USA Gymnastics head Kerry Perry has resigned. Perry had been the USA Gymnastics CEO for the past nine months. Perry has not made many public statements and was ousted because of more fallout from the Larry Nassar sex scandal. New USOC head Sarah Hirshland called for more changes for leadership at USA Gymnastics. Perry resigned three days later. A new search for an interim and permanent USA Gymnastics CEO is underway.
In the past few weeks, three more USA women's gymnasts have come forward saying they were sexually abused by Larry Nassar. Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian came forward on the TV show CBS This Morning. Both are members of the 2018 National Champion UCLA women's gymnastics team.
2014 World Champion Alyssa Baumann also came forward as well.
Three more Figure Skaters will not be performing this upcoming season. Adelina Sotnikova has said she will miss the entire season. Sotnikova won gold at the 2014 Sochi games over Korean Yuna Kim of South Korea. Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada will also take a year off from Figure Skating and will miss the upcoming season. Osmond said she wanted to evaluate her career. Osmond won the gold medal at the 2018 World Figure Skating Championschips and won bronze in Pyeongchang. USA Figure Skater Polina Edmunds will also take the season off as well. Edmunds was injured most of last season and will take time off to recover for next season.
USA swimmer Madisyn Cox has had her suspension reduced from two years to six months. Cox proved that she had been contaminated with Trimetazidine which she ingested as multivitamins. Cox is free to compete going forward.
USA men's Long Jumper Jarrion Lawson has been suspended from competition stemming from a June 2 failed drug test. The drug in question is called epitrenbolone, which is found in beef. Lawson said he was contaminated with the steroid and hopes to be cleared soon. The suspension started August 3.
Larry Probst will step down as the USOC Chairman at the end of 2018. Susanne Lyons will take his place on January 1, 2019. Lyons was the acting USOC CEO earlier this year. Lyons was replaced by Sarah Hirshland as USOC CEO. Probst will have served 10 years(2008 to 2018) as USOC Chairman. Lyons will serve a four year term.
USA Long Jumper and Triple Jumper Will Claye has been cleared from a positive drug test. Claye had tested positive for Clenbuterol on August 1 but was found to be present in contaminated meat from Mexico. Claye last competed on May 26.
The IAAF World Relays will be held in Yokahama, Japan on May 11-12, 2019. The relays were previously held in the Bahamas. The relays will be held in odd numbered years only.
Three time beach volleyball Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings will partner with Brooke Sweat through the 2020 Tokyo games. Jennings previous partner was Nicole Branagh.
The IAAF has temporarily suspended a rule that limits a woman's testosterone levels. The rule says that high levels of testosterone in women must be reduced before they can compete. The rule was supposed to be put in effect on November 1, 2018 but will now be subject to a hearing in February 2019 and a verdict by March 26, 2019. South African 800 runner Caster Semenya is most affected by this rule.
2014 Olynpic medalist Jamie Greubel Poser has retired from Bobsled competition. Poser teamed with Aja Evans at the 2018 Pyeongchang games and finished fifth. Her career spanned a decade and included World Cup victories as well. Poser is currently living in Germany with her husband and German push athlete Christian Poser.
The USOC has moved to de-certify USA Gymnastics as the official governing body of the sport. This occurred after a new board of directors was appointed in June 2018 and Mary Bono was hired on October 12, 2018 and resigned within 5 days as USA Gymnastics interim CEO. Bono criticized USA Gymnastics phenom Simone Biles sponsor Nike in a tweet on September 7, 2018. Biles responded with a critical tweet of her own on
October 13, 2018. Bono was also criticized By USA multiple gold medalist Aly Raisman for being part of the problem in the Larry Nassar sex scandal. Raisman tweeted she reported the abuse to the USOC in 2015 and for over a year the abuse was not looked into and Mary Bono's law firm provided legal assistance to the USOC. Bono succeeded Kerry Perry who resigned as USA gymnastics CEO as result of the fallout from the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal. in the near future, a review panel will be assembled, a hearing will be held and a report issued on the future of USA Gymnastics. Also in November 2018, Ron Galimore, the COO of USA Gymnastics resigned.
USA Figure Skater Adam Rippon has officially announced his retirement. Rippon has not skated since the 2018 Pyeongchang games where he won a bronze medal in the team competition and finished 10th in the men's figure skating competition.
Calgary, Canada dropped their bid to host the 2026 Olympics after a vote against the bid by the citizens of Calgary. There are two cities that will be bidding on the 2026 winter Olympic games, Stockholm, Sweden and Milan/Cortina D' Ampezzo, Italy.
Three time winter Olympian JR Celski has retired from Short Track Speedskating. Celski won bronze medals in the 1500 and in the relay at the 2010 Vancouver games and won relay silver at the 2014 Sochi games. Celski finished fifth in the relay at the 2018 Pyeongchang games. Injuries played a part of Celski's decision to retire from the sport.
Salt Lake City, Utah will be the USA 2030 winter Olympics bid city if the USA does bid on the games. Salt Lake was picked over Denver, Colorado. Reno, NV/Lake Tahoe, CA dropped out of the bidding.
USA Diver David Boudia has announced he will only compete in 3 meter Springboard. Boudia says he is finished competing on the 10 meter Platform after suffering a concussion in February 2018 crash off of the platform. Boudia is looking forward to qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo games on the 3 meter springboard.
USA gymnast Alex Naddour has been removed from the banned list by Safesport, a USA agency newly created to handle sex abuse allegations. Naddour is free to compete going forward and has been cleared to compete again. Naddour won bronze in the Pommell Horse at the 2016 Rio games.
USA diver Sam Dorman has announced his retirement. Dorman paired with Michael Hixon at the 2016 Rio games and won silver in men's Springboard Synchro. Dorman says recovering from injuries became too much to overcome.
USA swimmer Missy Franklin became engaged with former Texas swimmer Hayes Johnson in Sept. 2018 and has announced her retirement from swimming in December 2018 at age 23. Franklin won four gold medals and five total medals at the 2012 London games. Shoulder injuries have prevented Franklin from winning multiple medals at the 2016 Rio games. Instead of surgery on her shoulder, Franklin opted to retire instead. Franklin last competed at the USA swimming Championships in July 2018 and did not qualify for the Pan Pacific Championships in August 2018 and the 2019 World Swimming Championships.
USA ladies Figure Skaters Karen Chen, Mirai Nagasu and Gracie Gold will skip the 2019 USA National Figure Skating Championships to be held in Detroit in late January 2019.
This will be the final year for USA skier Lindsey Vonn. Vonn will retire in December 2019 after a race in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. Vonn 2018-2019 season started late due to Injury and is four World Cup wins behind all time men's wins leader Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden . Vonn has 82 World Cup wins, the most ever for a female skiier. Vonn announced she would retire immediately following a race in Italy because she was in so much knee pain but reconsidered. USA Skier Mikaela Shiffrin currently has 54 World Cup wins through late January 2019. Vonn has now officially announced her retirement effective after the World Championship Downhill on February 10, 2019.
USA pairs figure skater John Coughlin committed suicide after he was suspended by the USA Center for Safesport for unspecified behavior. Coughlin was 33 years old. Coughlin was a two-time national champion in pairs with Caitlin Yankowskas in 2011 and in 2012 Coughlin teamed with Caydee Denney.
Over 204,000 People have applied to be a volunteer at the 2020 Tokyo games. Usually games volunteers needed are in the range for the summer games at 60,000-80,000.
The annual Pre-Classic meet usually held in Eugene, OR at historic Hayward Field has been moved to Stanford University in California to he held on June 30, 2019. Hayward Field has been demolished in summer 2018 and will be rebuilt in time for the 2020 track season. The 2021 IAAF World Track and Field Championships will be held at Hayward Field in 2021. Also the USATF National Championships will be held from July 25-28, 2019 in Des Moines, IA.
The AVP has released the 2019 Beach Volleyball Tour Schedule:
May 3-5 - Huntington Beach Open - Huntington Beach, CA
May 17-19 - Austin Open - Austin, TX
June 7-9 - Gold Series - New York City Open - New York, NY
June 21-23 - Seattle Open - Seattle, WA
July 26-28 - Hermosa Beach Open - Hermosa Beach, CA
August 16-18 - Gold Series - Manhattan Beach Open - Manhattan Beach, CA
August 30-Sept. 1 - Gold Series AVP Championships - Chicago, IL
Sept. 20-22 - Hawaii Open - Waikiki, HI
USA Halfpipe Snowboarder Kelly Clark announced her retirement on January 25, 2019. Clark is a five time Olympian(2002-2018) and three time Olympic Medalist. Clark won gold at the inaugural Snowboard Halfpipe at the 2002 Salt Lake games. Clark followed that up with Halfpipe bronze medals at the 2010 Vancouver games and 2014 Sochi games. Clark's career also includes World Cup and X games wins as well.
Spanish Figure Skater Javier Fernandez has announced his retirement after winning the 2019 European Figure Skating Championships. Fernandez was third after the short program but overtook Alexander Samarin of Russia and Matteo Rizzo of Italy to win his seventh straight European Figure Skating Championship.
USA Figure Skaters Bradie Tennell, Mariah Bell Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue, Madison Chock/Evan Bates, Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker, Ashley Cain/Timothy Leduc, Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown will represent the USA at the World Figure Skating Championships to be held in Saitama,Japan from March 18-24 2019. 2019 USA women's Figure Skating Champ Alysa Liu is too young to compete at the World Championships at age 13. Nathan Chen will skip the Four Continents Championships to be held in Anaheim, CA from February 7-16 2019.
