Course worker accidentally halts World Cup skier’s slalom run

By Beau DureJan 8, 2020, 5:43 PM EST

Argentine skier Cristian Javier Simari Birkner was the 75th and final skier on the start list for Wednesday’s World Cup slalom in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.

A course worker must have thought the race had only 74.

The worker was near a flag on the course but scrambled away after realizing Simari Birkner was approaching. The damage was already done, as a distracted Simari Birkner pulled up and, with a look of desolation, abandoned his run.

The race winner was Switzerland’s Daniel Yule, who has won only twice on the World Cup circuit, both times on this slope and in back-to-back years. Yule has been on the podium one other time this season, taking third in November in Levi, Finland.

Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen finished second to take the lead in the World Cup slalom standings and move up to third overall. France’s Clement Noel placed third and stands just behind Kristoffersen in the slalom standings.

Alexis Pinturault moved into the overall World Cup lead, finishing fifth.

Simari Birkner, 39, has been a fixture in international skiing for years, competing in World Cup races since 1998. Wednesday’s race, though, was his first World Cup event of the season. His career-best World Cup finish is 26th in a super combined event in 2012 in Sochi. His only other top-30 World Cup finish was 29th in the same event in Kitzbuehel, Austria. He has never reached the final run of a World Cup in slalom or giant slalom.

But he has fared better in Olympic and world championship competition, with a career best of 17th in each. He was 17th in the 2002 Olympic slalom and has six top-30 Olympic finishes, two each in the slalom, giant slalom and combined. He has twice finished 17th in world championships — the 2003 giant slalom and the 2007 slalom — and has 11 top-30s.

Simari Birkner has three younger sisters — Maria Belen, Macarena and Angelica — who also compete, with similar results.

A course worker also was in the way earlier this season in Alta Badia, Italy, where Croatia’s Filip Zubcic had to swerve to avoid someone at the finish line as he finished 10th in a giant slalom.

TV: Alpine skiing broadcast schedule

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Jim Hines, Olympic 100m gold medalist and first to break 10 seconds, dies

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 6:06 AM EDT

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Jim Hines, a 1968 Olympic 100m gold medalist and the first person to break 10 seconds in the event, has died at age 76, according to USA Track and Field.

“I understand that God called him home today and we send the prayers up for him,” was posted on the Facebook page of John Carlos, a 1968 U.S. Olympic teammate, over the weekend.

Hines was born in Arkansas, raised in Oakland, California and attended Texas Southern University in Houston.

At the June 1968 AAU Championships in Sacramento, Hines became the first person to break 10 seconds in the 100m with a hand-timed 9.9. It was dubbed the “Night of Speed” because the world record of 10 seconds was beaten by three men and tied by seven others, according to World Athletics.

“There will never be another night like it,” Hines said at a 35th anniversary reunion in 2003, according to World Athletics. “That was the greatest sprinting series in the history of track and field.”

Later that summer, Hines won the Olympic Trials. Then he won the Olympic gold medal in Mexico City’s beneficial thin air in 9.95 seconds, the first electronically timed sub-10 and a world record that stood for 15 years.

Hines was part of a legendary 1968 U.S. Olympic track and field team that also included 200m gold and bronze medalists Tommie Smith and Carlos, plus gold medalists Wyomia Tyus (100m), Bob Beamon (long jump), Al Oerter (discus), Dick Fosbury (high jump), Lee Evans (400m), Madeline Manning Mims (800m), Willie Davenport (110m hurdles), Bob Seagren (pole vault), Randy Matson (shot put), Bill Toomey (decathlon) and the men’s and women’s 4x100m and men’s 4x400m relays.

After the Olympics, Hines joined the Miami Dolphins, who chose him in the sixth round of that year’s NFL Draft to be a wide receiver. He was given the number 99. Hines played in 10 games between 1969 and 1970 for the Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs.

He remains the only person to have played in an NFL regular season game out of the now more than 170 who have broken 10 seconds in the 100m over the last 55 years.

2023 French Open women’s singles draw, scores

By OlympicTalkJun 4, 2023, 4:10 PM EDT

At the French Open, Iga Swiatek of Poland eyes a third title at Roland Garros and a fourth Grand Slam singles crown overall.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Swiatek, the No. 1 seed from Poland, can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

Having turned 22 on Wednesday, she can become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Men’s Draw

But Swiatek is not as dominant as in 2022, when she went 16-0 in the spring clay season during an overall 37-match win streak.

She retired from her last pre-French Open match with a right thigh injury and said it wasn’t serious. Before that, she lost the final of another clay-court tournament to Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed, is her top remaining challenger in Paris.

No. 3 Jessica Pegula, the highest-seeded American man or woman, was eliminated in the third round. No. 4 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who has three wins over Swiatek this year, withdrew before her third-round match due to illness.

No. 6 Coco Gauff, runner-up to Swiatek last year, is the top hope to become the first American to win a Grand Slam singles title since Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought is the longest for U.S. women since Seles won the 1996 Australian Open.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Women’s Singles Draw

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