Olympics

U.S. Ski & Snowboard confirmed Friday it has launched an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct levied against snowboarding head coach Peter Foley.

Spokesperson Tom Horrocks told Rachel Axon and Tom Schad of USA Today the governing body is "aware of the recent allegations."

"We take these very serious and these are being investigated," Horrocks said.

The investigation comes after former U.S. Olympic snowboarder Callan Chythlook-Sifsof wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday that Foley has "taken naked photos of female athletes for over a decade."

"Other athletes have in engaged in racist, misogynist behavior, actively participated in the strange dynamics that Peter Foley created and caused female athletes/staff to be victims of sexual violence," Chythlook-Sifsof wrote.

Foley, who's coaching at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, hasn't publicly commented about the allegations. There has been no announcement on whether he'll continue to coach the U.S. snowboarding team ahead of Saturday's mixed snowboard cross competition.

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee told Chythlook-Sifsof her allegations have been passed on to the United States Center for SafeSport, per Cyd Zeigler of OutSports.

In a separate Instagram post, Chythlook-Sifsof wrote snowboarder Hagen Kearney, who's part of Team USA at the 2022 Games, repeatedly used a racial slur at an Olympic qualifier in 2014, when Chythlook-Sifsof was part of the U.S. team.

Horrocks told USA Today the "concerns regarding Hagen were dealt with at the time and appropriate action was taken."

Kearney hasn't commented on the allegations and isn't scheduled to participate in Saturday's event.

Chythlook-Sifsof competed for the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics and captured a silver medal at the 2011 X Games in snowboard cross.

A brand-new event to the Winter Olympics program takes center stage on Friday night. 

The mixed team snowboard cross event features one man and one woman from the participating countries and every run of the competition takes place in prime time in American time zones. 

Women's snowboard cross gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner will partner up on the first United States team, while Faye Gulini and Jake Vedder make up the other American squad. 

The U.S. is not a lock to win the gold medal. Italy, Czech Republic and France placed in that order in the first team snowboard cross event on the FIS World Cup circuit. 

The United States have another vital event late on Friday night, when the men's ice hockey team faces Canada. The Americans won their first group-stage game against China, but now they face a squad that is projected to win the pool. 

All available odds for Friday's events can be found on DraftKings Sportsbook.

Friday Olympic Schedule

Men's Hockey: Latvia vs. Finland (8:10 a.m. ET, Peacock) 

Women's Hockey: Canada vs. Sweden (8:10 a.m. ET, Peacock) 

Skeleton: Men's individual run 4 (8:55 a.m. ET, USA) 

Women's Curling: Round-robin matches (8:05 p.m. ET, CNBC and Peacock)

Snowboarding: Team Snowboard Cross (9 p.m. ET, NBC)

Men's Hockey: Canada vs. United States (11:10 p.m. ET, USA) 

Women's Hockey: ROC vs. Switzerland (11:10 p.m. ET, CNBC)

Predictions

Italy Wins Snowboard Cross Team Event

Italy can be viewed as the favorite to win the mixed team snowboard cross event.

Omar Visintin won the bronze medal in this year's men's snowboard cross in Beijing, and Michela Moioli claimed gold in the women's discipline in 2018. 

Moioli did not win a medal in the women's event in Beijing and that could be extra motivation for her to capture the first-ever team gold. 

Italy is one of five countries that produced medalists in the individual snowboard cross events, and Canada is the only nation to have multiple medalists. 

The Canadians will be in medal contention with its team of Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O'Dine, but it begins in a tough heat with France, ROC and the No. 2 team from the United States. 

Italy's top team will wear the No. 1 bib and faces the easier matchup to get through to the second round. 

The men open the snowboard cross team events and their times are transferred to their female teammates to complete each heat. 

The American duo of Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner have a chance to medal. They should make it out of their quarterfinal heat that also features Australia's two teams and Switzerland, but they would have to go head-to-head with Italy in the semifinals. 

Anything can happen in snowboard cross, but if Italy's pair runs a clean set of races, it should capture the first gold in the event.

Canada-United States Play Low-Scoring Hockey Match

The typical buzz for a Canada-United States men's hockey match is tempered for Friday night due to the lack of NHL players on each roster. 

However, the lack of other events in the late prime-time television slot and the rivalry between the two nations should make for an exciting matchup. 

Canada and the United States should finish first and second in Group A, respectively, and the winner of Friday's game should emerge as the group victor.

The U.S. beat China 8-0 in its opener, but the host nation is ranked 32nd in the world and not expected to contend in its home Olympics. Canada defeated Germany 5-1 in the other Group A opener. 

The defenses of both sides should reign in Friday's contest. The successes of the opening matches combined with the lack of big-game experience on both sides should play a role in that. 

Neither side boasts a ton of previous NHL and international experience and that could lead to a tight first period and that could leak over into the second period. 

The North American rivals are expected to play a close game, but it could be a low-scoring one, like we have seen in the tighter Group B, where no teams have scored more than two goals in four games.

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The Team USA women's hockey team scored three third-period goals to stave off an upset bid from the Czech Republic with a 4-1 quarterfinal win at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Hilary Knight, Lee Stecklein, Savannah Harmon and Kendall Coyne Schofield scored for the Americans, who outshot the Czechs at Wukesong Arena in Beijing by a massive 59-6 margin but still found themselves on the brink of elimination until the outburst in the final period.

Michaela Pejzlova tallied the only goal for the Czech Republic, which was making its Olympic debut in women's ice hockey.

As the shot totals suggest, the U.S. was in firm control of the pace of play throughout the quarterfinal, including an 18-0 shot advantage in the first period.

It was the Czech Republic that struck first, however, as Pejzlova found the net just under five minutes into the second period on her team's second shot of the game.

Knight struck back for Team USA less than a minute later to tie the game, a crucial moment for a squad that had also struggled to capitalize on its scoring chances in the final period of a 4-2 loss to rival Canada in the final game of pool play.

Stecklein gave the U.S. its first lead with just over 13 minutes remaining in the first game of the knockout rounds, but there were still plenty of tense moments throughout the third period for the heavily favored Americans.

Harmon finally alleviated some of the pressure with a power-play goal with 3:09 left on the clock to make it a 3-1 game.

Coyne Schofield added an empty-netter in the final seconds to cap the scoring.

Team USA must wait for the results of the other quarterfinals to find out its opponent in the semifinals since the bracket is re-seeded before the penultimate round.

While the U.S. should be happy with how it dominated the run of play against the Czechs, its ability to chase down another gold medal will be contingent on converting scoring chances at a higher rate over the final two games of the tournament.

That's especially true if the likely rematch with Canada comes to fruition because the Canadian offense has been lethal throughout the event.

The Russian Olympic Committee won the gold medal in the figure skating team competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, while Nathan Chen of the United States captured the gold in the men's event.

And it's possible the ROC and the USA could win even more figure skating gold at the Games.

There's still plenty of figure skating action to come between now and Feb. 19, as the women's, pairs and ice dancing competitions have still to take place. The ice dance event will be the first of those to happen, with the rhythm dance set for Saturday and the free dance scheduled for Sunday.

Here's everything else you need to know about the upcoming figure skating events in Beijing.

Figure Skating Schedule

Saturday, Feb. 12

Rhythm dance, 6 a.m. ET, USA Network

Sunday, Feb. 13

Free dance, 8:15 p.m. ET, USA Network

Tuesday, Feb. 15

Women's short program, 5 a.m. ET, USA Network

Thursday, Feb. 17

Women's free skate, 5 a.m. ET, USA Network

Friday, Feb. 18

Pairs short program, 5:30 a.m. ET, USA Network

Saturday, Feb. 19

Pairs free skate, 6 a.m. ET, USA Network

Top Odds to Win

Pairs

Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov, Russian Olympic Committee: +140 (bet $100 to win $140)

Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, China: +175

Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov, Russian Olympic Committee: +300

Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii, Russian Olympic Committee: +550

Ice Dance

Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron, France: -200 (bet $200 to win $100)

Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov, Russian Olympic Committee: +300

Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue, United States: +700

Madison Chock/Evan Bates, United States: +700

Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin, Russian Olympic Committee: +1200

Via DraftKings Sportsbook.

The women's figure skating competition begins Tuesday, but the participation of Kamila Valieva will need to be decided before then.

The 15-year-old tested positive for a banned substance prior to the Winter Olympics, which is news that broke earlier this week. According to Emily Giambalvo, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Gus Garcia-Roberts of The Washington Post, there will be an expedited hearing that will determine whether she can compete in the women's event for the ROC.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will decide if Valieva can take part in the women's competition, per Giambalvo, Abutaleb and Garcia-Roberts.

If Valieva can participate, she'll be the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal in her Olympic debut. She placed first in both the short program and free skate during the team event, helping the ROC win the gold, and she'll likely perform well again.

However, if it's determined that she can't compete, the field for the women's event will be much more open. And there may no longer be a clear favorite for who is going to win.

Anna Shcherbakova of the ROC will likely be among the top women's performers. The 17-year-old won the gold medal at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships, and she'd likely be the favorite to win Olympic gold if her teammate isn't in the field.

It's also possible that any of the three women from the United States could contend for medals. Mariah Bell, Karen Chen and Alysa Liu are all strong competitors who have the potential to put together a strong performance.

While France's Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are the clear favorites to win gold in the ice dancing, the pairs event may be more competitive. And with the pairs being the final figure skaters to compete in Beijing, it could be an exciting way to close out the Winter Olympics.

Although Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov of the ROC have the best odds to win the pairs gold, China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong also have strong odds and could end up atop the medal stand. It seems likely one of these duos will capture the gold, but it should be a competitive battle between them.

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The Olympics are about the world's best athletes dazzling spectators and competing at the highest level on the biggest stage in sports.

But sometimes they are about so much more.

American skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin has been under the spotlight during the 2022 Games not because she has won medals but because she has come up short in that pursuit. Yet out of those failures to reach the podium has come plenty of support from fans and fellow athletes across the world.

She took a significant step forward by finishing Thursday's super-G competition and then spoke about her Olympics experience and all the support she has received during an emotional post-race interview with NBC Sports.

Most notably, she said "it's ok to say that" she failed and was incredibly thankful for "the kindest words I can ever imagine" that she has received from so many supporters:

I don't feel like I deserve it. It's been insane how many people have reached out and tried to cheer me up. And every time someone sends a message, you don't have to waste your time on me. I'm going to be fine. I have Olympic medals and I've had great success and a lot of triumphant moments and plenty to be happy about over the last years. This really stings and I feel disappointed from the GS and the slalom race. That disappointment is huge and I know a lot of people feel it. And I feel bad for letting myself down or letting down the world. Mostly I feel bad because I wanted to ski the full track and I wanted to ski well. That was my biggest goal and I didn't really get to do that. We get another chance at the track in the alpine combined and slalom and a good week of nice skiing coming up now. I think today I proved to myself that I can still trust my instincts a bit and that's really really huge. And for all the people who have been sending my support I can only say thank you. There's not enough time to answer everything and it's certainly not possible to answer emphatically enough for just the kindest words I can ever imagine. I don't feel that I deserve it. I would never have expected to feel in this moment after severely underperforming at the Olympics that I would have felt that humans can be so kind. I never would have expected that. It's the most surprising thing of my Olympic experience is how kind people have been in the face of my failure. I mean it is failure, it's ok to say that. I'm ok with that. And I'm sorry for that, but I also was trying and I'm proud of that.

It was rather shocking when Shiffrin skied out of the opening seconds of Sunday's giant slalom and Tuesday's slalom competition, especially since they are two of her strongest disciplines and figured to be gold medal opportunities.

Her raw emotion was on full display after Tuesday's race when she sat slumped over on the snow on the side of the course for an extended period of time in pure disbelief even as her fellow competitors went down the track.

However, that is also when the support started rolling in, including from her boyfriend and fellow skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway:

Simone Biles, Lindsey Vonn and Carli Lloyd were also among those who have supported her:

That Biles reached out is particularly notable since a major storyline at the Tokyo Olympics was the all-time great gymnast's decision to withdraw from the team final, the all-around final and some of the individual events for mental health reasons.

With so much love and support behind her, Shiffrin still has the chance to ski for gold at the downhill and combined events.

If she wins, she will add to an already incredible resume that includes three Olympic medals, 11 world championship medals, three World Cup titles and 73 race victories. 

If she doesn't, that's ok too.         

The disappointment in Beijing continued for Mikaela Shiffrin, although she took a step forward by finishing her race.

The American star who shockingly missed a gate and skied out in the opening seconds of Sunday's giant slalom and Tuesday's slalom competition also came up short of a medal in Thursday's super-G competition at the 2022 Olympics.

She posted a time of 1:14.30, which was good enough for eighth place of the first 11 skiers to compete.

From an American perspective, there was no doubt that Shiffrin's search for redemption was the biggest storyline of Thursday's race.

While this was her first time competing in the super-G at an Olympics, she figured to be a factor since she won the gold medal in the event in the 2019 world championships and the bronze medal in the 2021 world championships.

Still, she missed what seemed to be her best two chances at medals in the giant slalom and the slalom, considering NBC Olympics noted 61 of her 73 career World Cup victories came in those events. By comparison, only four of those wins came in the super-G.

Shiffrin surely felt even more pressure to bounce back coming into the super-G. After all, Nick Zaccardi of NBC Sports noted the last time she didn't finish back-to-back races at the senior level was in 2011 when she was 16 years old.

The disappointment for the all-time great, who entered the Games with three Olympic medals, 11 world championship medals, three World Cup titles and 73 race victories, was clear, as she despondently sat on the snow on the side of the course for some time after Tuesday's miscue.

Turning that despair into an unforgettable victory in Thursday's event would mean overcoming reigning Olympic champion Ester Ledecka.

The Czech dual-sport athlete, who also competes in the snowboard parallel giant slalom, won the super-G at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and was back to defend her title as the second skier down the hill.

However, Ledecka also found herself out of the medals in the early going, as Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami set the bar at 1:13.51.

Ayumu Hirano probably deserved to win the gold medal in the men's halfpipe event at the Beijing Games on Thursday after his second run, landing the first triple cork in the history of the event, but the judges saw things differently. 

So the Japanese star, trying to catch Australia's Scotty James, went even more massive on his final run. 

This time, the judges left no doubt, giving him a score of 96.00 that was good enough to earn the two-time silver medalist his first gold in the event. James (92.50) took silver and Switzerland's Jan Scherrer (85.00) claimed bronze. 

One of the big stories on the night was Shaun White, in his final Games. The three-time gold medalist and defending champion in the event finished fourth with a score of 85.00, tantalizing close to earning his fourth medal in the event. 

Taylor Gold (81.75) and Chase Josey (79.50) of the United States finished fifth and seventh, respectively.

But Hirano was the biggest story on the night, for more than one reason. His second run was absolutely massive, and caused an uproar when it didn't place him above James. 

All's well that ends well. Hirano got his gold, even if it took him one more run than expected. 

He wasn't the only Hirano to make Olympic history—Kaishu Hirano set a world record with some absolutely massive air:

Quite the night for the family. 

Legendary American snowboarder Shaun White ended his Olympic career without a medal in the men's snowboarding halfpipe final on Thursday (Friday in Beijing) at Genting Snow Park H & S Stadium, finishing in fourth place. 

White entered the final after finishing with the fourth-best score in the qualification round with an 86.25. However, he didn't get that score easily after crashing in his first run of qualifiers to score a 24.25. 

The 35-year-old rebounded in his second run of qualifiers with a Double McTwist 1260 to qualify for the final. 

White carried that momentum into the final, where he was joined by fellow Americans Taylor Gold and Chase Josey. His first run was highly impressive as he scored a 72.00. However, his second run was even better as he scored 85.00. 

Unfortunately, White fell on his third run to cap off what was a historic career. He finished fourth behind Japan's Ayumu Hirano (gold), Australia's Scotty James (silver) and Switzerland's Jan Scherrer (bronze).

White previously told the Today show that this year's Winter Olympics would be his last for the United States:

“It’s hard to talk about because my whole life I’ve kind of been looked at as somewhat superhuman, because I do these things ... I’ve prided myself on being that individual. And, man, realizing and admitting to myself and everyone else, 'yeah, I’m human'—it’s taken a toll.

White won gold in the men's snowboarding halfpipe in the 2006 Turin Games, 2010 Vancouver Games and 2018 PyeongChang Games. He finished fourth at the 2014 Sochi Games.

White still goes out on a high note, having never finished worse than fourth place in the halfpipe at the Olympics. 

He entered this year's Games as an underdog, as Hirano entered as the favorite to win gold. James also had very high expectations entering Beijing. 

Final Standings

1. Ayumu Hirano, Japan: 96.00 (gold)
2. Scotty James, Australia: 92.50 (silver)
3. Jan Scherrer, Switzerland: 87.25 (bronze)
4. Shaun White, United States: 85.00
5. Taylor Gold, United States: 81.75
6. Valentino Guseli, Australia: 79.75
7. Chase Josey, United States: 79.50
8. Andre Hoeflich, Germany: 76.00
9. Kaishu Hirano, Japan: 75.50
10. Yuto Totsuka, Japan: 69.75
11. Patrick Burgener, Switzerland: 69.50
12. Ruka Hirano, Japan: 13.00

It was a moment so shocking it rendered the commentators speechless and left her competitors open-mouthed at the foot of the mountain in Yanqing, China. Mikaela Shiffrin, the most winning slalom skier in the world, skidded off course around the fourth gate in her first run of the Olympic slalom event Tuesday night, then missed the fifth gate and skied out.

An eerie sense of deja vu set in. On Sunday, 11 seconds into her first run of the giant slalom event, Shiffrin fell onto her left hip and skied out. In an interview with NBC after that run, Shiffrin called it a "disappointment" and said "I won't ever get over this."

How could this happen twice, we in the audience thought as we cycled through a full range of emotions. Surprise, heartbreak, sympathy, perhaps even a flash of anger at how unfair it seemed, concern that the weight of our own expectations for Shiffrin had crushed her. How do we get over this?

After her second Olympic start went the same way as the first, Shiffrin sat curled in a ball in the snow, clearly devastated, on the side of the course for 25 minutes. The camera, seemingly uncertain what to do with a sedentary Shiffrin, zoomed in and out on her, never quite focusing.

Her competition kept going, flying by in a blur as she remained motionless. It was an unprecedented moment both for us as viewers and the commentators, who kept repeating the words "shocking" and "shocker" but had little else to contribute with their primary storyline of the evening gone in five seconds.

As spectators, we, too, feel unfocused. Where do we look now? Do we zone in on Shiffrin's next three planned starts, in the super-G on Friday and the downhill and the combined—events where her reputation may carry less weight than it did in her specialties, and try to block out what we have seen in the slalom and giant slalom? Is that what we hope Shiffrin herself does?

Or do we take this vulnerable Shiffrin in and contemplate what it means that we watched an athlete reveal, as it happens, the shock of failure? Can we accept that we simply do not know what will come next, and can we stop guessing?

Skiers "DNF" all the time. But not Shiffrin. She had not DNF'd a giant slalom race in four years and 30 starts. She had a similar record in the slalom going back to 2018, although in what now seems a grim foreshadowing of her Olympic performance, she straddled a gate in a World Cup race in January and skied out.

"Pretty much everything makes me second-guess like the last 15 years, everything I thought I knew about my own skiing and slalom and racing mentality," Shiffrin told NBC once she left the side of the course. Her entire career, she said, was now under review in her brain because of one slip.

Failing is a big buzzword these days. Schools talk about being safe spaces for kids to fail before they enter the real world. Best-selling books tout the value of failure to make you appreciate success. But what we saw in Shiffrin Tuesday night was an acknowledgment that failure, in the moment, really hurts. We watched her, sitting in the snow, begin to piece together what this failure—at a level where she rarely failed—meant for her.

Athletes have been speaking up more frequently, sometimes amid a moment of crisis, about how mental health affects their physical game.

Last summer, we saw Simone Biles abruptly stop competing in the middle of the women's gymnastics team final. Shortly thereafter, she revealed she was suffering from the "twisties," gymnastics' version of the yips. Her body knew the moves she needed to perform, but her mind was blocking them.

Biles tweeted a message of support to Shiffrin yesterday.

And we watched Naomi Osaka refuse a press conference, then withdraw from the French Open after being fined $15,000 for doing so. Osaka had previously cited a need to protect her mental health by avoiding the press, saying that the questions reporters asked sometimes instilled doubts.

Michael Phelps spoke openly about how his suicidal ideations following the 2012 Olympics motivated him to seek treatment. His teammate Allison Schmitt also opened up about her depression.

And we heard Chloe Kim, another returning Olympic gold medalist in these Winter Games, speak about how her success and the spotlight it threw on her life became overwhelming. Anxiety nearly led her to quit snowboarding altogether after her 2018 win in Pyeongchang, she said, and it was only taking a break from the sport and attending college for her to come to terms with seeking mental health treatment.

Shiffrin has acknowledged that grief has complicated her relationship with skiing. She said before the Olympics that her father's death in 2020, in conjunction with a back injury and the global coronavirus pandemic, led her to stop skiing altogether for 300 days.

"I just want to go to bed and not really care," she told Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated about her mentality toward the sport that made her a star on the slopes and off. But she returned that fall, focusing on the technical events, and this season resumed competition in all five disciplines.

She had a fierce but seemingly friendly rivalry with Slovakian skier Petra Vlhova in the lead-up to the Olympics, one that seemed to reinvigorate her. Vlhova was the eventual gold-medal winner in the slalom Tuesday.

Now Shiffrin has a new challenge to overcome. She said she would never get over the disappointment. But she also told reporters in an unusually candid 20-minute session after the slalom event, through tears, that she "would really like to call" her late dad, who "would probably tell me to get over it."

For some watching Shiffrin, that approach would not be motivating. But others might find inspiration in it. And that is the benefit, for all of us, of seeing athletes acknowledge that sports go far beyond the body and that when a mental game is off, there are many ways to cope—whether that is therapy, or not doing press conferences, or putting your head down and working through it.

We are observing as Shiffrin finds her way in real time. It is as remarkable as the world's top skier DNF'ing two races in a row at the Olympics is shocking.

We are so used to seeing the Olympics as binary: Either you win, or you lose. It has been our narrative of sports for so long. But we have seen, in Tokyo and now in Beijing, a shift in how we view struggling athletes. No one's struggle is the same, and the way Shiffrin copes with disappointment will not be how Biles did or Osaka or Phelps. But all of these athletes have helped expand our understanding of sports, of winning and losing, of success and failure.

Just after Shiffrin's aborted slalom run, while she sat motionless in the snow, a Visa ad featuring the skier and other Olympians ran on NBC. "Finding new finish lines," the tagline read. It seemed a bit cruel in the moment for the skier who had been unable to find any finish lines thus far. But whether she finds one at the Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing or not, she may have helped someone else see that failure is not a finish line.