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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
1. CAS: Poistogova’s 2012 testosterone was 4.7x normal levels!
2. World Athletics’ Olympic prizes creating a two-tier Games?
3. World Boxing drawing more interest from national feds
4. Nike unveils Paris 2024 uniforms in multiple sports
5. Schormann to end UIPM Presidency at 31 years
● The written decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the case of the ex-London 2012 women’s 800 m medalist Ekaterina Poistogova (now Guliyev) underscored the enormity of the Russian doping program as a test a month prior to the Olympics produced a testosterone score nearly five times higher than her personal norm!
● Some pushback on the announcement that World Athletics will award Paris 2024 gold medalists $50,000 prizes from British rowing icon Steve Redgrave, saying his federation can’t afford to match that and that the Olympic Games could be severely fractured.
● World Boxing reported that it is seeing much more interest from national federations in view of the International Olympic Committee’s warning that if a new international federation for the sport is not available by “early 2025,” boxing will not be included on the Los Angeles 2028 program.
● In Paris, Nike held a gala unveiling of uniforms and footwear it is providing to the teams it is equipping for Paris 2024, with new technology in the shoes, but some unhappy comments on the dramatic cut of the women’s track & field singlet!
● Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne President Klaus Schormann announced that he will not stand for re-election at the federation’s Congress late this year, and will conclude his 31-year term, in favor of new leadership.
● World Championships: Ice Hockey (U.S. and Canada easily into semis of women’s Worlds) ●
● Panorama: Commonwealth Games (Glasgow considering 2026 hosting) = Athletics (O.J. Simpson passes at age 76) = Football (2: FIFA study shows many women players also have second jobs; good TV audience for USA-Canada SheBelieves final) = Ski Mountaineering (France sweeps Cortina World Cup Sprint and Relay) = Swimming (Dressel, Ledecky, Jacoby and Smith win at Tyr Pro Swim) = Weightlifting (Armenia’s Lalayan concluded IWF World Cup with win) ●
1.
CAS: Poistogova’s 2012 testosterone was 4.7x normal levels!
While the report of the disqualification of Russian 800 m runner Ekaterina Poistagova (now Guliyev) at the London 2012 Olympic Games came from the All-Russian Athletics Federation, the Athletics Integrity Unit released Thursday the full decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The AIU explained on X (ex-Twitter):
● “The AIU has banned Ekaterina Guliyev (born Zavyalovya; divorced Poistogova) (Russia/Turkey) for 2 years from 28 March [2024] for Use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (McLaren and LIMS evidence). DQ results from 17 July 2012 until 20 October 2014.”
● “NOTE: Guliyev has 45 days (until 13 May 2024) to appeal. If that deadline elapses without an appeal, this decision becomes binding and the AIU will proceed with the next steps regarding Guliyev’s results at the London 2012 Olympic Games to send a sanction memo to World Athletics’ Competition Department to disqualify the athlete’s results and thereafter to notify the IOC that World Athletics has modified the relevant results and rankings on their website.”
● “The IOC will determine any reallocation of Olympic medals and any update of its database.”
So the process is underway. The 35-page written decision explained that Poistogova’s samples from 17 July 2012 and 25 July 2012 were reported as clean to the World Anti-Doping Agency, but investigation of the Russian state-sponsored doping program from 2011 to 2015 showed those tests on a “washout schedule” in the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s Moscow Laboratory database. The tests apparently showed three prohibited substances: dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), androstenedione and boldenone, but the documentation (chromatograms) was rather obviously doctored to show a negative result.
The decision also noted that Poistogova’s testosterone levels were sky-high in the 17 July and 25 July tests at 108 ng//ml and 58 ng/ml, respectively, compared with “five other samples from the athlete, which feature normal testosterone concentrations between 8 ng/ml and 23 ng/ml.”
The arbitrator had plenty of grounds to hold Poistogova to be doping, and she was sanctioned for four years from 28 March 2024 – the date of the judgement – with two years removed for time she previously served for a prior doping sanction in 2014!
Her results had been nullified from 20 October 2014, but now reach back to 17 July 2012, and wipe out her London 2012 Olympic bronze from 11 August. Her bronze medal was upgraded to silver after the disqualification of the winner, Russian Maria Savinova, for doping, leaving South Africa’s Caster Semenya as the gold medalist.
Now her silver should be removed by the International Olympic Committee, moving Kenyan Pam Jelimo to silver and American Alysia Montano to the bronze. Montano, in an Instagram post, pointed to bronze medals she “won” at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships, both times being advanced from fourth after Savinova disqualifications. Now, two Russian disqualifications will move her to third for the London 2012 Games.
Observed: One important fact reported in the arbitrator’s decision was the testosterone level recorded for Poistogova: 108 ng/ml from the 17 July test, compared to her “normal” level of 8-23 ng/ml! That’s 4.7 times what her high-end “norm” was!
That’s what you can call “juiced,” and is a demonstration of how deeply into doping the Russians were during the 2011-15 time period and why so many athletes today are wary of trusting Russian athletes in any return to competition.
2.
World Athletics’ Olympic prizes creating a two-tier Games?
There was plenty of cheering after the World Athletics announcement that it would award $50,000 to the winners of each event at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, a total of $2.4 million.
But not everyone was happy. For example, British rowing icon Steve Redgrave, now 62, and a five-time Olympic gold medalist in 1984 in the Coxed Four and in 1988-92-96-2000 in the Pairs. He told the Daily Mail (GBR):
“I was very surprised. If you win an Olympic gold medal in any athletics event, you are able to earn substantial financial gains from those results.
“It smacks a bit hard for the sports that can’t afford to do this. Rowing is in that situation. We struggle bringing sponsorship and finance into it.
“This separates the elite sports to the others like rowing, canoeing and most combat sports. They just don’t have the same funding that there is in World Athletics.
“I would prefer that the money they’re putting in to be helping more of the grassroots of their own sports – or helping other Olympic sports to be able to be at the same level on the same footprint.’
“Most of the other sports won’t be able to follow this. You’re making this into a two-tier process. This is to me the wrong direction.”
World Athletics said that it would fund the prize money – and expand it for LA28 to the top three places – from its tier-1 share of the IOC television rights fees, which was $39.48 million from the Tokyo 2020 Games. Rowing, a tier-3 sport, received $17.31 million, which it uses to fund its operations over the four years between Olympic Games.
The new offer also caught the attention of Jamaican sprinting icon Usain Bolt, who won nine golds in the 100-200-4×100 m relay in 2008-12-16, but lost one of the relay golds to a doping positive of a teammate. His reply on X:
“Any retroactive payment (wink emoji)”
Bolt’s achievements would have been worth $325,000!
3.
World Boxing drawing more interest from national feds
With the clock ticking on boxing’s place at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, it appears that significantly more interest is being turned toward the new World Boxing group which aims to form an international federation that can be recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
The Associated Press reported comments from Secretary General Simon Toulson (GBR):
“We’re in excess of 25, 30 countries asking us quickly if they can apply. And I think there’s another 25, 30 countries behind them that are starting to assess the implications and how they can join.”
World Boxing had just 27 national federation members at its formative Congress last November, but is the only obvious option for boxing to be included for the 2028 Games. Following the 3 April dismissal of the International Boxing Association’s appeal of the IOC’s withdrawal of recognition in 2023 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the IOC issued a stern statement which included:
“[F]or governance reasons, the IOC is not in a position to organise another Olympic boxing tournament. To keep boxing on the Olympic programme, the IOC needs a recognised and reliable International Federation as a partner, as with all the other Olympic sports.
“The establishment of such a federation, which respects the IOC conditions for recognition, is now in the hands of the National Boxing Federations and their National Olympic Committees (NOCs). These conditions include good governance, the integrity of competitions, transparency of finances and accounts, and autonomy. Every National Boxing Federation and every NOC that wants its boxers to make their Olympic dreams a reality and win medals will now have to take the necessary decisions. The NOCs and National Boxing Federations thus hold the future of Olympic boxing in their own hands, and the required actions cannot be clearer.
“At the moment, boxing is not on the sports programme for the Olympic Games LA28. In order to remedy this, the IOC needs to have a partner International Federation for boxing by early 2025.”
What the IOC has not said is how many countries constitute a “partner International Federation.” If World Boxing can get to 100, it will certainly get a serious look from the IOC, which has repeatedly said it likes boxers and boxing, but not the International Boxing Association.
National boxing federations have an incentive to join as well, since most of them are funded by their governments, which will hardly be interested in supporting a federation which has no association with, or path to, the Olympic Games.
4.
Nike unveils Paris 2024 uniforms in multiple sports
Worldwide apparel giant Nike showed off the uniforms it has created for multiple sports and multiple countries on Thursday, with considerable controversy over its women’s track & field singlet.
Reuters reported that: “As well as outfitting U.S. athletes across all sports, Nike will provide kit for the athletics teams of Canada, China, Kenya, Germany, and Uganda at the Olympics, basketball for China, France, Japan, and Spain, and athletes in breaking – a new breakdancing event at the Paris Games – for Korea.”
The announcement was made in Paris, including stars such as Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) and Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge and Faith Kipyegon. It also featured details on new shoes, using new materials to be lighter and faster. Nike running footwear manager Elliott Heath told CBS Sports:
“For our sprinters and our track athletes, they need something that is stable and that they can control, but they want all that energy back on the track.
“This comes to life in a dual-chamber pod system that helps create stability as well as capture that force and return it to the athlete … that’s what makes Air Zoom different than the other types of Air from Nike is that you’re able to put high pressures and really shape that [Air] bag to design around it and deliver the performance that athletes need.”
The uniform which drew the most attention was the women’s singlet – Nike is the apparel supplier to USA Track & Field – which has an exceptionally high cut that drew derision in online comments from current and former athletes. Lauren Fleshman, a three-time U.S. World Athletics Championships team member, a former Nike athlete and later a Nike critic, posted on Instagram:
“I’m sorry, but show me one WNBA or NWSL team who would enthusiastically support this kit. This is for Olympic Track and Field. Professional athletes should be able to compete without dedicating brain space to constant pube vigilance or the mental gymnastics of having every vulnerable piece of your body on display. …
“This is not an elite athletic kit for track and field. … I don’t expect or enjoy seeing female athletes or male athletes put in a position to battle self-consciousness at their place of work. That is not part of the job description.”
Only a few images of the Paris uniform packages have surfaced, and Nike’s USATF uniform program has offered multiple options for athletes to choose from; details on the 2023 uniform program was exclusively covered by TSX last October. USATF International Teams Manager Brad Birling explained that, for example, the 2023 World Athletics Championships, athletes got to pick out four uniforms to use in Budapest last summer.
For Paris, Nike said it will offer U.S. track athletes a specially-designed uniform to wear for finals; it created a special uniform for the American relay teams for Budapest in 2023.
5.
Schormann to end UIPM Presidency at 31 years
“Dr Klaus Schormann announces today that he will not seek re-election as President of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne at the 73rd UIPM Congress in November 2024.
“Dr Schormann, 77, intends to bring his Presidential tenure to a close at the end of this year having served at the helm of the global Modern Pentathlon movement since July 1993.”
The UIPM announcement follows up on a promise Schormann (GER) had already telegraphed during the difficult post-Tokyo period when the sport teetered on the brink of elimination from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic program.
A incident during the riding competition in Tokyo in which German coach Kim Raisner hit the horse Saint Boy that would not jump for German star Annika Schleu caused the IOC to pressure the UIPM to change its program and eliminate riding. Schormann oversaw this process, which ended with obstacle racing being included – after considerable controversy – and the sport confirmed by the IOC for Los Angeles in 2028.
Schormann became the head of pentathlon in 1993, when the federation included both pentathlon and biathlon (UIPMB). The two sports were finally split for good in 1998, and Schormann has been the President of the single-sport Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne ever since.
He has been given credit for maintaining pentathlon’s place in the Games by maintaining close relationships with the IOC, despite his sport’s continuous ranking as the least popular in the Games.
The format of the sport has changed radically, from being held over consecutive days at five different sites, to a single venue and with the finals condensed for television to a 90-minute program in a specially-arranged arena. Beyond adding obstacle for 2028, the UIPM has absorbed the obstacle-racing federation (FISO).
A new president will be selected at the UIPM Congress in Riyadh (KSA) on 16-17 November of this year.
≡ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
● Ice Hockey ● The quarterfinals of the IIHF Women’s World Championship, being held in Utica, New York, advanced Finland, the Czech Republic, Canada and the U.S. to the semifinal round.
Finland, the 2019 silver winners, stormed past Switzerland, 3-1, in the first game, scoring single goals in the second and third periods to break a 1-1 tie, and out-shooting the Swiss by 37:17. The tense second match had the Czech Republic defeating Germany, 1-0, on a third-period goal by defender Daniela Pejsova, with 7:06 to play.
Canada had little trouble with Sweden, winning 5-1 as Renata Fast scored twice and the Canadians had a 44-18 edge on shots.
The U.S., undefeated so far, got off to a 3-0 lead vs. Japan in the first period off scores from Lacey Eden at the 3:59 mark, then Hilary Knight at 8:35 and Alex Carpenter at 11:51. That ballooned to 9-0 in the second, with Abbey Murphy scoring twice. Carpenter got a second 5:25 into the third for 10-0 and that’s how it ended, with the U.S. out-shooting Japan, 48-14.
The semifinals – U.S. vs. Finland and Canada vs. the Czechs – will be held on Saturday, with the medal matches on Sunday. Twenty-one of the 22 finals in this tournament have featured Canada and the U.S., with Canada taking 12 titles all-time and the U.S., 10.
≡ PANORAMA ≡
● Commonwealth Games 2026 ● Sport Business reported that Glasgow (SCO), host of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, is discussing the possibility of hosting again in 2026. The Games have been looking for a home since the Australian state of Victoria pulled out from hosting responsibilities in mid-2023.
Ghana, which just hosted the African Games in Accra, has also shown interest. The Commonwealth Games Federation said it would have an announcement on the 2026 situation in May.
● Athletics ● The famed football star and accused murderer O.J. Simpson passed away on Wednesday (10th) from prostate cancer at age 76, according to his family.
He was a football superstar, winning the Heisman Trophy at USC in 1968 and going on to the NFL, where he became the first player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season (2,003) in 1973. He went on to fame as a broadcaster, actor and advertising spokesman, but was tried for the murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in 1994. He was acquitted of criminal charges, but found civilly liable. He later went to prison from 2008-17 for an armed robbery incident in 2007.
Simpson was fast and was a member of the USC world-record 440-yard relay team that ran 38.6 to win the NCAA championship at Provo, Utah in 1967, with Earl McCullouch, Fred Kuller, Simpson and Jamaica’s two-time Olympic 100 m medalist Lennox Miller. Simpson on his own was a 9.4 100-yard man and won All-American honors for his sixth-place finish in the NCAA 100 yards in that 1967 NCAA meet (9.53 auto time).
● Football ● Interesting study from FIFA, surveying 736 female players from 12 countries – amateurs, semi-pros and professionals – and asking them whether they have second jobs, whether they made more on football than they spent, caregiving responsibilities and more. On the job question:
● Australia (45 players): 78% had another job
● Botswana (52): 44% had another job
● Brazil (171): 5% had another job
● Chile (35): 40% had another job
● England (27): 33% had another job
● Fiji (31): 55% had another job
● Korea (86): 3.5% had another job
● Mexico (75): 19% had another job
● New Zealand (34): 40% had another job
● Nigeria (62): 13% had another job
● Sweden (70): 40% had another job
● U.S. (27): 30% had another job
Overall, the survey showed that 67% of all of these players “earn a substantial portion of their total annual income from playing football.”
¶
The U.S. Women’s National Team penalty-shot win over Canada in Tuesday’s final of the SheBelieves Cup drew a quite respectable 621,000 audience on TBS, no. 3 in its time slot and the no. 7 sports show on the day. Even the post-game show did well, with 441,000 watching the trophy presentation; the pre-match program did 213,000.
● Ski Mountaineering ● At the final ISMF World Cup of the 2023-24 season, in Cortina d’Ampezzo (ITA), France swept the men’s and women’s Sprints.
The 2023 Worlds women’s bronze winner in Sprint, Emily Harrop won by nearly seven seconds in 3:18.63, trailed by Worlds runner-up Marianne Fatton (SUI: 3:25.43) and Celia Perillat-Pessey (FRA: 3:27.34).
The men’s Worlds silver medalist, Thibault Anselmet took a tighter men’s Sprint in 2:49.52, ahead of Swiss Arno Lietha (2:52.99) and Loic Dubois (2:57.82).
And, of course, Harrop and Anselmet teamed up to win the Mixed Relay in 33:43.45, from Johanna Hiemer and Paul Verbnjak (AUT: 33:51.50).
● Swimming ● The stars were out at the Tyr Pro Swim Series in San Antonio, with good, but not great times, and continued improvement from sprint star Caeleb Dressel.
The winner of five golds in Tokyo, Dressel has been slowly returning from time away from the pool since the middle of the 2022 World Aquatics Championships. He barely made it to the final of the men’s 100 m Free – he was the eighth qualifier – and was only fifth at the turn, but roared home and won in his fastest time since 2022 in 48.40. Fellow Americans Ryan Held (48.48) and Matt King (48.62) went 2-3.
That was the only men’s race won by an American on the night, as Brazil’s 2022 Worlds bronze winner Guilherme Costa took the 400 m Free in 3:46.61, ahead of Alfonso Mestre (VEN: 3:47.14) and Carson Foster (3:47.64). Denis Petrashov (KGZ) won the 100 m Breast ahead of 2024 World Champion Nic Fink, 59.83 to 1:00.03 and French star Leon Marchand won the 200 m Butterfly in 1:54.97, moving him to no. 7 on the world list. American Luca Urlando was second at 1:55.63.
Freestyle superstar Katie Ledecky posted her fastest time of the year in the women’s 400 m Free in 4:01.41, no. 2 in the world so far, ahead of 1,500 m Free winner Paige Madden (4:04.86). Hong Kong sprint star Siobhan Haughey won the 100 m Free in 52.74, beating Americans Katie Douglass (52.98, no. 5 in 2024) and Torri Huske (53.08: 7th in 2024). Rio 2016 co-champ Simone Manuel was fifth in 53.25.
Tokyo Olympic winner Lydia Jacoby won the women’s 100 m Breast in 1:05.74 to move to no. 3 in the world for 2024, ahead of Emma Weber (1:06.50) and Rio 2016 winner Lilly King (1:06.71). World leader Regan Smith, the Tokyo women’s 200 m Butterfly runner-up, took that event in 2:05.97, well ahead of Dakota Luther (2:09.51).
The meet continues through Saturday.
● Weightlifting ● The 12-day IWF Grand Prix in Phuket (THA) – the final Olympic qualifier – closed with the men’s +109 kg class and a win for 2023 World Championships silver medalist Varazdat Lalayan from Armenia.
Lalayan won the Snatch at 210 kg and barely edged Tokyo Olympic runner-up Ali Davoudi (IRI) in the Clean & Jerk by 253 to 252 kg. The Armenian’s total of 463 kg was a clear winner, with Davoudi at 454 kg. Fellow Iranian Ayat Sharifikelarijani finished third at 447 kg.
Americans Caine Wilkes and Alejandro Medina were 11th and 13th, respectively, finishing with totals of 384 kg and 380 kg.
¶
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