BEIJING, Beijing —

Mikaela Shiffrin skied out in the Alpine combined on Thursday and once again was unable to finish a race at the Beijing Olympics.

She will leave the 2022 Games without an individual medal after participating in all five women’s events.

Not only did she go 0 for 5, but the 26-year-old American did not even manage to complete three of those races.

Shiffrin was fifth-fastest in the downhill portion of the two-run combined on Thursday morning but went out without making it to the bottom in the slalom leg in the afternoon.

She took home a silver in the combined four years ago.

She came to China as one of the biggest stars in winter sports and already the owner of two Olympic gold medals — from the slalom in 2014 and the giant slalom in 2018.

But her trip to China began with a mistake about five seconds into the first run of the two-leg giant slalom on Feb. 7, followed by a similar error after about the same amount of time in the first run of the two-leg slalom on Feb. 9.

The owner of three overall World Cup titles then arrived ninth in the super-G last Friday and 18th in the downhill on Tuesday. Those were her Olympic debuts in those disciplines.

Shiffrin has said she plans to enter the team event Saturday. That concludes the Alpine schedule in Beijing.

The slalom course was set by Mike Day, Shiffrin’s main coach with the U.S. ski team — the result of a random draw.

Shiffrin’s best event for years has been the slalom.

She won a gold medal in that discipline at age 18 at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and her 47 career World Cup slalom victories are more than any other racer has won in any discipline.

BEIJING, Beijing —

An ongoing legal issue that could affect the medalists in the team figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics has caused the award ceremony to be delayed, the IOC said Wednesday.

The ceremony to award the Russian team the gold medals, the United States silver and Japan bronze was pulled from its scheduled slot late Tuesday.

Related video above: Tearful Vincent Zhou withdraws from Olympics due to positive COVID test

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the reason was a “legal consultation” required with the governing body of skating. Details of the case were not specified.

“We have athletes that have won medals involved,” Adams said at the daily news briefing.

In a one-line statement, the International Skating Union also cited ongoing legal talks.

If any athlete and team were disqualified, an appeal would likely follow to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Canada placed fourth and would be in line to be upgraded.

Some skaters in the men's competition are due to finish their events Thursday and leave China soon after.

“Everyone is doing absolutely everything that the situation can be resolved as soon as possible,” Adams said.

However, he cautioned “as you know, legal issues can sometimes drag on.”

Since the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles has been open and honest about her journey with mental health and anxiety. And she's continuing to share what she's learned along the way. The Olympic gold medalist recently revealed that with the support of her therapist she’s found tools that help her manage anxiety, while still acknowledging her emotions.

The superstar athlete humbly accepted the Child Mind Institute’s Inaugural Trailblazer Award at the annual Child Advocacy Awards. During the event, Biles spoke to Harold S. Kopleqicz, M.D., the president, medical director, and co-founder of the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on helping families and children struggling with mental health and learning disorders, about her experience at the Tokyo Olympics and the tools she now uses to cope with anxiety.

“I have pretty bad anxiety sometimes," Biles said. She shared that her therapist suggested she write in a “worry journal,” to allow her to keep her anxiety in check daily.

She explained the method behind the worry journal: Write her worries down in the journal and then assign a time in the day to address those worries—for Biles it's between 12 to 1 p.m. “Anything I've written down in my worry journal, I use that hour to worry about the things then,” Biles shared. “And usually by the time 12 or 1 [p.m.] comes, I've already forgotten about all my worries so that kind of is a tool that helps me.”

Biles said she hopes to be a “voice for the voiceless” and to be a catalyst to open up the conversation around mental health. “I hope that I’ve allowed them to use their voices and be powerful with it because I know my career has been very successful, but I’ve also had my ups and downs,” she said. “I hope people see that and can relate to that being in their everyday life. Just to not give up and to move forward and keep pushing.”

The Child Mind Institute shared a video of Biles accepting the award to their Instagram account with the caption, “By being brave and protecting her mental health Simone Biles inspired others to do the same.”

During the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Biles decided to pull out of the individual all-around competition due to the terrifying “twisties” that causes her to get lost in the air. The decision to put her own mental health and safety first was a scary choice for the athlete that ultimately led her on a path of mental health activism.

“I was feeling very overwhelmed because there was a lot and I think there was a lot of pressure outside the sport that was placed on me to compete at that Olympics,” she explained of the incident. “And we hadn’t had that kind of entertainment in a really long time due to COVID. I think it was really hard because everyone was counting on me to supply that entertainment, that happiness, that joy.”

The Olympic gold-medalist revealed that her therapist has been a major player in managing her anxiety, and she encourages others to seek the help that they need.

“I do keep close contact with my therapist–I love that. And it’s super exciting, so hopefully, more people are open to going to therapy and just knowing that they’re there for you and not to harm you,” she said.

Biles was initially resistant to therapy, but now credits therapy with helping her process her emotions and find herself. “One of the very first sessions, I didn’t talk at all,” she recently told Glamour. “I just wouldn’t say anything. I was like, ‘I’m not crazy. I don’t need to be here.’”

But over time the Olympic gymnast found comfort in her therapist and was able to see that anyone can benefit from seeking mental health support.

At the end of the day, Biles shared that she was surprised by the outpouring of love and support from others to take care of herself first. She added that she now focuses on everyday happiness which is “just waking up and having a positive outlook on life in general and to know that you’re blessed with another day.”

Alaska, of all places, has an Olympic champion at the pool.

Seventeen-year-old Lydia Jacoby gave the United States a victory in the women's 100-meter breaststroke, knocking off teammate and defending champion Lilly King on Tuesday.

Jacoby was the first swimmer from the Arctic state ever to make the U.S. Olympic swimming team.

Now, she's heading back to giddy Anchorage with a gold medal, rallying to win in 1 minute, 4.95 seconds..

South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed the silver in 1:05.22, while King gave the Americans another medal by taking the bronze in 1:05.54.

Jacoby's stunning win salvaged what had been a disappointing morning for the American team. The U.S. had only managed a pair of bronze medals before the high schooler came through.

Jacoby was only third at the turn, trailing Schoenmaker and King. But, with her head bobbing furiously out of the water, the teenager surged past King and glided past the South African on the final two strokes to touch first.

Looking at the scoreboard with a bit of disbelief, the enormity of her accomplishment finally hit when Schoenmaker reached across the lane rope for a hug. Then it was King bounding over from two lanes away to congratulate America's new breaststroke queen.

On the men's side, the U.S. team lost a backstroke race at the Olympics for the first time since 1992.

Russia swept the top two spots in the 100-meter back Tuesday, with Evgeny Rylov claiming the gold medal in 51.98 and teammate Kliment Kolesnikov taking the silver in 52.00.

Defending Olympic champion Ryan Murphy settled for the bronze in 52.19.

It was the first backstroke defeat for the U.S. men at the Olympics since the Barcelona Games. They won 12 straight golds at the last six Olympics, including Murphy's sweep of the 100 and 200 back at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

It was a good morning for Australia and Britain.

World record-holder Kaylee McKeown gave the Aussie women another gold medal with a victory in the women's 100 backstroke, setting an Olympic record.

Her winning time of 57.47 was just off the world mark she set this year of 57.45. The silver went to Canada's Kylie Masse in 57.72, while former world record-holder Regan Smith of the United States grabbed the bronze at 58.05.

Coming into the Olympics, Australia had not won an individual women's title since 2008. Now they have two, with McKeown's gold coming after Ariarne Titmus' victory Monday in the 400 freestyle.

Britain went 1-2 in the men's 200 freestyle. Tom Dean captured the gold in 1 minute, 44.22 seconds, while teammate Duncan Scott picked up the silver in 1:44.26. The bronze went to Brazil's Fernando Scheffer at 1:44.66.

American Kieran Smith settled for a sixth-place showing after capturing a bronze in the 400 free.

Defending 200 free champion Sun Yang was banned from the Tokyo Olympics for a doping violation. He is serving a more than four-year ban, though he could be eligible to return for the 2024 Paris Games.

Titmus and Katie Ledecky both advanced to Wednesday's final of the 200-meter freestyle, setting up another showdown after their thrilling race in the 400 free.

Titmus was the top qualifier in the 200 semis at 1:54.82, while Ledecky -- the defending Olympic champion -- cruised to the third-best time in 1:55.34. The Aussie Terminator will be looking for her second straight gold after rallying to beat Ledecky in the 400 free.

TOKYO —

Video above: Bach hopes Japanese public will support Games

Two South African soccer players became the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, and other cases connected to the Tokyo Games were also confirmed Sunday, highlighting the herculean task organizers face to keep the virus contained while the world's biggest sports event plays out.

The positive tests came as some of the 11,000 athletes and thousands more team officials expected from across the globe began arriving, having traveled through a pandemic to get to Tokyo.

They'll all now live in close quarters in the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay over the next three weeks.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said last week there was "zero" risk of athletes passing on the virus to Japanese or other residents of the village. But that bold statement was already being tested.

The Olympics, which were postponed for a year because of the pandemic, are set to officially open on Friday and run until Aug. 8.

The two soccer players and a team video analyst who also tested positive had been moved to "the Tokyo 2020 isolation facility," the South African Olympic committee said. The rest of the squad members and officials had also been quarantined.

Those positive tests further stoked local fears, with the South African team scheduled to play against host nation Japan in its first game on Thursday.

There has already been consistent opposition from the Japanese public to holding the Olympics during the pandemic, with fears that it could become a super-spreader event and cause a spike in infections among Japanese people.

Bach and the IOC have insisted it will be safe and have forged ahead against most medical advice. The IOC says it sees the Games as a chance to foster international solidarity during difficult times, but the IOC would also lose billions of dollars in broadcast rights if the Games were to be canceled completely.

Also Sunday, Team South Africa confirmed the coach of its rugby sevens team also tested positive at a pre-Olympics training camp in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima. He was also in isolation there and would miss the entire rugby competition, the team said.

And there were other Olympics-related positive tests. Olympic organizers said that another athlete had tested positive, although they were not residing in the Olympic Village. The athlete was not named and only identified as "non-Japanese."

The first International Olympic Committee official was reported as positive. He recorded a positive test on Saturday when arriving at a Tokyo airport. The IOC confirmed the test and identified him as IOC member Ryu Seung-min of South Korea. He was reportedly being held in isolation, too.

Former distance runner and world championship bronze medalist Tegla Loroupe, the chief of mission of the IOC's Refugee Olympic Team, tested positive for COVID-19 before the team was to depart its Doha, Qatar, training base for Tokyo, two people with knowledge of her condition told the AP. The team delayed its arrival in Tokyo while Loroupe is expected to stay behind, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to reveal medical information.

Organizers say that 55 people linked to the Olympics in Japan have reported positive tests since July 1, but that figure does not include athletes or others who may have arrived for training camps but are not yet under the "jurisdiction" of the organizing committee.

Tokyo reported 1,008 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the 29th straight day that cases were higher than seven days previously. It was also the fifth straight day with more than 1,000 cases. The Olympics will open under a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures.

No fans, Japanese or foreign, will be allowed at any of the Olympic sports in Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures. A few outlying venues may allow a small number of local fans, but it has effectively become a TV-only event.

About 200 protesters gathered Sunday outside Shinjuku station in central Tokyo, waving signs that read "No Olympics." It was the latest in a series of small protests against the Games in the last few months.

"This is ignoring human rights and our right to life," protester Karoi Todo told the AP. "Infections are increasing. To do the Olympics is unforgivable."

Japanese and IOC organizers hope stringent testing protocols, where athletes, team officials and others are tested daily, will mitigate the risks posed by the thousands of foreigners arriving at once. Visiting athletes, officials and media will be in a "soft quarantine" situation and restricted to the Olympic venues, the village and designated hotels, and will be kept away from the Japanese general public. The IOC also says more than 80% of the athletes set to compete in Tokyo will be vaccinated against COVID-19.

But, despite the assurances, the positive tests five days out from the opening ceremony showed the regulations aren't — and can't be — foolproof.

The South African team's chief medical officer said every member of the team had two negative tests before traveling to Japan "as per Tokyo 2020 requirements." They also tested negative on arrival in Tokyo, Dr. Phatho Zondi said.

"Team (South Africa) officials and management have followed all relevant Olympic Playbook rules, protocols and procedures throughout the pre-Games and Games arrival routines," the South African Olympic committee said.

Coach Neil Powell and the entire South Africa rugby squad were held at a quarantine facility after arriving in Japan because of a positive COVID test on their flight, Team South Africa said. They were cleared to leave, only for Powell to test positive a few days later.

Powell had been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in South Africa on May 24, team spokesman JJ Harmse told the AP.

South African Olympic and soccer officials didn't immediately confirm whether the two soccer players and official who tested positive had been vaccinated, although South Africa's Olympic committee said in May it would offer all its Olympic athletes the J&J vaccine.

The Olympics were effectively over before they began for the two soccer players and Powell as they would have to remain in quarantine for 14 days under Japanese regulations.

The only way the soccer players might be able to play is if their team made the semifinals. Powell would definitely miss the entire rugby competition and his Olympic experience will involve being kept in isolation in a room for two weeks before flying back home.

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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Video above from 2019: Simone Biles remarks on brother's caseAfter a mistrial was declared last month in the murder trial of Tevin Biles-Thomas, the brother of Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, a judge in Ohio acquitted Biles-Thomas of the charges against him in a retrial on Tuesday, court records show.Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg granted a Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal by the defense for lack of evidence, dismissing Biles-Thomas' murder charges and acquitting him of voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault charges, court spokesperson Darren Toms said.Biles-Thomas was arrested in 2019 on charges of murder, voluntary manslaughter, felonious assault and perjury in connection with a New Year's Eve fatal shooting in Cleveland.On the night of the shooting, a group of uninvited guests walked into a home and a fight began, Ohio authorities previously said. That fight led to the shooting and multiple people were hit — two of whom died at the scene and a third who later died at a hospital.Cleveland police had identified Biles-Thomas as the shooter. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.Following the judge's ruling, a person in the gallery charged towards Biles-Thomas but was stopped by sheriff's deputies, Toms said, adding that "the Court thanks the Sheriff's Department for their assistance.""This was a horrible tragedy, three families lost three family members and you know, absolutely horrific. So, we understand emotions were running high," Biles-Thomas attorney, Joe Patituce, said."But today, Tevin Biles was vindicated, what he's waited to get for the last two and half years."Patituce added that Biles-Thomas has maintained his innocence for the last two and a half years "because he is frankly innocent of these charges and today we were able to see that the state had absolutely no evidence that he was guilty of this offense."