Our sleds are better than yours.
You may have heard Lolo Jones got second in her World Cup bobsled debut with driver Jazmine Fenlator, but U.S. success went farther than that. Elana Meyers and Tianna Madison, the latter also a track and field Olympian, took third.
The men weren’t bad, either. Steven Holcomb/Steve Langton and Cory Butner/Chuck Berkeley finished 1-2 in the World Cup two-man opener. Holcomb was second in the four-man, with Nick Cunningham taking third in just his third World Cup race.
The skeleton crew had a few top-fives: John Daly and Kyle Tress 4-5 in the men’s race; slider/weightlifter Katie Uhlaender fifth in the women’s race with the best time of the third run.
Figure skating
Gracie Gold at Skate Canada last month: 151.57 points, seventh place.
Gracie Gold at the Rostelecom Cup over the weekend: 175.03, second place. Just 2.16 out of first. That’s what skating insiders would call “an improvement.”
Agnes Zawadzki also had a bit of an improvement, posting a personal-best 166.61 for third place.
Caydee Denney and John Coughlin also reached the podium, finishing third in pairs. Ice dancers Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani were fourth.
The men didn’t do quite as well. Johnny Weir had a rough time in the short program, then withdrew. Richard Dornbush was sixth.
Alpine skiing
Well she’s … speedy and 17! Our U.S. ski-slalom queen!
Yes, she’s far too young to get that Stray Cats reference, but Mikaela Schifrin was on the World Cup podium this weekend, finishing third in a slalom somewhere near the North Pole. Ted Ligety was 13th in the men’s race.
Wrestling
Big win for Tervel Diagnev over Russia’s Magomedgadzhi Nurasulov, who scored less than 0.05 points for every letter in his name, at the New York Athletic Club Invitational. Austin Trotman also beat one of the invited Russians and was named outstanding wrestler of the meet.
Basketball
Ready for a World Cup that won’t be sullied by the Netherlands’ negativity? Basketball is moving its world championship to soccer’s off-years and rebranding it as a World Cup. Better than World Series, at least.
Duresport.com 