In speed skater Erin Jackson’s stunning success story, here are chapter and verse

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In speed skater Erin Jackson’s stunning success story, here are chapter and verse

There are so many compelling parts of Erin Jackson’s story it is hard to know which to begin with.

Do you start with Jackson being such a good inline skater she was a four-time world medalist named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s female roller athlete of the year three times?

Or her making the 2018 U.S. Olympic team in long track speed skating about five minutes after she shifted from wheels to blades?

(OK, it took her a little longer, but you get the idea.)

Or her being the first Black woman to make a U.S. Olympic team in long track?

Or her doing that despite coming to the 2018 Olympic trials without having met the qualifying time for the ensuing PyeongChang Winter Games.

Or her getting so many college degrees in so many subjects that Jackson jokingly (or not) thinks she should include “school” when asked to list her hobbies?

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Alysa Liu changes coaches, location a month and a half before Olympic figure skating team selected

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Alysa Liu changes coaches, location a month and a half before Olympic figure skating team selected

Two-time senior national champion Alysa Liu, the most successful U.S. women’s figure skater this season, has changed coaches barely two months before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

The skater’s father, Arthur Liu, confirmed the switch Monday morning in a text to NBCSports.com.

Two days after returning from the NHK Trophy in Tokyo, which ended Nov. 14, Liu left coaches Massimo Scali and Jeremy Abbott in the San Francisco Bay Area and went to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to train with Christy Krall, Drew Meekins and Viktor Pfeifer.

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Even in (finally) arriving at the right choice by postponing 2020 Olympics, actions of top U.S. and IOC officials were inglorious

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Even in (finally) arriving at the right choice by postponing 2020 Olympics, actions of top U.S. and IOC officials were inglorious

Now that sanity has prevailed, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been moved to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic (but will still be called the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the International Olympic Committee’s parallel universe), what can we take away from the way the decision was reached and about its ramifications?

A handful of thoughts:

1. The IOC’s abysmal handling of its messaging over the last month will be a case study in how not to do public relations.

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U.S. Olympic leaders decline leadership role on fate of 2020 Tokyo Olympics, refuse to call publicly for postponement

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U.S. Olympic leaders decline leadership role on fate of 2020 Tokyo Olympics, refuse to call publicly for postponement

The leaders of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, chief executive Sarah Hirshland and board chair Susanne Lyons, did just what I expected in a Friday media teleconference,

They equivocated.

Completely passed the buck to the International Olympic Committee on the fate of the 2020 Olympics rather than have the USOPC stake out a higher moral ground, which the IOC long has been unwilling to do on far more matters than just the coronavirus issue.

Fell back on bureaucratic speak.

Repeated several variations on the mantra, as expressed by Lyons, “I can assure you there is no circumstance when the USOC would send our athletes into harm’s way.”

Declined to take a stand showing they meant what that mantra implies.

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In 30 minutes, signs of changing times for Ledecky, Franklin

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OMAHA, Neb. - Missy Franklin finished swimming at the CenturyLink Center at 7:07 Saturday night. At 7:37, Katie Ledecky was in the water, taking over for good the pool that had belonged to Franklin four years ago.

In a sport ruled by times, 30 minutes provided a time passage through four years. The half-hour marked a transition from the era when Franklin was the leading figure in U.S. women’s swimming and its pre-Olympic designated star to the one when Ledecky is the leading figure in world women’s swimming and its pre-Olympic designated star.

Ledecky, 19, would cruise to victories in three freestyle races at these U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming, adding Saturday night’s win in the 800-meter freestyle to those in the 200 and 400.

Franklin, 21, had won two individual events and qualified for four in 2012. This time, she clawed her way on the team going to Rio by rallying for second-place finishes in the 200 backstroke and 200 freestyle.

She replaced dominance with desire, battling to reclaim part of what had seemed so easy to get the first time.

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