Athletes Shine at X Games Aspen
The X Games Aspen 2024 featured historic performances and featured many of the stars from the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Chloe Kim made history as she became the first woman to land a 1260, or three and a half rotations, in the snowboard halfpipe. The 23-year- old’s run also tied her with Kelly Clark for the most X Games medals at seven. The X Games marked Kim’s return to competition since winning the gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Kim could potentially make history as a three-time gold medalist in the discipline during the 2026 Turin Olympics. Also returning to X Games competition was skier Eileen Gu, who missed the previous year due to injury. Although she competed with a severe hip injury that made it difficult to walk, she won silver in slopestyle and continued a three-year win streak in halfpipe. Finally, Scotty James matched Shaun White with three straight X Games gold medals with a win in the superpipe event despite having a broken board.

Super Bowl Sunday Set with Experienced Teams
For the second year in a row, the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl. During the Chiefs’ win over the Baltimore Ravens in the American Football Conference Championship, tight end Travis Kelce passed Jerry Rice for the most receptions during the postseason. The Chiefs’ defense locked down on quarterback Lamar Jackson, a top contender for MVP who received little help from the rest of the team. Alongside the national attention the Chiefs have received because of their dominance on the field, Kelce’s relationship with Taylor Swift has catapulted the Chiefs’ fame among fans in the U.S. American Airlines has added Flight 1989 traveling to Las Vegas for the event, and several articles speculate that Swift, who is currently performing in Tokyo for the Eras Tour, will attend the Super Bowl.

After a strong start by the Detroit Lions, the 49ers were able to score 27 points in the second half to overcome a 17-point deficit in the National Football Conference Championship. The 49ers were led by quarterback Brock Purdy, who finished with 267 yards and a touchdown, ending a playoff drought for a team that is looking for their first Super Bowl title since 1994. For the Lions, this was a disappointing loss, as it would’ve been their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

JuJu Watkins Makes History With 51 Points Freshman guard

JuJu Watkins made history in an upset against #4 Stanford, scoring 51 points out of the team’s 67 total points. Watkins’ 51 points were only 7 points fewer than Stanford’s 58. Watkins’ achievement broke USC’s single-game scoring record and is the first time a player scored over 50 points in a Division I game this season. It is also the second-most points scored by a player in the Pac-12, the first being Kelsey Plum from the University of Washington in 2017, and the most points scored by a freshman since Elena Delle Donne in 2011. In addition, Watkins recorded 11 rebounds and 2 assists in the team’s first win at Maples Pavillion since 2000. The two teams are members of the Pac-12, a conference marked by multiple upsets and is
in its last full season.

Kamila Valieva Banned for Four Years
Two years after Kamila Valieva tested positive for a prohibited doping medication, the figure skater received a four-year ban that would backdate from Dec. 25, 2021. All events she competed in for the 2021–2022 and 2022– 2023 seasons were disqualified. Valieva’s lawyers claimed that the heart medication, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances, found in her test came from her grandfather using the same cutting board to chop up his heart medication as he did to prepare one of her favorite strawberry desserts. The U.S. Figure Skating Team is finally receiving their gold medals from the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Lewis Hamilton Joins Ferrari
Seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton shocked fans by announcing that he would be moving from Mercedes to Ferrari, replacing Carlos Sainz. Hamilton first began racing for Mercedes in 2013 and won six of his seven world championships for Mercedes. The oldest driver in F1, his move reignites his pursuit of a world-record eighth world championship. While Ferrari is the oldest team in F1, it has not won a driver’s championship since 2008.