Daria Bilodid shines in b&w.

Olga Kharlan does Vogue.

Well, hello, Anastasia Nichita!

Tiaan Whelpton works hard (in a photoshoot).

Kelly Sildaru is a runway model.

Elina Svitolina (tennis), Yaroslava Maruchickh (track & field), and Olga Kharlan (fencing) grace the cover(s) of Vogue Ukraine's Fall 2023 edition.

Tajikistani-Ukrainian And Atlanta 1996 champion Rustam Sharipov talks with Sport24 on his gymnastics career, ties to Ukraine, and his now life in the U.S. (in Ukrainian)

Can Mana Okamura turn "regrets into motivations" for a strong showing at Paris 2024's gymnastics?

Team USA Los Angeles 1984 gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton struggles against pneumonnia face a "scary setback".

Former world championship team member Kara Eaker announces a retirement and abuse allegations in her collegiate gymnastics career.

Tennis great Serena Williams' new book deal with Random House publisher promises reflections on her 'life and career'.

Newly 26-years-old, tennis champion Naomi Osaka reflects on her birthday.

Team USA luger Chris Mazdzer has strong thoughts on where Milano Cortina 2026's sliding competitions should be held...

Janeth Jepkosgei reflects on her 'rare' move from a middle-distance running star for Team Kenya to coaching.

Middle-distance runner Caster Semenya's The Race to Myself autobiography is due October 31st.

Long hurdler Femke Bol and runner Jakob Ingebrigsten lead European Athletics' end-of-season awards.

Sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson gets a unique honor with a track memorialized in her name.

Speaking of Jakob Ingebrigsten...abuse allegations from him and his running brothers against their former coach - and father - rock Norway.

​Open water swimming champion Florian Wellbrock talks 'becoming water' in The Owl Post.

Team Lithuania's other star breaststroker Kotryna Teterevkova makes a big training decision in her path to Paris 2024.

Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir earn 'Order of Sports' honors in Canada after their record five Olympic medals.

Illia Malinin has "no words" for his record performance at Skate America, reaffirming his status as a star in figure skating.

Olympic diving champion Matthew Mitcham opens up about the 'lowest pount in his life' in a special SAS Australia moment.

Will the Native American inventors of lacross be represented as the sport makes its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028?

Equestrian show jumper Harry Charles opines on the current state of big money spending in the sport...and almost wearing a suit while competing.

Surfing 'prodigy' Erin Brooks gets a setback for her Team Canada citizenship plans for Paris 2024.

Los Angeles 2028: Count Major League Baseball superstar Bryce Harper as an Olympic hopeful...

Double soccer Olympian and Team South Africa legend Janine van Wyk set for a special career send-off this month.

Rio 2016 Olympic soccer player Ali Krieger inspires gossip curiousity over her split with Ashlyn Harris.

Team Canada soccer legend Christine Sinclair's 'storied career' gets a reflection by CBC.

What was a 'last supper' with key club teammates like for retiring soccer star Megan Rapinoe?

The Guardian: How does Team England's Mary Earp make soccer goalkeeping 'cool'?

Cycling star Tom Pidcock reiterates road race and mountain bike plans for the Olympics nbext year.

Chilean 3x3 basketball star Daniel Arcos makes a statement of inclusivity at the Pan American Games.

Olympics: The Grimalt cousins look to defend their Pan American Games beach volleyball title in the "most important sports event in the history of Chile".

Beach volleyball's Melissa Humana-Paredes and taekwondo siblings Skylar, Tae-ku , and Braven Park have special ties to Chile as they embark on a special Pan American Games experience for Team Canada.

Gwen Jorgensen hopes a late-season schedule change now powers her path to Paris 2024 next year.

Native South African canoeist Pierre Van Der Westhuyzen is one of a few foreign-born athletes that look set to compete for Team Australia's in Paris 2024.

AthleteStories has '10 rare clicks' documenting the career of weightlifting legend Pyrros Dimas. (in Greek)

​Can Team Austria's Lisa Hauser rebound in the 2023-24 biathlon season after a subpar 2022-23?

Alberto Gines enjoys (?) a lemony dip.

Garbine Muguruza enjoys a Barcelona night out.

Matthew Mitcham recaps a Wales visit.

Mary Kom is a knockout in peach.

Claudio Treviso looks for happiness on the beaches of Kenya.

Team Ukraine's Nazar Chepurnyi's first world gymnastics championships medal came in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year. (in Ukrainian)

'Slaying giants' appears to be a calling card for taekwondo athlete Aleksandra Perisic>

Champion luger Felix Loch leads the voices of disappointment that the sliding sports at Milano Cortina 2026 won't be in Milan...or Cortina d'Ampezzo...after all.

Canadian curling stars Brad Gushue and Kerri Einarson contemplate their returns to the upcoming Pan Continental Curling Championships with World Curling,.

Can Team Lativa leverage their surprise strong FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup showing to bigger things in the future?

NBA and Team Serbia basketball star Nikola Jokic has supporters in high places.

FIS checks in with how some Alpine skiing stars have adjusted to post-competition lives, including Beat Feuz, Tina Weirather, Matthias Mayer, Anna Veith, and Tamara Tippler.

Team Ireland's Sinead Farrelly reflects on her 'remarkable return' to soccer after many years to compete at the FIFA World Cup.

Road cyclist Remco Evenpoel documents his return to the place of "one of the most difficult moments" of his career via YouTube.

"100 of the greatest French champions in one book for a 100% charity project." Sport a du Couer offers a new coffee table book for fans of Team France.

Team Slovakia's retired biathlon star Anastasija Kuzmina is not so retired now...

The IJF 'Olympic Champions' interview series continues with Tokyo 2020 judoka Takanori Nagase.

Olympics: Team USA's BMX rider Hannah Roberts 'is doing all she can' to collect the missing career trophy, Olympic gold.

Swiss Sochi 2014 ice hockey medalist Lara Stadler reflects on what leadership means to her.

Team USA wrestler Kyle Dake is "committed to turning the tables next year" in Paris after a disappointing world championships in 2023.

Who will win FEI's 2023 'Best Awards' in equestrian? Voting is open until October 22...

And who will be World Sailing's annual award winners? Voting is open until October 30...

ISU: French figure skater Mae-Berenice Maite looks to 'empower' diversity and inclusion' within sport.

STRoNG (2023)
A Quick Movie Review

It's always good to be acknowledge that athletes in the public eye, even elite Olympic-caliber athletes, are people, too. And that means that, like most people, they can suffer from low points of confidence or depression.

And that's the "we're not superheroes" lesson in Strong (stylized as STRoNG), released last week on Amazon Prime and timed with World Mental Health Day.

Focused on five Team France athletes - Jérémy Florès (surfing), Camille Lacourt (swimming), Perrine Laffont (freestyle skiing), Valentin Porte (team handball, and of the above 'superheroes' quote), and Ysaora Thibus (fencing) - who, despite tvaried sports and experiences of success, have a commonality of periods of crushing depression. They are, they communally acknowledge and parroting the film's subtitle,, 'as strong as are fragile'.

All five are Olympians, with Laffont and Porte having won gold (Tibus has a Tokyo 2020 team silver). All are candid, commenting to different degrees on their experiences with depression. Whether triggered from unexpected sporting losses (Lacourt) or a struggle to adapt to sudden fame (Laffont), each athlete's performance and outlook has been directly impacted by the struggle to maintain a strong mental health.

Strong's three chapters of "Birth", "Falling", and "Rebirth" offer a common look at each's general rapid rise in prominence, followed by respective challenges to their psyche, and their recoveries that broadly relied upon talking through their struggles and changes in perspective.

While Strong is a refreshingly honest look at top-level Olympians' struggles with mental health - and one in which the five Frenchmen and women serve as representatives of athletes everywhere - I did find the 80 minute run time stretched too thin across five stories to adequately identify steps to recovery.

But that's perhaps nitpicking. In addition to a look at personal struggles, Strong is also worth getting a peek at a selection of athletes not frequently on the radar States-side, particularly team handball and fencing - two sports with considerably higher profile in France than here. That we get to see Porte and Thibus presented with as much depth of success (and despair) as the others serves to remind us of a wider sports world out there, and one that shares within it a commonality of potential mental challenges.