TeamUSA Fans,
Hopefully everyone has caught up on their sleep post Tokyo… Team USA Athletes are back in action this weekend including some medalists from Tokyo. And August and September is filled with World Championships, something that Team USA Tracker does find odd that a World Championships is the same year as the Olympic and right after the Olympics but 15 Summer Sports will have World Championships this year (it was originally 17 but 2 have been cancelled due to COVID). Those 2 Championships were to be held in China so something to keep an eye on that re Beijing.. By @TeamUSATracker count, 7 World Championships are coming up in August and September and that does NOT include the US Open in Tennis, Women’s British Open Golf, Ryder Cup, and FedEx Cup Playoffs Championship in Golf which are all some marquee events in Tennis and Golf.
The FULL COUNTDOWN
174 Days until Beijing
Key Qualification Event: 40 Days until Nebelhorn Trophy Challenger Series event Sept. 22-25. US will try to qualify one more male & female figure skater. A US Female Figure Skater will need a top-six finish and a US Male Figure Skater will need a top-seven (among those seeking Olympic qualifying spots). The US can not send anyone who qualified their other spots from World Championships so for example Nathan Chen is ineligible to qualify another spot.
1084 Days Until Paris
Still awaiting the qualification criteria for events but will be using the Paris Doc to track Summer Sports. The Tokyo Tracker has been retired for now.
Things to note:
Breaking (Breakdancing) will enter the Paris Games, the first dance sport in the Olympics (can we get Tango in the Games for 2028?). Surfing will be in Tahiti which is usually a yearly stop on the World Surfing Tour so surfers should be very familiar with the location and as noted during the Tokyo Games: Karate, Baseball/Softball are all not part of Paris.
Baseball/Softball and Karate are making their pitch for LA 2028 along with a lot of team sports including Lacrosse (6 on 6), American Flag Football (5 on 5), and Cricket (T20 version). If you want more info on additional sports check out the Future Olympic Events or Sports tab in Paris 2024. @TeamUSATracker is tracking them all and the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama which will be showcasing a lot of the IOC recognized sports that could be up next for Olympic inclusion. Website:
https://twg2022.com/
A WEEK AWAY…. Women’s World Hockey Championships:
Team USA Schedule. These Championships were delayed from April so right now they will serve as a good precursor before Beijing to see where Team USA Hockey stands vs Canada. Canada has home ice advantage.
https://teamusa.usahockey.com/2021womensworlds
Prefontaine Classic
Note big day is Saturday with all the Diamond League Races
Lots of Intrigue in the Men’s 100M where Mike Norman (5th in Tokyo in 400M, Gold Medalist in 4x400) follows 100M Silver Medalist Fred Kerley to run the 100M with 200M Gold Medalist Andre DeGrasse.
Note Gold Medalist Italy’s Lamont Jacobs is not running anymore this year and pulled out. This is typical for the 100M Gold Medalist. However Jacobs has been the subject of some newspaper intrigue especially in Europe since his former nutritionist is under investigation by the Italian police for alleged steroid distribution. The most shocking part of this report for the Tracker was that Jacobs was not included in the Athletics Integrity Unit's (AIU) testing pool because of the “The AIU targets the world's best athletes, but Jacobs - who failed to qualify for the finals at the World Championships in 2019 - wasn't on the list.” THIS IS CRAZY.
Nearly 33 years after Ben Johnson Track and Field is still so plagued by drug testing and I think some of the drug testing with American athletes vs those around the world in the last pandemic because of Team USA strong finish at Doha is something very interesting when you look Track and Field performances.
8 Days Until the World Triathlon Championships
9 Days until BMX World Championships
12 Days Until Mountain Biking World Championships
(Road and Track Cycling Championships in September)
34 Days Until Canoe Sprint World Championships & Sport Climbing World Championships both start September 16
37 Days Until Archery World Championships (in America) Sept 19 to Sept 26 Yankton, SD and Road Cycling World Championships
102 Days until Table Tennis World Championships (Nov 19 to Nov 26) also in America Houston, TX
Public Service Announcement
I get all my information from public schedules. If you are affiliated with an Olympic Sport or IOC Recognized Sport (Note I am tracking all sports that are IOC recognized) or if you have knowledge on that sport schedule feel free to hit me up on Twitter @TeamUSATracker or email 247teamusa@gmail.com. I will add it to the Google Doc.
Things to Watch this Weekend
3x3 Basketball
FIBA3x3: Women’s Series. Team USA Women is playing in Constanta, Romania. Blake Dietrick (Princeton), N'dea Jones (Texas A&M), Jordan Reynolds (Tennessee) and Breanna Richardson (Mississippi State) will make up Team USA. All four athletes are current members of Force 10 3x3, the first U.S. professional 3x3 women’s teams. Other members include Cierra Burdick (Tennessee) , Linnae Harper (Ohio State) Megan Huff (Utah) and Alexis Peterson (Syracuse) who after forming this pro team before the last World Series stop in Klaipeda, Lithuania they won it all. Team USA uses professional teams on the men’s side and by using the Red Bull Tournaments in America as well hope to get enough points to automatically qualify Women’s and Men’s Basketball for Paris.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
AVP VOLLEYBALL TOUR BEGINS IN ATLANTA
3 big headlines: Gold Medalist April Ross plays without Alix Klienman (who is taking a break post Tokyo). Taylor Crabb returns from COVID that kept him out of Tokyo and will play with Jake Gibb (who has retired from FIVB competition). Dalhausser/Lucena still play AVP (as Dalhausser also retired from FIVB competition and it is expected Lucena will do the same)
Editor’s Note: April Ross and Kelley Kolinske pulled out due to injury and Dalhausser/Lucena lost their first round match to a #16 Groselle/Vander Meer
Brackets are here
AVP Tour is now streaming on Peacock Premium not on Amazon as previous years
TENNIS
4 Americans (2 Men, 2 Women) still alive in the QFs of the ATP and WTA 1000 Events Tournament in Toronto. ATP 1000 are the biggest events on tours behind Grand Slams so major rankings points are at play for the Americans left in the field On the men’s side: John Isner and Reilly Opelka (2 big serving Americans) are left and they will likely be the only seeded American men at the US Open. On the Women’s Side: Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula remain; both who are having phenomenal 2021 years are left. Pegula stopped Danielle Collins' amazing 12 game winning streak early Friday morning in a 3 set match that saw a lot of great tennis and runs throughout the match and took Pegula six match points to advance.
Following the Canadian Open, Both ATP Tour & WTA head to Cincinnati for another 1000 Event. The big headline this week was that Sofia Kenin, Serena Williams and Venus Williams all pulled out of Cincy. Sofia Kenin and Serena Williams are both recovering from injury and will not play any hard court matches before the US Open. Right now for the US Women (15 players in the Top 100) the 3 players in the #20s Gauff, Pegula, and Collins have been looking the strongest since Wimbledon as the Top 3: Kenin, Brady, and Serena Williams have dealt with some injuries and in the case of Kenin and Brady coaching changes too. The American men celebrated a milestone a week this week with 14 American Men in the Top 100 for first time since January 1996 and many American men strong play this summer (Mackenzie McDonald, Jenson Brooksby, Brandon Nakashima, Denis Kudla) are all likely worthy of US Open Wildcard spots as the US Open entry list was done before their rise in the rankings.
GOLF:
Both the PGA Tour and LPGA are in Action with events before something bigger.
PGA Tour has some intrigue with the Wyndham Championships, final event of the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR regular season before FedEx Cup (Top 125) and we have some of Team USA Golf top men from Rio 2016 struggling for their FedEx Cup playoffs life:
Rickie Fowler (+1) on Thursday. Fowler is #130 in the current PGA Rankings and according to Golf Guru Justin Ray predicts Fowler needs a 21st finish or better to qualify for FedExCup playoffs Note: Fowler has never missed the postseason in his PGA TOUR career.
Rio Bronze Medalist Matt Kuchar who was sitting at #124 and also on the bubble did shoot a (-4) on Thursday and he needs a 42nd finish or better to make the FedEx Playoffs
And Will Zalatoris (Happy Gilmore’s Caddy) who is having a great season would need to win this week to get into the FedEx Playoffs. He shot a (-2) on Thurday. His only way into the playoffs is to win this week because he is not yet a full PGA tour member and only a win would guarantee him that.
Other Americans to watch Scott Piercy (#126 in ranking) shot a -6 on Thursday and Nate Lashley (#127 in ranking) shot a -2 on Thursday.
Full analysis and a great table to watch for Wyndham Championships courtesy of Justin Ray here.
LPGA Tour is in Scotland (so early morning golf action) as they get ready for the British Open “The Open” next week. Early in the 2nd round 20 year old Yealimi Noh was the top American however upon editing this she hit a Triple Bogey on 10. Other Top Americans in the field include Ally Ewing, Austin Ernst, and LIzette Salas
https://www.lpga.com/tournaments/womens-scottish-open/leaderboard
Cycling
La Vuelta starts on Saturday one of the major Road Cycling tour races. With coverage on the NBC Sports channel especially Olympic Channel there are 6 American Riders riding in La Vuelta (Sepp Kuss , Chad Haga, Kiel Riejnen, Quinn Simmons, Lawson Craddock, Joe Dombrowsk)
Kuss is fresh off his Tour de France stage win, Lawson Craddock is back from Tokyo (he didn’t do the Tour de France though so should be fresh) and 20 year old Quinn Simmons is eligible for the Young Rider Classification and was a former bronze medalist in Ski Mountaineering at the 2017 Cadet World Championships . As always since all of them are racing for their teams @TeamUSATracker will be looking out for Stage wins.
Soccer
The big FIFA News this week was that Men from Team USA joined the Top 10 of the FIFA Rankings for the first time since 2006 after their Gold Cup win. 2022 World Cup Qualification will begin in September and since America is now a Soccer Nation led by Ted Lasso you can check out Beach Soccer beginning on Friday. USA Women’s Soccer starts off in Russia with the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup followed by the US Soccer Men playing in the World Cup in Russia. Beach Soccer has a place in the ANOC Games and could be worth a check out. Beach Soccer should be broadcasted on the Fox Sports family of networks.
Triathlon
World Triathlon is back in competition this week with two time Olympic medalist Katie Zafares and 8 other American athletes in action. It is a week before the World Triathlon Championships August 21 in Edmonton, Canada
This week is a new format that Triathlon actually submitted for a medal in Paris (It didn't get added) called the elimination format. It goes from 60 racers to 30 racers on Day 1 (through a mini race and repechages) and the final race day will see the group of 30 eliminated in a series of 3 races (10 by 10 by 10) until we get the winners. More details here on a busy weekend in Triathlon which also has a Mixed Relay on Sunday.
Equestrian
Also FEI Eventing has events in France this weekend and Belgium next weekend. I had trouble pulling up the list of who is competing so I am unsure if Team USA sent a team it has been harder in Equestrian due to quarantine rules for animals.
Surfing
World Surf League Semis and Finals will take place on Friday. 2 American women made the SFS: Malia Manuel and Gold Medalist Carissa Moore. Top American male finisher was Conner Coffin (28) who finished 5th and qualifed for 5 person WSL final over fellow American Griffin Colapinto (23) who finished 17th. Coffin and Colapinto have been leading Team USA on the Men’s Tour this year due to injuries to Florence and Andinho. Andinho finished 9th in Mexico as did 49 year old Kelly Slater who despite only competing in 3 events this year, should lock up a spot on the WSL tour next year as well. Could Slater make Team USA as a 52 year old in Tahiti? (Note: John John Florence did not compete)
Final Thoughts Musing re Tokyo Medal Count
Wrapping up the Medal Count I was looking at the 39 Gold Medals and I flagged 25% of the medals (10 of 39) are historic firsts and that does not include defending the streak Gold Medals such as (Men’s 4x100 Medley, Women’s Water Polo, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Basketball) that came with a of pressure. The last 2 Golds : Jennifer Valente in Track Cycling (first Gold for Team USA Women in Track Cycling) & USA Women’s Volleyball fit nicely with some of the early Golds: Anastasija Zolotic in Taekwondo and Lee Kiefer in Fencing Foil plus the 5 Golds in New Events or New Sports in Tokyo 2020.
Also since Mixed Relays and Mixed Events were the big thing in Tokyo, I was surprised when you looked at the numbers : Team USA won zero Gold Medals in Mixed Relays or Mixed Events. I think a lot of these races are strategy based and I think the lack of success in the Swimming 4x100 Mixed Medley Relay in the Pool will bring the TeamUSA coaches back to the drawing board for World Championships and Paris.
And my final thought, 21 Team USA Athletes finished 4th and 17 Team USA Athletes finished 5th so 38 Athletes just missed the medal stand. I am always so bummed for these American athletes but especially in Tokyo. In a year where most American athletes had to really stop down for months from training due to COVID (which I would argue they might have NOT done in Russia or China) finishing 4th or 5th really can be disheartening. I think with all the added pressure of the COVID pandemic cutting training short for many Americans and Team USA only falling 8 medals short of Team USA’s Rio total was really impressive. All eyes are now focused on Paris where hopefully Team USA can qualify another big team, remember Tokyo was Team USA’s second largest delegation in history behind Atlanta and in Atlanta they had automatic qualifiers as the host country.