Dutch skaters win all four titles at European allround and sprint championships
Jutta Leerdam on her way to the title. Photo: Vincent Jannick ANP
Dutch speed skaters took eight of the 12 medals at this weekend’s European speed skating championships at the Thialf stadium in Heerenveen, including all four golds and three of the silvers.
Antoinette de Jonge won gold in the women’s allround event, which involves races over 500m, 1,500m, 3km and 5km, and Irene Schouten took the silver.
World title holder Patrick Roest won the men’s allround competition with Marcel Bosker in silver position. The men’s event has races of 500m, 1,500m, 5km and 10km.
Update from U.S. National Figure Skating Championships: Changing colors from Amber to silver
Jan 16, 2021 |
Coy Covington | The Gay Blade
The U.S. figure skating world was rocked last night as the finals of the Ladies Competition aired live on NBC. Things were shaken like a mad martini with a series of ups and downs, spins and salchows, loops and lutzes.
Bradie Tennell has played lady-in-waiting since she won the gold in 2018, but again (deservedly) ascended to the throne by winning the title. Karen Chen (2017 U.S. champion) made an exquisite journey back to the podium to nab the bronze, and two-time and reigning gold medalist Alysa Liu,15, battled puberty and a 3-inch growth spurt to earn a very respectable pewter medal (4th place).
Thirteen Canadian speed skaters gearing up to compete internationally for the first time since March 2020
HEERENVEEN, NETHERLANDS – After a series of negative test results and a brief quarantine period, thirteen Canadian long track speed skaters have entered the “bubble” and are gearing up to compete in a pair of unique World Cup events later this month, the team’s first since the COVID-19 pandemic brought international competition to a halt last March.
While the 2020-2021 season may be condensed, the hub in Heerenveen will offer the world’s top skaters the much anticipated opportunity to compete against one another. The ISU World Cup circuit, which in a normal season consists of six events, will be contested over two events on January 22-24 and January 29-31. Skaters will then have one weekend off to rest and recuperate before hitting the ice again for the ISU World Speed Skating Championships from February 11-14.
A year from Beijing Olympics, coronavirus wreaks havoc with winter sports schedules
Rick Maese, The Washington Post
Jan. 12, 2021
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When the coronavirus brought the Olympic sports world to a grinding halt this past March, the top winter sports athletes had mostly finished competing for the year. A handful of events were canceled, but the early days of the pandemic largely felt like a bullet dodged for the skiers, skaters and snowboarders training for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
But weeks and months passed, and it soon became clear the virus that ruined spring and summer still would be raging as the temperatures dropped. And now, just 13 months out from the Beijing Games, Olympic officials are monitoring the escalating covid numbers here and in Europe. On Monday this week s Alpine skiing World Cup event in Switzerland was canceled because of the worsening conditions in the region.