UR MAG

That feels daunting, even for one of the best snowboarders in the world, whose leadup to the Games took a detour whenshe injured her shoulderduring a training run in Switzerland the second week of January.

"I have so much anxiety," Kim said Monday, two days before she begins her quest to win a third straight gold medal. "But thankfully I have matcha (tea) and there's good vibes here and my family's here, so we'll be good."

The25-year-old Americansaid she returned to the halfpipe about two weeks ago and is wearing a brace on her left shoulder that, "in a funny way ... made my riding better."

Her coach, Rick Bower, told The Associated Press that practices have been going well since Kim returned to the snow.

"Clearly, it's not an ideal situation, but all things considered, the work she's put in over the last 15 years, she's in a place where she can deal with it," he said. "Though it's not what we'd like, the riding is at the point to where she can still compete for gold."

Kim spoke of the mental reboot she was able to enjoy, in large part by winning a contest in Aspen in January 2025 that put her on the Olympic team more than a year before the Games. She won world championships two months after that, then took time off.

Her plan was to ease into the Olympic season — lots of practice, followed by one competition in Copper Mountain, Colo., in December, then another in Laax, Switzerland, in January.

She made it through the low-pressure qualifying round at Copper Mountain, but fell and injured her shoulder while getting ready for the final. She rebounded from that, but suffered the more serious injury almost exactly a month before she jumps into the halfpipe in Italy.

It leaves the one run in Copper Mountain as the only scored run Kim has made since last March. She said often muscle memory overcomes the nerves once she drops in.

"I feel confident," Kim said. "I feel really good about how I'm feeling physically and mentally, and that's most important right now."

When healthy, Kim would be the clear favorite even in a sport that is advancing quickly. Korea's 17-year-old Gaon Choi has been ramping up the difficulty and could pose the greatest threat to Kim's three-peat.

But Kim herself has always led the way on the halfpipe. She said her big run this week is one she's never done. It will be a tougher version of what she won with in Beijing — tricks involving riding backward and forward and spinning in both directions off those approaches.

"If I'm able to pull that off, regardless of where I place, I'll be really content with that," Kim said.

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

"There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of," Hess said at a news conference in Milan ahead of the2026 Winter Olympics. "Wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.

"I'm representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. I just think if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it."

Hess' teammates on the dais with him that day also addressed the topic, but only the 27-year-old from Oregon drew the president's ire. Trump called Hess a "loser" and did not properly convey what Hess said in his post.

Hahna Norman of the United States in women's snowboarding big air qualifications during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Livigno Snow Park.

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Women snowboarders push the limits in high‑flying Big Air event

Hahna Norman of the United States in women's snowboarding big air qualifications during theMilano Cortina 2026Olympic Winter Games at Livigno Snow Park.

The four-member women's halfpipe team, led by two-time Olympian Chloe Kim, largely echoed what Hess originally said.

"I think there are a lot of different opinions in the U.S. right now. Obviously, we're very divided," Bea Kim, 17, 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 us so special."

Nowhere else in the world can an individual express themself with the level of freedom Americans can, Bea Kim said.

"I think the four of us sitting here (Monday) are an example of that. We all came from very different backgrounds."

Chloe Kim's parents, like Bea Kim's grandparents, immigrated to the West Coast from South Korea.

"I think that's also so special about the Olympics. Bringing people together from different countries," while celebrating sport, friendship and respect, Bea Kim said.

Chloe Kim said the recent news has "hit really close to home" because her immigrants made the sacrifice many others have done to build a better life for their descendants in America.

"It is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another with all that's going on," Chloe Kim said. "I'm really proud to represent the United States. It's given my family and I so much opportunity. But I also think that we are allowed to voice our opinions of what's going on. And I think that we should lead with love and compassion. And I'd love to see more of that."

Maddie Mastro agreed that she is proud to represent her country.

"I'm also saddened with what's happening at home. It's really tough and we can't turn a blind eye to that," Mastro said.

At the same time, Mastro said, she represents a country that has not lost what makes it special – kindness and compassion.

By the time Maddy Schaffrick grabbed the mic, she didn't have much to add.

"I feel like the Olympics is the epitome of all countries and cultures coming together in celebration and friendly competition," she said. "I'm proud to represent the U.S. and wear the American flag in such an internationally cohesive event, and do what I love while representing the U.S."

Multiple members of Team USA have received online hate for their comments leading into these Games, from Hess tofigure skater Amber Glennto moguls skier Chris Lillis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:US snowboarders respond to Donald Trump's criticism of Hunter Hess

Hawks Trail Blazers Basketball

And he'll have the Olympics as the television lead-in for his return.

Lillard — who has not played this season while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon — will participate in the 3-point contest on All-Star Saturday, the NBA announced.

Viewers won't have to wait long to see Lillard's return. All-Star Saturday will lead off this year with the 3-point contest, a major change from the norm and a move that could command big ratings — with NBC's coverage of the event immediately following broadcasts from theMilan Cortina Winter Olympics, which the network also airs.

In other words, NBC is going from skating, sliding and skiing to shooting.

Lillard is joining 2018 3-point contest champion Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns in the field, along with Charlotte's Kon Knueppel, Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey, Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell, Denver's Jamal Murray, Milwaukee's Bobby Portis Jr. and Miami's Norman Powell.

If Lillard wins, he would join Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only three-time winners of the event, which will be held at the Los Angeles Clippers' home in Inglewood, California.

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Saturday night's 3-point contest will be followed by thereturn of the Shooting Stars competition, then the dunk contest will close the Saturday night schedule. The skills competition is out, at least for this year.

It would be Lillard's first time playing — or at least shooting — in front of fans sincehe rejoined Portlandgoing into this season. Lillard got hurt last spring while a member of the Milwaukee Bucks, who wound up waiving-and-stretching the remaining $113 million on his contract to make him a free agent and give him the opportunity to re-sign with his original NBA club.

He's not the first 3-point participant without a made 3-pointer in that season: In the 1989 contest, the NBA invited Rimas Kurtinaitis of Lithuania to participate. Kurtinaitis never played in the NBA.

Lillard was the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the Trail Blazers and spent 11 seasons with Portland before he was traded to Milwaukee just before the 2023-24 season. Lillard won back-to-back 3-point contest titles in 2023 and 2024, before Miami's Tyler Herro — who has missed most of this season because of injuries — won the event last season.

Herro is not in the lineup of 3-point participants this year.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Where will they take the tourists today? What fish will be biting? Will the blue skies and calm seas hold? And what the heck should they be calling the water they're fishing in?

A year ago, PresidentDonald Trump'sedict to rename the Gulf of Mexicoformally took effect, and the United States abruptly ‒ legally, anyway ‒ began referring to it as the Gulf of America.

Along the gulf coast

But old habits do indeed die hard, and a USA TODAY Network survey of communities along the coastline – from Florida's Key West, Destin and Panama City to Dulac, Louisiana, and Corpus Christi, Texas – found there's little agreement about what, exactly, people are calling the body of water they live next to. In many cases, locals just call it the same thing they've always called it.

"Down here, we just refer to it as the Gulf," Susanna Pope, 44, said. "It's like saying you're going into town. You don't have to say Key West. You just say town."

What's it called in real life?

In Corpus Christi, a vacationing Jeremiah Orta, 22, said he's only heard people who are being "edgy" online use the new name: "I don't think in real life I've ever heard anyone say Gulf of America."

Although these coastal communities are home to some of Trump's strongest supporters, few people said they simply fell in line behind the president's declaration. Many locals interviewed by the USA TODAY Network declined to speak publicly, citing concerns about potential political retribution if they were quoted picking one name over the other.

Place-naming experts say it's common for new names to take a long time to stick, particularly if the renaming was done abruptly and without public discussion.

In Sarasota County, Florida, Lueanne Wood, who has been living on the Gulf for the past 41 years, says she sticks to tradition.

"As someone in the real estate industry, most of the people that want to move here are older and it can get confusing to call it anything other than what they've heard their whole lives, the Gulf of Mexico," she said. "Everyone in my life and almost everyone I know calls it the Gulf of Mexico, that's the only name for it."

On Marco Island in Florida, Michigan tourist Annette Myers collected shells from what she called the Gulf of Mexico. "This is always going to be the Gulf of Mexico to me," she said.

In Dulac, shrimp boat Capt. Jared Theriot said he's not inclined to consider using the new name. More important to him, he said, was quickly unloading 318 100-pound boxes of frozen shrimp so he could get back onto the water while the fishing remained good.

"I really don't give a f--- what they call it," he said. "It'll always be the Gulf of Mexico to me."

Some take pride in the 'Gulf of America' name

In Destin, Realtor Mary Anne Windes said most people just say the "Gulf," but aboard her husband's charter fishing boat Sunrise, it's most definitely the Gulf of America.

"We've got the Gulf of America [flag] flying on our boat," Windes said, and they wear Gulf of America T-shirts. "It's absolutely the Gulf of America."

The company's Facebook page, however, advertises charter fishing trips on the Gulf of Mexico.

In Panama City, Florida, Iowa tourist Jim Nelson said it's the Gulf of America as far as he's concerned. Trump changed the name, and Nelson feels it's justified.

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"There's a lot more coastline, or beach line, for the United States than there is Mexico," Nelson said.

Why the name change?

In renaming the Gulf, Trump said the new name would better reflect the body of water's important role in fishing, shipping, and oil and gas extraction. Supporters of the change said they hoped it would bring new attention to the important body of water.

But critics noted Trump's decision had more than a whiff of colonial imperialism, where White conquerors renamed places to reflect their worldview – and minimize those of people who called it something else.

"As my administration restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America," Trump said in declaring Feb. 9, 2025, as "Gulf of America Day."

In Fort Myers Beach, Florida, sailboat-dwelling Ian Wylie said he's pleased the president renamed the place he calls home.

"I think people refuse to accept that the name has changed for several different reasons ‒ some political, some not … but I'm actually proud that we have a gulf now named after us," said Wylie, who rents beach chairs to tourists.

What's in a name?

Piloting a boat running supplies to an under-construction bridge at the south end of Fort Myers Beach, Mike "Popeye" Dearden says not only does the name change make sense, but it's part of a human tendency to change geographical names throughout history. He said he thinks opposition to the change comes from people disliking Trump, not the name itself.

"Did you know the Gulf has enjoyed nine official names in its history? Gulf of Mexico may have been the longest, but it's had nine in its history. … They change the maps and get over it," the self-described history buff and trivia geek said. "William Shakespeare said, 'What's in a name?'"

But what is in name? Plenty, said place-naming expert Derek H. Alderman, a chancellor's professor at the University of Tennessee. It's easy to dismiss the Gulf name change as a stunt, Alderman said, but Trump's decision served far deeper purposes than you might at first think.

First, he said, it was an early shot at Mexico, a longtime Trump target. Second, Trump has long understood the power in branding and how names shape perception. And third, it allowed the president to set out ‒ very early in his term ‒ the kind of muscular, go-it-alone approach we've seen unfold over the past year, Alderman said.

"The president recognizes the power of names, the power of brands. And he's extended that in a geopolitical sense, applied some of that same logic to the geopolitical realm," he said. "He was not simply changing the name. He was actually enacting a different worldview that said we're going to be signaling in a nationalistic, almost imperialistic way, America is absolutely first and it's all about American interests."

Alderman, who served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names during the Biden administration, said he wonders what impact the name change will have on high school students learning about geography, history and social studies.

For generations, America's borders have remained unchanged, but Trump has said he wants to expand the country's boundaries. Naming and claiming the Gulf is a step in that process, Alderman said.

"When you rename the Gulf, you're taking about extending territory in a symbolic sense," he said. "This idea that you simply and in a unilateral way rename a place, claim it, that is a pretty old process that's been going on since the days of colonializations. … That worldview will ripple across classrooms and affect how students' worldviews form."

Aboard the Louisiana-based shrimp boat Ensliegh, Capt. Easton Rodrigue said that no matter what people call the Gulf, he just wishes more Americans would buy from shrimpers like him, instead of buying cheaper imported shrimp often farmed under unhealthy and dangerous conditions internationally.

"They have the guys who call it the Gulf of America, but it's not changin' nothin cuz they still buyin' imports," he said.

Contributing: Colin Campo, Houma Courier-Thibodaux Daily Comet;Olivia Garrett, Corpus Christi Caller-Times; J. Kyle Foster, Naples Daily News; Amy Bennett Williams, Fort Myers News-Press; Francesca Abarca, Sarasota Herald-Tribune; Tyler Orsburn, Panama City News Herald; Tina Harbuck,The Destin Log

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Trump renamed this body of water. But what do people really call it?

Wine has been in hiding ‌for weeks after fleeing his home in the capital, Kampala, hours before he was announced the runner-up to President ‌Yoweri Museveni in the January 15 presidential election.

On January 24, Wine said his wife had been taken to hospital after soldiers invaded their residence, alleging that they partially undressed and choked her.

Uganda's military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also Museveni's son, denied soldiers assaulted Wine's wife, but later said on ⁠X that they had "captured and then ‌released" her.

Baryomunsi, who is also a spokesperson for the government, said the authorities would investigate the incident.

"We do not condone any acts of indiscipline on ‍the side of the army and security forces," he said in an interview. "So invading his (Wine's) home, causing damage, assaulting his wife, or anybody, is wrong."

He declined to say if security personnel would face any penalties ​if they were found to have violated the law.

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A spokesperson for Wine's National Unity Platform ‌party did not respond to calls or messages requesting comment.

Kainerugaba has stated in social media posts that the military is looking for Wine, who has rejected the election results, alleging fraud. The army chief has not said why they are looking for Wine or what crime he may be charged with.

Rights groups and the opposition have long accused the government of Museveni, who has ⁠been in power for four decades, of using the ​military to suppress dissent, accusations the government denies.

Baryomunsi also ​said that Uganda had no plans to withdraw its military contingent from an African Union mission to fight jihadists in Somalia, contradicting recent comments from Kainerugaba, ‍who last week threatened in ⁠a post on X to pull troops out of Somalia over financing issues.

Kainerugaba has a history of controversial social media posts that he often later deletes. He once threatened ⁠to behead Wine and also boasted the military had killed 30 opposition supporters.

Baryomunsi said Kainerugaba's posts should be taken ‌as "casual comments that do not reflect state policy and state decisions."

(Reporting by Nairobi ‌Newsroom; Editing by Ammu Kannampilly and Ros Russell)