More News

I promise, I have an entry ready for later that is more than just news of the Olympic world. Check back tonight and see for yourself!

Johnny Weir has withdrawn from the figure skating world championships and will be replaced by Four Continents and two time Junior World champion Adam Rippon. Olympic bronze medalists Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin have also withdrawn from the competition. At junior worlds, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han let pairs after the short program. Britney Miller and Nathan Simpson are in fourth and Felicia Zhang and Taylor Toth are in sixth. The free skate is later today. Grant Hochstein and Keegan Messing are in first and second place respectively after the men's short program while Denis Ten and Armin Mahbanoozadeh are in fourth and eighth. Stephane Lambiel has officially retired (again).

In gymnastics, Jordyn Wieber is rumored to be training a second vault. Kristina Goryunova has been suspended for a year for a doping violation and will therefore not be eligible to compete at the 2012 Olympics.

Maria Riesch won the final downhill of the World Cup season in her hometown of Garmisch-Partenkirchen preventing Lindsey Vonn, who finished second, from clinching the overall title. Anja Paerson was third. Carlo Janka won the men's downhill, giving him a 54 point lead over Benjamin Raich in the overall standings.

Short Track speed skating double gold medalist Zhou Yang has caused quite a stir, neglecting to thank her country and government for its part in her medals. More on that can be found here.

Disgraced Olympic sprinter Marion Jones signed a contract to play for the WNBA's Tulsa Shock. A former collegiate national champion while playing for UNC, Jones has not played on an organized basketball team since the mid 1990s. In more fun news surrounding drugs and sprints, top American indoor sprinter Ivory Williams tested positive for marijuana and will miss this weekend's indoor track world championships.

The end of the round robin phase is nearing at the US women's curling championships. Patti Lank's team is dominating the field and currently boasts a 6-0 record. My friend Jordan Moulton (yay Kamaji!), playing on skip Amy Wright's team, currently sits in a 3-way tie for third place. In the men's competition, Matt Hames' and Matt Stevens' teams are currently tied for first at 4-1 each. American Cheyenne Lewis won a gold at the junior wrestling world championships while teammates Seth Wolfe and Giuliana Gil took home bronze medals.

An interesting interview with bobsled gold medalist Steven Mesler can be found here. USA Team Handball launched a Handball for Haiti drive. More information can be found here. Spots are still available at fantasy luge camp in April. More information is here and a Paralympic broadcast schedule can be found here.

Weekend Update (Part 2)

Swiss skier Dominique Grisin won today's women's Super-G, denying Lindsey Vonn her 33rd World Cup title. Vonn finished second and Julia Mancuso was third. Canadian Eric Guay won the men's Super-G. Hannes Reichelt of Austria was second and Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal and Switzerland's Tobias Gruenfelder tied for third. Michael Walchhofer of Austria still leads the Super-G overall standing, but Svindal and Guay could catch him in the final race. Carlo Janka of Switzerland is also only now only 46 points behind overall World Cup leader Benjamin Raich of Austria heading into the final weekend.

Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann won his sixth world cup title of the season Sunday. Poland's Adam Malysz, the runner up to Ammann in both events at the Olympics, was second and Austrian Thomas Morgenstern was third. In cross country skiing, Norway 2 defeated Norway 1 in a World Cup relay in Finland. Germany beat Russia in a photo finish for third. Norway also won the women's relay followed by Germany and Italy. Maksim Burtasov of Russia won the title at the under 26 biathlon European Championships.

Aiko Uemura of Japan won a women's moguls world cup race this weekend. Canadian Jennifer Heil, the overall leader, was second and American Shannon Bahrke was third.

In the first modern pentathlon World Cup event of the season, David Svoboda of the Czech Republic won gold. Russia's Serguei Karyakin was second and Andrejus Zadneprovskis was third.

USA Cycling named its track cycling world championship team on Friday. The squad will be led by individual pursuit defending world champion Taylor Phinney. Daniel Holloway, Colby Pearce, and Giddeon Massie round out the rest of the men's squad. Sarah Hammer, Lauren Tamayo, Dotsie Bausch, and Shelley Evans were named to the women's team.

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