Two big world championships

This week's newsletter of the best in women's sports is brought to you by Momentous. Get 20% off with the code BRAINSTORM at livemomentous.com.

5 minutes

- The amount of time the Boston Marathon qualifying times were lowered for 2025 — after record numbers of applicants exceeded the spots the last two years (which meant runners last year ultimately had to run 5:29 faster than the qualifying time for their age-group in order to get in)

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

1. The Ironman World Championships come to Nice 🇫🇷

Last year, the first all-women's Ironman World Championship was held in Kona, Hawaii — while the men raced in Nice, France a few weeks earlier. This year, they've swapped locations.

The French Riviera has a long history in triathlon. It's where some of the first international races were held, where the first long-distance world championships happened, where the first meeting of the sport's governing body took place. And so it's seen its share of legends ⭐

LISTEN: We talk all about it on the first episode of our daily podcast from Nice

The Course ⛰️

Part of the drama with the move to a new location (and the first women's Ironman World Championship outside the U.S.) is a different style of course — which could mean different people near the front.

🏊‍♀️ SWIM: The likely non-wetsuit 2.4-mile (3.8km) swim will be in the blue waters of the Mediterranean

🚴‍♀️ BIKE: With nearly 8,000ft of elevation and one wicked descent, this 112 miles (180km) is what everyone is talking about

🏃‍♀️ RUN: Then the women will bang out a fast and flat marathon along the waterfront Promenade des Anglais

WATCH: Ironman's course preview

Some of the Contenders 👑

There are 49 pro women taking the start line. And along with a number of Ironman champions and past world championship podium finishers (and potential upsets), there are three previous world champions racing:

Lucy Charles-Barclay: After four second places (!), she finally won her first Ironman world championship title last year in record-setting fashion. She then set a course record in France (on a similar course) earlier this year. Will she win again?

Anne Haug: The 2019 world champion, she took a third place at the world champs and then a second last year. She's battled with health issues on-and-off this summer, but set a world's fastest time EVER for this distance in Germany in July.

Chelsea Sodaro: This will only be her 5th Ironman full-distance race — but in her second ever Ironman race she won the 2022 world championship in Kona. And (!) she did it just 18 months post-partum, becoming the first young mom and first American to win in decades.

FOLLOW ALONG: Keep up with all of our @feistytriathlon coverage and catch the daily podcast from France or come by the Feisty House for one of our race week events (and enter our $3,000 giveaway!)

(Photo: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images for IRONMAN)

2. What is the around-the-world cycling record? 🚲

Last week, Lael Wilcox officially finished her trip biking around the world: 18,125 miles in 108 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes.

That set a new world record, beating the old one by almost 16 days. But what does that even mean? How does one bike across the ocean? What route do you take to get the official record?

It turns out there are official rules that govern the around-the-world record — but no official route. You have to ride a minimum of 18,000 miles, go continuously in one direction (east-to-west or west-to-east), and the total distance traveled including ferries and flights should equal at least the distance of the equator.

But that means you can choose any route you want! In fact, another woman, Vendagi Kulkarn, who is also going for the record right now picked an entirely different route because of visa challenges and limitations on where she could ride.

READ: 'I Had So Much Fun'

🚲 UCI Cycling World Championships

In completely different cycling news, the cycling world championships start this Saturday and run through next Sunday. That includes road races, time trials, para-cycling, juniors, and mixed relays.

Two interesting riders to know: Along with big names like Lotte Kopecky and the Olympic gold medal winner Grace Brown, both multi-time mountain bike world champ Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and current mountain bike world champ Puck Pieterse (who won that title just two weeks ago) announced they will also be racing.

HOW TO WATCH: All the races will be on FloBikes

Tip of the week

In the third episode of our series on concussions, adventure cyclist Rebecca Rusch — who struggled to recover from a "mild" injury — turned to psychedelic-assisted therapy, which she credits as a turning point in her recovery. And there is research to support her experience, backing up the use of controlled of psychedelic interventions as treatment for mild concussions in military vets. (You can see our full set of resources here.)

Rebecca also found that taking supplements — specifically creatine, protein, and omega-3 — helped with brain recovery and muscle function. She ended up partnering with Momentous and that's why Momentous is sponsoring the Brain Storm series.

LISTEN: "Working Through the Trauma of Brain Injury"

Get 20% off Momentous products with the code BRAINSTORM.

The highlight reel

🏃🏾‍♀️ Joyce Njeru won the new California race in the fast and exciting Golden Trail Series. She now also leads the overall standings.
🏃🏽‍♀️ Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran 49.11 in her own special 400m invitational race at the final Diamond League track meet of the year — and then followed it up with a 200m and some waffles.
Lauren Stephens took her second U.S. Gravel national title. 🥇🥇
🚴‍♀️ And Lotte Kopecky topped teammate Demi Vollering for the three-day Tour of Romandie win.
2021 Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel went to Paris to fulfill sponsor commitments—but ended up getting appendicitis.
🤸‍♀️Jordan Chiles has submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the saga that stripped her of her bronze medal post-Olympics. Flavor Flav also surprised her at the VMAs with a custom necklace in place of her missing medal.
The California legislature approved a bill that would require colleges to release the data of who is getting NIL deals over $5,000 — in an effort to increase transparency and gender equity. (Right now, female college athletes often receive less in NIL deals and less support from the school in managing and securing those deals.)
⭐ Indianapolis hopes to become the women's sports capital of the world by 2050.
🏌️‍♀️Lilia Vu closed it for the American team and the U.S. won the Solheim Cup over Europe for the first time since 2017.
🏄‍♀️ Is women's surfing losing its pretty girl image to make space for a new generation of athletes?

Your Feisty recommendations

What to watch: The new all-women's big name $500K prize money track meet, Athlos NYC, is set to take place next week Sept. 26 — with Megan Thee Stallion performing

What to read: Surf Like A Woman

What made us laugh: "Jet lag is a choice."

Where to come find us: At one of our pop-up shops or Feisty events at the Ironman World Championship this week 💜

Wow 😮: Every time you think there's something Simone Biles can't do