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≡ SPOTLIGHT ≡
It’s the end of summer, so six world championships are being held this week, in Korea, Great Britain, Switzerland, El Salvador and Thailand, plus a couple of other events of continuing interest highlight the international sports calendar:
● Archery: The 53rd World Archery Championships gets started on Friday in Gwangju (KOR), in the Recurve and Compound divisions. The U.S. always has a strong entry, including in 2025, with men’s 2019 World Champion and Paris 2024 silver medalist Brady Ellison, and women’s 2021 Worlds silver winner Casey Kaufhold.
Korean archers swept all five Olympic events in Paris in 2024, including Woo-jin Kim, who won his first individual men’s gold to go with three Worlds victories, in 2011, 2015 and 2021. Si-hyeon Lim won the women’s Olympic gold and teamed with Kim to take the Mixed Team gold. Ellison and Kaufhold won the mixed bronze.
The defending World Champions from 2023 are Mete Gazoz (TUR) in the men’s Recurve class and Marie Horackova (CZE) for the women.
● Boxing: This will be the first World Boxing Championships, and a significant milestone for the new World Boxing federation. The tournament will be held in Liverpool (GBR) from 4-14 September and will be carefully observed to check on the organization of the tournament and the quality of refereeing and judging, areas which were an issue with the prior federation, the International Boxing Association.
On 20 August, World Boxing announced that it was imposing mandatory female sex-testing for the 2025 Worlds:
“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.”
Paris Olympic women’s 57 kg winner Yu-ting Lin (TPE), a three-time World Champion under the IBA (and predecessor-in-name AIBA), was disqualified by the IBA for “gender ineligibility” in 2023, but said she would take the test to be able to box in Liverpool.
World Boxing started with 27 members in November 2023 and now, less than two years later, has provisional recognition from the International Boxing Committee and 118 member federations.
● Cycling: The 36th year of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships will see Cross Country Olympic, Cross Country Short Track, Downhill and other racing styles in Valais (SUI), with the main action in the second week from 6-14 September.
Looking ahead, the defending World Champions from 2024 are Alan Hatherly (RSA: men) and Puck Pieterse (NED) in the Cross Country Olympic races, Victor Koretzky (FRA) and Evie Richards (GBR) in the Short Track, and Loris Vergier (FRA) and Valentina Hoell (AUT) in Downhill.
● Rugby: The World Rugby Women’s World Cup will continue through 27 September, but group play will finish this week (7th). So far, the leaders in each pool:
● Pool A: England 2-0; Australia 1-0-1
● Pool B: Canada 2-0; Scotland 2-0
● Pool C: New Zealand 2-0; Ireland 2-0
● Pool D: South Africa 2-0; France 2-0
The U.S. is in Pool A and plays Samoa on the 6th while England plays Australia, with all three in contention for the quarterfinals, which will start on 13 September.
● Surfing: The annual world championships on the waves, the 37th World Surfing Games will be in La Bocana (ESA) for the third time in the last five years. Gabriel Medina (BRA: men) and Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS: women) are the defending champions.
The Paris Olympic winners – in Tahiti – were Kauli Vasst (FRA) and American Caroline Marks.
● Volleyball: The 20th FIVB Women’s World Championships will conclude with the gold-medal match on 7 September. The 32 teams are almost down to eight, with the quarterfinals on 3-4 September:
Upper bracket:
● 3 Sep.: Netherlands vs. Japan
● 4 Sep.: Winners of 1 Sep. matches USA-CAN and TUR-SLO
Lower bracket:
● 3 Sep.: Italy vs. Poland
● 4 Sep.: Brazil vs. France
The top seeds coming into the tournament had Italy at no. 1, then Brazil and the U.S.
However, that’s not all that is on the noteworthy list:
● Cycling: The middle week of the 80th Vuelta a Espana has three more punishing, uphill-finishing stages in nos. 10, 13 and 14:
● Stage 10: starts at 262 m, finishes at 1,585 m
● Stage 13: starts at 111 m, finishes at 1,556 m
● Stage 14: starts at 23 m, finishes at 1,711 m
The other stages aren’t picnics, either, with seven smaller climbs on Wednesday and two significant climbs on Thursday. Favorite Jonas Vingegaard starts the week in second place, having won the ninth stage and moving from 2:33 behind to just 37 seconds behind Norway’s Torstein Traeen.
● Football: The U.S. men will be back in action on Saturday (6th) vs. 2026 World Cup qualifier South Korea in Harrison, New Jersey, its first match since a 6 July loss to Mexico (2-1) in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in Houston, Texas.
The question continues about the progress of the U.S. team as the 2026 FIFA World Cup gets closer. In 2025, the American men are 7-5. The follow-up match will be against Japan – also coming to World Cup ‘26 – on 9 September in Columbus, Ohio.
● Tennis: The U.S. Open continues in New York, with defending men’s champ Jannik Sinner (ITA) now in the fourth round, and defending women’s champ Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) also playing in the fourth round.
The women’s final will be on 6 September and the men’s final on the seventh.
There’s one more competition to look for.
On Wednesday, prior to the World Archery Championships in Korea, the federation will select a new president for the first time since 2005. Long-time Secretary General Tom Dielen (BEL) and former World Archery board member Greg Easton – son of Jim Easton, the former president – are the candidates.
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