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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● International Olympic Committee ● The “Coventry Cabinet” is under formation at the IOC, with three new directors announced on Monday:
● Jan Paterson (GBR), for many years at the British Olympic Association, is the Chief of Staff in the Executive Office of the IOC President, replacing Marcus Hausen (GER), in place since July 2021;
● James Pearce (GBR), a longtime BBC correspondent and communications professional, is the Chief Communications Advisor to the IOC President;
● Julien Baehni (SUI), the chief of human resources at UEFA, will join the IOC in January 2026 to succeed Xavier Tissieres (SUI) as Human Resources Director, as of the end of March 2026.
On 1 July, Pierre Ducrey (SUI) took over as IOC Sports Director, replacing Kit McConnell (NZL), who became the sports director for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizing committee.
● SportAccord ● After the cancellation of the 2025 SportAccord Convention slated for Istanbul (TUR) due to political unrest in the city, the next SportAccord has now been scheduled, for 24-28 May 2026 in Baku (AZE).
● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● The USOPC announced that William King is joining as General Counsel as of 15 October. He replaces the retired Chris McCleary, who had been in the role since 2015 and retired at the end of June.
King comes to the USOPC from the Southeastern Conference (SEC), where he served as Associate Commissioner for Legal Affairs and Compliance since 2015.
● Archery ● At the World Archery Championships in Gwangju (KOR), Nicolas Girard (FRA) won the men’s Compound title with a perfect 150-149 win over Mathias Fullerton (DEN). Korea’s Yong-hee Choi edged American Curtis Broadnax for the bronze, 146-145.
● Athletics ● With the World Athletics Championships starting Saturday in Tokyo (JPN), World Athletics and the International Fair Play Committee (CIFP) will accept fan nominations for the 2025 Fair Play Award in athletics.
The process to nominate an athlete or moment for the Fair Play Award is easy: send it by e-mail to [email protected]
A six-member jury, which includes CIFP President Sunil Sabharwal (USA) and 2024 winner Sander Skotheim (NOR) – will review the nominations from across the entire season to create a finalist list of five candidate moments, to be cut down to three for final voting.
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World Athletics announced that it has named Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt as its “Ultimate Legend” to help promote the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest (HUN) in September 2026.
● Cycling ● Although not Olympic events, the U.S. has scored three impressive wins at the ongoing UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Switzerland.
Keegan Swanson, a four-time Cross Country and Short Track national champion, took the Cross Country [125 km] Marathon title in 6:01:44.3 over Samuele Porro (ITA: 6:02:10.0) and 2018 World Cross Country champ Kate Courtney won the women’s Marathon gold in 7:10:11.1, well ahead of Swiss Anna Weinbeer (7:13:55.9).
A third gold came in the men’s Enduro class, with Richard Rude Jr. winning in 29:37.67 over Slawomir Lukasik (POL: +2.50). The championships continue this week with the Cross Country Olympic and Short Track racing.
● Swimming ● Following up on an earlier report of a settlement, World Aquatics provided more details on the conclusion of a 2018 suit in U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of California brought by three swimmers – Americans Tom Shields and Michael Andrew and Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu – against FINA, as the International Federation was known at the time.
The action involved threats by FINA against a meet to be held in Turin (ITA) in December 2018, with the same organizers creating the International Swimming League that took place in 2019, 2020 and 2021. ISL stopped functioning after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but it also filed suit against FINA, in an action which is still alive.
FINA rescinded its ineligibility threats and allowed the ISL project to proceed in 2019, but the suit continued; now, however, subject to court approval:
“Through this settlement, World Aquatics is setting up a fund of $4.6 million that will be distributed to swimmers who signed contracts to compete at the International Swimming League (ISL) event in Turin in 2018 and in the 2019 ISL season. The settlement fund will ensure swimmers are more than fully compensated following the 2018 and 2019 ISL seasons.”
● Tennis ● Olympic super-statistician Dr. Bill Mallon shared a Grand Slam men’s winner’s chart posted on X and noted that while the recent dominance of Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) and Jannik Sinner (ITA) is impressive, it’s hardly new:
“While the last 2 years for Sincaraz has been impressive, note that from 2005-09, Fedalovic [Federer-Nadal-Djokovic] won 18 consecutive majors.”
Sinner also made all four Grand Slam finals in 2025, the fourth to do it in the Open Era after Rod Laver (AUS: 1969, the only one to win all four), Federer (SUI: 2006-07-09) and Djokovic (SRB: 2015-21-23).
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