Will control go to USA Surfing, the longstanding San Clemente-based nonprofit organization that for decades has served as the pipeline to prepare young surfers for the world stage? Or to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association, a Park City-based winter sport group that hopes to get on board with the saltwater sport?

Now that surfing will have its third Olympic appearance, it is officially a permanent sport in the Summer Games lineup. And the group that governs the sport is poised to gain millions of dollars in funding for training, development and promotional efforts.

Both USA Surfing and U.S. Ski & Snowboard, since the start of the year, have been making their case to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, with audits and ongoing discussions underway.

Both groups have stated their case in hearings before the committee, bringing in some of the sport’s top athletes to voice their support.

Surfing’s pipeline

Each summer, top young surfers from across the country journey to Lower Trestles, considered the best surf break on the mainland and now the future home of the 2028 Olympics, taking over the lineup as the USA Surfing national championships get underway.

The USA Surfing competitive format and training system is intentional, rooted in getting amateur surfers who aspire to be among the world’s best prepared for the big leagues, said Becky Fleischauer, CEO of USA Surfing.

The organization has a solid track record, with several USA Surfing graduates landing on the coveted World Surf League World Tour and the Olympic stage. Team USA athletes have already clinched two gold medals, Hawaii’s Carissa Moore in 2021 in Tokyo and San Clemente’s Caroline Marks in 2024, both who came up through the ranks of USA Surfing.

USA Surfing was the national governing body when the sport debuted in the Olympics for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

But the mismanaged reporting of funds caused conflicts with the USOPC, and USA Surfing in 2021 voluntarily decertified in order to straighten out its management and organizational structure.

USOPC took over the managing role for the 2024 Paris Games, with an understanding that once the audit deficiencies were rectified, USA Surfing would be reconsidered for governing body status, officials with the organization said in their new application to USOPC.

The findings from the audit have been rectified, it’s leadership argues. There’s new management, a new board and staff, new policies and procedures and safeguards in place.

But U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association also put its name in the hat.

It touts a portfolio with various snow-focused sports, experience in growing lifestyle sports into high-performance competition and now, it hopes to expand its reach off of the slopes.

Snow vs. surf

For USA Surfing, it’s not about owning Olympic rights, or leveraging commercial assets, said  Fleischauer.

“It’s about sustaining a home where all surfers can grow and thrive,” she said.

At risk is a dismantling of the system that has already helped American surfers make history, she argued, an organization recognized by the International Surfing Association, the world governing authority for surfing in the Olympics, which had fought for decades to get the sport included.

USA Surfing sends not just young surfers to compete in ISA events, which are built to mimic Olympic events, but also juniors, longboarders, stand-up paddlers and para athletes — disciplines that aim to one day be part of the Olympic Games.

LA28 gives American surfers a massive home field advantage, and will be one of the biggest global moments for U.S. surfing with the spotlight on Lower Trestles.

“It only makes sense that with Lowers as the LA28 venue, that surfing be governed by and for surfers in our backyard, and that the attention and funding gained from that big Olympic moment goes back into surfing for the long term,” Fleischauer said. “No one knows Lowers better than the surfers, coaches, trainers, shapers, filmers who live and surf here every day.”

It’s important that coaches know the athletes — everything from favored board dimensions and fin setups to past injuries and mental roadblocks, Fleischauer said.

Sophie Goldschmidt, CEO of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, argues that integrating surfing into the organization would allow the athletes to tap into existing infrastructure, “allowing surfers to have additional tools to succeed on the world’s biggest stage.”

Surfers could “immediately take advantage of high performance, year-round support, sports medicine, marketing and athlete services,” she said in an email response.

Each sport within its organization has a unique identity, she said. Snowboarding, for example, has a different culture than alpine skiing.

“We brought in leaders from those communities, listened to the athletes, and made sure their unique vibe was preserved,” she wrote. “We’ll do the same for surfing.”

Goldschmidt is no stranger to surfing, she was the CEO of the World Surf League before joining U.S. Ski and Snowboard. She argues there are more similarities than differences between the board sports.

“We feel that surfers have not been supported, in the same way that we would propose to, in the past,” Goldschmidt said. “And now, we can provide them with more of that support and the structure, the leadership and the strong backing of a large and growing organization, which is in a very good place financially as well.”

They need high-performance environments, clear pathways to the Olympics, and the ability to build their personal brands, she said. “That’s what we provide, and we know it works.”

Professional snowboarder Kelly Clark, who has competed in five winter Olympics and is a gold medalist, talked at the April hearing about having a front-row seat to snowboarding’s growth in the late ’90s with the help of U.S. Ski & Snowboard.

“It was caught in this tension between being this lifestyle activity and becoming this high-performance sport on the Olympic level,” Clark said.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association’s portfolio currently has 10 sports and 240 athletes. Its application also notes how, from a commercial perspective, adding a summer sport would give “year-round assets and programming to sell.”

“In recent years, our commercial engine has demonstrated its ability to drive significant revenue and by including surfing in our portfolio, we’re best set up to drive upside in the commercial business for surfing,” the organization’s leadership said.

Adding surfing would require learning, with regard to international elite level events, the athletes, and Summer Games operations, the leadership acknowledged. But the organization said it would hire a “sport leader” to focus on surfing – and also potentially skateboarding – as an “insider with knowledge and experience.”

Swell of support

Shaun Tomson, a ’70s-era surf champion, pointed out a logo in U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association’s presentation to the committee depicting a surfer. The wave rider is turned backward on the board, a faux pas any seasoned surfer would quickly pick up on, an “alarm bell,” he argued.

“How are you going to maintain this cultural sensitivity and this connectivity with sports that are vastly different?” he wondered.

Top athletes, parents of young surfers, the ISA and the WSL have signed letters of support to the USOPC for USA Surfing to be named the governing body.

“The ISA strongly believes that a healthy, independent organization that truly represents the interests of surfers and the sport in the U.S. is essential as we look ahead to the LA28 Olympic Games and beyond,” ISA President Fernando Aguerre, the man who pushed for decades to get the sport into the Olympics, wrote in a letter to Olympic organizers. “That organization is USA Surfing.”

Huntington Beach surfer Brett Simpson, who coached the 2020 Tokyo Olympics team with USA Surfing and still sits on the board, said the organization has successfully prepared surfers to get to the top of the sport, onto the World Tour, as seen with the current crop of elite-level surfers who rose through the USA Surfing training and competition pipeline.

“I obviously get why (U.S. Ski & Snowboarding) wants surfing, it’s got to be one of the more popular sports,” Simpson said. “They aren’t as invested on a day-to-day basis. We’ve been doing a lot of work over the years.”

USA Surfing has ramped up its training of athletes, Fleischauer said, teaming up with Hoag Health, which this year came on as title sponsor for the USA Surfing Championships at Lower Trestles and recently opened up a facility in San Clemente. Recent athlete training included fitness assessments as well as sessions with sports nutritionists and mental performance coaches.

Future training will include AI video capture and analysis, aerial training, wave pool training, and performance clinics that cover topics from breath work to biomechanics to branding, according to USA Surfing officials.

USA Surfing officials also hope a recent shot of funding from a multi-million dollar commitment from San Clemente-based Kamaka Responsible Development and surfboard building company Resin Service will help its bid to get recertified.

Kipling Sheppard, CEO of both businesses, talked about how his kids grew up in the Southern California surf lifestyle and echoed the importance of seeing the sport of surfing stay with surfers.

“USA Surfing is doing the work. They’ve earned the trust of athletes and the surf community and are deeply committed to our sport and community,” Sheppard said. “They’ve built a proven pathway — developing ISA and Olympic gold medalists — and they’re dedicated stewards of both performance and community. This alliance will strengthen that foundation and extend its reach.”

Following the audit process, another public hearing will be held before a recommendation from the national governing board certification group is given to the USOPC. A decision is expected by the end of the year.

Two years ago, Alicia Monson, the American record holder at both 5,000 and 10,000 meters, would have been out front, hundreds of meters ahead of many of the women in Saturday’s field.

But there was Monson now, in her first race in 16 months, running in unfamiliar territory, the back of the pack, 20, 30 meters behind the leaders, 20, 30 meters off the pacing lights, yet every eye in the stadium was tracking her every step through one of the most anticipated comeback races in American track and field this season.

“It was especially weird at first, being around so many people, because I haven’t done that in so long, and also, often, I just end up going to the front of a race,” Monson said afterward. “So it was definitely a bit of a learning curve, but it definitely felt better, even though I was more tired as it went.”

What was evident on a Saturday night, with the USA Track & Field Championships in Eugene 19 days away, wasn’t fatigue as much as Monson’s confidence growing with each passing lap, the caution, the tentativeness giving way to a sense of purpose as she worked her way through the field, eventually finishing sixth in 15 minutes, 1.63 seconds, well under the U.S. championships automatic qualifying standard of 15:05.

Never mind that her time Saturday was 42 seconds off her two-year-old American record. Sixteen months after a torn meniscus not only crushed her Olympic medal hopes for Paris but threatened her career, just months after her coach questioned whether she would race at all in 2025, only eight weeks after she resumed serious training, Monson was not only back racing, running with confidence, with joy, she had also just run herself back into contention for a spot on Team USA for the World Championships in Tokyo (September 13-21).

“Ooh, man, it’s emotional,” said Dathan Ritzenhein, Monson’s coach at the Boulder-based On Athletics Club. “And, yeah, it’s actually the highlight for me tonight. I mean, she just ran that amazing, 16 months after a major surgery, like, it’s one of those surgeries you don’t know if you come back from, and honestly, she’s only really been kind of like (seriously training) eight weeks or so. We kind of decided to do this. We didn’t think she’d raced at all this summer and that was even maybe three months ago. And so she’s just so good that she can pop out and run 15 flat like that.

“And, yeah, emotional. Very awesome to see.”

Monson’s toughness has never been in question.

When the Wisconsin administration decided in April 2020 not to honor an additional year of eligibility granted to athletes because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Monson signed with On Athletics. Running in extreme heat at the 2021 Olympic Trials 10,000 in Eugene, Monson, staggering through the final few laps to hold onto the third spot on the Olympic team. Monson pushed herself so hard that morning that she collapsed after the medal ceremony and was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.

“She’s the toughest person, the quietest, toughest person you could imagine,” Ritzenhein told Runner’s World after the race. “I think she’s one of the next greats. She showed it today.”

Monson, however, was just getting started.

She claimed her first American record at the 2023 Millrose Games, running 8:28.05 for 3,000 meters indoors. Less than a month later, Monson knocked nearly 10 seconds off the American record at 10,000 meters, running 30:03.82 at The Ten, a Sound Running distance carnival in San Juan Capistrano. Monson shaved three seconds off Shelby Houlihan’s 5,000 American record with a 14:19.45 clocking at the London Diamond League later in 2023.

Monson returned to San Juan Capistrano in March 2024 with the goal of becoming only the second woman not born in African to break 30:00 in the 10,000 and the first to do so in 31 years. (The first woman to break 30:00, China’s Wang Junxia, has been the subject of decades of persistent documented allegations that she and at least eight other teammates were forced by their coach to use banned performance-enhancing substances, although she is not known to have tested positive for PEDs. Her 1993 world record of 29:31.78, knocked 42 seconds off the previous world record, is not recognized by several organizations.)

Monson’s sub-30:00 bid that night was derailed when a stomach issue forced her out of the race mid-way through the competition.

Four days later, she was on a routine training run in Boulder when she felt her knee pop.

“She was just running on a flat bike path, and I was biking behind her, and she just stopped, and she said, ‘I just felt something popping my knee,’” Ritzenhein said. “And yeah, the meniscus root just tore right off.”

“I was on the long run seven miles in,” Monson said. “It just popped. Just I felt my knee let go. So, a crazy time.

“At first, I thought maybe it was just like I strained my popliteus or something. We tried to keep running, but I could do everything but run, and obviously you need to run.”

Monson underwent surgery in April. Her dream of racing in Paris was over but she tried to remain optimistic about her future.

“I mean, I kind of came at it knowing that I would come out the other side,” Monson said.

“So I think I had a great mentality in that way. And I think it was more so just me giving myself time to come back and feel confident about my long-term health and, yeah, just feel like I want to get back out there.”

But her return to training and racing took longer than she and Ritzenhein expected.

“She had ACL surgery when she was in high school, and so it was a compromised joint already,” said Ritzenhein, a three-time Olympian and former American record holder in the 5,000. “And every time she would get sick over the last four (years), you know, ever since I’ve known her, coached her for five years, she’d get sick and her knee would swell up. Or she’d get a COVID vaccine and her knee would swell up. And so it was, a weird response, and she had to get it drained a few times and stuff.”

Monson watched the Olympic 5,000 final in person in Stade De France.

“Because my family had bought tickets, because we had been just assuming I would make the team, so but then it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I got to have my first, like, full family vacation in like, a decade,” she said. “So it was really fun.

“We rented this Airbnb, an hour train ride outside of Paris, and we just hung out. I had my nephews there too. I’m really into road cycling, so we watched that, and then watched a couple of my teammates at the track and track races.”

It would be the closest Monson would get to competition for months.

“She was not able to run yet,” Ritzenhein said. “She was just cross-training in the Airbnb with her parents. You never know. We thought it’d be smoother, but it wasn’t. It’s major, major surgery. She had some, we had some worries sometimes, where, in the first six months, we didn’t know how it was responding. She just kept working and kept working. I mean, so much time in the gym, like, an amazing amount of time in the gym.”

Monson resumed running on the ground in September.

“But I had a few setbacks,” she said. “My most recent continuous running started more like in the early spring, and didn’t start (serious training) until April. So it’s been just such a slow process for so long that now, once I actually started to make some progress, it’s like, wow, this is suddenly clicking.”

After congratulating Monson Saturday night, Ritzenhein was reminded of a recent workout.

“All right, here’s a good piece of information,” he said beaming. “I didn’t even think of it, so she, she just did her first sub-five-minute mile (in training) 10 days ago. So she just ran three of them at 4:50. So amazing, yeah.

“We kind of thought, let’s just get through the summer in one piece and continue to build and then we try to do a, maybe we try to do a low-key road race in the fall, just something to do, you know, to put something on the calendar. And then about two months ago, we were you know, she hasn’t put spikes on, but she’s able to handle some workouts. Let’s start trying to get into spikes.

“And so maybe about a month ago, we got her in spikes, and yeah, she was able to run the paces of today, just in a lot shorter reps. So then we just said, ‘Hey, let’s just continue to progress her logically.’ And so she’s been over the last eight to 10 weeks, has been like, 65 miles (per week), 66, 67, 68 it’s just been like a mile or two a week. I think she’s run 70. I think she had 78 last week. And it’s probably been about six weeks over 70, like 70 to 78. But before our normal for her has always been like 90 to 95.

“And the workouts are not what she would do before, but, you know, long runs are the same, not that what she would do before, but she’s still only cross training on the workout days, but she’s healthy and so that’s, that’s the biggest thing.”

The question now is can a healthy Monson take the next step and make the World Championships team in Eugene?

She will have plenty of competition in Monson’s OAC teammate Josette Andrews, the season’s U.S. leader at 14:25.37, who won the Sunset 1,500 Saturday in 4:00.10. There’s two-time Olympian Elise Cranny, the American record holder at 5,000 indoors who grew up Ritzenhein’s current hometown of Niwot, Colorado, fellow Olympians Karissa Schweizer and Weini Kelatifrezghi, the Olympic Trials 10,000 champion, and Houlihan returning from a four-year doping ban. Bailey Hertenstein (14:48.91) and Taylor Roe (14:49.91), who went 1-2 Saturday night, could also be in the mix.

“Honestly, we still don’t know what to make of it, you know it was just one of the most bizarre things,” Ritzenhein referring to Monson’s injury. “And so for her, it was, it’s very scary. You know it’s the kind of major surgery that not many runners come back from that. So it was a long process. And she really, we did everything we could and, yeah, I’m really proud of her just being back out there and she’ll be as good as ever.”

Ritzenhein was asked how he kept Monson moving forward?

“Honestly, it’s all her. She’s just, like, the toughest person. She’s always done that. You know, there were a lot of dark moments. I had some of those surgeries as well, where I didn’t race for a year,” said Ritzenhein, who competed in the 2004 Olympic 10,000 final with a stress fracture. “Yeah, and a lot of times where you just don’t think you’ll get back. And so for her, I think she’s just such a tough athlete, and probably tougher than any person I really know. And so she’s very calm, demure person, but, like, she is very, very much a killer and that’s why she’s run 14:19, she’s the American record holder.”

Late Saturday night, Monson made no effort to hide her joy, beaming between gasps, moments after finishing.

“Sixteen months ago?” she said. “I mean, it’s actually surprisingly easy to get back into the race routine, but then obviously it’s like, I knew that once the gun goes off, it’s like, ‘Oh, why are we sprinting?’ But get to just get back into this situation …”

Her voice and thought tailed off, seemingly grasping the significance of the night.

She had survived the quick early pace just as she had the disappointment of last summer, the doubts and frustration of autumn, the questions through the spring, steadfastly working her way through the field, showing glimpses of the “killer,” racing back toward the forefront of American distance running.

“I mean, the goal today was to start a race,” she continued, “finish a race, and feel like I’ve got momentum.”

Askren said during the Instagram video that he recalls very little of what happened over a monthlong stretch from late May through the first two days of July. His wife, Amy, had said in a series of social media posts that Askren was put on a ventilator in June and placed on the donor list for a lung transplant on June 24.

“No recollection, zero idea, no idea what happened,” Askren said of most of the past six weeks. “I just read through my wife’s journal. It’s like a movie. It’s ridiculous. I only died four times, where the ticker stopped for about 20 seconds.”

Askren said he lost about 50 pounds during the 45-day stretch.

“The thing that was most impeccable to me was all the love I felt,” Askren said. “It was almost like I got to have my own funeral.”

The 40-year-old Askren was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but has lived primarily in Wisconsin, where he runs a youth wrestling academy. He won back-to-back NCAA titles at Missouri and competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics for the U.S. before moving into MMA, where he fought for Bellator and ONE Championship before moving into the UFC.

Askren retired from MMA after a loss to Demian Maia in October 2019. He had a record of 19-2 with one no contest.

Askren made a brief return to combat sports in April 2021, when he fought social media star Jake Paul in a boxing match. Paul won by technical knockout in the first round of a fight that sold about 500,000 on pay-per-view.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

GENEVA (AP) — Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday in her seven-year legal fight against track and field’s sex eligibility rules.

The court’s 17-judge highest chamber said in a 15-2 vote that Semenya had some of her rights to a fair hearing violated at Switzerland’s Supreme Court, where she had appealed against a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in favor of track’s World Athletics.

However, on the question of Semenya being discriminated against in Swiss courts, the European court in Strasbourg, France, did not pronounce — to the frustration of four of the 17 judges in a partial dissent to the majority view.

Her case should now go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne. It will be watched closely by other sports which have passed or are reviewing their own rules on eligibility in women’s events.

Semenya later posted on social media a photo of herself in the court chamber with a message a three raised fists symbolizing her fight for justice.

The original case between Semenya and track’s governing body based in Monaco was about whether athletes like her — who have specific medical conditions, a typical male chromosome pattern and naturally high testosterone levels — should be allowed to compete freely in women’s sports.

Europe’s top human rights court did not take up other aspects of the appeal filed by Semenya, who was in court Thursday to hear the judgment read. It awarded her 80,000 euros ($94,000) from the state of Switzerland “in respect of costs and expenses.”

The European court’s ruling does not overturn the World Athletics rules that effectively ended Semenya’s career running the 800 meters after she won two Olympic and three world titles since emerging on the global stage as a teenager in 2009.

Swiss court’s lack of rigor

The key legal point in Semenya’s win was that the Swiss Federal Court had not carried out a “rigorous judicial review” that was required because Semenya had no choice but to pursue her case through the CAS’s “mandatory and exclusive jurisdiction.” the Strasbourg judges ruled.

Governing bodies of sports oblige athletes and national federations to take their disputes to the sports court in the International Olympic Committee’s home city Lausanne.

“The court considered, however, that the Federal Supreme Court’s review had fallen short of that requirement,” it said in a statement.

In dismissing other elements of the South African runner’s case, including if she had been discriminated against, the court judged it “did not fall within Switzerland’s jurisdiction in respect of those complaints.”

World Athletics, led by its president Sebastian Coe, has said its rules maintain fairness because Semenya has an unfair, male-like athletic advantage from her higher testosterone. Semenya argues her testosterone is a genetic gift.

World Athletics and CAS did not immediately respond to the ruling. The IOC declined to comment on a case it is not directly involved in.

Second legal lap at Strasbourg

Thursday’s win followed a legal victory from the same court two years ago for Semenya.

That judgment which said she had faced discrimination opened a way for the Swiss supreme court to reconsider its decision to dismiss her appeal against the CAS verdict in favor of World Athletics.

At CAS in 2019, three judges ruled 2-1 that discrimination against Semenya was “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” to maintain fairness in women’s track events.

World Athletics drew up its rules in 2018 forcing Semenya and other female athletes with Differences in Sex Development to suppress their testosterone to be eligible for international women’s events.

Pro-Semenya judges

Four of the 17 judges filed a partial dissent to the majority opinion, arguing their court should have been able to pronounce on “substantive conclusions” reached by the CAS that went against Semenya.

World Athletics eligibility rules “specifically targeted the applicant, since they concerned only the events in which she competed — indeed, the fact that they amounted to a kind of ‘lex Semenya’ clearly demonstrates the arbitrariness of those regulations as a whole,” the four judges wrote.

“We are disappointed that her expectations have not been met,” said the dissenting judges, who included the chamber president, Marko Bošnjak from Slovenia.

Semenya’s track results

Semenya last competed internationally in the 800 in 2019, winning at the Prefontaine Classic meeting on the Diamond League circuit in Eugene, Oregon. It extended her winning streak to more than 30 consecutive races when the rules made her ineligible.

Her winning time then of 1 minute 55.70 seconds was faster than the gold medal-winning time at the 2024 Paris Olympics but not the 1:55.21 run by Athing Mu of the United States at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.

Semenya returned to Eugene in 2022 to race in the world championships over 5,000 but did not advance from the heats.

She is now 34 and has moved into coaching. She said recently her ongoing legal fight is about a principle rather than her own running career.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa

AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Retton, who was nabbed on a DUI charge on May 17 in Marion County, W.Va., appears dazed, distressed and disheveled throughout the lengthy clip, released by Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday.

Retton was initially pulled over when she was allegedly seen driving “all over the roadway,” according to an incident report obtained by TMZ. Officers who questioned her said she smelled of alcohol and was slurring her words, while a screw-top bottle of wine was seen in her passenger seat.

The bodycam video shows the 57-year-old mom of four getting testy after refusing to blow into a breathalyzer and failing a field sobriety test conducted by a Fairmont City police officer.

“I’m West Virginia’s first daughter!” she tells the cop. “Bob Huggins gets away and, well, whatever,” she adds, referring to the former West Virginia basketball coach who was arrested for DUI in Pittsburgh in 2023.

Throughout the footage, the trailblazing athlete can be seen with a portable oxygen tank, which she has reportedly relied on daily since a near fatal bout of pneumonia in 2023.

Later, after being transported to the police station, Retton is seen fussing with paramedics when they advise her to go to the hospital to get her oxygen checked.

“No, f–k that! Put me in a cell,” she snaps. “I’ll die here. I’ll die here and you guys will live with that.”

After being taken into custody, Retton was charged with one count of driving under the influence of alcohol, controlled substances or drugs. She was released that same day on $1,500 bond, according to online records.

During a court appearance last month, Retton entered a no contest plea to the first-time, non-aggravated DUI charge and was ordered to pay a $100 penalty.

An attorney for the USOPC informed Jones, a two-time world champion in both track and field and bobsled, on July 3 that she would have access to housing, the weight room, sports medicine personnel and facilities and training table/nutrition for a USA Bobsled and Skeleton high performance camp at the OPTC beginning July 24 should USABS request access for her, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG.

The USOPC letter came a day before the deadline to apply for the high performance camp, eight weeks after Jones requested a mediation hearing with the USOPC,  and seven months before she hopes to compete in a fourth Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, according to interviews with five people familiar with the case and USOC and USABS documents obtained by the SCNG.

Jones’ suspension has continued even though USOPC officials acknowledged she was wrongly denied medical treatment late on the afternoon of Feb. 28, a decision that prompted the verbal confrontation. The USOPC did not interview eyewitnesses, according to Jones, a USABS official, and three other people familiar with the case.

RELATED: SPECIAL REPORT: Lolo Jones banned from Olympic Training Center

Other Olympians, Team USA members and a USA BS official describe the suspension of Jones, 42, as excessive, arbitrary, retaliatory and based on little if any investigation by USOPC officials. The case, Jones and her supporters maintain, also raises serious questions about the medical care America’s Olympic hopefuls are receiving at the OPTC in Lake Placid.

“This case is a glaring example of the need for a complete overhaul of the USOPC’s medical system,” said John Manly, Jones’ Orange County-based attorney.

The suspension and the decision not to lift it, Manly said “comes from the very top of the Olympic committee which is Sarah Hirschland,” the USOPC’s CEO.

The USOPC has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Manly was especially critical of USOPC board member Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general.

“The USOPC has made a big deal about how ‘we care for athletes’ after Nassar,” Manly said in reference to Larry Nassar, the team doctor at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics who is serving decades in prison for sexually abusing scores of female athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts

. “In reality nothing has changed. (Murthy) has taken no active role in understanding why the (USOPC) medical system is so bad. Anybody that truly cared about the (USOPC’s) mission, which was enacted by Congress and is to take care of athletes, no competent person would think this is OK.”

Murthy’s office referred questions to the USOPC.

Under the USOPC suspension, Jones has been denied access to training facilities such as the center’s weight room, sports medicine clinic and personnel, and housing and nutritional resources at a critical training period, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG and interviews with Jones and four other people familiar with the case. The suspension has created competitive, financial and emotional obstacles, Jones said, that jeopardize her bid to compete in what would be her second Winter Olympics and fourth overall. The former LSU track and field star competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.

Jones has spent approximately $100,000 on medical and training expenses because of the suspension, Manly said. Jones has been training at LSU, where she was an NCAA hurdles champion, since the ban.

The two-time World champion in bobsled, suffering severe pain and incontinence from a training-related back injury, was initially banned from the OPTC sports medicine area March 1, a day after she called John Faltus, a top official at the USOPC Medical Clinic at the training center, “a horrible f—— human being,” during a verbal exchange after a previously scheduled treatment was canceled without explanation just days before the World Championships in Lake Placid, according to OPTC emails and interviews. Jones confirmed in an interview with SCNG that she swore at Faltus.

Faltus also alleges that Jones made an obscene gesture toward him, an allegation Jones denies.

“This behavior is a direct violation of the OPTC Code of Conduct,” Julie Marra, director of the USOPC Training Center in Lake Placid, wrote in a March 1 email to Jones. “This conduct is unacceptable, and I want to make it clear that such behavior cannot be tolerated.”

But Marra did not cite a specific violation of the code in the email or subsequently, according to documents and five people familiar with the case. The closest the code comes to directly addressing swearing or verbal altercations is one brief passage: “Unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated, including but not limited to, the following: Any act of violation of offenses, as listed in the USOPC Background Check Policy or adjudicated of federal, state, or local laws.”

The OPTC code, a USABS official acknowledged, “is arbitrary.”

“To this day,” Jones wrote in an email to SCNG, “no one has told me: Who found me in violation, what exact rule or code I broke, or what part of the Code of Conduct was allegedly violated.”

Marra and Faltus have not responded to multiple requests for comment.

“If we banned every Olympic athlete that dropped an F-bomb we’d be in big trouble,” Manly said.

Ben Towne, the OPTC trainer, set up an appointment with the sports medicine clinic for Jones to receive a massage, the first step in treating and diagnosing the back injury, according OPTC protocol. But Jones was informed after arriving at the clinic Feb. 28 that her appointment had been canceled without explanation.

Towne will be Jones’ point of contact with the OPTC sports medicine clinic beginning July 24.

Although Jones was told Faltus canceled the treatment because she was only entitled to one massage per week and she had already had a massage that week, she said: “I have never received a written explanation for why I was denied medical treatment? This is especially alarming given that I was recovering from an injury I sustained while representing Team USA. The USOPC claims to support athlete health, but in this case, they failed to uphold that duty of care.”

“One massage a week for 50 minutes for one of our top Olympians,” Manly said. “If you get hurt in prison, you get an MRI. The medical system in the federal prison system is literally better than the USOPC’s. What are we doing?

“Prisoners get better treatment than Olympians?”

Jones paid to have an MRI done after the World Championships, which revealed a herniated disc with a disc bulge, and tears in her L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae with spinal fluid leaking out.

Texas A&M freshman Athing Mu celebrates after winning her 400-meter heat during the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Thomas Boyd)

Athing Mu, of the United States, leads the field in the final of the women’s 800-meters at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Athing Mu, of the United States, wins the final in the women’s 800-meter run at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday, July 24, 2022, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Gold medalist Athing Mu, of the United States, stands during the medal ceremony for the women’s 800-meter at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The United States team of Allyson Felix, Athing Mu, Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney Mclaughlin, from left, celebrate winning the gold medal in the final of the women’s 4 x 400-meter relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Athing Mu finishes last after falling in the women’s 800-meter final during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials Monday, June 24, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

LOS ANGELES — Just as so much of American track and field’s history has been written between the white lines of Hayward Field, so has the storied venue chronicled the life and times of Athing Mu-Nikolayev, arguably the most gifted female half-miler in history.

Her triumphs and heartbreak, NCAA, Olympic Trials and World Championship titles, a pair of American records, crashing out of last summer’s Trials, are all told in two-minute chapters.

“It is a track she is familiar with,” said Bobby Kersee, Mu-Nikolayev’s coach, his voice revealing a realization of his understatement.

Mu-Nikolayev, the 2021 Olympic champion, returns to Tracktown USA to write a perhaps pivotal chapter as she takes on a world-class field at the 50th Prefontaine Classic Saturday afternoon in her first major 800-meter race since tripping and falling on Hayward Field’s backstretch last June.

She comes to Eugene looking neither to run away from her past or after records but to chase something more elusive and valuable than gold: joy

“Of course, every year we’re shooting for the World Championships or the Olympic championships,” Mu-Nikolayev, 23, said. “Of course, there’s nothing more that I want than gold. But I think most importantly this year, it’s just me regaining my joy back and finding my love for the sport. And if it’s not love, just appreciation for the sport and the places that I get to take me, and it’s just all that I get to do with it. So I think that’s my first priority. And I think once I gain that within myself and within the Lord, I think he’ll lead me into the direction of winning, of running fast and everything else that comes with it.”

Mu-Nikolayev’s pursuit of happiness began in the shadows of her darkest moment.

At 9:45 p.m. on the evening of August 5, eight women lined up on Stade de France’s purple track for an Olympic Games 800-meter final that had one conspicuous absence.

A few miles away, Mu-Nikolayev spent the final few minutes of her reign as Olympic champion trying to avoid seeing the race on television.

“I didn’t watch it live. I wasn’t really watching the Games too much,” Mu-Nikolayev recalled. “Just trying to get myself out of the environment as much as I could, even though I was training.”

Mu-Nikolayev was in Paris as part of Bobby Kersee’s Los Angeles-based training group that included Sydney McLaughlin, who would leave the Games with gold medals in the 400 hurdles and 4×400 relay.

But Kersee’s primary reason for bringing Mu-Nikolayev to Paris was more mental than physical.

The sooner Mu-Nikolayev dealt with the disappointment of crashing out of the U.S. Olympic Trials six weeks earlier, the most recent and devastating setback in two injury-riddled seasons, Kersee reasoned, the sooner she could move on.

Ignoring the disappointment of the Trials, hiding from it wasn’t going to make it go away.

“It was very hard,” Kersee said. “My philosophy of coaching is to put her right back in it, right away. And she tolerated me as a coach. It was tough for me and it was tough for her.”

“It was an experience,” Mu-Nikolayev said, “yeah.”

Kersee this week was asked when he had a sense that Mu-Nikolayev was back.

“I guess July 5,” he said laughing, referring to this weekend’s meet.

Mu-Nikolayev faces a Pre Classic field Saturday that includes five of last summer’s eight Olympic finalists, including Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma and Kenya’s Mary Moraa, the silver and bronze medalists respectively, plus former Oregon NCAA champion Raevyn Rogers, the Olympic bronze medalist behind Mu-Nikolayev in Tokyo in 2021, and Scotland’s Jemma Reekie, the 2024 World Indoor Championships runner-up.

But Kersee and Mu-Nikolayev’s primary focus is on the U.S. Championships next month and the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

“This is the first setting to see where we’re at,” Kersee said.

Four years ago, the only question mark hanging over Mu-Nikolayev was whether — or when — she would break the 800 world record set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia in 1983 during an era of state-sponsored doping by Soviet bloc countries and the absence of rigorous drug testing.

She won the 2021 Olympic Trials just days after turning 19, then became the first U.S. runner to win the Olympic 800 title since Dave Wottle in 1972, the first American woman gold medalist in the event since Madeline Manning at the 1968 Games, clocking an American record of 1 minute, 55.21 seconds. Mu-Nikolayev, the youngest female U.S. Olympic track and field champion in any event in 53 years, lowered her American record to 1:55.04 at the Pre Classic later that summer.

She returned to Hayward Field in 2022 to win the World Championships 800, becoming the youngest woman to hold Olympic and world titles.

But Mu-Nikolayev began battling a series of injuries in 2023. Limited to just four meets because of a hamstring injury, she was third (1:56.61) behind Moraa (1:56.03) and Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson (1:56.34) at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. A few weeks later, she beat both Moraa and Hodgkinson, later the 2024 Olympic champion, in the Diamond League Final at the Pre Classic, running an American record 1:54.97, then the third fastest time this century, the eight fastest all-time. Five of the seven women ahead of her were from Eastern bloc or communist countries and ran their times in the late 1970s or 80s.

But Mu-Nikolayev continued to struggle with injuries leading up to last summer’s Olympic Trials.

In the 800, runners must stay in their lanes for the first 100 meters before cutting in. Halfway down the first backstretch of the Trials final, Mu, who likes to run from the front in part because of her long stride and who started in lane 6, started to cut when she clipped the leg of Rogers, losing her balance then falling into Stanford’s Juliette Whittaker on her left, then falling on her back on the track.

“Looking at the videotape, Rogers tripped her, had contact, in the left ankle, left thigh area,” Kersee told the Southern California News Group after the race. “Rogers was trying to squeeze in and caught her foot.”

Mu-Nikolayev got up but could not get back into contention, finishing last looking straight ahead as she crossed the finish line, not noticing or at least not paying attention to the elation and the exhaustion of those around her, walking with the purpose of a woman in a hurry to put the scene and the night behind her, seemingly not sure of where she was going, only where she wasn’t.

As she walked, she tore her hip number once, then twice, and then once again, until it had been reduced to small pieces, a souvenir of a season left in tatters.

“So life moves on,” Kersee said.

“I believe in faith,” Kersee continued that night. “I believe in redemption. That has to be the lesson here. That’s what I told Athing. You can’t get into the why me, why now? I’m not a Cleveland Browns fan or Chicago Cubs fan or Buffalo Bills fan. You can go around talking about ‘wide right.’

“Sport is sport. She’ll bounce back. She’s 22 years old. She’s going to win a lot of other races. She’s going to go to more Olympics and maybe even break some world records.”

So Kersee took Mu-Nikolayev to Paris.

“The worst thing to do when you’re depressed is to remove yourself, and alienate yourself and crawl up and let frustration get the best of you,” Kersee said. “You have to get back as fast as you can so you can get over that point.”

And after Paris, she was able to move on.

“Physically, I mean, I think that correcting my hamstring was a quick turnaround,” Mu-Nikolayev said. “I think coming back from hamstring injuries are usually not too bad, depending on what type of strain you have. But for me, it wasn’t too bad. I think mentally was the biggest thing for me, just because a lot of the joy comes with like running, and so not being able to compete kind of takes away, and a lot takes me a step back from just my normal environment, and so in that way, is a little depleting. But being able to now come out and actually be able to compete and just run and slowly, gradually build up into the worlds, I think that’s really helpful for me, mentally and obviously also physically.

“I mean, I think I kind of took it pretty well, being done with it well right after, just because I knew these year-to-year events happen, and then they go, you know, it’s a two week experience, and then you move on,” she continued, referring to missing the Olympic Games. “It’s kind of the mentality that I had. Of course, it’s a really big one. It would have been my second Olympic Games, but I know my career is long. I know I’m super young, and I’m just trying to be hopeful, because that’s the only way I’ll be able to get through my career in the most successful way.

“And so it kind of took me a little out to get over it, just because I was more so upset with how things went versus what was happening. And so it’s just nice to be back out again and just be able to compete and be around other really fast girls and again, slowly build into what’s to come the rest of the season.”

Kersee was upbeat before a training session earlier this week.

“She’s happy,” he said. “She’s healthy. She’s happily married.”

She married Yegor Nikolayev in March.

“It’s been incredible,” she said. “I mean, I’m super so blessed to be able to experience marriage. Lord has definitely blessed me this year. It’s been really great. It’s been super helpful on the athletic side, because I don’t have to share this experience on my own. I have someone that I can kind of walk through the valleys and walk through the highs with, and it’s really nice that I have someone that’s supportive and getting started in the sport, as much as I do, and it’s just nice to have someone that’s your partner for life, and that can just experience things with you.”

And so she returns to Hayward Field, chasing a similar happiness around a track that has told so much of her story.

“I mean, I enjoy running,” she said. “I think I’m still working on truly embracing it and enjoying it, and, you know, going through the highs and lows and truly enjoying it. I think it’s been a little tough on me, because the past three years have been a little rocky, and so it’s kind of hard to kind of climb back up the ladder. But I’m happy to be here again. Like I said, I think it takes one race at a time, one practice at a time, and that’s what I’m just hoping to gain as I progress to the season, and I trust that the Lord will renew my joy, first and foremost in him, and then it’ll fall out onto the track as well.”

• For the latest, see: Lolo Jones’ Olympic Training Center ban rescinded

Jones, 42, is contesting the previously undisclosed USOPC suspension, which runs through August 3 and denies her access to training facilities such as the center’s weight room, sports medicine clinic and personnel, and housing and nutritional resources at a critical training period, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG and interviews with Jones and four other people familiar with the case. The suspension has created competitive, financial and emotional obstacles, Jones said, that jeopardize her bid to compete in a fourth Olympic Games next February in Milan-Cortina.

Jones’ suspension continues even though USOPC officials acknowledged she was wrongly denied medical treatment late on the afternoon of February 28, a decision that prompted the verbal confrontation. The USOPC did not interview eyewitnesses, according to Jones, a USA Bobsled and Skeleton official, and three other persons familiar with the case.

Jones, suffering severe pain and incontinence from a training-related back injury, was initially banned from the OPTC sports medicine area on March 1, a day after she called John Faltus, a top official at the USOPC Medical Clinic at the training center, “a horrible f—— human being,” during a verbal exchange after a previously scheduled treatment was canceled without explanation just days before the World Championships in Lake Placid, according to OPTC emails and interviews. Jones confirmed in an interview with SCNG that she swore at Faltus.

Faltus also alleges that Jones made an obscene gesture toward him, an allegation Jones denies.

“This behavior is a direct violation of the OPTC Code of Conduct,” Julie Marra, director of the USOPC Training Center in Lake Placid, wrote in a March 1 email to Jones. “This conduct is unacceptable, and I want to make it clear that such behavior cannot be tolerated.”

But Jones, other Olympians,Team USA members and a USA Bobsled and Skeleton official describe her suspension as excessive, arbitrary, retaliatory and based on little if any investigation by USOPC officials.

“The punishment doesn’t fit the crime,” said a USABS official who asked not to be identified.

USOPC officials have “admitted fault” in denying medical treatment on February 28, according to Jones, a USABS official and two other people familiar with the case.

“We had a 30-minute mediation before Worlds where they made me cry,” Jones said. “They admitted that they messed up by not telling me my appointment was canceled and they said that they would change protocols in the future for athletes and at least give them proper time to make adjustments. I said, ‘If you’re admitting you did something wrong, then why are you punishing me and not your provider who did not contact me?’ They were speechless. They said that they were gonna uphold the ban.”

USOPC officials did not interview eyewitnesses to Jones’ exchange with Faltus, according to Jones, a USABS  official and three other people familiar with the case.

“You would think you would get it from both sides,” Jones said. “You would get it from the (sports medicine) provider and you would get it from the athletes involved. Instead, what they did is they just took John’s word for it and gave me a life sentence of pretty much this is my last Olympic push.

“So if they can blackball me from having access, they’re putting me in the hole. And they know it. They know it.”

CODE OF CONDUCT QUESTIONS

Jones’ suspension also highlights a pattern of selective enforcement by USOPC officials and lack of specificity in the OPTC’s Code of Conduct, Jones, a USABS official and other Olympians said.

This past winter, a Team USA winter sport athlete screamed and cursed at a U.S. teammate at an international event, refusing to stop even after being warned by team officials and other teammates, according to two people familiar with the incident.

“The whole team said that it was embarrassing, a distraction to performance, and unacceptable,” said a U.S. Olympian.

Another Team USA winter sport athlete got into a public screaming match with a U.S. coach, according to two people familiar with the incident.

In neither case were the athletes disciplined, according to two people familiar with the situation.

While Marra, in informing Jones of her banishment, said her behavior violated the OPTC’s Code of Conduct, Marra did not cite a specific rule. The OPTC’s 10-page Code of Conduct does not refer to swearing or verbal altercations. Instead the code outlines how marijuana, marijuana paraphernalia and weapons including swords are not permitted in OPTC dorms or facilities, that food and drink are not to be taken in training areas, where to store bikes and that “Visitors/unregistered guests are prohibited in the dormitory areas or on the premises between 11:00 PM and 7:00 AM daily.”

The closest the code comes to directly addressing swearing or verbal altercations is one brief passage: “Unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated, including but not limited to, the following: Any act of violation of offenses, as listed in the USOPC Background Check Policy or adjudicated of federal, state, or local laws.”

The OPTC code, the USABS official acknowledged, “is arbitrary.”

“To this day,” Jones wrote in an email to SCNG, “no one has told me: Who found me in violation, what exact rule or code I broke, or what part of the Code of Conduct was allegedly violated.

“They vaguely referred to ‘professionalism’ and a generic code of conduct, but never pointed to a rule in our athlete handbook or safety policies. No one would name who made the decision. The information kept changing. I was never given a formal hearing, never asked for my side, and no witnesses were interviewed. I was banned like a criminal without due process.”

Jones alleged in an interview with SCNG that Faltus also denied her access to treatment last fall shortly after she returned to bobsled and after she had competed in the Olympic Trials in the 100-meter hurdles.

“John denied me treatment and getting ice bags,” Jones said. “I couldn’t even do hot and cold tub. I could not get into the training room to do hot and cold tub. And I am a three-time Olympian.”

Jones also alleges that Faltus has banned a female Olympic medalist from the OPTC training room.

“He runs the Olympic training room like TSA,” Jones said. “It’s a power trip for him. In my opinion, he’s not trying to help the athletes. It’s more so like, this is your allotment, and be happy with it. ‘You ungrateful children.’ And a lot of people forget, I’m actually older than John. I am. I am older than him. I am older than the head coach. If you treat me like a child, and I am actually your senior, there needs to be respect both ways. And I think that there’s this perception when the athletes come in, because we do come in on our 20s, that we’re kids, and they keep that perception of us, and we should be grateful, and we should bow down and cater to them. It should be a cohesive system where we are helping each other. You’re helping our bodies, and we’re helping Team USA to get on the podium and get medals for our country. Like we win together, not separate.”

Marra did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment. A person identifying himself as “John” answered a telephone number listed for Faltus’ office earlier this week. When an SCNG reporter identified himself and said he was working on a story about Jones, the person answering the phone hung up without explanation. Faltus did not respond to subsequent messages seeking comment.

Jones has been open about her mental health struggles and a troubled childhood in which her father was in state prison for much of her upbringing, her family experienced homelessness and poverty to such an extent that older family members encouraged Jones as young girl to shoplift frozen dinners so they could eat.

She was diagnosed with PTSD in 2009, months after leading the 2008 Olympic Games 100-meter hurdles final, before crashing after hitting the ninth of 10 hurdles, slipping to seventh place. Jones has also talked extensively about struggling with suicidal thoughts and depression.

“I think the thing that’s the most frustrating of all this is I have expressed how I’ve had PTSD from this sport,” Jones said. “I’ve been concussed multiple times, you know, I’ve told them how I’ve struggled with depression and to be kicked out like a dog, it’s just, it’s wild to me. It has really affected me in ways I didn’t think could affect me.”

Jones’ background, her injury and the stress of the upcoming World Championships should have been taken into consideration by USOPC officials in disciplining her for her confrontation with Faltus, Jones’ supporters said.

“What concerns me most is that the USOPC and staff are well aware of Lolo’s mental health challenges,” said Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Olympian and two-time world champion in skeleton for Team USA who trains at the OPTC. “This could have been an opportunity to support her — not excuse her behavior, but respond in a way that prioritizes holistic care and helps her get better. Instead, it feels like a missed chance to lead with compassion and accountability.”

A USABS official agreed.

“We need to figure out how to provide athletes with resources that not only support their performance but their mental health,” the official said. “And that’s still lacking at the moment.”

Said Jones, “It’s such a power trip at this point. You know it’s like if they can do this to me, someone who has stats, imagine the lower athlete that comes in and has no stats, no power to do anything, like they’re just gonna get destroyed in the sport, 100 percent destroyed.”

SUSPENSION REMAINS IN PLACE

Jones’ access to the OPTC was also revoked as of March 17, Marra wrote in the March 1 email.

During a March 7 meeting in which Jones apologized, Marra agreed to a modified plan in which Jones could “receive medical treatment this week/during World Championships,” March 6-15, according to emails. Jones and Team USA pilot Elana Meyers Taylor finished sixth at the World Championships. Faltus did not attend or participate in the meeting despite being invited.

But the suspension has remained in place. Jones has missed spring training as well as a June Team USA camp with an upcoming camp at the OPTC now also in jeopardy, according to Jones and emails.

“You may have already heard from your lawyer but I heard back from the USOPC yesterday,” U.S. bobsled head coach Chris Fogt wrote in a June 14 email to Jones. “For this camp in June, they are sticking with the original punishment of no OPTC access or resources during this camp. This includes not being able to see (OPTC trainer) Ben (Towne), or any USOPC providers, even while at the ice house.

“I know this isn’t the information you wanted to hear and am not sure the impact it will have on your decision to attend the performance camp or not. I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page before you made that decision. I’ll continue to talk to the USOPC and advocate for a resolution before the next performance camp in July.”

If Jones wants to attend the July camp, she has to provide and pay for her transportation to Lake Placid and for a rental car once she gets there. She must find housing in the arena because she is banned from staying in the OPTC dorms. She will not have access to sports medicine personnel or facilities or any nutritional support.

“I have nowhere to get treatment,” she said. “I have nowhere to lift weights. They want me to lift weights in a public gym. Coming off of a spinal surgery. I have no spotter in a public gym. I don’t have rehab capabilities. I’m supposed to be doing ice, contrast, stem, you know, someone watching my rehab protocols. I have no access.

“And you know, the craziest thing about all of this is they said, ‘Oh, she can come in for the team meetings, but she’s a threat.’ They said, ‘Okay, she can’t come in the OTC because she’s a threat.’ But then the coach was like, well, we have team camps. Okay, she can come in for the team meetings. If I am a threat, how can I come in for the team meetings and I can’t go into the weight room, which is right next to the team meeting room? Literally, they are side by side. If I am such a threat? What they’re doing is they’re picking the things that will hurt me the most. They know if I can’t lift weights, it drastically decreases my chance to make the Olympic team.”

“WHAT IS GOING ON?”

Jones was in severe pain and a heightened sense of anxiety when she walked into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Medical Clinic in Lake Placid, New York, shortly before 4 p.m. on February 28 for a previously scheduled treatment session.

It had been a roller coaster of a week for Jones, one of the most recognizable American female athletes this century, a two-time world champion in both the hurdles in track and field and bobsled, whose athletic success has been a springboard to being cast in several reality TV series and achieving a celebrity status rarely obtained by even more decorated Olympic athletes.

The week was, in a way, the start of Jones’ push to make one last Olympic team.

After winning three NCAA titles as a hurdler at LSU, Jones won the 2008 and 2010 World Indoor Championships 60-meter hurdles gold medals. She was the heavy favorite to also capture gold in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, only to crash after pulling away from the field.

“You hit a hurdle about twice a year where it affects your race,” she told reporters after the race. “It’s just a shame that it happened on the biggest race of my life.”

Jones was fourth in the 100 hurdles at the 2012 Olympic Games in London before switching to bobsled, winning the mixed team gold medal at the 2013 World Championships. A year later, she was in the two-woman competition at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. She teamed with Kaillie Humphries to win the two-woman gold medal at the 2021 Worlds.

That Wednesday in February, Jones was the fastest brakeman in an in-house national team competition and evaluations at the OPTC and had been named to Team USA’s top sled for the World Championships the following week in Lake Placid.

“The day of the evals was an excellent day for me,” Jones said. “That’s so there’s no higher standard test in USA bobsled for the brakeman than evals to determine who’s the best. So on that day, I won, determining I was the fastest brakeman in America. I was put on the USA 1 sled, which means I was put on the fastest sled. They put the fastest brakeman with the best pilot to increase the best chance for medals at Worlds.”

But while testing the following day, with a new sled that the U.S. would use in the Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina this next February, Jones suffered a back injury so severe that she lost control of her bladder in the sled during a test run.

“I was having a lot of pain and I also peed in the bobsled,” Jones said. “I lost continence. That I did not tell the pilot, because I was embarrassed, because my job as a brakeman is to reassure the pilot, and if I would have told her, I lost like body fluid, she would have been stressed out for worlds. So I just basically downplayed it with her.

“Basically bobsleds are like cars. We’re building new cars every Olympic quad to make them faster and faster. So we have to try out things. That’s the nature of our job. But this, this injury, was incurred while doing bobsled for the United States of America. To give you the United States a better medal chance.”

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Not only was Team USA desperate for a Worlds medal on home soil, but a poor performance by Jones at Worlds could have a major negative financial impact on her going into the Olympic year.

“World Championships, a lot of people think of Olympic athletes as like, ‘Oh, they’re doing it for fun,’” Jones said. “Well, our health insurance is on the line. So if you don’t compete well at World Championships, your health insurance gets cut. Your stipend to pay your rent for the whole year gets cut. So it’s our job. Like, if you don’t compete well at these championships, your finances take a hit for the next 12 months. So this is not only a health thing, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, if I don’t get right, I can’t compete, and my budget is going to be severely impacted.’”

Towne, the OPTC trainer, set up an appointment with the sports medicine clinic for Jones to receive a massage, the first step in treating and diagnosing the back injury, according OPTC protocol.

“Okay, so he cleared it,” Jones said. “He suggested it, cleared and approved this massage.”

But Jones was informed after arriving at the clinic that her appointment had been canceled without explanation.

“So I did the protocol,” Jones said. “I spoke with the athletic trainer. The trainer approved it. So then when I go to show up on my massage that, they schedule me for me for Friday at 4 (p.m.), right before the training center closes for the weekend.

“I show up to Sports Med, they tell me my appointment was canceled. I asked them, ‘Why is my appointment canceled? This is the last chance I have to get treatment before the weekend ends. I’m in severe pain. I’ve peed myself in a bobsled. You’re basically denying me treatment before the sports meds office is closed for the weekend, which means I will have no access for the next two days pain pain-wise, to figure out what’s wrong with me?’”

The secretary told Jones she was not sure why the appointment was canceled.

“I said, ‘Why wasn’t I warned?’” Jones said. “‘Why wasn’t I sent an email? Why wasn’t I sent a text so that I could make my own adjustments.’ So we did the evals the next day we were on ice. It took like a day to get the treatment. So they had a day at least to warn me, ‘Hey, your appointment is being canceled, make other procedures for the weekend.’ They sat on this for a day, and did not even let me know why it was canceled all. It’s a simple text message, and I could make other, you know, adjustments, but they waited until 4 p.m. before the (clinic) closes.

“So I get frustrated, as I should, as anyone with severe back pain would like, ‘Why did you cancel my appointment? What is going on? And so she said, ‘John, canceled it.’ John Faltus. And so he comes out, and (I ask) ‘Why was my appointment canceled?’ And I was just like, I’m frustrated. I’m in pain. I’m in severe back pain. I’m stressed out, because I’m like, how am I going to get treatment for the next two days by myself? I have World Championships in seven days.

“So he came out, and I was just like, ‘You’re a horrible f—— human. How could you do this to me?’ And then I walked out, that was it, that’s what I said. I mean, I was so frustrated with him because, like, why wasn’t I notified?”

Although Jones was told Faltus canceled the treatment because she was only entitled to one massage per week and she had already had a massage that week, she said “I have never received a written explanation for why I was denied medical treatment? This is especially alarming given that I was recovering from an injury I sustained while representing Team USA. The USOPC claims to support athlete health, but in this case, they failed to uphold that duty of care.”

Faltus graduated with a bachelor’s degree in rehabilitation science from Northeastern University in Boston in 2007 and received a doctorate in physical therapy from the school in 2008, according to published reports. He earned a master’s degree in athletic training from Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2011. Faltus worked as an assistant trainer for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies in 2014 and volunteered at the USOPC sports medicine clinic at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in 2012 and 2014. He was head trainer in 2018 and 2020 on Cirque du Soleil tours in Japan and North America. He was a member of the USOPC’s sports medicine team at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Jones paid to have an MRI done after the World Championships, which revealed a herniated disc with a disc bulge, and tears in her L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae with spinal fluid leaking out.

“Meaning, had I competed, had my pilot crashed me at World Championships, I could have been paralyzed,” Jones said. “Had she made an error, I would not be walking today. Thank god. She’s a great driver, and we got through the rounds, but they put me at severe risk to injury. Why? Because I told the provider, you’re a horrible f—— human being for canceling my appointment because I was in pain.”

Jones later underwent a procedure to repair the injuries. The procedure that cost her approximately $22,000 out of her own savings, she said.

ACKNOWLEDGING HER MISTAKE

The morning after Jones’ run-in with Faltus, Marra informed her she had been banned in a 9:33 a.m. email.

“I had no access of Sports Med during World Championships,” Jones said. “I was carrying ice bags to my room while competing for Team USA. I was in my room trying to do my own cupping on my back. Do you know how hard that is on your own back?”

Later that afternoon, a USA Bobsled and Skeleton athlete representative reached out to the USOPC’s athlete ombudsman’s team.

“Lolo acknowledges her mistake, is deeply apologetic, and is committed to making amends,” the representative wrote. “She stated that the team is spread very thin, and the pressure of world championships has been intense.

“She is willing to accept appropriate consequences and engage in safe sports training or some other form of work as needed, decided by the parties involved. The current revocation leading up to Olympic selections would seriously inhibit her ability to make a team.

“We would greatly appreciate your assistance in mediating with the Training Center staff to work out a way to potentially restore her access in a way that may not impede on her ability to make an Olympic team.”

But it was clear the combination of the injury, the suspension, the lack of access to treatment and the pressure of the upcoming Worlds were taking their toll on Jones.

“She seemed quite stressed yesterday and may not have had the capacity to do so at the time,” a USABS athlete representative wrote in a March 3 email to Aaron Mojarras, USOPC assistant athlete ombudsman. A day later, Jones admitted in an email to Mojarras “the stress is overwhelming.”

“There’s a certain state of mind required to compete on the world stage, with immense pressure and expectations placed on athletes,” Uhlaender said. “For some of us, our livelihoods are on the line. Competing while injured can feel like facing an impossible situation — and the worst part is feeling like you’re facing it alone. There is some support, but when key players in your support system pull critical resources, it can make everything worse.

“Especially when it’s the end of a career and the future after sport already feels uncertain, the last thing a multi-time Olympian should feel is dismissed or ignored. I’m sure that’s how Lolo felt. I do wonder if more compassion could have been given or a punishment that included the recognition of what she’s been through up to now.”

There were, however, encouraging signs.

“The head coach is also eager to provide support and would like to be involved in the conversation when you connect,” the athlete rep wrote to Mojarras in the March 5 email. ” … Additionally, it seems that the management at the OPTC is open to negotiation on this matter. However, the only person who has not been willing to engage in discussions is John (Faltus), the head trainer at the OPTC.

“The inability to provide treatment not only hurts Lolo, it’s also a hindrance to the Pilot she is attached to.”

Fogt, the USABS head coach, was also upbeat in a March 5 email to the athlete rep.

“This is great news!” Fogt wrote. “Please let me know if I can help or if they want to hop on a call with Julie and I.

“Lolo is ready to apologize, accept the consequences, and move on from the incident. She fully acknowledges her actions were unacceptable and has handled the fallout very measured with no further incidents.

“My intent is she regains recovery center access the week she is competing, starting on Saturday, 08 March (the 2-women race begins 15 March). I think she should have the ability to see Ben in there too. I spoke with Julie about this as well and she seems initially supportive.

“Again, I would like a resolution before the weekend so our athletes can train, recover, prepare, and win.’

A meeting was set up for March 7, a week after the verbal altercation between Jones and Faltus, between Marra and Jones. Faltus was also invited but declined to participate.

“You indicated that you wished to move forward with a meeting with Bobsled, the OPTC, and Sports Med to share your perspective on the incident, express remorse, and ask for reconsideration regarding your access to medical treatment,” Mojarras wrote to Jones in a March 12 email recounting the March 7 meeting.

“After a robust discussion, you, Chris, Julie, and Amber agreed to a modified plan for you to receive medical treatment this week/during World Championships.”

Jones was told by Marra in the March 1 email that “your access to the Sport Medicine facilities has been revoked as of February 28. … Additionally, beginning Monday, March 17, your access to the Training Center will be revoked. This suspension will remain in effect for the next three (3) USABS-hosted programs you are scheduled to attend at the OPTC.

“Please understand the seriousness of this situation. We expect all athletes to maintain a high standard of professionalism and respect, both towards our staff and their teammates. We take these matters seriously to ensure a positive and respectful environment for everyone involved.”

But Fogt was informed by the USOPC on May 29 that Jones’ access to the OPTC and USOPC services would not resume until August 3.

“So, to be clear, I was never formally notified of this ‘extension,’” Jones wrote in an email to SCNG.

“The original suspension appeared to end in March. Coach Fogt said it would all die down. But it didn’t and then it was quietly extended. I started pushing for athletes’ rights around April when it became clear that it was no longer about punishing me it was more about retaliation and preventing me now from having opportunities to make the next Olympic team. To this day, I’ve never been granted a hearing. No formal review has taken place.

“The coach and I initially believed the ‘three training camps’ referred to team selection races right after World Championships and Olympic team selection prep — including the June push camp and July events. I had also applied for full-time housing, so those camps would’ve been part of my official Olympic prep period.

“Instead, they extended my ban until August 3 — which goes well beyond the original three camps. What’s more concerning is that both the coach and team manager said they’d never seen a suspension like this. Normally, it’s a specific timeframe (e.g., 14 days). But banning someone from ‘all Team USA bobsled opportunities’ gave them unlimited discretion — and allowed them to keep extending it without clarity or end date.

“Also the camps are where we form camaraderie as a team, so barring me from forming friendships with the pilots that I need to be teammates with drastically impacts my chances to make the Olympic team.

“Also, I had already been removed from Sports Med before World Championships. That was the first phase of punishment. Then I was banned from the OTC entirely after World Champs. Then they extended it through Olympic training camp the WHOLE SUMMER. So this was a three-phase ban — and I never agreed to any of it.”

Jones has retained John Manly, an Orange County attorney, who on May 12 wrote to the USOPC requesting that the organization mediate Jones’ dispute with the OPTC sports medicine clinic in 10 business days. If they didn’t meet the timeline, Jones would file suit, Manly said.

“As we are sure you understand, USOPC, on its own behalf, cannot commit to a fruitful and productive mediation without sufficient time to evaluate Ms. Jones’s claims; such an assessment cannot be completed within the 10 business days outlined in your letter,” Jillian D. Willis, a Washington, D.C., lawyer representing the USOPC, wrote in a May 21 letter to Manly. “We look forward to discussing Ms. Jones’s concerns as soon as practicable once we have completed our review and assessment. … We hope that this matter can be resolved short of litigation. If, however, Ms. Jones chooses to move forward with any claims against USOPC without further discussion, our client will vigorously defend itself.”

So far the USOPC has not agreed to schedule mediation.

BACK ON BAYOU

In the meantime, while her rivals for spots on Team USA are training on the push track in Lake Placid’s ice house, Jones is 1,600 miles away in Baton Rouge, where the only available ice comes in drinks and plastic bags.

Jones estimates the OPTC ban has cost her around $35,000 between medical and treatment bills, travel and housing. She had to fly a physical therapist into Lake Placid to treat her during Worlds.

Her costs would be even greater if she didn’t have access to LSU’s athletic training and sports medicine facilities.

“I have been out of LSU for a while,” Jones said. “I graduated in 2005, that’s 20 years. If I walk into LSU Sports Med right now, and I am an Olympic athlete, and they know I’m currently training, they’ll take me in. I could walk in right now and say, ‘Hey, can I get a massage on my back?’ And they would treat me.

“And I have not been at LSU in 20 years. That’s how well they take care of their Olympic athletes that currently are training, not retired, but current athletes that are training to fight for Team USA and represent their country. Their alumni they take care of. So why at the Olympic Training Center is there a different standard? And I’m in their system, and I’m competing for Team USA.”

There, Lukáš Dostál and Radko Gudas will reprise their roles from their 2024 World Championship triumph for Czechia while prospect Damian Clara will man the net for host nation Italy.

Dostál made an immense leap forward last season for the Ducks, when he routinely saved goals above expected as the team’s most outstanding and most consistent player. Gudas took a step back on the blue line from his superb first season with the team, but also assumed the role of captain for the first time, continued to deepen his community presence and played through injuries.

Both men participated in Czechia’s gold-medal victory on home soil in the spring of 2024, when Dostál dominated the tournament, including a shutout in the final and another in the quarterfinal round. Gudas contributed to that excellence as part of the Czech defense corps, and the team effort even extended beyond the ice.

“It was a very special moment for our team and for our country as well. We haven’t been able to do that in, I think, 40 years,” Gudas said. “Everybody in the Czech Republic was cheering for us and it got the whole country together rooting for one thing.”

For Dostál, it was a springboard toward a season that established him as an NHL starter and might make him a wealthy man as he negotiates a new contract during his pending restricted free agency. He edged out a pair of more established NHL netminders for the gig in goal last spring.

“Getting the chance, being the youngest, people might have thought I might not be able to handle it, but I really wanted to prove everybody wrong, to show that ‘I’m here, I’m ready,’” Dostál said.

Clara, a 20-year-old prospect goaltender whose journey has taken him from Italy to Austria to Sweden to San Diego, will almost assuredly be the lone North American pro among the Italians.

“I hope I can give my best for the team and give my best for the nation,” Clara said.

With competition opening up beyond the traditional seven or so powers in ice hockey, the Italians hope to join the Swiss, Germans and other rising European sides. While Clara said he felt the program had ground to cover to close the gap on even those up-and-comers, he was enthused at some talent in the pipeline and hoped to be an exemplar within the program.

“I hope I can be a little bit of a role model in that you don’t have to start out big, you just have to go somewhere, try your luck and give it your all,” Clara said. “I know I’m not supposed to be here, given where I came from.”

On Monday, each of the 12 qualifying countries named six participants, with the bulk of the rosters to be determined ahead of the February games. That could send additional Ducks to Italy. Most notably, new addition Chris Kreider skated for the United States at 4 Nations Face-Off, where promising pivot Leo Carlsson filled a depth role for Sweden.

Each of the 12 qualifying nations announced its initial six players for the tournament on Monday, making Kempe and Fiala headliners of what were already exclusive groups.

Kempe joined defensemen Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo Sabres) and Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning) as well as fellow forwards Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado Avalanche), William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Lucas Raymond (Detroit Red Wings).

Kempe, Dahlin, Hedman, Nylander and Raymond all donned yellow and blue during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, a tune-up for the Olympics that saw NHL pros in best-on-best international competition for the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

The previous two Olympics, 2018 in South Korea and 2022 in China, were played without NHLPA members due to myriad complications between the NHL, IOC and IIHF.

Landeskog missed nearly three full seasons due to knee injuries and related complications, but after returning for the Colorado Avalanche during this spring’s playoffs, he figures to bring leadership, physicality and skill with the Tre Kronor emblazoning his chest.

Kempe will represent Sweden for the sixth time at the senior level, most notably having been part of the 2018 side that won gold at the World Championships.

“He’s really a utility guy, you can plug him in each and every role. He’s played alongside Anže Kopitar for years in L.A., and he excels on both sides of the ice. His skating is a weapon,” Swedish general manager Josef Boumedienne said during the season. “We see him as a guy we can plug in in each and every role. He can kill penalties, be on the power play and is heavy down low in the offensive zone.”

Fiala is coming off two consecutive trips to the World Championship final with Switzerland, which will host that tournament next season following the Olympics. The Swiss lost in this past year’s final to the United States, and to Czechia in the tournament prior.

Those were two of Fiala’s three silver medals in red and white, with Fiala frequently representing his homeland and joining Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi as the faces of the sport in Switzerland.

The Swiss did not participate in 4 Nations, but that familiar duo will be joined in neighboring Italy by Winnipeg Jets winger Nino Niederreiter and three New Jersey Devils: Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Jonas Siegenthaler.

Most prominent among other Kings who could head to Italy when the final rosters for the 12 national teams are revealed is defenseman Drew Doughty, who skated for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Pending unrestricted free agent Vladislav Gavrikov, who won a gold medal in 2018 as part of the Olympics Athletes from Russia delegation, would likely have participated if Russia were not banned from competing due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.