room in the Italian Alps after jumping off a 15-story ramp. They’ll probably never come.

Did she cut a deal with the CCP to keep her American passport, in defiance of Chinese law that does not allow for dual citizenship?

Did the $6.6 million she and another American-born athlete earned from the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau last year — an amount that was accidentally disclosed on a fiscal report before it was scrubbed from the Internet, according to the Wall Street Journal — come with unsavory strings attached?

Does she really believe that inspiring Chinese women to participate in winter sports will make women’s lives better under a regime that is embarrassingly far behind most of the modern world in terms of political representation, economic opportunity and rights for domestic abuse victims?

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She’s been asked about all these things, many times over many years in many different venues. And as good as she is on the slopes, she’s even better at Never Going There.

As she told Sean Gregory of Time Magazine in a deeply-reported feature before the Milan Cortina Games, when asked how she’d respond to a question about Donald Trump putting tariffs on China: “I would just say, ‘I didn’t know I got promoted to trade minister.’ It’s irresponsible to ask me to be the mouthpiece for any agenda.”

So we all have to make a choice when it comes to Eileen Gu.

Do we want to drive ourselves to the brink of insanity with some frothing-at-the-mouth screed about wearing the flag of an oppressive regime, or do we accept her for what she is: A really good skier who has no real bearing on anything that truly matters in either China or the United States and found a way to leverage her talent, her looks and her perfect Mandarin to become a much bigger deal than any other athlete at the Winter Olympics.

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In a small defense of Gu, it is worth remembering that she made the choice to compete for China when she was 15.

What do you think she knew at 15, born to a Chinese mother who raised her as a single parent? At that age, I doubt she expected it to be anything more than a business decision — and one that, while undeniably complicated and perhaps morally problematic, has proven to be the correct one for her bank account and the list of sponsors who want to be in the Eileen Gu business.

Did she have reason to think it would turn into this? Did we? People change nationalities all the time in sports — in both directions. She did it before the brutal crackdowns in Hong Kong, before most people understood the scope of atrocities being committed against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, before COVID. Maybe that doesn’t matter to you, but the context of the choice then is not the context of the choice now.

And since becoming an international superstar and four-time Olympic medalist — with perhaps two more to come here in Livigno — it is not as if Gu spends her social capital extolling the virtues of the CCP’s censorship regime and economic system. She talks about bridging divides and inspiring young people with her athletic achievements. She very clearly wants no part of the culture war others try to drag her into.

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It might be cynical as hell, but don’t a lot fans want athletes to stick to sports?

Here’s the truth: Gu may wear the Five-star Red Flag on her ski suit, but the only entity she truly represents is Eileen Gu, Inc. To present her as anything more than that to fuel American political outrage on social media represents something almost as obnoxious as she is.

For the past year, U.S. World Cup roster candidates have made their case at training camps and tournaments, in friendlies and knockout matches. But because the team assembles infrequently, weekly performances with clubs spread across Europe and North America will figure into coach Mauricio Pochettino’s decisions.

Which is why, with only the March camp remaining before he selects the 26-man roster for this summer’s soccer festival, he and his staff are keeping close tabs on players toiling in their full-time jobs.

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For many players, fluctuations will not impact their standing with Pochettino. Of course, it’s beneficial to enjoy an upswing in form and production before a U.S. camp. Conversely, substandard performances, lack of playing time or an injury could have adverse effects.

With that in mind, here are five players on the rise and five facing adversity a month before Pochettino sends out invitations to the March 23-31 camp for friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in Atlanta.

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Patrick Agyemang’s leap of faith is paying off. The 6-foot-4 striker left behind his ascending Major League Soccer career last summer for his first contract overseas, with Derby County in the second-flight English Championship.

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Had he failed to earn consistent playing time and record goals, the Connecticut native would’ve fallen off the U.S. radar. Instead, he is soaring.

Saturday’s second-half header against Swansea City raised his goal total to 10, tying him for the club lead. Mixing in his three assists, Agyemang leads the Rams in overall production and has helped lift them into contention for the promotion playoffs.

Agyemang, 25, was invited to U.S. camp in October but not in September and November. However, fellow Americans seemingly higher on the depth chart are in a rut overseas — more on them later — and Ricardo Pepi remains sidelined with a fractured forearm. Those factors, combined with Agyemang’s productivity, should bolster the former Charlotte FC standout’s chances for a March call-up.

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Weston McKennie’s place on the national team is ironclad, but as a driving force at Juventus under a new coach this winter and playing any number of positions while contributing mightily to the Serie A and Champions League campaigns, the U.S. veteran is enjoying perhaps the best soccer of his life.

McKennie was at it again Saturday, registering two assists in a 3-2 loss at first-place Inter Milan. He has made 26 consecutive starts across all competitions and posted four goals and four assists in Italy, plus three goals in the Champions League, which will continue Tuesday with a first-leg playoff match against Galatasaray.

Offering quality in several jobs, McKennie has lined up recently as a central attacking midfielder. Juventus coach Luciano Spalletti has gone as far as saying the American is the “perfect central striker.”

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McKennie’s resurgence comes as his contract nears its expiration this summer, prompting talk of a big pay raise to stay at Juventus or a free transfer to another major league.

Tanner Tessmann is on the rise because he is a regular starter for one of the hottest clubs in the world, Olympique Lyonnais, which on Sunday extended its winning streak to 13 across all competitions with a 2-0 victory over Nice.

In his second season in France, the 24-year-old midfielder has played in 20-of-22 Ligue 1 matches, starting 17. Lyon has ascended to third place, which would earn a Champions League berth next season, and pulled within six points of Paris Saint-Germain and seven of Lens with 12 matches left. In the Europa League, Lyon was the best team in the first stage and earned a bye to next month’s round of 16.

With the national team, Tessmann has made a strong case for starting in the two-man defensive midfield set-up that Pochettino has often deployed.

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Speaking of defensive midfield, World Cup incumbent Tyler Adams makes this list, not because of performance but simply because he is healthy again. Expected to miss two to three months with a knee injury, Adams returned to Bournemouth’s match-day roster in less than two months.

He has not played since Dec. 15 but was available last Tuesday at Everton and, after the club’s weekend off, might see action Saturday at West Ham. Barring a setback, Adams is on track for a U.S. call-up next month.

With some uncertainty in the U.S. center-back corps, Auston Trusty is making the most of his opportunity at Scottish club Celtic.

Helping fill the void left by countryman Cameron Carter-Vickers’ Achilles’ tendon injury in October, the 27-year-old Trusty has gone the distance in 23 of his past 24 consecutive appearances across all competitions. (A red card prevented him from finishing that one match.) He also scored in back-to-back Europa League matches last month.

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Chris Richards and Tim Ream are certain of making the World Cup squad, but Trusty is in the mix with Mark McKenzie, Miles Robinson, Noahkai Banks, among others, for one of at least two additional spots.

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Strikers are streaky, and right now, Folarin Balogun is on a bad streak. Pochettino’s No. 1 center forward has gone scoreless in 11-of-12 matches at Monaco, the only goal coming against a third-division opponent in the French Cup five weeks ago.

Unless the rut continues into spring, Pochettino surely will maintain his faith in Balogun, who scored in three U.S. friendlies last fall and three consecutive Champions League matches in November-December.

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Scoring issues have also stung Haji Wright, who tallied twice against Australia in October, then fired blanks for 15 consecutive matches with Coventry City in the English Championship.

He ended the skid in consecutive matches last month but entered Monday’s showdown with Middlesbrough on a three-game rut. Then, Wright reminded everyone how quickly this list can change with a three-goal outburst to lift Coventry back into first place.

Regarded as No. 2 behind Balogun on the depth chart, he might have slipped behind Agyemang and could face a challenge from Pepi, who is expected back at PSV Eindhoven soon.

Remember how giddy everyone was about Gio Reyna’s performances in his U.S. return during the November international window? It was for good reason. He displayed qualities long shrouded by injuries and off-field issues, and seemed on course to not only make the World Cup team, but perhaps start.

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The enigmatic midfielder did carry those two efforts into increased playing time at Mönchengladbach. After the Bundesliga’s winter break, however, he found himself back on the bench, and a muscle injury has kept him in street clothes the past four matches.

Reyna, 23, seems just too good to leave off the World Cup team, but unless things get better in Germany soon, Pochettino will weigh whether to invite him to March training camp.

At 19, Yunus Musah was a key figure at the 2022 World Cup and on course to start in midfield for years to come. Upon Pochettino’s arrival in 2024, though, Musah didn’t seem to fit into the system. And now, amid a stalled first season at Atalanta after three at AC Milan, Musah’s World Cup outlook is fading fast.

He didn’t play in a 2-0 victory at Lazio, the fifth time in seven games he’s remained on the bench. He has made just three starts in Serie A and two in the Champions League. It’s been almost a year since his last national team call-up.

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Having gone six years since his last U.S. goal and missing out on the October and November camps, Josh Sargent was already a long shot for the World Cup.

Had he kept scoring at Norwich City in England’s second division this winter, he could have clung to hope. But he’s not only not scoring, he’s not even in uniform. Demanding a transfer to MLS, the St. Louis native was sent to train with the under-21 squad and hasn’t been named to the first-team squad since Jan. 4.

Barring a move before MLS’ March 26 transfer deadline — and an extraordinary scoring run — Sargent will need to turn attention to 2030.

The Winter Games have begun in Italy. From the rink to the slopes, a new generation of stars has emerged to chase gold. We’ll keep you connected to all of the thrilling moments and top stories as we track the medal race each day of the Games.

Team USA is at 17 medals after no gains on Sunday, with more up for grabs on Monday in Milan.

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Women’s hockey will look to keep rolling in the semifinals, while the women’s curling team will look to keep the momentum after a thrilling win on Sunday. Figure skating continues with pair skating, and medals will also be handed out in women’s monobob and the 1000m in women’s short track speed skating.

Here are the top five things to watch on Monday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics:

Women’s hockey looks to advance to final (10:40 a.m. ET)

Team USA is on a roll after a 6-0 win over Italy in the quarterfinals, but it’ll face a tough test against Sweden in the semifinals on Monday. Sweden is the only other undefeated team in the tournament, with a +16 goal differential to Team USA’s +19. The U.S. women are riding four straight shutouts after allowing one goal to Czechia in their opening game.

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Despite how strong Team USA has been defensively, all eyes will be on Hilary Knight, who, in the United States’ 5-0 victory over Finland last weekend, tied the Olympic record for the most goals in women’s hockey history, with 14. Knight, 36, is now tied with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King.

The winner of this game will face the winner of Canada-Switzerland for gold on Thursday.

Women’s curling riding high in group play (1:05 p.m. ET)

Team USA women’s curling will take on Italy in group play Monday, riding its momentum from Sunday’s comeback victory over China. After falling behind 4-1 after the fifth end, Team USA was able to cut China’s lead to one, adding two points in the fifth. Despite giving up another point, the U.S. was able to rattle off three more points in the final three ends for an improbable victory.

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The U.S. women are second in the standings at 4-1. Only Sweden has a better record at 5-0.

U.S. teams shoot for a medal in pairs figure skating (2 p.m. ET)

Team USA pairs figure skaters Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, and Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, return to the ice on Monday after their short programs on Sunday. Kam and O’Shea sit in seventh after scoring 71.87, while Chan and Akira Howe are in ninth (70.06) going into the free skate.

Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin lead the field with a score of 80.01.

The last U.S. medal in pairs figure skating, a bronze, came at the 1988 Games in Calgary.

Elana Meyers Taylor leads medal charge in women’s monobob (3 p.m. ET)

After two heats, the U.S. women are in prime position for the podium. Behind Germany’s Laura Nolte, who sits in first, Team USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor, Kaysha Love and defending Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries are in the hunt.

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Meyers Taylor won silver in the monobob in 2022, and she’ll compete in two-woman bobsleigh later this week.

Olympics schedule for Monday, Feb. 16 (Day 10)

Alpine Skiing

Slalom

• 4 a.m.: Men’s run 1 (USA Network)

• 7:20 a.m.: Men’s run 2 (USA Network coverage begins at 7:30 a.m.; NBC will air both runs at 2:45 p.m.)🏅

Bobsled

Two-man

• 4 a.m.: Runs 1, 2 (airs on USA Network at 7 a.m.)

Monobob

• 1 p.m.: Women’s runs 3, 4 (airs on NBC at 3:30 p.m.)🏅

Curling

Women’s round-robin

• 3:05 a.m.: Sweden vs. Switzerland, China vs. Canada (airs on USA Network at 10:15 a.m.), Denmark vs. Great Britain

• 1:05 p.m.: USA vs. Italy (airs at 5 p.m. on CNBC), South Korea vs. China, Switzerland vs. Great Britain, Japan vs. Canada

Men’s round-robin

• 8:05 a.m.: Great Britain vs. Norway (airs at 11:30 a.m. on USA Network), Czechia vs. Canada, Sweden vs. Germany, Italy vs. China

Figure Skating

Pairs

• 2 p.m.: Free skate (USA Network; airs on NBC at 3:55 p.m.)🏅

Freestyle Skiing

Big air

• 1:30 p.m.: Women’s final (NBC)🏅

Hockey

Women’s semifinals

• 10:40 a.m.: Teams TBD (NBC)

• 3:10 p.m.: Teams TBD (airs on USA Network on 4:15 p.m.)

Short Track

• 5 a.m.: Men’s 500m qualifying, men’s 5000m relay semifinals, women’s 1000m final (airs on USA Network at 6:15 p.m.)🏅

Ski Jumping

Large hill

• 12 p.m.: Men’s super team final (airs on USA Network at 11 p.m.)🏅

Snowboarding

Slopestyle

• 4:30 a.m.: Women’s qualifying (USA Network coverage begins at 4:50 a.m.; airs on NBC at 10 a.m.)

• 8 a.m.: Men’s qualifying (USA Network coverage begins at 8:35 a.m.)

LIVIGNO, Italy — If you’ve been following freestyle skiing and snowboarding at the Winter Olympics, you’ve probably noticed the blue flag with a Union Jack in the upper lefthand corner and a Southern Cross on the right side popping up pretty frequently on the leaderboard.

And you may have wondered, “What’s Australia doing there? Do they even have snow Down Under?”

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It’s a reasonable question. Yes, Australia does have winter, a mountain range called the Australian Alps and even a handful of ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria.

But generally, Australia is known on the international sporting stage for its swimmers, tennis players, golfers, basketball players, surfers and, of course, its beloved cricketeers and Australian Rules footballers.

In other words, it’s a summer sports country.

With Matt Graham’s bronze medal Sunday in men’s dual moguls, however, Australia has already clinched its best-ever Winter Olympics with five medals including golds in men’s moguls, women’s dual moguls and women’s snowboard cross. There’s a good chance the Aussies will add more hardware this week.

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And it’s not an accident.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Graham said. “This is my fourth Olympic Games. In Sochi [2014], we were a very young team and you could feel the potential at that point in time. Guys laid it out and showed us what was possible and a lot of us are still here. We were a very young and hungry team at that point in time and the success since then has bred the belief in the younger generation.”

It’s also the result of pinpointed effort and the kind of ingenuity that has lifted Australia’s athletes to prominence in a variety of other sports.

“We have our own ways of doing things, where it inspires one another, which I think is super special to have,” said Josie Baff, who won the gold in women’s snowboard cross.

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First, let’s rewind back to 1976. The Olympics were in transition from the fully amateur model to the more professionalized version we know today. In many ways, they were an extension of the arms race between the U.S. and Soviet Union — and both superpowers treated them as such with the infrastructure they built to rack up medals.

At the Montreal Games that summer, Australia failed to win a gold medal for the first time since 1936. It was considered a national embarrassment, and it put a spotlight on how poorly organized the Aussies’ Olympic effort had been.

That led directly to a government-funded effort to launch the Australian Institute of Sport, which then-Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser inaugurated in Canberra on Australia Day in 1981.

It is now considered among the best in the world at identifying and developing talent in a wide variety of Olympic sports, with world-class facilities and staff doing cutting-edge work in sports science. If there’s an Aussie athlete you know, odds are they spent time in the AIS program.

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Australia is now always a factor at the Summer Olympics. In Paris two years ago, they won a record 18 gold medals and 53 overall, which was only topped by the 58 they won as hosts in Sydney in 2000.

But the Winter Games are a different beast for Australia for obvious reasons: There isn’t that much winter. Though there are five major ski areas in the country, they are not as world-renowned as the slopes in New Zealand, for instance, because the elevation isn’t as high and the snowfall isn’t as consistent (climate change hasn’t helped).

There’s also the distance element. Even if an Australian athlete does find their way to a winter sports career, it’s a long way to Europe and North America where most of the World Cup events take place. So it’s a lot to ask from the start.

In 1998, the Australian Olympic Committee established the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia as kind of an offshoot of the AIS to boost hopes of winning medals, with most of the focus going to action sports (freeski and snowboarding) along with sliding and speed skating where they’d have a better chance to compete.

As top-ranked women’s moguls skier Jakara Anthony said after winning her gold medal in duals, it has opened the door to investment within the country to build an Olympic infrastructure at home.

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“Despite popular belief, we have some great training facilities in Australia,” she said. “And as we’ve had our prior successes, that’s allowed us to get more and more support to get more and more training facilities. We have fantastic mogul courses at Mt. Buller and Mt. Parisher. We have the new water ramp at the Geoff Henke training center [near Brisbane] and a lot of that is thanks to the continued support from the minister of sport for giving us more opportunities to produce more successful athletes.”

The AIS also had the foresight in 2011 to open a European base roughly 70 miles from Milan in Gavirate as part of a reciprocal training agreement with Italy. Close to the Swiss border and Lake Lugano, it also happens to be easily accessible to many of the areas where these Olympics are taking place, although at the time it opened Milan Cortina had not been awarded the Games.

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“It was a strategic vision because we knew that Australian athletes, one of the biggest troubles for them was the tyranny of distance of traveling,” Fiona de Jong, the director of that facility, told The Associated Press. “A 24-hour flight to Europe from Australia means that you can’t do that time and time again if you’re trying to compete at the highest level. It was our answer to our unique problem as a sporting country.”

It’s certainly paying off for the Aussies at the moment. And as word spreads back home, sparking more interest in these sports, that success is likely going to compound in the future.

“I’m really excited to see all these young kids coming through,” Anthony said. “They’ve got all these opportunities that were nowhere near what I had coming through when I was a kid. What they’re going to be able to do with that, I think we’re just going to see Australia reach new heights at every Games now. I hope so, anyway.”

MILAN — Say “speed skating” out loud. There, you just covered the difference between success and failure in the Olympics. Four years of training, four years of work, four years of hopes and dreams … and you might fall short by a third of a second.

Kristen Santos-Griswold has spent the past four years training for Monday morning. One of the world’s best short-track speed skaters, Santos-Griswold was leading the 1,000-meter race in Beijing when she was taken out on the final lap. She would go on to finish fourth, the most agonizing of all places in the Olympics.

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“The hardest part about this sport,” Santos-Griswold said recently, “is that kind of concept of, you can be the best, you can be the fastest, and things just don’t work out for you.”

She spent months after that 2022 heartbreak trying to figure out whether she wanted to commit another four years to training, knowing every minute of every day that it could all end in the literal blink of an eye.

“I had to really sit there and think, if in four years the same thing happens again, would that be worth it?” she said recently. “Obviously, I’m here. So I did decide that it would be.”

Monday morning, Santos-Griswold put that mindset to the test as she stood on the starting line for the 1000m, this time in the quarterfinals. She needed to finish first or second, or notch one of the fastest third-place times in the quarterfinals, to advance to the semis.

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The race began cleanly, a sharp contrast from her four-start 500m race a few days ago. And very quickly, Santos-Griswold climbed into first place … which was exactly where she didn’t want to be. Within a few laps, her pursuers caught her, and she couldn’t make up the ground.

“I just expected it to start a bit faster, and that I was going to sit in second or something,” she said a few minutes after the finish. “Then when it didn’t, it’s like, Alright, I’ve got to make a move and kind of pick it up a bit.”

She couldn’t, finishing in third place by 0.34 seconds. Worse, her time of 1:29.102 wasn’t fast enough to qualify her as a third-place finisher. And thus, her hopes for 1000m redemption ended right there in the quarterfinals.

This is the cruelty of short-track speed skating. Other Olympic sports have margins of victory measured in the tenths, hundredths, even thousandths of a second. But none of the athletes in those sports — skiing, biathlon, luge, and so on — have their competition literally entangled with them the way short-track speed skating does.

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Sure, there are rules. You can’t impede a skater while they’re attempting a pass, you can’t “brake-check” a fellow skater, you can’t throw your blades around. But beyond that, collisions can and do happen. And when you’re whipping around a sheet of ice at 30 miles an hour on millimeter-thick blades, well … there’s a reason why short tracks have massive pads encircling the rink. It’s a safe bet someone’s going to fly into them at high speed.

With all that tension and pressure, it’s a wonder short-track skaters aren’t puddles of anxiety. Even so, Santos-Griswold has been open about her nerves before races, and she spoke of that on Monday following the end of her 1000m event.

“I get very nervous and anxious before races, but I just try to take it one step at a time,” she said. “I try to go into it knowing that I’m as prepared as possible, but without the thought of, ‘I’ve sacrificed so much,’ and more like, ‘I’m here because I want to be here.’”

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Santos-Griswold has one individual race, the 1500m, remaining in her Milan Olympics … and, probably, her Olympic career as a whole. One more chance to cap off her comeback with a medal, even if she’s already validated it to herself.

“I think I’ll have to talk to my coaches and figure out maybe a different plan, and how I’m going to capitalize on the race at the end more,” she said. “You can never really predict what anyone’s going to do, so it’s just what it is.”

Maybe she’ll be more at ease with the randomness of this sport and the near-misses of her Olympics in the coming days and years. But in the moment, she sure sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

The best 3-point shooter in NBA history is ready to return to the 3-point contest … in 2027. Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry said Sunday that he wants to participate in the 3-point contest next season.

Curry made the announcement during an appearance on NBC. When asked whether he felt he needed to return to the competition after watching Damian Lillard win his third 3-point contest, Curry said, “One hundred percent.”

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He added, “I already scheduled it.” And said he was looking to make sure Lillard and Curry’s former teammate Klay Thompson took part in the festivities.

Curry was motivated by the fact that Lillard, who is recovering from Achillies surgery, joined an elite group with his third 3-point contest victory. Curry has won the event twice — in 2015 and 2021. It sounds like he wants to match Lillard, or at least see if he can take him down.

Thompson also has a 3-point contest win under his belt, in 2016.

Curry, the league’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made, is still playing at a high level 17 seasons into his career. The 37-year-old is averaging 27.2 points this season, his highest total since the 2022-23 NBA season.

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That performance was enough for Curry to be named a starter at the 2026 All-Star Game, but the Warriors’ star sat out of the event due to a knee injury.

Despite sitting out, Curry seemed to have a great time during the festivities. In addition to his announcement, Curry also hit a shot from the NBA Showtime desk and was one of the biggest cheerleaders during the various All-Star games Sunday.

Though Curry continues to play at a high level, the Warriors are once again fighting for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Entering Monday, the team sits at 29-26, good for eighth place in the West.

MILAN — When Amber Glenn takes the ice this week for her short program, she’s expected to skate a graceful routine that will end with a series of spins. If she performs as expected, the spins — more than two dozen in all — will be a dramatic crescendo, the culmination of a meticulously prepared routine.

And many of the millions watching at home will wonder, How does she do that? Very quickly followed by, Hey, why isn’t she just throwing up on the ice right now from dizziness?

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The answer to both questions — the ability to spin, and the ability to stave off dizziness — is the same: practice. Lots and lots of practice.

Let’s start with a basic but neurologically complex question: What exactly is dizziness? You know it when you feel it, but what exactly is it?

“There are many causes of dizziness, but neurologically speaking, which I think is most relevant here, dizziness is caused by dysfunction of the vestibular system,” Dr. Lindsay J. Agostinelli, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, told Yahoo Sports in an email. “The vestibular system is an apparatus in our inner ears that detects head motion and rotation, sending signals to our brain to then turn our eyes in order to maintain balance and prevent dizziness as we move through space.”

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Skaters, like dancers, begin to prepare for spinning by focusing on a single spot in the distance as they spin, then turning their head quickly and relocating that point, Dr. Agostinelli notes. That allows them to quickly stabilize themselves and stave off dizziness.

But that method won’t exactly work on ice, when skaters are whipping around five or six times a second. The only way to solve that problem, Dr. Agostinelli suggests, is by repetition, breaking down your traditional dizzy reaction to spinning.

“Research studies have shown that figure skaters actually have a less reactive vestibular system, and when exposed to a ‘nauseogenic simulation’ that rotated/ spun them, they felt less motion sick compared to non-skaters,” Dr. Agostinelli says. “This is likely a result of their training which habituates their vestibular systems.”

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Fighting off dizziness is a mental battle that becomes a physical one. “I think initial training requires mental toughness to fight through the requisite dizziness,” Dr. Agostinelli says, “but the ability to perform at high speeds without dizziness is clearly a result of the physical training and desensitization process.”

So there you go. If you want to stay as level-headed as a skater, start spinning now. Carefully.

Nick Castellanos is turning the page on his time with the Philadelphia Phillies. The outfielder — who was signed by the San Diego Padres on Saturday — reflected on the ending of his Phillies tenure Sunday, saying he didn’t handle his outburst in Miami well.

While Castellanos overall stood by the way he approached things with the Phillies, he admitted the “Miami Incident” — in which he brought a beer into the dugout and berated coaches after being removed from a game in the eighth inning — could have been handled better.

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Castellanos said he “let the emotions get the best of me” in that moment, per CBSSports.com.

“I said I will learn from this,” Castellanos said. “I let the emotions get the best of me in the moment. [Going forward] possibly if I see things that frustrate me or I don’t believe are conducive to winning. [It’s about] not letting things just pile up over time so when I address it, it’s less emotional.”

That moment proved to be the beginning of the end for Castellanos in Philadelphia. While he spent the rest of the season with the team, it quickly found a replacement in the offseason, signing outfielder Adolis García.

With Castellanos out of a job, the Phillies looked for possible trade partners, but none materialized. Eventually, the team told the veteran outfielder to not report for spring training. Shortly after that, Castellanos was released by the Phillies. He quickly found another job with the Padres.

Castellanos, 33, will now look to rebuild his value after experiencing declining numbers in his final year in Philadelphia. He said he is glad to have another opportunity and is looking forward to competing with the Padres. When asked about his new club, Castellanos complimented the Padres while potentially taking one more shot at the Phillies on his way out, per ESPN.

“They don’t cut corners as far as what they do to prepare and win. And also, what reputation they have on how they treat their players and how they have their backs. Even if something goes a little bit awry, they still stand with them and they don’t deviate from their commitment to them as a person.”

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Castellanos will have to prove he has something left in the tank after hitting just .250/.294/.400 last season. He registered a -0.8bWAR in 2025, marking the second time since 2022 that he finished the season with negative WAR.

The Padres, however, aren’t on the hook for much if he falters. The team will pay the veteran the minimum this season, with the Phillies still paying Castellanos’ $20 million salary.

With the Padres, Castellanos is expected to serve as designated hitter, occasionally appear in the outfield and maybe mix in at first base, a position he has never played in the majors.