Scotland wins men’s curling worlds; U.S. misses playoffs

By OlympicTalkApr 10, 2023, 10:53 AM EDT

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Scotland, the home of curling, won its first men’s world title since 2009, while American John Shuster‘s team finished eighth, his worst result in seven world championships as a skip.

Scotland’s team skipped by Bruce Mouat, which won 2022 Olympic silver for Great Britain, beat a Canadian team skipped by 2006 Olympic champion Brad Gushue 9-3 in Sunday’s final in Ottawa.

“The year after the Olympics, where we were gutted with the result, but knew we had created something special when we were there, we knew that if we brought something similar we could definitely win a world championship, and that’s exactly what we did tonight,” Mouat said, according to British Curling.

Scotland ended its longest men’s world title drought since a 24-year gap from 1967 to 1991. Canada, the most successful curling nation in history, last won a men’s world title in 2017 and is in the midst of its longest men’s world title drought since the 1970s.

Gushue did stun Sweden in the playoffs, ending Olympic champion skip Niklas Edin‘s streak of four consecutive world titles (though Edin did arguably pull off the shot of the tournament in round-robin play).

Gushue, 42, was in tears in a TV interview after losing the final to take silver at worlds in back-to-back years.

Shuster, who skipped the U.S. to the 2018 Olympic title, went 5-7 and missed the six-team playoffs. It marked the first time that Shuster missed the playoffs at worlds since 2015 and the only time he has gone below .500 in round-robin play at worlds since becoming a skip in 2007.

“I feel like I’m a better curler now than I was in 2018 when we won gold,” Shuster said last week while his team was 3-6, according to the Ottawa Sun. “But the rest of the world is better, too. A lot of it comes through experience and learning.”

At 40 years old, Shuster also faces a domestic challenge heading toward the 2026 Winter Games, if he bids to tie the U.S. record of six Winter Olympic appearances. The other top American teams have far younger skips — Korey Dropkin (27) and Danny Casper (21).

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GOLD FOR SCOTLAND IN THE WORLD MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP 🥇#WMCC2023 pic.twitter.com/yLx0LmTAL6

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) April 9, 2023

At the French Open, a Ukrainian mom makes her comeback

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 10:03 AM EDT

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Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, once the world’s third-ranked tennis player, is into the French Open third round in her first major tournament since childbirth.

Svitolina, 28, swept 2022 French Open semifinalist Martina Trevisan of Italy, then beat Australian qualifier Storm Hunter 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the last 32 at Roland Garros. She next plays 56th-ranked Russian Anna Blinkova, who took out the top French player, fifth seed Caroline Garcia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 on her ninth match point.

Svitolina’s husband, French player Gael Monfils, finished his first-round five-set win after midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. She watched that match on a computer before going to sleep ahead of her 11 a.m. start Wednesday.

“This morning, he told me, ‘I’m coming to your match, so make it worth it,'” she joked on Tennis Channel. “I was like, OK, no pressure.

“I don’t know what he’s doing here now. He should be resting.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Svitolina made at least one major quarterfinal every year from 2017 through 2021, including the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019. She married Monfils one week before the Tokyo Olympics, then won a singles bronze medal.

Svitolina played her last match before maternity leave on March 24, 2022, one month after Russia invaded her country. She gave birth to daughter Skai on Oct. 15.

Svitolina returned to competition in April. Last week, she won the tournament preceding the French Open, sweeping Blinkova to improve to 17-3 in her career in finals. She’s playing on a protected ranking of 27th after her year absence and, now, on a seven-match win streak.

“It was always in my head the plan to come back, but I didn’t put any pressure on myself, because obviously with the war going on, with the pregnancy, you never know how complicated it will go,” she said. “I’m as strong as I was before, maybe even stronger, because I feel that I can handle the work that I do off the court, and match by match I’m getting better. Also mentally, because mental can influence your physicality, as well.”

Svitolina said she’s motivated by goals to attain before she retires from the sport and to help Ukraine, such as donating her prize money from last week’s title in Strasbourg.

“These moments bring joy to people of Ukraine, to the kids as well, the kids who loved to play tennis before the war, and now maybe they don’t have the opportunity,” she said. “But these moments that can motivate them to look on the bright side and see these good moments and enjoy themselves as much as they can in this horrible situation.”

Svitolina said that she’s noticed “a lot of rubbish” concerning how tennis is reacting to the war.

“We have to focus on what the main point of what is going on,” she said. “Ukrainian people need help and need support. We are focusing on so many things like empty words, empty things that are not helping the situation, not helping anything.

“I want to invite everyone to focus on helping Ukrainians. That’s the main point of this, to help kids, to help women who lost their husbands because they are at the war, and they are fighting for Ukraine.

“You can donate. Couple of dollars might help and save lives. Or donate your time to something to help people.”

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Marcell Jacobs still sidelined, misses another race with Fred Kerley

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 7:07 AM EDT

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Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy will miss another scheduled clash with world 100m champion Fred Kerley, withdrawing from Friday’s Diamond League meet in Florence.

Jacobs, 28, has not recovered from the nerve pain that forced him out of last Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, according to Italy’s track and field federation.

In his absence, Kerley’s top competition will be fellow American Trayvon Bromell, the world bronze medalist, and Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, the world’s fastest man this year at 9.84 seconds. Kerley beat both of them in Rabat.

The Florence Diamond League airs live on Peacock on Friday from 2-4 p.m. ET.

Jacobs has withdrawn from six scheduled head-to-heads with Kerley dating to May 2022 due to a series of health issues since that surprise gold in Tokyo.

Kerley, primarily a 400m sprinter until the Tokyo Olympic year, became the world’s fastest man in Jacobs’ absence. He ran a personal best 9.76 seconds, the world’s best time of 2022, at last June’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. Then he led a U.S. sweep of the medals at July’s worlds.

Jacobs’ next scheduled race is a 100m at the Paris Diamond League on June 9. Kerley is not in that field, but world 200m champion Noah Lyles is.

The last time the reigning Olympic and world men’s 100m champions met in a 100m was the 2012 London Olympic final between Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. From 2013 to 2017, Bolt held both titles, then retired in 2017 while remaining reigning Olympic champion until Jacobs’ win in Tokyo, where Kerley took silver.

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