By DEREK GATOPOULOS and JENNIFER McDERMOTT

Win or lose, Jessie Diggins plans to celebrate her last Olympics.

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More than 40 friends and family are traveling to the Milan Cortina Winter Games to watch America’s most decorated cross-country skier chase Olympic glory one last time.

The 34-year-old Minnesota native is retiring at the end of the season, and looking forward to finally getting some rest.

“I’m really excited to have a whole weekend off,” Diggins told The Associated Press from the U.S. team’s training base in Livigno, Italy.

“I realize that sounds kind of crazy, but … I haven’t had two days in a row that are actually mine in a very long time. So that’s going to feel really special.”

Before that, she enters her fourth Olympics as the top challenger to the traditionally dominant Nordic skiers. With gold, silver, and bronze medals already to her name, Diggins is a strong favorite to add to her collection in Milan Cortina. Along the World Cup circuit this year, growing clusters of U.S. teammates have gathered to cheer her on, a presence that’s coincided with her retaining the lead in the overall women’s standings.

“It was so cool — just feeling so much love across different sports,” Diggins said after winning her third overall Tour de Ski title in northern Italy this month. “It’s been really awesome.”

She returned to the podium last weekend in Goms, Switzerland, at the final World Cup meet before the Olympics, where she finished second in the 20-kilometer classic, just 0.9 seconds behind Finland’s Johanna Matintalo.

Zip lines, swim races, summers in Canada

Growing up in Afton, outside Minneapolis, Diggins tried any sport that could absorb her uncontainable energy: skating, soccer, dance, gymnastics, rock climbing and athletics. Ski racing followed while she was still in elementary school.

Her father, an outdoorsy Canadian, installed a zip line behind their house, and speed quickly became a fascination. That competitive edge sharpened during summers north of the border, racing other kids in swim meets along the shores of Lake Superior.

Ski competitions began at 11 and never stopped. After outperforming the boys, Diggins jumped age categories, surging through her teens from state to national championships and onto an express path to the Olympics.

By 2018, she was at the center of a historic breakthrough, teaming with Kikkan Randall in the sprint to claim the first — and still only — U.S. Olympic gold in cross-country skiing.

After adding silver and bronze in 2022, Diggins will compete at Milan Cortina as part of a powerhouse group of American women that includes Alpine skiiers Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn and snowboarder Chloe Kim. A dual citizen, Diggins also openly roots for Canada.

“I absolutely do,” she told the AP. “I kind of see it as team North America. And I am really, really proud of my Canadian citizenship. So many of my family lives up there, and both my parents were born there. I feel so proud to have half of my heart there.”

Stressed by events in Minneapolis

Her career took off in Europe and eventually led her to settle outside Boston, but Minnesota is never far away. Diggins said it has been stressful to follow the headlines about the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis where two people were fatally shot by federal immigration agents.

“It’s been devastating following the news of what has been happening in Minnesota right now, and it’s really hard feeling like I can do nothing about it,” she wrote in an online post.

As her career has flourished, she has also devoted herself to causes that mirror personal struggles — advocating for climate action as snowfall declines because of climate change and pushing for better access to treatment for people with severe eating disorders.

“It makes every race so much more meaningful knowing that I’m trying to advocate for a better future,” she said.

After advocacy, it’s back to the slopes.

Glitter, gratitude and podium dancing

Fans know Jessie Diggins’ winning formula: relentless endurance, downhill aggression and a finishing kick capable of breaking elite rivals.

There’s also playfulness. She races with glitter face paint — a ritual now copied by younger American skiers — and after frequent finish-line collapses often celebrates moments later with a half-dance on the podium.

Along the way, Diggins makes a point of publicly thanking those who helped her get there: wax technicians, sports psychologists, teammates and others.

“I have to say a huge thank you to the team. I felt like I had awesome skis that were super competitive every single day,” she said after her latest Tour de Ski victory.

“It takes a village, and I’m really proud of my village — really grateful for them. It was so fun to feel good on this last tour. And yeah, it was just really cool.”

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

By DAVE SKRETTA

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Maxim Naumov sat silently on a chair deep inside the Enterprise Center, away from the packed crowd in the arena, the prying eyes of the TV cameras, the friends, family and strangers who had been showering him well-wishes for the better part of a year.

Naumov stared at a photograph of him standing alongside his parents, former pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. It was taken when Naumov was about 3, a little tyke trying to find his footing on the ice for the first time. It had been stuck inside a photo album tucked away above the refrigerator in his Connecticut home.

Naumov’s parents, who had been coaches at the renowned Skating Club of Boston, were among 67 people killed — more than two dozen of them members of the figure skating community — when American Airlines Flight 5342 crashed into a military helicopter on approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport and fell into the icy Potomac River on January 29, 2025.

FILE – A crane offloads a piece of wreckage from a salvage vessel onto a flatbed truck, near the wreckage site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Feb. 5, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

Eleven skaters, four coaches and several of their family members had been returning from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, after the national championships. The younger Naumov had flown out earlier, shortly after finishing in fourth place.

“Once a week I try to have that space with them, in whatever capacity that might be,” Naumov said, after finishing third at this year’s U.S. championships, a placement that ultimately earned him a spot on the American team for the Milan Cortina Olympics.

“It could be a photo, talking to someone about them. It could be anything,” Naumov said. “It’s been therapeutic in a way.”

One year later, Naumov carries the hopes and dreams of those affected by the crash with him to the Olympics, while the skating world continues to reflect on a tragedy that rocked a sport so tightly knit that everyone, from 1956 Olympic champion Tenley Albright to kids just starting out, seems to remember where they were when they heard the news.

“It was devastating. I’ve never been that sad,” said Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion. “So many promising young skaters were just gone.”

The day of the crash

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Those that lost their lives had competed for clubs scattered across the eastern seaboard, from the historic Boston club that produced such stars as Olympic champion Dick Button and Nancy Kerrigan, to the revered Washington Figure Skating Club, whose home rink in Rockville, Maryland, is about a 25-minute drive from the site of the crash.

The skaters ranged in ages from 11 to 16. Some were just starting on journeys they hoped would one day lead to the Olympics, others were late-bloomers whose passion for the sport was evident in every axel and lutz they landed.

Two-time ice dance world champion Meryl Davis said, “My heart was shattered thinking of those sweet, young souls.”

Indeed, time seemed to freeze for those whose family members were aboard the plane. Those that didn’t live in the area tried to get there as quickly as possible, awaiting whatever answers the National Transportation Safety Board could provide.

It soon became clear that there would be no survivors.

Naumov remembers the emotional toll of the first 24 hours. Several of his close friends were by his side, including Spencer Howe, who along with pairs teammate Emily Chan will be joining Naumov at their first Winter Games next week in Italy.

Maxim Naumov skates during the “Making Team USA” performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

“When all that stuff was going down,” Howe recalled, “I was right there with him in Washington. We were getting updates and just trying to figure out what was going on, and the state of the situation. We just tried to do whatever we could.”

The aftermath that will linger

Naumov remembers those first weeks after the accident, when little things like getting out of bed or putting on his skates seemed impossible. “I just wanted to rot, basically,” he said, though he knew deep down that would accomplish nothing.

So, the 24-year-old Naumov joined in the organization of a benefit in Washington to honor not only those who were killed in the collision, but the firefighters and emergency personnel who responded to it. The star-studded “Legacy on Ice” featured emotional performances by the likes of 13-year-old Isabella Aparicio, whose brother, Franco, and father, Luciano, were killed. Naumov, like many in the stands that day, wiped tears from his eyes following the performance.

The benefit raised well over $1 million for the families of those affected.

“I was proud to see the way people came together as a family,” said three-time world champion Ilia Malinin, the favorite to win Olympic gold who often trains out of SkateQuest in Northern Virginia with other members of the Washington Figure Skating Club.

Three weeks later, during the world championships in Boston, the crowd inside the TD Garden again was moved to tears during a heartfelt celebration of those who lost their lives. The victims’ names were shown on the dasher boards, Boston’s Coro Allegro sang “Precious Lord” and some of the biggest names in figure skating reflected on what had been an emotional two months.

“We all have that same bond, this unspoken, overall connection,” said Anthony Ponomarenko, who will soon be making his Olympic debut in ice dancing . “I told Max, ‘Whatever you need, I’m there.’ We had a really special heart to heart, all of us together.”

The legacy will remain

Maxim Naumov skates during the “Making Team USA” performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

One of the last conversations that Naumov had with his parents came after his fourth-place finish at last year’s nationals, just hours before they boarded American Airlines Flight 5342 to begin their trip home. It focused on what their son would need to do to follow in his parents footsteps and compete in the Olympics.

One year later, Naumov put their plan into action at the U.S. championships. He stood up from that chair inside Enterprise Center, tucked away that photo of his parents — it would reappear about 4 minutes later in the kiss-and-cry area — and proceeded to deliver the performance of his life, earning himself a place alongside Malinin and Andrew Torgashev on the podium. All three would be chosen for the powerhouse U.S. Olympic team.

“I just thought, ‘Look at what we’ve done. All the sacrifices we made. Everything we’ve been through,’” Naumov said.

To this day, Naumov wears around his neck a simple gold chain with a cross, which he received on his baptism day. On his finger is a white gold ring with a single diamond, which his father once wore on his pinkie and passed down to him several years ago.

They are tangible reminders of his parents. And they are going with Naumov to the Olympics.

“I mean, there’s parts of life that are difficult, you know? But I think within those difficult times and moments of like, talking about this story, it’s still such a privilege to share,” he said. “My intention is to share it as much as possible, because not only do my parents deserve all the praise and recognition and the fact that I wouldn’t be here without them, but also to inspire other athletes, or people in general, to know that there is a way. No matter what, there is a way.”

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

By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has concluded that San Jose State University discriminated against women by letting a transgender athlete play on the women’s volleyball team, the U.S. Education Department said Wednesday.

The department offered San Jose State a deal that would resolve the case. The university, located in California, would have to accept the administration’s definition of “male” and “female,” restore titles and records that Trump officials say were “misappropriated by male athletes,” and issue an apology to female athletes.

University officials did not immediately comment.

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The department has taken action against a series of states, schools and colleges that allow transgender athletes, something President Donald Trump has promised to end. If San Jose State rejects the proposed deal, it could face a Justice Department lawsuit and risk losing federal funding.

The investigation into San Jose State was opened in February alongside a similar one at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn later agreed to a deal similar to the one being offered to San Jose State, modifying school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and apologizing to other athletes on the swim team.

Department officials said San Jose State violated Title IX, a 1972 gender equity law, by allowing a transgender athlete on the team and for allegedly retaliating against players who condemned the decision.

“We will not relent until SJSU is held to account for these abuses and commits to upholding Title IX to protect future athletes from the same indignities,” Kimberly Richey, assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, said in a statement.

San Jose State’s volleyball team attracted national attention after nine players on the women’s volleyball team filed a lawsuit challenging the league’s policies allowing transgender athletes to compete. The players argued that it’s unfair and poses a safety risk.

Several teams refused to play against San Jose State, earning losses.

San Jose State has not confirmed that its volleyball team had a transgender player.

As part of the deal proposed by the administration, San Jose State would have to send a personalized apology to every woman who played on the women’s indoor volleyball team from 2022 through 2024 and on the 2023 beach volleyball team, and to any woman who forfeited rather than play San Jose State.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By COLLEEN BARRY

MILAN (AP) — Italy’s Ladin minority settled a millennium ago in the Dolomite mountain hamlet of Anpezo — now the two-time Olympic host city of Cortina d’Ampezzo. But members of this ancient ethnolinguistic group are disappointed that the Winter Games will not spotlight their culture.

Instead, Ladins will wave their flag themselves, both figuratively and literally, with a series of initiatives sharing their identity with visitors — and not just in Cortina, but across all of Ladinia, the Ladin-speaking region that spans five Dolomite valleys and three of Italy’s four Olympic territories.

FILE- Clouds hang over the ‘Seceda’ Dolomites mountain, 2519 meters, near Ortisei val Gardena, (St. Ulrich in Groeden) in northern Italian province of South Tyrol, Italy, June 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

Ladin leaders expected Milan Cortina Olympics organizers would reach out to feature their language and traditions that exist only in Italy, just as organizers have done in previous host cities, from Lillehammer to Beijing.

When they didn’t, mayors of all 17 Ladin towns sent a letter soliciting that representation, but received no reply.

“We are cut out, as if we don’t exist,” said Elsa Zardini, head of the Ladin community in Cortina.

Half of Cortina’s population is Ladin

Wood carvers and stewards of the forest, Ladins have lived in the Dolomites for 2,000 years. Their legends include the story of Laurin, king of the dwarfs, whose curse is said to have bestowed the region’s dramatic pale limestone peaks with their pinkish sunset glow. For religious ceremonies, they wear traditional costumes including colorful dresses and headpieces for women.

Ladin is a Romance language, formed when the Latin of Roman conquerors blended with ancient Rhaetic. The U.N.’s cultural agency lists it as endangered, with just 35,000 speakers. About 2,500 of them live in Cortina, half the town’s population. Its mayor is half Ladin; his mother, from Genoa, didn’t want him to learn Ladin for fear it would interfere with his Italian.

The map shows the Ladin community spread across the Dolomites . (AP Digital Embed)

Ladinia spans three of the four territories hosting the Games: Veneto, home to Cortina, which will host curling, sliding and women’s Alpine skiing, as well as the autonomous provinces of Alto Adige and Trentino, which are hosting biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined.

Slalom skier Alex Vinatzer, competing in these Games, is Ladin. So is former Olympic figure skater Carolina Kostner, who won bronze in 2014, and downhill skier Kristian Ghedina, a five-time Olympian.

Excluded from the opening ceremony

When Ghedina went to Lillehammer in 1994 to compete in the Winter Games, the Artic Sami people featured in the opening ceremony. In Sydney in 2000, Indigenous Australian Cathy Freeman lit the caldron. And four years ago, Beijing — even with its record of suppressing some ethnic groups — showcased all of China’s 54 ethnic minorities.

In this undated handout photo, people carry a traditional Ladin flag during a parade through the streets of Cortina D’Ampezzo, northern Italy, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (ULdA, Ampezzo Ladin Union via AP)

But Milan Cortina’s 2 1/2-hour opening ceremony on Feb. 6 will not include the Ladins, local organizers confirmed, but will celebrate Italian beauty and culture, including fashion, design and music.

“We want to celebrate those elements that have been exported all over the world,” the opening ceremony’s creative director Marco Balich told The Associated Press.

Even before this perceived slight, the Games were a sore spot for the Ladins of Cortina.

The 1956 Olympics went a long way toward propelling the once-Ladin majority town into a luxury resort replete with luxury fashion boutiques. Today, Ladins struggle to hang on to inherited property due to the increased value and the corresponding inheritance tax. Many young Ladin families move away — tearing at the cultural fabric.

At the official Olympic events, both in Cortina before the Games begin, Ladins will enjoy just two appearances.

The Runcac chapel is seen in San Vigilio di Marebbe, northern Italy, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicole Winfield)

A pair in traditional dress were on hand for the arrival of the Olympic torch on Monday, invited by the town. However, they didn’t appear in any images shared by the local organizing committee. And before the Olympic opening ceremony, a small group of costumed Ladins will parade through Cortina — footage that will not be broadcast with the main ceremony, which will reach millions across the globe, local organizers told the AP.

“It’s really not much. Yes, there will be someone in our costume, our costumes will be seen,” said Zardini, the president of Cortina’s Ladin association. “We had other goals, to highlight that we are a linguistic minority and to explain our culture, but that is not the case.”

Shining their own spotlight

That left Ladins to find other ways to raise their own profile.

Zardini is handing out Ladin flags — their azure, white and green colors representing the sky, snow and meadows of their mountain landscapes — to anyone wishing to display one during the Games. Her initiative has spread to neighboring South Tyrol and Trentino provinces.

“It isn’t so much a protest as a welcome, so visitors realize that a people living here speaks a certain language and has its own traditions,” she said. “That is our intention. And then, some have of course displayed it in protest.”

An umbrella group for six Ladin communities has prepared mini-dictionaries of Ladin terms translated into five languages for Olympic visitors, its president, Roland Verra, told the AP.

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“Nief” means snow and, for the more adventurous, Winter Games is “Juesc Olimpics da d’ivern.”

The group, the General Ladin Union of the Dolomites, also produced a video in Ladin, with English subtitles, explaining the Ladins’ history — from Roman conquest to Germanic invaders, the Napoleonic wars, up to 1919, when their region became part of Italy. It will be shown on a loop in front of Cortina’s Town Hall.

In Trentino, Ladins are preparing an event featuring Ladin music and literature, and hoping tourists turn up.

“This is a great opportunity to represent the ancient legends that would certainly be very well seen, very spectacular,” Verra said.