Blizzard conditions during the alpine skiing men’s slalom competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games led to chaos for the participants, and a medal favorite lost his cool at the end of Monday’s runs.

Out of the 96 competitors in the field, 52 of them were unable to complete their first runs on the mountain due to the snowy conditions. Skiers were having trouble keeping their balance, let alone hitting each gate.

Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath, competing in his second Olympic Games, was leading the field after the disastrous first run for many of his opponents.

McGrath held a whopping 59-second lead heading into the second run, which is great for any slalom skier hoping to take home gold.

But, after straddling a gate on his second run, McGrath ruined his chances at taking home any medal, let alone gold.

McGrath knew that and reacted as such, launching his ski poles out of frustration. Then, after he was making his way off the course, he laid in the snow with his hands on his head, wondering what went wrong.

ILIA MALININ POSTPONES PRESS CONFERENCE A DAY AFTER EIGHTH-PLACE OLYMPIC FINISH

In turn, Switzerland’s Loïc Meillard won the gold medal, followed by Fabio Gstrein taking home silver and McGrath’s Norwegian teammate Henrik Kristoffersen winning bronze.

“It’s amazing,” Meillard said after winning gold, per the New York Post. “It’s been long days, a lot of expectations and about what you want to achieve, a lot of pressure on yourself.”

Gstrein added, “The feeling is great, really nice and cool,” after winning his silver medal.

McGrath’s wipeout despite being the gold-medal favorite heading into the second run is just another example of how these Winter Games have not been going according to plan for many of the top athletes competing.

On the United States’ side, snowboarder Chloe Kim and figure skater Ilia Malinin are just two examples of expected gold-medal finishers who had wipeout moments in their decisive events.

Kim needed higher than a 90 on his third attempt at the women’s halfpipe to make Olympic history with three straight gold medals after 17-year-old Gaon Choi of South Korea had a clean final run to overtake first place.

Kim fell after attempting a trick, thus leaving her with the silver medal.

As for Malinin, he wasn’t on the podium like Kim, falling twice during the men’s free skate. The 21-year-old, nicknamed “Quad God,” finished eighth in the event, shocking everyone in Milan.

But that’s the nature of the high-pressure moments the Olympics can bring out in these athletes. Execution is key, and when things don’t go the way they are hoped to, frustration can leak out.

In McGrath’s case, that frustration involved some pole throwing.

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PHOENIX — Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts revealed that the team will be without its versatile second baseman and utilityman Tommy Edman when it opens the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on March 26.

The 30-year-old Edman underwent ankle surgery during the offseason after being limited to 97 games in 2025 in his first full season with the Dodgers.

“I think just looking at where his ankle is at, trying to play the long view that you don’t want to have any regression or setbacks,” Roberts said. “So, how can we be methodical with it? Just for me, knowing that he’s just taking swings is enough. We’re not going to rush it. We want to put him in the best position, so I think it just kind of became [clearer] very recently.”

Edman will open the season on the injured list, something he is at peace with. He felt that a return before opening day was a bit ambitious, and that it would be better to err on the side of caution.

“That was always kind of a stretch, just due to the nature of the injury and the timing of the surgery and everything,” Edman said. “I think, having been out of the boot for a little over a month now, I was just kind of waiting to see how it progressed, and everything has gone exactly on-schedule. We were kind of leaving opening day open, just in case it happened to feel way better than expected. Everything’s on the expected schedule so far. As I get into more baseball stuff, I still have to work into the adaptation of volume. As the volume goes up, the swelling kind of increases a little bit, so I’ve got to take it slow and let the progress play out the way it was planned all along, instead of trying to speed it up.”

For now, Edman is slow-playing it.

“He took some swings a couple days ago, [from] both sides,” Roberts said. “He did some skipping, some light jogging, I think it was. He’s getting his body into baseball shape, so obviously he’s not going to be ready for the start of camp. He’s in that same bucket of, ‘When he’s ready, he’s ready.’ But each day, there’s been progress.”

Evan Phillips excited to be back

Days after signing a one-year contract to return to the Dodgers — despite being non-tendered earlier in the offseason — Evan Phillips expressed relief at being back.

“[The offseason] was quiet for a little bit,” Phillips said. “I leaned on my agent to be patient and trust that things were going to work out and we’re certainly glad that we’re back. It was definitely a very, very wild ride this offseason. It feels like I never left, so it’s kind of weird to get all the handshakes and hugs, but it’s just another spring training to me. I’m certainly glad to be back in Dodger blue.”

Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes told reporters Sunday that Phillips should return to the Dodgers sometime in the middle of the season. He underwent Tommy John surgery last June.

“[I’ve been] doing long toss a few times a week, hoping to get on the bullpen or on the mound for a bullpen next month,” Phillips said. “I’ll start that mound progression here in the next couple of weeks. I think, actually, Tuesday I’ll throw off of the mound for the first time, but it won’t be to a catcher or anything. It’ll just be a catcher standing up and there’s a slow progression, week by week. So [there will be] plenty of steps ahead that’s going to keep me busy here in Arizona, but I’m definitely looking forward to that progression.”

American speedskater Brandon Kim attempted to get Team USA into the finals of the short track 500-meter event at the Winter Olympics on Monday, but was involved in an unfortunate incident.

Kim was racing against the Netherlands’ Jens van ‘t Wout, Ukraine’s Oleh Handei and Uzbekistan’s Daniil Eybog in the seventh heat. As the group was coming around one of the first turns, Kim, Handei and Eybog all crashed. Van ‘t Wout ended up finishing ahead of the three.

Kim was penalized and did not complete a lap in the race.

The Virginia native was competing in his first Winter Olympics for Team USA. He was a star on the junior circuit as he picked up a bronze in the World Junior Championships in 2017.

Kim was also disqualified from the short track 1,000-meter heats last week. Van ‘t Wout won the gold in the event.

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Team USA still has hopes to medal in the 500-meter event as Andrew Heo had the fastest time in his heat with a time of 41.136.

The Americans have found the podium hard to get to in this year’s Olympics. Going into Monday, Team USA has attained 17 total medals but only five gold.

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Team USA finished with 25 total medals when the 2022 Beijing Olympics came to an end. The team won nine gold, nine silver and seven bronze that year.

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