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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● The 2028 Paralympic races will be all finished when the closing ceremony concludes at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 27 August. But there will be another race that will start even before that ceremony begins.
That will be the re-conversion of the Coliseum back to football for the 2028 USC season, that will start with the removal of all of the track & field equipment and then the track itself!
The original track that was installed in the Coliseum from its opening in 1923 and refurbished many times up to the 1984 Olympic Games was completely removed in 1993 for the Los Angeles Raiders of the NFL, who installed 14 rows of seats closer to the field. For 2028, a raised floor will be installed for the Games.
TSX reader Brian Springer, part of the 1984 Olympic track & field management team, recalled:
“I remember in ‘84 after the closing T&F session and we were removing equipment from the field that at the same time the crew was laying plywood for the equipment to get ready for the transition for the closing ceremonies. The tunnel was full of activity. …
“[T]there will have to be some very fast work done to remove the track platform and restore the football field as the football season for USC will be on then. I’ll bet some 24-hour shifts will be employed there.”
USC’s schedule for 2028 shows a home game against Fresno State on 9 September, just 13 days after the Paralympic closing. That will be a race against time!
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California State Senate leader Mike McGuire (D-North Coast) announced a special committee on international sporting events, to ensure “the state’s preparedness to host both the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics.”
There will be 11 members, with 10 Democrats and one Republican (Democrats control 30 seats to 10 for Republicans in the Senate). In terms of actions, “The Senate Special Committee will be holding a series of hearings in the coming months.”
Like the City of Los Angeles, the State of California also has budget challenges; the Legislative Analyst’s Office review of the 2024-25 budget noted, “in addition to the $68 billion budget problem we have identified for 2024-25, the state faces annual operating deficits of around $30 billion per year.”
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● The President of the International Ice Hockey Federation, Luc Tardif (FRA), confirmed once again that the decision of whether Russia can play in 2026 is up to the International Olympic Committee. He told SVT Sweden:
“The individual sports federations organize competitions and set the qualification rules. But the IIHF will not try to keep the Russian team out if the IOC recommends that Russians participate in team sports.
“They are going through a process of changing their president. But we had a meeting with them recently and I am pretty sure we will have clear recommendations from the IOC at the end of May or beginning of June.”
The IOC has asked the International Federations to maintain a ban on national teams from Russia and Belarus since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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The diplomatic side of the Olympic Winter Games was on display in Stockholm (SWE) for the latest stop of the fifth of seven stops on its International Roadshow, explained Marco Rago, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation:
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has launched a structured line of initiatives focused on sports diplomacy, with the aim of promoting sport as a tool to project Italy’s image abroad.
“In 2026, the eyes of the world will be on Italy, and the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be an extraordinary showcase to display our cultural, technological, and environmental excellence, as well as a means to strengthen cooperation and dialogue with other countries.”
The tour started with programs in Munich (GER), then Paris (FRA), New York and Oslo (NOR) and will finish in June in Seoul (KOR) and Beijing (CHN).
● Russia ● “Whereabouts” violations are on the rise in Russia, with 34 incidents in April 2025 according to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency. Prior months this year had 25-18-21 from January to March; the total is 98 for the year through four months.
Prior year totals were 375 in 2022, 242 in 2023 and 282 in 2024.
● Athletics ● Superstar U.S. hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has confirmed that she will run the 100 m hurdles and 100 m – the “short hurdles” group – in the next Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia from 30 May to 1 June.
She has dominated the long hurdles group in the first two meets, winning both races (400 hurdles and 400 m) both times, including a world-leading 52.07 in the hurdles in Miramar on 3 May and a 49.69 400 m there, now no. 5 on the world list for 2025.
McLaughlin-Levrone is no slouch in the 100 m hurdles, with a best of 12.65 from 2021 and she’s only run the event in six meets since high school. She hasn’t run a 100 m since 2018, when she clocked a wind-aided 11.07 at age 18!
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Grand Slam Track also announced some of the Challengers for the Philadelphia meet, with two-time World Champion Danielle Williams (JAM) and 2025 World Indoor 60 m hurdles runner-up Dita Kambundji (SUI) to join the short hurdles field.
Paris Olympic women’s 200 m champ Gabby Thomas will run in the short sprints again.
In the men’s short hurdles, Miami Slam winner Trey Cunningham will be back, and world leader Cordell Tinch of the U.S. (12.87) will compete for the first time in the series, along with Lorenzo Simonelli (ITA: 2024 European Champion) and Jakub Szymanski (SUI), the 2025 European Indoor winner.
The Philadelphia Slam will be on 30-31 May and 1 June.
● Boxing ● Aaron Waldron, the 2024 U.S. national champion at 154 lbs., was suspended for three years, per the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency:
“Waldon, 24, tested positive for GW1516 sulfoxide, a metabolite of GW1516 (also known as GW501516, cardarine and endurobol) as the result of a urine sample collected at the 2024 USA Boxing National Championships on December 21, 2024. GW1516 and its metabolites are Prohibited Substances in the class of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators. They are prohibited at all times.”
Waldron defeated Carlos Flowers, 3:2, in the Super Welter final on 24 December, but is now disqualified. His suspension started on 9 January 2025, meaning he will be eligible to compete for the U.S. team for the 2028 Olympic Games.
● Canoe-Kayak ● The International Canoe Federation announced a world-rankings system for its sprint disciplines: men’s and women’s canoe and men’s and women’s kayak.
Results from ranking competitions will earn points, with a maximum of five events per year, with the best-five results included. This is important because:
“From 2026, it is also set to provide an avenue for athletes to secure their place at the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 under the revamped qualification process currently being drawn up by the ICF.”
However, don’t look for real-time point totals, as “The World Ranking tables will be updated and published within five days of the conclusion of each ranking competition.”
Points will be fractionalized for events with two or more competitors in the same boat (C-2, C-4, K-2, K-4).
● Football ● To the surprise of no one, the FIFA Council agreed to expand the 2031 Women’s World Cup from 32 teams in 2027 to 48 teams, a la the men’s World Cup expansion for 2026:
“The 48-team FIFA Women’s World Cup will adopt a 12-group format, increasing the total number of matches from 64 to 104 and extending the tournament by one week. The hosting requirements for the 2031 and 2035 editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup have been adapted accordingly.”
It is not a coincidence that the 2026 (men’s) World Cup and the 2031 Women’s World Cup will both be – all or part – in the United States, which has dozens of stadiums which could be used and has become the largest single-nation football market in the world for international championship events. Also:
“The FIFA Council equally approved the FIFA Strategy for Action for Afghan Women’s Football, which foresees the establishment of the Afghan women’s refugee team (AWRT) and provides the FIFA administration with a mandate to organise and facilitate its operations to start its activities as soon as possible.”
● Gymnastics ● In its summary of the 10 May meeting of the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique Council in Malta, it was noted that there was no interest in hosting the federation’s main events for 2029:
“2029 World Championships in Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline Gymnastics and the 2029 Junior World Championships in Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics and Rhythmic Gymnastics.
“In the absence of any bids for these events, the FIG Council delegated the authority to the FIG Executive Committee to allocate these events.”
Also no bidders for the 2026 FIG Council meeting. Interesting.
● Nordic Combined ● Still under threat to be removed from future Olympic Winter Games programs, the FIS Nordic Combined committee met on 8 May and approved the first ski-flying World Cup for men, to take place at Kulm (AUT) off the 235 m hill.
It’s a more spectacular event off the giant slope, to be part of an Individual Compact competition, with a 7.5 km cross-country race to follow the jumping. It will be the first World Cup to follow the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
More large-hill events for women were also approved and prize money will be equalized for men and women at CHF 1,500 per event (~$1,804 U.S.), distributed to the top three finishers only.
≡ RESULTS ≡
● Archery ● Paris 2024 men’s gold medalist Woo-jin Kim (KOR) won the men’s Recurve class at the World Archery World Cup II in Shanghai (CHN), defeating Mexico’s Matias Grande in the final, 7-1. Korea also won the team title over France, with the U.S. third.
Korea’s Gah-yun Lee won the women’s Recurve final, upsetting Paris Olympic winner, Si-yeon Lim, 6-2. Korea swept the women’s team title as well, defeating China, 6-2.
Dutch star Mike Schloesser, the 2013 World Compound champ, won his final, 147-144 over Yong-hee Choi (KOR), and Madhura Dhamangaonkar (IND) edged American Carson Krahe, 139-138, in the women’s final. India won the men’s team final and Mexico won the women’s.
Korea won the Recurve Mixed Team event, 6-2, over China while Britain won the Compound Mixed Team final, a new event for 2028, by 156-153 over Turkey.
● Athletics ● Two world-leading performances at the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meet, the “What Gravity Challenge” in Doha (QAT), with host star and Tokyo Olympic co-champ Mutaz Essa Barshim becoming the third man to clear 2.31 m (7-7) this season.
Korean Sang-hyeok Woo, the 2022 Worlds runner-up, cleared the same height for second – the fourth this outdoor season – and American 2023 Worlds runner-up JuVaughn Harrison was third at 2.28 m (7-5 3/4).
Olympic women’s champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) cleared a world-leading 2.02 m (6-7 1/2) to win, ahead of 2022 World Champion Eleanor Patterson (AUS: 1.96 m/6-5), and fellow Ukrainian Yulia Levchenko in third at 1.94 m (6-4 1/4).
The event had a $77,000 prize pool per gender ($154,000 total),
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Fred Kerley, the 2022 World men’s 100 m champion and arrested twice in south Florida in 2025 for altercations with police and ex-girlfriend, hurdler Alaysha Johnson, must love turmoil. Having run poorly (10.30) in his only Grand Slam Track race in Jamaica on 4 April, he was much better at Azusa Pacific University in southern California, winning his heat in 9.95w (+2.3 m/s) and his semifinal in 9.87w (+2.9) on Friday and the final on Saturday in 9.98 (+1.8), moving to no. 7 in the world for 2025.
He skipped the Miramar Grand Slam, will he be in Philadelphia at the end of the month?
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Two national records – subject to ratification, of course – at the USATF National 25 km Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of the Amway River Bank Run.
BYU’s Casey Clinger, the USATF 5 km road runner-up this year, broke away in the final stages of the race to win in 1:12:17, ahead of veteran U.S. Olympic stars Joe Klecker (1:12:32) and Hillary Bor (1:12:53), who had been with him at the half-marathon mark (21.1 km) in 1:01:04.
Clinger’s time is quite a bit faster than the American Record of 1:13:08 by Diego Estrada in the 2024 race and is his first national title.
The women’s race was won by 2025 U.S. Cross Country champion Carrie Ellwood, who took off after the 15 km mark and won easily, in 1:22:27, also ahead of the U.S. record set in this race in 2024 by Betsy Saina of 1:22:32.
Megan Hasz (1:23:52) and Kasandra Parker (1:24:26) finished 2-3.
● Cycling ● The 108th Giro d’Italia began in Durres (ALB) on Friday with a 160 km route with three moderate climbs that came down to a final sprint, won by Denmark’s 2019 World Champion Mads Pedersen in 3:36:24, ahead of Belgium’s Wout van Aert and Orluis Aular (VEN). The first 36 riders received the same time.
The second stage was an Individual Time Trial, won by Joshua Tarling (GBR) over 13.7 km, and ahead of Slovenian star (and 2023 winner) Primoz Roglic, 16:07.86 to 16:08.10. Australia’s Jay Vine was third (+2.66 seconds).
Sunday’s 160 km third stage also had three climbs and a flat finish, turning into another mass sprint, won again by Pedersen in 3:49:47 over Corbin Strong (NZL) and Aular with the first 85 riders given the same time. Pedersen leads the overall race by nine seconds over Roglic.
There is a travel day on Monday before resuming the race in Italy on Tuesday.
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Defending champion Demi Vollering (NED) took the race lead on the uphill-finishing fifth stage and stayed in front to win the 11th Vuelta Espana Femenina on Saturday in 19:41:32, some 1:01 ahead of Swiss Marlen Reusser and 1:16 up on fellow Dutch star Anna van der Breggen.
Vollering has now won medals in this race four times running, third in 2022, second in 2023 and now two wins. She took not only stage five, but also the final stage seven – the other climbing stage – to post her final victory margin.
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Italian Vittoria Bussi, 38, set her third career world record in the women’s one-hour on Saturday with 50.455 km (31.35 miles) the Velodromo Bicentenario in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
She had previously set records in 2018 (48.007 km) and 2023 (50.267 km), but smashed her own mark in a specially-arranged event by Swiss timing company Tissot.
● Fencing ● The FIE Epee Grand Prix in Bogota (COL) saw Japan’s Akira Komata defeat 2023 Worlds bronzer Ruslan Kurbanov (KAZ), 15-10, for Komata’s first career Grand Prix gold.
Italy’s Giulia Rizzi, a Paris 2024 Olympic Team gold winner, took the women’s title with a 15-11 win over American Hadley Husisian. Fellow American Catherine Nixon won one of the two bronze medals.
● Gymnastics ● At the first FIG Artistic World Challenge Cup of the season, in Varna (BUL), 20-year-old Ruby Stacey (GBR: 13.333) won the women’s Vault and Nola Mathews of the U.S. took the Uneven Bars (13.300) over Stacey (13.033).
On Sunday, Matthews followed up with a 13.300 win on Floor, and was fifth on Beam (12.366), won by Marianna Kiniuk (UKR: 12.866).
The men’s winners first-day winners included Eddie Penev (BUL: 13.900) on Floor, Ngoc Xuan Thien Dang (VIE: 14.266), and Turkey’s 2022 World Champion Adem Asil on Rings (14.100). On Sunday, Chinese Taipei’s Wei-Sheng Tseng won on Vault (14.183), Tokyo Olympic bronzer Ferhat Arican (TUR: 14.300) took the title on Parallel Bars, and Robert Tvorogal (LTU: 14.233) on Horizontal Bar.
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At the FIG Rhythmic World Cup in Portimao (POR), Belarus’ Alina Harnasko, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic All-Around bronzer, won with 115.250 points, over American Rin Keys (110.550). Megan Chu of the U.S. scored 106.150 for sixth.
Harnasko swept the apparatus finals, winning Hoop at 29.250 with Chu third (28.100), then on Ball (27.950) with Keys second (27.300) and Chu sixth (26.300), on Clubs at 29.100 with keys second at 28.450, and on Ribbon at 27.000, with Keys fourth (26.650).
● Ice Hockey ● the 2025 IIHF men’s World Championship is on in Herning, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden, with Sweden and Canada both 2-0 in Group A, and the U.S. and Germany both 2-0 in Group B. Group play will continue through the 20th.
The U.S. won their games by 5-0 over Denmark and 7-1 against Latvia.
● Judo ● Russian and Korean fighters each won three classes at the IJF World Tour Grand Slam in Astana (KAZ), with Paris Olympic bronze medalist Joon-hwan Lee taking the men’s 81 kg class by beating two-time Olympic champ Takanori Nagase (JPN) in the final.
● Modern Pentathlon ● At the UIPM World Cup III in Pazardzhik (BUL), Italy finished 1-2 in the men’s final, with Paris Olympic bronzer Giorgio Malan starting 14 seconds behind on the Laser Run, but crossing first, scoring 1.568 points. Teammate Matteo Cicinelli, the Cairo World Cup winner, started sixth but had the third-fastest Laser Run to move up to second (1,562).
Egyptian sensation Farida Khalil, 14, got her second World Cup of the season in the women’s final, winning on obstacle and in swimming and scoring 1,485 points for a clear win over Paris bronze medalist Seung-min Seong (KOR: 1,466) and fellow Egyptian Malak Ismail (1,453).
● Shooting ● At the ISSF World Cup for Shotgun in Nicosia (CYP), Spain’s 45-year-old Manuel Murcia won the men’s Trap final, 45-44, over Yannick Peeters (BEL), Italy’s 2018 World Junior champ Elia Sdruccioli took the Skeet title, 55-52 against 44-year-old Jesper Hansen (DEN), the Tokyo Olympic runner-up.
Russian “neutral” Lada Denisova won the women’s Trap final, 37-36, over Carey Garrison of the U.S. and Russian Arina Kuznetsova won the Skeet final with 54 hits to 52 for American Sam Simonton, the 2022 Worlds bronze medalist.
China won the Trap Mixed Team final, 42-39, over Poland.
● Wrestling ● The U.S. made a powerful showing at the Pan American Championships in Monterrey (MEX), taking all three team titles – men’s and women’s Freestyle and Greco-Roman – and 18 individual golds.
The American men’s Freestyle squad won three early classes, with Jax Forrest (61 kg), Ladarion Lockett (74 kg) and Zahid Valencia (86 kg), then four more on Sunday: Evan Wick (79 kg), Trent Hidlay (92 kg), Justin Rademacher (97 kg) and Wyatt Hendrickson (125 kg).
In the Greco-Roman finals, the U.S. earned six class titles at 55 kg (Jayden Raney), 60 kg (Maxwell Black), 72 kg (Alejandro Sancho), 77 kg (Kamal Bey), 82 kg (Beka Melelashvili) and 87 kg (Payton Jacobson). Cuba won three titles, including Tokyo Olympic champ Luis Orta at 67 kg and four-time Worlds medalist Oscar Pino at 130 kg, beating Cohlton Schultz of the U.S. in the final.
The women’s classes saw five American wins by Audrey Jimenez (50 kg), two-time Worlds medalist Macey Kilty (65 kg). Olympic silver winner Kennedy Blades (68 kg), Tiffany Baublitz (72 kg) and Worlds bronze winner Kylie Welker (76 kg).
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