16-year-old Albert Withen Philipsen was a double junior gold medalist at this summer's World Cycling Championships - in mountain biking and road racing.

Gunner Hammett scored three track titles at this summer's AAU Junior Olympics - at age 11.

Get to know Dhoan Feybi Bezhura, Team Ukraine's 2023 European Games champion. (in Ukrainian)

Retiree Paige McPherson talks with NBC Sports on her taekwondo career, Olympics, and more.

The Refugee Olympic Team's pool of athletes expands by 10 athletes, from taekwondo to shooting, judo, boxing, and cycling.
​
Rio 2016 champion judoka Rafaela Silva is the latest 'The Olympic Series' interview by the IJF.

Olympic figure skater and Stars on Mars champion Adam Rippon shares more disappointing insight on road cyclist Lance Armstrong's comments on trans athletes.

Six shooting athletes have been named winners of the ISSF Athletes Committee elections: Damir Mikec and Riccardo Mazzetti for pistol, Cassio Rippel and Petar Gorsa for rifle, and Amber English and Daniele Dispigno for shotgun.

Olympic table tennis medalist Ai Fukuhara's family custody drama entered the news last month.

The New York Times takes a look at the remarkable marathon career of Mongolian Ser-Od Bat-Ochir, who's now looking ahead to a hopeful sixth Olympian.

Do runner Ciara Mageean's and sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke's fourth-place finishes at the World Athletics Championships last week portend podiums in the near future?

After a first world javelin championship last week, Haruka Kitaguchi now eyes the 2025 edition in her home country Japan.

CNN​: Sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson is 'now embracing the most important cause of all'.

Barcelona 1004 400-meter track medalist Ximena Restrepo officially named to an upgraded position within World Athletics's administration.

​Did you know that 400-meter track world champion Marileidy Paulino was once a handball prospect?

Mountain biker Camile Balanche has an update on her recent hard crash while training in Andorra.

Surfer Connor O'Leary takes a 'backdoor route' to Olympic qualification.

Tennis: Novak Djokovic is 'back in New York and loving it as never before'.

CNN​ looks at Caroline Woziacki and other tennis players who have returned to competition after childbirth and a spell at stay-at-home motherhood.

The New York Times Magazine: For Elina Svitolina and other Ukrainian tennis players, the Russian invasion back home has turned their sport 'into a battlefield'.

​Who are 'women's crews to watch' at the upcoming World Rowing Championships?

Biathlon World takes a look at the photography hobby biathletes Emilien Jacquelin and Emily Dickson have picked up.

Top rhythmic gymnast Darja Varfolomeev 'has surpassed her mother's results and expectations' with her recent world championships triumph.

Relive the World Sailing Championships on World Sailing's 'The Sailing Show' to wrap up August.

How did taking up weightlifting impact the lives of athletes in Honduras and Jordan?

Can Rei Higuchi win another Olympic wrestling medal after missing Tokyo 2020?

Alpine skiing champion Lindsey Vonn opens up with USA TODAY about her 'struggles' post-retirement.

​Mikaela Shiffrin, Marc Rochat, Lucas Braathen, and Joan Verdu are just some of the Alpine skiers letting fans peek behind the scenes of their lives through digital media.

Joan Verdu's "The Toughest Challenge of My Life, Part 2"

Programming Note: Games and Rings will be on vacation for Labor Day, and will return on 9/05/23.

Mark Cavendish: Never Enough (2023)
A Quick TV Review

Mark Cavendish is a modern cycling great - an Olympic medalist (silver, Rio 2016) across three Summer Games, and a renowned road sprinter who sits as the joint all-time leader in Tour de France stage wins (34, with legend Eddy Merckx).

He's also well-known for a reputation as "obsessive", a perfectionist who "needs control", and, well, "of being an asshole" - someone who never had a symbiotic relationship with media or the wider peloton.

Which all makes him a prime subject to get to know better. Netflix's Mark Cavendish: Never Enough, released earlier this month, offers an opportunity for viewers to do just that.

Frustratingly, the hour-and-half-long documentary isn't actually enough, and I found myself wanting. Cavendish certainly comes off as sincerely committed to his sport, and colorful enough to deserve his brash public persona, but Never Enough doesn't serve a deep look at the start of his career, and his development to become the person he is generally known for today. While viewers intimate with cycling and/or in the United Kingdom may be familiar with his successes and tribulations, those elsewhere - like me in the U.S. and casual observers who have just a general name recognition - would be better served with perhaps a multi-part documentary series. (Granted, coming off a viewing of just such an effort in Max's Shaun White: The Last Run has given me bias.)

​Don't get me wrong...the perspective on Cavendish's struggles to return to form - through multiple crashes, an Epstein-Barr virus diagnosis, depression, and subsequent doubts amongst cycling's pundits - is presented thoughtfully and with engaging presentation. And, he is the hero of the story - despite his penchant for crashes and brushes with orneriness - one roots for him as he comes back to just almost surpass Merckx's stage win record.

But I'm left curious as to more of his background other than the fleeting mentions offered. Why did he switch from track (where he found Olympic success in the omnium)? What got him started in the sport in the first place? How did his career start, way back when at age 20 in 2005? How does he see his career as having been crafted, from track to road success, and back, and back again?

Glaring is the omission of mentioning any effect on his career a noted robbery and assault case where he and his wife were victimized. So maybe the documentary was finished at the end of the 2022 season - with Cavendish acknowledging "there's no number that's enough" as he contemplates that tied record of 34 stage wins. But a release date of this August also misses his retirement announcement from this spring. You'd have to be an extremely casual sports fan to not have been aware of that.

Turns out, there's even a new subplot on his maybe  -just, maybe - return to chase that one more Tour de France win. Now that would be a great postscript.

The inaugural edition of the UCI Cycling World Championships ended today after 10 days of competition based in Glasgow, Scotland. Previously, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) championships for various disciplines were held separately; this was the first time all were held under one banner.

A total of 12 world championships were held: road cycling, track cycling, mountain bike (marathon, cross-country & downhill), trials, BMX (park, flatland, racing), indoor, and Gran Fondo for men, women and elite and junior levels; para cycling road and track were also held.
​
Congratulations to all the world champions! A quick recap of the elite category event winners in Olympic discipline championships (road, track, mountain bike cross-country, and BMX park and racing) is below. More information on all the action across the 12 championships can be found online at uci.org.

Team Ukraine Olympic medalist Olena Starikova makes a surprise retirement announcement after not making the world championship team. (in Ukrainian)

The Associated Press looks at how judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou is one athlete leading integrating recent motherhood with sports competition.

Recent retiree Joey Mantia visits the Speedskating Video Podcast to talk his career in the sport, and what might be next.

A third consecutive Formula Kite Youth World Championships title has Team Singapore sailor Maximilian Maeder primed for the start of Paris 2024 qualifications.

What are some lessons to learn for the Olympic champion Team Canada soccer team after their early exit from the FIFA Women's World Cup?

And speaking of early FIFA Women's World Cup exits...Team USA's isn't what Megan Rapinoe expected.

​Who are seven 'Team GB stars to watch' at the current UCI Cycling World Championships?

Champion Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis talks his 'great World Championships moment' with World Athletics.

Filipino Jose Matteo Crisostomo's start in the decathlon? Because he wanted a uniform...

Might another 'high-stakes win' for sprinter Andre de Grasse in the 200 meters portend a good result at the World Championships?

Team Spain's Mohammed Katir sets his sights on tackling a 1500 and 5000 meter double on the track at the World Athletics Championships.

A tearful Marie-Josee Ta Lou almost retired after Tokyo 2020; can she finally claim a global sprint gold at this year's World Championships?

Long-distance runner and University Games champion Mariana Machado is proud 'to strike a balance between medical studies and athletics'.

Would-be sprinter Nasra Abukar Ali causes an unfortunate stir for Team Somalia at the on-going World University Games.

Is shot putter Ryan Crouser's 'Crouser Slide' the new 'Fosbury Flop'?

Daniel Dhers looks ahead past a Paris 2024 swan song in BMX to focus on growing his sport back home.

Olympic canoeist Martin Thomas is one of several Team France athletes to draw attention to the effects of climate change through a visit to the Mer de Glace glacier.

Olympic and NBA basketball star Anthony Davis scores 'the richest annual extension in NBA history'.

Fellow basketball star Kevin Durant reveals a fandom for Team USA tennis star Frances Tiafoe.

Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown takes exception to retired Cate Campbell's comments on behalf of the team.

Michael Houlie offers advice for fellow Team South Africa swimmers at this year's Youth Commonwealth Games: "Have fun, enjoy every single moment and be grateful for the opportunity".

34-year-old veteran swimmer Nathan Adrian 'is not ruling out' going for an Olympic trials appearance.

Marketa Davidova and others share their 'first biathlon competition' experiences with Biathlon World.
​
'Every tattoo tells its own story' for Team USA wrestler Jordan Burroughs.
​
Reuters: Skateboarder Nyjah Huston 'is ramping up for Olympic redemption in Paris'.

Can Chatchu-On Moksri power Team Thailand to a landmark volleyball appearance at Paris 2024?

Diver Sam Fricker makes a red carpet connection with movie superstar Tom Cruise.

Canadian double Olympic triathlete Amelie Kretz targets a third Games appearance, this time to honor her grandfather.

The Off the Podium podcast asks Olympic champion Jessica Fox what the upcoming Olympic discipline canoe slalom is, and more.

Two gold medals at the University Games has rhythmic gymnast Fanni Pigniczki 'aiming at Paris'.

International Gymnast: Team Dominican Republic's Audrys Nin Reyes has dreams of a Paris 2024 gymnastics appearance.

Gymnast Heath Thorpe resorts to a public appeal for help in funding after his non-entry to Team Australia's squad for the upcoming worlds.

Chilean gymnast Tomas Gonzalez discusses with LaTercera his coming out as LGBT in his autobiography. (in Spanish)