Olympic Year in Review: Summer Sports

By Nick ZaccardiDec 23, 2014, 12:35 PM EST

OlympicTalk takes a look back at the year in Olympic sports this week. Today, we review summer sports.

They called it the “fallow year” in track and field. Summer Olympic sports took a backseat in 2014 compared to the other three years in the Olympic cycle.

Track and field, aquatics and beach volleyball do not hold World Championships in even-numbered years. Two of the most stunning summer sports performances in 2014 — French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie breaking a 21-year-old world record and U.S. wrestler Jordan Burroughs‘ 69-match winning streak ending — occurred during the Winter Olympics in February and thus received far less attention.

Once the Sochi Olympics ended, the focus began turning to preparation for the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Track and Field

Usain Bolt underwent foot surgery in March and ran a total of 400 meters in competition this year — two relay legs at the Commonwealth Games, a Brazilian beach race and the rare indoor 100 meters, after entering a Warsaw stadium in a Humvee with Polish basketball player Marcin Gortat.

If Bolt lined up against top-level competition this season, in particular the undefeated American Justin Gatlin, even the great Jamaican admitted he probably would have lost.

Gatlin, four years removed from a four-year doping ban, set personal bests in the 100m and 200m at age 32, emerging as the biggest threat to Bolt since Yohan Blake swept the 100m and 200m at the 2012 Jamaican Olympic trials.

The Olympic women’s 100m and 200m champions also had injury-affected seasons. Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce struggled with a leg problem and fell off the map entirely after mid-July.

Allyson Felix needed nearly one year to fully recover from a torn hamstring at the 2013 World Championships. She allayed concern in the final Diamond League meet, Sept. 5, by running the fastest 200m in the world since the London Games.

David Rudisha wasn’t at his record-breaking best in return from a knee injury. Jenn Suhr took a backseat in the pole vault to Brazil’s best Rio medal hope in track and field, Fabiana Murer. Mo Farah debuted in the marathon. That didn’t go well, either.

source: Getty Images — Meb Keflezighi won USA Track and Field’s male Athlete of the Year award. (Getty Images)

Meb Keflezighi became the first American man to win the Boston Marathon in 31 years in April, a victory with greater meaning given the twin bombings of 2013. In September, Kenyan Dennis Kimetto shaved 26 seconds off the marathon world record in Berlin.

American Tatyana McFadden recorded her second straight wheelchair marathon Grand Slam at the New York City Marathon in November, after winning a Sochi Paralympic silver medal in cross-country skiing.

Ashton Eaton took a break from the decathlon and focused on the 400m hurdles. He clocked a time that would have made the 2012 U.S. Olympic team in the non-decathlon event. Expect him to return full-time to 10-event competition in 2015.

Eaton’s wife, Canadian Brianne Theisen-Eaton, won the Commonwealth Games heptathlon title. They’ll aim for matching gold medals at the 2015 World Championships.

Rio 2016 track and field schedule released

Swimming

Swimming turned into a story of the Big Four in 2014.

Michael Phelps returned from a 20-month competitive retirement in April and was nearing his London Olympic form four months later. In September, Phelps was pulled over driving 84 mph in a 45 mph zone and arrested on DUI charges. He was suspended for six months by USA Swimming, plus the 2015 World Championships, and spent 45 days seeking help in a program in Arizona.

Ryan Lochte returned too quickly from tearing an MCL in a November 2013 run-in with a fan. He retore his knee in April. Lochte won zero individual titles at the Pan Pacific Championships in August, his worst performance at a major international meet since he emerged as a threat to Phelps.

Missy Franklin completed her freshman year at California with an NCAA title in March. Out-of-nowhere back spasms derailed her at the Pan Pacific Championships.

Nobody impressed more than Katie Ledecky, who broke world records in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyles before starting her senior year of high school. Ledecky was also the second-fastest woman in the 200m free in 2014, as she adds shorter distances to her repertoire, expanding medal possibilities at the 2015 Worlds and 2016 Olympics.

Internationally, Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, 20, emerged as the world’s best all-around swimmer, beating Phelps and Lochte in the 200m individual medley at Pan Pacs. Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu routinely won several events at two- and three-day meets, earning her “Iron Lady” nickname.

Katie Ledecky faces decisions in 2015, 2016

Gymnastics

Texan Simone Biles continued her march toward Rio with the most successful single Olympics or World Championships ever by an American woman. Biles, 17, won four gold medals and one silver medal at Worlds in Nanning, China, in October. She was also scared off the podium by a bee.

On the men’s side, Japan’s Kohei Uchimura boosted his argument as the greatest of all time with his fifth straight World all-around title.

One member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic women’s team competed in 2014 — Kyla Ross, who took all-around bronze at the World Championships.

Gabby Douglas moved from California back to Iowa, then left coach Liang Chow for a second time, moved to Ohio and opted not compete in 2014. She hopes to return in 2015.

McKayla Maroney underwent knee surgery in March, due to coming back too early in 2013 from September 2012 surgery to repair a fractured tibia. She said she needed to have this year’s operation if she wanted to go to the Rio Olympics.

Aly Raisman attended her first U.S. national team camp since the Olympics in October.

Jordyn Wieber, who also hasn’t competed since the Olympics, said in July she’s “still deciding” if she will return to competition.

Aly Raisman motivated by London tiebreak in comeback

Basketball: The U.S. men and women swept the FIBA World Cup/World Championships, going undefeated through the tournaments and qualifying both teams for the Rio Olympics. The men, coached by Mike Krzyzewski, won without LeBron James and Kevin Durant, who could rejoin the squad in Rio. The women, coached by Geno Auriemma, included superstars such as Brittney Griner, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi.

Beach Volleyball: Three-time Olympic champion Kerri Walsh Jennings and Olympic silver medalist April Ross won four FIVB World Tour events in their first full year together. Brazil’s Larissa and Talita partnered midway through the year and experienced greater success, setting up a potential two-team race for the 2015 World title. Americans Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal won three FIVB World Tour events and finished second in the year-end rankings.

Boxing: Claressa Shields, the 19-year-old who won the first U.S. Olympic women’s boxing gold medal in London, steamrolled to her first World Championship. Marlen Esparza joined her in winning gold.

Triathlon: Gwen Jorgensen completed the greatest season in the six-year history of the World Triathlon Series, winning five straight events, including the season-ending Grand Final in August.

Volleyball: The U.S. women upset top-ranked Brazil and then defeated China in the World Championships final to capture the biggest title in program history in Milan in October.

Olympic Year in Review: Winter Sports

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Helen Maroulis stars in wrestling documentary, with help from Chris Pratt

By Nick ZaccardiMar 29, 2023, 7:00 AM EDT

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One of the remarkable recent Olympic comeback stories is the subject of a film that will be shown nationwide in theaters for one day only on Thursday.

“Helen | Believe” is a documentary about Helen Maroulis, the first U.S. Olympic women’s wrestling champion. Showing details are here.

After taking gold at the 2016 Rio Games, Maroulis briefly retired in 2019 during a two-year stretch in which she dealt with concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder. The film focuses on that period and her successful bid to return and qualify for the Tokyo Games, where she took bronze.

In a poignant moment in the film, Maroulis described her “rock bottom” — being hospitalized for suicidal ideations.

In an interview, Maroulis said she was first approached about the project in 2018, the same year she had her first life-changing concussion that January. A wrestling partner’s mother was connected to director Dylan Mulick.

Maroulis agreed to the film in part to help spread mental health awareness in sports. Later, she cried while watching the 2020 HBO film, “The Weight of Gold,” on the mental health challenges that other Olympians faced, because it resonated with her so much.

“When you’re going through something, it sometimes gives you an anchor of hope to know that someone’s been through it before, and they’ve overcome it,” she said.

Maroulis’ comeback story hit a crossroads at the Olympic trials in April 2021, where the winner of a best-of-three finals series in each weight class made Team USA.

Maroulis won the opening match against Jenna Burkert, but then lost the second match. Statistically, a wrestler who loses the second match in a best-of-three series usually loses the third. But Maroulis pinned Burkert just 22 seconds into the rubber match to clinch the Olympic spot.

Shen then revealed that she tore an MCL two weeks earlier.

“They told me I would have to be in a brace for six weeks,” she said then. “I said, ‘I don’t have that. I have two and a half.’”

Maroulis said she later asked the director what would have happened if she didn’t make the team for Tokyo. She was told the film still have been done.

“He had mentioned this isn’t about a sports story or sports comeback story,” Maroulis said. “This is about a human story. And we’re using wrestling as the vehicle to tell this story of overcoming and healing and rediscovering oneself.”

Maroulis said she was told that, during filming, the project was pitched to the production company of actor Chris Pratt, who wrestled in high school in Washington. Pratt signed on as a producer.

“Wrestling has made an impact on his life, and so he wants to support these kinds of stories,” said Maroulis, who appeared at last month’s Santa Barbara Film Festival with Pratt.

Pratt said he knew about Maroulis before learning about the film, which he said “needed a little help to get it over the finish line,” according to a public relations company promoting the film.

The film also highlights the rest of the six-woman U.S. Olympic wrestling team in Tokyo. Four of the six won a medal, including Tamyra Mensah-Stock‘s gold.

“I was excited to be part of, not just (Maroulis’) incredible story, but also helping to further advance wrestling and, in particular, female wrestling,” Pratt said, according to responses provided by the PR company from submitted questions. “To me, the most compelling part of Helen’s story is the example of what life looks like after a person wins a gold medal. The inevitable comedown, the trauma around her injuries, the PTSD, the drive to continue that is what makes her who she is.”

Maroulis, who now trains in Arizona, hopes to qualify for this year’s world championships and next year’s Olympics.

“I try to treat every Games as my last,” she said. “Now I’m leaning toward being done [after 2024], but never say never.”

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IOC recommends how Russia, Belarus athletes can return as neutrals

By OlympicTalkMar 28, 2023, 8:45 PM EDT

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The IOC updated its recommendations to international sports federations regarding Russian and Belarusian athletes, advising that they can return to competitions outside of the Olympics as neutral athletes in individual events and only if they do not actively support the war in Ukraine. Now, it’s up to those federations to decide if and how they will reinstate the athletes as 2024 Olympic qualifying heats up.

The IOC has not made a decision on the participation of Russian or Belarusian athletes for the Paris Games and will do so “at the appropriate time,” IOC President Thomas Bach said Tuesday.

Most international sports federations for Olympic sports banned Russian and Belarusian athletes last year following IOC recommendations to do so after the invasion of Ukraine.

Bach was asked Tuesday what has changed in the last 13 months that led to the IOC updating its recommendations.

He reiterated previous comments that, after the invasion and before the initial February 2022 recommendations, some governments refused to issue visas for Russians and Belarusians to compete, and other governments threatened withdrawing funding from athletes who competed against Russians and Belarusians. He also said the safety of Russians and Belarusians at competitions was at risk at the time.

Bach said that Russians and Belarusians have been competing in sports including tennis, the NHL and soccer (while not representing their countries) and that “it’s already working.”

“The question, which has been discussed in many of these consultations, is why should what is possible in all these sports not be possible in swimming, table tennis, wrestling or any other sport?” Bach said.

Bach then read a section of remarks that a United Nations cultural rights appointee made last week.

“We have to start from agreeing that these states [Russia and Belarus] are going to be excluded,” Bach read, in part. “The issue is what happens with individuals. … The blanket prohibition of Russian and Belarusian athletes and artists cannot continue. It is a flagrant violation of human rights. The idea is not that we are going to recognize human rights to people who are like us and with whom we agree on their actions and on their behavior. The idea is that anyone has the right not to be discriminated on the basis of their passport.”

The IOC’s Tuesday recommendations included not allowing “teams of athletes” from Russia and Belarus to return.

If Russia continues to be excluded from team sports and team events, it could further impact 2024 Olympic qualification.

The international basketball federation (FIBA) recently set an April 28 deadline to decide whether to allow Russia to compete in an Olympic men’s qualifying tournament. For women’s basketball, the draw for a European Olympic qualifying tournament has already been made without Russia.

In gymnastics, the ban has already extended long enough that, under current rules, Russian gymnasts cannot qualify for men’s and women’s team events at the Paris Games, but can still qualify for individual events if the ban is lifted.

Gymnasts from Russia swept the men’s and women’s team titles in Tokyo, where Russians in all sports competed for the Russian Olympic Committee rather than for Russia due to punishment for the nation’s doping violations. There were no Russian flags or anthems, conditions that the IOC also recommends for any return from the current ban for the war in Ukraine.

Seb Coe, the president of World Athletics, said last week that Russian and Belarusian athletes remain banned from track and field for the “foreseeable future.”

World Aquatics, the international governing body for swimming, diving and water polo, said after the IOC’s updated recommendations that it will continue to “consider developments impacting the situation” of Russian and Belarusian athletes and that “further updates will be provided when appropriate.”

The IOC’s sanctions against Russia and Belarus and their governments remain in place, including disallowing international competitions to be held in those countries.

On Monday, Ukraine’s sports minister said in a statement that Ukraine “strongly urges” that Russian and Belarusian athletes remain banned.

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