The Vancouver Games countdown clock on Team Fenson’s website is almost four weeks behind.
No matter. With a year to go, the Olympic bronze medal curlers are already out of time.
Expected to be one of the last U.S. teams sweeping, Pete Fenson’s rink didn’t make it to the Olympic Trials after a fifth-place finish at a challenge round last weekend. The top four advanced to trials, which are Feb. 21-28 at the Broomfield Events Center.
The winner of the 10-team Trials will represent the United States at this year’s world championships and in Vancouver.
“We’re obviously disappointed,” Fenson said. “We expected not only to go (to the Trials), but to be one of the teams to beat to qualify. … We put ourselves in that situation. We lost more games than we expected to lose.”
With its shouting, sweeping, clattering rocks and athletes who look like the folks next door, curling earned cult status after becoming an Olympic sport in 1998. But Fenson and his teammates took it mainstream four years ago when they beat the British to give the United States its first Olympic curling medal.
New curling clubs popped up across the country, including warm-weather areas like Dallas, Tennessee and Arizona. Extra rocks had to be shipped from Scotland to satisfy the demand. There was even a made-for-TV celebrity challenge.
“That was a moment in our lives we’re pretty proud of,” Fenson said. “It was a time we were playing great and things were going great for us. Being the first American team to medal, it’s quite an honor we hold close to our hearts.”
Though Fenson’s rink features all but one 2006 member — John Shuster took some time off after Turin and now skips his own team — the team couldn’t find the same rhythm. In addition to finishing the challenge round 5-4, Fenson said they hadn’t been playing particularly well before that.
“It’s hard to put our finger on why not,” he said. “If we knew what it was, we would have fixed it.”
While Team Fenson won’t be going to Vancouver, a run at the next Olympics isn’t out of the question. Fenson is the oldest member of his team, and he turns 41 at the end of the month.
Scott Baird, the alternate on the Turin team, was almost 55.
“We haven’t talked about (2014) a great deal yet,” Fenson said. “We’ve thrown a few things around, a few ideas, and we’re just kind of digesting the whole thing. The Olympics were one place we definitely wanted to return to after 2006, and it’s still in our hearts and minds.”
From Russia.
Russian pairs skater Yuko Kawaguchi is free to represent her new country at the Vancouver Olympics.
Japan’s figure skating federation sent Russian skating officials confirmation last week that it was releasing Kawaguchi, the reigning European silver medalist with partner Alexander Smirnov, news agencies ITAR-Tass and RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.
The Japanese-born Kawaguchi has lived and trained in Russia since 2003, but only became a Russian citizen in December. Because International Olympic Committee rules require athletes to be citizens for three years before representing their new countries at an Olympics, Japan had to sign off on Kawaguchi’s switch.
The news is a boost for Russia, which has seen its once-dominant pairs program collapse. A Russian or Soviet couple has stood atop the podium at every Olympics dating back to 1964, yet Russia has just one medal — a bronze — to show from the last three world championships.
Kawaguchi and Smirnov were fourth at last year’s world championships.
Shani shines.
Shani Davis is on the verge of winning yet another speedskating world title. Maybe even two.
Davis won the 1,000 meters at last weekend’s World Cup race in Erfurt, Germany, putting him atop the World Cup standings with 690 points. With 90 points more than Canada’s Denny Morrison, Davis needs only to finish fifth or better in the circuit’s final race to clinch his second straight title in the distance, and third in four years.
The last 1,000-meter race is the World Cup final, which is March 6-7 in Salt Lake City.
Davis is also second in the 1,500-meter standings, trailing Norway’s Haevard Boekko by 35 points with two races to go. The next race is Feb. 14-15 in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Moving in.
The International Softball Federation opened its first office in Europe on Friday, another step in its efforts to return to the Olympic program.
The office is in Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the International Olympic Committee, and is in a complex that houses almost two dozen other international sports federations.
Softball and baseball are fighting to be included in the 2016 Olympics after being dropped from the 2012 London Games. While softball officials say their sport was hurt by baseball’s doping scandals and inability to ensure that top players would participate in the Olympics, the U.S. team’s domination of the game likely didn’t help and the ISF is hoping to show the game is growing globally.
In addition to the Lausanne office, the ISF has regional training centers in Italy and Russia. Its headquarters remain in Plant City, Fla.
“We are determined to use this location to forge stronger relationships with member federations and potential new federations in Europe,” ISF president Don Porter said Thursday.
“Softball is growing faster in Europe than anywhere else in the world at present, with huge numbers of young people getting involved in the sport, and we’re delighted to be able to support them from close at hand now.”
Rugby, squash, golf, roller sports and karate are also vying for the two open spots in the 2016 program. The IOC will decide in October which sports — if any — will be added.
One at a time.
It’s 2016 or bust for the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Even if Chicago fails to land the 2016 Summer Games, the United States won’t bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. There simply isn’t time. The International Olympic Committee will announce the 2016 host city on Oct. 2, and 2018 applications are due by the middle of that month.
Denver and Reno-Lake Tahoe had expressed interest in bidding for the 2018 Games, but the USOC has long made it clear that no American cities were in the running. The USOC did an exhaustive yearlong review before selecting Chicago as its 2016 candidate.
“We would have to have a shorter turnaround because of the deadline for submission of candidates for the 2018 Games,” USOC CEO Jim Scherr said Wednesday. “We really wouldn’t have an opportunity to regear and do a domestic process.”
Gloves are on.
World champion flyweight Rau’shee Warren will be back in the ring later this month when the U.S. boxing team travels to Ireland for two dual events.
The Americans will face Ireland at the National Boxing Stadium in Dublin on Feb. 27, followed two days later by bouts at the Arch Centre in Athy, County Kildare. It’s the first senior-level competition to which the United States is sending a full team since the Beijing Olympics.
Warren, the United States’ first world champion since 1999, lost a heartbreaking one-point decision in his opening bout in Beijing.
He remained amateur in hopes of becoming U.S. boxing’s first three-time Olympian, and will be joined in Ireland by featherweight Raynell Williams, another member of the U.S. team in Beijing.
Also on the U.S. roster: Michael Hunter, who failed to qualify for Beijing after winning the super heavyweight division at the Olympic Trials; light flyweight national champion Louie Byrd; and welterweight national champion Javonate Starks.
Olympic rings.
Simon Fairweather, gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics, has been named head coach of Australia’s national archery team. … Jordan Jovtchev, who has two silver and two bronze medals from five Olympics, is the new president of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation. … Light flyweight Luis Yanez, briefly kicked off the U.S. Olympic boxing team last summer for skipping training, makes his pro debut Feb. 20 in Dallas.
Nancy Armour, The Associated Press
