2 Page 252 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Aaron Pico's Body Punch KO Was Audible And Absolutely Brutal
Aaron Pico is immune to boring fights. He’s fought three times, and each time, someone was getting peeled off the mat to the collective horror of the audience. (The first time, it was him.) Pico is one of the biggest prospects in the sport, owing largely to his impressive showing at the 2016 Olympic...

Philadelphia Eagles Earn Super Bowl Trip On Back Of Superstar Nick Foles
One week after Doug Pederson game-planned his way to a defensive struggle win over the Atlanta Falcons, his Eagles routed the favored Minnesota Vikings 38-7 and earned Philadelphia its first NFC championship since 2004. ...

Shirtless Tongan, Now A Skier, Qualifies For Winter Olympics
Pita Taufatofua stole the heart of the world back in 2016 went he spent the Rio Olympic Opening Ceremonies oiled up and shirtless while repping Tonga. He competed in taekwondo at those games, but this year, he’ll be back in a much different capacity—a cross-country skier....

25 Years Ago, Monday Night Raw Made A Splash As A New Type Of Wrestling Show
This Monday night, about two weeks after the actual anniversary, WWE will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its flagship Monday Night Raw TV show with a live show from two different locations in New York City. While the show will be based out of Barclays Center in Brooklyn, additional action will be...

Adam Rippon Shreds Lead Olympic Delegate Mike Pence Over Homophobic Policies
Vice President Mike Pence, an anti-gay zealot and restaurant freak, will lead the United States’ Olympic delegation in Pyeongchang next month, which has irked figure skating star Adam Rippon. After winning the 2016 figure skating national championships and finishing fourth at last month’s nationals,...

North Korea And South Korea Agree To Form Joint Olympic Hockey Team
North Korea and South Korea have agreed to form a joint Olympic women’s hockey team and march together during the opening ceremonies next month in Pyeongchang, according to the Associated Press. ...

Thirty Years After <i>Cool Runnings</i>, Jamaican Women Qualify For Olympic Bobsled
Thirty years after a team of Jamaican bobsledders inspired a Disney movie with their unlikely appearance at the Calgary Winter Olympics, the country will send its first female bobsled team to compete in Pyeongchang....

Mikaela Shiffrin Has Never Been Better, And Neither Has Anyone Else
Writing about Mikaela Shiffrin’s success would be getting boring—if her narrative arc weren’t continually getting more dramatic. Back at the Sochi Olympics, the story was how the then-18-year-old kept her nerve after flubbing a turn and won slalom gold. Later that year, it was how she’d mastered sla...


What The World's Most Famous Amateur Can Teach Pro Runners
At just 30 years old, Yuki Kawauchi is in a distance running category of his own. As of January 1, he has run the most sub-2:20 marathons of anyone, ever—76. He’s also run the most sub-2:12 marathons of anyone, ever—25. Kawauchi—one guy—has run more sub-2:10 marathons since 2011 than the whole Unite...

North Korea Strikes Deal To Send Athletes To Pyeongchang Olympics
North Korea and South Korea just wrapped up their first official diplomatic talks in two years, and the two sides agreed to provisions that will see the DPRK participate in their first Winter Olympics since 2010. After negotiating in the Demilitarized Zone, the countries decided to reopen a military...

Nathan Chen, Adam Rippon, And Vincent Zhou Selected To Represent U.S. Figure Skating At The 2018 Olympics
SAN JOSE, Calif.—Less than twelve hours after the men’s competition at the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships was over, the president of U.S. Figure Skating, Sam Auxier announced the three members of the 2018 Olympic team at a press conference at the SAP Center. The three man team is Nathan Chen...

Is Adam Rippon’s Track Record Enough To Earn Him A Trip To The Olympics?
SAN JOSE, Calif.—Ross Miner had the crowd at the SAP Center on their feet at the end of his long program at the 2018 National Figure Skating Championships. The 26-year-old Boston native had performed to a medley of Queen songs and landed a clean quadruple salchow jump (and several other jumps, too)....

Erin Jackson Earns Olympic Speedskating Spot After Only Four Months On The Ice<em></em>
Yesterday, Erin Jackson, 25, became the first black woman to make an Olympic team for long-track speedskating. She qualified in third place with a time of 39.04 in the 500 meter event at the U.S. Speedskating Trials in Milwaukee, Wisc....

Bradie Tennell, Mirai Nagasu, And Karen Chen Selected To Represent U.S. Figure Skating At Olympics
The United States Figure Skating Association announced Saturday morning its nominations for the 2018 U.S. Olympic figure skating team, and, unlike with its selections in 2014, stuck with the top three overall finishers from the just-completed U.S. Figure Skating National Championships:...

Ashley Wagner Is Furious
SAN JOSE, Calif.—When Ashley Wagner walked into the mixed zone after the women’s competition at the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships, practically the first words out of her mouth were, “I’m furious.”...

Ball Brothers’ Lithuanian Team Abandons Baltic League To Play Family Shoe-Branded Exhibition<em></em>
Who’s ready for the debuts of LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball??? Hopefully not fans of the Baltic League, because Vytautas Prienai announced today that they’d be pulling out of the Baltic Sea region’s second-most prestigious tournament to play in something called the Big Baller Brand Challenge Games, which...

The Shirtless Tongan Olympic Flag-Bearer Is Now A Cross-Country Skier
Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua jazzed up the 2016 Olympics opening ceremony when he walked into the arena shirtless and slathered in oil. He competed in taekwondo in the summer games, and now he’s trying to qualify for this year’s Winter Olympics as a cross-country skier. ...

The Redemption Of Figure Skater Mirai Nagasu
SAN JOSE, Calif.— The judges were still calculating the scores of the previous competitor when Mirai Nagasu took to the ice for her short program at the 2018 National Championships. She zoomed around the rink, not doing much of anything, just staying warm and waiting for her turn, yet the crowd chee...

Some More Things That Should Die In 2018
Last week, we ran staffers’ nominations for shitty things of 2017 that should stay in 2017. Because we are bad at organization, we left out some things. Here they are....