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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Sullivan Award ● The six finalists for the 95th AAU Sullivan Award, given annually since 1930 “to the most exceptional athlete at the collegiate, Olympic, or other similarly elite level in the United States.”
Former Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark won the last two years; six candidates are the finalists for 2025:
● Cooper Flagg: Duke basketball freshman; national high school player of the year
● Ashton Jeanty: Boise State All-American football running back
● Lee Kiefer: Paris Olympic women’s Foil & Team gold medalist
● Ilia Malinin: ISU Figure Skating men’s World Champion
● Lexi Rodriguez: Nebraska women’s volleyball All-American
● Trey Augustine: Michigan State goalie, two-time IIHF World Juniors gold
Voting is open now through 20 March.
● Russia ● The Russian Sports Ministry said Thursday that “deductions from bookmakers” – gambling taxes – of RUB 22 billion were collected in 2024 and distributed to Olympic-sport federations in the country.
That converts to about $255.07 million U.S. The leading recipients were the national federations for football, table tennis, tennis and ice hockey. Much smaller amounts were distributed to non-Olympic federations (RUB 3.1 billion), professional leagues (2.3 billion) and Paralympic sports federations (900 million).
Wow.
● Athletics ● A now-viral video from last Friday’s Virginia state indoor championships shows I.C. Norcom High senior Alaila Everett clubbing Brookville High School junior Kaelen Tucker on the final turn of the second leg of the girls 4×200 m relay.
Tucker ended up face-down on the infield, and the Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Office charged Everett with one count of assault and battery, for the concussion and a possible fractured skull. I.C. Norcom was disqualified and Brookville did not finish.
Tucker was trying to cut into lane one, ahead of Everett when the blow happened. Everett maintains it was an accident, explaining:
“She was touching me to the point where I was pumping my arm, and the baton was hitting her arm. I lose my balance; my whole body turns, and then I pump my arms, so she got hit.”
● Boxing ● World Boxing moved up another notch on the Olympic Movement’s federation ladder by being approved for membership in the Association of IOC-Recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF).
This positions World Boxing to be a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations once full recognized by the IOC, which could come next week at the IOC Session in Greece. World Boxing now has 84 affiliated national federations, in just 16 months since its founding Congress in November 2023.
● Curling ● The World Men’s Curling Championship is returning to the U.S. in 2026, as Ogden City, Utah will host at the Weber County Ice Sheet from 28 Mar to 5 April 2026.
The U.S. last hosted in 2022, in Paradise, Nevada in the Las Vegas metro area; the 2026 event will be the 10th time the U.S. has been the host. In the prior nine, the U.S. has won only one medal: gold in 1976 in Duluth, Minnesota.
● Cycling ● The hilly, 203.3 km fifth stage of the 83rd Paris-Nice race was won by France’s Lenny Martinez, winning a final sprint of four riders, in 4:36:23, riding away by three seconds from countryman Clement Champoussin, American Matteo Jorgenson and Harold Tejada (COL).
With prior leader Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) in 16th (+0:26), Jorgenson regained the lead by 22 seconds, with the race finishing Sunday.
At the 60th Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy, Dutch riders swept the triple-climb, 190 km fourth stage, with Olav Kooij winning in 4:48:05 at the end of a mass sprint. Rick Pluimers was second and 2023 World Road Champion Mathieu van der Poel was third. The top 67 riders all received the same time, so Italy’s Filippo Ganna remained in the overall lead over Juan Ayuso (ESP: +0:22).
● Freestyle Skiing ● The FIS World Cup season in Aerials finished Thursday in Livigno (ITA), with the tightest possible finish in the seasonal men’s standings!
Swiss Noe Roth, the 2023 World Champion, won Thursday’s final, scoring 130.05 ahead of Jiaxu Sun (CHN: 113.73) and fellow Swiss Pirmin Werner (113.00). American Chris Lillis was sixth (79.20).
Both Roth and Beijing 2022 gold medalist Guangpu Qi finished with exactly 400 points on the season, but Qi won twice o Roth’s once and won the seasonal title.
Australia’s two-time World Champion Laura Peel finished off her seasonal title in style, winning for the fifth time in seven events at 112.90, ahead of Mengtao Xu (CHN: 105.17) and Meiting Chen (CHN: 91.44). American Kalia Kuhn was fourth (78.94). Peel piled up 542 points to win the Crystal Globe over Xu (444), the Beijing 2022 Olympic champ.
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In the Big Air seasonal finale in Tignes (FRA), Italian brother-and-sister Miro Tabanelli and Flora Tabanelli both pulled off victories.
Flora, 17, out-scored two-time Big Air World Champion Tess Ledeux (FRA), 187.75 to 181.75, with Anni Karava (FIN: 175.25) third and American Rell Harwood (174.25) fourth. Tabanelli was medals in all six World Cups, won two and had 440 points, to 270 for Ledeux in second.
Miro, 20, won a tight duel with American Mac Forehand, 188.25 to 187.50, with New Zealand’s Luca Harrington at 187.00 and Troy Podmilsak of the U.S. fourth (181.00). Harrington won two events and four medals in the six stops in Big Air and took the seasonal Crystal Globe at 390 points, ahead of Matej Svancer (AUT: 351). Tabanelli was third with 270.
● Rowing ● The World Rowing Quadrennial Congress is coming Friday and Saturday in Lausanne, with transgender participation on the agenda. A proposal from seven European federations asks:
“[W]e propose that World Rowing adopt eligibility for the women’s category based strictly on sex and would like the opportunity to vote on such a proposal to be added to the agenda for Congress. Only rowers who are female at birth are eligible to compete in the Women’s category. All other rowers are eligible to compete in an Open category including those under ongoing hormonal treatment.”
The federation’s 2025-28 budget is also to be reviewed, with the presentation showing planned expenses during the four years of CHF 32.893 million, of which 16 million will come from the IOC’s television rights share for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, roughly 48.6%. World Rowing is shown losses in three of the four years in the quadrennial period.
● Ski Jumping ● Amid the furor of the suit-cheating scandal involving the Norwegian federation, the FIS World Cup continued, in Oslo (NOR) – of all places – with Japanese star Ryoyu Kobayashi sailing to his third straight World Cup win off of the 134 m hill, scoring 264.1, ahead of Austria’s Jan Hoerl (253.3) and Karl Geiger (GER: 252.4). American Tate Frantz was 25th.
The women’s competition was the seventh straight win for all-conquering Slovenian teen Nika Prevc. She won both jumps and scored 254.1 points to 226.2 for Anna Stroem (NOR), with Eirin Kvandal (NOR: 216.9) third. No Norwegian women were suspended by FIS for uniform manipulations. Josie Johnson of the U.S. was 28th.
● Weightlifting ● The International Testing Agency announced that Venezuelan lifter Jhohan Sanguino, 26, tested positive for the steroid Stanozolol and has been provisionally suspended. He placed 15th at the 2023 World Championships in the men’s 102 kg class and was the 2023 Pan American Games bronze medalist at that weight.
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