Blog Posts by Maggie Hendricks

Yuna Kim skates her short program (Getty)The anthems have been sung, the medals have been given out, and the 2013 figure skating world championships have come to a close. What did we learn from all that skating?

Yuna Kim is still the queen: The Vancouver Olympic gold medalist took more than two years off the ice, and it didn't matter. "Queen Yuna" is still reigning over the figure skating world. She won the world title with enchanting, yet still technically strong performances. Carolina Kostner took second place, and was more than 20 points behind Kim.

The Davis/White vs. Virtue/Moir rivalry is still going strong: In Vancouver, Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took ice dancing gold by a narrow margin. Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White took the last two world titles. On Saturday, the American pair beat the Canadians by four points, setting up another showdown in Sochi.

(Getty)Figure skater Ashley Wagner has a big task to accomplish this week. Along with U.S. teammate Gracie Gold, she has to place high enough to qualify the United States for three spots for next year's Olympics.

But it will be tough for her to do without her ice skates.

Wagner's skates were lost by the airline on the way to London, Ontario for the world championships on Tuesday morning. They were in her checked luggage, and with all of the traveling she's done as an elite skater for five years, her bags have never been lost. She now has to wait for the airlines to find her bag, and is trying to remain calm.

"OK, I don't have my skates. I have to relax a little bit. It makes me take a step back and realize it's just skating. It's an event, it's a huge event, but I'll do better that way," Wagner said to USA Today.

She tweeted that fellow skaters have given her workout clothes to wear.

I've rounded up tights and a top, thx to @weaverpoje and makeup from my lovely roommate..now searching 4 shoes and oh yeah, skates!#practice

— Ashley Wagner (@AshWagner2010) March 12, 2013

Figure skates are specially fitted to their wearer. Borrowing a pair or running to a sporting goods stores to pick up some new skates could lead to blistering or injuries, which is not what Wagner needs heading into worlds.

While the Transportation Security Administration does allow skates on carry-on luggage, Wagner's never had trouble checking her baggage before. It can make you forget that bags do get mishandled by airlines everyday.

Though she has a practice scheduled for Tuesday night, she doesn't compete until Thursday. Hopefully, Wagner will get her skates by then.

UPDATE: Huzzah! The skates have been found. Nancy Armour of the Associated Press reports:

A @usfigureskating official picked up @ashwagner2010 skates, took thru customs, drove thru Toronto rush hour. Arrived just as warmup began

— Nancy Armour (@nrarmour) March 12, 2013



When American Evan Lysacek won gold in figure skating at the Vancouver Olympics, Yahoo! Sports' Elvis Stojko had a huge problem with the result. Though he had no problem with Lysacek's performance, he did have a problem with the way the skate was scored.

At the time, skaters were not given more consideration for trying difficult jumps, like the quadruple jump. When competing for Canada in the 90s, Stojko became the first man to cleanly land a quad jump at the World Championships. With Lysacek not trying to repeat his difficult feat, Stojko said the 2010 result had set back the sport 20 years. In the video above, he stands by his words.

But as they traditionally do after the Olympics, figure skating officials reviewed how to score different skating elements. Quads were encouraged in the new scoring system. Canadian Patrick Chan, the reigning world champ, is expected to throw a quad at the world championships in London, Canada, next week. Top Japanese skaters Daisuke Takahashi and

(Getty)Remember Mo Farah, the British runner who won two golds in London? His win over training partner Galen Rupp was one of the most thrilling moments of the 2012 Olympics. The British crowd roared as he crossed the finish line, and he became one of the biggest celebrities of the Olympics.

But an anchor at a New Orleans television station must not have remembered the moment. After Farah won the New Orleans Half Marathon with a time of 61 minutes, she asked him if he had ever run before.

It also appears that she doesn't know the difference between a half-marathon (13.1 miles) and a marathon (26.2 miles.)

Regardless of her gaffe, Farah completed an amazing run. After spending most of his career on distances of 5,000m - 10,000m, he transitioned to a half-marathon by running it in an hour and 59 seconds and setting a course records.

Thanks, Deadspin.

(Associated Press)

South African runner Oscar Pistorius was charged with murder on Thursday after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot at his home in Pretoria. Pistorius, who had collected considerable fame and wealth after becoming the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, reportedly kept several weapons at his home in South Africa and some early reports say Pistorius mistook his girlfriend for an intruder.

What exactly happened is still unclear — police say they had been called to Pistorious' home for "incidents" before — but a tweet he sent in November reveals that he was a bit jumpy when it came to personal safety:

Jordan Burroughs (red) competes in the 2012 Olympics. (AP)In a shocking move, the International Olympic Committee voted to drop wrestling from its schedule for the 2020 Games. The unexpected decision was made via secret ballot during a Tuesday meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland where officials were discussing ways to "streamline" the Olympics.

Though many assumed modern pentathlon would get the boot, the committee instead decided to eliminate wrestling, which has roots in the ancient Greece games and has been a part of every modern Olympics since they began in 1896. The vote was completed over several rounds and the final totals were not released to the public.

Each of the Summer Games' 26 "core sports" were reviewed and at risk:

"This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling, it is what's right with the (other) 25 core sports."

Now wrestling will have to face off with seven other sports that are fighting for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics. The list includes includes baseball and softball, which were dropped from the Olympics after Beijing in 2008 and sports trying to make the Olympics for the first time, including karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing,wake boarding and wushu. The Associated Press said it is "extremely unlikely" that wrestling would be brought back so soon after the committee voted to eliminate it.

Gracie Gold will skate at Worlds. (Getty)The 2014 Winter Olympics officially open one year from today. Do you want to be the super cool person at the water cooler who can impress everyone with your Winter Olympic knowledge? Circle these dates on your calendar and start paying attention to the your favorite winter sports right now.

Feb. 20 — Mar. 3, Nordic World Championships: In Val di Fiemme, Italy, cross country skiers and ski jumpers will show off who the best in the world are. At the last Winter Games in Vancouver, the United States won medals in Nordic combined (cross country skiing and ski jumping). That was a first for the U.S. team, so check in to see if they can get a streak going. Also, women's ski jumpers will be in the Olympics for the first time, and you can see who the early favorites to win the first gold will be.

Mar. 12 — Mar. 20, Figure Skating World Championships: Figure skaters will flock to London, Ont., for the world championships in just over a month from now. It's a key event because it's where figure

Lindsey Vonn receives an airlift rescue on Tuesday. (AP)

Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn was airlifted off a mountain in Schladming, Austria on Tuesday after crashing during the world championships. Vonn's crash came during the Super G, when she slipped and then went head over heels, with her legs getting tangled up as she hit the ground. A skiing official reported that her injury was "a cruciate and lateral ligament” injury — not a tibia, as rumored before.

[Related: Lindsey Vonn's Olympic bid in doubt after crash, injury]

Here is video of the crash: