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Sources: Chelsea’s Macario draws NWSL interest

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Sources: Chelsea’s Macario draws NWSL interest


Several NWSL teams are interested in acquiring Chelsea and United States forward Catarina Macario, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.

Macario’s contract with Chelsea ends on July 1. Per FIFA regulations, she is free to sign a pre-contract anywhere beginning six months prior to her current deal’s expiration, or in this case, Jan. 1.

Macario is also expected to draw strong interest from Europe, where she has spent her entire professional career to date.

Multiple sources confirmed to ESPN that there has been longstanding interest in Macario from several NWSL teams, but the restrictions of the salary cap prevented any serious transfer discussions to compete for the forward’s salary. That all could change if the NWSL adopts a new “High Impact Player” (HIP) rule, which ESPN reported on in recent weeks.

The HIP rule is meant to allow NWSL teams to retain and attract top world players, which has become a challenge for the league over the past year with top global teams like Chelsea spending more, and NWSL teams restricted by the salary cap.

The NWSL lost USWNT stars Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson to Chelsea in the past year, each in transfers of over $1 million.

But the HIP rule, as proposed by the NWSL’s Board of Governors, would allow each team to spend up to $1m over the salary cap on star players who meet certain criteria. The proposal is meant to keep USWNT forward Trinity Rodman in the league with the Washington Spirit in the short term, and retain more players like her in the long term. Seven-figure annual salaries would be possible across the league.

Whether the rule will be ratiifed remains unclear after the NWSLPA expressed opposition to it, but Macario fits the profile of those players which the NWSL seeks to acquire with the new mechanism.

Macario was born in Brazil and moved the U.S. at age 12. She starred at Stanford and became a U.S. citizen in late 2020. She immediately committed to playing for the USWNT under then head coach Vlatko Andonovski, and she was expected to be the focal point of the team’s attack at the 2023 World Cup.

Macario was twice named the MAC Hermann Trophy winner as college soccer’s best player. She left Stanford early to sign for OL Lyonnes in January 2021.

However, knee injuries robbed Macario of several years in her young professional career.

She tore her ACL in 2022 in the final game of the season with OL Lyonnes and didn’t play a completive game again for a year and a half, by which point she had moved to Chelsea on a free transfer. The injury caused her to miss the 2023 World Cup, which would have been her first major tournament.

Macario was then selected to the USWNT’s Olympic roster in 2024 but had to withdraw before the tournament due to what USWNT head coach Emma Hayes called a “knee irritation” at the time. The U.S. won a gold medal that summer.

Macario recently returned to form and a stretch of good health for club and country. Hayes, who was Chelsea head coach when the club signed Macario, has leaned heavily on Macario as the USWNT’s No. 9 recently, especially in the absence of the entire starting forward trip that won Olympic gold for the United States in 2024.

Macario prefers to play as a false nine, often receiving the ball with her back to goal to combine with attacking players around her.

She scored three goals in the USWNT’s two recent games against Italy to end the year.



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Skier Lindsey Vonn says ACL is ‘100% gone’ after crash, remains determined for Olympic downhill

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Skier Lindsey Vonn says ACL is ‘100% gone’ after crash, remains determined for Olympic downhill


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Olympic gold medalist and American alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn continued to defy the odds Friday when she completed her first women’s downhill training run just a week after she tore her ACL in a World Cup race.

Vonn, wearing the No. 10 bib and a brace on her left knee, successfully completed her run on a day when fog delayed skiers waiting for their turn at the famed Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

She did not appear to have any limitations during the training run, although she occasionally veered off course and almost missed some gates. Vonn made it down the 1.6-mile track in 1:40.33 and crossed the all-important finish line.

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Lindsey Vonn of the United States in women’s downhill training during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre on Feb. 6, 2026, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.  (Eric Bolte/Imagn Images)

The 41-year-old champion skier, who holds a record of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina, including six in the downhill, looked aggressive in her first training session.

2026 MILAN CORTINA OLYMPICS: EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT THIS YEAR’S WINTER GAMES

An ACL tear typically sidelines an athlete for about a year, but Vonn remains determined to manage the injury and compete. She detailed the severity Friday, writing on X that the critical knee ligament was “100% gone.”

Lindsey Vonn at Olympic downhill training

Lindsey Vonn of the United States in women’s downhill training during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre Feb. 6, 2026, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Michael Madrid/Imagn Images)

“My ACL was fully functioning until last Friday. Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And yes, my ACL is 100% ruptured. Not 80% or 50%. It’s 100% gone,” Vonn wrote.

Vonn disclosed the injury a day after posting a video of herself squatting with a barbell in the gym. She underwent a partial right knee replacement in 2024, underscoring a long history of knee issues.

Lindsey Vonn after a downhill training run

Lindsey Vonn of the United States in the finish area during women’s downhill training at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre Feb. 6, 2026, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.  (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters via Imagn Images)

Vonn celebrated with Team USA teammate Breezy Johnson after Friday’s training run but declined interviews. Asked if she was “all good?” she replied simply, “Yup.”

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The women’s alpine downhill begins Sunday with Vonn expected to be at the starting gate.

“I know what my chances were before the crash, and I know my chances aren’t the same as it stands today, but I know there’s still a chance. And as long as there’s a chance, I will try,” she told reporters Tuesday at Cortina Curling Stadium.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.





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Winter Olympics opening ceremonies photos from Milan Cortina

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The 2026 Games opened Friday with four simultaneous events unfolding in four locations.



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Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan hopes to give ‘best version of myself’

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Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan hopes to give ‘best version of myself’


GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan now has a homemade gym in his garage. It’s the first place he visits every morning.

O’Sullivan used a two-month leave of absence to change his daily routine and eliminate some old habits in hopes of finding “the best version of myself” heading into his 19th season in Gainesville.

“It’s really that simple,” O’Sullivan said Friday, more than seven weeks after resuming his coaching duties with the Gators. “I feel rejuvenated. I feel great. I feel much, much more at peace, if that makes sense.”

O’Sullivan stepped away in late October to address undisclosed “personal matters.”

The Gators went through two interim coaches during his hiatus. They turned to associate head coach Chuck Jeroloman before he left to take a similar job at Tennessee. Florida then hired former Auburn coach Tom Slater as associate head coach.

O’Sullivan returned a week before Christmas and has been getting his program ready for next weekend’s season-opening series against UAB. The 57-year-old coach nicknamed “Sully” has led the program to 756 wins, 17 NCAA regionals, nine College World Series appearances, six SEC championships and the 2017 national title.

But his most recent season was far from the norm. In August, the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee issued a public reprimand to O’Sullivan for aggressive behavior and profanity-laced language directed at site administrators for the regional in Conway, South Carolina, two months earlier.

O’Sullivan was upset that the start time of his team’s elimination game against East Carolina was pushed back an hour. East Carolina’s previous game had ended at midnight.

Videos of O’Sullivan’s tirade were circulated widely on social media.

“I certainly wish I didn’t do it,” O’Sullivan said. “No one feels more regretful than I do. The last thing I want to do is misrepresent Florida or myself or anybody for that matter. I handled it poorly.”

Florida responded by suspending O’Sullivan for the first three games of the 2026 season, meaning he will have to watch the opening series from home.

“I certainly accept that,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve moved forward on that. That’s in the past for me.”

O’Sullivan’s career probably depends on it.

He signed a four-year contract extension in January 2024 that raised his annual salary to $1.8 million and put him under contract through 2033. But there is little doubt decision-makers at Florida will have no tolerance moving forward for another outburst.

“You make a commitment to yourself personally,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s what kind of slips away at times. I get up every morning and have my own routine and make sure I get some personal time for myself, so I don’t get bogged down during the day and let one day slip away from the next.

“It’s important. One of the things is we all take care of ourselves first. And if we do that, then everything else will fall in place. It’s really that simple.”

O’Sullivan admittedly has been too much of a perfectionist at times, and last year was a trying season. The Gators dealt with a rash of injuries and started 1-11 in SEC before rebounding to make the NCAA field.

He opens this season with high expectations. Not only does he have a ranked team led by starting pitchers Liam Peterson and Aidan King, he also now expects more of himself.

“Things can kind of get away from me a little bit,” O’Sullivan said. “Last fall, at the end, was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to do other than lose my parents or other family members. But it ended up being the best thing that could have happened.”



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