TESERO, Italy — Bruised ribs are undermining American cross-country skiing star Jessie Diggins’ hopes of achieving something satisfying from her last Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina.

Diggins was hurt in a fall in her opening race — the 20-kilometer skiathlon — on Sunday and the toll also limited her ability to put in a strong finish in the sprint classic on Tuesday in Tesero.

The current World Cup leader and one of the most decorated U.S. cross-country skiers was eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual bronze medalist Maja Dahlqvist of Sweden. Diggins was visibly uncomfortable late in the sprint after a fast start, struggling to generate power in the finishing stretch.

“When I crashed in the skiathlon, I bruised my ribs and it is really painful,” Diggins said. “Double poling is pretty tough right now, so I’m doing the best I can. But it’s not my finest finishing stretch of my life.”

Breathing deeply remains difficult, though she was relieved the ribs were not worse.

“There’s just really not much you can do,” said the Afton native who won gold in the women’s team sprint at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. “I’m happy that they’re not sprained or broken because I’ve been there with sprained ribs. I know I can do it. It’s just a bummer.”

On Saturday, Diggins, 34, fell early in the skiathlon in heavy, wet snow, losing contact with the lead pack. She rebounded with a strong freestyle leg to finish eighth.

She’s determined to push on in a frustrating start in her final Olympics.

“I’m just going to keep showing up and doing the best I can,” she said, “and just putting everything I have out there.”

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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — At one end of the ice was the brother, pumping his fists. At the other was the sister, jumping up and down with her broom in her hand and a look of disbelief on her bespectacled face.

Isabella and Rasmus Wranå, Sweden’s first team of siblings at the Winter Olympics, won gold in mixed doubles curling on Tuesday night, beating U.S. pair of Duluthians Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin.

Sweden’s Rasmus Wranaa and Isabella Wranaa celebrate in background as United States’ Cory Thiesse hugs with Korey Dropkin at the end of the gold medal mixed doubles curling match against USA, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

The Wranås persevered through a nailbiter of a championship game in front of a spirited, pro-U.S. crowd and pounced after the Americans left an opening in the last end. Isabella threw the winning stone and hunched close to the ice, watching her brother sweep until their red stone knocked out the Americans’ yellow rock for a 6-5 victory.

“It’s a perfect shot for me to have, a takeout,” Isabella Wranå said. “But of course you’re nervous. It’s the last shot, and you know if you make it, it’s an Olympic gold. But I felt like we kept the calm. We talked about how we’re going to throw it, and I knew that I had a really strong sweeper.”

The Americans made history just by getting this far. They became the first U.S. team to medal in Olympic mixed doubles, and Thiesse is the first American woman to medal in Olympic curling.

“It’s been a long time coming, and this is a really big day for USA Curling and for women’s curling in the U.S. I hope that I can bring this medal home and inspire the next generation of women to be up on that podium someday,” Thiesse said.

The Wranå siblings grew up as rivals and were coached by their father, Mats Wranå.

Their current coach, Alison Kreviazuk, said she saw them work on communication throughout their run.

“They’ve got two different personalities out there, so it’s finding that mix of how they can complement each other,” Kreviazuk said. “Figuring out how to talk with each other, I think that they’ve really, really nailed it over the past couple years, and it’s showcased.”

Throughout the match, the Wranås enjoyed a somewhat silent camaraderie with their small contingent of fans. The two remained stoic while Dropkin played to the crowd, whipping up the loud American supporters.

The Wranås won the world title in 2024. Thiesse and Dropkin won at worlds a year earlier, and Thiesse is the third for the USA’s Team Peterson, which begins play Thursday against South Korea and Sweden.

The Swedish duo started their Olympic bid on stumbly legs, losing three games in a row in the round robin. The skid prompted the Swedish media to label their Olympic bid a “Curlingfiasko.”

But they managed to turn it around and won most of their remaining matches.

It was a heartbreaker for the Americans, who enjoyed roaring support. An American curler screamed from the rafters, “Show me your biceps!” Dropkin obliged.

Thiesse and Dropkin are based in Duluth, Minnesota, and have full-time jobs. Thiesse is a lab technician and Dropkin a real estate agent. Dropkin is engaged and Thiesse is married.

They were classmates in college. Dropkin asked Thiesse to be his mixed doubles partner after a failed qualification run for the Beijing 2022 Games. She agreed and they were world champions a year later.

Italy wins bronze

Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner won bronze, defeating Britain 5-3. It was a bittersweet result for the Italians, the defending Olympic champions whose fans packed the stands throughout the round-robin in hopes to see a repeat. And it was devastating for the Brits, Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, who were expected to make the final after exiting the round-robin with the most wins of any pair.

Sweden’s Rasmus Wranaa and Isabella Wranaa, top, celebrate after winning the curling mix doubles gold medal match against Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse of the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

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A Hmong woman living in St. Paul was not detained during a Tuesday appointment at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, as she feared, but her case remains unresolved.

Nou uses her walker at her St. Paul home on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. Nou, who asked to be referred to by only her first name due to safety concerns, fears that, given the current surge in immigration enforcement in Minnesota, she will be taken into custody. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

She was married to a man around three times her age when she was 15 and living in a refugee camp in Thailand in 1992. Her uncle sponsored her as a refugee and she came to California to live with her husband the next year.

Nou, who asked to be referred to by her first name for her safety, says her husband physically abused her for years, as well as controlling her emotionally and financially. In what she describes as an act of self defense, she fatally stabbed him in 2003 and stabbed herself in a suicide attempt.

She pleaded no contest to manslaughter and served nearly seven years in prison. Immigration officials were waiting when she was released. Her green card was taken and she was given a removal order, which was not carried out. She is required to have regular check-ins with immigration officials.

With the surge in immigration enforcement in Minnesota, Nou was worried she could be detained at Tuesday’s appointment.

She can’t walk on her own and is disabled — as a result of her husband’s abuse and the suicide attempt, she says — and believes she couldn’t survive detention or being deported to Laos. She and her family fled the country when she was 2, and she has no relatives there.

Nou’s brother, who is her caretaker, brought her to Tuesday’s appointment in her wheelchair. Under her jacket, Nou wore a shirt that said, “America the Beautiful.”

Two advocates also were present and one accompanied Nou into the building.

It was a short appointment at the St. Paul office, during which Nou’s fingerprints and photo were taken. Nou said afterward she was relieved, but had “a renewed sense of worry” because her next appointment is scheduled for June.

Xay Yang, the advocate who accompanied Nou, is executive director of Transforming Generations, a St. Paul nonprofit that provides support services to victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in the Hmong and Southeast Asian communities.

KaYing Yang, senior advisor for the Southeast Asian Freedom Network and Southeast Asian Action, also was there to support Nou.

“Individuals like her have already served their time, so it’s really double punishment,” KaYing Yang said of the removal order.

Xay Yang said they will try to help Nou with navigating resources and getting her the legal support she needs, which is anticipated to be expensive. Former St. Paul City Council Member Dai Thao has set up a GoFundMe (gofund.me/fd04d955f) for Nou’s legal and medical needs.

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By BILL BARROW, Associated Press

U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s team posted and then deleted a message on social media about the Republican’s visit to a memorial paying tribute to early 20th century Armenians killed by the Ottoman Empire.

The issue was the post using the term “Armenian genocide,” a designation the U.S. government historically has not used for what happened, with a notable exception by the Biden administration. The White House blamed a staff mistake.

Here are some questions and answers about what that means, what Vance himself did and didn’t say, and why it matters.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance takes part in the wreath-laying ceremony during a visit to the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

What did Vance go see in Armenia?

Vance visited a site called the Armenian Genocide Memorial, Armenia’s official national monument, remembering its citizens who died under the Ottoman Empire’s brutal control during World War I.

The initial post on Vance’s official X account stated that he was visiting the memorial “to honor the victims of the Armenian genocide.” It was replaced with a second post that showed what he wrote in the guest book as well as a clip of the vice president and Usha Vance laying flowers at the memorial.

Vance, the first U.S. vice president to visit Armenia, was in the country as part of the Trump administration’s follow-up to a U.S.-brokered deal aimed at ending a decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Vance traveled later Tuesday.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance gets out of a car before boarding Air Force Two upon departure for Azerbaijan, at Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia, Tuesday Feb. 10, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

Why does the word choice matter?

“Genocide” is a fraught and legally distinct term that national governments, international bodies and media organizations use carefully.

The United Nations in 1948 defined genocide “to mean certain acts, enumerated in Article II, committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,” according to the U.S. State Department’s long-held understanding.

It is not questioned that many thousands of Armenian citizens, most of them Christians, died at the direction of the Committee of Union and Progress that led the Muslim government in Constantinople, now the Turkish capital of Istanbul.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that “at least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million” died.

But the U.S. government has historically not recognized what happened as a “genocide” out of fear of alienating Turkey, a key U.S. ally in the region. In 2021, then-President Joe Biden formally recognized that the systematic killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces were a part of a “genocide.”

Turkey reacted with fury at the time. The foreign minister said his country “will not be given lessons on our history from anyone.”

People of Armenian descent recall the victims with memorials and an annual day of remembrance observed around the world, including in the U.S.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance hold flowers as they walk toward the eternal flame at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

What did Vance himself say?

Vance was asked specifically on Tuesday about his visit to the memorial and whether he was “recognizing” genocide.

He avoided using the word and said he went to “pay my respects” at the invitation of his host, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and his government.

“They said this is a very important site for us, and obviously I’m the first (U.S.) vice president to ever visit Armenia,” Vance said. “They asked us to visit the site. Obviously, it’s a very terrible thing that happened a little over a hundred years ago and something that’s very, very important to them culturally.”

Vance added that it was “a sign of respect, both for the victims but also for the Armenian government that’s been a very important partner for us in the region.”

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What did the White House say?

The White House blamed the original post on a staff member. It’s the second time in less than a week that the West Wing has blamed an unnamed aide for a controversy over a social media post. Last Friday, it was a racist video that Trump had shared on his Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as jungle primates.

The White House defended that post initially before deleting it after a cascade of criticism.

What happens next?

It’s not yet clear whether there will be any diplomatic consequences. Vance, for his part, seemed determined to keep the focus on the original mission of his trip.

“I think the president struck a great peace deal. I think the administration is really making it stick,” Vance said.

Still, there is the political question of whether Armenian Americans react, with the rhetorical boomerang offering one more reminder of how reluctant the U.S. has been to use the word “genocide” to describe what Armenians remember that way.

White House reporter Michelle Price contributed reporting from Baku, Azerbaijan.