Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Athlete and Olympic updates - September 2022 - July 2023

Retirements:

Devin Logan - USA Free Skier
Natasha Hastings - USA sprinter
Connor Fields -  American BMX'er
Hassan Mead - USA middle distance runner
Eve Muirhead - Scotland Curler
Martins Dukurs - Latvian Skeleton slider
David Boudia - USA Diver
Mariah Bell - USA Figure Skater
Asafa Powell - Jamaican Sprinter
Brianna Decker - USA women's hockey player
Steven Nyman - USA Alpine Skier
Anna Chicherova - Russian high jumper
Zach Apple - USA Swimmer
Monica Abbott - USA Softball player
Bruno Schmidt - Brazilian Beach Volleyball player
Nick Geopper - USA Slopestyle Skier
Travis Ganong - USA Alpine Skier
Alex Diebold - USA Snowboard Cross 
Tamyra Mensah Stock - USA amateur wrestler

USA men's figure skater Ilia Malinin has landed the first quad axel ever in competition. Malinin competed at the US International Classic in Lake Placid. NY on September 14, 2022.

USA bobsledder and multiple Olympic medalist Elena Meyers Taylor will not compete in the 2022-2023 season due to pregnancy.

USA wrestler Kyle Snyder won gold at the World Wrestling Championships defeating Batyrbek Tsakulov of Slovakia 6-0 in the 97K Final. American Kyle Dake won gold by beating Tajmuraz Salkazanov of Slovakia 3-1 in the 74kg final. American Jordan Burroughs won gold by beating Mohammad Nokhodi of Iran 4-2 in the 79K Final. For the women.. Tamyra Mensah Stock won gold, Dominique Parrish won gold, Kayla Miracle won silver and Helen Maroulis won silver at the wrestling world championships.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has ruled that marijuana will remain a banned substance. Tramadol, which is an opiate will be banned starting in 2024.

The USA women's basketball team wins the FIBA World Cup by beating China 83-61. 

The father of British sprinter Derek Redmond passed away on October 2, 2022 at age 81. Jim Redmond helped his son Derek Redmond finish the 400 meter semifinal race at the 1992 Summer games in Barcelona. Derek pulled a hamstring and was limping around the track and his father, Jim Redmond helped console his son as he cried as he tried to cross the finish line. 

British Sprinter CJ Ujah was banned retroactive to August 6, 2021 for testing positive for Osterine and S-23 during the 2021 Tokyo games. The ban is 22 months.  Osterine and S-23 are illegal substances. Ujah was stripped of his silver medal in the men's 4 by 100 relay at the Tokyo games. Ujah's ban will end in June 2023.

The USA women's volleyball team did not medal at the Volleyball World Championships, finishing 4th by losing to Italy 0-3 in the Bronze medal match. Serbia won gold, Brazil won silver and Italy won bronze. 

The 2023 World Relays to be held on May 13-14 in Guangzhou, China have been postponed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The next World Relays will take place in 2025.

USA 800 runner Athing Mu now will be coached by Bobby Kersee. Kersee coaches 400 hurdler Sydney McLaughlin Leverone.

USA middle distance runner Hassan Mead has been banned for 3 years for testing positive for ostarine and ligandrol. Mead has not raced until May 27, 2022 and is banned until 2025. Mead has now announced his retirement. 

Canadian bobsledder Christine de Bruin has been banned for 3 years for testing positive for Iigandrol. de Bruin will be banned until Sept. 27, 2025. de Bruin won bronze in Monobob at the 2022 Beijing games. 

American sprinter Gil Roberts has been banned for 16 months for testing positive for andarine and ostarine in May 2022. Roberts ban started June 3, 2022.

The International Paralympic Committee has banned Russia and Belarus from competing into late 2023 due to the Russian war in Ukraine. 

USA decathlete Garrett Scantling has been banned for 3 years for missing 3 drug tests in a 12 month period. These are whereabout tests. Scantling altered an email sent to him involving those tests which resulted in tampering as well Scantling will miss the 2024 Paris games The ban is retroactive to June 27, 2022. 

USA women's bobsledder Aja Evans has been banned for 2 years because she failed to drug test on March 29, 2022. Evans won bronze in bobsled at the 2014 Sochi games. 

Boston, Massachusetts will host the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships. The 2024 World Figure Skating Championships will be held in Montreal, Canada. 

USA women's Snowboarder Jamie Anderson has announced she is pregnant. Anderson is looking forward to competing again to qualify for the 2026 Winter games. 

World Aquatics is the new name for FINA effective in 2023. 

USA 400 sprinter Randolph Ross has been banned for 3 years for missing 3 drug tests in a year period. These are called whereabout tests. Then Ross altered an email in relation to those whereabout tests and is now banned from competing until June 30, 2025. Ross will miss the 2024 Paris games. 

Men will now be allowed to compete in artistic(synchronized) swimming starting with the 2024 Paris games. Artistic swimming were only open to women. Two men per country are allowed in an 8 person team event.

Mexico has expressed interest in hosting a 2036 and or 2040 summer games while Vancouver's 2030 winter games bid might fall short due to non support for the bid by the British Columbia government. Salt Lake City, Utah and Sapporo, Japan are interested in bidding on the 2030 winter games. Sweden has also expressed interest in bidding on the 2030 Winter games as well. The IOC will not decide on the site of the 2030 games later in 2023 as earlier predicted.

USA legend beach volleyballer Kerri Walsh Jennings has been inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in October 2022. Walsh Jennings has not retired yet and is thinking about competing with Logan Tom at the 2024 Paris games. Update: Walsh Jennings has teamed up with Zana Muno for the 2023 FIVB tournament season but still plans to compete with Logan Tom as well. Walsh Jennings had surgery on her ankle and now plans to compete in August 2023.

Orlando, Florida will host the USA Marathon Olympic trials on February 3, 2024. 

Knoxville, Tennessee will host the 2024 USA Olympic diving trials in june 2024. The University of Tennessee will host the trials. Indianapolis, Indiana hosted the USA diving trials in 2016 and 2021. Indianapolis, Indiana will host the 2024 USA swimming Olympic trials.

2022 Beijing games Russian figure skater Kamila Valiyeva has had her doping case moved from the Russian Anti Doping Agency to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by the World Anti Doping Agency because of delays in processing her case. Valiyeva helped the OAR win gold in the team competition before the tests from December 2021 were released. Valiyeva tested positive for illegal substances and was still allowed to compete after appealing the decision to ban her and she crumbled in the women's singles event, finishing 4th. Valiyeva is facing a 4 year ban if CAS rules against her.

2021 USA Olympic gymnast Suni Lee will compete at Auburn for one more season before rejoining elite gymnastics before the 2024 Paris games. 

The IOC says that Boxing may not be included as a sport at the 2024 Paris games and is not one of the sports added to the 2028 Los Angeles games. This stems from the International Boxing Association scandal at the 2016 Rio games where matches might have been fixed. The IOC administered the 2021 Tokyo Boxing competition.

USA gold medalist Beach Volleyball player Alix Klineman is pregnant. Klineman has not competed since the 2021 season due to a shoulder injury. Klineman is contemplating competing to try to qualfy for the 2024 Paris games. Klineman won beach volleyball gold at the Tokyo 2021 games with partner April Ross. Ross has not competed since early in the 2022 season.

Kazan, Russia has been stripped of being the host of the 2025 World Aquatic (Swimming) Championships in favor of Singapore due to the Russian war in Ukraine. 

1984 Los Angeles games silver medalist at 110 hurdles, Greg Foster has died at age 64. Foster died of Amyloidosis. Foster was a world champion in the 110 hurdles at the 1983, 1987  and 1991 World Track and Field Championships.

Beach Volleyball new partnerships for 2023:

Sara Hughes - Kelly Cheng(Claes)
Betsi Flint - Julia Scoles
Kelley Kolinske - Hailey Harward
Tri Bourne - Chaim Schalk
Andy Benesh-  Miles Partain
Theo Brunner - Trevor Crabb
Chase Budinger - Miles Evans

AVP Pro/Gold Series Tour Schedule 2023:

Miami Open - March 17-19
New Orleans Open - April 14-16
Huntington Beach Open - May 19-21 
Hermosa Beach Open - July 7-9
Atlanta Open - August 4-6 (Gold Series)
Manhattan Beach Open - August 18-20 (Gold Series)
Chicago Open - September 1-3 (Gold Series)
AVP Championships - September 22-23

World Athletics - Diamond League Schedule 2023

May 5 - Doha, Qatar
May 28 - Rabat, Morocco
June 2 - Firenze, Italy
June 9 - Paris, France
June 15 - Oslo, Norway
June 30 - Lausanne, Switzerland
July 2 - Stockholm, Sweden
July 16 - Silesia, Poland
July 21 - Monaco
July 23 - London, Great Britain
August 31 - Zurich, Switzerland
Sept. 2 Shenzhen, China
Sept. 8 - Brussels, Belgium 
Sept. 16-17 Eugene, OR, USA

USA women's basketball star Diana Taurasi will rejoin the USA women's National Team after being away from the team for all of 2022.. Taurasi has not retired and may compete for the USA at the 2024 Paris games.

British long distance and marathoner Mo Farah has said he will likely retire at the end of 2023. Farah won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Summer games in each of the 5K and 10K. 

Shaunae Miller-Uibo has announced she is pregnant in February 2023 and will likely miss the 2023 Track nd Field season..
 
USA high Jumper Dick Fosbury died March 12, 2023 at age 76. Fosbury id the first athlete to jump backwards over the bar and revolutionized the jumping technique used by all high jumpers today. Fosbury won gold in the high jump at the 1968 Mexico City games. 

USA Shot putter Raven Saunders has been banned from competition for 18 months for missing three drug tests in a one year period in 2022. The ban started August 15, 2022 and will go until February 2024. 

USA Skier Mikaela Shiffrin has won her 88th World Cup final. Shiffrin passed Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden with 86 World Cup wins and Lindsey Vonn with 82 victories all time

World Athletics has lifted the 7 year ban on Russia's track and field athletes due to Russian compliance with anti-doping regulations. Russian athletes have been banned since November 2015. Russian athletes are still banned throughout all of sport for their 2022 invasion of Ukraine, however.
 
Russian athletes will not qualify for the 2024 Paris games in the sports of gymnastics (team events) and basketball due to team qualifying deadlines.

The USA's Lashinda Demus moves up to gold from silver in the women's 400 hurdles at the 2012 London games when Russian Natalya Antyukh was stripped of her gold for doping from a doping test made retroactive to the 2012 games. All of Antyukh's results from the 2012 were thrown out. Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic moves up to silver from bronze and Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica moves up to Bronze from 4th place. 

Former 400 runner and 2012 Olympic participant Oscar Pistorius has been denied parole and remains in prison for the 2013 murder of this girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius will serve at least one more year in prison before he is released. South African law says Pistorius has to serve half of his sentence of 13.5 years before he is released. (Blog post from 2013)

The USA Figure Skating team has won the World Team trophy by beating South Korea and Japan 125-95-94. Ilia Malinin, Madison Chock/Evan Bates and Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier led the USA to the Team trophy title.

Penn State University, State College, PA will be the site of the 2024 USA Wrestling Olympic trials. The trials will be held April 19-20, 2024.

The IOC has recommended to sports federations throughout the world to open the door to let Russian/Belarus athletes compete in various Olympic sports going forward. The international Fencing Federation and International Boxing Association has allowed Russian athletes to compete, the first sports to do so.

USA women's basketball star Brittney Griner with the Phoenix Mercury will rejoin her team after being held in Russia for possession of hash oil for most of the year 2022. Griner was released in December 2022. Griner will not go overseas to play again unless it is with Team USA. 

The French Ice dance team of Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron will not compete in the 2023-2024 skating season after sitting out the 2022-2023 skating season. 

USA high jumper Inika McPherson has been banned for 16 months for testing positive for furosemide on June 3, 2022. McPherson's suspension was reduced to 16 months from 24 months because McPherson thought the anti-inflammatory was permitted when it was not. 

USA Boxing has joined the new federation "World Boxing" and is no longer affilated with the World Boxing Association. World Boxing was created to save boxing from being omitted at the 2024 Paris games and 2028 Los Angeles games. 

USA  Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall has been banned for 30 days by USADA for the use of THC or cannabis. Davis-Woodhall has been stripped of her national indoor long jump title from February 2023. 

USA gymnast Brady Malone cannot compete at the USA gymnastics championships due to a leg injury. 

USA sprinter/hurdler Calvin Davis has died on May 1, 2023 at the age of 51. Davis won 400 hurdles bronze at the 1996 Olympic games. 

USA long jumper and sprinter Tori Bowie has died at age 32 on May 2, 2023. Bowie last competed in May 2022. Bowie won gold in the 4 by 100 relay, 100 silver and 200 bronze at the Rio 2016 games. Bowie also won gold in the 100 at the 2017 London Track and Field World Championships. 

Nigel Amos, the 800 runner from Botswana has been banned for 3 years for testing positive for a metabolism substance called GW 1516. The ban started in July 2022.  Amos will miss the 2024 Paris games and is banned until 2025. 

Jordan Larson, formerly retired from the USA national women's volleyball team has now decided to rejoin the women's national team. Larson will be on the US women's volleyball team for the Volleyball Nations League that begins on May 30.

USA track and Field athletes Sydney McLaughlin Lavrone and Michael Norman will not compete in the 2023 Track and Field World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August. McLaughlin-Lavrone said it was due to a knee injury and Norman decided to shut down his season.