Latest news with #MilanCortina2026
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
AJ Ginnis, former U.S. Ski Team athlete, to be first 2026 Olympic torchbearer
AJ Ginnis, former U.S. Ski Team athlete, to be first 2026 Olympic torchbearer Greek Alpine skier AJ Ginnis, a world slalom silver medalist and former U.S. Ski Team member, will be the first torchbearer of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic torch relay that starts Nov. 26. Ginnis, who eyes his Olympic debut in February at age 31, will receive the flame in the ancient Olympic site of Olympia, Greece, to start the torch relay. A Greek athlete traditionally is the first torchbearer before an athlete from the Olympic host nation. Advertisement 'It is a great honor for me, something that I never imagined as a child," Ginnis said, according to the Greek Olympic Committee. The relay will culminate at the Feb. 6 Opening Ceremony at the San Siro Stadium in Milan. The relay typically spends multiple days in Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics, before moving to the host nation. For Milan Cortina, the Italy portion of the relay will start Dec. 4 in Rome. Ginnis, 30, missed most of last season due to knee surgery. In 2023, he earned what is believed to be Greece's first world championships medal in any Winter Olympic program event when he took slalom silver. Advertisement The best Greek finish in any event at a Winter Olympics was 13th in women's skeleton in 2002. Ginnis previously raced for the U.S. at the 2017 Worlds, then was dropped from the national team after the 2017-18 season following several injuries and a best World Cup finish of 26th at the time. He switched to his birth nation of Greece, where he had learned to ski at Mount Parnassus, a 2 1/2-hour drive from Athens. He moved to Austria at age 12 and then Vermont three years after that. Ginnis has undergone at least seven knee surgeries in his career. He tore an ACL in summer 2021, ruling him out of the 2022 Winter Games. Advertisement He thought he was done with ski racing when he went to Beijing to work the 2022 Olympics for NBC. 'When I came back, I told myself, my goal is to go into the next Olympic cycle being a medal contender,' he said at the 2023 Worlds. 'Fighting back from injuries, getting cut from teams, trying to fundraise for what we're doing now. ... This is a dream come true on every level.' NCAA Photos Archive The Ivy League school that's intertwined with the Winter Olympics How Dartmouth put an athlete on every U.S. Winter Olympic team.
CNA
2 days ago
- Sport
- CNA
Alpine skiing-Hirscher cleared for another World Cup comeback at 36
Alpine ski great Marcel Hirscher could be on for an Olympic comeback at the age of 36 after being cleared to return to the World Cup as a wildcard following his recovery from a serious knee injury. The 2018 double Olympic gold medallist, and winner of a record eight overall World Cups as an Austrian, last October ended five years of retirement to compete for his mother's country the Netherlands. He suffered a cruciate ligament tear in December and underwent surgery but announced in a video on his Instagram account on Wednesday that, 197 days later, he was ready to go again. "Rehab was going on quite well, and now we are back in athletic training. This is super fun, being back a professional athlete again," he said. "I heard FIS made a decision that I am allowed to take my 17 (unused) starts from last year's season into the upcoming season. So that means I'm ready for another season (of) ski racing. And I think now you can call it a comeback." While Hirscher would have no chance of making the Austrian Olympic team, a superpower in the sport, the Netherlands offers a far easier route to Milan-Cortina 2026 if he can stay clear of injury. He entered only three races last year, with a best result of 23rd in a giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, leaving him 17 unused wildcards. The World Cup allows former top skiers to return as wildcards without having to secure qualifying points. U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn, now 40, is also hoping to ski at the Olympics after returning to the World Cup as a wildcard last season. "In the end, two questions remained: What do I want from life? What does life want from me?" said Hirscher, winner of 67 World Cup races. "Even in difficult moments, my answer never changed: I want to race again." Hirscher, who plans to return to snow training in September, said he also wanted to compete again as an athlete to help his ski equipment company improve their racing skis and boots. The World Cup men's season starts on October 26 with a giant slalom in Soelden.
