The PWHL is continuing to break records, as Sunday's 2025/26 Takeover Tour stop in Washington, DC, saw 17,228 fans pack into Capital One Arena to see the No. 2 New York Sirens top the No. 4 Montréal Victoire 2-1 — setting a new US women's hockey attendance record in the process.
The benchmark surpasses the previous US record set this past November, when the Seattle Torrent welcomed 16,014 fans to their inaugural home opener.
Sunday's DC crowd also sees the US mark inch closer to the overall professional women's hockey attendance record, set in April 2024 when 21,105 PWHL fans sold out Montréal's Bell Centre to watch the Victoire take on the Toronto Sceptres.
"Washington, DC, showed up in such a big way, and the energy our fans brought into the arena turned this game into something truly special," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said of the first-ever PWHL game in the nation's capital. "Moments like this capture the joy of our sport and the momentum behind the league."
The third-year league is currently racing through its best-attended month on record, drawing more than 154,000 fans across the last 16 games while averaging crowds of 8,726 across all 49 games so far this season.
US women are lighting up the ice, performing record-breaking short programs at the US Figure Skating Championships on Wednesday as the nation's top skaters compete to represent Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February.
Currently atop the field is 26-year-old Amber Glenn, with the reigning back-to-back national champion posting the highest short program score in event history on Wednesday.
Glenn's 83.05-point performance surpassed the 81.11-point previous record set just minutes before by her 20-year-old teammate, reigning world champion Alysa Liu.
"I think that was one of my most enjoyable experiences competing ever," Glenn said afterwards.
With Liu and Glenn leading the charge, the US is aiming to end a 20-year Olympic medal drought in women's singles figure skating in Milan, Italy, this winter — and Team USA has even more depth on their side.
A full six of the world's Top-17 skaters hail from the US, with 18-year-old Isabeau Levito — who claimed third in Wednesday's short program competition — joining Glenn and Liu in the Top 5.
Team USA can send only three singles skaters to next month's Winter Games, with the national selection committee assessing each athlete's full season — not just their performances at this week's championships — before announcing the Olympic-bound trio on Sunday.
How to watch the 2026 US Figure Skating Championships
The women's singles competition will conclude with Friday's free skate, which kicks off at 3 PM ET before the top skaters in the standings take the ice at 8 PM ET on NBC and Peacock.
The 2026 US Olympic Figure Skating Team will then be announced at 2 PM ET on Sunday, live on NBC.
Olympic swimming icon Katie Ledecky has done it again, becoming the first woman to break the 15-minute mile with a time of 14:59.62 at her namesake Katie Ledecky Invitational in Maryland.
Smashing her own US record of 15:01.41, Sunday's sub-15 minute mile gives Ledecky the 1,650-meter freestyle's eight fastest times, with US teammate Erica Sullivan earning the ninth-best in 2019.
"This is a special one for sure," Ledecky said afterwards. "This has been a goal of mine, to break 15 minutes in the 1,650, for probably eight or nine years. So, just putting in the hard work, believing that I could do it someday, and to do it at this meet, is really special."
The 28-year-old Washington, DC, product is the most decorated women's swimmer in the history of the sport, prompting Nation's Capital Swimming — where Ledecky got her start at age six — to name their annual event in her honor earlier this year.
"I definitely was a little nervous before the race, just knowing there were a lot of eyes on me and all that," she continued. "But I knew I could just relax and have fun with it, and whatever happened, happened."
How to watch Katie Ledecky in action
Ledecky's next major competition will likely be the TYR Pro Swim Series, which kicks off in Austin on January 14th, 2026.
The domestic competition series will be covered across NBC Sports platforms.
The PWHL is rapidly looking to ramp up expansion, with EVP of business operations Amy Scheer saying this week that the third-year pro hockey league could welcome "two to four" new teams as soon as next year.
"If I was a betting woman, I'd say it'd be four teams. And then I think we'll hold at 12 for a bit," she told CNBC Sport, noting the league's immediate success with 2025/26 expansion sides the Vancouver Goldeneyes and the Seattle Torrent — the latter of which shattered the US women's hockey attendance record in their Friday home opener.
Accordingly, the PWHL will continue testing possible new markets using the league's historically packed Takeover Tour, with this season's 11-city route expanding to feature seven new host venues.
"What does the support of women's sports look like there?" Scheer said, outlining the league's criteria for assessing potential markets. "If there's an NHL team, what does that look like? Or from the building, is there government support there? How does it impact travel? So there's a lot of factors."
As for the league's notably speedy expansion pace, Scheer told Front Office Sports that the PWHL has "proven that time is overrated."
"The more our numbers grow, the more value we have as a league, the more value we have against our partnerships we sell, the more merchandise we sell," Scheer explained. "Those two things — growth and profitability — are not separate."
The PWHL is hitting the road once again, with the newly expanded third-year league adding seven new markets to the 2025/26 season's neutral-site Takeover Tour.
Across 16 regular-season matchups running from December 17th through April 7th, the pro hockey upstart will visit Calgary, Chicago, Dallas, Halifax, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Washington, DC, for the first time, with Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, and Québec City returning to this season's lineup.
"The passion and support from fans, and the enthusiasm from cities eager to engage with our league, have fueled our ambition to grow the Tour for Season Three," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said in Monday's league statement.
The inaugural 2024/25 PWHL Takeover Tour drew 123,601 fans across nine games, setting a new US pro women's hockey single-game attendance record when a crowd of 14,288 packed Detroit's Little Caesars Arena in March.
The success underlines the sport's booming popularity, with PWHL expansion teams Seattle Torrent and the Vancouver Goldeneyes joining the league's founding six clubs later this month after serving as Takeover Tour stops last season — setting a precedent for potential future markets.
"We're going to expand at least two to four teams next year," Scheer recently told members at an Ottawa City Council meeting. "We are in growth mode, and this league is exploding."
How to attend the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour
The 2025/26 Takeover Tour ticket pre-sale kicks off on Thursday, with host markets opening general sales to all tour dates via thepwhl.com at 10 AM local time on Friday.
The 2025 New York City Marathon not only crowned its champion on Sunday, the race also saw a new course record as Kenya's Hellen Obiri crossed the Central Park finish line with a time of 2:19.51 — shattering fellow Kenyan Margaret Okayo's 2003 record by a full two minutes and 40 seconds.
Returning to the top of the New York marathon field after first winning the race in 2023, 2024 runner-up Obiri led a Kenyan contingent that swept the podium, as 2022 winner Sharon Lokedi trailed by a mere 16 seconds while 2024 champion Sheila Chepkirui claimed third with a time of 2:20:24 — all three blasting through the previous course record of 2:22.31.
"We had a very strong field," said Obiri following the race. "[I told myself] let me try to do my best, let me push."
With her championship, Obiri claimed both the $100,000 winner's check as well as an additional $50,000 in prize money for breaking the course record.
Though the 2025 New York City Marathon marked the second straight year that Kenyan runners owned the podium, Fiona O'Keeffe also made history by setting a a new US course record with her fourth-place finish.
Finishing the five-borough race in 2:22.49, O'Keeffe shaved nearly two minutes off the previous US record of 2:24:42 — set in 2021 by Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel.
"I can't take too much credit for the time — that was all on the women ahead of me," O'Keeffe said, sharing the spotlight with the runners who pushed her on Sunday. "Grateful to be back in the marathon. Feels like coming home."
US sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone blew past the competition this week, becoming the first women's track athlete to run a sub-48 second 400-meter dash in almost 40 years on Thursday, when she won the event final at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist clocked a blistering time of 47.78 seconds, breaking her own US record en route to becoming the new world champion.
Notably, Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino — the 400-meter gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics — crossed Thursday's finish line right on McLaughlin-Levrone's heels, joining the US winner in breaking the near-impossible 48-second barrier with a time of 47.98 seconds.
"You don't run something like that without amazing women pushing you to it," said McLaughlin-Levrone afterwards, crediting the impact of the other contenders on her own historic pace.
McLaughlin-Levrone's new time is now the second fastest in the sport's history, trailing only the 1985 world record of 47.60 seconds set by East Germany's Marita Koch.
Thursday's win also marked the 26-year-old's first-ever major international 400-meter flat title after historically dominating the 400-meter hurdles, making McLaughlin-Levrone the only athlete to hold world titles in both races.
"I felt that somebody was going to have to run 47-something to win this," Bobby Kersee, the sprinter's longtime coach, told The AP. "She trained for it. She took on the challenge, took on the risk. She's just an amazing athlete that I can have no complaints about."
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.