clemsonbeav

USA Swimming Pro Swim Series starts tomorrow in Austin!

Though I did just see that today's race isn't valid for FIS points.

She needs 51.8 points on this event, I think. At this same event last year, that would be the equivalent of 7th place. Guess we'll see!

Team USA 2026 Men's Singles - Jonny Gustafson and Matt Greiner Men's Doubles - Marcus Mueller + Ansel Haugsjaa, and Zack DiGregorio + Sean Hollander Women's Singles - Summer Britcher, Ashley Farquharson, and Emily Fischnaller Women's Doubles - Chevonne Forgan + Sophia Kirkby (And we will compete in the Team Relay.) History Germany traditionally dominates at Luge. We've never won gold, but have won 3 silvers and 3 bronzes. (We won one Silver in 2018, one Bronze in 2014, and one of each in 2002...so it's been a minute.) This is also the first year that Women's Doubles will be contested. We've had a nice World Cup season, so here's hoping for some hardware to take back to the USA!

Is it potentially this clause from D.1: "Each NOC who has qualified athletes in each event (men's and women's singles and men's and women's doubles) will receive priority in ranking and will be allocated a minimum of one quota place for each event."? (i.e. China had someone in all the categories, but not BIH, thus they got priority?)

Team USA 2026 Men - Cam Smith Women - Anna Gibson History This is a new sport to the Olympics. Smith and Gibson paired up in December and won Gold in the Mixed Relay in Solitude. The other nations didn't have their A Team, I don't think, but it was nice to see some success. We'll see what happens!

Updated Post 1 with roster. Looking forward to seeing our team in action. We haven't medaled at any WC this year, but we're doing decently.

Ice climbing season has started! Who's here for it? Did you miss Matt Grooms's voice already? World Cup live streams: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0DMtATwEZ0jR6KC7LcrqljP-nZZGpqZG

Not going to disagree with anything you said. I love Grand Prix season since we have ready access to the World Feed.

We (for better or for worse) have Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir as our commentators, and Tara is super thrilled to see these three together. The question remains as to which color medal we can achieve, and can we get more than one? The Japanese women are pretty insane...but can they skate cleanly? (That's how Alysa got the Grand Prix Final gold, because the Japanese women all had some mistakes.) If I were a betting man... Men: Ilia gold (obvious...nobody will disagree) Women: Amber or Alysa will get on the podium...potentially both...but idk what color, and I don't know in what order. Amber skated cleanly at nationals, but isn't consistent...but she has the triple axel. Alysa is consistent, but doesn't have the triple axel. (Also - Alysa just broke out a new program at Nationals...might she try something crazy and try out the 3A in addition? I think only if she's super confident, and I've never seen her do it.) Pairs: No medal Dance: Chock/Bates Gold, but close to Cizeron/Fournier Beaudry. Team: Gold

Their Exhibition Gala routine (at least today) was to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version of "Shchedryk"

USA Team Finalized: Men: Ilia Malinin, Andrew Torgashev, and Maxim Naumov (whose parents were killed along with many other members of the USA Figure Skating community last year on the way home from Nationals) Women: Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, Isabeau Levito Pairs: Kam/O'Shea, Chan/Howe (our 1st and 3rd place National pairs each had one non-US citizen) Dance: Chock/Bates, Carreira/Ponomarenko, Zingas/Kolesnik

Follow along with me as our summer athletes compete throughout the year. Check out my calendar here. Weeks 0-1 (Jan 1-11) These first few days saw USA athletes compete across several sports, and we ended up on the podium a fair amount. Tennis - Taylor Fritz, Christian Harrison, and Coco Gauff helped lead Team USA to a place in the Semifinals of the United Cup in Australia. (Poland, who beat us, went on to win.) For the Women in Brisbane, Amanda Anasimova got knocked out in R16, Madison Keys got knocked out in the QF (by Sabalenka), and Jessica Pegula made it to the SF (beaten by Kostyuk). Squash - We only had one competitor in the Men's tournament in Karachi Open--Shahjahan Khan, ranked #66, who didn't make it past the first round. Badminton - Beiwen Zhang made it to R16 in WS in Malaysia. And a XD team of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai made it to the QF (beaten by a Chinese duo that made it to F). Table Tennis - No luck for Kanak Jha and Lily Zhang in Doha. Fencing - Lots of luck in Fencing. Hadley Husisian took hold a Bronze in W Épée, and USA took Gold in the team bout. Elijah Imrek finished in 7th for the men. In M Sabre, Colin Heathcock got sent home in the QF by eventual runner-up Krisztian Rabb. In Foil, Alexander Massialas took home individual Gold, and helped lead the men to a Team Silver. On the Women's side, Lee Kiefer also took home Gold and helped her compatriots walk away with a Bronze. Equestrian - The Global Dressage Festival is underway in Wellington, FL. There was a North American League World Cup event there on Thursday and Friday. Christian Simonson (WR #15) won, followed by Geñay Vaughn and Ashley Holzer, all of whom represent USA. Coming up in Week 2 Tennis - Madison Keys is trying to be a repeat champ in Adelaide. And Australian Open starts in a week! Squash - Two tournaments in the USA with Timothy Brownell being the #7 seed in Detroit, and Olivia Weaver as the #1 seed in Cleveland. Badminton - In India, can we improve on last week? Swimming - We have a meet in Austin (USA Swimming Pro Series) with a lot of the top dogs. Road Cycling - Chloe Dygert, one of our accomplished Track Cyclists, will be racing in the Road Down Under next weekend.

What a first tournament...so many surprises in Champions Doha #18 Jang Woojin defeats #5 Truls Moregard 4-1 in QF and #2 Lin Shidong (top seed at this tournament) in SF, only to get bageled 4-0 by #13 Lin Yun-Ju in the finals. Hugo Calderano went out in the first round, as did Alexis Lebrun . Felix Lebrun went out in the QF by Tomokazu Harimoto , who went out in SF by Lin Yun-Ju. On the Women's side, Chen Xingtong goes 4-0 against Kuai Man in SF, but loses to Zhu Yuling in F. Zhu Yuling had also taken out Wang Yidi earlier in the tournament. Wang Manyu also went out in QF to Ying Han .

Watch here (43:45): (And Friedrich's mishap is at 26:00)