★ 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 2028: Los Angeles ● With the LA28 organizers opening ticket sales last week for Southern California and Oklahoma City residents and for worldwide sale this week, there’s a story worth reading about one person’s Paris 2024 experience.
Torched.la covers the “mega-event” preparations for the City of Los Angeles, with a focus on what government agencies are doing, planning and reacting to. Alissa Walker’s 3 April story reported how Anne Stark Ditmeyer, an American designer living in Paris, went to 24 Paris 2024 events – Olympic and Paralympic – and counseled:
“Don’t be worried if you don’t get the first drop. I didn’t buy any of my tickets until three months in advance.”
She had a wonderful time during the Paris Games and her experience is instructive for any major event you have ever thought about attending.
¶
The continuing war between business and labor in the City of Los Angeles has a new front, in the coming June elections, as a petition to place an initiative to remove the City’s business tax has been certified as having the required number of signatures.
The petition was verified on 23 March 2026 and now has to move through the process to be included on the June ballot. If passed, it will end the City’s business tax as of 1 January 2028 and create an $800 million-plus hole in the City’s budget and could cripple some services.
The initiative is backed by business interests trying to reduce the tax burden in the City, and has been seen as a reaction to the increase in wages mandated by the City Council for hospitality workers to $30.00 per hour by 1 July 2028.
● Transgender ● United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem (JOR) welcomed the International Olympic Committee’s initiative to institute sex testing for women’s sport. After all, she called for it in 2024.
In a statement last week, Alsalem explained:
“I welcome this policy as a necessary, proportionate and legitimate step to ensure the protection of women and girls, in line with international human rights law and standards. Evidence-based approaches, including the recognition of the material reality of sex, must guide the development, monitoring, and review of sport policy at all levels. …
“Contrary to reports, the policy does not disqualify anyone from participating in sports or competing professionally in categories corresponding to their biological sex. Rather, it ensures that women and girls are not disadvantaged or excluded from meaningful and fair competition in their own category.”
● Russia ● Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said that 116 athletes who might have qualified for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy but for the sanctions on Russia from the International Olympic Committee will receive cash bonuses. He told the Russian news agency TASS:
“We’ve amended the regulations governing payments to Olympic Games participants. We’ve decided to maintain payments to previous medalists who were disqualified from participating in the 2026 Games. Olympic champions will receive 500,000 rubles, silver medalists 350,000 rubles, bronze medalists 250,000 rubles, and participants 150,000 rubles. The list includes 116 athletes.”
Converting to U.S. dollars, these awards would be $6,376, $4,463, $3,188 and $1,913.
● Alpine Skiing ● Will American star Lindsey Vonn race again after her crashes, agony and surgeries prior to and during the Olympic Winter Games? She told Craig Melvin of NBC’s “Today” show:
“I don’t know the answer to that question because I know I’ll be happy if I do ski race again. That’s no question. But I don’t know. It might be fun to do one more — one more run. We’ll see.”
Asked directly about a comeback:
“I mean, much to my family’s dismay, yes. I think it’s just something that – I mean, I’ve been, like I said, so isolated and not able to really live life outside of skiing.”
“Like, I’m still kind of trapped in this, like, I didn’t have my Olympic dream situation … I need to walk and be out in public and, you know, be living life. And I think that will give me a different perspective. Right now I can’t say what the future holds because I can’t – my mind can’t get there yet. …
“I can move on. I mean, it’s not a question of can I. I already have, you know? And I already retired for six years. Like, I know what it’s like to not be a ski racer anymore. It’s just that ski racing is something I love to do. And I had so much fun this season that – and I never got to – I never got a final run.”
● Athletics ● World Athletics announced Tuesday:
“The marathon will remain a discipline at the World Athletics Championships in 2027 and 2029, but from 2030 it will move to its own standalone championships. From 2031 onwards, the marathon – or any other road running distance – will no longer form part of the World Athletics Championships.”
Instead, there will be a World Athletics Marathon Championship beginning in 2030, with men and women competing in alternate years. The initial race is aimed to be in Athens (GRE), site of the first modern Games in 1896; the 2026 Athens Marathon is on 8 November.
The plan is to see the Athens Marathon upgraded over time to elite status and to use the original, 1896 course – 40 km at the time – as much as possible. The choice of date in 2030 will be fascinating – along with prize money – considering the existing slate of fall major marathons in Chicago, Berlin and New York, plus the speedy course in Valencia (ESP) already in their long-time calendar slots.
● Boxing ● Paris 2024 women’s 57 kg champion Yu-ting Lin (TPE) won a women’s 60 kg bronze at the Asian Boxing Elite Championships, reaching the semifinals before losing on a 4:1 decision to North Korea’s Un Gyong Won, in Ulaanbaatar (MGL).
Lin was boxing at a new weight, after having been cleared by World Boxing to compete in the women’s division, following a sex-screening test now required by the federation. This was her first tournament since Paris 2024 and coach Tzu-chiang Tseng explained:
“Yu-ting hasn’t competed in a long time, and it was evident that her physical condition wasn’t quite up to par. Losing this time isn’t a bad thing; at least there’s room for improvement and a clear path forward.”
● Football ● The airline perks-tracking site Upgraded Points came out with a ranking on costs of attending a group-stage FIFA World Cup 2026 match and found Boston to have the biggest total bill, and Miami the smallest. The exercise was for one person, “calculated the expected price of a 3-day, 2-night trip in each of the 11 U.S. host cities during the group stage. That total includes a good seat, nearby lodging [Airbnb], airfare, rideshares, food and drinks during the stay, and 1 replica jersey.” The results (the story identified some of the matches selected):
● $8,929: Boston (for Scotland-Morocco)
● $7,139: Philadelphia (for Brazil-Haiti)
● $5,630: Los Angeles (for Belgium-Iran)
● $5,624: San Francisco
● $5,383: Houston
● $5,268: Atlanta
● $4,996: Dallas
● $4,716: Kansas City
● $3,260: Seattle (for Egypt-Iran)
● $3,082: New York
● $2,614: Miami (for Uruguay match)
Remember, this is for a group-stage match, with tickets purchased on the resale market, with significantly inflated costs.
An accompanying survey of 2,400 people across 22 countries measured sentiment about the U.S. as a host country, with 66.1% saying immigration events have made them more hesitant to go to the U.S. and 36.7% saying they are less likely to go to the U.S. vs. another country as host.
¶
Reuters reported that the Unite Here 11 labor union that represents food service workers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, a FIFA World Cup 2026 venue, “warned workers could strike if their concerns are not addressed.”
The union’s demands, made to FIFA and to stadium owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment included “A public commitment that ICE and Border Patrol will play no role in the tournament, protections for union jobs and working conditions, and support for affordable housing for hospitality workers.” It also wants AI and automation not to be used to replace jobs now filled by union workers.
● Nordic Skiing ● U.S. Ski & Snowboard will take over the U.S. Para Nordic Ski Team from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, adding to its existing administration of the American Para alpine and snowboard teams, added in 2023.
The USOPC has operated the U.S. Para Nordic program since 2014, but will now hand it off to the U.S. National Governing Body for the FIS Nordic Skiing disciplines. The U.S. Para Nordic squad won 10 medals at the recent Winter Paralympic Games in Milan and Cortina (ITA), the most in program history!
¶
★ 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, 45-sport, 910-event International Sports Calendar for 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
