Ten things to know from last week. February 22-28: Russia suspended while Medvedev takes #1, Josh Taylor's controversial win, Ukraine's winning gymnasts...
  1. A new number one. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) ended -for now. the #1 reign of Novak Djokovic (SRB) as the world’s #1 male tennis player, surpassing him in the ATP World Ranking. It was enough with this Semi-Final loss to Rafael Nadal (ESP) at the ATP 500 Abierto Mexicano de Tenis, which Nadal won for the record fourth time, against Cameron Norrie (SCO). Feliciano López (ESP) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRC) won the Doubles event.
  2. Triple Crown of Bowling. Dom Barrett (ENG) became the eighth player in Professional Bowlers Association history to win bowling’s Triple Crown, after winning the PBA Tournament of Champions against Kristopher Prather (USA).
  3. Winners in spite of the invasion. The prestigious Cottbus Apparatus World Cup (Artistic Gymnastics) saw two Ukrainian gymnasts take the gold medal. Illia Kovtun won the men’s parallel bars, and Daniela Batrona won the women’s balance beam competitions. Other notable wins include Artur Davtyan (ARM) in Men’s Vault, and Brody Malone (USA) in Horizontal Bar.
  4. Unified robbery? Taylor is the 5th boxer to ever unify a World Title in all four of the most prestigious sanctioning bodies (WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF), and the first to do so in the Super Lightweight Division. He successfully defended his unified, undisputed, The Ring tiles against Jack Catterall (ENG) via Split Decision. However, experts claimed this was a robbery, as Catterall landed more punches and power punches and seemingly outboxed the Champion.
  5. Split uncertainty. Unlike in Boxing, in Mixed Martial Arts you do not see unification fights between sanctioning bodies such as UFC and Bellator. This would probably be the best time to have a unification fight, as Israel Adesanya (NGR/NZL) successfully defended the UFC Championship back in February 12 against Robert Whittaker (AUS/NZL) via Decision, and now Gegard Mousasi (NED) defeated Austin Vanderford (USA) in a quick, first-round TKO. It is unclear who would win a unification fight.
  6. Post-Olympic momentum. After a very successful participation at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games -where he won two golds, a silver, and a bronze- Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR) resumed World Cup competition by taking the 1.6 km Sprint Freestyle race at the Lahti SkiGames, and placed 2nd in the 15 km Individual Classic, won by Olympic Champion, local, Iivo Niskanen (FIN). He extended his record as the winningest Men’s Cross-country skier in World Cup competition. Also coming off a very good Olympic participation -with three gold medals-, Therese Johaug (NOR) won the 10 Kilometer Classic race.
  7. 10K World Record. 22-year-old Yalemzerf Yehualaw (ETH) broke the Women’s 10K World Record in Athletics, winning the Castellón 10K (ESP) with a time of 29:14 minutes, which is 22 seconds faster than the time set by Kalkidan Gezahegne (BHR) at The Giants Geneva (CHE) last October.
  8. Russian suspensions. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine -breaking the Olympic Truce-, several dozens of sporting organizations have suspended sportspeople and functionaries of the Russian Federation and Belarus, including expelling Russia from the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, and cancelling most sporting events in Russia, such as the Russian Grand Prix. Am FIS Ski Cross World Cup race took place in Russia inly featuring Russians, but the rest of FIS events in the country have been cancelled for the remainder of the season. The International Olympic Committee recommended suspending participation of sportspeople from these two countries.
  9. Saudi upset. Saudi-trained Emblem Road (USA) won the world’s richest horse race, the Saudi Cup, in an upset. The horse ridden by Wigberto Ramos (PAN) charged from the outside to beat Country Grammar (USA) and Midnight Bourbon (USA).
  10. Beach runners. Milko Potisek (FRA) won the Enduropale du Toquet -the world’s most important beach motorcycle race-, for a third time. Further motorsport activity include Scott McLaughlin’s (NZL, Penske) first IndyCar win, at the Season in St. Petersburg (USA), the win by Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen (FIN, Toyota) in the World Rally Championship’s Rally Sweden, Robert Hight’s (USA) second Funny Car win in two NHRA events, and Champion Kyle Larson’s (USA) NASCAR Cup home win in California.