Little more than three years before the Rio 2016™ Games Opening Ceremony, a date that will be celebrated on 5 August, some of the main competitions in the world for various Olympic and Paralympic sports rocked the month of July. Full of international sporting events, the month was marked by the celebration of the IPC Athletics World Championships that ended last weekend in Lyon, France, and the FINA World Aquatics Championships that will end on 4 August in Barcelona, Spain.

The main 2013 Cycling, Golf, Taekwondo and Volleyball competitions were also held in July. Judo had its third Grand Slam event of the year, the last test before the World Judo Championships that will start on 26 August at the Maracanãzinho Arena in Rio de Janeiro. You may find a small summary of the main sports competitions that took place in July:

Aquatics – The Barcelona 2013 FINA World Championships started on 19 July and will end only on 4 August. However, the Synchronized Swimming and Diving competitions are already over. In Synchronized Swimming, the greatest highlight was Svetlana Romashina’s performance. Gold medallist in the solo event, the three-time Olympic champion from Russia started pairing with a new partner in the World Championships and, along her namesake Svetlana Kolesnichenko, won the duet final. In London 2012, Romashina was the champion of the duet event along Natalia Ishchenko as well as the team event.

In Diving, China once again dominated the medal table. While in the last two editions of the Olympic Games the Chinese won 11 medals (seven golds in Beijing and six in London, in eight events), in Barcelona 2013 Chinese athletes took another 13 medals, including nine golds – it is worth mentioning the discipline has ten events in World Championships and not eight as in the Olympic Games. Qiu Bo and Si Yajie, in the 10m platform event, as well as He Chong and He Zi, in the 3m springboard event, became world champions and had great performances in the individual events.

Swimming competitions started with open water events. Tunisian Oussama Mellouli, first and only athlete in the world to win an Olympic gold medal in both pool (1500m in Beijing 2008) and open water (10km aquatic marathon in London 2012) events, won the 5km aquatic marathon, a non-Olympic event and the competition’s first final. In the women’s competition, US citizen Haley Anderson won the title. Two Brazilians completed the podium: Poliana Okimoto, from the state of São Paulo, and Ana Marcela Cunha, from the state of Bahia. In the 10km marathon, an Olympic event, Poliana and Ana Marcela once again reached the podium, this time in first and second place.

Last Sunday marked the start of the events taking place in the 50m pool that was built in the Palau Sant Jordi. Chinese Sun Yang won the competition’s first title in the 400m freestyle. France won the men’s title in the 4x100m relay and USA won the women’s title. Multi-medallist Natalie Coughlin, holder of 12 Olympic medals, including three golds and Missy Franklin, who won 5 medals in London 2012 – four golds – at the age of 17 were part of the US team. Three other London 2012 young stars continue to impress the world of sports.

US citizen Katie Ledecky, Olympic champion in the 800m at the age of 15, won the 400 and 1500m in Barcelona – she also broke a world record during the latter. Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, who was born only two days after Ledecky, also took gold in London and once again reached the top of the podium in the Barcelona World Championships. Chinese Shiwen Ye, who won Olympic gold medals in the 200 and 400m medley events in London at the age of 16, is another young star that is expected to shine in the Rio 2016™ Games. Swimming competitions continue until Sunday the 4th. Water Polo finals will take place on 2 and 3 August (women’s and men’s events respectively).

Athletics – The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships was held on 19-28 July in Lyon, France. Russia finished first in the medal table, with 26 golds, 16 silvers and 11 bronzes. USA (17 golds, 18 silvers and 17 bronzes) and Brazil (16 golds, 10 silvers and 14 bronzes) finished second and third respectively. China’s performance was a bad surprise. Chinese athletes reached the podium 86 times in the London 2012 Paralympic Games in Athletics events but had to settle for sixth place in the general medal table this time. A good surprise was the appearance of African countries (Algeria and Tunisia) in the top ten.

One of the competition’s highlights was Tatyana McFadden’s performance. Winner of ten medals in three editions of the Paralympic Games – including the two medals she won in Athens 2004 when she was only 15 years old –, the US citizen won six events (100, 200, 400, 800, 1500 and 5000m in the T54 class). She was responsible, along her compatriot Raymond Martin, who won five events, for 11 out of the 17 gold medals won by US athletes.

Swiss Marcel Hug, also known as “Silver Bullet”, a reference to the silver helmet he always wears, won six medals, including five golds. British Hannah Cockroft, who won two gold medals in London 2012 at the age of 19, also reached once again the top of the podium. French Mandy François-Elie won the host country’s first medal.

Among Brazilian athletes, one must highlight the performance of Paralympic champion Alan Fonteles Oliveira, who won three gold medals and one bronze and broke the world record for 200m in T42 class, with incredible 20.66. Terezinha Guilhermina, the world’s fastest blind woman runner, also reached the top of the podium three times, as did Odair dos Santos, who won the 800, 1500 and 5000m T11 events, a class he shares with Guilhermina.

The Brazilian delegation also included two 17-year-old athletes who won a gold medal each: Lorena Spoladore, winner of the long jump T11 (for the blind), and Verônica Hipólito, who won the 200m T38 event three months after overcoming a brain tumour and a stroke.

Cycling – The traditional Tour de France, the world’s greatest Road Cycling competition had its 100th edition in 2013. And just like the year before, a British cyclist took the title. London 2012 Games bronze medallist in the time trial event, Christopher Froome wore the race leader’s yellow jersey. Slovak Peter Sagan won the points classification and Colombian Nairo Quintana won the mountains classification.

Maris Strombergs flies to win the second Olympic title of his career. In Barcelona 2013 he has not had the same luck (Foto: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Last Sunday, the 28th, the UCI BMX World Championships ended in Auckland, New Zealand. Twice Olympic champion Maris Strombergs, from Latvia, and London 2012 Olympic champion Mariana Pajón, from Colombia, did not make it the podium. Australian Caroline Buchanan and British Liam Philips had better luck and became world champions in 2013.

Golf – The 2013 Open Championship, its 142nd edition, which took place in Muirfield, Scotland, finished with US citizen Phil Mickelson winning his fifth Major championship (the four greatest in the world). Swedish Henrik Stenson finished runner-up. Two British nationals (Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, who was the 54-hole leader) and an Australian (Adam Scott) tied for third place. The sport makes it comeback to the Olympic programme in Rio 2016™ after 112 years of absence.

Judo – After Paris, France, and Baku, Azerbaijan, the third 2013 Grand Slam championship was held in Moscow, Russia. The Brazilian delegation had a great performance and was ten times present on the podium, winning three gold medals (Sarah Menezes, Charles Chibana and Maria Suelen Altheman), four silvers and three bronzes. Germany finished second with three golds, one silver and four bronzes. Miryam Roper’s performance was one of the highlights of the event when she beat Ketleyn Quadros, the first Brazilian woman to reach the podium in the Olympic Games in an individual sport event, in Beijing 2008 for the 57kg weight class final.

Taekwondo – South Korea largely dominated the 2013 World Taekwondo Championships held in Puebla, Mexico. South Korean athletes won ten medals in the competition, six golds, three silvers and one bronze. Among the highlights was Dae Hoon Lee, London 2012 Olympic runner-up that defeated Mexican Abel Mendoza 16-4 in the under 63kg class final. Cuba, Mexico, Russia and Iran completed the list of first five countries in the medal table. Another highlight was the performance of Japanese Mayu Hamada, who took bronze in the under 57kg class, Japan’s first medal in an edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, an event that takes place since 1973.

Volleyball – The FIVB Volleyball World League men’s finals were held in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The Championships are the sport’s main tournament in 2013. Coincidence or not, the four top position were the same as in the London 2012 Olympic Games. In the re-edition of the great Olympic decision, 2.18m tall giant Dmitriy Muserskiy and the rest of the Russian team beat Brazil 3-0 and were back at the top of the podium. In the dispute for third place, Italy defeated Bulgaria 3-2 and took the bronze medal. The year’s main Volleyball women’s competition, the Grand Prix, starts on 2 August with 20 national teams. The current twice Olympic champion, Brazil, is the favourite to win.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships were held at the beginning of the month in Stare Jablonski, Poland. In the women’s competition, Chinese pair Xue Chen and Zhang Xi defeated Germans Karla Borger and Britta Büthe 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 21-19) in an exciting match and won the title of the competition. Bronze medallists in Beijing 2008 the Chinese finished fourth in the London 2012 Games.

In the men’s competition Dutch Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen defeated Brazilian pair Ricardo Santos and Álvaro Morais Filho 2-0 (21-18, 21-16). In the dispute for the bronze medal, Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego were defeated by Germans Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik. The German pair had been defeated by the same opponents in the London Olympic Games eighth-finals. The Brazilian pair took silver in that competition but the Germans had their revenge and secured the last place on the podium in the 2013 World Championships.