Team USA Tracker: 2 Years Until Paris (July 2022)
Paris Qualification Docs TL; DR, Things the World Games Taught Us, and America's Red Hot Summer Performances
As the first Track and Field Championships on US soil wraps up this weekend in Eugene, Oregon …. next week on July 26 will mark 2 YEARS UNTIL PARIS 2024 Opening Ceremony
TL; DR OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION
Links below are two documents with the latest # of qualified athletes for Team USA for Paris and Key Events to Watch that Team USA will need to do well in to qualify for Paris 2024.
TeamUSA Tracker In Depth: Olympic Qualification
Qualification for Paris 2024 has already started and US Women's Soccer Team clinched their spot this week with a 1-0 revenge win over Canada (remember even if you don’t want to remember- Canada beat USA in the Olympic SFS in a goal awarded by VAR) in the CONCACAF Women's Championship.
The US Women will be joined by the US Men’s Soccer for the the first time since Beijing 2008 as the US Men’s Soccer Team won the CONCACAF U20 Championship earlier in July .
Both tournaments were qualifiers for both the World Cup (Women’s, Men’s U20) and the 2024 Olympics.
Men’s soccer is one of the most difficult qualifiers out of any sports to make the Olympics since it is determined by only one elimination tournament and that is why despite being consistently the two highest ranked nations in CONCACAF- Mexico and United States have not qualified for the same Olympics since the United State qualified as the host country (Atlanta 1996),
Key number right now as @TeamUSATracker keeps track of Paris 2024
# of athlete spots booked for Team USA in Paris 2024: 36
Max # of athlete spots possible for Team USA to book at Paris 2024: 782
If Team USA can qualify over 600 athletes again like they did Tokyo - it would be the first time ever Team USA has sent over 600 athletes in back to back Summer Olympics. Per Olympedia.org, Team USA has sent at least 522 athletes in each Summer Olympics since LA 1984 so another big Team USA squad should be expected to head to Paris.
TeamUSA did lose 3 sport disciplines where they medaled in Tokyo 2020 (Karate, Softball, and Baseball) but add Breaking where Team USA won the b-boys world championships and just won 3 medals in breaking at the World Games.
Soccer was not the first sport that had a chance to qualify, Team USA just missed qualifying 4 spots early in Triathlon at the 2022 Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships when the Team USA took the bronze medal behind Great Britain and host country France in June.
Qualification continues in 2022 in another 8 sport disciplines but all eyes on Equestrian which 18 Olympic spots up for grabs between 2022 World Championships in Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping.
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2) WHAT THE WORLD GAMES TAUGHT US
The World Games were hosted for the second ever time in the US and one reason why I liked watching The World Games is that have historically been a place where Olympic sports appear first.
10 sport disciplines that have appeared in the World Games (started in 1981) were on the Tokyo Olympic program and many of the invitational sports over the last couple of Olympics were featured at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama (Breaking, Karate, Softball, Sport Climbing)
1) Mixed Gender Team Sports Belong in the Olympics
Put Ultimate and Korfball in the Olympics. As @TeamUSATracker noted IOC President Bach's visit to the World Games featured a visit to both mixed gender team sports so this could happen soon.
If I was deciding for the IOC - it would be easy and simple - put Ultimate in the Olympics ASAP.
All 8 teams (from 5 different continents) at the World Games were really competitive and the semifinals included teams from 4 continents and not Japan and Canada (traditional powerhouses). Not to mention the interest was so big online - World Flying Disc website went down.
2) America and The World Loves SUMO
The crowd in Birmingham, AL was pumped for Sumo and it did not disappoint. Sumo matches are so quick as they are decided by one move it really garners the entire crowd’s attention and The World Games featured one of the most bizarre gold medal matches ever. Add Sumo to the Olympics ASAP too and I am shocked Tokyo didn’t add it at the last Olympics.
3) For Popular Team Sports - Small Ball Works
Flag Football and Lacrosse Sixes were all featured at World Games following in the footsteps of current Olympic sport Rugby 7s by taking a popular global sport that usually features double digit people on the field (11) and made it single digit. The impact -a more exciting version of the sport for new and old fans of the game.
Sports that should take note: Cricket and Baseball
Cricket is going ahead with their LA bid with T20 cricket but there has been some chatter to go with T10 cricket a form of cricket that could see 90 minute games maximum. Less is more.
If I was the head of WBSC - Baseball should look at 6 inning version of the game for global events like the Little League World Series. Shorter games are more attractive to a TV audience but also would the MLB maybe buy in to a shorter international game and send the MLB players to the Olympics.
Thoughts?
4) Where in the World have Canopy Piloting and Pétanque been all my life? We need more of these sports in the Olympics and World Games
The best thing about World Games being in America was a focus on a lot of sports that are not followed in America.
I remember watching Skysurfing during the original XGames and thought this sport was insane (just behind Street Luge) but you could only see the event through the camera. Canopy Piloting brings Parachuting to the fans with them doing tricks on the water in a decathlon style 12 jump format. Not to mention Team USA is really good winning 8 medals since 2005 when Canopy Piloting entered World Games.
Boules Sports and specifically Pétanque has been part of the World Games since 1985. Team USA has not been good at it but thanks to Bekah Howe - Team USA won its first medal at the World Game in Pétanque in Birmingham.
America should embrace Pétanque because America loves lawn sports. The World Games in Birmingham should have added more sports like Bocce, Cornhole, and Spikeball because the next game you play in your backyard could be the next World Games sport and possible next Olympic sport.
5) Roller Bust
Best finish for Gold at the World Games was Team USA men winning gold in Inline Hockey on this amazing last minute goal in OT. I was surprised that World Skate didn’t send out the above clip on their digital platforms Twitter or Instagram right after it happened and it seems out of all the IOC recognized sports federation who participated in the World Games it just seem to have one of the smaller buy-ins.
I was shocked World Skate didn’t add women’s inline hockey to the program and the format for roller sports at the World Games -with only 1 long distance and 1 short distance skater doing all the events backfired to new fans because the events end up being very indistinguishable and the same person wins over and over again. I always thought Inline Skating would make a great add to the Summer Olympics but the format at the World Games left me the fan - something to be desire with inline skating.
ICYMI: AMERICA’S RED HOT SUMMER PERFORMANCES
Obviously Team USA had a great summer at the World Aquatics Championships with 49 medals and 45 medals in the pool.
Team USA has started off great at The Track and Field World Championships in Eugene where they have 18 medals at the halfway mark
ICYMI: Some of TeamUSA other accomplishments - a quick list of them below and for Team USA News 24/7 - follow @TeamUSATracker on Twitter always following and rooting for Team USA in all 63 Olympic sport disciplines and another 63 future Olympic sport disciplines
Canoe Slalom: Evy Leibfarth took silver in a World Cup following up with a gold in extreme slalom at the Jr. World Championships Reminder Extreme Canoe Slalom will be an Olympic event in Paris
Climbing: Team USA has been doing great this year on the IFSC Sport Climbing World Cup. Natalia Grossman won 5 straight bouldering competitions (medaled in 6) and Colin Duffy won both bouldering and lead in Innsbruck this summer.
In total 7 members of Team USA have been on a podium in Sport Climbing so competition to represent USA Climbing in 2024 should be tough again.
Cycling: 4 American riders are in the Top 25 of Tour de France as it ends on Sunday. 3 American riders (Jorgenson, McNulty, and Simmons) are in the Top 10 for the youth rider standings.
Fencing: Lee Kiefer and Nick Itkin both won Bronze in individual foil at the World Championships. First individual foil medals for USA Fencing at the World Championships since 2015.
Judo: Angelica Delgado took Bronze at Budapest Grand Slam. Rankings for Paris 2024 have started so a good start for Team USA.
Softball: Team USA took Gold at World Games which served also at the 2022 World Championships for Softball. Janae Jefferson had the big hit for Team USA a base clearing double in the 2nd inning and Ally Carda got five of the last six batters from Japan to preserve Team USA’s 3-2 win.
Skateboarding: Nyjah Huston won first Skateboarding Street Competition in Rome that counted toward Paris 2024 rankings. 3 American men made the QFs (16 skateboarders) while even though zero American women made the QFs - 3 American women are currently in qualifying positions for Paris.
Tennis: After Taylor Fritz’s great run to the Wimbledon QFs losing to Nadal in a 5th set tiebreaker- 2 Americans won their first tour titles the week after Wimbledon; Maxime Cressy won his first ATP title (Newport) and Bernarda Pera won her first WTA Title (Budapest)
Track Cycling: Jennifer Valente - won gold 3 times (Elimination Race, Omnium, Madison) at the UCI Nations Cup in Cali, Colombia.
Wrestling: USA Wrestling won 11 freestyle medals at UWW Rankings event in Tunisia as they get ready for World Championships in September where 7 returning medalists from Tokyo and also defending World Gold medalist Jordan Burroughs (2012 London Gold) and J’den Cox (2016 Rio Bronze) will also compete.
Volleyball: #1 in the World and Tokyo Gold Medalist Women’s Volleyball lost a 5 set QF match vs Serbia to be eliminated from VNL this year. USA Men’s Volleyball beat #2 in the world Brazil in the QFs on Wednesday to advance to the Semifinals.
Milano Cortina 2026: Adds 8 new events to Milano Cortina 2026 including Dual Moguls (M, W)- YES-GLAD THEY TOOK TEAM USA TRACKER'S ADVICE!!!, Mixed Skeleton Event, Women’s Doubles Luge, Women’s Ski Jumping Large Hill, and 3 events in Ski Mountaineering. The MX Parallel Team Event in Alpine Skiing that Team USA finished 4th in Beijing was scrapped and some events that didn’t make the cut included Women’s Nordic Combined, MX Ski Cross, 4-Woman Bobsled, Men’s Monobob, and Snowboarding Parallel Slalom.
LA 2028: Countdown officially begins….Mayor of LA Garcetti: "We literally have enough facilities tomorrow to hold the Olympics"