Team USA in 2026 - Weekly Digests Road to LA 2028

[clemsonbeav 438]

Follow along with me as our summer athletes compete throughout the year.  Check out my calendar here.

 

Weeks 0-1 (Jan 1-11)

 

These first few days saw USA athletes compete across several sports, and we ended up on the podium a fair amount.

 

Tennis - Taylor Fritz, Christian Harrison, and Coco Gauff helped lead Team USA to a place in the Semifinals of the United Cup in Australia.  (Poland, who beat us, went on to win.)  For the Women in Brisbane, Amanda Anasimova got knocked out in R16, Madison Keys got knocked out in the QF (by Sabalenka), and Jessica Pegula made it to the SF (beaten by Kostyuk).

 

Squash - We only had one competitor in the Men's tournament in Karachi Open--Shahjahan Khan, ranked #66, who didn't make it past the first round.

 

Badminton - Beiwen Zhang made it to R16 in WS in Malaysia.  And a XD team of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai made it to the QF (beaten by a Chinese duo that made it to F).

 

Table Tennis - No luck for Kanak Jha and Lily Zhang in Doha.

 

Fencing - Lots of luck in Fencing.  Hadley Husisian took hold a Bronze in W Épée, and USA took Gold in the team bout.  Elijah Imrek finished in 7th for the men.  In M Sabre, Colin Heathcock got sent home in the QF by eventual runner-up Krisztian Rabb.  In Foil, Alexander Massialas took home individual Gold, and helped lead the men to a Team Silver.  On the Women's side, Lee Kiefer also took home Gold and helped her compatriots walk away with a Bronze.

 

Equestrian - The Global Dressage Festival is underway in Wellington, FL.  There was a North American League World Cup event there on Thursday and Friday.  Christian Simonson (WR #15) won, followed by Geñay Vaughn and Ashley Holzer, all of whom represent USA.

 

 

Coming up in Week 2

 

Tennis - Madison Keys is trying to be a repeat champ in Adelaide.  And Australian Open starts in a week!

 

Squash - Two tournaments in the USA with Timothy Brownell being the #7 seed in Detroit, and Olivia Weaver as the #1 seed in Cleveland.

 

Badminton - In India, can we improve on last week?

 

Swimming - We have a meet in Austin (USA Swimming Pro Series) with a lot of the top dogs.

 

Road Cycling - Chloe Dygert, one of our accomplished Track Cyclists, will be racing in the Road Down Under next weekend.

Edited February 3 by clemsonbeav

[clemsonbeav 438]

Week 2 (Jan 12-18)

 

Tennis - Emma Navarro and Madison Keys made it to the QF of Adelaide.  Desirae Krawczyk and her partner Kichenok from Ukraine made it to the finals, after they had a walkover with their bout vs. #1 seed Hsieh/Ostapenko in QF and then winning their SF bout against Perez/Schuurs.  They lost against the #2 seed Siniakova/Zhang.

 

Also, in the opening round of the Australian Open, Venus Williams lost, but did so as the oldest woman to have competed, as she lost to someone who was born after Venus first played in the Open.  Read more here. 

 

Squash - Timothy Brownell made it to QF in Detroit, but the Women stole the show in Cleveland.  Marina Stefanoni made it to the QF, getting knocked out by Olivia Weaver.  Weaver then met Sabrina Sobhy in the Finals, with Weaver taking it.  Great job!

 

Badminton - Beiwen Zhang made it to her QF round before losing to the #7 seed.

 

Swimming - Ledecky dominated, of course.  Several French athletes (including Marchand) were there.  Keep your eye on Ryan Erisman and his sister Rylee.  He beat a crowded field with seasoned vets in the 200m Free.

 

 

Coming up Week 3

 

Tennis - Australian Open will be in full swing!  (Pun? Sorry.)

 

Road Cycling - The conclusion of the Road Down Under for the Women, and then it's the Men's turn.  Luke Lamperti will be riding 

 

Badminton - Now off to Indonesia with the team.

 

Equestrian - We have a 5* Dressage event at the end of the week in Wellington.

 

Fencing - We'll have Sabre competitions in Salt Lake City and Épée in Doha.

 

Squash - A big competition (Platinum) in New York.  Let's see if we can have some success!

Edited January 19 by clemsonbeav

[clemsonbeav 438]

Week 3 - 19-25 Jan

 

Tennis - As of this morning, we have four women and two men in the quarterfinals.  In doubles, Christian Harrison and his Brit teammate Skupski are into the QF as well.  Taylor Townsend and her Czech partner Siniakova are into the QF, and there's still a match with Baptiste/Stearns to see if they make it in. Three Americans (Townsend, Harrison, Tracy) have foreign partners in XD, and are in QF.

 

Road Cycling - Though Chloe Dygert and Luke Lamperti were mentioned by the commentators often as potential contenders, neither finished high up on the rankings.

 

Badminton - No luck here.

 

Equestrian - Anna Marek finished second in the Grand Prix Freestyle event.

 

Fencing - Continued Sabre success.  Men's Sabre team brought home silver in Salt Lake.  Women's Sabre team finished 6th.  Gabriel Feinberg finished 8th in Men's Épée over in Doha.  Three of our women went home in the R16.

 

Squash - Olivia Weaver is into the QF.  Bring home the Gold, Olivia!

 

I also added into the calendar some friendlies in our Team Sports.  Some have already passed.  (We won 4 softball games vs.  at the beginning of the year.  Women's water polo beat and twice each.  Men's water polo went 1-1   against .  Our Women's soccer team beat  6-0 a couple of days ago.)

 

Field Hockey - Our women played a quick tournament in New Zealand vs. two  teams and , and we won!  

 

There was also an indoor track and field event in Boston.  I don't have the indoor tour on my calendar simply because the track events don't match up (and I likewise don't have indoor archery), but you can check out the calendar of meets here.

 

Coming up in Week 4

 

Conclusion of Australian Open and the Squash tournament in NYC.  (It's being played in Grand Central Terminal...so cool!)

 

Women's football/soccer friendly vs.  on Tuesday.

 

Table tennis has an Americas Cup in SanFran.

 

Diving will be going on over in England. No USA athletes here.

 

There's a World Cup Jumping event for equestrian over in California.

 

And finally, our women's Rugby Sevens will play in Singapore.

 

Edit: Also, our Cricket teams are active.  Women are trying to qualify for the Women's T20 World Cup, and the Men are gearing up for theirs.

Edited February 1 by clemsonbeav

[clemsonbeav 438]

Week 4 - 26 Jan-01 Feb

 

Tennis - Some good success here at the Australian Open!

Men's Singles - Learner Tien and Ben Shelton made it to the QF.

Women's Singles - Iva Jovic, Coco Gauff, and Amanda Anasimova made it to the QF.  Jessica Pegula made it to the SF.

Men's Doubles - Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski  won!

Women's Doubles - Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova  made it to the QF.

Mixed Doubles - Christian Harrison/Irina Khromacheva  and JJ Tracy/Anna Danilina  made it to QF, while Taylor Townsend/Nicola Mektic  made it to SF.

 

Squash - Olivia Weaver fought hard, but ended up in 2nd.  

 

Soccer - We beat Chile 5-0.

 

Road Cycling - Luke Lamperti ended up in 12th (in the lead pack) in the Great Ocean Road Race.

 

Equestrian - A USA sweep of the podium, with Kyle King taking top prize.  (Holy cow the sum of the prize amounts are massive...$340,000 for this event.)

 

Table Tennis - Hasn't quite wrapped up with, but given the rankings, Kanak Jha should end up in second (unless he can pull an upset over Hugo Calderano), and Lily Zhang should also end up in second (unless she beats Bruna Takahashi). Edit: Amy Wang took out Bruna!  So, USA ends up 1-2.     And second edit: Amy Wang wins over Lily Zhang, despite being a lower ranking (61 vs 37).  Played great!

 

Rugby Sevens - US Women came up in 4th in Singapore.

 

Cricket - The men won a practice round against Oman, and we're doing two more warm-ups this week in preparation for the WC.  The Women, unfortunately, ended up in 5th place, being the first out in the Qualifier for the WC.  But hopefully they earned some good experience for the future!

 

 

Coming up in Week 5 - A ton!  Nevermind that the Olympics also start...

 

Cricket - The men have two warm-up matches this week before starting the World Cup later.

 

Table Tennis - North American Championships

 

Tennis - Women have a tourney in Abu Dhabi.  Our Men will face  in the Davis Cup.

 

Road Cycling - Perhaps Chloe Dygert or another American woman will also be in  ?

 

Flag Football - Our men play vs.  on Thursday...watch on the NFL Youtube.  (This is an exhibition match, but it's unofficially to see who 'won' the gold from the recent championship game that got called off.)

 

Squash - Another Platinum tourney in Chicago.

 

Fencing - Foil and Épée will be contested.

 

Wrestling - Zagreb Open time!  

 

Rhythmic Gymnastics - We have a US Event.

 

Rugby Sevens - Our women will have a Try (pun, sorry!) down in .

 

Equestrian - World Cup Jumping in  .

 

Boxing - US International Open

 

Judo - Paris Grand Slam

 

 

I also added the Indoor Archery and Track/Field events to the calendar, but I didn't post any results, simply because the events are different.  But Brady Ellison has still achieved some success in Archery (as has Nicholas D'Amour, who shows USA, but competes for  in the Olympics), and the two indoor athletics meets thus far have featured primarily American athletes, but the upcoming ones in the next couple of weeks are in Europe...probably will feature European athletes.

Edited February 2 by clemsonbeav

[clemsonbeav 438]

You'll forgive me for being behind on this...I've been otherwise occupied with some other sporting events, as you might imagine.   

 

Week 5 - 02-08 Feb

 

Here are some highlights...

 

Flag Football - We (barely) beat Mexico in the unofficial rematch of the championship from last year

 

Tennis - In Abu Dhabi, Hailey Baptiste made it to the SF, and our duo of Kenin/Krawczyk made it to the F, but came up short.  Our men beat Hungary in the qualifiers of the Davis Cup.

 

Rugby Sevens - Our women were 4th in Perth.

 

Fencing - Nick Itkin picked up a silver in Turin in Foil.

 

Wrestling - We cleaned up in Zagreb.  Lots of golds, and we took home the overall team title over  

 

 

Here's what's coming up in Week 6, if you can bear watching anything other than the Olympics:

 

Squash finishes up in Chicago and moves to Houston.

 

Cricket is in full swing in the World Cup for our men.

 

Boxing has a US Open.

 

Tennis has men's and women's events, including a WTA 1000 in Qatar.

 

My personal fav, Sport Climbing, has National Championships.

 

Fencing and Badminton are hosting continental events.

 

Equestrian has a League of Nations event in Abu Dhabi...if we're going, idk.  Also a Jumping World Cup in Ocala.

 

Artistic Swimming gets underway with its first World Cup stop in Medellin.

 

Rugby Sevens has our men competing in SVNS 2.

[clemsonbeav 438]

And now that the WOG are over...I can return my attention to Summer Sports.   Got some catching up to do.  BRB in a few days.

[bmo 230]

2 hours ago, clemsonbeav said:

And now that the WOG are over...I can return my attention to Summer Sports.   Got some catching up to do.  BRB in a few days.

WBC starts in less than two weeks!