Olympics

“Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie will not head to Milan for NBC’s 2026 Winter Olympics coverage as she deals with the ongoing police investigation into the suspected abduction of her mother.

“Savannah will not be joining us at the Olympics as she focuses on being with her family during this difficult time,” an NBC News representative said Tuesday in a statement. “Our hearts are with her and the entire Guthrie family as the search continues for their mother.”

Guthrie was scheduled to co-host NBC’s telecast of the Friday opening ceremonies for the Milan Cortina Games alongside Terry Gannon of NBC Sports. The network representative said alternative plans will be announced shortly.

June 2023 photo of Savannah Guthrie and mother Nancy Guthrie. (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

(Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

Law enforcement officials believe Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her home outside of Tuscon, Ariz. on Saturday night. Police were called after relatives were told she missed the Sunday church service she regularly attends and did not find her at home.

Police found Nancy Guthrie’s cell phone, wallet, car and medication were left behind, indicating she did not leave voluntarily. She has no cognitive issues, but has limited physical mobility and could not walk far on her own, family members have told police.

On Tuesday, Lima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said at press briefing that authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. He also said the department is aware of “reports circulating about possible ransom note(s)” in the case. TMZ reported on the existence of an alleged ransom note Tuesday, but Nanos did not verify the account,

According to law enforcement sources not authorized to speak about the case publicly, there was blood at the scene and someone appeared to have forced their way inside.

Guthrie, a “Today” co-host since 2012, has been off the program since Monday. She was scheduled to head to Milan early this week.

Guthrie’s mother, who lived on her own, has been an occasional on-air guest at “Today.” Her appearances made her a favorite of Guthrie’s co-workers and staff at the program.

MILAN — A partial knee replacement in her right leg wasn’t enough to stop Lindsey Vonn from pursuing her Olympic comeback. Neither will a recent left torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Vonn revealed Tuesday she suffered a completely ruptured ACL in a crash last week but remains focused on racing in the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

“If my knee is not stable, I can’t compete and at the moment, it is stable and it is strong,” Vonn said during a virtual news conference from Cortina d’Ampezzo. “… So far so good but we have to take it day by day. But if it remains the way it is now, I think I’m pretty solid.”

The 41-year-old Vonn said she skied Tuesday to test her knee. She is not in any pain and the swelling has gone down, but with bone bruising and additional meniscus damage, she still has to tackle full-speed downhill training runs beginning on Thursday before the downhill competition starts Sunday.

Vonn, who also has hopes to race in the super-G and the team event, said her “intention is to race everything.”

“I am not letting this slip through my fingers,” she said. “I’m going to do it, end of story. I’m not letting myself go down that path. I’m not crying. My head is high, I’m standing tall and I’m going to do my best, whatever the result is.”

Vonn is no stranger to knee injuries. She retired from the sport in 2019 and underwent a partial knee replacement in April 2024. Since announcing her comeback in November 2024, Vonn has already defied expectations by becoming the oldest skier to win a World Cup race when she won at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in December and by making the Olympic team seven years after her retirement.

“I think if anyone can do it, it’s Lindsey,” U.S. teammate Bella Wright said of competing with a torn ACL. “I think we all know how strong of a skier she is, but I think that her mental game is what makes Lindsey Lindsey.”

Vonn was racing at a World Cup event Jan. 30 at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, when she lost control while attempting to land a jump. She slid into the safety netting and was later airlifted to a hospital. While a torn ACL typically sends athletes straight to the operating room, Vonn said surgery was not a discussion.

“The Olympics are the only thing that I’m thinking about,” Vonn said.

Despite the crash occurring so close to the Games, Vonn said her knee feels better now than when she has battled other injuries, including in 2019 when she competed at the world championships without a lateral collateral ligament and three tibial plateau fractures. She still won the bronze medal.

“I know what my chances [at the Olympics] were before the crash, and I know my chances aren’t the same as it stands today,” Vonn said, “but I know there’s still a chance and as long as there’s a chance, I will try.”

If Hilary Knight is the GOAT of women’s ice hockey, then Caroline Harvey is the kid.

That isn’t just a reference to her age, 23, which makes her the seventh-youngest player on the U.S. Olympic team. The term is also used for baby goats. And with Knight, the oldest player on the U.S. team, expected to retire from Olympic competition after the Milan Cortina Games, that makes Harvey the GOAT in waiting.

“Hilary is a great role model,” Harvey said. “She did blaze that trail. It’s been exciting to see what she did, the legacy she left.”

Like the 10 world championship gold medals, most by a hockey player of either gender; the soon-to-be five Olympic appearances, most by any American hockey player; the scoring titles and MVP awards. But the real legacy she’ll leave will have little to do with any of that.

In 2019, while at the height of her career, Knight risked everything when she joined more than 200 other players in boycotting the existing women’s hockey leagues to form the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Assn. Four years later that led to the creation of the well-funded Professional Women’s Hockey League, with eight teams playing in the U.S. and Canada.

Knight said she took inspiration for that campaign from the 1999 Women’s World Cup soccer team of Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain, which not only won the title but soon after began the decades-long fight with the U.S. Soccer Federation that eventually ended with the women getting the same pay and benefits as the men’s team.

“We credit the ‘99ers to sort of helping us with our vision and creating more equitable space,” she said. “We’re far from there but we’re taking great steps in that direction.”

In fact, women’s hockey has never been better, a popularity both Knight and Harvey hope to build on in the Olympic tournament, which begins Thursday with the U.S. facing Czechia.

“Visibility is really important; continuing to get those eyes,” said Knight, a tireless promoter of the game. “We’re going to have some new and unique viewership. With the Olympics in itself [viewers] might accidentally watch hockey and be like ‘I love this sport.’

“Just having more programming elevates the game on the global stage. And that’s really exciting.”

U.S. forward Hilary Knight skates to the bench after scoring against Canada in November 2023.

(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

The game Knight, 36, is championing is really one she built, especially in the U.S. A two-time NCAA champion at Wisconsin, she’ll be going for her fifth Olympic medal — and second gold — in Milan. Yet she insists the experience never gets old.

“Every Olympics feels like my first Olympics,” she said. “Each is so unique. You’re in a different country, a different culture, just so much fun to be able to explore. The Olympics are so special, whether it’s your first or your fifth.”

These Games are likely to feel a little different, though, since they’ll end with her passing the baton to Harvey, who followed Knight to Wisconsin. The two women have more in common than just their alma mater, though.

Both were the youngest players on the team when they made their Olympic debuts, Knight as a high-scoring forward in 2010 and Harvey as a physical, offensive-minded defenseman in 2022. Both have won multiple world championships and both began their careers playing on boys teams. As children, they both told relatives they would someday play in the Olympics — a prediction that was particularly bold for Knight since women’s hockey wasn’t even an Olympic sport then.

When Harvey joined the national team ahead of the 2021 world championships, Knight shared some advice.

“She said something to the effect of ‘it’s the same game, no matter what level you’re at. Trust your instincts, play natural, play free,’” Harvey said. “That just really stuck with me.

U.S. defenseman Caroline Harvey shoots during a Rivalry Series game against Canada in November.

(Jason Miller / Getty Images)

“Hopefully at some point [I] grow into that leadership role,” she continued. “I’ve had some years now and that past Olympics, it was more of a being a sponge. I’m always trying to learn something new every day from the veterans.”

One thing she’s learned recently is how to beat Canada, which could come in handy in Milan since the U.S. will face its northern neighbors in the final game of group play, and likely a second time in the knockout rounds.

Canada has won five of the last six women’s Olympic tournaments, beating the U.S. in four of the those finals, including the most recent one in 2022. But the U.S. swept Canada in the pre-Olympic Rivalry Series, winning the four games by a combined 24-7. Knight and Abbey Murphy led the tournament in scoring with five goals each.

“When the puck drops, your heart is beating out of your chest,” Knight said of playing Canada. “You’re like ‘am I human? This is insane. This is awesome.’”

Still, when Knight finally does hang up her skates for the final time, those won’t necessarily be the memories she holds closest from her Olympic career.

“I get to do cool things with cool people on a daily basis,” she said. “What I’ve been able to accomplish in my career is incredible. And I’ve obviously played with amazing women and I’m so grateful for every opportunity that I’ve had.

“I’m just at a place where I want to embrace these lasting memories and moments with teammates and friends and family, all those people that go into this journey. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

After that, the GOAT will give way to the kid.

Jordan Stolz will be trying to win multiple gold medals in speedskating the Milan Cortina Olympic Games.

(Morry Gash / Associated Press)

Since making his Olympic debut at 17, Stolz has become a star in international speedskating. He was the first man to win three world championships in one year in 2023 and repeated in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters in 2024. He also competes in the team pursuit. U.S. speedskating has several medal contenders, including two-time Olympic bronze medalist Brittany Bowe and gold medalist Erin Jackson, who became the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics in 2022.

Think of Mike Buckley as a kind of double agent.

Not the sinister kind, who give away state secrets for money or revenge; Buckley is privy to much lower-level intelligence. But that doesn’t mean it’s not just as valuable to the people involved.

Buckley is the Kings’ goaltender coach and his chief pupil is Darcy Kuemper, who will be playing for Team Canada in the Milan Cortina Olympic hockey tournament. Buckley will be in Milan coaching for Team USA. And if the competition goes to form, Canada and the U.S. will meet in the final.

You can see where this is going.

So would Buckley give up the goods on his NHL goalie if it meant helping his national team win a gold medal?

“I probably have a little bit more insight being with him on a day-to-day basis. But at the end of the day, the players still have to execute,” said Buckley, like Kuemper, a first-time Olympian. “So if I tell someone to shoot somewhere at a certain time or a certain spot, they’re going to have to be able to execute that.”

The answer then is maybe.

Still, that’s a dilemma Buckley will probably never face since Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues, who was spectacular in goal in last year’s Four Nations Face-off, will probably start for Canada in Milan. But with the Kings sending four other players (defenseman Drew Doughty, Canada; and forwards Adrian Kempe, Sweden; Kevin Fiala, Switzerland; and Joel Armia, Finland) plus Canadian equipment manager Darren Granger to the Olympics, there’s a good chance guys who have shared a dressing room since September will be competing against one another.

Kings forward Kevin Fiala controls the puck while playing for Team Switzerland at the 2025 world championships.

(Michael Campanella / Getty Images)

The same goes for the Ducks, who are sending four players — goalie Lukas Dostal and defenseman Radko Gudas, Czechia; forward Mikael Granlund, Finland; and defenseman Jackson LaCombe, U.S. — to Milan. Ducks star Leo Carlsson, who was expected to start for Sweden, will miss the Games after undergoing surgery to repair a rare injury in his left thigh last month.

So while the Olympics may bring countries together, it also has the potential to turn teammates against one another — at least temporarily.

In the group stage of the tournament, for example, Armia and Finland will play against Kempe’s Sweden. And Canada, with Kuemper and Doughty, will face Switzerland, which is led by Fiala.

“It’s obviously going to be a little strange,” Gudas said. “It’s only for a few games. For that amount of time, you can put things aside a little bit.”

Those kinds of match-ups were rare in the last two Olympic tournaments since NHL players didn’t take part, sidelined by a dispute over insurance, travel costs and scheduling issues. This year 147 NHL players are on the 12 Olympic rosters, with all 32 NHL clubs represented.

Not all the top NHL players will be in Milan, however. Russia has been banned from the tournament because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, meaning Alexander Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, won’t play.

Granlund, who won a bronze medal with Finland in 2014, the last time NHL players participated in the Olympics, is glad to be back.

“It was such a cool experience,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest honors I can have as a hockey player, playing for a country in the Olympics. There’s no player in the NHL who wouldn’t go.”

That’s due in large part to the rush that comes with wearing your country’s colors on your chest.

“It’s tough to explain how much it means,” he said. “You grow up in a country like Finland, watching the national team play. As a kid you’re dreaming to play for that team.

“Every single time you put that jersey on, it’s such a pride you feel.”

Doughty, who already has two gold medals, agreed, saying the only time he sings along with the Canadian anthem is at the Olympics.

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty controls the puck while playing for Canada in the Four Nations Face-Off last year.

(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

“When we hear it in the NHL, I’m not singing,” he said. “But when you’re wearing a Canadian jersey, that’s one of the biggest moments you can have.”

Not just for the guys on the ice. Granger, the equipment manager, will be making his third trip to the Olympics with Canada. And the journey never gets old.

“It’s not something that you apply for. It’s something that you’re asked to do,” he said. “So I don’t take that lightly. It’s an honor.”

The equipment managers may have the most difficult job in the Olympic hockey tournament since they must prepare and maintain the sticks, skates, gloves and uniforms for 25 players, some of whom they’ve never met. That means checking in with the equipment managers of rival NHL teams to get prepared.

“We have quite a few players that are particular about certain things,” he said. “After a while, you just kind of get used to what those things are. If it’s a player that likes to use three sticks a game, then making sure he has that. If it’s a guy that likes to change gloves every other game, making sure you have enough.”

Yet if Canada wins the tournament, Granger’s reward won’t be a gold medal. Olympic rules say medals only go to the players, leaving the equipment managers, trainers and coaches — even coaches with inside information like Buckley — out in the cold.

“That’s OK,” Buckley said. “I just want the players to get one.”

Mayor Karen Bass, delivering the first of two State of the City addresses planned this year, urged Angelenos on Monday to come together ahead of the 2028 Olympics while announcing a push to clean up Los Angeles’ busiest streets in the run-up to the Games.

The mayor spoke at the Expo Center in Exposition Park in front of hundreds of city workers and politicos. A second address is planned for April.

After both the UCLA and USC marching bands played to welcome the mayor, she fittingly homed in on a theme of unity as the region prepares to host the World Cup, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Super Bowl, among other events. But she also said that Angelenos needed to unite in the face of immigration raids, the homelessness crisis and the fires that burned in the city last year.

“Even in this difficult chapter, in our history, great events — moments of unity — are possible. And they are coming,” Bass said.

“As we prepare for … the greatest Olympic and Paralympic Games in history — we will continue to focus on the fundamentals, the things that shape how a city feels to the people who live here and the millions who will visit,” Bass said.

The preparation will include a continued focus on cleaning up encampments through Bass’ signature program, Inside Safe, she said.

Bass also announced a new clean streets initiative dubbed Clean Corridors, which she said would “accelerate beautification” of major thoroughfares throughout the city in advance of the Olympics.

“We will crack down on any illegal dumping, those who cut corners, avoid disposal fees, and leave a mess for workers and neighbors to deal with,” she said.

The announcement comes just months after the head of the city’s Bureau of Sanitation left her post.

The mayor also focused on the Trump administration’s continued immigration raids that have led to protests in downtown Los Angeles and across the country. She spoke about the shooting in Los Angeles of Keith Porter by federal agents.

“Staying silent or minimizing what is happening is not an option. This administration does not care about safety. They don’t care about order. And they most certainly do not care about the law,” she said.

The mayor also spoke about the Palisades fire, saying she and Councilmember Traci Park would head to Sacramento next week to call for more investment in the rebuild of the Palisades. Already, 400 homes are under construction in the Palisades and hundreds more are approved and ready to be built, she said.

“We are not just rebuilding — we are rebuilding smarter, faster, and safer,” she said. “Families are returning home.”

The announcement came after a week in which President Trump criticized the city’s rebuild for going too slowly, and said he would preempt the city’s ability to issue permits for people rebuilding after the Palisades fire.

The president announced in an executive order that victims of the fire using federal aid money could self-certify to federal authorities that they have complied with local health and safety standards.

The mayor decided to deliver two States of the City this year. Traditionally, she and other mayors have made a single speech in April before releasing the proposed annual budget for the new fiscal year.

The mayor said the first of the two speeches would serve as a countdown to the 2026 World Cup, which will feature eight matches at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium.

Her second State of the City is likely to focus more on the city’s budget issues.

Last year, the mayor and City Council had to close a $1-billion budget shortfall. During her State of the City in 2025, the mayor announced likely layoffs to city workers in order to produce a balanced budget.

The city ultimately avoided making any layoffs through other cuts and agreements with city unions. But the city is likely to face another tough budget year in the upcoming fiscal year.

The seventh in an occasional series of profiles on Southern California athletes who have flourished in their post-playing careers.

Tai Babilonia’s life changed forever when she was asked to hold a boy’s hand.

At first she resisted.

“I didn’t want to,” she remembered. “He’s a yucky boy.”

But Mabel Fairbanks, Babilonia’s skating coach, wouldn’t take no for an answer, bribing the 8-year-old with stickers and a Barbie doll if she would just reach out and grab the hand of 10-year-old Randy Gardner.

It would be another 40 years before she let go.

By then Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner had become one of the most decorated pairs in U.S. figure skating history, their individual names eventually melding into one.

“My last name is ‘and Randy,’” Babilonia said. “And I embrace it.”

U.S. pairs figure skating duo of Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner in 1979.

(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)

As a pair “Tai and Randy” won five U.S. championships, medaled in three world championships and qualified for the Olympics twice, all before Babilonia’s 21st birthday. Their success also pushed open doors that had long been closed since Babilonia, Black on her mother’s side and part Filipino and Native American on her dad’s side, was the first U.S. skater from any of those ethnic groups to compete in the Olympics or win a world title.

Among those to follow her were Debi Thomas, a two-time U.S. champion and a bronze medalist at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and Elizabeth Punsalan, a two-time Olympian and five-time national champion in ice dancing.

At about the same time Babilonia and Gardner were moving from competitive skating and the Olympics to the Ice Capades, another young girl was just starting to pursue her own Olympic dreams. Tiffany Chin would go on to win a national championship, two Skate America titles and just miss a medal in the 1984 Winter Games, retiring before she was old enough to legally drink.

In that brief but brilliant career, Chin changed U.S. figure skating forever. She was the country’s first Asian American national champion and first Chinese American Winter Olympian, paving the way for Olympic medalists Kristi Yamaguchi, Nathan Chen, Michelle Kwan and siblings Alex and Maia Shibutani.

After retiring from skating, Babilonia, now 66, dabbled in coaching and sportswear design, became a motivational speaker, an activist and, most importantly, a grandmother. But the legacy Babilonia and Chin created will be on display in Italy this month when the U.S. fields one of the most eclectic Olympic figure skating teams ever, with 12 of the 16 athletes having immigrant parents.

Five of the six singles skaters — Alysa Liu, Isabeau Levito, Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov and Andrew Torgashev — are first-generation Americans while the other, women’s national champion Amber Glenn, identifies as pansexual. Pairs skaters Emily Chan, Spencer Howe and Ellie Kam and ice dancers Anthony Ponomarenko, Christina Carreira, Vadym Kolesnik and Emilea Zingas are also immigrants or first-generation Americans while Madison Chock, the reigning Olympic champion in ice dancing, has Hawaiian, Chinese, German, English, Irish, French and Dutch ancestry.

At a time when diversity, equity and inclusion programs are being dismantled, immigrants are being attacked and diversity is labeled a weakness, America’s Olympic figure skaters have come to mirror the country at large.

“It’s wonderful and so important,” said Babilonia. “Especially now.”

Nearly 60 years after Babilonia and Gardner skated together for the first time, the decision to pair them seems inspired, even providential.

It was neither. Fairbanks, Babilonia learned later, simply needed a couple to skate in a club show at the Culver City Ice Arena.

“We just happened to be similar in height. And I guess we were cute,” Babilonia said last month during a lengthy interview at the Colonial Revival-style mansion in the West Adams District that houses the LA84 Foundation.

Gardner was already an excellent skater, as strong and athletic as he was outgoing and friendly; Babilonia was shy and far less steady on the ice. But that wasn’t the only thing that made their pairing unusual.

Gardner was white and Babilonia was Black. And in 1968, asking them to hold hands in public was scandalous, even in Culver City. However, Fairbanks, a legendary coach who had spent much of her life pushing back against convention, didn’t see color. She focused only on talent.

Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia roller skating together in May 1979.

(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)

“Mabel was the coach who taught all races, Hispanic, Black, mixed, Jewish,” Babilonia said. “Mabel broke down that wall.”

Fairbanks, who was Black and Seminole, was born in the Deep South at a time when ice rinks were segregated. Even after moving to New York, where she bought a pair of skates for $1 at a pawn shop, then taught herself how to use them, she skated mostly in nightclub shows, where she was limited to jumps and moves that wouldn’t show up the white skaters.

She soon moved to Los Angeles, touring internationally with the Ice Capades and Ice Follies, before becoming a coach and mentoring hundreds of young skaters, including Olympic medalists Scott Hamilton, Yamaguchi and Thomas.

“If it weren’t for Mabel Fairbanks, you wouldn’t have any color in the predominantly white skating world,” said Babilonia, who is shopping a biopic of Fairbanks, who died in 2001.

“People don’t really know her. She’s like a hidden figure.”

Yet three years after Fairbanks made Tai and Randy a pair, they left her for John Nicks, who was coaching at the Paramount Iceland.

“He took our skating to a whole different level. And it happened really quick,” said Babilonia, who still calls her former coach Mr. Nicks. “That’s when we started winning and improving and just really became a great pair of skaters.”

Two years later Babilonia and Gardner won the U.S. junior nationals and three years after that they won the first of five national championships, qualifying for the 1976 Winter Olympics in Austria, where they finished fifth. Gardner wasn’t old enough to vote and Babilonia didn’t have a driver’s license. But together they were holding their own against the best pairs skaters in the world.

“Such an incredible year,” Babilonia said. “We won our first U.S. title, became Olympians, I got my learner’s permit and had a crush on Peter Frampton.”

But they were just getting started. Gardner and Babilonia wouldn’t lose in the U.S. championships for the rest of the decade. And 11 months before the next Olympics, they won their first world championship, then celebrated by skating for the queen of England at Wembley Stadium.

Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner compete at the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo in March 1977.

(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)

With the Winter Games coming back to the U.S. at Lake Placid, the Americans were favored to keep the Soviet Union off the top step of the medal platform for the first time since 1960, the last time the Olympics were held in the U.S.

Only they never made it to the ice.

Nicks had moved his skaters from Paramount to the Ice Capades Chalet, a buff-colored concrete-block building in Santa Monica, five blocks from the Pacific Ocean. During a training session there, Gardner inflamed a groin injury that had plagued him for months.

It got worse when they got to Lake Placid and Gardner had a Xylocaine injection, but the anesthetic was too strong and it only made things worse; the pain was gone, but now Gardner couldn’t feel his leg at all. They pulled out of the competition moments before it was supposed to begin.

The next morning, with the skaters, their parents and their coach perched on the stage at a high school auditorium for a hastily arranged news conference, hundreds of reporters tried to get a shattered Babilonia to turn on her partner. She didn’t take the bait.

“She totally had my back,” Gardner said. “There was so much camaraderie and trust and love between the two of us. She understood that it was a major injury and it was devastating. It changed the path of our career.”

“I’m not going to say it ruined it,” he added. “It just changed the path.”

Two months after leaving Lake Placid in sorrow, Gardner and Babilonia, who had gone from “Tai and Randy” to the “Heartbreak Kids,” turned pro, signing a three-year contract with the Ice Capades that included endorsement deals.

They never skated in the Olympics again. And while the money was good, the pace was punishing, with eight shows a week on a 30-week tour.

“You’re performing every night, weekends two shows a day,” Babilonia said. “If you don’t pace yourself, which I didn’t, it will rock your world in a negative way.

“You can’t do all the tricks you did as a teenager every night.”

Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner skating in 1979, the same year they won the pairs world championship.

(Tony Duffy / Getty Images)

Babilonia had never truly dealt with the emotional pain of the Olympic withdrawal. Now she was also dealing with the strain and fatigue of the ice show schedule as well as an identity crisis.

“Randy figured out how to put Tai and Randy in a box and leave them there and go on with his life,” Babilonia said. “I didn’t know how to separate them from me.”

So she sought answers in amphetamines, heavy drinking and a number of brief but high-profile romances before hitting rock bottom just before her 29th birthday, when she tried to kill herself with an overdose of sleeping pills. Her recovery started seven months later with an emotional first-person account of her fall in People magazine.

“I did it because I knew I had to,” Babilonia, still fit and youthful, said of a confession in which she blamed no one but herself. “I had to stop what I was doing and this was part of my recovery process. I couldn’t say yes quick enough.

“Something inside of me said, ‘This is your moment. Get it out. It may help some people,’” she continued. “And it did.”

The magazine cover story was followed 19 months later by the prime-time NBC movie “On Thin Ice,” which went over much of the same territory, with Babilonia and Gardner playing themselves in many of the skating scenes.

“It took me a while to watch the whole thing. Some scenes were hard,” said Babilonia, who speaks in a confident, careful cadence. “It was just part of my recovery process.”

She’s been sober 17 years and her relationship with Gardner, who came out as gay in 2006 — also in People magazine — has lasted longer than her marriage. Along the way, Babilonia matured from the shy withdrawn child who refused to hold a boy’s hand into a bold, strong and confident woman.

“She’s totally mature. She is worldly. And she’s an advocate for equality in sports, people of color and all that,” said Gardner, 68, whose home in Manhattan Beach is about 10 miles from the Culver City ice rink where he and Babilonia learned to skate once stood.

The former teammates still meet at least once a month and talk on the phone frequently, although they haven’t been on the ice together since Gardner underwent surgery on his back a year ago.

Flames from a olympic torch passes in front of Tai Babilonia at LA84 Foundation in January.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

When she stopped skating Babilonia tried coaching, but that didn’t work because she didn’t know how to teach the moves she had so easily mastered. Instead, she launched a clothing line, became a motivational speaker, volunteered with various groups promoting diversity on and off the ice, co-hosted a TV interview show taped in Santa Barbara and, for the last nine years, has co-hosted a holiday skate party for kids from the Union Rescue Mission. She also continues to skate in charity events.

All that in addition to her work with Atoy Wilson, a former U.S. novice champion, on the Mabel Fairbanks biopic, tentatively titled “Black Ice: The Mabel Fairbanks Story.”

“I want to try everything,” she said. “I want to experience everything.”

But her real job, she quickly adds, is being a grandmother to Ryett, her son’s 2-year-old boy in Arizona.

“I love being a grandmother,” she said. “Absolutely love it.”

She is also a prolific presence on social media, where most of her posts are either trenchant comments on the politics of today or black-and-white photos from back in the day, when she and Gardner — Tai and Randy — were winning medals and opening doors, helping to change U.S. figure skating forever.

“I appreciate what we did more as I get older,” Babilonia said. “We were pretty good and we made our mark. We worked hard. We became two-time Olympians. We met the queen of England.

“It’s just wild.”

Men: Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell (alternate)

Women: Rebecca Morrison, Sophie Jackson, Jennifer Dodds, Sophie Sinclair, Fay Henderson (alternate)

Mixed: Mouat and Dodds

In Beijing four years ago, curling was the only sport to return to Britain with medals. Eve Muirhead’s rink took women’s gold and Mouat’s men claimed silver.

Muirhead is no longer playing – instead, she will lead the overall GB team as chef du mission – but her Bejing team-mate Dodds is.

“Jen and the kids” is how the women’s rink this time label themselves and, while their inexperience means they are not among the favourites, they could find themselves in contention for a podium place if things go their way.

Edinburgh duo Dodds and Mouat will be fancied in the mixed, though, having lost the bronze-medal match last time.

And Mouat’s rink are the team to beat in the men’s event. For them, anything less than gold would be a disappointment.

Files published by the US Department of Justice included flirtatious emails between Casey Wasserman and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Los Angeles 2028 Olympics chief Casey Wasserman has ‍apologised for communicating with ‍convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell more than 20 years ago, after the publication of a series of personal emails between the two.

New files related to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell’s former boyfriend, published by the United States Department of Justice on ⁠Friday, included flirtatious email exchanges between Wasserman, who was married at the time, and Maxwell dating ​from 2003.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty in ‍2021 by a jury in New York on charges including sex trafficking of a minor. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.

“I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” Wasserman said in a ‍statement on Sunday.

“I ⁠am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”

Maxwell was arrested in 2020 after being accused by federal prosecutors of recruiting and grooming girls for sexual encounters with Epstein between 1994 and 2004.

“I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,” said Wasserman, adding that it took place before her and Epstein’s crimes “came to light”.

The International Olympic Committee, which works very closely with Wasserman in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games, refused ​to comment on the matter.

“I believe Mr Wasserman has put out his ‌statement and we have nothing further to add,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry said in a press conference before the start of next week’s Milano-Cortina Olympics.

Asked whether the Wasserman emails were a distraction shortly before the Milano Games, Coventry said ‌there had been past Olympics that were dogged by stories prior to their start, such as the Zika virus before the Rio de Janeiro ‌2016 Olympics.

“Anything that is distracting from these Games is sad,” ⁠Coventry said.

“But we have learned over the many years … there has always been something that has taken the lead, leading up to the Games. What is keeping my faith alive is when the opening ceremony happens … suddenly the world remembers ‌the magic and spirit the Games have,” she said.

Wasserman is a sports and entertainment executive who has been leading the LA28 Olympic project from the bidding phase and currently serves as chairman of ‍the organising committee, which is due to deliver a progress report to the IOC session on Tuesday.

The 2028 Summer Olympics were awarded to the city in 2017.

Hundreds of protesters in Italy have denounced plans to bring ICE agents from the US to the Winter Olympics in Milan that begin on Friday. Italy’s interior ministry says ICE will only operate at US diplomatic offices and won’t be patrolling on the ground.

But such optimism comes with a word of caution, given the Beijing Olympics four years ago.

With a target of three to seven medals, Team GB were left to “lick their wounds” after ending the Games with only two curling medals – won on the last two days of competition – to show for a fortnight of upsets and near-misses.

GB Snowsport chief executive Vicky Gosling later told BBC Sport that athletes had flown to China with a “slight arrogance”.

Speaking before the 2026 Games, she said: “We’ve always got it in the back of our minds.

“We can’t bank on anything because literally anything can happen. There’s that sense of jeopardy.”

Team GB chef de mission Eve Muirhead added: “What a great opportunity we have, but we’ve also got to take into account the high risk of winter sport – and that’s why everyone loves it.”

But this time it does feel different.

Take the 2024-25 season, for example. Britain’s winter athletes won nine World Championship medals across the sports.

British skiers and snowboarders achieved 28 major podiums in Olympic disciplines, won three Crystal Globes (overall World Cup titles) and one World Championship title for Atkin.

In skeleton, British athletes won three World Championship medals and 19 on the World Cup circuit – seven of which were gold – while Weston and Wyatt secured a one-two in the overall rankings.

Despite injuries threatening to derail some athletes’ march towards the Olympics, such widespread success has continued into the current season.

At the X Games, in which the world’s best freestyle skiers and snowboarders are invited to compete, Brookes, Atkin and Muir came away with five medals between them – three of them gold – in a statement performance only two weeks before Milan-Cortina.

And in men’s skeleton, Weston won five of the seven World Cup races this season and Wyatt won the other two.

“I’m really excited,” said Gosling. “When you look at the strength in depth of the team that we have, we couldn’t be in a better place.

“We’ve punched way above our weight.”

Over the four-year cycle leading into the Milan-Cortina Games, UK Sport has ploughed £25.5m into winter sports on the Olympic programme, up from £22.2m for the Beijing cycle.

The 2022 figure was almost double the investment for Sochi 2014.

However, Olympic winter sports federations in the US received about £24m for the year of 2022 alone from the US Olympic Committee.

“We’ve gone from a nation happy to be at the start line to a nation that’s truly capable of winning,” said Gosling.

“Not only do we expect to be on the start line, but we expect a medal.

“The Eddie the Eagle days are over.”

Lindsey Vonn sat out a World Cup super-G race Saturday after crashing and injuring her left knee a day earlier but remains on track for the Milan Cortina Olympics, her coach told the Associated Press.

“No she is not racing today but preparing for Cortina as usual,” Chris Knight, Vonn’s personal head coach, said in a text message to the AP.

Vonn then posted on Instagram, “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to race today,” adding, “Thank you for all of the love and support I have received. Means the world to me.

“Doing my best right now….,” Vonn concluded with praying hands and fingers-crossed emojis.

Vonn crashed in a downhill in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Friday and ended up in the safety nets. After skiing down to the bottom of the course, she was airlifted away for medical attention.

It still wasn’t clear what her injury was.

“I crashed today in the downhill race in Switzerland and injured my left knee. I am discussing the situation with my doctors and team and will continue to undergo further exams,” Vonn wrote on Instagram on Friday.

Vonn, a 41-year-old American, is expected to be one of the biggest stars of the Winter Games, which open next Friday. Her first race comes two days later in the women’s downhill.

Saturday’s super-G was slated to be her final race before the Games.

Santagiulia is due to host many of the biggest ice hockey fixtures at the Games, including the men’s and women’s gold medal matches.

The first match is due to be held there on Thursday, 5 February, when hosts Italy face France in their first game of the women’s competition.

However, the stadium, less than a week before that game, is far from ready to host matches.

The stadium has been the centre of concerns throughout the build-up to the Games, including resulting in a boycott warning from the National Hockey League (NHL).

The rink in Milan, approved by the International Ice Hockey Federation, is shorter than the minimum requirement in the NHL, leading to suggestions there could be an increase in high-speed collisions. The quality of the ice has also been questioned.

“Obviously, if the players feel that the ice is unsafe, we’re not going to play,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in November. “It’s as simple as that.”

The NHL said it was “pleased” with the test event at the arena in January, although that did not pass without incident. During the event there was a short delay while a small hole in the ice had to be repaired.

Santagiulia is one of two ice hockey venues for the Games, with the Milano Rho Arena staging some group-stage matches.

The Rho Arena, a temporary venue constructed in the Fiera Milano exhibition centre, has a capacity of 5,800 – 6,000 fewer than Santagiulia.

BBC Sport visited all four venues in the Milan Cluster which will host events during the Games, which officially run between 6 and 22 February.

As well as the ice hockey venues, speed skating will take place at a temporary venue in Fiera Milano to the west of the city, while short track and figure skating are at Unipol Forum on the southern outskirts.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been contacted for comment.

Crans-Montana event was cancelled after Linsey Vonn was third of first six skiers to crash, but race was deemed safe.

Lindsey Vonn crashed out of a World Cup downhill on Friday that was hazardous to her Olympic medal hopes, though judged safe by race officials and team coaches.

Safe, it was agreed, at the place and exact time that Vonn lost control when landing a jump and spun into an awkward slide into the safety nets, injuring her left knee.

“It was probably good light in the spot where she completely missed the line and did the mistake,” World Cup race director Peter Gerdol said.

Gerdol spoke after the late-afternoon meeting of race and team leaders to debrief the day and detail the next morning’s schedule.

At the meeting in Crans-Montana – starting minutes after Vonn posted on social media her Olympic downhill dream next weekend was alive – a broad agreement was that the race had been safe. Some objected to it being cancelled at all.

About 25 minutes after Vonn crashed as the No 6 starter, with the race still paused, Gerdol and the race jury called it off for safety reasons.

“I feel for those guys, they have a tough job,” United States head coach Paul Kristofic said.

By 10:50am local time on an overcast day in the Swiss Alps, the light had dimmed since the 10am start and was forecast to get worse. It did.

The race may have seemed unsafe because three of the six starters failed to finish, and even leader Jacqueline Wiles barely made a tight final turn that caused one crash.

Still, the Austria coach said his racer Nina Ortlieb’s exit as the first starter, at the same spot as Vonn, was caused by a poor racing line, not poor light.

Roland Assinger later said racing had been much safer than two weeks ago at Tarvisio, Italy, where the women went “110 kilometres an hour (70 miles per hour) through the fog where you can see nothing”.

Assinger’s view echoed the view of Vonn’s teammate, Breezy Johnson, who was caught swearing on a television hot mic while chatting with racers in the warmup area when the cancellation news came.

World champion Johnson recalled the “(expletive) rain in Tarvisio” and added: “Then they are like ‘This is too bad a visibility.’ Like, what the …” Johnson later apologised for her choice of words in a social media post.

Swiss TV commentator Patrice Morisod, who had chuckled on air hearing Johnson’s words live, later said: “If we cancel such a race then we don’t have ski sport.”

What Gerdol and Morisod agreed on was disliking the tight turns into the finish line that sent Norwegian racer Marte Monsen into the fences and almost tricked Wiles.

“It’s not downhill,” Morisod said. “For me, that’s a big mistake for the FIS.”

Gerdol told the coaches’ meeting that the course design will be reviewed before the two-week world championships Crans-Montana will stage in one year.

“In view of the championships next year, we will definitely work on this,” the race director acknowledged.

The 2027 world seems far away when the Milan Cortina Olympics open next Friday, and the marquee women’s downhill is scheduled two days later.

Vonn faces a race to be fully fit for the Olympics she targeted in her remarkable comeback as the fastest 40-something in women’s ski race history.

She might even return on Saturday to start in a super-G on the same hill. “The coach just said he left her on the start list,” Gerdol said, “because he thinks that it could be (possible). Some of the athletes always want to race; this is clear, it is their job.”

The Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics open on Monday but one rapper Ghali’s inclusion draws criticism in his native Italy.

The inclusion ‌of Italian rapper Ghali in the cast of performers at the ‍opening ceremony of ‍the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics has led to a dispute in Italy.

The artist, born in Milan to Tunisian parents, has been criticised in Italy because of his comments on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the latest example of sport and politics colliding and why this case has hit the headlines.

Who is criticising Ghali’s inclusion at the Winter Olympics?

Members of Italy’s right-wing League party, part of Prime ⁠Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, have criticised the choice of Ghali to ‍perform at the event in the San Siro stadium on February 6.

What is Ghali criticised for saying about Israel?

Ghali was at the centre of a political spat two years ago during the popular Sanremo song contest, ‍when he ⁠called for a “stop to the genocide” in reference to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

A League party source called Ghali a “pro-Palestinian fanatic” who hated Israel and the centre-right, in comments to the Italian ​media.

Is Ghali’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony role set to be controversial?

Sport Minister Andrea Abodi said he did not ‌expect Ghali to use the Olympic stage to make a political point.

“I am not embarrassed to disagree with Ghali’s views and the messages he has sent, but I believe that ‌a country must be able to absorb the impact of an artist who has expressed an opinion that ‌we do not share, which will not be ⁠expressed on that stage,” he said.

What other names will be alongside Ghali to open the Milano Cortino Games?

Ghali, who has not commented on the dispute, is likely to appeal to a younger audience more than other performers at the opening ceremony, who will ‌include tenor Andrea Bocelli and US pop singer Mariah Carey.

Franco-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura was the target of racist abuse online when it emerged that ‍she would sing at the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024.

The latest cache of investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein released Friday include personal emails exchanged more than 20 years ago between Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA28 Olympics organizing committee, and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former romantic partner.

In emails sent in March and April 2003, Wasserman — who was married at the time — writes about wanting to see Maxwell in a tight leather outfit, she offers to give him a massage that can “drive a man wild,” and the pair discuss how much they miss each other, according to files released and posted online by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Representatives for Wasserman did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Friday.

In an email sent on March 14, 2003, Maxwell describes a “tight leather flying outfit” she wore recently and said she was thinking of Wasserman in inappropriate moments. He wrote back, “I think of you all the time … So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”

She then promises him, “Casey — I will be coming back to NY tom late afternoon. I shall be wearing a tight leather flying suit …”

Newly released Epstein files show emails exchanged between Casey Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell in March and April 2003.

(U.S. Department of Justice)

The exchange, part of a trove of documents about Epstein released on Friday, reveal that Wasserman was at one time friendly with Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on five counts related to sex trafficking and the abuse of minors in partnership with Epstein.

Other documents show that Wasserman and his then wife flew on Epstein’s private jet in September 2002 alongside Maxwell, Epstein, former President Clinton, actor Kevin Spacey and several others as part of a 10-day trip to explore the problems of HIV in Africa. (That trip had been documented in a 2003 Vanity Fair story).

During her trial, federal prosecutors established that Maxwell and Epstein — who died by suicide while in federal custody in 2019 — were engaged in a sex-trafficking scheme involving minors from the late 1990s through the early 2000s.

In an April 2, 2003, email to Wasserman, Maxwell offers to “continue the massage concept into your bed … and then again in the morning … not sure if or when we would stop.”

Newly released Epstein files show emails exchanged between Casey Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell in March and April 2003.

(U.S. Department of Justice)

Later that day she writes, “Umm — all that rubbing — are you sure you can take it? The thought frankly is leaving me a little breathless. There are a few spots that apparently drive a man wild — I suppose I could practice them on you and you could let me know if they work or not?”

A few days later, Maxwell tells Wasserman that “JE” says she should pick a week to go to Los Angeles and look at properties they can rent in Malibu that summer and offers to bring Wasserman something from Paris.

Wasserman wrote back, “I think you picking a week to be in LA is a really good idea … The only thing i want from paris is you”

The pair continue their exchange on April 6, with Maxwell then offering to bring him food from London such as KitKats, cheddar and baked beans to which he says, “Among all my desires, that combination is pretty low on the list … xoxo”

She asks him what combination would do it for him and he says “You, me, and not else much …”

Wasserman then explains the concept of June gloom, California’s famous seasonal fog, and Maxwell inquires whether it would be foggy enough “so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?”

He responds, “or something like that …”

Newly released Epstein files show emails exchanged between Casey Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell in March and April 2003.

(U.S. Department of Justice)

Wasserman, a UCLA alumnus, is the grandson of Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman. He built his own fortune through his sports marketing and talent agency Wasserman, which represents more than 30 No. 1 overall picks in major sports leagues including the MLB, NFL, NBA and WNBA. In 2023, the agency acquired Brillstein Entertainment Partners, a management production company that represents stars such as Adam Sandler and Brad Pitt and launched hit shows that included “The Sopranos.”

Wasserman was recruited by former Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2017 to help Los Angeles win its Olympic host bid. While Garcetti completed his mayoral term and faded from the Olympic spotlight, Wasserman remains the face of the city’s push to host a successful Games in 2028. He has led every major Olympic update presented to the IOC and met multiple times with President Trump to secure his support.

Wasserman is expected to join an LA28 delegation in Italy for the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the final Games before L.A.

Epstein, 66, was once a well-connected financial consultant who rubbed shoulders with many prominent politicians and celebrities, including Trump and Clinton. He was arrested and taken into federal custody in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

The indictment alleged that, between 2002 and 2005, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls at his homes in Manhattan, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla., and other locations, by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him for cash. It also alleged Epstein paid several of his victims to recruit other underage girls to engage in similar sex acts.

The latest documents were disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was enacted after months of public and political pressure and requires the government to open its files on the late financier and Maxwell. Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said the Justice Department was releasing more than 3 million pages of documents in the latest disclosure, as well as more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

Times staff writer Jenny Jarvie and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. skiing great Lindsey Vonn says her “Olympic dream is not over” after crashing and injuring her knee during a downhill race that was meant to be her final warmup before the start of the Milan Cortina Games next week.

“I crashed today in the Downhill race in Switzerland and injured my left knee,” the 41-year-old former Olympic gold medalist posted Friday on her Instagram Story. “I am discussing the situation with my doctors and team and will continue to undergo further exams.

“This is a very difficult outcome one week before the Olympics… but if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s a comeback.

“My Olympic dream is not over. Thank you all for all of the love and support. I will give more information when I have it. … It’s not over until it’s over.”

Taking part in a World Cup race in Crans Montana, Vonn lost control while attempting to land a jump on the upper portion of the course and slid into the safety netting. After receiving medical attention for about five minutes, Vonn slowly skied to the finish line, using her poles to support herself and stopping twice to clutch her knee.

She smiled and waved to the crowd after crossing the finish line and received a long embrace from teammate Jacqueline Wiles before entering the medical tent. She was later airlifted off the slope for further evaluation.

Vonn was the third skier to crash during the race, which was being held in difficult conditions with low visibility. The event was canceled after Vonn’s fall.

After nearly six years away from ski racing, Vonn made a comeback last year and has two victories and three additional podium finishes in five downhill races this season — all with a partial titanium implant in her right knee.

At the 2010 Vancouver Games, Vonn became the only U.S. woman to win Olympic gold in downhill skiing. She also won bronze medals in the super-G 2010 and downhill in 2018. On Dec. 23, Vonn announced on Instagram she had qualified for “my 5th and final Olympics!”

“When I made the decision to return to ski racing, I always had one eye on Cortina because it’s a place that is very, very special to me,” she wrote. “Although I can’t guarantee any outcomes, I can guarantee that I will give my absolute best every time l kick out of the starting gate. No matter how these games end up, I feel like I’ve already won.”

The opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Games is Feb. 6. Vonn’s first scheduled event is the women’s downhill on Feb. 8. She had also planned on competing in the super-G and the new team combined event.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For years, Katie Uhlaender had a goal that few athletes even dare to dream — to compete in both the Winter and Summer Olympics.

An injury derailed that attempt. Now another dream appears to have been dashed for the daughter of former major league baseball player Ted Uhlaender — representing the United States in a record sixth consecutive Winter Olympics.

Team Canada was found to have manipulated the outcome of the Lake Placid North American Cup in early January. Uhlaender, 41, won the race in skeleton, but the manipulation kept her from getting the requisite points to qualify for the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Games.

An investigation by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) found that Canada purposely withdrew four athletes from the competition, reducing the number of points that could be awarded and making it mathematically impossible for Uhlaender to earn enough points to qualify.

Why did Canada hold back four athletes from competing? Because it ensured that a second Canadian would qualify for the Olympics rather than Uhlaender.

Canadian skeleton athlete Madeline Parra admitted as much, telling The Canadian Press that her coaches “explained to us that it would be in the best interest for the way points had worked for [Canadian skeleton racer Jane Channell], so that we as a team can qualify two spots to the Olympics.”

Yet despite the IBSF finding that Canada breached its Code of Ethics, no action has been taken because IBSF rules also state that National Federations may withdraw athletes from competition at any time.

The IBSF said it will “possibly suggest adjustments to the rules” when its sport committee meets in the spring, but that doesn’t help Uhlaender. The Winter Olympics begin Feb. 6.

“This is about the integrity of sport and code of ethics that upholds sportsmanship, fair play, integrity, respect and community,” Uhlaender said in a post on X.

A petition by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to accept Uhlaender as a discretionary entry was supported by 12 other countries, but the request was denied. Discretionary Olympic spots are infrequent, but in 2023, fencer Olga Kharlan received a place at Paris 2024 from former IOC President Thomas Bach.

Uhlaender also felt a personal betrayal because she described Team Canada coach Joe Cecchini as a longtime friend and former fellow skeleton competitor. Cecchini called Uhlaender the night before the race to inform her that four Canadians were pulling out.

“I cried when I found out he went through with this plan,” Uhlaender said. “I didn’t know if it hurt more that my friend of 20 years just nailed my coffin, my Olympic dream is over. Or, that my best friend of 20 years is doing something so horrible that hurts so many people.”

Disappointment seems to haunt Uhlaender. In 2009, she shattered her kneecap in a snowmobiling accident and required eight surgeries, but she recovered in time to compete at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

She finished in 11th place in those Games, saying the death of her father in 2009 to cancer impacted her even more than recovering from the surgeries. Ted Uhlaender was considered one of the top center fielders in MLB from 1965-1972 for Minnesota, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

The injury ended her attempt to make the summer U.S. Olympic team as a weightlifter, a sport in which she had risen to a world-class level in the women’s 63-kilogram division. Uhlaender continued to dominate in skeleton, where a racer rides a small sled up to 80 mph head-first and face-down along a steep, banked ice track.

Although Uhlaender has not won an Olympics medal — coming closest with a fourth-place finish at the 2014 Sochi Games — she won the skeleton World Championship in 2012 and World Cup titles in 2007 and 2008.

The U.S. will send Kelly Curtis and Mystique Ro to the Milan Olympics in skeleton. Uhlaender’s last hope for a discretionary berth is an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Should that fail, Uhlaender’s final Olympics impact might be a change in IBSF rules to prevent a recurrence of Canada’s scheme.

The IBSF alluded to the problem in its ruling that Canada was free to hold back its racers, regardless of motive: “The Canadian coach and the National Federation shall be reminded that, whilst acting within the letter of the IBSF Code of Conduct, it is expected that all parties concerned should also act within the spirit of the Code, whose aim is to promote fair play and ethical conduct at all times.”

Bangladesh cricket lost their place at T20 World Cup after refusal to play in India, but shooting team heads to New Delhi.

Bangladesh ‌has approved its shooting team’s tour to New Delhi for ‍next month’s Asian ‍Shooting Championships, days after the cricket team’s refusal to play in India due to safety concerns cost them a place at the Twenty20 World Cup.

Bangladesh have been replaced by Scotland in ⁠the T20 World Cup, which runs from February 7 to March 8, ​after they insisted they would not tour India, highlighting security ‍concerns following soured political relations between the neighbours.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), citing independent security assessment reports, dismissed Bangladesh’s demands to play their World Cup matches in Sri Lanka, the tournament ‍cohosts, ⁠instead, arguing the late change in schedule was “not feasible”.

However, media reports in Bangladesh said a three-member contingent comprising shooter Robiul Islam, his coach Sharmin Akhter and jury member Saima Feroze had received approval from the Ministry of Youth and Sports to compete in New Delhi.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) secretary-general, Pawan Singh, confirmed the shooting team’s participation in India.

“Bangladesh’s participation was confirmed a month ‌ago. Our applications for clearances for all nations have been in process for almost three months,” Singh told the Reuters news agency.

“We have to follow ISSF norms as a ‌sport and comply with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) charter, and as NRAI, we have always received support ‌from the government,” he said, referring to the International Shooting Sport Federation.

Singh added that the Bangladesh contingent ⁠did not request any extra security measures.

“The Bangladesh team has come to our tournaments many times, so they know our strict protocols well. Maybe that’s why they are confident and ‌have not made any special requests.”

The Asian Shooting Confederation, which is organising the event, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The continental ‍rifle and pistol shooting championship will be held in New Delhi from February 2 to 14.

The 2026 Milano Cortino Winter Olympics are set to begin on February 6, with shock at the late news of ICE involvement.

Agents from the United States’ divisive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will help support US security operations for the Winter Olympic Games in Italy next month, a spokesperson told the AFP news agency.

“At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations,” the agency said in a statement.

“All security operations remain under Italian authority.”

It added: “Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries.”

The potential presence of ICE agents at the February 6-22 Milano-Cortina Games has prompted huge debate in Italy, following the outcry over the deaths of two civilians during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

Italian authorities initially denied the presence of ICE and then sought to downplay its role, suggesting its agents would only help in security for the US delegation.

US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are attending the opening ceremony in Milan on February 6.

On Monday, the president of the northern Lombardy region, which is hosting several of the Olympic events, said ICE’s involvement would be limited to monitoring Vance and Rubio.

“It will be only in a defensive role, but I am convinced that nothing will happen,” Attilio Fontana told reporters.

However, his office then issued a statement saying he did not have any information on their presence, but was responding to a hypothetical question.

Thousands of ICE agents have been deployed by President Donald Trump in various US cities to carry out a crackdown on undocumented immigration.

Their actions have prompted widespread protests, and the recent killings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, on the streets of Minneapolis, has led to outrage.

The US will host the 2028 Summer Olympics, with the Games being staged in Los Angeles.