Did you see that a Swedish teenager set an American record in the European Champs?

Sweden's Olympic and World Champion Mondo Duplantis coming back to Los Angeles for the first time since 2017 for the USATF L.A. Grand Prix.

TSX HEADLINES – for August 17, 2018: One of the greatest pole vaulting competitions of all time came at the European Championships, with three men vaulting at the magical 6-meter mark and two clearing it.

Then an 18-year-old competing for Sweden won the event at 6.05 m (or 19-10 1/4), not only setting his third World Junior Record of the competition, but also setting an American Record and a Swedish Record in the process of becoming European Champion.

Confused? Don’t be; it’s the amazing reality show known as Mondo Duplantis, from an athletic family in Lafayette, Louisiana, who competes for Sweden and … well, we’ll explain.

All the details are in our Lane One commentary, plus a whole week’s worth of results and a preview of this weekend’s biggest events in this 34-page issue:

(1) THE BIG PICTURE: Massive Asian Games, with as many as 11,000 athletes, gets ready to open in Indonesia on Saturday … at a cost of $3.2 billion!

(2) GYMNASTICS: Simone Biles ready to star in U.S. National Championships in Boston, the next step on her way to the World Championships …

(3) EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: New superstars minted at the Euros include Norway’s teen distance sensation Jakob Ingebrigtsen and British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, and much more drama in one of the best Europeans ever.

(4) SOFTBALL: A classic between the U.S. and Japan in the final of the World Championships in Chiba, Japan that went into extra innings!

(5) SWIMMING: U.S. closes with seven golds in 10 events on the final day of the Pan-Pacific Championships in Tokyo!

This issue includes ON DECK previews of Beach Volleyball ~ Cycling ~ Gymnastics ~ Sport Climbing ~ Table Tennis, SCOREBOARD reports on the European Championships (Athletics and Cycling) ~ Archery ~ Beach Volleyball ~ Cycling ~ Judo ~ Sailing ~ Softball ~ Swimming ~ Taekwondo, plus AGENDA, our exclusive calendar of upcoming international events!