North Carolina athletes represent at Winter Olympics

North Carolina athletes are competing at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, while the state also leads the way in emergency response technology and faces challenges to voting access for students.

North Carolina athletes represent the United States and home countries in Winter Olympics

As the Summer Olympics kicked off in Paris in 2024, North Carolina had a strong showing of Olympians past and present. Now, with the 2026 Winter Olympics underway, several Tar Heels are competing. With NHL players participating for the first time in 12 years, five Carolina Hurricanes players are representing their home countries.

Defenseman Jacob Slavin is representing the United States, securing a 5-1 win against Latvia on Thursday. Sebastian Aho is playing for Finland, while Nikolaj Ehlers and Freddie Andersen are on the Denmark team. Seth Jarvis joined Canada as a late replacement.

Mystique Ro, formerly a track-and-field athlete with Queens University of Charlotte, is competing in bobsled and skeleton racing in Milan. Races began today. Current Duke University student Eunice Lee is attending her second Winter Olympics and is expected to compete as a member of Team USA’s short-track speed-skating relay team.

Eunice Lee (16) competes in the women’s 1000-meter quarterfinal during the U.S. Olympic short track speedskating trials Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, in Kearns, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

NC leads the way on life-saving emergency response tech

North Carolina has been strengthening its Emergency Services IP Network (ESINet) for years. The technology allowed residents to place emergency calls from impacted communities to partnering first-responder agencies during Hurricane Helene. This week, the NC 911 Board extended those capabilities beyond state lines, partnering with the Washington DC Office of Unified Communications, AT&T, and Johnston County 911 to deliver emergency calls to Tactical Homeland Operations Response, a mobile communications command center in Washington D.C.

The successful demonstration served as a first-of-its-kind proof of concept for Next Generation 911 technology, affirming the state’s leadership in resilient emergency communications, according to the NC Department of Information Technology (NC DIT). “This exercise highlights how innovation and technology can save lives, demonstrating that geography is no longer a barrier,” said Teena Piccione, board chair of NC 911 and secretary of the NC DIT.

NC A&T students march to the polls in defiance of voter suppression

Early voting for the 2026 primaries began on Thursday. A group of North Carolina A&T students marched to the polls from the Dudley Lawn of the campus, starting in front of the Greensboro Four Statue and traveling over a mile to the Old County Courthouse. The march was a politically defiant act, raising awareness about the removal of the university’s on-campus voting site by Republicans.

Voting locations were also deactivated at Western Carolina University, UNC Greensboro and other campuses. The controversy was recently discussed in an episode of Billy Ball Explains NC.

“We want to send a message on the first day of the early voting period that we will not let them silence our voices through voter suppression,” wrote organizers leading up to the march.