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Hello all, and Happy New Year! Apologies for the absence…my best intentions were to write more about the World Cup after my preview and then the holidays kicked into high gear. I hope you all were able to watch that incredible final between Argentina and France. I’d say we’ll never see another game like it, but the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer is sure to deliver, so we’ll just have to wait until then.
One last note on the World Cup: the U.S. Men’s National Team appears to be in worse disarray than during its knockout match against the Netherlands (I’m still salty about it). If you heard complaints about Gio Reyna not playing on the field, we found out why shortly after the tournament ended. The short version is Coach Gregg Berhalter benched him for being a punk on the field in the lead-up to the tournament. Honestly, find me a 20-year-old rising star who isn’t a pain in the butt. Anyway, the scandal didn’t end there. Oh no, Gio’s parents (former Team USA players themselves, and close friends of Berhalter’s) were threatening to air the coach’s dirty laundry to get Gio on the field. Shady! It didn’t work, but now everyone is upset and pointing fingers. What a mess! At least it’ll keep eyes on soccer in the spring while there’s a lull.
This month, the biggest sports story will be skier Mikaela Shiffrin’s march towards tying (and likely surpassing) Lindsay Vonn’s World Cup win total. Shiffrin currently has 81, and Vonn has 82. The latter is now retired, so that number won’t change. This morning, after winning six races in a row, Shiffrin placed sixth at a Giant Slalom course in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. She’ll ski again tomorrow in a similar race. If/when she surpasses Vonn’s record, Shriffin will only be 3 away from the most-winning skier of all time: Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark, who notched 86 wins in his career.
Note: World Cup in soccer and skiing are very different. While the FIFA World Cup is a quadrennial tournament, FIS World Cup is a circuit with over a dozen races each year.
Also on my radar is the FISU World University Games. These are essentially the Olympics for college kids, and they're much bigger than you'd expect! This year, over 2500 athletes and coaches from over 50 countries will descend upon Lake Placid, host of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, in New York. I went there in 2021 and let me tell you: it is worth a visit if you’re ever looking for a winter getaway! You can try every winter sport imaginable (including bobsled and luge!), all tucked into a picturesque valley surrounded by the Adirondacks.
The opening ceremony takes place on January 12, with competition in 12 sports running through the 22nd. All the usual suspects are here: figure skating, alpine skiing, and even curling! ESPN will be showing daily coverage split across its various channels, so be sure to check it out if you can. Follow the games on @LakePlacid2023 on Twitter or Instagram for more. There's an ever-so-small chance I make it up there next weekend to check it out, so stay tuned for some possible on-the-ground coverage.
Looking a little past that, the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships begin January 23. The headliners for the women’s competition will be Amber Glenn, Bradie Tennell, Gracie Gold, Grand Prix silver medalist Isabeau Levito, Lindsay Thorngren, and Starr Andrews. On the men’s side, you have Camden Pulkinen, Ilia Malinin, Jason Brown, and Jimmy Ma.
Expect Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier to dominate the pairs competition. Meanwhile, ice dance gets interesting as Madison Chock and Evan Bates will go head-to-head with Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker…but keep an eye out for rising stars Caroline Green and Michael Parsons.
That’s all for now... happy winter sporting, y'all!
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