All posts tagged: 2026 winter olympics

Paralympic governing body lifts ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes ahead of 2026 games

Paralympic governing body lifts ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes ahead of 2026 games

Published by Sam Flores

Six Russian and four Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete under their own national flags at the 2026 Paralympics in Milan-Cortina, the Games’ governing body confirmed to AFP on Tuesday. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) told AFP the athletes would be “treated like (those from) any other country”. Valeriy Sushkevych, president of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, was furious at the announcement. “I am very, very angry and outraged by the decision to allow six Russian athletes to compete under their national flag,” he told AFP by phone. “This is terrible.” Athletes from Russia and Belarus had been banned from competing under their own flags since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Read moreUkrainian skeleton racer Heraskevych loses appeal against Olympic ban The IPC unexpectedly lifted its suspension on Russian and Belarusian athletes at the organisation’s general assembly in September. The partial suspension – introduced in 2023 to replace the fullbban imposed after Russia’s invasion in 2022 – allowed athletes to compete only as neutrals. Athletes from both nations have been permitted to accumulate ranking points …

2026 Olympics: France tie all-time medal record with one week left – Sports

2026 Olympics: France tie all-time medal record with one week left – Sports

Published by Sam Flores

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again Victor Lovera, of France, approaches the finish line to win the silver medal in the cross country skiing men’s 4 x 7.5km relay at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy on February 15, 2026. © Matthias Schrader, AP Issued on: 16/02/2026 – 07:11 04:57 min From the show Reading time 1 min France have earned their 15th medal at the Milano Cortina Olympics, tying their all-time winter Olympic record. Source link

AI, Fancy Footwear, and All the Other Gear Powering Olympic Bobsledding

AI, Fancy Footwear, and All the Other Gear Powering Olympic Bobsledding

Published by skeptic

Olympic bobsledding often gets called the “Formula 1 of ice.” Tracks are more than 1.5 kilometers (nearly a mile) long, and athletes often race down them at speeds nearing 145 kilometers per hour (90 mph). Bobsledders—whether in teams of four, two, or sliding solo—are often subjected to gravitational forces in excess of 5g. At the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games, they’re using tech aimed at making each phase of the race, from initial push to technical driving to final braking, just a little bit more precise than in previous Games. Men’s four-person bobsledding made its Olympic debut in Chamonix, France, in 1924; women’s two-person bobsledding didn’t enter the Games until 2002 in Salt Lake City. Women’s monobob arrived in 2022. While the earliest bobsleds were made of wood, the sport has been synonymous with steel for years, although in recent decades it has been replaced by carbon fiber, which provides greater lightness and strength. Each new technological development in the sport has come amid the constraints necessary to keep athletes safe, such as weight and …

Munich, Epstein, Confessions of Love Cheat – The World This Week

Munich, Epstein, Confessions of Love Cheat – The World This Week

Published by Sam Flores

This Friday in The World This Week, we talk about the unravelling of the Epstein Files, the end of the Old World Order and the Olympic Helmet Dilemma. Epstein Files Unravelling In a week where the names of those listed in the Epstein Files have continued to feel the consequences, at least on this side of the channel. Resignations and investigations underway now in France, and Norway. The British Prime Minister narrowly survived, for now. And while Keir Starmer was fighting for his political life, the US Attorney General Pam Bondi was in combative mode as she was pressed for five hours by the House Judiciary Committee on alleged mishandling of the Epstein files release, and for redacting the wrong names, and asked why the Department of Justice hadn’t pursued more indictments…  Out With the Old World Order It’s been a week of existential talk over Europe’s place in the world, President Macron spoke of the dangerous squeeze between the US and China, and the risk of being swept aside unless the EU unties its regulations, reforms …

LGBTQ+ Athletes Are Front and Center at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games

LGBTQ+ Athletes Are Front and Center at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games

Published by skeptic

At the start of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, US figure skater Amber Glenn spoke at a press conference about using her platform as an Olympian to support LGBTQ+ rights. “It isn’t the first time we’ve had to come together as a community,” she said. “I hope that I can use my platform and my voice throughout these Games to try to encourage people to stay strong.” A few days later, she posted an Instagram story saying she had received “a scary amount of hate/threats” following the comments on social media. “I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking out about being decent,” she told NPR. Glenn went on to win gold as part of the US figure skating team—and she still has several individual events upcoming—but the reaction to her comments demonstrates a real friction at the 2026 Games when it comes to celebrating queer athletes while also exposing them to ridicule. Nearly 50 out LGBTQ+ athletes are competing at the Winter Games, according to …

How Ilia Malinin Revolutionized Figure Skating with His Quadruple Axel

How Ilia Malinin Revolutionized Figure Skating with His Quadruple Axel

Published by skeptic

Ilia Malinin was born to skate. The child of two Olympic skaters—Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, who both competed for Uzbekistan—he first hit the ice at six years old. In the years since, he’s skyrocketed to fame in the skating world, dubbing himself the “Quad God” for his ability to do multiple quadruple jumps with ease in a single program. This week, Malinin lead the US figure skating squad to gold in the team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics. During that competition, his performance was notable for two reasons. One, he ended his short program with an astounding backflip. Two, he didn’t even have to pull out his signature quad axel to get a tidy 108.16 score. The backflip wasn’t just notable because it looked cool as hell on the ice. It was notable because he was the first figure skater to legally land a backflip at the Olympics. The International Skating Union banned the backflip in the late 1970s, calling it too dangerous. The ban wasn’t lifted until 2024, and shortly thereafter Malinin …

‘Uncanny Valley’: ICE’s Secret Expansion Plans, Palantir Workers’ Ethical Concerns, and AI Assistants

‘Uncanny Valley’: ICE’s Secret Expansion Plans, Palantir Workers’ Ethical Concerns, and AI Assistants

Published by skeptic

Brian Barrett: They’ve got 80 billion or so to spend 75 billion of that I think they have to spend in the next four years. So yeah, they’re going to keep expanding. And when you think of how much of an impact 3000 agents officers had in Minneapolis alone, that’s like an eighth of the, they can repeat some version of that in a lot of different spots. Leah Feiger: And I’ve been fielding, honestly, shout out to the many local reporters around the country who’ve been contacting me in the last day or so, just to ask questions about the locations that we named that are near them or in their states or cities. And the thing to me that keeps coming up is that in addition to new buildings, they’re getting put into preexisting government buildings, preexisting leases, or that that appears to be the plan. And then we’ve also found that a bunch of these ICE offices are being located near plans for giant immigration detention warehouses, and we’re looking at offices …

‘Heated Rivalry’ Is Bringing New Fans to Hockey. Does the Sport Deserve Them?

‘Heated Rivalry’ Is Bringing New Fans to Hockey. Does the Sport Deserve Them?

Published by skeptic

The NHL also pointed WIRED to its partnerships with Pride organizations around the US, Canada, and Australia, as well as pro-inclusivity organization You Can Play, which it’s been working with since 2013. The league said it will be hosting its third annual Pride Cup in 2026. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has said he “binged” Heated Rivalry in one night and told reporters that all NHL teams do a Pride night. However, as the New York Times reported, that is no longer the case, with a couple of teams opting for more general inclusivity events. Teresa Fowler, an associate professor at Concordia University of Edmonton and Tim Skuce, an associate professor at Brandon University, have both been researching hockey culture in Canada for years. Fowler is candid when she speaks about the league’s embrace of Heated Rivalry, which she feels is performative. “Where’s your gay friend on your team? You know what I mean?” she says. “It just seems so hypocritical when people are saying, ‘Yeah, we would welcome them,’ and yet, the person who they …

Swiss skier Von Allmen makes history by winning third Olympic gold

Swiss skier Von Allmen makes history by winning third Olympic gold

Published by Sam Flores

Franjo von Allmen became only the third male skier in history to win three gold medals at a single Winter Games when he claimed victory in Wednesday’s super-G in Bormio. Von Allmen booked himself a place in the pantheon of Olympic alpine skiing greats, with Austrian Toni Sailer and France’s Jean-Claude Killy the only other racers to have won a hat-trick of golds. Sailer won the downhill, giant slalom and slalom races at the 1956 Cortina Olympics, a feat mirrored by Killy at the 1968 Grenoble Games. Only Croatia’s Janica Kostelic has achieved the feat in women’s skiing, at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Switzerland’s Von Allmen, who won the downhill on Saturday, partnered Tanguy Nef to victory in Monday’s team combined. Wearing bib number seven for the super-G, the 24-year-old hit speeds of 120km/h (75mph) to dominate the race down the Stelvio course, clocking a winning time of 1min 25.32sec. American Ryan Cochran-Siegle followed up on his silver medal from Beijing Games four years ago with another second spot, 0.13sec off Von Allmen’s …

Jessie Diggins’ Starter Pack: Winter Olympics 2026

Jessie Diggins’ Starter Pack: Winter Olympics 2026

Published by skeptic

Jessie Diggins is the most decorated cross-country skier in American history. She is also ranked as the best cross-country skier in the world, in a sport that rewards only the most spectacularly fit. Now competing in her fourth and final Olympics, the three-time Olympic medalist arrives at Milan as a different athlete than she was at her first Games. She tells WIRED that she’s more confident, more empowered, and more invested in the world beyond the sport. Diggins helped secure the first US gold in cross-country skiing at Pyeongchang, but her work extends far off the course. She advocates for mental health and eating disorder recovery through her work with the Emily Program, supports climate action as an ambassador for Protect Our Winters, and champions broader access to winter sports through the Share Winter Foundation. “I’m still focused on being as good a teammate as I can be and performing to my highest potential,” she says, “but there’s much more behind each race now.” To remind her that there’s a lot more than race results …