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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) told the British news site The Guardian:
“I want to see more events out of the stadium. I had this discussion with the new IOC sports director, Pierre Ducrey [SUI], the other day, and I said: ‘Look, we are very open to this.’
“We wanted to see more of our events outside of the stadium in Paris. They were keen at first, and then, I think they looked at the cost and all sorts of things. But if you do it properly, I think it’s additive, I really do. And I know L.A. is more open to taking some of our disciplines outside of the stadium.”
In general, field events have been the prime out-of-stadium candidates, especially those that can be set up in a close-in environment, such as the pole vault, long jump, triple jump and shot put. Costs will be a concern, however, another possible choice is to create a smaller facility of perhaps 10-20,000 seats around a tight infield – or use an indoor arena – that would bring spectators close … and allow for the sale of thousands of additional seats (!!!) for the events.
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● Coe is also, in concert with UCI President David Lappartient (FRA), leading the charge with the International Olympic Committee to add traditional winter sports that are now held on snow or ice, to the Winter Games.
The top candidates would be cross country running and cyclo-cross; Coe told The Guardian:
“I think there’s a good chance it’ll happen. And I think it’s come at the right moment, because [IOC President] Kirsty [Coventry (ZIM)] is certainly prepared to think differently about the programme, and what could go out of the stadium, and that mix between winter and summer. …
“I’ve always wanted to see cross-country back in for all sorts of reasons. Some are emotional. But it also gives Africa a proper presence in the winter Games, which, if we are being honest, it doesn’t really have.
“And sharing the same course in 2030 with cyclocross is really where our thinking is going. We’ve already had good conversations.
“David’s up for it. I’m up for it. Obviously with the IOC there would have to be a variation in the Charter, because it has to be with snow and ice, and there’s not been an obvious abundance of that recently. But it is, ostensibly, a winter sport, and cross-country would make more sense in the winter.”
This is being looked at by Coventry’s new IOC working group on the program of future Olympic and Winter Games; Coe thinks a position decision could come in a year or so.
● Anti-Doping ● The World Anti-Doping Agency announced Friday that despite the WADA Executive Committee’s 25 September decision to move the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) to non-compliant status … has been postponed.
Citing “significant and demonstrable progress was made by ADAK, including the development of a corrective action plan outlining how it intends to address, within a four-month period, the outstanding critical requirements identified through the [May 2024] audit,” WADA’s management has sent the situation back to the Compliance Review Committee “for further consideration.”
Kenya leads all countries with a staggering 142 ineligible persons on the Athletics Integrity Unit’s global list, but has only one person (in a different sport) on the International Testing Agency list of ineligibles (ITA does not do athletics testing). The WADA decision is essentially creating some breathing space for ADAK to correct its (undisclosed) issues.
● Memorabilia ● Teresa Edwards was a four-time Olympic gold medalist in women’s basketball, as a member of the 1984-88-96-2000 U.S. teams and also won a 1992 Olympic bronze.
Now 61, Edwards is offering her first gold – Los Angeles 1984 – at auction with the Heritage Auctions Fall Sports Auction, which will close from 24-26 October (in stages). The medal itself shows some oxidation, but it is otherwise in good shape and is estimated to bring $40,000.
● Television ● “Later this fall, NBCUniversal will be launching the new NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), which will be available on YouTube TV, allowing fans to enjoy a broad range of NBCUniversal’s robust sports programming. NBCSN will complement the prominent sports properties presented year-round on the NBC broadcast network.”
The old NBCSN was on from 2012-21, and was the home of a lot of Olympic sports coverage, which went to CNBC and USA Network in recent years (in far diminished quantity). However, with Comcast placing CNBC, USA, E!, MSNBC, Golf Channel and others into a separate company – Versant – those options are no longer available.
Thus the new NBCSN. No further details were announced as to programming.
● American Football ● “We’re committed to creating a women’s professional league, and a men’s professional flag league. We’ve had a great deal of interest in that and I expect that we’ll be able to do that, launch that, in the next couple of years.
“The demand is there. We’re seeing colleges in the states and universities internationally also that want to make it a part of their program.
“If you set that structure up where there’s youth leagues, going into high school, into college and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That’s an important infrastructure that we need to create.”
That’s NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking last week at the Leaders in Sport conference in London, underscoring the leverage provided by having flag football as a first-time medal sport at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
It’s the best opportunity the NFL has ever had to have women as full-fledged players and to have football in the spring and summer, after the NFL season concludes with the Super Bowl in early February.
● Cross Country Skiing ● American star Jessie Diggins will retire at the end of this coming season, according to Simon Caprini (FRA), the FIS Cross Country Race Director.
He told the “Nouvelles Traces” podcast that the March 2026 season-ending races in Lake Placid, New York, would be her last as a competitive skier, although Diggins has not said so herself.
Now 34, to say that Diggins is the greatest U.S. cross-country skier ever is simply obvious. She and Kikkan Randall won the first-ever U.S. Olympic gold in the sport at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games in the Team Sprint and Diggins won an Olympic silver in the 2022 women’s 30 km Freestyle and a bronze in the women’s Sprint. Even more impressively, she won the FIS women’s World Cup seasonal titles in 2021, 2024 and 2025 and could do so again in 2026.
● Football ● FIFA began selling tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday, with tickets reported to be priced from $60 up to $2,735 for group-stage matches. Tickets for the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey were priced at $2,030-2,790-4,210-6,370.
Who plays who and where won’t be known until after the Final Draw on 5 December in Washington, D.C.
≡ RESULTS ≡
● Bobsled & Skeleton ● At the USA Bobsled & Skeleton Push Championships for Skeleton in Lake Placid, New York, the 2025 Worlds women’s runner-up Mystique Ro won the women’s competition with a two-test total of 10.281 seconds, ahead of Sara Roderick (10.447).
The men’s winner was Andy Whittier (9.500), beating R.J. Tenn (9.525) and Austin Florian (9.557).
● Canoe-Kayak ● France and Poland were the big winners of the individual finals at the ICF Slalom World Championships in Penrith (AUS).
Olympic champ Nicolas Gestin (FRA) won the men’s C-1 title in 97.13, ahead of 2018 Worlds runner-up Ryan Westley (GBR: 98.03) and Kaylen Bassett (AUS: 98.74). France won again with 2024 Olympic runner-up Titouan Castwyck in the men’s K-1 at 90.81, with Czech star Jakub Krejci (92.27) and Tokyo 2020 winners Jiri Prskavec (92.34) going 2-3.
Joseph Clarke (GBR), the 2016 Rio K-1 gold medalist, took the Kayak Cross title, beating Mathurin Madore (FRA) and Matyas Novak (CZE).
Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska won both the women’s C-1 and K-1 titles, the first time since Jessica Fox (AUS) did it in 2018. She won the C-1 in 108.49, with American Evy Leibfarth in fourth (113.09), just behind bronze winner Ana Satila (BRA: 112.98/2 penalties). She won the K-1 from Olympic bronzer Kimberley Woods (GBR) and Kate Eckhardt (AUS). Leibfarth was ninth.
France’s Olympic silver medalist Angele Hug won the Kayak Cross, ahead of teammate Camille Prigent (FRA: 2023 silver winner) and Zwolinska.
● Cycling ● The next-to-last stage of the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Series was in Lake Placid, New York, with a big weekend for American home favorite Christopher Blevins.
The 2021 World Short Track champion, he won his sixth Short Track men’s race of the season in 21:37, out-leaning French riders Adrien Boichis (21:37) and Mathis Azzaro (21:38) on Friday.
He came back on Sunday to get his third Cross Country Olympic win of the season, finishing in 1:19:54 in a blur at the line to beat Boichis (also 1:19:54) and Mathis Azzaro (FRA: 1:19:56).
It was pretty much the same story in the women’s races.
Rio 2016 Cross Country gold medalist Jenny Rissveds (SWE) won the women’s Short Track race over 2021 World XCO champion Evie Richards (GBR), 21:22 to 21:24. Kate Courtney of the U.S., the 2018 World Champion, was the top American, in seventh (21:34).
On Sunday, Rissveds took the Cross Country Olympic win by 1:20:15 to 1:22:31 over Richards, with Samara Maxwell (NZL: 1:22:46) in third.
In the men’s Downhill, Luke Meier-Smith (AUS) won a tight race from American Luca Shaw, 3:05.946 to 3:06.659. Four-time World Champion Valentina Hoell (AUT) took the women’s race in 3:30.422, clearly ahead of two-time Worlds winner Myriam Nicole (FRA: 3:33.237).
● Football ● Pool play at the FIFA men’s U-20 World Cup in Chile finished on Sunday, with 16 teams advancing to the playoffs. The group winners included undefeated Japan (3-0) and Argentina, with the U.S. advancing at 2-1 as the winner out of Group E.
The round-of-16 playoffs will be on 7-8-9 October, with the quarters on 11-12 October. The Americans will face Italy (1-1-1), the Group D runner-up, on the 9th.
● Gymnastics ● The U.S. scored two wins at the FIG Trampoline World Cup in Antibes (FRA), with four-time Worlds gold medalist Ruben Padilla and 2023 World Team gold winner Aliaksei Shostak going 1-2 in the men’s final at 62.200 and 60.910. Then Padilla teamed with Ryan MacCagnan to win the men’s Synchro title at 52.580.
Japan’s Yuka Misawa won the women’s individual gold at 55.870 over Madaline Davidson (NZL: 55.800). Canada’s Sarah Milette and Paris bronzer Sophiane Methot won the women’s Synchro at 50.230.
● Sailing ● At the Formula Kite World Championships off Quartu Sant’Elena, Sardinia (ITA), Sunday’s medal races, the full-regatta leaders were rewarded with world titles.
The men’s leader through the qualifying and finals stages was Riccardo Pianosi (ITA), with a net of 39.0, trailed by two-time defending champ Maximilian Maeder (SGP: 40.4) and Gian Strangiotti (SUI: 49.0). That earned him a one-win marker in the finals against three challengers who made through a playoff, and in the first final race, Pianosi won over Maeder and collected the men’s gold.
It was his first win after a bronze in 2021 and silver in 2024. Maeder has now won a medal in four straight Worlds.
Jessie Kampman (FRA) completed the prelims and finals series with a net of just 24.0 points, to 51.0 for defending champ Lauriane Nolot (FRA) and 79.0 for Swiss Elena Lengwiler. In the final, seven-time champion Daniela Moroz of the U.S. won the first race, with Kampman third, but Kampman came back to win the second race and claim her first Worlds medal. Moroz was second and Nolot finished third.
● Table Tennis ● China swept all five titles at the World Table Tennis China Smash in Beijing (CHN), with World Champion Chuqin Wang defeating Paris Olympic bronze winner Felix Lebrun (FRA) by 11-7, 11-2, 11-5, 11-7 for a 4-0 sweep in the men’s final.
Manyu Wang, the 2021 World Champion, took the women’s title over top-seed and two-time World Champion Yingsha Sun, 4-2 (10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 11-2).
The all-China men’s Doubles final was won by Shidong Lin and Chuqin Wang by 3-0 over Qihao Zhu and Junsong Chen. Top-seeded Man Kuai and Manyu Wang won the women’s Doubles from Hina Hayata (JPN) and Cheon-hui Joo (KOR), 3-1, and Chuqin Wang and Sun took the Mixed Doubles over Youzheng Huang and Yi Chen (CHN), 3-0.
● Weightlifting ● North Korea is once again dominating the early weights at the IWF World Championships, ongoing in Forde (NOR), taking all four women’s weight classes with the same lifters who won in 2024!.
Defending World Champion Song-gum Ri repeated in the women’s 48 kg class, winning with a world record of 213 kg for the snatch and the clean & jerk. Hyon-gyong Kang repeated as winner of the 53 kg class (214 kg total), defender Il-gyong Kim won at 58 kg with a world record 236 kg combined, and Suk Ri dominated – for the second consecutive year – at 63 kg, also with a world record of 253 kg.
The three men’s classes so far have been competitive. Paris Olympic champ Hao Wang (CHN) won the 60 kg crown at 302 kg, his first Worlds medal. Muhammad Ozbek (TUR) claimed a world record of 324 kg combined to win the 65 kg gold, with American Hampton Morris – the Olympic third-placer in Paris – scoring bronze again at 311 kg.
Weeraphon Wichuma (THA) claimed the world record in the clean & jerk at 71 kg and powered to the gold at 346 kg, also a world record! It’s Wichuma’s second Worlds gold, also in 2023.
The tournament continues all this week.
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