2021 World Alpine Skiing Championships TV, live stream schedule

By OlympicTalkFeb 18, 2021, 7:17 AM EST

Every event of the world Alpine skiing championships airs live between NBCSN and Olympic Channel and streams live on Peacock Premium.

Worlds, held in odd years, run from Feb. 8-21 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, host of Alpine skiing at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Mikaela Shiffrin is again the headliner, planning to race four individual events at worlds for the first time. She’s set for the combined (Feb. 8), super-G (Feb. 9), giant slalom (Feb. 18) and slalom (Feb. 20) and a medal contender in every one.

Shiffrin is the Olympic silver medalist in the combined, reigning world champion in the super-G, reigning Olympic champion in the giant slalom and won the last four world titles in the slalom.

But the last year brought the biggest challenge of her career. Shiffrin went 300 days between races following the Feb. 2 death of her father. She has raced strictly giant slalom and slalom this season and recently trained super-G for the first time in one year. (Super-G and slalom make up the combined.)

Shiffrin is ranked third in the world this season in slalom and fifth in GS, but has a victory in each discipline.

The U.S. also has a downhill medal favorite in Breezy Johnson, the 25-year-old who fought back from significant leg injuries in 2017, 2018 and 2019 to make her first four World Cup podiums this season. Johnson, looking to succeed the retired Lindsey Vonn, is the highest-ranked downhiller entered at worlds after Olympic champion Sofia Goggia was knocked out by a knee injury.

The U.S. men will likely be without their top two skiers over the last two seasons — Ryan Cochran-Siegle (doubtful with a broken neck) and Tommy Ford (season-ending crash in January). They still have Ted Ligety, a two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion, the last title coming in 2015, expected to ski in his last worlds.

The men’s favorites start with Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, the overall and GS World Cup leader and defending champion in the combined. Swiss and Austrians are the top-ranked men in downhill (Beat Feuz and Matthias Mayer), super-G (Vincent Kriechmayr and Mauro Caviezel) and slalom (Marco Schwarz and Ramon Zenhausern).

2021 World Alpine Skiing Championships Broadcast Schedule

Date	Event	Time (ET)	Network
Mon., Feb. 8	Women’s Combined (Slalom) PPD	5 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Combined (Slalom)* PPD	7 a.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	Women’s Combined (Super-G) PPD	8:30 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Combined (Super-G) PPD	10:30 p.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Tue., Feb. 9	Women’s Super-G PPD	7 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Super-G* PPD	11:30 p.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Thu., Feb. 11	Women’s Super-G	4:30 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Men’s Super-G	7 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Super-G	5 p.m.*	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Sat., Feb. 13	Women’s Downhill	4:55 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Downhill*	2:30 p.m.	NBC \| STREAM LINK
	Women’s Downhill*	4:30 p.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Sun., Feb. 14	Men’s Downhill	4:55 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Men’s Downhill*	Noon	NBC \| STREAM LINK
	Men’s Downhill*	4:30 p.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Mon., Feb. 15	Women’s Combined Super-G	3:45 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Men’s Combined Super-G	5:15 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Combined Slalom	8 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
	Men’s Combined Slalom	9:20 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
Tue, Feb. 16	Parallel Slalom Finals	8 a.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	Parallel Slalom Finals*	5 p.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Wed., Feb. 17	Team Event	6 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
Thu., Feb. 18	Women’s Giant Slalom (Run 1)	4 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Giant Slalom (Run 1)*	6:30 a.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	Women’s Giant Slalom (Run 2)	7:30 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Giant Slalom (Run 2)*	4:30 p.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
Fri., Feb. 19	Men’s Giant Slalom (Run 1)	4 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Men’s Giant Slalom (Run 1)*	6:30 a.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	Men’s Giant Slalom (Run 2)	7:30 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
Sat., Feb. 20	Women’s Slalom (Run 1)	4 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Slalom (Run 2)	7:30 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
Sun., Feb. 21	Women’s Slalom (Run 2)*	12 a.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	Men’s Slalom (Run 1)	4 a.m.	Olympic Channel \| LIVE STREAM
	Men’s Slalom (Run 1)*	6:30 a.m.	NBCSN \| STREAM LINK
	Men’s Slalom (Run 2)	7:30 a.m.	NBCSN \| LIVE STREAM
	Women’s Slalom*	Noon	NBC \| STREAM LINK

*Delayed broadcast

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

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).

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

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.”

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nzaccardi

More: Olympics

More: Olympics

More: Olympics