The numbers are plain, and they lay out the case that’s as easy to argue as the sky is blue or rock beats scissors. Mikaela Shiffrin is the best female Alpine ski racer in the world. Not yet 23, she is on a pace that could leave her as the most decorated World Cup racer […]
winter olympics
Posted inNational Sports
NBC Olympic coverage available on air and online
NEW YORK (AP) — Fresh off the Super Bowl, NBC begins more than two weeks of Winter Olympics coverage on Thursday with a new host, some new wrinkles and the hope that its business model keeps pace with the different ways people experience events on television and online. Some skiing and figure skating competition takes […]
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Posted inNational Sports
Why has no U.S. woman won Olympic figure skating gold since 2002?
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Kimmie Meissner spent her childhood trying to keep up with three older brothers in soccer and lacrosse, so they’d let her join their teams. After figure skating became her passion, she tried keeping up with the best in the world. “I definitely wanted to push the sport a little bit technically,” […]
Posted inNational Sports
Think you could be an Olympic curler? Don’t make these women laugh
LONDON, Ontario — American curling champion Tabitha Peterson has heard it all: Anyone can curl. My grandmother can curl. The Swiffer sport. Housekeeping comes to the Winter Games. “Everyone thinks they can go to the Olympics in curling because they think it’s so easy,” she says, shaking her ponytail. She’s sitting in a nearly empty […]
Posted inbPlus, sj-web
Face Time: Former U.S. Ski Team coach Bob Harkins
Bob Harkins has always loved the outdoors, and pursued that love in his occupations, including a registered Maine guide, general manager of Mt. Abram ski area and a coach for the U.S. Ski Team. When he wasn’t instructing hopefuls for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Harkins was also the director of athlete development, for […]
Posted inNational Sports
Olympic skier ignored those who said not to go so big
PARK CITY, Utah – Ashley Caldwell grew up a gymnast and, when she first took her acrobatics to snow, throwing herself into a demanding and breath-catching discipline, she didn’t fully understand the gender divide among aerialists. Not only were the boys attempting more difficult, thrilling tricks, but it seemed the female freestyle skiers were discouraged […]
Posted inNational Sports
Virtual reality helps US Olympic ski team prepare for Pyeongchang’s great unknown
There are mountains in the Alps, from Austria to France, that veteran alpine racers have skied dozens of times over the years, so often they know every curve and can anticipate every bump. “There’s some guys on tour for 15 years who have 60 runs down these hills,” said American skier Travis Ganong. “At that […]
Posted inNational Sports
U.S. Olympian Maame Biney’s short-track speedskating journey, from Ghana to Pyeongchang
?? KEARNS, Utah — The sun hadn’t fully poked over the Wasatch mountains when Maame Biney came bounding through the lobby of the Utah Olympic Oval, her braids bobbing and a smile enveloping most of her youthful face. Others were still wiping the sleep from their eyes, as the young speedskater went through her morning […]
Posted inNational Sports
North Korea’s Olympic lineup varied
TOKYO (AP) — North Korea won’t be dominating any medal counts when the Winter Olympics come to Pyeongchang in South Korea next month. But it’s hoping to grab as much of the spotlight as it can with what might be an Olympic first in ice hockey and a flamboyantly crowd-pleasing all-female cheering section to liven […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web
Portland physician fulfilling Olympic dream with U.S. women's hockey team
Dr. Allyson Howe of Portland will be the head physician for the US women’s ice hockey team in the upcoming Winter Olympics. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald) Growing up in Buffalo, New York, Dr. Allyson Howe had an early hankering for ice skates, and not the white ones with toe picks. “I wanted to be […]