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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● Sad news of the passing of another member of the organizing team from 1984, as Bob Liljenwall, who served as the Venue Press Chief for both archery and modern pentathlon, passed away at age 88 on 11 June.
Liljenwall had a long and distinguished career in marketing and communications, including stints at Disneyland, the RMS Queen Mary and Spruce Goose in Long Beach and was a long-time faculty member at UCLA Extension in marketing and brand management.
● Olympic Games 1996: Atlanta ● The Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta were memorable for great athletic performances and a troubled organizing effort. The trouble is continuing, with the 30-year anniversary of the Games coming up on 19 July.
On 11 June, Georgia State University announced that the top portion – the cauldron – of the 120-foot-tall Olympic Flame tower would be moved to Centennial Olympic Park.
(TSX reader Dan Bell explains that the original tower was moved in 1997 from its Games location about a block north of Centennial Olympic Stadium, which became Turner Field. The venue was reconfigured in 2017 after the MLB Braves left, as Center Parc Stadium for the Georgia State football team as part of a mixed-use district.)
The Olympic Flame tower has been stationary since 1997, but the announcement to remove the cauldron has stirred up animosity in the Summerhill neighborhood in which the stadium was built. While the tower itself and the Olympic Rings bridge will remain, there is now opposition to the move of the cauldron. Georgia State Rep. Phil Olaleye, whose district includes Summerhill, said during a legislative session:
“[A] small group of private interests is seeking to move that torch to Centennial Olympic Park because they believe it will receive greater visibility and investment there. Think about what that says. It says the neighborhood that hosted the world is not prominent enough, is not good enough to carry its own legacy.”
The Atlanta City Council passed a resolution opposing the move of the cauldron; the issue has been framed as a state-level decision, rather than local.
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The 146th IOC Session approved the inclusion of Ski Mountaineering as a sport for the 2030 Winter Games:
“The intention for Alpes 2030 is to feature five ski mountaineering events across two disciplines, with a quota of 72 athletes. The proposed programme includes women’s and men’s individual race events, alongside the women’s, men’s and mixed relay sprint events that featured at Milano Cortina 2026.”
Ski Mountaineering was introduced at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games, and with France a leading medal-winner of the ISMF World Cup circuit, adding it for 2030 made sense for the organizing committee.
● Sports Safeguarding ● A closely-watched lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in which youth volleyball coaches Rick Butler and Cheryl Butler and their GLV volleyball business alleged “Defendants Deborah DiMatteo, Nancy Hogshead-Makar, and Champion Women weaponized decades-old sexual assault allegations against Rick to ruin Plaintiffs’ volleyball business” was thrown out on 17 June by Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim for failure to state a claim.
The suit asked for $250 million in damages for actions taken by DiMatteo and Hogshead-Makar in publicizing inquires into sexual advances and contact by Rick Butler with minor girls with whom he was working with related to his volleyball coaching business. Butler had been sanctioned by USA Volleyball in 1995, and banned in 2018 and was banned by the Amateur Athletic Union in 2018.
The Butlers filed suit against DiMatteo and Hogshead-Makar (a triple gold medalist in swimming at the 1984 Olympic Games) in 2021, complaining about the efforts that both had made in publicizing Butler’s conduct and urging parents, teams, sponsors and others not to work with them.
DiMatteo and Hogshead-Makar moved for summary judgement to essentially kill the complaint for lack of a case. Judge Kim reviewed the allegations and concluded that taking all evidence into account, the case provided by the Butlers shows no “specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.”
So, “[u]ltimately, summary judgment is warranted only if a reasonable jury could not return a verdict for the nonmovant [Butlers] … Viewing the record under this standard, the court finds that Defendants are entitled to summary judgment.”
A post-opinion statement by Hogshead-Makar’s Champion Women group noted:
“The court found that Nancy Hogshead, Champion Women, and Deb DiMatteo were exercising their constitutionally-protected First Amendment rights to speak about a matter of public concern and controversy: namely, the risk of harm that Rick Butler posed to young athletes. … The court held that Deb DiMatteo was largely sharing her opinions, which constitute protected First Amendment speech. Ultimately, the court determined that Defendants’ speech-based protections trumped any alleged harm felt by Rick and Cheryl Butler.”
● Athletics ● The Athletics Integrity Unit lowered the boom on former half-marathon world-record holder Kibiwott Kandie (KEN: 30), who “has been banned for seven years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after admitting to two Anti-Doping Rule Violations, a refusal to submit to sample collection and tampering with the doping control process.”
The ban runs from 14 March 2025 until 13 March 2032; he refused a test on 1 March 2025 and then submitted faked communications that would have excused him. He last race was on 30 August 2025, a cross-country event in which he did not finish.
● Gymnastics ● Emil Boc, the mayor of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, which is hosting a World Gymnastics Rhythmic World Challenge Cup this weekend, has stated he intends “to prevent Russian athletes from participating in the Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge Cup wearing national symbols.”
A report by the Russian news agency TASS stated that the Russian and Belarusian flags in the BT Arena have been replaced with single-color “neutral” flags. World Gymnastics has reinstated Russian and Belarusian athletes in May.
World Gymnastics told TASS, “We are currently in discussions with the relevant parties to find an appropriate way forward.”
● Wrestling ● Zahid Valencia, the men’s 2025 World Champion at 86 kg, was named the John Smith Award winner by USA Wrestling as the federation’s men’s Freestyle Athlete of the Year.
Valencia went 24-0 in 2025 and won his first UWW Worlds gold. He outscored his opponents by 224-21 and won 16 of his 24 matches without giving up a point!
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