Page 2B
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Weekend, February 25-26, 2018
Winter Olympics
American medal haul well short of USOC projections
By EDDIE PELLS
Associated Press
Olympics Medal Count
PYEONGCHANG,
South
Korea — It was a sweeping goal,
spelled out on a colorful, full-screen
slide and presented to leaders of
the U.S. Olympic Committee in a
meeting last year.
Sports executives in America
targeted athletes on Team USA to
win 37 medals at the Pyeongchang
Games.
Heading into the final 48 hours
of action, the United States had 21.
Even if things were to go well over
the handful of remaining events, the
team will fall more than 10 medals
short of the goal.
The information on the slide,
obtained by The Associated Press,
offers a slice of the data the USOC
board uses to set expectations and
approve funding for an upcoming
Olympics. Providing resources
to help athletes win medals at the
Games is one of the federation’s
foremost missions. It spends more
than $60 million every four years,
delivered from several different
revenue streams into a variety of
different programs, to fund Winter
sports.
But the USOC has long been
reluctant to make its predictions
public, essentially stepping away
from the numbers game since
the departure of former chairman
Peter Ueberroth, who always urged
executives to under-promise, then
over-deliver.
The USOC’s chief of sport
performance,
Alan
Ashley,
acknowledged the 2018 team will
not reach its goal, while also saying
“we’re doing fine.”
PYEONGCHANG WINTER OLYMPICS
•Through 2 of 8 medal events for Feb. 24
•Through 92 of 98 total medal events
Nation
Gold Silver Bronze
Tot
Norway
13
14
11
38
Canada
11
8
9
28
Germany
13
7
6
26
United States
8
8
6
22
Netherlands
8
6
4
18
France
5
4
6
15
Austria
5
3
6
14
Switzerland
4
6
4
14
OA Russia
1
5
8
14
South Korea
4
4
4
12
Sweden
6
5
0
11
Japan
3
5
3
11
Italy
3
2
5
10
China
1
6
2
9
Czech Republic
1
2
3
6
AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File
In this Feb. 16 file photo, Lindsey Jacobellis, of the United States,
finishes her run during the women’s snowboard cross quarterfi-
nals at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeo-
ngchang, South Korea.
“I look at it and I go, ‘OK, medals
are one story, but if you look at the
depth of everything that’s going
on, and the number of people who
are fourth and fifth place, and the
commitment level and intensity of
the athletes, you can’t ask for more
than that,” Ashley told AP.
Heading into Friday night’s
action, 21 U.S. teams or athletes —
including Mikaela Shiffrin , Nathan
Chen and Lindsey Jacobellis — had
finished fourth or fifth in their
events, which accounts for part of
the gap between expectations and
reality.
Lindsey Vonn was one of the
Americans with the most medal
potential. She finished third in
the downhill, tied for sixth in the
super-G and DNF in the combined.
She insisted that America’s perfor-
mance shouldn’t be judged strictly
by the medal count.
“The expectation of winning
gold medals is pretty out of whack
and I think we need to be proud of
all of our athletes for how much
they’ve sacrificed and put in to be
here,” she said. “Medals — they’re
not necessarily what the Olympics
are all about. ... To quantify it in
how many medals you have is not
appropriate and doesn’t respect the
athletes and what they’ve put in to
be in these games.”
To be sure, the U.S. has enjoyed
its share of inspiring success stories,
including a cross-country victory by
Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins
and the women hockey team’s
shootout victory Thursday over
Canada to halt a 20-year stretch
without a gold medal.
Hockey and cross country were
among the sports in which the
USOC did not over-promise in
its internal document. It predicted
both sports would garner only one
medal, with a “stretch” goal of two
in each sport.
Under that same “stretch”
scenario across all sports, the
document said the U.S. could win
59 medals, which would’ve shat-
tered its 37 medal haul in 2010, the
all-time mark for any Winter team.
It set a minimum goal of 25 medals.
On the sport-to-sport break-
down, several teams missed their
mark.
—Speedskating was tabbed to
win four medals; through Friday, it
had one.
—Bobsled and luge predicted a
total of four; they had two.
—In the strangest twist, freestyle
skiing and snowboarding — action
sports that have padded the U.S.
medal count over the last few
Olympics, and especially this
year — were pegged to collect 18
medals. Heading into Saturday,
those sports had amassed 10.
Wins by Shaun White, Chloe Kim,
Red Gerard and others turned the
Phoenix Snow Park into a consis-
tent beacon of hope for a struggling
team. And yet, the over-projections
in those sports accounts for a large
chunk of the shortfall.
The U.S. dipped to 28 medals
in 2014, and the AP projects a
finish of 23 this year. Reflected as
a percentage of medals won — the
number available has steadily
grown with the addition of more
action sports, among others, to the
program — the U.S. took 14.3
percent in 2010, 9.6 percent in 2014
and will be at 7.5 percent this year if
it closes with 23.
Funding for Winter sports, mean-
while, has been on a steady uptick
this decade. The amount granted
to Winter sports federations in the
years 2015-16 increased by nearly
6 percent from the corresponding
window of the previous Olympic
cycle, 2011-12.
Ashley of the USOC said he’s
prepared for questions at the next
board meeting, where he’ll deliver
a breakdown of what went right and
wrong in Pyeongchang.
“They’re going to ask questions,
but if you start looking into the
details of what happened here
and how people performed, they
performed great,” he said. “Some-
times you’re on one side of it, and
sometimes you’re on the other side.
But I feel the same way now as I did
when we walked into these Games.
We have a really, really good team
with an amazing bunch of athletes.”
Pro Basketball
Trail Blazers come back from break, easily take care of Jazz
By MATTHEW COLES
Associated Press
NBA
SALT LAKE CITY — CJ
McCollum and Damian Lillard
believe the crucial stretch of the
long NBA season starts now and
the Portland Trail Blazers have
laser-like focus.
“We understand what’s at stake
now,” McCollum said. “One game
— a loss or a win — could sway the
Western Conference playoff race.”
McCollum scored 26 points,
Lillard added 24 and the Trail
Blazers snapped the Utah Jazz’s
11-game winning streak with a
100-81 victory on Friday night.
“We did a great job keeping our
focus, even when they made shots,
went on runs and the crowd got
into it. Our mentality allowed us
to weather each storm that came,”
Lillard said.
McCollum and Lillard drove
through and around the Jazz
defense, which was ranked at the
top of the league during their streak.
The Jazz finally got within
single digits at 90-81 but McCo-
llum scored on three consecutive
isolation plays, all contested
jumpers.
“We knew it was a big posses-
Portland
Utah
100
81
sion on that first one as they had
cut our lead from double digits
and their fans were getting into it,”
McCollum said. “Called me a pick-
and-roll, trying to get me some
space. Got to the free throw line
area, which is more of a sweet spot
for me, a comfort shot. I rose up
and hit it, so we just did the same
thing again and again.”
Lillard cooled off from his
previous three games, when he shot
42 for 76 and scored more than
44 points a game. But he worked
numerous screens and had the Jazz
defenders chasing the ball and
opening opportunities for the other
Blazers.
Jusuf Nurkic scored 15 points
and Al-Farouq Aminu had 12 for
the Blazers, who are now tied for
sixth place in the Western Confer-
ence and just one-and-a-half games
out of third place.
Donovan Mitchell had 21 points
for Utah. Rudy Gobert scored 15
and Joe Ingles contributed 12 but
Portland
Trail Blazers
guard Dami-
an Lillard,
right, goes
to the basket
as Utah
Jazz center
Rudy Gob-
ert defends
duirng the
second half
of an NBA
basketball
game Friday,
Feb. 23, 2018,
in Salt Lake
City.
AP Photo/Rick
Bowmer
the Jazz were sloppy with ball.
During their long winning
streak, the Jazz consistently came
up with loose balls in key scramble
situations. Against Portland, the
Jazz couldn’t seem to hold on
to the basketball, committing 20
turnovers and having numerous
Oregon House bill expands return-to-
play power for kids with concussion
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A bill to
expand the types of health
professionals who can medi-
cally release a student athlete
to play after a concussion is
headed to the Oregon House.
The Senate unanimously
approved Senate Bill 1547
Feb. 19, and the House
Health Care Committee
voted 9 to 2 Friday, Feb.
23, to send the legislation to
a full vote of the House as
early as next week.
Health care committee
members
Rep.
Knute
Buehler, an orthopedic
surgeon, and Rep. Cedric
Hayden, a dentist, voted
against the proposal. The
bill also was opposed by the
Oregon Medical Association,
Oregon Association of
Orthopedic Surgeons and the
Osteopathic Physicians and
Surgeons of Oregon.
The
Senate
Health
Committee proposed the
law change, describing it as
a “child safety” bill, after
convening a work group
on treatment of athlete
concussions and hearing the
group’s recommendations.
Under existing law, only
medical doctors, osteopathic
doctors, physician assistants,
nurse practitioners and
psychologists are allowed to
medically release
a student athlete
with a suspected
concussion. The bill
would expand that
authority — with
online training and
certification — to
athletic
trainers,
physical therapists, occupa-
tional therapists, chiropractic
physicians and naturopathic
physicians.
The online concussion
training by Oregon Health
and Science University
would be required to release
students to play unless the
provider is a physician, who
are exempt from the training.
Some lawmakers, including
Rep. Alyssa Keny-Guyer,
D-Portland, said they see
the training exemption for
physicians as a weakness in
the bill.
“If we were to do an
amendment the one that I
think would have been more
important is that the physi-
cians also get the specific
training because … there is
so much emerging research,”
Keny-Guyer said.
On Friday, Buehler, a
Republican from Bend,
proposed removing athletic
trainers from the list of
qualified providers in the
bill. Athletic trainers do not
all have master’s degrees.
Another concern is that
athletic
trainers
have greater poten-
tial conflicts of
interest in whether
an athlete returns
to play, Buehler
said.
“Athletic
trainers don’t have
the separation that
many of the other providers
on that list have from undue
conflict of interest, and I
think many times athletic
trainers are under significant
pressure to get kids back into
games, and it puts them in an
awkward position.”
Other representatives on
the health care committee
blocked that change. Rep.
Rich Vial, R-Scholls, said
trainers work with student
athletes the most and need
specialized
training
in
concussions. “I have become
convinced in the last couple
of days that the trainer
being closest to the situation
of anybody and with our
increasing
consciousness
about the very profound
effects of these brain injuries,
I am inclined to support
having the trainers both get
the certification and continue
to be in a position to help us.”
Dan Meek of the Oregon
Progressive Party testified
that the law change puts
child safety at risk, especially
those in contact sports.
Traumatic brain injury was
found in 110 of 111 former
NFL players whose families
donated their brains to the
Boston University School
of Medicine, according to a
study published last year by
the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
“Senate Bill 1547 makes
it more likely that Oregon
students will suffer CTE
because it allows more
people to approve having a
student turn to playing on
a school team, after having
suffered a blow that resulted
in symptoms of concussion,”
Meek wrote in testimony to
lawmakers.
Chronic
traumatic
encephalopathy
(CTE),
caused by head trauma, can
lead to dementia, memory
loss, suicidal thoughts,
and personality and mood
changes,
among
other
progressive
symptoms,
Meek testified. A study in
the Journal of the American
Medical Association showed
that CTE was found in the
brains of three of 14, or
21 percent, of high school
players and 48 of 53, 91
percent, of college players.
The bill also “rewrites the
law to more broadly exempt
anyone and any entity
involved in school sports
from any liability for harm
caused to players,” Meek
testified.
rebounds and passes squirt right
through their hands.
“Turning the ball over as much
as we did makes it really difficult.
Obviously, we struggled on the
offensive end. To me, it really starts
there,” Utah coach Quin Snyder
said. “We just didn’t have that
juice.”
The Blazers have now won four
of five, with the only loss a blowout
to the Jazz on Feb. 11.
After Mitchell trimmed the
Portland lead to 53-49, McCollum
hit two 3-pointers and a runner to
spark a 13-2 run. After the Jazz cut
it back to 11, Lillard’s crossover
stepback jumper gave the Blazers
an 80-64 lead entering the final
period.
The Blazers are looking to
follow a pattern of strong finishes
as they reached the playoffs with a
17-11 closing record in 2016 and
an 18-8 post-All-Star Game mark
in 2017.
“Our guys were really locked in.
I was really pleased with the way
we sustained our defensive focus
throughout the game,” Portland
coach Terry Stotts said.
UP NEXT
Blazers visit the Phoenix Suns
on Saturday night.
BRIEFLY
No. 12 Oregon
State gets early
lead, holds on to
beat Arizona
TUCSON, Ariz.
(AP) — Marie Gulich had
20 points and 12 rebounds
and Oregon State jumped
out early and cruised to a
65-40 victory over Arizona
on Friday night.
Oregon State (22-6,
13-4 Pac-12 Conference)
has won six in a row.
Arizona (6-22, 2-15) has
five straight double-digits
losses and was held to
fewer than 50 points for the
eighth time this season.
Gulich has scored
20-plus points in three
consecutive games and
collected her 14th double-
double of the season.
Katie McWilliams added
11 points for the Beavers,
who shot 59 percent in the
first half and 47.5 percent
overall. Gulich had 10
points on 5-of-6 shooting
and nine rebounds as the
Beavers built a 35-16
halftime advantage.
Next, Oregon State
travels to face Arizona
State on Sunday.
No. 8 Oregon gets
rare win 57-44 in
Tempe
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) —
Sabrina Ionescu scored 16
points and No. 8 Oregon
moved a step closer to its
first Pac-12 title in 18 years,
beating Arizona State 57-44
Friday to end a 15-game
losing streak in Tempe.
Oregon (26-4, 15-2
Pac-12) won the first
meeting by shutting down
Arizona State in the third
quarter. The Ducks took
control of the rematch with
similar blueprint.
Trailing by one at
halftime, Oregon hounded
the Sun Devils (19-10,
10-7) into one missed shot
after another to build an
11-point lead. Arizona State
scored eight points in the
quarter and went 4 for 17
shooting.
The Ducks broke the
school record for wins in
a season and matched the
mark for conference wins,
set in 1998-99. They had
not beaten Arizona State on
the road since 2000.
Oregon has won
five straight, nine of 10
and needs only to beat
struggling Arizona on
Sunday to win its first
Pac-12 title since 1999-
2000.
Oregon had an easier
time solving Arizona State’s
defense in the third quarter,
hitting seven of nine shots
and going on an 11-0 run
lead 40-31.
Oregon kept the cushion
in double digits most of
the fourth quarter to end its
long desert drought. Next,
Oregon plays at Arizona on
Sunday.