American Gold Sports Alliance

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Introducing the Vulcan Pickleball Line in Support of the AGSA!

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We at the American Gold Sports Alliance (AGSA) are proud to announce that we have added the Vulcan Pickleball line of equipment to our raffle and giveaway opportunities, complementing our growing  fundraising efforts in support of the AGSA 501(c)(3) nonprofit sports foundation mission. Vulcan is renowned for its top-tier quality, innovative designs, and organizational support of girls and women athletes, making it a perfect fit for AGSA.

What This Means:

  • Vulcan Paddles: Explore a diverse range of paddles that cater to various playing styles, from precision control to powerful hits.
  • Pickleballs: Durable and consistent balls, designed to meet the needs of competitive play.
  • Accessories: Everything from grips to bags, ensuring you’re fully equipped on and off the court.

Supporting AGSA: By choosing Vulcan, you’re not just enhancing your game—you’re also supporting the AGSA’s mission to promote sportsmanship, integrity, and athletic excellence across all levels of play. A portion of proceeds from every Vulcan product sold will go towards AGSA programs, helping to develop and support athletes across the nation. Also, all raffles and giveaways will be in support of AGSA.

Visit us at AGSA.org or our AGSA Raffles Page to discover the full Vulcan line and join us in supporting a great cause. Elevate your game and make a difference today!

2025 Women’s Ironman World Championship Race Week Live

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Susan Lacke | Triathlete

It’s Kona time! Hawaii is the center of the triathlon world this weekend as the women’s 2025 Ironman World Championship gears up for a stunning showdown featuring 60 of the fastest women in long-course triathlon today (and frankly, in all of triathlon history) and 1,600 of the best women’s age-groupers from around the globe.

This weekend also marks the final chapter in Ironman’s two-day, two-location world championship era, which will end after this weekend’s race. After three years of separate race weekends for men and women In 2026, the two fields will reunite in Kona for the return of the one-day race in Hawaii.

To give the final women’s-only world championship a big sendoff, the Triathlete team is on the ground in Kona, bringing you all the triathlon news, analysis, pro bike galleries, and more in the lead-up to the big show on Saturday, October 11. Bookmark this page, which we’ll update daily with the latest insider from the women’s 2025 Ironman World Championship.

The free Ironman World Championship broadcast will stream live on Outside TV Saturday, October 11, with the pro race beginning at 6:25 a.m. HST/12:25 p.m. ET. (Outside+ members can access the broadcast on-demand after the race – become a member today.)

NFL to Launch Women’s Professional Flag Football League Ahead of 2028 LA Olympics

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Dee Lab | Just Women’s Sports

The NFL is putting women on the gridiron, with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing plans to launch both a men’s and women’s professional flag football league at Thursday’s Leaders in Sport conference in London.

Looking to have both new ventures up and running in “the next couple of years,” the NFL’s goal is to introduce the leagues prior to the 2028 Summer Games in LA, where flag football will make its Olympic debut.

“The demand is there. We’re seeing colleges in the States and universities internationally also that want to make it a part of their program,” Goodell said. “If you set that structure up where there’s youth leagues, going into high school, into college, and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That’s an important infrastructure that we need to create.”

Building that infrastructure also feeds the ongoing NFL goal of growing flag football in order to construct a young fanbase for the gridiron sport at-large, with the league investing in a fan pipeline to support the NFL’s future.

In part due to past NFL investments, women’s flag football has seen significant growth across the US over the last 25 years, with over 30 states now offering competitive opportunities for high school girls — and at least half of those states fielding it as a full-fledged varsity championship sport.

Even the NCAA is getting in on the action, taking initial steps earlier this year to introduce flag football across all three of the governing body’s divisions in the near future.

Though the LA Olympics are three years away, flag football is already charging ahead on the international stage, featuring in the 2022 and 2025 World Games — where the same US talent that the NFL is eyeing for its new league snagged a pair of silver medals.

Naomi Osaka Finds Her Form at 2025 Wuhan Open in China

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just womens sports

Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka keeps pushing, as the world No. 16 tennis star followed up her blockbuster comeback run at the 2025 US Open with a first-round win at the Wuhan Open this week.

The Japanese fan favorite battled back from a first-set loss to defeat 2021 US Open finalist and current world No. 27 Leylah Fernandez 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 late Monday night, just weeks after suffering an unexpected exit in the first-round of the 2025 China Open.

Monday’s Round of 64 win marked Osaka’s seventh come-from-behind victory this year, tying her own single-season comeback record.

Osaka still has hills to climb against other top players in Wuhan, including the likes of No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who will return to action early Wednesday morning in her first competitive match since her successful US Open title defense last month.

Also in the mix at the 2025 Wuhan Open are No. 2 Iga Świątek, No. 3 Coco Gauff, and No. 6 Jessica Pegula, with Świątek already cruising through her Round of 32 hurdle in straight sets early Tuesday morning.

Notably, after powering through a lingering calf injury to win the 2025 China Open on Sunday, US star No. 4 Amanda Anisimova withdrew from the Wuhan tournament to recover and gear up for her first-ever WTA Finals next month.

American Emma Navarro upsets top-seeded Iga Świątek in China

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  • ESPN News Services

American Emma Navarro upset top-seeded Iga Świątek with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 win in the fourth round of the China Open on Wednesday.

Navarro, seeded 16th, had not won more than three games in two previous matches against Świątek, who committed 70 unforced errors and lost a love set for the third time this season.

It was the 24-year-old Navarro’s fourth career win over a top-five opponent.

Also, Sonay Kartal produced the biggest victory of her career by defeating Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals. It is the first time Kartal has beaten a top-10 player and the first time she has reached the last eight at a WTA 1000 event.

“I think the way I carry myself on the court is one of my biggest assets. You could look down the other end at me and you wouldn’t really know if I’m winning or losing,” Kartal said. “I just tried to put that second set behind me. She played some great tennis, so I just tried to level it out in the third set and keep the scoreboard pressure as high as I could.”

Fifth-seeded Jessica Pegula later defeated Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-1, making it the first time since the tournament started in 2004 that four Americans reached the final eight. Compatriots Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova had already made the quarterfinals.

Jannik Sinner, playing the concurrent men’s tournament in Beijing, won the China Open title by beating American teenager Learner Tien 6-2, 6-2.

The Associated Press and PA contributed to this report.

Eileen Gu returning to site of Olympic gold for Snow League

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Eileen Gu will head back to the mountain in China where she won an Olympic title to ski in the Snow League, the halfpipe circuit founded by Shaun White.

Gu, who won halfpipe and big air gold and slopestyle silver in freeskiing at the 2022 Winter Games, is one of eight women who will take part in freeskiing on Dec. 6 at China’s Yunding Snow Park.

Gu grew up in California, but competed at the Olympics for her mother’s home country of China. She will do that again next year at the Milan Cortina Olympics. The 22-year-old also has two world championships and three Winter X Games titles.

Among her competition in the Snow League will be Cassie Sharpe of Canada, who won halfpipe gold at the 2018 Olympics and finished runner-up to Gu four years later.

The men’s contest will include two-time Olympic champion David Wise, three-time Olympic medalist Nick Goepper and 2014 slopestyle silver medalist Gus Kenworthy.

The league will distribute $580,000 in prize money over two events — one in China, then a second in Laax, Switzerland, that takes place after the Olympics. Winners will get $50,000.

Wisconsin Volleyball Attendance Soars as NCAA Sees Growing Demand

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Wisconsin volleyball is off to the attendance races, with the No. 7 college squad averaging 8,620 fans per match this season to become this NCAA’s best-attended program — narrowly beating Big Ten rival No. 1 Nebraska’s 8,602 current average.

Other than the Badgers and Cornhuskers, no other college volleyball team has surpassed 6,000 fans per match this year, but Wisconsin is well on track to surpass even their own dominant attendance history in the sport.

If they finish the season in the top attendance spot, the Badgers will snap a six season streak logging the second-best average crowds per year.

Even more, Wisconsin is on their way to blasting through their program-best mark, set when 7,761 fans per match filled the bleachers in 2022.

The growing demand for Badger volleyball is also translating into significant revenue boosts for school.

“We’re really, really excited; we’re going to exceed $2 million in volleyball ticket sales for the first time ever,” Wisconsin deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelearlier this week. “And we’re largely sold out for the rest of our matches at the Field House for the remainder of the season.”

Should the Badgers reach that $2 million mark, they will see a massive 25% increase over the $1.6 million the team garnered just two seasons ago, and a near 18-fold growth from the $111,809 in volleyball ticket sales that Wisconsin logged in 2013.

Ultimately, the sky’s the limit for both Wisconsin volleyball — and the sport at-large.

“If there’s a saturation point on the demand for Wisconsin volleyball, we certainly have not seen it yet,” said Pinta.

How to watch Wisconsin volleyball in action

With conference play kicking off this weekend, No. 7 Wisconsin will host unranked Big Ten foe Rutgers at 8 PM ET on Friday, before paying a visit to also-unranked Iowa at 3 PM ET on Sunday.

Both Big Ten battles will stream live on B1G+.

Track Star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Breaks US 40-Meter Semis Record

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Star sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is reaching new heights, setting a new US record for the 400-meter race in the event’s Tuesday semifinals at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The four-time Olympic gold medalist finished the flat event in 48.29 seconds, shaving more than 0.40 seconds off the previous US record of 48.70 seconds set by track legend Sanya Richards-Ross in 2006.

Both her personal best and the fastest time in the world for that event this year, McLaughlin-Levrone’s performance also makes her the seventh-fastest woman of all time in the 400-meter dash — elevating expectations that she could challenge the long-standing world record of 47.60 seconds, set by then-East German sprinter Marita Koch in 1985.

Known for her dominance in the 400-meter hurdles, the 26-year-old made the decision to focus on the flat 400-meter event ahead of this year’s competition. 

“I definitely wasn’t expecting that time,” she said afterwards. “It just shows the fitness is there. I’m excited for the finals and grateful to have taken down a record by an amazing woman.”

How to watch McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400-meter final

McLaughlin-Levrone will take aim at the 2025 World Athletics Championships’ 400-meter podium — and, perhaps, another record time — during the event’s final on Thursday.

The US star will race against 2024 Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino and silver medalist Salwa Eid Naser when the final begins at 9:24 AM ET.

Live coverage will air on USA Network.

Paige Bueckers nearly unanimous winner of WNBA Rookie of the Year

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Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers was named the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year, the league announced Tuesday.

Bueckers is the seventh former UConn player to win the award, receiving 70 of 72 first-place votes from a media panel, while Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron got the other two.

Bueckers was the No. 1 selection in April’s draft after helping the Huskies win their 12th national championship earlier that month.

A starter in all 36 appearances for the Wings, Bueckers averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals while shooting 47.4% from the floor and 88.8% from the free throw line. She led all WNBA rookies in total points (692), points per game, total assists (194) and assists per game. She was the only WNBA player this season who finished ranked in the top 10 in points, assists and steals per game.

Bueckers’ 44 points against the Los Angeles Sparks on Aug. 20 set a WNBA single-game rookie record. She made 17 of 21 shots from the field (81%), becoming the first player in WNBA history to score 40 or more points and shoot at least 80% from the field in a game.

The Wings went 10-30 and missed the playoffs but will be in the draft lottery again next season.

Bueckers joins Diana Taurasi (2004), Tina Charles (2010), Maya Moore (2011), Breanna Stewart (2016), Napheesa Collier (2019) and Crystal Dangerfield (2020) as UConn players who have earned this honor.

The rookie award has been given out since 1998, the second year of the WNBA. Bueckers is the 16th player drafted No. 1 who was voted Rookie of the Year.

USA Basketball Hires Retired WNBA Star Elena Delle Donne as 3×3 Managing Director

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WNBA legend Elena Delle Donne is returning to the court, with USA Basketball announcing on Monday that the two-time league MVP will join the 3×3 Women’s National Team as its first-ever managing director.

The 36-year-old officially retired in April 2025 after struggling with injuries, capping a career that spanned winning gold at the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 FIBA World Cup with Team USA as well as two WNBA championships.

“Elena has been a member of the USA Basketball family for almost 15 years,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said in Monday’s press release. “Her wealth of knowledge of the sport of basketball and our organization will be an asset as we continue our journey.”

As part of her duties, Delle Donne will be responsible for selecting the USA Basketball 3×3 team’s coaching staff and players prior to the 2028 LA Olympics, the FIBA 3×3 World Cup, and other major international competitions.

“USA Basketball was an important part of my on-court career for a decade and a half. To have the opportunity to continue my journey with the organization, and to help shape and grow the 3×3 program, is something that I take very seriously,” Delle Donne said. “I’m excited to get started.”

Delle Donne’s new position is the 3×3 version of fellow WNBA icon Sue Bird’s role, as the newly minted Hall of Famer became the managing director of the USA Basketball women’s 5×5 arm in May.

“To now think that I’m going to be on the other side of the phone letting someone know that their dream has come true and they’ve made the team is going to be such a fulfilling, full circle moment for me,” Delle Donne said.

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