U.S. snowboarders psych themselves up before competition with heavy metal and pop music, cat photos, and apparently many on the men's halfpipe team now do Qigong.

Athletes and teams are pushing boundaries so aggressively that the term “Olympic drama” now comes with a manual

Chinese snowboarder Liu Jiayu was involved in a serious crash during halfpipe qualifying and required emergency medical attention after her final jump attempt.

Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut this year, the first winter sport to do so since 2002. Skeleton, luge, ski jumping and moguls are also getting new events.

Competitions at the Winter Olympics are defined by extremes: extreme air, extreme speed and extreme temperatures. On sliding tracks, athletes in luge, bobsleigh and skeleton break highway speed limits.

Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych has been banned from competing in the Olympic skeleton event over a helmet dispute, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said. Heraskevych wanted to wear a helmet commemorating Ukrainian athletes who died in the war with Russia in the competition which starts later Thursday.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Curling powerhouse Canada began its bid to reclaim the men’s title at the Winter Olympics by needing an extra end to beat Germany 7-6 on Wednesday. Canada skip Brad Jacobs returned to the Olympic stage for the first time since leading the team to men’s gold in Sochi in 2014 and was faced with a pressure shot to clinch victory on the opening night of round-robin play.

NHL players are back at the Olympics, and preliminary play opens with two contests in Milan. Here is the schedule, where to watch and scores.