Olympic skier Julia Krass wins high school soccer state title

Julia Krass
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source:
Associated Press

Olympian Julia Krass owns a heavy basket full of all her slopestyle skiing medals. She can add a new medal to the collection after helping her high school soccer team to a state championship Sunday.

Krass, who finished 11th in ski slopestyle’s debut at the Sochi Olympics, and the Hanover High School girls soccer team won the New Hampshire Division II title.

The biggest difference between the high school soccer championship and the Olympics was the team aspect, Krass said.

“I was with all my good friends I was playing soccer with the past 10 years or so,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We had finally gotten to the top with each other, whereas skiing is more individual.”

The 17-year-old senior made it a habit of wearing a long-sleeve shirt in the state tournament that she also wore as part of her Team USA uniform at the Sochi Opening Ceremony.

Krass attended Hanover as a freshman and sophomore and switched to online classes last year as she trained for the Olympics. She was still eligible to play for the team and didn’t give it up, even though ski coaches told her to focus solely on her Olympic sport.

Krass was on the Hanover team that lost in the state tournament first round two years ago and the semifinals last year.

Krass has already switched her focus back to skiing. She’s preparing for her post-Olympic season debut at the Dew Tour Mountain Championships in Breckenridge, Colo., in December.

Krass expects to finish her online classes next spring. She’s applying to the University of Utah, Dartmouth and Westminster College (Utah), three popular schools among skiers that allow them to keep training easily.

Krass’ year also included a trip to the White House with the U.S. Olympic team in April. President Barack Obama joked about her being one of the youngest U.S. Olympic team members.

“You’re 16, and you already went to the Olympics, what are you supposed to do now?’ Obama told her. “I guess the same thing as me when I get out of the White House. There’s not much more to look forward to.”

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French Open: Iga Swiatek rolls toward possible Coco Gauff rematch

Iga Swiatek
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Iga Swiatek reached the French Open third round without dropping a set, eyeing a third Roland Garros title in four years. Not that she needed the help, but Swiatek’s immediate draw is wide open after the rest of the seeds in her section lost.

Swiatek dispatched 102nd-ranked American Claire Liu 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday, the same score as her first-round win. She gets 80th-ranked Wang Xinyu of China in the round of 32.

The other three seeds in Swiatek’s section all lost in the first round, so the earliest that the world No. 1 could play another seed is the quarterfinals. And that would be No. 6 Coco Gauff, who was runner-up to Swiatek last year.

Gauff plays her second-round match later Thursday against 61st-ranked Austrian Julia Grabher. Gauff also doesn’t have any seeds in her way before a possible Swiatek showdown.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Swiatek, who turned 22 on Wednesday, came into this year’s French Open without the invincibility of a year ago, when she was 16-0 in the spring clay season during an overall 37-match win streak.

She retired from her last pre-French Open match with a right thigh injury, but said it wasn’t serious. That diagnosis appears to have been spot-on through two matches this week, though her serve was broken twice in the first set of each match.

While the men’s draw has been upended by 14-time champion Rafael Nadal‘s pre-event withdrawal and No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev‘s loss in the first round, the top women have taken care of business.

Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, American Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan also reached the third round without dropping a set.

Though all of them have beaten Swiatek in 2023, the Pole remains the favorite to lift the trophy a week from Saturday. She can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

She can also become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

Swiatek doesn’t dwell on it.

“I never even played Serena or Monica Seles,” she said. “I’m kind of living my own life and having my own journey.”

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Penny Oleksiak to miss world swimming championships

Penny Oleksiak
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Seven-time Olympic medalist Penny Oleksiak of Canada will miss July’s world swimming championships because she does not expect to be recovered enough from knee and shoulder injuries.

“The bar that we set was, can she be as good as she’s ever been at these world championships?” coach Ryan Mallette said in a press release. “We just don’t feel like we’re going to be ready to be 100 percent yet this summer. Our focus is to get her back to 100 percent as soon as possible to get ready for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

Oleksiak, who owns the Canadian record of seven Olympic medals (across all sports), missed Canada’s trials meet for worlds two months ago due to the injuries. She was still named to the team at the time in hope that she would be ready in time for worlds.

The 22-year-old returned to competition last month at a Mare Nostrum meet in Barcelona, after which she chose to focus on continued rehab rather than compete at worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.

“Swimming at Mare Nostrum was a checkpoint for worlds, and I gave it my best shot,” Oleksiak said in the release. “We reviewed my swims there, and it showed me the level I want to get back to. Now I need to focus on my rehab to get back to where I want to be and put myself in position to be at my best next season.”

Oleksiak had knee surgery last year to repair a meniscus. After that, she developed a left shoulder injury.

In 2016, Oleksiak tied for Olympic 100m freestyle gold with American Simone Manuel. She also earned 100m butterfly silver in Rio and 200m free bronze in Tokyo, along with four relay medals between those two Games.

At last year’s worlds, she earned four relay medals and placed fourth in the 100m free.

She anchored the Canadian 4x100m free relay to silver behind Australia at the most recent Olympics and worlds.

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