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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● It was fascinating to see the 10 June Senate Home Security & Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce and Regulatory Affairs hearing, in which U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over lawlessness related to demonstrations against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), telling LA28 organizing committee chief executive Reynold Hoover:
“The obvious question, I think, on the minds of most Americans, given that these two big events coming up in ‘26 [FIFA World Cup] and ‘28 [Olympic-Paralympic Games], are going to see basically the same political leadership in California, and L.A., don’t we just make a decision now to say they’re incapable of handling two big, high-profile events like this?
“And aren’t we better off as a nation just to make an acknowledgment of that, and move it to some place that actually will have law and order, that will have the proper amount of protections for American citizens and the tens of millions of visitors are going to come to both of those events?”
The demonstrations and violence in downtown Los Angeles has stopped, and a Change.org petition to move the 2028 Olympic Games started in April has attracted just three signatures.
More surprising, perhaps, is that Moreno should know better than to propose moving the 2028 Olympic Games somewhere else, since the contract to host the Games is with the City of Los Angeles?
Perhaps he can ask his older brother, Luis Alberto Moreno, a member of the International Olympic Committee for Colombia, and the former Colombian Ambassador to the U.S., who is also a member of the IOC’s Coordination Commission for the 2028 Olympic Games.
In case you were wondering, Luis Moreno was born in Philadelphia – to Colombian parents – in 1953, while Bernie Moreno was born in 1967, in Bogota (COL).
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Applications are open to try out to be a volunteer for the Olympic closing ceremony and the Paralympic opening ceremony, both in the historic Arena di Verona.
Auctions will be in the fall, in Verona, and rehearsals only in February 2025 for the Olympic closing on 22 February, and then in late February into March for the 6 March Paralympic opening. Experience is not required: “we are looking for enthusiasm, dedication and team spirit.”
● Pan American Games 2027: Lima ● The program for the 16 July-1 August 2027 Pan American Games was confirmed by Panam Sports, with 36 total sports – the same number as for the 2028 Los Angeles Games – but with some differences.
For the most part, the sports are the same, but the Pan Am program will include the non-Olympic sports of basque pelota, karate and water skiing.
The 2028 added Olympic sports of flag football and lacrosse were not included, but basketball – which has been in the Games continuously since the first edition in 1951, is not shown. The FIBA men’s World Cup, the federation’s showcase event, follows shortly after, from 27 August to 12 September in Doha (QAT). No such conflict for the women, however.
Other sports which were in the 2023 Pan Ams in Santiago (CHI) were bowling, breaking and racquetball, with National Olympic Committees now having to decide if these sports will continue to receive funding now that they are not in the Pan American or Olympic sports programs.
● World Games 2025: Chengdu ● A creative medals set for the 2025 World Games was revealed on Wednesday, shaped like a panda head with familiar, rounded ears! A set of bamboo motifs is on the front and the reverse features the hibiscus flower, the “city flower” of Chengdu.
The 2025 World Games is expected to host about 4,000 athletes from 120 countries, competing in 34 sports and 255 events.
● International Olympic Committee ● The IOC’s graphic listing its TOP sponsorship partners no longer lists chipmaker Intel.
The company, which joined TOP in 2017 and continued through the Paris 2024 Games, has been losing a ferocious battle for market share with competitors such as AMD, TSMC, Nvidia and others.
Any of those companies might be a replacement for Intel, but the IOC has been silent on the matter. Following Paris 2024, TOP partners Atos, Bridgestone, Panasonic and Toyota also declined to renew. The current IOC list shows 11 partners or partner groups, down from a high of 15 for 2024.
● Athletics ● The Norwegian state television network, NRK, asked athletes who were part of the Grand Track Slam circuit if they had been paid prize money yet, on the sidelines of the Diamond League Bislett Games last week.
No, said those quoted in the story, including U.S. distance stars Cooper Teare and Nico Young, and Kenya’s 800 m Olympic champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who said:
“I haven’t received my prize money yet, but it may be coming. Why should they not come, they have to pay us who participate. I’ll have to be patient and wait.”
Teare told NRK he was impressed with the program, “[I]t’s a fantastic event. So it’s a shame that [the Los Angeles Slam] has been cancelled, because the two I was at were good. I hope it comes back next year.”
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The Athletics Integrity Unit announced a ban handed down to French men’s 400 m hurdles star Wilfried Happio, 26, for 18 months for “whereabouts” failures. The suspension is from 30 January 2025 for reporting failures on 10 May 2024, 29 May 2024 and 17 October 2024. His results from 17 October 2024 are to be nullified, but his last race was on 14 September.
Happio finished fourth at the 2022 Worlds in Eugene and is a two-time Olympian, with a lifetime best of 47.41 from 2022.
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Sad news of the passing of coach, administrator and marketer Steve Miller, who passed away in Portland (Ore.) on 15 June, at 81. Brash and confident, Miller coached Cal Poly from 1976-81, winning five NCAA Division II team titles in cross country (2) and track & field (3). He went on to Kansas State, coaching there to 1987, then returning a year later to serve as athletic director for four years.
He then went to Nike in 1991 and rose to Director of Global Sports Marketing, leaving in 2000. Miller headed the Professional Bowlers Association for five years and finished his career as the head of Agassi Graf Holdings in Las Vegas. He was deeply involved with USA Track & Field, lastly as a board member beginning in 2009 and chair in 2015 into 2020.
● Boxing ● World Boxing, the new IOC-approved international federation for the sport, is up to 111 members, adding Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Indonesia, Romania and Trinidad & Tobago, meaning these five countries can compete in the federation’s first World Championships in September in Liverpool (ENG).
● Canoe-Kayak ● The International Testing Agency reported a four-year ban of Francisca Laia (POR), a three-time World Championships medal winner for the use of DHCMT, a “synthetic drug that mimics the activity of testosterone in the body and enhances muscle growth and strength.”
The positive came from a test during the 2024 ICF World Sprint Championships, and Laia agreed to a ban from 30 May 2025 to 29 May 2029, with her results nullified from 25 August 2024.
Laia won Worlds silvers in the Mixed K-2 200 m in 2021 and women’s K-2 200 m in 2024, and a bronze in the Mixed K-4 500 m in 2024.
● Cycling ● Not widely noticed globally, but a big deal in the cycling world was the Union Cycliste Internationale’s note last Thursday (12th) that the UCI Management Committee rejected the inclusion of the OneCycling program as part of the UCI World Tour and UCI Women’s World Tour, through 2028. The announcement noted:
“While welcoming the fact that road cycling is attracting new investors, the UCI Management Committee nevertheless unanimously decided, following the [Professional Cycling Council]’s vote in this direction, not to respond to the request, as it stands, to include the OneCycling project in the UCI Women’s WorldTour and UCI WorldTour calendars.
“The project, which had been developed by certain teams and organisers, in collaboration with a sports investment fund, was deemed incompatible with the governance and regulatory framework of the UCI as well as lacking sporting coherence. However, the UCI wishes, as do all cycling’s stakeholders, to continue discussions with the representatives of this project in order to collaborate on the internationalisation of the UCI Women’s WorldTour and UCI WorldTour calendars and the economic development of our sport.”
The OneCycling concept is a sort-of breakaway program of multiple racing teams and some races, funded by an arm of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, to bring more money into the sport and lessen the dominant position of the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), which stages the Tour de France and other races.
● Equestrian ● U.S. rider Kaitlin Campbell was suspended by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) for prohibited substances found in a test of her horse, Castlefield Cornelious during the FEI Coachella Cup in Thermal, California last December.
The stimulant Octopamine and corticosteroid Dexamethasone were found in the test, and the horse is suspended for two months. Campbell, who rode for the U.S. at the FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Switzerland, is suspended, with no end date specified.
● Football ● The U.S. men faced guest nation Saudi Arabia on Thursday in group play at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, in Austin, Texas, with both teams having won their opening matches.
The first half had very little offense, especially from the U.S., which had 72% possession but managed only two shots and got its first shot on goal in the 45th minute. The Saudis had two shots and had one that was saved by U.S. keeper Matthew Freese.
The American offense was better in the second half and after defender Chris Richards had a header saved in the 54th, he got the only goal of the game in the 63rd, as he got on the end of a perfect free kick by midfielder Sebastian Berhalter from outside the box to right in front of the goal, and tapped it in.
The U.S. ended with 67% of possession as the Saudis tried to find an equalizer, but the U.S. finished with five shots to three and 10 fouls to seven as the game became more and more physical. But it’s a win and on to the quarterfinals.
Both teams will finish Group D play on 22 June, with the U.S. playing Haiti in Arlington, Texas, while the Saudis will face Trinidad & Tobago in Las Vegas, Nevada.
● Ice Hockey ● Swiss forward Sven Andrighetto was named the men’s Player of the Year by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), receiving 34.6% of the vote, ahead of U.S. keeper Jeremy Swayman (18.6%), scoring ace David Pastrnak (CZE: 18.0%), Denis Malgin (SUI: 6.5%), American Clayton Keller (8.8%) and Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon (6.5%).
● Judo ● At the World Judo Championships in Budapest (HUN), South Korea’s Paris bronze medalist Ha-yun Kim scored her first Worlds gold, winning the women’s +78 kg class over Mao Arai of Japan, who won her first individual Worlds medal.
Russian Inal Tasoev won his second Worlds gold at +100 kg as a “neutral,” winning over 2018 World Champion and Paris 2024 runner-up Guram Tushishvili (GEO). With only the Mixed Team event left, Japan has 14 total medal and six golds to lead all nations.
● Swimming ● Impressive, world-leading performance on Thursday by France’s 2023 World Champion Maxime Grousset, winning the national championships men’s 100 m Butterfly in 50.11, a national record. It keeps him in sixth place on the all-time list, but makes him the leading contender for medals at the Worlds in Singapore next month.
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