The Frost sent eight players to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy, and for most it will be a familiar experience. Of the six Minnesota players on Team USA, only forwards Taylor Heise and Britta Curl-Salemme are first-timers.

And for Heise, it’s been a long time coming.

Minnesota Frost’s Grace Zumwinkle, left, throws out a ceremonial first pitch as teammate Taylor Heise, right, watches before a baseball game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Minnesota Twins, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The Lake City, Minn., native and former Gopher was left off the U.S. team that would win a silver medal in the 2022 Games in Beijing, and it was difficult. “I was pretty close,” she said.

“Four years is a long time to wait,” Heise said.

She and Curl-Salemme join Frost teammates who have been here before: Kendall Coyne Schofield, Lee Stecklein, Kelly Pannek and Grace Zumwinkle.

For Heise, the most notable name there is Zumwinkle, the Gophers teammate who moved on to Beijing in 2022 while Heise stayed in Minneapolis.

Both agreed it was a growing moment in their relationship, and that their bond as friends is tighter than either could have expected back in 2022.

“We’re the best of friends on and off the ice, so it’ll be super cool to share that experience together,” Zumwinkle said. “I know we’ve both had to overcome times of adversity in the past, and it’s ultimately brought us closer together. We’re super excited for it together, and I think it should be a lot of fun.”

And perhaps sweeter than it would have been in 2022, when the Games were played under strict COVID restrictions that severely limited the athletes’ ability to mingle and had them playing in mostly empty arenas. As usual, the 2022 gold medal was decided by a game between the U.S. and Canada that Canada won, 3-2.

For Zumwinkle, an Excelsior native who played high school hockey at Breck, these Games will be an exciting change.

“I have a lot of family and friends coming over, so we’re excited about that,” she said. “And I think it’ll be a completely different experience.”

Heise and Zumwinkle have been Gophers, Frost and World Championship teammates. Now, they’re Olympic teammates.

Upon officially earning a spot on the 2026 team on Jan. 2, Heise said being cut in 2022 — by then-head coach and Gophers assistant Joel Johnson — was appropriate. “I wasn’t ready,” she said, and after looking inward, she vowed to get better.

And she did

That spring, Heise won the 2022 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the nation’s best college player after scoring 29 goals and amassing 66 points in 39 games for the Gophers. In the summer, she was the MVP and leading scorer (18 points) at the IIHF World Championships.

After a last season with the Gophers, Heise became the first overall draft pick in PWHL history, picked by the Frost in September 2023. Since then, Heise has been a Team USA fixture and two-time PWHL champion.

Being separated from longtime teammate and roommate Zumwinkle, Heise said, was, “Honestly, probably the best for both of us.”

“I learned a lot, she learned a lot separately,” she said. “I think this time, being 25, we’ve kind of understood the process now. I’m just super excited to be along with her. So I know it’s going to be a good ride.”

Heise will have her fiancé, former Gophers basketball player Parker Fox, among friends and family in Italy, and she will reunite with former Gophers teammate Abbey Murphy, one of four current Minnesota players in Milan.

“Crazy,” Heise said. “It’s been a month. But (I’m) just super excited to get there, and obviously the chance of a lifetime. So, trying to take advantage of that.”

The U.S. won Olympic gold in 2018 with a team that included Coyne Schofield, Pannek and Stecklein.

Gophers senior Taylor Heise, right, celebrates her game-winning goal with teammate Nelli Laitinen in a 3-2 overtime victory over Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 4, 2022, at Ridder Arena (Bjorn Franke / Gophers Athletics)

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By SUDHIN THANAWALA

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal judges around the country are scrambling to address a deluge of lawsuits from immigrants locked up under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Under past administrations, people with no criminal record could generally request a bond hearing before an immigration judge while their cases wound through immigration court unless they were stopped at the border. President Donald Trump ‘s White House reversed that policy in favor of mandatory detention.

Immigrants by the thousands have been turning to federal courts by using another legal tool: habeas corpus petitions. While the administration scored a major legal victory Friday, here’s a look at how that’s affecting federal courts and what some judges have done in response:

Judges are raising the alarm

In one federal court district in Georgia, the enormous volume of habeas petitions has created “an administrative judicial emergency,” a judge wrote in a court order on Jan. 29. U.S. District Judge Clay Land in Columbus said the Trump administration was refusing to provide bond hearings to immigrants at Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center despite his ”clear and definitive rulings” against mandatory detention. Instead, the court had to order the hearing in each individual case, wrote Land, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush.

In Minnesota, where the administration’s immigration enforcement surge continues, U.S. District Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said in a Jan. 26 order Trump officials had made “no provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result.” The court had received more than 400 habeas petitions in January alone, according to a filing by the government in a separate case.

Schiltz, who was also nominated by Bush, said in a separate order two days later that the government since January had failed to comply with scores of court decisions ordering it to release or provide other relief to people arrested during Operation Metro Surge.

And in the Southern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said in an opinion in December that the district had been “flooded” with petitions for relief from immigrants who posed no flight risk or danger but were nonetheless imprisoned indefinitely. Subramanian, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and presides in New York City, granted a 52-year-old Guinean woman’s habeas petition and ordered her release.

“No one disputes that the government may, consistent with the law’s requirements, pursue the removal of people who are in this country unlawfully,” he wrote. “But the way we treat others matters.”

The administration defends its actions

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Friday that the administration was “more than prepared to handle the legal caseload necessary to deliver President Trump’s deportation agenda for the American people.”

DHS and the Justice Department, which also emailed a statement, slammed the judiciary.

“If rogue judges followed the law in adjudicating cases and respected the Government’s obligation to properly prepare cases, there wouldn’t be an ‘overwhelming’ habeas caseload or concern over DHS following orders,” the Justice Department statement said.

On Friday, a federal appeals court backed the administration’s policy of detaining immigrants without bond. The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marked a major legal victory for the government and countered a slew of recent lower court decisions that argued the practice was illegal.

Immigration attorneys accuse the administration of flouting a key court decision

In November, a federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy was illegal. U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, who was also nominated by Biden, later expanded the scope of the decision to apply to detained immigrants nationwide.

But plaintiffs’ attorneys said the administration continued to deny bond hearings.

“This was a clear cut example of blatant defiance, blatant disregard of a court’s order,” Matt Adams, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told The Associated Press in January.

According to Sykes, the government argued her decision was “advisory” and told immigration judges, who work for the Justice Department and are not part of the judicial branch, to ignore it. The judge said she found the latter instruction “troubling.”

In its statement, DHS said “activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations.”

Judges are trying to find ways to ease the burden

Land, the federal judge in Georgia, directed other judges in his district to immediately order the government to provide bond hearings to immigrants who meet criteria established by two previous habeas cases.

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Maryland District Court Chief Judge George L. Russell III has ordered the administration not to immediately remove any immigrants who file habeas petitions with his court, under certain conditions. Russell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, said in an amended order in December that the court had received an influx of habeas petitions after hours that “resulted in hurried and frustrating hearings.”

In Tacoma, Washington, U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright ordered the administration last month to give immigrants detained at a processing center in Tacoma notice of her ruling that the mandatory detention policy was illegal. Cartwright, who was also nominated by Biden, said the high volume of habeas filings had put a “tremendous strain” on immigration attorneys and the court.

The Gophers football program gained two more Super Bowl champions in Boye Mafe and Nick Kallerup contributing to the Seattle Seahawks’ 29-13 win over New England on Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif.

Minnesota last had former players active in a Super Bowl victory in 2021 when Antonie Winfield Jr., and Tyler Johnson were a part of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ victory.

Mafe, who attended Hopkins High School, was credited with with one tackle and a quarterback hit in the big game. Kallerup, of Wayzata, has played on special teams and as an extra blocker on offense this season.

After the win, Mafe celebrated with a cigar and holding up the Nigerian flag in honor of his heritage.

New England had former U linebacker Jack Gibbens on defense and special teams in Super Bowl 60. The Bulverde, Texas, native was credited with four tackles in the loss, but also gave up a second-half touchdown.

The Gophers now have a total of 22 Super Bowl champions since 1967. The last was kicker Ryan Santoso in 2022; he was a member of the L.A. Rams’ practice squad.

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LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Chloe Kim and Eileen Gu, two Olympic standouts who have faced their share of hate over the years, each weighed in Monday on Donald Trump’s bashing of their friend, American freeskier Hunter Hess, for having said he didn’t back the U.S. president’s heightened crackdown on immigrants.

“I think in moments like these, it is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another for all that’s going on,” said Kim, the two-time Olympic gold medalist whose parents are South Korean immigrants and who has faced racism throughout her career for her Asian heritage.

Gu, the American-born freeskier who competes for China, said after her silver-medal win in slopestyle that she had been in touch with Hess, who told her she was one of the few people who could relate to what he’s going through.

“As someone who’s been caught in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes,” said Gu, who was born in San Francisco and whose decision to compete for China turned her into a lightning rod.

Hess drew Trump’s ire when he was asked by reporters to give his views on the immigration crackdown that has claimed the lives of two protestors in Minnesota and disrupted thousands of lives of immigrants and U.S. citizens. Hess answered: “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

The next day, Trump lashed out at Hess on his Truth Social account, calling him “a real Loser” and saying he would be hard pressed to root for him at the Games. Hess’s friends — snowboarders and freeskiers competing this week in Livigno — were asked for their reaction.

“My parents being immigrants from Korea, this one definitely hits pretty close to home,” said Kim, who begins defense of her title Wednesday.

“I’m really proud to represent the United States,” she said. “The U.S. has given my family and I so much opportunity, but I also think that we are allowed to voice our opinions of what’s going that we need to lead with love and compassion.”

Other American snowboarders spoke out for diversity and the right of expression.

“I think there are a lot of different opinions in the U.S. right now. Obviously we’re very divided,” snowboarder Bea Kim said. “I personally am very proud to represent the United States. That being said, I think diversity is what makes us a very strong country and what makes that so special.”

Teammate Maddie Mastro added: “I’m also saddened with what’s happening at home.”

“It’s really tough and I feel like we can’t turn a blind eye to that. But at the same time, I represent a country that has the same values as mine of kindness and compassion. And we come together in times of injustice,” Mastro said.

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Gu called it “an unwinnable press war” for Hess and lamented the fact that the controversy could be a distraction for the athletes, and overshadow the beauty of the biggest event in winter sports.

“I’m sorry that the headline that is eclipsing the Olympics has to be something so … unrelated to the spirit of the Games,” she said. “It really runs contrary to everything that the Olympics should be.”

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