MILAN — “The Quad God” is going for gold.

Ilia Malinin returns to the ice in the men’s free skate on Friday, Feb. 13 where the stage is set for him to become Olympic champion. The 21-year-old U.S. star heads into the final men’s singles figure skating event with a healthy lead over Yuma Gagiyama of Japan.

While the wide expectation Malinin has the gold medal wrapped up, the figure skating world eagerly awaits if he will execute his signature quad Axel. He has yet to do it, and landing it for the first time in Winter Olympic history would punctuate a golden outing. He also is likely to perform his fourth backflip of the Games.

What time will Ilia Malinin perform?

Malinin is scheduled to skate approximately at 4:45 p.m. ET. 

How to watch Ilia Malinin today

The men’s free skate will air on NBC. It is also streaming on Peacock.

Watch Olympic figure skating on Peacock

Ilia Malinin free skate program

Here are the planned elements for Malinin’s free skate:

• Quad flip
• Quad Axel
• Quad lutz
• Quad loop
• Change foot camel spin
• Step sequence
• Quad lutz + single euler + triple flip
• Quad toeloop + triple toeloop
• Quad salchow + triple Axel + sequence
• Choreo sequence
• Flying sit spin
• Change foot combination spin

Are backflips allowed in figure skating?

Yes, they are now.

For nearly 50 years, the backflip was banned in figure skating, after American skater Terry Kubicka became the first one to execute it at the 1976 Innsbruck Games. French skater Surya Bonaly did it at the 1998 Winter Olympics, landing it on one blade, but the move was illegal and she was penalized for it. 

The International Skating Union reversed course and made the move legal in 2024, paving the way for it to be done at the 2026 Winter Olympics, 50 years after it was first done. Malinin has done it in all three performances in Milano Cortina.

Four years ago, then-former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the Dolphins, New York Giants and Denver Broncos alleging racial discrimination in their hiring practices.

On Feb. 13, Flores – fresh off his third season as the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator – earned a key win in the case.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that all of Flores’ claims against those franchises will be handled in court instead of arbitration with the league, per documents obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

Judge Valerie Caproni’s ruling denied the NFL’s motion for arbitration and continues the line from last year’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. That ruling denied arbitration as well.

‘The Second Circuit concluded that Flores’ agreement to submit his claims to the discretion of the designated arbitrator, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, provides for arbitration in name only and, accordingly, lacks the protection of the FAA (Federal Arbitration Act),’ Caproni wrote in the ruling. ‘The agreement is, therefore, unenforceable because it fails to guarantee that Flores can ‘vindicate [his] statutory cause of action in [an] arbitral forum.’

The ruling found that the NFL’s Dispute Resolution Procedural Guidelines (DRPG) are not an applicable way to settle this dispute. The court disagreed with the franchises’ argument that the DRPG had satisfactory procedures in place for resolution through arbitration.

‘The Second Circuit noted that the NFL Constitution provides for ‘no independent arbitral forum, no bilateral dispute resolution, and no procedure,” the ruling stated. ‘Adding some procedure via the DRPG does not fix the forum’s lack of independence nor make the process bilateral.’

Last year’s ruling in Flores’ favor made a comparison of the DRPG to a coin flip. The Feb. 13 ruling added another comparison.

‘The Second Circuit provided an example of an alternative dispute resolution method: a coin flip,’ Caproni’s ruling stated. ‘This Court would add the always-exciting dispute resolution method known on playgrounds all over as ‘rock-paper-scissors.’ Both have procedures, but neither is arbitration. Nor is the process here, even with the addition of the DRPG.’

Caproni stated in the judgment that the league’s stance on arbitration speaks to a larger issue in the process toward resolving Flores’ grievances.

‘This case, even as it has progressed very little, illustrates the failures of the NFL to provide a process that constitutes ‘arbitration’ as that term is used by the FAA.’

Representatives for Flores, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks and former assistant coach Ray Horton agreed in a statement.

‘The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law.  It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed,’ Douglas H. Wigdor (Partner, Wigdor LLP) and David E. Gottlieb (Partner, Wigdor LLP) said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports.

A pre-trial conference is set for Friday, April 3.

The NFL has not responded to the ruling at time of publishing.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Bring on the robots, tap your helmet if you disagree, and tell your analytic department it better preparing be for a whole new wave of research.

The automated ball/strike system is here for the first time in Major League Baseball, and general managers, managers and coaching staffs have already begun to strategize the best way to capitalize on a new way to challenge authority.

If the pitcher, catcher or batter disagrees with a ball or strike call, they have the right to challenge the umpire, with everyone in the stands able to see who was right with a graphic on full display on the scoreboard.

Teams get two challenges per nine innings, and as long as you’re proven correct, you can challenge as many times as you wish.

If you’re wrong twice, you’re out of challenges unless the game goes into extra innings.

The only players permitted to challenge are the pitcher, hitter and catcher and pitcher, and it must be issued within two seconds of the pitch being thrown, signaled by tapping your helmet.

If you blow through your challenges early, you won’t have the right to correct an errant call in the ninth inning. If the game goes into extra innings, each team will be provided one challenge in each extra inning.

So, the question for every manager now is who will be permitted to challenge, at what stage of the game, and under which circumstances.

“All I know is that we won’t let our pitchers challenge,’ Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona said. “They think everything is a strike.’

Francona laughed, but it’s certainly a sentiment shared by several managers in interviews Thursday, with most saying they would leave that up to their catchers and hitters.

But, of course, not every hitter.

“We’re going to have a lot of conversations about that,’ Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I do think there’s going to be a strategy that comes with it. What that looks like, I don’t think I know right now, but we’re going to encourage conversations as far as leverage, when you use it, when not to, who should, who shouldn’t.’’

So, who has been told they can’t use it?

“I don’t want to say because they’ve already been sensitive when I brought it up,’ Roberts said. “So, I’m not going to name-call right now. I’m not going to say any names but I don’t think that there’s a self-evaluation on who knows the strike zone, who doesn’t, who gets emotional, and understanding everything.

“I’m in favor of it.’

Says Francona: “We don’t have a strategy in place because we want to kind of see how it plays out. I’ve already talked to some of our player development people to ask them how they did it, and then we’ll formulate a strategy and try to do it better than other teams like everything else.

“But I think it’s going to be OK.’

In research by MLB, there were four challenges per games at the Triple-A level last season with about a 50% success rate. The most challenges, 3.5%, were utilized in the ninth inning.

“You want to have one late in the game, just in case,” Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “The top of the first inning on a 0-0 fastball, I don’t want to challenge and lose. We’ll most likely rely on catchers first. Pitchers at times get a little emotional. Hitters can be that way sometimes, too. I think we’re going to rely on the catchers.

“But I want to have one in pocket, when I can, when it’s in a critical part of the game.”

It will be a strategy that will be implemented by teams in spring training, and tweaked throughout the year, with plans constantly being modified on when it should be best utilized.

“We’re going to do some experimentation over the course of the spring,’ said Los Angeles GM Perry Minasian. “We’ve had some staff members that have been more familiar with it than others in the minor leagues, so we’re just going to see how it evolves and how it goes.

“I’m sure every team has had conversations about it and undergone studies. We’re going to get as many different opinions and viewpoints as we can get get. We’ll go through all of the types of things through the course of spring training. I’m not one for a steadfast rule who can use it and who can’t, but I think there will be a certain component of earning the right to do it, who’s capable of doing it and who’s not.

“And I’m sure there will be adjustments made throughout the course of the year. What we may do in April may be different in May, different in June, different in July. It’s going to be one of the unique things about this season.’

The ABS will add about one minute per game, according to MLB’s research, with each challenge averaging 13.8 seconds. The strike zone is also expected to slightly shrink, according to Joe Martinez, MLB’s vice president of on-field strategy. Each player will be measured by height this spring, with strike zones starting at 53.5% of a batter’s height at the top and 27% of a batter’s height for the bottom of the zone

There will be some glitches at times. There were 291 pitches that were untracked out of the 88,534 pitches last spring, according to MLB’s research. And if the computer system malfunctions, the umpires will again have the ultimate authority.

There will also be times when a team asks for instant replay on the field at the same time as a challenge. In that case, the umpires will determine the instant replay result before the challenge is assessed and be given discretion on plays that on the bases that could be impacted by challenges.

The challenge system will not be in effect when a position player is pitching in a game.

MLB also announced that the base coaches must remain in their coaching boxes until a pitch is delivered, hoping to eliminate sign stealing. It also tweaked its obstruction rule so that a runner who initiates contact with a fielder trying to draw an obstruction call will now be called out.

Play ball, and keep those computers churning.

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

All 32 NFL teams will miss honor roll this semester. It’s not because of poor marks – rather, they’re just not letting anyone see their report cards.

The league announced in a memo to teams on Feb. 13 that it had successfully won its grievance against the NFL Players Association for the NFLPA’s annual release of ‘Team Report Cards.’ An arbitrator ruled in the NFL’s favor with the decision that the report cards – which graded NFL teams via categories such as quality of locker rooms, their treatment of families and ownership – violated the collective bargaining agreement between the two parties.

The grievance ruling, according to the NFL’s memo on Feb. 13, also includes a prohibition on ‘publishing or publicly disclosing the results of future player Report Cards.’

The NFLPA began publishing its player-driven team report cards in 2023, with more than 1,000 active players assigning grades to teams for a variety of categories. The grade results for each category were weighted (a ‘treatment of families’ grade was worth 6% of the overall grade, while ‘club owner’ was worth 15%, according to the NFLPA’s official website) and combined to calculate an overall grade. Every team was then ranked 1-32 based on its final, overall grade.

In 2025, the Miami Dolphins earned the No. 1 ranking for a second straight year, while the Arizona Cardinals were ranked No. 32 after ranking 27th the year prior.

In the NFL’s Feb. 13 memo, the league wrote that the players’ union ‘cherry-picked which topics and responses to include (or not)’ in the report cards and that players themselves had no say on the write-ups for each team. Instead, ‘union staffers’ put together each team’s report card.

‘In essence, the record established that the Report Cards were designed by the union to advance its interests under the guise of a scientific exercise,’ the memo read.

The league’s memo went on to encourage teams ‘to solicit feedback directly from their own players’ to determine where improvements may be necessary. The memo concluded with a pledge that the NFL will continue working with the NFLPA to ‘design and conduct’ a survey of players ‘regarding the adequacy of medical care under the CBA.’

Former and current players call out NFL for its grievance

Former NFL defender J.J. Watt protested the grievance decision in a social media post. He pointed out the perceived hypocrisy of the league prohibiting players from ‘grading their workplace’ while using Pro Football Focus grades to show player rankings on every ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcast.

‘NFL won’t let actual players grade the workplace they attend every single day, but they’ll allow a 3rd party ‘“’grading’ service to display their ‘rankings’ of players on national television every Sunday night,’ he wrote on X.

Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan also aired his criticism at the NFL for its handling of the NFLPA report cards. Jordan pointed out the importance of holding teams accountable for providing the services that are ‘Necessities to keep the modern NFL athlete top tier.’

NFLPA releases its own statement

Hours after the NFL released its memo, the NFLPA released a statement clarifying that the player report card program will still exist. The main difference stemming from the grievance decision is that the report card results will no longer be made public.

‘The ruling upholds our right to survey players and share the results with players and clubs,’ the statement reads. ‘While we strongly disagree with the restriction on making those results public, that limitation does not stop the program or its impact. Players will continue to receive the results, and teams will continue to hear directly from their locker rooms.

‘Importantly, the arbitrator rejected the NFL’s characterization of the process, finding the Team Report Cards to be fair, balanced, and increasingly positive over time.’

• Ilia Malinin landed a one-footed backflip at the 2026 Winter Games, helping Team USA win gold.
• The backflip was banned in 1977 but was performed by Surya Bonaly at the 1998 Olympics, who was penalized for the move.
• The International Skating Union lifted the ban on backflips in 2024, allowing them in choreographic sequences.
• Bonaly, a Black skater in a predominantly white sport, feels her legacy is now receiving proper recognition.

MILAN — When U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin completed a one-footed backflip in the men’s free skate in Sunday’s team event, the crowd at Milano Ice Skating Arena audibly gasped before erupting in cheers.

Malinin’s gravity-defying move capped a mesmerizing program that propelled Team USA to its second consecutive team gold medal. He became the first skater to land a one-blade backflip on Olympic ice since France’s Surya Bonaly performed the maneuver at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games.

The backflip has been openly embraced since its return to figure skating in 2024, but it was received much differently three decades ago when Bonaly chose to end her Olympic career on her own terms. The move was banned by the International Skating Union (ISU) in 1977 because it was deemed too dangerous.

But Bonaly did it anyway.

“I had nothing to lose anymore,” Bonaly told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. ‘I did it because I was an athlete and I wanted to show that I can do that … I left my trademark.’

Watch Olympics figure skating on Peacock

U.S. figure skater Terry Kubicka was the first figure skater to land a backflip on two skates at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics, prompting the ISU to list the move as an illegal element the following year. An American may have debuted the backflip and the young U.S. prodigy revived it, but it was Bonaly who challenged rules and pushed boundaries as a Black woman in a predominantly white sport that never fully embraced her.

Bonaly was often labeled a rebel, rather than a trailblazer as racism impacted her career. Yet, Bonaly’s lasting legacy is finally receiving the recognition that has long been denied following Malinin’s Olympic performance. 

‘People have a more open mind now and are more accepting of others who do things differently,’ Bonaly said. ‘It’s even nicer now because I can feel that it’s been well digested by everyone … if it’s good, it’s good and that’s it, whether you are black, white, Chinese or Asian.’

Bonaly’s iconic backflip at the 1998 Nagano Olympics was completely spontaneous.

She was recovering from a right Achilles tendon rupture suffered two years prior and a pulled muscle ahead of the women’s singles free skate rendered her unable to complete her complex jumps. Bonaly knew she wasn’t going to make the podium in her third and final Games, but she nonetheless wanted to leave her mark on the ice.

‘I was not fully at my potential … I was just in bad shape,’ Bonaly recalled to USA TODAY Sports. ‘If I cannot do any more triple (jump) combinations or something like that, it’s my last competition coming up right here. And I’m like, I don’t have much time to think about it, I have to do now because I’m not going to have another chance.’

Bonaly knew she would be penalized for the maneuver, but after years of seeking approval from judges and navigating the moving goalposts that seemed to apply only to her, she decided to fully embrace her own identity. She wanted to make a statement and prove what she was capable of. Bonaly wanted to entertain the crowd.

‘I didn’t know what kind of penalty I was going to have,’ said Bonaly, who remembered thinking she ‘could have maybe (been) fully banned and have the judges put a zero.’ Although the backflip made her wildly popular among her fellow athletes within the Olympic Village, the judges were not happy with her. She dropped from sixth place after the short program to 10th after the free skate, but she said she has ‘no regrets.’

‘She thumbed her nose at the panel (of judges) a little bit, but at the same time, she gave the audience something extremely memorable,’ U.S. Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton said on a 2019 episode of Netflix’s ‘Losers’ docuseries. ‘There were a lot of people that placed above her, but I don’t remember a lot of those.’

Bonaly has never met Malinin, yet she first heard of him 10 years ago after running into his parents at the 2016 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Minnesota, where Bonaly now resides as a skating teacher. Malinin comes from a long bloodline of figure skaters. His parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, were both former Olympic skaters for Uzbekistan.

Malinina finished in eighth place at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, two spots ahead of Bonaly.

‘I remember his mom saying, ‘Oh, I have a son, he skates a little bit actually. And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s cool,” Bonaly recalled. ‘I didn’t know one day that little kid … would actually be a wolf engine.’

The clip of Bonaly’s 1998 Olympic backflip has been introduced to new audiences ever since Malinin completed the move at the Games for the first time since the ISU lifted the ban in 2024.

The backflip may be added to a skater’s choreographic sequence to showcase their artistic side and is judged in the component scores, but the element itself is not assigned a value, said USA TODAY reporter Christine Brennan and Olympic champion Brian Boitano, hosts of the ‘Milan Magic’ Podcast. (Malinin’s signature ‘Raspberry Twist,’ an acrobatic jump used to connect moves, also doesn’t earn him any bonus points.)

‘I decided to put it in my free skate, because it fits the music really well,’ Malinin said in October 2024 after the ban was lifted. ‘It gets that audience applause, feels really suspenseful and I really just like doing it.’

Bonaly applauds Malinin’s commitment to entertaining audiences, which she says is integral to growing the sport. She referred to him as a ‘warrior’ on the ice and ‘the best skater in the whole world.’

‘This Olympics is so entertaining … when I sit down and watch on a couch, I have my heart go boom, boom, boom,’ Bonaly said. ‘In skating, we cannot restrain athletes to just go forward … I think it’s important for our sports to be able to have people enjoy watching it.’

While everyone will be on the lookout for for Malinin’s backflip in his men’s singles free skate on Friday, Bonaly is most excited for his seven quadruple jumps, which earned Malinin the nickname ‘Quad God.’

‘The backflip sometimes is not the most difficult,’ Bonaly said. ‘I want him to do a perfect quad so nobody can say, ‘Oh yeah, but it’s (underrated) …’ I’m sick and tired of people already try to have a little something negative to just add. Especially for people who cannot do it, it’s even worse.’

As Bonaly reflects on her career that spanned over a decade, she believes she was simply was born ahead of her time. She said the current generation of skating ‘would’ve suited more my personality’ as skaters continue expand what is possible on ice. She hopes to be remembered as more than a one-trick pony, but an athlete who was ‘fully committed to push sports beyond the limits.’

‘I’m also something else besides the backflips. So hopefully people remember me for the rest of my skating,’ said Bonaly, a nine-time French national champion, five-time European Champion and three-time World silver medalist. ‘I took myself from nothing to become where I went, even though I didn’t get the gold medal.’

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MILAN – Thomas Kristensen tried to put into perspective what Denmark’s next match in the preliminary round of the 2026 Winter Olympics men’s hockey tournament means back home.

His answer zeroed right in on why the match between Denmark and the U.S. on Saturday, Feb. 14 at Santaguilia Arena comes with a side of distraction.

‘Of course now they’re going to play a game on the real ice, not on the ice in Greenland,’ said Kristensen, a reporter and commentator for Denmark’s TV 2 Sport. ‘Of course it’s special, but I think that a lot of Danish people are trying to split it up and say this is sport and the politics has to be in another way.

‘You will not see anything from any Danish spectators or something going specific at the American players in no way.  The Danish people, they know that this is sport.’

‘We’re not used to being in the news that much,’ said Lars Eller, a forward with the Ottawa Senators who has played 1,116 games in the NHL. ‘But I feel like every week there’s something new, and whatever was in the news last week is forgotten quickly and we move on.

‘I don’t think it’s on any of ours minds what’s going on politically in the world. It’s outside noise and in the profession we’re in, you have to be good at tuning out the outside noise.’

Oliver Bjorkstrand, a forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning and an 11-year NHL veteran, has parried questions about his homeland.

‘More people are saying, hey, what’s up with Denmark?‘ he said. ‘Nothing crazy, but there’s some people who, if they know I’m from Denmark and in the States, they bring it up and it’s like, oh, that’s interesting or whatever.’

Captain Jesper Jensen Aabo, Denmark’s flag carrier in the opening ceremony, said that, ‘it doesn’t really mean anything to us, the whole political situation. I love Denmark and it’s in my opinion the greatest country on earth.

 ‘I don’t think this is the platform to discuss politics, but of course I follow everything.’

Frans Nielsen, who played 925 games in the NHL, was at Friday’s practice in his gig as a reporter for TV 2. He remembers visiting Greenland in seventh grade on a class trip. ‘It’s part of Denmark,’ he said. ‘No one ever mentioned Denmark in the world picture, so it’s weird to be in the news like this.’

Weird, but not something players spend time time thinking about.

‘Yes, that is something that the whole world is talking about,’ said Nikolaj Ehlers, a forward for the Carolina Hurricanes. ‘It’s nothing new. It doesn’t change anything for a hockey game.’

For the Danes, this tournament is about building on what the national team accomplished at the 2025 World Championship, when Denmark upset Canada in the quarterfinals.

‘It’s great for the sport,’ Nicklas Jensen said. ‘It’s great for all the young kids at home. It’s making maybe their dreams bigger, and maybe it feels more possible to do it so. It’s a really cool time we’re in right now with Danish hockey. Hopefully we can keep surprising.’

That World Championship performance is something the Danes want to use against the Americans. Sure, on paper, the Americans look intimidating, 25-NHLers deep. The Danes have six.

‘We know they’re the big dog, we’re the underdog,’ Bjorkstrand said. ‘It’ll be a difficult game, but as a small nation, where you know you’re the underdog, you just have to have a belief and just find a way to make positive things out there and keep it going for as long as possible. And then, you just see what happens.’

MILAN — Ilia Malinin has arrived at the doorstep of history at the Winter Olympics. On Friday night, he is expected to cement his place in the pantheon of Winter Olympic stars if he wins his second gold medal at these Games, this one in the men’s individual event. 

Expectations of winning everything, every time have followed the 21-year-old self-proclaimed “Quad God” for several years now, so there’s nothing new about any of this. He is just so good, but in such a different kind of way. 

‘Of course it’s the quads,’ said Brian Boitano, 1988 Olympic gold medalist and co-host of USA TODAY Sports’ Milan Magic podcast. ‘But it’s more than that. It’s his ability to change things up, how he picks and chooses which elements and things he does in the program, how he made his program simpler at the national championships and then can rev it up to possibly do seven quads Friday. The fact that he can switch things up adds another layer to how special he is. It’s really hard to do that.”

Boitano, known as a terrific jumper in his day, has found a unique way to measure Malinin’s greatness. ‘Every jump I did as a triple, he has added a whole rotation onto every thing that I did and turned it into a quad.”

Figure skating always is a two-act show: there are the jumps and athletic moves, then there is the artistry. And there, Boitano said, Malinin’s innovative side shines as well.

Watch Olympic figure skating on Peacock

‘For a very young man who still will develop artistically, he adds his own twist to everything, like how he does the raspberry twist and the backflip,’ Boitano said. ‘He adds this entertainment quality to everything but he does it in a really calm manner. He’s the right amount of cocky, which is great because he’s not pretentious. He’s appreciative of his competitors. 

‘So all of these elements about him go into who is as a person, and I think that’s why he’s such a good champion because he’s really an all-around package.’

Malinin is a talkative person. He is happy to linger with reporters, ponder answers, think about things, almost always smiling while he does. He delights in analysis. 

‘Definitely I am a person who is striving to improve in everything and to really try to be the best version of themself that I can be, whether that be athletically, physically, mentally, emotionally,” he said last month after winning his fourth consecutive U.S. championship. “Every aspect that I see myself in, I want to be the best at and really just master everything I can, whether that be experiences, life skills, any skills, really. I like to try new things so it’s kind of part of my personality.”

When asked what it’s like to really have no rival, he demurs. ‘I do have a rival and that is my inner self. That’s my rival. My rival is I’m always competing against myself. Being a perfectionist is kind of like that rival.”

Malinin also has something else going for him: skating genes. He possesses the perfect body to jump, lean and lithe. No wonder he entered the family business. His mother, Tatiana Malinina, competed at 10 consecutive world figure skating championships for Uzbekistan. Most significantly, she competed at two Olympics and finished eighth at the 1998 Games in Nagano, the competition in which Tara Lipinski won the gold medal and Michelle Kwan the silver.

Malinin’s father, Roman Skorniakov, represented Uzbekistan at the same two Olympics, 1998 and 2002, finishing 19th both times. They were married in 2000 and became skating coaches in the United States, moving to the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where, in December 2004, Ilia was born. He took the Russian masculine form of his mother’s last name because his parents were concerned that Skorniakov was too difficult to pronounce. 

Malinin’s father is in Milan coaching his son, while his mother is back home in Northern Virginia, doing her job coaching other skaters while watching from afar. There’s a reason for this. 

Word was mom gets too nervous watching her son. But no. ‘Honestly, the real reason is I get nervous when she comes,’ he said. ‘Not because of her but because I get more nervous for her getting nervous for me.’

Malinin said he hasn’t spoken with his mother at all since he came to Milan. ‘She doesn’t want to give me extra stress, so she wants me to handle it on my own, because she trusts me with that,” he said. ‘I just want to make sure that after the free program (Friday night), I get to have a chat with her and see her reaction.”

Then he smiled sheepishly. 

‘I’m sure she’s going to give me some trouble on that team short program,” he said, referring to his shaky performance Saturday night. ‘But that’s a mom, so I love her for that.’

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MILAN — The U.S. women’s hockey team cruised through the preliminary round with a perfect 4-0 record and now enter the knockout rounds with a quarterfinal matchup against Italy at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The Americans are coming off a 5-0 victory over Canada, marking the first time the reigning champion Canadians have been shut out in the Olympics. Rookie defender Laila Edwards made history during the win by becoming the first Black woman to score a goal for the U.S. national team.

American captain Hilary Knight is closing in on some history of her own. Knight is one goal and one point away from becoming the U.S all-time Olympic career leader in both categories in her fifth and final Games.

Here’s everything you need to know about Friday’s matchup:

Watch Winter Olympics on Peacock

What time is USA women’s hockey vs. Italy today?

• Date: Friday, Feb. 13
• Time: 3:10 p.m. ET
• Location: Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena

Puck drop between the U.S. women’s hockey team and Switzerland is set for 3:10 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 13 from Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena in Milan.

Where to watch US women’s hockey vs. Italy at Olympics

• TV channel: USA Network
• Streaming options: NBCOlympics.com | NBC Olympic App | Peacock

USA Network will broadcast Friday’s U.S. women’s hockey quarterfinal matchup against Italy at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Streaming options for the game include NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Olympic App (with a TV login).

You can also stream the game on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming service.

USA women’s hockey roster for 2026 Winter Olympics

Here is the full U.S. women’s hockey roster for the Milano Cortina Olympics:

• Forwards: Kirsten Simms; Kelly Pannek; Grace Zumwinkle; Hayley Scamurra; Britta Curl-Salemme; Hilary Knight; Tessa Janecke; Hannah Bilka; Joy Dunne; Alex Carpenter; Kendall Coyne Schofield; Taylor Heise; Abbey Murphy.
• Goaltenders: Ava McNaughton; Aerin Frankel; Gwyneth Philips.
• Defenders: Lee Stecklein; Cayla Barnes; Caroline Harvey; Megan Keller; Rory Guilday; Haley Winn; Laila Edwards.

USA’s lines vs Italy

The USA will stick with the same top two lines as in the Canada game. Hannah Bilka was moved to the second line for that game and scored two goals.

Hilary Knight tied for two U.S. records

Hilary Knight enters the game tied for the U.S. Olympic record for career goals and points. Her 14 goals are tied with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King. Her 32 points are tied with Jenny Potter.

USA vs Italy women’s hockey predictions

• Mike Brehm: USA 7, Italy 0. ‘The Americans have five goals in each game in the tougher Group A. Italy is not as strong as those teams.’
• Jace Evans: USA 6, Italy 1. ‘The Americans have been rolling at these Olympics and they’ll keep it up here.’
• Cydney Henderson: USA 4, Italy 1. ‘Five appears to be the lucky number, but I’m going to go 4-1. Italy will feed off the home crowd and keep it close before the Americans open it up.’
• Helene St James: USA 7, Italy 1. ‘The American women are a dominant, seemingly unstoppable force. Host Italy’s biggest asset will be all the home country fans – they’ve provided a great atmosphere at every hockey venue. Should help boost the Italians as the U.S. women look poised to rout.’

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U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri unveiled a blueprint to ‘fix’ college athletics on Friday, and called out Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar and former Alabama men’s basketball forward Charles Bediako in the process.

• Secure Stability
• Putting Players First
• Saving Olympic and Women’s Sports
• Ensuring College Sports Endure.

The news release from Schmitt on Friday, however, did not mention plans for introducing a bill; he just announced a blueprint of pillars to use to resolve the issue.

‘College sports are uniquely American. They’re a source of excitement and pride not only for myself, but for millions of athletes, students, alumni, and fans across the nation. As a former two-sport college athlete, I know firsthand the excitement and impact they bring to families in Missouri and across the U.S.,’ Schmitt said in a news release. ‘Unfortunately, there is currently a chaotic landscape in college sports, with no guardrails, guidelines, or rules.

‘Congress must step in to safeguard the future of college sports, protect student-athletes, and restore order to a system that has grown unbalanced. Today, I am presenting a blueprint with four core principles to end rulemaking by lawsuit, clarity transfer rules, establish national standards, and prioritize the long-term success of college athletics.’

In a thread on X, Schmitt referenced both Aguilar and Bediako’s recent cases of asking for additional eligibility or returning to college after declaring for the NBA draft and playing in the G League, respectively.

‘The current environment is threatened by a constant string of lawsuits over eligibility — with some athletes suing for a 7th or 8th year of eligibility. Without rules, schools and athletes are in limbo and younger athletes are robbed of opportunities,’ Schmitt wrote on X. ‘Without rules, schools and athletes are in limbo and younger athletes are robbed of opportunities.’

As noted by the Knoxville News — part of the USA TODAY Network — Aguilar is having a preliminary injunction hearing in a Knoxville courtroom Friday after he sued the NCAA over eligibility rules regarding former junior college players. Aguilar’s hearing comes less than a day after Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss won his battle against the NCAA to become eligible for the 2026 college football season, as he was searching for a retroactive medical redshirt for the 2022 season when he was at Division II Ferris State.

Bediako lost his case against the NCAA earlier in the week, as Tuscaloosa Country Judge Daniel Pruet denied his motion for a temporary injunction to stay with the Crimson Tide. Bediako, who returned to the Crimson Tide back in late January after playing in the G League for the past three seasons, is one of several who have re-entered college basketball after forgoing their eligibility for the NBA draft and then playing in the G League.

‘We’ve also seen pro athletes try to jump back into college sports in the absence of eligibility rules. College sports are meant to be a limited-time, educational opportunity for amateur athletes. Allowing pros to participate will end college sports,’ Schmitt continued on X.

Other topics Schmitt referenced in his thread that his blueprint would resolve and fix included NIL, the transfer portal — to which ‘reinstating the one-time transfer rule will help restore stability to our teams and to the students’ educational experience’ — and the financial strain on athletic programs.

‘My plan would end this rulemaking by lawsuit and give a governing body the ability to actually enforce eligibility rules and standards that have left college sports in chaos in recent years. This is good news for schools and players — and keeps sports entertaining for fans,’ Schmitt continued on X.’

In December, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives pulled the SCORE Act, which was scheduled for a final vote that would have allowed the NCAA and its newly-formed College Sports Commission to create and enforce national rules that have been under legal dispute in recent years.

The SCORE Act (Student Compensation And Opportunity Through Rights and Endorsements) sought to provide more regulation and calm the chaotic environment created by the introduction of name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation, revenue sharing and the transfer portal to college sports. It passed a procedural vote, 210-209, but the legislation drew bipartisan backlash as a final vote neared.

The NCAA has lobbied for Congressional antitrust provisions throughout the past decade as its regulations over athlete compensation and transfer eligibility were challenged and eventually changed by state legislatures and lawsuits.

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