(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Memphis 132, Detroit 107
Miami 112, New Orleans 97
Washington 113, Brooklyn 112
Toronto 139, Houston 120
Dallas 112, LA Clippers 105
Phoenix 131, Milwaukee 107
New York 116, Golden State 114
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Pittsburgh 2, Ottawa 0
Columbus 4, Buffalo 3 (OT)
Washington 5, Montreal 2
Carolina 6, Boston 0
New Jersey 7, St. Louis 4
Calgary 5, Toronto 2
Colorado 3, Tampa Bay 2
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Gonzaga 89, Pacific 51
Michigan 82, Purdue 58
Arizona 72, Washington St. 60
Duke 82, Clemson 64
Saint Mary’s (Cal.) 86, San Diego 57
Murray St. 73, Tennessee St. 62
(LOS ANGELES) — Not all the Super Bowl action on Sunday will be on the field at Sofi Stadium — it might be outside in the search for bombs and suspicious packages.
More than 30 bomb-sniffing dogs from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) K-9 unit — come to Los Angeles from as far as Savannah, Georgia.
“ATF K-9 Division is out here with K-9 from all over the country, making sure that this is one of the safest cities in America,” Ginger Colbrun, an ATF spokeswoman told ABC News. “We are making sure that any bags that are left are taken care of and they don’t have any explosives or firearms or ammunition in them.”
ABC News watched a demonstration of ATF dogs sniffing backpacks outside of the Super Bowl Experience, an interactive three-day event at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
ATF’s bomb-sniffing dogs work other large-scale events as well, including various pro sports all-star games, and the G-9 summit, Colburn said.
“These dogs work on a food reward basis, so every time they smell an explosive, they receive food and so they train all day, all week, all year,” she explained.
Belle, Wolfgang and Jerry — three of the ATF bomb sniffing dogs that ABC News watched train — are part of the 12 K-9 teams from around the U.S. at the Super Bowl.
Overall, ATF has more than 80 people in Los Angeles at various locations around the city.
Alex Guerrero, a career bomb technician with ATF said that if the dog does get a hit on a suspicious package, it’s trained to sit right by it.
“We do quite a bit of training and this is what this is, what we train for,” Guerrero, who is based in Houston, Texas, said. “We’re all trained well and have great equipment to do our job.”
(NEW YORK) — When tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open in May 2021 to protect her mental health, the move shook the tennis world and put mental health in the spotlight.
As Osaka, then 23 and the No. 2 player in the world, walked away from the Grand Slam event at the top of her game, she shared her struggles with depression and anxiety with her fans. The move was unprecedented in the sport and deeply relatable for many.
“The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
“I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris,” Osaka wrote. “I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. More importantly I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly.”
Osaka, who has returned to tennis competition, most recently competing in the Australian Open, is now reflecting on that moment and why she chose to speak about her mental health.
“It was important to me to be public because … I think it gives me clarity,” Osaka, 24, said in an interview with Good Morning America. “Just saying out loud that I’ll take a break and I’ll come back when I am truly in love with the sport and I know what I want to do here; it gave me time to reset myself.”
Journaling has become a regular part of her self-care routine, she said.
“Lately, I’ve been writing in my journal, and I think that that keeps my thoughts in order,” she said. “I feel like it gives me clarity on what I want to do and what I want to accomplish.”
Osaka said her ambitions extend beyond the court to being an entrepreneur and the founder of KINLÒ, a beauty brand designed for melanin-rich skin. The company launched in September 2021 with natural skin care products and sunscreen.
“KINLÒ was made for people with melanated skin,” she said. “Because we found that there wasn’t that many sunscreen products available for them.”
Osaka said she hopes through KINLÒ she can bring awareness that skin cancer affects people of all skin tones and help everyone embrace their beauty and health inside and out. Her idea of beauty centers on celebrating our individuality with our skincare needs and rituals.
“I think to me, beauty is a uniqueness,” she said. “Just embracing your uniqueness and your individuality is what makes you beautiful to me.”
(BEIJING) — Nathan Chen has his Olympic gold medal.
The 22-year-old took the win in the men’s singles event, rebounding from his disappointing 2018 Pyeongchang performance for a triumphant comeback.
The reigning world champion scored a 218.63 in his free skate and 332.60 overall.
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama stumbled on a quad loop, eliminating any chance of winning, but did hold on for silver. Fellow Japanese skater Shoma Uno had a stumble of his own, on a quad flip, but earned bronze.
Yuzuru Hanyu, the two-time defending gold medalist, shockingly bailed on his first quad jump in the short program and managed to only place eighth heading into the free skate. Hanyu went for a quad axel in his free skate, which has never been landed in competition, but fell to the ice. Still, he jumped up to fourth in the final standings with a strong free skate.
Fellow Team USA member Jason Brown came into the free skate placing sixth in the individual short program. Brown, the first to take the ice in the final group, held onto that spot in the final standings.
Chen led coming into the free skate program following a world record-setting short program, with a score of 113.97 points that easily topped Japanese skaters Kagiyama (108.12) and Uno (105.90).
Earlier this week, Team USA took home silver in the team figure skating competition, behind the Russian Olympic Committee.
Teammate Vincent Zhou — who helped the team secure the silver medal with his free skating performance — had to withdraw from the individual competition after testing positive for COVID-19.
Chen was seen as a clear gold medal contender at the Beijing Olympics after a poor short program cost him a medal four years ago.
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Chen earned bronze in the team event though failed to make the podium in singles, finishing fifth overall. But he still managed to make history there, becoming the first skater to land six quadruple jumps in a single program while also earning the highest free skate score ever in an Olympic competition.
Chen came to Beijing after winning his sixth straight national figure skating championship — a feat last accomplished by Dick Button, winner of seven consecutive U.S. titles in the 1940s and ’50s.
The three-time world champion took time off from Yale University to train for the 2022 Olympics and plans to return to the school in the fall to study statistics and data science.
(BEIJING) — American snowboarding queen Chloe Kim was crowned with gold for the second straight Olympics.
The 21-year-old took first place in women’s halfpipe, followed by Spain’s Queralt Castellet, who claimed silver, and Japan’s Sena Tomita, who took home the bronze.
It took just one run for Kim to post a 94.00, the eventual winning score, despite a best-of-three runs format. Kim took a victory lap in her third run as the final competitor. She attempted to land the first 1260 for a woman in competition in her second and third runs, but couldn’t nail it.
Kim’s winning run included two 1080s as well as a switch 900. In the end, it was far above her second-closest competitor.
Among those rooting on Kim from the bottom of the halfpipe was Eileen Gu, the San Francisco-born freestyle skier competing for China, who won gold in the women’s big air event earlier this week. Gu is a favorite in the women’s ski halfpipe as well.
Kim was the only American in the final, as the other three competitors couldn’t make it through qualifying. Maddie Mastro was expected to compete for the podium with a double-cork maneuver even Kim did not have, but she couldn’t land a clean run in qualifications a night earlier.
Kim won gold despite taking off the better part of two years in 2019 and 2020, as she enrolled at Princeton University. She took a break from school over the past year to focus on training and qualifying for the Beijing Olympics.
She spent most of her time training ahead of the Olympics, as opposed to competing, but she won the only event she entered this world cup season in Laax, Switzerland, last month. She also won in her only Dew Tour event this season, taking first over Castellet at Copper Mountain in mid-December.
Kim won gold in Pyeongchang at just 17 in dominating fashion. She scored a 98.25 in her final run — the only athlete to score higher than 90.
The win at the 2018 Olympics, and her personality, catapulted her to international fame. She appeared in a Nike advertising campaign alongside Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe, had a Barbie doll released in her image and appeared in the Maroon 5 music video for “Girls Like You” and on the MTV show Ridiculousness.
The Southern California native has long ruled the world snowboarding scene despite her youth. She first competed at the 2014 X Games at just 14 years old, finishing in second place. Kim would’ve been a lock to compete for the U.S. in Sochi in 2014, but the sport’s governing body requires athletes be at least 15 to qualify for the Olympics.
Despite the disappointment of not being able to compete at the 2014 Games, she continued to perform at the highest level. She won a halfpipe competition on the world cup tour just weeks after the Sochi Olympics and won two golds at the Youth Winter Olympic Games in 2016. She came back to the X Games and won gold in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021. She sat out the X Games in 2020 and 2022.
Kim also won the world championships in 2021 and has finished first in both qualifying and the finals in every competition she’s entered on the world cup tour since February 2018.
(NEW YORK) — Seven-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles, who suffered her own setbacks at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, is showing support for U.S. skier Mikaela Shiffrin, who on Tuesday suffered her second early exit from a Beijing Olympics competition.
Biles tagged Shiffrin in a tweet Tuesday, posting her handle alongside three white hearts.
Biles, 24, went into the Tokyo Olympics with the pressure of being on track to win an unprecedented six gold medals, with the aim of becoming the first woman since 1968 to win back-to-back titles in the all-around gymnastics competition. Instead, citing mental health struggles, Biles withdrew from the team competition as well as several individual competitions, leaving the 2020 Games with two medals: a silver and a bronze.
“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” Biles wrote on Instagram during the Summer Olympics. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The olympics is no joke!”
Like Biles, Shiffrin, 26, entered the Beijing Olympics with the weight of high expectations and the pressure of being an American Olympic star.
The Colorado native and two-time Olympic gold medalist is one medal away from tying the record for most Olympic medals by an American female Alpine skier — four. She is two gold medals away from holding the record for most golds ever by a female Alpine skier — also four.
Shiffrin fell during her first run in the giant slalom Monday, disqualifying her from the event.
On Tuesday, Shiffrin missed the fourth gate in her slalom run, the event where she won her first Olympic gold in 2014.
After the accident, she sat on the side of the hill, with her head in her hands, for minutes.
Prior to the start of the Beijing Olympics, Shiffrin said she had watched how Biles handled her own pressure-cooker environment at the Tokyo Olympics and noted that for some Olympians, the perception is, “It has to be gold or else that’s a huge disappointment.”
On Twitter, Biles also highlighted another aspect of the pressure Olympic athletes face: what happens after a supposed failure.
Biles retweeted a post that read, “I don’t know, shaming people just because they didn’t perform well at the Olympics feels like the opposite of why we supposedly have the Olympics in the first place.”
Shiffrin’s boyfriend, fellow skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who is competing for Norway in Beijing, asked for fans to support Shiffrin. He shared a photo on Instagram of Shiffrin sitting on the snow after her fall in the slalom run.
“When you look at this picture you can make up so many statements, meanings and thoughts. Most of you probably look at it saying: ‘she has lost it’, ‘she can’t handle the pressure’ or ‘what happened?’… Which makes me frustrated, because all I see is a top athlete doing what a top athlete does!,” he wrote. “It’s a part of the game and it happens. The pressure we all put on individuals in the sports are enormous, so let’s give the same amount of support back.. It’s all about the balance and we are just normal human beings!!”
Shiffrin is still expected to compete in the super-G on Thursday, the downhill on Feb. 14 and the combined on Feb. 17.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Cleveland 105, San Antonio 92
Chicago 121, Charlotte 109
Toronto 117, Oklahoma City 98
Portland 107, LA Lakers 105
Utah 111, Golden State 85
Sacramento 132, Minnesota 119
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Detroit 6, Philadelphia 3
Chicago 4, Edmonton 1
Dallas 4, Nashville 3
Calgary 6, Vegas 0
Arizona 5, Seattle 2
NY Islanders 6, Vancouver 3
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
SMU 85, Houston 83
Oklahoma 70, Texas Tech 55
Baylor 75, Kansas St. 60
Rutgers 66, Ohio St. 64
Tennessee 72, Mississippi St. 63
Seton Hall 73, Xavier 71
(LOS ANGELES) — As the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams prepare to take the field for the Super Bowl on Sunday, law enforcement officials tell ABC News they’re preparing to secure the big game from potential threats and criminal activity.
ABC News embedded with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations to see the safety concerns around Sofi Stadium and the Los Angeles Convention Center — home to the Super Bowl and its various weekend activities. The stadium is close to Los Angeles International Airport and it is common from inside the stadium to see planes flying at low altitudes overhead. That creates a number of problematic scenarios, authorities say.
“Two things are kind of keeping me up at night. One is the population density of Los Angeles County,” said Brandon Tucker, the deputy director of air operations with CFP’s Air and Marine Operations in San Diego. “Additionally, airspace density.”
Law enforcement will have aircraft high above Sofi Stadium as well as choppers low to the ground to prevent and deter any potential attacks, authorities tell ABC News.
As a result, they say they will restrict up to thirty miles of airspace around the stadium on Sunday.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters at a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday there are no credible security threats to Sunday’s big game.
“We have no information of a specific credible threat against the Super Bowl,” Mayorkas said. “What this is all about, is planning and preparation to prevent any incident from occurring.”
Mayorkas said there are more than 500 individuals from Homeland Security in Los Angeles to secure the game.
“There will be a major police presence for the Super Bowl to prevent any incidents,” Jack Ewell, the chief of the Special Operations Division at the LA Sheriff’s office, said at the press conference with Mayorkas. “There has not been any incidents at the Super Bowl Experience.”
Law enforcement officials said they are also concerned about drones around the stadium and the airport.
“Our message for a Super Bowl Sunday is come out, enjoy the game, but leave your drone at home,” said Kevin Morris, a drone expert with the Federal Aviation Administration.
Anyone flying a drone could face a fine of more than $30,000 and possible jail time, according to Morris.
Aboard U.S. Customs and Border Patrol boats, agents are also looking for smugglers trying to take advantage of the federal focus on Sofi Stadium.
Evan Wagley, an agent with CBP’s Air and Marine Operations, said they’ve seen a local uptick in criminals smuggling drugs and humans over the past couple of years.
“We feel it’s highly likely that any of these criminal operations will be trying to use that as a diversion and we want to be able to make sure to be that first line of defense so we can spot anything that would potentially make it into the interior,” Wagley said.
(NEW YORK) — After being selected by the Detroit Lions as the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009 and 12 seasons without a playoff win before being traded to the Los Angeles Rams, quarterback Matthew Stafford will make his Super Bowl debut at SoFi Stadium against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
His wife, Kelly Stafford says she knows the scrutiny he’s faced and opened up to ABC News’ Good Morning America in an exclusive interview ahead of the Super Bowl.
“I am so excited for him, I mean he has worked his butt off for a long time,” she said. “He had so much pressure on him. That team had so much pressure on them. And if they didn’t make it to the Super Bowl they were a bust, you know? So now that that pressure is kind of taken off in a way, he can just go play this game and have some fun, while he’s doing it.”
After the NFC championship win, Matt Stafford credited his wife for fueling his performance.
“I couldn’t have done it without her. She’s an unbelievable part of my life,” the quarterback said in a post-game press conference. “She’s been through a lot with me, and we’ve leaned on each other at separate times to help ourselves get whatever we’re having to get through.”
The couple battled through a health scare in 2019 when Kelly Stafford successfully underwent a 12-hour surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma from her cranial nerves.
“I wouldn’t be here today, without him,” she told GMA.
“He was the one that really encouraged me to go get checked and fought with me through that entire battle,” she added.
Following her surgery, Stafford said she had to relearn to walk and was forced to take time away from their young daughters throughout her recovery period.
“They said — ‘you can’t have any kids around you'” she recalled, adding that there couldn’t be anything around that could throw off her balance or risk falling and injury. “We actually had to say goodbye to our kids, for I think about three weeks and Matthew really became the most amazing caregiver and it didn’t surprise me, I guess it just more impressed me.”
Since their family’s move to LA, Kelly Stafford let fans behind the scenes on her podcast, “The Morning After,” where she talks about everything from parenting and mental health to football.
“It’s something that’s my own, and I feel like sometimes especially being the wife or a significant other of a professional athlete or anyone who has this kind of limelight you tend to lose yourself,” she said. “And I just felt as a mom in particular it’s mainly for moms to just come and be like ‘hey, no one has their stuff together.’ Like if we can get through these days and our children are happy and healthy that’s all you can hope for.”
She said she already has a plan for filming the Monday after the Super Bowl.
“Honestly, depending on the outcome of it might be a podcast on no sleep, it might be a podcast where I have you know little alcohol in my system if we do take that victory so I’m hoping for that,” Stafford said. “It’ll be entertaining, I’m sure.”
(BEIJING) — For the second straight competition, Mikaela Shiffrin has busted out of the competition just seconds into the first run.
Shiffrin missed the fourth gate in her slalom run, the event where she won her first Olympic gold in 2014, and will not contend for a medal.
The skier, who was expected to challenge for several medals in Beijing, sat on the side of the hill, with her head in her hands, for minutes after the accident.
The second run will come later in the evening.
The 26-year-old also fell during her first run in the giant slalom on Monday, disqualifying her from the event.
“Could blame it on a lot of things…and we’ll analyze it till the cows come home, but not today,” Shiffrin said on Instagram following that crash. “Today I chalk it up to really awful timing of a really frustrating mistake. Moving focus to slalom now, AND cheering for my teammates in the second run of the GS and the DH!”
Sweden’s Sara Hector took the gold with a time of 1:55:68, followed by Italy’s Federica Brignone with a time of 1:55.97 and Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami with a time of 1:56:41.
Shiffrin is one medal away from tying the record for most Olympic medals by a female American Alpine skier, four. She is two gold medals away from holding the record for most golds ever by a female Alpine skier, also four.
Shiffrin aims to have many chances to attempt those feats during the games as she plans on competing in three other Alpine events over the next two weeks.
She is still expected to compete in the super-G on Thursday, the downhill on Valentine’s Day and the combined on Feb. 17.
Shiffrin, a Colorado native, has been competing since she was 16 and quickly became one of the sport’s all-time greatest skiers with her record-setting performances. She is the most decorated Alpine skier in the world circuit, having won 11 World Championship medals, six gold.
At 18 years old she became the youngest slalom champion when she won a gold medal in the 2014 Sochi Games. Shiffrin won a gold medal in the giant slalom competition and a silver medal in the combined competition during the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
