Ole Miss quarterbacks coach Joe Judge released a statement Saturday after a quote from a court appearance went viral, insisting that his comments about fathers of newborns prioritizing their sleep were “taken out of context.”
One clip of Judge’s testimony took off in particular, in which Judge recounts telling the partners of players with young children that they need to prevent those children from waking them up in the middle of the night.
Notably, that clip identifies Judge as an Ole Miss coach and refers to unspecified players, but what it does not mention is the conversation at the time was about Judge’s experience dealing with sleep disorders while in NFL player development with the New England Patriots.
In his statement, Judge clarified that the conversations about playing football while raising a child were only in the NFL, never the collegiate level:
“Some of my comments from Thursday have been taken out of context, so l’d like to provide some clarity. In a discussion about Trinidad’s sleep apnea, I was trying to point out the importance that the NFL places on sleep for recovery and performance in addition to the education of balancing family dynamics during the football season.
“These are discussions I was a part of at the professional level from veteran players based on their own experience managing similar situations. These are not discussions we’ve had at the collegiate level. As a husband and father of four children, I understand those challenges first hand and would never diminish the commitment to family. We share that same dedication to family with our players and always support them through any challenges they face in their personal.”
Judge worked under Bill Belichick from 2012 to 2019, became head coach of the New York Giants in 2020, then moved back to the Patriots after his firing in 2022. He joined Ole Miss in 2024 and currently holds the titles of quarterbacks coach and “head coach of offense” (John David Baker is the offensive coordinator under head coach Pete Golding).
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In the interest of clarity and not taking Judge out of context, here is the larger exchange about dealing with NFL players with sleep disorders:
Q: “Can a sleep disorder affect a player’s ability?”
Q: “Has that occurred in your past where you have encountered players with sleep disorders?”
Q: “And what did you do for those players?”
A: “Well, we got them the CPAP machines. We tracked their sleep. We made sure they were evening out their sleep cycles, that they’re properly rested. That was several players over the course of years.
“And then there was also the players that we would have to educate — this is always a tough conversation to have. It’s not a popular opinion, this is the truth, we would have to educate significant others who may have been pregnant during the season, or were going to have a baby during the season, and you’d have to educate them on — you have this baby in the middle of the season, that father has to play good football. It’s a day-by-day production business. He has to be ready to perform and go out there and play, and when I say that is, you need to let him sleep. He needs to be in another room, detached.
“You have to explain to the mother, ‘Listen, he ain’t waking up for the midnight feedings. After the season, he’s full metal jacket. You can do whatever you want with him, he’ll change every diaper. In season, he’s got to have a different priority.
“Now, there were examples to use from that. We had some older veteran players — I can or can’t share names if you want me too — who had multiple children who would sleep in other rooms. Their wives would bring in family or a nursing aid to help throughout the night, and those players continue to play high-level football. We had other players who are young who quite simply did what every other father in the world does, waking up, changing diapers, doing feedings, and led to injuries, led to soft-tissue injuries, not being rested, not being recovered, not being ready to roll.”
Q: “That never occurred to me, that newborns can affect injuries on the football field. But who had to deliver that message?”
That’s what led to those hefty fines, Silver said at the podium Saturday.
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Silver was later asked if more severe punishments, such as taking away draft picks, could be levied in response to purposeful losing.
“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,” Silver emphasized.
For now, he believes the fines will send a message. Exposed for their nefarious roster management in recent games, the Jazz were slapped with a $500,000 fine, and the Pacers had to pay $100,000.
“We’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice,” Silver said.
Silver, who was clear that he won’t tolerate teams prioritizing draft position over winning in his statement on Thursday, explained Saturday that he feels the problem is rooted in the structure of the draft.
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“The incentives are not necessarily matched here,” he said. “I think that the tradition in sports, where the worst-performing team receives the first pick from their partners — when any economist comes and looks at our system, they always point out you have the incentives backwards there.”
Silver, who took over for the late David Stern in 2014, was especially candid about his league’s lottery, which has been reworked over the years but, in its current form, determines the order of selection for the first four picks in the draft, whereas the remaining 10 spots in the top 14 are filled out by the other lottery-eligible teams in reverse order of their regular-season records.
Each team that misses the playoffs is eligible for the lottery and assigned odds. Teams that finish with worst regular-season records have higher odds to land the No. 1 pick than their more successful counterparts, but the teams with the three-worst records all have the same chance to collect the top selection. There’s no guarantee that an egregiously bad record will earn a top-three pick, as evidenced last season when the Jazz clocked out with a league-worst 17 wins but ended up with the fifth pick. Conversely, the Dallas Mavericks, who took part in the play-in tournament, won the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes despite just a 1.8% chance to do so.
There’s a randomness that comes with the ping-pong-ball selection process, and it often begs the question if the draft is even setting the league up for the parity it desires.
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“It’s something that we’ve been spending a lot of time on with our competition committee, outside consultants, advanced analytics,” Silver said Saturday.
“The issue is, if teams are manipulating their performance in order to get higher draft picks, even in a lottery, then the question becomes, ‘Even if teams were rewarded for draft picks purely according to the predicted odds of the lottery, are they really the worst-performing teams?’
“And my sense is, talking to GMs and coaches around the league, there’s probably even more parity than reflected in our records. And that goes to the incentive issue. It’s not clear to me, for example, that the 30th-performing team is that much measurably worse than the 22nd-performing team, particularly if you have incentive to perform poorly to get a better draft pick. So it’s a bit of a conundrum.”
There’s clear competition for at least the top-four picks in this year’s draft. Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Duke’s Cameron Boozer and UNC’s Caleb Wilson could all help move the needle for star-needy teams looking to right the ship, after all.
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That competition manifests in tanking. The Jazz and Pacers were called out for it, except other teams are participating as well. The Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, and Sacramento Kings also mounted fewer than 20 wins by the All-Star break.
“The All-Star [Game’s] 75 years old, the league is 80 years old. It’s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it,” Silver said of the draft.
“Ultimately we need a system to fairly distribute players. I think it’s in the player’s interest, as well as the teams’, that you have a level of parity around the league. There’s only so many jobs in so many cities, but we got to look at some fresh thinking here.”
Silver added: “What we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now is not working. There’s no question about it.”
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Aspiration-Kawhi Leonard scandal
Notably, Silver was also asked Saturday about the Aspiration-Kawhi Leonard scandal, which centers around their owner, Steve Ballmer, and the Los Angeles Clippers, who are hosting this year’s All-Star Weekend at the Intuit Dome.
Ballmer was sued by 11 investors in Aspiration, a green banking company that filed for bankruptcy in March 2025. Ballmer allegedly used what was essentially a $28 million no-show marketing deal between Leonard and Aspiration to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap rules and pay the now-seven-time All-Star forward more, according to a report from journalist and podcast host Pablo Torre.
Silver said he hasn’t come to any decisions on the matter before clarifying that the league office isn’t directly running the investigation.
“That’s being overseen by a law firm Wachtell in New York,” he said.
“From everything I’ve been told, the Clippers have been fully cooperative, but, as I said, I’m not involved day-to-day in the investigation. And I think, as I’ve said before, it’s enormously complex. You have a company in bankruptcy, you have thousands of documents, multiple witnesses that have needed to be interviewed.”
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Silver added: “I will say, just in case anyone’s wondering, the fact that All-Star is here this weekend has had no impact on the timeline of the investigation. Our charge to the Wachtell law firm is to do the work and then come back and make recommendations to the league office, and that’s where things now stand.”
Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game is under a new format in which an international team is featured against two teams consisting of American players.
The very fact that the league has evolved to the point where an international team can be justified, and even favored at BetMGM, is the result of decades worth of global investment and marketing to turn basketball into a sport with immensely broad appeal.
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International talent is here to stay
The shift in global power isn’t lost on NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum.
“There has never been more talent in the NBA than there is today, which is in large part due to the fact that basketball is more global than ever,” Tatum told Yahoo Sports.
With the All-Star Game now featuring a whole team of non-American players, questions do linger in regard to how American observers will receive international stars such as Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Victor Wembanyama.
But Tatum doesn’t waver.
“At the end of the day, our fans are drawn to elite talent and compelling stories, no matter where a player is from,” Tatum said. “A great example is Victor Wembanyama, who is the fastest player in NBA history to reach more than 1 billion views on social media.”
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Historically speaking, Tatum’s point is sound. The league has been littered with international stars before, even if the sheer volume of current stars is unparalleled.
Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol and Manu Ginobili spearheaded the early-to-mid-2000s and laid the foundation within the league to embrace talent that wasn’t developed within the confines of the United States.
The fact that all four players won championships allowed for an easier transition, especially for front offices, to look overseas and open their minds to new ideologies and development patterns.
This approach has been rewarded with Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo winning titles.
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Tatum notes that “roughly 30%” of players in the NBA are international, which the league believes makes for adequate representation with the three All-Star-team format.
International expansion
The next step for the NBA in embracing basketball globalism is, of course, a new league based in Europe, which has been widely discussed for years and is in the early stages of development.
There has been some concern from people within European basketball communities in regard to how the NBA will implement a league and whether it’ll respect the history of European basketball.
Tatum believes the NBA is indeed taking those considerations seriously.
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“We are being very intentional to ensure that our plans in Europe are built on the strong foundations that already exist on the continent. Celebrating, fostering, and elevating the rich traditions and history that make European basketball so special is fundamental to everything we want to create,” Tatum said. “Working closely with FIBA, we’re confident we can design a league that is authentically European — built by Europeans, played by Europeans and designed for European fans — while bringing that experience to more fans across the continent and creating new traditions.
“Our proposed league would give every team in a FIBA-affiliated domestic league in Europe a merit-based pathway to qualify on an annual basis, which we think will benefit players, domestic leagues, the broader ecosystem and, most importantly, fans.”
It’s crucial that Tatum and NBA commissioner Adam Silver stay true to their planned approach, as that is unquestionably the biggest challenge in front of them in regard to developing an “NBA Europe.”
If European fans feel their history being pushed away, they likely will reject and protest the presence of an American league taking over their traditions and basketball habits.
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But getting a taste of international competition through this All-Star format could be a small step for the NBA to appeal to an international and particularly European audience.
Global NBA tournament?
The NBA founded a league in Africa in 2019 called the BAL, which had its inaugural season in 2021.
With another league presumably being developed in Europe and the presence of the NBA in North America, could the league be looking at making a huge intercontinental tournament with teams from each league?
Tatum isn’t closing the door on that idea, even looping the concept into the fabric of the NBA Cup.
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“That’s something we’re still looking at, but in general we think there is a tremendous opportunity to reach even more fans by creating a new tournament or competition between NBA teams and teams from other leagues around the world, including the BAL and our potential league in Europe,” Tatum said. “And further down the line, I think we could potentially see teams from Europe and around the world participating in competitions like the NBA Cup. While there is nothing imminent, conceptually we’re open to anything that helps continue to elevate the sport worldwide.”
The NBA is thinking big, and looking at ways to activate more fan bases.
Adding international teams into the NBA Cup makes a lot of sense and could be a streamlined way of introducing different teams to a global audience.
We’ll see how it all materializes, but there’s no question that the NBA is thinking outside the box and beyond borders.
Day 8 of the 2026 Winter Olympics saw the United States return to the podium after a tough Day 7 in which the Americans did not add to their medal count. On Saturday, however, one of Team USA’s brightest stars increased his growing legend. And the U.S. lost out on another gold, demonstrating how thin the line between first and second place can be.
Here are the top five stories of the day:
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Jordan Stolz speeds to second gold in Milan Cortina
Speed skater Jordan Stolz came into the Milan Cortina Games with an opportunity to join Eric Heiden among the greatest in U.S. history. He’s halfway to fulfilling his ambition of winning four gold medals after sprinting to victory in the 500 meters.
Stolz set an Olympic record on his dash to gold, finishing with a time of 33.77. That overtook Gao Tingyu’s 34.32, set at the 2022 Beijing Games, for the fastest in Olympics history. Stolz needed that record time to win as the Netherlands’ Jenning de Boo was only 11 hundredths of a second behind him. Laurent Dubreuil of Canada earned bronze, finishing a half-second behind Stolz.
Men’s hockey beats Denmark
Denmark played the U.S. tough in the first period and closed the margin to one goal at the end of the second. But Team USA increased its offensive pressure in the Danish zone, resulting in five goals over the final two periods and an eventual 6-3 victory.
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Six players scored goals for the U.S.: Matt Boldy, Brady Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Jack Hughes. Team USA fired 47 shots on net, while Denmark managed 21.
Up next for the U.S. is Germany as pool play continues Sunday at 3:10 p.m. ET.
Slight mistake costs Jaelin Kauf gold in women’s dual moguls
Despite tripping over a mogul, U.S. freestyle skier Jaelin Kauf finished her semifinal race in women’s dual moguls against France’s Perrine Laffont. However, in the final, Kauf slightly bobbled when her left ski slipped out for just a second. That was enough for Australia’s Jakara Anthony to overtake her to win on the scorecard, 20-15, and earn the gold medal.
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Kauf’s silver medal is her second of the Milan Cortina Games and teammate. Elizabeth Lemley took bronze over Laffont, adding to the gold she won in women’s moguls on Wednesday.
Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen first South American to medal at Winter Games
History occurred during Saturday’s men’s giant slalom with Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen winning gold. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Pinheiro Braathen became the first-ever South American athlete to earn a medal at the Winter Olympics.
With a combined time of 2:25.00, Pinheiro Braathen beat out Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, who won gold in 2022 at Beijing. Before competing for Brazil, Pinheiro Braathen began his Alpine skiing career representing Norway, his father’s home country. After retiring for less than a year, he returned to competitive ski racing for Brazil. He was one of the country’s flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony.
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U.S. women’s curling continues ascent; American men rebound
After defeating Canada on Friday for the first time since women’s curling was introduced to the Olympics in 1998, the American women improved to 3-1 in round-robin competition on Saturday with a 7-4 win over Japan. At the moment, they are tied for second with Switzerland. Sweden is first and unbeaten.
The U.S. men’s team had dropped back-to-back games entering Saturday but returned to the win column with an 8-6 victory against a Germany squad that was 2-1 entering the weekend. Now the Americans and Germans are tied for sixth, meaning they’re both on the outside looking in at the four-team playoffs at the moment. Round-robin play is far from over, though. The U.S. still has five games left.
Team USA medal count is now up to 17
Highlight of the day
Stolz’s thrilling finish takes the cake. He barely held off de Boo and needed quite the final push to win his second gold. Four days earlier, Stolz overtook the Dutchman on the final lap of the men’s 1,000 meters.
One more thing
The Olympics are full of inspiring stories, including those of perseverance. Another of that kind was on display Saturday when Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson raced on one ski for about half a minute during the women’s 4 x 7.5km relay. Sweden entered the event as gold medal favorites, and remarkably, still won silver. But amid the second leg of the event, Andersson fell — more than once, actually, and ultimately lost her right ski. She retrieved it, except it was broken. She kept going, trudging through the course until a Swedish technician, after falling himself, handed her another working ski. By the time Andersson reached the handover zone, Sweden had plummeted to eighth.
Frida Karlsson followed with a strong third leg. Jonna Sundling brought the relay home and Sweden all the way back to second. Andersson’s relentless effort, however, will be remembered as well. She now has three silvers in these Games.
The Miami Heat’s Keshad Johnson won this year’s NBA Dunk Contest, despite San Antonio Spurs forward Carter Bryant nailing a between-the-legs dunk in the first leg of the final that saw him receive 50s across the board.
The competition appeared to be Bryant’s to lose, but he couldn’t land his final planned dunk — a reverse slam following his own pass off the backboard — instead opting for a 360 that he showcased to start the night. Bryant needed only a 47.5 to win, but his last-ditch repeat effort resulted in a mere 43.
Johnson’s final dunk saw him soar from inside the key for a high-flying yet somewhat underwhelming throwdown, especially since Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes attempted a similar dunk in the first round. But the running windmill was a nice touch, and it came in the wake of his between-the-legs dunk from underneath the basket that wowed.
Johnson went undrafted in 2024 and has played in just 21 games with the Heat this season. He’s averaged 3.1 points per outing in those appearances.
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That said, he accounted for Miami’s fourth NBA Dunk Contest title, and its first since Derrick Jones Jr. won the event in 2020. Harold Miner placed first in the competition while with the Heat in 1993 and 1995.
Johnson’s biggest competition, Bryant, also played college basketball at Arizona, except they didn’t overlap there. The Spurs selected Bryant with the No. 14 overall pick in last year’s draft, and he’s posted 3.4 points per contest in his 43 appearances with the Spurs so far.
Bryant kicked things off in the first round with his first 360, complete with a left-leg kick out and a right-handed jam. He followed that up with a windmill slam that earned him 50s from Dwight Howard and Dominique Wilkins and an average score of 49.2, the highest of any dunk in the first round, clinching his spot in the final.
Johnson joined him after settling for a baseline reverse dunk that demonstrated every bit of the wingspan that accompanies the former Arizona and San Diego State forward’s 6-foot-7 frame. Johnson’s first dunk was more impressive. Not only did he leap over Bay Area rap legend E-40 in the paint, but he did so while positioning his left hand behind his head, as if he was relaxing on the beach. That earned him a score of 47.4, the second highest of the first round.
They both cleared the combined scores recorded by Hayes and Orlando Magic guard Jase Richardson in the first round.
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The judges table was made up of Howard, Wilkins and fellow former dunk contest champions Brent Barry and Julius Erving, as well as longtime Clippers standout Corey Maggette.
Saturday’s festivities began with the 3-point contest and the shooting stars event.
It was Lillard’s third 3-point contest title after back-to-back wins in 2023 and 2024. He joins Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only three-time winners in NBA history.
Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel also advanced to the final round but scored just 17 points. Lillard went next and surpassed his first-round score. Booker missed what would have been the tying shot on his final attempt and finished with 27 points. He had 30 in the first round.
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In addition to Lillard, Booker and Knueppel, Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers), Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers), Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets), Bobby Portis Jr. (Milwaukee Bucks) and Norman Powell (Miami Heat) also participated.
Next up was the shooting stars contest, where four teams consisting of two current NBA players and one NBA legend competed in two rounds, scoring points while rotating through different shooting locations around the court. Team Knicks — Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns — was victorious, taking down Team Cameron, which featured Kneuppel and Jalen Johnson.
Here’s how the dunk and 3-point contests went down in real-time on All-Star Saturday:
Live coverage is over44 updates
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Carter Bryant came up short in the dunk contest after missing multiple dunks, scoring just a 43 on his last dunk.
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Keshad Johnson scored 47.8 on his final dunk attempt. He followed it with a dance as he did after every dunk.
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Carter Bryant followed up Keshad Johnson’s dunk with a perfect score on his between-the-legs dunk.
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Keshad Johnson scored 49.6 on his first dunk in the finals on a between-the-legs reverse dunk.
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Keshad Johnson’s 45.4 points on his second dunk were enough for him to advance to the finals to face Carter Bryant. Johnson was able to pick up his points on an impressive reverse dunk.
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What a dunk from Carter Bryant on his second attempt. The judges gave him a round-high 49.2 after windmilling off a self-lob. Bryant and Keshad Johnson head to the finals.
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Jase Richardson scores 43.4 points on his second dunk after multiple mistimed lobs on his dunk attempts. After taking a scary fall, Richardson decided to try another dunk, which he was able to finish.
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That was better. After a missed attempt and a few mistimed self-lobs, Jaxson Hayes scored a 47.2 on his second dunk.
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Jaxson Hayes’ first dunk would be acceptable in a regular game, not a dunk contest. After Hayes’ pedestrian one-handed dunk, even he winced. Hayes scored 44.6, with Dwight Howard giving his fellow big man a 47.
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Miami Heat rookie Keshad Johnson takes the lead with a 47.4 score despite missing his first dunk attempt. Johnson jumped over rapper E-40 and dunked while having one hand behind his head. Johnson celebrated by doing the dougie.
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Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson opened the dunk contest with a reverse dunk on a self-lob. He scored 45.4. Richardson is the son of Jason Richardson, who won back-to-back NBA dunk contests in 2002 and 2003.
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San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant opens the dunk contest, scoring 45.6 on his first dunk.
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Multiple 7-point shots from Jalen Brunson and Allan Houston helped the Knicks win the Kia Shooting Stars challenge. The Knicks now have a Kia Shooting Stars trophy to go along with their trophy from the Emirates NBA Cup.
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Corey Maggette carried. Maggette scored three 7-point shots in a row to lead Team Cameron to 38 points in the second round.
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The Knicks take the lead with 31 points after multiple shots from deep. The Knicks were led by Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony Towns and Allan Houston.
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The Harpers are in second place after an 18-point performance from Ron Harper Sr., Ron Harper Jr. and Dylan Harper.
However, McClung did decide to show off the four dunks he would have brought to the contest had he participated. Here they are:
By comparison, here are all the dunks Johnson landed in the actual competition.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the McClung dunks are both more interesting and more impressive, though we should also note we are only watching the video McClung’s camp decided to record. Half the difficulty of the dunk contest is being able to pull off acrobatic moves on command, with a panel of NBA veterans to somberly shake their heads at you if you fail.
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That said, McClung certainly has the benefit of the doubt given that he has landed 12 such dunks in the actual competition.
What does this all mean for the dunk contest? It’s certainly not the best look that its three-time champion responded to the actual competition with a superior group of dunks, but it’s hardly the contest’s biggest problem.
The contest has alternated from dying to watchable for the last decade and a half or so. When there’s a McClung, an Aaron Gordon or Zach LaVine, the audience has something to grab onto. When there isn’t, you certainly start to wonder why all this pageantry is put into what is essentially four lesser-known players trying to cosplay as stars. It’s been a long time since LaVine and Gordon faced off in 2016, and even longer since Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins were doing it.
The Winter Games have begun in Italy. From the rink to the slopes, a new generation of stars has emerged to chase gold. We’ll keep you connected to all of the thrilling moments and top stories as we track the medal race each day of the Games.
Here are the top five things to watch on Sunday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics:
1. Can Mikaela Shiffrin shake her Olympic demons? (7:30 a.m. ET)
Mikaela Shiffrin has a case to be the best skier in the history of the world, and it’s a testament to her success that an Olympic career with two gold medals and a silver could be considered a disappointment. But it’s a subject that’s hard to avoid at this point.
After a highly disappointing finish in the women’s team combined earlier this week, Shiffrin will go for individual gold in the giant slalom, where she won gold in 2018 at PyeongChang.
The U.S. men’s curling team enters Sunday’s round robin matchup with Sweden, fresh off an 8-6 victory over Germany. The U.S team got off to a blazing 4-0 start in the first end and led 6-2 in the fourth end. The German team cut the Americans’ lead down to one before skip Danny Casper closed the game out to prevent the Germans from tying the game.
The U.S. will head into Sunday at 2-2.
3. Team USA faces Germany in men’s hockey (3:10 p.m. ET)
The U.S. is off to a good start in the Olympic men’s hockey tournament, beating Denmark 6-3 and Latvia 5-1. Their final challenge of group play will come against Germany.
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While they won both of the previous games by three-plus goals, it also took the Americans a while to get going, so a quick start would be nice as the event heads toward the knockout rounds. Co-gold medal favorite Canada will also be playing earlier Sunday against Switzerland.
4. Erin Jackson defends her 500m speedskating title (11 a.m. ET)
5. Nick Baumgartner helps defend mixed team snowboard cross gold (7:45 a.m. ET)
With the veteran pair Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner, the U.S. won the inaugural mixed team snowboard cross in Beijing. Jacobellis will be in the broadcast booth for this one, but the 44-year-old Baumgartner is back alongside partner Faye Thelan.
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They will be one of two American teams in the event Sunday, with Nathan Pare and Stacy Gaskill teaming up in another quarterfinal.
Olympics schedule for Sunday, Feb. 15 (Day 9)
Alpine Skiing
Giant slalom
4 a.m.: Women’s run 1 (USA Network)
7:20 a.m.: Women’s run 2 (NBC coverage begins at 7:30 a.m.)🏅
Biathlon
12.5 kilometer pursuit
5:15 a.m.: Men’s final (airs on NBC at 11:45 a.m.)🏅
10 kilometer pursuit
8:45 a.m.: Women’s final (NBC)🏅
Bobsled
Monobob
4 a.m.: Women’s runs 1 and 2 (airs on NBC at 7:30 a.m.)
Cross-Country Skiing
4×7.5 kilometer relay
6 a.m.: Men’s final (USA; airs at 7 a.m. on NBC)🏅
Curling
Men’s round-robin
3:05 a.m.: USA-Sweden (airs on CNBC at 11 a.m.), Germany-Great Britain, Norway-Italy
1:05 p.m.: China-Canada, Norway-USA, Italy-Czechia, Great Britain-Switzerland
Women’s round-robin
8:05 a.m.: USA-China (airs on CNBC at 8:30 a.m.), Denmark-Italy (airs on CNBC at 3:30 p.m.), Japan-South Korea, Great Britain-Sweden
Figure Skating
Pairs
1:45 p.m.: Short program (USA Network; NBC coverage begins at 12 p.m.)
Freestyle Skiing
Dual moguls
4:30 a.m.: Men’s final (USA Network coverage begins at 4:40 a.m.)🏅
Big air
1:30 p.m.: Men’s qualifying (NBC coverage begins at 1:40 p.m.)
Hockey
Men’s pool play
6 a.m.: Switzerland vs. Czechia (CNBC)
10:40 a.m.: Canada vs. France (USA Network)
1 p.m.: Denmark vs. Latvia (CNBC)
3:10 p.m.: USA vs. Germany (USA Network)
Skeleton
12 p.m.: Mixed team final (NBC coverage begins at 1:15 p.m.)🏅
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Ski Jumping
Large hill
12:45 p.m.: Women’s final (airs at 8 p.m. on USA Network)🏅
Snowboarding
Snowboard cross
7:45 a.m.: Mixed team final (USA Network; airs on NBC at 8:30 a.m.)🏅
Put aside, just for a moment, the LIV Golf-PGA Tour’s subtext of perpetual scuffling. Try not to think about the posturing and skepticism that accompanies virtually every LIV story. Focus, just for a second, on the simple facts:
Anthony Kim won a golf tournament. Against Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. In 2026.
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Kim, one of sports’ true prodigal sons, claimed LIV’s Adelaide event in Australia on Sunday, riding a final-round, nine-birdie 63, turning a five-shot deficit into a three-shot victory. If nothing else — if Kim’s story goes no further than this right here — it’s a pretty incredible comeback for a guy who briefly ruled the golf world, then literally disappeared for more than a decade.
Every so often, golf produces one of these back-to-the-mountaintop stories, when a name from the past has a late-career week of their lives. Think Jack Nicklaus at the Masters in 1986, Tom Watson (almost) at the Open Championship in 2009, Tiger Woods at the Masters in 2019, Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship in 2021. Everything comes together for one weekend, past meeting present, and it’s remarkable to see.
Obviously, Kim’s victory doesn’t have anywhere near that historical resonance; about the only thing Adelaide and Augusta National have in common is a starting letter. But Kim’s first professional win in nearly 16 years is an impressive story of facing down the demons of addiction and injury.
It’s tough to remember now, but for a brief moment, Kim’s popularity in golf was second only to Woods — and Woods’ personal scandals erupted right as Kim was playing his best golf. Before Scottie Scheffler, before Brooks Koepka, before Jordan Spieth, before Rahm and DeChambeau, before Rory McIlroy had won a single tournament, there was Kim. He went toe-to-toe with Tiger, he hung with Michael Jordan, he was a SportsCenter darling back when SportsCenter was, well, the center of the sports universe.
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Scanning leaderboards from Kim’s prime 2009-10 era feels like looking at faded family pictures in a scrapbook. There’s only one player from Kim’s most recent win, the 2010 Shell Houston Open, still in the top 20: ageless wonder Justin Rose. The tee sheet at Kim’s most recent Masters, 2011, included Ernie Els, Mark O’Meara, Craig Stadler and Watson.
But after suffering an Achilles injury in 2012, Kim stepped away from the game. And not in the “showing-up-on-NBA-sidelines-and-ESPN-red-carpets” kind of way. No, he flat-out vanished for more than a decade. Rumors of Kim surfaced here and there — he was playing golf with buddies in Oklahoma, he was keeping in shape in California, he hadn’t touched a club in five years — but no one managed to get even a picture of Kim, much less his story.
“I was around some bad people,” Kim said in 2024. “People that took advantage of me. Scam artists. When you’re 24, 25, even 30 years old, you don’t realize the snakes that are living under your roof.”
That’s why Greg Norman’s dramatic 2024 reveal of Kim as a new LIV addition caused such a ripple in certain segments of golf fandom. Kim was once the coolest dude possible, the heir to Woods, the herald of a new era of golf. What would he have left after so many years away from the game?
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Not much, to start. He failed to earn even a single point in his first two seasons on the tour, and was relegated. That could have been the end of his story, but he managed to place third in LIV’s Promotions Event, posted a T22 in the first tournament of the season … and now this. A win is a win, especially when two of the world’s best are in your final grouping.
It’ll be interesting to see how the golf establishment views this victory. LIV players, as expected, have ralliedaroundKim. European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald was one of the first non-LIV players to praise Kim’s achievement, unsurprising given that it occurred in the middle of the night for America:
For LIV, this is undoubtedly the most significant victory in the tour’s history. This story will break wide in a way that, say, Rippers GC’s latest team victory at Adelaide won’t. The presence of Rahm and DeChambeau legitimizes the win, and LIV’s challenge now is transforming this burst of fans’ attention into longer-term connections.
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For Kim, the takeaway is much more simple. Yes, he’ll rise up to around 200th in the world rankings, but that’s not the real story here. Kim picked himself up from life’s floor, got his life back together, and returned to the top of the leaderboard. Right now, that’s more than enough.
In August 2021, Rakan Alireza quit his corporate job to pursue a goal so audacious that no one else from his desert nation had ever attempted it.
The 24-year-old began training to represent Saudi Arabia on a global stage as a cross-country skier.
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Alireza was among the first athletes selected by the Saudi government after it proclaimed that the country’s lack of ski slopes and snowy peaks shouldn’t inhibit its winter sports ambitions. The Saudis conducted a nationwide search for athletes with any shred of skiing or snowboarding experience. They sought to unearth a handful of promising novices and invest heavily in grooming them for international competition.
While Alireza had only skied recreationally during boarding school or while traveling abroad with his family, the Saudi Winter Sports Federation believed in his potential as a cross-country skier. Alireza participated in the CrossFit Games and achieved one of Saudi Arabia’s highest rankings. The fitness fanatic’s strength and endurance would serve him well traversing rugged terrain on skis, Saudi officials projected.
Alireza vividly recalls the skeptical response when he told his parents that he aimed to qualify for the Winter Olympics.
“You’re actually going to leave a career to do this?” Alireza’s father asked incredulously. “You’re going to be competing against people born with skis on their feet!”
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Alireza’s mother was initially more supportive … until she learned he was stepping down from his consulting job with Price Waterhouse Coopers in Riyadh.
“She told me it didn’t make sense,” Alireza said. “She thought it was a hopeless case.”
Nearly five years later, even Alireza’s parents might admit he was correct to ignore their advice. The pioneering Alireza has opened doors for future generations of Saudis and helped redefine what’s possible for a winter sports athlete from a desert nation with virtually no snow.
Alireza made history Friday when he became the second Saudi athlete to compete at the Winter Olympics and the first to represent the Kingdom in cross-country skiing. The only other Saudi to reach the Winter Olympics is Alpine skier Fayik Abdi, who qualified for Beijing in 2022 and for this year’s Games.
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Whereas making it to the starting line at the Olympics is the culmination of years of dogged effort and sacrifice for Alireza, the achievement is merely a starting point for his country. Saudi Arabia envisions itself becoming a future winter sports giant, the type that doesn’t just send athletes to participate in the Olympics but to return home with medals around their necks.
“I think the whole world is going to know about us soon,” said Leon Svetlin, the former Bosnian skier who since October 2022 has served as the Saudi Winter Sports Federation’s head coach and Alpine sports director. “There is a vision for the future and strong institutional support from the country. When you have that, you can get results in a shorter period of time.”
Rakan Alireza approaches the finish line in the Men’s 10km Interval Start Free on day seven of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
(Lars Baron via Getty Images)
‘Bambi on ice’
The biggest reason Saudi Arabia cannot be taken lightly as a potential winter sports power is its financial might. Since the oil-rich country is still at least a couple years away from providing access to ski slopes within its borders, the Saudi government has spared no expense housing winter sports athletes in Europe for months at a time.
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Alireza’s transformation from cross-country skiing novice to future Olympian began in August 2021 when the Saudi government sent him to Sweden to train inside a famous underground ski tunnel with hilly terrain and year-round snow. It was there that he began working with the top-tier European coaches hired by the Saudis to teach him the proper technique.
Only minutes into Alireza’s first training session, the young Saudi realized he’d underestimated the challenge he faced. It took him five minutes to even step into his cross-country ski bindings. Then once he did, he resembled Bambi on ice.
“I kept falling down, Alireza said. “There were all these young kids whizzing past me. Seeing where they were compared to where I was, it was kind of terrifying.”
Eagerness to learn and willingness to suffer has helped Alireza improve. He trains up to five hours per day, alternating between skiing and high-intensity endurance work. When in Europe, he takes advantage of the opportunity to ski on snow. When back home in the desert city of Jeddah, he rollerskis, sometimes with a tire strapped to his back to mimic the resistance of snow conditions.
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Those efforts were enough to help Alireza secure his place at these Olympics, but the gap remains wide between the 29-year-old Saudi and European or North American competitors who grew up on skis. Alireza arrived in Italy ranked outside the top 2000 globally in both the men’s sprint and distance cross-country disciplines. He estimates that he still has been on skis fewer than 200 times in his life.
“I still consider myself a beginner,” Alireza said. “You can see it in my fundamentals. Mid-race I’ll see someone doing something and I’ll try to copy it. If it works, good. If not, I learn.”
It’s no mystery to the Saudis that they’re unlikely to challenge for podium positions on a global stage unless their winter sports athletes hit the slopes earlier in life. They have to find ways to introduce Saudi boys and girls to skiing and snowboarding during childhood and create developmental pathways for those who display promise.
“That’s one of the biggest challenges for us,” Svetlin admitted. “Normally to reach your peak as a skier, you need 10-15 years of continuous training. In Saudi Arabia, we still don’t have a ski slope and it’s not realistic to ask kids to travel all the way to Europe to start training from a very young age.”
The Trojena project to build a ski resort in Saudi Arabia is one of the most ambitious and difficult construction undertakings in the world. (Laurent Coust/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(SOPA Images via Getty Images)
A desert ski resort?
The potential solution to Saudi Arabia’s snow problem is a project that is both wildly ambitious and lavishly expensive. In 2022, as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to boost tourism, attract major events and diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy, Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to build a sprawling, futuristic outdoor ski resort known as Trojena.
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While the mountains where the ski resort will be situated do occasionally get a dusting of snow during the winter, it’s nowhere near enough to create a winter sports destination. As a result, Saudi Arabia intends to rely on state-of-the-art snowmaking technologies to manufacture more than 30 kilometers of ski slopes.
Whenever the ski resort opens, it has the potential to be a game changer for the development of winter sports athletes from Saudi Arabia, Svetlin says. So do planned indoor ski resorts in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and elsewhere.
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“Hopefully in the next couple years we’ll get a chance to train there and compete there,” Svetlin said. “I think that will make it possible for us to find even younger athletes and create an even better platform for the future.”
Svetlin is also intrigued with the idea that rollerskiing could become a training option for Saudi kids who are interested in cross-country skiing but don’t have access to snow. He believes that could help Saudi Arabia produce high-level results in cross-country skiing faster than other skiing and snowboarding disciplines.
It will also help having a trailblazer like Alireza who has kicked open doors that were once shut. When Alireza and his fellow Saudi skiers first began training, he remembers coaches from other national teams openly laughing at their ineptitude.
“Now those same coaches have become our fans,” Alireza said. “They would cheer for us and support us when they saw the improvement.”
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Alireza takes immense pride in making the Olympics, but he’s hopeful this is just the beginning for his desert country in winter sports.
There’s already another younger Saudi cross-country skier pushing Alireza. His goal is to be better than Alireza and Alireza is rooting for him. He often says to the newcomer, “I want you to retire me, but I’m never going to make it easy on you.
“I tell him going to the Olympics is no longer special if I did it,” Alireza said. “You’re going to be the second one to do it? No one really cares. Go do something better.”
Norway cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo set a Winter Olympics record on Sunday by winning his ninth career gold medal — most in Winter Olympic history.
Klæbo, 29, earned his record as part of the men’s 4 X 7.5 km relay team, which beat out France and home country Italy in the competition. He was the final leg of the relay, following Emil Iversen, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget and Einar Hedegart.
Norway’s men’s cross-country team of Emil Iversen, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, Einar Hedegart and Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo celebrate winning 4 x 7.5km relay at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Feb. 15. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
(Lars Baron via Getty Images)
Norway finished with a time of 1:04:24.5, 22 seconds ahead of France (1:04:46.7) and 47.9 seconds better than Italy (1:05:12.4). It’s possible the team could have posted an even faster time, but Klæbo slowed down a bit toward the finish to wave to spectators.
The United States placed sixth (1:06:11.8) in the event, finishing behind Finland and Canada.
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Nicknamed “Rocket Man” by Norwegian media, Klæbo previously won three gold medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, finishing first in the individual sprint, 4 x 10 km relay and team sprint events. In 2022, he earned gold in the individual and team sprint events at Beijing.
With his ninth gold medal, Klæbo surpassed fellow Norwegian cross-country skiers Bjørn Dæhlie and Marit Bjørgen, along with countrymen and biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen.
Klæbo is still set to compete in two more events at the Milan Cortina Games, the men’s team sprint and 50 km mass start. A fifth gold medal at the 2026 Games would tie him with U.S. speed skater Eric Heiden for the most won during a single Winter Olympics.
