World champion figure skater Miki Ando to skate competitively for first time in 2 years

By Nick ZaccardiSep 17, 2013, 1:46 PM EDT

The last woman to beat Yuna Kim at a major international competition is making good on comeback plans after having a baby girl.

Japan’s Miki Ando, who beat Kim at the 2011 World Championships, was added to the field for next week’s Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany, on Tuesday.

Ando, 25, has not competed since winning that 2011 world title, according to icenetwork.com. She made front-page news in Japan in July when she revealed on a TV show that she had a baby girl, Himawari, in April, hinting that she considered an abortion. Ando also won the 2007 world title and placed fifth at the 2010 Olympics.

She’s trying to make her third Olympic team for Japan, which earned three spots in Sochi. One of those spots will surely go to reigning world and Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada.

Other favorites include 2010 world junior champion Kamako Murakami and 2012 world bronze medalist Akiko Suzuki. Ando will likely have to finish in the top three at the Japanese championships in December to make the Olympic team.

Three-time European bronze medalist Kiira Korpi withdrew from Nebelhorn Trophy after suffering a partially torn Achilles, she said on Facebook.

Joannie Rochette won’t compete in Sochi

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Coco Gauff into French Open quarterfinals, where Iga Swiatek may await

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 11:52 AM EDT

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Coco Gauff swept into the French Open quarterfinals, where she could play Iga Swiatek in a rematch of last year’s final.

Gauff, the sixth seed, beat 100th-ranked Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth round. She next plays Swiatek or 66th-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, who meet later Monday.

Gauff earned a 37th consecutive win over a player ranked outside the top 50, dating to February 2022. She hasn’t faced a player in the world top 60 in four matches at Roland Garros, but the degree of difficulty is likely to ratchet up in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Swiatek won all 12 sets she’s played against Gauff, who at 19 is the only teenager in the top 49 in the world.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Also Monday, No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia dispatched 36th-ranked American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1, breaking all eight of Pera’s service games.

Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

Jabeur next faces 14th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia, who won 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-5 over Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, who played on a protected ranking of 68. Haddad Maia became the second Brazilian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Open Era (since 1968) after Maria Bueno, who won seven majors from 1959-1966.

Pera, a 28 year-old born in Croatia, was the oldest U.S. singles player to make the fourth round of a major for the first time since Jill Craybas at 2005 Wimbledon. Her defeat left Gauff as the lone American singles player remaining out of the 35 entered in the main draws.

The last American to win a major singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought matches the longest in history (since 1877) for American men and women combined.

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U.S. earns first three-peat in Para hockey world championship history

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 8:49 AM EDT

International Paralympic Committee

The U.S. trounced rival Canada 6-1 to become the first nation to three-peat in world Para hockey championship history.

Tournament MVP Declan Farmer scored twice, and Josh Misiewicz, David Eustace, Jack Wallace and Kevin McKee added goals. Jen Lee made eight saves in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on Sunday.

Farmer, who had nine goals in five games for the tournament, also scored twice in Paralympic final wins over Canada in 2018 and 2022 and the last world championship final against Canada in 2021. Farmer, 25, already owns the career national team record of more than 250 points.

The U.S. beat Canada in a third consecutive world final dating to 2019, but this was the most lopsided gold-medal game in championship history. The U.S. also won the last four Paralympic titles dating to 2010.

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