Mikaela Shiffrin storms to stunning slalom gold to make Winter Olympic history

• American wins third gold overall and first since 2018

• Shiffrin over a second ahead of Rast in silver spot

With one last chance to break an Olympic hoodoo stretching back a remarkable eight years, Mikaela Shiffrin delivered in style. The 30-year-old American surged to victory in the women’s slalom on a sun-splashed Wednesday in the Dolomites with a two-run time of 1min 39.10sec, becoming the first US skier to win three Olympic gold medals.

Switzerland’s Camille Rast, the reigning world champion and only woman to have beaten Shiffrin in her signature discipline this season, came in a yawning 1.50sec behind for the silver – the largest winning margin in any Olympic alpine skiing event since 1998 – while Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden took the bronze. After fourth-placed Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, the rest of the field trailed by at least two seconds, according to provisional results.

Published: February 18, 2026, 1:59 pm

Mourinho accused of gaslighting for response to Vinícius’ allegation of racism

• Benfica manager strongly criticised by Kick It Out

• Uefa investigating Real Madrid player’s claims

The anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out has accused José Mourinho of gaslighting for his response to Vinícius Júnior’s allegations of racist abuse. Vinícius reported that he was racially abused by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni during Real Madrid’s Champions League playoff first leg. On Wednesday, Uefa said it would “investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour”.

Mourinho, the Benfica manager, has been heavily criticised for appearing to suggest Vinícius had provoked the abuse with his celebration after scoring the only goal early in the second half.

Published: February 18, 2026, 12:58 pm

MLS’s calendar flip is coming. Clubs are already planning how to exploit it

Starting next year, MLS will align itself with big European leagues and become a summer-to-spring operation. Executives see the change as an opportunity

Few constants have endured from MLS’s 1996 debut to now. It’s still an operational soccer league, for one thing. There’s the name itself, although its initial logo was shelved in 2015 for its current shield-and-kickstand. Eight of the 10 teams that launched the league remain involved, though each one has changed their name, crest, or both over time.

Another rare constant will soon fade into the rearview: the league’s schedule. MLS has run spring-to-fall/winter since its launch, more specifically from late February to early December in recent years. Preseason kicks off at the start of each new year, three weeks or so after the previous season’s championship bout. It’s a pretty well-ironed routine, even as ancillary competitions like the Leagues Cup and Club World Cup shuffle the middle bits each year.

Published: February 18, 2026, 12:00 pm

Ukraine officials to boycott Winter Paralympics opening ceremony over Russian athletes

• Six Russians and four Belarusians set for Milano Cortina

• All athletes will compete under their nation’s flags

Ukraine’s sports minister has condemned the decision to allow six Russians and four Belarusians to compete under their nation’s flags at next month’s Winter Paralympics as “disappointing and outrageous” and said Ukraine officials will not attend the opening ceremony or other official events as a result.

“The flags of Russia and Belarus have no place at international sporting events that stand for fairness, integrity, and respect,” said Matvii Bidnyi in response to the International Paralympic Committee’s decision on Monday. “These are the flags of regimes that have turned sport into a tool of war, lies and contempt. In Russia, Paralympic sport has been made a pillar for those whom Putin sent to Ukraine to kill – and who returned from Ukraine with injuries and disabilities,” he added.

Published: February 18, 2026, 12:23 pm

Tiger Woods weighs offer to captain 2027 US Ryder Cup team

• ‘I’m trying to figure out if I can actually do this’

• Woods says he could play in this year’s Masters

Tiger Woods has confirmed he has been asked to captain the USA team at the Ryder Cup next year. Woods, who has not played competitively since the 2024 Open Championship, has also somewhat remarkably left the door open to teeing up in the Masters this year.

With the USA still reeling from defeat by Europe at Bethpage in September, thoughts have turned towards attempts to reclaim the Ryder Cup in Ireland. Woods is the PGA of America’s first choice as captain. The 50-year-old will determine whether he believes he can commit sufficiently to the role.

Published: February 17, 2026, 7:50 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: Mikaela Shiffrin soars to slalom glory; Klæbo wins fifth gold of Games – live

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing

• Follow us over on Bluesky | And you can email Tanya

Women’s aerials: the qualifying rounds of accelerating down a ramp and flying through the air. Hanna Huskova, gold medallist in 2018, does a triple somersault, or the “the kiss arse blaster” in the commentator’s words, but it is only enough to leave her seventh.

Women’s curling: Back to the brushes, where Rebecca Morrison posts the final stone of the sixth end into perfect position, Team GB take two and go into a 4-3 lead against the USA with four ends left.

Published: February 18, 2026, 3:05 pm

‘The whole spirit of curling is dead’: meltdown on the ice as ruckus rumbles on

Row between Sweden and Canada over accusation of double-touch continues to cast shadow over Winter Games

Well hell’s bells, who knew the ice could get so hot? The Olympic curling community is still all in a twist about everything that’s gone on in the sport since a row broke out between the Sweden and Canada sides on Friday. “The whole spirit of curling is dead,” Canada’s Marc Kennedy said on Monday night after his team’s 8-2 victory against Czech Republic, which felt like a bold take coming from the man who started this entire farrago by repeatedly telling his Swedish opponent Oskar Eriksson to “fuck off” after Eriksson accused him of making an illegal double‑touch.

On Tuesday, the Canadians were outplaying the British. They beat them handily, 9-5, which means Bruce Mouat’s team have to beat the USA team and hope other results go their way if they’re going to make the semi-finals.

Published: February 17, 2026, 10:15 pm

King Klæbo seals 10th Winter Olympics gold as Norway win team sprint

• Norwegian claims his fifth gold medal at Milano Cortina

• USA have to settle for silver in cross-country battle

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo led Norway to victory in the men’s cross-country team sprint on Wednesday to claim his fifth win at Milano Cortina Olympics and a record 10th Winter Olympic gold medal.

Alongside Einar Hedegart in the final, the duo saw off the United States, clocking 18min 28.9sec. Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher were 1.4sec behind for the silver, while Italy’s Elia Barp and Federico Pellegrino took bronze, 3.3sec back.

Published: February 18, 2026, 12:22 pm

Japanese teenager Ami Nakai overshadows USA’s Blade Angels in women’s figure skating opener

Japan’s skaters stole the spotlight as the Americans largely struggled in their attempts to end a two-decade medal drought

Japanese teenager Ami Nakai was the surprise leader after the short program of the Olympic women’s figure skating competition on a night when her country’s skaters largely stole the spotlight from Team USA’s Blade Angels in their bid to end America’s two-decade medal drought.

Nakai delivered a clean, commanding skate on Tuesday, highlighted by a soaring triple axel for a personal-best score of 78.71, edging three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) into second. Only Alysa Liu of the United States was able to break the Japanese hold on the top spots, scoring 76.59 to come in ahead of fourth-placed Mone Choba (74.00).

Published: February 18, 2026, 12:01 am

From cursing curlers to comeback: is Canada on the turnaround after slow Olympic start?

The Canadians began the Milano Cortina Games with a cheating scandal and a gold drought. In the second week of action, it’s woe Canada no more

Through the first 10 days of the Olympics, Canada had more memes than medals. More gaffes than golds. More “oh no” than “O Canada.”

Canada didn’t win their first gold medal of the Games until the ninth day of full competition. Meanwhile, the narrative centered on the Great Curling Kerfuffle of 2026 and its accompanying viral online content.

Published: February 18, 2026, 10:00 am

Back to the future: a vintage look at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics – in pictures

Paying homage to 1956, when Cortina previously hosted the Winter Olympics, a trio of Getty Images photographers have been using vintage Graflex cameras at the 2026 Games. In a modern twist, they have been adapted to record images on smartphones, enabling live transmission of the content captured

Published: February 18, 2026, 8:00 am

Lindsey Vonn back in US for treatment but ‘not yet able to stand’ after Olympic crash

• American fractured tibia in downhill last week

• Vonn was initially treated in Italy for injuries

Lindsey Vonn is back home in the US to continue treatment after she broke her leg during the Winter Olympic downhill.

“Haven’t stood on my feet in over a week… been in a hospital bed immobile since my race. And although I’m not yet able to stand, being back on home soil feels amazing,” Vonn posted on X with an American flag emoji. “Huge thank you to everyone in Italy for taking good care of me.”

Published: February 17, 2026, 1:41 pm

Elana Meyers Taylor’s victory in her fifth Olympics was about far more than gold

The American won her first Winter Games title at 41. She did so while advocating for Black athletes, mothers and the deaf and Down’s syndrome communities

Elana Meyers Taylor had already cemented her place in Olympic history long before Monday night. She had competed with and against men on the World Cup tour and at the world championships to help force women’s monobob into the Winter Olympic program. She had surpassed the speed skater Shani Davis as the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Games history. She had stacked more Olympic medals than any female bobsledder ever, reaching the podium at Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing.

But even at the age of 41, with a bad back and a concussion history, even with the added responsibility and time pressures of motherhood, even after five visits to an Olympic podium that would have been enough for a different athlete to call it a day, she had never let go of her dream of standing alone on the top step.

Published: February 17, 2026, 1:12 pm

LA mayor calls for Casey Wasserman to step down as Olympics chair over Epstein ties

• LA 2028 committee voted last week to keep Wasserman

• Emails with Ghislaine Maxwell were revealed in files

Pressure is building on Casey Wasserman, the head of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing team, after the city’s mayor urged him to leave over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend.

LA mayor Karen Bass told CNN late on Monday that “my opinion is that he should step down” despite Wasserman getting support last week from the LA 2028 organizing board to stay.

Published: February 17, 2026, 3:11 pm

‘Different but the same’: how Arsenal are keeping disabled fans in the game

In tandem with Game Day Vision, the Premier League club are improving the matchday experience for supporters with a variety of conditions

Thomas Clements’ eyes begin dancing as he recalls in vivid detail his first trip to Highbury. It was 1995 and Ian Wright was among the scorers as QPR were defeated. Clements – named after Mickey Thomas, scorer of Arsenal’s decisive second goal against Liverpool in their 1989 title win – points to his dad, Kevin, standing a metre away. “I was sat on his shoulders in the North Bank,” he says.

That is, in itself, not unusual for a child of the 1980s. However, whereas most regular match-goers might take for granted the seemingly small things – travel arrangements, the journey to the stadium, grabbing food and drink, meeting friends and family, entering and exiting the ground – for disabled supporters such as Clements, careful thought and planning go into all arrangements.

Published: February 18, 2026, 8:00 am

African football chief ‘occupying seat illegally’ and must go, says leading executive

• Samir Sobha says Caf’s statutes are not being respected

• Véron Mosengo-Omba is past compulsory retirement age

A member of the Confederation of African football’s executive committee has said the general secretary, Véron Mosengo-Omba, is “occupying the seat illegally” and must be made to stand down.

Samir Sobha, the president of the Mauritius Football Association, said he would not accept Mosengo-Omba’s presence at Caf meetings because the 66-year-old Swiss-Congolese lawyer no longer holds the position legitimately.

Published: February 18, 2026, 8:00 am

Has a footballer ever been sent off but still named player of the match? | The Knowledge

Plus: high-scoring symmetrical scorelines, Scottish two-club title winners and an almost-one-club manager

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Has a footballer ever been sent off but still won player of the match?” asked Jimmy Clark. The short answer is yes, quite a few. We’ll kick off with a couple of recent examples.

“In 2024 Anthony Gordon was shown a second yellow card for Newcastle against West Ham just as the TNT commentary team were declaring him the player of the match,” writes Tom Reed. You can see the moment in question in this video (around 2:50), as Gordon is dismissed after kicking the ball away. Perhaps the substitute Harvey Barnes, who scored twice in the 4-3 comeback win, would have been a better choice.

Published: February 18, 2026, 8:00 am

‘The soul left’: how Everton’s move from Goodison hurt the area’s pubs

The Winslow pub closed last month after serving pints to Everton players, managers and fans for 140 years

By When Saturday Comes

On Saturday January 24, Duncan Ferguson walked into the Winslow Hotel pub on Goodison Road and handed licensee Dave Bond £1,000 to put behind the bar. Ferguson, the former Everton centre-forward, was there because the Winslow, 140 years old and standing in the shadow of Goodison Park’s towering Main Stand, was closing. Eight months after Everton’s men left Goodison, this was another farewell party and Ferguson had turned up to say goodbye. “It was a brilliant gesture,” said Bond.

Ferguson was not the only ex-Evertonian present. Former captain Alan Stubbs, 1995 FA Cup winners Graham Stuart and Joe Parkinson, and 1987 League champion Ian Snodin each had a turn on the mic. Kevin Sheedy, one of the heroes of Howard Kendall’s great mid-1980s team, made an appearance too.

Published: February 18, 2026, 10:27 am

Champions League roundup: PSG recover from terrible start to edge Monaco

• Désiré Doué helps Paris side fight back for 3-2 first-leg win

• Galatasaray stun 10-man Juve; Dortmund beat Atalanta

The Champions League holders, Paris Saint-Germain, overcame a terrible start and a two-goal deficit to beat 10-man Monaco 3-2 in the first leg of their playoff tie. Désiré Doué came off the bench to engineer an impressive turnaround for PSG, who conceded a goal in the opening minute and were 2-0 down after 18 minutes as Folarin Balogun grabbed a double for the hosts.

The 20-year-old Doué replaced the Ballon d’Or winner, Ousmane Dembélé, who went off injured after 27 minutes, and proved decisive for the visitors as he struck two superb goals and set up one for Achraf Hakimi.

Published: February 17, 2026, 11:00 pm

Championship roundup: late Bristol City strike thwarts Wrexham

• Welsh side denied a fifth successive away win

• Portsmouth ease worries with victory at Charlton

Bristol City denied Wrexham a fifth successive Championship away win as Max Bird’s spectacular late volley secured a 2-2 draw at Ashton Gate. Wrexham twice led, through Ollie Rathbone and a Joe Williams own goal, but the visitors were rewarded for a spirited second-half performance.

Sinclair Armstrong drove home soon after the restart and fellow substitute Bird smashed home off the underside of the crossbar from 20 yards out two minutes from time.

Published: February 17, 2026, 10:50 pm

David Squires on … Jim Ratcliffe’s comments and his need for some home truths

Our cartoonist reflects on the Manchester United co-owner’s recent statements and electioneering, via the prism of Cracker’s DCI Bilborough

• Buy this cartoon | David’s favourite works of 2025

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Published: February 17, 2026, 11:48 am

Matildas gamble on Mary Fowler’s fitness as Women’s Asian Cup squad named

• Sam Kerr among 26 players selected but injured Charli Grant misses out

• Australia open tournament against Philippines in Perth on 1 March

The Matildas have backed Mary Fowler to return to fitness for the Women’s Asian Cup despite the star attacker playing just 15 minutes since returning from a serious knee injury.

Australia head coach Joe Montemurro selected Fowler among 26 players for the tournament on home soil despite her falling well short of the three 90-minute matches he said in November that he hoped she would have played before the squad was named.

Published: February 18, 2026, 1:01 pm

Ukraine skeleton racer gifted $200,000 by Shakhtar Donetsk owner after Winter Olympics ban

• Donation equal to prize Ukraine pays gold medallists

• Heraskevych barred for wearing ‘helmet of memory’

The owner of Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk has donated more than $200,000 to skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych. The athlete was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Games before competing over the use of a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, the club said on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Heraskevych was disqualified last week when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that imagery on the helmet — depicting athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 — breached rules on athletes’ expression at the Games.

Published: February 18, 2026, 3:52 am

Norway curling team bring party pants back to Winter Olympics for ‘one-game’ tribute

• Curlers wear diamond-printed trousers to honour ‘Team Ulsrud’

• Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants page has 360,000 followers

Norway’s men’s curling team delighted supporters at the Olympics on Tuesday by reviving the famous red, white and blue-patterned trousers that became a sensation 16 years ago when they were worn by Thomas Ulsrud’s team.

The eye-catching pants, originally part of a sponsorship deal with sportswear company Loudmouth Golf, turned heads and captured hearts at Vancouver 2010, when Ulsrud’s Norwegian rink became the talk of the Winter Games.

Published: February 18, 2026, 1:34 am

Vinícius Júnior takes aim at racist ‘cowards’ after Benfica’s defeat by Real Madrid

• Brazilian accuses referee of ‘poorly executed protocol’

• Real play on after 10-minute delay

Vinícius Júnior declared that “racists are above all cowards [who] need to put their shirts in their mouth to demonstrate how weak they are” and attacked the failure of the referee to act after he was allegedly abused by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni during Real Madrid’s 1-0 win in Lisbon.

The Brazilian was seemingly minded to walk off on Tuesday and the Madrid coach, Álvaro Arbeloa, said they would have joined him. Kylian Mbappé said Prestianni should not be allowed to play in the Champions League again.

Published: February 18, 2026, 12:08 am

Very good dog invades course but falls short of medal glory at Winter Olympics

• Nazgul makes unexpected entry in team sprint

• Owner says two-year old looking for company

A local dog has missed out on a historic cross-country medal at the Winter Olympics despite a lung-bursting surge in the homestretch.

Nazgul, who according to NPR lives at a nearby hotel in Tesero, broke on to the course on Wednesday morning and sprinted for the line behind Croatia’s Tena Hadzic as she came to the end of the qualifying race for women’s team cross-country sprint. Even if he had completed the entire race, Nazgul’s time would not have counted as he is male. And a dog.

Published: February 18, 2026, 3:02 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: Team GB lose crunch men’s curling tie, Norway’s Frostad wins big air – as it happened

Team GB were disappointed in a men’s curling match against Canada while Tormod Frostad’s big air win was one for the ages

Heinis of France is in the air, it feels hein just looking at him, and he jumps 129, giving him 133.8 points; he moves above Karhumaa and into the lead.

I’ve also got the curling on and, if you’ll excuse my parochialism, I’m not watching pool leaders Switzerland monstering defending champions Sweden, rather USA v China, for reasons of relevance to GB. The Americans now lead 2-1 playing the fifth.

Published: February 17, 2026, 10:27 pm

Emma Hayes strikes balance of experience and youth for USWNT’s SheBelieves Cup roster

• Rodman, Thompson and Girma feature in 26-player team

• US will face Argentina, Canada and Colombia in March

Emma Hayes has struck a balance of experience and rising young talent in her squad for the 2026 SheBelieves Cup. The friendly competition will pit the US women against Argentina, Canada and Colombia in early March.

This year marks the first time that teams can select 26 players for their SheBelieves squad, although each coach must determine 23 players who will be available for each game.

Published: February 17, 2026, 4:03 pm