Lindsey Vonn moves up season debut to Saturday

By Nick ZaccardiOct 26, 2017, 10:30 AM EDT

Getty Images

Lindsey Vonn, who originally planned to make her season debut in December, instead plans to race on Saturday in the World Cup season-opening giant slalom in Soelden, Austria (6:30 a.m. ET, Olympic Channel).

That’s provided conditions are safe. Watch her announcement here.

“I didn’t race any GS last year because of my [broken] arm injury, but I skied really well this summer in New Zealand,” Vonn said Thursday. “I feel like I’m in good enough shape, and it’s a good opportunity. See what happens.

“The biggest thing this season is staying healthy. So I really don’t want to take any chances. I just want to ski solid. My solid skiing is enough to get in the top 15. That’s all I really need.”

It will mark Vonn’s earliest start to a season since before her recent series of major injuries that began at the February 2013 World Championships, forcing her to miss defending her Olympic downhill title in Sochi.

Vonn originally planned to begin her lead-up to PyeongChang the first weekend of December with speed races (downhill, super-G) at her favorite venue of Lake Louise, Alberta.

Vonn last raced giant slalom Jan. 30, 2016 and last won a GS on Dec. 12, 2015, her only finish better than fifth in a GS since January 2013.

She last raced Soelden, the annual World Cup opener in late October, in 2012. Vonn won Soelden in 2011, but giant slalom is not one of her better disciplines.

“Before I was injured, the season before I won a GS [in 2012], so I know that I can ski well,” Vonn, who owns four career World Cup GS wins, said in April. “It’s just a matter of if I have a healthy prep period I can train it.”

The Soelden favorites are world giant slalom gold and silver medalists Tessa Worley of France and American Mikaela Shiffrin.

Vonn, Shiffrin and German Viktoria Rebensburg are the only women in Saturday’s field who have won Soelden. (Update: Swiss Lara Gut, like Vonn, surprisingly announced she will race Saturday. Gut, a two-time winner in Soelden, is returning from suffering a torn ACL with meniscus damage in February.)

Vonn said in April that she intended to race the giant slalom at her likely final Olympics in February. The Olympic schedule makes it more enticing.

The women’s technical events of giant slalom and slalom are in the first week of the PyeongChang Winter Games. The downhill and super-G are in the second week.

“It’s going to be good for me to get over there early, get settled in, get one race under my belt,” Vonn said in April.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

MORE: Vonn’s top downhill rival likely out of Olympics

Follow @nzaccardi

World Athletics excludes transgender women, tightens DSD athlete restrictions, extends ban on Russia, Belarus

By OlympicTalkMar 23, 2023, 7:19 PM EDT

Getty

World Athletics is excluding male-to-female transgender athletes from top-level international track and field and increasing restrictions for athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD).

Also Thursday, World Athletics lifted its ban on Russia’s track and field federation that dated to 2015 over doping violations, but Russia and Belarus athletes and officials remain banned due to the war in Ukraine. More on that here.

Regarding transgender athletes, the World Athletics council “decided to prioritize fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion,” according to a press release.

The decision was made after a two-month consultation with national federations, athletes, coaches, the IOC and representatives from transgender and human rights groups.

“Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations,” World Athletics President Seb Coe said in the release. “We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years. As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount.”

A working group, which will include a transgender athlete, will “further consider the issue of transgender inclusion” for 12 months.

There are no transgender athletes currently competing in top-level international track and field, according to World Athletics.

World Athletics also increased restrictions on DSD athletes.

Previously, DSD athletes were eligible to compete in women’s track and field events without having to suppress testosterone, except for running distances from the 400m through the mile. For 400m through the mile, athletes were eligible if their testosterone levels were capped at five nanomoles per liter. World Athletics said that no female athletes would have a level above the cap unless they had a DSD or a tumor.

Starting March 31, all women’s events will have a stricter limit of two and a half nanomoles per liter.

World Athletics said it made the decision based on “more than 10 years of research and evidence of the physical advantages that DSD athletes bring to the female category.”

All DSD athletes who have been competing outside of the 400m through the mile must suppress their testosterone levels below two and a half nanomoles per liter for six months before being eligible to compete again. This makes them ineligible to compete through the world championships in August, but they can come back and qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Testosterone must be suppressed for two years for events from 400m through the mile and for DSD athletes who have not already been competing.

Notable athletes who previously said they were affected by the DSD rules include South African Caster Semenya, the Olympic 800m champion in 2012 and 2016 who moved up to the 5000m rather than suppress testosterone to remain in the 800m. Semenya, 32, was eliminated in the 5000m heats at last summer’s world championships.

Also Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi, who took 2016 Olympic 800m silver behind Semenya and also moved up to longer-distance events. She won the 2021 Diamond League 5000m title and missed last year’s worlds due to a foot injury.

Christine Mboma of Namibia took silver in the Tokyo Olympic 200m after being ruled ineligible to race the 400m due to the testosterone cap. Mboma, 19, missed last year’s worlds after tearing a thigh muscle.

Niger’s Aminatou Seyni finished fourth in the 200m at last year’s worlds after dropping down from the 400m due to the rule.

Athlete Ally, a nonprofit LGBTQ athletic advocacy group, called the new policies discriminatory.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

2023 World Figure Skating Championships TV, live stream schedule

By OlympicTalkMar 23, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT

The world figure skating championships from Saitama, Japan, air live on USA Network and Peacock this week.

The U.S. has medal contenders in all four disciplines, one year after winning a medal in all four events for the first time since 1967 (note Russia’s ban, and China sent no skaters).

In the pairs’ event that starts Tuesday night (U.S. time), Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier can become the first U.S. duo to win multiple world titles, one year after becoming the first American pair to take gold since 1979.

They rank second in the world this season behind Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, last year’s silver medalists who look to earn Japan’s first pairs’ world title.

Japan has the world’s top two women’s singles skaters in reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto and Grand Prix Final winner Mai Mihara.

Isabeau Levito, a 16-year-old American who won last year’s world junior title, ranks fourth in the field by best score this season. She can become the youngest world medalist since 2014.

Ilia Malinin, an 18-year-old American who this season became the first skater to land a quadruple Axel, is seeded second in the men’s field behind Shoma Uno, the reigning world champion from Japan.

In ice dance, Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates posted the world’s top score this season at last month’s Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs. After 12 seasons together, their goal is to win their first world title after silver in 2015, bronze in 2016 and bronze in 2022.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

2023 World Figure Skating Championships Broadcast Schedule

Day	Competition	Time (ET)	Network
Tuesday	Pairs’ Short	10 p.m.-2 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM \| Skate Order
Wednesday	Women’s Short	2:45-8 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM \| Skate Order
	Women’s Short	6-8 a.m.	USA \| LIVE STREAM \| Peacock
	Pairs’ Free	10 p.m.-2 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM \| Skate Order
Thursday	Men’s Short	2:45-8 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM \| Skate Order
	Men’s Short	6-8 a.m.	USA \| LIVE STREAM \| Peacock
	Pairs’ Free	8-10 a.m.*	USA \| STREAM LINK
	Rhythm Dance	10 p.m.-3:30 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM \| Skate Order
Friday	Women’s Free	4:15-8:30 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM \| Skate Order
	Women’s Free	6:30-8:30 a.m.	USA \| LIVE STREAM \| Peacock
	Free Dance	11:30 p.m.-3 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM
Saturday	Men’s Free	4:15-8:30 a.m.	Peacock \| LIVE STREAM \| Skate Order
	Men’s Free	6:30-8:30 a.m.	USA \| LIVE STREAM \| Peacock
	Highlights	8-10 p.m.*	NBC \| STREAM LINK

*Delayed broadcast.

More: Olympics

More: Olympics