Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton face off at USATF Bermuda Games

By OlympicTalkApr 6, 2022, 12:25 PM EDT

Getty

Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton resume one of track and field’s budding head-to-heads at the USATF Bermuda Games on Saturday, live on NBC Sports and Peacock from 2:30-4:30 p.m. ET.

Lyles, 24, and Knighton, 18, finished third and fourth in the 200m in their Olympic debuts in Tokyo.

On Saturday, they drop down to the 100m, the marquee and final event on the schedule, assuming they qualify into the final. Kenny Bednarek, the Olympic 200m silver medalist, was in the initial Bermuda Games field but since withdrew.

Full start lists are here.

Lyles, the 2019 World 200m champion, had the fastest 200m time in the world in 2021 at 19.52 seconds. Knighton, then 17, was the youngest U.S. Olympic male track and field competitor since miler Jim Ryun in 1964.

American notables in other events in Bermuda include Olympic 110m hurdles silver medalist Grant Holloway. Tokyo 200m bronze medalist Gabby Thomas is in the 100m against Olympic teammates Teahna Daniels and Javianne Oliver.

Internationally, Olympic 400m champion Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas drops down to the 200m and Tokyo 100m bronze medalist Shericka Jackson of Jamaica moves back up to the 400m against a field including Americans Wadeline Jonathas and Lynna Irby.

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, the Olympic 100m hurdles champion from Puerto Rico, is entered in that event and the 200m.

The Bermuda Games mark the start of the outdoor season for many athletes. The top-level Diamond League season starts next month.

The USATF Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, are in June, when the top three in most individual events qualify for the world championships in July, also in Eugene. They are the first outdoor worlds to be held in the U.S.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

At the French Open, a Ukrainian mom makes her comeback

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 7:12 AM EDT

Getty

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, once the world’s third-ranked tennis player, is into the French Open third round in her first major tournament since childbirth.

Svitolina, 28, swept 2022 French Open semifinalist Martina Trevisan of Italy, then Australian qualifier Storm Hunter 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the last 32 at Roland Garros. France’s top player, fifth seed Caroline Garcia, or 56th-ranked Russian Anna Blinkova is next.

Her husband, French player Gael Monfils, finished his first-round five-set win after midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Svitolina watched that match on a computer before going to sleep ahead of her 11 a.m. start Wednesday.

“This morning, he told me, ‘I’m coming to your match, so make it worth it,'” she joked on Tennis Channel. “I was like, OK, no pressure.

“I don’t know what he’s doing here now. He should be resting.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Svitolina made at least one major quarterfinal every year from 2017 through 2021, including the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019. She married Monfils one week before the Tokyo Olympics, then won a singles bronze medal.

Svitolina played her last match before maternity leave on March 24, 2022, one month after Russia invaded her country. She gave birth to daughter Skai on Oct. 15.

Svitolina returned to competition in April. Last week, she won the tournament preceding the French Open, sweeping Blinkova to improve to 17-3 in her career in finals. She’s playing on a protected ranking of 27th after her year absence and, now, on a seven-match win streak.

“It was always in my head the plan to come back, but I didn’t put any pressure on myself, because obviously with the war going on, with the pregnancy, you never know how complicated it will go,” she said. “I’m as strong as I was before, maybe even stronger, because I feel that I can handle the work that I do off the court, and match by match I’m getting better. Also mentally, because mental can influence your physicality, as well.”

Svitolina said she’s motivated by goals to attain before she retires from the sport and to help Ukraine, such as donating her prize money from last week’s title in Strasbourg.

“These moments bring joy to people of Ukraine, to the kids as well, the kids who loved to play tennis before the war, and now maybe they don’t have the opportunity,” she said. “But these moments that can motivate them to look on the bright side and see these good moments and enjoy themselves as much as they can in this horrible situation.”

Svitolina said that she’s noticed “a lot of rubbish” concerning how tennis is reacting to the war.

“We have to focus on what the main point of what is going on,” she said. “Ukrainian people need help and need support. We are focusing on so many things like empty words, empty things that are not helping the situation, not helping anything.

“I want to invite everyone to focus on helping Ukrainians. That’s the main point of this, to help kids, to help women who lost their husbands because they are at the war, and they are fighting for Ukraine.

“You can donate. Couple of dollars might help and save lives. Or donate your time to something to help people.”

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Marcell Jacobs still sidelined, misses another race with Fred Kerley

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 7:07 AM EDT

Getty

Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy will miss a second consecutive clash with world 100m champion Fred Kerley, withdrawing from Friday’s Diamond League meet in Florence.

Jacobs, 28, has not recovered from the nerve pain that forced him out of last Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, according to Italy’s track and field federation.

In his absence, Kerley’s top competition will be fellow American Trayvon Bromell, the world bronze medalist, and Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, the world’s fastest man this year at 9.84 seconds. Kerley beat both of them in Rabat.

The Florence Diamond League airs live on Peacock on Friday from 2-4 p.m. ET.

Jacobs has withdrawn from six scheduled head-to-heads with Kerley dating to May 2022 due to a series of health issues since that surprise gold in Tokyo.

Kerley, primarily a 400m sprinter until the Tokyo Olympic year, became the world’s fastest man in Jacobs’ absence. He ran a personal best 9.76 seconds, the world’s best time of 2022, at last June’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. Then he led a U.S. sweep of the medals at July’s worlds.

Jacobs’ next scheduled race is a 100m at the Paris Diamond League on June 9. Kerley is not in that field, but world 200m champion Noah Lyles is.

The last time the reigning Olympic and world men’s 100m champions met in a 100m was the 2012 London Olympic final between Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. From 2013 to 2017, Bolt held both titles, then retired in 2017 while remaining reigning Olympic champion until Jacobs’ win in Tokyo, where Kerley took silver.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

More: Olympics

More: Olympics

More: Olympics