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BIATHLON: Unbeatable Boe sweeps Nove Mesto!

By
Rich Perelman
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Norway's Johannes Thingnes Boe

There have been eight men’s races in this season’s IBU World Cup and Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe has won six of them.

Boe swept all three races over the weekend at Nove Mesto (CZE), winning by 21.6 seconds (Sprint), 6.2 seconds (Pursuit) and 46.5 seconds (Mass Start). At 25, he is now in position to dethrone the seven-time World Cup champion, France’s Martin Fourcade.

After eight of 22 races, Boe now has a 428-312 lead over Alexander Loginov (RUS), with Simon Eder (AUT) and Simon Desthieux (FRA) at 266 and Fourcade and Antonin Guigonnat (FRA) at 263. Fourcade is the only one other than Boe to win a World Cup race this season, and he has two.

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway won the women’s 7.5 km Sprint and the 10 km Pursuit, her first-ever World Cup wins! Three-time Olympic gold medalist Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK) won the Mass Start on Sunday, her 14th career World Cup win.

Slovakia’s Paulina Fialkova won her third medal of the season with a second to Kuzmina in the Mass Start race. Summaries:

IBU World Cup
Nove Mesto (CZE) ~ 20-23 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men

10 km Sprint: 1. Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR), 23:09.9 (0 penalties); 2. Alexander Loginov (RUS), +21.0 (0); 3. Martin Ponsiluoma (SWE), +54.2 (0); 4. Benjamin Weger (SUI), +1:03.5 (0); 5. Simon Desthieux (FRA), +1:03.7 (1).

12.5 km Pursuit: 1. J.T. Boe (NOR), 31:59.0 (4); 2. Loginov (RUS), +6.2 (4); 3. Tarjei Boe (NOR), +23.9 (1); 4. Simon Desthieux (FRA), +29.2 (2); 5. Martin Fourcade (FRA), +57.3 (0).

15 km Mass Start: 1. J.T. Boe (NOR), 37:25.2 (0); 2. Quentin Fillon Maillet (FRA), +46.5 (2); 3. Evgeniy Garanichev (RUS), +54.1 (0); 4. Arnd Peiffer (GER), +59.3 (1); 5. Erlend Bjoentegaard (NOR), +1:04.9 (2).

Women

7.5 km Sprint: 1. Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (NOR), 19:44.6 (0); 2. Laura Dahlmeier (GER), +4.5 (1); 3. Paulina Fialkova (SVK), +6.2 (0); 4. Anais Chevalier (FRA), +23.0 (1); 5. Lena Haecki (SUI), +29.3 (1).

10 km Pursuit: 1. Roeiseland (NOR), 29:53.5 (2); 2. Dorothea Wierer (ITA), +0.2 (1); 3. Hanna Oeberg (SWE), +4.7 (1); 4. Lisa Vittozzi (ITA), +53.9 (1); 5. Dahlmeier (GER), +54.2 (2). Also in the top 25: 24. Clare Egan (USA), +2:22.3 (3).

12.5 km Mass Start: 1. Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK), 35:34.4 (2); 2. Fialkova (SVK), +12.1 (2); 3. Anais Chevalier (FRA), +13.3 (3); 4. Wierer (ITA), +20.1 (1); 5. Mona Brorsson (SWE), +36.3 (2).

ALPINE SKIING: Sensational Shiffrin sweeps Courchevel for 50th career World Cup win

By
Rich Perelman
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Record-setter: American skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin (courtesy U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association; copyright Reese Brown)

It’s getting harder and harder to come up with superlatives to describe American ski star Mikaela Shiffrin.

How about “historic”?

Shiffrin, 23, has been on the World Cup tour just eight years and now has 50 wins and 70 medals, including seven wins this season … and she could have nine wins by New Year’s Eve!

In Courchevel (FRA), where she was the defending champion from 2017, Shiffrin was second in the Giant Slalom after the first run, but on a shorter track for the second run, she ripped through the snow for the best second run in the field and had the best time in the field by 0.22. That moved her into the winner’s circle by 1:49.81-1:49.95 over Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg for World Cup win no. 49.

Saturday’s Slalom was the reverse: Shiffrin led after the first run and had the third-fastest second run to win by 0.29 over Slovenia’s Petra Vlhova, the fourth race this season in which they have finished 1-2 in a World Cup Slalom. Shiffrin was well aware that she was in line for her 50th career win.

“I was trying as hard as I could not to focus on that today because it’s so distracting to think about those numbers for me and it’s always a mental battle just to focus on my skiing,” Shiffrin said. “I’m really happy, and maybe a bit lucky today with the win again. I was watching the first run; Petra skied better than I did. I don’t know how I snuck away with the lead on the first run, but it was a big battle … so I’m lucky and I’m grateful.”

In the 2018-19 season, Shiffrin has now won an astonishing seven of 13 races on the tour! All-time, she’s now no. 4 in women’s race wins … at age 23:

82 Lindsey Vonn (USA) ~ 2001-present
62 Annemarie Moser-Proell (AUT) ~ 1969-80
55 Vreni Schneider (SUI) ~ 1984-95
50 Shiffrin
46 Renate Goetschl ((AUT) ~ 1993-2009

Shiffrin also won her 35th World Cup Slalom, which ties her for the all-time lead in the discipline with Austria’s Marlies Schild (2001-14).

And she’s not done! There is another Giant Slalom-Slalom set on 28-29 December in Semmerling (AUT), so she could take the Slalom record for herself this coming week.

The most race wins in a single season? 14 by Schneider in 1989; if Shiffrin wins both races this week, she could be at nine … before New Year’s! She won 12 World Cup races last year and 11 the season before.

Summaries:

FIS Alpine World Cup
Courchevel (FRA) ~ 21-22 December 2018
(Full results here)

Women’s Giant Slalom: 1. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), 1:49.81; 2. Viktoria Rebensburg (GER), 1:49.95; 3. Tessa Worley (FRA), 1:50.14; 4. Federica Brignone (ITA), 1:50.26; 5. Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR), 1:50.31.

Women’s Slalom: 1. Shiffrin (USA), 1:36.72; 2. Petra Vlhova (SVK), 1:37.01; 3. Frida Hansdotter (SWE), 1:37.09; 4. Wendy Holdener (SUI), 1:37.86; 5. Katharina Liensbeeger (AUT), 1:38.02. Also: 15. Paula Moltzan (USA), 1:40.12.

ALPINE SKIING: Yule wins first World Cup gold in Madonna

By
Rich Perelman
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Swiss skier Daniel Yule

The fifth Alpine World Cup race of the past week brought a nice holiday present for Swiss Daniel Yule – really, Yule? – who won his first career World Cup race.

The Slalom event was expected to be a showcase for Austria’s World Cup dominator, Marcel Hirscher, and he took the lead immediately in the first run and looked ready for another win. But he had all kinds of trouble at the top of the second run and posted a horrific, 26th-place finish on the run and ended up in 26th place overall.

In the meantime, Yule stood fourth after the first run and was steady, with an aggressive attitude on the second run with the third-best time. That left him at 1:38.34, 0.34 seconds ahead of Austria’s Marco Schwarz, giving Yule his medal in 11 months and his fourth career World Cup medal.

Yule’s victory snaps a streak of five straight Slalom wins by Hirscher.

Nevertheless, Hirscher still has a 620-352 lead in the overall World Cup points standings. Summaries:

FIS Alpine World Cup
Madonna di Campiglio (ITA)  22 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Slalom: 1. Daniel Yule (SUI), 1:38.34; 2. Marco Schwarz (AUT), 1:38.68; 3. Michael Matt (AUT), 1:38.84; 4. Dave Ryding (GBR), 1:38.99; 5. Giuliano Razzoli (ITA), 1:39.42.

THE BIG PICTURE: Russia refuses WADA team full access to Moscow lab data; now what?

By
Rich Perelman
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The simmering fight within the anti-doping movement over Russia’s reinstatement by the World Anti-Doping Agency is now getting ready to boil over.

WADA released a statement on Friday which noted that its technical team was not allowed to obtain the data it was seeking from the Moscow laboratory:

The team accessed the laboratory and progress was made with the Russian authorities regarding extraction and export of the data outside Russia. However, the team was unable to complete its mission within the prescribed time due to an issue raised by the Russian authorities that the team’s equipment to be used for the data extraction was required to be certified under Russian law.

This issue had not been raised during an initial meeting on 28 November in Moscow, after which WADA sent its expert team back to Moscow to retrieve the data. …

In keeping with the process that was outlined by the WADA ExCo in September, Dr. [Toni] Pascual will now prepare his formal report on the mission and, as planned, the report will be sent to the independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC). The CRC will meet on 14-15 January 2019 when RUSADA’s Code compliance status will again be considered and the CRC’s recommendation will then be considered by the ExCo.

The retrieval of the Moscow lab data was required under the terms of WADA’s reinstatement of Russia to be completed by 31 December 2018. Unless something happens in the coming week, the pressure on the WADA Compliance Review Committee and the Executive Committee to find Russia non-compliant will be intense.

Nothing less than WADA’s credibility and “fitness for purpose” – as the British say – is on the line. For Russian athletes, the possibility of being restricted from international competitions is once again quite real.

LANE ONE: Echoes of the failed Int’l Track Association in the new Int’l Swimming League?

By
Rich Perelman
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The International Track Association launch in 1972: Lee Evans, Bob Seagren, Jim Ryun, Richmond Flowers, Marty Liquori, Randy Matson and founder Mike O'Hara

Being old does have some benefits. One of them – for as long as it lasts – is memory.

When the International Swimming League (ISL) held an athlete’s conference in London (GBR) last week, followed by a self-congratulatory Web posting, there was an echo from long ago.

Yes, 46 years ago.

In London, ISL founder Konstantin Grigorishin – the Ukrainian head of the Energy Standard Group – said on the ISL Web site that “We can co-exist with FINA and respect each other if they understand that their role is that of a regulator of rules not people. And they need to understand that athletes deserve their fair share of all revenues they generate as the stars of swimming.”

And the InsideTheGames Web site quoted Grigorshin as saying the “day of the sports governing body is coming to an end.” Both ISL and a group of three athletes – Americans Tom Shields and Michael Andrew and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu – have filed suit against FINA for restraint of trade, with the athletes aiming to be certified as a class-action plaintiff.

During the conference, a program of ISL meets was announced for 2019, between August and the end of the year, with a minimum of $5.3 million in prize money, based on a $15 million budget (35.3%). But the announcement also noted that there is, at present, “no sponsors or revenue.” There was also no schedule of meets or locations other than semifinals and finals in Las Vegas (USA) next December, no television broadcast agreements and no roster of swimmers who have signed up. There was a list of swimmers who attended the meeting to at least show interest.

Long-time followers of track & field remember this scenario very well. Shortly after the 1972 Olympic Games, a group called the International Track Association (ITA) announced that it would be staging a series of meets beginning in 1973 featuring many of the top stars in the sport at the time. Current or former world-record holders from the U.S. such as Jim Ryun (mile), Lee Evans (400 m), Bob Seagren (pole vault) and Randy Matson (shot put) and Olympic champions including Kip Keino of Kenya were all signed to compete for the ITA.

And they did. The first meet was held indoors on 3 March 1973 in Pocatello, Idaho (USA) before 10,480 spectators and saw indoor world-best performances from Warren Edmonson in the 100 m (10.2), Evans in the 600 m (1:17.7) and John Radetich in the high jump (7-4 3/4). Each of these would have been world records except that they were professionals, which was against the Inter-national Olympic Committee and International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) rules at the time.

There were 51 ITA meets from 1973-76 and 34 world-best performances, including Brian Oldfield’s unforgettable 75-0 (22.86 m) shot put in El Paso in 1975, a mark not surpassed until 1987.

But the circuit failed. Although the cumulative attendance was around 500,000 – an average of just less 10,000 per meet, which would be excellent today – it did not generate enough interest from television and investors to continue. And the inability to sign new talent from the 1976 Olympic Games meant that no new stars would be competing in the meets and the ITA’s profile faded quickly.

The ITA made a lasting impact, however, and helped usher in the era of openly-professional athletes in track, swimming and all other Olympic sports. Although those ITA athletes who tried to regain their Olympic eligibility could not do so, or were finally allowed back only in 1980 – well after their prime – their contribution to the fully-professional athletes of today is not to be forgotten.

For those swimmers who are hot to see ISL succeed – and get paid more than they are now – the ITA should be a cautionary tale. The ITA had experienced organizers and new ideas which are commonplace now; the graphics line which is shown on television to compare the pace of swimmers to the world record is simply an update of the revolutionary ITA idea to use lights ringing the track that showed the world-record pace of each race as it was going on.

In its own post on its conference in London, ISL’s founder was clear that the issues which doomed the ITA as an entity after four years of operations remain in place today:

Grigorishin pointed out that swimmers have far bigger challenges long-term, compared to overcoming FINA pressure, in raising their earning power in a competitive trillion-dollar global sports industry. “You are in the entertainment business, show business. And eventually you are competing against other entertainment properties, the likes of Netflix, for the short attention span of the global audience. That is your biggest challenge. Another challenge is technology and the exponential growth of e-sports. Swimming needs to catch up with the technological evolution to stay relevant with the young audience. This all requires swimming to find new exciting formats that engage far more people of all ages beyond its existing core fans.”

The ITA had a lot going for it, but had to compete with the amateur side of the sport, including the Olympic Games, and could not survive. The International Swimming League has filed its lawsuits against FINA, alleging restraint of trade, but Grigorishin’s comments point to the real challenge.

Is swimming a relevant sport for spectators in 2019? ISL’s project supposes that it is, but it offers no answers or details, only the founder’s open questions. Grigorishin will get his opportunity to succeed – FINA is not going to suspend the swimmers – but will he? And for how long?

Rich Perelman
Editor

WEIGHTLIFTING: 13 doping positives is not good news

By
Rich Perelman
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For a sport which is under threat of removal from the 2024 Olympic program by the International Olympic Committee, the weekend brought bad news. The IWF announced:

∙ The IOC’s re-testing of doping samples from the 2012 Olympic Games in London has resulted in five more positives in weightlifting, all for steroid use:

○ Valentin Hristov (AZE) – Bronze medalist at 56 kg;
○ Mikalai Novikau (BLR) – Seventh at 85 kg;
○ Oleksiy Torokhtiy (UKR) – Gold medalist at 105 kg;
○ Ruslan Nurudinov (UZB) – Fourth at 105 kg;
○ Meline Daluzyan (ARM) – Failed to complete a Clean & Jerk lift.

This brings the total number of weightlifting doping positives for London 2012 to 24 out of 260 competitors (9.2%).

∙ That’s bad enough, but the IWF further announced eight positives:

○ Mateus Gregorio Machado (BRA) ~ 2015 Pan American Games silver at 105 kg
○ Teerapat Chomchuen (THA) ~ 2018 Clean & Jerk Worlds bronze medal in men’s 55 kg
○ Cristiina Iovu (ROM) ~ Fourth in 2018 women’s Worlds 55 kg
○ Maria Virginia Rodriguez Araya (CRC)
○ Ana Victoria Rodriguez Araya (CRC)
○ Duanganksnorn Chaidee (THA) ~ 2018 Worlds bronze medalist in women’s +87 kg
○ Poonam Dalal (IND) ~ 15th in World Youth Championships in women’s 44 kg
○ Dayana Dimitrova (BUL) ~ 2018 European Junior Champion in women’s 48 kg

This is not good news for the IWF and is sure to come up at the next IOC Executive Board meeting.

THE BIG PICTURE: FINA and Int’l Swimming League trade barbs

By
Rich Perelman
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The furor between the International Swimming League (ISL) and the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) continued unabated this week.

ISL held a meeting in London (GBR) to announce a 2019 “league” competition of 12 teams – six from Europe and six from the U.S. – in meets held from mid-August to mid-December, with semi-finals and finals in Las Vegas (USA) from 17-22 December.

The budget is $15 million for 2019, with $5.3 million prize money, but the announcement notes that “the league sits now with no sponsors or revenue” or a television deal for that matter.

Ali Khan, the ISL chief executive, “The monopoly run by FINA, the international swimming federation, is not only completely out of tune when it comes to the rights of athletes to earn a living from their work as elite swimmers but also is violating US and European laws.”

The FINA, however, was not silent and issued its own statement, which included its first comments on issues raised in ISL’s lawsuit:

● “The allegation that FINA would have requested a $50 million fee from the ISL is incorrect. This was the ISL’s initial proposal.”

● “As to the issue of alleged athlete bans resulting from participation in unsanctioned events, FINA merely stated that results achieved in competitions for which approval and sanction were not duly sought and obtained would not be recognised. No approval was duly sought for the event announced in Turin. The decision to cancel it was made by the Italian Swimming Federation and ISL, which was presented merely as a sponsor.”

So, as in almost all lawsuits, there are two sides to the same conversation, meeting or exchange of ideas. This quarrel may or may not be settled out of court, but will go on in the U.S. courts well beyond the August start date for ISL’s announced series. Stay tuned!

LANE ONE: U.S. House committee report indicates little change coming to the Ted Stevens Act

By
Rich Perelman
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The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

While the Ropes & Gray Report on the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal has grabbed most of the national headlines, an important report from one of the Congressional committees looking into the matter indicates that only modest changes might be coming to the laws governing the U.S. Olympic Movement.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy & Commerce Committee published a report by its Majority Staff on Thursday entitled “Nassar and Beyond: A Review of the Olympic Community’s Efforts to Protect Athletes from Sexual Abuse.”

In 132 pages, the Report covers the committee’s activities over about a year, with significant detail from its hearings (by its Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations), and from letters received – upon request – from all of the U.S. National Governing Bodies. The detail is fascinating, but the big-picture impact of this report is the set of recommendations for legislation. There, the conclusion is … don’t do much.

The first recommendation makes this obvious: “Congress should evaluate whether updates are needed to the Ted Stevens Act to ensure athlete safety.”

That’s not a call for substantial change. There are recommendations which will re-shape the activities of the United States Olympic Committee and the National Governing Bodies; the most impactful are:

∙ “The USOC should thoroughly utilize their authorities [sic] under the Ted Stevens Act to ensure athlete safety.”

∙ “The USOC should develop additional options for sanctions other than to decertify or defund NGBs, as these can directly impact the athletes.”

∙ “The USOC, NGBs, and U.S. Center for SafeSport should not consider reputation when imposing sanctions, settlements, or other enforcement mechanisms.”

∙ “The USOC and NGBs should ensure that there are comprehensive and consistent policies and procedures across the Olympic community.”

∙ “The USOC should develop a consistent definition of a “covered individual” to be applicable across all NGBs.”

∙ “NGBs should have consistent policies regarding background checks, including who must undergo a background check, the length and depth of the background check, and the reasons for which an individual would fail a background check and become ineligible for participation in an NGB.”

∙ “All NGBs should maintain and post their banned and suspended lists such that they are available to the general public.”

∙ “The U.S. Center for SafeSport should compile historical bans and suspensions in a publicly available and comprehensive database.”

The consistent thread is that the NGBs must act in a consistent manner and with consistent procedures, and that the USOC is in the best position to dictate the processes to be followed.

This is especially true with regard to posting lists of banned or disciplined individuals, groups or organizations on one or more public forums so that people (like parents) can find them easily. The Report found plenty of fault with the myriad of approaches to prevention of abuse, investigations and post-discipline posting of the status of banned or suspended individuals, companies or institutions.

So the most important single direction that the Report gives to the U.S. Olympic community is this: Under the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, the USOC is responsible for the U.S. National Governing Bodies and is expected to ensure their adherence to strict policies and procedures for – at least – athlete safety, if not other areas.

Now, the House Report is hardly the last word. The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation’s subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance & Data Security has been doing its own investigation – including three hearings – and will have its own report.

But the House Report underscores four points made in an August editorial in the Sports Business Daily by Mike Harrigan, whose work on the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports in the 1970s led directly to the passage of the Ted Stevens Act. Harrigan wrote, “The underlying causes of what went wrong are:

“1. The USOC failed to properly oversee national governing bodies as required by the Act.

“2. The USOC failed to understand certain portions of the Act.

“3. The USOC failed to educate its members and Congress on its contents.

“4. The USOC’s ‘culture’ since the late 1980s ignored everything in its legislative mandate except the goal of winning Olympic medals.”

He concluded: “There is no need to amend the Act, only the need to understand it and enforce it with congressional oversight conducted regularly.” The House Report essentially says he is right.

Rich Perelman
Editor

DOPING: Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act introduced in Senate

By
Rich Perelman
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The U.S. government will contribute $9.15 million to the staging of the Oregon22 World Championships

The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act previously introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on 19 December.

The announcement noted that the bill is “[n]amed for Russian whistleblower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the bipartisan legislation establishes criminal penalties on individuals involved in doping fraud conspiracies affecting major international competitions.”

The bill in current form would seek to:

• Establish criminal penalties – including a fine of up to $1 million and/or up to 10 years in prison – for participating in a scheme in commerce to influence a major international sport competition through prohibited substances or methods.

• Provide restitution to victims of such conspiracies.

• Protect whistleblowers from retaliation.

• Establish coordination and sharing of information with the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

Said Whitehouse, “This bill would create consequences for Russia’s cheating, and send a strong signal that Russia and other sponsors of state-directed fraud and corruption no longer enjoy impunity.”

The House bill is H.R. 6067, referred to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

SWIMMING: Missy Franklin retires at 23

By
Rich Perelman
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Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin

Five-time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin, 23, announced her retirement on Wednesday (19th) and followed up with a lengthy explanation in a letter posted by ESPN.

Franklin stated that the primary reason for retiring was the recurring shoulder pain that plagued her throughout 2016 and was not relieved by surgery on both shoulders in 2017.

“It took me a long time to say the words, ‘I am retiring,'” Franklin wrote. “A long, long time. But now I’m ready. I’m ready to not be in pain every day. I’m ready to become a wife, one day a mother. I’m ready to continue growing each and every day to be the best person and role model I can be. I’m ready for the rest of my life.”

Franklin won four gold medals in London in 2012 in the 100-200 m Backstrokes and two relays, and six golds at the 2013 World Championships. But the shoulder pains reduced her performance at the 2016 Olympic Trials to the point where she qualified only for relay duty in Rio, where the won another gold as a prelim-round swimmer on the U.S. 4×200 m squad.

By December of 2017, she had changed coaches but “it was also the same time that my shoulder pain became the worst I had ever experienced. I was still in physical therapy multiple times a week and my coaches were doing everything to help me just get through each practice. Every moment I wasn’t training was spent recovering with ice and rest, as I tried to heal and prepare myself for the next practice – but nothing was working.”

BOXING: AIBA wants to meet ASAP with IOC Working Group

By
Rich Perelman
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In the aftermath of the International Olympic Committee Executive Board’s decision to form an ad hoc committee to examine whether the International Boxing Association (AIBA) should continue as the governing body over boxing, the AIBA sent a letter to the working group chief, Nenad Lalovic (SLO) asking for a January meeting to begin the process.

As part of the announcement of the letter, AIBA trumpeted the progress report it presented to the IOC that “documents that 1) AIBA now ranks in the top half of all summer International Federations according to the official ASOIF ranking; 2) AIBA is now fully compliant with the WADA Code and has signed agreements with the International Testing Agency; 3) AIBA has a new fully revamped Refereeing & Judging systems that fosters a culture of transparency and fair play which has been praised by the IOC and PwC; 4) The financial situation of AIBA is now stable with a positive cash-flow due to significant increase in revenues.”

The AIBA progress report is here.

The IOC was not amused, and the Associated Press reported that the IOC sent its own letter to all 206 National Olympic Committees “not to trust” the AIBA claims and that the letter “does not at all provide an accurate portrayal” of the IOC’s view of the situation.

Not a good way to start …

BASKETBALL: Big East will provide U.S. men’s Pan Am Games team

By
Rich Perelman
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USA Basketball announced that the Big East Conference will provide the United States men’s basketball team at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

The team will be led by Providence College head coach Ed Cooley, who has worked with four USA Basketball national teams from 2013-15, including the World Champion 2015 FIBA U-19 squad.

How did this come about. Look no further than Big East commissioner Val Ackerman, former head of the WNBA and the president of USA Basketball from 2005-08.

“USA Basketball felt it would be best to offer the college community the opportunity to participate in the men’s basketball competition at the 2019 Pan American Games given an already full USA men’s national team calendar,” said Jim Tooley, USA Basketball chief executive.

“USA Basketball worked with the U.S. Olympic Committee and the NCAA to identify the best option and NCAA Division I conferences were offered the opportunity to participate in the Pan American Games. Ultimately the BIG EAST Conference was selected and USA Basketball is confident that Coach Cooley and the BIG EAST team will represent the United States in a manner that will make all Americans proud.”

It’s a plum assignment for the Big East, but there will also be some pressure to perform better than the recent U.S. teams at the PAG. The U.S. men won bronze medals in 2011 and 2015 and have not won the tournament since 1983! While the U.S. has eight PanAm golds – the most of any country – Brazil now has six and has won in most recently in 1999-2003-07-15.

The Big East has 10 members, including Butler University, Creighton University, DePaul University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, Providence College, St. John’s University, Seton Hall University, Villanova University and Xavier University.

ATHLETICS: Why did Allyson Felix have a bad 2018? Good reason!

By
Rich Perelman
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More Worlds medal than anyone else: American sprint icon Allyson Felix (Photo: Wikipedia)

If you wondered why Allyson Felix was absent from the track for most of 2018, the answer is she was pregnant.

In a lengthy “as told to” post on the ESPNW site, Felix shared with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that “So when I ran a 51-second 400 at a race in Poland on June 8 and then 52 seconds at a race in France the next week, I knew what everyone was thinking. …

“My coach, Bobby Kersee, talked to me about shutting it down for the season. My brother and agent, Wes Felix, wanted to make sure I wasn’t hurt.

“It was time to tell them what was really going on.

“I was pregnant.”

She also shared the pressures of being Allyson Felix … and being married (in 2016 to Kenneth Ferguson, who ran 45.91 for 400 m and 48.15 for the 400 m hurdles back in 2007) … and wanting a family.

“I was so excited to be pregnant. I’ve always wanted to be a mother. I feel so incredibly blessed. This shouldn’t be a secret. I want to share this journey with everyone who has ever known me or cheered for me. So why has it taken me eight months to share this news?

“I think it’s the same reason it took me until now to feel ready to start a family and have a child.

“Somewhere along the line, that pristine nice girl image I was trying to live up to became more important than who I really was. I was putting other people’s needs and expectations of me ahead of my own. I was doing things because I felt like I was supposed to, rather than what I wanted to. It felt like ticking off boxes on a checklist rather than living my life.”

Her daughter, Camryn, was born prematurely on 28 November and is in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The post says her prognosis is good.

She closed with “If I come back and I’m just not the same, if I can’t make a fifth Olympic team, I’m gonna know that I fought, that I was determined, and that I gave it my absolute all. And if it doesn’t end up the way I imagined in my head, it’ll be OK. I just have to go for it, because that’s just simply who we are now.”

FREESTYLE SKIING: Canada’s d’Artois dominates Secret Garden Halfpipe

By
Rich Perelman
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Canada's Simon d'Artois

The Freestyle Halfpipe in Secret Garden (CHN) was moved from 22 December to the 20th, but it didn’t matter to Simon d’Artois (CAN), who won his first-ever World Cup Halfpipe title with a dominating performance.

D’Artois authored a sensational series, taking the lead in the first round with an excellent 91.25, with Nico Porteous (NZL) reaching 88.00 for second. In the next round, d’Artois improved to 92.00, while Porteous reached 89.50, still in second. Then d’Artois exploded in the final round with an impressive 93.50, which proved to be the winning mark.

It’s not like d’Artois hasn’t been on the podium before, with three career bronze medals – all in the last two seasons – but this was his first win. He’s won his four medals in four different countries – really in four different regions – in China, in New Zealand (2017), the U.S. (2017) and France (2018).

Like d’Artois, China’s Kexin Zhang led the women’s Halfpipe from start to finish, reaching 84.75 in the first round and then 87.75 in the second round. But she did have some company, with Canada’s Rachael Barker at 85.75 moving from third to second in the final round, ahead of Fanghui Li (CHN), who shot out to 83.75 in the second round.

Zhang defended her title from 2017 at Secret Garden; the win was her second ever and third World Cup career medal. Summaries:

FIS Freestyle World Cup
Secret Garden (CHN) ~ 20 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Halfpipe: 1. Simon d’Artois (CAN), 93.50; 2. Nico Porteous (NZL), 89.50; 3. Hunter Hess (USA), 85.50; 4. Thomas Krief (FRA), 79.25; 5. Brendan Mackay (CAN), 78.50. Also: 7. Cassidy Jarrell (USA), 74.50; … 9. Jaxin Hoerter (USA), 70.50.

Women’s Halfpipe: 1. Kexin Zhang (CHN), 87.75; 2. Rachael Karker (CAN), 85.75; 3. Fanghui Li (CHN), 83.75; 4. Abigale Hansen (USA), 77.25; 5. Yurie Watabe (JPN), 73.75.

ALPINE SKIING: The broom: Hirscher nearly sweeps Alta Badia & Saalbach

By
Rich Perelman
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Austria's Marcel Hirscher (Photo: Jonas Ericcsoon via Wikipedia)

Only injury is going to keep Austria’s Marcel Hirscher from an eighth straight overall World Cup title. He is simply too good for everyone else and after stops in Alta Badia (ITA) and Saalbach-Hinterglemm (AUT), he won three of four races to increase his lead to nearly three full races with less than a third of the schedule completed.

In Alta Badia, he won the Giant Slalom by more than two seconds (!) over France’s Thomas Fanara and Alexis Pinturault and then took the first Parallel Giant Slalom from France’s Thibaut Favrot in the final. In Saalbach, he slipped back in the Giant Slalom, finishing sixth (still worth 40 World Cup points), but came back on Thursday to win the Slalom over Swiss Loic Meillard.

He now has 620 points to 352 for Kristoffersen heading into Sunday’s Slalom – in which he will be favored – in Madonna di Campiglio (ITA).

In the women’s races in Val Gardena (ITA), Slovenian star Ilka Stuhec, back from a devastating left knee injury in October 2017, won both the Downhill and Super-G for the eighth and ninth World Cup wins in her career. The 2017 World Champion in the Downhill, if she remains healthy, she too could become a dominant force on the women’s circuit in the speed events. Summaries:

FIS Alpine World Cup
Alta Badia (ITA) ~ 16-17 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Giant Slalom: 1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT), 2:32.29; 2. Thomas Fanara (FRA), 2:34.82; 3. Alexis Pinturault (FRA), 2:34.98; 4. Manuel Feller (AUT), 2:35.01; 5. Tommy Ford (USA), 2:35.08. Also in the top 25: 16. Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA), 2:36.10; … 24. River Radamus (USA), 2:37.40.

Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom: 1. Hirscher (AUT); 2. Thibaut Favrot (FRA); Small Final: Alexis Pinturault (FRA); 4. Matts Olson (SWE).

FIS Alpine World Cup
Saalbach (AUT) ~ 19-20 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Giant Slalom: 1. Zan Kranjec (SLO), 2:50.08; 2. Loic Meillard (SUI), 2:50.27; 3. Mathieu Faivre (FRA), 2:50.58; 4. Stefan Luitz (GER), 2:50.66; 5. Fanara (FRA), 2:50.80. Also in the top 25: 14. Ford (USA), 2:52.70; 15. Ted Ligety (USA), 2:52.96.

Men’s Slalom: 1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT), 1:54.98; 2. Meillard (SUI), 1:55.36; 3. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR), 1:55.45; 4. Manuel Feller (AUT), 1:55.63; 5. Michael Matt (AUT), 1:55.76.

FIS Alpine World Cup
Val Gardena (ITA) ~ 18-19 December 2018
(Full results here)

Women’s Downhill: 1. Ilka Stuhec (SLO), 1:22.81; 2. Nicol Delago (ITA), 1:22.95; 3. Ramona Siebenhofer (AUT), 1:23.32; 4. Jasmine Flury (SUI), 1:23.68; 5. Michaela Wenig (GER), 1:23.70.

Women’s Super-G: 1. Stuhec (SLO), 1:31.87; 2. Tina Weirather (LIE), 1:31.92; 3. Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT), 1:31.92; 4. Flury (SUI), 1:31.93; 5. Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR), 1:32.11.

SNOWBOARD Preview: Halfpipe & Slopestyle in China; Snow Cross in Italy

By
Rich Perelman
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There’s a lot of Snowboard World Cup action this weekend, with Halfpipe and Slopestyle in Secret Garden (CHN) and Snowboard Cross in Cervinia (ITA).

∙ Halfpipe & Slopestyle:

The Halfpipe season got underway at Copper Mountain, Colorado (USA), with Scotty James (AUS), Toby Miller (USA) and Chase Josey (USA) taking the medals for the men and Chloe Kim (USA), Maddie Mastro (USA) and Xuetong Cai (CHN) on the women’s podium.

A lot of the international stars are skipping Saturday’s event, but Cai was the leading qualifier on Wednesday (92.50!) and Swiss Jan Scherrer (89.75) had the top men’s mark.

The defending champs at Secret Garden are Ayumu Hirano (JPN) for the men and Jiayu Liu (CHN) for the women. Look for results here.

In Slopestyle, this will be the season opener, with Chris Corning (USA) and Sofya Fyodorova (RUS) the defending champions. In the qualifying on Thursday, Niklas Mattson (SWE: 79.96) and Sebbe de Buck (BEL: 75.15) led the men’s scoring and Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN: 79.68) and Reira Iwabuchi (JPN: 72.60) were 1-2 for the women.

∙ Snowboard Cross:

With an earlier competition canceled, Cervinia (ITA) will be the site of the season opener for Snowboard Cross. Competitions are scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

The fastest qualifiers were Martin Noerl (GER: 1:15.18), Hagen Kearney (USA: 1:16.95) and Konstantin Schad (GER: 1:17.00) among the men, and Nelly Moenne Loccoz (FRA: 1:22.46), Michela Moioli (ITA: 1:22.89) and Raffaella Brutto (ITA: 1:23.16) among the women.

Last season’s top men’s SnowCross riders were Pierre Vaultier (FRA), Alessandro Hammerle (AUT) and Alex Pulin (AUS) and they are all entered, as are American stars Kearney, Nick Baumgartner and Mick Dierdorff, among others.

The women’s World Cup medalists for 2017-18 were Moioli, Chloe Trespauch (FRA: not entered) and Moenne Loccoz. American Lindsey Jacobellis, a two-time World Cup champion, who dominated the circuit until she stopped racing to prepare for the 2018 Winter Games, is also entered.

The defending champs in Cervinia are Italians Omar Visintin and Moioli. Look for results here.

NORDIC COMBINED Preview: Four in a row for Riiber in Ramsau?

By
Rich Perelman
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Norway's Jarl Magnus Riiber

The Nordic Combined World Cup has been in repose since the three-event Lillehammer Tour in early December, but the circuit will start up again in Ramsau (AUT) with two Gundersen-style event, off a 98 m hill, with a 10.0 km cross-country race to follow. The standings:

1. 380 Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR)
2. 196 Eric Frenzel (GER)
3. 189 Mario Seidl (AUT)
4. 165 Johannes Rydzek (GER)
5. 147 Jorgen Graabak (NOR)

Riiber has been the early sensation, with three wins in a row in Lillehammer (NOR). Just 21, he’s the new wunderkind in the sport, having ranked seventh in the World Cup standings last season. He entered this season with 11 World Cup medals, but only one win. He’s now won three in a row.

Frenzel, who won five seasonal World Cup titles in a row before Akito Watabe (JPN) took over last season, has won two medals this season, as has Rydzek. Frenzel and teammate Fabian Riessle won the two events in Ramsau last season; in fact, Frenzel has won one of the Ramsau races for three straight years!

Look for results here.

FREESTYLE SKIING Preview: Ski Cross finally underway, lands in Innichen

By
Rich Perelman
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After the weather canceled two events and moved the date on a third (Arosa, noted below), a regularly-scheduled event is getting set in Innichen (ITA). Competitions will be held on Friday and Saturday for men and women.

The top racers from 2017-18 were Marc Bischofberger (SUI), Jean-Frederic Chapuis (FRA) and Kevin Drury (CAN), but Jonas Lenherr (SUI), Victor Norberg (SWE) and Alex Fiva (SUI) took the medals in the season opener in Arosa (SUI).

Among the women, Swiss Fanny Smith won in Arosa, followed by perennial star Sandra Naeslund (SWE) and Canada’s Marielle Thompson. Last season, it was Naeslund, Smith and Brittany Phelan (CAN) who won the medals in Arosa.

Look for results from Innichen here.

FIS Freestyle World Cup
Arosa (SUI) ~ 17 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Ski Cross/Big Final: 1. Jonas Lenherr (SUI); 2. Victor Oehling Norberg (SWE); 3. Alex Fiva (SUI); 4. Bastien Midol (FRA).

Women’s Ski Cross/Big Final: 1. Fanny Smith (SUI); 2. Sandra Naeslund (SWE); 3. Marielle Thompson (CAN); 4. Andrea Limbacher (AUT).

BIATHLON Preview: Can anyone beat Fourcade or Boe?

By
Rich Perelman
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Olympic Biathlon champ Martin Fourcade of France (Photo: Peter Porai-Koshits via Wikipedia)

The IBU World Cup is in the Czech Republic this week, with all six men’s races this season having been won by just two men: France’s Martin Fourcade and Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe.

Boe has won all three 10 km Sprints – including the Nove Mesto Sprint held on Thursday – and a 12.5 km Pursuit. Fourcade won the 20 km individual season-opener and a 12.5 km Pursuit. Can anyone other than these two win a race?

This week’s schedule, with the men’s 10 km Sprint already completed:

∙ 21 December: Women’s 7.5 km Sprint
∙ 22 December: Women’s 10 km Pursuit and 12.5 km Pursuit
∙ 23 December: Women’s 12.5 and men’s 15.0 km Mass Start

After the Nove Mesto Sprint, Boe has a 308-232 lead over Russia’s Alexander Loginov, with Antonin Guigonnat (FRA) at 223, Austria’s Simon Eder at 205 and Fourcade at 191.

The women’s races have been dominated by Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen, who has won three of the five races held so far, and won medals in four. But Italy’s Dorothea Wierer also has four medals, including one win, two silvers and one bronze, and has a 252-245 points lead going into the week.

Slovakia’s Paulina Fialkova is the only other biathlete to win more than one medal this season (she has a silver and bronze).

Look for more results from Nove Mesto here.

IBU World Cup
Nove Mesto (CZE) ~ 20-23 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s 10 km Sprint: 1. Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR), 23:09.9; 2. Alexander Loginov (RUS), +21.0; 3. Martin Ponsiluoma (SWE), +54.2; 4. Benjamin Weger (SUI), +1:03.5; 5. Simon Desthieux (FRA), +

ALPINE SKIING Preview: Another win coming for Hirscher in Italy and Shiffrin in France?

By
Rich Perelman
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Austria's Marcel Hirscher (Photo: Jonas Ericcsoon via Wikipedia)

One of the busiest weeks in this year’s World Cup continues for the men in Madonna di Campiglio (ITA) on Saturday, with two races for the women in Courchevel (FRA).

∙ Men:

Austrian superstar Marcel Hirscher swept the Slalom and Parallel Giant Slalom in Alta Badia (ITA), finished sixth in the Giant Slalom and then won the Slalom in Saalbach (AUT) and comes to another Slalom at Madonna di Campiglio on the 22nd as the runaway favorite for his eighth World Cup overall win in a row. With 13 races out of 41 scheduled for the season, Hirscher leads Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, 620-352 in the overall points standings.

Hirscher has won both Slaloms held this season, and won the last three in the 2017-18 World Cup season, so he’s working on a five-Slalom win streak, and 10 of the last 11! He’s amazing.

Hirscher also won in Madonna last season, but Norway’s Kristoffersen won over Hirscher in 2016 and 2015.

Look for results from Madonna here.

∙ Women:

The women’s World Cup is in Courchevel (FRA), for a Giant Slalom and Slalom on the weekend. That means another opportunity for American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin to pile up more points in her best races. She won five of the 11 races on tour so far this season, including all three Slaloms and has a medal in one of the two Giant Slalom races. In her quest for a third straight overall World Cup title, she already has 689 points, to 359 for Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT).

Shiffrin won both the Giant Slalom and Parallel Slalom last season in Courchevel, over Tessa Worley (FRA) and Petra Vlhova (SVK), respectively.

Look for results from Courchevel here.

BADMINTON: Three wins for China in World Tour Finals

By
Rich Perelman
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China's Yuqi Shi

There’s no doubt that China is the world’s no. 1 power in badminton and they demonstrated it with three wins at the BWF World Tour Finals in front of home fans in Guangzhou (CHN).

In the men’s division, Yuqi Shi defeated Japan’s Kento Momota – for the first time ever – in a re-match of the 2018 World Championships final, and the reigning World Champions, Junhui Li and Yuchen Liu defeated Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe.

China’s World Championsships silver medalists in Mixed Doubles, Yilyu Wang and Yaquiong Huang beat the titleholders – Siwei Zhang and Yaqiong Huang – in the finals for another reversal.

Perhaps the most emotional event was the women’s Singles final, where India’s V. Sindhu Pusarla – runner-up in four tournaments this season, including the World Championships – finally won, setting aisde Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) in straight sets.

“I’m really proud, the year has ended on a beautiful note. People have been asking me the same question, I think the question won’t come again – asking why I always lose in the final. Now I can say I won the gold and I’m proud of it. It was good that people were asking me about losing so many finals, because I had to ask myself why I was losing. Finally I got the answer.

“It’s a special tournament for me because I won all my group matches and the semifinals and the final. I have no words. She fought hard, and at times I remembered the last final. But I was able to focus again. Although I won in straight games, it was very tough and each point was hard.

“I got emotional because it’s my first gold in this tournament. I didn’t have anything in my mind. I was on my knees. I wanted this win very much.” Summaries:

BWF World Tour Finals
Guangzhou (CHN) ~ 12-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Singles: 1. Yuqi Shi (CHN); 2. Kento Momota (JPN); 3. Sameer Verma (IND) and Wan Ho Son (KOR). Semis: Shi d. Vermeer, 12-21, 22-20, 21-17; Momota d. Son, 21-14, 21-12. Final: Shi d. Momota, 21-12, 21-11.

Men’s Doubles: 1. Junhui Li/Yuchen Liu (CHN); 2. Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe (JPN); 3. Hung Ling Chen/Chi-Lin Wang (TPE) and Kim Astrup/Anders Rasmussen (DEN). Semis: Li/Liu d. Chen/Wang, 18-21, 21-12, 21-15; Endo/Watanabe d. Astrup/Rasmussen, 21-19, 21-13. Final: Li/Liu d. Endo/Watanabe, 21-15, 21-11.

Women’s Singles: 1. V. Sindhu Pusarla (IND); 2. Nozomi Okuhara (JPN); 3. Ratchanok Intanon (THA) and Akane Yamaguchi (JPN). Semis: Pusarla d. Intanon, 21-16, 25-23; Okuhara d. Yamaguchi, 21-17, 21-14. Final: Pusarla d. Okuhara, 21-19, 21-17.

Women’s Doubles: 1. Misaki Matsumoto/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN); 2. So Hee Lee/Seung Chan Shin (KOR); 3. Yue Du/Yinhui Li (CHN) and Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara (JPN). Semis: Matsumoto/Takahashi d. Du/Li, 22-20, 11-3, withdrew; Lee/Shin d. Matsumoto/Nagahara, 21-13, 21-13. Final: Matsumoto/Takahashi d. Lee/Shin, 21-12, 22-20.

Mixed Doubles: 1. Yilyu Wang/Dongping Huang (CHN); 2. Siwei Zhang/Yaqiong Huang (CHN); 3. Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapirsee Taerattanachai (THA) and Yuta Watanabe/ Arisa Higashino (JPN). Semis: Zhang/Huang d. Puavaranukroh/Taerattanachai, 19-21, 21-14, 21-12; Wang/Huang d. 21-9, 19-21, 21-13. Final: Wang/Huang d. Zhang/Huang, 23-21, 16-21, 21-18.

ARCHERY: Gellenthien & Ruiz win Compound titles in Rome Indoor World Cup

By
Rich Perelman
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U.S. Compound Indoor World Champion Braden Gellenthien

U.S. archers had a strong showing at the Rome stop on the World Archery Indoor World Cup, with Braden Gellenthien getting his first win on the circuit in the men’s Compound Division and Alexis Ruiz winning her second straight women’s Compound title.

In the men’s Recurve (Olympic) division, Olympic bronze medalist Brady Ellison shot in his first Indoor World Cup tournament and got to the final against Canada’s Crispin Duenas.

Ellison shot well, scoring 28, 29 and 29 points in each end, but Duenas fired nine consecutive 10s to finish with a perfect 30-30-30 for three straight ends and a 6-0 final score. “I had to work hard in my first matches. Then, everything lined up as it should and I won this great gold medal,” said the winner.

Korea’s Surin Kim won her second Indoor World Cup gold in the women’s Recurve title, over Dutch shooter Gabriela Bayardo, as the Koreans went 1-3-4. Summaries:

World Archery Indoor World Cup
Rome (ITA) ~ 15-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Recurve: 1. Crispin Duenas (CAN); 2. Brady Ellison (USA); 3. Jong Young Lee (KOR); 4. Dusol Ko (KOR). Semis: Duenas d. Lee, 7-3; Ellison d. Ko, 6-4. Third: Lee d. Ko, 6-4. Final: Duenas d. Ellison, 6-0.

Men’s Compound: 1. Braden Gellenthien (USA); 2. Martin Damsbo (DEN); 3. Sergio Pagni (ITA); 4. Kris Schaff (USA). Semis: Gellenthien d. Schaff, 150-149; Damsbo d. Pagni, 148-147. Third: Pagni d. Schaff, 149-149 (shoot-off: 10-10, closest to the center). Final: Gellenthien d. Damsbo, 148-148 (shoot-off: 10-9).

Women’s Recurve: 1. Surin Kim (KOR); 2. Gabriela Bayardo (NED); 3. Chae Young Kang (KOR); 4. Chaeyun Kim (KOR). Semis: S. Kim d. C. Kim, 6-4; Bayardo d. C. Kang, 6-4. Third: Kang d. Kim, 6-4. Final: S. Kim d. Bayardo, 6-0.

Women’s Compound: 1. Alexis Ruiz (USA); 2. Mariya Shkolna (LUX); 3. Sunniva Lislevand (NOR); 4. Yun Soo Song (KOR). Semis: Ruiz d. Song, 147-143; Shkolna d. Lislevand, 145-141. Third: Lislevand d. Song, 147-146. Final: Ruiz d. Shkolna, 147-139.

ALPINE SKIING: Norway sweeps Val Gardena speed races

By
Rich Perelman
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Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal

There were familiar faces on the podium of the speed races at Val Gardena (ITA), with Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal taking the Super-G on Friday and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde taking the Downgill on Saturday.

For Svindal, 35, it was his 36th World Cup gold medal, 17 of which have come in the Super-G. He loves Val Gardena: it was his sixth victory there.

In the Downhill, Kilde, 26, won his third career World Cup race, but his first since January of 2016. He also loves Val Gardena: he’s now won three medals there, a gold, silver and bronze, in 2015, 2016 and 2018.

The U.S. men also had their best race of the season in the Downhill, with Bryce Bennett in fourth, Steven Nyman in fifth and Travis Ganong sixth.

The skiing is almost non-stop this week, with a Giant Slalom on Sunday and a Parallel Giant Slalom on Monday in Alta Badia (ITA) and then a make-up date for the Slalom that was supposed to be at Val d’Isere (FRA) last week, but will be held with the scheduled Giant Slalom on 19-20 December in Saalbach (AUT).

What does that mean? More points for Austria’s technical-race superstar, Marcel Hirscher. He won the Giant Slalom in Alta Badia on Sunday with a blistering first run of 1:17.61 that was almost a second ahead of everyone else. He beat France’s Thomas Fanara by 2.53 seconds in the final tally.

So far this season, Hirscher has won two of the three Giant Slalom races and the only Slalom. He could end the week with a six-race win streak in the G-S and Slalom. Summaries from Val Gardena and Alta Badia:

FIS Alpine World Cup
Val Gardena (ITA) ~ 14-15 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Super-G: 1. Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR), 1:28.65; 2. Christof Innerhofer (ITA), 1:28.70; 3. Kjetil Jansrud (NOR), 1:28.92; 4. Johan Clarey (FRA), 1:29.30; 5. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR), 1:29.31. Also in the top 25: 24. Travis Ganong (USA), 1:30.10.

Men’s Downhill: 1. Kilde (NOR), 1:56.13; 2. Max Franz (AUT), 1:56.99; 3. Beat Feuz (SUI), 1:57.05; 4. Bryce Bennett (USA), 1:57.11; 5. Steven Nyman (USA), 1:57.14. Also: 6. Ganong (USA), 1:57.18.

FIS Alpine World Cup
Alta Badia (ITA) ~ 16-17 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Giant Slalom: 1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT), 2:32.29; 2. Thomas Fanara (FRA), 2:34.82; 3. Alexis Pinturault (FRA), 2:34.98; 4. Manuel Feller (AUT), 2:35.01; 5. Tommy Ford (USA), 2:35.08. Also in the top 25: 16. Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA), 2:36.10; … 24. River Radamus (USA), 2:37.40.

SWIMMING: U.S. dominates FINA World Short-Course Champs

By
Rich Perelman
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American swim star Kelsi Dahlia!

In another demonstration of how dominant the United States in swimming, a powerful American team overran the rest of the world in the 14th FINA World Short-Course Championships in Hangzhou (CHN).

The American team, which did not include a number of stars, won 36 total medals, more than the combined total of runner-up Russia (14 medals) and China (13) combined. Moreover, the U.S. won 17 gold medals – out of 46 events – with Russia next with six, and then Hungary with four.

That’s even better than the U.S. did in 2016, when it won 30 medals (8-15-7) to lead the medal table, against 15 by Japan (2-2-11) and 14 by Russia (6-5-3), also across 46 events. The U.S. has now led the medal table in five straight short-course Worlds (2010-12-14-16-18); the last time the U.S. won more medals in a Short-Course Worlds was in 2004 when the meet was in Indianapolis and the American squad won 41 medals in just 40 events!

The meet, which had 930 total entrants (525 men and 405 women) saw a staggering total of 22 meet records and nine new world records:

World Records:
∙ Men’s 200 m Breaststroke: 2:00.16 Kirill Prigoda (RUS)
∙ Men’s 200 m Medley: 1:48.24 Daiya Seto (JPN)
∙ Men’s 4×50 m Freestyle: 1:21.80 United States (Dressel, Held, Conger, Chadwick)
∙ Men’s 4×100 m Freestyle: 3:30.03 United States (Dressel, Pieroni, Chadwick, Held)
∙ Men’s 4×200 m Freestyle: 6:46.81 Brazil (Melo, Scheffer, Santos, Correia)

∙ Women’s 400 m Freestyle: 3:53.92 Ariarne Titmus (AUS)
∙ Women’s 4×50 m Medley: 1:42.38 United States (Smoliga, Meili, Dahlia, Comerford)

∙ Mixed 4×50 m Freestyle: 1:27.89 United States (Dressel, Held, Comerford, Dahlia)
∙ Mixed 4×50 m Medley: 1:36.40 United States (Smoliga, Andrew, Dahlia, Dressel)

In addition, the U.S. re-wrote the American Record lists as well, setting marks in 13 events:

American Records (set in addition to the World Records above):
∙ Men’s 50 m Freestyle: 20.43 Caeleb Dressel (in Mixed 4×50 m Free final)
. Men’s 50 m Freestyle: 20.43 Dressel (in men’s 4×50 m Free final)
∙ Men’s 100 m Freestyle: 45.82 Ryan Held (in relay prelims)
. Men’s 100 m Freestyle: 45.66 Dressel (in relay final)
. Men’s 100 m freestyle: 45.62 Dressel
∙ Men’s 4×50 m Medley: 1:30.90 Murphy, Andrew, Dressel, Held
∙ Men’s 4×100 m Medley: 3:19.98 Murphy, Wilson, Dressel, Held

∙ Women’s 100 m Freestyle: 51.63 Mallory Comerford
∙ Women’s 200 m Freestyle: 1:51.81 Comerford
∙ Women’s 50 m Backstroke: 26.06 Olivia Smoliga (in semifinals)
. Women’s 50 m Backstroke: 25.88 Smoliga
∙ Women’s 100 m Backstroke: 55.47 Smoliga (in prelims)
∙ Women’s 50 m Butterfly: 24.93 Kelsi Dahlia (in semifinals)
∙ Women’s 200 m Butterfly: 2:01.73 Dahlia
∙ Women’s 200 m Medley: 2:04.62 Melanie Margalis
∙ Women’s 4×50 m Freestyle: 1:34.03 Kennedy, Comerford, Dahlia Brown
∙ Women’s 4×200 m Freestyle: 7:35.30 Smith, Comerford, Margalis, Brown

In terms of individual medals, the U.S. was tops there, too:

∙ 9:
Kelsi Dahlia (USA: 7-1-1)
Caeleb Dressel (USA: 6-3-0)

∙ 8:
Olivia Smoliga (USA: 8-0-0)
Mallory Comerford (USA: 5-2-1)
Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED: 3-4-1)
Femke Heemskerk (NED: 0-6-2)

∙ 7:
Evgeny Rylov (RUS: 3-2-2)
Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS: 2-3-2)

∙ 6:
Ryan Murphy (USA: 3-3-0)
Vladimir Morozov (RUS: 1-4-1)

These totals were greatly inflated by the number of relays in the meet – 12 in all – and the top four Americans all won six relay medals, and Dutch stars Kromowidjojo and Heemskerk both won five medals apiece on relays.

There were also multiple champions who defended their 2016 World Short-Course titles, starting with four defenses from Hungary’s amazing Katinka Hosszu:

∙ Katinka Hosszu (HUN): Women’s 200 m Fly, 100-200-400 m Medley
∙ Cameron van den Burgh (RSA): Men’s 50 m Breast
∙ Chad le Clos (RSA): Men’s 100 m Fly
∙ Shun Wang (CHN): Men’s 200 m Medley
∙ Daiya Seto (JPN): Men’s 400 m Medley
∙ Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED): Women’s 50 m Freestyle
∙ Alia Atkinson (JAM): Women’s 100 m Breast

Hosszu, now 29, has now won an astonishing 17 World Short-Course titles and 27 medals (after a silver in the 100 m Back!) From 2012-18.

South Africa’s van den Burgh won the 100 m Breaststroke in a meet-record time of 56.01 and then confirmed his retirement at age 30. He later won the 50 m Breast for his seventh gold medal at the Olympic (1), World (2) and World Short-Course (4) Championships. He was the 2012 Olympic Champion in the 100 Breaststroke and he won medals in championships from 2007-18.

Prize money of $2.07 million was on offer in Guangzhou: each event paid $10,000-8,000-7,000-6,000-5,000-4,000-3,000-2,000 to the top eight finishers. World records commanded an extra $15,000. Summaries:

FINA World Short-Course Championships
Hangzhou (CHN) ~ 11-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men

50 m Freestyle: 1. Vladimir Morozov (RUS), 20.33; 2. Caeleb Dressel (USA), 20.54; 3. Bradley Tandy (RSA), 20.94; 4. Simonas Bilis (LTU), 20.99; 5. Pawel Juraszek (POL), 21.00; 6. Cameron McEvoy (AUS), 21.02; 7. Cesar Cielo (BRA), 21.20; Ben Proud (GBR), was disqualified.

100 m Free: 1. Dressel (USA), 45.62 (American Record; old, 45.66, Dressel, 2018 [relay prelims]); 2. Morozov (RUS), 45.64; 3. Clad le Clos (RSA), 45.89; 4. Vladislav Grinev (RUS), 45.92; 5. Simonas Bilis (LTU), 46.11; 6. Mehdy Metella (FRA), 46.51; 7. tie, Katsumi Nakamura (JPN) and Blake Pieroni (USA), 46.57.

200 m Free: 1. Pieroni (USA), 1:41.49; 2. Danas Rapsys (LTU), 1:41.78; 3. Alexander Graham (AUS), 1:42.28; 4. Xinjie Ji (CHN), 1:42.31; 5. Breno Correia (BRA), 1:42.36; 6. Martin Malyutin (RUS), 1:42.46; 7. Mikhail Vekovishchev (RUS), 1:42.67; 8. Luiz Melo (BRA), 1:42.72.

400 m Free: 1. Danas Rapsys (LTU), 3:44.01 (Meet Record); 2. Henrik Christiansen (NOR), 3:36.64; 3. Gabriele Detti (ITA), 3:37.54; 4. Martin Malyutin (RUS), 3:37.75; 5. Aleksandr Krasnykh (RUS), 3:37.97; 6. Zane Grothe (USA), 3:38.99; 7. Wojciech Wojdak (POL), 3:39.22; 8. Fernando Scheffer (BRA), 3:39.40.

1,500 m Free: 1. Mykhallo Romanchuk (UKR), 14:09.14; 2. Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA), 14:09.87; 3. Henrik Christiansen (NOR), 14:19.39; 4. David Aubry (FRA), 14:23.44; 5. Damien Joly (FRA), 14:24.00; 6. Jan Micka (CZE), 14:27.73; 7. Akos Kalmar (HUN), 14:35.94; 8. Zane Grothe (USA), 14:51.22.

50 m Backstroke: 1. Evgeny Rylov (RUS), 22.58; 2. Ryan Murphy (USA), 22.63; 3. Shane Ryan (IRL), 22.76; 4. Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS), 22.77; 5. Guilherme Guido (BRA), 22.79; 6. Simone Sabbioni (ITA), 23.26; 7. Dylan Carter (TTO), 23.44; 8. Christian Diener (GER), 23.49.

100 m Back: 1. Murphy (USA), 49.23; 2. Jiayu Xu (CHN), 49.26; 3. Kolesnikov (RUS), 49.40; 4. Mitch Larkin (AUS), 49.46; 5. Guido (BRA), 49.75; 6. Matt Grevers (USA), 50.02; 7. Diener (GER), 50.24; 8. Robert Glinta (ROU), 50.36.

200 m Back: 1. Rylov (RUS), 1:47.02; 2. Murphy (USA), 1:47.34; 3. Radoslaw Kawecki (POL), 1:48.25; 4. Larkin (AUS), 1:48.25; 5. Jacob Pebley (USA), 1:49.72; 6. Jiayu Xu (CHN), 1:49.91; 7. Ryosuke Irie (JPN), 1:50.88; 8. Hayate Matsubara (JPN), 1:51.96.

50 m Breaststroke: 1. Cameron van den Burgh (RSA), 25.41 (Meet Record); 2. Ilya Shymanovich (BLR), 25.77; 3. Felipe Lima (BRA), 25.80; 4. Kirill Prigoda (RUS), 25.83; 5. Huseyin Sakci (TUR), 25.89; 6. Joao Gomes Junior (BRA), 26.02; 7. Fabian Schwingenschlogl (GER), 26.12; 8. Oleg Kostin (RUS), 26.18.

100 m Breast: 1. van den Burgh (RSA), 56.01 (Meet Record); 2. Shymanovich (BLR), 56.10; 3. Yasuhiro Koseki (JPN), 56.13; 4. Fabio Scozzoli (ITA), 56.48; 5. Prigoda (RUS), 56.56; 6. Lizhuo Wang (CHN), 56.91; 7. Arno Kamminga (NED), 57.10; 8. Andrew Wilson (USA), 57.19.

200 m Breast: 1. Prigoda (RUS), 2:00.16 (World Record; old, 2:00.44, Marco Koch (GER), 2016); 2. Haiyang Qin (CHN), 2:01.15; 3. Marco Koch (GER), 2:01.42; 4. Koseki (JPN), 2:01.18; 5. Josh Prenot (USA), 2:03.12; 6. Mikhail Dorinov (RUS), 2:03.20; 7. Kamminga (FIN), 2:03.72; 8. Erik Persson (SWE), 2:04.15.

50 m Butterfly: 1. Nicholas Santos (BRA), 21.81 (Meet Record); 2. Chad le Clos (RSA), 21.97; 3. Dylan Carter (TTO), 22.38; 4. Marius Kusch (GER), 22.40; 5. Takeshi Kawamoto (JPN), 22.50; 6. tie, Mikhail Vekovishchev (RUS) and Takaya Yasue (JPN), 22.60; 8. Ryan Coetzee (RSA), 22.88.

100 m Fly: 1. le Clos (RSA), 48.50; 2. Caeleb Dressel (USA), 48.71; 3. Zhohao Li (CHN), 49.25; 4. Mehdy Metella (FRA), 49.45; 5. Kusch (GER), 49.50; 6. Kawamoto (JPN), 50.07; 7. Jack Conger (USA), 50.32; 8. Piero Codia (ITA), 50.71.

200 m Fly: 1. Daiya Seto (JPN), 1:48.24 (World Record; 1:48.56, Chad le Clos (RSA), 2013); 2. le Clos (RSA), 1:48.32 (also under old World Record!); 3. Li (CHN), 1:50.39; 4. Aleksandr Kharlanov (RUS), 1:50.67; 5. Zach Hartung (USA), 1:51.57; 6. Luiz Melo (BRA), 1:51.99; 7. Nic Brown (AUS), 1:52.10; 8. Antani Ivanov (BUL), 1:52.40.

100 m Medley: 1. Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS), 50.63 (Meet Record); 2. Marco Orsi (ITA), 51.03; 3. Hiromasa Fujimori (JPN), 51.53; 4. Michael Andrew (USA), 51.58; 5. Sergei Fesikov (RUS), 51.63; 6. Kenneth To (HKG), 51.88; 7. Shun Wang (CHN), 51.95; 8. Caio Pumputis (BRA), 52.28.

200 m Medley: 1. Shun Wang (CHN), 1:51.01; 2. Josh Prenot (USA), 1:52.69; 3. Fujimori (JPN), 1:52.73; 4. Mitch Larkin (AUS), 1:52.78; 5. Pumputis (BRA), 1:53.05; 6. Leonardo Coehlo Santos (BRA), 1:53.38; 7. Jan Switkowski (POL), 1:53.96; 8. Bradlee Ashby (NZL), 1:54.01.

400 m Medley: 1. Daiya Seto (JPN), 3:56.43; 2. Thomas Fraser-Holmes (AUS), 4:02.74; 3. Brandonn Almeida (BRA), 4:03.71; 4. Peter Bernek (HUN), 4:04.71; 5. Gergely Gyurta (HUN), 4:04.74; 6. Tomas Peribonio Avila (ECU), 4:06.26; 7. Tomoya Takeuchi (JPN), 4:06.99; 8. Joao Alexandre Vital (POR), 4:07.69.

4×50 m Freestyle: 1. United States (Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held, Jack Conger, Michael Chadwick), 1:21.80 (World Record; old, 1:22.60, Russia, 2014); 2. Russia (Morozov, Sedov, Kuzmenko, Rylov), 1:22.22; 3. Italy (Condorelli, Vergani, Zazzeri, Miressi), 1:22.90; 4. Australia, 1:23.92; 5. South Africa, 1:24.14; 6. Japan, 1:24.69; 7. Germany, 1:25.54; Belarus was disqualified.

4×100 m Freestyle: 1. United States (Caeleb Dressel, Blake Pieroni, Michael Chadwick, Ryan Held), 3:03.03 (World Record; old, 3:30.30, United States, 2009; Dressel’s 45.66 lead-off is an American Record; old, 45.82, Held, in heats); 2. Russia (Grinev, Fesikov, Morozov, Kolesnikov), 3:03.11 (also under old World Record!); 3. Brazil (Santana, Chierighini, Cielo Filho, Correia), 3:05.15; 4. Italy, 3:05.20; 5. Australia, 3:06.49; 6. Japan, 3:07.87; 7. China, 3:10.55; 8. Belarus, 3:10.59.

4×200 m Freestyle: 1. Brazil (Melo, Scheffer, Santos, Correia), 6:46.81 (World Record; old, 6:49.04, Russia, 2010); 2. Russia (Malyutin, Verkovishchev, Girev, Krasnykh), 6:46.84; 3. China (Ji, Xu, Sun, Wang), 6:47.53; 4. United States (Blake Pieroni, Ryan Held, Zach Hartung, Zane Grothe), 6:49.84; 5. Australia, 6:53.05; 6. Italy, 6:55.67; 7. Portugal, 6:59.28; 8. Sweden, 6:59.35.

4×50 m Medley: 1. Russia (Kolesnikov, Kostin, Vekovishchev, Rylov), 1:30.54; 2. United States (Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held), 1:30.90 (American Record; old, 1:31.83, National Team, 2014); 3. Brazil (Guido, Lima, Santos, Cielo), 1:31.49; 4. Italy, 1:31.54; 5. Germany, 1:31.80; 6. Belarus, 1:32.45; 7. Japan, 1:32.83; 8. Australia, 1:33.19.

4×100 m Medley: 1. United States (Ryan Murphy, Andrew Wilson, Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held), 3:19.98 (Meet Record; and American Record; old, 3:20.91, National Team, 2015); 2. Russia (Kolesnikov, Prigoda, Vekovishchev, Morozov), 3:20.61; 3. Japan (Irie, Koseki, Kawamoto, Nakamura), 3:21.07; 4. Brazil, 3:22.00; 5. Germany, 3:22.17; 6. Belarus, 3:24.41; 7. Lithuania, 3:24.51; 8. Australia, 3:24.65.

Women

50 m Freestyle: 1. Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED), 23.19 (Meet Record); 2. Femke Heemskerk (NED), 23.67; 3. Etiene Medeiros (BRA), 23.76; 4. Mallory Comerford (USA), 23.86; 5. Holly Barratt (AUS), 23.92; 6. Melanie Henique (FRA), 24.01; 7. Mariia Kameneva (RUS), 24.06; 8. Madison Kennedy (USA), 24.11.

100 m Free: 1. Kromowidjojo (NED), 51.14 (Meet Record); 2. Heemskerk (NED), 51.60; 3. Comerford (USA), 51.63 (American Record; old, 51.69, Simone Manuel, 2015); 4. Michelle Coleman (SWE), 52.24; 5. Menghui Zhu (CHN), 52.40; 6. Barbora Seemanova (CZE), 52.46; 7. Lia Neal (USA), 52.50; 8. Erin Gallagher (RSA), 53.14.

200 m Free: 1. Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 1:51.38; 2. Mallory Comerford (USA), 1:51.81 (American Record; old, 1:52.52, Comerford, 2018); 3. Heemskerk (NED), 1:52.36; 4. Federica Pellegrini (ITA), 1:53.18; 5. Jianjiahe Wang (CHN), 1:53.23; 6. Coleman (SWE), 1:53.83; 7. Veronika Andrusenko (RUS), 1:54.26; 8. Seemanova (CZE), 1:54.82.

400 m Free: 1. Titmus (AUS), 3:53.92 (World Record; old, 3:53.97, Jianjiahe Wang (CHN), 2018); 2. J. Wang (CHN), 3:54.56; 3. Bingjie Li (CHN), 3:57.99; 4. Leah Smith (USA), 3:58.58; 5. Anna Egorova (RUS), 4:01.52; 6. Valeriia Salamatina (RUS), 4:02.87; 7. Sarah Kohler (GER), 4:03.28; 8. Erica Musso (ITA), 4:03.61.

800 m Free: 1. J. Wang (CHN), 8:04.35; 2. Simona Quadarella (ITA), 8:08.03; 3. L. Smith (USA), 8:08.75; 4. B. Li (CHN), 8:09.81; 5. Kohler (GER), 8:10.54; 6. Egorova (RUS), 8:12.65; 7. Haley Anderson (USA), 8:18.70; 8. Mayuko Goto (JPN), 8:22.10.

50 m Backstoke: 1. Olivia Smoliga (USA), 25.88 (American Record; old, 26.06, Smoliga, 2018 [in semifinals]); 2. Caroline Pilhatsch (AUT), 25.99; 3. Holly Barratt (AUS), 26.04; 4. Yuanhui Fu (CHN), 26.06; 5. Mathilde Cini (FRA), 26.17; 6. Miyuki Takemura (JPN), 26.30; 7. Georgia Davies (GBR), 26.31; 8. Alicja Tchorz (POL), 26.42.

100 m Backstroke: 1. Smoliga (USA), 56.19; 2. Katinka Hosszu (HUN), 59.26; 3. tie, Davies (GBR) and Minna Atherton (AUS), 56.74; 5. Kathleen Baker (USA), 56.89; 6. Emily Seebohm (AUS), 56.98; 7. Simona Kubova (CZE), 57.03; 8. Emi Moronuki (JPN), 57.18.

200 m Back: 1. Lisa Bratton (USA), 2:00.71; 2. Baker (USA), 2:00.79; 3. Seebohm (AUS), 2:01.37; 4. Hosszu (HUN), 2:01.99; 5. Margherita Panziera (ITA), 2:02.50; 6. Daria K. Ustinova (RUS), 2:02.96; 7. Sayaka Akase (JPN), 2:03.92; 8. Moronuki (JPN), 2:05.80.

50 m Breaststroke: 1. Alia Atkinson (JAM), 29.05; 2. Ruta Meilutyte (LTU), 29.38; 3. Martina Carraro (ITA), 29.59; 4. Jenna Laukkanen (FIN), 29.68; 5. Katie Meili (USA), 29.89; 6. Jessica Hansen (AUS), 30.20; 7. Fanny Lecluyse (BEL), 30.41; 8. Ida Hulkko (FIN), 30.45.

100 m Breast: 1. Atkinson (JAM), 1:03.51; 2. Meili (USA), 1:03.63; 3. Hansen (AUS), 1:04.61; 4. Carraro (ITA), 1:04.73; 5. Laukkanen (FIN), 1:04.96; 6. Jinglin Shi (CHN), 1:05.10; 7. Lecluyse (BEL), 1:05.13; 8. Kanako Watanabe (JPN), 1:05.34.

200 m Breast: 1. Annie Lazor (USA), 2:18.32; 2. Bethany Galant (USA), 2:18.62; 3. Lecluyse (BEL), 2:18.85; 4. Jingyao Yu (CHN), 2:10.20; 5. Jessica Vall (ESP), 2:19.37; 6. Shiwen Ye (CHN), 2:19.52; 7. Mariia Temnikova (RUS), 2:19.58; 8. Marina Garcia (ESP), 2:20.33.

50 m Butterfly: 1. Kromowidjojo (NED), 24.47 (Meet Record); 2. Holly Barratt (AUS), 24.80; 3. Kelsi Dahlia (USA), 24.97; 4. Melanie Henique (FRA), 25.02; 5. Maaike de Waard (NED), 25.32; 6. Yichun Wang (CHN), 25.38; 7. Haley Black (CAN), 25.75; 8. Aliena Schmidtke (GER), 25.76.

100 m Fly: 1. Dahlia (USA), 55.01; 2. Kendyl Stewart (USA), 56.22; 3. Daiene Dias (BRA), 56.31; 4. Illaria Bianchi (ITA), 56.39; 5. Elena de Liddo (ITA), 56.50; 6. Haley Black (CAN), 56.72; 7. Ai Soma (JPN), 56.76; 8. Yichun Wang (CHN), 56.96.

200 m Fly: 1. Katinka Hosszu (HUN), 2:01.60; 2. Kelsi Dahlia (USA), 2:01.73 (American Record; old, 2:02.89, Dahlia [as Kelsi Worrell], 2016); 3. Suzuka Hasegawa (JPN), 2:04.04; 4. Lara Grangeon (FRA), 2:04.91; 5. Ilaria Bianchi (ITA), 2:05.57; 6. Ana Monteiro (POR), 2:05.74; 7. Yufei Zhang (CHN), 2:05.86; 8. Nao Kobayashi (JPN), 2:06.24.

100 m Medley: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 57.26; 2. Runa Imai (JPN), 57.85; 3. Atkinson (JAM), 58.11; 4. Melanie Margalis (USA), 58.32; 5. Kathleen Baker (USA), 58.47; 6. Emily Seebohm (AUS), 58.78; 7. Jenna Laukkanen (FIN), 59.11; 8. Rika Omoto (JPN), 59.18.

200 m Medley: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 2:03.25; 2. Margalis (USA), 2:04.62 (American Record; old, 2:04.91, Caitlin Leverenz, 2011); 3. Baker (USA), 2:05.54; 4. Shiwen Ye (CHN), 2:05.79; 5. Ilaria Cusinato (ITA), 2:06.17; 6. Emily Seebohm (AUS), 2:06.80; 7. Abbey Harkin (AUS), 2:08.30; 8. Sakiko Shimizu (JPN), 2:08.41.

400 m Medley: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 4:21.40; 2. Margalis (USA), 4:25.84; 3. Fantina Lesaffre (FRA), 4:27.31; 4. Cusinato (ITA), 4:27.88; 5. Lara Grangeon (FRA), 4:29.56; 6. Shimizu (JPN), 4:31.07; 7. Catalina Corro (ESP), 4:31.63; 8. Miho Takahashi (JPN), 4:35.62.

4×50 m Freestyle: 1. United States (Madison Kennedy, Mallory Comerford, Kelsi Dahlia, Erika Brown), 1:34.03 (Meet Record and American Record; old, 1:34.61, National Team, 2014); 2. Netherlands (Kromowidjojo, Heemskerk, Busch, van Roon), 1:34.55; 3. Australia (Barratt, Seebohm, Atherton, Buchanan), 1:36.34; 4. Russia, 1:37.09; 5. Japan, 1:37.35; 6. China, 1:37.58; 7. Czech Rep., 1:38.24; 8. Germany, 1:38.70.

4×100 m Free: 1. United States (Olivia Smoliga, Lia Neal, Mallory Comerford, Kelsi Dahlia), 3:27.78; 2. Netherlands (Busch, Heemskerk, de Waard, Kromowidjojo), 3:28.02; 3. China (Zhu, Yang, Liu, Wang), 3:30.92; 4. Japan, 3:31.68; 5. Russia, 3:32.48; 6. Germany, 3:33.27; 7. Hong Kong, 3:40.25; 8. Turkey, 3:41.25.

4×200 m Free: 1. China (Li, Yang, Zhang, Wang), 7:34.08; 2. United States (Leah Smith, Mallory Comerford, Melanie Margalis, Erika Brown), 7:35.30 (American Record; old, 7:38.42, National Team, 2010); 3. Australia (Titmus, Atherton, Buchanan, Harkin), 7:36.40; 4. Russia, 7:36.64; 5. Japan, 7:42.97; 6. Italy, 7:43.18; 7. Germany, 7:46.36; 8. Austria, 7:55.93.

4×50 m Medley: 1. United States (Olivia Smoliga, Katie Meili, Kelsi Dahlia, Mallory Comerford), 1:42.38 (World Record; old, 1:43.27, United States, 2016); 2. China (Fu, Suo, Wang, Wu), 1:44.31; 3. Netherlands (de Waard, Busch, Kromowidjojo, Heemskerk), 1:44.57; 4. Japan, 1:44.90; 5. Australia, 1:45.79; 6. Russia, 1:45.98; 7. Czech Rep., 1:46.17; 8. Italy, 1:46.44.

4×100 m Medley: 1. United States (Olivia Smoliga, Katie Meili, Kelsi Dahlia, Mallory Comerford), 3:45.58 (Meet Record); 2. China (Fu, Shi, Zhang, Zhu), 3:48.80; 3. Italy (Panziera, Carraro, di Liddo, Pellegrini), 3:51.38; 4. Japan, 3:51.81; 5. Russia, 3:53.73; 6. Germany, 3:54.14; 7. Canada, 3:58.04; Australia was disqualified.

Mixed

4×50 m Freestyle: 1. United States (Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held, Mallory Comerford, Kelsi Dahlia), 1:27.89 (World Record; old, 1:28.39, Netherlands, 2017); 2. Netherlands (Puts, Pijnenburg, Kromowidjojo, Heemskerk), 1:28.51; 2. Russia (Morozov, Sedov, Kemaneva, Nasretdinova), 1:28.73; 4. Japan, 1:29.51; 5. Brazil, 1:29.91; 6. Australia, 1:30.09; 7. Italy, 1:30.96; 8. Finland, 1:31.23.

4×50 m Medley: 1. United States (Olivia Smoliga, Michael Andrew, Kelsi Dahlia, Caeleb Dressel), 1:36.40 (World Record; old, 1:37.17, United States, 2013); 2. Netherlands (Puts, Elzerman, Kromowidjojo, Heemskerk), 1:37.05; 3. Russia (Kolesnikov, Kostin, Nasretdinova, Kameneva), 1:37.33; 4. Japan, 1:37.67; 5. Italy, 1:38.08; 6. Germany, 1:38.35; 7. Australia, 1:38.69; 8. Finland, 1:39.38.

THE BIG PICTURE: Salt Lake City selected by USOC for a future Winter Games bid

By
Rich Perelman
-

The U.S. is back in the Olympic bidding business, this time for an Olympic Winter Games.

At its Board of Directors meeting in San Francisco on Friday, the USOC selected Salt Lake City, Utah, as its bid city for a future Winter Games. The specific Games has not been confirmed, but the 2030 Games are an obvious opportunity.

Salt Lake City, host of the highly-successful 2002 Winter Games, was chosen over Denver, Colorado, which infamously gave back the 1976 Winter Games after being selected.

“The United States is committed to hosting Games that are both remarkable and practical, and we believe that Salt Lake City is the community most capable of delivering against that promise,” said USOC chief executive Sarah Hirshland. “This exploration process was a unique opportunity for the USOC to develop even stronger partnerships with each city and state and all involved will continue to play a critical role in our winter athletes’ success.”

There are good polls showing wide support for the Winter Games in the Salt Lake City area, but the best indication of how good a city for the Games it is comes from its viewership of the PyeongChang Games in February. Salt Lake City had the highest TV ratings of any U.S. city for the Games.

There was immediate speculation that Salt Lake City could be a candidate for the 2026 Games, which has only two bidders – neither with national governmental financial support – in Milan-Cortina (ITA) and Stockholm (SWE). But that would place Salt Lake City in conflict with the marketing of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and is not seen as a real possibility.

There is also interest elsewhere in the 2030 Winter Games, specifically from Almaty (KAZ), Barcelona (ESP), Lillehammer (NOR) and Sapporo (JPN), among others. But Salt Lake City, with its existing venues, will be hard to beat.

LANE ONE: Why is FINA trying to keep swimmers from making money at swimming?

By
Rich Perelman
-

If you listen to the leaders of the Olympic Movement, and especially International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach of Germany, you will hear – over and over again – “it’s all about the athletes.”

Except when it’s not. That’s what makes the current face-off between the international federation for aquatic sports – known by its old acronym, FINA – and some of the world’s elite swimmers worth watching.

The short summary of the situation is that a Swiss company called International Swimming League (ISL) is trying to set up a 15-meet series of swim meets featuring teams made up of the top swimmers in the world. Its primary supporter is Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Grigorishin, the largest shareholder of the Energy Standard Group. His company sponsored an Energy for Swim meet in August, 2017 that was held in Rome (ITA) and included competitors from Australia, Italy, Ukraine and the U.S.

ISL planned to hold another meet this month in Turin (ITA), in collaboration with the Italian swimming federation, with $2.1 million in appearance and prize money. The meet was scheduled to be held after the end of the FINA World Short-Course Championships in China, so there would be no conflict with any FINA swimming competitions and more than 50 top swimmers had signed up.

But FINA objected, and according to a suit filed on anti-trust grounds in the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of California:

“FINA’s [Secretary General Cornel] Marculescu circulated a letter to every FINA member designed to cripple ISL’s plans. ISL, he noted, ‘is neither recognised by nor affiliated to [sic] FINA.’ FINA would monitor the matter closely, he warned, and sanction anyone who violated FINA’s rule on unauthorized relations. In closing, Mr. Marculescu expressed his hope that all who received it would come away from his message with “a clear and mutual understanding of FINA’s competence and jurisdiction in respect to international competitions.”

FINA’s General Rule 4.5 specifically provides for sanctions with a “non-affiliated or suspended body” and “Any individual or group violating this Rule shall be suspended by the affiliated Member for a minimum period of one year, up to a maximum period of two years.”

So FINA’s threat is essentially to suspend swimmers who compete in the meet, and resulted in the meet being canceled by the Italian federation.

The next step was the 7 December filing in the U.S. of two suits against FINA, one by ISL and another as a class-action suit by swimmers themselves, with Olympic gold medalists Tom Shields (USA) and Katinka Hosszu (HUN) and multi-time U.S. national champion Michael Andrew.

Because FINA does business in the U.S. through its affiliation and oversight of USA Swimming, as well as television and sponsorship agreements with U.S. companies, the filings assert that FINA can be sued in U.S. courts. Some of the same reasoning was used by the U.S. Department of Justice in its prosecution of cases against FIFA executives, which have resulted in multiple convictions in cases tried in New York.

Both suits allege FINA has restrained trade illegally under the Sherman Act, 15 United States Code §§ 1-2, which starts with “Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal.” The suit asked for an injunction against FINA “prohibiting FINA from unlawfully interfering in any way with the ability of ISL or any other person or entity from organizing or promoting swimming competitions,” and for monetary damages.

This is so silly. Why is FINA doing this? The facts are very much against them:

∙ The Energy for Swim meet scheduled for 20-21 December in Turin does not conflict with any FINA competition, and is five days clear of the end of the just-completed FINA World Short-Course Championships in China.

∙ Meets not organized by FINA which award prize money and are not competitions between national teams are commonly organized. USA Swimming has run an annual series – now called the Tyr Pro Swim Series – that dates back to the 2007-08 swimming season.

∙ In Europe, the Mare Nostrum three-meet series – which also has prize money – has been around since 2000; the 2018 meets were held in France, Monaco and Spain.

Moreover, if there are more opportunities for swimmers to make money and be shown more regularly on television, why should FINA be against it? In fact, the added exposure can only help promote FINA’s own championship events, featuring the same swimmers!

It’s also interesting that these suits were filed in the U.S. and not in Europe, where the European Union rules on restraint of trade are even tougher than the Sherman Act. It may be that the European suit is only being delayed for timing purposes, or due to specific requirements of European law. But that suit is sure to come as well.

Other sports have worked these issues out without so much drama:

∙ In track & field, four of the best-known and most prestigious invitational meets – the Bislett Games in Olso (NOR), ISTAF Meeting in Berlin (GER), Weltklasse im Zurich (SUI) and Van Damme Memorial in Brussels (BEL) – got together and sold television and sponsorship rights together as the “Golden Four” in 1992.

The International Assn. of Athletics Federations (IAAF) “expanded and co-opted” the idea as it formed the IAAF Golden League in 1998, the forerunner of today’s IAAF Diamond League.

∙ In soccer, FIFA has cooperated with the club leagues in every country to create scheduling windows for club competitions and national-team competitions. There is plenty of friction to be sure, but everyone seems to be able to co-exist in this structure and both club football and national-team events have never been more popular.

FIFA, of course, has the rule-making authority in the sport and these are observed worldwide. It’s worth noting that ISL and the Italian swimming federation specifically noted that FINA rules for competition and drug testing would be observed in the Energy for Swim meet and the contemplated ISL series in 2019.

FINA issued a weak statement after the filings were made in U.S. Federal Court, noting – apparently seriously – that “FINA remains open to proposals that would genuinely enhance – rather than conflict with – the current and planned competition calendars, providing further opportunities for aquatics athletes, and ideally in a manner that benefits the whole sport.”

It’s worth remembering the International Olympic Committee’s “Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration” issued with considerable fanfare on 9 October. Section I.5. states that athletes have the right to:

“Leverage opportunities to generate income in relation to their sporting career, name and likeness, while recognising the intellectual property or other rights, rules of the event and of sports organisations as well as the Olympic Charter.”

The proposed Energy for Swim meet and the ISL swim series can actually help FINA, rather than hurt it. By placing itself against the desire for swimmers to be able to ply their trade – and it is a very much a full-time job for the world’s elite swimmers – FINA has placed itself in a position where its authority and status can be challenged and reshaped by governments and courts which are well outside of its control.

FINA should settle this matter as soon as possible and in the athlete’s favor. ISL should be encouraged to offer meets which support athletes through appearance and prize money, and a “calendar conference” that makes room for FINA’s events, the Tyr Pro Swim Series, the Mare Nostrum series, national championships and the ISL series should be held right away.

British world Breaststroke record holder Adam Peaty wrote on Instagram of FINA’s heavy-handed approach, “I think this is the wrong decision and it will galvanize the swimmers, not break them.” More than a dozen top swimmers will meet with ISL on 18-19 December to plot the next move.

Rich Perelman
Editor

TABLE TENNIS: Harimoto, 15, wins World Tour Grand Finals!

By
Rich Perelman
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Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto (Photo: ITTFWorld)

The ITTF World Tour Grand Finals saw history in Incheon (KOR) as 15-year-old Tomokazu Harimoto became the youngest player to ever win the men’s Singles title, and a South Korea/North Korea pair made it to the Mixed Doubles finals.

Harimoto has been steadily climbing this season and in the final, he was brilliant against China’s Gaoyuan Lin, losing the second game, then winning three straight sets and ending a three-year strangehold on the me’s Singles title by Japan, 11-4, 13-15, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9.

The Mixed Doubles team of Woojin Jang (KOR) and Hyo Sim Cha (PRK) won two tight matches to reach the final, but ran into a very hot Hong Kong duo of Chun Ting Wong and Hoi Kem Doo and lost, 11-6, 11-8, 11-4. Still, it was a considerable achievement for both, as the combined Korean effort is always news, and Wong and Doo won the first-ever Mixed Doubles title in the Grand Finals.

China’s Meng Chen defended her title in the women’s Singles final against countrywoman Zhuoija He; in fact, all four of the semifinalists were from China!

Japan’s Hina Hayata and Mima Ito won the women’s Doubles for the first time together, but it was the second Grand Finals won for each of them individually.

This was the first time since 2014 that Chinese entries had not won at least two titles. Summaries:

ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
Incheon (KOR) ~ 13-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Singles: 1. Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN); 2. Gaoyuan Lin (CHN); 3. Hugo Calderano (BRA) and Jun Mizutani (JPN). Semis: Harimoto d. Calderano, 4-0; Lin d. Mizutani, 4-0. Final: Harimoto d. Lin, 4-1.

Men’s Doubles: 1. Woojin Jang/Jonghoon Lim (KOR); 2. Kwan Kit Ho/Chun Ting Wong (HKG); 3. Youngsik Jeoung/Sangsu Lee (KOR) and Masataka Morizono/Yuya Oshima (JPN). Semis: Jang/Lim d. Jeoung/Lee, 3-1; Ho/Wong d. Morizono/Oshima, 3-1. Final: Jang/Lim d. Ho/Wong, 3-2.

Women’s Singles: 1. Meng Chen (CHN); 2. Zhuojia He (CHN); 3. Ning Ding (CHN) and Yuling Zhu (CHN). Semis: Chen d. Zhu, 4-2; He d. Ding, 4-2. Final: Chen d. He, 4-1.

Women’s Doubles: 1. Hina Hayata/Mima Ito (JPN); 2. Xingtong Chen/Yingsha Sun (CHN); 3. Jihee Jeon/Haeun Yang (KOR) and Ke Chen/Manyu Wang (CHN). Semis: Hayata/Ito d. Jeon/Yang, 3-2; Chen/Sun d. Chen/Wang, 3-2. Final: Hayata/Ito d. Chen/Sun, 3-0.

Mixed Doubles: 1. Chun Ting Wong/Hoi Kem Doo (HKG); 2. Woojin Jang (KOR)/Hyo Sim Cha (PRK); 3. Masataka Morizono/Mima Ito (JPN) and Jonghoon Lim/Haeun Yang (KOR). Semis: Wong/Doo d. Morizono/Ito, 3-2; Jang/Cha d. Lim/Yang, 3-2. Final: Wong/Doo d. Jang/Cha, 3-0.

UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Blackmun referred to U.S. Justice Dept.

By
Rich Perelman
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Former USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun

Former USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun faces new legal issues as a follow-up to the release of the Ropes & Gray report last week about the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal at USA Gymnastics.

A Friday news release from U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) started:

“U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) – chairman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security with jurisdiction over the health and safety of US Olympic and NCAA athletes – have referred former U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 and 1505.”

In specific, Blackmun is alleged to have “materially false statements contained in his written testimony to the Subcommittee during the course of the Subcommittee’s investigation” in that “Blackmun’s own statements to the independent investigators appear to contradict his statement to the Subcommittee that he “spoke to the USOC’s safe sport staff after talking to [former USA Gymnastics chief executive Steve] Penny.”

SPEED SKATING: Three medals for Bowe, one for Mantia in in Heerenveen

By
Rich Perelman
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U.S. Speed Skating star Brittany Bowe

American Brittany Bowe scored three medals – one of each color – in the ISU World Cup in Heerenveen (NED), and American Joey Mantia won his first medal of the World Cup season.

Bowe already led the 1,000 m World Cup standings coming into the meet, but she extended it with a win in the race, paired against Japan’s triple PyeongChang medalist Miho Takagi, who finished second, 1:13.249-1:13.939. It was Bowe’s third World Cup gold of the season.

“That was one of the most perfect races I’ve skated this far and I couldn’t be happier to do it here in Thialf [Ice Stadion],” said Bowe afterwards. “Every stroke was right, no missteps, this was definitely one of the best races in my career. I already skated a great 500 m and a good 1,500 m, then it normally comes together in the 1,000 m.

“The pair was great, I had a great chase on the last straight and that makes the world of difference in the 1, 000 m. It was the perfect pair, the perfect execution and I skated six tenths off the track record.

“We’ve been on the road for seven weeks now. It’s good to go back to Salt Lake City, have a little rest and get another training block in, because the real show is in February (World Single Distance Championships in Inzell).”

Bowe finished third in the 500 m, where Nao Kodaira (JPN) left no doubt that she remains the best in the world, with a 37.171-39.239 win over Vanessa Herog (AUT) and Bowe (37.707). Bowe’s third medal of the meet was in the 1,500 m, where she claimed silver behind Ireen Wust (NED), 1:53.300-1:54.007.

For Mantia, the season had been a struggle so far, but he finished well to earn a silver in the 1,500 m in 1:44.092, just behind Thomas Krol of the Netherlands (1:43.782). “I knew coming into the World Cup season that things could be a little rocky and that it was going to be important to stay positive and focused on improving throughout each race, even marginally, no matter what.

“This week we were able to dial in some timing issues and get the skating feeling much better. For me, that’s everything.”

In the men’s sprints, Russia’s Pavel Kulizhkikov had an excellent meet, winning the 500 m and taking the silver in the 1,000 m. Summaries:

ISU Speed Skating World Cup
Heerenveen (NED) ~ 14-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men

500 m: 1. Pavel Kulizhnikov (RUS), 34.494; 2. Tsubasa Hasegawa (JPN), 34.521; 3. Yuma Murakami (JPN), 34.557.

1,000 m: 1. Kjeld Nuis (NED), 1:07.803; 2. Kulizhnikov (RUS), 1:07.930; 3. Denis Yuskov (RUS), 1:07.953. Also: 18. Kimani Griffin (USA), 1:09.982; 19. Joey Mantia (USA), 1:13.895.

1,500 m: 1. Thomas Krol (NED), 1:43.782; 2. Mantia (USA), 1:44.092; 3. Patrick Roest (NED), 1:44.128.

5,000 m: 1. Danila Semerikov (RUS), 6:08.960; 2. Roest (NED), 6:09.820; 3. Sven Kramer (NED), 6:10.614.

Mass Start (16 laps): 1. Cheonho Um (KOR), 8:11.20; 2. Jaewon Chung (KOR), 8:11.350; 3. Bart Swings (BEL), 8:11.770. Also: 13. Mantia (USA), 8:12.290.

Women

500 m: 1. Nao Kodaira (JPN), 37.171; 2. Vanessa Herzog (AUT), 37.239; 3. Brittany Bowe (USA), 37.707. Also: 9. Erin Jackson (USA), 38.035.

1,000 m: 1. Bowe (USA), 1:13.249; 2. Miho Takagi (JPN), 1:13.939; 3. Yekaterina Shikhova (RUS), 1:14.031.

1,500 m: 1. Ireen Wust (NED), 1:53.300; 2. Bowe (USA), 1:54.007; 3. Shikhova (RUS), 1:54.039.

3,000 m: 1. Antoinette de Jong (NED), 3:59.419; 2. Isabelle Weidemann (CAN), 4:00.129; 3. Martina Sabilkova (CZE), 4:00.337.

Mass Start (16 laps): 1. Nana Takagi (JPN), 8:50.15; 2. Irene Schouten (NED), 8:50.28; 3. Ayano Sato (JPN), 8:50.44. Also: 10. Mia Kilburg-Manganello (USA), 8:51.61.

DOPING: WADA sending “technical mission” to Moscow next week

By
Rich Perelman
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The World Anti-Doping Agency announced last Friday that “A full technical mission from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will be in Russia next week to retrieve data from the former Moscow Laboratory.

“The five-person delegation will travel to Moscow on Monday 17 December to access the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and the underlying raw data of the Laboratory, as required by WADA’s Executive Committee decision of 20 September. The team will be led by independent expert Dr. José Antonio (Toni) Pascual, who is a research scientist and academic in Barcelona, Spain with 30 years’ experience in anti-doping, including 25 years in laboratory management. It is expected the data extraction will take three days to complete.”

This is a crucial part of the protocol for the Russians to satisfy in order to be able to maintain their compliant status with WADA. The statement further noted:

“Under the terms of the 20 September decision to reinstate RUSADA as compliant, the Russian authorities must also procure that any re-analysis of samples required by WADA following review of the laboratory data is completed by no later than 30 June 2019.

“The data contained within the laboratory will need to be fully assessed and verified, which will take some time. They will then be used, in conjunction with the re-analysis of samples as required, to build cases against athletes who cheated.”

The last requirement for the Russians will be to provide samples to WADA as requested from those stored at the lab for re-analysis. That will satisfy WADA’s requirements, but the IAAF (for track & field) and the IBU (for biathlon) have also required the technical data and access to samples for their own purposes. The IAAF continues to maintain Russia on suspension, allowing only a small number of athletes to compete internationally, on a case-by-case basis and only as an “Approved Neutral Athlete” and not in Russian uniforms.

SNOWBOARD: Ledecka second and first in PGS openers

By
Rich Perelman
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Czech star Ester Ledecka (Photo: Stefan Brending via Wikimedia)

The “alpine” events in Snowboard opened in Carezza and Cortina d’Ampezzi (ITA) and Czech sensation Ester Ledecka was in the thick of the fight for in both places.

The Olympic gold medalist in 2018 – who also won a shock victory in the Alpine Super-G – lost in the opener in Carezza to unheralded Nadya Ochner of Italy, who claimed her first-ever World Cup win and her fourth career medal. The 25-year-old won her first medal on tour in two years.

For Ledecka – who has been busy on the Alpine circuit up until now – it was her 23rd career World Cup medal.

Tim Mastnak (SLO) earned his second career win on the men’s side over Austria’s Benjamin Karl.

Two days later in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Ledecka was in great form and won easily as Swiss Julie Zogg crashed in the final. “It was great racing out there today,” said Ledecka. “The course was well-prepared and I think [it was] the same for everyone all night. But it’s a much different course than Carezza, with the flat part here, and much icier. I like both courses, but tonight I had good runs all the way through competition and was able to take the win.” It was her 24th career World Cup medal.

Italy’s Ronald Fischnaller, 38, always seems to be on the podium in Cortina and he won again, beating top qualifier – and last season’s World Cup champion – Nevin Galmarini (SUI) in the final. “I don’t know why, but I always have a really good feeling here,” Fischnaller said. “It was a lot of fun today, even though it was difficult snow conditions. And I couldn’t train properly because of some issues with my back, so this is a big surprise. But I guess when it’s time for pushing I can still do it!”
Summaries:

FIS Snowboard World Cup
Carezza (ITA) ~ 13 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom/Big Final: 1. Tim Mastnak (SLO); 2. Benjamin Karl (AUT); Small Final: 3. Sebastian Kislinger (AUT); 4. Andreas Prommegger (AUT).

Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom/Big Final: 1. Nadya Ochner (ITA); 2. Ester Ledecka (CZE); Small Final: 3. Ramona Hofmeister (GER); 4. Cheyenne Loch (GER).

FIS Snowboard World Cup
Cortina d’Ampezzo (ITA) ~ 15 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom/Big Final: 1. Roland Fischnaller (ITA); 2. Nevin Galmarini (SUI); Small Final: 3. Benjamin Karl (AUT); 4. Andrea Prommegger (AUT).

Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom/Big Final: 1. Ester Ledecka (CZE); 2. Julie Zogg (SUI); Small Final: 3. Sabine Schoeffmann (GER); 4. Gloria Kotnik (SLO).

SKI JUMPING: Althaus sweeps first World Cups in Premanon

By
Rich Perelman
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Germany's Katharina Althaus (Photo: Martin Putz via Wikimedia)

Is this the year for Germany’s Katharina Althaus?

Second in the World Cup seasonal standings to Norway’s Maren Lundby, Althaus is quickly stamping this season as her own. Just 22, she has won three World Cup events in a row, sweeping both of the competitions off a 90 m hill in Premanon (FRA) – a new World Cup venue – over the weekend.

Neither of the final scores were close, as Althaus won by 9.7 points over Japanese star Sara Takanashi on Saturday and then 14.1 points over Lundby on Sunday (with Takanashi third).

Althaus showed lots of promise last season, which was dominated by Lundby. But Althaus won 10 medals and had three wins. She’s equaled that total already this season, and has a 400-278 lead over Lundby after six of the 25 scheduled events.

The women’s jumpers get a holiday break now and won’t be back in competition until 12 January in Sapporo (JPN). Summaries:

FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Premanon (FRA) ~ 15-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Women’s 90 m hill I: 1. Katharina Althaus (GER), 260.3; 2. Sara Takanashi (JPN), JPN), 250.7; 3. Ema Klinec (SLO), 247.5; 4. Lidiia Iakovleva (EUS), 241.2; 5. Nika Kriznar (SLO), 239.9.

Women’s 90 m hill II: 1. Althaus (GER), 249.6; 2. Maren Lundby (NOR), 235.5; 3. Takanashi (JPN), 233.3; 4. Klinec (SLO), 233.2; 5. Daniela Iraschko-Stolz (AUT), 233.1.

SKI JUMPING: Kobayashi stays in front in Engelberg

By
Rich Perelman
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Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi (Photo: Krzysztof Sachimata via Wikimedia)

We’re still early in the 2018-19 World Cup season, but the question being asked is whether Japan’s 27-year-old Ryoyu Kobayashi is the real deal, or an early-season flash.

You could be thinking the latter based on his seventh-place performance in the first of two competitions off the 140 m hill in Engelberg (GER), which was won by Karl Geiger, his second career World Cup victory.

But Kobayashi made a statement in the second event, winning his sixth medal in the eight events held this season and scoring his fourth win in his last five events. He finished more than nine points ahead of his primary challenger this season, Poland’s Piotr Zyla, who was second in both events.

Zyla has closed up the gap on Kobayashi, now trailing 556-445. Next up will be the prestigious Four Hills Tournament in Germany and Austria from 30 December-6 January. Summaries from Engelberg:

FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Engelberg (SUI) ~ 15-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s 140 m hill I: 1. Karl Geiger (GER), 302.0; 2. Piotr Zyla (POL), 297.3; 3. Daniel Huber (AUT), 295.5; 4. Johann Andre Forfang (NOR), 295.3; 5. Evgeniy Klimov (RUS), 294.6.

Men’s 140 m hill II: 1. Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN), 294.4; 2. Zyla (POL), 285.1; 3. Kamil Stoch (POL), 279.5; 4. Geiger (GER), 278.6; 5. Dawid Kubacki (POL), 278.5.

LUGE: Germans and Russians sweep the six races in Lake Placid

By
Rich Perelman
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Germany's Dajana Eitberger (Photo: Sandro Halank via wikimedia)

The Lake Placid stop on the FIL World Cup tour was a good one for Russia’s Roman Repilov and Germany’s Dajana Eitberger, Natalie Geisenberger and the Doubles team of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken.

They were the winners in the three standard races and three sprints on the program. Repilov, the 2016-17 World Cup seasonal winner, defended his Lake Placid win from last season, then added the sprint title on Sunday. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig won medals in both races as well, with a silver and a bronze on the sprint.

The women’s racing saw Germany’s Geisenberger score a silver in the standard race and win the sprint, extending his consecutive-medal-races steak to 25 in a row. Eitberger won her first race of the season; she won twice on tour last season.

Eggert and Benecken won both of the Doubles races and have medaled in five of six races this season. The pair are the two-time defending seasonal champs.

The U.S. had its best showing of the season, winning a Doubles sprint silver from Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman and a silver from Summer Britcher in the women’s sprint. There was also a special ceremony to honor 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Erin Hamlin on Sunday; she donned her singlet and helmet one more time and came down the track she races so many times as a forerunner, before being mobbed by family and friends. Summaries:

FIL World Cup
Lake Placid, New York (USA) ~ 15-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Singles: 1. Roman Repilov (RUS), 1:43.048; 2. Johannes Ludwig (GER), 1:43.219; 3. Reinhard Egger (AUT), 1:43.275; 4. Chris Mazdzer (USA), 1:43.315; 5. Felix Loch (GER), 1:43.411. Also: 10. Tucker West (USA), 1:43.918; … 17. Jonathan Gustafson (USA), 1:44.247.

Men’s Sprint: 1. Repilov (RUS), 32.554; 2. Semen Pavilchenko (RUS), 32.558; 3. Ludwig (GER), 32.667; 4. David Glierscher (AUT), 32.688; 5. Richard Eger (AUT), 32.792. Also: 6. Mazdzer (USA), 32.813; … 10. West (USA), 33.018.

Men’s Doubles: 1. Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER), 1:27.492; 2. Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (GER), 1:27.812; 3. Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller (AUT), 1:28.032; 4. Andris Sics/Juris Sics (LAT), 1:28.201; 5. Tristan Walker/Justin Snith (CAN), 1:28.358. Also: 6. Chris Mazdzer/Jayson Terdiman (USA), 1:28.428.

Men’s Doubles Sprint: 1. Eggert/Benecken (GER), 37.471; 2. Mazdzer/Terdiman (USA), 37.669; 3. Walker/Snith (CAN), 37.701; 4. Wendl/Arlt (GER), 37.711; 5. Sics/Sics (LAT), 37.751.

Women’s Singles: 1. Dajana Eitberger (GER), 1:27.674; 2. Natalie Geisenberger (GER), 1:27.705; 3. Julia Taubitz (GER), 1:27.929; 4. Emily Sweeney (USA), 1:27.943; 5. Summer Britcher (USA), 1:28.012. Also: 6. Brittney Arndt (USA), 1:28.063; … 17. Raychel Germaine (USA), 1:28.841.

Women’s Sprint: 1. Geisenberger (GER), 37.667; 2. Britcher (USA), 37.745; 3. Taubitz (GER), 37.753; 4. Sweeney, 37.761; 5. Arndt (USA), 37.762.

JUDO: Seven golds for Japan at Guangzhou Masters

By
Rich Perelman
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Georgia's +100 kg star Guram Tushishvili (in white) at the 2018 IJF Masters (Photo: Gabriela Sabau for IJF)

A powerful Japanese squad won more than double the medals of the next-best country to dominate the 2018 IJF Masters tournament, held in Guangzhou (CHN).

In all, Japan tallied seven golds, three silvers and four bronze medals for a total of 14. Next best were Russia with six (1-1-4) and Georgia with five (2-1-2). Japan’s edge came from the women’s classes, where they won five of seven divisions and won gold, silver and a bronze medal in the -78 kg weight class by Mami Umeki, Ruika Sato, and Shori Hamada.

Several of the 2018 World Champions doubled back with wins in the Masters, including Nikoloz Sherazadishvili (ESP) at -90 kg; Varlam Liparteliani (GEO) at -100 kg and Guram Tushishvili (GEO) at +100 kg among the men and Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA) in the women’s -63 kg class.

Prize money at the Masters was $9,000-6,000-3,000 for the top three places (two thirds), with 20% reserved for coaches. Summaries:

IJF Masters
Guangzhou (CHN) ~ 15-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men

-60 kg: 1. Robert Mshvidobadze (RUS); 2. Amiran Papinashvili (GEO); 3. Amartuvshin Dashdavaa (MGL) and Yeldos Smetov (KAZ).

-66 kg: 1. Joshiro Maruyama (JPN); 2. Baruch Shmailov (ISR); 3. Altansukh Dovdon (MGL) and Vazha Margvelashvili (GEO).

-73 kg: 1. Rustam Orujov (AZE); 2. Arthur Margelidon (CAN); 3. Changrim An (KOR) and Lasha Shavdatuashvili (GEO).

-81 kg: 1. Takeshi Sasaki (JPN); 2. Aslan Lippinagov (RUS); 3. Vedat Albayrak (TUR) and Frank de Wit (NED).

-90 kg: 1. Nikoloz Sherazadishvili (ESP); 2. Krisztian Toth (HUN); 3. Islam Bozbayev (KAZ) and Mikhail Igolinkov (RUS).

-100 kg: 1. Varlam Liparteliani (GEO); 2. Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren (MGL); 3. Kentaro Ilda (JPN) and Ramadan Darwish (EGY).

+100 kg: 1. Guram Tushishvili (GEO); 2. Rafael Silva (BRA); 3. David Moura (BRA) and Tamerlan Bashaev (RUS).

Women

-48 kg: 1. Distria Krasniqi (KOS); 2. Ami Kondo (JPN); 3. Irina Dolgova (RUS) and Marusa Stangar (SLO).

-52 kg: 1. Natsumi Tsunoda (JPN); 2. Amandine Buchard (FRA); 3. Natalia Kuziutina (RUS) and Charline van Snick (BEL).

-57 kg: 1. Tsukasa Yoshida (JPN); 2. Nora Gjakova (KOS); 3. Jessica Klimkait (CAN) and Momo Tamaoki (JPN).

-63 kg: 1. Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA); 2. Nami Nabekura (JPN); 3. Tina Trstenjak (SLO) and Miku Tashiro (JPN).

-70 kg: 1. Saki Niizoe (JPN); 2. Yuri Alvear (COL); 3. Sanne van Dijke (NED) and Michaela PollEres (AUT).

-78 kg: 1. Mami Umeki (JPN); 2. Ruika Sato (JPN); 3. Shori Hamada (JPN) and Natalie Powell (GBR).

+78 kg: 1. Akira Sone (JPN); 2. Idalys Ortiz (CUB); 3. Maria Suelen Altheman (BRA) and Larisa Ceric (BIH).

HOCKEY: Belgium takes Men’s World Cup on penalties

By
Rich Perelman
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Belgium's happy winners at the FIH Men's World Cup (Photo: FIH)

There’s a first time for everything and Belgium became the sixth nation to hoist the FIH men’s World Cup trophy after winning a penalty shoot-out, 3-2, over thee-time winner The Netherlands.

The final ended 0-0 in regulation time, then Florent van Aubel scored for Belgium on its first shot. Jeroen Hertzberger did the same for the Dutch for a 1-1 tie. But the Dutch missed three in a row and Victor Wegnez and van Aubel scored for a 3-1 lead after four frames. Jonas de Geus scored for the Dutch, but that was all they could muster.

It was the first time in the finals for Belgium, but frustration for the Dutch, who also finished second in 2014 (but have won the tournament in 1973-90-98).

In the semifinals, Belgium crushed England, 6-0, and the Dutch had to go to penalties to defeat Australia after a 2-2 tie in regulation (4-3 on penalty shots). Australia won the bronze medal with a 8-1 pounding of the English.

Belgium ended up as the only unbeaten team in the World Cup, with a 6-0-1 record. The Dutch ended 5-2-0; Australia was 5-1-0 and England ended at 3-3-1.

Held in Bhubaneswar (IND), the tournament awards included Player of the Tournament to Belgium’s Arthur van Doren. In terms of goals, Australia’s Blake Govers and Belgian Alexander Hendrickxx each had seven and Gonzalo Peillat (ARG) had six. The top goalkeeper was Primin Blaak (NED).

The complete match results are here.

FREESTYLE SKIING: Kingsbury and Kauf sweep Moguls in Thaiwoo

By
Rich Perelman
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Canada's Moguls star Mikael Kingsbury

It was no surprise to see Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury – the greatest Moguls skier of all time – on top of the podium at the Chinese resort of Thaiwoo. But it was one of the best events ever for American Jaelin Kauf, who won both the Moguls on Saturday and the Dual Moguls on Sunday.

Kingsbury has neve lost at Thaiwoo, winning both competitions in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He increased his World Cup wins record to 52 and is a perfect 3-for-3 this season in World Cup competition. He out-pointed Japan’s Ikuma Horishima in the Moguls event and Sweden’s Oskar Elofsson in the Dual Moguls.

Kauf, who has won a World Championships bronze in Moguls, but was seventh in PyeongChang, scored her ninth and 10th career World Cup medals and sixth win. Like Kingsbury, she likes Thaiwoo, having won gold and silver there in 2017.

“I’m stoked,” said Kauf, “Taking back-to-back victories feels amazing and I hope to keep pushing my skiing going further into the season to keep that yellow World Cup leader bib.” Summaries:

FIS Cross Country World Cup
Thaiwoo (CHN) ~ 15-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Moguls: 1. Mikael Kingsbury (CAN), 90.31; 2. Ikuma Horishima (JPN), 87.68; 3. Dmitriy Reikherd (KAZ), 86.92; 4. Benjamin Cavet (FRA), 86.15; 5. Daichi Hara (JPN), 81.25.

Men’s Dual Moguls/Big Final: 1. Kingsbury (CAN), 88.99; 2. Oskar Elofsson (SWE), 33.95. Small Final: 3. Benjamin Cavet (FRA), 86.32; 4. Horishima (JPN), 84.20.

Women’s Moguls: 1. Jaelin Kauf (USA), 83.08; 2. Jakara Anthony (AUS), 82.42; 3. Perrine Laffont (FRA), 81.23; 4. Yulia Galysheva (KAZ), 81.20; 5. Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (CAN), 72.79.

Women’s Dual Moguls/Big Final: 1. Kauf (USA), 82.55; 2. Laffont (FRA), 60.26. Small Final: 3. Galysheva (KAZ), 76.85; 4. Hinako Tomitaka (JPN), 75.55.

Embed from Getty Images

American Moguls star Jaelin Kauf

CYCLING: Lavreysen ends Glaetzer’s streak in London World Cup Sprint

By
Rich Perelman
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It took four tries, but someone finally beat Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer in a World Cup sprint.

Competing in London’s Lee Valley VeloPark, Glaetzer made it to the final against Harrie Lavreysen (NED), and got swept in the final, losing by 0.092 seconds in the first race and by 0.411 in the second. Still, Glaetzer now has made four straight World Cup finals.

Lavreysen also collected a second gold in the event with a win in the Team Sprint, with Roy van den Berg and Matthijs Buchli (who also won the Keirin).

The big winner among the women was also a sprinter, Australia’s Stephanie Morton, who won the Sprint for her second World Cup win this season, and also took the Keirin. The only other double winner for the women was Britain’s Katie Archibald, who teamed with Laura Kenny to win the Madison, and was part of Britain’s Team Pursuit champions.

The U.S. women won two medals, with Jennifer Valente finishing second to Kirsten Wild (NED) in the Omnium, and the team of Christina Birch, Kelly Catlin, Kimberly Geist and Emma White finishing second to Great Britain in the Team Pursuit. Summaries:

UCI Track Cycling World Cup
London (GBR) ~ 13-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men

Sprint: 1. Harrie Lavreysen (NED); 2. Matthew Glaetzer (AUS); Third: 3. Jeffrey Hoogland (NED); 4. Jack Carlin (GBR).

Team Sprint: 1. Netherlands (van den Berg, Lavreysen, Buchli), 42.789; 2. Great Britain, 44.186. Third: 3. Germany, 44.001; 4. Poland, 44.842.

Team Pursuit: 1. Huub Wattbike Test Team (GBR), 3:57.726; 2. Belgium, 3:59.014; Third: 3. Great Britain, 3:59.609; 4. Italy, 3:59.639.

Keirin: 1. Matthijs Buchli (NED); 2. Mohd Awang (MAS), +0.033; 3. Theo Bos (NED), +0.180.

Omnium: 1. Matthew Walls (GBR), 121 points; 2. Ignacio Prado Juarez (MEX), 123; 3. Elia Viviani (ITA), 114.

Madison (120 laps): 1. Julius Johansen/Casper von Folsach (DEN), 46 points; 2. Fred Wright/Matthew Walls (GBR), 30; 3. Albert Torres Barcelo/Sebastian Mora Vedri (ESP), 21.

Women

Sprint: 1. Stephanie Morton (AUS); 2. Emma Hinze (GER); Third: 3. Laurine van Riessen (NED); 4. Olena Starikova (UKR).

Team Sprint: 1. Junhong Lin/Tianshi Zhong (CHN), 32.771; 2. Miriam Welte/Emma Hinze (GER), 32.808. Third: 3. Kyra Lamberink/Shanne Braspennincx (NED), 33.145; 4. Sandie Clair/Mathilde Gros (FRA), 33.494.

Team Pursuit: 1. Great Britain (Archibald, Dickinson, Evans, Kenny); 2. United States (Christina Birch, Kelly Catlin, Kimberly Geist, Emma White), overtaken. Third: 3. Italy, 4:23.765; 4. Team Breeze (GBR), 4:24.512.

Keirin: 1. Morton (AUS); 2. Daria Shmeleva (RUS), +0.012; 3. Urszula Los (POL), +0.012.

Omnium: 1. Kirsten Wild (NED), 124 points; 2. Jennifer Valente (USA), 118; 3. Allison Beveridge (CAN), 106.

Madison: 1. Katie Archibald/Laura Kenny (GBR), 34; 2. Amy Cure/Annette Edmondson (AUS), 19; 3. Jolien D’Hoore/Lotte Kopecky (BEL), 17.

CURLING: All-Scotland final sees Paterson’s rink win at Boost National

By
Rich Perelman
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Scotland skip Ross Paterson (Photo: British Curling)

Who is Ross Paterson?

He and his teammates Kyle Waddell, Duncan Menzies and Michael Goodfellow claimed their first-ever Grand Slam of Curling victory with a 4-3, extra-end victory over Bruce Mouat’s rink in the all-Scotland final in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland (CAN).

“It feels awesome,” Paterson said. “It feels unreal. It’s something that we all dream of. You want to be playing in Grand Slams and we’ve had a bit of a breakthrough year. We’ve had a little bit of fortune to get into a couple Grand Slams but we’ve found a bit of consistency and to be on the winner’s board is incredible.”

Paterson’s squad earned the title the hard way, defeating reigning World Champion Niklas Edin (SWE) in the quarterfinals, 7-4, and then rushing past another former World Champion, Glenn Howard (CAN), in the semis, 7-6, with a point in an extra end.

In the women’s division, Canada’s Rachel Homan – with Emma Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle – defeated fellow Canadian Kerri Einarson’s rink, 4-1, to win their second straight Grand Slam tournament and third straight Grand Slam final.

“It feels really good. We’ve worked really hard this year,” Homan – skip of the 2017 World Champion team for Canada – said. “Obviously, a little bit disappointing after the Olympics [sixth]. We didn’t do as well as we wanted to do for Canada, so we’re working as hard as ever and want to keep pushing the game and keep pushing ourselves. We’re just having a lot of fun right now.”

With the win, Homan tied Jennifer Jones (CAN) – who they eliminated in the semifinals – for the most Grand Slam wins with nine.

CROSS COUNTRY: Fifth win by Therese Johaug in Davos

By
Rich Perelman
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Norway's Olympic and World Champion cross country skiing star Therese Johaug.

The story of the 2018-19 Cross Country World Cup continues to be the return of 2014 and 2016 World Cup champion Therese Johaug of Norway.

Kept out of the PyeongChang Winter Games because of a doping suspension due to the use of a steroid-laced lip balm (!), Johaug came in having won four of the six events in tour so far.

She’s not a sprinter, but she won the women’s 10 km Freestyle over teammate Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg by more than 12 seconds, 26:06.9-26:19.0. Johaug has now won every World Cup race this season other than the sprints. She now has 48 career World Cup wins. Amazing.

Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, the 2018 Olympic Sprint gold medalist, won the Sprint in Davos, just ahead of American Sophie Caldwell, who won her sixth career World Cup medal. , all in Sprints.

In the men’s races, Russia’s Evgeniy Belov won his first World Cup gold in the 15 km Freestyle, and last season’s overall World Cup winner – and Sprint champ – Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) won his first race of the season. Summaries from Davos:

FIS Cross Country World Cup
Davos (SUI) ~ 15-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s 1.5 km Sprint Freestyle: 1. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (ITA), 2:20.44; 2. Federico Pellegrino (ITA), +0.39; 3. Baptiste Gros (FRA), +1.40; 4. Lucas Chanavat (FRA), +1.45; 5. Eirik Brandsdal (NOR), +6.46.

Men’s 15 km Freestyle: 1. Evgeniy Belov (RUS), 35:52.5; 2. Maurice Manificat (FRA), 35:53.4; 3. Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR), 35:57.0; 4. Denis Spitsov (RUS), 36:00.0; 5. Chris Andre Jespersen (NOR), 36:03.1.

Women’s 1.5 km Sprint Freestyle: 1. Stina Nilsson (SWE), 2:41.34; 2. Sophie Caldwell (USA), +0.72; 3. Maja Dahlquist (SWE), +2.60; 4. Natalia Nepryaeva (RUS), +3.98; 5. Katja Visnar (SLO), +4.34.

Women’s 10 km Freestyle: 1. Therese Johaug (NOR), 26:06.9; 2. Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR), 26:19.0; 3. Krista Parmakoski (FIN), 26:26.1; 4. Ebba Andersson (SWE), 26:45.1; 5. Jessica Diggins (USA), 27:08.0. Also: 6. Rosie Brennan (USA), 27:11.8.

BOBSLED & SKELETON: Germany wins four of five races in Winterberg

By
Rich Perelman
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American Olympic women's bobsled ace Elana Meyers Taylor (Photo: Dietmar Reker via Wikipedia)

The racing was in Winterberg (GER) and the home team was ready.

German sleds didn’t just win both of the four-man sled races, they swept them. Drivers Nico Walther, Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner won Saturday’s race and Fredroich, Lochner and Walther went 1-2-3 on Sunday. Latvia’s Oskars Kibermanis was fourth in both.

In the women’s race, the German entries were 1-2-4, with Stephanie Schneider and Ann-Christin Strack winning, followed by last week’s winners, Mariama Jamanka and Annika Drazek. The U.S. sled piloted by Olympic silver medalist Elana Meyers Taylor – with Lake Kwaza , in her first World Cup race– was third. The spread from first to third? Just 0.08 seconds!

“I’m happy to be back on the podium,” Meyers Taylor said. “I had two solid drives today, and even though I want to win every race, I’m happy to be in the medals.”

Germans were also 1-2 in the women’s Skeleton, with Jacquelline Loelling defending her 2017 win in Winterberg, with Tina Hermann second, but Russia’s Alexander Tretiakov ( did win the men’s Skeleton race (with Germany’s Axel Jungk second).

It’s worth noting that in the four-man races, an all-women U.S. team competed, with Taylor at the helm. She, Tiffeny Parker, Jessica Davis and Nicole Brundgardt finished 18th (last) on the first day, and then Taylor, Kwaza, Lauren Gibbs and Parker were also 18th on Sunday.

“I love racing four-man and I love the team atmosphere of it,” Meyers Taylor said. “For the women on our team this weekend, almost everyone got to race which was a cool experience. Hopefully one day we’ll have that opportunity in the Olympics, but it starts with the women getting experience.

“I feel like doing four-man has made me a better driver,” Meyers Taylor said. “I don’t have a lot of trips in four-man, so the challenge of going back and forth from two-man to four-man makes you really have to understand the curves.” Summaries:

IBSF World Cup
Winterberg (GER) ~ 14-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s 4 I: 1. Germany (Nico Walther), 1:48.61; 2. Germany (Francesco Friedrich), 1:48.68; 3. Germany (Johannes Lochner), 1:48.83; 4. Latvia (Oskars Kibermanis), 1:49.00; 5. Russia (Maxim Andrianov), 1:49.03. Also: 15. United States (Justin Olsen), 1:50.05; … 18. United States (Elana Meyers Taylor), 1:52.51.

Men’s 4 II: 1. Germany (Francesco Friedrich), 1:48.57; 2. Germany (Johannes Lochner), 1:48.93; 3. Germany (Nico Walther), 1:49.03; 4. Latvia (Oskars Kibermanis), 1:49.13; 5. Austria (Benjamin Maier), 1:49.22. Also: 14. United States (Justin Olsen), 1:50.19; … 18. United States (Elana Meyers Taylor), 1:53.16.

Women’s 2: 1. Stephanie Schneider/Ann-Christin Strack (GER), 1:53.57; 2. Mariama Jamanka/Annika Drazek (GER), 1:53.64; 3. Elana Meyers Taylor/Lake Kwaza (USA), 1:53.65; 4. Anna Koehler/Leonie Fiebig (GER), 1:54.37; 5. Nadezhda Sergeeva/Yulia Belomestnykh (RUS), 1:54.49. Also: 11. Brittany Reinbolt/Lauren Gibbs (USA), 1:55.16.

Men’s Skeleton: 1. Alexander Tretiakov (RUS), 1:52.07; 2. Axel Jungk (GER), 1:52.90; 3. Sung-Bin Yun (KOR), 1:52.91; 4. Nikita Tregubov (RUS), 1:52.95; 5. Tomass Dukurs (LAT), 1:53.13. Also: 13. Kyle Brown (USA), 1:54.58; … 16. Greg West (USA), 1:54.68; … 19. Austin Florian (USA), 1:54.95.

Women’s Skeleton: 1. Jacqueline Loelling (GER), 1:55.16; 2. Tina Hermann (GER), 1:55.83; 3. Janine Flock (AUT), 1:55.86; 4. Elena Nikitina (RUS), 1:55.87; 5. Mirela Rahneva (CAN), 1:56.13. Also: 15. Kendall Wesenberg (USA), 1:57.02; … 19. Savannah Graybill (USA), 1:57.40.

BIATHLON: Boe and Fourcade win one each in Hochfilzen

By
Rich Perelman
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Olympic Biathlon champ Martin Fourcade of France (Photo: Peter Porai-Koshits via Wikipedia)

It’s going to be a season-long tug-of-war between Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe, 25, and seven-time World Cup seasonal champion Martin Fourcade, 30, of France.

Including the weekend’s races in Hochfilzen, there have been five competitions this season in the IBU World Cup. Boe has won three and Fourcade two. Boe has 248 points in the seasonal standings and Fourcade has 191, but there is a long way to go.

In Hochfilzen, Boe won the 10 km Sprint, with Fourcade second, and then Fourcade won the 12.5 km Pursuit, with Boe ninth. This is going to go on all season.

The women’s races went to Dorothea Wierer (ITA) in the 7.5 km Sprint and Kaisa Makarainen (FIN) won the 10 km Pursuit, with Weirer third. Wierer has the seasonal lead over the Finn, 252-245. Summaries from Hochfilzen:

IBU World Cup
Hochfilzen (AUT) ~ 10-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s 10 km Sprint: 1. Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR), 24:49.2 (1 shooting penalty); 2. Martin Fourcade (FRA), 24:57.8 (0); 3. Benedikt Doll (GER), 24:59.4 (0); 4. Antonin Guigonnat (FRA), 25:15.1 (0); 5. Arnd Peiffer (GER), 25:17.1 (0).

Men’s 12.5 km Pursuit: 1. Fourcade (FRA), 32:22.3 (0); 2. Peiffer (GER), +13.7 (1); 3. Vetle Christiansen (NOR), +16.1 (0); 4. Julian Eberhard (AUT), +37.4 (3); 5. Lukas Hofer (ITA), +42.2 (2).

Men’s 4×7.5 km: 1. Sweden (Femling, Ponsiluoma, Stenersen, Samuelsson), 1:16:10.6 (5); 2. Norway, 1:16:14.2 (7); 3. Germany, 1:16:39.4 (6); 4. Austria, 1:16:52.3 (7); 5. Russia, 1:17:03.3 (10). Also: 12. United States (Leif Nordgren, Sean Doherty, Travis Cooper, Jake Brown), 1:18:44.2 (10).

Women’s 7.5 km Sprint: 1. Dorothea Wierer (ITA), 21:04.9 (1); 2. Kaisa Makarainen (FIN), 21:05.5 (1); 3. Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht (RUS), 21:29.3 (0); 4. Lisa Vittozzi (ITA), 21:30.2 (1); 5. Monika Hojnisz (POL), 21:33.1 (0).

Women’s 10 km Pursuit: 1. Makarainen (FIN), 30:53.1 (3); 2. Paulina Fialkova (SVK), +1.5 (2); 3. Wierer (ITA), +2.8 (4); 4. Hojnisz (POL), +8.7 (0); 5. Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK), +13.3 (3).

Women’s 4×6 km: 1. Italy (Vittozzi, Runggaldier, Wierer, Sanfilippo), 1:10:58.7 (3); 2. Sweden, 1:11:07.1 (8); 3. France, 1:11:10.5 (9); 4. Russia, 1:11:45.9 (6); 5. Belarus, 1:12:12.1 (4). Also: 13. United States (Joanne Reid, Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Deedra Irwin), 1:14:37.8 (9).

HOCKEY: Men’s World Cup semis coming Saturday

By
Rich Perelman
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We’re down to the serious end of the FIH men’s World Cup in Bhubaneswar (IND), with the semifinals set for Saturday and the finals for Sunday:

∙ England (3-1-1) vs. Belgium (4-0-1)
∙ Australia (4-0-0) vs. Netherlands (4-1-0)

The pool-play portion of the tournament took forever, but at the end (records shown as W-L-T):

∙ Pool A: Argentina (2-1-0), France (1-1-1) and New Zealand (1-1-1) advanced
∙ Pool B: Australia (3-0-0), England (1-1-1) and China (0-1-2) advanced
∙ Pool C: India (2-0-1), Belgium (2-0-1) and Canada (0-1-2) advanced
∙ Pool D: Germany (3-0-0), Netherlands (2-1-0) and Pakistan (0-1-2) advanced

New Zealand, China, Canada and Pakistan were all eliminated in the first, “crossover” playoff round.

In the quarterfinals, England edged 2014 bronze medalist Argentina, 3-2; Belgium got by Germany, 2-1; Australia skipped by France, 3-0, and the Dutch eliminated home favorite India, 2-1.

The Aussies have won this tournament twice in a row (2010-14) and three times overall and will play three-time champion Netherlands (1973-90-98), while England and Belgium have a combined one appearance in a final: England, back in 1986.

However, the English have been fourth in the last two World Cups, losing the bronze medal to the Dutch in 2010 and to Argentina in 2014.

In terms of goals, Australia’s Blake Govers and Gonzalo Peillat (ARG) have six each, followed by Belgian Alexander Hendrickxx, with five.

Look for results here.

SPEED SKATING Preview: Can Herzog beat Kodaira in Heerenveen?

By
Rich Perelman
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Heerenveen's famed Thialf Ice Stadion

The second half of the ISU Speed Skating World Cup series starts this weekend at the Thialf Ice Stadion in Heerenveen (NED), with a titanic clash looming between Japan’s Olympic 500 m champ Nao Kodaira and Austrian Vanessa Herzog.

Kodaira swept all four 500 m races in the first two World Cups, but did not compete in Poland last week and Herzog claimed gold in her place. Now what?

That’s one of several intriguing races on the program. At the halfway mark, the seasonal World Cup leaders:

Men:
∙ 500 m:
1. 296 Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN)
2. 272 Pavel Kuliznikov (RUS)
3. 260 Havard Lorentzen (NOR)

∙ 1,000 m:
1. 148 Kai Verbij (NED)
2. 134 Havard Lorentzen (NOR)
3. 120 Pavel Kuliznikov (RUS)

∙ 1,500 m:
1. 137 Seitaro Ichinohe (JPN)
2. 120 Denis Yuskov (RUS)
120 Min-Seok Kim (KOR)

∙ 5,000/10,000 m:
1. 144 Alexander Rumyantsev (RUS)
2. 137 Marcel Bosker (NED)
3. 134 Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR)

∙ Mass Start:
1. 312 Cheonho Um (KOR)
2. 280 Bart Swings (BEL)
3. 256 Livio Wenger (SUI)

Women:
∙ 500 m:
1. 336 Vanessa Herzog (AUT)
2. 272 Olga Fatkulina (RUS)
3. 257 Brittany Bowe (USA)

∙ 1,000 m:
1. 157 Brittany Bowe (USA)
2. 148 Miho Takagi (JPN)
3. 146 Vanessa Herzog (AUT)

∙ 1,500 m:
1. 168 Miho Takagi (JPN)
2. 157 Ireen Wust (NED)
3. 156 Brittany Bowe (USA)

∙ 3,000/5,000 m:
1. 149 Esmee Visser (NED)
2. 146 Isabelle Weidemann (CAN)
3. 145 Natalia Voronina (RUS)

∙ Mass Start:
1. 216 Bo-Reum Kim
2. 194 Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA)
3. 176 Ivanie Blondin (CAN)

American Brittany Bowe, herself a four-time World Champion, is quietly have an excellent season, in the top three of the 500-1,000-1,500 m standings and with wins in both the 1,000 m and 1,500 m.

NBC’s Olympic Channel has delayed coverage from Heerenveen on Saturday beginning at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday and 11 p.m. on Sunday. Look for results here.

SKI JUMPING Preview: Women’s jumping arrives for the first time in Premanon

By
Rich Perelman
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Germany's Katharina Althaus

The expansion of the women’s World Cup program from 17 to 25 events allows for new venues, like this week’s double at Premanon in France, off a 90 m hill.

The women were also shut out last week at Titisee-Neustadt, so the only events so far this season were in Lillehammer. Juliane Seyfarth (GER), Lidiia Iakovleva (RUS) and German Katharina Althaus were the winners, with Norway’s Maren Lundby, the defending World Cup champion, taking second twice.

Look for results from Premanon here.

SKI JUMPING Preview: Men get back on track in Engelberg

By
Rich Perelman
-

The men’s World Cup season has been in the midst of an unplanned break thanks to the cancellation of the jumping at Titisee-Neustadt (GER) last week, but resumes in Engelberg (SUI) this weekend with two competitions off of the 140 m Gross-Titlis-Schanze hill.

Through five competitions out of a scheduled 27, Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi is the surprise seasonal leader:

1. 420 Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN)
2. 285 Piotr Zyla (POL)
3. 276 Kamil Stoch (POL)
4. 255 Johann Andre Forfang (NOR)
5. 191 Stephen Leyhe (GER)

Kobayashi won both jumps at Ruka (FIN) and the last event, off a 134 m hill, at Nizhny Tagil in Russia. Forfang (also at Nizhny Tagil) and Russia’s Evgeniy Klimov (Wisla) won the other two competitions.

Anders Fannemel (NOR) and Richard Freitag (GER) won at Engelberg last season and Stoch won medals (bronze and silver) in both events.

Look for results from Engelberg here.

LUGE Preview: Geisenberger’s streak on the line in Lake Placid

By
Rich Perelman
-

It’s hard to imagine, but this week’s races at Lake Placid, New York (USA) are already the fourth out of nine stops on the FIL 2018-19 tour. The standings after four of 12 races:

∙ Men:
1. 370 Wolfgang Kindl (AUT) ~ Won last three World Cup races
2. 265 Felix Loch (GER) ~ Defending champion
2. 265 Johannes Ludwig (GRD) ~ Won season opener at Innsbruck
4. 221 David Gleirscher (AUT) ~ Bronze in the last stop in Calgary
5. 203 Dominik Fischnaller (ITA) ~ Season-opening silver in Innsbruck

∙ Men’s Doubles:
1. 330 Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller (AUT) ~ Won both Innsbruck races
2. 325 Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER) ~ Defending champs; won at Whistler
3. 286 Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (GER) ~ Won in Calgary
4. 233 Vladislav Yuzhakov/Iurii Prokhorov (RUS) ~ Silver and bronze in Innsbruck
5. 206 Andris Sics/Juris Sics (LAT)

∙ Women:
1. 385 Natalie Geisenberger (GER) ~ 2018 champion; three golds and a silver so far!
2. 355 Julia Taubitz (GER) ~ Three silvers and then a gold in Calgary!
3. 202 Tatjana Huefner (GER) ~ Bronze in Innsbruck season opener
4. 197 Andrea Votter (ITA)
5. 194 Tatiana Ivanova (RUS)

Defending World Cup champ Geisenberger has a remarkable streak of winning a medal in 23 World Cup races in a row, dating back to the 2016-17 season. She won three straight races to start the season, but was second to Taubitz last week in Calgary.

The top U.S. finishes have come from the women. Emily Sweeney won a bronze in Whistler; Summer Britcher has been the most consistent and is sixth in the seasonal standings with 190 points.

The racing in Lake Placid will include a standard race and a Sprint; the men’s race and the Doubles will be on Saturday and the women’s race and Sprints will be on Sunday.

NBC’s Olympic Channel has coverage from Lake Placid on Saturday beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time (delayed) and Sunday beginning at 10 p.m. Eastern (delayed). NBCSN has coverage on Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern time. Look for results here.

JUDO Preview: Seven 2018 World Champions at Guangzhou Masters

By
Rich Perelman
-

The last stop on the IJF World Tour for 2018 is the Masters, this year held in Guangzhou (CHN), at the 6,063-seat Guangzhou Gymnasium. A total of 234 of the top judoka in the world, from 53 nations are gathering; the top seeds and their world rankings (* = 2018 World Champion):

Men:
∙ -60 kg: 1. Amiran Papinashvili (GEO: 3) 2. Robert Mshvidobadze (RUS: 4)
∙ -66 kg: 1. Vazha Margvelashvili (GEO: 2) 2. Tal Flicker (ISR: 3)
∙ -73 kg: 1. Soichi Hashimoto (JPN: 1) 2. Lasha Shavdatuashvili (GEO: 2)
∙ -81 kg: 1. Saeid Mollaei* (IRI: 1) 2. Frank de Wit (NED: 2)
∙ -90 kg: 1. Nikoloz Sherazadishvili* (ESP: 1) 2. Aleksandar Kukolj (SRB: 2)
∙ -100 kg: 1. Varlam Liparteliani (GEO: 1) 2. Michael Korrel (NED: 2)
∙ +100 kg: 1. Guram Tushishvili* (GEO: 1) 2. Lukas Krpalek (CZE: 2)

Women:
∙ -48 kg: 1. Urantsetseg Munkhbat (MGL: 2) 2. Paula Pareto (ARG: 4)
∙ -52 kg: 1. Amandine Buchard (FRA: 2) 2. Natalia Kuziutina (RUS: 3)
∙ -57 kg: 1. Tsukasa Yoshida* (JPN: 1) 2. Sumiya Dorjsuren (MGL: 2)
∙ -63 kg: 1. Clarissa Agbegnenou* (FRA: 1) 2. Tina Trstenjak (SRB: 2)
∙ -70 kg: 1. Marie Eve Gahie (FRA: 2) 2. Maria Portela (BRA: 3)
∙ -78 kg: 1. Guusje Steenhuis (NED: 1) 2. Ruika Sato (JPN: 2)
∙ +78 kg: 1. Idalys Ortiz (CUB: 2) 2. Larisa Ceric (BIH: 3)

There are two other 2018 Worlds winners entered; both are men who are seeded third: Chang-Rim An (KOR: 73 kg) and Gu-Ham Cho (KOR: 100 kg). That brings the total to seven in all.

Befitting the importance of the tournament, the prize money is $9,000-6,000-3,000 for the top three places (two thirds), with 20% reserved for coaches. Look for results here.

CYCLING Preview: Look for the Union Jack on the podium in London World Cup

By
Rich Perelman
-

The fourth of six UCI Track Cycling World Cup events takes place in London (GBR) this week, with a strong British squad expected to deliver a strong performance.

Britain has been the big power in Olympic track cycling, winning six of 15 medals in the five men’s events in Rio and five of 15 among the women (11/30 total). The individual event winners at the prior World Cups for events on the London schedule:

Men:
∙ Sprint:
I: Matthew Glaetzer (AUS)
II: Matthew Glaetzer (AUS)
III: Matthew Glaetzer (AUS)

∙ Keirin:
I: Yuka Wakimoto (JPN)
II: Jason Kenny (GBR)
III: Mattijs Buchli (SUI)

∙ Omnium:
I: Albert Torres Barcelo (ESP)
II: Benjamin Thomas (FRA)
III: Sam Welsford (AUS)

∙ Madison:
I: L. Hansen/M. Morkov (DEN)
II: C. Von Folsach/J. Johansen (DEN)
III: L. Hansen/C. Von Folsach (DEN)

Women:
∙ Sprint:
I: Wai Sze Lee (TPE)
II: Wai Sze Lee (TPE)
III: Stephanie Morton (AUS)

∙ Keirin:
I: Laurine van Riessen (NED)
II: Madalyn Godby (USA)
III: Laurine van Riessen (NED)

∙ Omnium:
I: Kirsten Wild (NED)
II: Laura Kenny (GBR)
III: Kate Archibald (GBR)

∙ Madison:
I: A. Dideriksen/J. Leth (DEN)
II: K. Archibald/E. Barker (GBR)
III: L. Kenny/E. Nelson (GBR)

Only Glaetzer has won an event in all three, but Denmark has dominated the three men’s Madison races so far.

NBC’s Olympic Channel has coverage from London on Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern time (delayed). Look for results here.

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING Preview: Can anyone stop Therese Johaug in Davos?

By
Rich Perelman
-

The story of the 2018-19 Cross Country World Cup has been the return of 2014 and 2016 World Cup champion Therese Johaug of Norway.

Kept out of the PyeongChang Winter Games because of a doping suspension due to the use of a steroid-laced lip balm (!), Johaug has won four of the six events in tour so far and three straight.

This week’s program in Davos (SUI) includes:

∙ 15 December: Men’s and Women’s 1.4 km Freestyle Sprint
∙ 16 December: Women’s 10 km Freestyle and Men’s 15 km Freestyle

Johaug has won both of the 10 km races held so far, but she’s no Sprint ace. Those races have been taken by Yulia Belorukova (RUS, Classical) and Jonna Sundling (SWE, Freestyle). Look for the U.S. as possible medalists in the Freestyle Sprint, with Sadie Bjornsen already owning a bronze from the Freestyle Sprint in Lillehammer and Olympic gold medalist Jessica Diggins rounding into shape.

Russia’s 21-year-old Alexander Bolshunov is the surprise leader in the men’s World Cup standings through six of the 29 races, with 361 points to 329 for Sjur Roethe (NOR). Both have won twice so far; Bolshunov taking a Classical Sprint and 15 km Classical race in Ruka and Roethe winning a 15 km Freestyle and 30 km Freestyle. The other Sprint was won by Italy’s Federico Pellegrino.

Last year’s leader, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) is currently seventh with 180 points.

Look for results here.

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