Two team sports using elements of cheer (tumbling, pyramids, etc.) but not the crowd-leading aspect, are poised to get the spotlight. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics voted to recommend all divisions sponsor legislation to add National Collegiate Championships in Acrobatics and Tumbling, as well as STUNT, with events as soon as spring of 2027.

Baseball is, in fact, the Great American Pastime, even judging by statistics. The most recent research from the Physical Activity Council puts U.S. participation for baseball in 2024 at 17.3 million players ages 6 and up, an increase over previous years. Accordingly, many locations nationwide are expanding to accommodate increased baseball play.

Earlier this year, Nancy Hobbs, the founder and executive director of the American Trail Running Association, stated that trail running was on an upward trajectory. That included numbers of races offered, participation in those races and even diversity among athletes. Additionally, more trails than ever are being built. Here’s a look around the nation.

Don’t look for it in the Olympics any time soon but the International Boxing Association has adopted a new discipline and is encouraging its member federations to incorporate it into their events. Bare-knuckle boxing has very ancient roots, although its popularity has grown in recent years due to its raw nature and appeal to mixed martial arts fans.

Off the charts. That’s one way to describe the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s report on pickleball. The sport has continued its meteoric rise, with a growth rate of more than 311 percent between 2021 and 2024. Another cool insight? Pickleball participants are most likely to cross-train with sports like weight training, hiking and yoga.

The inaugural Enhanced Games, an Olympics-style competition promoting the use of performance-enhancing drugs, will take place over Memorial Day Weekend 2026 at Resorts World in Las Vegas. The announcement was made with so much fanfare that ESPN.com described the spectacle as geared “more toward a tech start-up product launch than a sports event.”