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≡ SPOTLIGHT ≡
● Swimming ● A startling American Record on Monday at the AP Race London Invitational in Britain, as Virginia All-American Anna Moesch, 20, demolished Rio 2016 Olympic co-champ Simone Manuel’s 2019 record of 52.04 in the women’s 100 m Freestyle with a 51.94 win.
The time moves her to no. 2 on the all-time list, behind only Swedish star Sarah Sjostrom’s world record of 51.71 from 2017. Moesch won by more than two seconds over Czech Barbora Janickova (54.06)!
Moesch also won the women’s 50 m Free in 24.27 to move to no. 9 all-time U.S. and the 200 m Free in 1:55.81, no. 6 in the world for 2026 and no. 11 all-time U.S. Wow.
≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Athletics ● Of special note from the L.A. Track Festival held Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium was the return of 2017 women’s Steeple World Champion Emma Coburn. Now 35, she finished third in 9:23.87 in the race won by Britain’s Elise Thorner in 9:07.39.
For Coburn, it’s her first time back on a track since 2 February 2025, and first Steeple since she broke her right ankle at the Diamond League meet in Suzhou (CHN) in April 2024! She was satisfied:
“I’m so happy to be coming off of this race my ankle feeling good, my hamstring feeling good; I felt like myself out there. I’ve got to get faster, but I’m so happy not to be in pain.”
Also interesting was the 1,500 m debut of American 800 m star Cooper Lutkenhaus – age 17 – where he finished ninth in the third section, running 3:45.10.
● Gymnastics ● A final gold for the U.S. in the Pan American Trampoline Championships in Medellin (COL), with Ruben Padilla and Maia Amano scoring 50.380, ahead of Canada (46.870). It was Padilla’s third win of the event and the second for Amano.
● Ice Hockey ● At the IIHF men’s World Championship in Switzerland, the U.S. defeated Hungary, 7-3, to move to 3-3 for the tournament and continue with a chance to make the playoffs, requiring top-four finish in Group A.
The Americans are currently sixth with eight points and will play Austria (3-3: 9 points) on Tuesday. Hungary (1-5: 3 points) plays Latvia (3-3: 9 points) and Germany (3-4) is done and has 10 points. A U.S. win (in regulation) against the Austrians will give them 11 points and into third place, and even a Latvian win to get to 12 points will leave the Americans fourth and into the quarterfinals.
● Shooting ● At the USA Shooting national Skeet championships in Hillsdale, Michigan, stars Vincent Hancock and Sam Simonton won the men’s and women’s titles.
Hancock, the four-time Olympic champion from 2008-12-20-24, led the men’s qualifying at 246, and the finals (36), piling up 496 points in all to win ahead of Christian Elliott (487) and Dustan Taylor (482).
Simonton, the defending champ and 2025 World Champion, was third in qualifying, but won the finals and had the best Tucson Selection Match score to total 480 points, ahead of six-time Olympic medalist, 46-year-old Kim Rhode (477) and 2017 World Champion Dania Jo Vizzi (476).
● Skiing ● Johan Eliasch, the Swedish-British-Georgian head of the International Ski & Snowboard Federation, is up for re-election against multiple candidates at the FIS Congress on 11 June and has an “anyone but Eliasch” campaign being run against him by several large national federations, including the U.S.
He is, however, undaunted, and told SkiRacing.com:
“I want to finish off what I’ve started. We still have work to do. Once done, then it’ll be time for somebody else to take over.”
He points to his media rights centralization policy and said, “We have significantly increased revenues. If we look at what we’ve done with the media rights centralization, that over the eight-year cycle should bring in more than 250 million in additional revenue in very challenging market conditions.”
He also emphasized, “One of the things that we needed to do now that the organization has grown a lot and the programs have become more ambitious is move from the old model. That allows for a more business-like approach, particularly when it comes to growing revenues.”
His critics have pointed to financial pressures on FIS and his autocratic style, with the decision in less than three weeks.
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