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(Photo: Rugby World Cup)
2. And the WNBA Playoffs ๐ are almost set...
There are just a handful of regular season WNBA games left today & tomorrow, but the playoffs are nearly finalized. With the top eight teams making it through, seven of those spots are locked up. The last team will come down to: the Seattle Storm or the L.A. Sparks.
Most interestingly:
- The Golden State Valkyries became the first expansion team to ever make a playoff berth and have set WNBA records for total season and average game attendance โ but will, unfortunately, not be able to play their first round playoff game at their home arena due to a scheduling conflict
- The Indiana Fever also secured a playoff berth even though star Caitlin Clark announced she will not be returning to play this year after nursing an injury for the last two months
Once the season ends tomorrow (Thursday), the playoff seedings and locations will be finalized โ with games starting Sunday, Sept. 14. The first round is a best-of-three games. The semifinals will be best-of-five. And then the finals, for the first time ever, will be seven games!
Who are the defending champs? The most valuable franchise in women's sports ever, the New York Liberty (even if they're currently ranked #5).
READ: Inside the Liberty's All-Male Practice Squad
3. Plus, it's time for the Track & Field World Championships ๐โโ๏ธ
The track and field world championships start in Saturday in Tokyo โ with more than 2,000 athletes from 200 countries, making it one of the largest global sports competitions. With the time difference, many of the finals will be in the morning in N. America (and the meet actually starts with the women's marathon, which is Friday evening in the U.S.). See: The full schedule ๐
An interesting question to ponder, on the heels of the spectacle of UTMB and the boom in trail running: Will we see the same level of excitement for track & field?
With Olympic and defending world champs on the docket, here's your mini-preview of races to watch:
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100/200m: Gabby Thomas (Olympic 200m champ) is out with an injury, but Julien Alfred (defending Olympic 100m gold medalist) is in, so is Sha'Carri Richardson in the 100m (defending world champ) and the fastest in the world this year at both, American Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. Plus, it's 10x world champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's last meet
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400m: Hurdles icon and living legend Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has switched this year to the flat 400m. She's seeded #3 behind Olympic gold medalist Marileidy Paulino and silver medalist Salwa Eid Naser, but it's the race circled on everyone's calendar
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1500m: It's hard to imagine anyone beating reigning Olympic and world champion and current world record holder Faith Kipyegon...
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5,000m: But in the 5,000m Kipyegon will meet up with friend and training partner Beatrice Chebet, who is the reigning Olympic champ and world record holder โ and who just outkicked Kipyegon in Paris.
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Marathon: Tigist Assefa, the previous world record holder, is the fastest woman in the world who isn't serving a doping ban.
๐บ WATCH: On NBC & Peacock in the U.S. and on CBC in Canada
๐ง LISTEN: We also dive into the mess of sex testing ahead of the world championships and debate if women's sports were simply a pawn in the larger political and cultural war on this week's episode of The Feist podcast |
