Summer track plans take shape for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Athing Mu

By Nick ZaccardiMay 18, 2023, 8:41 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The plan is for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the Olympic and world champion and world record holder in the 400m hurdles, to race the flat 400m at July’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, then either the flat 400m or 400m hurdles at August’s world championships.

McLaughlin-Levrone’s coach, Bob Kersee, said Thursday that McLaughlin-Levrone will race one individual event at worlds in Budapest as the schedule is not conducive to attempt a 400m-400m hurdles double (400m hurdles heats start 2 hours and 20 minutes before the 400m semifinals).

The plan is to decide between the two individual events after USATF Outdoors, assuming McLaughlin-Levrone qualifies in the 400m by finishing in the top three there.

McLaughlin-Levrone has a bye into the 400m hurdles at worlds as defending champion, meaning she does not have to race the event at USATF Outdoors in Eugene, Oregon, the qualifying meet for worlds in Budapest.

Many athletes with byes race complementary events at USATF Outdoors, which makes the plan for McLaughlin-Levrone to run the flat 400m unsurprising, especially given her comments last year that she wanted to add it to her repertoire without giving up the 400m hurdles.

McLaughlin-Levrone has never raced the flat 400m at a top-level championship meet, but her 400m split in the women’s 4x400m relay at last July’s worlds was the world’s second-fastest in the last 33 years.

Kersee also confirmed an Orange County Register report that McLaughlin-Levrone could race both the mixed-gender 4x400m and the women’s 4x400m at worlds, in addition to her individual event. Kersee also said that another one of his pupils, Olympic and world 800m champion Athing Mu, could do both relays, according to the report.

If that ends up happening, McLaughlin-Levrone and Mu could bid to become the first track and field athlete to win three gold medals at a single worlds since Usain Bolt, who did so in 2009, 2013 and 2015, and the first woman to do so since Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 2013. The last Americans to do so were Allyson Felix and Tyson Gay in 2007.

McLaughlin-Levrone was due to run the flat 400m at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on May 27, but her agent announced Tuesday that she withdrew due to a coach’s decision. Kersee said McLaughlin-Levrone recently irritated a hamstring, according to the OC Register.

Turning to Mu, Kersee said that the plan is for her to race the 1500m at USATF Outdoors since she has a bye into the 800m at worlds, according to the OC Register.

Mu, 20, said in February that, at some point, she would like to try a 400m-800m double at an Olympics or worlds.

“As long as the schedule permits, and as long as we can manage to get training in that will help with both of those events,” she said then. “Since the last time that has happened was like years and years and years ago (In 1976, Cuban Alberto Juantorena won the Olympic men’s 400m and 800m, running seven times in seven days), I think it’d be cool to kind of bring it back and, I don’t know, change the sport.”

That might not be possible in 2024, when the Olympic schedule has the 800m semifinals, 400m first round and 800m final spread out over a 26-hour stretch.

However, Kersee said that a 2024 Olympic 800m-1500m double is possible for Mu, according to the OC Register.

Those two events originally overlapped on the Olympic schedule, but an updated schedule in January broke them up so that the 1500m first round is the morning after the 800m final.

The Olympic schedule is as accommodating as ever for a possible women’s 400m-400m hurdles double in 2024, though neither Kersee nor McLaughlin-Levrone has addressed it publicly.

For the first time in Olympic history, none of the rounds of those races take place on the same day at the Games. But doing both through the finals would still be a challenge: racing six consecutive days at the Olympics (and a seventh day at the end if adding the 4x400m relay).

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that the current 2024 Olympic schedule had the women’s 800m and 1500m overlapping.

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Iga Swiatek wins third French Open title, fourth Grand Slam, but this final was not easy

By OlympicTalkJun 10, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT

Iga Swiatek won her third French Open title and her fourth Grand Slam overall, pushed to a third set in a major final for the first time.

Swiatek, a 22-year-old Pole, outlasted unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Saturday at Roland Garros. Muchova tested Swiatek, the only singles player in the Open Era to win their first seven major final sets. She became the first player to take a set off Swiatek in the tournament.

Swiatek looked en route to another major final sweep, up 3-0 in the second set. She then committed 11 unforced errors (versus four winners) over the rest of the set as Muchova rallied back (with 10 winners versus 11 unforced errors).

Muchova then won the first eight points of the third set. Swiatek, under the most pressure of her career on the sport’s biggest stages, passed the test. The players exchanged breaks of serve, and Muchova had another break point for a chance to serve for the championship, but Swiatek fended her off.

“After so many ups and downs, I kind of stopped thinking about the score,” Swiatek said. “I wanted to use my intuition more because I knew that I can play a little bit better if I’m going to get a little bit more loosened up.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

No woman lower than the 14th seed has beaten both world Nos. 1 and 2 at a Grand Slam since the WTA rankings began in 1975. Muchova, ranked 43rd, nearly pulled it off.

“The feeling is a little bitter because I felt it was very close,” she said. “But overall, I mean, to call myself Grand Slam finalist, it’s amazing achievement.”

The French Open finishes Sunday with the men’s final. Novak Djokovic faces Casper Ruud, eyeing a 23rd major title to break his tie with Rafael Nadal for the men’s singles record. NBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock air live coverage at 9 a.m. ET.

Go back to the fall 2020 French Open. Swiatek, a 54th-ranked teen, won the tournament without dropping a set for her first tour-level title.

Since, she climbed to the top of the rankings (and has stayed there for 62 weeks running), tied the longest WTA win streak in 32 years (37 matches in a row in 2022) and won majors on clay and hard courts.

She beat challengers from different categories in major finals: a Slam champ (Sofia Kenin), a teen phenom (Coco Gauff), an emerged rival (Ons Jabeur) and now an unseeded (because of injuries)-but-dangerous veteran in Muchova. Swiatek is the youngest woman to reach four major titles since Serena Williams in 2002.

Yet this French Open began with talk of a Big Three in women’s tennis rather than singular dominance. Since last year’s French Open, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka and Russian-born Kazakh Elena Rybakina both won their first major and beat Swiatek multiple times.

Swiatek faced neither in Paris but still called it “a pretty stressful tournament,” noting a right thing injury that forced her to retire during her last match before the tournament.

Sabalenka was stunned by Muchova in Thursday’s semifinals, the erratic serving and nerves of her past reappearing. Rybakina had to withdraw earlier in the tournament due to illness.

Next up: the grass court season and Wimbledon, where Swiatek hasn’t made it past the fourth round in three tries. She did win the 2018 junior title at the All England Club. but Sabalenka and Rybakina have had more recent success there.

If Swiatek can lift the Venus Rosewater Dish, she will be an Australian Open shy of a career Grand Slam. Her chances of adding an Olympic gold medal to that collection are very high, given Roland Garros hosts tennis at the 2024 Paris Games.

“I’m not setting these crazy records or goals for myself,” she said. “I know that keeping it cool is the best way to do it for me.”

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Novak Djokovic into French Open final with records at stake after beating Carlos Alcaraz

By OlympicTalkJun 10, 2023, 12:43 PM EDT

Novak Djokovic heads into Sunday’s French Open final with all sorts of history at stake after eliminating a cramping Carlos Alcaraz in a showdown semifinal.

Djokovic faces Casper Ruud, eyeing a 23rd major title to break his tie with Rafael Nadal for the men’s singles record. NBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock air live coverage at 9 a.m. ET.

On Friday, Djokovic took out the top seed Alcaraz 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, but the match was even when Alcaraz began showing signs of right leg cramping. The 20-year-old Spaniard attributed it to the “tension” of the match, saying he was nervous for his first time facing Djokovic at a major.

“I have never felt something like I did today,” he said, adding that it was full-body cramps. “If someone says that he get into the court with no nerves playing against Novak, he lies.”

Alcaraz stopped play at 1-all in the third set and had trouble walking. He forfeited the next game, stipulated by the rules for receiving medical treatment for severe muscle cramping when not at a change of ends or end of a set.

Djokovic then won the next nine games. Alcaraz played with limited mobility and without the charismatic magic that’s charmed the tennis world.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

“First and foremost, I have to say tough luck for Carlos. I feel for him. I feel sorry,” Djokovic said to begin an on-court interview. “I told him at the net he knows how young he is. He’s got plenty of time ahead of him, so he’s going to win this tournament, I’m sure, many, many times.”

Djokovic was told of Alcaraz’s reasoning for the cramps.

“I have experienced that several times,” he said. “Early in my career I was struggling quite a bit physically. I can understand the emotions and circumstances that affect you mentally and emotionally.”

The semi was billed as perhaps the greatest inter-generational match in men’s tennis history, the first time that Alcaraz played a member of the Big Three at a major.

Their 16-year age gap was the largest to take place for men this deep in a major since the 1991 U.S. Open (Jim Courier d. Jimmy Connors) and the largest age gap for any major match between Slam champs since 2006 Wimbledon (Rafael Nadal d. Andre Agassi).

Unlike Friday, most of the previous torch-passing meetings took place when one man was not yet at his peak or the other was past his prime.

Typically, the younger player wins these types of duels. Djokovic, by prevailing over a foe 16 years younger this late in a major, broke the Open Era men’s age gap record of 14-plus years set by Roger Federer, who beat Hyeon Chung at the 2018 Australian Open.

Now, Djokovic heads to Sunday’s final as an overwhelming favorite against the Norwegian Ruud, a 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 winner over German Alexander Zverev in the later semifinal. Ruud was runner-up to Nadal at last year’s French Open and runner-up to Alcaraz at last year’s U.S. Open.

Djokovic can become the first man to win all four majors at least three times. He can break Nadal’s record as the oldest French Open singles champion.

“I’ve been very fortunate that most of the matches in tournaments I’ve played in the last few years, there is history on the line,” he said. “The motivation is very high, as you can imagine.”

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