When Jessie Diggins won the first individual world title in U.S. cross-country skiing history on Tuesday, she noticed that all the American paraffin specialists were rushing to the track to cheer her on. There were so many voices that she couldn’t recognize even one of them.
“I remember at some point I thought I didn’t even know who it was,” Deakins told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, after which he burst into tears of joy. “They go crazy, it’s such a nice feeling. When you’re in really good shape, it still hurts, but you feel like you can push yourself a lot.”
In her signature style, Deakins won the 10K World All-Around Freestyle Championship in 23:40 in Planica, Slovenia. She finished 14 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Frida Karlsson. Another Swede, Ebba Andersson, won the bronze medal in a 30-second individual time trial race.
Deakins was two days behind the Norwegian and Swedish skiers in the team sprint, where she won bronze with Julia Kern, who started 10km per minute behind Carlsen, who starts in 2021. The last world championship of the year won a silver medal.
During the first four minutes, Deakins was three seconds ahead of Carlsen. Deakins maintained the same lead in each of the 7.7km stretches, keeping the race tight. But in the final six minutes, she dropped her hammer and slid to the finish without hesitation, collapsing on the snow next to Karlsson, gasping for air.
“I couldn’t stop crying after the race,” said Deakins, who climbed 1,263 feet in the 6.25-mile race, about the height of the Empire State Building. “I thought, ‘I can’t even enjoy this because I can’t even see. I cried. But it’s so special.”
American skiers have won 13 Olympic or World Championship medals since 1976, but Tuesday was the first individual gold.
Deakins already holds the US record for most Olympic medals in cross-country skiing (one of each color), World Championships medals (now six), and individual World Cup titles (14).
“It’s great to have a monkey on your back, even for an athlete like Jesse,” US coach Matt Whitcomb told NRK. “She may not be able to tell you all the statistics about herself. She can only tell you that you are giving her lessons like this and she knows that at least she will have a draw. This is truly Jesse’s most remarkable quality. and suffer.”
Deakins attributes the tears to the team effort of waxers, trainers, physical therapists, nutritionists and massage therapists. It’s also because she’s been away from home all season, and mostly away from her new husband.
Deakins called it a season of ups and downs. In December, she equaled and broke the United States World Cup record set by former Olympian teammate Kikkan Randall.
But before the start of the World Cup, teammates woke up in November to find her curled up on the bathroom floor. Deakins believes she contracted the 24-hour flu virus after traveling to Europe.
Then at the Tour de France, which is the Tour de France, like the Tour de France, which is held on New Year’s Eve, she finished 40th, 30th and 40th. She was advised by the Scandinavian media to withdraw from the tournament she won in 2021.
Diggins continued the race, setting a ski-chasing fastest time before finishing fifth on the grueling final stage, a 10km climb up Italy’s Semis Alps.
“I know I’m in good shape, especially with [the harassment],” Deakins said Tuesday. “But to be honest, we struggled with ski wax, you have to have everything to compete in a competitive race. That’s why when we win, we win as a team.”
Deakins finished with three podium finishes in his last five individual races before the World Championships and then had a strong run in Sunday’s team sprint.
She then dives into history, hoping to help Team USA win their first relay medal on Thursday. Deakins is a member of the USA relay team and has finished fourth or fifth at each of the last five World Championships.
“All the pieces come together—your body, your brain, your pace, your technique, your skiing and the weather,” she said. “It’s special.”
Sixteen-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh broke her own junior world record on Thursday by winning the 200m butterfly at the Pro Series Swimming event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
McIntosh, who won the titles in the 200m sweep and 400m individual medley at the World Championships last June, touched the wall in 2:5.05.
At the World Championships in Budapest, she dropped her junior world record by 15% and is now the 11th fastest runner in any age category.
McIntosh, who trained in Sarasota, had a promising rivalry with Katie Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle, neither of which swam Thursday.
Ledecky did not compete in any of her major events on Thursday, but placed second in the 100-meter freestyle and did not compete in a major championship.
Abby Weitzeil won in a time of 53.38, an impressive start to the season in the deep American tournament. Weizeil, the 2020 Olympic Trials champion in the 50m and 100m freestyle, beat competitors, including the top four, at Thursday’s Olympic Trials.
She is also returning from a team that missed last year’s World Cup. Weitzeil was seventh in last year’s selection, but on Thursday he will be second in the 2022 selection behind world bronze medalist Torrey Haske, who is not racing in Fort Lauderdale.
Also on Thursday, Nick Fink beat Michael Andrew by one percent in a 100m breaststroke match between last year’s two top Americans. Funk’s time was 59.97 seconds.
Olympic gold medalist Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia won the 400m freestyle, joined by Olympic bronze medalist Kieran Smith (third) and Olympic 800m and 1500m freestyle champion Bobby Fincke (sixth).
Swimmers prepare for the US Championships in late June and the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July.
In the complex maze of rules, regulations and interpretations that govern the global anti-doping system, no one sees this warning: beware of dog drugs.
It was an understandable oversight, but it led to a three-month investigative expedition that finally exonerated the five-time Olympian for doping, while adding an asterisk that some consider unnecessary.
Katerina Nash, a mountain biker and cross-country skier who represented the Czech Republic at two Winter Olympics and three Summer Olympics, has avoided a four-year doping ban. Authorities determined that when she dropped the medication down the throat of her sick dog, aka Ruby, the substance got there through her skin.
Despite the absence of sanctions, Nash’s run-in with anti-doping authorities was still on Thursday’s report, a by-product of long-standing rules requiring any doping violation — even an unintentional “Adverse Analytical Finding.” .
“It’s shocking to think that if I don’t wash my hands it will ruin my entire career as an athlete for 30 years,” Nash, 45, told The Associated Press. Different ways to take care of my dog. But in the end, I was on this drug every day for three weeks.”
Nash lives in California and has been tested by the US Anti-Doping Agency. The results, which appeared in USADA offices a few days later, were surprising. Nash’s urine showed trace amounts (0.07 billionth of a gram per milliliter) of a substance called Camorelin. Although insignificant, it was enough to cause an unfavorable opening. While capromorelin is not specifically mentioned on the banned substance list, it still falls into the category of “other” banned substances associated with human growth hormone.
As in previous cases, having determined that over-the-counter sunscreens had shown positive results, members of the USADA science team set to work.
First, they found that Camorelin is present in Entyce, which is used to increase appetite in sick dogs. Then USADA Chief Scientist Dr. Matt Fedoruk and others began applying the drug to their own skin. A few days later they gave a positive result. This is the latest example of the pros and cons of fighting doping with increasingly sensitive tools to detect tiny amounts of drugs.
“The problem with anti-doping is that sensitivity has become so good that now we have an overlap between doping and environmental exposure that we can experience as athletes,” said Fedoruk.
Prime examples of the problems that sensitive tests can cause are the several cases that have been discontinued in recent years of athletes who tested positive after kissing or having sex with a partner who had a banned substance in their system.
In other cases, athletes have ingested traces of a banned substance while eating contaminated meat. In some cases, anti-doping rules have been changed to set lower thresholds for positive tests.
“These issues need to be addressed comprehensively,” Greene said. “Giving freedom of action in a public announcement would be a good cause for action, it’s easy to fix. You can still find error-free results, but they don’t have to be published.”
While the case is pending, Nash has been temporarily banned from playing his sport and serving as president of the International Cycling Federation’s Athletes’ Commission. She said that she is well aware that some people will see the word “doping” next to her name and make incorrect assumptions.
“It’s so ironic because I take it seriously,” said Nash, whose first Olympics took place in 1996. “I don’t take supplements. For the most part, I just stick with what [the candy bar company] makes because it’s successful and I know where it’s made. dog.”
Unfortunately, the medicine did not save Ruby. About a month after Nash made the agonizing decision to let the dog go, she received her first call from USADA about the test. In a way, she was lucky that USADA was willing to commit resources to finding out where the capmulin in her body came from—an investment that would have kept Nash in the Mostly Local Games.
For 15 years, she said, she filled out every form detailing her whereabouts, passed every test, and never got a bad result. However, the rules require her name to appear in a USADA press release on Thursday. The press release was titled “WADA Rules Must Change”, referring to WADA making no exceptions after the details of the case were presented.
“It’s a cruel system,” Nash said. “This is a fairly advanced system, and it exists for a reason. But that shouldn’t stop us from improving the system in the future.”
Post time: Mar-03-2023