Breezy Johnson and Ilia Malinin star for US at Milan Cortina Olympics as Lindsey Vonn crashes

MILAN (AP) — The crash. The gasps. The helicopter.

Lindsey Vonn's frightening fall in the women's downhill at the Milan Cortina Olympics couldn't help but overshadow U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson’s feat — winning her country's first gold medal at these Games.

Johnson’s victory Sunday in Cortina wasn't the Olympic comeback story everyone expected, as the focus was on Vonn going for gold despite a torn ACL. Even as Johnson sat in the leader’s box on the verge of securing her first Olympic gold medal, her emotions swung from anticipation to anguish when Vonn went down.

“It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life,” Johnson said.

Still, the 30-year-old Johnson became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill — Vonn won it in 2010 — and it came after her own injury concerns as well as a 14-month ban for violating “whereabouts” rules when it comes to testing for doping.

Sometimes, she said, “you just have to keep going because that’s the only option.”

No delays this time.

The U.S. defended its team figure skating gold medal by edging Japan on Sunday.

Ilia Malinin beat rival Shun Sato in a head-to-head showdown to break a deadlock in the final session of the competition. The U.S. ended up with 69 points while Japan finished with 68.

Malinin, nicknamed the “Quad God,” landed five quadruple jumps and scored 200.03 points for his free skate. Sato followed him with three quads in his program, but he could only manage 194.86 points, leaving the Japanese with a second straight silver medal in the team event.

Four years ago, the Americans — and Japanese — were denied a medal ceremony in Beijing because of a lengthy investigation into Russian doping, which kept them from receiving their medals until the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

Must be the home cooking.

Host nation Italy won six medals Sunday — five bronze and one silver — the most Italy has ever won in a single day at the Winter Olympics.

The Italy team delivered the silver medal in the mixed relay biathlon race.

Downhill skier Sofia Goggia won Italy's first bronze medal of the day, followed by Lucia Dalmasso's third place in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom. Riccardo Lorello claimed bronze in the men’s speedskating 5,000 meters.

Dominik Fischnaller took bronze in men’s singles luge before Italy rallied for third place in the figure skating team event.

That followed Italy's Day 1 total of three medals, led by speedskater Francesca Lollobrigida's gold in the 3,000 meters.

Five charter planes carrying NHL players — including Canada’s Sidney Crosby — arrived in Milan on Sunday morning from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. This is the first Olympics with NHL players since the Sochi Games in 2014.

Sweden was the first of the teams comprised of almost exclusively NHL players to take the ice for practice at Milano Santagiulia Arena, followed by the U.S., Czechia, Canada and Finland.

The 12-team men's tournament starts Wednesday. The U.S. and Canada are the heavy favorites, and both teams begin their campaigns Thursday. The Americans face Latvia. Canada plays Czechia.

Finland is the defending champion, but Canada has won each of the past two Olympics with NHL players.

No surprise that a Czech racer won snowboarding's parallel giant slalom Sunday in Livigno. The shocker was that it wasn't Ester Ledecka.

Ledecka, who was trying to become the first snowboarder to win gold medals at three straight Olympics, lost her quarterfinal race by 0.06 seconds to Austria’s Sabine Payer.

The gold medal went to Ledecka's teammate, 22-year-old Zuzana Maderova. It was her first victory in a major event. Payer took the silver medal. Italy's Lucia Dalmasso won bronze.

Ledecka hadn’t lost a PGS World Cup race in almost two years.

There's plenty of interest here in the Super Bowl, even if the game kicks off Monday at 12:30 a.m. in Italy. A couple of sports pubs in Milan said on Sunday that they're fully booked and will turn away walk-ups. The New England Patriots face the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, California.

A few days before competing in Sunday's women's downhill, American skier Jacqueline Wiles noted that she's a “big, big fan” of the Seahawks. A native of Portland, Oregon, Wiles finished tied for fourth on Sunday, just missing out on a bronze medal.

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

Czechia's Ester Ledecka warms up during the women's snowboarding parallel giant slalom finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Riccardo Lorello of Italy reacts after winning the bronze medal on the men's 5,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A rescue helicopter arrives after United States' Lindsey Vonn crashed during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Ilia Malinin of the United States competes during the figure skating men's team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Breezy Johnson of the United States reacts in the finish area of the alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott, Keystone via AP)

Gulf countries reported new attacks Sunday morning, a day after Iran called for the evacuation of three major ports in the United Arab Emirates, threatening for the first time a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets.

Tehran accused the United States of using “ports, docks and hideouts” in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports, without providing evidence, as the war showed no signs of ending.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped allies would send warships to secure the vital Strait of ​Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes have deepened Lebanon's humanitarian crisis, with more than 800 people killed and over 850,000 displaced.

Here is the latest:

Police and city workers scoured the area of what appeared to be a cluster munition impact in Tel Aviv on Sunday, attempting to locate and clear any unexploded ordnance.

City workers used street sweepers and power washers to hose down an area where a small munition damaged two cars and spread shrapnel across a small park. Cluster bombs can be exceptionally dangerous for the public as small munitions that are released may not explode on impact and pose a serious danger for passersby.

The impact also left a hole in the pavement, next to a bomb shelter that serves as a youth center at the local swimming pool. Within 90 minutes, bulldozers and other heavy equipment arrived to clear debris and patch the hole.

Israel police said there were a number of impact sites in the greater Tel Aviv area after Sunday’s attacks that left four people injured, one moderately.

Chris Wright told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that there’s been a “short-term disruption’ to the flow of energy and that “Americans are feeling it right now. Americans will feel it for a few more weeks.”

Asked whether the war will be over in a matter of weeks, Wright said: “I think that’s the likely time frame, yes.”

He said gas prices will start to come back down after the war is over.

“At the end, we will have removed the greatest risk to global energy supplies. We’ll go to a world more abundant in energy, more affordable energy.”

Asked about whether pump prices will fall below $3 per gallon by the summer travel season, Wright said: “there’s a very good chance that’ll be true. There’s no guarantees in war.”

The displaced struggled to keep their tents intact as pouring rain and fierce winds hammered the city’s downtown waterfront area Sunday.

An AP team on the ground witnessed one tent succumb to the winds, blowing away entirely.

Fadi Younes, one displaced man who fled to the beach from Beirut’s southern suburbs, found himself battling with his collapsed tent. He had already rebuilt it once after a storm two days ago, he said.

He gestured to new mattresses, now waterlogged, that he bought after the last ones got soaked through.

“I hope that today things in the country will be set right and everyone can return to their homes. A person only truly feels at ease in their own home,” he said.

Younes is among more than 830,000 people displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation warnings in Lebanon. The Norwegian Refugee Council says that amounts to one in every seven people.

Waltz was asked on CNN Sunday whether the U.S. president was prepared to target oil facilities on Kharg island, which handles 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, and if so, if he was worried that that could risk even more of an escalation in the war.

“President Trump’s not going to take any options off the table,” Waltz said. “I would certainly think he would maintain that optionality if he wants to take down their their energy infrastructure.”

U.S. Central Command posted on X Saturday that it had struck military targets on the island, but preserved the oil infrastructure.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s comments about the reopening of the crucial Strait of Hormuz came in an interview with the London-based Al-Araby al-Jadeed published Sunday.

“The Strait of Hormuz is not generally closed, but only to the U.S. and its allies, and we will continue this policy as long as the attacks continue,” he was quoted as saying.

The world’s largest aluminum smelter outside China said Sunday it would gradually shut down nearly one-fifth of its production capacity as exports remain blocked through the Strait of Hormuz.

Aluminium Bahrain, or Alba, promised a “controlled and safe shutdown strategy.”

Smelters run at high temperatures and take time to shut down or restart without endangering equipment or damage the containers that hold molten metals.

The company told buyers last week it couldn’t meet its obligations. The timeline of a phased partial shutdown means global aluminum supplies could remain tight even if transit through the Strait of Hormuz quickly returns to normal, keeping upward pressure on prices for products such as construction materials and cars.

Aluminum and oil make up a big part of Bahrain’s economy and limits on production and export threaten to deepen woes in the Persian Gulf Island nation being hit with Iranian airstrikes.

There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.

It was one of the multiple barrages targeting Israel Sunday. It damaged an apartment building in the central Israeli ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak.

The country’s Magen David Adom rescue services said that one man was injured by glass shrapnel. Photos and video showed a blackened hole in place of the apartment’s windows.

Magen David Adom also said paramedics were treating another man in the nearby city of Ramat Gan who sustained blast injuries. It comes after an earlier barrage hit 23 sites in the Tel Aviv area and injured two people.

Collapsed concrete, exposed rebar and sheets of plastic spilled onto the streets of southern Beirut Sunday morning. Smoke rose into the air and small fires burned.

That was the scene in the city’s suburb of Haret Hreik, after a night of continued Israeli airstrikes.

In just 10 days, more than 800,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced by war, just over a year since the last conflict uprooted over a million Lebanese from their homes. Israeli strikes have killed 826 people, including 106 children and 65 women, since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2, according to the Health Ministry.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday escalated his appeal for peace by directly addressing the leaders who launched the war.

“On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East and all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict,” Leo said. “Cease fire so that avenues for dialogue may be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability, and peace that the people are waiting for.”

While Leo didn’t mention the United States or Israel by name, he mentioned the bombings that targeted a school — an apparent reference to the missile strike on an elementary school in Iran in the opening days of the war that killed over 165 people, many of them children.

The Vatican has highlighted the carnage of the Minab strike, running a photo of the mass grave for the victims on the front page of its official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, under the headline “The Face of War.” U.S. officials have said outdated intelligence likely led to the United States launching the strike, and that an investigation is ongoing.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said it should be the responsibility of the countries involved to “find ways of ending the hostilities that now have great impact around the world.”

Speaking alongside the leaders of Canada and the other Nordic nations on Sunday, Støre said “it seems to us that the plan for how it will develop is pretty unclear.” He added: “That’s the danger with initiating wars, that they rarely follow a script.”

He said that “we are concerned to see that there is still an escalation.”

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it “takes note” of Trump’s comments. It said that South Korea and the U.S. “will closely coordinate and carefully review” the situation.

The ministry said South Korea closely monitors developments in the Middle East and explores various options to secure safe energy supply routes and protect South Korean nationals.

The Korea International Trade Association says it gets around 70% of its crude oil and 20% of its LNG from the Middle East.

Asked whether Britain is considering sending minesweepers or mine-hunting drones to the strategic waterway to help shipping return to normal, U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told Sky News: “We are talking to our allies.”

“We are intensively looking with our allies at what can be done, because it’s so important that we get the strait reopened,” he said.

Miliband told the BBC on Sunday that “any options that can help to get the strait reopened are being looked at.” He added: “We don’t want a nuclear Iran but ending this conflict is the best and surest way to get the strait reopened.”

Expectations are high that U.S. President Donald Trump could ask Japan to send warships to the Persian Gulf when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets him on Thursday at the White House.

Public opinion in Japan is divided about getting involved. Foreign Ministry sources told Japanese public broadcaster NHK that Japan makes its own decisions and won’t dispatch ships just because Trump asked. Defense Ministry sources told NHK that deploying Japan’s Self-Defense Forces would be difficult, involving the assessment of the legality of U.S. and Israeli actions. NHK did not identify the sources.

The sites include museums and bazaars, historic government buildings and mosques, Iran’s Cultural Heritage Ministry said Sunday.

Among the damaged sites are the ornate Qajar-era Golestan Palace in Tehran and the Shah Abbas Mosque and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan.

The damage isn’t limited to Tehran and Isfahan. The ministry said sites in Kurdistan, Lorestan and Kermanshah were also affected.

Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said two men were lightly wounded in central Israel from an Iranian missile attack.

Video released by the service showed a large hole in a city street and shrapnel damage to an apartment building.

The Israeli rescue service United Hatzalah said it was aware of 23 damaged sites.

Israeli police said authorities were inspecting the scenes. Magen David Adom, another rescue service, posted pictures of a car partially set on fire after the barrage.

Iran’s top diplomat says his country is ready to consider any proposal that includes “a complete end” to the U.S.-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, according to an interview with an Arab daily.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying by the London-based Al-Araby al-Jadeed that mediations by Iran’s neighbors were underway to de-escalate and present “ideas to end the war.” He gave no indication on whether progress has been made.

Araghchi also insisted that Iran’s attacks on its Arab neighbors were limited to U.S. bases and assets. He said Tehran is ready to establish a joint committee with its neighbors to investigate such attacks.

A tanker was seen loading oil Sunday on Iran’s Kharg Island, two days after the U.S. struck military facilities there.

The vessel-tracking platform TankerTrackers said seven more tankers are seen at the anchorage. Five had already loaded fuel oil, while two are waiting to load, according to satellite imagery. It wasn’t immediately clear who the tankers belong to.

Bahrain said Sunday its air defenses have intercepted 125 missiles and 211 drones since the Iran war began.

The small island nation — home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet — has been among the most affected by Iranian strikes, which have hit ports, a hotel, a refinery and a water desalination plant. Similar in size to Singapore and less than one-third the size of Rhode Island, it relies on U.S.-made air defense systems. At least one person has been killed in the attacks.

The International Organization for Migration said Sunday that deteriorating conditions in Iranian cities were “driving increasingly complex mobility patterns.” It says the destruction of homes and facilities that provide basic services are pushing many Iranians to northern provinces, where they think they could be safer.

The U.N. agency said people have been displaced to more than 20 provinces and that shelters were facing strain throughout Iran. Iranians are also fleeing to neighboring states, the agency said, including nearly 32,000 to Afghanistan and nearly 4,000 to Pakistan, even though airports and most border crossings — especially to Iraq — are closed.

Iran’s Health Ministry says U.S. and Israeli strikes have killed 223 women and 202 children since the start of the war on Feb. 28, according to Mizan, the official Iranian judiciary news agency.

The Iranian Red Crescent has said that more than 1,300 people have been killed.

A U.S.-Israeli attack early Sunday morning targeted an impoverished residential neighborhood in the southern city of Shiraz, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA said.

The strike, which occurred southeast of the city, destroyed several housing units belonging to workers and people supported by the state welfare organization, the report said. It said a number of homes were destroyed and several people were injured. There were no reports of fatalities.

There was no immediate comment from Israel or the U.S. On Friday, Israel said it targeted a missile facility in Shiraz. It also has gone after what it says are checkpoints erected by Iran’s paramilitary Basij force.

Neutral Switzerland says it refused permission for two overflights by U.S. reconnaissance planes “in the context of the war in Iran.”

The government said late Saturday that Switzerland’s neutrality law forbids overflights by parties to a conflict that have a military purpose in connection with that conflict. But it does allow humanitarian and medical transit, as well as flights unconnected with the conflict.

Switzerland said it did give clearance for two U.S. transport aircraft to fly over the country on Sunday and for a newly serviced plane to transit on Tuesday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vowed Sunday to hunt down Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

“If the criminal Zionist prime minister is still alive, we will continue to pursue and kill him with full force,” the IRGC said in a statement.

The Israeli military says Iran has launched a new barrage of missiles toward Israel.

It says sirens are alerting residents in areas under attack and air defenses have been activated.

“This reflects a confused policy that missed the point, lost its direction, and lacked wisdom,” Anwar Gargash, adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, wrote on social media late Saturday.

Gargash was referring to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s comments in which he accused the U.S. of using the UAE as a base for its attacks on Iran's Kharg Island.

Sirens sounded in Bahrain ahead of an assault on Sunday, while the United Arab Emirates reported a missile attack, urging residents to shelter in safe locations.

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said its systems intercepted and destroyed 10 drones over the capital, Riyadh, and the kingdom’s eastern region.

Iran’s joint military command accused in a statement Sunday "the enemy” of using copycat Iranian drones to attack neighboring countries and pin the blame on Tehran, state media reported.

Tehran usually uses “the enemy” as a reference to the United States and Israel.

The statement said copies of Iran's Shahed-136 drone, known as LUCAS, were used to hit “irrelevant targets in the regional states," including attacks on Turkey, Iraq and Kuwait. No evidence was provided.

The military command also said Iran openly shares its targets, which it describes as U.S. and Israeli interests, and urged trust and cooperation from regional countries.

A bulldozer clears debris from the rubble of buildings destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Debris litters the street as smoke rises from buildings damaged in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Policemen stand guard next to the banners showing portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman displays a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as she waves her country's flag during a campaign in support of the government at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israeli security forces inspect damage at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Holon, central Israel, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Two men ride their motorbike past a billboard of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A man chants slogan while the body of Gen. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Defense Council and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader who was killed in a strike, is being buried at the courtyard of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Rescue workers inspect an apartment damaged in an Israeli airstrike as thick smoke fills the building in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Fire and plumes of smoke rise from an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)