Stefanos meets his doppelganger...

Timo Barthel is on top of the world, in Croatia.

Joel Plata hangs out in Mallorca.

Carlo Janka is a married man...Congrats!

Ramzi Boukhiam gets a feature in VH​.

FIS: Go 'behind the scenes' with U.S. alpine skier Bryce Bennett and his philosophy of "keep chipping away" toward success.

Prospective Beijing 2022 women's bobsled favorite Kallie Humphries may not be able to get there.

Count world record-holder and two-time marathon Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge as a fan of technology pushing forward in track & field.

August 24 is now 'Keni Harrison Day' in Clayton, North Carolina, in honor of the hurdling star.

Tokyo 2020 javelin champ Neeraj Chopra defends his sportsmanship with competitor Arshad Nadeem.

More Indian athletics: Meet Shaili Singh, vice-U20 world long jump champion with a hard scrabble background.

In 2009, Nino Schurter became the youngest mountain bike world champion ever. Nine titles later, he's also the oldest-ever.

Can Kristin Santos help lead the U.S. back to prominence in short track speed skating?

Musician Bruce Springsteen chimed in last week on his daughter Jessica's Olympic equestrian success.

Team Canada's Natalie Spooner has made a name for herself outside of ice hockey by embracing different and unique challenges.

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde enjoys late-in-the-day (early-in-the-morning?) skiing.

Dina Asher-Smith is happy in Vogue​.

Hi, Keshorn!

Oleksiy Sereda enjoys a sunset.

And, Tom Daley is now the gift that keeps on giving...

Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan on his Tokyo 2020 disappointment: "no matter how wrong it goes...continue to be proud...".

Weightlifter Polina Guryeva scores cash, a Lexus, and an apartment, after securing Turkmenistan's first Olympic medal ever.

U.S. Karateka Ariel Torres gets honored in Hialeah.

Bronze-medalist Jakob Schubert has thoughts on the debut Olympic sport climbing competition in a worth-it-to-read blog post.

Naomi Osaka: "Playing the long game" in Women's Health.

And...abuse allegations resurface for Tokyo 2020 tennis champion Alexander Zverev, in time for the start of the U.S. Open.

"Even in success, there can be pain": Hurdling world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin gets personal in an Instagram post.

Satoko Miyahara has "go out and enjoy every moment" plans for the upcoming figure skating season.

FIG looks back at Tokyo 2020 with surprise trampoline gold medalist Ivan Litvinovich of Belarus.

Team USA's Hilary Knight reaches an ice hockey career goal milestone at the IHF World Championships.

Two-time Olympic medalist and Spanish basketball great Sergio Rodriguez retires.

And, basketballer Patty Mills reflects on Team Australia's Boomers finally getting a medal "that means so much to so many".

Tracktown (2016)
A Quick Film Review

With the post-Olympic hype of this past weekend's Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Oregon's Hayward Field, I was inspired to check out a little independent film from a few years ago, also based there: Tracktown​, titled after the town's well-earned nickname.

To be clear, I was intrigued before this year's Classic, or even before June's U.S. Olympic Team Trials, also at Hayward Field. Alexi Pappas is a Greek-American long-distance runner with film-making and writing credentials. Tracktown, which Pappas co-wrote and co-directed and stars in, was premiered shortly before she would compete for Greece at Rio 2016 (finishing 17th in the 10,000 meters).

So, a story on a young athlete in Eugene with big running ambitions would seem to benefit from Pappas' sports experience. She's admitted that the script has elements of her own life, and those of other runners.

Therein lies a strength of the film. Bits of what feels like an insider's look at what it means to be an elite runner appear as Pappas' elite collegiate runner character Plum Madison competes at the trials. The impact of a youth spent running - effects on a changing body, self-consciousness of having a runner's build, missing out on 'typical' teen activities and more - is pointedly included in a way that feels fresh and revelatory.

Unfortunately, those moments are too few to carry the film beyond a lightweight romance, and a maybe romance at that. The main storyline: Madison has an unexpected layoff from training in between rounds at the trials, which forces her to use this newly found time to contemplate life she's missed out. So, she tries to deal with a (too?) supportive father, a separated mother, and budding feelings for the cute cafe worker. But Madison has a depth of naivete from her running shelter that inhibit her new found freedom. And at times that innocence strains credulity. Some of that does stem from Pappas' natural waif-like expressiveness, and I suppose, as a decidedly non-elite athlete myself, I have distance from that reality. In the end, one isn't really sure where she lands in her thoughts or her relationships once she finally reaches the next race. Those storylines don't seem as confidently resolved as could be.

Eugene does look good. 'Tracktown USA' comes off as the bucolic college-town in the shadow of track & field gravitas that it is. And, Tracktown does offer a bonus in a cameo (twice!) by retired U.S. running star Nick Symmonds. So, between that and support for Pappas' own athletic career, track fans may certainly feel the film is well worth it.