Russia Leads European Men's Gymnastics
At the conclusion of the first week of the European Gymnastics Championships, team Russia looked strong with six overall medals from the men's competition. That included the title in team event, as well as golds in the floor and parallel bars events. David Belyavskiy was the top overall individual, with a gold (the parallel bars), silver (pommel horse), and bronze (high bar), in addition to that team win. Both Great Britain and Armenia (!) finished with three medals, while host Switzerland picked up the bronze in the team and pommel horse. Ukrainian star Olge Verniaiev picked up one gold (vault) and one silver (parallel) for the lone bright spot for the team.

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And Russia Leads World Modern Pentathlon Champs
Despite both finishing with four medals each, Russia nipped France on the medal table by virtue of a stringer silver-medal finish (3 to 1 against France) at the World Modern Pentathlon Championships in Moscow this week. Russia's efforts were led by Aleksander Lesun, with his silver in the men's individual and team and a gold with Donata Rimsaite in the mixed relay. France, meanwhile, was led by Valentin Belaud's win in the men's inidvidual and Elodie Clouvel's second-place in the women's. Hungary was the only double-gold medalist with Sarolta Kovacs' victory in the women's individual and in women's team.

Javier Gomez Dominates European Triathlon
At the European Triathlon Championships, Spain's Javier Gomez easily won his fourth European Championship title and sent a strong message for his Rio hopes of upgrading London silver to Rio gold. Finishing in second was Russia's Dmitri Polyanskiy, and Switzerland's Andrea Savlisburg third, with key competitors Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee of Great Britain sitting this event out. Britain did win a gold in the women's event, with India Lee claiming that title over Yulia Yelistratova of Ukraine and Zsofia Kovas of Hungary.

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​Changing of the Guard in Women's Boxing
At the Women's World Boxing Championships in Astana this week, some familiar faces suffered defeats in a crucial qualification event for Rio. Both of India's superstars Mary Kom and Savita Devi lost in the preliminaries, while defending champion Katie Taylor of Ireland lost in the semis of the lightweight division. Taylor still qualified for Rio by finishing in the top four. London gold-medalist Clarissa Shields of the U.S. in middleweight, and Nicola Adams of Great Britain in flyweight - who was the first-ever gold medalist in women's Olympic boxing - were two stars who did live up to reputation by winning their worlds. All four medalists in flyweight, lightweight, and middleweight are qualified for the Olympics to round-out the qualification.

European Championship and Rio Spots Awarded in Archery
At the conclusion of the European Archery Championships in Nottingham this week, two new champions were crowned and the continental qualification spots were awarded for the Olympics. Jean Charles Valladont of France secured his first world championship after having finished third in 2013. Finishing second was surprise 16 year-old Mete Gazoz of Turkey, with Patrick Huston of Great Britain taking bronze after securing an individual Rio spot for the team. On the women's side, Veronika Marchenko of Ukraine won the title, over Tuiana Dashidorzhieva of Russia and Lisa Unruh of Germany. Turkey, Slovakia, and Azerbaijan were the women's individual qualifiers for the Olympics. Teams that did not qualify here nor through last year's worlds - including France - can still earn a Rio ticket through the final World Cup event in Turkey later this spring.

BMX Worlds End in Colombia
Defending men's elite champion Niek Kimman of the Netherlands finished with a gold again at the World BMX Championships this week, except in time trial and not the elite division, where he finished second to new champion Joris Daudet of France. Daudet's gold was the fourth medal for the French, tying Australia for second-place on the overall medal stand behind the Dutch's six. In the women's elite, Colombian star and 2012 Olympic gold-medalist and two-time elite world titleist Mariana Pajon won gold ahead of Caroline Buchanan of Australia and Alise Post of the U.S.
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European Aquatics Champs End
The European Swimming Championships ended in London this weekend, with the host British showing a strong effort to lead the medal table with 33 medals, including 10 golds. That total also included the lead in swimming with 22 medals - in which they won all three medley relays (men's, women's, mixed). And that followed their medal-win for diving at the start of the Championships, marking them an overall threat for Rio. Coming in a close second was Italy with 32 overall, and then Hungary and Ukraine with 20 each. A total of 25 nations won at least one medal, including Israel (2), Portugal (1) and Iceland (3!, all by Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir in women's breaststroke events). In addition, a total of 21 championship records were set, with one also a European mark, by Italian Gregorgio Paltrinieri in the men's 1500m free.

Canada Wins Ice Hockey Worlds
The World Ice Hockey Championship ended in Moscow with a familiar winner - Canada, with its 26th overall title in the 80 years of the championship event. The defending champions lost to Finland in group play for their only loss, before avenging against the Finns in the gold medal final for a 2-0 win. Russia defeated the United States in the bronze medal game, 7-2. Hungary and Kazakhstan, after joining this elite level this year, are relegated again to Division I after finishing in the bottom two of the 16 teams. Next year, Slovenia and Italy will move up in their place.

UEFA U-17 wins for Germany and Portugal
European soccer crowned its newest champions in U-17 competition for both men and women this week. First up, Germany won the women's tournament in Belarus for the fifth time (out of nine tournaments). Runners-up were Spain in penalties, with England taking third over Norway. The top three will compete as European representatives in the 2017 U-17 World Cup. On the men's side in Azerbaijan, Portugal also won another title, its 6th in this tournament out of 15. Spain, again, were the runners-up, with Germany and the Netherlands the other semifinalists.

Denmark Makes History in Badminton
The Thomas & Uber Cup for badminton was held in Kunshan, China and a slight surprise as second-seed Denmark won the men's team title (Thomas Cup). Although long a top badminton power, Denmark hadn't won the title before despite a finalist for eight previous editions since 1949 - nor had any other European team for that matter. The Danes won 3-2 over Indonesia on the strength of their singles players, including 2015 world bronze medalist Jan O Jorgensen. On the women's side, defending champion, top seed, and host China won the Uber Cup as expected, with a 3-1 victory over third-seed South Korea in the final. This was China's 14th title.

Women's Volleyball Rio Field Set
FIVB finished its final Olympic Qualifying Tournaments this week, with five teams earning trips to Rio. In the first tournament, Italy, the Netherlands, and South Korea secured the top three spots of qualifying in the eight-team tournament. Japan, actually finishing just ahead of the Koreans in third place, are the official Asian representatives for the Games, as the tournament doubled as their continental qualifier. In the second qualifier, Puerto Rico topped the four-team field to secure their first-ever trip to an Olympics. The 15th-ranked nation will join the 12-team field in Rio after going 3-0 against Colombia, Kenya and Algeria.

Slovakia Leads European Canoe Slalom
Host Slovakia topped the medal table at the European Canoe Slalom Championships this week, with seven overall medals, including a sweep of all four canoe-class events and a 1-2 in the men's C-1 by Alexsander Slafkovsky 
and Michal Martikan (Spain's Ander Elosegi finished third to secure an Olympic berth for himself). In the women's competition, both Great Britain and Germany secured three medals, highlighted by Kimberly Woods' gold in both the C-1 and K-1 team events for the British. Overall, eight nations won at least one medal, with gold medalists also coming from Spain and the Czech Republic.

African Weightlifting Champs End
The 2016 African Weightlifting ended in Yaounde, Cameroon this weekend with Olympic qualification on the line for nations' lifters not yet qualified through the worlds or commonwealth champs, or other IWF events. In the end, Tunisia topped the men's competition, with six overall/big medals out of eight events. They, along with Algeria, Morocco, Cameroon and Ghana, earned the right to send one athlete to Rio. On the women's side, Nigeria secured seven overall/big medals in seven events to lead Tunisia, Cameroon, and Algeria to Olympic qualification for one athlete each.

 - European Aquatics Champs Begin
The 2016 LEN European Aquatics Championships began in London this week, with Great Britain (in diving) and Italy (in synchronized swimming) leading the way early. In diving, the British ended with 11 medals in 13 events to outpace Russia's nine medals. Tom Daley led the way for Team Britain, with three medals - gold in the men's 10m platform and another gold and a silver in synchro events. Tania Cagnotto swept all three springboard events for the women to power Italy's six total. In synchronized swimming, Italy continued to find success, as the only nation (not Russia!) to medal in each event, finishing with nine. Russia was second again - albeit largely due to not competing in the team free event - with eight total, followed by Ukraine (7) and Spain (3) to complete the table. Russia's tally included gold by Alexandr Maltsev and Michaela Kalancha in the mixed duet, the first time to be held at these championships. Only four other nations - Italy, Spain and Ukraine - took part in the inaugural event. You have to start somewhere!

Diversity Reigns at Euro Rowing
On the tail end of the European Rowing Championships this week, the largest spread ever of medalist nations enjoyed success in Brandenburg, as 23 of 34 nations entered won at least one medal. That's the most diverse range of medalists since the Championships' inception in 1893. Across the 17 boat classes, Germany topped the medal table with ten overall (three gold), followed by Great Britain with seven (four) and then the Netherlands with four (one). Other nations' success included an Irish gold in the men's lightweight double sculls by the O'Donovan brothers, and for Austria by Magdalena Lobnig in the women's single scull. A total of eleven nations won at least one gold, including Hungary, Estonia, Switzerland, and Croatia.

China Dominates Race Walking
At the IAAF's Race Walking Team Championships, China had perhaps an expected easy time topping the medal table with the absence of Russia. China finished with ten medals overall, including seven gold across the ten events held. Those golds included three of the five team events. Non-Chinese winners included veteran Alex Schwazer of Italy in the men's 50km (over another veteran, Aussie Jared Tallent), and Mexico in the junior men's 10km event. Schwazer's perfomance also led Italy to the gold in the that 50km team rankings. China swept all the women's titles. Other medalists of note included Ukraine with a silver behind Italy in the 50km men's team, and Canada and Ecuador finishing 2-3 behind China in the 20km men's team. Australia and Colombia finished 2-3 behind China in the 20km women's team event.

Egyptian Upset in Women's Squash Worlds
World #1 and top seed Laura Massaro of England was upset by 20-year old Egyptian Nour El Sherbini in the title match of the Women's World Open Squash Championship in Kuala Lumpur, despite being two games up to start. For El Sherbini, she becomes the youngest-ever world champion and will rise to the top ranking after entering the tournament as the fifth seed. Hometown favorite - and previous youngest-ever champion from 2005 - Nicol David of Malaysia finished her run in the quarterfinals at the hands of El Sherbini. David had been the second seed. Egypt also enjoyed both of the two bronze medals, as Nouran Gohar and Raneem El Weleily made the semifinals.

Russia Wins World Fencing Titles
In one of the more ridiculous effects of the IOC trying to cap the number of athletes, fencing is limited to ten medal events at any Olympics. So, each quadrennial, fencing's FIE rotates out a men's and women's team event to sit out the Games. And then, the Olympic year's fencing world championships feature those two events - and only those two. And, adding insult - the 2016 championships were held in Rio as a test event for the Games. This year, the unfortunate team events held were men's sabre and women's foil. Russa emerged the winner in both, with Hungary and Romania rounding out the podium on the men's sabre side and Italy and France on the women's foil. Twenty men's sabre and thirteen women's foil teams participated.

Denmark Leads Europe in Badminton
​At the European Badminton Championships in La Roche Sur Yon, France, Denmark swept four of the five titles on hand to lead the way for European badminton. The eleven Danish medals included titles for Viktor Axelsen over Jan Jorgensen in men's singles, and a sweep of the three doubles titles (men's, women's, and mixed). Danish strength is so deep that they won four medals in doubles competitions  - not including the golds. The one title to escape was, as expected, by Spain's world champion Carolina Marin in the women's singles competition. Although, Denmark did win both bronze medals there. With three medals, the Netherlands finished in second place on the overall medal table, with England securing two bronzes for third place.

While China Dominates in Asia
At the same time, the Badminton Asia Championships were held in Wuhan, with China securing the overall medal table with seven medals. Chinese titles came in women's singles and mixed doubles, marking China the only nation with multiple golds. South Korea finished with five medals, including gold in men's doubles, with Japan earning three overall medals, including both the gold and silver in women's doubles. Notably, China was shut out off the podium in that event, while overall, Malaysia (one overall medal), India (one), and Indonesia (two) all made their mark on various podiums as well.

And at Weightlifting, Too
China, as well, topped the medal table at the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent this week - winning twelve total medals across men's and women's competitions combined to lead the continent. Thailand finished second with seven, while both Iran and Taiwan finished with four. (um, if Iran devoted resources to women's weightlifting they'd probably give China a good run...) In all, fifteen nations won at least one medal, including the Philippines and Mongolia. The event also served as an Olympic qualifier.