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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
1. Salt Lake City details $4 billion budget for 2034 bid
2. ISU shows $9.565 million loss for 2023 and more coming
3. Kerley: “more to something than what meets the eyes”
4. Not too many track & field fans in Eugene, or in Rome
5. Sharp increase in early NCAA T&F Champs viewing
● The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games unveiled its detailed budget for the 2034 Olympic Winter Games, with a total income of about $4 billion and an all-private-sector, balanced budget that includes contingency plans for both cost overruns and revenue shortfalls. The net operating budget – in 2034 dollars – is almost exactly the same as the 2002 Winter Games actual costs, inflated to 2034 levels!
● The International Skating Union Congress is on in Las Vegas, with a warning from President Jae Youl Kim: “unless we take bold measures today to improve our content,” the fan base will wither away. The financial statements showed losses in 2022 and 2023 and the projections showed losses continuing to 2029!
● World 100 m champ Fred Kerley walked away from his 100 m race in New York on Sunday and walked away from his ASICS sponsorship, two weeks before the Olympic Trials. On Monday, more details came out about the situation and why Kerley and ASICS decided to “part ways.” His performances over the last two years tell the tale.
● Attendance at the NCAA Track & Field Championships in Eugene was poor, barely more than half-full on the best days, but even worse at the European Championships in Rome. Ticket sales for the meet at the famed Stadio Olimpico was termed “a disaster” as the meet opened and other than Saturday night’s men’s 100 m final, has been poor throughout.
● In contrast, the U.S. television audiences for the first two days of the NCAA Track & Field meet were way up from recent years, with a combined 597,000 on ESPN2, up 58% from the 2023 figures, also from ESPN! Wow!
● World Championships: Modern Pentathlon (Korea sweeps men’s and women’s relays) ●
● Panorama: Paris 2024 (new French parliament elections should not hinder Games) = Athletics (4: Moon stars at own vault invitational; Doom impressive in 44.15 400 m win at Euros; Netflix “Sprint” series to debut 2 July; three more Kenyan doping suspensions) = Figure Skating (2: Tennell and Liu back on ice for 2024-25 season; famed coach Carroll passes at 85) = Football (2: three Spanish fans sentenced to jail for racism; Berhalter sees 5-1 loss to Colombia as a wake-up call) = Swimming (world leads for Titmus and McKeown at Australian trials) ●
● Errata: A couple of errors on Monday. Houston’s Louis Hinchliffe won the 100 m with no second “c” in his name, and Elliott Cook’s runner-up time in the 1,500 m was 3:39.57, not 3:39.47. Thanks to Alan Mazursky and Olivier Bourgoin for the corrections! ●
● Schedule: Owing to a prior commitment, no post will appear on Wednesday. Back on Thursday! ●
1.
Salt Lake City details $4 billion budget for 2034 bid
After more than 100 revisions and incorporating data on each employee and hundreds of line items needed for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games found that its actual operating budget was … almost identical to what the 2002 Winter Games cost.
Yes, there’s a lot of math involved and valuations of costs out to 2034 dollars, but during a Monday briefing, the operating cost – that’s different than the total cost – of the 2034 Winter Games was projected at $2.83 billion, vs. $2.84 billion from the 2002 Games, recalculated for inflation to 2034.
The total cost is projected – again, in 2034 dollars, with roughly a 20% inflation factor added in – at $3.998 billion:
Revenues:
● $1.800 billion: domestic sponsorship
● $1.190 billion: tickets and hospitality
● $751 million: IOC contribution
● $200 million: licensing and merchandising
● $307 million: donations, disposal, other
● –$251 million: contingency
Expenses:
● $843 million: sponsorship revenue sharing
● $793 million: sports, services, operations
● $500 million: staff
● $430 million: administration, governance, sustainability
● $407 million: technology
● $374 million: communications, design, marketing
● $309 million: venue preparation
● $133 million: ceremonies and cultural programs
● $210 million: contingency
After netting out the $843 domestic sponsorship joint venture with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and some related expenses, the “core operations” budget is estimated at $2.83 billion.
The budget and the accompanying bid questionnaire responses note that there is no government subsidy at all, even for the Paralympic Games. And there is no venue construction required at all, even though the number of events has expanded from 78 events to 116.
People are a major expense component of the Games, but in order to keep expenses as low as possible, only a tiny staff is envisioned from 2024-28, perhaps only 10 people, to continue planning and maintain communications and discussions with stakeholders. In 2034, a projected 1,700 staff – plus thousands of volunteers – will be needed to operate the Games.
A separate joint sales team with the USOPC analogous to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties group now established for the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be created, but after the 2028 effort is completed and closed.
The International Olympic Committee Executive Board meets this week and is expected to accept a recommendation of its Winter Future Host Commission on Wednesday to submit the Salt Lake City-Utah candidature to the IOC Session in Paris for the formal award of the 2034 Winter Games.
2.
ISU shows $9.565 million loss for 2023 and more coming
“In the recent years, the ISU revenues have been stagnating, … and it is expected to go down unless we take bold measures today to improve our content. I know this because I have been talking to the existing commercial partners about their contracts. They want to pay us less once contracts expire in 2026 and 2027. So we have to act now to make our content more attractive.”
That’s International Skating Union President Jae Youl Kim (KOR) at the ISU Congress ongoing in Las Vegas, Nevada, campaigning for the adoption of a new vision for skating – figure, speed, short track and synchro – to be fully implemented by 2030.
He bemoaned ratings data from the U.S. (NBC) that while 1.6 million Americans watched the World Figure Skating Championships last March, only 2.4% were under age 35. Kim continued:
“Let’s be very open. Our fan base is aging. Unless we attract new, younger-generation fans, who’s going to come to our competitions 20 years from now, 30 years from now, after all of us retire? This thought keeps me up at night.”
The federation’s concerns also extended to the 2023 ISU financial statements, now available. For last year, ISU revenues – in Swiss francs: CHF 1 = $1.12 U.S. – remained steady at CHF 35.860 million vs. CHF 35.523 million in 2022. Operating expenses were up only slightly, to CHF 38.472 million from CHF 37.454 million in 2022.
So, the ISU had relatively modest operating losses both years at CHF 2.611 million for 2023 after CHF 1.930 million in 2022. But the federation took a pounding on the exchange rate between a stronger U.S. dollars that heavily impacted its CHF holdings.
With a loss of CHF 8.573 million on finances, the ISU lost CHF 11.097 million for the year ($12.380 million U.S.), which was down from CHF 19.069 million in 2022 ($21.273 million U.S.).
This was cushioned somewhat by a final television rights payment from the International Olympic Committee from the 2022 Winter Games of CHF 7.500 million, reducing the actual loss for 2023 to CHF 3.597 million ($4.013 million U.S.).
However, the ISU noted that as it receives most of its revenues in U.S. dollars and pays for most of its expanded in dollars, it will switch its functional currency “at the end of the current accounting period.”
Kim’s worrying announcement about future revenues is a call to action, although the ISU is quite financially healthy. Its statement show reserves at the end of 2023 of CHF 276.932 million, or about $308.943 million U.S. Nevertheless, the financial projections shown to delegates on Monday had operating deficits of between CHF 13.7 million and 17.2 million in each year of 2024-25-26-27-28-29! The planned turnaround in investment income would create a bottom-line surplus in 2029.
(A slide in U.S. dollars showed deficits of $15.7 million to $19.6 million over the same six years, with a $1 million net income, thanks to investments, in 2029.)
The ISU Congress will be considering multiple new concepts. One proposal is on lifting the ban on somersaults in figure skating. Possibly spectacular, such stunts could also be dangerous, and will any approvals be conditioned on the use of helmets as well?
3.
Kerley: “more to something than what meets the eyes”
Yes, the NCAA Track & Field Championships were great, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Noah Lyles were stars at the NYC Grand Prix on Sunday. But the buzz is about U.S. sprint star Fred Kerley.
The 2022 World 100 m Champion signed a sponsorship deal with ASICS in early 2023, and despite ASICS being a primary sponsor of the NYC Grand Prix, came to Icahn Stadium wearing Puma spikes.
His blocks slipped on the first start of the men’s 100 m, then he appeared to simply false start, but said the blocks slipped again. Then he walked away, and left the track, annoyed at the situation. He told reporters afterwards he left his ASICS spikes at the airport.
After the meet, Chris Chavez of Citius Magazine reported later a statement from ASICS: “ASICS and Fred Kerley have mutually parted ways and he is no longer an ASICS sponsored athlete. We wish him the best in his career.”
Kerley tweeted Monday, “there is more to something than what meets the eyes” and posted a video of himself running a sprint workout. What is going on here?
Former U.S. and Nigerian sprinter Rae Edwards of @RaesTake TV – a 10.00 man himself from 2010, and a two-time Pan Am Games relay bronze medalist – offered some answers.
● He replied to Chavez that Kerley and ASICS “had parted ways way before New York. Not after what happened today.”
● He explained that Kerley had been adamant that “He has not liked the spikes that ASICS has given him.” That’s at the core of what’s going on.
● And Edwards added this, as Kerley has walked away from what was reportedly a big contract with ASICS: “Fred is the first athlete that I know that has been on that level – the top level – to where, it’s ‘no, I’m going to do what I want to do.’”
Jonathon Gault of LetsRun.com posted Monday:
“FYI I asked Fred Kerley’s agent Ricky Simms yesterday about what kit/shoes he plans on wearing at the Olympic Trials. Here’s what he said:
“’He does not have a new sponsorship agreement. He is free to wear his choice of footwear and apparel for now.’”
Edwards emphasized that Kerley made a remarkable decision to leave his principal sponsor in what is truly an athlete’s-first choice … because the most important meet to him is coming up in two weeks – the Olympic Trials – and he’s not going to make the U.S. team with the spikes he was wearing.
Check out Kerley’s progression (and spikes) since he switched to the 100 m full-time in 2021:
● 2021: 9.84 ~ Olympic 100 m silver (Nike): 11/19 races sub-10
● 2022: 9.76 ~ World 100 m Champion (Nike): 9/10 races sub-10
● 2023: 9.88 ~ Worlds 100 m semifinalist (ASICS) 7/8 races sub-10
● 2024: 10.03 ~ World list no. 32 (ASICS): 0/4 races sub-10
Of his 10 fastest 100 m times, only one was with ASICS spikes – his 9.88 in Yokohama (JPN) in May 2023. The rest were in Nike spikes.
The first round of the men’s 100 m at the Trials will be on Saturday, 22 June, at 6:22 p.m. He has that long to get the right spikes and be ready. What a story!
4.
Not too many track & field fans in Eugene, or in Rome
The NCAA Track & Field Championships in Eugene were compelling and even spectacular in places, with lots of surprises and star performances from Mississippi’s McKenzie Long, Florida’s Parker Valby and many more … but not so many fans.
No official attendance figures were noted, but the 12,650-seat new Hayward Field – which was pretty much full for the Prefontaine Classic on 25 May, was at best perhaps 35-40% of capacity on the first two days, including the teams sitting in the stands.
For the final days for men and women on Friday and Saturday, it wasn’t much better, perhaps 45-50%? And everyone was crowded into the home straight, with the backstraight full of empty seats. There’s a good reason for that: if you’re sitting in front of the roofline, it’s pretty hot on that side.
Eugene has hosted 10 of the last 15 NCAA Track & Field Championships (2010-24) and will host 2025, 2026 and 2027. In the same period, it has also held the U.S. nationals (USATF) eight times and the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Add in the Pre Classic, and while Eugene is clearly “TrackTown USA,” it no longer supports the sport as strongly as it used to in terms of attendance. There are too many meets, and in 2024, the local choice has clearly been to go to the one-day Pre meet and then go to the U.S. Olympic Trials from 21-30 June. The NCAA was the odd-meet-out this year.
Whether that changes in the future is anyone’s guess, but what appears clear is that the community’s attachment to the new facility is not nearly as close as to the original, much more modest venue that opened in 1919.
¶
Eugene is not alone, and it may be worse in Rome, as the much-larger Stadio Olimpico appears to have about the same number of fans as Hayward Field … for the European Championships!
Veteran British observer Pat Butcher, in his “Globerunner” blog, noted last week:
“[T]he gulf between spectator and [TV] viewer will be emphasised even more, because there weren’t even 10,000 attendees in the revamped stadium which hosted the 1960 Olympic Games. And given that at least a thousand of those were knots of vocal foreign supporters, it’s worth asking ‘whither stadium athletics in future?’ at least for this event whose proximity to the Olympic Games in Paris has severely affected entries.”
He observed that the meet was (unusually) being shown on two Italian channels and wondered if this “suggests that some sports may be better confined to the box.”
The Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano – The Daily Fact – went further, with Lorenzo Vendemiale explaining in detail last Friday:
“As revealed by Il Fatto in recent days, just a few hours after the inauguration, just 80 thousand tickets were sold over six days of competitions, including those discounted or given away. We are stuck at 30-35% of availability.
“And we are talking about a capacity that has already been reduced from the usual 65,000 at the Olimpico to less than 40,000 seats, due to the needs of athletics (jumping platform, giant screens, technical and photographer area, etc.). The average is around 15 thousand spectators per day, but if we consider that Saturday evening with [Lamont Marcell] Jacobs‘ 100 meters will be almost sold-out, there will be sessions with 4-5 thousand present. It’s true that the numbers of athletics are certainly not those of football, but here you risk making a fool of yourself.”
His report further noted that this edition of the Europeans is being supported with €13 million in public funding (about $14.0 million U.S.), and that European Athletics chief executive Christian Milz (SUI) said in an email message seen by the newspaper that “To be honest with you, this is a disaster.”
After the pre-event sales were low – “either due to the marginal importance of the event itself or due to the lack of promotion” – tickets have been heavily discounted and “now the tickets are practically given away, with the initiative of 1 euro entry for students and teachers on the opening day, in a desperate attempt to fill the stands.”
Observed: This is what is heard increasingly from athletes, who see themselves more as performers, but too often without an audience to perform for. Their on-the-track excellence has not been matched by the promoters.
Butcher’s comments that track & field’s future may be a television sport and not an in-stadium spectator event is worth considering against the backdrop of the noisy crowd at 5,000-seat Icahn Stadium in New York for Sunday’s NYC Grand Prix.
There were stands only on one side, but there were repeated comments from the athletes about how they loved the noise.
5.
Sharp increase in early NCAA T&F Champs viewing
Although Hayward Field was hardly full for the NCAAs, the first two days saw a sharp increase in viewership compared with recent years.
Nielsen data for the men’s first day on Wednesday and women’s first day in Thursday – both on ESPN2 – totaled 597,000, way up from the first two days in 2023 (379,000, up 58%), in 2022 (312,000, up 91%) and 2021 (442,000, up 35%):
● 5 June (Wed.): 340,000 on ESPN2 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern
● 6 June (Thu.): 257,000 on ESPN2 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern
● 7 June (Fri.): not available yet (9 p.m. Eastern)
● 8 June (Sat.): not available yet (5:30 p.m. Eastern)
2023 in Austin: 948,000 combined total
● 7 June (Wed.): 152,000 on ESPN2
● 8 June (Thu.): 227,000 on ESPN2
● 9 June (Fri.): 176,000 on ESPN2
● 10 Jun. (Sat.): 393,000 on ESPN2
2022 in Eugene: 1,178,000 combined total
● 8 June (Wed.): 187,000 on ESPN2
● 9 June (Thu.): 125,000 on ESPN 2 (estimate)
● 10 Jun. (Fri.): 263,000 on ESPN2
● 11 Jun. (Sat.): 603,000 on ESPN
2021 in Eugene: 909,000 combined total
● 9 June (Wed.): 206,000 on ESPN2
● 10 Jun. (Thu.): 236,000 on ESPN2
● 11 Jun. (Fri.): 233,000 on ESPN2
● 12 Jun. (Sat.): 234,000 on ESPNU
Audience data for Friday and Saturday’s shows will be available later in the week.
≡ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
● Modern Pentathlon ● Two relay titles were decided on Monday at the UIPM Worlds in Zhengzhou (CHN), with Korea sweeping both the men’s and women’s Team relay.
Tokyo bronze medalist Woong-tae Jun and Chang-wan Seo teamed up in the men’s relay and dominated, winning in fencing, placing third in riding and second in swimming to pile up a big lead. They finished with the second-fastest Laser Run and won with 1,466 points to 1,442 for Ukraine’s Maksym Aharushev and Oleksandr Tovkai.
It’s Jun’s fourth Worlds relay gold, also in 2016-17-19, and his seventh overall!
Sun-woo Kim and Seung-min Seong were even stronger in the women’s relay, winning by 1,321 to 1,282 over Haydy Morsy and Amira Kandil of Egypt. Kim and Seong were second in fencing and riding, won the swimming and won the Laser Run for Korea’s first women’s relay victory; their best prior finish was third in 2022.
The 2024 Worlds will continue through the 16th.
≡ PANORAMA ≡
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● A sharp projected defeat for French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance Party in European Parliament elections caused him to dissolve the French Parliament on Sunday, with snap elections to be held on 30 June and 7 July, less than three weeks prior to the 26 July opening of the Olympic Games.
Macron’s Renaissance Party is projected to receive less than half of the 32% currently shown for the right-wing National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen. Macron, as President, was separately elected and will serve to 2027, so his role at the Games is assured.
On Monday, IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) voiced no concerns: “France is used to holding elections and they will do it once again. There will be a new parliament, a new government, and everybody will support the Olympic Games.”
Paris 2024 organizing committee chief Tony Estanguet, agreed, adding, “There have been a dozen elections since we became candidates to host the Olympics. Regardless of who is in charge, we have always been able to work with the political authorities.”
● Athletics ●/from Jill Jaracz of the Keep The Flame Alive podcast/The first Katie Moon Pole Vault Classic at Olmsted Falls (Ohio) High School was a success for her with about 2,800 people in attendance on Saturday – standing right on the field, next to the runway – and a win for Moon as well.
Moon, the reigning Olympic champion – and world leader at 4.85 m (15-11) – has been slowed by Achilles tendinosis, but came in at 4.53 m (14-10 1/4) and cleared on her second try. She won the event at 4.63 m (15-2 1/4) with a second-try clearance and made 4.73 m (15-6 1/4) on her first. She missed three times at 4.86 m (15-11 1/4).
Emily Grove was second at 4.58 m (15-0 1/4). Said Moon:
“Everything about this is a dream come true. My results never happen without this community and the support, so it’s just so meaningful to be here and to do it in front of them to show them what they helped create.”
Of her injury, Moon said she felt rusty, but more jumps are getting her ready for the Olympic Trials:
“It’s definitely not gone, but it is so much better. Each week it’s getting better and better, and so that, more than anything, I’m just so thrilled with. By the end in my last couple trips down the runway, I really started to feel more like myself in the run, and that’s all you can ask for.”
¶
At the European Championships in Rome, Belgium’s Alexander Doom confirmed himself as a medal contender for Paris with a runaway win in the men’s 400 m.
Doom won the World Indoor 400 m title in March over Norwegian 400 m hurdles superstar Karsten Warholm, and won his first outdoor European title in a sterling 44.15, now no. 4 on the 2024 world list. He was well clear of runner-up Charles Dobson (GBR), in a lifetime best of 44.38.
The men’s 200 m was more pedestrian, with Swiss Timothe Mumenthaler winning in 20.28 (wind: +0.8 m/s), ahead of Italian star Filippo Tortu (20.41). Three-time European Cross Country medalist Alexis Miellet got his first track medal, a win in the men’s Steeple in a lifetime best of 8:14.01, leading teammate Djilali Bedrani (8:14.36) for a 1-2 finish.
The women’s 400 m went to Polish star Natalia Kaczmarek, the 2023 Worlds silver medalist, in a season’s best 48.98, now no. 3 in 2024. Last year’s NCAA champ for Texas, Ireland’s Rashidat Adeleke got the silver in 49.07 – a national record – and Lieke Klaver (NED) took third in 50.08.
Swiss Angelica Moser, the 2021 Euro Indoor winner, won the women’s vault and moved to no. 3 on the 2024 world list at 4.78 m (15-8 1/4), turning back Rio 2016 Olympic gold medalist Katerina Stefanidi (GRE: 4.73 m/15-6 1/4).
Italy continued its fabulous meet with Sara Fantini’s win in the women’s hammer, reaching 74.18 m (243-4) on her fourth throw to move up from third in 2022. Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk, a four-time European champ, was second at 72.92 m (239-3), a seasonal best.
The Euros continue through Wednesday.
¶
The Netflix series “Sprint: The World’s Fastest Humans” will debut on 2 July and the trailer is now available. The series will highlight American stars Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson and others, across six episodes.
¶
Three more Kenyan provisional suspensions from the Athletics Integrity Unit: Sophy Jepchirchir for testosterone, and Judith Jerubet and Jackline Jeptanui for triamcinolone acetonide.
Jepchirchir, 30, was second in the women’s division of the Milano Marathon on 7 April in 2:27:12; Jerubet, 35, is a 2:25:54 marathoner from 2023, and Jeptanui, 38, has run 2:38:44 for the marathon in 2022.
● Figure Skating ● They’re back: two-time U.S. women’s champions Bradie Tennell and Alysia Liu are both now scheduled to be in action in the ISU Grand Prix Series this fall.
Tennell is slated to skate at Skate America (18-20 October) and the NHK Trophy in Tokyo (JPN) in November, while Liu is entered in Skate Canada from 25-27 October, and in Tokyo as well.
The other U.S. women’s entries include Isabeau Levito (Skate America and the Finlandia Trophy in November), Ava Marie Ziegler at Skate Canada and the Cup of China in November, Amber Glenn at the Grand Prix de France in November and the Cup of China, and Lindsay Thorngren at the NHK Trophy and Finlandia Trophy.
Tennell, 26, skated in the 2023 World Championships, but broke an ankle in training before the 2023-24 season. Liu, 18, announced her retirement on 9 April 2022, but posted an Instagram video in March saying she was returning to the ice.
¶
Sad news of the passing of legendary U.S. coach Frank Carroll, 85, on Sunday (9th), after a battle with cancer. He mentored multiple Olympic and Worlds medalists including Linda Fratianne, Michelle Kwan, Evan Lysacek, Tim Goebel and many more.
He began coaching in 1960; NBC Sports’ Nick Zaccardi noted, “He coached at least one skater at every Olympics from 1998 through 2018, the year he retired from coaching elite skaters.”
He is a member of both the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
● Football ● Three fans who racially abused Real Madrid striker Vinicius Junior (BRA) during a game at Valencia in May 2023 pled guilty and were sentenced to eight months in prison in the first racism-related convictions in Spain.
The Associated Press reported:
“The sentence found the defendants guilty of a crime against moral integrity with the aggravating circumstance of discrimination based on racist motives.
“The fans, who were sitting behind one of the goals at Mestalla [Stadium], made monkey gestures and sounds toward Vinícius, who immediately called attention of the referee and pointed to the fans in the stands. The Brazil forward had tears in his eyes as fans throughout the stadium continued to jeer him.”
The three fans, who were not identified, are also banned from entering football stadiums for two years and must pay court costs. The plea deal reduced their potential jeopardy from a full year in prison and three years away from stadia, after the defendants showed remorse, and read out an apology in court.
¶
Colombia’s 5-1 rout of the U.S. men’s team last Saturday was a wake-up call for the squad, according to coach Gregg Berhalter. Trailing only 2-1, the U.S. gave up three goals in the final 13 minutes, all on losses of possession in their own end. Said Berhalter:
“From the 75th minute on, it was I think a lack of respect for our opponent [and] the game of soccer, what we were doing. We’re not framing it a lesson learned, we’ll frame it as a wake-up call.”
He praised the U.S. effort to score a goal in the 58th to a cut 2-0 halftime deficit to 2-1, and noted that “we got back into the game, how we were aggressive, how we had them on their heels. They were struggling for a moment when it was 2-1, and we weren’t able to capitalize on it, and then the game went to pieces. There were some positive chunks of the game, but again, what I’m looking at right now, 5-1? It’s not good enough, that’s for sure.”
The U.S. plays Brazil on Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, in advance of the opening of the Copa America – being played in the U.S. this time – on 20 June.
● Swimming ● The Australian Olympic Trials have started in Brisbane, with world-record holder Ariarne Titmus putting everyone on notice in the women’s 400 m Free, winning in the second-fastest time ever, 3:55.44. That’s just 0.06 off of her 2023 world record.
Kaylee McKeown, the 100-200 m Olympic Back champion, took the world lead for 2024 in the 200 m Medley, winning in 2:06.63, making her the no. 3 performer of all time.
Sam Williamson won the 100 m Breast in 58.80, now no. 6 in the world for 2024. The Trials continue through Saturday.
¶
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