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= MILAN CORTINA 2026 =
A Rosen Report Extra
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – American skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender made it to the start for her sixth Winter Olympic Games, but this time she was not a competitor.
Uhlaender was sitting in the front row of the spectator section as a guest of the Danish Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (pictured below).
Denmark was one of the 12 countries supporting Uhlaender in her appeal to be granted an entry to the Games based on competition manipulation. A Canadian coach withdrew four athletes from the final North American Cup race of the season at the last minute, costing Uhlaender the points she needed to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team.
Uhlaender said she found out on 6 February, the day of the Winter Games’ opening ceremony, that she had come to the end of the appeals track.
“I honestly was at home and felt so heartbroken and disconnected from the community,” Uhlaender said during the break between heats. “No one had called from my federation to ask if I was OK or anything. So I felt really distant. And then Denmark called and they said, ‘We want to fly you to the Olympics to be a part of our hospitality team because you stood up for the right thing and it meant a lot to us and we want you to be able to cheer for the athletes you helped support.'”
At age 41, Uhlaender said she wants to prove that anyone can chase their dreams.
“My heart has been filled with inspiration, with the Olympic spirit and I’m just so happy to be here cheering on Team USA,” she said. “Because it was never about me trying to get a spot as much as it was about upholding the integrity of sport.”
For the U.S., Kelly Curtis placed 12th and Mystique Ro was 15th. In her five straight Olympics starting in 2006, Uhlaender placed sixth, 11th, fourth, 13th and sixth again.
Uhlaender said officials from the U.S. bobsled and skeleton federation called her and insinuated that she would hurt the U.S. athletes if she showed up at the start. “They said, ‘What are you doing here, and why did you bring your helmet? Are you planning to slide?'”
Uhlaender said her helmet was at the hotel. She said Curtis has “been awesome,” and Uhlaender has been giving Ro space so as not to distract her.
And yet Uhlaender admitted that watching the athletes, led by 36-year-old Olympic champion Janine Flock of Austria, take off down the new Cortina track gave her a slight feeling of “That could have been me.”
She grinned. “I think I would have done well here.”
So, is Uhlaender finally retired after a career spanning nearly a quarter century?
“We’re going,” she said, “to hold off on that for a minute.”
~ Karen Rosen
● International Olympic Committee ● The theme of the daily news briefing was the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity program, which provides support to athletes and teams to train. For the Winter Games in the current cycle (2023-26), the IOC provided scholarships – direct payments to athletes – to 449 athletes from 90 countries across six sports, at a cost of $12.2 million.
Team support was also provided to 13 teams from 12 National Olympic Committees, in curling and ice hockey; nine of those made it to the Milan Cortina Winter Games. That was another $1.2 million in support,
● Il Tempo Olimpici ● Sunday’s Milan weather forecast is for cloudy skies, but comfortable temperatures of 58 F for the high and 40 F for the low. Rain is unlikely.
In Cortina, partly sunny conditions are projected, but still cold with a 26 F high and 19 F low. Winds continue to be modest at 6 miles per hour, but no rain or snow. That comes Monday.
● Scoreboard ● Norway continues at the top of the medal table, but Italy is getting close to history.
The Italian high for medals at a Winter Games is 20, from 1994 in Lillehammer (NOR), where it won seven golds. Now, after 59 out of 116 events:
● 20: Norway (10-3-7)
● 18: Italy (6-3-9)
● 17: United States (5-8-4)
● 15: Japan (3-4-8)
● 13: Austria (4-6-3)
● 13: Germany (4-5-4)
● 12: France
● 9: Netherlands
● 9: Sweden
● 9: Switzerland
The U.S. won 25 medals at Beijing 2022 and 23 at PyeongChang in 2018 and is on pace to do better than that in Milan Cortina.
A better indication of team performance has to go beyond three places, so The Sports Examiner returns our eight-place scoring, using the NCAA track & field format of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 to score each event. After three days, the top 12:
● 251.5: Norway
● 223.5: Italy
● 205.5: United States
● 182.5: Austria
● 169.5: France
● 154: Germany
● 147.5: Japan
● 116: Netherlands
● 114: Canada
● 113.5: Switzerland
● 101: Sweden
● 68: China
Italy and Norway both have 46 top-8 placers so far; the U.S. has 42.
● Alpine Skiing ● Lindsey Vonn posted on Instagram that she has another surgery scheduled on her left leg for Saturday in Treviso, after crashing in the women’s Downhill on 8 February:
“It has been quite a hard few days in the hospital here. I’m finally feeling more like myself. I have a long, long way to go. Tomorrow I’ll have another surgery and hopefully that goes well and then I can potentially leave and go back home, at which point I will need another surgery. Still don’t know exactly what that entails yet until I get some better imaging, but it’s kind of where I am right now.”
● Ice Hockey ● A Slovakian fugitive for 16 years was apprehended in Milan on Wednesday (11th) by Italian authorities after being wanted for thefts back in 2010.
He was in Milan to attend the Slovakian men’s team’s opening game against Finland, which it win by 4-1. He was detected when he checked in at a campsite outside the city. He was returned to a Milan prison to serve the remaining 11 years on his sentence. He was not named by authorities.
= RESULTS: SATURDAY, 14 FEBRUARY =
(8 finals across 8 sports & disciplines)
● Alpine Skiing: Men’s Giant Slalom
Motivation is a powerful driver in life and Norwegian skier Lucas Braathen, born in Oslo to a Norwegian father and Brazilian mother, lived in both countries growing up. He skied for Norway from 2019 to 2023, with 12 World Cup medals, then retired, then changed allegiance to Brazil, hen re-joined the World Cup tour for the 2024-25 season.
He just won Brazil’s first-ever Olympic medal in alpine skiing. In fact, it’s Brazil’s first medal in the Winter Games! At 25, he’ll have more chances, too.
Now going by Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, he led off the first run and finished in 1:13.92, a time no one could touch and he had a big, 0.95-second lead on Swiss star Marco Odermatt going into the second run.
This time, he skied last in the order, and even with the 11th-fastest run, he managed a total time of 2:25.00 and that was enough to hold off Odermatt (2:25.58) and fellow Swiss Loic Meillard (2:26.17). Swiss Thomas Tumler (2:26.45) was fourth; the top four in the first run ended up being the first four overall.
Odermatt, on his way to a fifth straight seasonal World Cup victory, has had a pretty good Winter Games: fourth in the Downhill, bronze in the Super-G, silver in the Team Combined and now silver in the Giant Slalom. But he would have preferred another gold to go with his 2022 Giant Slalom victory.
Meillard’s bronze was his second Olympic medal, to go with his Team Combined silver.
The top U.S. finisher was River Radamus in 17th (2:27.96), also Ryder Sarchett in 25th (2:30.11); Kyle Negomir skied out on the first run.
● Biathlon: Women’s 7.5 km Sprint
You was served on Saturday as Norway’s Maren Kirkeeide, 22, had the best skiing time in the field, shot clean and got to the line first in 20:40.8 to beat France’s Oceane Michelon (20:44.6/0) and Lou Jeanmonnot (21:04.5/1).
It was the second Olympic win in a row for the Norwegians, but Kirkeeide was hardly the favorite coming in, although she had won a World Cup sprint silver behind Jeanmonnot in December. She took control on the final lap and managed to avoid a penalty for only the second time in her World Cup and major-event career! It won her an Olympic gold, after finishing 16th at the 2025 Worlds.
Michelon, 23, had two World Cup medals this season, but also shot clean and challenged for the gold, but fell just short. She was 12th in the Worlds Sprint last year. Jeanmonnot won her third Olympic medal at this Games and now has a gold (relay), silver (Individual) and bronze (Sprint).
Deedra Irwin was the top American, in 47th (22:59.5/0), with Margie Freed in 66th (23:43.2/3) and Joanne Reid in 72nd (24:01.9/1). Luci Anderson placed 79th (24:28.7/3).
● Cross Country Skiing: Women’s 4×7.5 km Relay
Sweden was the clear favorite coming in, but star Ebba Andersson fell shortly after her start on the second leg, then fell again and lost a ski and more than a minute of time until her team could get a new one on her. She passed to Frida Karlsson in eighth place, down 1:18.4.
However, Karlsson, the 10 km and Skiathlon winner had the fastest leg in the race and made up time to get the Swedes into fourth at the final pass, down 1:06.8 from the lead. Jonna Sundling “won” the final leg and moved up to second, making up 16 seconds on Norway, but falling short in silver position in 1:16:35.7.
The Norwegians were steady, with strong 3-4 legs from Karoline Simpson-Larsen and Heidi Weng to finish in 1:15:44.8 with an easy, 50.9-second margin. It was the fifth win for Norway in this race all-time and first since 2018.
Finland was a clear third in 1:16:59.6, more than 21 seconds up on fourth-place Germany.
The U.S. was fifth, with Julia Kern, Rosie Brennan, Novie McCabe and Jessie Diggins, in 1:17:37.0, with Diggins moving up from sixth on her anchor leg.
● Freestyle Skiing: Women’s Dual Moguls
Australia’s Jakara Anthony was the Beijing 2022 Olympic Moguls winner and looked like a possible repeat winner, but finished eighth this time. With the addition of Dual Moguls in 2026, she got another shot and made the best of it.
She won her round-of-32 match easily, then took her round-of-16 test by 27-8, then edged American Olivia Giaccio by 20-15 in the quarterfinals. She then beat Moguls winner Elizabeth Lemley of the U.S. in the semis when Lemley did not finish.
That put Anthony into the final against American star Jaelin Kauf, the 2025 World Champion. Kauf had sailed through her bracket with wins by 29-6, and two wins where her opponent did not finish.
The final was close. Kauf won on the first three jumps, but Anthony won the last four and took a 20-15 win and a second career Olympic gold.
Kauf continued her excellent performance in major events, with a third Olympic silver, to go along with her 2022 Moguls and 2026 Moguls silvers.
Lemley faced off in the bronze medal final against 2018 Moguls winner Perrine Laffont (FRA) and had two excellent jumps in the bottom half of the course to win the bronze, 18-17.
Americans Tess Johnson and Giaccio ended up ranking fifth and sixth.
● Short Track: Men’s 1,500 m
The final looked to be a showdown between 1,000 m winner Jens van’T Wout (NED) and Canada’s World Champion William Dandjinou, one of the semifinal winners. But the Dutchman left nothing to chance, taking the lead at the 1,000 mark and maintaining to the finish, in 2:12.219.
Dandjinou was in the hunt until about the 1,000 mark, then fell back and it was Korea’s defending Olympic champion Dae-hwon Hwang who moved up to challenge and got the silver (2:12.304) just ahead of Latvia’s Roberts Kruzbergs (2:12.376). Dandjinou fell back to fifth in 2:12.639.
This was the first 1,000-1,500 m double at the Games since 2010, when Korean Jung-su Lee did it. Van’T Wout still has the 500 m to go and no one has won all three at an Olympic Games. Hwang won his fourth career Olympic medal (1-3-0)
● Skeleton: Women
Austria’s Janine Flock, the favorite off her six World Cup wins this season, came into the second day of racing leading by just 0.04. But she made sure she took home the Olympic gold by winning the third run by 0.17 over second-place Susanne Kreher (GER: 2023 World Champion) and by just 0.01 over German Jacqueline Pfeifer and 0.09 over Kreher.
So, the totals showed 3:49.02 for Flock to 3:49.32 for Kreher and 3:49.46 for Pfeifer. In fact, German Hannah Niese – the defending champion – was fourth at 3:50.17.
It’s the first-ever medal in this event for Austria for the 36-year-old Flock, who won a Worlds silver way back in 2016 and 10 years later, is Olympic champion.
The American entries, Kelly Curtis (3:52.13) and Mystique Ro (3:52.48) finished in 12th and 15th place, respectively.
● Ski Jumping: Men’s Large Hill (141 m)
Slovenia’s Domen Prevc has dominated the World Cup this season, with 11 wins and was part of Slovenia’s winning Mixed Team gold, but was just sixth in the Normal Hill event. He made up for it on Saturday.
Japan’s Ren Nikaido, the find of the season on the FIS World Cup circuit, led the first round with 154.0 points to 147.0 for Prevc. But in round two, Prevc rang up a 141.5 m jump and 154.8 total points and that was enough to win.
Prevc’s total of 301.8 won over Nikaido (295.0), with Poland’s 19-year-old Kacper Tomasiak taking a surprise bronze at 291.2, following his surprise silver in the Normal Hill event. His best in this World Cup season has been fifth. But strange things happen in the Olympic Games.
Prevc joins his older brother Peter as an Olympic medalist in this event; Peter won the silver in 2014, the only prior medal for Slovenia in this event.
Americans Tate Frantz (254.1) and Kevin Bickner (249.1) finished 19th and 20th.
● Speed Skating: Men’s 500 m
All eyes were on the 13th pair, with two-time World Champion Jordan Stolz of the U.S. facing 2025 World Champion Jenning De Boo (NED).
This is where the Olympic gold was expected to be won, and it was. Stolz had a small lead for much of the race, but De Boo got to the front coming out of the final turn and looking like a possible winner. Then, Stolz pushed hard to the line to cross first, with an Olympic record of 33.77, with the Dutchman at 33.88. De Boo fell to the ice and held his head in his hands in disbelief; they finished 1-2.
Canada’s Laurent Dubreuil, the 2021 World Champion, had been the leader, from the 10th pair, in 34.26, with American Cooper Mcleod well back at 34.90. That was going to be challenged in the 14th pair, with Poland’s Damian Zurek a medal favorite. But Zurek finished in 34.35, finishing in fourth.
American Zach Stoppelmoor was 27th, in 35.42.
Stolz’s win is the first in this event for the U.S. since Joey Cheek in 2006. He’s the first American to take the 500-1,000 double since Eric Heiden won five golds in 1980. And Stolz still has the 1,500 m – where he is the favorite – and the Mass Start still to come.
Elsewhere:
● Curling: In the men’s tournament, American Daniel Casper’s rink defeated Germany, 8-6, to move to 2-2. Switzerland is now 4-0, as Yannick Schwaller’s rink defeated 2014 champ Brad Jacobs (CAN: 3-1) by 9-5, and defending champ Niklas Edin’s Swedish team (1-3) finally won, 6-4, over China.
The normally-respectful tone of curling blew up in the match between Canada and Sweden on Friday, when Swede Oskar Eriksson accused second Marc Kennedy of a second touch of the stone after it left his hand. The match, eventually won by Canada, 8-6, came to a halt with fingers pointed and some harsh language exchanged.
World Curling felt obligated to issue a statement, which noted:
“Game Umpires are situated at the end of each sheet and physically cannot see every delivery infraction. However, when they are made aware of delivery issues, game umpires are positioned to observe the delivery for three ends. During this period of observation in the Friday evening game, there were no violations recorded.”
A warning on “language” was issued to the Canadian team.
Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg (4-0) leads the women’s tournament, but four-time World Champion Switzerland (3-1), skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, lost to Sakaya Yoshimura’s Japan (1-3) by 7-5. American Tabitha Peterson’s squad is 3-1, defeating Yoshimura’s Japan in the late draw, 7-4.
● Ice Hockey:
In the men’s Group B, Sweden (2-0) beat Slovakia, 5-3, and Finland (2-0) crushed Italy, 11-0. In Group C, Latvia (1-1) edged Germany (1-1) by 4-3.
The U.S. men faced Denmark in the evening match, with a 1-1 tie after the first period and then 2-2 in the second. The Americans took control with a goal from Jack Eichel at 10:23 of the period for a 3-2 lead and then 4-2 when Noah Hanifin scored at 17:23. But the Danes took advantage of a partial screen against U.S. keeper Jeremy Swayman and Phillip Bruggisser scored with just three seconds left to close to 4-3, despite a 28-11 shots edge for the USA through two periods.
In the third, the U.S. extended to 5-3 on a Jake Guentzel score at 7:24 and then Jack Hughes put the game away with a goal at 14:27 for the 6-3 final. The Americans out-shot the Danes, 47-21.
The U.S. plays Germany tomorrow; group play will finish on the 15th.
In the women’s tournament, the seeding for the quarterfinals shows the U.S. meeting Sweden on the 16th, with Canada vs. Switzerland in the lower bracket.
= PREVIEWS: SUNDAY, 15 FEBRUARY =
(9 finals across 8 sports & disciplines)
● Alpine Skiing: Women’s Giant Slalom
Italian star Federica Brignone has already written one of the miracle tales of this Winter Games, winning the 2025 World Championships gold in the Giant Slalom, then suffering a brutal crash in April at the Italian championships and somehow recovering enough to ski here 10 months later. She didn’t just ski, but was 10th in the Downhill and won a stunning victory in the Super-G.
So now, can she pull off another shocker, with another Giant Slalom win? Now 35, she won a Worlds Giant Slalom silver way back in 2011 and again in 2023, and has 17 career World Cup wins in this event, more than in any other. She won the Olympic bronze in this race in 2018 and silver in 2022 and needs a gold to complete her set!
While Brignone was recovering, the FIS World Cup saw two skiers dominate the event: Austria’s Julia Scheib (four wins) and New Zealand’s Alice Robinson (two wins). But defending Olympic champ Sara Hector (SWE) won the last G-S before the Games and had three other medals; she could repeat.
The U.S. has two solid entries, with 2018 Olympic champ Mikaela Shiffrin, and Paula Moltzan, a Worlds bronzer last year and a two-time Worlds medal winner this season. Shiffrin has 22 World Cup wins in this discipline, but none since her November 2024 crash in a Giant Slalom that ended her season.
● Biathlon: Men’s 12.5 km Pursuit; Women’s 10 km Pursuit
The men’s Pursuit was held five times during the IBU World Cup season, with five different winners, each of whom could win at the Games: France’s defending Olympic champ Quentin Fillon Maillet (already the Sprint gold medalist), teammate Eric Perrot (already the 20 km silver winner), 20 km Individual gold winner Johan-Olav Botn (NOR), teammate Johannes Dale-Skjevdal and Italian star Tommaso Giocomel.
Swedes Sebastian Samuelsson (2) and Martin Ponsiluoma also won World Cup Pursuit medals this season and should contend. The French will be going for a fourth straight Olympic title, with legendary Martin Fourcade winning in 2014 and 2018, before Fillon Maillet’s victory in 2022.
Norway’s lovelorn Sturla Holm Laegreid has won two bronzes so far and was the 2024 Worlds silver winner, with teammate Vetle Christiansen in third (he was the Sprint runner-up); either could figure in the medals again.
American Campbell Wright shocked with a Worlds silver in this event in 2025, and finished a creditable 12th in the Sprint.
The women’s Pursuit is more straightforward: Lou Jeanmonnot is the favorite. The French star won this event twice during the World Cup season.
But she will have company, as teammate Julia Simon won the 15 km Individual race already and won this event at the 2024 Worlds. Teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet won the 2024 Worlds bronze and then again in 2025.
Italy has two contenders in 2024 Worlds runner-up Lisa Vittozzi and Dorothea Wierer, the 2020 World Pursuit champ who also got a 2025 World Cup bronze. Maybe the most dangerous of all is Finn Suvi Minkkinen, who took three World Cup bronzes in this race.
Sweden has Beijing 2022 silver winner Elvira Oeberg back and Anna Magnusson as an under-the-radar contender.
● Cross Country Skiing: Men’s 4×7.5 km relay
Sure things have been a problem at this Olympic Winter Games. For example, American gold-medal favorites Chloe Kim, Ilia Malinin, Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin have all stumbled, and those are just a few of the disappointments so far.
Not for Norwegian star Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. He won six golds at the 2025 World Championships. So far, he has won the Skiathlon, the Sprint and the 10 km Freestyle. He has this relay, the Team Sprint and the 50 km Classical left … and won all those last year.
He is now in a tie for the most gold medals in Olympic history – 8 – with three fellow Norwegians and will be favored to win a ninth career Olympic Winter gold here. Consider that in the 10 km here, Norway finished 1-3-4-5. It appears Klaebo will make history; if not, it will be a huge upset.
Switzerland and Sweden were 2-3 at the 2025 Worlds, both more than 21 seconds behind the Norwegians. Based on the 10 km results, look for France as a silver-medal favorite and teams from Italy (of course), Great Britain, Sweden, Canada and the Swiss to be in contention.
● Freestyle Skiing: Men’s Dual Moguls
Another debut event at the Games, with Canadian superstar Mikael Kingsbury the reigning World Champion – his fifth Worlds win – ahead of Japanese star Ikuma Horishima, who won the 2017 Worlds, and Australian Matt Graham, the 2021 Worlds runner-up in Duals.
They figure as favorites, but then there is Swede Walter Wallberg, who won the Worlds silver in 2023. And at the lone FIS World Cup stop so far this season, it was Canadian Julien Viel who got the win, over Horishima and Filip Gravenfors (SWE).
Kingsbury and Horishima were upset in the Moguls final by Australia’s unheralded Cooper Woods. Lightning can’t strike twice, can it?
● Skeleton: Mixed Team
This is a first-time event at the Winter Games, with one man and one woman competing and ranked by the combined time. It was held four times during the IBSF World Cup season, with Britain winning twice with Marcus Wyatt and Tabitha Stoecker. Men’s champ Matt Weston teamed with Amelia Coltman and was second once, in a race won by Germans Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk.
Look for Britain and Germany as the favorites, with multiple challengers for the bronze, including China (Zhan Dan and Yin Zheng won a World Cup race) and 2025 World Champion Americans Mystique Ro and Austin Florian.
At the 2025 Worlds, Stoecker and Weston won the silver and Dan and Qinwei Lin took the bronze for China. Germans Hannah Niese and Christopher Grotheer won the 2024 Worlds and Kreher and Grotheer won in 2023.
At this Games, Italy cannot be counted out and Alessandra Fumagalli and Amedeo Bagnis did win a World Cup bronze this season.
● Ski Jumping: Women’s Large Hill (141 m)
Another first-time Winter Games event and on a hill size more of this year’s World Cups have been held on. Slovenia’s Nika Prevc won 11 Worlds Cup golds this season and Japan’s Nozomi Maruyama won six, so they rank as the favorites, even over Normal Hill winner Anna Stroem of Norway.
Prevc won this event at the 2025 World Championships, ahead of Selina Freitag (GER) and Eirin Kvandal (NOR) and both medalists will be fighting again for the podium. Also strong in the World Cup this season were Austrian Lisa Eder and Canada’s Abigail Strate. Both are capable of medals of any color.
But can Prevc really be beaten twice?
● Snowboard: Mixed SnowCross
This is the second time for this event on the Olympic program, famously won in 2022 by Americans Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner, over Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli of Italy.
Jacobellis is doing commentary for NBC, but Baumgartner – at 44 – is still in there, as are the Italians. Canada’s Eliot Grondin won the bronze with Meryeta O’Dine in 2022 and is clearly still dangerous.
The event was held only once during this season’s World Cup, with Britain’s Huw Nightengale and Charlotte Brooks winning over Moioli and Lorenzo Sommariva and France’s Aidan Chollet and Chloe Trespeuch.
With Josie Baff winning the women’s SnowCross, look for an Australian team with Adam Lambert as challengers as well.
● Speed Skating: Women’s 500 m
American Erin Jackson won a rousing Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022 and is back to defend. Also returning is Japan’s runner-up, Miho Takagi, who won the 1,000 m in Beijing.
But the favorite is clearly Dutch star Femke Kok. She has won the 500 m in three straight Worlds – 2023-24-25 – and won all seven World Cup races she entered this season. She proved she is in great form with her silver in the 1,000 m, her first Olympic medal.
Teammate Jutta Leerdam, the 1,000 m gold medalist, was second three times to Kok in the World Cup series, out of six races she entered. Jackson was second twice as was Poland’s Kaja Ziomek-Nogal.
Less heralded, but talented contenders will also include 2024 Worlds runner-up and 2025 Worlds bronzer Min-sun Kim (KOR) and 2025 fourth-placer Kristina Silaeva (KAZ).
= INTEL REPORT =
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman announced Friday that he will sell his talent, sponsorship and media agency, named for him, in light of the release of 2003 e-mail messages between him and convicted child sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell (GBR) in a U.S. Justice Department document dump of materials related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
In a message to the company’s 4,000 staff, Wasserman said he was “heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks. …
“At this moment, I believe that I have become a distraction to those efforts. That is why I have begun the process of selling the company, an effort that is already underway.”
Wasserman is continuing as the Board Chair of LA28 after the Executive Committee of its Board determined, after an inquiry, that he should remain as the head of the organizing committee.
● Athletics ● A world indoor record at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas as Khaleb McRae, third at the USATF Nationals in 2025, won the 400 m first race in 44.52, breaking the World Athletics-recognized mark of 44.57 by American Kerron Clement from 2005.
The mark is inferior to the 44.49 by Canadian Christopher Morales Williams from 2024, but that time was never ratified; neither was the 44.52 by American Michael Norman in 2018.
NCAA 60 and 100 m champion Jordan Anthony, back on his college track, took the world lead in the men’s 60 at 6.43, moving him to equal-ninth all–time and equal-sixth all-time U.S. He won ahead of Tennessee junior Traunard Folson, at 6.49.
Johnny Brackins, the NCAA fourth-placer in 2025, won the 60 m hurdles in 7.47, now no. 4 in the world for 2026. And there was a surprise in the long jump, where Brackins also excels, with 110 m hurdles World Champion Cordell Tinch coming back to the event and winning at 8.29 m (27-2 1/2), a lifetime best and equal-third in the world for 2026!
Paris 2024 women’s 100 m winner Julien Alfred (LCA) shaved 0.01 off her world lead in the women’s 60, winning in 6.99 over American Jacious Sears (7.03) and Brianna Lyston (JAM: 7.07). Alfred won her heat in 7.01, a time no one else has reached this season.
American Britton Wilson, the 2022 NCAA 400 m hurdles champ, won the women’s 400 m in 50.66, now no. 3 in the world, and Olympic long jump bronzer Jasmine Moore won at 6.86 m (22-6 1/4), also moving to world no. 3 this season.
● Modern Pentathlon ● The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) named its 2025 athletes of the year and it was no surprise: Egypt’s sensational World Champions Moutaz Mohamed (21) and Farida Khalil (now 15) won both the Senior and Junior athlete-of-the-year awards.
The coach of the year was Egypt’s Yasser Hefny.
● Rowing ● The Russian Rowing Federation said Friday that World Rowing had agreed to allow Russian teams – Double Sculls and Eights – to compete as “neutrals”:
“The extended list of disciplines and tournaments that Russian rowers will be able to compete at proves that we are moving in the right direction and even the most stubborn federations can return Russian athletes back to international tournaments without any restrictions whatsoever.”
Not exactly true, given the “neutral” status.
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