US Figure Skating hires sports executive Matt Farrell as CEO amid the run-up to the 2026 Olympics
U.S. Figure Skating has hired Matt Farrell as its CEO, tasking the longtime sports executive with leading the governing body into an Olympic year in which the American team will be favored to win gold in multiple disciplines at the Milan-Cortina Games.
The organization announced his hiring on Tuesday.
The 56-year-old Farrell spent 13 years as the chief marketing officer for USA Swimming, along with two stints working for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. He more recently served as the executive director of World Long Drive and started his own marketing firm, Farrell Sports, with several clients involved in the Olympic movement.
'I'm incredibly honored to step into this role at such an exciting time,' Farrell said. 'There's a fresh sense of momentum and possibility across the sport. In the months to come, I'm eager to collaborate with our amazing athletes, passionate fans and dedicated partners to keep growing the community we all care so deeply about.'
Earlier this year, the U.S. took gold at the world championships in Boston in three of the four disciplines for the first time in its history. Ilia Malinin won his second consecutive men's title and is the prohibitive favorite for the 2026 Olympics, while the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates also will be favored after winning their third straight world title.
The big surprise was Alysa Liu, a member of its 2022 Olympic team who returned from a nearly two-year retirement to become the first American woman in nearly two decades to stand atop the podium at the world championships.
Then, earlier this month, Liu delivered a flawless free skate to help the U.S. win its sixth gold medal at the World Team Trophy in Tokyo, making the Americans the favorites to defend their gold medal in the team event at the Winter Games.
The Americans won two gold medals and a bronze at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but they haven't won more than three figure skating medals at any Winter Games since taking four when they hosted in Squaw Valley in 1960.
'It's clear that Matt brings the expertise and vision needed to lead U.S. Figure Skating through the lead-up to the 2026 Olympics and beyond,' said Sam Auxier, who had been serving as the interim CEO ever since Tracy Marek resigned last October, and who will resume his role as board president. 'His proven leadership within the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic movement, combined with his deep knowledge of the sports industry and bold, strategic thinking will help accelerate the sport and the organization into a new era of growth and success.'
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Edmonton Journal
2 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
U.S. ambassador says Canadians facing device searches, detainment 'not a pattern'
Article content OTTAWA — The American ambassador to Canada is pushing back on Ottawa's travel advice, saying his country doesn't search phones at the border and arguing some Americans travelling here are having a tough time. 'We welcome Canadians to come in and invest, to spend their hard-earned Canadian dollars at U.S. businesses,' U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra told The Canadian Press in an interview Friday.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump's tariffs could pay for his tax cuts — but it likely wouldn't be much of a bargain
WASHINGTON (AP) — The tax cuts in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act would likely gouge a hole in the federal budget. The president has a patch handy, though: his sweeping import taxes — tariffs. The Congressional Budget Office, the government's nonpartisan arbiter of tax and spending matters, says the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House last month and now under consideration in the Senate, would increase federal budget deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. That is because its tax cuts would drain the government's coffers faster than its spending cuts would save money. By bringing in revenue for the Treasury, on the other hand, the tariffs that Trump announced through May 13 — including his so-called reciprocal levies of up to 50% on countries with which the United States has a trade deficit — would offset the budget impact of the tax-cut bill and reduce deficits over the next decade by $2.5 trillion. So it's basically a wash. That's the budget math anyway. The real answer is more complicated. Actually using tariffs to finance a big chunk of the federal government would be a painful and perilous undertaking, budget wonks say. 'It's a very dangerous way to try to raise revenue,' said Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model, who served in President George W. Bush's Treasury Department. Trump has long advocated tariffs as an economic elixir. He says they can protect American industries, bring factories back to the United States, give him leverage to win concessions over foreign governments — and raise a lot of money. He's even suggested that they could replace the federal income tax, which now brings in about half of federal revenue. 'It's possible we'll do a complete tax cut,'' he told reporters in April. 'I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.'' Economists and budget analysts do not share the president's enthusiasm for using tariffs to finance the government or to replace other taxes. 'It's a really bad trade,'' said Erica York, the Tax Foundation's vice president of federal tax policy. 'It's perhaps the dumbest tax reform you could design.'' For one thing, Trump's tariffs are an unstable source of revenue. He bypassed Congress and imposed his biggest import tax hikes through executive orders. That means a future president could simply reverse them. 'Or political whims in Congress could change, and they could decide, 'Hey, we're going revoke this authority because we don't think it's a good thing that the president can just unilaterally impose a $2 trillion tax hike,' '' York said. Or the courts could kill his tariffs before Congress or future presidents do. A federal court in New York has already struck down the centerpiece of his tariff program — the reciprocal and other levies he announced on what he called 'Liberation Day'' April 2 — saying he'd overstepped his authority. An appeals court has allowed the government to keep collecting the levies while the legal challenge winds its way through the court system. Economists also say that tariffs damage the economy. They are a tax on foreign products, paid by importers in the United States and usually passed along to their customers via higher prices. They raise costs for U.S. manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials, components and equipment, making them less competitive than foreign rivals that don't have to pay Trump's tariffs. Tariffs also invite retaliatory taxes on U.S. exports by foreign countries. Indeed, the European Union this week threatened 'countermeasures'' against Trump's unexpected move to raise his tariff on foreign steel and aluminum to 50%. 'You're not just getting the effect of a tax on the U.S. economy,' York said. 'You're also getting the effect of foreign taxes on U.S. exports.'' She said the tariffs will basically wipe out all economic benefits from the One Big Beautiful Bill's tax cuts. Smetters at the Penn Wharton Budget Model said that tariffs also isolate the United States and discourage foreigners from investing in its economy. Foreigners see U.S. Treasurys as a super-safe investment and now own about 30% of the federal government's debt. If they cut back, the federal government would have to pay higher interest rates on Treasury debt to attract a smaller number of potential investors domestically. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Higher borrowing costs and reduced investment would wallop the economy, making tariffs the most economically destructive tax available, Smetters said — more than twice as costly in reduced economic growth and wages as what he sees as the next-most damaging: the tax on corporate earnings. Tariffs also hit the poor hardest. They end up being a tax on consumers, and the poor spend more of their income than wealthier people do. Even without the tariffs, the One Big Beautiful Bill slams the poorest because it makes deep cuts to federal food programs and to Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans. After the bill's tax and spending cuts, an analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found, the poorest fifth of American households earning less than $17,000 a year would see their incomes drop by $820 next year. The richest 0.1% earning more than $4.3 million a year would come out ahead by $390,070 in 2026. 'If you layer a regressive tax increase like tariffs on top of that, you make a lot of low- and middle-income households substantially worse off,'' said the Tax Foundation's York. Overall, she said, tariffs are 'a very unreliable source of revenue for the legal reasons, the political reasons as well as the economic reasons. They're a very, very inefficient way to raise revenue. If you raise a dollar of a revenue with tariffs, that's going to cause a lot more economic harm than raising revenue any other way.''
Canada Standard
4 hours ago
- Canada Standard
China Sports Weekly (6.1-6.7)
BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Here are the latest Chinese sports headlines from the past week: 1. Zheng Qinwen achieves best record at Roland Garros despite quarterfinal loss China's tennis sensation Zheng Qinwen lost to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the French Open women's singles quarterfinals on June 3. Despite the loss, the Olympic champion has delivered her career best performance at Roland Garros. She also became the first Chinese woman to reach the singles quarterfinals on the clay Grand Slam since Li Na's historic title in 2011. Zheng defeated former French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Emiliana Arango of Colombia in the first two rounds and then ended Canadian qualifier Victoria Mboko's dream run to make it to the last 16. She bested Russia's Liudmila Samsonova to reach the quarterfinals. 2. China fails to qualify for 2026 FIFA World Cup after defeat to Indonesia China's hopes of reaching the 2026 FIFA World Cup were extinguished on June 5 following a 1-0 loss to Indonesia in its crucial Asian qualifying Group C match in Jakarta. The sole goal was scored by Oxford United forward Ole Romeny, who stepped up to convert a penalty past goalkeeper Wang Dalei in the 45th minute after China right-back Yang Zexiang fouled Indonesia's midfielder Ricky Kambuaya inside the penalty area. With only one game remaining, China cannot finish in the top four of Group C. China now sits bottom of the group with six points from nine matches. 3. China registers 1 win, 1 loss in Volleyball Nations League Beijing leg China enjoyed a 3-0 sweep of Belgium as the 2025 Volleyball Nations League preliminaries Beijing leg started on June 4. The revamped Chinese women's volleyball team, which features a host of newcomers, beat Belgium 25-18, 27-25, 25-13 to set off their campaign to a good start, with 16-year-old setter Zhang Zixuan playing a key role. However, the host did not manage to ride on the momentum, falling to Poland 25-22, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21 in its second match. China will face off against France and Trkiye on June 7 and 8. 4. Chen Yufei wins women's singles title at badminton Singapore Open China's Chen Yufei claimed the women's singles title, defeating compatriot Wang Zhiyi in straight sets for her fourth championship of the season at the Singapore Open on June 1. Notably, Chen ended the 27-match winning streak of reigning Olympic gold medalist An Se-young of South Korea in the quarterfinals. Since returning to competition in February following a three-month study break in Australia, Chen has regained her form and extended her own winning streak to 22 matches. The Tokyo Olympic champion withdrew from the quarterfinal against teammate Han Yue on June 6 due to a leg injury at the ongoing Indonesia Open, where Chinese shuttlers book at least one semifinal berth in four of the five categories except men's doubles. 5. China drawn in Group C for U17 Women's World Cup China was placed in Group C with Ecuador, Norway and the United States as the draw for the ninth FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup was announced on June 4. The 2025 edition, which features 24 teams for the first time, will take place in Rabat, Morocco, from October 17 to November 8. The top two teams from each of the six groups, along with the four best third-placed teams, will advance to the round of 16.
