Miami started hot with a 17-9 lead at home and never trailed. UNC managed to keep things competitive, but the Hurricanes never allowed the Tar Heels to seize control. Miami closed out the game on a 12-6 run to secure the upset of the nation’s 11th-ranked team.
The loss snaps a five-game win streak for North Carolina that included a road win over No. 14 Virginia in addition to Saturday’s home thriller over No. 4 Duke. The win adds a strong résumé boost for a Miami team on the NCAA tournament bubble.
Miami (19-5, 8-3 ACC) also moves a game ahead of North Carolina (19-5, 7-4) into fifth place in the ACC standings.
Hurricanes contain Caleb Wilson
Miami limited UNC’s All-America candidate Caleb Wilson to 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Wilson left the game around the 15-minute mark of the second half and returned with 8:47 remaining with his left wrist taped.
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Wilson sat for the final 1:43 as North Carolina tried to mount a late rally from a 66-60 deficit. The nature of what was bothering Wilson wasn’t immediately clear, nor was it clear if his wrist impacted coach Hubert Davis’ decision to bench his star freshman for the game’s final moments.
Miami attacks UNC’s frontline
On offense, Miami attacked a talented UNC frontline that’s been vulnerable on defense against physical opponents.
Senior center Ernest Udeh Jr. feasted inside when he sought his shot, tallying 15 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 7 of 8 from the field.
He secured his own rebound off a missed free throw for a layup that gave Miami its 66-60 lead in the final two minutes.
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Udeh was one of four Miami starters to score in double figures as the Hurricanes shot 47% from the field. Miami limited North Carolina to 40% shooting while securing a 41-35 rebounding advantage and 11-8 edge in takeaways.
The Hurricanes struggled from 3 (3 for 13, 23%) and from the line (14 of 23, 61%). But they attempted 13 more free throws than North Carolina, which went 8 of 10 at the line.
The win for Miami was its first over a ranked opponent since a victory over No. 16 Clemson in the 2013-14 season. Miami fans rushed the court Tuesday to celebrate the program’s biggest win in years.
Collin Sexton’s feud with the basket at the Barclays Center has turned costly.
The NBA fined the Chicago Bulls guard $35,000 on Tuesday night after he flipped off the hoop during the team’s 123-115 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.
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Sexton was shooting free throws late in the third quarter, and his first attempt was off the mark. Sexton ended up making his second attempt, but he immediately looked at the rim and raised his left middle finger angrily as he jogged back the other way.
While the “inappropriate gesture” was very brief and didn’t impact the game whatsoever, it will draw a fine from the league every time.
Sexton finished the night with 21 points and five rebounds, going 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. The 27-year-old has averaged 14.4 points and 3.7 assists while shooting better than 48% from the field this season, his eighth in the league.
The Bulls have now lost five straight and eight of their last nine games. They will enter Wednesday’s game against Boston Celtics, their final contest before the All-Star break, with a 24-30 record. While there is still time to rally, Sexton and the Bulls are very much on pace to miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season.
Brad Underwood couldn’t get his team to rally after last week’s overtime loss in East Lansing.
No. 8 Illinois, despite leading by double digits in the second half, fell apart down the stretch Tuesday night at the State Farm Center. Wisconsin fought out of a 12-point hole and grabbed a 92-90 overtime win, which marked the Badgers’ second road win over a top-10 opponent this season. It was also the program’s first win in Champaign in seven years.
Wisconsin, which forced the extra period after a late 3-pointer from Austin Rapp near the end of regulation, then opened overtime on an 11-3 run to suddenly break open an eight-point lead — which matched the Badgers’ largest of the game.
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Illinois finally responded as Zvonimir Ivisic made a layup and then Keaton Wagler drilled a 3-pointer not even a minute later to make it a one-possession game yet again near the 90-second mark.
Though it looked like Illinois was going to get one last shot at a game-winner, Nolan Winter was somehow able to track down a miss from John Blackwell and call a timeout before falling out of bounds. That gave Wisconsin the ball back with just 14.8 seconds left in overtime and a two-point lead in hand, which was enough to ride out the two-point win.
Wagler led Illinois with 34 points and seven assists, and Ivisic added 19 points and 11 rebounds. Illinois had 13 turnovers, compared to just four from the Badgers.
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Illinois has now lost back-to-back games for the first time all season. No. 10 Michigan State survived a scare at home on Saturday night to beat the Illini. Illinois is now 20-5 on the season and firmly in second in the Big Ten race behind Michigan. They’ll likely need some help and a win over the Wolverines later this month at home, in order to claim the regular-season conference title.
Nick Boyd led Wisconsin with 25 points after shooting 10-of-19 from the field. Blackwell added 24 points on five 3-pointers, and Rapp finished with 18 points off the bench. Wisconsin improved to 17-7, boosting its NCAA tournament status as the regular season starts to wrap up.
There are some bad losses on the Badgers’ résumé, including double-digit losses to both TCU and Villanova, and a one-point loss at Indiana last week that they’d like to have back. But Wisconsin has now won eight of their last 10 games, which includes road victories over both Illinois and Michigan. They’ve got Michigan State up next on Friday, too, and Purdue waiting again in Wisconsin’s final game of the regular season.
Though they may not be there quite yet, the Badgers are starting to look like a dangerous threat not only in the Big Ten tournament in a few weeks, but in the NCAA tournament, as well.
TCU pulled off its biggest win of the season on Tuesday night, and may have saved its chances at reaching the NCAA tournament.
The Horned Frogs survived late to knock off No. 5 Iowa State 62-55 at Schollmaier Arena. It marked just their second win over a ranked opponent all season after a pretty rough run against the top half of the Big 12 conference so far. Naturally, that sparked a huge court storm celebration in Fort Worth.
Though they never led by more than double digits, the Cyclones (21-2, 8-3 Big 12) felt in control of the contest — at least until the final stretch. After mounting a 10-0 run to take the lead back in the second half, Iowa State shut down offensively. The Horned Frogs (15-9, 5-6) closed the game on a 12-0 burst of their own, and held the Cyclones to just a single made field goal in the final four minutes.
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Micah Robinson led TCU with 17 points and six rebounds. Tanner Toolson added 17 points off the bench and was the only other player to hit double figures. TCU went just 5-of-18 from the 3-point line, and missed eight free throws.
The win was an important one for TCU’s tournament résumé. While they beat Florida early on, the Horned Frogs have dropped every other ranked matchup they’ve had this season and entered Tuesday having lost six of their last 10. Undoubtedly, their hopes at an NCAA tournament big were dwindling fast.
Tamin Lipsey led Iowa State with 12 points and five assists, and Joshua Jefferson added 12 points with nine assists and eight rebounds. Iowa State committed 17 turnovers and also only made five 3-pointers in the loss. The Cyclones made it to the free throw line only eight times, compared to the 23 for the Horned Frogs.
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The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the Cyclones, and came ahead of what is sure to be a rough stretch for them to end the regular season. They’ll host No. 9 Kansas next on Saturday, and the Jayhawks are fresh off a win over top-ranked Arizona on Monday night. The Cyclones will then take on No. 3 Houston and No. 22 BYU next week, and still have No. 16 Texas Tech and Arizona waiting for them before the end of the regular season. Though several wins there would make a big difference, Iowa State’s chances at actually securing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament are suddenly looking significantly slimmer.
TCU, on the other hand, now has a real shot at making a run before the Big 12 tournament next month. With just one ranked game left in the regular season, a strong finish would put the Horned Frogs in position to make the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
The Toronto Blue Jays got bad news Tuesday as they look ahead to defending their AL pennant.
Right fielder Anthony Santander needs surgery on his left labrum and is expected to miss five-to-six months. The latter end of that timeline projects a return sometime in August, well past the All-Star break.
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Manager John Schneider announced the news to reporters Tuesday. Santander will likely miss more than half the 2026 season on the heels of playing just 54 games in his first season in Toronto.
Contract so far not paying off for Blue Jays
Santander, 31, made his first All-Star team in 2024 as a member of the rival Baltimore Orioles, sending him into the offseason as one of the better hitters available in free agency. He joined the Blue Jays that winter on a five-year, $92.5 million contract.
Various injuries including to his shoulder limited Santander to 54 regular-season games in 2025. He returned for the final week of the regular season and appeared in five postseason games in the ALDS against the Yankees and the ALCS against the Mariners.
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But the Blue Jays removed him from their ALCS roster before Game 4 due to a back injury, and he did not make Toronto’s World Series roster.
Why have the surgery now?
Schneider told reporters Tuesday that Santander was “feeling good after the season” and the goal this offseason was to avoid surgery while resting and rehabbing in November and December.
But he experienced a setback when he returned to hitting in January, prompting the Blue Jays and Santander to ultimately opt for surgery. He’ll have the procedure Wednesday, more than three months after the conclusion of Toronto’s season in a Game 7 loss to the Dodgers in the World Series.
“Unfortunate with the timing, obviously, after the season he had, too, for sure,” Schneider said. “But just a setback after he started hitting and ramping up in January.”
He did it from inside and out and tallied most of those points during a stretch in which he scored 17 consecutive Spurs points.
Wembanyama went 8 of 9 from the field and 3 of 4 from the 3-point line while adding three rebounds during the opening flurry. The Spurs piled up a 47-30 lead against a Lakers team playing without Luka Dončić, LeBron James or Austin Reaves. The missed game was James’ 18th of the season, which made him ineligible for end-of-season awards and snapped his unprecedented 21-year All-NBA streak.
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By halftime, Wembanyama had 37 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the floor, 10-of-12 shooting from the line and 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc. He added 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in a stat line that would be outstanding for any NBA star for a full game.
The Spurs built an 84-55 lead at that point over the shorthanded Lakers. And with San Antonio on the first half of a back-to-back set, there wasn’t a ton of motivation to play him much after halftime.
Wembanyama dropped three points in the third quarter to get to 40 on the night. It was the sixth 40-point game of Wembanyama’s three-season career, one more than Duncan totaled in his 19 seasons.
By the end of that period, the Spurs’ lead had ballooned to 34 points. From there, the Spurs cruised to the 136-108 win without any further heroics needed from Wembanyama. He finished shooting 13 of 20 from the field with 12 rebounds and two assists to go with his 40 points.
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Luke Kennard led the Lakers with 14 points and five assists. Drew Timme added 14 points off the bench and Jaxson Hayes finished with 13 points. The Lakers fell to 32-21 with the loss. They’ll host the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday in their final game before the All-Star break.
Carter Bryant added 16 points off the bench for the Spurs to go with Wembanyama’s night. Dylan Harper finished with 15 points and Harrison Barnes added 11. They were the only other three players besides Wembanyama to hit double figures for San Antonio.
The Spurs have now won five straight to get to 37-16 on the season. They’ll take on the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.
Nick Baumgartner, in his own words, is no anomaly.
Like every other 44-year-old on the planet, he will wake up with strange aches and need a little more time to get the engines revved up than he required a decade ago. The gray hairs are coming in nonstop on the beard and with less frequency up top, an area often covered by a backwards hat. A college football player at Northern Michigan once upon a time, Baumgartner has had to trade power lifts for fast-twitch and flexibility exercises to reduce injury risk and ensure all his energy is channeled into the stuff that will matter when he steps on a snowboard.
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But motivation to endure every step of a painstaking process, day after day, just for one more shot at the Olympics? Even after his long-awaited gold medal in 2022, that’s the part Baumgartner still can’t get enough of.
“You’d think it would get old,” said Baumgartner, who will go to Milano Cortina trying to break his own record as the oldest snowboarding medalist in Olympic history. “But I still love it as much as I did when I started. I think part of the reason I didn’t burn out is because I was in my 20s before I even started snowboard cross. I’m making up for time lost at the front end.”
Four years ago in Beijing, Baumgartner was heartbroken and on the verge of tears after failing short of the semifinals in the men’s snowboard cross, an event where competitors race through a course of curves and jumps in an elimination format until there’s four competitors left for the final run. It was just one little mistake, Baumgartner said, but it was costly: At age 40 and still medal-less at his fourth Olympics, he could feel time running out.
But the mixed team snowboard cross event — new to the Olympics four years ago — was his salvation. Paired with Lindsey Jacobellis, whose own Olympic history had been dotted with disappointment, they were so elated to win a gold that it didn’t even matter that their friends and family were thousands of miles away because of the COVID rules Beijing put in place that made travel almost impossible.
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“To finally knock that off after years of falling short and falling short, nothing could have muted that celebration,” said Baumgartner. “Then when I went home, it got crazy.”
Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner celebrate their gold medal win during the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
(Tim Clayton via Getty Images)
Despite sub-freezing temperatures, it seemed like the entire population of Iron River, Michigan, was there to celebrate Baumgartner with a parade, some of which he traversed in a car with his sons and some of which he walked with his dog on a leash, handing out high-fives to fans waving American flags in a scene straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
For many, it would have been the perfect way to end an unlikely career that has taken him from the snowy Michigan winters around Lake Superior to mountains all around the world.
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But Baumgartner wasn’t done chasing medals. And who knows, maybe Milan Cortina won’t be his last hurrah. The thought of competing in Salt Lake City in 2032 when he’ll be 52 has undoubtedly crossed his mind.
“I had my best career at 40,” he said. “You never know. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely we’re doing everything we can, and we’re using all technology and everything at our grasp to be able to be better at this.”
Age is a real thing with consequences he feels every day, but Baumgartner is determined to stay young enough to compete, even with the sacrifices and inconveniences it requires. Twice a week, Baumgartner will drive 90 minutes from his home in Iron River to the gym where he trains in Marquette, Michigan, sleep in his van and get his workout in the next day and then drive back home. And he never misses a session.
“Don’t believe the excuses,” he said. “Find a way to make it happen. If I stop moving, I’m going to be in big trouble. But if I continue to keep moving and keep doing stuff and take care of my body and train, I think I’ll be fine.”
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The training is different now than it was at the start of his career. It’s all fast-twitch and explosive movements, designed to get him moving quickly out of the gate before gravity and experience take over. Everything is closely monitored by technology so that he can back off if the machines say he’s pushing so hard he’s at risk of injury.
In a sport where the prime age is generally late 20s, it’s what Baumgartner must do to remain relevant enough for his skill and knowledge to overcome declining physicality.
“This bus will go fast downhill, but I got to get it out of the garage fast enough,” he said. “As long as I can keep that speed and stay in the hunt, then anything’s possible.
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“I’ve seen so many kids that have all the talent in the world to beat me, and on paper they should crush me, and they never beat me. It’s because I put in the miles. I’ve been in the trenches for too long.”
Will that lift him to one more medal — this time with his family in attendance? Realistically, it won’t be easy. Baumgartner hasn’t been a regular on the podium at World Cup events the last few years, his best recent finish coming in Turkey about a year ago when he finished third.
But Baumgartner keeps pushing the expiration date on his career further and further into the future. He believes if his 44-year-old body is up for one last great run, the Olympics will bring it out of him.
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“I’m a competitor, and I love pushing myself,” he said. “I love setting goals that people think are unreachable and going out there and proving them wrong. And by doing this and setting these goals and keep knocking them off, it just relights the fire.”
MILAN — Imagine having everything you’ve wished for, everything you’ve worked for, everything you’ve trained for, right there in front of you, just a few seconds away. And then imagine losing it all, all at once, through no fault of your own.
Team USA speed skater Kristen Santos-Griswold, who will compete Thursday in the 500-meter event, has spent the past four years trying to skate out from under a cloud of what-if. Four years ago in Beijing, Santos, at her first Olympics, was leading on the final lap of the 1000m medal race. A gold medal was just a lap away.
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And then Italy’s Arianna Fontana attempted a daring move, diving inside Santos-Griswold to attempt to capture the lead. The two skaters became entangled and spun out on the ice. Fontana’s move was later deemed illegal, but that wasn’t enough to give Santos-Griswold a medal; Olympic records will always show she finished fourth, just off the podium.
“The hardest part about this sport,” Santos-Griswold said recently, “is that kind of concept of, you can be the best, you can be the fastest, and things just don’t work out for you.”
Already older than most of her competitors, with another heartbreaking near-miss in her history — a badly-timed injury cost her a probable spot in the 2018 Olympics — Santos-Griswold knew her best chance at an Olympic medal might have just shattered on the Beijing ice.
But she also knew she still had more to give to this maddening, exhilarating sport.
Kristen Santos-Griswold was crashed out of the 1000m by Italy’s Arianna Fontana while in the lead at the 2022 Olympics. (Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP via Getty Images)
(MANAN VATSYAYANA via Getty Images)
The long road back from Beijing
“After 2022 was really hard. I’m not going to lie, I had to take a little bit of a step back from the sport and really reflect and decide if it was something that I wanted to keep doing,” she said. “I couldn’t really talk to my family that much or other people because everyone’s got an opinion about what you should do. I really needed to make that decision for myself.”
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She spent months wrestling with the decision of whether to commit another four years to the Olympics, weighing the pros and cons of shaping her life around another moment that could slip right from her fingers. But in the end, the decision was obvious.
“I knew if I stepped away at that moment,” she says, “I would regret it forever.”
What followed for Santos-Griswold was an intense period of self-examination, an attempt to understand why exactly her entire identity was wrapped up in being a skater. She began figure skating in Connecticut at age 3, then switched to speed skating at 9 when she saw races on the Disney Channel. And from that day to now, at age 31, Santos-Griswold’s life has focused on and revolved around speed skating.
“The concept of being an athlete, and being specifically a speed skater, has really defined my whole life,” Santos-Griswold says. “And thinking that you’re done with that, and no longer going to be an athlete, can be really daunting.”
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Seeing that end coming — combined with the acceptance of the inherent unfair nature of speed skating — helped clarify her understanding of how to prepare for Milan.
“Every day [leading up to Beijing], I thought about the Olympics. Every single thing I did was like, how is this going to affect me at the Olympics?” she recalls. “I ate right. I slept right. I trained right. I did everything right and it still didn’t happen for me.”
The solution, then, was to begin the long, slow separation of self from skater. She began to focus on the journey rather than the destination, enjoying the moments that “normal,” non-Olympians appreciate all the time — going out for an unscheduled bite to eat, taking a day off training to attend a friend’s wedding. Standard days for the rest of us, stark breaks with training and regimentation for Olympians.
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She also had to put 2022 into context of the rest of her life. “I was definitely angry. I was upset. I was resentful. It feels unfair,” she says. “It’s so unfair to be so close to be in the last lap of the 1000, be about to medal, and get taken out.”
Acceptance of that moment, and of the sport that led to it, helped her heal from the pain of the loss. “I chose the sport. I chose to be there every day on the ice. And I think that that’s something that makes the sport that much more exciting,” she says. “Every win is that much more special. Because you didn’t just overcome the physical things for it. You overcame so many mental aspects. And you had to adapt so much within a single race.”
Kristen Santos-Griswold celebrates winning the 1000m at the 2024 World Short Track Championships. (Marcel ter Bals/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
(DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
The fire returned, and so did the wins
Soon enough, a funny thing happened — she won, and kept on winning. In 2024, she became the first American short-track speed skater to capture world championship medals at all three individual distances (500m, 1000m and 1500m) at the same event since speed skating became an Olympic sport in 1992. The next year, she won her first Crystal Globe, awarded to the best overall short-track skater, and ended the season ranked No. 1 in the world.
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In 2025, she also finally watched a replay of the catastrophic Beijing race for the first time since it occurred. She wept, feeling the pain of the moment, but she also saw the possibilities and the missed opportunities in the race, too. She was in position to medal, yes, but perhaps she could have positioned herself better … or perhaps there was nothing she could have done whatsoever. Sometimes, things just go sideways.
And now, starting with this week’s 500m event, she’s racing with a new mantra: Untouchable. To her, that means her goal now is “to be ahead, and so far ahead that no one could affect my race,” she says. “This sport is really unpredictable, and a lot that you can’t control. The best way to control other people is to make it so they can’t even affect how you’re going to race.”
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Kristen Santos-Griswold isn’t the same racer she was in 2022. She’s married, she has a college degree, she freely admits that she doesn’t have the energy of her younger teammates. She’s full into her “work smarter, not harder” era.
And yet, she’s also more centered than she’s ever been, more willing to put in the hard work without a guarantee of a result, and accept that which she cannot change.
“I had to really sit there and think, if in four years the same thing happens again, would that be worth it?” she says. “Obviously, I’m here. So I did decide that it would be.”
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.
The United States is up to seven total medals so far in Italy, and will have several opportunities to add to that count in Day 5 of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
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Jordan Stoltz will attempt to continue his dominant run throughout speed skating in the 1,000 meters, and the women’s double luge will have its first ever gold medal awarded at the Olympics later Wednesday. Madison Chock and Evan Bates are back in action with their final ice dancing event. Oh, and Chloe Kim will hit the halfpipe for the first time, too.
Here are the top five things to watch on Wednesday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics:
1. Jordan Stoltz looks to defend world record in speed skating
It’s time for Jordan Stoltz to take the ice in Italy. The Team USA speed skating star will open with the 1,000 meters on Wednesday, the event in which he already holds the world record. He made his Olympics debut in Beijing four years ago and finished only 14th in the 1,000 meters, though he’s widely considered a medal favorite every time he takes the ice in these games.
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But the 1,000 meter is his best event. Stoltz has five wins at that distance already this season, and has won 14 races in a row in that distance on the World Cup level. Stoltz will also compete in the 500 meters, 1,500 meters and mass start.
2. Chloe Kim hits the halfpipe
Chloe Kim is ready for her first event in Italy. The top name in the sport will open her quest to become the first person to win three straight gold medals in the halfpipe, starting with qualifying Wednesday. Kim was 17 when she won gold in South Korea in 2018, and she backed it up in Beijing four years ago, too. But Kim is now dealing with a torn labrum, which she suffered during training in Switzerland.
If she can get through qualifying, the final of the women’s halfpipe is set for Thursday.
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3. U.S. team chasing first ever women’s double luge gold
The women’s doubles luge was added to the Olympics for the first time this year after more than six decades on the men’s side. It’ll be up to Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby to lead the way for the United States.
The duo, who are the only American women’s pairing, won bronze at the first ever world championship back in 2022. They’ve looked good so far, too, with a top five time in five of their six training runs. But it’s Austria’s Selina Egle and Lara Kipp who are the favorites, as they both lead the World Cup standings and have won three training runs so far.
4. Chock and Bates chasing gold in ice dance
Madison Chock and Evan Bates will enter Wednesday’s ice dance free skate in second place, so they’ll have to rally a bit in order to pull off the gold medal. They trailed France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron by less than half a point after the rhythm dance portion of the competition on Monday.
The married couple are the reigning world champions in the event, and are just days removed from helping the U.S. win a second straight team gold medal. But the individual medal is the last piece they’ve been chasing after a fourth-place finish in Beijing.
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5. Can Ryan Cochran-Siegle medal again in Super-G?
All eyes will be on Ryan Cochran-Siegle when he hits the Super-G on Wednesday. He was the only American Alpine skier to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics when he won silver in the event four years ago.
But competition is stiff for Cochran-Siegle to improve on that finish this time around. Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt is the favorite in the event, with already two wins to his name this season. A trio of Austrians have dominated the World Cup season race, too, and Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni is a big name to watch.
He has his work cut out for him, but he is the only returning medalist from Beijing. That has to count for something.
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Olympics schedule for Wednesday, Feb. 11 (Day 5)
Alpine Skiing
Super-G
5:30 a.m.: Men’s final (USA Network)🏅
Biathlon
15-kilometer individual
8:15 a.m.: Women’s final (airs at 9:15 a.m. on USA Network)🏅
Curling
Men’s round-robin
1:05 p.m. Sweden vs. Italy, Canada vs. Germany, Czechia vs. USA (airs at 5 p.m. on CNBC), China vs. Great Britain
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych has been told by the International Olympic Committee that he cannot wear a helmet that commemorates Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia. Ukrainian freestyle skier Kateryna Kotsar was told the same thing about her “be brave like Ukrainians” helmet.
The IOC pointed to article 50.2 of the Olympic charter which states, “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” Heraskevych’s helmet features images of over 20 athletes and coaches, including figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, hockey player Oleksiy Loginov and weightlifter Alina Peregudova, who have died since the 2022 Russian invasion.
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In an Instagram post, Heraskevych, who was Ukraine’s flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony, said that the IOC’s decision “simply breaks my heart.”
“The IOC has banned the use of my helmet at official training sessions and competitions. A decision that simply breaks my heart. The feeling that the IOC is betraying those athletes who were part of the Olympic movement, not allowing them to be honored on the sports arena where these athletes will never be able to step again.
“Despite precedents in modern times and in the past when the IOC allowed such tributes, this time they decided to set special rules just for Ukraine.”
During the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, Heraskevych held up a sign that read, “No war in Ukraine” days before the invasion began. The IOC did not respond.
Vladyslav Heraskevych’s helmet commemorates over 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed in the war with Russia. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP via Getty Images)
(FRANCK FIFE via Getty Images)
“Back then, in that action, they saw a call for peace and did not apply any sanctions against me,” Heraskevych wrote on social media Tuesday. “Now, at the Olympics, we have already seen a large number of Russian flags in the stands, on the helmet of one of the athletes — and for the IOC, this is not a violation.”
Kotsar said she wanted to wear her helmet, which reads “be brave like Ukrainians” during the Games, but was told by the IOC that it was “propaganda.”
According to the Associated Press, the IOC said it “decided to make an exception” this time and allow Heraskevych to wear a black armband, which the three-time Olympian has rejected. It’s unclear whether the IOC made the same offer to Kotsar. Armbands have been previously banned at the Olympics.
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“We don’t want everyone wearing a black armband for every competition,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “But where there’s a good reasoning it will be considered properly.
“The Games need to be separated from not just political and religious topics, but all types of interference so that all athletes can concentrate on performance.”
Ukraine’s Olympic committee told the IOC that it believes the helmet meets the IOC’s rules since it “does not carry any political slogans, and does not express any racial discrimination.”
“What we’ve tried to do is to address his desires with compassion and understanding,” Adams said. “He has expressed himself on social media and in the training and, as you know, we will not stop him expressing himself in press conferences, as he leaves competition in the mixed zone and elsewhere. We feel that this is a good compromise in the situation.”
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Heraskevych will continue to wear the helmet during training sessions.
“We will continue to fight for the right to compete in this helmet,” Heraskevych told reporters on Tuesday. “I truly believe that we didn’t violate any law and any rules.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed support with a social media post thanking Heraskevych for “reminding the world the price of our struggle.”
