Two-time Olympic decathlon gold medalist Ashton Eaton and heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton have announced their retirements in side-by-side essays on their website.
Considered the first family of multi-events, Ashton and Brianne met at the University of Oregon as teenagers and married in July 2013. Their coach, Harry Marra, officiated the wedding.
The 28-year-old Eaton hinted he might be moving on to other things soon after defending his title at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. He’s the world record holder in the event.
The 28-year-old Theisen-Eaton, who represents Canada, won the bronze medal in Rio.
Eaton said Wednesday in his essay: “Frankly there isn’t much more I want to do in (the) sport.”
Theisen-Eaton said she was mentally exhausted after last season and “felt more and more resistant to begin training.”
Zagreb, Croatia
The Alpine director of the U.S. ski team, Patrick Riml, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Vonn had resumed ski training in Colorado this week and that she planned to travel to Europe at the weekend.
A downhill and a combined event are scheduled for Altenmarkt-Zauchensee on Jan. 14-15, with more speed races coming up in Germany and Italy ahead of the Feb. 6-19 world championships in Switzerland.
The four-time overall champion, who broke her right arm in a crash while training in Colorado in November, hasn’t raced since fracturing her left knee during a super-G crash in Andorra in February 2016.
The knee injury hampered her preparation for the new season, and Vonn decided to sit out the opening giant slalom race in Austria in October in order to focus on speed races in Canada late November.
Little League International announced mandatory criminal background checks for its volunteer coaches, new eligibility requirements for players and a host of new rules on Wednesday intended to increase the pace of play.
Under the rules changes that take effect this year, local leagues will have the option to force batters to keep one foot in the batter’s box during regular-season games and allow intentional walks by announcing the decision to the umpire rather than throwing four balls. Umpires will also be able to eject a player and manager determined to be stealing signs.
Leagues will now be required to conduct nationwide background checks of sex offender registry data and other criminal records for its coaches and others involved with running teams.
Little League also changed its eligibility rules nearly two years after a residency scandal cost Chicago-based Jackie Robinson West its national title. The rules remove a school report card as proof of residence, replacing it with a school enrollment form and documents from each of three residency categories.
While a report card has been removed as proof of residence, Little League is continuing to use the same 17 accepted documents to prove residency — three of which are required along with a birth certificate and school enrollment form. They include examples such as employment records, tax records and utility bills.
On the Little League website, the organization wrote that it put the documents into different categories — requiring one from each — to make sure forms came from multiple origins.
Montreal
The Americans will face Canada in the final to night. Canada beat Sweden 5-2 on Wednesday night.
Terry scored the winner right after Russia’s Alexander Polunin hit the crossbar. The University of Denver forward beat Ilya Samsonov through the legs for the third time.
Boston College’s Colin White scored twice and Wisconsin’s Luke Kunin added a goal in regulation for the Americans. Tyler Parsons stopped 33 shots. Parsons plays for London in the Ontario Hockey League.
Denis Guryanov had two goals for Russia, Kirill Kaprizov also scored, and Samsonov made 40 saves.