TeamUSATracker: February 10, 2020
Welcome to Tokyo: Soccer, Shooting, & Table Tennis, Curling Nationals, & Men's Foil Olympic Team Preview
Team USA Tracker: February 10, 2020
@TeamUSATracker
In the Starting Blocks…
As we hit mid February it is time for Winter World Championships to begin this week and Biathlon World Championships kicks off us on Thursday followed by Luge World Championships then Bobsled/Skeleton rounding out the World Championships in February.
Curling World Championships are in March and Early April (see below USA Curling National Championships going on now) and Hockey World Championships end the winter Olympic sports in April & May.
There are no FIS Skiing (Alpine, Cross Country, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping, Freestyle Skiing) since they are only held in odd years.
3 Days Until Biathlon World Championships
5 Days Until Luge World Championships
11 Days Until Bobsled/Skeleton World Championships
19 Days Until LA Sevens Rugby
130 Days Until 2020 USA Track & Field Trials
132 Days Until 2020 USA Swimming Trials
165 Days Until Tokyo Opening Ceremonies
Thoughts and Feedbacks email me back at 247teamusa@gmail.com
🥇 WELCOME TO THE OLYMPICS
US Women’s Soccer Team officially qualified for the Olympics on Friday night and then won the CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament on Sunday night.
They are trying to become the first women’s team to win the World Cup and then Olympics gold in back to back year ever. The Women’s FIFA World Cup began in 1991, Women’s Soccer began as an official sport in 1992. Team USA has fell victim to this curse twice in 2000 (Won WC in 1999) and 2016 (Won WC in 2015). Team USA Women’s Soccer has won gold at every Olympics besides 2000 and 2016 (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012)
The current group of US Women beat Canada 3-0 on Sunday to finish the tournament as Christian Press was given the Golden Ball as the Tournament’s Best Player
Sound smart today with this stat courtesy of a tweet of @USWNT
@USWNT
25 Goals Scored.
0 Conceded.
Concacaf dominance continues for the #USWNT.
Read More:
Next for Women’s Soccer: She Believes Cup 2020
USWNT vs England March 5 - Orlando, FL
USWNT vs Spain March 8- Harrison, NJ
USWNT vs Japan March 11- Frisco, Texas
Bonus:
Four Members of the USA Shooting team locked up their spots in Air Rifle on Sunday at the end of the Olympic Trials for USA Shooting (USA Rifle)
Mary Tucker and Alison Weinz make the Women’s Air Rifle Team. 2016 Rio Gold Medalist in Air Rifle Ginny Thrasher will not make the team in Air Rifle to repeat in that discipline.
However don’t count out West Virginia All American Ginny Thrasher yet she was leading qualification for 50M Rifle 3 positions
18 year old Tucker is a freshmen at University of Kentucky and lead the whole way through on Air Rifle.
Ali Weisz won Gold at PanAm Games last summer and beat out Ginny Thrasher and also first and second alternates, Sarah Beard and Sagen Maddalena for the last spot.
In the Men’s Air Rifle
24 year old Lucas Kozeniesky made his second Olympic Team by winning air rifle qualification by tying a world record on his second day of qualification. Kozeniesky won gold at 2019 Pan Am Games that got USA Shooting the quota spot in air rifle.
He is joined by another Wildcat - 18 year old University of Kentucky student Will Shaner who made the team by finishing 2nd. Matt Sanchez and Peter Fiori are the first and second alternates.
And USA Table Tennis officially named Kanak Jha and Lily Zhang to the USA Table Tennis given their rankings. Both Men and Women Table Tennis have qualified for the Olympics..
19 year old Jha is ranked #25 in world and pulled off a bronze at PanAm Games last year. This will be his 2nd Olympics.
23 year old Lily Zhang is ranked #28 in world and became the first American to make the SF of an ITTF World Cup event last October. This is Zhang’s 3rd Olympics.
🥈WHAT TO WATCH - USA CURLING NATIONALS and NEW YORK OPEN
Tennis and Curling on TV Today
Thanks to 12 End Sports - USA Curling Nationals are streaming every day. One team in Men and Women are looking for the Golden Ticket to World Championships
Top 4 men will advance to the Playoffs.
The Key Storyline this year will someone knock off Team Shuster? The Gold Medalists have played a limited schedule this year so Team Dropkin (@YoungBucksUSA) and Team Ruohonen are both rated higher than Team Shuster in the Curling Rankings. Team Shuster beat Team Ruohonen last week and through the first 3 draws - there seems to be 6 to 7 teams in contention for 4 spots. Also watch for Team Maerki - the skip won bronze as alternate with Switzerland in 2018 but now competing in his first ever USA Nationals and they are 2-1 right now.
In Women’s Division likely the Top 3 Women will advance to playoffs
All eyes right now are Team Sinclair vs Team Roth/Peterson Finals (Tabitha Peterson has been skipping Team Roth this season since Nina Roth just had a baby )
Also in the mix right now is Team Cassie Potter who skipped the US Olympic Team in 2006.
Interesting about the Women’s Division is that the 3 HPP Team (behind Roth and Sinclair) Team Bear did not make the 2020 Nationals Field (as a new team they didn’t get in on points and didn’t qualify from Challenge round)
New York Open Tennis
After exciting Fed Cup this weekend where USA defeated 3 games to 2 with Sofia Kenin, Serena Williams, & Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Sofia Kenin picking up wins - a lot of American Men play in the New York Open this week.
Reilly Opelka who has not yet won in 2020 (He is 0-2) is trying to repeat after his 2019 crown and at least 8 Americans are in the main draw (Noah Rubin, Bradley Klahn, & Mitch Krueger need 1 more win to qualify so this number could rise )
Tommy Paul will start off play playing the #6 Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia around 250 PMET today
Two All American Matches tonight fill up Stadium Court Tonight in Long Island (Nassau Coliseum)
Steve Johnson faces #5 Tennys Sandgren -730 PMET
Unranked Jack Sock gets back on the tennis court (after only 1 win ATP Level last year in Laver Cup ) and will face Marcos Giron after Johnson/Sandgren
🥉MEDAL ANALYSIS - Men’s Foil
One of the most impressive performances of the weekend by Team USA was a Sweep in Turin Grand Prix by US Men’s Fencing Foil Team
Gerek Meinhardt won Gold, Alexander Massialas won silver, Race Imboden won bronze.
In terms of the World Rankings (where Grand Prix points are 1.5 more than a normal World Cup Tournament) the US has 4 fencers in the Top 8 which is the Men’s Foil Team is favored to win a medal at the Olympics. They won the World Championships in 2019.
Men’s Foil is shaping up as another sport like Women’s Surfing where a medal contender could be left out of competing in the singles competition.
Only 3 fencers can fence individually at the Olympics so there are two fencing events in Men’s Foil World Cup Egypt & Grand Prix in Anaheim for the 4 US Fencers in the running to make their case to compete for gold individually. (Note in fencing the 4th fencer comes and can participate in the team event as a replacement like curling, so they won’t be left home)
Going into the event at Turin Grand Prix - Imboden, Nick Itkin (He finished 18), Meinhart and Massialias were ranked in that order in the FIE Rankings.
Post the Grand Prix - Meinhardt is 4, Massialias is 5, Itkin is 6, Imboden is 8.
To further complicate matters USA Fencing uses a different ranking to pick the Top 3 they don’t go off FIE rankings and note most countries don’t because they only really keep your 5 best scores. .
The US standings will be updated later this week
https://www.usafencing.org/current-point-standings
Finally Congrats to 2016 Olympian Lauren Fendrick and Sara Hughes for winning the 2 Star FIVB Beach Volleyball Tournament in Cambodia
Fendrick missed all of last year due to her pregnancy and then birth of her first child so she is trying to medal in as many events as she can this year for a longshot bid to the 2020 Olympics.
She is off to a good start.