Welcome to The Sports Examiner SPEED READ, a 100 mph (44.7 m/s) review of what happened over the last 96 hours in Olympic sport:
LANE ONE
Wednesday: The International Olympic Committee put the International Boxing Association (“AIBA”) on suspension last year, but it’s the AIBA that’s steamed. It says it has done everything it needs to do, but the IOC hardly seems impressed. Add in some internal dissension inside the boxing community and you can ask: has there ever been a worse time to be an Olympic hopeful in boxing?
Friday: The IOC has a lot of problems to deal with, but suddenly, looking for host cities for future Olympic Games – out to 2032 – does not seem to be a problem. There are good reasons for this, but the long-time slogan of Burger King sums it up: “Have it your way.”
THE BIG PICTURE
Thursday: A report in the London newspaper, The Times, said that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was going to classify South Africa’s Olympic women’s 800 m champion Caster Semenya as a “biological male.” The IAAF hotly denied it, but a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear a challenge to the IAAF’s 2018 guidelines on hydroandrogenism and whether and how it can regulate testosterone levels in women.
GLOBETROTTING by Phil Hersh
Wednesday: A deeper look into the unanswered questions left by the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s closure of any investigation into the tragic death of former U.S. Pairs Champion John Coughlin by suicide.
ALPINE SKIING
Monday: The Alpine Combined is a fairly unloved event in skiing, but the medals look just like the ones handed out for the other events. France’s Alexis Pinturault – as close as there is to a Combined specialist – is happy about that as he won the World Championship in the event. He came from 24th in the Downhill to post the win.
Tuesday: The oddball Team Event was held with a tight final between Switzerland and Austria, won on the tie-breaker by the Swiss. Now we can get on with the other events …
Thursday: American Mikaela Shiffrin won a bronze medal in the women’s Giant Slalom at the Alpine World Championships, moving up from fourth after the first run. First-run leader Viktoria Rebensburg (GER) slid to second after a feisty second run from Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova won the event by 0.14 seconds.
ICE HOCKEY
Tuesday: The U.S. women edged Canada, 1-0, in the first game of the February “Rivalry Series” in front of a packed house in London, Ontario. Hilary Knight scored the only goal of the game in the second period and U.S. keeper Alex Rigsby stopped Canadian shots to maintain the shutout.
Thursday: There were goals aplenty in the second leg of the Rivalry Series in Toronto, including five in the first period alone! Canada took a 4-3 lead after the first 20 minutes, but there was no scoring in the second period. But Jamie-Lee Rattray’s goal at 7:06 of the third period proved to be the game-winner. It gave Canada a 4-2 lead, but after a U.S. goal from Brianna Decker three minutes later, the U.S. poured on the pressure, but was unable to get an equalizer. The third game is Sunday in Detroit.
WRESTLING
Monday: Two Americans won medals at the United World Wrestling ranking tournament in Greco-Roman wrestling in Zagreb (CRO): Vance Johnson and G’Angelo Hancock, while Croatia’s Bozo Starcevic won his fifth straight Zagreb Open title in front of the home crowd!
PREVIEWS
● Athletics: IAAF Indoor World Tour/Muller Grand Prix in Birmingham
● Biathlon: IBU World Cup in Salt Lake City
● Bobsled & Skeleton: IBSF World Cup in Lake Placid
● Cross Country: FIS World Cup in Cogne
● Freestyle Skiing: FIS World Cups in Aerials, Halfpipe and Ski Cross
● Gymnastics: USA Gymnastics’ Winter Cup Challenge & FIG Trampoline World Cup
● Karate: Karate 1 Premier League tournament in Dubai
● Ski Jumping: FIS World Cups in Willingen (men) and Obertsdorf (women)
● Snowboard: FIS World Cups in Halfpipe and Parallel Giant Slalom
● Swimming: FINA Marathon Swimming World Series in Doha
UPCOMING
Highlights of the coming week; look for full coverage in the coming days on TheSportsExaminer.com:
● Alpine Skiing: Final days of the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Sweden.
● Basketball: Final round of the Americas Qualifying matches.
● Nordic Skiing: The FIS Nordic Worlds start in Seefeld, Austria.
We’ll have event-by-event coverage over the weekend, check in regularly!
