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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● What’s next for Tony Estanguet, the three-time Olympic canoeing gold medalist who successfully steered the Paris 2024 organizing committee? He told Ouest-France:
“I want to continue working for sport in France. I’m still considering different options: joining an existing structure or creating a new one. My idea is to maintain this spirit of cooperation between public, private, and sporting stakeholders – that was the key to the success of Paris 2024. …
“I’ve been offered the position of Minister of Sport several times. I refused because I think there are other ways to work for sport besides politics. What I want to do is bring people together. If I became minister, I would lose that freedom. However, I have agreed to rejoin the IOC. I’m working a bit on the 2028 Olympics, but I want to stay in France, contributing to French sport.”
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● The full route for the 2026 Olympic Torch Relay was announced Monday, with the major steps starting later this month:
● 26 Nov.: Lighting of the Olympic Flame at Olympia
● 26 Nov.-04 Dec.: Torch Relay in Greece
● 04 Dec.: Transfer of the Olympic Flame in Athens
● 06 Dec.: Torch Relay in Italy begins in Rome
● 06 Dec.-06 Feb.: Torch Relay in Italy
● 06 Feb.: Opening Ceremonies in Milan and Cortina
Along the way, the Italian relay will arrive in Bari on New Year’s Eve, in Cortina – site of the 1956 Winter Games – on 26 January, the date of the opening of those Winter Games.
More than 300 cities will be visited via 10,001 torchbearers across the 12,000 km (7,456 mile) route.
● Olympic Winter Games 2034: Salt Lake City ● International Skating Union President Jae Youl Kim (KOR) and Director General Colin Smith (GBR) attended the ISU Speed Skating World Cup opener in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, witnessing three world records during the three-day meet.
They introduced the ISU’s “Calm Zone” for athlete relaxation to the Speed Skating World Cup and committed to also bringing figure skating and synchronized skating to events to the Salt Lake City area, in addition to the well-known speed skating and Short Track events.
Said Kim, “I like your aspirations to inspire and unite the community through sport, and we would love to join you on the exciting journey leading up to the [2034] Olympics.”
● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● The USOPC announced its “Team USA Community Champions” award winners for 2025, including former women’s American triple jump record holder Tori Franklin for “The Live Happi Project” in Chicago and the upper Midwest; Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech and father Clayton for the Southern California adaptive sports outreach program, Angel City Sports; Paralympic snowboarding medalist Keith Gabel, a board member of the Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club, and Paris 2024 breaking Olympian Jeffrey Louis with Houston reVision in Houston, Texas, connecting young people with mentors for positive self-development.
● India ● Prize money is reaching deeper and deeper as the Indian Olympic Association announced prizes for the just-completed Asian Youth Games in Bahrain from October for 14-18 year-olds.
Indian medal winners – all 48 – will receive 500,000-300,000-200,000 rupees and fourth-place finishes will receive 50,000 (approx. $5,641-3,384-2,256-564 U.S.).
● Athletics ● The finalists for the World Athletics Fair Play Award were announced Monday:
● Emmanouil Karalis (GRE), for helping other vaulters during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
● Josh Kerr (GBR), determined to finish the Worlds 1,500 m final despite injury and then meeting with fans despite finishing 14th.
● Tim Van de Velde (BEL) who helped Colombia’s injured Carlos San Martin finish in heat three of the men’s 3,000 m Steeplechase, despite the possibility of disqualification.
Fans can vote on the World Athletics social channels, along with the six-member panel with the winner to be announced on 29 November.
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Chinese shot put star Lijiao Gong, now 36, won at the Chinese National Games on Sunday at 19.68 m (64-6 1/4) and has retired, ending a superb career that included two World Championships golds in 2017 and 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic title.
Gong won 16 national title and scored three Olympic medals, also claiming bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012. In all, she won eight Worlds medals, with silvers in 2015 and 2022 and bronzes in 2009-11-13 and 2023.
She set her lifetime best in the right moment, at Tokyo 2020, at 20.58 m (67-6 1/4), ranking her no. 48 on the all-time list, but no. 9 among throwers with bests in the 21st Century, under better doping controls.
● Boxing ● Uzbekistan’s Paris 2024 Olympic men’s 92 kg boxing gold medalist Lazizbek Mullojonov has been banned for three years in an agreement with the International Testing Agency.
Mullojonov, 26, “tested positive for the prohibited substance methasterone metabolites after providing an out-of-competition sample on 11 June 2025.” He did not challenge the test results and by doing so, obtained a one-year reduction in his ban. So:
“The athlete’s period of ineligibility of three years is from 22 July 2025 until 21 July 2028 and the athlete’s competitive results are disqualified from 11 June 2025 (date of sample collection) until 22 July 2025.”
This will remove Mullojonov from the 2028 Olympic boxing tournament, as bouts in the men’s upper weights begin on 15 and 16 July 2028.
● Football ● U.S. President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) announced an accelerated program for U.S. visa interviews called “FIFA PASS,” standing for “prioritized appointments scheduling system.”
This applies to individuals who have purchased 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets only; The Associated Press reported:
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration has dispatched more than 400 additional consular officers around the world to handle the demand for visas, and that in about 80 percent of the globe, travelers to the U.S. can get a visa appointment within 60 days.”
Rubio said the screening process is the same, only the wait for an interview will be shorter.
Trump mentioned again that he would ask Infantino to move matches out of any U.S. host city that he felt was unsafe.
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“The U.S. Soccer Federation has appointed Dan Helfrich, former Deloitte Consulting LLP Chair and CEO, as Chief Operating Officer (COO). He will join U.S. Soccer on Jan. 1, 2026, following his retirement from Deloitte in December.”
Helfrich played for Georgetown from 1994-97 and has been the Hoyas’ play-by-play announcer for Georgetown Soccer, since 2025.
● Gymnastics ● USA Gymnastics will revive its American Cup competition in 2026, after ending it in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A mixed team event will be held with eight national teams, on 7 March 2026 in Henderson, Nevada; the American Cup was held from 1976 to 2020
The Nastia Liukin Cup for developing women’s Level 10 gymnasts will be paired with the American Cup and held earlier on 7 March.
● Shooting ● At the ISSF World Rifle-Pistol Championships in Cairo (EGY), Ukraine’s Pavlo Korostylov took the men’s 25 m Centre-Fire Pistol title with 584 points, his third career Worlds gold after two in the Standard Pistol in 2018 and 2022! He won over India’s Gurpreet Singh (IND), who also scored 584, but with 18 in the 10-ring to 29 for Korostylov.
France took the men’s 25 m Centre-Fire Pistol Team gold, scoring 1,737 to 1,734 for Ukraine (silver) and South Korea (bronze).
Swiss Adrian Schaub won the men’s 25 m Standard Pistol at 576, over Korea’s Yeongjae Cho, also at 576 but with 15 10s to 18 for the Swiss. Cho led the Koreans to the team title, at 1,711 to 1,700 for China.
China won the men’s 50 m Prone Team event, scoring a world-record 1,881.3 points to 1,880.5 for Switzerland. South Korea won the women’s event at 1,872.8, ahead of Denmark (1,866.1).
In the men’s 300 m Rifle/Prone final, Czech Petr Nymbursky, a two-time Olympian, won his seconds Worlds gold – also in 2023 – scoring 597 points, being one of five with that score! But he had 40 shots of 10, best in the field. German Max Ohlenburger was second with in the 10 ring.
In the mixed 300 m Rifle/Standard, Norway’s Katrine Lund won at 593, ahead of veteran Czech star Jiri Privratsky (589). Lund also won the women’s 300 m Rifle/3 Positions at 588, just beating teammate Jeanette Hegg Duestad (587). The women’s 300 m Rifle/Prone was won by Swiss Anja Senti (598) with 39 10s to 598 and 37 10s for Jenny Vatne (NOR).
The women’s 25 m Pistol was another victory for Olympic champ Jiin Yang of Korea, 40-38, over China’s Qianxun Yao. Yang got a second gold in the team final, with the Koreans winning, 1,757 to 1,753 over China.
Yao won the women’s 25 m Standard Pistol final, 570-569 against Sevval Tarhan (TUR), and she led the Chinese team to gold with a world-record 1,693 points. Hungary was second at 1,659.
Overall, China dominated with 21 medals (12-7-2) to 14 for the Koreans (7-3-4) and 13 for India (3-6-4).
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