★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★
≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● The LA84 Foundation, the living legacy of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1984 Games, announced its latest round of grants, to 19 community organizations in six Southern California counties.
A total of $1.781 million was distributed to sports groups in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Imperial, Santa Barbara and Riverside counties:
“The majority of the grantees focus on communities where issues such as cost, transportation, safety and lack of facilities often prevent kids from experiencing the lifelong benefits of sport and play that can lead to an enriched life for young people.”
The grants will offer support through the grantees to aquatics, baseball, basketball, flag football, running, soccer, softball, track & field and volleyball.
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● A first donation of $5 million has been made by the NFL Los Angeles Rams for a fund to provide free tickets to the 2028 Games for Los Angeles-area residents.
The LA28 organizing committee announced the creation of the as-yet-unnamed program to collect money to be used for purchasing tickets “via community organizations to distribute within their communities.”
The agreement that brought the Games to Los Angeles in 2017 placed the City of Los Angeles in the position of financial guarantor for any organizing committee deficit, with some of the responsibility shared by the State of California. That has created significant pressure on the LA28 organizers to ensure that the Games run a surplus, as did the organizing committees of the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games held in L.A.
Thus, LA28 needs to sell its tickets and not give them away, similar to the situation of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, which arranged for government purchases of 401,220 tickets to the Olympic (100,700) and Paralympic (298,600) Games. About 65% went to students and a quarter to sports organization volunteers; the national government spent about €11 million for the tickets (about $12.69 million U.S. today).
The City of Paris and the Ile-de-France region also purchased tickets to be given to youth, staff members and sports volunteers.
The Rams’ donation will be acknowledged during Sunday night’s NBC broadcast of the home game vs. Tampa Bay.
¶
Politico.com reported on new members of the LA28 Board of Directors, adding individuals with close contacts with the Trump Administration, including former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and “Wisconsin Trump mega-donor Diane Hendricks, Patrick Dumont, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and son-in-law of Trump benefactor Miriam Adelson and investment banker Ken Moelis, who was a banker for Trump in the 1990s.”
The story said that the Board also added business consultant Denita Willoughby and philanthropist Maria Hummer-Tuttle, and that Paralympic star Muffy Davis was leaving the Board.
¶
Consideration of the proposed San Pedro-to-Long Beach water taxi service for the Olympic and Paralympic Games period in 2028 was scheduled to be heard on Thursday by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Executive Management Committee, but the item was withdrawn from the agenda.
A TSX overview of the Metro review report and slide presentation on the proposal is here.
● International Paralympic Committee ● The IPC finally finished its elections process with an Extraordinary General Assembly held online, which selected seven at-large members of the IPC Board. Those elected:
● Debra Alexander (RSA)
● Chelsey Gotell (CAN)
● Fernando Riaño (ESP)
● Mohamed Duaij Alkhalifa (BRN)
● Robyn Smith (AUS)
● Miki Matheson (JPN)
● Brad Snyder (USA)
Each will serve four-year terms. Snyder, 41, is a Navy veteran who lost his sight to an explosion while on duty in Afghanistan in 2011. He recovered and stormed to two gold and one silver medal in swimming at the London 2012 Paralympics and three more golds and a silver in 2016. He transitioned to triathlon and won a Tokyo 2020 gold in that sport. He has been a USOPC Board member since 2019.
● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● The USOPC announced “Team USA Safe Online,” a project to protect athletes in the digital world:
● “The platform provides Team USA athletes, their families and National Governing Bodies with clear, evidence-based tools to address online harassment, AI-generated deepfakes, doxxing, intimate image abuse, and other emerging online threats. It includes step-by-step guidance for prevention, response and support, as well as resources for parents, coaches and agents.”
● “This is accomplished through a combination of automated monitoring, human expert review and content mitigation in partnership with social media platforms and law enforcement when necessary.”
The program is an extension of the agreement with online safety organization Moonshot to monitor and mitigate online abuse through the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games.
● Enhanced Games ● Significant shake-up at the Enhanced Games, where founder “Dr. Aron D’Souza has transitioned out of the company’s day-to-day operations, while remaining a shareholder,” and “Maximilian Martin, Co-Founder of Enhanced, has been appointed CEO and assumes all operational leadership duties for the company.”
D’Souza had been the face of the Enhanced Games so far, which is slated to take place in Las Vegas in May 2026. Several more appointments were announced in branding, communications, finance and in sport, where 14-year USOPC veteran Rick Adams has been hired as Chief Sporting Officer. Adams served in sport performance and operations roles with the USOPC; he was hired as the Enhanced Games Senior Vice President for Games Delivery in August 2024.
The announcements come a day after the Enhanced Games’ lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court for anti-trust infringement against the World Anti-Doping Agency, World Aquatics and USA Swimming, was dismissed.
● Athletics ● China’s sprint record holder, Bingtian Su, announced his retirement after competing in the Chinese National Games in Guangzhou on Thursday.
Now 36, he was the World Indoor 60 m silver medalist in 2018 and won an Olympic 4×100 m bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Games. He finishes with bests of 6.42 in 2018 in the indoor 60 m – an Asian Record and no. 6 all-time – and 9.83 in the 100 m from 2021, also the Asian Record and no. 22 on the all-time list.
● Boxing ● India dominated the World Boxing Cup Finals in Noida (IND) with gold medals in nine classes, ahead of Uzbekistan, with four wins in nine finals.
Among the women’s winners was Paris Olympic 66 kg bronzer Nien-chin Chen (TPE), the only Olympic medal winner to claim a gold in Noida.
● Football ● The Caribbean island of Curacao qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals by winning CONCACAF Group B on Tuesday with a 0-0 draw at Jamaica and finished with a 3-0-3 record and 12 points, ahead of Jamaica (11: 3-1-2).
That makes Curacao the smallest country by population – 156,115 according to The Associated Press – to ever get to the World Cup finals. Iceland had been the smallest at 352,721 in 2018 and Cape Verde also qualified for the 2026 finals at 534,877, the third-smallest ever.
Panama won CONCACAF Group A at 3-0-3 and Haiti qualified for its second World Cup by winning Group C at 3-1-2. Suriname and Jamaica still have a chance, advancing to the inter-confederation playoffs in Mexico in March 2026, with two teams out of six to make it to the World Cup.
¶
The quarterfinals are now set for the FIFA men’s U-17 World Cup, being played in Qatar, with all four games to be played on Friday (21st):
Upper bracket:
● Portugal vs. Switzerland
● Morocco vs. Brazil
Lower bracket:
● Australia vs. Japan
● Italy vs. Burkina Faso
The semis will be played on Monday (24th) and the medal matches on the 27th (Thursday).
¶
★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.
For our updated, 850-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
