clemsonbeav

Team USA 2026 Women - Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, Lauren Jortberg, Julia Kern, Kendall Kramer, Novie McCabe, Samantha “Sammy” Smith, Hailey Swirbul Men - John Steel Hagenbuch, Zak Ketterson, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, James “JC” Schoonmaker, Gus Schumacher, Hunter Wonders, Jack Young History This is a sport dominated by the Nordic countries. Out of 544 medals ever awarded, the USA has only earned 4. But! Jessie Diggins won two of those (a silver and a bronze) in the W 30km event and the Individual Sprint (respectively) in 2022. Additionally, Diggins and teammate Kikkan Randall won gold in Pyeongchang in 2018 in the Team Sprint. Before that, you have to go back to Innsbruck in 1976, where the lone male cross-country skiier Bill Koch won silver in the M 30km event.

Though the whole team hasn't been announced, Campbell Wright is all but certain to be on the team, due to his medals at the WCH. From NBC Olympics: Events where Wright could take the podium: Men’s 10km sprint on Feb. 13 (Day 7). Wright placed second in this event at the 2025 World Championships. Men’s 12.5km pursuit on Feb. 15 (Day 9). Wright finished second in this event at the 2025 World Championships. Men’s 15km mass start Feb. 20 (Day 14). Wright finished fourth in this event at the 2025 World Championships.

Team USA 2026 Men - 4 athletes - Sean Doherty (4th Olympics), Maxime Germain, Paul Schommer (2nd Olympics), Campbell Wright (2nd Olympics, 1st for USA) Women - 4 athletes - Lucinda Anderson, Margie Freed, Deedra Irwin (2nd Olympics), Joanne Reid (3rd Olympics) History This is the lone sport in the Winter Olympics that we have never medaled in. Deedra Irwin placed 7th in an event in 2022, so assuming she's on the team this year, hopefully she can move up a few more slots to medal. Additionally, Campbell Wright, who changed his nationality to USA from NZL, earned 2 silver medals in the 2025 WCH, so hopefully that medal streak will continue in Milan (presuming he's on the team).

Team USA 2026 Men's Team - Qualified - Squad here: https://teamusa.usahockey.com/2026olympicmenroster Women's Team - Qualified - Squad here: https://teamusa.usahockey.com/2026olympicwomenroster History Canada has been the dominant team in recent years for the Men. The USA earned a silver in 2002 and 2010, so it's about our time again! The Women won medaled each of the seven times there has been a Women's Tournament, including a silver in 2022. Again, Canada has dominated, so let's see if this time we can pull out a gold.

Ezra Frech won't be happy with just the silver in M T63 High Jump. Was beaten today by Shailesh Kumar . He's one of those very confident guys (that to me borders on arrogance, but that's just not my personality)...similar to Sam Watson in speed climbing.

Congrats !

Now that I understand the Ryder Cup a bit more, I can see the excitement.

We have been awarded almost the full slate of positions for figure skating. Our US Trials will be January 4-11 in St. Louis. I know there are some who are probably shoe-ins (Malinin, Liu, Glenn, Chock/Bates, Kam/O'Shea) but we'll have to wait and see!

Team USA 2026 Men's Singles - Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov, Andrew Torgashev Women's Singles - Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito Pairs - Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea Ice Dance - Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik History Team USA has historically done quite well in figure skating. We have medalled every time Figure Skating has been contested, except twice (1908, 1936). We're leading the all-time medal count (if you separate USSR and Russia...otherwise they're at the top.) Thus far, we have 17 Gold, 16 Silver, and 21 Bronze. Most recently in 2022, we won 3 medals. Nathan Chen won Gold in Men's Singles, we won Gold in the Team Event, and Hubbell/Donohue won Bronze in Ice Dance. We won two bronze medals in 2018 (Ice Dance and Team).

As of now, we only know that we're eligible for the Mixed Doubles event. We earned that at the beginning of May this year after the results at the 2025 World Curling Championship. We were represented by Cory Thiesse (W) and Korey Dropkin (M). They earned their spot as the representatives after the US XD trials in February. At the 2025 WCH, we ended up 5th, but girl Cory had the best percentage of all the women, at 90.3%. Boy Korey was fifth amongst the men, at 84.9%. (Source). I like our chances. Highlights of Thiesse/Dropkin: 2023 National Champs 2023 World Champs 2024 Silver at National Championship 2025 US XD Olympic Trials Champs As for the Men's and Women's team, we're off to an Olympic Qualification Event from 06-13 December. There will be 8 teams for each gender, and the top two will go on to the Olympics. We were close to automatically qualifying (just one or two positions off), so hopefully that's a good sign we'll qualify.

Team USA 2026 Men's Team - Team Casper - Danny Casper, Luc Violette, Ben Richardson, Aidan Oldenburg, Rich Ruohonen Women's Team - Team Peterson - Tabitha Peterson, Cory Thiesse, Tara Peterson, Taylor Anderson-Heide, Aileen Geving Mixed Doubles - Cory Thiesse/Korey Dropkin History Men's Team won Bronze in 2006 and Gold in 2018.

FloBikes will put up the replays on YouTube (or at least they have of all the races so far except yesterday's Elite Women)...but by the time that comes around, it's hard to avoid spoilers.

In Europe, is this race airing on normal TV? Here in the USA, we have to have an online subscription to FloSports (which is also how most of the Diamond League for track is shown, and several other sports). They air the Vuelta and Tour de France, but not this WCH.

Final Medal Table for the WCH 1) 2-1-0--3 2) 1-1-1--3 2) 1-1-1--3 4) 1-0-2--3 5) 1-0-0--1 6) 0-2-0--2 7) 0-1-0--1 8) 0-0-2--2 Multiple medals for Janja (2 golds) and Dohyun (1 gold, 1 bronze). Congrats! definitely has the talent to do better, but it wasn't our year. Looking forward to seeing our athletes get stronger!

Whereas the women had a surprise medalist ( Melina Costanza !!!), the men's medalists were locked in heading to the final boulder...the only issue was what color the medals would be. Mejdi Schalk , Lee Dohyun , and Anraku Sorato had all topped the first three boulders. Medji was ahead on attempts (2 ahead), and Dohyun and Soratu were tied on attempts (Sorato ahead on count-back). Mejdi was up first. He had two attempts to secure the gold. Almost made it the first time. Then...just like Oriane in the Women's Final...he rested a long time, giving him as much energy as he could to top it...except he didn't do it. He just had to sit and wait to see how Dohyun and Sorato did. Dohyun was up next...he got zone, but not the top. So, the leaderboard was Mejdi, Dohyun, and Sorato going into the final climb. Sorato was the final climber. Got the zone first try, cementing Dohyun's bronze. Rested. Waited. Then up he went...and he got it! After not making the Lead finals, this 18-year-old was determined and got the gold! You could tell as he held the final hold that he was letting it sink in, and there was so much relief and pride. Brought tears to my eyes! So, just like with Oriane, the gold was there for Mejdi, but had it taken at the last moment. Sorato... #1 ranking for Boulder, #1 in World Cup, and now #1 World Champion! Congrats to the medallists and to all. A great competition.

Men's Boulder Semi-finals... Unfortunately, neither man from made it. Colin Duffy was doing well, but he missed the zone on the final boulder, and he had too many attempts on Boulder 1. As with the women, there are a few surprises as to who is in and who is out: Who's out (just listing some that are generally in finals): Toby Roberts Hannes Van Duysen Sam Avezou (Paul Jenft and Sohta Amagasa didn't make it out of qualis) Who's in (some dark horses who aren't normally around) Jan-Luca Posch - Has only made one final each of the past three years Thorben Perry Bloem - Never made a finals in a WC, qualified for semis in 20th place Jack MacDougall - Has done well this year in the European circuit, as well as one WC final And after being shut out of the Women's final, Team has 3 finalists, including siblings Tomoa and Meichi Narasaki. Dohyun Lee flashed the first three boulders (one of only two to even top Boulder 3). Sorato Anraku was the only one to top all 4. Time for finals!

I turned on the Ryder Cup for about 5 minutes, and hearing the fans really turned me off... What happened to quiet golf spectating? (Based on @Agger's comment, apparently wild cheering is normal for Ryder...I've never watched it.)

Any thoughts on this? In the paraclimbing champs, the men and women competed in the same event for class AL1 (unable to use or missing lower limbs). There were 14 entries in total, including 4 women. Four made it to the Finals, including 1 woman, who placed 4th. Seems unfair, no? Other classes like B1 had only 5 entries for men, taking 4 of which to Finals. Seems like they could have made a separate W AL1 competition so that the top female could have won gold instead of finishing off the podium. (I wrote IFSC expressing these concerns...perhaps they are aware of things I'm not. And perhaps some of you might have greater insight.) https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/events/ifsc-para-climbing-world-championships-seoul-2025/results/index?discipline=lead&category=al1 Edit: ChatGPT helped me find in the regulations (https://images.ifsc-climbing.org/ifsc/image/private/t_q_good/prd/vyd6knw8nz1ddwlmelew.pdf) that the AL1 alone has the option to be mixed-gender if too few federations/entries, and the federations get to agree or not to the combination (See 1.7 and 1.8). That makes me feel somewhat better. I guess since of the 4 women I found, there were only two nations, and that's why they combined.

Wow...what a final! MELINA!!! I learned in the commentary that she is actually 5x champ. She wanted to climb this year in the WC, but had a knee sprain. And after she qualified for the SF in dead last...she comes back and takes the bronze! If you had said that would win a medal, I wouldn't have guessed it would have been her. Annie unfortunately didn't have a great night. But as Janja told her at the end, she is still young...just 18! Looking forward to seeing more of both of these ladies in the future. (Erin McNeice also didn't have the best night...could have taken the bronze if she had topped the last boulder, but it wasn't too be. But still finishes fourth, which is commendable, but also annoying to her I'm sure, since she finished in 4th in Lead.) Oriane ...she was in top form. Flashed the first three boulders. (Only spent 25 seconds on Boulder 1.) Was ahead of Janja the whole comp, who fell a few times on Boulder 1. She had 4 attempts on Boulder 4 to make the top for a guaranteed gold. She flashes the zone...but then fell when she was going for the top hold. She then rested well, getting all the strength necessary for a second and final attempt...but she fell again on the last move, leaving the door open after being ahead the whole comp. Janja comes on the stage right after. She had to do what nobody else had done this comp...top Boulder 4. And if anyone can do the impossible, it's Janja Garnbret. She goes out, makes the zone on her first attempt, but then falls. Gets back on a second try...makes it to the final move....and makes it! Gold for Janja...but she had to fight for it! You can tell she was tired after yesterday's Lead (as were Annie and Erin). Ok, men. Your turn. has Colin Duffy and Ben Hanna. Colin is perfectly capable, but he's not consistent. We'll see! Such a good comp.

Quite an interesting semi-finals for W Boulder. Five of the 8 finalists came from the bottom half of the quali results, including two who were tied for last place coming in. Several new(ish)-to-finals competitors. Perhaps most interesting is that Team will not have a single representative in the finals, especially surprising since they occupied 4 of the Top 10 in the Boulder World Cup rankings this year. Janja got flustered and wasn't able to complete the last boulder (the holds on the slab had gotten bad), but topping the previous three boulders ensured her a place in the finals. I saw her flustered in Paris (with a slight injury), but she still came through in the end. Competing in the finals coming up shortly... 8. Anna Maria Apel Her first final this year 7. Jenny Buckley Only her second final this year 6. Ayala Kerem Hasn't made a worldwide senior finals since 2023 5. Melina Costanza Hasn't competed at all this year. Her last Boulder comp was 2022. The only Boulder finals she made was the PanAm YCh in 2014. (Yes, 2014.). (She won that one.) 4. Oriane Bertone Finally, a more household name in bouldering. 3. Janja Garnbret Can she pull off the double gold? And can Slovenia grab two medals again in this podium? 2. Annie Sanders Double USA entry in finals! Hopefully One of our two can pull it off! 1. Erin McNeice Was low down in the quali round, but managed to win Semis.

A great Lead competition today. I just finished watching after having to work today. On the Women's side during Semis, probably the biggest upset was Laura Rogora not making finals. had three to make finals, which isn't so surprising. They've got a great team. 17-year old Flora Oblasser was into finals...she'll be one to keep your eyes on in the future! For the men during Semis, Adam Ondra , Colin Duffy , Luka Potocar , and probably most surprisingly Sorato Anraku missed out on finals. Giovanni Placci made finals at his first WCH. This is actually the first finals he's made during senior international competition. And probably my favorite thing is that siblings Sam and Zélia Avezou both made it to finals. Love seeing siblings compete together. Then during finals... Sadly, Annie Sanders didn't make the podium, nor did Erin McNeice . Instead, hometown favorite Chaehyun Seo took bronze, while took the top two spots...19-year-old Rosa Rekar took the silver, her first senior level medal, and none other than Janja Garnbret took the top spot. Olympic champion in 2024, World Champion in 2025. She truly is amazing to watch. The only one to top the route today. On the men's side... Jakob Schubert and Sam Avezou had high hopes, but had a low slip. Alberto Ginés Lopez (2020 Olympic champion), who won the overall World Cup without having ever won a gold medal, has to wait another year for another medal. Taisei Homma reached the same hold as Alberto, but due to countback, Homma took the bronze. Satone Yoshida , the World Cup bronze medalist, took silver. And to the delight of the crowd, Dohyun Lee nabbed top spot. Looking forward to seeing some of these athletes over the next couple of days in Boulder! (Hoping for a medal!)

Nice comeback . Congrats! Sorry to see lose, but that's how it is!

Had some great races today and a lot of slips. Congrats to , , and for the medals! (Michael Hom for the USA...gotta keep your eye out on him...he's good!)

But in Spain, a peacock is called a 'royal turkey'