GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona Cardinals rookie first-round pick Walter Nolen III has a calf injury and is expected to “miss some time,” coach Jonathan Gannon said on Wednesday, putting a slight damper on the team's first day of training camp.
The defensive lineman was the No. 16 overall pick out of Ole Miss in April's draft.
Gannon said that Nolen injured the calf while working out and preparing for the season. The 21-year-old is expected to be a big part of the Cardinals' revamped defensive line as they try to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
The Cardinals were 8-9 last season, which was a four-win improvement over the previous season.
Gannon said he didn't know if Nolen's injury would linger into the regular season. One of Arizona's first-round picks last season — defensive lineman Darius Robinson — struggled with a calf injury that caused him to miss more than half of his rookie season.
“I really don't like to compare injuries, but (Nolen) hurt his calf,” Gannon said. “It's a little different injury and they're obviously different people, so he's working hard to get back.”
Gannon also said that defensive lineman Bilal Nichols (neck) and linebacker BJ Ojulari (knee) will be out at the beginning of camp as they continue to recover from injuries they suffered last season. All three players were put on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list.
They can be activated from the list whenever they are medically cleared to practice.
Other than those three players, Gannon said the Cardinals are healthy and drama-free heading into training camp. The team's second-round pick — cornerback Will Johnson — signed his rookie deal on Tuesday, becoming the final player from this year's draft class to finalize his contract.
Second-year receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. reported to camp and was listed at 220 pounds, which is 11 pounds more than his rookie weight. Last year's No. 4 overall pick said he spent a good chunk of the offseason in the weight room, adding some muscle in an effort to come down with more contested catches.
“I feel great,” Harrison said. “I feel a little faster, more powerful, stronger. Now I'm ready to showcase it.”
Harrison caught 62 passes for 885 yards and eight touchdowns during his rookie season. He's part of a Cardinals offense that is virtually unchanged from last season, starring a nucleus of quarterback Kyler Murray, running back James Conner, tight end Trey McBride and left tackle Paris Johnson Jr.
Murray — for a second straight offseason — took a group of the team's skill position players to California for several days of workouts and bonding. The 2019 No. 1 overall pick is entering his seventh NFL season.
Murray is a two-time Pro Bowl selection but still searching for his first playoff win.
“He's such a great leader, talks to all the guys, uplifts everybody and brings out the best in everyone,” Harrison said. “When it's time to turn that switch on, when it's time to go fast and go hard, he's the first guy to get everyone going.”
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FILE - Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Walter Nolen III (97) works on a blocking drill with Cardinals defensive line coach Winston DeLattiboudere III during an NFL football practice Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Walter Nolen III, left, makes a block as Cardinals defensive line coach Winston DeLattiboudere III looks on during an NFL football practice Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Young athletes in northern Ukraine spend their days cross-country skiing through a scorched forest, focused on their form — until a siren inevitably shatters the silence.
They respond swiftly but without panic, ditching their skis and following coaches to an underground bomb shelter.
It’s an ordinary training session at the complex that produced Ukraine’s first Olympic medalist.
Sleeping children no longer dream of Olympic glory in the facility's bombed-out dormitories, and unexploded ordnance has rendered nearby land off limits. But about 350 kids and teens — some of the nation's best young cross-country skiers and biathletes — still practice in fenced-off areas amid the sporadic buzz of drones passing overhead then explosions as they're shot down.
“We have adapted so well — even the children — that sometimes we don’t even react,” Mykola Vorchak, a 67-year-old coach, told The Associated Press in an interview on Oct. 31. “Although it goes against safety rules, the children have been hardened by the war. Adapting to this has changed them psychologically.”
War has taken a heavy toll on Ukrainian sport. Athletes were displaced or called up to fight. Soccer matches are often interrupted by air raid sirens so attendance is capped by bomb shelter capacity. Elite skaters, skiers and biathletes usually train abroad, with attacks and frequent blackouts shuttering local facilities.
But the government-run Sports Ski Base of the Olympic Reserve is open for cross-country skiing and biathlon, the event which combines skiing with shooting. The sprawling complex is on the outskirts of Chernihiv, a city two hours north of Kyiv along the path of destruction Russia's army left in its 2022 attempt to capture the capital. Chernihiv remains a regular target for air attacks aimed at the power grid and civilian infrastructure.
Several temporary structures at the sports center serve as changing rooms, toilets and coaches’ offices. Athletes train on snowy trails during the winter and, throughout the rest of the year, use roller skis on an asphalt track pocked by blast marks.
Biathletes aim laser rifles at electronic targets and, between shooting drills, sling skis over their shoulders and jog back to the start of the course, cheeks flushed from the cold.
Valentyna Tserbe-Nesina spent her adolescence at the Chernihiv center performing these same drills, and won bronze at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. It was Ukraine’s first Olympic medal as an independent country.
“The conditions weren’t great, but we had nothing better. And for us, it was like a family — our own little home,” she said inside her apartment, its shelves and walls lined with medals, trophies and souvenirs from competitions around the world.
Tserbe-Nesina, 56, was shocked when she visited the complex in 2022. Shelling had torn through buildings, fire had consumed others. Shattered glass littered the floors of rooms where she and friends once excitedly checked taped-up results sheets.
“I went inside, up to my old room on the second floor. It was gone — no windows, nothing,” she said. “I recorded a video and found the trophies we had left at the base. They were completely burned.”
Tserbe-Nesina has been volunteering to organize funerals for fallen Ukrainian soldiers in her hometown while her husband, a retired military officer, returned to the front. They see each other about once a year, whenever his unit allows him brief leave.
One adult who in 2022 completed a tour in a territorial defense unit of Ukraine’s army sometimes trains today alongside the center's youngsters. Khrystyna Dmytrenko, 26, will represent her country at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that start Feb. 6.
“Sports can show that Ukraine is strong,” Dmytrenko said in an interview next to the shooting range. “We represent Ukraine on the international stage, letting other countries, athletes and nations see our unity, strength and determination.”
The International Olympic Committee imposed bans and restrictions on Russian athletes after the invasion of Ukraine, effectively extending earlier sanctions tied to state‑sponsored doping. But a small group of them will participate in the upcoming Winter Games.
After vetting to ensure no military affiliation, they must compete without displaying any national symbols — and only in non-team events. That means Russian and Ukrainian athletes could face one another in some skating and skiing events. Moscow’s appeal at the federation level to allow its biathletes to compete is pending.
That's why many Ukrainians view training for these events as an act of defiance. Former Olympic biathlete Nina Lemesh, 52, noted that some young Ukrainians who first picked up rifles and skis at the Chernihiv ski base during wartime have become international champions in their age groups.
“Fortunately, Ukrainians remain here. They always will,” she said, standing beside the destroyed dormitories. “This is the next generation of Olympians.”
AP writer Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv contributed to this report.
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathletes Mykola Dorofeiev, 16, and Nazar Kravchenko, 12, left, train at the ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos inside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
