MILAN — Alysa Liu’s father sifted through conflicting thoughts and emotions.

It was less than 24 hours after his daughter won the gold medal for the women’s individual figure skating competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Thursday, Feb. 19.

Arthur Liu wore a smile and the look of happiness during an exclusive interview with USA TODAY Sports. He also grew subdued while sharing regrets. He said they stemmed from decisions he made years before his daughter wowed spectators inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena and millions of people watching on TV.

He reflected on a coaching change not long before Alysa walked away from ice skating at 16.

“In retrospect, I feel I made a mistake,’’ Arthur Liu said, adding that Alysa “started to hate skating and stuff until she quit.’’

He also said he regretted taking her from the family’s home in Northern California months before the 2022 Winter Olympics to train in Colorado Springs, where USA Ice Skating is headquartered. She finished sixth at the Beijing Games.

“I took her to Colorado Springs and I left her there,’’ said Arthur Liu, who added that at the time he was overwhelmed with the demands of running his law practice and being a single parent of five children. Alysa, 20, is the oldest. “During that period of time, I wasn’t there for her.

“She was upset and she missed home. But then I was thinking, when I was 14, I went to boarding school. I survived. I felt like (Alysa) can survive this, too. But not knowing that she hated it. I did not know until she came home.’’

‘Do it your way’

When Alysa Liu returned to ice skating at 18, Arthur Liu said, she made it clear how things would proceed.

“She said, ‘I’m coming back. I’m going to do my terms,’’ Arthur recalled. ‘I was like, yes, go ahead and do it your own way. Because I mean, as a father, I love her and I want to support her. But there’s only this much I can do. I’m just one person. I’m very tired by the end of the day.

“Just work and the kids and everything. I just want to relax a little. I don’t have to worry too much about her (now). That’s great. You want me to be hands off? That’s great. Even though you hurt a little bit to hear that.’’

At 13, Alysa became the youngest U.S national champion ever. And as her skating career progressed, Arthur Liu said, he hoped to find someone else to take over.

“Because it’s too hard for me,’’ he said. “It is really difficult for me to raise a champion, take care of her, and also take care for other kids.

“So I had always wanted somebody to take over and that happened. So, OK, you’re not on the team anymore. In a way, it hurts a little bit to hear. But as a matter of fact, that’s exactly where I wanted, for her to be independent.’’

Arthur Liu gave up his role as Alysa’s manager.

“She has a good team of people around her,’’ Arthur Liu said. “So I don’t have to worry about how I can protect her or what to do.

“I’m totally hands off with her business. I have done my job for her and now I need to focus on the other four (children).’’

‘Hugs and pictures’

Section 28, Row 2, Seats 1 through 5.

That’s where Arthur and his four children sat inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena, on a far end of the rink. He said Alysa spotted them during the six-minute practice session before the final stage of the competition began.

Later, Arthur said, he learned she also was forming her fingers into the shape of hearts.

“She’s like that,’’ Arthur Liu said. “Even early on in (U.S.) nationals, national competitions, she would know where I was sitting.

He said his family waited at the arena until 2:30 p.m. so they could visit with Alysa for 10 minutes.

About 20 friends and family members were there to greet Alysa, according to Arthur Liu.

“Lots of hugs and pictures,’’ he said of the visit.

‘I really trust her’

During the night of the free skate, Arthur Liu said, he was only a little nervous.

“I really trust her,’’ he said. “I trust her that she would go out there and do what she normally does. And also my philosophy is a little bit like hers. I’m not so attached to placement, medals. I mean, it’s really about two great programs (the short program and the free skate.)

“That’s something that she’s happy with, happy about. So if she does that, normally it works out pretty well for her.’’

Yet when Alysa vaulted into first place, Japan’s Ami Naka and Kaori Sakamoto were within striking distance before they skated last.

“After (Alysa) performed, I was very happy,’’ Arthur Liu said. “But there are two very strong competitors coming up, so you never know.’’

Soon enough, Arthur Liu knew. Everyone knew.

Alysa was the Olympic champion, America’s first champion figure skater since 2002.

‘They had so much fun’

Arthur Liu recalled the early days after Alysa, his oldest child, started skating. Two of her siblings joined her.

‘They had so much fun chasing people doing hide and seek at the rink and made friends with adults, hockey players and chasing each other,’ Arthur Liu said. ‘It’s just having fun. That’s what parents would want to see.’

And there she was at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, exuding joy and clearly having fun like she did before a dark period and taking a hiatus.

“She’s just really happy to see the crowd,’’ Arthur Liu said, “and she just wants to put on a good performance.’’

MILAN — Mia Manganello had been envisioning this moment for a year.

Once she wrapped her head around what her coach had in mind, that is.

Manganello ended her speedskating career with a bronze in the women’s mass start Saturday, Feb. 21, the first individual medal in three Olympics for the 36-year-old. She had dedicated herself to the event this season, after coach Gabriel Girard said he thought it was her best chance for an individual medal.

‘It was a leap of faith for me,’ said Manganello, who also has a bronze from the team pursuit in 2018. ‘To cross the line with a medal, I’m really proud. But I’m really happy for my coach, as well, that he had this vision for me and I was able to pull it through.’

Manganello’s bronze was the first for the U.S. women in long-track at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics after fourth-place finishes in the 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters and team pursuit and a fifth in the 500 meters.

It also gave the U.S. team four medals, their most since also winning four at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

‘This is definitely a win for the entire team,’ Manganello said. ‘I’ve been a head case probably all year. It was a lot of weight that I put on this event, and you have downs and you have highs, but it’s really my teammates and my family that got in here. And so, to me, it is a win for them just as much as it is for me.’

Speedskaters, at least U.S. ones, usually do events at multiple distances. But knowing this was going to be her last season, her last Olympics, Girard told Manganello she should focus on the mass start.

The mass start is a 16-lap pack race, with sprints every fourth lap, and is similar to the Tour de France cycling race. It requires strategy as well as speed, knowing when to pursue other skaters who make breakaways, knowing when to make your move.

Despite her initial hesitation, Manganello had quick success this season. She won the first World Cup, then made the podium three other times. She wound up winning the season title by a single point over Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands.

But nothing is a given with the mass start, especially when the Olympic final has only 16 skaters, smaller than the fields at World Cup races.

Manganello got a boost when Greta Myers, who is also her teammate in team pursuit, made the final. That meant Manganello had help chasing down breakaways and establishing her position for the final sprint.

Myers moved to the front of the pack late in the race, allowing Manganello to conserve energy. On the final lap, she burst forward and skated furiously to the finish.

‘Greta skated out of her mind. It was the best I’ve ever seen her race a mass start. She raced with confidence, she raced with determination and a goal. And that goal was to get me a medal,’ Manganello said, tears filling her eyes.

Myers was happy to do it. These are the first Olympics for the 21-year-old, so this was a valuable learning experience.

But she also knew what it meant to Manganello to get a medal in her last race.

‘There’s no one more deserving than Mia, so I’m just so proud,’ Myers said.

Manganello let out a scream that echoed through the Milan Speed Skating Stadium when she crossed the finish line. She beamed as she climbed onto the medals podium, and cradled her medal as she met with reporters afterward.

Asked what she’ll do now that her speedskating career is over, Manganello said she’s going to go pick up her dog, which has been staying with her parents in Florida. Go to the beach.

And enjoy this medal.

‘I’m just going to lay with my pretty medal in bed for a while,’ she said.

Olympic skier Mikaela Shiffrin poked fun at several blunders she had this week, following a ‘Today’ show f-bomb and revealing she tried a new alcoholic drink.

After winning gold in the slalom on Wednesday, Feb. 18, Shriffin appeared on the ‘Today’ show to reflect on her journey. She was speaking with Carson Daly, Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin when an unintentional moment happened. Shiffrin accidentally cursed on camera, dropping an f-bomb and then another expletive moments later. (Warning: link contains NSFW words)

Still, that wasn’t the Olympian’s only mishap this week.

While speaking with NBC’s Mike Tirico, Shiffrin cursed again, describing the buildup to the moment she skied for Gold. She later revealed that she celebrated her win with alcohol, her first drink in at least two years. ‘For now, I just had the first sips of my first espresso martini ever, and we’re feeling a little bit tipsy,’ Shiffrin said. ‘Oops. Sorry, NBC. And I feel like everybody is just super ready to drink up.’

After multiple viral moments, Shiffrin poked fun at herself with a seemingly self-deprecating tweet. ‘So…I hear espresso martinis and f bombs on live TV are trending?!’ she posted on X on Saturday.

Shiffrin wasn’t the only Olympian to curse this week.

On Thursday, Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu won an Olympic gold medal with her free skate, becoming the first American woman to win an individual figure skating Olympic medal in two decades. After her performance, Liu let out ‘That’s what I’m (expletive) talking about’ as she was leaving the ice. Later, Liu revealed she would have been happy with her skate, no matter the result.

‘I don’t need this (medal), but what I needed was the stage. And I got that,’ Liu said. ‘So I was all good no matter what happened. If I fell on every jump, I would still be wearing this dress, so it’s all good.’

• The U.S. mixed aerials team won gold at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
• This victory marked Team USA’s 11th gold medal, a new record for a single Winter Olympics.
• The team consisted of Chris Lillis, Connor Curran, and Kaila Kuhn.

LIVIGNO, Italy – The record-setting 11th gold medal for Team USA at these 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics came in high-flying fashion.

The United States mixed aerials team won gold, with Chris Lillis, Connor Curran and Kaila Kuhn flying and contorting themselves to the top of the podium.

The 11 gold medals in Italy are the most for the entire team at any Winter Olympics, surpassing the 10 won during the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Alerted of the news in the mixed zone as gold medals hung at chest-level, the trio reacted with a mixture of pleasant surprise and glee.

The U.S. won the first mixed aerials event four years ago at the 2022 Beijing Games. As the lone member on both of those teams, Lillis has thought about why the Americans succeed in the team event but stumbled during the individual side. A lot of the athletes grew up playing team sports, he said. They can use one another for motivation.

“I think that really helps us, especially in aerial skiing,” Lillis said. “In aerials skiing, it can feel really lonely up there.”

They vibed off each other. From the beginning, they asserted dominance and departed the first round of finals in pole position. But scores reset and didn’t matter with four teams left in the field.

Kuhn set the tone. Curran squashed the nerves. Lillis delivered the haymaker – a jump that he had no issue with since it’s one he’s landed for 10 years.

Switzerland took silver and China finished with bronze. According to Lillis, the average aerials skier crashes on 60 percent of their jumps. For the Americans to go 6-for-6 while at least one skier from the six other countries competing was more than clutch.

Coming into the Olympics, the team figured to be Kuhn, Lillis and Quinn Dehlinger – the defending world champions in the event. But Dehlinger reaggravated a knee injury during training that forced him to not participate in both the individual and team event. Snow, wind and fog in the area for the last week also drastically altered the training schedule and made for underprepared jumpers.

Curran found out with the rest of the team that he’d be part of the trio around 6:30 p.m.

“I want to perform for my team,” he said. “It’s bigger than me. I’m glad I got to perform my best.”

Kuhn took gold at the 2025 world championships and also won the mixed aerials event with Lillis. She advanced alongside teammate Winter Vinecki to the six-person finals in the individual event, but both messed up their final jump to miss the podium.

On the men’s side, Curran and Lillis advanced to the 12-person final but didn’t make it past the six-person cutdown.

Kuhn said the team were “pretty crushed” by not medaling in the individual competitions.

“None of us really performed at our highest degree that we could have,” she said.

But the opportunity to bounce back was there. They used it as motivation, she said.

“It worked out in our favor,” Kuhn said.

But calling it redemption didn’t sit right with Lillis. It doesn’t erase what had happened less than 24 hours ago.

“I’ve fallen just short twice now, and it hurts, and I know that I’m capable of more,” said Lillis, who has 15 World Cup podium finishes. “And we’ll see, maybe in the future, I’ll be able to get that monkey off my back and get on the individual podium.”

Nor does it negate the joy of another gold medal, he said.  

“It’s so great to get Olympic gold with my teammates, and to do it for them, and them doing it for me,” Lillis said. “I couldn’t describe how special it is to bring home a gold for the U.S.”

MILAN – Eric Heiden’s record for most gold medals won at single Winter Olympics has fallen.

It’s a record that stood for 46 years, with the American speed skater having won five golds at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, the men’s cross country skier from Norway, won his sixth medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics with a victory in cross country men’s 50 km Saturday, Feb. 21.

On the final lap, he overtook teammate Martin Loewstroem Nyenget and collapsed after he crossed the finish line in a time of in 20:07.07, 17.5 seconds ahead of Nyenget.

It was a Norwegian medal sweep, with Nyenget winning the silver and Emil Iversen taking bronze.

Klaebo, 29, prevailed here in all six men’s races of the men’s races: 10K interval start, 4×7.5 km relay, skiathlon, sprint and team sprint and 50km mass start at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

He increased his Olympic record total to 13, including 11 golds he collected at the Winter Olympics in 2018, 2022 and 2026.

Heiden, by contrast, competed only at the 1980 Games.

Americans set record, excel at Olympics

The U.S. cross country team also made history, winning their first-ever men’s Olympic medal.

Americans Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher did it when they paired up and win a silver medal in the men’s team sprint. Ogden also won a silver medal in the individual sprint.

In the 50km mass start Saturday, Americans Schumacher finished 13th and Hunter Wonders finished 35th.

In the women’s competition, American Jessie Diggins won a bronze medal in the 10km interval start. In 2018, Diggins became only the second American cross country skier to win an Olympic gold medal. She won a silver and bronze in 2022 and now has four Olympic medals.

Diggins, 34, will compete Sunday, Feb. 22 in the final race, the women’s 50 km mass start. She has announced she will retire after the 2025-26 season.

The three Olympic medals is the most won by the Americans in a single Winter Games.

MILAN — No more medals for Jordan Stolz.

Stolz was fourth in the mass start Saturday, Feb. 21, the first time in four races at 2026 Milano Cortina he has finished off the podium. The 21-year-old leaves these Games with three medals, two of them gold.

It’s the best performance by a U.S Winter Olympian in 20 years, since fellow speed skater Chad Hedrick also won three (gold, silver and bronze) at the 2006 Games in Turin.

‘I would say it was pretty successful,’ Stolz said. ‘There’s things that could have gone better, but two golds and a silver, I’m pretty happy with that.’

Stolz came to these Games predicted to win four medals, with three of them likely gold. He won gold in the 500 and 1,000 meters, setting Olympic records in the process, and got silver in the 1,500 meters.

The mass start was always going to be the biggest crapshoot of his four races, though. Though Stolz had medaled in it twice during the World Cup season, including a win in Hamar, Norway, the 16-lap event event that resembles short track – or NASCAR – requires speed, strategy and some luck.

A skater can get taken out by other skaters, as happened to Norway’s Didrik Eng Strand in the second semifinal. Get too far behind the lead pack, or get boxed in, and you won’t be able to make a move.

Or, in the case Saturday, eventual gold medalist Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands and silver medalist Viktor Hald Thorup of Denmark made a break during the third lap. They got so far ahead that the rest of the pack was racing for bronze.

It was clear the others were waiting for Stolz to make a move with four laps to go. But had he done that, he’d have been so gassed he wouldn’t have been able to make the final sprint.

‘If I would’ve known that, that they would’ve been reluctant to chase, even when none of the guys have a medal, I probably would’ve attacked a little bit more,’ Stolz said. ‘But if I would’ve done that, they still would’ve just followed me and I would’ve just canceled out.’

Stolz battled Andrea Giovannini down the stretch, but the Italian managed to get in front of him in the last nanosecond. Stolz finished 0.09 seconds back.

‘I felt like the gold medal favorites in the mass start were going to be more hungry to try and get a medal,’ Stolz said. ‘But they all were just kind of expecting me to go for it and it didn’t really work.’

There are more medals in Stolz’s future, though. At the Olympics and elsewhere. The world championships are in two weeks and Stolz said he plans to be there.

‘I’ll try and attempt the sprints and the allround, which is four days,’ he said. ‘Nobody’s ever done that before.’

Crosby has been dealing with an injury to his right leg, leaving his status for the men’s hockey tournament’s gold medal game in limbo.

‘I watched him skate today,’ Canada coach Jon Cooper said Feb. 21. ‘We’re going to meet tonight and have a determination of what’s going to happen tomorrow. He won’t. … He won’t put himself in harm’s way, and he’s not going to put the team in harm’s way.’

Canada and USA face off in the gold medal game on Feb. 22 (8 a.m. ET) at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. Canada closed its practice on Feb. 21 to avoid having reporters see what was happening.

Crosby was injured when his right leg buckled as he absorbed a hit from Radko Gudas during the quarterfinal game against Czechia, right after which Crosby also got crunched by Martin Necas. Crosby missed Canada’s semifinal against Finland.

Crosby, 38, has two goals and four assists in four games. He is going for his third Olympic gold medal after winning at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Crosby is Canada’s captain. In international hockey, there has to be a player serving as captain in a game, so Canada had Connor McDavid wear the ‘C’ in the semifinal victory over Finland.

If Crosby cannot play, Cooper said Canada will not do what Team Sweden did, which was have injured Victor Hedman dress and sit on the bench.

‘It’s too important,’ Cooper said. ‘We don’t want to have somebody in there as an inspiration when we could have a player that could be capable of helping. You never know if guys are going get hurt in the game. He wouldn’t want to do that either.’

Bill Mazeroski, the Gold Glove former second baseman of the Pittsburgh Pirates who danced around the bases after his bottom-of-the-ninth, solo home run beat the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, died at the age of 89.

“The author of one of the game’s most indelible moments, Bill Mazeroski will be remembered as one of baseball’s most respected figures – both for his character and for his brilliance on the field as one of the game’s best second basemen,’ Baseball Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark said.

‘Maz remained humble about his career, even as he was celebrated in Cooperstown. On behalf of his Hall of Fame family, we send our deepest sympathies to his loved ones and to Pirates fans everywhere.”

Mazeroski was an amazing defensive player who could turn the double play in a blink. He was a shortstop when he signed with the Pirates in 1954, at 17, but Branch Rickey promptly moved him to second base.

Late Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince called Mazeroski ‘The Glove.’ He had the defensive statistics to back up his excellence, and they helped put him in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.

But as a career .260 hitter, he also got a big boost in that induction from his monumental homer – still marked by a plaque on a Pittsburgh sidewalk where it cleared the left field wall at since-demolished Forbes Field. Today there is a statue of Mazeroski outside Pittsburgh’s PNC Park.

Mazeroski was 24 on that Oct. 13, 1960, day when, at 3:36 p.m. ET, he blasted into baseball immortality against the Yankees. He was 64 and white-haired in 2001 when he got a private tour of his exhibit at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, a few days before his induction.

On that tour, he recalled to USA TODAY Sports that he was ‘floating’ as he rounded the bases in 1960 after hitting a one-ball, no-strike slider for a home run off Yankees pitcher Ralph Terry. The ball barely cleared the ivy-covered wall.

‘Fantastic. It’s something unbelievable that you just never would expect to happen to you,’ Mazeroski said then. ‘All of a sudden, here it is. It gets a little overwhelming.’

Who has the ball?

In 2010, on the 50th anniversary of the home run, Mazeroski told USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Dodd that as the kid of a coal miner he grew up dreaming of hitting a home run to win a World Series: ‘But it was with a broomstick and a bucket of stones. I wore out a lot of broomsticks, (pretending), ‘I’m Babe Ruth and I’m hitting a home run to win the Series.’ ‘

While Pittsburgh partied that 1960 day, Mazeroski and his wife, Milene, went to a quiet park to savor the moment.

The home run ball won’t be on display at the Hall of Fame. Several fans claimed to have it.

‘Everybody wanted a hundred bucks,’ Mazeroski said. ‘There were so many of them, nobody knew for sure. I have one or two.’

Unlike a typical Hall of Fame visitor, he alone knew just how that bat in a third floor display case felt in his hands when he used it to hit his World Series-winning homer against the Yankees.

‘You can still see the spot on the seams where I hit the ball. It dug into the bat,’ Mazeroski said during his 2001 Hall tour.

Defense his calling card

Mazeroski didn’t get close to 3,000 hits (2,016) or 300 homers (138).

But defense is part of the game, too. On his Hall of Fame tour, as he passed a wall of balls from no-hit pitching performances, he saw one from a 1970 no-hitter by former Pirate Dock Ellis against the San Diego Padres.

‘I saved that one,’ Mazeroski said of the no-hitter. ‘Line drive up the middle. I dove and backhanded it about a foot off the ground.’

He won eight Gold Gloves, but the gloves he actually used looked as if they wouldn’t bring a buck at a yard sale.

“It’s pretty simple: He was the best I ever saw at turning a double play,’ Hall of Famer Joe Torre said of Mazeroski.

He figured he used about four gloves from 1956 to 1972, and they were barely gloves at all. He liked them small, and he always removed the padding from the heel for better feel. When a glove wore out, he got it fixed and kept using it.

The Hall has one which Mazeroski used at various times.

‘This was one of the good ones,’ he said on the pre-induction tour, slipping on the mitt and pounding it. ‘When a ball hit in there, it just closed.’

But the gloves also helped him get the ball out of his hands quickly on double plays. Balls bounced off the heel of his glove into his throwing hand. No second baseman turned as many double plays in a career (1,706) or a season (161 in 1966).

That skill didn’t get him into the Hall in 15 years of eligibility on voting by baseball writers. He was elected by the Veterans Committee.

‘I never thought that I hit enough to get in the Hall of Fame,’ Mazeroski said.

‘I didn’t think they would put defense in. I’m glad they did. … I don’t know everybody’s (batting) average in the Hall of Fame. In fact, I don’t know anybody’s, really. I don’t know if there’s anybody worse than .260. Is .260 the lowest?’

No. Turn-of-the-century catcher Ray Schalk hit .253. Shortstop Rabbit Maranville hit .258. Harmon Killebrew, a home run slugger, hit .256.

‘But defense wins as many games as offense wins or anything else,’ Mazeroski said. ‘You turn a double play, that’s like hitting a grand slam sometimes.’

As a Pirate, Mazeroski played two exhibition games in Cooperstown. The Hall has a score sheet from a 1959 game in which he homered twice.

‘I didn’t even remember that,’ he said. ‘I do remember we had a home run contest before the game, and I beat Ted Kluszewski.’

His 1960 World Series homer triggered a massive celebration in Pittsburgh. At the Hall’s archives, his wife spotted a photo of that day in Pittsburgh, its streets piled with paper.

‘Bill, look at this picture,’ said his wife, a former Pirates secretary. ‘These cars are old. These buildings are old. Are we this old?’ she asked with a laugh.

Mazeroski grew up in a one-room home in southeastern Ohio coal country in the community of Rush Run. Hall of Famers from nearby include baseball’s Phil Niekro, basketball’s John Havlicek and football’s Lou Groza.

In retirement in the Pittsburgh area, Mazeroski enjoyed fishing and golf: ‘If I’m hitting the ball bad in golf, I go fishing. If I’m not catching any fish, I go golfing.’