Bobsled, skeleton World Cup season preview

By Nick ZaccardiNov 29, 2013, 10:19 AM EST

This will be the most scrutinized U.S. bobsled and skeleton season ever given Steve Holcomb is the defending Olympic champion, Elana Meyers, Noelle Pikus-Pace and Katie Uhlaender are gold-medal threats and a certain hurdler is trying to make her first Winter Olympic team.

The U.S. Olympic Team will be determined largely on World Cup season results through Jan. 19. The top pilots and sliders based on FIBT Rankings will go to Sochi, as well as discretionary selections made after Jan. 19.

The U.S. is expected to qualify the maximum quota of three bobsleds in every event (two-man, four-man, two-woman), but skeleton will be tougher. The U.S. would have qualified two of the maximum three skeleton sliders if based solely on 2012-13 rankings.

Here’s the World Cup/Olympic schedule:

Calgary, Alberta — Nov. 29-30
Park City, Utah — Dec. 6-7
Lake Placid, N.Y. — Dec. 13-15
Winterberg, Germany — Jan. 3-5
St. Moritz, Switzerland — Jan. 10-12
Igls, Austria — Jan. 17-19
Koenigssee, Germany — Jan. 24-26
Olympics — Feb. 13-23

Here are three storylines going into the Olympic season:

1. Can Steve Holcomb repeat?

Holcomb drove the Night Train to an Olympic title in 2010, ending a 62-year gold-medal drought for U.S. men’s bobsled. Winning in Sochi will be harder.

“There’s a number of new drivers that weren’t around in Vancouver [in 2010] or weren’t competitive,” Holcomb said. “You’re going to have three very fast Russian teams, where in Vancouver there was only one. You’ve got two Canadians that are really fast. You’ve got a Latvian, who was brand new in Vancouver, that wasn’t really that good. And he’s good now.”

And then there’s the venue. Experience on a track is key for a pilot, which is why Holcomb’s best results have come on North American ice. He swept the two- and four-man World Championships in Lake Placid in 2012. He was fourth and third in the two- and four-man World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 2013.

Holcomb, 33, hasn’t won a World Cup or World Championship race on a European track in nearly four years. He was 11th in the two-man and 12th in the four-man at the 2012-13 season finale at the Sochi Olympic track in February.

But the Park City native points to his 13 years of piloting as reason to believe he can pick up the nuances of foreign tracks quickly.

“I’m a lot more comfortable,” he said. “These foreign tracks are a lot more familiar.”

Compare Holcomb’s World Cup results against all German sleds, Russian Aleksandr Zubkov, Canadian Lyndon Rush and Latvian Oskars Melbardis for a gauge on his Olympic medal prospects.

2. Challenges for U.S. women’s bobsledders

The most dominant bobsled pilot in the world is Canadian Kaillie Humphries. She’s won eight of the last 11 World Cup races dating to the 2011-12 season and is the reigning world and Olympic champion.

That’s what 2010 Olympic bronze medalist Elana Meyers is looking up at going into her first Olympics as a pilot. Meyers, a former college softball player, was a push athlete at the 2010 Olympics.

Her transition to driving has been as smooth as the ice she slides on. Meyers won silver behind Humphries at the World Championships in January. She also took silver at the Sochi event in February, beating Humphries but coming in behind 2006 Olympic champion Sandra Kiriasis of Germany.

Meyers teamed with push athlete Katie Eberling at worlds, but Aja Evans, a Big Ten shot put champion, was her partner in Sochi and appears set to reprise the role this season.

Which brings up the question of Lolo Jones, the two-time Olympic hurdler in her second full season as a bobsled push athlete. Jones appears to be third in the American push athlete order, behind Evans and Eberling, at the start of the season.

Jones was the fourth U.S. push athlete at the World Championships, sitting out the individual event in favor of 2010 Olympian Emily Azevedo but coming on for the mixed relay.

Watch how Meyers fares against Humphries leading up to the Olympics, and for which push athletes are used in World Cup races for a sense of the Olympic picture.

3. Puzzling skeleton picture

Start with the men. Latvian Martins Dukurs has won 19 of the last 21 World Cup races, but he is neither the reigning Olympic nor world champion.

The Olympic champion, beer-guzzling Canadian Jon Montgomery, is in doubt to even make his Olympic team. The world champion, Russian Aleksandr Tretiakov, hasn’t won a World Cup event in nearly three years.

The top Americans are 2010 Olympian John Daly and Matt Antoine. Daly, who stars in the YouTube series “Your Daly Nitro” with bobsledder Steve Langton, finished fifth at the World Championships in February.

Women’s skeleton is even more head-scratching. Don’t worry about 2010 Olympic champion, Amy Williams. The Brit is now a rally driver.

The reigning world champion is another Brit, Shelley Rudman. But Rudman was seventh in the World Cup standings last season, finishing above fifth once in nine races one year after winning the World Cup title.

The reigning World Cup champ is German Marion Thees, but she was eighth at the World Championships and fourth at the Sochi season finale.

And then there are the Americans. Katie Uhlaender, 29, won the 2012 World Championship before attempting to make the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team in weightlifting. She returned to skeleton and was the only woman with a combined four first- or second-place World Cup finishes last year.

Noelle Pikus-Pace, 30, is back from retirement and child birth. She was arguably the best slider last season, making the podium five times in six World Cup races (skipping the other three) and winning silver at worlds, six years after her world championship.

Even if early World Cup results provide clear rankings, it will be tough to confidently predict Olympic champions.

Olympic sprinter retires, would likely consider bobsledding if asked

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Iga Swiatek sweeps into French Open final, where she faces a surprise

By OlympicTalkJun 8, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT

Iga Swiatek marched into the French Open final without dropping a set in six matches. All that stands between her and a third Roland Garros title is an unseeded foe.

Swiatek, the top-ranked Pole, swept 14th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-2, 7-6 (7) in Thursday’s semifinal in her toughest test all tournament. Haddad Maia squandered three break points at 4-all in the second set.

Swiatek dropped just 23 games thus far, matching her total en route to her first French Open final in 2020 (which she won for her first WTA Tour title of any kind). After her semifinal, she signed a courtside camera with the hashtag #stepbystep.

“For sure I feel like I’m a better player,” than in 2020, she said. “Mentally, tactically, physically, just having the experience, everything. So, yeah, my whole life basically.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

In Saturday’s final, Swiatek gets 43rd-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova, who upset No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus to reach her first major final.

Muchova, a 26-year-old into the second week of the French Open for the first time, became the first player to take a set off the powerful Belarusian this tournament, then rallied from down 5-2 in the third set to prevail 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5.

Sabalenka, who overcame previous erratic serving to win the Australian Open in January, had back-to-back double faults in her last service game.

“Lost my rhythm,” she said. “I wasn’t there.”

Muchova broke up what many expected would be a Sabalenka-Swiatek final, which would have been the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 match at the French Open since Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova in the 2013 final.

Muchova is unseeded, but was considered dangerous going into the tournament.

In 2021, she beat then-No. 1 Ash Barty to make the Australian Open semifinals, then reached a career-high ranking of 19. She dropped out of the top 200 last year while struggling through injuries.

“Some doctors told me maybe you’ll not do sport anymore,” Muchova said. “It’s up and downs in life all the time. Now I’m enjoying that I’m on the upper part now.”

Muchova has won all five of her matches against players ranked in the top three. She also beat Swiatek in their lone head-to-head, but that was back in 2019 when both players were unaccomplished young pros. They have since practiced together many times.

“I really like her game, honestly,” Swiatek said. “I really respect her, and she’s I feel like a player who can do anything. She has great touch. She can also speed up the game. She plays with that kind of freedom in her movements. And she has a great technique. So I watched her matches, and I feel like I know her game pretty well.”

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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s defining race; Paris Diamond League TV, live stream info

By OlympicTalkJun 8, 2023, 4:01 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

For Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, what happens in her first outdoor race of 2023 on Friday could dictate the rest of her season. It may impact her 2024 Olympic plans, too.

McLaughlin-Levrone strays from the 400m hurdles — where she is the reigning Olympic and world champion and four times broke the world record — to race her first flat 400m in two years at a Diamond League meet in Paris.

Peacock streams it live from 3-5 p.m. ET. CNBC airs coverage Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.

What we know is this: On Friday, McLaughlin-Levrone will race against the Olympic and world silver medalist in the 400m (Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic) and the 2019 World champion (Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain).

Next month, McLaughlin-Levrone will race the flat 400m at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, the qualifying meet for August’s world championships. She is racing that flat 400m at USATF Outdoors at least in part because she already has a bye into the 400m hurdles at worlds as defending champion.

What we don’t know: which race McLaughlin-Levrone will enter at worlds. Her coach, Bobby Kersee, said last month that she will choose between the 400m and 400m hurdles for worlds, should she finish top three in the 400m at USATF Outdoors to qualify in that second event. She will not try a 400m-400m hurdles double at worlds.

McLaughlin-Levrone was asked Thursday which event she would pick if given the choice.

“Is it bad to say I don’t know?” she said in a press conference. “Honestly, ask me after tomorrow. I don’t know. I’ve got to run this one first and see how it feels.”

McLaughlin-Levrone also doesn’t know what she will try to race at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Next year, the 400m-400m hurdles double is more feasible given one could do both events without ever racing more than once per day.

“We’re still focused on 2023,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “One step at a time, literally. Obviously that’s something as the season comes to an end we’ll kind of start to look and figure out what our plan is for next year.”

Here are the Paris entry lists. Here’s the schedule of events (all times Eastern):

12:57 p.m. ET — Women’s Shot Put
1:35 — Women’s High Jump
2:15 — Women’s Discus
2:20 — Women’s Pole Vault
3:04 — Men’s 400m Hurdles
3:15 — Women’s 800m
3:19 — Men’s Long Jump
3:24 — Women’s 5000m
3:42 — Women’s Javelin
3:52 — Men’s 110m Hurdles
4:02 — Women’s 400m
4:12 — Men’s 100m
4:22 — Women’s 200m
4:32 — Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
4:51 — Men’s 800m

Here are six events to watch:

Women’s Pole Vault — 2:20 p.m. ET
Olympic and world champion Katie Moon won the first two Diamond League meets and again faces some of her biggest domestic and international challengers in Paris. That includes fellow American Sandi Morris, who won the first three Diamond League meets last year, then took silver behind Moon at worlds on count back. Plus 34-year-old Slovenian Tina Sutej, who ranks second in the world this season.

Women’s 5000m — 3:24 p.m. ET
Includes the world record holders at 1500m (Kenyan Faith Kipyegon in her first 5000m since 2015), 3000m steeplechase (Kenyan Beatrice Chepkoech) and the 5000m and 10,000m (Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey). Plus new American 10,000m record holder Alicia Monson, who is third on the U.S. all-time 5000m list at 14:31.11. Shelby Houlihan has the American record of 14:23.92.

Men’s 110m Hurdles — 3:52 p.m. ET
The three members of the U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo — Grant Holloway, Devon Allen and Daniel Roberts — could face off for the first time in nearly a year. Holloway, who has a bye into worlds as defending champion, overcame a rare defeat in the Diamond League opener in Rabat to win his last two races. He is the fastest man in the world this year at 13.01 seconds. Allen isn’t far behind at 13.12, while Roberts has yet to race the hurdles this outdoor season.

Women’s 400m — 4:02 p.m. ET
Could very well determine the favorite for worlds. Reigning Olympic and world champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas is on maternity leave. Paulino is the only other woman to break 49 seconds since the start of the pandemic, and she’s done it each of the last two years. Naser is the only other active woman to have broken 49 seconds, doing so in winning the 2019 World title (before she was banned for two years, through the Tokyo Olympics, for missing drug tests). McLaughlin-Levrone’s personal best from 2018 is 50.07 seconds, but she was just 18 years old then and focusing on the hurdles. Still, that time would have won the 2022 U.S. title. Last month, University of Arkansas junior Britton Wilson ran the fastest time by an American since 2009 — 49.13 — but she might bypass the flat 400m to focus on the hurdles this summer.

Men’s 100m — 4:12 p.m. ET
Could be a meeting between the reigning Olympic men’s 100m champion (Marcell Jacobs of Italy) and world men’s 200m champion (American Noah Lyles), which hasn’t happened since the 2009 World Championships 100m final, where Usain Bolt lowered the world record to 9.58 seconds and American Tyson Gay was second in a then-American record 9.71. Later in that meet, Bolt won his first world 200m title, a crown he held concurrently with his Olympic 100m titles through his 2017 retirement. But Jacobs, citing nerve pain, scratched out of the last two Diamond League meets, which were to be showdowns with world 100m champion Fred Kerley. Jacobs did show up for Thursday’s press conference. Lyles has a bye onto the world team in the 200m, but also wants to make the four-man U.S. team in the 100m. He ranks fifth among Americans by best time this season — 9.95.

Men’s 800m — 4:51 p.m. ET
The top five from the world championships are entered, led by Olympic and world champion Emmanuel Korir of Kenya. This event was in an international doldrums for much of the time since Kenyan David Rudisha repeated as Olympic champion in 2016, then faded away from competition. But the emergence of 18-year-old Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi has injected excitement this season. Wanyonyi is the world’s fastest man this year. The second-fastest, Kenyan Wycliffe Kinyamal, is also in this field.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported the TV window for the meet broadcast. The CNBC broadcast begins at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, not 3.

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