Mikaela Shiffrin starts 2020 by putting 2019 in its place; Zagreb TV, live stream schedule

By Nick ZaccardiJan 2, 2020, 12:16 PM EST

Mikaela Shiffrin said she didn’t sleep for three days after what may prove a turning point in her season, a 17th-place giant slalom finish on Dec. 17. She described her skiing that day as “appalling.”

“I really, really hope I haven’t messed this up for the rest of the season,” Shiffrin said of her thoughts at the time in Courchevel, France. “There’s also the other aspect of it. … After the [record] 17 victories last season, it’s been more difficult than I expected to not compare every move I make this season to what I did last season and to not feel like, no matter what I do, I’m coming up short either overall points wise or race wins wise or how I’m handling my energy.”

Shiffrin then skipped the following weekend’s races before sweeping a giant slalom and slalom in Lienz, Austria, last weekend.

She’s back on track heading into the first race of 2020, a slalom in Zagreb, Croatia on Saturday (10 a.m. ET, Olympic Channel and NBC Sports Gold). She’s favored to earn her 65th World Cup victory and 44th in a slalom to break Lindsey Vonn‘s record for the most victories in a single discipline for a woman.

Shiffrin said she would use “appalling” to describe many of her races over a decade-long career.

“But none of them have ended up with a result as low as Courchevel,” she said of her worst finish in a technical race — outside of DNFs — in more than five years. “It was more than anything a wake-up call that everybody’s improving. I never expect to win races, and I never expect to even podium, but I really can’t just come to the finish line crossing my fingers that it might be good enough. I have to make it good enough. If I don’t, then I might be in 17th place.”

Shiffrin’s parents traveled to Europe for Christmas week, as planned, but her mom and longtime coach, Eileen, flew over two days early. Back in the fall, Eileen had stepped back from her coaching role (mutual decision) and didn’t travel for the season-opening slalom in November.

The hope is that Eileen will stay in Europe through a Jan. 14 slalom in Flachau, Austria. Possibly through speed races in late January and early February.

“She gives me strength that I can’t find within myself,” Shiffrin said. “I could really feel that this past weekend [in Lienz]. It’s always been that way.”

Shiffrin won four of her last five starts in the Zagreb slalom, which awards a crystal Snow Queen crown to winners. She made the podium of the last 14 traditional World Cup slaloms, winning all but one of them.

That kind of dominance allowed Shiffrin to train slalom just once or twice in the first four weeks of December yet still prevail in Lienz by .61 of a second.

But it’s Shiffrin’s GS struggles — even if just one day of 17th-place racing after making the previous six podiums — that led her to question if she had peaked at age 24. She listed that one result as one of her most unforgettable moments of 2019, along with winning last season’s slalom world title and giant slalom World Cup title, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Maybe the best version of me is in the past, and that kind of stinks,” said Shiffrin, who at 64 World Cup wins trails just Marcel Hirscher (67), Lindsey Vonn (82) and Ingemar Stenmark (86). “This last week [before Lienz] I’ve been trying to come to terms with that not really being the reality. It’s just not comparable. I’ve said it in interviews, and I have to start believing that.”

Shiffrin could be in for her busiest start to a calendar year yet, hopefully contesting the next speed races in Austria from Jan. 11-12, and noting further speed weekends in Bulgaria (Jan. 25-26) and Russia (Feb. 1-2).

“It sounds really ridiculous even reflecting on it now,” Shiffrin, who appears en route to a fourth straight overall title, said of the Courchevel 17th. “Maybe I just needed to get a grip on reality or gain some perspective, but at the same time this is what I’m doing, and I want to do it as well as I can. It’s a big deal, at least in my own head and what I felt in my heart.”

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Faith Kipyegon breaks second world record in eight days; three WRs fall in Paris

By OlympicTalkJun 9, 2023, 8:12 PM EDT

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon broke her second world record in as many Fridays as three world records fell at a Diamond League meet in Paris.

Kipyegon, a 29-year-old mom, followed her 1500m record from last week by running the fastest 5000m in history.

She clocked 14 minutes, 5.20 seconds, pulling away from now former world record holder Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia, who ran 14:07.94 for the third-fastest time in history. Gidey’s world record was 14:06.62.

“When I saw that it was a world record, I was so surprised,” Kipyegon said, according to meet organizers. “The world record was not my plan. I just ran after Gidey.”

Kipyegon, a two-time Olympic 1500m champion, ran her first 5000m in eight years. In the 1500m, her primary event, she broke an eight-year-old world record at the last Diamond League meet in Italy last Friday.

Kipyegon said she will have to talk with her team to decide if she will add the 5000m to her slate for August’s world championships in Budapest.

Next year in the 1500m, she can bid to become the second person to win the same individual Olympic track and field event three times (joining Usain Bolt). After that, she has said she may move up to the 5000m full-time en route to the marathon.

Kipyegon is the first woman to break world records in both the 1500m and the 5000m since Italian Paola Pigni, who reset them in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m over a nine-month stretch in 1969 and 1970.

Full Paris meet results are here. The Diamond League moves to Oslo next Thursday, live on Peacock.

Also Friday, Ethiopian Lamecha Girma broke the men’s 3000m steeplechase world record by 1.52 seconds, running 7:52.11. Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen set the previous record in 2004. Girma is the Olympic and world silver medalist.

Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway ran the fastest two-mile race in history, clocking 7:54.10. Kenyan Daniel Komen previously had the fastest time of 7:58.61 from 1997 in an event that’s not on the Olympic program and is rarely contested at top meets. Ingebrigtsen, 22, is sixth-fastest in history in the mile and eighth-fastest in the 1500m.

Olympic and world silver medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won the 400m in 49.12 seconds, chasing down Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who ran her first serious flat 400m in four years. McLaughlin-Levrone clocked a personal best 49.71 seconds, a time that would have earned bronze at last year’s world championships.

“I’m really happy with the season opener, PR, obviously things to clean up,” said McLaughlin-Levrone, who went out faster than world record pace through 150 meters. “My coach wanted me to take it out and see how I felt. I can’t complain with that first 200m.”

And the end of the race?

“Not enough racing,” she said. “Obviously, after a few races, you kind of get the feel for that lactic acid. So, first race, I knew it was to be expected.”

McLaughlin-Levrone is expected to race the flat 400m at July’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, where the top three are in line to make the world team in the individual 400m. She also has a bye into August’s worlds in the 400m hurdles and is expected to announce after USATF Outdoors which race she will contest at worlds.

Noah Lyles, the world 200m champion, won the 100m in 9.97 seconds into a headwind. Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy was seventh in 10.21 in his first 100m since August after struggling through health issues since the Tokyo Games.

Lyles wants to race both the 100m and the 200m at August’s worlds. He has a bye into the 200m. The top three at USATF Outdoors join reigning world champion Fred Kerley on the world championships team. Lyles is the fifth-fastest American in the 100m this year, not counting Kerley, who is undefeated in three meets at 100m in 2023.

Olympic and world silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson won the 800m in 1:55.77, a British record. American Athing Mu, the Olympic and world champion with a personal best of 1:55.04, is expected to make her season debut later this month.

World champion Grant Holloway won the 110m hurdles in 12.98 seconds, becoming the first man to break 13 seconds this year. Holloway has the world’s four best times in 2023.

American Valarie Allman won the discus over Czech Sandra Perkovic in a meeting of the last two Olympic champions. Allman threw 69.04 meters and has the world’s 12 best throws this year.

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Iga Swiatek sweeps into French Open final, where she faces a surprise

By OlympicTalkJun 9, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT

Iga Swiatek marched into the French Open final without dropping a set in six matches. All that stands between her and a third Roland Garros title is an unseeded foe.

Swiatek plays 43rd-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova in the women’s singles final, live Saturday at 9 a.m. ET on NBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock.

Swiatek, the top-ranked Pole, swept 14th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-2, 7-6 (7) in Thursday’s semifinal in her toughest test all tournament. Haddad Maia squandered three break points at 4-all in the second set.

Swiatek dropped just 23 games thus far, matching her total en route to her first French Open final in 2020 (which she won for her first WTA Tour title of any kind). After her semifinal, she signed a courtside camera with the hashtag #stepbystep.

“For sure I feel like I’m a better player,” than in 2020, she said. “Mentally, tactically, physically, just having the experience, everything. So, yeah, my whole life basically.”

Swiatek can become the third woman since 2000 to win three French Opens after Serena Williams and Justine Henin and, at 22, the youngest woman to win four total majors since Williams in 2002.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Muchova upset No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus to reach her first major final.

Muchova, a 26-year-old into the second week of the French Open for the first time, became the first player to take a set off the powerful Belarusian all tournament, then rallied from down 5-2 in the third set to prevail 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5.

Sabalenka, who overcame previous erratic serving to win the Australian Open in January, had back-to-back double faults in her last service game.

“Lost my rhythm,” she said. “I wasn’t there.”

Muchova broke up what many expected would be a Sabalenka-Swiatek final, which would have been the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 match at the French Open since Williams beat Maria Sharapova in the 2013 final.

Muchova is unseeded, but was considered dangerous going into the tournament.

In 2021, she beat then-No. 1 Ash Barty to make the Australian Open semifinals, then reached a career-high ranking of 19. She dropped out of the top 200 last year while struggling through injuries.

“Some doctors told me maybe you’ll not do sport anymore,” Muchova said. “It’s up and downs in life all the time. Now I’m enjoying that I’m on the upper part now.”

Muchova has won all five of her matches against players ranked in the top three. She also beat Swiatek in their lone head-to-head, but that was back in 2019 when both players were unaccomplished young pros. They have since practiced together many times.

“I really like her game, honestly,” Swiatek said. “I really respect her, and she’s I feel like a player who can do anything. She has great touch. She can also speed up the game. She plays with that kind of freedom in her movements. And she has a great technique. So I watched her matches, and I feel like I know her game pretty well.”

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