Alpine skiing: Lindsey Vonn finishes third in latest World Cup downhill

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TARVISIO, Italy (AP) — The Italian ski team is on a roll with less than three weeks to go before a home Olympics. And so is 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn.

Nicol Delago claimed her first World Cup victory in a downhill on home snow Saturday, with Vonn in third place for her fifth podium in five downhills this season.

Delago matched Italian teammate Giovanni Franzoni, who claimed his first victory in a super-G in Wengen, Switzerland, on Friday.

“It certainly hasn’t always been easy over the years, so today is huge,” Delago said. “Yesterday I watched the video of Franzoni’s race and that provided extra motivation.”

The Milan Cortina Winter Games open on Feb. 6 with the women racing in Cortina d’Ampezzo and the men in Bormio.

Delago, who also led the final training session on Friday, finished 0.20 seconds ahead of Kira Weidle-Winkelmann of Germany and 0.26 ahead of Vonn, the Minnesota native.

Delago’s previous best finishes were three second-place results and two third-place results. Her younger sister, Nadia, won the bronze medal in downhill at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Nadia Delago was 10th Saturday.

“We motivate each other both on the positive days and the negative days,” Nicol Delago said of her sister.

It was the first World Cup downhill in Tarvisio in 15 years and Vonn was one of only two athletes in the current field who had raced it before. In her six previous races in Tarvisio across downhill, super-G and super-combined, Vonn earned two wins and four runner-up finishes.

“I don’t really remember the track,” Vonn said. “But I do remember that the atmosphere was amazing and the people were amazing. … And I met some fans earlier and they were singing songs about me. It was awesome. So I’m so happy to be back on the podium again under tough conditions. So it couldn’t be better.”

In the downhill standings, Vonn increased her advantage to 144 points ahead of Emma Aicher of Germany. Four World Cup downhills remain this season.

In the overall standings, Vonn moved up to third place with 510 points, trailing only American teammate Mikaela Shiffrin (923 points) and Camille Rast (753) — neither of whom are currently racing downhill.

The race was characterized by fog hovering over the course midway down — limiting visibility.

Nicol Delago nearly lost control in the foggy section as her skis split apart. But she quickly recovered and then added to her advantage at every check point. At the finish, she celebrated with a big smile and kissed one of her skis, even though with the No. 3 bib most of the favorites were still to come down.

Vonn was fastest at both speed checks, registering 136.3 kph (84.7 mph) on top. But with such high speed she veered off course into fresh snow midway down — slowing her slightly.

The Olympic downhill in Cortina is scheduled for Feb. 8.

A super-G is scheduled for Tarvisio on Sunday.

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Harbaugh, Giants finally finish deal for head coach

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The New York Giants hired John Harbaugh as coach on Saturday, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced. The sides began working on a contract Wednesday night when it became clear that Harbaugh was the right fit.

Harbaugh joins the Giants 11 days after he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens, who made the playoffs 12 times with him in charge and won the Super Bowl in the 2012 season. They fell short of the postseason this year because of a missed kick at the buzzer in Week 18, leading ownership to make an change and put Harbaugh on the market.

General manager Joe Schoen and the Giants pounced, bringing on a proven winner with significant NFL head-coaching experience. Harbaugh was flown in on co-owner Steve Tisch’s private plane earlier this week, spent several hours at the team facility in East Rutherford, New Jersey, spoke with young quarterback Jaxson Dart and got wined and dined at nearby Elia Mediterranean Restaurant.

With the courting process complete, Harbaugh is now tasked with turning around the beleaguered franchise that has made just two playoff appearances over the past 12 years and not made it past the divisional round. Todd Monken could follow him from Baltimore to be offensive coordinator, unless he takes a head-coaching gig in Cleveland or elsewhere.

Harbaugh got the job over the likes of Kevin Stefanski, Mike McCarthy, Raheem Morris and Antonio Pierce, leapfrogging some of expected front-runners who got shuffled back as soon as the 63-year-old became available. The chance to work for stable ownership and Dart made New York an attractive landing spot over other places such as Tennessee, Atlanta and Miami.

The Giants have talented pieces in place on either side of the ball, including running back Cam Skattebo, receiver Malik Nabers and left tackle Andrew Thomas on offense, plus pass rushers Brian Burns and Abdul Carter and nose tackle Dexter Lawrence on defense. They have the fifth pick in the draft to add to that stockpile.

Changing the culture of losing that has pervaded the Meadowlands for the better part of the last decade is now on Harbaugh’s shoulders. Counting playoff games, the seven coaches who followed 2007 and ’11 Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin have gone 45-105-1, a winning percentage of .300.

Harbaugh is 193-124 in 317 games in the league, a .609 winning percentage, since taking over the Ravens in 2008. He spent the previous 10 seasons as an assistant with Philadelphia, mostly as special teams coordinator and then defensive backs coach.

Schoen, after finding out from Tisch and co-owner John Mara that he was returning for a fifth year as GM, said the search would not be limited to just offensive- or defensive-minded options. While Harbaugh comes from a special teams background, he provides the kind of all-around coaching Schoen was believed to be looking for, along with a championship pedigree and a reputation that should garner him immediate respect within the locker room.

This is Schoen’s second hire after bringing Brian Daboll with him from Buffalo, where both were assistants with the Bills, in January 2022. Ownership fired Daboll on Nov. 10 after the Giants lost eight of the first 10 games in his fourth season as coach.

Mike Kafka coached out the string as the interim replacement after being promoted from offensive coordinator, and the team lost five in a row before winning its final two games to finish with a 4-13 record. Kafka interviewed but was never a serious candidate for the full-time job.

Almost no one was compared with Harbaugh, giving the Giants an off-field win that might be their biggest of any kind in several years.

Udinski interviews with Browns

Jacksonville offensive coordinator Grant Udinski interviewed with the Cleveland Browns for their head coaching vacancy on Saturday.

Udinski, 30, just completed his first season with the Jaguars. Even though coach Liam Coen called the offensive plays, Udinski directed a unit that was sixth in the league in scoring (27.9 points per game) and 11th in total offense (337.4 points per game). Quarterback Trevor Lawrence accounted for 38 touchdowns (29 passing, nine rushing) as Jacksonville went 13-4 in the regular season and won the AFC South for the first time since 2022. The Jaguars lost to Buffalo in the wild card round last Sunday.

Udinski began his NFL career as a coaching assistant at Carolina (2020-21) before spending three seasons in Minnesota (2022-24). He was an assistant to the head coach/special projects in 2022 with the Vikings before being promoted to assistant offensive coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach in 2024.

The Browns are the only team that has conducted or requested an interview with Udinski so far.

Cleveland needs a head coach after it fired Kevin Stefanski on Jan. 5 following six seasons and a 46-58 overall record. Stefanski was a two-time AP NFL Coach of the Year and led the Browns to the playoffs in 2020 and ’23.

The Browns have interviewed nine people, including four this week. Former Miami head coach Mike McDaniel interviewed on Monday while Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase went on Friday.

Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Seattle defensive coordinator Aden Durde, Cincinnati offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher and Baltimore offensive coordinator Todd Monken interviewed last week.

Dolphins interview 4 more candidates

The Miami Dolphins continued their search for a new head coach this week, interviewing four more candidates to potentially replace coach Mike McDaniel.

Over the past few days, the Dolphins have interviewed four defensive coordinators: the Los Angeles Rams’ Chris Shula, Jacksonville’s Anthony Campanile, San Francisco’s Robert Saleh and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jesse Minter.

Minter, who helped the Chargers finish fifth in the league in total defense this season, also interviewed for head coach openings in Atlanta and Cleveland. Baltimore, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Tennessee have also requested interviews.

Saleh is the only one among them with prior head coaching experience, which would be a deviation from the norm for owner Stephen Ross, who has only hired first-time head coaches during his tenure.

Campanile coached Miami’s linebackers from 2020-2023 and has a history with new Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. The two worked together when Campanile led Green Bay’s linebackers in 2024. Sullivan spent 22 seasons with the Packers before being hired as Miami’s GM earlier this month.

The Dolphins began an organizational rebuild after going 7-10 this past season. It was their second consecutive losing season, and they missed the playoffs for a second straight year.

Longtime GM Chris Grier was fired in October, and McDaniel was dismissed earlier this month after four seasons.

The Dolphins have also interviewed Green Bay defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, former Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski and Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.

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College Basketball: North Dakota State seizes control of Summit with win over St. Thomas

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North Dakota State now sits firmly atop the Summit League Conference, at least for the time being.

That’s the result of the Bison’s 68-65 victory over St. Thomas on Saturday in Fargo in a matchup of the conference’s lone two unbeatens in Summit League play.

The loss snapped St. Thomas’ nine-game winning streak.

Trevian Carson led North Dakota State with 16 points, including four triples. Neither team shot particularly well from the field — both were sub-33% from beyond the arc and sub-70% at the free-throw line.

St. Thomas entered the day shooting 44% from deep in conference play, but was just 10 for 31 on such looks Saturday.

The Bison dominated the glass with 15 offensive rebounds, which turned into nine second-chance points, compared to St. Thomas’ two.

St. Thomas’ Nick Janowski is guarded by North Dakota’s Trevian Anderson and Tay Smith on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in the Scheels Center at the Sanford Health Athletic Complex in Fargo.

North Dakota also had 21 points off turnovers, nine more than the Tommies.

Trailing by nine with fewer than five minutes to play in the opening stanza, the Tommies went on a 14-0 run to take a one-point lead into the half.

North Dakota State (16-5, 6-0 in Summit) was again strong out of the gates in the second half, opening it on a 16-7 run to grab an eight-point lead. But again, St. Thomas responded with an 8-0 run to knot the affair on a triple by Nolan Minessale.

But the Tommies never retook the lead, as an immediate 11-2 North Dakota State response left St. Thomas chasing the rest of the way.

St. Thomas (15-5, 4-1 in Summit) trailed by three in the final minute, when a layup from Bison guard Damari Wheeler-Thomas effectively put the game on ice with 27 seconds to play.

Bison guard Emil Skyttä takes a shot at the rim during North Dakota State’s game against St. Thomas in Fargo, North Dakota on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Zachary Lucy / NDSU Athletics)

Minessale led the Tommies with 16 points and six assists, but struggled from the field and committed seven turnovers. He was one of four St. Thomas players to score in double figures, including Austin Herro, who had 10 points, five rebounds and five dimes, and Isaiah Johnson-Arigu, who added 15 points.

St. Thomas remains in second place in the Summit, as the only one-loss team in conference play. The Tommies will welcome the Bison to St. Paul for the rematch on Feb. 26.

St. Thomas next plays Thursday in St. Paul against South Dakota State.

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Counter-protesters outnumber supporters at Jake Lang’s rally at Minneapolis City Hall

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Ducking and holding his bleeding head, conservative influencer Jake Lang left the “March Against Minnesota Fraud” protest he organized Saturday afternoon at Minneapolis City Hall with hundreds of counter-protesters following him.

Lang, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida, said on X that thousands of people were coming to Minnesota to march as “Christian Crusaders” supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and calling for the arrest of Gov. Tim Walz. Lang was convicted of assaulting a police officer with a baseball bat in the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and spent four years in a federal jail before he was pardoned by President Donald Trump.

When Lang first tried to make his way through the crowds to get to City Hall on Saturday, two to three men repeatedly punched him and his supporters. Once he was at City Hall, counter-protesters shouted and drowned out his words, threw snowballs at him and sprayed him with water.

Media at the scene reported that less than a dozen supporters for Lang were at the demonstration, while an estimated 2,000 counter-protesters showed up.

Less than an hour after the 1 p.m. protest, Lang, supported by two men holding his arms as he held his head, made his way through the crowd of counter protestors. At least one man punched him in the back of the head as he was escorted into a hotel a few blocks away, according to a video posted to X.

After he ran inside an open door of the hotel, people held up a Quran, the Muslim holy book, that Lang had threatened to burn on the steps of City Hall and the tactical vest he had been wearing.

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