Quote:NEWS
Major Lazer to headline 2026 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony in Verona
2 h
Newsdesk 


Global pop powerhouse Major Lazer, led by Diplo alongside Walshy Fire, Ape Drums, and new member America Foster, are set to provide the musical centerpiece for the Closing Ceremony of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Taking place in Verona, Italy, the performance will be broadcast live on Sunday, February 22, at 2:00 p.m. ET, reaching a massive international audience as the winter games conclude.
The group is expected to deliver a high-energy set featuring their most iconic hits, including the Diamond-certified "Lean On." In keeping with the scale of the event, the performance will reportedly feature several surprise guests, drawing from a deep catalogue of collaborators that includes the likes of Beyoncé, Burna Boy, and Ariana Grande.
This Olympic showcase serves as the official launch for a landmark year for the ensemble. Following the ceremony, Major Lazer will embark on their first extensive global tour in seven years. The 2026 schedule sees the group returning to major festival stages across North America and Europe, including highly anticipated appearances at Coachella on April 12 and 19, and headline slots at Ultra Music Festival in Miami on March 27.
The tour also marks the group’s return to iconic UK and European events later this summer. After hitting the Governors Ball in New York on June 6 and Bonnaroo on June 12, the band will cross the Atlantic for a string of dates including Solidays in Paris on June 27 and Pukkelpop in Belgium on August 21. Fans can also catch them at the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands between August 21 and 23.
These live dates offer the first opportunity for fans to hear material from their recent mixtape, GYALGEBRA, performed live with new London-based member America Foster. With a reputation for boundary-pushing stage production and a heavy touring schedule through August, Major Lazer is positioned to dominate the 2026 festival season.

(02-21-2026, 05:58 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote:

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Quote:NEWS
Major Lazer to headline 2026 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony in Verona
2 h
Newsdesk 


Global pop powerhouse Major Lazer, led by Diplo alongside Walshy Fire, Ape Drums, and new member America Foster, are set to provide the musical centerpiece for the Closing Ceremony of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Taking place in Verona, Italy, the performance will be broadcast live on Sunday, February 22, at 2:00 p.m. ET, reaching a massive international audience as the winter games conclude.
The group is expected to deliver a high-energy set featuring their most iconic hits, including the Diamond-certified "Lean On." In keeping with the scale of the event, the performance will reportedly feature several surprise guests, drawing from a deep catalogue of collaborators that includes the likes of Beyoncé, Burna Boy, and Ariana Grande.
This Olympic showcase serves as the official launch for a landmark year for the ensemble. Following the ceremony, Major Lazer will embark on their first extensive global tour in seven years. The 2026 schedule sees the group returning to major festival stages across North America and Europe, including highly anticipated appearances at Coachella on April 12 and 19, and headline slots at Ultra Music Festival in Miami on March 27.
The tour also marks the group’s return to iconic UK and European events later this summer. After hitting the Governors Ball in New York on June 6 and Bonnaroo on June 12, the band will cross the Atlantic for a string of dates including Solidays in Paris on June 27 and Pukkelpop in Belgium on August 21. Fans can also catch them at the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands between August 21 and 23.
These live dates offer the first opportunity for fans to hear material from their recent mixtape, GYALGEBRA, performed live with new London-based member America Foster. With a reputation for boundary-pushing stage production and a heavy touring schedule through August, Major Lazer is positioned to dominate the 2026 festival season.

(02-23-2026, 10:53 AM)Greg Wrote: And just like that, the US Men's Hockey Team crapped all over the good will they earned on winning the gold medal.

Quote:Bay Area radio station to honor Alysa Liu with one-day rename
By Victoria Meza • Published February 22, 2026 • Updated on February 23, 2026 at 8:39 am

Long-running radio station 96.5 KOIT is calling itself “Alysa 96.5” for the day to honor Oakland’s gold medal-winning figure skater Alysa Liu.

A Bay Area radio station will be honoring Olympic figure skating gold medalist Alysa Liu by renaming itself on Monday, according to authorities.
The 96.5 KOIT radio station announced it will change its name to Alysa 96.5 for a day to celebrate Liu. This comes after the 20-year-old delivered a shout out to her hometown on Thursday.
"Alysa Liu has made the entire Bay Area proud, and we wanted to celebrate her historic achievement in a way that reflects just how much she means to this community," 96.5 KOIT Director of Programming Operations Brian Figula said.
Then, Liu’s golden performance at the Olympics was the first for an American woman in individual figure skating since Sarah Hughes in 2002

Quote:‘Ninja Warrior’ Is Now an Olympic Sport, and It’s Officially Joining the 2028 Olympics
Obstacle racing will replace equestrian show jumping in Los Angeles.
Sophie Caraan

Summary

• Tokyo Broadcasting System has sealed a deal with the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne to incorporate Sasuke/Ninja Warrior obstacle designs into the new Olympic discipline of obstacle racing
  
• The International Olympic Committee voted unanimously in 2023 to replace equestrian show jumping with obstacle racing in the Modern Pentathlon, effective from the 2028 Los Angeles Games
  
• UIPM held its first Obstacle World Championships in Beijing in 2025, with the LA Olympics marking the discipline’s full Olympic debut
  

Tokyo Broadcasting System, the producer behind Sasuke and its global adaptations including American Ninja Warrior, has reached a licensing agreement with the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne to bring the format’s obstacle course IP into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Under the deal, UIPM will use TBS-designed obstacles as part of obstacle racing, the discipline officially replacing equestrian show jumping in the Modern Pentathlon starting with the LA Games.

The mechanics of the deal are straightforward. UIPM licensed the right to use specific Sasuke/Ninja Warrior intellectual property from TBS, including the design of certain obstacles, for use in competitive obstacle racing. The two organizations have been in a working relationship since 2022, running a series of test events that informed the development of UIPM’s obstacle racing format before the IOC voted unanimously in 2023 to include it at the LA Games. UIPM held its first Obstacle World Championships in Beijing in 2025, making the 2028 Olympics the discipline’s formal debut on the world’s largest stage.

The road to that debut stretches back three decades. TBS first broadcast Sasuke in 1997, and the format became an immediate sensation in Japan before spreading to more than 160 countries and regions, spawning local versions in over 25 of them. The US adaptation American Ninja Warrior is currently in its 18th season, premiering June 8 on NBC — a detail that underscores just how deeply the format has embedded itself into mainstream sports entertainment culture. What began as a Japanese primetime spectacle built around physical extremity and near-impossible feats has, over 30 years, evolved into a globally recognized competitive discipline with its own governing body, world championships, and now an Olympic classification.

The Modern Pentathlon itself has a parallel history of reinvention. Introduced at the 1912 Olympics with five disciplines — fencing, swimming, equestrian show jumping, running and shooting — it has been in near-constant evolution since. Running and shooting were consolidated into “laser run” in a previous reform cycle, and equestrian show jumping was removed following the 2024 Paris Games after years of pressure to modernize the event’s appeal. Obstacle racing fills that gap with a format that already commands a global audience, which is precisely the logic the IOC applied when it cast its unanimous vote.

“It is 30 years since TBS turned obstacle racing into a television phenomenon with the original ‘Sasuke,’” said UIPM president Rob Stull via Variety. “Modern Pentathlon has held a continuous place in the Olympic Games since 1912, constantly evolving over the decades to satisfy the viewing preferences of sports fans around the world.” TBS Holdings executive officer Katsuaki Setoguchi called the convergence “a groundbreaking milestone,” noting that both organizations will work together to cross-promote the format as the LA Games approach.