Ten things to know from last week: June 21-27, 2022 included: Stanley Cup, Ledecky's five-peat, golf comebacks.
  1. Stopped the lightning. The Tampa Bay Lightning were looking to win three NHL Stanley Cup Finals in a row but the Colorado Avalanche prevented them from doing it, as they beat them four games to two. This is the third title for Colorado and the first since 2001.
  2. Golf comebacks. In Gee Chun (KOR) won her first LPGA tournament in four years and it was a Major, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. At some point she led by seven strokes but lost her lead mid-way through the last round to Lexi Thompson (USA), who missed key putts in the closing part, allowing Chun to take the win. In Europe, Haotong Li (CHN) also took an emotional comeback win, by taking the BP World Tour’s BMW International Open, after two tough years. Zander Schauffele (USA) won the PGA’s Travelers Championship.
  3. Still undisputed. Mexican-AmericanJessica McCaskill (USA) retained her fully unified, undisputed women’s welterweight titles in boxing, after making Alma Ibarra (MEX) quit on her stool after three rounds. 22-year-old, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (USA) knocked out Wisaksil Wangek (THA) -who beat Román González (NIC) twice- in eight rounds and gets in the mix among the very best in the weight, whose king is Juan Francisco Estrada (MEX). Murodjon Akhmadaliev (UZB) beat Ronny Ríos (USA/MEX) via TKO to successfully defend his WBA Super and IBF Super Bantamweight titles.
  4. TT Assen. Franceso Bagnaia (ITA) won the Dutch Moto GP in Assen, as Champion Fabio Quartararo (FRA) fell twice. First, he fell and pushed Aleix Espargaró (ESP) off-track -an incident for which Quartararo has been penalized for Silverstone-, and eventually, he crashed out in a scary shunt. Espargaró came back to finish 4th. In MotoE, the first race was a thriller won by Dominique Aegerter (CHE), who passed Mattia Casadei (ITA) in the last lap. Eric Granado (BRA) then passed Casadei in the final chicane for a finish with the three side-by-side. The second race had the same podium members but with the 1st and 2nd inverted. In Speedway GP, Anders Thomsen (DNK) beat Martin Vaculik (SVK) and local hero Bartosz Zmarzlik (POL) to take his maiden GP win.
  5. Champion defeated. The IJF Judo Grand Slam at Ulaanbaatar (MGL) saw Madina Taimazova (GEO) beat Olympic World Champion and best ever in the women’s 70 kg class, Yoko Ono (JPN), in the Georgian’s first tournament since Tokyo 2020. Russian judokas, competing under the IJF denomination, won five golds, Japan four, and Mongolia two.
  6. Faster, electric. Max Chilton (ENG) broke the record with an electric vehicle, the McMurtry Spéirling -a concept car-, timing 39.08 seconds en route to winning the Shootout. From 1999 to 2019, Goodwood Hillclimb’s record stood at 41.60 seconds, with Nick Heidfeld’s (DEU) Formula 1 McLaren MP4/13. In 2019, the record was broken by Romain Dumas (FRA) in a Volkswagen I.D. R (39.9 seconds), another electric car.
  7. Five in a row. Katie Ledecky (USA) now has 19 gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships, which places her as the second-winningest swimmer ever at the event, and first among women. She just trails Michael Phelps (USA). This week, she won two more gold medals, as she became the third swimmer to win the same event for five consecutive World Championships -the women’s 800 meters- and she also won the Women’s 4×200 Freestyle Relay. She now has 29 of the fastest 30 women’s 800 meters ever run.
  8. More Aquatics. Local hero Kristof Milak (HUN) winning the men’s 100m butterfly and the 200m butterfly -the 200 with a World Record- at the World Aquatics Championships, while Summer McIntosh (CAN) won the women’s version, at just 15 years of age. She also won the women’s 400 m medley. The Men’s 50m Backstroke Final was also dramatic, as Justin Ress (USA) won the final, only to be disqualified and then reinstated with the gold again. In Open Water, Florian Wellbrock (DEU) added to his two pool medals with golds in the Team Relay and the Men’s 5k. In Diving, China won gold, as expected, in the men’s 3m synchronized and the women’s 10m platform.
  9. Orienteering. Sweden won its fourth consecutive Sprint Relay gold medal at the World Orienteering Championships. With this win, Tove Alexandersson now has 16 gold medals in the Championships, which places her second of all time in the history of the Championships. 
  10. Down Syndrome’s Champion. João Soldado (POR), who had been a Men’s Singles World Champion at the first World Championships in 2015, achieved a full sweep at the Down Syndrome Table Tennis World Championship, taking all four available golds: Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, and Mixed Team.