Olympics – Winnipeg Free Press

Canada defender Renata Fast shoots during the second period of a Rivalry Series women's hockey game against the United States, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Changing women’s hockey landscape continued in 2025, Canada’s Olympic prep altered

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press 5 minute read 10:22 AM CST

The United States heaved on the rope in 2025 in its women's hockey tug of war with Canada.

Their rivalry is constant, but the stakes rise in the year preceding the Winter Olympics.

Canada won one of eight meetings against its nemesis in 2025.

The U.S. beat Canada twice in April's world championship, including a 4-3 overtime win in the final. The Americans swept the four-game Rivalry Series in November and December by a combined score of 24-7.

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Takeaways from AP report on what sources say was Olympic watchdog’s failure to close abuse case

Eddie Pells, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Takeaways from AP report on what sources say was Olympic watchdog’s failure to close abuse case

Eddie Pells, The Associated Press 6 minute read 8:00 AM CST

DENVER (AP) — There was an eight-year gap between the time young gymnasts and their parents started sounding warnings about a coach in 2017 and when he was arrested earlier this year on federal child pornography charges.

It took the U.S. Center for SafeSport — the agency formed by Congress to combat this type of abuse — until 2022 to sanction that coach, Sean Gardner.

Now, an Associated Press investigation has found that months before Gardner’s arrest in August on allegations of installing cameras in a girls gym bathroom in Purvis, Mississippi, he was willing to accept a lifetime ban from coaching gymnastics as part of a deal where he would admit to the abuse, according to three people involved with SafeSport and its handling of the case.

The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by SafeSport.

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8:00 AM CST

FILE - The Chow's Gymnastics & Dance Institute is seen Aug. 4, 2025, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Scott McFetridge, File)

Canada poised for another run at Olympic hockey gold with NHL’s return

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Canada poised for another run at Olympic hockey gold with NHL’s return

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 2:32 PM CST

Connor McDavid remembers feeling the intensity.

A minor hockey player growing up just north of Toronto, the future NHL superstar and his teammates gathered to watch Canada and the United States battle it out in the 2010 men's Olympic hockey final.

They were on the edge of the couch as events unfolded thousands of kilometres away in Vancouver.

"The nervous energy in the building was coming through the TV," McDavid recalled.

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Updated: Yesterday at 2:32 PM CST

Canadian head coach Jon Cooper (back centre) behind the bench with Nathan MacKinnon (29), Sidney Crosby (87) and Connor McDavid (97) during the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

Altitude mask on dead Norwegian biathlon competitor wasn’t part of federation’s training program

Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Altitude mask on dead Norwegian biathlon competitor wasn’t part of federation’s training program

Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

The performance-enhancing altitude mask that Olympic hopeful Sivert Guttorm Bakken was wearing when he was found dead this week “is not part of the Norwegian Biathlon Association’s organized training programs,” the federation said Friday.

Bakken, 27, was found dead in his hotel room in the Alpine town of Lavaze in the Trentino region of Italy on Tuesday.

He was located at high altitude, with the Lavaze Pass measuring 1,808 meters (nearly 6,000 feet) in elevation.

The fact Bakken was wearing a device aimed at simulating high-altitude conditions, which can potentially improve endurance, has raised concerns — especially since Bakken was diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart condition, in 2022 and sat out two seasons.

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Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

FILE - Sivert Guttorm Bakken of Norway competes during the men's 15km mass start race at the biathlon World Cup in Anterselva, Italy, Jan. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

Norwegian biathlon competitor Sivert Guttorm Bakken dies at 27 during Olympic training camp in Italy

The Associated Press 2 minute read Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025

Norwegian biathlon Olympic hopeful Sivert Guttorm Bakken has died suddenly. He was 27.

“The International Biathlon Union is deeply saddened to learn that Norwegian biathlete Sivert Guttorm Bakken has passed away at the age of 27 during a training camp in Italy,” the sport's governing body said Tuesday.

Bakken was found dead in his hotel room in the Alpine town of Lavaze in the Trentino region of Italy, Norwegian TV NRK said.

Bakken was diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart condition, in 2022 and took a break from competition.

Jackie Chan carries the Milan Cortina Olympic torch through the ruins of Pompeii

The Associated Press 1 minute read Preview

Jackie Chan carries the Milan Cortina Olympic torch through the ruins of Pompeii

The Associated Press 1 minute read Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

POMPEII, Italy (AP) — Actor Jackie Chan carried the Olympic torch through the ruins of Pompeii during the relay for the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Monday.

The day’s route also passed along the picturesque Amalfi Coast.

On Tuesday, Italian soccer standouts Fabio Cannavaro and Ciro Ferrara will carry the torch through their native Naples, where the relay will pause for Christmas.

In all, the relay will cover 12,000 kilometers (nearly 7,500 miles) and wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony on Feb. 6.

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Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

Federica Brignone motivated by flag bearer role in bid to be fit for Olympics

Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Federica Brignone motivated by flag bearer role in bid to be fit for Olympics

Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press 3 minute read Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

ROME (AP) — The mere fact Federica Brignone accepted being named as one of Italy’s four flag bearers for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics is a significant step in her return from severe injury.

“If I wasn’t optimistic, I wouldn’t be here today and I wouldn’t have put my skis back on after eight months,” Brignone said after being handed the flag by Italy President Sergio Mattarella on Monday.

Brignone, the defending overall World Cup skiing champion, broke multiple bones in her left leg in April.

After two surgeries and months of rehab, she returned to the snow last month and is now ready to ramp up her training to racing pace.

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Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

Italy's Federica Brignone delivers her speech during the hand over ceremony of the Italian flag by the Italian President Sergio Mattarella for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic games, at the Quirinale Presidential palace, in Rome, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italy’s 4 flag bearers for Milan Cortina Winter Olympics honored in handover ceremony

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Italy’s 4 flag bearers for Milan Cortina Winter Olympics honored in handover ceremony

The Associated Press 2 minute read Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

ROME (AP) — Italy’s four flag bearers for its upcoming home Milan Cortina Winter Olympics were honored in a handover ceremony at the presidential palace on Monday.

Short track speedskater Arianna Fontana, cross country skier Federico Pellegrino, Alpine skier Federica Brignone and curler Amos Mosaner were handed flags by Italy President Sergio Mattarella.

Skiers Chiara Mazzel and René De Silvestro, who will be flag bearers at the Paralympics, were also honored.

Fontana and Pellegrino will carry the flag at the main opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium on Feb. 6, while Brignone and Mosaner will have the honors at a simultaneous ceremony in Cortina d’Ampezzo on the same night.

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Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

Italian Paralympic athlete Rene' de Silvestro delivers his speech during the hand over ceremony of the Italian flag by the Italian President Sergio Mattarella for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic games, at the Quirinale Presidential palace, in Rome, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Humphries Armbruster gets 1st World Cup bobsled win since becoming a mom, ends 20-race German streak

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Humphries Armbruster gets 1st World Cup bobsled win since becoming a mom, ends 20-race German streak

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press 4 minute read Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025

Kaillie Humphries Armbruster has won dozens of races in her bobsled career. The victory she got Sunday was like none of the others.

It was her first since she turned 40.

And it was her first since becoming a mother.

With the Milan Cortina Olympics less than two months away, Humphries Armbruster seems to be hitting her best form once again. She teamed with Emily Renna to win a World Cup two-woman race in Sigulda, Latvia, her first victory on the circuit since winning a monobob race on that same track on Feb. 18, 2023.

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Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025

Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, left, and Jasmine Jones, of the United States, react after their second run of the 2-woman bobsleigh race at the Bobsleigh World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Mueller, Haugsjaa get World Cup win for USA Luge, the 1st of their career

The Associated Press 3 minute read Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa felt the pressures of racing at home. And they were up to the challenge.

Mueller and Haugsjaa won their first World Cup men's doubles race on Saturday, prevailing on USA Luge's home track at Mount Van Hoevenberg with a two-run time of 1 minute, 27.509 seconds.

Martins Bots and Roberts Plume of Latvia were second and Yannick Müller and Armin Frauscher of Austria took third.

“It's so good to be home," Mueller said. "We still definitely have things to work on, but I'm taking the win today.”

Germany’s Julia Taubitz wins World Cup women’s luge, American sliders take next 3 spots

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Germany’s Julia Taubitz wins World Cup women’s luge, American sliders take next 3 spots

The Associated Press 2 minute read Friday, Dec. 19, 2025

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — Germany’s Julia Taubitz had the fastest time in the second heat and that was enough to give her a World Cup women’s luge win on Friday night, with American sliders grabbing the next three places on home ice.

Taubitz finished her two runs in 1 minute, 28.824 seconds — less than one-quarter of a second faster than the three U.S. contenders. Ashley Farquharson was second, Summer Britcher was third and Emily Fischnaller was fourth for the Americans.

Russia had a slider in a World Cup race for the first time in nearly four years. Daria Olesik, competing as a neutral slider, was 21st in her lone run; only the top 20 made it to the second heat.

Olesik is presumably the only female luge athlete from Russia with a chance to reach the Milan Cortina Games in February.

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Friday, Dec. 19, 2025

John Eric Gustafson participates in a qualifying race for a Luge World Cup event in Lake Placid, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

With Chloe Kim sitting out, the world gets pre-Olympic view of Asian dominance on the halfpipe

Eddie Pells, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

With Chloe Kim sitting out, the world gets pre-Olympic view of Asian dominance on the halfpipe

Eddie Pells, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Dec. 19, 2025

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. (AP) — Chloe Kim sat out with an injury. Shaun White has been retired for four years. Without them, the world got a peek at what snowboarding on the halfpipe looks like heading into the Winter Olympics: It is now a sport dominated by Japanese, with other Asian stars in the mix.

Japan's Ryusei Yamada and Korea's Gaon Choi won the men's and women's World Cup events Friday at Copper Mountain on a blustery day that featured only one American on either podium: 18-year-old Bea Kim, who took third in the women's contest, ahead of Japan's Sena Tomita.

America's Chloe Kim competed in qualifying Wednesday but suffered an undisclosed injury in the lead-up to the final and sat out. U.S. Ski and Snowboard didn't provide details about the injury. This was the only pre-Olympic event Kim had signed up for, and how missing this final might impact her upcoming schedule remains to be seen.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist is the only U.S. halfpipe rider already qualified for Milan Cortina, as the American team looks for someone to join her as the sport's headliner now that White, the three-time Olympic champion, has retired.

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Friday, Dec. 19, 2025

FILE - United States' Chloe Kim competes during the women's halfpipe finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 10, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Stage jitters replace fear of falling in ‘Eddie the Eagle’s’ latest act

Brian Melley, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Stage jitters replace fear of falling in ‘Eddie the Eagle’s’ latest act

Brian Melley, The Associated Press 7 minute read Friday, Dec. 19, 2025

GLOUCESTER, England (AP) — Waiting in the wings on opening night of “Beauty and the Beast,” Michael Edwards felt the nerve-wracking jitters he experienced four decades earlier staring through thick glasses down a perilously steep ski jump.

The athlete-turned-performer better known as “Eddie the Eagle” was no stranger to fear, but this was different: he was about to face a theater packed with children.

In ski jumping, he might break his neck; here he only risked tripping over his lines and failing to win laughs.

Edwards has added acting to the bustling business of being Eddie the Eagle, feathering his nest and stretching his celebrity far longer than his brief flight as Britain’s first Olympic ski jumper won him fame despite finishing last in the 1988 Calgary Games.

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Friday, Dec. 19, 2025

Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie the Eagle, plays Professor Crackpot, as he performs with fellow actors in the pantomime

Sliders from Ukraine and Russia will start consecutively at World Cup luge race at Lake Placid

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Sliders from Ukraine and Russia will start consecutively at World Cup luge race at Lake Placid

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press 5 minute read Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025

Ukrainian and Russian athletes are scheduled to start a World Cup men's luge race in consecutive order on Saturday, meaning it is almost certain that athletes from those nations will cross paths at least near the start of the track.

The start order for the race in Lake Placid, New York, was posted Thursday. Ukraine's Andriy Mandziy will be the second starter down the hill at Mount Van Hoevenberg, and he'll be immediately followed by Matvei Perestoronin — a Russian slider who is being allowed to compete as an independent neutral athlete.

That means Mandziy and Perestoronin will be in close proximity to one another at the top of the track, and probably again somewhere in the finish area once their first runs Saturday are complete. It also raises the likelihood that coaches from Ukraine and Russia may interact.

The start order for the race worked out that way because of how the order of finish played out from Thursday's Nations Cup race in Lake Placid, a one-heat qualifier for the World Cup competition. The first five starting spots in the World Cup race went to the top five finishers from the Nations Cup race, in reverse order.

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Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025

Judge dismisses $800 million lawsuit by Enhanced Games, which declines to pursue the case further

Eddie Pells, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Judge dismisses $800 million lawsuit by Enhanced Games, which declines to pursue the case further

Eddie Pells, The Associated Press 3 minute read Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025

A federal judge has dismissed an $800 million lawsuit filed by the Enhanced Games alleging that World Aquatics, the World Anti-Doping Agency and USA Swimming led an illegal effort to dissuade swimmers and other athletes from competing in its new series.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled against the sports startup in November, giving it 30 days to refile the case to address his objections. On Thursday, WADA sent out a news release announcing the deadline had passed.

“It vindicates the strong stance we have taken on this matter," WADA said in a news release.

A person with knowledge Enhanced's legal maneuverings told The Associated Press it did not refile because it has had recent success signing swimmers, and also because it does not want to complicate its recent filing for a public offering that it expects will raise around $200 million.

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Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025

FILE - Britain's Ben Proud reacts after his performance in the men's 50-meter butterfly heat at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, July 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

An uninhabited Scottish isle is home to the golden granite used in Olympic curling stones

Joe Cooper And Ken Maguire, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

An uninhabited Scottish isle is home to the golden granite used in Olympic curling stones

Joe Cooper And Ken Maguire, The Associated Press 5 minute read Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025

AILSA CRAIG, Scotland (AP) — If you’re looking to strike gold — silver or bronze, too — look to Ailsa Craig.

This uninhabited isle 10 miles (16 kilometers) off the coast of southwest Scotland is the source of the super-dense granite used to make curling stones for the Winter Olympics.

Jim English, co-owner of Kays Curling, took a few seconds to evaluate a boulder during a recent visit. He assessed it for big cracks and large specks on the surface.

“It’s not just a case of landing a boat and then looking for granite. There’s a particular type of granite we’re looking for,” he said in the shadow of a 19th century lighthouse that is no longer manned. “We look for ones that have got really tight surface pattern.”

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Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025

December 30, 2025

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