Team USA athlete roster for 2022 Winter Olympics

By OlympicTalkFeb 4, 2022, 6:27 AM EST

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The U.S. Olympic team for the 2022 Winter Games, which open Feb. 4, is 224 athletes now that every national governing body announced its roster.

The oldest Team USA athlete is 40-year-old snowboarder Nick Baumgartner, who has a 17-year-old son, Landon, who is older than the youngest qualifier, 16-year-old figure skater Alysa Liu.

Four athletes qualified for their fifth Olympics: curler John Shuster, snowboarders Shaun White and Lindsey Jacobellis and skeleton slider Katie Uhlaender.

Every individual U.S. gold medalist from the previous Olympics will return for the first time since 1968: halfpipe skier David Wise, Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin and snowboarders Jamie Anderson, Chloe Kim, Red Gerard and White.

The U.S. has a “Summer” (luger Summer Britcher) and a “Winter” (aerials skier Winter Vinecki, the first Winter Olympian named “Winter,” according to Olympedia.org).

Here’s the full list of athletes named to the 2022 U.S. Olympic team:

Alpine Skiing (17)
Keely Cashman
Katie Hensien
A.J. Hurt
Breezy Johnson (injured)
Mo Lebel
Tricia Mangan
Paula Moltzan
Nina O’Brien
Mikaela Shiffrin
Jacqueline Wiles
Alix Wilkinson
Bella Wright
Bryce Bennett
Ryan Cochran-Siegle
Tommy Ford
Travis Ganong
River Radamus
Luke Winters

Biathlon (8)
Susan Dunklee
Clare Egan
Deedra Irwin
Joanne Reid
Jake Brown
Sean Doherty
Leif Nordgren
Paul Schommer

Bobsled (12)
Sylvia Hoffman
Kaillie Humphries
Kaysha Love
Elana Meyers Taylor
Hakeem Abdul Saboor
Hunter Church
Frank Del Duca
Kris Horn
Jimmy Reed
Carlo Valdes
Charlie Volker
Josh Williamson

Cross-Country Skiing (14)
Rosie Brennan
Jessie Diggins
Hannah Halvorsen
Julia Kern
Sophia Laukli
Novie McCabe
Caitlin Patterson
Hailey Swirbul
Kevin Bolger
Ben Ogden
Luke Jager
Scott Patterson
JC Schoonmaker
Gus Schumacher

Curling (11)
Becca Hamilton
Vicky Persinger
Tabitha Peterson
Tara Peterson
Nina Roth
Aileen Geving (alternate)
Matt Hamilton
John Landsteiner
Chris Plys
John Shuster
Colin Hufman (alternate)

Figure Skating (16)
Mariah Bell (Singles)
Karen Chen (Singles)
Alysa Liu (Singles)
Jason Brown (Singles)
Nathan Chen (Singles)
Vincent Zhou (Singles)
Ashley Cain-Gribble (Pairs)
Alexa Knierim (Pairs)
Brandon Frazier (Pairs)
Timothy LeDuc (Pairs)
Madison Chock (Ice Dance)
Kaitlin Hawayek (Ice Dance)
Madison Hubbell (Ice Dance)
Jean-Luc Baker (Ice Dance)
Evan Bates (Ice Dance)
Zachary Donohue (Ice Dance)

Freestyle Skiing (32)
Ashley Caldwell (Aerials)
Kaila Kuhn (Aerials)
Megan Nick (Aerials)
Winter Vinecki (Aerials)
Hanna Faulhaber (Halfpipe)
Devin Logan (Halfpipe)
Brita Sigourney (Halfpipe)
Carly Margulies (Halfpipe)
Olivia Giaccio (Moguls)
Jaelin Kauf (Moguls)
Kai Owens (Moguls)
Hannah Soar (Moguls)
Caroline Claire (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Marin Hamill (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Darian Stevens (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Maggie Voisin (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Chris Lillis (Aerials)
Eric Loughran (Aerials)
Justin Schoenefeld (Aerials)
Aaron Blunck (Halfpipe)
Alex Ferreira (Halfpipe)
Birk Irving (Halfpipe)
David Wise (Halfpipe)
Cole McDonald (Moguls)
Nick Page (Moguls)
Dylan Walczyk (Moguls)
Brad Wilson (Moguls)
Tyler Wallasch (Ski Cross)
Mac Forehand (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Nick Goepper (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Alex Hall (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Colby Stevenson (Slopestyle/Big Air)

Hockey (48)
Cayla Barnes
Megan Bozek
Hannah Brandt
Dani Cameranesi
Alex Carpenter
Alex Cavallini
Jesse Compher
Kendall Coyne Schofield
Brianna Decker
Jincy Dunne
Savannah Harmon
Caroline Harvey
Nicole Hensley
Megan Keller
Amanda Kessel
Hilary Knight
Abbey Murphy
Kelly Pannek
Maddie Rooney
Abby Roque
Hayley Scamurra
Lee Stecklein
Grace Zumwinkle
Nick Abruzzese
Kenny Agostino
Matty Beniers
Brendan Brisson
Noah Cates
Drew Commesso
Brian Cooper
Brock Faber
Sean Farrell
Drew Helleson
Sam Hentges
Steven Kampfer
Matthew Knies
Strauss Mann
Marc McLaughlin
Ben Meyers
Andy Miele
Pat Nagle
Aaron Ness
Brian O’Neill
Nick Perbix
Jake Sanderson
Nick Shore
Nathan Smith
David Warsofsky

Luge (8)
Summer Britcher (Singles)
Ashley Farquharson (Singles)
Emily Sweeney (Singles)
Jonny Gustafson (Singles)
Chris Mazdzer (Singles)
Tucker West (Singles)
Zack DiGregorio (Doubles)
Sean Hollander (Doubles)

Nordic Combined (5)
Taylor Fletcher
Jasper Good
Ben Loomis
Stephen Schumann
Jared Shumate

Short Track Speed Skating (7)
Maame Biney
Eunice Lee
Julie Letai
Kristen Santos
Corinne Stoddard
Andrew Heo
Ryan Pivirotto

Skeleton (3)
Kelly Curtis
Katie Uhlaender
Andrew Blaser

Ski Jumping (5)
Anna Hoffmann
Kevin Bickner
Erik Belshaw (declined spot)
Decker Dean
Patrick Gasienica
Casey Larson

Snowboarding (26)
Zoe Kalapos (Halfpipe)
Chloe Kim (Halfpipe)
Maddie Mastro (Halfpipe)
Tessa Maud (Halfpipe)
Jamie Anderson (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Hailey Langland (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Julia Marino (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Courtney Rummel (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Stacy Gaskill (Snowboard Cross)
Faye Gulini (Snowboard Cross)
Lindsey Jacobellis (Snowboard Cross)
Meghan Tierney (Snowboard Cross)
Lucas Foster (Halfpipe)
Taylor Gold (Halfpipe)
Chase Josey (Halfpipe)
Shaun White (Halfpipe)
Robby Burns (Parallel Giant Slalom)
Cody Winters (Parallel Giant Slalom)
Chris Corning (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Sean FitzSimons (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Red Gerard (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Dusty Henricksen (Slopestyle/Big Air)
Nick Baumgartner (Snowboard Cross)
Alex Deibold (Snowboard Cross) (injured)
Mick Dierdorff (Snowboard Cross)
Hagen Kearney (Snowboard Cross)
Jake Vedder (Snowboard Cross)

Speed Skating (12)
Giorgia Birkeland
Brittany Bowe
Kimi Goetz
Erin Jackson
Mia Manganello Kilburg
Ethan Cepuran
Casey Dawson
Austin Kleba
Emery Lehman
Joey Mantia
Ian Quinn
Jordan Stolz

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Primoz Roglic wins Giro d’Italia over Geraint Thomas

Associated PressMay 28, 2023, 1:30 PM EDT

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Primoz Roglic expanded his Grand Tour portfolio by winning the Giro d’Italia on Sunday to add to his three Spanish Vuelta titles.

The former ski jumper became the first Slovenian rider to win the Giro and he did it in dramatic fashion, claiming the lead in the penultimate stage — taking the pink jersey from Geraint Thomas in Saturday’s mountain time trial.

It was the direct opposite of what happened in the 2020 Tour de France, when fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar took the lead from Roglic in another penultimate-day mountain time trial.

During the podium celebration, Roglic’s son, Lev, joined him on the stage and seemed more excited than his dad.

“I’m trying to enjoy all the emotions, and everything that happened yesterday,” Roglic said. “At the end, it’s always nice to win, in this spectacular city … all these amazing buildings, it’s super beautiful.”

Riding a pink bike and wearing a pink helmet and pink socks, Roglic took it easy during the mostly ceremonious final stage, an 84-mile leg through the cobblestoned streets of Rome that concluded next to the Roman Forum.

Mark Cavendish, who recently announced that he will retire at the end of this season, won the 21st and final stage in a sprint finish.

Roglic, who rides for the Jumbo-Visma team, finished 14 seconds ahead of Thomas and 1 minute, 15 seconds ahead of Joao Almeida in the overall standings.

It’s the smallest finishing gap between the top riders in the Giro since Eddy Merckx won by 12 seconds ahead of Gianbattista Baronchelli in 1974.

Roglic’s time trial victory on Monte Lussari was his only stage win of the race. He was injured after crashing on a wet and slippery descent in Stage 11, one of several falls he had during the three-week race.

It was Cavendish’s 17th career stage win in the Giro, to go with his 34 victories at the Tour de France and three at the Vuelta — for a total of 54 stage wins at Grand Tours. The British rider started his sprint early enough that he was ahead of a crash in the final straight involving several competitors.

Also, at age 38 Cavendish became the oldest rider to win a Giro stage, beating the record held by Paolo Tiralongo, who was 37 when he won a stage in 2015.

“It was a long hard slog to get here to the end of the Giro but we’ve come close a couple of times before and my boys did incredible,” Cavendish said. “I’m pretty emotional, to be fair.

“My first Grand Tour victory was in 2008 in the Giro, down in Reggio Calabria,” Cavendish added. “To win here in Rome it’s beautiful. That’s a bucket-list win to do, outside the Colosseum.”

Alex Kirsch finished second in the stage and Filippo Fiorelli crossed third.

Cavendish will next attempt to break his tie with Merckx for the most career wins at the Tour.

Roglic has now won all three races he’s entered this year after also finishing first in the Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta a Catalunya — both week-long races.

Roglic, who excels at climbing, descending and time trialing — won three consecutive Vueltas in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Before he became a professional cyclist, the 33-year-old Roglic was a competitive ski jumper. He won a gold medal in the team jumping event for Slovenia at the 2007 junior Nordic ski world championships. He stopped jumping in 2012 and took up cycling.

The final stage concluded with six loops of an 8.5-mile circuit in the center of Rome, taking the peloton past the Baths of Caracalla, the Colosseum, the Vatican and the Circus Maximus.

The 24-year-old Almeida won the white jersey as the race’s top under-25 rider. Thibaut Pinot won the mountains classification and Jonathan Milan won the points classification.

The Tour de France starts July 1, airing on NBC Sports and Peacock.

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French Open: Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk says crowd ‘should be embarrassed’ for booing her

Associated PressMay 28, 2023, 12:28 PM EDT

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus (left) and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine before their French Open first round match./Getty

Unable to sleep the night before her first-round match at the French Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the Grand Slam tournament’s No. 2 seed, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine checked her phone at 5 a.m. Sunday and saw disturbing news back home in Kyiv.

At least one person was killed when the capital of Kostyuk’s country was subjected to the largest drone attack by Russia since the start of its war, launched with an invasion assisted by Belarus in February 2022.

“It’s something I cannot describe, probably. I try to put my emotions aside any time I go out on court. I think I’m better than before, and I don’t think it affects me as much on a daily basis, but yeah, it’s just — I don’t know,” Kostyuk said, shaking her head. “There is not much to say, really. It’s just part of my life.”

That, then, is why Kostyuk has decided she will not exchange the usual postmatch pleasantries with opponents from Russia or Belarus. And that is why she avoided a handshake — avoided any eye contact, even — after losing to Australian Open champion Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 on Day 1 at Roland Garros.

What surprised the 20-year-old, 39th-ranked Kostyuk on Sunday was the reaction she received from the spectators in Court Philippe Chatrier: They loudly booed and derisively whistled at her as she walked directly over to acknowledge the chair umpire instead of congratulating the winner after the lopsided result. The negative response grew louder as she gathered her belongings and walked off the court toward the locker room.

“I have to say,” Kostyuk said, “I didn’t expect it. … People should be, honestly, embarrassed.”

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Kostyuk is based now in Monaco, and her mother and sister are there, too, but her father and grandfather are still in Kyiv. Perhaps the fans on hand at the clay-court event’s main stadium were unaware of the backstory and figured Kostyuk simply failed to follow usual tennis etiquette.

Initially, Sabalenka — who had approached the net as if anticipating some sort of exchange with Kostyuk — thought the noise was directed at her.

“At first, I thought they were booing me,” Sabalenka said. “I was a little confused, and I was, like, ’OK, what should I do?”

Sabalenka tried to ask the chair umpire what was going on. She looked up at her entourage in the stands, too. Then she realized that while she is aware Kostyuk and other Ukrainian tennis players have been declining to greet opponents from Russia or Belarus after a match, the spectators might not have known — and so responded in a way Sabalenka didn’t think was deserved.

“They saw it,” she surmised, “as disrespect (for) me.”

All in all, if the tennis itself was not particularly memorable, the whole scene, including the lack of the customary prematch photo of the players following the coin toss, became the most noteworthy development on Day 1 in Paris.

The highest-seeded player to go home was No. 7 Maria Sakkari, who lost 7-6 (5), 7-5 to 42nd-ranked Karolina Muchova in what wasn’t necessarily that momentous of an upset. Both have been major semifinalists, and Muchova has won her past four Slam matches against players ranked in the top 10 — including beating Sakkari at the French Open last year. Also out: No. 21 Magda Linette, a semifinalist at the Australian Open, who was beat 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 by 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez, and No. 29 Zhang Shuai.

The first seeded man to bow out was No. 20 Dan Evans, eliminated 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 by wild-card entry Thanasi Kokkinakis. No. 11 Karen Khachanov, a semifinalist at the past two majors, came all the way back after dropping the opening two sets to beat Constant Lestienne, a French player once banned for gambling, by a 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 score in front of a boisterous crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen. Two-time Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas came within a point of being forced to a fifth set, too, but got past Jiri Vesely 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7). No. 24 Sebastian Korda, who missed three months after hurting his wrist at the Australian Open, was a straight-set winner in an all-American matchup against Mackenzie McDonald, the last player to face — and beat — Rafael Nadal. The 14-time French Open champion has been sidelined with a hip injury since that match in January.

Sabalenka called Sunday “emotionally tough” — because of mundane, tennis-related reasons, such as the nerves that come with any first-round match, but more significantly because of the unusual circumstances involving the war.

“You’re playing against (a) Ukrainian and you never know what’s going to happen. You never know how people will — will they support you or not?” explained Sabalenka, who went down an early break and trailed 3-2 before reeling off six consecutive games with powerful first-strike hitting. “I was worried, like, people will be against me, and I don’t like to play when people (are) so much against me.”

A journalist from Ukraine asked Sabalenka what her message to the world is with regard to the war, particularly in this context: She can overtake Iga Swiatek at No. 1 in the rankings based on results over the next two weeks and, therefore, serves as a role model.

“Nobody in this world, Russian athletes or Belarusian athletes, support the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Nobody — normal people — will never support it. Why (do) we have to go loud and say that things? This is like: ‘One plus one (is) two.’ Of course we don’t support war,” Sabalenka said. “If it could affect anyhow the war, if it could like stop it, we would do it. But unfortunately, it’s not in our hands.”

When a portion of those comments was read to Kostyuk by a reporter, she responded in calm, measured tones that she doesn’t get why Sabalenka does not come out and say that “she personally doesn’t support this war.”

Kostyuk also rejected the notion that players from Russia or Belarus could be in a tough spot upon returning to those countries if they were to speak out about what is happening in Ukraine.

“I don’t know why it’s a difficult situation,” Kostyuk said with a chuckle.

“I don’t know what other players are afraid of,” she said. “I go back to Ukraine, where I can die any second from drones or missiles or whatever it is.”

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