★ 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 on 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!
