The NFL offseason has just begun, after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl 60, but it’s never too early to look ahead to odds — and wagers — on next year’s big game.
After all, not many people were anticipating the Seahawks (60-1 preseason odds at BetMGM) and Patriots (80-1) meeting in the Super Bowl at this time last year.
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In addition to bets on single teams to win the Super Bowl, sportsbooks also allow bettors to place exactas that give bettors the ability to predict the exact result of Super Bowl LXI. One bettor at DraftKings recently wagered $2,500 on Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals to beat Dak Prescott’s Dallas Cowboys in next year’s Super Bowl at 500-1 odds.
The bet would win $1.25 million.
The Seahawks are +800 favorites to repeat at BetMGM, followed by the Los Angeles Rams (+900), Buffalo Bills (12-1) and Baltimore Ravens (12-1).
Burrow and the Bengals reached the Super Bowl a few years ago, falling 24-21 to the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, 2022. Cincinnati went 6-11 last season and Burrow only started in eight games due to injury (the Bengals went 5-3 in those games).
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The Cowboys haven’t won (or reached) a Super Bowl in over 30 years, last winning Super Bowl XXX by a score of 27-17 over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 28, 1996. Dallas went 7-9-1 last season and finished in second place in the NFC East.
Neither team made the postseason.
Super Bowl LXI will be played on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
On a day when Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse made U.S. curling history with an Olympic silver medal in mixed doubles, U.S. curler Rich Ruohonen used the platform to turn the spotlight on his home state of Minnesota.
Those killings and ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics on the streets of Minneapolis have prompted outrage and protest in Minnesota and beyond. Ruohonen, a lawyer, cited the U.S. Constitution to declare that “there’s no shades of gray” and that “what’s happening in Minnesota is wrong.”
‘What’s happening in Minnesota is wrong’
Ruohonen opened his statement by saying he’s “proud to be here to represent Team USA and to represent our country.”
He then turned his attention to Minnesota.
“This stuff is happening right around where we live,” Ruohonen said. “I am a lawyer, as you know, and we have a constitution, and it allows us freedom of press, freedom of speech, protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures and makes it that we have to have probable cause to be pulled over.
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“And what’s happening in Minnesota is wrong. There’s no shades of gray. It’s clear. I really love what’s been happening there now — people coming out, showing the love, the compassion, integrity and respect for others that they don’t know and helping them out. And we love Minnesota for that.”
Ruohonen, 54, is a two-time national champion curler who’s twice competed for Team USA in the curling world championships (2008, 2018). He’s never competed in the Olympics.
He’s an alternate at the Milan Cortina Games for the men’s curling team helmed by skip Danny Casper. He’s not guaranteed to compete. But if he plays, he’ll become the oldest U.S. athlete to ever compete in the Winter Olympics.
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He went on to speak about what it means to have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics.
“I want to make it clear that we are out here, we love our country,” Ruohonen continued. “We’re playing for the U.S., we’re playing for Team USA, we’re playing for each other, and we’re playing for our family and our friends that sacrificed so much to get here today. …
‘What the Olympics means is excellence, respect, friendship, and we all, I think, exemplify that. And we are playing for the people of Minnesota and the people around the country who share those same values.”
“I would do the same thing 100 times out of 100 for any of our guys it would have made sense to do it with,” Oats said, via AL.com’s Nick Kelly.
Bediako filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in order to return to Alabama this season, where he last played during the 2022-23 campaign. The 7-footer entered the NBA Draft in 2023, though he wasn’t selected, and has been bouncing around the G League ever since. He even appeared in games for the Motor City Cruise this season.
Bediako was granted a temporary-restraining order in January that allowed him to take the court again with the Crimson Tide. He made his return a few days later, and ended up playing in five games. Alabama went 3-2 with him on the court, and he averaged 10 points and 4.6 rebounds over that span.
But on Monday, a judge overruled the temporary-restraining order that Bediako was granted. That made him immediately ineligible again, and likely ended his college career for good. The judge who originally granted the temporary-restraining order was removed from the case, too, after revelations that he was an active donor to Alabama athletics.
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It’s unclear if Bediako will attempt to fight the case further, considering that Alabama has only eight games left in the regular season. His attorney, however, slammed the ruling.
Though it didn’t work out for him, and there has been plenty of criticism with the players who are trying to make a return to college basketball after playing professionally in some fashion elsewhere, Oats didn’t hesitate to help Bediako.
“There was an opportunity to help one of our former players out,” Oats said. “He was within his five-year window. He’s trying to get his degree. Here’s the thing too. My job as a head coach is to try to do the right thing by our guys. Charles is one of our guys. That was the right thing to do by one of our guys.
“Like I’ve said before, this is not some mercenary deal with a 23-year-old coming in for a semester that nobody knows. He was deemed legally eligible to play. We’re going to absolutely support him.”
Charles Bediako was deemed ineligible again on Monday, five games after he was granted a temporary restraining order to return to Alabama from the G League. (Brandon Sumrall/Getty Images)
(Brandon Sumrall via Getty Images)
Oats: There’s a reason G League players come back to college
Bediako wasn’t the only player trying to make it back to college. Baylor signed former NBA Draft pick James Nnaji in December. He was the first former draft pick to be cleared to play at the college level, though Nnaji never played in an NBA game and was instead with FC Barcelona for years. At least two other G League players are set to play in college next season.
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The reason for that, Oats said, is simple — and Bediako was a perfect example of the issue.
“There’s a reason … there’s a lot of G League players trying to come back to college,” Oats said. “The money’s a lot better. The development is a lot better. You get a full-time dietician, full-time strength coach, you’re not traveling on commercial flights, spending all your time in airports, not being able to develop.
“Charles actually has lost weight since he went to the G League. His development wasn’t what you would think being a pro. You’re more of a professional able to focus on getting your body right in college. He’s here. He’s in school. We’re going to help him try to gain weight back he’s lost since he was in the G League. We’re going to continue to help his basketball development. We’re going to continue to help his development as a student, as a student-athlete.”
But now, barring some late appeal, Alabama will have to play the rest of the season without Bediako.
The Crimson Tide hold a 16-7 record entering Wednesday’s game at Ole Miss, which has them in fifth in the SEC standings. Though both the NCAA and even SEC commissioner Greg Sankey were against Bediako making a return, Alabama was naturally upset.
“We are disappointed in today’s court ruling denying the injunction for Charles Bediako,” Alabama said in a statement on Monday. “While we understand the concern around competitive and developmental implications of former professional athletes participating in college, it is important to acknowledge reality.
“The NCAA has granted eligibility to over 100 current men’s basketball players with prior professional experience in the G League or overseas. Granting eligibility to some former professionals and not to others is what creates the havoc we are currently in and why consistency from decision-makers is so desperately needed.”
LeBron James will not play on Tuesday night against the San Antonio Spurs. The Los Angeles Lakers officially ruled James out on the second night of a back-to-back due to left foot arthritis. Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Marcus Smart were all ruled out, too.
With James now out due to the injury, he will officially hit 18 games missed on the season, making it impossible for him to reach the 65 appearances he needs to be awards eligible due to the current collective bargaining agreement. That means for the first time since 2004, the All-NBA teams will not include James.
The development ends an unprecedented 21-year All-NBA streak for James. To get a sense of how abnormal that is, keep in mind that Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are tied for second all time in All-NBA selections with 15 each. Not a streak, total.
James is also the all-time leader in first-team selections with 13, two ahead of Bryant and Karl Malone.
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For more perspective on how far James’ streak goes back, here are the All-NBA teams from the 2003-04 season, his first year in the NBA. That was the only time in James’ career he didn’t make an All-NBA team, though he did win Rookie of the Year.
First Team
F – Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Timberwolves
F – Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs
C – Shaquille O’Neal, Los Angeles Lakers
G – Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
G – Jason Kidd, New Jersey Nets
Second Team
F – Peja Stojaković, Sacramento Kings
F – Jermaine O’Neal, Indiana Pacers
C – Ben Wallace, Detroit Pistons
G – Tracy McGrady, Orlando Magic
G – Sam Cassell, Minnesota Timberwolves
Third Team
F – Ron Artest, Indiana Pacers
F – Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks
C – Yao Ming, Houston Rockets
G – Michael Redd, Milwaukee Bucks
G – Baron Davis, New Orleans Hornets
The streak means that James has not only maintained a high level of play for more than two decades, but he’s also stayed healthy enough to play something resembling a full season. He did, however, have some close calls.
You can take all of that for what you will in the NBA GOAT arguments. It’s just hard to think of a single athlete in all of sports who has performed like this from ages 19 to 41.
The bowl landscape appears to be quickly consolidating.
According to On3, the GameAbove Sports Bowl has been canceled. The Detroit-based game was played at Ford Field and had existed in its current form since 2014 when the then-Quick Lane Bowl succeeded the Little Caesar’s Bowl.
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Northwestern won this season’s GameAbove Sports Bowl 34-7 over Central Michigan. The game was the first of three bowls held on Friday, Dec. 26. Two years ago, the bowl was one of the most entertaining of bowl season as Toledo beat Pitt 48-46 in six overtimes.
The bowl had recently featured Big Ten and MAC teams after ACC teams regularly made appearances in the 2010s. Quick Lane was the sponsor from 2014-23.
Bowl games continue to get strong television ratings; ESPN had one of its best seasons for non-playoff bowls viewership. There will always be a market for bowl games outside the College Football Playoff. But it’s also fair to wonder if the bowl market was too saturated, especially given what happened at the end of the 2025 season with the need to fill 36 non-playoff bowl games.
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Teams like Notre Dame, Iowa State and Kansas State turned down bowl bids after either missing the playoff (in the case of the Fighting Irish) or losing a coach to another team. That led bowls to scramble for 5-7 teams as replacements, and many 5-7 teams turned down the opportunity to play in one more game given the roster turnover that’s now prevalent with the NCAA’s current transfer rules.
Will more games get canceled before the start of the 2026 season? We wouldn’t be surprised if one or two more were discontinued.
That whole situation strained the relationship between Crosby and the Raiders, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, who reported on Jan. 3 that Las Vegas was expected to be open to trading Crosby this offseason. It was reported last week that Crosby told minority owner Tom Brady he won’t be playing for the Raiders again. The star edge rusher is expected to attract a massive amount of interest in the trade market if that’s the case.
But perhaps Crosby and the Raiders have ironed some things out.
Coming off a dominant win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, the former Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator was introduced as the Raiders’ frontman on Tuesday.
Kubiak told reporters that he got a cup of coffee with Crosby that morning.
“Love talking ball with him and look forward to continuing those conversations,” Kubiak said. “I think he was the first one in here this morning working out, so that fired me up.”
Kubiak was then asked about how important it’s going to be for Crosby to quickly buy into Kubiak’s head-coaching vision, given how much credibility the defensive stalwart has in the Vegas locker room.
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“We want him to be a part of our success going forward,” Kubiak said. “There’s no doubt about that. He’s one of the best players in the NFL. So that’s a no-brainer to get to work with Maxx and to see him continue to have success with this organization.”
Crosby has been with the organization for seven seasons. The Raiders selected him out of Eastern Michigan in the fourth round of the 2019 draft. They were still in Oakland back then.
He’s finished with at least 10 sacks four times, including during the 2025 campaign, despite its premature end.
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.”
