Update on the latest sports

SUPER BOWL

Bengals seek 1st Super Bowl title versus Rams

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — It’s showtime for America’s biggest sporting event.

The Cincinnati Bengals take on the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl, aiming for their first title in franchise history. Cincinnati lost two trips to the title game in the 1980s. The Rams are looking for their second Super Bowl title and first while playing in Los Angeles after winning as the St. Louis Rams in the 1999 season.

The game features the second Super Bowl matchup of two former No. 1 pick quarterbacks with Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow taking on Los Angeles’ Matthew Stafford. Peyton Manning beat Cam Newton six years ago in the other.

Burrow has gone from No. 1 overall pick to starting QB in the Super Bowl faster than anyone else by getting there in his second season. He has 15 touchdown passes and just two interceptions in his last seven games, while averaging 331.1 yards passing per game.

Stafford’s 49,995 yards passing and 323 TD passes are the most for a QB making his first Super Bowl appearance. The former Detroit Lion needs 209 yards passing to become the sixth player to reach 6,000 in a single season.

Another key matchup pits Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey against Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase – the NFL’s top cornerback against the most productive rookie receiver since the merger. Ramsey made his third All-Pro team after intercepting four passes and having 16 passes defensed. Chase’s 1,455 yards receiving in the regular season were the most for a rookie in the Super Bowl era and his seven receptions of at least 50 yards in the regular season and playoffs are tied for second most for any player in the past 30 seasons.

Rams coach Sean McVay meets Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor in the youngest coaching matchup in Super Bowl history and the first time both coaches are under 40.

The Rams, playing in their new $5 billion SoFi Stadium, are 4-point favorites, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

OLYMPICS

Erin Jackson wins speedskating gold for US

BEIJING (AP) — Erin Jackson has become the first Black woman to win a speedskating medal at the Winter Olympics – and it’s gold.

Jackson won the 500 meters with a time of 37.04 seconds to give the American speedskating program its first speedskating medal of the Beijing Games and first individual medal since 2010.

The silver went to Miho Takagi of Japan. Angelina Golikova of the Russian team took the bronze.

The 29-year-old Jackson joins fellow American Shani Davis as the only Black athletes to win speedskating medals at the Olympics.

Also at the Olympics:

— The United States has clinched the top seed in the Olympic men’s hockey tournament. The young Americans beat Germany 3-2 to finish the preliminary round a perfect 3-0-0. The U.S is the only team to win all three of its group stage games in regulation. The U.S. moves directly to the quarterfinals Wednesday along with second-seeded Finland, the third-seeded Russians and fourth-seeded Sweden. Canada is seeded fifth and will again play host China in the qualification round Tuesday. The U.S. has the youngest team in the tournament with an average age of 25 and eight players under 21.

— Kaillie Humphries’ first day of Olympic competition for the United States was a runaway, putting her in control of the inaugural women’s monobob race. She leads Canada’s Christine de Bruin — her former teammate — by 1.04 seconds, by far the biggest halftime lead in Olympic women’s bobsled history. Laura Nolte of Germany was third in 2:10.32, and three-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. was right in the medal hunt with her time of 2:10.42 putting her fourth. Barring a big mistake by somebody, it looks like all four women remain in the mix for the three medals. They’ll be decided on Monday morning in Beijing, late Sunday night in the United States, right after the Super Bowl broadcast.

— Standout Eileen Gu and the rest of the slopestyle skiers will have to wait until Monday to start qualifying due to falling snow and gusty wind at Genting Snow Park. The diminishing visibility made performing tricks off the jumps difficult as well, delaying competition by at least two hours.

— The second women’s downhill training run for American Mikaela Shiffrin, Italian Sofia Goggia and other Alpine skiers was canceled because of snowfall.

— Slalom gold medalist Petra Vlhova is leaving Beijing early due to an inflamed left ankle tendon. She’ll miss the Alpine combined event in which she would have been a challenger to Mikaela Shiffrin, the favorite in the race. Vlhova’s coach tells The Associated Press that they didn’t want to risk making things worse by trying for a medal in the combined. By winning the slalom four days ago, Vlhova became Slovakia’s first Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing.

— Marco Odermatt of Switzerland plowed through snow and poor visibility to win gold in the men’s giant slalom. The bad weather conditions caused the second run to be postponed by 1 hour, 15 minutes. Zan Kranjec of Slovenia took silver and world champion Mathieu Faivre of France earned bronze.

— Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roeiseland earned her third gold medal in Beijing by winning the women’s biathlon 10-kilometer pursuit race in strong winds and blowing snow.

— Quentin Fillon Maillet of France hit all 20 of his targets despite howling wind, and he skied to his second gold and fourth medal of the Beijing Games, winning the 12.5-kilometer biathlon pursuit.

— The Russian team won gold in the cross-country ski relay in snowy conditions that made the ski tracks slow. Norway won silver and France won gold.

— Led by Suzanne Schulting, the Netherlands won Olympic gold in the 3,000-meter relay in short track speedskating. Schulting collected her second gold and third medal overall in Beijing. She earned silver in the 500 and gold in the 1,000. The Dutch team lowered its own Olympic record with a time of 4 minutes, 3.40 seconds. South Korea rallied to take silver. China earned bronze.

— Liu Shaoang of Hungary won gold in 500-meter short track speedskating. Liu had earned bronze medals in the 1,000 and the mixed team relay. Russian Konstantin Ivliev took silver. Steven Dubois of Canada earned bronze. Defending champion Wu Dajing of China failed to advance to the A group final.