BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova has been included in the Slovakia team for next month's Milan Cortina Games as she aims to make to a comeback from more than two years out with a knee injury.
The 30-year-old Vlhova hasn't competed since tearing ligaments in her right knee in January 2024 but will be among the 52 athletes to represent Slovakia at the Winter Games, the Slovak Olympic Committee announced Friday.
Vlhova said last week she was cleared by her medical team “for full skiing intensity.”
“I’ve decided to fight for the chance to compete,” she said then, but acknowledged that with the short time to prepare for the Olympics, “it might sound a bit crazy.”
“I will do my absolute best every single day to earn the chance to be part of the Slovak Olympic team,” she said.
Vlhova has long been American standout Mikaela Shiffrin's main rival in slalom.
The women’s slalom at the 2026 Olympics — the last skiing race on the schedule — is scheduled for Feb. 18 in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Vlhova said she would wait until 48 hours before the race before making her final decision on whether to compete.
She has been training this week in the Czech resort of Spindleruv Mlyn that will host World Cup slalom and giant slalom races over the weekend. She called her preparations “great” but does not plan to participate in those events.
Vlhova crashed and injured her knee on Jan. 20, 2024 in a World Cup giant slalom in the Slovak resort of Jasna near her hometown in the Tatra mountains.
Vlhova became the first Slovak skier to win the women's overall World Cup title in 2021. She has won a total of 31 World Cup races and her slalom gold at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games was Slovakia’s first ever Olympic medal in Alpine skiing.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - Slovakia's Petra Vlhova celebrates on the podium after winning an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom race, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Giovanni Maria Pizzato, File)
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s parliament on Friday elected Min Aung Hlaing, a general who ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021 and kept an iron grip on power for the past five years, as the country’s new president.
The move marks a nominal return to an elected government but is widely considered as an effort to keep the army in power after an election organized by the military that opponents and independent observers deemed neither free nor fair.
Transitioning to an elected government is also seen as a way to improve frosty relations with Asian neighbors following the military takeover. China and Russia have supported the military administration, while Western powers imposed sanctions.
Min Aung Hlaing was one of three nominees for the president’s post, but was virtually guaranteed the job as lawmakers from military-backed parties and appointed members from the army hold a commanding majority in parliament.
The vote was held in the newly renovated parliament building in the capital, Naypyitaw, which was damaged in last year’s earthquake.
Aung Lin Dwe, speaker of parliament’s combined upper and lower house, announced that Min Aung Hlaing won 429 out of the 584 votes.
The two runners-up become vice presidents. Nyo Saw, a former general, had served as an adviser to Min Aung Hlaing, and Nan Ni Ni Aye, an ethnic Karen politician from the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, will be the country’s first female vice president. They are expected to be inaugurated next week.
Min Aung Hlaing, who holds the rank of senior general, had earlier relinquished his post of commander-in-chief because the constitution prohibits the president from simultaneously holding the top military position. A close aide, Gen. Ye Win Oo, took over the powerful job.
The 69-year-old Min Aung Hlaing had been the military chief since 2011. Under the military-imposed constitution, he held significant powers even before overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government.
Parliament members were elected in three phases in December and January. Major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi’s former ruling National League for Democracy, were either blocked from running or refused to compete under conditions they deemed unfair. Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as politically motivated.
Myanmar was under military rule from 1962 until 2016, when Suu Kyi’s party came to power, and won an even greater mandate in the 2020 general election. The army took seized control in 2021, before the new Parliament could convene.
Peaceful protests against military rule were put down with deadly force, pushing pro-democracy activists to turn to armed resistance and ally themselves with ethnic minority groups who have been battling for greater autonomy for decades.
Much of the country has been enmeshed in a bloody civil war. Security concerns meant voting in the recent election could be held in only 263 of the country’s 330 townships.
“If Min Aung Hlaing thinks that an official civilian title will shield him from prosecution for the many grave violations of international law that he is accused of overseeing as head of the military, that is not how international justice works," Amnesty International Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman said in statement.
In 2024, the International Criminal Court in The Hague began an investigation on charges of crimes against humanity after a prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing over the military’s brutal persecution of the Rohingya minority.
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe, center, arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
FILE - Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of Myanmar's military council, inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
Myanmar's military representatives and lawmakers arrive to attend a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026.(AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Myanmar's military representatives arrive for a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Myanmar's military representatives arrive for a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe, center, arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
