Fred Kerley runs world’s fastest 100m of 2022; Allyson Felix ekes into U.S. final

By OlympicTalkJun 25, 2022, 12:10 AM EDT

Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley ran the world’s fastest 100m this year and won the USATF Outdoor Championships, setting himself up as the favorite for the world championships in three weeks.

In a span of two hours, Kerley ran 9.76 seconds in the semifinals and, less than two hours later, 9.77 in the final. Those are the world’s two fastest times this year.

“I put the work in,” Kerley told Flotrack. “It’s the day I was supposed to have.”

Kerley is joined on the world team by Rio Olympian Marvin Bracy-Williams (9.85), the world’s fastest man of 2021 Trayvon Bromell (9.88) and Christian Coleman, who scratched after qualifying fourth into the final but has a bye into worlds as reigning world champion.

USATF OUTDOORS: TV Schedule | Results

Allyson Felix extended her farewell season by grabbing the last spot in Saturday’s 400m final. She was in last place coming around the last curve in her semifinal, then surged into fourth place and made it into the eight-woman final on time.

In 2019 and 2021, USA Track and Field put all eight finalists on the world championships and Olympic teams for relay purposes. If that’s repeated this time, Felix will have made her 10th world championships team dating to 2003.

“My legs just didn’t feel the best, but I knew that’s kind of how this season was going to go,” said Felix, whose goal was to make the relay pool.

Melissa Jefferson won the women’s 100m in a wind-aided 10.69 seconds. Jefferson, the fastest collegian this season who was eighth at the NCAA Championships two weeks ago for Coastal Carolina, prevailed by three hundredths over 2018 U.S. champion Aleia Hobbs. Twanisha Terry rounds out the individual 100m team for worlds, which will also be in Eugene.

“One [NCAAs] had to be sacrificed for the other [U.S. Championships],” Jefferson told Lewis Johnson on CNBC. “Had I done good at NCAAs, I might not be standing here right now.”

The race lacked Sha’Carri Richardson, who was eliminated in the first round on Thursday. Richardson ranked No. 3 in the world last year despite having her Olympic Trials win disqualified for a positive marijuana test, ruling her out of the Tokyo Games.

Ryan Crouser, two-time Olympic champion and world record holder, recorded the joint-fourth-best throw in history to win the shot put. He’s joined on the team by runner-up Joe Kovacs, who has a bye into worlds as reigning world champion.

Olympic champion Valarie Allman won the discus, though she also has a bye into worlds as the reigning Diamond League season champion.

Rio Olympic silver medalist Sandi Morris won the pole vault with a 4.82-meter clearance, tops in the world this year. Tokyo gold medalist Katie Nageotte was third to join her on the team. London gold medalist Jenn Suhr announced her retirement on Thursday at age 40.

Vashti Cunningham won her 10th consecutive U.S. high jump title (indoors and outdoors).

Rayvon Gray won the men’s long jump with a personal best 8.19-meter leap but doesn’t have the world championship standard (8.22), so he must wait to see if he gets into worlds on world ranking.

JuVaughn Harrison, who in Tokyo became the first American man to compete in the high jump and long jump at the same Olympics since Jim Thorpe in 1912, was 11th. Rio gold medalist Jeff Henderson didn’t enter nationals due to injury.

In semifinals, Olympic champion and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin easily advanced to Saturday’s 400m hurdles final with the top time (52.90) by 2.12 seconds. Dalilah Muhammad, the 2016 gold medalist and former world record holder, has a bye into worlds as reigning world champion. She didn’t compete at nationals due to injury.

All of the favorites advanced to this weekend’s finals in the men’s 400m (Michael Norman, Randolph Ross), men’s 800m (Bryce Hoppel, Clayton Murphy) and women’s 800m (Athing Mu, Raevyn Rogers, Ajeé Wilson).

Donovan Brazier, who is returning from injury, withdrew after the 800m first round but has a bye into worlds as reigning champ.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Football takes significant step in Olympic push

By OlympicTalkMar 29, 2023, 2:18 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Football took another step toward possible Olympic inclusion with the IOC executive board proposing that the sport’s international federation — the IFAF — be granted full IOC recognition at a meeting in October.

IOC recognition does not equate to eventual Olympic inclusion, but it is a necessary early marker if a sport is to join the Olympics down the line. The IOC gave the IFAF provisional recognition in 2013.

Specific measures are required for IOC recognition, including having an anti-doping policy compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency and having 50 affiliated national federations from at least three continents. The IFAF has 74 national federations over five continents with almost 4.8 million registered athletes, according to the IOC.

The NFL has helped lead the push for flag football to be added for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Flag football had medal events for men and women at last year’s World Games, a multi-sport competition including Olympic and non-Olympic sports, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Football is one of nine sports that have been reported to be in the running to be proposed by LA 2028 to the IOC to be added for the 2028 Games only. LA 2028 has not announced which, if any sports, it plans to propose.

Under rules instituted before the Tokyo Games, Olympic hosts have successfully proposed to the IOC adding sports solely for their edition of the Games.

For Tokyo, baseball-softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added. For Paris, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were approved again, and breaking will make its Olympic debut. Those sports were added four years out from the Games.

For 2028, the other sports reportedly in the running for proposal are baseball and softball, breaking, cricket, karate, kickboxing, lacrosse, motorsports and squash.

All of the other eight sports reportedly in the running for 2028 proposal already have a federation with full IOC recognition (if one counts the international motorcycle racing federation for motorsports).

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Helen Maroulis stars in wrestling documentary, with help from Chris Pratt

By Nick ZaccardiMar 29, 2023, 10:05 AM EDT

Getty

One of the remarkable recent Olympic comeback stories is the subject of a film that will be shown nationwide in theaters for one day only on Thursday.

“Helen | Believe” is a documentary about Helen Maroulis, the first U.S. Olympic women’s wrestling champion. It is produced by Religion of Sports, the venture founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan and Tom Brady. Showing details are here.

After taking gold at the 2016 Rio Games, Maroulis briefly retired in 2019 during a two-year stretch in which she dealt with concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder. The film focuses on that period and her successful bid to return and qualify for the Tokyo Games, where she took bronze.

In a poignant moment in the film, Maroulis described her “rock bottom” — being hospitalized for suicidal ideations.

In an interview, Maroulis said she was first approached about the project in 2018, the same year she had her first life-changing concussion that January. A wrestling partner’s mother was connected to director Dylan Mulick.

Maroulis agreed to the film in part to help spread mental health awareness in sports. Later, she cried while watching the 2020 HBO film, “The Weight of Gold,” on the mental health challenges that other Olympians faced, because it resonated with her so much.

“When you’re going through something, it sometimes gives you an anchor of hope to know that someone’s been through it before, and they’ve overcome it,” she said.

Maroulis’ comeback story hit a crossroads at the Olympic trials in April 2021, where the winner of a best-of-three finals series in each weight class made Team USA.

Maroulis won the opening match against Jenna Burkert, but then lost the second match. Statistically, a wrestler who loses the second match in a best-of-three series usually loses the third. But Maroulis pinned Burkert just 22 seconds into the rubber match to clinch the Olympic spot.

Shen then revealed that she tore an MCL two weeks earlier.

“They told me I would have to be in a brace for six weeks,” she said then. “I said, ‘I don’t have that. I have two and a half.’”

Maroulis said she later asked the director what would have happened if she didn’t make the team for Tokyo. She was told the film still have been done.

“He had mentioned this isn’t about a sports story or sports comeback story,” Maroulis said. “This is about a human story. And we’re using wrestling as the vehicle to tell this story of overcoming and healing and rediscovering oneself.”

Maroulis said she was told that, during filming, the project was pitched to the production company of actor Chris Pratt, who wrestled in high school in Washington. Pratt signed on as a producer.

“Wrestling has made an impact on his life, and so he wants to support these kinds of stories,” said Maroulis, who appeared at last month’s Santa Barbara Film Festival with Pratt.

Pratt said he knew about Maroulis before learning about the film, which he said “needed a little help to get it over the finish line,” according to a public relations company promoting the film.

The film also highlights the rest of the six-woman U.S. Olympic wrestling team in Tokyo. Four of the six won a medal, including Tamyra Mensah-Stock‘s gold.

“I was excited to be part of, not just (Maroulis’) incredible story, but also helping to further advance wrestling and, in particular, female wrestling,” Pratt said, according to responses provided by the PR company from submitted questions. “To me, the most compelling part of Helen’s story is the example of what life looks like after a person wins a gold medal. The inevitable comedown, the trauma around her injuries, the PTSD, the drive to continue that is what makes her who she is.”

Maroulis, who now trains in Arizona, hopes to qualify for this year’s world championships and next year’s Olympics.

“I try to treat every Games as my last,” she said. “Now I’m leaning toward being done [after 2024], but never say never.”

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nzaccardi

More: Olympics

More: Olympics

More: Olympics