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Lindsey Vonn says she’ll still race. Picabo Street calls her ‘an absolute beast’

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Almost 20 skiers with ties to Utah will be in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. That includes Park City resident and comeback queen Lindsey Vonn. 

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The games open Feb. 6, and the first women’s downhill event is two days later.

Despite a crash in a downhill race at the end of January where she tore her ACL, the 41-year-old Vonn said she will still compete.

“My knee is not swollen, and with the help of a knee brace, I am confident that I can compete on Sunday,” Vonn said in a news conference for the U.S. ski team in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. “And as long as there’s a chance, I will try . . . I will do everything in my power to be in the starting gate.”

Picabo Street lives in Park City, too, and knows what it’s like to crash and burn before the Olympics.

Street won a gold medal in the Super Giant Slalom in 1998, a week after falling at 75 miles per hour in a training run and sustaining a concussion. She said getting back in the starting gate for her gold medal run was a mind game.

“It’s compartmentalizing your thoughts and really being mindful about what you’re thinking about, what you’re letting in and what you’re not letting in,” she said.

Street is Vonn’s childhood hero. The two met when the latter was 9 years old — four years before Street struck gold. Fast forward three decades, and it’s Street who will likely watch Vonn vie for an Olympic medal as a ski racing commentator for NBC. For her, it’ll be a tough job calling Vonn’s races without becoming emotional.

“She’s a good friend and someone I care about immensely,” Street said. “I know it’s going to be a lot, and I’m going to have to keep myself in check to not have any of my emotions waft off of me and affect her. She’s an absolute beast, and what she’s doing is unprecedented, and she’s again, pioneering in yet another way in the sport.”

Vonn is the biggest name of the Team USA Olympic racers marquee, alongside Mikaela Shiffrin. Despite dominating the World Cup Circuit ahead of the last winter Olympics in Beijing, Shiffrin didn’t medal.

“The expectations were so high, the relentlessness of the camera on her, she had nowhere to escape. It was like the Apple basket dropped, and the apples were rolling all around, and she couldn’t grab them back up quickly enough, Street said. “ I can guarantee she’ll never end up in that situation again.”

And Street has her eyes on other ski racers with Utah ties who could hit the podium.

Paula Moltzan is an absolute Tiger. I have never seen anybody crash as hard as she has and come back the next day and race and, you know, get in the top five or even on the podium. She is phenomenal. She’s a racehorse, and nobody should ever bet against her. She’s got the possibility of winning three medals at the games, in the combined, in the GS, and the slalom.”

Breezy Johnson was on the podium in third place in the Super-G in Switzerland the day after Vonn crashed and tore her ACL. Street thinks Johnson also has something to prove at the Olympics, especially after winning gold in the downhill at the World Championship in 2025.

“When you win at the World Championships, then you’re like, ‘OK, well, I won the world championships, can I win the Olympics?’ It’s kind of in the same ballpark. So she’s got that pressure,” Street said.

She also thinks Jackie Wiles, who attended Westminster University in Salt Lake City, and Nina O’Brien are medal contenders. She expects big results from them and other teammates, too.

“I mean, you’ve got AJ Hurt and Mary Bocock, there’s a chance for some of these athletes to pop in there. Utah has a huge contingency of local athletes going. They’ve been growing up here, or moved here and started training here, and, yeah, it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be fun, and it’s just gonna raise the excitement for the 2034 games when they come back.”

Street will be a reporter on the slopes in Italy and will get to inspect the courses as she did in her own racing heyday.

“I get to talk to the coaches, I get to talk to whatever athletes will talk to me. And then I get to be in the start when they all go and do their thing.”

It’ll be different, though, and she admits to some nerves being there as a reporter and observer, not an athlete — and it’ll likely tug at her heartstrings.

“I think I’m emotional because I know what it takes, and I know how hard they’ve worked, and I know how much it means, and I know how much of a threading the needle it is.”

But being there also comes with the emotions of not having any control over the outcomes.

“When I was racing, I could get in the gate and actually focus and race and do something about it. I’m a watcher and not a doer this time, and I think that’s got me a little bit twisted.”

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Paige Spiranac’s surprising NFL fandom confession triggers heated debate over loyalty, authenticity, and fan culture

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The 2026 NFL Draft starts Thursday night in Pittsburgh, and the spotlight isn’t only on prospects and front offices. Golf influencer Paige Spiranac has again found herself pulled into NFL conversation, this time for her open support of multiple teams.

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With the Steelers hosting the first round, her long-standing connection to Pittsburgh has resurfaced. But it’s not just about hometown ties. Her broader fandom, which stretches beyond one franchise, continues to draw mixed reactions at a time when fan loyalty is often treated as non-negotiable.

Paige Spiranac roots for 2 NFL teams: Who are they?

Paige Spiranac has never hidden where her loyalties lie, even if they don’t fit the usual mold. She has consistently pointed to her roots while leaving space for other allegiances.

“Both my parents are from Pittsburgh so I’ve been a Steelers ..fan since the day I was born. I also love the Bills. It’s a complicated relationship…Who’s your team?” she previously asked her followers. It’s a candid admission, one that reflects personal history more than calculated fandom.

Still, the reaction has been sharp. NFL culture tends to rew ..

 

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Quiet moments on the course can say a lot about what’s coming next.

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Sometimes the most important work happens when nobody is really watching.
Lexi Thompson was out on the 18th green, working through her putting during a practice round ahead of the Chevron Championship in Houston.

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It’s a simple scene, but it shows the kind of quiet preparation that goes into these big tournaments—getting the feel of the greens, adjusting to conditions, and building trust in every stroke.

These are the small details that can shape how a player starts when the pressure kicks in.

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Predicting what will happen to Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson if LIV Golf collapses

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It looks like LIV Golf is over.

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The Saudi Public Investment Fund has reportedly decided that this league simply isn’t worth the hole it’s burning in their pocket, and they’re pulling funds at the end of 2026.

That gives them less than a year to seek new investment. While CEO Scott O’Neil seems confident, it’s going to be extremely difficult to secure funding for a league that is operating at such eye-watering losses.

So this probably pulls the curtain closed on one of the most turbulent, frustrating, confusing, and ridiculous eras in golfing history. Hopefully, we can all return to some reality after the year is over.

But there is still so much uncertainty surrounding golf’s future thanks to this. Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed saw the signs early and jumped ship, but they did that with some leverage. So what on earth is going to happen to the rest of these players who didn’t take the olive branch when it was offered to them?

Feelings will be hurt, and careers will be ended. Let’s take a look.

Jon Rahm rejoins the PGA Tour

Koepka returned to the PGA Tour under the returning member program, which saw him pay $5 million to charity, accept that he’ll receive no FedEx Cup bonus money, and agree he cannot be a sponsor exemption for the 2026 signature events.

 

That same deal was offered to Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. They didn’t accept it, but a similar offer will likely be handed out to them again.

 

If LIV Golf folds, Rahm will not hold the same leverage as Koepka did, but he is a bigger star at this stage of his career. Make no mistake, the PGA Tour will want him back immediately.

But Rahm does risk leaving himself without any options at all. Reed didn’t come straight back to the PGA Tour, so he’s spending a year on the DP World Tour first. You’d imagine Rahm would consider doing the same, but it might not be so easy for him.

Rahm is in a feud with the DP World Tour, as the only one of eight players to reject a deal which would have seen him retain his full-time membership. If Rahm agreed to play in six DP World Tour events this year, then he could have played on both LIV Golf and the tour. He did not agree.

For now, his membership is at risk. So, will it be possible for him to spend a season on the DP World Tour like Reed? Maybe not. That makes it all the more likely that Rahm will be back on the PGA Tour the moment LIV folds.

Bryson DeChambeau does YouTube full-time

With DeChambeau, I don’t think it’s as much of a done deal that he returns to the PGA Tour. Not immediately anyway.

He’s been negotiating his contract with LIV, which expires at the end of this season. During these negotiations, he’s made it very clear that he is completely willing to step away from full-time competition and be a full-time YouTuber.

DeChambeau’s channel has over two million subscribers, so he could feasibly do that with all of the money he’s making there.

He was annoyed to see LIV move to a four-day format, so he could commit himself fully to being the content king. It would be a wild thing to do, but it’s also exactly the kind of move you could see the two-time major winner making.

He could qualify for The Open Championship and the US Open, and earn enough points there to play The Masters and the PGA Championship. It’s possible.

He does seem to live for competition, so maybe YouTube won’t quite scratch the itch, but it is on the table for DeChambeau. At least for a year until his suspension expires. Out of Rahm and DeChambeau, the American is absolutely the least likely to take a deal.

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