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LOS ANGELES 2028: LA28 announces most of the remaining Olympic venues, all in Southern California

By
Rich Perelman
-
Questions for equestrian for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

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≡ THE VENUE PLAN ≡

Most of the remaining questions about sports and sites for the 2028 Olympic Games were answered on Tuesday, as the LA28 organizing committee published a list of assignments, with venues in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The new sports assignments:

● Athletics/marathon: Venice Beach start
● Baseball: Dodger Stadium
● Boxing: L.A. Live/Peacock Theater for prelims; Crypto.com Arena for finals
● Cricket: L.A. County Fairgrounds
● Cycling/Road: Venice Beach start
● Equestrian: Santa Anita Park
● Gymnastics/Rhythmic: USC/Galen Center
● Rowing/Coastal: Long Beach waterfront
● Shooting/Pistol-Rifle: Long Beach Convention Center
● Shooting/Shotgun: LA Clays Shooting Sports Park
● Sport Climbing: Long Beach Convention Center
● Squash: Universal Studios
● Surfing: Tresles Beach
● Triathlon: Venice Beach
● Volleyball/Beach: Alamitos Beach
● Volleyball/Indoor: Honda Center

Still unassigned is the cycling Mountain Bike course and the football preliminaries, previously stated to be played outside of California. With the move of Rhythmic Gymnastics out of Crypto.com Arena to make way for boxing finals, it is not clear where Trampoline will go, but a move to be with Rhythmic at USC’s Galen Center makes sense.

The marathon and cycling road race starts at Venice Beach take advantage of cooler weather near the coast for both of these endurance events. Unanswered is where the race walks or the cycling Time Trials will be; they could also start in Venice, but could also be placed elsewhere; race walking is often done on loop courses outside the track & field venue.

The equestrian competition at Santa Anita harkens back to the 1984 Olympic Games, where part of the grandstand and temporary stands were added to create a 33,000-seat site for Dressage and Jumping. The Cross Country element of Eventing was not held there due to concerns over heat and horse health and was moved to Fairbanks Ranch Country Club in San Diego County; this will have to be considered once again for 2028.

The move of triathlon from Long Beach to Venice Beach also raises a question about the 10 km Open Water swimming events, also previously assigned to Long Beach, but which might be more conveniently held in the same location.

But most of the questions have been answered.

There was no announcement about Sailing moving from to San Pedro as has been demanded by L.A. 15th District City Council member Tim McOsker, so it remains in Long Beach, but the City of Los Angeles picked up baseball, boxing, the cycling road races and triathlon.

It does not appear that any moves of sports out of the City of Los Angeles were made, so no further approvals from the Los Angeles City Council appear to be needed. The tug-of-war over the prior approvals which were subject to the movement of Sailing to San Pedro is still ongoing.

The International Olympic Committee said last week it was satisfied with the venue master plan submitted by LA28 and left the announcements to the organizing committee. Most of that is done now.

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SURFING: Fascinating battle underway as U.S. Ski & Snowboard tries to take over as U.S. National Governing Body for surfing!

By
Rich Perelman
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Paris Olympic women’s surfing champion Caroline Marks (Photo: Troy Williams/NSSA via Wikipedia).

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≡ U.S. NGB BATTLE ≡

When the International Olympic Committee agreed in 2016 to add surfing as an Olympic sport at the request of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, the then-U.S. Olympic Committee had no national governing body for the sport.

It recognized USA Surfing in 2017, but poor financial controls and questionable management led the federation into trouble, including a December 2019 audit which identified 15 specific “high risk” issues and a mid-2020 follow-up which noted:

“While progress has been made in the area of financial capability, USA Surfing did not demonstrate significant improvement. There is little documented oversight of organizational spending and the CEO still has a substantial amount of control over both the disbursement and the receipts process.

“Notably, USA Surfing had yet to complete an independent financial audit at the time of fieldwork and disallowed funds have yet to be paid pack to the USOPC. Additionally, the inherited debt from a prior organization had yet to be disposed of.”

It finally got so bad that in December 2021, USA Surfing and the now-U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee agreed that it would manage elite-level surfing and USA Surfing would be de-certified as the sport’s National Governing Body, and come back when it was ready. At the same time, however, USA Surfing remained the American member federation of the International Surfing Association, which is headquartered in La Jolla, California.

Fast forward five years and the U.S. won surfing golds in the women’s competition at both Tokyo 2020 (Clarissa Moore) and Paris 2024 (Caroline Marks), and USA Surfing was ready to re-apply to be the recognized NGB for surfing in the U.S. The timeline for this is specified in the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act at 36 U.S.C. §220528:

“An application under this section must be filed within one year after the final day of—

“(A) any Olympic Games, for a sport in which competition is held in the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games, or in each of the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, the Pan-American Games, and the Parapan American Games;”

USA Surfing filed in February 2025 … but it wasn’t alone.

A competing application to become the U.S. National Governing Body for surfing came from … the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Federation (USSS), also in February, which included:

● “U.S. Ski & Snowboard (“USSS”) seeks to take on the Olympic Surf Team in the United States. The intent is for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (“USOPC”) to transfer the currently internally managed Olympic Surf team to USSS.”

● “No one can support these athletes to help them achieve their Olympic dreams better than USSS, which has a proven, long-term record of high-performance support and podium success for athletes. With the growth and popularity of surfing, it’s critical that a well-managed organization take responsibility to help the sport, and these athletes reach their full potential at the Games, and we are best positioned to do so.”

● “[F]rom a commercial perspective adding a summer sport to our 10-winter sport portfolio gives us year-round assets and programming to sell. In recent years, our commercial engine has demonstrated its ability to drive significant revenue and by including surfing in our portfolio we’re best set up to drive upside in the commercial business for surfing.”

There’s no comparison between the organizations. U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s corporate beginnings date back to 1905 and was re-named the U.S. Ski Association in 1962 and added snowboard to its name in 2017. USSS said in its application that it expected revenues of $61.7 million for its 2024-25 fiscal year to end on 30 April.

The USA Surfing Federal tax return for calendar year 2023 showed income of $619,304, after $1.14 million in 2022.

Moreover, USSS chief executive Sophie Goldschmidt (GBR) was the chief executive of the professional World Surf League from 2017-21, before leaving for the ski & snowboard governing body.

However, USA Surfing does have a couple of things going for it in this “competition”:

● In-sport support, starting with the International Surfing Association. In its filing with the USOPC, USA Surfing included letters of support from the ISA, from surfers including Marks and Moore, and, interestingly, from the World Surf League.

In its March announcement of its application for re-certification, USA Surfing shared a statement from ISA President Fernando Aguerre (ARG):

“The ISA strongly believes that a healthy, independent organization that truly represents the interests of surfers and the sport in the U.S. is essential as we look ahead to the LA28 Olympic Games and beyond. That organization is USA Surfing.”

World Surf League chief Ryan Crosby (USA) added:

“USA Surfing has been critical in supporting U.S. surfers, putting in real, hands-on work to provide resources and development opportunities. The trust they’ve built with surfers and the broader community speaks for itself. We believe their continued leadership is essential in shaping the sport’s future and the next generation of Team USA athletes.”

● The Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act, at 36 U.S.C. §220522 requires that a U.S. National Governing Body can be certified only if it, inter alia:

“(6) demonstrates that it is a member of no more than one international sports federation that governs a sport included on the program of the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, the Pan-American Games, or the Parapan American Games;”

The one-sport NGB concept was a core component of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act, which elevated the then-U.S. Olympic Committee as the central governing force in the U.S. Olympic Movement and forced organizations which had been governing multiple sports – such as the Amateur Athletic Union – to be broken up into single-sport entities. In this way, wrestlers could decide what was good for wrestlers, skiers for skiers and so on, based on the structures of the International Federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

So, to assign surfing, governed by the ISA, to USSS, already a member of the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) looks to be precluded by this section. The USSS application did not mention it … but the USA Surfing application noted it clearly.

A USA Surfing announcement said that it had presented its case at a public hearing last week, and that the USSS public hearing was scheduled for Tuesday; the Stevens Act requires that the USOPC decide what to do within 30 days, by 15 May.

Even then, the loser can appeal the USOPC’s finding to arbitration.

So, for now, hang loose?

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PANORAMA: Commonwealth Sport chief Jenkins steps down; man who hit van der Poel with water bottle during Paris-Roubaix turns himself in!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel on the way to his 2024 Paris-Roubaix triumph (Photo: Felouch Kotek via Wikipedia).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● George Bell, a 7-foot, 8-inch giant who appeared in the closing ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games, passed away at age 67 on 19 March, in Durham, North Carolina.

Bell, then a student at Biola University, was the costumed “extra-terrestrial being” in the ‘84 Olympic closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 12 August 1984, coming out from the peristyle end amid a cloud of smoke from a landing “spaceship” – actually just a ring of flashing lights carried by a helicopter – to tell the audience, “I’ve come a long way because I like what I’ve seen.”

He was recognized during his life as the tallest man in the world, and while he played basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters and had multiple roles in television, he was a member of the Norfolk (Virginia) Sheriff’s Office from December 2000 to May 2014.

● Commonwealth Games ● Commonwealth Sport made a sudden announcement on Monday that President Chris Jenkins (WAL) has resigned, with Dr. Donald Rukane, the President of the Ugandan Olympic Committee, now serving as Interim President.

A new President will be elected at the next General Assembly in November 2025.

Jenkins was the head of Commonwealth Games Wales for 16 years before being elected as President of Commonwealth Sport in 2023. No reason for his resignation was given.

● Russia ● The Russian Sports Minister and head of the Russian Olympic Committee expects the suspension of the ROC to be lifted soon. On Monday, Mikhail Degtyarev told a Moscow-area conference:

“There are no legal grounds for disqualification, our Olympic Committee will be recognized in the near future. In my opinion, in two to three months.”

The ROC was suspended by the International Olympic Committee in October 2023 for incorporating organizations governed by the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine as part of its Ukrainian invasion that began in February 2022. The situation there has not changed, but Russia is counting on more lenient treatment from incoming IOC President Kirsty Coventry (ZIM).

● Athletics ● Lots more hot action over the weekend, including two outdoor world leads at the Australian Championships in Perth, with two-time World Indoor Champion Nicola Olyslagers and 2022 World Champion Eleanor Patterson going 1-2 in the women’s high jump at 2.01 m (6-7) and 1.98 m (6-6). Olympic men’s 800 m fourth-placer Peter Bol won his fourth national title with a lifetime best of 1:43.79, followed by Peyton Craig (1:44.07) and Luke Boyes (1:44.50), now nos. 1-3-4 on the year.

Lachlan Kennedy moved to equal-third on the world list with a 10.00 in the men’s 100 m heats and then Rohan Browning won the final at 10.01. Teen star Gout Gout won the 200 m in a wind-aided 19.84 (+2.2 m/s).

Olympic women’s 1,500 m silver winner Jessica Hull doubled, taking the 1,500 m in 4:11.36 and the 5,000 m in 15:02.74.

Elsewhere, 2023 U.S. champ Bryce Deadmon took the men’s 400 m world lead at 44.30 at the Texas A&M Teams Invitational, and South Carolina’s JaMeesia Ford, the 2024 NCAA Indoor 200 m champ, grabbed the women’s 100 m world lead at 11.06 at the Gamecock Invitational in Columbia, South Carolina.

Grand Slam Track announced its first six challengers for the upcoming 2-4 May meet in Miramar, Florida:

Men/Short Sprints:
● Andre De Grasse (CAN) ~ 2020 Olympic 200 m Champion

Men/Short Distance:
● Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN) ~ 2020 Olympic 1,500 m silver medalist

Women/Long Sprints:
● Amber Anning (GBR) ~ 2025 World Indoor 400 m Champion

Women/Short Distance:
● Claudia Hollingsworth (AUS) ~ 2024 U-20 Worlds 800 m silver medalist

Women/Short Hurdles:
● Keni Harrison (USA) ~ 2020 Olympic silver medalist

Women/Long Hurdles:
● Anna Hall (USA) ~ 2023 Worlds Heptathlon silver medalist

A total of 48 challengers will be lined up to face the 48 Grand Slam Track “Racers” who are signed for all four meets.

● Badminton ● Canada collected three golds and 12 medals to dominate the Pan American Championships in Lima (PER), taking the men’s Singles in an all-Canadian final with Victor Lai defeating Joshua Nguyen, the Mixed Doubles, with Ty Alexander Lindeman and Josephine Wu beating compatriots Jonathan Lai and Crystal Lai, and in the Mixed Team event.

The U.S. scored wins in the men’s Doubles, with Zhi-yi Chen and Presley Smith and in the women’s Doubles, with Lauren Lam and Allison Lee. Brazil’s Juliana Viana Vieira took the women’s Singles title.

● Cycling ● A Belgian man who threw a full water bottle and hit Paris-Roubaix race leader Mathieu van der Poel (NED) in the face on Sunday turned himself in to Belgian authorities on Monday.

Van der Poel was hit with about 33 km remaining in the 259 km race and said afterwards, “I arrived at 50K an hour and it was like a stone hitting my face. This is just not acceptable” and added later:

“We can’t let this pass. It was a full bidon, and it hurt a lot. If I take that bidon on my nose, it’s broken.

“Hopefully, the police can identify the man because there has to be a trial for this. This is attempted manslaughter. If the UCI doesn’t take action, then we will do it with the team.”

The BBC was told by public prosecutor Filiep Jodts, “We can confirm that the man presented himself to the police.

“An official report was drawn up, in which his statement was recorded. The Public Prosecution Service will decide in the coming days what action should be taken.”

The man who acknowledged throwing the bottle was reported to be apologetic when he turned himself in.

The Union Cycliste Internationale issued a statement including:

“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the associations representing the families of cycling (CPA for the riders, AIOCC for the organisers and AIGCP for the teams) unanimously condemn, in the strongest terms, the unacceptable behaviour of a spectator during the 122nd edition of Paris-Roubaix from the side of the road on 13 April.

“With 33 kilometres to go, this spectator on the roadside threw a water bottle in the direction of Dutch cyclist Mathieu Van der Poel, hitting him in the face. Such behaviour cannot be tolerated in the context of a cycling event.

“The UCI and representatives of cycling’s families express their support for the rider and will explore, in conjunction with the competent authorities, all the legal channels at their disposal so that such behaviour is duly and severely punished, as has already been the case in the past. They will take the same action in the future against any act that threatens the physical integrity of riders.”

● Swimming ● A raft of world-leading marks – sometimes more than one in the same event – in the last 10 days, especially with multiple national championships being held in Europe:

● Men/50 m Free: 21.62, Leonardo Deplano (ITA: nationals)
● Men/100 m Free: 47.27, Kyle Chalmers (AUS)
● Men/200 m Free: 1:45.07, David Popovici (ROU: nationals)
● Men/400 m Free: 3:39.96, Lukas Martens (GER) ~ World Record
● Men/800 m Free: 7:41.52, Daniel Whiffen (IRL: nationals)
● Men/1,500 m Free: 14:38.27, Florian Wellbrock (GER)
● Men/100 m Back: 52.24, Hubert Kos (HUN: nationals)
● Men/100 m Back: 52.04, Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS: nationals)
● Men/200 m Back: 1:55.64, Roman Mityukov (SUI: nationals)
● Men/50 m Fly: 22.77, Noe Ponti (SUI: nationals)
● Men/100 m Fly: 50.27, Noe Ponti (SUI: nationals)

● Women/50 m Breast: 30.12, Eneli Jefimova (EST)
● Women/100 m Breast: 1:05.82, Anita Bottazzo (ITA: nationals)

The Italian and Russian nationals are continuing and the British nationals are getting ready.

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MILAN CORTINA 2026: Elegant, spare 2026 Olympic and Paralympic torches revealed in Milan and Osaka

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ TORCHES REVEALED ≡

A dramatic, minimalist design was unveiled for the Olympic and Paralympic torches for the Milan Cortina 2026 Games on Monday, concurrently introduced at the Triennale di Milano and at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan:

“The Milano Cortina 2026 torches have been named ‘Essential,’ a tribute to their minimalist design and were developed by Eni, Premium Partner of Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, in collaboration with Versalis, Official Supporter of the Games.

“The two versions of the torch – one for the Olympic Winter Games and the other for the Paralympic Winter Games – both feature a reflective, iridescent finish but differ in colour. The Olympic torch in blue-green hues, the Paralympic torch in bronze tones.

“Eni and Versalis entrusted the design development to Studio Carlo Ratti Associati, while Cavagna Group is responsible for the engineering and production of the Torch and its components.”

The long, thin design weighs only 1,060 g (2.34 pounds), excluding the fuel can and includes a unique, vertical window that shows the internal components that make the torch operate. Each unit was made primarily from recycled aluminum and brass and is designed to be re-used up to 10 times, reducing the number to be manufactured. And:

“The burner – the technological core of the torch – will run on bio-LPG, produced at the Enilive biorefinery in Gela, Sicily. Bio-LPG is made exclusively from renewable raw materials, mainly waste sources such as used cooking oil, animal fats and residues from the agricultural industry.”

No information on the dimensions of the torch were provided and while sleek and long, it is well short of the biggest torch in Olympic history, the giant, five-foot-long aluminum and birchwood design for the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer.

The Olympic Torch Relay will include 10,001 torchbearers on a 63-day, 12,000 km (7,456 miles) route that will touch all 110 provinces of the Italian peninsula. The flame will be lit at Olympia in Greece on 26 November 2025, arrive in Rome on 4 December, finally arriving in Cortina d’Ampezzo on 26 January 2026 and at the opening ceremony at the San Siro Olympic Stadium on 6 February 2026.

The Paralympic Torch Relay will begin at Stoke Mandeville in England on 24 February 2026, two days after the close of the Olympic Winter Games and will run on an 11-day route from 24 February to 6 March. Some 501 torchbearers will participate, with five “Flame Festivals” in Milan, Turin, Bolzano, Trento and Trieste, then a ceremony to unite the flames in Cortina d’Ampezzo on 3 March. The relay will continue through Venice and Padua, finishing at the Verona Olympic Arena on 6 March for the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

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PANORAMA: Milan Cortina ‘26 budget increases (a little); FIFA gifts $1 million to 11 U.S. cities; Martens crushes men’s 400 m Free world record!

By
Rich Perelman
-
France’s Jimmy Gressier hurdles the finish tape to win the European Running Championships Half Marathon! (Photo: European Athletics).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2040 ● The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) announced last week that its approach to a future Olympic bid is being refined:

“The cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and the Rhine-Ruhr region, which have been involved in the process since the beginning, have approved the further roadmap under the leadership of the DOSB and will submit refined concepts by the end of May 2025. The specific content of the bid process and the timeline were discussed and agreed upon in workshops with the Olympic federations, the state sports associations, the applicant regions, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI).”

Beyond the May 2025 submittal, the DOSB will report on its view of the proposals in December and then each of the four will have an “opportunity” for a public referendum on their bid by June 2026, but this is not required. A final decision on a bid candidate and proposal is to be made by the fall of 2026.

The German government is keen on a 2040 bid as it would come 50 years after the reunification of the country in 1990.

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● The 2026 Winter Games organizers in Milan announced an increase in the organizing committee budget of “about” €100 million to €1.7 billion or $1.93 billion U.S.

On 24 March 2024, the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 announced a “lifetime budget” of €1.5 billion, but it has now been increased once again.

This is the organizing committee’s budget for staging the Games, but does not count the cost of new facilities or upgrades being made by the Italian or regional governments, or privately-built sites that will be leased for the 2026 Games.

● Football ● FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) announced an organizational grant to the host cities of the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup that will start in June:

“We care about our social role, which is why we are in the process of establishing the FIFA Foundation USA. Also, for the legacy of the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, we will contribute USD 1 million to each of the 11 cities that will host matches to support local social projects.

“This means ideally installing mini pitches and organising soccer activities with children on these pitches in areas where they are most needed in each city, something that will ensure that the impact of this groundbreaking global tournament will be felt for years to come.”

The host cities listed by FIFA include “Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York-New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C.”

● Sport Climbing ● The International Federation of Sport Climbing elected Marco Scolaris (ITA) for a fifth (and final) term as President, this time over European Federation chief Tijl Smitz (BEL) by 48-35.

Now 66, he helped to create the federation in 2007, and was named President, then won election in 2009-13-17-21-25. Scolaris has guided the sport into the Olympic program as an added sport at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 and as a mandatory sport for Los Angeles 2028 with separate competitions for all three events.

● Swimming ● USA Swimming made a long-awaited announcement of a new National Team Managing Director, hiring Stanford coach Greg Meehan, who was the school’s women’s coach from 2012-23 and win three straight NCAA team titles in 2017-18-19.

He was 2020 U.S. Olympic Women’s Head Coach, and assistant coach for the 2016 and 2024 Games. He was the women’s head coach for the U.S. swim teams at the 2017 and 2019 World Aquatics Championships, and an assistant in 2015 and 2022.

Meehan replaces Lindsay Minentko, who served in that role from 2017-24. Coaches had lobbied hard for her replacement to be an experienced coach, as was her predecessor, Frank Busch (ex-Arizona) from 2011-17.

≡ RESULTS ≡

● Archery ● The World Archery World Cup opener was in Auburndale, Florida, Germany’s Florian Unruh, a Mixed Team silver winner in Paris last year, got a major win over an Olympic champion.

Unruh, 31, dominated the men’s Recurve final against Tokyo 2020 Olympic winner Mete Gazoz (TUR), 7-3, winning the first, second and fifth ends, 30-26, 30-28 and 30-29. India’s Dhiraj Bommdevara took the bronze.

Britain’s 2023 European Games champ Penny Healey was a convincing winner in the women’s recurve final by 6-0 over Alejandra Valencia (MEX), while China’s Jiaman Li, a Paris 2024 Team silver medalist, won the bronze-medal match over 2023 World Champion Casey Kaufhold of the U.S., also 6-0.

China won the men’s Team Recurve final convincingly, 5-1, over India, with Chinese Taipei in third; and China also won the women’s Team gold over the U.S. trio of Kaufhold, Catalina GNoriega and Jennifer Mucino, 5-3. The Recurve Mixed Team final went to Valencia and Matias Grande (MEX) by 5-3 over Elia Canales and Pablo Acha of Spain, with Germany third.

In the Compound Mixed Team event now added to the 2028 Olympic program, India’s Jyothi Vennam and Rishabh Yadav won the final over I-Jou Huang and Chieh-Lun Chen (TPE), 153-151, with a 39-36 win in end no. four.

● Artistic Swimming ● The second leg of the World Aquatics World Cup was in Somabay (EGY), with two-time 2024 World Cup Super Final medal winner Klara Bleyer taking the women’s Solo Technical at 238.2966 over Ukraine’s 17-year-old Daria Moshynska (234.3666) Bleyer then finished second to Italy’s Enrica Piccoli in the women’s Solo Free, 215.3751 to 208.3589.

In the women’s Duet Technical, Russian “neutrals” Mayya Doroshko and Tatiana Gayday scored 268.0551 to edge Ukraine’s Moshynska and Anastasiia Shmonina (261.6125). The second Russian pair, 18-year-olds Anastaiia Sidorina and Veronika Sokolova won the Women’s Duet Free at 256.0388, ahead of Japan’s Uta Kobayashi and Tomoka Sato.

Spain’s Dennis Gonzalez and Mirela Hernandez won the Mixed Duet Tech at 207.3858, over Sitong Guo and Haoyue Shi (CHN: 196.1908) and followed up with another win in the Mixed Duet Free at 273.6421, well ahead of Thailand’s Kantinan Adisaisiributr and Supitchaya Songpan (237.6159).

The men’s Technical was won by 16-year-old Muye Guo (CHN: 224.5450), who also took the men’s Solo Free at 196.7401.

Spain won the Team Technical (276.2168) and the Team Free (317.8093), with Ukraine taking the Team Acrobatic (200.011).

At the USA Artistic Swimming national championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, Mona Schweikert won the Solo Technical title at 217.8767, over Emily Robinson (195.5075) and then Schweikert and Sophie Schroeder won the women’s Duet Technical final at 252.333, ahead of Noriko Gervacio-Denda and Anusha Murarka (233.5042).

Schweikert and Schroeder then took the Duet Free final at 223.8791, winning by more than 70 points. Daria Rodova won the Solo Free final, scoring 162.6625. 

● Athletics ● Fast sprinting at the World Athletics Continental Tour Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone (BOT), with a world-leading men’s 100 m in 9.90 into a 1.4 m/s headwind by South Africa’s Akani Simbine, with Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala in second at 10.00.

Headliner Letsile Tebogo, the Olympic 200 m champ, thrilled the home crowd with a 20.23 win (-1.6) in the featured men’s 200 m, but the world lead went to Sinesipho Dambile in the second race, winning in 20.01 over Collen Kebinatshipi (BOT: 20:13), into 1.8 m/s headwind.

Botswana’s Paris 4×400 m relay silver-medal star Bayapo Ndori just missed the men’s 400 m world lead – by 1/100th – winning in 44.35, and world 800 m leader Kethobogile Haingura (BOT) took his race in 1:44.18.

American Marquis Dendy won the long jump at 7.94 m (26-0 3/4) and Rio 2016 gold medalist Dalilah Muhammad won the women’s 400 m over fellow American Cassandra Tate, 53.81 to 55.59.

South Africa’s women’s Olympic javelin silver winner, Jo-Ane van Dyk won at 61.23 m (200-10) with Ariana Ince of the U.S. in fourth (54.78 m/179-9).

The first European Running Championships were in Brussels and Leuven (BEL), opening with France’s Jimmy Gressier, the 2021 European Cross Country winner, storming away in the second 5 km to win the men’s Half Marathon in 59:45, a lifetime best, and crossing the line by hurdling over the finish tape! Norway’s Awet Kibrab was a distant second in 1:01:08.

Why the jump? Said Gressier: “I celebrated like this because I will do steeplechase in the summer.”

Home favorites Chloe Herbiet and Juliette Thomas went 1-2 in the women’s Half in 1:10:43 and 1:10:57, with Sara Nestola (ITA: 1:11:26) a distant third.

France scored a 1-2 in the men’s 10 km with Yann Schrub and Etienne Daguinos in 27:37 and 27:46, and Italian star Nadia Battocletti, the Paris women’s 10,000 m runner-up, won the women’s 10 km road title with ease, finishing in 31:10 to 31:25 for Eva Dieterich (GER).

Italy got a second win in the men’s marathon with a surprise from Illiass Aouani, breaking free only in the final meters to win in 2:09:05 from Israelis Gashau Ayale (2:09:08), Maru Teferi (2:09:17) and Haimro Alame (2:09:27). It was Aouani’s second career marathon.

Spain claimed the women’s marathon title – and a 1-2 finish – with Fatima Ouhaddou Nafie in 2:27:14 and Majida Maayouf (2:27:41), ahead of two more Israelis: Lonah Salpeter (2:28:01) and Maor Tiyouri (2:28:01).

Paris Olympic 20 km silver medalist Caio Bonfim (BRA) dominated the World Athletics Race Walk Tour Gold race in Rio Maior (POR), winning in 1:20:47 over four-time Worlds medal winner Perseus Karlstrom (SWE: 1:21:26).

Ecuador’s Paula Torres, ninth in the Paris 20 km, scored an impressive win in the women’s race in 1:29:47, walking to a 15-second victory over 2022 World Champion Kimberly Garcia Leon (PER).

Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki, a two-time Olympian who was the 2011 Worlds men’s 800 m silver medalist, was killed in a shelling by rebels in the North Darfur region according to a local media report. He was 35.

● Beach Volleyball ● Another classic showdown in the men’s final of the Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 in Saquarema (BRA) between the last two Olympic gold medal teams: Paris winners David Ahman and Jonatan Helvig (SWE) and Tokyo champs Anders Mol and Christian Sorum (NOR).

This time it was Mol and Sorum with a straight-sets win, 21-18, 21-15, the 27th career FIVB World Tour win for the Norwegian stars.

Third place went to Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot (NED), who defeated the surprise team of the tournament, 23rd-seeded Pedro de Oliveira and Renato de Carvalho (BRA), 21-11, 21-14.

The women’s tournament played out exactly according to seeds, with the Brazilian pair of Thamela Galil and Victoria Tosta (BRA) defeating second-seeded Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher of the U.S. by 21-19, 16-21, 15-10.

In the third-place match, the 2022 Worlds bronze winners, Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann (GER) defeated Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw of the U.S., 21-16, 21-16.

● Curling ● The Grand Slam of Curling’s final tournament of the season, the Players’ Championship was in Toronto (CAN), with re-matches of the 2025 World Championships in both the men’s and women’s final.

The women had Worlds winner Rachel Homan (CAN) and her rink against the legendary Swiss squad skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni (SUI), the defending champion in this tournament. The Swiss got single points in the third and fourth ends to go up 2-0 and then 4-1 by the end of the sixth.

But Homan slammed back with three in the seventh to tie. But Tirinzoni’s rink managed a match and tournament-winner in the eighth for a 5-4 victory and a second straight Players’ title.

The men’s final had World Champion Bruce Mouat (SCO), the winner of this tournament in 2021 and 2022 facing Worlds finalist Yannick Schwaller (SUI) again. Mouat tied the match at 2-2 with two points in the fourth, then scored two in the sixth for a 4-3 lead, extended to 5-3 in the seventh. But Schwaller got two in the eighth to tie, only to see Mouat got a final point in the extra end and won, 6-5.

For Schwaller, it was his second final at the Players’ in the last three seasons, but he’s now 0-2.

● Cycling ● The 122nd edition of the famed Paris-Roubaix race covered 259.2 km total, with 55 km of cobbled roads across 30 different sections and was expected to be a showdown between two-time defending champion Mathieu van der Poel (NED) and Slovenian star Tadej Pogacar.

It was.

Pogacar attacked with 72 km to go, breaking down a lead group of five with only van der Poel and Belgian Jasper Philipsen keeping pace. With 45 km left, Philipsen let go and then it was 1×1 until, with 38 km left, Pogacar missed a corner, hit a crash barrier and had to change bikes; by then, van der Poel had a 20-second lead and could not be touched.

Winning for the third time in a row – not done since 1978-79-80 by Italy’s Francesco Moser – van der Poel crossed all alone in 5:31:27, with Pogacar second (+1:18) and Mads Pedersen (DEN) winning a three-way sprint for third (+2:11).

The women’s race was another monument to the talent of 33-year-old French star Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, the 12-time World Championships gold medalist in Mountain Bike, but also a dangerous road racer, and the 2014 Worlds Road Race winner.

Now concentrating on the roads, she scored her biggest win since that 2014 victory, negotiating the 148.5 km course from Denain to Roubaix – with 29.2 km of cobbled roads – in 3:40:07, breaking free of the peloton with 19 km to go and winning easily. Even more impressive is that she had been ill a couple of days before and wasn’t even sure she could go!

Italy’s Letizia Borghesi was second (+0:58), with Dutch stars Lorena Wiebes and Marianne Vos both at +1:01 in third and fourth. Chloe Dygert was the top American, in eighth (+1:06). In the fifth running of the women’s race, Ferrand-Prevot is the first French winner!

Portugal’s 26-year-old Joao Almeida got his biggest win yet by taking the 64th Itzulia Basque Country stage race in Spain by a hefty 1:52 over Spain’s Enric Mas and by 1:59 against Maxmilian Schachmann (GER).

Schachmann won the first-stage time trial and held the lead through three stages, then Almeida took over with a 28-second win in the hilly fourth stage and was never headed. He also won the final sixth stage in a sprint finish with Mas.

The second weekend of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Araxa (BRA) saw American Christopher Blevins move up from silver in the first Cross Country Olympic men’s race to the top spot on Saturday, winning a three-way dash to the finish in 1:22:42 to 1:22:44 for last week’s bronze winner Martin Vidaurre (CHI) and 1:22:45 for Adrien Boichis (FRA).

Blevins also won the Short-Course race on Friday in 21:02 over last week’s XCO winner, Victor Koretzky (FRA: 21:07) and 10-time World Champion Nino Schurter (SUI: 21:09).

Rio 2016 Olympic gold winner Jenny Rissveds won the women’s Cross Country in 1:26:59, racing away from last week’s winner, Samara Maxwell (NZL: 1:27:27) on the third lap, with 2021 World Champion Evie Richards (GBR: 1:27:33) in third. Richards took the Short Course race on Friday in 21:24, ahead of last week’s XCO runner-up, Laura Koller (SUI: 21:25) and Rissveds (21:25).

● Diving ● The second World Aquatics World Cup was in Windsor (CAN), with the Chinese continuing to dominate, winning eight of the nine events.

The men’s Springboard saw Britain’s Jourdan Houlden score a big win at 470.85, followed by American Carson Tyler (20) at 447.65 and China’s Jiyuan Zheng (also 20) at 433.15. Zheng teamed with Yukang Hu to win the 3 m Synchro title at 388.05, with Mexico’s Osmar Olvera and Juan Celaya claiming silver at 381.72; Americans Jack Ryan and Quentin Henninger took the bronze at 374.73.

The men’s 10 m was a Chinese 1-2 with Zilong Cheng coming from ninth after the first dive to win the last two and take the gold with 511.10 points, ahead of countryman Zifeng Zhu (499.40) and Ukraine’s 2024 Worlds bronzer Oleksii Sereda (490.80). American Joshua Hedberg was sixth at 413.30. Cheng and Zhu were easy winners in the 10 m Synchro with 437.25 points, with the U.S. pair of Hedberg and Carson Tyler second at 387.90.

In the women’s 3 m Springboard, Jia Chen won for the second straight World Cup, edging Olympic champ Yiwen Chen, 379.05 to 369.90, with Australia’s Paris 2024 silver winner Maddison Keeney third (336.55).

In the 3 m Synchro, Olympic champions Chen and Yani Chang were easy winners at 312.54, followed by Canada’s Sonya Palkhivala and Amelie-Laura Jasmin (276.30); Americans Kyndal Knight and Anna Kwong finished sixth (257.40).

In the women’s Platform diving, Paris silver winner Yuxi Chen (19) and Olympic champ Hongchan Quan (18) went 1-2 at 417.55 and 407.55, with American Anna Lemkin in 11th at 263.30. In the 10 m Synchro, China’s Wei Lu and Minjie Zhang won at 327.36, ahead of Mexico’s Gabriela Agundez and Alejandra Estudillo (291.90), with Lemkin and Lanie Gutch of the U.S. in fourth (274.26).

China won the Mixed Team event, with Yuxi Chen, Yiwen Chen, Zilong Cheng and Zongyuan Wong with 478.80 points, way ahead of Mexico (412.70) and Italy (402.45), with the U.S. (Gutch, Jack Ryan, Sophia Verzyl and Tyler) in fifth, scoring 385.85.

● Gymnastics ● A break-out performance for 17-year-old Jayla Hang of the U.S. at the FIG Apparatus World Cup in Osijek (CRO)!

The World Junior All-Around fourth-placer in 2023, Hang started with a bronze on the Vault at 13.766, behind winner Valentina Georgieva (BUL: 14.149) and China’s Linmin Yu (14.066). She was eighth on the Uneven Bars (11.666), won by China’s Fanyuwei Yang (13.766), then scored a silver on Beam, behind only Eythora Thorsdottir (NED), 13.900 to 13.766.

Finally, Hang won on Floor, scoring 13.466, ahead of Israeli Yali Shoshani (13.300), for her second career World Cup gold and third medal of the meet. 

Israel scored two men’s wins, with Tokyo Olympic Floor winner Artem Dolgopyat winning that event at 14.133, ahead of American Jun Iwai (14.133), earning a medal in his World Dup debut.

Ron Pyatov got the other Israeli gold, winning the Parallel Bars at 14.300, ahead of Italy’s Lorenzo Minh Casali (14.133).

Armenia’s Hamlet Manukyan took the Pommel Horse (14.633), 2022 World Champion Adem Asil (TUR) won on Rings in a tight battle with Nikita Simonov, 14.700 to 14.500, and Croatia’s Aurel Benovic scored a 14.400 to 14.383 win on Vault over Paris Olympic bronze medalist Harry Hepworth (14.383).

Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi, the 2023 Worlds Floor bronze winner, took the Horizontal Bar title at 14.666, over Alexander Myakinin (ISR: 14.433) with Iwai in eighth place (12.433).

● Ice Hockey ● At the IIHF Women’s World Championships in Ceske Budejovice (CZE), the undefeated American and Canadian teams faced off on Sunday after two easy wins each. The U.S. handled Finland, 7-1 and the Czechs by 4-0 and Canada posted victories against the Finns (5-0) and by 4-0 against the Swiss.

The U.S. took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by defender Lee Stecklein at 10:36 and then double the edge at 12:22 of the second from a slick goal by defender Megan Keller, taking the puck at center ice, weaving through three defenders and wristing a shot past two more. The Americans had an 18:12 edge on shots after two periods.

In the third, the U.S. was aggressive, but Canada got right back in it with a goal at 6:50 from Laura Stacey, but that was all the scoring. The U.S. controlled the action, even when Canada added an extra attacker in the last two minutes and American keeper Aerin Frankel turned away a Stacey try in the final minute to preserve the 2-1 victory. The U.S. ended with a 28-19 shots edge for the game.

In the 24 prior women’s Worlds, the U.S. and Canada have played in the final in 23 of them, and four straight and will be favored to do so again. Group play continues through the 15th with the playoffs beginning on 17 April.

● Ski Mountaineering ● The ninth and final ISMF World Cup of the season was in Tromso (NOR), with Swiss Remi Bonnet finishing a perfect Vertical Race season with his fourth win in four races, in 18:41.9, comfortably ahead of Belgian Maximilien Drion du Chapois (18:57.6).

The men’s Sprint went to Swiss Thomas Bussard for his first win of the season, ahead of teammate Jon Kistler. The Individual Race on Sunday was another win for Bonnet, in 1:02:41.6, ahead of Davide Magnini (ITA: 1:03:14.5) and teammate Matteo Eydallin (1:04:29.7). Bonnet also won all four of the Individual World Cup races this season.

The women’s Vertical saw the third win in four races for French star Axelle Gachet Mollaret, an easy winner in 22:00.2, ahead of teammate Emily Harrop (22:37.7). In the Sprint, it was Harrop once again, with her seventh win in seven races in 3:30.2, beating Marianne Fatton (SUI: 3:24.8).

Sunday’s Individual Race was a second gold – and a perfect, four-for-four season, for Gachet Mollaret (1:14:14.1), again ahead of Harrop (1:16:11.8) and Alba de Silvesto (ITA: 1:17:09.7).

● Swimming ● A world record in the men’s 400 m Freestyle, with Germany’s Olympic champ Lukas Martens winning the Stockholm Open in Sweden in 3:39.96 to remove the 3:40.07 by countryman Paul Biedermann from 2009.

Martens smashed another of the “super suit” world records, aided by polyurethane swim suits which were banned in 2010. Men’s world marks from the “super suit” era remain in the 50 m Free, 200 m Free (by Biedermann), 800 m Free and 200 m Backstroke, plus the 4×200 m Freestyle.

● Water Polo ● Defending champion Spain and emerging power Greece faced off in the World Cup men’s final in Podgorica (MNE), after the Greeks defeated Hungary, 18-14, in their semi and the Spanish got by Croatia, 19-14.

Greece had not make the final of this tournament since 1997, but jumped on the 2023 World Cup winners with a 4-2 lead after the first period, but after an 10-goal second quarter, the game was tied, 8-8, at half. The Spanish poured in four more in the third for a 12-10 lead, and held on. Both sides scored four in the fourth and Spain prevailed, 16-14. It’s their second straight title after having never made the final before their 2023 win.

In the third-place match, Hungary and Croatia were in a 14-14 tie after regulation and went to a penalty shoot-out, with the Hungarians managing a final, 18-15 victory.

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ATHLETICS: Discus insanity in Oklahoma, with two world records for Alekna in same series, American Record for Allman!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Men’s discus world-record holder Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania (Photo: Marta Gorczynska for Diamond League AG).

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≡ DISCUS RECORD FRENZY ≡

At the thrower-friendly Throw Town World Invitational in Ramona, Oklahoma, the discus was again the star, thanks to astonishing winds which allow the platter to go further than anywhere else. After a world record in the men’s discus in 2024 by Lithuanian star Mykolas Alekna, field-event fans had this weekend circled.

Things got crazy starting on Saturday for the women. Louisville’s NCAA runner-up and Paris Olympic Jayden Ulrich extended her lifetime best by more than 3 m in round one, getting out to 69.39 m (227-8) for the world lead in 2025 and moving to no. 3 all-time U.S.!

But Olympic champ Valarie Allman and 2023 World Champion Lagi Tausaga-Collins were both watching and blew up the A section! Allman reached 69.52 m (228-1) on her first throw, only to lose the lead to Tausaga-Collins with a world-leading 70.72 m (232-0).

No problem for Allman, who whirled to a world-leading 73.52 m (241-2) monster in round three, improving her American Record by 2 m from 71.46 m (234-5) in 2022) and now to no. 6 all-time! It’s the longest throw in the women’s disc since 1989! And it’s the no. 10 throw ever.

And even with the aiding wind, one can make the case that this was likely the longest throw ever – a world record – with doping controls actually in place.

Allman continued with a great series, finishing with 66.71 m (218-1), 68.10 m (223-5) and a mighty 70.16 m (230-2). Allman authored the no. 1 and 9 throws in U.S. history; Tausaga stays at as the no. 2 performer ever and her throw is no. 6 ever.

In third was Veronica Fraley, the 2024 NCAA champ and Paris Olympian for Vanderbilt, who also got a lifetime best at 68.72 m (225-5) on her first throw, now no. 4 in U.S. history.

The men’s discus was on Sunday, and was insane. Throwing fourth in the first round of the A section was American Sam Mattis, who scored a lifetime best of 70.08 m (229-11) in Thursday’s Oklahoma Throws Series meet, to move to no. 8 all-time U.S. He unloaded another PR on Sunday, this time at 71.27 m (233-1), the no. 2 throw in American history! Only Ben Plucknett’s 1983 monster of 71.32 m (234-0) is longer.

Lithuania’s Alekna, the Olympic silver winner in Paris and at the 2023 Worlds – who set the world record in this meet last year – was the final thrower in the first round and responded brilliantly, taking the lead with another world-record throw, of 74.89 m (245-8)!

Then Australia’s Olympic bronze winner Matthew Denny, who won Thursday’s Oklahoma Throws Series meet at 74.25 m (243-7) and moved to no. 2 all-time, got hot again and reached 70.72 m (232-0) in round two and 72.24 m (237-0) in round three to pass Mattis for second and backed that up with a 71.78 m (235-6) toss in round four.

Then came Alekna, now trying for a world record on every throw, and he did it again to end the fourth round, spinning out to a stupendous 75.56 m (247-1)!

That’s two world records in the same series, done only once before, 49 years ago, when Olympic champion-to-be Mac Wilkins of the U.S. reached 69.80 m (229-0), 70.24 m (230-5) and 70.86 m (232-6) in San Jose, California on 1 May 1976!

Alekna fouled on his last two tries, but Denny was in rhythm and improved to 74.78 m (245-4) in round five and reached 73.36 m (240-8) in round six.

So, after Sunday’s carnage, the all-time list of the best throws ever (including secondary throws in series):

● 75.56 m (247-1), Mykolas Alekna (LTU), 2025
● 74.89 m (245-8), M. Alekna 2025 ~ in series
● 74.78 m (245-4), Matthew Denny (AUS), 2025
● 74.35 m (243-11), M. Alekna, 2024
● 74.25 m (243-7), Denny 2025
● 74.08 m (243-0), Jurgen Schult (GDR), 1986
● 73.88 m (242-8), Virgilijus Alekna (LTU), 2000
● 73.56 m (241-4), Denny 2025 ~ in series
● 73.46 m (241-0), Denny 2025 ~ in series
● 73.38 m (240-9), Gerd Kanter (EST), 2006 (10/5)

Seven of the top 10 ever were all in Ramona, in 2024 and 2025!

Elsewhere, Rachel Tanczos of the U.S. grabbed the world lead in the women’s hammer with a lifetime best 78.80 m (258-6) on her fifth throw on Friday, moving to no. 3 all-time U.S.!

Current men’s javelin world leader Curtis Thompson of the U.S. won at 81.97 m (268-11).

Incredible. And only in Oklahoma.

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ATHLETICS: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce apparently means it this time, will retire after 2025 season

By
Rich Perelman
-
Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce celebrates her 200 m win at the Pan American Games in Lima (Photo: Lima 2019)

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≡ SHELLY-ANN FRASER-PRYCE ≡

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games did not go the way Jamaican superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce wanted. She qualified second in her heat of the women’s 100 m in 10.92, but an injury sidelined her for the semis and left her not only out of the 100, but the 4×100 m relay as well.

Although she expected to retire after Paris, she has now indicated she’ll be back – at 38 – for one more season in 2025, although she has not raced yet:

● She told Fox5 New York during a 29 January interview promoting her plant-based hair-care line Afimi, that she “has one more year left.”

● Last Thursday (10th), she posted a career highlights video and added “unfinished business.”

It’s hard to overestimate the impact that Fraser-Pryce  – all of five feet tall – has had as an athlete and a role model, especially in Jamaica.

She made her first World Championships appearance in 2007 on the Jamaican 4×100 m relay that won silver and then went on a tear:

● 2007: Worlds 4×100 m silver
● 2008: Olympic 100 m gold
● 2009: Worlds 100 m gold, 4×100 m gold
● 2011: Worlds 4×100 m silver
● 2012: Olympic 100 m gold, 200 m silver, 4×100 m silver
● 2013: Worlds 100 m gold, 200 m gold, 4×100 m gold
● 2015: Worlds 100 m gold, 4×100 m gold
● 2016: Olympic 100 m bronze, 4×100 m silver
● 2019: Worlds 100 m gold, 4×100 m gold
● 2021: Olympic 100 m silver, 4×100 m gold
● 2022: Worlds 100 m gold, 200 m silver, 4×100 m silver
● 2023: Worlds 100 m bronze, 4×100 m silver

That’s eight Olympic medals (3-4-1) and 16 Worlds medals (10-5-1) across 16 seasons, including time out for maternity. She had the world-leading 100 m mark in six different seasons, including 2008-12-13-15-19-22, and is no. 3 all-time at 10.60 from 2021 (post-maternity). Amazing.

Fraser-Pryce said in her Fox5 interview that her return to gold in 2019 after having a son was especially impressive for her, as she wasn’t sure she could get back to championship form.

She has been running more sparingly in recent seasons, with 11 meets in the 100 and 200 m in 2022, then only four in 2023 and just three in 2024, all in the 100 m, ending after the heats in Paris.

Even with an abbreviated season in 2024, she still ranked 13th in the world at 10.91, so if she can fully healthy, she can be a factor in 2025. But she will end her career as an icon, for sure.

Fraser-Pryce will join former 400 m hurdles world-record holder and 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad (USA) as confirming their retirements after this season.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: LA28 removes equestrian from Galway Downs in Temecula; Santa Anita tipped as replacement

By
Rich Perelman
-
A Frederiksborg horse (Photo: FEI).

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≡ MORE VENUE MOVES ≡

/Updated/In the bid stage for the 2024 Olympic Games, the Los Angeles team proposed a temporary facility for Equestrian in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, which remained the plan for the 2028 Olympic Games, awarded in 2017.

That was changed in a 21 June 2024 announcement that the 242-acre equestrian facility at Galway Downs in Temecula would be the site for all of the equestrian events: Dressage, Jumping and Eventing.

This followed a stated desire by Olympic Broadcasting Services, the television production arm of the International Olympic Committee, to place all of the equestrian events in one place to increase the drama and reduce costs and production complexities. The selection of Galway Downs was approved as a venue change out of the City of Los Angeles on 28 March, subject to LA28 moving sailing to San Pedro; nevertheless, LA28 announced the approvals in a statement.

However, last Wednesday (9th), the LA28 organizers informed Galway Downs that it would not be hosting equestrian; Galway Downs owner Ken Smith said in a statement:

“We are extremely surprised that we were suddenly removed from consideration. We don’t understand how, based on the March 28 [Los Angeles] City Council’s vote of approval, that this could happen.

“When we started this process more than four years ago, we understood the equestrian venue selection for LA28 would be a highly competitive, evolving process. Being selected as the proposed equestrian venue put Galway Downs and Temecula Valley on the world stage. We’re very proud of that, and we’re just getting started. Galway Downs will continue to host elite national and international competitions as well as additional sporting events.”

And he wasn’t the only one surprised:

● Said Temecula Mayor Brenden Kalfus:

“Galway Downs has showcased its equestrian center in Temecula Valley as the superior venue capable of hosting all Olympic equestrian games.

“While the city is disheartened to learn of this abrupt change, particularly in light of LA28’s venue approval granted by the Los Angeles City Council just two weeks ago, we remain confident that Galway Downs will continue its legacy and mission uninterrupted as a vibrant, world-class Olympic-caliber equestrian presence in Temecula Valley.”

● U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (R-Temecula) said in a published statement on Saturday:

“I’m deeply disappointed to learn that Galway Downs in Temecula is reportedly no longer LA28’s proposed host site for equestrian events at the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games. This abrupt move appears arbitrary, unwarranted, and our community deserves a clear explanation of the process that led to this change. At this time, a satisfactory reason has yet to be offered.

“It must be said that for several years, the state-of-the-art facility at Galway Downs, the city of Temecula, and the Riverside County community have prepared to host these important events and showcase the very best that all three have to offer. Significant investments in time, material, and preparation have already been dedicated to serving as the host site, and Galway Downs is the only equestrian venue in the greater Los Angeles region with the existing infrastructure to accommodate all Equestrian Events, including a full-length cross-country course.

“I look forward to productive and informative conversations and a more comprehensive transparent process that provides fundamental fairness to Galway Downs and unifies our Southern California community as we welcome the world to our home in 2028.”

LA28 has not revealed a new venue for equestrian. The sport was held at Riviera Country Club for dressage and jumping in 1932 with the cross-country competition on a road course in Westchester. In 1984, Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California hosted dressage and jumping, but the cross-country event was held at Fairbanks Ranch Country Club in San Diego, California.

San Diego is also the home to the 212-acre Del Mar Fairgrounds, which includes a long-established – since 1937 – thoroughbred racing meet, now from 18 July to 7 September in 2025 plus 30 October to 30 November. It will host the Breeders’ Cup world championship on 31 October and 1 November this year. Del Mar could be an alternative if a suitable course for the cross-country event can be determined.

/Update/A post on dressage-news.com reported that Santa Anita would be the 2028 site, as it was in 1984. Part of the permanent grandstand and temporary seating was used to create a 33,000-seat venue for Dressage and Jumping then, but the summer weather was considered too hot for horses for the cross-country event and so it was held at Fairbanks Ranch, requiring the horses to be transported south and then north again. No announcement from LA28 as yet.

At present, there are nine full sports, two sports disciplines and the football prelims sites which are not located as yet for the 2028 Olympic Games:

● Boxing
● Cycling/Road and Mountain Bike
● Equestrian
● Football preliminaries (to be held out of state)
● Sport Climbing
● Surfing (expected to be Huntington Beach or Lower Tresles)
● Shooting (expected to be Prado Olympic Shooting Park or another local site)
● Volleyball (Beach and Indoor)
● Baseball (expected to be Dodger Stadium)
● Cricket T20
● Squash

While the International Olympic Committee approved the overall venue master plan at its Executive Board meeting last week, it has left announcements of specific venue moves to the LA28 organizers.

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ATHLETICS: Lots of critiques and suggestions for Michael Johnson following Grand Slam Track I in Kingston

By
Rich Perelman
-
SportsMax TV anchor Mariah Kelly and analyst Leighton Levy reviewing Grand Slam Track I (Image: SportsMax.tv screen shot).

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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK ≡

One sign of success for the debut of the Grand Slam Track circuit last weekend in Kingston, Jamaica, is the continuing chatter about it in track & field circles.

For U.S. fans, for whom any kind of news coverage of track & field is a surprise, consider that the Caribbean sports channel SportsMax.tv devoted 19 minutes to a review of the circuit debut, primarily with SportsMax.tv editor and track and field analyst Leighton Levy (JAM).

Asked if the meet was hit-or-miss, Levy said:

“Hit in terms of the performances, and miss in terms of the crowd.

“The crowd engagement was fine but the numbers weren’t what they were expecting. … [Founder] Michael Johnson alluded to that yesterday when we spoke after the after the meet concluded; he said the crowd was disappointing but they were engaged.

“And that is where it was let down because I think they made a number of – I don’t want to call them flubs – but I don’t think they understand or understood the culture of Jamaica or the nuances that affect this country in terms of disposable income and those other things that I believe impacted the the attendance.

“For example, Sunday at 12:00, most Jamaicans are thinking about Sunday dinner, are not thinking about leaving their homes, and on a Friday, you know, 5:30 in the evening is when most people are leaving work and battling what usually is gridlock traffic or on a Friday afternoon in the city.

“Those are some of the things that I think impacted the attendance overall but in terms of the performances I don’t think anybody can complain.”

Anchor Mariah Kelly added:

“One of the things I found that really stood out for me was the professionalism, like when I walked into the National Stadium, I think the atmosphere was nice, the environment, I just wish it had a bit of Caribbean flavor to it which I felt lacked personally.

“Because you know one of the things Caribbean people like is music and entertainment and all of that and I felt like if there was that bit of flavor it probably would have drawn a bit more people.”

Levy wasn’t sure better entertainment would have helped, and observed:

“I think the timing of the meet in terms of when it started for one, and I don’t think there was enough beating of the bushes on the ground in Jamaica.

“I think social media was fantastic in terms of how they engaged their their fans on social media – Instagram, Tik Tok – you know all the different platforms. But in terms of on-the-ground I don’t think there were a lot of people who were engaged, because I remember talking to some people in New Kingston about two-three weeks before the meet started and some of them weren’t even aware.”

He also mentioned the lack of some of the big-name stars who did not appear, such as Jamaican sprinters Shericka Jackson, Kishane Thompson or American Noah Lyles.

It was also noted that veteran track watchers in Jamaica do not want to sit in the National Stadium on the backstraight during daylight hours because it’s so hot. And it was.

Levy was asked about whether Grand Slam Track would return in 2025:

“Well it was difficult to say, because there were people who I was speaking to weren’t giving much away. What Michael Johnson did say, he was asked directly whether or not the Grand Slam leg has a future in Jamaica and he says everything is under review; that was all he was willing to say, which suggests to me that for right now they are not particularly convinced that Jamaica is the ideal venue for a Grand Slam meet.

“They want to see full stadiums, they want to see energy, which we did have, but it sells better – you sell a better product when you have fans from all sides of the stadium sharing and enjoying the proceedings and I think they were let down by the fan support.”

Co-anchor Ricardo Chambers said the fan issues can be fixed:

“I think the reasons can be fixed from Grand Slam’s standpoint because I think if they understand the culture, if they understand the reality of Jamaica and make certain adjustments, then you will see significantly better crowds, so I think that’s more on Grand Slam than it is on the fans.”

Levy added one last observation that Grand Slam Track invested $450,000 to resurface the track and made other upgrades to the stadium, and asked, “do you want to walk away from that investment?”

Johnson, to his credit, went to X on Monday and asked, “What can we do over the season to make @GrandSlamTrack better?”

He got dozens and dozens of replies; some of those which expressed recurring comments included:

● “Reduce dead time between events.”

● “More solid bibs” and “The bibs are ripped and make no sense just have actual jerseys.”

● “More storytelling, more behind the scenes, crowd engagement.”

● “Split screen in cases like the men’s 3k (winner on main cam, series battle in secondary cam).”

● “Pace of action is the biggest issue. Without field events, starts need to be much tighter. Too much dead air.

● “2+ hours 3 days in a row is a lot. Even as a super track fan, 2 days would be preferred.”

● “In stadium energy needs a boost. Pull out all stops to fill stands. Think about some visual effects – lights/pyro/other.”

● “Easily could’ve had field events. Athletes compete during down time btwn races. 3 jumps/throws each.”

● “Racers and challengers should intro themselves like the NFL: ‘Jason [Kelce] U of Cincinnati’ or something like that.

● “Butts in the seats. But what you’re attempting to do is exactly what we’ve all wanted. Betting, beer, speed = excitement. You’ve clearly got the comp, just set it in the right place, where the crowd matches the energy.”

And there was this reminder of reality:

“Tighter broadcast/timeline for sure. Need to keep the ante going, otherwise it is too easy to get into phone scrolling and get distracted, attention spans these days (for both in-stadium and TV).”

The second leg of the four-meet circuit comes from 2-4 May in Miramar, Florida, no doubt keeping some of these ideas in mind.

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SPORTS MEDICINE: Australian study showed 35% of non-certified sports supplements had World Anti-Doping Code-prohibited substances

By
Rich Perelman
-
An Australian study warned against the use of non-certified sports supplements (Photo: Wikipedia via ragesoss).

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≡ SUPPLEMENT DANGERS ≡

Sports supplements are commonly taken by elite athletes, but a new study released by Sport Integrity Australia once again rang the warning bell:

● “Of the 200 products tested, 35%, around one in three, were found to contain one or more WADA Prohibited Substances. This demonstrates that the risk from sports supplements in Australia remains high.”

● “In this most recent survey, 57% of the positive products did not list the prohibited ingredients on their packaging or website, leaving athletes vulnerable to unknowingly breaching anti-doping rules. Products marketed as pre-workouts, fat burners and muscle builders were the most likely to be contaminated.”

The study, completed in February 2025 and conducted by an independent lab commissioned to do testing by Sport Integrity Australia of commercially-available supplements, acquired 201 different products in random online orders:

“The categories of sports supplements (product type) provided to the purchaser to buy were amino acids, creatines, protein powders, fat burners, pre-workout, post workout, nootropics and muscle builders (including claims of testosterone boosters).”

Of these, fat burners made up more than a quarter of the total items obtained (~27%), with muscle builders second at 15%. The labels were inspected to see if any prohibited substances – according to the World Anti-Doping Code – were listed, and then tested. The results:

● 128 out of 201 (64%) had no issues with prohibited substances.
● 70 out of 201 (35%) included prohibited substances
● 3 out of 201 (1%) were not fully analyzable.

The results by supplement type for prohibited substances:

● 53% (17 of 32) of muscle-builders
● 49% (27 of 55) of fat burners
● 40% (2 of 5) of nootropics
● 34% (20 of 58) for pre-workout supplements
● 20% (1 of 5) for post-workout supplements
● 10% (2 of 21) of amino acids
● 7% (1 of 14) for protein supplements
● 0% (0 of 11) for creatine

In all, that’s 70 out of 201 or 35%, with all of the prohibited substances on one of the classes of anabolic agents, all strictly prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Code.

Of these 70 products which had banned substances, in terms of warnings to the user:

● 57% (40 of 70) had banned substances not disclosed on the label
● 40% (30 of 70) listed names or synonyms on the label

Six of the 70 had warnings on the label, “not to consume if subject to WADA testing.”

The conclusion was:

“The prevalence rate for products containing a WADA Prohibited Substance in this survey was 35%; therefore, an athlete purchasing an uncertified product online has a one in three chance that the product contains a WADA Prohibited Substance.”

Sport Integrity Australia Director of Research, Dr. Naomi Speers, “urged athletes to only use supplements that have been screened for prohibited substances by independent companies such as HASTA and Informed Sport, through a process known as batch testing.

“While no supplement is 100 per cent safe, batch-tested products significantly reduce the risk of contamination because an independent laboratory has already run some checks to see if the product contains a prohibited ingredient before it gets on the shelf.

“We encourage athletes to check all their supplements by using the Sport Integrity app.”

The app offers a list of more than 12,000 batch-tested supplements sold in Australia, and has been effective in reducing supplement-related positives, down to just one in 2024.

It is making a difference.

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PANORAMA: Cycling star Pogacar faces “Hell of the North” Sunday; disappointment on LA28 quotas for pentathlon, surfing and weightlifting

By
Rich Perelman
-
Four Il Lombardia titles in a row for Slovenia’s amazing Tadej Pogacar (Photo: UAE-Team Emirates).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● U.S. Center for SafeSport ● Fascinating article by high-performance coach and author George Perry on a possible future revision in the way that the U.S. Center for SafeSport operates.

Perry notes that the Center was created by Congress in 2018, but without any agency oversight:

● “Congress did not grant any government agency the power to regulate the Center for SafeSport; nor did Congress charge any agency with safeguarding America’s youth athletes. Congress conferred that power directly to a private nonprofit corporation, the Center for SafeSport.”

● “The 2018 amendment to the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act went even farther. Rather than simply giving the center unregulated and unreviewable authority to do as it sees fit, Congress delegated to the center its exclusive power to write laws.”

Because of this, Perry explained:

“This is known as dynamic incorporation, whereby Congress gives some other entity a free hand to promulgate rules that take on the force of U.S. federal law. …

“The Center for SafeSport, therefore, is sitting on an unprecedented dual grant of government power: it can set and enforce its own rules without any government review, and those rules take on the force of federal law.”

However, a case now being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, FCC v. Consumers’ Research, is testing this concept, about a delegation of power in the telecommunications sector. That decision could end up impacting the way SafeSport operates, including assignment of an agency parent charged with oversight.

● Cycling ● Lots of interest in Sunday’s 122nd Paris-Roubaix race, one of the five “Monument” races in the sport and famous (infamous?) for its heavy inclusion of teeth-chattering cobblestone roads (actually granite blocks) in the course.

The 2025 route from Compiegne to Roubaix is 259 km for the men, with 30 sections of cobbles totaling 55 km! Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel is the two-time defending champion, both times beating out Belgian star Jasper Philipsen.

But the focus will be on Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogacar, who won the 2024 Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the World Road title race last year and already owns wins in three Monument races:

● Ronde van Vlaanderen (2): 2023, 2025
● Liege-Bastogne-Liege (2): 2021, 2024
● Il Lombardia (4): 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

He missed out on a win at Milan-Sanremo on 22 March this year, finishing third for the second year in a row, in his fifth entry in the race. This will be his first try at Paris-Roubaix, nicknamed “L’Enfer du Nord” or “the Hell of the North.”

The fifth Paris-Roubaix women’s route is 148.5 km, riding on the final 17 sectors of the men’s course, with 29.2 km of cobbles. Belgian star Lotte Kopecky is the defending champion, also second in 2022 and coming off an important win in the Ronde van Vlaanderen race on 6 April.

Canada’s Alison Jackson, the 2023 winner, is also entered.

● Ice Hockey ● In Wednesday’s opening matches of the IIHF Women’s World Championship in Ceske Budejovice (CZE), the U.S. smashed Finland, 7-1, in the opener and the host Czech Republic blanked Switzerland, 3-0.

Hayley Scamurra had two goals for the U.S. and Aerin Frankel turned away 19 of 20 shots in goal.

On Thursday, Canada had no trouble with Finland, 5-0, with Jennifer Gardiner scoring twice.

Group play will continue through the 15th.

● Modern Pentathlon ● The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne responded to the loss of eight athlete entry quota spots for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in an unhappy statement:

“We note with considerable disappointment the decision by the IOC to reduce the LA28 quota for Modern Pentathlon from 72 to 64 athletes. It is clear that the selection of five new team sports especially for LA28 has created a challenge around overall athlete numbers.

“The decision is difficult to accept after everything the Pentathlon community has done to help remodel our historic multisport to become a leader in sport innovation, in line with the future direction of the Olympic Games. Modern Pentathlon worked in close collaboration with the IOC throughout this process, making the news even more unexpected. We look forward to further dialogue with the IOC Sports Department on this matter.

“That said, our community is resilient and we will prove to the world in three years’ time that our new-look Pentathlon is worth an enhanced, not diluted, place in future Games.”

● Shooting ● The International Shooting Sport Federation welcomed the announcement of its 2028 event program, and added that there will be changes to the formats of some events:

● The number of athletes in finals for Skeet and Trap and the men’s 25m Rapid-Fire Pistol will increase from six to eight, the same as the other individual finals.

● The 50 m Rifle/3 Positions final will be from the standing position only; however, qualifying will remain prone, kneeling and standing sections. This will speed up the timing of the event and help with television coverage.

● Mixed team finals will move from one-on-one medal matches to four teams shooting at once, with an elimination format after each round.

These format changes will apply as of 1 January 2026 and be included in the qualifying events for the LA28 Games.

The ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires (ARG) concluded on Thursday with two Mixed Team events. It was an all-China final in the Mixed Team 10 m Air Pistol, as Qianke Ma and Yifan Zhang defeated Qianxun Yao and Ku Hai, 16-10.

The Chinese Taipei team of Kun-Pi Yang and Wan-Yu Liu won the Mixed Team Trap gold, dispatching Australia’s Mitchell Iles and Penny Smith, 35-32.

China topped the medal table with 11 (5-3-3), ahead of India (8: 4-2-2) and the U.S. (6: 2-3-1).

● Surfing ● “The International Surfing Association (ISA) acknowledges with disappointment the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to include Longboard Surfing in the LA28 Olympic Games.

“The ISA appreciated the opportunity to present Longboard’s value for Olympic inclusion and are grateful for its consideration in the LA28 program. While our request for additional athletes for Shortboard Surfing was also declined, we will continue our push for greater participation at the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.”

The Shortboard discipline was continued for 2028, with 48 athletes to compete.

● Weightlifting ● The International Weightlifting Federation acknowledged the allocation of 120 athlete spots for the 2028 Olympic Games, with some disappointment:

“While the International Weightlifting Federation had requested an increase of the existing bodyweight categories (from five to seven, for both men and women) with a minimal impact on the final number of athletes (from the present 120, to 126), our International Federation understands that within the context of keeping the 10’500-athlete overall quota (excluding the five sports proposed by the LA28 OCOG), there wasn’t a wide available margin for the sport of Weightlifting.”

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LANE ONE: Who won and who lost in the IOC’s 2028 Olympic events derby? Plus, why no beach volleyball in Santa Monica now makes sense

By
Rich Perelman
-
Artist's rendering of the LA28 gymnastics venue in downtown Los Angeles (Image: LA28)

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≡ LA28 IN SHARPER FOCUS ≡

The announcement of the 2028 Olympic event program and the athlete entry quotas for each revealed Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee inevitably has winners and losers among the 31 primary sports now part of the Games.

Here are five winning changes for six International Federations for 2028:

● Aquatics
Two long-sought additions to the aquatics program were made, with the addition of the men’s and women’s 50 m Backstrokes, Breaststrokes and Butterflys and the addition of four teams in women’s water polo, so that both the men’s and women’s tournaments have 12 teams.

World Aquatics has been lobbying for this seemingly forever and now has its wish, but at a price. The cost is that there was no increase in the number of athletes who can be entered in total, which remained at 1,370. Squads were limited to 12 players at Paris 2024, so the four new women’s polo teams chop 48 athletes out of swimming or diving or artistic swimming.

And how will swimming squads be arranged to allow for entries in the six added events? There are going to be great swimmers who won’t be in the pool in 2028 due to the limitations that will come from today’s additions.

● Archery
World Archery has long sought the addition of one or more Compound events, to go along with the traditional Recurve events. It got its wish with a Compound Mixed Team event, but – again – the overall quota of 128 archery remained the same. Some Recurve archers will have to stay home.

● Football
FIFA got two wins with the addition of four women’s team for a 16-team tournament and the reduction of four teams for men, down to 12. First, no change in its player quota was needed: still at 504. Moreover, the women’s expansion continues to promote that side of the sport, while further degrading the men’s tournament, which is fine with FIFA, making the U-23 teams (with up to three overage adds) even less of a threat to its ultra-lucrative men’s World Cup.

● Golf and Gymnastics
In an easy add to expand the programs of these popular sports, a mixed team event of some format was added to both sports. No addition in quota, so the competitors will come from the existing entry pool, but it’s more sessions to sell to spectators and to show on television.

● Sport Climbing
In this sport, separate events are held in Speed, Lead and Boulder. For Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, artificial combined events were held, but now each event will be contested on its own, as is normally seen. The quota was expanded from 68 to 76 athletes to make this happen, a great outcome for the sport.

The obvious losers:

● Athletics
Race walkers, already angry at the loss of the men’s 50 km Walk in Paris for a mixed relay, saw that event go away altogether! Now, two events will be held, a men’s and women’s Half Marathon, replacing the prior 20 km events. At least the athletics quota of 1,810 was not touched, so these events might get a few more entries.

● Modern Pentathlon
Although IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell (NZL) went to some lengths to praise the new direction of the sport – insisted on by the IOC – it still cut the quota from 72 to 64 and gave the spots to Sport Climbing. That’s not a good thing by any means.

● Weightlifting
This sport was in serious jeopardy of being left off the 2028 program completely due to its long history with doping. But it made it back in, but with only 120 entries, after having 196 at Tokyo 2020 and 260 at Rio 2016! All the pressure from the other 30 sports and the 10,500 athlete limit are going to make it hard for this sport to ever make it back to where it was before.

Adding in the 698 athletes in the five added sports requested by the LA28 organizers, and the total is projected to 11,198 athletes across a record 36 sports and 351 events, with 5,655 women (50.5%) and 5,543 men (49.5%), another Olympic first.

One of the announcements that had been expected was the full venue plan for LA28, which was agreed – sort of – with the IOC Executive Board, with the organizing committee to make future announcements.

But at Wednesday’s news conference, IOC Executive Director for the Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi (SUI), provided significant insight into what can be expected:

“Today the Executive Board has validated the master plan in broad terms, and that’s a really practical and helpful step forward. As for the announcement, including each and every detail, let’s be clear, this will be the responsibility of L.A.

“What I can tell you, though, is that the key principles that were followed for the establishment of the master plan were to use and maximize the use of existing venues, no new permanent infrastructures, maximize also the opportunities within the City of L.A. and also re-group the venues to avoid stand-alones.

“Every time you have stand-alone, you’re complex-ifying the operations.

“So, all-in-all, these principles were followed and now the master plan has been adopted. For the details, let’s wait until L.A. will make the announcement.”

The key language here:

● “maximize also the opportunities within the City of L.A.”
● “re-group the venues to avoid stand-alones.”

Both are going to come into play quickly:

● From the “stand-alones” perspective, it makes perfect sense why continuing to pursue beach volleyball in Santa Monica was dropped. Not only was the City of Santa Monica recalcitrant, but this venue was all by itself.

So, following this logic, doesn’t it make better sense to group beach volleyball and surfing together in Huntington Beach, already a finalist for the surfers and a historic site for beach volleyball?

● The comment about maximizing venues inside the City of Los Angeles is a tantalizing possible reference to a move of sailing to San Pedro from Long Beach, being noisily insisted on by L.A. City Council member Tim McOsker. But that’s not sure at all, as there are other issues in play in that sport.

However, it could be a signal about how some other events are sorted out, such as the marathons, race walks and road cycling events. Baseball will certainly be at Dodger Stadium, but is there a venue for indoor volleyball in L.A.? The Honda Center in Anaheim was proposed in the LA28 bid, and the Kia Forum in Inglewood is available, but both outside the city limits. What about boxing, originally at the L.A. Convention Center, but now homeless? And Mountain Bike, possibly in Griffith Park?

And Cricket and Squash are not yet assigned; surely Squash can find a spot in Los Angeles.

When Dubi speaks, it’s worth listening, so watch for LA28 to try and squeeze some more sports inside the city limits, to help make L.A. as much of a winner as possible.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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PANORAMA: Oklahoma City OKs $34.5M venue guarantee to LA28; three possible hosts for 2030 Commonwealth Games; Turkish unrest kills SportAccord

By
Rich Perelman
-
The Los Angeles City Council vote on continuing work on an agreement on a $2.2 billion expansion of the L.A. Convention Center (Photo: L.A. City Council video screen shot).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● “[T]he Oklahoma City Council unanimously approved a resolution expressing full support and commitment to staging the canoe slalom and softball events in OKC as part of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.”

The financial aspect of the action means “The City will secure a financial guarantee with appropriate partners of $34.5 million to be paid to LA28 only if Oklahoma City does not fulfill its commitment to stage these events.” The commitment is for:

● “The City commits to providing the necessary city venues, including the whitewater and softball facilities, the Oklahoma City Convention Center, Scissortail Park, Paycom Center and other city properties, as needed.”

● “Maintenance and Improvements: The City and OCPPA will ensure necessary maintenance and improvements to the whitewater and softball facilities, complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

● “City Services: The City will provide essential services such as security, public safety, police, fire and EMS services, transit and transportation, traffic management and sanitation services.”

Said Mayor David Holt: “This was our first opportunity as a City Council to state our official support for staging two sports during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“This resolution of commitment is the first of many official actions the council will take over the next three years relative to this historic event. I’m grateful to the City Council for their unanimous vote.”

The Los Angeles City Council debated at length the viability of moving ahead of a major, $2.2 billion upgrade of the Los Angeles Convention Center, with construction that would begin prior to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, pause, and then be completed afterwards.

There was significant discussion about financial risks, and also the possibility of construction issues which might impact the use of the Convention Center during the 2028 Olympic Games. The construction schedule would be monitored closely to ensure that work would end in time for the use by LA28, with fencing, judo, table tennis and wrestling now scheduled to be held there, and more may be added.

Ultimately, the Council voted to go ahead by 14-1 with negotiations on an agreement to build the upgrade, and answers on the ability to place freeway-facing signage on the Convention Center exterior, with a final yes-or-no on the decision due in a couple of months. The new efforts to get to an agreement ready for approval are estimated to cost the City $27.75 million.

● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The International Olympic Committee announced the completion and signature of the Olympic Host Contract, which included the financial guarantees provided by the French government and the regional governments of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

● Commonwealth Games 2030 ● GamesBids.com reported that signals of interest to host the centennial Commonwealth Games in 2030 were made by Canada, India and Nigeria, but not yet confirmed by Commonwealth Sport.

If agreed to bid by Commonwealth Sport, the formal bids will be developed through August, with the host selection to be made at the 2025 Commonwealth Sport General Assembly in November.

The inaugural 1930 British Empire Games was held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which passed on the 2030 event. Commonwealth Sports Canada’s letter noted the support of the governments of Manitoba, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island, and the Ontario Regional Chief for the Chiefs in Ontario, to “co-create” a Commonwealth Games along the flexible lines now in use by Commonwealth Sport.

● SportAccord ● “It is with great disappointment that SportAccord announces the cancellation of the 2025 edition of the SportAccord Convention, which had been scheduled to take place in Istanbul, Türkiye, from 9 to 12 June.

“Following a comprehensive assessment by the SportAccord Executive Committee, and in light of the evolving political context and unresolved issues at the host city level, it was concluded that the Convention could not proceed as planned.

“However, the removal of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu from office on 19 March 2025 led to political disruption in the days that followed, during which Acting Mayor Nuri Aslan was appointed. As a result, several fundamental conditions for hosting the event could no longer be met, and it was decided that the event could no longer proceed. It is hoped that these developments will not affect other major international events scheduled to take place in the city.”

SportAccord has been a key meeting point for the international sports community, with 1,700 attendees from 65 countries in Birmingham (ENG) in 2024. The choice of Istanbul had only been announced on 13 March.

● Women’s Sport ● Sports Illustrated, now run by technology and content company Minute Media, announced a six-day “SI Women’s Games” to be held in Oceanside, California – north of San Diego – from 28 October to 2 November of this year:

“Teams of domestic and international athletes representing ‘Team Americas’ and ‘Team World’ will participate in a week-long series of team and individual competitions across basketball, gymnastics, tennis, flag football, volleyball and combat sports.”

The event will be shown via an agreement with Scripps Sports for ION in the U.S.

● Shooting ● At the ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires (ARG), 42-year-old Jean Pierre Brol (GUA) won the men’s Trap final from American stars Walton Eller, 43 – the 2008 Olympic Double Trap winner – and Paris Olympian Will Hinton, 46-43-31 in the Wednesday final.

Australia’s Penny Smith, the Paris bronze winner, took the women’s title, scoring 44/50, including her last 15 in a row, to edge 20-year-old Carey Garrison of the U.S., the 2023 World Junior bronze winner (42/50).

China’s Zifei Wang and Buhan Song won the Mixed 10 m Air Rifle gold, beating India, 17-9, in the final. The competition ends on the 11th.

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MODERN PENTATHLON: IOC Sports Director endorses UIPM direction, but its athlete total for 2028 was cut from 72 to 64

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ LOS ANGELES 2028 ≡

Already one of the smallest sports on the Olympic program, modern pentathlon had 72 athletes at Paris 2024, but was cut to 64 athletes – 32 men and 32 women – in Wednesday’s announcement of events and quotas by the International Olympic Committee.

A slap in the face to a sport which barely got onto the LA28 program?

No, not at all, said IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell (NZL) at Wednesday’s news conference:

“I think we need to acknowledge the journey the sport has been on. There is a very strong new leadership with Rob Stull … from the U.S., taking over as the President recently, and the work they’ve done not only to replace the horses with the obstacles, but the way they’ve approached it, in terms of embracing the opportunity to really bring in innovation and bring in new communities of young athletes around the world, and it’s something super exciting.

“In fact, the challenges from that have become real opportunities and UIPM is looking at that quite boldly in terms of the way they want to embrace that, and that’s super exciting in terms of where we think modern pentathlon will be by the time of the Games in L.A., not only the obstacles, of course, which will be the most visual part, but the way they are embracing what the obstacles and the integrated formats of the Laser Run and the other elements can bring.”

McConnell added on the reduction in the quota:

“Yes, there was a reduction of four men and four women. That’s not in any way a further critical nature from our side, it’s just a quota adjustment, which actually allows a shorter fencing phase, for example, and allows the overall program of Modern Pentathlon to fit within the quite compact window that they are looking for, as well as the broadcasters.

“It was a decision from the IOC, let’s be clear on that, but it allows that more compact format and also allows within the overall program for us to find the eight athletes needed for Sport Climbing to allow the minimum numbers of 12 per event in Sport Climbing.

“Again, not a criticism of the direction that modern pentathlon has taken in regard to embracing the obstacles and the new formats; they’re doing a fantastic job and we’re really excited about the possibilities. So as I said, it shouldn’t be taken in any way as a criticism of the direction they’re going, or the new leadership, which is really impressing this innovation and this direction.”

So, McConnell gave the UIPM an endorsement of its direction, but reduced its athlete total to the lowest level since 2004, when it also had 64 entries, in the second Games in which women participated (first in Sydney 2000). The lowest-ever total of Olympic pentathlon entries was in 1920 in Antwerp, with 23 men only. There were 24 at Los Angeles 1932 and 52 at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

It’s worth noting, however, that Modern Pentathlon is no longer the smallest sport on the (more or less) “permanent” Olympic program of 31 sports, as surfing has 48, also with two events.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: IOC approves record 36-sport, 351-event program with quota of 11,198 athletes for LA28

By
Rich Perelman
-
The LA28 emblem designed by Olympic gold medalist swimmer Simone Manuel (USA)

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≡ RECORD EVENTS & QUOTAs ≡

While the expected detailed venue plan for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games was not announced, the detailed event program and quotas for each sport was finalized and revealed at the end of the International Olympic Committee’s online Executive Board meeting today.

In a news briefing following, IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell (NZL) explained that the agreement between IOC, the International Federations and LA28 included:

● The IOC-approved sports on the LA28 program – 31 – will retain the 10,500-athlete quota specified in the Olympic Charter and which has been the target since Tokyo 2020.

● An additional quota of an expected 698 athletes is set for the five added sports brought in by LA28: baseball and softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse (6s) and squash.

That brings the total to 11,198, which would be the third-largest Games in history, behind Tokyo 2020 (11,476) and Rio 2016 (11,238).

In terms of sports and events, Los Angeles 2028 will be the largest Games ever, with 36 sports confirmed and 351 medal events. Tokyo 2020 had 33 sports – the most so far – and 339 events, also the most on record.

There were multiple changes to the sports program:

● Aquatics: The long-sought addition of the 50 m races in Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly were added, as well as two women’s water polo teams for a total of 12, same as for the men. The bad news was that the overall quota of 1,370 was maintained, so there will be cuts to the number of competitors in other events in these disciplines.

● Archery: World Archery gained a desperately-wanted event for Compound bows, a Mixed Team event. Once again, the quota of 128 was unchanged, so some smaller number of Recurve archers will participate in 2028.

● Athletics: Even though it has not been held in a single World Athletics event yet, the Mixed 4×100 m relay has been added to the program, to go along with the Mixed 4×400 m. The 20 km Walk was replaced with the Half Marathon and the Mixed Team Walk event was eliminated. Thus, the overall quota of 1,810, by far the largest of any sport in the Games, was unchanged.

● Basketball: The 3×3 events were expanded by four teams each for men and women, adding 32 players, replacing the number used for Breaking at Paris 2024. The overall sport quota rose from 352 to 384.

● Boxing: The quota of 248 boxers was maintained, but the number of classes was evened at seven each for men and women.

● Football: The already-tipped idea of flipping the number of men’s and women’s teams was approved, now with 16 women’s teams and 12 men’s teams. This promotes the women’s game, in which all players are eligible and demotes the men’s tournament, an under-23 event with up to three over-23 players also available. The overall quota remains intact.

● Golf: The quota of 120 remains the same, but a Mixed Team Event was added.

● Gymnastics: The quota of 318 was retained, but a new “Mixed Team” event of some kind will be added in Artistic Gymnastics, providing another high-demand session to the schedule.

● Modern Pentathlon: No change in the schedule, but the already-small quota of 72 was cut to 64, in order to make room for changes elsewhere (like Climbing).

● Rowing: The quota of 502 remained the same, but the Coastal Rowing Solo and Mixed Double Sculls were added, replacing the Lightweight class events held up through Paris.

● Sport Climbing: As desired by the climbers, the three different disciplines will now have separate competitions: Speed, Lead and Boulder. The quota was bumped up from 68 to 76.

● Table Tennis: A Mixed Team event was added, with the quota maintained at 172. 

The Los Angeles added sports have 698 quota spots:

● Baseball and Softball: 234 total, with 12 teams (144 men and 90 women).

● Cricket: 180 for 12 teams: six men and six women of 15 players each.

● Flag Football: 120 players for 12 teams (6+6) with 10 players per team.

● Lacrosse: 132 players for 12 teams (6+6) with 11 players per team.

● Squash: 32 total, with 16 men and 16 women in Singles play.

All together, this is 11,198 athletes across 36 sports and 351 events, with 5,655 women (50.5%) and 5,543 men (49.5%), another Olympic first.

As for the venue program for 2028, the LA28 statement explained:

“LA28 also presented its Olympic venue masterplan to the IOC Executive Board, which was approved by the respective International Federations and supported without reservation by the Executive Board, completing its final stage of approval. Further information on the updated Olympic venue plan will be shared by LA28 at a later date.”

The IOC confirmed that it will be up to LA28 to announce its venue specifics on its timetable.

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FOOTBALL: U.S. women fall to Brazil, 2-1, in San Jose, on a stoppage-time goal

By
Rich Perelman
-
Catalina Macario scored in the first minute against Brazil in San Jose, but that was the only American score (Photo: U.S. Soccer).

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≡ BRAZIL 2, U.S. 1 ≡

The second half of the USA-Brazil women’s doubleheader was in San Jose, California, with the eighth-ranked Brazilians starting slow, but finishing with a hard-earned victory against the top-ranked Americans.

A very young team took the field for the U.S., with seven players appearing for the sixth time or less with the U.S. team and only one with more than 26. Sisters Alyssa  and Giselle Thompson appeared in a game together for the second time, only the third pair of sisters to be on the U.S. women’s squad.

The U.S. got a lightning start on Saturday from Trinity Rodman in the fifth minute, but was even faster on Tuesday. Striker Alyssa Thompson dribbled out of the back and into the box, but her shot was blocked in front of the Brazilian goal. It came free and striker Catarina Macario maneuvered for a right-footed slam into the net past a last defender … after just 34 seconds!

But the 1-0 lead did not last.

The Brazilians decided the best offense was a good defense, and pressed the American back line – one on one – harassing the U.S. and keeping the ball in the U.S. zone. Finally, midfielder Gio Garbelini got control of the ball just beyond the box and sent a pass to striker Kerolin all alone on the left side. With plenty of room, she lined up a right-footed curveball over the head of American keeper Mandy McGlynn and into the far side of the net for the 1-1 tie in the 24th.

But the U.S. was not deterred, storming back with chances for Alyssa Thompson, Macario and then two shots by Alyssa Thompson again in the 35th, the first blocked by defender Isadora Haas at the goal line and then a second blocked in a scrum in front of the Brazilian net.

There were more chances in stoppage time, with Brazilian midfielder Yasmin sending a straight-on shot at goal over the American net, and U.S. forward Michelle Cooper taking a lead pass from Lily Yohannes and sending a rocket toward the Brazilian goal that was saved by Brazilian keeper Natascha.

Brazil ended up with 55% of possession in the half, but the U.S. had 11 shots to seven.

The visitors continued to apply pressure as the second half start, repeatedly running into the U.S. half, and in the 54th, Gio got control back in front of the American net and slammed a shot which was deflected just wide of the right side of an open net.

U.S. coach Emma Hayes (GBR) subbed in five more experienced players by the 58th, including midfield star Lindsey Heaps, who scored a penalty on Saturday. But even with more experienced players, Brazil maintained possession in the U.S. half, although chances were harder to come by.

But in the 85th, midfielder Sampaio sent a ball ahead of striker Gabi Portilho, whose right-footed shot was saved by McGlynn. Shortly thereafter, Karolin’s shot from the middle of the box was also saved by McGlynn, but with the rebound spilling out in front of the net. Substitute defender Luany had a chance to score, but sent her shot over the net … to her own disbelief.

Undaunted, Brazil got a fast break again in stoppage time, with Luany behind the defense, then dribbled and sent a right-footed pass from right to left into the box to sub forward Amanda Gutierres, who finished easily for a 2-1 lead at 90+5.

Substitute U.S. striker Ally Sentnor got a chance at 90+7 from the middle of the box, but sent the ball over the net and the match ended with Brazil’s first win against the Americans since December 2014. The U.S. had won nine in a row against Brazil, but not this time.

The Brazilians ended with 58% of possession, dominated the second half and finished with 19 shots to 18 for the U.S.

In Hayes’ 20th match as the U.S. coach, it was only her third loss against 16 wins and a tie. The American women will be back in action with two matches against China – in St. Paul and St. Louis – on 31 May and 3 June.

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PANORAMA: Olympic 200 m champ Tebogo says without track, “probably be a criminal by now”; injured ski star Brignone not giving up on Milan Cortina 2026!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Now 58 pounds lighter, five-time Olympic medalist Brady Ellison (USA) sees an even brighter future! (Photo: USA Archery).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● The LA28 organizing committee named Dr. Casey Batten, the lead team physician for the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL as its Chief Medical Officer for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Batten is the Co-Director of Nonoperative Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine and director of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship in the Department of Orthopaedics at Cedars-Sinai, the Official Medical Provider for LA28.

Batten specializes in primary-care sports medicine with a focus on nonsurgical treatment of athletic-related injury and illness. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin and received his M.D. from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He served as the head team physician for the University of California in Berkeley prior to coming to Southern California.

● Alpine Skiing ● Italian star Federica Brignone, the seasonal World Cup women’s champion for 2024-25 and 2025 World Champion in the Giant Slalom and silver winner in the Super-G, suffered a brutal crash on 3 April at the Italian National Championships, with multiple fractures of the left calf and tibial plateau, and a tear of her anterior cruciate ligament.

Surgery followed immediately and on Tuesday, Brignone told reporters:

“We have no idea how long it will take, we will proceed step by step and then we will see. I am certainly someone who does not give up, it is not in my nature.

“I thought it would be quick, but in reality by having surgery right away I understood that they avoided complications, even for my life. Now the next step will be physiotherapy, which will start on Monday, and the second will be the first control CT scan.”

As far as the quickly-coming Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games:

“Milan-Cortina is a stimulus, but it was also before. I wanted to continue my career precisely for the Olympics at home, but I don’t want this thing to destroy my path now. The goal now is to heal in the right way.”

● Archery ● With five Olympic medals already and preparing for a home Olympic Games in 2028, you would think all was rosy for U.S. star Brady Ellison.

Nope. Now 36, he’s been on a multi-year program to get thinner and stronger to fully realize his potential. He’s lost 58 pounds over the last couple of years and 30 pounds just since the Paris Olympic Games, where he won an Olympic silver After winning the AAE Arizona Cup for the 10th time last Sunday, he told USA Archery:

“The adjustment has been insane. I started to notice the difference indoors, in January, when I started rebuilding stuff.

“Things quit fitting in the way that I was used to, and I’ve been fighting my anchor and body position and trying to keep draw lengths.

“I still have a long way to go but in just the little bit that I’ve seen, I think this is going to get rid of a lot of the left and rights that I’ve had over the years. Today I didn’t have any up and downs, it was just a little bit left/right in the wind so I do think that if I can get this mastered I’m probably going to shoot better than I ever have.”

With six World Championships medals – including the 2019 men’s title – and 12 more Indoor and Field Worlds medals (seven golds), that’s not good news for his opponents.

● Athletics ● Wonderful story on Botswana’s Olympic 200 m champ Letsile Tebogo from BBC Sport Africa, where the 21-year-old explained the importance of his running career:

“Without sport, I [would] probably be a criminal by now.

“In the neighbourhood that I was growing up in, there were a lot of criminals. We thought that was the only way to survive.”

“I knew I had to go from school [to] training, and you are tired. You don’t have plenty of time to roam the streets, to go into people’s houses. Once I discovered that, I tried to pull in a few friends of mine. They are now playing football and we always talk about how if this [sport] didn’t work out, where would we be?

“Sport has really helped me a lot.”

Tebogo was initially involved in soccer, of course, but was running track in elementary school and stuck with it. He’s now a World Athletics ambassador for its Kids’ Athletics project, promoting fitness and physical activity:

“Athletics has given me so many opportunities, and I want young people to believe in themselves, dream big and enjoy the sport. It’s basically showing them direction, because if we have plenty of free time, we tend to do unlawful stuff. We start robbing, doing drugs and all that.”

Pretty wild video from Grand Slam Track, showing a windstorm that hit Kingston (JAM) just a day before last Friday’s launch, tearing down tents and spraying equipment all over the track at the National Stadium. But:

“Thankfully, everyone on site was safe with no major injuries sustained. But we wanted to take a moment to say a big, public, and sincere thank you to the construction and venue development teams that enabled us to hold our inaugural Slam on Friday, less than 24 hours later.

“We were still able to showcase Grand Slam Track to the world. That is an incredible testament to the tireless work the on-the-ground teams put in through the night to get us event-ready. We are very grateful.”

● Shooting ● The ISSF World Cup continues in Buenos Aires (ARG), with two wins for India on the pistol range.

In the men’s 25 m Rapid-Fire Pistol final, Paris Olympic ninth-placer Vijayveer Sidhu took the title, with a 29-28 victory over Italian Riccardo Mazzetti – 12th in Paris – in the final five-shot segment.

Eighteen-year-old Inder Singh Suruchi took the women’s 10 m Air Pistol gold, scoring a 244.6-241.9 win over China’s Wei Qian, with teammate and 2023 World Champion Ranxin Jiang third (221.0).

Competition continues through the 11th.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: LA28 ends beach volleyball talks with Santa Monica; City of L.A. committee OKs Convention Center build-up through 2029

By
Rich Perelman
-
A rendering from the Los Angeles bid for the 2024/2028 Olympic Games of a possible beach volleyball venue in Santa Monica.

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

“Despite good-faith efforts to reach a deal that would benefit both the Santa Monica community and work for LA28, ultimately the two parties were not able to agree to terms around community benefits, operational details and financial guarantees.

“LA28 informed the city Friday that it plans to host beach volleyball elsewhere.”

That is from a statement posted Tuesday by the City of Santa Monica, stating that negotiations over staging beach volleyball on the Santa Monica beach have ended.

Discussions on a venue agreement began in early 2023 and went through several phases, looking close to completion at one point, but floundering in late 2024, as the Santa Monica City Council kept asking for guarantees on specific areas to be used by LA28, and what “legacy” the organizing committee would leave behind.

Three new City Council members were elected last November, and discussions did not advance past the questions raised in a public hearing last October. According to the statement:

“At a public study session on Oct. 8, 2024, the Santa Monica City Council discussed the potential impacts of being a venue city and directed staff to negotiate more tangible benefits for residents and businesses and greater clarity and assurances about financial and other impacts on residents and businesses, particularly on and around the Santa Monica Pier. LA28 declined to adjust the proposed agreement to accommodate these terms.”

The organizing committee will find another venue, with many to choose from in Southern California, including historic sites in the development of the sport in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach and many others.

At a marathon Tuesday meeting of the Los Angeles City Council’s Economic Development and Jobs Committee, a motion to pursue the long-sought expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center was approved, and sent on – with conditions – to the full City Council for its Wednesday meeting.

As the construction of the expansion, to connect the West and South halls as needed for larger conventions and add meeting and event spaces, cannot be completed in time for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the new plan is to conduct a “phased delivery” that will begin actual site work in September 2025.

Partial demolition of the West Hall would begin in January 2026 and the exterior of the new building to be done by the end of May 2028, in time to pause for the 1 June to 30 September usage for the 2028 Games. Once finished, construction would be completed by March of 2029.

The costs are currently estimated at $2.2 billion, with lots of variables and significant worry on behalf of the City Council committee members about the impact on the city’s shaky finances. But the hearing also included pleas from the City’s Tourism Department that the expansion is desperately needed to allow Los Angeles to compete with other first-tier convention markets; a September 2023 survey from the Wall Street Journal ranked L.A. 21st in a ranking of U.S. convention centers.

For the LA28 organizers, having a major construction project going on at the Convention Center, a key venue with multiple sports and next to the equally-critical L.A. Live campus – with more venues – is a new headache it will have to manage, assuming the project does go forward.

The item is to be placed on the City Council agenda for Wednesday.

The International Olympic Committee is slated to meet online on Wednesday (9th), with a more-complete venue plan due from the LA28 organizers.

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TRANSPORTATION: U.S. Travel Ass’n chief tells House hearing “we’re already behind the eight-ball” on support for FIFA World Cup, 2028 Olympics

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. Travel Association President Geoff Freeman at the House sub-committee hearing on Transportation and Maritime Security on 8 April 2025 (House video screen shot).

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≡ MEGA-EVENT PREPARATIONS ≡

“There are multiple consulates around the world, Colombia is the best example, where wait times exceed 500 days to get an interview for a visa. There are similar wait times in India; in years past, we had wait times like that in Brazil, where they have been successful recently in bringing those wait times down.”

That’s U.S. Travel Association President Geoff Freeman, speaking at a Tuesday morning hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s sub-committee on Transportation and Maritime Security on preparations for major events coming to the U.S., such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Freeman was blunt:

“I think it’s critical as the [White House] World Cup Task Force gets up and running, first we acknowledge that we’re already behind the eight-ball. The World Cup starts in about 18 months; other countries are already planning for the 2030 World Cup, that planning is already ahead of where we are. …

“I have all the faith in the world in the local destinations that are hosting the World Cup. They’re already coordinating, they’re going to do a great job. The question really becomes, in terms of getting people to the games, moving about the U.S. and moving into the United States.

“I think for the domestic traveler, we’re going to see concerns when it comes to moving people through the airports, the demand we’re going to see is basically a Thanksgiving every day for about the 45 days of the World Cup. We all know what it’s like traveling on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving; that’s what we can expect. It begs the question, what can we do to be more efficient in that period, and this Task Force is critical about aligning the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation and other relevant agencies to ensure we can meet that demand.

“For the foreign travelers coming in, the truth is we’re already too late for some of them. I mentioned the wait times for Colombia to get a visa; if they don’t have a visa now for the World Cup in ‘26, their window is closed. That’s shame on us, right? That’s opportunity missed for the United States, and we’ve got to identify what are the other markets where that window is already closing and how do we process visas quickly in those markets so we can help those travelers get here.”

In the case of Colombia, its team is still in the qualifying phase in South America and is not yet sure of making it to the 2026 World Cup final tournament, so what chance will its fans have under the current U.S. visa wait times?

Freeman made the further point:

“For the 45% of our travelers who are required to get a visa, visa access is a bigger concern than the cost of travel. I think that tells us everything we need to know.”

He also spoke to the needs for better, quicker and more efficient customs services for travelers coming into the U.S.

Freeman praised the improvements on identify verification via biometrics now at airports, but said the issues now are “the personal screening, there’s the baggage screening,” but with better use of technologies already available:

“Within the next five years, we can give every American traveler the confidence they can keep their water in their bottle, their belt on their pants, the laptop in their bags.”

Jon Gruen, the head of Fortem Technologies, involved in drone security, told the sub-committee:

“Technology needs to be procured and deployed now. So, we recommend 12 months out from events, to really get the technology on the ground, get the personnel trained and run through different scenarios to mitigate threats. … We are behind the power curve on this.”

Asked if he believed the U.S. was ready to protect against drone threats to the upcoming major events, he replied, “not currently.” He pointed to the obvious – an attack on a stadium – but also:

“With all these folks that are trying to arrive if you have a drone that goes and parks itself on the runway, the entire operation is going to shut down. It doesn’t even have to explode. It can just sit there and you’ve already disrupted air travel to a level we have not seen, and are not prepared for.”

Sub-committee Chair Carlos Gimenez (R-Florida) said he is working on a bill to form a Federal Task Force for major events across the next four years, including the FIFA World Cup, 2028 Olympic Games and the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S., in 2026.

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PANORAMA: Confirmation hearing for Trump mega-events rep Crowley; Nelson joins USOPC Board; U.S. earns most 2026 figure skating quotas

By
Rich Perelman
-
Assistant Secretary of State nominee Dr. Monica Crowley at her Senate confirmation hearing on 4 April 2025 (Photo: C-SPAN video screen shot).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Ticket sales for the 2026 Winter Games open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis on Tuesday (8th), with users able to purchase up to 25 tickets.

About 1.5 million tickets are to be available for the Games, with more than 660,000 already sold through the initial sales program using a lottery appointment system. The leading ticket-buying countries outside of Italy were Germany, the U.S., Great Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France.

● Trump Administration ● The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings Friday on more confirmation nominations, including for Dr. Monica Crowley to be Chief of Protocol at the U.S. State Department.

The position includes responsibilities as the Administration rep for major events such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

During the hearing, she was asked specifically about the Olympic Games by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), and about the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, which he said was used “as an opportunity for a mockery of faith.” Crowley responded:

“At the President’s direction, if confirmed, I will take on additional responsibilities and serve as an Administration representative to major events with big international participation, like America’s 250th birthday, like the FIFA World Cup coming to the United States next year and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“I look forward, if confirmed, to drawing on my vast broadcast and public affairs experience to speak to the American people as well as the global public about America’s greatness and America’s leadership.

“To your particular point, it’s my understanding that the Olympic Games, whenever they occur, are overseen by the International Olympic Committee and in Los Angeles, they will also work in conjunction with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic committee as well, and Senator, I pledge to you that if confirmed, I will be deeply involved in ensuring that the Olympic Games go off without a hitch, that the Olympic Committee in the United States is on message to the extent that we can have some influence there, and I look forward to showcasing the American spirit as well as the United States as a premier destination for international sporting events.”

Most of the hearing was directed to former Georgia Senator David Perdue, nominated to be the U.S. Ambassador to China.

● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● Athens 2004 Olympic shot put gold medalist Adam Nelson was announced as a new member of the USOPC Board, elected by the Team USA Athletes’ Commission to fill the unexpired portion of the term begun by Montreal 1976 Olympic swimming great John Naber.

Nelson was a brilliant, intense shot specialist who was a three-time Olympian, the silver medalist in 2004 and World Champion in 2005. He finished second on the field at ancient Olympia in the 2004 Athens Games, but the winner was disqualified for doping and Nelson received the gold medal in a 2013 ceremony. He won a total of seven international medals in Olympic and World Championship competitions (2-5-0) and will bring a decidedly athlete-first perspective to the USOPC, an area in which he was continuously active as a competitor.

His term runs through 2026 and he is eligible to be extended for four years.

● Archery ● At the first U.S. Archery Team Qualifier series event, the AAE Arizona Cup in Phoenix, Arizona, five-time Olympic medalist Brady Ellison won the men’s Recurve title – in windy conditions – for the 10th time, taking out Jackson Mirich in straight ends, but all close: 29-28, 30-28 and 29-28.

With defending women’s champ Casey Kaufhold knocked out in the round of 32, it was 19-year-old Gabrielle Sasai who took the women’s title, 6-4, over Savannah Nofel in another wind-impacted match.

● Athletics ● A monster discus toss at the Oklahoma Throws series in Ramona, a notorious wind tunnel at which the men’s world record was set last year by Mykolas Alekna (LTU) at 74.35 m (243-11) in 2024.

This time it was Australia’s Olympic bronze medalist from 2024, Matthew Denny, who won the men’s event on Saturday at 72.07 m (236-5), moving him to no. 5 all-time, with the no. 9 throw ever. His big toss came in round four, but he also finished with 71.12 m/233-4 in round six!

Alekna, for his part, reached 70.09 m (229-11) in Berkeley, California on Saturday to win the Brutus Hamilton Invitational.

● Basketball ● The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2025 has lots of familiar faces for fans of U.S. international basketball, with Carmelo Anthony, Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Dwight Howard, Maya Moore and the 2008 USA Basketball Men’s Olympic Team – the “Redeem Team” – all honored.

Anthony was a four-time Olympian, winning a 2004 bronze and golds in 2008-12-16 and Howard won a 2008 Olympic gold. After the 2004 Olympic team finished third, a reorganization of USA Basketball led to a brilliant showing in 2008, led by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, and the U.S. men have won the last five Olympic titles.

Bird finished with an amazing five Olympic golds, in 2004-08-12-16-20 and won four more golds in the FIBA Women’s World Cup, in 2002-10-14-18. Fowles wasn’t far behind, with four golds in 2008-12-16-20 and a 2010 gold at the FIBA Women’s World Cup. Moore won Olympic golds in 2012 and 2016 and FIBA Women’s World Cup golds in 2010 and 2014.

● Cycling ● At the Pan American BMX Championships in Chillan (CHI), Colombia’s Paris Olympian Diego Arboleda won the men’s race in 31.697, just ahead of Gonzalo Molina (ARG: 31.803). Brazil’s Paola Reis Santos won the women’s final in 36.681, well ahead of Domenica Azuero (ECU: 37.065), with American Payton Ridenour fifth in 38.021.

● Figure Skating ● The International Skating Union confirmed quota places for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in figure skating, with the U.S. earning three spots in men’s and women’s Singles and Ice Dance, and two in Pairs. The U.S. is eligible to earn a third Pairs place at the Olympic Qualifier in Beijing (CHN) in September.

Overall, the U.S. total of 11 places leads, followed by Canada and Japan (7), Italy (6) and France (5).

● Gymnastics ● The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) responded to the decision of non-participation by 14 approved Russian “neutrals” for World Cup competitions on Monday:

“The FIG was informed by a letter from the Russian Gymnastics Federation dated 7 April 2025 that athletes with AIN [neutral] status have decided not to take part in upcoming FIG competitions. The FIG regrets the decision of the Russian Gymnastics Federation.

“In accordance with recommendations issued by the International Olympic Committee in 2023, the FIG has implemented a rigorous AIN evaluation process to allow neutral Russian and Belarusian gymnasts and support personnel to return to FIG competitions.

“This process includes background checks conducted by an external company specialising in investigations, as well as individual application reviews by an ad-hoc committee composed of independent experts. The FIG fully trusts these entities and relies on their expertise to ensure fairness and consistency for all applicants.

“The question of AIN athletes will be discussed at the next FIG Executive Committee meeting, which will take place on 7-8 May 2025.”

● Handball ● The German Handball Federation (DHB) formally nominated long-time sports administrator Gert Butzeck to challenge incumbent Hassan Mustafa (EGY) for President of the International Handball Federation at the IHF Congress in Cairo (EGY) in December.

Mustafa, 80, has been IHF chief since 2000, winning re-election in 2004, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021. He has not had a challenger since the 2009 election.

Butzeck, 66, has been on the board of the European Handball Federation’s marketing arm since 2013 and has been a player, referee, team manager, player agent and much more in his career.

DHB President Andreas Michelmann said:

“Gerd Butzeck is one of the most experienced and distinguished handball officials – globally connected and with insights into our sport from the grassroots to the absolute top level. He possesses the necessary creative power to further professionalize handball.”

● Shooting ● At the ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires (ARG), the U.S. swept the Skeet finals, with China posting three wins in Pistol events.

Christian Elliott of the U.S., the 2019 Pan American Games champion, took the men’s Skeet final at 58 points, to 56 for Rio 2016 gold medalist Gabriele Rossetti (ITA); Elliott hit his first 23 shots. The women’s final was a U.S. 1-2, with 2017 World Champion Dania Jo Vizzi and legendary six-time Olympic medalist Kim Rhode tying at 53 in the final. The shoot-off had Vizzi with the win by 4-3 for her third career World Cup individual gold.

The men’s 10 m Air Pistol final saw China’s Kai Hu win with 244.7 points, just ahead of Anton Aristarkhov (RUS: 243.3), and India’s Rudrankksh Patil won the men’s 10 m Air Rifle, scoring 252.9 in the final against Hungary’s Istvan Peni (251.7); American Peter Fiori was eighth (123.4).

Peni, the 2023 World Champion at 300 m, returned to win the men’s 50 m Rifle/3 Positions final at 461.0, just ahead of Jiaming Tian (CHN: 458.8)

The women’s 25 m Pistol was a clear win for China’s Yujie Sun, scoring a 38-35 win over Esha Singh (IND), and the women’s 10 m Air Rifle final went to Zifei Wang (CHN) with 254.1 points to edge Eun-ji Kwon (KOR: 253.1), with Mary Tucker of the U.S. in seventh (145.3).

The competitions continue through Thursday.

● Wrestling ● Another record for USA Wrestling, announcing a total membership of 346,861 as of Monday afternoon, with five months to go in its membership year. Of these, 293,856 are wrestlers, including 52,041 women.

The total surpassed the 344,494 total from 2023-24, and the projected total for 2024-25 is now more than 365,000.

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BRISBANE 2032: Liveris promises affordable tickets for Brisbane residents for 2032 Olympic Games, “ecstatic” on Victoria Park stadium

By
Rich Perelman
-
Brisbane 2032 organizing committee chief Andrew Liveris during his ABC News interview (Photo: ABC News video screen shot).

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

The head of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizing committee has committed to making tickets available at affordable prices for all levels of events. Asked in an ABC News interview about ticket pricing, President Andrew Liveris explained:

“Very important for us that that happens. … I mean Paris had a million tickets that sold at €40 or so. I mean we will have affordable ticket pricing for the demographic that we care about, which is the citizen that isn’t the elite, VIP, hospitality-oriented. We’ll have that; in fact, we’ll have that price so they can help us on the ticket prices being lower for pretty much everyone else.

“And that’s called dynamic ticket pricing, and so you have the top 1% and the top 10% and they get all their perks with that, down to the affordable prices.” (€1 = $1.09 U.S. or A$1.82)

Pressed further on preserving a number of tickets for the highest-demand events, such as the major ceremonies and swimming finals, Liveris noted:

“One thing Sydney did well, which we will learn from, because we’re Australia, not France and certainly not Los Angeles and America, is making sure that tickets were put to one side, like, that so there wasn’t just the rich and the elite can go to them.

“I think we are that type of society, so we’ll look at what Sydney did, which they did some of that, which allocate for the premier events for people, school kids and others to go to them.”

He thought tickets in the A$30-50 range would be available for some events, and characterized a specific allocation of ceremonies tickets as a “goal,” and that the Games must be for the hosts:

“This is not an event for tourists. This is an event for the nation. This is an event for the state. It’s an event for the region. It’s an event for the city.”

Liveris was also asked about the government’s decision to build a new stadium for the Games – and for Australian Football League and cricket use afterwards – and replied

“I’m ecstatic with the decision around Victoria Park.”

He added:

“One of the great things about Paris was the athlete and fan experience.

“I can now see a fan experience and an athlete experience at the new precinct in Victoria Park, with the aquatic centre nearby and the village potentially right next alongside it, as a very marketable thing for people to actually come and visit, be part of, and then have a legacy.”

A flood of interest has already come in from sports wanting to be added to the 2032 Olympic program – certainly from cricket – from also from numerous others. Liveris said the requests would be evaluated in terms of financial impact (which needs to be positive) and:

“What sports matter to a) the Australian consumer, b) the global consumer, to get more TV revenue. I think you’ve got to think about it that way.

“I want revenue because this is a commercial activity. We’re privately funded. If I’m going to add things, it can’t be criteria that’s a flight of fancy.“

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LOS ANGELES 2028: U.S. Senators Moran and Cantwell introduce bill for $50 million in annual Federal transportation grants for major events

By
Rich Perelman
-
North wing of the U.S. Capitol, containing the Senate Chamber (Photo: Wikipedia via Scrumshus).

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≡ FEDERAL MEGA-EVENT AID ≡

“The purpose of this section is to support State, Tribal, and local efforts on transportation issues necessary to obtain the national recognition and economic benefits of hosting international sporting events in the United States.”

That’s from the “Transportation Assistance for Olympic and World Cup Cities Act of 2025” introduced Friday by U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), to provide transportation support funding for host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

In specific, the grants must be used for the movement of people or things:

● The funding program can assist “a State, Indian Tribe, or unit of local 16 government (including a port authority or transit agency) hosting a covered event.”

● The Secretary of Transportation is to allocate grants equally “among the host metropolitan planning organizations for the most imminent covered event and any other covered events occurring during the same fiscal year, subject to the condition that a host metropolitan planning organization may not receive more than $10,000,000 under this subparagraph for a single covered event.”

● If funds are left over, then “host metropolitan planning organizations” could receive grants, also subject to the $10 million ceiling. This would be the World Cup host cities

● Host metropolitan organizations can receive assistance beginning five years in advance of their events (i.e., 2029 for the 2034 Winter Games).

● A total of $50 million per fiscal year – for the Federal government, from October through the following September – is authorized.

The funding applies to Olympic, Paralympic, Special Olympics or men’s or women’s FIFA World Cup, which will shortly include:

● 2026 FIFA World Cup (assigned)
● 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games (assigned)
● 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup (to be assigned in 2026)
● 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (assigned)

So, this is $50 million a year to help the FIFA World Cup host cities, especially, but only – potentially – $10 million to assist the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority for 2026-27 and 2027-28, and a much smaller amount for 2025-26, when the 11 U.S. host cities for the FIFA World Cup would get funding as well.

Under the terms of the bill, the LA28 organizers would also be in line to receive as much as $10 million annually for Federal fiscal years 2026-27 and 2027-28 for transportation purposes.

In a joint statement, Moran explained:

“It was a tremendous feat to secure a spot as a host city during the 2026 World Cup, and I have no doubt that Kansas City will be a welcoming community for hundreds of thousands of soccer fans from around the world.

“Preparations are already underway for the games, and this legislation will support local community and agency efforts to improve infrastructure to connect fans with businesses, hotels, the airport and other host cities during the World Cup.”

Cantwell added:

“With less than 500 days until Seattle hosts its first 2026 World Cup game, we need the Department of Transportation to get in the game and support host cities as they work to showcase the best of American innovation and hospitality.

“This bill will help ensure the hundreds of thousands of fans visiting Seattle can get to and from games safely and efficiently by improving coordinated transportation planning across the Pacific Northwest.”

The statement noted that “Grants would support permanent transportation projects – building new roads, expanding light rail, purchasing new buses, creating bike lanes, improving existing roads or highways, or making airport terminal improvements.”

The bill has not been numbered by the Senate Clerk as yet.

Observed: The joint statement makes clear this is primarily aimed at aiding the U.S. host communities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will each host between 6-9 matches.

As it relates to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, this is a lot less money than is being sought by L.A. Metro – about $3 billion in Olympic transportation funding – but it is a start.

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LANE ONE: Johnson enthused about the debut of his Grand Slam Track program, with a month to iron out the wrinkles before Miramar

By
Rich Perelman
-
Grand Slam Track hosts John Anderson, Sanya Richards-Ross and Matthew Centrowitz (GST broadcast screen shot).

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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK DEBUT ≡

“We thought it would be amazing. We thought that if you took in the world and you put them together, where they can compete against their rivals, the fans would love it, and the athletes as well would love it. And that is exactly what has happened.

“So it is truly exactly what we thought would happen and we’re so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last three days, to show what’s truly possible and the real potential of this sport. I’ve always thought this sport has not really ever achieved its potential. We still aren’t there, but we’re getting there. We’ll keep building, we’ll keep working, but this shows what this sport can be about, and it shows how great these athletes are.”

That’s Michael Johnson, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, talking about the debut of his Grand Slam Track circuit after the close of the inaugural Slam in Kingston, Jamaica on Sunday.

The three-day meet had a lot going for it:

● Nine outdoor world-leading marks, in the men’s 400 m and 400 m hurdles, and the women’s 400 m, 800 m, 1,500 m, 3,000 m, 5,000 m, 100 m hurdles and 400 m hurdles.

● Lots of big names, led by hurdles superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, but also the very interesting men’s 800-1,500 m showdowns with five of the six Paris medalists, and the 800 m stars trashing the milers.

● Television agreements that placed the meet in 189 countries and territories, although with no indications of audience information yet.

Johnson, asked what the highlight was for him of the opening weekend:

“Honestly, it was the response from fans, whether that be the fans who watched on television, and went on social media saying ‘This is exactly what the sport needs,’ or the fans who were in the stands, who were just so engaged and appreciating these athletes. That was the highlight.

“I thought that this format could be great … but the real validation is when the fans go, ‘this is great.’”

There were naysayers, of course and television host John Anderson, the former ESPN SportsCenter anchor, made the point that this is a work in progress. So, there were obvious areas that need attention:

● Attendance was the first thing to be noticed. Panam Sports posted daily stories, reporting “no more than 2,000 people” on Friday, and “more than 5,000″ on Saturday, and no total for Sunday, which appeared to be less than Saturday. I thought it was a bit more, but no attendance figures were reported.

● Jamaica’s National Stadium holds about 35,000, so if the same number of people show up for the next meet in Miramar, Florida – with about 5,000 seats – the place will be full! So it’s more about the look and feel of the audience than the number and the crowd in Kingston was loud at times, with plenty of horns blowing throughout the meet.

● For the television audience, the viewing experience was far poorer than what has been seen for Diamond League meets or U.S. national championships. Graphics were tiny, splits were late and hard to read and the results were also in a small font size. There were no wind readings on most of the sprint results; this matters to the sport’s actual fan base.

● Fans trying to follow the results on the Grand Slam Track site had even more trouble, as races were sometimes not posted for 15 minutes. No splits were provided, and the only thing that really mattered appeared to be the Slam point standings.

This is an area which the Diamond League has perfected, as well as the USATF championship events, which are also excellent and provided by U.S. companies.

● Grand Slam Track insisted that athlete bibs – formerly with numbers, but now with names – are not necessary, but those who did not have their names on their uniforms were essentially anonymous. With a few exceptions, college and professional team  uniforms have names and numbers to allow fans to identify the players. This is true in track too; EVERYONE needs to have their name on their uniform, even if it’s only their first name, as many athletes preferred in Kingston.

The format of the television show had the right idea, but spotty execution.

The Grand Slam Track broadcast was essentially a talk show between Anderson and Olympic champions Sanya Richards-Ross and Matthew Centrowitz, with the live events spliced in at the last moment. The lack of a world-class results system – as at the Diamond League – clearly hampered play-by-play man Steve Cram (GBR), the 1983 World 1,500 m champion, as well as analysts Anson Henry (CAN) and Carrie Tollefson (USA) and their calls showed it. No doubt they will be better prepared for the meet in Miramar in May.

The pre-event and post-event interviews with athletes was less than might be hoped for in a fully-professionalized league which is primarily a television show. And what about talking to some fans in the stands, or pre-set autograph stations after races?

But the idea of baking in a “pre-game” and “post-game” show into the main body of the broadcast window was a good idea. It will have to be refined, but the concept is right.

One element which was noted before the meet started were betting lines on the races at the DraftKings Sportsbook. However, the lines were not incorporated into the broadcast commentary or shown on the screen.

This is an area to watch; it would be fascinating to know if there were any reports on the betting handle for the weekend.

Start-ups are hard. It is worth celebrating that almost all of the athletes who were promised showed up and that’s good. Seeing McLaughlin in a strong-effort race in April was a treat, as was Wanyonyi spanking the 1,500 m stars at their own distance, and Grant Fisher sprinting all-out in the final 50 m of the ultra-slow 5,000 m on Sunday to get third, so he would win the $100,000 first prize.

And how about last-second invitee Jenna Prandini winning $50,000 for the weekend in the women’s short sprints? A great story for an accomplished sprinter who has been seen to be on the downside of her career. Maybe not now?

If you’re looking for a grade, it’s a generous “B.” The concept is real, it happened, and $3.15 million in prize money was paid to the competitors. Don’t forget the nine world-leading performances, either.

This meet lost money, for sure. But for Johnson, he has no one to answer to except his investors and they will be impressed that his idea is off the ground.

Now, the key will be to show improvement for the next meets in Miramar, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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PANORAMA: Oklahoma City asked for $34.6M guarantee by LA28; FIFA tries ticket-tie-in for Club World Cup & ‘26 World Cup; new Russian boycott

By
Rich Perelman
-
An LA28 rendering of the Riversport OKC facility in use for Canoe Slalom during the 2028 Olympic Games.

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt has asked the City Council to approve a $34.6 million guarantee to the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizing committee in order to host the slalom canoeing and softball events.

The motion is scheduled for Tuesday, with the cost calculated by a projection of the amount it would take to relocate the events to the Los Angeles area in case of an Oklahoma City default.

Holt told The Oklahoman, “It’s not a check we expect to write out.

“From their perspective, we’ve committed to do this. They committed to the [International Olympic Committee] these events will happen. They are relying on us to keep the commitment they made.”

Los Angeles City 15th District Council member Tim McOsker continued his rage against the LA28 organizers, trying to get the sailing competition moved from Long Beach to San Pedro, filing two more motions on Friday to compel reports from LA28 on commitments made in the November 2021 Games Agreement with the City.

One asks for a report in seven days by City staff on the current status of the “LA28 Community Business and Procurement Program and the Local Hire Program” and the other for a City staff report – in seven days – on the LA28 “Impact and Sustainability Plan.”

Both motions were referred to the City’s Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games; the first motion was also referred to the Economic Development and Jobs Committee.

● Football ● On Thursday, FIFA announced a special ticket offer, tying purchases – and attendance – at FIFA Club World Cup matches this summer for tickets at the FIFA World Cup in 2026:

“This package involves one ticket per match to two FIFA Club World Cup 2025 matches, with the option to add one ticket to a third match at an additional cost. The purchaser of a Ticket Pack who uses all tickets to attend all matches included in their Ticket Pack will be granted a guaranteed option to buy one ticket to a FIFA World Cup 26 match in the United States (excluding the final).”

This is available for 25 days (from 3 April), or until the allocation runs out. There is also a “Super Ticket Pack:”

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enjoy the groundbreaking FIFA Club World Cup 2025, this package features one ticket per match to 20 FIFA Club World Cup 2025 matches, which must include a semi-final and either the opening match or the final. The purchaser of a Super Ticket Pack who uses all tickets to attend all matches included in their Super Ticket Pack will be granted a guaranteed option to buy one ticket for the eagerly anticipated FIFA World Cup 26 final.”

The Club World Cup kicks off on 14 June in Miami, Florida, with the final on 13 July in New Jersey.

● Gymnastics ● A total of 14 Russian artistic gymnasts received neutral status from the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique to compete in FIG World Cup events, but decided not compete. According to the Russian Gymnastics Federation:

“All Russian athletes representing artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, who have received neutral status, have decided to refrain from participating in the upcoming competitions under the auspices of the International Gymnastics Federation. The reason for this decision is the numerous unfounded and biased refusals by the FIG special committee to allow our gymnasts to compete.”

According to the Russian news agency TASS:

“[T]he FIG refused to grant neutral status to some athletes from Russia due to the posting of a congratulatory message on social networks for Victory Day, the athletes’ participation in a gala concert for Defender of the Fatherland Day, during which the St. George ribbon was used and photographs were taken with children in military uniform.

“Another reason for the refusal was the athlete’s subscription to a group on a social network where an announcement of the V All-Russian Anti-Doping Dictation, dedicated to the Physical Culture Day, was posted. The experts of the special FIG committee took the number V for one of the symbols of the SVO [Ukrainian invasion].”

● Skateboarding ● The Italian news agency ANSA reported that World Skate will impose a minimum age limit on athletes at the 2028 Olympic Games of 14, to be achieved by the end of the year (meaning 13-year-olds could compete in Los Angeles).

Athletes as young as 11 – China’s Haohao Zhang – competed in Paris in 2024; an age limit of 12 will be installed for the Youth Olympic Games.

≡ RESULTS ≡

● Athletics ● At the USATF National 10-mile Championships in Washington, D.C., held in conjunction with the annual Cherry Blossom 10, with former Oklahoma State All-American Taylor Roe backing up her win in the USATF Half Marathon champs in March with two American Records.

She surged away from the field after a couple of miles and won going away in a U.S. record of 49:53, destroying Molly Huddle’s 2018 mark of 50:52. Emma Grace Hurley was a distance second in 51:04 and Fiona O’Keeffe was third in 51:49.

Along the way, Roe passed 10 km in 30:56, four seconds off Shalane Flanagan’s 2016 best, but got a U.S. women’s-only record, ahead of Weini Kelati’s 31:18 in 2021. Roe also grabbed the American Record for 15 km at 46:24, slashing Kelati’s 46:32 from earlier in 2025.

The men’s race was won by U.S.-British dual citizen Charles Hicks in 45:14, with a final sprint to beat USATF Half Marathon champ Alex Maier (45:15) and Biya Simbassa (45:23). Maier claimed the American Record, one second better than Conner Mantz’s en route time during the Houston Half Marathon earlier this year.

● Curling ● Olympic silver medalist Bruce Mouat’s Scottish rink claimed their second World Curling Men’s World Championships in the last three editions in Moose Jaw (CAN) on Sunday.

Canadian star Brad Jacobs, the 2014 Olympic winner, had his rink at the top of the round-robin after an 11-1 record, ahead of the Swiss (9-3) and then China, Sweden and Scotland at 8-4.

In the playoffs, Mouat’s Scots dispensed with Canada’s Jacobs in the semis, 7-4, and Swiss Yannick Schwaller’s rink dumped China, 7-3. That set up the final, with the Swiss leading, 1-0, through four ends, but Mouat coming up with two in the fifth, only to see Schwaller match in the sixth. The Scots scored twice more in the seventh, but the Swiss tied it at 4-4 in the eighth.

Finally, a score in the 10th gave Mouat and Scotland a 5-4 win and the title, their seventh in history and the second for Mouat, who won with the same team as in 2023: Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan Jr. and Kyle Waddell.

Canada and Jacobs won the third-place game, 11-2, over China (Xiaoming Xu). The U.S., with Korey Dropkin as skip, finished 4-8, in 11th.

● Cycling ● The great Tadej Pogacar (SLO) did it again, riding away with another major race win, this time at the 109th Ronde van Vlaanderen – the Tour of Flanders – attacking with 18 km to go and winning over the 268.9 km course in 5:58:41.

That was 1:01 better than Mads Pedersen (DEN) and Mathieu van der Poel (NED), who ended up 2-3, with Wout van Aert (BEL) in fourth, with the same time. It’s Pogacar’s second win in this race, also in 2023.

The women’s race was won by home favorite Lotte Kopecky, winning a final sprint of four riders at the end of the 168.9 km track, in 4:24:34. She was just better than Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (FRA) and Liane Lippert (GER), both with the same time, and a second up on Kasia Niewiadoma (POL). It was the third win in this race for Kopecky, who took it in 2022 and 2023.

Colombia and the U.S. led the way at the Pan American Track Championships in Asuncion (PAR), finishing 1-2 on the medal table.

In the men’s events, American riders won the Individual Pursuit (Anders Johnson), the Omnium (Peter Moore), Elimination Race (Brendan Rihm) and the Madison, with Moore and Rihm together, and they were both on the winning Team Pursuit squad. Rihm also got second in the Scratch Race behind Canada’s Cameron Fitzmaurice.

Trinidad & Tobago star Nicholas Paul won the Sprint and the Time Trial (and his team took the Team Sprint) and Peru’s Hugo Perez took the Points Race.

In the women’s finals, the star was Mexico’s Yareli Acevedo, who won the Scratch Race, Elimination Race and the Omnium. Colombia’s Stefany Quadrado won the Time Trial over Hayley Yoslov of the U.S., and Lina Hernandez and Elizabeth Castano won the Madison.

American Emily Ehrlich won the Individual Pursuit and rode on the winning Team Pursuit squad for the U.S. The American squad also took the Team Sprint. Canada’s Lauriane Genest took the Sprint and the Keirin.

In all, Colombia won 20 medals (3-10-7) and the U.S. had 13 (8-3-2).

The UCI Mountain Bike World Series opened in Aranxa (BRA), with a stirring win for France’s Olympic runner-up Victor Koretzky, winning the Cross Country Olympic men’s race in 1:19:32, up 10 seconds on American Chris Blevins, the 2021 World Short-Track champ. Chile’s Martin Vidaurre was well back in third in 1:20:01.

Blevins won the Short Track race on Saturday over Koretzky, 21:40 to 21:41.

New Zealand’s Sammie Maxwell, the 2023 World U-23 gold medalist, took the women’s Cross Country Olympic gold with a big lead after seven laps, but losing some of her lead on the final circuit, winning in 1:24:03. Moving up were two-time Worlds relay winner Nicole Koller (SUI) and 2023 U.S. champion Savilla Blunck, who went 2-3, both in 1:24:07.

Britain’s 2024 World Short-Track winner Evie Richards won the women’s Short Track race on Saturday over Maxwell, 21:25 to 21:26.

● Diving ● China dominated the World Aquatics World Cup in Guadalajara (MEX), but the home team had some celebrations, too!

Paris Olympic silver winner Zongyuan Wang won the men’s 3 m Springboard easily at 540.15, way ahead of Juan Celeya (MEX: 457.45); American Luke Sitz was 10th (384.75). On the Platform, Mexico scored big with Randal Willars scoring 547.70 to overwhelm everyone, ahead of China’s Zifeng Zhu (468.65) and Zilong Cheng (463.80).

Mexico also got a win in the 3 m Synchro, as Celeya and Osmar Olvera scored 430.23 points to edge newcomers Yukang Hu and Jluyuan Zheng (413.16) and British veterans Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher (396.06). Sitz and Josh Sollenberger of the U.S. finished 11th (341.07).

The men’s 10 m Synchro was a close win for China’s Zilong Cheng and Zifeng Zho with 449.49 points to 435.45 for Mexicans Kevin Berlin Reyes and Willars. The American duo of Joshua Hedberg and Tyler Wills finished fourth at 388.71.

Jia Chen and Yiwen Chen went 1-2 in the women’s 3 m Springboard, scoring 380.55 and 372.90, beating Australian Olympic silver winner Maddison Keeney (352.00); American Sophie Verzyl placed seventh (302.25).

Yani Chang and Yiwen Chen took the women’s 3 m Synchro with 323.79 points to 296.08 for Lia Cueva and Mia Cueva (MEX) and Keeney and Alysha Koloi (AUS: 287.85) in third. Americans Kyndal Knight and Anna Kwong finished seventh in 237.60.

China’s Paris Olympic runner-up Yuxi Chen and Olympic champ Hongchan Quan went 1-2 in the women’s 10 m Platform, scoring 419.35 and 414.40, ahead of Britain’s 2024 Worlds bronze winner Andrea Spendolini Sireix (337.70). Daryn Wright was the top American, in ninth (271.80). In the women’s 10 m Synchro, Wei Lu and Minjie Zhang were clear winners at 347.58, ahead of Gabriela Agundez and Alejandra Estudillo (MEX: 316.62).

China – Zilong Cheng, Zongyuan Wang, Yiwen Chen and Yuxi Chen – won the Mixed Team event by 489.10 to 416.45 over Italy, with Germany third at 396.20. The U.S. was sixth at 372.20.

● Equestrian ● At the FEI World Cup Final in Basel (SUI), France’s Julien Epaillard and Donatello d’Auge sailed through the first two stages with no fault and in the third stage on Sunday, had no faults in the first round and only one error (4 points) in the second to end with just four overall and the victory.

That was just better than Ben Maher (GBR) and Point Break, who had just seven total points, and Kevin Staut (FRA) and Visconti du Telman (also 7, but slower in the final round). Katherine Dinan was the top American (13), with Out of the Blue, in eighth. Epaillard moved up from silver in 2024.

The Dressage Grand Prix Freestyle saw familiar winners. Britain’s Charlotte Fry, the Paris Olympic bronze medalist, won at 88.195% aboard Glamourdale, followed by German legend Isabell Werth – with DSP Quantaz – at 84.365%, with Isabel Freese (NOR, with Total Hope OLD) in third place at 81.850%.

Fry, Werth and Freese also went 1-2-3 in the Grand Prix Final a day earlier.

● Football ● The USA women met Brazil in a friendly at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Saturday, in a re-match of last summer’s Olympic final won by the U.S., but with a more emphatic outcome.

The Americans were on offense from the start, with immediate pressure. Midfielder Alyssa Thompson quickly found space, dribbling into the middle of the field and sent a lead pass to a cutting forward Trinity Rodman in front of the goal and she sent a right-footed toe-tap into the right side of the Brazilian goal at the five-minute mark. It was Rodman’s first game since the Olympic final against Brazil in Paris last year, thanks to a back injury.

Thompson almost got a goal herself in the 17th, as her shot from the top of the box toward the far right side of the Brazilian goal was saved by keeper Lorena. The U.S. had more chances, from forward Ally Sentnor (18th) and Rodman (22nd), but Lorena was equal to those challenges.

Brazil had chances too, with striker Amanda Gutierres challenging U.S. keeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce in the 30th, but Tullis-Joyce handled it; she stayed busy throughout the half. Possession was 50-50 in the half, but Brazil ended with a 9-6 edge on shots.

The U.S. came out with more control in mind in the second half, but Brazilian midfielder Ludmila hit the U.S. goal post with a shot in the first minute. Brazil got off three more shots on Tullis-Joyce by the 62nd minute before the U.S. offense got going, and in the 66th, Ludmila tackled Lily Yohannes in the box for a penalty.

Midfield star Lindsey Heaps calmly shutter-stepped, then a right-footed smash (barely) into the left side of the Brazilian net for the decisive 2-0 lead. From that point, the U.S. maintained most of the control and the game finished at 2-0.

With better possession on the ball in the second half, the Americans finished with 55% of the ball and had 16 shots to 15 for the visitors. They will meet again on Tuesday in San Jose, California.

● Gymnastics ● At the FIG Rhythmic World Cup in Sofia (BUL), Ukraine’s Paris Olympic ninth-placer Taisila Onofriichuk took the All-Around, scoring 114.450 across two rounds, ahead of Bulgaria’s six-time Worlds medal winner Stiliana Nikolova (110.65) and Uzbek Takhmina Ikromova (109.850). Rin Keys and Megan Chu were the American entries, in sixth (107.000) and eighth (106.500).

In the apparatus finals, Nikolova won on Ball (28.950) and Hoop (29.500) and Onofriichuk took the wins in Clubs (28.900) and Ribbon (27.450). Keys qualified for the Ball final and was sixth (25.350); also sixth in Clubs (26.200), then scored a bronze on Ribbon (26.950), while Chu placed seventh (24.100).

At the Trampoline World Cup in Riccione (ITA), a re-match of the Paris 2024 Olympic men’s final saw gold medalist Ivan Litvinovich (BLR) win again over China’s Zisai Wang, 66.390-65.400.

The women’s final had Paris Olympic finalist Yicheng Hu (CHN) winning with 57.030 points, edging Sofiia Aliaeva (BLR: 56.600), with Canada’s Olympic bronzer Sophiane Methot third (55.310).

Americans Isaac Rowley and Cheyenne Webster won the Mixed Synchro (48.210); German 2023 World Champions Fabian Vogel and Caio Lauxtermann won the men’s Synchro (51.570) and Britain’s 2023 Worlds bronze medalists Bryony Page and Isabelle Songhurst took the women’s Synchro (50.000).

● Rugby Sevens ● At the Rugby Sevens Series in Singapore, a surprise in the men’s final and more of the same for the women.

The men’s pool winners were Argentina, Kenya, Spain and Fiji, and Fiji and Kenya romped into the final, with Fiji winning its second tournament of the season, 21-12 in the final. Argentina defeated Spain, 33-14, for third. That leaves Argentina still on top of the standings, heading to the Grand Final in Carson, California, with 114 points to 96 for Fiji and 88 for Spain. The U.S. finished 12th and did not advance to the Grand Final.

In women’s play, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and France all went 2-0 to win their pools. Then the Black Ferns stormed through the playoffs, winning their games by 40-14 over France and then 31-7 against Australia to win their third tournament in a row. Canada beat France, 21-5, for third.

So, New Zealand stays on top of the standings at 116 points to 106 for Australia, with France third at 80. The U.S. stands sixth (58) and qualifies for the Grand Final.

● Sailing ● The 54th Trofeo Princesa Sofia – for Olympic classes – off Palma de Mallorca (ESP) was a resounding success for Great Britain, which won five of the 10 classes and claimed nine medals overall (5-2-2), well ahead of Italy (0-4-1).

Australian Olympic silver winner Grae Morris took the men’s IQ Foil class win, turning back 2023 Worlds bronze medalists Nicolo Reina (ITA) and Adrien Mestre (FRA) in the final. Olympic bronzer Emma Wilson (GBR) won the women’s final, beating Zheng Yan and New Zealand’s Veerle Ten Have.

Two-time World Champion Maximilian Maeder (SGP) won the men’s Formula Kite class easily, winning the final over Riccardo Pianosi (ITA) and Valentin Bontus (AUT). Maeder piled up 15 wins across his 21 races. China’s Li Wan took the women’s Formula Kite, winning the final over 2023 Worlds bronze winner Lily Young (GBR) and 2024 Olympic champ Ellie Aldridge (GBR).

British boats went 1-2 in the men’s Laser (ILCA7) class, with 2023 Worlds runner-up Michael Beckett (45 net points) and Elliott Hanson (77) finishing ahead of Ireland’s Finn Lynch (81). The women’s Laser Radial (ILCA6) had Australia’s Zoe Thomson winning a tight duel with Emma Mattivi (ITA), 85-94, with Britain’s Daisy Collingridge a close third with 100 points.

Erwan Fischer and Clement Pequin (FRA), 12th at the 2024 Olympic regatta, won the men’s 49er class, with 80 net points to 94 for Germans Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger. Nevin Snow and Ian MacDiarmid of the U.S. finished sixth (138).

Britain’s Freya Black and Saskia Tidey took the women’s 49erFX title, winning three races and placing third in the medal race to edge Johanne Schmidt and Andrea Schmidt (DEN: 79) and Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland (NOR: 105).

And British stars John Gimson and Anna Burnet, two-time World Champions, won the Nacra 17 class by winning the medal race, to give then a 43-45 victory over Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei (ITA), who finished sixth. China’s Huancheng Zhao and Su Sha were right behind with 47 points, finishing fifth in the medal race.

Britain’s Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris were easy winners in the mixed-crew 470, with six top-three finishes and 31 net points, to 59 for Simon Desch and Anna Markfort (GER: 59).

● Ski Mountaineering ● At the penultimate ISMF World Cup of the season, in Villars-sur-Ollon (SUI), two-time seasonal men’s World Cup champ Thibault Anselmet (FRA) won the men’s Sprint in 2:27.6, ahead of Swiss Jon Kistler (2:32.9) and Maximilien Drion du Chapois (BEL). It’s Anselmet’s first win of the season.

The women’s Sprint went to France’s Sprint star Emily Harrop for her sixth World Cup win of the year, in 3:09.3, over Italians Giulia Murada and Katia Mascherona.

The Mixed Relay was won by Spain’s Ana Alonso and Oriol Cardona Coll in 33:18.2, just ahead of Marianne Fatton and Thomas Bussard (SUI: 33:19.4). The U.S. entry of Hali Hafeman and Griffin Briley finished 10th (+3:41.5).

● Snowboard ● The FIS World Cup seasonal finale in Snowcross was in Mont-Sainte-Anne (CAN), with the 2024-25 champions ending with victories.

Jakob Dusek (AUT) took Saturday’s men’s race for his second win of the season, just ahead of Olympic runner-up – and seasonal champion – Eliot Grondin (CAN) and American Nathan Pare, 20, who won his first World Cup medal!

The Sunday finale had Grondin finishing the season with a win, over Aidan Chollet (FRA) and Loan Bozzollo (FRA) and totaling 684 points for the Crystal Globe. Bozzolo finished second with 473 and Dusek was third at 444.

Saturday’s women’s winner was the third win of the season for France’s Lea Casta, 19, over Mia Clift (AUS) and Sina Siegenthaler (SUI), and gave her a 705-622 lead in the Crystal Globe standings over Britain’s 2021 World Champion Charlotte Bankes.

Casta won on Sunday, too, to complete her championship season, beating Siegenthaler and Clift and ending with 805 points to 622 for Bankes, with Julia Pereira de Sousa (FRA: 474) third.

● Swimming ● The second Tyr Pro Swim Series meet of the year was in Sacramento, California, saw a headline performance from American Luca Urlando and a world-leading mark from Australian distance star Sam Short.

Paris Olympian Urlando won the men’s 200 m Butterfly in a world-leading 1:52.37, moving him to no. 4 on the all-time list and no. 3 in American history. He said afterwards:

“That was so cool, I was not expecting that at all. The last 15 meters, I was tightening up a bit, so I was telling myself to just hold my stroke together.”

Short, the 2023 World Champion in the 400 m Freestyle, won three events, taking the 400 m Free in a world-leading 3:43.84, and the 800 m Free (7:46.99) and 1,500 m Free (15:03.87).

The biggest winner was France’s Maxime Grousset, the 2023 Worlds 100 m Fly winner, who tied with U.S. star Michael Andrew to win the 50 m Free (22.04), won the 100 m Free in 48.20, the 50 m Fly (23.12) and 100 m Fly (51.30), beating Urlando (51.32).

Also taking three wins was fellow Frenchman Yohann Ndoye Brouard, a Paris relay bronze medalist, in the backstrokes: 50 m (25.37), 100 m (53.87) and 200 m (1:59.49). Denis Petrashov (KGZ) won two events, the 50 m Breast in 27.32 and 100 m Breast (1:00.42), both times beating Andrew.

American Brooks Curry won the 200 m Free in 1:46.74 (with Short third); Matthew Fallon took the 200 m Breast in 2:09.58) and Grant House (1:58.22) and Michael Hochwalt (4:16.88) won the 200 and 400 m Medleys.

The women’s star was New Zealand’s Eve Thomas, who took the 400 m Free (4:11.64), 800 m Free (8:39.32) and 1,500 m Free in 16:30.48. Two-event winners included French sprinter Beryl Gastaldello, who took the 50 m Free (24.75) and 100 m Free (54.01), American Rhyan White – a Tokyo Olympic relay silver winner – won the 100 m Back (59.68) over Paris Olympic 100 m Back bronze Katharine Berkoff by 1/100th, and won the 200 m Back (2:08.83); she was second in the 50 m Back (27.91) to Berkoff (27.83).

Hungary’s Aliz Kalmar was the other two-event winner, taking the 50 m Breast in 31.56 and the 100 m Breast (1:07.91). Americans Leah Shackley (58.75) and Rachel Klinker (2:10.85) won the 100-200 m Flys; Israeli Olympian Anastasia Gorbenko won the 200 m Medley in 2:09.90 and Swede Lisa Nystrand took the 400 m Medley in 4:45.02.

The USA National Open Water Championships were in Sarasota, Florida, with 16-year-old Brinkleigh Hansen winning the women’s 10 km title and qualifying for the World Aquatics Championships. She won a tight battle with 18-year-old Paris Olympian (and 4×200 m Free relay silver winner) Claire Weinstein, two seconds behind, 2:04:09 to 2:04:11. Mariah Denigan was third in 2:04:16. Hansen and Weinstein qualify for the World Championships; Weinstein and Denigan went 2-3 for the second straight year.

Australia went 1-2 in the men’s 10 km as guest swimmers, winning a five-way final sprint, with Kyle Lee and Thomas Raymond both timed in 1:53:38. Dylan Gravely was the top American, in third place, close behind in 1:53:40, with Joey Tepper at 1:53:41; as the top two Americans, they also qualified for the Worlds. Gravely won the U.S. 5 km title in 2024 and moved up from third in the 10 km from last year.

In Sunday’s 5 km nationals, Paris 2024 Olympian Ivan Puskovitch out-touched defending champion Gravely in the men’s race, 56:10 to 56:12, with Japan’s Riku Takaki third in 56:22. Weinstein was a dominant winner in 1:01:33 over defending champ Ichika Kajimoto (JPN: 1:02:14) and Denigan (1:02:15) in the women’s.

● Table Tennis ● At the WTT Champions in Incheon (KOR), China swept the Singles titles, with Peng Xiang sweeping the men’s final, 4-0, over Sang-su Lee (KOR) by 11-8, 11-0, 11-3, 11-4.

The women’s final went to top-seeded Yidi Wang, the 2021 Worlds bronze medalist, who defeated countrywoman 2023 Worlds bronze medalist Xingtong Chen by 4-3 in a major comeback: 11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-6, 12-10.

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ATHLETICS: First Grand Slam Track stop concludes in Jamaica with stars McLaughlin-Levrone, Fisher, Jefferson, dos Santos and Wanyonyi all perfect

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone: a Grand Slam Track champion in Kingston (Photo: Grand Slam Track).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK I ≡

The final day of the first Grand Slam Track meet in Kingston (JAM) finished on Sunday with the winners of the first race taking the second as well in five of the eight events.

Attendance appeared to be down on Sunday, vs. Saturday evening, with perhaps 8,000 in the 35,000-seat National Stadium. Scoring in each event group (two races) was 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 and the placers in each group won $100,000-50,000-30,000-25,000-20,000-15,000-12,500-10,000.

The races:

● Women/100 m (short hurdles):
Having hurdlers – short and long – run sprints – 100 and 400 m – is one of the fun aspects of Grand Slam Track and a possible jumping-off point for some to run on their national 4×100 or 4×400 m teams later in the season. But not with Sunday’s windy conditions. 

Tia Jones of the U.S. came in with the upset win in the 100 m hurdles, with Danielle Williams (JAM) second, but Denisha Cartwright (BAH) got the best start. Jamaican stars Ackera Nugent and then Williams took over and Williams won going away in 11.54 into a 3.4 m/s headwind!

Nugent was second in 11.57, ahead of Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (PUR: 11.73), with Jones in sixth (12.26). So, Williams won the Slam with 20 points, to 15 for Jones and 13 for Nugent.

● Men/400 m (long hurdles):
Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, the 2022 World Champion, was an easy winner in the 400 m hurdles, but now was running on the flat. Caleb Dean of the U.S. went out hard in lane six, ahead of dos Santos and the Brazilian was squeezed by 2024 400H NCAA runner-up Chris Robinson from behind.

But in the home straight, Dean faded, Robinson looked like a possible winner, but dos Santos timed his surge perfectly and got to the line first in 45.52, ahead of Robinson (45.54 lifetime best) and Dean (45.68).

That gave dos Santos the Slam with a perfect 24 points, ahead of Jamaican Roshawn Clarke (13 points) and then Dean (12) and Robinson (11).

● Women/5,000 m (long distance):
Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye won the 3,000 m on Friday, but Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich, the road 10 km world-record holder, took off from the gun and had a huge lead after three laps. But Taye had caught up with five laps to go.

They ran together, way ahead of the rest of the pack, with Taye breaking away with 200 m to go as Ngetich touched her from behind, sprinting home in an outdoor world-leading 14:54.88, to win the Slam with a perfect 24 points. Ngetich was second in 14:59.80 and then Tsige Gebreselama (ETH: 15:24.62).

Ngetich was second in both races and was second in the Slam with 16, with Gebreselama third in both for third overall (16).

● Men/100 m (short hurdles):
American Dylan Beard upset the field in the 110 m hurdles, so could he pull another shocker in the 100? No.

The race was close off the start, but three-time French hurdles champ Sasha Zhoya surged into the lead by mid-way and won by daylight in 10.55, into a 2.0 m/s headwind. American Cordell Tinch came up for second in a tight finish with Beard and fellow American Eric Edwards, in 10.65-10.67-10.68. So Zhoya won the Slam on 20 points, but Beard got 16 and Tinch, only fifth in the hurdles race, was third overall with 12.

● Men/800 m (short distance):
Kenya’s Olympic 800 m champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi humiliated the 1,500 m stars by winning a (relatively) slow 1,500 m in a lifetime best 3:35.18. Canadian Marco Arop, the Olympic 800 m silver winner, took the lead, with Wanyonyi and American Bryce Hoppel gapped the field by the bell.

Arop was in front with 200 m to go and stormed down the straight for the win in 1:45.13, with Wanyonyi well back in 1:46.44 and American Record holder Hoppel third in 1:47.02. That gave the Slam to Wanyonyi (20), over Arop (15) and Yared Nuguse of the U.S., sixth in the 800 m and scoring 11 points. It was all about the 800 m runners in this Slam.

● Men/3,000 m (long distance):
American Grant Fisher stormed to the win in the 5,000 m in Friday, but it was Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet – the 2023 World Road 5 km gold medalist – and Telahun Haile Bekele ran away at the start, and Gebrhiwet was in front for good with four laps to go. He won easily in 7:51.55 with Haile Bekele second in 8:00.68.

But Fisher made sure he was third – sprinting past countryman Dylan Jacobs in the last 50 m, in 8:03.85 – ahead of Ronald Kwemoi (KEN: 8:04.12), and won the Slam with 18 points, vs. 17 for Gebrhiwet and 12 for American Cooper Teare.

● Women/200 m (short sprints):
Olympic 100 m bronze winner Melissa Jefferson won the 100 m over Jenna Prandini of the U.S., but Prandini held a slight lead coming into the straight. Those two ran together for another 50 m, but Jefferson edged ahead to win in 23.46, against a big headwind of 4.7 m/s, with Prandini as 23.56.

Just as in the 100, American Jacious Sears was third again (23.79) and the Slam had those three in order: Jefferson (24), Prandini (16, pretty good for a late replacement!) and Sears (12).

● Women/400 m (long hurdles):
So here was Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to close the meet after having won the 400 m hurdles on Friday, and she did not disappoint, moving well from lane six off the gun and making the first stagger ahead of her by the 200 m mark.

She was well in front by 300 m and cruised to the win in 50.32 against the difficult wind, even so, now no. five on the 2025 outdoor world list.

Jamaica’s Andrenette Knight got second over Dalilah Muhammad of the U.S., 52.09 to 52.21, so McLaughlin-Levrone won the Slam with 24 points, to 14 for Muhammad and 13 for Knight.

That this concept was actually held at all was noteworthy and congratulations are due to Founder and Commissioner Michael Johnson. The critiques can wait for a day or so, with the next edition – and no doubt some changes – coming in Miramar, Florida on 2-4 May.

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ATHLETICS: Grand Slam Track crowns first “Slam” champs, as Bednarek and Thomas take the sprints, and Jones shocks in the hurdles

By
Rich Perelman
-
Absolutely no doubt about “Kung Fu Kenny” Bednarek (USA, at right), who swept the 100-200 m men’s Short Sprints in Kingston! (Photo: Grand Slam Track).

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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK I ≡

Day two of the debut meet of the new Grand Slam Track circuit at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, with the first four “Slam” event groups to be decided.

A major feature of the program is the payout for each two-race event group, with each race scored 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 and the placers in each group winning $262,500 for places 1-8: $100,000 – 50,000 – 30,000 – 25,000 – 20,000 – 15,000 – 12,500 – 10,000. Four events were decided on Saturday, with better attendance in the stands, and nice, 83 F weather when the meet kicked off at 5:42 p.m. local time.

Attendance was much better today, perhaps 10,000 in a 35,000-seat stadium, and with the usual Jamaican enthusiasm, who saw three (outdoor) world-leading marks:

● Women/400 m: 48.67, Salwa Eid Naser (BAH)
● Women/1,500 m: 4:04.51, Diribe Welteji (ETH)
● Women/100 m hurdles: 12.63, Tia Jones (USA)

The races:

● Men/110 m hurdles (short hurdles):
Jamaica’s two Olympic champs from Rio (Omar McLeod) and Tokyo (Hansle Parchment) were on the line, but it was Paris Olympic silver medalist Daniel Roberts of the U.S. got the best start. But he clobbered the second hurdle and countryman Dylan Beard, an Olympic Trials semifinalist in 2024, in lane two charged to the lead in mid-race and he held on to the line in 13.29, into a slight headwind of -0.5 m/s.

In the middle of the track, in lane six, France’s Sasha Zhoya, the 2024 Diamond League winner, closed well for second (13.34) in a blanket finish with Roberts (13.35) and fellow Americans Freddie Crittenden (13.36) and Cordell Tinch (13.38).

● Men/200 m (long sprints):
World Indoor champion Chris Bailey of the U.S. won the first-day 400 m in a world-leading 44.34, but hadn’t run this race in six years and started in lane seven. The start was even and everyone was in contention into the straight.

But it was Olympic 400 m silver winner Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR) emerged in the final 15 m to edge Paris bronze winner Muzala Samukonga (ZAM) at the line, 20.77 to 20.81 into a stiff, 3.3 m/s headwind! Challenger Deandre Watkin (JAM) came up for third in 20.91, ahead of a good run for Vernon Norwood (USA) in 20.92, then Bailey in a lifetime best 20.93.

So, Hudson-Smith won the first event Slam and $100,000 with 20 points, to 16 for Bailey ($50,000) and 11 for Norwood ($30,000).

● Women/1,500 m (short distance):
American champ Nikki Hiltz won the 800 m on Friday in a surprise lifetime best of 1:58.23, and she and Olympic silver winner Jess Hull (AUS) were in the lead off the gun and Hull then picked it up and led with two laps to go. At the bell, Hull and World Indoor 1,500 m runner-up Diribe Welteji (ETH) were 1-2, and Welteji toook the lead on the backstraight.

Into the final straight, Welteji led Hull and ran away for win for 4:04.51 – an outdoor world leader – with Kenya’s Olympic sixth-placer Susan Ejore passing Hull for second in the final 40 m (4:05.10), and Hiltz also got Hull at the line for third, 4:05.39 to 4:05.48.

Welteji won the Slam with 20 points, to 18 for Hiltz, 12 for Ejore and 11 for Hull.

● Women/100 m hurdles (short hurdles):
Two Olympic champions were on the line with Masai Russell of the U.S. from Paris and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (PUR) from Tokyo. But it was American Tia Jones, a late replacement challenger who was the 2024 U.S. indoor 60 m hurdles champ, got the best start and was never headed, winning by daylight in 12.63 (-1.4 m/s).

Camacho-Quinn came on in mid-race and battled with two-time World Champion Danielle Williams (JAM), with Williams getting second, with both in 12.70. Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent, the world leader in 2024, was fourth in 12.75 and Russell was sixth in 12.78.

Jones has been in the news for her break-up with Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy, who filed a domestic violence suit against her in Texas, with Jones filing for a protective order against Worthy. In the meantime, she leads the Short Hurdles Slam after race one.

● Women/100 m (short sprints):
Olympic bronze winner Melissa Jefferson of the U.S. was in lane five, and got off well and had control of the race, winning in 11.11 (wind: -0.6 m/s).

American Jenna Prandini, a very late replacement Challenger, came on in the latter half and was a clear second in 11.23, passing U.S. indoor runner-up Jacious Sears (11.25). British star Daryll Neita was fourth in 11.33.

Prandini, normally better in the 200 m, now is in position to win the Slam tomorrow!

● Men/1,500 m (short distance):
This was looked at as the race of the day, with Olympic champ Cole Hocker (USA) and 800 m winner Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN) facing off, along with three more 800-1,500 medalists: Josh Kerr (GBR), Yared Nuguse of the U.S. and Canada’s Marco Arop.

Hocker and Nuguse led early, with the pack closely bunched, at 2:00.1 for 800 m. Nuguse took over, with Kerr following as they came to the bell, with Wanyonyi coming up for third at 1,200 m. Nuguse and Kerr led with 200 m left, but in the final straight, it was Nuguse in front, but with Wanyonyi moving best. And with 50 m to go, Wanyonyi was clear and won in an upset at 3:35.18, ahead of Nuguse and Hocker coming from fifth to third in 3:35.52. Britain’s Neil Gourley, the World 1,500 m runner-up, got past Kerr, 3:35.60 to 3:35.61.

A shocker for Wanyonyi and a huge lifetime best, having run 3:38.1 (hand) at altitude in mid-March. Terrific.

● Men/200 m (short sprints):
Any doubts about two-time Olympic silver winner Kenny Bednarek (USA), the winner of the 100 m, as the Slam winner?

None. Fellow American Fred Kerley, the 2022 World 100 m champ, burst out of the blocks and led around the turn, but Bednarek was in the lead into the straight and was an easy winner, easing into the tape in 20.07 (+0.2).

Britain’s Zharnel Hughes passed Kerley on the final straight for second, 20.37 to 20.39, with former two-time NCAA champ Joseph Fahnbulleh fourth in 20.42.

Bednarek won both leg of the Short Sprints Slam (24), followed by Hughes (14), then Jamaica’s Oblique Seville (12) and Kerley (8).

● Women/400 m (long sprints):
Olympic 200 m champ Gabby Thomas of the U.S. won the first race, but was also a key leg on the U.S. 4×400 m team in Paris, but what about Olympic 400 m champ Marileidy Paulino (DOM)?

Off the start, however, it was Bahrain’s Olympic silver winner Salwa Eid Naser – the world leader at 48.94 – zoomed off the start and made up the stagger on Thomas, one lane ahead of her, by 150 m. Around the turn, Naser and Paulino were 1-2 and Naser ran away to win in a world-leading 48.67.

But Thomas was glued to Paulino and ran her down in the final 30 m, 49.14 to 49.35, with American Alexis Holmes in 50.12. Thomas won the Slam with 20 points – and got a lifetime best in the 400 m. now no. 7 all-time U.S. – to 17 for Naser, then 14 for Paulino and eight for Holmes.

Sunday’s final-day meet will start at 3 p.m. Eastern, on Peacock and The CW.

(Note to readers: Coverage of Sunday’s meet will be delayed for several hours due to a scheduling conflict. Please use this link for results.)

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ATHLETICS: Grand Slam Track debuts in Kingston with five world leads, including by Americans Bailey and McLaughlin-Levrone

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. star Grant Fisher wins the men's 5,000 at the Grand Slam Track opener in Kingston (Photo: Grand Slam Track on X)

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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK I ≡

The grand, new experiment in professional track & field – Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track – debuted Friday at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, with an eight-event program that took 99 minutes inside a 180-minute format.

The “pre-meet” and “post-meet” shows are part of the three-hour program, with former ESPN anchor John Anderson and Olympic champs Sanya Richards-Ross and Matthew Centrowitz talking about the races for 42 minutes before the first race. For those interested, odds on each race were posted on the DraftKings Sportsbook.

Conditions were good, at 82 F, breezy with 59% humidity, but with a small crowd of maybe 4-5,000 or so on Friday afternoon and evening. But the running was fun, with early-season world-leading performances in five events:

● Men/400 m: 44.34, Chris Bailey (USA)
● Men/400 m hurdles: 47.61, Alison dos Santos (BRA)

● Women/800 m: 1:58.23, Nikki Hiltz (USA)
● Women/3,000 m: 8:28.42, Ejgayyehu Taye (ETH)
● Women/400 m hurdles: 52.76, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA)

The races:

● Women/200 m (short sprints):
The opening race of the project was a win for Olympic champ Gabby Thomas (USA), who took over for 2019 World Champion Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) on the home straight and winning in 22.62 (wind: -0.2 m/s). Asher-Smith gave way to Paris 400 m Olympic champ Marileidy Paulino (DOM: 22.93), with Asher-Smith third in 22.96.

Paris 2024 Olympic 400 m runner-up was fourth in 22.99, with Talitha Diggs (USA: 23.30) in fifth.

● Men/400 m (long sprints):
Olympic silver medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR) took off from the gun and had the lead through the second turn, but then World Indoor Champion Chris Bailey of the U.S. pushed hard into the home straight and ran away to win in a world-leading 44.34.

Hudson-Smith held on for second in 44.65, with Vernon Norwood of the U.S. was a very close third in 44.70. Jamaican Zandrion Barnes was fourth in 45.11, but was disqualified, so Botswana’s Busang Kebinatshipi moved up, timed in 45.15.

Bailey was impressive, coming off his strong indoor season

● Women/3,000 m (long distance):
Kenya’s road 10 km world-record holder Agnes Negtich (KEN), and Ethiopians Ejgayehu Taye and Paris 10,000 m Olympian Tsige Gebreselama broke away by three laps to go, and then Gebreselama dropped with a lap and a half to go.

By the bell, it was the two together, but Taye – the Worlds 10,000 bronzer in 2023 – ran away over the final turn and won cleanly in 8:28.42, with Ngetich in a lifetime best of 8:28.75, then Gebreselama in third in 8:38.15 and Hellen Lobun (KEN) fourth at 8:42.51.

● Women/800 m (short distance):
American Heather MacLean, the U.S. 1,500 m indoor third-placer, got to the lead at 200 m, with 2024 World Indoor 1,500 m runner-up Nikki Hiltz of the U.S. coming up to challenge at the bell, and took the lead on the back straight.

Hiltz stayed in the lead into the final turn, with Ethiopian star Diribe Welteji, the World Indoor 1,500 silver winner, coming hard, but not hard enough and Hiltz got to the line first in a world-leading 1:58.23, with Welteji at 1:59.28. Olympic 1,500 m runner-up Jess Hull (AUS) got a lifetime best of 1:58.58 in third, with American Sage Hurta-Klecker getting fourth in 1:59.26.

● Men/400 m hurdles (long hurdles):
Brazil’s 2022 World Champion Alison dos Santos was the obvious favorite, but he was second to NCAA champ Caleb Dean of the U.S. all the way through the seven hurdle. But off the turn, dos Santos went to the lead and cruised home with a clear win in a world-leading 47.61.

Jamaican Olympian Roshawn Clarke moved past Dean into second at 48.20, with Dean closing back up for third in 48.58 and Malik James-King (JAM) fourth in 48.69.

● Women/400 m hurdles (long hurdles):
All eyes were on U.S. superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the face of the project, running her first hurdles race since her Olympic triumph in Paris.

Jamaica’s Rushell Clayton, fifth in the Paris Olympic final, led on the backstraight, but McLaughlin-Levrone was in control around the turn and into the straight, winning in a world-leading 52.76.

Rio 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad, who said on Thursday that she would retire after the 2025 season, came on in the final straight and got a very creditable second in 54.59. Clayton was third in 55.02, ahead of teammate Andrenette Knight (55.06).

● Men/5,000 m (long distance):
This turned out to be a tactical, slow race, with Cooper Teare of the U.S. leading, but everyone waiting for the bell. Kenyan Ronald Kwemoi, the Paris 2024 Olympic silver winner, had the lead for a while, but with everyone in contact (and mostly jogging).

Ethiopia’s Telahun Haile Bekele, fourth at the 2019 Worlds, was in front with two laps left, but at the bell, Ethiopia’s 2016 Olympic bronzer Hagos Gebrhiwet flew into the lead onto the back straight, chased by Americans Dylan Jacobs and indoor star Grant Fisher.

Onto the final straight, Jacobs got past Gebrhiwet and then Fisher and Teare came up to run four abreast with 40 m to go. Fisher got to the line with a hard sprint in the final 20 m – and a 51.5 last lap – in 14:39.14, ahead of Teare (14:39.31) and Jacobs (14:39.56), an American sweep. Gebrhiwet ended up fourth in 14:40.20.

● Men/100 m (short sprints):
The crowd was hoping for home favorite Oblique Seville, the two-time Worlds fourth-placer, but it was Jamaican Ackeem Blake who got the best start in lane seven. American 200 m star Kenny Bednarek, the Paris silver medalist at 200 m and seventh in the 100, got to the front and stayed there.

Seville moved up close, but Bednarek stayed in front and won in 10.07 (-1.3 m/s), with Seville at 10.08, Britain’s 2023 Worlds bronzer Zharnel Hughes third (10.13) and Blake fourth in 10.13. Fred Kerley of the U.S., the 2022 World Champion and Olympic bronze winner in Paris, was left in the blocks and was seventh in 10.30.

Scoring in each event group (two races) is 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 and the placers in each group will win $100,000-50,000-30,000-25,000-20,000-15,000-12,500-10,000.

Saturday’s meet will start at 6 p.m. Eastern on Peacock and The CW, and 3 p.m. on Sunday, also on Peacock and The CW.

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PANORAMA: FIFA asks to flip men’s & women’s Olympic tournaments; French Alps 2030 to skate in Holland? Horror crash for Italian ski star Brignone

By
Rich Perelman
-
Italian ski star Federica Brignone in 2024 (Photo: Wikipedia via Tournasol7).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● The LA84 Foundation, the living legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, announced $1.8 million in grants to 26 organizations, serving youth in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties.

These programs are projected to reach 188,720 youth, with seven grants made to Boys and Girls Clubs for free recreation and leagues, inter-club competitions in multiple sports, coach training, and repairs of a gymnasium roof and a swimming pool. Three grants were aimed at youth access to golf and four are for new opportunities in adaptive and inclusive sports for youth with disabilities.

Founded with 40% of the surplus from the staging of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the LA84 Foundation has touched more than four million young people in Southern California over its 41 years of service.

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) told the UEFA Congress meeting in Belgrade (SRB) that the time has come to recognize the importance of the women’s Olympic football tournament – in which all top-level players can participate – and the men’s tournament, an under-23 tournament with three any-age players allowed:

“We had been asking the IOC whether we can have 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams. It seems this is not possible so our proposal would be that we should think about swapping it and having 16 women’s team and 12 men’s team to foster even more the women’s football movement.”

“I think we owe that to women’s football. It would be a strong signal but we will see where that leads us.”

The men’s tournament is degraded by FIFA to protect the value of its men’s World Cup and such measures began essentially when the World Cup started up in 1930. But with women’s football on the rise, more women’s teams is attractive to FIFA.

Los Angeles City 15th District Council member Tim McOsker, who is insisting that San Pedro must host the sailing competitions in 2028, added another motion to his prior demands for more dispute resolution information vis-a-vis the LA28 organizing committee on Wednesday. The new motion asks for information about LA28 contracts with venue owners or operators outside of the City of Los Angeles and the “[r]esponsibility for cost overruns, capital improvements, or operational disruptions” and “[i]nsurance, indemnification, and risk mitigation provisions.”

Further, he has asked Los Angeles City staff to determine:

● “The City’s authority and options for negotiating terms to protect public funds and limit liability for venues outside of its ownership or control”

● “Recommendations to ensure consistency across all venue-related funding agreements and alignment with the City’s broader goals for equity, sustainability, and fiscal responsibility.”

Although he asked for a report back in seven days, this is only after the motion has passed the City Council; the motion was sent to the Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, slated to meet later in April.

● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● Costs are a big issue with the French organizers and it appears speed skating may be headed elsewhere. Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regional president Renaud Muselier told the French newspaper Le Figaro:

“It’s too expensive, around 50 million euros. We will find a solution and [President Edgar Grospiron/FRA] will go to Holland and Italy to see how we can do it with them.”

The Dutch are the dominant nation in speed skating and will likely welcome the opportunity to put on the Games in front of a raucous home crowd. (€1 = $1.11 U.S.)

● Paralympic Games 2024: Paris ● The International Paralympic Committee posted some highlights of a study by Nielsen on television viewing of the Paris 2024 Games, with a record 349.4 million estimated audience worldwide for the opening ceremony.

The closing ceremony was estimated to be watched by 193.6 million, another record. The live worldwide audience for the entire Games was reported to grow 40% from Tokyo 2020, but no specific figure was given.

● Alpine Skiing ● A terrible tragedy for seasonal World Cup women’s champion Federica Brignone (ITA), on Thursday at the Italian national championships. Per the International Ski & Snowboard Federation:

“Federica Brignone suffered a fall during the second run of the women’s giant slalom valid for the Italian National Championships, held at Alpe Lusia (Trentino). She was taken to Santa Chiara Hospital in Trento, where a CT scan revealed a displaced, comminuted fracture of the tibial plateau and fibular head in her left leg.

“The FISI Medical Commission is closely monitoring the condition of the athlete from Valle d’Aosta and has arranged her transfer to the ‘La Madonnina’ clinic in Milan, where further radiological examinations will be conducted and the surgical plan will be defined.”

She was operated on in the evening, and also suffered a rupture of her anterior cruciate ligament.

Brignone won the seasonal titles in the women’s World Cup (her second), and in the Downhill and Giant Slalom, winning 10 races on the season. Now, her status as one of the possible heroes of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games will depend on her recovery, which is expected to take many months.

● Athletics ● Grand Slam Track published the start lists and lane assignments for its opening, three-day “Slam” in Kingston, Jamaica that begins Friday.

The meets will start at 6 p.m. Eastern on Friday (on Peacock) and Saturday (Peacock and The CW), and 3 p.m. on Sunday (Peacock and The CW). Look for results here.

● Curling ● Three-quarters of the way through the round-robin portion of the World Curling men’s World Championship in Moose Jaw (CAN), home favorite Brad Jacobs’ rink leads with an 8-1 record, with three matches remaining before the playoffs.

Canada’s Jacobs, the 2014 Olympic champion, has competition from Switzerland at 7-2 (Yannick Schwaller) and China, Sweden and Scotland, all at 6-3. The U.S., with Korey Dropkin as skip, is 4-4 and in eighth place.

The top six will advance to the playoffs beginning on Saturday (5th), with the medal matches on Sunday.

● Modern Pentathlon ● Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne President Rob Stull of the U.S. wrote about the opening World Cup of the season in Cairo (EGY) at the end of February, noting that changes will be needed to the new obstacle element:

“The athletes did well on the Obstacle course, perhaps too well – it will likely need to evolve to become more challenging. It is a step-by-step process, and I can see how senior athletes are going to eat this up as they develop their skills and fine-tune their training.

“I have been told that the difficulty will need to be increased, but only after this season. Of course, it’s something the UIPM Athletes, Coaches and Technical Committees will need to address, and everything is on the table.”

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SAFESPORT: U.S. Senator Grassley questions SafeSport ExCo Chair about oversight of operations, costs and continuing long resolution times

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ U.S. CENTER FOR SAFESPORT ≡

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, followed up on his 2024 inquiries about SafeSport procedures and oversight in two letters, noting that the performance of the agency is not breeding confidence.

A letter to SafeSport chief executive Ju’Riese Colon asked about the process which led to the hiring of a former Allentown, Pennsylvania police officer who was under investigation on abuse charges at the time of hire.

The investigator, Jason Krasley, has been charged with theft, rape, sexual assault, involuntary servitude with the threat of serious physical harm, and patronizing prostitutes, and was maintained as a staff member for two months after the allegations were made, before being fired.

In a separate, four-page letter to the SafeSport Executive Committee Chair, April Holmes, Grassley stated:

“There appears to be a lack of oversight by the Board to adequately supervise the CEO, Ju’Riese Colón, and other officers and directors in their duties to the organization. It was troubling to read that SafeSport ‘perpetrated a fraud’ against a Florida State Court in Seminole County and intentionally withheld evidence in a criminal case brought at the prompting of one of the Center’s investigators.

“The court found that SafeSport possessed exculpatory information related to a sexual abuse claim and failed to disclose that information to law enforcement. It further stated that SafeSport ‘filtered’ and withheld exculpatory information attempting to influence law enforcement’s investigation. This judicial finding is alarming given the mission of SafeSport: to prevent sexual, emotion and physical abuse of athletes across the country.”

Grassley had more complaints:

● “[T]here is concern that SafeSport is not prioritizing serious sexual and child abuse cases over other cases, which is causing more serious cases to languish without proper investigation. It is unclear how SafeSport prioritizes cases in which they have exclusive jurisdiction. It is also unclear what minimum investigation is conducted for cases in which it has discretionary jurisdiction before declining or accepting jurisdiction.”

● “The second category of concern relates to how existing funds are being used. Non-profit organizations funded by donations and government grants must spend funds carefully and cannot be compared to a private, for-profit organizations. …

“[F]or 2023, the board compensated eleven officers (including the CEO) between approximately $111,000 and $350,000 each and awarded additional bonuses between $1,200 and $64,000. …

“Second, the amount of money spent on outside legal services seems high. In 2023, four of the five top paid contractors were for legal services totaling over $2.4 million. Over $1.2 million was paid to a Denver-based tort law firm. It is unclear what type of work they handled on behalf of SafeSport.”

“Next, there are expenses that seem excessive for a non-profit organization and financial decisions that seem counter-productive to the organization.”

● Grassley noted prior requests for added funding to help with the SafeSport caseload and to reduce case processing times, but wrote:

“it is unclear to me whether an increase of $30 million in funding will solve the problem either as it appears that existing resources can be redirected toward more expedited investigations.”

He posed eight additional questions to be answered by 1 May, including how Executive Committee oversight is exercised.

The focus on SafeSport has continued after it was singled out for reforms in the report of the Commission on the Status of the U.S. Olympics and Paralympics from March 2024, and in hearings that followed – with Colon testifying as a witness – with a Senate Commerce sub-committee on 20 March, and a House Energy & Commerce sub-committee on 21 March, where Colon asked for $30 million in annual funding, up from $23.76 million in 2022, to handle the expanding caseload.

Witnesses at the hearings were deeply concerned about the lengthy investigation and resolution times, the lack of information on how and why cases were closed without specific resolutions, and that SafeSport was spending time on cases and disputes not directly related to abuses, which could be handled by the relevant U.S. National Governing Body.

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FENCING: Female Foil fencer Turner refuses to fight transgender entrant at Division I-A tournament, is disqualified

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ TRANSGENDERS IN FENCING ≡

Long-time U.S. Foil fencer Stephanie Turner entered The Cherry Blossom Division I-A tournament in College Park, Maryland in the women’s category that was held last Sunday, but found out the night before that she would be facing Redmond Sullivan, a transgender fencer from Wagner College in New York.

Neither are anywhere close to competing on the U.S. national team in World Cup, World Championship or Olympic competitions. But they were among the 39 registrants for the women’s competition. Turner told Fox News Digital that she saw that her pool included Sullivan, whom she knew was a transgender athlete.

So, “I saw that I was going to be in a pool with Redmond, and from there I said, ‘OK, let’s do it. I’m going to take the knee.'”

She explained that when her bout against Sullivan came up:

“I took a knee immediately at that point. Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing. So when I took the knee, I looked at the ref and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual.’

“Redmond didn’t hear me, and he comes up to me, and he thinks that I may be hurt, or he doesn’t understand what’s happening. He asks, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you.”

So, she forfeited the match and was disqualified, Sullivan finished 24th in the women’s Foil.

USA Fencing explained in the Fox News Digital story:

“USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and non-binary athlete policy in 2023. The policy was designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces. The policy is based on the principle that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports and was based upon the research available of the day,” the statement read.

“We respect the viewpoints on all sides and encourage our members to continue sharing them with us as the matter evolves. It’s important for the fencing community to engage in this dialogue, but we expect this conversation to be conducted respectfully, whether at our tournaments or in online spaces. The way to progress is by respectful discussion based in evidence.”

A USA Fencing spokesman added:

“In the case of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification was not related to any personal statement but was merely the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent, which the FIE rules clearly prohibit.

“According to the FIE [Federation Internationale de Escrime] Technical Rules, specifically Article t.113, a fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason. Under these rules, such a refusal results in disqualification and the corresponding sanctions. This policy exists to maintain fair competition standards and preserve the sport’s integrity.”

The USA Fencing guideline is clear: anyone can declare themselves to participate in either the men’s or women’s tournaments:

“[A]thletes will be permitted to participate in USA Fencing sanctioned events in a manner consistent with their gender identity/ expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth in accordance with the guidelines listed below.”

The only requirement is that registration of the division to be competing in must be declared during registration with USA Fencing and cannot change during the season.

The FIE has no rules regarding transgender participation at all; if it did, USA Fencing would be obliged to respect them in its own competitions.

USA Fencing’s stance is in conflict with President Donald Trump’s 5 February Executive Order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” which declared the Administration’s viewpoint:

“Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”

But it also went further:

● Specific directions on enforcement were also included in the Order, including an instruction to his domestic policy staff to “convene representatives of major athletic organizations and governing bodies” within 60 days to promote policies compliant with the Order, as well as to ask State attorneys general “to identify best practices in defining and enforcing equal opportunities for women to participate in sports.”

No word on any results in this area, with the 60-day period coming up on 5 April.

● “The Secretary of State shall use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”

No specific outreach to the IOC has been noted, although it made little sense to even try until the 20 March elections of the next IOC President took place. Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry was elected and has promised to protect the women’s category, but with no specifics as yet. She takes office on 24 June.

The IOC’s current policy dates from 2021, in a statement which allows each sports federation to adopt its own regulations, rather than a standard rule across all sports. The FIE, aimless after the re-election of Russian Alisher Usmanov for a fifth term last November, who then stepped back from active involvement, has, as noted above, no policy on transgender participation at all.

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TSX SPECIAL: It’s here! Our updated, 694-event International Sports Calendar for 2025 and more now posted!

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ TSX CALENDAR ≡

No Olympic Games in 2025, but plenty of action in Olympic sport! Here’s an update to our TSX calendar – an exclusive 694-event listing – for the remainder of 2025 and a few of the larger events beyond to 2034.

Our updated International Sports Calendar focuses on sports and events on the Olympic and Winter Games program for 2026 and 2028, plus a few other meetings and multi-sport events.

Please note: this listing will change! However, this edition is a good place to start for following many of the events coming up in the rest of a busy year ahead.

Two calendars are included in the single PDF download: an 15-page listing in chronological order and a 16-page listing by sport (and in date order within each sport).

It’s free! Get your download right now here!

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FOOTBALL: Infantino says U.S. will get 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup, 2035 to go to Great Britain

By
Rich Perelman
-
The FIFA Women's World Cup Trophy (Photo: FIFA)

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≡ FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP ≡

“Today I can confirm as part of the bidding process that we received one bid for 2031 and one valid bid for 2035. The 2031 bid is the United States of America and potentially some other CONCACAF members and the 2035 bid is from Europe and the home nations.

“So the path is there for the Women’s World Cup in 2031 and 2035 to take place in some great nations and further boost the women’s football movement.”

That’s FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI), speaking at the UEFA Congress in Belgrade (SRB), announcing the U.S. and “home nations,” meaning Great Britain, including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as the sole bidders for the 2031 and 2035 FIFA Women’s World Cups.

Bids for both tournaments were due by 31 March and Infantino said that for 2035, only one “valid bid” was received. He did not name any others which were invalid.

The U.S. had previously planned to offer a bid with Mexico for 2027, but abandoned it. Now, some games may be played in other CONCACAF countries as well, perhaps also in the Caribbean.

It will be the third time for the U.S. to host, after the historic 1999 tournament and then 2003 as well. Britain has never hosted the Women’s World Cup, but enthusiasm is high after England finished as runner-up to Spain in the 2023 event. Brazil will host in 2027.

The tournament is growing rapidly, drawing more interest as the number of teams involved has expanded:

● 12 teams: 1991-95
● 16 teams: 1999-2003–07-11
● 24 teams: 2015-19
● 32 teams: 2023-27
● 48 teams: 2031-35 (if approved as expected)

A further expansion for 2031 to as many as 64 teams has also been mentioned, but the expansion to 48 seems more likely at this point.

The Australia-New Zealand Women’s World Cup in 2023 established the all-time record for most spectators at 1,978,274, but the per-match high is still with the 1999 tournament in the U.S., which averaged 37.944. With the expected 48 teams and 104 matches, the U.S.-hosted 2031 tournament will crush all prior records.

The actual award of the 2031 and 2035 Women’s World Cups won’t happen until 2026 and official documents are due at the of April 2025. As with other recent FIFA awards, the selections as announced as expected to sail through.

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PANORAMA: Grand Slam Track broadcast team named; FIFA’s Infantino gifts 30,000 Club World Cup tickets for SoCal first responders

By
Rich Perelman
-
FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI: center), with first responders and officials at the Rose Bowl during his 1 April 2025 visit (Photo: FIFA).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Reaching out way past Italy, the Milan Cortina 2026 organizing committee and the Italian government has been busy with an “International Roadshow for Milano Cortina 2026,” with stops in Munich (GER), Paris (FRA) and New York at the Italian Consulate on Park Avenue last Friday.

Organizing committee chief executive Andrea Varnier saluted the interest of American fans in the 2026 Games:

“The interest of the United States in the upcoming edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 is very strong. We have already sold more than half of the tickets, and in third place, among the nations with the highest number of tickets sold, we find the United States.

“On the volunteer side, the United States has also given an extremely positive response. We received applications from more than 100.000 people, many of whom came from the U.S.”

The roadshow moves on, with stops upcoming in Tokyo (JPN), Oslo (NOR), Stockholm (SWE) and Seoul (KOR) and Beijing (CHN) in May.

● International Olympic Committee ● The German ticketing resale marketplace Ticombo filed an antitrust action with the European Commission alleging that the IOC exercises an unfair monopoly over the resale of tickets to the Olympic and Winter Games.

It claims that the IOC procedures limit competition, inflate prices and limit consumer access to events, in violation of European Union statutes. Ticombo has filed similar complaints against Belgium, and against UEFA related to the Euro 2024 tournament last year.

● Athletics ● Grand Slam Track announced the broadcast and public address teams for its first season, with founder Michael Johnson – a long-time track and field analyst for the BBC – bringing in familiar BBC colleagues, including Steve Cram, the 1984 Olympic 1,500 m silver winner, as lead television announcer, aided by analysts including former American distance star Carrie Tollefson and Canadian sprinter Anson Henry.

The BBC’s Radzi Chinyanganya and American heptathlete Taliyah Brooks will serve as reporters on the track.

Each of the Slams will have pre-meet and post-meet coverage led by long-time ESPN SportsCenter anchor John Anderson, plus former U.S. Olympic stars Matthew Centrowitz and Sanya Richards-Ross.

Public address will be led by Paul Swangard, the long-time voice of Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, plus Donald Smith (JAM), Iwan Thomas (GBR), Trishana McGowan (JAM), and Tiara “Tee” Williams (USA).

The Athletics Integrity Unit sanctioned Kenyan distance runner Brimin Misoi for five years, “from 17 February 2025 for Presence/Use of Prohibited Substances (EPO, Furosemide). DQ results from 22 November 2024.”

Misoi, 36, ran 2:04:53 for the marathon in 2023, and won the Sydney Marathon in 2024 in 2:06:18. He’ll be 41 when his ban ends.

● Biathlon ● The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee told The Associated Press that “Following our thorough internal evaluation, we can confirm that Gary Colliander and Eileen Carey are no longer affiliated with the USOPC.”

This followed an AP story which reported that biathlete Grace Boutot accused Colliander of sexual abuse during a four-year period beginning in 2006, when she was 15. He was then a coach at the Maine Sports Center and according to the AP, “quit the job after Boutot’s October 2010 suicide attempt and was later hired by the U.S. Paralympic Nordic team.”

Both Colliander and Carey, the vice president of the Maine Sports Center during the period of the alleged abuse, were terminated as of 14 March. Colliander is currently under investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, and adamantly denies all claims against him.

● Bobsled & Skeleton ● The season may be over, but USA Bobsled & Skeleton has been busy trying to attract new athletes and new donors!

The federation has started its recruiting season, offering five-skill tryouts at nine locations between 5 April and 31 May, in tests including a 10-yard dash, a 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump and a weighted sled push. Events are being held in Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Vermont and Washington.

USABS has been able to attract more and more ex-track & field athletes into the sports, including former UNLV sprinter Kaysha Love, the 2025 World Champion in the women’s Monobob.

For those wanting to support USABS, the “Race with US” is collecting donations, with gifts for $25, $100 and $250 donations, but a $500 “Gold” donation will place your name directly in a U.S. sled in an IBSF World Cup race!

● Cycling ● An important win for American Neilson Powless at the 79th Dwars door Vlaanderen in Belgium on Tuesday, winning a three-way sprint to the line in this time-honored, 184.2 km Classics race in 3:57:14.

He beat Belgian favorites Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot at the finish, all receiving the same time, with fellow American – and defending champion – Matteo Jorgenson fourth, five seconds behind. Powless was third in the race in 2023, and Benoot was second in 2022. Powless scored his second career win in a UCI World Tour race.

The women’s race, at 128.5 km, was a runaway for Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini, who won in 3:12:49, 29 seconds up on Lotte Kopecky (BEL).

● Equestrian ● At the 14th FEI Sports Forum, in Lausanne (SUI), the question of using horses in sport was highlighted, with British Professor Madeleine Campbell of Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), a specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law, positing a consensus view of the FEI’s new Equine Welfare Advisory Group:

“Our belief is that the use of horses in sport is ethical provided certain key principles are fulfilled.

“The guiding principles to which our group will be working will be to ensure that negative welfare effects are minimised, positive welfare effects are maximised, avoidable and unnecessary risks to horses are identified and mitigated, and the FEI regulations and the law are complied with.”

● Football ● During a whirlwind visit to Southern California, FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) spoke to dignitaries and reporters at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, offering thanks to those who helped to fight the January wildfires in nearby Altadena, the Pacific Palisades and elsewhere, including the L.A. City, Pasadena and L.A. County Fire Departments, Angeles National Forest Fire Chief and L.A. Sheriffs Department:

“On behalf of FIFA and on behalf of the global football – or global soccer – community, I would like to, of course, give my and our sincere thanks and appreciation to all those who have operated, all those, all you and all of your colleagues who operated to save lives, to help people to fight one of the worst disasters of the last decades. Lives were lost and our prayers, of course, go with the families of those who have lost their lives.

“Many people have lost everything they have, but yet you were here. You were here to give hope and relief to people, and a lot of the activities were starting exactly from this place, and that’s why I thought, and we thought at FIFA, that it would be appropriate to recognise the work of the first responders, and also to award 30,000 tickets of the FIFA Club World Cup matches here in Pasadena to all first responders.”

● Ski Jumping ● The International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) has lifted the suspensions of the five Norwegian jumpers involved in the jump-suit modification incident at the Nordic Skiing World Championships in Trondheim (NOR) in March:

“The athletes’ provisional suspension was necessary to safeguard competition integrity. This requirement no longer applies after the end of the competition season 2024/2025. Marius Lindvik, Johann Andre Forfang, Robin Pedersen, Kristoffer Sundal, and Robert Johansson will therefore be allowed to engage in training sessions or any other activities organized by the Norwegian Ski Association or other National Ski Associations with immediate effect. The provisional suspension of three officials from Norway’s Men’s Ski Jumping team remains in place.”

However, investigations into the incidents continue.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: LA28 annual report shows $303 million in total losses, but the money is starting to come in (really, it is)

By
Rich Perelman
-
Questions for equestrian for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

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≡ ANALYSIS & OBSERVATIONS ≡

If you have a tall glass sitting on a table, about to get filled, are you worried about the glass currently being empty, or looking forward to when it is full?

That’s a question that could also be asked after reading the 157-page annual report from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, submitted to the City of Los Angeles on 31 March and posted to the City’s Web site on 1 April.

The report begins with the assurance that “LA28 is on track to deliver an amazing Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028,” and goes on to explain the many changes which took place in 2024, including the hiring of former Lt. General Reynold Hoover as the new chief executive last June.

In terms of financial performance, the LA28 financial statements for 2023 were included, showing another annual loss, this time of $74.47 million for a cumulative loss of $307.53 million since inception.

LA28 showed $82.18 million in revenue, with $156.65 million in expenses, led by “costs of revenue” of $67.28 million (commissions and contracted early payments) and personnel costs of $40.04 million.

However, assets ballooned from $94.37 million at the end of 2022 to $224.31 million at the end of 2023. Cash and cash equivalents increased from $65.43 million to $102.23 million, even with the total deficit of $307.53 million.

How does all that work out? From the notes to the financial statements, here’s the key:

“Contract Liabilities include revenue received in advance of fulfilling the associated performance obligations, such as the delivery of sponsorship rights, which the Organization has deferred.”

So, on page 14 of the statements, there is a listing of licensing, sponsorship, hospitality and other contracted revenue which has been received (!) but against which no delivery of goods or services has been made, so they are a “liability” for now.

That total is $473.53 million through the end of 2023, with $106.35 million shown as “current” liabilities and the remaining $367.19 million as “non-current.” Those “liabilities” are much more than the $307.53 million cumulative loss shown as of the end of 2023, so – in fact – LA28 is beginning to accumulate some of the billions of dollars it will need on the road to the Games.

There was more good news in the LA28 commentary at the front of the report, listing revenues on a cash basis:

● $361.2 million from 2017-22
● $179.2 million in 2023
● $487.0 million in 2024

Yowsah! That 2024 figure is good news, with funding from sponsorships, hospitality guarantees, licensing and the IOC contribution. So, the money is starting to flow.

At the same time, this annual report is significant in that a new, overall budget was shown, updated for the first time since 2019, and it shows an increase from $6.882 billion to $7.149 billion, or an increase of 3.9%. Comparing the 2024 budget to 2019:

Revenue: $7.149.4 billion
● $948.0 million from IOC TV sales (+$100.0 million vs. 2019)
● $437.0 million from IOC sponsorships (same; no new mobility sponsor)
● $2.5173 billion from domestic sponsorships (-$0.4 million)
● $2.4978 billion from tickets and hospitality (+$569.0 million)
● $344.0 million from licensing and merchandise (+$39.1 million)
● $405.3 million in other revenues (-$192.5 million)

Expense: $7.149.4 billion
● $1.4281 billion on venue infrastructure (-$356 million vs. 2019)
● $1.3290 billion on sports-Games operations (+100.3 million)
● $829.8 million on technology (+$203.3 million)
● $1.0207 million on human resources (+107.3 million)
● $252.1 million on ceremonies (+7.1 million)
● $355.5 million on communications/marketing/look (-$41.8 million)
● $564.7 million on corporate admin & legacy (-$22.4 million)
● $756.0 million on other expenses (-$50.7 million)
● $613.5 million for contingency (-$2.4 million)

For those asking about the impact of inflation from 2019 to 2024, the U.S. Consumer Price Index was at 255.657 as the averaged 2019 index figure and 313.689 for 2024 as a whole, an increase of 22.7%. So the 3.9% increase for LA28 hardly seems out of line.

LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman has said multiple times that the organizing committee has contracted revenues of $4.6 billion already in hand and expects – with sponsorship sales picking up – to be at $5.1 billion or more by the end of 2025, about 71.3% of the new budget target of $7.149 billion, with 2 1/2 years to go.

Observed: That the money is coming in much more strongly in 2024 is a very good sign indeed that LA28 is turning the corner financially. It had a small employee count at the end of 2023 – just 157 – but is adding staff quickly and now with more than 250 on hand, and moving to new offices at the eastern end of downtown Los Angeles in mid-year.

The deficit on paper is huge, but the statement details show that the cash is starting to come in. As was the case with Paris for 2024, being careful on spending and realizing the enormous ticket sales potential, budgeted at $2.5 billion, is going to be the key to financial success.

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ATHLETICS: USA Track & Field cancels L.A. Grand Prix, scheduled for 7-8 June, with Grand Slam Track meet coming later

By
Rich Perelman
-
The L.A. Grand Prix crowd on Saturday, 27 May 2023, at UCLA's Drake Stadium (TSX photo by Alan Mazursky)

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

A close look at the World Athletics Continental Tour schedule this week revealed that the two–year experiment by USA Track & Field with a high-profile, nationally-televised meet in Los Angeles, is over, at least for now.

The third edition of the Los Angeles Grand Prix, at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, was scheduled for 7-8 June 2025, but has been canceled.

The meet disappeared from the World Athletics schedule and the USATF Web site events listing and the cancellation has been confirmed by others.

Grand Slam Track announced that it will hold its fourth and final “Slam” of its inaugural season at Drake Stadium from 27-29 June, so there will be a major track & field meet in Los Angeles – and at UCLA – this year.

The L.A. Grand Prix was announced with considerable fanfare in 2023, held as a two-day event on 26-27 May, with the USATF Distance Classic run on Friday evening, and then the Grand Prix on Saturday. The 2023 meet was marked by a brilliant world record in the men’s shot by American Ryan Crouser at 23.56 m (77-3 3/4) and world-leading marks in the men’s 1,500 m, vault and women’s 400 m, 1,500 m, 100 m hurdles and women’s shot.

In 2024, the meet was moved up to 17-18 May, and had world leaders from Rai Benjamin of the U.S. in the men’s 400 m hurdles and Halimah Nakaayi (UGA) in the women’s 800 m. The Distance Classic had a world-leading 12.51.60 men’s 5,000 from Ethiopian star Selemon Barega.

Both meets had modest attendance, but poor ticket sales. The 2023 meet had about 4,500 in the 11,142-seat stadium on Saturday and that improved to between 5,500-6,000 in 2024. But in both cases, the number of paid admissions was less than 3,000.

Southern California-based Internet Brands (WebMD, CarsDirect and many others) was the primary sponsor of the meet in both years. And both meets lost money.

For 2025, no replacement for the USATF Distance Classic – which has been held for years in the Los Angeles area – has been announced by the federation. However, Sound Running, the folks behind the very-much-appreciated “The TEN” in San Juan Capistrano, will have the seventh edition of its “Track Fest” at Occidental College on 24 May, dedicated to distance events. It’s a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver-level meeting.

Observed: All of this demonstrates once again the difficult market which is Los Angeles. There is heavy interest in sports, but effectively reaching such a sprawling metropolis with a one-time event is a real challenge and the 2028 Olympic Games is – for today’s sports consumer – a long time away.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: City Council, McOsker picks fight with LA28 organizers over sailing in San Pedro

By
Rich Perelman
-
Los Angeles City Council member Tim McOsker, speaking at the 28 March 2025 Council meeting (Photo: L.A. City Council video screen shot).

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≡ NO SMOOTH SAILING ≡

Last Friday, the Los Angeles City Council approved, 14-0, a motion to approve the movement of multiple sports and venues for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in concurrence with the request from the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee.

The approval was made including three amendments, for an economic impact study, clarifying events to be held at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, and a third as a condition of approval:

“That the Venue Plan for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LA28) be amended to change the location of Sailing from the Long Beach Pier at Long Beach to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.”

The motion was made by 15th District Council member Tim McOsker, which includes San Pedro, who gave a boisterous, dramatic, emotional pitch to his fellow Council members which included in part:

“The winds are better and more consistent in San Pedro. …

“When LA28 came to us – came to us – and said we want to analyze it [San Pedro vs. Long Beach], we were able to analyze what it would be for the athlete: better wind and spectators.

“What will it be for safety and security? I guarantee you that San Pedro will be the safest in the history of the Olympics, given our capacities. What will it be for finances? You will hear from these guys, who will tell you, ‘oh, a new site, we’ll have to spend $10 million,’ with absolutely no math. When I came up in school, the nuns told me, show your math, show your work.

“We’ve seen nothing, absolutely nothing. But I will tell you, selling tickets to a number of maybe 10,000, or selling tickets to the number of zero, has a mathematical and financial difference. And it’s not going to be borne by Long Beach. It’s going to be borne by us.

“They will say, ‘oh, this is an Olympics where we have so many more events in Los Angeles than we had in ‘84.’ I don’t care. That’s your arguing point, that’s not my arguing point.

“My point is that moving sailing to San Pedro is better for the athlete, is better for the sport of sailing, it’s better for safety and security, it’s better for the viewer, and it’s better for Los Angles, it’s better for us financially.

“When they say it’s been studied and studied and studied, it’s been studied, show your math. Show us. So what I’m asking you today, is vote yes on this amendment. It says yes, we will approve your venue plan.

“I’m not going to question whether we should go to Oklahoma City for softball, but I do question what is obviously a mistake.

“And instead of some back room where a couple of bros making this decision somewhere, let’s do something for the sport, let’s do something for the Olympic Movement, let’s do something for Los Angeles, and most importantly, let’s do something for the spectator, that will be nobody in the other venue and thousands of people in this venue.”

His amendment passed by 12-2 and was incorporated into the overall motion, which passed by 14-0.

But on Tuesday, McOsker was back with a new motion which noted, “Subsequent to the Council’s action, LA28 issued a press release with no reference to the Council’s condition of approval relating to the sailing venue.”

And the motion:

“I THEREFORE MOVE that the City Council instruct the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA),
with the assistance of the Office of the City Attorney, City Administrative Officer (CAO), and relevant departments, to report back in 7 days on:

“MOTION

“● Whether LA28 has accepted the condition of approval for the LA28 Venue Plan;

“● The City’s interpretation of the phrase: “shall not to be unreasonably withheld,
conditioned, or delayed”, as it applies to the City’s role in approving changes to the LA28 Venue Plan;

“● The City’s authority and legal standing in resolving disputes arising from financial,
operational, or compliance-related issues connected to the LA28 Games;

“● The process for resolving disputes involving third-party vendors, contractors, or
governmental agencies engaged in LA28-related activities;

“● Whether the City has established or should establish a dedicated conflict resolution body or designated liaison for LA28-related matters;

“● Options for mediation, arbitration, or litigation in the event of unresolved disputes,
including the extent to which LA28 or IOC agreements supersede local dispute resolution protocols;

“● Best practices from other Olympic or large-scale event host cities regarding dispute resolution and legal risk mitigation; and

“● Recommendations for strengthening transparency, accountability, and City oversight in all future LA28-related dispute resolution proceedings.”

The motion was sent on to the City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, chaired by City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who was one of the two ‘no’ votes against McOsker’s motion about moving sailing to San Pedro.

The LA28 organizers already have an agreement with the City of Long Beach from May 2024 for use of the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier and surrounding areas for sailing in 2028.

And the LA28-City of Los Angeles Games Agreement of November 2021 includes a detailed dispute-resolution protocol, using arbitration.

As McOsker’s motion is now routed to the Ad Hoc Committee, expected to meet sometime later this month, this tug-of-war is going to go on for a while, and may end up involving World Sailing – the International Federation for the sport – and even perhaps the International Olympic Committee, which has final say on all of the venues used for the 2028 Games.

LA28 has posted no comment as yet.

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LANE ONE: Is the Queensland government trying to kill the IOC’s treasured Olympic Agenda 2020 and 2020+5 in Brisbane for 2032?

By
Rich Perelman
-
Rendering of the to-be-built new stadium for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in Victoria Park (Image: Queensland government).

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≡ BRISBANE 2032 ≡

Faced with mounting disinterest in the Olympic Games when he took over as head of the International Olympic Committee in 2013, Germany’s Thomas Bach immediately embarked on a reform program called Olympic Agenda 2020.

It was pushed through in 2014 and immediately changed the calculus of how bids were made for the Olympic and Winter Games:

“The IOC to consider as positive aspects for a bid: the maximum use of existing facilities and the use of temporary and demountable venues where no long-term venue legacy need exists or can be justified.”

And the follow-up Olympic Agenda 2020+5 underlined the importance of this stance:

“Sustainability was one of the three pillars of Olympic Agenda 2020. It was embedded across a number of recommendations, including those pertaining to candidatures.

“The key messages were heard, and the result has been significant changes in shaping future editions of the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games of Paris 2024, Milano Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 are the first to truly embrace and reflect this new strategic direction:

“1) No new venues are needed, and the use of temporary venues is encouraged;

“2) Sport can take place outside of the Host city, where appropriate, and;

“3) From the candidature onwards, the Olympic Games are based first and foremost on long-term sustainability, including from an economic standpoint.”

Last week, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli wrecked his campaign promise not to build new stadia and announced his “Delivering 2032 and Beyond” program, using the previously agreed-on A$7.1 billion in funding by the national and Queensland governments (A$1 = $0.63 U.S.), declaring:

“The 2032 Games is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver for Queensland for the decades to come.”

So, four completely new venues were announced:

● New Brisbane Stadium in Victoria Park
● New Logan Indoor Sports Centre
● New Moreton Bay Indoor Sports Centre
● New Redland Whitewater Canoeing Centre

In addition, Olympic Villages – to be turned into housing after the 2032 Games – are to be built in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, and a new Gold Coast Arena will be built by that city for its long-term use.

A raft of renovations of existing facilities are also part of the plan, some severe and costly and some not as difficult:

● National Aquatic Centre
● Brisbane Showgrounds
● Queensland Tennis Centre
● Sunshine Coast Stadium
● Gold Coast Hockey Centre
● Brisbane Int’l Shooting Centre
● Barlow Park in Cairns
● Sunshine Coast Mountain Bike Centre
● Anna Meares Velodrome and BMX Centre
● Rockingham rowing facility
● Toowoomba Showgrounds

The outstanding feature of the plan is the new stadium, slated for 63,000 seats in the currently undeveloped Victoria Park area in Brisbane. The independent review committee which performed a high-profile, 100-day review recommended this option, but said that funding should be increased to A$8.791 billion:

● A$3.785 billion: new stadium (43.1%)
● A$2.385 billion: new arena (27.1%)
● A$2.621 billion: “minor venues” (29.8%)

That was unacceptable, even to Crisafulli and his government, so the new arena was torpedoed, with hopes that private developers might come forward and build it … but not with government subsidies.

Taking the arena out brings the bill down to A$6.406 billion, with some room left over for the inevitable changes needed.

This shows some restraint on the part of the Queensland government, and re-shapes the project into a series of choices rather than a “blow-out” – as Australians like to say – on the costs.

There is another factor in play and it is not to be underestimated. When Sydney put on its excellent 2000 Olympic Games, it built a showcase monument in the imposing, 100,000-seat Stadium Australia. It had its post-Olympic blues period, but is now known as Accor Stadium and was the backdrop for the spectacular 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where all five matches drew capacity houses of 75,784.

Queensland knows that it needs a better facility than the current Brisbane Cricket Ground – the Gabba – to compete in the future with its Australian Football League and cricket events. It could have revamped the Gabba, but the political will was not there to undertake the work quickly and Crisafulli says there isn’t time to do it now.

But now, Queensland will have its answer to Stadium Australia in New South Wales, and the famed 100,024-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground in Victoria, site of the 1956 Olympic Games.

By Olympic Agenda 2020 and 2020+5 standards, the new Brisbane 2032 plan does not compare on sustainability grounds with Paris 2024 – with two new venues – or Los Angeles 2028, which is building no new permanent venues. And the Winter Games are emphasizing sustainability, in 2026 at Milan and Cortina, in 2030 in the French Alps and another no-build American Games in Salt Lake City in 2034.

The quicksand for the IOC and new President Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) is that the building program in Queensland is taken as a signal to build and build and build by potential future hosts such as India, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among others. The cost controls brought in by Bach’s Olympic Agenda 2020 and 2020+5 are, without doubt, endangered.

Along with questions of gender eligibility, Russia, sponsorship, new forms of media, more power for IOC members and others, the issues of gigantism – even if reasonably responsibly played by the Queensland government for 2032 in staying within agreed cost parameters – is now also on Coventry’s plate.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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PANORAMA: Banka unopposed for WADA Presidency; IBSF delays on Russia, waiting on Coventry; awards for Ilia Malinin and his parents!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Ilia Malinin and his parents both won seasonal honors at the ISU Figure Skating Awards! (Images: ISU).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● World Anti-Doping Agency ● As expected, the World Anti-Doping Agency announced Monday that no candidates lined up to run against incumbents Witold Banka (POL) for President or Yang Yang (CHN) for Vice President.

They will thus be elected for a third and final three-year term – 2026 to 2028 – on 29 May 2025 at an online meeting of the WADA Foundation Board meeting.

● Russia ● Interesting move by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) on Saturday (29th), at its Congress, delaying any consideration of whether to return Russian and Belarusian athletes to competition in time for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina (ITA).

Instead, a decision will not be taken until September, timing which suggests strongly that the federation wants to see what new IOC President Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) will do, after she takes over on 24 June.

Russian national Skeleton coach Denis Alimov told the TASS news agency:

“Nevertheless, everyone will train to the fullest, we have a clear plan for preparing for the Olympic season, which will be fully implemented. But, of course, we would like to have a better understanding of what to prepare for. It will be quite difficult to train all summer and not know what competitions await us in the winter.”

The IBSF will be among many IFs who will wait for the new IOC President to declare her stance.

● Athletics ● Some more world-leading performances over the weekend, starting with a startling 48.94 women’s 400 m win for Bahrain’s 2019 World Champion and Paris Olympic runner-up, Salwa Eid Naser, at a meet in Bayaguana (DOM). It’s her third-fastest time ever, and only 14 others have ever run as fast! The time is the only women’s sub-49 ever run in March, or anytime before 27 May, essentially a “world record” for January through May.

Also at the top of the world lists now is American Curtis Thompson, who got a lifetime best of 87.76 m (287-11) to win the men’s javelin, moving him to no. 3 all-time U.S.! Equaling the world lead in the women’s 400 m hurdles was the amazing Rachel Glenn – in 54.86 – who finished fifth at the Olympic Trials in this event, as well as making the Paris team in the high jump, placing second at the Trials.

Brynn King of Roberts Wesleyan won the women’s vault with an outdoor world leader of 4.75 m (15-7); that moves her into a tie for ninth all-time U.S.

U.S. teams got world leads in the men’s 4×400 m in 3:02.53, with Jevon O’Bryant, Lance Lang, Kennedy Lightner, and Bryce Deadmon on anchor and the women’s 4×100 m in 41.74, with Tamari Davis, Gabby Thomas, Jenna Prandini and Anavia Battle.

Shawnti Jackson, the Arkansas junior who won the 2022 World Junior women’s 100 m bronze, was given a public warning by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency “for failing to obtain a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) prior to her use of an iron (ferumoxytol) infusion she received under the care of a physician for a diagnosed medical condition.”

She had four such infusions over the course of a year from September 2023 to September 2024; the USADA noted:

“Although no prohibited substances were administered, the treatment constituted a violation because it was over the permitted volume threshold and was not received during a hospital treatment, surgical procedure, or clinical diagnostic investigation. Jackson has since applied for and been granted a TUE to authorize future use of this treatment in sport.”

● Figure Skating ● The U.S. continued its winning ways at the ISU World Championships in Boston with two more “Skater of the Year” awards at the ISU Figure Skating Awards that followed on Sunday evening.

Two U.S. World Champions – Ilia Malinin (men’s Singles) and Madison Chock and Evan Bates (Ice Dance) – were honored as Skater and Skaters of the Year, respectively.

Malinin also won for Most Entertaining Program; Spain’s Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck (Ice Dance) won for Best Costume and Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitri Chigirev (UZB: Pairs) won for Best Newcomers.

Canadian Shae-Lynn Bourne was saluted as Best Choreographer, and Russian-born Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov – who both competed for Uzbekistan before moving to Virginia – received the Best Coach award. They are the parents of Ilia Malinin.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton (USA).

● Freestyle Skiing ● At the U.S. national championships for Moguls and Dual Moguls at Palisades Tahoe, California, Dylan Marcellini took the men’s Moguls title on Saturday at 86.20 over Riley Hughes (80.14), and then won the Dual Moguls on Sunday, defeating Gavin Tobey in the final, 25-18.

Kylie Kariotis took the women’s Moguls win, scoring 79.28 to 78.80 for Alli Macuga, but Macuga returned the favor with the Dual Moguls win, 25-10.

● Swimming ● American swim star Bella Sims, 19, a Tokyo Olympic 4×200 m Freestyle silver medalist, received and “agreed to a finding of No Fault after testing positive for the prohibited substance hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ).”

The International Testing Agency explained that she tested positive from an out-of-competition sample from 29 September 2024. However:

“the athlete was able to establish that the presence of HCTZ in her sample was caused by the intake of an anti-inflammatory prescription medication, which was confirmed to be contaminated with the banned diuretic. This permitted medication did not list HCTZ on its label, or any other prohibited substances.”

Thus, the finding of no fault or negligence, and no sanction.

Hungarian star Hubert Kos, a junior at Texas, was the star of last week’s NCAA men’s Division I Swimming & Diving Championships at Federal Way, Washington.

Kos was the Olympic 200 m Backstroke gold medalist in Paris, but stormed to three NCAA wins, taking the 100-yard Back in a collegiate record 43.20, then the 200-yard Back in another collegiate record of 1:34.21. He also picked up a third individual win, in the 200-yard Medley.

Canadian Josh Liendo, the Paris 100 m Butterfly runner-up, was a double winner for Florida, taking the 100-yard Freestyle in 39.99 and winning the 100-yard Fly. The other double winner in individual events was Texas’ Rex Maurer (USA), who won the 500-yard Free and the 500-yard Medley, plus second in the 1,650-yard Free.

Georgia’s Luca Urlando, a Paris Olympian for the U.S., got the collegiate record in the 200-yard Fly, in 1:36.43, and Texas’ Luke Hobson (USA) won the 200-yard Free in a collegiate record of 1:28.33.

Texas took the team title, scoring 490 points for coach Bob Bowman – who won at Arizona State the year before – over California (471) and Indiana (459).

● Volleyball ● A significant move for Volleyball World, the commercial arm of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and its financial investor, CVC Capital Partners, as Canadian Finn Taylor – the enterprise’s first chief executive – has decided to leave after four highly-successful years at the head of the new entity.

Taylor will leave on 25 April, and said, “This decision comes with a mix of emotions, but I firmly believe that we have built something extraordinary – something far beyond what was initially envisioned. Having successfully delivered on my mandate, I feel the time is right to pass the baton to a new leader who will continue to drive the vision forward and take Volleyball World to even greater heights.”

Under his leadership, the Volleyball Nations League jumped in popularity and revenue, and the direct-to-consumer Volleyball TV (VBTV) project brought in more than 1.8 million registered fans worldwide.

Martyn Phillips, Vice Chairman of the Board of Volleyball World, will be the Interim CEO during the search for a new chief executive.

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ATHLETICS: Grand Slam Track announces 10 scratches for first meet in Kingston on Friday

By
Rich Perelman
-
The newly resurfaced track – mostly paid for by Grand Slam Track – at Kingston’s National Stadium in Jamaica (Grand Slam Track video screen shot).

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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK ≡

The much-appreciated concept of the Grand Slam Track project is that the competing athletes are contracted to appear, reducing the number of no-shows on meet day.

But injuries and other problems get in the way and on Monday, Grand Slam Track announced 10 scratches from the 96-athlete fields (10.4%), and their replacements:

Men’s Long Sprints:
● Quincy Hall (USA) ~ replaced by Zandrion Barnes (JAM)

Men’s Long Distance:
● Dominic Lobalu (SUI) ~ replaced by Charles Philibert-Thiboutot (CAN)

Men’s Short Hurdles:
● Hansle Parchment (JAM) ~ replaced by Omar McLeod (JAM)
● Cameron Murray (USA) ~ replaced by Eric Edwards Jr. (USA)

Men’s Long Hurdles:
● Trevor Bassitt (USA) ~ replaced by Assinie Wilson (JAM)

Women’s Short Distance:
● Nelly Chepchirchir (KEN) ~ replaced by Sage Hurta-Klecker (USA)

Women’s Short Hurdles:
● Favour Ofili (NGR) ~ replaced by Jodean Williams (JAM)
● Alia Armstrong (USA) ~ replaced by Amber Hughes (USA)
● Grace Stark (USA) ~ replaced by Nia Ali (USA)

Women’s Long Hurdles:
● Shamier Little (USA) ~ replaced by Cassandra Tate (USA)

Hall was the Paris Olympic gold medalist at 400 m is the biggest loss. In some cases, the replacements are just as interesting, such as Rio 2016 Olympic hurdles champ McLeod (JAM) for Tokyo 2020 winner Parchment (JAM), or Paris Olympic finalist Stark in the women’s short hurdles, replaced by two-time World Indoor Champion Ali, both from the U.S. (The previously-announced fields are here.)

Grand Slam Track Senior Director of Racing Kyle Merber (USA) said:

“While injuries and unexpected circumstances are out of our control, we’ve chosen to be transparent with fans rather than keep them in the dark. We are excited that there has been so much interest from athletes to compete in the initial Grand Slam Track event that we have been able to fill the open lanes with such high quality competitors who will contend for wins.”

The inaugural meet in Kingston – where Grand Slam Track underwrote most of the cost of a resurfaced track for the meet in green, gold and black, Jamaica’s national colors – comes Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

● 4 April (Fri.): 6 p.m. Eastern on Peacock
● 5 April (Sat.): 5 p.m. Eastern on The CW
● 6 April (Sun.): 3 p.m. Eastern on The CW

The following Slams will be on 2-4 May in Miramar, Florida; 30 May-1 June at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, and 27-29 June at UCLA’s Drake Stadium in Los Angeles.

The circuit has a $12.6 million prize pool across all four Slams, with each of the 12 event groups paying out $100,000-50,000-30,000-25,000-20,000-15,000-12,500-10,000 for places 1-8 for the two-race group standings in each meet.

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PANORAMA: Milan Cortina sliding track passes tests; FISU checks on WUG 2029 in North Carolina; ski jump world record: almost 835 feet!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman of the U.S. (Photo: Christel Saneh for Diamond League AG).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2032: Brisbane ● More questions are being raised about venues for the 2032 Olympic Games, including the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, with questions about the site as a crocodile habitat, but also concerns about the current.

Flatwater canoeing and rowing need calm water for competitions, and Reuters reporting a Rowing Australia statement that included:

“Fairness and safety are paramount to any venue hosting a regatta of this magnitude and importance, with any river current that could impact results or favour certain lanes not permissible under the rules.”

The International Canoe Federation said, “It has come as a surprise to both the ICF and Paddle Australia that Rockhampton has been chosen considering the extensive examinations that had been conducted on other potential venues.”

Oh boy.

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Positive reports from the initial tests of the new sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo for the 2026 Winter Games, with International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation President Ivo Ferriani (ITA) in full approval:

“It is just fantastic to see our track for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games taking such good shape. We all know that the timeframe for the re-construction was very tight and ambitious, but SiMiCo has done an amazing job. We have successfully held the test runs for the pre-homologation which are part of the homologation process. Minor adaptions still need to be done and the main focus must remain on the finalization of the construction works.

“The feedback we received from our technical experts and the coaches and athletes on site this week, has been very positive. We are thrilled about this outcome and the entire bobsleigh and skeleton community cannot wait to come back here for our World Cup in November, further training, and then of course the pinnacle of all competition, the Olympic Games.”

International Luge Federation (FIL) Secretary General Dwight Bell of the U.S. added, “Having attended the conclusion of the pre-homologation on site in Cortina, we are very satisfied that the process was even better than we had expected.”

Construction of the support facilities is expected to be finished in early November, ahead of the IBSF World Cup.

● World University Games 2029: North Carolina ● “We had the opportunity to view a number of outstanding venues, as well as dining and dorms in one of the FISU Games Villages. It was clear that North Carolina has what it takes to give us full confidence in the venues and accommodations departments.

“Budgets and finances are key to any major event and NC USA has early support from the State and several significant companies and organisations, and good ways to go towards meeting its financial goals for the event. We feel good about where things stand at this point, while realising much hard work over the next four and quarter years to the Games lies ahead.”

That’s from International University Sports Federation (FISU) Secretary General Matthias Remund (SUI), after he, FISU President Leonz Eder (AUT) and other officials completed a multi-day visit to the site of the 2029 WUG, including meeting North Carolina Governor Josh Stein and taking in two first-round NCAA men’s Basketball Tournament games at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh.

● Commonwealth Games ● “We have sent an expression of interest and we are hopeful the Commonwealth Games Federation will consider our proposal.”

That’s from Indian Olympic Association President P.T. Usha, speaking with Reuters on Friday about an Indian candidature for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, celebrating the centennial of the 1930 British Empire Games.

India hosted the event in New Delhi in 2010, with severe issues with organization and corruption, but the country is all in to try to host the 2036 Olympic Games. The Commonwealth Games has suffered a loss of profile in recent years and had the state of Victoria, Australia give back the 2026 edition, finally placed – but significantly scaled down – in Glasgow (SCO).

● International Olympic Committee ● Former IOC member and long-time head of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), Mexican business tycoon Olegario Vazquez Rana passed away on Friday (28th) in Mexico City. He was 89.

He had vast interests in tourism, medicine, finance and media, but was also deeply devoted to shooting. A four-time Olympian in 1964-68-72-76, he became President of the ISSF from 1980 to 2018 and was an IOC member from 1995 to 2015.

● Athletics ● USA Track & Field announced Darryl Woodson as the Team USATF Relay coach “for all international teams.” Woodson has been a six-time U.S. national teams coach and was an assistant coach with the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

USATF Chief of High Performance Operations Robert Chapman crystalized Woodson’s responsibility: “USATF has an ambitious target of five gold medals in the relay events at LA28. Anything less would be selling our athletes, coaches, and country short.”

While the men’s and women’s 4×400 m teams have been dominant, the men’s 4×100 m Olympic squads haven’t won a medal since 2004 and haven’t won the final since 2000. The U.S. women’s 4×100 has won Olympic medals in four straight Games (3-1-0).

● Figure Skating ● There was a protocol faux pas during the ISU Worlds in Boston, during the men’s Short Program for Chinese Taipei’s Yu-hsiang Li last Thursday. The flag of Taiwan was shown on the screen behind him instead of the agreed-to Chinese Taipei emblem which was a negotiated settlement between the island, the International Olympic Committee and China in the 1970s. A later public address announcement explained:

“The ISU would like to sincerely apologise for the display of the incorrect flag for Chinese Taipei during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships event today.

“We fully understand the sensitivity of this mistake and deeply regret any offence or confusion this may have caused.”

● Football ● John Herdman (GBR), the Canadian men’s and women’s team coach between 2011-23, who apparently began the tactic of using drones to spy on another team’s practices, received a small sanction from Canada Soccer. In a statement, the federation said Friday:

“Late this afternoon, the Independent Disciplinary Committee released its decision on the allegations of misconduct by John Herdman. The independent committee informed the parties that Mr. Herdman was found to have committed misconduct under the Canada Soccer Disciplinary Code.

“The committee determined the appropriate sanction was a letter of admonishment and informed the parties that their decision was final and binding. Canada Soccer is still analyzing the committee’s decision.”

Herdman said in a statement, “I acknowledge the disciplinary committee’s decision, which concluded with an admonishment, without suspension or fine, and brings this matter to a close.”

≡ RESULTS ≡

● Athletics ● Many of the performances at the annual Texas Relays were (quite) wind-aided, but wind counts in the discus and there were a couple of monster early-season throws.

Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the U.S. sent the platter out to 66.72 m (218-11) to win the women’s competition, and Oklahoma junior Ralford Mullings (JAM) – ninth in Paris – won the men’s disc at 69.13 m (226-10), his third-longest throw ever.

Absolutely amazing men’s 1,500 m at the Raleigh Relays in North Carolina, with the collegiate record falling to Villanova senior Liam Murphy in 3:33.02, just ahead of junior teammate Marco Langon (3:33.38) and Virginia junior Gary Martin (3:33.71)!

All three were under the prior best of 3:33.74 by Eliud Kipsang (KEN) of Alabama from 2022! Murphy overtook Martin on the final straight, ran the last 400 in 54.18 and his last 800 m in 1:51.24!

Murphy had been fourth in the NCAA Indoor 3,000 m in mid-March and Langon was sixth in the 5,000 m, while Martin was the 3,000 m runner-up.

World-leading performances at The TEN in San Juan Capistrano, California, with Kenya’s Ishmael Kipkirui (New Mexico) taking over on the final lap to win in a collegiate record of 26:50.21, with a 55.81 last lap! Teammate Habtom Samuel (ERI) was second in 26:51.06 and then South Africa’s Adriaan Wildschutt (26:51.27). An amazing fourth was Ethiopian star Telahun Haile, who was late to the start and had to catch up with about a 90 m deficit; he ran 26:52.79 and had the lead at mid-race!

American Graham Blanks was fifth at 26:57.30, moving to no. 4 all-time U.S. (and getting a World Championships qualifying time); Ahmed Muhumed was seventh in 27:03.19 and is now no. 7 all-time U.S.

The women’s race was supposed to be an assault on the American Record, but Elise Cranny had to settle for a win in 30:36.56 for the no. 8 performance in U.S. history. She beat Weini Kelati (30:38.60), who got the no. 9 performance all-time U.S.

Lots of hype for the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne (AUS), with Paris Olympic 200 m champion Letsile Tebogo (BOT) trying the 400 m and new Australian sensation Gout Gout – 17 – in the 200 m. Both lost.

Lachlan Kennedy (AUS) won the men’s 200 m in 20.26 (wind +0.4 m/s), with Gout second in 20.30, while Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori won the 400 in 45.14, with Tebogo just behind in 45.26. Australian stars Cam Myers (3:34.98) and Ky Robinson (13:13.17) won the men’s 1,500 m and 5,000 m races.

Australia’s Claudia Hollingsworth won the women’s 1,500 m in 4:05.97, and Ethiopia’s Fantaye Belayneh took the 3,000 m in 8:34.30. American Jillian Shipee won the women’s hammer at 71.26 m (233-9).

● Beach Volleyball ● The first Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 of the season was in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, with the new Brazilian pairing of veteran stars Carol Salgado and Rebecca Cavalcante Silva (BRA) winning the final in straight sets over Americans Terese Cannon and Megan Craft, 21-13, 21-17.

In the all-American third-place match, top seeds Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher defeated Molly Shaw and Kelly Cheng, 21-16, 21-14.

Cuba’s fifth-seeded Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo won their first Beach Pro Tour gold with a 21-13, 24-22 victory over second-seeds Tomas Capogrosso and Nicolas Capogrosso (ARG).

Americans Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, the 19th seeds, won the bronze-medal match over Steven van de Velde and Alexander Brouwer (NED), 21-19, 21-16.

● Biathlon ● Bjorn Westervelt and Chloe Levins won two events each to highlight the U.S. national championships in Bozeman, Montana.

Jake Brown won the Sprint in 29:11.1 (1 penalty) with Westervelt second in 31:10.2 (0), but then Westervelt took over. He won the Mass Start in 34:36.5 (2) with Paul Schommer well back at 34:56.7 (2), and Westervelt won the Super Sprint finale in 22:49.4 (3) over Brown (23:09.8/5) and Schommer (23:19.9/3).

Levins took the Sprint at 24:07.7 (0) ahead of Joanne Reid (24.52/0/2) and Kelsey Dickinson (25.06.8/0), and the Super Sprint in 25:58.0 (4), comfortably ahead of Grace Castonguay (26:13.9/3) and Reid (31:15.0/3). In between. Dickinson won the Mass Start race in 30:45.9 (2), with Levins second in 30:59.8 (3) and Reid third (31:15.0/3).

● Cycling ● Slovenian star Primoz Roglic won his second Volta a Catalunya in Spain, taking the overall lead for good by winning Sunday’s seventh and final stage, a hilly, 88.2 km course in and around Barcelona.

Roglic came into the final day trailing Spain’s Juan Ayuso by just one second and took off with 21 km to go and got to the line first – by 14 seconds – over Laurens de Plus (BEL), with Ayuso in 34th place, 19 seconds behind.

So, Roglic – who also won the uphill-finishing fourth stage – finished at 24:46:21, with Ayuso at +0:28, then Enric Mas (ESP: +0:53) and Spain’s Mikel Landa (+0:54). Matthew Riccitello was the top American, in 11th (+2:00). Roglic previously won the 2023 edition.

Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel (NED), the 2023 World Road champ, defended his 2024 title at the 67th E3 Saxo Classic, in and around Harelbeke (BEL), attacking with 39 km left on the 208.8 km route on Friday (28th).

Van der Poel timed in 4:38:11, with Mads Pedersen (DEN: +1:05) second and Time Trial star Filippo Ganna (ITA: +2:04) in third. American Matteo Jorgenson finished ninth (+2:38).

On Sunday, the 87th edition of the famed Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields – this year, 250.3 km with eight separate cobblestone sections totaling 6.8 km – was a runaway for defending champ Pedersen, as the Dane took off with 56 km left and won by 49 seconds in 5:30:21. Belgian Tim Merlier was second (+0:49), ahead of Jonathan Milan (ITA: also +0:49). It was Pedersen’s third win in this race, also in 2020.

Dutch star Lorena Wiebes won her third straight UCI Women’s World Tour race with a final sprint to take the women’s 168.9 km Gent-Wevelgem race, defending her 2024 victory. She beat Italy’s Elisa Balsamo to the line for the second straight year, with both timed in 4:11:19. Charlotte Kool (NED) finished third, as the first 86 riders were given the same time. Amy Williams was the top American, in seventh.

● Fencing ● At the FIE Epee World Cup in Marrakech (MAR), Hungary’s Olympic bronze medalist Eszter Muhari took the women’s title by beating Aizanat Murtazaeva (RUS), 10-9. American Hadley Husisian took one of the bronze medals. The men’s final completed the Hungarian sweep as Gergely Siklosi, the 2019 World Champion, defeated Jakub Jurka (CZE) by 15-14 in the final. American Sam Imrek got one of the bronzes. Hungary won the men’s team final over Italy, 38-28.

France’s Sebastien Patrice won the men’s Sabre World Cup in Budapest (HUN), defeating Matyas Zabo (GER) in the final by 15-14. Patrice, 24, earned his third career World Cup gold, all within the past 10 months! Egypt won the team title over Hungary, 45-37, with the U.S. winning one of the bronze medals with Colin Heathcock, Antonio Heathcock, William Morrill and Mitchell Saron.

At the women’s Sabre World Cup in Cairo (EGY), Despina Georgiadou (GRE) took the title, winning over Sarah Noutcha (FRA) in the final, also by 15-14. It’s Georgiadou’s second career World Cup win. The French won the team final over Hungary, 45-32.

● Freestyle Skiing ● Canada’s Reece Howden won his fifth World Cup gold of the season at the Freestyle Ski Cross in Idre Fjall (SWE), taking the seasonal lead from Simone Derodedis (ITA), with Erik Mobaerg (SWE) third at the line in Saturday’s men’s race.

On Sunday, Howden was just as good, completing the weekend sweep, this time over Youri Duplessis Kergomard (FRA) and Deromedis and won the seasonal title with 1,038 points to 965 for Deromedis.

The women’s opener had Daniela Maier (GER) getting her first win since December, and her third of the season, ahead of Courtney Hoffos (CAN) and seasonal leader Fanny Smith (SUI).

Smith won on Sunday and wrapped up the seasonal title, over Hoffos, who finished the season with three straight silver medals. Fellow Swiss Talina Gantenbein finished third. Smith finished with 1,076 points and four wins in the final six races of the season, beating Maier (915).

● Rugby Sevens ● The fifth stop out of seven on the HSBC Sevens Series was in Hong Kong, but with familiar winners.

Argentina won its third straight men’s tournament, starting with a 3-0 pool record, then edging Ireland in the quarterfinals by 22-14, smashing Australia by 31-7 in its semi and winning the final in a defensive struggle over France, 12-7. The Australians edged Fiji, 22-21, in the third-place game.

Overall, the Argentines sit on top of the standings with 88 points, ahead of Fiji (76) and Spain (74). The U.S. is 12th (last), with 10 points.

In the women’s tournament, New Zealand, France and Australia went 3-0 in pool play, and the Kiwis and Aussies faced off in the final for the third time in five tournaments, this time with the Black Ferns scoring a 26-19 win. Canada beat France, 21-17, for third.

New Zealand (96) and Australia (88) top the women’s standings, with France a distant third (66) and then the U.S. (56).

● Ski Jumping ● The final competitions of the 2024-25 FIS World Cup were off the giant 240-m ski-flying hill in Planica (SLO), with local star Domen Prevc winning on Friday (28th) for his third World Cup gold of the season. He passed countryman Anze Lanisek on the second jump and scored 459.1 points to 454.8 for Lanisek, with Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN: 444.1) in third.

Sunday’s seasonal finale was the reverse, with Lanisek winning both jumps and scoring 482.1, ahead of Prevc (475.0) and German Andreas Wellinger (455.8). Tate Frantz was the top American finisher, in 21st.

There was some more drama, however, as Prevc set a world record of 254.5 m (834-11 1/2 feet!) on his second jump, breaking Austrian star Stefan Kraft’s mark of 253.5 m from March 2017. How far was this: two full American football fields and from the goal line to the opponent’s 22-yard line of a third field … all in one jump!

Austria’s Daniel Tschofenig, so strong earlier in the season – eight wins – took the seasonal title with 1,805 points, over countrymen Jan Hoerl (1,652) and three-time seasonal winner Kraft (1,290). Lanisek, hot late in the season, got up to fourth (1,056).

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FREESTYLE SKIING & SNOWBOARD: Kim and Kuhn score U.S. golds as World Champs close in Switzerland; Japan led the medal table

By
Rich Perelman
-
Three-time World Champion and two-time Olympic snowboard Halfpipe champ Chloe Kim! (Photo: U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team).

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≡ FREESTYLE & SNOWBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡

The FIS Freestyle & Snowboard World Championships wrapped up in Engadin (SUI), with Japan topping the medal table with 17 (4-8-5), while the U.S. had 12 (4-4-4). Host Switzerland won nine medals and had the most golds with five (5-1-3).

To show the wild swings in these sports at the championship level, the 2023 Worlds had Austria with 13 medals and the Swiss with 10, with no nation scoring more than three golds. In 2021, Russia led with 14 total medals and six golds, followed by Canada with 11 (4-5-2).

The 12 U.S. medals is the most in a combined Worlds since 2019 – at home in Utah – when the Americans scored 14 total medals (5-3-6). Americans won 13 medals at the 2017 Worlds in Spain.

The Freestyle Big Air final saw two first-time Worlds medal winners in the event, with New Zealand’s Luca Harrington – the seasonal World Cup winner – taking the gold at 192.00, scoring 96.75 and 95.25 in his last two runs. Finland’s Elias Syrja, who didn’t win a World Cup medal this season, won silver at 184.25, with Birk Ruud – third in 2023 – taking bronze again at 183.00.

Americans Mac Forehand, defending champ Troy Podmilsak and Alex Hall finished 4-5-6 at 182.00, 177.25 and 174.25.

The women had three new Worlds medal winners, with seasonal World Cup champ Flora Tabanelli (age 17) winning the gold at 176.75, ahead of 2018 Olympic Slopestyle winner Sarah Hoefflin (SUI: 170.75) and another Finnish medalist, Anni Karava (167.75).

In the Aerials finals, defending champion Noe Roth (SUI) won the men’s final with a spectacular performance that scored 143.31 points, ahead of American Quinn Dehlinger (123.53) and fellow Swiss Pirmin Werner (107.12). Chris Lillis of the U.S. was seventh and Connor Curran was 12th.

It was a repeat of the 2023 Worlds, with Roth ahead of Dehlinger once again

The women’s Aerials final was the fourth-ever win by an American, with Kalia Kuhn taking her second gold of the Worlds – also in the Team Aerials with Dehlinger and Lillis – scoring 105.13 to beat 2022 Olympic champ Mengtao Xu (CHN: 99.16) and Australia’s two-time silver winner Danielle Scott (AUS: 96.93). Dani Loeb of the U.S. was 11th. Kuhn was the first U.S. winner since Ashley Caldwell in 2017.

The Halfpipe finals saw New Zealand’s 18-year-old Finley Melville Ives, who won one World Cup medal this season, take the Worlds gold, scoring 96.00, over Americans Nick Goepper (94.00) and Alex Ferreira (92.50). Goepper, a two-time Worlds bronze medalist in Slopestyle, won his first Halfpipe medal and Ferreira won his second straight bronze in the event.

Hunter Hess of the U.S. was fifth (89.75) and two-time Olympic champ David Wise was 11th (74.25).

Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin moved up from silver in 2023 to gold in 2025, scoring 93.50 on her second run to win over Fanghui Li (CHN: 93.00) and 2018 Olympic champ Cassie Sharpe (CAN: 88.00). Svea Irving was the top American, in fifth (83.25) and Katie Gray was 10th (52.25).

In Snowboard, the SnowCross final had 2022 Canadian Olympic runner-up Eliot Grondin taking his first Worlds gold, ahead of Loan Bozzolo (FRA) and 2022 Olympic winner Alessandro Hammerle (AUT) in the men’s final, while Italy’s 2018 Olympic champ Michela Moioli (ITA) won her fifth Worlds medal and first gold in the women’s final. She got to the line ahead of 2021 World Champion Charlotte Bankes and France’s Julia Pereira de Souza Mabileau.

In the Team SnowCross, Bozzolo and Mabileau took the title, ahead of Cameron Bolton and Mia Clift (AUS).

Japan nearly swept all the medals in the Big Air events, with 2023 Slopestyle runner-up Ryoma Kimata winning at 176.75, barely ahead of teammate and defending champ Taiga Hasegawa (173.50) and American Oliver Martin (171.75), who won his second bronze of the championships (also in Slopestyle).

It was a Japanese sweep in the women’s Big Air, as Kokomo Murase, the Beijing 2022 bronze winner, took the title at 162.50, beating Reira Iwabuchi (156.00) and Mari Fukada (153.25).

The Halfpipe finals had familiar winners, with a fourth Worlds gold for Scotty James (AUS: 95.00), beating Ruka Hirano (JPN: 92.25) and teammate and 2021 World Champion Yuto Totsuka (92.00). Americans Lucas Foster, Alessandro Barbieri, Chase Josey and Jason Wolfe finished 8-9-12-16.

American star (and two-time Worlds winner) Chloe Kim scored 93.50 on her first run and that was enough for the victory and her third Worlds gold, previously in 2019 and 2021. Sara Shimizu (JPN: was second at 90.75 for her first Worlds medal, and 2023 bronze winner Mitsuki Ono (JPN: 88.50) was third again. Americans Maddie Mastro (81.00) and Madeline Schaffrick (66.00) finished 6-11.

Kim will be looking for a third Olympic gold next year in Milan Cortina.

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FIGURE SKATING: Malinin, Liu, Chock & Bates all strike gold at ISU Worlds on home ice in Boston, first time ever with three winners!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Even American star Alysia Liu has a hard time believing she’s the 2025 women’s World Champion! (Photo: ISU).

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≡ ISU WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡

It was a week to remember for U.S. skating at the International Skating Union’s World Figure Skating Championships in Boston, Massachusetts, beginning with a remembrance of the horrific crash of American Eagle flight 5342 on 29 January with an Army helicopter that killed 67, including more than two dozen skaters, coaches, family and officials.

The performances that followed on the ice brought the crowds at the TD Garden to their feet again and again, and especially for the American skaters, who performed stunningly in the first Worlds on U.S. soil since 2016:

● The first new champion was Alysia Liu, still just 19, but who returned from a retirement at age 16 to emerge with her second Worlds medal and first world title.

She was brilliant in the Short Program on Wednesday, scoring a lifetime best of 74.58 to stand first, but with four more skaters within 4 1/2 points. In the Free Skate on Friday evening, U.S. champion Amber Glenn rebounded from a fall in the Short Program – and ninth place – to score 138.00 and move from ninth into the lead, at 205.65.

Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, the three-time defending World Champion, also had a disappointing Short Program and was in fifth place. Her 146.95 Free Skate vaulted her into the lead with four skaters remaining with 217.98 points, an imposing total.

Fellow American Isabeau Levito, the 2024 Worlds runner-up, was third in the Short Program, but needed to be sensational to pass Sakamoto and take the lead. She was close to her seasonal best, at 136.51, for a total of 209.84, sitting second.

Japan’s Mone Chiba, second in the Short Program, was great again in the Free Skate, but could not match Sakamoto, and scored 141.80 to move into second, moving Levito down to third with only Liu remaining.

The task was clear: Liu needed a big score of 143.41 to win … and she delivered. With the crowd getting louder with each completed element, Liu set lifetime bests for the Free Skate (148/39) and her total at 222.97, to win the Worlds gold, the first by an American woman since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.

It’s the second-highest score in American history (under the current table); only Bradie Tennell scored more, at 225.64 at the World Team Trophy final in 2019. Said Liu afterwards:

“I have never regretted anything in my life. Every decision I’ve made, I’m so glad I did. It really brought me to this moment.

“That was the best performance I’ve laid down all season, even my practice programs have not been that good. I really thought if I did clean skates I’d be hopefully Top 10, definitely not first. This moment is so unreal, that’s the only word I can use to describe it. I still have to process it to be honest.”

● Two-time defending World Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. left no doubt about a third straight Worlds gold by dominating the Ice Dance competition.

They led the Rhythm Dance opener, scoring a seasonal best of 90.18 to lead 2024 silver winners Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (CAN: 86.44) and Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson (83.86).

There was no let-up in the Free Dance, with Chock and Bates winning that, scoring 131.88 for a season-best total of 222.06, the no. 12 performance in history. For Chock, 32, and Bates, 36, it was another amazing chapter in World Championships medal history that goes back to 2015:

● Gold: 2023, 2024, 2025
● Silver: 2015
● Bronze: 2016, 2022

That’s six medals in 10 editions! Said Chock:

“It means the world to us, honestly. This has been such a magical week. We had two incredible skates, I could not be more proud of Evan, and I’m so grateful to our coaching team.

“It’s certainly not easy to do this, and to chase your dreams year after year, and we’re so grateful and appreciative to everyone who has helped us along this journey and made this possible for us. This is a moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

Gilles and Poirier won the silver, with a second in the Free Dance (130.10) and a 216.54 total. Fear and Gibson won their first Worlds medal with a 207.11 total, ahead of Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri (ITA: 206.46).

Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko moved up from sixth in the Rhythm Dance to fifth overall (204.88) and Caroline Green and Michael Parsons finished ninth (192.47).

● Last to skate on Saturday was defending men’s champion Ilia Malinin of the U.S, already the leader following the Short Program at 110.41 over three-time silver winner Yuma Kagiyama (JPN: 107.09), with no one else close.

Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, the 2025 Four Continents winner, and no. 3 after the Short Program, got a lifetime best of 192.70 to total 287.47 and take the lead with Kagiyama and Malinin remaining.

Kagiyama was not at his best, suffered a fall and scored only 171.10 for a 278.19 total, standing behind Shaidorov, with the defending champion last on the ice.

Malinin only had to score 177.07 to repeat as World Champion, and he went way past it, winning the Free Skate at 208.15 – by almost 15 1/2 points – and scored 318.56, the no. 7 score in history and his second-best ever! His Free Skate score is no. 8 ever. He had the idea to try seven quad jumps in his program, and he started with a quad Flip, his famous quad Axel, quad Lutz and quad Loop, then added a quad Toe Loop and quad Salchow for a total of six.

Shaidorov was second at 278.19, the Kagiyama taking bronze at 278.19. Two-time Worlds fifth-placer Jason Brown, 30, – in his seventh Worlds – got a seasonal best of 180.68 in the Free Skate to take the lead at 265.40 after 13 of the 24 skaters, but teammate Andrew Torgashev fared poorly, scoring only 125.52 with two falls, and fading from eighth after the Short Program to 22nd overall.

Japan’s 2023 World Champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the second Worlds gold in Pairs, leading after the Short Program at 76.57 and finishing second in the Free Skate at 143.22 for a total of 219.79.

Germans Minerva Hasse and Nikita Volodin won the Free Skate (145.49) to move up from third after the Free Skate to take silver at 219.08, moving up from bronze last year. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (210.47) were third in the Free Skate and won the bronze at 210.47, duplicating their 2023 finish.

The U.S. finished 6-7 with Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitofanov (199.29) and Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea (195.38), their best Worlds placements ever.

The U.S. scored three golds in the four events for the first time in its history at the Worlds; it had not been done since Russia won three in 2005.

Overall, Japan won four medals (1-1-2) and the U.S. had three (3-0-0); four other countries finished with one each.

Looking ahead to the 2026 Olympic Games, the U.S. secured a maximum two quota places and a chance for a third in all four events (!) at a later qualifier.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: L.A. City Council approves LA28 Olympic-Paralympic venue changes; which sports are still homeless?

By
Rich Perelman
-
A rendering of Olympic Flag Football at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles (Image: LA28).

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≡ LOS ANGELES 2028 ≡

After obtaining committee approval on Wednesday, the series of requested venue changes from the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizing committee was approved on Friday (28th), 14-0, by the Los Angeles City Council on Friday, essentially assuring the placement of these sports as now proposed.

But the LA28 organizers are still in overdrive, moving more sports around and pushing to complete their primary venue planning so that a fairly comprehensive program can be presented for approval to the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board on 9 April.

The latest changes that required City approval were of sports that were at venues inside the City of Los Angeles during the bid phase in 2017, but are now planned to be elsewhere:

Olympic Games:
● Aquatics/Artistic Swimming: to Long Beach Sports Park
● Aquatics/Swimming: to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood
● Basketball: to Intuit Dome in Inglewood
● Canoe/Slalom: to RiverSportOKC in Oklahoma City
● Equestrian: to Galway Downs in Temecula
● Football: preliminaries to be held out of state
● Shooting: to an existing facility in Los Angeles County

Paralympic Games:
● Aquatics/Swimming: to Long Beach Sports Park
● Equestrian: to Galway Downs in Temecula
● Shooting: to an existing facility in Los Angeles County
● Volleyball/Sitting: to Long Beach Arena

Additional announcements or confirmations on Olympic venues were made Wednesday and Friday and now include:

● Archery: to the Dignity Health Sports Park
● Basketball/3×3: to the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area
● Cycling/BMX: to the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area
● Flag Football: to BMO Stadium
● Lacrosse (6s): to BMO Stadium
● Modern Pentathlon: to the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area
● Skateboarding: to the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area

Further, the City Council’s approval of the venue included a motion from Council member Tim McOsker of the 15th District, to move the Sailing events from Long Beach into his district in San Pedro. No word from LA28 whether it will accept this change, or whether it will be accepted by World Sailing or the International Olympic Committee; Long Beach has an existing sailing organization and infrastructure and hosts an annual regatta for the Olympic classes. No comparable regatta is held in San Pedro, about five miles north of Long Beach.

Archery was originally supposed to be at SoFi Stadium and as late as Wednesday, was to be at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, but now heads to Carson, California and the Dignity Health Sports Center, already hosting track cycling, field hockey, rugby sevens and tennis.

So what’s left? The list is narrowing:

● Athletics: marathon and walk courses
● Baseball
● Boxing
● Cricket
● Cycling: mountain bike
● Cycling: road race and time trial courses
● Football preliminaries
● Shooting
● Sport Climbing
● Squash
● Surfing
● Volleyball/Beach
● Volleyball/Indoor

For the IOC’s purposes on 9 April, the road courses for track & field and cycling can wait, as can football prelims sites outside of California. Baseball is expected to be at Dodger Stadium; shooting has been confirmed at one of two sites in L.A. County, and surfing will be in Huntington Beach or at the Lower Tresles Beach in San Diego County.

There has been chatter about cricket being outside of Los Angles and no word at all on Squash, an added sport for LA28. Sport Climbing was not assigned in the bid; beach volleyball was identified for Santa Monica, but the prior City Council was not ready to work with LA28 as proposed last October, but four of the seven members of the current Council are new. Indoor volleyball was proposed at the Honda Center in Anaheim in the bid, but has not been confirmed and the area around the venue is under redevelopment (but the venue continues in use).

So there will be more announcements over the next two weeks. In the aftermath of the McOsker amendment last Friday, will the City of Los Angeles try to add any other sports?

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PANORAMA: New Valieva appeal to Swiss Tribunal; LA28 names USA Swim chief as head of sport; Odermatt drops Giant Slalom Crystal Globe!

By
Rich Perelman
-
USA Swimming interim chief exec Shana Ferguson named as LA28 Chief of Sport (Photo: Shana Ferguson on LinkedIn).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● To the surprise of absolutely no one, the City of Pasadena completed an agreement with the LA28 organizing committee for the men’s and women’s football semifinals and finals to be held at the Rose Bowl.

This had already long been expected and the Rose Bowl will join the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as three-time Olympic venues. The Rose Bowl held track cycling – with a temporary track – in 1932 and football in 1984.

LA28 is trying to complete as many agreements and announcements on venues as possible, with a complete (or nearly complete) plan due to the International Olympic Committee Executive Board for its 9 April online meeting.

LA28 hired USA Swimming Interim CEO Shana Ferguson as its Chief of Sport and Games Delivery, bringing a veteran sports marketer to help with the planning of the biggest-ever 36 sport program to be held in 2028.

Ferguson, who attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Marine Corps as an Air Defense Control Officer for five years, went on to sports marketing posts Under Armour and the Icahn Automotive Group before joining USA Swimming in 2019 as its Chief Commercial Officer.

She was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2024 and then interim chief executive when the federation let Tim Hinchey go last August. She was not selected to be chief executive as USA Swimming named Delaware athletic director Chrissi Rawak, who then withdrew.

USA Swimming named Bob Vincent, former Chair of the USA Swimming Board of Directors, to be new Interim CEO, effective 1 April, and the search for a new chief executive continues.

● Olympic Winter Games 2022: Beijing ● Russian attorneys filed a new appeal on behalf of Russian skater Kamila Valieva with the Swiss Federal Tribunal, alleging “procedural fraud” by the World Anti-Doping Agency, referring to the results of an experiment by Swiss scientist Martial Saugy about a possible explanation of her drug positive that resulted in a four-year suspension and the disqualification of the Russian team at the 2022 Olympic Figure Skating Team event.

WADA told the Russian news agency TASS:

“In WADA’s view, the athlete’s claim lacks merit and WADA will vigorously defend its position in this matter. [Former Lausanne Anti-Doping Laboratory Director Martial] Saugy’s draft report was not a document for WADA to share and was not subject to any production or disclosure obligations in any event.

“Moreover, the report was of no use to Valieva and would not have made any difference to the outcome in any event, as the CAS panel ultimately rejected the athlete’s explanation for the strawberry dessert, not on the basis of scientific validity, but rather on the basis that it was not supported by sufficient factual evidence. Any allegations of misconduct on the part of WADA are completely rejected.”

● Alpine Skiing ● It’s not easy to win a FIS Crystal Globe, emblematic of victory in a discipline or the overall World Cup. But they’re made of glass, and easy to break.

Swiss star Marco Odermatt won the seasonal World Cup title for the fourth time in a row and took the Crystal Globe for the Downhill, Super-G and Giant Slalom discipline.

But he tossed the Giant Slalom trophy into the air after the presentation following Wednesday’s season finale in Sun Valley, Idaho … and promptly dropped it. The base broke into pieces, and Odermatt told The Associated Press:

“I have some pieces of glass now to share with the coaches.”

It’s not the first time; he dropped a trophy in 2019, too.

● Basketball ● “The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) today announced their joint exploration of a new professional men’s basketball league in Europe that would bring the sport to more European fans and accelerate the game’s growth across the continent. The NBA and FIBA will continue discussions that began more than a year ago with prospective investors, teams, arena developers and commercial partners.”

This has been long discussed, but without any specifics, but is taking new momentum with the announcement on Thursday. The NBA has created a small league in Africa, but the European market is huge and well developed. The question is how will a new league fit within the existing “European basketball landscape.”

● Boxing ● World Boxing announced five new members, to bring its national federation total to 89: Albania, Bulgaria, The Bahamas, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced a sixth-month suspension of USA Boxing women’s 154 lb. (70 kg) national champion Isabella Winkler.

Winkler, 25, tested positive for the stimulant propylhexedrine during last December’s national championships, which came from an over-the-counter medication. As she did not have a Therapeutic Use Exemption, her ban started on 26 February 2025, and her result were nullified on and subsequent to 21 December 2024, meaning she will lose her national champion status.

● Cycling ● The Classics season is in full swing, with the UCI World Tours in Belgium for the Classic Brugge-De Panne race, with the men’s Wednesday edition the 49th, this time over 1905.6 km.

The flat course came down to a final sprint, with Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Molano getting to the line first in 4:07:23, just ahead of Jonathan Milan (ITA), Madis Mihkels (EST) and 10 more given the same time. It’s Molano’s first win in a World Tour one-day race, and the first by a non-European since 2004!

The women’s race on Thursday was eighth, over 152.7 km, with another win for Dutch star Lorena Wiebes, who won the mass finish in 3:42:13, ahead of Chiara Consonni (ITA) and defending champ Elisa Balsamo (ITA). It’s Wiebes’ second win in this race, also in 2020.

● Freestyle Skiing & Snowboard ● At the FIS World Championships in Engadin (SUI), the U.S. scored its second straight win in the Freestyle Team Aerials, with Kaila Kuhn, Quinn Dehlinger and Chris Lillis scoring 344.63 points to easily out-distance Ukraine (312.35) and Switzerland (281.43).

It’s a repeat of the 2023 Worlds, where Dehlinger and Lillis also won, with Ashley Caldwell as the third. Ukraine moved up from third in 2023 to silver in 2025.

Lillis has now won a medal in this event in three straight Worlds, also taking a bronze in the 2021 Worlds as well.

The Worlds finish over the weekend with seven more events.

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ANTI-DOPING: World Anti-Doping Agency creates working groups to follow up on 2021 Chinese mass-positives issues

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ WADA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ≡

The war of words between the World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency over its handling of the mass-positives incident involving 23 Chinese swimmers in January 2021 and the subsequent agreement to no-sanctions-via-contamination holding has not abated.

But there is movement, coming out of the WADA Executive Board meeting held Thursday.

The meeting news release highlighted three efforts by WADA to address issues raised out of the Chinese swimmers incident and by USADA:

● While WADA reiterated its view that the report commissioned by it from Swiss regional attorney general Eric Cottier exonerated it, the report also includes some harsh commentary on WADA policies and procedures in the case, especially related to the agency’s confused processes. So:

“[T]the ExCo approved the creation of the WADA Working Group on Contaminations (WGC), including its Terms of Reference and Composition.

“The WGC will be responsible for conducting a global review on sources of contamination leading to adverse analytical findings (AAFs) and anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) in sport. It will also provide guidance and recommendations to the ExCo on potential improvements to the regulations and processes to further take into account the risk of such contaminations, while also maintaining an efficient anti-doping system.”

WADA chief Witold Banka (POL) observed:

“As has been highlighted recently by the Chinese swimmers cases and several other cases, the issue of contamination is real and growing. It is crucial that WADA and its clean sport partners address it head on. More and more, we are seeing those who test positive put forward contamination defenses.

“Our challenge is to distinguish between cases of genuine contamination versus those who dishonestly seek to use it in an attempt to avoid sanction. It is a fine balance. If the system is too strict and rigid, innocent athletes will suffer injustice. If the system is too lenient, cheats will prosper. This is one of the key challenges that the clean sport community now faces.”

● Banka also mentioned the WADA Taskforce on Unintentional Doping “which will shortly be calling for input from the community on this topic,” addressing another issue on which USADA and other national anti-doping organizations have been vocal.

● Finally, one of the questions raised during the 2021 Chinese swimmers incident was reporting from the German ARD documentary “The China Files,” that the CHINADA report that cleared the swimmers was created by the Chinese government’s Ministry of Public Security, not the anti-doping agency! So, now:

“[T]he ExCo discussed the setting up of a Working Group on the Operational Independence of National Anti-Doping Organizations (WGOI) to explore further the issue of National Anti-Doping Organization (NADO) independence, which is mandatory under the Code. A decision on the establishment of the WGOI will be made by the ExCo in due course.”

Observed: Interesting, very interesting. WADA isn’t giving an inch (cm?) on its insistence that it was cleared by the Cottier report, which is true only insofar as the questions it asked Cottier to consider. But the report ripped the agency apart on its sloppy procedures, processes and follow-up to a serious mass-doping incident.

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart has trashed WADA again and again for not following its own rules and having a better way to deal with the hard-to-prove or disprove contamination cases … and the role of the Chinese government in the swimmers incident, instead of CHINADA handling the matter on its own.

Also, Tygart has been after WADA to fix its rules on unintentional doping, including the reporting requirements.

None of the announcements from Thursday will satisfy WADA’s critics, especially Tygart. But they are clearly moves toward the positions he and other national anti-doping agencies have taken on needed WADA reforms. Progress of a sort, and for now, anything helps.

There was more from the ExCo meeting of note:

● No date for the doping-encouraged Enhanced Games has been announced, but it was stated that the site may be in the U.S. WADA condemned it again, with Director General Olivier Niggli (SUI) saying, “Allowing this event to go ahead would put the health of athletes and the integrity of sport at grave risk.”

● As for finance, “the ExCo discussed and expressed concern regarding the shortfall in WADA’s 2024 funding due to the withholding of funding by the previous United States administration.” There is a lot of work to do to mend fences with the U.S. government, but no initiative was announced.

● Iran was confirmed as non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, with “non-conformities” in the area of testing. Sanctions will apply as of 18 April 2025; no flag or anthem penalties apply yet, but could be imposed in 2026.

WADA elections for President and Vice President – incumbents Banka and Yang Yang (CHN) are expected to be re-elected – will be held in an online Foundation Board meeting on 29 May.

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FIGURE SKATING: U.S. teen star Liu and super Malinin (110.41!) star with Short Program leads at ISU Worlds in Boston

By
Rich Perelman
-
American skating superstar Ilia Malinin, now a three-time U.S. national champion (Photo: SpiritedMichelle via Wikipedia).

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≡ ISU WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡

The first ISU World Championships to be held in the U.S. in nine years was once again in Boston, Massachusetts, less than two months following the 29 January crash in Washington, D.C. of an American Eagle flight with an Army helicopter, with more than two dozen American skaters, family and officials aboard.

A commemoration was held on Wednesday, followed by the skating in the women’s Singles, with an inspired performance from two-time U.S. champion Alysia Liu, the 2022 Worlds bronze medalist.

Still just 19, Liu led a crowded field of five within 3 1/2 points, scoring 74.58, ahead of Mone Chiba (JPN: 73.44), fellow American – and 2024 runner-up – Isabeau Levito (73.33), Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi (72.10) and three-time defending champ Kaori Sakamoto (JPN: 71.03).

It’s a lifetime best score for Liu for the Short Program. Two-time U.S. champ Amber Glenn suffered an early fall and stood ninth after the Short Program at 67.65.

The women’s Free Skate is on Friday evening.

The men’s Short Program on Thursday morning was competitive … until World Champion Ilia Malinin of the U.S. took the ice.

Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, the 2025 Four Continents winner, led the field after 37 of the 39 skaters at 94.77 points, and two-time European champion and 2024 Worlds bronzer, Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) had disappointed in ninth place (87.22), due to a fall on his opening quad-Lutz element.

Then came Malinin, who blew the top off the event with a lifetime best Short Program that scored 110.41 points. Wow! It’s the fourth-highest Short Program score in history:

● 113.97 Nathan Chen (USA) 2019
● 111.82 Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) 2020
● 110.53 Hanyu 2018
● 110.41 Ilia Malinin (USA) 2025
● 110.38 Chen 2022

The final skater was Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, the 2021-22-24 Worlds silver medalist, and he was game, scoring a seasonal best of 107.09, to land as a steady second and in position to win on Saturday if Malinin falters in the Free Skate.

Malinin opened with a quad Flip and included a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combo in his routine, while Kagiyama completed a quad toe loop and quad Salchow.

The other two Americans, Andrew Torgashev and 2015 U.S. champ Jason Brown, were in group five, starting 23rd and 25th. They posted the top scores through the first 26 skaters, with Torgashev at a lifetime best of 87.27 and Brown scoring a seasonal best of 84.72. They finished 8-12 and qualified for Saturday’s Free Skate.

In Pairs, Japan’s 2023 World Champion, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara led the Short Program, at 76.57, closely trailed by the 2023 bronze winners, Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy (74.61) and Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin (GER: 73.59).

Americans Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, the 2024 U.S. champions, were fifth at 68.61, and Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov stood ninth (63.70).

The Pairs Free Skate comes Thursday evening.

The competitive elements of the Championships will finish on Saturday, with the celebratory exhibition gala on Sunday.

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ALPINE SKIING: World Cup Finals finish in Sun Valley with U.S. star Shiffrin taking career win no. 101!

By
Rich Perelman
-
American skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin

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≡ WORLD CUP FINALS ≡

The 2024-25 FIS Alpine World Cup season came to a conclusion on Thursday, with the women’s and men’s Slaloms in Sun Valley, Idaho, with the winner of the first two women’s Slaloms – American star Mikaela Shiffrin – winning the final one.

Shiffrin got to the lead on the first run, with one of her patented, dominating performances, taking off as the no. 2 skier and timing 52.05, which no one could touch. Closest was German Lena Duerr at 52.64, with Swiss Wendy Holdener at 53.05 and Katharina Liensberger (AUT) at 53.27. Fellow American Paula Moltzan was eighth at 53.91.

On the second run, Slovenia’s Andreja Slokar zoomed into second from ninth and stood second to Duerr as Shiffrin started her run to finish the competition.

And Shiffrin was terrific, compiling the third-fastest second run of the day and finishing at 1:45.92 for an easy victory, her 101st career World Cup win, the most ever.

Duerr was second at 1:47.05 with Slokar third by 1/100th (1:47.06) and Holdener fourth at 1:47.52. Moltzan moved up to sixth, in 1:47.92.

For Shiffrin, closing out a difficult season that was marred by a bad crash on one of her favorite courses, in Killington, Vermont, then a long recovery, surgery and re-establishing herself on the slopes, it was her fourth World Cup gold of 2024-25. So, she finished with:

● 101 career World Cup wins, most in history
● 64 career World Cup slalom wins, most in history
● 157 career World Cup medals, most in history

The seasonal World Cup Slalom standings showed Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic as the winner with 541 points, ahead of Liensberger (509) and World Champion Camille Rast (SUI: 492). Shiffrin finished fourth at 486, despite missing four of the 10 races this season.

The men’s World Cup second run followed the women, with Norway’s Timon Haugen – a two-time winner this season – the race leader at 51.39, followed by Olympic champ Clement Noel (FRA: 51.49) and fellow Norwegian – and 2023 World Slalom Champion – Henrik Kristoffersen (51.53).

In the second run, Swiss star Loic Meillard, who won the Giant Slalom on Wednesday, zoomed into the lead from eighth as the no. 18 starter – out of 25 – with a combined time of 1:44.26. But he was passed by Fabio Gstrein (AUT: 1:43.98) and then Noel (1:43.64), leaving Haugen as the final skier.

And despite losing some time on the bottom half of the course, Haugen managed to win, posting the 15th-fastest second run, but it was enough at 1:43.61, for a third World Cup win this season and fourth in his career. Noel had to settle for second, just 0.03 behind, with Gstrein taking the bronze (+0.37).

Benjamin Ritchie was the only American in the final, finishing seventh at 1:45.24.

The seasonal standings gave the Crystal Globe to Kristoffersen – his fourth in Slalom and fifth in his career – with 662, followed by Meillard (610), Haugen (609) and Noel (606).

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SPOTLIGHT: Look out for Noah Elliott and the U.S. Para Snowboard squad at the 2026 Milan Cortina Paralympics

By
Luke Hanlon
-
Noah Elliott (USA) during the Snowboard Cross competition March 7, 2022 at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games (USOPC photo by Mark Reis).

★ The Sports Examiner is delighted to present this important contribution from our patron, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, with a focus on American Paralympic stars. Opinions expressed are those of the USOPC. ★

A Memorable Homecoming In Colorado Showed The U.S. Para Snowboarding Team Could Be Primed For More Success
In Milano Cortina

The Americans defended their men’s and women’s Nations Cup titles while competing in the first world cup event on U.S. soil in eight years.

By Luke Hanlon
Red Line Editorial on behalf of Team USA

Noah Elliott first learned about Para snowboarding at a camp for kids with cancer in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, when he was a teenager.

Almost a decade later, Elliott returned to the Rocky Mountains resort as one of the best Para snowboarders in the world.

And over a memorable few days in late February, Elliott and the U.S. team capped off the FIS Para Snowboard World Cup season with 12 podium finishes and five wins during the circuit’s first event held on U.S. soil since 2017.

The long-awaited U.S. stop culminated with the Americans winning the Nations Cup – awarded to the team with the most points each season – on the men’s and women’s side for the second straight year. Elliott, meanwhile, was among the U.S. riders who claimed Crystal Globes as season champions.

And just days later, in early March, the Americans closed out their season with one more standout performance, this time coming away with a silver and three bronze medals at the world championships in Big White, British Columbia.

It was a promising finish for a team with high expectations going into next year’s Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

Full-Circle Moment
Elliott’s first trip to Steamboat Springs Ski Resort came when he was still coming to grips with an osteosarcoma diagnosis that left him with great pain and mobility challenges in his left leg.

Upon visiting Steamboat and getting a crash course in all things Para snowboarding – but without actually getting to snowboard due to his injured leg – Elliott returned home to St. Charles, Missouri, and knew what he had to do: If he was going to pursue the sport, he needed to have his leg amputated.

“When I went home, I knew immediately,” Elliott told TeamUSA.com. “I said (to my parents) that I need to get surgery. I’m tired of this. My leg’s never going to get better. I need to get this fixed.”

That decision has led to him becoming a Paralympic and world champion.

In Elliott’s recent return to Steamboat Springs, he finished second in the men’s snowboardcross LL1 event to claim his eighth podium finish of the year. It proved to be more than enough for him to defend his overall Crystal Globe in the classification.

“That’s a full circle moment for me,” Elliott, 27, told fis-ski.com after securing the Crystal Globe. “Where it all started for me, in Steamboat, first day ever on snow, first time seeing the mountains and coming back getting the overall Crystal Globe, awarded to me here, is priceless, truly.”

Continuing the Tradition
For years, Brenna Huckaby Clegg has set the standard for success on the U.S. team, winning three gold medals and a bronze from the past two Paralympics.

That standard hasn’t dropped for the 29-year-old from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This season, she earned six podium finishes and won the snowboardcross LL1/LL2 Crystal Globe for the second year in a row.

All season, Huckaby Clegg competed against up-and-coming U.S. teammate Kate Delson (though Huckaby Clegg is LL1 and Delson LL2, their classifications are regularly combined, including at the Paralympics).

Delson trains with Team Utah Mountain Sports, the same club that helped Huckaby Clegg start her Para snowboarding career back in 2013. After a world cup event in February 2024, Huckaby Clegg posted a picture of Delson on her Instagram and wrote: “This girl crushes it! So excited for the future of our sport.”

The future proved to be as exciting as Huckaby Clegg hoped. Competing in her second world cup season, Delson earned her first series win this January in a snowboardcross race in Lenk, Switzerland. She went on to win a silver medal in the event during her world championships debut, finishing just ahead of Huckaby Clegg, who won her ninth career worlds medal.

Huckaby Clegg was Team USA’s most successful snowboarder at the Beijing Winter Games, winning a gold and bronze medal. Come Italy next year, she might just have some competition from a rising Team USA star.

Practical Teammate
Perhaps no one has had a bigger impact on the Para snowboarding national team than Mike Schultz since he made his debut in 2015.

Schultz arrived on the team having already founded BioDapt, Inc., a company that makes prosthetics specifically designed for adaptive sports. By the 2023-24 season, every LL1 or LL2 athlete on the U.S. team used a BioDapt prosthetic.

The St. Cloud, Minnesota, native has used his own product to win a gold and two silvers at the past two Paralympics. Now 43, Schulz continued to have success this season, racking up five podium finishes and one win, which fittingly came in Steamboat Springs.

“It’s been too long since I’ve taken the No. 1 spot, so this one feels incredible, especially since my family was here to experience it,” Schultz, who won in snowboardcross LL1, told fis-ski.com “They haven’t seen me race since 2018, so this one was special.”

Zach Miller is one of the U.S. athletes who benefits from a BioDapt prosthetic. At Big White, Miller picked up a bronze in the banked slalom LL2 at to take home his sixth career worlds medal.

Miller, who turned 26 on March 10, has been competing internationally since 2016, two years before he joined the U.S. national team. The Littleton, Colorado, native made his Paralympic debut in Beijing, with his best result being an 11th-place finish in the snowboardcross.

Schultz and Miller, along with Elliott – who capped off his season with two bronze medals in Big White, putting his career worlds medal count to eight – now lead a U.S. men’s snowboarding crew that’s looking to build upon the two silver medals it won in 2022 in Beijing.

Luke Hanlon is a sportswriter and editor based in Minneapolis. He is a freelance contributor for Team USA on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

For more, please visit the USOPC Paralympic Educational Hub.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: L.A. City Recreation & Parks asks for $33.12 million for 2025-26 “PlayLA” program funding from LA28

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ PLAYLA FUNDING TO $108M≡

The before-the-Games legacy program created by the LA28 organizing committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to subsidize sports participation for youth is in full swing, and expects to grow further with new budget request for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

The City’s “Play LA” program got off to a slow start, limited to swimming in the first couple of years and then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, taking down most of the next year of the program. But the project has been rebuilt, with more activity and growth. The expenditures and requests so far:

● 2018: $0.91 million
● 2019: $1.09 million
● 2020: $2.48 million
● 2021-22: $ 7.65 million
● 2022-23: $13.22 million
● 2023-24: $14.81 million + $4.45 million pending receipt
● 2024-25: $30.54 million requested (not yet received)

A new filing by the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department is asking for a 2025-26 funding of $33,123,226, broken down as:

● $23,075,076 for Recreation Center programs at 125 sites
● $4,808,063 for Aquatics programs at 53 sites
● $4,061,587 for Signature program in aquatics, sports and adaptive sports
● $1,178,500 for SafeSport, marketing and printing costs

According to the filing and prior reports, participation has been increasing:

● 148,274 participants in 2018-19 (baseline)
● 176,596 participants in 2022-23 (per report)
● 228,312 participants in 2023-24 (per report)

● 217,769 projected for 2024-25
● 229,540 projected for 2025-26

The programming offers a wide variety of options; the filing reports programs in:

● Classes, lessons and/or leagues in more than 30 sports: archery, baseball, badminton, basketball, boxing, cheer, climbing, dance, dodgeball, fencing, field hockey, fitness, flag football, golf, gymnastics, inner tube water polo, kayaking, kickball, lacrosse, martial arts (judo, karate, tae kwon do), roller hockey, running (marathon training), skateboarding, skating, soccer, softball, surfing, tennis, track & field, volleyball and water polo.

● New programs are proposed for cricket – added as a medal sport for 2028, at two sites – and pickleball, at five sites.

● Adaptive sports programs in archery, kayaking, skateboard, swimming, blind soccer, goalball, equestrian, pickleball, surfing, sitting volleyball, track & field, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair tennis.

● Aquatics programs in swimming, diving, artistic swimming, aquatic fitness and water polo.

Volunteer-run programs in the 2028 Olympic sport of squash are also conducted at three rec centers, through U.S. Squash.

The request now moves to the L.A. City Council for review, before the formal request for funding to LA28.

Assuming that the request is approved and paid, some $108.28 million of the $160 million total will have been consumed by the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year, leaving $51.72 million for the final two years of program for 2026-27 and 2027-28.

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PANORAMA: Brisbane 2032 stadium to be opposed in court; Shiffrin “super positive” on regaining her edge; IWF had 2% doping positives in ‘24

By
Rich Perelman
-
A Queensland government rendering of to-be-built 2032 Olympic Stadium in Victoria Park in Brisbane, Australia.

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2032: Brisbane ● Activists are already planning legal action against the Queensland government’s plan to build a new, Olympic Stadium in Victoria Park.

A “Save Victoria Park” group has raised A$40,000 so far against a goal of A$100,000 for action against the stadium, claiming a removal of green space for the community and a disregard of the park’s cultural importance.

A host of new venues, to be built with state and Federal funds totaling A$7.1 billion (A$1 = $0.63 U.S.) are promoted as a tangible legacy of the 2032 Games for Queensland, breaking an election promise by Premier David Crisafulli from 2024.

He told ABC News Australia, “And I have to own that and I will and I am sorry. And it’s my decision and I accept that decision.”

But Crisafulli did not want to let the Games go by and not leave a host of new sports facilities. Now they have to be permitted – after being challenged in court – and built in time.

One of the identified venues was for rowing on the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, already criticized as crocodile habitat. World Rowing issued a statement on Wednesday, noting:

“We understand from Rowing Australia, World Rowing’s National Federation in the country, that while Fitzroy River has been suitable for training purposes, it has not undergone any technical feasibility study that would confirm its ability to host national or international level racing. …

“Fairness and safety are paramount to any venue hosting events of this magnitude and importance, and any rowing course used for international racing must comply with World Rowing’s Rules of Racing and technical requirements. The proposed venue not having been assessed and confirmed as compliant with the relevant technical requirements, World Rowing stands ready to support such assessment, for this and any other venue, to enable a decision that will satisfy Rowing and other relevant stakeholders.”

In other words, stay tuned.

● International Federations ● The annual Redtorch “Sport on Social” ranking of International Federations was published this week, ranking federations not on audience size or reach, but on a blended metric of followers and engagement metrics across five different platforms. It’s less an actual ranking than a report card on performance in 2024.

A companion statistics platform indicated that Facebook remains the largest social-media site by followers:

● 181 million: Facebook
● 121 million: Instagram
● 64 million: TikTok
● 59 million: YouTube
● 55 million: X (ex-Twitter)

In terms of posts, X led with 97,000, with Facebook close (93,000), followed by Instagram (75,000), then YouTube (41,000) and TikTok (13,000). On “engagements” the clear leader was Instagram at 2.67 billion, with Facebook a distant second at 380 million.

The federations which fared best on the “report cards” for 2024 were World Athletics, World Aquatics, the International Cricket Council, FIFA and FIBA (basketball).

● Russia ● “The Olympics must remain a beacon of peace and human rights – not a stage for normalizing terror and destruction.”

That’s from a statement by the Ukrainian World Congress, decrying IOC President-elect Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) comment on athletes in conflict areas around the world from her post-election news conference:

“I believe at the end of the day, we need to do anything and everything to protect and support athletes from all conflict areas. We have numerous conflicts and a number of them happening on my continent.

“So again, we need to sit down as the Olympic Movement and have a very serious conversation around how are we going to deal with more and more conflicts and how are we going to protect and support athletes that are coming from these conflict areas.”

The UWC said in part:

“The Ukrainian World Congress is appalled by incoming International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry’s intention to discuss Russia’s return to the Olympic Games. …

“Allowing Russia back into the global sporting arena not only betrays the principles of justice but sends a chilling message: war crimes and aggression can be excused for the sake of athletic integrity.

“Russia has long weaponized culture and sports to spread its imperialist propaganda. Many Russian athletes are tied to the military, and their return to the Olympic Movement would hand the Kremlin a propaganda victory, amplifying its violent and oppressive ideology on a global stage.”

● Alpine Skiing ● A big day for Switzerland at the FIS Alpine World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, sweeping both the men’s and women’s Giant Slalom events. Two-time World Cup seasonal women’s champ Lara Gut-Behrami got her 100th World Cup medal, taking charge with the fastest first-run time and finishing with a total time of 2:01.01, just ahead of Italy’s 2024-25 seasonal World Cup winner, Federica Brignone (2:10.15), who had the fastest second run.

Swede Sara Hector was third (2:10.81), with A.J. Hurt the top American in eighth (2:13.62); Nina O’Brien was 12th (2:15.24). Brignone won the seasonal Giant Slalom title with 580 points, to 520 for Alice Robinson (NZL).

Double Worlds gold medalist Loic Meillard led a Swiss 1-2 in the men’s Giant Slalom, leading after the first run and winning in 2:15.21 for his third win of the season, ahead of World Cup winner Marco Odermatt (2:16.16) and Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen (2:16.35). River Radamus was the top U.S. finisher, in 15th (2:18.42).

Odermatt won the seasonal Giant Slalom title – his fourth Crystal Globe of the season – with 580 points, to 454 for Kristoffersen and 434 for Meillard.

The finals finish on Thursday with the men’s and women’s Slaloms.

U.S. superstar Mikaela Shiffrin is only skiing the Slalom in Sun Valley, but told The Associated Press that she is getting back to her pre-crash form:

“Training is going well. It’s actually super positive. Training has been improving day-by-day.

“I’m just trying to get back to the confidence that I was skiing with in Killington [last November] when the crash happened. That would be a big goal.”

She admits she has a setback now and then, but:

“Some of my turns are competitive with the fastest in the world. But putting that together for a minute and 10-second GS run – that just takes time and repetition. We’ll need to try to get some days this summer with long course sets, with a lot of variation of course sets, variation of conditions. I don’t doubt that I can get to that competitive level again. I think a lot of my skiing is already there.”

● Boxing ● Overjoyed by provisional recognition by the International Olympic Committee to be the governing body for Olympic boxing during last week’s IOC Session in Greece, World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst (NED) was immediately asked about the hot-button issues, including transgenders, Russia and more. He was ready.

On transgenders, “For us, it’s very important to have a fair competition. We have installed a commission for sex, age and weight policy and I expect that in the near future we will publish our policy in this regards.

“For us, it is important to have a fair and safe competitions. That will be paramount.”

Relative to Russian participation and for boxers in federations which are not members of World Boxing: “It’s very important to unify the whole boxing world for World Boxing and to have all the best boxers participating in L.A. 2028. … The train has left the station already. And for me it’s important to call all the national federations to join World Boxing as soon as possible. For example the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar and many other world sports events that are related to the Olympic Movement.”

And, inevitably, the question of corruption was raised:

“[I]t’s critical and the most important task to deliver fair and transparent competitions in which the hand of the best boxer is raised and not of the most influential national federation. That means we will copy the procedures of the Paris boxing unit how to manage the officials, but also that we explore the use of modern technology, engaging AI for example to make the decisions more fair and transparent.”

● Football ● Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter (SUI: 89) and former French great and UEFA President Michel Platini (FRA: 69) prevailed against a government appeal at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court in Muttenz on Tuesday.

The decision was an appeal of a finding from July 2022, exonerating both on charges of fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation relating to a 2011 payment of CHF 2 million (~$2.26 million U.S. today) by FIFA – when Blatter was President – to Platini for consulting services from 1998-2002.

Sad news that former U.S. Soccer Federation Secretary General Hank Steinbrecher passed away on Tuesday (25th) at his home in Tucson, Arizona.

Steinbrecher was a crucial figure in the rise of U.S. Soccer to become the most financially successful National Governing Body in the world. He came to the USSF in 1990 from handling the marketing for Gatorade at The Quaker Oats Company, moved the federation to Chicago and helped bring in astonishing growth over a decade that included the playing of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the rise of the U.S. women’s team to glory at the 1991 Women’s World Cup and then at the transformative 1999 Women’s World Cup held in the U.S.

Steinbrecher is survived by his wife, Ruth Anne, and his two sons, Chad and Corey.

● Weightlifting ● In a sport shadowed by past doping, the International Weightlifting Federation released figures from the International Testing Agency, which is the contracted doping-control organization for the federation.

For all of 24, 3,324 total samples were collected for 2,486 tests from 1,078 athletes in 120 countries. Of these, there were 51 anti-doping violations (2.1%), with some processing still continuing from 2024. That’s still high.

The top countries with athletes tested included Colombia, Uzbekistan the U.S., Ukraine and Armenia.

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