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Seattle’s punishing defense set the tone from start to finish, powering the Seahawks to a convincing 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on Sunday night at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Behind constant pressure and timely takeaways, the Seahawks denied New England a record-setting seventh championship while earning revenge for their Super Bowl loss to the Patriots a decade earlier. Seattle closed the season 17-3, while New England finished 17-4.

Drake Maye spent most of the night under siege as Seattle’s front repeatedly collapsed the pocket. The Seahawks recorded six sacks, intercepted Maye twice and forced a costly fumble. Linebacker Derick Hall and defensive tackle Byron Murphy each delivered two sacks, while Julian Love and Uchenna Nwosu came away with interceptions. Nwosu capped the defensive showcase by returning one pick 45 yards for a touchdown.

“When you have a game plan, you know what you are going to do,” cornerback Devon Witherspoon said. “You know how you are going to execute it. You just got to go out there and play ball. That’s what makes us who we are. We trust each other to go out there and do our thing.”

Seattle’s offense leaned heavily on Kenneth Walker III, who powered through arm tackles and finished with 161 yards from scrimmage. Walker was named Super Bowl LX MVP, becoming the first running back to earn the honor since Terrell Davis did it 28 years ago.

Jason Myers quietly made history of his own, drilling all five of his field-goal attempts — from 33, 39, 41, 41 and 41 yards — to set a Super Bowl record. His three first-half kicks accounted for all the scoring before halftime, sending Seattle into the break with a 9-0 lead.

The Seahawks extended the margin early in the second half with another Myers field goal, then finally broke through the end zone early in the fourth quarter when Sam Darnold found tight end A.J. Barner on a 16-yard touchdown pass. That score followed Hall’s strip-sack late in the third quarter, which gave Seattle a short field.

Darnold wasn’t flashy but was steady, completing 19 of 38 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown without committing a turnover throughout the postseason. “To do this with this team, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Darnold said. “So proud of our guys, our defense. I mean, I can’t say enough great things about our defense, our special teams.”

New England briefly showed signs of life when Maye connected with Mack Hollins for a 35-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. Myers responded with his fifth field goal, and Nwosu’s interception return on the ensuing possession effectively sealed the outcome. Maye later added a 7-yard touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson in the final minutes.

Maye finished 27 of 43 for 295 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble. After the game, he acknowledged the disappointment, saying, “Definitely hurts. They played better than us tonight.” He also revealed he had received a pain-relieving injection in his injured right shoulder but said it did not affect his performance.

Despite the lopsided score, Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez stood out defensively, breaking up two potential touchdown passes in the second quarter, including a deep ball to Rashid Shaheed and another in the end zone intended for Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

For Seattle, the win marked the franchise’s second Super Bowl title and its first return to the sport’s biggest stage since its heartbreaking loss to New England in 2015. Head coach Mike Macdonald credited his team’s unity throughout the season. “We never wavered,” Macdonald said. “We believed in each other. We loved each other and now we are world champions.”

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Lindsey Vonn’s bid for history at the women’s downhill in Cortina, Italy, ended Sunday after a violent crash just seconds into her run that left her injured with a broken leg.

Less than 13 seconds after leaving the start gate, the 41-year-old American clipped a gate on her first major jump, throwing her off balance and sending her careening sideways down the course. The race was halted for more than 20 minutes as medical teams rushed to her aid on the Olympia delle Tofane course, one of alpine skiing’s fastest and most dangerous venues, where racers routinely exceed 75 miles per hour. Broadcast audio briefly captured Vonn’s cries of pain following the fall, and the atmosphere at the finish area turned silent as spectators, including Vonn’s family, watched in shock.

Vonn was placed on a stretcher and airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, where doctors confirmed she had fractured her left leg. According to the Associated Press, she later underwent surgery to stabilize the injury at Ca’ Foncello Hospital, where she received care from a multidisciplinary medical team. U.S. Ski & Snowboard confirmed in a statement, “Lindsey Vonn sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”

Vonn was attempting to become the oldest woman to medal in Olympic downhill, the same event in which she won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Her return to Olympic competition followed a long road back after retiring in 2019, aided by a 2024 partial knee replacement that allowed her to resume elite competition. Just nine days earlier, however, she tore her left ACL in Switzerland during a pre-Olympic race. Despite the risk, she chose to compete and completed training runs on the same course earlier in the week.

While the mood remained somber, the race continued with American Breezy Johnson claiming the gold medal with a winning time of 1:36.10, edging Germany’s Emma Aicher by just .04 seconds. Italy’s Sofia Goggia took bronze, marking her third consecutive Olympic medal in the event. Johnson’s victory delivered the first gold medal for the United States at the Milan Cortina Games and made her only the second American woman to win Olympic downhill gold, joining Vonn.

If this race proves to be Vonn’s final Olympic appearance, she leaves the sport as one of alpine skiing’s all-time greats. Over a career spanning nearly three decades, she amassed 84 World Cup victories, 145 podium finishes, four overall World Cup titles, eight world championship medals, and three Olympic medals.

Editorial credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com