While some students hit the books, others have spent the first few weeks of the semester hitting the ice, as NYU’s hockey and figure skating seasons are in full swing. But for Grossman student Claire Thompson, along with about 3,500 other athletes representing 93 countries, this time of year marks something else entirely — a rise to the international stage for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The competition kicked off in Milan and Cortina on Feb. 6, and has made no shortage of headlines, including a historic win for Black women, groundbreaking backflips and a penile enlargement scandal. As the semester picks up, here are some of the hottest topics from the opening week to keep you up to date.
Laila Edwards makes history for Team USA women’s hockey
In Tuesday’s staggering 5-0 shutout of Team Canada during the preliminary round, UW-Madison senior Laila Edwards became the first Black woman to not only compete, but score an Olympic goal for U.S. women’s hockey as she buried in the last point of the game.
Edwards, an Ohio native and forward and defender for the Badgers, became the first Black woman on the roster when she joined Team USA as a sophomore in 2023. She’s already notched 77 collegiate goals and played in two national championships, and was named First-Team All-American during the 2024-25 season.
Edwards told CBS it was “an incredible honor” to be a trailblazer for Team USA. Her journey with hockey began when she was five years old, after getting her start in figure skating two years prior. She was the only girl on her team but stayed consistent with the sport — scoring on goalies five years older than her in one childhood clinic — and has now become one of the country’s biggest stars.
“I’ve had kids say, ‘You’re my favorite player. You look like me,’” Edwards told ESPN earlier this month. “I think that’s so important to have someone at a high stage who looks like you — and it’s even more important that I can succeed at this high stage.”
The win brings Team USA to the top of Group A’s standings with a perfect 4-0-0-0 record thus far, ahead of Team Canada by six points. The two powerhouses have a bitter rivalry, with their most recent matchup on Olympic ice being the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics gold medal game. The United States went home with the second prize after Canada took a narrow 3-2 victory, but this year’s team is on the hunt for revenge.
Ski jumpers artificially enlarge their penises
In early January, German newspaper Bild reported that ski jumpers were injecting hyaluronic acid into their penises to enlarge them before getting measured for their ski jumping suits. Now, the World Anti-Doping Agency is deciding whether this creates an unfair advantage on the slopes.
By enlarging their penises before measurements, athletes aim to increase the amount of material and surface area the suit has. The larger its surface area, the more lift a suit can generate, which can increase a ski jumper’s distance.
Hyaluronic acid can enlarge skiers’ penises by less than an inch, and its effects can take up to 18 months to dissolve. The treatment is not yet banned in the sport, and WADA will only intervene if it falls under the definition of doping.
“Every extra centimeter on a suit counts,” Sandro Pertile, men’s race director for the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, told The Guardian. “If your suit has a 5% bigger surface area, you fly further.”
France takes gold in the ice dance after a bitter split
French figure skating pair Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry took gold in Wednesday’s ice dance just a few months after first competing together. But the partnership is defined not only by its success on the ice, but also by the unique controversy that precipitated it.
Cizeron was originally paired with now-retired figure skater Gabriella Papadakis, but the two faced a fiery split earlier this year after Papadakis claimed he abused her throughout their partnership. Cizeron called the allegations — detailed in Papadakis’ new memoir — a “smear campaign” and is taking legal action.
Papadakis retired in late 2024 because she was “exhausted, physically and mentally” and worked as an NBC ice dance commentator throughout 2025. She planned to travel to Milan with NBC as an analyst, but was dropped due to conflicts of interest relating to her memoir.
As a free agent, Cizeron searched for a new partner to take the ice with, and found Fournier Beaudry. The Canadian native was previously paired with Canadian skater Nikolaj Sørensen, her current boyfriend, but was left solo after he received a six-year suspension for sexual assault allegations.
Despite the controversy, Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry have proven to be a successful pair. They have won five out of the six competitions they’ve entered together, including the 2026 European Championship in Sheffield and the Milan Olympics ice dance event.
US skater Ilia Malinin lands the Olympics’ first legal backflip on one skate
With the opening of figure skating events in Milan this weekend, Ilia Malinin of Team USA stunned the crowd by landing a backflip on the ice multiple times — most notably one executed on one foot, marking the first time the move has been performed legally in an Olympic competition.
A backflip was first landed in 1976 by American skater Terry Kubika, but was quickly banned due to safety concerns and the fact that a two-foot landing did not meet traditional judging standards. Several skaters have since performed the flip in protest, most notably Surya Bonaly, who landed a backflip on one blade at the 1998 Olympics despite the ban, but the restriction wasn’t lifted until 2024.
While the backflip is technically worth no points, Malinin — known as the “Quad God” — still delivered a dominant performance throughout the weekend, earning the top overall spot. His program featured some of the sport’s most difficult elements, including a quad lutz-triple toe loop combination.
Malinin already secured a gold medal as part of Team USA’s mixed team event and is poised as a contender for additional medals as the competition continues.
US skier Lindsey Vonn crashes after ACL rupture
After deciding to ski in Milan on a torn ACL, Team USA’s Lindsey Vonn suffered a devastating crash during her run in the women’s downhill event on Monday.
Vonn was airlifted to a clinic in Cortina after the fall, where it was determined she sustained a complex tibia fracture. The Olympian underwent emergency surgery to stabilize the fracture, but will need multiple others to properly fix the injury — deeming her unable to continue with Olympic competition.
Around two weeks ago, Vonn ruptured her ACL at the Alpine Ski World Cup but still decided to compete at the Olympics. Despite speculation, Vonn said in a statement that the crash was a result of cutting her line 5 inches too tight — taking a too-sharp path and hitting a nearby gate — and had nothing to do with the prior injury.
Days before the crash, Vonn had completed two successful training runs. While disappointed, she made it clear she had zero regrets about her decision to compete and encouraged her fans to follow their dreams just as she did.
“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped,” Vonn wrote on Instagram. “I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.”
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