U.S. roster for Youth Olympics includes London Olympian

By Nick ZaccardiAug 13, 2014, 2:27 PM EDT

The U.S. roster of 92 athletes for the Nanjing Youth Olympics includes one London Olympian, a four-woman basketball team and more entrants in rugby than any other sport.

Lily Zhang, a London Olympic table tennis player at age 16, headlines the U.S. team for the second edition of the Games, which include athletes ages 14 to 18. The Opening Ceremony is Saturday.

NBC Olympics coverage of Youth Olympics

Zhang is the first American to compete in the Olympics and then compete in the Youth Olympics.

Four Americans who competed at the first Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010 went on to become London Olympians — Ariel Hsing (table tennis), Miranda Leek (archery), Alex Massialas (fencing) and Savannah Vinsant (gymnastics).

Five Americans who competed at the first Youth Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2012 went on to become Sochi Olympians — Aaron Blunck (freestyle skiing), Summer Britcher (luge), Sean Doherty (biathlon), Arielle Gold (snowboarding) and Tucker West (luge).

There are four women’s basketball players because three-on-three is the sport’s discipline in Nanjing (plus a dunk contest for boys and shootout contest for girls).

Rugby is debuting at the Youth Olympics two years before it returns to the Olympics for the first time since 1924.

Here’s the full U.S. roster:

Basketball
De’Janea Boykin
Napheesa Collier
Arike Ogunbowale
Katie Lou Samuelson

Boxing
Martha Fabela
Jajaira Gonzalez
Shakur Stevenson
Darmani Rock

Canoe/Kayak
Jordan Sherman

Diving
Dashiell Enos
Gracia Leydon Mahoney

Fencing
George Haglund
Sabrina Massialas
Karol Metryka
Catherine Nixon
Justin Yoc

Gymnastics
Nicole Ahsinger
Cody Gesuelli
Alec Yoder
Laura Zeng

Judo
Adonis Diaz

Modern Pentathlon
Brendan Anderson

Rowing
Marlee Blue
Benjamin Cohen
Liam Corrigan
Dana Moffat

Rugby
Tess Feury
Haley Langan
Appau Mailau
Michel Navarro
Dana Olsen
Tiffany Person
Emily Prentice
Kat Ramage
Becca Jane Rosko
Richelle Stephens
Danielle Walko-Siua
Whitney Wilson
Cian Barry
Hanco Germishuys
Brian Hannon
Junior Helu
Vili Helu
Sione Masoe
Aaron Matthews
Malcolm May
Suwaiter Poch
Tyler Sousley
Austin Taefu
Jojo Tikoisuva

Sailing
Henry Marshall
Maximo Nores

Swimming
Patrick Conaton
Hannah Moore
Patrick Mulcare
Courtney Mykkanen
P.J. Ransford
Meghan Small
Clara Smiddy
Justin Wright

Table Tennis
Krishnateja Avvari
Lily Zhang

Taekwondo
Kendall Yount

Tennis
Sofia Kenin
Alexander Rybakov

Track and Field
Kenneth Brinson
Brittny Ellis
Emma Fitzgerald
Rhesa Foster
Andrew James
Brandee Johnson
Amere Lattin
Noah Lyles
Myles Marshall
Tyler Merkley
Janae Moffitt
Janie O’Connor
Chinne Okoronkwo
Kimani Rushing
Haley Showalter
Jeffrey Uzzell

Triathlon
Stephanie Jenks
Seth Rider

Beach Volleyball
Skylar Caputo
Zana Muno
T.J. DeFalco
Louis Richard

Weightlifting
Deirdre Lenzsch
Ryan Sennett

Wrestling
Daton Fix
Mason Manville
Cade Olivas

NBC Olympics, Universal Sports announce Youth Olympics coverage

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 7, 2023, 5:18 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Women’s Draw

But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

IOC board recommends withdrawing International Boxing Association’s recognition

Associated PressJun 7, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT

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The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Federation on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.

While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.

IOC members rarely vote against recommendations from their 15-member board and the IBA’s ouster is likely a formality.

The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.

An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”

The IBA criticized what it called a “truly abhorrent and purely political” decision by the IOC and warned of “retaliatory measures.”

“Now, we are left with no chance but to demand a fair assessment from a competent court,” the boxing body’s Russian president Umar Kremlev said in a statement.

The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.

The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the sport or its athletes — just the IBA and its current president Kremlev, plus financial dependence on Russian state energy firm Gazprom.

In a 24-page report on IBA issues published Wednesday, the IOC concluded “the accumulation of all of these points, and the constant lack of drastic evolution throughout the many years, creates a situation of no-return.”

Olympic boxing’s reputation has been in question for decades. Tensions heightened after boxing officials worldwide ousted long-time IOC member C.K. Wu as their president in 2017 when the organization was known by its French acronym AIBA.

“From a disreputable organization named AIBA governed by someone from the IOC’s upper echelon, we committed to and executed a change in the toxic and corrupt culture that was allowed to fester under the IOC for far too long,” Kremlev said Wednesday in a statement.

National federations then defied IOC warnings in 2018 by electing as their president Gafur Rakhimov, a businessman from Uzbekistan with alleged ties to organized crime and heroin trafficking.

Kremlev’s election to replace Rakhimov in 2020 followed another round of IOC warnings that went unheeded.

Amid the IBA turmoil, a rival organization called World Boxing has attracted initial support from officials in the United States, Switzerland and Britain.

The IBA can still continue to organize its own events and held the men’s world championships last month in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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