The local answer starts with the U.S. women’s soccer team’s longtime popularity here, even though none of its senior players are from the area anymore.
That was proven again when the Americans came to town in October. There were quite a few Rodman jerseys in the stands, even though she wasn’t on the squad. She has genuine, cut-through star power, the first American women’s soccer player to reach that peak since the era of Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd.
In the year and a half leading to the 2027 World Cup, we’ll find out if any of Rodman’s current compatriots will meet her up there. Sophia Wilson will certainly be a candidate when she returns from maternity leave. Catarina Macario’s bright star will grow even brighter if she comes back to the NWSL this summer, as has been rumored lately. Lily Yohannes is meeting the hype as a young phenom.
Sophia Wilson (right) was out of action last year as she welcomed her first child.
But there’s another piece too, one which could have a big impact locally.
The NWSL would like to have a Philadelphia team if an ownership group steps forward.
“We love Philadelphia,” commissioner Jessica Berman told The Inquirer on Friday. “We think Philadelphia will be a great NWSL market one day, and certainly among the cities that would be in contention.”
The subject no doubt gave Berman a few minutes of respite from a grilling about the league’s controversial High Impact Player rule. That fracas won’t die down any time soon, not least because the NWSL Players Association has taken the league to arbitration over it.
But at some point down the line, there will be other subjects to discuss, and expansion is always on the list. The league is adding teams in Denver and Boston this year, and will add Atlanta in 2028.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman.
When Atlanta’s team kicks off, Philadelphia will be the only city that had teams in the two prior leagues, the Women’s United Soccer Association (2001-03) and Women’s Professional Soccer (2010-11), but lacks an NWSL team.
Meanwhile, the WNBA will launch an expansion team here in 2030, and the Unrivaled basketball circuit has sold out Xfinity Mobile Arena for a doubleheader this Friday. That puts more proof on the table that Philadelphia fans have an interest in women’s sports.
A group of investors has been working on a local NWSL expansion bid, but has not yet been willing to talk publicly about it.
That leaves Berman waiting along with everyone else.
“We do not have any news to break, or current timeline, or plan of when that might happen,” she said. “But I know I’ve shared with you before: we love that city, we know and believe a women’s soccer team in the NWSL would be successful there. And we look forward to the day when the circumstances are right.”
Philadelphia and its famously indefatigable, fanatical followers of all things pro sports, you have a test coming at you with the speed of a Tyrese Maxey breakaway.
Then will come the test. Can, and will, Philadelphia and its often-notorious rabid fans land on the right side of the WNBA story, embracing not only a specific team, but the general concept of women’s professional sports?
Billie Jean King, for one, has thoughts.
In two interviews, King — one of the most celebrated sports icons of any generation and an inductee into multiple Halls of Fame — explained how she planted roots in Philadelphia long ago and has yet to pull those roots up. Yes, she’s moved around the globe, with stops at Wimbledon, Roland Garros, Australia, and beyond. She is a fixture at the U.S. Open every summer in New York, a whirling dervish who refuses to slow down, even at 82 years old.
She wants to see Philadelphia become the next successful chapter in the chronicles of the WNBA story, proving all the more, even more that women can succeed on basketball courts, by measuring success one purchased ticket at a time.
“I just hope that comes true,” said King of a pro team other than the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers lighting up South Philadelphia’s sports complex. “If it does come there, then the fans better make sure they support it because the other [new] teams now, they really have great support.”
Elton John in a Philadelphia Freedoms jacket and Billie Jean King in 1974.
Her conversations about the possibilities of basketball’s best women playing for Philadelphia have been ongoing for seemingly a lifetime. “We’ve been talking to people about that forever on that subject,” King said, mentioning her wish that famed Philadelphians like Wanda Sykes and others from the entertainment industry help draw attention to the sport. (As for ownership, she again points to Sykes, and Sykes’ wife, Alex, saying “I know they’d love to invest.”)
Having just helped establish the Professional Women’s Hockey League, having dabbled in ownership of tennis tournaments, King knows what lies ahead for ownership of a new franchise and for a fan base that is particularly particular.
“Philadelphia, it’s a rough market,” King said, “because notice when the Phillies are winning, everybody shows up. When they’re not winning, very few show up. What you need is an organization like the Cubs, whether they win or lose, they fill the place. That’s what Philadelphia has to do. That’s what you need the fans do. They gotta have to want to do that to support their city.”
Her presence is not just the stuff of tennis lore. She is not a fixture in baseball, ensconced in the major leagues as a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. When not seated in the front row near the Dodgers’ dugout at Chavez Ravine, chatting it up with Magic Johnson and Sandy Koufax, she could be seen standing next to Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts on podiums as she and her team celebrated the last two World Series championships.
Billie Jean King (left) and Magic Johnson take in Game 1 of the NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals.
And for King there is no offseason. She sits on the board of directors for the 3-year-old PWHL, a creation of the Dodgers’ ownership. She applauds its million-plus ticket sales per season as heartily as she celebrates baseball championships.
She also is closely following the startup of the new women’s professional baseball league being backed by Major League Baseball. King has no stake in that league. Yet. But upon learning that none other than Mo’ne Davis, the multifaceted Philadelphia athlete of Little League fame, was attracted to the new league’s tryouts certainly attracted King’s attention.
Yet as King began the second of our interviews for this article, she leaned into the Zoom video camera and declared that she was wearing the Phillies’ maroon, a transplant from the West Coast stubbornly proud of her adopted city.
King remembers watching the Phillies play at Veterans Stadium, falling back on the dreams of a little girl who wanted to play baseball as much as did her brother, Randy Moffitt, a former big league pitcher who died earlier this year.
King also reminisces about Coaching 101 conversations she’d have with Sixers great Billy Cunningham while the two watched the Flyers skate their way to Stanley Cup championships. Just two Hall of Famers talking hoops. King also wished to have played the sport, but for that glass ceiling that limited girls’ and women’s access to the game.
That so many memories of teams rooted in Philadelphia can make her smile reminds one to never doubt how much Billie Jean King still has invested in emotions, heart, and soul in this city after six-plus decades.
“As a child, when I was growing up, I read everything I could on the history of women’s tennis and men’s tennis,” King said. “And there is so much history in Philadelphia. … And the junior championships used to be there. If you wanted to be the No. 1 junior in the world, you had to play at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. They had the junior nationals, and you had to win that tournament to be No. 1 in the country. I never won.”
That didn’t mean the city failed to win over King. “I’ve been going there since I was 15,” she said fondly. And when she returned as an adult, she did so as a world-renowned champion, coming back to play for and coach the Philadelphia Freedoms in 1974, the inaugural season of the World Team Tennis league.
Billie Jean King was a player-coach for the Philadelphia Freedoms.
These ventures make it feel like coming home whenever she passes through Philadelphia, she said. And now, she sees a city she loves about to take on a fight she’s waged her whole life.
Like many a WNBA team, their NBA counterparts will be counted on greatly to help the Philly team take flight. The franchise owner is Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Sixers, with Comcast Spectacor holding a minority stake.
Yet King cautions, too, that “in Philadelphia, you’ve got to have the big bucks. You’ve got to be in it for the long, long haul.”
Why that matters is this: The WNBA has shuffled the deck in four expansion eras in its 29 seasons. Philadelphia will join as part of its fourth expansion.
The league’s history on moving or disbanding franchises is no secret. Neither is its willingness to go in another direction quickly, no matter the size of the market the league chooses to flee.
The league has relocated and rebranded five teams. Only three of the original eight teams remain. As the WNBA looks to grow to an all-time high of 18 teams by 2030, it is betting much on Philadelphia — the only city among the nation’s six largest metropolises to have never had a WNBA team.
New York Liberty center Jonquel Jones (35) looks for an outlet as Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas during a WNBA playoff game last fall. Jones’ and Thomas’ teams are two of the three inaugural WNBA franchises still in their original homes.
Right now, the model every future expansion team will be chasing is the Golden State Valkyries.
The Valkyries set a record for victories in an expansion team’s first season and made the playoffs, another first for an expansion team, all while selling out its slate of home games.
“So they did it right, and you’ve got to do it right,” said King of the team fronted by the NBA Golden State Warriors.
“You’ve got to have enough money and then you’ve got to set up everything right. Like, where are they going to play? Make sure they get good dates,” she said, noting that WNBA franchises often are second, third, or fourth in pecking orders in arenas often shared by other teams. “It’s a very difficult world to be in sports, financially, especially if you’re trying to help get a new sport in the area.”
That largely sums up what fans of women’s sports can expect when the WNBA lands here.
Can it work? Will it work? For Billie Jean King, just trying will be worth the effort as she keeps endorsing getting women not only on the courts, ice, playing fields, but in the seats of power.
“I’ve been in business forever,” she said. “My former husband and I owned tournaments from 1968. I always did the business side. It really helped me to lead. I said yes [because] the way to do it was to embrace it with everything I’ve got. The way to do it is to know all sides of something, and not because I’ve been an owner, a coach, a player. I’ve been in a lot of situations not only to have a better life, but to create opportunities for others. It’s just more enriched when you have a life where you have empathy and compassion for each person’s situation.”
In King’s world of sports, it’s always a must that fairness be made available to women. It won’t be long until the City of Brotherly Love gets its opportunity to agree with one of its most famous adopted sisters. At last.
Though Trinity Rodman’s contract saga has at last been resolved with her re-signing, the controversy over the NWSL’s High Impact Player rule likely won’t die down soon.
It remains the subject of a grievance by the NWSL Players Association, which claims the rule should have been collectively bargained; and it remains unpopular with many fans, for a variety of reasons.
The league’s commissioner, Jessica Berman, does not mind being the main target of that ire.
“I very much stand behind the decision and the process,” she told The Inquirer in an interview on Friday. “We intentionally negotiated for the right to do exactly what we did, which is to develop a specific rule for a specific classification of players which there is a reduced salary cap charge, so long as we consult in good faith with the Players’ Association. And I want to reinforce that’s exactly what we did in this context.”
The NWSLPA disagreed.
NWSL Players Association Statement on League’s Unilateral Implementation of the High Impact Player Rule:
“At no point in time in CBA negotiations or any time prior to the end of 2025 did [the] NWSL articulate a plan to impose a separate pot of funds with a new cap and eligibility criteria that were unrelated to roster classifications by any name,” NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told The Inquirer via email. “We disagree with NWSL’s representation that it consulted with the NWSLPA.”
Burke claimed that the first “written communication” she got on the proposal came on Dec. 11, and the union registered its objections after multiple board meetings in the ensuing days. The league announced the rule on Dec. 23, and said it will take effect on July 1.
Washington Spirit superstar Trinity Rodman’s threat to leave the NWSL in free agency sparked the league to adopt the High Impact Player rule.
Berman acknowledged the grievance in saying that “as in all labor relations in professional sports and otherwise, the union and the league can disagree,” and the league will follow the established procedures for resolving disputes.
“We are very confident in our position,” she said. “We have been contemplating different iterations of a potential rule or policy like this for a long time, and for that reason, we negotiated into the CBA the specific right to move forward with this if and when we believed it was appropriate.”
If there’s enough money going around to give each of the 15 clubs $1 million from the HIP pot, why not just raise the salary cap by the same amount?
“At some point, the board and NWSL are going to have to realize that increasing the cap — while retaining it — is in their own best interests,” said Burke, whose union has been loudly calling to raise the cap. “Until then, we stand ready to enforce the terms that were negotiated.”
Trinity Rodman (bottom left) signing her new contract on Thursday.
Berman started the league’s case by bringing vice president of player affairs, Stephanie Lee on the call to give more context.
Lee, who previously worked in the front offices of Gotham FC, the Utah Royals, and the Seattle Reign, noted that a player who gets HIP money must have a salary cap charge of at least 12% of the teamwide base cap, which for this year is $3.5 million.
Teams also can’t get cap relief from the rule unless they hit the cap in the first place. Up to that point, the player’s salary is charged to the regular payroll.
“As they roster build throughout the year and through [transfer] windows and different transactions, there’s flexibility there to how they designate players and take advantage of that HIP [money],” Lee said. “It’s not something that they have to decide at the beginning of executing a player’s contract.”
A league spokesperson added that teams can retroactively apply the money to a player when they hit the cap by signing other players, so they can go over the cap to keep everyone they want to.
U.S. women’s national team captain Lindsey Heaps is expected to be paid through the HIP rule when she joins her hometown Denver Summit in the summer.
Why limit who can get the money?
Then there are the criteria the league laid down to limit which players are “high impact,” from media and marketing rankings to U.S. national team playing time. This also is widely unpopular.
But there’s also a question at a higher level: Why have criteria in the first place? Why not let teams spend the money on whoever they want, as MLS now does with its Designated Player rule, and let teams potentially make mistakes?
“It is the league’s, and in this case our — my — responsibility to be responsible stewards of capital in service of growing the business,” she said. “In this circumstance where we have unlocked the ability for our clubs to spend an incremental $115 million [combined through 2030], it is our job to make sure that it is going to have a relationship to growing our revenue. That growth in revenue will also feed the revenue-sharing mechanism that was negotiated into our most recent CBA, which means that we are incentively aligned with our players to grow this business.”
U.S. veteran Crystal Dunn (right) is one of the most notable players who is not eligible for HIP money.
Burke strongly disagreed.
“Nothing in the CBA,” she wrote, “permits [the] NWSL to create an additional pot of funds (with an entirely new and separate cap) which only some players are eligible for based on ill-conceived criteria unilaterally determined by NWSL, including and especially when those criteria violate the non-discrimination clause in our CBA.”
Does Berman see a day when the league would loosen the reins?
“In the most general sense, we will always analyze the health of our business and the health of the game in the NWSL,” Berman said. “If we believe that there are business reasons for us to modify our rules, we will.”
Jaedyn Shaw (left) is another notable American who isn’t currently eligible for HIP status.
She stood firm again in saying “we feel like we’ve enabled our clubs to invest significantly.” And as she chose her words, she made it clear that the league will push those clubs to invest in specific ways.
“This particular mechanism, that was very prescriptive in what it was developed to address, is important in that it is supposed to help us to target top players,” she said. “Which, as you’ve heard me say many times, is in service of us being the best league in the world. In order for us to be the best league in the world, we need to compete for the best players, and we want this policy to guide the behavior of our clubs so that they can compete financially to attract and retain top players.”
It’s no secret that there’s a fair amount of variance in how much money NWSL teams have in the bank. Nor is it a secret that Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang sits at the higher end of the scale. She had long been ready to spend big on Rodman, and Rodman’s agent has said the three-year deal is worth over $2 million per season.
But when Kang first put a contract proposal on the table, Berman vetoed it for violating the league’s salary rules. A source with knowledge of the offer told The Inquirer that the Spirit would not have been able to pay Rodman and also meet the league requirement of a 20-player roster, even if all the others were on the league’s minimum salary.
Michele Kang (second from right) with, from right to left, Trinity Rodman, Spirit president of soccer operations Haley Carter, and CEO Kim Stone.
That has led some outsiders to wonder how much resistance there was elsewhere in the league to raising the cap and whether the HIP rule might have been an easier sell. A two-thirds majority of team owners is required to pass a vote.
“It is in our best judgment that the HIP rule is the most strategic mechanism for us to advance the business,” Berman said.
“A rule that has been adopted with such a singular focus on generating revenue is not even about soccer, building a competitive roster to win NWSL games, or meeting a team’s performance needs,” she said, “which are obvious functions of a team when they are constructing a roster.”
Catarina Macario might be the next U.S. star to get HIP money, as there’s speculation she might come to the NWSL in the summer.
Another milestone in all this is expected to arrive when the current European season ends in the summer. There’s been much speculation that U.S. national team star Catarina Macario could come home from England’s Chelsea, and Spanish superpower Barcelona reportedly has nine players on expiring contracts — including stars who’ve fueled the club’s three Champions League titles in the last six years.
Will the NWSL be willing to hit the gas pedal to bring them over?
“We developed this rule very intentionally to put our clubs in a position to compete financially with top clubs around the world for top players, and we believe it will put us in a position to do that effectively,” Berman said. “Without naming specific clubs or naming specific players, it is our expectation that when we look back on this, we will have a list of players that we’ve been able to attract and retain by virtue of enacting this rule.”
With heavy snow expected this weekend, two Big 5 basketball programs are moving their tipoff times.
The St. Joseph’s men’s team was slated to take on Davidson at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Hagan Arena. Now, the Hawks will be starting at 2 p.m. to avoid interference with potential snowfall on Saturday night.
Due to forecasted inclement weather in the Philadelphia region and in the interest of the safety teams, fans and staff, Saint Joseph's men's basketball game vs Dayton on Saturday, Jan. 24, has been moved up to 2:00 p.m.
Broadcast details will be announced when available. #THWND
The Drexel women moved its Sunday matchup against Towson at the Daskalakis Athletic Center to Saturday at 6 p.m., which will now be a homecoming doubleheader with the men’s team, which faces Northeastern at 2 p.m.
The women’s team will play back-to-back days, as the Dragons host Stony Brook at 6 p.m. Friday.
Due to impending weather on Sunday, January 25, the women's basketball game against Towson, originally scheduled for 2 p.m., will now be played on Saturday, January 24 at 6 PM as part of a Saturday doubleheader with the men's basketball team, which begins at 2 PM.
The Philadelphia region will be under a winter storm watch from 7 p.m. Saturday until midday Monday. As of Friday, the area is expected to receive anywhere from eight to 14 inches of snow.
Forward Trinity Rodman has agreed to a three-year contract to remain with the Washington Spirit, ending months of speculation about the Olympic gold medalist’s future in the National Women’s Soccer League.
“I think I’ve always had a vision and an idea of what I wanted my legacy to be,” Rodman said at an event announcing her new deal on Thursday in Los Angeles. “And for me, we’re doing that and I’m so grateful for that.”
The speculation over Rodman’s future with the Spirit spurred criticism of the NWSL salary cap and whether it hampered the league from attracting and maintaining top players.
The 23-year-old Rodman became a free agent at the end of last season after five years with the Spirit. One of the biggest stars in the NWSL, keeping her in the league was considered vitally important as other U.S. national team stars, including Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson, opted to play in Europe.
Rodman, who won a gold medal with the United States at the Paris Olympics, had been drawing interest from European teams that don’t have a salary cap.
“I can’t think of the Washington Spirit without her,” Spirit owner Michele Kang said. “And I hope she can’t think about her career without the Washington Spirit. So this is really monumental and it was really important, not only for the Spirit, especially for our fans who expect to see her. They come to Audi Field and that’s where Rowdy Audi clearly came out.”
Rodman said she always wanted to stay with the Spirit
“Making my decision, the one question I was asked was: ‘Do you feel like you’re finished with the Spirit? Can you say that and feel confident leaving?’” she said. “I didn’t even need half a second, and I was like, ’No, I’m not. I don’t feel ready to make a different decision. That’s just, again, getting drafted here and developing and maturing and learning – and failing – at the Spirit, in D.C., it’s become so much of my legacy and my story. But on top of that, I still feel like there’s so much more I have to give and so much more that I want to do.”
The Spirit and Rodman had previously struck a multi-year deal that both parties maintained was in compliance with the salary cap, but it was rejected by the league because it went against the spirit of the rules.
The National Women’s Soccer League Players Association filed a grievance claiming that the NWSL’s rejection of the contract violated Rodman’s free agency rights and violated the collective bargaining agreement.
To address the salary cap issue, the NWSL in late December adopted a “High Impact Player” mechanism that allowed teams to spend up to $1 million over the cap to sign players that meet certain criteria. Those included metrics like national team minutes, inclusion among the 30 candidates for the Ballon d’Or or player rankings by outlets like the Guardian or ESPN.
The NWSLPA filed a grievance over the rule, claiming it violated the collective bargaining agreement and federal labor law because player compensation must be negotiated. The NWSLPA maintains the league had no authority to “unilaterally create a new pay structure.”
Spirit President of Soccer Operations Haley Carter said the High Impact Player rule figured into the contract Rodman ultimately agreed to. Carter also said the grievances would not alter Rodman’s deal.
Rodman is currently with the national team in their annual January training camp in Carson, California. The team plays a match there against Paraguay on Saturday and then plays Chile on Tuesday in Santa Barbara.
Rodman has 47 appearances and 11 goals with the national team, more than any other player on the latest roster. She played in one U.S. match last year, a 2-0 victory over Brazil in April, because of injuries.
Laila Edwards, the first Black player to make the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team, could become one of the breakout stars of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
She’s also from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the hometown of Jason and Travis Kelce. The brothers experimented with hockey growing up before committing to football, and they remain fans of the game.
In November 2023, when Edwards first made the women’s national team, they gave her a shout-out on New Heights.
“I thought, ‘I’ll just message them thanking them, they’ll never see it,’” Edwards told People. “And then Travis and I had a full conversation over DM, and that was super cool. He was a really down-to-earth, humble guy who was super supportive and had really good things to say. They shouted me out again recently for making the Olympic team.”
Their support didn’t end there. Edwards told People that Travis made a large donation to her family’s GoFundMe page, which has raised over $50,000 to help her family fly to Milan to support her and the U.S. women’s national team.
Kylie Kelce will be on-site in Milan, after NBC named her as part of its Creator Collective. Jason and Kylie attended the Paris Olympics, and supported field hockey, volleyball, and women’s rugby. This time, Edwards hopes to see them at some of her games.
“Travis was saying that Jason and Kylie are big fans of mine, and I’m hoping to meet them all in Italy,” Edwards said.
Jason and Travis Kelce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Entering Tuesday’s game against South Florida, Temple coach Diane Richardson and her staff held a meeting with the players to provide some clarity about their roles on the court.
The Owls were reeling from a three-game losing streak and fresh off a lopsided loss to East Carolina on Jan. 17. The meeting proved to be what they needed to get back on track.
Against South Florida, which entered Tuesday second in the American Conference standings, Temple played cohesively, which Richardson hadn’t seen lately. The result: an 86-83 win in which the Owls (8-10, 2-4 American) shot 52.7% from the field and had four players score in double figures.
“I’m really pleased that they stepped up and realized that we have to play together,” Richardson said. “It’s a tough conference. When we play together, it makes a big difference, and as I look at the stats, I think we did pretty well in most of the categories. The biggest one was that we only had 11 turnovers. But, again, that’s confidence in each other and playing together.”
Guard Kaylah Turner was one of the main benefactors of the meeting, rediscovering her role.
The junior shot 29.8% from the field in the Owls’ first five conference games and struggled with inefficiency and taking quick shots. Turner, who was named preseason first-team all-conference, looked like herself on Tuesday.
She shot 7-for-15 from the field and found her spots to knock down jumpers. She also used her speed to get to the basket for easy layups and finished with a game-high 23 points.
“It makes it 100 times easier when my teammates are always telling me, be confident in my shot, continue to drive, even if I miss two layups or miss a three-pointer,” Turner said. “I’ve got coaches who say the same thing.”
With Temple’s leading scorer back in her groove, the rest of the offense fell into place.
Richardson wasn’t happy with Temple’s 5-of-23 shooting from three against Tulane on Jan. 13. She wanted the team to play faster and get more looks near the basket. The Owls fed the ball inside vs. South Florida, which led to a big game from forward Saniyah Craig.
The Jacksonville transfer flourished in the post and scored a season-high 22 points, including 10-for-13 shooting from the free-throw line. Despite having less of an emphasis on three-pointers, Temple still went 8-for-16 from deep, led by forward Jaleesa Molina, who made all four of her attempts and finished with 19 points.
Guard Tristen Taylor also finished with 16 points, meaning 80 of Temple’s 86 points came from four players.
“I think we were more efficient with the things that we did today,” Richardson said. “We were more efficient in ball security. We were more efficient in our shots. I think those made a difference, even though it doesn’t show on the stat sheet. That’s what I told them in the locker room, the things that are not on the stat sheet was the defense, was the intensity, and was the bench. The bench was really into the game, and they were cheering them on.”
With clarity in their roles, the Owls got back to playing their brand of basketball. Richardson’s equal opportunity offense was in full effect, her team was connected and playing together, and it resulted in a statement win.
They will look to carry their newfound momentum into the middle of American play, starting with a home game against Charlotte on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+).
“This is a great win, but we’re nowhere near done,” Turner said. “So we’re going to lock in the next practice, and we’re going to make sure we start the beginning of practice how we started this game, and we’re going to practice the entire way so we transfer it to this weekend.”
Added Taylor: “I think our biggest thing is just don’t be complacent right now.”
Weeks before she had made the team, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was confidently saying, “when I go to the Olympics …”
Levito, 18, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel, wasn’t being cocky. She knew; she had done the math.
Qualifying for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics was “definitely a realistic goal for me for the past three years,” said Levito, the 2023 U.S. champion and 2024 world silver medalist. “But I felt like I had to prove myself again after missing a bit of last season with an injury.
“But when the season was going the way it was going, score-wise, internationally, I just had to skate the way I can skate at nationals and have it solidified.”
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
Indeed, with two clean programs and the bronze medal at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships earlier this month, combined with strong results throughout the season and last year, that spot was hers.
So when she met with Justin Dillon, chief high performance officer for U.S. Figure Skating, who told her reality show-style that she was on the team, Levito seemed happy but not surprised. Her head coach, Yulia Kuznetsova, however, was flooded with tears.
Kuznetsova skated pairs while growing up in Russia and later in Disney on Ice, where she performed with her now-husband and another of Levito’s coaches, Slava Kuznetsov. But she never made it to that top frozen stage — until now as a coach.
Kuznetsova also knew it was within reach. But the duo knew what they needed to do.
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
They opted this season for a triple flip combination instead of a triple Lutz. They thought the flip had a better chance of being called clean. (This worked out, but her individual triple Lutz also has been getting better results lately.)
“Next season, I really want to switch things around and do new things and have more fun with it,” Levito said, “because this season it was a matter of doing all the skills that I honed, all the things that are the most comfortable and the most reliable. But next season, let’s just start risking things.”
She’s looking forward to being fully immersed in the Olympic experience and having her family see her skate. The opening ceremony is Feb. 6.
“I am going to run this [Olympic] village,” she said. “This is going to be so fun.”
She’s read about the village and watched TikToks from the Summer Games.
“But I really have no idea what the Olympic Village is going to look like. That’s why I’m so excited to get there and explore it,” she said.
Most of the ice sports, including figure skating, will be in Milan. The snow and sliding sports, plus curling, will be 250 miles away in Cortina and other mountain regions. This Olympics will be held in six villages across northern Italy.
Before nationals, Levito had a lot of obligations. There were days when film crews came into the rink and stayed all day, cutting into her training time.
The results were viral social media videos for sponsors such as Red Bull (she compares skills with a hockey player) and Everlane (she answers rapid-fire questions while getting ready to get on the ice at the Igloo Ice Rink in Mount Laurel).
Now she’s back to a more typical schedule of skating for hours every day.
“Everything’s exactly the same,” she said of her days on the ice. “What’s different, though, is how exciting it is going to the rink every day, being that I’m actually training for the Olympics right now.”
Does Olympic prep include getting a tattoo of the rings, as so many athletes do?
“I just don’t know if I would get a tattoo in general,” Levito said. “I think I’m going to start with the Olympic necklace,” which many Olympians sport.
“If I did get a tattoo, it would be in such a hidden place, and it would be so tiny and microscopic. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘If that’s the circumstances I would get a tattoo under, maybe I should think about it for a while.’”
Meanwhile, time is ticking, meaning she needs to shop for some formal dresses to wear at Olympic banquets and choose things to pack for any downtime.
Levito said she likely will bring a couple of books as well as her bedazzling kit. Besides all the sparkles she wears on the ice, she enjoys adding rhinestones to her various makeup cases and a comb.
“It’s so soothing,” she said.
Isabeau Levito skates her short program at the Grand Prix de France in October.
There is a lot of talk of extra bling: The three American women have a good chance of earning medals at the Olympics. But Levito isn’t thinking about that.
“The village is what I’m focused on,” she said. “And obviously skating my best, but I can already feel like I will.”
The pressure also is off a bit. With Glenn winning her third consecutive national title and Liu as the reigning world champion, Levito feels she’s less in the spotlight than she was a couple of years ago, when she won nationals and the silver medal at worlds.
But it’s all good.
“Honestly to me right now my life feels like perfect,” she said. “Dare I say I love everything that’s in my life, like personal life, and just like my goals that I’ve achieved, whether I’m under the radar or not?
“I’m just so happy right now. I feel like I really achieved my dream life that I had in mind maybe five or some years ago. I feel like I’m really living what I was wishing for or envisioning for myself, so I’m just beyond proud.”
The NCAA has added flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program, effective immediately, the organization announced Friday.
Flag football was approved to join the Emerging Sports program by representatives from Division I, Division II, and Division III, giving it a path to becoming an NCAA championship sport in the coming years.
Since its creation in 1994, the Emerging Sports for Women program has identified sports that “help schools provide more athletics opportunities for women and more sport-sponsorship options for institutions,” according to its website.
Eight sports included in the Emerging Sports for Women program have been elevated to full NCAA championship status since 1996, including rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling, beach volleyball, and women’s wrestling. At the 2026 convention, the NCAA elevated stunt and acrobatics & tumbling from emerging sports to championship sports.
Several NCAA schools have added seven-on-seven flag football ahead of its inclusion in the 2028 Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles, including some in the Philadelphia area.
Holy Family, Immaculata, and Neumann fielded teams for the Atlantic East Conference’s inaugural flag football season last spring, and Chestnut Hill will compete in the Atlantic East this season. After competing in the Atlantic East in 2025, Eastern’s team will compete in both the Eastern College Athletic Conference and the Atlantic East in 2026.
Make way for the newest emerging sport, women's flag football! 🏈@bamastatewff student-athlete Ki'Lolo Westerlund shares what flag football means to her. 💙
Flag football joins rugby, triathlon, and equestrian on the NCAA’s list of emerging sports. For flag football to be considered for championship status, it needs a minimum of 40 schools sponsoring it at the varsity level. It also will need to meet “minimum contest and participation requirements,” per the NCAA’s release.
The NCAA’s sports sponsorship data shows that 40 schools either currently field a flag football team or plan to this spring. Of the 40 schools included in the NCAA’s data, three are Division I, 14 are Division II, and 23 are Division III.
While the NCAA did not set forth a timeline for flag football to be added as a championship sport, it does expect sponsorship of the sport to increase as a result of its inclusion in the Emerging Sports for Women program.
No. 1 UConn continued to storm through the Big East — and women’s college basketball in general — with a 99-50 rout of Villanova on Thursday night in Storrs, Conn.
UConn brought the intensity on defense that has helped the defending national champions hold opponents to 51.7 points per game and maintain a 38.7 scoring margin. The Huskies (18-0, 9-0 Big East) took control early and repeatedly stifled Villanova possessions.
UConn limited Villanova to more than 20 points below its per-game average of 73.8 points and just 27.7% shooting from the field, including 25% from three.
Villanova (14-4, 7-2 Big East) remains in second in the conference. Freshman guard Kennedy Henry led the Wildcats in scoring with 12 points and four rebounds.
Here’s what we learned from Villanova’s showdown with the nation’s top team:
UConn defense looks unbreakable
The Huskies were spearheaded by sophomore forward Sarah Strong, who recorded 24 points, nine rebounds, and five blocks.
The versatile Strong proved difficult to stop from the beginning and scored 15 of her points in the first half. Junior guard KK Arnold (13 points) facilitated UConn’s offense with a team-high seven assists.
Villanova guard Kennedy Henry (22), who’s being guarded by UConn star Azzi Fudd, was the team’s leading scorer on Thursday.
Villanova made just three baskets in the first quarter, as UConn raced out to a 26-8 lead. The Huskies defense didn’t let up, forcing 26 turnovers, which they parlayed into 36 points.
UConn also benefited from a significant size advantage and won the rebound battle, 46-34. That advantage also paid off in the paint, where the Huskies scored 58 of their 99 points.
UConn swarmed sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe, who’s Villanova’s scoring leader this season and the third-leading scorer in the Big East. Instead, Henry and junior forward Brynn McCurry (11 points, five rebounds, and three blocks) led the Wildcats in scoring.
The Huskies forced the Wildcats outside and allowed just one made basket in the paint in the first half and 12 points in the paint overall.
Instead, Villanova found looks from beyond the arc to create offensive momentum late in the second quarter. The Wildcats put together a 10-0 run over 1 minute, 26 seconds that was sparked by a three-pointer by senior guard Ryanne Allen to close the deficit to 38-23 with 2:58 left in the first half.
But that was the closest that Villanova would get. Bascoe was fouled with three seconds until halftime and left the court after making both foul shots. She played just five minutes in the second half and finished with eight points.
Villanova struggled to get around UConn’s press and shot just 2-for-16 from the field in the fourth quarter. By the final three minutes, UConn held a 40-point lead.
Villanova has a few days to recover from its battle at UConn, next hosting Butler on Sunday (2 p.m., ESPN+) at Finneran Pavilion. The Bulldogs (8-10, 2-6 Big East) are 10th in the 12-team conference.
