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For the reason that Video games haven’t been held in North America since 2010 (the 2026 version shall be in Italy), Salt Lake Metropolis or Vancouver could be an apparent alternative for 2030. Vancouver seems to have the sting there — its venues are newer and its bid is indigenous-led, an Olympic novelty. It’s additionally potential that the IOC may award the 2030 and 2034 Video games on the identical time, because it did the 2024 and 2028 summer time variations in 2017.
Fierce competitors
With eight members of the 2018 squad competing within the upcoming US championships in Nashville, this Olympic determine skating staff shall be more durable to make than most.
Nathan Chen, the three-time world titlist, and Vincent Zhou are returning on the boys’s facet, and Karen Chen on the ladies’s, plus Alexa Scimeca Knierim and subsequent pairs associate Brandon Frazier, in addition to dance {couples} Madison Hubbell–Zachary Donohue and Madison Chock–Evan Bates.
With defending champion Bradie Tennell withdrawn with a foot damage and Chen not near final season’s degree, the three girls’s spots are large open. Within the combine shall be Alysa Liu, the two-time former champion; Amber Glenn, final season’s runner-up; and three-time world teamer Mariah Bell, plus Gracie Gold, who was fourth within the 2014 Video games however opted out of the 2018 nationals due to psychological well being issues.
Deep pool of expertise
How deep was the ladies’s discipline finally weekend’s Russian nationwide determine skating championships?
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, the world silver medalist, completed seventh. The highest three had been Kamila Valieva, the Motherland’s latest star at 15, and 17-year-olds Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova, who positioned third and first on the 2021 international occasion.
Adeliia Petrosian, Sofia Samodelkina, and Sofia Muravieva, who completed 4-5-6, all are too younger for the Olympics. By 2026, they could be too outdated to make the squad for Milan-Cortina. The federation, which hasn’t named its Beijing entrants, could wait till after the European championships in mid-January.
With Yuzuru Hanyu again in prime type, the Japanese males once more would be the bunch to beat in Beijing, simply as they had been in PyeongChang final time. Hanyu, who simply gained final week’s trials regardless of having missed the Grand Prix season with an injured ankle, shall be joined by 2018 runner-up Shoma Uno and teenager Yuma Kagiyama, the world silver medalist. Ought to Hanyu win a 3rd straight crown on the Video games he’ll be the primary man to handle it since Sweden’s Gillis Grafstrom in 1928.
See you quickly
Canceling this previous week’s closing two exhibition video games in Alberta was a no brainer for the USA and Canada girls’s hockey groups after the hosts had a number of gamers and workers enter COVID protocols.
With the Video games barely a month away it made no sense to jeopardize participation for the sake of a pair extra tuneups. The archrivals performed six of the 9 scheduled conferences with Canada profitable 4, all on American ice. They’ll meet within the Olympic group finale on Feb. 8 with quarterfinal seeding at stake.
Choice time
The US Olympic long-track speedskating staff shall be chosen at this coming week’s trials in Milwaukee.
Favorites on the ladies’s facet embody Erin Jackson (500 meters), Brittany Bowe (1,000 and 1,500), and Mia Manganello Kilburg (3,000 and mass begin), and Jordan Stolz (500 and 1,000), Joey Mantia (1,500), Casey Dawson (5,000), and Ian Quinn (mass begin) on the boys’s.
Uncommon double?
With the Olympic qualification interval getting into its closing two weekends, Chris Mazdzer has an excellent likelihood to grow to be the primary US luger to earn spots in two disciplines since Wendel Suckow in 1992.
Mazdzer, who gained silver in 2018, would make his fourth staff as a singles slider and be part of Jayson Terdiman in doubles. If he additionally makes the relay, Mazdzer could be the primary athlete ever to compete in all three occasions on the Video games.
On prime of the world
Though Mikaela Shiffrin missed each races at this previous week’s World Cup cease in Austria after testing optimistic for COVID, she stays atop the Alpine general standings by 93 factors forward of Italy’s Sofia Goggia, in addition to the enormous slalom desk, and nonetheless is second within the slalom.
The largest beneficiary of Shiffrin’s absence was Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who gained the slalom and was second within the GS in Lienz. The cancellation of subsequent weekend’s GS and slalom occasions in Slovenia because of lack of snow disadvantaged Shiffrin of an opportunity to pad her general lead. There’ll solely be two extra technical races earlier than the Olympics.
Pretty much as good as in
Jessie Diggins all however clinched a spot on her third US Olympic cross-country snowboarding staff by profitable the dash opener of the six-race Tour de Ski happening in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. For Diggins, the occasion’s defending champion, it was her third particular person podium of the season and her first victory … The US Olympic freestyle staff is beginning to replenish as eight skiers earned locations primarily based on FIS factors rankings. Colby Stevenson and Mac Forehand (Southport, Conn.) made each the boys’s slopestyle and large air squads, and Justin Schoenefeld and Chris Lillis took spots in aerials. On the ladies’s facet, Megan Nick (Shelburne, Vt.) and Winter Vinecki certified in aerials, as did Jaelin Kauf and Hannah Soar (Somers, Conn.) in moguls … Headed to his fourth Olympics at 31 is Taylor Fletcher, who gained this previous week’s Nordic mixed trials at Lake Placid, overtaking Ben Loomis within the cross-country portion. Fletcher is the one member nonetheless competing from the 2010 group that topped the desk in Vancouver. The remainder of the staff, which can embody Loomis, a 2018 veteran, shall be named in January … Kevin Bickner earned a return ticket to the Video games by profitable final weekend’s US ski leaping trials at Lake Placid. The second spot shall be decided by World Cup rankings. Though Anna Hoffmann gained the ladies’s trials, she’ll solely go to Beijing if the US earns a quota spot by mid-month.
Materials from Olympic committees, sports activities federations, interviews, and wire providers was used on this report.
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