Sports
Brody Malone continues to defy expectations with strong start at gymnastics trials
He shed the bulky knee brace strapped around his right leg, stuck his vault cold to open one of the biggest competitions of his life, and Brody Malone still didn’t crack a smile as he scurried off the mats at Target Center on Thursday.
Malone’s mission is far from done.
In second place after the first day of Olympic trials, the three-time U.S. champion is in a strong position to earn his second Olympic team berth with 85.100 points in the all-around. He trails 2023 world all-around bronze medalist Frederick Richard, who surged into the top spot in the final two rotations and finished with an 85.600.
The top all-around finisher locks in a coveted Olympic berth on the five-man team that will be announced Saturday (2 p.m. PDT, NBC). Malone, third-place finisher Shane Wiskus (84.300 points) and Yul Moldauer, who is tied for fifth (83.700), are vying for their second Olympic berths.
Brody Malone talks about his performance, including how he’s handling the nerves of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials. (Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)
An encore Olympic performance seemed improbable for Malone when he was on an operating table in Germany in March 2023.
Competing in the event finals at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge, Malone peeled off the high bar on his dismount and mangled his right knee. He was rushed to surgery, one of three procedures he needed to repair ligament tears, cartilage damage and a fractured tibial plateau. Brett McClure, USA Gymnastics men’s high performance director, was on the floor in the arena and didn’t think he would see Malone perform again.
Then the former Stanford star won his third U.S. championship this month in his first all-around performance in 17 months.
“Absolutely incredible,” McClure told reporters Wednesday. “It’s mind-blowing. Obviously from my position, high performance director, I want to just see him safely get through Olympic trials. That’s not good enough for him. He wants to go out there and win.”
Malone started with a triumphant vault in the first rotation, sticking his routine while competing without his knee brace for the first time. The brace is designed to push the joint inward while on floor and vault to reduce pain. But it was pushing against his shin and affecting his run. Competing without it marked another major milestone in his comeback.
“Sticking it was the cherry on top, for sure,” Malone said, finally smiling.
Malone’s only misstep came on pommel horse when he nearly slipped off the apparatus, but he muscled through the traveling element to stay on as the crowd exhaled. The slip-up allowed Richard and Asher Hong to jump briefly into a tie for first place over Malone, passing the veteran by just five-hundreths of a point after four rotations.
Brody Malone competes on the still rings at the U.S. Olympic trials on Thursday.
(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)
Hong, who won the all-around national championship in 2023 during Malone’s absence, bounced back from a 10th-place finish at the U.S. championship to finish Day 1 tied with 2023 world championships teammate Moldauer in fifth place (83.700). Moldauer slipped off the pommel horse in his opening routine but rallied with the night’s second-best parallel bars score of 15.150.
Stanford star Khoi Young, who won silver medals on vault and pommel horse at the world championships — a breakthrough event for the U.S. men, who claimed the bronze team medal — struggled on high bar and pommel horse and slipped to 12th.
The mistakes were uncharacteristic for the 21-year-old, who was the first American man to win multiple event medals at a world championships since 1979. Stanford coach Thom Glielmi said he’s never seen Young make those mistakes in practice, let alone competition.
But the trials are no normal meet.
“For a lot of us, it’s the biggest competition of our lives,” Malone said. “All the guys out there that haven’t made the Olympics before, this is their ticket to go. So I mean, of course the nerves are going to be going crazy. Even us that have been to the Olympics before, we want to go again, so the nerves are there for sure.”
Wiskus turned the nerves into energy, thanks to his home court advantage. The Spring Park, Minn., native is competing just 20 miles from his hometown. After a floor routine that pushed him from fourth to second in the standings, Wiskus held one hand to his ear to soak up the adulation from the fans. When he completed his final routine, finishing his rings performance with a small hop on the dismount, Wiskus clapped up a cloud of chalk dust, pumped his fist at the crowd and pounded his chest.
Normally the mild-mannered Midwesterner wouldn’t play to the crowd as much. Maybe when he was younger, an atmosphere like this would rattle him, Wiskus said. Hearing the roar from the crowd when he was introduced helped him let loose.
“I allowed myself to have some fun considering what could potentially be the last meet of my career,” the 25-year-old said.
With another strong performance Saturday, Wiskus could extend his career all the way to Paris.
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Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo made NBA history on Tuesday night.
Adebayo scored 83 points, all while setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game for the Miami Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards. It is the second-highest scoring game for a player ever, only to Wilt Chamberlain’s famed 100-point game.
“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the game.
Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter. He was up to 43 at halftime, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.
He finished 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line, 7 for 22 from 3-point range.
After the game, he was seen in tears while he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game.
“Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore,” Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, wrote on social media, “but at least it gives me something to go after.”
MAGIC’S ANTHONY BLACK MAKES INCREDIBLE DUNK OVER FOUR DEFENDERS IN HISTORIC NBA GAME
Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat celebrates during the fourth quarter of the game against the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center on March 10, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005.
He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 — a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.
Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter — and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.
He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — of 41, set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.
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Adebayo’s season high entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.
Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the last 30 seasons — going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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BOSTON — Charlie McAvoy scored 39 seconds into overtime and Jeremy Swayman stopped 14 shots on Tuesday night to earn the Boston Bruins their 13th straight victory at home, 2-1 over the Kings.
Mason Lohrei scored midway through the third period to break a scoreless tie. But the Kings tied it five minutes later when Drew Doughty’s shot from the blue line deflected off the heel of Bruins forward Elias Lindholm and into the net.
It was the seventh straight time the teams had gone to overtime in Boston.
In the overtime, Mark Kastelic blocked a shot in the defensive zone and made a long pass to David Pastrnak, who waited for McAvoy to come into the zone. The Bruins’ defenseman and U.S. Olympian, who went to the locker room at the end of the second period after taking a puck off his mouth, skated in on Darcy Kuemper and went to his backhand for the winner.
Kuemper stopped 21 shots for the Kings, who entered the night one point out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The victory kept Boston in possession of the East’s second wild-card spot.
Swayman tied his career high with his 25th win of the season. The Bruins haven’t lost at the TD Garden since before Christmas.
After the game, Kings forward and future Hall of Famer Anze Kopitar stayed on the ice to shake hands with the Bruins after what is expected to be his last game in Boston.
Sports
Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card
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Mixed martial arts legend Jon Jones ended his retirement from UFC simply because he wanted a spot on the “Freedom 250” fight card at the White House in June.
But, when UFC CEO Dana White announced the card during UFC 326 this past weekend, Jones wasn’t among the fighters. As a result, he has requested a release from his UFC contract.
White was candid when asked about Jones following the UFC 326 card.
Jon Jones of the United States of America reacts after his TKO victory against Stipe Miocic of the United States of America in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024 in New York City. ((Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images))
“Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousands times, was Jon Jones ever even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” White explained, per CBS Sports. “Some guy with Meta Glasses filmed him talking about his hips – that his hips are so bad. And I don’t know if you guys saw that flag football game where he can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Apparently, doctors say he should have a hip replacement.”
White added that “the Jon Jones thing is bulls—,” saying that he texted the fighter’s lawyer saying he would never be on the White House card despite Jones saying he was in negotiations for it.
UFC ANNOUNCES CARD FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENT
The Meta Glasses incident White is referring to came from a viral video, where Jones, unaware he was being filmed, discussed issues with his hips to a fan.
On Monday, Jones composed a thorough response to White’s comments about him and the White House Card. He previously posted and deleted social media explanations, but Monday’s appeared to be his final statement on the matter.
UFC President Dana White speaks after UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center on Feb. 21, 2026. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)
“Yes, I have arthritis in my hip and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones, who retired a heavyweight champion in 2025, said. “So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine and I’d be on the White House card? That doesn’t make sense. I even received stem cell treatment last week to get ready for the White House card, and training camp was scheduled to start today. I was preparing to be ready.
“I understand business deals fall through sometimes, but going out publicly and saying things that aren’t true isn’t right. After everything I’ve given to the UFC, the years, the title defenses, the fights, hearing that I’m ‘done’ is disappointing. Especially when as recently as Friday UFC was calling me trying to get me on that White House card for a much lower number.”
Jones finished his statement by saying he “respectfully” asks to be released from his UFC contract.
Jon Jones enters the ring before facing Stipe Miocic in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, New York. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
“No more spins, no more games. Thank you to the real fans who know what’s up,” he wrote.
The UFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Jones is considered one of the best UFC fighters of all time, owning a 28-1-1 record, which includes his last bout with Stipe Miocic, knocking him out to take the heavyweight title belt. He is also a two-time light heavyweight champion.
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