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Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt beats bus in Buenos Aires street race (video)

By Nick ZaccardiDec 14, 2013, 7:39 PM EDT
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Usain Bolt is faster than a bus.

The six-time Olympic champion sprinter took to the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in an 80m exhibition race with a bus televised by Argentina TV on Saturday.

The race was a bit of a dud (video here). Bolt, in a green top and black shorts in the South American spring, appeared to take it seriously going in. He stretched for several minutes beforehand.

He was smiling from a standing start. Very early into the race, he realized the bus had no chance and began jogging only to pick up his pace before crossing the finish line as the yellow bus sped up.

Bolt shook the bus driver’s hand, knocked on the windows and posed in front of it in his famous “To Di World” style for photos.

Bolt then raced other sprinters on the same street, 9 de Julio Avenue in central Buenos Aires, and won that just as easily. The 9 de Julio Avenue is billed as the widest in the world with at least seven lanes in each direction.

Video: Bolt and the great tortoise race

Alysa Liu rallies to win Junior Grand Prix with another quadruple jump

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By OlympicTalkSep 20, 2019, 3:44 PM EDT
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U.S. figure skating champion Alysa Liu landed a quadruple Lutz for a second straight Junior Grand Prix, rallying from fourth after the short program to win an event in Poland on Friday.

Liu, who in January became the youngest U.S. champion in history at age 13, won both of her starts in her first season on the Junior Grand Prix to become the first U.S. woman to qualify for the six-skater Junior Grand Prix Final since 2013 (Polina Edmunds and Karen Chen). The Final is held with the senior Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy, in December.

She won Friday by 6.63 points by surpassing a pair of Russians, a rarity in this era. Her free skate is here.

Liu trailed by 4.03 points after doubling a planned triple loop in the short program. She was the lone skater in the field to attempt a triple Axel (landing three of them, including two in combination and one with a negative grade of execution) or a quad.

Liu tallied 138.99 points in the free skate and 203.10 overall. She ranks sixth in the world this season by best total scores among junior and senior skaters, though some top skaters have yet to compete.

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Rafaela Silva, first Brazilian gold medalist at Rio Olympics, claims innocence after positive drug test

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By OlympicTalkSep 20, 2019, 2:54 PM EDT
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Alysa Liu rallies to win Junior Grand Prix with another quadruple jump Tamyra Mensah-Stock caps historic wrestling worlds for U.S. women Olympic cycling champion faces army reprimand for bare-bottom White House photo

Rafaela Silva, the judoka who grew up in Rio’s most famously violent favela to become Brazil’s first gold medalist at the Rio Olympics, reportedly tested positive for a banned substance last month.

Silva tested positive for fenoterol, a substance that can be legal to treat asthma if an athlete has a therapeutic use exemption (TUE). Silva did not have a TUE before testing positive at the Pan American Games in August, according to Brazilian media.

A possible punishment has not been announced.

Silva claimed innocence at a news conference Friday afternoon, saying that a young child with whom she had bodily contact at her training location used the substance, and she plans to compete at a domestic event this weekend, according to O Globo.

Silva, 27, backed up her Rio Olympic 57kg title by taking bronze at the world championships later in August. If she is punished for the positive test, Silva could lose that bronze medal, though she said Friday that she had a clean drug test at worlds, according to O Globo.

Silva, from Rio’s Ciadade de Deus favela, has the Olympic rings tattooed on her right bicep with the inscription “God knows how much I’ve suffered and what I’ve done to get here.”

Brazil’s top female swimmer, Etiene Medeiros, reportedly tested positive for fenoterol in May 2016 but was cleared to compete at the Rio Olympics.

In PyeongChang, Slovenian hockey player Ziga Jeglic tested positive for fenoterol and was scratched before his nation’s last game before it was announced. Jeglic was suspended from the Games and, later, was suspended eight months.

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