The University of Northern Iowa announced the death of tight end Parker Sutherland on Saturday, Feb. 14.

According to a news release from the school, the tight end died Saturday morning. It did not disclose a cause of death.

“I’m heartbroken,” UNI football coach Todd Stepsis said in the news release. “No words can express my condolences to Adam, Jill and Georgia. Parker embodied everything we look for in a UNI Football Panther. His talent and potential excited us on a daily basis, but it failed to compare to the type of person and teammate he was. 

‘His character, humility, toughness and genuine love of others are what champions are made of. While I’m saddened that our time together was short, we will celebrate the bright light that he brought to our football team for the rest of our lives.”

The Iowa City, Iowa native appeared in four games for the Panthers in 2025, earning redshirt status. He earned second-team all-state status as a senior at Iowa City High School, where he also played basketball and baseball.

‘It is a heartbreaking day for our Panther Athletics family with the passing of our Parker Sutherland. He embraced the opportunity to play Panther football and represent the University through sport,’ UNI athletics director Megan Franklin said. ‘We are devastated ― just devastated. The blessing is that we have a Panther family who will hold the Sutherland family, our football team, and our athletics staff close as we grieve.’

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The Olympic podium is not the end-all, be-all. Even the Olympics themselves cannot define an athlete’s career.

It can seem that way, when the eyes of the world are trained on these 16 days and one moment – a medal, an act of sportsmanship, a catastrophe – has the power to change an athlete’s life. But that white-hot spotlight that burns athletes up at the Olympics as often as it elevates them is our failure, the result of our ignorance.

These sports we are sudden experts in exist outside the month or so every four years when most Americans are paying attention. The athletes who we’re casting judgment on because of their performance in a single event, maybe two, have entire careers that we know nothing about and, honestly, don’t care to.

We expect these athletes to deliver like show ponies during the Olympics – ignoring they’ve got an entire body of work outside the Games – and are ruthless when they don’t.

“The Olympics ask us to take a real risk on the world stage. One that requires courage and vulnerability to erroneous judgment and narratives built on a limited understanding of what this sport truly demands,” Mikaela Shiffrin wrote on social media on Friday, Feb. 13.

Shiffrin knows this better than most. She has more World Cup victories than any other Alpine skier, man or woman, and her 108 wins (and counting) is a record unlikely ever to be broken. Or, if it is, it will be decades from now.

She’s the only skier in history to win a World Cup in each of skiing’s six disciplines – downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, combined and parallel – and she has the single-season record for wins with 17. Her 15 medals at the world championships are tied for most by any skier, man or woman, and her eight golds are second only to Christl Cranz, who skied for Germany from 1934 to 1939.

She also has two gold medals and a silver at the Olympics.

In other words, Shiffrin could put away her skis today and there would be little question that she’s the greatest skier of all time. Her legacy has long been secured, and nothing that happens at these 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics – good, bad or indifferent – will change that.

And yet, Shiffrin has already come in for criticism at these Olympics after a disastrous slalom run in the team combined.

Shiffrin was 15th out of 18 skiers in the slalom run, dropping her and Breezy Johnson from first to fourth place. It was Shiffrin’s worst performance in a slalom race in almost 15 years and immediately drew comparisons to the Beijing Olympics, where she skied out of three races and did not finish higher than ninth in an individual race.

The howling chorus is likely to grow louder after the giant slalom race Sunday, Feb. 15.

Despite the certainty of the armchair experts, Shiffrin is not a medal favorite in the race. Though one of her Olympic golds and two of her 12 season titles are in GS, she’s spent the last 15 months trying to regain her form in the discipline after the devastating crash that left her with a puncture wound in the abdomen and PTSD.

Her third-place finish in the last GS before the Olympics was her first podium in the discipline in two years. She has not won a GS race since December 2023.

If she wins a GS medal here, it will be a delightful surprise. If she doesn’t, it will be fine. A disappointment for her surely, but it will affect the rest of our lives not one bit. The best athletes don’t always perform their best at the Olympics, for any number of reasons, and that’s OK.

Swiss star Marco Odermatt is all but certain to win a fifth consecutive overall title this season, but he’s still oh-for-gold in Milano Cortina. Odermatt won his second silver of the Games in the GS on Saturday, Feb. 14, and also has a bronze. His only Olympic gold came four years ago in the GS.

Despite his epic meltdown in the free skate Friday, Feb. 13, Ilia Malinin is still a two-time world champion who has redefined figure skating and pushed its boundaries beyond what anyone thought possible. Chloe Kim didn’t become the first three-time gold medalist in the halfpipe, but she still won a silver despite a bum shoulder that will need surgery.

That’s not making excuses. That’s recognizing that athletes, even Olympic ones, are human.

There are many ways to define success, and limiting it to how someone’s done at an Olympics is both ill-informed and foolish. The Olympics are 16 days out of a career. To deem someone a failure or a choke job is to ignore all the wins it took just to get here. Just because you weren’t paying attention to those does not make them mean any less.

“I’m grateful to be here, motivated and excited for what’s next, and proud to be part of this American team. May we all champion one another, tread lightly on what we don’t fully comprehend, and have the fortitude to keep showing up,” Shiffrin wrote.

The Olympics are supposed to showcase the best of the best. And many times they do. When they don’t, however, they bring out the worst in those who are watching. That’s on us. No one else.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin will get one of the first cracks at the giant slalom course.

Shiffrin will start third in the GS race at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics on Sunday, Feb. 15. Paula Moltzan, who won bronze with Jackie Wiles in the team combined, is just behind her at No. 5 and Nina O’Brien will start 11th. A.J. Hurt is the last American in the race, starting 23rd.

The start order for the second run will be reverse order of the results from the first.

The GS is the first of the tech races, though Shiffrin, Moltzan and Hurt all did slalom runs in the team combined. Shiffrin will be looking for a better result in the GS after notably struggling in the team combined, finishing 15th out of 18.

‘My skiing in the first race didn’t come together the way I visualized. I fought for every hundredth and didn’t totally find the right execution,’ Shiffrin wrote in a social media post Friday, Feb. 13.

‘… That’s ski racing: fine margins, endless changing variables, and constant adaptation,’ she added. ‘We’ve taken the lessons, analyzed and adjusted, and are moving forward – with focus, intention, and belief in the practice.’

But expectations for Shiffrin in the GS should be tempered. Though one of her Olympic gold medals is in the GS (2018) and two of her 12 season titles are in the discipline, she’s spent the past 15 months trying to regain her form in the discipline after the devastating crash that left her with a puncture wound in her obliques and PTSD.

Her third-place finish in the last GS before the Olympics was her first podium in the discipline in two years. She has not won a GS race since December 2023.

Moltzan, meanwhile, has been on the GS podium three times this World Cup season. That includes a silver medal in the final GS before the Olympics.

• American free skiers Jaelin Kauf and Liz Lemley won silver and bronze, respectively, in the Olympic debut of dual moguls.
• The two skiers are responsible for 25% of the total U.S. medals won at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
• Dual moguls, a new Olympic event, pits two skiers against each other in a head-to-head race.
• Four American skiers, half of the field, advanced to the quarterfinals of the knockout-style event.

LIVIGNO, Italy — The mogul mavens have put Team USA on their backs.

More than a week into the 2026 Winter Olympics, two United States free skiers are responsible for 25% of U.S. medals won.

In the Olympic debut of dual moguls – perhaps the most exciting addition to the program these Games – on Saturday, Jaelin Kauf won silver, same as she did in the classic moguls event four days earlier. Liz Lemley, her teammate who won a surprising gold in moguls, took bronze.

Australia’s Jakara Anthony, whose stumble in the single final gave the U.S. the top two spots on the podium, persevered to win gold. The other two Americans in the field, Tess Johnson and Olivia Giacco, advanced to the quarterfinals of the knockout-style event, meaning half of the final eight skiers wore the U.S. flag on their uniform. Beyond the American success, though, is the indelible excitement of the event.

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“I think from the moment we woke up this morning, all of us girls were so excited and energized by the opportunity to be able to compete in the first-ever dual moguls, finally have it showcased on the Olympic stage,” said Kauf, who is now the most-decorated mogul skier in U.S. history with three career silver medals. “It was pretty spectacular.”

Johnson said she was buzzing regardless of the individual outcome for her. That’s the effect dual moguls has.

“We wanted to put on a show today, and I think that’s exactly what we did,” Johnson said. “Dual moguls breeds excitement and chaos. Anything can happen.”

Dual moguls, making its Olympic debut despite being a mainstay on the World Cup circuit, pits two competitors against each other at the same time. The one with the highest score moves on to the next round. The score is based on the judges’ assessment of turns (roughly 60%), aerials (20%) and time (20%), with five points available per judge for a maximum score of 35.

In the regular moguls, a fall ends an athlete’s day. Depending on the round, someone can fall and still walk away with a medal.

That’s actually exactly what Kauf and Lemley did, as they both crashed during their respective semifinal runs. Kauf’s semifinal opponent, Perrine Laffont, skied outside of the course. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Laffont had deviated off her line, but wasn’t exactly sure what happened – the perils of dual moguls.

“Sometimes when that happens you shut down and take it easy, like, ‘OK, they blew out or messed up, I have this pretty secured,’” Kauf said.

Kauf knew she was moving into finals yet wanted to keep giving it her all with only one race left. She wasn’t sure exactly what happened next, but halfway through the middle section she went down hard. The Wyoming native stayed in bounds, though, and completed her run. Because Laffont went outside of the boundary flag, Kauf still moved on.

Her hip and back hurt the most, and after the medal ceremony she was in search of her backpack to fish out some ibuprofen. She’ll be sore Sunday, she said. Every skier is always dealing with something, Kauf said. She tried to ignore it for the final. But Anthony was on a warpath after she lost out on a chance to repeat as the Olympic champion and would not be denied in the final.

“I think this is a gnarly sport,” Kauf said.

Lemley’s fall came on her final jump at the bottom of the hill.  She came in “super short” and under-rotated, she said. She lost a ski and got up with hyperextended her elbow. If she was in pain, she blocked it out. In the start gate, she could be seen loosening it up.  

“I’ll deal with that later,” she told herself.

It was time to win a medal. The 20-year-old already battled back from a grueling ACL rehab and was already proud of herself for getting there, let alone already having a gold in her pocket. She and her coach built up to moment with a detailed plan dating back to last summer that left her on a smooth trajectory for this past week.

Laffont, the bronze medalist in the classic event, beat Lemley down the hill by 0.99 seconds. But this is a judged sport, and Lemley won, 18-17. When the numbers flashed on the video screen, Lemley appeared surprised by her victory. It was not a perfect run, she later said. The mistakes were noticeable and she was frazzled at the top after fall. All she could do was trust her skiing ability.

Crashing, climbing into a snowmobile for an uncomfortable ride back to the top and then putting down runs is not easy, Giacco said.

“I’ve been there before, and I’ve been on both ends of it, and (Lemley) really rose to the occasion,” said Giacco, whose family shouted “OG” as she readied for her races.

Lemley is a fan of mogul skiing in general and doesn’t care if she’s going down the mountain solo or with another competitor in her periphery. She just wants all mogul skiing to become more popular.

“I think it provides a better spectator event,” Lemley said of dual moguls.  

For the second time in four days, supporters hoisted Kauf and Lemley on their shoulders. This time, they joined hands with their medals around their necks.

One difference in the mentality in a dual race compared to a normal one, Johnson said, is adjusting tricks to be lower and land further down the hill. Another is that there is a start gate.

“You feel like a horse,” Johnson said.

Johnson has been saying for a year that fans will fall in love with dual moguls once they watch it. The unpredictability and the drama combine for enthralling entertainment.

Dual moguls provides a different vibe whether in the crowd and on the course, Kauf said. The head-to-head competition is relatable for all sports fans. She felt like her duel – with an “e” – against Anthony in the final was worthy of duals’ debut.

“Everyone’s putting it out there every single run,” Kauf said.

Kauf, 29, acknowledged this is likely her last Olympics. Three silver medals definitely isn’t bad at all, she said. The consistency is certainly admirable. And that’s the point of training, Kauf said – to put down the runs she wants every time she pushes down the hill. In her 11th World Cup season, Kauf has the experience to be a strong mental competitor, she said, even when the pressure is on.

“Obviously all of us out here are skiing for gold every time we push out of the gate and every girl out here is capable of that,” Kauf said. “The talent in this Olympics is absolutely insane on the women’s side.”

Clearly, dual moguls was the ideal vehicle to display that talent.

• Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the first-ever Winter Olympics medal for a South American country.
• Born in Norway to a Brazilian mother, the skier now represents Brazil after a dispute with the Norwegian Ski Federation.
• Braathen briefly retired from skiing at age 23 to pursue other interests like modeling and being a DJ.
• He won the men’s giant slalom gold medal, finishing ahead of Swiss skiers Marco Odermatt and Loic Meillard.

BORMIO, Italy — Other skiers will tell you that Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is really a Norwegian athlete to them, since he trained in that system to become of the world’s best alpine skiers.

Pinheiro Braathen, on the other hand, wants you to know how he was a soccer player first. He tells you about visiting family in Brazil when he was little and becoming so entranced by one-named Brazilian soccer megastars that he even informed his father around age 6 that he wanted to become the world’s best on the pitch.

“Somehow, I’m a skier now,” said Pinheiro Braathen, looking down at a freshly awarded Olympic gold medal in his hand. “But at least I’m a champ.”

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This brief contradiction – with a men’s giant slalom gold-medalist from Norway talking about soccer with a Brazilian flag tied around him – represents the nature of this 25-year-old’s complicated journey to reach a historic moment in Olympic history.

The medal around his neck is the first ever awarded to a South American country during the Winter Olympics. Pinheiro Braathen’s mother is Brazilian, but he was born in Oslo and grew up in Norway.

It is important to Pinheiro Braathen, though, that he isn’t just a skier.

He’s a celebrity. He’s a model. He’s a DJ. He’s also a world-class skier, of course, but those other pursuits prompted him to announce his shock retirement from skiing at age 23. He’d been representing Norway. Before long, he was back in the sport and competing for Brazil.

“Daring to trust one’s self is something that is very universal,” Pinheiro Braathen said. “It’s very difficult, and it only gets more difficult with every day that passes, with social media and constant exposure to other peoples’ live sand perspectives and opinions. If it’s anything I hope that I can be the source of inspiration of today: You have to be who you are.”

Pinheiro Braathen’s initial retirement from skiing “came after weeks of rumored disputes with the Norwegian Ski Federation regarding image rights,” per Olympics.com.

“For him, that was super important,” said Norway’s Alte Lie McGarth, a childhood friend of Pinheiro Braathen who finished fifth in the giant slalom in Bormio. “He needed to have the space to do exactly what he needed. He wants to do a bunch of stuff outside of skiing, and now he has the space to be who he wants to be. I’m just proud of him for taking the choice.”

Despite the novelty of Brazil winning a medal in Alpine skiing, Pinheiro Braathen’s victory wasn’t some huge upset. He’s considered one of the world’s best slalom racers. In November, Pinheiro Braathen won a World Cup race in Finland, a first for Brazil, and he arrived at these Olympics No. 2 in the World Cup rankings for slalom and giant slalom.

Blessed with the leadoff spot for the first run in Bormio on Feb. 14, he threw down a 1:13.92 in the morning to open the event. Odermatt was the only competitor to get within 1.57 seconds of that time, and even he was nearly a second (0.95) behind Pinheiro Braathen.

“Conditions are always a factor. He got a clean course, and he took advantage of it,” said River Radamus, the United States’ top finisher at 17th. “That’s part of the game. But he didn’t make any mistakes.”

The gold medal was clearly Pinheiro Braathen’s to lose in the afternoon’s second run, and he didn’t lose it, posting a 2:25 total – when added to his first time – that was still 0.58 seconds ahead of silver-medalist Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. Another Swiss skier, Loic Meillard, took the bronze.

After Pinheiro Braathen’s second run, the Swiss tandem celebrated with him on the course, and that continued until after the medal ceremony.

“It’s funny to sit here today at this moment,” Pinheiro Braathen said, “because I cannot tell you how many comments I’ve read through from the day I started representing Brazil until becoming an Olympic champion today that have been along the lines of, ‘I have no idea what’s going on, but let’s go Brazil! Let’s go Lucas!

“I think it’s that unconditional love and support from the Brazilians, even though we’re still in the journey of introducing ski racing to Brazil, that I really brough with me today and allowed me to ski as fast as I did.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — If it takes the young upstarts of the NBA, the eventual stars-to-be, to reinvigorate the NBA All-Star break, then we owe them considerable gratitude.

The NBA’s Rising Stars set the tone Friday, Feb. 13 in an engaging and entertaining showcase that culminated with a stellar performance from Philadelphia 76ers rookie VJ Edgecombe to carry Team Vince — as in Vince Carter — to the Rising Stars championship. And as the NBA All-Star Game has faced widespread criticism for its lack of competitive spirit, let’s hope that the league’s biggest stars draw inspiration from its “Rising” ones.

In the semifinal round, Edgecombe scored his team’s final 10 points to win and carried Team Vince with 23 combined points across both games, including a pair of clutch, game-winning free throws in the championship.

“I appreciate people tuning in, even to the Rising Stars game,” Edgecombe told reporters after the game. “We just tried to make it fun, make it competitive, where it’s worth your time.”

Edgecombe wasn’t alone. On the whole, the entire crop of 28 first- and second-year players who participated Friday in the Rising Stars Game established a baseline spirit of competition that has been painfully absent from the supposed gem of the weekend, the actual All-Star Game.

Did the Rising Stars unleash relentless, playoff-level competition? No, of course not. They didn’t need to. What matters here is that they didn’t do the bare minimum. They didn’t sleepwalk and loaf through the exhibition in a way that insults fans investing their time and capital in the experience.

This is what’s crucial for the survival of the NBA All-Star Game, and the All-Star games of all the major domestic sports leagues, if we’re being honest. There’s a way to strike a balance of elevated competition without compromising safety or risking injury.

This was what the four coaches of the Rising Stars — Carter, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady and Austin Rivers — preached to their players.

“(The message) was compete hard but be smart,” Rockets guard Reef Sheppard, who played for Team Melo, told reporters. “This All-Star Weekend is supposed to be fun. At the same time, don’t go out there and just run around. Compete and play, but be smart and have fun.”

Said second-year Bulls forward Matas Buzelis, another emerging NBA star and one who combined to score 10 points across the two mini-games for Team Vince: “We weren’t trying to just lay back and cruise.”

The only shame Friday night was that, understandably, NBC prioritized its Olympic coverage for its primetime national broadcast and was forced to relegate the Rising Stars showcase to streaming-only broadcast Peacock, meaning a chunk of fans missed the showcase.

Several players said they noticed the handful of NBA All-Stars who spent their Friday night in the cosmopolitan city of Los Angeles court-side at the Intuit Dome, taking in the Rising Stars competition.

Donovan Mitchell of the Cavaliers, Scottie Barnes of the Raptors, De’Aaron Fox of the Spurs and Tyrese Maxey of the 76ers were all in attendance. All were shown on the jumbotron to applause from the fans in attendance.

It was this last player who, in part, inspired Edgecombe.

“Tyrese is my dog, man,” Edgecombe said. “I was like, he ain’t coming to watch if I ain’t going to play hard. So I was like, I’m going to play hard so at least it’s not a waste of his time.

“I know he has a whole lot of stuff he could probably be doing right now, especially being an All-Star. Tyrese is my dog. I love him.”

Here’s to hoping Maxey and his fellow All-Stars take after these young players to give fans the showcase they deserve.