Tag: Winter Olympics

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Bobsled, skeleton WCups return to North America

Bobsled, skeleton WCups return to North America

Bobsled and skeleton World Cup races will return to North America this fall for the first time since before the pandemic, finally giving U.S. and Canadian athletes a chance to compete on home ice again.

The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation has decided to start the 2022-23 season with three stops in the U.S. and Canada before the Christmas break. The tour will open on the 2010 Olympic track in Whistler, Canada, from Nov. 22-27, then move to the 2002 Olympic track in Park City, Utah, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4, and from there it will go to Lake Placid, New York.

The first event in Lake Placid is the world push championships at the newly remodeled indoor facility at the Mount Van Hoevenberg complex on Dec. 7-8, followed by a regular World Cup the following week.

“After two seasons of not hosting IBSF World Cup competitions due to COVID-19, we are excited to be back in North America to start the upcoming season with events in both Park City and Lake Placid,” USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Aron McGuire said. “Building on the success from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, USA athletes are looking forward to racing on home tracks and in front of a home crowd.”

The most recent World Cup sliding event in North America was in 2019. All three North American tracks lost events — including world championship races in Whistler and Lake Placid — because of the pandemic, with international officials relocating those events to Europe and Asia.

American and Canadian sliders have spoken out in recent months about a wish for more races on home ice, and having essentially the first half of the bobsled and skeleton World Cup seasons in North America should be a boost to both programs.

It also will save on travel — the U.S. and Canadian teams won’t have to head to Europe for races this season until around Jan. 1. In many years, the North American teams have been in Europe before Christmas, returned home for holiday breaks, then had to eventually head back to Europe for the remainder of the season.

The remainder of the international bobsled and skeleton schedule for this coming season: Winterberg, Germany, on Jan. 3-8; two separate events in Altenberg, Germany, on Jan. 10-15 and Jan. 17-22; world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Jan. 24 through Feb. 5; the resumption of World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, on Feb. 7-12; and the finale in Sigulda, Latvia, on Feb. 14-19.

Luge’s World Cup schedule for the coming season has yet to be announced. Officials in Park City have expressed interest in playing host to a luge event this season as well.

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Paris Olympics | Boxing events for male reduced, changes also in weightlifting and shooting

Paris Olympics | Boxing events for male reduced, changes also in weightlifting and shooting

While the preceding Tokyo Games had eight events for men and five for women, in Paris there will be seven events for the male pugilists and six for the female

While the preceding Tokyo Games had eight events for men and five for women, in Paris there will be seven events for the male pugilists and six for the female

Aiming to achieve gender equality, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has increased the number of boxing events for women in the 2024 Paris Olympics from five to six as per a revised list.

While the preceding Tokyo Games had eight events for men and five for women, in Paris there will be seven events for the male pugilists and six for the female, according to an update shared by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra.

The new categories for men are 51kg, 57kg, 63.5kg, 71kg, 80kg, 92kg and +92kg.

While the new women’s weight classes include 50kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 75kg.

The changes are in line with the trend of increasing women’s weight classes as the Rio Olympics only had three, which was increased by two for the Tokyo Games.

In shooting, the trap mixed team event has been replaced with skeet mixed team event.

As far as weightlifting is concerned, as PTI reported last December the number of events has come down to 10 (5 men and 5 women) from 14 events in Tokyo.

The competition schedule for the Paris Olympic Games was unveiled on April 1, after being approved by the IOC executive board.

In total 32 sports are set to be contested across 19 days of action, with 329 events due to take place across 762 sessions.

Action is scheduled to begin on July 24, two days before the Opening Ceremony is due to be held.

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Beijing Olympics: High winds force events to be changed, postponed as Games near end

Beijing Olympics: High winds force events to be changed, postponed as Games near end

Organisers scrambled to reorganise the Alpine mixed team parallel race for the final day of the Beijing Olympics after high winds on Saturday forced the competition to be postponed.

Team officials and organisers agreed to hold the event, which is only its second edition, on Sunday at 9 a.m. (0100 GMT) despite several teams being scheduled to fly home.

The decision is likely to mean some teams have to rearrange their flights and accommodation bookings but it was not immediately clear if all would remain to compete.

Alpine team officials will hold their usual pre-race “captains’ meeting” at 5 p.m. when the start list will be agreed upon, and only then will it be clear how many of the 15 teams will remain in the rescheduled event.

Olympics and International Ski Federation (FIS) officials were keen to avoid the complications that would come with the rare case of an event not being held.

Read more:

Olympic skiers angry after Beijing officials cancel alpine training over high winds

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the head of the International Olympic Committee’s coordination commission for Beijing, told the IOC session that these issues were to be expected at a Winter Games.

“We had weather issues but this is Winter Games. We are coping with the difficulties still left but this is winter and we are here to celebrate exactly that: winter,” he said.

The closing ceremony for the Beijing Games is on Sunday at 8 p.m. The weather forecast for Sunday is for slightly better wind conditions earlier in the day.

On Saturday at 9 a.m., gusts were recorded as between 24 and 28 metres per second. On Sunday gusts are forecast between 19-22 m/s at that time.

The weather also disrupted competition at the National Cross-Country Centre in Zhangjiakou.

The men’s 50km cross-country mass start, one of the sport’s blue riband events, was postponed by an hour and shortened to 30km due to the high winds.

Not everybody in the field was happy with the decision.

“Of course athletes’ health comes first but we knew it was gonna be cold …. Look to other sports who moved their events a day earlier. This is not the way to go if we want to develop our sport!” Irish skier Thomas Maloney Westgaard tweeted.

The men’s freeski halfpipe final went ahead but gusts of wind kicked up snow and skiers lost momentum on the pipe, with several crashing, as temperatures dropped to minus 22 Celsius (minus 7.6 Fahrenheit).

“It was gnarly today. And there wasn’t even a discussion about postponing or waiting a little bit or anything,” British skier Gus Kenworthy said.

The women’s 12.5 km biathlon event, originally scheduled for Saturday, was brought forward to Friday due to weather concerns.

(Reporting by Simon Evans, additional reporting by Phil O’Connor, Shadia Nasralla and Simon Jennings; Editing by Peter Rutherford)


© 2022 Reuters

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Beijing Olympics: Team Jamaica Places Last in 4-Man Bobsled Event

Beijing Olympics: Team Jamaica Places Last in 4-Man Bobsled Event
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Team USA Skier Mikaela Shiffrin Fails to Place in Her First Downhill Olympics Event

Team USA Skier Mikaela Shiffrin Fails to Place in Her First Downhill Olympics Event
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When Do the Winter Olympics End? Final Events, Closing Ceremony and What Else to Know

When Do the Winter Olympics End? Final Events, Closing Ceremony and What Else to Know

The 2022 Winter Olympics are just about halfway over, but there’s plenty of action still ahead.

From figure skating to snowboarding and curling, many competitions are slated to take place over the eight remaining days in Beijing.

All of the excitement will wrap up on Sunday, Feb. 20, when the closing ceremony gets underway.

Here’s what you need to know about the remaining days of the Winter Games, from final events to details on the closing ceremony.

What Are Some of the Final Events?

Figure skating, bobsledding and men’s hockey will be just some of the events during the final two days of competition.

Here are the details:

  • Friday, Feb. 18 – 7 p.m. – The Figure Skating pairs event will commence as China looks to continue its tradition of dominance at home with Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.
  • Saturday, Feb. 19 – 8 p.m. – U.S. bobsledder Kaillie Humphries (Calgary, Alberta) will compete for her fourth medal in the two-woman event. The men’s hockey final will also take place as well as the Figure Skating Pairs’ Free Skate–the most anticipated event for the host county.

When is the Closing Ceremony?

Nations and athletes will convene on Sunday, Feb. 20 for the 2022 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony – the official end of the two-week global competition.

Traditionally, the ceremony includes a parade of flags representing all participating nations, starting with the founding country of Greece and ending with the host nation.

Medals from the last event of the Games are typically presented to the winners during the Closing Ceremony. 

Remaining Olympians march in a parade of athletes, but unlike the Opening Ceremony, there is no order as the athletes walk en masse. 

The closing ceremony will begin at 6 a.m. and will be broadcast live on NBC and streamed on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com. The ceremony will also re-air at 7 p.m. later that night.

The Olympic flag is lowered and the flag of the next host country (Italy) is raised alongside the flag of the current host (China). As part of the customary ceremonial flag handover, the Olympic flag will be passed to the mayors of the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina-D’Ampezzo, hosts of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. 

The Games are then declared closed during a speech by the International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach. That declaration is made official with the extinguishing of the Olympic flame.  

The Olympics come to an official end with a fireworks show befitting of a grand finale for a global event.  

Where Will Future Olympic Games Take Place?

Sites have been chosen for nearly all of the Olympic Games in the next 10 years except one.

  • 2024: Paris – Summer
  • 2026: Milan Cortina – Winter
  • 2028: Los Angeles – Summer
  • 2030: TBD – Winter
  • 2032: Brisbane – Summer

Vancouver, Canada, Sapporo, Japan and Barcelona, Spain previously announced bids for the 2030 Winter Games. Salt Lake City, Utah and multiple other cities are considering bids.

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How to Watch Figure Skating Team Event in Primetime Sunday Night

How to Watch Figure Skating Team Event in Primetime Sunday Night

Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates – a couple on and off the ice – were chosen as co-captains of the U.S. squad for figure skating’s team event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, so it’s only fitting they get to compete as part of the team.

Chock and Bates’ time finally arrives (emphasis on finally, but more on this to come) Sunday night U.S. time as they were announced by U.S. Figure Skating as the team’s entry for the free dance.

They are joined representing the red, white and blue on the third and final day of the team event by Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who will begin the night in the pairs free skate, and Karen Chen, who ends the team event in the women’s free skate.

Watch live at 8 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC, NBCOlympics.com or Peacock.

Chen and Knierim/Frazier represented Team USA in their short programs, while Chock/Bates switch out in ice dance for Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue who won the rhythm dance.

Sunday night marks not only the debut of Chock and Bates at these Games but also their debut in any Olympic team event.

The Sochi 2014 Games marked the Olympic debut of both the team event and Chock and Bates (as a team; Bates also competed in Vancouver in 2010), but they were passed over for a spot on the U.S. team in both 2014 (to Meryl Davis and Charlie White) and 2018 (to Maia and Alex Shibutani).

Chock and Bates are ready now, though, as the 2022 U.S. champions and 2021 world fourth-place finishers, and they’ll attempt to match the win Hubbell and Donohue earned earlier in the Games.

Knierim and Frazier also look to continue their own momentum. They were third in the pairs short, behind world and Olympic medalists.

Heading into the final night, the Russian Olympic Committee leads with 45 points, followed by the U.S. (42) and Japan (39). At this point, Canada (30) and China (29) are vying for fourth.