Alina Zagitova announces break from figure skating competition

By OlympicTalkDec 13, 2019, 4:00 PM EST

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Alina Zagitova, the reigning Olympic and world figure skating champion, is taking a break from competition.

Zagitova said she is focusing on non-competitive shows and needs to find motivation to compete again, according to a Russian translation, after being supplanted by younger Russians this fall.

“I will stay on ice, and I will continue my training,” she said, according to a TASS translation. “I think it would be the right thing to do, because I’m going to learn some new elements.”

Zagitova reportedly announced Friday on Russian TV that she will not compete at the national championships later this month, nor apply for a spot on the Russian team for the European Championships in January or the world championships in March.

In PyeongChang, Zagitova became the second-youngest Olympic women’s singles champion at age 15. Last season, she was fifth at Russian Nationals (behind three junior skaters) and second at the European Championships but bounced back to win the world title.

MORE: Grand Prix Final a showcase of women’s skating progression

This season, Zagitova struggled to keep up with younger countrywomen throwing quadruple jumps and triple Axels who share her coach of Eteri Tutberidze.

“This is her decision, and, regretfully, it did not come out of thin air,” Tutberidze said, according to TASS. “Alina has been talking about this for about 18 months.

“The past 18 months when she kept competing and fighting, were difficult.”

“She skates beautifully, and she looks very good on ice, so the entire team of coaches tried to persuade her to continue. I think she would eventually arrive at the decision [to resume competitions]: she would not even make a pause in her training, so that she could return at any moment.”

Zagitova, who has never attempted a triple Axel or quad in competition, was second and third at two Grand Prix Series stops, then sixth in the six-skater field at the Grand Prix Final last week.

First-year-senior Russians Alena Kostornaia, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova swept the podium.

“Olympic champion all ready to be dethroned, really, in such a big way by her younger training mates,” NBC Sports analyst Johnny Weir said while commentating Zagitova’s last-place Grand Prix Final free skate, looking ahead to Russian Nationals. “She’s got so much work to do. So many things to learn, quads, triple Axels. … People judge you by how you get up from defeat. She’s got to claw her way up.”

“It must be such a hard position to be in,” NBC Sports analyst Tara Lipinski said as Zagitova awaited her free skate score. “This entire year is about adjusting her expectations until she does learn a quad or a triple Axel. … Just watching her here is breaking my heart.”

The Russian system produced a conveyor belt of skaters in this decade, with new teens constantly replacing past champions.

Adelina Sotnikova and Yuliya Lipnitskaya earned gold medals in Sochi, then stopped competing in 2016.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva swept Grand Prix Final, European and world titles in 2014-15, but while competitive since has not returned to worlds or competed in an Olympics.

Yevgenia Medvedeva went undefeated for two years from 2015-17 before being supplanted by Zagitova in PyeongChang. She left Tutberidze’s group and took bronze at last season’s worlds but has not won on the top level in two years.

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MORE: Alysa Liu takes Junior Grand Prix Final silver with historic jump list

French Open: Daniil Medvedev stunned by 172nd-ranked qualifier

By OlympicTalkMay 30, 2023, 1:43 PM EDT

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No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev was eliminated by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild at the French Open, the first time a top-two men’s seed lost in the first round of a major in 20 years.

Seyboth Wild, a 23-year-old in his second-ever Grand Slam main draw match, prevailed 7-6 (5), 6-7 (8), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in more than four hours on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“I’ve watched Daniil play for, like, my entire junior career until today, and I’ve always dreamed about playing on this court, playing these kind of players,” he said. “In my best dreams, I’ve beaten them, so it’s a dream come true.”

Seyboth Wild overcame the ranking disparity, the experience deficit (it was his first five-set match) and cramps. He began feeling them in the second set, and it affected his serve. Medvedev’s serve was affected by windy conditions. He had 15 double faults.

“I’m not going to look at it back on TV, but my feeling was that he played well,” he said. “I don’t think I played that bad, but he played well.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Seyboth Wild, who had strictly played in qualifying and lower-level Challenger events dating to February 2022, became the first man to take out a top-two seed at a Slam since Ivo Karlovic upset Lleyton Hewitt at 2003 Wimbledon, which ended up being the first major won by a member of the Big Three.

The last time it happened at the French Open was in 2000, when Mark Philippoussis ousted No. 2 Pete Sampras.

It’s the most seismic win by a Brazilian at the French Open — and perhaps any major — since the nation’s most successful man, Gustavo Kuerten, won his third Roland Garros title in 2001.

Tuesday marked the 26th anniversary of Kuerten’s first big splash in Paris, a third-round win over 1995 French Open champion Thomas Muster en route to his first Roland Garros title.

As a junior, Seyboth Wild won the 2018 U.S. Open and reached a best ranking of eighth in the world. Since, he played eight Grand Slam qualifying tournaments with a 1-8 record before advancing through qualifying last week.

The 2021 U.S. Open champion Medvedev entered the French Open having won the first clay tournament title of his career at the Italian Open, the last top-level event before Roland Garros.

“Because wind, dry court, I had a mouthful of clay since probably third game of the match, and I don’t like it,” he said. “I don’t know if people like to eat clay, to have clay in their bags, in their shoes, the socks, white socks, you can throw them to garbage after clay season. Maybe some people like it. I don’t.”

Medvedev’s defeat leaves no major champions in the bottom half of the men’s draw. The top seeds left are No. 4 Casper Ruud, last year’s French Open and U.S. Open runner-up, and No. 6 Holger Rune. No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 3 Novak Djokovic play their second-round matches in the top half on Wednesday.

Women’s seeds to advance Tuesday included No. 6 Coco Gauff, who rallied past 71st-ranked Spaniard Rebeka Masarova 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, plus No. 1 Iga Swiatek, No. 4 Elena Rybakina and No. 7 Ons Jabeur in straight sets.

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Olympians, Paralympians star on Top Chef World All-Stars in Paris

By OlympicTalkMay 30, 2023, 11:34 AM EDT

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls get a taste of Paris in this week’s episode of Top Chef World All-Stars, premiering Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Olympic medalists Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Suni Lee and Paralympic medalists Mallory Weggemann and Hunter Woodhall team up with contestants for a cooking challenge in front of the Eiffel Tower, one year before the French capital hosts the Games.

Olympians have appeared on Top Chef before.

A 2020 episode set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Coliseum included Diana Taurasi, Rai Benjamin, Nastia Liukin, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Christian Coleman and Kerri Walsh Jennings.

A January 2018 episode featured figure skater Meryl Davis, freeskier Gus Kenworthy and skeleton slider John Daly, one month before the PyeongChang Winter Games.

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