10,000 ultrarunners

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40,091

— Record attendance for the NWSL (set in San Francisco at the Bay FC v. Washington Spirit game) — and the largest attendance ever in the U.S. for a professional women's sports event. It was a weekend full of women's sports attendance records.

(Photo: UTMB)

Three other big stories to know this week in women's sports

1. It's UTMB Week! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

There's UTMB, OCC, CCC, MCC, PTL, ETC. Confused by all of the acronyms? We cover it all in today's episode of the Feist.

What is UTMB

It started in 2003 as a crazy idea: Can runners race the 108 miles around Mont Blanc, through three countries and with over 32,000ft of elevation?

Since then Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) has become an entire week of festivities. There are kids races, locals races, multi-day treks — with nearly 10,000 people participating across the week. The culminating events, starting this Thursday and Friday, are the championship 55km race (OCC), 101km race (CCC), and the pinnacle 174km loop around the mountain (UTMB).

PTL - Teams of runners tackle 300km of unmarked rugged terrain with no official winner; just finishing is considered victory
MCC - 40km locals' race
TDS - 148km technical rugged mountain terrain
ETC - A vertical 15km new event
OCC - The championship 55km final
CCC - The championship 101km final with 20,000ft
UTMB - The ultimate race around the mountain

UTMB has also grown around the world, implementing a UTMB World Series of races. With that has come tensions over the growth and the culture of trail running.

Who could win?

All three of the championship events (OCC, CCC, and UTMB) attract the top runners in the world. But the last two years the attention has been on the records falling in the ultimate UTMB race: In 2023, Courtney Dauwalter won a historic Western States, UTMB, and Hardrock 100 all in the same summer. In 2024, Katie Schide won Western States and broke Dauwalter's UTMB record.

This year, all hopes were that we'd get a Katie v. Courtney showdown. But Schide has opted instead for the Trail World Championships at the end of September.

Can Courtney Dauwalter win a 4th title? Can she become the first woman under 22 hours? Can anyone beat her? Ruth Croft and Abby Hall will certainly try.

📺 WATCH: On UTMB Live — OCC starts Thursday morning, CCC takes off Friday morning, and the iconic 2,500-person start of UTMB is Friday evening

🇺🇸 GO USA! Yesterday, Careth Arnold became the first ever American to win the technical and challenging TDS race

2. Two weeks of mountain biking world titles 🚲

Not to be outdone, mountain biking is hosting a massive first-ever two-week world championship combining (almost) all of the disciplines: seven events in eight locations.

Downhill (DH)
Cross-country: XCC (short track), XCO (cross-country Olympic), XCM (marathon biking)
Enduro
Pump track

XCO is probably the version you've seen the most — raced in the Olympics around a longer circuit. But marathon might be most similar to what recreational mountain bikers do. And then there's the whole world of downhill — plus the other styles not competed at the world championship, like freeride and slopestyle (where it's more about the tricks).

Who could win?

Last year's XCO world champ, Puck Pieterse, is back, along with the 2024 XCC champ (and 2021 XCO world champ) Evie Richards. And 2018 world champ Kate Courtney is returning to the UCI circuit after her record-breaking performance at Leadville 100 — but she'll be taking on the marathon world champs course.

🎧 LISTEN: U.S. national XCM champ Hannah Otto talks to us about all the different disciplines and how she's tackling the marathon race at the world championships

📺 WATCH: On HBO Max in the U.S. — check your broadcaster in your region

3. Should cycling institute mandatory REDs screenings?

After the last few weeks of debates over weight in cycling, the Cyclists' Alliance is calling for mandatory REDs screening and bone density testing of riders. What does that mean?

REDs (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports): When an athlete experiences low energy availability (LEA) it sets them up for Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) — which can lead to fatigue, bone injuries, poor performance, hormone dysfunction, and illness. Your body is not getting enough energy to fuel its activities!

Sports where weight-to-power are a factor can put athletes especially at risk for underfueling. That means things like climbing, cycling, running, and sports with weight classes.

What climbing did

Last year, the International Federation of Sport Climbing implemented a policy that required athletes to be screened for potential eating disorders in order to compete. They were the first international governing body to put something like this in place.

The screening used questionnaires that would identify potential risk factors or signs — like missed menstrual cycles or frequent bone stress injuries — as well as metrics like BMI, blood pressure, and heart rate. Athletes of concern are then required to go through further testing in order to be either cleared for competition or, if additional markers are found, deemed ineligible for competition until sufficient recovery.

The challenge has always been identifying athletes who may need support without stigmatizing or penalizing them — since so often the underlying issues come not from the athletes but from coaches and the culture of the sport!

🎧 If you'd rather listen to your women's sports news...

Our weekly The Feist podcast — covering everything you didn't know you wanted to know about your favorite sports in one feisty hour — is now coming out every Wednesday morning. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Youtube Music.

This week's episode: A week of acronyms: The rise of UTMB's ultrarunning — and the historic mountain bike world champs

Tip of the week

Are runners at higher risk for colon cancer? That seems to be what recent headlines are suggesting — but the research is more nuanced.

Many previous studies have found exercise and increased fitness correlates with less risk of colorectal cancer. For example, one study looked at 643,583 U.S. veterans (including ~42,000 women) and measured cardiorespiratory fitness on treadmills. For every 1 MET higher fitness it equaled 9% lower risk of colorectal cancer.

Now, a new study earlier this year looked at 100 marathon & ultramarathon runners, ages 35-50, and found:

15% had advanced precancerous polyps (adenomas) vs 1.2% in the general population between the ages of 40 to 49
41% had at least one adenoma

**Worth noting: This study had control group, a small sample size, and is not yet peer-reviewed or published!

The hypothesis is that repeated gut ischemia (low blood flow to the intestines during long runs) may increase risk in runners. Plus, there are other possible factors that could contribute: diet, inflammation, missing the symptoms and signs because they’re masked by common gut issues in long-distance running.

Also worth nothing: There has also been a sharp rise in colorectal cancer in young adults broadly speaking—which isn’t yet fully understood.

What does this mean for you? It doesn’t mean running “causes cancer.” But it does mean endurance athletes may have unique risk profiles and could benefit from:

- Earlier or more frequent colon cancer screening
- Paying attention to persistent GI symptoms

If you’re a marathoner/ultrarunner in your 40s or 50s, stay on top of colonoscopy screenings.

The highlight reel

🎾 Amid a boom in the popularity of tennis (and particularly the popularity of the U.S Open), the tournament kicked off in New York this week. Will last year's champ, Aryna Sabalenka, become the first woman to defend the title in a decade? Will Coco Gauff repeat her historic 2023 win? Will #1 seed Iga Swiatek top the field?
Alex Eala became the first player from the Philippines 🇵🇭 to win a singles match in a Grand Slam main draw.
Series 3 of the AUSL All-Star Cup finished yesterday. The Cup is a four-series season (finishing over the next week) with 60 invite-only players getting drafted to different teams in each round, with the goal of naming an individual champion! 🥎
Tryouts for the Women's Professional Baseball League ⚾ wrapped up and the inaugural draft will now be held in October. The six teams and locations will be announced next month.
🚴‍♀️ Elise Chabbey won the Tour de Romandie for her first stage win victory, but much of the race was overshadowed by the DQ chaos in the first stage.
🚵‍♀️ Last year, Alma Wiggberg was the first-ever Red Bull Joyride winner. This year, she repeated her slopestyle win and secured enough points to be crowned slopestyle world champion for the year.
🚲 🚲 🚲 Meg Hackinen won the Silk Road Mountain Race (1,900km with 30,000m of climbing) — making her the first woman to complete all three mountain races in one season.
Rosa Klöser 🇩🇪 won Gravel Worlds, taking home one of the biggest prize purses in the sport. 🚲 💰
Jeanne Lehair 🇱🇺 won an exciting sprint to the finish at the second Supertri race of the season, held in Chicago.
Only two teams finished the One Water Race — covering ~200km of running & 50km of swimming outside Stockholm — with the winning team finishing in 54 hours.
🏏 The International Cricket Council announced support for the displaced Afghan female cricketers.
🏃‍♀️ Fields for the New York Marathon and Chicago Marathon were announced.
The Footlocker Cross-Country Championships, a pinnacle of high school running in the U.S., is ending after 45 years.

Serena Williams has gone public about her use of weight loss drugs, known as GLP-1s.

Your Feisty recommendations

📺 What to watch: Get in the UTMB spirit with this short doc about Courtney Dauwalter's epic summer of 2023, when she won UTMB, Western States, and Hardrock 100

🎧 What to listen to: "Menopause, Resilience, and Summiting Mount Everest"

📚 What to read: Running cult novels have long been the domain of men, but We Loved to Run is all about a college women's cross-country team

💜 What we loved: This fundraiser from the former junior world cycling champ to help teams send juniors riders to the world championships in Rwanda this year 🚲