Kaillie Humphries loses bid to bobsled for U.S.

By OlympicTalkSep 17, 2019, 1:54 PM EDT

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Two-time Olympic bobsled champion Kaillie Humphries‘ bid to switch from Canada to compete for the U.S. was denied by a Calgary judge on Tuesday.

“Humphries has chosen not to avail herself of Bobsled Canada’s dispute resolution,” a judge said, according to the Calgary Herald.

Humphries, a 2010 and 2014 Olympic gold medalist, said she no longer wants to compete for Canada after filing verbal abuse and harassment claims against Canadian coach Todd Hays, a 2002 and 2006 U.S. Olympian and former U.S. coach. She is suing the federation.

A Bobsleigh Canada lawyer said an independent investigation found not enough evidence to substantiate Humphries’ allegations.

“These are matters that should go to the sports tribunals,” the lawyer said of Humphries wanting to switch countries. “They should not be going before a court.”

Canada’s federation refuses to release her.

“Our mandate is to develop world, Olympic champions,” high-performance director Chris Le Bihan said Tuesday, according to CBC. “That’s what we do. Kaillie is obviously a world, Olympic champion. We want Kaillie in our program. Kaillie is obviously going to be a threat in the next Olympics, and there’s nothing we want to see more than Canadians standing on the podium.”

Humphries’ lawyer said after the ruling that they may appeal to the International Bobsled Federation to secure a release under exceptional circumstances of “unreasonable and unsportsmanlike” behavior from Bobsleigh Canada.

“It’s obvious that this is purely anti-competitive on the part of Bobsleigh Canada,” Humphries’ lawyer said. “The actions that they’re taking are simply to hamper Kaillie’s ability to compete for the United States.”

Humphries could be eligible to compete for the U.S. after marrying American bobsledder Travis Armbruster on Saturday.

Three athletes have competed for Canada at an Olympics, then for the U.S. at a later Olympics, but none were medalists for Canada. Humphries is one of Canada’s most accomplished Olympians. She won the 2014 Lou Marsh Trophy, viewed as the nation’s athlete of the year, and carried the flag at the Sochi Winter Games Closing Ceremony.

Humphries, 34, earned a bronze medal in PyeongChang then announced last October that she would take the 2018-19 season off at least in part to strengthen her recent engagement with Armbruster.

“This has been my life, it’s been a 15-year career,” a tearful Humphries said in a CBC video interview last week. “This is everything that I dreamed of since I was a kid, and to know that a country has supported me so strongly, and the people in the country have been so great.”

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French Open: Coco Gauff to face younger opponent for first time at a Grand Slam

By OlympicTalkJun 1, 2023, 2:27 PM EDT

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Coco Gauff‘s first 49 Grand Slam main draw singles matches were all against older opponents. Her 50th will be against a younger one.

The sixth-seeded Gauff reached the French Open third round by beating 61st-ranked Austrian Julia Grabher 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday. Gauff, 19, next plays 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the round of 32 on Saturday.

Gauff made her major debut at age 15 in 2019 by beating Venus Williams at Wimbledon. In her 15 majors, Gauff has usually been the youngest male or female singles player, including most recently at 2022 Wimbledon. She is still the lone teenager in the WTA top 49.

But that may soon change. Youngsters from the Czech Republic and Russia are on the rise. Such as Andreeva, who, at No. 143 in the world and rising, is the highest-ranked player under the age of 18. And she doesn’t turn 17 until next April. Andreeva dropped just six games in her first two matches, fewest of any woman.

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But Gauff is still in a class of her own among her generation, having at last year’s French Open become the youngest major finalist since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon at 17. She somehow flew somewhat under the radar into Paris this year with a 4-4 record this spring and in between full-time coaches.

She has now won back-to-back matches for the first time since March, rallying past 71st-ranked Spaniard Rebeka Masarova in the first round and then dispatching an error-prone Grabher, a runner-up at a low-level clay event last week.

The other three seeds in Gauff’s section have all lost, so she would not play a seed until the quarterfinals. And that would be No. 1 Iga Swiatek, who has won all 12 sets they’ve played, including in last year’s French Open final.

“I lost that final, and like for like a week or two, I really thought it was the worst thing ever,” Gauff said. “There’s no point in me revisiting last year. It’s in the past. It was a great tournament, but I’m looking forward for more this week.”

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.

The top four seeds — Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, American Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan — all reached the third round without dropping a set.

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Penny Oleksiak to miss world swimming championships

By OlympicTalkJun 1, 2023, 10:11 AM EDT

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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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