U.S. Olympic women’s figure skating team named, led by Mariah Bell

By OlympicTalkJan 8, 2022, 5:00 PM EST

Mariah Bell and Karen Chen, who went one-two at the national championships, and two-time U.S. champ Alysa Liu comprise the Olympic women’s figure skating team chosen by a committee.

Bell, Chen and Liu were the favorites to make up the team before the U.S. Championships, which finished Friday night. A selection committee then chose the team, looking at each skater’s results dating to the 2021 U.S. Championships.

“I’m just so grateful,” Bell told Andrea Joyce during the broadcast of making the team. “It’s something that I’ve been working toward for a very long time. I’m so excited and so honored, and it still doesn’t feel real.

FIGURE SKATING NATIONALS: Broadcast Schedule | Full Results

After Bell and Chen took gold and silver, the only business left was to consider Liu’s petition. The 16-year-old tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday morning, after placing third in the short program, but remained eligible for the team. She said she is vaccinated and was feeling well.

Skaters who successfully petition must be able to prove the ability to perform full competition programs by a specified date and be medically approved to compete at the Olympics.

In case any of the skaters can’t compete, the alternates are, in order, Lindsay Thorngren (fifth at nationals, fifth-ranked American this season), Amber Glenn (fourth-ranked American this season, withdrew from nationals due to Covid-19) and Gabriella Izzo (fourth at nationals, sixth-ranked American this season).

Liu had a strong case, given she is the highest-ranked American by best international score this season. Liu ranks fifth in the world when excluding extra Russians who will not be at the Olympics.

Liu, who in 2019 became the youngest U.S. senior champion at age 13, could be competitive for a medal if a Russian falters, or if she adds a triple Axel or quadruple jump to her arsenal. She hasn’t landed either cleanly in competition since the March 2020 World Junior Championships.

Bell, 25 and ranked eighth among skaters expected at the Olympics, is set to become the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s singles skater since 1928 after becoming the oldest women’s national champion since 1927. She won her first national title in her ninth senior nationals appearance, also a women’s record.

“Age is literally a number,” Bell said. “It means nothing. If you have a dream, there is no limit on the time you have to achieve that dream, for sure.”

Chen, a 22-year-old who was 11th in PyeongChang, is set to be the first U.S. women’s singles skater to compete in back-to-back Olympics since Sasha Cohen in 2002 and 2006.

“It honestly means so, so much, especially considering after 2018 I did think about stepping away from the sport but I’m really happy that I didn’t,” Chen said. “I kept chasing my dreams and being as fearless as possible, and here I am.”

The rest of the Olympic figure skating team — three men, three ice dance couples and two pairs’ teams — will be named after those competitions conclude at nationals in Nashville later this weekend.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

U.S. women’s rugby team qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics as medal contender

By OlympicTalkMar 31, 2023, 1:31 PM EDT

Getty

The U.S. women’s rugby team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics by clinching a top-four finish in this season’s World Series.

Since rugby was re-added to the Olympics in 2016, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams finished fifth, sixth, sixth and ninth at the Games.

The U.S. women are having their best season since 2018-19, finishing second or third in all five World Series stops so far and ranking behind only New Zealand and Australia, the winners of the first two Olympic women’s rugby sevens tournaments.

The U.S. also finished fourth at last September’s World Cup.

Three months after the Tokyo Games, Emilie Bydwell was announced as the new U.S. head coach, succeeding Olympic coach Chris Brown.

Soon after, Tokyo Olympic co-captain Abby Gustaitis was cut from the team.

Jaz Gray, who led the team in scoring last season and at the World Cup, missed the last three World Series stops after an injury.

The U.S. men are ranked ninth in this season’s World Series and will likely need to win either a North American Olympic qualifier this summer or a last-chance global qualifier in June 2024 to make it to Paris.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Oscar Pistorius denied parole, hasn’t served enough time

Associated PressMar 31, 2023, 1:05 PM EDT

File photo

Olympic and Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius was denied parole Friday and will have to stay in prison for at least another year and four months after it was decided that he had not served the “minimum detention period” required to be released following his murder conviction for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp 10 years ago.

The parole board ruled that Pistorius would only be able to apply again in August 2024, South Africa’s Department of Corrections said in a short, two-paragraph statement. It was released soon after a parole hearing at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre prison where Pistorius is being held.

The board cited a new clarification on Pistorius’ sentence that was issued by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal just three days before the hearing, according to the statement. Still, legal experts criticized authorities’ decision to go ahead with the hearing when Pistorius was not eligible.

Reeva Steenkamp’s parents, Barry and June, are “relieved” with the decision to keep Pistorius in prison but are not celebrating it, their lawyer told The Associated Press.

“They can’t celebrate because there are no winners in this situation. They lost a daughter and South Africa lost a hero,” lawyer Tania Koen said, referring to the dramatic fall from grace of Pistorius, once a world-famous and highly-admired athlete.

The decision and reasoning to deny parole was a surprise but there has been legal wrangling over when Pistorius should be eligible for parole because of the series of appeals in his case. He was initially convicted of culpable homicide, a charge comparable to manslaughter, in 2014 but the case went through a number of appeals before Pistorius was finally sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison for murder in 2017.

Serious offenders must serve at least half their sentence to be eligible for parole in South Africa. Pistorius’ lawyers had previously gone to court to argue that he was eligible because he had served the required portion if they also counted periods served in jail from late 2014 following his culpable homicide conviction.

The lawyer handling Pistorius’ parole application did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

June Steenkamp attended Pistorius’ hearing inside the prison complex to oppose his parole. The parents have said they still do not believe Pistorius’ account of their daughter’s killing and wanted him to stay in jail.

Pistorius, who is now 36, has always claimed he killed Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law student, in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013 after mistaking her for a dangerous intruder in his home. He shot four times with his licensed 9 mm pistol through a closed toilet cubicle door in his bathroom, where Steenkamp was, hitting her multiple times. Pistorius claimed he didn’t realize his girlfriend had got out of bed and gone to the bathroom.

The Steenkamps say they still think he is lying and killed her intentionally after a late-night argument.

Lawyer Koen had struck a more critical tone when addressing reporters outside the prison before the hearing, saying the Steenkamps believed Pistorius could not be considered to be rehabilitated “unless he comes clean” over the killing.

“He’s the killer of their daughter. For them, it’s a life sentence,” Koen said before the hearing.

June Steenkamp had sat grim-faced in the back seat of a car nearby while Koen spoke to reporters outside the prison gates ahead of the hearing. June Steenkamp and Koen were then driven into the prison in a Department of Corrections vehicle. June Steenkamp made her submission to the parole board in a separate room to Pistorius and did not come face-to-face with her daughter’s killer, Koen said.

Barry Steenkamp did not travel for the hearing because of poor health but a family friend read out a statement to the parole board on his behalf, the parents’ lawyer said.

Pistorius was once hailed as an inspirational figure for overcoming the adversity of his disability, before his murder trial and sensational downfall captivated the world.

Pistorius’s lower legs were amputated when he was a baby because of a congenital condition and he walks with prosthetics. He went on to become a double-amputee runner and multiple Paralympic champion who made history by competing against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics, running on specially designed carbon-fiber blades.

Pistorius’ conviction eventually led to him being sent to the Kgosi Mampuru II maximum security prison, one of South Africa’s most notorious. He was moved to the Atteridgeville prison in 2016 because that facility is better suited to disabled prisoners.

There have only been glimpses of his life in prison, with reports claiming he had at one point grown a beard, gained weight and taken up smoking and was unrecognizable from the elite athlete he once was.

He has spent much of his time working in an area of the prison grounds where vegetables are grown, sometimes driving a tractor, and has reportedly been running bible classes for other inmates.

Pistorius’ father, Henke Pistorius, told the Pretoria News newspaper before the hearing that his family hoped he would be home soon.

“Deep down, we believe he will be home soon,” Henke Pistorius said, “but until the parole board has spoken the word, I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

More: Figure Skating

More: Olympics

More: Olympics