Author: rb809rb

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.”

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.”

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

Dates: Feb. 8 – 21

Location: Stelvio Ski Center, Bormio, Italy

TV channels: USA

Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, and more

Where can I stream SkiMo at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

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.

MILAN — Last Wednesday night, shortly after 1 a.m., Jordan Stolz’s coach went to speak with the speedskating superstar.

Bob Corby found Stolz in the Olympic Village, still cradling the gold medal that he had secured earlier that evening by winning his first of four races on the sport’s biggest stage.

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“Oh, you got a little trophy there?” the 75-year-old Corby quipped. “What did you do? Did you win a little tee ball tournament?”

Stolz grinned before gesturing toward his medal and saying, “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.”

At first glance, Stolz and Corby might appear to be these Olympics’ most mismatched pairing — an unflappable 21-year-old speedskating phenom and the feisty white-haired grandfather who he lured out of retirement. And yet speedskating’s odd couple have brought out the best in each other during their seven years working together.

Stolz has flourished under Corby’s old-school training methods, establishing himself as the planet’s most dominant speedskater with a real chance to add two more Olympic gold medals to the two he has already won in Milan. And Corby has reveled in helping a star pupil seize his moment in the spotlight more than four decades after an Olympic coaching flop that haunts him to this day.

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The only speedskater ever to win five gold medals at the same Olympics endorsed Corby as the ideal coach to help Stolz chase greatness. Eric Heiden used to train with Corby and to this day refers to him as “the Skate Whisperer.”

“He doesn’t let his ego get in the way of letting Jordan do his thing,” Heiden said. “He knows when to offer advice and coach and then understands when to let Jordan’s innate talent take over.”

Leaving Sarajevo empty handed

Decades ago, Corby himself once had aspirations of competing at an Olympics in speedskating. He trained relentlessly for the 1972 and 1976 Winter Games, experimenting with yoga, nutrition and an array of different drills and exercises in an effort to shave just a few tenths of a second off his best times.

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It wasn’t enough. There were always world-class American skaters who were faster than Corby at every distance. But those experiences helped Corby as a coach when he started working for the Madison Speedskating Club and for the U.S. International Speedskating Association while also studying physical therapy at the University of Wisconsin.

One year after Heiden swept all five men’s speedskating races at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, the USISA tasked Corby with the job of helping prepare American speedskaters for the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo. He inherited a young, inexperienced group since Heiden and many other top Americans had chosen to hang up their skates.

The buildup to the Sarajevo Games was marred by infighting over staff shortages, fundraising failures, training sites and coaching methods. Reports from the time period describe a schism between speedskaters who supported Corby and those who backed other USISA coaches.

The results once those Olympics started were also deflating. The Soviets and East Germans dominated. The Americans came home empty-handed. At 18 years old, Dan Jansen took fourth in the men’s 500. Twenty-year-old Nick Thometz finished one spot behind Jansen in the 500 and a hard-luck fourth in the 1,000. Bonnie Blair, then 19, cracked the top 10 in the women’s 500. But there were no American medalists, not even a paltry bronze.

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“It was very disappointing,” Corby said. “You knew that they were just teenagers skating against 25- and 26-year-olds with more years of training, but it still was disappointing to go through the whole thing with them and not get a medal somewhere. I spent a long time afterward trying to analyze if I could have done anything to change things, to make it a little better.”

Corby stepped away from the national team after 1984 but continued to coach speedskaters into the late 1980s. Then he gradually disappeared from the sport altogether as his physical therapy practice began getting busier and his kids showed a preference for soccer and skiing rather than speedskating.

The first time that Corby met Stolz, he had no intention of coaching him. Speedskating coach Bobby Fenn, a longtime close friend of Corby’s, invited him to come watch a short-track meet in Madison nearly a decade ago. When they arrived, Fenn pointed to a rail-thin 12-year-old boy who he coached and told Corby, “Watch this kid. He’s pretty good.”

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Corby, too, recognized Stolz had potential after watching him skate. He met Stolz and his parents that day through Fenn. He stayed in touch sporadically, even providing physical therapy to the young skater after he suffered a hip flexor.

By then, Stolz’s speedskating ambitions had outgrown the backyard pond where he and older sister Hannah famously learned to skate. Stolz’s parents took him and Hannah to Milwaukee a few times a week to work with Fenn, a world-class coach best known for developing Shani Davis into an Olympic and world all-around champion.

Then on Oct. 8, 2017, Fenn didn’t show up to the rink for a scheduled practice session. Later that day, the Stolz family learned the 73-year-old had passed away suddenly, the cause of death reportedly a heart attack. 

Fenn’s death was very hard on both her children, Jane Stolz said. Hannah gradually retreated from speedskating, preferring to focus on her passion for raising exotic birds and doing taxidermy. Jordan also drifted. Davis filled in for Fenn for a little while, but when he accepted an opportunity to coach junior skaters in China, Jordan was coachless again.

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While Corby had occasionally offered guidance and support during this time period, Jordan needed more than that. He asked Corby if he’d be willing to return to the speedskating world for the first time in more than two decades to coach him full-time.

The timing, as Corby puts it, was “serendipitous” with him preparing to step back from his physical therapy practice. Plus, Corby says, “How on earth do you say no to a 14-year-old kid who calls you and asks you for help?”

Turning a scrawny kid into a powerhouse

Armed with pages of handwritten notes about which training techniques he’d keep from the buildup to the 1984 Olympics and which he’d scrap, Corby tailored a plan specifically for Stolz. Stolz spends much of his summer on his bicycle, building leg strength and aerobic capacity. He powers through draining sets of heavy squats, explosive jumps and single-leg workouts. He also hones his technique away from the ice, imitating his stride on a slide board or using cables as a resistance tool to simulate cornering on ice.

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The emphasis on weight training helped Stolz evolve from a talented but scrawny kid into a powerhouse. By the time speedskating began to emerge from the COVID pandemic, Jordan didn’t just stand out among skaters his own age anymore. The 16-year-old took on the fastest men in America and beat them, clocking a national junior record time of 34.99 seconds in the men’s 500 at the 2021 U.S. Speedskating Championships.

“I remember thinking, ‘Holy cow,’” Corby said. “This kid really has some talent.”

The holy cow moments didn’t stop there.

At 17, Stolz won both the men’s 500 and 1,000 at the U.S. Olympic Trials, qualifying him to participate in the Winter Games in both events.

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At 18, he swept the gold medals in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 at world championships.

At 19, he did it again.

Now Stolz is trying to top all of those feats at these Winter Games. He’s halfway to four gold medals, having already set a pair of Olympic records while outdueling Dutch sprinter Jenning de Boo to win the 1,000 and the 500. He’ll be a heavy favorite to win his third gold medal on Thursday in the 1,500, a distance he has dominated on the World Cup circuit. Then there’s the race that Stolz refers to as “a bonus,” the chaotic, unpredictable mass start.

When asked why the partnership between he and Stolz has turned out so well, Corby said that Stolz responds well to being pushed — especially when the results show that the training programs are working.

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“He can handle a pretty big workload,” Corby said. “He saw a real benefit to doing these types of workouts.”

Spend even a few minutes at the speedskating arena in Milan on one of Stolz’s race days, and the bond between him and Corby is obvious. Corby is the last person Stolz speaks with before a race and the first person he high fives after he crosses the finish line.

“This experience has been great,” Corby said with a laugh, “It doesn’t seem to bother him having a white-haired guy hanging around.”

LIVIGNO, Italy — He had to wait an agonizingly long time, but the bronze medal in men’s snowboard slopestyle is Jake Canter’s.

After stomping his final run for a score of 79.36 to put him third on the leaderboard, Canter had to wait for the rest of the field to finish to see if his score would hold up. Things got tense when Norway’s Marcus Kleveland, the second-to-last rider, crushed his own final run. The judges took an extraordinarily long time to post Kleveland’s score, leaving an anxious Canter waiting to see if he’d be knocked off the podium.

When Kleveland’s score came in at 78.96, Canter breathed a huge sigh of relief. Moments later, when New Zealand’s Dane Menzies crashed on his run, it was celebration time for Canter.

It’s the first Olympic medal for the 22 year old Coloradan, who won the Aspen World Cup in January to secure his place on Team USA.

China’s star snowboarded Su Yiming won his second career Olympic gold (big air, 2022) while Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa took silver.

Red Gerard, the 2018 gold medalist, finished sixth while 17-year old Ollie Martin finished ninth for Team USA.

Team USA has been heavily favored to medal in the men’s and women’s ice hockey competition at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The women’s team is guaranteed a medal; they’re playing in the gold medal game this Thursday against Canada (marking the seventh time in history that the two clubs have met in the gold medal clash). The men’s team is just entering the playoff round and they’ll play their quarterfinal against Sweden on Feb. 18 at 3:10 p.m. ET. The men’s gold medal final is scheduled for the very last day of the Games, on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Read on for a complete schedule of every U.S. men’s and women’s hockey game at this year’s games, a rundown of who is playing for Team USA, and how to watch all the action. And 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.

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How to watch Team USA ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Dates: Now through Feb. 22

Location: Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena

TV channel: USA, NBC, CNBC

Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, and more

Where can I stream ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Every men’s and women’s ice hockey game at the Olympics, including the women’s gold medal final this Thursday, is available to stream on Peacock.

How much will Fernando Mendoza do at the NFL scouting combine?

The NFL released its invite list for the 2026 combine last Wednesday. The 2025 Heisman Trophy winner is one of 15 quarterbacks who were asked to participate in the combine, along with notable names like Alabama’s Ty Simpson, Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia and Miami’s Carson Beck. Overall, 319 players have been invited to the combine.

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Mendoza is widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders after he led Indiana to a 16-0 season and the national championship. The Raiders recently hired Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to be their next head coach.

With Mendoza a near-lock to be the No. 1 pick, it seems unlikely that he’ll do many of the physical drills at the combine. Top-tier quarterbacks have largely preferred to throw at their own pro days in recent seasons — and with no other real contenders to go at No. 1, there’s not much else that Mendoza needs to do to sell himself to the Raiders.

Outside of Mendoza, Simpson is viewed as a possible first-round pick as well.

Mendoza will have eight other teammates at the combine, including running back Roman Hemby and wide receivers Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr. However, running back Kaelon Black and defensive end Mikail Kamara were not invited.

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Hemby was Indiana’s leading rusher with 230 carries for 1,120 yards and seven scores. Black, a transfer from James Madison when coach Curt Cignetti was hired at Indiana, had 1,040 yards and 10 TDs on 186 carries.

Kamara totaled 12 sacks and 22 tackles for loss in his two seasons at Indiana. Though he had just two sacks in 2025, he was massive in the College Football Playoff. His blocked punt in the third quarter of the national championship game win over Miami put the Hoosiers up 17-7.

Here’s the complete invitation list for the 2026 NFL combine. The event begins on Feb. 26.

Quarterbacks

• Haynes King, Georgia Tech

• Fernando Mendoza, Indiana

• Behren Morton, Texas Tech

• Cole Payton, North Dakota State

Running backs

• Kaytron Allen, Penn State

• Demond Claiborne, Wake Forest

• Jonah Coleman, Washington

• Rahsul Faison, South Carolina

• Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame

• Jadarian Price, Notre Dame

• Nicholas Singleton, Penn State

• Mike Washington Jr., Arkansas

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Wide receivers

• Vinny Anthony II, Wisconsin

• Denzel Boston, Washington

• Zachariah Branch, Georgia

• Chris Brazzell II, Tennessee

• Jeff Caldwell, Cincinnati

• Kevin Coleman Jr., Missouri

• Caleb Douglas, Texas Tech

• Malachi Fields, Notre Dame

• Emmanuel Henderson Jr., Kansas

• Bryce Lance, North Dakota State

• Donaven McCulley, Michigan

• Eric Rivers, Georgia Tech

• De’Zhaun Stribling, Mississippi

• J. Michael Sturdivant, Florida

• Brenen Thompson, Mississippi State

• Jordyn Tyson, Arizona State

• Reggie Virgil, Texas Tech

• Harrison Wallace III, Mississippi

• Jalen Walthall, Incarnate Word

• Antonio Williams, Clemson

Tight ends

• Nate Boerkircher, Texas A&M

• Khalil Dinkins, Penn State

• John Michael Gyllenborg, Wyoming

• Will Kacmarek, Ohio State

• Miles Kitselman, Tennessee

• Riley Nowakowski, Indiana

• Dae’Quan Wright, Mississippi

Offensive linemen

• Evan Beerntsen, Northwestern

• Chase Bisontis, Texas A&M

• Jude Bowry, Boston College

• Parker Brailsford, Alabama

• Fernando Carmona, Arkansas

• Dametrious Crownover, Texas A&M

• Fa’alili Fa’amoe, Wake Forest

• Matt Gulbin, Michigan State

• Max Iheanachor, Arizona State

• Olaivavega Ioane, Penn State

• Diego Pounds, Mississippi

• Ar’maj Reed-Adams, Texas A&M

• Keylan Rutledge, Georgia Tech

• Billy Schrauth, Notre Dame

• Logan Taylor, Boston College

• Caleb Tiernan, Northwestern

• Carver Willis, Washington

Defensive linemen

• Vincent Anthony Jr., Duke

• Jaishawn Barham, Michigan

• Nick Barrett, South Carolina

• DeMonte Capehart, Clemson

• Brandon Cleveland, N.C. State

• Dontay Corleone, Cincinnati

• Dani Dennis-Sutton, Penn State

• Skyler Gill-Howard, Texas Tech

• George Gumbs Jr., Florida

• Zxavian Harris, Mississippi

• Romello Height, Texas Tech

• Cashius Howell, Texas A&M

• Aidan Hubbard, Northwestern

• Quintayvious Hutchins, Boston College

• Darrell Jackson Jr., Florida State

• Bobby Jamison-Travis, Auburn

• Marvin Jones Jr., Oklahoma

• Joshua Josephs, Tennessee

• Chris McClellan, Missouri

• Kayden McDonald, Ohio State

• Domonique Orange, Iowa State

• Kaleb Proctor, Southeastern Louisiana

• Nadame Tucker, Western Michigan

• Damonic Williams, Oklahoma

Linebackers

• Keyshaun Elliott, Arizona State

• Justin Jefferson, Alabama

• Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech

• Xavian Sorey Jr., Arkansas

• Scooby Williams, Texas A&M

Defensive backs

• Keith Abney II, Arizona State

• Marcus Allen, North Carolina

• Brandon Cisse, South Carolina

• Tacario Davis, Washington

• Charles Demmings, Stephen F. Austin

• Thaddeus Dixon, North Carolina

• Ahmari Harvey, Georgia Tech

• Davison Igbinosun, Ohio State

• Chris Johnson, San Diego State

• Jalon Kilgore, South Carolina

• Latrell McCutchin Sr., Houston

• Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, Toledo

• Toriano Pride Jr., Missouri

• Ephesians Prysock, Washington

• DeShon Singleton, Nebraska

• Robert Spears-Jennings, Oklahoma

• Lorenzo Styles Jr., Ohio State

• Zakee Wheatley, Penn State

Special teams

• P Tommy Doman Jr., Florida

• P Ryan Eckley, Michigan State

• P Jack Stonehouse, Syracuse

• K Dominic Zvada, Michigan

Defeating Norway and the dominant Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo was going to be an impossible task for every team taking part in the men’s cross-country team sprint Wednesday. Of all the other teams to compete, the U.S. came the closest, picking up a silver-medal finish in the event.

Team USA’s Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher got stronger as the event progressed, eventually finishing just 1.4 seconds behind Klaebo and Einar Hedegart for the silver.

It marked Ogden’s second medal of the 2026 Olympics. He also won the silver in the cross-country sprint, becoming the first U.S. male cross-country skier to medal since 1976. It was Schumacher’s first-ever Olympic medal.

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There were some early stumbles for Team USA, as two poor legs had them sitting in 12th after exchange four. From there, though, both Ogden and Schumacher stepped up their game, posting excellent times in the final two legs to claim the silver medal.

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo sets Olympic record with 10th gold

While the U.S. deserves plenty of credit for their finish, Klaebo was the bigger story. With the win, Klaebo picked up his 10th Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing, extending his record for most golds in Winter Olympic history. He’s won every event in which he’s competed at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics so far.

Klaebo has already picked up gold medals in the 10 km freestyle, 20 km skiathlon, individual sprint, 4 x 7.5 km relay and team sprint. He’ll also take part in the 50-kilometer mass start over the weekend, giving him another opportunity to extend his record and finish off one of the best individual Olympic performances of all time.

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Klaebo was well-known in Norway prior to the 2026 Olympics, as he already had five gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze under his belt. But his performance this year propelled Klaebo into the worldwide spotlight, cementing him as one of the most dominant athletes in the Olympics.

An unexpected visitor hit the Winter Olympics cross-country skiing course on Wednesday as a few teams were finishing up qualifiers. Just as two skiers were entering the final stretch, a dog appeared on the course, running after the two competitors as they finished the event.

It’s unclear where the dog came from, but it somehow made its way directly onto the course. After running near the side of the course, the dog got distracted as skiers passed, and decided to chase them across the finish line.

The dog appeared friendly, going up to one of the skiers after the qualifier ended. It’s unclear what happened from there, though it appears the dog was removed from the course without incident.

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The Olympics initially celebrated its appearance, saying the dog should have won “all the medals” in a tweet. That tweet, however, was deleted.

NBC also captured footage of the dog, saying it achieved the cheer of the day from the fans.

The dog disrupted only qualifiers, not the final event. Sweden managed to win the gold medal in the final, with Switzerland taking silver and Germany winning bronze.

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Tom Haberstroh is joined by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst to dig into the NBA’s $500,000 fine for the Utah Jazz and debate whether fines can truly deter teams from benching their stars. Windhorst breaks down four of the league’s core values to explain why proposals to “fix” tanking rarely last.

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The duo also look ahead to the second half of the season as the Spurs continue to close in on the Thunder in the Western Conference and Jayson Tatum’s return to the Celtics in the East begins to feel inevitable. Don’t miss Windhorst’s behind-the-scenes stories about his time covering the Miami Heat with Tom and where LeBron might have landed if the draft didn’t exist.

(1:32) The Big Number: Jazz fined $500k

(4:23) How can NBA fix tanking?

(20:57) Would LeBron have gone to Cleveland without the draft?

(27:44) Is the Jazz fine unfair?

(36:08) Are Thunder vulnerable to Spurs in West?

(54:46) Should Tatum return for Celtics this season?

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

Check out all episodes of The Big Number and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock is heading to the NFL.

According to ESPN, Hammock is becoming the Seattle Seahawks’ running backs coach. Hammock has been the head coach at Northern Illinois for the past seven seasons and, per the report, had “multiple NFL opportunities.”

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NIU went 35-47 in Hammock’s time with the school and was 3-9 in 2025. Before last year’s struggles, the Huskies had made it to consecutive bowl games in 2023 and 2024 and pulled the upset of the 2024 season when they beat Notre Dame in Week 2.

That was Notre Dame’s only loss of the season before the Fighting Irish lost to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff championship game.

Northern Illinois’ best season under Hammock came in 2021, when the Huskies went 9-5. NIU won the MAC title that season with a 41-23 win over Kent State in the conference title game before a 47-41 Cure Bowl loss to Coastal Carolina.

Hammock leaves Northern Illinois as the school embarks on a new football era. NIU, a longtime member of the MAC, has joined the remade Mountain West Conference in football for the 2026 season. The Huskies’ shortest road trip will be to Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Their other three road games are at New Mexico, San Jose State and UNLV.

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While NIU is off to the Mountain West, the MAC took a lucrative financial offer from Sacramento State for the California school to join the conference in football. Yes, a team from Illinois is in the Mountain West and a team from the capital city of California is in the Mid-American Conference. College sports do not make sense, sometimes.

Hammock replaces Kennedy Polamalu, who took a leave of absence from the Seahawks in December and was not set to return in 2026. The Seahawks secured the No. 1 seed in the NFC late in the season and went on to win Super Bowl LX over the New England Patriots.