Winter Olympics recap: Ukrainian athlete excluded, Kim falls short and Brignone completes comeback

NHL players on the U.S. and Canada teams also joined the action in their opening men’s hockey games.

Brignone back in style

For much of last year, it wasn't clear if Federica Brignone of Italy could compete at her home Olympics at all, let alone contend for a medal.

She came away with gold in the women's super-G on Thursday, following a year spent largely in rehab after breaking multiple bones in her leg. She only returned to racing last month.

Brignone shrugged off difficult, foggy conditions to win her fourth career Olympic medal and become, at 35, the oldest female gold medalist in women’s Alpine skiing. Romane Miradoli of France took silver and Cornelia Huetter of Austria got bronze.

Brignone's gold was one of four medals Thursday for Italy as the host nation pulled away in the medal count with 17. Norway and the U.S. have 14 apiece, and Norway leads the way in gold medals with seven.

Silver, not gold, for Chloe Kim

For Chloe Kim, it was a third medal but not a three-peat. The American snowboarding star won the halfpipe in 2018 and 2022, but 17-year-old Gaon Choi ended her reign.

Kim was in first ahead of the last run but Choi snatched the lead with a score of 90.25. Kim fell on her final attempt to beat it.

Choi, a South Korean who was mentored by Kim, recovered after taking a hard fall on her first run. She is the first non-American to win the gold medal on the women’s side of snowboarding’s premier event since Torah Bright of Australia at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Ukrainian slider excluded

As the men's skeleton competition got underway, all the attention was on a Ukrainian athlete who wasn't on the track.

Vladyslav Heraskevych was barred from racing after refusing to give up his plan to race in a helmet commemorating athletes who have been killed since Russia invaded his country. The International Olympic Committee said the helmet broke rules against making statements on the field of play.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry turned up at the sliding track in a last-minute bid to change Heraskevych's mind ahead of the opening run of the competition Thursday morning.

Heraskevych, who had been a contender for the medals, refused and was excluded from the Olympics.

Heraskevych said it “looks like discrimination” to bar him from competing. Coventry, who said she'd hoped to find a compromise, was tearful on what she called an “emotional morning.”

U.S. beats Latvia in its men's hockey opener

Two goals from Brock Nelson put the U.S. on course for a 5-1 win over Latvia in the men's hockey tournament, which is packed with NHL stars for the first time in over a decade.

Connor McDavid had three assists and Jordan Binnington made 26 saves to help Canada beat Czechia 5-0 in the opening game of its Olympic campaign.

The Canadian women responded after their worst-ever Olympic loss by beating Finland 5-0 to end the preliminary round. That sets up a quarterfinal meeting with Germany on Saturday.

13 medals but no three-peat

The most decorated short-track speedskating Olympian in history has yet another medal.

Arianna Fontana of Italy earned her 13th career medal from six Olympics with silver in the women's 500 meters but missed out on a three-peat in the event she won in 2018 and 2022. Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands won and also broke her own world record in the semifinals. There was another Dutch gold minutes later for Jens van ‘t Wout in the men’s 1,000.

In a major upset, Cooper Woods of Australia won freestyle gold in men's moguls by edging Canadian great Mikael Kingsbury — the sport’s most decorated skier — in a tiebreaker.

American Jessie Diggins overcame bruised ribs to take bronze in women's 10-kilometer cross-country skiing. Frida Karlsson won her second gold medal of these Games, leading a 1-2 finish for Sweden.

Italian speedskater Francesca Lollobrigida, whose great aunt was movie star Gina Lollobrigida, won her second gold of the Olympics by a tenth of a second in the women's 5,000.

Alessandro Haemmerle of Austria and Eliot Grondin of Canada repeated as gold and silver medalists, respectively, in men’s snowboardcross.

Germany won the team luge, as it has done at every Olympics since the event was added in 2014.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics