MILAN — The U.S. women’s hockey team made an emphatic statement Tuesday night.
The Americans cemented themselves as the team to beat at these Olympics with a 5-0 blowout of Canada in a highly anticipated rivalry game that likely doubled as a preview of next week’s gold-medal match.
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After the U.S. outscored its first three group-stage opponents by a combined score of 15-1, Canada was supposed to provide a tougher challenge. Instead, the Americans scored in the opening four minutes of the game, built a two-goal lead by the end of the first period and soon turned a showdown into a blowout.
“We’re playing a good brand of hockey and we’re sticking to it,” U.S. defender Laila Edwards said. “We’ve got a great group that is playing really well together.”
The United States women’s hockey team clinched the No. 1 seed in the knockout round at the Milan Cortina Olympics after a 5-0 rout of Canada on Tuesday.
(Gregory Shamus via Getty Images)
The outcome of Tuesday’s game clinched the No. 1 seed in the knockout round for the U.S. and set up a quarterfinal matchup with host Italy. That game has the potential to get ugly in a hurry considering the U.S. clobbered its four group-stage opponents by a combined score of 20-1 and Italy trails well behind each of those teams in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world rankings.
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The glaring difference between the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday was the disparity in team speed and firepower. With captain Marie-Philip Poulin out with a lower-body injury, Canada struggled to generate many threatening scoring chances and lacked a quarterback on the power play. Conversely, the Americans showcased their attacking depth, finding the back of the net five times despite stars Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Alex Carpenter going goal-less.
The player whose fingerprints were all over this win was Abbey Murphy. The dynamic young American star assisted on three of the U.S.’s five goals, none more impressive than the no-look, behind-the-back pass that set up Hannah Bilka near the end of the first period. Murphy also repeatedly got under the skin of the Canadians and drew penalties that led to four American power-play opportunities.
“She’s an unbelievable player,” U.S. defender Caroline Harvey said. “She can fill any role. Obviously she drew four penalties and she got us on the board getting those assists. She really does it all for us.”
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The outcome of Tuesday’s game clinched the No. 1 seed in the knockout round for the U.S. and set up a quarterfinal matchup with host Italy. That game has the potential to get ugly in a hurry considering the U.S. clobbered its four group-stage opponents by a combined score of 20-1 and Italy trails well behind each of those teams in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world rankings.
For decades, the hierarchy at the top of women’s hockey has been Canada, the U.S. and then everyone else. One of the North American powers has captured gold at all seven Olympics to feature women’s hockey and all 24 world championships. With few exceptions, the rest of the world has essentially battled it out for third place.
Nothing that has happened so far in Milan would suggest that the gulf is closing. The U.S. blitzed its three non-Canada group-stage opponents by a combined score of 15-1. Canada outscored its first two non-U.S. opponents by a combined score of 9-1 with a game against Finland left to play.
Canada has won five of seven Olympic golds and narrowly leads the all-time series, but the U.S. has enjoyed the upper hand in the rivalry recently. The Americans edged the Canadians in overtime in the gold-medal match at last year’s world championships and then convincingly swept four Rivalry Series matchups earlier this winter by a combined score of 24-7.
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If anything, that made Tuesday’s matchup more urgent for Canada. And yet the Canadians weren’t competitive.
Maybe Poulin returning in time for a potential gold-medal match would be a difference maker for Canada, but the gap between the two teams Tuesday night looked like it was bigger than any one player.
Spring training, at least officially, has arrived. Games don’t start for another few weeks, but pitchers and catchers are descending in droves on the sunny environs of Arizona and Florida, if they haven’t done so already.
The six-week baseball preseason is typically an elongated slog of injury news and grainy bullpen videos. But amid the humdrum monotony are a handful of players clouded by an air of desperation. These characters, entering so-called “put up or shut up” seasons, cannot simply go through the motions. For them, the stakes are too high, their futures too uncertain.
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Here are five names faced with make-or-break years that I’m monitoring as spring training begins.
Adley Rutschman, Orioles catcher
Since being taken first overall in the 2019 MLB Draft, Rutschman has carried the aspirations of a franchise on his cartoonishly broad shoulders. In 2023 and ‘24, the switch-hitting catcher made good on those expectations, guiding the O’s to consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since the late-1990s. But last year, things went sideways. Really sideways.
Hampered by injuries to both of his obliques, Rutschman smashed just nine home runs, hit .220 and finished the season with a subpar .673 OPS. Since the 2024 All-Star break, his .693 OPS ranks 22nd among catchers with at least 500 plate appearances.
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How much of those struggles were injury related? That’s the multi-million dollar question. Rutschman, 28, is a free agent after next season, and Baltimore just gave an eight-year extension to 21-year-old backstop Samuel Basallo. The two will split time in 2026, with president of baseball operations Mike Elias dubbing Rutschman the “frontline guy.” But another lackluster season from the former can’t-miss prospect will only amplify questions about his future in Charm City.
Jasson Domínguez, Yankees outfielder
Even though he’s younger than all the “Stranger Things” kids, Domínguez, 23, has already played parts of three seasons in the bigs. Unfortunately, the character nicknamed “The Martian” for his freakish array of supernatural talents has been downright terrestrial across 529 MLB plate appearances. Last year, Domínguez failed to capitalize on regular playing time early in the season and was supplanted by a fast-rising Trent Grisham; Domínguez started just four games in September.
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So when the Yanks decided to run things back with their outfield for 2026, re-signing Grisham and Cody Bellinger, it left Domínguez as the odd man out. How the Yankees handle their former top prospect moving forward will be fascinating to watch. Unless an injury opens up an outfield spot, Domínguez will be relegated to pinch-hitting opportunities and the occasional fill-in start. It’s tough to envision him capitalizing on all that talent without regular playing time.
So do the Yankees trade him? Does it make sense to do so with his value at an all-time low? Another wasted year for Domínguez, and the man formerly destined to be the next Yankees superstar might be continuing his career in a different uniform.
Can Adley Rutschman and Jasson Domínguez get back on track to stardom this season?
(Taylor Wilhelm/Yahoo Sports)
Sandy Alcantara, Marlins starting pitcher
An entire World Cup cycle has flown by since Alcantara’s magnificent 2022 Cy Young campaign. In the interim, the 30-year-old Dominican struggled through an injury-marred 2023, lost all of 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery and returned to deliver a statistically abysmal 2025. Somehow, Alcantara has survived the rebuilding Marlins’ never-ending roster churn, and he looks to be in line for the 2026 Opening Day start.
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But is this guy still any good? Despite having the fourth-highest average fastball velocity among qualified starters, Alcantara finished 2025 with the third-worst starter ERA in baseball. Lefties filled Alcantara’s nightmares, as his once-magical changeup turned into batting-practice fodder. The elements of a frontline starter remain, and the Marlins sure know how to develop pitching, but this franchise cornerstone needs to turn the clock back sooner rather than later.
Miami holds a $21 million option on Alcantara’s contract for 2027, an option that once looked like a no-brainer. That’s no longer the case. If the righty is to be on the next great Marlins team, he needs to prove his worth. Otherwise he might become yet another tragic case of an ace derailed.
Tanner Scott, Dodgers relief pitcher
Just over a year ago, Scott lit the baseball world ablaze by signing a massive, four-year deal with the Dodgers. His addition to an already stacked roster was, for many fans and prognosticators, the moment Los Angeles’ spending reached a problematic level, one that threatened the competitive balance of the sport.
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While that debate rages on, Scott is no longer at the center of it. That’s because his first year in Chavez Ravine was an unmitigated disaster. Scott led the league in blown saves and posted a 4.74 ERA, his worst single-season tally since 2021. His four-seam fastball, lethal in 2024, was peppered to the tune of a .520 slugging percentage. Things got so ugly that the Dodgers, desperate for competent relief pitching, didn’t call on Scott a single time in the postseason. L.A. followed that by signing Edwin Díaz, this winter’s top free-agent closer, to a lucrative, three-year deal, even though Scott remains under contract for three more seasons.
The Dodgers, with their mountains of cash, could release Scott tomorrow and not feel a thing. That, perhaps, would be an even grander indication of their financial might than his signing. A bounce-back for Scott is certainly in the cards, but relievers, famously, can be volatile from year to year. There’s a chance his story ends uncomfortably for everyone if he can’t right the ship.
Jordan Walker, Cardinals outfielder
Entering the 2023 season, Walker was a consensus top-five prospect in the sport, trailing only Gunnar Henderson, Corbin Carroll and Francisco Alvarez in aggregate rankings across the major prospect sites. In the time since, across 1,039 big-league plate appearances, the hulking slugger has compiled an unthinkably putrid -2.7 bWAR. Much of that negative value has to do with his abysmal outfield defense, but it’s not like Walker has set the batter’s box on fire, either. His .584 OPS last season was the fifth-lowest mark in baseball among hitters with at least 300 plate appearances.
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But with the Cardinals embracing a full-scale reset, Walker will get yet another opportunity to figure things out this season. Turning his light-tower raw power and 99th-percentile bat speed into actual production remains a task taller than Walker himself (6-foot-6). But the new Cardinals leadership group under president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom and assistant general manager of player development Rob Cerfolio might have a better shot at unlocking Walker’s immense potential. If they don’t, it’s tough to envision him surviving the rebuild.
There will be a new face in the FBS for the 2026 season as FCS powerhouse North Dakota State is making the leap. The 10-time FCS National Champions will be joining the Mountain West Conference. Andy Staples and Steven Godfrey discuss if they think this is the right move for the Bison. The guys chat about what exactly the team is giving up to make this move, what they have to gain, and if they think North Dakota State can be successful. Plus, they also discuss the latest in the Charles Bediako case. He is no longer eligible to play for Alabama after a judge denied his most recent injunction request. Andy and Godfrey discuss what this means going forward.
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Then, the guys take a quick look at the NFL in comparison to college football. Sam Darnold culminated his redemption story with a Super Bowl ring this season. Once the third pick in the NFL Draft for the New York Jets, Darnold struggled for much of his career. After being a back-up in San Francisco, he found success as a starter for the Minnesota Vikings and now is a Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks. Andy and Godfrey look at the college landscape and discuss if there are any transfer quarterbacks that may have a similar redemption story in 2026.
Later, the guys continue to look at the transfer quarterbacks, but through a different lens. Last episode, Godfrey compared Fernando Mendoza to a certified, pre-owned Honda. This was meant as a compliment. Now, they look at the transfer quarterbacks for 2026 and compare seven QBs to used cars. Find out what the comparisons are for Rocco Becht, Kenny Minchey, Drew Mestemaker, Austin Simmons, DJ Lagway, Darian Mensah and Byrum Brown.
Get your college football news here with College Football Enquirer.
NDSU moves to the Mountain West Conference Photo by Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
(Photo by Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
0:00:00 – North Dakota State heads to the FBS
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26:12 – Charles Bediako no longer eligible
34:17 – What transfer QB can have a Darnold-like redemption season
MILAN — It’s reckless and exhilarating, daring and unnecessary, thrilling and chaotic all at once. The mid-routine backflip is one of skating’s most controversial moves, and Ilia Malinin — for the third time this Olympic Games — broke it out during his short program on Tuesday night, to absolute mayhem at the Assago Ice Skating Arena.
The flip doesn’t add to his technical score, but it sure does rally the crowd. Malinin earned a 108.16 on the night to lead the field heading into Friday’s medal round. Yuma Kagiyama, who bested Malinin in the team short program skate, ended the day second with 103.07, and France’s Adam Siao Him Fa currently ranks third with a score of 102.55.
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The evening was a marked improvement over his short program in the team event, when Malinin looked ill at ease and, by his standards, rocky. After Tuesday night’s skate, he admitted that he had indeed been feeling what he called “Olympic pressure.”
“Going out there the first time hitting that Olympic ice and feeling the atmosphere, it was like, I didn’t expect it to be so much,” Malinin said. “It took me a little while to understand what really happened, but now that I understand it, I took a different approach today.”
American Ilia Malinin competes in men’s individual short program at the 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on February 10, 2026 in Milan, Italy.
(Andreas Rentz via Getty Images)
Malinin backed off of doing a planned quad axel, which would have been the first such jump in Olympic history. But he stuck with his traditional backflip, and as expected, the move improved his routine from the exceptional to the sublime. And he knew exactly what he was doing as. he did it.
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“Having that attention, all those eyes on you — that pressure shows you who you truly are on the ice,” Malinin said. “It’s one thing to do everything in practice, but it’s another skill to be able to perform it under pressure. That’s something I really enjoy.”
The backflip’s appeal as performance art is obvious. The necessary elite-level athletic ability, combined with the sheer lunatic danger of flipping upside down while ice skating, is guaranteed to send an already-hyped crowd into a frenzy. Malinin is a leading individual gold medal threat and one of the greatest skaters on the planet because he combines showmanship, athleticism and fearlessness, and the backflip is his ultimate manifestation.
The legacy of the backflip is one of brief flourishes followed by blanket shutdowns. Terry Kubicka, an American skater and the first to land a triple lutz, performed the first Olympic backflip at the Winter Games in 1976, landing on both feet. The International Skating Union was apparently so horrified by the move — and aghast that Kubicka landed on two skates — that it immediately banned it from any skating performance.
Twenty-two years later, Surya Bonaly, a three-time French Olympian, landed a one-skate backflip at the Nagano Olympics in 1998 as a protest against what she deemed unfair judging practices. Bonaly had been backflipping for years; she may be the first female ever to land the backflip, and at age 12 she set a Guinness record for the youngest female to backflip.
Until last year, the International Skating Union would deduct points from any skater who attempted one. In 2024, though, as part of its ongoing attempts to shed the sport’s stodgier image, the ISU permitted backflips.
But there’s a catch: they don’t go to a skater’s technical score, but to their components score, which includes artistic presentation. In other words, you don’t get any extra points for landing a backflip, but you can get a small bump for the sheer artfulness of the effort. That distinction makes it a high-risk, low-reward endeavor for most skaters. Most, but not all.
Malinin has been backflipping for several years, but was only able to begin using it legally in competition starting in 2024. Every time he unleashes one, the crowd erupts. And on Sunday night, as part of his gold medal-winning performance, he threw in a backflip … and then saw none other than Novak Djokovic cheering him.
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“He was standing there, hands on his head,” Malinin said afterward, his gold medal around his neck. “I was like, Oh, my God, you know,?’ That’s incredible. That’s like a once-in-a-lifetime moment, just seeing a famous tennis player watching my performance. I’m absolutely blown away.”
Fair enough. Malinin’s been blowing away the skating world with his backflips for the last year; about time someone did the same to him.
The men’s event continues on Friday night with the free skate program, where the top 24 scorers from Tuesday’s short program will face off with the podium at stake. Malinin will be leading the field … and he might just flip over it, too. The technical scores and the ambition in Malinin’s program are so high that he would seem to be a gold medal favorite, but he’s trying to avoid falling into that trap of assumption.
“Being the favorite is one thing, but actually getting it done, and doing it under pressure, and really just having the skate of your life to earn that medal is another thing,” Malinin said. “I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and say that, you know, it’s guaranteed that I’m getting that gold medal … I still have to put in that work for that long program, so I’m not going to take that for granted.”
Longtime Rams offensive lineman Rob Havenstein has announced his retirement from the NFL after 11 seasons with the franchise.
Havenstein was a holdover from St. Louis after being selected by the Rams in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He was drafted during the Jeff Fisher regime and became a mainstay under Sean McVay and played a major role in the franchise’s success over the past decade.
The Rams will look to replace Havenstein along the offensive line as we approach the start of the new league season in March. With the scouting combine, free agency and the NFL Draft taking place within the next few months, this Rams’ front office will certainly have its hands full. Havenstein’s presence will undoubtedly be missed in Los Angeles, as he proved to be a reliable anchor at right tackle.
During 10 of Havenstein’s 11 seasons in the NFL, he played at least 97% of the snaps he was available for. In 2016, Havenstein’s second year in the league, he played in all 16 games and was present for all 1,100 offensive snaps. He accomplished the same feat in 2022, but this time on a 17-game schedule, and was on the field for all 1,018 Rams offensive snaps.
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That level of consistency will be missed and hard to replace.
Super-G skiing — which stands for super giant slalom — combines the speed of downhill racing with the precision of giant slalom, and Olympic courses feature a minimum vertical drop of 400m. This week at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the men’s super-G final will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 11, and you can catch the live feed bright and early at 5:30 a.m. ET on Peacock and USA.
Here’s a complete schedule of all Team USA Alpine Skiing events at this year’s games, along with a rundown of who is competing. While every event will stream on Peacock, you can also find most on USA and NBC, too. (To see specific air times, check out the official NBC Olympics broadcast schedule, and toggle your search to “TV Only.”).
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If you want to learn even more about every event at this year’s Winter Games, here’s a guide to everything you need to know about the Milan Cortina Games.
How to watch men’s super-G skiing final at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 11
Time: 5:30 a.m. ET
Location: Livigno Snow Park
TV channels: USA, NBC
Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, and more
Where can I stream the men’s super-G skiing final at the 2026 Winter Olympics?
For $17/month, you can upgrade to an ad-free Premium Plus subscription, which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Where to watch the men’s super-G skiing final on TV:
The men’s super-G skiing final will be broadcast live on USA at 5:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 11. Portions of the competition will also be broadcast as part of NBC’s Primetime in MIlan coverage at 8 p.m. ET. (To see specific air times, check out the official NBC Olympics broadcast schedule, and toggle your search to “TV Only.”). You can stream these channels on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more.
How to watch Olympic Skiing free without cable:
Who is on the Team USA Alpine ski team?
These are the athletes on Team USA’s Alpine ski team:
NBC announced on Tuesday night that this year’s Super Bowl averaged 124.9 million viewers on their network, which made it the second-most-watched Super Bowl ever. That trails only last year’s Super Bowl — when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs — which averaged 127.7 million viewers on Fox.
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The halftime show caused a slight surge in viewership, too. NBC said Bad Bunny’s performance at Levi’s Stadium averaged 128.2 million viewers over the 15 minute window. That’s down slightly from the more than 133 million that tuned in for Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show at the Super Bowl last year in New Orleans.
By comparison, Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show” drew about 6.1 million concurrent viewers on YouTube on Sunday, according to The Athletic. That alternative halftime show, which was pre-recorded, featured Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett.
While the game didn’t set a viewership record in total, the game did set an all-time record for its peak viewership. About 137.8 million viewers tuned in during the second quarter of the contest. Telemundo also averaged 3.3 million viewers for its broadcast of the game in Spanish, which made it the most-watched Super Bowl in Spanish-language history. Telemundo’s audience also peaked during Bad Bunny’s halftime show with about 4.8 million viewers, which also set a Spanish-language viewership record.
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The Seahawks rolled to a dominant 29-13 win over the Patriots, marking the franchise’s first championship since the 2013 campaign. Kenneth Walker III was named the game’s MVP, which made him the first running back to win that award in 28 years.
Next year’s Super Bowl will take place Feb. 14, 2027, from SoFi Stadium in Southern California.
Seattle walked into Levi’s Stadium and thoroughly lived up to the expectation that they set for themselves throughout the regular season. There are rarely NFL games that feel over when neither offense can get into the end zone, but as the Seahawks’ offense continued to chip in field goals and slowly build a lead in Super Bowl LX on Sunday, the game quickly fell into doubt for New England.
Head coach Mike Macdonald’s defense put an emphatic stamp on a dominant season and firmly established themselves as one of the best units in the 21st century. As they repeatedly smothered QB Drake Maye and the Patriots offense, they showed us something that’s often forgotten in the offense-forward nature of football consumption: defense can be box office too.
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It was immediately clear who the bully on the block was in this game. Seattle allowed just 39 yards of offense on 13 plays over the Patriots’ first three drives of the game, which took up the entirety of the first quarter. New England averaged -0.32 expected points per play in the first quarter and that actually was some of the best work the Patriots were able to manage on the day. In the second and third quarters combined, the Patriots were comprehensively buried before putting together some garbage-time drives in the fourth quarter. Over the two middle quarters, the Patriots once again gained 39 yards of offense, but this time on 26 plays. They averaged a brutally low 5.6 yards per drive and managed only two first downs over seven drives in that time frame.
What has to be most frustrating for Patriots fans is that their defense did enough to keep them in the game, but Seattle’s defense was unflappable. The 9-0 halftime lead felt insurmountable and even though it was only 12-0 heading into the fourth quarter, everyone with eyes on the game knew it was over. New England didn’t even reach the red zone until the fourth quarter, and when you throw in all numbers from the first three quarters, they averaged only 7.8 yards per drive.
The numbers paint the picture of a dominant performance, but they don’t tell the whole story of how visually dominant Seattle was as well. The Patriots’ offensive line spent all game getting tossed out of the club, including a truly dreadful performance from rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson on the left side of the offensive line. Meanwhile, Mike Onwenu, New England’s right guard, spent the day giving away plays with his stance. That’s not even a bit, as Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon said after the game that Macdonald noted that the Patriots’ were giving away what play they were running frequently based on the stances and angles of their offensive line pre-play — and it certainly felt like it.
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Witherspoon was a nuisance for the Patriots’ offense, breaking through the front with ease and even beating blocks from offensive linemen. And even that was just a fraction of the carnage that Seattle unleashed on New England. Derick Hall, Boye Mafe, Byron Murphy II, Uchenna Nwosu and DeMarcus Lawrence all had pressure rates over 12%, according to TruMedia, and Leonard Williams chipped in with a solid 8.1% pressure rate. Those six, along with Witherspoon, had three pressures a piece as they just diced through the Patriots’ front over and over and over again.
It wasn’t just the physical beatdown in the trenches, it was also the clear coaching mismatch between the two sides, with Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels being unable to keep pace with Macdonald’s aggressive plan of attack. New England head coach Mike Vrabel took two timeouts into halftime, and when they came out from the halftime break they were just beat with more of the same. The play-calling wasn’t helpful, the game management was poor and Macdonald took extreme advantage of that fact. For the NFL Coach and Assistant Coach of the Year, it was hard to tell who actually won those awards when the game was in action. They had no answers at all.
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Dominance is fun, even when it leads to a low-scoring game. There aren’t many defenses that feel like must-see television, but the Seahawks had that appeal this season and proved it by hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Sam Darnold will be the main focus of the remaining coverage of this game because quarterbacks rule all, but this team should forever be remembered for what got them here: one of the best defenses in the history of the league.
Day 4 of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Tuesday brought more hardware for Team USA, but no gold. A pair of U.S. contenders, however, looked very much like gold-medal favorites in preliminary action.
Meanwhile, there was more Olympic struggle for U.S. alpine great Mikaela Shiffrin, who blew an opportunity to secure her first Olympic medal since 2018 in PyeongChang.
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And a Norwegian biathlete may have given the most bizarre post-competition interview in Olympics history.
Here are five of the top stories from Day 4 of the Milan Cortina Olympics.
USA women’s hockey dominates Canada
If this was a preview of the gold medal game, Team USA is a strong bet to take home the top prize.
On the heels of a 3-0 start in group play with a combined score of 15-1, the U.S. women’s hockey team was expected to face its first and stiffest test of the Milan Cortina Games on Tuesday against fellow gold-medal contender Canada. Instead, it was another USA blowout.
USA opened up a 2-0 first-period lead en route to a 5-0 blowout to improve to 4-0 at the Olympics. Abbey Murphy set the tone with a sensational no-look backward pass that set up Hannah Bilka for a one-timer and a 2-0 USA lead.
From there, it was a Team USA romp.
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The loss was Canada’s first of the Games, and it’s still expected to advance to a gold-medal matchup against the U.S. But if the two teams meet again in the final game of the Olympics, there’s little from Tuesday’s game to suggest Canada will mount a challenge.
Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic struggles continue
Mikaela Shiffrin is widely considered the greatest female alpine skier of all time. But her struggles in Beijing were one of the biggest stories of the 2022 Olympics as she failed to medal in any of the six events she competed in and failed to finish in three of those races.
Her 2026 Games are off to a rocky start. Shiffrin made her Milan Cortina debut Tuesday in the team combined event with teammate Breezy Johnson.
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Johnson followed up her individual gold medal in the downhill event with the fastest time in the downhill portion of Tuesday’s competition, putting Shiffrin in position to secure gold in the slalom portion with a strong run. Johnson and Shiffrin didn’t finish on the podium.
The most decorated female slalom skier of all time, Shiffrin finished 15th out of 18 slalom skiers. The cushion Johnson provided in winning the downhill was erased, and Johnson and Shiffrin finished in fourth place.
(L-R) Mikaela Shiffrin gets a hug from teammate Breezy Johnson after her 15th-place finish in the slalom kept them off the podium in the women’s team combined event.
(REUTERS / Reuters)
Shiffrin, who has three Olympic medals — including two golds from prior Games — told Olympics.com before these Games that she wants to “make peace” with the Olympics at Milan Cortina. She defined that peace as being able to “openly accept anything that happens.” And she acknowledged that she had been “a little bit” scared of the Olympics following her Beijing experience.
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Shiffrin will have fewer opportunities to medal in Milan Cortina than she did in Beijing. She’s cut her competition schedule in half and is focusing on the slalom races that are her strength. With one race down, she’ll have two more opportunities to medal in the giant slalom (Sunday) and slalom (Feb. 18)
Malinin followed up Sunday’s medal-clinching effort with a nearly flawless short program Tuesday to take control of the men’s individual competition.
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The “Quad God” completed two quad jumps and his signature back flip without notable error while executing a program with the highest technical difficulty in Tuesday’s competition.
He performed with joy and exuberance and no signs of nerves at his first Olympic Games.
The effort secured a score of 108.16, more than five points ahead of Tuesday’s second-place finisher and his top rival, Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama (103.07). Thanks in part to that cushion, Malinin will enter Friday’s free skate as the favorite to take home the gold medal.
But he’ll have to maintain his level of excellence to fend off Kagiyama, who was outstanding in the team competition and won the silver medal in this event in Beijing.
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U.S. curlers settle for silver
U.S. curlers Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse already secured their Olympic dreams just by making it to Tuesday’s mixed doubles curling final, which ensured their place on the podium.
Dropkin and Thiesse made early mistakes that allowed Sweden to take a 4-3 advantage through six ends. USA rallied for a 2-point seventh to take a 5-4 advantage into the decisive eighth end.
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But there, Isabella Wranå had a chance to close out a win for Sweden with the final throw of that match. Wranå, who was nearly flawless in Tuesday’s final, delivered to secure two points and a 6-5 win for the gold medal.
While surely disappointing in the moment, there’s no reason for Dropkin and Thiesse to hang their heads. Their run to the gold-medal match was an upset, and their hardware represents USA’s second Olympic medal in curling following John Shuster’s team that secured gold in the men’s competition in 2018.
Ashley Farquharson wins rare U.S. luge medal
Ashley Farquharson made U.S. Olympic history Tuesday with a bronze medal run to secure the nation’s second medal in women’s luge.
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She needed a dramatic comeback to make it happen.
Germany’s Julia Taubitz and Merle Malou Fräbel were in control in first and second place as the country sought its eighth straight gold medal and fourth consecutive gold-silver finish in the event. But Fräbel had a rocky third run and dropped into eighth place, opening the door for other competitors to move onto the podium.
Farquharson took advantage, jumping from fifth to third place with her third run. She entered her fourth and final run knowing she was in control of her place on the podium. When she crossed the finish line with a clean run and a time of 52.909, she knew that she’d secured at least a bronze medal.
Taubitz earned Germany’s eighth straight gold medal in the event while Latvia’s Elina Bota secured silver.
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Farquharson joins Erin Hamlin (bronze, Sochi 2014) as the only U.S. women to medal in the history of the event.
Both of Naumov’s parents died in the Washington plane crash in 2025 that claimed 67 lives when an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter mid-air. His parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, were world champion skaters for Russia who competed in the 1994 Olympics.
Naumov held up a picture of his parents as he awaited his score on Tuesday following his short program.
Naumov is in 14th place after Tuesday’s short program and will advance alongside his U.S. teammates Malinin and Andrew Torgashev (8th place) to compete in Friday’s free skate.
“There’s someone I wanted to share it with who might not be watching,” he said, fighting back tears. “Six months ago I met the love of my life — the most beautiful and kindest person in the world. Three months ago I made my biggest mistake and cheated on her.
“I had the gold medal in life, and I am sure there are many people who will see things differently, but I only have eyes for her.”
That’s one way to come clean.
Lægreid also said that he already told his girlfriend the bad news last week. At least he didn’t break it to her on live TV?
San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Keion White was shot in the ankle during an event on Monday morning.
White was shot at 4:06 a.m. on the 17th block of Mission Street in San Francisco, a San Francisco Police spokesman said, via The Athletic. There was an altercation between two groups that broke out at an event there that led to the shooting, though specifics of that incident are not yet known. White is not believed to have been part of that altercation.
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He was taken by police to a nearby hospital, and is expected to be OK. The 49ers confirmed the shooting, and said that White underwent surgery on Monday afternoon. Further specifics of his condition are not yet known, but he did post an update to his Instagram on Tuesday afternoon.
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out with their prayers and concerns on my behalf,” he wrote on a photo of him in a hospital bed. “I’ve undergone successful surgery. For those who know me, y’all know this won’t stop me from spreading peace and joy to the world. Full steam ahead. I’m in great spirits and ready to make the most of this offseason.”
An investigation is ongoing.
The incident took place hours after the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium on the other side of the Bay Area. The stadium sits more than 40 miles away in Santa Clara, south of San Francisco. White was at the Super Bowl, and was spotted wearing a Patriots hat.
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White was traded to the 49ers in October from the Patriots, who selected him with the No. 46 overall pick in 2023. White had 18 total tackles and 1.5 sacks in 14 games this season. The 27-year-old has one year left on his initial four-year, $7.7 million deal. The 49ers went 12-5 this past season and reached the playoffs, though they were knocked out in the divisional round.
White is now the second 49ers player to be shot in recent years. Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot in the chest during an attempted robbery in San Francisco ahead of his rookie season in 2024. Pearsall ended up returning to play in 11 games during that season.
