The sports world has witnessed countless improbable comebacks, but what Lindsey Vonn is attempting at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics exists in a category by itself. Just over a week after tearing her left ACL, the 41-year-old skiing legend plans to hurtle down a mountain at 80-plus miles per hour on a titanium-enhanced right knee and a structurally compromised left one. Anyone familiar with Vonn's career knows that dismissing her would be foolish.

Vonn's Olympic resume speaks to both brilliance and brutality. She claimed gold in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games while skiing on a severely bruised shin she described as excruciating, then added a bronze in the Super-G for good measure. Eight years later in Pyeongchang, she returned to the podium at age 33, becoming the oldest woman to medal in Olympic alpine skiing with another downhill bronze.

At the 2006 Turin Olympics, she crashed violently during a training run and spent the night hospitalized, only to return 48 hours later and finish eighth in the downhill. She missed the 2014 Sochi Games entirely after re-tearing her right ACL, but once again came back stronger. The pattern has remained consistent throughout her career: devastating setback followed by defiant return.

Vonn underwent partial knee replacement surgery on her right knee in 2024, becoming the first athlete with a titanium implant to compete in downhill racing, much less win at the World Cup level. She accomplished exactly that on December 12, 2025, in St. Moritz. Before her January 30 crash in Crans-Montana, she had podiumed in seven of eight races this season and stood atop the downhill standings. At 41 years old, Vonn is putting together a legitimate championship campaign.

This is the kind of knee injury that would sideline most professional athletes for months of rehabilitation. Vonn has nine days. Her camp reports minimal swelling and surprisingly little pain. Whether that's enough to stabilize a knee enduring the violent lateral forces of downhill skiing remains the question.

The venue, Cortina, holds special meaning for Vonn. She has won 12 World Cup races there, more than any skier in history on this particular mountain. She's stated flatly that if the Olympics were held anywhere else, this comeback wouldn't be worth attempting. Her decision to skip earlier events preserves whatever structural integrity remains for Sunday's downhill, where she'll either cement the greatest comeback story in winter sports or remind us that even legends must eventually yield to biology.

For my fellow degenerates looking for some action on the women’s downhill, Vonn to podium at +240 represents compelling value despite the obvious medical uncertainty. The odds imply roughly a 29% chance of a top-three finish, which dramatically undervalues a skier who has reached the podium in nearly 90% of her races this season.

The biggest risk isn't that she'll ski poorly but that she won't start at all. But if Vonn reaches that starting gate on Sunday, her season-long data suggests she belongs among the top three skiers in this field, wounded knee and all.

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🏀 Exploiting Back-to-Back Fatigue

The NBA's relentless schedule creates means fatigue, depleted rosters, and back-to-back games separate the teams built for depth from those running on fumes, and Wednesday night's slate offers several opportunities to exploit those cracks. When exhaustion meets injury reports and home-court advantages collide with zero days rest, the smart money follows the mismatches.

New York Knicks -4.5 (-110)

The Knicks are hosting Denver on Wednesday night as 4.5-point favorites, and the surface-level narrative writes itself: dominant home team versus weary road squad playing the second night of a back-to-back. New York sits at an impressive 19-8 against the spread at Madison Square Garden this season, and they're 4-1 with an average margin of 8.2 points when facing teams on zero days rest. The Nuggets are dealing with a depleted frontcourt after losing Aaron Gordon to a hamstring injury, and New York ranks second in offensive rebounding while Denver sits 24th in total rebounding. The Knicks should own the glass and control tempo.

Except one thing, Denver has been weirdly excellent in exactly this scenario. The Nuggets are 7-3 straight up when playing on no rest this season, averaging 118.4 points per game and maintaining a +4.5 point differential despite the supposed fatigue disadvantage. They actually score slightly above their season average in these spots, though defensive intensity occasionally slips as evidenced by surrendering 113.9 points per contest. The complication is that this game concludes a brutal stretch where Denver plays five games in seven days for the second time recently. They've welcomed Nikola Jokic back from injury, but they're still managing absences beyond Gordon, including Cameron Johnson's knee issue. That zero-rest resilience might finally crack against a Knicks team built specifically to exploit this matchup.

New Orleans Pelicans -4.5 (-110)

New Orleans travels to Milwaukee as a 4.5-point favorite despite their catastrophic 13-39 record, which should immediately raise eyebrows until you examine the specific circumstances. The Pelicans are a perfect 5-0 this season when favored, while Milwaukee sits 8-18 as an underdog and a miserable 8-13 against the spread at home. The Bucks are playing their second game in as many nights after beating Chicago 131-115 on Tuesday, and while they've managed a .500 record in back-to-back situations, their minus-6.0 point differential in those games suggests significant fatigue issues. More importantly, Milwaukee is playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo and has lost Bobby Portis, Taurean Prince, Gary Harris, and Kevin Porter Jr. to various injuries. Their squad depth has been obliterated.

New Orleans is missing Dejounte Murray to an Achilles injury and monitoring Hunter Dickinson's status, but they're catching Milwaukee at the absolute worst moment. The Bucks rank 22nd in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and their few remaining strengths play directly into New Orleans' hands. Milwaukee lives beyond the arc, ranking second in three-point percentage and tenth in three-point attempt rate, but the Pelicans' defense is catastrophically bad at preventing threes, ranking 30th in shot frequency allowed from deep. Meanwhile, New Orleans operates primarily at the rim, where they rank first in shot frequency despite being wildly inefficient once they arrive there. With Giannis and Portis unavailable, Milwaukee's already porous rim defense, ranked 25th in the league, gets much worse.

🌲 The Pine Line

🏀 The Cavs and Clippers swapped All-start point guards. It’s not often that a one-for-one exchange can salvage a season.

✈️ Eight players on the move in this blockbuster deal. Now maybe Utah can keep opponents away from the rim.

🎗️ The NHL could have donated $1 Million to cancer research. Instead they created a PR nightmare from their intermission promotion.

🥊 UFC’s debut on Paramount+ set records for the streaming service. That $7.7 billion investment is already paying dividends.

💍 Twenty years and six rings in New England. That’s not enough to make Brady root for the Patriots in SB LX.

🏈 Super Bowl LX Quarterback Rushing Props

by Ed Egros - Follow on X @EdWithSports

What has been the great equalizer for NFL offenses did not seem to exist much in 2025.  If defenses are prioritizing taking away the deep ball more often, the quarterback can simply rush and earn chunk plays that way.

However, only one quarterback this season rushed for more than 500 yards: Josh Allen.  Compare that with five last season and four the previous year, and you get more evidence how dominant defenses have become no matter what the offensive intent is.

One Exception is in the Super Bowl

In just his second year in the NFL, Drake Maye has become an exceptional mobile quarterback.  His 38 first downs by rushing ranks fifth among all quarterbacks and his 4.4 yards per carry ranks ninth.  Maye’s rushing expected points added of 11.21 also means these runs are intentional, not signs of panic you might see from other young quarterbacks. 

He may not be quite at the level of peak Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes, but his legs are one big reason why the Patriots are in the Super Bowl.

As for the Seahawks

Sam Darnold is more of a prototypical pocket passer.  He only had 95 rushing yards on 35 carries, significantly lower than Maye, Josh Allen, et al:

Even in a campaign good enough to get Seattle to the Super Bowl, Darnold had one of his less effective rushing seasons of his career.

Super Bowl Expectations

For the final game of the season and with two weeks to prepare, we could see all kinds of surprises: Darnold running more, Maye becoming the primary ball-carrier on a high-leverage drive, etc.

Checking out Jaxon’s Betting Sheets to look for edges in these quarterback rushing props, it’s clear Maye and Darnold are going to be taking off early and often.

Darnold O6.5 Rushing Yards (-109)

It only takes only one scramble or designed run to hit the over.  For a team averaging 60 snaps per game, I like those odds.  

The Patriots have not been getting to the quarterback with nearly the same frequency as other elite defenses like the Broncos and Falcons:

This unit ranks 14th in quarterback hits and 23rd in sack rate.  If they bring extra rushers and miss, Darnold should have space.  

Maye O6.5 Rushing Attempts (+115)

Over the last month, Rhamondre Stevenson has become the primary ball carrier for the Patriots, with TreVeyon Henderson losing a lot of his workload:

Though the conditions in their most recent game weren’t exactly ideal, Maye had ten carries to Henderson’s three.  One path to the over is simply having only two guys toting the rock.

Another is something I brought up earlier in the week: the Patriots’ aggressive playcalling on fourth down.  Especially in short-yardage situations, Maye’s quarterback sneaks could be called upon.  

Finally, Maye ranks fifth among all quarterbacks with 18 red zone carries.  Assuming the Patriots get to the red zone enough times when the game is either close or New England is trailing, Maye might call his own number a lot then too.

Key Takeaway

If last year’s Super Bowl is any indication, Patrick Mahomes still ran the ball four times despite trailing, while Jalen Hurts had 11 carries.  Now is the time for quarterbacks to do whatever it takes for a championship, so expect to see Sam Darnold and Drake Maye use their legs even more often.

👀 View NBA Radar Charts

Not sure which three-point props to bet on tonight? The radar charts on Pine Sports break down the numbers visually so you can see exactly where players shoot from and where they make most of their shots.

Check them out before tip-off by clicking to expand a player prop on desktop!

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