With the Olympic Games set to kick off at the end of July, preparations for the Games are beginning in all sports, not just in swimming. In this series, SwimSwam looks at some of the leading news from outside of swimming as athletes around the world continue to prepare and qualify for the rescheduled Olympic Games which are due to begin in Tokyo on July 23rd, and Paralympic Games, which are scheduled to begin August 24th.
US Gymnastics Trials Finale Tops Days Viewership
As nearly all of the United States Olympic rosters have been selected, the Trials for gymnastics has emerged as the most viewed event, beating out track and field, swimming, and diving by over two million average viewers. The final day of competition saw an average of 5.287 million viewers across the five hours of streaming, topping the average viewership of all other Trials competitions.
While gymnastics average viewers were significantly higher than any other trials event, two days of track and field trials and one day of swimming’s trials cracked the top five for most viewed days. Ranking third and fifth for single-day viewership was track and field, with 3.972 million viewers turning on their screens to watch the Monday edition of the trials that featured events such as the men’s javelin and pole vault.
In terms of YouTube views on NBC Sports channel, Sha’Carri Richardson’s incredible 100m leads the way by an even larger gap than her victory in the event. Her race registered just under 8 million views, nearly triple the 2.5 million views that Simone Biles’ triple beam routine received.
In the pool, the most viewed clip on YouTube didn’t come from Wave II of Trials, but instead came in the B-final of Wave I. Kayla Han’s age group record in the 400 IM to win the B-final of the event registered nearly a million views, almost double that of Simone Manuel’s 50 freestyle from Wave II.
Two Time Olympic Champion Caster Semenya Misses Olympic Qualification
A runner from South African and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Semenya missed out on qualifying for the Games by a slim margin in the 5,000 at a meet in Belgium last weekend.
Semenya was forced to make the change from her traditional event, the 800 meter, to longer distance races after a rule put in place in 2018 banned female athletes with naturally higher testosterone levels from competing in any event between 400 and 1,600 meters. In an attempt to continue competing on the Olympic stage, she made the shift to the 5,000 meter, an event that doesn’t have limitations on female testosterone levels.
She has undergone adversity on multiple occasions due to her naturally occurring elevated testosterone. In 2009, she was prohibited from competing for nearly a year after she was forced to undergo a gender verification test following her first world title.
The United States Announces Olympic Tennis Team
The U.S. has announced their Olympic tennis team, set to be led on the women’s side by Coco Gauff and Jennifer Brady. The pair will be joined by Jessica Pegula and Alison Riske on the women’s side and Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Tennys Sandgren, and Marcos Giron on the men’s.
The Olympic roster will notably be without two of the most historically dominant tennis athletes of all time, Serena and Venus Williams. Together, the pair has won a total of nine Olympic medals. Serena opted out of the Games last weekend after suffering an injury to her leg during a tournament at the All England Club.
The American tennis roster will also be missing Sofia Kenin, who is currently ranked number 6 in the world. Kenin opted out of the competition due to the inability for her to travel with anyone.
Two Namibian Runners Barred From Olympics Over Same Ruling That Blocked Caster Semenya From Her Primary Event
While Semenya’s elevated testosterone levels were discovered with enough time prior to the Games for her to attempt to compete in different events, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who were both preparing to race in the 400m in Tokyo, have now been barred from that event.
Per the Namibia National Olympic Committee:
“The results from the testing centre indicated that both athletes have a naturally high testosterone level. According to the rule of World Athletics, this means that they are not eligible to participate in events from 400m to 1600m.”
While both athletes tested positive for elevated testosterone levels, neither’s test showed levels high enough to be considered a sign of doping.
What does it mean “due to the inability for her to travel with anyone”? 😕
Maybe she cannot bring her coach or any other person from her team with her ? (Assuming such a team does exist)
yes this, or training partner etc
Simone Biles defies law of nature
All those Simone Biles commercials paying off.
Its been popular for years. When the Soviet Union dominated Gymnastics in 1972, gymnastics probably had more viewers than Mark Spitz’s swimming events.
I feel bad for the two Namibian runners. They were teenagers who didn’t know they had elevated testosterone. Only the recent fast times prompted testing and the reveal. It’s got to be a jolt to them personally as well as on the track. Totally different situation than the 800 runners who knew about the situation for years and were battling the courts. The two Namibians will switch to the 200.
Right. Has Semenya been taking a medication to lower her T level? If not, why would she still be allowed to compete in a different event?
As for Kenin, it says above that she’s unable to “travel with anyone.” What in the world does that mean?
Tennis should not be in the Olympics, nor should softball, golf, soccer and quite a few other events that have been added by the ridiculous IOC, which clearly thinks that anything that anyone does should become an Olympic event at some point.
There’s not a good solution. And yes these 2 young women are not responsible.
But it’s a fact that if we allow them to run it would be absolutely unfair to their opponents and it would be a parody of race. The women’s 800 podium of Rio was a joke and sorry but I don’t want that scenario happen again.
We must have a level playing field and I think the current rules are the least bad options. Let them run on shortest events where it doesn’t have the same consequences.
Sha’Carri Richardson eh? Isn’t that ironic?
I hope gabby Thomas runs the 100 her 200 is insanely fast (3 rd fastest time ever)
It would be stupid. She will be fresh for the 200 and it will be a major advantage.
And in the 100 she has zero chance of winning a medal.
Thanks, Bobo. What would we do without your vast and extensive knowledge.