USA Luge gets 11 athletes into Milan Cortina Olympics, 1 shy of maximum. Russia will get 2 spots

A pair of Russian luge athletes were confirmed Monday as qualifiers for next month's Milan Cortina Olympics, meaning they will compete against Ukrainian sliders on the sport's biggest stage.

The International Luge Federation — which announced the 78 singles and doubles sleds that have qualified for the games — included Russian men's singles slider Roman Repilov and women's singles slider Daria Olesik on its preliminary list.

They will compete, just as they did in World Cup races that they were allowed to enter this season, as neutral athletes at the Olympics as part of the sanctions against Russian federations in response to that country's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the war that has continued since.

Germany and Austria qualified the maximum of 12 athlete spots and nine sleds for the Olympics. Host Italy and the U.S. each had 11 athletes and eight sleds qualify, while Ukraine and Latvia each had 10 sliders and seven sleds make the Olympic fields.

Teams could get as many as three men’s singles, three women’s singles, two men’s doubles and one women’s doubles sled into the games. There were nine nations — the U.S., Germany, Austria, Italy, Latvia, China, Poland, Romania and Ukraine — with at least one sled in every discipline, meaning those will be the nations that compete in the Olympic team relay as well.

Ukrainian sliders — and some from other nations — have complained that the Russians should not have been given the chance by the International Olympic Committee and the sport federations to try to qualify for Milan Cortina, neutral flag status or otherwise.

Certain sports federations let Russians try to qualify for the games, but only after an independent review process to ensure that they were neutral — meaning they did not publicly support the war and are not affiliated with Russia’s military or other forces.

The Ukrainian Luge Federation said the clearance process, at least with regard to their sport, was flawed.

“The FIL and the IOC said they are neutral, but I don’t think so," Ukrainian men's luge athlete Anton Dukach said earlier this season. "We have proof and we already sent evidence that they are not neutral.”

USA Luge's Olympic roster was essentially in place before Monday; all that was left was for FIL's announcement of the quota spots for each nation. And the math that went into those calculations was clear this past weekend with the results of the fifth and final Olympic qualifying event.

The trio of women's singles sliders will be the same as it was for the 2022 Beijing Games: Summer Britcher was nominated to her fourth Olympic team, Emily Fischnaller made her third and Ashley Farquharson made her second.

Jonny Gustafson is now a two-time men's singles Olympian, and he'll be joined in that field by Olympic rookie Matthew Greiner — a past junior world championships medalist.

Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa will make their first Olympic trip in men's doubles, as will now two-time Olympians Zach Di Gregorio and Sean Hollander. And in women's doubles, making its Olympic medal debut and a race where no nation got more than one sled into the field, Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby will race for the U.S.

It was extremely difficult for women's doubles sleds to make the field: The FIL rules essentially carved a path for the top sled from each nation to qualify for the Olympics, and that meant four of the top nine women's sleds in the qualifying standings — including Maya Chan and Sophia Gordon of the U.S., who were sixth on that list — were left out.

Of the 106 spots awarded to luge athletes for the Olympics, 66 of them went to sliders from Germany, Austria, the U.S., Italy, Ukraine and Latvia.

Romania has seven, while Canada, China and Poland each have six. Slovakia has five, Sweden and Russia each have two, and six nations — Argentina, Switzerland, South Korea, Australia, Japan and the Czech Republic — each qualified one slider.

There will be new gold medalists in the singles races: 2022 Olympic champions Johannes Ludwig and Natalie Geisenberger, both of Germany, have since retired.

Men's singles silver medalist Wolfgang Kindl of Austria has qualified for these games, as has reigning bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller — the Italian husband of U.S. slider Emily Fischnaller.

The three-time Olympic doubles champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany are back for a run at more gold. Also back: 2022 Olympic silver doubles medalist Toni Eggert of Germany and 2022 bronze medalist Thomas Steu of Austria, albeit with different partners this year. Eggert now slides with Florian Mueller and Steu slides with Kindl, who will seek to medal in both events.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

The Italian relay team with Verena Hofer, Ivan Nagler, Fabian Malleier, Dominik Fischnaller, Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer celebrate their third place at the mixed relay competition of the Luge World Cup in Winterberg, Germany, Sunday Jan. 11, 2026. (David Inderlied/dpa via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation likely remained elevated last month as the cost of electricity, groceries, and clothing may have jumped and continued to pressure consumers' wallets.

The Labor Department is expected to report that consumer prices rose 2.6% in December compared with a year earlier, according to economists' estimates compiled by data provider FactSet. The yearly rate would be down from 2.7% in November. Monthly prices, however, are expected to rise 0.3% in December, faster than is consistent with the Federal Reserve's 2% inflation goal.

The figures are harder to predict this month, however, because the six-week government shutdown last fall suspended the collection of price data used to compile the inflation rate. Some economists expect the December figures will show a bigger jump in inflation as the data collection process gets back to normal.

Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, are also expected to rise 0.3% in December from the previous month, and 2.7% from a year earlier. The yearly core figure would be an increase from 2.6% in November.

In November, annual inflation fell from 3% in September to 2.7%, in part because of quirks in November's data. (The government never calculated a yearly figure for October). Most prices were collected in the second half of November, after the government reopened, when holiday discounts kicked in, which may have biased November inflation lower.

And since rental prices weren't fully collected in October, the agency that prepares the inflation reports used placeholder estimates that may have biased prices lower, economists said.

Inflation has come down significantly from the four-decade peak of 9.1% that it reached in June 2022, but it has been stubbornly close to 3% since late 2023. The cost of necessities such as groceries is about 25% higher than it was before the pandemic, and other necessities such as rent and clothing have also gotten more expensive, fueling dissatisfaction with the economy that both President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden have sought to address, though with limited success.

The Federal Reserve has struggled to balance its goal of fighting inflation by keeping borrowing costs high, while also supporting hiring by cutting interest rates when unemployment worsens. As long as inflation remains above its target of 2%, the Fed will likely be reluctant to cut rates much more.

The Fed reduced its key rate by a quarter-point in December, but Chair Jerome Powell, at a press conference explaining its decision, said the Fed would probably hold off on further cuts to see how the economy evolves.

The 19 members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee have been sharply divided for months over whether to cut its rate further, or keep it at its curent level of about 3.6% to combat inflation.

Trump, meanwhile, has harshly criticized the Fed for not cutting its key short-term rate more sharply, a move he has said would reduce mortgage rates and the government's borrowing costs for its huge debt pile. Yet the Fed doesn't directly control mortgage rates, which are set by financial markets.

In a move that cast a shadow over the ability of the Fed to fight inflation in the future, the Department of Justice served the central bank last Friday with subpoenas related to Powell's congressional testimony in June about a $2.5 billion renovation of two Fed office buildings. Trump administration officials have suggested that Powell either lied about changes to the building or altered plans in ways that are inconsistent with those approved by planning commissions.

In a blunt response, Powell said Sunday those claims were “pretexts” for an effort by the White House to assert more control over the Fed.

“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” Powell said. “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”

FILE -American Giant clothing is displayed at the company's showroom in San Francisco, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE -A cashier rings up groceries in Dallas, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)