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It's a strange thing to have a sports fandom that operates on something like the same life cycle as a cicada, but I do, and curling is that sport. Even by the standards of Olympic sports that I barely know how to watch, curling is both abstracted and wonderful to me—the opacity of it, the ASMR-adjacent audio experience, the strange and specific mastery required. I wanted to talk about curling before the Olympics go back into hibernation, and happily we were able to get John Cullen—author of the new book Curling Rocks!, host of the award-winning CBC curling podcast Broomgate, among other notable podcasts, and a former elite curler himself—on the pod to talk to us about it. First we started with some other things, and anyone who wishes to skip past a long discussion of how I came to purchase Barstool-branded coffee at a deep discount, and why I now have it sitting in my home, should start the pod around the 15-minute mark. But those 15 minutes are densely packed, and include a long-awaited peek behind the curtain of my grocery shopping process, a deep reading of the (extensive) text on the package of Dan Katz's signature coffee product, the phrase "positive vibes" as a marker of the exact opposite of positive vibes, and John's experience recording too-spicy-for-TV jokes for a restaurant commercial.

On Wednesday afternoon, Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball smashed his custom camo Hummer into another car in downtown Charlotte. Video obtained by local news station WSOC shows a grey sedan entering an intersection, only for Ball's much larger, fast-moving vehicle to swerve into it, knocking out the Hummer's front left wheel. Charlotte's WCNC obtained video from a different angle in which the driver of the sedan appears to try to avoid Ball as the latter drifts out of his lane and straight into the other car. Ball climbed into a Lamborghini and left the scene after police arrived. Both Ball and the driver of the other car reportedly got out of their smashed-up cars without severe injury; someone told the Associated Press that Ball was not injured, but an eyewitness did tell WCNC that the other driver "basically fell down" after exiting her vehicle and crossing the intersection on foot. This is far from the first time Ball has been caught on video doing wildly irresponsible car stuff. He and the Hornets organization were sued in May 2024 after Ball allegedly ran over a child's foot while speeding out of the arena following an Oct. 2023 scrimmage. The Hornets were dismissed from the suit this past October, though Ball, whose attorneys have argued the incident was the child's fault, is still involved in the case.

Welcome back to Make It Nice, Defector's best interior design advice column. Today, we have a curtain dilemma, replacements for “ratty” linens, and advice on how to figure out what you like. Aileen asks: My husband and I just upgraded our apartment here in Germany to one with much more space. The downsides of this is we have hard marble floors and a tall-ceilinged living room (oh woe is us!). It's very echo-y and looks directly into our neighbors across the street.  The windows have external shutters, so light-blocking isn't needed, but we'd love to get some sort of curtain deal going here. We don't want anything too dark (it gets dark enough here in the winter, that photo was taken at 4:30 pm), but it would be good to have something to absorb some of the echo. We are pretty sure we can find something in a color and fabric we agree on, but we keep debating the length. Floor length to add more fabric and more sound damping? Just to the windowsill so that the radiators under the window are more effective? How do curtains work? Why are they so hard for two adults to figure out? (Also ignore the undersized dining room table, there are already plans for that to be replaced with something that fits the space better.)

The one and only you is the human forged by the path that only you are on. Facing the not-knowing, putting one foot in front of the other. She's not your trophies. Because our trophies sit on the shelf. It's the bonds we forge with one another that can guide us to what we're here to do, and to be who we are: the one and only you. The one and only you is the human forged by the path that only you are on. Facing the not-knowing, putting one foot in front of the other.

On Thursday, a certain freestyle skier will clip her boots on and huck herself down the halfpipe in Livigno, to the feverish anticipation of fans in two countries. Though she was born in the United States and attends Stanford University, she represents and wins medals under the banner of a different nation at the Olympics. She has yet to win a gold medal at the 2026 Games, though halfpipe is her best event, and therefore the one that will draw the most scrutiny. That's right: It's almost Zoe Atkin's time. Atkin, a 23-year-old Massachusetts native representing her father's native Great Britain, probably is not the freestyle skier you were thinking of, if you were thinking of one at all, and is certainly not the most famous person to whom those descriptors apply. That would be Eileen Gu, the 22-year-old San Francisco native competing in her second Olympics for China. Much like the first time around, she is racking up medals; much like the first time around, she is also being called a traitor by cogs in the American nationalist apparatus like the Free Press, Enes Kanter Freedom (misidentified as an NBA "star" in many write-ups), and, most notably of all, U.S. Vice President JD Vance. "I certainly think that somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope that they want to compete with the United States of America," Vance told Fox News. "So, I'm going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans. That's who I’m rooting for this Olympics."

I'm not sure I thought I'd ever see the day when an American hockey player who has only worked in Vancouver and St. Paul would be getting covered by E! News, or serve as the lure in catfishing attempts. Quinn Hughes, mainstream celebrity? What a world. Being the subject of memes that allege he's haunted by the ghost of a Victorian child, and acknowledging said meme, helps. Being the best defenseman in the world doesn't hurt. (Cale Makar arguers: I'm not speaking to you until after Sunday.) The legend of Quinn Hughes will only grow after he saved Team USA's bacon Wednesday with a heroic overtime period and winning goal to squeeze past Sweden in the men's Olympic quarterfinals. No ghosts, but the specter of going home early was certainly looming, after a late 6-on-5 goal from Mika Zibanejad tied the game and sent things to sudden death. Sweden, as the only medal contender to slip up in group play, had unexpectedly sunk to a seed that provided a more difficult quarterfinal opponent than expected for both sides, and they played like podium contenders—limiting U.S. chances and requiring Connor Hellebuyck to keep up with Jacob Markstrom. The U.S. carried the lion's share of play, but as they struggled to get high-danger chances, it was hard not to think about the goalscorers left at home in favor of face-off specialists and penalty-kill merchants. Three-on-three is a different beast and anyone's game. "That's as nervous as I've been ever in a hockey game," said Dylan Larkin, who redirected a Jack Hughes puck for the U.S.'s first goal. While it may not exactly decide the best team, at least Team USA had a plan for 3-on-3. “Give it to Quinn," said Matt Boldy, who gave it to Quinn for the assist on the winner. "That is usually the game plan when he is out there."

On Thursday, the U.S. women’s hockey team will take on Canada in a battle of the women’s hockey superpowers. Every single Olympic gold medal in the history of the sport has been won by one of these two countries. If you're rooting for the U.S., it means watching a team stacked with talented and innovative players. Team USA is undefeated and riding a record 331-minute shutout streak. Four-time Olympian and captain emeritus Kendall Coyne Schofield cuts an impressive figure across the sport: two-time PWHL champion, a leader of the labor movement that led to the league’s creation, and the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star Game's skills challenge.  Would you know this from watching the NBC broadcast of Team USA’s games? Doubtful. You'd probably know more about Coyne Schofield’s baby.  Don’t get me wrong. Her toddler, Drew, is adorable. I’m a new aunt in my late 30s, and I could absolutely eat him up. But when that puck's on the ice, what I really want to hear about is why his mom is one of the best women’s hockey players in the world. 

Just over midway through Tuesday's Champions League playoff between Benfica and Real Madrid, Vinícius struck one of the most beautiful goals of his career. In response to the strike, and to Vinícius's totally normal celebration of it, the incensed Lisbon crowd sent boos, water bottles, and other projectiles raining down on the Brazilian forward and his teammates. Ginned up by the atmosphere, Benfica's Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni ran over to confront the goalscorer and exchanged some heated words, most all of them obscured by the jersey Prestianni hiked up over his nose and mouth. Vinícius said Prestianni called him a "mono," "monkey" in Spanish. Prestianni denied this, claiming Vinícius misunderstood him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcwcP5u_hLs The general scenario presented above is depressingly common in soccer, and has been for as far back as you'd like to look. Instances like this are surely less frequent today than in prior times, which to me only calls to mind Malcolm X's bit about knives. To hear certain people tell it, the word "monkey" must possess some downright mystical attributes—always being heard, but somehow never actually being said. Prestianni is only the latest victim of those devilishly deceptive sounds, though Vinícius himself is no stranger to this particular rodeo. Maybe the most direct path to proving once and for all that racism actually has already been eradicated from the sport is to fit all black players with hearing aids.

Anything less than dominance would have been an upset, no matter the opponent. With NHLers at the Olympics, Team Canada had won 13 straight. They hadn't trailed in more than 800 consecutive minutes of game time. Czechia in the quarterfinals shouldn't have forced them to break a real sweat. There's top-end talent, but also it's mostly some guys; the lion's share of the Czech roster isn't in the NHL. It was 5-0 Canada when these two met in group play. Marty Necas had a joke for that one. They let the Canadians win that one, he said, because "we knew we were not going to win two in a row." The pressure, one could argue, was all on Canada. They played like that. They also played like a team with the horses to survive it. Canada beat Czechia 4-3 in overtime, in the best and tensest men's Olympic hockey match in a generation. Mitch Marner (famously clutch) singlehandedly carved up the defense for the overtime winner, which might hit a little more if not for the awful 3-on-3 overtime format, but counts all the same. Canada's skill and speed was on display throughout; Celebrini-McDavid-MacKinnon ("Mach 3") made its debut as a line; McDavid setting up Celebrini for the game's first goal was an almost unfair connection. No one's going to outskate or outshoot Canada. They can be outworked, however, and for long stretches. For much of the first period and significant parts of the second and third, the Czechs looked like the stronger team. They played a bruising game, relying on the so-far-correct assumption that NHL refs are not likely to call things too far outside of NHL norms, no matter what the IIHF Rulebook says. They finished their checks and were liberal with their elbows. That physicality took its toll: Radko Gudas sent Sidney Crosby to the locker room early in the second period with what looked like a right leg injury. They relied heavily on counterattacks for their offense. Gudas jumped a pass in the neutral zone to set up their first goal, and Tomas Hertl gave up the body to block a shot that led to the rush the other way for their third. (Also the Czechs had six men on the ice, but that's just good hustle.) Playing hard and tireless and maybe slightly dirty is an obvious blueprint for giving yourself a chance against a more skilled team; it's basically the entire philosophy underpinning the U.S. roster.

UCLA men's basketball coach Mick Cronin had a lot of big feelings Tuesday night, during and after his team's 82-59 blowout loss to Michigan State. As the Bruins trailed by 27 points with just under five minutes left in the game, Michigan State's Carson Cooper caught an outlet pass and rose up to dunk, only to be fouled by UCLA's Steven Jamerson II. It was a hard foul, and ruled a flagrant, but nothing beyond the pale. An enraged Cronin must have read it differently, because he immediately sent Jamerson to the locker room. (A lot of the coverage of this incident has emphasized that Cronin ejected his "own player," as if it were possible for a coach to eject an opposing player, but I digress.) https://twitter.com/CBBonFOX/status/2023966358242025978