NEW CLUBS: Both Maia Ramsden and Olivia Markezich have signed with On Athletics, along with Stanford alum Ky Robinson…
Villanova/Colorado alum Rachel McArthur has signed with Asics…
Luke Houser will be staying in Seattle for his post-collegiate days, having joined up with the Brooks Beasts…
Reportedly, there has been something of bidding war among shoe companies over who will sign Florida star Parker Valby, with expectations for her base annual salary falling between $650,000 and $800,000. Her father, Kyle Valby, is handling the negotiations. While she had an NIL agreement with Nike, it appears many top companies are bidding for her now…
In an unusual move, USATF is allowing Grenada’s Lindon Victor to compete in the Olympic Trials decathlon as a guest. The former NCAA champion from Texas A&M won bronze at last year’s World Championships.
A BOOST FOR ATHLETES: Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, has pledged another $15 million to the USATF Foundation over the next four years. That brings his total support of the organization to nearly $30 million since 2013. In response to his latest gift, the Foundation board and major donors added another $10 million in support. As a result, by the end of summer, some 655 grants will have been awarded to athletes since 2013…
USATF has launched its own YouTube channel that will feature, among other things, exclusive access to athlete interviews, behind-the-scenes content, and event highlights…\
USATF has signed on another sponsor in Neutrogena, a manufacturer of skin-care products. Kits will be distributed to U.S. athletes at the Olympics and World U20 Championships, as well as pop-up skin care stations at various USATF events.
CHANGES AHEAD: World Athletics has launched a new 4-year business strategy called “Pioneering Change” which is focused on faster-paced and more exciting events, innovation, spotlighting the stars and inclusivity. One change will be the reconfiguration of the summer season to conclude with a global championship. Another is the previously announced “Ultimate Championship” set for Budapest in 2026. Also underway are efforts to “improve the entertainment and excitement value” of field events, race walks and combined events. Other possibilities being bandied about include a mixed 4×1, a steeplechase mile, as well as a review of the weights of the women’s shot and javelin…
WA also has a new shoe check app so that athletes and coaches can check on whether competition footwear is compliant with the rules…
Various folks in the Olympic movement are still grumbling over WA’s decision to award prize money to gold medal winners this summer. Spyros Capralos, head of the European Olympic Committees, recently said, “We believe in the Olympic Games the athletes go there to compete for the values of the Olympic Games and their last preoccupation is to get money and bonuses… I think just giving some money to the gold winner is discriminatory and does not follow the principles of solidarity.”
NEW TEST FOR WOMEN: Studies at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute have developed a blood test for female athletes that has proven effective at identifying the illegal use of testosterone, a formerly difficult challenge because of the routine variations in testosterone among women. The test has already been incorporated into the WADA protocol…
Kenya’s anti-doping agency, prodded heavily by WADA and others, has been doing some wholesale mopping up of dopers. It recently announced bans of 26 runners, including Joshua Belet, who won the ’23 Amsterdam Marathon, and Dorcas Kimeli, who competed in the ’20 World Half Marathon Championships…
Alysia Montaño is set to receive an upgrade of her 2012 Olympic medal due to late doping disqualifications of runners ahead of her, but the former 800m star wants it to happen close to home. She previously was awarded upgrades of her World medals, and flew her family to Doha in 2019 for a ceremony with “nobody in the stands” that left her underwhelmed. For the Olympic upgrade, she says, “I want to receive my medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. I want to do it at home. And my home crowd, my family around, I want them to have tickets to the event and not have to pay for it.”
FAKE NEWS ALERT: A report from Microsoft’s threat intelligence unit says that Russia is mounting a covert influence campaign to discredit the Olympic Games and heighten fears of terrorist attacks in Paris. The operation even produced a fake documentary with deep-fake audio of Tom Cruise as narrator. According to the report, “If [the Russians] cannot participate in or win the Games, then they seek to undercut, defame, and degrade the international competition in the minds of participants, spectators, and global audiences.”…
After winning the 20K Euro bronze, Ukrainian walker Lyudmila Olyanovska told reporters, “Nowadays, there is a war in Ukraine. We train under very difficult conditions. I do not know even if my five-year-old son saw me competing today because in Ukraine the infrastructure is broken. They do not have electricity, there is no Internet, no light, so I do not know if he saw me on the TV.”…
If you were hoping this would be the year you’d get to go to Zürich’s Weltklasse (September 05), be advised that the meet has already sold out…
Pedro Pablo Pichardo has openly voiced doubts about the world-leading triple jump at the Euros from fellow former Cuban Jordan Díaz, saying, “Why did the electronic measuring device turn off at that moment? How do we know it was really 18.18 meters?”
A PACKED CALENDAR: Prep Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura, California, has had a busy last few weeks, with the Hoka Mile (05/30, 2nd in 4:28.46), the Music City 1500 (06/01, 4th in 4:10.18), the Portland Track Festival 1500 (06/09, 8th in 4:08.86), Brooks PR 800 (06/12, 1st in 2:03.99) and the New Balance Mile (06/15, 1st in 4:37.04) and distance medley (06/16, 2nd with a 4:42.36 anchor). Luckily, she gets a break before competing in the Trials 1500 heats on June 27.
The latest edition of the ATFS Annual, Athletics 2024, edited by T&FN World Rankings compiler Richard Hymans and Stuart Mazdon, is available now. The 626-page encyclopedia of stats is available through Lulu.com.
Surely achieving a record for a serving head of state, the prime minister of Fiji, Sitiveni Rabuka, 75, recently won bronze in the shot for his age group at the Oceania championships. Rabuka, it turns out, competed in the decathlon at the ’74 Commonwealth Games.