Breaking it down: Rams-Bengals by the numbers,

along with all the key players and matchups. D1 6

Super Bowl LVI: Bengals vs. Rams

Today, 6:30 p.m., NBC

Buckner: On a Bengals defense bereft of big names,

it’s all about ‘the team collective.’ D14

Online: Real-time updates and analysis

f rom Beijing at postsports.com.

Hello, monobob: The newest sliding sport asks

one woman to do the work of four men. D11

V alieva ruling: Court of Arbitration for Sport is

due to decide Russian teen’s fate Monday. D9

Continental kings of the hill: Europe’s

s ki-jumping dominance continues — b arely. D7

MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Tales of two streaks: Virginia wins its fourth in a row;

Georgetown’s spiral continues with 13th straight loss. D4

PRO BASKETBALL

Kristaps Porzingis was in the building — but not on

the court — as the Wizards fell to Kings, 123-110. D2

BASEBALL

MLB puts a new, 130-page proposal before the players

union. Whether it moves the labor talks is uncertain. D2

KLMNO

SPORTS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D

BEIJING OLYMPICS

BY AVA WALLACE

zhangjiakou, china — She was bundled in

her Team USA parka and he was still in his

kelly-green racing bib when they bowed their

heads together and, in the middle of a

reporter’s question during a news conference,

devolved into giggles.

“Sorry,” Lindsey Jacobellis said, looking up.

“We’re just looking at our years of birth.”

Skim the entrant list for mixed-team

snowboard cross at the Beijing Olympics,

which provides the name, bib number, coun-

try and year of birth for the 30 racers

competing in teams of two, and perhaps nod

with understanding at the abundance of

dates in the 1990s. Wince somewhat at the

four 2001s. Don’t even mention the lone,

ungodly 2003.

Then arrive at bib No. 5-1: Baumgartner,

Nick, USA, 1981, and bib No. 5-2: J acobellis,

Lindsey, USA, 1985, and marvel, then come

back to the giggling. It might be the only

appropriate response.

SEE SNOWBOARDING ON D10

In s nowboarders’

history-making win,

age is just a number

They come with a catch

ICON SPORTSWIRE/GETTY IMAGES MIKE EHRMANN/GETTY IMAGES

BY KENT BABB

The social worker was usually so good in

these harsh moments, a calm voice of

reason amid all the shouting, but this felt

beyond his control. Usually, he would lead a

young man outside, make him feel com-

fortable and safe, listening for as long as

necessary while the kid just talked.

But now the teenager was shouting, and

the boy’s father stood up. His mother was

scared and wedged herself between them.

She ordered her son to his room, for her

husband to take a breath.

“I almost knocked his head off,” the

father would later say.

Jimmy Chase has been refereeing these

battles for decades, and no matter a kid’s

circumstance or his story, he could always

get through. He worked with adolescents

in New Orleans and learned to speak their

language. Neighborhood kids and his sons’

friends came to him for advice, wisdom,

counsel. They trusted him.

Chase’s training and experience were

now failing him, though, and deep down he

knew why.

SEE CHASE ON D14

Once Chase found his voice, wideout blazed

a trail that led to stardom with the Bengals

BY NICKI JHABVALA

los angeles — There’s no hiding Cooper

Kupp.

Steve Jackson, the Cincinnati Bengals’

secondary coach, chuckled at the mere

notion. How do you hide the NFL’s receiv-

ing triple crown winner (145 catches, 1,947

receiving yards and 16 receiving touch-

downs)? How do you hide a wideout who

can turn a short catch into a 29-yard score?

How do you hide a route-runner who can

juke a cornerback and spin around a safety,

who can break tackles with an ease that

belies his size?

“Everybody knows where he is at every

single point in every down,” Jackson said.

“They move him around so he’s not in the

same place, so that you can’t game-plan for

him. But there is no hiding him. Everybody

knows who he is, and everybody’s quite

aware.”

After a breakout season with the Los

Angeles Rams, Kupp has emerged as the

centerpiece of their offense and their run to

Super Bowl LVI. But the son of an NFL

quarterback (Craig Kupp) and grandson of

SEE KUPP ON D15

Rams’ Kupp runneth over, around and past

just about every defense in astounding season

yanqing, china — Elana
Meyers Taylor’s vision of the
Beijing Olympics and the
Olympics that are playing out
have only a distant
relationship to each other. She
was sliding Saturday morning,
driving her bobsled at
harrowing speeds down a track
here. That part fits. Little else does.
“I had this whole intention of coming here
and doing this with my family,” Meyers Taylor
said after her final training run at Yanqing
National Sliding Centre. “I’ve done everything
with my family. Every race, everything, it’s all
been a family affair.
“And so now to have that shock of all of a
sudden being at the Olympics and not being
able to spend time with them, that’s
something I didn’t plan for. We planned for all
kinds of worst-case scenarios at the Games,
but this was something that I didn’t see
coming.”
The coronavirus may be abating in most
SEE SVRLUGA ON D11

M eyers Taylor

is managing a turn

she didn’t see coming

Barry
Svrluga

CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES

Lindsey Jacobellis, 36, and Nick Baumgartner, 40, won gold in the mixed-team snowboard cross final Saturday.