Austin Florian and Mystique Ro, winners of the mixed skeleton world championship last season, were announced Monday as two of the four members of the U.S. team that will compete in the head-first sliding event at the Milan Cortina Olympics next month.
Florian and Dan Barefoot got men's spots, while Ro and Kelly Curtis were picked for the women's roster.
Curtis is the lone returning member of the 2022 Olympic team.
Florian, Ro and Curtis all were on the World Cup circuit this season. Barefoot was on the World Cup for the first half of the season — not finishing higher than 23rd in any of his four races — then regrouped with three wins in a six-day span earlier this month on the North American Cup circuit to collect the points he needed for an Olympic nod.
Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Olympian, tried to earn a spot by competing in NAC and Asian Cup races this season and fell just short. She asked the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation last week to award full points from a race she won on Jan. 11; if that request was granted, it's possible she could have made the Olympic squad.
Uhlaender said a decision by Canadian coaches to pull some of their sliders out of that race in Lake Placid, New York, was unfair, since it lowered the total standings points available in that event. The IBSF investigated and found no rules were broken by Canada's decision.
The skeleton competition at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, runs from Feb. 12-15.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Austin Florian of the USA races down the track, during the men's single, 1st run of the Skeleton World Cup, in Altenberg, Germany, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Robert Michael/dpa via AP)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces began firing tear gas at Palestinian trade school in East Jerusalem Tuesday, marking their second targeting of a UN facility.
Earlier, forces demolished portions of the main compound of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA.
Roland Friedrich, the group’s West Bank director, said Israeli forces had arrived at a vocational school for young Palestinians in Qalandia, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. More than 300 young refugees receive job training in technology and welding.
The raids are the latest in Israel’s long-running campaign against UNRWA, which it has banned from Israeli territory and accuses of being infiltrated by militants – a charge UNRWA denies.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli crews on Tuesday started bulldozing the Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, pushing forward with its crackdown against an organization tasked with delivering humanitarian services to millions of people across the region.
Israel has long accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency of collaborating with Hamas — a charge it denies — and last year banned it from operating on its territory. But Tuesday’s demolition marked Israel’s latest and most dramatic step against UNRWA.
Roland Friedrich, the group's West Bank director, said UNRWA had received word that demolition crews and police arrived at their east Jerusalem headquarters early in the morning. Staff has not operated out of the facility due to danger and incitement for almost a year, but Israeli forces confiscated devices and forced out the private security hired to guard the facility.
“What we saw today is is the culmination of two years of incitement and, measures against UNRWA in east Jerusalem,” Friedrich said, calling it a violation of international law guaranteeing such facilities protection.
UNRWA's mandate is to provide aid and services to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The group has for years maintained infrastructure in refugee camps and also run schools and provide health care. But its operations were curtailed last year when Israel’s Knesset passed legislation severing ties and banning it from functioning in what it defines as Israel — including east Jerusalem.
The agency said the demolitions could imperil operations at its vocational center in Qalandia and heath facility in Shua'fat, where it continues to provide education and health services.
An Israeli flag was seen hoisted above the facility in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where some Israeli politicians arrived on the scene to celebrate the organization's fate. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called it “a historic day.”
The demolition marked the culmination of years of criticism from Israel and its leaders, who contend that UNRWA harbors pro-Palestinian leanings and maintains ties or employees members of militant groups like Hamas. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than two years ago, it has ramped up such attacks, accusing UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas and saying the militants used its facilities and seized aid. It has provided little evidence for the claims, which the U.N. has denied. The International Court of Justice said in October that Israel must allow the agency to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Since Israel passed the law banning the agency last year, its facilities — schools and health centers — and its headquarters have repeatedly been closed, raided or left unprotected. Israel has contended the agency perpetuates Palestinians’ refugee status, while UNRWA supporters have said Israel’s attacks on the agency are aimed at sidelining the issue — one of the most contentious dividing Israelis and Palestinians.
“This comes in the wake of other steps taken by Israeli authorities to erase the Palestine Refugee identity,” Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's commissioner-general, said in a statement on X. “This must be a wake-up call. What happens today to UNRWA will happen tomorrow to any other international organisation or diplomatic mission, whether in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or anywhere around the world.”
Under President Donald Trump, the United States cut funding for the agency in 2018. President Joe Biden restored it in 2021 and later paused funding in 2024.
Israel's ban on UNRWA dovetailed with broader efforts to deregister aid groups operating in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Israel has passed laws requiring nongovernmental organizations not hire staff involved in activities that “delegitimize Israel” or support boycotts, demanding they register lists of names as a condition of being allowed to work.
Israel told dozens of groups — including Doctors Without Borders and CARE — that their licenses would expire at the end of 2025. The organizations say the rules are arbitrary and warned that the new ban would harm a civilian population desperately in need of humanitarian aid.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
People watch the demolition of a UNRWA compound, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, in east Jerusalem Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli bulldozers demolish a UNRWA compound, belonging to the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, in east Jerusalem Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli bulldozers demolish a UNRWA compound, belonging to the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, in east Jerusalem Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli soldiers take up positions during an army raid in the West Bank city of Hebron Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
