By WILL GRAVES, AP National Writer

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Soaring arias. Wrenching tragedy. Joyful triumphs. Exotic backdrops. Climaxes often designed to produce tears, sad or otherwise.

Perhaps more than anything, the operas that Italians began creating 400 years ago are designed to make you feel. To have the rest of the world melt away as you get lost in a story sung in a language you might not understand, but whose stakes are unmistakable.

No wonder the country that invented the art form where music and poetry merge, and these Winter Olympics seem to be such a perfect fit.

The quadrennial spectacle that began its stay in Northern Italy with a gala hosted by the International Olympic Committee at the iconic La Scala opera house in Milan spent its first full week reflecting the host country’s signature art form onto itself.

The magic the Games so often provide, no matter where they may go, seemingly a little bolder, a little louder, a little more deeply felt.

United States’ Lindsey Vonn is airlifted away after a crash during an alpine ski women’s downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Tearful exits

The initial gasp that gave way to eerie silence after American skiing star Lindsey Vonn’s right arm clipped a gate just 13 seconds into the women’s downhill on Sunday, leading to a spectacular and brutal crash that broke her left leg and ended her unlikely Olympic return at 41.

Crashes happen. It’s a part of the sport. The “only at the Games” flourish came afterward, when Vonn’s long, slow helicopter ride down the mountain to safety veered gently to the left, flying over the grandstand where the throngs who came out to watch her bid for history waved a tearful goodbye instead.

The tears for Vonn were borne out of concern and what might have been. The tears from IOC president Kirsty Coventry after telling Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych he was disqualified for refusing to replace a helmet adorned with images of over 20 coaches and athletes who have died since Russia’s invasion began were of anguish and regret.

“No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging,” Coventry said. “The messaging is a powerful message.”

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych holds his crash helmet as he stands outside the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

One so compelling and so important to Heraskevych that the 27-year-old sacrificed his dreams of Olympic glory to make it. Even if the attention he received for his stand caught him off guard.

“I never expected it to be such a big scandal,” he said on Friday after an appeal hearing.

Four years into a war that drags on with an end still not quite in sight, Heraskevych’s stand dragged a conflict that in some areas of the world has retreated to the shadows and thrust it back into the international spotlight unique to the Games. His selfless decision elevated the discussion about his homeland to the public writ large in a way that no gold-medal-winning run ever could.

Heraskevych’s act was intended for a global audience. Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid was speaking to an audience of one after earning bronze in the men’s 20-kilometer race. His startling confession of infidelity to a former partner after what was supposed to serve as one of the highlights of his career upstaging the gold won in the same race by countryman Johan-Olav Botn.

Love both lost and won

Being lovesick in Italy is hardly new. There’s a reason seemingly every high school literature class makes “Romeo and Juliet” required reading. The Shakespearean tragedy is set in Verona, about 3 hours southwest of where Laegreid made his stunning plea, sounding very much like a teenager in the throes of heartache. His vow of contrition created a viral moment that passes for social currency, the fallout be damned.

“I can understand what he wants to have happen with his girlfriend,” retired German athlete Erik Lesser told The Associated Press. “But I just want to think about sport, want to see sport, want to talk about sport.”

Yet the Olympics have never really been just about sport. How can they be when the lines between sports, politics and culture seem to be growing more blurry by the day? The only thing perfect about the Games may be the five intertwined rings that have long served as its logo.

That’s what makes it so enthralling. A few days after Laegreid achieved a small piece of infamy, Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson retreated into the arms of boyfriend Connor Watkins after crashing in the Super-G.

While Johnson’s dreams of leaving Cortina with multiple golds were gone, another was realized anyway when Watkins dropped to a knee and recited Taylor Swift lyrics while producing a blue and white sapphire ring.

United States’ Breezy Johnson, right, and fiancee Connor Watkins smile at each other as they are interviewed after he proposed to her at the end of an alpine ski, women’s super-G race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Johnson giddily accepted before jumping into his arms, the physical pain and emotional disappointment of what happened up on the mountain only minutes earlier replaced by a memory and a promise that will stick with her forever.

“I think most people want to peak at the Olympics,” Johnson said. “I just extra peaked.”

Ilia Malinin of the United States does a back flip while competing during the figure skating men’s team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Favorites upstaged

Not everyone does at a festival where unpredictability often outduels inevitability for top billing.

For every breakthrough like the one American figure skater Ilia Malinin is providing one electrifying backflip and quadruple jump at a time, there are bold-faced champions somewhat surprisingly ceding the stage they’ve so often commanded.

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Mikaela Shiffrin arrived in Cortina as the winningest ski racer in the history of the sport. Eager to put an 0 for 6 run four years ago in Beijing behind her, she instead began her fourth Olympics with her worst showing in a slalom that she started and finished since 2012, costing Shiffrin and Johnson a gold in women’s combined and opening the door for teammates Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan to claim the first Olympic medals of their long careers.

American snowboarding icon Chloe Kim’s bid for an unprecedented third gold in the halfpipe ended late Thursday when a teenager who grew up idolizing her — Gaon Choi of South Korea — pulled off an upset in snowy Livigno.

“I’m a winner because I was able to persevere and fight through,” said Kim, who competed just a month removed from a dislocated shoulder.

And perhaps more than anything at the Olympics, it’s the fight that matters.

For the thousands of athletes scattered across northern Italy, the road to this moment in their lives is rooted in a passion found long ago. The flames may have flickered for many along the way. How could they not? The drudgery of practice. The financial burden. The inevitable physical toll. The hidden mental strain has only recently graduated from hushed whispers to a full-fledged conversation.

It’s a lot to carry. No wonder it’s such fertile ground for drama.

Italy’s moment

And no one has leaned into it more than the hosts who have surged to the top of the medal table.

Yet a country known for big gestures and even bigger emotions is also one that can revel in the quiet and before the catharsis.

Ten months ago, Italian skier Federica Brignone shredded her left leg in a crash that required multiple surgeries, a handful of screws to keep things in place and months of rehab. The 35-year-old never stopped pointing toward Cortina. On Thursday, in front of a crowd that included Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Brignone ignored the lingering pain to throw down a sublime Super-G run in tricky conditions to earn her first Olympic gold.

After the medal ceremony, the Italian Air Force’s acrobatic unit thundered overhead, leaving a trail of the country’s familiar combination of green, white and red in its wake.

The slopes in Cortina shook. The flags waved. Brignone wept, thinking not so much of glory, but the winding path she took to get here.

“One of those films that you don’t believe in because it’s not possible for it to end that well,” Brignone said.

Maybe that’s the best part.

It’s not the end. We’re only halfway there. Who knows?

Milan Cortina’s second act could be even better than the first.

AP Sports Writers Andrew Dampf, Graham Dunbar, Dave Skretta, Tim Reynolds and AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.

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

MILAN — When Francesca Lollobrigida collected Italy’s first gold medal of the Milan Cortina Olympics this week, the speedskater immediately looked for her 2-year-old son, Tommaso, so they could celebrate together. She found him but was told he wasn’t allowed to go over to where she was after winning the 3,000 meters.

“So, I said, ‘Fine. I’ll go to him,’ ” Lollobrigida said. She sprinted over to Tommaso and enveloped him in a big hug; soon, he was shushing his mother while in her arms during TV interviews.

“Aside from doing this for me, I did it for him, so one day he will be proud of me. Not just for being an Olympic champion, but for all of the journey we’ve lived together,” explained Lollobrigida, who added another gold in the 5,000 on Thursday. “The message I wanted to show is that I didn’t choose between being an athlete and being a mom.”

Yes, mothers and fathers are part of the fabric of these Olympics, and so, too, are their children who’ve tagged along. The 232-athlete U.S. roster, for example, included nine moms — up from just one at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and from four at Beijing in 2022 — and 17 dads.

They’re as little as 1-year-old River, the son of Swiss curlers Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann of Switzerland — the kid dubbed the “Curling Baby” for toting a broom twice his size.

River is hardly alone at the curling. Canadian couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant have their son, Luke, 2, with them. And Eagan sisters Tabith and Tara Peterson are in Italy with two toddlers, Tara’s son Eddie and Tabitha’s daughter Noelle.

This is the third Olympics for Tabitha and second for Tara, and obviously their first with their children in tow. It certainly hasn’t affected their play. The U.S. team — which also includes lead Taylor Anderson-Heide, third Cory Thiesse and alternate Aileen Geving — is 2-1 after the Americans’ 9-8 victory over Canada on Friday.

“You only have so many hours to dedicate to curling. The rest, I want to be a mother. I also have a day job as well — I’m a dentist — so there’s just a lot of things that we need to balance,” Tara Peterson said.

“As for competition, it just makes it that much more sweet when … you make the big shot, you win the big game, you look over, and there’s a little baby screaming, ‘Mama! Mama!’ ”

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By SUSAN HAIGH

NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to cease processing passport applications, disrupting a long-standing service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years.

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The agency, which regulates U.S. passports, began issuing cease and desist orders to not-for-profit libraries in late fall, informing them they were no longer authorized to participate in the Passport Acceptance Facility program as of Friday.

“We still get calls daily seeking that service,” said Cathleen Special, executive director of the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut, where passport services were offered for 18 years but ceased in November after receiving the letter. “Our community was so used to us offering this.”

A State Department spokesperson said the order was given because federal law and regulations “clearly prohibit non-governmental organizations” from collecting and retaining fees for a passport application. Government-run libraries are not impacted.

The spokesperson did not respond to questions as to why it has become an issue now and exactly how many libraries are impacted by the cease and desist order. In a statement, they said, “passport services has over 7,500 acceptance facilities nationwide and the number of libraries found ineligible makes up less than one percent of our total network.”

The American Library Association estimates about 1,400 mostly non-profit public libraries nationwide could potentially be affected, or about 15% of all public libraries, depending on how many offer passport services.

Democratic and Republican members of Congress from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland are pushing back, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month asking him to extend the existing program until Congress finds a permanent solution.

“In a time when demand for passports is surging, libraries are among the most accessible passport acceptance facilities, particularly for working families and rural residents,” the members wrote.

The lawmakers’ letter said people will have to travel long distances, take unpaid time off from work or forgo getting a passport when demand is surging due to Real ID requirements. If Republicans in Congress impose strict new voting rules, citizens could need their passport or birth certificate to register. People fearing immigration agents are also increasingly carrying passports to confirm their citizenship.

They said the change is particularly disruptive to their states, where many public libraries are structured as nonprofit entities. They predicted some libraries, which benefit financially from passport processing fees, will have to lay off staff, cut programs or close their doors if not allowed to continue providing passport services.

Public libraries are organized differently in each state. In Pennsylvania 85% of public libraries are non-profit organizations, versus being a department of a local municipal government. In Maine, it’s 56%; Rhode Island, 54%, New York, 47% and Connecticut, 46%, according to the American Library Association.

Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat, and John Joyce, a Republican, have proposed bipartisan legislation that would allow 501(c)(3) non-profit public libraries to continue to serve as passport acceptance facilities by amending the Passport Act of 1920. A similar companion bill is pending in the Senate.

Dean, who first learned about the policy change from a library in her district that has provided passport services for 20 years, called the State Department’s interpretation of the law “nonsense.”

In Joyce’s rural, south-central Pennsylvania district, the Marysville-Rye Library is one of only two passport facilities serving the 556-square-mile Perry County, according to the letter to Rubio. Now the county courthouse will be the only remaining option.

The State Department noted that 99% of the U.S. population lives within 20 miles of a designated passport processing location, such as a post office, county clerk’s office or government-run library authorized to accept in-person passport applications.

“Should the removal of an ineligible facility affect passport services, we will work to identify new eligible program partners in the impacted area,” the agency spokesperson said.

But Special said the Norwich post office had often referred people to her library for passports when someone needed service outside regular hours or had children who needed to be watched and entertained while their parent filled out the paperwork. Library staff also assisted applicants with language barriers.

“And now the burden falls on them to do all of it and that’s tough on them,” she said of the post office down the street. “I don’t know how they’re keeping up, to be honest, because it was such a popular service with us.”

By OLIVIA DIAZ, Associated Press/Report for America

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — An au pair who schemed with her employer-turned-lover to kill his wife and another man received a 10-year sentence on Friday.

Prosecutors had recommended immediate release for Juliana Peres Magalhães in exchange for her guilty plea to a downgraded manslaughter charge in the February 2023 killing of Joseph Ryan. She testified that she fatally shot Ryan as Brendan Banfield was fatally stabbing his wife, Christine, in the couple’s bedroom.

Instead, the judge delivered the maximum possible sentence to the woman from Brazil.

“I know my remorse cannot bring you peace,” Magalhães said to the victims’ families. “I lost myself in a relationship, and left my morals and values behind.”

Fairfax Chief Circuit Court Judge Penney S. Azcarate showed little mercy.

“Let’s get it straight: You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and his family. May it weigh heavily on your soul,” the judge said.

Magalhães had remained silent for months before agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Brendan Banfield, who was convicted by a jury this month of aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife and Ryan. Prosecutors said they continued their affair for months after the killings.

At his trial, Magalhães testified that she and Banfield, an IRS agent, had created an account in the name of his wife, a pediatric intensive care nurse, on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. Ryan connected with the account and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter involving a knife.

Magalhães said she and Brendan Banfield took the couple’s 4-year-old child to the basement, and then entered the bedroom, where she said Brendan Banfield shot Ryan and was stabbing his wife in the neck. When she saw Ryan moving, Magalhães said, she fired the second shot that killed him.

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She wasn’t arrested until eight months later, and didn’t talk with investigators for more than a year, until she changed her mind as her own trial date approached.

Banfield’s attorney scrutinized the former au pair’s motives during his trial, arguing that she was only saying what prosecutors wanted to hear.

As part of her plea deal, her attorney and prosecutors agreed to end her time behind bars at her sentencing hearing. Chief Judge Penney Azcarate could still reject that agreement. In Virginia, manslaughter is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.