71
Kevin Sanjaya
SukamuljoBADMINTON, INDONESIA
Badminton is the only sport in which
Indonesia has won an Olympic gold,
and the game is as popular there as
soccer or basketball is in other parts
of the world. Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo,
the world’s top-ranked doubles player
with his partner, Marcus Fernaldi
Gideon, is the latest star to carry the
hopes of his badminton-mad nation.
The pair, affectionately known as “the
minions” because of their shorter
statures and hyperactive playing style,
have maintained their top ranking
despite setbacks this year. In January,
they were forced to withdraw from three
international tournaments after Suka-
muljo contracted COVID-19. In March,
the team had to pull out of the All Eng-
land Open after a passenger on their
fl ight tested positive for the virus. That
should be a distant memory in Tokyo,
where the minions are poised to add to
Indonesia’s badminton glory. — M.R.Sydney McLaughlin
TRACK AND FIELD, U.S.
The future of U.S. track and fi eld should arrive
in Tokyo. In Rio, Sydney McLaughlin, then 16,
became the youngest U.S. track-and-fi eld ath-
lete to qualify for the Olympics since 1980.
Though she didn’t make the fi nals in her
fi rst Olympics, she’s been catching up to
the 2016 400-m hurdles gold medal-
ist, Dalilah Muhammad, ever since.
At the 2019 world championships
in Doha, Qatar, McLaughlin fi nished
a close second to fellow American
Muhammad, who set a world-
record time, 52.16 sec., to win.
At the U.S. track-and-fi eld trials
this June, McLaughlin shattered
that record, running a scorching
51.9 sec. Expect more records
to fall when McLaughlin and
Muhammad meet in Tokyo.
The showdown should be
appointment viewing:
the fi nal is on
Aug. 4. ÑS.G.
Alex Morgan
SOCCER, U.S.
If the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has one
last goal to accomplish, it’s this: becoming the fi rst
women’s team to ever win a World Cup and an Olympics,
back to back. Alex Morgan, the fi fth leading goal scorer
in the team’s history, will be key to preventing another
letdown: past U.S. World Cup victories, in 1999 and
2015, were followed by Olympic disappointment.
Morgan’s original plan for Tokyo was to play just months
after giving birth to her fi rst child, daughter Charlie,
in May 2020. With the postponement of the Games,
Morgan was able to gradually round into top form for her
third Olympics; she scored a goal in a tune-up against
France, and was named National Women’s Soccer
League player of the month in May, after scoring a goal
in each of the fi rst four games with the Orlando Pride
this season. —Sean Gregory
SURFING
With the inaugural
class of Olympic surf-
ers set to catch swells
at Tsurigasaki Beach
on Japan’s Pacifi c
coast, competitors
will be at the mercy
of the elements. In
an effort to maximize
wave quality, four days
of competition will
be held over a 16-day
window. A total of 20
male and 20 female
shortboarders will
attempt daring fl ips
and spins over multiple
rounds of heats; they’ll
be individually judged
on their top two waves.SPORT CLIMBING
The fi rst climbing gold
will go to the male and
female climber with the
lowest combined score
in three different disci-
plines. The decision to
combine speed climb-
ing, bouldering and
lead climbing—which
require distinct skills
and are often competed
separately—has been
a source of controversy
in the sport. Five-time
Czech world champion
Adam Ondra said “any-
thing would be better”
than this format.
—Megan McCluskeyNEW SPORTS
Sunisa
LeeGYMNASTICS, U.S.
No female gymnast has a more diffi cult
uneven-bars routine, but you wouldn’t
know it from the way Sunisa Lee swings
through it. The calm, elegant fl ow of the
18-year-old from St. Paul, Minn., comes
from an inner strength that makes the
most dangerous skills look easy. Lee’s
fortitude was tested in a different way
in 2019, when days before she left for
the U.S. national championships, her
father fell while helping a friend trim
a tree; he remains partially paralyzed.
He underwent surgery while Lee
competed, but she still managed to
earn silver behind Simone Biles. That
strength will be tested again as she
competes in her fi rst Olympic Games—
as the fi rst Hmong American to make
the U.S. team— separated again from
her close-knit family, this time by the
pandemic. —Alice Park