As you settle into your weekend, Team USA athletes are getting ready to compete all around the world. Keep track of the biggest events and how to follow them on Team USA This Weekend.
Let The Games Begin: The Parapan American Games
More than 250 U.S. athletes are competing in 16 sports at the Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru.
The Opening Ceremony is Friday.
U.S. teams and individuals will be attempting to secure berths at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 in five sports: wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball, goalball and wheelchair tennis. The first of those opportunities arrives in the medal round of goalball on Tuesday.
Medal rounds on the opening weekend of the competition include table tennis on Friday and Saturday, and judo, track and field and shooting on Saturday and Sunday.
Included among the 36 Paralympic champions on the U.S. team are track and fields’ three-time Paralympic champion Jeremy Campbell (discus), two-time Paralympic champion Deja Young (100-, 200-meter) and 2016 Paralympic champion David Brown (100-meter). Brown, a blind athlete competing with guide Jerome Avery, is the defending category T11 Parapan Am Games champion. The five days of track and field competition begins Saturday.
The U.S. is competing in every sport in the Parapan Am program except for 5v5 soccer. New sports on the program this year are shooting, badminton and taekwondo. McKenna Dahl, a 2016 Paralympic bronze medalist, is one of 12 U.S. para shooters. Four days of medal competition in shooting begins Saturday.
Follow along on social: Team USA on Twitter, Parapan American Games on Twitter and U.S. Paralympics on Instagram.
Track And Field Heads To Its Final Diamond League Stop Ahead Of Finals
An American battle in the triple jump is shaping up Saturday in Paris.
Two-time Olympic champion Christian Taylor and three-time Olympic medalist Will Claye are one-two in the Diamond League rankings. They are two-three in the world in all-time triple jump distances. Saturday, they’ll be joined by two other American triple jumpers (Chris Benard and Omar Craddock) and eight other international athletes in Meeting de Paris at Stade Charlety.
Saturday’s meet is the last stop before the Diamond League finals are held Aug. 29 in Zurich, Switzerland, and Sept. 6 in Brussels, Belgium.
Taylor defeated Claye by seven centimeters earlier this season in a Diamond League showdown, but Claye is on the move. He jumped 18.14 meters in Long Beach, California, in June, a mark that was fourth best in world history and No. 1 this year.
Other Americans competing in Paris include 2016 Olympic silver medalist Sandi Morris and two-time Olympic medalist Jenn Suhr in the women’s pole vault, 2019 U.S. champion Noah Lyles in the men’s 200-meter and Olympic relay gold medalist Phyllis Francis in the women’s 400.
TV: 2 p.m. ET Saturday, Olympic Channel
Webcast: 2 p.m. ET Saturday, NBC Sports App
Follow along on social: USA Track and Field on Twitter, IAAF Diamond League on Twitter and Christian Taylor on Instagram.
USA Volleyball Hosts The NORCECA Champions Cup
Two U.S. volleyball squads are home this weekend in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center is hosting the NORCECA Champions Cup through Saturday.
The tournament is a homecoming for Colorado Springs native Cody Kessel, who played volleyball at Palmer High School and is among the leaders on the U.S. men’s team assembled for the tournament. Most of the players selected for the team are 2019 or earlier college graduates. Kessel is also a pro player overseas.
The U.S. men, who opened the tournament against Puerto Rico on Thursday, face Cuba on Friday and Canada on Saturday.
Outside hitter Sarah Wilhite Parsons, a member of the 2018 world championship team, is captain of the women’s team and three-time Olympian Tayyiba Haneef-Park is head coach. The U.S. women meet Puerto Rico on Friday and the Dominican Republic on Saturday.
The tournament features four matches per day at SportsCenter 1, beginning at 1 p.m. MT each day. The U.S. women play at 5 p.m. and the men at 7 p.m. each night. Admission is free.
Follow along on social: USA Volleyball on Twitter, NORCEA on Twitter and Cody Kessel on Instagram.
The U.S. Men’s Basketball Team Prepares For The World Cup In Australia
The U.S. men’s basketball national team is Down Under for its second exhibition against Australia in three days in Melbourne.
Team USA, which has won the gold medal at the last three Olympic Games and the last two FIBA World Cups, faces Australia on Saturday at Marvel Stadium. More than 55,000 showed up for the first game at Marvel Stadium, a U.S. win on Thursday.
“They are one of the teams that can win the whole thing, without a doubt,” U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said of the Aussies. “I’m not saying that because I’m here. It’s just a fact. They’ve been close for several years, and they’re hungry.”
The game is one of the final preparations for the U.S. before opening World Cup play on Sept. 1 against the Czech Republic in Shanghai.
The final exhibition is Monday, when the U.S. faces Canada at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
The U.S. team is made up entirely of NBA players, including four from the Boston Celtics, but the roster will be trimmed from 13 to 12 before the World Cup begins. Kemba Walker, Donovan Mitchell and Marcus Smart are serving as captains for the games against Australia.
Follow along on social: USA Basketball on Twitter, FIBA World Cup on Twitter and Kemba Walker on Instagram.
Rowing -- World Championships
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Meghan Musnicki and 2016 gold medalist Emily Regan are among 17 Olympians and more than 80 U.S. rowers overall competing for Olympic and Paralympic quota spots in the World Rowing Championships. The competition begins with preliminary heats Sunday in Linz- Ottensheim, Austria, and goes through the medal rounds on Sept. 1. Musnicki and Regan are both rowing in the women’s eight boat, which is one of 29 U.S. crews and one of three disciplines in which the U.S. won gold medals in the 2018 world championships. The world championships will determine some of the quota spots for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The event is also a qualifying regatta for the Paralympic Games. Four of the 83 U.S. rowers are Paralympians, including 2016 Paralympic silver medalist Jaclyn Smith, who is competing in PR3 women’s pair with Molly Moore.
TV: 4 a.m. ET Sunday, Olympic Channel
Judo -- World Championships
Nippon Budokan in Tokyo is ready once again for a big show. Adonis Diaz and Anne Suzuki of the USA Judo world team are competing Sunday on the first day of the World Judo Championships in Nippon Budokan, an arena that was built for the judo competition in the Olympic Games Tokyo 1964. The Olympic Games will be back in Tokyo next year, and the world championships is the judo test event. Suzuki, who is on the world team for the second consecutive year, competes in the women’s 48 kg. weight class Sunday; Diaz, a three-time world team member who won a bronze medal in the Montreal Grand Prix in July, is in the men’s 60 kg. class. Other members of the U.S. world team include Nick Delpopolo, a two-time Olympian and seven-time world team member, and Angelica Delgado, a 2016 Olympian who is on her eighth world team.
Taekwondo -- World Cup Team & Poomsae Championships
Miriam Galecki, Trinity Noble, Luis Orozco and Adan Rivas are among the U.S. athletes competing in the World Cup Team & Poomsae Championships in Wuxi, China. All four are competing in the mixed gender team sparring competition as well as their specific gender team tournaments. Orozco and Rivas are joined by Davyd Cabrera, Isaak Whitworth and Zak Day in the men’s team competition Friday, and Galecki and Noble team up with Logan Weber, Danica Deaton and Stephanie Douglas in the women’s competition Saturday. The mixed team tourney is Sunday. Another 63 athletes are competing in poomsae team and individual classes.
Canoe/Kayak -- Sprint World Championships
Stanton Collins will race in the semifinal round of the one-man kayak 200-meter event on Friday in the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary. He is attempting to make the lineup for the finals on Saturday, and a finish among the top five in the final would secure an Olympic quota spot for the U.S. Collins is one of 19 U.S. athletes competing in either canoe or kayak at the world championships. Finishes among the top five, six or eight in certain events earn quota spots for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Finals in multiple events will be held Friday through Sunday. In paracanoe, a top-six finish in any final earns a Paralympic quota spot for Tokyo. Among the eight U.S. para athletes are Kaitlyn Verfuerth, a three-time Paralympian in wheelchair tennis; Blake Haxton, a rowing Paralympian who is also rowing this week in Austria; and Jack Wallace, a 2018 Paralympic gold medalist in sled hockey.
TV: 8:15 a.m. ET Friday, 9 a.m. Saturday, Olympic Channel
Snowboarding -- Big Air World Cup
Summertime snow? Not a problem in Cardrona, New Zealand, where the 2019-20 snowboarding world cup season kicks off this weekend with a big air competition. Among the five U.S. snowboarders is Chris Corning, a 2018 Olympian who landed a backside quad 1800 in the 2018 New Zealand stop. Joining him in the competition are Red Gerard, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist in men’s slopestyle, along with Luke Winkelmann, Lyon Farrell and Storm Rowe. The qualifying round is Saturday, followed by the women’s and men’s finals on Sunday. The event is a part of Winter Games NZ, which also includes halfpipe skiing and a World Curling Tour event next week.
TV: 8 p.m. ET Saturday, Olympic Channel
Surfing -- Tahiti Pro Teahupo’o
Kolohe Andino is in the No. 1 position in the World Surf League standings for the first time in his career as the tour hits the waters of Tahiti for the Tahiti Pro Teahupo’o. Andino, one of three Americans in the top 10, has finished among the top five in five of the six WSL tournaments so far this season, including placing third at the last two stops. Also in the points race is 11-time world champion Kelly Slater, who is in eighth place. Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia located 2,600 miles south of Hawaii, features some of the largest waves on tour. Seeding rounds are set to begin Friday.
Webcast: 1 p.m. ET Friday, Saturday, Sunday, worldsurfleague.com
Beach Volleyball -- FIVB Jurmala 3-star
Stafford Slick and Billy Allen are among three U.S. men’s teams competing in an FIVB World Tour 3-star tournament in Jurmala, Latvia. Also in the tournament are the teams of 2016 Olympian Casey Patterson and former pro basketball player Chase Budinger, and Miles Evans and William Kolinske. The main draw begins play on Friday. The semifinals and medal rounds are Sunday.
Sailing -- World Cup Series
The World Cup Series begins its 2019-20 season Sunday in Enoshima, Japan, where the Tokyo 2020 Olympic test series finished up Thursday. The competition goes through Sept. 1. Just as in the sailing test event, the world cup regatta serves as an early selection event for sailors attempting to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team. U.S. boats finishing in the top three of an Olympic class qualify for early selection if the crew has seven points or less in the competition. Another upcoming selection event is the world cup regatta that will be held in January in Miami.
Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.