U.S. championships will return to San Jose in 2021

The U.S. figure skating championships, the sport’s most prestigious annual American competition, will return to San Jose in 2021 in what is expected to launch the buildup to the Beijing Winter Games, skating officials announced Wednesday.

SAP Center will play host to the championships, Jan. 11-17, 2021, for the third time in a decade and the fourth time overall for San Jose. The competition also will kickoff U.S. Figure Skating’s 100th-anniversary celebration.

A region that boasted such Olympic skating stars as Peggy Fleming, Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi and Debi Thomas has returned to the center stage of the sport in recent years.

Richmond’s Alysa Liu is the reigning U.S. champion. Liu, 14, will not compete in senior international competition until the 202122 season because she was born six weeks after the age cutoff that determines eligibility.

Vincent Zhou of Palo Alto, one of America’s top male skaters, is expected to go for another Olympic run after finishing sixth last year at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea. Zhou, 19, has taken a break from skating this year while focusing on his freshman year at Brown University.

Fremont’s Karen Chen, another 2018 Olympian, also is an Ivy League freshman, studying pre-med at Cornell University while competing this year. Chen, 20, has struggled with injuries since the Winter Games and will need to show dramatic improvement in the coming years to be considered a bona fide Olympic candidate for Beijing.

Another Bay Area athlete to watch is Anthony Ponomarenko of Morgan Hill and partner Christina Carreira of Montreal. The couple won the U.S. junior ice dancing title in 2018 — the last time the championships were held in San Jose. — Elliott Almond

Women’s college basketball

OREGON IS NO. 1, STANFORD NO. 3 >> Oregon is No. 1 for the first time in school history while Tennessee’s streak of 42 straight appearances in The Associated Press women’s basketball preseason Top 25 is over. The Ducks, led by guard Sabrina Ionescu of Walnut Creek, garnered 25 of the 28 first-place votes from the national media panel to earn the top ranking.

No. 2 Baylor, the defending national champion, received the other three first-place votes. Stanford, Maryland and UConn round out the top five. The Huskies have been in the top five for 239 consecutive weeks, since January 2007.

Tennessee had been in every preseason Top 25 since 1977, the second year of the poll. The Lady Vols, who saw their remarkable run of 565 weeks ranked in the poll end in 2016, fell out of the rankings Jan. 14 last season and didn’t return to the Top 25. They changed coaches in the spring, bringing back former star Kellie Harper to coach the team.

Soccer

DELEON GOAL SENDS TORONTO TO MLS CUP FINAL >> Nick DeLeon scored the tiebreaking goal in the 78th minute, Quentin Westberg stuffed a penalty kick, and Toronto FC advanced to the MLS Cup title game with a 2-1 victory over defending champion Atlanta United in the Eastern Conference final in Atlanta.

Nicolas Benezet also scored for Toronto, which earns a shot at the championship Nov. 10 at Seattle. The Sounders upset

Supporters’ Shield winner Los Angeles FC 3-1 in the Western final late Tuesday night.

Atlanta jumped ahead just four minutes into the game on Julian Gressel’s goal and had a chance to increase the margin on a penalty. But Westberg got a hand on Josef Martinez’s kick for the spot, which kept Toronto in the game.

Baseball

EX-ALL-STAR JOSH HAMILTON CHARGED WITH CHILD INJURY >> Former All-Star slugger Josh Hamilton has been charged with injury to a child after his 14-yearold daughter told his exwife that he had struck her. Hamilton, 38, surrendered Wednesday to the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, and was released on $35,000 bond. If convicted, he could be sentenced to two to 10 years in prison.

According to an affidavit by a Keller Police Department detective, Hamilton’s daughter told police that he went on a rampage Sept. 30. She says she made a comment to Hamilton that upset him, so he threw a full bottle overhand at her, hitting her in the chest, then cursed and shouted at her. He pulled away the chair on which she rested her feet and threw it, breaking the chair. It didn’t hit her, but he then grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her from the chair on which she sat.