What to watch in Olympic sports this long weekend

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First off, a quick heads-up: there will be no Buzzer tomorrow or next week. The reason for the hiatus is I'll be running the Chicago Marathon this weekend, then taking a few days off (while no doubt dealing with assorted aches and pains). The newsletter will be back in your inbox on Monday, Oct. 16.

If you're not familiar, Chicago is one of the six World Marathon Majors, along with Boston, New York City, London, Berlin and Tokyo. Chicago organizers say there will be more than 47,000 runners and well over a million spectators at the 45th edition of the race, which will celebrate its millionth finisher at some point on Sunday.

The elite athletes set to take on the downtown course include Kenya's Kelvin Kiptum, who ran the second-fastest marathon of all time this past April in London. Kiptum missed Eliud Kipchoge's world record of 2:01:09 by just 16 seconds, and there's a feeling that it'll soon belong to him. Kiptum is only 23 (very young for a marathoner) and he made his marathon debut just 10 months ago.

The top women competing Sunday include Sifan Hassan, the incredibly versatile Ethiopian-born Dutchwoman who in 2021 won Olympic track gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m while adding a bronze in the 1,500m. Hassan tried the marathon for the first time this year in London — and promptly won the major, despite stopping several times to stretch a sore hip. Her competition will include Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich, who's gunning for her third consecutive Chicago title after running a 2:14:18 last year — the third-fastest women's marathon of all time.

I expect to cross the finish line about an hour later than that. Last year, I qualified for Chicago with a 3:18:37 in my second marathon, getting under the 3:20:00 cutoff time for my age group (men 40-44). If I can lower that personal record while feeling good enough to take in all the sights and sounds of my first big-city race, I'll consider the day a complete success. Either way, it should be an unforgettable experience.

Alright, enough about some middle-aged recreational runner! Here are some other things to watch in the Olympic sports world through the Thanksgiving long weekend:

Gymnastics world championships

Yesterday in Belgium, Simone Biles led the United States to its record-breaking seventh consecutive world title in the women's team event. In the process, Biles earned her record-extending 20th world-championships gold and became, at 26, the oldest American woman ever to reach the podium at the gymnastics worlds.

It would appear Biles is fully back from her frightening bout of what's known as "the twisties" (a dangerous mental block where gymnasts become disoriented while performing moves up in the air), which ruined her Olympics in 2021 and caused her to take a break from the sport. And she's not done at the world championships: Biles had the best score in qualifying for the women's all-around final, which goes Friday. She also placed first in qualifying for the vault, balance beam and floor and fifth in the uneven bars. Those events will be decided this weekend.

Canada's Ellie Black, a silver medallist in the balance beam last year, made it to the women's all-around final with a fifth-place showing in qualifying and will also compete in the uneven bars final.

Today's men's all-around final, which was in progress at our publish time, included Canadian Rene Cournoyer. Canada's Felix Dolci qualified for the eight-man floor and high bar finals this weekend.

Olympic men's volleyball qualifier

The top two finishers at an eight-team global qualifying tournament in China get a spot in next summer's Paris Games. Canada (3-1) is in second place in the round-robin competition with three matches left. Those are against Bulgaria (2-2) tonight at 10 p.m. ET, Belgium (2-2) on Friday at 10 p.m. ET and Mexico (0-4) on Sunday at 4 a.m. ET.