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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● A news conference held Tuesday at the inauguration of the organizing committee for the 2030 Winter Games included a clear characterization of what it hoped for in five years.
Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Cate d’Azur region – one of the two regions involved in the Games, proclaimed:
“Yes, we won’t be able to ski tomorrow like we skied yesterday. Yes, climate change is a reality with an impact on the mountains. But despite the grumblers and the grumpy ones, practicing the mountains and winter sports differently does not mean no longer practicing them. Our candidacy is one of optimism and realism. We are going to present to the world the greenest Games in history, the most exemplary in environmental terms. Games with snow, chalets and athletes, a bit like Lillehammer, the anti-Sochi, the anti-Beijing.”
Former Albertville 1992 co-President and former Prime Minister Michel Barnier crystalized the goal of staging “impeccable Games in a context of budgetary sobriety.”
New chief executive Edgar Grospiron now has to assemble a start-up team and focus on finalizing the competition site selection with the International Olympic Committee and the relevant federations, and to begin the sponsorship program, first with discussions of Paris 2024 sponsors, supporters and suppliers.
● International Olympic Committee ● The IOC announced its 25 “Young Leaders” from 2025-28, sorting through an enormous 5,270 applications from 169 countries and territories. The core of the program is to
“develop innovative projects aligned with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through this programme, the IOC Young Leaders will receive a bespoke four-year capacity-building programme that includes expert guidance and coaching, access to an extensive sport and sport-for-development network, and seed funding of USD 10,000, which will help them turn their ideas into impactful and sustainable initiatives.”
The program was launched in 2016 and has enrolled 145 individuals from 77 nations and territories. For 2025-28, one American was selected, former Kennesaw State sprinter Kyndall Hudson, a 4×400 m relay champion in the Atlantic Sun Conference. She uses her communications and outreach skills to create “campaigns that promote wellness, mental resilience and sports participation, empowering individuals and fostering community growth.”
● World Anti-Doping Agency ● The impact of intelligence and investigations (I&I) in anti-doping was shown again in the arrest by Serbian authorities of 10 members of an organized-crime group and “seized 3,000kg of doping substances worth more than EUR 3 million” and “confiscated EUR 100,000 in cash, cryptocurrency worth approximately EUR 500,000, numerous properties, bank accounts, seven websites used for online sales of illegal substances, safes and a number of luxury items, such as vehicles and watches.”
All of this was keyed to work by the Anti-Doping Agency of Serbia, in which two investigators worked with the country’s Interior Ministry to identify this group, importing and distributing doping materials throughout the country.
Training for the Serbian investigators was part of a WADA I&I program in Europe, creating capabilities in nearly 50 countries so far.
● Athletics ● Two-time Olympic men’s 400 m gold medalist Vernon Norwood of the U.S. has been added as a Challenger for the Kingston opener of the Grand Slam Track circuit.
Fourth at the Olympic Trials in 2024, he ran a lifetime best of 44.10 in 2024, won a relay gold in Paris and a Mixed 4×400 m relay silver. He’s so popular and well-respected that Fluid Athletics coach Daniel Moore suggested Norwood’s running profile as a Jerry West/NBA-style logo for Grand Slam Track (shown above)!
Norwood will face Paris Olympic champ Quincy Hall (USA), silver winner Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR), bronzer Muzala Samukonga (ZAM) and fourth-placer Jereem Richards (TTO) in the 200/400 m “Long Sprints” category.
● Biathlon ● More French magic, as Eric Perrot, 23, already the bronze winner in the men’s Pursuit, won the men’s 20 km Individual race at the IBU World Championships in Lenzerheide (SUI).
It’s his third career Worlds gold, but first in an individual event and he routed the field, winning in 47:58.1 (1 penalty) over Tommaso Giacomel (ITA: 48:50.5/1) and French teammate Quentin Fillon Maillet (49:57.6/3), who also won the Sprint bronze. Giacomel, 24, also won his first individual-event Worlds medal.
American Campbell Wright, silver medalist in the Sprint and Pursuit, was 23rd in 52:44.1 (4), just ahead of teammates Paul Schommer (24th: 52:48.8/3) and Jake Brown (25th: 52:52.8/3).
The French now have four wins in the seven events held so far, with relays and the Mass Start events remaining through Sunday.
● Ice Hockey ● The highly-anticipated U.S.-Canada rematch for the championship of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday in Boston is drawing heavy attention in the sports world, including soaring second-market ticket prices.
A check of mid-day pricing on Wednesday showed tickets on one leading resale site going for $790 up to $14,306, and on another for $852 up to $7,111. The listed capacity of TD Garden for hockey is 17,850.
Oddsmakers have the game as even. The U.S. won, 3-1, in the round-robin game in Montreal last week.
● Tennis ● The World Anti Doping Agency’s General Counsel, Ross Wenzel (GBR) told Sky UK that Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner’s case was carefully scrutinized to determine if there was a micro-dosing regimen that had been carried out over time:
“WADA went back and looked at every single one of Mr Sinner’s samples for the 12 months before the two positives in March of last year to see whether there was any even indication, albeit not meeting the identification criteria, but any suspicious indication of this substance in any of those samples.
“And the answer from all of the labs, and this is a large number of samples, was that there was not. So I think whatever people say and think about this case, it is not a doping case or a cheating case.”
Sinner tested positive twice for clostebol and was traced to a spray used to heal a cut that had the substance in it. WADA reached an agreement with Sinner on a three-month suspension that will end in early May.
Wenzel confirmed to the BBC: “This was a case that was a million miles away from doping. The scientific feedback that we received was that this could not be a case of intentional doping, including micro-dosing.”
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