"Not Superwoman But Pretty Super:" Ledecky Gets Silver Surprise In 400 Free Relay

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RIO DE JANEIRO - Four years ago this week, Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington had a first-hand view of the moment that surprisingly was the start of the Katie Ledecky era in women’s swimming.
 
Saturday afternoon, on the opening day of swimming at the 2016 Olympics, Adlington had a different vantage point on another Ledecky swim that seemed equally surprising.
 
A near-repeat performance Saturday night brought Ledecky a silver medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle, an event in which there had been no guarantee she would compete.
 
“She’s just amazing,” Adlington said as she stood on a bus for the brief ride between the pool and the Main Press Center.

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Wagner, Gold resigned to morning skating at 2018 Olympics

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Wagner, Gold resigned to morning skating at 2018 Olympics

BOSTON - The news that figure skating competition would begin at 10 a.m. at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea left the two leading U.S. women singles skaters resigned to deal with situation, although Ashley Wagner adopted that attitude more grudgingly than 2014 Olympic teammate Gracie Gold.

“This is all fresh to me, and right now I’m annoyed, because it’s a difficult thing to ask the skaters to do,” Wagner said after her Tuesday evening practice before the World Figure Skating Championships that begin Wednesday at TD Garden.

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EXCLUSIVE: Figure skating in morning at 2018 Olympics

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EXCLUSIVE: Figure skating in morning at 2018 Olympics

Figure skaters will be getting early wake-up calls at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta confirmed exclusively to Globetrotting that all competitions will begin at 10 a.m. at the 2018 Pyeongchang, South Korea, Winter Games.  Day-of-competition final practice will be earlier in the morning.

With the 13-hour time difference from New York, that will put the events in prime time in North America.   It will not be as favorable for Japan, where the sport's popularity now is the highest in the world.

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Yu-Na Kim, Yuzuru Hanyu, Javi Fernandez and friends: how the Toronto Cricket Club became skating mecca

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TORONTO - Put more than a dozen highly decorated figure skaters on the same practice ice at the same time, and there is bound to be some friendly in-your-face stuff.

Yuzuru Hanyu, Javier Fernández and Nam Nguyen will do quadruple jump after quadruple jump, each trying not to be the first to pop a jump or fall. Gabrielle Daleman and Sonia Lafuente will do the same with triples.

What each wants most, though, is to do well enough that Brian Orser, or one of his fellow coaches at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, rings the 16-inch brass bell that hangs outside the glassed-in, computerized music room on one side of the ice surface.

That sound is the reward for anyone who does a clean run-through of a competitive program in practice.

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Alysia Montano has no truck with dopers, new or old, teammates or not

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Alysia Montano has no truck with dopers, new or old, teammates or not

LOS ANGELES - Alysia Montano wore her trademark flower in her hair, this one a sun-burst yellow, sending out a vibe of brightness across a ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The mood darkened as soon as the subject of doping came up in interviews at the three-day U.S. Olympic media summit here.  For Montano, it is a disease so virulent that the Zika virus outbreak in Brazil seems of far lesser importance for the 800-meter runner as she prepares to make the 2016 Olympic team.

Montano is among the athletes most affected by the revelations of widespread doping in Russia, the recent doping positives in Ethiopia and the allegations of corruption and ineptitude regarding doping control in Kenya.  Discussing it moved her to choke back tears and criticize some compatriots with unrestrained candor and emotion.

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