The Cooligans welcome former MLS head coach and analyst Giovanni Savarese for a deep dive into the 2026 MLS season. Gio shares his predictions, breakout teams to watch, and how the league continues to evolve ahead of a massive 2026 on home soil. The conversation also turns to the USMNT, as the guys assess expectations, pressure, and what success should realistically look like at the 2026 World Cup.
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Christian and Alexis then tackle the troubling racist incident involving Vinícius Júnior during Real Madrid’s clash with Benfica. They unpack how these situations are currently handled, question whether the responsibility to stop a match unfairly falls on the player experiencing abuse, and debate what meaningful structural changes could better protect players moving forward.
Finally, it’s a jam-packed Champions League recap. Folarin Balogun shines in a statement performance against Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus suffer a shocking defeat to Galatasaray, and Bodø/Glimt pull off a stunning win over Inter Milan. The boys react to all the drama, surprises, and what these results mean going forward.
Timestamps:
(6:30) – 2026 MLS preview and predictions
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(30:00) – Gio Savarese’s USMNT World Cup outlook
(39:00) – Vinicius Junior deals with racism again: time for a rule change?
(59:00) – Folarin Balogun shines in Champions League loss to PSG
(1:04:30) – Serie A teams suffer shocking Champions League losses
Over the course of 19 days in February, the 2026 Winter Olympics covered more ground than the 11-hour drive from Milan to Cortina to Livigno/Bormio — the three main clusters of these Games. It started with a ski jumping scandal that involved, of all things, the crotch. It ended with an epic hockey game between two bitter rivals. Sandwiched in between was the golden glory of an American who’s more famous in Europe than in his hometown in Wisconsin and the sheer guts and determination of an American icon who simply went for it.
Here is the winding path taken during these Olympic Games:
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports illustration)
From Jeff Eisenberg:
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MILAN — Male ski jumpers must wear tight-fitting suits that are no more than 4 centimeters larger than their body measurements at any point. Most national teams seek to find every millimeter they can because a bigger, baggier suit catches more wind and provides more lift during flight than a smaller one does.
Fittingly, the most advantageous place to enlarge a ski jumper’s suit is the crotch area.
Lindsey Vonn crashes during the women’s downhill. (Screengrab by IOC via Getty Images)
(Handout via Getty Images)
Once the Games began, all eyes quickly turned to Cortina, where Lindsey Vonn was attempting to win a gold medal on a busted ACL she’d torn just a week earlier. She managed both training runs in the downhill without incident, and actually appeared strong. But then …
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From Dan Wolken:
LIVIGNO, Italy — It was devastating to watch, even more brutal to hear.
But that’s skiing down a mountain at 80 miles per hour. That’s the risk Vonn signed up for when she decided to compete in an Olympics nine days after an ACL tear during a different competition in Switzerland. That’s what happens sometimes when you go for it.
Jordan Stolz celebrates after winning the men’s 1000 meters, his first gold of the 2026 Olympics. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(Robert Gauthier via Getty Images)
While Vonn’s daily health updates from surgery after surgery and her eventual return to the United States captured everyone’s attention, so did Jordan Stolz, a celebrity in Europe but a virtual unknown in America until …
From Jeff Eisenberg:
MILAN — Since rocketing onto the global speedskating scene three years ago, Jordan Stolz — called the next Eric Heiden by none other than Eric Heiden — has become the rare athlete more famous internationally than in his home country. The 21-year-old is a superstar in speedskating hotspots like the Netherlands, Norway and Germany, but he remains almost completely unknown across America and even in his home state of Wisconsin.
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Stolz took a big step toward changing that Wednesday night in Milan when he shined in the first of his four races on the Olympic stage. The kid who learned to skate on his family’s backyard pond in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, outraced a world-class field in the men’s 1,000 meters to win his first Olympic gold medal.
MILAN — Something was wrong from the very start. Something about Ilia Malinin’s free skate seemed tentative, uncertain, so very unlike the “Quad God.” This was his gold-medal moment, and it was slipping away from him.
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He landed his first element, a quad flip, but it had the feel of an unexpected success, like a half-court heave that went through the net, rather than the start of a triumphal procession. And then he skated toward his planned quad axel, a move literally only he can land, a move that could have put him on a direct path to the top of the podium.
MILAN — One of the cruel ironies about the Olympics is that it’s better to be a one-and-done medalist than a win-a-few, lose-a-bunch multi-time Olympian. Beijing blanked Mikaela Shiffrin; she didn’t even finish three of the events she entered. Milan Cortina was a bit kinder — she at least made it down the mountain in her earlier events, though at underwhelming-for-her speeds.
With every event that passed without hardware, though, the muttering grew louder. Was Shiffrin spooked by the Olympics? Cursed? How could the most decorated World Cup skier in history dominate everywhere else on the calendar except these two weeks every four years?
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So that’s why Wednesday’s race was so critical for Shiffrin. Imagine if she’d fallen short yet again. Imagine if her pole had broken, or if she’d caught that first gate, or suffered any of the other hundred woes that would have kept her off the podium. Imagine the questions that would have followed her, the media second-guessing, the social-media garbage, the internal anxieties that would have wracked her for another four years, and maybe forever.
“There will always be criticism, but I was here to earn the moment and that is going to require some risk,” she said. “Risk of not finishing. It’s also risk of being criticized, and to accept that. [It is] not the easiest thing to do, but in the end today we were able to do that.”
She stared that grim future in the face … and she flat-out skied right through it.
Gold medalist Alysa Liu celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the women’s single skating. (Tang Xinyu/VCG via Getty Images)
(VCG via Getty Images)
A little more than 24 hours later, these Olympic Games hit maxim overdrive when, simultaneously, the women of USA and Canada squared off on the ice for gold, while Alysa Liu tried to become the first American women to medal in figure skating in 20 years …
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From Jay Busbee:
MILAN — As she skated around the Assago Ice Skating Arena rink, moments before the most important routine of her life, Alysa Liu caught sight of her teammate Amber Glenn near the kiss-and-cry couch. Glenn, devastated after Tuesday night’s program, had skated a spectacular routine of her own nearly two hours before. As Liu drew close, she gave Glenn a congratulatory thumbs-up.
“What are you doing?” an exasperated Glenn replied. “Go skate!”
There are no record books to measure such things, but it’s entirely possible that no Olympian has ever smiled as much as Liu did on Thursday night, executing a brilliant, virtually flawless free skate that vaulted her from third place into first. She smiled when she stepped onto the ice, she smiled when she spotted Glenn, she smiled through her lutzes and loops and salchows, she smiled when she pointed her left finger to the sky to close out her routine. And she smiled — and giggled a triumphant laugh — when she skated right up to the rinkside camera and bellowed, “That’s what I’m f***ing talking about!”
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That is the entire breadth of the Alysa Liu experience — giddiness, confidence, joy, serenity — and gold-medal-winning talent. At an Olympics where so many others have crumbled under the pressure, she literally laughed in pressure’s face.
Megan Keller celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime as Claire Thompson of Team Canada reacts during the women’s gold medal game. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
(Bruce Bennett via Getty Images)
And then …
From Jeff Eisenberg:
MILAN — Hilary Knight felt the responsibility to speak up.
The previously unbeaten, unchallenged U.S. women’s hockey team was facing real game pressure for the first time at these Olympics, down a goal and running low on time with just one period left in Thursday’s gold-medal match.
“Who’s going to be the hero?” the 36-year-old American captain said. “We need a hero. There’s a hero in this room.”
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Turns out Knight was wrong about one thing . There wasn’t one hero in the U.S. locker room. There was two.
The U.S. doesn’t take gold and glory without Knight giving her team new life with a tying goal with just over two minutes left in regulation, nor without Megan Keller juking a Canadian defender out of her skates to set up the winning goal four minutes into overtime. Those are the plays that made possible a 2-1 gold-medal-clinching, come-from-behind U.S. win. Those are the plays that will live on in U.S. women’s hockey lore long after the American victory celebration comes to an end.
Eileen Gu, born in San Francisco, decided as a 15-year-old that she would compete in the Olympics for China, where her mother was born. (Photo by Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
(Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images)
Outside of Liu and, no American-born female individual athlete generated more attention than Eileen Gu … who doesn’t compete for the United States. She skis for China, which has many wondering: Why?
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From Dan Wolken:
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?
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?
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.
… 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.
After winning gold, Team USA made sure to honor the late Johnny Gaudreau. (Photo by Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(picture alliance via Getty Images)
But if Eileen Gu is, indeed, all about Eileen Gu, the final gold-medal winners of this Olympics were all about team, and in particular, one member of the team that couldn’t be in Milan.
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From Jay Busbee:
MILAN — They gathered on the ice, two dozen of the best hockey players the United States has ever produced, all of them with wide smiles on their faces and gold medals around their necks having just beaten Canada 2-1 in an overtime thriller. They carried the American flag with them, but they carried something else, too: a Team USA jersey emblazoned with the No. 13 on the back, the name of Johnny Gaudreau embroidered along the shoulders.
And then Matthew Tkachuk and Zach Werenski went to the stands and hoisted up Gaudreau’s two oldest children, Noa and Johnny Jr., and brought them out onto the ice. In that perfect moment, all of American hockey smiled through tears.
“To have Johnny and Noa out there,” Dylan Larkin said afterward, “it just felt right.”
Dominance and drama collided at the 2026 ACC Swimming and Diving Championships.
Virginia’s women swam with commanding control, stamping their imprint on nearly every race and locking up another ACC crown. On the men’s side, California edged past Stanford in a much closer battle for the conference title.
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Here are the main takeaways from this year’s ACC swimming and diving championships.
Virginia women stay dominant in post-Walsh era
After five straight NCAA titles, there was no doubt the Virginia women would continue to succeed in 2026. However, there was a question whether they would continue to dominate without Alex and Gretchen Walsh.
Virginia and head coach Todd DeSorbo reminded the rest of the NCAA that the Hoos are still the most dominant force in collegiate swimming.
The Cavaliers opened competition posting the second-fastest time in NCAA history in the 800 freestyle relay, surpassing a Stanford quartet that featured Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel back in 2017.
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It seemed like the meet was over before it even started as the Virginia women had extended a sizable lead after the first full day of swimming competition, winning three out of the four swimming events. They again posted the second-fastest swim in history, this time in the 200 freestyle relay, trailing only themselves from the 2024 ACC Championships.
Olympic medalist Claire Curzan is the Hoos’ X-factor as she threw down an NCAA record in the 200-yd back, stopping the clock in 1:46.09. Curzan also clocked the second-fastest 100-yd backstroke in NCAA history, behind only Gretchen Walsh. Curzan was named the ACC most valuable swimmer of the meet after winning four gold medals.
Anna Moesch has had a major breakout season. This week, she became just the fourth woman to break 1:40 in the 200 freestyle. The sophomore is now just six-tenths of a second off Missy Franklin’s legendary NCAA record of 1:39.10 set back in 2015.
Overall, the Virginia women racked up 11 total titles en route to their seventh straight ACC championship. This team has young stars, suffocating depth, and will enter the NCAAs as the clear favorite for a sixth straight national title.
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California tops Stanford on the last day of competition
The California men are 2 for 2 as members of the ACC, but this year it came down to the last day of competition.
The Bears locked up the 2025 title early on, winning the meet by over 200 points, but it was a different story in 2026.
Stanford and Cal faced off in a seven-round heavyweight battle. Through a full week of competition, there was little separation.
Relay scoring was almost dead even between the two and the Cardinal outscored the Bears in diving; it was the points gained from individual swimming events that secured the win for the defending champs.
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California’s Yamato Okadome led the way, winning three gold medals in the 100-yd breast, 200-yd breast and 400-yd medley relay.
The Bears didn’t win the meet because of total titles, as California won only four individual and relay events overall. Stanford also won four and the North Carolina State men won seven ACC titles, but lacked the complete team that California brought to Atlanta.
The California men were second at last year’s NCAA championships and will look to compete for another top-three spot in March.
New stars emerge
Although seniors like Stanford’s Torri Huske and Lucy Bell found success, winning nine ACC medals, the conference has turned over a new leaf.
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Underclassmen found continued success throughout the week filling up championship finals and winning half of the ACC individual titles.
Freshmen and sophomores won a staggering 16 individual events. In comparison, they collected only seven wins in 2025.
Seven freshmen finished in the top eight in the men’s 500-yd freestyle, and NC State freshman Max Carlsen won it. The lone fifth-year, Cal’s Eduardo Oliveira de Moraes, was fourth.
Carlsen also won the 1,650-yd freestyle, and UVA sophomore and U.S. Olympian Katie Grimes doubled up winning the 500-yd free and 1,650-yd freestyle.
Louisville freshman true freshman Nikita Sheremet posted the second-fastest 18-and-under 100-yd freestyle of all-time, and he’s now tied with NC State’s Kaii Winkler, who placed second in the event this year as a sophomore. Sheremet also won silver in the 50-yd freestyle.
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Moesch, a sophomore, swept the 100-yd and 200-yd freestyles, knocking off Huske in the 100.
Okadome, who was the ACC’s most valuable men’s swimmer of the meet, is just a sophomore as well. Additionally, half of Cal’s 20 athletes who scored points were underclassmen.
The trend continued in diving, as Stanford freshman Ellie Cole and Stanford sophomore Misha Andriyuk swept the platform events.
The ACC is ready to compete with the rest of the country
This week showcased that the ACC is ready to compete for national titles and top-five finishes at the NCAAs in March.
The Virginia women are the standard in collegiate swimming, but Stanford, Louisville, California, and NC State were also impressive.
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The Louisville women knocked off Virginia in the 200-yd medley relay and NC State’s Eneli Jefimova 100-yd breaststroke is now the fastest in the country after this week.
The California women have been in rebuilding mode over the past several years and are now catching stride as they broke a school record in the 200-yd medley relay. Sophomore Mia West also won Cal’s first ACC title in the 200-yd butterfly.
On the men’s side, Texas and Arizona State are going to be tough to catch nationally, but Cal, Stanford, and NC State look ready to race come the end of March.
Stanford’s Henry McFadden posted a top-five time in the country this year in the 200-yd freestyle, and Okadome’s times in breaststroke stack up with the best in the NCAA this season.
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NC State’s 200-yd freestyle relay and 400-yd freestyle relay teams broke the ACC meet and conference record. In the 400-yd freestyle relay they finished four-tenths of a second faster than the SEC champion Florida Gators.
The impressive times in the pool and exquisite diving on the boards set up the ACC for an exciting close to the 2026 season.
MILAN — There’s something endearingly chaotic about the Winter Olympics. This is a collection of sports that could very easily kill you … and also, curling. So it makes sense that the latest installment of the Winter Games would include one scandal involving skating judging, another involving the crotches of uniforms, and a third involving a scrape of a fingernail. These are the Games where several Olympians got engaged … and one blew up his relationship right there on the podium.
It’s time to honor the most (and least) notable performers in the Olympics, the same way we honor the best (and worst) for our American sports back home with our “Winners and Losers” columns. Let’s be honest, though: There aren’t really any “losers” in the Olympics, just people who didn’t quite make the podium. So we’ll change it up a bit here, awarding gold, silver and bronze medals to those who deserve it … and no podium whatsoever for those that don’t.
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Now, please bring out the medals and the little stuffed toys …
Gold medal: Alysa Liu
In an Olympics where so many crumbled under the pressure of the rings, Liu laughed … and then went out and snared gold. She’s brought joy and exuberance back to skating, and she might have at least one more Olympics in her to share with the world.
Off the podium: Johannes Høsflot Klæbo
Kidding! The Norwegian cross country skier entered six events and won six gold medals. At this Olympics! Not only is he on the podium, he is the podium. Everybody else, give him your golds. He’s going to win them from you anyway. He is inevitable.
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Gold medal: Nazgul the Dog
Yes, if you or I ran onto an active Olympic cross country race course and started sniffing the skiers, we’d get in a lot of trouble, but Nazgul the dog got nothing but praise. That’s what happens when you’re a very good boy. Bonus: Nazgul didn’t get himself in trouble with any post-race interviews.
Sure, he tapered off a bit at the end, but wouldn’t you? Two golds and a silver in speed skating is a pretty solid haul. And when your quads are getting compared to Saquon Barkley’s, well, you’re in rare air. Next Olympics, he needs to jump over one of his challengers.
Off the podium: The International Olympic Committee
The IOC has a difficult role trying to thread the needle of creating a competition where the parties involved don’t get too competitive. The Olympics would be a whole lot easier if nations actually carried through on their promise to leave politics out of the Games. The Olympics would also be a whole lot easier if everybody got a participation trophy instead of a gold medal, too. By its own standards of misfiring, this Olympics wasn’t a catastrophic one for the IOC. But the mishandling of the case of a Ukrainian skeleton pilot’s helmet, and the inexplicable decision to sell 1936 Berlin Olympics gear on its website marked two more of the IOC’s self-inflicted black eyes. But with Russia eyeing a full return to the Games, the IOC’s real challenges still lie ahead.
In ski mountaineering, part of the discipline is climbing up … perfectly crafted stairs. (Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)
(Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom via Getty Images)
Silver medal: Ski Mountaineering
What a weird, glorious sport! Skiing uphill, carrying your boots up stairs, skiing downhill! Throw in “waiting in absurdly long lift lines” and “drinking way too much right after you get off the mountain” and you’ve got yourself the full skiing experience! No idea if this sport will stick around or not, but we applaud the Olympics for taking chances with new, strange ideas.
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Bronze medal: Amber Glenn
So close. So very, very close. Amber Glenn missed out on a likely medal by a single missed jump in her short program, then rallied in her longer free skate to climb from 13th place all the way up to fifth. It’s one of the real tragedies of the Olympics that once you learn how to handle the pressure of them … you might be out of chances to compete in them.
Gold medal: Liz Lemley
The best Olympic stories are the surprises, the unknowns who leap from nowhere right to the top of the podium. Just 20 years old, Lemley was expected to be good — but not this good, this fast. She claimed gold in the moguls event, outperforming a much deeper, older, more experienced field. Sometimes Olympic pressure is no pressure at all.
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Bronze medal: The wayward biathlete
Sturla Holm Lægreid became an instant worldwide sensation/cautionary tale when he decided to use his bronze medal-winning podium interview to confess to cheating on his girlfriend … after three months. “Six months ago, I met the love of my life, the most beautiful, kindest person in the world. And three months ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life and cheated on her, and I told her about it a week ago.” That’s … that’s a whole lot to deal with there, Sturla! Here’s another bronze, maybe you can give it to a third party … we predict you’re going to have some trouble reconnecting with the first two.
Gold medal: Lindsey Vonn
Sure, her 2026 Olympic experience didn’t last very long, and ended in the most painful and churning way possible. But she made it there, she made it onto the top of the mountain, she made it onto the slope — despite her age, despite her injuries, despite a terrible crash just a week before the Opening Ceremony. That’s as Olympian as it gets.
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Off the podium: Figure skating judges
One of the traditions about the Olympics is the way that the vast majority of America comes parachuting into a sport with ready-made indignant snap judgments — like, Hey, these figure skating judges sure seem biased! — while the regulars just shake their heads in resignation. Americans raised on football don’t much care for judged sports, but we sure do love to judge the judges. Irony, huh?
Splitting the difference between her gold medal-winning run and her earlier Olympic missteps. Shiffrin is the world’s greatest skater by the numbers, but Olympics ghosts have lived in her head since 2018. She finally evicted them with her final run of the 2026 Milan Cortina games, a thoroughly dominant gold medal-winning slalom run that reasserted her dominance over the sport.
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Bronze medal: Eileen Gu
An award purely for her attitude. Gu has managed to deftly straddle the line between U.S. and Chinese culture with more skill — and more profit-taking — than any other public figure. She can leap right over intrusive questions or condescending presumptions and land with more style than anyone in the room. It’s an impressive show … and that’s very much what it is with Gu, a show.
(Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(picture alliance via Getty Images)
Silver medal: Cortina d’Ampezzo
Cortina made for an absolutely gorgeous tableau for all the mountain sports. The Dolomites were a spectacular backdrop … and a terrifying one, too, when we got a look at the helicopter rescue of Lindsey Vonn. There were logistical problems with buses, of course, and the weather wasn’t always on the Olympics’ side, but still … what a view.
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Off the podium: Snoop Dogg
We’re way past the point where it’s weird to see the onetime proponent of smokin’ indo and sippin’ on gin and juice palling around with Martha Stewart. Now, Snoop is just flat-out overexposed, stealing the spotlight from every sport he visits. And he visits every sport.
Gold medal: Alex Ferreira
Yes, the halfpipe legend won a gold medal, validating an entire career. That’s worthy of praise. But he also revealed that he has the finest motivational slogan we’ve ever heard: “I am greatness, and this is my moment.” Perfect.
General view of the Olympic rings outside the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
(Maja Hitij via Getty Images)
Bronze medal: Milan
This is the average of two scores: the gold medal for the very small, but very festive area around the Duomo (that giant cathedral you saw in the background of all those NBC shots) … and the anonymous office-park vibe that smothered the skating and hockey arenas. Much of Milan didn’t even appear to notice the Games were happening. But in the area around the Duomo and the Arco della Pace — the arch where the Olympic flame hung — you could catch a bit of the classic multicultural Olympic vibe.
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Silver medal: Curling
Every Olympics, America falls in love with curling … and then forgets all about it right after the torch goes out. It’s a shame, really, because curling is a perfect kind of rec sport — easy to learn, difficult to master, able to be done while drinking beer. The Canadian curling scandal — don’t touch that rock! — elevated the sport this year, but the United States’ struggles on the big stage brought it back down to earth a bit. Can a new curling league tide us all over until 2030?
Off the podium: The Blade Angels hype
Well, that didn’t work out so well. The Blade Angels — Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito — came skating into the Olympics with some observers suggesting they could sweep the podium. That didn’t come close to happening: Liu won gold, but Glenn made a crucial mistake and Levito never really got going. Did NBC (and, uh, other media) hype the Blade Angels too much, or did they underachieve? This is one of those cases where two things can be true at once.
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Gold medal: Team USA women’s hockey
American Olympic hockey is in a very, very good place right now. The men are NHL players, and playing up to every bit of their potential. But the women … the women are just flat-out crushing it. When you allow only two goals during the entire Olympics, you’re doing something very right. And an overtime gold-medal win over Canada? Are you kidding me?
Bronze medal: The Slovakian criminal who loved hockey too much.
Look, some things are bigger than the law, like fandom. A Slovakian fugitive who’d been on the run from Italian authorities for 16 years over a series of thefts made the ill-fated decision to come to Milan — which is, in fact, in Italy — to watch his team play hockey. Italian authorities nabbed him when he checked into a campsite in Milan. You’ve got to respect the dedication to his team, though. Maybe he can trade this bronze in prison.
No matter how ridiculous you thought the “crotch-gate” scandal involving ski jumping could be, we guarantee you it was better than that. From fake junk to penis injection, this was perhaps the perfect Olympic scandal — hysterical and absurdly well-planned. The only knock is that it blew up a couple years too early; there actually wasn’t any crotch-related skulduggery in the Milan Cortina Olympics. Well, not on the ski jump, at least …
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Off the podium: Ilia Malinin, Team USA figure skater
The Olympics are the ultimate test of physical skill, yes, but they’re also a test of mental fortitude, too … which is why it’s not enough just to be the most talented skater in the world for the other three years and 50 weeks between the Games. You’ve got to prove it when the torch is lit … and sadly, world champion Ilia Malinin didn’t get it done in Milan, conceding that Olympic pressure got to him. Maybe he’ll fare better in the French Alps … but he’s got four years to wait.
Gold medal: “Free Bird” and “Country Roads”
A couple of ‘70s classics have found new life as Olympic anthems — “Free Bird” for every time Team USA scored one of its (many) goals, “Country Roads” as the Netherlands won one of its (many) speed-skating medals. There’s a reason why these songs have stuck around … plus, any time playing them is time not playing “Sweet Caroline” or that agonizing “Freed from Desire” song (the Euro-singalong one that goes “Na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaaa”). John Denver forever!
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So there you have it, a wrap on the 2026 Winter Olympics. Congratulations to all the medalists, and better luck in the French Alps to everyone else. Next up: Los Angeles 2028!
Canada’s Connor McDavid didn’t win a gold medal, but he’s going home from the Milan Cortina Olympics honored as the best men’s hockey player from the Games.
McDavid was named the MVP of the men’s ice hockey tournament following its conclusion on Sunday, which ended with USA’s thrilling 2-1 win in overtime in the gold-medal game.
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Jack Hughes scored the game-winning goal in overtime for USA, and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck limited Canada, which entered Sunday’s final averaging 5.4 goals per game in Olympic competition, to just one goal while securing 41 saves.
But the MVP is awarded for the entire tournament, not just the final. And media voted McDavid as MVP thanks to a record-setting scoring performance throughout the Games.
Connor McDavid won a silver medal and MVP at the Milan Cortina Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament.
(Bruce Bennett via Getty Images)
McDavid breaks scoring record
McDavid scored 13 points across six games, breaking the record for most points in a single men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament previously held by Finland’s Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu (11 points each). McDavid reached his tally with two goals and 11 assists. Those goals helped Canada to 5-0, 5-1, 10-2, 4-3 and 3-2 wins prior to Sunday’s loss in which McDavid didn’t score.
Goaltender: Connor Hellebuyck, USA Defender: Quinn Hughes, USA Defender: Cale Makar, Canada Forward: Connor McDavid, Canada Forward: Macklin Celebrini, Canada Forward: Juraj Slafkovsky, Slovakia
Hellebuyck’s MVP case
Of the U.S. players, Hellebuyck probably had the best MVP case.
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Hellebuyck started five of the six games in net for USA, including each of its three games in the knockout round. He allowed six goals in those five games for a tournament-best 1.18 goals against average. He made 131 saves on 137 shots on goal to lead the Games with a 95.62 save percentage, including 41 saves on 42 shots in Sunday’s gold-medal game.
In the one game Hellebuyck didn’t started, USA’s Jeremy Swayman allowed three goals on 21 shots in a 6-3 group play win over Denmark.
Ultimately, voters awarded MVP to a skater in McDavid who played in all six of his team’s games and set a new Olympic scoring record en route to a silver medal.
Eileen Gu, the American-born freeskier who competes for China, has won her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women’s halfpipe. After pulling out on her first run, Gu bounced back with a 94.00 in Run 2 and a 94.75 in Run 3.
Both were good enough for gold on an emotional day for Gu in which she learned after the competition that her grandmother had died.
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China took the first two spots on the podium, with Gu’s teammate Li Fanghui earning silver with a 93.00 on her third run.
Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin, Gu’s classmate at Stanford, was on top after her first run, but couldn’t recover from missing a landing on her second, despite getting the most amplitude on her jumps among the competitors in the field. She won bronze.
Atkin scored a 92.50 on her third run to finish behind Gu and Fanghui after placing first during qualifying.
Gu, 22, has earned six medals across two Winter Olympic Games, making her the most accomplished freestyle skier in Olympic history.
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“Being able to lead the way and pioneer the sport is something I never imagined I’d be able to do,” Gu said after the halfpipe final. “But I’m really honored and proud that I have.”
Tearful Gu learned that her grandmother died after competition
After the competition, Gu took her news conference podium in tears, having just learned that her grandmother had died. Gu explained that her grandmother was a great inspiration in her life, and that she knew that she was sick heading into the Games.
“I just found out that my grandma passed away,” Gu said. “She was a really big part of my life growing up and someone I looked up to immensely. She was a fighter. And I think what’s so interesting is that a lot of people just cruise through life, but she was a steamship.
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“This woman commanded life, and she grabbed it by the reins and she made it what she wanted it to be. And she inspired me so much.”
Gu’s Milan Cortina medal haul
In Milan Cortina, Gu adds her gold in the halfpipe to the silver medals she earned in slopestyle and big air. She was the only freestyle skier to compete in all three events, let alone earn medals in each of them. At the 2022 Beijing Games, Gu took gold in Halfpipe and big air, along with silver in slopestyle.
“The reason I love the records so much is that it’s not about man or woman,” Gu added. “I’m the most decorated freeskier of all time, male or female. I have the most gold medals ever, male or female. That’s a testament to competitive strength, it’s mental strength. It’s being able to perform under pressure.”
Beginning her Olympic career at such a young age, it appears more than likely that Gu will add to her impressive medal total in four years at the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.
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Gu has also become a controversial figure over her choice to represent China, where her mother was born, despite herself being born in San Francisco. Being an accomplished athlete and photogenic star in both countries has allowed her to make millions of dollars, reportedly $23.1 million in 2025.
Team USA’s Kate Gray (66.50) and Svea Irving (22.50) finished 10th and 11th, respectively, in the competition. Irving landed hard on her right hip on her first run and did not complete her third.
Sunday’s event was delayed from Saturday due to heavy snow making the halfpipe course unsafe for competition.
MILAN — Jack Hughes skated to the penalty box late in Sunday’s third period, panicked that he had cost him and his teammates the biggest game of their lives.
The American forward had just accidentally hit a Canadian player in the face with his stick while fighting for a loose puck in the corner. That meant Canada’s lethal power play unit would have the chance to score a go-ahead goal in the final minutes of regulation.
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“I pictured myself on Barstool being the guy that America hates because Canada scores on the power play,” Hughes said. “I was like, Oh my God, here it comes.”
The golden goal from Hughes capped an Olympics that began with him on the United States’ fourth line and ended with him blossoming into one of the team’s frontline stars. Hughes rebounded from a poor 4 Nations Face-Off last year and earned the trust of American coach Mike Sullivan, tying for the team lead with seven points at the Olympics, including a combined three goals in the semifinals and gold-medal match.
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“Jack was at the center of a lot of the good things that happened for our team,” Sullivan said. “He’s a high-stakes player and he brought his very best when the stakes were highest. Tonight was a perfect example of that.”
His mouth bloody and two of his front teeth missing after taking a stick to the face earlier in Sunday’s game, Hughes climbed over the boards and reentered the game on a line change just over a minute into 3-versus-3 overtime. Almost immediately, Hughes encountered the most fearsome sight in hockey for a forward: Canadian superstar Connor McDavid charging at him with the puck on his stick and no one else between him and the U.S. goal.
McDavid, Hughes said, is “the best player in the world — maybe ever.” There wasn’t much the American thought he could do besides retreat toward his own goal and pray McDavid wouldn’t have enough space to blow by him and get a clean shot off. Much to Hughes’ relief, that’s exactly what happened. American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck lashed the puck away from McDavid before he could shoot and the game continued.
Turning toward Sullivan during his postgame news conference, Hughes joked, “You probably were loving that, huh? McKinnon coming down at me!”
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“You did a great job defending him!” Sullivan responded.
Immediately after that, the U.S. rushed up ice, Zach Werenski making a sloppy pass to Hughes and Hughes poking it away from Cale Makar and through the neutral zone. Werenski then made what turned out to be a critical play, charging after the loose puck, outbattling Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon to control it and then setting up Hughes with a perfect pass.
From there, it was all Hughes. He fired a shot past Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington, sending the Americans spilling over the boards in celebration as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” blared over the loudspeakers in the background.
The way Binnington read Hughes’ eyes and body positioning, he expected a high-glove shot. Hughes went five-hole instead.
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“That’s hockey,” Binnington said afterward. “You’ve got to give him credit.”
Jack Hughes beat Jordan Binnington between the legs to give the U.S. the gold medal. (REUTERS/Bruce Bennett)
(Pool via REUTERS / REUTERS)
To win gold was a dream fulfilled for the American players. To do it at Canada’s expense made it all the more satisfying and cathartic.
In the biggest moments, Canada had previously owned this rivalry since NHL players began participating in the Olympics in 1998. Canada won gold-medal matches against the U.S. at the 2002 and 2010 Olympics and shut out the Americans in the 2014 semifinals. The U.S. did beat Canada in round-robin play at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, but when it mattered, the Americans lost again.
When the U.S. and Canada survived some knock-out round scares to advance to Sunday’s gold-medal match, it was the showdown that the hockey world has waited a dozen years to see on an Olympic stage. Bars opened before sunrise in hockey-loving cities across the U.S. Fans watched “Miracle” on Saturday night to hype themselves up, set their alarm clocks for an early wakeup and then gathered over early-morning beers and bloody marys.
Jack Hughes, minus two teeth, celebrates winning the gold medal over Canada. (Photo by Andrea Branca/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
(Eurasia Sport Images via Getty Images)
American fans can thank Connor Hellebuyck for the U.S. even forcing overtime. The three-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender withstood three periods of target practice from Canada’s all-world forward corps. Hellebuyck made incredible save after incredible save against constant Canadian pressure, turning away 41 of the 42 shots he faced.
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In the opening minutes of the third period, Hellebuyck robbed Devon Toews of a go-ahead goal at the last possible moment, reaching behind his back with his stick to keep the Canadian defenseman’s point-blank shot from crossing the goal line. McDavid and Macklin Celebrini both had clear breakaways during the game, but Hellebuyck denied both of them with pad saves.
“He stole the game for us,” U.S. forward Tage Thompson said. “I mean, those saves were outrageous.”
“That guy should never have to buy a drink in the state of Michigan,” U.S. forward Dylan Larkin added.
That all set the stage for Hughes to go from a great player to immortal with a single shot.
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Earlier in the game, when Sam Bennett’s stick slammed into his mouth, Hughes remembers looking down at the ice and seeing two of his teeth.
“I was like, here we go again,” Hughes said. “The last time that happened, it wasn’t very fun.”
Now it feels like a trade he’d make anytime. He lost two teeth. He gained Olympic gold.
The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics have reached their final day, and these Games will end on a high note for Team USA with a gold medal in men’s hockey, ending a 46-year drought.
The Closing Ceremonies will take place in Verona, east of Milan, at the historic Verona Arena. Women’s hockey gold medalist Hilary Knight and ice dance silver medalist Evan Bates will be the United States flag bearers for the ceremony.
Team USA ends gold medal drought in men’s hockey
Team USA is golden! The U.S. men’s hockey team has won the gold medal for the first time since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team that upset the Soviet Union. In an incredible game that saw Canada dominate the scoring chances, U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck was a brick wall. And when the game went to overtime, Jack Hughes was the hero just over 90 seconds later.
Eileen Gu adds another gold to her collection
The freestyle skiing halfpipe final was postponed due to a snowstorm, but that didn’t stop Eileen Gu, the American-born freeskier who competes for China, from winning her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women’s halfpipe. After pulling out on her first run, Gu bounced back with a 94.00 in Run 2 and a 94.75 in Run 3.
Sweden takes gold over Switzerland in final curling showdown
After the U.S. women fell to Canada in the curling bronze medal game, Switzerland and Sweden faced off for gold on Sunday morning, with the latter coming out victorious 6-5. Sweden also took gold in mixed doubles curling earlier in these Olympics.
How many medals has Team USA won so far? Check in with our medal tracker for the full breakdown.
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for all the news, events and medals from the Milan Cortina Olympics:
Live408 updates
Jason Owens
We’ve moved on to the dance party portion of the evening. A dance troupe has taken the stage surrounded by strobe lights and mirrors, dancing to electronic music.
Jason Owens
Alysa Liu’s still beaming from her gold medal win in women’s figure skating. The 20-year-old spoke with NBC on her way in to the closing ceremony arena, and says she’s not done skating.
“Yeah, I mean I have no plans to leave yet,” Liu said when asked about her Olympic future. “I can’t imagine not skating next year.”
Jason Owens
The flags are in the arena. And now the rest of athletes participating in the Closing Ceremony are walking in as one group.
Jason Owens
The Parade of Nations is underway with Greece, as always, leading the delegation. The parade has started with with music from renowned Italian Spaghetti Western composer Ennio Morricone.
Jason Owens
Italy’s 1994 Olympic cross-country men’s relay championship team has carried the Olympic flame into the arena.
Jason Owens
The Closing Ceremony has started with a performance from Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata at the ancient Roman ampitheater Arena di Verona.
Jason Owens
The Games have concluded, and the Milan Cortina Closing Ceremony is underway.
For team USA, U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight and ice dancer Evan Bates will be the flag flag bearers. Knight led Team USA to a gold medal, while Bates won gold in the team figure skating competition and silver with his partner and wife Madison Chock in the ice dancing competition.
Team USA celebrates a 2-1 victory against Canada in overtime for the gold medal during the Men’s Gold Medal match at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 22, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
(Elsa via Getty Images)
Ian Casselberry
MILAN — This wasn’t a miracle. It was a moment of magic.
Forty-six years to the day after a bunch of unheralded amateurs stunned the heavily favored Soviet Union en route to winning Olympic gold, the U.S. men’s hockey team engineered another epic victory. The Americans won a battle of the sport’s superpowers on Sunday, toppling longtime nemesis Canada 2-1 in overtime to win their country’s first Olympic gold in men’s hockey since the famed 1980 “Miracle on Ice.”
Jack Hughes scored the decisive goal, ripping a shot past Jordan Binnington less than three minutes into 3-versus-3 overtime.
Jack Hughes created the winning scoring opportunity with a poke check in the USA end and Zach Werenski skated hard up the ice to get the puck.
Retrieving it in toward the left corner, he finds a wide-open Hughes with a centering pass. Hughes then whistled it past Jordan Bennington for Team USA’s first men’s ice hockey gold in 46 years.
Ian Casselberry
Jack Hughes wins the gold medal for Team USA, 1:40 into overtime. Hughes took a centering pass from Zach Werenski and slaps it past Jordan Binnington for the game-winner.
The U.S, wins gold for the first time since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team.
Ian Casselberry
Why not overtime for the men’s hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics? The U.S. and Canada will go to an extra period tied at 2-2 after three.
Under Olympic rules, the two teams will play 3-on-3 to decide the winner.
The Milan Cortina Games will last just a bit longer!
Cale Makar’s goal tied the score for Canada at 1-1 shortly before the second period ended. Prior to that, Team USA did strong work defensively in denying scoring chances, even killing a 5-on-3 Canada power play.
As the period ended, Canada’s Brad Marchand and USA’s Matt Boldy tussled in front of the U.S. bench. USA’s Charlie McAvoy and Vincent Trocheck tussled with Canada’s Drew Doughty and Sam Bennett as well, but no penalties ensued.
Ian Casselberry
The U.S. and Canada each have eight shots on goal as the first period ends. At one point, Canada had a 7-2 advantage, so Team USA really increased the pressure late in the period, helped by a power play opportunity.
Ian Casselberry
Sweden defeated Switzerland, 6-5, in 10 ends to win the gold medal in women’s curling.
Anna Hasselborg scored the final point to give Sweden its fourth consecutive gold for the Swedish team, joining the championships won in Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing.
Hasselborg is the second Swedish skip to win two gold medals, joining Anette Norberg. Altogether, five Swedish curlers have earned two Olympic golds, including Sara McManus, Agnes Knochenhauer and Sofia Scharback.
Overall, Sweden has medaled in seven of the eight Winter Olympics since women’s curling was added to competition in 1998. The Swedes have earned four golds, one silver and two bronze.
Switzerland gets its third silver medal in women’s curling, joining those won in Salt Lake City and Turin.
Ian Casselberry
Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby will not play against the U.S. in Sunday’s gold medal men’s ice hockey final.
Crosby, 38, suffered a right leg injury during Canada’s quarterfinal matchup versus Czechia and did not play in the semifinals against Finland. The hope was that Crosby would recover in time for Sunday’s final, but the decision was made before gametime.
Germany did not sweep the medal podium in 4-man bobsled. However, the Germans took the first two spots with the team piloted by Johannes Lochner taking gold and Francesco Friedrich’s team getting silver.
Lochner’s gold joins the silver his team won in Beijing. He and George Fleischhauer also took gold in two-man bobsled at the Milan Cortina Games.
Switzerland, piloted by Michael Vogt. made a late surge to get a spot on the podium.
Ian Casselberry
Eileen Gu saved her best for last, scoring a 94.75 on her final run and reaching 4.0 meters on her highest jump to win her second consecutive gold medal in women’s freeski halfpipe.
Ian Casselberry
Eileen Gu has won her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women’s freeski halfpipe. After pulling out on her first run and scoring a 30.00, she bounced back significantly with a 94.00 and 94.75.
China took the first two spots on the podium with Gu’s teammate Li Fanghui earning silver with a 93.00 on her third run.
Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin was on top after her first run, but couldn’t recover from missing a landing on her second. She scored a 92.50 on her third run to finish behind Gu and Fanghui.
Ian Casselberry
Eileen Gu earns a 94.75 on her third run in the women’s freeski halfpipe final, improving on the 94.00 she scored on her second run. She landed all of her tricks and got strong amplitude, reaching 4.0 meters on her jump.
Eileen Gu won her second consecutive Olympic gold in the women’s freeski halfpipe at the Milan Cortina Games, excelling on her final two runs. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
(Cameron Spencer via Getty Images)
Zoe Atkin will be the final skier in this third run with a chance to overtake Gu for gold.
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison was arrested in Florida on Monday for misdemeanor trespassing, according to Hillsborough County Jail records.
Addison was arrested at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino by Seminole Indian Police around 3:45 a.m, per KTSP. He was later released on $500 bond.
Addison, 23, is coming off a season in which he hauled in 42 catches for 610 yards and three touchdowns. All three figures represented new career-lows for the former first-round pick. While some of that decline came as a result of the Vikings’ offense falling off in J.J. McCarthy’s first season as a starter, Addison didn’t help his case by spending the first three games of the regular season serving a suspension.
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Since the Vikings selected Addison with the No. 23 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the wideout has shown big-play ability and flashes of brilliance. Addison exploded for 10 touchdowns as a rookie, nearly going for 1,000 receiving yards that season. His numbers were slightly down in 2024, but he still managed to find the end zone nine times.
Following his three-game suspension in 2025, Addison hoped to put his off-field issues behind him. But the wideout found himself in trouble with the team almost immediately, and was benched for one quarter after he missed a team walkthrough in the lead-up to the team’s Week 5 game against the Cleveland Browns in London. Despite missing time, Addison played the hero in the contest, catching the go-ahead touchdown with just under three minutes to play.
After scoring three touchdowns in his first seven games back, Addison failed to score again the rest of the way. He finished the season with a handful of disappointing performances, hauling in just five passes for 100 yards over his final four games of the regular season.
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Addison is set to enter the final year of his rookie contract in 2026. The Vikings also have to make a decision on whether to pick up Addison’s fifth-year option this offseason. The team has until May 1 to make that call.
The Arizona Diamondbacks have acquired Nolan Arenado in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals, the teams announced Tuesday.
Arenado is heading to Arizona along with cash considerations for 22-year-old right-hander Jack Martinez, who was selected in the eighth round of the 2025 MLB Draft. According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, the Diamondbacks will pay $11 million of the $42 million left on the third baseman’s contract over the next two seasons, with the Cardinals picking up the remaining $31 million.
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Arenado, who will turn 35 in April, had spent the past five seasons with the Cardinals after playing the first nine years of his career with the Colorado Rockies. The 10-time Gold Glove third baseman and eight-time NL All-Star had to waive his no-trade clause in order for the deal to happen and reportedly expanded the list of teams he’d be open to moving to.
Arenado moving on ends a year-long saga of the Cardinals trying to trade him. In December 2024, the five-time Silver Slugger Award winner reportedly blocked a deal that would have sent him to the Houston Astros. Still, both sides have been working toward a trade, with Arenado’s agent saying that same month that the player would be open to moving positions to help facilitate a deal “if it’s the right place to go.”
Arenado will join a Diamondbacks infield that features shortstop Geraldo Perdomo and second baseman Ketel Marte, who was recently taken off the trade market.
A right shoulder strain kept Arenado out for six weeks and limited him to 107 games last season. He finished with a .237 batting average, 12 home runs and 52 RBI in 401 at-bats. Those numbers were among his lowest over the course of a full season since he broke into the majors in 2013.
