Mikaela Shiffrin extended her record World Cup victories to 99 with a win Saturday in the women’s slalom in Gurgl, Austria.

Shiffrin won in a combined time of 1 minute, 40.22 seconds, beating Italian prodigy Lara Colturi, who starts for Albania, by 0.55 seconds and Camille Rast of Switzerland by 0.57.

It was the first World Cup top-three finish for Rast and Colturi, who became the first ever Albanian skier to reach the World Cup podium.

Saturday’s win sets Shiffrin up to potentially reach a milestone 100 victories in what is essentially a home race for her next weekend in Killington, Vt. Shiffrin, a Colorado resident, trained at Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont as a teenager.

‘I guess there is a bit of pressure around it, but I try to ignore that,’ Shiffrin said about potentially winning her 100th in Vermont. ‘If it happens, it’s wonderful, if it doesn’t happen it’s kind of nothing to cry about in the grand scheme, but I hope to have a really good performance in front of the home crowd.’

Shiffrin, 29, has won all four slaloms in which she’s competed since returning from a knee injury following a downhill crash in January.

On March 11, 2023, in Are, Sweden, Shiffrin won her 87th World Cup race to break the record held by Ingemar Stenmark of Austria.

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As far as physical activity goes, American kids are mostly C and D students.

And “everything is graded on a curve,” says Jordan Carlson, a professor of pediatrics at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.

Carlson is the committee chair of this year’s United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, which was released last month. It offers a stark rendering of how our children and youth are “insufficiently active.”

The report draws upon data from a number of nationally representative surveys. Its goal is to inform (and in many cases, warn) about how kids are doing in relation to federal physical activity recommendations.

More specifically, 20-to-28% of 6-to-17-year-olds meet the 60 minutes of daily physical activity guideline set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Their overall grade: D-.

“This is a systemic problem,” says Pam Watts, president of the Physical Activity Alliance (PAA), which puts out the report card.

“This isn’t just a funding problem or a programming problem or a localized problem. This is a pervasive, systemic problem.”

While the report is a call-to-action for policymaking and advocacy about the ‘urgent’ need to help support and improve our kids’ overall fitness, it also provides an opportunity to take stock in how we’re handling our roles as sports parents and coaches.

A slew of poor grades within the report across a number of categories — like sedentary behavior (D-), active transportation among kids (D-) and organized sports participation (C-) — give us insight as to how we can improve our kids’ sports experience from the time they are young.

“I’m sure you’ve met the parents who were hell-bent on getting their kid into a D-I scholarship situation in college,” Watts says, “and that’s how they approach youth sports. There are downsides to that. That’s OK for some kids, if that’s what they want.

“PAA works across a lifetime of physical activity, the youth being such an important part of that.”

USA TODAY Sports spoke with key contributors to the report about how its data can benefit all of us, whether our kids aspire to play competitive sports in high school and beyond or use sports for a healthy dose of extracurricular activity and stress relief.

As you may have found, those goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

First and foremost, make sure your kid loves a physical activity or sport

“The message of the report card is not that kids are failing. It’s not that parents are failing,” Carlson says. “It’s that there’s all of these societal barriers to physical activity and that we need to address those things.”

Let’s start with the highest grade in the report (B-).

It comes in early care and education, where one study found that 74% of these settings provide two or more physical activity opportunities per day.

The federally recommended one hour of “moderate-to-vigorous intensity” physical actions for kids includes aerobic, muscle- and bone-strengthening activities.

We don’t realize we’re getting these benefits when we climb playground equipment and run around in the schoolyard early in our lives. We are put in these situations, and we thrive within them, not because we’re faster than another kid, or we win a competition of jumping rope, but because they are so natural.

Carlson says we don’t have a lot of data on physical activity among preschool children, but what we learn there reinforces something our bodies are inclined to do: Move.

We move as we get a little older, biking to our friends’ houses and running after each other in the backyard during games of manhunt or freeze tag (at least that what’s we used to do) not for the exercise, but because we enjoy it.

Today, kids are involved in youth sports as early as preschool (as my two boys were) because we feel the need to get them started on what we hope are long and fruitful careers.

We put them in sometimes even knowing the odds that only about 1-to-2% of high school athletes get an athletic scholarship to help pay for college and an even lower percentage go pro.

Here is another stat you probably don’t know: About 70% of adults living in households with children met their own recommended physical activity guidelines. That means, these adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. 

Instead of trying to put your kid on the sports fast track from an early age, show him or her how much you love to move, too. In fact, move together during a run or on a basketball court.

It’s all part of establishing a physical literacy that will develop motor skills and confidence for later sports endeavors.

Take a ‘bike to school’ approach to youth sports

According to a 2022 National Household Travel Survey, 10% of children usually walk or bike to school. The grade “active transportation” among kids received was the same as the one for overall physical activity (D-). Neither grade has increased in a decade.

We can point to safety factors, both with traffic and in neighborhoods, and “built” environment factors such as sidewalks and direct paths to school. (The ‘community and built environment’ category got a C+ nationally.) But the lower grade is also a sign of our lives today.

“It takes extra time to walk to school versus throwing your kids in the van and driving them or picking them up,” Watts says. “We’ve just got these societal expectations around all that we accomplish in a day or a week or a month. And you know, when I think about 20, 30, 50 years ago, it’s that shift in what we expect of our time, how many things we think we’re going to do in a day, to be, whatever you call successful.

“It is in your control to rethink some of that.”

In addition to being the president of the Physical Activity Alliance, Watts is the executive director for NIRSA, a non-profit association that provides resources and education for advancing college campus recreation.

She’s also the mother of two college-aged kids, a daughter who played club soccer through early high school and a son who played sports whose experience, Watts says, was all about being social and engaged.

“It wasn’t about winning or caring if you were good,” she says. “So he did a variety of recreation sports, and then had to go club only, because at a certain age, at least in our community, the recreation leagues dry up as the kids move to club or just drop out of sports or whatever. And then in high school, he found a love through swimming and swim team.”

Seven out of 10 kids quit organized sports before they become teenagers. There are a variety of reasons, such as parental pressure and the sometimes-toxic culture of youth sports, but a primary one is that they aren’t fun anymore.

We can all take a bike-to-school approach to kids sports. Movement from sports and physical activity, studies have found, improves our cognitive function and, as we get older, enhances academic achievement in addition to physical literacy.

Get your kid into sports for those reasons, as well as to build resilience, self-esteem and effort, which can help them achieve their full potential in many areas (while enjoying the ride).

Be inclusive: Youth sports participation is about accounting for everyone.

Sports participation (defined by whether a kid played on a team or took a sport lesson) among 6-to-17-year-olds declined over five years through 2022, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. The figure helped give the category of “organized sports participation” a C-.

However, Amanda Grimes, an associate professor of health sciences at Missouri-Kansas City who headed this section of the report card, points to steady decline for a decade. She says economic disparities are a driving force behind it.

“The pay to play model is becoming increasingly common in organized sports, even among school- and community-based sports, resulting in lower-income youth being forced out of participation,” she tells USA TODAY Sports. “Low-income families also face other burdens such as lack of transportation and often rely on older siblings to care for younger siblings after school. Both hinder sports participation for youth.”

The school-based sports category gets a D-.

According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, 50% of high school students attended physical education classes at least one day a week. We can lobby in our schools for more P.E. and in our communities for more low-cost and free opportunities.

If we are travel sports coaches, we can also offer our rates at reduced costs to families who can’t afford them. But there is a larger theme at play here, too.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the discontinuation of sports for any reason during childhood plays a role in the more than 75% of U.S. adolescents failing to meet physical activity recommendations.

And rates for 12-to-17-year-olds meeting those recommendations appear around 15%, according to two national health surveys.

Sports should always be about inclusion. We need to make everyone on our teams feel welcome within them. Kids can have bad sports experiences because their teammates, or even their coaches, marginalize them.

If kids aren’t good fits for a team, help them find another one, or an alternative space to continue to play sports.

Coach Steve: Is it worth it? 10 questions kids need to ask if they play on a travel team

D(minus) is for devices, which can distract our athletes

The sedentary behavior grade dropped from a D to a D- since 2022 because children are on screens more often.

The rise in sedentary behavior represents perhaps the most dramatic shift in the report card, according to Amanda Staiano, its co-committee chair.

Staiano says there are no federal guidelines and recommendations for sedentary behavior and screen time in children. But international guidelines recommend no more than 2 hours per day on non-school screen time. Only about 20% of 6-to-17-year-olds meet it, according to the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The figure rises to 58% when we include schoolwork, but it’s still nearly a failing grade, even on the curve.

“Screens have their place in a child’s life for discovering or reinforcing concepts learned in school, writing and researching for papers and projects, playing games that teach academic content,” says Staiano, director of a pediatric obesity and health behavior laboratory at Louisiana State University.

“Screens can also be used for social interactions with friends outside of school, including multi-player video games and social media. But kids and adults can become immersed in long bouts of entertainment screen time that results in extended sitting, which has been shown to be harmful for the body.’

We know as athletes, as we get into the high school years, promoting ourselves and connecting with college coaches on social media can be a critical component of the recruiting process.

But just remember this advice from Jerome Williams, the longtime NBA player who has become a father to Division I athletes:

It’s hard to make a high school or college team when you’re on your phone 4 to 5 hours per day while your competition for a roster spot is practicing.

Is the outlook ‘bleak?’ We control more than we realize

We can always encourage our athletes to sleep more. Have kids aged 6-to-12 get 9-to-12 hours per night and 13-to-18 get 8-to-10, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine says.

Sleep received a C+, the second-highest mark among categories.

The report card, its contributors says, is a work in progress, a rolling wave of data and insight that helps us better understand and serve our kids. The 2026 report will offer global data as a point of reference.

“I think that the report is one of many tools,’ says Watts, the PAA president. ‘It is really a way to keep attention and conversation and focus on this frankly bleak reality of what’s going on for youth in terms of physical activity.’

One category in 2024, family and peer support for physical activity, got a grade of incomplete due to a lack of data. It’s our job to help fill it in with positive experiences our kids can take into life.

“It’s fun, right?” Watts says of sports parenting. ‘It’s social. It becomes a family affair. We really enjoyed all those years. Kind of missed it when they graduated.”

Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.

A pioneer in sports journalism, Rudy Martzke rose to national fame for covering sports television and media in the late 20th and early 21st centuries before it was its own cottage industry. Nobody had covered sports entertainment that way before Martzke started his column at USA TODAY as an original employee during the newspaper’s launch in 1982. Decades later, few – if any – have.

Martzke died Wednesday at the age of 82, his wife Phyllis Martzke – known affectionally to Rudy, those at USA TODAY and in the sports media world as ‘Mouse’ – said following complications from pneumonia.

He is survived by two sons, Michael and Brett, and three grandchildren.

In the heyday for newspapers in America, Martzke’s back-page column ran three times a week and was a must-read for not only people in the business – from the C-Suite to the production truck – but for fans who wanted to see how their opinions stacked up against the announcers they watched all the time.

His words revolutionized how fans watched sports. The Internet was fledgling at best as his career wound down, and social media didn’t exist. To figure out who was up and who needed to improve behind the mic, reading Martzke was essential. The information was valuable. The prose was entertaining.

‘You ever been on a really, really, really scary roller coaster?’ former USA TODAY Sports editor Reid Cherner said. ‘That’s Rudy. You’re scared entire time and then when it was over, you said, ‘Let’s do it again.’

‘The ride down was the single-greatest thrill of my editing career. It was great. You just hung on. Rudy was Rudy. There was nobody better at what he did. He basically created the sports TV column.’

Martzke began his career writing about sports for the East St. Louis Journal and covered the city’s professional teams. But he jumped into the public-relations side of the business and became a publicist and director of operations for the ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis. It was while working there he encouraged the local radio station KMOX to hire a kid from Syracuse University named Bob Costas to call the team’s games in 1974. Costas became a lifelong fan of Martzke’s work, and Martzke said Costas was among his favorite people in the business to cover.

Because of his experience on the PR side of the business, Martzke would often coach younger network representatives on best practices. Beyond Costas, he interacted with every major announcer, analyst and reporter – as well as the executives who employed them – on a consistent basis, to say the least. He always made the extra call.

‘Nobody worked the phones like Rudy Martzke,’ NBC Sports executive vice president for communications Greg Hughes said.

His subjects didn’t always love what he wrote. But he always gave them the time of day.

‘He took every criticism seriously – not that it kept him from writing anything,’ Cherner said.

Dozens of people took to social media Friday afternoon as news of Martzke’s passing circulated.

‘Rudy was both a critic and a reporter. He had sources and he broke stories. He worked it like a beat,’ Costas said.

‘For those of us in the sports TV business, he was social media to us,’ former CBS senior vice president for communications LeslieAnne Wade said. ‘He was our common denominator. His column, that’s how we learned who got promoted, who was fired. There was no other way.’

Martzke retired from USA TODAY in 2005 with his wife to Florida, outside of Orlando. ‘Mouse’ was alongside him for the entire ride of his career.

‘Everything he did, he did with Mouse,’ Cherner said.

There were people on staff who Cherner was closer to than Martzke, but nobody with whom he had more fun.

‘He was as unpredictable as anyone you’ll ever meet,’ Cherner said.

Martzke would write 80 lines – word counts were a futuristic idea – and some section, inevitably, would have to come out. Any suggestion from the editing staff hurt his soul.

‘It was like you insulted one of his children,’ said Cherner.

Bruce Lee “Rudy” Martzke grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism in 1964. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve for six months and spent six years in the reserves, spending one weekend per month on duty.

Rudy and Phyllis met while both were students at Wisconsin but on a spring-break trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They didn’t know each other but were introduced by mutual friends.

Martzke held other roles in the early parts of his career, such as the sports information director for St. Louis University, public relations for the ABA team in Miami (The Floridians) and with The Valley News (Lebanon, New Hampshire). He landed at the Gannett-owned Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and was on the staff that did the mock-up papers for what would become USA TODAY; Martzke’s placeholders led to his signature column.

Even after his retirement, Martzke was constantly on the other end of phone lines connected to USA TODAY as he voiced his various opinions on the paper’s operation since his departure.   

He was the type of person who began his sentences with ‘here’s the thing’ and ended it with the belief he’d swung his conversation partner to his side of whatever debate was being held. He had a distinct voice and held nothing back when using it.

As Cherner put it: ‘He was one of those guys you could argue with forever and then you could just say, ‘OK Rudy I’m with ya.’ … But he listened.’

Listening. Watching. Reporting. All what made Rudy Martzke a trailblazer in a business that’s been around for a long time.

‘They ain’t making another Rudy,’ Cherner said, “that’s for sure.’

USA TODAY Sports columnist Jarrett Bell contributed to this story.

The New York Giants released quarterback Daniel Jones Friday morning after benching the longtime starter ahead of Week 12.

Jones spoke to reporters Thursday in what sounded like a farewell to his time in New York, referring to his time there in the past tense. Giants owner John Mara said in a statement that Jones ‘asked if we would release him’ Friday morning and ‘we mutually agreed that would be best for him and for the team.’

Jones, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, started 70 games over the last five and a half seasons in New York. He went 24-44-1 in that span, highlighted by a playoff berth in 2022 that ended in the NFC Divisional playoffs.

Now, the former top pick is a free agent. Here’s where he could end up.

Daniel Jones landing spots

Los Angeles Rams

The Rams have former starter Jimmy Garoppolo currently backing up starter Matthew Stafford. Jones is six years younger, has more starting experience and is a more talented passer than Garoppolo or third-stringer Stetson Bennett. Sean McVay’s system is quarterback-friendly and Jones could be a backup for the aging Stafford for the time being. He could follow what Sam Darnold did in San Francisco and spend some time with the creator of a widespread coaching tree to revive his career.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Denver Broncos

Jones’ best season was that 2022 playoff run. In that first season under coach Brian Daboll, Jones was throwing mostly short and intermediate passes, as shown by this passing chart on one of his better games that season, via Next Gen Stats.

The Broncos employed a similar strategy at the beginning of the season as rookie Bo Nix made his first NFL starts. They’ve expanded to include more deep passing concepts as the season’s worn on, but Jones could work into it over time. He could also spend time with one of the more creative offensive minds in the NFL in Sean Payton. He’d at least be a serviceable backup as the Broncos continue their playoff run and into next season.

Dallas Cowboys

Carolina Panthers

The Panthers are seeing better play on offense in recent weeks after Bryce Young was benched for a few weeks. Andy Dalton is a solid backup but that should not keep the franchise from bringing in a new face if possible. The Panthers have a corps of young pass catchers in Xavier Legette, Jalen Coker and Ja’Tavion Sanders and a solid offensive line. Head coach Dave Canales revived the careers of Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield as an offensive coordinator in Seattle and Tampa Bay, respectively. He could do so with Jones if Young regresses and the Panthers need options at quarterback.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Buccaneers have been hit hard by injuries this season. Despite losing Chris Godwin for the season and Mike Evans for a month and a half, Tampa Bay nearly beat Kansas City on the road in Week 9. The Buccaneers boast the No. 5 scoring offense entering Week 12 thanks to offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who is a potential head coaching candidate for his work this season. Coen is notably leaning into his players’ strengths this season, keeping the offense from losing steam without Godwin or Evans. He could find ways to maximize Jones.

As the Week 13 action kicks off with Saturday’s games, each match holds the potential for a dramatic upset, a twist that could either propel a team’s College Football Playoff dreams or dash them. All of this unfolds in the lead-up to the fourth of the six rankings to be released, adding an extra layer of suspense to the season.

Following the latest CFP rankings, Oregon secured the No. 1 seed for the third consecutive week. The top five teams remained unchanged: Texas seeded No. 2, Miami held the No. 3 seed, Boise State at No. 4, and Ohio State rounded out the top five.

The Georgia re-entered the conversation after a significant victory over Tennessee, showcasing the unpredictable nature of college football. The Bulldogs joined two-loss teams Alabama and Ole Miss, who have defied expectations to secure a spot in the bracket. In contrast, BYU’s lone loss to Kansas in Week 12 caused them to drop significantly to the No. 12 seed in last week’s rankings. This underscores the fact that every game from now until the end of the season is crucial and a must-win situation.

For those eager for the fourth set of College Football Playoff rankings, here’s how to catch next week’s show to see where your team falls.

When do College Football Playoff rankings come out?

The fourth of six College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings will be released on Tuesday, Nov. 26, after Week 13 games.

What time is the next CFP rankings show? 

The College Football Playoff rankings show can be watched on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.

How to watch College Football Playoff rankings show 

Date: Tuesday, Nov. 26
Time: 8 p.m. – 9 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Stream: Fubo

Watch the CFP Rankings Show on ESPN with a Fubo subscription

How many teams in College Football Playoff 2024? 

In the 2024-25 season, 12 teams will qualify for the College Football Playoff. The top five conference champions will earn automatic bids. The remaining seven highest-ranked teams will complete the 12-team field.

How does College Football Playoff format work?

The 12 participating teams in the College Football Playoff bracket will be the five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee, and the next seven highest-ranked teams.

The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye. The fifth conference champion will be seeded where it was ranked or at No. 12 if it is outside the top 12 in the CFP rankings. Non-conference champions ranked in the top four will be seeded beginning at No. 5.

2024-25 College Football Playoff Rankings schedule

Here is the schedule for the remaining College Football Playoff ranking shows. All times Eastern:

Ranking 4: Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Ranking 5: Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Selection Day: Sunday, Dec. 8 at 12 p.m. -4 p.m.

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The Kelce family is growing.

Jason Kelce, 37, and wife Kylie Kelce, 32, announced Friday that they are expecting their fourth child together — a baby girl. The Kelces, who tied the knot in April 2018 after meeting online, also share daughters Wyatt, 5, Elliotte, 3, and Bennett, 1. The girls’ priceless reactions were captured in the family’s pregnancy announcement.

In the Instagram photo shared by Kylie, Wyatt has her hands cupped around her head in shock, Elliotte is smiling ear to ear, while Bennett is in tears. They are all matching in pink sweaters embroidered with ‘Big Sister.’

‘I feel like we captured a very accurate representation of how each of the girls feel about getting another sister,’ Kylie captioned the snapshot. ‘At least Ellie, mom and dad are on the same page!’

Bennett, who turns 2 in February, won’t be the baby anymore. Kylie was 38-weeks pregnant with Bennett when Jason and the Philadelphia Eagles took on his brother Travis and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Arizona, in 2023. She brought a special guest to the game with her— her OB/GYN.

‘If she has a baby in the stadium, it’s officially scripted,’ Jason joked at the time.

Kylie didn’t have the baby at Super Bowl 57, which the Eagles lost to the Chiefs, 38-35. Jason retired from the NFL one season later, this past March, and thanked his wife for her constant support through his 13-year career.

‘I think it’s no coincidence I have enjoyed my best years of my career with Kylie by my side,’ Jason said during his emotional retirement speech. ‘Every accolade I’ve ever received has come with her in my life. She has brought the best out of me through love, devotion, support, honesty, intelligence, and of course the swift kick in the (expletive) from time to time. She has also given me three beautiful girls and a life that increasingly brings me more fulfillment off the field than it does on. We’ve had a great run, Ky.’

It’s not the only good news the Kelce family shared recently. Jason announced on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Thursday that he will host a late-night variety show on ESPN, starting in early 2025.

‘They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce’ will air five consecutive Friday nights (technically Saturday mornings at 1 a.m. ET) in January and coincides with the final week of the NFL regular season and the playoffs until Pro Bowl Weekend. The one-hour show will be ‘an immersive experience,’ ESPN says, filmed hours before it airs with hundreds of fans in attendance at the Union Transfer, a Philadelphia concert venue.

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