South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya is speaking up, as the two-time Olympic gold medalist voiced concerns about Thursday's IOC decision to reinstate sex verification tests for women's sports athletes.
"For you as a woman, why will you be tested to prove that you fit?" Semenya said, calling the new screening "a disrespect."
"You know, it's like now we need to prove that we are worthy as women to take part in sports," she continued.
Thursday's move effectively bans transgender women athletes as well as competitors who have one of the many Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) — a category of congenital conditions in which a person's chromosomes, hormones, and/or reproductive anatomy does not fit neatly into the male/female binary.
Approximately one in every 100 people is born with DSD — including Semenya, whose diagnosis revealed a condition that impacts her chromosomes and hormone levels.
The 2012 and 2016 Olympic 800-meter champion has been advocating against the IOC's restrictive gender testing since 2016.
Notably, the IOC abandoned the screenings in 1999 due to ineffectiveness, with the Committee now reinstating the policy ahead of the 2028 LA Olympics.
According to the Committee, the move will "ensure fairness" and "protect safety" of female athletes.
All women's sports athletes must now undergo a saliva, cheek swab, or blood test for the SRY gene, with the results applying to all lifetime competitions "unless there is reason to believe that a negative reading is in error."
The screening requirement will limit "eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports... to biological females" the IOC said on Thursday.
The 2028 Summer Games are laying the groundwork, with LA organizers releasing the upcoming soccer tournament schedules this week — locking in the largest women's competition in Olympic history.
Designed to increase rest time throughout the travel-heavy, short-form event, the women's tournament will kick off on Tuesday, July 11th — three days before the 2028 Summer Games' Opening Ceremony.
The LA28 women's soccer tournament will feature 16 teams for the first time in Olympic history, outpacing the 12 teams who will compete in the men's event.
Both the men's and women's competitions will play out across seven stadiums nationwide, sweeping East to West as the tournaments advance toward the medal matches.
New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, and San Diego will host group-stage matches on Tuesday, July 11th, Friday the 14th, and Monday the 17th, with Nashville, San Jose, San Diego, and LA's iconic Rose Bowl hosting one quarterfinal each on Friday, July 21st.
San Diego and LA will the split the women's semifinals on Tuesday, July 25th, with San Diego hosting the bronze medal match on Friday, July 28th, before the gold medal final takes over the Rose Bowl on Saturday, July 29th — the 2028 Summer Games' penultimate day of competition.
The girls are taking over the gridiron, with sportswear giant Under Armour and the DICK'S Sporting Goods Foundation teaming up to donate $1 million to grow girls flag football via their Click Clack: Next Era Grant this week.
The initiative, delivered by global sport-for-social-change organization Beyond Sport, aims to improve access to girls flag football by providing financial resources, high-performance gear, and coaching education, particularly in communities with historically limited opportunities.
"Expanding access to sport is core to who Under Armour is," said UA director of global community impact Flynn Burch in a Tuesday statement. "By removing barriers, we're helping more girls compete, build community, and grow their confidence."
The grant also aims to help more schools, districts, and states legitimize girls flag football as a sanctioned high school sport to bolster equity and participation — a goal that comes as interest in the sport skyrockets.
Flag football is in the midst of a period of rapid growth, as both NCAA programs and pro leagues embrace the game in the lead-up to its debut at the 2028 LA Olympics.
Under Armour isn't wasting any time in putting the company's words into action, either, with the apparel company hosting a girls flag football clinic alongside USA Football as part of the NFL's Super Bowl LX Fan Experience in San Francisco, with 80 young local athletes participating before attending the USA vs. Mexico Flag Football Showcase Game on Thursday afternoon.
International soccer fans should start saving airline miles, as organizers for the LA Olympics announced on Tuesday that the 2028 Summer Games' soccer tournament will play out in seven stadiums across the US.
Giving the competition a coast-to-coast footprint, organizers tapped venues in New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, and San Diego to host both men's and women's matches, before returning to the Rose Bowl in LA for both tournament finals.
All six venues outside LA house MLS clubs, with San Diego's Snapdragon Stadium and San Jose's PayPal Park also serving as home pitches for the NWSL's Wave and Bay FC, respectively.
"Bringing Olympic Football group-stage and knockout matches to stadiums across the United States means more fans will witness this global event and experience the Olympic spirit firsthand," said LA28 chief of sport and games delivery officer Shana Ferguson in a Tuesday statement.
Joining several other off-site LA 2028 events including Oklahoma City's softball tournament and canoe slalom races, the Summer Olympics' expanded soccer competition will likely kick off before the Opening Ceremony.
The tournament will also follow a progressive east-to-west itinerary to minimize travel demands for the teams, with dates and match distribution set to drop this April.
The LA Olympics' women's football final will take place on July 29th, 2028 — the Summer Games' penultimate day of competition.
As the 2028 LA Olympics come into focus, the FIFA Council unveiled the regional allocations for the Summer Games' first-ever 16-team women's soccer tournament this week.
According to the Council's Wednesday report, 2.5 slots will go to AFC (Asia), 2 to CAF (Africa), 3 to Concacaf (North and Central America), 2.5 to Conmebol (South America), 1 to OFC (Oceania), and 4 to UEFA (Europe), with one additional slot reserved, as always, for the host nation — the reigning Olympic gold medalist USWNT.
While the expanded competition allows for greater depth, one AFC and one Conmebol team will ostensibly have to face an inter-continental playoff to determine which region can send an additional team to the 2028 Olympics.
One the other hand, Concacaf's representation will double from 2024, growing from two to four teams given the automatic berth of the USWNT.
Similarly, after host nation France's autobid boosted UEFA'a 2024 allocation to three teams, this week's new distribution doubles the European confederation's previous non-host two-team max for the LA Games — meaning all four of the 2027 UEFA Nations League semifinalists will qualify to compete for gold in 2028.
Notably, CAF and OFC are the only confederations to not see an increase on their previous allocation from the FIFA Council.
USA Basketball dropped its 18-player December roster on Monday, selecting both standout vets and fresh faces for the national team's final training camp of 2025.
Taking place at Duke University from December 12th until the 14th, five 2024 Paris Olympic gold medalists — Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young — will anchor the Team USA lineup.
Notably, a full 10 players will join the senior team for the first time next month, as young WNBA superstars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and Cameron Brink earn their first call-ups.
A pair of NCAA stars will also attend the December camp, with the national governing body tapping both UCLA senior center Lauren Betts and USC junior guard JuJu Watkins on the roster — though Watkins will not participate in on-court activities as she continues to rehab an ACL tear.
Along with the full camp roster, USA Basketball also dropped its December sideline leaders, with current WNBA head coaches Nate Tibbetts (Phoenix Mercury), Natalie Nakase (Golden State Valkyries), and Stephanie White (Indiana Fever) comprising the assistant coaching staff for the previously announced senior national team head coach Kara Lawson.
December's camp is the team's first step toward the World Cup qualifiers in March, when the US will compete despite having already qualified for the 2026 FIBA World Cup by winning the 2025 FIBA AmeriCup in July.
Overall, the clock starts now for USA women's basketball managing director Sue Bird, who is in charge of cultivating the best team for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The USA Basketball December Training Camp Roster
- Lauren Betts (UCLA)
- Aliyah Boston (Indiana Fever)
- Cameron Brink (LA Sparks)
- Paige Bueckers (Dallas Wings)
- Veronica Burton (Golden State Valkyries)
- Sonia Citron (Washington Mystics)
- Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever)
- Kahleah Copper (Phoenix Mercury)
- Chelsea Gray (Las Vegas Aces)
- Brittney Griner (Atlanta Dream)
- Dearica Hamby (LA Sparks)
- Kiki Iriafen (Washington Mystics)
- Rickea Jackson (LA Sparks)
- Brionna Jones (Atlanta Dream)
- Kelsey Plum (LA Sparks)
- Angel Reese (Chicago Sky)
- JuJu Watkins (USC)
- Jackie Young (Las Vegas Aces)
The 2028 LA Olympics schedule dropped on Wednesday, featuring significant changes to the traditional Summer Games lineup — especially for women's sports.
The women's triathlon will hand out LA's first medals on July 15th, becoming the first-ever women's event to open the medal count at an edition of the Summer Games.
July 29th's "Super Saturday" is also a new addition, with the LA28 organizers creating a single day to showcase 26 high-stakes finals across 23 sports, including swimming, women's soccer, women's basketball, and the women's marathon.
The LA Games will be the first Summer Olympics to feature more women's sports competitors than men's, with all team sports featuring an equal or greater amount of women's squads and 50.5% of the total athlete quota allotted to women's events.
In one of the biggest changes to the Olympics schedule, swimming and track and field will swap weeks in 2028, with all three rounds of the women's 100-meter dash set for opening day while swimming closes out the LA Games on July 30th.
"To be the preeminent event on the first night of competition in the historic LA Memorial Coliseum, I think when we presented it to the athletes that way, there was excitement," chief athlete officer Janet Evans said of the switch.
"With Olympic ticket registration opening in January of 2026, now is the time to start planning," LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said in a press release. "Athletes and fans from around the world now have what they need to plan an unforgettable Olympic experience."
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman is sticking around, with Sportico reporting last Friday that the NWSL Executive Committee voted for a three-year contract extension for the league leader through the 2028 LA Olympics.
The 48-year-old inked her initial four-year deal in 2022, quickly driving commercial growth after joining an NWSL still reeling from a period of league scandals.
Under her purview, Berman led the NWSL through successful CBA negotiations and inked a blockbuster $60 million-per-year media deal, boosting team valuations from the low single-digit millions to upwards of $250 million.
Berman also helped drive the league's ongoing expansion, seeing 12 clubs in action during her debut 2022 season before growing to 14 in the 2024 campaign — with additional expansion sides Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC ballooning the field to 16 squads beginning next year.
Despite those successes, Berman recently faced backlash surrounding the league's handling of on-field medical incidents, with Sportico's sources noting that the board of governors' decision to move forward with the NWSL commissioner's contract extension was not unanimous.
"We're proud to have Jessica Berman's continued leadership," executive committee chair and Gotham FC owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett said in a league statement. "Under her guidance, the NWSL has reached new heights in attendance, revenue, and global visibility. This extension ensures we can continue building on that momentum."
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.
USA Basketball extended the tenure of head coach Kara Lawson on Monday, tapping the current Duke head coach to continue guiding the 5×5 team through the 2028 LA Olympics.
Lawson will helm the US at next year's FIBA World Cup as well as all training camps, exhibitions, and competitions in the lead-up to the 2028 LA Games.
"I will work tirelessly to uphold the standards of this storied program. There is no greater honor in our sport than to be chosen to lead the US women in world competition," Lawson said in a statement. "There is nothing more important than pushing this group to reach its potential."
After serving as an assistant coach during Team USA's eighth straight gold-medal run at the 2024 Paris Games, Lawson took over sideline duties for the national squad at the 2025 FIBA AmeriCup, leading a roster stocked with NCAA players back to the top of the international tournament's podium this summer.
The 13-season veteran athlete of the WNBA first won Olympic gold with the US as a player in 2008, then head coached the 3×3 team to gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before joining previous 5x5 head coach Cheryl Reeve's staff ahead of the 2024 Games.
Lawson is first choice of new Team USA director Sue Bird
While a committee tapped Lawson for her initial 5x5 head coaching stint this summer, Monday's multi-year extension decision comes straight from USA Basketball's new women's national team managing director Sue Bird, who played with Lawson on the 2008 Olympic team.
Hired last May, Bird now oversees all processes for player and coach selections, with the new term for Lawson marking the first head coaching decision by the Hall of Famer — though the USA Basketball Board of Directors later added their stamp of approval to Bird's call.
"Having shared the court with her, I know firsthand the leadership, competitive spirit, and basketball IQ that she brings," Bird said of Lawson. "Kara has always had the respect of her teammates and her players, something she has earned and demonstrated over decades."