While the track world’s eyes turn to New York for next week’s USATF Outdoor Championships, another slice of Team USA is packing for Lima, Peru, and it’s a squad with something to prove. Four athletes, four conference pedigrees, zero Power Four logos.
The 2026 FISU America Games run July 20 through August 1, a continental championship drawing university athletes from 18 countries across North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. That’s the biggest field in the event’s history, and it includes a first ever U.S. Virgin Islands delegation.
Ayden Bath (Kent State): Decathlon
Bath isn’t arriving in Lima off a hot streak. He’s arriving off a redshirt.
The two-time MAC decathlon champion sat out the entire 2026 outdoor season, meaning Lima will host his first decathlon in over a year. That’s a bold way to knock the rust off: ten events, two days, international competition, no tune-up meet.
But his résumé says he belongs. Bath’s personal best of 7,466 points ranks third in Kent State history, and he called the selection an honor and <q>a huge milestone I have worked so hard to achieve</q>, crediting his coaches, family, and friends. A redshirt year in the multis is often about building: strength, technique, a reset for a bigger score. If that’s what the year away was for, Lima is the first look at the payoff, and a strong showing puts the whole NCAA multis scene on notice for 2027.
Christian Cupp (Duquesne): Decathlon
Bath will have American company in the two-day grind. Cupp, a rising senior who rewrote the Dukes’ record books, arrives as the reigning Atlantic 10 outdoor decathlon champion, and unlike Bath, he’s coming off a full season of competition.
Two U.S. decathletes with conference titles and opposite paths to Lima should make for a compelling one-two punch. Ten events of friendly intra-squad rivalry has a way of dragging both scores up.
Celia Kulis (Holy Cross): Heptathlon
Kulis carries the U.S. flag in the women’s heptathlon, and Lima is a fitting capstone. The 2026 graduate made history this spring as Holy Cross‘s first ever Patriot League heptathlon champion, and now closes her collegiate chapter with seven events, two days, and a Team USA jersey. Heptathlons often swing on the second day, in the long jump, javelin, and 800m, which is exactly where championship experience pays off.
Katie Burns (Milwaukee): Sprints & Relays
Burns brings the wheels. The Horizon League standout, part of her program’s indoor 4x400m record, has been tapped for a leg of the women’s 4x400m relay and is a strong candidate for the mixed 4x400m pool as well. Relays at international meets are where depth gets tested: batons in traffic, unfamiliar lineups, one shot at clean exchanges. Burns could end up with two chances at hardware.
What to Watch
- Bath’s opening day. The 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400m set the tone. After a year off, day one rhythm tells us a lot, and anything near 7,466 would be a statement.
- The Bath–Cupp dynamic. Two American conference champs pushing each other through ten events.
- Kulis’s second day. The closing stretch is where heptathlons are won.
- Relay lineups. Whether Burns cracks the mixed 4x400m pool in addition to the women’s relay.
The heptathlon and decathlon close out the Games July 31–August 1.
The NIL Angle: Back Them Before the Breakout
International moments like this are brand rocket fuel. A Team USA jersey, a medal ceremony photo, a viral anchor leg: these turn a conference champion into a name fans across the country recognize. And for athletes outside the Power Four, without built in TV exposure, a stage like Lima matters even more.
Track athletes historically operate on some of the thinnest margins in college sports; travel, treatment, and training costs add up fast, and international trips are where fan support makes the most tangible difference. The window to back an athlete before their breakout is the window that matters, for the athlete and for the fans who saw it coming.
We’ll have a recap once the final 800m and 1500m are in the books.
