Home Blog

BOXING: Khelif denies boxing career is over; fellow Paris gold winner Lin to take World Boxing sex-test to fight at Worlds

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ WORLD BOXING SEX SCREENING ≡

The talk of the 2024 Olympic boxing competition was about the women’s 57 kg and 66 kg divisions, won by Yu-ting Lin (TPE) and Algerian Imane Khelif, both accused of being biological men.

On Thursday, both came out and said they are not retired and one is planning on competing at the first World Boxing Championships in Liverpool (GBR) in September and will take the now-required sex-test to compete in the women’s division.

Agence France Presse reported that Lin’s coach, Tzu-Chiang Tseng announced that she would comply with the new regulations:

“They announced that everyone must submit, so we will submit as well.

“If you want to compete you have to follow the rules of the competition. Since we are participating, we will go by their rules.”

As for Khelif, a story from the French Nice Matin site quoted her manager Nasser Yesfah, that she was not boxing any more. On Thursday, Khelif slammed back in a Facebook post:

“I would like to make it clear to the public that the reports of my retirement from boxing are false. …

“I have never announced my retirement from boxing. I remain committed to my sporting career, I train regularly and I maintain my physical condition between Algeria and Qatar in preparation for upcoming events.”

As for Tesfah, Khelif stated, “This person no longer represents me in any way,” and that he “betrayed trust and country with his false and malicious statements.”

Lin and Khelif both won world championship titles in event staged by the International Boxing Association (and its predecessor-in-name, AIBA) before the IBA disqualified them at its 2023 World Championships, citing ineligibility under its gender regulations, without specifics:

● Lin: World Champion 54 kg 2018; Worlds 57 kg bronze 2019; World Champion 57 kg 2022

● Khelif: Worlds 64 kg silver 2022

Both fought, without incident, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with Lin losing in the 57 kg round-of-16 and Khelif losing in the 60 kg quarterfinals. On Wednesday, World Boxing announced mandatory sex-testing for the women’s category, and for all boxers as of 1 January 2026:

“Under the policy, World Boxing will operate two categories as determined by sex: a men’s category and a women’s category. To be eligible for the men’s category, a competitor must be male at birth. To be eligible for the women’s category, a competitor must be female at birth.

“Participation in either category will be determined by a PCR or functional medical equivalent genetic screening test to determine sex at birth. The PCR test is a laboratory technique used to detect specific genetic material, in this case the SRY gene, which reveals the presence of the Y chromosome, that is an indicator of biological sex. The test can be conducted by nasal/mouth swab, saliva or blood.

“Athletes deemed to be male at birth, as evidenced by the presence of Y chromosome genetic material (the SRY gene) or with a difference of sexual development (DSD) where male androgenization occurs, will be eligible to compete in the male category.

“Athletes deemed to be female at birth, as evidenced by the presence of XX chromosomes or the absence of Y chromosome genetic material (the SRY gene) or with a DSD where male androgenization does not occur, will be eligible to compete in the female category.”

The World Boxing Championships in Liverpool are scheduled for 4-14 September.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: Australia commits $2.2 billion U.S. to Brisbane 2032 venues; Gabby Thomas wants doping life bans; USA Fencing gets own TV show!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Paris Olympic 200 m champion Gabby Thomas of the U.S. (Photo: Tim Healy for TrackTown USA)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2032: Brisbane ● The Australian government and the State of Queensland signed an agreement for venue support for the 2032 Brisbane Games; the announcement noted:

“The Australian Government has allocated a capped contribution of $3.435 billion to the $7.1 billion Games Venue Infrastructure Program, which will see 17 new or upgraded venues delivered across Queensland.

“This includes the main 63,000 seat stadium at Victoria Park and the National Aquatic Centre.”

(A$1 = $0.64 U.S., so A$3.435 billion ~ $2.21 billion U.S.; A$7.10 billion ~ $4.57 billion U.S.)

Queensland will be responsible for the rest of the funding and will manage the actual construction work. It was further noted that the agreement “also prevents the state government from selling or offering long-term leases on Olympic venues for 25 years, unless the federal government agrees to it.”

Queensland Sports Minister Tim Mander said during the signing ceremony that any added sports that might be proposed for the Games would need to pay their own way:

“It is important to know that any additional sports, outside the 28 core sports, those costs have to be born by the host.”

● International Olympic Committee ● “There is not a word of truth in this, it is a completely fabricated story.”

That’s from the IOC Press Office, replying to a statement by retired Russian discus thrower Vera Geneeva, who said in a radio interview that the IOC “threatened to annul” the Olympic results of vault star Yelena Isinbayeva, two-time Olympic champion in 2004 and 2008, if she “supported” the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In fact, Isinbayeva served as an IOC member from her election to the IOC Athletes’ Commission from 2016-24.

● World Anti-Doping Agency ● WADA is asking governments for additional money beyond their annual dues “for the purpose of scientific research in anti-doping, which is crucial to securing a level playing field for athletes worldwide.”

The Tuesday announcement noted a May contribution by Qatar of $1.5 million for research, above its $200,000 annual dues payment. The WADA post went on:

“Prompted by this, in July, WADA’s Finance and Administration Committee recommended that WADA Management invite all Governments to consider making similar contributions that would advance scientific research and also help mitigate the risks created for clean sport when a Public Authority withholds payment of its annual dues.”

That’s a pointed reference to the U.S. – specifically the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy – which has withheld its 2024 dues of $3.625 million over WADA’s approach to the 2021 Chinese swimming mass-doping incident and its handling of the case since it was publicly exposed last year. The war of words between WADA, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Congress has continued, without any indication of a thaw.

● Athletics ● Paris women’s 200 m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas of the U.S. came out even harder against doping in a post on X on Wednesday, calling out coaches, but also athletes (reproduced in her format; “idc” = “I don’t care.”):

Doping coaches should be banned for life
from coaching in the sport. Whether you
were banned while competing as an athlete
or caught distributing as a coach (for some,
both)
Idc idc idc
If you train under a coach who is known for
doping (one, twice or even three times for
some), you are complicit.
That’s my stance

There is quite a lot of doping activity out there. The Athletics Integrity Unit, which announces new doping suspensions almost daily (it seems), had 659 individuals on its global list of ineligible people as of 1 July 2025, and there were more in July and August.

These are only individuals currently under sanction and does not include those whose sanctions have concluded. As Thomas notes, she does not care.

● Fencing ● A breakthrough for USA Fencing, announcing a monthly television program – “The Fencing Show” – beginning in October on CNBC. Per the announcement:

“Viewers can expect exciting competition recaps, personal athlete stories, and expert commentary that bring the tactics and drama of fencing to life for both longtime fans and new audiences. By featuring both household names and rising stars, the series aims to inspire the next generation of fencers and engage a broader fan base across the country.”

USA Fencing will have some ad inventory available during the shows, which can also help boost sponsorship opportunities for the federation. It’s an important step forward for the sport in the U.S., giving it reliable, scheduled exposure – generally the last Saturday of each month, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time – that it can direct to current and new fans to with confidence.

● Freestyle Skiing ● China’s two-time Olympic gold medalist Eileen Gu is recovering and undergoing tests in New Zealand after a training accident.

The South China Morning Post reported on the Friday incident, referencing Gu’s Weibo account:

“Unfortunately, a very terrible accident occurred yesterday due to human error.

“Hopefully I’ll be back on the snow soon, but I’m still waiting for final confirmation from the expert team.”

Gu had recovered from another injury at the January X Games in Aspen, Colorado before the incident in Cardrona, a popular New Zealand resort which has been a multi-time FIS World Cup host. She was moved off the resort and flown for Christchurch for more examinations.

If healthy, she will be favored in February Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games in the women’s Freestyle Halfpipe and Big Air.

● Gymnastics ● Olympic women’s Floor Exercise gold medalist Rebeca Andrade (BRA) will not compete at the 2025 FIG Artistic World Championships in Jakarta (INA) in October, explaining:

“I am a woman with five knee surgeries. When we understand our limits, it is essential to respect them. I know you like it when I do floor exercises, but I can still show a lot on other apparatuses.”

Now 26, she was the All-Around runner-up in Paris and has won four other Olympic medals.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: Hoey wins wild men’s 800 m in rainy Lausanne Diamond League, as Seville beats Lyles in 100 and Kovacs wins men’s shot

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. 800 m star Josh Hoey (Photo: USATF).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ LAUSANNE DIAMOND LEAGUE ≡

It was raining and wet with temps in the 60s at the annual Athletissima Lausanne, the 13th of 15 meets on the Wanda Diamond League circuit, and while the conditions held down the marks, the intensity was still high.

Take the men’s 800 m, perhaps the hottest event of 2025 and with 2024 Olympic champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN), 2023 World Champion Marco Arop (CAN) and 2025 World Indoor winner Joey Hoey of the U.S. all in the field.

Once pacer Guy Learmonth (GBR) left after a 49.24 first lap, it was Wanyonyi to the lead in his usual style, but with Olympic finalist Max Burgin (GBR), Hoey and Arop chasing. Around the turn, it was Arop moving well and into the lead and onto the final straight and Wanyonyi in some trouble.

But it was tight and Hoey had the most speed and moved away to win decisively in a surprisingly fast 1:42.82, with Wanyonyi coming on the straight with Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui (1:43.38) and Burgin (1:43.44) in 2-3-4, passing Arop (1:43.91). A real confidence builder in the conditions for Hoey; fellow American Bryce Hoppel was ninth in 1:48.18.

The men’s 100 looked to be great until the rains came, but once the gun went off, It was Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake to the front, then passed by countryman Oblique Seville in mid-race. Olympic champ Noah Lyles of the U.S. made his usual late rush, but Seville got his second Diamond League win this season in dominant fashion in 9.87 (wind: -0.3) with Lyles getting second in 10.02, then Blake (also 10.02). Fellow Americans Brandon Hicklin and Courtney Lindsey were 6-7 in 10.20 and 10.27.

The U.S. scored three wins besides Hoey:

● World leader Cordell Tinch of the U.S. trailed out of the blocks in the 110 m hurdles, with 2022 Worlds runner-up (and fellow American) Trey Cunningham in front. But Tinch was in charge by halfway and Jamal Britt moved past Cunningham for a U.S. sweep in 12.99-13.13-13.19 (+0.3). The fourth American in the field, Dylan Beard, was seventh in 13.30.

● Two-time World Champion Joe Kovacs of the U.S. took the lead in the men’s shot – in the wet conditions – with a 21.47 m (70-5 1/4) in the first round and then improved to 22.04 m (72-3 3/4) in round five for the win and on to the Final in Zurich. World leader Leonardo Fabbri got out to 21.77 m (71-5 1/4) in round five for the lead, but had to settle for second; American Tripp Piperi took third with his final throw of 21.49 m (70-6 1/4). Roger Steen (21.28 m/69-9 3/4) and Payton Otterdahl (21.24 m/69-8 1/4) were 5-6 and national champ Josh Awotunde was ninth at 20.15 m (66-1 1/2).

● Olympic bronzer Brittany Brown of the U.S got hold of the women’s 200 m into the straight and got to the line first in 22.23 (-0.5), with a clear win over Favour Ofili (NGR: 22.31) and Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (CIV: 22.37). Ex-NCAA champ McKenzie Long of the U.S. was sixth in 22.69.

The meet was definitely impacted by the weather and no one was taking chances, but there was plenty of good competition:

Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo injected some speed into the men’s 5,000 m after the 3,000 m mark, but the field was bunched at 4,000 m with Mezegubu Sime (ETH) taking over at the front. At the bell, it was Ethiopia’s two-time World Indoor 1,500 winner Samuel Tefera who had the lead, followed closely by Grant Fisher of the U.S. and Hagos Gebrhiwet (ETH).

It was a battle down the backstraight, with Gebrhiwet getting to the lead, but Belgium’s Paris Olympic finalist Isaac Kimeli got to the front into the final straight and stayed there – in pouring rain – winning in 13:07.67, with Fisher second in 13:08.51 and then a fast-charging Eduardo Herrera (MEX: 13:09.50). Tefera was fourth in 13:09.80; Graham Blanks of the U.S. was eighth in 13:12.94.

American Trevor Bassitt, the 2022 Worlds bronzer, had the lead in the men’s 400 m hurdles by halfway, but was under pressure from NCAA champ Ezekiel Nathaniel (NGR), who took the lead on the straight and managed a 48.08 to 48.14 win. Matik Ian Gucek (SLO) was a distant third in 49.23.

The men’s long jump suffered with the rain, as Anvar Anvarov (UZB) managed 7.84 m (25-8 3/4) in round one, trailed by Swiss decathlon star Simon Ehammer at 7.72 m (25-4). Only five jumped in round five and one in round six and the early results stood. Jamaica’s 2019 World Champion, Tajay Gayle was third at 7.71 m (25-3 1/2) and Olympic champ Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE), who never likes to leave without an 8 m mark, jumped just twice with a best of 7.52 m (24-8 1/4) for seventh.

European Indoor champ Lieke Klaver (NED) led the women’s 400 m from the start, but was finally run down by Paris Olympic finalist Henriette Jaeger (NOR) in the final meters, 50.09 to 50.17. Americans Bella Whittaker (50.63) and Alexis Holmes (50.73) were 3-4 and Britton Wilson was seventh in 51.69.

The women’s 800 m was another confirmation of brilliant condition for Olympic champ Keely Hodgkinson (GBR), who took over following the bell and ran away from the field over the final half-lap to get a meet record of 1:55.69, slower than her world-leading 1:54.74 in Poland, but faster than anyone else in the world this year! Teammate and Olympic 1,500 m bronzer Georgia Hunter Bell was a clear second in 1:57.55, then Anais Bourgoin (FRA) in 1:58.43. American Addy Wiley was ninth in 1:59.64.

The conditions weren’t so off-putting for the women’s steeplers, with NCAA champ Doris Lemngole (KEN) in the lead at the 1,000 m mark at 3:04.36, and extending her advantage at the 2,000 m mark (6:10.81). She rolled home with an easy win in 9:16.36, with Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew second (9:20.39) and American Olivia Markezich closing well for third in 9:20.73. Courtney Wayment of the U.S. was fifth (9:26.89) and Gabi Jennings was 10th (9:51.03).

Dutch hurdler Nadine Visser, the two-time European Indoor gold medalist, had been showing signs of a real contender in the women’s 100 m hurdles and in rough conditions, got to the lead at midway of the women’s 100 m hurdles and held off Olympic champ Masai Russell of the U.S. in a slow 12.45 to 12.53 (-0.5). Swiss Dita Kambundji was the early leader, but ended up third in 12.54; Alaysha Johnson of the U.S. was sixth in 12.94 and Keni Harrison was eighth in 13.20.

The wet women’s high jump got as far as 1.94 m (6-4 1/4), which no one cleared, leaving Christina Honsel (GER), Olympic runner-up Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) and Maria Zodzik (POL) the tri-winners at 1.91 m (6-3 1/4). Olympic champ Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) took two jumps (misses) and retired, not wanting to risk injury.

The women’s vault was also torpedoed by the weather, with Lea Bachmann (SUI), Hanga Klekner (NED) and Swiss Angelica Moser tying for the win at 4.35 m (14-3 1/4). Five cleared that height, but the jumping didn’t even finish the attempts at 4.35.

The women‘s javelin belonged to Serbia’s two-time European silver winner Adriana Vilagos from the start, as she opened at 62.83 m (206-1) and finally settled at 63.02 m (206-9) in round three as the winner. Paris Olympic runner-up Jo-Ane du Plessis (RSA) was second at 58.89 m (193-2) in round two in difficult conditions.

Next: the penultimate Diamond League meet for 2025 will be on Friday, 22 August, in Brussels (BEL) for the annual Van Damme Memorial.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

BOXING: World Boxing confirms screening tests for women’s World Championships fighters; Algeria’s Khelif has stopped for now

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

World Boxing is leaving no doubt about its process to “protect the women’s category” ahead of September’s inaugural World Championships in Liverpool (GBR). The federation announced Wednesday:

“World Boxing has introduced mandatory sex testing, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes that want to participate in its competitions as part of a new eligibility policy published HERE today.

“The policy is designed to ensure the safety of all participants and deliver a competitive level playing field for men and women and means that all athletes over the age of 18 that want to participate in a World Boxing owned or sanctioned competition will need to undergo a once-in-a-lifetime PCR (polymerase chain reaction) of functional medical equivalent genetic screening test to determine their sex at birth and their eligibility to compete.

“The new policy comes into effect from 20 August 2025 and will be applied in the female category at the forthcoming World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, 4-14 September 2025.

”It means that all athletes who wish to take part in the 10 female weight categories at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool will need to undergo a PCR or functional medical equivalent genetic screening test to certify their eligibility to box.”

The testing itself must be done by national federations who must provide a certification of testing and results when entering fighters into the World Championships. World Boxing explained further:

“Under the policy, World Boxing will operate two categories as determined by sex: a men’s category and a women’s category. To be eligible for the men’s category, a competitor must be male at birth. To be eligible for the women’s category, a competitor must be female at birth.

“Participation in either category will be determined by a PCR or functional medical equivalent genetic screening test to determine sex at birth. The PCR test is a laboratory technique used to detect specific genetic material, in this case the SRY gene, which reveals the presence of the Y chromosome, that is an indicator of biological sex. The test can be conducted by nasal/mouth swab, saliva or blood.

“Athletes deemed to be male at birth, as evidenced by the presence of Y chromosome genetic material (the SRY gene) or with a difference of sexual development (DSD) where male androgenization occurs, will be eligible to compete in the male category.

“Athletes deemed to be female at birth, as evidenced by the presence of XX chromosomes or the absence of Y chromosome genetic material (the SRY gene) or with a DSD where male androgenization does not occur, will be eligible to compete in the female category.”

There is an appeals process to challenge results and to examine unique circumstances such as differences in sex development. Testing for all boxers – men included – will be implemented on 1 January 2026.

Observed: World Athletics is also requiring such screening for the women’s division and the International Olympic Committee has said it will try to form a consensus approach to women’s participation issues. The experience of athletics and boxing will significantly inform the IOC’s own approach, especially if the program advances reasonably well in both sports.

Meanwhile, a report on the French Nice Matin site says that Algerian women’s champion Imane Khelif has stopped boxing. According to her manager, Nasser Yesfah:

“She hasn’t started again, she doesn’t box anymore. In any case, she will be subjected to the same type of tests if she turns pro. She does sessions in Algeria or goes to Qatar, to the national performance center, to continue training, but nothing more. And then she travels mainly for sponsorship deals.”

Khelif, 26, won the Paris women’s Olympic 66 kg title, but was accused of failing a sex-screening test in 2023; she has filed multiple lawsuits, but has not boxed since the Games.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

LANE ONE: U.S. courts continuing the implosion of the collegiate sports system, with lifetime college careers on the horizon

By
Rich Perelman
-
Ohio Stadium at The Ohio State University (Photo: The Ohio State University).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ LIFETIME COLLEGE ATHLETES? ≡

The settlement in the House vs. NCAA case, with its billions of dollars in payouts to collegiate athletes, primarily in football and men’s basketball, is only the beginning of the remaking of college sports into something completely new.

Beyond universities playing their (mostly football and basketball) players, the framework that players can compete for four years in sports across five total years, is under fire and is being torn down in multiple – but not all – jurisdictions:

● Last December, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won an injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, allowing him an extra year of eligibility by invalidating the NCAA rule that athletic participation at a junior college counts against the “five-year rule.” The NCAA has appealed, but also had to relax its rules for now.

● In April of this year, Rutgers safety Jeff Elad received a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, also against enforcement of the five-year rule, as he played at a junior college and wants to play a fifth year of college football across seven seasons (including the Covid seasonal waiver).

Two basketball players have also sued the NCAA on its five-year rule regarding junior college participation, and other football players have received injunctions or State temporary restraining orders related to the junior-college rule.

● In July, Nevada wide receiver Cortez Braham Jr. won a preliminary injunction against the junior-college rule, but also challenged the five-year rule itself. Kansas City-based sports attorney Mit Winter – a former William & Mary basketball player – observed on his LinkedIn page:

“In the order granting the injunction, the court found the following:

“– the five year and JUCO rules are commercial, because they limit the number of years an athlete can play college athletics and therefore limit the ability to be paid as a college athlete

“– the rules have substantial anticompetitive effect and no procompetitive justifications

“– that Braham will be irreparably harmed by not being allowed to play college athletics

“As with the other recents decisions granting preliminary injunctions in similar cases, I’m sure the NCAA will appeal this one. Which means we’ll have four appellate courts addressing these issues. This is a perfect situation for the Supreme Court to step in and settle the issues.”

● Also in July, the NCAA won a case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, where the holding reversed a preliminary injunction in favor of Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean to play a fifth season in five years.

Fourqurean filed another suit this week, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, asking for another preliminary injunction to allow him to play; the hearing is slated for 27 August.

● The NCAA won another round in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Monday (18th), where players from UCLA, USC and San Diego State were all denied preliminary injunctions against the five-year rule, adding to the confusion.

With different courts finding different results, the case of tailor-made for the U.S. Supreme Court, which has shown high interest in economic freedom and relaxing constraint wherever possible.

That means the five-year-rule could be eliminated by June of 2027 at the latest, opening the door to essentially “lifetime” college players who can be on teams as long as they remain in school, earning bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and Ph.Ds and new formats not yet conjured up by athletic departments.

This is insanity.

The mission statement of the national leader in athletic revenue in 2023 – The Ohio State University – states:

“The university is dedicated to:

“● Creating and discovering knowledge to improve the well-being of our local, state, regional, national and global communities;

“● Educating students through a comprehensive array of distinguished academic programs;

“● Preparing a diverse student body to be leaders and engaged citizens;

“● Fostering a culture of engagement and service.

“We understand that diversity and inclusion are essential components of our excellence.”

Ten-year careers as middle linebackers are not identified as a core offering.

Everyone involved, whether players, parents, school officials, broadcasters and all the rest know this we are now in the era of professional U-23 sports, primarily football and basketball. To properly support the young men and women involved, the “college sports” fiction needs to be dropped.

Instead, college football and college basketball need to be become fully professionalized, with franchises separated from the schools and run either as a single-entity organization, or as independently-owned teams. They would remain on campus, with the “team” or “league” renting the stadium, practice field, dorms or other housing, and the associated sports-related intellectual property from the university and operating on the campus as other businesses do.

In turn, the rights and responsibilities of the players would be collectively bargained with the “league” of whatever style it takes, and they would not be students. If they wish to attend, fine; this can also be part of the deal with the university and the collective-bargaining agreement. But let’s drop the fiction of the student-athlete football or basketball player.

What does this have to do with the Olympic-sports world?

Let’s start by saying that if a privately-organized league of “college” teams in baseball, softball, gymnastics, tennis or other sports can make enough money to establish a separate, professional project, they should be able to, and pay the schools involved a fee for use of the facilities made available, intellectual property, and staff time – such as athletic trainers – if used for their athletes.

The Sports Examiner has proposed this before, in a 29 April 2024 column, with research help from Texas-based NALathletics coach George Perry. Using the Equity in Athletics database of athletic department financial and participation data, Perry noted that 68 top schools in the leading collegiate conferences reported $8.57 billion in total spending and $4.76 billion in spending outside of football and basketball.

The “non-revenue” sports at these schools actually brought in about $1.10 billion (!) and a close guess on “non-revenue” sports costs is $2.14 billion, meaning a “fee” from the football and basketball “college leagues” of $1.04 billion a year would cover the costs of maintaining the “other” college programs such as gymnastics, swimming, track and field and so on. If those sports – on a national basis – can become self-sufficient in their own league, they can leave too.

Just looking at the college football television contracts alone, the big-four leagues earned $2.72 billion for the 2024 season, will earn $2.88 billion for 2025 and $3.71 billion for 2026. (Please refer to the April 2024 column for many more calculations.)

There’s plenty of money to cover this kind of arrangement. The players will win, as they will be professionals; the schools will win as they can turn their “pro teams” over to true professionals and fans will still stream in to their regular tail-gate spots on fall Saturdays. The “non-revenue” sports will be supported by the “pro” teams on campus and can offer scholarship contracts to students who can actually fulfill the role of “student-athletes.”

Are there a lot more details to this? Yes, of course. But it is possible to leave the fiction of a “student-athlete” playing college football behind.

This will not happen because of lawyers or players or athletic directors or broadcasters. Only university presidents – who are the NCAA, by the way – have the power to shape this new format and leave the hypocrisy of the imploding current system behind.

Rich Perelman
Editor

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: FBI arrests ex-gymnastics coach while SafeSport case unresolved after three years; USA Swimming posts Golden Goggles nominees

By
Rich Perelman
-
World Champion Gretchen Walsh of the U.S. (Photo: USA Swimming).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● SafeSport ● Another damaging incident for the U.S. Center for SafeSport, as The Associated Press reported that Sean Gardner, 38, was arrested last week by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on child pornography charges, more than three years after being placed on “temporary suspension” by SafeSport.

Gardner was hired in 2018 as a coach at the well-known Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa. He was dismissed in 2022 with SafeSport noting “allegations of misconduct” in his suspension and the AP reported:

“court records obtained exclusively by The Associated Press show the coach was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chow’s and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his prior job in Mississippi.”

While there was a report to police in 2022, a new report in 2024 led to Gardner’s arrest by the FBI after 16 months, with the SafeSport case still unresolved after three years.

SafeSport has been repeatedly criticized for its slow case resolution and is current searching for a new chief executive, after Ju’Riese Colon left in April.

● Anti-Doping ● The World Anti-Doping Agency declared the anti-doping agency of Sri Lanka as non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and joins Russia as the two countries currently out of compliance.

The issue in Sri Lanka is the alignment of national laws with the World Anti-Doping Code, which has remained unresolved since March.

● Archery ● The World Archery Congress is coming up quickly on 2-3 September in Gwangju (KOR), ahead of the World Archery Championships, with two familiar candidates for President: long-time Secretary General Tom Dielen (BEL) and Greg Easton (USA), son of Jim Easton, the former President of the federation from 1989-2005. Current chief Dr. Ugur Erdener (TUR) is stepping down after having been President since 2005.

Dielen, 57, has been the federation’s Secretary General since 2006 and proposes to continue the growth seen under Jim Easton and Erdener. He wants to review the competition formats for further growth along the lines of badminton, judo and table tennis, create much better communications among federations, organizers and athletes, and create a dedicated commercial arm for rapid revenue development.

Easton, 60, has been deeply involved in the sport since birth, and at every level, including as a Board member of USA Archery and World Archery. His platform emphasizes more support for athletes and national federations, remaking events to be more attractive, inspirational and accessible to possible organizers and expanding the sport’s commercial appeal to fans, broadcasters and sponsors. He notes the need for better transparency, communications and responsiveness from the federation with the member national federations.

Both are quality candidates and a difficult choice for the World Archery Congress in two weeks.

● Athletics ● The men’s pole vault competition of the Athletissima Diamond League meet in Lausanne (SUI) was held in cloudy and rainy conditions in the city center on Tuesday, with Olympic bronze winner Emmanouil Karalis (GRE) taking the lead at 5.92 m (19-5), clearing on his first attempt.

London 2012 Olympic champ Renaud Lavillenie (FRA), 38, and countryman Thibaut Collet both cleared 5.82 m (19-1) and went 2-3. Turkey’s Ersu Sasma cleared 5.82 m but then missed three times at 6.02 m (19-9). But Karalis got over to seal his win with a final clearance.

Americans Sam Kendricks (5.72 m/18-9 1/4) and Austin Miller (5.62 m/18-5 1/4) finished sixth and in a tie for seventh.

The second Ico For All-organized women’s world championship in the decathlon was held at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio on 16-17 August with Emory University grad student Nicki Boon (NED) winning with 7,451 points, ahead of Americans Katie Straus (7,301) and Jordyn Bruce (7,272).

There were 19 competitors in all from five countries; Boon was consistent, placing second in four events and never lower than ninth.

The Athletics Integrity Unit banned Ukrainian star jumper Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, 30, for four years for a December 2024 out-of-competition positive for testosterone. She denied taking the drug, but produced no satisfactory evidence to refute the positive test.

Her suspension runs from 13 May 2025, the date of her provisional suspension. She had apparently stopped training after the Paris Olympic Games, where she finished 11th in the triple jump. The ban can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Bekh-Romanchuk is a three-time Olympian and a two-time Worlds silver medalist in the long jump (2019) and triple jump (2023) and ranks no. 24 all-time in the triple jump with a best of 15.02 m (49-3 1/2) from 2022.

The AIU also banned 30-year-old Kenyan distance runner Roncer Kipkorir Konga for three years for the use of testosterone, from 16 June 2025. He’s a 58:03 half-marathoner from 2023 and was the 2024 African Championships 10,000 m bronze medalist.

● Swimming ● USA Swimming revealed its nominees for the annual Golden Goggles awards, to be held on 27 September in Denver, Colorado. The candidates:

Men’s swimmer:
● Jack Alexy ~ Worlds 50 m Free bronze, 100 m Free silver
● Shaine Casas ~ Worlds 200 m Medley silver
● Luke Hobson ~ Worlds 200 m Free silver
● Luca Urlando ~ Worlds 200 Fly gold

Women’s swimmer:
● Katharine Berkoff ~ Worlds 50 m Back gold
● Kate Douglass ~ Worlds 200 m Breast gold
● Katie Ledecky ~ Worlds 800-1,500 m golds
● Gretchen Walsh ~ Worlds 50-100 m Fly golds

Coach of the Year:
● Bob Bowman
● Todd DeSorbo
● Anthony Nesty

Open Water:
● Mariah Denigan ~ Women’s 3rd in 5 km and 10 km nationals
● Dylan Gravley ~ Men’s 10 km national champion
● Brinkleigh Hansen ~ Women’s 10 km national champion
● Ivan Puskovitch ~ Men’s 5 km national champion

Relay of the Year:
● Mixed 4x100m Freestyle ~ Worlds gold, world record
● Women’s 4x100m Medley ~ Worlds gold, world record

Fan voting is open through 22 August.

● Table Tennis ● The International Table Tennis Federation has been quiet about its process of internal repair after the near-riot at its Annual General Meeting on 27 May in Doha (QAT), where Petra Sorling (SWE) was re-elected over Qatar’s Khalil Al-Mohannadi, the Senior Executive Vice President of the federation, 104-102.

Al-Mohannadi announced in June that he was challenging the result to the ITTF Tribunal and the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, the Annual General Meeting was not concluded and several elections are still open; resumption of the meeting will be needed by the middle of November.

A Monday meeting of the ITTF Executive Committee noted some progress:

“Significant work has been undertaken to address matters relating to the resumption of the 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM), in consultation with an international Swiss-based law firm. During the meeting, it was clarified that this responsibility lies with the Chair of the AGM, Graham Symons [AUS], who indicated he is considering an online format for the continuation. He will wait for the decision of the ITTF Tribunal before confirming the date and modality.”

The ITTF Tribunal hearing is slated for later in August. An online resumption of the Annual General Meeting would be ironic, since Al-Mohannadi’s protest centers around his belief that at least some of the online votes in the May meeting should not have been counted (and if not counted, would have given him the election).

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SCENE & HEARD: Rice Krispies, LA28 needs doping control and Phelps can still swim really fast

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

★ Whispers, Stats, Facts, News and Views
from the 5-Ring Circus ★

Fun story from Front Office Sports about how 40-year-old Molly Huddle, a two-time Olympian, five-time American Record setter from the 5,000 m to the Half Marathon and who ran (but did not finish) the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials, carbs up for races:

A full box of 16 Rice Krispies Treats!

That’s 272 carbs in a carton, as well as 1,440 calories, from Rice Krispies, corn syrup, fructose, vegetable oil and a total of 128 grams of sugar. A common daily intake is about 2,000 calories a day, with 225-325 carbs; Huddle gets it all in one box! (They’re $4.96 on sale at Walmart.)

Should a warning be posted; do not eat a whole box unless you are a professional runner? What’s next? Mike & Ike?

Now you know the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizers are getting serious. They are advertising for a Head of Doping Control:

“The Head of DOP is responsible for delivering a robust, efficient, secure, and comprehensive doping control program,” coordinating primarily with the International Testing Agency, World Anti-Doping Agency, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the International Federations.

The position requires a “minimum of 8+ years of experience in anti-doping operations,” with a salary range of $126,000 to $170,000.

The Hamas-Israel war has bled into sports with calls to ban Israeli football teams and boycott other events. In Italy, some members of the left-wing Partito Democratico proposed that Israel be banned from all sports competitions by the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and UEFA.

The ruling, right-wing Fratella d’Italia (FdI)’s Chamber of Deputies head of culture, Federico Mollicone, parried, “We believe that sport – until it becomes petty international propaganda – should be a tool for unity, not division, a key to peace and sharing amid the violence of global conflicts,” adding:

“We don’t understand why there hasn’t been the same outcry for Iran, which has already qualified for the next World Cup, given that it supports terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East with the declared goal of destroying the State of Israel. We don’t understand why there hasn’t been a call to ban Chinese athletes, who dominate the medal table at every Olympic Games, due to the severe persecution of the Uighurs or in Tibet, or why the same request hasn’t been made for all the military dictatorships around the world that openly kidnap, kill, and persecute minorities and opponents.”

★★★ Olympic 100 m champ Noah Lyles of the U.S. lost to Jamaica’s silver medalist Kishane Thompson, 9.87 to 9.90 at the Diamond League Silesia on Saturday, but you wouldn’t know it from their comments afterwards:

● Lyles: “It is a great stepping stone. I needed to see a sub-10. I needed to see winning, beating people, I took out some really big heads today, people who run 9.7 and 9.8. I am getting the confidence. It makes me really excited for not only today but also for next week and Tokyo. The more I run, the better I am getting. I get more excited each day and it is working. I need to keep competing. I think I we will see some really good races in Lausanne.”

● Thompson: “My race today was not so good, not so bad. I enjoyed competition against Noah today. It is all about execution: I had problems with that, but I am finding it. The key is to find the momentum in the race and to maintain it till the end. Nobody is perfect, but I am working on improving my strengths and improving on my weaknesses. Paris last year was a big learning factor. I learned it is me against myself.”

On Monday, the Lausanne Diamond League organizers said that Thompson would not run and further reports have him skipping everything until the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in a month.

★★★ Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mel Stewart, a co-founder of the impactful SwimSwam.com news site, pulled no punches in a lengthy editorial about Olympic icon Michael Phelps’ letter about the future of U.S. swimming and USA Swimming. The bottom line:

“In my opinion, Michael was far, far too nice, controlled even. …

“To be 100% clear so everyone understands this, Michael’s letter was not nor has it ever been about the swimmers or any single meet. It was 100% about leadership – specifically, the USA Swimming Board of Directors.”

Stewart details the inside-the-sport issues of national coach payments, club issues, board performance and what he thinks are the key performance indicators: membership growth, new revenues and national-team performance. And a lot more.

★★ Phelps, now 40, can still haul. At the end of a swim-training session with members of the NFL Baltimore Ravens, Phelps dove off the blocks and swam an underwater 25-yard (Free) in 9.98 … without much effort.

The world best is fellow American Michael Andrew’s 8.56 in May of this year, but 9.98 underwater? At 40? Wow. Wow!

★★ American Pommel Horse star Stephen Nedoroscik – the 2021 World Champion and who clinched the U.S. men’s Team, bronze in Paris – had a busy off-season on “Dancing With the Stars” and only got back to training in April. Now 26, he finished fifth at the USA Gymnastics nationals in New Orleans, but says it’s only the first step in his return:

“I’ve always told myself, ‘I want to be done with the sport when my body is done with the sport,’ and I’m still getting better. I feel like I’d be doing myself a dishonor to not see how far I could go.”

And what about LA28: “I’m going to continue going. L.A. would be amazing, so I want to shoot for that.”

★ The most underrated performance of the weekend was a startling Japanese 110 m hurdles record of 12.92 (+0.6) for Rachid Muratake at the Athlete Night Games in Fukui on Saturday. That makes him no. 2 on the 2025 world list, took 0.12 off his prior best and puts him in position to win Japan’s first-ever medal in the event, in either the Olympic Games or World Championships!

In front of a home crowd, he could win the whole thing!

★ The North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Championship drew a huge, 50-member U.S. team to Freeport (BAH), with 16 wins in an event most U.S. competitors had previously ignored.

The difference: the timing of the meet, moved from early June to mid-August, was perfectly placed for late qualification and world-ranking-points for the World Athletics Championships, whose qualifying deadline is 24 August. This could be a real boost for the meet, possibly making it a fixture in World Athletics Championships years, after the first World Athletics-mandated national championships window and the qualifying deadline.

★ The Chicago Marathon announced that 2024 winner John Korir (KEN) will return for the 12 October 2025 race, with an eye toward a sub-2:01 time. Translation: the 2:00:35 world record by the late Kelvin Kiptum (KEN) from the 2023 Chicago Marathon is being targeted.

Korir won in 2:02:44 last year, moving him to no. 8 all-time. He will be challenged by countryman Timothy Kiplagat (2:02:55 in Tokyo in 2024), with six others who have run faster than 2:04:30. Conner Mantz will target the American Record of 2:05:38 by Khalid Khannouchi from 2002.

Los Angeles City Council member Tim McOsker, speaking at the 28 March 2025 Council meeting (Photo: L.A. City Council video screen shot).

★ Los Angeles City Council member Tim McOsker got his way with the LA28 organizers, romping and stomping that if the SailGP pro sailing circuit found San Pedro – the Port of Los Angeles, in his district – good enough to hold events there in 2024 and 2025, the Port should have Olympic events too.

He won the point and San Pedro will host boat events, while board events will remain in Long Beach. But SailGP has moved on, announcing its 2026 schedule with only one U.S. event – in New York – and skipping both San Pedro and San Francisco.

★ Interesting new event for climbing at the Chengdu World Games, with not just the regular, one-on-one Speed events on a 15 m wall, but two new concepts, a relay and a Speed 4 format, which places four climbing walls side-by-side for four-at-a-time action.

Indonesia’s World Champion Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi won the women’s title in 6.35, but said afterwards, “competing on a four-lane wall is more difficult, as it requires more concentration.” China’s Jianguo Long took the men’s gold in 4.74 seconds.

(Special Thanks to Mike Navarro of J.R. Navarro & Associates for efforts on the “Scene & Heard” graphic!)

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: New deals bring Milan Cortina to 70% of sponsor budget; Jamaican stars out of Diamond League; Russian gym star Melnikova returns

By
Rich Perelman
-
The Milan Cortina 2026 slogan: "IT's your vibe!" (Photo: Milan Cortina 2026)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● A flurry of corporate partnerships were announced by the Milan Cortina organizers just as the six months-to-go bell rang, now giving the foundation staging the Games a total of 40 partners:

● 8 Premium Partners
● 8 Partners
● 16 Sponsors
● 7 Supporters

OnLocation has a special designation as the Official Hospitality Provider.

The eight Premium Partners include renewable energy company Enel, energy transition firm Eni, Italian mobility system operator FS Italiane, the Intesa Sanpaolo banking group, industrial conglomerate Leonardo, the national postal service Poste Italiano, winter lifestyle brand Salomon and auto giant Stellantis.

The Milan Cortina 2026 budget targets €575 million (~$670.6 million U.S.) for corporate support, with the 40 existing deals worth a reported €400 million, or 69.6% with six months left. The Winter Games will open on 6 February 2026.

● Athletics ● The news from Monday was the meet management’s announcement of the withdrawal of Jamaican sprint stars Kishane Thompson and Shericka Jackson from Wednesday’s Athletissima Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Olympic 100 runner-up Thompson and two-time World 200 m Champion Jackson won their events at the Skowlimowska Memorial Diamond League in Poland on Saturday, both with close finishes over Americans Noah Lyles (9.87 to 9.90) and Brittany Brown (22.17 to 22.21).

Thompson complained of some “shin discomfort,” and reportedly will not compete in the remaining Diamond League meets, including the final next week in Zurich. He is now pointing for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September.

● Gymnastics ● The Russian news agency TASS reported that Tokyo Olympic Team gold medalist and 2021 World All-Around champion Angelina Melnikova (RUS) will return to international competition at the FIG Artistic World Challenge Cup on 13-14 September in Paris (FRA).

Melnikova was approved in March as a “neutral” competitor by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique. Now 25, she last competed at the 2021 Worlds, winning the All-Around, a Floor silver and a bronze on Vault.

● Ice Hockey ● The International Ice Hockey Federation announced its officials for the women’s Olympic tournament in Milan (ITA) in 2026, with 12 referees and 10 linespersons. Per IIHF Officiating Committee member Vanessa Stratton (CAN):

“We were down to a group of 30 officials heading into Olympic Qualifications in February 2025.

“Once those tournaments were over, our coaching group selected the 24 officials that would go to Women’s World Championships in Czechia in April 2025. At that point, we had identified our core group of referees (12) for the Olympic Games but still needed to select 10 linespersons from the 12 that were going to WW. Once WW was completed, our coaching group decided on the final 10 and everyone was notified soon after IIHF Council approved the nominations in May.”

The 22 selected come from Austria (1), Canada (8), the Czech Republic (2), Finland (2), Sweden (2) and the U.S. (7).

● Skiing ● Swiss Urs Lehmann, 56, the 1993 World Downhill Champion and the head of the Swiss Ski Federation since 2008, was named Friday as the first chief executive of the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS).

He will be working with FIS President Johann Eliasch (GBR) and Secretary-General Michel Vion (FRA). The international federation battled with national federations from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and others over rights control from the middle of the 2010s through December 2024, when an agreement was reported to have FIS as the central seller from the 2026-27 season onward.

Lehmann’s appointment may signal better relations between the FIS and the national federations who were the hold-outs on the rights deal until last year.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

THIS WEEK: Nuguse chasing Diamond League Final spot, the Vuelta a Espana and world champs get going in canoeing, rhythmic, and volleyball

By
Rich Perelman
-
Close at the finish, but a win for U.S. star Yared Nuguse at the Diamond League Silesia men’s 1,500 m (Photo: Diamond League AG).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ DIAMOND LEAGUE HEATS UP ≡

The qualification deadline for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September is 24 August 2025, with one exception.

Winner of the 2025 Diamond League.

So, those athletes who are on the outside looking in – like men’s 1,500 m Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse, fifth at the U.S. nationals – are trying to muscle their way into the Diamond League Final in Zurich on 27-28 August and then trying to win there to claim the last “wild card” spots at the Tokyo Worlds.

Nuguse helped his cause by holding on down the final straight to win the 1,500 m at the Silesia Diamond League meet on Saturday in 3:33.19. And he’s full of confidence:

“My plan today was not to take the lead, just wait for my time, the last 300 m. I felt really good on the last 300 m and the kick came.

“I will race in Brussels and Zurich. I won in Zurich in 2023 and 2024 and I hope to win a third time this year there. My season is developing really well, but the best part is still to come.”

He’s in good position, standing fourth in the Diamond League 1,500 standings, with one more race available – at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels (BEL), one of two Diamond League meets this week:

● 20 August/Wednesday: Athletissima in Lausanne (SUI)
A city-center men’s vault will be held on Tuesday, then the main meet on Wednesday, with the main program from 2-4 p.m. Eastern time.

Paris Olympic men’s 100 m champ Noah Lyles says he needs more races, so he’s in the 100 here against countryman Courtney Lindsey and Jamaicans Ackeem Blake and Oblique Seville, both of whom are faster in 2025 than Lyles.

Olympic 800 m champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN) leads a great field, including 2023 World Champion Marco Arop (CAN), world leader Cordell Tinch of the U.S. in the 110 hurdles and double Olympic champ Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) heads the long jump.

Gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson (GBR) ran her first race since the Paris Olympic Games in Poland (due to injury) and scored a world-leading win in 1:54.74 and she is back for more. Same for American Masai Russell, the Paris winner but now having run 12.17 and 12.19 this season in the 100 m hurdles. Paris winner and world-record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) headlines the women’s high jump.

And after two runner-up finishes in the 5,000 and 10,000 m at the U.S. Nationals, Grant Fisher is in the men’s 5,000 against an enormous and talented field.

● 23 August/Saturday: Van Damme Memorial in Brussels (BEL)
This is annually one of the best meets of the year, including the men’s 1,500 m and a chance for Nuguse to clinch his spot at the Diamond League Final, in front of an expected 35,000 fans at the King Baudouin Stadium.

The main program is again from 8-10 p.m. local time, which is 2-4 p.m. Eastern, including eight Paris winners: men’s high jump victor Hamish Kerr (NZL), discus champ Roje Stona (JAM), American women’s 4×100 m relay golden girls Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Sha’Carri Richardson, steeple champ Winfred Yavi (BRN), triple jump winner Thea LaFond (DMA), shot put victor Yemisi Ogunleye (GER), and most importantly for Belgian fans, heptathlon star Nafi Thiam (BEL).

Kenyan Agnes Ngetich will try for a world record in the women’s 5,000 m; she’s no. 3 all-time from her 14:01.29 from the Pre Classic in July.

It’s a busy time for track & field, but also the start of the last of the cycling Grand Tours for 2025, the Vuelta a Espana.

Danish star Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France winner who was second to Slovenian star Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France, is the favorite, supported by American teammate Sepp Kuss, who won this race in 2023 (with Vingegaard second).

Prime competitors will be Joao Almeida (POR), who abandoned the Tour after eight stages, but won the Itzulia Basque Country, Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse earlier. Last year’s runner-up, Ben O’Connor (AUS) is back and what kind of shape is Juan Ayuso (ESP) in; he won Tirreno-Adriatico in March, but left the Giro d’Italia during the 18th stage.

The 21-stage race will conclude on 14 September.

There are also three world championships on this week:

● 20-24 August: ICF Sprint World Championships in Milan (ITA).
● 20-24 August: FIG Rhythmic World Championships in Rio de Janeiro (BRA)
● 22 August on: FIVB Women’s World Championship in Thailand

In canoeing, the legendary New Zealand star Lisa Carrington has entered at the last moment as a replacement; she won three golds in the K-1, K-2 and K-4 races in Paris in 2024.

The Rhythmic Worlds had 10 straight Russian All-Around winners from 2009-2021, but have been banned since. A limited number of “neutrals” have been approved now and will face 2022 A-A winner Sofia Raffaeli (ITA) and 2023 champ Darya Varfolomeev (GER).

Serbia has won the last two women’s Volleyball Worlds, over Italy and Brazil in 2018 and 2022, but Olympic champ Italy, Paris bronzer Brazil and the Paris runner-up U.S. are the top three seeds. The tournament will continue to 7 September.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: Trouble for some with T&F gene testing; time it takes for Diamond League doping results; 1.87M gymnastics nationals TV audience!

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. shooting star Brady Ellison (Photo: World Archery)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Transgender ● The battle royal over transgender participation in women’s sports continues in California.

Last Tuesday, the Kern County Board of Education voted to not allow transgender girls to compete in the girls division of school meets. This followed parallel motions from the Redlands Unified School Board and the Chino Valley Unified School District in the spring.

The State of California, however, continues to follow AB1266 (now Education Code §221.5), passed in 2013, which allows participation in athletic teams by gender identity.

In view of the 5 February 2025 Executive Order signed by Pres. Donald Trump, the U.S. Justice Department has sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) for Title IX violations. That process is ongoing.

● Athletics ● Reuters reported that some countries are having challenges meeting the World Athletics requirements that female athletes complete an SRY-gene test by 1 September, ahead of the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo (JPN).

Testing at the Canadian nationals by contractor Dynacare, using saliva, were invalid as the “test kits they provided were not of the required standard,” and blood samples were needed.

In France, the French federation was told that “such tests are prohibited under the French Bioethics Law enacted in 1994,” and is looking for testing for its athletes elsewhere.

USA Track & Field set up a testing service for athletes as its nationals in Eugene, Oregon.

Fascinating information from superagent Paul Doyle in a Forbes’ story on athlete pay wait times from Diamond League meets. Of the nine meets held this year through 11 July, not including the Pre Classic, doping control clearance – which allows meet organizers to pay athletes – came in 17 days following the Monaco meet on 11 July, from 21-29 days for the meets in Europe and Africa in May and June and 31-39 days for the meets in Qatar and China in April and May.

● Gymnastics ● Good audience for the final night of the USA Gymnastics national championships from New Orleans, with the second women’s session drawing an average of 1.872 million viewers on NBC. This lags behind the 2.664 million which saw the 2023 Nationals (with Simone Biles), but was reportedly up on 2022, when Biles did not compete.

The Russian Gymnastics Federation withdrew its appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport of the denials by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique of “neutral status” to eight gymnasts. According to the Russian news agency TASS:

“[T]he FIG refused to grant neutral status to some athletes from Russia due to the posting of a congratulatory message on social networks for Victory Day, the athletes’ participation in a gala concert for Defender of the Fatherland Day, during which the St. George ribbon was used and photographs were taken with children in military uniform.”

● Surfing ● The City of San Clemente, California, the nearest municipal jurisdiction to the 2028 Olympic venue at Lower Trestles, signaled its support for USA Surfing to be re-certified as the National Governing Body for surfing by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

A 5 August letter from the members of the City Council was sent to the USOPC and included:

“The City of San Clemente is not only the epicenter of surfing in the United States, but also the home of USA Surfing. As elected officials in San Clemente, we fully support the application of USA Surfing to be recertified as the National Governing Body. … Many Olympic and professional surfers call San Clemente home. Having a Governing Body that recognizes and understands the importance of surfing in San Clemente and is familiar with the community is crucial.”

A resolution supporting USA Surfing to be the recognized NGB will be on the Council agenda for Tuesday (19th), stating:

“The City Council of San Clemente, California respectfully requests consideration of the United States Olympic and Para-Olympic Committee to select USA Surfing as the Governing Body for the U.S. Olympic Surf Team. It is further requested that all provisions of the Ted Stevens Act be followed.”

USA Surfing is vying for recognition against U.S. Ski & Snowboard, whose chief executive is the former head of the World Surfing League. The Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act – at 36 U.S.C. §220522 (6) – requires that a National Governing Body must represent one sport only. The USOPC is expected to make a decision on the issue in September.

≡ RESULTS ≡

● World Games 2025: Chengdu ● The XII World Games in Chengdu (CHN) concluded on Sunday, with 83 countries winning medals across the 256 events. China led the medal table with 64 total (36-17-11), followed by Italy (57: 13-25-19) and Germany (45: 17-14-14). The U.S. stood sixth with 28 (11-10-7).

There were multiple sports which will have some events on the 2028 Olympic program:

● In Field Archery, Matteo Borsani (ITA) defeated Britain’s Patrick Huston in the men’s Recurve final, 61-58, while Denisa Barankova (SVK) took the women’s title, edging Chiara Rebagliati (ITA), 59-57. Mike Schloesser (NED) won the men’s Compound gold, 150-148, over American Curtis Broadnax. Mexico’s Andrea Becerra won the women’s Compound, 147-146, against Estonian Lisell Jaatma.

● In women’s Flag Football, lightning struck twice for Mexico, which came from behind to win its second straight World Games gold over the U.S., 26-21, on Sunday.

Both teams were 3-0 in group play, and the U.S. defeated Italy (33-12) and Austria (46-39) to reach the final again. Mexico stomped China, 40-9, then beat Canada, 25-13, in the semis.

Mexico had a 14-7 halftime lead in the final, then Deliah Autry rushed for a touchdown to tie, only to have Mexican quarterback Diana Flores find Monica Rangel for a score with 2:36 to go for a 20-14 lead, but the conversion was missed. The Americans got ahead, 21-20, with just 28 seconds left as U.S. quarterback Vanita Krouch tossed a touchdown to Madison Fulford and the conversion was good.

But Flores had some magic left and completed a touchdown on the final play to Victoria Chavez for the 26-21 lead; with the conversion missed, that was the final, echoing Mexico’s win in 2022, a 39-6 rout.

● The women’s Softball tournament had the expected U.S. vs. Japan clash, but it came in the semifinals, with the teams tied 4-4 after five innings, 5-5 after eight and then the U.S. coming from behind in the 10th with two runs to advance, 7-6.

Chinese Taipei won its semi against Canada and faced the Americans in the final, losing 5-0. The U.S. scored three in the second and two in the seventh, while UCLA’s Megan Faraimo pitched a three-hit shutout. Japan beat up on Canada, 11-1, in the bronze-medal game.

● The Sport Climbing speed events saw China’s Shou Hong Chu winning the men’s final over Olympic bronzer Sam Watson of the U.S., 4.80 to 4.96. The all-China women’s final had Li Juan Deng timed in 6.40, just 0.01 ahead of Yu Mei Qin.

The Ultimate Flying Disc final, always a popular event, had a Mixed Team tournament, with the U.S. defeating Canada, 13-12, in the final.

The 2029 World Games will be held in Karlsruhe (GER), which also hosted the III World Games in 1989 and will be the first two-time host of the event.

● Junior Pan American Games 2025: Asuncion ● The second Junior Pan American Games, being held in Asuncion (PAR), continues this week and will finish on the 23rd.

The U.S. has the sixth-largest team at 169 athletes – Mexico has the most at 285 – and through Sunday, Brazil is the medals leader at 118 (55-27-36), trailed by the U.S. at 68 (20-26-22) and Mexico at 65 (15-24-26).

● Archery ● The amazing Brady Ellison did it again, winning the men’s Recurve division at the USA Archery National Target Championships in Springfield, Missouri. In the 144-arrow nationals, he scored 1,364 points to lead Trenton Cowles (1,346) and Christian Stoddard (1,331); according to USA Archery, that’s his 17th win in the last 19 U.S. men’s nationals!

In Sunday’s U.S. Open elimination tournament, Ellison defeated Jacob Robinson in the final by 7-1 (25-24, 30-26, 26-26, 30-28); Tokyo Olympian Jack Williams took the bronze.

In the women’s nationals, Catalina GNoriega, 22, won the 144-arrow title at 1,307, just ahead of Olivia Martin (1,306) and defending champ Casey Kaufhold (1,303). GNoriega also won the U.S. Open women’s title, also by 7-1, over Alexandria Zuleta-Visser; Martin won the bronze.

In the Compound Division, Stephan Hansen won the men’s nationals, 1,428 to 1,426 over James Lutz and Alexis Ruiz won the women’s national title, 1,400 to 1,397, ahead of Liko Arreola. Hansen and Toja Ellison won the U.S. Open titles.

● Athletics ● At the NACAC Championships in Freeport (BAH), the most startling result was another super-fast men’s 800 m, with Penn State’s Handal Roban (VIN) edging Brandon Miller of the U.S. at the line, 1:42.87 (no. 14 in 2025!) to 1:43.15!

A large U.S. team came away with a batch of wins, including from Daniel Michalski in the men’s steeple, in 8:14.07 with national champ Kenneth Rooks third (8:26.52); Drew Hunter in the 5,000 m (14:38.85); CJ Allen in the 400 m hurdles (48.22); Tyus Wilson in the high jump (2.24 m/7-4 1/4); Josh Awotunde in the shot at 21.68 m (71-1 1/2); Daniel Haugh, who edged teammate Rudy Winkler in the men’s hammer, 77.08 m (252-10) to 76.87 m (252-2);  Curtis Thompson in the javelin at 87.24 m (286-2) with teammate Dash Sirmon second at 77.04 m (252-9), and Austin West in the decathlon at 8,038.

In the women’s events, American winners included Nia Akins in the 800 m (1:59.75), Emily Mackay in the women’s 1,500 m (4:09.48) ahead of Danielle Jones (4:10.49); Krissy Gear in the steeple (9:35.27); Taylor Roe in the 10,000 m (32:19.84); Sanaa Barnes in the high jump at 1.91 m (6-3 1/4), with Vashti Cunningham second at the same height; Alyssa Jones in the long jump (6.74 m/22-1 1/2); Janee Kassanavoid in the hammer (74.31 m/243-9), and Evie Bliss in the javelin (58.62 m/192-4).

In a very good men’s discus, Jamaica’s 2019 Worlds runner-up Fedrick Dacres edged American Sam Mattis, 65.10 m (213-7) to 64.06 m (210-2).

A few events are still ongoing; this post will be updated as needed.

● Beach Volleyball ● At the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 in Montreal (CAN), Tokyo Olympic champs and Paris bronze winners Anders Mol and Christian Sorum (NOR) kept rolling, scoring their fourth medal (2-1-1) in five Elite 16 tournaments with a 21-19, 21-13 win over Swedes Jacob Holting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson.

Czech stars Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, the 2023 World Champions, defeated Paris Olympic winners David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig (SWE), 14-21, 22-20, 20-18 for the bronze.

The women’s final had Paris Olympic runner-ups Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson (CAN) winning the first set, 21-15, then coming from way back to win the second set, 22-20, for a sweep of 2024 European champs Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann (GER)

Olympic champs Ana Patricia Ramos and Duda Lisboa (BRA) won the bronze medal with a 21-14, 21-16 win over Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova (LAT).

● Canoe-Kayak ● Stars Fernando Jorge and Ana Swetish dominated the ACA Sprint National Championships in Seattle, Washington, winning seven events each!

Jorge, 26, a three-time Olympian, won an Olympic gold for Cuba at Tokyo 2020 in the C-2 1,000 m and six World Championships medals from 2017-21. He left Cuba in 2022 and was a member of the Refugee Olympic Team for Paris 2024, now living in Florida.

In Seattle, he took wins in the men’s C-1 200 m, 500 m, 1,000 m and 5,000 m, and the C-2 200 m, 500 m and 1,000 m with Oreste Fransisco.

The men’s Kayak finals saw three wins for Walker Peck, in the K-1 5,000 m and the K-2 500 m (with Colin McMullen) and K-4 500 m. McMullen also got a second gold in the K-2 1,000 m with Karl Sorocco. Finn Connell won the K-1 500 m over Peck and also took the K-1 1,000 m for his two victories.

Swetish, 23, a star racer in the surfski category, dominated the Kayak finals, winning the K-1 500 m, 1,000 m and 5,000 m, and teamed with Abby Scoggins to win the K-2 200 m and K-2 500 m races. Swetish teamed with Paili Airth to win the K-2 5,000 m final as well, and was part of a K-4 500 m winner which also included Scoggins.

Scoggins won a fourth race – as did Peck – in the Mixed K-2 500 m final, and a fifth with Ellie Scoggins in the C-2 500 m.

Kenley Edwards was also a big winner, taking the women’s C-1 500 m and 1,000 m and teamed with Malia Terry-Voisard to win the C-2 200 m. Terry-Voisard also won the C-1 200 m.

● Cycling ● There was a major incident prior to the start of the three-stage UCI Women’s World Tour Tour de Romandie in Switzerland, which started on Friday. The UCI had mandated that one rider from each team entered in the race have installed on their bike a GPS tracking safety tracking system for testing purposes. Per the UCI in a Friday statement:

“The teams that have refused to participate in the GPS tracking technology test – and that are therefore excluded from the Tour de Romandie Féminin – are:

● Canyon//Sram zondacrypto
● EF Education – Oatly
● Lidl –Trek
● Team Picnic PostNL
● Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

“It should be noted that most of these teams are part of the Velon organisation which is the owner of its own data transmission system and is working on the development of its own GPS tracking system.”

The Canyon//Sram zondacripto team issued its own statement, confirming the competition with another system:

“Despite our cooperation and the existence of a proven and collaborative safety tracking system already tested successfully in other major races (fully operational for the whole peloton and offered to the UCI), the UCI has chosen to impose this measure without clear consent, threaten disqualification, and now exclude us from the race for not selecting a rider ourselves. The reason why they don’t want to nominate a rider themselves is still unknown and unanswered.”

Eleven teams remained in the race, with Spain’s Paula Blasi leading after the first-stage time trial, and then stage 2 runner-up Urska Zigart (SLO) taking the lead by eight seconds over stage winner – and home favorite – Elise Chabbey (SUI), going into Sunday’s hilly, 122.1 km third stage in and around Aigle.

The title fight came down to the end, with Hungary’s Blanka Vas winning the final stage in a sprint against Blasi and Chabbey, with all three given 3:11:35 as their time. Zigart was 10th (+0:11), so with a four-second time bonus for third, Chabbey ended up the overall winner in 6:53:02, just 0:07 up on Zigart and 20 seconds better than Yara Kastelijn (NED)

Ireland’s Rory Townsend, 30, a two-time national road champ, got his first UCI World Tour victory with a late attack in the ADAC Cyclassics in Hamburg (GER), riding away over the hilly 207.4 km course in 4:24:06 to edge Arnaud De Lie (BEL) and Paul Magnier (FRA) as the first 36 riders were given the same time. He’s the first-ever Irish winner of this race, which dates back to 1996.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: Kipyegon just misses world 3,000 m record at Diamond League Silesia, amid four world leaders as Thompson and Jefferson-Wooden wins 100s

By
Rich Perelman
-
Kenya's amazing distance superstar Faith Kipyegon (Photo: Diamond League AG).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ POLAND DIAMOND LEAGUE ≡

Quality was everywhere at the Skowlimoska Memorial Diamond League Silesia in Chorzow (POL), with a near-miss on a world record that hasn’t been touched in decades. There were four world-leading performances at the meet.

● Men/400 m hurdles: 46.28, Karsten Warholm (NOR)
● Women/800 m: 1:54.74, Keely Hodgkinson (GBR)
● Women/3,000 m: 8:07.04, Faith Kipyegon (KEN)
● Women/400 m hurdles: 51.91, Femke Bol (NED)

First and foremost was the world-record attempt in the women’s 3,000 m, as Kenyan superstar Faith Kipyegon ran behind pacesetters Sage Hurta-Klecker of the U.S. and Paris 1,500 m runner-up Jessica Hull (AUS). They had to run essentially 65 seconds a lap to approach the approved (but dubious) world mark of 8:06.11 by Junxia Wang (CHN) from way back in 1993. The closest anyone had come was Kenya’s 5,000-10,000 Olympic champ Beatrice Chebet at 8:11.56 in May.

Hull left after 2,000 m in 5:25.18 and then Kipyegon was on her own and she was up for the challenge, passing the bell alone and charging over the final lap and came up just short at 8:07.04! It’s the no. 2 time ever and closer than anyone has been to the Wang mark.

The laps: 65.08, 64.93, 65.30, 64.89, 66.40, 65.34 and 63.03. Kipyegon said afterwards she was following the pace lights and straining, and she covered her final 400 in 62.90!

Ethiopia’s Likina Amebaw was a distant second in 8:34.53. Americans Karissa Schweizer (8:40.35) and Ella Donaghu (8:42.91) finished ninth and 11th.

The women’s 1,500 m was a half-hour later, with Ethiopia’s two-time World Indoor champ Gudaf Tsegay in front by 800 m and running away, up by 40 m at the bell. The lead was down to 25 m by the time she got to the final straight and she powered in at 3:50.62, the no. 2 time of the year, only behind Kipyegon’s world record of 3:48.68. It’s Tsegay’s second-fastest 1,500 ever and the no. 8 performance of all time; she finished with a 62.93 final 400 m.

Behind her was Kenyan star Chebet, who destroyed her lifetime best at 3:54.73 (now no. 21 all-time), then Olympic bronze winner Georgia Hunter Bell (GBR: 3:56.00) and American champ Nikki Hiltz (3:56.10), with the no. 7 performance all-time U.S. Fellow American Heather Maclean was eighth with a lifetime best of 3:57.79.

The women’s 800 m was all about Olympic champ Kelly Hodgkinson (GBR) – who had not run since Paris due to injury – with a fast pace of 56.09 at the bell. Hodgkinson rolled into the lead on the second lap and ran away and won in dominant fashion in a world-leading 1:54.74, way ahead of Lilian Odira (KEN: 1:56.52); American Raevyn Rogers got fourth in 1:57.52.

Dutch star Femke Bol, the reigning World Champion, ran away from the field in the women’s 400 m hurdles, extending her lead impressively on the home straight and winning in a world-leading 51.91, with Emma Zapletalova (SVK: 53.58) in second and Jasmine Jones of the U.S. in third at 53.64.

The men’s 400 m hurdles had Tokyo Olympic champ Karsten Warholm (NOR), but he didn’t blast off in his normal style. He had the lead heading into the final straight, and then he took off and won in a brilliant, world-leading 46.28, not just the world leader, but a Diamond League record and the no. 3 performance of all-time! Wow!

NCAA champion Ezekiel Nathaniel (NGR) was a clear second in a lifetime best of 47.31 – no. 5 in the world for 2025 – then Abderrahmane Samba (QAT: 47.34) and Americans Chris Robinson (48.09) and Trevor Bassitt (48.37).

Those were just the headlines; there was a lot more!

● The much-anticipated men’s 100 m was all Kishane Thompson (JAM) from the gun, and he had control of the race by 35 m. But Olympic champ Noah Lyles – now with golden hair, which he says will be his Tokyo Worlds hair color – of the U.S. was coming hard at the end and was close, 9.87 to 9.90 (wind: +0.3 m/s). Following were Americans Kenny Bednarek (9.96), Christian Coleman (9.96), Trayvon Bromell (9.97) and Courtney Lindsey (10.05).

Lyles said afterwards he was emphasizing his drive phase today – he was pleased – and was looking for more race sharpness.

● The women’s 100 had world leader Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the U.S. and World Champion Sha’Carri Richardson, but it was all Jefferson-Wooden. She was out well, got to full speed beautifully and ran away – unchallenged – to a 10.66 win (+0.1), just 1/100th off her world lead. Jamaica’s Tia Clayton got a lifetime best of 10.82 in second, then Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (CIV: 10.87). Americans Jacious Sears (11.00) and Richardson (11.05) finished sixth.

● In the men’s 1,500 m, Australia’s Olli Hoare led at the bell and had a 5 m lead on the field, but fellow Australian Cam Myers and American Yared Nuguse were moving up along with Norway’s Worlds bronzer Norve Nordas.

Nuguse got to the lead after the bell and led into the final straight and held on to win in 3:33.19, an important victory for him to try and get into the Diamond League Final and into the World Championships. Behind him was a pack in full sprint, with Kenya’s Tim Cheruiyot moving up on the inside in the final 20 m for second in 3:33.35, then Nordas (3:33.41); Americans Josh Hoey (3:33.75) and Hobbs Kessler (3:34.14) finished fifth and seventh. Nuguse covered his last 400 in 53.0!

● The men’s 110 m hurdles was a U.S. sweep, with world leader Cordell Tinch getting to the line first in 13.03 (-0.5), just ahead of Olympic champ Grant Holloway (13.13) and Eric Edwards (13.20).

● Olympic champ Hamish Kerr (NZL) won a four-way duel in the high jump at 2.30 m (7-6 1/2) as the only one to clear and went on to make 2.33 m (7-7 3/4), a seasonal best to win. American JuVaughn Harrison cleared 2,28 m (7-5 3/4) on his second try and that earned second place; Olympic silver winner Shelby McEwen cleared 2.25 m (7-4 1/2) for fifth.

● In the vault, five jumped at 6.00 m (19-8 1/4), but only Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis cleared on his first try as did world-record man Mondo Duplantis (SWE). Both missed their first tries at 6.10 m (20-0), but Duplantis got over on his second, while Karalis missed all three. The bar went up to 6.20 m (20-4), with Duplantis missing his three attempts. 

Two-time World Champion Sam Kendricks of the U.S. tied for fifth at 5.90 m (19-4 1/4).

● American Olympic fourth-placer Payton Otterdahl won the men’s shot in the fifth round, getting out to 22.28 m (73-1 1/4) to pass world leader Leonardo Fabbri (ITA: 22.10 m/72-6 1/4). Two-time World Champion Joe Kovacs of the U.S. was third at 21.82 m (71-7 1/4), and Tripp Piperi got fifth at 21.69 m (71-2).

● Olympic runner-up Bence Halasz (HUN) got his second win over Paris champ Ethan Katzberg (CAN) in a week in the men’s hammer, blasting 81.77 m (268-3) in the second round, with Katzberg at 79.30 m (260-2) in round five for second.

● In the men’s javelin, Kenya’s 2015 World Champion Julius Yego, now 36, got out to 83.60 m (274-3) in round three, and that held up! Keshorn Walcott (TTO: now 32), the 2012 Olympic champ, moved into second on his final throw, reaching 82.54 m (270-9).

● Jamaica’s two-time World Champion Shericka Jackson was the headliner in the women’s 200 m, but Britain’s Daryll Neita had the lead around the turn. But Jackson emerged in the middle of the track, chased hard by Olympic bronzer Brittany Brown of the U.S. Jackson had to lean to win in a seasonal best of 22.17, with Brown at 22.21, then Favor Ofili (NGR: 22.25). Jenna Prandini of the U.S. was seventh in 22.78.

● Olympic champ Marileidy Paulino (DOM) was a clear winner in the women’s 400 m in 49.18, ahead of world leader Salwa Eid Naser (49.27); American Alexis Holmes was sixth in 50.18.

● The women’s 100 m hurdles was wild, with the heats won in 12.34 (-0.6) by Ackera Nugent (JAM) and a fast 12.28 (+1.1) by Olympic fourth-placer Nadine Visser (NED), a national record!

In the final, Visser got out and was in front by halfway, but hit the seventh and eighth hurdles and Olympic champ Masai Russell of the U.S., who was coming on, blew by and won in a Diamond League record of 12.19 (+1.4; equal-3rd performance all-time), with fellow American Tonea Marshall getting a lifetime best of 12.24 (equal-7th all-time, equal-5th all-time U.S), then world-record holder Tobi Amusan (NGR: 12.25). Americans Alia Armstrong (12.32, lifetime best) and Keni Harrison (12.41) went 5-6 with Visser fading to 12.60 in eighth. Yowsah!

● Olympic bronze medalist Jasmine Moore of the U.S. got to the lead in the women’s long jump in round two, lost it to Hilary Kpatcha (FRA: 6.83 m/22-4 3/4) in round three, but won at 6.85 m (22-5 3/4) in round five. World Indoor winner Claire Bryant of the U.S. was the round-one leader, then had four fouls, then matched Kpatcha in the sixth, but had to settle for third off the back-up jump. Fellow American Quanesha Burks was fifth in 6.65 m (21-9 3/4).

● Women’s Olympic hammer champ Cam Rogers (CAN) won at 75.39 m (247-4) in round two; American Rachel Richeson was fourth (71.70 m/235-3) and Brooke Andersen (69.99 m/229-7) was fifth.

Three women’s field events were held in the city center of Katowice on Friday, with Olympic champ and world-record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) facing runner-up Nicola Olyslagers (AUS). Both cleared 1.97 m (6-5 1/2), but Mahuchikh cleared 2.00 m (6-6 1/4) on her second try and that proved to be the winner. Charity Hufnagel of the U.S. was fifth at 1.88 m (6-2).

France’s Marie-Julie Bonnin, the 2025 World Indoor winner, took the women’s vault at 4.70 m (15-5), beating Hanga Klekner (HUN) and Americans Brynn King and Hana Moll of the U.S., all at 4.60 m (15-1). Two-time European champ Jessica Schilder (NED) won the women’s shot at 19.66 m (64-6) on her third throw, ahead of German Olympic winner Yemisi Ogunleye (19.50 m/63-11 3/4) and Maggie Ewen of the U.S. at 19.49 m (63-11 1/2).

The Diamond League will conclude in a blur, with meets on Wednesday (20th) in Lausanne (SUI), the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels (BEL) on Friday (22nd) and then the finale at the Weltklasse Zurich on 27-28 August.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: Michael Johnson promises Grand Slam Track will pay debts before committing to 2026 season

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK ≡

Olympic icon Michael Johnson, the founder of the Grand Slam Track circuit which held three meets in the spring and canceled a fourth, posted a three-panel, 758-word letter on X on Friday, explaining the plans for the future. His bottom line:

“We’re not done yet.

“Not even close.”

However, there are a lot of questions to be answered, and he explained:

● “It is incredibly difficult to live with the reality that you’ve built something bigger than yourself while simultaneously feeling like you’ve let down the very people you set out to help.

“However, I have to own that.”

● “We set out with a bold vision for this league, and even through our trials, we set the stage for unforgettable races, records, upsets, and long-awaited matchups. Our Racers and Challengers brought their talent, personalities, and were race ready – constantly giving the fans something to cheer for. They believed in what we were building, even when they didn’t have to, and for that I am deeply grateful. Many have shared just how much fun they’ve had competing with us this season. We were all in the arena together, building this amazing thing.

“That is success to me.”

● “We were devastated when we learned we would not receive the funding committed to us. We worked tirelessly alongside our investors and board to find a quick solution to the problem. Up until and even after the LA postponement, we were getting positive signs that a solution was close. However, we determined the best thing to do would be to conclude our season early to avoid further losses and start the lengthy process of stabilizing the company to get back on track.

“But unfortunately, we saw circumstances change in ways beyond our control.”

● “Due to our strong desire to make this right as quickly as possible, we offered dated payment timelines and have been unable to meet them. Understandably, this has led to frustration, disappointment, and inconvenience to our athletes, agents, and vendors. I know this damages trust. I know this makes some wonder if our vision can survive. That is why we are not just addressing the immediate problem; we are putting systems and partnerships in place to make sure it never happens again.”

(The prize money for the 4-6 April Kingston, Jamaica meet was expected to be paid by the end of July, but was not.)

● “The 2026 season will not happen until those obligations are met and that is my #1 priority.

“Winners are defined by how they respond to setbacks, and our team has responded with the fight and commitment to make this right. We are doing the work required to secure the right capital partners to ensure the long-term sustainability of Grand Slam Track.

“That starts with paying the athletes and satisfying our outstanding debt in order to continue the momentum toward a better future for athletes, fans, and the league.”

● “I have spent the last several weeks meeting with excited investors who see the value of Grand Slam Track and believe, just as we do, that track deserves a prominent place in global sports. That said, this process takes time. The reality of our business and the world is that it’s complex and is hard to rush, especially with long-term investments and selecting the right partner is so important to this project. So, I’m asking for your continued grace, patience, and encouragement as we navigate this next chapter.

“Despite the challenges of the past few months, I remain confident about the future of Grand Slam Track.”

There are varying estimates of how much the circuit owes to athletes and vendors of $13 million or more that will have to be settled. And there will be a need for much more cash to be paid up front before any meets will take place in 2026, not only for athletes, but also for service providers and vendors.

Athletes who have spoken about the situation have said that appearance fees for the first meet, in Kingston, were paid, but not the prize money (about $3 million per meet). Some or all of the fees and prizes for the other two meets, in Miramar, Florida and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have not been paid.

The fate of the circuit will, as Johnson has noted, depend on the athletes and suppliers being paid in full.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SALT LAKE CITY 2034: Organizing committee reveals staggering near-$150 million in donor commitments to start operations

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ PROGRESS REPORT ≡

Amazing. Astounding. Almost unbelievable.

At a Thursday (14th) meeting of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Coordination Committee of the Utah State Legislature, Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 organizing committee chief executive Brad Wilson stated – with considerable calm – that private commitments from donors are approaching $150 million.

This is unheard of.

For Olympic Games and similar-style events held in the United States, raising money to stand up the organizing committee is always a problem. For the 2028 Los Angeles Games, the International Olympic Committee advanced $180 million to the LA28 organizers, $20 million for direct organizing committee support and $160 million for City of Los Angeles youth programs through to 2028, some of which was used very early to pay the bills until sponsorship support began coming in.

Wilson, the former speaker of the Utah House, explained further what has happened for the 2034 organizers:

“Our ability to go out right now and secure corporate sponsors for our Games, is in a holding pattern, until L.A. completes their Games in 2028. And we are such big supporters and fans of the L.A. team, and the L.A. Games and they are actively in the market, working with corporate sponsors and we’ll try to draft off of them as they finish their Games up, and then we will pivot to our commercial program at that point in time.

“Until then, we are reliant on the good graces of the philanthropic community here in the State of Utah. And so we’re actively engaged in that community. You saw on an earlier slide that we have $150 million in donor commitments. You will see an event sometime in the next month or so where we will announce our first wave of key donors and donor commitments, and you will be getting an invitation to that event as members of this committee.

“But that part is going very, very well.”

He added later in the presentation:

“The leaders in this community, business leaders, philanthropic leaders, are amazing. And I think, in some ways, we take it for granted a little bit – how remarkable they are – but you will see in the month of September when we announce this first wave, a level of donor support that is unusual and we just couldn’t more grateful for those that are stepping up, because I think they understand that Utah is very special . They want to sure we maximize this opportunity, for the world.”

It was noted that four-time Olympic speed skater and the SLC-Utah Committee for the Games bid chair, Cat Raney Norman, has been leading the fund-raising effort. And quite successfully so far.

The remainder of the report from SLC-Utah 2034 was less stunning; Executive Chair Fraser Bullock underscored one of the key initiatives for the Games, “that was really promulgated by a conversation I had with Lindsey Vonn a few years ago, was around the athlete’s families.

“Many times an athlete will qualify 10 days before the Games’ opening ceremonies and their families don’t have tickets, they don’t have accommodations, they don’t have transportation, and the athlete wants their family to watch them. So we’ve created the Athlete’s Families Initiative, where we’re going to have so many activities and messages and things we can do around families, which fits very well with the values of Utah, obviously, but also to take care, special care of the athlete’s families …

“One pillar of this to have an Athlete’s Families Village, where families from around the world could be together instead of isolated in Airbnbs, but actually be together and I’m excited about bringing the athlete’s families of the world together to share these experiences together.”

Bullock also noted that athletes from more than 30 countries are training in Utah today.

Wilson observed that “our level of preparation and readiness to host a Winter Games is probably unprecedented,” but that with the time available to consider new concepts, he said a major focus is on “how do we maximize the opportunity that’s presented to us?”

As to the preparations already in place, Wilson noted:

“All of the venues that were used in ‘02 are, for the most part, are being used again, and all of the agreements with those venues, as well as 21,000 hotel rooms, are already under contract. We just need about 3,000 more hotel rooms and that box is checked and I expect that will be done in the next 3-6 months.

“And you think about how remarkable that is, and I checked, we’re 3,102 days away from opening ceremonies and this work is done. And there are organizing committees that are hosting Games in the next 2-3 years that don’t have this work done yet.”

Possible adding some sports to the program is being considered, but no request will be made until 2028 or 2029.

The discussion with the committee’s elected officials offered no surprises, and included the inevitable requests for (1) inexpensive tickets and (2) to consider how to “coordinate and leverage Federal funds to support Utah, because of the Games.” Of course.

Observed: This level of community support from the private and philanthropic sector – no public funding – is almost beyond description. The SLC-Utah organizing committee presentation noted they have eight employees and three consultants, with very little growth expected in the coming months.

So much, if not all, of the funding it will need through the end of 2028, when it will be able to go into the sponsorship marketplace, is already committed.

While the SLC-Utah bid had enormous public support within the state, this demonstration of financial support is the best indicator yet of how successful the 2034 Winter Games could be.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: Jakob Ingebrigtsen continues injury recovery, but talks about the steeplechase for Tokyo Worlds? What?

By
Rich Perelman
-
Norwegian middle-distance superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Photo: Hauts de France on X).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

A Wednesday video from Norwegian star Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the two-time defending World Champion in the 5,000 m, who won World Indoor titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 m in March, had him talking about recovery from injuries … and the steeplechase?

“The last eight weeks have been challenging, but at the same time I have been progressing quite a bit until things happen and I got a setback. Stumbled up on some illness, set me a little back and gave some more irritation to the Achilles.

“So, a little bit up and down, but in total the last eight weeks have been progressing both mileage, volume and also the pace. Until right now where I have been one half week in altitude in St. Moritz [SUI] and really progressing the load that I have given myself and also on the Achilles.

“A very good track session just a couple of days ago, so definitely pointing in the right direction, but still a lot more to improve and a lot more things that need to be done for me to be 100% prepared for World Championships.

“I think next two, three weeks we will get a lot of answers in what type of training that I have been doing, what I can do and also in terms of fitness, how fast I can run.”

Then he introduced a real stunner:

“I think that is going to lead up to a very exciting mid-September where worst case scenario we have to change things a little bit and maybe do something a little bit different.

“Don’t forget, I was a steeplechaser in 2017 in my first World Championship, but again that is very much and very difficult discipline for – let’s say your tendons – but that is where we are at right now. We are trying to push as much as we can, at the same time listening to the body and displaying all of our options and trying to maximize the performance and the results we can achieve for this season.”

What?

Ingebrigtsen was quite right about the Steeple and 2017; he ran the 3,000 m distance five times with a best of 8:26.81 in his debut and won the European Junior title in Italy that year, before racing in the heats at the World Championships in London. He also ran the 1,500 m Steeple three times in total in 2015 and 2016.

That’s his Steeple career. So far.

He admitted the recovery process has been difficult:

“It is definitely very difficult getting a setback as a professional athlete, especially when you have kind of been progressing and developing as an athlete almost continuously the last couple of years. 

“But everyone is going to have some sort of setback. But it’s also what can be challenging is having an open mind when it comes to results or progression, short term but also long term. …

“You don’t necessarily have a guarantee that you are progressing and developing and getting, you know, getting along with where you want to be headed. So seeing kind of the light at the end of the tunnel and then getting, you know, a second or even a third or fourth setback is definitely one of the bigger challenges because it is a mental roller coaster where you’re starting to be positive and you see some results, but then everything is lost in a split-of-a-second and you really need to reset and still keep your head down and push through with the training and do the things that need to be done.”

Ultimately, he is focused on one thing:

“Right now it’s all about risk and reward. So, my main goal is to be fit and ready to go in the World Championships in Tokyo.

“And everything that happens before that, I have to see when it closes. Right now, I’m focused on training and trying to build my fitness.

And it’s relatively easy just to say, ‘Okay, this we’re going to do this race.’ But everything needs to be very well thought through when it comes to the risk involved and also the way it can compromise the World Championships.

“So it is a little bit exciting because there’s a lot of things happening every day and also a lot of discussions and choices that needs to be made, more than usual and I think it’s definitely different and a different approach and different aspect of the way we do our training and especially competitions. But sometimes that’s for the best and it can be a good opportunity to achieve something that’s maybe a little bit different.”

Ingebrigtsen, still just 24, has a direct entry into the Worlds as the defending 5,000 m champion and has the 1,500 m qualifying standard, of course. If he really wanted to run the Steeple, the event is already almost at capacity for Tokyo and the entry standard is 8:15.00 on or before 24 August. As of now, there are no Norwegians with the Worlds standard.

Steeple? Can’t be. Or can it?

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: Russian sports re-entry depends on Trump-Putin? Honda got venue naming rights included in June LA28 deal!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Honda, a Founding Partner of the LA28 Olympic & Paralympic organizing committee (Photo: American Honda).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Russia ● Dmitry Svishchev, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, told the Russian news agency TASS the Olympic world will be impacted by Friday’s meeting in Alaska between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

“If the negotiations have a positive outcome, then this will definitely be projected onto sports.

“If certain agreements are reached between countries, then this will have a positive impact. The International Olympic Committee and international federations will also monitor the progress of the negotiations, expecting to receive signals. No matter how much the federations claim there is no politicization, much will depend on political decisions.”

Other Russian politicians noted that sports issues are not likely to come up during the talks, but that the outcome of any peace process – if there is any progress – could significantly impact how Russia is viewed by the IOC and the sports federations.

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● The concept of venue naming rights at the 2028 Olympic Games was in development well before Thursday’s announcement by the LA28 organizers about an expansion of sponsor opportunities to include it going forward. 

In an AdAge interview, Honda North America Vice President for Digital Services Ed Beadle explained that the retention of naming rights for the Honda Center in Anaheim was baked into its LA28 sponsorship agreement, announced on 2 June 2025:

“[T]hroughout the Honda Center, we’re actually going to be able to retain that name. The first time in the Olympics history where a venue kept its branding. And for us, that’s a huge win. You talked about like how you value a sponsorship and you know, the easy part is the media. So that has a clear math to it. There’s comparable ad units, there’s history and you can score it. So what you’re really trying to do as a marketer is close that value on sponsorship.

“The Olympics is an emotional hook, but how do you really measure that? So when you think about elements like branding of an actual venue, that’s that much more incremental value exposure on the broadcast – and it’s volleyball, which I don’t know if you can think of a more California sport than that. It runs the whole two full weeks. So I think that’s one exciting breaking news that no one’s talked about yet.”

As to why Honda sponsored LA28, Beadle noted:

“[T]he fact that it’s in Los Angeles is a pretty big deal for us. It’s our home turf. Honda dedicates so many resources to where they are, wherever Honda is, we have a history of investing in Los Angeles. We’ve been a huge part of the Rose Parade. We have the Honda Center. It is our home turf. So from that alone, we needed to look at it. And when we went down there, there was this great feeling overall. …

“As we looked at the map, you know, they have one of those massive city maps where it has all the different points where the events were going to be. You could just visualize. I wrote a little bit about it, about the Honda Marine picking up a surfer or Moto Compacto as being the last mile transportation between events. So it aligned beyond just an auto play. We looked at it like, this is perfect.”

● World Games 2025: Chengdu ● Archery sells itself as a lifetime sport and in Chengdu, Australian star Simon Fairweather is living proof.

Now 55, he was a five-time Olympian in Recurve, and the 1991 World Champion and 2000 Olympic champ in Sydney. But, with wife Nicky, he’s in the archery equipment business and picked up Barebow archery – with less sophisticated bows – in 2019. Now, they’re both representing Australia again, in Chengdu.

The World Games has Field Archery, a walking tour with marked and unmarked targets that mimics the ancient hunting concept; the started on Thursday and the Barebow competition will end on Saturday (16th).

● Commonwealth Games 2030 ● The Indian Olympian Association approved the bid to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, with Commonwealth Sport scheduled to make the selection at its 2025 General Assembly in Glasgow (SCO) in November.

There is interest from other bidders, such as Canada and Nigeria; the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi were marked by corruption and mismanagement.

● Deaflympics 2025: Tokyo ● Organizers of the 15-26 November Deaflympics in Tokyo will use new techniques to make sport more accessible to those with hearing issues. Kyodo News reported:

“At the judo venue, devices provided at the spectators’ seats will send vibrations that enable them to feel the impact of judokas’ dynamic throws. …

“Messages will be transmitted in sign language on big screens at every venue, as well as in text. Athletes’ announcements and emergency notifications will also be made via text.”

● Athletics ● World Athletics unveiled its “brand design” for its 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, featuring a blue, white and red “Star Flare” icon to symbolize the energy and explosiveness of the event.

The meet is slated for 11-13 September 2026, with Swedish vault superstar Mondo Duplantis named the first “Ultimate Star.”

USA Track & Field named a 50-member team for the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Championships to be held in Nassau (BAH) from Friday through Sunday.

The men’s team includes 2025 national champions such as Ja’Kobe Tharp (110 hurdles), Olympic Steeple silver winner Kenneth Rooks, high jumper Tyus Wilson, long jumper Isaac Grimes, shot star Josh Awotunde, discus winner Reggie Jagers, hammer winner Rudy Winkler and javelin victor Curtis Thompson. The women’s team has high jump winner Vashti Cunningham and javelin champ Evie Bliss, along with sprint star TeeTee Terry and Lynna Irby-Jackson.

Several are chasing World Championships qualifying marks so they do not have to depend on the World Athletics Rankings to determine whether they will be in Tokyo in September.

● Biathlon ● Biathlon is not an NCAA or NAIA sport, but it is now supported at Paul Smith’s College in upstate New York, with scholarships for qualified biathletes:

“The new scholarship program recognizes the unique demands faced by student-athletes in biathlon, a sport that combines the rigorous training requirements of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship with the pursuit of higher education. Through this partnership, qualified biathletes will receive financial support to help make their college education more accessible while maintaining their competitive training regimen.”

Founded in 1946, Paul Smith’s is a small college, with less than 1,000 students, but on a 14,000-acre campus, with its own Nordic skiing and biathlon center, and only 21 miles from the winter-sport hub of Lake Placid.

● Boxing ● A new process from World Boxing is being installed at federation championships to monitor referee performance, now used by Asian Boxing at its U-19 and U-22 championships in Thailand. The system works this way:

● “Two evaluators per bout: one monitors the referee, the other the judges, ensuring two independent perspectives on each performance.

● “Scores are recorded manually, and bouts are reviewed again each evening as a second layer of protection, identifying inconsistencies or signs of favouritism.

● “If issues are found, sanctions can be applied to the official. Accumulating a set number of sanctions means an official will not complete the tournament.

● “All evaluations are stored in the World Boxing database, forming a reliable record used for future officiating appointments and supporting officials’ development.”

This is part of the reform effort by World Boxing to redress the refereeing and judging issues which the International Olympic Committee saw with the International Boxing Association and its predecessor, AIBA.

● Cycling ● Britain’s Matthew Richardson, who won three Olympic track cycling medals for Australia at Paris 2024 (0-2-1) but transferred afterwards, set a world record for the flying 200 m (lap) sprint at the high-altitude velodrome in Konya (TUR), at 8.941 seconds.

That broke the mark of 9.088 by Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen from the Paris 2024 Games; Richardson’s time averages 80.5 km/h or 50.02 miles per hour!

● Wrestling ● At the USA Wrestling’s Board meeting on 8-9 August in Colorado Springs, the all-time high in memberships help to power excellent projected financial results for the 2024-25 fiscal year, with “an operating reserve of $12 million, a favorable budget variance of $3 million and total net assets of almost $26 million.”

The budget for 2025-26 was approved, with projected revenue of $24,907,491, expenses at $24,763,210, and a modest surplus of $144,281.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

LOS ANGELES 2028: IOC and LA28 follow up on “product placement” strategy with venue naming-rights for 2028 Games

By
Rich Perelman
-
The Honda Center in Anaheim, California (Photo: Honda Center).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ OLYMPIC SPONSORSHIP GROWS ≡

A change in the International Olympic Committee’s view of sponsorship rights was clearly signaled during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with essentially a commercial for Paris 2024 Premier Partner LVMH incorporated into the opening ceremony telecast, and Samsung mobile phones magically available on victory platforms for the medal winners to use.

IOC Managing Director of IOC Television and Marketing, Anne-Sophie Voumard (SUI) told reporters in Paris:

“That is the direction we want to go into, we want to be unique in our actions. We don’t have any visibility on the field of play. We want to keep that position, but we want to work with our partners is that we can integrate their products in a way which is more organic in the Games. …

“So this is the path that we are taking deliberately and you will see things evolve during the next editions of the Games in this sector.”

On Thursday, the IOC and the LA28 organizers took the next step:

● “For the first time in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, LA28 has created the opportunity to implement naming rights at competition venues.”

● “In celebration of this moment, LA28 welcomes Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios and Honda Center as the first named venues for the LA28 Games.”

● LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman explained: “Today’s historic announcement delivers on that promise, creating the first-ever venue naming rights program in Olympic and Paralympic history while advancing LA28’s mission of a fully privately funded and no-new-build Games. These groundbreaking partnerships with Comcast and Honda, along with additional partners to come, will not only generate critical revenue for LA28 but will introduce a new commercial model to benefit the entire Movement. We’re grateful to the IOC for making this transformation possible.”

The program is limited, with “qualifying LA28 partners will have the opportunity to keep existing venue naming rights during Games time, as well as secure additional marketing assets to significantly bolster their activation efforts.”

Naming rights for 19 temporary venues will be available for sale to the IOC’s TOP sponsors and LA28 commercial partners. The existing venues covered by existing naming rights-holders also include the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live, site of weightlifting, and boxing finals (Peacock is a Comcast brand).

But, as Voumard emphasized last year, the ban on in-stadium signage will continue, as the announcement noted, “Outside of naming rights partners, standard clean venue Games policies will still apply.”

Observed: This is a logical and necessary forward step for the IOC and the first meaningful expansion of marketing rights for the LA28 organizers. It will be criticized by those who hate corporations and hate the Olympic Games, but should be cheered by Los Angeles-area politicians, who continue to be concerned that the City of Los Angeles and State of California will have to pick up an organizing committee deficit.

The LA28 folks and the IOC will have their hands full trying to sort out – on the fly – what works and what doesn’t in and around the temporary venue installations. But as companies look for immersive experiences to unlock new markets and remind existing customers they made the right choice, this kind of marketing programming is critical and timely.

How LA28 approaches sales of these new rights, through its joint-venture partnership with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties (USOPP) unit, will determine its value.

In its infancy, this is not a billion-dollar addition to LA28 revenues, but if approached with dignity and imagination, it could help, not only with existing top-tier partners, but in upgrading existing relationships – how can Nike pass this up? – and creating new interest.

Logical, timely and potentially impactful, now and into the future. Lists of ideas are already being penciled out in Salt Lake City, host of the 2034 Olympic Winter Games.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SWIMMING: Michael Phelps, on Instagram, calls for full review of USA Swimming, better approach to athlete services and youth swimming

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic icon Michael Phelps, at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Photo: Wikipedia via Fernando Frazao/Agencia Brasil).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ PHELPS’ CALL TO ACTION ≡

“As an initial step forward, I would propose the following next steps to the USA Swimming Board of Directions and USA Swimming staff:

“1. Commission a 360º independent review of USA Swimming’s Board of Directors and its organization as a whole. Provide complete transparency in this process.

“2. Streamline athlete services and develop a proactive, athlete-first way to support athletes competing in the sport. While USA Swimming and the USOPC provide some athlete resources, there needs to be a better way to work directly with athletes to implement what’s available to them.

“3. Focus on strengthening the grassroots level of the sport, reversing its pandemic membership decline while developing new ways to foster additional growth.

“I offer up my service to be a resource in these proposed initial steps and I am hopeful that the USA Swimming community will accept my offer.

“My door is open and there is work to be done.”

That’s the finish of a lengthy statement posted by Olympic icon Michael Phelps, now 40, on Instagram on Wednesday, following up his comments during the World Aquatics Championships, centering his focus on the sport’s leadership:

“First, I must be clear that I have the utmost respect for the U.S. swimmers that competed at the World Championships. My criticism is in no way directed at them – I know how hard they work and how honored they are to represent the U.S. National Team. My criticism is about the system, its leadership, and how it’s failing.

“There have always been cracks in the system but in the last nine years, I’ve seen those cracks grow. In 2016, I had the honor to be a part of a U.S. swim team in Rio that was arguably the most successful in the sport’s history and we won 57% of the medals we had the opportunity to win. Fast forward eight years to Paris, where Team USA won only 44% of the medals they had the opportunity to win in the pool, the lowest percentage the sport had seen since the 1988 Olympics.

“I’ve asked myself what’s changed in our sport and the answer is clear…this isn’t on the athletes as they continue to do the best they can with what they’ve been given. This is on the leadership of USA Swimming. Poor leadership trickles down and can impact an organization at every level.

“I spent most of my life inside of a system that is supposed to support athletes. I gave it my everything, but I often felt that my voice went unheard. I was told to be grateful for the chance to compete and that it was more important to stay quiet and to keep the peace.”

He added:

“No one really wants to talk about how broken USA Swimming has become.

“But, if we don’t talk about it, it won’t get fixed.

“Money is a factor. But poor operational controls and weak leadership are a cornerstone of the sport’s problems. …

“I still care and I’m not ready to give up.

“I don’t have all the answers, but I know this: we need accountability. We need transparency. We need athlete voices at the center, not in the margins.

“We need systemic change.”

Phelps has offered his help; his post followed a lengthy message from triple Olympic gold medalist and NBC analyst Rowdy Gaines on 7 August, which included:

“This isn’t about throwing stones at the athletes. Far from it. I’ve spent the last 50 years as one of their biggest cheerleaders. But both Michael and I are saying what many are thinking: something is broken in the way USA Swimming is being run. And if we don’t fix it now, we risk losing the very culture of excellence that built this program in the first place.”

USA Swimming let go of seven-year chief executive Tim Hinchey on 29 August 2024, instituting a search that named University of Delaware athletic director Chrissi Rawak on 19 February 2025. But before she could start – scheduled for 14 March – she withdrew on 28 February.

A new search was instituted, but no new chief executive has been named. USA Swimming hired Stanford coach Greg Meehan as its National Team Director on 11 April, and promoted communications and marketing chief Jake Grosser to Chief Operating Officer on 9 July of this year.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SPOTLIGHT: Annie Carey’s world-record long jump highlighted a historic weekend for Para Athletes at the USATF National Championships

By
Steve Drumwright
-
Women's Para T44 long jump world-record holder Annie Carey of the U.S. (Photo: U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee).

★ The Sports Examiner is delighted to present this important contribution from our patron, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, with a focus on American Paralympic stars. Opinions expressed are those of the USOPC. ★

For the first time, USA Track & Field hosted a combined outdoor national championship with able-bodied and Para athletes.

By Steve Drumwright
Red Line Editorial on behalf of Team USA

Annie Carey is no stranger to big stages.

As a 19-year-old last summer, the native of Boise, Idaho, took part in her first Paralympic Games, posting top-six finishes in both the 200 m and long jump in the T64 classification in Paris.

Earlier this month she was at it again.

With Para athletes competing alongside able-bodied athletes for the first time at the USATF Outdoor National Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Carey, now 20, stole the show by breaking her own T44 world record in the long jump. She leaped to a distance of 5.19 m (17-0 1/2) on Saturday, 2 August, the third and final day of Para competition at historic Hayward Field.

Her performance highlighted a memorable weekend as many of the sport’s biggest names competed for both national championships and spots in next month’s Para Athletics World Championships in New Delhi.

“I think it’s finally nice that Para is getting that extra recognition,” said Carey, who was one of 40 athletes named to the Worlds team on 3 August. “Because in the past at Para meets, there’s not that many people there and it’s not as loud an environment. It’s always fun to race when it’s loud. It was also definitely cool to see all those higher-up athletes. We’re all at the same meet. It’s like, ‘What?’ That’s cool.”

Among the others who made the team were Ezra Frech and Jaydin Blackwell, each of whom won a pair of gold medals at the Paris Games.

Only Carey left Eugene with a world record, though.

“I broke the world record on my second attempt, which honestly I was pretty surprised by,” she said.

Breaking long jump records has become something of a habit for Carey. She set the previous world record last July during the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials in Miramar, Florida. Less than two months later, she set a Paralympic record with a leap of 4.96 m. However, she was competing with athletes in the T62 and T64 classes and finished sixth in the event.

Carey, who was born with a club foot, competes in the T44 classification for athletes with movement affected in one lower leg.

At nationals, she also ran in two 100 m races and two 200 m races, with all four events combining multiple classes together. In each of those events, she was the top T44 performer.

While Carey surprised herself with the world-record jump, her times on the track were more in line with what she was expecting after her sophomore year at Mount St. Mary’s, a smaller NCAA Division I school in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

“My times were very consistent from what I’ve been running during my college season until now,” she said. “Obviously I want to run a little bit faster. I think anyone would want to run faster when they see their times.”

Carey, who was born in Datong, China, came to the U.S. at 21 months old when she was adopted by Sarah and Geoff Carey. She spent this summer back in Boise, which has set up a difficult training environment without a lot of other elite athletes or coaches around to consistently offer feedback.

“I’ve been training alone all summer, so it’s really hard to get into that long-term mentality when you’re alone,” Carey said. “You don’t have anyone to watch you on your runways. You’re kind of doing all of your jumping drills alone. So it’s like, ‘Am I doing it right? Am I not?’ Going into [nationals], I was as prepared as I could be. … I haven’t jumped that far in my life yet, so it was really shocking to see that distance.”

Her time at Mount St. Mary’s – where she’s studying sports management – has helped her focus more on her techniques.

“During my whole training, I was just really trying to be on the board,” she said. “It’s very common for me to not be on the board when I’m jumping. So I just wanted to go into this meet at least getting a few good jumps on the board. I’ve been working on it all summer.”

Competing alongside able-bodied athletes in Eugene, Carey said she didn’t have too many interactions with non-Para competitors during nationals. But recently, Tara Davis-Woodhall, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist in the long jump who is married to Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhall, reached out via Instagram.

“She was commenting [on a post], and I was like, ‘Oh, my god, you should definitely coach me,’” Carey said. “That was really cool.”

Carey, who also has been into swimming, triathlons, tennis and spike ball, appreciates the historical significance of the mixed meet.

“I realized that this meet was more than just making a Worlds team, more than just getting good times,” Carey said. “But it was also a change in history, the first time ever we are seen as one whole community, rather than separated. And that’s just something that us Para athletes I think will always remember, being accounted for and just being able to share our stories with everyone, spreading awareness. It’s come a long way.”

Steve Drumwright is a journalist based in Murrieta, California. He is a freelance contributor to the USPOC on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

For more, please visit the USOPC Paralympic Educational Hub.

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

You can receive our exclusive TSX Report by e-mail by clicking here. You can also refer a friend by clicking here, and can donate here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

LANE ONE: How great is swim superstar Katie Ledecky? In baseball terms, she’s an .808 hitter in the World Series!

By
Rich Perelman
-
The greatest women’s swimmer ever: American Freestyle superstar Katie Ledecky (Photo: World Aquatics/Aniko Kovacs).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ LEDECKY AT THE SUMMIT ≡

Triple Olympic champion Rowdy Gaines, for many the voice of swimming in the U.S., has told anyone who will listen that American Freestyle superstar Katie Ledecky is the greatest female swimmer of all time.

It’s hard to argue, in view of her 13 Olympic medals (9-4-1) and 30 World Championships medals (23-6-1). But here’s another view of her career, from the standpoint of performing her best when it counts.

In baseball terms, she’s hitting .808 in the World Series. That’s impossible, right?

Not for Ledecky, now 28, who began winning Olympic medals at 15.

A thorough review of her career at the Olympic Games and World Championships reveals that Ledecky has bettered her marks from the American selection event – nationals or Olympic or Worlds trials – at the following Olympic Games or World Championships 80.8% of the time!

80.8%!

Here’s the log, using Ledecky’s time in her last round of competition at the Olympic Games or World Championships vs. her time in the U.S. nationals or trials meet (AR = American Record; WR = World Record):

Olympic Games:
● 2012/800 m Free: 8:14.63 (1st; AR) at the Games vs. 8:19.78 at Trials (1/1)

● 2016/200 m Free: 1:53.73 (1st) vs. 1:54.88
● 2016/400 m Free: 3:56.46 (1st; WR) vs. 3:58.98
● 2016/800 m Free: 8:04.79 (1st; WR) vs. 8:10.32 (3/3)

● 2020/200 m Free: 1:55.21 (5th) vs. 1:55.11
● 2020/400 m Free: 3:57.36 (2nd) vs. 4:01.27
● 2020/800 m Free: 8:12.57 (1st) vs. 8:14.62
● 2020/1500 m Free: 15:37.34 (1st) vs. 15:40.50 (3/4)

● 2024/400 m Free: 4:00.86 (3rd) vs 3:58.35
● 2024/800 m Free: 8:11.04 (1st) vs. 8:14.12
● 2024/1500 m Free: 15:30.02 (1st) vs. 15:37.35 (2/3)

In four Olympic Games, Ledecky has been faster than her Trials time in nine of 11 events: 81.8%.

World Aquatics Championships:
● 2013/400 m Free: 3:59.82 (1st; AR) at Worlds vs. 4:04.05 at Trials
● 2013/800 m Free: 8:13.86 (1st; WR) vs. 8:22.41
● 2013/1500 m Free: 15:36.73 (1st; WR) vs. 15:47.15 (3/3)

● 2017/200 m Free: 1:55.18 (=2nd) vs. 1:54.84
● 2017/400 m Free: 3:58.34 (1st) vs. 3:58.44
● 2017/800 m Free: 8:12.68 (1st) vs. 8:11.50 (1/3)
● 2017/1500 m Free: 15:31.82 (1st); did not swim at Trials

● 2022/400 m Free: 3:58.15 (1st) vs. 3:59.52
● 2022/800 m Free: 8:08.04 (1st) vs. 8:09.27
● 2022/1500 m Free: 15:30.15 (1st) vs. 15:38.99 (3/3)

● 2023/400 m Free: 3:58.73 (2nd) vs. 4:00.45
● 2023/800 m Free: 8:08.07 (1st) vs. 8:07.07
● 2023/1500 m Free: 15:26.27 (1st) vs. 15:29.64 (2/3)

● 2025/400 m Free: 3:58.49 (3rd) vs. 3:58.56
● 2025/800 m Free: 8:05.62 (1st) vs. 8:05.76
● 2025/1500 m Free: 15:26.44 (1st) vs. 15:36.76 (3/3)

So in five Worlds in which the U.S. had a selection meet, Ledecky bettered her time at the Worlds in 12 of 15 finals, or 80.0%.

Missing in the Worlds list are the 2015 and 2019 editions, for which there was no single U.S. selection meet, but a USA Swimming formula. Her Worlds performances there:

● 2015/200 m Free: 1:55.16 (1st, seasonal best); world no. 4 for 2015
● 2015/400 m Free: 3:59.13 (1st, seasonal best); world no. 1
● 2015/800 m Free: 8:07.39 (1st; WR); world no. 1
● 2015/1500 m Free:15:25.48 (1st; WR); world no. 1

● 2019/400 m Free: 3:59.97 (2nd, third-best in season); world no. 2 for 2019
● 2019/800 m Free: 8:13.58 (1st; second-best in season); world no. 1
● 2019/1500 m Free: 15:48.90 (1st in heats, withdrew due to illness); world no. 1

Adding the Olympic (9/11) and Worlds (12/15) performances together, Ledecky was better at the Olympic Games or Worlds 21 times out of 26 finals or 80.8% (.808 for baseball fans), at the highest, most pressure-packed level of competition, the championship level – the World Series – of international swimming.

There’s no doubt she would have been 4/4 in 2015; Ledecky was ill during the 2019 Worlds but would have been 2/3 at worst if healthy, both stellar and if added in, would project to 27 times better out of 33, or 81.8% (.818), even better.

Now, how great is this? Let’s compare what Ledecky has done to her teammates, in terms of “batting average” of recent Olympic Games or Worlds performances compared to Trials times (percentage of Games/Worlds performances better than at Trials):

● 2020 Games: U.S. batted .518 overall; women batted .643
● 2022 Worlds: U.S. batted .538 overall; women batted .545
● 2023 Worlds: U.S. batted .333 overall; women batted .206
● 2024 Games: U.S. batted .304 overall; women batted .464
● 2025 Worlds: U.S. batted .306 overall; women batted .387

Remember that Ledecky’s successes are included in these tabulations! Astounding.

Going further, she’s won 10 individual medals (8 gold) in 11 Olympic finals (90.9%) and an astounding 22 individual medals in 22 World Championships finals (that’s 100%!), including 18 golds, with a combined medal percentage of 96.7% across 14 years!

Gaines is right. She really is the greatest, especially when it counts the most.

Rich Perelman
Editor

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

WEIGHTLIFTING: USA Weightlifting President warns against Enhanced Games amid recruitment drive

By
Rich Perelman
-
Henri Vidal's Caïn venant de tuer son frère Abel (Cain, after having murdered his brother Abel), in the Tuileries Garden, Paris (Photo: Wikipedia)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

The Enhanced Games, announced last May, has been in a recruiting drive to secure athletes to participate in a spectacle of doping-allowed sports next May in Las Vegas.

Appearance fees and prize pools of $500,000 per event are promised in four swimming events, four track & field sprint and hurdle events and weightlifting. Bonuses are to be offered for world records.

So far, the promotion has announced five athletes – four men, one woman – all of whom are swimmers, all but one retired from 5-12 years.

But the recruiting is ongoing. So much so that USA Weightlifting is the latest to issue a statement against the project, posted Tuesday with President Matt Sicchio explaining in part:

“We are aware that Enhanced Games staff are actively recruiting weightlifters and have contacted USA Weightlifting-affiliated athletes.

“USA Weightlifting stands with the International Weightlifting Federation in strong opposition to the Enhanced Games. Leaders within our sport have worked diligently for years to clean up the sport, reestablish trust in the results we see on the platform, and cement the continued participation of weightlifting in the Olympic Games. The Enhanced Games fly in the face of those efforts and corrode the foundation of integrity of which true sport operates.

“We have worked too hard to rebuild trust around our sport to go backwards now. Performance enhancing drugs have no place in weightlifting. There are no shortcuts to the top. USA Weightlifting is committed to bolstering the integrity of weightlifting, ensuring the pillars of clean sport are upheld, and protecting the health and safety of athletes. The Enhanced Games are an unwelcome sideshow that threaten to take the sport of weightlifting backwards, violate the spirit of true sport, and unnecessarily risk the long-term health and safety of athletes.”

Condemnations of the Enhanced Games came quickly from the international federations, including World Athletics and the International Weightlifting Federation, and World Aquatics, which adopted a new bylaw in June which bans participation in any federation-sanctioned activity who has:

“(i) actively supported or endorsed a sporting event or competition that embraces scientific enhancements that include the use of Prohibited Substances or Prohibited Methods (as those terms are defined in the Doping Control Rules) and/or the use of any illegal drug; and/or

“(ii) participated (in any capacity) in any such event or competition; and/or

“(iii) supported (e.g., as a coach, trainer, manager, training partner, doctor, or physiotherapist) any other person in their preparation for and participation in any such event or competition.”

Observed: For weightlifting, the danger of an event like the Enhanced Games is too painful to bear.

The sport infamously suffered from doping cover-ups, mismanagement and cheating of all kinds for decades, finally exploding in a 2020 documentary from ARD Germany that forced out long-time President Tamas Ajan (HUN) and had the sport off of the Olympic program for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles when initially announced in 2021.

The IWF replaced its board and staff, undertook a severe restructuring – including independent, outside management of its anti-doping program – and convinced the International Olympic Committee to readmit it for LA28 in 2023.

Any whiff of intentional or organized doping attached to weightlifting could be enough to dismiss it from the Olympic Movement altogether. The sport has paid a high price for its sins, with Olympic athlete participation slashed from 260 at Rio 2016 to 196 at Tokyo 2020 and then to 122 at Paris 2024. For LA28, the quota is set at 120, in 10 weight classes – five each for men and women – down from 15 total in 2016.

Sicchio noted the health questions for athletes surrounding the Enhanced Games, but for weightlifting itself, such an event represents its death.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: “Stop trash-talking the LA28 Games”; orienteering death at World Games in China; Kerley suspended for whereabouts failures

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● A clownish, anti-Donald Trump pout of a column posted last Thursday in the Los Angeles Times insisting L.A. abandon the 2028 Olympic Games was answered by 25-year Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre – now retired – in an opinion piece Tuesday titled, “Stop trash-talking the LA28 Games.” Dwyre noted of the formation of the White House Task Force in a ceremony including LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman:

“Simply put, that history, those local glories of 1932 and 1984, are too precious, too meaningful, to walk away from over dislike of Donald Trump, political fears or even naysayers’ money fears. When the 1984 Games worked, spinning off into two weeks of joy, celebration, achievement and emotional wonder, it was all about the athletes. Every Olympics is. What they do and how they do it understandably push politics, international bickering and egotistical showmanship and fundraising to the background. …

“Casey Wasserman understands what he has undertaken and how difficult it is, and will continue to be, for three more years. Yucking it up right now with the president is survival, a purchase of time to organize and progress. Not surrender.

“For a while, Angelenos need to put away their knee-jerk Olympic prognostications. There may come a time for doom and gloom, but not now.”

● World Games 2025: Chengdu ● Tragedy at the 12th World Games:

“Mattia Debertolis was found unconscious during the Men’s Middle Distance competition of Orienteering on the morning of Friday, 8 August 2025 in Chengdu, China, during the 12th edition of The World Games. Despite receiving immediate expert medical care at one of China’s leading medical institutions, he passed away on 12 August 2025.”

The International Orienteering Federation noted that Debertolis, 29, “was a member of the Italian national team and participated in several World Championships and World Cups. The 5th place with the Italian team in the World Cup Final 2022 Relay is one of several highlights on the international stage. …

“Mattia was not only an elite athlete, but also a highly skilled civil engineer, with studies in progress for a PhD at the university in Stockholm, where he lived and was part of the orienteering club IFK Lidingö. In addition to this impressive combination with his athlete career, he supported his family with their local hotel in his home valley Primiero.”

Squash, to see its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028, concluded on Tuesday, with defending World Games men’s champ Victor Crouin shutting out Balazs Farkas (HUN), by 11-9, 11-9, 11-5. Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez took the bronze medal.

The women’s final saw 2022 Asian Games bronze medalist Satomi Watanabe (JPN) claim the gold, defeating France’s Marie Stephan, 11-8, 11-8, 11-7. Marta Dominguez of Spain won the bronze.

● Athletics ● The Lausanne Diamond League organizers noted on Tuesday, ahead of their meet on 20 August:

“Originally announced, Julien Alfred will not compete in the three Diamond League meetings in August due to injury.”

However, Alfred told the St. Lucia Times that she scratched out of Saturday’s Diamond League meet in Poland and from Lausanne, but is continuing training and is still planning to compete in the Diamond League Final in Zurich at the end of August.

The St. Lucia star, the Paris Olympic 100 m champ, ranks no. 2 in the world in 2025 in the women’s 100 m (10.75) and no. 1 in the 200 m (21.71). The World Athletics Championships in Tokyo starts on 13 September.

Korea’s two-time World Indoor high jump champ Sang-hyeok Woo is leaving the European tour and the Diamond League after feeling some calf pain during a meet in Germany on Sunday. He will now concentrate on the Worlds.

In addition to all his other issues, with law enforcement and others, the Athletics Integrity Unit posted Tuesday:

“The AIU has provisionally suspended Fred Kerley (USA) for Whereabouts Failures.”

Kerley has had two run-ins with police in Florida this year, one last year, ran in one Grand Slam Track meet and two Diamond League meets this year with a best of 9.98. The 2022 World 100 m champion in Eugene, he rebounded off the loss of his ASICS sponsorship and a May 2024 domestic violence charge by his wife, Angelica, to win the Olympic 100 m bronze in Paris.

Now 30, he faces a possible two-year sanction. A message from his attorney was posted on his X page:

“Kerley has already notified the AIU that he intends to contest the allegation that he has violated the anti-doping rules related to whereabouts failures, as he strongly believes that one of (sic) more of his alleged missed tests should be set aside either because he was not negligent or because the Doping Control Officer did not do what was reasonable under the circumstances to locate him at his designated location. Fred will not comment further at this time out of respect for the process, and he looks forward to presenting his case to the appointed hearing panel.”

Sha’Carri Richardson, the 2023 World women’s 100 m champion and Olympic silver medalist, posted an Instagram video with an apology to boyfriend Christian Coleman, the 2019 World men’s 100 m winner, for her outburst at the SeaTac Airport on 27 July that resulted in an arrest (and detainment) on a fourth-degree domestic violence charge.

Richardson wrote of Coleman, “I love him & to him I can’t apologize enough.”

● Lacrosse ● The U.S. took the World Games women’s Sixes gold by 16-8 over Canada on Monday, with World Lacrosse chief executive Jim Scherr (USA) explained in an AIPS feature the next steps toward the LA28 Olympic Games, where the sport will be on the medal program for the first time since 1908:

“We’ll have continental qualifiers, which will qualify teams for the 2027 Sixes World Championship. We will take a number of teams from that event directly to the Olympics, and then they will also qualify some additional athletes at a last-chance qualifying tournament after the 2027 World Championships. So it’s a three-step process.”

He sees the LA28 Games as a gateway to the future:

“Engagement is on the rise. It’s still a growing sport around the world. Our social media numbers are among the best of all Olympic International Federations.

“So we know that our game has a major following and is continuing to grow in popularity. We have more than two million players in North America, and we believe that number will double globally. So we’re very excited about our future prospects.”

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: World record no. 13 for Mondo Duplantis, clearing 6.29 m (20-7 1/2) in Budapest, plus U.S. wins for Tinch, Kovacs, Bryant

By
Rich Perelman
-
He did it again! Sweden's Mondo Duplantis with another world record! (Photo: Matthew Quine for Diamond League AG)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ GYULAI MEMORIAL ≡

Any time Swedish superstar Mondo Duplantis is in a meet, a world record is a possibility and he set his 13th career world mark in the men’s vault at 6.29 m (20-7 1/2) at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest (HUN). It was one of two world-leading performances at the meet:

● Men/Vault: 6.29 m (20-7 1/2), Mondo Duplantis (SWE) ~ World Record
● Men/Hammer: 83.18 m (272-11), Bence Halasz (HUN)

Duplantis had already cleared world marks of 6.27 m (20-6 3/4) indoors in February and 6.28 m (20-7 1/4) in Stockholm in June and had tried 6.29 m at three meets since, missing all nine tries.

In Budapest, he was pressed by Greek Emmanouil Karalis, coming off a brilliant 6.08 m (19-11 1/4) win at his national championships, now no. 4 all-time. Both cleared 6.02 m (19-9) and then the bar went to 6.11 m (20-0 1/2); Karalis missed twice, but Duplantis got over; Karalis decided to stop

Duplantis then went to 6.29 m, clearing on his second attempt for the record. Two-time World Champion Sam Kendricks of the U.S. finished fifth at 5.72 m (18-9 1/4).

In the hammer, Hungary’s Olympic runner-up Bence Halasz scored a turnabout win over Olympic and World Champion Ethan Katzberg (CAN) and got a world-leading 83.18 m (272-11) mark along the way, extending his lead in the fifth round. Katzberg was second at 81.88 m (268-8).

In the sprints, Olympic silver winner Kishane Thompson (JAM) won the 100 m in 9.95 (wind: -0.4 m/s), ahead of Abdul-Rasheed Saminu (GHA: 10.01), with American Ronnie Baker fifth in 10.05. But the star was Jamaica’s Brian Levell in the 200 m with a lifetime best of 19.69 (-0.4), now no. 3 on the world list for 2025! South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk, the 400 m world-record holder, was second at 20.07.

Zambia’s Olympic bronzer Muzala Samukonga won the men’s 400 m in 44.11, just ahead of Jereem Richards (TTO: 44.14) and American Khaleb McRae (44.16).

The men’s 800 was another fast race, won in a lifetime best of 1:42.96 by Kenyan Laban Chepkwony, the 2025 Kenya nationals runner-up, ahead of Mark English (IRL: 1:43.37). Astoundingly, Chepkwony’s mark brings him to just no. 14 on the 2025 world list! Fellow Kenyan Mathew Kipsang won a sprint to the finish of the 3,000 m in 7:33.23, no. 2 in the world for 2025, ahead of Eduardo Herrera (MEX: 7:33.58).

World leader Cordell Tinch of the U.S. won the men’s 110 m hurdles in 13.20, beating Tokyo 2020 Olympic champ Hansle Parchment (JAM: 13.24) and Americans Eric Edwards (13.26) and Jamal Britt (13.32), with Freddie Crittenden sixth in 13.39.

After the disappointment of not making the U.S. team, two-time World Champion Joe Kovacs won the men’s shot at 22.33 m (73-3 1/4), beating former World Champion Tom Walsh (NZL: 21.52 m/70-7 1/4). Americans Roger Steen and Payton Otterdahl finished 5-6 at 21.09 m (69-2 1/2) and 21.05 m (69-0 3/4).

The women’s 100 went to Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (CIV) in 10.97 (-0.4), beating Jamaicans Tina Clayton (10.99), two-time World 200 m champ Shericka Jackson (11.00) and five-time 100 World champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (11.07). Jacious Sears of the U.S. was fifth, also in 11.07.

Olympic bronze winner Georgia Hunter Bell (GBR) took the women’s 1,500 m in 3:58.25, a clear winner over Maria Perez (ESP: 3:39.22) and American Heather Maclean (3:59.35). Kenyan distance star Beatrice Chebet was scheduled to run, but did not.

Dutch star Nadine Visser won the 100 m hurdles in 12.43 (-0.4), well ahead of Americans Alia Armstrong (12.59) and Christina Clemons (12.74). World Champion Femke Bol (NED) won the women’s 400 m hurdles in 52.24, a time only she and Olympic champ Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. have bettered this year. Olympic fourth-placer Jasmine Jones of the U.S. was third in 54.61.

World Indoor gold medalist Claire Bryant of the U.S. got another win in the women’s long jump at 6.71 m (22-0 1/4), ahead of Ackelia Smith (JAM: 6.67 m/21-10 3/4) and Americans Quanesha Burks (6.64 m/21-9 1/2) and Monae Nichols (6.59 m/21-7 1/2).

Next up is the Diamond League in Poland on Friday and Saturday.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

THIS WEEK: Diamond League returns on Saturday in Poland; World Games continues in Chengu; remembering Jason Lezak’s 46.06 closer in 2008!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Jamaica’s 100 m Olympic silver winner Kishane Thompson (Photo: Dan Vernon for World Athletics).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ SPOTLIGHT ≡

It’s a pretty quiet week on the world sports calendar, but there are highlights, especially in athletics:

● Diamond League: The Skowlimowska Memorial is on for Chorzow’s Silesian Stadium in Poland on Saturday, but with three events now moved to Friday in the town center in Katowice: the women’s high jump featuring Olympic champ Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR), the women’s vault with NCAA champions Amanda and Hana Moll of the U.S., and the women’s shot, with two-time World Champion Chase Jackson of the U.S.

On Saturday, the stadium meet starts at 2 p.m. locally (8 a.m. Eastern, broadcast on the FloTrack subscription service) with 13 events, headlined by World Champion Noah Lyles of the U.S. in the men’s 100 m and Olympic silver medalist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, plus American 100 m champ Kenny Bednarek and fellow U.S. stars Courtney Lindsey, Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell!

Niels Laros (NED) stunned American star Yared Nuguse at the Pre Classic mile and they are back in the men’s 1,500 m, and Karsten Warholm (NOR) is looking to regain his Tokyo Olympic world-record form in the 400 m hurdles.

Tokyo Olympic and Paris Olympic high jump winners Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) and Hamish Kerr (NZL) and Swedish superstar Mondo Duplantis headline the field events, along with world shot leader Leonardo Fabbri (ITA).

Reigning World Champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. and two-time women’s 200 m World Champion Shericka Jackson (JAM) are looking for breakout performances in the women’s 100 and 200 m. Olympic 400 m winner Marileidy Paulino (DOM) leads that field and Olympic 5,000-10,000 m winner Beatrice Chebet (KEN) is dropping down to the 1,500 m.

Olympic 100 m hurdles champ and American Record setter Masai Russell of the U.S. and reigning 400 m hurdles World Champion Femke Bol (NED) headlines the hurdles as does Tokyo Olympic long jump winner Malaika Mihambo (GER).

Quite a meet!

● World Athletics Continental Tour Gold: The annual Istvan Gyulai Memorial Hungarian Grand Prix (HUN) comes on Tuesday (12th) in Budapest, with the main program beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern time (on FloTrack).

Seven current or former World Champions are slated to compete at the National Athletics Centre, including Swedish vault superstar Duplantis, current long jump champ Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) and Jamaica’s 2019 winner, Tajay Gayle, hammer winner Ethan Katzberg (CAN), Jamaican women’s sprint icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 400 m hurdler Bol and 2023 long jump winner Ivana Spanovic (SRB).

Jamaica’s world-leading Thompson is scheduled in the men’s 100 m.

Elsewhere:

● Archery: The 2025 USA Archery National Target Championships in Springfield, Missouri.

● Beach Volleyball: The sixth of seven Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 tournaments will be in Montreal from 13-17 August, with Norwegian stars Anders Mol and Christian Sorum top-seeded for the men and Brazil’s Thamela and Victoria seeded first for the women.

● Canoe-Kayak: The American Canoe Association Sprint nationals in Seattle, Washington.

● Cycling: On the UCI World Tour, the ADAC Cyclassics in Germany will be held on Sunday (17th), while the UCI Women’s World Tour also has the three-stage Tour de Romandie from Friday through Sunday.

The 12th World Games continues in Chengdu (CHN) and will finish on Sunday (17th). The II Junior Pan American Games continues in Asuncion (PAR) continues through 23 August.

● Remembering ● Monday, 11 August marks 17 years since the unforgettable men’s 4×100 m Freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (CHN), and Jason Lezak’s astonishing final leg to win for the U.S. in world-record time.

This was the Olympics where swimming sensation Michael Phelps was trying for eight gold medals and he opened with a win in the men’s 400 m Medley in a world-record 4:03.84. The 4×100 m Free relay didn’t look as easy.

Swimming World Magazine posted a detailed remembrance of the event, complete with the pre-meet work-up, in which France’s 100 m Freestyle world-record holder Alain Bernard said his team would bury the U.S.

In fact, the American “B” team of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers set a world record of 3:12.23 in the prelims, with the French winning heat two at 3:12.36.

In the final, the U.S. substituted Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale and Lezak, 32, and the French subbed in two, including Bernard on anchor. While Australia’s Eamon Sullivan led off with a world record in the 100 Free at 47.24, the U.S. got excellent legs from Phelps (American Record 47.51) and Weber-Gale (47.02) to lead by 0.43.

On the third leg, Frederick Bousquet split a sensational (and fastest ever) 46.63 and took the lead from Jones (47.65) by 0.59, a seemingly insurmountable deficit for Lezak.

Lezak made up a little ground on Bernard on the first lap, but only gained significantly in the final 25 m. And with his final stroke and a lunge, Lezak touched first for a stunning world record of 3:08.24, almost four seconds up on their prelim world record.

Lezak’s split of 46.06 was the fastest ever; before the final, no one had ever split faster than 46.79! Bernard was no slouch at 46.73, but was still short by 0.08 at 3:08.32. He recovered enough to win the individual 100 Free later in the meet.

To this day, Lezak’s split has only been better twice: in 2024 by world-record holder Zhanle Pan (CHN: 45.92) and at the just-completed World Aquatics Championships in Singapore by American Jack Alexy (45.95).

It was an astonishing moment and Phelps, of course, got his eight golds. The race also produced one of the wildest headlines ever, in the English edition of the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, a few days later:

“Two Jews and a Black Man Help Phelps Fulfill Olympic Dream”

Lezak and Weber-Gale are both Jewish and Jones is Black, and without them, Phelps would have had seven golds in Beijing. That would have equaled (but not surpassed) the feat of fellow American Mark Spitz – another Jewish swimmer – in the happy early days of the ill-fated 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: U.S. women take World Games Lacrosse Sixes gold; FIFA opens 2026 World Cup volunteer apps; USABS goes with Grillo’s Pickles!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Grillo’s Pickles, now a corporate partner with USA Bobsled & Skeleton! (Photo: USA Bobsled & Skeleton).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● World Games 2025: Chengdu ● The final week of the 12th World Games is underway in China, with finals on tap for three new sports on the 2028 Olympic program for Los Angeles. On Monday:

● Lacrosse Sixes: This was the first major international tournament for Lacrosse Sixes, with 32-minute matches, six players per team and a 30-second shot clock; the first World Championships will be held in 2026. Only a women’s competition was held.

In Chengdu, the U.S. women defeated Canada, 16-8, in the gold-medal final, with a 7-3 lead after the first quarter and 10-4 at halftime. Cassidy Weeks scored four for the U.S. and Sam Apuzzo had three; Annabel Child led Canada with three scores.

Australia beat Japan, 13-12, for the bronze. The U.S. ended 5-0 for the tournament and outscored its opponents by 129-50.

● Squash: France landed both men’s and women’s Singles finalists with defending World Games champ Victor Crouin (men) and Marie Stephan (women) facing Balazs Farkas (HUN) and 2022 Asian Games bronzer Satomi Watanabe (JPN) on Tuesday.

Flag Football, being held only for women in 2025, starts play on the 14th.

● Russia ● “We are changing the legislation, exiting the second court case with WADA and expecting them this year to inspect our laboratory and agency, there is already a preliminary agreement on this.

“After that, they will complete their audit, and RUSADA will begin to fully operate as a recognized organization. This is our strategy.”

That’s Russian sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev on Monday, outlining the next steps for the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) to become compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and be reinstated by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

This is a stepping stone on Russia’s path to reinstatement; Degtyarev, who is also the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, is simultaneously negotiating quietly with the International Olympic Committee for the end of its suspension for taking over regional sports organizations which were part of Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion in February 2022.

While Degtyarev says the Russian NOC is not governing those organizations now, they are still in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia. The IOC is expected to discuss the Russian situation in some depth at its September 2025 Executive Board meeting.

● Archery ● USA Archery announced last Thursday (7th) that it has also amended its transgender participation policy to align with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s position, effective immediately:

“These policies require athletes assigned a male sex at birth who identify as a transgender female or non-binary to participate in USA Archery and World Archery events as male.”

● Athletics ● A two-year suspension for Kenyan distance star Judy Jelagat Kemboi, for the use of the diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide, found in an 8 April 2025 out-of-competition test. The positive finding was held to be unintentional and her suspension runs from 6 August 2025.

Kemboi, 26, ranks in the top 60 all-time in the road 5 km (14:54 in 2024), 10 km (30:29 in 2024) and Half Marathon (1:05:43 in 2024). Her last race was on 27 April of this year, a 1:07:47 third in the Istanbul Half. He won the 2024 Kenyan national title in the Half.

● Bobsled & Skeleton ● Vinegar fans unite! USA Bobsled & Skeleton has announced a first-time sponsorship with Boston-based Grillo’s Pickles, founded in 2008 and now available in 28,000 stores nationwide. The USABS announcement noted:

“Pickles and pickle brine are increasingly recognized for their performance and recovery advantages. Rich in naturally occurring electrolytes and vinegar-based compounds, they can help athletes rehydrate, reduce muscle cramps, and support recovery post-training. Partnering with Grillo’s ensures USABS athletes are refueling and refreshing with only the best, preservative-free pickles.”

● Football ● FIFA opened applications to volunteer for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., with 65,000 volunteers expected to be engaged for the month-long tournament next year. According to FIFA, applicants must be 18 and speak English:

“Volunteers whose applications are successful will be invited to attend the Volunteer Team Tryouts, which are expected to begin in October 2025, with training to follow in March 2026.”

● Table Tennis ● At the $500,000 WTT Champions in Yokohama (JPN), three-time Worlds Doubles and Team medal winner Tomokazu Harimoto, the third seed, thrilled home fans with a 4-2 win in the men’s final over China’s second-seed and 2025 World Champion Chuqin Wang, 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 11-13, 11-4.

Harimoto won the first WTT Champions tournament in Budapest (HUN) in 2022, but not since. Of the 13 WTT Champions tournaments all-time, he is now one of four to win twice or more; Wang has the most wins with three.

The women’s title went to China’s two-time Worlds Singles bronze winner Xingtong Chen for her first WTT Champions gold, defeating two-time World Champion and countrywoman Yingsha Sun, 6-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-5, 6-11, 11-5.

It’s the fourth straight win for China in the WTT Champions women’s Singles, by four different players.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SKI JUMPING: FIS ethics arm brings equipment manipulation charges against three Norwegian officials and jumpers Forfang and Lindvik

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ STOP CHEATING! ≡

The 2025 Nordic Skiing World Championships were held in Trondheim, Norway in late February and early March and, to no one’s surprise, was dominated by the home team. Norway won 33 medals (14-11-8) with Sweden closest at 12, then Germany at 11.

On the next-to-last day (8 March), Norwegian ski jumpers Johann Andre Forfang – and Olympic gold and silver medalist – and Marius Lindvik – the Beijing 2022 Olympic Large Hill winner – were disqualified for manipulations of the jumping suits to improve performance.

The head of the Norwegian jumping program admitted to cheating and the coach, Magnus Brevig, and assistant coach, Thomas Lobben, were both suspended and later left the federation. A total of five jumpers were temporarily suspended.

On Monday, the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) announced the referral by its Independent Ethics and Compliance Office (IECO) to the FIS Ethics Committee of charges of violations of the FIS Universal Code of Ethics and the FIS Rules on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions:

● The FIS Integrity Department agreed to bring charges against Brevig, Lobben and staff member Adrian Livelten to the FIS Ethics Committee.

● The FIS Council approved the filing of charges against jumpers Forfang and Lindvik.

● No charges were brought against the Norwegian National Ski Association, or others.

The investigation covered five specific questions:

● 1. Whether “coaches Magnus Brevig and Thomas Lobben and suit technician acted in violation of the rules in orchestrating the equipment manipulation”

● 2. Whether “athletes Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang knowingly acted in contravention of relevant FIS rules”

● 3. Whether “the conspiracy spread further in the team, either to other athletes or other staff members of the Norwegian NSA”

● 4. Whether “the Norwegian team had engaged in the same or similar equipment violations in the past”

● 5. Whether “the conspiracy spread to other teams.”

The process now, according to the announcement:

“A panel of three unconflicted members of the [FIS Ethics Committee] will be appointed by the Chair of the FEC to adjudicate the case. The chairperson of the panel will contact the interested parties to communicate the next procedural steps, which may involve convening a hearing or otherwise coordinating further submissions from concerned parties.”

The potential sanctions include suspensions, fines and disqualification of results. While the coaches and staff are no longer with the Norwegian federation, both Forfang (30) and Lindvik (27) are leading candidates for the Norwegian team for the upcoming 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina (ITA).

A decision is due under the FIS rules within 30 days after the hearing process has concluded. The decision of the FIS Ethics Committee can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

FIS is making a public issue of the suit manipulation incidents to promote its anti-cheating programs and to underscore its serious approach to this incident and to its new rules, now in place.

At the opening FIS Grand Prix summer event in Courchevel (FRA) last weekend, six jumpers were disqualified on Saturday for jumping suit infractions of the new rules and three more were not allowed to jump. A 10th was not allowed to compete on Sunday, reinforcing the serious approach to the new rules.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

GYMNASTICS: Rivera, 17, goes from Olympic qualifying round to national All-Around Champion at USA Gymnastics Nationals

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. All-Around champion Hezly Rivera (Photo: USA Gymnastics).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ USA GYMNASTICS NATIONALS ≡

She came in as the only member of the gold-medal-winning women’s Olympic gymnastics team from Paris competing at USA Gymnastics national championships in New Orleans, Louisiana, but 17-year-old Hezly Rivera proved she is among the elites by winning the two-day women’s All-Around on Sunday.

She won the first All-Around, on Friday, scoring 55.600, winning on Beam (14.350) and second on Floor at 14.000. She had just an 0.200 lead on Arkansas’ Joscelyn Roberson, a member of the 2023 Worlds Team gold-medal winners.

The other individual event leaders included two-time Worlds Team gold winner Leanne Wong on Vault (13.675), Roberson and Alicia Zhou (also 17) on the Uneven Bars (13.650), and Roberson on Floor (14.150).

Going into the final rotation on Sunday, Wong had the session lead at 42.500, but it was tight, with Rivera at 42.200, ahead of Hang (41.100), 22025 Winter Cup winner Ashlee Sullivan and 2024 U.S. Junior silver medalist Simone Rose at 40.800, 2024 U.S. Junior winner Claire Pease (40.600) and then Roberson (40.500).

Roberson scored 13.700 on the Uneven Bars and finished at 54.200. Pan American All-Around champion Jayla Hang (17) was terrific on Vault at 14.300, second-best of the day to Wong (14.500) and ended at 55.400, while Rose scored 13.650 on Vault and closed at 54.450.

That left only Floor, with Pease, Wong and Rivera the final three to perform. Pease earned a 13.350 to finish at 53.950 in her senior-level nationals debut. Wong scored 13.600 and went into the Sunday lead at 56.100. Rivera needed better than 13.900 to win, and completed her journey from Olympic alternate to national champion at 14.200, best score of the day and a winning total of 56.400 for Sunday.

All together:

● 1. 112.000, Rivera
● 2. 111.200, Wong
● 3. 109.600, Roberson
● 4. 107.950, Sullivan
● 5. 107.900, Rose
● 6. 107.650, Hang
● 7. 106.850, Gabrielle Hardie

Although she competed on only two events on Sunday, Florida’s Skye Blakely was sensational, posting the highest scores on the Uneven Bars (14.350) and Beam (14.400), after being eighth and ninth on Friday! Wong was best on Vault (14.500).

In terms of the event leaders across both days:

● Vault: 27.975 average for Wong
● Bars: 27.600 average for Rivera and Blakely
● Beam: 28.350 average for Rivera
● Floor: 28.200 average for Rivera

What should be a powerful U.S. team for the World Artistic Championships in Jakarta (INA) – only individual events, no team competition – will be selected at a special camp from 29 September to 2 October in Crossville, Tennessee.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: Nathan Chen done with skating, looking to medical school next; McNulty stars in first-ever Tour de Pologne win!

By
Rich Perelman
-
World Men's Figure Skating Champion Nathan Chen (Photo: Wikipedia/Aude Mugnier)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Pan American Games ● The II Junior Pan American Games opened in Asuncion (PAR) in the Ueno Defensores del Chaco Stadium on Saturday (9th), with more than 4,000 athletes from 41 countries competing in 334 events in 28 sports, supported by 3,500 volunteers.

The Pan American flame was lit by Paraguayan golf star Fabrizio Zanotti, the 2019 Pan American Games gold medalist.

Paraguayan rower Nicole Martinez won the first event of the Games, the women’s Single Sculls, in 7:50.02, ahead of Chile’s Felipa Rosas (8:00.58). The Games will conclude on 23 August.

● Lake Placid ● The annual audit of the Olympic Regional Development Authority for the year ended 31 March 2025 showed a $50.16 million loss, up from $47.37 million for 2023-24, despite revenues increasing to record $71.18 million, more than $6 million ahead of the prior year. Increased visitation to the area’s three ski resorts powered much of this upswing.

Expenses also increased, from $112.48 million to $121.34 million, with notable increases in event costs ($7.56 million from $4.38 million) and personnel ($54.8 million from $52.81 million) and depreciation. In addition to the usual winter-sport events – including the IBSF World Championships – Lake Placid hosted a UCI Mountain Bike World Series stage in the first of a three-year contract.

However, the overall finances of the ORDA improved by $36.65 million for the year thanks to $73.27 million in capital contributions from the State of New York, to a net total of $480.73 million.

The last economic impact study, from 2022-23, showed direct visitor spending of $133.8 million and a total economic impact (including indirect and induced spending) of $341.8 million.

● Figure Skating ● “[F]rankly, at this point in time in my life, I’ve already accomplished enough in skating that I’m quite satisfied with my career.”

That’s American skating icon Nathan Chen in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, confirming that he is done with competitive skating and is looking forward to attending medical school. Now 26, the Beijing 2022 men’s Singles and Team gold medalist and triple World Champion, he graduated from Yale in 2025. He told The Times:

“The basis of being a doctor, I think, is to help people. I think that’s something that I didn’t necessarily feel as an athlete, that I felt was a little bit lacking.”

● Ski Jumping ● Lake Placid will not hold the planned FIS World Cup on 13-14 December 2025 due to renovations to the supports for the observation deck on the 128 m large hill. Per the announcement:

“The planned work will block access to the athlete pathway to the in-run, an essential standard outlined by FIS World Cup regulations.

“While the jump and tower remain structurally sound, the steel structure – originally built for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games – will require extensive scaffolding similar to that on a skyscraper. According to the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), the corporation that looks after venues used at those Games, this is ‘a complex project expected to take approximately 15 weeks.’”

Instead, the World Cup event will be switched to Klingenthal (GER).

≡ RESULTS ≡

● Cycling ● An important step for American Brandon McNulty at the Tour de Pologne, coming from behind on the final day to win the seven-stage race by 29 seconds!

Originated in 1928, no American had ever won this race or even won a medal. France’s Paul Lapeira won stage 2 and continued in the lead through stage 5. The hilly stage six was won by Poland’s Victor Langellotti, who entered Sunday’s Individual Time Trial with seven-second lead on McNulty, who had moved up five places on Saturday.

McNulty, however, was supreme in the time trial, winning in 14:31.3, up more than 12 second on the field and more than 46 seconds ahead of Langellotti. So, the American finished in 25:10:57, up 29 seconds on Antonio Tiberi (ITA) and 37 seconds on Matteo Sobrero.

The stage win was the 27-year-old McNulty’s sixth in a UCI World Tour stage, but his first race win in a multi-stage event.

● Swimming ● Two big names were the focus of the USA Swimming Summer Nationals in Irvine, California, with two-time Worlds Backstroke gold medalist Hunter Armstrong impressing in the men’s 50 m Freestyle finals last Tuesday.

Jamie Jack (AUS) won the final in 21.63, with Armstrong getting a lifetime best of 21.76 for second, with Tokyo Olympic champ Caeleb Dressel third in 21.94, a seasonal best.

Armstrong, however, did not show for his 100 m Free heat and was disqualified for not scratching and therefore missed the 100 m Backstroke and the 50 m Butterfly as well. He said afterwards:

“I have never officially scratched a prelim swim in my career, but the meet information stated clearly that a no show would disqualify you for the day. I’ll be reading that more carefully from now on, as I assumed this meet followed the same procedures as others I’ve competed in.

“I was given the option to buy back into the session for $200, but I was informed of my ineligibility 15 minutes before I was supposed to race the 50 Fly, and with the 100 Back right after, I decided to put my energy into cheering on my teammates instead. Based on my 50 Free, I was really looking forward to racing Caeleb in the 50 Fly, so I’ll likely time trial it tomorrow to see what I can do. And at $20 for a time trial, that’s a much better deal than paying the fine.”

In the men’s 50 m Fly final, Australia’s Ben Armbruster won in 23.00, ahead of Dressel (23.38); the Australian also won the 100 Fly earlier, in 50.91.

● Triathlon ● The USA Triathlon National Championships in Milwaukee, Wisconsin saw clear wins for Jacob Capin and Jenna Campbell for Saturday’s Olympic-distance event, but Sunday’s Sprint was washed out.

Capin was second-fastest on the bike and no. 9 on the run and finished in 1:58:00, well ahead of Logan Thralls (1:58:21) and Mirco Fuhrmann (1:59:22). Campbell had a 17-second lead out of the water, was no. 2 on bike and rolled home in 2:11:34, with Kirsten Sass was back at 2:13:39 and then Fiona Davoudi (2:17:37).

As for Sunday: “due to the historic rainfall in Milwaukee, flooding and course damage throughout the course, limited emergency response teams to support the event, potentially unsafe water conditions, as well as impending weather for Sunday, it would not be possible to safely organize Sunday’s races for the Paratriathlon and Sprint Distance National Championships.”

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SWIMMING: USA Swimming Interim CEO answers criticisms from Gaines, Lochte and Phelps, but Phelps doubts the sincerity

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ WHAT GOES ON HERE? ≡

As USA Swimming finished its summer nationals in Irvine, the chatter over the performance of the American team at the World Aquatics Championships continued unabated.

During the meet, the U.S. performance – 29 medals to lead all nations (9-11-9) – was criticized by American legends Rowdy Gaines, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, with Gaines observing:

“We’re far from killing it. It’s a major struggle, and we can’t hide our heads in the sand and say this is just a blip.”

He acknowledged the sickness issues that started in the pre-meet training camp in Thailand and inexperience, but also pointed to a lack of leadership in the organization; USA Swimming has not having a chief executive in place since August 2024.

Gaines followed up with a lengthy editorial given to the leader swim news sites, SwimSwam.com and SwimmingWorldMagazine.com last week, which underscored his concerns, noting

“[The athletes] haven’t failed. But the system that’s supposed to support them? That’s another story.”

USA Swimming replied on Friday, in a statement given to the BigFriendlySwimPodcast and posted on its Instagram page, credited to interim chief executive Bob Vincent:

“We respect and value the opinions of Rowdy, Michael, Ryan, and all USA Swimming alums. We acknowledge that their comments come from a place of passion and genuine desire to see USA Swimming succeed.

“We are saddened and disappointed at the timing of the comments. The USA Swimming team battled severe illness in Singapore, and these comments added public scrutiny to an already challenging situation for our athletes and coaches.

“We are incredibly proud of the resilience of our team in the face of such difficult circumstances and remain confident in the leadership, strategic direction, and culture established by newly appointed National Team Managing Director Greg Meehan.

“USA Swimming has reached out directly to Rowdy and other notable alums in recent months, offering them a forum, including an invitation to join in a more official manner. The door remains open, as the only path forward for our sport is to work collectively to achieve a shared vision of success. We remain focused on the task at hand: winning LA28.”

Phelps replied in the comments, questioning why USA Swimming did not post the reply on its own Web site, or went it to other outlets which cover swimming. He later added:

“@bigfriendlyswimpodcast maybe a false statement, [because] I know they didn’t reach out to rowdy. They’ve shoved us out the door for years. Treated me like a piece of meat thro my career. Hopefully it changes someday….”

BigFriendlySwimPodcast replied that the statement was provided to it by USA Swimming.

Observed: This is not a good situation and having legendary alumni and supporters like Gaines, Lochte and Phelps being publicly critical is a bad look. And who booked that Thailand trip?

Those are the least of the issues right now. USA Swimming needs to find its leader and that’s up to its Board of Directors. Moreover, the reference to being focused “on the task at hand: winning LA28” is troubling.

USA Swimming is charged with the governance of swimming in the U.S., from age group to masters, not just the Olympic team performance. The federation has 376,479 members at the end of 2024, yet faces significant headwinds from alternative outlets, such as AAU Swimming.

Further, the feeder system for the national team, NCAA Division I, is in chaos with the future of “non-revenue” sports such as swimming and diving in real future danger. And mentioning only the 2028 Olympic Games disparages – by silence – the World Aquatics Championships, also an important achievement, promotional and outreach platform for the sport in the U.S., and other competitions.

Gaines asks, where is the vision that will leverage USA Swimming’s historical greatness, its life-saving and personal-development programs in club swimming and water safety and use its Congressionally-mandated “vertical structure” in the sport to bring forward private and public funding to support the life skill of swimming … as well as the national team.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

GYMNASTICS: Olympian Hong wins second U.S. national All-Around title, ahead of Richard at USA Gymnastics nationals in New Orleans

By
Rich Perelman
-
Stanford's Asher Hong, the USA Gymnastics national All-Around champion (Photo: USA Gymnastics).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ USA GYMNASTICS NATIONALS ≡

Asher Hong was a member of the breakthrough U.S. men’s team that took an Olympic bronze in Paris in 2024 and sailed to his second career national All-Around gold at the USA Gymnastics national championships in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday.

Hong, 21, the 2023 U.S. All-Around champion and the NCAA Floor and Rings winner for Stanford this year, was a decisive winner, leading after the first day by more than four points and extending to more than seven points, 170.020 to 162.555, over fellow Olympian Fred Richard of Michigan.

Two-time NCAA All-Around bronze winner Fuzzy Benas of Oklahoma, second after the first day, finished third at 162.310, followed by Colt Walker (Stanford: 161.560) and Joshua Karnes (Penn State: 160.802).

In the two-session totals for each apparatus:

● Floor: Hong won with 30.016 points, ahead of Kam Nelson (Ohio State: 29.952 ) and fellow Stanford Cardinal Jun Iwai (28.863).

● Pommel Horse: NCAA champion Patrick Hoopes (Air Force) won at 31.300, followed by teammate Brandon Dang (Illinois: 31.093) and Paris Olympian Brody Malone (28.202), who contested only four of the six events.

● Rings: Hong won here at 29.286, beating Malone (28.566) and veteran star and three-time nationals winner Donnell Whittenburg (28.114).

● Vault: Hong compiled the best score at 30.318 over the two days, which was just enough to edge NCAA champion Nelson (30.142) and Nebraska’s Alex Nitache (29.492).

● Parallel Bars: Malone won this one, scoring 28.150, with Hong a very close second at 28.100, then Whittenburg at 28.050.

● Horizontal Bar: Taylor Burkhart (Stanford) won at 28.960, just ahead of Michigan’s Crew Bold (28.354) and Richard (28.100).

Coming in, Hong owned two USA Gymnastics national titles, in the 2022 Vault and 2023 All-Around, but claimed four wins in New Orleans. Malone, the veteran of the group at 25, won one to give him a total of eight career national titles.

The national team for the World Artistic Championships in Jakarta (INA) in October was named, with Hong, Hoopes, Dang, Malone, Nelson and Whittenburg. Burkhart was named as a non-traveling alternate.

This was the first year of scoring under the new Federation Internationale de Gymnastique Code of Points for 2025-28.

The women’s competition concludes on Sunday.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: World Games opens in China as flame lit on water skis! Difficult situation reported for key ex-Russian doping whistleblowers, now in U.S.

By
Rich Perelman
-
From the opening ceremony of the World Games 2025 Village (Photo: World Games 2025 organizing committee).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Pan American Games: Lima 2027 ● Although left off the sports list for the XX Pan American Games announced in June, bowling and racquetball have been added back to the program for the 2027 Pan Ams. Per Panam Sports President Neven Ilic (CHI):

“At the request of many National Olympic Committees and because of what these sports represent on our continent, the Panam Sports Executive Committee, with the approval of the General Assembly, has decided to include bowling and racquetball in the Lima 2027 sports program. With this, there are now 38 sports that will be featured at our Games in the capital of Peru.”

Bowling was first held at the Pan American Games in 1991; racquetball was first included in 1995.

● World Games: Chengdu 2025 ● The XII World Games, for sports and events which are not on the Olympic program, opened on Thursday (7th) in Chengdu (CHN), in a 90-minute opening at the massive Tianfu Eaves lakeside plaza, adjacent to the Tianfu International Convention Centre.

About 4,000 athletes from a record 118 nations are attending, with the event opened with a flourish, as Chinese waterskiers Xu Lu and Alu Xiaobo glided across the lake behind powerboats and lit the World Games cauldron, stationed on top of the water! It concluded what was billed as the first-ever World Games torch relay, covering 13 days.

Competition has already begun and will continue through 17 August. Competitions are being held in 34 sports and 253 events, including the added LA28 Olympic sports of softball, flag football, lacrosse and squash. The largest teams are from China (321), Germany (220) and Australia (137). There are 36 Russian athletes, competing as “neutrals.”

● Athletics ● A Wednesday report from the German ARD channel and its anti-doping team explained the precarious situation of Russian whistleblowers Yuliya Stepanova and Vitaly Stepanov, whose courage was a key to exposing the Russian state-sponsored doping program in place from 2011-15.

She last competed for Russia in 2012, left the country in 2014 before the ARD documentary, based in part on her information and secret videos, aired in December of that year. They moved to Germany, where she competed in several meets in 2015 and 2016 and then to the U.S., where she competed beginning in 2017, on and off until finishing in 2021; her 800 m best was 1:58:14i in 2011.

Now, says Stepanov, “Unfortunately for us, 10 years down the road, the world moved on and we have no rights, no documents. We don’t have any understanding if we can ever live like normal people again.” Their asylum application has remained unfulfilled by the Obama, Trump I, Biden and, so far, Trump II administrations. The couple told ARD they have asked for help from the International Olympic Committee (which did help into 2022), the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Athletics, but with no action in their favor at present.

● Cycling ● The Union Cycliste Internationale is testing its GPS safety tracking system at next week’s Tour de Romandie Feminin (15-17 August):

“The objective of this test is to refine the UCI’s safety tracking software and establish protocols to provide real-time data to race control, medical teams and UCI Commissaires. This system will strengthen the monitoring of rider safety during races and enable rapid response in case of incidents.”

All riders will be issued a device for September’s UCI World Road Championships in Rwanda.

● Fencing ● Good news for collegiate women fencers, with all three NCAA divisions now agreeing to hold separate men’s and women’s NCAA fencing championships, beginning in 2026.

Until now, a single NCAA team title was awarded in fencing; there are nine women’s-only fencing programs in the NCAA that will now be able to effectively compete for a national championship. The move is expected to induce more interest in women’s fencing at NCAA institutions in the future.

● Football ● Spain’s run to the final of the UEFA Euro 2025 tournament, ending in a penalty shoot-out loss to England, vaulted the Spanish women to no. 1 in the latest FIFA women’s world ranking … barely.

Spain now has 2,066.76 points to 2,065.06 for the U.S., the 2024 Paris Olympic champions. Sweden is third at 2,025.26 and England is fourth (2,022.64).

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SWIMMING: Lengthy editorial from iconic Rowdy Gaines backs up criticisms of U.S. swimming leadership, not athletes

By
Rich Perelman
-
A selfie by Rowdy Gaines (l) with Michael Phelps and play-by-play announcer Dan Hicks at the NBC broadcast position at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris (Photo: Rowdy Gaines on X).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ ROWDY GAINES WRITES ≡

American icon Rowdy Gaines, the triple gold winner at the 1984 Olympic Games and decades-long commentator on NBC, wrote a lengthy follow-up to his Associated Press interview about the U.S. performance at the World Aquatics Championships and the Instagram post by all-time greats Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte that featured a tombstone “burying” USA Swimming in 2025.

Gaines’ 1,022-word message appeared on both SwimmingWorldMagazine.com and SwimSwam.com, the leading U.S. swim news sites and included:

● “Last week, when he [Phelps] shared that symbolic image on social media, a message suggesting that USA Swimming faces a choice: rebuild with purpose or risk losing its identity. It wasn’t a eulogy. It was a challenge, a call for all of us to reflect, refocus, and demand more from the systems that support our athletes.

“It was a reminder that no program, no matter how decorated, is immune to decline without direction.”

● “This isn’t about throwing stones at the athletes. Far from it. I’ve spent the last 50 years as one of their biggest cheerleaders. But both Michael and I are saying what many are thinking: something is broken in the way USA Swimming is being run. And if we don’t fix it now, we risk losing the very culture of excellence that built this program in the first place.

“This conversation isn’t a criticism of the athletes. My belief in these athletes is exactly why I’m raising this concern. They deserve better from the system around them.

“When both Michael and I speak up, it’s because we see what many inside the sport already know: the structure guiding USA Swimming is not functioning as it should.

“And if we don’t address that now, we risk losing the very culture of excellence that made Team USA the global standard in the first place.”

● “The athletes are showing up. The coaches are doing the work. And our club programs – the lifeblood of American swimming – continue to develop world-class talent every day.

“They haven’t failed. But the system that’s supposed to support them? That’s another story.

“There are hardworking, passionate people inside USA Swimming – including the new National Team Director. I give full credit to Coach Greg Meehan for his leadership at the World Championships under impossible circumstances.

“But they’ve been left without clear direction. No permanent CEO. No long-term plan. No real support. That’s not just frustrating. It’s demoralizing.

“They deserve better. We all do.”

Gaines also stated:

“He [Phelps] didn’t post that message for attention. He has nothing to gain by speaking out. He did it because he knows something has to change. Because he cares. Because he’s not willing to sit on the sidelines when the sport he helped elevate is losing direction.

“Neither am I.

“We didn’t take this public lightly. But we’re out of time for silence. This isn’t about drama. It’s about accountability. It’s about urgency. It’s about making sure that when LA 2028 arrives, we are ready – not just to win medals, but to show the world what makes American swimming great.”

Gaines acknowledged that the American team showed “resilience” after the training-camp illness epidemic and won the swimming medal count, but worried about the sport’s “long-term health” in the U.S. He called the long wait for a new chief executive for USA Swimming, “a failure of leadership.”

For context, the U.S. swim team, despite the sickness problems, won 29 medals, including nine gold, 11 silver and nine bronzes; Australia was next with 20 (8-6-6). The 29-medal total was the most for a U.S. team at the Worlds since 2022 (45), but was the third straight Worlds or Olympics in which the U.S. team did not win at least 10 events.

USA Swimming let go of seven-year chief executive Tim Hinchey on 29 August 2024, instituting a search that named University of Delaware athletic director Chrissi Rawak on 19 February 2025. But before she could start – scheduled for 14 March – she withdrew on 28 February.

A new search was instituted, but no new chief executive has been named. USA Swimming hired Meehan as its National Team Director on 11 April, and promoted communications and marketing chief Jake Grosser to Chief Operating Officer on 9 July of this year.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

VOX POPULI: A critical LA28 juncture: can the Olympics really be a “no cost” event for Los Angeles?

By
Nick Patsaouras
-

[Nick Patsaouras was president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District during the 1984 Olympic Games, and parts of this comment are drawn from his 2024 book, The Making of Modern Los Angeles (ORO Editions). His opinions, are, of course, solely his own.]

For seventeen days in July 2028 Los Angeles will be the beguiling story for billions of people around the world as it hosts the LA28 Olympic Games. And its pageantry will be more elaborate than the ceremonial grandeur often magically fashioned by its own Hollywood. As always, the city will gleam as it turns its celebrated face to the camera.

To do so, however, the Olympics must materialize and to do so the city must unravel its currently perplexing pathway to organization and money, and quickly – a pathway that today resembles the legendary labyrinth.

The mammoth Olympics consume mammoth budgets. To create such a massive budget is an Olympian task on its own. LA28 is estimated to cost $7.1 billion, and while organizers believe they are on track to meet or exceed their corporate fundraising goals, many do not agree, and the fear grows that public funding will be needed to ensure the Games.

Under an agreement between LA28 and the City of Los Angeles, reimbursements must be made only for services that go beyond what the city would provide on a normal day. In two months, October 1, 2025, the two parties must agree on what enhanced services beyond the normal level will be needed for the Games, including the rates, repayment timelines, audit rights, as well as other processes.

This is not a simple task because the funds remain elusive, and the politics is enigmatic. The LA28 Games have been billed as a “no cost” event in a city with a perilous financial position. Any significant or unexpected costs would be disastrous. The City of Los Angeles is responsible for the first $270 million deficit.

Security, for example, is one of the major expenses with local, state and federal agencies working together to protect athletes and spectators. The Federal “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” recently signed into law includes a $1.625 billion allocation to support the U.S. hosting aspects of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the holding of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. What exactly will be covered is not yet known.

For example, will this allocation provide help to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority for funding related to spectators` transportation?

Olympic fiscal problems are not new. Stunned by Montreal’s enormous 1976 Olympic debt, Councilman Bob Ronka with the support of Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky authored Charter Amendment N forbidding Los Angeles from spending taxpayer monies on the games.

But it was Mayor Tom Bradley who saved the day. In July 1978, he threatened to withdraw the city’s bid unless it was given freedom for financial liability, with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee being the primary financial body responsible for the Games. The International Olympic Committee reluctantly withdrew its objections and ratified the contract under Bradley’s terms. The 1984 Los Angeles Games made history.

I vividly recall the great concerns in 1984, and the innumerable anxieties that were present then and are recurring today. Many feared terminal gridlocks would develop, and thousands of athletes and fans would be stuck in traffic jams. The dreaded prospect was possible that world athletes would be required to perform in empty stadiums.

I had been appointed by Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee Chair Paul Ziffren to the Olympic Citizens Advisory Commission and subsequently as president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, I pulled together planners to devise a complex transportation plan. After years of planning and coordination, more than fifty federal, state, county and local agencies were coordinated to provide a comprehensive Olympic planning effort. No gridlocks ensued. The streets were not congested.

I doubt if such planning efforts and funding, so vitally imperative, are going on today.

Indeed, for every Olympics, the funding issues will always be troubling. The question that will persist can only be answered when the Olympic Flame is extinguished on the final day of the Games: Will the warm and fuzzy feeling of the LA28 Games continue, or will the emotions of the day swiftly disappear when the bills are passed around?

Comments are welcome here.

[≡The Sports Examiner encourages expressions of opinion – we really do – but preferably based on facts. Send comments to [email protected]. We do not guarantee publication of any comment, but all comments submitted will be considered and your submission implies your agreement to publication (and light editing if needed to meet our grammatical and punctuation standards) at our sole discretion. Please include your name and hometown on any comment submitted for publication.≡]

You can receive our exclusive TSX Report by e-mail by clicking here. You can also refer a friend by clicking here, and can donate here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

LANE ONE: Panic! Trump is taking over the 2028 Games! The sky is falling! Waaah! Hey, calm down already

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. President Donald Trump, with Vice President J.D. Vance (l) and LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman at the signing of an Executive Order creating the White House Task Force on the 2028 Games (Photo: C-SPAN video screen shot).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ LOS ANGELES 2028 & TRUMP ≡

Doomed! Trump has taken over the 2028 Olympics! The Feds will run everything in 2028! All is lost! Waaah!

Those were some of the reactions seen on social media, and that I received yesterday from friends and some TSX readers in the aftermath of U.S. President Donald Trump signing an Executive Order establishing a White House Task Force on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Even an interview request from a local news channel.

My reply: calm down. Just calm down. And stay calm.

Having helped organize and stage 20 multi-day, multi-site events, including multiple Olympic Games, let’s be clear about this: the U.S. government must be involved for the Games to work. Period.

And it is much better to have Washington involved early than late, and it is:

● The 2028 Games were declared a National Special Security Event (NSSE) in June 2024, the furthest-in-advance such a designation has ever been granted.

The designation placed the U.S. Secret Service in the lead role for “design and implementation of the operational security plan.” That was more than a year ago and security officials from local, regional, state and Federal agencies have been in continuing discussions ever since about how to plan for security and who will do what and when.

● H.R.1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” provided $1 billion in security funding for the 2028 Games, to be managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

● Now, Trump signed the Task Force Executive Order, which informs the entire Federal bureaucracy that (1) the success of the 2028 Games is a priority and (2) there is one responsibility with three primary areas of focus:

“[C]oordinate Federal planning and response related to the security, transportation, and entry/exit processes for the Games.”

It’s not to run the Games, or replace the LA28 organizing committee, or do a bunch of other things that make no sense. It’s about those things which only the Federal government can do – national security and access control into the U.S. – and something the Federal government can help with, namely transportation.

The other instructions in the order are about coordination and planning:

“(b) support interagency cooperation and information-sharing with State and local partners;

“(c) identify legal, logistical, or regulatory barriers that could impede effective Federal support for the Games and recommend timely solutions;

“(d) assist in the planning and implementation of visa processing and credentialing programs for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media personnel; and

“(e) ensure operational readiness across law enforcement, counterterrorism, transportation, and emergency response functions.”

There is nothing new in all this, in fact, the same sort of White House Task Force was created for the last Los Angeles Olympic Games, in 1981, following a meeting of President Ronald Reagan and Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee President Peter Ueberroth, Executive Vice President/General Manager Harry Usher and Glenn Wilson, the LAOOC’s coordinator for coin and philatelic programs.

Reagan’s Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver headed the task force, whose directive was to ensure coordination within the Federal government, eliminate bottlenecks that could hurt the organizing effort and support the overall security effort.

Same thing. And with excellent results in 1984.

In fact, the U.S. government has been more and more involved in each Olympic Games since. A U.S. General Accounting Office report in 2000 described prior Olympic spending by the U.S. government, which included:

● For Los Angeles 1984, $50 million (in 1984 dollars) was allocated for security support for the Games and $45 million was actually appropriated.

● For Atlanta 1996, the Federal government spent about $609 million (in 1999 dollars) on the Games, including $96 million for safety and security measures ($36 million for the Department of Defense). Most of the money was spent on highway and other infrastructure projects; of the $609 million total, $17 million was spent on spectator transportation (including the provision of 1,000 military drivers).

● For Salt Lake City 2002, Federal spending of $1.254 billion was planned, with $1 billion for highway and transit infrastructure projects already planned, but accelerated. Spending on the Games for security was expected to cost $161 million, plus $77 million on spectator transportation systems.

The $254 million in Games support costs had ballooned to $342 million by the time of a 2001 GAO update (2001 dollars shown at $341 million due to rounding):

● $185 million for Safety and Security
● $106 million for Transportation
● $27 million for Venue Construction
● $19 million for Staging and Operations
● $4 million for Housing and Infrastructure Support

The security cost went up considerably due to added protections after the terrorist incidents of 11 September 2001. No follow-up GAO report on costs compiled after the 2022 Games is available.

Those who worry about armed soldiers walking the streets of Los Angeles during the Olympic Games conveniently forget – or don’t know – that U.S. soldiers were a significant presence on the ground in and around Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Games, which opened just five months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. in 2001.

The $1 billion already allocated for 2028 is far from the last money the U.S. will spend for security, or to ramp up the visa section of the State Department, and money will be allocated – at some point – for transportation.

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority has asked for $3.2 billion in support for the Games and some other projects and received nothing from the Biden Administration and so far, nothing from the Trump Administration. Who will run what in the public transportation sector is yet to be determined, but the Department of Transportation is now on notice to help make the Games work.

Federal assistance will be needed elsewhere, for instance on weather support and forecasts, especially for the sailing venues, and the U.S. Chief of Protocol, the recently-confirmed Monica Crowley, will have her hands full with more than 100 heads of state expected to attend some part of the 2028 Games. There are venue sites on lands controlled by some element of the U.S. government. Will there be a commemorative coin and stamp program?

There’s a lot to do and organizing success will boil down to the three “Cs”: coordination, cooperation and communication. Much easier to say than to do at this scale, as I have seen myself.

The sooner such efforts are started, and relationships developed, especially for events as large as the Olympic and Paralympic Games and with an organization as insanely complex as the U.S. government, the better.

For those who can’t stand the idea of the Trump Administration involved with the 2028 Games, there is plenty of time left to worry. For those who know that the Federal government has to be involved, Tuesday’s Executive Order is a good thing, a very good thing, and on time.

So, for now, stay calm.

Rich Perelman
Editor

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: NBC’s coverage of USATF Nationals averages 1.2 million viewers; Bednarek and Lyles settle spat; whereabouts violations rising in Russia

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic and World Champion sprinter Noah Lyles of the U.S. (Photo: Diamond League AG).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Russia ● “Whereabouts” incidents – failures to be present for an anti-doping test – are on the rise in Russia. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency reported 47 incidents in July and 195 for the full year of 2025.

That’s the most for any month in 2025 and projects to 334 for the year, which would be the most since 2022 (375). There were 242 incidents in 2023 and 282 in 2024.

● Athletics ● More strong audiences for track & field on NBC, as the two televised days of the USATF National Championships last weekend both drew more than a million viewers:

● 2 August (Sat.): 1.1 million on NBC, Peacock and NBC digital
● 3 August (Sun.): 1.3 million on NBC, Peacock and NBC digital

The follows the 1.1 million total audience for the Prefontaine Classic on NBC on 5 July. Audience data was provided upon request by NBC.

Track & field off of NBC does not do as well, with the new Grand Slam Track effort averaging 239,000 for its six dates on The CW, with similar audiences for the NCAA Championships, annually on ESPN or ESPN2.

But without much promotion, the NBC shows consistently come in at about one million viewers, over many years, and this is the great promise for the sport if the right kind of showcase can be constructed.

Audiences for the U.S. Olympic Trials are in another category. The 2024 T&F Trials averaged 4.5 million viewers across eight nights of coverage, up from 3.2 million on average for 2021.

U.S. men’s 100 m champion Kenny Bednarek told CNN Sports that he had a discussion with 200 m winner Noah Lyles and have worked out their differences regarding the end-of-race incident on Sunday at the USATF Nationals in Eugene, Oregon.

Lyles looked at Bednarek as he came from behind to win, 19.63 to 19.67, said something and then Bednarek pushed Lyles in the back past the line. Both said afterwards they needed to talk, and they did, with Bednarek telling CNN:

“[W]e both decided to discuss the situation after the event was done and that’s what we did. We had about an hour-long conversation and it was a really good, honest conversation. We both came to an agreement with things and we’re good now.”

Russian vaulting icon, two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva and an International Olympic Committee member from 2016-24, is being pursued by Russian law enforcement for unpaid rent and utility bills in her hometown of Volgograd.

The Russian news agency TASS carried the story and noted that Isinbayeva, 43, has been reported to be living in Tenerife in the Canary Islands of Spain. She is married with two children and retired in 2016.

The Athletics Integrity Unit announced it “has provisionally suspended Judy Jelagat Kemboi (Kenya) for the Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Hydrochlorothiazide).”

Kemboi, 26, ranks in the top 60 all-time in the road 5 km (14:54 in 2024), 10 km (30:29 in 2024) and Half Marathon (1:05:43 in 2024). Her last race was on 27 April of this year, a 1:07:47 third in the Istanbul Half. He won the 2024 Kenyan national title in the Half.

● Fencing ● USA Fencing announced a new record for memberships at 45,157, with 752 clubs, with a significant expansion after the U.S. team success at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Reaching past 700 clubs meets a target set for 2028! Membership totals before the pandemic were in the 30,000 range, so the federation has been expanding strongly in recent years.

● Football ● The cat-and-mouse game between violent spectators and law enforcement in England is moving to a new level as Cheshire police said Wednesday that a “DNA tagging spray” will be used on disruptive fans that will help identify them in the future.

The Associated Press reported:

“The spray marks equipment, clothing and skin with an invisible uniquely-coded synthetic DNA solution that can be used for forensic evidence. It ‘clings to skin and clothing for months,’ police said. The spray shows up under ultraviolet light.”

● Skiing ● U.S. star Lindsey Vonn, 40, preparing to try and make the U.S. team for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan Cortina with a strong performance on the FIS World Cup circuit, announced retired Norwegian star Aksel Lund Svindal as coach and equipment advisor.

Svindal, 42, retired in 2019 after 36 World Cup wins and 80 total medals across 17 seasons. Like Vonn, he was primarily a speed skier – Downhill and Super-G – and both have been long-time users of Head ski equipment. Said Vonn:

“There are very few people in the world I would trust when it comes to line, technique, and equipment – and Aksel is absolutely one of them. He knows exactly what it takes to be the best of the best. …

“This comeback is a little bit crazy, but I think Aksel can really help me.”

● Swimming ● At the USA Swimming Summer Nationals in Irvine, California, two U.S. stars who were not part of the U.S. team at the Worlds were in the final of the men’s 50 m Free.

Australia’s Jamie Jack won the race in 21.63, which would have placed seventh in the Worlds final and has him at no. 10 on the 2024 world list, followed by Americans Hunter Armstrong (21.76 lifetime best) and Tokyo 2020 Olympic star Caeleb Dressel, in 21.94, his fastest of the season.

The meet continues through Friday.

Longtime Australian swimming supporter and billionaire mining company owner Gina Rinehart announced added bonuses of A$300,000 for Aussie swimmers of A$20,000-15,000-10,000 for individual events and A$5,000-3,750-2,500 for medal performances at the recent World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. (A$1 = $0.65 U.S.)

This is on top of the U.S. $20,000-15,000-10,000-6,000-5,000-4,000-3,000-2,000 prize money paid by World Aquatics for places 1-8.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

GYMNASTICS: U.S. nationals in New Orleans starts on Thursday in the post-Biles era, with men trying to rise on the road to LA28

By
Rich Perelman
-
Claire Pease, the women’s All-Around winner at the 2025 U.S. Classic (Photo: USA Gymnastics).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ USA GYMNASTICS NATIONALS ≡

At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the U.S. women dominated the team competition and won the gold by almost six points over Italy. But that team is no more as American artistic gymnasts get ready for the USA Gymnastics National Championships in New Orleans, Louisiana, starting on Thursday.

Between Paris and New Orleans, youth is ascending:

● Simone Biles (28 now): not entered
● Jade Carey (25): not entered
● Jordan Chiles (24): not entered
● Suni Lee (22): not entered
● Hezly Rivera (alternate; now 17): entered

Of the 24 women entered in the senior division, there are some familiar names who have been World Championships or Olympic team members, besides Rivera:

● Skye Blakely (20): Two-time Worlds Team gold medalist
● Jayla Hang (17): 2025 Pan American All-Around gold medalist
● Joscelyn Roberson (19): 2023 Worlds Team gold medalist
● Ashlee Sullivan (18): 2025 U.S. Winter Cup All-Around gold medalist
● Leanne Wong (21): Two-time Worlds Team gold medalist
● Alicia Zhou (17): 2025 American Classic All-Around gold medalist

Then there is 16-year-old Claire Pease from Honolulu, Hawaii, who won the 2024 U.S. Junior All-Around and won the U.S. Classic All-Around in her first try at the senior level, and Simone Rose, 17, who was second at the Classic, with both finishing ahead of Roberson.

This is the future of the U.S. women’s team, although some of the Paris 2024 stars may decide to return ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The year after an Olympic Games is a good one for rest and recovery. But the new faces will be anxious to claim their places on the road to the 2025 World Championships in Jakarta (INA).

The men’s situation is quite different. The breakthrough 2024 team, which won an Olympic team bronze, was the first to medal at the Games since Beijing in 2008:

● Asher Hong: entered
● Paul Juda: not entered
● Brody Malone: entered
● Stephen Nedoroscik: entered
● Fred Richard: entered

So, four of the Paris fab five are returning and will be formidable contestants in multiple events:

● Hong (21): 2023 U.S. All-Around gold; 2022 U.S. Vault gold

● Malone (25): 2022 Worlds Horizontal Bar gold; 2021-22-24 U.S. All-Around gold; 2021 U.S. Vault gold; 2022 U.S. Floor and Horizontal Bar golds; 2024 U.S. Horizontal Bar gold

● Nedoroscik (26): 2021 Worlds Pommel Horse gold; 2021-22-23-24 U.S. Pommel Horse gold

● Richard (21): 2023 Worlds All-Around bronze; 2024 U.S. All-Around silver; 2023 U.S. Horizontal Bar gold; 2024 U.S. Floor gold

The enormous, 54-man senior field also includes stars who did not make it to Paris, but are undaunted, such as Rings specialist Alex Diab, a three-time national champion and five-time U.S. champion Donnell Whittenburg, now 30, who has won on Vault (2014, 2024) and Rings (2016, 2022-23).

The U.S. won one individual men’s gymnastics medal in Paris, with Nedoroscik taking a bronze on the Pommel Horse and has won at least one medal in three straight Worlds, in 2021-22-23.

The Nationals, which also include junior competitions, will be contested over four days:

● 7 August: Men/Day 1 (Peacock: 8 p.m. Eastern)
● 8 August: Women/Day 1 (Peacock: 7:45 p.m. Eastern)
● 9 August: Men/Day 2: (CNBC: 6:45 p.m. Eastern)
● 10 August: Women/Day 2: (NBC: 7 p.m. Eastern)

NBC just wrapped up an extension with USA Gymnastics for its broadcast rights to 2032.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: USATF Nationals shows U.S. will be formidable at Worlds, but for how many medals; modest Hayward crowds normal for Eugene nationals

By
Rich Perelman
-
World-leading 10.65 women's 100 win for Melissa Jefferson-Wooden at the USATF Nationals (Photo: USATF).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ USATF NATIONALS REVIEW ≡

The drama was amazing across all four days of the USA Track & Field National Championships in Eugene, Oregon, with tremendous performances and astonishing upsets all over the place, including three world-leading marks:

● Men/200 m: 19.63, Noah Lyles
● Women/100 m: 10.65, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden
● Women/Long Jump: 7.12 m (23-4 1/2), Tara Davis-Woodhall

Beyond this, it’s worthwhile to ask how good the meet was in terms of athletics and aesthetics.

On the athletic side, the meet selected – for the most part – the U.S. team for the 13-21 September World Athletics Championships in Tokyo (JPN). And based just on the standings of the top three performers on the world list for 2025 right now, the American team would be formidable:

● Men: 17 entries in the 19 in-stadium individual events
● Men: 4 world leaders, in the 200 m, 110 m hurdles, 400 m hurdles, hammer

● Women: 19 entries in the 19 in-stadium individual events
● Women: 7 world leaders, in the 100 m, 100 m hurdles, long jump, shot, discus, hammer, heptathlon

Assuming the U.S. is not a medal favorite in any of the road events, but is a medal favorite in all five relays, that projects to an on-paper total of as many as 40 medals in Tokyo!

That’s a lot; consider the recent successes at the Worlds and Olympic Games:

● 2024 Games: 34 medals (14-11-9)
● 2023 Worlds: 29 medals (12-8-9)
● 2022 Worlds: 33 medals (13-9-11)
● 2021 Games: 26 medals (7-12-7)
● 2019 Worlds: 29 medals (14-11-4)

But, while it shows that the Americans will yet again have a powerful team at the World Championships, please keep in mind that two-thirds or more of the U.S. entries will perform worse at the Worlds or Olympic Games than at the U.S. trials. Expressed as a “batting average,” exclusive TSX research shows the U.S. trials performances vs. the last round reached at the last four Olympics or Worlds:

● 2024 Games: .306 (33 out of 108 entries were better)
● 2023 Worlds: .363 (41 out of 113)
● 2022 Worlds: .362 (42 out of 116)
● 2021 Games: .265 (20 out of 113)

A 30-medal performance is always a good target to shoot for and will be again in Tokyo.

As for aesthetics, there has been lots of chatter about the half-full Hayward Field for the USATF meet, but this is the reality of the national championships in that facility since it re-opened for the 2021 season. Day-by-day ticket sales for the last three USATF Nationals (not including the 2024 Olympic Trials):

2025: 26,566 total
● 5,781
● 5,996
● 7,812
● 6,977

2023: 27,462 total
● 5,311
● 5,782
● 8,965
● 7,404

2022: 13,306 total
● 2,751
● 3,314
● 3,664
● 3,577

The 2022 figures were low due to the upcoming World Championships and people were saving their money for that.

Hayward has held the last five USATF Nationals, from 2021-25, including two Olympic Trials. It has also held the NCAA meet in 2010, 2013-18, 2021-22 and 2023-25 and is scheduled to host in 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Add in the annual, very popular, one-day Prefontaine Classic and it’s a heavy schedule for the no. 147 market in the U.S., so it should not be a wonder that the multi-day attendance is modest. Moreover, the cost of getting to Eugene and the high-demand prices for accommodations and the rest makes travel there less appealing for some fans.

What Eugene offers, most importantly, are safe hands. Thanks to all of its experience and strong community support, the TrackTown USA organization is able to handle these large meets – logistically and financially – over and over again. Unlike larger markets, track and field is important in Eugene and it shows, especially in having a permanent organization to continuously stage these multi-day events.

In this century, only six sites have hosted the USATF meet (including Olympic Trials):

● 12: Eugene, Oregon
● 4: Des Moines, Iowa
● 4: Sacramento, California
● 2: Palo Alto, California
● 2: Indianapolis, Indiana
● 1: Carson, California

The NCAA meet has had only seven hosts this century:

● 12: Eugene, Oregon
● 4: Sacramento, California
● 3: Austin, Texas
● 3: Des Moines, Iowa
● 1: Fayetteville, Arkansas
● 1: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
● 1: Durham, North Carolina

In the 2020s so far, Eugene has hosted nine NCAA and USATF meets and Austin, one NCAA meet. That’s it. And TrackTown USA is a key player, and safe hands.

For comparison, the 2019 USATF Nationals in Des Moines, also held late in July due to the late Worlds in Doha (QAT), drew a bit better, with 30,367 over four days. But Eugene keeps asking. 

USATF has said it wants to hold the 2028 Olympic Trials in the Olympic venue, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, on a condensed schedule. That may be the next time a nationals is held outside of Eugene’s safe hands, thanks to TrackTown USA.

A couple of other world-leading performances at national championships else, with Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri taking the men’s shot lead at 22.82 m (74-10 1/2) in Caorle. At the British Championships in Birmingham, Molly Caudery grabbed the women’s vault lead with her win at 4.85 m (15-11).

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

LOS ANGELES 2028: Trump signs Executive Order to create White House Task Force on 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games preparations

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. President Donald Trump after signing an Executive Order establishing the White House Task Force on the 2028 Games (Photo: C-SPAN video screen shot).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ WHITE HOUSE TASK FORCE ≡

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order Tuesday afternoon to create a White House Task Force to support the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

In addition to a large group of administration officials on the stage, the guests included LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman and chief executive Reynold Hoover, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Board Chair Gene Sykes, 2008 Olympic gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin and five-time Paralympic gold medalist Brad Snyder.

Noting that when the Games were awarded to Los Angeles during his first term in 2017, he did not expected to be involved – assuming he would be re-elected in 2020 – Trump said:

“Today I will sign an Executive Order establishing the White House Task Force on the 2028 summer Olympics, mobilizing the entire Federal government to ensure the Games are safe, seamless and historically successful.

“It’s going to be amazing. … L.A.’s a little bit different place than it was when selected [in 2017], but we’re going to bring it back stronger than ever. I spoke to Casey about that; he said, ‘nope, we’re going to make it better than ever.”

The 15-minute ceremony closed with Trump signing the order before he launched into an 18-minute news conference on various topics, with only one question on Olympic issues. The order itself included:

● “The Federal Government will lead a unified effort to ensure maximum safety, secure borders, and world-class transportation for millions of visitors throughout the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (Games).”

● Trump was designated as Chair and Vice President J.D. Vance as Vice Chair, with an Executive Director to be hired and report through Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Implementation, Nicolas Luna. The Task Force will work out of the Department of Homeland Security.

● The specific responsibilities were noted as:

“(a) coordinate Federal planning and response related to the security, transportation, and entry/exit processes for the Games;

“(b) support interagency cooperation and information-sharing with State and local partners;

“(c) identify legal, logistical, or regulatory barriers that could impede effective Federal support for the Games and recommend timely solutions;

“(d) assist in the planning and implementation of visa processing and credentialing programs for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media personnel; and

“(e) ensure operational readiness across law enforcement, counterterrorism, transportation, and emergency response functions.”

Wasserman thanked Trump and his support and that of the administration, and he presented Trump with a boxed set of 1984 Los Angeles Olympic medals as a souvenir.

During the question-and-answer session, the only 2028 Games-related question was on whether U.S. security forces will be used and Trump confirmed that the military and/or National Guard will be used as needed.

“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military. … I will use the National Guard or military, this is going to be so safe, and if we have to,” and then launched into a tirade against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass:

“because, obviously, you have a mayor that is not very competent. She can’t get the permits to the people [rebuilding after the Palisades fire], you know people are still waiting for their permits. [EPA Director] Lee Zeldin got them the Federal permit, which is 10 times harder to get and everybody can build on the Federal basis – and that’s the hard one – but the mayor, Bass, she refuses to or cannot get them permits. They are waiting.”

Trump also said he thinks women should be tested to ensure that transgender athletes are not competing in the female category.

The first Federal funding for the 2028 Games came with the 4 July 2025 signing of H.R. 1, The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which appropriated $1 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support 2028 Olympic security needs.

A 7 March 2025 Executive Order established a White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with Trump as Chair and Vance as Vice Chair and also operating out of the Department of Homeland Security.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: Aboriginal tribe challenges Brisbane ‘32 stadium plan; fans hurl luggage on field to ask for coach firing; USA Gym & NBC together to ‘32

By
Rich Perelman
-
A Queensland government rendering of to-be-built 2032 Olympic Stadium in Victoria Park in Brisbane, Australia.

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2032: Brisbane ● The Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) and Save Victoria Park activist group have asked for a review of the Victoria Park area, in which the new Olympic stadium is to be built, as a site of cultural significance.

If so designated, it could impact development plans. YMAC spokeswoman Gaja Kerry Charlton said in a statement, “We are very concerned there are ancient trees, artefacts and very important ecosystems existing there. There may be ancestral remains.”

The Australian government confirmed it received the request and will review it. The decision to built the new stadium in Victoria Park was made by the Queensland State government, but will be partially paid for with federal funding.

● Court of Arbitration for Sport ● The International Council on Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) issued a short statement after the European Union Court of Justice (CJEU) decision in the Royal Football Club Seraing vs. FIFA case, which included:

“ICAS acknowledges that today’s CJEU judgment determined that the review of CAS awards should be limited to EU public policy only. The Seraing decision is in continuation of previous CJEU jurisprudence and in line with the International Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (i.e. The New York Convention). ICAS also acknowledges recognition by the CJEU that sports arbitration is a legitimate mechanism ensuring a uniform treatment of sporting disputes and a consistent application of sporting rules.

“CAS resolves sporting disputes worldwide and already applies EU law when required. Whilst the vast majority of cases before CAS concern contractual and disciplinary issues not governed by EU law, matters related to EU competition law can already be challenged before EU state courts following a previous CJEU judgement (Case International Skating Union C-124/21).”

Translation: no worries. The statement also noted that only about 6% of CAS decisions are ever appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

● Fencing ● At last week’s FIE World Championships in Tbilisi (GEO), seven members were elected to the FIE Athletes’ Commission, including Rio 2016 silver winner Alexander Massialas of the U.S.

Among the other selected were Olympic medalists Luca Curatoli (ITA), Ruben Limardo Gascon (VEN), Bon-gil Ku (KOR) and Andras Szamati (HUN).

The FIE has a generous prize purse for its championships, paying $40,000-20,000-10,000 for its individual medal winners, and $50,000-25,000-15,000 for its team medal winners. The total amount paid was $1.02 million.

● Football ● Is this a new one?

At a Monday match between Lithuanian A-League clubs, seventh-place FK Zalgiris of Vilnius and league leader Kauno Zalgiris in Vilnius, home fans simultaneously threw dozens of suitcases onto the pitch at the start of the match, signaling their desire to have coach Vladimir Cheburin fired.

The bags were thrown off the field by the players, and the match resumed, but the fans chanted “Cheburin out.”

FK Zalgiris lost, 2-1. Wow.

● Gymnastics ● USA Gymnastics and NBC announced an extension of their broadcast rights agreement from 2029-32, after signing an agreement for 2025-28 rights that was announced on 27 March of this year.

Women’s gymnastics draws strong audiences for NBC, which has the U.S. Olympic Games television rights through 2036. NBC has been busy with rights extensions, taking up a deal with USA Track & Field to 2028 in March and USA Swimming through 2028 in May.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT: European Court of Justice rules European states must have “public policy” review of CAS results

By
Rich Perelman
-
The Court of Arbitration for Sport

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ LIMITED REVIEW AVAILABLE ≡

The Court of Arbitration for Sport handles hundreds of cases annually, many of which involve football in various ways. Last week, one of those cases turned into an order from the European Court of Justice to create a window of review on cases from the Court of Arbitration.

The key facts are that the Royal Football Club Seraing – a Belgian club – was prevented from obtained outside investment from a Maltese company in 2015 due to existing rules from the International Federation (FIFA) and the continental confederation (UEFA). The club appealed within FIFA and lost, then appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2016, claiming that the FIFA restrictions:

“infringe [European Union] law and, more specifically, the freedom of movement for workers, the freedom to provide services and the free movement of capital.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport panel upheld much (but not all) of the FIFA judgement. The club appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal on ground that Swiss public policy is being infringed, but the appeal was dismissed in 2018.

At the same time, the club and the investor pursued actions in Belgian courts, losing at the Commercial Court and at the Court of Appeals in December 2019. A further appeal was made to the highest Belgian court, the Cour de Cassation, which asked the European Court of Justice for a ruling on whether a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in Switzerland – which is NOT a member of the European Union – must be acknowledged as final since European Union law has not been considered.

That’s the issue here, and the key element to remember is that Switzerland is not an EU member and do not apply EU law.

A hearing on the question referred to the European Court of Justice was held in October 2024, more than nine years after the dispute started!

The opinion of the European Court of Justice referred to the Treaty on European Union (TEU), Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and noted the existing Belgian Judicial Code section 1721 on enforcement of an arbitration award, including:

“(1) The court of first instance may refuse to recognise or declare enforceable an arbitral award, irrespective of the country in which it was made, only in the following circumstances: …

“(b) if the court of first instance finds that: …

“(ii) the recognition or enforcement of the arbitral award would be contrary to public policy.”

This is a narrow ground for review, but it is Belgian law. Interestingly, it is eerily similar to the Swiss Private International Law Act, section 190.2, which states that an arbitration decision can only be annulled if one of five conditions are present.

These are improper appointment of the arbitrator(s), jurisdictional questions, if the decision went beyond the issues submitted (or failed to decide the issue submitted) and:

● “d) if the principle of equal treatment of the parties or the right of the parties to be heard was violated;

● “e) if the award is incompatible with public policy.”

But for the European Court of Justice, it is improper to leave a plaintiff from a European Union country unable to have its claim considered on “European public policy” grounds. Not Swiss, but European Union grounds and in a court in a European Union country.

So, the opinion states, as a matter of law:

“The second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU, read in conjunction with Article 267 TFEU and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, must be interpreted as precluding

“– the authority of res judicata from being conferred within the territory of a Member State on an award made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in the relations between the parties to the dispute in the context of which that award was made, where that dispute is linked to the pursuit of a sport as an economic activity within the territory of the European Union and the consistency of that award with the principles and provisions of EU law which form part of EU public policy has not first been subject to effective review by a court or tribunal of that Member State that is authorised to make a reference to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling;

“– probative value from being conferred, as a consequence of that authority of res judicata, on such an award within the territory of that Member State, in the relations between the parties to that dispute and third parties.” (underline added)

Observed (comments by TSX editor Rich Perelman): As written, the European Court of Justice ruling – which does not deal with the case at all, but is a question of the value of Court of Arbitration for Sport decisions on actors in European Union countries – appears to allow national courts to review Court of Arbitration decisions as to adherence to “EU public policy” only. And the national court does not have to accept the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision as true and correct in all aspects.

This is a complex holding which maintains the ability of European Union plaintiffs and defendants to obtain a review of Court of Arbitration for Sport decisions in national courts in European Union countries, but does not touch the requirements for use of the Court of Arbitration between parties as the primary forum for resolution of disputes.

Now, the question is what will the Belgian courts do with this direction from the European Court of Justice? That is still to be seen. And there is no impact on any Court of Arbitration for Sport decisions which do not involve parties which are outside the 27-state European Union.

Nope, it’s still not over. Not even close.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: Trump to announce‘28 Games Task Force Tuesday; Bednarek talks about Lyles shove; McIntosh led Singapore Worlds money winners

By
Rich Perelman
-
2025 USATF men’s 100 m champion Kenny Bednarek (Photo: USATF).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● President Donald Trump will sign an Executive Order on Tuesday that will establish a White House Task Force on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Trump will head the unit, with members to be announced Tuesday, including Federal officials and possibly others. A priority will be the efficient processing of entry visas and credentialing of athletes, team and sports officials, media and others, as well as transportation.

A 7 March 2025 Executive Order established a White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with Trump as Chair and Vice President J.D. Vance as Vice Chair and operated out of the Department of Homeland Security. Only Federal officials were listed as members.

● Anti-Doping ● The World Anti-Doping Agency announced that Cameroon hads addressed its legal issues with the implementation of the World Anti-Doping Code and was reinstated as compliant. Per WADA:

“There are currently three non-compliant Code Signatories; namely, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation and the International Federation of Basque Pelota.”

● Transgender ● The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service announced Monday:

“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is issuing guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual in alignment with Executive Order 14201, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, which directs the Department of Homeland Security to develop policies to prevent the entry of male athletes seeking to compete in women’s sports.

“USCIS will affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities by granting certain athlete-related petitions and applications, that had previously been abused and offered to men, only to women, ensuring that male aliens seeking immigration benefits aren’t coming to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports.”

The Executive Order, issued on 5 February, directed immigration officials to “shall issue guidance with an objective of preventing such entry” into the U.S.

● Aquatics ● Albeit with multiple assumptions about splits for relay swimmers, SwimSwam.com compiled the prize and bonus money winners from the swimming events at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore:

● $90,833: Summer McIntosh (CAN)
● $73,300: Leon Marchand (FRA)
● $70,000: Regan Smith (USA)
● $58,357: Kate Douglass (USA)
● $56,000: Gretchen Walsh (USA)
● $52,143: Haiyang Qin (CHN) and Katie Ledecky (USA)

Event prize money was $20,000-15,000-10,000-6,000-5,000-4,000-3,000-2,000 for the top eight places, plus a $30,000 bonus for world records. The U.S. won the most money overall with $563,000, followed by Australia with $352,500 and China with $272,000.

Interesting note from The Associated Press interview story with U.S. Olympic icon and NBC swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines during the World Aquatics Championships. While the AP’s Stephen Wade reported from Singapore, he noted that he interviewed Gaines, who was in the U.S., announcing the meet remotely.

Gaines and Jason Knapp called the races on NBC’s Peacock streaming service; NBC itself programmed only two highlights shows, on Saturday (2 August) and this coming Saturday (9th), at 1 p.m. Eastern. Nicole Auerbach was in Singapore as the deck reporter.

The lawsuit filed in 2018 by U.S. swimmer Tom Shields and Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu against (then-FINA) World Aquatics will apparently be settled, after a June mediation led to an agreement. According to a Front Office Sports report, the settlement will include some damages for the swimmers and an injunction to prevent the federation from competing in events not sanctioned by it.

World Aquatics adopted that stance years ago, but the suit has continued. A parallel suit by the now-in-suspension International Swimming League continues and is to be tried in January 2026.

● Athletics ● More from the men’s 200 m final at the USATF Nationals in Eugene, where Noah Lyles came from behind and won, 19.63 to 19.67, over 100 m winner Kenny Bednarek, in the top two times in the world in 2025.

Lyles looked over at Bednarek at the line, the two had words after and Bednarek shoved Lyles in the back. Bednarek spoke about the incident to reporters afterwards; Reuters reported:

“Noah’s going to be Noah. If he wants to stare me down, that’s fine.

“The summary is, don’t do that to me. I don’t do any of that stuff. It’s not good character right there. That’s pretty much it. At the end of the day, he won the race. I’ve got to give him props. He was the better man today.

“What he said didn’t matter, it’s just what he did. Unsportsmanlike [stuff], and I don’t deal with that. It’s a respect factor. He’s fresh. Last time we lined it up, I beat him [at Paris 2024], that’s all I can say. Next time we line up, I’m going to win. That’s all that matters.”

Lyles was also interviewed and said, “on coach’s orders,” he had no comment. He did say he needs more races and will be running in the Diamond League meets in Europe beginning in Poland on 16 July.

For those wondering where breakout 800 m star Cooper Lutkenhaus came from, he’s a sophomore at Northwest High School in Justin, Texas, part of the Ft. Worth metro area.

Now 16 years and 229 days old, his progression is pretty impressive:

● 2023: 1:53.59 in middle school
● 2024: 1:47.58 as a freshman
● 2025: 1:42.27 as a sophomore, at the USATF Nationals

He’s now no. 18 all-time and lowered his best from 1:47.58 last season to 1:47.04 on 3 May to win the Texas 6A State title, 1:46.26 on 8 June for the U.S. high school record, 1:45.45 on 21 June and then his stunning stretch run to get his USATF second in a world U-18 record of 1:42.27. He’s also run a 46.30 400 m this season.

● Boxing ● The International Boxing Association confirmed that its future focus is outside of the Olympic world, with chief executive Chris Roberts (GBR) explaining that the “IBA Men’s Elite World Championships will feature an invitation of cross combination top amateur and professional athletes from around the world competing in high-stake bouts, the very first hybrid event of its kind.”

World Boxing has been confirmed as the recognized governing body for Olympic boxing and now has 118 member national federations.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SWIMMING: Gaines, Lochte, Phelps rip U.S. performance at Worlds; Finke slaps back, but only 31% of U.S. entries bettered Trials marks

By
Rich Perelman
-
The U.S. ended the 2025 Worlds on a high note, with a world record in the women’s 4x100 m Medley by (l-r) Gretchen Walsh, Regan Smith, Torri Huske and Kate Douglass (Photo: World Aquatics/Aniko Kovacs).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ ANALYSIS & OBSERVATIONS ≡

The United States swim team won 29 medals at the just-concluded World Aquatics Championships in Singapore to lead the medal table once again, with nine golds – most of any nation – 11 silvers and nine bronzes. Australia was second with 20.

The achievements were all the more impressive after the extensive gastrointestinal trouble experienced by half the team or more, during their pre-Worlds training camp in Thailand.

But American swimming legends were hardly impressed:

● Rowdy Gaines, the 1984 Olympic sprint icon, told The Associated Press:

“We’re far from killing it. It’s a major struggle, and we can’t hide our heads in the sand and say this is just a blip.

“You can blame it on the illness, you can blame it on the inexperience – most of these kids have never been in this situation – and you can blame it on logistics. [A pre-meet camp in] Thailand doesn’t make sense to me in the first place.”

He also noted the “state of today’s athletes,” explaining “I think in some cases there’s an entitlement for a lot of these kids. They feel like, ‘I should be in the finals of the world championships. And I can still do the peripheral stuff and not worry about making it all the way.’ I think there needs to be a more focused attitude on the task at hand.”

Gaines also felt that USA Swimming needs help, saying, “I do think changes need to be made. There needs to be a complete reset. But I don’t think the sky is falling. But there needs to be some great leadership. Whoever they hire as CEO needs to be the leader that is sorely needed.”

● Olympic legends Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps were more acidic, with an Instagram post showing a tombstone engraved with:

“In Loving Memory of
“United States Swimming
“1980-2025
“Aged 45
“‘They set the bar high – until they stopped reaching for it’”

At the top of the illustration was “Call it a funeral, or call it a fresh start. We’ve got 3 years” and at the bottom was added, “Is this the wake up call USA swimming needed? Let’s find out …”

● But Olympic distance champion Bobby Finke, who won a men’s 1,500 m Free bronze in Singapore, commented:

“There’s a lot of stuff being said. They have zero clue [about] the kind of teamwork that we have behind the scenes, and how well we’re being put together. We have [about] eleven new guys on a team, and there’s a lot of high schoolers. Those boys stepped up. And despite everything that was happening these past two weeks, we did great work.”

Now, what actually happened? As far as the medal count, it’s instructive to look at the U.S. performance on the medals stand over the last 10 World Championships and Olympic Games from 2015-2025:

● 2025 Worlds: 29 total (9-11-9) in 42 events
● 2024 Games: 28 total (8-13-7) in 37 events
● 2024 Worlds: 20 total (8-6-6) in 42 events
● 2023 Worlds: 38 total (7-20-11) in 42 events
● 2022 Worlds: 45 total (17-12-16) in 42 events
● 2021 Games: 30 total (11-10-9) in 37 events
● 2019 Worlds: 27 total (14-8-5) in 42 events
● 2017 Worlds: 38 total (18-10-10) in 42 events
● 2016 Games: 33 total (16-8-9) in 35 events
● 2015 Worlds: 23 total (8-10-5) in 42 events

Recognizing that the 2024 Worlds in Doha (QAT) were lightly attended because of training for the upcoming Olympic Games, the American medal output was average or better this year excepting the 2017 and 2022 Worlds and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and the Tokyo Olympic performance was also good, in a limited event program.

One way to measure the quality of the Worlds or Olympic performance is to look at the performances on the world stage compared to what it took to make it onto the U.S. team. Comparing the times posted in the last stage competed in (final, semi or heats) at the last three Olympic Games with the performances it took to make the American team at the U.S. Trials:

● 57.7% at Rio 2016: 30 better out of 52
● 51.8% at Tokyo 2020: 29 better out of 56
● 30.4% at Paris 2024: 17 better out of 56

The trend is clearly down. Looking at the 2023 Worlds – with everyone present – and 2025, the drop-off from the excellent Rio and good Tokyo levels is obvious:

● 33.3% at 2023 Worlds: 22 better out of 66
● 30.6% at 2025 Worlds: 19 better out of 62

That’s not going to get it done. Looking at the last three years in more detail:

● 2023 Worlds: 33.3% overall ~ Men: 15/32 or 44.1%; Women: 7/34 or 20.1%
● 2024 Games: 30.4% overall ~ Men: 4/28 or 14.3%; Women: 13/28 or 46.4%
● 2025 Worlds: 30.6% overall ~ Men: 7/31 or 22.6%; Women: 12/31 or 38.7%

The gastro problems from the Thailand training camp noticeably impacted the situation in Singapore, as Josh Matheny and Carson Foster scratched events for the men and Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske and Claire Weinstein all scratched events for the women.

Moreover, eight of the 12 women’s performances that were better at the Worlds came from just three swimmers: Katie Ledecky (3), Regan Smith (3) and Kate Douglass (2).

Then there were the relays. In 2023, American teams medaled in all eight relays, winning two, with four silvers and two bronzes. In 2025, the U.S. didn’t qualify for the mixed 4×100 Medley and otherwise won two golds, two silvers and two bronzes. The women medaled in all three of their relays; the men were two-of-three and the mixed teams were 1-2. For a team with the depth of the U.S., this was not impressive.

Whatever the formula was at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and for the post-Olympic 2017 and 2022 Worlds – where the U.S. dominated – worked. American production and performances in swimming were down for Paris in 2024 and the same was true, despite topping the medal table, in 2025.

But as Lochte and Phelps pointed out, there are three years to go to Los Angeles in 2028. Oh yes, and hire a food taster!

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

LOS ANGELES 2028: Hotel workers union battle with L.A. business extended to fight on new development, Olympic venue usage

By
Rich Perelman
-
The Los Angeles City Hall, a 1928 Art Deco downtown icon (Photo: Tim Ahem via Wikipedia)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ LOS ANGELES DIVIDED ≡

The fractious, angry battle between the activist hotel workers union in Los Angeles and area businesses continues to escalate, with the union trying to launch a petition to place an initiative measure on a 2026 City ballot to require public votes on hotel development and public events.

There could be an impact on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic organizing effort.

The background in brief:

● Unite Here Local 11, which represents airport, hotel, sports and convention center employees in Southern California and Arizona, pushed through what it calls its “Olympic Wage” ordinance at the Los Angeles City Council, finally approved on 27 May 2025.

● The measure increases minimum hourly wages at hotels or more than 60 rooms, and at airport concessionaires in the City of Los Angeles to $22.50 as of 1 July 2025, $25.00 on 1 July 2026, $27.50 on 1 July 2027 and $30.00 on 1 July 2028.

● In response, the LA Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, a coalition of hospitality-related business, including airlines and hotels, filed for a referendum to cancel the ordinance. Signatures were gathered, with Local 11 protesting loudly, and on 27 June 2025, the Los Angeles City Clerk announced that the implementation of the ordinance was suspended after delivery of more than 140,000 signatures in favor of listing “Referendum Petition Against Ordinance No. 188610” on the ballot.

More than 92,998 valid signatures are required and the City Clerk has turned the signature list over to the Los Angeles County Clerk for verification. Lawsuits against the signature-gathering effort have been filed, but with no resolution yet.

At the same time as the LA Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress referendum signatures were delivered, Local 11 filed two initiative petitions, trying to be placed on the June 2026 City ballot. One was for an “Increase Minimum Wage for Workers” ordinance, to have a vote on the ordinance passed by the L.A. City Council and now suspended; this would be a direct counter to the Alliance referendum against the “Olympic wage.”

The second was an initiative to “Require Voter Approval of Major Development Projects,” which would require a public vote on any new hotel, sports or convention center projects for which the City provides subsidies, or for the construction, addition or alteration of event facilities, “which cumulatively create or add facilities of more than 50,000 square feet or with a seating capacity of 1,000 seats.”

Different from a referendum – like the Alliance petition – an initiative petition requires more signatures: 139,497 from City of Los Angeles residents to be placed on the ballot.

Both of the Local 11 measures were submitted on 16 June 2025 and had the measure title and summary completed on 27 June. The next step will be for a petition for each to be approved for posting and circulation, with signatures due within 120 days of the filing date (ostensibly 14 October 2025).

What does this mean for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games?

● The LA28 organizers already have agreements with dozens of hotels for accommodations during the Games period in 2028. Those agreements are likely to continue, although there may be some changes to the guaranteed pricing if the “Olympic wage” ordinance stands after the June 2026 municipal ballot.

● The voter-approval initiative for new hotels, sports or convention facilities includes “alterations” which can be interpreted to mean temporary additions, as will be widely used for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

That could cause issued for the LA28 organizers, for those sites for which temporary works are needed. The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that in a statement, L.A. Office of Major Events Executive Director Paul Krekorian said of the measure:

“The proposed measure would make vital projects essential for our city and these Games potentially impossible to complete. It would also require costly special elections before even relatively small projects could begin.”

The potential impacts on the Games from the proposal could include:

● Additional seating to the LA84 Foundation/John C. Argue Swim Stadium in Exposition Park, slated to host diving.

● Additional seating – above 1,000 – for viewing of sailing events at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.

● Facilities and possible seating at Venice Beach for the cycling road races marathons starts and triathlon.

● Seating for events at the Los Angeles Convention Center, for boxing, table tennis, taekwondo and wrestling.

● Use of the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area for temporary sites for 3×3 basketball, BMX cycling, modern pentathlon and skateboarding.

● If interpreted quite liberally, the measure as written could include changes to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, such as for the 2022-23-24 NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum, or the installation of the track and field surface for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The measure’s requirement of a vote on facilities of more than 50,000 sq. ft. would also essentially torpedo all “fan festival” activities within the City of Los Angeles, a major focus of City Council members.

Observed: So, is the measure a threat to the Games?

In a word, no. The Games – Olympic and Paralympic – will go on.

But if the proposed initiative gets onto the June 2026 ballot, it will cause the LA28 folks to create or implement alternate plans that simply move the impacted sports to sites outside of the City of Los Angeles. And there are so many facilities in Southern California, this will not be that difficult (but will be highly inconvenient).

Even an alternative to the Coliseum for track and field is possible: the Rose Bowl, which was briefly considered to hold track at the 1984 Olympic Games. Either facility would require the installation of a temporary track on top of the existing field, although the engineering requirements will be different (and difficult). The football matches scheduled for the Rose Bowl would then be moved to the Coliseum, as a normal, existing use.

The immediate winners of such a scenario would likely be the convention centers in Long Beach and possibly Anaheim, both used for the 1984 Games.

If the voter-approval proposal for development passes, development within the City can be expected to diminish significantly, including the much-desired post-2028 expansion program for the L.A. Convention Center.

But at present, Local 11 is trying to get its petitions approved and start asking for signatures on L.A. street corners and shopping centers soon. 

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

PANORAMA: Grand Slam Track missed athlete pay date; Parsons challenged in IPC elections; Shriever wins third BMX Worlds gold

By
Rich Perelman
-
International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons speaking at the 2024 Paralympic Games closing ceremony, with Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet at right. (Photo: IPC)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● International Paralympic Committee ● The IPC announced the candidates for its elections on 27 September 2025, in Seoul (KOR), with the President, two Vice Presidents and seven At-Large board members to be selected.

Incumbent IPC President Andrew Parsons (BRA) is being challenged by Korean Hyun-bae Dong, the head of the Korean Paralympic Committee. Parsons, 48, is running for a third and final term as IPC head and has worked to raise the Paralympic profile and has created a close relationship with the International Olympic Committee.

● Athletics ● Multiple athlete agents told Front Office Sports that Grand Slam Track did not meet its own expectations to pay prize money from its Kingston, Jamaica meet by the end of July. In a statement, Grand Slam Track explained:

“Grand Slam Track is anticipating investor funds to hit our account imminently, and the athletes are our top priority.

“Once these funds are received on our end, we will work to immediately process them to the athletes, noting all banks have different timelines for receiving and depositing funds into individual accounts.

“We are in the process of recapitalizing the company, and we are committed to distributing funds to athletes as soon as we receive them. As we continue to receive funds in the upcoming months, we will distribute payments as they come in. We will continue making progress toward completing full payments at the earliest date possible.”

Fred Kerley, the 2022 World men’s 100 m champion, but who has had repeated run-ins with law enforcement in 2025 and was suspended by Grand Slam Track, converted to Islam on 8 July. He noted in a social-media post:

“They tried to break me, Allah rebuilt me. Took my shahada today. I’m chosen. I’m covered. I’m home.”

≡ RESULTS ≡

● Aquatics ● A stunning upset in diving at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore in the men’s 3 m Springboard final, as Mexico’s Osmar Olvera won at 529.55, beating Rio 2016 Olympic champ Yuan Cao (522.70) and three-time defending champion and two-time Olympic silver winner Zongyuan Wang (515.55).

Olvera won four of the six dives, and took the lead for good after his fifth dive and won the sixth to ensure his victory. Wang won two dives, but was sixth on two others and seventh on his fifth dive. The win for Olvera ends a Chinese winning streak of 10 Worlds in a row, from 2007-2024, with Wang winning the last three. The Paris 3 m bronze winner in 2024, Olvera won his second Worlds gold, after taking the 1 m title in 2024.

There was no such upset in the women’s 3 m Springboard, where Olympic champion Yiwen Chen was supreme, scoring 389.70 in the final, ahead of teammate Jia Chen (356.40) and Italy’s Chiara Pellacani (323.20).

It’s Chen’s ninth Worlds gold in her career and third in Singapore, after the team event and the 3 m Synchro. She’s now won the 3 m Springboard in 2022, 2023 and 2025.

Sunday’s men’s 10 m finale belonged to defending champion Cassiel Rousseau (AUS), who dominated the field and won with 534.80 points to 515.20 for Ukraine’s Oleksiy Sereda, the 13-year-old sensation of 2019, but now 19, who moved up from bronze in 2024.

Mexico’s Randal Waters out-dueled Chinese newcomers Zifeng Zhu and Renjie Zhao, 511.95 to 506.10 to 499.95 to win the bronze, the first time China has missed a Worlds medal in this event since 1982! That’s a streak of 17 straight Worlds stopped, in Singapore.

China dominated diving, as usual, with 16 medals (9-3-4) to seven for Mexico (1-4-2) and three each for Italy and Australia. It’s the second straight Worlds with nine wins for China, compared to 12 in 2023, all 13 in 2022, 12 in 2019; the last Worlds with less than nine was in 2017, with eight.

Thanks to its improved swimming performance (14 medals), China won the overall medal count at the Singapore Worlds with 37 (15-12-10), followed by the U.S. with 32 (10-11-11) and Australia (28:13-7-8). Eight countries won 10 or more total medals and 20 countries won one or more golds!

● Cycling ● After France’s Maeva Squiban won her second straight stage on Friday at the Tour de France Femmes, thanks to a 20 km solo attack on the 159.7 km route in 3:58:26, Mauritius’ Kimberley Pienaar still maintained the race lead by 26 seconds over France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot.

But that all changed Saturday, on the massive uphill finish to the 111.9 km eighth stage. Ferrand-Prevot, the 2024 Paris Olympic Mountain Bike gold medalist, was the 2014 World Roads champ and is back, causing trouble. She attacked with 5 km left on the final climb and won in 3:47:24, a full 1:45 ahead of Sarah Gigante (AUS), with Pienaar in 17th (+9:06). So, going into Sunday’s final ride, Ferrand-Prevot was now the leader, by 2:37 over Gigante and 3:18 over 2023 winner Demi Vollering (NED)!

That set the stage for the 124.1 km finale, with three climbs and an uphill finish to Chatel Les Portes du Soleil, and Ferrand-Prevot was ready, riding away in the final 6.5 km to win in 3:38:23, 20 seconds up on Vollering and0:23 ahead of defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma (POL).

That gave Ferrand-Prevot the overall victory in 29:54:24, 3:42 up on Vollering and 4:09 ahead of Niewiadoma. She’s the first French winner of the Tour de France Femmes, in its fourth edition.

Niewiadoma kept her medal streak alive, now in all four Tours: 3-3-1-3!

The UCI World Tour schedule resumed after the Tour de France, with Italian Giulio Ciccone getting his first victory in a one-day race, taking the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa in Spain, breaking away with 9 km left and winning the hilly, 211.4 km race in 5:05:33. Jan Christen (SUI: +0:09) was second and well ahead of Maxim van Gils (BEL: +0:19) leading a group of four to the line for places 3-6.

At the UCI BMX World Championships in Copenhagen (DEN), Britain’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Beth Shriever cemented her place as one of the top riders ever, becoming the fifth to win three World Championships golds, taking the women’s elite race in 35.614, leading from start to finish.

Australian star Saya Sakakibara, the Paris 2024 Olympic winner, was second in 36.744, with Judy Baauw (NED) a clear third in 37.223. Shriever has now won an Olympic title and Worlds golds in 2021-23-25, and joins Gabriela Diaz (ARG), Shanaze Reade (GBR), Mariana Pajon (COL) and American Alise Willoughby as three-time Worlds winners. Willoughby has the record for the most women’s Worlds medals, with seven.

The men’s title went to France’s Arthur Pilard, also with a wire-to-wire win in 32.500, his second career Worlds medal after a silver in 2023. Izaac Kennedy (AUS) was a clear second in 32.985, ahead of three more French riders, led by Eddy Clerte, who won the bronze in 33.108 over defending champ Joris Daudet (33.301).

It’s the third win in a row by a Frenchman; Kennedy won his first Worlds medal and the first for Australia since 2014.

● Hockey ● The U.S. faced Argentina in both the men’s and women’s finals at the Pan American Cup in Montevideo (URU), but came up second both times.

Seventh-ranked Argentina won men’s Pool A at 3-0, beating the no. 24 U.S. (2-1) by 3-0. But they met again in the final, as the American defeated Chile, 3-1, on penalties after a 1-1 in their semi. The final, though, was no contest, as the Argentines scored one in the first, had a 4-0 halftime lead and won, 10-0.

In the women’s tournament, Paris Olympic bronze medalists and second-ranked Argentina and the no. 12 U.S. were both 3-0 in group play and the U.S. got past Uruguay, 4-2 on penalties, after a 1-1. In the final, Agustina Gorzelany scored at 4:46 of the first quarter and Argentina won the title with a comprehensive, 3-0 shutout. Uruguay beat Chile, 2-0, for the bronze.

● Volleyball ● Poland was only fifth during the FIVB men’s Nations League season, with an 8-4 record, but at the FIVB men’s Nations League finals in Ningbo (CHN), they were supreme.

The Paris Olympic silver winners swept Japan, 3-0, in the quarterfinals, then stomped round-robin winners Brazil by 28-26, 25-19 and 25-21 for another sweep. They met regular-season runner-ups (10-2) Italy in the final, 3-1 winners over Cuba and Slovenia in their matches.

Poland rolled to another 3-0 win – 25-22, 25-19, 25-14 – to sweep all three finals matches and win its second men’s Nations League title, also in 2023. Brazil won the third-place match, 3-1, over Slovenia.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: Lyles’ salty, world-leading 200, insane men’s 800 (1:42.27 for a 16-year-old!) and upsets galore conclude USATF Nationals

By
Rich Perelman
-
Still no. 1, with a lot to say: American sprint superstar Noah Lyles (Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images for World Athletics)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ USATF NATIONALS ≡

The final day of the 2025 USATF National Championships in Eugene was just crazy. Upsets all over, and statement wins by true champions on a roller-coaster of a day at Hayward Field.

First and foremost:

● Men/200 m: The semifinals were the first events of the day, in cool, 68 F temps, with Courtney Lindsey – second in the 100 – taking off from the gun in the first race and winning easily in 20.08 (wind 0.0), with world leader T’Mars McCallum – third in the 100 – second in 20.37.

Reigning World Champion Noah Lyles was only fourth after 100 m, but roared into the straight and won easily in 19.97 (+1.7), well ahead of 2017 NCAA champ Christian Coleman (20.20) and Kyree King (20.25). Kenny Bednarek, the 100 winner, won semi three in 19.99 (-0.1) from 2024 NCAA runner-up Robert Gregory (20.03).

In third was Erriyon Knighton, the 2023 Worlds silver medalist, in 20.14, advancing to the final on time. He hadn’t been in a meet since April and faced an appeal on 23 June by the Athletics Integrity Unit against his clearance by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for a doping positive due to contaminated meat. He apparently cleared that hurdle and ran only his second 200 m of the year.

In the final, McCallum was in five, Bednarek in six and Lyles in seven. Bednarek got off to a good start and passed Lyles outside him. Into the straight, Lyles had work to do, but he moved up from fourth, turned on the jets and got by in the final 5 m in a world-leading 19.63 (+0.2). Bednarek was a clear second in 19.67, with Gregory in a lifetime best of 19.80 and Lindsey was fourth in 19.82; Knighton was fifth in 19.97.

Lyles turned to Bednarek as they crossed the line, had some apparently harsh words for Bednarek and Bednarek pushed him with both hands on the run-out. This was tense.

In the interview, Bednarek simply said they had things to work out between them. This relationship has been salty and it’s getting saltier. The loss was also Bednarek’s first of the year, although he’s now no. 2 on time in the world this year.

● Women/200 m: The semifinals came first, with immediate drama as 2024 NCAA champion McKenzie Long rolled to a 22.12 win in the first race (+0.1) over Deajah Stevens (22.37). But Sha’Carri Richardson, the 2023 Worlds bronze winner, and who ran only her heat of the 100 m, was third off the start and was passed by USC’s NCAA runner-up Madison Whyte, finishing fourth, 22.55 to 22.56; Whyte made the final on time, but Richardson did not.

Olympic bronze medalist Brittany Brown handled the field in semi two in 22.32 (+1.6), well ahead of NCAA winner JaMeesia Ford (22.61), with Cambrea Sturgis third (22.66) and Hayward Field favorite Jenna Prandini, the 2018 USATF winner in fourth in 22.68. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, fresh off her 10.65 100 win, led semi three from the gun and won in 22.06 (0.0), ahead of Olympic champ Gabby Thomas (22.19), Kayla White (22.23) and Tokyo Olympian Anavia Battle (22.26).

Jefferson-Wooden dominated the final, taking charge on the turn and rolling to the finish with a sensational win, in a lifetime best of 21.84 , now no. 2 in the world for 2025. Behind her, Battle, who has won four Diamond League meets this season, got second in 22.13, but the next three were too close.

At the line, Thomas leaned best and was able to hold off Olympic bronze winner Brittany Brown and Long, all in 22.20, but all within 2/1,000ths: 22.197-22.198-22.199. This was too close.

● Men/800 m: World Indoor winner Josh Hoey got out fast to stay out of trouble and took the bell in a blazing 49.29! American Record man Bryce Hoppel came up on Hoey around the final turn and then it was an all-out sprint with 2019 World Champion Donavan Brazier and Brandon Miller.

Hoey led in the straight, but Hoppel went by and then Brazier – plagued by injuries since that 2019 title – took charge and flew by between Hoey on the rail and Hoppel and rolled to the line in 1:42.16, a lifetime best!

Behind him, high school record holder Cooper Lutkenhaus – 16 – was moving fastest on the outside and stormed past everyone else, getting second in 1:42.27, a world under-18 record in a complete shock. Hoppel stayed in third at 1:42.49, with Hoey fourth in 1:43.06 and Miller was fifth in a lifetime best of 1:43.16.

Brazier moved up to no. 3 in the world for 2025, Lutkenhaus to no. 6; Brazier’s mark is the no. 3 performance in American history and Lutkenhaus is now no. 4 all-time U.S., with the no. 4 performance. Stunning, unexpected and perhaps miraculous.

● Women/Discus: Olympic champion Valarie Allman put everyone on notice in the first round, sailing out to 67.25 m (220-7) in her quest for a 27th straight win. She then ended the discussion with a 69.66 m (228-6) second throw, a mark only she and reigning World Champion Lagi Tausaga–Collins have reached this year.

Tausaga-Collins was a solid second from the first round on, reaching 63.75 m (209-2) on her opener and improving to 64.86 m (212-9) in round three. Then Allman exploded in round four with a 71.45 m (234-5), the no. 3 throw in American history! Allman followed up at 70.28 m (230-7), the no. 10 performance, and then 68.12 m (223-6). She might be the biggest favorite of all in Tokyo.

Tausaga-Collins did not improve, but stayed in second; Gabi Jacobs surprised, moving from seventh to third in the sixth round to 63.33 m (207-9) to get third and on to Tokyo.

There was a lot more drama, of course, in all of the other events (especially the men’s shot):

● Men/5,000 m: This was expected to be a wild race, with Paris 1,500 m winner Cole Hocker leading at 3,000 m, but with more than a dozen in contact.

Hocker still led with four laps left, ahead of Cooper Teare and Olympic bronzer Grant Fisher. When would the break come?

With two laps left, ex-North Carolina star Parker Wolfe moved up into fourth, but it was still too tight. Young moved up towards the lead and then Olin Hacker took the lead over Young with 600 m to go, but Young took the bell in front and in full sprint. Fisher moved up into second, out of a box and was running with Young into the final straight, with six in contention for the top three.

Then Hocker repeated his Paris shocker on the straight, and sprinted past everyone to win on the rail – just like his Olympic 1,500 win – in 13:26.45! Hocker’s final 400 was 51.76.

Fisher ran 52.88 for his final 400 and got second in 13:26.75, with Young finishing third in 13:27.05. Drew Hunter was fourth in 13:27.16, then Teare in 13:27.56 and Wolfe in 13:28.20.

● Men/110 m hurdles: The semifinals saw world leader Cordell Tinch surge over the last three hurdles to edge World Champion Grant Holloway in the first race, 13.11 to 13.18 (-0.1), with Ja’Qualon Scott in third (13.27).

World no. 3 Dylan Beard won semi two, also at 13.11 (-0.1), ahead of Jamal Britt (13.12) and NCAA winner Ja’Kobe Tharp (13.30). Paris Olympian Freddie Crittenden was fifth in 13.40 and did not advance. Trey Cunningham, the 2022 Worlds runner-up, was in front by hurdle two and won race three cleanly in 13.16 (+1.9), with Devion Wilson second in 13.24.

Holloway skipped the final as planned, and Cunningham had the early lead off the gun, fighting with Beard. But as Tinch came on, Cunningham faded and Beard was right there, as was Tharp in lane one. And on the run-in, Tharp was strong to the line and won in a lifetime best of 13.01 (+0.7), no. 3 in the world for 2025. Who saw this coming?

Tinch was second in 13.03 and Beard made the team at 13.04 in third; Cunningham was a frustrating fourth in 13.10.

● Men/400 m hurdles: Olympic champion Rai Benjamin was in lane seven and saw 2024 NCAA champion Caleb Dean take off from the gun. Dean was in front through the first half, then Benjamin took over and ran away with the victory in 46.89, a good time, but not close to his world-leading 46.54.

Dean held on and got second and on the Worlds team in 48.45, then Chris Robinson – another NCAA winner, from 2023 – getting third on the run-in from C.J. Allen, 48.56 to 48.76. The top three all have the Worlds standard and are on to Tokyo.

● Men/High Jump: Only four could manage 2.22 m (7-3 1/4) and at 2.27 m (7-5 3/4), only Tyus Wilson could clear! What? The NCAA indoor champ from Nebraska claimed the national title, but failed on all three tries at 2.30 m (7-6 1/2); he does not have the Worlds standard, so it will be up to the World Athletics Rankings.

Olympic silver winner Shelby McEwen and two-time Olympian JuVaughn Harrison went 2-3 at 2.22 m, finishing ahead on misses against Mississippi’s NCAA outdoor champ Arvesta Troupe. None have the Worlds standard in 2025.

● Men/Triple Jump: James Carter got a lifetime best of 16.93 m (55-6 1/2) to take the lead in round one, but Paris Olympian Russell Robinson took the lead at 17.15 m (56-3 1/4) in the fourth round and was matched by 2024 Trials winner Salif Mane in round five.

Behind them, Carter was passed by 34-year-old Will Claye, who reached 17.09 m (56-1) – his best since 2021! – to get third with Carter fourth. Claye, a two-time Olympic silver winner and two-time Worlds silver man, does not have the Worlds standard and will have to see how the World Athletics Rankings sort out.

● Men/Shot Put: Reigning World Champion Ryan Crouser was out with injury, and two-time World Champion Joe Kovacs took the lead at 22.09 m (72-5) in round two and reached 22.06 m (72-4 1/2) in round three.

But Tripp Piperi, the 2025 World Indoor bronze winner, exploded to 22.29 m (73-1 3/4) – a lifetime best – to take the lead in round four. Then round six came.

Josh Awotunde, the 2022 Worlds bronzer, was fifth, but unloaded a lifetime best when he needed it at 22.47 m (73-8 3/4), one cm off Kovacs’ world leader, and took the lead. Then Payton Otterdahl, the Paris Olympic fourth-placer, got his best of the day and moved into second at 22.35 m (73-4)!

That moved Piperi into third and he did not improve, bringing up Kovacs, now fourth and off the team. He managed 21.99 m (72-1 3/4) and stayed fourth and will not be in Tokyo. Amazing.

Awotunde made his third U.S. Worlds team, after 2022 and 2023.

● Women/800 m: The start was slow, with Nia Akins, the Olympic trials winner, taking the bell in 60.81. Akins stayed in front, with Sage Hurta-Klecker coming on around the final corner, but Addy Wiley, the top entry coming in, got into a tangle with Meghan Hunter and fell back.

In the straight, Akins was trying to hold on, but was passed by Hurta-Klecker and then NCAA champ Roisin Willis powered past everyone to win in 1:59.26. Also flying to the line was Maggi Congdon , who got second in the final step at 1:59.39, with Hurta-Klecker third (1: 59.48) and Akins in the dreaded fourth spot at 1:59.52. Wiley was ninth in 2:02.14.

● Women/5,000 m: Annie Rodenfels had the lead at 3,000 m, with everyone still in contention, at 9:30.29. Emily Venters had the lead with three laps to go, then Josette Andrews took the lead and got everyone’s attention, with two-time Olympian Elise Cranny and Karissa Schweizer close behind.

Seven broke away and Andrews took the bell, ahead of Cranny, Schweizer and three-time winner Shelby Houlihan. Bailey Hertenstein moved hard and took the lead with 200 to go and Houlihan moved up into second. Into the straight, Houlihan ran away and won easily in 15:13.61, with a 61.85 last 400 m. After serving her four-year doping suspension, Houlihan won the World Indoor 3,000 m silver in March and is now on her third Worlds outdoor team.

Cranny moved hard for second in 15:14.26 and Andrews was a clear third in 15:15.01. Weini Kelati got fourth (15:15.89) and Hertenstein was fifth in 15:16.54.

● Women/400 m hurdles: Olympic silver medalist Anna Cockrell moved fastest off the start, just ahead of Rio 2016 champ Dalilah Muhammad, one lane to her outside in seven.

But Muhammad surged and had control of the race around the turn, held on on the straight and won in 52.65, over Cockrell (52.89) and Olympic fourth-placer Jasmine Jones in third in 53.23. Muhammad has said this will be her last season …but why?

South Carolina’s Akala Garrett, the NCAA runner-up, was a distant fourth in 55.66.

● Women/Vault: The four everyone expected to contend for the Tokyo team cleared 4.73 m (15-6 1/4) and it was on. Tokyo Olympic champ Katie Moon and two-time World Indoor champ Sandi Morris led, with twins Amanda Moll (NCAA indoor champ) and Hana Moll (NCAA outdoor champ) in places 3-4.

The bar went to 4.83 m (15-10) and Morris was the only one to clear and took the victory, with Moon second and Amanda Moll third on fewer misses vs. sister Hana. Both will go as Moon has an automatic entry as the 2023 Worlds winner. For Morris, it’s a ninth national title, indoors and out.

There will be a lot of attention to the next edition of the World Athletics Rankings on Wednesday to see who will make it to Tokyo. The international circuit starts up again next week, with the next Diamond League meet the following week on 16 August in Chorzow (POL).

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

SWIMMING: Marchand and McIntosh finish with sharp wins as U.S. ends World Champs with women’s 4×100 m Medley world record!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Four golds for Canadian star Summer McIntosh at the 2025 World Championships! (Photo: World Aquatics/Aniko Kovacs).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPS ≡

The 2025 World Aquatics Championships closed on Sunday in Singapore with superstars Leon Marchand of France and Summer McIntosh of Canada taking more golds, with a world record from the U.S. in the final event.

The American women had the fastest qualifying time in the heats of the 4×100 m Medley with a reserve team, then brought out its stars for the finale. And they were on it, with Regan Smith leading by 0.12 after a 57.57 backstroke, then Kate Douglass blowing the race wide open with a 1:04.27 breast leg, creating a 2.34-second gap with the rest of the field.

Gretchen Walsh, the 50-100 Fly winner, widened the lead further at 54.98 for her leg and Torri Huske finished it off with a 52.52 Free finale to touch in a world record 3:49.34. That smashed the U.S.’s record swim from Paris 2024 of 3:49.63, which included Smith, Lilly King, Walsh and Huske.

It was a great way to end a difficult meet for the U.S. and one of three medals on the day. Australia was a clear second in 3:52.67, followed by China in 3:54.77.

The final-day events were highlighted by Marchand and McIntosh in the 400 m Medleys, among a bevy of 50 m finals:

● Men/50 Backstroke: World-record holder Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS “neutral”) won his first Worlds gold with a clear win in 23.71, a time only he has bettered (23.55 in 2023) and fastest in the world for 2025.

South Africa’s Pieter Coetze, the 100 m Back winner and Russian Pavel Samusenko tied for second, well back at 24.17. American Quintin McCarty was fifth in 24.58.

● Men/1,500 m Freestyle: Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi got his second gold of the Worlds, winning a tight battle with Sven Schwarz (GER) and Olympic champ Bobby Finke of the U.S.

Schwarz led for much of the race, but Jaouadi – the 800 Free winner – surged to turn first at 1,400 m and had the fastest final 50 to touch in 14:34.41, the no. 10 performance in history; he now ranks sixth all-time.

Schwarz held on for second in 14:35.69, with Finke third in 14:36.60, a seasonal best.

● Men/400 m Medley: French superstar Marchand completed his Medley double with a dominant win in 4:04.73, the no. 5 swim in history in this event. He had the lead right from the start and was never headed, up by almost three seconds at the half and winning by 3.59.

Paris Olympic runner-up Tomoyuki Matsushita (JPN) repeated his silver medal performance, in 4:08.32, ahead of Russian “neutral” Ilia Borodin (4:09.16). Marchand now has four of the top five performances ever in the event.

● Men/4×100 m Medley: The U.S. was the top qualifier, but in the final, lead-off Tommy Janton managed only a 53.37 opener on backstroke and was sixth at the exchange. Josh Matheny moved the U.S. up to fifth on the breaststroke leg and Dare Rose got the Americans to fourth at the final change on butterfly.

Meanwhile, France got strong opening legs from Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Marchand, then took the lead with star Fly leg Maxime Grousset. The Russian “neutral” team was a strong second and Egor Kornev posted a 46.40 Free leg to pass Yann le Goff and win in 3:26.93, the no. 2 time in history.

France’s 3:27.96 ranks as the 12th-fastest ever in second. The U.S. had star sprinter Jack Alexy on anchor and he blasted his leg, moving up to third past Italy and taking the bronze for the Americans in 3:28.62.

Alexy’s split was an insane 45.95, the second-fastest ever, behind only Chinese world-record holder Zhanle Pan’s 45.92 last year in Paris and faster than Jason Lezak’s legendary 46.06 anchor at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (CHN). Relay splits are not considered for record purposes, except for the first leg, when all swimmers start at the same time, but it’s an amazing swim nonetheless.

● Women/50 Freestyle: Australia’s Meg Harris joined the World Champions club with a convincing win in 24.02, ahead of Qingfeng Wu (CHN: 24.26) and Yujie Cheng (CHN: 24.28).

Americans Walsh (24.40) and Huske (24.50) finished fourth and sixth, well off their seasonal bests of 23.91 and 23.98, which came into Singapore 1-2 on the world list.

● Women/50 m Breaststroke: Four Worlds golds in a row for Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte, who was a clear winner in 29.55, just 0.01 off of her world-leading time in the semifinals. China’s Qianting Tang, who won bronze in the 100 Breast, moved up to silver here in 30.03, ahead of Italy’s Benedetta Pilato (30.14), who won her fifth straight Worlds medal in this event (silver-silver-bronze-bronze-bronze).

Retiring star Lilly King of the U.S. finished fifth in 30.25, ending a brilliant career as one of the best ever.

● Women/400 m Medley: Canadian star McIntosh won her fourth gold of the meet, sweeping the medleys with a 4:25.78 performance that is the third-fastest in history. She now has the fastest four swims ever in the event and seven of the top eight.

She won by almost seven-and-a-half seconds, with Jenna Forrester (AUS) and Mio Narita (JPN) tying for second at 4:33.26, with Forrester coming on strong on the final lap to touch at the same time.

China’s 12-year-old sensation. Zidi Yu got fourth in 4:33.76, ahead of Americans Emma Weyant (4:34.01) and Katie Grimes (4:36.52).

In Singapore, Yu was fourth in all three of her individual events: the 200 m Fly and the 200 and 400 m Medleys. She won a bronze as a prelim swimmer in women’s 4×200 m Free relay.

The final medal table showed the U.S. on top with 29 medals in all, with nine golds, 11 silvers and nine bronzes. Australia was second at 20 (8-6-6), with China third at 14 (2-6-6). This was not considered a top performance by the U.S., thanks to the training-camp illness problems and some significant weaknesses in the men’s line-up.

Even so, the U.S. topped the medals list once again and there will be much discussion before the next Worlds, in Budapest (HUN) in 2027.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: McLaughlin-Levrone, Russell, Jackson star at USATF Nationals as Koech and Strand get shock 1-2 in men’s 1,500 final!

By
Rich Perelman
-
New American distance star Jonah Koech winning the Diamond League 1,500 m in Rabat (MAR) (Photo: Diamond League AG).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ USATF NATIONALS ≡

There were some things that were expected on Saturday at the USA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone winning the women’s 400, yes. Olympic 100 hurdles champ Masai Russell and two-time World Champion Chase Jackson in the women’s shot, yes.

But Jonah Koech in the men’s 1,500? NO!

The 1,500 m heats were astonishingly fast, and Olympic bronzer Yared Nuguse and Paris fifth-placer Hobbs Kessler were at the front off the gun, passing 400 m in 56.23. Nuguse passed 800 m in 1:54.59, a little slower, and stayed in front through 1,200 m in 2:50.53.

Olympic champ Cole Hocker moved into third around the turn, but then new sensation Koech got into the mix, trailing Hocker for third into the backstraight. Nuguse and Kessler were still 1-2 into the final turn, but ex-North Carolina star Ethan Strand was running hard on the outside and got to the lead with 100 m to go.

Koech was right behind with Hocker chasing both down the straight. Koech passed Strand in the final 5 m and won in a shocking upset in a lifetime best of 3:30.17! Strand was second in 3:30.25, also a lifetime best. Hocker got third in 3:30.37, with Kessler at 3:33.12 and Nuguse a stunning fifth in 3:31.34. Koech ran his last 400 m in 52.91 and Strand in 53.07, and that was the difference.

Unbelievable does not even begin to describe this outcome. Koech, who transferred allegiance to the U.S. in 2021 from Kenya, now ranks no. 7 all-time U.S. and Strand, 22, is no. 8.

However, the big stars did shine elsewhere:

● Women/400 m: McLaughlin-Levrone was the star attraction, in lane five, with good conditions at 1:03 p.m., in 78 F and sunny skies. She was off strongly, making up the stagger on Bella Whittaker to her outside. Around the turn, McLaughlin-Levrone was all in charge and ran to the line in 48.90. Whittaker was undaunted, and was a strong second in 49.59, with Georgia star Aaliyah Butler coming on in the final 50 m in lane nine to get third in 49.91, ahead of Lynna Irby-Jackson (50.06).

Alexis Holmes (50.33) and Britton Wilson (50.88) finished 5-6 and will probably be in the relay pool for Tokyo.

● Women/100 m hurdles: The semifinals were hot, with Olympic fifth-placer Grace Stark winning the first race in 12.34 (+0.6), and Olympic champ and world leader Russell even faster in race two in 12.25 (+1.5). Olympic Trials fifth-placer Tonea Marshall got the third win in 12.46, just ahead of Olympic finalist Alaysha Johnson (12.47: +0.4).

The final was about 95 minutes later, with Russell getting out well and taking the race in hand, never giving anyone a chance, finishing in 12.22 (+0.7). Stark figured to be second and she was in 12.31, with Johnson just edging former world-record holder Keni Harrison for third at the line, 12.36 to 12.37.

That’s the no. 7 performance in history for Russell; she’s the only one with more than one of the top seven.

● Women/Shot Put: Two-time World Champion and American Record-setter Jackson bombed the field early, measuring 20.84 m (68-4 1/2) in the first round, the no. 3 throw in U.S. history, all by her this year! No one could touch her and her 20.56 m (67-5 1/2) in the second round is the no. 9 throw in American history.

Maggie Ewen was the only one within a meter, at 19.94 m (65-5) in round two; Jessica Ramsey was third at 19.56 m (64-2 1/4), and all three have the Worlds qualifying standard.

There was a mix of expected winners and surprises in the rest of Saturday’s finals:

● Men/400 m: Jacory Patterson, the 2025 World Indoor bronze winner, wanted this race and he ran hard from the start, making up ground on the field and then taking the lead for good on the turn. He was unchallenged on the straight and won in 44.16. Veteran Vernon Norwood was hanging on to second into the straight, but World Indoor champ Chris Bailey was moving hard in lane nine, as was Khaleb McRae in lane two. Both passed Norwood, and Bailey timed 44.43 for second, McRae hit 44.45 and Norwood was fourth in 44.47.

Jenoah Mckiver (45.16) and 2023 U.S. champ Bryce Deadmon (45.39) went 5-6 and into the relay pool for the World Championships.

● Men/Steeple: BYU’s NCAA champ James Corrigan led early, but Olympic silver winner Kenneth Rooks had the lead by 2,000 m. Fellow Olympian Benard Keter was second with Daniel Michalski third at the bell, but Rooks kept the pressure on.

Rooks and Michalski were 1-2 into the final straight and Rooks got there for his third straight U.S. crown in 8:26.58. Michalski was second in 8:26.77, then Keter in 8:29.00. Matthew Wilkinson, the top American on time in 2025, was fourth in 8:29.32; neither Michalski or Keter have the Worlds standard.

● Men/20 km Walk: Held in the early morning, Nick Christie, the national champion in 2018-19-21-22-23-24, won again, leading from the start and finishing in 1:24:56.2, his fifth-fastest time ever. Emmanuel Corvera was second, just ahead of Jordan Crawford, 1:27:59.2 to 1:28:02.6.

● Men/Vault: Five were alive after 5.72 m (18-9 1/4), with two-time World Champion Sam Kendricks, 2020 U.S. indoor champ Matt Ludwig and Austin Miller all perfect with three clearances each.

But only Miller could clear 5.82 m (19-1) and he ended up the winner and on his first U.S. national team! Kendricks go second and Ludwig third. Miller went on to a lifetime best of 5.92 m (19-5) and got that on his third try to wrap up his first American national championship.

● Men/Discus: Two-time Olympian – and two-time USATF champion – Sam Mattis got the early lead at 64.82 m (212-8) in round two, but was passed by 2018 winner Reggie Jagers in round three at 66.85 m (219-4).

And that was enough for Jagers to win, with Mattis improving to 65.56 m (215-1) in the fifth round, but he could get no closer. Marcus Gustaveson moved up to third on his final throw of 64.51 m (211-7) and is on the way to Tokyo.

● Women/1,500 m: It was warm for the final, at 80 F, with Nikki Hiltz the winner of the 2023 and 2024 national titles, the favorite. It started slow, at 67.88 for 400 m and slower at 2:15.90 m at 800 m. Finally, 2022 national champ Sinclaire Johnson took the lead at the bell, with Emily Mackay close, then Hiltz moving up to challenge with 200 m to go.

Johnson led into the straight, with Hiltz on the shoulder and Hiltz had too much speed and won in 4:03.15, with a 58.67 last lap. Johnson second in 4:03.77 and Mackay got third in 4:04.38 and is on the team; Heather MacLean was fourth in 4:05.60. It’s a strong team: the top three are all in the world top 14 right now.

● Women/Steeple: Former NCAA champ Courtney Wayment had the early lead, with North Carolina State’s NCAA third-placer Angelina Napoleon and a half-dozen others all close with four laps to go. Napoleon was in front with three laps left, and with two laps left, but then NCAA runner-up Lexy Halladay-Lowry took off and had a 5 m lead at the bell.

Only Napoleon was in contact and they ran to the line 1-2, in 9:09.14 and 9:10.96. Kaylee Mitchell was third off the final water jump and held off a late charge from 2023 national champ by Krissy Gear for third, 9:11.36 and 9:11.64.

● Women/20 km Walk: Lauren Harris, the 2025 USATF Indoor 3,000 m Walk champ, won her first U.S. 20 km national title, taking control right away and crossing in 1:31:23.7, ahead of nine-time champion in the event, Maria Michta-Coffey (1:39:58.6). Katie Burnett was alone in third in 1:40:35.2.

● Women/Triple Jump: Olympic bronze medalist Jasmine Moore missed making the U.S. long jump team and came out determined, reaching 14.29 m (46-10 3/4) in the first round. NCAA runner-up Agur Dwol jumped 13.76 m (45-1 3/4) in round two to move up to second, and stayed there.

Moore had it won and then exploded in round six, reaching 14.68 m (48-2), moving to no. 3 in the world in 2025! All six of her jumps would have won the event.

In the qualifying, the men’s 110 m hurdles featured six of the world’s top 10, which did not include reigning World Champion Grant Holloway, who is 0-4 in finals in 2025! World leader Cordell Tinch took heat one in 13.34 (+0.1), ahead of Connor Schulman (13.46) with NCAA winner Ja’Kobe Tharp advancing to the semis in fourth (13.58).

World no. 3 Dylan Beard continued his career year with a 13.13 win in heat two (+0.8), ahead of Paris Olympian Freddie Crittenden (13.46). Holloway headlined heat three, and delivered with a 13.15 win (-0.4) over world no. 8 Jamal Britt (13.25). Trey Cunningham, the 2022 Worlds runner-up, won heat four in 13.10 (+1.3) – fastest of the day – ahead of Texas’ Kendrick Smallwood (13.35). Olympic silver winner Daniel Roberts was scheduled for heat four, but did not start.

Ex-NCAA champion Caleb Dean took the lead over hurdle eight in semi one of the men’s 400 m hurdles and dueled with another NCAA winner, Chris Robinson, both in 47.76, now equal-6th in the world for 2025. Trevor Bassitt, the 2022 Worlds bronze winner, clobbered two hurdles in semi two and finished seventh; Aldrich Bailey passed CJ Allen on the run-in to win in 49.00 to 49.04.

Olympic champ Rai Benjamin was in lane seven in semi three, and went to the lead right away, and essentially loafed the straightaway to win in 47.45. Amazing. Texas’ Kody Blackwood was a distant second in 49.12.

In the women’s 400 m hurdles, Olympic fourth-placer Jasmine Jones was the runaway heat one winner in 54.36, and the same for Olympic runner-up Anna Cockrell, in 53.97. Rio 2016 Olympic champ Dalilah Muhammad, who said she will retire at the end of the season, featured in heat three, and she ran down both women ahead of her by the fourth hurdle and stormed to an easy win in 53.80, fastest of the day. Those three were more than a second-and-a-half faster than the rest of the field.

Sunday’s program begins with the women’s discus and vault at noon and the men’s 200 m semis at 12:05 p.m. NBC and Peacock have broadcast coverage from 1-3 p.m. Pacific (4-6 p.m. Eastern).

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

MEMORABILIA: Mexico City ‘68 medals and uniform of high jump star Dick Fosbury and ‘84 Michael Jordan gold-medal shoes on auction

By
Rich Perelman
-
Dick Fosbury winning the 1968 U.S. Olympic (semi) Trials in Los Angeles (Photo: Los Angeles Times via UCLA on Wikipedia).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ FOSBURY AND JORDAN≡

Dick Fosbury’s Olympic success revolutionized the high jump and forever changed the way the event is conducted. He astounded the crowd in Mexico City’s Estadio Olimpico on 20 October 1968, winning with an Olympic record of 2.24 m (7-4 1/4) to win over U.S. teammate Ed Caruthers, who cleared 2.22 m (7-3 1/4).

Fosbury, who lived a long and productive life in Oregon as an engineer and stayed close to the Olympic Movement through the World Olympians Association, passed away in March 2023.

Now, three mementos of his Mexico City 1968 triumph are available at Heritage Auctions in its August 23-24 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction:

● Mexico City ‘68 Olympic gold medal, projected to bring $200,000.

● Mexico City ‘68 U.S. Olympic uniform top, projected to bring $50,000.

● Mexico City ‘68 Olympic participation medal, a rare example with a ribbon and clamshell presentation case, projected to bring $20,000.

Initial bidding will end on 23 August at 10 p.m. Central time.

The auction has more than a dozen Olympic-related items, including:

● 1900 Paris medals for shooting (three separate lots)
● 1912 Stockholm Olympic tickets on three days when Jim Thorpe competed
● 1936 Berlin Olympic tickets on three days when Jesse Owens competed
● 1984 Olympic Games tickets for two games in which Michael Jordan played

● 1984 Los Angeles Olympic torch, projected to bring $2,000
● 2016 Rio Olympic torch, projected to bring $20,000

While Michael Jordan became an icon thanks to his basketball prowess and relentless promotion by Nike, he wore Converse during the 1984 Olympic tournament as his Nike relationship was in the future.

The auction has a pair of Converse shoes worn by Jordan during the 1984 Olympic tournament are also up, expected to bring $40,000 and up. The shoes were gifted by Jordan to Patrick Knight, son of U.S. coach Bobby Knight, after the U.S.’s 96-65 gold-medal win over Spain.

Eight years later, Jordan won a second Olympic gold as part of the original “Dream Team” at the 1992 Barcelona Games, by that time fully engaged with Nike.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

AQUATICS: Ledecky takes women’s 800 Free, Walsh wins women’s 50 Fly and U.S. gets world record win in mixed 4×100 Free in Worlds medal spree!

By
Rich Perelman
-
An amazing seventh Worlds gold for Katie Ledecky (USA) in the women's 800 m Free! (Photo: University of Florida).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPS ≡

The 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore will be remembered for many things, among them the showdowns between superstars Katie Ledecky of the U.S. and Summer McIntosh of Canada.

Day one saw McIntosh winning the 400 m Freestyle, with Ledecky third, but they met again on Saturday, this time at 800 m and it turned into a three-way battle with Australia’s Lani Pallister.

Ledecky got out first, tracked by McIntosh and Pallister, with both at 4:01.33 at 400 m, just 0.18 behind Ledecky. McIntosh was 0.14 down at 500 m, just 0.04 down at 600 m and took the lead at 700 m, up 0.14 on Ledecky!

But Ledecky punched back, with the fastest next 50 in the field (30.24) to 30.63 for McIntosh and took the lead at the final turn by 0.25 and was moving away. McIntosh was then passed by Pallister, who had the fastest finish in the field – 29.11 – and crept up on Ledecky.

But the American star was too good and won in 8:05.62, the no. 4 time in history, ahead of Pallister’s 8:05.98 and McIntosh at 8:07.29. They were more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Ledecky’s performance was the no. 4 time in history and Pallister’s was no. 6, and she is now the no. 3 performer ever. At 28, Ledecky now has 23 Worlds golds and has won the 800 Free seven times: in 2013-15-17-19-22-23-25; she owns 30 total Worlds medals. Amazing.

That was followed by the final event of the night, the mixed 4×100 m Freestyle. The U.S. led the qualifying by almost three seconds at 3:21.48, and left no doubt in the final, leading from the start with a world-record of 3:18.48!

Freestyle star Jack Alexy led off in 46.91, just 0.10 off his own American Record from this meet and was followed by Patrick Sammon (46.70!), Kate Douglass (52.43) and Torri Huske (52.44). They smashed Australia’s 3:18.83 mark from the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka (JPN).

Russia’s “neutrals” finished a clear second with a European Record of 3:19.68, followed by France (3:21.35).

That wasn’t all for the U.S. on Saturday, with a third win coming in the women’s 50 m Butterfly.

Gretchen Walsh of the U.S. and Australia’s Alex Perkins came in 1-2 on the world list for 2025 and they finished exactly that way, with Walsh starting fast and touching in 24.83, still the only one to crack 25 seconds this year.

Perkins was a clear second at 25.31, with Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk getting her second medal of the meet with the bronze in 25.43.

There was a lot more on a busy night in the pool:

● Men/50 m Freestyle: Australia’s Cam McEvoy won his third title in a row, after the 2023 Worlds and 2024 Olympic Games, touching in 21.14, fastest in the world this year and the equal-11th best all-time. He now has three of those 12.

Britain’s Olympic silver winner Ben Proud was a clear second in 21.26 for his first individual medal of the meet and Alexy got his second individual medal in third at 21.46. Teammate Santo Condorelli was eighth in 21.73.

● Men/100 m Butterfly: France’s Maxime Grousset was the 2023 World Champion in this event and he is again, getting in front quickly, turning first and touching in 49.62, the no. 3 performance ever and a European record. He won the 50 and 100 Flys in Singapore.

Short-course star Noe Ponti (SUI) was third at the turn, but moved up to second at the touch in 49.83, a national record, the no. 9 performance ever and making him the no. 5 performer ever. Canada’s Ilya Kharun claimed the bronze (50.07), just as he did in Paris in 2024.

● Women/200 m Backstroke: Two-time World Champion Kaylee McKeown (AUS) faced defending champ Claire Curzan of the U.S. and fellow American and Olympic silver winner Regan Smith, but was up the challenge once again.

Smith got out fast and led at the 50, 100 and 150 m marks, but her 0.73-second lead at the half tightened up to 0.03 at the last turn and McKeown had the most left and touched in 2:03.33, the no. 3 performance of all time (she owns all three).

Smith won yet another silver in 2:04.29; she was the 2019 World Champion in this event and won in 2022 in the 100 m Back. But since then:

● 2023 Worlds: 50-100-200 m Back silvers
● 2024 Olympics: 100-200 m Back silvers
● 2025 Worlds: 50-100-200 m Back silvers

At 23, she will have many more chances. Teammate Curzan was a clear third in 2:06.04.

In the qualifying, Russian “neutral” Kliment Kolesnikov – the world-record holder – led the men’s 50 Back semifinals in 24.16, well ahead of teammate Pavel Samusenko in semi two. Pieter Coetze (RSA), the 100 m Back winner, won semi one in a national record of 24.32 to qualify third; American Quintin McCarty advanced as no. 7 overall (24.52) as the third finisher.

The men’s 1,500 m Free heats were held in the morning, with Germany’s Florian Wellbrock – who impressively swept the open-water events – leading the parade at 14:44.81; Olympic champ Bobby Finke of the U.S. was fourth-fastest at 14:45.70. Teammate David Johnston was ninth (14:56.20) and did not advance.

Poland’s Kasia Wasick led the women’s 50 Free semis, winning the first race in 24.19, ahead of Milou van Wijk (NED: 24.29) and Walsh (24.31), doubling back from the 50 Fly. Australia’s Meg Harris won the second semi in 24.31, with Huske of the U.S. qualifying in fourth at 24.41.

Three-time defending champion Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) led the semifinals in the women’s 50 Breast, with a world-leading 29.54, ahead of Qianting Tang (CHN: 30.04) and semi one winner Benedetta Pilato (ITA: 30.20) and Lilly King of the U.S. (30.22).

Even with all of the illness issues, the U.S. now has 26 medals (8-11-7) to 17 for Australia (7-4-6) and 10 for China (2-4-4). There will be considerable effort on Sunday for the American squad to surpass the 28 medals won in Paris in 2024 (8-13-7 in a smaller program) that was seen as a disappointment.

The championships conclude on Sunday with the men’s 1,500 m Free, 50 Back, 400 m Medley and the 4×100 m Medley; the women have the 50 Free, 50 Breast, 400 Medley and the 4×100 m Medley.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

ATHLETICS: Bednarek (9.79) and Jefferson-Wooden (10.65) storm to U.S. 100 m titles, with Garland (8,869) and Hall (6,899) easy Dec-Hep winners in Eugene

By
Rich Perelman
-
A first national 100 m title for “Kung Fu” Kenny Bednarek! (Photo: Grand Slam Track)

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ USATF NATIONALS ≡

There were other events, but the focus of Friday’s session of the 2025 USA Track & Field nationals in Eugene, Oregon was the 100 m finals. Conditions were good, starting with 87 F temperatures for the semifinals, with the men’s races first, in front of a modest crowd at Hayward Field.

Just as on Thursday, the first race had T’Mars McCallum and two-time Worlds bronze winner Trayvon Bromell, and the outcome was almost identical, with McCallum taking it in 9.99 (wind: +0.1 m/s) and Bromell second in 10.03 and into the final. Georgia prep Maurice Gleaton – 18 – got third in a lifetime best of 10.05; NCAA winner Jordan Anthony was fourth in 10.13 and did not advance.

Courtney Lindsey, the 2023 NCAA winner, took semi two in 10.06 (+0.6), ahead of Lawrence Johnson (10.12) and Brandon Hicklin (10.13). Semi three had 2019 World Champion Christian Coleman and Grand Slam star Kenny Bednarek, who won all three races on the circuit. And with 2.1 m/s wind, Bednarek won his fifth straight race of the year in 9.90w, with Coleman a solid second in 9.94w, followed by Ronnie Baker at 9.97w.

The women’s semis were next, with Jacious Sears looking great again with a 10.95 win (+0.7) in the first race, well ahead of Jenna Prandini (11.08) and Hayward Field favorite English Gardner (11.10), now 33, who made the final on time. World leader Melissa Jefferson-Wooden showed she is the favorite, steaming to a dominant win in 10.84 (-0.3), with Aleia Hobbs a distant second in 11.10. Wow.

Semi three had heat winners Kayla White and TeeTee Terry, and they were close at the line, going 1-2 and both timed in 10.92 (+1.1), and then Tamari Davis at 10.96.

(World Champion Sha’Carri Richardson, who has a direct entry in the 2025 Worlds, skipped the semis after running a seasonal best of 11.07 in the heats. It came out today that Richardson was arrested for an altercation with Coleman on Sunday at SeaTac Airport; Coleman declined to press charges, but police charged her with 4th-degree assault after seeing security video of the incident.)

About 1:50 later, the men were in the blocks for the final – with 86 F temps – and McCallum reacted best, but Coleman and Lindsey got to the front with the field all close. But at 40 m, Bednarek cut in another gear and stormed to the line clearly in front in a lifetime best 9.79, no. no. 2 in the world for 2015 (+1.8) and equal-12th all-time!

The race behind him was fabulous, with Lindsey getting a lifetime best of 9.82, then McCallum at 9.83 (lifetime best) and Bromell at 9.84 … in fourth! Those times rank 2, equal-3rd, equal-5th and equal-7th in the world this season! Coleman ran 9.86 and was fifth, then Gleaton, equaling the U.S. prep record at 9.92! The top seven all ran 9.92 or faster. Wow.

The women’s final came 1:38 after the end of their semis, and while Hobbs had the best reaction, Jefferson-Wooden was gone and ran away from the field after 40 m and was unchallenged, setting a lifetime best and world-leading time of 10.65 (+0.4)!

She’s now equal-5th all-time and equal-third all-time U.S. with Marion Jones (1998) and Richardson (2023). White got a lifetime best of 10.84 to finish second (world no. 4), running just to Jefferson-Wooden’s right and Hobbs was third in 10.92. Terry (10.94), Davis (10.97) and Sears (11.00) followed and are likely on the plane in the relay pool for Tokyo.

Spectacular! There were other finals, of course:

● Men/Long Jump: Things got cooking when 2017 national champ Jarrion Lawson took the lead at 8.12 m (26-7 3/4), then Will Williams got out to a wind-aided 8.14 mw (26-8 1/2) in round four to take the lead.

Finally, Isaac Grimes, no. 21 in the World Athletics rankings, came through in round six and stole the event with a 8.15 m (26-9) jump, to win his first national title! None of the top three have the Worlds standard, but should be in the mix to get in depending on the other entries.

● Women/High Jump: Five cleared 1.88 m (6-2) and then the jumping really started. Only six-time U.S. outdoor champ Vashti Cunningham, 2024 Trials fifth-placer Sanaa Barnes and Emma Gates cleared 1.91 m (6-3 1/4) and then Gates missed three times at 1.94 m (6-4 1/4), while Cunningham cleared and Barnes got her second lifetime best of the day!

The bar went to 1.97 m (6-5 1/2), with Cunningham clearing for the win on her second try, with Barnes missing her attempts and settling for second. Cunningham also got the Worlds entry standard with her 1.97 clearance, equal-fifth in the world this season.

Both of the multi-events concluded with impressive wins for the top American stars:

● Men/Decathlon: Kyle Garland had made two U.S. World Championship teams, but did not have a national decathlon title … until today. Already leading after five events, he won the 110 m hurdles in 13.78, won the discus at 50.93 m (167-1), cleared 4.80 m (15-9) in the vault for fourth and won the javelin at 65.52 m (214-11). All that gave him a 8,277 to 7,694 lead over 2024 Olympic Trials winner Heath Baldwin going into the 1,500 m.

The final event went off in 87 F temperatures, and Garland sauntered through in 4:54.50 to score 8,869, a lifetime best (prior: 8,720 ‘22), and no. 2 in the world this year. He’s now no. 10 all-time in the event worldwide and no. 3 all-time U.S.

Baldwin held on for second at 8,407, followed by fellow Olympian Harrison Williams (8,223) and Austin West (8,162).

● Women/Heptathlon: The 2023 Worlds runner-up, Anna Hall, rolled through day two, second in the long jump (6.32 m/20-9) and first in the javelin (47.32 m/155-3), entering the 800 m with a 206-point lead on Paris Olympian Taliyah Brooks, 5,854 to 5,648.

Hall won the 800 m in 2:04.60 and finished with 6,899, her no. 3 score ever! Brooks finished 10th in the 800 m, but got a lifetime best, and met the Worlds qualifying standard at 6,526 in second; Allie Jones was third at 6,164.

There were a limited number of preliminary events on Friday, with most of the favorites moving through, but some big names left out of the finals:

In the men’s 400 m, 2023 USATF champ Bryce Deadmon took the early lead, but was passed by world no. 2 Khaleb McRae on the turn. But Deadmon fought back on the straight and won in 44.34, and Demarius Smith passed McRae to get second, 44.45 to 44.47.

Two-time Olympic relay gold medalist Vernon Norwood got out quickly in semi two, but was passed by Florida’s Jenoah Mckiver. But Norwood came on in the straight to win in 44.78 to 44.92 for Mckiver and 45.06 for Will Sumner. Prep star Quincy Wilson, the world no. 4 at 44.10, was fourth in 45.39 and did not advance to the final.

Jacory Patterson, the World Indoor bronzer this year, was only fourth at 200 m in the third heat, but moved up on the turn and then passed World Indoor winner Chris Bailey on the straight to win in 44.63, with Bailey at 44.81. USC’s William Jones was third in 45.88.

In the men’s 800 m first semi, Paris Olympian Brandon Miller took the lead just after the bell and led down the backstraight, while 2019 World Champion Donavan Brazier – in a comeback year – moved from sixth to third. Miller was not headed and won in 1:44.25, with Brazier passing Isaiah Harris on the straight to get second in 1:44.39 to 1:44.53, a seasonal best for Harris.

The second semi had American Record holder Bryce Hoppel going for the lead after 200 m, leading at the bell and staying in front to win in 1:45.31, with national prep record-setter Cooper Lutkenhaus storming into second from fifth on the home straight in 1:45.57 – his second-fastest time ever – ahead of Tokyo Olympian Isaiah Jewett (1:45.62).

World Indoor champ Josh Hoey wanted to be in front and stay out of trouble in semi three and he did just that, leading from start to finish in 1:44.47. He was shadowed by Abe Alvarado for most of the race, until Northern Arizona’s Colin Sahlman grabbed second on the final straight, 1:44.80 – a lifetime best – to 1:45.11, but both advanced to the final.

In the women’s 400 m, two-time Olympian Quanera Hayes came off the turn and dueled down the straight with world no. 3 Aaliyah Butler and won at the line, 50.76 to 50.77, with Arkansas star Rosey Effiong a clear third in 51.01. In heat two, NCAA Indoor champ Bella Whittaker had control of the race from 200 m on and won in 50.07, with former Arkansas star Britton Wilson second in 50.25 – her fastest since 2023 – and World Indoor runner-up Alexis Holmes third in 50.42, making the final on time.

Heat three had Olympic 400 m hurdles star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and she was in front all the way, winning easily in 49.51, with Paris Olympian Lynna Irby-Jackson a decisive second in 50.59.

The loaded first semi of the women’s 800 m had Tokyo Olympic champ Athing Mu-Nikolayev, 2022 World Indoor champ Ajee Wilson and 2024 Trials winner Nia Akins all in, with BYU’s NCAA third-placer Meghan Hunter taking the bell at 57.39. Akins moved from fourth to second on the final turn, then surged home to win in 1:58.09. Wilson also jumped Hunter on the run-in to get second in 1:58.30, with Hunter at 1:58.42 and Mu-Nikolayev able to manage fourth in a seasonal best of 1:59.79, but did not make the final.

Tokyo Olympic bronzer – and Hayward Field favorite – Raevyn Rogers got out to the lead early and took the bell in 58.14, then was passed by Sage Hurta-Klecker on the backstraight. Rogers fought back and led into the final straight, but Hurta-Klecker and Maggi Congdon both passed her and went 1-2 in 1:58.40 and 1:58.42. Rogers was a strong third in 1:58.78 and made the final on time.

World no. 6 Addy Wiley was in semi three along with NCAA winner Roisin Willis, but Wiley and 2023 NCAA champ Michaela Rose led at the bell in 56.98 and 57.09. Willis was third by 600 m, then blew by everyone on the straight to win in 1:59.60, with Wiley at 1:59.71 and Skylyn Webb shooting up to third in 1:59.81 as Rose faded from third to sixth in 2:01.32.

The Saturday schedule begins with the 20 km walks at 7 a.m. Pacific time, then field events at 11:20 and the running events at 11:22 a.m. The NBC television window begins at 1 p.m. (4 p.m. Eastern) and continues to 3 p.m. on the network and then for another hour on Peacock.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

AQUATICS: Douglass brilliant in women’s 200 Breast win in U.S. record time; ill Huske gets 100 Free bronze in Singapore World Champs

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. breaststroke Olympic and World Champion Kate Douglass (Photo: World Aquatics).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★

≡ WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPS ≡

As the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore head to the finish on the weekend, plenty of familiar faces were on the podium on Friday, with former Olympic or World champions taking all five finals!

The final of the women’s 200 m Breaststroke was a showdown between Russian “neutral” world-record holder Evgeniia Chikunova and Olympic champ Kate Douglass of the U.S., who had been 1-2 on the world list since April.

But Douglass was in no mood to play and took the lead from the start, up by 0.34 at the turn, then 1.30 seconds at 100 m, 1.18 seconds at 150 and came home in an American Record of 2:18.50, the no. 2 time in history! She moved up from silvers at the 2023 and 2024 Worlds.

Chikunova was a lonely second in 2:19.96, with the rest of the field more than three seconds later with Kaylene Corbett (RSA) and Belarus “neutral” Alina Zmushka tying for third in 2:23.52.

● Men/200 m Backstroke: Olympic champ Hubert Kos (HUN) hadn’t been the fastest all season, but he was when it counted, with the fastest time in the world in 2025 in 1:53.19, a European record and the no. 7 performance all-time. He now ranks as the fifth-fastest in the event in history.

Kos overtook semifinal leader – and 100 Back winner in Singapore – Pieter Coetze (RSA), after the 100 mark, but Coetze didn’t cede much and won silver in 1:53.36, moving to no. 6 all-time with another national record. France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard was third for most of the race and took the bronze in 1:54.62.

● Men/200 m Breaststroke: China’s Haiyang Qin won all three Breast events at the 2023 Worlds, then had an Olympics to forget in 2024. But he’s back, winning his second gold in 2:07.41, charging from third at the final turn to touch first, passing Japan’s ex-world record holder Ippei Watanabe, who claimed the silver in 2:07.70. Caspar Corbeau (NED) was fifth at the turn, but won the bronze at the touch in 2:07.73; American AJ Pouch had the lead at the 150 m mark, but faded to fifth with the slowest final 50 in the field, at 2:09.13.

● Men/4×200 m Freestyle: Olympic champs Great Britain were brilliant again, taking the lead from Matt Richards’ 1:45.37 opener and stormed to a 6:59.84 win, the no. 8 performance in history. The Brits have four of the eight swims ever under seven minutes.

James Guy kept Britain in front, but American Luke Hobson – the 200 Free runner-up – split 1:43.45, the fastest of the race, to pass Jack McMillan and put the U.S. in front after the third leg. But Duncan Scott swam 1:43.82 on anchor for Britain and the U.S.’s Rex Maurer managed only 1:45.82 and the Americans faded to fourth in 7:01.24.

China, with Zhanle Pan’s 1:44.20 on anchor, claimed silver (7:00.91) and Max Giuliani swam a 1:44.92 final leg for Australia to get the bronze (7:00.98).

● Women/100 m Freestyle: American star Torri Huske hasn’t been right all week due to illness, but she was in form off the start, turning first in 25.16. But on the way home, it was defending champion Marrit Steenbergen (NED) and Paris Olympic winner Mollie O’Callaghan who battled for gold, with the Dutch star touching first in 52.55, no. 2 in the world for 2025.

O’Callaghan was close, but her 52.67 was good for silver. Huske faded, with the third-slowest final 50, but still touched third, 52.89 to 52.91 over Milou van Wijk (NED) to earn the bronze.

Olympic champ Cameron McEvoy (AUS) led the way in the men’s 50 m Freestyle semis, winning semi one in 21.30, equaling the fastest time of the year. He was just ahead of American Jack Alexy, the 100 m Free runner-up in Singapore (21.32). Santo Cordorelli of the U.S. qualified seventh in 21.68, fourth in the first semi with McEvoy and Alexy.

World short-course champion Noe Ponti (SUI) led the semifinals in the men’s 100 m Butterfly, winning the second race in 50.18, the no. 2 time in 2025, over Olympic silver man Josh Liendo (CAN: 50.24). France’s Maxime Grousset, the 50 m Fly winner, took semi one in 50.25. Americans Shaine Casas (19th) and Thomas Heilman (26th) did not advance out of the morning heats.

In the morning women’s 800 m Free heats, U.S. star Katie Ledecky posted the fastest time at 8:14.62, with Australia’s Lani Pallister next at 8:17.08 and Canada’s Summer McIntosh third fastest at 8:19.88.

The first semi in the women’s 200 m Backstroke was fast, with China’s Xuwei Peng and Belarus “neutral” Anastasiya Shkurdai going 1-2 in 2:07.76 and 2:07.85. The second semi had Olympic champ Kaylee McKeown (AUS), silver winner Regan Smith of the U.S. and defending champ Claire Curzan (USA), with Curzan winning over McKeown and Smith, 2:08.13 to 2:08.36 to 2:08.67.

American star Gretchen Walsh was back in the pool for the women’s 50 m Butterfly, winning semi two easily in 25.09, a time no one else has approached in 2025. Belgian Roos Vanotterdijk, the 100 Fly silver winner, won semi one in 25.32 and was the no. 2 qualifier. The U.S.’s Douglass, doubling back 20 minutes after her 200 Breast win, clocked 25.74 for 14th and did not advance to the final.

The medal table shows the U.S. at 20 medals (5-10-5), with Australia at 13 (5-2-6), then China at 10 (2-4-4). No one else has more than six.

Saturday’s program features finals in the men’s 50 m Free and 100 Fly, women’s 800 m Free – Ledecky vs. McIntosh – and 200 m Back (McKeown vs. Curzan and Smith), 50 m Fly and the Mixed 4×100 m Free relay.

★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.

For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!

123...104Page 1 of 104
© 2017-2025 Perelman Pioneer & Company