Sports

(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.

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(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.

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(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.

🤍🤍🤍 @MikaelaShiffrin

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) February 9, 2022

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.

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(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

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(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.

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(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.”

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(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.

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(NEW YORK) — After months of relatively cooler weather throughout Southern California, temperatures are beginning to spike heading into Super Bowl weekend.

An excessive heat watch has been issued for Southern California including Los Angeles, with temperatures close to 90 degrees starting Wednesday and into this weekend.

The Los Angeles Rams will host the Cincinnati Bengals for Super Bowl LVI on Sunday. The game will take place at SoFi stadium in Inglewood, in the heart of Los Angeles County.

The temperature could be in the mid to upper 80s on game day.

This would not be the first time a Super Bowl took place during extreme heat. The hottest game was played on Jan. 14, 1973, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the second time the Super Bowl was played in LA. At kickoff, the temperature was 84 degrees, making it the warmest Super Bowl.

The National Weather Service is warning that the unseasonable heat will increase the potential for heat-related illnesses for visitors from other parts of the country.

For those visiting Los Angeles for the game, wearing light clothing, drinking plenty of water and avoiding strenuous activity during the hottest parts of the day is advised.

SoFi stadium has a capacity of 70,000 and Los Angeles County has agreed to not limit the number of attendees for the game. This will be a huge jump from last year’s attendance of 25,000.

The weather is not the only thing bringing heat to Super Bowl weekend; the halftime show stars Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Enimem, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige.

The game will air on CBS on Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. ET.

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(NEW YORK) — As American athletes competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing this weekend, a quartet of Summer Olympic athletes scored their own victories at home in the United States.

Four gymnasts who competed in the Tokyo Olympics for Team USA last summer each scored a perfect 10 at college meets this weekend.

The athletes — Auburn’s Suni Lee, UCLA’s Jordan Chiles, Oregon State’s Jade Carey and Utah’s Grace McCallum — all earned the perfect scores within a span of 48 hours, and it was each athlete’s first perfect score at the collegiate level, according to ESPN.

The accomplishment was first noted on Twitter by Nico Edgar, a sports reporter for the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s campus newspaper, and quickly went viral.

That makes it four Olympians who scored their first NCAA 10 this weekend: Jade Carey (bars), Sunisa Lee (bars), Jordan Chiles (floor) and Grace McCallum (bars)

— Nico Edgar (@NicoEdgarDB1) February 6, 2022

Lee, Chiles and McCallum, along with Biles, took home a silver medal in the women’s gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics.

Biles, who withdrew from the team final in Tokyo, took to Twitter to congratulate each of her teammates on their perfect 10s.

Lee, who won gold in the all-around competition and bronze in the uneven bars in Tokyo, scored a 10 on the uneven bars, prompting Biles to write on Twitter, “forever & always will be a bar queen,” alongside a video of Lee celebrating her score.

forever & always will be a bar queen !!!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩 @sunisalee_ https://t.co/qlCqgbSZUK

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) February 6, 2022

After McCallum scored a perfect 10, also on the uneven bars, in a meet Friday, Biles wrote she was “so proud.”

GO GRACE 🤩🤩🤩🤩 so proud!!!! @grace_mccallum2 https://t.co/F79mPAICOn

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) February 6, 2022

Biles called Chiles a “superstar” in a tweet celebrating the UCLA gymnast’s perfect 10 for her floor routine.

superstar🤩🤩🤩 so proud!!! @ChilesJordan https://t.co/40GM7Hj05P

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) February 6, 2022

Carey, who won gold in the women’s individual floor exercise final in Tokyo, also received a congratulations tweet from Biles after scoring a 10 on the uneven bars Saturday.

“Love seeing you thrive,” Biles wrote. “You deserve the world & more.”

LOVE SEEING YOU THRIVE. YOU DESERVE THE WORLD & MORE @jadeacarey 🤩🤩🤩 https://t.co/6MpLQaPwZw

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) February 6, 2022

Carey, a freshman, also earned the meet’s highest scores on every single event, helping to lift Oregon State to victory over Arizona State, according to ESPN.

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(NEW YORK) — Considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time, gold medal winner Simone Biles stunned fans last year when she withdrew from the team final at the Toyko Olympics.

The athlete drew praise from fans, famous friends and fellow athletes, including tennis great Naomi Osaka, who herself had pulled out of the French Open to focus on her mental health.

“I do believe everything happens for a reason,” Biles recently shared with NET-A-PORTER’s digital title PORTER in a cover story about her decision and her life both in and out of the spotlight.

The athlete explained she began suffering from a disorienting condition gymnasts call “the twisties,” when an acrobat’s mind and body feel dangerously out of sync.

“I felt scared,” she recalled of telling her coaches about her decision to sit out three major events during the Games.

Biles explained that while her coaches were “100% supportive,” there were some seeds of doubt. She said they asked her, “‘Are you sure you want to do this? Because, a couple of years from now, you don’t want to have any regrets.'”

The athlete instead said she’d regret it if she didn’t withdraw.

Biles’ decision was hailed by the likes of Michelle Obama, Justin Bieber and even her “idol,” Osaka.

“I definitely felt all those messages,” Biles said, adding, “I want people to know that they were heard and they were seen — even if I didn’t get to respond.”

The athlete explained that she’s putting her downtime to good use with a “self-care” regimen she describes as, “taking baths, going to the spa, having movie nights with my boyfriend and spending time at the pool with my dogs,” French bulldogs Lilo and Rambo.

“There’s no timeline, and there’s nothing that’s really urgent from me right now,” she said. “My whole life has been go, go, go … So it’s kind of nice to take a step back and relax.”

She got Lilo in 2017 to give her much-needed emotional support to deal with the events surrounding the arrest of former U.S. Olympics doctor Larry Nassar on charges he sexually abused the athletes in his care, including Biles and her teammates.

Biles later spoke out about it on social media, and last year joined her team on Capitol Hill to testify against the “entire system that enabled and perpetuated” the abuse and the FBI’s inaction after complaints were filed.

“That’s when I realized the power that I had,” she said, adding, “I’ll always continue to be a voice for the voiceless. Gymnastics can be a safe place.”

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