Team USA hero Hilary Knight is back on the ice, returning to the PWHL for the first time since January after the Seattle Torrent removed the Olympic gold medalist from the team's long-term injured reserve list on Sunday.
Along with her second career gold and fifth overall Olympic medal, Knight also picked up a torn MCL in Milan last month, powering through the tournament before returning Stateside to rehab her knee.
The 36-year-old team captain returned to Seattle's top line in the Torrent's 2-0 Sunday loss to the Ottawa Charge, registering four shots on goal in just under 22 minutes of play.
Knight, who became Team USA's all-time Olympic goals and points leader in Milan, enters the final stretch of the 2025/26 PWHL season with three goals and seven assists on the Torrent's stat sheet.
While Seattle will be happy to have its captain back, the last-place PWHL expansion team is likely more focused on the draft than the playoffs, with the Torrent a full 11 points below the postseason line after racking up just 22 points through 23 games played.
How to watch Hilary Knight and the Seattle Torrent in PWHL action
Seattle's debut season has already made history, and Knight and her Torrent will make even more this weekend when they face off against the New York Sirens in the PWHL's first-ever game in Manhattan's legendary Madison Square Garden (MSG).
With Seattle holding a 2-1 record against New York, the MSG crowd will look to lift the Sirens to a win to even the series.
The Torrent will take on the Sirens in the iconic arena's first-ever ticketed pro women's hockey event at 8 PM ET on Saturday, with live coverage streaming on YouTube.
This year's March Madness is soaking up the spotlight, as early reports indicate that the 2026 competition boasts the second most-watched first and second rounds in NCAA women's basketball tournament history.
Trailing only the Caitlin Clark-fueled 2024 postseason, this season's tournament is already topping 2025's historic viewership numbers.
According to ESPN, this year's bracket logged the second most-consumed first round on record, with overall No. 1-seed UConn's victory over No. 16 UTSA and No. 1 South Carolina's win over No. 16 Southern U clocking in as the sixth and seventh most-watched tournament openers in history.
Also snagging a major viewership mark was No. 7 NC State's opening win over No. 10 Tennessee, with drew an average of 767,000 fans to become the No. 1 weekday first-round clash on record.
This year's second round secured similar records, with a 1 million viewership average making the Round of 32 the second most-watched in women's March Madness history.
The Gamecocks' second-round win over No. 9 USC led the weekend with an average of 1.8 million fans tuning in, followed by the Huskies' ousting of No. 9 Syracuse with a 1.5 million viewership average.
Second-round upsets also proved compelling, as No. 6 Notre Dame's win over No. 3 Ohio State drew an average of 1.5 million viewers, while No. 10 Virginia's toppling of No. 2 Iowa attracted 1.4 million.
All four of those tilts clocked into the Top 10 for the most-watched second round clashes in history.
The 2026 NCAA women's basketball tournament has already amassed 3.3 billion total minutes, giving it the second most-consumed first two rounds on record.
How to watch the 2026 March Madness tournament
Be a part of this year's historic viewership by tuning into March Madness when the Sweet 16 takes the court this weekend.
The action tips off at 2:30 PM ET on Friday, with eight games airing live across the two-day round.
The FIFA Council codified its gender equity push this week, passing legislation on Thursday that requires every women's soccer team participating in a FIFA-sanctioned event to feature a woman head coach or assistant coach on its staff.
Additionally, all women's teams must staff a minimum of three women — including one specifically on the medical staff — with the aforementioned assistant or head coach counting toward the global governing body's newly required tally.
The new rule comes into effect prior to this year's U17 and U20 Women's World Cups, with all of FIFA's youth and senior women's national team tournaments and club competitions subject to the new mandate.
"There are simply not enough women in coaching today," FIFA chief football officer Jill Ellis said in a Thursday statement. "We must do more to accelerate change by creating clearer pathways, expanding opportunities, and increasing the visibility for women on our sidelines."
Though top sideline leaders like USWNT manager Emma Hayes and England boss Sarina Weigman populate headlines alongside their team's trophies, the vast majority of women's football coaches are still men.
Citing the fact that just 12 of the 32 head coaches at the 2023 World Cup were women, Thursday's FIFA statement explained that the governing body is seeking to match "the rapid growth of the women's game" with "an increased representation of women in technical and leadership roles."
Along with the implementation of this week's rule, FIFA's strategy to bolster the ranks of women on the sport's sidelines includes coaching eduction programs and directly supporting other professional development initiatives.
"The new FIFA regulations, combined with targeted development programs, mark an important investment in both the current and future generation of female coaches," added Ellis.
The NWSL ushered in its 2026 season with a bang, as the newly expanded 16-team league's opening weekend shattered attendance records across the country.
All eight games combined for crowds of 129,202 total fans. With an average of 16,150 fans per match, last weekend clocked in as the best-attended opening campaign in NWSL history.
Seven of the eight matches drew more than 10,000 fans, logging a new league record for most opening weekend matches surpassing that mark — far exceeding the four-match record set in 2023 and 2025.
Leading the charge by a wide margin was 2026 expansion side Boston Legacy FC, with the NWSL newcomers welcoming 30,207 fans to Foxborough's Gillette Stadium for the club's inaugural home opener against reigning champs Gotham FC on Saturday.
Elsewhere, the season's first match between Portland and Washington ranked second in attendance after a sellout crowd of 19,215 packed into the Spirit's Audi Field for the Thorns' win.
More than 14,000 fans also showed up for the home openers of Angel City (16,813), the Orlando Pride (16,120), and the San Diego Wave (14,078).
Meanwhile, 2024 expansion side Bay FC extended their perfect 10,000+ season-opening crowd streak with 13,110 fans on Saturday.
Defending Shield-winners Kansas City also continued their perfect attendance, as Saturday's 11,500 crowd became the Current's 27th straight regular-season home sellout since CPKC Stadium opened in March 2024.
Though the 2026 opening weekend's attendance total is in part bolstered by the inventory added by two new clubs, the per-match average could be an early indicator that the NWSL is putting 2025's attendance concerns in the rearview.
Team USA star Elana Meyers Taylor finally got her gold, with the decorated 41-year-old bobsledder winning Monday's monobob event to top the Olympic podium for the first time.
Though Germany's Laura Nolte led the competition through its first three runs, a few skids allowed Meyers Taylor to edge her out, with the US star putting together a near-perfect final pass to secure the come-from-behind victory by just 0.04 seconds.
"I didn't need it, but I wanted it," Meyers Taylor said afterwards, finally adding Olympic gold to her three silver and two bronze medals.
Completing Monday's podium was Meyers Taylor's teammate and 2022 gold medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, with both US bobsledders returning to the sport's highest echelon with children in tow: Meyers Taylor gave birth to her second son in 2022, while Humphries became a first-time mother in 2024.
"I grew up in this sport and would hear, 'if you have kids, once you get to 40, it's all downhill,'" said the 2026 bronze medalist. "Elana and I get to be proof that's not true."
Already the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history, Monday's win also made Meyers Taylor the oldest individual Winter Games champion.
Even more, with six career medals across the last five Olympics, her elite consistency has her tied with speed skating legend Bonnie Blair for the most medals earned by a US woman at the Winter Games.
"In 2010, at my very first Games, we had team processing, and we had a bunch of Olympians come and give us encouragement, and [Blair] was one of them," said Meyers Taylor. "I was just starstruck to even meet her. And now, to be in the same sentence as her, that just doesn't make sense."
How to watch Elana Meyers Taylor at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Both Meyers Taylor and Humphries will likely compete in this week's two-woman bobsled event, a race both have medaled in multiple times at previous editions of the Winter Games.
The first two-woman bobsled heats will begin at 12 PM ET on Friday, before the final two runs start at 1 PM ET on Saturday, with all four heats airing live on NBC.
The three-peat quest of USA snowboarding star Chloe Kim is over, after a 90.25-point halfpipe performance from South Korea's Gaon Choi saw the 17-year-old overtake Kim to become the sport's youngest-ever Olympic gold medalist on Thursday.
Kim led for most of the event with a score of 88.00 points, until Choi — who nearly missed her second run after requiring a concussion check following a concerning first-run fall — stole the show with a dramatic, come-from-behind final run.
With one shot left, Kim's last run ended in a tumble, forcing the back-to-back gold medalist to settle for silver while Japan's Mitsuki Ono took bronze.
"A month ago I wasn't even sure if I would be here," Kim told reporters after the competition, referencing her recently dislocated shoulder. "I really worked so hard to get here, and so this medal means so much to me."
The 25-year-old didn't miss a beat after Choi — who calls Chloe Kim her "idol" — secured gold on Thursday, immediately celebrating with the young snowboarder whom she's mentored for years.
"I'm so proud of [Choi]," said Kim. "There's no one else I would have rather stood next to on the podium than her. I'm so proud of her, and I'm so excited to see what she does next."
Calling it "a full-circle moment," the snowboarding veteran is witnessing her legacy play out in real time — all while still securing hardware.
"It's all part of the sport — it's all about inspiring the next generation," Kim explained. "It's all about passing the torch."
The 2026 NCAA softball season is officially in full swing, as the Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational brings 16 top programs — including 10 ranked teams — to Florida for four days of championship-level matchups this week.
A full seven of the nation's Top 10 teams will feature in this edition of the annual competition, with No. 6 Florida State, No. 8 Nebraska, No. 8 Texas A&M, and No. 10 LSU joining three of last season's Women's College World Series contenders — No. 7 UCLA, No. 3 Tennessee, and 2025 runners-up, No. 1 Texas Tech — in Clearwater.
With so many elite rosters, the invitational's 40-game slate includes 17 ranked matchups — and eight Top 10 showdowns.
Three of those eight games will feature Tennessee, who drew arguably the toughest Clearwater weekend with clashes against the No. 6 Seminoles, No. 7 Bruins, and No. 8 Cornhuskers — a team that stunned defending champion No. 2 Texas with an 8-5 opening-weekend upset loss on Saturday.
Friday's clash between the Huskers and Vols — a rematch of the pair's 2025 Super Regional — will also serve as an early-season litmus test of two of college softball's best pitchers, with a duel in the circle expected between Tennessee standout Karlyn Pickens and Nebraska ace Jordy Frahm (née Bahl).
But first, the top-ranked Red Raiders — led by two-time All-American pitcher and the sport's only multimillion-dollar NIL athlete NiJaree Canady — will headline Thursday's docket in their own Super Regional rematch against the No. 6 Seminoles.
How to watch NCAA softball at the 2026 Clearwater Invitational
The stacked Clearwater Invitational began on Thursday morning, with the day's spotlight clash between No. 1 Texas Tech and No. 6 Florida State taking the field at 1 PM ET, airing live on ESPN2.
All 40 games will air live across ESPN platforms.
Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) made a historic move this week, signing Tennessee senior pitcher Karlyn Pickens to the first-ever NIL deal with a pro league seen in the NCAA sport.
As part of her contract, Pickens will use social media and participate in other marketing opportunities to promote the newly expanded AUSL as the premier place for NCAA athletes to launch their professional softball careers.
"When I was growing up, I didn't really see [pro] softball… I didn't really think there was an option to go pro," said the Lady Vols star in Wednesday's AUSL announcement. "It's been just a few years, and now everyone's dream is to go to AUSL and continue their softball career."
After kicking off her NCAA tenure as the 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year, the two-time All-American and reigning Softball American Pitcher of the Year posted a 1.17 ERA across her 44 appearances last season, leading the Lady Vols from the circle all the way to the Women's College World Series semifinals in Oklahoma City.
Pickens also shattered records along the way, becoming the first collegiate ace to top Tennessee legend Monica Abbott's fastest NCAA pitch mark of 77mph from 2012 with a 78.2mph throw last March — before breaking her own record by hurling a blistering 79.4mph pitch at the Super Regionals last May.
Making NIL history this week is likely the 22-year-old's first step with the AUSL, which recently locked its six teams into home cities across the US last month — including assigning the Blaze to Pickens's home state of North Carolina.
"I never would've imagined that the pro softball league is what it is now, but it's also come to my home state," said Pickens.
How to watch new AUSL NIL athlete Karlyn Pickens
Pickens will kick off her senior season with No. 4-ranked Tennessee at this week's 2026 NFCA Leadoff Classic, where the Vols' slate includes clashes against No. 23 Liberty and No. 5 Oregon, among others.
Tennessee will begin the invitational against unranked BYU at 7 PM ET on Thursday, with live coverage of the tilt streaming on GameChanger.
While SC Corinthians fell just short of the inaugural intercontinental title on Sunday, the 2026 FIFA W Champions Cup final did prove a massive success for the Brazil league's champions, scoring the highest viewership for a women's club match in the South American country's history.
Brazilian network CazéTV covered the competition's semifinals and final, with the broadcaster registering more than 1 million concurrent streams during Sunday's championship match — a viewership that rivals Brazil's 2023 World Cup group-stage games.
Perhaps even more impressive, Sunday's 3-2 extra-time loss to WSL side Arsenal also coincided with Corinthians' men's team's Brazil Super Cup battle, stressing the growing popularity of the club's women's squad.
"It doesn't matter if it's basketball or football, women's or men's, I'm a Corinthian supporter," a traveling Brazilian fan told The Athletic, with many news outlets reporting on the team's sizable fan support at the FIFA tournament in London last week.
Sunday's Champions Cup viewership also reflects the Brazil club's overall rising attendance, with the team featuring in every one of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A1 league's five highest-attended matches — and winning the Top 4.
Claiming seven of the last eight league championships — including the last six straight trophies — Corinthians' 2024 title match against São Paulo saw 44,529 fans pack Neo Química Arena, netting the largest crowd at a women's club soccer match in South American history.
The fan clamor for Corinthians bodes well for another upcoming FIFA tournament, with Brazil preparing to host the first-ever World Cup in South America in 2027.
"Football is about love and Brazil loves football," said Brazilian soccer legend Marta in a video for a 2027 World Cup event just last month. "Our country is ready to embrace the women's game with pride, emotion and belief."
US golf star Nelly Korda is back in the winner's circle, as the world No. 2 lifted her first LPGA trophy in more than 14 months at the weather-shortened 2026 HGV Tournament of Champions on Sunday.
Due to unexpected extreme cold and wind in Orlando, officials canceled the final round of the season-opening competition on Sunday, reducing the tournament to 54 holes and declaring Korda the champion based on her performance in the first three rounds.
"Thursday, Friday, were obviously completely different conditions to Saturday," Korda said. "The gusts, it's so exposed off the water there. You could surf on that water [on Saturday]."
Though many struggled in Saturday's conditions, Korda thrived, with the 27-year-old posting a field-leading 8-under score, boosting her to a 13-under tournament total to take a three-shot victory over South Korean runner-up No. 79 Amy Yang.
"I'm really proud of myself, my team, and all the work that we have put in when no one was watching," said Korda after the win.
Korda victory at Tournament of Champions snaps winless streak
Korda's Sunday victory snapped a winless streak that dates back to 2024, when the US standout took the golf world by storm with a dominant seven LPGA victories.
Despite banking nine Top 10 finishes last year — and making every cut in 2025 — the lack of hardware saw Korda ultimately cede her world No. 1 status to Thailand's Jeeno Thitikul last summer.
"I was so close. I played really well last year," she reflected on Sunday. "Golf is a game of centimeters. There were so many times last year where I wished I had an inch here or a centimeter there, where it would've changed the story completely."
The US star will next take six weeks off of competition as she once again skips the LPGA Tour's upcoming Asia swing, with Korda rejoining the field for the 2026 Founders Cup in California on March 19th.