With the Games not taking place in North America since 2010 (the 2026 edition will take place in Italy), Salt Lake City or Vancouver would be an obvious choice for 2030. Vancouver seems to be ahead there – its venues are newer and its bid is indigenous led, an Olympic novelty. It is also possible that the IOC will award the 2030 and 2034 games at the same time, as will the 2017 summer versions 2024 and 2028.
Tough competition
With eight members of the 2018 squad competing in the upcoming U.S. Championships in Nashville, this Olympic figure skating team will be harder to form than most.
Nathan Chen, the three-time world champion, and Vincent Zhou return for the men, Karen Chen for the women, plus Alexa Scimeca Knierim and the later couple partner Brandon Frazier as well as the dancing couples Madison Hubbell-Zachary Donohue and Madison Chock-Evan Bates.
With defending champion Bradie Tennell stepping down with a foot injury and Chen nowhere near the same level as last season, the three places for women are wide open. In the mix will be Alysa Liu, the two-time former champion; Amber Glenn, runner-up last season; and three-time world team player Mariah Bell and Gracie Gold, who finished fourth in the 2014 Games but was eliminated from the national team in 2018 due to psychological concerns.
Deep talent pool
How deep was the field of women at the Russian national figure skating championships last weekend?
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, the world silver medalist, came in seventh. The first three were Kamila Valieva, who at 15 was the motherland’s newest star, and 17-year-old Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova, who finished third and first at the global event in 2021.
Adeliia Petrosian, Sofia Samodelkina and Sofia Muravieva, who finished 4-5-6, are all too young for the Olympics. By 2026, they could be too old to join the Milan-Cortina squad. The association, which has not yet named its Beijing participants, can wait until after the European Championship in mid-January.
With Yuzuru Hanyu back in top form, the Japanese will be number one in Beijing as well, just like last time in PyeongChang. Hanyu, who easily won last week’s exams despite missing the Grand Prix season with an ankle injury, is supported by 2018 runner-up Shoma Uno and teenage world silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama. Should Hanyu win a third straight title at the Games, he will be the first man to do so since the Swede Gillis Grafstrom in 1928.
See you later
The cancellation of last week’s last two exhibition games in Alberta was a breeze for United States and Canada ice hockey teams after the hosts had to put multiple players and staff in COVID logs.
With the games barely a month away, there was no point jeopardizing participation for a few more tuneups. The arch-rivals played six of the nine scheduled games, Canada won four, all on American ice. They will meet on February 8th in the Olympic group final, where it is a question of setting the quarter-finals.
Selection time
Erin Jackson is a favorite for the 500 meter Olympic selection in long distance speed skating.Rick Bowmer / Associated Press
The US Olympic long-course speed skating team will be selected for the tests in Milwaukee next week.
The favorites for the women include Erin Jackson (500 meters), Brittany Bowe (1,000 and 1,500) and Mia Manganello Kilburg (3,000 and mass start) as well as Jordan Stolz (500 and 1,000), Joey Mantia (1,500), Casey Dawson (5,000) and Ian Quinn (mass start) in the men.
Rare double?
With the last two weekends of the Olympic qualification, Chris Mazdzer has a good chance, since Wendel Suckow 1992, to get the first US toboggan runner in two disciplines.
Mazdzer, who won silver in 2018, would form his fourth team as a single slider and join Jayson Terdiman in doubles. If he also manages the relay, Mazdzer would be the first athlete who would ever compete in all three disciplines at the Games.
On top of the world
Although Mikaela Shiffrin missed both races at the World Cup stop in Austria last week after she tested positive for COVID, she remains at the top in the overall alpine classification with 93 points ahead of Italian Sofia Goggia and the giant slalom table and is always at the top still second in the slalom.
The biggest beneficiary of Shiffrin’s absence was the Slovak Petra Vlhova, who won the slalom and came second in the GS in Lienz. The cancellation of the GS and slalom races in Slovenia this coming weekend due to lack of snow deprived Shiffrin of the opportunity to further expand her overall lead. There are only two technical races left before the Olympic Games.
As good as in
Jessie Diggins almost secured a place in her third Olympic cross-country team in the USA with the sprint opener of the six Tour de Ski races held in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. For Diggins, defending champion of the event, it was her third individual podium of the season and her first victory … The US Olympic Freestyle Team is slowly filling up as eight female skiers earned their places based on FIS points. Colby Stevenson and Mac Forehand (Southport, Connecticut) made up both the men’s slopestyle and big air squads, and Justin Schoenefeld and Chris Lillis took up aerials. In the women’s category, Megan Nick (Shelburne, Vt.) And Winter Vinecki qualified in the aerials, as did Jaelin Kauf and Hannah Soar (Somers, Connecticut) in the mogul race … Taylor Fletcher drove to his fourth Olympic Games at the age of 31, which won Nordic combined last week in Lake Placid and overtook Ben Loomis in the cross-country part. Fletcher is the only member of the 2010 group who was still at the top of the table in Vancouver. The rest of the team, which includes 2018 veteran Loomis, will be named in January … Kevin Bickner earned a return ticket to the Games by winning the US ski jumping tests in Lake Placid last weekend. Second place is determined by the World Cup ranking. Anna Hoffmann has won the women’s tests, but she will only go to Beijing if the USA achieves a quota place by the middle of the month.
Material from Olympic committees, sports federations, interviews and news services was used in this report.
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