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Shaun White, Chloe Kim lead Team USA award winners

By Nick ZaccardiApr 26, 2018, 8:37 PM EDT
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Shaun White and Chloe Kim swept the Team USA Awards just like they swept the halfpipe gold medals in PyeongChang.

The snowboarders were named the top U.S. male and female Olympians on Thursday night at an awards show in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the Team USA White House visit.

The women’s hockey team, which beat Canada in a gold-medal game shootout, earned the Olympic team title.

The awards, hosted by Mike Tirico, air on NBCSN on May 12 from 6-7:30 p.m. ET.

The athlete and team winners for the PyeongChang Olympics and Paralympics were determined by online fan voting (50 percent) and members of the Olympic and Paralympic family, including journalists (the other 50 percent).

White, 31, earned his third Olympic halfpipe title in four Games by attempting back-to-back double cork 1440s at a contest for the first time and landing them on his third and final run. White overtook Japanese Ayumu Hirano for the gold with 97.75 points.

Kim, 18 and at her first Olympics, injected far less drama into her final the previous day. Her first-run score of 93.75 would have been enough for gold, but she tacked on a 98.25-point victory lap on her finale with the first back-to-back 1080s by a woman at an Olympics.

The male and female Paralympian winners were both Nordic skiers. Dan Cnossen, a retired Navy SEAL, earned six medals after coming to PyeongChang without any podium finishes in 24 career Paralympic and world championships biathlon and cross-country skiing events. Oksana Masters earned five PyeongChang medals after dislocating her right elbow before the Games.

In 2014, the first edition of the Team USA Awards, Sochi slopestyle snowboarding gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg, luge bronze medalist Erin Hamlin and ice dance gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White took the Olympian honors.

In 2016, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and the women’s gymnastics team were the Olympian winners.

2018 Team USA Awards nominees (WINNERS IN BOLD)
Male Olympian
Red Gerard, Gold, Snowboard Slopestyle
Shaun White, Gold, Snowboard Halfpipe — WINNER
David Wise, Gold, Ski Halfpipe
John-Henry Krueger, Silver, Short Track Speed Skating (1000m)
Chris Mazdzer, Silver, Luge (singles)

Female Olympian
Jamie Anderson, Gold and Silver, Snowboard Slopestyle, Big Air
Chloe Kim, Gold, Snowboard Halfpipe — WINNER
Mikaela Shiffrin, Gold and Silver, Alpine Skiing (giant slalom, combined)
Elana Meyers Taylor, Silver, Bobsled
Brittany Bowe, Bronze, Speed Skating (team pursuit)

Olympic Team
Jessie Diggins/Kikkan Randall, Gold, Cross-Country Skiing (team sprint)
Men’s Curling, Gold
Women’s Hockey, Gold — WINNER

Olympic Coach
Jason Cork, Cross-Country Skiing — WINNER
Phil Drobnick, Curling
Mike Jankowski, Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding

Male Paralympian
Dan Cnossen, Gold, 4 Silvers, Bronze, Nordic Skiing — WINNER
Noah Elliott, Gold, Bronze, Snowboarding
Andrew Kurka, Gold, Silver, Alpine Skiing
Mike Schultz, Gold, Silver, Snowboarding
Andy Soule, Gold, Bronze, Nordic Skiing

Female Paralympian
Kendall Gretsch, 2 Golds, Nordic Skiing
Brenna Huckaby, 2 Golds, Snowboarding
Oksana Masters, 2 Golds, 2 Silvers, 1 Bronze, Nordic Skiing — WINNER
Brittani Coury, Silver, Snowboarding
Laurie Stephens, Bronze, Alpine Skiing

Paralympic Team
Sled Hockey, Gold — WINNER

Paralympic Coach
Gary Colliander, Nordic Skiing — WINNER
Guy Gosselin, Hockey
Graham Watanabe, Snowboarding

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Oscar Pistorius appeal dismissed, closing 5-year legal saga

AP
Associated PressApr 10, 2018, 9:07 AM EDT
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Emmanuel Korir Emmanuel Korir nearly falls, comes back to win 800m at Pre Classic Allyson Felix withdraws from Prefontaine Classic Will Japan’s Olympic legend return for Tokyo 2020?

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Legal experts say Olympian Oscar Pistorius has finally run out of options to appeal his 13-year prison sentence for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.

South Africa’s highest court dismissed Pistorius’ request to review the sentence on Monday, bringing a close to a five-year legal saga surrounding the man who was once one of the world’s most celebrated athletes.

“There is nothing they can do,” said Pierre de Vos, a constitutional law expert at the University of Cape Town.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubled Pistorius’ six-year sentence for the murder of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, who he shot four times through a locked bathroom door in his home on Valentine’s Day in 2013.

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, and the court called the initial six-year sentence “shockingly lenient.”

The double-amputee runner, who is 31, claims he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder.

Pistorius was originally convicted of manslaughter, but that was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court. He has also tried and failed to appeal his murder conviction in the Constitutional Court.

“Oscar Pistorius has exhausted his legal avenues in terms of the criminal process,” said Luvuyo Mfaku, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority.

Pistorius must serve at least half of his 13-year sentence before he can be considered for parole.

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U.S. Olympic, Paralympic teams to visit White House in April

AP
Associated PressMar 27, 2018, 4:33 PM EDT
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team has been invited to the White House for a visit April 27, leaving the 244 members about four weeks to decide if they’ll attend.

Four members from the U.S. team — Gus Kenworthy, Adam Rippon, Nathan Chen and Lindsey Vonn — have said they would not go if invited.

Visits to the White House are a decades-old tradition, though there have been notable absences over the years regardless of who’s in office.

Kenworthy and Rippon are gay. Rippon has said he wouldn’t go because he doesn’t think “somebody like me would be welcome there.”

Vonn has said she would “absolutely not” accept an invitation and that she hoped to represent the “people of the United States, not the president” at the Olympics.

But USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said so far RSVP numbers have been robust and in line with past visits.

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