Welcome back to our regular Tuesday morning women's sports and performance newsletter! And welcome to all our new readers joining us after the Olympics. The last two weeks have been all about the Paris Games, but celebrating women's sports doesn't stop with the Olympics.

Now we'll be getting back to our regular weekly newsletter of all things you should know about in women's sports and performance. Know someone who loves women's sports? Share this with them 💜

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67 medals

- How many medals the U.S. women won — more than half of the country's medals and 65% of its gold medals. If the U.S. women were their own country, they'd have been third in the medal count.

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

1. Goodbye, Olympics! Merci, Paris! 🇫🇷

Over our two weeks in Paris, our team went to 14 sports, 22 events, delivered 12 podcasts, 15 newsletters, and over 1 million views — all thanks to YOU.

And if it felt like these Olympics were a little more joyful, a little healthier, a little more about women doing what *they* wanted to do, well, that wasn't just your imagination.

Even on the very last day of competition, the women just kept performing:

🏀 France very nearly upset the 7x gold medalists U.S. basketball team in a buzzer beater that was ruled a two-pointer (instead of three) because her foot was on the line!

🏃🏽‍♀️ And Sifan Hassan delivered her third medal performance of the Games and captured the gold in a sprint finish Olympic record marathon — also the first time the women's marathon has ever closed out the Games. Then, because she is an ICON, she accepted her medal in her hijab at an Olympics where the home country France had banned its athletes from competing in hijab. 👏

The women of the Games were legendary — but it doesn't stop here!

WATCH: The Paralympics start in two weeks on Aug 28. Watch streaming on NBC's Peacock in the U.S. — along with select events on TV on NBC and USA. And stay tuned to our Feisty channels for more stories from France.

FEISTY FUN FACTS: Some stats & data from the Olympics — like four countries won their first-ever Olympic gold medal and three women's sports set new attendance records

2. Hello, Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift!

(Photo: ASO/Charly Lopez)

Good thing for us that as soon as the Olympics ended it was time for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 🎉

What to know about the TDFF 🚲 🚲 🚲

The eight-stage, seven-day race started on Monday in Rotterdam (where the city was ready to go!) and will finish on the Alpe d'Huez on Sunday.

An overview:

8 stages over 7 days
3 countries - Netherlands, Belgium and France
22 teams with a total of 154 riders including
4 newly minted Olympic 🥇medalists
3 current or former world champions

Can anyone beat Demi Vollering? Sprinter Charlotte Kool already overcame mysterious health problems to win the first two sprint stages.

How to watch 📺

Follow Feisty's live coverage @girlsgonegravel and get the daily podcast from the ground. Want even more? Sign up for daily updates from the Tour!

Get all data and live tracking on the race hub, watch on Eurosport on Max in Europe or on Peacock in the U.S., and check out extended highlights on NBC Sports.

Enter to win 🥳

Plus, if you sign up for the daily updates and join the Fan Club, you'll be entered to win one of five Wahoo Bolts and one-year subscriptions to Zwift.

(Don't worry: If you joined the Fan Club already and signed up before for Olympics updates, you can still sign up again to enter the giveaway!)

3. Elite competitor dies at Crossfit Games

In the first event of the Crossfit Games (a 3.5-mile run & 800m swim) last week, Lazar Đukić drowned. He was last seen struggling about 100-200m from the finish line and then went under; paramedics were later called when he failed to exit the water and his body was retrieved over an hour later. Spectators have reported that they yelled for water safety personnel when they saw Đukić struggling and even attempted to jump into the water themselves, but that nothing was done.

It's hard to overstate how preventable this was:

While deaths are rare but do happen in mass participation amateur events, like triathlons, it is exceptionally uncommon among professional or elite races. The Crossfit Games is, essentially, the world championship for these professional athletes.
Drowning is additionally unheard of in events with just 80 competitors (triathlons usually have hundreds or thousands of amateur athletes) — because safety personnel are typically able to see and track all of the swimmers as they progress through the water.

Other top competitors are echoing the shell-shocked sentiments and concerns about safety protocols: Multiple time podium finisher Pat Vellner said Crossfit organizers have too long ignored concerns about athlete safety

What did athletes do after the news?

Competition was called off for the remainder of the day, but then resumed. In a relatively close-knit community, the athletes all struggled to decide how to best navigate the tragedy. Many — like defending champion Laura Horvath — withdrew. Others continued to compete, hoping it would be a chance to honor Đukić and talk about the safety issues.

Tia-Clair Toomey, coming back post-pregnancy, ultimately won her 7th title.

DONATE: A GoFundMe was set up in support of his family

Tip of the week

Take more forest baths. 🌳🌳

Research has found true physiological benefits to dousing ourselves in nature. One study on postmenopausal women found that after a three-day camp in the woods, their cortisol levels were still reduced four weeks later Another study reported that forest therapy decreased heart rate, cortisol, and negative feelings, and increased positive feelings in middle-aged women. And another 2022 study of more than 13,000 women found that those who were surrounded by more green space had higher scores on thinking speed, attention, and overall cognitive function — which translated to being 1.2 years younger.

What does that mean for you? Turn off your phone, get outside, and go find some trees (however small a patch).

The highlight reel

With so many sports on hiatus outside of the Olympics, we have a shorter highlight reel this week. Back with more sports highlights next week.

🏆 Canadian Jen Annett set a new world record for the Ultraman — a three-day triathlon competition consisting of a 10K swim & 90-mile ride, a 171-mile bike ride, and then a double-marathon run on the last day. Annett covered the distance in a total three-day time of 21:39:32 and beat the top man in the Ultraman Canada race by eight hours.
🚵‍♀️ Loanne Duvoisin defended her European championship XTERRA title.
🚲 Lael Wilcox has now passed 12,000 miles of the 18,000 to circumnavigate the globe in her Guinness world record attempt. Will you try to meet up with her now that she's back in N. America?
Allyson Felix won the election to represent athletes on the IOC for the next eight years. Felix, who won seven gold medals, was also pivotal in advocating for mothers and bringing the first nursery to the Athlete Village this year.
🤸🏾‍♀️ Jordan Chiles' bronze in the floor exercise has been overturned — due to a ruling that the U.S. appeal to accurately score the difficult of her moves came four seconds too late during competition. A ruling the U.S. team has now submitted video evidence to refute and show the appeal was made within the 60-second window. Jordan, do not give back your medal!
Olympic attention is now turning to LA2028 — where the venues have been announced across greater Los Angeles (and some Oklahoma). (Olympic organizers definitely told athletes, though, that Snoop Dogg and Billie Eilish would be performing at the Closing Ceremony, not broadcasting in from California...)
🏉 Women's Elite Rugby — the new pro league coming in spring 2025 to the U.S. — announced its first three teams: Chicago, Denver, and Boston. It's expected to start its inaugural season with 6-8 teams.
🏀 And the newest WNBA team, the Golden State Valkyries in San Francisco, have collected more than 15,000 season ticket deposits for their first season coming in spring 2025. That's a record for a women's pro team. But with the growing demand for women's basketball, expectations are high for designated team practice facilities and resources (not just sharing with the Warriors)!

Your Feisty recommendations

What to read: Not Too Late — the story of trying something new and conquering elite amateur obstacle course racing in middle-age

What to listen to: "Why Olympic Sports in America Will Never Be the Same" — there is a *lot* of concern about how the deteriorating NCAA system will impact the U.S. Olympic sports development pipeline (and the development that other countries rely on too!)

What to watch: Crowds followed behind the final runner in the Olympic marathon, Kinzang Lhamo from Bhutan

Did you know? There were sports where men and women competed together (like skeet shooting), but after the women won overall they were banned and then separate categories were created...