Jin Boyang repeats as Cup of China champion in all-Chinese competition

By OlympicTalkNov 7, 2020, 6:31 PM EST

Getty Images

Jin Boyang successfully defended his Cup of China title in a competition reminiscent of a Chinese figure skating national championships.

In a field of six men, the two-time world figure skating medalist earned 103.94 points in his short program Friday and 186.95 in his free skate Saturday for a 290.89 total. Yan Han, the inaugural Youth Olympic champion in 2012, was 26.08 points back in second (264.81) for his fourth Cup of China medal, followed by 16-year-old Chen Yudong (226.21).

After the ISU decided in August that each event of 2020-2021 Grand Prix series would only allow skaters who represent or train in that country or region, Cup of China consisted solely of Chinse entries competing Nov. 6-7 in Chongqing.

Jin, 23, was one of only two men in the field whose programs included a quadruple jump; he landed a quad Lutz and a quad toe, in combination, in his short program, and three quads in his free skate. His biggest mistake was falling on the triple Lutz-triple toe in his free skate.

Chen Hongyi, the pairs team of Peng Cheng and Jin Yang, and ice dancers Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu also earned wins as they gear up for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to be held in their home country in 15 months.

Eighteen-year-old Chen won her first Grand Prix medal in her second season on the circuit with a 186.53 total. Li Angel (148.33) and Jin Minzhi (135.43) rounded out the women’s podium.

With the absence of two-time world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong in pairs, Peng and Jin won their second Grand Prix title after their Skate America victory last season. Peng fell on the team’s opening side-by-side triple toe loop in the short program and doubled a planned triple toe loop in the free.

The pairs field featured only three teams. Peng and Jin scored 223.90 for their total, 48.5 points higher than Wang Yuchen and Huang Yihang (175.40). Zhu Daizifei and Liu Yuhang (140.37) completed the podium.

Wang and Liu won their first Grand Prix medal in seven seasons with their 206.84 total. Ice dance was the closest field with Chen Hong and Sun Zhuoming 14.58 points back with 192.26, followed by Ning Wangqi and Wang Chao’s 171.90.

The Grand Prix season continues with Rostelecom Cup Nov. 20-21 in Moscow. A stacked field of Russian women is slated to include 2019 Grand Prix Final champion Alena Kostornaia, 2018 Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva, 2019 European champion Sofia Samodurova, 2019 Grand Prix Final silver medalist Anna Shcherbakova, 2019 Grand Prix Final bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova and 2015 world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.

U.S. men’s gymnastics team named for world championships

By OlympicTalkOct 5, 2022, 8:36 PM EDT

Allison and John Cheng/USA Gymnastics

Asher Hong, Colt Walker and world pommel horse champion Stephen Nedoroscik were named to the last three spots on the U.S. men’s gymnastics team for the world championships that start in three weeks.

Brody Malone and Donnell Whittenburg earned the first spots on the team by placing first and second in the all-around at August’s U.S. Championships.

Hong, Walker and Nedoroscik were chosen by a committee after two days of selection camp competition in Colorado Springs this week. Malone and Whittenburg did not compete at the camp.

Hong, 18, will become the youngest U.S. man to compete at worlds since Danell Leyva in 2009. He nearly earned a spot on the team at the U.S. Championships, but erred on his 12th and final routine of that meet to drop from second to third in the all-around. At this week’s camp, Hong had the lowest all-around total of the four men competing on all six apparatuses, but selectors still chose him over Tokyo Olympians Yul Moldauer and Shane Wiskus.

Walker, a Stanford junior, will make his world championships debut. He would have placed second at nationals in August if a bonus system for attempting difficult skills wasn’t in place. With that bonus system not in place at the selection camp, he had the highest all-around total. The bonus system is not used at international meets such as world championships.

Nedoroscik rebounded from missing the Tokyo Olympic team to become the first American to win a world title on pommel horse last fall. Though he is the lone active U.S. male gymnast with a global gold medal, he was in danger of missing this five-man team because of struggles on the horse at the U.S. Championships. Nedoroscik, who does not compete on the other five apparatuses, put up his best horse routine of the season on the last day of the selection camp Wednesday.

Moldauer, who tweeted that he was sick all last week, was named the traveling alternate for worlds in Liverpool, Great Britain. It would be the first time that Moldauer, who was fourth in the all-around at last fall’s worlds, does not compete at worlds since 2015.

Though the U.S. has not made the team podium at an Olympics or worlds since 2014, it is boosted this year by the absence of Olympic champion Russia, whose athletes are banned indefinitely due to the war in Ukraine. In recent years, the U.S. has been among the nations in the second tier behind China, Japan and Russia, including in Tokyo, where the Americans were fifth.

The U.S. women’s world team of five will be announced after a selection camp in two weeks. Tokyo Olympians Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles are in contention.

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Paris 2024 Olympic marathon route unveiled

By OlympicTalkOct 5, 2022, 9:57 AM EDT

Paris 2024

The 2024 Olympic marathon route will take runners from Paris to Versailles and back.

The route announcement was made on the 233rd anniversary of one of the early, significant events of the French Revolution: the Women’s March on Versailles — “to pay tribute to the thousands of women who started their march at city hall to Versailles to take up their grievances to the king and ask for bread,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet said.

Last December, organizers announced the marathons will start at Hôtel de Ville (city hall, opposite Notre-Dame off the Seine River) and end at Les Invalides, a complex of museums and monuments one mile southeast of the Eiffel Tower.

On Wednesday, the rest of the route was unveiled — traversing the banks of the Seine west to the Palace of Versailles and then back east, passing the Eiffel Tower before the finish.

The men’s and women’s marathons will be on the last two days of the Games at 8 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET). It will be the first time that the women’s marathon is held on the last day of the Games after the men’s marathon traditionally occupied that slot.

A mass public marathon will also be held on the Olympic marathon route. The date has not been announced.

A spectacular, demanding, and unprecedented race!
Discover the official route of the #Paris2024 Olympic marathon 🔥
–
Spectaculaire, exigeant, inspirant, voici le parcours du Marathon Olympique de #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/kLshJ4fTFG

— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) October 5, 2022

The full list of highlights among the marathon course:

• Hôtel de ville de Paris (start)
• Bourse de commerce
• Palais Brongniart
• Opéra Garnier
• Place Vendôme
• Jardin des Tuileries
• The Louvre
• Place de la Concorde
• The bridges of Paris
(Pont de l’Alma; Alexandre III;
Iéna; and more)
• Grand Palais
• Palais de Tokyo
• Jardins du Trocadéro
• Maison de la Radio
• Manufacture et Musées
nationaux de Sèvres
• Forêt domaniale
des Fausses-Reposes
• Monuments Pershing –
Lafayette
• Château de Versailles
• Forêt domaniale de Meudon
• Parc André Citroën
• Eiffel Tower
• Musée Rodin
• Esplanade des Invalides (finish)

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