By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Sports Writer

The most decorated short track speedskater in Olympic history will be looking to add to her impressive medal tally in front of a home crowd at the Milan Cortina Winter Games. Here’s what to know about the short track competition.

How it works

Unlike long track speedskating, in which most events are 1-on-1 races against the clock, short track is about beating all of the other athletes grouped together on the ice while they sprint counterclockwise laps around an oval. In short track, the competitors wear helmets and gloves to offer protection from, among other things, blade cuts that could result from the frequent collisions and falls.

Who to watch

Assuming she’s healthy — a hip flexor issue sidelined her for part of the season — Italy’s Arianna Fontana will be a must-watch athlete at these Olympics, both because of the support the 35-year-old from the northern town of Sondrio will receive from her countrymen in the crowd and her standing as the owner of the most Olympic medals in the history of short track. This will be Fontana’s sixth Winter Games and second at home: She was just 15 for the 2006 Turin Games and came away with a bronze from the 3,000-meter relay. That was just the start for someone who has collected 11 Olympic medals in all: two golds in the 500, four silvers and five bronzes.

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William Dandjinou was left off Canada’s Olympic squad in 2022 but has since won four world championship golds. Dandjinou and Courtney Sarault gave the Canadians a sweep of the men’s and women’s 2025 World Tour crystal globes.

The U.S. team will be led by Corinne Stoddard, Kristen Santos-Griswold and Andrew Heo.

Venues and dates

Short track will be contested Feb. 10-20 at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, also known as the Unipol Forum, in Assago, just outside Milan. It’s the same arena being used for figure skating during the Olympics. The competition begins with the mixed team relay on Feb. 10 and ends with the men’s 5,000-meter relay and women’s 1,500 meters on Feb. 20.

Memorable moments

Apolo Anton Ohno made short track matter to American audiences by claiming a total of eight medals, two gold, at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Olympics. One of the most famous — or, better, infamous — Olympic short track races came at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, where Steven Bradbury of Australia was way behind the other four finalists in the 1,000 meters but ended up with the gold when everyone else, including Ohno, crashed in the final turn.

Fun facts

Short track races don’t end with skaters leaning their bodies across the finish line, the way athletes do in running events in track and field. That’s because short track winners are determined by when a skate crosses the line; a chip worn near their ankle sends an electronic signal that is tracked.

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

The Gophers saw three key tight ends run out of eligibility in 2025 and the U began to replace them with an external option in Oklahoma transfer Kaden Helms on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound player committed to Minnesota after he visited the U campus this week. The four-star recruit out of Bellevue, Neb., appears to have two years of eligibility remaining.

Helms can help fill the void left by Jameson Geers, Drew Bieber and Frank Bierman, who each played roles in the U offense in 2025. Pierce Walsh leads a group of returning tight ends for 2026.

Helms played 201 offensive snaps for the Sooners last season, with a subpar overall grade (51.1), according to Pro Football Focus. He played 71 snaps in 2024 and 31 during a redshirt year in 2022. He was injured in 2023 and didn’t play.

Helms is the 14th total player to join the U since the transfer portal opened on Friday.

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The Gophers men’s basketball team didn’t have a lot to be thankful for around Thanksgiving.

Over that holiday, Minnesota lost its second and third straight games at the AcriSure Series in Palm Desert, Calif., and the U didn’t have much of a pulse in the latter game, falling 86-75 to Santa Clara on Nov. 28.

Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Langston Reynolds, middle, passes the ball while Iowa Hawkeyes guard Kael Combs (11) and guard Isaia Howard (23) defend during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

In the previous week, the U had lost starting point guard Chansey Willis Jr., to a season-ending foot injury and starting center Robert Vaihola had played his last game this year because of a knee injury.

“I think we were still a little rattled by some of the injuries,” head coach Niko Medved recalled Tuesday. “… All of sudden, you knew right away the team was going to look a lot different than even we had planned back in the fall.”

With a weaker nonconference schedule, the Gophers were mired at 4-4 overall going into December.

Since then, the shorthanded Gophers have declined excuses and won six of seven games, including a 70-67 victory over No. 19 Iowa at Williams Arena on Tuesday. Minnesota now sits at 10-5 overall and 3-1 to start Big Ten play.

“You are either going to embrace it or you are just going to give in,” Medved said, “and we’re not going to give in.”

Guard Langston Reynolds was one of 13 new players on Medved’s first roster at Minnesota. With Willis’ injury, the Northern Colorado transfer moved from a sixth-man role into the starting lineup. He had a game-high 22 points against the Hawkeyes.

“Obviously, we had a lot of guys go down at random times, which (is) terrible. It’s horrible,” Reynolds said. “But just sticking with it, that was the biggest thing. Not splitting off. A lot of teams would split off and say, ‘I’m going to get mine.’ But it wasn’t like that. We thought we had to play for those guys and play for each other. That’s what we can do.”

The Gophers are also without backup forward BJ Omot (leg) and reserve guard Chance Stephens (illness), shrinking their bench even more. That pair of transfers haven’t played all season, leaving the U to rely on a seven-man rotation.

The Gophers started the New Year with an 84-78 win at Northwestern on Saturday. Reynolds, Cade Tyson and Isaac Asuma each played all 40 minutes in the win.

“I’ve never seen that in a college game — at least not one I’ve been a part of,” said Medved, who has been coaching for 29 years, 13 as a head coach.

Reynolds and Asuma each played more than 36 minutes against the Hawkeyes, with two freshman, Grayson Grove and Kai Shinholster, logging more than 15 apiece.

“The other thing when you have injuries like that, it creates clarity now,” Medved said. “The decision tree is gone. These are the seven guys in the rotation. We’ve got to find a way to make it work.”

The Gophers have been able to find success for a few reasons.

Simply, they haven’t backed down when things get dicey. They showed toughness in battling back from a seven-point deficit in the second half against the Wildcats, then weathered a late 20-5 run against the Hawkeyes.

Forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, who followed Medved as a transfer from Colorado State, has been a leader also logging big minutes. He hit a clutch 3-pointer to stave off Iowa with a minute to go.

Minnesota guard Isaac Asuma drives on Iowa’s Kael Combs in a Big Ten basketball game Tuesday, January 6, 2026, at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. (Brad Rempel / Gophers Athletics)

“In the past, teams go up seven or eight, we would kind of lose ourselves,” Crocker-Johnson said Monday. “We are definitely making a lot of jumps recently. I would say, just staying calm, staying together.”

Medved’s offense prides itself on constant cutting, screens and sharing the ball at a high rate. Coming into Tuesday, the U led the nation in assist percentage (75.9), and against Iowa they had assists on 68% of their baskets (15 of 22).

Tyson’s scoring has been a driving force. The transfer from North Carolina is second in the Big Ten at 21.7 points per game.

On defense, Minnesota has been able to — at least partially — limit some of other team’s best players. Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz, Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli and Indiana’s Tucker DeVries each found it frustrating at times against the Gophers.

For instance, Stirtz was held scoreless in the first half against Minnesota and early foul trouble also played a role in that.

The Hawkeyes came into the game at No. 2 in the conference in field goal percentage (51.9), but Minnesota limited them to under 38%.

“My experience has been, over the years, whenever you go through things like this, you become a better coach,” Medved said. “It doesn’t feel good at the time, but you get challenged. You’ve got to change the way you think, got to embrace it and you become better. I think people do, too. Players have embraced that.”

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The Washington County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday decided on their leadership team for the year. Commissioner Karla Bigham will serve as board chair, and Commissioner Bethany Cox will serve as vice chair.

Washington County Commissioners Karla Bigham, left, and Bethany Cox (Courtesy of Bigham and Cox)

Bigham, elected in 2022, is serving in her second term on the county board; she previously served from 2015 to 2018. She also served in the Minnesota Senate, the Minnesota House of Representatives and on the Cottage Grove City Council.

Cox, elected to the board in November 2024, worked as director of development at the Wild Rivers Conservancy of the St. Croix and Namekagon from 2019 to 2024.

The board also recently approved staff and board pay increases. By a 4-1 vote, the board approved pay increases last month for County Administrator Kevin Corbid, Sheriff Dan Starry and County Attorney Kevin Magnuson for 2026; Commissioner Michelle Clasen was the “no” vote in each of the three motions.

Corbid will earn $259,284, a 6 percent increase over last year’s salary. Magnuson will earn $240,466 and Starry $230,605, both 6 percent increases.

The board members voted unanimously to give themselves 3 percent raises; each commissioner now makes $88,051 a year.

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