BORMIO, Italy (AP) — The heavy metal singer may have some new material for a song — his Olympic bronze medal.
When he's not ski racing, Dominik Paris of Italy is the frontman for a band called “Rise of Voltage.” No matter the stage, he finds a way to be in the center of it.
The 36-year-old Paris earned his first Olympic medal in the downhill Saturday at his fifth Winter Games. The fact the elusive medal came here, in Italy at the Milan Cortina Games, on a course he knows so well, and got to share the spotlight with Giovanni Franzoni, his young teammate who earned silver, only adds to the moment.
Shortly after receiving his bronze prize, Paris glanced up at the Stelvio slope, a place where he's won seven times on the World Cup circuit, with a look of splendor.
“It’s a beautiful, tough mountain,” Paris said. “It’s great to have this home crowd here.”
Paris and Franzoni put on quite a show for a home crowd in a race won by Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland. The Italians went one after another, first Franzoni and then Paris, with both finishing on the podium.
It was a proud moment for Paris, who's helping mentor the 24-year-old Franzoni.
“It’s cool having a future in our team that pushes everybody,” Paris said. “It’s good for Italy.”
Over his career, Paris has won 24 World Cup races and a world championship in the super-G in 2019. But an Olympic medal has eluded him. His best finish in his nine previous races was fourth in the downhill at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
“I’ve had a nice career so far,” Paris said. “Having this success on this hill means a lot. The World Cup is different. The Olympics is really special — you never know what’s going to happen. I tried so hard at the other Olympic Games when I was in good shape and I was young and I had the power.”
Franzoni was envisioning a moment like this in December. He told Paris how special it would be if both were on the same podium.
“This is the biggest stage to share a podium with him,” Franzoni said. “I’m so happy about that. He gave me a lot of tips during this season, in the World Cup, and I really appreciate that. He’s such a strong guy, a legend, and it’s an honor to be on his team.”
This medal just may strike a chord for Paris to construct a song.
Paris and his group formed in 2017 and released their first album — fittingly enough called “Time” — a year later. They're described as a “groove metal band.” They released a second album in 2024 called “Escape,” which features a heavier sound. They have tour dates that kick off in June.
“I’m, for sure, a better skier,” Paris cracked. “But if you listen to metal, I’m not so bad.”
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing and AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Italy's Dominik Paris speeds down the course during a men's downhill alpine skiing race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Bormio, Italy. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Italy's Dominik Paris arrives at the finish area of an alpine ski men's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Italy's Dominik Paris takes a selfie with his bronze medal for an alpine ski men's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
HELSINKI (AP) — Heavy social media use contributes to a stark decline in well-being among young people, with the effects particularly worrying in teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe, according to the World Happiness Report 2026 published Thursday.
The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also found that Finland is the happiest land in the world for the ninth year in a row, with other Nordic countries such as Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway ranking among the top 10 countries.
It highlighted how life evaluations among under 25-year-olds in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have dropped significantly over the past decade, and suggested that long hours spent scrolling through social media is a key factor in that trend.
A new entry to the top five on the list is Costa Rica, which climbed to fourth place this year after rising through the ranks from 23rd place in 2023.
The report attributes that to well-being boosts from family bonds and other social connections.
“We think it’s because of the quality of their social lives and the stability that they currently enjoy,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, an Oxford economics professor who directs the Wellbeing Research Centre and co-edits the World Happiness Report.
“Latin America more generally has strong family ties, strong social ties, a great level of social capital, as a sociologist would call it, more so than in other places,” he added.
The report said Finland and the other Northern European countries’ steady ranking on top is related to a combination of wealth, its equal distribution, having a welfare state that protects people from the risks of recessions, and a healthy life expectancy.
As in previous years, nations in or near zones of major conflict remain at the foot of the rankings. Afghanistan is ranked as the unhappiest country again, followed by Sierra Leone and Malawi in Africa.
Country rankings were based on answers given by around 100,000 people in 140 countries and territories who were asked to rate their own lives. The study was done in partnership with the analytics firm Gallup and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
In most countries, approximately 1,000 people are contacted by telephone or face-to-face each year.
Respondents were asked to evaluate their lives on a scale from 0 to 10. Among under-25s in English-speaking and Western European countries, that score dropped by almost one point over the past decade.
The report said the negative correlation between well-being and extensive social media use is particularly concerning among teenage girls. For example, it said that 15-year-old girls who use social media for five hours or more reported a drop in life satisfaction, compared to others who use it less.
Young people who use social media for less than one hour per day report the highest levels of well-being, researchers said, higher than those who do not use social media at all. But adolescents are spending an estimated average of 2.5 hours a day on social media.
“It is clear that we should look as much as possible to put the ‘social’ back into social media,” De Neve said.
Researchers noted that in some parts of the world, such as the Middle East and South America, the links between social media use and well-being are more positive — and youth well-being has not fallen despite heavy social media use.
The report said this is due to many factors that differ between continents, but concluded that heavy social media use in some countries is an important contributing factor to the decline in youth well-being.
It said the most problematic platforms are those with algorithmic feeds, feature influencers and where the main material is visual, because they encourage social comparisons. Those who use platforms that mainly facilitate communication do better.
The 2026 rankings mark the second year in a row that none of the English-speaking countries appear in the top 10. The United States is at 23rd place, Canada is at 25th and Britain at 29th.
The report, with its focus on social media, comes at a time when more and more countries have banned or are considering bans of social media for minors.
Grieshaber reported from Berlin.
FILE - Young people use their phones to view social media in Sydney, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - A young girl uses her phone while sitting on a bench in Sydney, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - Outdoor swimming pools are seen in a harbor of Helsinki, May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
FILE - People spend time outside after using the sauna of the public bath in Helsinki, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
FILE - A woman walks past the Helsinki Cathedral in Helsinki, May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
