Sports
Canada’s Oldham edges China’s Gu to take gold in women’s big air
Feb 14, 2026; Livigno, Italy; Megan Oldham of Canada reacts after her first jump in the women’s freestyle skiing big air qualification during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Livigno Snow Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images LIVIGNO, Italy — Canada’s Megan Oldham won the women’s freestyle big air final at the Winter Olympics ahead of China’s Eileen Gu on Monday, recovering in the best way from an injury that had hobbled her just three months ago.
Gu, the defending champion and one of Milan Cortina’s highest-profile athletes, had to settle for silver, while Italy’s Flora Tabanelli took bronze.
Oldham, 24, came into the final with the wind in her sails, having topped the qualifiers, and fresh from a slopestyle bronze a week ago.
In November, she suffered a concussion while practicing new tricks in Switzerland, and was off skiing for six weeks, a period she described as “really tough.”
For American-born Gu, it was the second silver medal of these Games, after the runner-up spot in slopestyle.
Tabanelli, 18, was the youngest contender at the final and the reigning freestyle world champion. She also bounced back from injury, having torn a knee ligament in November.
The three women hugged and smiled on the podium with their medals, before Tabanelli took a group selfie.
In big air, skiers launch themselves off a jump and perform as many flips and twists as they can before landing, reaching speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour. Judges assess height, technique, originality and other factors.
The start of Monday’s final was delayed by over an hour due to a blizzard that would have made it unsafe to compete.
One of the top medal hopefuls, Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland, pulled out just before the start due to a crash that resulted in an injury during a practice run.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
Sports
Why College Basketball Coaching Buyouts Feel Out of Control Right Now
In 1959, a few years after Phog Allen retired and a few years before John Wooden won his first NCAA title, Saxon White-Kessinger published “The Indispensable Man.”
If you’re not familiar, all 20 lines of her poem are worthwhile. But here are the four we’ll focus on today:
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,
Is a measure of how much you’ll be missed.
Phog Allen, who succeeded James Naismith as the head ball coach at Kansas, was a dude who could have claimed to be the exception to this rule. Over the course of 39 seasons at KU, Allen won 24 league titles, 590 games and the 1952 NCAA championship.
Yet when Allen turned 70 during the 1955-56 school year — hitting Kansas University’s mandatory retirement age for coaches, professors, etc. – he did not receive special dispensation. With prized recruit Wilt Chamberlain due to be eligible for varsity play in the fall of 1956, who would have blamed Kansas’ decisionmakers for giving Allen another year or two? But they didn’t.
Now, let’s fast-forward 70 years while simultaneously driving 86 miles west from KU’s Allen Fieldhouse to Kansas State’s Bramlage Coliseum.
On Sunday, Kansas State announced it was firing head coach Jerome Tang after he lost 11 of 12 conference games. This run of rankness included a brief postgame news conference where Tang ripped his players after a 29-point home loss to Cincinnati on Feb. 11. Among other things, he said his guys didn’t deserve to wear the uniform and that “very few” would return next year.
Tang’s words inspired athletic director Gene Taylor to declare Tang was fired “for cause,” which is legalese for “Heck, no, we don’t want to pay his $18.675 million buyout.” While lawyers will determine how much of the buyout Tang does receive, that prospective tussle buries the lede:
In what world does Jerome Tang — or anyone else who serves as the head coach of a Div. I college basketball program — merit an $18.675 million buyout?
Did no athletic directors get Kessinger’s memo?
If Kansas basketball found a way to cope without Phog Allen…and North Carolina somehow carried on without Dean Smith (who won the 1952 national title playing for Allen)…and Kentucky still managed to field a team after Adolph Rupp (who also played for Allen) hit his mandatory retirement age, it should have clicked with Kansas State that there’s virtually no need to offer anything other than a minimal buyout.
Yes, we understand these massive buyouts for getting fired are a counterbalance to the buyout figures a coach must pay for breaking a contract and jumping to another school. But, again, schools get to hire another coach and make another run either way. The coach doesn’t pack up the program and take it with him. John Calipari tried when he jumped from Kentucky to Arkansas in 2024, but UK still hired new coaches and players, completed a full schedule and went just as far in last year’s NCAA Tournament (the Sweet Sixteen) as Arkansas.
Anyway, back to Tang. He received that $18.675 million buyout, as well as a healthy raise, as part of a contract extension after guiding Kansas State to the 2023 Elite Eight in his first year at the helm. What an amazing, unique achievement that needed to be rewarded, right?
Well, not exactly. Bruce Weber led the Wildcats to the 2018 Elite Eight. Frank Martin led the Wildcats to the 2010 Elite Eight. Lon Kruger led the Wildcats to the 1988 Elite Eight. Jack Hartman led the Wildcats to the 1981 Elite Eight and three more before that. Tex Winter took the Wildcats to the 1964 Final Four, where they lost to UCLA in the semis as Wooden claimed his first of 10 national titles.
Get the idea? There’s no college basketball coach who leaves a wrist-deep hole in a program and therefore must be rewarded with a massive buyout clause that handcuffs them to the school.
It’s simply not worth it.
Sports
Mavericks G Kyrie Irving sidelined until 2026-27 season
Nov 14, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving looks on during the second half against the LA Clippers in an NBA Cup game at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving will not play this season as he continues to recover from knee surgery, the team confirmed Wednesday.
The nine-time All-Star, who had surgery last March to repair a torn left ACL, is expected to return in 2026-27.
Irving, who turns 34 next month, is making “steady progress in rehabilitation and will remain actively engaged with the team through the remainder of the season,” the Mavericks said.
“This decision wasn’t easy, but it’s the right one,” Irving said in a statement. “I am grateful for the Mavericks organization, my teammates and our fans for their continued support throughout the process. I am looking forward to coming back stronger next season. The belief and drive I have inside only grows.
“And I wanted to send a huge shoutout to ALL of my brothers and sisters out there who’ve torn their ACL or gotten injured doing what they love to do every day. THANK YOU for the inspiration. No fear!”
Irving missed the final 20 games of the 2024-25 season after the injury. He averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.3 steals in 50 games (all starts).
The Mavericks are 75-53 with Irving in the lineup since he joined the team in a February 2023 trade. They are 42-75 without him, including 19-35 this season.
Irving has averaged 23.7 points, 5.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 779 career games (all starts) with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2011-17), Boston Celtics (2017-19), Brooklyn Nets (2020-23) and Mavericks. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and the 2011-12 NBA Rookie of the Year and won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2015-16.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Norway's Johannes Klaebo wins 5th gold of Games in cross country; US gets silver
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway and Gus Schumacher of United States in action during the men’s cross country team sprint free final. Klaebo won his fifth gold medal of the Milano Cortina Olympics. TESERO, Italy — Johannes Klaebo led Norway to victory in the men’s cross-country team sprint on Wednesday to win his fifth gold of the Milan Cortina Games and 10th career Olympic title, while Sweden’s women extended their domination of the sport with another gold.
The U.S. men’s team won silver, their second of these Games to end a 50-year medal drought in cross country skiing, while Italy took bronze. On the women’s side, Switzerland took silver and Germany bronze.
Klaebo’s victory on Wednesday, which he clinched alongside teammate Einar Hedegart, ties him with U.S. speedskater Eric Heiden’s record five golds in a single Winter Games.
He already had surpassed the record for most titles at all Winter Olympics with his win in the men’s relay. He now has the most Olympic gold medals ever behind U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps.
“It’s crazy. It’s hard to find words for it. It feels unreal actually,” Klaebo said.
France was a podium contender ahead of the race but suffered a series of setbacks after three-time silver medalist Mathis Desloges broke his ski poles twice, leaving the team in 12th place.
Norway held a commanding lead for most of the contest, leaving Gus Schumacher from the U.S. and Italian Federico Pellegrino to battle it out for silver.
Schumacher put on a strong chase against Klaebo up a final hill, but ultimately finished 1.37 seconds behind.
“You make a plan for the tactics. The one tactical plan we made today was a bad one, so we had to improvise from there,” Schumacher said after the race while standing with teammate Ben Ogden, who won a silver in the classic sprint earlier in the Games.
Italy’s bronze is the second for Pellegrino, who was third in the men’s relay and said these will be his final Olympics.
For the women, Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist led Sweden to the country’s fourth gold medal in cross-country skiing at these Olympics, finishing 1.4 seconds ahead.
“We did the race as we wanted. It’s one thing to say you want to do it one way, but it can be very difficult to handle it out there,” said Sundling.
Switzerland took silver in that race, as anchor Nadine Faehndrich surged away from a chasing group in the final lap, while Germany won bronze – the first medal in cross-country skiing during these Games for those countries.
The Americans, led by medal hopeful Jessie Diggins, had to settle for fifth place.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
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