Winter Olympics 2026: ski cross, halfpipe and more on day 14 – live

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing
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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, 1:02 pm

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 does 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

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

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

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

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

‘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 residents 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 hometown 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

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

USA roar back from brink to beat Canada in overtime and claim Olympic women’s ice hockey gold

• Canadians led 1-0 in regulation before late US goal

• Megan Keller clinches title with overtime winner

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results

Rescued from the brink of defeat by a deft touch from their captain in her final Olympics, the US beat Canada in Milan on Thursday to claim the women’s ice hockey gold medal.

Hilary Knight got engaged this week to the American speed skater, Brittany Bowe, and the 36-year-old now has another reason to celebrate. Out-fought and out-thought by their great rivals for much of this contest, the Americans were poised to lose to a team they had thumped 5-0 in the preliminary round only nine days earlier.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:23 pm

Is the World Cup bump real? MLS is going to find out

MLS stakeholders want to turn the interest in this summer’s North American World Cup into ‘rocket fuel’ for the league. Are those realistic expectations?

In 1988, a full eight years before Major League Soccer debuted, it got its first “World Cup bump”.

Fifa had just awarded the 1994 World Cup to the United States, but there was a stipulation. The US could host the tournament, but only if there was a competitive club league in place by the time it rolled around, something that hadn’t been true since the North American Soccer League collapsed in 1985. Tournament organisers missed that 1994 deadline, but two years later, MLS became a reality. Thirty years on, it is still here.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:00 am

I went back to my alma mater and saw how women’s sports have changed

There’s a basketball renaissance emerging at Columbia, and Megan Griffith’s women are leading it

I’ve been going to Columbia basketball games since I was an undergraduate in the 1960s. As a junior, I did some play-by-play for WKCR, the student-run radio station. There was a time long ago when I went to almost every Lions home game. I’m talking about the men. There wasn’t a women’s basketball team until 1984. For the past few decades, I’ve watched the men play once a year.

When I enrolled at Columbia in September 1963, the Lions’ home games were played in University Hall – an antiquated gym with structural columns that impeded fans’ views and looked as though it had been built during the Age of Pericles. Columbia had suffered through six straight losing seasons. Two more followed.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. The audio version of his memoir – My Mother And Me – was recently released. The reading is by Hauser’s good friend, Jim Lampley. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:00 am

Football Daily | Arsenal don’t just drop points, they perform theatrical acts of self-sabotage

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Top of the league, Wembley trip booked, sweeping through Europe, and blessed with a cushty FA Cup draw – it’s fair to say the Arsenal garden is in full, radiant bloom. At least, it was until they travelled to a wet and windy Molineux to play a match the Premier League surreptitiously slipped into the schedule like a worm tablet hidden in a dog’s dinner. In Wolves, Mikel Arteta’s side were facing a team who are not only the worst in the top flight by some distance, but one who have only recently begun battling to avoid going down as the most awful of all time. Having taken a two-goal lead, the only logical question centred around how many more Arsenal would spank past their hapless hosts. Instead, logic gave way to the objective hilarity of a collective on and off-field meltdown as the Gunners managed to turn what should have been a stroll into an inexplicable 2-2 draw.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Published: February 19, 2026, 4:56 pm

North London derby buildup, Europa League reaction, Premier League team news and more – live

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

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, 1:01 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

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

Chelsea’s Rosenior calls for life bans from football for those found guilty of racism

• ‘When you see a player upset, normally it’s for a reason’

• Head coach reacts to Vinícius Júnior’s racism claims

Liam Rosenior has called for players and coaches found guilty of racism to be banned from football for life and said experiencing abuse on a football pitch “is the worst feeling you can ever possibly imagine”.

The Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior left the pitch after alleging that Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni racially abused him during their Champions League match on Tuesday. Prestianni has denied racist abuse and Benfica have said he was a “victim” of a “smear campaign”. The Argentinian faces a 10-game ban if found guilty by Uefa.

Published: February 19, 2026, 5:30 pm

Manchester United sweep aside Atlético to tee up Bayern Munich clash in WCL

Jess Park provided a timely demonstration of her qualities as her superb, long-range goal capped a confident individual performance that helped Manchester United progress to the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals with a resounding win over Atlético Madrid.

The German champions, Bayern Munich, will be Marc Skinner’s team’s quarter-final opponents, between 23 March and 1 April, with United reaching the last eight for the first time. That significant landmark for the club was fittingly accompanied by a special goal from Park, whose curling strike completed a 5-0 aggregate victory and boosted her chances of starting for England in March.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:55 pm

Celtic face Europa League exit after El Khannouss double sparks Stuttgart rout

It is just as well Martin O’Neill wanted no celebration of his 1,000th game in professional management. ­Stuttgart’s visit became men versus Bhoys and a deflating scene for anybody of Celtic persuasion.

This messiest of Celtic seasons, featuring umpteen managers and a similar number of low points has now featured supporters booing their own goalkeeper. Fans decided Kasper Schmeichel’s failure to keep out Jamie Leweling’s 57th-minute shot was a blunder too far. Schmeichel’s subsequent touches were jeered, albeit there was nothing he could do about the goal from Tiago Tomás in stoppage time that added gloss to Stuttgart’s position. The second leg feels like a fixture O’Neill could very much do without, coming days before a crucial visit to Ibrox.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:04 pm

Clubs frustrated over wait for Fifa to share £185m of Club World Cup money

• Clubs who did not play are to get solidarity payments

• No formula determined for dividing the money

Frustration is growing among clubs globally at the extended wait for £185m of solidarity payments promised by Fifa on the back of last summer’s Club World Cup.

Clubs that did not participate in the tournament were promised a share of the sum, designed to ensure a proportion of the event’s funding was distributed throughout the football pyramid. If shared equally it would amount to about £50,000 for every top-flight club in the world but, more than seven months after the Club World Cup’s conclusion, there is no sign of the money and no timescale for its distribution. The Guardian understands Fifa is yet to determine how the money will be allocated.

Published: February 19, 2026, 2:42 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

Manchester United 2-0 (5-0 on agg) Atlético Madrid: Women’s Champions League playoff – as it happened

Jess Park rockets finishes off clinical tie for Manchester United

A great piece to read before this game begins:

Here is how Arsenal booked their spot in the quarter-finals, where they will play Chelsea:

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:09 pm

Britain’s curlers guarantee a medal as Mouat holds his nerve against Swiss

• Team GB men’s team edge tense semi-final battle 8-5

• They go for gold in Saturday’s final against Canada

Call it the Cortina Comeback. At nine o’clock on Thursday morning, Great Britain’s men’s curling team didn’t even know whether they would be in the Olympic semi-finals. By nine o’clock on Thursday night, they had won themselves a place in Saturday’s final against Canada by beating the undefeated Swiss team 8-5.

The British, who scraped through the round robin only because the Italian team lost their last group stage game to the Swiss on Thursday morning, had promised that they would be an entirely different proposition if they got to the knockout rounds, and they were as good as their word.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:51 pm

Australia’s Indra Brown, 16, soars into Winter Olympics freeski halfpipe final

• Youngest member of team at Milano Cortina qualifies in fourth place

• Brown is Australia’s last realistic shot at a medal at these Games

Australia’s golden Winter Olympics could conclude with a medal-winning flourish after Indra Brown roared into the final of the women’s freeski halfpipe less than a month since she celebrated her 16th birthday.

One of the break-out stars of the winter sport season, the youngest member of the Australian team showed no apparent nerves on her Olympic debut in Livigno on Thursday night (Friday AEDT) as she qualified for Saturday’s final in fourth place.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:34 pm

Fenerbahce 0-3 Nottingham Forest: Europa League playoff, first leg – as it happened

Goals from Murillo, Igor Jesus and Morgan Gibbs-White give Vitor Pereira a winning start as Forest head coach

I was at Dyche’s final game in charge and Omari Hutchinson was underwhelming, to say the least. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the new regime.

Pereira: “Today is three days working. but working to play in a way to try short communications, be very clear. Today I hope that I see my team play organised with tactical organisation, and be able to express themselves, play with courage and a mentality to win.”

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:06 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

Winter Olympics women’s ice hockey final: USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime – as it happened

The US team fought back from a goal down to defeat Canada 2-1 and claim gold, Megan Keller with the decisive goal in overtime

USA 0-0 Canada, first period, 15:13 left: Poulin with the shot. Remember that she was out injured when these teams played earlier in these Games. The USA won’t want to let her have many touches.

USA 0-0 Canada, first period, 15:57 left: To underscore the point, NBC commentator AJ Mleczko, fresh from calling part of yesterday’s men’s game with Snoop Dogg, recalls a year in which her US team lost once – in the Olympic final.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:17 pm