MILAN – In the hours leading up to Sunday’s gold -medal game, Columbus Blue Jackets captain Zach Werenski and Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin came up with the idea.
LIVIGNO, Italy – Scotty James’ fifth Olympic Games started with a drive into the mountains and quiet walk to the halfpipe. Phone in hand, camera open, venue all to himself, the Australian snowboarder zoomed in and snapped a shot. He wanted to make certain the halfpipe was dead straight, and neither side was slanted.
The Olympics are always about perseverance, about triumph, about the work these athletes put in in absolute obscurity and the performances they’re able to summon when the lights go on. How admirable. How inspiring. What fun. Far more athletes, though, experience something different.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – Lindsey Vonn said she would make it to the Olympic downhill starting gate despite rupturing the most important ligament in her knee nine days ago, and she did.
The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics formally kicked off Friday with exuberant opening ceremonies, where pledges of sportsmanship and peaceful international competition came against the backdrop of a fraying world order.
MILAN – Alysa Liu skated backward across the center of the ice, gliding into the consecutive triple jumps that climax her Olympic short program. As she did so, her figure skating teammate Amber Glenn, seated in a rinkside cheering section, leaned back in her seat and grabbed onto the arm of Ilia Malinin, sitting to her left. Liu took off.