Figure skating broadcast schedule for 2016-17 season

By Nick ZaccardiOct 12, 2016, 11:31 AM EDT

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NBC, NBCSN, the NBC Sports app and Universal HD will broadcast more than 140 hours of figure skating coverage this season, capped by the World Championships in Helsinki in March and April.

The season kicks off in earnest with live coverage of Skate America on NBC in Hoffman Estates, Ill., next week, continuing through the fall Grand Prix season. Grand Prix series skater assignments are highlighted here.

Broadcast coverage also includes live coverage of all four disciplines of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City from Jan. 19-22.

Icenetwork.com will continue to provide live and on-demand streaming of events for subscribers. Its schedule is here.

The top skaters include reigning world champions Javier Fernandez (Spain), Yevgenia Medvedeva (Russia), pairs Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (Canada) and ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron (France).

All reigning U.S. champions are also slated to compete — Gracie Gold, Adam Rippon, pairs Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea and ice dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani — plus world silver medalist Ashley Wagner, 2015 U.S. champion Jason Brown and two-time world medalists ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

Here’s the full broadcast schedule:

Date	ISU Grand Prix Series	Time (ET)	Network
Oct. 21	Skate America: Ladies Short	11 p.m.-midnight	UniHD
Oct. 22	Skate America: Ladies Free (LIVE)	4:30-6 p.m.	NBC
Oct. 22	Skate America: Men’s Short	11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.	UniHD
Oct. 22	Skate America: Pairs Free	12:30-1:30 a.m.	UniHD
Oct. 23	Skate America: Men’s Free (LIVE)	12:30-2:30 p.m.	NBC
Oct. 23	Skate America: Free Dance	9-10 p.m.	UniHD
Oct. 24	Skate America: Ladies and Men’s Free (re-air)	8-11:30 p.m.	UniHD
Oct. 28	Skate Canada: Ladies and Men’s Short	midnight-2 a.m.	UniHD
Oct. 29	Skate Canada: Free Skates	midnight-3 a.m.	UniHD
Oct. 30	Skate Canada: Ladies Free	5-6 p.m.	NBC
Oct. 31	Skate Canada: Ladies Free (re-air)	8-9 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 4	Rostelecom Cup: Men’s and Ladies Short	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 5	Rostelecom Cup: Free Dance, Pairs Free	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 6	Rostelecom Cup	10-11:30 p.m.	NBCSN
Nov. 11	Trophée de France: Men’s and Ladies Short	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 12	Trophée de France: Pairs Free, Free Dance	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 13	Trophée de France	4-5:30 p.m.	NBCSN
Nov. 18	Cup of China: Ladies and Men’s Short	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 19	Cup of China: Free Dance, Pairs Free	9-11 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 19	Cup of China	11 p.m.-12:30 a.m.	NBCSN
Nov. 21	Cup of China	8-9:30 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 25	NHK Trophy: Ladies and Men’s Short	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 26	Rostelecom Cup: Recap	4-5 p.m.	NBC
Nov. 26	Trophée de France: Recap	5-6 p.m.	NBC
Nov. 26	NHK Trophy: Pairs Free	8:30-9:30 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 27	NHK Trophy: Free Dance	3-4 p.m.	UniHD
Nov. 27	NHK Trophy	4-6 p.m.	NBC
Nov. 28	Grand Prix Recaps (re-air)	7-11 p.m.	UniHD
Dec. 8	Grand Prix Final: Men’s and Ladies Short	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Dec. 9	Grand Prix Final: Pairs Short, Short Dance	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Dec. 10	Grand Prix Final: Pairs Free	8:30-9:30 p.m.	UniHD
Dec. 11	Grand Prix Final	8:30-11 p.m.	NBCSN
Dec. 18	Grand Prix Final	4-6 p.m.	NBC
Dec. 19	Grand Prix Final: NBC re-air	8-10 p.m.	UniHD

Date	U.S. Championships – Kansas City	Time (ET)	Network
Jan. 19	Pairs Short (LIVE)	6-8 p.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 19	Ladies Short (LIVE)	10 pm-12:30 a.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 20	Short Dance (LIVE)	6-8 p.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 20	Men’s Short (LIVE)	8:30 p.m.-midnight	UniHD
Jan. 21	Pairs Free and Free Dance (LIVE)	3-6 p.m.	NBC
Jan. 21	Ladies Free (LIVE)	8-11 p.m.	NBC
Jan. 22	Men’s Free (LIVE)	4-6 p.m.	NBC
Jan. 23	Pairs Free and Free Dance (re-air)	8-11 p.m.	UniHD
Jan. 24	Ladies Free (re-air)	8-11 p.m.	UniHD
Jan. 25	Men’s Free (re-air)	8-10 p.m.	UniHD
Jan. 28	Smucker’s Skating Spectacular	2:30-4:30 p.m.	NBC
Jan. 29	Smucker’s Skating Spectacular (re-air)	8-10 p.m.	UniHD

Date	ISU Championships	Time (ET)	Network
Jan. 25	European Champs: Ladies and Pairs Short	noon-4 p.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 26	European Champs: Short Dance, Pairs Free	Noon-4 p.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 27	European Champs: Men’s Short, Ladies Free	Noon-4 p.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 28	European Champs: Free Dance	9-11 a.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 28	European Champs: Men’s Free	4:30-6:30 p.m.	NBCSN
Jan. 29	European Champs: Ladies and Men’s Free	4-6 p.m.	NBC
Feb. 16	Four Continents: Short Programs	Noon-6 p.m.	NBCSN
Feb. 17	Four Continents: Free Dance, Men’s Short	Noon-3 p.m.	NBCSN
Feb. 18	Four Continents: Pairs Free	8-10 a.m.	NBCSN
Feb. 18	Four Continents: Ladies Free	2-4 p.m.	NBC
Feb. 18	Four Continents: Men’s Free	11 p.m.-1 a.m.	NBCSN
March 29	World Champs: Ladies and Pairs Short	11 a.m.-3 p.m.	NBCSN
March 30	World Champs: Men’s Short, Pairs Free	11 a.m.-3 p.m.	NBCSN
March 31	World Champs: Ladies Free	1-3 p.m.	NBCSN
March 31	World Champs: Short Dance	8-10 p.m.	NBCSN
April 1	World Champs: Men’s Free, Free Dance	12:30-4:30 p.m.	NBCSN
April 1	World Champs: Ladies Free	8-10 p.m.	NBC
April 2	World Champs: Exhibition	1:30-3:30 p.m.	NBCSN
April 9	World Champs: Recap	3-6 p.m.	NBC

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Football takes significant step in Olympic push

By OlympicTalkMar 29, 2023, 2:18 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Football took another step toward possible Olympic inclusion with the IOC executive board proposing that the sport’s international federation — the IFAF — be granted full IOC recognition at a meeting in October.

IOC recognition does not equate to eventual Olympic inclusion, but it is a necessary early marker if a sport is to join the Olympics down the line. The IOC gave the IFAF provisional recognition in 2013.

Specific measures are required for IOC recognition, including having an anti-doping policy compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency and having 50 affiliated national federations from at least three continents. The IFAF has 74 national federations over five continents with almost 4.8 million registered athletes, according to the IOC.

The NFL has helped lead the push for flag football to be added for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Flag football had medal events for men and women at last year’s World Games, a multi-sport competition including Olympic and non-Olympic sports, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Football is one of nine sports that have been reported to be in the running to be proposed by LA 2028 to the IOC to be added for the 2028 Games only. LA 2028 has not announced which, if any sports, it plans to propose.

Under rules instituted before the Tokyo Games, Olympic hosts have successfully proposed to the IOC adding sports solely for their edition of the Games.

For Tokyo, baseball-softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added. For Paris, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were approved again, and breaking will make its Olympic debut. Those sports were added four years out from the Games.

For 2028, the other sports reportedly in the running for proposal are baseball and softball, breaking, cricket, karate, kickboxing, lacrosse, motorsports and squash.

All of the other eight sports reportedly in the running for 2028 proposal already have a federation with full IOC recognition (if one counts the international motorcycle racing federation for motorsports).

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

By Nick ZaccardiMar 29, 2023, 10:05 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. It is produced by Religion of Sports, the venture founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan and Tom Brady. 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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