U.S. Olympians Erin Jackson and Alysa Liu are both contenders for gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The athletes demonstrate that different personality traits and cognitive styles can lead to elite athletic success. Figure skater Alysa Liu is described as a free-spirited artist who thrives on spontaneity and fun. Speedskater Erin Jackson is known for her analytical and academic ...
USA TODAY Ad Meter is back for 2026, letting fans vote on the year’s best Super Bowl commercials. Budweiser won back the crown last year with the famed Clydesdales, edging a heartstring-tugging Lay’s commercial in one of the closest votes in the history of the annual contest. Other fan-favorite commercials from 2025 included Willem Defoe and Catherine O’Hara as pickleball ...
Free agency never really ends, as general managers are likely to tell you as the January cold gives way to the promise of Florida sunshine. Yet the pickings are getting ever slimmer on Major League Baseball’s free agent market – especially the hitting side. A pair of difference-making starting pitchers are still available, along with a decent swath of reliable, ...
MELBOURNE — Defending champion Jannik Sinner scorched American eighth seed Ben Shelton 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and moved into the Australian Open semifinals, setting up a blockbuster showdown with 10-time winner Novak Djokovic. The second seed, who is firmly on course for his third title at Melbourne Park in as many years, tightened his vice-like grip on the rivalry with Shelton by sealing his ninth consecutive ...
As the Cornhuskers marched to their best start in program history with a 20-0 record, players told USA TODAY Sports in December ‘we’re not going to go undefeated.’ A loss would happen, it was just a matter of when. It finally happened Tuesday, Jan. 27 with Nebraska, in the top five of the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll for the ...
After some serious hemming and hawing, Darian Mensah and Duke’s standoff ended Jan. 27, the same day the two sides settled their dispute. The quarterback will play his junior season with the Miami Hurricanes, per On3’s Pete Nakos and Hayes Fawcett, supplanting Carson Beck after Mario Cristobal’s team finished as national runner-up to Indiana. Mensah, who spent one year in ...
What’s next for the No. 1 team in the nation, the one that somehow appears even more dominant than its two previous record-setting versions? The Nittany Lions and coach Cael Sanderson, who are well on their way to their 13th national title in the past 15 years, seem to be only distancing themselves further from the rest of the country, ...
One of the wildest NFL coaching carousels in league history is finally showing signs of winding down. With 10 head-coaching vacancies popping up, the onset of the offseason was far more active than anyone could have anticipated. But after the Buffalo Bills hired Joe Brady on Tuesday, all but three openings have been filled, and the initial rush for the ...
A rookie tried to give Dillon Brooks a taste of his own medicine, and it ended up costing his team. Nets guard Egor Dёmin shoved Brooks late in Brooklyn’s 106-102 loss on Tuesday, Jan. 27, leading to a small dust-up that cleared assistant coaches off the bench. With the Suns up by two with 1:14 left to play, a loose ...
The Longhorns were rankings darlings before the 2025 season. They didn’t live up to the billing, but they finished the season with wins against Texas A&M and Michigan. Now, with Arch Manning returning, Texas once again is fueling up on big expectations. That includes the No. 1 spot in USA TODAY’s “too early” top 25 for the 2026 season. So, ...