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How to watch the Boston Marathon

By Nick ZaccardiApr 10, 2018, 12:27 PM EDT
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Justin Morneau nixes Olympic baseball qualifying return Kolohe Andino is first U.S. Olympic surfing qualifier; Kelly Slater faces last chance Shalane Flanagan retires from professional running

The 122nd Boston Marathon airs live on NBCSN and streams commercial free for NBC Sports Gold “Track and Field Pass” subscribers on Monday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

A preview show airs Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA.

NBCSN and Olympic Channel coverage also streams on NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app for subscribers. Olympic Channel coverage also streams on OlympicChannel.com and the Olympic Channel app for subscribers.

Monday’s race start times (ET)
9:02 a.m. – Wheelchair Men
9:04 a.m. – Wheelchair Women
9:32 a.m. – Elite Women
10 a.m. – Wave #1 + Elite Men

U.S. runners could sweep the women’s and men’s titles for the first time in 35 years.

Boston area native Shalane Flanagan headlines a deep U.S. women’s contingent, five months after notching her first major marathon title in New York City. The 36-year-old, four-time Olympian has a best finish of fourth in three Boston starts.

She’s joined by Jordan Hasay (third in Boston last year in her marathon debut), Desi Linden (second, fourth and fourth in past Boston Marathons) and Molly Huddle (third in her only previous marathon in New York City in 2016).

The last U.S. female runner to win Boston was Lisa Rainsberger in 1985.

The U.S. men are not as deep as the women but are strong at the top with Galen Rupp, the 2016 Olympic marathon bronze medalist and 2012 Olympic 10,000m silver medalist. Rupp, 31, has finished in the top three of all four of his marathons, each one faster than his last, including a runner-up in his Boston debut last year.

Abdi Abdirahman and Dathan Ritzenhein, who have seven Olympics between them, are also trying to become the first U.S. man to win Boston since Meb Keflezighi in 2014. Keflezighi, who retired from elite marathoning last year, is running in a non-competitive capacity on Monday.

The international fields are led by 2017 champions Edna Kiplagat and Geoffrey Kirui, both Kenyans.

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MORE: U.S. elite field for Boston Marathon

Justin Morneau nixes Olympic baseball qualifying return

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By OlympicTalkOct 21, 2019, 12:34 PM EDT
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Justin Morneau, the 2006 AL MVP with the Minnesota Twins, was taken off Canada’s Olympic baseball qualifying roster before he would have played his first competitive game in more than two years.

Morneau, 38, experienced an unspecified setback in training and was replaced on Canada’s roster for next month’s Premier12. The global tournament marks the first opportunity for many world baseball powers to qualify for the sport’s return to the Olympics.

Morneau never played in the Olympics before baseball was cut from the Games after 2008; active MLB players have never competed in the Games. But he was on Canada’s roster at all four World Baseball Classics from 2006 through 2017.

At November’s Premier12, the top nation from North and South America will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Japan and Israel are already qualified. Those that do not qualify will get another chance next year.

Morneau could become the second Major League Baseball MVP to play Olympic baseball as a medal sport. The other was Jason Giambi, who made the U.S. team in 1992, the same summer he was drafted in the second round by the Oakland Athletics.

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MORE: Joe Girardi replaced as U.S. baseball manager by World Series champion

Kolohe Andino is first U.S. Olympic surfing qualifier; Kelly Slater faces last chance

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By OlympicTalkOct 21, 2019, 12:06 PM EDT
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Justin Morneau nixes Olympic baseball qualifying return Shalane Flanagan retires from professional running Bernard Lagat commits to Olympic marathon trials, eyes age record

Kolohe Andino is the first American to qualify for surfing’s Olympic debut, which leaves one spot left for 47-year-old Kelly Slater to chase at the final contest of the season.

Andino, a 25-year-old Californian whose first name means “rascal” in Hawaiian, clinched his place in Tokyo on Friday at the penultimate stop on the World Surf League Championship Tour in Portugal. He is ranked fifth in the world, trailing a trio of Brazilians.

One more American man will join Andino on the Olympic team. It will be one of Slater, the 11-time world champion, John John Florence, the 2016 and 2017 World champion, and rising 22-year-old Hawaiian Seth Moniz.

Slater was handed a golden opportunity to qualify when Florence announced in early July that he tore an ACL for the second time in 13 months. Florence had won two of the first five events this season.

Slater has been chasing the sidelined Florence in the standings ever since. But it has not been easy.

Slater hasn’t made the quarterfinals in any of his last seven contests going into December’s finale — the prestigious Billabong Pipeline Masters on the North Shore of Oahu.

“Ninth place, to me, used to be a pretty awful result. I’m used to at least a quarterfinal on for most of my career,” he said in July, noting a back injury. “I’m not horrified by my results, but I’m also not surprised. Maybe other people are because everyone focuses on my age and that kind of thing. It’s not like I’m going to all of a sudden forget how to do this thing, you know?”

Slater, who won the Pipe Masters seven times between 1992 and 2013, must reach the quarterfinals at this year’s event to have any chance of passing Florence to qualify for the Olympics.

Complicating matters: Florence said in August it was his “goal to get better for Pipeline in case I have to come back and compete and gain points,” according to ESPN.com. If Florence does return for the December contest, and makes the quarterfinals, Slater could only pass him with a victory.

Moniz goes into the finale ranked one spot behind Slater, meaning he, too, can grab that second and final Olympic spot with a win or a runner-up.

Slater, who turns 48 on Feb. 11, would be the oldest U.S. Summer Olympic rookie competitor in a sport other than equestrian, sailing or shooting (or art competitions!) in the last 100 years, supplanting Martina Navratilova, according to the OlyMADMen.

MORE: Top U.S. surfer has links to Egg McMuffin, Guinness World Record holder

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