Por Aleks Klosok, CNN

El corredor ucraniano de skeleton, Vladyslav Heraskevych, afirma que el Comité Olímpico Internacional (COI) le prohibió usar el casco con imágenes de atletas caídos durante la guerra en Ucrania.

El lunes, el joven de 27 años usó el casco durante una sesión de entrenamiento de skeleton para los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno en Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Los atletas que aparecen en el casco son: la levantadora de pesas Alina Perehudova, el boxeador Pavlo Ischenko, el jugador de hockey sobre hielo Oleksiy Loginov, el actor y atleta Ivan Kononenko, el saltador y entrenador Mykyta Kozubenko, el tirador Oleksiy Habarov y la bailarina Daria Kurdel.

En un video publicado en redes sociales tras su entrenamiento, Heraskevych, quien portó la bandera de su país en la ceremonia inaugural, declaró que Toshio Tsurunaga, representante del COI a cargo de la comunicación entre los atletas, los comités olímpicos nacionales y el COI, había acudido a la Villa Olímpica para informarle la decisión.

“Una decisión que me rompe el corazón. Siento que el COI está traicionando a los atletas que formaron parte del movimiento olímpico, al no permitirles ser homenajeados en el escenario deportivo donde nunca más podrán volver”, afirma en el video.

“A pesar de los precedentes, tanto en la actualidad como en el pasado, en los que el COI permitía tales homenajes, esta vez decidieron establecer normas especiales solo para Ucrania”.

CNN Sports se ha puesto en contacto con el Sr. Tsurunaga para obtener sus comentarios.

Heraskevych declaró posteriormente a Reuters que la decisión del COI se basó en la Regla 50.

La Regla 50.2 de la Carta Olímpica establece que “no se permite ningún tipo de manifestación ni propaganda política, religiosa o racial en las sedes, instalaciones u otras áreas olímpicas”.

El Comité Olímpico de Ucrania anunció este martes que había presentado una solicitud oficial al COI para que Heraskevych usara un casco conmemorativo en los Juegos.

“El casco fue creado para honrar a los atletas ucranianos que murieron defendiendo a Ucrania o que fueron víctimas de la guerra a gran escala de Rusia contra Ucrania”, declaró el Comité Olímpico de Ucrania en un comunicado.

“El Comité Olímpico Nacional de Ucrania enfatiza que cumple plenamente con los requisitos de seguridad y las normas del COI, no contiene publicidad, lemas políticos ni elementos discriminatorios, y se confirmó que cumple con los estándares establecidos durante las sesiones oficiales de entrenamiento”.

En una conferencia de prensa, el portavoz del COI, Mark Adams, reconoció que la organización recibió la solicitud, pero que aún no creía que se debiera permitir el casco.

“Recibimos la solicitud formal para usar el casco en competición esta mañana. El COI comprende plenamente el deseo de los atletas de recordar a sus amigos y colegas que perdieron la vida en conflictos”, declaró Adams.

“Anoche se celebró una reunión informal con el entrenador del Sr. Heraskevych y su delegación, y reiteramos nuestra comprensión del deseo del atleta de rendir homenaje a sus compatriotas ucranianos. Los Juegos deben estar separados no solo de la interferencia política y religiosa, sino de todo tipo de interferencias para que todos los atletas puedan concentrarse en su rendimiento.

“Lo ha hecho en los entrenamientos y en redes sociales, ha expresado su opinión, pero lo que hemos dicho es que este casco va en contra de las directrices”.

Adams concluyó: “Tras la reunión, haremos una excepción a las directrices para permitirle usar un brazalete negro durante la competición. Creemos que es un buen acuerdo”. CNN Sports se ha puesto en contacto con el Comité Olímpico Ucraniano para solicitar comentarios.

En declaraciones a CNN antes de los Juegos, el atleta ucraniano prometió usar el evento como plataforma para recordar al mundo la guerra que

By Terry Ward, CNN

(CNN) — Growing up near Boston, elements of Italian-American culture were threaded through much of Liz Fitzgerald’s life.

Every Christmas Eve, her uncle would visit her family’s home to celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes, bringing dishes like stuffed shrimp, calamari and clam chowder, while her aunts poured batter into steaming irons to make the crispy, waffle-like Italian cookies called pizelle. Her father’s contribution was always a ricotta pie from a local Italian bakery.

The family traces their Italian roots to her great-grandfather, Angelo, who was born in 1890 near Naples and arrived in the United States in 1909. He didn’t naturalize as a US citizen until 1945, several years after Fitzgerald’s father was born.

When she realized several years ago that she had a path to Italian citizenship thanks to him through jus sanguinis or “blood right,” Fitzgerald, 53, set about collecting the documents to submit her case.

She had gathered all the necessary documents and had them translated, apostilled and ready to submit by late March 2025 when she — and thousands of other people around the world also in the process of applying for Italian citizenship — were blindsided by a sudden change in the law.

A surprise decree made effective immediately on March 28, 2025, by the Italian government tightened regulations for claiming citizenship through jus sanguinis, limiting it only to people with a parent or grandparent born in Italy.

And while the new regulation, known as the Tajani Decree (converted to Law 74/2025 ), did not affect the applications of roughly 60,000 people that were pending at the time at consulates and in Italian courts, it effectively closed the path for those like Fitzgerald.

But there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon for people who still hope to gain Italian citizenship despite no longer qualifying under the new regulations: A hearing in Italy’s Constitutional Court is set for March 11, 2026, to judge the law’s constitutionality.

“Many Americans and others of Italian descent are in a holding pattern right now, because the Constitutional Court could still reverse or soften key parts of the decree when it hears the case in March,” said Pierangelo D’Errico, a manager in the London office of immigration firm Fragomen.

“Until the Court rules, applicants are facing real uncertainty, both about whether they qualify and about how long applications may take to be processed,” he said in an email to CNN.

‘Devastated’ by the new decree

Kristina Scanlan, a physician currently doing her residency in Pennsylvania, was also in the process of gathering documents to apply for Italian citizenship through her great-great-grandmother when the Tajani Decree was announced last year. While everything was more or less ready to go, she said, the case had not yet been filed when the new regulations dropped.

“Devastated, in a word,” is how Scanlan described her reaction to hearing the news that she and her mother, sister, uncle and two cousins, who were on the same application, were no longer qualified. She and her husband, who also qualified for Italian citizenship under the old rules, had already discussed the benefits of their future kids potentially having Italian passports, and Scanlan had considered one day working in Italy as a physician, too.

After discussing matters with their lawyer, she and her family decided to move forward with their application, which was filed in Italy in June 2025 and is currently awaiting a court date.

“Once I he

By Dana Santas, CNN

(CNN) — When elite athletes compete while injured, it captures attention. Three-time Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn’s recent return to alpine ski racing despite a torn ACL ignited conversations about grit, resilience and the idea of pushing through pain. For fans at home, watching a professional athlete battle through injury can be inspiring. But these performances can also be misleading.

What pro athletes do while injured is not a road map for how regular folks should approach activity during recovery. The difference isn’t a matter of toughness. It’s about real-life risk tolerance, access to health care resources and lifestyle context. Understanding those distinctions matters.

When recreational exercisers get hurt, they tend to gravitate toward two ends of the spectrum: stopping moving altogether or training through pain in an attempt to emulate pros like Vonn. Both extremes have the potential to slow recovery and lead to greater injury.

The best approach is usually somewhere in the middle — engaging in the right types of movement to support healing rather than disrupt it.

Athletes play by different rules

Working in professional sports as a mobility coach for the past two decades, I’ve been involved in the rehabilitation programs of hundreds of athletes. When athletes resume training or return to competition with an injury, it’s always an informed decision.

Sports stars operate within tightly managed systems that include physicians, physical therapists, strength and movement coaches, sports psychologists, and other performance staff who monitor physical symptoms, movement patterns, mental well-being and overall capacity.

A different risk-reward equation is also at play in elite competition spheres. In those environments, a professional athlete and her team may accept high risk in the short term in service of long-term or long-standing goals — as was likely the case with Vonn. That doesn’t mean the path forward is safe or pain-free. It means the decision to compete is informed, supervised and specific to that athlete’s situation.

Why exercising through injury ‘like a pro’ backfires

Unlike athletes who have a team of specialists interpreting their pain signals, everyday exercisers generally try to override their pain without interpretation. Training injured without guidance can delay healing, create compensation patterns and cause new problems elsewhere in the body.

Without close monitoring, there is a danger of loading the injured area too much or too soon, as well as unknowingly shifting stress to surrounding joints and tissues.

What feels manageable in the moment can quietly compound — a knee injury then leads to an ankle, hip or back problem. That’s why “pushing through” an injury is rarely productive outside of the support of elite, high-performance settings.

The false choice between rest and exercise

One of the biggest misconceptions about injury recovery is that the choice is either total rest or full training. In reality, recovery is about choosing the right kind of movement at the right time.

Complete rest, when it isn’t warranted, can lead to stiffness, strength loss and reduced coordination. Aggressive training overwhelms healing tissue. Strategic movement, however, preserves neuromuscular connections, supports healthy blood flow, and helps the body maintain strength and mobility.

How movement can be medicine

Rehabilitation science has long shown that intelligently applied movement can support healing. One example is cross-education training, in which a

In 2022, the continental United States experienced its third hottest July since 1895, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while 20 states saw one of their 10 hottest days in the same month. The year prior, July marked the hottest month on record worldwide.

Climate change is driving rising temperatures and more record heat. The Earth’s temperature has climbed each decade since 1880 by about .14 degrees Fahrenheit, or roughly 2 degrees Fahrenheit total.

Stacker compiled a ranking of the hottest Februarys in California since 1895 using data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. Rankings are based on the highest average temperature in each month. For each of the hottest months listed below, we’ve included the average state temperature, state-wide highs and lows for the month, and the total precipitation.

#10. February 2020
– Average temperature: 49.2°F
– Monthly high temperature: 62.1°F
– Monthly low temperature: 36.3°F
– Total precipitation: 0.21″

#9. February 1924
– Average temperature: 49.6°F
– Monthly high temperature: 62.1°F
– Monthly low temperature: 37°F
– Total precipitation: 1.54″

#8. February 2014
– Average temperature: 49.8°F
– Monthly high temperature: 60.6°F
– Monthly low temperature: 39°F
– Total precipitation: 4.02″

#7. February 1907
– Average temperature: 49.9°F
– Monthly high temperature: 59.5°F
– Monthly low temperature: 40.3°F
– Total precipitation: 3.66″

#6. February 1968
– Average temperature: 50.1°F
– Monthly high temperature: 59.5°F
– Monthly low temperature: 40.6°F
– Total precipitation: 2.72″

#5. February 1995
– Average temperature: 51.3°F
– Monthly high temperature: 62°F
– Monthly low temperature: 40.5°F
– Total precipitation

A manufactured home is a path to homeownership that is often overlooked. Offering both quality and value, a manufactured home could be an affordable option to get you into a home of your own. Freddie Mac crunched the numbers on how manufactured housing prices have changed in California using 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

California new manufactured housing sales price trends

– Average sale price of new manufactured homes: $167,000 (35.4% higher than the national average)
— Single-section: $104,000
— Double-section: $178,700
– 1-year sale price change: +8.1%
– 5-year sale price change: +51.1%
– 10-year sale price change: +72.2%

States with the least expensive new manufactured homes
#1. Alaska: $80,200
#2. Louisiana: $98,900
#3. Arkansas: $99,200
#4. Kansas: $102,400
#5. Indiana: $102,600

What Is a Manufactured Home?

Manufactured homes are houses built in a factory rather than on the land where you’ll live. They are constructed using the same building materials as site-built homes but take less time to build and are typically more affordable because the efficiency of the factory building process lowers costs.

The home may consist of a single section or two or more sections that are built on a permanent steel frame in a factory and transported to your property. Once it arrives, it will be placed on the land that you own or lease, or in a manufactured housing community.

Modern manufactured homes offer attractive design options that are nearly indistinguishable from site-built homes. For example, modern factory-built homes such as CrossMod ® homes are a particular type of manufactured home that have the features and aesthetics of site-built homes, such as pitched roofs, permanent foundations, porches and garages.

To make sure that manufactured homes are safe, strong and durable, they are inspected to meet or exceed standards set out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards, commonly known as the HUD Code. The safety standards include:

• Design and construction.
• Strength and durability.
• Fire resistance.
• Heating, plumbing and air conditioning.
• Thermal and electrical systems.
• Energy efficiency.
• Overall home quality.

With the HUD Code seal of approval, manufactured homes also meet regional standards for roof load,