Simone Manuel, Ryan Lochte among swim stars not entered in world champs trials

By OlympicTalkApr 22, 2022, 1:00 PM EDT

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Simone Manuel, Ryan Lochte, Allison Schmitt and Nathan Adrian, who own a combined 35 Olympic medals and haven’t competed since the Tokyo Games, have not yet entered next week’s world swimming championships trials.

The preliminary entries were published Thursday here.

The standard entry deadline passed on Tuesday night. Late entries are allowed, with a fee, through Sunday.

In most events, the top two swimmers at trials next week in Greensboro, N.C., qualify for the world championships in Budapest in June.

U.S. SWIMMING RANKINGS: Women | Men

Manuel, a five-time Olympic medalist, was expected to take a break after the Tokyo Games. She announced at the Olympic Trials last June that she had been diagnosed with overtraining syndrome and dealt with depression, anxiety and insomnia last spring.

A doctor told her that, pending she made the Olympic team, she needed to take two months off to let her body rest.

Manuel has not publicly stated if or when she plans to compete again.

Manuel, 25, made every Olympic, world championships and Pan Pacific Championships team in the last two Olympic cycles. This year will be her first time not on the national team since the 2012 London Games.

Manuel won four gold medals and a female record seven total medals at the last worlds in 2019.

In Manuel’s absence, the top U.S. female sprint freestylers this year have been fellow Tokyo Olympians Claire Curzan and Abbey Weitzeil.

Lochte, 37 and a 12-time Olympic medalist, said after missing the Tokyo Olympic team that he still wanted to race but didn’t know if he could make it to another Olympic Trials in 2024. Lochte’s agent confirmed he will not be a late entry into trials. This will be the first trials meet that Lochte has missed — that he’s been eligible for — since the 2000 Olympic Trials.

Schmitt, 31 and a 10-time Olympic medalist, has not publicly said whether she will return to competition. She took nearly two years off after the 2016 Rio Games.

Adrian, 33 and an eight-time Olympic medalist, said after missing the Tokyo Olympic team by one spot in the 50m free that he didn’t know what was next for him in the sport. His agent said that Adrian will not be a late trials entry and is expected to decide on his competitive future by the end of the summer.

Erica Sullivan, the Olympic 1500m free silver medalist who competed this past NCAA season as a Texas freshman, is also not entered at trials, citing a shoulder injury, according to Swimswam.com.

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 7, 2023, 5:18 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Women’s Draw

But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

IOC board recommends withdrawing International Boxing Association’s recognition

Associated PressJun 7, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT

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The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Federation on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.

While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.

IOC members rarely vote against recommendations from their 15-member board and the IBA’s ouster is likely a formality.

The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.

An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”

The IBA criticized what it called a “truly abhorrent and purely political” decision by the IOC and warned of “retaliatory measures.”

“Now, we are left with no chance but to demand a fair assessment from a competent court,” the boxing body’s Russian president Umar Kremlev said in a statement.

The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.

The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the sport or its athletes — just the IBA and its current president Kremlev, plus financial dependence on Russian state energy firm Gazprom.

In a 24-page report on IBA issues published Wednesday, the IOC concluded “the accumulation of all of these points, and the constant lack of drastic evolution throughout the many years, creates a situation of no-return.”

Olympic boxing’s reputation has been in question for decades. Tensions heightened after boxing officials worldwide ousted long-time IOC member C.K. Wu as their president in 2017 when the organization was known by its French acronym AIBA.

“From a disreputable organization named AIBA governed by someone from the IOC’s upper echelon, we committed to and executed a change in the toxic and corrupt culture that was allowed to fester under the IOC for far too long,” Kremlev said Wednesday in a statement.

National federations then defied IOC warnings in 2018 by electing as their president Gafur Rakhimov, a businessman from Uzbekistan with alleged ties to organized crime and heroin trafficking.

Kremlev’s election to replace Rakhimov in 2020 followed another round of IOC warnings that went unheeded.

Amid the IBA turmoil, a rival organization called World Boxing has attracted initial support from officials in the United States, Switzerland and Britain.

The IBA can still continue to organize its own events and held the men’s world championships last month in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

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