DEVONSHIRE, Bermuda — Back for its third year, a windy afternoon at the USATF Bermuda Grand Prix produced some quick early-season times in the sprints, highlighted by Tamari Davis’ and Noah Lyles’ wins in the 100s.
Defending the crown she won last year, Tamari Davis cruised to an easy 11.04w (+2.2) in the Xfinity Women’s 100, winning by almost a quarter-second over Kortnei Johnson, who was the runner-up in 11.27w.
Six-time world champion Noah Lyles was looking for a win in the Xfinity Men’s 100 following his runner-up finish at Bermuda last year. With a +3.0 wind, Lyles clocked a 9.96 for a decisive win at Flora Duffy Stadium with impressive closing speed in the final 10 meters. Canada’s Aaron Brown was second with a 10.09w, with a trio of Americans right behind. Pjai Austin clocked a 10.10w for third, while Kendal Williams and JT Smith both notched 10.11w times. Williams got the nod with a 10.103 to Smith’s 10.105.
Despite clipping the seventh barrier and clattering the final hurdle, Amber Hughes was a convincing victor in the women’s 100H, clocking 12.57w with a healthy +3.7 wind. It was the fastest time of Hughes’ career, windy or not, and put her .23 in front of runner-up Ebony Morrison of Liberia.
Back from injury late in the 2023 season, Abby Steiner opened her season strong with a successfully defended USATF Bermuda Grand Prix 200 title with a 22.71w. Kynnedy Flannel clocked a 23.01w for second with Jamaica’s Ashanti Moore in third with a 23.12w.
A windy day produced some big marks in the women’s long jump for Monae’ Nichols. Her best jump came in the second round, but her 6.91w/22-8 proved untouchable for the rest of the competition. Jamaica’s Chanice Porter landed a 6.62w/21-8.75 in the third round, which stood through the competition for second. Jasmine Moore finished third with a 6.60w/21-8 in the third round while Tiffany Flynn was fourth with a 6.53w/21-5.25.
A surprise winner in 2023, Elijah Morrow again ran a very good turn and was a half-step ahead coming into the straight, but Matthew Boling and Trinidad’s Jereem Richards took over from there, with Richards gaining a slight advantage in the final meters to win in a very windy (+4.9) 20.39w over Boling’s 20.42w. Morrow ended up fourth in 20.62w.
Overcoming a substantial early lead by Cassandra Tate, Jamaica’s Shiann Salmon pulled away after the final barrier to win the women’s 400 hurdles in 56.59. Tate held on for second in 57.04. In the women’s 800, Britain’s Hannah Segrave eased by Sadi Henderson to win by .1 seconds in 2:06.00. Kendra Coleman was third in a season best 2:06.58.
Slowed by crashing through most of the ten barriers in the men’s 110 hurdles, Louis Rollins yielded the lead to Britain’s Josh Zeller over the final half of the race as Zeller came away with a wind-aided (+3.5) 13.35 to win. Rollins fought his way to the finish and placed second in 13.45w.
Riding the hefty breezes on the runway just in front of the stands, Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert, the NCAA indoor and outdoor champion for Arkansas last year, bounded out to 17.33w/56-10.25 on his first attempt to open his season with a win in the men’s triple jump. Nine-time U.S. champion Donald Scott went 16.72w/54-10.25 on his fifth try to place fourth.
Grenada’s Kirani James has won a passel of global medals in the men’s 400, including Olympic gold in 2012 as a teenager, and he showed great maturity in winning his specialty event in 45.96. Battling the strong headwind down the backstretch, James was able to summon reserve energy down the home straight and win by more than a second. Elija Godwin was in contention coming off the final bend but fell back to fourth in 47.38. In the women’s one-lapper, Jamaica’s Stacey-Ann Williams was never seriously challenged as she won in 51.71.
Victor Palumbo took the early lead in the men’s 1500 and led through three laps but couldn’t hold off a major kick by Canadian duo Rob Heppenstall and Max Davies. The pair made their move from the back of the pack to finish first and second in 3:53.07 and 3:53.96. Jaxson Hoey was close behind, finishing third in 3:54.86.
Stacey-Ann Williams of Jamaica took a decisive win in the women’s 400. Williams clocked a 51.71 – 1.29 seconds faster than her nearest competitor, Jessika Gbai of the Ivory Coast. Courtney Okolo was seventh in 54.77.
Olympics
Helen Maroulis makes record third Olympic team
- By Nick Zaccardi | NBC Sports
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania — Helen Maroulis, the first U.S. female wrestler to win Olympic gold, will this summer become the oldest U.S. woman to wrestle at an Olympics and the first to wrestle at three Games.
Maroulis, 32, headlines the first 13 members of the Olympic wrestling team, decided at trials on Saturday at Penn State University.
She’ll be joined in Paris by veterans, including fellow 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Snyder, and newcomers, including 20-year-old world champion Amit Elor, who was one day too young to compete at the last trials and will become the youngest U.S. Olympic female wrestler in history.
Missing the team: Tokyo Olympic gold medalist David Taylor, who lost to NCAA Wrestler of the Year Aaron Brooks; six-time world champion Adeline Gray, who lost to Kennedy Blades, and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs, who was eliminated on the trials’ first day Friday.
Maroulis swept two-time world medalist Jacarra Winchester in their best-of-three series Saturday to earn the Olympic spot at 57kg.
Maroulis was last beaten for a spot on the national team at the 2012 Olympic Trials. Since, she won four gold, two silver and three bronze medals between the Olympics and world championships, including that breakthrough Olympic title in 2016.
She briefly retired in 2019 due to concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder, then came back to win Olympic bronze in Tokyo and a world medal of every color the last three years.
“I was giving my dad a hard time because, two years ago, he said, ‘Hey, no more medals. Just retire. Get married. Have kids,’” Maroulis said. “I was like, ‘Let me go one more, dad.’”
Leading into these trials, Maroulis said she was in a car accident and dealt with a two-week “deep sickness.”
Snyder, 28, swept Isaac Trumble to make his third Olympic team. Snyder won a 97kg medal at each of the last nine global championships (Olympics/worlds), including becoming the youngest U.S. wrestler to win Olympic gold eight years ago.
“I always say I feel like I’m just getting started,” said Snyder, a former Ohio State Buckeye who has trained at Penn State since 2019. “I don’t even feel like I’ve accomplished anything. I’m hungry and motivated, and I want to keep wrestling, Lord willing, for a long time.”
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Kyle Dake, a four-time world champion, fills the 74kg spot for a second consecutive Games after sweeping fellow Nittany Lion Wrestling Club member Jason Nolf.
Dake’s father, Doug, who introduced him to wrestling and coached him in high school, died last week.
“It’s the first time that I had to do this without him,” Dake said. “I just really miss him and wish he was here. I wanted to do him proud, and it’s hard to find the words to say how much he means to me.”
Like Dake, Sarah Hildebrandt won bronze in Tokyo and is undefeated against Americans since 2017. She made her seventh consecutive Olympic or world team by sweeping 17-year-old Arizona high school senior Audrey Jimenez at 50kg.
Elor succeeds retired Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Tamyra Mensah-Stock as the U.S. rep at 68kg after beating Forrest Molinari. In 2022, Elor became at age 18 the youngest American wrestler to win a world title, then repeated last year, both at 72kg, which is not an Olympic weight. Her last defeat to a countrywoman was at age 11 in 2015.
Brooks, who last month won a fourth consecutive NCAA title for Penn State, became the first American to defeat Taylor since 2017, not counting injury defaults.
Brooks beat Zahid Valencia on Friday at 10:45 p.m., then spent nearly three hours cutting 12 pounds by striding on a treadmill next to UFC fighter, former NCAA champion and coach Bo Nickal, wrestling and spending time in the sauna, went to sleep at 2 a.m., woke up at 6, made weight by 8 and then won his first match over Taylor at 12:45 p.m.
Taylor, his Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate, was rested with a bye into the finals as a reigning world medalist.
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Blades, a runner-up to Mensah-Stock at the Tokyo trials at age 17, became the first American to unseat Gray for an Olympic or world team spot since the 2012 London Games. She will become the second-youngest U.S. woman to wrestle at the Olympics after Elor.
“This was, honestly, my goal since I was 7 and we did the calculations, like, OK, I would be old enough (in 2024),” Blades said.
Also Saturday, five wrestlers won weight classes where the U.S. has not yet qualified an Olympic quota spot: Spencer Lee (freestyle 57kg), Zain Retherford (freestyle 65kg), Dalton Roberts (Greco-Roman 60kg), 2012 Olympian Ellis Coleman (Greco-Roman 67kg) and Kamal Bey (Greco-Roman 77kg).
Those five men will clinch Olympic spots if they finish in the top three in their classes at a last-chance international Olympic qualifier in Turkiye in May.
Coco Gauff is first U.S. tennis player to clinch Olympic spot
Coco Gauff is the first U.S. tennis player to mathematically clinch a spot in the Olympic field, setting up for her Olympic debut in Paris.
Gauff has accumulated enough points so that she is guaranteed to be among the top four U.S. women’s singles players at the end of the 12-month Olympic qualifying window, which runs through the end of the French Open in early June.
A nation can qualify no more than four singles players per gender. The U.S. is expected to earn the full four spots for men and women. Players can also qualify separately in doubles.
After Gauff, the highest-ranked American women in singles qualifying are Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro and Madison Keys.
Gauff made the Olympic team for Tokyo in 2021 at age 17, but announced five days before the Opening Ceremony that she had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19.
She would have been the youngest Olympic tennis player since 2000 – when Croatia’s Mario Ancic competed at 16 years old – according to the OlyMADMen.
Gauff won her first Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open in September and is ranked third in the world.
In January, Gauff said that, ideally, she wants to play singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the Paris Games.
Olympic tennis will be at Roland Garros, where Gauff was runner-up at the 2022 French Open in singles and doubles.
“One of the goals I wrote down on my vision thing, vision note, in my phone, was to win a medal in the Olympics,” she said in January. “I’ll be completely honest, I don’t really care what event it is in. I feel like a gold, silver or bronze, whatever medal it is, is one of those things it doesn’t matter. Well, it does matter. Obviously I want to win in singles. I feel like I would appreciate it just as much whether it was in singles or doubles. It’s not the same to me as a Slam, I guess, in a way. I just put ‘I want a medal at any of the events.’”
Summer McIntosh ends Katie Ledecky’s 13-year reign in 800m
- Reuters | ESPN
DOHA, Qatar — Canadian wunderkind Summer McIntosh has ended Katie Ledecky’s 13-year unbeaten streak in the 800-meter freestyle in a major upset in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics.
McIntosh clocked 8 minutes, 11.39 seconds at a sectionals meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday to finish nearly six seconds faster than Ledecky.
Ledecky suffered her first defeat in the 800 since 2010, while 17-year-old McIntosh’s swim made her the second-fastest woman in the distance behind the American world-record holder.
Ledecky still owns the 16 fastest times in history, including her 8:04.79 world record.
The 26-year-old has dominated the 800 like no other, winning successive gold medals at the London, Rio and Tokyo Olympics. She is expected to defend her 800 gold in Paris and bid to become the first woman to win four successive titles in Olympic swimming.
She won her sixth consecutive world title in the 800 at last year’s championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
McIntosh has rapidly established herself as one of the world’s top swimmers, winning back-to-back world titles in the 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter medley.
She has focused on middle-distance events since missing the 800 final in Tokyo as a 14-year-old, but the result in Florida might encourage her to return the 800 to her Olympic program.
Both McIntosh and Ledecky have elected to skip the world championships, which start in Doha on Sunday, but Ledecky’s upset was a hot topic among the entrants in Qatar.
“I have some friends of the Canadian team, and I know Summer pretty well,” said American Hunter Armstrong, who will defend his 50-meter backstroke world title in Doha. “I’ll have to shoot her a text and congratulate her.”
Fiona O’Keeffe Reigns Supreme at the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Historic Debut
By: Emilia Benton | Run O
On a hot and humid morning, the 25-year-old former Stanford star set a U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon record of 2:22:10. Emily Sisson and Dakotah Lindwurm went 2-3 to earn the final Olympic berths.
It’s no secret that Saturday’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials had one of its most stacked fields in history. In a field full of American legends, past Olympians and emerging stars, there were about a dozen women that made their way into fan and media predictions, with top athletes such as Emily Sisson, Keira D’Amato and Betsy Saina being popular picks as the race got closer.
It’s safe to say not many people had 25-year-old Puma-sponsored athlete Fiona O’Keeffe on their list, mostly because she had never run a marathon before. But it was O’Keeffe, running boldly amid the more experienced runners around her, who took the win in 2:22:10, setting a new U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon record. It’s the first time in history that a woman has won the event in her debut.
New Balance athlete Sisson, 32, the American record-holder in the marathon, took second in 2:22:42 to make her second Olympic team (she placed 10th in the 10,000 meters in Tokyo in 2021), and Dakotah Lindwurm, 28, also a Puma athlete, was third in 2:25:21 after quite the battle for that third Olympic spot. All three will run the marathon in the Paris Olympics on August 11.
A Big Risk with a Big Reward
O’Keeffe, 25, who trains with Puma Elite, a Cary, North Carolina-based team led by former professional athletes Alistair and Amy Cragg, noted that it wasn’t necessarily the plan to have her run her first marathon in such a high-stakes event, but rather just how her training worked out after she debuted in the half marathon only two years ago (which was notable in that her 1:07:32 clocking at the 2022 Houston Half Marathon, was the fastest debut by an American woman at the time.)
O’Keeffe went on to place sixth in the 5,000 meters at the 2022 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. She missed time in 2023 after ankle surgery to recover from a staph infection, and finally earned her ticket to the U.S. Olympic Trials last December at the Raleigh Half Marathon (1:09:34) just a day before the qualifying deadline.
“[Debuting at the Trials] just naturally made sense in the progression of my training,” O’Keeffe said in the post-race press conference.
As the front pack that started with about 14 women got smaller as the miles ticked off, Lindwurm was one of the first athletes to take the lead. O’Keeffe, meanwhile, didn’t make a significant move until mile 18, which was also still rather early considering how much distance the women still had left to cover. She eventually put in a 30- to 40-second gap on Sisson after mile 20, never looking back as she grinded to the finish.
“I just really didn’t want to have any regrets today, and I wasn’t sure at that point if it would be a mistake or if it would pay off,” O’Keeffe said. “I just wanted to go for it, see what happens, and trust the training and preparation.”
“Fiona was great, and I just tried to keep my eyes on her, thinking as long as I kept running my pace I could reel her back in and maybe pick it up in the last two miles, but I also just kept telling myself ‘Top three, top three, just make this team,’” Sisson added.
A New Era of American Distance Running
Several athletes had expressed concern about the late-morning start time, which was pushed up to 10 A.M. from an originally planned noon start. While starting line temperatures were mild in the high 50s, it warmed up quickly and clearly took its toll as several top athletes eventually dropped out, including D’Amato, Saina, and 2020 Olympic Trials champion Aliphine Tuliamuk, who had been recovering from a torn hamstring.
Hall, 40, dealt with the simultaneous heartbreak of missing another Olympic team in her eighth overall Trials, but expressed pride in achieving her highest placement with her fifth-place finish (2:26:06) in Orlando. Des Linden, 40, a two-time Olympian running in her fifth U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, finished 11th in 2:28:04; Stephanie Bruce, 40, competing less than five months after giving birth to a baby girl, finished 101st in 2:47:42. Jenny Simpson, 37, a former world champion in the 1,500 meters, who was competing in her first marathon, was among the top 20 women early but but eventually succumbed to the heat and the pace and stepped off the course after Mile 18.
O’Keeffe noted that although she’s been told as early as when she was in high school that the marathon might be her event, she didn’t really start to believe it until about two years ago, when she began training with her current team. She highlighted her coaches’ experience as being pivotal in her preparation, particularly Amy’s, as she won the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles on an equally hot and humid February day.
“It’s been super valuable to have Amy with her personal experience on everything from the little details like decorating bottles to the bigger stuff like race strategy and making a commitment at the point in the race where it does start to hurt,” O’Keeffe said.
Lindwurm’s third-place finish was also a significant breakthrough after running a personal best of 2:24:40 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, which was preceded by a few difficult performances in Boston over the last few years, as well as dropping out at the 2022 New York City Marathon. After initially taking the lead, Lindwurm at one point fell back to seventh place before moving back up to battle for third with Caroline Rotich, the 2015 Boston Marathon champion, in the final miles.
“When it opened up and felt like the team was running away from me, I just reminded myself it wasn’t over, there was a lot of race left,” Lindwurm said. “I’ve done so many marathons that I know not everyone is going to close really hard, so I just held on tight and when I passed those women like Betsy [Saina] and Sara Hall, I reminded myself it wasn’t over.”
2024 Women’s U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon Results
1. Fiona O’Keeffe, Cary, North Carolina, 2:22:10, $80,000*
2. Emily Sisson, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:22:42, $65,000*
3. Dakotah Lindwurm, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2:25:31, $55,000*
4. Jessica McClain, Phoenix, Arizona, 2:25:46, $9,000
5. Sara Hall, Crested Butte, Colorado, 2:26:06, $9,000
6. Caroline Rotich, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:26:10, $9,000
7. Makenna Myler, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:26:14, $9,000
8. Lindsay Flanagan, Boulder, Colorado, 2:26:25, $9,000
9. Emily Durgin, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:27:56, $9,000
10. Annie Frisbie, Edina, Minnesota, 2:27:56, $7,000
* = Secured 2024 U.S. Olympic Team berth for the marathon in the Paris Olympics
Black Female Athletes You Should Be Watching
Coco Gauff, A’ja Wilson, and Sha’Carri Richardson are some of the Black women in sports you should be keeping your eye on.
By: Noah A. McGee
The ladies are putting the sports world on notice. They’re here to stay.
With women’s sports continuing to grow it’s only right that we take note of some of the best Black female athletes who are dominating their sports. Coco Guaff just won the US Open, A’Ja Wilson just led the Las Vegas Aces to the best regular season ever and Sha’Carri Richardson just won the 100m at the world track and field championships.
The Black ladies in athletics are here to stay. Here are the ones you should be paying attention to:
Coco Gauff
The youngest lady on this list, Coco Gauff is only 19 years old and is already making waves in professional tennis. She recently won the US Open and has cemented herself as one of the faces of Women’s professional Tennis.
A’Ja Wilson
A’Ja Wilson has succeeded on every level of her basketball career. She was the number one ranked player coming out of high school. While at South Carolina, she was a national champion, NCAA tournament MOP, national player of the year, and a three-time first-team All-American. In 2018, she was drafted first overall in the WNBA draft and has since been named a WNBA champion, two-time MVP, a five-time all-star, a defensive player of the year, and rookie of the year.
This post-season, she’s hoping to lead the Las Vegas Aces to another WNBA championship.
Sha’Carri Richardson
Despite her controversial past, Sha’Carri Richardson has persevered to become one of the best track athletes in the world. A month ago, she the 100m at the world track and field championships in 10.65 seconds—a championship record time.
Jonquel Jones
Breanna Stewart may get all the attention as the best player on the New York Liberty, but Jonquel Jones is no slouch. She’s a four-time WNAB All-Star who won league MVP in 2021. She’s hoping to be apart of the reason the Liberty win a championship in 2023
Angel Reese
Angel Reese is among the most dominant players in the country and this past season was named a first-team All-America, the NCAA tournament most outstanding player (MOP), and an NCAA Champion. LSU legend Shaquille O’Neal named her the greatest athlete the university has ever produced. The only question left is, can Reese lead the Tigers to back-to-back titles?
Flau’jae Johnson
Angel’s teammate, Flau’jae Johnson is not just a talented hooper, she’s also a successful rapper. She went viral last year for a dope freestyle she had on Bars On I-95.
Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka has been a prodigy ever since she stepped on a professional tennis court. Despite being only 25 years old, she’s already won four majors, (two Australian Opens and two US Opens). Although she’s been on maternity leave for the past year, she’s ready to show that she’s still the best in the world.
Azzi Fudd
Azzi Fudd is a young college basketball player who just keeps getting better. Coming out of high school, she was the number one ranked player in the country and opted to go to the most storied women’s basketball program in the country, UCONN. During her freshman year, she helped lead her team to the 2022 Final Four. While the team didn’t make it that far in 2023, she’s hoping to lead a comeback this upcoming season.
Simone Biles
What can Simone Biles not do? She’s the most accomplished professional gymnast in the world. During the 2022 Olympics, she took a stand for athletes with mental health issues after she took a break during the games to focus on herself.
Aaliyah Boston
Following in A’Ja Wilson’s footsteps, Aaliyah Boston was also a star college athlete at the University of South Carolina. Currently, she’s the best player on a young Indiana Fever team and was recently named the 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Elaine Thompson-Herah
Usain Bolt ain’t the only successful Jamaican sprinter. The fastest woman in the history of the Olympics, Elaine Thompson-Herah set the Olympic record in the Women’s 100 Meters during the Summer Olympics in 2021. She edged out Florence Griffith Joyner’s long-standing record of 10.62 with a time of 10.61.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Before Thompson-Herah set the Olympic record in the women’s 100 meters, fellow Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran the fastest time in nearly 33 years: 10.63 during an event in June 2021.
Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone
Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone is also a track and field star who is among the fastest in the world. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she won two gold medals, one in the 400-meter hurdles and another in the 4×400-meter relay. She also set the world record in the 400-meter hurdles in 2022, clocking a time of 50.68.
Candace Parker
Candace Parker is a basketball legend who’s been the best at every level of her career. As a rookie in the WNBA, she won the WNBA MVP and the Rookie of the Year award. In 2021, she cemented her status as a Hall of Famer after leading her hometown team, the Chicago Sky, to their first-ever WNBA championship.
Britney Griner
Thankfully, Britney Griner is back home after spending more than 100 days in a Russian prison during most of 2022. People may have forgotten, but Griner is still an imposing physical presence in the WNBA and had an awesome 2023 season despite the Phoenix Mercury struggling as a team. She’s a nine-time all-star and a WNBA champion.
Elana Meyers Taylor
I know some of us don’t pay attention to the Winter Olympics, but you might want to start, in order to watch bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor do her thing. During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Taylor became the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history after taking home her fifth medal.
Erin Jackson
Along with being a brilliant athlete, Erin Jackson also has a degree in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Florida. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the talented speed skater won gold in the 500 meter.
Claressa Shields
The ladies have hands too. Claressa Shields is one of the best Boxers out there. She won a gold medal at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics and is undefeated as a professional boxer.
Shiffrin gets career win 95 in first World Cup slalom
JASNA, Slovakia (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin earned her record-extending career win 95 by triumphing in a women’s World Cup slalom Sunday, a day after the American ski star’s main rival sustained a season-ending injury.
In the first race without Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova, Shiffrin edged out Croatian teenager Zrinka Ljutic by 0.14 seconds. Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson in third and Switzerland’s Camille Rast in fourth were the only other racers to finish within a second of Shiffrin’s time.
“We’re missing somebody really big today, we missed Petra a lot, so it’s wonderful that you stayed,” Shiffrin addressed the Slovakian spectators in a course-side interview.
It was Shiffrin’s fifth slalom win of the season and her 58th in total, a World Cup record for both men and women.
Shiffrin also set a record for most World Cup podiums in a single discipline with 82, having shared the previous best mark with Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who had 81 top-three results in slalom in the 1970s and ’80s.
Vlhova crashed and tore ligaments in her right knee in Saturday’s giant slalom near her hometown in the Tatra mountains.
Shiffrin and Vlhova have been dominating women’s slalom skiing for years and combined to win 14 of the last 15 races, including all eight this season, in a series only interrupted by Lena Duerr when the German triumphed at the Czech resort Spindleruv Mlyn a year ago.
“I don’t like it when (Vlhova) beats me but I love this battle. So, I’m wishing her a fast and strong recovery. This is really important for the sport, not just here in Jasna,” Shiffrin said.
“I have been thinking about her a lot the last 24 hours. For me, personally, over these years I have grown to love the battles with her. I think today she would have been so strong. So, I really miss watching her ski today and having that battle.”
Shiffrin built what looked like a comfortable lead of 0.52 seconds over Ljutic in the opening run, but almost came up short in the second.
“It was not easy on the second (run), now I feel the energy has gone,” she said. “I could hear (the fans) cheering for Zrinka, which was actually quite cool from the start to hear this noise. I knew she put down an amazing run and I had to push.”
Shiffrin was just 0.02 seconds ahead at the penultimate checkpoint, but had a strong finish to deny the Croatian her first win.
“I felt a little less on my timing than the first run,” Shiffrin said. “In the end, it was a really nice show because, for me, it was like pushing as hard as I could.”
Ljutic, who turns 20 next Friday, is regarded by many as a potential future star of the sport. Coming runner-up in Sunday’s race marked her career-best World Cup result, after one podium a year ago.
“It feels great, I’m really happy. I’m proud of myself for putting two really good runs and for managing this pressure in the second run,” Ljutic said. “I’m really sorry for Petra, she was skiing so well.”
With Vlhova out of the race, Shiffrin is close to wrapping up her eighth World Cup season title in slalom, leading third-ranked Duerr by 228 points with three events left. With a race win being worth 100 points, Shiffrin can secure the title at the next slalom in Soldeu, Andorra, on Feb. 11.
On Sunday, Duerr was 1.77 seconds off the lead in seventh.
Vlhova became the third former overall champion who had their season end prematurely this month. On the men’s side, Alexis Pinturault and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde underwent surgery for various injuries after they crashed at speed races in Wengen, Switzerland.
10 BREAKOUT PERFORMANCES BY TEAM USA ATHLETES IN SUMMER SPORTS IN 2023
BY CHRÖS MCDOUGALL | Team USA
New stars emerge every four years at the Olympics and Paralympics. If you were paying attention in 2023, though, you might have caught a preview of what’s to come next summer.
The year before the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 saw several breakout performances from Team USA athletes, results that included world championships, world records and drought-busting finishes.
Fans can follow along throughout the year at TeamUSA.com, but as we look ahead to the Olympic and Paralympic year in 2024, here are 10 athletes who showed in 2023 that they could be names to watch for in Paris:
Minna Stess, Skateboarding
Currently ranked 5th in the world, Minna Stess made history this year by placing third at the WST Park World Championship 2023 in Rome Ostia. In addition to securing crucial points for the Road to Paris 2024, Stess became the first U.S. woman ever to podium at an Olympic qualifier or Worlds event. At just 17 years old, she is considered the top U.S. female athlete in park skateboarding.
Mark Reis: Team USA
Sarah Adam, Wheelchair Rugby
Long a mixed-gender sport in name only, wheelchair rugby in the United States now has a female star. Adam broke through to become the first U.S. woman to compete at the world championships in 2022, and in 2023 she established herself as a go-to scorer on a team with Paralympic gold-medal aspirations. Adam, who when not playing is a professor of occupational therapy at St. Louis University, played key roles for Team USA in two major tournaments this year, including the Parapan American Games in November in Santiago, Chile. A victory there made Adam the first woman to win Parapan Ams gold in the sport and secured Team USA’s spot in Paris next year. Only Chuck Aoki, a three-time Paralympic medalist, scored more points than Adam.
Team USA
Hannah Chadwick guide Skyler Espinoza, Para-Cycling
Chadwick and her visual guide Espinoza didn’t plan to race the track sprint event at August’s world championships in Scotland. Yet in their first sprint race together, the new tandem won a bronze medal. Later, at the Parapan American Games, they opened with another unexpected win in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit. One day later they were back at their preferred 1,000-meter distance, and back atop the podium, this time in the time trial. The winning time also set a new Parapan Ams record for the event. In Paris, Chadwick, of El Cerrito, California, and Freeport, Maine, native Espinoza will aim to win Team USA’s first Paralympic medal in a visually impaired cycling event since 2008.
Mark Reis
CJ Nickolas, Taekwondo
The 21-year-old Nickolas put U.S. men’s taekwondo back on the map in May when he finished as runner-up in the men’s 80 kg. class at the world championships in Azerbaijan. Nickolas, of Brentwood, California, defeated the reigning Olympic bronze medalist in the semifinals before falling to the division’s top-ranked athlete in the final. In doing so, he became the first U.S. man to win a world championships medal in the sport since 2009. After no U.S. men qualified for the Olympics in taekwondo in 2021 — the first time that had happened — Nickolas should be in position to not only qualify for Paris but maybe even contend for a medal.
Noelle Malkamaki, Para Track & Field
Breaking a world record is so fun Malkamaki decided to do it three times this summer. The 22-year-old from Decatur, Illinois, first established a new global mark in the women’s shot put F46 at the U.S. championships in May. In July, she did it twice more at the world championships in Paris. Her final throw of 13.32 meters secured both the world title and her second world record of the day. Malkamaki, who throws collegiately for DePaul, only recently began throwing in Para competitions, and already she’s a favorite for a Paralympic medal next year in Paris.
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Fred Richard, Gymnastics
Richard arrived on the scene in 2022 eager to draw attention to his sport , both through TikTok and his performances. It’s safe to say he’s succeeded in both. In April, the 19-year-old wrapped up his freshman season at Michigan by winning the all-around and two event titles at the NCAA championships. Six months later, in Belgium, he broke through on a higher level. Richard left the world championships with a pair of bronze medals — in the team and the all-around. Those marked the first medals for U.S. men in those events at a global championship since 2014 and 2012, respectively. And Richard’s high-flying ways aren’t limited to his stunning floor exercise and high bar routines. His creative gymnastics challenge videos have earned him a following of 645,000 and counting on TikTok.
Laulauga Tausaga-Collins, Track & Field
Talk about owning the moment. Tausaga-Collins unleashed the biggest throw of her life — by far — to become the first U.S. woman to win a discus world title. The Hawaii-born, California-raised thrower missed the Tokyo Olympics and finished 12th of 12 in the final of last year’s world championships, both while battling back injuries. At this year’s worlds in August in Hungary, Tausaga-Collins sat in fifth place with two throws to go. That’s when she broke out for a 69.49-meter throw, beating her personal best by nearly four meters. Her U.S. teammate and the defending Olympic champ, Valarie Allman, was just behind Tausaga-Collins in second (69.23 m).
Joe Kusumoto
Sam Watson, Climbing
Speed climbing will debut as an Olympic medal event in Paris after being rolled into a combined event in 2021 in Tokyo. That’s good news for Watson, who at 17 is already one of the fastest in the history of the sport. In April, Watson, of Southlake, Texas, scaled the 15-meter wall in 5.02 seconds to establish a new U.S. record. The only thing missing for Watson was a climb like that when it counts most, in a final. He finally put everything together at the Pan American Games in October in Santiago, where he not only won the gold medal but also clinched his first Olympic berth.
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Joscelyn Roberson, Gymnastics
The world championships didn’t end quite how Roberson had hoped — a “freak injury” in warmups kept her out of the team and vault finals. But just about everything prior in 2023 was a dream for the 17-year-old from Texarkana, Texas. Following a switch to Simone Biles’ gym last year, Roberson enjoyed a breakthrough winter racking up medals at competitions in Germany, Egypt and Colombia. The powerful tumbler is particularly strong on floor and vault, the latter of which she won at the U.S. championships. In only in her second year at the senior elite level, Roberson showed she can hang with the best in the world.
Joe Kusumoto Team USA
Jeromie Meyer, Wheelchair Basketball
Make no mistake, the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team is still a veteran-led group. If the team is to win a third consecutive Paralympic gold medal next year, though, it’ll need key contributions from players like Meyer, of Woodbine, Iowa, who proved to be a key contributor off the bench this year. Meyer closed out his first senior tournament with Team USA by dropping in five points in a 67–66 win over Great Britain to secure the world title in June in Dubai, UAE. He was the only bench player to record a point. Meyer was at it again at the Parapan Am Games, scoring seven points and grabbing three rebounds in the final as Team USA thumped Colombia to secure the gold medal and a spot in the Paris Games.
Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic and Paralympic Movement for TeamUSA.org since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Santiago 2023 – Kayla DiCello, Felix Dolci win Pan American Games gymnastics all-around titles
By Scott Bregman | Olympics
Canada’s Felix Dolci and the United States’ Kayla DiCello won men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics all-around gold medals Monday (23 October 2023) at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
In the men’s competition, Dolci finished with a 82.531 ahead of Brazilian Diogo Soares (81.865). American Donnell Whittenburg (81.764) was the bronze medallist.
DiCello posted a 54.699 for the women’s title, holding off Brazilian Flavia Saraiva, who tallied 54.565. Team USA’s Jordan Chiles, a Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist, won bronze at 53.999.
“It feels really good. I’m really happy with how I did today,” DiCello told Olympics.com afterward. “This is my first gold medal as an all-around champion, so I’m just really happy.”
Two Olympic Paris 2024 quotas – one in men’s and one in women’s – were on offer Monday. Audrys Nin Reyes of the Dominican Republic and Luisa Blanco of Colombia obtained the quotas by finishing as the highest eligible athletes in the all-around final. Although they obtained a nominative quota, National Olympic Committees (NOC) have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
The quotas will not be confirmed by the International Gymnastics Federation until late spring next year, following the completion of the 2024 World Cup Series and other continental championships.
Having all finished in the top six during yesterday’s team final and individual qualifying round, all three medallists rotated together, starting off on the vault where the trio each delivered clean Yurchenko double twists.
After one rotation, Chiles lead with a 14.300, followed by DiCello’s 14.133 and Saraiva’s 13.966.
DiCello took the lead after the second rotation, scoring a 13.633 on the uneven bars, as Chiles came to grief on the event, adding an extra swing and catching a release element extremely close to the bar. Her 12.700 on the bars dropped her to third behind Saraiva, who posted a 13.533 for a solid routine.
The lead changed once again on the balance beam, as Saraiva used her clean and stylish trademark quality on the apparatus to score 14.166 to take a .799 lead to the final rotation.
But Saraiva opened the door with a shaky floor routine in the final rotation that scored just 12.900. DiCello seized the opportunity, scoring 13.733 to claim the first gold in the event for the U.S. since 2011.
“I did see where I was,” said DiCello of fluctuating leaderboard. “I really just tried not to focus on that and focus on the routine I’m about to do and all the skills, so it didn’t really bother me.”
DiCello only returned to elite training six months ago, announcing in April that she would take a gap year from the University of Florida to pursue a spot on the U.S. team for Paris 2024.
Monday’s result was not one she imagined when she made that decision.
“I could not [have predicted it,]” she said. “I’m just so excited and proud of myself to see how far I’ve come within those past few months.”
Dolci’s historic season
Despite a fall on a release move in the final rotation, Dolci became the first Canadian man to claim Pan Am all-around gold since 1963 when Wilhelm Weiler struck gold.
“That’s crazy,” Dolci said of this 60 years since his countryman took gold at the event. “Winning this gold medal makes me feel really proud, and it just kind of gives me more hope for the future. Obviously, looking forward to Paris. Great, great things are gonna are gonna come, I’m sure of it.”
The gold medal in Santiago is part of unprecedented season for Team Canada in men’s gymnastics that saw them soar to a fourth-place finish during qualifying at the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, just two weeks ago. That performance secured the NOC a five-man team for Paris.
“When we were back at Worlds, we had one goal in mind and one only: it was to qualify a team for the Olympics. We we did that absolutely perfectly,” said Dolci. “Looking forward for the future, the team just wants to build more depth into the athletes, making sure we own our spot. We are one of the best countries in the world now, and we stay that way, that’s as simple as it is.”