Curling opens competition at 2026 Winter Olympics as brief power outage pauses play, luge training

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The 2026 Winter Olympics opened competition Wednesday night with the first curling matches on the schedule in Cortina only for the action to come to a brief halt because of a power outage.

Officials paused the matches at the historic curling stadium when the lights dimmed and flickered and the main lights and heat in a nearby media center went out. Curlers kept sliding on the ice to stay ready and fans cheered when the bright lights came back soon after and play resumed.

Olympic organizers acknowledged the “brief interruption to competition due to an energy-related issue” and noted it lasted approximately three minutes. It snowed steadily all day in Cortina, with more than 8 inches (20.32 centimeters) in some places. The start of the opening luge training session for men’s singles was also delayed a half-hour due to the outage.

The eight teams playing mixed doubles opened the long curling tournament two full days before the opening ceremony for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. American curler Korey Dropkin said he has been waiting a long time for this moment.

“Being amongst the best, it’s a very cool atmosphere to be part of,” said Dropkin, a first-time Olympian who will begin competition Thursday. “We’re looking forward to being ready to compete and pour our hearts out on the ice.”

Opening night in this mountain resort was just the first of the round robin matches in mixed doubles curling, where teams with one woman and one man face off against one another.

Cortina, which is 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Milan in these far-flung Olympics, is seeing more fans and many were in the curling center. They clapped, rang bells and chanted for their countries and favorite curlers when their teams scored or there was a break in the action. Some in the crowd held large flags for the Czech Republic, whose team was competing against Canada. Canadian fans wearing red waved handheld flags.

Bernard Benoit traveled from Ontario, Canada, to root for his home team before going on to meet his daughter in Milan. While he's a longtime curling fan, it's his first time at the Olympics. He said he came a long way to see the best in the world because he loves how curling is a “mix of athleticism and intellect” and a strategy game.

Benoit is cheering for Canadian couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, who are competing in mixed doubles. Three of the teams are married couples and one is a sibling team. Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill are the first ever to compete for Estonia in curling.

Italian duo Stefania Constantini, who is from Cortina, and Amos Mosaner are the defending world and Olympic champions in mixed doubles.

Stephanie Kahn is a volunteer at the curling center, who is eager to learn what curling is all about and how hard it is. Kahn is from the United States and moved to Spain when she retired. She aspired to compete in swimming in the Olympics when she was younger.

“That, for me, is what makes it so special. Being an athlete and knowing that to be at the top, top of your sport, regardless of what that sport is, it’s just such a commitment,” she said. “So I’m just excited to be in the presence of these athletes.”

AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf in Cortina and AP writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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

Estonia's Marie Kaldvee in action during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Switzerland, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Canada Canada's Brett Gallant in action during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against the Czech Republic, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Norway's Kristin Skaslien in action, during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Britain, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

South Korea's Jeong Yeong-seok and Kim Seon-yeong compete during a curling mixed doubles session at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Sweden's Rasmus & Isabella Wranaa compete during a curling mixed doubles session against South Korea at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

South Korea's Yeongseok Jeong sweeps a stone, during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Curling ice sheets are prepared ahead of the first competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Preparations for the first curling competition are made at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Preparations for the first curling competition are made at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.

The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.

Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.

“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.

Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.

“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.

In 2023, the state decided gun rights were required to restore the right to vote, and shelved a paperwork process that didn't require going to court. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.

Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.

Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.

“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”

Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”

For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.

Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.

The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.

Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.

Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.

Last year marked the dismissal of a five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.

Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.

Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.

In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.

Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.

Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.

However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.

FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)