Getty Images After two years away from the her sport, skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace is officially back after finishing second at worlds in St. Moritz Friday.
“What a great day,” the 2007 world champ said after her final run. “I felt so much better today and I am excited to be on the medal stand. This has already been such an amazing year.”
Pikus-Pace, who finished fourth at the 2010 Games, announced her desire to comeback to the sport last summer. She has already finished on the podium four times during the World Cup season, and helped the U.S. win gold in the team event earlier this week. But her silver in the individual race was what she need to prove she’s ready to compete in Sochi.
“I was really focused on being consistent… I’m really pleased with my results and I know I can be competitive with the best in the world. I’ve raised the bar for myself at this point and expect to be at the top.”
Pikus-Pace started a second off the lead Friday after opening heats of 1:09.99 and 1:10.04, but she posted the fastest times of the last two heats to finish behind only Great Britain’s Shelley Rudman.
“I’d be OK finishing second or even last if I knew I’d competed at my best, but it’s tough knowing I left something behind… I know what I’m capable of now, and it just makes me even hungrier to win next time.”
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AP Photo/Steve Ruark
We’ve already got one great Olympic comeback story Thursday with the official return of Coach K to Team USA Basketball. But the rumors surrounding his return were short-lived, and pale in comparison to the questions about whether Michael Phelps will be back for Rio. Fort Myers NBC anchor Peter Busch, gold medalist Rowdy Gaines, and…
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It’s like he never left. Mostly because he really didn’t. But Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski made his return to Team USA official at a press conference on campus in Durham Thursday. “I really thought I wasn’t going to do it,” Krzyzewski told reporters. “But now that I am doing it, I can tell you…
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As an eight-year-old in the early-90s, I had a mild panic attack of joy when I heard the first Dream Team was being put together for the Barcelona Games, with personal favorites Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley headlining the team. My life goal immediately became playing for Team USA some day. Which didn’t actually happen.…
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Reuters
Amateur boxing association president C.K. Wu of Taiwan officially entered his name on the ballot for the next IOC president, becoming the fourth world sports leader to step forward with a bid. Wu made his announcement Thursday afternoon at a news conference in Taipei, saying that the goal of his time spent as the IOC’s…
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Andrew P. Scott/USA Today Sports
Despite all the rumors that swimming legend Michael Phelps will return to the pool for one more go at the Rio Games, he seems to be pretty content spending his first year of retirement golfing with the likes of his idol, Michael Jordan. But Phelps’s friend and top-rival Ryan Lochte said he thinks it’s just…
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After spending all of nine months away from his post as the men’s USA Basketball coach, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski will return to the team through the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Games. Coach K had stepped away from the team after last summer’s London Games, but over the weekend he told SI’s Pete…
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NYWrestlingNews.com
Any American still looking for a decent reason to support the “Keep Olympic Wrestling” movement need look no further than Cornell wrestler Kyle Dake: The four time NCAA national champ who was also the only USA wrestler to score a win against Iran at last week’s “Rumble on the Rails.” And now, on top of…
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Scouts, analysts, and casual onlookers have had nothing but good things to say about rookie defensive end Lawrence Okoye, the British Olympian who inked a free agent deal with the team despite having never played American football. Now the rest of the world is starting to notice. Check out Bleacher Report‘s look at Okoye’s early…
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Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Details from a Tuesday summit regarding the role of the World Anti-Doping Agency are scarce at best, but IOC President Jacques Rogge told the AP that the issues with drug testing are seen as qualitative rather than quantitative, and that WADA will do more unannounced out-of-competition testing of athletes in the future. “There should be…
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AP Photo/Eric Gay
Olympic gold medalist (and occasional NBA scoring champ) Kevin Durant pledged $1 million to the tornado relief effort in Oklahoma Tuesday through his Durant Family Foundation, according to an announcement from the Red Cross. “Mr. Durant’s gift and support to Okla. comes at a time of great need and we’re forever thankful for his generosity,”…
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In news that would be much easier to report if I spoke another language, two-time London Olympics swimming champ Yannick Agnel is leaving his coach and training facility in Nice, France and will move to Baltimore to train with Michael Phelps’s longtime coach Bob Bowman. The young Frenchman announced at a press conference Tuesday that…
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AP Photo/Victoria Will, File
Gabby Douglas has had a pretty great year: She won two gold medals including the all-around, was named Sportswoman of the Year and AP Athlete of the Year, wrote a book, met the President, appeared on a Wheaties Box, Vampire Diaries, and Oprah, threw out first pitches in New York and LA, and even led…
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AP
The “early word” on British discus hurler turned NFL defensive end Lawrence Okoye is good according to ESPN analyst Michael Clayton, who recently noted how Okoye impressed onlookers at San Francisco’s rookie camp last week. “Okoye might have enough pure talent for the 49ers to consider him for the active roster,” Clayton wrote in a…
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WALDO SWIEGERS/AFP/Getty Images
Even after being spotted on a high school track in April, and being cleared to race at the Paralympic Worlds, South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius has ruled out competitive running in 2013. Instead, he plans to focus on his upcoming murder trial. “We have decided as a team we are not talking [about] any training…
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Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Maybe USA Basketball CEO Jerry Colangelo isn’t satisfied with the list of willing candidates to coach the national team, or maybe Mike Krzyzewski is already getting the itch for another gold medal run, but apparently the two have been discussing the possibility of teaming up again through Rio. “There’s a chance,” Coach K told Sports…
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Wrestling officials implement significant rules changes at Moscow meeting
May 18, 2013, 10:34 AM EDT
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
FILA, wrestling’s governing body, is spending the weekend in Moscow cleaning house before an upcoming IOC vote will determine if they end up on the 2020 Olympics schedule. And apparently the meeting has been productive. On Saturday, acting president Nenad Lalovic, who took over after the forced resignation of president Raphael Martinetti, was officially elected…
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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The swimming world went a little nuts Friday when NBC Fort Myers anchor Peter Busch, son of U.S. national swim team director Frank Busch, tweeted that he confirmed what many of us have hoped: Olympic champ Michael Phelps was already “planning a return to competitive swimming” after only a year or so away from the…
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Amateur International Boxing Associating president C.K. Wu of Taiwan has also apparently thrown his hat into the ring in hopes of becoming the next IOC president when current leader Jacques Rogge’s tenure is up this September. “Dr Wu handed over a letter this morning to Dr Rogge informing him about his candidacy,” a source explained…
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After the Iranian national wrestling team put a 6-1 whooping on the U.S. at Wednesday’s “Rumble on the Rails” at New York’s historic Grand Central Station, the two teams were preparing to square off again in Los Angeles Sunday as part of the “United 4 Wrestling” event to help save the sport. But USA Wrestling…
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Nintendo Global
In addition to Olympic champs like Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, and Evan Lysacek all prepping for the Sochi Games next February, a couple other familiar faces are getting ready to compete as well: Mario the plumber and Sonic the hedgehog. Nintendo Global president Satoru Itawa announced Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter…
