Karen Chen of the United States performs at the Figure Skating World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden on Wednesday. Martin Meissner/Associated Press
FIGURE SKATING
Anna Shcherbakova, Russia’s three-time national champion, won the free skate Wednesday at the World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.
Less predictable was the two American skaters, helped by the struggles of other contenders, putting the United States in range of the maximum three berths at next year’s Olympics. Several medal contenders, including Russia’s other dynamo, Alexandra Trusova, struggled with falls and incomplete combinations. For the United States to get three spots in the women’s field at the Beijing Games, Bradie Tennell and Karen Chen must finish a combined 13th or better.
Right now, they have a total of 11th place. Chen was the bronze medalist at nationals but was placed on the U.S. team ahead of runner-up Amber Glenn because of her international experience.
“I want to deliver the free skate that I know I’m capable of,” Chen said after coming in fourth with a personal best 74.40. “I’ve yet to show that at Skate America or nationals, so I feel like this is the time.”
Tennell, who has won two U.S. titles, was energetic but flawed in winding up seventh.
“I’m pretty disappointed,” Tennell said. “I’ve been skating clean programs every day since nationals.”
Shcherbakova’s 81.00 points placed her early two points ahead of Japan’s Rika Kihira, whose score was damaged by two under-rotated jumps, including a triple axel that only one other skater hit in the short program.
GOLF
WORLD GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS: Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay thrust their fists in celebration with birdies on the final hole to win, the kind of emotions typical for a final round. In the Dell Technologies Match Play, every day can feel like Sunday.
The opening round of group play at Austin, Texas, featured 16 of the 32 matches going the distance, Rory McIlroy suffering his worst loss in 10 years and some of the best moments belonging to newcomers to this fickle event.
That starts with Antoine Rozner, the 28-year-old from Paris who only got into this World Golf Championship by winning the Qatar Masters two weeks ago with a 60-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
Clinging to a one-shot lead over U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, a tree blocking the 54 yards that separated him from the flag, Rozner hit a bold flop shot that settled 8 feet behind the hole. Finishing with a flair, the Frenchman holed the putt for a 2-up victory over DeChambeau.
Next up was Bob MacIntyre of Scotland, dropping two eagles over the final five holes in a 2-and-1 victory over Kevin Na. The second one was at the par-5 16th, where MacIntyre holed a bunker shot to seize control.
McIlroy was so discouraged walking off after 13 holes that he declined to talk about his match for the second straight time in this event. The previous occasion was in 2019 when he lost to Tiger Woods in the knockout stage on the weekend.
This loss was to Poulter, who did so much right – a 7-iron to a dangerous pin to 8 feet on No. 9, a 4-iron from 247 yards to 7 feet for eagle on the par-5 12th – that McIlroy couldn’t afford to do much wrong. And he did plenty.
McIlroy found the water on a hole with no water hazard at No. 5 – his driver bounced off a path, over the fence and into the swimming pool of a house. He had a 12-foot birdie to win a hole and three-putted to lose. And the match ended on No. 13 when McIlroy’s eagle chip from behind the green went all the way into the water.
It was his biggest loss in Match Play since Ben Crane beat him, 8 and 7, in the second round of 2011.
Justin Thomas (2) joined DeChambeau (5) as the top seeds who lost their opening matches. Collin Morikawa (4), Xander Schauffele (6), Patrick Reed (7) and Tyrrell Hatton (8) had to settle for ties.
HIGH SCHOOLS
MICHIGAN REFEREE CHARGED: A Michigan high school basketball referee was charged with assault Wednesday for putting his hands on a coach and pushing him with about a minute left in a close game.Online records show the misdemeanor charge was filed against William Ripple of Kentwood in Muskegon (Michigan) County District Court.
Ripple couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The incident last Friday involved Ripple and Muskegon Coach Keith Guy. Video showed the referee putting his hands on Guy’s chest late in a boys’ basketball game against Zeeland East.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association suspended Ripple.
“I’ve had an extensive opportunity to talk with Coach Guy on this matter, and he and I have agreed upon a direction that we want to see the case go,” prosecutor D.J. Hilson told MLive.com.
“It is an incident that shouldn’t have happened, especially during a high school basketball game in front of young men and women,” Hilson said.
SNOWBOARDING
EX-OLYMPIAN DIES IN AVALANCHE: Julie Pomagalski, a former Olympic snowboarder from France, has died in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps. She was 40.
Pomagalski competed in the parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and the 2006 Turin Games. She won gold in the snowboard cross at the world championships in 1999.
The French ski federation said Wednesday that Pomagalski died Tuesday but did not specify the location. French and Swiss media widely reported that the avalanche took place on Gemsstock mountain in the Swiss canton of Uri.
The federation said a guide, Bruno Cutelli, also died in the avalanche.
Uri police said that four people from France were free-riding on the descent from Gemsstock.
“Suddenly there was an avalanche for reasons that are still unknown,” the police statement said. “As a result, three people slid down the slope with the avalanche. One person was slightly injured and flown by Rega to Kantonsspital Uri hospital. The other two people were completely covered. Any help came too late for them.”
Police did not identify the victims. The rescue team included two avalanche search dogs.
SOCCER
FIFA BANS: Sepp Blatter was banned for a second time by FIFA on Wednesday for financial wrongdoing, seven months before the 85-year-old former president’s first ban expires.
Blatter has recently been in poor health and was put in an induced coma for one week after undergoing heart surgery in December, at the time when FIFA was deciding his case.
FIFA said its ethics committee banned both Blatter and former secretary general Jérôme Valcke for six years and eight months for self-dealing in awarding themselves contractual bonuses worth millions of dollars, mostly linked to staging World Cups.
The charges against both men under the FIFA code of ethics included conflicts of interest, receiving gifts and breach of their duty of loyalty. Valcke was also charged with abuse of office.
Wednesday’s verdicts added to a slew of ongoing legal activity connecting the past and present leaderships of soccer’s governing body.
Both Blatter and Valcke, who also face criminal proceedings in Switzerland and deny wrongdoing, will start serving the new bans when their current ones expire.
Blatter and Valcke were previously banned for six years and 10 years, respectively, in separate cases. Blatter’s first ban expires in October and Valcke’s initial ban will be served in October 2025.
MLS: Soccer fans will soon be able to see the Chicago Fire play in person.
The Fire announced on Wednesday that about 7,000 fans will be admitted to the team’s April 17 home opener against the New England Revolution at Soldier Field. As the season progresses, the team will have the option to increase attendance to up to 25% capacity— or 15,375 fans.
The announcement comes two weeks after the Cubs and the White Sox announced that when the season starts, they will each allow a little more than 8,000 fans for games at Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field.
• Major League Soccer confirmed the opening dates for its three new stadiums while releasing the full 34-game schedule for its 26th season of competition.
FC Cincinnati will open West End Stadium against Inter Miami on May 16. Expansion Austin FC will debut Q2 Stadium on June 19 against San Jose after opening its inaugural season with seven straight road games.
The defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew then will play their first match at New Crew Stadium on July 3.
The league’s annual Rivalry Week featuring local derbies and popular matchups will be held Aug. 20-29. The rematch of last season’s MLS Cup final, pitting Columbus against the Seattle Sounders, is set for Aug. 21.
The MLS still hasn’t set an exact date for the All-Star Game, which is expected to be held at Los Angeles FC’s Banc of California Stadium in July.
Although the start of the regular season was delayed by two weeks after the signing of the league’s collective bargaining agreement in February, the season still ends Nov. 7. The 14-team MLS Cup playoffs begin Nov. 19, with the championship match on Dec. 11.
The league’s two conferences are unbalanced this season with 14 teams in the East and 13 teams in the West. All 14 Eastern Conference teams and 11 Western Conference teams will play two matches apiece against teams in the other conference, while two West teams have three matches against the East.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR TRUCKS: Jessica Friesen will attempt to make her NASCAR national series debut at Bristol Motor Speedway for a potential showdown with her husband in the Truck Series race.
Stewart Friesen is in his fifth full season of Truck Series competition and his wife limits her racing to sprint car and modified divisions. Bristol Motor Speedway for this weekend has been converted into a dirt track — a surface suited for Jessica Friesen’s experience — so Halmar Friesen Racing entered a second truck for Saturday night.
If she makes the field, Jessica and Stewart Friesen would be the first married couple to compete in the same NASCAR race since Elton Sawyer and Patty Moise in a 1998 second-tier series event. Jessica Friesen is slated to drive the No. 62 Toyota while her husband will be in his usual No. 52 Tundra.
The Friesens have competed in the same event before, including a sprint car race in upstate New York two days after their 2014 wedding. They finished first and second – but Jessica Friesen is looking to change the results at Bristol.
“It was ‘Stewart Friesen and wife ran one and two,’” she said. “I’m looking forward to changing that a little bit, those headlines a little bit.”
Jessica Friesen will have to qualify her way into the race via the four, 15-minute heat races before the Saturday night main event and the field is stacked: There are seven full-time Cup Series drivers among the 44 trying to make the 36-truck field.
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