Per ESPN, a former Army officer is planning to separate from another, much less formal, branch of U.S. service. Mike Krzyzewski told ESPN’s Andy Katz that next year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be his last as head coach of Team USA men’s basketball. The team is 75-1 under his guidance, including unbeaten runs to Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012, as well as a win in 2014’s FIBA World Cup. Prior to that last trophy, Krzyzewski brought his team to his alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy, for a daylong tour capped off by a nationally televised split-squad scrimmage. He…
Browsing: Olympics
Ten quick hits’ worth of military-related sports news before Congress tries to make all the academy football teams wear the same uniform (non-football news after the jump): 1. Bobsled-bound? Option quarterbacks need to be versatile, but former Army signal-caller Trent Steelman is taking things to a new level. Already under contract with the Baltimore Ravens, Steelman’s now in the running for a spot on the U.S. Olympic bobsled team, according to Army football guru Sal Interdonato. Steelman’s father told Interdonato that the Army officer performed well in the U.S. Bobsled Combine recently and will be participating in further qualifying events…
Before the 2012 Paralympic Games began, Military Times introduced you to the current and former service members who’d be going for gold in London. The games wrapped up with a massive closing ceremony Sunday, so here’s a quick recap of eight military-related medal winners, with results compiled from the comprehensive London 2012 official website: Navy Lt. Brad Snyder, swimming –Medal haul: Two golds (400- and 100-meter freestyle), one silver (50m free). –What’s more: The Washington Post recounts how Snyder’s second gold came on a meaningful anniversary. The naval officer also competed in butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and individual medley events. Oscar…
The last of the Army participants in the Summer Olympics wrapped up their events Saturday, finishing out of the medals one day before the end of the London Games. Spc. Dennis Bowsher took 32nd out of 36 athletes in the modern pentathlon, posting a score of 5324, more than 600 points off the gold medal-winning score posted by David Svoboda of the Czech Republic. It was the first Olympics to feature the event’s new format, in which the shooting and running portions are combined in a single, final event. Participants also compete in fencing, swimming and horseback riding, which didn’t…
A loss to Hungary’s Tamas Lorincz in the quarterfinals knocked Army Spc. Justin Lester out of the gold medal hunt. But Lorincz’s win in the semifinals put the American 66-kilogram Greco-Roman star back into Olympic medal contention. Lester, part of the Army World Class Athlete Program, received a bye in the qualification round and defeated Japan’s Tsutomu Fujimura in his first London match Tuesday. The soldier won the first period of his quarterfinal match against Lorincz 2-0 before being swept 1-0, 2-0 and knocked out of the gold-medal bracket. Lorincz reached the final and will wrestle South Korea’s Hyeonwoo Kim…
Army Staff Sgt. Michael McPhail barely missed qualifying for finals of the men’s 50m rifle prone Friday at the London Olympics, finishing ninth with a score of 595. Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Uptagrafft finished 16th with a 594 in the same round. Sergei Martynov of Belarus set a world record in the event’s finals as he won the gold medal he had been looking for at six Olympics, The Associated Press reported. Martynov became the second shooter in Olympic history to score the maximum 600 points in qualification, and went on to score a total of 705.5 points, beating…
Army Sgt. Glenn Eller and Staff Sgt. Joshua Richmond failed to qualify in Thursday’s men’s double trap event at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London, according to the London 2012 website. Eller scored 126 to place 22nd, and Richmond scored 131 to place 16th. The top six shooters qualified with scores ranging from 137 to 143. Army Sgt. 1st Class Keith Sanderson is scheduled to compete Friday in the second qualification of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event.
Seth Kelsey, the Air Force captain competing in his third Olympic Games, lost in overtime in the bronze medal match of men’s individual epee event. The score was 11-12, according to the London 2012 website. Kelsey lost to South Korean Jinsun Jung on Wednesday after a string of victories, including one over No. 1-seeded Nikolai Novosjolov of Estonia. In the bronze medal bout, Kelsey battled back to tie the match at 11, and then made a bold choice, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colo. “I’ve always been disappointed in my previous Olympic performances,” Kelsey said. “Today, I beat…
Air Force Capt. Seth Kelsey lost his men’s epee semifinal match to Ruben Gascon of Venezuela, 5-6. Kelsey will compete for the Bronze medal later today against the loser of the semifinal match between Jinsun Jung of South Korea and Bartosz Piasecki of Norway, The Associated Press reports. According to The Washington Post, “Kelsey was crestfallen Wednesday after he lost in sudden death.” It was the lowest-scoring match of the Olympics thus far.
Air Force Capt. Seth Kelsey reached the men’s epee semifinals at the Olympics in London today, the Associated Press reports. Kelsey is competing in his third Olympic Games. He was ousted quickly from the Athens Games in 2004 and the Beijing Games in 2008, but won his first-round bout today over China’s Li Guojie 8-7, AP reports. He then scored a huge upset by beating No. 1 seed and former world champion Nikolai Novosjolov of Estonia 15-11 in the round of 16. That put the 17th-seeded Kelsey into the quarterfinals, where he downed Venezuela’s Silvio Fernandez 15-9. The men’s epee…