The latest news from the USOC - November 29
Elana Meyers (Douglasville, Ga.) and Katie Eberling (Palos man bobsled. Holcomb and his USA-1 four- man bobsled crew of Langton, Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas) and Curt Tomasevicz (Shelby, Neb.) finished fourth in the final Europa Cup race on Nov. 27. Brad Stewart (Hastings, Minn.) earned his first international medal on Nov. 26 after claiming bronze in the second men's skeleton Europa Cup competition of the season.
SUCCESS FOR USA LUGE
Erin Hamlin (Remsen, N.Y.) led all Nations Cup qualifiers on Nov. 25 in women's singles, posting the fastest individual heat ahead of Germany's Corinna Martini. The doubles team of Jake Hyrns (Muskegon, Mich.) and Andrew Sherk (Fort Washington, Pa.) pulled away in the final doubles run to also open the new campaign with two consecutive victories in Igls, Austria. The U.S. placed two sleds in the top 10 as two-time Olympian Christian Niccum (Woodinville, Wash.) and Jayson Terdiman (Berwick, Pa.) slid to sixth place in doubles on Nov. 26. Team USA finished sixth in the first World Cup Team Relay event since it officially entered the 2014 Olympic program in Igls, Austria on Nov. 27.
BADMINTON
Eva Lee (Orange, Calif.) and Paula Lynn Obanana (Minneapolis, Minn.) gained valuable Olympic qualifying points and notched a key victory on their road to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The pair won the gold medal in women's doubles at the Norwegian International 2011 Badminton Championships in Oslo, Norway on Nov. 21. Lee also advanced to the quarterfinals in mixed doubles with Halim Haryanto Ho (West Covina, Calif.)
BASEBALL
Team USA (9-0) defeated Canada (6-2) in eight innings, 12-2, on Nov. 27 to take home the gold medal at the COPABE 18U/AAA Pan American Championships in Cartagena, Colombia. Other Team USA victories were against Colombia, 4-0, Bahamas, 16-0, Puerto Rico, 8-2, Panama, 9-0, and Venezuela, 5-1, earlier in the week.
BOXING
Team USA won three medals at the Olympic Test Event in London and five Americans advanced to semifinal competition at the World Cup of Petroleum Countries in Surgut, Russia. Both competitions took place Nov. 24-27 with different U.S. squads competing in the key international events.
FENCING
Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) and Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.) created an all-American final to take the gold and silver medals on Nov. 26 at the London International Invitational Men's Foil Competition.
ICE HOCKEY
Nikko Landeros (Berthoud, Colo.) scored two goals and assisted on another as the U.S. defeated Norway, 5-1, on Nov. 27 in the first game of the World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Calgary, Alta. Team USA followed with another victory against Japan on Nov. 28, 6-2.
LUGE
Emily Sweeney (Suffield, Conn.) led Team USA with a gold medal as the Junior World Cup series concluded in Park City, Utah, on Nov. 23. Kate Hansen (La Canada, Calif.) took the silver medal with a time of1:29.021. The U.S. Junior National Team collected eight gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal during its stay in Utah's Wasatch Mountains.
MODERN PENTATHLON
Team USA wrapped up competition at the Junior World Championships on Nov. 21 with a fourth-place finish in the women's relay event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Margaux Isaksen (Fayetteville, Ark.) and Samantha Achterberg (Littleton, Colo.) finished the relay with 7972 points, trailing only the teams from Great Britain (8074), Germany (8062) and Hungary (8038). The U.S. team was fifth in the fencing, seventh in the swim, fourth in the ride and second in the combined event.
Olympic champion Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, Colo.) broke a seven-year jinx, finishing third in giant slalom at the Nature Valley Aspen Winternational on Nov. 26. Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) battled back from a tough first run (21st) to finish 12th. Sixteen-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) earned an eight-place finish in only her second Audi FIS Alpine World Cup slalom on Nov. 27 at the Nature Valley Aspen Winternational.
Bode Miller (Franconia, N.H.) led three Americans with a ninth-place finish on Nov. 26 in the opening Audi FIS World Cup downhill ski race in Lake Louise, Alta..
SPEEDSKATING
Tucker Fredricks (Janesville, Wis.) opened World Cup 2 in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Nov. 25 with a silver medal in the 500m with a time of 34.94. Fredricks won bronze on Nov. 26 in the 500m with a time of 35.19, his second podium in the distance at the competition. Recovering from a slip on his opener, Fredricks rallied to a strong finish. Jonathan Kuck (Champaign, Ill.) skated to a silver medal on Nov. 27 in the mass start event at the Essent ISU World Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan.
VOLLEYBALL
Team USA came up short against Poland at the FIVB World Cup in Fukuoka, Japan, on Nov. 28 with a final score of 25-15, 25-20, 25-18. The U.S. fell to 3-4 and remained in seventh place in the world cup standings, while Poland improved to 6-1 and held its one-point lead over second-place Russia. The top three teams will earn berths in the 2012 London Olympic Games. The Americans will play host Japan on Nov. 29.
WRESTLING
Two U.S. freestyle wrestlers - Olympic champion Henry Cejudo (Columbus, Ohio) at 55 kg and Phillip Keddy (Iowa City, Iowa) at 84 kg - won silver medals on the first day of the Henri Deglane Challenge in Nice, France, on Nov. 26. Capturing a gold medal on Nov. 27 was 2009 World Team member Shawn Bunch (Columbus, Ohio) at 60 kg, while Wynn Michalak (Colorado Springs, Colo.) went 2-1 to win the silver medal at 96 kg. Mike Zadick (Solon, Iowa) rebounded from his semifinal loss to Bunch to claim the bronze medal, defeating Alexandre Borg of France, 3-0, 6-0 in the bronze-medal round.
The United States won six medals at the Haavisto Cup of Greco-Roman on Nov. 26 in Ilmajoki, Finland. Team USA placed second in the standings with 29 points, behind Ukraine with 35 points. Host Finland was third with 14 points.
The U.S. had a 2-2 record in its pool and finished sixth out of 10 teams competing in Minsk, Belarus, at the Karavaev Cup, a major Greco-Roman dual meet event held on Nov. 26.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
28- 4 - Bobsled Igls, Austria Bobsled World Cup #1
1- 7 - Bowling Johannesburg, South Africa Bowling World Cup
2- 4 - Curling Grafton, N.D. 2012 U.S. Senior Women's Nationals
3-18 - Sailing Perth, Australia ISAF Combine World Championships
1- 4 - Shooting Anniston, Ala. Part I U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Airgun
30- 4 - Ski & Snowboard Beaver Creek, CO; Men's Alpine World Cup and Training
2- 4 - Speed Skating Heerenveen, The Netherlands Essent ISU Long Track World Cup 3
2- 4 - Speed Skating Nagoya, Japan ISU Short Track World Cup 3
3- 4 - Speed Skating Roseville, Minn. Long Track American Cup 1
1- 3 - Swimming Atlanta, Ga. AT&T Winter National Championships
2- 5 - Table Tennis Milpitas, Calif. ICC California State Open
3- 4 - Taekwondo London, England Olympic Test Event
28- 4 - Volleyball Tokyo, Japan FIVB Men's World Cup