Author: rb809rb

Olympic medals are breaking.

Olympic officials say they’re “working on it.”

U.S. skier Breezy Johnson first noted the faulty medals after her gold-medal run in Sunday’s alpine downhill competition. Johnson showed off her broken medal during her post-race news conference and told reporters that it fell apart from its ribbon as she was celebrating.

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“I don’t know that the Italians are known for their engineering,” Johnson told reporters. “I assume someone will fix it.”

Johnson also added a warning for her fellow medal winners.

“Don’t jump in them,” she said.

More broken medals

On Monday, U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu posted social video of her detached medal after securing gold alongside her teammates in Sunday’s team final. She didn’t seem too upset about it.

“My medal don’t need the ribbon,” Liu captioned while posting video of herself smiling with her medal and detached ribbon in opposite hands.

Liu didn’t detail how hers became detached.

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There’s video evidence, meanwhile, of German biathlete Justus Strelow’s medal falling apart from its ribbon. Strelow won his medal Sunday with his teammates in the mixed relay competition. As he jumped in celebration with his teammates, the medal fell from around his neck with a clang onto the tile floor below.

The medal mishap didn’t appear to hinder the celebration.

It appears that all of the medals are breaking in the same manner. The bar that attaches medals to their ribbons is breaking away, and the medals are then falling to the ground away from the ribbons. Olympic officials have gotten the memo.

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Olympic committee is ‘working on it’

Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for the Milan Cortina organizing committee, told the Associated Press on Monday that officials were working on a solution.

“We are aware of the situation, we have seen the images,” Francisi said. “Obviously we are trying to understand in detail if there is a problem.

“But obviously we are paying maximum attention to this matter, as the medal is the dream of the athletes, so we want that obviously in the moment they are given it that everything is absolutely perfect, because we really consider it to be the most important moment. So we are working on it.”

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What “working on it” means isn’t exactly clear from Francisi’s statement. But there appears to be good news for those athletes with broken medals.

Johnson says she got a new, intact medal

It wasn’t initially clear Sunday if Johnson’s medal would be replaced. Johnson confirmed late Sunday night to NBC that, indeed, she was given a new one. She just has to do some extra legwork to get it personalized.

“I was jumping, and the whole ribbon came off of the medal. And then they tried to fix it, but they couldn’t. So they gave me this one instead, and I have to go get it engraved,” Johnson said, while showing off her new medal on NBC’s late night Olympic show.

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Johnson added that her medal broke within 15 minutes of receiving it.

“I don’t know if I have very many Olympic records,” Johnson continued. “But I might have the shortest-lived Olympic medal record.”

She also had a backup plan just in case the Olympic committee didn’t replace her broken hardware:

“I was pretty sure that they would replace or fix it,” she said. “Or, like, my dad’s a carpenter, so I was pretty sure we could do something about it.”

The Winter Olympics are here! It’s that time when we all realize how invested we are in sports like curling, bobsledding, and ski jumping, even though we forget all about them for the other three years and eleven months in between Winter Games. One sport that always seems to keep everyone interested is figure skating, and this week, Team USA is bringing the heat to chilly Milano Cortina. Sixteen of the best skaters from all across America are competing at this year’s games: three women, three men, two pairs, and three ice dance teams are representing Team USA in Milan. Team USA has already snagged a gold medal in the team event thanks to a winning routine performed by U.S. Men’s champion Ilia Malinen, whose signature quad axel propelled them to victory, but there are still loads of competitions happening this week, including the men’s short program and free skate, as well as the rhythm dancing free dance medal competition.

For a complete schedule of every figure skating event at this year’s games, a rundown of who is on Team USA, and how to watch, keep scrolling. 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 Milano Cortina Games.

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How to watch figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Dates: Feb. 6 – 21

Location: Milano Ice Skating Arena

TV channels: NBC, USA

Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, and more

Where can I stream Team USA Figure Skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Where to watch Team USA Figure Skating on TV:

Team USA Figure Skating coverage will generally be split between NBC and USA, which you can stream on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more.

The Duke basketball staff member who was caught up in the court storm at the Dean Smith Center on Saturday night is doing much better, Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer said on Monday.

No. 11 North Carolina rallied from a 13-point hole on Saturday to stun No. 4 Duke 71-68 in the latest edition of the ACC rivalry matchup. Naturally, Tar Heels fans rushed their home court to celebrate.

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But Scheyer revealed after the game that one of his staff members was punched in the face during the frenzy.

“I came back in the locker room and I see he’s got a bloody lip and he’s disheveled and he didn’t know what happened,” Scheyer said on Monday. “He got trampled on the floor. That was my main concern after the game and that’s why I said what I said.”

While it’s unclear who the staff member is, Scheyer said he was the only person injured in the chaos. And, now days later, he is doing fine.

“It was not a good situation,” Scheyer said. “But he’s doing better, he’s fine. Ready to move on. I don’t have anything more to say other than, that was a very unsafe situation for him, our staff, our families, our players.”

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There were actually two court storms on Saturday, one with 0.4 seconds left on the clock and then another after officials cleared the court and finished out the game.

The ACC fined North Carolina $50,000 for the court storm on Sunday, as it was a violation of the league’s “event security policy.”

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said after the game that he had apologized to Scheyer personally.

“Obviously if somebody got injured, that’s just really, really disappointing,” Cunningham said. “We’ll do the best we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, but again, my apologies to Duke for that.”

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While there have been several attempts to adjust or prevent court storming all together in recent years, Scheyer insisted on Saturday that he didn’t want the celebration banned.

“I don’t have any issue with court storming,” he said. “Just shouldn’t have people getting punched in the face. Shouldn’t put our players in position where they’re face-to-face with people who can do anything at that time. It just takes one reaction. Even today, I had to push people away just to try to protect our players.”

The win for North Carolina marked its largest comeback victory over Duke in the last 25 years. It snapped a 10-game win streak for the Blue Devils, and moved the Tar Heels up three spots in the latest Associated Press poll on Monday.

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Duke and North Carolina will square off again on March 7 in the last game of the regular season, this time at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I’m a big boy, we can take losing,” Scheyer said on Monday. “Great college game, Carolina played great.”

Tennis superstar Serena Williams could be on her way back to the court after being listed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency as eligible to return on Feb. 22.

This comes nearly six months after Williams registered with the sports drug testing organization and, as of Monday, has been listed on the ITIA’s website reinstatement page. While there is no official plan in place for Williams’ return, this process has opened a pathway for a return if she so chooses.

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When news broke last year that Williams had signed up to re-enter the ITIA drug testing pool, she responded to fans via social media. “Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy.”

Williams is one of the most decorated competitors in the sports history but has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open. She stepped away from the sport in 2022 to focus on family and other business ventures outside of her tennis career. At the time, Williams did not want to use the word “retiring,” but chose to say she was evolving away from tennis.

Pro athletes who return to testing under ITIA supervision must provide information on their whereabouts, times when they can give samples and their location when not at official events. Athletes who retire while on the list and choose to come back later must be available for six months of testing before they can be allowed to officially return to competition.

Among Williams’ treasure chest’s worth of accolades are 73 career titles (23 Grand Slams), four Olympic gold medals and a career singles record of 858-156.

Kevin O’Connor is joined by Dane Moore to talk Timberwolves on today’s Kevin O’Connor Show. What’s behind the meltdown in Minnesota?

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Next, KOC is joined by Boston Celtics play-by-play announcer Drew Carter to talk all things Celtics—particularly what needs to be done to right the ship after trading for Nikola Vucevic at the trade deadline.

Then, KOC mulls over the question: is this year’s Charlotte Hornets team the new Indiana Pacers? What is the key to their newfound success?

Plus, KOC is joined by Swish Theory’s Matt Powers to chat Draft Class—which draft prospect has improved most in the new year? How does AJ Dybantsa bring BYU out of a 4-game losing streak? That and more on today’s show!

(0:14) Dane Moore talks Timberwolves
(30:40) Drew Carter on Celtics
(1:07:20) Are the Hornets this year’s Pacers?
(1:13:21) Matt Powers joins KOC’s Draft Class

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

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl-winning head coach Bruce Arians is recovering and doing well after undergoing heart surgery on Friday, reports Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.

“Fixing an aneurysm I’ve been monitoring for a while,” Arians, 73, told the Times via text message. ”It’s gotten too large and needs sewed up. Great doc. I’m good.”

Arians has had a history of health issues as a three-time cancer survivor. In 2007, Arians was treated for prostate cancer during his tenure as offensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then, in 2013, Arians had skin cancer cells scraped off his nose while coaching the Arizona Cardinals.

In 2016, Arians dealt with a bout of diverticulitis, which caused inflammation of the colon and landed him in the hospital. Later in 2016, he was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer). Arians had part of his kidney removed in early 2017. After winning the Super Bowl during the 2020-21 season with the Bucs, Arians retired and took a senior advisory position with the team. During this tenure with the Bucs in 2022, Arians was diagnosed with myocarditis after experiencing chest pains.

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After all of his health issues and complications over the years, Arians now advocates for prostate cancer screening. The coach made an appearance with former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski on “The Today Show” last month, advocating for prostate cancer screening when he initially revealed he’d be going in for heart surgery.

Arians got his start in coaching at the college level in 1975. He eventually made the jump to the NFL in the late 1980s, but made his full-time transition to the league in 1998 as quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts. With Tom Brady at the helm in 2020, Arians’ Bucs won Super Bowl LV over the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9. Arians ended his career with a 129-80 record and 62.4% winning percentage as an NFL head coach.

Lindsey Vonn’s skiing career, at least if her father can help it, is over.

Vonn was airlifted off the Cortina d’Ampezzo mountain after a horrific crash during the women’s downhill on Sunday, ending her comeback attempt at the Olympics before it could really begin. She was transported to the Ca’Foncello Hospital in Treviso, Italy, where she underwent surgery to repair a fracture in her left leg. This came a little more than a week after she had ruptured left ACL in Switzerland, too.

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Vonn is still recovering in the hospital with her dad, Alan Kildow, and three siblings, by her side.

“She’s 41 years old, and this is the end of her career,” Kildow told The Associated Press on Monday. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”

Kildow did not provide any details of Vonn’s injuries or her recovery so far, but he said that he slept in her hospital room overnight last night. Someone has been with Vonn at all times since her crash, and they will “have people here as long as she’s here.”

Vonn won’t be returning to the Olympics to watch or support her teammates. It’s unclear how long she will be in the hospital, or when she can return home to the United States.

“She’s a very strong individual,” Kildow said. “She knows physical pain and she understands the circumstances that she finds herself in. And she’s able to handle it. Better than I expected. She’s a very, very strong person. And so I think she’s handling it real well.”

Vonn has won three Olympic medals throughout her career and she held the record for most World Cup victories when she retired in 2019, though that’s since been overtaken by teammate Mikaela Shiffrin. Vonn opted for a return after she underwent a partial knee replacement in 2024, however. She said her body “felt so good” after that procedure.

And with the Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the site of her first World Cup podium and the place where she’s won a record 12 World Cup races, it seemed like the perfect fit.

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But just a week before the Opening Ceremony, Vonn crashed into a barrier in Switzerland and had to be airlifted off the course during a run. She completely tore her left ACL, but opted to compete in the Olympics anyways. That injury, her father said, had absolutely nothing to do with her crash on Sunday.

“What happened to her had nothing to do with the ACL issue on her left leg. Nothing,” Kildow said. “She had demonstrated that she was able to function at a very high level with the two downhill training runs … And she had been cleared by high-level physicians to ski.”

Kildow said that he and the rest of Vonn’s family in attendance had to watch the crash from the finish area with the rest of the spectators at the event.

“First, the shock and the horror of the whole thing, seeing a crash like that,” Kildow said. “It can be dramatic and traumatic. You’re just horrified at what those kinds of impacts have.

“You can go into a shock, an emotional, psychological shock. Because it’s difficult to just accept what’s happened. But she’s well cared for … And the USOC and the U.S. Ski Team have a very, very top-notch doctor with her and she is being very well cared for here in Italy.”

You may not know Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate by name, but by now you’ve probably heard of the Minion Skater, the men’s figure skater who had to fight to perform his signature Minions-themed short program at this year’s Winter Olympics. Sabate, who represents Spain, has performed the routine set to music from the Universal Pictures film while dressed as a Minion all season long, and it helped him earn his spot in the Winter Games.

Just days before the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics were set to begin, he was told that he didn’t have the music clearance for one of the songs featured in his routine. After an online outcry and some legal wrangling, Sabate was granted permission to use the song in his routine just in time for the Games, and he will perform it this Tuesday, Feb. 10, during the men’s short program, which will air live starting at 12:15 p.m. ET on Peacock and USA. Broadcast coverage will switch over to NBC at 1:45 p.m. Though Sabate is not considered a medal contender, he’s already become a fan favorite. (We’re also excited for his Bee Gees-themed free skate, which will be on Friday.)

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For a complete schedule of every figure skating event at this year’s games and how to watch, keep scrolling. 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 Milano Cortina Games.

How to watch the Minion Skater at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Date: Tuesday, Feb. 10

Time: 12:15 p.m. ET (live on Peacock and USA), and at 1:45 p.m. (NBC)

Location: Milano Ice Skating Arena

TV channels: NBC, USA

Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, and more

Where can I stream figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Where to watch the men’s figure skating short program on TV:

The men’s short program will begin at 12:15 p.m. ET on USA and then flip over to NBC at 1:45 p.m.. You can watch NBC and USA on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more.

MILAN — The U.S. women’s hockey team hasn’t asked for much from its goalies so far during these Olympics, but Gwyneth Philips came through Monday night when the Americans needed her.

She robbed Switzerland’s Rahel Enzler late in the first period when Team USA’s 5-0 victory was still very much in doubt.

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With underdog Switzerland trailing by a single goal and beginning a two-minute power play, Swiss forward Ivana Wey fed a slick pass to Enzler who was camped out all by herself in front of the American net. It appeared that Enzler’s one-timer would find the open left side of the net, but Philips extended her right arm just in time and calmly made a glove save.

“I’m a backwards goalie, I stuck my glove out and it went in my glove,” Philips said with a laugh. “That’s why I made that save. That was a big save for our team. You don’t want to let them score there and get the energy.”

That deft save from Philips and several others kept the U.S. in front on a night when its defense surrendered an Olympics-high 21 shot attempts and its high-octane offense never found top gear. The Americans didn’t open a two-goal advantage until less than six minutes remained in the second period and didn’t put the game away until early in the third.

Philips had been the backup goalie behind Aerin Frankel for the U.S.’s first two games of group play against Czechia and Finland. She said she was “super excited” when she found out via a Sunday text message from head coach John Wroblewski that she was going to get the chance to make her Olympic debut as the starter against Switzerland.

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Philips took full advantage of her opportunity, bailing out her teammates on multiple occasions. The Americans have surrendered just a single goal in three games so far this Olympics. Now they have two goalies they can trust.

“She’s a brick wall in there,” U.S. defender Caroline Harvey said. “She had some phenomenal saves. If you think about that one right off the power-play draw, just a huge glove save. We have full trust in her whenever she’s in the net.”

A less-dominant-than-expected victory over Switzerland improves the U.S. to 3-0 entering its most anticipated game of group play.  The Americans renew their decades-old rivalry with Canada on Tuesday in a matchup of co-favorites who have combined to win every Olympic or World Championships gold medal.

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The U.S. edged Canada in the gold-medal match at last year’s World Championships and swept four straight Rivalry Series games against the Canadians in November and December, but Canada had the upper hand in the rivalry prior to that. Many of the stars of Canada’s 2022 Olympic championship team have returned to make another run in Milan.

For the U.S. to take down its neighbors to the North, the Americans will need the scoring punch they displayed in Monday night’s third period and not the lethargy of the first and second. Several scoring opportunities went to waste early in the game as Taylor Heise was unable to convert a breakaway and Tessa Janecke’s backhander clanged off the post.

It took a lucky break for the U.S. to even scratch out its second goal. Joy Dunne won a loose puck behind the Swiss net and tried a sweeping backhand shot. The puck would have slid well wide of the net, but it ricocheted off the outside of defender Stefanie Wetu’s right skate and into an open net.

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The third period was a different story as Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter and Caroline Harvey each got pucks past Swiss goalie Andrea Braendu. The U.S. also had a Hayley Scamurra goal taken off the scoreboard early in the third period when referees ruled teammate Dunne had interfered with Braendu in the crease.

The lopsided score allowed Wroblewski to pull Philips in the final minutes and get his third goalie some ice time too. Sure enough, Ava McNaughton came through with a big glove save to preserve the shutout.

“It was an absolute laser too and she was going in cold,” Philips said. “I’m so happy for her.”

Lindsey Vonn made her first public statement Monday since her devastating injury crash in the alpine downhill competition on Sunday, declaring that she has “no regrets.”

The U.S. alpine skier crashed and suffered a fractured left leg that required surgery after she was airlifted from the Tofane slope at Cortina d’Ampezzo. She competed Sunday with a torn ACL sustained Jan. 30 in a World Cup race. The injury was to the the same leg that she fractured Sunday.

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Vonn crashed near the top of the mountain, just 13 seconds into her run. The crash and her resulting injury have prompted debate over whether Vonn should have been competing at all on a torn ACL, given the risk of extreme bodily injury that comes with downhill skiing.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Vonn wrote that she has “no regrets” and that her ACL tear didn’t factor into the crash or her injury, which she described as a “complex tibia fracture.”

“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would,” Vonn wrote. “It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.”

Vonn explained that her crash and injury were strictly the result of her right arm hooking into a gate and sending her flying through the air off balance at a high rate of speed — not because of her previous ACL injury.

“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”

Vonn accompanied her post with an image showing her right arm hooked inside the gate.

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Vonn added that she sustained a “complex tibia fracture” that “will require multiple surgeries to fix properly. She also wrote that she has “no regrets.”

Vonn, 41, did not address her future in the sport. But this injury is expected to end her competitive career. Earlier Monday, Vonn’s father, Alan Kildow, told The Associated Press that he hopes that she retires. If she does, she’ll retire as one of the sport’s most decorated and respected athletes.

Vonn is a three-time Olympic medalist. She won gold in the downhill competition and bronze in the super-G in Vancouver in 2010. She secured bronze in the downhill in 2018 in PyeongChang.

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Vonn has a prolific World Cup record featuring 84 gold medals, 38 silvers and 23 bronzes across six disciplines. She was the 2009 world champion in both downhill and super-G.

Vonn retired in 2019 only to come out of retirement in 2024 following a knee replacement. She remained competitive at 41 years old in a sport where downhill skiers tend to hit their prime in their late 20s. She finished second in a World Cup super-G event in January. Prior to her crash, she was considered a threat to medal in both the downhill and super-G competitions at the Olympics.