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Canada’s Sidney Crosby (87) reacts after Canada lost to the United States in a men’s ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
The Associated Press
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NBC’s Olympics bet looks strong again as viewers pour back in for the Milan Winter Games. NBC was averaging about 24 million viewers across afternoon and primetime coverage through Friday. That marks a 94% jump from the 2022 Beijing Games.…
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By JOE REEDY – AP Sports Writer
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Johannes Lochner went out on top, and Germany capped another dazzling Olympic display with another dominant bobsled show at the Milan Cortina Games.
Lochner — who announced his retirement months ago — capped his career with his second gold medal of these Olympics, winning the four-man event over two-time defending Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich by 0.57 seconds on Sunday in the final sliding event of these Games.
But it wasn’t a sweep: Switzerland got the bronze, with Michael Vogt overtaking Germany’s Adam Ammour in the fourth and final run to secure that third-place spot. Ammour settled for fourth.
Lochner’s four-run time was 3 minutes, 37.57 seconds. Friedrich finished in 3:38.14, Vogt in 3:38.64 and Ammour in 3:38.68.
Kris Horn had the top U.S. sled, finishing 11th with Caleb Furnell, Hunter Powell and Carsten Vissering in his sled. Frank Del Duca was 12th for the U.S., with Boone Niederhofer, Bryan Sosoo and Josh Williamson in his sled.
The final bobsled medal tally from bobsled at these Olympics: Germany 8, U.S. 3, Switzerland 1, everyone else in the world 0.
And the total from all three sliding sports — adding skeleton and luge — was just as one-sided.
Those final numbers: Germany 19, Austria 5, Italy 4, U.S. 4, Britain 2, Switzerland 1 and Latvia 1. If Lochner, Friedrich and Ammour were their own nation, they would have tied for the top spot in the sliding medal standings. They combined to win five themselves.
“We are all putting down a show,” said two-woman Olympic champion Laura Nolte, who won two of Germany’s nine bobsled medals in Cortina. “And it’s fun.”
Lochner became the seventh pilot to sweep both men’s bobsled events in an Olympics, joining Andrel Ostler (1952), Italy’s Eugenio Monti (1968), then-East Germany’s Meinhard Nehmer (1976), Hoppe (1984), Germany’s Andre Lange (2006), and Friedrich (2018 and 2022).
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The Canadian men beat Britain for gold in Olympic curling on Saturday after brushing aside accusations of cheating during the round-robin phase at the Milan Cortina Games.
Brad Jacobs’ team defeated Bruce Mouat’s all-Scottish squad 9-6 inside Cortina’s historic ice arena to give curling powerhouse Canada it’s only gold of the Olympics in the sport.
It’s Canada’s first gold in men’s curling since the 2014 Sochi Games, when they also beat Britain in the final with Jacobs as the skip. This is his first Olympics since then — he lost in the Canadian Olympic trials for 2018 and 2022.
The British men have still not won Olympic gold since the inaugural Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix.
The Canadians last week were the subject of a controversy and a profanity-laced rant that got attention far beyond the ice when several players were accused of double-touching the rock, a rules violation.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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ANTERSELVA, Italy — Johannes Dale-Skjevdal of Norway was the only biathlete to hit all 20 of his targets in the 15-kilometer mass start race Friday and skied his way to gold — Norway’s 17th gold medal of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics — breaking the record for the most gold medals won by a nation at a single Winter Olympics.
Norway had set the record at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with 16 gold medals.
“It’s quite a good ending to my first Olympics, and it is also my first time shooting 20 out of 20,” Dale-Skjevdal said. “What a day to do it on. It’s real, and I can’t find the words, but it’s just amazing, of course.”
Dale-Skjevdal had taken the lead after the first standing bout with clean shooting and completed the five laps on newly packed snow and gusty winds in 39 minutes, 17.1 seconds. His teammate Sturla Holm Laegreid only missed one target and finished 10.5 seconds back for silver. It was his fifth medal of these Olympic Games: three silver and two bronze.
“After the third shooting, I was really hoping for something special, because then I got quite a solid gap, and then I knew that on my last shooting I would be alone on the range,” Dale-Skjevdal said. “It was a situation that you dream of: coming alone on to the range, shooting in Antholz, in the Olympics, in my favorite discipline in mass start. I’m so happy.”
Laegreid, who turned 29 on Friday, said it was a special day.
“It was a tough race,” he said. “The snow is very slow. The conditions on the range are windy, so it was like a race I had to fight for. Today I was in fighter mode, so it suited me well.”
Philipp Horn of Germany only missed one target on his last shooting bout and left the range in third place, but Quentin Fillon Maillet of France, who missed four on the day, chased Horn and passed him on a big hill, and took the bronze, 25.6 seconds behind Dale-Skjevdal.
Fillon Maillet said he felt strong on the skiing and was excited to win his ninth Olympic medal.
“I didn’t feel pain in my legs, so I could push hard,” he said. “I wasn’t so good on the shooting range, but you know, never mind. It’s still a medal, and with these Olympics it makes it nine in total right now. That’s incredible.”
Horn said it was a huge disappointment.
“I was great on the shooting range,” he said. “I kept calm and relaxed, and did my job, but on the last loop I was just not strong enough. It was a fourth place, which is worth nothing at the Olympics.”
Fillon Maillet, who was on the gold medal winning team in the mixed relay and men’s relay, also won gold in the sprint.
Campbell Wright, America’s last hope for its first Olympic medal in biathlon, struggled on the shooting range. He missed seven out of 20 and finished in last place.
Italy’s Tommaso Giacomel, who sits second in overall World Cup standings, cleaned all 10 of his prone shots, and was leading the race, but dropped out of the race on the third lap. A message sent out by the Italian biathlon federation said he retired due to a “sudden pain in his side which affected his breathing.”
Only the top 30 biathletes compete in the mass start race — based on World Cup rankings and Olympic performance. They ski five, 3-kilometer loops, shooting twice in the prone position and twice standing.
The women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start is scheduled for Saturday — the final day of the Olympic biathlon competition.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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MILAN — Alysa Liu delivered the U.S. its first women’s figure skating Olympic gold medal in 24 years, performing a near-flawless free skate Thursday night in a glittering golden dress to upstage Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai at the Milan Cortina Games.
The 20-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area, who had walked away from the sport after the Beijing Games four years ago only to launch a remarkable comeback, finished with a career-best 226.79 points. Nakai and Sakamoto, skating right behind her, each made a mistake on a combination sequence, and that made the difference in the medals.
Sakamoto had 224.90 points to earn a silver to go with her bronze from Beijing. Nakai finished third with 219.16 points.
The moment Nakai’s score was read after the final program of the night, teammate Amber Glenn jumped onto the kiss-and-cry stand and raised Liu’s hand in triumph. Liu sheepishly turned and applauded the 17-year-old Nakai, who raced over and hugged her.
It’s the first gold medal for an American woman since 2002, when Sarah Hughes stood atop the podium in Salt Lake City.
Glenn finished in fifth behind Mone Chiba of Japan, a stunning rebound from a disastrous short program Tuesday night. Her season-best free skate gave a score of 214.91 points, and just about landed her on the podium as well.
Glenn pumped her first and fought back tears when her score was read, then she took a seat in the new “leader’s chair.”
She wound up sitting there for quite a while.
Through an ice resurfacing. And through eight programs by other skaters, including American teammate Isabeau Levito, whose fall on her opening triple flip in an otherwise elegant performance kept her from taking over the top spot herself.
Adeliia Petrosian, the 18-year-old Russian competing as a neutral athlete at the Milan Cortina Games, tried the only quadruple jump during the women’s competition but fell on the quad toe loop. She was clean the rest of the way, but the points Petrosian lost on that fall ended up leaving her less than a half-point behind the leader.
It was Chiba — the ninth skater to follow Glenn — that finally took over first place.
That didn’t last long with Liu next on the ice.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The United States earned a spot in the women’s curling semifinals at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Thursday, beating Switzerland 7-6 in a match that went to an extra end.
The Americans will face the Swiss again in Friday’s semifinals. Sweden will play Canada, which advanced earlier Thursday.
On the men’s side, Canada will play Norway and Switzerland will play Britain Thursday night.
The Americans, skipped by Tabitha Peterson, got past the Swiss in a tense game.
Switzerland tied it at 6-6 with three points in the 10th end. The U.S. had the hammer in the extra end.
Looking nervous, Peterson threw the decisive rock and her teammates swept it into position, just a hair closer to the button than the Swiss’ nearest stone.
Canada, led by Rachel Homan, beat South Korea 10-7 to reach the semifinals, capping a remarkable rally after the Canadians began the round robin by losing three of their first four games.
The normally stoic Homan raised her broom in triumph and ran to hug her teammates as they were cheered by crowds waving the Canadian flag.
Sweden has the best record entering the semifinals at 7-2, with losses to South Korea and Canada. Switzerland, the U.S. and Canada are 6-3.
American Cory Thiesse will be seeking her second medal of these Games after she won silver in mixed doubles with Korey Dropkin.
The women’s bronze medal game is Saturday, and the gold medal game is Sunday.
The men’s semifinal meeting between Canada and Norway will be a repeat of Thursday morning’s game, an 8-6 win for Norway.
Canada’s Brad Jacobs said it felt like “deja vu from Sochi.” At the 2014 Winter Games, Canada played China in its last round-robin match and again in the semifinals, and the Canadians went on to win gold.
“We’re experienced with this, done this a lot,” Jacobs said.
Switzerland takes a 9-0 record into the semifinals. It will play Britain, which is 5-4 and sneaked into the fourth and final spot after Canada’s loss to Norway.
“I would say it’s just a very good atmosphere in our group right now,” Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller said. “Everybody is buying into what we’re doing.”
He added that bringing in acclaimed Canadian curler Glenn Howard as the team’s coach has been a key component of its success.
Meanwhile, the hopes of the U.S. men were dashed because of Canada’s loss. Defending gold medalist Sweden also did not reach the semifinals.
The men will play for the bronze medal on Friday night and the gold medal game is Saturday night.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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LIVIGNO, Italy — On the climb to Livigno, atop the mountain pass before the road glides down to the village hosting snowboarding at the Winter Olympics, there sits a lonely customs checkpoint. Its guardhouse and gate are the only signs of an internal fiscal border within Italy, one that encircles the snow-blanketed valley and the duty-free status it has enjoyed for centuries.
The tax exemption that makes Livigno a shoppers’ paradise, paradoxically, has left it not receiving the full economic bonus from hosting the Olympics, at least in the short term. On the contrary, shopkeepers are getting squeezed — even if hotels and restaurants are packed and cashing in. Still, everyone is hopeful the Games will yield a longer-term upside for the village.
Questioning economic benefits is routine for Olympic host cities, and it’s been the talk of the town on Livigno’s main street during the Games. Unlike in other Olympic mountain venues, business owners told The Associated Press that athletes, fans, workers and volunteers have boxed out visitors who come chasing duty-free deals in what is usually a bumper month.
“I’m not positive about the Olympics, because usually you are working more than double in this period, because this period for us was a high season. Now, this period is like our low season,” said Olga Salari, owner of a toy story full of Lego sets. Olympic visitors, she added, “don’t even visit the shops.”
How bad has it been? Salari said she has already seen a 70% drop in sales compared with an average February. The Olympics run from Feb. 6-22.
Visitors to all six mountain venues must have either accreditation, accommodation reserved, event tickets or a ski pass — and so can’t be day trippers only out for a deal.
Livigno is nicknamed “Little Tibet” for its historic isolation and the snow-clad peaks that surround it. This village near the Swiss border has had sales tax exemptions since medieval times, which allowed the impoverished, cut-off area to bring in goods.
When a paved road leading south, and later a tunnel north to Switzerland, finally arrived in the 20th century, that duty-free status became an economic elixir because it attracted tourists.
Visitors can purchase 300 euros ($356) worth of goods without Italy’s 22% sales tax. There are specific limits on perfumes, cigarettes, cigars, liquor and gasoline.
Livigno’s tax break has made it a haven for skiers who seize the chance to pick up a watch, cosmetics, perfume, electronics or a carton of cigarettes before the drive home to Austria, Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere. Outside of the Olympics, anyway.
“The tourists are more interested to see the competition. They’re not so focused on shopping,” said Manuel Galli, whose family owns an electronics store.
According to a report by Italy’s Banca Ifis, the overall economic impact of the Games is expected to reach 5.3 billion euros ($6.2 billion). Of that, 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) is estimated to be spent by tourists at the host sites during the next 18 months. The bank did not break that down by venue location. Milan Cortina organizing committee president Giovanni Malagò cited more than 5 billion euros in an interview with Italian radio station RTL.
The committee has said that the Olympics have spurred Italian authorities to upgrade the electrical distribution systems of Livigno and the other mountain host sites. Improvements to Livigno’s health clinic and rail service are also legacy investments.
Other mountain venues’ stores seem to be getting an economic boost.
Cortina d’Ampezzo’s Vice Mayor Roberta Alverà told the AP by text message that the town has seen “a significant influx of people.”
And they’re not just filling hotels and restaurants. Visitors, as well as Italians who own second homes in the posh town, are also filling the shops along Cortina’s pedestrian-only Corso Italia that runs through the center of town.
In Bormio’s historic center, the cobblestone walkways have been filled with fans throughout the men’s Alpine ski racing program, and its shops have seen plenty of activity.
Sergio Schena, a member of the organizing committee for the area of Livigno, said it’s normal for some businesses to see more activity than others, but the long-term impact will be positive. The global spotlight should draw tourists from farther away, as happened in Turin after it hosted in 2006, he said.
“What we expect to happen is that the markets change, and we get more tourists from the United States and Asia,” Schena said.
That doesn’t suit some shop owners. Salari said her business model is based on people driving to Livigno and using the extra trunk space to take home purchases. She fears tourists who travel by plane will only buy goods small enough to fit in their luggage.
Still, most people in Livigno — even the other shopkeepers — are hoping Schema is right, trusting that the televised images of snowboarders and freestyle skiers soaring off its slopes and snow park have put Livigno on the world map, and will eventually attract even more tourists.
“This is very important because (the Games) are providing 360-degree publicity around the world and Livigno is coming across very well,” said Derio Claoti, the owner of a shop that sells perfumes, whose sales have taken a 70% sales hit.
A few doors down, at the Golden Clock shop for luxury watches and jewelry, Damiano Longa said he expects his drop in sales will ultimately be worth it.
“We hope that the advertising that it’s making for Livigno will work for the future,” Longa said.
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Associated Press writers Colleen Barry in Milan, Andrew Dampf in Cortina and Pat Graham in Bormio contributed.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin’s turbulent, 12-year Olympic journey came full circle Wednesday when she won the slalom by a massive 1.50 seconds to break her long medal drought at the Winter Games.
Shiffrin put in two dominant runs in gorgeous conditions amid the jagged peaks of the Dolomites to show, again, why she is regarded by many as the greatest Alpine skier of all time.
It was the third-largest margin of victory in a women’s Olympic slalom, the event she won as a fresh-faced teenager in Sochi in 2014 to underline her status as a skiing star.
Twelve years later, she delivered again in her favorite race and the emotions came out in the finish area after being embraced by world champion Camille Rast of Switzerland, who took silver, and bronze-medalist Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden.
The 30-year-old Shiffrin pumped her fists to the crowd and then was fighting back tears as she approached her mom and coach, Eileen, for a long hug on the sidelines.
Shiffrin said it was “really hard to understand and process” her victory.
“Maybe,” she added, “just today, I realized what happened in Sochi. It’s crazy.”
For Shiffrin, maybe it also was a release of all the pressure after failing to win an Olympic medal since adding gold and silver to her collection in Pyeongchang in 2018.
A nightmarish 0-for-6 performance in Beijiing was followed in Cortina d’Ampezzo this year with an 11th place in the giant slalom and a fourth-place finish with Breezy Johnson in the team combined, in which Shiffrin placed 15th in the slalom portion.
That’s all in the past.
Shiffrin has now won three golds and a silver at the Olympics to add to her record total on World Cup wins — it’s 108 and counting, including 71 in slalom.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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MILAN — Alysa Liu is left to carry the hopes of the “Blade Angels” into the women’s free skate at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The reigning world champion was the only one of American’s vaunted figure skating trio to put herself in contention for gold after the short program on Tuesday night. Liu landed a triple lutz-triple loop, the hardest combination that any woman attempted, and sat only two points back of leader Ami Nakai and right behind her Japanese teammate Kaori Sakamoto on the leaderboard.
“I am really happy about how I skated,” Liu said, “and my siblings, my best friends and a ton of my family is out there. And I saw them on the warmup. I also saw them during my program, so, I don’t know. It was a really cool moment, because they never come to watch like this. I’m really glad I did super well. I felt super grounded and I connected with my program on another level.”
Things didn’t go nearly as well for the rest of the American team Tuesday night.
Isabeau Levito was dinged for under-rotating her triple loop and got leveled down for her step sequence, which is where she tends to pick up points on the competition. It left her in eighth place and a long shot to climb her way onto the podium Thursday night.
Amber Glenn, the three-time reigning U.S. champion, was right in the medal mix until her final jump.
After landing a huge opening triple axel — Glenn and Nakai were the only ones in the women’s field to attempt the 3 1/2-revolution jump — she kept the momentum going with a triple flip-triple toe loop. But something seemed amiss as Glenn approached a triple loop, and she wound up bailing out of it. The resulting double loop became an invalid element and earned her no points.
The lost points on the jump, somewhere in the range of seven or eight, took away any chance of being a medal contender.
“I had it,” Glenn told her coach, Damon Allen, as she tried to hold back the tears stepping off the ice.
“It’s not over,” he replied, giving her a hug.
It certainly was not the way Glenn wanted to end a night that began with the euphoria of a message from Madonna, the “Queen of Pop.” Her song “Like a Prayer” serves as the soundtrack to Glenn’s free skate, and Madonna had seen a clip of the short program and sent a video to Glenn, telling her, “Go get that gold.”
Glenn already has one from the team event on the opening weekend of the Winter Games. Liu also has one from that event.
Now, it’s up to Liu if the Americans are going to bring home a medal from the individual competition.
She also can salvage what has been a largely frustrating Olympics for U.S. Figure Skating. While it won the team event, ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates were left with a bittersweet silver medal thanks in part to some questionable scoring by the French judge, while two-time world champion and Olympic favorite Ilia Malinin crashed out of the men’s free skate.
Liu has experience on this stage, having finished sixth at the 2022 Beijing Games. She also has a carefree attitude after going through a brief retirement, which allowed her to learn a whole lot about herself and put figure skating into perspective.
Liu was asked whether she thinks she can beat the Japanese on Thursday night.
“I don’t think about stuff like that,” she replied. “Whether I beat them or not is not my goal. My goal is just to do my programs and share my story and I don’t need to be over or under anyone to do that.”
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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AMES, Iowa — Nate Heise hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and Tamin Lipsey came up with an offensive rebound in the final seconds to cap No. 6 Iowa State’s rally in a 70-67 victory over Big 12 leader and second-ranked Houston on Monday night.
Heise was 3 for 3 from 3-point range hours after sister Taylor Heise scored to help the U.S. Women’s Olympic hockey team beat Sweden 5-0 to reach the gold-medal game in Milan.
The Cyclones (23-3, 10-3) closed with a 17-4 run to take down a second top-10 team in three days. Iowa State topped No. 8 Kansas 74-56 on Saturday.
The Cougars (23-3, 11-2) had their six-game winning streak snapped and their conference lead was cut to a half-game over No. 4 Arizona heading into their matchup Saturday in Houston. Iowa State is third, a game behind Houston.
Heise hit the 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:17 to play to give the Cyclones a 69-67 lead. Houston had two chances to tie or take the lead, but was called for a shot-clock violation with 43 seconds to play, then Chris Cenac Jr., missed a shot with four seconds left.
Blake Buchanan was fouled after rebounding Cenac’s miss, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Lipsey, though, got the offensive rebound, tapping the ball back to Joshua Jefferson, who was fouled with asecond left. Jefferson made his first free throw for the final margin.
Jefferson led Iowa State with 12 points. Heise had 11 and Buchanan had 10.
Kingston Flemings led Houston with 22 points. Emanuel Sharp had 16 points, all in the first half. Milos Uzan had 11 points.
Houston: Hosts No. 4 Arizona on Saturday.
Iowa State: At No. 23 BYU on Saturday.
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MILAN — After realizing his team would have to play in the qualification round at the Milan Cortina Olympics, Sweden coach Sam Hallam was quick to reference what Canada did 16 years ago after a rough start on home ice in Vancouver.
Canada also had to play the extra game and went on to win it all on Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in overtime in the final against the United States. If the Swedes do the same this time, they will have earned every carat of their gold medals.
Sweden as the seventh seed has an incredibly difficult path through the men’s hockey tournament, starting in the qualification playoffs on Tuesday against 10th-seeded Latvia. The winner of that game faces the unbeaten U.S. in the quarterfinals Wednesday night.
“We’re going to have to play … one more game than some other teams, but that’s an opportunity for us to come together even more as a team, work on our details, work on our game as a unit out there,” forward Adrian Kempe said. “That’s just the way I’m seeing it.”
Sweden dropped out of the No. 3 spot only because it allowed a last-minute goal to Slovakia that changed who won the group based on a tiebreaker. That 5-3 victory Saturday was arguably the best Sweden has played thus far in Milan, from goaltender Jacob Markstrom out.
“Everyone contributed,” alternate captain Victor Hedman said. “Marky played great. A lot to build on and look forward to the next one.”
Hallam has a decision to make in net given the back-to-back scheduling. Markstrom may have played well enough to become Sweden’s starter, but Filip Gustavsson could get the nod against Latvia.
“Let us see,” Hallam said. “(Markstrom) showed good presence. I like the way he plays with the puck. He started a couple of breakouts for us. He felt big, felt solid, so he did a good impression on me, yeah.”
Switzerland beating Czechia in overtime Sunday on Dean Kukan’s goal was a big one to play winless host Italy, which was outscored 19-4 in round-robin play. The Swiss should be able to get into the quarterfinals and face Finland, even after losing one of their top forwards, Kevin Fiala, to a leg injury that required surgery and ended his Olympics and probably his NHL season.
“We care about each other very much, and we care about winning,” winger Timo Meier said. “This group we have here, we love playing with each other. We’re a really tight group.”
Much like Hallam, Switzerland coach Patrick Fischer has to decide whether to play 38-year-old national team goalie Leonardo Genoni back to back or go with backup Akira Schmid in what should be an easily winnable game.
The other team with what should be a safe path into the quarterfinals is Germany against France, which lost 10-2 to Canada on Sunday. France made things interesting against Czechia but like Italy went 0-3-0 and was outscored by 15 goals.
“We know what to expect, and we have to give our A-game,” France winger Sacha Treille said. “It’s just one hockey game, so everything can happen.”
Led by 2020 NHL MVP Leon Draisaitl, Germany lost to the U.S. on Sunday but still finds itself with a plausible path through to the semifinals. If Germany beats France, it would play third-seeded Slovakia on Wednesday.
Martin Necas was not happy after he and the Czechs lost to Switzerland, knowing what it would mean for their seeding. Denmark defeating Latvia thanks to a 33-save performance by Frederik Andersen moved it up in what’s a positive bounce for Czechia.
“If we want to win, we have to get through everybody,” defenseman Radko Gudas said. “(We have) a lot of guys who have been around these type of games. For us that means playing smart, putting pucks in the right places and make the other team go 200 feet and make go through all of us at all times.”
Czechia has three NHL goaltenders, so Dan Vladar could start Tuesday to get Lukas Dostal ready for the biggest challenge of his life. The winner of the game faces the machine that is Canada — unquestionably the team to beat.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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LIVIGNO, Italy — Birk Ruud cleared the first hurdle on Sunday in his two-tiered quest to repeat as the Olympic big air champion and win a second gold medal at the Milan Cortina Games.
The two-time Olympian from Norway finished big air qualifying in third place, easing into Tuesday’s final of 12 freeskiers.
Ruud, 25, won big air in Beijing four years ago and took gold on Tuesday in slopestyle.
After landing his first jump, Rudd did a head-over-heels forward flip, just for fun.
“It was a really good qualifying. I landed my two runs and felt real good about it,” Ruud said. “I expect a tough battle (in the final). It is going to be tight and there are going to be big tricks.”
American Mac Forehand had the best score of qualifying with 183 points from his two jumps. Austrian Matej Svancer was next.
New Zealand’s Luca Harrington, who won bronze in slopestyle at these Games, was fifth.
American Alex Hall, the silver medalist in slopestyle, failed to advance.
In big air qualifying, skiers must land two of three jumps. Their top two scores are added together to determine their ranking.
The Livigno big air ramp, built on a scaffolding, sends the riders soaring down a slope that’s more than 40 meters (131 feet) in height and was lit by floodlights for the nighttime event.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Federica Brignone was taking in the magnitude of winning a second gold of her home Winter Olympics when the two silver-medalists approached the Italian skiing star in the finish area, dropped to their knees and bowed toward her.
Call her the Queen of the Dolomites.
The 35-year-old Brignone couldn’t walk for three months early last year. Now she is a double Olympic champion after winning the giant slalom with some ease on Sunday, barely 72 hours after powering to a downhill title that she felt was like something out of a Hollywood movie.
She delivered quite the sequel, taking a lead of 0.34 seconds after the first run and then putting in a clean second run in gorgeous conditions amid the jagged peaks of the Dolomite mountains above Cortina.
Brignone finished 0.62 seconds ahead of defending champion Sara Hector and Thea Louise Stjernesund, who shared the silver medal.
“That was, like, the greatest show of GS skiing that we’ve had in a really long time,” said U.S. standout Mikaela Shiffrin, who finished in 11th place. “And to do it, you know, at the Olympics where people actually have eyes on the sport. Federica skied incredible. That was so cool to watch.”
It wasn’t so joyous for Shiffrin.
The American didn’t quite have the speed of Brignone or a number of her rivals in either run on a fairly flat course set by her own head coach, Karin Harjo, and ended 0.92 seconds off the lead. She has now failed to win a medal in eight straight Olympic races since the Winter Games in 2018.
Finishing just 0.30 seconds off second place suggested there might be more to come from Shiffrin, though, and redemption might arrive in her best event — the slalom — on Wednesday.
Indeed, Shiffrin didn’t show any outward signs of disappointment after her second run when she already knew she’d be out of the medals, blowing out her cheeks and waving to the fans in the grandstand with both hands.
By that time, the locals were waiting for Brignone to come down the sun-kissed Olympia delle Tofane course for a second gold in four days.
She didn’t disappoint.
It completes a stunning comeback for the popular Brignone, who was world champion in the GS in February last year before breaking multiple bones in her left leg in March that required surgery, a handful of screws to repair and left her unable to walk until the summer.
Brignone said after winning downhill gold that a day doesn’t go by where she doesn’t feel pain, yet she skied through it in a pair of runs her rivals couldn’t find fault with.
“She is the kindest, most genuine, athlete on tour,” U.S. skier Paula Moltzan said. “This comeback and to have two gold medals at home is, like, hands down, she’s clearly the best skier in the world right now.”
Before these home Games, Brignone had a silver and two bronzes at the Olympics. Now she has the big one — twice — and the loud home crowd lapped it up, chanting ‘FE-de, FE-de, FE-de’ during the medal ceremony.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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MILAN — MILAN (AP) — Jordan Stolz is now a two-time Olympic gold medalist in speedskating — halfway to his goal of four at the Milan Cortina Games — after winning the 500 meters on Saturday to go along with his victory in the 1,000.
Stolz, a 21-year-old from Wisconsin, is only the second man to complete the 500-1,000 double at one Olympics. He joins Eric Heiden, the American who did it as part of his record sweep of all five individual men’s speedskating events at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.
Stolz finished the 500 in an Olympic-record time of 33.77 seconds, after also setting a Games mark in his win in the 1,000 on Wednesday. Both times, the silver went to Jenning do Boo of the Netherlands, who clocked 33.88 in the shortest speedskating event. Both times, they raced head-to-head in the same heat.
Stolz was leading Wednesday as they came out of the final curve, then they were even entering the last stretch. But Stolz, who overcame a deficit in the 1,000, turned on the speed and leaned across the line first again in the 500. De Boo slipped and fell into the wall afterward, while Stolz skated past and shook his right fist overhead.
Canada’s Laurent Dubreuil got the bronze in 34.26.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Washington Post columnist Barry Svrluga was reporting from his first Winter Olympics when Lindsey Vonn left her hospital bed after a crash and returned to compete days later at the 2006 Turin Games.
He is back in Italy two decades later at the Milan Cortina Games and was there again to write about it when Vonn ended up back in the hospital following another crash. Even though he’s losing his job.
The Post announced two days before the Olympics opened last week that it was eliminating its sports section while laying off a third of its staff. Svrluga said the newspaper originally planned to send 14 staff members to these Games.
With air tickets and accommodation already paid for, Svrluga is one of four of the paper’s journalists who decided to still come: He is in Cortina, Rick Maese is in Bormio, and Les Carpenter and national staffer Robert Samuels are in Milan.
“They can take away our section,” Svrluga said, “but in a way, they can’t take away our spirit.”
Of the four, Svrluga and Carpenter are being laid off. They came to their final assignment anyway.
“I wanted to be occupied,” said Svrluga, who is at his 12th Games. “I love covering the Olympics. … I had Lindsey injured in Sestriere and then had her gold (Vancouver, 2010) and I’ve had every one of her Olympic races, whether they were successes or not. Same with (Mikaela) Shiffrin.”
The first Olympics that Svrluga worked at was the 2004 Athens Summer Games and he was immediately struck by the way colleagues at the paper collaborated at such a big event.
“It felt like a team sport for us and that benefited the section and the paper,” Svrluga said. “What we’re trying to do here is remind people — readers and decision makers — that these are a lot of committed people who were doing things for the right reasons.”
Carpenter, the Post’s Olympics writer, is at his eighth Games. He’s been covering figure skating, speedskating and hockey.
“The Post sports department always had such a great connection with its readers. I felt I had to stay to tell the story of this Olympics for them,” Carpenter said. “It’s what I’d want as a reader. If this is the end for Post sports, let’s give our most loyal readers our best.”
Svrluga gave his readers — and the wider skiing community — reason for pause even before he got to Cortina.
An extensive pre-Games interview with Shiffrin and her mother and coach, Eileen, turned into much more than an Olympic preview story when they revealed to Svrluga why Eileen was absent at the start of this World Cup season: She had been diagnosed with cancer and faced six weeks of treatments.
“This was a very personal situation,” Svrluga said. “I’m thankful for them that they trusted me with the information. It’s their story to tell.”
Changes across the industry have resulted in fewer American reporters attending events like the Olympics.
“That’s tragic for readers,” Svrluga said, noting how the extra space in the reporters’ interview areas at the finish lines are “great for logistics and sad for the business.”
Some of the people who Svrluga has reported on at the Olympics have reached out to him after word spread about the cuts at the Post. It’s happened back in Washington, too, he said.
“People who have won World Series, people who own teams. I’ve been there 22 years, so you build relationships over time, even with people you battle with a little bit or you write something they don’t like. It’s still a human element to it,” Svrluga said. “So I’ve heard from more people than I can count.”
But, Svrluga added, “You don’t want to be the story. You want to cover the story.”
The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, called the layoffs painful but necessary.
“You could argue maybe we’re in this position because we didn’t adapt or see what is coming next,” Svrluga said. “It’s obvious people get their news in different ways now. I’m ‘old school’ in one regard. … I hope that the people who are in their 20s and early 30s, like when I first went to the Olympics, are figuring out whatever’s next. I would love for it to include written storytelling, because that’s what I like to do.”
Eliminating the Post sports section was a sharp blow since the department has hosted many well-known bylines through the years, including the likes of John Feinstein, Michael Wilbon, Shirley Povich, Sally Jenkins and Tony Kornheiser.
Svrluga’s final column from these Games will mark his final story for the Post. In the meantime, he’s going to try and enjoy the Olympics — and being in Italy — more than he usually does while on assignment.
“The red wine,” he said, “will flow.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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MILAN — Ilia Malinin, widely considered the best figure skater of this generation, could take a big step toward going down as one of the greatest ever Friday night down when the American goes for the gold medal in the men’s free skate at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The 21-year-old known as the “Quad God” has a five-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and France’s Adam Siao Him Fa after the short program. That would be a big margin for anyone, but it could be insurmountable given who is in first place.
Malinin is undefeated over two-plus years, a stretch of 14 consecutive victories in full competitions. That includes the past four U.S. championships, the last two world titles, and a host of world records — most crucially, the best mark ever for a free skate, a massive score of 238.24 points that pushed him to a 30-point victory at the Grand Prix Final in December.
Yagiyama, the last man to beat Malinin, was second that day. Siao Him Fa finished in fifth.
“Being the favorite is one thing,” Malinin said after his short program, “but actually getting it done and doing it under pressure and having the skate of your life to earn that medal is another thing. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and say that it’s guaranteed that I’m getting that gold medal. Because, of course, I still have to put in the work.”
In truth, he doesn’t have to do much more than show up.
That’s because the longer nature of the free skate plays even more to his advantage, since it contains seven jumping passes instead of the three in the short program. He has a record-tying seven quadruple jumps scheduled for his program; by comparison, Kagiyama and Siao Him Fa have four in each other free skates.
“It’s not so much the point total, it’s the difference between the placements,” said Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion. “Say it’s football. You win by seven points, that’s a touchdown; that’s good. If you win by 10 points, that’s a two-possession victory. You kind of dominated, right? He is winning competitions by 50 points or more. That’s like, seven touchdowns.”
The real drama might not be whether Malinin wins but whether he lands the first quad axel in the Olympics.
The sons of Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, the ever-confident Malinin is the only person ever to land the jump in competition. The reason it is so difficult is that the axel begins facing forward, whereas the other five main jumps in figure skating start facing backward, and that adds another half revolution to the quad axel.
“I’m hoping that I’ll feel good enough to do it,” Malinin acknowledged. “But of course I always prioritize health and safety. So I really want to put myself in the right mindset where I’ll feel really confident to go into it.”
Malinin already has one gold medal from the team event, where he finished a surprising second to Kagiyama in the short program but beat fellow Japanese star Shun Sato in the free skate. That head-to-head win allowed the Americans to defend their team title.
Afterward, Malinin admitted that the pressure of the Olympics had gotten to him in his debut. But those nerves settled during his free skate, and by the time of his individual short program Tuesday night, his fearlessness and spunk was back again.
“Now I feel like I’ve taken over that fight that I had in the team event,” Malinin said, “so now I can really just focus solely on that free program, and let everything happen naturally.”
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — It was the last end and the U.S. men were down 8-2 against Switzerland on Thursday in their first match of the men’s curling round-robin.
In other words, the stakes were low — and the time ripe — for a 54-year old personal injury lawyer and six-time winner of “Minnesota Attorney of the Year” to make Olympic history.
The team called a substitution and Rich Ruohonen, from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, stepped onto the ice.
He hurled the corner guard and watched his stone, biting his lip, until it made it safely to the house’s left flank.
“Yeah baby! Good shot, Rich!” skip Danny Casper — 30 years younger than Ruohonen — shouted across the ice. U.S. fans gave a standing ovation. The lawyer looked wistful.
Ruohonen had just become the oldest person to compete for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics.
“I would have rather done it when we were up 8-2 instead of down 8-2,” he said, “but I really appreciate the guys giving me a chance.”
Since inviting Ruohonen onto their team as an alternate for Casper, who has Guillain-Barre syndrome, he has become something of an honorary uncle: transporting teammates around in his truck, waking them up for morning trainings and buying them snacks.
All while holding a much-discussed full-time job.
“We got Rich, uh, he’s a lawyer. I don’t know if you guys knew that,” said Casper at a recent press conference, after that fact had been mentioned four times. Curlers from the US women’s and men’s teams cracked up.
“If you need a lawyer, I think you can call Rich,” Casper said a few minutes later, again to uproarious laughter.
All jokes aside, it’s a serious commitment.
“I get up three days a week at 5 in the morning, leave my house by 5:15 in the morning, go drive 30 miles to work out and train,” Ruohonen told the AP.
He said he then heads to his law practice and works all day before returning at 6 p.m. before heading to practice again. He spends Thursday through Sunday away at curling tournaments, toting around a collared shirt and a tie so he can handle hearings on Zoom from the road.
Though his teammates poke fun by making him the butt of the occasional Tiktok video, there’s clearly a lot of love on both sides.
It’s because of the younger teammates that Ruohonen has finally gotten his Olympic moment after falling just short on several occasions. And it’s because of Ruohonen that the team has a mentor and a connection to the older generation of the sport, some of whom they defeated to clinch their Olympic qualification.
“I came from the days when guys were smoking cigarettes out on the ice and all we did was throw rocks and think that we could be better,” Ruohonen said while praising his teammates’ work ethic.
“Look at these guys,” he added. “Every one of them’s ripped and every one of the sweeps their butt off.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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LIVIGNO, Italy — Now, it’s Chloe Kim’s turn to grasp a special spot in snowboarding’s record book.
Kim will be in the halfpipe Thursday night, trying to become the first snowboarder to win three straight Olympic gold medals.
The 25-year-old from California hurt her shoulder four weeks ago, disrupting her lead-in to the Milan Cortina Games. Wearing a brace in qualifying on Wednesday, she put down a solid run to lead the standings and said her injury felt fine.
“I’ve been doing this for 22 years,” Kim said. “Muscle memory is a thing.”
Kim traditionally has the highest-flying most difficult runs in her sport. She is the first woman to land two separate kinds of 1080-degree double corks — two head-over-heels flips — and some version of those could be on tap for the night-time contest at the Livigno Snow Park.
Snoop Dogg is expected to show up to watch one of the biggest names in the Olympics go for history. So will Kim’s boyfriend, Myles Garrett, the defensive end for the Cleveland Browns.
Shaun White will be on hand, as well. He is the only other snowboarder with three gold medals in a sport that arrived at the Olympics in 1998.
Two riders — Ester Ledecka in parallel giant slalom and Anna Gasser in big air — had a chance for three straight earlier in these Olympics, but neither ended up on the podium.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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MILAN — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that it is hard to cheer for American Olympians who are speaking out against administration policies, calling one such critic “a real Loser” who perhaps should have stayed home.
It was the latest and most prominent example of U.S. Olympians at the Milan Cortina Games inviting online backlash with their words.
Reporters on Friday asked U.S. athletes at a news conference how they feel representing the country during the Trump administration’s heighted immigration enforcement actions. Freestyle skier Hunter Hess replied that he had mixed emotions since he doesn’t agree with the situation, and that he is in Milan competing on behalf of everyone who helped get him to The Games.
“If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it,” Hess said. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
Among those who piled on Hess were YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.
“From all true Americans If you don’t want to represent this country go live somewhere else,” he wrote on X, where he has 4.4 million followers. Minutes later, he was photographed sitting beside U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the U.S women’s hockey game in Olympic host city Milan.
Trump said the next day that Hess’ comments make it hard to root for him.
“Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.
At Friday’s news conference with the athletes, freestyle skier Chris Lillis referenced Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying he’s “heartbroken” about what is happening in the U.S.
“I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody, with love and respect,” Lillis said. “I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”
And U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn said the LGBTQ+ community has had a hard time during the Trump administration.
In addition to Paul, conservative figures criticizing the athletes on social media include former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, actor Rob Schneider and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — who Trump has endorsed for the Florida gubernatorial race in November. And there was a flood of vitriol directed at them from ordinary Americans.
Glenn posted on Instagram that she had received “a scary amount of hate / threats for simply using my voice WHEN ASKED about how I feel.” She added that she will start limiting her social media use for her well-being.
In response to questions from The Associated Press, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement Sunday that it is aware of an increasing amount of abusive and harmful messages directed toward the athletes and was doing its best to remove content and report credible threats to law enforcement.
“The USOPC stands firmly behind Team USA athletes and remains committed to their well-being and safety, both on and off the field of play,” it said.
Support for the U.S. abroad has eroded as the Trump administration has pursued an aggressive posture on foreign policy, including punishing tariffs, military action in Venezuela and threats to invade Greenland.
During the opening ceremony, Team USA athletes were cheered on, but jeers and whistles could be heard as Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, were shown on the stadium screens, waving American flags from the tribune.
In Milan, several demonstrations have broken out against the against the local deployment of ICE agents — even after clarification that they are from an investigations unit that is completely separate from the enforcement unit at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S.
Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm seen in the streets of the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers were sent to Italy. – I think this graf can be deleted, too in the weeds
A demonstration on Saturday featured thousands of protesters. Toward its end, a small number of them clashed with police, who fired tear gas and a water cannon. That followed another one last week, when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
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Associated Press writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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