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Japan Times
16-04-2025
- Sport
- Japan Times
Skating 'Quad God' Malinin ready for Olympic favorite tag
Double world figure skating champion Ilia Malinin knows he will have a target on his back at next year's Winter Olympics, but said Wednesday he can handle the pressure. The American, known as the "Quad God" for his dazzling arsenal of quadruple jumps, won his second straight men's world title last month in Boston at the age of 20. Malinin said he was "still trying to process" the achievement but he knows he will be the man to beat at the Milano-Cortina Games in less than a year's time. "Definitely I was made aware of that even last year, being the favorite going into the Olympic year," he said in Tokyo, where he is preparing to compete for the U.S. in the season-ending World Team Trophy this week. "It might put a lot of pressure on me close to the Olympics, but I want to make sure I get a good strategic plan and really just put myself into that right mental zone to block out all this pressure." Malinin missed out on a place on the United States team for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics but he has since established himself as the dominant force in men's figure skating. He won his first world championship gold in Montreal last year and followed it up with a bravura free skate performance in Boston that included six quadruple jumps. The 2022 Olympic champion Nathan Chen is taking an indefinite break from skating and Japanese great Yuzuru Hanyu retired from competition in 2022. Malinin said he would benefit from his world championship wins. "Two-time world champion is still a little bit new to me," said Malinin. "It's a fresh feeling. I feel like now I'm able to use that to help me prepare for the Olympic season." Malinin is one of several world champions on a star-studded United States team in Tokyo this week. Alysa Liu, who won the women's title in Boston, and ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates are also competing for the Americans. Japan, Georgia, France, Canada and Italy are the other nations competing.
CBC
14-04-2025
- Sport
- CBC
The making of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic torch
Sports Duration 3:21 Took a look behind-the-scenes on how the Olympic torch for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Games was designed, and developed.
Associated Press
30-03-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Americans head into Olympic year with most decorated, and deepest, figure skating pool in decades
BOSTON (AP) — The United States is heading into the Olympic year with its most decorated — and deepest — pool of figure skaters in decades. Perhaps ever. After winning three titles at the world championships for the first time ever, the U.S. could be headed for a record medal haul at the Milano-Cortina Games. The Americans won two golds and a bronze at the 2022 Beijing Games and haven't won more than three figure skating medals at any Olympics since taking four when they hosted in Squaw Valley in 1960. 'It's happening, and it's happening really quite a lot for the U.S.,' said Gracie Gold, a two-time national champion, who won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2014 Olympics and is now a figure skating broadcaster. 'I'm feeling super optimistic. I think everyone's feeling optimistic. Who wouldn't be?' Ilia Malinin won his second straight men's title to wrap up the world championships in Boston on Saturday night, with the home crowd rising to a standing ovation and waving U.S. flags as he finished his quad-filled routine. her first world women's title on Friday night — the first for the U.S. in almost two decades. Another reason for optimism: Isabeau Levito (fourth) and two-time defending national champion Amber Glenn (fifth) gave the Americans three of the top five women. 'Go Team USA. That's all I can say,' Liu said. 'I'm so proud of both Isabeau and Amber for putting up such great performances and such great fight. They were really fun to be with this week.' And though the U.S. did not medal in pairs, with Japan claiming the top two spots, the performances of Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov along with Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea mean the Americans have a chance to send a third pair to the 2026 Games. That would be a first since 1994. Nathan Chen, who stepped away from competitive skating after winning gold in Beijing, mused that the U.S. might have swept the golds at worlds if Brandon Frazier and Alexa Knierim were still competing. His Olympic teammates won the pairs world title in 2022 before they, too, stepped away from the sport the following year. 'But it's really cool, yeah. It's great to see the U.S. in this position, especially being at home,' said Chen, who still takes part in shows but is busy these days applying to medical school. 'There's a lot of excitement, you know? There's so much energy.' The best U.S. figure skating haul in the Olympics has been the five medals won in 1956, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, when there were only three events: men, women and pairs. In Squaw Valley, the U.S. took two golds and two bronze. Ice dance was added for the 1976 Innsbruck Games, and there has been a team competition since 2014, making a total of 15 available medals in Milano-Cortina. It also doesn't hurt that the Russians and Belarusians were banned from the world championships due to the invasion of Ukraine; they will have a limited pathway to the Olympics. While the Americans have been up and down in men, women and pairs competitions over the years, they have dominated ice dance since Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto came away with bronze in 2006. Meryl Davis and Charlie White won gold at the 2011 worlds in Moscow and repeated two years later, and the U.S. has had at least one couple on the ice dance podium at worlds every year since 2015. 'We've had a U.S. team on the world podium for a pretty long while,' said Bates, who with Chock took gold in Boston. 'And to have Ben and Charlie in the building and hear from Meryl over text, it means a lot, and I think the pipeline of U.S. ice dance teams is incredibly strong, seeing how the teams did this week.'
CBC
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
U.S. and Canadian figure skaters hope sports can unify during world championships
Social Sharing American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates always have been treated with such kindness and support from the people in their longtime training base in Montreal that Canada has become a second home for them. Many of their closest friends are Canadian. They spend as much time there as they do in the United States. None of that has changed, necessarily, despite the divisive rhetoric from government officials from both countries and tariff wars simmering between the longtime allies. Yet the two figure skaters have started to notice some other differences lately. "We were at a cafe last weekend," Chock said, "and Evan ordered a coffee, an Americano, and the barista delivered it and said, 'Here's your Canadian.' And we were like, 'Oh. It's an Americano, and they don't want to call it an Americano, for obvious reasons.' "That was our first experience with that being reflected in Canada." Now, the reigning world champions are curious what will transpire this week in Boston, where they'll be trying to win their third straight title against a field that includes their dear friends and longtime rivals, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada. Will the American fans at TD Bank Garden support everyone universally, as is the custom in figure skating, when competition begins Wednesday? Or will there be more robust cheering than usual for Chock and Bates, and perhaps even some boos for their neighbours from the north, in what should be a preview of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy? "America has always had a very global reach when it comes to politics and culture," Chock said, reflecting on that café encounter, "but we never really saw that truly reflected in her until that moment, when it was like, 'Oh, OK. I understand now."' World pairs champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are just as uncertain what kind of reception they will get in Boston. Stellato-Dudek was born in the Chicago suburbs, but about three months ago she passed the exam to become a Canadian citizen, which was required for her to compete for that country at the Winter Olympics. That plan was set in motion long before Donald Trump returned to the White House, when the notion of Canada becoming a 51st state seemed downright absurd and American liquor was still being stocked on the shelves of Canadian shops. WATCH l Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps capture 2024 world title: Canada's Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps capture historic pairs figure skating world title 1 year ago Duration 9:27 Stellato-Dudek twice finished third at the U.S. championships with Nathan Bartholomay before splitting in 2019, and that's when she teamed up with Deschamps, who had separated from his American partner Sydney Kolodziej the previous year. Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps considered skating for the U.S., but they were concerned he would not be granted American citizenship in time to compete at the Milano-Cortina Games; the Olympic Charter requires athletes to hold the nationality of the country represented by their National Olympic Committee in order to compete at the Summer or Winter Games. Being Canadian 'the honour of my life' "I did represent America for many years. I'm very proud to represent Canada. I'm now a Canadian citizen, which is the honour of my life," Stellato-Dudek said. "And I have family that still lives in America that will be at an American worlds to come watch me. They are there to cheer me on, and I'm excited to skate for them. "I think sports is one of the few things that bring people together from all different nationalities and all over the world," Stellato-Dudek added, "and I hope this world championships does this for everybody as well." It promises to be an interesting test case given that the U.S. will be hosting — along with Canada and Mexico — the World Cup next year, and two years later, Los Angeles will be welcoming the world for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Reigning Four Continents Canadian champs Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps take silver in Seoul 1 month ago Duration 7:51 Even newly elected International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry, a former Zimbabwe swimmer who graduated from Auburn University, alluded to the challenges that could come with dealing with the Trump administration, whether that be due to trade wars, the war in Ukraine, diversity issues or a host of other potentially discordant viewpoints. "I have been dealing with, let's say difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old," Coventry said after winning the IOC election in Costa Navarino, Greece. "What I have learned is that communication will be key." In the meantime, figure skaters headed to Boston this week are hoping to communicate that sports can be a unifying force. "I mean, we've kind of gone about [that] sport isn't political. We've been raised that way," said Gilles, who was born in Rockford, Ill., but whose mother and grandmother are Canadian and who became a Canadian citizen herself 12 years ago. "We're lucky to be able to skate in Canada and the U.S. and been welcomed on both soils," she said. "We're kind of focused on our job, and let sport be sport, and not let it be political. We can't focus on what we can't control. We can control our skating and we can control that we're proud of our country and proud to represent our country in the U.S."
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Olympics-Sliding centre for Italy's 2026 Games on track, icing to start in February, says IOC
By Karolos Grohmann BERLIN (Reuters) - The sliding centre of the Milano-Cortina 2026 winter Olympics will be delivered on time, with the icing of the track to start next month, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday. With Feb. 6 marking one year to go until the Games, the sliding venue for the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions remains on an extremely tight deadline. It has been on one ever since the construction started after Italy opted to build a new facility instead of using an existing one in a neighbouring country. The IOC had repeatedly voiced concerns over the planned new track, saying the use of an existing sliding centre outside Italy would keep costs down and cut preparation time. "We have a very clear action plan: icing of the venue by the end of February and pre-homologation by the end of March," Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi told Reuters in an interview. Pre-homologation in this case means the international bobsleigh and skeleton federation and the luge federation familiarising themselves with the track, testing the venue and making any necessary modifications before actual test events with competing athletes are held there prior to the Games. Dubi said the test events in the venue would be held as planned to deliver the project for the Feb. 6, 2026 start of the Olympics. Milano-Cortina Games organisers, however, raised eyebrows earlier this month, announcing that they had picked Lake Placid in the United States as their Plan B for next year should anything happen to the sliding centre project's timelines. Several of Italy's neighbouring countries have existing sliding centres. Dubi said the IOC had wanted a Plan B but the Italian organisers' choice of location was not one that needed the Olympic body's approval. "We did not need to sign off on the location. That's not our responsibility," Dubi said. "We signed off on a Plan B. We asked for a Plan B because we knew the schedule was incredibly compressed. Being where they are (with progress on the sliding centre) considering when they started is something to be pleased about," Dubi said. Organisers are also racing to complete the multi-purpose Arena Santa Giulia which will be used for ice hockey. Part of a wider development of the area, the arena has also been on a tight deadline since the start of its construction just over a year ago. It is planned to be delivered to organisers in the second half of 2025, just a few months before the Games start. "It started when it started. As a result it was a tight delivery timeline," Dubi said. "We will get there on time but it is a venue that will be delivered to the organising committee towards autumn. That's why I am speaking about a tight timeline."
