THE STRADIVARIUS OF SHOES? Leif Olav Alnes, coach to Karsten Warholm, on the hurdle star’s new Puma spikes: “The final product is incredible. The shoe is almost not a shoe anymore. It is a work of art. It’s like an instrument that you have to learn to play.”…
WME Sports, which manages the career of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, has added another young star to its stable with the signing of HS soph sensation Quincy Wilson, still just 16. Wilson previously inked an NIL deal with New Balance last fall…
Beginning in ’25, FloTrack will be the U.S. platform for Diamond League coverage…
In a shock to the Australian vaulting community, Paul Burgess, coach to Nina Kennedy and Kurtis Marschall, has resigned less than 100 days before the start of the Olympics. No reason was given publicly…
Legendary U.S. sprint coach John Smith is now working with Marie-Josée Ta Lou, Dalilah Muhammad, and Michael Cherry, among others…
Retired greats Brittney Reese and Kara Winger have joined TrackTown USA as event-group ambassadors. They will be on-site for key meets and will be charged with creating online content…
2-time Olympic champion Barbora Špotáková is now VP of the Czech federation…
Rebecca Mehra has left Oiselle and will be running with the Brooks Beasts…
Dylan Beard, the surprise winner of the Millrose hurdles, is training for the Trials while working in the deli at his local Walmart. His employer gave him $20,000 to help his friends and family support him at the Trials…
Allyson Felix and husband Kenneth Ferguson have welcomed their second child, Trey…
Penn’s new indoor facility, costing nearly $70 million, is due to open at the end of summer. It will feature a banked track and seating for 1000…
Eastern Michigan is in the process of building a new outdoor facility…
The European Championships in Rome this summer will use the refurbished Stadio dei Marmi as its warmup track…
The childhood home of Jesse Owens at 2178 E. 100th Street in Cleveland is soon to be named a historic landmark by the city…
Norwegian police have announced that they are charging Gjert Ingebrigtsen, father and former coach to Olympic 1500 champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, with domestic violence against a family member. Charges involving six other children were dropped for insufficient evidence and in one case because the statute of limitations had expired…
The results of the Beijing Half-Marathon originally showed China’s He Jie as the winner in 63:44. However, video of the finish showed 3 Kenyans in front slowing and waving him ahead. All 4 were disqualified after the video went viral…
Gabe Sanders has stepped down as Boston University’s head coach after accusations of verbal and emotional abuse…
Evansville has placed its head coach, Brooks LeCompte, on leave, pending an investigation of unspecified allegations against him…
CJ Ujah has been named to the British 4×1 for the World Relays, sparking fears that he might also be named to the Olympic squad, something that could cause controversy to erupt. Ujah cost Britain the 4×1 silver at the ’21 Games when he tested positive for banned substances. He has since served his 22-month ban…
WADA has ruled Tunisia’s anti-doping agency is “non-compliant” because it has not yet fully implemented the ’21 World Anti-Doping Code. Tunisia did not dispute the finding or the consequences in the 21-days it had to do so…
It’s not quite over for Caster Semenya’s legal fight. Now the European Court of Human Rights is looking at her appeal against regulations that would require her and other DSD athletes to reduce their testosterone levels. The court had earlier ruled that she was the victim of discrimination, however Swiss authorities (backed by World Athletics) have bounced the matter to the Grand Chamber, where rulings are binding. Hearings start in mid-May…
A big uptick in interest in the London Marathon: while some 578,000 wanted to enter this year’s event, that number jumped to 840,318 in the ballot for next year’s race…
UK Athletics has announced a deal with Athletic Ventures, which organizes the London Marathon and the Great North Run. The firm will help put together the ’26 European Championships in Birmingham as well as the nation’s annual Diamond League meeting. It might also look into a bid for the ’29 Worlds…
Daniel Ståhl sees only upsides to Mykolas Alekna’s breaking the discus WR: “The Olympics are of course the summer’s big goal for me, but I don’t feel any pressure. I’ve already won the Olympics and WC, now I’m mostly thinking that it will be an incredibly fun thing to do. I aim to make it to the final, and once there, anything can happen. As the World Record holder, the pressure will be on [Alekna].”…
NBC has announced that it will present its Olympic Zone as part of the Roku streaming service, giving those viewers an easy route into their Peacock coverage…
Speaking of Peacock, the service will cost an additional $2 a month, prices going up this summer before the Olympics…
ESPN will be airing a 30 For 30 documentary this summer on Butch Reynolds, called “False Positive.” It details his legal battles, trying to get back on track after a contested drug test derailed the then-WR holder’s career in the 400…
Author Mary Ormsby has released a new book retelling the Ben Johnson story, “World’s Fastest Man: The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson.”…
A big hubbub flared over Nike’s design for the Team USA women’s Olympic uniforms, with critics calling the unis too revealing. It has since mostly died down. Katie Moon summed it up by posting, “we have at least 20 different combinations of a uniform to compete in with all the tops and bottoms available to us. We DO have the men’s option available to us if we want it. When you attack the buns and crop top saying something along the lines of it’s ‘sexist’ (which if that was our only choice, it would be), even if it’s with the best of intentions, you’re ultimately attacking our decision as women to wear it. And if you honestly think that on the most important days of our careers we’re choosing what we wear to appease the men watching over what we’re most comfortable and confident in, to execute to the best of our abilities, that’s pretty offensive.”…
The French police union has threatened that it might disrupt the Olympic Torch Relay, which begins in Marseille on May 8, if they don’t get the Olympic bonuses (up to $2000 each) they were promised for working over their traditional summer vacation period…
Healthy again, Johannes Vetter says the javelin World Record is tempting, however: “The last two years have been really tough. I would like to throw far, but first, I really want to get a medal at the Olympics. It would be much nicer than a World Record this year.”…
For what national media has described as “unknown reasons,” Nigerian athletes have of late had difficulty getting international visas to compete abroad. The latest high-profile case is that of Commonwealth long jump champion Ese Brume, who was denied visas for the World Indoor as well as the Shanghai DL. The nation’s relay teams have been awaiting word on the World Relays — visa problems kept them out in ’21 and ’23…
The Kenyan entries to the WA Team Race Walk Championships missed the event after a flight mix-up. Said one team member, “It’s quite disappointing that we had to go all the way only to be detained in Cyprus where we slept at the airport for 2 days.”…
Jonathan Edwards, who was 6-0/157 (1.83/71) when he set the still-standing triple jump WR, says he got different treatment than Usain Bolt because of his slight physique: “I don’t think anybody was expecting me to be the person to jump 18m, to jump 60ft. And they all looked at me and thought, ‘Well, he doesn’t look that impressive. And if he can do it, then we can all do it.’ But it didn’t quite turn out like that. So I think people find it very frustrating. I mean, if I look like Usain Bolt, who’s like this athletic god, everybody thinks, ‘Oh, wow, I could never run that fast.’ But they look at me and go, ‘Well, if he can do it, I can do it, too.’”