MARATHON OLYMPIAN Conner Mantz showed nice progress in his build-up to Chicago this fall with an American Record win at the USATF 20K Champs (New Haven, September 01). After splitting 27:50 at 10K, Mantz went on to finish in 56:16, 7 seconds faster than the AR he set en route at the Houston Half-Marathon in January.
NILs not so good? Says steepler Lexy Halladay-Lowry, “Now there’s so much pressure either to get an NIL for all these college athletes, when I don’t know if that should be the focus… Because of the NILs coming in, if you want a professional contract…that is a step to that and the stress and pressure I’ve seen with that, just in my corner, that’s a tough place to be.”…
Parker Wolfe has signed with Nike and will be part of the Swoosh TC coached by Mike Smith in Flagstaff. Other new members include BYU alums Halladay-Lowry and Meghan Hunter…
NCAA 800 champion Sam Whitmarsh has joined up with the Brooks Beasts…
Michaela Rose has signed with adidas, as has former NC State runner Sam Bush and Div. II vault legend Brynn King…
New Balance has signed Harvard half-miler Victoria Bossong…
Nike dropped hurdles silver medalist Daniel Roberts, reportedly because his social media numbers were too low…
Belgian sprinter Dylan Borlée is now being coached by his older brothers, Kevin and Jonathan, both of whom retired last year. “They’re usually both present at training. Sometimes only one of them can come, but then they have a good sense of what the other would do. They’re twins, after all.”…
Olympians have scored big recently on getting coaching jobs: Lindsey Anderson (Weber State head), Darrell Hill (Penn State asst), Brenda Martinez (USC asst), David Payne (Nevada asst), Brittney Reese (Long Beach State asst), David Verberg (San Jose State asst), Taylor Washington (Iowa asst)…
Former high jumper Jake Jacoby will now be coaching the jumpers at Indiana…
Sam Read is the new head coach at Drake…
USC alum Deanna Hill is now an assistant at Tennessee…
After 39 years as director of Monaco’s big Herculis meet, Jean-Pierre Schoebel has stepped down. He will be succeeded by longtime assistant Frederic Choquard…
Next year’s European XC Champs will be held in Belgrade, Serbia…
The WA Competition Performance Rankings allotted 183,498 points to the USATF Champs, making it the No. 1 championship meet of the year so far. It was the No. 2 score ever for the meet, which racked up 184,657 last year…
Two cities made the August 31 deadline to bid for the ’30 Commonwealth Games: Abuja, Nigeria, and Ahmadabad, India…
Jamaica has announced plans to renovate National Stadium, with an eye toward increasing capacity to 38,000. Work should be completed in ’29; the stadium will remain open throughout…
The NAIA Championships in ’26 and ’27 will be hosted by UNC Asheville…
Allyson Felix has been inducted into the USOPC Hall Of Fame…
World Athletics selected former triple jumper Christian Taylor and Aussie hurdler Sally Pearson to be its ambassadors for the ’25 Worlds…
The Diamond League gave its annual Jesse Owens Rising Star Awards to Letsile Tebogo and Faith Cherotich. The honor goes to the athlete under 23 who produces the best performance at the DL Final…
Virginia coach Vin Lananna received USATF’s Legend Coach Award at the USATF Championships…
Maeve Kyle has died at age 96. Ireland’s first female Olympian competed at three Olympics in the 400 and 800…
Kjell-Erik Ståhl has died at 79. The Swedish marathoner was 4th at the ’83 Worlds…
Roy Hughes, 17, one of the top prep hurdlers in the nation as the Texas 4A champion last season, died in his sleep recently…
Sister Marion Irvine, the “Flying Nun” who won fame by running in the ’84 Trials marathon at age 54, died on August 30 at age 95…
Cal Poly Humboldt coach Jamey Harris, a former U.S. Ranker in the 1500, has been publicly accused of inappropriate and abusive behavior by two former athletes. The school says it is working to address those concerns…
Five former Wisconsin runners have gone public with the negative experiences they say they had with former coach Mackenzie Wartenberger, who resigned in ’22…
British hammer Olympian Chris Black, recently a coach, has been suspended from all participation after a panel found him guilty of sexual abuse of an athlete…
Marathoner Aliphine Tuliamuk recently posted, “I believe that doping, especially in my country of birth, Kenya, is not ending anytime soon. Winning one world major marathon, for example, is life-changing for many, and from what I hear, being part of big managements… which then offers base pay and bonuses (sometimes just training facilities only) requires very fast times, these alone encourage doping. Add in the level of corruption in the country (an athlete has to pay off many stakeholders once they win a big race) the resulting take-home pay by the end (is) nothing.”…
The Enhanced Games has gone on the offensive, filing an $800M suit against World Aquatics, USA Swimming and WADA, accusing the organizations of illegally discouraging athletes from competing in the upcoming doping free-for-all. WADA responded by calling the event “ill-conceived,” adding, “The physical and mental toll that performance-enhancing drugs have taken on athletes over the years has been substantial. People have died.”…
Finnkampen, the annual and hotly-contested dual meet between Sweden and Finland, is now 100 years old. The event is celebrated in the book, Finnkampen – A Century, Two Countries, by Jonas Hedman and Erik Wiger, available from Swedish Athletics…
Sara Hall has an autobiography slated to come out in April, For The Love Of The Grind…
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is launching his own running festival. Called Runfest 2026, it will be held in his hometown of Sandnes, Norway, in September. He hopes he can bring together some of the world’s best along with recreational runners…
Keely Hodgkinson, for one, believes the World Record in the 800 is attainable: “I do believe 1:53 is possible, but it would take everything going right on the day.” The 1:53.28 by Jarmila Kratochvílová has lasted for 42 years…
Dutch hurdle ace Femke Bol has gotten engaged to Belgian vaulter Ben Broeders…
BBC and UK Athletics have signed a 5-year television deal…
A bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives (HR5021) calls for the U.S. to leverage global sporting events in the U.S. — including LA ’28 — to create a strategy to enhance U.S. diplomatic efforts. Called the “American Decade of Sports,” it would create an office of sports diplomacy…
At the Nigerian Trials, athletes in the 5000 were forced to run in complete darkness, with no stadium lights or other illumination. A newspaper described the video that created a viral outrage: “the athletes can be seen navigating the track blindly — relying on memory, instinct, and sheer determination to finish the race.”…
Though the IOC brings in billions each year, the cost of the Olympic Games is often shouldered by taxpayers. Case in point is Brisbane ’32, where Australian taxpayers are so far on the hook for $2.24 billion to help build facilities…
Increased expenses will be part of the story for foreign participants and visitors to Los Angeles in ’28. The basic business/tourism visa to the United States is going from $185 to $435 with Homeland Security’s new $250 “visa integrity fee.”…
Dick Fosbury’s ’68 gold medal in the high jump has been auctioned off for $158,600…
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has revealed that she had muscle cramps prior to the 100 semis in Paris last summer, a situation exacerbated by stadium security who would not let her into the warm-up area because she did not arrive on a team bus…
The Paris tourism agency reports that 85% of Olympic visitors were from France. The leading nations after that were the United States, Great Britain and Germany…
The White House recently celebrated the gift to President Trump of a full set of Olympic medals from Los Angeles ’84, courtesy of the organizing committee of LA ’28…
Estonian decathlete Risto Lillemets hit a milestone on August 3. His national championships win with 8028 points was the 3000th time someone had topped the 8000-point barrier. The first came when American Phil Mulkey scored 8049 (on the current tables) in ’61…
The United States has the most 8000+ decathletes at 93 to Germany’s 87, but Germany leads in performances, 554–514. Russia trails in 3rd at 45/250, according to the stats by Decathlon2000…
There is a women’s decathlon too, and Geneva, Ohio, once again hosted the Women’s World Championships. Taking top honors was Nikki Boon of Emory University, who scored 7451 for a Dutch Record…
Two-time World 800 champ Billy Konchellah has been named to the board of the Kenyan anti-doping agency…
Despite reports of disarray in the testing process for some athletes, WA reported in the week approaching the September 1 deadline that over 90% of the potential female competitors for the Worlds had already gotten the mandatory genetic testing…
Drake is launching a $6 million campaign to celebrate 100 years of Drake Stadium by initiating improvements to the fabled oval, prime among them updating the facilities to international competition standards…
With the help of a $20M gift, South Dakota will be building a new indoor facility with a 200m banked track…
An event we failed to cover in depth was the recent World Humanoid Robot Games in China, which featured more than 500 robots from 16 nations competing in running, among other sports. One spectator, an engineer by trade, said that seeing robot races was “much more exciting than seeing real humans.” The 100, by the way, was won in 21.50. ◻︎
