Winter Olympics recap: US speedskater Jordan Stolz stunned in 1,500 meters

MILAN (AP) — U.S. speedskater Jordan Stolz’s late push wasn’t enough.

The American star settled for silver in the 1,500 meters, missing a chance to secure a third gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

China’s Ning Zhongyan won Thursday’s race in an Olympic-record time of 1 minute, 41.98 seconds. The 21-year-old Stolz, who won gold medals in the 500 and 1,000 at these Games, crossed 0.77 seconds later.

As Stolz glided by, hands on his knees, Ning raised his country’s flag aloft with both hands and started a victory lap.

Stolz, a Wisconsin native, will participate in the mass start on Saturday.

Dutch skater Kjeld Nuis, who won the 1,500 at the past two Olympics, took bronze.

Women’s hockey final: US vs. Canada

They meet again.

The United States and Canada are playing in the gold medal match in women’s hockey. It’s the seventh time the two powerhouses have faced off for Olympic gold since women’s hockey debuted at the 1998 Nagano Games.

The Americans beat their rivals 5-0 in the preliminary round in Milan.

The U.S. team, the defending world champion, is trying to avenge a loss to Canada in the Olympic final in 2022.

Earlier Thursday, Alina Muller scored the bronze medal-winning goal in overtime in Switzerland’s 2-1 victory over Sweden. It came 12 years after Muller scored the clinching goal to deliver the Swiss their first Olympic medal in women’s hockey — a bronze at the 2014 Sochi Games.

US and Canada reach women’s curling semifinals

The United States and Canada advanced to the women’s curling semifinals.

The Americans, skipped by Tabitha Peterson, beat Switzerland 7-6 in a match that went to an extra end. The teams will square off again in Friday’s semifinals.

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 beat South Korea 10-7 and will play Sweden on Friday.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Suns owner Mat Ishbia says 'tanking is losing behavior done by losers" but is confident Adam Silver has fix

Two days after former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban argued on X that the NBA should actually embrace tanking, current Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Mat Ishbia used social media on Thursday to call out intentional losing and voice his confidence in league commissioner Adam Silver.

“This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers,” Ishbia wrote on X. “Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. And the talk about this as a ‘strategy’ is ridiculous.

“If you are a bad team, you get a good pick. That makes sense. But purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace and impacts the integrity of [the] whole league.   

“This is much worse than any prop bet scandal. This is throwing games strategically. Horrible for fans that pay to watch and cheer on their team. And horrible for all the real teams that are competing for playoff spots.

“Awful behavior that Adam Silver and the NBA will need to stop with massive changes, and I have complete confidence that with his leadership, he will fix it. Those of us in a position of influence need to speak out… the only ‘strategy’ is doing right by fans, players and the NBA community.”

This past Saturday, during All-Star Weekend, Silver conceded that the league’s observed worse tanking behavior this season than it’s seen in recent memory.

He also made it clear that he’s considering “every possible remedy” to stop that behavior. Silver’s open to changing the draft structure, and he didn’t rule out taking away picks from tanking teams.

Last week, the NBA fined both the Utah Jazz and the Indiana Pacers six figures for “overt” tanking and, more specifically, for their nefarious roster management in recent games.

The NBA currently has seven teams with fewer than 20 wins. The Jazz and Pacers are among that bottom-dwelling group that’s looking toward the future, including this year’s draft, which most notably features four potential franchise needle movers: Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Duke’s Cameron Boozer and UNC’s Caleb Wilson.

The Suns, however, are in playoff contention. Ishbia’s passionate words came in a quote post of a Yahoo Sports story from Tom Haberstroh, who power ranked the tanking teams based on a five-factor system.

Despite hitting the reset button — moving away from Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal — Phoenix isn’t tanking or even in rebuild mode. It’s in seventh place in a crowded Western Conference table.

At 32-23, the Suns have maximized a roster full of players who have a chip on their shoulder.

Their performance and the organization’s refreshing transition after carrying the highest payroll in league history last season give Ishbia’s comments on Thursday more credibility.

Mikaela Shiffrin came to the Olympics looking for peace in her skiing. She found gold along the way

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin is well-versed in the bargain the Olympics forces athletes to make.

The risk that comes with laying yourself bare on the world stage. The way it challenges your mental and physical health. The ever-present fear of failure and the way it can frame — fairly or unfairly — the public’s perception of you.

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do,” she said.

No, it’s not.

Trying to nudge that bargain toward friendlier terms is next to impossible. The greatest ski racer in the history of the sport has spent years wrangling with it.

On Wednesday, Shiffrin may have finally found peace.

Standing on the medal stand, a second gold medal in slalom around her neck a dozen years after she earned her first, Shiffrin closed her eyes, mouthed the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” and breathed in a moment built on tireless practice, innate talent, purity of purpose and a self-belief that is harder to come by than you might think.

The peace she felt didn’t come from shedding the weight of getting “ripped apart by people who sit on the couch,” as teammate Paula Moltzan put it.

No, Shiffrin returned to the top of the Olympic medal stand for the first time in eight years by leaning into what drew her to bunny slopes in New England as a kid in the first place: the challenge of bending gravity and her body to her will as she navigates from here to there while darting between gates as fast as she can.

She did not come to the Dolomite Mountains to win, which is merely a byproduct. If she’s being honest, her relationship with racing is “complicated.” The joy isn’t in the result, it’s in the pursuit of her best.

Shiffrin found it on a sun-splashed winter afternoon when the stakes were uncomfortably high.

Down to her last chance to leave Italy with a medal after missing out in the team combined and giant slalom, she did not have to be reminded of what might happen if things got sideways.

To be Shiffrin at this moment is to be considered within the sport as one of the unquestioned GOATs in women’s skiing — a record 108 World Cup wins and counting can’t be wrong — while also being viewed by the public that tunes in only to the Olympics as a disappointment after she failed to reach the podium in any of the six races she entered in Beijing four years ago.

She has long grown tired of answering questions about why the brilliance she summons so easily everywhere else seems harder to come by at the Games.

Yet Shiffrin kept dutifully answering the questions anyway, fully aware they would keep coming until the 2030 Games if she left Cortina empty-handed, the three medals she already has stashed away back home in Colorado somehow forgotten.

This is part of the deal when you sign up for an event so large that the importance of everything that happens outside of it can get skewed, no matter how significant it may be.

Is it frustrating? Of course it is. Yet Shiffrin understood it was a price she needed to be willing to pay.

“In order to do this today, I kind of needed to accept the possibility that those questions would keep coming,” she said. “It was like, ‘Just don’t resist it’ and just live in my own moment.”

Over the course of 1 minute, 39.10 seconds of brilliance, Shiffrin delivered an indelible run that should shut up the critics she’s tried so diligently to block out. She didn’t race like a 30-year-old world-weary from the pressure that follows her wherever she goes. She raced with joy and precision.

And really, isn’t that kind of the point?

While admitting she still doesn’t quite know how to process the leaderboard when she glances at it following a run — all Shiffrin understands is that the color green next to her name is good because it means she’s fastest — she didn’t have to look at it after clinching gold.

She just knew.

“I can’t even explain what it feels like to cross the finish line, and know before I saw the time that I did that ski, and then see the time and think, ‘Holy (crap)’” Shiffrin said.

Her time — a full 1.50 seconds faster than silver medalist Camille Rast of Switzerland — might have surprised her. The result, however, did not.

The women who face her week in and week out know what they’re up against when she’s on the start list. Rast watched Shiffrin take a lead of nearly a second after a blazing first run and knew the dream of standing atop the podium here was over.

“I was like, ‘OK, gold is gone,’ but the other two medals are still open,” Rast said with a laugh.

It’s been that way for the better part of a decade. Shiffrin has already locked up a record ninth World Cup season title in her preferred discipline. When she’s at her best, she is practically unbeatable.

As she slowly made her way from interview to interview, doing her best to provide fresh, thoughtful answers, those who have watched her closely know only too well what it took for her to get here.

“It probably wasn’t easy for her to show her performance on a day like this,” said Germany’s Lena Duerr, who entered the final run in second to Shiffrin but saw her medal hopes evaporate after she missed the first gate. “The pressure for sure was high on her.”

It always is. And everyone in the sport knows it. The deeply introspective Shiffrin most of all. While she is quick to point out she hardly does this alone — the team that follows Shiffrin around the globe is a vital part of her success — when she’s out on the slope, it’s just her.

So maybe it’s fitting at the end of her fourth trip to Olympics that it was just Shiffrin alone, if only for a moment, drinking not in the glory of gold but the satisfaction that maybe for the first time, she took this event that asks for so much for those who compete and met it on her terms.

“It just feels really good to be able to sort of let those doubts and uncertainties go,” she said.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Real Madrid beats Paris FC to set up women’s Champions League quarterfinal against Barcelona

LONDON (AP) — Real Madrid set up a Clasico against three-time champion Barcelona in the women’s Champions League quarterfinals by beating Paris FC 2-0 on Wednesday.

Striker Naomie Feller opened the scoring and Melween N’Dongala put through her own net as Madrid advanced 5-2 on aggregate, having won the first leg in Paris 3-2.

Later Wednesday, defending champion Arsenal protects a 4-0 lead when it hosts Belgian side OH Leuven. Qualification for the London club would set up a quarterfinal with rival Chelsea.

Early red card

Paris’ cause was made harder when defender Théa Greboval was sent off in the fifth minute for pulling back Feller as she ran through on goal.

Still, the visitors came close to taking a 19th-minute lead at Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano when Océane Picard’s low shot from 20 meters was well saved by goalkeeper Misa Rodríguez.

Attacking midfielder Caroline Weir missed a chance to put Madrid ahead from the penalty spot in the 36th after Picard handled a cross. Goalkeeper Mylène Chavas, playing against her former club, pushed away the spot kick with both hands.

Feller broke Paris’ resistance in the 54th when she volleyed in from close range following a fine cross from right back Eva Navarro, who also set up the second goal midway through the second half when her cross led to N’Dongala’s own goal from near the penalty spot.

The revamped women’s Champions League format has followed the men’s competition, with an opening league phase of six rounds instead of eight.

The top four in the 18-team league phase — Barcelona, Lyon, Chelsea and Bayern Munich — advanced directly to the quarters and teams placed fifth to 12th went into the playoffs.

To come

In Thursday’s second legs, Juventus hosts two-time champion Wolfsburg with the score 2-2 while Manchester United defends a 3-0 lead at home to Atletico Madrid.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Anthony Kim's mystique was built on memories. Now his best highlight is a win

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anthony Kim shared this much with Tiger Woods: The longer they stayed away, the more the legend grew. The difference was the amount of highlights to fill the void and what kept them away.

Kim’s victory in LIV Golf Adelaide, before the largest crowd on the LIV circuit and in the early morning hours in most parts of America, was nothing short of astonishing because of how long he had been away — 12 years in the prime of his career — and his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction that made him thankful to even be alive, much less playing golf.

“Who I am today is a completely different person,” Kim said. “With God, my family, my sobriety being the key things to my life, I can go as far as I want.”

What stands out about this return is the time lapse. Has there been another athlete from any other sport who disappeared for so long and came back to win? Perhaps even more remarkable is that he was in the final group, five shots behind Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, and didn’t miss a shot on his way to a 63.

Kim’s mantra is to get 1% better each day. That’s what it took to get him back. The question going forward is whether that percentage can increase given the shot of confidence that comes from winning.

The talent was never in question.

Woods was playing a practice round for the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills when, during a wait on the sixth tee, he walked over to the side of the tee box and asked unprompted, “What do you think of Anthony Kim?” Woods never missed anything going on in golf.

A year later, Kim won by five shots at Quail Hollow and closed with a 65 to win at Congressional in the AT&T National. Adding to the aura — as if the bling and belt buckles and the strut weren’t enough — was his takedown of Sergio Garcia in the 2008 Ryder Cup.

They both hit shots into 2 feet on the first hole at Valhalla.

“Good-good?” Garcia said to Kim, suggesting they concede the putts, a common practice.

“Let’s putt them,” Kim replied without looking at him.

Kim was so wired that day that he walked off to the 15th tee after winning another hole only to see the Spaniard waiting to shake his hand on the 14th green. Kim didn’t realize the match was over.

A year later at the Presidents Cup, reports surfaced that Kim was out partying in the streets of San Francisco until dawn before the final round. Robert Allenby shared these tales, a curious decision because this was after Kim needed only 15 holes to beat him in Sunday singles.

And before long, Kim was gone.

A thumb injury kept him off the 2010 Ryder Cup team. There was pain in his left elbow, his wrist. There were missed cuts and WDs. His game was so bad that Kim said his mother told him a caddie at a golf club in Los Angeles was making twice as much as Kim’s earnings in 2012.

And then he was out of public view for more than a decade.

Any time there was a rumored AK sighting came memories of his talent and his aura. He became legend. He had a mystique, even though Kim won only three times and never seriously contended in a major. He set a Masters record with 11 birdies in one round. Steve Pate shares the Masters record with seven birdies in a row. No one ever talks about Pate.

Woods was never the same after the first of four back surgeries that led to his lower back being fused. He was gone for chunks of time, most notably playing only once on the PGA Tour and once on the European Tour — a total of three rounds — in 2016 and 2017.

All that remained were memories and highlights, plentiful and powerful. And then Woods brought that legend to life when he contended at Carnoustie in 2018, won at East Lake and then came full circle when he won the 2019 Masters, just two years after he could barely make it up the stairs to the Augusta National clubhouse.

That’s the lasting memory now that Woods hardly plays because of injuries from his 2021 car crash. The question is whether he plays the PGA Tour Champions now that he’s 50.

Kim, for all the years he was gone, is still only 40. That’s not a peak age even in golf, though Justin Rose (45) has shown it can be done. Kim has plenty of years ahead, wherever that takes him.

He unwittingly got help from LIV, which gave him a spot in the Saudi-funded league in 2024. LIV added an additional spot in its qualifying tournament (Kim finished third). It also changed from 54 holes to 72 holes this year. If not for that change, there would not have been an extra round for that masterful performance from Kim on Sunday in Australia.

And with LIV getting world ranking points — one reason the league added the qualifying spot and 72-hole tournaments — Kim is now just outside the top 200 in the world.

It’s too soon to speculate whether the majors are in view. Another win still wouldn’t get him inside the top 100. LIV Golf has three tournaments (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa) before the Masters. The PGA Championship seems like a possibility if he keeps contending, and the two Opens offer spots through LIV’s points list.

This was cause for celebration, appreciation and amazement. Best of all, he has a new highlight to remind golf fans why he got so much attention in the first place.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Former NBA player, Coach of the Year Doug Moe dies at age 87

Former NBA player and coach Doug Moe has died at the age of 87, former NBA player Bill Hanzlik shared on X Tuesday. Hanzlik played under Moe for eight seasons with the Denver Nuggets.

The Nuggets later confirmed the news with a post in memoriam:

Moe is credited with revolutionizing the “passing game offense” in the NBA, emphasizing constant movement and a notorious “two-second rule” — pushing players to either pass the ball or shoot as quickly as the rule’s name would imply.

Moe spent four years as an assistant coach before earning his first job as a head coach with the San Antonio Spurs, leading the team to a 117-135 record over four seasons before heading to Denver as an assistant coach. He was then promoted to interim head coach and spent 10 seasons with the team.

Moe led the Nuggets to a 432-357 record over 10 seasons; those 432 wins made him the winningest coach in franchise history, prior to Michael Malone earning his 433rd win with the team in 2024. The Nuggets made the playoffs in each of his nine seasons as a full-time head coach, though the Nuggets failed to ever make it past the conference finals.

Moe earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in the 1987-88 season. That year, the Nuggets finished first in the NBA Midwest with a 54-28 record, leading the league with 116.7 points per game. After defeating the Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, they fell in the semifinals to the Dallas Mavericks.

Despite leading the team to two Midwest Division titles in his tenure, Moe was fired by the Nuggets after the 1989-90 season as the team looked toward its future under new leadership. Bernie Bickerstaff — the first African American president and GM in franchise history — was hired in the summer of 1990 and fired Moe not long after.

Moe was a two-time All-American out of UNC, selected first by the Detroit Pistons in the 1960 draft, followed by the former Chicago Packers (now Washington Wizards) in the second round of the 1961 draft. Despite having been drafted, his connection to a point-shaving scandal in college followed him, an d he was eventually blackballed by the league for his connection to the alleged scheme, despite later being cleared of any wrongdoing.

Moe went on to earn the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the league in 2018.