After a disappointing result in their comeback bid, US ice dancers Alex and Maia Shibutani said qualifying for next year’s Winter Olympics was not the main reason for their return to competitive skating.
In their return to the ice after a seven-year hiatus, the sibling duo finished in sixth place in ice dancing at the NHK Trophy yesterday.
“We’re disappointed with the scores, for sure,” Alex said. “We’ve been in this sport for a long time so we’ll have to look at the protocols but we know what we did and what we came here to do.”
Photo: AP
Once the dominant US ice dancers, the Shibutanis last competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where they won bronze medals in both ice dancing and the team event.
They are three-time world medalists and two-time US champions.
They in May announced they were making a comeback, before a video of Alex berating his sister in practice was leaked on social media in the build up to their return to the ice last month, which the siblings played down on Friday.
While they would love nothing more than to represent their country at the Milan-Cortina Games, the Shibutanis said it was not the main motivating factor for their return.
“Our timing in our return is separate from what the timeline of the sport is,” Maia said. “It’s truly about where we thought we were at in our lives, our ability to show up as athletes and people, that’s what inspired our return.”
“We’ve competed at two Olympics before, we loved those experiences, we know what it takes to compete at the highest level and we are fortunate to have done so,” Alex said. “When we ventured out on this journey there were goals but the goals and the instincts to return were less about the results, placement or any particular competition.”
The 34-year-old Alex and the 31-year-old Maia have skated together most of their lives.
The Shibutanis stepped away from skating after Pyeongchang to focus on school and other interests. They extended their hiatus when Maia was diagnosed with a malignant tumor on her kidney in 2019. She underwent surgery to remove the mass, and additional treatment resulted in a successful, but long and painful recovery.
The Shibutanis are next scheduled to compete at the Nov. 21-23 Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
RSS