Team USA Tracker: February 26, 2020
@TeamUSATracker
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THE STARTING BLOCKS
Another Week another World Cup Winner
Kaillie Humphries & Lauren Gibbs won World Championships Gold this week in 2 Woman Bobsled - This is Humphries 3rd world title but 1st for Team USA
Bobsled World Championships continue this weekend with Hunter Church driving USA Bobsled Team (they finished 20th in 2 Man Bobsled) and US Men/Women Skeleton competing.
Fun Fact: When Humprhries won her 1st World Championships in 2012 a trophy did not exist for the Wold Champion so Humphries' parents offered to buy one themselves and donate it to the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, and when that organization finally got a trophy for the women it was Humphries who commissioned the engraving of all past winners' names.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2020 WORLD CHAMPIONS <a href="
23, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
World Cup Victory Drought over in Aerials
Justin Schoenefeld ended a 4 year drought for the US men and a 2 year drought for anything US Aerials Events. He ended the longest gap for men between wins since 1994 when Aerials became an Olympic Sport. Schoenfield is just 21 and was only making his 8th World Cup start. Aerials World Cup continues this Saturday in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2020/02/22/justin-schoenefeld-aerials/
Congrats to
@ReillyOpelka who won the Delray Beach Open his 2nd ATP Title and 1st ATP Title of 2020
Fun Fact: Opelka is now 41-41 in ATP Matches and 33-26 since 2019.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Raonic in the morning.<br>Nishioka in the afternoon.<br><br>Hear how <a href="
24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This week most American Tennis Players are in Acapulco for ATP & WTA Tournaments but upsets have been plentiful this week for the Americans on tour. Right now John Isner, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Marcos Giron, Caroline Dolehide, Christina McHale, and 18 year old Katie Volynets are still playing. Amanda Anisimova made the Rof16 in Doha but withdrew because of illness. Upset this week in both Doha & Acapulco were seeded players Sofia Kenin, Sloane Stephens, Lauren Davis, & Venus Williams.
COUNTDOWN:
3 Days Until USA Sevens Rugby in Los Angeles (Preview Below)
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Short Track Speed Skating World Championships (Postponed due to Coronavirus)
16 Days Until Women's Curling World Championships
20 Days Until Figure Skating World Championships
OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION:
15 Days Until Wrestling Pan American Qualification Tournament (USA Wrestling looking for spots)
20 Days Until 3x3 Basketball Olympic Qualification Tournament (Both USA Men & Women 3x3 looking for Top 4 finishes)
22 Days Until Men’s Soccer Olympic Qualification Tournament
113 Days Until Track and Field US Trials
115 Days Until US Swimming Trials
119 Days Until 2020 US Gymnastics Trials
149 Days Until Tokyo Olympics
🥇 JADE CAREY ALMOST LOCKING IN A SOLO BID TO TOKYO
Jade Carey won’t have to wait 120 days to know if she is going to Tokyo using the Gymnastics loophole allowing Gymnasts to qualify for the Olympics via World Cup stops.
Jade Carey won her 3rd World Cup Vault and 3rd World Cup Floor in Melbourne all but locking up her spot in Tokyo 2020 for individual competition. The maximum you can win is 3.
https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2020/02/23/jade-carey-gymnastics-olympic-qualification/
As the article mentioned the downside is that Carey will not be able to compete in the team competition but I believe the plus size is that she will be able to do all the apparatuses at the Olympics so the US Gymnastics team will almost have 4 athletes competing for 2 spots
Stephen Nedoroscik also won Pommel Horse Gold at Melbourne but see the full standings below he needs a lot to go his way to qualify but shows why he might be a pick for the 4 person US team.
Carey’s spot could be locked up in March post Baku or Doha.
Full Standings. As noted above they only keep the best 3 scores if you had questions re the math.
🥈 LA SEVENS RUGBY PREVIEW
Rugby 7s come to America on Saturday with the HSBC Rugby 7s tournament stop in Los Angeles. USA Rugby has won back to back titles the last two years in Las Vegas and USA Rugby moved the stop from Las Vegas to Los Angeles this year.
USA Rugby announced their roster this week. Folau Niua is still out due to injury but hopefully we get an update on his comeback date during the USA Rugby 7s in LA.
Things to watch: Can USA Rugby 3 peat?
Who will score 200 first? Carlin Isles and Perry Baker are both 199 HSBC 7 Career Tries so it will be a race to who gets to 200 first and who has the lead after this weekend.
In terms of the roster, Cody Melphy stays on the roster after strong play from Sydney 7s and Madison Hughes comes back. Joe Schroeder also is back on the roster replacing an injured Matai Leuta and even though Brett Thompson is back practicing with the USA Rugby Sevens he does not suit up for either Falcons or Eagles this weekend.
As Rugby Fever hits America the Rugby 7s Men and Women Falcons (Developmental Squad) play starting Friday in the LA Invitational. The US Men’s Falcons could be a good preview for 2024 and 2028 Olympics
Follow @TeamUSATracker to see the full rosters
🥉FOIL UPDATE
We previewed this last week but the US Women’s Foil Team have qualified for the Olympics (CONGRATS) making them the 4th US Fencing that will send a full squad to Tokyo as they won a Silver Medal in the Team World Cup in Kazan. Lee Kiefer has locked up her individual bid previously but 2 other fencers are fighting for 2nd and 3rd individual spot. Currently it looks like Jacqueline Dubrovich and Nicole Ross will join Lee Kiefer but with two events left there are 7 young US Fencers (18 to 23 years old- Maia Weintraub, Iman Blow, Sabrina Massialas, Zander Rhodes, Sylvie Binder, May Tieu) who have a shot to make the team with a big performances in last two tournaments.
Men’s Foil Team won their 15th consecutive World Cup Medal in Cairo and the US Men’s foil team of 4 is set for Tokyo 2020. Alexander Massialas and Gerek Meinhardt qualified to compete in the individual competition as Massialas picked up a bronze in Cairo and Meinhardt finished 5th. Race Imboden was upset by the eventual champ in the 1st Round (unlucky for him) and Nick Itkin also lost in the 1st round. Both Imboden and Itkin locked in a Top 4 finish in the Foil Standings so they will be headed to Tokyo but the next two events will sort out who will compete in the individual competion depsite them both being top 10 fencers in the world. Currently Itkin is in 3rd and would compete in individual competition but two more events could easily have Imboden jump Itkin.
WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND
All eyes on USA Sevens Rugby
All Games on Saturday- games on NBC Sports, Olympic Channel, and NBC Sports Gold
Sunday will be the Knockout Stages (there are QFs this weekend)
USA vs Samoa 3:19 PMET
USA vs Scotland 6:37 PMET
USA vs Australia 11:03 PMET
Tennis: Mexican Open (Acapulco)- Tennis Channel
John Isner will take on American Marcos Giron tonight and if he wins will play the Alexander Zverev/Tommy Paul match. Taylor Fritz also lines up with Ugo Humbert tonight. With a lot of upsets on the both sides of the Acapulco draw there are chances for Americans to pick up some points.
Winter Sports are winding down so only so only one more month to enjoy except for Hockey
Re Curling (America’s Favorite Winter Sport) has the Mixed Doubles Championships- Feb 27th to March 1 in Bemidji, MN.
Minnesota. Cory Christenesen & John Shuster will try to defend their title from Sarah Anderson & Korey Dropkin (Anderson/Dropkin are the top ranked US Mixed Doubles team at #4 even though they have only played in 4 events this year).
Also 2018 Mixed Doubles Olympic Team Becca and Matt Hamilton will be in the field along with Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys were runner-ups last to Christensen/Shuster. The field is very strong in addition to those 4 teams - former champs Tabitha Peterson & Joe Polo are the field and Peterson comes off her USA Women’s National Championships win. Two other former champs are in the field are Jason Smith who will be competing with partner Kim Rhyme (who was not his partner when he won) and Cristin Clark (she won 3 titles with her husband Brady Clark) who will be competing with Chris Bond.
Skiing: Alpine World Cup Men are in Austria for Alpine Combined, Giant Slalom and Super G and the women are in Italy (it is still on despite coronavirus fears) for Super G and Alpine Combined. Note Mikaela Shriffin will not compete this weekend.
Cross Country Skiing is in Finland. They are one month away from a March 17 event in Minneapolis, MN so it is always exciting to have Cross Country Skiing World Cup Event in America.
Sailing: More Olympic Qualification continues - follow the updates here