Alysa Liu released the pressure, reclaimed her joy and turned it into Olympic gold | Bryan Armen Graham

After stepping away from figure skating, the US star climbed back on her own terms. Her journey culminated in a medal, but it was about much more than that

Alysa Liu made her way through a mixed zone teeming with hundreds of reporters at a quarter past midnight early Friday morning, an Olympic gold medal draped around her neck, the sequins in her color-coordinated dress glimmering beneath the klieg lights and crush of television cameras. The 20-year-old from West Oakland had just become the first American woman to win figure skating’s biggest prize in 24 years, drilling seven clean triples to leapfrog a pair of Japanese rivals from third place after Tuesday’s short program and gatecrash her sport’s most rarefied air. But to hear Liu tell it, her second gold in 12 days was merely a passing footnote in a Milan fortnight she doesn’t want to end.

Liu’s carefree mindset should and will be studied in the weeks, months and years after these Olympics – especially these Olympics – as a counterpoint to the results-obsessed mindsets that have shattered the mental wellbeing of so many athletes thrust into the pressure-cooker of the world’s biggest sporting event. She spoke candidly and insightfully on how her unique journey from child prodigy to burnout case to second-act skater gave rise to an indifference to scores or placements. All she wanted in the end was a chance to make the US team and share her artistry on the world stage.

Published: February 20, 2026, 3:35 pm

Charles Leclerc clocks quickest time at final F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain

• Lando Norris second fastest; Max Verstappen third

• Aston Martin completed just six laps after problems

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the bragging rights with the quickest time at the final Formula One test before the season proper begins in Australia in just two weeks, while Aston Martin endured a horror show.

At the end of the final day of the third test, some of the cars were let off the leash to put in some runs on soft tyres with lower fuel loads and Leclerc looked very much at home as he hurled his Ferrari around the circuit in Bahrain. He set a time of 1min 31.992sec, eight-tenths clear of the second-placed McLaren of Lando Norris and a second up on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell.

Published: February 20, 2026, 5:18 pm

German soccer club cancel US trip amid concerns over ICE actions in Minnesota

• Werder Bremen scrap plans to play in Minnesota, Detroit

• Club cites unrest after ICE killings, US visa restrictions

German soccer club Werder Bremen have canceled a trip to the United States due to concerns over unrest in Minnesota after the actions of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as economic risks, a club spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.

The top-flight team were planning to visit Minnesota and Detroit in May and play two friendly matches, according to media reports in the US and Germany. No opponents for the matches had been confirmed.

Published: February 20, 2026, 4:20 pm

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Tottenham’s Tudor age begins with a north London derby, Guardiola ponders Haaland’s role and Wirtz has a chance to flummox Forest

Aston Villa, third in the Premier League, chasing Champions League qualification and the Europa League title, will be expected to beat Leeds on home soil. But Unai Emery’s side have struggled of late in games where the pressure is on and the onus is upon them to be the aggressor. After exiting the FA Cup to Newcastle, Marco Bizot’s moment of madness all but ending their hopes of reaching the fifth round, it is back to league duty. They eked out an ugly win over Brighton, just the kind of result they would be happy with this weekend, but recently they also lost at home to 10-man Brentford and to Everton. Before that they drew at lowly Crystal Palace, though Oliver Glasner’s side have been a bogey team for Villa. This week Bizot apologised for his rush of blood. Which Villa will turn up against Leeds? Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Leeds, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Chelsea v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Bournemouth, Saturday 5.30pm

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:01 am

MLS 2026 predictions: Messi v Son, a Timo Werner rebirth and are Inter Miami inevitable?

The 2026 MLS season kicks off on Saturday. Our writers discuss the teams, players and story lines they’re watching this year

Messi v Son. The two best players in the league play for the two “glamour” teams on opposite coasts, and each have large and dedicated fanbases. If both stay relatively healthy and perform up to capabilities, there’s no way the race between them for some honor (Golden Boot? MVP? Both?) won’t be fascinating to see unfold. AA

Published: February 20, 2026, 11:00 am

Winter Olympics 2026: Freeski halfpipe final, Norway break record for golds and more – live

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing
• Tell us your highlights from the Winter Olympic Games
• Follow us over on Bluesky | And you can email Tanya

The first person down the half pipe was world champ, Finley Melville Ives, who lost a ski mid-air and is languishing at the bottom of the leader board.

Ah, here comes Gus Kenworthy, he of the the urinated ‘fuck ICE’ snow message, and silver medallist in the 2014 ski slopestyle for the US, before switching to Team GB. He’s a brave guy, and has received death threats since his protest.

Published: February 20, 2026, 7:46 pm

‘Flattered. Thanks, JD!’: Eileen Gu claps back at Vance after criticism for representing China

• Olympic freeski star was born in San Francisco

• VP suggested US-born athletes should compete for US

Olympic freeskier Eileen Gu has responded after vice-president JD Vance appeared to criticise her choice to represent China on the international stage instead of the United States.

With five medals, the 22-year-old Gu is the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history. She won two golds and a silver at the 2022 Beijing Games and has claimed two silvers at the Milano Cortina Games, with one more medal event set for Saturday in the halfpipe.

Published: February 20, 2026, 2:58 pm

‘This city shows up’: Cleveland Heights celebrates Laila Edwards’s historic Olympic gold

The 22-year-old became the first Black woman to win an Olympic hockey title on Thursday. Those she grew up alongside couldn’t hide their delight

About 75 people packed the Cleveland Heights Community Center on Thursday afternoon to watch the Winter Olympic women’s ice hockey final. They crowded around a big screen with eyes locked on Team USA – and on one of their own, Cleveland Heights native Laila Edwards. For once, the tension in the room wasn’t the familiar Cleveland sports dread. It was the kind that comes with watching a home town kid play for something bigger.

Still, the old reflex surfaced when Team USA fell behind to Canada early, and stayed behind deep into the game. Cleveland knows heartbreak, the kind that defined the city for decades before the NBA’s Cavaliers broke through in 2016.

Published: February 20, 2026, 10:00 am

Clapping skis to the pulpy thrash of poles: the Winter Olympics are an ASMR wonderland

The TV screen’s jazz of drags, snaps, pops, and stops during the Milano Cortina Games have shown sport at its most powder-light and loveable

The mountains always promise escape from the squalor of existence at sea level, if not a kind of purification. The fortifying ruggedness of the terrain, the apple-crisp air, the high-albedo dazzle of sunlit snow: at altitude, it seems, everything is thinned to its essence. The Winter Olympics frequently play on this mythology of purity, but rarely has culture’s quadrennial ascent up the switchbacks felt as clarifying as it has this year. Propelling us into heights untroubled by the compromises and tradeoffs that blight sport’s lower zones, Milano Cortina has delivered images so brilliant and sharp they’ve also served to expose how ugly – and morally murky – most non-Olympic team sports have become over the past four years.

As a TV spectacle, the excellence of this Olympiad has been defined as much by absence as presence. No gambling ads, no live betting odds gunking up the screen, no win percentage trackers, no janky little segments in which the hosts joke about what the prediction markets are doing: these Games have brought delight and relief to a tired public’s eyes in equal measure. Cleaned of clutter and slop, sport, it turns out, can still be a thing of wonder and mystery, agony and beauty. Who would have thought?

Published: February 20, 2026, 10:00 am

US skier Hess describes ‘hardest weeks of my life’ after Trump’s ‘real loser’ comment

• American halfpipe competitor says he has no regrets

• ‘I’m not going to let controversy like that get in my way’

At the start of these Winter Olympics, Donald Trump called Hunter Hess a “real loser” after the US skiing star admitted he had mixed feelings about representing his country. As he swooped down the halfpipe in Livigno on Friday, Hess delivered his response, flashing an L-sign with his hand after qualifying for Friday night’s final.

“Apparently I am a loser,” Hess said when asked about his gesture. “I am leaning into it.” And asked whether he had any regrets, Hess was just as firm. “I stick with what I said,” he replied.

Published: February 20, 2026, 1:20 pm

Indiana approves plan to lure Bears away from Chicago

• Team have been in Chicago since 1921

• Indiana committed to helping build new stadium

The Chicago Bears’ potential move to Indiana took another step forward on Thursday when a key committee approved a plan to create an agency that would help get a stadium built.

The Indiana House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee passed a bill establishing a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a stadium by a 24-0 margin. The Bears are looking at a tract of land near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana.

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:51 pm

Jordan Stolz’s bid for four speed-skating golds crumbles in 1500m as Ning Zhongyan shines

• American had been hoping for clean sweep in Milan

• Chinese skater sets Olympic record in shock win

On an afternoon when the Olympic record kept falling, Jordan Stolz skated fast enough to win the gold at any other Winter Games. Just not this one.

The 21-year-old American was foiled in his bid for a third gold medal in eight days on Thursday, winning silver in the 1500m in a time of 1:42.75 after lowering the Olympic marks in the 1000m last Wednesday and the 500m on Saturday and threatening to become only the second American to win more than two golds in any sport at a single Winter Games.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:21 pm

MLBPA replaces chief Tony Clark after inappropriate relationship with sister-in-law

• Bruce Meyer promoted to interim executive director

• New labor deal negotiations with owners looming

Bruce Meyer was promoted to interim executive director of the baseball players’ association on Wednesday, a day after Tony Clark’s forced resignation. It was a move for continuity ahead of the likely start in April of what figures to be contentious collective bargaining with team owners.

Clark is a former All-Star first baseman who had headed the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) since 2013. He resigned on Tuesday, just months ahead of the expected start of bargaining for a new labor contract. The current deal expires on 1 December.

Published: February 19, 2026, 12:56 pm

Football news: Ratcliffe escapes FA charges; Mourinho made ‘huge mistake’, says Kompany

Manchester United co-owner reminded of his responsibilities in media interviews as Carrick backs club’s culture of respect

Published: February 20, 2026, 6:13 pm

Crystal Palace consider sacking Oliver Glasner after manager’s ‘not good enough’ remark

• Fans turned on Glasner during game on Thursday

• Assistant Paddy MacCarthy in line to step up if needed

Crystal Palace are considering sacking Oliver Glasner after his latest public outburst in which the manager said he was “just not good enough” to turn around the club’s fortunes.

Glasner has announced he will leave Palace at the end of the season but it is understood the chair, Steve Parish, could bring forward the Austrian’s departure after supporters turned on the manager during Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Zrinjski Mostar in the Conference League. It is unclear whether Glasner will remain in charge beyond Sunday’s game at home to Wolves, with his assistant Paddy McCarthy in line to step in as a caretaker if needed.

Published: February 20, 2026, 3:11 pm

Steel City derby symbolic scene for Sheffield Wednesday’s fall from grace

Club’s relegation could be sealed at Bramall Lane on Sunday but long-term future is of most concern to supporters

When crisis intrudes into everyday lives, personal worlds shrink and important events are reduced to near irrelevance. Sheffield Wednesday supporters understand that better than most. They have endured so much misery for so long that even Sunday’s potential relegation-sealing Steel City derby has lost some of its old significance.

“If you win it’ll be like kicking a cat,” Dan Fudge, host of the Wednesday Week podcast and YouTube channel says to Nick Wylie from the Sheffield United Way in this week’s broadcast. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about than bragging rights.”

Published: February 20, 2026, 6:00 pm

How six Britons could play in one game in Slovakia’s ‘fast track’ top flight

Former Manchester United, Spurs, Everton and Arsenal players are preparing for AS Trencin’s clash with Zemplin Michalovce

“I wish I’d done it a bit younger,” says the former Manchester United midfielder Sean Goss of moving abroad. He is one of six Britons who could do battle when AS Trencin host Zemplin Michalovce on Saturday in a battle of eighth v sixth in the Slovakian top flight.

Trencin have Goss, Roshaun Mathurin, a graduate of Tottenham’s academy, and Cody David, who went through the ranks at Everton. Zemplin’s squad includes two players who started at Arsenal, Kido Taylor-Hart and Ben Cottrell, and Kai Brosnan, who had played non-league football until joining them last summer. There are further British links at Trencin because Markus Poom, the son of the former Estonia goalkeeper Mart, was born in Derby.

Published: February 20, 2026, 1:00 pm

Murillo hails Pereira after ‘problems’ with past Nottingham Forest managers

• There is ‘light at end of tunnel’ with new man in charge

• Defender hints at conflicts with Postecoglou and Dyche

The Nottingham Forest defender Murillo has said the arrival of Vítor Pereira represents “the light at the end of the tunnel” and admitted the squad had problems with previous managers.

Pereira got off to a dream start at Forest with a 3-0 Europa League playoff first-leg victory at Fenerbahce on Thursday, in which Murillo opened the scoring. The Brazilian praised Pereira for creating “magic” despite having only three training sessions. Murillo said the Portuguese head coach, who has a contract until 2027, had transformed the spirit within an underperforming squad. The 57-year-old, who rescued Wolves last season, is Forest’s fourth head coach of the season.

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:00 pm

Selfies and juggling day jobs: Chatham Town land ‘amazing’ Women’s FA Cup tie

Fourth-tier team, the lowest-ranked left in the competition, and their Cup-winning manager are hoping to stun Birmingham

Old-school sweet dispensers stand tall pitchside at the Bauvill Stadium, almost as if watching the action. Behind them, Bobby’s bar is bustling and above the club logo on a wall behind one of the goals are four unmissable words: “If I can dream …” Helping to manifest that dream is the shiny Women’s FA Cup trophy, temporarily on display in the boardroom. The group of players who have just finished a day’s work are about to begin their training session at 8.30pm.

Chatham Town Women, the lowest-ranked side in the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup and one of only two sides remaining from below the second tier, are preparing for the game of their lives, against big-spending Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on Saturday, live on television, vying for a place in the quarter-finals. Chatham cover their players’ expenses but do not pay football salaries, unlike their full-time opponents.

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:00 pm

Tudor 100% sure Spurs will stay up, Ratcliffe avoids FA action and more – live

⚽ Latest news, previews and updates before the weekend
⚽ 10 things to look out for | And email Tim

Eddie Howe had some words of praise for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City: ““Genuinely, I think we learn something more about ourselves and our game going forward every time we play them. They have been the benchmark for a number of years for many teams. Each painful defeat we suffer at the Etihad we try to grow from it, evolve and improve.

“They have been very, very good and are led by an outstanding manager. They continue to be the benchmark in my opinion.”

Published: February 20, 2026, 5:43 pm

Australia wrap up failed T20 World Cup campaign with rapid win over Oman

• Australia, 108-1, beat Oman, 104, by nine wickets

• Victory completed with more than 10 overs to spare

Australia demolished Oman by nine wickets to win the final Twenty20 World Cup group encounter in Pallekele on Friday in emphatic style. Both teams were already eliminated from the tournament.

Chasing a modest target of 105, Mitchell Marsh was in no mood to hang around and ruthlessly dispatched Oman’s bowlers, bringing up his half-century off 26 balls inside the first powerplay.

Published: February 20, 2026, 4:29 pm

Dewi Lake calls on fans to back under-fire Wales while Italy eye another shock

• Wales captain wants energy from home supporters

• Galthié beefs up pack for visit of in-form Italy

The Wales captain, Dewi Lake, has urged fans in Cardiff to lift his side for the Six Nations meeting with Scotland on Saturday.

After last week’s record thrashing by France, Wales have lost 13 consecutive Six Nations matches, while Scotland arrive at the Principality Stadium in upbeat mood after their handsome Calcutta Cup triumph over England.

Published: February 20, 2026, 4:02 pm

‘She’ll be cheering on from heaven’: Itoje sad his late mother will not see him win 100th cap

• England captain reaches milestone against Ireland

• Itoje: ‘I know she would have loved the occasion’

Maro Itoje says his late mother will be at Twickenham in spirit when the England captain wins his 100th cap in the Six Nations showdown with Ireland on Saturday.

After Florence Itoje died in December, the Saracens second-row was absent from the start of England’s pre-tournament training camp in Girona to attend her funeral in Nigeria.

Published: February 20, 2026, 2:00 pm

UK Athletics pleads guilty to corporate manslaughter after death of Paralympian

• Plea follows 2017 death of UAE’s Abdullah Hayayei

• UKA could face fine of between £1.2m and £5m

UK Athletics is facing a seven-figure fine after pleading guilty to corporate manslaughter in the death of a Paralympian who was hit on the head by a metal pole while preparing for the London World Para Athletics Championships in 2017.

The incident occurred at Newham Leisure Centre when the pole, which was attached to a throwing cage, fell on Abdullah Hayayei while he was training. Emergency services were called to the venue but the 36-year-old from the United Arab Emirates was pronounced dead at the scene 20 minutes later.

Published: February 20, 2026, 11:02 am

Chess: Magnus Carlsen wins yet again while British Championship prize fund soars

The world No 1 won his 21st global title by defeating his old rival Fabiano Caruana in Freestyle chess at Weissenhaus in Germany

Magnus Carlsen notched up yet another world crown last weekend when the Norwegian, 35, continued his decade-long campaign aiming to edge ahead of Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer on the game’s absolute pantheon.

This time it was Freestyle chess, where the back-row pieces start in randomised positions to eliminate pre-game prep. Carlsen, who also holds the Rapid and Blitz crowns, abdicated his Classical title in 2023 citing lack of motivation. His total titles, now 21, include five at classical chess, six at one-hour rapid, and nine at three-minute blitz.

Published: February 20, 2026, 8:00 am

Alysa Liu wins Winter Olympics gold to end US women’s 24-year figure skating drought

• 20-year-old delivers near-flawless free skate

• Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai win silver and bronze

Alysa Liu completed a stunning comeback to competitive figure skating by winning the first Olympic women’s figure skating gold medal for the United States in 24 years on Thursday night.

The 20-year-old from Clovis, California, who vanished from the sport nearly four years ago uncertain if she’d ever return, delivered a career-best long program to overtake Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai. Skating in a shimmering gold dress to Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park Suite, Liu cleanly landed all seven of her triple jumps, including three in combination, and drew a standing ovation before finishing with 226.79 points overall.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:35 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: GB men win curling semi-final and Alysa Liu’s skating gold – as it happened

GB progress to men’s curling final, USA beat Canada in overtime to win gold in women’s ice hockey and the USA’s Alysa Liu triumphs in figure skating

The cross-country bit gets going at 1pm, and I’m looking forward to that. It’s a scientific fact that here’s no kind of race a human can devise that is uncompelling.

In the Nordic, teams of two both have a go at ski jumping, and Germany have just leapt into the lead; they’ll start the cross-country portion with no time penalty, because Austria have just completed this part of things, and only landed far enough for fifth. Norway are second, Japan third and Finland fourth.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:04 pm