Ben Ogden made history at the Winter Olympics in Italy, becoming the first American man in 50 years to win a medal in cross-country skiing. Ogden secured a silver medal in the sprint, finishing behind Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who earned his seventh Olympic gold medal. The 2026 Winter Olympics are set to be held in Milan.
Ogden, a 25-year-old from Vermont, expressed his excitement after the race, stating, "Unbelievable, unbelievable. I just can't, I can't put into words. I'm just so thrilled." He added, "I'm proud to be the first in the sprint but there will be more, don't you worry." The last American man to win a medal in cross-country skiing was Bill Koch in 1976.
The United States is fielding its largest Winter Olympics team ever for the 2026 Games, with 232 athletes competing. Skier Breezy Johnson won America's first gold medal of the Games in women's downhill, and U.S. figure skaters won gold in the team competition. Alex Hall took silver in freestyle skiing, while Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan won bronze in the team downhill event. While Team USA brought home the most medals of any country at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Norway led in the medal count at the last Winter Games and holds the all-time record for winter medals.
The medals awarded at the 2026 Winter Olympics could be more valuable than in previous games due to rising gold and silver prices. Olympic gold medals are no longer made of solid gold; the last time a pure gold medal was awarded was at the 1912 Summer Olympic Games. According to the International Olympic Committee guidelines, gold medals consist of at least 92.5% silver and are plated with six grams of pure gold. Silver medals contain 500 grams of silver and no gold plating, while bronze medals are solid bronze.
In other news, a former Palm Beach, Florida, police chief told the FBI that Donald Trump called him in the mid-2000s during an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. Trump allegedly said, "thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this," according to an FBI account of an interview with the ex-police chief in 2019. Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claimed he cut off contact with him over 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, a senior European intelligence official stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no desire to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine and believes he can outsmart the United States during talks about ending the war. Kaupo Rosin, the head of Estonia's foreign intelligence service, said Moscow is playing for time in the talks with Washington and there is no discussion about cooperating with the U.S. in a meaningful way.
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