Saturday, March 6, 2010

Weekend Update

Rebecca Boss and Maxim Devyatovskiy won the American Cup. Bross was followed by Aly Raisman and Jessica Lopez while Devyatovskiy was followed by Jonathan Horton and Chris Brooks. Horton actually managed to put together a decent pommel horse routine for himself, scoring a 14.1, but fell on parallel bars. I thought Bross was overscored on beam and floor, but she had a decent day. I also really hate pink leotards and think that I am a better reporter than Andrea Joyce because I know not to interrupt the people I am interviewing.

Lexie Priessman won the inaugural Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup last night. The junior elite from Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy completed several impressive skills including a full twisting double layout uneven bar dismount, a double twisting Yurchenko, and a full-in dismount on balance beam. To bad she is 23 days too young to compete in London. Hopefully she will not be completely broken and still have a shot at 2016.

USA Gymnastics has announced spring international assignments for men. Jonathan Horton and Danell Leyva will compete at the Paris-Bercy World Cup. Leyva, Christopher Cameron, Steve Legendre, Dylan Akers, C.J. Maestas, and John Orozco will compete at the Pacific Rim Championships. Tim Gentry and Samuel Mikulak are the alternates. In a final bit of gymnastics news, Cathy Rigby, Henrietta Onodi, Yuri Korolev, Mikhail Voronin, and Eileen Langsly will be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Lindsey Vonn won Saturday's Downhill in Switzerland, tying Bode Miller's American record of 32 World Cup victories. Johanna Schnarf of Italy was second and Switzerland's Marianne Abderhalden was third. She has now clinched the overall Downhill and Super-G titles and increased her lead for the overall title. She may have also won this year's Super-Combined title as she is in the lead with no races left. However, only two Super-Combineds have been run this year and FIS requires three.

Didier Cuche won the men's Downhill in Norway after failing to medal in Vancouver, clinching the Downhill season title. The host country's Aksel Lund Svindel was second and Klaus Kroell of Austria was third. American Andrew Weibrecht dislocated his shoulder in a bad crash and will miss next week's World Cup season finale. Bode Miller, who skipped this race, is auctioning off a helmet we wore in Vancouver to raise money for Pam Warman, a former US Ski Team technician that was recently diagnosed with breast cacner.

Finland's Hannu Manninen won his 48th World Cup title in Nordic Combined. Jason Lemy Chappius of France clinched the overall World Cup title with a third place finish. Maurice Manificat of France won a cross-country skiing 30K pursuit to claim his first World Cup victory. Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic was second, allowing him to begin to close the gap on Norway's Petter Northug, who sat out the race. Triple Olympic gold medalist Marit Bjoergen of Norway won the women's 15K pursuit. Overall World Cup leader Justyna Kowalczyk was second. Norway also beat Austria in a team ski jumping event. A World Cup parallel giant slalom was held for the first time on an artificial slope in Moscow. Aaron March of Italy and Doris Guenther of Germany won the event.

Shani Davis clinched his third straight World Cup overall title after winning his fifth 1,000 meter title this season. Though he does not have the best reputation in the US, I really admire him and think he is unbelievably talented. Mark Tuitert finished second in the race. Jenny Wolf won the 500 meters for her 47th World Cup title. Jan Smeekens won the men's 500 meters and Monique Angermueller won the women's 1,000. German skaters Heike Hartmann and Bente Kraus were on the list of skaters with blood levels too high.

Reebok is offering a $10,000 reward, no questions asked, for the return of the gloves and stick Sidney Crosby used to score his gold medal-winning goal. Nagano gold medalist Hiroyuki Shimizu officially retired from speed skating. Austrian runner Bettina Mueller-Weissima faces a lifetime ban for violating anti-doping rules for a second time in her career.

Michael Phelps nearly broke the US short course record in the 200 IM at the Maryland swimming championships. Natalie Coughlin won the 100 backstroke at the Austin Grand Prix on Friday. Matt Grevers held off Nick Thoman and Aaron Peirsol in the men's event. Rebecca Soni won the women's 100 breast, Mike Alexandrov won the men's race, Ariana Kukors won the 400 IM, Peter Vanderkaay won the men's 200 free, and Dana Vollmer won the women's race. Today, Vollmer, Soni, and Alexandrov each captured additional titles. Vollmer won the 200 butterfly and 100 free while Soni and Alexandrov each won their respective 200 breast races. Caesar Cielo won the men's 100 free while Pedro Oliveira won the men's 200 fly. Chloe Sutton and Vanderkaay won the 1,500 free races and Thoman and Henriette Stenkvist won the 200 back races.

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