Charlotte Hornets star LaMelo Ball avoided injury in a car crash in Uptown Charlotte, according to Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer. He was not on the Hornets’ injury report prior to Thursday night’s game against the Houston Rockets.
WSOC-TV has more details about the crash, as well as video. It reportedly occurred at the intersection of Tryon Street and Trade Street, with Ball’s custom Hummer hitting the front left wheel of a Kia sedan. The sedan’s driver was reportedly taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
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Ball was reportedly traveling west on Trade when he tried to turn left onto Tryon. Footage appears to show the Hummer trying to bail out of the turn but still colliding with the Kia with the front left section.
Ball is in his sixth season with the Hornets and is currently playing a career low in minutes per game at 27.7, with his points (19.3) and assists (7.4) also representing his lowest numbers since his rookie year. However, he’s also on pace to crack 50 games played for the first time since the 2021-22 season.
He certainly wasn’t needed, but No. 8 Kansas was without star Darryn Peterson for much of the second half of their blowout win over Oklahoma State on Wednesday night.
Peterson, who has long been considered a favorite to go very early in the NBA Draft this summer, has struggled to stay on the court all season due to various injuries and illness. But on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Peterson looked like his old self. He dropped 23 points, 20 of which came in the first half, to give the Jayhawks an early double-digit lead.
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But Peterson simply didn’t last. After he drilled a 3-pointer on the wing, Peterson immediately turned to head coach Bill Self and asked to come out of the game. He didn’t return after that.
“I didn’t anticipate that tonight at all. I thought he was good to go,” Self said, via the Lawrence Journal-World’s Henry Greenstein. “But we only got 18 minutes out of him. That’s disappointing because he could have had a really good night.”
Peterson finished with 23 points and two assists in the win. He went 6-of-10 from behind the arc, too. His final 3-pointer put the Jayhawks up by 13 points at the time. They then led by double digits the rest of the way to grab the 81-69 win. In total, Peterson has averaged 19.8 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while shooting just shy of 48% from the field.
Peterson has missed 11 games so far this season and drawn plenty of criticism for it. He was a late scratch from Kansas’ win over then-top-ranked Arizona after going through pregame warmups due to flu-like symptoms. In total, Peterson has missed time due to a hamstring strain, a sprained ankle, a quad issue and cramping problems.
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The issue on Wednesday night was apparently due to cramping.
“One thing about it is [cramping] has happened enough that our guys have learned to play without him, even though that’s not the way we want to play,” Self said, via ESPN. “But that’s certainly something we’re not unaccustomed to right now.”
Despite the inconsistency from their star player, the Jayhawks still hold a 20-6 record and are third in the Big 12 standings. They will have to take on both No. 2 Houston and No. 4 Arizona before the end of the season — both of which would be easier matchups if Peterson is at full strength.
But clearly, Peterson still isn’t there yet. And with just five games left in the regular season before the Big 12 tournament — which should be the most competitive and top-heavy of the major conferences this March — he’s rapidly running out of time to get there.
As a busy offseason looms, many NFC teams enter with questions left unanswered. With changes coming in free agency, on draft day, and throughout the summer, analyst Joel Smyth goes over five key questions that can shape the 2026 fantasy football season. Smyth covered the AFC earlier in the week.
How will the 49ers offense shape up for 2026?
It was a tumultuous year for San Francisco. Injuries galore, including at quarterback, and yet, head coach Kyle Shanahan did his usual, leading the offense to the fourth-most fantasy points of 2025. It highlights the importance of coaching in fantasy football and opens the door for multiple breakout candidates in 2026. With George Kittle tearing his Achilles and the 49ers’ WR room being an open competition, the upside available later in August drafts will be key.
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Brock Purdy isn’t Tom Brady, but in a Shanahan offense, there are not many quarterbacks in the league better for fantasy. He led the position in catchable target rate to WRs and TEs, has the highest yards per attempt in the Super Bowl Era, and has reached an elite 7%+ TD per attempt in three of his four seasons. In a year without healthy receivers, Purdy ranked third in fantasy points per pass behind only Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye.
The question becomes, who besides Christian McCaffrey can benefit from the 49ers offense, especially as Kittle makes his way back from injury, and Jauan Jennings becomes a free agent?
Candidate No. 1 is Ricky Pearsall, who, before injury, averaged nearly 94 yards in his three healthy games, after recording 210 yards in his final two games of 2024. Just as likely to be fighting for the No. 1 WR spot is a receiver in free agency or from the NFL Draft. At the end of the day, rolling the dice on any of them late in drafts is a wise shot, as San Francisco has produced four top-15 fantasy receivers in the last five years, not including Kittle.
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Who will be the RB1 in Carolina?
For a short stint, Rico Dowdle looked to be a fantasy league-winner in the Panthers offense. His 130 rushing yards per game over a five-week stretch dwindled down to 43 the rest of the way with Chuba Hubbard in the fold. Money is a big factor this offseason. Dowdle, who makes next to nothing, is set to be a free agent in March, the same as last year. Carolina is unlikely to re-sign him while Hubbard has three years remaining on a four-year contract worth $33 million.
The issue then becomes, can Hubbard return to his 2024 self? This past season, he had zero explosive carries, not a single run of 15+ yards. Of 49 running backs, he ranked 49th in yards after contact per attempt. His potential will likely depend on the health and effectiveness of the young Jonathan Brooks, a second-round pick from 2024, who only has nine career carries due to injury. If multiple backs enter Week 1 with split playing time likely, I’d rather pass on the whole backfield.
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However, if Dave Canales has an RB similar to 2023 Rachaad White in his offense, the efficiency won’t matter if top-five RB volume potential is there.
Who becomes quarterback in Arizona?
Arizona has until March 15 to decide on whether Kyler Murray will stay a Cardinal in 2026 and earn his base salary, or head to free agency. It looks unlikely he will be Mike LaFleur’s starting quarterback in September as the new coaching staff is looking for answers at the position. Jacoby Brissett is the next option outside of the draft, but a 33-year-old who’s won two of his last 17 starts is not the future. With the lack of young options in free agency, the most likely scenario is Brissett starting the year, with a rookie waiting in the ranks.
After Fernando Mendoza, the QB position among NFL Draft hopefuls falls off fast. The third overall pick isn’t necessarily the answer, but it doesn’t mean the new regime in Arizona won’t get a QB on Day 2. Either Ty Simpson in Round 2 or Carson Beck in Round 3 gives LaFleur another option behind Brissett to give the future some glimmer of hope. For fantasy purposes, the best case scenario would be Brissett returning, and not only repeating his 2025 performance (rather than 2024), but staying the starter as long as possible, as I’d be far less confident in a Day 2 rookie QB to provide the same production for the Arizona pass catchers.
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Do the Giants, Commanders or Saints go WR in the top 10?
There have been plenty of receivers drafted inside the top 10 in recent years, with very few working out as rookies in fantasy football. Malik Nabers and Ja’Marr Chase have been the big hits as WR1s out of the gate, with a couple more, such as Jaylen Waddle and Tetairoa McMillan, finishing as WR2s in FPPG. The issue with being drafted top-10 is that you’re often not being selected by the greatest offense to shine right away.
Three key teams selecting early in the NFL Draft are looking to add a WR2 to an offense in a rare, high-potential spot:
NYG – The Giants are an interesting one. Nabers’ ACL recovery news has been shaky, making his Week 1 availability not guaranteed. Jaxson Dart wasn’t the most accurate QB in Year 1, but led an offense ranked 15th in scoring as a starter. With little competition, a top rookie WR has a chance for a fast start.
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WAS – Jayden Daniels’ injury completely derailed the Commanders’ season. Even after struggling in 2025, Daniels ranks 13th in yards per attempt over the last two seasons. With a new coaching staff, a rookie WR alongside Terry McLaurin can provide intriguing value in the later rounds of fantasy drafts, similar to how Deebo Samuel Sr. did in 2025.
NO – The Saints are my personal favorite, especially considering I believe they will be underestimated. Do I believe Tyler Shough is a top QB? No, but I do believe Kellen Moore’s offense makes up for it in fantasy football. Their fast pace, WR-friendly offense led Chris Olave to being the overall WR8 in FPPG, even with Spencer Rattler beginning the year as the starting QB. After ranking fourth in targets per game, Olave can co-exist with a rookie WR2 who can elevate this Saints offense that’s looking for more weapons for their young quarterback.
What will Kevin Stefanski do at QB?
Kirk Cousins is all but gone and Michael Penix Jr. is coming off a third torn ACL, adding to his never-ending list of injuries. Kevin Stefanski enters Atlanta with loads of talent, except for a glaring question mark at the quarterback position. Even when healthy, Penix struggled heavily in accuracy, shown by his NFL high in “off-target” throws. The issue for Atlanta is that its options are severely limited. It doesn’t have draft capital and the free agent list is slim.
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Because of last year’s trade on the first night of the NFL Draft, the Falcons will be without their first-round selection this season. The rumored options in free agency then become Russell Wilson, Joe Flacco or Carson Wentz, none of whom is providing much hope for the franchise.
As a result for fantasy managers, some of the best players in the NFL will come with extreme risk. Bijan Robinson, Drake London and even Kyle Pitts Sr. (if he’s re-signed) have a shaky situation with Penix, counting on there being no regression coming back from injury. And if he gets re-injured for the sixth time in nine years? The likelihood of a major bust increases drastically.
MILAN — On the night he won his second gold medal at these Olympics, speedskating phenom Jordan Stolz pondered an intriguing question.
Would he consider his Olympics a success if he accomplished nothing more? Could he return home to Wisconsin satisfied with having proven that he’s the fastest skater on the planet over 500 and 1,000 meters?
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Stolz’s answer offered a window into the mindset of an athlete in peak form, one with ambitions of achieving something truly historic in Milan. These Olympics would only be a “partial success,” according to Stolz, if he didn’t also check off taking gold in the 1,500 from his to-do list.
“I’ve been so good in that distance for so long,” Stolz said, “so I hope I can win that one too.”
Five days later, in front of a roaring crowd, Stolz fell short in his bid to become the first athlete in 46 years to complete speedskating’s sprint treble at an Olympics. Stolz finished a distant second behind China’s Ning Zhongyan in the 1,500 on Thursday, leaving him with two gold medals and a silver with one race still left to contest before he leaves Milan.
Since Stolz had the luxury of skating in the final pair of the competition, the 21-year-old knew the exact time that he needed to beat as he stood at the starting line. Two pairs earlier, Zhongyan — ranked third in the world at this distance — had completed the three-and-three-quarters-lap race in an Olympic record time of 1:41.98 and was hoping that his time might hold up.
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Stolz also had to worry about the Norwegian skating in the lane next him, one of the few skaters in the field who has experienced what it feels like to beat the American over 1,500 meters. Peder Kongshaug narrowly defeated Stolz at World Championships last year when Stolz was still recovering from strep throat and pneumonia.
Performing under the weight of colossal expectations Thursday, Stolz also bettered the previous Olympic record by nearly half a second, but still wasn’t quite his dominant self. He lost ground to Zhongyan during the first half of the race and couldn’t close hard enough to erase the gap.
When Stolz’s time flashed on the scoreboard — 1:42.75 — a teary-eyed Zhongyan pumped his fists and draped the Chinese flag over his shoulders. His margin of victory over Stolz was .77 seconds. Kjeld Nuis hung on for bronze, seven-hundredths of a second behind Stolz.
“I just didn’t quite have the legs,” Stolz said. “The beginning part was a little slow. I thought I could maybe get it back, but I was just beginning to die off.
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“Ning had the race of his life. I didn’t have one of my best, but I am still happy with silver. I have two golds and I was actually really happy that Ning was able to pull it off. I really like Ning.”
Had Stolz achieved the sprint treble on an Olympic stage, it would have been his most remarkable accomplishment yet on a journey that began with watching the charismatic Apolo Anton Ohno at the Vancouver Games 16 years ago. Stolz has chased Olympic glory ever since, going from learning to skate on his family’s backyard pond at age 5, to winning his first U.S. title at 16, to snapping at the heels of the world’s fastest speedskaters soon after that.
While Stolz hasn’t been as untouchable at 1,500 meters as he has been at 1,000, prior to Thursday he still had been very, very hard to beat at that distance. Stolz has raced the 1,500 at World Cup events 17 times since December 2023. He has won 14 of those races, including all five this season.
Stolz’s audacious pre-Olympics goal of four gold medals is now dead, but he still has a chance to add to his incredible haul. The final race that Stolz plans to contest is Saturday’s mass start, a chaotic, unpredictable event that he has referred to as just “a bonus” if he is able to win.
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The 1,500 was a different story. Stolz arrived at the speedskating arena on Thursday as the overwhelming favorite.
He did everything he could to win a third gold.
This was the rare day where speedskating’s fastest man wasn’t quite fast enough.
The U.S. women’s ice hockey team will be playing in the gold medal game against Canada at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics this Thursday. This is the seventh time in history that the two clubs have met in the gold medal game; Canada has won gold in five of those games, while the U.S. has won gold twice. Who will come out on top this year? We’ll find out Thursday, Feb. 19 when the game airs live on Peacock and USA.
Read on for a complete schedule of every remaining U.S. men’s and women’s hockey game at this year’s games, a rundown of who is playing for Team USA, and how to watch all the action. And 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.
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How to watch Team USA vs. Canada in the women’s ice hockey final at the 2026 Winter Olympics
For $17/month, you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription that 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 Team USA vs. Canada women’s ice hockey final on TV:
The Team USA women’s ice hockey final will air live on USA on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 1:10 p.m. ET.
How to watch Olympic ice hockey free without cable:
Who is on the Team USA men’s hockey team?
These are the athletes on Team USA’s men’s team, including their hometowns and professional teams:
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Jake Sanderson (Whitefish, Mont./Ottawa Senators)
Brock Faber (Maple Grove, Minn./Minnesota Wild)
Matt Boldy (Millis, Mass./Minnesota Wild)
Kyle Connor (Shelby Township, Mich./Winnipeg Jets)
Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass./Vegas Golden Knights)
Jake Guentzel (Woodbury, Minn./Tampa Bay Lightning)
Noah Hanifin (Northwood, Mass./Vegas Golden Knights)
Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce, Mich./Winnipeg Jets)
Jack Hughes (Canton, Mich./New Jersey Devils)
Quinn Hughes (Canton, Mich./Minnesota Wild)
Clayton Keller (St. Louis/Utah Mammoth)
Jackson LaCombe (Eden Prairie, Minn./Anaheim Ducks)
Dylan Larkin (Waterford, Mich./Detroit Red Wings)
Auston Matthews (Scottsdale, Ariz./Toronto Maple Leafs)
Charlie McAvoy (Long Beach, N.Y./Boston Bruins)
J.T. Miller (East Palestine, Ohio/New York Rangers)
Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minn./Colorado Avalanche)
Jake Oettinger (Lakeville, Minn./Dallas Stars)
Jaccob Slavin (Erie, Colo./Carolina Hurricanes)
Jeremy Swayman (Anchorage, Alaska/Boston Bruins)
Tage Thompson (Orange, Conn./Buffalo Sabres)
Brady Tkachuk (St. Louis, Mo./Ottawa Senators)
Matthew Tkachuk (St. Louis, Mo./Florida Panthers)
Vincent Trocheck (Pittsburgh, Pa./New York Rangers)
Zach Werenski (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich./Columbus Blue Jackets).
2026 Team USA Olympic men’s ice hockey schedule:
Tuesday, February 17
Qualification Playoff: Germany vs. France, 6:10 a.m. (Peacock)
Qualification Playoff: Switzerland vs. Italy, 6:10 a.m. (Peacock)
Qualification Playoff: Czechia vs. Denmark, 10:40 a.m. (Peacock, USA)
Qualification Playoff: Sweden vs. Latvia, 3:10 p.m. (Peacock, USA)
Wednesday, February 18
Men’s Quarterfinal 1: Slovakia vs. Germany, 6:10 a.m. (Peacock)
Men’s Quarterfinal 2: Canada vs. Czechia, 10:40 a.m. (Peacock, USA)
Men’s Quarterfinal 3: Finland vs. Switzerland, 12:10 p.m. (Peacock)
Men’s Quarterfinal 4: USA vs. Sweden, 3:10 p.m. (Peacock, NBC)
Friday, February 20
Men’s Semifinal 1: Teams TBD, 10:40 a.m. (Peacock, re-air at 11:50 a.m. and 6 p.m. on USA)
Men’s Semifinal 2: Teams TBD, 3:10 p.m. (Peacock, NBC, re-air at 11 p.m. on USA)
Saturday, February 21
Men’s Bronze Medal Final: Teams TBD: 2:40 p.m. (Peacock, USA, re-air at 7 p.m. on CNBC, re-air at 11 p.m. on USA)
Sunday, February 22
Hockey Preview, 7:45 a.m. (NBC)
Gold Medal Final: Teams TBD, 8:10 a.m. (Peacock, NBC, re-air at 4:30 p.m. on USA)
Who is on the Team USA women’s hockey team?
The athletes on Team USA’s women’s team are:
Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho/Seattle Torrent)
Kendall Coyne Schofield (Palos Heights, Ill./Minnesota Frost)
Lee Stecklein (Roseville, Minn./Minnesota Frost)
Cayla Barnes (Eastvale, Calif./Seattle Torrent)
Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass./Seattle Torrent)
Megan Keller (Farmington Hills, Mich./Boston Fleet)
Kelly Pannek (Plymouth, Minn./Minnesota Frost)
Caroline Harvey (Salem, N.H./University of Wisconsin)
Abbey Murphy (Evergreen Park, Ill./University of Minnesota)
Figure skating at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics wraps up this week with the women’s singles free skate competition. A winner among the best women’s skaters will be crowned on Thursday after the free skate, or long program. At the conclusion of the women’s short program, Japan’s Ami Nakai was in first place in the women’s singles competition, followed by her Japanese teammate Kaori Sakamoto, and Team USA’s Alysa Liu was in third. Also representing Team USA are Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito; the three women are known collectively as the “Blade Angels,” and they’ll all be competing in the free skate.
You can tune in to the women’s free skate on Peacock and NBC starting at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 19, and it will also re-air on USA at 1:30 a.m. ET.
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For a complete schedule of every figure skating event at this year’s games, a rundown of who is on Team USA, and how to watch, keep scrolling. And 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 the women’s figure skating free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics
For $17/month, you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription that 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 women’s figure skating free skate on TV
The women’s free skate figure skating competition will be broadcast on NBC at 1 p.m. ET. The free skate will re-air on USA at 1:30 a.m. ET. You can stream both on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more.
How to watch Olympic Figure Skating without cable:
Who is on the Team USA Figure Skating team?
These are the sixteen skaters on Team USA’s figure skating team:
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Amber Glenn (Women’s Singles)
Isabeau Levito (Women’s Singles)
Alysa Liu (Women’s Singles)
Ilia Malinin (Men’s Singles)
Maxim Naumov (Men’s Singles)
Andrew Torgashev (Men’s Singles)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates (Ice Dance)
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko (Ice Dance)
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik (Ice Dance)
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea (Pairs)
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe (Pairs)
2026 Olympic Figure Skating Schedule:
Thursday, February 19
Women’s Free Skate: 1 p.m. (NBC, Peacock, re-air at 1:30 a.m. on USA)
BORMIO, Italy — The undeniably cool part of ski mountaineering’s Olympic debut here Thursday was the visual spectacle. If you’re going to add a fairly ridiculous, counterintuitive sport to the Winter Games — why would anyone trek up a hill on skis in 2026 when Robert Winterhalder gave us the ski lift in 1908? — you might as well do it in the thickest, whitest, nastiest snowstorm Northern Italy has seen all month.
“We love winter, so I’m here for it,” said 26-year-old American Anna Gibson, who was almost certainly the happiest ninth-place finisher in any event at the entire Olympics.
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Gibson was here for it, and so were a couple thousand fans who packed the grandstand near the finish area and lined the sides of the course, many of them waving Swiss and French and even a few very wet Spanish flags. (Yes, Spain is almost a complete non-entity at the Winter Games but is oddly good at this event. There was even a Vamos! or two in the media center when Ana Alonso Rodriguez took bronze in the women’s sprint and Oriol Cardona Coll won gold in the men’s.)
As long as you didn’t care about getting soaked, and perhaps flash-frozen, watching these athletes go up the hill on skis lined with a traction-generating skin, navigate a few random obstacles and then ski back down, it seemed like a really good time. At least they got to see some action, unlike people who had tickets to postponed events like aerials or the freeski halfpipe qualifications on Thursday. What, you can’t ski off a ramp and do flips and twists 50 feet in the air because a little snow makes it too dangerous?
Ski mountaineering — skimo to the initiated — succumbs to no such wokeness.
And the athletes were truly grateful for that because for the ones who have been doing it for a long time on the World Cup circuit with no Olympic medal to shoot for, this was the ultimate validation for a lifetime of work pursuing a sport that truly makes no sense. It was a similar feeling for the athletes who took it up recently because they wanted to make an Olympics and weren’t going to be good enough to do it in other sports.
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“I heard it was going to be in the Olympics, and I very quickly started practicing,” said Australia’s Lara Hamilton. “Always had the dream to go to the Olympics. I just failed in three different sports until I got one.”
What were the three sports?
“Nordic skiing, track 5,000 meters, surfing at one point, now skimo,” said Hamilton, who finished last in her heat by nearly 20 seconds.
By the way, this does not make Hamilton a failure. It makes her a badass. During every Olympics, an army of couch potatoes log on to social media and muse about which sport they could try that would get them here in four years if they had enough time to practice. Those people are, of course, deluding themselves. Hamilton actually made it happen.
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And there is something kind of neat about the idea there are people who pretty much stumbled into skimo and wound up at the freaking Olympics.
Take the two Americans who competed Thursday.
Gibson was a lifelong skier growing up in Wyoming but spent much of her athletic career as a track athlete and distance runner and even competed in some NCAA track championships for University of Washington. She started doing skimo last year. Her first real race last December was the one that got her into the Olympics by teaming up with her friend, Cameron Smith, to secure the North American slot.
And how did Smith find skimo? He got turned onto it a dozen years earlier when his sister convinced him to try The Grand Traverse, a two-person backcountry ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen, Colorado.
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“I had no idea what it was or what she was talking about,” said Smith, who looks exactly like the kind of person you’d want to meet if you needed help on a backcountry trail in the Rocky Mountains, with his untrimmed red beard and flowing red hair pulled back in a ponytail. “I got hooked on the mode of travel.”
Cameron Smith competes in the ski mountaineering competition in Bormio, Italy. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
(Dustin Satloff via Getty Images)
That opened up a whole new world, where he started winning national championships, competing on the World Cup circuit and even snagging his first podium in 2022.
Now here they were, two very unlikely American Olympians, hoping more people would get turned on to their hobby just like they did before it was a big deal on the biggest stage in sports.
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“It was super fun to be part of this historic moment and help introduce our sport to the world,” said Smith, who is better in the distance events than in the Olympic sprint, which lasts less than three minutes. “You can feel the excitement everyone has to see skimo. So many people worked so hard to make this happen. Everything we do from here is just icing on the cake.”
Smith and Gibson didn’t come close to making the finals stage, much less medaling, but they did advance into the semis as so-called “lucky losers,” meaning they didn’t finish in the top three of their heats but qualified for the next round because they were among the three fastest also-rans.
“Luckiest losers of all time right here!” Gibson said in an Instagram story they posted together after the heats.
Unfortunately for the plucky Americans, that was the end of the road. Once the best started racing against the best, it became clear that there are small group of people in the world who are way better at this than everyone else, and they pretty much all come from Switzerland, France and Spain.
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“I think you can feel that skimo is just part of the culture here,” said Gibson, who paired with Smith will be contenders in Saturday’s longer mixed relay. “It’s very normal. It’s very understood here, and to not have to explain what it is to people here and to know there are fans who have been supporters of this sport for a long time, it’s really special.”
Not to mix a metaphor here, but this is the question now: Is skimo on its way up or down as an Olympic sport after its big debut?
On the plus side, it is somewhat entertaining. The races hold your attention because they last fewer than three minutes and there are no judging controversies.
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On the minus side, do we really need to be adding Olympic sports just to give the Swiss more shots at medals? Also, do we really want to be glorifying a sport where a key part of the contest is how fast you can unlock your skis from your boots to walk up stairs and then put them back on?
On a related note, I found myself wondering why the athletes have to find a place to put the “skins” from their skis — usually in a knapsack — before going back downhill. It seems like after all that work, you should just be able to leave it on the ground and have someone come pick it up. Total waste of time. I did, however, appreciate the ingenuity of one guy who just stuffed it down the front of his pants, which truly seemed like a win-win for him. Maybe he was headed to ski jump after this.
And finally, if this were a real mountain sport and not a total gimmick, wouldn’t Norway be good at it?
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In all seriousness, it was neat to watch a sport so obscure that the biggest question for every athlete is how they found it in the first place. And all those stories are fun and different, and you could sense how much it meant to them to share that with a worldwide audience.
“Finally we get to play in the major leagues,” said Cardona, the newly minted gold medalist.
Time will tell if skimo sticks around the Olympics. But 118 years after the invention of the ski lift, which should have made this sport obsolete, it finally had its moment. Better late than never.
Viewership for the 2026 Daytona 500 rebounded from 2025, but was still lower than previous regularly scheduled races in recent years.
Fox Sports said Thursday that nearly 7.5 million people watched Tyler Reddick’s win on Sunday. That’s an increase from the 6.76 million people that watched the 2025 Daytona 500, but that race was delayed significantly by rain. Last year’s event completed just eight green-flag laps before a rain delay of over three hours stopped the race.
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Sunday’s race was moved up an hour because of potential rain, and started just after 2 p.m. ET instead of after 3 p.m. ET.
With the 2024 Daytona 500 pushed to Monday because of rain, the last regularly scheduled race came in 2023. That race, won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., averaged 8.17 million viewers. In 2022, the Daytona 500 drew over 8.8 million viewers.
Daytona 500 viewership has been on a steady decline since 2006, when Jimmie Johnson’s win drew over 19.3 million viewers. Kurt Busch’s win in 2017 had an average audience of 11.9 million and no Daytona 500 since then has gotten close to breaking 10 million.
In 2018, Austin Dillon’s win had 9.3 million viewers and Denny Hamlin’s win a year later had 9.2 million.
Charlie Baker is still very much on board with the NCAA tournament expanding in the near future.
The NCAA president reiterated his support for a plan to expand the annual basketball tournament in the near future, something he’s long been in favor of. What that looks like, or when it happens, remains to be seen.
“We’re still talking to the various players in this one,” he said on Thursday, via ESPN. “I said all along that I think there are some very good reasons to expand the tournament.
“So, I would like to see it expand.”
The NCAA tournament men’s field currently sits at 68 teams, with the last expansion coming back in 2011. That brought in the “First Four” round, which cuts the field from 68 to 64 for the first round. The women’s NCAA tournament officially expanded to 68 teams in 2021, too. That marked the most notable expansion in the tournament since it doubled in size from 32 in 1985.
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But expanding the tournament further is an idea that has been thrown around in recent years. The NCAA basketball selection committees met last summer and learned that expansion, if approved, would likely start during the 2026-27 campaign. That would likely expand the field to either 72 or 76 teams. It’s unclear if the women’s tournament would expand at the same time.
Baker insisted Thursday that he wasn’t worried about how the NCAA would fund the expanded tournament. The biggest challenge has long been simply a logistical one with the basketball calendar. Several major men’s conference tournaments run right up to the selection show — the Big Ten championship game ends moments before that show starts and teams are announced — and the NCAA tournament ends the week that the Masters starts. That doesn’t leave much time for added games.
“From my point of view, the more teams we can get into the tournament and make it work logistically and mathematically, the better,” Baker said. “It gives more kids the opportunity to experience that.”
But of course, expanding the field wouldn’t eliminate the snub conversation. It would just push it back by four, or eight, spots.
Regardless, the NCAA seems set on expanding the tournament in the future. Whether that happens in 2027, or a few years down the road, remains to be seen.
Today on the Kevin O’Connor show, KOC is joined by Tom Haberstroh to ask some big questions in the NBA world: Are the Houston Rockets done? What teams have the most to prove in the 2nd half of the season? Which young players might break out and which coaches are on the hot seat?
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Then, the pair look at two of the hottest names in college basketball: Darius Acuff and Darryn Peterson. How does Acuff’s 49-point explosion affect his draft stock? Is Peterson’s self-check-out gambit for Kansas threatening his no. 1 draft pick potential?
Later, KOC is joined by Daman Rangoola, Sam Esfandiari & Claire De Lune from All-Star Weekend to talk the latest with the Lakers and Warriors. That and more on today’s show!
(1:11) Contenders with the most to prove (13:38) Young players to watch (20:26) NBA coaches on the hot seat (33:46) Kings decimated by injuries (37:12) Darius Acuff drops 49 points vs. Alabama (41:44) What’s going on with Darryn Peterson? (56:32) Daman Rangoola & Sam Esfandiari join from All-Star (1:43:10) Claire De Lune joins from All-Star
HOUSTON, TEXAS – FEBRUARY 11: Kevin Durant #7 of the Houston Rockets looks on during the second half of the game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Toyota Center on February 11, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Jack Gorman/Getty Images)
