World championships in Alpine skiing, biathlon dot winter sports TV schedule

By OlympicTalkFeb 15, 2021, 2:35 PM EST

Getty Images

Mikaela Shiffrin races for more gold medals as the world Alpine skiing championships conclude this week, live on NBC Sports, Olympic Channel and Peacock Premium.

Shiffrin, who took super-G bronze and combined gold in her first two races at worlds to become the most decorated U.S. skier in world championships history, races her primary events of giant slalom on Thursday and slalom on Saturday in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

The men also have those technical events, where Frenchman Alexis Pinturault (GS) and Austrian Marco Schwarz (slalom) are the favorites. The top American men in recent seasons — Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Tommy Ford and Ted Ligety — are all out with injuries, with two-time Olympic champion Ligety retiring.

The world biathlon championships also conclude this week. If an American finishes in the top six in an individual event — yet to happen — he or she will become the first athlete to qualify for the 2022 U.S. Olympic team.

So far, Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff has been the standout, earning golds in all three events to already mark the best major championships of her career.

World Alpine Skiing Championships — Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

Day	Time (ET)	Event	Network
Tuesday	8 a.m.	Men’s and Women’s Parallel	NBCSN \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	5 p.m.*	Men’s and Women’s Parallel	NBCSN \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
Wednesday	6 a.m.	Team Event	NBCSN \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
Thursday	4 a.m.	Women’s Giant Slalom Run 1	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	6:30 a.m.*	Women’s Giant Slalom Run 1	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	7:30 a.m.	Women’s Giant Slalom Run 2	NBCSN \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	4:30 p.m.*	Women’s Giant Slalom	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Friday	4:30 a.m.	Men’s Giant Slalom Run 1	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	6:30 a.m.*	Men’s Giant Slalom Run 1	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	7:30 a.m.	Men’s Giant Slalom Run 2	NBCSN \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
Saturday	4 a.m.	Women’s Slalom Run 1	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	7:30 a.m.	Women’s Slalom Run 2	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	5 p.m.*	Women’s Slalom	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Sunday	4 a.m.	Men’s Slalom Run 1	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	6:30 a.m.*	Men’s Slalom Run 1	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	7:30 a.m.	Men’s Slalom Run 2	NBCSN \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	12 p.m.*	Women’s Slalom	NBC \| STREAM LINK

MORE: Full World Alpine Skiing Championships Broadcast Schedule

World Biathlon Championships — Pokljuka, Slovenia

Day	Time (ET)	Event	Network
Tuesday	6 a.m.	Women’s Individual	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	3:30 p.m.*	Women’s Individual	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Wednesday	8:30 a.m.	Men’s Individual	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
Thursday	1 a.m.*	Men’s Individual	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	9:15 a.m.	Single Mixed Relay	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	2 p.m.	Single Mixed Relay	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Saturday	5:45 a.m.	Women’s Relay	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	9 a.m.	Men’s Relay	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	10:30 a.m.*	Women’s Relay	Olympic Channel \| STREAM LINK
Sunday	6:30 a.m.	Women’s Mass Start	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	9:15 a.m.	Men’s Mass Start	Olympic Channel \| Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	10 a.m.*	Women’s Mass Start	Olympic Channel \| STREAM LINK
Monday	1 p.m.*	Women’s Mass Start	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK

Freestyle Skiing World Cup — Reiteralm, Austria

Day	Time (ET)	Event	Network
Friday	5:30 a.m.	Ski Cross	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK

Ski Jumping World Cup — Râșnov, Romania

Day	Time (ET)	Event	Network
Thursday	6 a.m.	Men’s Qualifying	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	TBA	Women’s Qualifying	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
Friday	4:30 a.m.	Women	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
	8:15 a.m.	Men	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK
Saturday	3:45 a.m.	Mixed Team	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK

Snowboarding World Cup — Reiteralm, Austria

Day	Time (ET)	Event	Network
Thursday	5:30 a.m.	Snowboard Cross	Peacock Premium \| STREAM LINK

*Delayed broadcast

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Football takes significant step in Olympic push

By OlympicTalkMar 29, 2023, 2:18 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Football took another step toward possible Olympic inclusion with the IOC executive board proposing that the sport’s international federation — the IFAF — be granted full IOC recognition at a meeting in October.

IOC recognition does not equate to eventual Olympic inclusion, but it is a necessary early marker if a sport is to join the Olympics down the line. The IOC gave the IFAF provisional recognition in 2013.

Specific measures are required for IOC recognition, including having an anti-doping policy compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency and having 50 affiliated national federations from at least three continents. The IFAF has 74 national federations over five continents with almost 4.8 million registered athletes, according to the IOC.

The NFL has helped lead the push for flag football to be added for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Flag football had medal events for men and women at last year’s World Games, a multi-sport competition including Olympic and non-Olympic sports, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Football is one of nine sports that have been reported to be in the running to be proposed by LA 2028 to the IOC to be added for the 2028 Games only. LA 2028 has not announced which, if any sports, it plans to propose.

Under rules instituted before the Tokyo Games, Olympic hosts have successfully proposed to the IOC adding sports solely for their edition of the Games.

For Tokyo, baseball-softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added. For Paris, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were approved again, and breaking will make its Olympic debut. Those sports were added four years out from the Games.

For 2028, the other sports reportedly in the running for proposal are baseball and softball, breaking, cricket, karate, kickboxing, lacrosse, motorsports and squash.

All of the other eight sports reportedly in the running for 2028 proposal already have a federation with full IOC recognition (if one counts the international motorcycle racing federation for motorsports).

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Helen Maroulis stars in wrestling documentary, with help from Chris Pratt

By Nick ZaccardiMar 29, 2023, 10:05 AM EDT

Getty

One of the remarkable recent Olympic comeback stories is the subject of a film that will be shown nationwide in theaters for one day only on Thursday.

“Helen | Believe” is a documentary about Helen Maroulis, the first U.S. Olympic women’s wrestling champion. It is produced by Religion of Sports, the venture founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan and Tom Brady. Showing details are here.

After taking gold at the 2016 Rio Games, Maroulis briefly retired in 2019 during a two-year stretch in which she dealt with concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder. The film focuses on that period and her successful bid to return and qualify for the Tokyo Games, where she took bronze.

In a poignant moment in the film, Maroulis described her “rock bottom” — being hospitalized for suicidal ideations.

In an interview, Maroulis said she was first approached about the project in 2018, the same year she had her first life-changing concussion that January. A wrestling partner’s mother was connected to director Dylan Mulick.

Maroulis agreed to the film in part to help spread mental health awareness in sports. Later, she cried while watching the 2020 HBO film, “The Weight of Gold,” on the mental health challenges that other Olympians faced, because it resonated with her so much.

“When you’re going through something, it sometimes gives you an anchor of hope to know that someone’s been through it before, and they’ve overcome it,” she said.

Maroulis’ comeback story hit a crossroads at the Olympic trials in April 2021, where the winner of a best-of-three finals series in each weight class made Team USA.

Maroulis won the opening match against Jenna Burkert, but then lost the second match. Statistically, a wrestler who loses the second match in a best-of-three series usually loses the third. But Maroulis pinned Burkert just 22 seconds into the rubber match to clinch the Olympic spot.

Shen then revealed that she tore an MCL two weeks earlier.

“They told me I would have to be in a brace for six weeks,” she said then. “I said, ‘I don’t have that. I have two and a half.’”

Maroulis said she later asked the director what would have happened if she didn’t make the team for Tokyo. She was told the film still have been done.

“He had mentioned this isn’t about a sports story or sports comeback story,” Maroulis said. “This is about a human story. And we’re using wrestling as the vehicle to tell this story of overcoming and healing and rediscovering oneself.”

Maroulis said she was told that, during filming, the project was pitched to the production company of actor Chris Pratt, who wrestled in high school in Washington. Pratt signed on as a producer.

“Wrestling has made an impact on his life, and so he wants to support these kinds of stories,” said Maroulis, who appeared at last month’s Santa Barbara Film Festival with Pratt.

Pratt said he knew about Maroulis before learning about the film, which he said “needed a little help to get it over the finish line,” according to a public relations company promoting the film.

The film also highlights the rest of the six-woman U.S. Olympic wrestling team in Tokyo. Four of the six won a medal, including Tamyra Mensah-Stock‘s gold.

“I was excited to be part of, not just (Maroulis’) incredible story, but also helping to further advance wrestling and, in particular, female wrestling,” Pratt said, according to responses provided by the PR company from submitted questions. “To me, the most compelling part of Helen’s story is the example of what life looks like after a person wins a gold medal. The inevitable comedown, the trauma around her injuries, the PTSD, the drive to continue that is what makes her who she is.”

Maroulis, who now trains in Arizona, hopes to qualify for this year’s world championships and next year’s Olympics.

“I try to treat every Games as my last,” she said. “Now I’m leaning toward being done [after 2024], but never say never.”

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