BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Shy as a kid, Audrey Werro took her dad's advice before races that “I have to be a lion.”
The 22-year-old Swiss star, who uses a lion's roar celebration, will be in the spotlight at the European championships when she's expected to line up against Keely Hodgkinson and Femke Broeders-Bol in the highly anticipated women's 800 meters.
Britain's Hodgkinson is the reigning Olympic champion and Dutch star Broeders-Bol has impressed in her first year in the 800 after switching from the 400-meter hurdles. Meanwhile, Werro in late June ran the third-fastest women's time ever: 1 minute, 53.80 seconds.
The women's 800 world record of 1:53:28 was set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova.
“The goal is to win the medal,” Werro said Sunday at a press conference at Alexander Stadium ahead of the seven-day European championships. “I don’t know if the race will be fast or it will be a tactical race. I don't have the world record now in my head.”
The final is Friday night.
Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis sounds as if he's fully recovered from a thigh issue that forced him to stop competing at the London Diamond League meet just over three weeks ago.
The two-time reigning Olympic champion told the BBC that he's eager for another world record. He wants one “like, yesterday.”
In March, the Louisiana-born Duplantis broke the world record for a 15th time. When he's not breaking records, the part-time crooner is making them too.
The men's pole vault final is next Sunday on the final evening of the competition.
Two-time Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen is set to make his return from surgery on his left Achilles tendon when he lines up in the 5,000 meters on Monday night. The 25-year-old Norwegian had surgery in early 2026 to clean up scar tissue on the protective sheath around the tendon.
Ingebrigtsen is not registered for the 1,500 meters. He’s won both the 1,500 and 5,000 at the past three European championships.
Ingebrigtsen won the Olympic title in the 1,500 at the Tokyo Games held in 2021. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he won gold in the 5,000.
The women’s 100-meter final is also Monday night.
This is the first time that Britain has hosted the European championships. An estimated 1,600 athletes from 49 member federations will compete.
“I want us and our great sport to dominate the sporting landscape for the next week,” said Jack Buckner, CEO of UK Athletics. “We can forget about football transfers for a little bit and we can just enjoy the best athletes in the world.”
Visitors can enjoy host Birmingham, as well. The West Midlands city home to “Peaky Blinders” and the late Ozzy Osbourne also boasts some good cuisine.
“We have the best curry and fish and chips,” said Matt Hudson-Smith, who grew up in the area and has a section of Alexander Stadium named for him.
Hudson-Smith, the silver medalist in the 400 meters at the Paris Olympics, said Birmingham is sometimes on the receiving end of jokes “from the Londoners.”
“We’re a quirky city. We’re a strong community,” said Hudson-Smith, who expects to be in the 400 final on Wednesday night. “Everyone knows everybody. It’s a big city but it’s so close-knit it’s insane.”
Ten athletes with the best performances will each receive a bonus of 50,000 euros ($58,000).
European Athletics said its “gold crown initiative,” launched at the 2024 edition in Rome, will reward athletes across five groups of events for both men and women: sprints and hurdles; middle and long distance; throws; jumps; road, combined events and relays.
World Athletics scoring tables will determine the highest scoring performance in the respective finals.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Britain's Laviai Nielsen runs during a training session ahead of the start of the European Athletics Championships, in Birmingham, England, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith, center, reacts with Amber Anning, left and Nicole Yeargin, during a training session ahead of the start of the European Athletics Championships, in Birmingham, England, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
FILE - Audrey Werro of Switzerland, poses after winning the women's 800 meters at the Meeting de Paris Diamond League athletics meet in Paris, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV met with survivors of clergy abuse on Monday during his visit to Argentina, a country that has been reckoning with the Catholic Church’s legacy of sex abuse and cover-up, including in cases in which the Argentine Pope Francis intervened.
The Vatican said Leo spent about an hour meeting individually, and then as a group, with five victims of abuse by clergy and “church institutions” who were chosen by the local church. The meeting took place before Leo left for an event at the Catholic University of Argentina.
Leo listened to their “painful stories and proposals to consolidate paths of healing in the church,” said a statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Acknowledging that there were other groups of victims who had wanted to meet with Leo, “the pope expressed his closeness and desire to reinforce paths of protection, of welcome and accompaniment in the church,” it said.
Victims groups had said they wanted to meet with Leo and were denied, including a group of 43 women who allege they were subjected to human trafficking and forced labor at centers of the conservative group Opus Dei in Argentina.
Their allegations implicate senior members of Opus, some of whom have been formally accused in a criminal investigation into the women's claims. Prosecutors have requested that the members be summoned for questioning, but the judge has not ordered it. Opus has denied wrongdoing.
Given the ongoing criminal investigation, it is perhaps unlikely that Leo would have intervened by meeting with them in this case. However, in general, the American pope has followed in the footsteps of Francis and to a lesser extent Pope Benedict XVI by meeting with abuse survivors on his foreign trips, and another meeting is expected after he arrives later this week in Peru.
A victims' group, Ending Clergy Abuse, or ECA, said the Opus victims and hearing impaired survivors of abuse from a notorious school for the deaf had wanted to meet with Leo and criticized the fact that the decision on who to present to the pope was left up to Argentine church leaders.
“We profoundly respect the five people who spoke to the pope and what each one of them said,” said attorney Sergio Salinas Giordano, who represents the two groups and is director of ECA Global. He said the problem was that the Argentine hierarchy chose them — "the institution whose response to abuse is in discussion" — and that the process wasn't transparent.
Ahead of the Argentine visit, survivors had also demanded stronger action from the Vatican against those accused or convicted in criminal courts but whose fates within the church’s internal legal processes haven’t been made public.
Survivors’ groups have cited several high-profile priests convicted of serious crimes, including Julio Grassi and former Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta. Francis intervened in both cases in favor of the priests who were subsequently convicted by criminal courts.
Grassi, once a prominent figure who ran homes for orphaned children, is serving a 15-year sentence for sexually abusing a minor. Francis, who at the time was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the archbishop of Buenos Aires, in 2010 commissioned a four-volume, 2,000-plus-page forensic study of Grassi’s case that concluded he was innocent, that his victims were lying and that the case never should have gone to trial.
Zanchetta, a former bishop close to Francis, was sentenced in 2022 to 4 1/2 years in prison for sexually abusing two seminarians. He was granted parole in 2025, prompting renewed demands that he be defrocked. Francis had initially rejected the accusations against Zanchetta and created a job for him at the Vatican that got him out of Argentina. The late pope eventually authorized a canonical criminal proceeding against Zanchetta in 2019, but the Vatican has not publicly announced a ruling.
The Vatican tends to not initiate canonical trials until all criminal appeals are exhausted, to not prejudge the outcomes, though it does recommend that bishops take precautionary measures during investigations such as removing priests from active ministry.
This version corrects that the meeting took place before Leo left for the university.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV arrives to visit the Pequeno Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over a Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over a Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
