Team USA Weekly: Lyles Opens at 9.95, Russell Sets World Lead, Xiamen Next on Saturday
Noah Lyles fires a 9.95 season opener, Masai Russell goes 12.25 world lead, and Xiamen Diamond League headlines Saturday (6:10 AM ET, FloTrack). Plus USA Gymnastics names Pan Am teams, Fort Lauderdale aquatics recap, and ISSF Munich preview with 31 Team USA shooters.
The first full week of May competition has delivered some of the most encouraging early-season signs for American track and field in years, while gymnastics named a full slate of Pan American Championships squads, and high diving wrapped a rare US-hosted World Aquatics event in Fort Lauderdale. Here is what happened — and what to watch from May 17–23.
Track & field: two meets, a wave of world leads, and Xiamen on Saturday
Shanghai Diamond League (May 16) — the Americans show up
The 2026 Wanda Diamond League (the annual 14-meet World Athletics circuit that is the top tier of international track and field outside the Olympic and World Championship cycles) opened May 16 at the China Textile City Sports Centre in Shaoxing/Keqiao, and Team USA athletes placed in 10 of the 16 Diamond disciplines.
The standout performance belonged to Masai Russell (USA), who won the women's 100m hurdles in 12.25 seconds — a 2026 world-leading time and a meeting record. 1 She said afterward that she "shut out the noise and focused on what I could control" — and the 12.25 reflected exactly that. 1
The men's 110m hurdles delivered an American 1-2: Jamal Britt won in 13.07 seconds (equal personal best) and Cordell Tinch was second in 13.10. 2 In the sprints, Kenny Bednarek ran a season-best 9.98 for third in the 100m, while Sha'Carri Richardson ran 22.42 in the women's 200m for fourth place in her seasonal debut. 2 Monae' Nichols won the long jump at 6.89m and Chase Jackson finished second in the shot put at 20.46m. 2 Sam Kendricks tied for third in the pole vault at 5.70m on a day Mondo Duplantis (SWE) cleared 6.12m for the meeting record. 2 Total: 3 Diamond event wins, 4 silvers, 3 bronzes for the US across the day.
Golden Grand Prix Tokyo (May 17) — Lyles runs 9.95
One day later, Noah Lyles (USA) opened his 2026 season at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo's Continental Tour Gold meet (the second tier below Diamond League, carrying World Athletics ranking points). He won the men's 100m in 9.95 seconds — slow start reaction of 0.177, but he hit top speed at the halfway mark and pulled away. 3
"I'd say it's a really good season opener," Lyles said. 3 He was characteristically blunt about the Shanghai field: "I hope they go back to practise because Shanghai wasn't impressive." 3 That is motivating language from a man who has confirmed starts at Rome (June 4) and Paris (June 28) Diamond League meets.
Rai Benjamin (USA) won the men's 400m in 44.69 — his first flat 400m race in over two years, a deliberate rust-buster ahead of the Diamond League stretch. "It was pretty good, a weird one, just trying to feel that 400m rhythm again," he said. 3 Jordan Anthony added a 200m win in 20.05 into a headwind. 3
Coming up Saturday: Xiamen Diamond League
The second Diamond League stop of 2026 runs at Egret Stadium in Xiamen, China on Saturday, May 23 at 6:10 AM ET / 3:10 AM PT (10:10 AM UTC). 4 Given the early-morning US timing, streaming replay is the practical option for most fans.
How to watch: FloTrack holds exclusive US streaming rights for all 14 regular-season Diamond League meets in 2026, with the sole exception being the Prefontaine Classic on July 4 in Eugene, which airs on NBC. 4 Peacock, which carried the series previously, no longer holds these rights. 4 World Athletics' own Watch Athletics+ platform (worldathletics.org/videos) is also available globally.
Entry lists for Xiamen were published by FloTrack but could not be independently confirmed before publication — check FloTrack's event page for the latest start lists closer to race day.
Diamond League and LA 2028: DL meet performances feed World Athletics world rankings, which form part of the Olympic qualification system for LA 2028. The 2026 season is the first full season in the new Olympic cycle after Paris 2024. The top 6 field event athletes and top 8 track athletes (100m–800m) from each discipline across the 14 meetings earn spots in the Diamond League Final in Brussels (September 4-5). 5
Gymnastics: Pan Am teams named, qualifier underway this week
USA Gymnastics has had a busy ten days. The Women's National Team camp wrapped May 18 at Flip Fest in Crossville, Tennessee — nearly 30 junior and senior athletes training, with a Pan American Championships selection competition held May 16 (streamed live on FlipNow.tv). 6
From that competition, full senior and junior women's rosters were confirmed. 7
Women's Pan Am teams (June 17–21, Parque Olímpico – Arena Carioca 01, Rio de Janeiro):
| Team | Athletes | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Senior (5 + 1 traveling alt.) | Charleigh Bullock, Claire Pease, Lila Richardson, Hezly Rivera, Simone Rose; Alessia Rosa (alt.) | Bullock, Rivera, Pease: 2026 American Cup silver medalists. Richardson: senior international debut. |
| Junior (4 + 1 traveling alt.) | Amia Pugh-Banks, Addalye VanGrinsven, Sydney Williams, Vivi Crain; Paisley Ritger (alt.) | Pugh-Banks, VanGrinsven, Williams: 2026 City of Jesolo Trophy team champions. |
Claire Pease scored 14.400 on Cheng vault and Charleigh Bullock scored 14.300 on uneven bars at the selection competition. 8 Three athletes — Alessia Rosa, Vivi Crain, and Paisley Ritger — were also added to the Women's National Team itself based on camp performance. 9
The men's senior team — selected earlier following a Colorado Springs camp — is Taylor Burkhart (Stanford), Patrick Hoopes (Air Force Academy), Riley Loos (Stanford), Yul Moldauer (5280 Gymnastics, Olympian), and Kameron Nelson (EVO Gymnastics), with Donnell Whittenburg as traveling replacement. 10 Patrick Hoopes is the 2025 World pommel horse bronze medalist; the team is defending the 2025 Pan Am team title. 10
For the men's development level, the Junior Pan Am team (Maksim Kan, Ori Reilly, Anthony Ruscheinsky, Hunter Simpson) and Berlin Junior Team Cup squad (Julian Cabrera, Lincoln Dubin, Cal Sanchez, Azai Tamzil) were named following the Development Program National Championships in Oklahoma City. 11
This week: An Elite Developmental Camp/Qualifier runs May 19–22 in Crossville, TN — at the same Flip Fest venue, immediately following the National Team camp. 12 Elite National Qualifiers are the gateway to earn the qualifying score needed to compete at the elite level — making athletes eligible for the American Classic (June 25-28, Minneapolis), U.S. Classic (July 16-20, Hartford), and ultimately the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships (August 4-10, Phoenix). No public roster was available before publication.
The stakes at Pan Ams: The 2026 Senior Pan American Championships serve as a qualifying event for the 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam and the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima. 10 Those Worlds, in turn, are the pathway to LA 2028 — the FIG's (Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique) Olympic qualification system awards LA28 team spots to the top 3 NOCs at the 2026 Worlds and the next 9 at the 2027 Worlds. Both the US women (Paris 2024 gold, 2025 Worlds gold) and men (Paris 2024 bronze) are expected to qualify full five-athlete teams through the 2026 or 2027 Worlds. 13
Aquatics: Arnett's bronze, a historic re-dive, and the only US World Aquatics events of 2026
The World Aquatics High Diving World Cup — Stop 1 of the 2026 series — ran May 15-16 at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center in Florida, one of only two permanent high diving facilities in the world and the only freestanding high diving structure in the Western Hemisphere. 14
Kaylea Arnett (USA, 33) made the podium in the women's 20m, finishing bronze with 310.30 points after vaulting from ninth place to third on her final dive — a reverse triple pike she had not practiced since September 2025. 15 "I was treating this competition more like a practice," she said — a deliberate strategy to preserve her body for the full season ahead. 15 Gold went to Germany's Iris Schmidbauer (329.45), who dove competitively for the first time since pregnancy, bringing her 20-month-old daughter Leilani to the venue. Silver went to Canada's Molly Carlson (320.50). 16 Also for the US: Lisa Faulkner placed 9th (289.95) and Izzi Mroz placed 11th (260.05). 15
The men's 27m event produced a remarkable competitive moment: Romania's Catalin-Petru Preda (34) received what he called the first re-dive granted in high diving in at least eight years — after a boat horn disrupted his armstand dive, officials allowed him to repeat it, and his score improved from 73.95 to 117.30. 17 He went on to win gold with 435.60 points, sealing it with an armstand back 4½ (difficulty rating 6.1) scoring 152.50 — the hardest dive of the competition. 16
At the concurrent Junior High Diving Championships, American Grace Yeomans won gold in the women's 12m (15-16 age group) with 151.35 points. 18
One context note worth keeping in mind: high diving (27m/20m) is not an Olympic sport. These events are contested at World Aquatics Championships and the High Diving World Cup only, with no LA 2028 pathway. The Olympic diving disciplines — 3m springboard, 10m platform, and synchronized variants — take their LA28 qualification route through the 2027 World Championships in Budapest, followed by continental events and 2028 World Cup stops. 19
Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center Manager Laura Voet noted that these were "the only events on the World Aquatics schedule in the United States across all of the aquatic sports" for 2026 — the venue will host the High Diving World Cup again through 2028. 14 No World Aquatics competitions — in any aquatic discipline — are on the calendar during the May 17–23 window itself. 20
On the horizon: shooting, skiing, and Roland Garros qualifying
ISSF World Cup Munich (May 24–31): Team USA Shooting has named a 31-athlete roster for the first major international shooting competition of 2026, covering men's and women's air pistol, rapid fire pistol, sport pistol, air rifle, and 50m rifle 3 positions. 21 ISSF World Cups are quota-earning events for LA 2028. Rifle National Team Coach Pete Durban called Munich the "first selection competition to use the new ISSF rules" and said the process was explicitly designed to test the procedure planned for the next Olympic Team selection. 21 Live coverage is expected on the ISSF website and YouTube channel; USA Shooting (@usashooting) posts results on Instagram.
Skiing and skating off-season: U.S. Ski & Snowboard has nominated 48 athletes to the 2026-27 Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team, headlined by Mikaela Shiffrin (110 World Cup wins, three-time Olympic champion) and including seven first-time nominees. 22 Lindsey Vonn, recovering from eight surgeries after a left tibia fracture at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, said in an April 30 interview with the Associated Press that she is "not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point" regarding whether to race again — the earliest realistic return would be the 2027-28 season. 23 The 2026-27 FIS Alpine World Cup calendar includes US-hosted stops at Copper Mountain, Killington (returning after a one-year infrastructure upgrade), Beaver Creek, and Sun Valley (World Cup Finals). 24
On the ice side, the ISU (International Skating Union) has published its 2026-27 season calendar: the Figure Skating Grand Prix opens October 23 in Angers, France, with a US stop in Everett, Washington; the Speed Skating World Cup includes a Salt Lake City leg; and the Short Track World Tour opens October 23-25 in Vancouver. 25 US skaters Nathan Chen, Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, and Isabeau Levito are currently on the Stars on Ice post-Olympic tour through May 2026. No competitive skating events are active until the fall.
Roland Garros: French Open (Grand Slam) qualifying rounds begin May 18 at Porte d'Auteuil, Paris, with the main draw opening May 24. 26 The ITF World Tennis Tour — the professional development circuit below ATP/WTA Challenger level that contributes ranking points foundational to Olympic qualification — has three events active this week: W75 Kosice ($60K, clay), M15 Klagenfurt ($15K, clay), and W15 Kayseri ($15K, hard courts), all running May 18–24. 2728 American player participation in those draws could not be confirmed before publication — entry lists are restricted to registered players.
Cover image: Noah Lyles (USA) racing at the 2026 Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo. Photo from Olympics.com.
References
- 1
- 2World Athletics: Diamond League Shanghai official results
worldathletics.org
- 3
- 4Sporting News: Diamond League schedule 2026 broadcast guide
sportingnews.com
- 5
- 6USA Gymnastics weekly preview May 13
usagym.org
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12USA Gymnastics: 2026 Team USA Elite Calendar of Events (Women's)
static.usagym.org
- 13FIG: Artistic Gymnastics Olympic Qualification System – LA28
gymnastics.sport
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18World Aquatics: Junior High Diving Championships 2026 overview
worldaquatics.com
- 19
- 20World Aquatics: Competitions Calendar May 17-24 2026
worldaquatics.com
- 21USA Shooting: Pistol and Rifle National Team Selections
usashooting.org
- 22U.S. Ski & Snowboard: 2026-27 Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team Nominations
usskiandsnowboard.org
- 23
- 24FIS: 2026/27 Alpine World Cup calendar
fis-ski.com
- 25
- 26Roland Garros: 2026 full tournament schedule
rolandgarros.com
- 27ITF: W75 Kosice tournament page
itftennis.com
- 28ITF: M15 Klagenfurt tournament page
itftennis.com
This story was produced automatically by a channel. One sentence is all it takes for Neodrop to keep producing for you.