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LANE ONE: IOC’s election of Coventry is the natural extension of Bach’s emphasis: “it is all about the athlete”

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC President Thomas Bach (GER, left) and Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) meeting after her election to be the 10th IOC President (Photo: IOC Media on X).

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

Speaking to the online 140th Session of the International Olympic Committee in June 2023, IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) told the members:

“In this way we are applying our core values of peace, unity, solidarity and nondiscrimination to find a pathway that serves the interests of the athletes.

“Our values are not just abstract concepts.

“Because at the end of the day, it is all about the athlete. This is where our values become real. This is why our principles matter. We are here to support the athletes of the entire world to make their Olympic dream come true.

“This is why we promote the participation of every athlete who accepts the rules, respects the Olympic Charter and has qualified on the field of play. The athlete is at the heart of the rationale for our recommendations.”

Bach’s relentless, repetitive reminders about the importance of having athletes at the center of what the IOC does, was coupled with his immovable belief in the future of the Olympic Movement as expressed during his remarks at the Paris 2024 opening ceremony:

“All of us will experience Olympic Games that are more inclusive, more urban, younger and more sustainable: the first Olympic Games with full gender parity on the field of play.”

These concepts were the basis for Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry to win the IOC Presidency on 20 March, getting the minimum number of votes needed for a first-round win – 49 of the 97 cast – with Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP) second with 28 and then Sebastian Coe (GBR) a distant third with eight votes. Four others received between 2-4 votes each. Consider:

● Coventry and Coe were the only Olympians in the election. Coe won two golds (1,500 m) and two silvers (800 m) in 1980 and 1984; Coventry was in a remarkable five Games – 2000-04-08-12-16 – and won seven medals (2-3-2), all in 2004 and 2008.

In less than 10 years after her last Games in the pool, she was elected IOC President. In Bach’s words: an athlete, younger (at 41, the second-youngest IOC chief ever), with gender parity and continental parity as the first woman and first African to lead the IOC.

● The IOC was ridiculed for decades as an old boys club, with a few ex-athletes along the businessmen, millionaires and royalty. Major change was already underway during the time of President Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP) from 1980-2001, but Bach accelerated everything during his 12 years in office.

● Of the 109 IOC members coming into the 144th Session in Greece, 43 had participated in the Olympic Games (39%), including 13 of the 35 elected before Bach took office (37%).

● Of the 74 members (of the 109) who had been elected during Bach’s term in office, 30 were Olympians (41%), and several more were former athletes who had not made it to the Games.

● Coventry is the fourth IOC President – out of 10 – who was an Olympian, starting with Avery Brundage (USA) in 1952, then not until Jacques Rogge (BEL: sailing) in 2001, then Bach (GER: fencing) in 2013 and now Coventry (swimming). That’s three Olympians in a row, two Olympic champions in a row and Coventry comes in as the most athletically-decorated IOC President ever, as the winner of seven medals, and participation in two Games.

● On gender, the 109 members split 61 men and 48 women coming into the 144th Session. Of the 35 pre-Bach Presidency members, 13 were women (37%).

● During Bach’s term (up to the 144th Session), 35 of the 74 elected members were women, or 47%.

Those two elements of Bach’s 12-year term – elevating the number of athletes and women – were the demographic building blocks of Coventry’s 49 votes and her first-round victory.

Israeli member Yael Arad, the country’s first Olympic medal winner – a women’s 61 kg silver in judo in 1992 – and elected to the IOC in 2023, told TSX correspondent Karen Rosen:

“I think it’s big history for the Olympic Movement. I think with great candidates with a lot of experience and two of them were Olympic champions, and I think for many of us it counts to be with a lot of skills and experience, but also really come from the bottom of the heart of the sport.

“And I think a woman that brings a lot of ambitions and skills, it’s a great message, not only to the world of sport, but also to the world at large, where everybody can, if you just dream and you work hard enough and you believe in yourself and people believe in you, so you can make it.”

Arad’s point on experience is also key. The top two vote-getters had been IOC members for some time – Coventry since 2013 and Samaranch since 2001 – with four of the five others elected in 2018 or later. Morinari Watanabe (JPN) was elected in 2018, Coe in 2020, David Lappartient (FRA) in 2022 and Johan Eliasch (GBR) in 2024. That was also a factor.

Although there is a transition period coming now, with Coventry to take office on 24 June 2025, Bach made it clear in his news conference on Friday that Coventry is essentially already in charge:

“With regard to the partition of responsibilities, I have assured her that from today on, no decision will be taken over her head, that this will happen in full consultation, and if there are different opinions between her and me, her opinion will prevail.

“It’s then her call to make these decisions, because she will have to live, then, from 24th of June, with these decisions, and to make this as efficient as possible, we have already fixed the first Executive Board meeting on the first day of her mandate on 24th of June, so that in case there are complex decisions to be taken which may need further consultation, or for which we need the approval of the Executive Board, then we can postpone it until then.

“And we have [an] interim, already another Executive Board on the 9th of April, so if by then, there would be decisions that we could take there on the 9th of April and this will be a remote meeting.”

Bach explained that in the handover period, Coventry will meet with each of the IOC staff departments – the presentations are already being prepared – so that she will be up to speed and ready to start her term.

Coventry was asked in her news conference as President-elect, on her first priorities and on current hot-button issues, and she was well prepared:

● On Russia and Belarus, with the 2026 Winter Games coming up, she maintained Bach’s line that athletes should not be denied opportunities to compete simply because of their passport:

“I believe at the end of the day, we need to do anything and everything to protect and support athletes from all conflict areas. We have numerous conflicts and a number of them happening on my continent.

“So again, we need to sit down as the Olympic movement and have a very serious conversation around how are we going to deal with more and more conflicts and how are we going to protect and support athletes that are coming from these conflict areas.”

The question of political neutrality by athletes was closely considered by the IOC prior to the Paris 2024 Games. It will be up to Coventry to lead the discussion on whether this will be maintained for Milan Cortina.

● On the transgender participation question, Coventry said there is work to do:

“I want to work together with the international federations. I want the IOC to take a little bit more of a leading role. And we’re going to do that by setting up a workforce, a task force that will look and analyze everything. We don’t need to redo the work. The IFs have done the work.

“But we are going to bring everyone together, sit down and have a little bit more unity in the discussion … [on] the transgender issue and the protection of the female category. And we, once we’ve made the decision collectively as the IOC with the international federations, that decision will be made very clear and we won’t move from that decision.”

She also believes that working with U.S. President Donald Trump is more a matter of communications than anything else, as she noted “[t]hat is something that will happen early on. My firm belief is that President Trump is a huge lover of sports. He will want these Games to be significant. He will want them to be a success.”

Coventry said that one of her short-term efforts will be to meet with the other six candidates and to “bring all candidates together and sit down and share some of these ideas that we’ve all had. And put them down on paper and agree on a way forward. So we will be able to look at ideas like this and what that could potentially mean and then take it to the broader membership.”

All seven candidates promised more interaction with the membership than seen under Bach and this will be the first step forward in keeping that promise, and meeting the known and unspoken expectations of those who her into an office which will have worldwide impacts. Coventry said:

“[F]irst and foremost, I’ve never ever been successful as an individual. I’ve been successful because of a team. And what I’ve learned most over the last six months is I have an incredibly strong team within my membership.

“They are incredible people with many experiences, a lot of knowledge. And I’m going to lean on all of them. We’re going to make decisions together. We’re going to support each other. And for me, that’s the only way that I’m willing to work.”

Rich Perelman
Editor

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LOS ANGELES 2028: Four major LA28 announcements coming on 9 April; Wasserman on traffic: “For 17 days, we can fix any problem in the world”

By
Rich Perelman
-
LA28 chief executive Reynold Hoover addressing the IOC Session in Greece (Photo: IOC video screen shot).

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≡ LA28 ACCELERATES ≡

While most of the attention at the 144th IOC Session in Greece focused on the election of the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee, last Thursday also included major reports from the organizing committees from 2026 through 2032.

Included in that was the LA28 review, from organizing committee senior executives Casey Wasserman (Chair), Reynold Hoover (CEO) and Olympic swimming star Janet Evans (Chief Athlete Officer), introduced by U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Chair Gene Sykes.

Hoover gave a detailed presentation (more details here) and said that four areas for which information has been eagerly awaited will be provided at the online meeting of the IOC Executive Board on 9 April 2025:

● Olympic venue master plan
● Sports event program and athlete quotas
● Accommodations allocation plan
● Ticket pricing strategy

LA28 has announced many of the venues for 2028, but with a now-confirmed record total of 36 sports on the program, there are still questions on seven sports included in the Paris 2024 program:

● Cycling: Mountain Bike and Road
● Football: preliminary match sites
● Modern Pentathlon
● Shooting: one of two SoCal sites
● Sport Climbing
● Surfing: one of two SoCal sites
● Volleyball: Beach and Indoor

Also, official word is still to come on most of the added sports for 2028:

● Baseball: expected to be at Dodger Stadium
● Softball: announced for Oklahoma City
● Cricket
● Flag Football
● Lacrosse
● Squash

A letter from Hoover to the Los Angeles City Council last week stated that the 22,000-seat BMO Stadium in Exposition Park will not be used for football prelims, but for two added sports, likely Flag Football and Lacrosse 6s. This required approval from the City Council. 

The ticketing component will feature 14 million or so tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic venues combined, allowing the possibility to break the record of 12.1 million established by Paris 2024.

Wasserman was asked during the question period about the organizing committee’s view on dealing with traffic for the potential 14 million ticket buyers:

“For 17 days, we can fix any problem in the world. And for 17 days, we can manage traffic and movement of people in a way that you can’t every day, normally. So, whether it’s the things they did in ‘84, removing trucks from the streets, deliveries from the streets except between midnight and 5 [a.m.], obviously, creating remote work now is a very practical solution. There is tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure in terms of transportation – not for the Olympics, not related to the Olympics – but they will be done by the Olympics, will be meaningfully different than 1984.

“In 1984, we were building freeways, literally, today we’re building, I think, the second-largest metro construction project on earth. And so we are very confident in our ability to deliver, and let’s not get confused. Our venues are designed, and our city is designed, for people to drive their cars to events.

“They won’t drive them in the same quantities, at the same scale they do today, but that will also be a part of our delivery, because it would be a mistake not to take advantage of the venues that are designed and the use case they are designed for.”

So, people driving cars is definitely part of the LA28 plan, moving along with its “public transit first” concept for the last mile to the Olympic and Paralympic venues, which is already in wide use for special events of all kinds, such as the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Games in Pasadena.

Wasserman referred to freeway building, which was actually not going on in 1984, but picked up later with the last new freeway to be opened, the I-105, in 1993. As for the current, giant Metro project, it’s the expansion of the D Line from mid-town to Westwood (near UCLA), the Metro A Line from Glendale to Pomona, and the LAX Automated People Mover in and out of Los Angeles International Airport, slated to open in 2026.

The IOC is also on the ground with two staff members already working in Los Angeles, Pierre Ducrey (SUI), the IOC’s Olympic Games Operations Director, a 22-year veteran of the organization, and Gavin McAlpine (GBR), head of the Games Delivery Office, who worked on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and joined the IOC in 2017.

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COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Is Donald Trump about to save the Commonwealth Games by making the U.S. a Commonwealth (associate) member?

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S. President Donald Trump (Photo: The White House).

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≡ “I LOVE KING CHARLES!” ≡

What is today known as the Commonwealth Games began in 1930 as the British Empire Games, held in Hamilton, Canada. It has fallen on some hard time recently, with Glasgow, Scotland to host a stripped-down, 10-sport event in 2026, to cost a modest £114 million (~$147.3 million U.S.), mostly subsidized on a one-time-only basis by the Commonwealth Sport federation.

There is no host for 2030 as yet, and the 20-sport, £638 million (~$824.3 million) – not including government-funded construction costs – bonanza held in Birmingham (ENG) is 2022 is now a very dead dinosaur.

The real possibility that the Commonwealth Games might be dying was possibly saved by, of all people, U.S. President Donald Trump.

Reports surfaced last week that the U.S. was invited to join the Commonwealth of Nations by King Charles III, via a private letter delivered to Trump by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with a formal offer to be made when Trump visits Britain last this year.

Trump responded to the story on his Truth Social platform, posting “I Love King Charles. Sounds good to me!”

On Britain’s side, the move could be a way to tone down the Trump Administration’s pressure on Canadian trade, and Trump’s jibes that Canada could become the 51st U.S. state.

But it would also open the door to having the U.S. not only participate, but also host the Commonwealth Games.

The event has been, at the top level, a showdown between England and Australia, the only two countries to top the medal table. Having the U.S. compete would change the nature of the event completely and could bring American cities – and sponsors and television rights sales – into the mix.

Diplomatically, it would also bring powers like India, Nigeria and South Africa into more sporting contact with the U.S.

Commonwealth Sport, the umbrella federation over the Commonwealth Games, sees future Games as more compact and cost-effective. Federation chief Chris Jenkins (WAL) told the BBC that future Commonwealth Games hosts are being asked “not to build or redevelop venues – but co-host with other cities or countries who have existing facilities” and “[a]thletes will stay in hotels and ceremonies could take place indoors at future Games.”

More sports could be added, perhaps up to 17, but the athlete load could go down to perhaps 4,000 athletes vs. the record 5,054 total in Birmingham in 2022.

That size of Games could be interested to cities or regions which have existing facilities and housing, especially universities. The 2029 World University Games in North Carolina is using just such an approach, centered at the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke and other area colleges.

Commonwealth Sport is already looking for hosts for 2030, 2034 and 2038; if the U.S. does join the Commonwealth of Nations, it could change the complexion of the Commonwealth Games forever.

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ATHLETICS: Holloway storms to 85th straight indoor hurdles win as he and Duplantis win third straight World Indoor titles

By
Rich Perelman
-
Hurdles superstar Grant Holloway (Photo: USA Track & Field).

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≡ WORLD INDOOR CHAMPS ≡

Domination continued for American hurdles star Grant Holloway and Swedish vault supremo Mondo Duplantis over the first two days of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing (CHN). They were two of three champions to repeat from 2024 (so far), with both winning their third straight indoor golds:

● Men/60 m hurdles: Grant Holloway (USA) ~ also 2023
● Men/Pole Vault: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) ~ also 2023
● Women/Shot Put: Sarah Mitton (CAN)

Holloway entered with a streak of 82 straight wins (40 finals) from 2015 on, and won his heat in 7.49, then his semi in 7.48 and took the final easily in 7.42, ahead of Wilhem Belocian (FRA: 7.54) and Junxi Liu (CHN: 7.55).

Duplantis won the men’s vault on his fifth jump of the day at 6.10 m (20-0) and then cleared 6.15 m (20-2) for the final height. Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis got second with a lifetime best (all conditions) of 6.05 m (19-10 1/4), moving to no. 5 all-time. Three-time World Indoor silver winner Sam Kendricks of the U.S. got the bronze, clearing 5.90 m (19-4 1/4).

Mitton got her second straight win essentially on her second throw of 20.36 m (66-9 3/4), then improved to 20.48 m (67-2 1/4) in the final round. Jessica Schilder (NED) got a big second-round throw of 20.07 m (65-10 1/4) to get second and two-time World Champion Chase Jackson of the U.S. was third at 20.06 m (65-9 3/4) in the final round. Maggie Ewen of the U.S. was seventh (18.63 m/61-1 1/2).

Through the first two days of the meet, world-leading marks were set in both triple jumps:

● Men/Triple Jump: 17.80 m (58-4 3/4), Andy Diaz (ITA)
● Women/Triple Jump: 14.93 m (48-11 3/4), Leyanis Perez (CUB)

Improbably, both ex-Cuban Diaz and Cuba’s Perez got their winning marks in the first round. They both jumped again and fouled, then passed three of their remaining four jumps and had no other legal marks! Diaz moved to no. 5 all-time with the win.

China’s Yaming Zhu was second in the men’s event with a third-round 17.33 m (56-10 1/4) and defending champ Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) got third at 17.15 m (56-3 1/4). Russell Robinson was the top American in eighth (16.50 m/54-1 3/4) and two-time winner Will Claye was 10th (16.31 m/53-6 1/4).

Perez led a Cuban 1-2, ahead of Liadagmis Povea at 14.57 m (47-9 3/4), with Olympic champ Thea LaFond (DMA) finishing fourth at 14.18 m (46-6 1/4).

Elsewhere on the first two days, the other American winner was world 400 m leader (and Olympic sixth-placer) Chris Bailey, leading a U.S. sweep in 45.08, ahead of Brian Faust (45.47) and Jacory Patterson (45.54).

In the men’s 3,000 m, Norwegian 5,000 m Olympic champ Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR) got his first career World Indoor gold, winning in 7:46.09, passing Ethiopia’s Paris 2024 10,000 m runner-up Berihu Aregawi (ETH: 7:46.25) on the home straight. Australian Ky Robinson (7:47.09) was third, passing American Sam Gilman (7:17.19) at the line, with U.S. teammate Dylan Jacobs in fifth (7:48.41).

Korea’s Sang-hyeok Woo won his second World Indoor gold in the men’s high jump, as the only one to clear 2.31 m (7-7), over Olympic and defending champ Hamish Kerr (NZL), Raymond Richards (JAM) and American Eli Kosiba, who finished 2-3-4, all at 2.28 m (7-5 3/4).

The women’s 60 m was a second World Indoor gold for Swiss star Mujinga Kambundji, who got to the line in 7.04, barely ahead of Italy’s rising star Zaynab Dosso (7.06) and Luxembourg’s Patrizia van der Weken (7.07).

Britain’s Amber Anning, the 2024 NCAA Indoor champ for Arkansas, won the women’s 400 m in 50.60 by running down Alexis Holmes of the U.S. (50.63) at the line. Henriette Jager (NOR: 50.92) got third and Rosey Effiong of the U.S. was sixth in 52.90.

Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu, the 2024 World Indoor champ at 1,500 m, won the women’s 3,000 m, running away from Australia’s Paris 1,500 m silver winner Jess Hull (AUS) on the final lap and winning in 8:37.21. Hull was passed by comebacking American Shelby Houlihan right at the line for second, 8:38.26 to 8:38.28. American Whittni Morgan was fourth (8:39.18).

European outdoor bronze winner Marie-Julie Bonnin (FRA) won the women’s vault, clearing 4.75 m (15-7) on her second try, beating Slovenian star Tina Sutej and Swiss Angelica Moser, who were 2-3 at 4.70 m (15-5).

Finn Saga Vanninen moved from second in 2024 to take the women’s pentathlon with 4,821 points, ahead of Kate O’Connor (IRL: 4,742), and American Taliyah Brooks (4,669), who won her first international medal! Teammate Timara Chapman was fifth (4,476).

Prize money is available at $40,000-20,000-10,000-8,000-6,000-4,000 for the top six placers.

The meet finishes on Sunday, shown live on Peacock, with highlights on CNBC (3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.), with an NBC highlights show on Sunday at noon Eastern.

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ANTI-DOPING: WADA’s Banka defends Chinese positives case again, while Bach hopes the USOPC has a solution

By
Rich Perelman
-
WADA President Witold Banka (POL), speaking at the IOC Session in Greece (IOC video screen shot).

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≡ WADA vs. USADA ≡

It’s not over. It’s not close to over.

The final day of the 144th IOC Session in Costa Navarino, Greece, was largely about awards and thanks, but importantly also focused on a report from World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka (POL).

Amid positive news of cooperation with law enforcement in the seizure of performance-enhancing drugs in Europe and an expansion of intelligence and investigations efforts on multiple continents, and a much wider educational effort to prevent doping in the first place, there was this:

“I will not rehash the high-profile, no-fault, contamination case involving 23 swimmers from China. I stand by what I have said time and time again.

“At all stages, WADA was confident that it had done the right thing. We fully cooperated with the investigation in our handling of the cases by an independent prosecutor, Mr. Eric Cottier [SUI]. His report conclusively show that WADA had acted correctly and fairly, that WADA showed no bias towards China, that its decision not to appeal to CAS was reasonable and that it followed the rules at all times.

“The rest is politics. Unfortunately, for nearly a full year, a handful of cynical voices have chosen to weaponize this case to follow their political interests.

“As an independent and largely technical organization, WADA has no mandate to be part of those political games. WADA’s role is well defined. Our purpose is to develop, harmonize and coordinate anti-doping rules and policies across all sports and countries.

“Over the past 25 years, we have worked cooperatively with our partners to build the global anti-doping system. It is an organization unlike any other, the most harmonized legal system in the world, covering nearly 200 countries.

“Its effectiveness relies on cooperation and on all of its stakeholders. So as long as I am President, I will continue to push back against anyone who attempts to tarnish WADA’s reputation for the sole purpose of advancing political interests. This will never change.

“WADA always treats its stakeholders equally and fairly, no matter what country they come from and what sport they play. And our mission is to protect clean athletes, and exclude the cheaters. And we will continue to stand by our values, pursue our mission and do so without fear or favor.”

That Banka had to spend so much time, early in his remarks, about the continuing war of words with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency over the 2021 Chinese swimming  mass-positives incident that was publicly disclosed in 2024, indicates that it is not close to a resolution.

There are other anti-doping organizations which are unhappy with WADA’s handling of the case, but who are much quieter about it.

Banka notably mentioned the Cottier report, which gave WADA the answers it was looking for to the carefully-formulated questions he was asked to answer, but also included multiple recommendations to try and prevent another such mess from happening, at least as to how WADA handles cases in the future.

IOC President Thomas Bach (GER), asked at Friday’s news conference if he would try to intervene, replied:

“This is an issue between WADA and the United States and we are informed about contacts which have been established also through and with the [U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee], and I hope and I guess that these contacts will finally contribute to find a solution and to calm down this heated debate.”

This places the issue back on the plate of USOPC Chair Gene Sykes, also an IOC member, who has pledged to try and bring down the temperature, which – for now – appears to still be hot.

Banka, the former Polish 400 m international who has been the head of WADA since 2020 and is running for a third and final term this year, also spoke about another annoyance:

“By now, you have heard about the dangerous and irresponsible concept known as the Enhanced Games. WADA wholeheartedly condemns it. The health and well-being of athletes is WADA’s no. 1 priority, and this event would jeopardize both.

“As we’ve seen through history, performance-enhancing drugs have taken a terrible physical and mental toll on many athletes. And the values of clean sport must be protected. Athletes serve as role models and WADA believes this proposition would send the wrong signal to young people around the world.

“It would undermine all the values that are at the center of sport, that we love so much. …

“Those athletes who decided to take part in the Enhanced Games risk committing anti-doping rule violations under the World Anti-Doping Code.”

The Enhanced Games, which would allow unlimited use of performance-enhancing drugs, still has no firm date or place, but is projected to be held somewhere in late 2025 or in 2026. It has been universally condemned by the International Federations and participants will face possible bans just for competing in an event which is based on not having doping controls.

If it takes place, it will be a headache for WADA, as well as for new IOC President Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.

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PANORAMA: Paris 2024 chief Estanguet elected to IOC; World T&F Indoor champs on in China; Panama beats U.S. men, 1-0, in CONCACAF Nations League

By
Rich Perelman
-
Hurdles superstar Grant Holloway (Photo: USA Track & Field).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● International Olympic Committee ● There were other elections beyond the one for IOC President at the 144th IOC Session in Greece.

The highly-respected Pierre-Olivier Beckers (BEL) was elected as an IOC Vice President (98-3), and four positions for the Executive Board went to Emma Terho (FIN: athlete representative; second term, approved 98-2), Spyros Capralos (GRE: National Olympic Committees, approved 93-7), Kristin Kloster (NOR: second term, approved 96-5), and Octavian Morariu (ROU), who defeated Neven Ilic (CHI), 53-50.

Three-time Olympic champion Tony Estanguet (FRA), the brilliant head of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, was elected as an IOC member by 98-3.

Honorary Members accepted by a show of hands included Marisol Casado (ESP: World Triathlon president) and Zaiqing Yu (CHN).

The IOC also elected two Honor Members, a rarely-conferred, special recognition for an individual not a IOC member. Ban Ki-Moon (KOR), the former United Nations Secretary General, was elected a show of hands, as was Francesco Ricci Bitti (ITA), the former head of the International Tennis Federation and the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.

● Athletics ● The 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships are this weekend in Nanjing (CHN), with 576 athletes (312 men/264 women) from 127 countries entered.

Leading the parade are defending champions from the 2024 edition in Glasgow (GBR):

● Men/60 m hurdles: Grant Holloway (USA) ~ also 2023
● Men/High Jump: Hamish Kerr (NZL)
● Men/Pole Vault: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) ~ also 2023
● Men/Long Jump: Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) ~ also 2023
● Men/Triple Jump: Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR)

● Women/800 m: Tsige Duguma (ETH)
● Women/60 m hurdles: Devynne Charlton (BAH)
● Women/High Jump: Nicola Olyslagers (AUS)
● Women/Pole Vault: Molly Caudery (GBR)
● Women/Triple Jump: Thea Lafond (DMA)
● Women/Shot Put: Sarah Mitton (CAN)

Holloway, Kerr, Duplantis, Tentoglou and LaFond went on to become Olympic gold medalists in Paris last summer, and Paris winners Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR: men’s 5,000 m) and Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR: women’s high jump) will also be in Nanjing.

Holloway has an 82-race streak going in the indoor hurdles, including 40 finals over 11 seasons, in high school (13 races in 55/60 m hurdles in 2015-16) and open competition (69 in 60 m hurdles starting in 2017).

Prize money is available at $40,000-20,000-10,000-8,000-6,000-4,000 for the top six placers.

NBC’s Peacock streaming service has live coverage, with highlights on CNBC on Saturday (11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Eastern time) and Sunday (3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.), with an NBC highlights show on Sunday only at noon Eastern.

● Football ● The U.S. men’s National Team faced off against long-time foe Panama in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and dropped a 1-0 decision on a stoppage-time goal.

The U.S. created some quality chances in the first half, notably a shot by striker Josh Sargent in the 19th deflected off a defender and hit the post, and a forward Weston McKennie header in the 21st was saved by Panama keeper Orlando Mosquera.

Sargent scored on a loose ball in the box in the 24th, but was called for offsides. Although the Americans had 60% possession for the half, they managed only three shots, but Panama had just one.

The second half was more of the same: U.S. attacks and the occasional Panama counter, but no goals. Then in stoppage time – at 90+4 – a pass from the top of the box from forward Adalberto Carrasquilla found substitute striker Cecilio Waterman, who had space and sent a right-footed shot on a diagonal from the right side of the box to the bottom left corner … right past U.S. keeper Matt Turner for the game-winning goal.

The U.S. ended with 66.5% possession and a 12-3 edge on shots, but it was not enough. Canada and Mexico played in the nightcap. The final is on Sunday.

● Freestyle Skiing & Snowboard ● The Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom was held on Thursday at the FIS Freestyle & Snowboard World Championships in Engadin (SUI), with two veteran champions collecting another title.

The men’s PGS gold went to Italy’s 44-year-old Roland Fischnaller, earning a World title in 2025, 10 years after winning the Parallel Slalom way back in 2015. It’s his seventh career Worlds medal (2-3-2) and he defeated German Stefan Baumeister by 0.09 in the final; he won his first Worlds medal since 2019!

Korean Sang-ho Lee, the 2018 Olympic PGS runner-up, won the bronze – his first Worlds medal – over Dario Caviezel (SUI), who was disqualified.

Czech star Ester Ledecka won the women’s PGS final over 2023 World Champion Tsubaki Miki (JPN) , crossing with a 0.48 margin, for her third Worlds gold (1 in Parallel Slalom, 2 in PGS) to go along with two Olympic PGS golds.

Aleksandra Krol-Walas (POL), 34, won her second straight Worlds bronze in this event, defeating Swiss Ladina (Jenny) Caviezel – wife of Dario Caviezel – by 0.14 seconds.

● Ski & Snowboard ● U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced a high-profile, three-year agreement with J.Crew as the “official lifestyle-apparel partner.” So what will the goods look like?

According to the announcement:

“The product collections will feature signature J.Crew categories reimagined through an aspirational ski lens. Inspired by vintage ski logos and archival Olympic patches, these exclusive winter collections will feature sweaters, loungewear and cold-weather accessories for women, men and kids.”

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Pioneering U.S. member Anita DeFrantz celebrates Kirsty Coventry’s landslide Presidential win

By
Karen Rosen
-
International Olympic Committee member Anita DeFrantz of the U.S., speaking at the 144th IOC Session (Photo: IOC video screen shot).

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≡ TSX EXCLUSIVE ≡

/A very special story by TSX correspondent Karen Rosen with Anita DeFrantz, the senior member of the International Olympic Committee in the United States./

No one would have faulted Anita DeFrantz for skipping the 144th Session of the International Olympic Committee. DeFrantz is weakened by medicine she takes to battle cancer and also suffers from multiple sclerosis.

“I said to my brothers, ‘I’m going. Nothing here on earth or beyond will stop me from being there,'” said DeFrantz, an American athlete, Olympic organizer and activist who has been an IOC member since 1986. “Then I thought, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said that part about earth or beyond.”

The 1976 Olympic bronze medalist in rowing, now 72, was determined to show up to support  Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, the second woman to run for IOC president. DeFrantz was the first in 2001.

She has been pushing a walker on wheels around the Costa Navarino resort. “As I’m walking around,” DeFrantz said, “I notice one leg is dragging, but she won! That was the mission.”

And DeFrantz could have been the vote that put Coventry over the top. The twice-Olympic champion swimmer from Zimbabwe needed 49 votes to win on the first ballot and got exactly that number.

“I was expecting a lot of people to vote for her and I hoped it would be the first round, because then it gets icky if it’s not,” DeFrantz said. “People start changing their votes and you can’t keep up with what’s happening.”

She said people have been telling her that her vote was the crucial one. “I say, ‘Thank you for those kind words. And it was the right thing to do.”

When Coventry’s victory was announced, DeFrantz was one of the first to congratulate her, using her walker to cut in front of some colleagues, but she said they were OK with it.

Then DeFrantz told Coventry, “Congratulations. You’re my star.”

Coventry got emotional talking about DeFrantz during her press conference. She called her a “huge inspiration to me and to many women. And I was just really proud that I could make her proud.”

It’s significant that Coventry won in the IOC session named for Olympia, where women were not allowed to compete in the ancient Games. The French founder of the modern Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, whose heart is buried in Olympia, didn’t approve of women in the Olympics.

“We need to have all of the world represented within the IOC,” DeFrantz said. “When I was elected, I was one of five women out of 98 IOC members and now we have 43 percent (of the 109 members) are women.

“We have enough to make a difference. Five of us couldn’t make a difference.”

Some of the British press have said IOC President Thomas Bach, who lobbied for Coventry as his successor, told DeFrantz she had to come.

“Absolutely not,” DeFrantz said. “Thomas couldn’t direct me to do anything. I agree with him on a lot of stuff and I follow through and I do my best for the Olympic Movement because I love it.”

She also rejected the idea that Bach directed IOC members to vote for Coventry “because people don’t want to be pushed around,” DeFrantz said. “And if they got pushed around by the president, they probably didn’t vote for her.”

When DeFrantz ran for IOC president in 2001, she lost to Jacques Rogge. “I learned a lot and I appreciated it,” DeFrantz said. “And afterwards people would come up to me and say, ‘You know, I just couldn’t vote for you because President (Juan Antonio Samaranch) was worried about Un Yong Kim getting enough votes and that would have been not good at all.'”

DeFrantz was a longtime chair of the IOC Women’s Commission and was elected to the IOC Executive Board.

Coventry came up through the Athletes’ Commission and also ascended to the EB.

“She managed the Athletes’ Commission during the phase of ‘We want to protest on the podium,’ and that didn’t happen,” DeFrantz said. “And then she’s been chair of the Brisbane coordination commission and helped them understand that there’s things you have to do and can’t do and shouldn’t do because it will blow you out of the water. So, she’s had leadership responsibilities.”

DeFrantz also praised Coventry’s record as sports minister in Zimbabwe, including her handling of a football scandal. “She went from being the most popular minister to being the least popular minister because she stood firm,” DeFrantz said. “And that showed courage and determination and the ability to stand up against people who no longer like you.”

DeFrantz was too sick to go to Lausanne in January – “My brothers wouldn’t let me” – when Coventry and her six rivals made presentations to the IOC membership. But they didn’t even dare to try this time.

“I’m so proud of my colleagues for doing this,” DeFrantz said. “I’m so proud that the Olympic Movement is finally looking like the rest of the world.”

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Coe, Eliasch, Lappartient and Samaranch on the election; “It’s not divisive. We’ll all rally behind her.”

By
Rich Perelman
-
The IOC Presidential candidates: (top) Coventry, Eliasch, Lappartient; (bottom) Al Hussein, Coe, Samaranch, Watanabe.

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

While Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry was elected to be the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee on the first round of voting, there were also six others who did not win.

TSX correspondent Karen Rosen tracked some of them down at the IOC Session in Costa Navarino, Greece.

● Sebastian Coe (GBR: World Athletics President):

“I’m really pleased for Kirsty. We’ve got an athlete at the head of the organization. She and I actually spoke about that a couple of weeks ago in Frankfurt and we both agreed that it was really important and I’m very pleased for her.

“That’s a very good result for the athletes and sport at heart.

“Look, actually the process I found absolutely fascinating because I’ve been doing this like the other candidates for the best part of six months and I’ve had some of the broadest and longest conversations with many of the members and many organizations outside of the Movement, which has also been important. So I have a very clear view which was clearly I hope expressed in the manifesto, sports front and first and athletes at the heart of the decision-making process, so it was a prospectus I put forward.”

Asked about his own disappointing result, Coe observed:

“It’s very early to start poring over the numbers, but I think it’s pretty clear that the athletes and in particular the female members voted for her in very big numbers in the first round.”

“[I]t’s important an athlete is the head of the movement. It will have the confidence of the athletes. Clearly athletes voted in large numbers together in particular with many of the female membership and that’s what it is. That’s important. I wish her well. It’s a massive, massive job.”

And now?

“Tomorrow I’m off to China for the World Indoor Athletics Championship, so it’s actually important for me to be back in the sport.

“I’m not putting on a brave face. I’m fine. Clearly, it’s a disappointing result, but that’s what happens when you go into elections.”

● Johan Eliasch (GBR: International Ski & Snowboard President):

“I think we have the right person in the right place. We had a big, big first-round victory and now I’m sure the membership made a choice. It was very clear and she deserved the victory.”

Asked about whether Coventry will adopt some of his sustainability concepts, Eliasch said, “I hope so for the better of the movement. There are many good ideas that have come out of this.”

He was asked if he wasted his time in being a candidate: “The opposite. This has given winter sport the opportunity to have a stronger voice in the movement than normal, but very important topics on the agenda to make sure that we stay ahead of the curve.”

● David Lappartient (FRA: Union Cycliste Internationale President):

“It’s first the vote of the members, the member has to make the decision and they are alone in front of the box. [IOC President] Thomas Bach can have some feelings. It’s always the same in an election, you can have a preferred candidate, but it was the choice finally of all the members, so we have to respect this choice. I don’t think Thomas Bach put 49 ballots himself in the box.”

Asked about the impact of having a woman as President, Lappartient noted:

“I think it’s a strong message because she’s the first female. The first female to enter the IOC, if I’m correct, is 1981. So a little bit more than 40 years after, a female is president of the IOC. So that’s a nice message. Gender equality was clearly top priority in our agenda and with this I think we achieved this, so that’s great.”

As for the women members voting en masse for Coventry:

“For sure, not all of them, but some of them. Yes, clearly a female and also athletes I think also. But if you want to be elected, you have to unite people, so she was the best one to do this. So well done.”

He expressed his disappointment in receiving only four votes this way: “Yes, for sure. I was expecting more, but it’s life. So we have to accept the choice of our colleagues.”

● Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP):

“It’s a very clear victory. It’s not divisive. We’ll all rally behind her. It’s good and the messaging, the presidency goes out of Europe, the president goes to a woman, the president goes to a different generation and we’ll all be there behind her. The result is a very good result. It’s better than a split result.”

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Coventry talks on winning, women, doping, Trump and more

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ COVENTRY ELECTED ≡

In a whirlwind of activity after being elected as the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry held a 20-question, 30-minute news conference at the IOC Session in Costa Navarino, Greece.

She was asked about being the first female head of the IOC and immediately paid tribute to another pioneer for women’s sport:

“I might get a little emotional about [U.S. member] Anita DeFrantz. A huge inspiration to me and to many women And I was just really proud that I could make her proud.

“She was the first woman to run for this position. And like I said, she inspired me. She’s been a huge mentor of mine since I came into the movement in 2013.

“And yeah, it is significant. I think it will take a little bit of time to truly sink in. But women like her paved the way for women like me. And I want to pave the way for younger generation, especially because I have two young daughters.”

And barely an hour after being elected, she was already being questioned about what will happen about doping in sports and dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump on issues related to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles:

“Firstly, when it comes to anti-doping – and being a former Olympian, well, not former, an Olympian and a former athlete – it’s incredibly important and everyone should be held to the exact same standards. Our athletes are held to the same standards and the entire Movement around them should be held to the same standards. That’s something that I will not waver from. It’s very important for me that that happens.

“And we may have a bit of work to do to make sure that that actually is put into place.

“But one of the congratulations that I received was from the WADA president and vice president and director general and we’ll have a strong working relationship.”

“In terms of your first question when it comes to the USA and L.A., I have been dealing with – let’s say – difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old. And first and foremost, what I have learned is that communication will be key. That is something that will happen early on. My firm belief is that President Trump is a huge lover of sports.

“He will want these Games to be significant. He will want them to be a success.
“And we will not waver from our values. And our values of solidarity and ensuring every athlete that qualifies for the Olympic Games as the possibility to attend the Olympic Games and be safe during the Olympic Games.”

A five-time Olympian in swimming and a seven-time medal winner, Coventry is the Minister for Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, originally appointed in 2018. She will step down from that role – she ran for the IOC Presidency with the full support of her administration back home – and will move to Lausanne, Switzerland to take over as the IOC President, bringing husband Tyrone Seward and their two young daughters with her.

IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) spoke to reporters before Coventry, a happy man as he has supported Coventry as a rising star in the Movement since he became President in 2013. Of her victory, he observed:

“I think she will have a very strong mandate, with this clear win in the first round, which is also giving a great signal of unity of the Olympic Movement. …

“It is a surprise, but it is a strong signal, again, of the unity of the Olympic Movement.”

He said he has invited Coventry for breakfast on Friday, to discuss the transition, and called on all of the other candidates (and voters) to rally behind Coventry.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Kirsty Coventry elected 10th President of the IOC in one-round vote

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC President-elect Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), addressing the IOC members after her election (Photo: IOC video screen shot).

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≡ COVENTRY ELECTED ≡

Upon the announcement of her election as the next President of the International Olympic Committee at the 144th IOC Session in Greece, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry addressed the IOC members:

“Dear President and my very dear colleagues:

“This is an extraordinary moment. As a nine-year-old girl, I never thought that I would be standing up here one day, getting to give back to this incredible Movement of ours.

“This is not just a huge honor, but it is a reminder of my commitment to every single one of you that I will lead this organization with so much pride, with the values at the core and I will make every one of you very, very proud, and hopefully extremely confident in the decision that you’ve taken today.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart and now we’ve got some work together, and I would like to really thank the candidates, all of my candidates. This race was an incredible race, and it made us better. It made us a stronger Movement. I know from all of the conversations that I’ve had with every single one of you how much stronger our Movement is going to be when we now come back together and deliver on some of those ideas that we all shared.

“Thank you very much for this moment and thank you very much for this honor.”

Coventry won the one-round vote over six other candidates, with 49 votes, the exact minimum number required to win in the first round, out of 97 votes cast:

● 28: Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP)
● 8: Sebastian Coe (GBR)
● 4: David Lappartient (FRA)
● 4: Morinari Watanabe (JPN)
● 2: Prince Feisal Al Hussein (JOR)
● 2: Johan Eliasch (GBR)

At 41, she will be the second-youngest IOC President ever, and brings multiple firsts, including being the first woman President of the IOC and the first from Africa. She has extensive U.S. ties, having swum collegiately at Auburn University.

She reflected on what happened a few minutes later:

“It’s like winning my first Olympic medal in 2004, it’s a little bit surreal. You’ve gone six months, working really hard, speaking to all the members. I’m just truly grateful to them, for them to have put so much confidence and trust into me.”

Asked about the message sent by the membership by electing a woman, an African and on the first ballot, Coventry observed:

“It sends a really powerful signal. It’s a signal that we’re truly global and that we have evolved into an organization that is truly open to diversity. And we’re going to continue working that road in the next eight years.”

And the first thing to do?

“We’re going to come together, sit down with President [Thomas] Bach, we’re going to have a few months for a handover-takeover. What I want to focus on, is bring all the candidates together.

“There were so many good ideas, and exchanges over the last six months, I’d really like to leverage off of that, and than really bring everyone back together, have a re-set, look at what the IOC members and our Olympic Movement and family and decide how, exactly, we’re going to move forward in the future. What is it that we want to focus on, in the first six months?

“I have some ideas, but part of my campaign was listening to IOC members and hearing what they have to say, hearing how we want to move together.”

Noting that she was an Olympic gold medalist from Athens in 2004, she added, “Greece seems to be my lucky charm.”

LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman wrote on X:

“Congratulations Mrs. Kirsty Coventry on your election as the President of the IOC; we are excited to partner with you as we prepare to deliver an unforgettable Games experience in 2028.”

Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 organizing committee President Fraser Bullock saluted her win, saying “Kirsty Coventry represents a bright future for the Olympic Movement and the unity it brings to our world. …

“We will look to her for guidance as an accomplished Olympic champion, and a young, next-generational leader who has been a strong athlete voice and understands full well the impact the Olympic Movement can have on humanity.”

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TSX BULLETIN: International Olympic Committee elects Kirsty Coventry as 10th President

By
Rich Perelman
-
Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) (Photo: IOC/Greg Martin).

Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) (Photo: IOC/Greg Martin).

LOS ANGELES 2028: IOC appreciates the “acceleration” of the planning for LA28, revised venue plan to be presented in April

By
Rich Perelman
-
LA28 chief executive Reynold Hoover addressing the 144th IOC Session in Greece (Image: IOC video screen shot).

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≡ 144th IOC SESSION ≡

“While fire has brought us the unimaginable, our Olympics will open with the lighting of a flame, that will be our new symbol of hope for the City of Angels.”

LA28 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee Chair Casey Wasserman told the International Olympic Committee at Thursday’s IOC Session that the January wildfires in the Los Angeles area will not hold back the 2028 Games, but will be the backdrop for their success:

“We are using our platform to uplift and support communities, to drive and accelerate the rebuilding of the affected areas, and to engage our partners to be part of the re-imagination of our city. Los Angeles is a city defined by its resilience and determination; our unity in difficult times is what makes Los Angeles extraordinary, and everybody loves a comeback story.”

U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Chair Gene Sykes, who lives in Los Angeles, explained:

“The recent, tragic wildfires tested our community, yet they illuminated our resilience and determination. In these moments, the Olympic values of respect and friendship rise from the ashes, reinforcing what makes our city remarkable. … The work undertaken to prepare for the LA28 Games reflects our commitment to demonstrating that Los Angeles will be an exceptional host city.”

Wasserman and chief executive Reynold Hoover provided a new level of detail into an accelerating development of the 2028 plan. Hoover said, “The state of your OCOG [Olympic Games organizing committee] at LA28, is strong and getting stronger every day, as we add new talent, new expertise, new athletes to our growing team.” He noted that since he joined LA28 last July, 75 new staff members have been hired and 75 more are to be hired by mid-May:

“We have completed the re-organization of our OCOG to operationally plan, execute and deliver an incredible Olympic and Paralympic experience for the world.”

Moreover, some major milestone items will be presented for approval to the IOC Executive Board at its 9 April meeting:

● Olympic venue master plan
● Sports event program and athlete quotas
● Accommodations allocation plan
● Ticket pricing strategy

Hoover said that major enabling agreements on infrastructure and telecommunications will be concluded by the end of this month, “a substantial step for Games delivery and experience.”

First cuts of operating plans for the functional areas are expected in May, with help from Paris 2024 chief executive Etienne Thobois, who is assisting as a senior advisor to LA28. The IOC Coordination Commission is expected to meet in Los Angeles in June, and the competition schedule by session will be available for approval by the end of that month.

Hoover stressed, “I believe it is important for LA28 to not only be viewed as an Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, but as a civic organization,” and added:

“I am excited to share that our team will launch the LA28 volunteer program later this year that will have an impact not just during the Games, but during the next three years leading up to them, and the years after.”

Chief Athlete Officer Janet Evans talked about the in-depth efforts to integrate athletes into the organizing committee, as both staff members and interns, to be able to share in the Games development, but also be exposed to what has to happen to create the events in which athletes participate.

Wasserman talked about the increasing success of the commercial sponsorship program as well:

“Last year, and in the first couple months of this year, we have closed over $500 million of sponsorship revenue … and our pipeline, as it exists today, will get us to 80% of our lifetime goal of $2.5 billion in sponsorship revenue in short order. This is an area we feel very optimistic about and look forward to closing many more deals in the coming months.”

The IOC’s Coordination Commission Chair, Nicole Hoevertsz (ARU) – who was a synchronized swimmer at the 1984 Los Angeles Games – was also positive about the progress at LA28:

● “In the last six months, the organizing committee has undergone an intense period of reorganization, under the leadership of Casey and Reynold. A new governance model has been implemented, a large wave of recruitment has taken place, with a particular focus on operations. New dynamics have been established in the relationship with all delivery partners and Olympic stakeholders.

“These changes were necessary, with the acceleration that comes with becoming the next host of the Games and receiving the undivided attention of all the stakeholders. As a priority, LA28 has to confirm the building blocks of the project.”

● “It is reassuring to observe that LA28 is positioning and resourcing itself to meet the challenges coming with the intensification of operational planning head-on.”

● “Over the last month, we have witnessed a significant acceleration of interactions with local, state and Federal partners, and this is very welcome.”

She also noted more interactions with the International Federations, the commercial partners and upcoming meetings with international broadcasters and National Olympic Committees. A total of 14 million tickets are planned to be sold for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Questions were asked about access to the U.S. in view of changes being made by the U.S. State Department; Wasserman explained that LA28 has been proactive:

● “On the Federal level, we are making significant strides with the new administration. I have met with President Trump and his team both prior to his inauguration, and again last month, and we have a regular cadence across all Federal agencies, with leadership from the President to make sure these Games deliver for all our constituents.”

● “We will have a fully-staffed desk at State focusing just on this issue in the next 12 months to get prepared for this and I don’t anticipate any problems from any country, to come and participate and to have their delegations in full force and effect of the Games in Los Angeles.”

Wasserman also indicated that a traffic management plan is being developed, tailored specifically to making transportation in Southern California work during the Games period.

Following the LA28 presentation, the Session took up the issue of boxing and 2028. Boxing was formally approved as a part of the 2028 Olympic program by a show of hands, without any votes against or abstentions.

With this confirmation, the LA28 program is set to be the largest ever, at 36 sports in all, ahead of Tokyo 2020 (33) and Paris 2024 (32).

In Los Angeles, a letter from Hoover to the City of Los Angeles explained some additional venue changes for 2028.

Preliminary football matches were planned to be held at BMO Stadium in Exposition Park, the 22,000-seat home of the LAFC franchise of Major League Soccer. Instead, preliminary football games “will take place in several stadiums outside of California.”

So, LA28 now wants to use this facility for “two yet to be announced team sports” new to the program, meaning probably flag football and lacrosse. The five added sports for LA28 are baseball and softball, cricket, squad and flag football and lacrosse; baseball and softball are expected to be at Dodger Stadium and in Oklahoma City, and BMO Stadium is not really cricket-friendly.

The letter also asks to move the Paralympic sport of Sitting Volleyball from UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion – which will be used strictly for training within the Village – to the Long Beach Arena.

The Los Angeles City Council is required, under its agreement with LA28, to approve any changes of sports or venues inside the City; however, the Council’s Ad Hoc Olympic and Paralympic Committee has not met since last June.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Milan Cortina 2026 on track, Brisbane 2032 ahead of schedule, French Alps just starting

By
Rich Perelman
-
Remarkable: Milan Cortina 2026 chief executive Andrea Varnier, showing a list of sponsorships under negotiation! (Image: IOC video screen shot).

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≡ 144th IOC SESSION ≡

The Thursday morning reports at the International Olympic Committee’s 144th Session in Costa Navarino, Greece focused on the upcoming organizing committees for the Olympic, Winter and Youth Olympic Games.

The overall tone was highly positive, especially from the upcoming Winter Games in Italy next February.

The Milan Cortina Winter Games organizers offered an energetic report, with IOC member and organizing committee chief Giovanni Malago (ITA) noting that while prior to the year-to-go events, there was little notice of the Games, there is now a “growing sense of expectation and excitement.”

Chief executive Andrea Varnier noted that the interest level has been confirmed by the sale of more than 613,000 tickets – out of 1.5 million – in the first two sales windows and before the general sales begin on 8 April. The largest buyers from outside of Italy have been from Germany, the U.S., Britain, Switzerland, The Netherlands and France.

Exceptionally impressive was that buyers in the 25-34 age group bought 30% of the tickets and 25% were sold to the 35-45 age group.

Volunteer applications for 18,000 positions has exceeded 100,000, with half under age 35.

On construction, the Olympic Village in Milan is “almost complete,” and while the timeline on the Santaguilia ice hockey arena is tight, the private developers assure that it will be available by October, so that a temporary ice sheet generator can be installed for a test tournament in early December.

IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) noted that while some Italian-organized events in the past have been nail-biters right to the end on readiness, “We are not nervous any more” about Milan Cortina.

Brisbane 2032 President Andrew Liveris, in his always-enthusiastic manner, explained that the organizing committee has created a two-part work program of (1) strategy and development from now through 2028, and (2) the delivery and operations of the Games to 2032.

He emphasized that the “brand blueprint” and commercial strategy have been set, well ahead of being able to sell sponsorships in 2027. The Games logo will be created in 2026.

A major undertaking is in community engagement, not only locally in Queensland, but across Australia and in Oceania. A deep commitment to working with indigenous peoples was also emphasized.

Chief Executive Cindy Hook (USA) said the organizing committee has 35 staff at present.

Liveris spoke briefly about the upcoming Queensland government’s announcement – on 25 March – of the venues to be constructed, and said he was “very positive about the way forward.”

Hook said that many federations have already contacted Brisbane 2032 about possible added sports, but these will have to be balanced against the athlete capacity in the Village, and venue availability.

The future French Alps 2030 Winter Games is just getting going, but new President Edgar Grospiron – the 1992 Olympic Moguls champion – emphasized the existing venues which regularly host World Cups and World Championships in winter sports.

The Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 organizing committee – recently formally launched – was represented by President Fraser Bullock. No report was presented.

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PANORAMA: Luge Sec. Gen. says Cortina track “all green lights”; WADA now concerned on contamination excuses; U.S. men’s football heading to no. 1?

By
Rich Perelman
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World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka (POL) at the 2025 WADA Annual Symposium (Photo: WADA).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● “Right now it’s all green lights for Cortina. Looking good.”

That’s International Luge Federation (FIL) Secretary General Dwight Bell of the U.S., speaking with TSX correspondent Karen Rosen at the IOC Session in Greece, confirming confidence that the new sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo will, in fact, be the venue for bobsled, luge and skeleton for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. He added:

“We’re set to train, do our pre-homologation next week along with IBSF [International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation]. And so, right now we’re planning to be there. We’ll be there on Monday and we’re ready to go.

“They’ve been working hard and doing a great job. The quality is great. We’ve got a number of athletes and coaches and experts going there, along with IBSF, going to show up Monday and we’ll be there all week. So it looks good.”

The head of SiMiCo, the Italian government organization charged with overseeing the time-challenged construction effort, Fabio Saldini, told The Associated Press:

“The track’s structure is done. We had it in our calendars to finish by March 16 and that’s when it was finished.

“As of today, 50% of the ice is ready. We had some trouble last week due to high temperatures, rain and snow. But then we covered the track with nets and yesterday we actually put down too much ice.”

Some 20 construction staff are engaged in finishing the preparations, aiming to finish on Sunday. The Monday homologation trials will be carefully monitored by the FIL, IBSF and International Olympic Committee officials. An IBSF World Cup is already scheduled for November as the first major competition on the new track.

If for some reason, the track cannot be used for the Winter Games, the Milan Cortina organizers have arranged a back-up plan, using the famed Mt. Van Hoevenberg track in Lake Placid, New York.

● World Anti-Doping Agency ● The WADA Annual Symposium opened in Lausanne, with the furor over the Chinese swimming incident in January 2021 continuing to reverberate.

WADA President Witold Banka (POL) spoke to the concerns about contamination claims, which were incidentally the excuse used by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency to exonerate 21 swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine in 2021. Banka explained in his address:

“[O]f course, 2024 wasn’t just about celebration. It was also a year of challenges faced, in particular due to the serious matter of contamination. As has been the case over WADA’s history, we saw this as an opportunity to further strengthen the global anti-doping system — this time as part of the World Anti-Doping Code update process that is currently underway and will culminate in December at the sixth World Conference on Doping in Sport in Busan, Republic of Korea.

“The cases sparked an essential discussion about how we can better manage contamination. Nowadays, laboratories can detect smaller and smaller quantities of substances, which means that, more and more, we are seeing those who test positive putting forward contamination defenses.

“The challenge for WADA, other Anti-Doping Organizations and, ultimately, for tribunals adjudicating these cases is to distinguish between cases of genuine contamination, and cases of well-resourced cheats who fabricate a contamination defense. If the system is too rigid, innocent athletes will suffer injustice. If the system is too lenient, cheats will prosper.

“Accordingly, WADA is asking its Code Revision Team to reflect on this and consider the need for regulatory improvements – always with the goal of ensuring harmonization for athletes and Anti-Doping Organizations, which is at the core of WADA’s global collaborative movement for doping-free sport.”

Observed: Perhaps, this is progress for WADA, given the continuing fury over the Chinese swimming incident? Could be.

● Transgender ● The Trump Administration has frozen $175 million in Federal funding from the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services, for continuing to allow transgender women to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics.

A senior White House official confirmed to the New York Post, “UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room,” referring to 2022 NCAA women’s 500-yard Freestyle champ Lia Thomas.

Added the White House official, “This is immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to those universities.”

● Cross Country Skiing ● Another FIS World Cup, another win for Norwegian superstar Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo.

In Tallinn (EST), Klaebo won his 11th race of the season and has clinched the seasonal overall title, his fifth. He took the Freestyle Sprint in 2:22.92, ahead of teammate Harald Amundsen and Jules Chappaz (FRA), who tied for second at 2:23.10.

The women’s Sprint went to Swiss Nadine Faehndrich, the 2025 Worlds Sprint bronze medalist, who got her first World Cup of the season in 2:42.37, almost a second ahead of Maja Dahlqvist (SWE: 2:43.35) and then American Julia Kern (2:43.67), who won her first World Cup medal of the season.

The World Cup season wraps up in Lahti (FIN) this weekend.

● Figure Skating ● The International Skating Union announced the finalists in its awards categories for 2025, for Best Costume, Best Newcomer, Most Entertaining Program, Best Choreographer and Best Coach.

U.S. finalists include Ilia Malinin (costume), Sarah Everhardt (newcomer), and Malinin again for Most Entertaining Program. A panel of six former World Champions will make the final selections, with the winners to be announced on 30 March during the ISU Worlds in Boston.

● Football ● U.S. men’s National Team coach Mauricio Ponchettino (ARG) told reporters that the U.S. can be a power in men’s football too:

“I think we can dominate soccer, football, maybe in 10 or 15 years’ time, or maybe less: five, six, seven years. The potential is massive. In five or 10 years, for sure we can be no. 1 in the world.

“For us, the pressure is going to be there because we are a host. In sport, in everything that Americans are involved in, they want to win. The players know it’s going to be massive pressure and now our President [Donald Trump] likes to put pressure on, but it’s welcome. That means we are going to feel the adrenaline we need to feel. We are ready to deliver.”

● Freestyle Skiing & Snowboard ● The Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships are on, in Engadin (SUI), with the Freestyle Moguls first up, and familiar faces on the podium.

Japan’s Ikuma Horishima, the men’s World Champion way back in 2017, won his second Worlds gold over Canadian star Mikael Kingsbury by 89.03 to 82.68, denying Kingsbury a ninth Worlds gold. Korea’s Dae-yoon Jung was a surprise third at 81.76, ahead of American Nick Page (80.77).

France’s Perrine Laffont won the 2018 Olympic Moguls and won her sixth Worlds gold in the women’s competition, scoring 77.92 to 75.15 for Japan’s Hinako Tomitaka, who her first Worlds medal. Canada’s Maia Schwinghammer got the bronze at 74.92; American Jaelin Kauf, the Beijing Olympic runner-up in 2022, finished eighth.

● Gymnastics ● USA Gymnastics announced six new members of its Hall of Fame, to be inducted in August in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the U.S. nationals. Three were athletes:

● Morgan Hurd, the 2017 World All-Around champ and 2018 Worlds Team gold medalist;

● Missy Marlowe , a five-time NCAA champion for Utah and a 1988 U.S. Olympian;

● Rebecca Sereda, a Rhythmic star who was the 2014 Pan American Championships silver medalist and Team gold medalist.

Three coaches are to be honored: Gary Anderson, Barry Weiner and Marc Yancey.

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BOXING: Algeria’s Paris gold medalist Khelif aiming for 2028, says her victory “was the best response after all the bullying”

By
Rich Perelman
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The infamous second-round 2024 Olympic women's 66 kg bout with Imane Khelif (ALG) at left and Italian Angela Carini on the right (Photo: Chabe01 via Wikipedia)

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≡ IMANE KHELIF ITV INTERVIEW ≡

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a 2022 World Championships silver in the women’s 63 kg class, was controversially disqualified from fighting in the final of the 2023 Worlds 66 kg division and then won a gold medal in Paris in the Olympic women’s 66 kg tournament.

On the way, she was accused of being a man, according to the International Boxing Association, which did not publicly share any scientific testing data, but disqualified her after she won four bouts at the 2023 Worlds. The accusations against her and fellow Paris women’s gold medalist Yu-ting Lin (TPE) were one of the enduring issues in Paris.

Khelif spoke about her situation at length in an interview with British ITV News, explaining she has a clear conscience and is looking forward to competing in Los Angeles in 2028, now that boxing will be returned to the program. She told ITV News Sports Editor Steve Scott:

‘‘I won the gold medal, which was the best response after all the bullying I was subjected to. My response during the Paris Olympics was always in the ring. And responding by winning the gold medal was even better.

“I believe the gold medal at the Paris Olympics was the best medal of the entire Games. It was a victory that held significance on every level – ethical, athletic, and even in terms of sportsmanship.”

She was aware of the online abuse she received, and has filed an action against it:

“When I saw that even heads of state, famous figures, and former athletes were speaking about me without having verified facts, it shocked me.

“They were speaking just for the sake of talking, without any reliable or documented information. I also noticed on social media that people were discussing the issue without any trustworthy sources. That was what affected me the most in the beginning – why was I, Imane Khalif, the target of such a campaign?’

“It affected me mentally, as well as my family. Even my mother was deeply affected – she was going to the hospital almost every day. My relatives were also impacted, and the entire Algerian people felt the weight of the situation. This went beyond just a sporting issue or a game; it escalated into a major media campaign that could have had a severe negative effect on me, my family, and my psychological well-being.

“I was deeply affected mentally and felt discouraged, but I remained aware of what was happening. Even during the Paris Olympics, I had a team of specialist doctors who provided me with support and assistance. Without their support, I might have fallen into a spiral of depression.”

And she shared her views on the furor surrounding her in Paris:

● As for the International Boxing Association, the source of the accusations against her:

“The IBA is not recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which means this federation lacks credibility and is not trusted within the Olympic Games… At this point, I can say that the IBA is a thing of the past.

“As we say in Algeria, those who have nothing to hide should have no fear. The truth became clear at the Paris Olympics – the injustice was exposed, and later, the truth was acknowledged by the Olympic Committee in Paris.”

● If the IOC returned to a sex-screening program in the future, using a cheek swab, would she participate?

“I have no idea about that topic. The IOC has a team of experts and specialists handling such matters. I don’t have any information on this, nor is it my place to comment on it.

“For me, I see myself as a girl, just like any other girl. I was born a girl, raised as a girl, and have lived my entire life as one.

“I have competed in many tournaments, including the Tokyo Olympics and other major competitions, as well as four World Championships. All of these took place before I started winning and earning titles. But once I began achieving success, the campaigns against me started.“

● She plans to participate in the 2025 World Boxing World Championships in Britain and aims to return to the Olympic Games in 2028. About comments from some, such as U.S. President Donald Trump, who have complained about men competing in women’s sports, she was clear:

“I will give you a straightforward answer: the U.S. president issued a decision related to transgender policies in America. I am not transgender. This does not concern me, and it does not intimidate me. That is my response.

“Of course, I defend with everything I have this gold medal… I continue my dream, my everything.”

Above all, she says, she has come through her ordeal stronger:

“This experience has taught me a lot. I believe that if the old Imane operated at 50% of her potential, then the Imane Khalif of today is even more motivated and determined.

“I have learned so much from this campaign against me, and what happened at the Paris Olympics was an eye-opening experience. I feel even stronger now than I was before.”

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Candidates confident; honorary member Pound says process “makes the Vatican conclave look like it’s open house”

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC Presidential candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP) speaking with reporters at the 144th IOC Session (TSX photo by Karen Rosen).

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

Wednesday’s meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Costa Navarino, Greece was busy, but with enough time to allow IOC Presidential candidates to chat with reporters, including TSX correspondent Karen Rosen. Some highlights, listed by candidate, in alphabetical order:

● Kirsty Coventry (ZIM):

“It’s been a busy few months so I’m excited about tomorrow.

“I’m excited. I think it’s the athlete’s spirit kicking back in with all the adrenaline in that final straight of the 200 meters, that last 25 meters. Just staying focused and staying in my lane. I like competition.”

● Prince Feisal Al Hussein (JOR):

“I’m very confident. It’s been a fantastic experience. Some people, I think there’s an old saying, it’s not the destination, but it’s the journey that makes it so fantastic. So I’m confident and we’ll see.

“You all think it’s a tight one, I can’t second-guess what the members are going to do, but I’m very, very confident. I’ve had a lot of very good feedback. People are happy with how I’ve presented my manifesto. And so, at the end of the day, they have to decide. I trust them, that they will do what’s in the best interest of the Olympic Movement and that’s why I think I have a really good chance of winning.”

● David Lappartient (FRA):

“I really believe nobody can predict the result today. It’s clearly more open than ever. We have first of all some good candidates – I hope I’m one of these good candidates – and I of course try to convince my colleagues that my candidature is one of the best. But we’ll have to respect of course, the result. I’m sure that it’s clearly open and nobody can really predict today what will be the result. What is sure is I think there will be many rounds, six is the maximum because we are seven.”

Asked if he thought the vote could go more than three rounds, he observed: “Maybe let’s see, but I think so. I don’t think that one of the candidates to strong enough to secure the majority, but who knows.”

As for where he sees himself right now:

“Still in the race. I will use my sport, bicycle race. I think that it’s riding fast, but I’m in the first part of the [leading] bunch. So I’ve not been dropped from the bunch, so I still believe it’s possible, but of course, you need to take this with to be humble and to know also that you have also solid candidates and I respect my fellow colleagues who are also candidates, but I think I’m one of the potential options to be the winner tomorrow.”

● Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP):

Asked how many votes he has, Samaranch replied, “I have no idea.” He added:

“Well, I’m confident because I’m pretty proud of the work done and the messaging and what we’ve done and how we have been able to communicate.

“But confident in the result is very difficult to be, it’s a really complicated system. More than complicated, it’s a very good system. I mean all the IOC members have one thing which is extraordinarily precious, which is a vote and its confidentiality. That gives each one of us the full independence to decide whatever we think is better. That will only know, it’s only possible to know when the real votes are cast. So we will see.

“I don’t know if I will win or lose votes, but I can promise you I will be working until the very last second, until 3:59:59 tomorrow afternoon.

“I am taking something already, regardless of the result, which is the journey. Yes, they are right. The journey has been an incredible experience for myself, a personal effort that I will always cherish. And now I want to win.”

No comments were available from Britain’s Sebastian Coe or Johan Eliasch or Japan’s Morinari Watanabe.

Honorary IOC member Dick Pound (CAN) is one of the election scrutineers for tomorrow, and was asked about the process of this IOC Presidential election:

“It makes the Vatican conclave look like it’s open house. The deal is that there’s nobody except IOC members in the room and the vote counters. And you can’t bring your iPhone or anything, so they’re going to make sure that nothing gets leaked before it’s announced. …

“We’re lucky in a sense. We’ve got seven people who are prepared to stand up and take on leadership in a very difficult world. And these days it’s not glory. It’s tough. It’s 7 x 24 x 365 work for eight years. So we’re lucky to have people that are willing to stand up and then it’s just a question of who you pick in this difficult time.

“It’s all pretty discreet in the sense these are all colleagues, you know who they are, so you know quite a bit about the ones who are in the race because they’ve been around for a while. I feel for the newer members who may not have seen some of the candidates at work, but that’s the nature of renewal of any organization.”

Asked about vote-switching after the first round, he explained:

“That happens. You’re asked to commit to support in Round 1. After that, things change.

“You don’t know whether your choice stays in, or you see some movement that suggests itself to you [that] you might go in a different direction. I remember there was one member many years ago, we had a four- or five-round election and this member voted for somebody different in every round.”

And the next President will inherit a much different IOC that when Pound joined as a member in 1978:

“Certainly whoever sits in the seat of power is going to have better administrative support than any other president has ever had. [Lord Michael] Killanin was the president when I joined, there were a couple of folks in Chateau de Vidy basically being bossed around by [director general] Monique Berlioux.

“Now they have 500 or 600 people in IOC headquarters, all of whom have very high qualifications, much higher technical and other qualifications than other presidents had at that time. [Avery] Brundage and Killanin were part-time presidents. The first full-time was [Juan Antonio] Samaranch. He was there every day and he knew what was going on on every Olympic issue.”

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Paris 2024 thanked for huge success, Bach reflects on Agenda 2020, elected Honorary President

By
Rich Perelman
-
A very much stunned IOC President Thomas Bach, upon acclimation as Honorary President for Life, nominated by Aruban member Nicole Hoevertsz (at right; IOC video screen shot).

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≡ 144th IOC SESSION ≡

The opening meetings of the 144th Session of the International Olympic Committee looked mostly backwards at the achievements during the 12-year term of President Thomas Bach (GER), but took time to thanks the brilliant organization of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

A five-member delegation from the Paris organizing committee, led by President Tony Estanguet, gave a final report, summarizing the journey by referring to the adoption of the Olympic Agenda 2020 in 2014:

“Together, we were able to build a vision of the Games which were more sustainable, more responsible, exemplary and useful. In this way, we have shown that it is possible to organize Games that are both spectacular and sustainable.”

Chief Executive Etienne Thobois paid tribute to the close cooperation with the public authorities in the Paris region and in France:

“Allow me to pay a special tribute to the contribution of the public French stakeholders, as we owe them a lot for the success of these Games. Their contribution was nothing short of outstanding, whether it is about security, transport, road management, medical services, customs, cleaning and waste, cleaning of the Seine, delivering all kinds of permits, radio frequencies management, city operations, you name it.

“All the public authorities and agencies delivered in style, in full coordination with the organizing committee. Ad this is what we will remember. We were really able to work together, as a team and not to work alongside one another.”

Wise words for future organizers indeed. Thobois added, “To our summer Games friends from L.A. and Brisbane, we are happy to pass on the data. … Enjoy the ride. It is quite the rollercoaster, but it is really worth it.”

Estanguet closed:

“We French have this reputation of being a country of complainers. People are never happy. But this summer, we no longer recognize the French. They fell in love with the Games … The Games transformed our country and you made us get all that. Thank you.”

Bach followed by with remarks on his Olympic Agenda project, undertaken immediately upon his election in 2013, with confidence in the Olympic Movement at a low ebb:

“Through a series of discussions, exchanges and debates, the different pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that constitutes Olympic Agenda began to emerge. During a retreat of the IOC Executive Board in Montreux in December 2013, we laid the groundwork.

“Following the extensive discussions during the IOC Session just a couple of weeks later, we established 14 working groups, chaired by and with the participation of all of you, the IOC Members and the stakeholder representatives. They had the task to develop concrete proposals for 25 themes that would make up the pillars of the Olympic Agenda. The proposals of the working groups were then presented to the Executive Board and discussed with the constituents of the Olympic Movement at the second Olympic Summit in July 2014.

“We shared the proposals with all the IOC Commissions. In parallel, we received 1,200 ideas and 44,000 emails from stakeholders, and from civil society. This was the broadest consultation process in Olympic history. It resulted finally in 40 recommendations for Olympic Agenda 2020 – all coming from the 14 working groups and enriched by the contributions from the Olympic Movement stakeholders. Reflecting the quintessential role of the athletes in Olympic Agenda, the recommendations were officially presented by a group of Olympians representing all five continents, many of whom had contributed to this consultation. Finally, each of the 40 recommendations was individually and unanimously agreed at the IOC Session in Monaco.”

Bach noted the achievements of the IOC, helped enormously by going through the development exercise of the Olympic Agenda process:

“In the midst of a global pandemic, we did what nobody had done before: organise postponed Olympic Games under pandemic conditions. We were in uncharted territory. There was no blueprint. We had to take daily decisions on very uncertain grounds. We had doubts every day. We deliberated and we discussed. There were sleepless nights. Like everyone else in the world, we did not know, I did not know, what the future would hold.

“I could not even share my doubts and worries because this would have turned into a self- fulfilling prophecy. This was not only the case for Tokyo. Ahead of every edition of the Olympic Games during my presidency, there were serious or even existential crises. They had to be addressed in countless confidential, highest-level political consultations. It was in such situations that I felt how lonely you can be. Today I can admit how much this weighed on me. But it always helped me to know, that we all together agreed that we had to make the Olympic Games happen – we had to make them happen for the athletes.”

A long series of presentations followed on a “final report” on the Olympic Agenda, including the most recent, the Olympic Artificial Intelligence initiative, all of which saluted Bach for his 12 years as President and as one of the transformational figures in the history of the Olympic Movement. This included an impressive 30-minute video which surveyed some of the impacts of initiatives that Bach brought forward, modernizing the Movement.

Immediately following, IOC Vice President Nicole Hoevertsz (ARU) – reading prepared remarks – asked the IOC membership to elect Bach as Honorary President for Life as “a fitting tribute.”

The motion for this was made at the IOC Executive Board meeting of 17 March, and was accepted by acclamation, with a standing ovation for Bach and cheers from the usually-staid IOC membership.

Bach was clearly moved by the motion and seemed stunned by the enthusiasm for its acceptance. His honorary role will begin on 24 June 2025, when his term as President has concluded. Bach had previously submitted his IOC resignation as of that date – at 71, he could serve to age 80 – so now he will be an Honorary Member and Honorary President.

A series of thanks from 20 members over 45 minutes followed, from Pau Gasol (ESP) on behalf of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, Mustapha Berraf (ALG) on behalf of the African National Olympic Committees, Spyros Capralos (GRE) on behalf of the European Olympic Committees, Neven Ilic (CHI) for Panam Sports, Ingmar De Vos (BEL) on behalf of the summer Olympic International Federations, Ivo Ferriani (ITA) on behalf of the winter IFs, canoe Slalom star Jess Fox (AUS), Camilo Lopez (PAR), Karl Stoss (AUT), Samira Asgari (AFG), who said through tears that when the world forgot her country, the IOC – and Bach – was there in support, Yael Arad (ISR), Robin Mitchell (FIJ) on behalf of the Oceanian National Olympic Committees, Michael Mronz (GER), Allyson Felix of the U.S., who thanked Bach for encouraging her in 2021 to get involved in the IOC Athletes’ Commission, Anant Singh (RSA), Luis Mejia (DOM), Mehrez Boussayene (TUN), Luis Moreno (COL), Felicite Rwemarika (RWA) and finally Anita DeFrantz of the U.S.

Bach replied:

“I am really overwhelmed and indeed, extremely grateful to all the words you have expressed for granting me this great honor.”

He observed, in another emotional moment:

“I am grateful that after my career as athlete, I could continue to live my passion for sport. And I am grateful that you allowed me to give back to sport what I have received from the Olympic Movement.

“And my gold medal [in 1976] has changed my life, and with this office as IOC President, I had the opportunity to help others to change their life. And this is why you see a very happy man, even if he doesn’t look like it at the moment … because I’m grateful for having had this opportunity to give back.”

IOC member in Singapore Ser Miang Ng gave a report on the development of the IOC’s e-sports program, including the Olympic Esports Games to debut in 2027. He noted that when in 2021, there were five International Federations that were partners, but 13 by 2023. Now, 22 federations have proposed to be part of the Olympic Esports Games, to feature virtual sports (working with the IFs), sports simulations (working with the IFs) and traditional e-sports games.

Moreover, he explained that the IOC will launch its own e-sports products in the future.

Looking ahead to the IOC Presidential election on Thursday, it was announced that three members were not in Greece: Gerardo Werthein (ARG), Hong Zhang (CHN) and Japan’s Yasuhiro Yamashita. So, there are 106 members present.

It has been reported that the candidates will be able to vote in the election, although colleagues from their own countries will not be able to vote as long as they are still in the race. This eliminates eight members from France (3), Great Britain (2), Japan (1), and Spain (2), and President Thomas Bach (GER) will not vote in the first round.

This brings the voting total in the first round to 97, meaning 49 are needed to win. Those tracking the candidature of Zimbabwe’s two-time Olympic gold medalist Kirsty Coventry will note that there will be 52 men and 45 women voting in the first round.

Correspondent Karen Rosen reports from Costa Navarino that the conventional wisdom continues to see Coventry, Britain’s Sebastian Coe and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch as the most likely contenders to become the 10th IOC President.

There will also be elections for Vice President, with Belgian member Pierre-Olivier Beckers the only announced candidate and two spots on the Executive Board, with Capralos, Ilic, Kristin Kloster (NOR), Octavian Morariu (ROU) and Emma Terho (FIN) as candidates.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Financial report confirms $18.4 billion in confirmed revenues for 2025-36, $1.134 billion 2024 surplus!

By
Rich Perelman
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IOC Session slide showing superb future revenues for the IOC from 2025-36 (IOC video screen shot).

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≡ 144th IOC SESSION ≡

A glowing financial report highlighted the first morning of the International Olympic Committee’s 144th Session in Costa Novarino, Greece, with a slide which showed that the already-healthy IOC has committed revenues of $18.4 billion across the next 12 years:

● $7.5 billion for 2025-28
● $6.9 billion for 2029-32
● $4.0 billion for 2033-36

The IOC also published, remarkably, its financial statements for 2024, less than three months after year-end, about three months earlier than usually seen in its annual report (and also a demonstration to other federations which take a year or more to share its audited annual financials). The highlights were spectacular:

● The IOC showed $4.414 billion in revenue, with $3.291 billion spent to put on the Games and support the Olympic Movement:

● $2.121 billion to IFs-NOCs-organizing committees
● $940.4 million to Olympic operations and Solidarity
● $229.5 million for Olympic Movement promotion

That’s 74.5% of the total revenues. The IOC’s own administrative operations consumed $196.3 million (4.4%), and there was a surplus of revenues over expenses of $927.3 million (21.0%) and an additional $206.5 million in investment income. So, the IOC showed an overall gain of $1.134 billion for 2024.

The IOC regularly says it re-distributes 90% of its revenues to the Olympic Movement, but that is across a full quadrennial; a check of the IOC’s financial statements indicate it’s more like 80%, but it’s still quite a bit.

● The primary distributions from the IOC to its operating partners was itemized at $2.09 billion in 2024:

● $1.05 billion to Paris 2024
● $22.7 million to other organizing committees
● $590.1 million to International Federations
● $535.7 million to National Olympic Committees
● $320.9 million to the USOPC
● $190.0 million to the Olympic Movement Fund
● $10.1 million for TOP sponsorship costs

As part of these distributions, the IOC supports a host of Olympic Movement service organizations, including:

● $20.38 million to the World Anti-Doping Agency
● $9.14 million to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
● $2.00 million to the International Paralympic Committee

For Paris 2024, there was also a bill for television production costs of $437.2 million, an under-appreciated cost which is no longer borne by an organizing committee or a national host broadcaster.

Overall, then, the IOC’s balance sheet showed $6.120 billion in assets at the end of 2024, down from $6.492 billion at the end of 2023.

Reserves were up, however, from $3.780 billion to $4.880 billion, thanks to the success of the Paris Games.

In short, the IOC has a lot of money and is going to have a lot more coming in the future.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Photo gallery of the opening of the 144th IOC Session in ancient Olympia

By
Rich Perelman
-
Ready for the opening of the 144th IOC Session in ancient Olympia (TSX photo by Karen Rosen).

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≡ THE 144th IOC SESSION ≡

So what does an opening ceremony look like for a Session of the International Olympic Committee?

Thanks to our correspondent Karen Rosen, here’s a look at the opening, under a tent in ancient Olympia, due to rain at the site of the original Olympic Games.

●  In better weather, the flags of Greece, the IOC and the Hellenic [Greek] Olympic Committee, with the International Olympic Academy in the distance:

● Getting ready for the guests as the rain starts to increase:

● This shot has six of the seven candidates in one picture, although one has only the back of his head visible. Can you pick out (alphabetically) Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Kirsty Coventy, Sebastian Coe, David Lappartient, Juan Antonio Samaranch, and Morinari Watanabe? (Johan Eliasch is not in this shot.)

● The entertainment included the Lykeion ton Ellinidon, performing the “Pentozalis”  folk dance from Crete and a dance from Ikaria in the Northeastern Aegean region:

● Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos addressing the guests:

● IOC President Thomas Bach giving his remarks to the Session:

The actual meeting of the IOC Session will be held at The Westin Resort in Costa Navarino, Greece.

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PANORAMA: NBC and USATF extend to 2028; swim World Cup comes to U.S. in October; aluminum cans will turn into medals at Singapore Worlds!

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Athletics ● NBC Sports announced a rights extension with USA Track & Field through 2028, maintaining its hold on the U.S. national championships, to be shown on NBC and Peacock.

Additionally, USATF events in 2025 include the Los Angeles Grand Prix on 8 June and the New York Grand Prix on 21 June. The rights agreement does not include the 2028 U.S. Olympic Trials, which is licensed from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

The prior NBC-USATF agreement has been in place from 2017-2024.

In the aftermath of the death of UAE Paralympic (F34) thrower Abdullah Hayayei in 2017 due to a discus cage falling on him during a training session in east London, UK Athletics pled not guilty to a charge of corporate manslaughter and a health and safety violation, and Keith Davies, head of sport for the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships, pled not guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and a health and safety violation.

An eight-week trial was scheduled for 12 October 2026.

The Athletics Integrity Unit provisionally suspended coach Gerald Phiri, a two-time Zambian Olympian, who is coaching in the U.S., after a joint investigation with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency showed

“three athletes – all coached by Phiri – returning Adverse Analytical Findings for the same prohibited substance.

“Between July 2023 and August 2024, three track athletes tested positive for Metabolites of GW1516 (also known as Cardarine), a Metabolic Modulator, which is a non-specified substance prohibited at all times under the Prohibited List of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

“At this stage of the investigation, the AIU alleges that Phiri has committed Anti-Doping Rules Violations for the Possession of GW1516 when he was an Athlete in 2018 and 2019; the Possession of Meldonium (another Metabolic Modulator) as an Athlete Support Person in 2024; and for failing to co-operate with the investigation by providing false and inaccurate information.”

As a multi-time doping offender, Phiri could be banned for a long time if this case is successfully concluded against him.

● Boxing ● “We are not focused on the Olympics, we are focused on the IBA. The IOC and the Olympic Games are not the main focus for the federation. For us, the priority is the world championship, we are not focused on World Boxing, we are part of the IBA.”

That’s Russian Boxing Federation Secretary General Alexander Besputin, maintaining fidelity with the Russian-led IBA, which was excluded from the Olympic Movement in 2023. The IOC Session is expected to confirm World Boxing as its new governing body for Olympic boxing this week, and if so, only federations affiliated with World Boxing will be able to compete at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

That puts Russia in the bind of choosing between competing at the Olympic Games or competing in IBA tournaments. That choice does not need to be made until 2026, but it will have to be made.

● Curling ● The 46th World Curling women’s World Championship is ongoing in Uijeongbu (KOR), with Switzerland – winner of four of the last five Worlds – once again at the top of the round-robin standings.

At the halfway mark, the Swiss, skipped once again by Silvana Tirinzoni, are 6-0, ahead of Rachel Homan and defending champ Canada and South Korea (Ein-ji Gim), all at 5-1. The U.S., skipped by Tabitha Peterson, is in the middle of the pack at 3-3.

The top six teams will advance to the playoffs, which began on 22 March.

● Football ● Each of the 16 host cities for the FIFA World Cup in 2026 will have a local poster for the occasion, with the first unveiled on Tuesday in Philadelphia, in coordination with the Philadelphia Flower Show.

Official Host City Posters will be revealed every other day through 17 April.

● Swimming ● World Aquatics announced its three-stage World Cup schedule for 2025, all in 25 m pools in North America, in October:

● 10-12 October, in Carmel, Indiana (USA)
● 17-19 October, in Westmont, Illinois (USA)
● 23-25 October, in Toronto, Ontario (CAN)

The program will return the $1.2 million prize pool, with bonuses for triple winners and records; a total of $1.46 million was paid in 2024.

The U.S. has rarely hosted World Cup events. Indianapolis hosted in 2022; prior to that, you have to go back to Nassau County, New York in 2006!

The World Aquatics Championships and World Aquatics Masters Championships in Singapore is recycling 100,000 aluminum cans in order to produce the 5,000 medals needed for the victory ceremonies at both events:

“Students from five PCF Sparkletots Preschool centres, eight primary schools, and three secondary schools are leading the charge in this effort through the School Recycling League.”

The “trash-to-treasure” project will work like this:

“The collected aluminum cans will undergo open-loop recycling, which will be processed, cleaned, and smelted into medals. The final medals will be manufactured by sustainable design company ipse ipsa ipsum, ensuring that each medal – approximately 150 grams in weight – incorporates recycled materials instead of new raw aluminum. On average, 20 recycled cans will be used to create each medal.”

The NCAA women’s Division I championships are on this week in Federal Way, Washington, with the swimmers receiving a gift pack from the NCAA.

An unboxing video showed the pack for 2025 including a plastic water bottle, towel, luggage tag, NCAA stick-on patch, NCAA participation medal, a commemorative Yeti metal beverage bottle, a lululemon belt bag and a two-piece wireless speaker.

Hungarian Olympic bronze winner Tamas Kenderesi, 28, third in the Rio 2016 men’s 200 m Butterfly, called the decision against him by the Court of Arbitration for Sport a “disgrace to Hungary” and told reporters:

“I was taken out of the everyday life and competition of a top athlete, I was in a nightmare that is incomprehensible. I know that I did not do anything related to doping, I always monitored what I was taking.”

The decision noted an expert evaluation of Kenderesi’s Athlete Biological Passport readings, who observed, “the likelihood of the abnormalities in the [% reticulocytes] described above being due to blood manipulation, namely the artificial increase of red cell mass for example [erythropoiesis-stimulating agents] ESAs and/or blood transfusions, is high.”

Kenderesi was suspended for four years, from 23 January 2023.

● Tennis ● The Professional Tennis Players Association, co-founded by Serbian star Novak Djokovic, filed multiple lawsuits against the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and others in the U.S., Great Britain and Europe, claiming

“players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardizes their health and safety. We have exhausted all options for reform through dialogue, and the governing bodies have left us no choice but to seek accountability through the courts.”

The ATP responded in a statement, including

“While ATP has remained focused on delivering reforms that benefit players at multiple levels, the PTPA has consistently chosen division and distraction through misinformation over progress. Five years on from its inception in 2020, the PTPA has struggled to establish a meaningful role in tennis, making its decision to pursue legal action at this juncture unsurprising.

“We strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, believe the case to be entirely without merit, and will vigorously defend our position.”

The WTA reported total prize money of $221 million across more than 50 tournaments in 2024.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Bach invokes de Coubertin’s call for peace at ancient Olympia

By
Rich Perelman
-
Opening of the 144th IOC Session in ancient Olympia (Photo: IOC/Greg Martin).

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≡ 144th IOC SESSION ≡

“The success of this IOC Session is fully secured. We had a rainy Opening Ceremony in Paris just before spectacular Olympic Games; we had a rainy inauguration of the Notre Dame Cathedral and the renovation proved to be a resounding success. And here we are, the rain is back with us. Nothing can go wrong anymore.”

That was International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach (GER) at the rainy opening of the 144th IOC Session in Greece, during Tuesday’s ceremony in Olympia, site of the original Olympic Games of antiquity.

But Bach had a larger message to deliver, as his successor will be elected on Thursday: listen to what Pierre de Coubertin, the French activist who revived the Games at the end of the 19th Century, wanted to achieve:

● “Greece is the birthplace of the Olympic Games. Over 2,800 years ago, Greece created this unique gift to all humankind. Right here in this sacred place, the Olympic Games were first celebrated. Already the ancient Olympic Games were built on values, as exemplified by the tradition of the Olympic Truce, the ekecheiria.

“This sacred truce allowed the participation of all athletes and spectators from the Greek city-states, who were otherwise almost constantly engaged in wars and conflict. Already then, there was this inseparable link between the Olympic Games and peace.”

● “It took almost 2,000 years before the Olympic Games could be revived by Pierre de Coubertin. When he did so 131 years ago, as a young man – at the age of just 29 years – the values of sport were central to his thinking. He wanted to make the world a better place through sport and its values.

“He saw the Olympic Games as a way to promote peace among nations and people. He said: ‘Should the institution of the Olympic Games prosper, it can become a potent factor in securing universal peace.’”

● “In a very hostile geopolitical environment, with nationalism and militarism on the rise, Coubertin managed to establish Olympic Games that brought together athletes from nations that were politically sworn enemies. Then as now, the athletes were ambassadors of peace.

“Then as now, the idea of promoting peace through sport was in stark contrast to the prevailing Zeitgeist. When we see today how Coubertin went against all the divisive and bellicose trends of his time, we can only admire even more his courage and audacity.”

Bach made the point that this concept is the center of the Olympic Movement, and must remain so:

“This peace mission is the legacy that he has entrusted us with. It is these values that make the Olympic Games unique. As guardians, it is our duty to unite around these values. These values that should always remind us: we are part of something greater than ourselves. This is why we always have to put values first. This is our responsibility: to carry these values with humble dignity and pass them on to the next generations.”

Support for the symbolic peace of the Olympic Games has been Bach’s mission during his presidency, which will be remembered as one of the most transformative in Olympic history. He quoted de Coubertin as he closed:

“The Olympic Games are a pilgrimage to the past and an act of faith in the future” and added

“This is exactly what this IOC Session is about. A sacred pilgrimage to our ancient past. A homage to our modern origins and to our founder. And a manifestation of our faith in the future, when we will elect a new President.”

The IOC Session will hear reports on Wednesday – back in Costa Navarino – and will elect the 10th President in IOC history on Thursday.

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PANORAMA: Tennis Australia wants A$113M for better Brisbane 2032 venue; 600,000 at Nordic Worlds in Norway? Cal Poly asks $25M endowment to save swimming

By
Rich Perelman
-
Huge crowds at the FIS Nordic Skiing World Championships in Trondheim (NOR), here at the cross country arena (Photo: Trondheim 2025 on Instagram).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● The International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board approved the “Qualification System Principles” for the 2028 Olympic Games, with two hard dates set:

● 11 June 2028: Last day for qualifying events
● 26 June 2028: Sport entry deadline

“Universality places” for individual sports will be distributed according to a plan which must be in place by February 2026. Each International Federation will develop a plan for approval by the IOC.

● Olympic Games 2032: Brisbane ● Money is at the center of another venue dispute, with Tennis Australia asking for a A$113 million (~$72.20 million U.S.) upgrade to the Queensland Tennis Centre for the 2032 Games:

“It currently does not meet the necessary standards – that’s why Tennis Queensland is advocating for additional government funding to upgrade the facility as part of the Olympic review process – and if unsuccessful we would consider hosting it in Melbourne.”

Tennis Queensland chief executive Cameron Pearson explained:

“We don’t have enough courts, we don’t have enough seating and our player facilities are not big enough. If we can’t get the funding and the required number of courts and seating here at the Queensland Tennis Centre we will have to look elsewhere.

“It would be a travesty if we weren’t able to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games here.”

The Queensland government is slated to deliver the results of its 100-day venue review on 25 March.

● Russia ● The saga of Russia’s state-sponsored doping program from 2011-15 and the follow-up to the data found at the infamous Moscow Laboratory of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency continues.

The World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed to the Russian news agency TASS that 262 doping convictions have been obtained from information retrieved in 2019 from the lab – known as “LIMS” – with another 79 cases still in process.

“There have been 262 convictions, with the number expected to increase as more cases are heard. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated in 38 cases. 41 cases are still under investigation by the relevant anti-doping organization.”

● Athletics ● Another important doping suspension from the Athletics Integrity Unit, as former men’s Half Marathon world-record holder Kibiwott Kandie (KEN) was “provisionally suspended … for evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.”

Kandie’s 57:20 in Valencia (ESP) in December 2020 is still the no. 4 performance all-time, and he also owns the no. 6 and no. 19 performance ever. He finished 13th (2:06:46) in the Berlin Marathon last September.

Turkey’s Sultan Haydar, now 37 and a 2012 and 2016 Olympic women’s marathoner, was also banned, “for 2 years and 6 months from 31 January 2024 for Evading, Refusing or Failing to submit to Sample Collection. DQ results from 31 January 2024″

● Bobsled & Skeleton ● With the IBSF World Championships in Lake Placid now wrapped up, the International Bobsled & Skeleton Federation is already looking ahead to the Olympic season of 2025-26:

“The Olympic IBSF World Cup season will start in exactly eight months: 17 November 2025 will be the first day of World Cup week number one which will take place at the new Olympic venue, the Eugenio Monti Sliding Track in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy. The track is due to be pre-homologated at the end of March 2025.”

Of course, if the new track in Cortina isn’t completed on time, the back-up venue for the 2026 Winter Games is … Lake Placid.

● Boxing ● World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst (NED) welcomed the news that the International Olympic Committee Executive Board has recommended recognition of the federation to govern boxing for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and beyond:

“This is a very significant and important decision for Olympic boxing and takes the sport one step closer to being restored to the Olympic programme.

“I have no doubt it will be very positively received by everyone connected with boxing, at every level throughout the world, who understands the critical importance to the future of the sport of boxing continuing to remain a part of the Olympic Movement.

“On behalf of everyone at World Boxing I would like to thank the EB of the IOC for the trust they have placed in our organisation and we hope for a positive outcome when the IOC Session meets this week.”

Meanwhile, the International Boxing Association held its women’s World Championships in Nis (SRB), with Russian fighters scoring seven medals and four wins among the 12 classes.

There were some 2024 Olympic medalists who made the finals in Nis, including gold medalists Nazym Kyzaibay (KAZ: 48 kg ~ 50 kg bronze in Paris), and North Korea’s Choi-mi Pang at 52 kg (Paris 54 kg bronze).

Pang defeated Turkey’s Buze Naz Cakiroglu, the 50 kg Paris silver winner, in the 52 kg final. Paris 54 kg silver medalist Hatice Akbas (TUR) was the runner-up in her class to Widad Bertal of Morocco. Tokyo 2020 66 kg winner Busenaz Surmeneli (TUR) won her class.

Kyzaibay and Surmeneli both won their third Worlds golds. Kazakhstan (3-2-1), Turkey (1-3-2) and Serbia (1-0-5) all had six medals to tie for second on the medals table.

● Nordic Skiing ● The International Ski & Snowboard Federation reported excellent attendance figures for the 2025 World Nordic Skiing Championships in Trondheim (NOR), with 230,000 in-stadium attendees at the Granasen Ski Centre, “at least 170,000 turning out to watch by the side of the course. And more than 200,000 went to the Medal Plaza in Trondheim’s city centre to see medal ceremonies and cultural events.” That’s 600,000 people (with some duplicates, of course).

Wow.

The championships were a huge hit on Norwegian television, with a 90% market share for many races, and a reported 60 million cumulative audience in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

● Rowing ● At the World Rowing Quadrennial Congress over the weekend, the delegates adopted a new event, the Mixed Eight, to be included immediately (2025) in the World Rowing Championships and possibly in the Olympic Games, pending approval by the IOC.

● Swimming ● SwimSwam.com reported on a fund-raising effort at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo – which prefers to be known only as “Cal Poly” – to raise $25 million to endow the school’s aquatics program, which may otherwise be cut. The promoters of the funding effort explained “that at a conservative 4% endowment return rate, that this would create a budget of $1 million a year to fully-fund a competitive Division I program.”

The swimming and diving program was eliminated earlier this month, in view of cuts that will be needed if the House vs. NCAA settlement is approved in April. Endowment funding is a strategy that many schools and individual programs are undertaking to maintain their place within intercollegiate athletic departments as revenues from football and basketball will now be used to pay players.

Hungarian butterfly star Tamas Kenderesi, 28, the Rio 2016 Olympic 200 m Fly bronze winner, was banned for four years for changes in his Athlete Biological Passport noted in 2022. He was banned by the Hungarian anti-doping authority as of 23 January 2023 and will be eligible again in January 2027.

● Volleyball ● The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is investing hard dollars in development activities, announcing a 2024 investment total of $6.3 million in 74 countries, comprising 197 projects:

“The 2024 investment focused on three key areas, with over USD 5 million dedicated to 73 coach support projects, helping national teams access world-class coaching expertise. Close to USD 1 million was allocated to 76 volleyball equipment projects, providing essential equipment to grow the sport. Additionally, nearly USD 300,000 supported 48 knowledge transfer programmes, allowing NFs to learn best practices and strategies for the sustainable growth of volleyball.”

The FIVB is now asking for applications for 2025 programming, with applications submitted by 31 March receiving answers by the end of June.

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BIATHLON: Former IBU chief Besseberg banned for life from biathlon by Court of Arbitration for Sport

By
Rich Perelman
-
Former IBU President Anders Besseberg (NOR) in 2017 (IBU video screen shot).

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

The long drama within the sport over misdeeds by the former 26-year head of the International Biathlon Union appears to be over, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed a lifetime ban on Norwegian Anders Besseberg, now 79, for misdeeds late in his tenure. According to the Biathlon Integrity Unit:

“The ruling establishes that Mr Besseberg engaged in prolonged unethical conduct, including the receipt of inappropriate gifts and benefits, and the failure to prevent or challenge unethical practices. The CAS Panel found that:

● “The IBU’s Integrity Code and disciplinary rules remained applicable to Mr Besseberg post-tenure, given his role as an organ of the IBU, thus allowing for the imposition of sanctions even after he left office.

● “The charges concerning watches, hunting trips, and the provision of prostitution services were substantiated and constituted integrity breaches. The Panel confirmed that Mr Besseberg had accepted valuable watches and hunting trips, while the determining factor in the prostitution-related breaches was the direct link between Mr Besseberg’s use of these services with his official duties as IBU President.

● “Mr Besseberg failed in his duty to intervene in unethical conduct, further breaching the integrity standards of the IBU.

“Considering the seriousness of the violations and the lack of remorse shown by Mr Besseberg, the CAS Panel imposed a lifetime ban from all official biathlon roles.

“The CAS ruling also highlights concerns over the fact that such unethical behaviour was allowed to persist for an extended period without intervention.”

This was a complete fall from grace for Besseberg, who was elected as the first IBU President when the sport separated from the combined federation with modern pentathlon in 1992. He was re-elected again and again, including in 2014.

He resigned in April 2018 when charges of corruption surfaced – protecting Russia from doping cases – and eventually went to trial in Norway in January 2024. He was convicted, sentenced to three years and one month in prison and was required to return NOK 1.41 million in property (about $133,757 U.S.). He has appealed and will have his case heard later this year.

On the IBU side, the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport was over his lifetime ban from the sport’s governing bodies at all levels, national and international. While the case has not been published as yet, it is possible for Besseberg to appeal the decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal if desired.

One of the outcomes of the Besseberg mess was the formation of an independent team – the Biathlon Integrity Unit – in 2019 to monitor the sport for issues of doping, competition manipulation, harassment and abuse and other matters.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Exec Board advances boxing for LA28; talks with Comcast-NBC percolated over a year

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC President Thomas Bach at Monday’s news conference in Greece (IOC video screen shot).

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≡ IOC EXECUTIVE BOARD ≡

“Only one real decision, and this was about putting boxing on the program of the Olympic Games in L.A. 2028, after the provisional recognition of World Boxing in February.”

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach (GER) summed up Monday’s IOC Executive Board meeting with that announcement, adding:

“I am very confident that the Session will approve it, that all the boxers of the world have certainty that they can participate in the Olympic Games L.A. 2028 if – if – their national federation is recognized by World Boxing.”

This confirms LA28 as the largest Olympic Games in history as to the number of sports, with 36, compared to 33 at Tokyo 2020 and 32 at Paris 2024.

World Boxing currently has 84 member federations and IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell (NZL) said he expects the approval by the Session “to be an acceleration of the number of national federations joining” World Boxing, with the real deadline for participation “to be members at the time of the qualification events.”

Looking to the next Games in Milan Cortina next February, Bach noted:

“We also heard a very precise, very encouraging, promising report about Milano Cortina 2026, in particular with regard to the very successful test events which were highly appreciated by the participating athletes and also by the respective International Federations.”

He also expressed satisfaction that 600,000 tickets – out of 1.5 million – have already been sold, and that more than 100,000 applications for the 18,000 volunteer slots for the Games have been received.

Bach was asked about the new agreement with Comcast-NBC, announced last week, with a $3 billion commitment for the period 2033-36:

“This contract with Comcast-NBC is the result of a negotiation which is going on for, I think, almost a year, if not more than a year and where the Executive Board has always been informed about the process, and the progress of these negotiations.

“We could, with this, ensure for the financial stability, we could also ensure that in the United States, that the audience in the United States could fully benefit from the experience of Comcast-NBC. This is why these negotiations, all the time, then also the signature of the agreement was very much supported by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.”

Bach also updated the financial report for the IOC: $7.7 billion in revenue for 2021-24, now $7.5 billion already secured for 2025-28, $6.7 billion for 2029-32 and $4 billion for 2033-36. He observed that commercial revenues advanced by 60% during his term. Also:

“If you look at the overall environment, and if I look at my colleagues in other international organizations, they have to face significant declines, with the exception of FIFA. But if you look at all the U.N. organizations and other [non-governmental organizations] like the IOC, I don’t think they can demonstrate such a financial stability.”

On Russia, Bach explained the situation is fairly simple:

“We have always maintained contacts on the working level, not on my level or the level of the Executive Board, but on the working level, the contacts have always been maintained, there is nothing to report on this. So there can be no results on the working level.

“The conditions [for return] are very clear: they have to follow the rules. Everybody in the Olympic Movement who is following the rules of the Olympic Charter is welcome and everybody who is not following the Olympic Charter is not welcome. So, the ball is in the court of the Russian Olympic Committee.”

On the transition period for the new President, who will take over on 24 June, Bach explained this was a reaction to his experience upon his election in 2013:

“I arrived in Lausanne and there was no transition. And this was a situation I did not appreciate, and therefore I made the proposal to the Executive Board to have this transition time as an offer to the President-elect, to come to [Lausanne] to become familiar with the management, with the people, which – I knew the top [people] – not the rest, to become familiar with the working mechanisms” and so on. He compared it to similar situations in business and other governments.

Finally, he expressed satisfaction that he is leaving with the Olympic Movement in better shape than he found it:

“I think my successor is facing less uncertainty then what I had to face when I started my mandate. … This is the first period during my presidency that I do not have an existential problem for the Olympic Movement or the Olympic Games on my desk.”

He cast aside any suggestion that he has been supporting Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) as the next IOC President.

The IOC will formally open the 144th Session on Tuesday in ancient Olympia, then return for the first day of meetings on Wednesday. The Presidential election is on Thursday afternoon.

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PANORAMA: World Rowing bans (almost all) transgenders; MLB players might play at LA28; Diggins wins back-to-back Cross Country World Cup titles!

By
Rich Perelman
-
American cross country skiing star Jessie Diggins (Photo: Dustin Satloff/U.S. Ski Team).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, in Japan for the opening Dodgers-Cubs series this week, told reporters he thinks MLB players might be participants in the 2028 Olympic Games:

“Yes, it’s possible, but we’re not committed to it yet. It is possible.

“We’re having conversations with the Olympics. We think L.A. presents a unique Olympic opportunity for us. We have to have some conversations with our players’ association, and we’re talking to the Olympic Committee as well. But we do see it as an opportunity.”

Baseball and softball are added sports for the 2028 Games, returning to the program after being included in the Tokyo 2020 Games. Baseball was a medal sport in 1992-96-2000-04-08 and then in Tokyo, based in part of the sensational attendance for baseball as a demonstration sport at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles that averaged 48,195 per session at Dodger Stadium!

● International Olympic Committee ● A group of 406 current and former Olympians signed a petition to urge the seven IOC Presidential candidates to emphasize environmental actions, including cutting emissions, encouraging sustainable organizing committee efforts, “setting a standard regarding high polluting sponsorships” and advocating for more “environmental action.”

Their preferred candidate would be International Ski & Snowboard Federation chief Johan Eliasch (GBR), who has been a champion for environmental causes, but it is not anticipated to be the winner on 20 March.

● Basketball ● The FIBA Executive Committee reported from its Friday meeting, “the status of Russia and Belarus has been extended until the next FIBA Central Board meeting which will take place in May 2025.”

Russian teams have been suspended from international competition since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

● Boxing ● The founding Congress of the Pan American Boxing Confederation, affiliated with World Boxing, elected American Elise Seignolle as its first President, in Panama City (PAN). A two-time national champion, she became a Director of the International Boxing Association in 2022, but left in 2023 due to her disagreement with the governance of the federation. She ran for President of World Boxing at its founding Congress in November 2023 and is now head of the Pan American Confederation.

World Boxing is in position to be accepted this week at the 144th Session of the International Olympic Committee as the governing body for Olympic boxing.

● Football ● At the 40th CONCACAF Congress, held in Saint Lucia, U.S. Soccer Federation President Cindy Parlow Cone was elected – unopposed – for a seat on the FIFA Council.

It’s a continuation of Parlow Cone’s rise in sports administration after her two-time Olympic gold medal career as an American midfielder at Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004. She retired in 2006 and became U.S. Soccer President in 2020, winning a full, four-year term in 2022.

Under a rule change passed in 2024, the U.S. Soccer President receives an annual stipend of $150,000, Parlow Cone, 46, will now receive, as a FIFA Council member, an annual stipend of $250,000.

● Rowing ● By a vote of 113-15 (with five abstentions), the World Rowing Quadrennial Congress approved a new Rule 13 concerning participation in the women’s category.

The new rule had been proposed to remove transgender women from women’s competition, but the lengthy and technical text of the proposal required some modifications that took considerable time during the first day of the Congress on Friday. By Saturday, however, a modest change in language led to the successful vote.

The primary qualifier to participate in women’s rowing is that “a rower must be either (a) assigned and recognised as female at the time of the rower’s birth (AFAB)” or declared as eligible through a hearing process outlined in the rest of the rule.

Firstly, the rule does not apply to coxswains. Second, the World Rowing Executive Committee is responsible to determine any eligibility issues, with the directive – and this was the changed language – that:

“When considering any issue as to the eligibility of a rower to compete in a women’s event, the over-riding consideration for the Executive Committee will be to ensure fairness of competition for those who are eligible to compete in a women’s event – in particular, whether that rower has acquired a competitive advantage over rowers who have eligibility on the basis of AFAB [assigned female at birth].”

The new rule notes that the appeal format applies to situations including “Sex Identification, Sex-reassignment, Hyperandrogenism, Transgender, and Variations of Sexual Development.” Member federations are required to police this new rule, and World Rowing will form an expert panel to render non-binding advice for cases that come up. The by-law to Rule 13 also passed overwhelmingly, by 124-5 (one abstention).

● Sport Climbing ● Iran climber Elnaz Rekabi, who faced severe sanctions at home from religious authorities after not wearing her headscarf properly at the 2022 Asian championships, has left the country and is apparently in Spain.

Instagram posts by her brother and another climber said she had left Iran, and she has been designated by the International Olympic Committee as an “athlete role model” for sport climbing for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar (SEN).

The IOC had been monitoring her situation and her inability to travel freely, although she did appear outside Iran at competitions.

≡ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡

● Bobsled & Skeleton ● The final weekend of the IBSF Worlds included the Four-Man and Two-Women races, in Lake Placid, New York, and continued the reign of the amazing Francesco Friedrich.

The German star won his seventh IBSF World Four-Man gold, completing three runs in 2:44.52, after the second run (on Friday) was cancelled due to a section of the track with no ice, causing fellow German Johannes Lochner’s sled to run over bare concrete.

Lochner was second, winning his 17th Worlds medal, in 2:44.80, winning the final run, after going second to Friedrich on the first and third runs. Lochner won the Four-Man gold in 2017, the last time anyone beat Friedrich in the Worlds Four-Man.

Friedrich and Lochner were 1-2 in the Two-Man and Four-Man races at the last two Olympic Games and will be favored to do the same in 2026.

Britain’s Brad Hall, runner-up in 2023, won his second Worlds medal in third (2:45.00), with American Frank Del Duca (with Joshua Williamson, Boone Neiderhofer and Charles Volker) in fourth at 2:45.64. The U.S.’s Kris Horn came in seventh at 2:46.39 and Geoff Gadbois was 18th (2:48.66).

The Two-Woman racing included all four runs, with a German sweep led by Beijing 2022 Olympic champ Laura Nolte (with Deborah Levi), who won all four runs and totaled 3:46.00. It’s Nolte’s first Worlds gold in the Two.

Kim Kalicki (with Leonie Fiebig) was second on all four runs and finished in 3:46.52 for her fifth career Worlds medal, ahead of 2018 Olympic winner and defending champ Lisa Buckwitz and Kira Lipperheide (3:47.46). It’s the second straight medal sweep, with the 2024 order being Buckwitz, Nolte and Kalicki.

The U.S. took the next three places, with Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Emily Renna (4th: 3:47.52), Kaysha Love and Jasmine Jones (3:47.76) and Elana Meyers Taylor and Lolo Jones (3:47.86).

Overall, including bob and skeleton results. Germany finished with 10 total medals (three wins), to four for the U.S. (2-1-1) and Great Britain (1-2-1).

≡ RESULTS ≡

● Alpine Skiing ● Italy’s Federica Brignone came right to the edge of her second career overall World Cup title with two medals in two events at the FIS women’s World Cup in La Thuile (ITA).

Thursday’s Super-G was the second win of the season for Emma Aicher (GER), in 57.89, trailed by home stars Sofia Goggia (57.95) – the 2019 Worlds runner-up – and 2025 Worlds silver winner Brignone (58.28), with Worlds bronzer Lauren Macuga of the U.S. fifth in 58.44.

After Saturday’s Downhill was canceled due to weather, the second Super-G was held, with Brignone getting her 10th win of the season in 57.95, just 0.01 faster than Goggia, with Romane Miradoli (FRA: 58.00) in third. Lindsey Vonn was the top American, in 13th (58.65).

Brignone has all but wrapped the seasonal title, with the World Cup Final in Sun Valley in the U.S. next week.

There’s no doubt about the men’s overall World Cup race, as Marco Odermatt (SUI) clinched a fourth straight seasonal Crystal Globe at the FIS World Cup in Hafjell (NOR). The Swiss duo of Loic Meillard (2:18.20) and Odermatt (2:18.34) finished 1-2, and 35-year-old Thomas Tumler made it a sweep, in 2:18.43. River Radamus was the top U.S. finisher, in 2:19.70 for seventh.

Sunday’s Slalom saw Meillard double up for his sixth career World Cup gold, winning in 1:57.05 to 1:57.26 for Atle McGrath (NOR) and 1:57.52 for Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (BRA). Benjamin Ritchie was the top American, in 14th (1:58.87).

Odermatt finished the weekend with 1,596 points to 1,006 for Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR), with four events left. For four years, he’s been untouchable.

● Athletics ● Hot action at the NCAA Division I Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, especially in the women’s 400 m, with an American Record, one of three world-leading performances.

The men’s 60 m heats produced the three fastest times in the world, as USC’s JC Stevenson won heat two in 6.46, trailed by Jordan Anthony (Arkansas: 6.47) and Nigerian Kayinsola Ajayi (Auburn: 6.48). Anthony won the final in 6.49, with Ajayi second (6.52) and Stevenson sixth.

Zimbabwe went 1-2 in the men’s 200 m, with Kentucky’s Carli Makarawu equaling the world lead at 20.13, followed by countryman (but from Auburn) Makanakaishe Charamba – the prior world leader – at 20.16 in second.

Georgetown’s Abel Teffra won the mile in 3:53.60, just ahead of Nathan Green (Washington: 3:53.99), and in the much-anticipated 3,000 m, a tactical race finished with Ethan Strand (North Carolina) beating Gary Martin (Virginia) to the line, 7:52.03 to 7:52.69. Auburn’s Ja’Kobe Tharp took the 60 m hurdles in 7.45, now equal-8th on the 2025 world list.

Nebraska senior Tyus Wilson won the high jump at 2.28 m (7-5 3/4), no. 9 in the world for 2025, and Daniel Reynolds (Wyoming) moved to no. 2 in the world for 2025 in the hammer, at 25.08 m (82-3 1/2).

USC won the team title with 39 points, to 33 for Georgia.

There was a lot of noise in the women’s meet, with Idyna Mayberry (TCU) storming to a win in the 200 m in a world-leading 22.30, well ahead of Jadyn Mays (Oregon: 22.45, now no. 4). The 400 m saw a break-out for Arkansas junior Isabella Whittaker, who won in an American Record (and world-leading) 49.24, equaling the no. 2 performance of all-time. Whittaker was just 0.07 off of Dutch star Femke Bol’s 49.17 from 2024. Georgia junior Aliyah Butler was second in 49.97.

Sisters Amanda and Hana Moll (both Washington), nos. 1-4 on the 2025 world list, went 1-2, at 4.70 m (15-5), separated only on misses. Baylor senior Alexis Brown moved to equal-5th on the world list, winning the long jump at 6.90 m (22-7 3/4).

Swede Alexina Johansson (Nebraska) won the shot at 19.28 m (63-3 1/4), ahead of Paris Olympian Jaida Ross (Oregon), at 18.98 m (62-3 1/4). Taylor Kesner (Wisconsin) moved up to no. 7 this season in the women’s Weight, winning at 23.50 m (77-1 1/4). Jadin O’Brien (Notre Dame) moved to no. 5 on the world list in the pentathlon, winning at 4,596.

Oregon was an easy winner in the women’s team race, with 55 points to 39 for Georgia and 35 for USC.

Kenya’s defending champion, Abel Kipchumba, repeated as the New York City Half Marathon champion on Sunday, beating U.S. Olympians Conner Mantz and Hillary Bor to the tape in 59:09, now no. 4 on the 2025 world list.

Mantz was close behind at 59:15, the fastest-ever Half time by an American, but on a non-record-eligible, point-to-point course. Bor followed at 59:55, no. 5 on the all-conditions U.S. Half list.

Kenyan Sharon Lokedi, fourth at the Paris Olympic marathon, won the women’s race in 1:07:04, ahead of Fiona O’Keeffe (1:07:46).

At the 40th Los Angeles Marathon, Matt Richtman blew away the field and won in 2:07:56, the first American to win the race since 1994. Sixth at the USATF Half Marathon Championships on 2 March, he won in his second marathon, after a fourth-place finish in Minneapolis in 2:10:47 last year.

His time is so fast, he moves to equal-6th all-time U.S. on all courses; the Los Angeles course is a point-to-point course with a significant downhill segment. Kenyan Athanas Kioko was second in 2:10:55. Tejinesh Gebisa Tulu (ETH) won the women’s race in 2:30:16.

In Barcelona (ESP), Tesfaye Deriba Ketema (ETH) moved to no. 4 on the 2025 world list with a win in 2:04:13; Kenya’s Cornelius Kibet Kiplagat was second in 2:04:54.

● Badminton ● Korea advanced to the finals of three of five events at the BWF World Tour All-England Open in Birmingham, and got two wins.

Top-seed Yu Qi Shi (CHN), the 2018 Worlds runner-up, swept past Chia-hao Lee (KOR), 21-17, 21-19, in the men’s Singles final, but Paris Olympic champ Se Young An (KOR) defeated second-seeded Zhi Yi Wang (CHN), 13-21, 21-18, 21-18.

Korea’s Won-ho Kim and Seung-jae Seo took the men’s Doubles, 21-19, 21-19, from Leo Rolly Carnando and Bagas Maulana (INA), while in the all-Japan women’s final, Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida overcame Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto, 21-16, 14-21, 21-17.

In the Mixed Dougbles, Xin Wa Guo and Fang Hui Chen (CHN) defeated Yan Zhe Feng and Ya Xin Wei (CHN), 21-16, 10-21, 23-21.

● Basketball ● Serbia and Canada won the FIBA 3×3 Champions Cup in Bangkok (THA), with the Serbs defeating The Netherlands by 17-16 in the men’s final, and Canada winning over Spain, 15-13, in the women’s championship match.

The U.S. men’s team of Henry Caruso, Mitch Hahn, James Parrott and Dylan Travis finished fourth, losing to Australia in the third-place match, 20-19. Australia also finished third in the women’s tournament, defeating Germany, 18-17. The U.S. women were not entered.

● Biathlon ● The penultimate stop of the IBU World Cup was in Pokljuka (SLO), with home favorite and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Individual race runner-up Jakov Fak, 37, getting his first win of the season and ninth career World Cup gold in the Short Individual race in 40:52.6 (0 penalties).

He was well ahead of Sturla Holm Laegreid (NOR: 41:26.9/1) and Martin Ponsiluoma (SWE: 41:36.9/2).

France’s Eric Perrot, the 20 km Individual World Champion won the 15 km Mass Start in 35:42.7 (1), ahead of teammate Quentin Fillon Maillet (35:45.8/1) and Laegreid (36:05.0/1). American Campbell Wright was 16th (37:38.6/3).

France continued its domination of the women’s tour with wins in the 12.5 km Short Individual race, by World Champion Julia Simon (38:08.2/0) over Hanna Oeberg (SWE/38:47.3/1), and in the 12.5 km Mass Start, by Lou Jeanmonnot in 39:41.8 (1) over Milena Todorova (BUL: 39:58.2/0). It was Jeanmonnot’s sixth win of the season.

Switzerland’s Aita Gasparin and Niklas Hartweg won the Single Mixed Relay in 40:51.8 (7), with the U.S. in fifth in 41:13.0 (6), with Deedra Irwin and Wright. In the 4 x 6 km relay, Sweden was a clear winner over France, 1:09:07.5 (12) to 1:09:22.3 (6). The U.S. was 12th with Chloe Levins, Margie Freed, Jake Brown and Maxime Germain (1:13:35.0/4).

● Cross Country Skiing ● The FIS World Cup resumed in Oslo (NOR), with the home team continuing to dominate, as Martin Nyenget got his fourth win of the season in the men’s 20 km Classical race, a runaway in 43:34.0. Sweden’s Worlds silver winner William Ponomaa was second in 44:25.2 with Simen Krueger (44:27.2). American Gus Schumacher finished seventh (44:53.9).

Sunday’s 10 km Interval start Freestyle was the sixth win of the season for Harald Amundsen of Norway, in 22:06.4, leading another Norwegian sweep, ahead of Einar Hedegart (22:11.6) and seasonal leader Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (22:19.2). Schumacher was the top U.S. finisher, in 24th.

Fellow Norwegian superstar Therese Johaug won the women’s 20 km Classical in 49:59.9, ahead of teammate Astrid Slind (50:16.4) and German Victoria Carl (50:53.3). American Jessie Diggins, the seasonal World Cup leader, was 10th in 51:43.7.

On Sunday, It was Swede Moa Ilar with her second career World Cup gold in the 10 km Interval start Freestyle in 25:24.6, ahead of Heidi Weng (NOR: 25:26.2), with Carl third (25:34.6), and Diggins in sixth (25:49.3).

That was enough for Diggins to clinch the seasonal Crystal Globe, her second in a row and third career seasonal title. She now has 2,071 points after 28 of 31 events, with Carl second at 1,641. She is the only U.S. woman ever to win the seasonal title and only she and Bill Koch (1981) are the only Americans to win World Cup seasonal Crystal Globes.

Here’s how great Diggins has been: not only has she won three times, but in the last five seasons, she has ranked 1-2-2-1-1. Wow.

● Cycling ● The 83rd Paris-Nice race in France was a see-saw battle between two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) and defending champ Matteo Jorgenson of the U.S., but Vingegaard crashed during stage 5 and withdrew after finishing 16th in the stage.

Jorgenson – who rides for the same team as Vingegaard, Visma-Lease A Bike – had the lead on the rest of the field by 36 seconds going into the sixth stage and never looked back. He lost no time on the flat, sprinter’s sixth stage, then stayed with the other contenders in the uphill-finishing seventh stage, entering Sunday with a 37-second lead. He finished second on the hilly final stage in Nice, behind fellow American Magnus Sheffield, and won the race easily, in 26:26:42, a solid 1:15 up on Florian Lipowitz (GER). Sheffield, with his final-stage win, moved up to fourth overall, 2:17 behind the winner.

It’s Jorgenson’s third win on the UCI World Tour and he’ll now concentrate on the one-day Classics circuit before the Tour de France.

The 60th Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy was always going to be decided by the uphill-finishing, 163 km sixth stage and Spain’s Juan Ayuso won the stage by 13 seconds in 4:14:02 with a late, 3 km solo attack. So, he also took over the race lead by 37 seconds and rode home during the seventh stage to a win in 28:41:24 overall. Italian time trial star Filippo Ganna finished second overall (+0:35) with fellow Italian Antonio Tiberi in third (+0:36). Ayuso, just 22, moved up from second in this race in 2024.

The women’s important Trofeo Alfredo Binda in Italy, a 152 km course to Cittiglio, was won by home favorite, and defending champion Elisa Balsamo, winning a final sprint from Blanka Vas (HUN) and Cat Ferguson (GBR) in 4:00:19.

It’s Balsamo’s third win in this race in the last four years, also in 2022; she finished second in 2023 as well!

Triple Olympic medal winner Matthew Richardson scored two wins to headline the UCI Track Nations Cup opener in Konya (TUR).

Richardson won silvers in Paris in 2024 for Australia in the Sprint and Keirin, but now rides for Great Britain, a move not popular in his former country. But he was in front in Konya, winning the men’s Sprint final over (now) teammate Harry Ledingham-Horn, 2-0. He teamed with Ledingham-Horn and Harry Radford to win the Team Sprint over Japan, 42.060-42.194.

No other nation won more than one men’s event, with Muhammad Sahram (MAS) taking the Keirin; Yanne Dorenbos (NED) winning the Omnium over Ashlin Barry of the U.S. by 170-169; Spain’s Sebastian Mora and Albert Torres winning the Madison and Jules Hesters (BEL) winning the Elimination Race.

The seven women’s wins were taken by seven different countries. Liying Yuan of China won the women’s Sprint and 2022 World Sprint champ Mathilde Gros took the Keirin. The Dutch won the Team Sprint and Germany won the Team Pursuit.

Yareli Acevedo (MEX) won the Elimination Race, and New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston, the Olympic Omnium bronze winner, won that event by 128-115 over Lisa van Belle (NED). The Madison went to Denmark’s Tokyo 2020 runner-up Amalie Didriksen, now with Ellen Klinge.

● Fencing ● Japan’s Masaru Yamada triumphed at the FIE Epee Grand Prix in Budapest (HUN), winning the men’s tournament with a 15-10 finals victory over Ian Hauri (SUI). It’s Yamada’s first Grand Prix win in five years; he also won in 2020 in Budapest!

The women’s title went to Anna Maksymenko of Ukraine, who defeated Giulia Rizzi (ITA) in the final by 12-11. Maksymenko, 17, won her first major international medal!

● Freestyle Skiing ● In the FIS World Cup Slopestyle finale in Tignes (FRA), American Alex Hall, the Beijing 2022 Olympic winner, defeated 2021 World Champion Andri Ragettli (SUI), 90.10 to 84.43 for his second win of the season. Those results made them 1-2 in the seasonal standings, with Hall winning at 282, vs. 250 for Ragettli, and 229 for American Colby Stevenson.

Britain’s Kirsty Muir, 20, for her first win of the season – and her first career World Cup gold – in the women’s event, scoring 77.98 to best Abi Harrigan (AUS: 75.41) and Ruby Star Andrews (NZL: 72.75). France’s Tess Ledeux, the 2018 Olympic winner, competed in just three events, but scored 218 points to win the Crystal Globe over 2023 Worlds runner-up Megan Oldham (CAN: 213).

The penultimate stop of the Ski Cross World Cup season was in Craigleith (CAN), with home star Reece Howden taking the men’s opener for his fifth win of the season, this time over Swiss 2021 World Champion Alex Fiva and fellow Canadian Kevin Drury, the 2019 Worlds bronzer.

On Saturday, it was 2023 Worlds runner-up Florian Wilmsmann (GER) first to the line, beating Howden and Drury, taking the seasonal lead over Howden, 850-838.

The women’s races were a sweep for two-time Olympic bronze winner Fanny Smith (SUI), ahead of two-time French Olympian Marielle Berger Sabbatel and Jole Galli (ITA) on Friday, and Canada’s Courtney Hoffos and Abby McEwen on Saturday. Smith has a 916-869 lead over India Sherret (CAN) going into next week’s final races in Sweden.

● Nordic Combined ● At the FIS World Cup in Oslo (NOR), German Worlds relay gold medalist Vinzenz Geiger scored his eighth win of the season, in the 134 m jumping and 10 km Gundersen race, finishing in 22:33.6, just ahead of the retiring Norwegian star Jarl Magnus Riiber (22:34.8). Austria’s Johannes Lamparter was third (22:40.9).

Sunday’s Compact jumping and 7.5 km race was a showcase for Finn Ilkka Herola, the 2021 Worlds runner-up, winning in 17:11.3 over Geiger (17:26.6) and Lamparter (17:29.5). Ben Loomis of the U.S. was 26th.

Riiber said he would end his career in Oslo, so Geiger is the seasonal men’s champ with 1,404 points to 1,385 for Riiber. It’s Geiger’s first title.

The women’s 5 km Gundersen was a runaway for Norway’s Gyda Westvold Hansen, her first win of the season, in 13:46.7, 53 seconds up on Lisa Hirner (AUT: 14:39.7) and seasonal leader Ida Marie Hagen (NOR/14:47.3). Alexa Brabec was the top U.S. finisher, in 18th.

Sunday’s Compact 5 km event was another win for Westvold Hansen in 13:44.2, over Hagen (13:59.8) and Haruka Kasai (JPN: 14:07.0). Brabec finished seventh, in 14:34.1. German Nathalie Armbruster (GER) won the seasonal title with 1,130 points, to 1,042 for Hagen.

● Ski Jumping ● The FIS World Cup moved to the giant, 240 m ski-flying hill in Vikersund (NOR), with high winds playing havoc with the schedule.

The men’s opener was a win for German Andreas Wellinger, the 2025 Worlds Normal Hill runner-up, scoring 436.1 points to win over Slovenia’s Timi Zajc (427.8) and Anze Lanisek (422.7).

On Sunday, Worlds Large Hill gold medalist Domen Prevc scored another mega-hill win, scoring 214.5 in the only round scored, due to wind. Wellinger was second (199.2) and Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi (191.2) was third.

Slovenian star Nika Prevc won her eighth straight World Cup in the first women’s jumping, scoring 201.1 for the one-round event, due to high winds in the morning. Teammate Ema Klinec (169.8) was second and Selina Freitag (GER: 157.0) was third. More wind canceled the Sunday jumping completely.

● Ski Mountaineering ● At the ISMF World Cup in Schladming (AUT), Swiss star Remi Bonnet – who won two Worlds golds this year – took the Vertical Race in 19:10.9 for his fifth win of the World Cup season. France’s Thibault Anselmet was a distant second in 19:41.6; American Cameron Smith was seventh in 20:11.5.

Spain’s sprint star Oriol Cardona Coll, the Sprint World Champion, won the Schladming Sprint in 2:37.49, ahead of Anselmet (2:42.40). Cardona Coll has now won four of five sprints this season.

Swede Tove Alexandersson, the Individual Race World Champion, took the women’s Vertical in another runaway, in 22:37.4, to 22:55.8 for French star Emily Harrop, the 2025 Sprint World Champion.

Harrop followed up with a Sprint win, her fifth in five World Cups this season, in 3:08.57. She was more than five seconds up on Marianne Fatton (SUI: 3:13.60).

● Snowboard ● The FIS World Cup in Slopestyle finished up in Flachau (AUT), with bad weather canceling the men’s event altogether and the women’s standings using the qualifying round only.

The men’s seasonal standings were based on just four events, with Canada’s Cam Spalding the winner (230 points) to 192 for 2018 Olympic champion Red Gerard of the U.S.

The women’s winner from qualifying in Flachau was New Zealand’s 2022 Beijing Olympic champ Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, scoring 89.50 to 85.25 for Annika Morgan (GER). Sadowski-Synnott also won the seasonal title, with 312 points to 300 for Britain’s 2023 World Champion Mia Brookes.

The Snowboard Parallel season finished at the FIS World Cup in Winterberg (GER) with a Parallel Slalom, and the first win of the season for Matthaus Pink, over Arvid Auner in the all-Austrian final. Italy’s Maurizio Bormolini won the bronze.

Bormolini won the men’s Parallel Overall with 910 points, to 731 for Andreas Prommegger (AUT), and Auner won the men’s Parallel Slalom title, with 299 points.

Austria’s Sabine Payer, the 2023 Worlds Parallel Slalom bronzer, won the women’s final over German Ramona Theresia Hofmeister, with Zuzana Maderova (CZE) taking the bronze. Japan’s Tsubaki Miki won the seasonal Parallel Overall title with 1,209 points over Hofmeister (1,034). Miki also won the Parallel Slalom title (405), with Payer second (326).

● Table Tennis ● The fourth season of WTT Champions began in Chongqing (CHN), with Paris Team and Mixed Doubles winner Chuqin Wang (CHN) winning the men’s title, 4-1, over countryman Shidong Lin, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5 and 11-6. It’s Wang’s third career Champions tournament title.

The women’s tournament was another win for two-time Olympic runner-up Yingsha Sun (CHN), who shut out teammate Xingtong Chen by 4-0: 11-7, 11-4, 12-10, 11-7. This is Sun’s sixth win in the Champions series, out of 11 tournaments held all-time!

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SPEED SKATING & SHORT TRACK: Dutch dominate Speed Worlds, while Canada wins six in Short Track; one gold for U.S.

By
Rich Perelman
-
Americans Emery Lehman, Ethan Cepuran and Casey Dawson celebrate their Team Pursuit gold at the ISU World Championships (Photo: Int’l Skating Union).

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≡ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡

American speed skaters were superb during the World Cup seasons in speed skating and Short Track in the 2024-25 season but that did not translate to the hoped-for success during the ISU World Championships, both held this weekend.

The U.S. won six medals at the Speed Skating Worlds, but none in Short Track, in events dominated by The Netherlands and Canada.

The 2025 ISU World Single Distance Championships were in Hamar (NOR), and despite strong World Cup seasons from skaters in the U.S., Japan, Italy and elsewhere, the overall result was the same as always:

The Netherlands came out on top.

The Dutch led the medal count in Hamar again, for the 12th Single-Distance Worlds in a row, and 18th straight time counting a tie in 2009. The last World Single Distance champs were the Dutch were out-medaled was way back in 2001, when the Germans topped the table.

New star Jenning De Boo, 21, won the men’s 500 m in 34.24, ahead of defending champion Jordan Stolz of the U.S. (34.38), with fellow American Cooper Mcleod getting his first-ever Worlds individual medal in 34.52 in third.

De Boo had to settle for silver in the 1,000 m, as teammate Joep Wennemars, 22, won his first Worlds gold in 1:08.05, with De Boo at 1:08.21 and defending champ Stolz at 1:08.26 for the bronze; Mcleod was fourth at 1:08.40.

The home fans were thrilled with wins by Peder Kongshaug (1,500 m) and Sander Eitrem (5,000 m). Kongshaug, 23, won in 1:44.64, with Stolz, again the defending champion, second in 1:44.71 and Connor Howe (CAN) third in 1:44.78. Eitrem was the bronze winner in 2024, but won the 5,000 m this time in 6:10.05, ahead of Beau Snellink (NED: 6:11.72). Casey Dawson of the U.S. was 10th in 6:21.20.

Italian star Davide Ghiotto won his third straight 10,000 m title in 12:46.15, with Vladimir Semirunnly (POL) second in 12:49.93. Dawson finished eighth in 13:06.75. The Mass Start was the first Worlds individual gold for Andrea Giovannini (ITA) in 7:56.47, ahead of Seung-hoon Lee (KOR: 7:56.52) and Olympic champ Bart Swings (BEL: 7:56.69). American Emery Lehman was fifth in 7:57.37.

China won the Team Sprint in 1:18.13, ahead of The Netherlands (1:18.42), with the American team of Austin Kleba, Mcleod and Zach Stoppelmoor winning bronze in 1:19.23.

The lone U.S. gold of the meet was in the men’s Team Pursuit, with the trio of Dawson, Lehman and Ethan Cepuran finishing in 3:39.24, to swamp Italy (3:41.17) and the Dutch (3:41.91). This is an Olympic event for 2026 and the U.S. is a clear medal favorite.

The women’s skating was all about the Dutch, who won six of eight events.

Joy Beune, the 2024 Worlds 5,000 m winner, was the star, winning the 1,500 m in 1:55.28 and the 3,000 m in 4:00.39. She led teammate Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (1:55.50) for a 1-2 in the 1,500 m and a 1-3 in the 3,000 m with Merel Conijn third in 4:01.22. Czech star Martina Sabilkova, 37, won her 27th career Worlds medal with a 3,000 m silver in 4:00.57.

Beune won a third gold in the Team Pursuit, as she, Rijpma-de Jong and Marijke Groenewoud won easily in 2:56.09, ahead of Japan (2:58.55); the U.S. was fifth in 3:02.25, with Brittany Bowe, Mia Manganello and Greta Myers.

Groenewoud got an individual win in the women’s Mass Start, in 8:23.17, beating Canada’s Ivanie Blondin (8:23.37) and Italian Francesca Lollobrigida (8:23.58). Manganello of the U.S. finished fifth (8:24.14). Lollobrigida won the 5,000 m in 6:56.38, beating 2023 World 3,000 m champ Ragne Wiklund (NOR: 6:56.56).

In the sprints, Femke Kok won the women’s 500 m in 37.50, leading another Dutch 1-2, ahead of Jutta Leerdam, the 2023 bronze medalist at this distance (37.69). Olympic champ Erin Jackson of the U.S. was fifth in 37.95. The Netherlands, with Leerdam, Suzanne Schulting and Angel Daleman, won the Team Sprint in 1:25.57, with Canada a distant second in 1:27.23.

The only non-European women’s winner was Japan’s Olympic 1,000 m champ Miho Takagi, who won the 1,000 in 1:14.75, ahead of Kok (1:14.98) and Leerdam (1:15.05). Jackson was 11th in 1:16.11 and former World Champion Bowe was 13th (1:16.23).

The final totals showed the Dutch with 18 medals (8-6-4), ahead of the U.S. with six (1-2-3) and Italy with five (3-1-1).

Stolz was still feeling the effects of strep throat and pneumonia and was not at his best, explaining:

“Everything that happened the last month probably played into it. I felt like I got all my power into the ice. Technically, I thought it was good, but I just didn’t have it in the legs. It’s just going to take a little bit more time to build it back, so I wasn’t ready for this.”

Still, he won three individual medals. Jackson and Bowe, the U.S.’s stalwarts in the women’s sprints, did not perform as hoped, but Mcleod and the men’s Pursuit were positive signs ahead of the 2026 Winter Games.

Canada dominated the ISU World Short Track Championships in Beijing (CHN), leading the medal table with 10 total medals and six wins; no one else had more than one.

The star was Steven Dubois, a Beijing 2022 men’s Olympic medalist at 500 m (bronze) and 1,500 m (silver), who won the 500 m in 40.008 over Denis Nikisha (KAZ: 40.096) and 2023 Worlds bronzer Jens Van’t Wout (40.163).

Dubois followed up with a win in the 1,000 m in 1:23.348, ahead of defending champion and teammate William Dandjinou (1:23.352). Then Dandjinou won the 1,500 m in 2:15.064, ahead of 2022 bronze winner Stijn Desmet (BEL: 2:15.176) and 2022 World Champion Shaoang Liu (CHN).

Both Dubois and Dandjinou won an added gold in the 4,000 m relay, as Canada won a tight battle with China, 6:41.271 to 6:41.840. The U.S. team of Andrew Heo, Marcus Howard, Brandon Kim and Sean Shuai finished fourth in 6:42.700.

The U.S. women had great success during the World Cup season with seasonal winner Kristen Santos-Griswold and Corinne Stoddard, but neither was a factor. Stoddard decided not to compete for health reasons and Santos-Griswold crashed during the Friday qualifying round of the Mixed Relay and did not skate again. After winning six medals at the 2024 Worlds, the U.S. won none.

Dutch sprint star Xandra Velzeboer won her third career Worlds gold at 500 m in 42.132, ahead of Canada’s Rikki Doak (42.286) and Belgium’s 2022 Olympic bronze medalist Hanne Desmet took the women’s 1,000 m in 1:28.641, just ahead of two-time Worlds bronzer Courtney Sauralt (CAN: 1:28.939) with Velzeboer third (1:28.991).

Two-time Olympic champ Min-jeong Choi (KOR) won the 1,500 m for the fourth time in her career in 2:27.136 – her 17th Worlds gold! – with Saurault just behind in 2:27.194 and defending champion Gil-li Kim (KOR: 2:27.257) in third.

Canada won the women’s 3,000 m relay in 4:09.254, just beating Poland (4:09.321), then added a final gold in the 2,000 m Mixed Relay, with Kim Boutin, Florence Brunette, Dandjinou and Dubois winning in 2:36.232, ahead of Italy (2:36.619) and Poland (2:41.860).

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Coventry, Coe and Samaranch still seen as leaders heading into Thursday’s Presidential election

By
Rich Perelman
-
The IOC Presidential candidates: (top) Coventry, Eliasch, Lappartient; (bottom) Al Hussein, Coe, Samaranch, Watanabe.

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

The waiting will finally be over about 5 p.m. next Thursday in Costa Navarino, Greece, when the International Olympic Committee elects its 10th President during the 144th IOC Session.

The seven candidates, from six countries, have been waging a sedate campaign for about six months since the 15 September 2024 submission deadline. The line-up, in alphabetical order, with current ages:

● Prince Feisal Al-Hussein (JOR: 61)
● Sebastian Coe (GBR: 68)
● Kirsty Coventry (ZIM: 41)
● Johan Eliasch (GBR: 63)
● David Lappartient (FRA: 51)
● Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP: 65)
● Morinari Watanabe (JPN: 66)

In Costa Navarino, there will be a straight election, without any further campaigning. The winner will be in control of the most important body in international sports, controlling a financial juggernaut that hosts just two first-line events every four years, yet generated $7.7 billion in revenue for itself from 2021-24 and has already contracted for about $17 billion U.S. in revenue from 2025-2036.

So, with days to go, where do we stand?

Anyone who says they know who will win … does not know. The situation is too fluid. Part of the instability is in the election rules. The format:

● If all 109 IOC members show up – and everyone will try, even those in difficult health – the first round of voting will include a maximum of 92, removing the candidates (7), Bach (1) and other members from countries with candidates: France (3), Great Britain (2), Japan (2), and Spain (2).

That means a maximum of 47 votes will be needed to win on the first round, but with more and more in succeeding rounds as candidates are eliminated (and their countrymen/countrywomen are added back).

● The elimination protocol:

“If no candidate obtains the absolute majority of votes in a round of voting, there will be other rounds of voting until a candidate obtains the absolute majority of the votes. The candidate obtaining the fewest votes in each of the rounds of voting will be eliminated and will not participate in the following round of voting.”

IOC President Thomas Bach (GER), under the regulations, will not vote in any round except if there is a second tie between two final candidates, then he can vote “after consultation with the IOC Executive Board.”

If you are wondering about the demographics, they break down this way:

By continent:
● 45: Europe (33 can vote in the first round)
● 20: Asia (16 in first round)
● 19: Americas
● 18: Africa (17 in first round)
● 7: Oceania

By gender:
● 61: Men (47 can vote in the first round)
● 48: Women (45 can vote in the first round)

So, there is no obvious group that instantly delivers the needed 47 votes on the first round, either by region or gender.

If the recent decades of voting by IOC members are any guide, a promise by a member to vote for someone is often for the first round only. After that, they are on their own.

Some 76 of the current 109 IOC members have been elected during Bach’s presidency, but he hardly has control of them all, especially those who have chafed under his firm control of the organization.

Four of the seven candidates are from International Federations: Coe (athletics), Lappartient (cycling), Watanabe (gymnastics) and Eliasch (ski & snowboard). Of the nine IOC Presidents so far, only one came from an IF: Swede Sigfrid Edstrom, a member of the Stockholm 1912 organizing committee and one of the founders of the IAAF as the governing body of athletics. He became IOC President in 1942 upon the death of Count Henri de Baillet-Latour (BEL), and was elected in his own right in 1946. He served until 1952, when he retired at age 82.

All eight others have come from elsewhere, mostly associated with National Olympic Committees.

So, where do we stand?

The only agreement that most election observers have come to is that Japan’s Watanabe is the most likely to be eliminated first, as his radical idea of a five-continent, 50-sport Olympic Games is simply too wild.

Eliasch is the most likely to be eliminated next, although his brilliant career in business as the billionaire chief executive of the Head sporting goods firm has earned him enormous respect. But he joined the IOC only in 2024 and the membership has had little experience with him.

Then it gets tight. Lappartient is the only Francophone candidate in the race and has been all over the Olympic Movement across the last four years, as the head of the Union Cycliste Internationale, as the President of the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) and the head of his French department in Brittany! He has been the IOC’s liaison to the e-sports community and has done a strong job in moving an “Olympic Esports Games” forward, to be held in 2027. But, as a sure signal of his success, he has some strident detractors.

Jordan’s Prince Feisal sees himself as a possible upset winner, saying in a 6 March AIPS forum:

“I’ve got a good chance. I really feel that the momentum is growing, it’s building up. A lot more people are coming up and talking to me. I believe, based on the numbers that we’re hearing, I’ll be in the last four. I think I can get to the last three, and depending on who I am up against, there is a real chance, I think, for me to win.

“And I’m in it to win it. I’m not in it just for the sake of appearing and I think I can contribute to making the IOC a better place.”

If you take the time to hear him, Feisal is impressive. He has educational roots in the West, graduating from Brown University and then the London Business School, and has been deeply involved in the Jordanian government, including his military service.

But the top three contenders have consistently been Coventry, the favorite of current IOC chief Bach, Coe and Samaranch.

Coventry, by far the youngest in the field at 41, is a seven-time Olympic medalist from Zimbabwe, who swam collegiately at Auburn, and is the Zimbabwe Minister for Youth, Sports Arts and Recreation. She performed splendidly as the head of the IOC Athletes Commission before voted into the IOC as an individual member. At home, she has been criticized for her ministerial work by activists who wanted to see more from her department.

As Bach’s preferred successor, her best shot to win will be on the first ballot. Even if every female IOC member voted for her in the first round, she would still be a couple of votes short of a majority. She has done plenty of interviews and campaigned quietly, but widely. Well known to the members, there’s no question about her devotion to athlete matters, and with Bach’s deal with Comcast-NBC for 2033-36, some of the questions she wants to ask about the future of media have been pushed off into the distant future. It may come down to whether the members feel she can with a world led by mega-personalities like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?

Coe, the two-time Olympic 1,500 m champion from Moscow and Los Angeles, has been a high-profile campaigner since the election filing. He has been everywhere, giving constant interviews and appearing all over the world, much of the time on World Athletics business, but also maintaining the highest-possible profile among IOC members. He’s the only candidate who has been on every side of the Olympic Games: athlete, bidder, organizer and as the head of both the British NOC and World Athletics.

The World Athletics move to award prize money in Paris – without telling anyone in advance – caught every other IF by surprise and has cast him – in some circles – as a polarizing candidate. Coe has said the communications should have been handled better, but that athletes need to find financial help anywhere they can. Further, he has eloquently pushed for the IOC to push harder on sport as a social development tool, and not so much on other programs involving the United Nations and cultural projects. That’s a powerful position that will have wide support.

If Coventry does not score a first-round knock-out, Coe will be well positioned to receive heavy consideration on a second ballot.

Samaranch has the advantage of being an IOC member much longer than any other candidate, elected in 2001. He has an impressive and highly-successful financial management background, was also educated in the U.S. (Masters at NYU).

He brushes off comparisons to his father, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the transformative IOC President from 1980-2001, saying the situations he faced are completely different and not relevant to today. The young (65) Samaranch has strong contacts with China and was the IOC Coordination Commission chair for the difficult 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

If the membership cannot come to an early decision between Coventry and Coe, Samaranch is an excellent alternative who will be seen as someone who will try and achieve true consensus, and be highly attentive to the interests of the members as ambassadors of the Olympic Movement in their countries.

This appears to be a close call, with no way to know now what will happen.

And, no matter who is elected, they won’t be in charge for a while, as their term won’t start until 24 June. Bach will stay in command until then.

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LOS ANGELES 2028: Design and engineering giant AECOM joins LA28 as “Official Venue Infrastructure Partner”

By
Rich Perelman
-
Cover of the 2024 AECOM annual report.

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≡ AECOM JOINS AS PARTNER ≡

Another sponsor has signed on with the LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Organizing Committee as Dallas-headquartered design and engineering mega-firm AECOM has joined as the “Official Venue Infrastructure Partner” for the organizing committee and Team USA.

It’s a natural upgrade from AECOM’s work in planning and development for LA28, which began during the bid phase for the 2024 Games and continued when Los Angeles was awarded the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad and XVIII Paralympic Games in 2017.

Having AECOM’s expertise saves the hiring of a bespoke architecture and design staff for LA28, and takes advantage of its decades of experience in stadium design and construction, most recently as the lead design, construction management and engineering firm for the state-of-the-art Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, home of the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA. It will be the site for basketball for the LA28 Games.

AECOM’s expertise, with more than 2,000 professionals in the Southern California area, will be turned toward maximizing the usefulness of the temporary infrastructure that will be used in 2028, with no permanent venues to be built. The firm was already involved in Olympic architectural and engineering support at the London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games.

Moreover, AECOM, which reported revenues of $16.1 billion for its 2024 fiscal year, has been deeply involved already in the design efforts for 2028, as the architectural design arm of the organizing committee.

There will also be significant financial benefits for LA28 as well, as the AECOM agreement is a cash–and-services program. In the first six years of operations, LA28 has continuously retained AECOM for design services with fees through 2023 of $11,624,039:

● 2018: $1,229,127
● 2019: $1,210,000
● 2020: $1,310,000
● 2021: $1,146,100
● 2022: $1,609,839
● 2023: $5,118,973 (last year reported)

This is only a fraction of the work that will be required going forward. Happily, the AECOM main office in downtown Los Angeles will be only about 10 blocks north of the eventual LA28 headquarters on South Olive Street, to be occupied later this year.

AECOM is classified as an “Official Partner,” in the second tier of LA28 sponsors, with Cisco, Fanatics, Lilly, Nike and Polo Ralph Lauren. Comcast-NBC and Delta are listed as “Founding Partners,” and there are seven “Official Supporters,” for 15 LA28 corporate sponsors so far.

The LA28 budget calls for $2.514 billion in domestic corporate partnership revenue, with more than $1.5 billion committed so far and a goal of $2 billion by the end of 2025.

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PANORAMA: Fencing champ Kiefer, skating star Malinin are Sullivan finalists; Russian feds got $255 million from gambling; rowing considers transgender ban

By
Rich Perelman
-
Russian Olympic federations got 22 billion rubles from betting taxes in 2024! Wow!

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Sullivan Award ● The six finalists for the 95th AAU Sullivan Award, given annually since 1930 “to the most exceptional athlete at the collegiate, Olympic, or other similarly elite level in the United States.”

Former Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark won the last two years; six candidates are the finalists for 2025:

● Cooper Flagg: Duke basketball freshman; national high school player of the year
● Ashton Jeanty: Boise State All-American football running back
● Lee Kiefer: Paris Olympic women’s Foil & Team gold medalist
● Ilia Malinin: ISU Figure Skating men’s World Champion
● Lexi Rodriguez: Nebraska women’s volleyball All-American
● Trey Augustine: Michigan State goalie, two-time IIHF World Juniors gold

Voting is open now through 20 March.

● Russia ● The Russian Sports Ministry said Thursday that “deductions from bookmakers” – gambling taxes – of RUB 22 billion were collected in 2024 and distributed to Olympic-sport federations in the country.

That converts to about $255.07 million U.S. The leading recipients were the national federations for football, table tennis, tennis and ice hockey. Much smaller amounts were distributed to non-Olympic federations (RUB 3.1 billion), professional leagues (2.3 billion) and Paralympic sports federations (900 million).

Wow.

● Athletics ● A now-viral video from last Friday’s Virginia state indoor championships shows I.C. Norcom High senior Alaila Everett clubbing Brookville High School junior Kaelen Tucker on the final turn of the second leg of the girls 4×200 m relay.

Tucker ended up face-down on the infield, and the Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Office charged Everett with one count of assault and battery, for the concussion and a possible fractured skull. I.C. Norcom was disqualified and Brookville did not finish.

Tucker was trying to cut into lane one, ahead of Everett when the blow happened. Everett maintains it was an accident, explaining:

“She was touching me to the point where I was pumping my arm, and the baton was hitting her arm. I lose my balance; my whole body turns, and then I pump my arms, so she got hit.”

● Boxing ● World Boxing moved up another notch on the Olympic Movement’s federation ladder by being approved for membership in the Association of IOC-Recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF).

This positions World Boxing to be a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations once full recognized by the IOC, which could come next week at the IOC Session in Greece. World Boxing now has 84 affiliated national federations, in just 16 months since its founding Congress in November 2023.

● Curling ● The World Men’s Curling Championship is returning to the U.S. in 2026, as Ogden City, Utah will host at the Weber County Ice Sheet from 28 Mar to 5 April 2026.

The U.S. last hosted in 2022, in Paradise, Nevada in the Las Vegas metro area; the 2026 event will be the 10th time the U.S. has been the host. In the prior nine, the U.S. has won only one medal: gold in 1976 in Duluth, Minnesota.

● Cycling ● The hilly, 203.3 km fifth stage of the 83rd Paris-Nice race was won by France’s Lenny Martinez, winning a final sprint of four riders, in 4:36:23, riding away by three seconds from countryman Clement Champoussin, American Matteo Jorgenson and Harold Tejada (COL).

With prior leader Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) in 16th (+0:26), Jorgenson regained the lead by 22 seconds, with the race finishing Sunday.

At the 60th Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy, Dutch riders swept the triple-climb, 190 km fourth stage, with Olav Kooij winning in 4:48:05 at the end of a mass sprint. Rick Pluimers was second and 2023 World Road Champion Mathieu van der Poel was third. The top 67 riders all received the same time, so Italy’s Filippo Ganna remained in the overall lead over Juan Ayuso (ESP: +0:22).

● Freestyle Skiing ● The FIS World Cup season in Aerials finished Thursday in Livigno (ITA), with the tightest possible finish in the seasonal men’s standings!

Swiss Noe Roth, the 2023 World Champion, won Thursday’s final, scoring 130.05 ahead of Jiaxu Sun (CHN: 113.73) and fellow Swiss Pirmin Werner (113.00). American Chris Lillis was sixth (79.20).

Both Roth and Beijing 2022 gold medalist Guangpu Qi finished with exactly 400 points on the season, but Qi won twice o Roth’s once and won the seasonal title.

Australia’s two-time World Champion Laura Peel finished off her seasonal title in style, winning for the fifth time in seven events at 112.90, ahead of Mengtao Xu (CHN: 105.17) and Meiting Chen (CHN: 91.44). American Kalia Kuhn was fourth (78.94). Peel piled up 542 points to win the Crystal Globe over Xu (444), the Beijing 2022 Olympic champ.

In the Big Air seasonal finale in Tignes (FRA), Italian brother-and-sister Miro Tabanelli and Flora Tabanelli both pulled off victories.

Flora, 17, out-scored two-time Big Air World Champion Tess Ledeux (FRA), 187.75 to 181.75, with Anni Karava (FIN: 175.25) third and American Rell Harwood (174.25) fourth. Tabanelli was medals in all six World Cups, won two and had 440 points, to 270 for Ledeux in second.

Miro, 20, won a tight duel with American Mac Forehand, 188.25 to 187.50, with New Zealand’s Luca Harrington at 187.00 and Troy Podmilsak of the U.S. fourth (181.00). Harrington won two events and four medals in the six stops in Big Air and took the seasonal Crystal Globe at 390 points, ahead of Matej Svancer (AUT: 351). Tabanelli was third with 270.

● Rowing ● The World Rowing Quadrennial Congress is coming Friday and Saturday in Lausanne, with transgender participation on the agenda. A proposal from seven European federations asks:

“[W]e propose that World Rowing adopt eligibility for the women’s category based strictly on sex and would like the opportunity to vote on such a proposal to be added to the agenda for Congress. Only rowers who are female at birth are eligible to compete in the Women’s category. All other rowers are eligible to compete in an Open category including those under ongoing hormonal treatment.”

The federation’s 2025-28 budget is also to be reviewed, with the presentation showing planned expenses during the four years of CHF 32.893 million, of which 16 million will come from the IOC’s television rights share for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, roughly 48.6%. World Rowing is shown losses in three of the four years in the quadrennial period.

● Ski Jumping ● Amid the furor of the suit-cheating scandal involving the Norwegian federation, the FIS World Cup continued, in Oslo (NOR) – of all places – with Japanese star Ryoyu Kobayashi sailing to his third straight World Cup win off of the 134 m hill, scoring 264.1, ahead of Austria’s Jan Hoerl (253.3) and Karl Geiger (GER: 252.4). American Tate Frantz was 25th.

The women’s competition was the seventh straight win for all-conquering Slovenian teen Nika Prevc. She won both jumps and scored 254.1 points to 226.2 for Anna Stroem (NOR), with Eirin Kvandal (NOR: 216.9) third. No Norwegian women were suspended by FIS for uniform manipulations. Josie Johnson of the U.S. was 28th.

● Weightlifting ● The International Testing Agency announced that Venezuelan lifter Jhohan Sanguino, 26, tested positive for the steroid Stanozolol and has been provisionally suspended. He placed 15th at the 2023 World Championships in the men’s 102 kg class and was the 2023 Pan American Games bronze medalist at that weight.

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ATHLETICS: Grand Slam Track announces full, strong fields for Kingston opener on 4-6 April

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic 1,500 m silver medalist and women’s 2,000 m world-record holder Jess Hull joins Grand Slam Track (Photo: Diamond League AG).

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≡ KINGSTON SLAM ≡

One of the benefits which the Grand Slam Track circuit is hoping for from its program of contracted Racers and event-by-event Challengers is that who is running is well known way ahead of each meet.

On Thursday, just more than three weeks ahead of the 4 April opening session of its first “Slam” in Kingston, Jamaica, Grand Slam Track announced its line-ups (U.S. unless otherwise noted):

Men/Short Sprints (100-200 m):
● Racers: Kenny Bednarek, Fred Kerley, Oblique Seville (JAM), Zharnel Hughes (GBR)
● Challengers: Courtney Lindsey, Ackeem Blake (JAM), Terrence Jones, Joseph Fahnbulleh (LBA)

Kerley was the Olympic 100 m bronze medalist in Paris and 2022 World Champion; Bednarek was the Tokyo and Paris 200 m silver winner. Bednarek and Seville were 7-8 in the Paris 100 final.

Men/Long Sprints: (200-400 m):
● Racers: Quincy Hall, Muzala Samukonga (ZAM), Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR), Jereem Richards (TTO)
● Challengers: Busang Collen Kebinatshipi (BOT), Vernon Norwood, Chris Bailey, Deandre Watkin (JAM)

Hall, Hudson-Smith and Samukonga went 1-2-3 in Paris, with Richards fourth and Bailey sixth! Norwood won another gold on the men’s 4×400 m relay.

Men/Short Distance (800-1,500 m):
● Racers: Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr (GBR), Yared Nuguse, Marco Arop (CAN)
● Challengers: Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN), Bryce Hoppel, Neil Gourley (GBR), Mohamed Attaoui (ESP)

Hocker was the 1,500 m Olympic champion in Paris, ahead of Kerr (2023 World Champion) and Nuguse. Wanyonyi and Arop were 1-2 in the Olympic 800 m, with Hoppel setting an American Record in placing fourth. This group offers a wonderful contrast in styles which should be great fun to watch.

Men/Long Distance (3,000-5,000 m):
● Racers: Grant Fisher, Ronald Kwemoi (KEN), Hagos Gebrhiwet (ETH)
● Challengers: Cooper Teare, Thierry Ndikumwenayo (ESP), Dominic Lobalu (SUI), Dylan Jacobs, Telahun Haile Bekele (ETH)

Kwemoi and Fisher went 2-3 in the Paris 5,000 m and Fisher went crazy indoors, setting world records at 3,000 m (7:22.91) and 5,000 m (12:44.09). Gebrhiwet was fifth in Paris in 2024, but was the year leader at 12:36.73 in May in Oslo.

Men/Short Hurdles (110 m Hurdles-100 m):
● Racers: Freddie Crittenden, Sasha Zhoya (FRA), Daniel Roberts, Orlando Bennett (JAM)
● Challengers: Hansle Parchment (JAM), Cordell Tinch, Cameron Murray, Dylan Beard

Roberts was the Paris Olympic runner-up, with Crittenden sixth and Bennett seventh. Parchment was the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champ. It will be fascinating to see the sprint times for these hurdlers!

Men/Long Hurdles (400 m hurdles-400 m):
● Racers: Clement Ducos (FRA), Alison Dos Santos (BRA), Caleb Dean, Roshawn Clarke (JAM)
● Challengers: Malik James-King (JAM), CJ Allen, Chris Robinson, Trevor Bassitt

Dos Santos won the Paris bronze after being 2022 World Champion and the Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist. Ducos was fourth in Paris and Bassitt was the 2022 Worlds bronze winner in Eugene. Dean was the NCAA 400H winner (47.23), but fell at the Olympic Trials.

Women’s Short Sprints (100-200 m):
● Racers: Brittany Brown, Daryll Neita (GBR), Melissa Jefferson-Wooden
● Challengers: Alana Reid (JAM), Jacious Sears, Tamara Clark, Favour Ofili (NGR), Kemba Nelson (JAM)

Jefferson-Wooden won the Olympic 100 m bronze in Paris, Brown won the 200 m bronze and Neita won a 4×100 m silver for Britain. Sears ran 10.77 for no. 3 in the world in 2024 before her injury at the SEC meet and was the U.S. runner-up indoors in 2025.

Women’s Long Sprints (200-400 m):
● Racers: Gabby Thomas, Nickisha Pryce (JAM), Alexis Holmes, Marileidy Paulino (DOM)
● Challengers: Salwa Eid Naser (BRN), Dina Asher-Smith (GBR), Talitha Diggs, Stacey Ann Williams (JAM)

Thomas had a dream Olympics with a 200 m win and then two relay golds. Paulino won the 400 m with Naser second and Holmes in sixth. Price was the NCAA champ and had the no. 3 time in the world last year (48.57).

Women’s Short Distance (800-1,500 m):
● Racers: Jess Hull (AUS), Nikki Hiltz, Diribe Welteji (ETH), Mary Moraa (KEN)
● Challengers: Nelly Chepchirchir (KEN), Heather MacLean, Natoya Goule-Toppin (JAM), Susan Ejore (KEN)

Hull won the Olympic 1,500 m silver in Paris and set the 2,000 m world record earlier in the season. Welteji was fourth, Ejore sixth and Hiltz seven at the Games in 2024. Moraa was the Paris 800 m bronzer after winning the 2023 Worlds gold; Maclean set the American Indoor Record for 1,500 m (3:59.60) in March.

Women’s Long Distance (3,000-5,000 m):
● Racers: Nozomi Tanaka (JPN), Tsige Gebreselama (ETH), Agnes Ngetich (KEN), Elise Cranny
● Challengers: Hellen Ekalale (KEN), Whittni Morgan, Melissa Courtney-Bryant (GBR), Ejgayehu Taye (ETH)

Taye was sixth and Cranny 11th and Morgan 14th in the Paris Olympic 5,000 m final. Taye, Tanaka and Cranny went 5-8-9 at the 2023 Worlds 5,000 m. Ngetich won the 2023 World Cross Country bronze and set a world road 10 km record of 28:46 in January 2024.

Women’s Short Hurdles (100 m hurdles-100 m):
● Racers: Ackera Nugent (JAM), Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (PUR), Masai Russell, Cyrena Samba-Mayela (FRA)
● Challengers: Danielle Williams (JAM), Grace Stark, Denisha Cartwright (BAH), Alia Armstrong (JAM)

Camacho-Quinn won the Tokyo Olympic gold and Russell won in Paris, over Samba-Mayela on the lean at the line. Stark was fifth in Paris and Nugent didn’t finish, but had the fastest time of the year (12.24). Williams is a two-time World Champion.

Women’s Long Hurdles (400 m hurdles-400 m):
● Racers: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Shamier Little, Rushell Clayton (JAM), Jasmine Jones
● Challengers: Shiann Salmon (JAM), Cathelijn Peeters (NED), Andrenette Knight (JAM), Dalilah Muhammad

McLaughlin set a world record in winning the Tokyo 400H final and in Paris (50.37). Jones was fourth in Paris, Clayton was fifth and Salmon was sixth. Little has won two Worlds silvers in her career and Muhammad was the Rio 2016 Olympic winner and set two world records in 2019.

These are strong fields for sure. The winner of each Slam group will take home $100,000 in prize money, and the 8th place competitor will earn $10,000.

The time schedule was also released, showing fairly compact racing on all three days:

● 4 April: 5:42 p.m. to 7:21 p.m. (Jamaican time)
● 5 April: 5:42 p.m. to 7:21 p.m.
● 6 April: 2:42 p.m. to 4:21 p.m.

The second Slam will be in Miramar, Florida from 2-4 May.

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SKI JUMPING: FIS suspends three more Norwegian jumpers, takes control of all ski jumping suits for last month of season

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ FIS CRACKS DOWN ≡

“For every competition until the end of the season, all suits will be kept by FIS and available to be picked up by each athlete approximately 30 minutes before their training or competition. All athletes must bring their suits back to the FIS equipment controller within 30 minutes after their jump.”

That’s from a Wednesday directive issued by the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) that impacts both Ski Jumping and the Nordic Combined for the remainder of the season:

Nordic Combined:
● 15-16 March: Oslo (NOR) ~ men and women
● 21-22 March: Lahti (FIN) ~ men

Ski Jumping:
● 13 March: Oslo (NOR) ~ men and women
● 15-16 March: Vikersund (NOR) ~ men and women
● 20-22 March: Lahti (FIN) ~ men and women
● 27-30 March: Planica (SLO) ~ men only

A statement from the FIS Race Directors Sandro Pertile (ITA/Ski Jumping) and Lasse Ottesen (NOR/Nordic Combined) underscored their concerns:

“Given how serious the case in Trondheim was, we felt the need to immediately adjust the suit control policy for the remainder of the season. This will ensure that equipment control is more efficient since our controllers will have much more time to conduct tests.

“We hope that these measures will also act as a testament to how FIS takes this matter as seriously as it can possibly be taken. We expect full support from the teams so we can ensure what matters the most: fair competition until the end of the season.”

Coaches were told on Wednesday:

“Each athlete will be allowed to use one suit until the end of the season. This suit may be selected among any of those to which an identification microchip has already been implanted during the season. A second suit can be made available as a backup in case of irreparable damage.”

Suits were already identified individually prior to the season, using the microchip, so they could be checked for conformity with the rules on materials. A FIS equipment check was how the altered were caught for the men’s Large Hill competition at the World Nordic Skiing World Championships in Trondheim (NOR) last weekend.

And the repercussions of that event are not over. On Thursday, FIS suspended three more Norwegian jumping stars (for a total of eight athletes and staff so far):

“FIS has notified another three athletes of Norway’s Men’s Ski Jumping team that they are under investigation by the FIS Ethics and Compliance Office for their alleged involvement in illegal equipment manipulation.

“Robin Pedersen, Kristoffer Sundal, and Robert Johansson, members of the Norwegian team that competed at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Trondheim 2025, are provisionally suspended, with immediate effect, from participating in FIS events and events organized by a National Ski Association.”

Pedersen and Sundal were both members of the Norwegian bronze-medal team in the men’s Team Large Hill event in Trondheim. Johansson, famous for his mammoth handlebar moustache from the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, finished 19th in the Trondheim men’s Large Hill event this year and owns three Olympic and three Worlds medals from 2018-19-21 championship events.

The FIS announcement also noted more suit examinations:

“Upon request from the external investigators of the FIS Independent Ethics and Compliance Office, on Tuesday, 11 March, FIS seized all the jumping suits used by Norwegian teams in Trondheim 2025 – in both Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined, in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

“These seized suits were submitted to an inspection, which found no irregularities in the equipment used by the Women’s Ski Jumping team and by both the Men’s and Women’s Nordic Combined teams. However, the suits used by the Men’s Ski Jumping team raised additional suspicions of manipulation, which have resulted in the provisional suspensions announced today.”

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Comcast/NBCUniversal and IOC expand relationship to 2036 for $3 billion

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ OLYMPICS REMAIN AT NBC ≡

Ending long speculation about a future U.S. television deal, the driving force behind the finances of the International Olympic Committee – and the Olympic Movement – the IOC and Comcast NBCUniversal announced an expansion of rights beginning in 2025 and including broadcast rights from 2033-36 for $3 billion U.S.

This includes the 2034 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, a potential advertising bonanza for NBC, and the 2036 Olympic Games, which are yet to be awarded, but which have many suitors.

Thursday’s announcement came after the deal was agreed by the IOC Executive Board, and explained that the relationship between the parties was expanding:

“With immediate effect, the new partnership provides additional value, including:

● “building on Comcast’s expertise in technology infrastructure, connectivity and media to support the delivery of the Olympic Games;

● “support for the in-venue distribution of the live TV coverage of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS);

● “support to OBS in the production of the Olympic Video Player;

● “collaboration on digital advertising opportunities in the United States;

● “the IOC benefitting from Comcast’s investment in relevant and innovative start-ups;

● “the extension of the media rights agreement across all platforms in the United States for the Olympic Games until 2036 on NBCUniversal, including its streaming platform Peacock.”

The last extension of NBC’s rights came in 2014, with the purchase of rights for six Games for $7.65 billion:

● 2022 and 2024: reported $2.50 billion
● 2026 and 2028: reported $2.55 billion
● 2030 and 2032: reported $2.60 billion

The 2033-36 extension for two Games for $3.00 billion – with the other stuff thrown in – is a 15% raise is looked at strictly in terms of rights fees (which the IOC and Comcast say is only part of the deal).

In any case, it takes the U.S. television rights off the table through 2036, cementing NBC’s lock on the Games which it has had since the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul (KOR) and since the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer (NOR).

IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) said:

“This agreement with Comcast is groundbreaking because it goes far beyond the traditional media rights agreement which we have had for many years with our valued partner. Thanks to their innovative approach, serving on all platforms from linear to streaming and digital, we can now take our partnership to new heights for the benefit of athletes, Olympic stakeholders, Organising Committees and fans.

“The media landscape is evolving rapidly and, by partnering with one of the world’s leading media and technology companies, we will ensure that fans in the United States are able to experience the Olympic Games like never before.”

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NCAA: Pro-player payments advocate tells Congress: “Olympic sports could easily be subsidized by university endowments or through state and federal funding”

By
Rich Perelman
-
Georgia director of track & field Caryl Smith Gilbert at the House Judiciary Subcommittee meeting on 11 March 2025 (Image: C-SPAN screen shot).

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≡ COLLEGE COACHES IN CONGRESS ≡

“My view on [name-image-likeness funding] is different from coaches in revenue-generating sports. Unlike those sports, where NIL deals can be lucrative, my athletes earn little to no NIL money. Instead, they rely on scholarships, academic support, and university-provided resources to train and compete at an elite level. …

“My personal fear is that without regulation, all money will be spent on football, and the impact on nonrevenue and Olympic sports will be devastating. I am concerned many universities will eliminate many Olympic sports programs, depriving countless students of the same opportunities that I experienced thanks to college track and field.

“To ensure the future of college athletics remains strong and equitable, I urge Congress to protect universities from excessive litigation which diverts necessary money from our athletes, and to prevent student athletes from being classified as employees, as doing so would force schools to defund and ultimately eliminate non-revenue sports.”

That’s University of Georgia director of track & field Caryl Smith Gilbert, testifying on Tuesday as part of a panel in front of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust (video), asking Congress for legislative help to preserve many non-revenue sports programs, especially by an anti-trust exemption that would keep college athletes from being classified as employees.

Smith Gilbert explained this in detail:

● “The student-athletes I coach are not just competitors—they are students pursuing an education and an opportunity to build a future beyond sports. For most, scholarships are the only way they can afford a college degree, and obtaining a college degree is truly the most important thing. To be clear, the number of athletes who are able to have a long and lucrative professional career in track and field is infinitesimally small. So, my goal is to ensure that they achieve their potential on the track and in the classroom so that they are prepared for life after college athletics.”

● “Yet, today, track & field and other non-revenue sports are at risk. The current NIL environment – without a clear uniform national standard – threatens scholarships, undermines roster stability, and creates uncertainty for athletes, coaches, and programs. Of equal importance, implementing an employment model would be devastating for non-revenue sports.”

● “Today, our student-athletes receive critical resources – nutritionists, athletic trainers, academic advisors – at no cost. But as employees, they would be responsible for many of these expenses themselves. And for non-revenue sports like track and field, the student athletes aren’t making lucrative NIL deals that can support them past college. Instead of providing more opportunities, an employment model would make it harder for young athletes to compete while pursuing a degree. And a college degree provides young people with a lifetime’s worth of support.”

University of Louisville swimming and diving coach Arthur Albeiro echoed these concerns in his testimony:

● “I have seen firsthand the transformative power and impact that college sports, and specifically swimming and diving, can have on young men and women. The value of being a part of an athletic team is a difference-maker in the educational process and in our program at Louisville, we see this process ‘NOT ABOUT swimming and diving, but THROUGH swimming and diving.’ That is the power of collegiate athletics … it changes lives.”

● “The NCAA, the conferences and its member schools need Congressional support. We all recognize that there are 30-40 schools that generate millions of dollars, almost exclusively from football and basketball and those athletes should receive a different level of support. However, not all football and basketball teams, even those at Division 1 schools, generate such large revenues. About 22% of NCAA athletes play football or basketball. Less than that play for a team that brings in more money than they expense. To lump all football and basketball programs into the same category as all the top Power 4 teams is not only senseless, but also harmful, yet that is what is happening.”

University of Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh further explored the mess faced by administrators, coaches and athletes alike:

“In addition to litigation that is eroding the educational mission, states motivated to outcompete one another use executive orders and state laws to create competitive advantages for colleges and universities in the respective states. These actions were initially focused on NIL but have evolved over time.

“Some states now prohibit enforcement of certain rules by the NCAA or conferences. Some states are now considering exempting NIL payments for state income tax purposes. This ever-shifting patchwork of state laws makes it impossible for there to be an enforceable uniform national regulatory framework to serve what is otherwise a system built upon national competition played by students selected through a national recruiting process. It also makes it impossible for student-athletes navigating the recruiting process to understand the rules of the road from one school to the next.”

He pointed out that “[w]ithin the past two years there have been two NCAA institutions – one at the Division I level and one at the Division II level – that have announced the discontinuation of their entire athletics departments.”

And the ask was for three specific things from Congress:

● “[L]egislation that will preempt the ever-changing patchwork of state laws that make having a uniform national framework for a national intercollegiate competition system impossible.”

● Limited antitrust protection to provide “a safe harbor that will give us the necessary stability and predictability to maintain a regulatory framework that serves the underlying educational mission of the collegiate sports model.”

● Although outside the direct jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee:

“we ask Congress to clarify that the relationship between student-athletes and institutions is not that of an employer and employee. It is extremely important to the educators at our institutions that the focus of a student-athlete’s college tenure remains based in education. Importantly, as described previously, although the University of Wisconsin-Madison may not be in this category, an employment regime for college sports would be devastating to the vast majority of the 1,200-plus member institutions of the NCAA.”

Andrew Cooper, Executive Director of the United College Athletes Association, asked that no anti-trust exemption be considered for the NCAA at all, stating “this committee should force the NCAA to simply follow the same laws as every other business in our country.”

Gilbert made a point not widely noticed when the question of athletes-as-employees is brought up:

“I think if we’re talking from an employment standpoint, I’m not an employer. I’m a teacher, a leader and a mentor. So I think if you make student-athletes follow an employment model, then it changes the relationship between the coach and an athlete.

“An athlete should not be put under the pressure of being employees at such a young age.”

And McIntosh put the Wisconsin program – with $171 million in revenue – in this light:

“At Wisconsin, we have 23 sports. Six of those sports generate revenue. Two of those sports turn a profit. Those profits fund the opportunity for everyone else.

“To grant an exemption for employees in Olympic sports, I would just tell you that the detriment to those student-athletes, the tax consequences they would face given the benefits they already receive, [that] the guarantees they are already benefitting from – guaranteed scholarships – would be put at risk.”

Cooper, promoting payments to athletes without any Congressional changes, was not worried about non-revenue sports. Asked near the end of the hearing by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia), whether “those urban and suburban students are who are playing football or basketball … is it fair that they subsidize the Olympic aspirations of the country-club set?,” he responded:

“The predominantly black football and basketball players who generate the vast majority of the revenue, they should have rights, worker rights, and be entitled to a share of the revenue they generate.

“From an Olympic sports standpoint, the Olympic sports could easily be subsidized by university endowments or through state and federal funding. We’re one of the only countries in the world that does not federally fund Olympic sport development.”

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PANORAMA: Samaranch wants IOC transgender policy by Milan Cortina; ATHLOS confirms 2025 meet in October; World Boxing up to 84 members

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC Presidential candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain (Photo: IOC/Greg Martin).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● International Olympic Committee ● Presidential candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP) told Reuters that a formalized policy on the question of transgender women participating in the women’s category will be a priority if he is elected on 20 March:

“We should try our best to have it in place before the Milano-Cortina Games. I think it’s almost mandatory to try. The timeline is very short, but the timeline is there.

“We saw Paris, one of the most, if not the most successful Games in history, and they were tainted by that issue.”

Commenting on the existing IOC “framework” structure which leaves the decision to each International Federation – adopted in November 2021 – he would prefer more clarity:

“It was a good call [then], but it has not been good enough. Paris demonstrated that the social alarm on this issue is still there, and there is a common understanding … for the IOC as the leader of the world of sports to be the leader also on this issue.”

The IOC announced that TOP sponsor Allianz, the German insurance giant, has confirmed its participation through the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.

Allianz has been the IOC’s insurance partner since 2021 as well as a worldwide partner of the International Paralympic Committee. With the commitment, the IOC now has seven TOP sponsor categories filled, by AB Inbev, Allianz, Coca-Cola/Mengniu, Deloitte, Omega, TCL and Visa.

● Athletics ● ATHLOS confirmed a 2025 meet, this time on 10 October 2025, again at Icahn Stadium in New York. The tagline is “to celebrate the world’s fastest women,” indicating only running events and for women only, once again.

The 2024 program included the women’s 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1,500 m and 100 m hurdles.

● Boxing ● World Boxing approved six more members, bringing its federation total to 84. The new federations include: the Chinese Boxing Federation; the Turkish Boxing Federation; the Sudan Boxing Federation; the Boxing Association of Montenegro; the Slovak Boxing Federation and the Hellenic Boxing Federation (Greece).

World Boxing was provisionally recognized by the IOC Executive Board to govern Olympic boxing and is well placed now to be fully recognized by the IOC Session next week in Greece.

● Cycling ● Two of the celebrated, early-season stage races are at the midway, in France and Italy.

At the 83rd Paris-Nice race, Belgian sprint star Tim Merlier won the mass-finish first stage, followed by another win in stage two. The Team Time Trial in stage three was won by the Dutch Team Visma/Lease-A-Bike with defending champ Matteo Jorgenson of the U.S. ending the stage in the overall lead.

That didn’t last long as the hilly fourth stage endured slick conditions due to hail and melting snow, with the race stopped for 15 minutes with about 30 km left of the 163.4 km course. Once resumed, the race finished uphill and Portugal’s Joao Almeida just edged two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) at the line in 3:37:06. However, Vingegaard took the overall lead by five seconds over teammate Jorgenson, with four stages left.

At the 60th Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy, the home country has won all three stages, although Time Trial star Filippo Ganna, Jonathan Milan and Andrea Vendrame all ride for different teams!

Ganna won the opening time trial (of course), then Milan and Vendrame won mass-finish sprints to the line in the second and third stages. Ganna retains the overall lead by 22 seconds over Juan Ayuso (ESP), with the key test not coming until Saturday’s sixth stage, with an uphill finish to Frontignano.

● Freestyle Skiing ● The Moguls season ended in Livigno (ITA) with the men’s and women’s Dual Moguls and a confirmed triple win for American star Jaelin Kauf, the Beijing 2022 Olympic Moguls runner-up.

She finished second to Australian rookie rider Charlotte Wilson, 22-13, in the final, but Kauf won the seasonal Moguls title by a tight 676-650 over 2018 Olympic champ Perrine Laffont (FRA), the Dual Moguls title by 660-440 over Laffont, and the overall Moguls crown by 1,336-1,090 over Laffont. It was Kauf’s first win in all three categories.

Canadian star Mikael Kingsbury won the Dual Moguls, reversing his loss to Japan’s Ikuma Horishima in Moguls, 20-15. It was the 99th career World Cup win for all-time leader Kingsbury, in the last event of the season.

Kingsbury won the Moguls seasonal title by 755-598 over Horishima, the Dual Moguls over Horishima, 544-440 and the combined Crystal Globe, 1,299-1,038. It’s the 13th seasonal overall win for the great Kingsbury, still only 32.

● Gymnastics ● The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) told the Russian news agency TASS, “We do not discuss individual AIN cases or publish the reasons why individual requests were approved or rejected,” referring to the rejection of neutral status of Tokyo Olympic Team gold medalist Viktoria Listunova, now 19.

Listunova’s coach said she was rejected because of social-media posts of “Victory Day” postcards which included the ribbon of St. George, a symbol connected with Russian nationalism.

● Rowing ● World Rowing extended its neutral-athlete policy for Russian and Belarusian athletes in its competitions for 2025, allowing Singles, Pairs and Double Sculls in senior-level events and all events except Eights in U-19 and U-23 events.

It’s not clear that the political neutrality of the participants will be checked, as the statement noted only that “Background checks will be performed should they be required by World Rowing.”

● Snowboard ● A long recovery is projected for Australian rider Belle Brockhoff, 32, a 2021 World Champion in the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross, after a bad crash at the FIS World Cup in Gudauri (GEO) last Saturday.

She was competing in the “small final” for places 5-8 when she crashed and did not finish. According to the Australian Olympic Committee:

“Belle was airlifted from the course and taken to a Tbilisi hospital where examination and imaging revealed a fracture of the L1 vertebrae, with no neurological damage.

“Belle was then evacuated to Greece for surgery.

“After surgery it is expected that Belle will remain in Athens to rehabilitate for up to two weeks before returning to Australia.”

A broken back requires 6-12 weeks recovery and Brockhoff, who competed at the 2014-18-22 Winter Games, had already been hit with injuries, recovering from a broken wrist at the end of the 2023-24 season. In Gudauri, she was competing in only her second event of the 2024-25 season.

● Volleyball ● USA Volleyball announced the induction of six new Hall of Fame members on 21 May in Denver, Colorado.

Olympic beach greats Mike Dodd (1996 silver) and Kerri Walsh-Jennings (2004-08-12 gold, 2016 bronze) and indoor stars Lindsey Berg (2008-12 silver), Tayyiba Haneef-Park (2008-12 silver), Tom Hoff (2008 gold), and David Lee (2008 gold) make up the class.

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NORWAY: FIS suspends ski jumping stars Lindvik and Forfang, three Norwegian staff members in jump-suit scandal

By
Rich Perelman
-
Norwegian ski jumping stars Johann Forfang (l) and Marius Lindvik (Photos: Norges Skiforbund).

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≡ WORLD NORDIC CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡

The FIS World Nordic Skiing Championships were a tremendous success in Trondheim (NOR), with more than 200,000 tickets sold and many thousands more watching along the cross-country courses and ski jumps.

Norway dominated the event, winning 33 medals, and winning more golds (14) than Sweden’s second-place overall title of 12. Wow.

Now, the celebration has turned to scandal.

After the Norges Skiforbund admitted that jumping suits for Beijing 2022 Large Hill gold medalist Marius Lindvik – also the Normal Hill winner in Trondheim – and Johann Forfang, a Team gold medalist at the 2018 Winter Games, were improperly altered, the national ski jumping coach, assistant coach and equipment manager were all suspended.

On Wednesday, the International Ski & Snowboard Federation went several steps further:

● “Following the initial information-gathering process over the last few days, today team coach Magnus Brevik, assistant coach Thomas Lobben, service staff member Adrian Livelten, and athletes Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang have been notified by FIS that they are formally under investigation by the FIS Ethics and Compliance Office and are provisionally suspended, with immediate effect, from participating in FIS events and events organized by a National Ski Association, pending the investigation and adjudication procedure.”

● “[U]pon request from the external investigators of the FIS Independent Ethics and Compliance Office, on Tuesday, 11 March, FIS seized all the jumping suits that have been worn by Norwegian teams at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Trondheim 2025 – in both Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined, in both the men’s and women’s competitions. The suits will be submitted for re-inspection as part of the ongoing investigation.”

● “Given the seriousness of the case in Trondheim, suit control policy will be immediately adjusted for the remainder of the FIS World Cup season in Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined. These adjustments will be discussed and formalized at this evening’s Team Captains’ Meeting in Oslo/Holmenkollen and made public shortly thereafter.”

The Nordic Combined in implicated, of course, because it includes ski jumping, and the FIS also announced a suspension there:

“In a separate case, a member of the Norwegian Nordic Combined team, Truls Johansen, has also been notified by FIS that he is formally under investigation by the FIS Independent Ethics and Compliance Office and is provisionally suspended, with immediate effect, from participating in FIS events and events organized by a National Ski Association, pending the investigation and adjudication procedure.”

This involved the Nordic Combined Team event on 7 March:

“On that day, the Jury decided on the disqualification of Norwegian athlete Joergen Graabak citing a violation of the competition’s equipment rules related to his ski bindings. The FIS Independent Ethics and Compliance Office is now investigating the circumstances surrounding how the Norwegian team presented the equipment for inspection after they protested the disqualification.”

FIS Secretary General Michel Vion (FRA) said:

“The only thing that matters to FIS is to leave this process 100% convinced that the sport is free from any form of manipulation. We will leave no stone unturned to ensure that respect and fairness prevail – in this specific case and across our entire ecosystem.”

Exactly what happened? The Norges Skiforbund’s statement on Monday (10th) explained the basic facts:

“What appears to have been clarified so far is that Brevik and Livelten made a choice on Friday evening [7th] to sew an extra – and stiffer – thread into the jump suits for Forfang and Lindvik.

“They first tried this on a suit that was not to be used, to test the technique of doing so, before doing it on the competition suits for Forfang and Lindvik. This – that is, sewing in an extra thread – they have not done before.

“What else has been done and tried to optimize the jump suits – both within and outside the regulations – the Jumping Committee does not have an overview of at this time.”

Lindvik and Forfang finished 2-4 in the qualifying in Saturday’s Large Hill competition in Trondheim and progressed to the final round. Lindvik eventually finished second, but both were disqualified after a post-event inspection of the equipment by FIS officials.

Conveniently, the FIS World Cups for both Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping are in Norway (Oslo and Vikersund) this week, with more information to come on instructions to the teams about the scandal and what is being done, no doubt with increased vigilance from FIS.

The Norges Skiforbund Ethics Committee issued a statement on Wednesday which included:

“The Ethics Committee understands that trust in Norwegian ski jumping has been greatly weakened and believes that it is necessary to turn over all stones, show the will and ability to clean up and prevent new cases of cheating. We welcome the FIS investigation and will assess the scope of their mandate before we possibly provide more specific advice on measures.”

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PANORAMA: Milan Cortina ‘26 adds Stellantis as auto sponsor (is LA28 next?); U.S. off the WADA Executive Committee; Kauf sweeps Moguls titles!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Britain’s King Charles III initiating the Commonwealth Sport King’s Baton Relay on Monday, with a presentation to cycling star Chris Hoy (Photo: Commonwealth Sport).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● One of the questions about sponsorship sales opportunities for Los Angeles 2028 was partially answered on Tuesday by the Milan Cortina organizing committee for the 2026 Winter Games.

Stellantis, the maker of Italian brands Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia and Maserati “have committed to providing an essential fleet of vehicles to ensure the seamless organization and execution of the sporting event, supporting the Games from their preparation phase all the way through their duration.”

The deal is for Stellantis and its Italian vehicle lines only, as a “Premium Partner” of the 2026 Winter Games. It does not include the conglomerate’s other brands, including U.S. marques Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM trucks. Headquartered in The Netherlands, it is the no. 4 automaker as measured by worldwide sales.

This may signal the willingness of the International Olympic Committee to allow the LA28 organizers to make their own deal for the automotive categories previously sponsored by Japan’s Toyota Motors, which declined to renew its TOP sponsorship at the end of 2024.

Toyota USA has sponsored multiple U.S. national federations, including USA Swimming, USA Track & Field and others.

● Commonwealth Games ● A unique twist on the torch relay concept was started at Buckingham Palace in London as King Charles III initiated the inaugural Commonwealth Sport King’s Baton Relay for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games at on Commonwealth Day on Monday (10th).

The relay began 500 days prior to the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, with cycling star Chris Hoy receiving the souvenir baton, made in Glasgow. Unlike prior relays, the Commonwealth relay will be taken for multi-day celebrations in all 74 Commonwealth Games member countries, starting on 11 March in the Caribbean, finishing in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Saturday 14 June. Each Commonwealth federation will receive its own baton, which can be decorated according to local tastes.

The Relay then moves to Africa (15 June to 24 October), then Asia (25 October to 21 December), Oceania (2 January to 26 March 2026), Americas (27 March to 6 May 2026), and Europe (8 May to 23 July 2026).

● World Anti-Doping Agency ● WADA published the rosters of its Foundation Board and Executive Committee on Tuesday, with the U.S. absent from both bodies.

Relations between the U.S. and WADA have grown increasingly coarse since the Chinese swimming positives incident from January 2021 was revealed in April 2024, and the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy has not made the U.S. dues payment of $3.265 million for 2024.

So, while ONDCP Director Dr. Rahul Gupta was listed as the Americas Representative on the Executive Committee in January 2024 (with a term through April 2026), the March 2025 roster shows only “Member to be confirmed.”

There were no U.S. members on the larger Foundation Board in 2024, with Americas reps from Jamaica, Canada, Venezuela and Chile, and that line-up continues for 2025.

The Executive Committee has 16 members from the Olympic Movement (5), governments (5), five independent members and the head of the WADA Athletes Commission. The 42-member Foundation Board has 20 members from governments, 20 from the Olympic Movement and the WADA President and Vice President.

● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● Sad news that long-time USOC security chief Larry Buendorf passed away last Sunday (9th) in Colorado Springs, at age 87.

Buendorf was the then-USOC (now USOPC) security chief from 1993-2018 and was universally respected for his professionalism and deep sense of responsibility to keep American athletes safe at Olympic Games, Pan American Games, world championships and other events. Former Los Angeles Times Olympic writer Alan Abrahamson shared a moving tribute to Buendorf here.

Buendorf, who started his career as a Naval aviator, was best known as the Secret Service agent who grabbed an assassin’s gun to foil an attempt against U.S. President Gerald Ford on 5 September 1975 in San Francisco. He served with the Secret Service from 1970-93, then joining the USOC.

● Football ● Argentine star Diego Maradona, 60, died from cardiac arrest at his home outside Buenos Aires on 25 November 2020.

Now seven medical professionals are being tried before a three-judge panel which possible prison sentences of 8-25 years if convicted of “homicide with possible intent.”

In a marathon trial which is expected to last into July, more than 100 witnesses may testify against The defendants in the case are a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a medical coordinator, a nursing coordinator, a doctor and the night nurse.

The focus will likely be on neurosurgeon Leonardo Luque, Maradona’s personal physician in his final four years. He removed a blood clot on the brain earlier in November, weeks prior to his death.

● Freestyle Skiing ● A big day for American Moguls star Jaelin Kauf at the FIS Freestyle World Cup finale in Livigno (ITA), a test event for the 2026 Winter Games.

Kauf, the 2022 Beijing Olympic silver medalist in Moguls, won her third World Cup gold of the season at 81.21 points, ahead of 2018 Olympic champ Perrine Laffont (FRA: 77.07) and fellow American Tess Johnson (74.94).

The win clinched the FIS World Cup seasonal title in Moguls, to add her to already-clinched wins in the Dual Moguls and Overall Moguls categories: the triple crown! Kauf won medals in seven of the nine Moguls events and all six Dual Moguls, going into Wednesday’s final race.

Japan’s 2017 World Champion, Ikuma Horishima won the men’s Moguls for the third time this season, ahead of seasonal champion Mikael Kingsbury (CAN: 82.90) and American Charlie Mickel (80.14). It’s the 13th career discipline title for Kingsbury.

● Gymnastics ● Russian artistic star Viktoria Listunova, 19, was denied re-entry into international competition by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique.

A Tokyo Olympic Team gold medalist in 2021 and the 2021 European All-Around champ, Listunova applied, but was refused, according to coach Olga Petrovicheva:

“We found postcards posted on the Internet where she congratulates the country on Victory Day, and on these postcards there is a St. George ribbon. Because of this, they are not giving neutral status. The Federation is going to fight.”

The ribbon of St. George, which dates from the 1700s, is associated with Russian nationalism and militarism, including the invasion of Ukraine.

● Ski Jumping ● In the aftermath of the disqualifications of would-be silver medalist Marius Lindvik and star Johann Forfang from the FIS Nordic World Championships Large Hill competition on Saturday for illegal jump suits, the Norges Skiforbundet suspended coach Magnus Brevik and equipment manager Adrian Livelten:

“What appears to have been clarified so far is that Brevik and Livelten made a choice on Friday evening to sew an extra – and stiffer – thread into the jump suits for Forfang and Lindvik. They first tried this on a suit that was not to be used, to test the technique of doing so, before doing it on the competition suits for Forfang and Lindvik.”

On Tuesday, the federation additionally suspended assistant coach Thomas Lobben, also apparently involved in the decision to modify the suits.

The International Ski & Snowboard Federation is also involved, with the Norwegian federation adding, “FIS requested that all ski jumping suits used by Norwegian ski jumping and combined athletes during the World Championships in Trondheim be submitted to FIS.”

● Swimming ● A look at the gifts given to NCAA Division II swimmers from the University of Tampa in a cute un-boxing video, including an NCAA shoulder bag, a participation medal, two different styles of water bottles, a smaller tote bag, baseball cap, luggage tag, a phone selfie light, a 3-in-1 folding charger and a portable speaker. Nice!

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WOMEN IN SPORT: 28 Congressional Republicans “demand” next IOC chief preserve and protect “female athletes on the Olympic stage”

By
Rich Perelman
-
President Donald Trump at the signing of his "Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” Executive Order on 5 February 2025 at The White House (Photo: C-SPAN video screenshot).

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

There are lots of people closely watching next week’s election of the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee. Add 28 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Fox News Digital reported Tuesday on a letter sent by 28 Republican Representatives and Senators to the IOC (and all seven Presidential candidates), led by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Congressman Burgess Owens (R-Utah), which included:

● “The United States looks forward to hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and to welcoming the accomplished athletes who have worked and sacrificed to reach the pinnacle of their respective sports. As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) prepares to elect new leadership, we write to express the critical need for increased protection of the rights of female athletes to fair, safe competition.”

● “In the United States, we honor our female Olympians. These athletes, and so many others, have inspired generations of young women around the world to compete and excel. Their legacy underscores the vital importance of fairness in women’s sports at every level of competition. Future Olympians are counting on the IOC to protect the opportunities of women and girls to contribute to this proud tradition.”

● “To do so, the IOC must base eligibility for women’s athletic competitions on biological sex. Allowing biological males to compete in women’s categories undermines competitive opportunities, safety, and respect for female athletes.”

● “In preparation for the 2028 Summer Olympics, commitment from the IOC to protect women’s sports is paramount. As members of Congress, we stand united with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President [Donald] Trump in calling on the IOC to amend its standards and safeguard the opportunities of female athletes on the Olympic stage.”

● “The Olympic Games should be a model for integrity in sports, and the next IOC president must firmly defend the rights of dedicated female athletes. We look forward to your leadership on this critical issue and demand that the next IOC president preserve the fundamental principles of fair competition.”

Fox News Digital listed, in addition to Risch, Republican Senators Mike Crapo, Jim Banks, Marsha Blackburn, Steve Daines, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Jim Justice, James Lankford, Tim Sheehy and Tommy Tuberville as signatories to the letter.

In addition to Owens, Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Vern Buchanan, Tim Burchett, Kat Cammack, Dan Crenshaw, Brad Finstad, Craig Goldman, Mark Green, Ashley Hinson, Mike Kennedy, Nick LaLota, Blake Moore, Riley Moore, Austin Pfluger, John Rose and Claudia Tenney also signed.

Clear reference was made U.S. President Trump’s Executive Order of 5 February, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” which included:

● “[I]t is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”

● “The Secretary of State shall use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”

The IOC’s current policy, expressed in the November 2021 “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” provided guidelines, but no hard rules on the questions of transgenders or women with hyperandrogenism. Specifics were left up to each International Federation, and while the IFs in aquatics, athletics, cycling, rowing, tennis and others have taken strict measures, some have done nothing. Equestrian competitions are open with riders allowed to be either male or female.

The IOC’s Presidential election comes on Thursday, 20 March, at the 144th IOC Session in Greece, with the Risch-Owens letter likely to have no impact at all. However, the next IOC President – to take over on 24 June – will have to deal with the issue, and with the Trump Administration.

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GYMNASTICS: IOC Presidential candidate and FIG chief Watanabe tells Russian gymnasts – in Moscow – they can only compete as neutrals for now

By
Rich Perelman
-
Federation Internationale de Gymnastique President Morinari Watanabe (JPN) (Photo: FIG)

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≡ WATANABE IN MOSCOW ≡

Kyodo News reported that Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) President Morinari Watanabe (JPN) “informed Russian gymnasts and coaches Monday in a Moscow suburb that they will not be permitted to represent their nation at international competitions while the invasion of Ukraine continues.”

Watanabe was in Ukraine last week and participated in an online news conference from a gymnasium where Ukrainian rhythmic gymnasts were training. He made clear, however, the Russian athletes will be able – as is currently the case – to continue participating as neutrals:

“In Ukraine, there are athletes who have lost their relatives in the war. It’s very hard, but I should remain neutral as the FIG’s president. I have to protect the rights of Russian athletes, too.”

Watanabe is also running to be the President of the International Olympic Committee, with the vote to be taken on 20 March at the 144th IOC Session in Greece. He is not considered a prime contender, but his profile has been considerably raised during the campaign. As he has supported Russian participation as neutrals, he has been viewed as reasonably friendly to Russia.

The Russian news agency TASS reported on Watanabe’s news conference in Novogorsk, where he explained the situation for Russian gymnasts to compete under the national flag:

“As long as the current conflict continues, there is no such possibility. I want to make this clear.”

He added that the current sanctions imposed by FIG are due to Russia’s “violation of the Olympic Truce. … On the other hand, the rights of every person must be respected, and we as a federation must respect and protect them, so we support participation in a neutral status. …

“I want to continue my efforts to make each athlete’s dream come true.

“I would like to use all my strength to think once again about the role of sport in this world. Sport should unite and give friendship, and not be a tool for increasing hatred. These values need to be clarified once again, this is what the world needs now.”

Observed: Give Watanabe credit for forthrightness and honor for going to Kyiv to see Ukrainian gymnasts on the ground and then to tell Russian gymnasts and coaches – face to face – that they cannot return with their flag and anthem until the Russian aggression against Ukraine ends.

It will not change the outcome of the IOC elections next week – his proposal for a five-continent, 50-sport Olympic Games is too radical – but no one can fail to be impressed by this personal show of leadership on his part.

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LANE ONE: Does FIFA’s $13 billion revenue for 2023-26 make the IOC financially irrelevant?

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ ANALYSIS & OBSERVATIONS ≡

The world football governing body FIFA announced last week in its annual report for 2024 that it had revised its revenue budget for the 2023-26 quadrennial from the already-amazing $11 billion U.S. to $13 billion U.S., now including expected revenue from the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, to be played in the U.S. in June and July.

In contrast, outgoing International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told a media roundtable last week that, as reported by the Chinese news agency Xinhua, that the IOC had confirmed revenues for the 2021-24 quadrennial – Tokyo to Paris – of $7.7 billion, a slight increase from the $7.6 billion it earned from 2017-20/21 (with the delay of the Tokyo Games), with the details to come in its annual report, out this summer.

So, this is all over, right? FIFA is now the unquestioned leader among the international sports organizations in revenue and the most powerful force in international sport, right?

Uh, not exactly.

First, let’s see where all that money is coming from (mostly the same places; IOC figures from 2017-20/21):

FIFA 2023-26: forecast $13.0 billion
● 32.8%: broadcast rights ($4.264 billion)
● 21.9%: sponsorships ($2.846 billion)
● 23.8%: tickets and hospitality ($3.097 billion)
● 15.4%: FIFA Club World Cup 2025 ($2.000 billion)
● 0.6%: licensing and other ($793 million)

IOC 2017-20/21: actual $7.6 billion
● 61%: broadcast rights (~$4.64 billion)
● 30%: sponsorships (~$2.28 billion)
● 9%: other (~$0.68 billion)
● 0%: tickets and hospitality

Check that last number, a zero for tickets and hospitality, because that’s where this story actually starts. Because FIFA and the IOC, for so long more or less in sync with their business models – like everyone in the Olympic sports universe – have diverged.

Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, FIFA dispensed with the traditional “local organizing committee” concept.

There isn’t one for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. FIFA does it all from its offices in Coral Gables, Florida and receives all of the revenue from broadcasting, corporate partners, tickets and all the rest.

The IOC, on the other hand, has retained the Host City model, although it’s more spread out now thanks to Bach’s Olympic Agenda 2020. The Olympic Host Contract is signed with a city or region, which stands up an organizing committee of thousands of staff – Paris 2024 had 4,200 – and tens of thousands of volunteers, all selected and trained locally.

So, the Olympic model splits its revenue with its organizing partners, taking in money from broadcast rights and some sponsorships, but leaving almost all of the ticketing revenue and single-Games sponsorships (and any government support) to the local organizers.

So, when an Olympic quadrennial revenue total is calculated, it has more parts than FIFA. For the 2025-28 quadrennial which includes the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Games, the total looks like this:

● $7.4 billion: IOC revenue commitments 2025-28 (now)
● $6.9 billion: Los Angeles 2028 revenue budget (now)
● $1.6 billion: Milan Cortina 2026 revenue budget (€1.5 billion)

That total is $15.9 billion, with the IOC’s revenue expected to climb further; for example, the commitments from new TOP sponsor TCL are not included in the $7.4 billion total shown. The eventual total will surpass $16 billion, about 23% more than FIFA’s stupendous $13 billion projected total.

Bach also noted that the IOC already has commitments for the 2029-32 quadrennial of $6.5 billion U.S., with the organizing committees for French Alps 2030 and Brisbane 2032 just starting up.

Olympic sharpies will quickly note that government expenditures for construction for the new hockey arena, sliding track and Milan Olympic Village are not included in these Olympic totals; quite true, and neither are the construction efforts required by FIFA to adapt stadia to its requirements for the 2026 World Cup, especially in the U.S., where fields need to be widened. These costs are borne by governments in some cases and private facility owners in others, who are banking on a financial bonanza from visitors to the event. However, this money is never seen by either FIFA or the IOC, or the Olympic organizing committees and thus is not shown above.

FIFA’s do-it-yourself approach will be interesting to watch in the coming years, as it takes the men’s World Cup to six countries for 2030 – with multiple stadiums to be built – and then to Saudi Arabia in 2034, with a half-dozen or more facilities to be constructed.

The IOC, under Bach, has moved in the complete opposite direction, insisting that no new venues be built unless part of a long-term plan for use by the community. No doubt, the IOC is watching FIFA’s experience closely, as the IOC itself has gradually taken over elements of the staging of the Olympic Games from local organizers, for example hospitality, results and sports registrations, with more coming.

But despite FIFA’s imposing $13 billion revenue projection for 2023-26, the Olympic Games is no laggard and continues to generate more revenue per four years.

But, as American sports watchers know, both FIFA and the IOC are paupers compared with the annual revenues of of the giant domestic club leagues, led by the National Football League at $19.2 billion annually as of 2023, Major League Baseball ($11.2 billion), the National Basketball Association ($10.6 billion) and so on.

Now that’s real money.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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PANORAMA: Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 CEO Wilson volunteers for now; U.S. sweeps World Archery Indoor Series; USA Swimming has 376,479 members

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic medalist Casey Kaufhold of the U.S. celebrates her 2025 World Archery Indoor World Series win in Las Vegas! (Photo: World Archery).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2034: Salt Lake City-Utah ● In an interview with the Deseret News, new SLC-Utah 2034 chief executive Brad Wilson said he may or may not head the organizing committee all the way to the finish line, but is glad to be able to help get it started.

The former Utah House Speaker, Wilson is an unpaid volunteer at present, as the fledgling organizing committee has only two paid staff members at present. He said he was asked by Governor Spencer Cox and Utah Senate leader Stuart Adams if he would be interested in serving and jumped at the chance.

He noted, however, that a search will likely be made for a chief executive for the organizing committee in 2028, with marketing rights and operations responsibilities coming online after the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games are concluded. But he might stay:

“We’ll know more in three years. I think that’s also a time when we’ll decide if the government structure is working the way we hoped it would.

“I recommended for both my benefit and the benefit of the board that as we transition from this phase to the next phase that we pause and let me evaluate whether or not it’s something I want to continue to do and whether or not they think I’m the right person.

“So I’m going to go about doing my job the best I can, and we’ll see. Let’s, three years from now, just take a deep breath and say, ‘Does this still make sense for everybody?’ But I look forward to being involved, and I think there’s a high probability that I’ll stay in this job.”

He added that the state government is more involved now than in 2002 – a different structure is in place – but that the goals have not changed:

“If I’m a state leader, what I want to make sure is that two things happen. One is that we make sure there’s no risk to taxpayers. But we also want to put on the best Games that have ever happened.”

● Archery ● The 2025 World Archery Indoor World Series concluded at the massive Vegas Shoot in Las Vegas, Nevada, with American stars claiming both the men’s and women’s series Recurve titles!

Defending Indoor World Series champ, five-time Olympic medalist – and Paris 2024 runner-up – Brady Ellison faced off with Tokyo 2020 Olympic champ Mete Gazoz (TUR) in the men’s final and was a dominant, 7-1 winner.

France’s Thomas Chirault took the bronze over Florian Unruh (GER), 6-4.

Teammate Casey Kaufhold, 21, who won the Paris Olympic Mixed Team silver with Ellison last summer, was second in the 2024 Indoor World Series, but came out on top this time, but barely. She faced Paris 2024 women’s bronze medalist Lisa Barbelin (FRA) in the final and were tied with two ends each and a tied end after five. That led to shoot-off and they both shot 10, but Kaufhold’s arrow was considered closer to the center, for a 6-5 win.

Denisa Barankova (SVK) took the bronze medal over Chiara Rebagliati (ITA), 6-4.

● Athletics ● Hospitality packages are now available for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September, with three levels:

● Box Hospitality, with an indoor suite behind a group of seats, which appears to be available only to groups. Pricing is on request.

● Lounge Hospitality, with finish line-area seating, with a lounge area next to the stadium for pre-competition bar service and special guests. These are available singly, at ¥75,000 (~$511 U.S.) or ¥125,000 (~$851 U.S.), depending on the day.

● Ticket+, which adds a limited-edition gift to the general admission ticket, selling for ¥10,000 per ticket (~$68 U.S.).

The Tokyo Worlds are scheduled for 13-21 September, at the National Stadium.

● Ski Jumping ● Norway’s Marius Lindvik won the FIS World Championship in the Normal Hill event at the 2025 Trondheim Worlds that closed Sunday and was second at the end of the Large Hill event on Saturday.

But he and teammate Johann Forfang, a two-time 2018 Olympic Team medal winner, were both disqualified from the Large Hill event from a post-event inspection, due to their ski suits containing prohibited, reinforced threads.

Jan-Erik Aalbu, the ski jumping director of the Norwegian ski federation, told reporters:

“The support system has explained that, on Friday, they chose to put a reinforced thread in the jumpsuit of Forfang and Lindvik. This was done knowing that this is not within the regulations, but with a belief that it would not be discovered by FIS’ equipment controller.

“The way I consider this, we have cheated. We have tried to cheat the system. That is unacceptable.”

The FIS explained the disqualifications came “following an inspection of their jumping suits, which were not in compliance with the equipment rules. The FIS Independent Ethics and Compliance Office is now investigating a suspicion of illegal manipulation of the equipment by the Norwegian team.”

Both athletes wrote on Instagram that they did not know the suits were illegal, with Forfang – fourth after the first round – stating, “a clear line was crossed.

“At the same time, I am relieved to ensure you that Saturday was the first time I jumped with this suit. As athletes we are responsible for ensuring that our suits fit properly. However, I have not had routines in place to check the finer details of the work being done – such as seams. This is a heartbreaking situation not just for me, but everyone who loves our sport.”

● Snowboard ● The Snow League, a snowboard halfpipe series founded by three-time Olympic champ Shaun White (USA), debuted in Aspen, Colorado over the weekend, with Japanese riders taking both the men’s and women’s titles.

The men’s final was an all-Japan affair, with 2021 World Champion Yuko Totsuka facing fellow Olympian and 2025 FIS World Cup champ Ruka Hirano. Totsuka took the victory with two straight wins in the best 2-of-3 format. Beijing 2022 Olympic champ Ayumu Hirano was third for a Japanese medal sweep.

The women’s final had Sena Tomita (JPN), the Olympic bronze winner against American Maddie Mastro, the two-time Worlds medalist and each won a round, setting up a final duel, won by Tomita for the overall win. Korean Ga-on Choi, 16, won the bronze.

The Snow League is purely professional, with each entrant receiving a $5,000 appearance fee and then prize money of $50,000-20,000-10,000-5,000 for the top four finishers and $2,500 for places 5-8. The next event is in December.

● Swimming ● USA Swimming’s 2024 Membership Demographics Report was posted, showing the federation with 376,479 individual members and 2,798 club members across the country.

More than half – 53.4% – are girls and women and 46.6% boys or men, with the average age of member swimmers at 12 1/2 years old.

USA Swimming posted membership totals going back to 1986 – 186,761 back then – and is slowly working back toward its pre-pandemic totals. For 2024, there was a net increase of 0.13% (493) over 2023, but up from the 2020 total of 363,093.

It was noted that post-Olympic years tend to see membership increases, as demonstrated consistently in 2001-2005-2009-2013-2017-2022. The all-time high was in 2017, with 419,427 members in all.

Member distribution is quite evenly balanced across the country, with the Western Zone tops at 25.6% of swimmers, followed by the Southern Zone (24.9%), and the Eastern and Central Zones at 24.7%.

● Table Tennis ● The International Table Tennis Federation announced three qualified candidates will run for the federation presidency on 27 May at the ITTF Annual General Meeting:

● Mohamed El Hacen Ahmed Salem (MTN);

● Khalil El-Mohannadi (QAT), head of the Asian Table Tennis Union and the ITTF First Vice President;

● Petra Sorling (SWE), incumbent ITTF President, elected in 2021.

There are 20 candidates for the ITTF Executive Board, to be elected at the same meeting, including Virginia Sung from the U.S., the chief executive of USA Table Tennis.

● Tennis ● The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) suspended Dominican referee Juan Gabriel Castro for six years and fined him $6,000 for 12 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program:

“Castro, a national-level official, did not respond to the ITIA’s notice of charge, which related to three matches, in which the official was alleged to have manipulated scoring entry to contrive the scorecard and facilitate corruption.”

He has been provisionally suspended since 7 November 2024, until 6 November 2030.

● Weightlifting ● Trouble for Uzbekistan, as super-heavyweight (+109 kg) star Rustam Djangabaev, the now-disqualified 2018 Worlds bronze medalist, was hit with an eight-year sanction, from 11 March 2024 until 10 March 2032.

He failed an out-of-competition test for Ostarine on 22 February 2024, and had previously served a four-year ban from 2019-23 for Human Growth Hormone, thus the eight-year ban.

Now, the Uzbek federation is in trouble, per the International Testing Agency:

“Given that more than three athletes from the Uzbekistan Weightlifting Federation have committed ADRVs within a 12-month period, this has triggered Article 12.3 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules. As a result, the matter will be referred to IWF’s Independent Member Federation Sanctioning Panel (IMFSP) to impose appropriate consequences.”

Similarly in hot water is Pakistan, for which the ITA noted sanctions against a coach from 2023 and which also have three adverse findings within 12 months, and could be sanctioned as a federation.

German weightlifter Vicky Schlittig was also sanctioned with four years of ineligibility for the use of the steroid turinabol. She tested positive in November 2021, but was cleared in August 2023 for “no fault or negligence” by the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But an appeal to the full Court of Arbitration for Sport in May 2024 returned a violation and four-year sanction.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Coe challenges social platform leaders Musk and Zuckerberg to clean up abuse of women

By
Rich Perelman
-
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) (Photo: Dan Vernon for World Athletics).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

“There’s a huge element of social media that’s actually an act of cowardice.”

That’s World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR), speaking on the sidelines of last weekend’s European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn (NED), ripping the leadership of the large social-media platforms Facebook and Instagram (Mark Zuckerberg) and X (Elon Musk) for unacceptable abuse of women.

He told reporters his message to both leaders was simple:

“Sort this out. This is just unacceptable. We’ve got to do a whole heap more.

“I’ve seen the distress this has caused. It’s pond life and I’ve spoken to many of the female athletes about it. Some of the stuff, you just want to cry listening to it.

“I remember an athlete saying to me, ‘I just don’t care anymore.’ And I said, ‘You should care, you should be really angry about this stuff.’

“What you don’t want is people just thinking you get to the highest level in female sport and it’s sort of what happens. We should not accept it as being sort of standard practice.

‘It’s not new, but there’s just more of it. There’s a huge element of social media that’s actually an act of cowardice. It’s saying stuff that you can probably say because it’s anonymous and you wouldn’t say it to somebody’s face.”

He pointed to the 19 February stalking incident against British tennis player Emma Raducanu at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where she noticed a man sitting in a lower row who had previously accosted her. He was removed from the event, but Raducanu was upset and eventually lost her match to Czech Karolina Muchova. Coe commented:

“It’s vital that women feel that sport is a safe space. You cannot have young athletes thinking the second you get public exposure that this comes at you like a waterfall of horror.”

Coe said he would like to meet with Musk and Zuckerberg directly, explaining:

“We have to talk. You’ve got the technology there. AI can be really helpful in driving some of this stuff out.”

World Athletics has been involved in identifying and fighting online abuse for several years and published a study across four years in December, with data from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In those cases, X (ex-Twitter) was the predominant avenue for abuse; for Tokyo, 63% of all abusive comments were directed at women and 59% at the 2022 World Championships.

Coe’s comments in The Netherlands follows his visit to Kenya last week, where he praised progress on anti-doping efforts, a huge problem in Kenyan sport, but also met with Kenyan leaders about the need for raised awareness and prevention of gender-based violence against women. The horrific deaths of three-time World Cross Country gold medalist Agnes Tirop (KEN) and 2021 World Mountain Running champion Rebecca Cheptegei (UGA) have highlighted the need for action.

The Kenyan government has begun an effort to combat the issue, noting female stars are instant targets due to their financial success in running, a lack of accountability on behalf of coaches and a need for better reporting systems. Said Coe, noting the importance of athletics in the country:

“There are many ways we at World Athletics can provide support, raise awareness and lend our skills, which we will be doing in the coming weeks and months as the Kenyan Government, together with Athletics Kenya, develop the report recommendations into concrete plans.”

Observed: These are not new areas of comment for Coe, who has been a strident protector of women’s sport for years, with World Athletics in the lead in actions to maintain women’s competitions against athletes with advantages, either transgenders, or those with “differences in sex development,” such as two-time South African women’s 800 m Olympic champion Caster Semenya.

But they are especially newsworthy now, in the final 10 days before the International Olympic Committee vote on a new President, on 20 March in Greece. Protection of women’s sport is already seen as a winning issue, with 48 female IOC members among the total of 109. But none of the contenders have been as outspoken on the issue over time as Coe has.

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PANORAMA: U.S. cross-country skiers help defuse Worlds climate protest; Trump to head U.S. FIFA World Cup task force; Klaebo 6-for-6 at Nordic Worlds!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Record-setting cross country skiing superstar Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR): six races, six golds at the 2025 FIS Nordic World Championships (Image: FIS Cross Country on X).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev is not expecting a full-fledged “Russian team” to compete in the 2026 Winter Games. He told the Russian news agency TASS:

“We have a complicated situation regarding Milan and we have only one year left. Doors to qualifying tournaments open, leaving some of them ajar.”

“Complications are significant at the moment regarding biathlon and luge. Everything is possible regarding bobsleigh and skiing as we will have everyone who managed to break through.

“It is highly unlikely that we will be able to compete as a national team. However, we are still hoping.”

He also told TASS his opinion of the men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament:

“I am convinced that hockey without Russia is stupid. I will say more: our foreign colleagues think so too, they share it behind the scenes. They understand perfectly well where the money and spectators are. The Olympics without Russia are nothing. It won’t fly.”

● Athletics ● World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) told reporters in Nairobi (KEN) that the country’s track & field anti-doping program, despite more than 100 individuals on suspension by the Athletics Integrity Agency, is getting better:

“We are moving in the right direction,” citing “better systems in place… and we’re moving absolutely in the right direction.

“But we are coming from a little way back. We will keep faith with the system and the people I trust to challenge the scourge.”

Coe added that more suspensions will be coming, thanks to an improved detection effort, funded by the Kenyan government, which has committed to a $25 million, five-year program to eradicate doping.

● Cross Country Skiing ● An athlete-led negotiation led to the cancellation of a planned anti-oil protest at the FIS Nordic World Championships in Trondheim (NOR) on Saturday.

The Folk Mot Fossilmakta activist group had threatened to disrupt Saturday’s men’s 50 m race, but energetic work by four athletes including Americans Julia Kern and Gus Schumacher led to an agreement that included, according to FasterSkier.com:

“‘The pact calls for them to work with climate advocates on two proposals in advance of an International Ski Federation meeting in June – one to create new guidelines prioritizing event sponsors with a “genuine commitment to climate leadership,’ and another calling on the ski federation to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.”

● Football ● On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order, establishing a White House Task Force to support “[t]his important event, taking place during the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of our country, presents an opportunity to showcase the Nation’s pride and hospitality while promoting economic growth and tourism through sport. My Administration will support preparations through a coordinated Government effort.”

The Department of Homeland Security will provide funding and administrative support, with Trump as the head of the Task Force and Vice President J.D. Vance as Vice Chair, with the specific mission:

“The Task Force shall coordinate with executive departments and agencies (agencies) to assist in the planning, organization, and execution of the events surrounding the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Agencies shall provide information and assistance useful and necessary to the Task Force.”

An Executive Director will be appointed to support the project, with 12 Cabinet members or assistants to the President as initial members.

● Snowboard ● Former Canadian snowboard Olympian Ryan Wedding, sought in connection with multinational drug trafficking and murder, has been placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list:

“The United States Department of State’s Narcotics Rewards Program is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ryan James Wedding.”

Considered armed and dangerous, Wedding, 43, competed for Canada at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in the Parallel Giant Slalom event, finishing 24th. The FBI poster noted:

“Ryan James Wedding is wanted for allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada, and other locations in the United States. Additionally, it is alleged that Wedding was involved in orchestrating multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes.

“On September 17, 2024, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Ryan James Wedding in the United States District Court, Central District of California, Los Angeles, California, after he was charged with Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substances; Conspiracy to Export Cocaine; Continuing Criminal Enterprise; Murder in Connection with a Continuing Criminal Enterprise and Drug Crime; and Attempt to Commit Murder in Connection with a Continuing Criminal Enterprise and Drug Crime.”

● Swimming ● The postscript to the withdrawal of Chrissi Rawak as the next chief executive of USA Swimming is that she will also not be continuing in her prior position as the University of Delaware athletic director.

In a Friday statement, the university stated it had “accepted Chrissi Rawak’s resignation as Director of Athletics and Campus Recreation. Her last day in this role is March 28. Jordan Skolnick will lead the department on an interim basis. Next steps and their timeline are still being determined.”

≡ RESULTS ≡

● Alpine Skiing ● More skiing history at the FIS women’s World Cup in Are (SWE) on Sunday, as American star Mikaela Shiffrin finished third in the Slalom, claiming the all-time record for most World Cup medals.

She had been in a tie with Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark, who piled up 155 total medals from 1973-89, equaled by Shiffrin on 23 February, when she won the Slalom at Sestriere (ITA) for her 100th career World Cup win (also a record).

Now, Shiffrin stands alone with 156 World Cup podiums: 100 wins, 27 silvers and 29 bronzes.

Austria’s Katharina Truppe, 29, made some history of her own on Sunday with her first World Cup win, moving from sixth after the first run and finishing at 1:42.08, just enough to beat teammate Katharina Liensberger (1:42.13) and Shiffrin (1:42.27). Shiffrin was the leader after the first run and was only 25th on the second run and faded to third. Fellow American Paula Moltzan was sixth (1:42.78).

Italy’s Federica Brignone, the seasonal World Cup leader, won her ninth race of the season in Saturday’s Giant Slalom, posting the fastest times on both runs and finishing in 1:52.67. That was more than a second ahead of New Zealand star Alice Robinson (1:54.03) and Albania’s emerging star Lara Colturi (1:54.10). Moltzan, the Worlds bronze medalist, finished sixth in 1:54.78, with Nina O’Brien in 11th (1:55.28). Shiffrin skied out on the first run, but came back to get her record on Sunday.

Italian star Dominik Paris led off the men’s World Cup in Kvitfjell (NOR) with his fifth win at that site, conquering Friday’s Downhill in 1:44.67, just ahead of seasonal leader Marco Odermatt (SUI: 1:44.99) and teammate Stefan Rogentin (1:45.30). Americans Bryce Bennett finished seventh (1:45.783) and Ryan Cochran-Siegle was 10th (1:45.89).

Saturday’s second Downhill saw World Champion Franjo van Allmen (SUI) get his third World Cup gold on the season, in 1:45.46, leading a Swiss sweep! Odermatt was second again (1:45.74) and Rogentin was third again (1:45.84). Cochran-Siegle was the top American, in 19th (1:47.13).

The Super-G on Sunday was another triumph for Paris, his 24th career World Cup win, in 1:08.98, ahead of James Crawford (CAN: 1:09.36) and Miha Hrobat (SLO: 1:09.45). Cochran-Siegle was 11th (1:09.62) and teammate Jared Goldberg (1:09.65) was 12th.

● Athletics ● A hot European Indoor Championships finished Sunday in Apeldoorn (NED), with world-leading marks in eight events:

● Men/60 m: 6.49, Jeremiah Azu (GBR)
● Men/High Jump: 2.34 m (7-8), Oleh Doroshchuk (UKR)
● Men/Triple Jump: 17.71 m (58-1 1/4), Andy Diaz (ITA)
● Men/Heptathlon: 6,558, Sander Skotheim (NOR)

● Women/60 m: 7.01, Zaynab Dosso (ITA)
● Women/4×400 m: 3:24.34, Netherlands
● Women/Shot Put: 20.69 m (67-10 3/4), Jessica Schilder (NED)
● Women/Pentathlon: 4,922, Saga Vanninen (FIN)

Azu, the 2022 European 100 m bronze winner, got his first European individual title in the 60 m and moved to equal-9th on the all-time European list. Diaz, the former Cuban star, moved to no. 5 all-time indoors with his 17.71 m triple jump winner in the fourth round.

Dosso, 25, was the 100 m European bronze winner in 2024, but has never broken 11 seconds. In Apeldoorn, she won her heat in 7.06, and semi in a seasonal best of 7.02. Then, 7.01 in the final to take the world lead.

Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the men’s 1,500 m for the third time in a row, in 3:36.56 over Azeddine Habz (FRA: 3:36.92), and then got his third straight 3,000 m title by 7:48.37 to 7:49.41 over George Mills (GBR).

Ukraine’s Olympic champ Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the women’s high jump at 1.99 m (6-6 1/4), her third straight title in the event.

Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui, the 2024 New York City Marathon winner, took the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in Japan on Sunday, in 2:20:40. She broke away after 35 km and was a clear winner, with runner-up Sayaka Sato (JPN) finishing in 2:20:59. Natosha Rogers was the top American finisher, placing seventh in a lifetime best of 2:23:51 in just her second marathon. She’s no. 17 all-time U.S.

● Badminton ● Korea dominated the BWF World Tour Orleans Masters in Orleans (FRA), with top-seeded (and Olympic champ) Se Young An winning the women’s Singles, 21-14, 21-15 over Yu Fei Chen (CHN), Min-hyuk Kang and Dong-ju Ki (KOR) taking the men’s Doubles against Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang (CHN), 21-13, 18-21, 21-18, and in the all-Korean women’s Doubles final, Hye-jeong Kim and Hee-yong Kong (KOR) defeated Ha-na Baek and So-hee Lee (KOR), 21-18, 23-21.

Fourth-seed Alex Lanier (FRA) won the men’s Singles over Chun-Yi Lin (TPE), 21-13, 21-18 and Denmark’s Jesper Toft and Amalie Magelund won the Mixed Doubles, 21-17, 21-13, over Rehan Kusharjanto and Gloria Widjaja (INA).

● Biathlon ● French women continued to dominate the IBU World Cup, as it resumed in Nove Mesto (CZE), winning four of six medals in the two women’s races.

Four-time Worlds relay gold medalist Astrid Tandrevold (NOR) got her first win of the season in the women’s 7.5 km Sprint in 19:13.5 (0 penalties), trailed by 2025 Sprint World Champion Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (FRA: 19:28.6/1) and Julia Simon (FRA: 19:34.4/0). Deedra Irwin was the top American, in 23rd.

On Saturday, it was 2025 Individual event World Champion Simon at the top of the podium in the 10 km Pursuit in 30:56.0 (1), well clear of Hanna Oeberg (SWE: 31:13.22) and French teammate Oceane Michelon (31:15.2/2).

The men’s 10 km Sprint winner was five-time Worlds gold medalist France’s Emilien Jacquelin in 23:13.3 (0), almost 20 seconds up on four-time Worlds medalist Tommaso Giacomel (ITA: 23:33.1/1), followed by seasonal leader Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR: 23:34.2/2). Campbell Wright of the U.S. was ninth (23:52.0/0).

The men’s 12.5 km Pursuit was a huge win for Sweden’s 2018 Olympic runner-up Sebastian Samuelsson, by more than 26 seconds in 32:22.1 (0), with Giacomel second again (32:48.5/2) and Boe third again (33:00.8/3). Wright was ninth again (34:04.0/4).

Sunday’s relays saw France sweep both, winning the men’s 4×7.5 km in 1:16:24.3 (4) ahead of Norway (1:17:50.9/8) and taking the women’s 4×6 km in 1:11:11.1 (5), again over Norway (1:11:36.2/11).

● Bobsled & Skeleton ● The first of two weekends of the IBSF World Championships in Lake Placid, New York, was a good one for the home team, especially for Kaysha Love.

The former UNLV sprinter was a four-time women’s Monobob medalist during the World Cup season, and led at halfway by a scant 0.02. But a third-best third run left her with a bigger lead – 0.17 seconds – over Germany’s two-time defending champion Laura Nolte, who had the best third.

But Love was equal to the challenge and posted the fastest final run to finish with the Worlds gold in 3:57.82, with Nolte second in 3:58.26 (+0.44). Fellow American Elana Meyers Taylor, the Beijing 2022 Olympic runner-up, moved up to third and the bronze medal in 3:58.31. The third American, Olympic champ Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, finished eighth (3:59.50).

Love had previously won a Worlds bronze with Humphries in the 2023 Two-Woman races, but now has a gold of her own, and will be a favorite for an 2026 Olympic medal in Cortina … or perhaps back in Lake Placid, if the new sliding track under construction is not completed in time!

The racing began with the men’s and women’s Skeleton racing, with Britain’s Matt Weston winning his second Worlds golds in the last three years.

Weston won the first three heats and cruised to a winning combined time of 3:35.48 at the head of a British 1-2, with Marcus Wyatt second at 3:37.38, and German Axel Jungk, the 2022 Beijing Olympic runner-up, third at 3:37.41. American Austin Florian was sixth in 3:37.65, and Daniel Barefoot was 11th (3:38.82).

Beijing Olympic bronze winner Kimberley Bos (NED) got her first Worlds gold, moving up from silver in 2024 by winning the last two heats for a total time of 3:40.06. That was 0.67 better than American Mystique Ro (3:40.73), who was second, 10th, third and third to win the silver medal, over Czech Anna Fernstaedt (3:40.81). Kelly Curtis of the U.S. was 10th (3:41.60).

Ro and Florian teamed up to win the Mixed Team title in 1:54.53, beating Britain (Weston and Tabitha Stoecker) by 0.10; China was third in 1:54.81.

In the Two-Man Bob, it was the ninth Worlds gold in the last 10 editions for German star Francesco Friedrich, with Alexander Schueller for the third time, going 1-1-2-2 in the four runs for a total time of 3:39.32. That was just 0.03 better than 2023 Worlds winners Johannes Lochner and George Fleischhauer (3:39.35), who ranked 2-2-1-1 in the four runs. Adam Ammour and Benedikt Hertel completed the German sweep in 3:40.14.

American Frank Del Duca, with Charles Volker, finished fourth in 3:40.38, and Kris Horn, with Joshua Williamson or Hunter Powell, finished ninth (3:42.72).

● Cycling ● One of the famous races annually on the UCI World Tour circuit is the Strade Bianche, this year a 213 km course in and around Siena (ITA). And Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogacar defended his 2024 title and won for the third time in the last four, in 5:13:58, taking off with 19 km to go.

Britain’s Tom Pidcock, the 2023 winner, was solo in second (+1:24) and Belgian Tim Wellens (+2:12) was also alone in third.

The women’s race was also a runaway, for Dutch star Demi Vollering, who broke free with 500 m left and won the 136 km race in 3:49:04, 18 seconds up on famed teammate Anna van der Breggen, with Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (FRA) a distant third (+1:42). Vollering won for the second time, also in 2023, with van der Breggen a winner of this race in 2018.

● Fencing ● The FIE Foil World Cup series resumed in Cairo (EGY), with Italian Guillaume Bianchi scoring the men’s gold over Alexander Choupenitch (CZE), by 15-12 in the final. It’s the second career World Cup win for Bianchi.

Italy won the men’s team title over the U.S. quartet of Miles Chamley-Watson, Nick Itkin, Gerek Meinhardt and Marcello Oliveras, 45-35.

Paris Olympic bronzer Eleanor Harvey of Canada got her first career World Cup win in the women’s final, defeating Italy’s 2014 Worlds silver winner, Martina Batini, 15-12. Harvey had to defeat five Italian opponents in a row to win!

Italy won the women’s title, again over the U.S. (Mikayla Chusid, Lee Kieffer, Jaelyn Liu and Katerina Lung), 45-36.

At the men’s Sabre World Cup in Padua (ITA), France’s Jean-Philippe Patrice won his first career World Cup with a 15-10 win in the final against Italian Michele Gallo, by 15-10. Patrice got a second win in the team final, helping France to a 45-39 win over the U.S. squad of Silas Choi, Daryl Homer, Walter Ji Cody and Mitchell Saron.

Japan’s two-time World Champion Misaki Emura won the women’s Sabre World Cup in Heraklion (GRE), getting past Yoana Ilieva (BUL), 15-11. China defeated France in the team final, 45-42.

● Gymnastics ● The second FIG Artistic Apparatus World Cup was in Baku (AZE), with four wins for Japan, and one for the U.S.

Kazuki Matsumi (Parallel Bars: 14.200) and Matrumi Kazuji (Horizontal Bar: 14.100) got Japan’s wins on the men’s side, and Haruka Nakamura (Beam: 13.433) and Rina Kishi (Floor: 13.066) won for the women.

The U.S. went 1-2 on the Pommel Horse, with Brandon Dang making his World Cup debut with a victory at 14.633, followed by Patrick Hoopes (14.533). The home crowd was thrilled with a win for Nikita Simonov on Rings (14.233) and American Alex Diab was third (13.766).

Neutral athletes from Belarus won two events: Yahor Sharamkou took the men’s Floor (14.600) and Alena Tsitavits won the women’s Uneven Bars (13.400).

But the most popular winner was probably 49-year-old Oksana Chusovitina (UZB), who won the women’s vault at 13.516, with one of her favorites, the 1.5-twisting Tsukahara!

● Judo ● The IJF World Tour Linz Grand Prix, in Linz (AUT) featured a happy double win for the Esposito family, as Italian brothers Giovanni Esposito (27) won the men’s 73 kg class and 30-year-old Antonio Esposito took the men’s 81 kg class!

Georgia scored two wins on Sunday, with Giorgi Jabniaashvili taking the men’s 90 kg class and Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Guram Tushishvili winning a major battle with two-time Olympic champion Lukas Krpalek (CZE) at +100 kg.

Japan scored victories with Yamado Fukuda (JPN) in the men’s 60 kg division, and Iroha Oi (JPN) won the women’s 52 kg class.

The U.S. got a bronze in the women’s 48 kg class, thanks to Maria Celia Laborde.

● Nordic Skiing ● He did it! Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo completed a clean sweep of the FIS Nordic World Championships in cross country, winning Saturday’s men’s 50 km Mass Start Freestyle for his fourth individual win, plus two relays: six golds in six races!

Klaebo took control on the final lap and win by daylight in 1:57:47.1, ahead of Swede William Ponomaa (1:57:49.2) and Norwegian teammate Simen Krueger (1:57:55.6). Klaebo, still just 28, has now won 15 World Championships golds in his career and 18 Worlds medals in all. He said afterwards:

“I don’t have any words. This is way more than I expected and dreamed of, so it’s unbelievable.

“I feel like I’ve been working so hard to just be here and be in by best shape and managing that and being able to win six out of six… it’s just crazy.

“I feel like the crowd really helped me out there. I was struggling on lap three there. But I managed to stay on the back of the pack and was helped by the thousands of people out there. I feel like I’ve said this every day, but this has been the best day so far. Winning the 50K – I was so close two years ago, disqualified four years ago – it’s been a crazy journey.”

Klaebo claimed a record for the most golds ever in a single Worlds, eclipsing the five by Russian Yelena Valbe (RUS) in 1997.

On Sunday, the women’s 50 km Freestyle Mass Start completed a six-event sweep for Sweden (!), with Frida Karlsson getting her second gold (also in the relay) in 2:24:55.3, barely ahead of Norway’s Heidi Weng (2:24:57.4) and Therese Johaug (2:24:58.2). It’s Karlsson’s 13th career Worlds medal, but first individual gold; Johaug won four medals in Trondheim (0-3-1) and now has 23 career Worlds medals (14-5-4).

The U.S. entries were closely bunched, with Julia Kern 19th (2:42:05.5), Sophia Laukli in 21st (2:41:59.9), Jessie Diggins in 22nd (2:42:14.3) and Alayna Sonnesyn in 23rd (2:42:38.9).

In the women’s 4×7.5 km relay held on Friday, Sweden took the title at 1:15:41.5, barely ahead of Norway (1:15:42.2), with Germany well back in third (1:16:54.9). The U.S., with Rosie Brennan, Kern, Laukli and Diggins, was sixth in 1:19:02.6.

The Nordic Combined program concluded on Saturday with a second individual gold for the retiring Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR), who won the Large Hill and 10 km race in front of a thrilled home crowd in 24:57.5, way ahead of teammate Jorgen Graabak (26:08.2) and German Vinzenz Geiger (26:08.6). Ben Loomis was the top American, in 23rd (29:14.5).

For Riiber, his four medals in Trondheim (3-0-1) conclude his Worlds career with 15 medals: 11 golds, three silvers and a bronze, as one of the greatest – if not the greatest in the event.

The men’s Team Large Hill event on Friday was a clear win for Germany, in 50:37.7, anchored by Geiger and starting with 33-year-old Johannes Rydzek, who won his seventh career World Championships gold. Austria was second at 50:44.5 and Norway – with Riiber on anchor – won bronze at 52:17.5. The U.S. was eighth, with Erik Lynch, Stephen Schumann, Niklas Malacinski and Loomis (54:33.3).

Slovenia dominated the final two days of the Ski Jumping competitions, starting with a win for teen star Nika Prevc, who followed up her Normal Hill win with a gold in the Large Hill final (138 m), scoring 150.9 to out-pace Selina Freitag (GER: 136.7) and Norway’s Eirin Kvandal (132.4).

Paige Jones was the top American, in 23rd (80.2).

On Saturday, the men’s Large Hill final made it a family affair as Prevc’s older brother, Domen Prevc, won his second gold of the Championships – also in the Team event – scoring 301.8, ahead of Austria’s Jan Hoerl (286.6, his third medal) and Japanese star Ryoyu Kobayashi (284.7). Tate Frantz of the U.S. was 14th (248.4).

Out of seven events in jumping, the Prevcs won six medals between them!

All together, Norway put together a sensational performance in front of a huge home crowd, winning 33 medals (14-11-8) to 12 for Sweden (7-1-4) and 11 for Germany (1-4-6). The U.S. won four medals in all: three silvers and a bronze.

● Ski Mountaineering ● Swiss star Remi Bonnet won his second event at the ISMF World Championships in Morgins (SUI), taking the Individual Race in 1:33:07.4, more two minutes ahead of Davide Magnini (ITA: 1:35:30.6) and more than five minutes up on bronze winner Xavier Gachet (FRA: 1:38:57.6). David Sinclair was the top American, in 18th (1:46:35.3).

Bonnet won the Vertical Race earlier, repeating his double from 2023. He now has six career Worlds golds.

The women’s Individual Race was the first Worlds medal and first Worlds gold for Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson, who won in 1:34:01.8, far in front of French stars Axelle Gachet Mollaret – the defending champion – (1:36:03.5) and Emily Harrop (1:40:43.1). Jessie Young was the top U.S. finisher, in 16th (1:52:31.5).

The Team Race was a French sweep, with Gachet and William Bon Mardion taking the men’s race in 2:12:42.1, ahead of Bonnet and Aurelien Gay (SUI: 2:13:33.4), with the U.S. in 10th (Sinclair and Cameron Smith: 2:25:31.5).

Gachet Mollaret and Celia Pressley-Pessey won the women’s Team Race in 2:20:46.8, well ahead of Lisa Moreschini and Alba de Silvestro (2:22:04.6). Sarah Burke and Kelly Wolf of the U.S. were ninth (2:50:21.1).

● Snowboard ● At the FIS Snowcross World Cup in Gudauri (GEO), Austria’s Jakob Dusek got his second win of the season on Saturday, beating Adam Lambert (AUS) and 2022 Olympic runner-up Eliot Grondin (CAN) to the line.

Sunday’s second event saw France’s Julien Tomas get his first medal and first win of the season, ahead of Lukas Pachner and Loan Bozzolo (FRA).

France’s Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau, the 2018 Olympic silver winner, got her first win of the season in the first women’s final, ahead of teammate Lea Casta, who won her third World Cup silver in a row! Italy’s Michaela Moioli, the 2018 Olympic Champion, finished third, for her second medal of the season.

On Sunday, Britain’s 2021 World Champion, Charlotte Bankes, got her fifth win of the season – out of seven events so far – over Mabileau and Casta, and retained her seasonal points lead.

● Swimming ● The Tyr Pro Swim Series opener for 2025 was in Westmont, Illinois, with Paris Olympian Shaine Casas of the U.S. and World Aquatics women’s swimmer of the year Summer McIntosh (CAN) the big stars.

Casas, who finished fifth in Paris in the men’s 200 m Medley, was brilliant, winning six events:

● 100 m Free: 48.31 (world leader)
● 200 m Free: 1:47.17
● 50 m Back: 24.23 (world leader)
● 100 m Back: 53.43
● 200 m Back: 1:58.51
● 100 m Fly: 50.82 (world leader)

He said after his fourth win:

“I’m pretty tired. It feels great, I’ve been training really hard and this is a new set for me, so I’m just sticking to the process and trusting what my coach has planned for me. [My training] has changed a lot [since Paris] …I’m just working towards L.A.”

McIntosh, the triple gold medalist in Paris and still 18, was brilliant, winning the 200 m Fly in 2:04.00, the no. 8 performance of all-time, as well as the two Medleys. She won the 200 Medley in 2:07.42 and the 400 Medley in 4:26.98, the no. 4 performance ever! All three were world-leading performances in 2025.

Australia’s Sam Short, the 2023 World 400 m Free champ, won the men’s 400 m (3:44.83) and 800 m (7:45.02) Freestyles, and Aruba’s Mikel Schreuders took the 50 m Free (22.13) and the 50 m Breast, in a tie with South Africa’s Michael Houlie (27.08).

American sprint star Michael Andrew won the 100 m Breast in 1:00.85 and the 50 m Fly in 23.57, and Carson Foster, the 400 m Medley Olympic bronze winner in Paris, won the Medleys, at 1:57.04 for the 200 and 4:09.51 for the 400.

Beyond McIntosh, U.S. stars Kate Douglass and Regan Smith were busy. Douglass, the Olympic 200 m Breast gold medalist, won the 50 m Free (24.62) over Rio 2016 100 m Free co-champ Simone Manuel (24.79), then took the 100 m Breast (1:06.51), 200 m Breast (2:22.60 world leader) and 50 m Fly (25.71).

Smith won the 100 m Back (58.64 world leader), the 200 m Back (2:08.33 world leader), the 100 m Fly (56.85 world leader) and was second to McIntosh in the 200 m Fly. Manuel was busy as well, winning the 100 m Free (53.23 world leader), the 200 m Free (1:58.54) and finishing second to Douglass in the 50 Free and second to Smith in the 100 m Fly.

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ATHLETICS: Lyles, Benjamin slam Grand Slam Track, but hope it succeeds; Benjamin says Olympic champs should get $5 million

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic gold medalists Vernon Norwood (l), Noah Lyles (c) and Rai Benjamin on the Beyond The Records podcast (video screenshot).

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≡ WHAT THREE STARS THINK ≡

It’s not hard to find out what track & field stars Noah Lyles and Rai Benjamin, who – at 27 – between them already own seven Olympic medals and 12 World Championships medals, are thinking. They tell you monthly on their Beyond The Records podcast.

Most recently, they sat with two-time Olympic relay gold medalist Vernon Norwood for a 1 February show that was released on 6 March. That’s actually too bad, since some of their comments were superseded by what happened in between. But they had a lot to say, much of it about the state of track & field and about the upcoming Grand Slam Track circuit.

Lyles and Benjamin both have serious reservations about Grand Slam Track, but both hope it succeeds. Said Lyles after nearly a half-hour of criticism:

“As my last, final comment on this. I would love to be proven wrong. 100%. All the way. … I would love nothing [more] than for this to be successful, because, if it does, the amount of benefits it would provide, this could be a way for athletes to not have to only rely on World Championships, because you could be potentially be making more money consistently throughout the year, this would be able to provide a home for sponsors in the U.S. to come to, it would be a consistent place for people to watch track & field. You can bank off of World Championships, you can bank off of the Olympics, hype, Sprint, all that stuff.”

Benjamin injected, “That would disrupt the whole sport … So World Championships would be, like, legit pointless.” And Lyles seized on that: “It would disrupt the sport. … We wouldn’t be amateur any more.” Said Norwood: “I think that’s the initial goal.”

During an ensuing discussion of what makes a “professional” track & field athlete, and it was agreed that Grand Slam Track is clearly open only to professionals, Lyles added:

“I don’t think we should be involved with USATF. I think USATF should handle everything amateur, and a new league should be created to handle everything professionally.”

Benjamin asked, then what about the Olympic Games, as USA Track & Field operates the only pathway to the Games, the Olympic Trials? Lyles shot back:

“Don’t get involved with the Olympics. The Olympic is amateur.”

Benjamin picked up on that but went in a different direction: “I swear, bro, they make so much money every fricking Olympics, I feel like every single Olympic champion should be going home with at least 5 Ms [$5 million], minimum.”

To that point, much earlier in the conversation, Norwood introduced the subject of Grand Slam Track, and while important, emphasized the central role of the World Athletics Championships, and the only way to get there, the U.S. national championships:

“We got to keep the main thing, the main thing, and that’s [U.S.] trials. And so everything is going to be a building step towards that.”

Because the show was recorded on 1 February, Norwood – not selected as a contracted “Racer” for all four Slams – had not yet been signed as a “Challenger” for the first meet in Jamaica in April, and the television agreements with The CW and Peacock in the U.S., and EuroSport and Warner Bros. Discovery in Europe and Asia, had not yet been announced.

Lyles and Benjamin are not, at this point, participating in Grand Slam Track, but could be “Challengers” in one or more of the remaining Slams.

Norwood gave his view on the Grand Slam Track project:

“I want to see everyone having a good time. I want to see more fans engaging with the sport. I want to see that type of development where people are actually having a good time with that type of event, where more athletes want to get involved in it. And more fans want to be more engaged into the sport. That’s the biggest thing I want to see from it.

“It’s a big chunk of change you can make from competing [$10,000 to $100,000 per event group per meet], but we still have to enjoy ourselves in doing it, so if we can get more fans involved and athletes involved doing it and bigger stars like you guys more involved in it too, that will help it as well. But all that’s business side, so they have to get their business straight before we get more heavy hitters into that.

“Because they’re a lot of heavy hitters they missed. They missed you two, they missed Grant [Holloway], they missed Sha’Carri [Richardson], they missed a lot of big names that they didn’t get, but I’m probably pretty sure it came down to management, business side, about contract agreements. …

“So, hopefully, however it goes it goes in the right direction. I always want things to go in the right direction for our sport, always, so we’ll see how it play out though. But at the same time, it’s one of those things we’ve got to see.”

Norwood praised the Athlos NYC held last September: “They did a good job with that. So hopefully, he can continue building off that and maybe doing something like men and women.”

Benjamin, one of the most thoughtful and insight athletes on the circuit, explained why he is not involved:

● “I feel like me and Noah are on the same page with this, is the scheduling. I didn’t really like the scheduling and the back-to-back competitions [two races per athlete per meet] that early in the year. I think for us, it was like, hey, I asked, like, is it possible they can change the schedule, and there was just really, like, no budge. …

“If they consider changing the structure, then it makes sense, because if you want me to come out and run 44-low [400 m] and then come back the next day and run 46, 47 [400 m hurdles], like, ‘bro, what am I going to do for the rest of the week?’

“You never know what might happen. I might run 44 today and be sore tomorrow, and I got to go hurdle? And now I’m at risk to get hurt in April. I don’t get paid [today] to run Grand Slam, like you know what I mean? I get paid to win medals at major championships.”

● “Let’s just take the money out of it. Everybody’s main goal is to win a medal. No one’s going to remember, ‘oh, he won Grand Slam in 2025. But you know what everyone remember? You winning a gold medal, or medaling at World Championships in 2025. People remember that stuff.

“And I’ll even go so far as to say no one will probably remember that. People will remember you winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games. But for me personally, it was the scheduling, one, I don’t anything about a TV deal, that’s two [since announced], because you want to push stories and get, like, the audience involved. Like where’s the audience, where’re they going to watch this stuff at. Three, I was also, I wouldn’t say skeptical, because that’s a bit negative, but how is this going to make money? And one of the big, kind of red flags to me was having that [second] meet in Miramar [Florida].

“Because it’s a very small place. And unless you’re selling those tickets for $1,500 a head, which no one in track & field will buy, you’re not making any money from that.”

● “You think about all that type of stuff and like, we have a product that works, the Diamond League works. People complain about it all they want, but it actually works, it’s a structure that works.

“I understand it [Grand Slam Track] drives competition and it made prize money went up – shout-out to all involved parties – but if we invested that money in the Diamond League and you guys came together, I mean I get it, it’s a business, people have egos, whatever, if you put it aside and you think, this is for the advancement of the sport, we invest that money into the Diamond League and make it more glamorous, then we have something like, that already has a structure, we have the structure, we have the infrastructure, we have more appearance fees, we have people who will actually come to the track meets, because here in America, it’s very, track & field is not as big. Yet you want to tap that American market, but we have a [European] market that works right now.”

Lyles was dubious about any combination of Grand Slam Track and the Diamond League, but saw other issues:

● “The reason I don’t believe that that can work is, the Diamond League meets are actually individual entities. The Grand Slam is under one umbrella, it’s all owned by Grand Slam. It’s a business model … which is why I do like having a league that is all under one umbrella.

● “The biggest issues is, yes, the scheduling is very odd, in my opinion, especially from a marketing standpoint. If I go on [The Tonight Show starring] Jimmy Fallon, and I say, I’m the 100-200 Grand Slam champion, the crowd is going to be like, ‘oh, nice, nice.’ And then Grant comes on the next day, and it’s like, ‘I’m the 100-110 hurdles Grand Slam champion,’ wait, ‘Noah just said he was the 100 meter Grand Slam champion, and you’re also the 100 meter Grand Slam champion? How does that work?’

“It’s like, from a marketing standpoint, how are you going to market things that two people own? There has to be a winner. And, obviously, the times are going to be completely different, so, again, we’re doing track & field extra steps. We don’t need to reinvent track & field in my opinion, we just need to market it better.”

● “And then that goes to the second thing, like Rai said, it needs a home. Track & field needs a home. It needs to be watched. Everybody’s coming off the Olympics, everybody’s coming off [Netflix’s] ‘Sprint.’

“The amount of people who stop me in the street, ‘Oh, Sprint was amazing, where can I watch your next meet?’ ‘Oh, I’m racing next week.’ ‘Where?’

“It [no TV deal at the time] definitely hurts my involvement. … It hurts everybody’s involvement. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s around to see it, did that tree fall?”

Benjamin was also worried about joining a project which does not have an obvious path beyond its first year:

“I look at it as a business. At the end of the day, if there’s no ROI [return on investment], then you have a failed business model. And it’s like, how long could you be sustainable?

“They’re not going to make any money this year, they’re not going to make any money next year.”

Lyles followed up on that, asking about what he sees as missing indicia of future success he wants to see:

“Money is not the thing that’s going to drive me every time. Truthfully, even now, looking at it, OK, we’re two months out, and I’m looking, who are your outside sponsors, who are your non-track & field sponsors. I haven’t even heard a blocks sponsor. I want to hear, is there a watch deal? I want to hear, you know, if there a betting company which is getting involved. Where are these other things that being in the U.S. provides you with?

“Because I believe that America is the best marketing factory. So I want to see those companies getting involved, and I haven’t heard anything, like I said, I haven’t seen a commercial, I haven’t seen promos and the promos I have seen are just athletes pointing at the camera, which is nice when they’re going to come onto the track, but I’ve seen enough of those. I’ve seen the last five, where’s the one that gives me the storylines, what’s going to be the driving factor to get people to show up for three days straight?”

Added Benjamin, “Who is going to skip three days of work to go to a track meet?”

And Lyles, always looking to the future, suggested:

“You know what I actually think they should do? I think they should allow one more year. I think they should build one stadium in the U.S., in one central city.

“I’m tell you, you think it’s expensive, until you realize – and you’re talking about all these sponsors he has coming in to sponsor this event – you get in touch with Mondo, you get in touch with a city organization and you create this stadium that’s going to be used year-round and it’s going to host four Grand Slams each year. One place.”

Benjamin was unconvinced: “That’s too expensive, bro.” And Norwood shot back, “But we got a stadium, though. Eugene, Oregon,” which drew a laugh from Lyles, who has been critical of centering the sport in a minor U.S. market.

Benjamin, though, added a sad perspective about any new venue:

“Just for track & field, bro? We’re really a non-revenue sport, bro. Which is unfortunate.”

That’s what Grand Slam Track is trying to change. Although not part of the program so far, it’s clear both Lyles and Benjamin will be watching, and probably calling Norwood to find out how his experience was in Jamaica. The first Slam is 4-6 April, in Kingston.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: IOC chief Bach points to strong finances, says “The first four weeks I guess I will sleep” at term end

By
Rich Perelman
-
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach (GER) during his 5 December 2024 news conference (Photo: IOC video screenshot).

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ THE LAST ROUND STARTS ≡

There will be a new International Olympic Committee President elected on 20 March in Greece, who will take over on 24 June 2025, replacing two-term President Thomas Bach (GER).

The transition has begun, in a small way, with Bach speaking with The Associated Press and in an online media forum. Some highlights from his AP chat:

● “We have a new world order in the making, and this making … will not happen without rumbling,” Bach said, adding:

“I am also convinced that President Trump and his administration will fully support the Olympic Games.

“President Trump was already involved in his first term in the candidature of L.A. and was promoting L.A., and I don’t think that he has changed his mind there, because I also got to know him as a fan of a sport. He likes sport, so there I don’t see a risk.”

He also noted the U.S. is wild about sports, and “appreciate and love that the Games are about sport but they are about more than sport. They will want to welcome the athletes from all over the world.”

● On the discussions about transgenders in women’s sport, Bach jumped on the confusion created over Paris boxers Yu-ting Lin (TPE) and Imane Khelif (ALG), who won two of the women’s classes:

“This controversy about the boxing at the Paris Games is based on fake news, because it has been converted into a transgender discussion and it’s clearly no transgender issue.

“These two women boxers have been born as women, they have been raised as women, they have competed as women and nobody ever claimed even that they are transgender.

“What happened there was a Russian-led misinformation campaign which then distorted the truth, the facts, and now we have this unfortunate situation that these two athletes are considered to be transgender. But. They. Are. Not.”

● On the future of broadcasting and if the Olympic Games could simply become a streaming event:

“You can say of streaming, ‘They are paying such a lot of money, let’s go for streaming.’ But what does it mean for our values?

“The Olympic Games has to be accessible to everybody and not only the ones that can afford it.”

And Bach, 71, nearing the end of 12 years in which he has dealt with Russian doping, Covid-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and many other crises, is looking forward to some time off:

“I’m experiencing the first period during my presidency where I do not have an existential problem of the Olympic Games or the Olympic Movement on my desk. I’m fit and very happy, in great health.”

And starting on 24 June:

“The first four weeks I guess I will sleep. Then I will do a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela [in Spain] all alone and hope I get some inspiration then for my future.”

In his media roundtable, Bach underscored the financial stability of the IOC, with $7.7 billion in revenue for 2021-24, and commitments of $7.4 billion already for 2025-28 and $6.5 billion for 2029-32. But he also noted that the nature of Olympic sponsorship is changing:

“We’re moving from a clean venue policy to a clean field of play policy.”

China is also playing an expanded role, with electronics giant TCL joining as a TOP sponsor. Bach observed:

“China is becoming an ever more important partner in the TOP partnerships. This reflects the development of the world economy. We see China arising, becoming ever more important in the world economy with a special focus on technology and green technology.

“This is well reflected in our new TOP partnership with TCL, our long-term partnership with Alibaba, and the partnership with Mengniu.”

He also express satisfaction with the provisional recognition of World Boxing, reinstating the sport onto the Olympic program for 2028:

“We are satisfied with World Boxing’s development. National Olympic Committees must refer to IOC-recognized federations to nominate athletes. Otherwise, it would be a pity for boxers.”

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Presidential candidate Coe insists sport must be first and wants to use the untapped abilities of IOC members

By
Rich Perelman
-
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (Photo: Stephen Pond, Getty Images for World Athletics).

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

“We have to remember one critical factor: we are a sporting organization. Sport, as I know, can shine a spotlight in extraordinary ways. On human rights, on procurement patterns, on modern slavery, on climate change, and sport should have something to say about that. But that is not how we should be defining ourselves.

“We should be defining ourselves as a sporting organization that has the ability to transform the lives of young people through sport. So we need to remember the unique value that the Olympic Movement brings to sport. We’re a sporting organization.

“Secondly, the Holy Grail in any sporting organization – believe me, I understand that as an athlete, I understood it as a working journalist, I understood it as the President of World Athletics, as a National Olympic Committee president, as the bid chair in London and the organizing committee – the biggest challenge we all have is making sure young people choose sport as a way of fashioning their future.

“I know it is the most potent social worker in all our communities, the deftest of diplomats when it is properly exercised by government and the best policy that government will ever have, in economic development, in social development, in health, and in education. That’s the second point.

“The third point is, we need a membership that is empowered to help shape that journey. And I have concluded, from my many discussions, that there are talented members sitting around me, some of them far smarter than me, whose skill and experience is not being utilized properly.

“And the one thing I know that I’m very good at, and I don’t think I could have delivered in that way I’ve delivered across a range of activities, is the ability to build teams.”

In these comments, taking up just more than a minute during an hour forum organized by the International Sports Journalists Association (AIPS), World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) crystalized his pitch to be the President of the International Olympic Committee, to be decided on 20 March at the IOC Session in Greece.

Coe, ever enthusiastic and speaking from the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn (NED), explained that the IOC Presidency “is a role that I felt I’d been pretty much in training for most of my life,” detailing his experiences as a two-time Olympic 1,500 m champion, head of an Olympic organizing committee, head of a National Olympic Committee, head of World Athletics, founder of a sports marketing company, a government minister and so on. He really has been on all sides of the Olympic Movement, a breadth of experience which is unmatched by any of the other candidates.

He emphasized the importance of using the talents of the IOC members to meet the challenges, and having them more deeply involved:

“We need to meet more often. We need to have more space. We need to work more closely, more collaboratively with our National Olympic Committees and our International Federations. And I know how important those stakeholders are, because I’ve been the president in both those spaces.

“So we need to bring people together, but we need to give more space for debate. And one of the things I am really open about is that I I do get across the line in a couple of weeks time, look, the first thing I will do is I will set a date in our calendars, while we’re all there and take the membership away, three of four days, where – to mix my metaphors – we will simply put our foot on the ball and figure out what it is we want to achieve in the next 10 years, how we’re going to do it and how do we define ourselves.

“And this has to be a member-led organization. And in a good organization, you have good curation. You have co-curation from members and you have co-curation from really talented, world-class executives, and I know I have that at World Athletics.”

In his many discussions with other IOC members, but also with many others in the Olympic Movement, he also recognizes the position of IOC leadership within its ecosystem:

● “As a potential president of the International Olympic Committee, I want to work very much closer with the International Federations, I want to work more closely with the National Olympic Committees, I want to work more closely with broadcasters, and with media, but I also want to work very closely with the athletes. The athletes are an essential part of this journey. And each one of those stakeholders have their own interdependencies and those interdependencies depend on clarity of thinking from the largest and most influential sporting organization in the world, which is the International Olympic Committee.

“We should be taking thought leadership positions and creating guidelines and principles for International Federations and certainly NOCs. And that’s what they’ve told me that they want.”

● “We have commercial challenges, the commercial model is out of date, I know that. It’s not changing, it changed. I’ve been in the sports marketing business for the last 30 years; at the moment, we [IOC] have transactional sponsorships. They have to become collaborative partnerships.

“We have to bring the commercial partners to the table and you need to create brands that want to be there and are able to activate in marketplaces in many of your countries in markets that will really create new opportunities, yes, again, for the athletes.”

● “The days of command-and-control from the center have to be over. They’ve been out of date for 30 years. We have to open the windows, there has to be oxygen and we have to have collaborative discussions. I would certainly encourage a discussion in that space.”

Coe was asked, as has been the format in this seventh AIPS forum for the IOC candidates, about the hot-button issues in Olympic sport today:

● On dealing with doping:

Coe, with understandable pride, pointed to his creation of the highly-regarded Athletics Integrity Unit within athletics, “where we have an independent unit; I think most people now consider it to be gold-standard,” which covers all forms of cheating, not just doping.

“You have to have fair, free, open competition and you can’t have athletes lining up in lane four worrying that there are better sets of doctors or chemists in lanes three or five,” and he said an important outcome of the Athletics Integrity Unit is that “it’s given confidence back to competitors,” especially having been removed from the control structure of the federation.

● On dealing with worldwide tensions that affect sport:

“Nobody is going to sit here suggesting the world isn’t complicated. But I think as a historian, if I may say so, I’m not sure there’s any generation that hasn’t been able to point – at that moment – to the complexity of the world they live in.

“Sport has been through the complexities of the Cold War. It has been through conflagrations, it has been through challenges, social and cultural. I’m not sure that this is any different. And the principles absolutely remain the same. You can only deal with what you have in front of you.

“And I’m not very good at responding to the observations of ‘what about’? Yes, there are lots of ‘what abouts,’ because the world isn’t perfect, but you have to deal, clearly and concisely with what you have in front of you.”

● On transgender athletes:

“The guiding principle for me is really simple, and it sits with the word integrity. The integrity of competition and the promotion and integrity of women’s sport, and if you lose sight of that, if you don’t have policies that are clear and unambiguous, you are going to get into difficult and dangerous territory.”

He emphasized: “We want young girls entering our sport that feel there are no barriers to what they can do.”

He was also asked about the World Athletics decision to give $50,000 in prize money to the winners at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the first time this was done by the International Federation. Coe explained that it was a decision taken with the agreement of the entire federation, and that he recognizes that the question – from an IOC perspective – is different:

“Nobody should conclude that if I become president of the International Olympic Committee in 13 days time, that [prize money] is simply implemented because we did it in World Athletics.

“That is a much broader conversation. I also recognize this is not a one-size-fits-all. We did it for a very particular reason in athletics and that was many of our competitors have transferable skills. In fact, envious skills for many federations out there. They make good baseball players, they make good basketball players, they make good fast bowlers at cricket, in some parts of the world, netball as well.

“So our athletes are in high demand, we wanted to make sure we created … where possible, the financial well-being for them, sometimes to maintain their presence in the sport, sometimes for another Olympic cycle, sometimes to give them a cushion when they retire, so they may have the ability to go back into higher education. …

“It was really give the athletes that third pillar of welfare that I talk about, alongside mental, which is critical, physical, of course, but actually financial welfare is part of the same picture for me.”

He added later, to be sure he was understood: “Nobody should run away with the idea that [prize money] is something that I would automatically assume every International Federation, every National Olympic Committee, is applicable. There is no one-size-fits-all when you’re talking about such complex issues.”

Coe underscored the importance, however, of supporting athletes in many ways, to help them financially. Not necessarily with prize money, but with other opportunities to monetize their achievements:

“In ‘26, next year, for our World Ultimate Athletics Championships, we’re going to be flying the top athletes, all the athletes, [with] their social-media teams, to Budapest, so they can curate and create their own content and promote their own sponsorships. We have to really free up the equity of the brand for the athletes, and that’s why I said in my [IOC candidate] presentation in Lausanne, it is so important we don’t just listen to the athletes, we share with them.”

Coe related his experience as a champion athlete to what he wants to bring to the IOC Presidency if elected:

“Every morning as a competitor, I woke up trying to figure out how I can be better tomorrow than I am today. How I can be better in a month’s time than I am today, and yes, I craved criticism. I had coaches around me that were prepared to give unvarnished, unchallenged views and we all moved in the same direction.

“So, of course, I always want the organization that I’m working to always want to be better. … I would take that same ambition into the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne and work with people to be as good as we possibly can and to build teams that allow those teams to deliver the best work of their lives on behalf of the athletes.

“I want everybody waking up every morning in that organization understanding they are there for one reason, and that is the delivery of opportunities for the athletes, and I will go to my grave knowing that is the only way you can sit there as an administrator and figure out what the future is.”

Observed: Coe is considered one of the favorites for the IOC Presidency, along with Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch. He is incomparably experienced, well known and highly respected.

The prize money that World Athletics paid to the Paris winners was announced without forewarning or consultation with other International Federations, and Coe has apologized for insufficient communications, but not for the decision to pay the athletes. That has created concerns among some that Coe will go his own way if elected as the IOC President. Hence, his emphasis on team-building and member input.

Coe is a formidable contender and in a world of Trump, Putin, Xi and many other high-profile world leaders, his celebrity, experience and charisma brings instant credibility if elected. But in an election that will be decided with about 50 votes for a majority in whatever round the decision comes, it’s about the trust of the IOC members.

It’s going to be close.

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FOOTBALL: FIFA announces financial explosion to projected $13 billion in revenue for 2023-26 quadrennial; a 64-team FIFA World Cup?

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ HIGH TIMES FOR FIFA ≡

FIFA released its annual report covering 2024 on Wednesday, with a startling budget projection:

“FIFA expects to reach record revenues of USD 13,000 million for this current cycle, which also reflects the expansion of its flagship tournaments in this period – the FIFA World Cup 26™ and the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 – together with the first edition of the new FIFA Club World Cup.

“The revised cycle revenue foresees a significant increase of 72% compared to the revenue achieved in the previous cycle. Compared to the initial budget (2023-2026) approved by the FIFA Congress in March 2023, the cycle revenue budget is anticipated to increase substantially – by USD 2,000 million – demonstrating the commercial strength and global reach of FIFA’s tournaments.

“By the end of 2024, 62% of the revenue budget for the 2023-2026 cycle had been contractually secured, placing FIFA in a strong position to deliver its revised four-year revenue budget.

“The substantial cycle-on-cycle revenue growth continues to maintain FIFA’s commitment to re-invest its revenues in football. The investment budget for the 2023-2026 cycle has increased to a similar extent as the revenue budget, totalling USD 12,900 million. FIFA will reinvest USD 11,673 million or more than 90% of its budgeted investments back in the game to significantly boost global football development.”

The rise in revenue is amazing, powered by the placement of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States, with some 2026 World Cup games also to be played in Canada and Mexico. The target of $11 billion was increased by $2 billion from the Club World Cup, not previously included.

The yearly projections:

● $1.170 billion revenue ~ $1.748 billion expenses
● $483 million revenue ~ $1.298 billion expenses
● $2.436 billion revenue ~ $3.460 billion expenses
● $8.911 billion revenue ~ $6.394 billion expenses

FIFA’s balance sheet is already healthy, as of the end of 2024:

● $6.146 billion in assets (up from $5.490 billion in 2023)
● $2.948 billion in reserves (down from $3.565 billion in 2023)

As is usually the pattern, FIFA’s reserves come down from a high during a FIFA World Cup year, from $3.971 billion in 2022, $3.565 billion at the end of 2023 and now $2.948 billion through 2024.

In terms of where FIFA spends its money, in 2024:

● 54.1%: $702.5 million on development and education
● 22.0%: $285.8 million on competitions and events
● 15.8%: $205.6 million on administration and governance
● 4.3%: $55.6 million on marketing and broadcasting
● 3.7%: $48.4 million on governance

Revenue came from three primary sources, in 2024:

● 83.7%: $303.9 million from marketing rights
● 9.9%: $47.7 million from licensing rights
● 8.1%: $39.1 million from television rights
● 17.1%: $82.4 million from other items (smaller tournaments)
● 2.0%: $9.5 million from other income (rentals, contract changes)

The FIFA Council also approved a prize purse of $1 billion for the FIFA Club World Cup this summer.

The Associated Press reported that during Wednesday’s FIFA Council meeting, a request was made to explore the expansion of the 2030 FIFA World Cup from 48 teams in 2026 to 64 teams, per a FIFA statement:

“A proposal to analyze a 64-team FIFA World Cup to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup in 2030 was spontaneously raised by a FIFA Council member in the ‘miscellaneous’ agenda item near the end of the FIFA Council meeting.

“The idea was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyze any proposal from one of its Council members.”

The request came from Ignacio Alonso, President of the Uruguayan Football Association. Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay will each have a single match at the start of the 2030 World Cup to celebrate the centennial of the World Cup, first played in Uruguay in 1930. The main body of the tournament will take place in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.

A move to 64 teams would likely create a 128-game tournament, expanded from the current 104 matches with 48 teams in 2026. These 24 added matches could then be given to the three South American “hosts” to give them some significant benefit beyond staging one match in South America’s “turn” to host the World Cup.

U.S. Soccer also posted its financial statements for fiscal year 2024, which ended on 31 March and showed that the richest American National Governing Body got a lot richer:

● $192.4 million in assets vs. $152.4 million in 2023
● $78.0 million in reserves vs. $68.9 million in 2023

● $200.7 million in revenue vs. $148.4 million in 2023
● $190.9 million in expenses vs. $187.9 million in 2023

The major revenue contributors were sponsorships and TV rights ($98.2 million), National Team game revenues ($38.1 million) and $10.8 million from international game match fees.

The big expense items were the National Teams ($98.4 million) and management expenses ($77.6 million). Those management expenses covered a total of 1,564 employees in fiscal year 2024, according to the federation’s tax form 990.

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PANORAMA: One year out from Milan Cortina Paralympics; FIFA opens Women’s World Cup bidding for 2031, 2035; Klaebo wins again!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Huge crowds at the FIS Nordic Skiing World Championships in Trondheim (NOR), here at the cross country arena (Photo: Trondheim 2025 on Instagram).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Winter Paralympic Games 2026 ● “In terms of venues, we are in dreamland for Milano Cortina 2026, for certain they will be the most beautiful Paralympic Games yet.

“The Games will begin in the iconic Arena di Verona, Para ice hockey will be held in the world’s fashion capital Milan, the stunning Val di Fiemme will host Para biathlon and Para cross-country skiing, while Para alpine skiing, Para snowboard, wheelchair curling and the Closing Ceremony will take place at the heart of the Dolomites in Cortina, one of the of the most magical places on earth. I cannot wait to be there and for the action to begin.”

That’s International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons (BRA), marking one year to go to the opening of the 2026 Winter Paralympics. And:

“The Paralympic Games are the most transformational sport event on earth; wherever the event is held, it triggers immense change impacting infrastructure, policies and most importantly, lives.

“What is happening across Italy is monumental with so much investment into infrastructure that will benefit absolutely everyone for generations to come. I cannot thank the cities, regions and provinces involved enough for their commitment to using the Games as an opportunity to advance accessibility and inclusion.

“From new accessible trains to barrier-free stations, accessible tourism for all to initiatives to drive sport development, it is truly fantastic that the Games have acted as a catalyst for all these important projects. Once the sport begins next year and the public witnesses the performances of the Paralympic athletes, I am confident the Games will again change attitudes towards disability, further driving social inclusion.”

Tickets are on wide public sale with 89% at €35 or less; up to 665 Para athletes from 50 countries are expected to compete, with 79 medal events in six sports.

NBC announced Thursday that 80 hours of programming will be carried on its channels from the 2026 Winter Paralympics, with eight hours on NBC.

Daily coverage will also be provided on CNBC and USA Network; a large streaming package on Peacock and other NBC Sports Digital platforms – including NBCSports.com – will offer more than 250 hours of coverage. The Winter Paralympics are scheduled from 6-15 March 2026.

● International Fair Play Committee ● Be sure to mark your calendar for 19 May this year, to be the first-ever “World Fair Play Day” as recognized by a United Nations General Assembly Resolution passed last year.

The International Fair Play Committee worked for years for the U.N. to adopt this Resolution, which asks people “to cooperate, observe and raise awareness of World Fair Play Day to promote the practice of sport with a spirit of friendship, solidarity, tolerance and inclusion and without discrimination.”

● Athletics ● Good news for Grand Slam Track, which announced a broadcast rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, with Eurosport (Europe and Asia) and TNT Sports (UK and Ireland) offering live broadcast and/or cable coverage, plus live streaming on Max and discovery+ in more than 40 territories for the 2025 schedule and beyond.

The New York Road Runners announced it received the most-ever applications – more than 200,000 – for the annual New York City Marathon, to be held on 2 November. Unfortunately, “About two to three percent of the more than 200,000 applications will be accepted.”

The applications total was up 22% over 2024.

To the delight of the home crowd, Dutch star Femke Bol anchored her winning Mixed 4×400 m relay to victory on the first day of the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn (NED). She split 50.33 to finish out a 3:15.63 run, ahead of Belgium (3:16.19) and Great Britain (3:16.49). The meet continues through Sunday.

The Athletics Integrity Unit announced a two-year sanction on 59:44 half-marathoner Geoffrey Yegon (KEN), “for 2 years from 11 February 2025 for Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Triamcinolone acetonide). DQ results from 1 December 2024.”

Also, Youssef Taoussi (ESP) – a 3:36.81 1,500 m man, was banned for four years, following a hearing, from 2 July 2024, for using Roxadustat, which stimulates the body’s natural production of erythropoietin (EPO). His results from 24 May 2024 were nullified.

● Fencing ● USA Fencing mourned the passing this week of Carla-Mae Richards, at age 88. She was the first USA Fencing Executive Director, taking charge in 1983 and serving to 1994, creating the key North American Cup series that is the backbone of the national competition schedule today.

She said years later, “In order to have the best team internationally – we weren’t winning medals – we needed some kind of system. We needed to give athletes stronger competitions, not just the local ones. So we said, ‘let’s have a national circuit.’”

● Football ● FIFA announced two new women’s tournaments, with a Women’s Champions Cup – featuring club teams – to debut in 2026, with champions of six continental confederations to meet in a six-match tournament, with the semifinals and finals scheduled for 28 January to 1 February. Succeeding editions will be played in 2027 and 2029.

A new Women’s Club World Cup will be inaugurated in 2028, with six teams competing in a play-in stage and then 16 teams to compete for the trophy in group play and then quarterfinals. The targeted time frame is January and February of 2028, with a second edition in 2032.

FIFA also opened the bidding process for the Women’s World Cup for 2031 and 2035, with the U.S. expected to make a strong effort to secure the 2031 tournament. The decisions will be made in 2026 and the number of teams could be increased to 48, to be in line with the men’s World Cup (and make a lot more money in television rights).

The 2031 tournament is open to national federations in Africa and CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean) and 2035 is to be available to Africa and Europe (UEFA). Brazil will host in 2027.

Spanish prosecutors asked for a new trial of former Royal Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales on Thursday, saying that the judge in the case did not allow in key evidence.

Rubiales was on trial for sexual assault and coercion in the infamous “kiss” of star  midfielder Jenni Hermoso during the awards ceremony following the FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Australia in 2023. He was found guilty of sexual assault only and fined €10,000 (about $10,800 U.S.) and ordered to stay away from Hermoso for a year.

The prosecution wanted 2 1/2 years of imprisonment; reports indicate a new request for a year in prison will be made, as well as an increase in the fine.

● Gymnastics ● Under the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) rules allowing for Russian and Belarusian gymnasts to compete as neutrals after proper vetting, the Russian Gymnastics Federation announced that 2021 World All-Around champ and Tokyo Olympic All-Around bronze medalist Angelina Melnikova had received approval to compete.

A total of 12 Russian gymnastics (eight women, four men) were reported as approved, with 10 support staff also approved.

● Nordic Skiing ● Five for five. That’s Norwegian cross country star Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo at the 2025 FIS World Nordic Skiing Championships in Trondheim (NOR).

After winning the men’s Sprint, Skiathlon, 10 km Individual and the Team Sprint, Klaebo won his fifth gold on Thursday as anchor on the men’s 4 x 7.5 km relay, finishing in 1:08:13.7, well ahead of Switzerland (1:08:35.3) and Sweden (1:08:35.5). Norwegian teammates Erik Valnes, Martin Nyenget and Harald Amundsen gave Klaebo a 36-second lead and he cruised home.

Klaebo now has 17 Worlds medals (14-2-1), the most by any male skier in Worlds history, as he passed fellow Norwegian Petter Northug, who won 16 (13-3-0) between 2007-15.

The U.S. finished seventh with J.C. Schoonmaker, Zak Ketterson, Kevin Bolger and Ben Ogden, in 1:09:16.7.

In ski jumping, Slovenia defended its men’s Large Hill title, jumping off the 138 m hill, with Lovro Kos, Domen Prevc, Timi Zajc and especially Anze Lanisek combining for 1,080.8 points, to top Austria (1,067.4) and Norway (1,065.3).

The U.S. quartet of Kevin Bickner, Erik Belshaw, Jason Colby and Tate Frantz finished eighth at 888.6.

The Nordic Worlds continue through Sunday and has been a major success, with more than 200,000 sold already and three days of events remaining.

● Swimming ● SwimSwam.com reported on a letter sent from the federation’s Board of Directors to the membership concerning the continuing search for a new chief executive after the withdrawal last week of University of Delaware athletic director Chrissi Rawak. The message included:

“During the initial search, we identified numerous world-class candidates. We will revisit some outstanding talent from the initial search and refresh the candidate pool to ensure we find the best leader to take USA Swimming forward. Our focus remains on selecting a CEO who fits the profile that resulted from the Task Force’s listening tour– a transformational and visionary leader who can fully harness the opportunities of this particular moment for our sport in the United States.”

The letter also noted that the search for a new director of the national team is “progressing well” and is not expected to be impacted by the chief executive search.

● Tennis ● The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Saudi Public Investment Fund announced a first-of-its-kind maternity leave program for the sport:

“Through the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program, WTA players will for the first time receive paid maternity leave up to 12 months, and have access to grants for fertility treatments to build families, as well as other benefits. From launch, the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program will offer benefits to more than 320 eligible WTA players. …

“The eligibility criteria for participation in the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program includes competing in a certain number of WTA tournaments in a window of time, and receiving a special ranking, one of the existing benefits available through the WTA’s Family Focus Program that makes it easier to return to competition after starting a family.”

WTA chief executive Portia Archer (USA) noted:

“We are delighted that our partnership with PIF allows us to realize a key ambition to offer paid maternity and parental leave to more than 320 eligible WTA players. This initiative will provide the current and next generation of players the support and flexibility to explore family life, in whatever form they choose.”

● Wrestling ● Three-time Olympic Greco-Roman medalist Riza Kayaalp of Turkey was banned for four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, after he tested positive for Trimetazidine from an out-of-competition sample collected on 28 May 2024.

Now 35, Kayaalp’s suspension runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2028. He finished second in the 2024 European Championships at 130 kg, but did not compete at Paris due to his suspension after the positive test was reported. He is a five-time World Champion between 2011-22 and won Olympic silver at 130 kg in 2016 and bronzes at London 2012 and Tokyo 2020.

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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: IOC Pres. candidate Prince Feisal impressive in 105-minute forum, and confident: “I’ve got a good chance.”

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC Presidential candidate Prince Feisal Al Hussein (JOR) during his AIPS interview forum (Photo: AIPS video screen shot).

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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡

Polished and enthusiastic, Jordan’s Prince Feisal Al Hussein talked with reporters for an impressive hour and 45 minutes on Thursday in the sixth of seven IOC Presidential Candidate forums organized by the International Sports Journalists Association (AIPS).

And among his thoughtful and thorough answers was his take on his campaign, with just two weeks to go:

“For me, it’s about becoming a better person. To be honest, my wife, earlier today, said, ‘you know, you’re a far better person now than at the start of this race.’ And coming from my greatest champion and my worst critic, that to me has made it all worthwhile.

“I’m a better person as a result of that. And I’ve got a good chance.

“I really feel that the momentum is growing, it’s building up. A lot more people are coming up and talking to me. I believe, based on the numbers that we’re hearing, I’ll be in the last four. I think I can get to the last three, and depending on who I am up against, there is a real chance, I think, for me to win.

“And I’m in it to win it. I’m not in it just for the sake of appearing and I think I can contribute to making the IOC a better place.”

Al Hussein, now 61, who was educated in the U.S. (Brown University) and Britain (London Business School), also gave a remarkable insight into the campaign process:

“It’s not going to get any lighter. The pressure is on. There are seven good candidates that are out there, and it’s impressing the members, on who they feel and the direction they feel that the Olympic Movement has to go.

“That requires both reaching out and also listening to what the members are telling me. … Somebody asked me, ‘are you nervous, are you stressed?’ And I said, no, this actually has been a good experience for me. …

“The issue is not so much is not that I have concerns, but I had to be in a position where I could actually come up with potential solutions. So it focused me very much to get that through. And what I wanted in the manifesto is to make sure my passion, my feeling is reflected in that manifesto. So the best compliment I got in writing the manifesto, and it took a lot longer – I went through 16 versions before I finally agreed on the final one – but the best compliment I got was, ‘this is you.’ And that’s what I’ve always tried to do, to show me genuinely, what I think, how I act, how I feel. So it’s a reflection on me.

“And actually one of the other candidates said, ‘we finally saw the true Prince, what he stood for, what he’s interested in.’ And so that’s been great.

“Then I had the opportunity, in Lausanne, to present. A number of new IOC members haven’t had a chance to interact with me and so it was an opportunity for them to both listen to me and see the passion that I try to portray in why I am in this race. And I’ve gotten very good feedback from that, and a lot of encouragement.

“So, it’s been a fascinating journey. I think it’s been excellent for me, regardless of what the outcome is going to be. I’ve contributed … I want to make a difference. All of us in the IOC, I think, want to make a difference, and this is an opportunity. Regardless of the outcome, I’ve contributed, I haven’t sat on the sideline and just critiqued everything.

“I tried my best. If I succeed, then I’ve got my work cut out for me. If I don’t, at least I’ve done it and I hope whoever does become President will look at it and say, ‘you know what, actually, Prince Feisal had some good ideas. Maybe I should really think about them.’ And that a contribution to the dialogue and discussion. I think that was important.

“So I’m excited with the last two weeks coming. I have probably, in the last four months, spoken to more, and spent more time talking with IOC members than I had in the previous four years. … And I think that, for me, is a win in and of itself, because I got the time.

People say, ‘oh, well, campaigning must be tough.’ Actually, for me, it was fascinating. I learn from people. I got to listen to different views, different concerns. And each one of them had something different to contribute to the discussion. And I think I’m a better person as a result of that.”

Al Hussein was asked about the current issues, of course:

● On athlete participation from aggressor countries:

“What sports can do, in a post-war conflict, or even in a pre-war conflict, we can try and bring communities together, we can try and raise signs together to celebrate the joint humanity. We can look at how we can build a better and more integrated and a more peaceful society, and that’s part of what the Olympic Movement is all about.

“Sports can also play a role, post-conflict, which is again to rebuild, and that is, rebuild physically, rebuild mentally, re-build the society that they had, most importantly on top of that, is to rebuild hope. I think the Olympics is all about hope. It’s the opportunity that people can have to participate, to dream about participating. …

“Will we be able to solve wars? No, that’s what the politicians are there for, that’s what the United Nations is there for, that’s what other international organizations are there for. But we can play a role in peace-building, and that’s a role I think we should be taking on, and being realistic. We can’t solve all of it, but we can contribute, in particular to build a more peaceful society.”

● On athlete prize money from the Games:

“Prize money, in the Olympic Solidarity model, is usually the purview of the National Olympic Committees.

“National Olympic Committees, quite often do, in Jordan, we do the same thing. If people achieve greatness, they will get monetary compensation for it. And for one simple reason: at the end of the day, people get to see their flags being raised. And that’s why I think it’s the responsibility of NOCs to encourage and support their athletes when they do succeed, because of the national pride that it generates.”

As far as the IOC and prize money, he explained:

“[For the IOC to pay prize money] I think it’s difficult. We believe in equality, we believe in fairness. How do you value a gold medal, in a 100 m race, whether it’s swimming or running, vs. archery? Or badminton? There is, I think, an inequality in terms of what people value, as Olympic medals.

“And so, I think it is a challenge, and I don’t agree with that. It goes against the principles of Olympic Solidarity. And I think the current system, while maybe not perfect, is an effective mechanism.

“What I have proposed in my manifesto, is to look at what other ways that we can provide services … what can we do that will be of real value to athletes?”

● On transgender athletes in women’s sport:

“The underlying principle, and this is why International Federations are better positioned to answer the question, and that is fairness. Is there any significance, change or undue advantage given, for people who go through a transition, vs. people who don’t? I come from a sport – FIA [motor racing], I’m a Senate member in the FIA – and there, we have drivers. It is gender neutral. We don’t have male drivers and female drivers as such, it is just drivers.

“FEI, equestrian, does the same thing. They are riders. So I think, if there is no difference, or there is no undue advantage, that can be scientifically proven, then I don’t see why they should be excluded. I think the Olympic Movement is all about inclusion of all elements of society and all peoples.

“But if there is an unfair advantage, I think it should be treated in much the same way as we fought doping, because doping gave certain athletes an unfair advantage.“

Al Hussein took many questions about how he sees the future of the IOC and what he would do different from the administration of current chief Thomas Bach (GER)? He stressed more interactions with the IOC membership:

● “We need to include people more than is happening. I am excited about this election coming up. It’s the first time in six years that members will have a choice of how they want to see the future move. And that is not a ‘yes or no’: the last time, we had Milano Cortina and Stockholm, but in six years, we haven’t had an effective vote, and the involvement of the membership in deciding the future.

“There are seven candidates … and this, I think, is exciting. They will have a chance to decide on the future of the Olympic leadership, and that, I think, is a good and healthy position to be in.”

● “What are the other alternatives? Can we look beyond the traditional? In the job that I have as chair of the National Policy Council, the most frustrating thing that I come across is when people say, ‘well, that’s the way we’ve always done it.’ Because, yeah, it might be good, but it shouldn’t be an excuse to just continue doing something that might have worked 30 years ago, but is it really working as well right now.

“And I think I’d like to open that debate with the membership, to look at, can there be better ways that we can do things.”

● “I’d like to see people be engaging in debate. I want to see what all the opinions are, and it’s only through consensus that we can find a way to move forward. And I think that is what I am proposing in terms of the style of leadership.

“Involve people, get the different opinions. We can be more effective when we’ve had a chance to debate then when you don’t have a chance to debate. Right now, there’s not much debate in the Olympic Movement and that’s sad. I would far prefer to have a healthier debate, either within the Session, or with experts.

“Both of those are critical. It’s only through that that we learn from each other. It’s only through that we become a better organization. There is no monopoly on good ideas, and we need to use the collective potential. We have a very, very good, capable, smart membership that is being under-utilized at this point in time. So part of what I’m asking for … is to get everybody involved.”

He also wants to expand the IOC’s revenues, to provide more support for athlete development, especially at the NOC level. And in this context, he is concerned about the IOC’s TOP sponsorship program:

“What I would like to do, to focus on, is how to make the pie bigger. We lose three TOP sponsors in a year and that, to me, sent alarm bells. When I asked about it, they say, ‘well, you know, it’s after Tokyo, the Japanese aren’t interested.’ Well, one of them went to FIFA, another one went to World Aquatics. So they still believe in the power of sports, but they obviously, I feel, didn’t feel that they were getting what they needed from the IOC.

“So to me, one of the critical issues is, how can I make that pie bigger? … My feeling now is that the IOC has a cookie-cutter approach, one size fits all, and the world isn’t like that. We know the world isn’t like that. So we need better adaptation.”

(Al Hussein referred to Japanese corporations signing elsewhere, not to the three companies which left the TOP program – Bridgestone, Panasonic and Toyota – which have not signed deals with FIFA or Worlds Aquatics.)

He also noted that future Olympic and Winter Games will have to account for climate changes and that a change – possibly radical – in the calendar may have to be considered: “By opening the dates, we can allow for more countries to potentially host.”

Asked why he has put himself through all of this, he reflected:

“I have been brought up in a family where we were taught, service is our duty, and the importance to be able to provide a service. … It’s what you can do to make a difference. And my father used to tell us, ‘if you can make a difference, it is your duty and obligation to try.’”

Observed: Al Hussein was impressive, no doubt about it, in 105 minutes of discussions, without even a water break, with the interview taking place during Ramadan fasting period.

He made many of the same points as other candidates: more member involvement, the fight against doping, trying to better support small National Olympic Committees, more effective marketing and so on.

His calm, frank manner, personal warmth and his humanitarian work with his “Generations for Peace” effort and that he has the second-longest IOC tenure of the candidates – elected in 2010 – are all in his favor. It is easy to see why an IOC member would think, “well, I could certainly work with him.”

Can he win? He thinks so, and with two weeks left, that’s what counts.

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PANORAMA: Paris 2024 ceremonies social-abuse trial starts; Super Bowl-style halftime for FIFA 2026; Diggins & Kern win first U.S. Nordic medals!

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● The trial of seven defendants charged with cyber-abuse by Olympic ceremonies director Thomas Jolly (FRA) began in Paris on Wednesday, with two of those charged not in the courtroom.

Jolly said he received death threats and abusive social-media comments of a homophobic and anti-Semitic nature; the seven people charged ranged in age from 22 to 79. French laws on such attacks include penalties such as fines and possible imprisonment.

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● The LA28 organizing committee and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee announced Westlake Village, California-based PennyMac Financial Services as “Official Mortgage Supporter of the 2026 and 2028 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams and a Proud Supporter of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

As part of its programming, PennyMac plans to work with U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes with educational efforts to help with homeownership.

● Mediterranean Games 2026: Taranto ● The Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that the staging of the 2026 Mediterranean Games requires more government funding. A €275 million allocation was made for venue renovations and construction, with another €25 million to help start up the organizing committee.

The report says that sponsorship and ticket revenues will total only about €10 million and with an estimated cost of €60 million for staging the event, another €25 million is being looked for from the Italian government. (€1 = $1.08 U.S.)

The XX Mediterranean Games are scheduled for 21 August to 3 September 2026.

● Football ● From FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI), writing on his Instagram page:

“I can confirm the first ever half-time show at a FIFA World Cup final in New York New Jersey, in association with Global Citizen. This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world.

“We also spoke about how FIFA will takeover Times Square for the final weekend of the FIFA World Cup in 2026, during both the bronze final match and final.

“These will be two incredible matches, featuring some of the best players in the world, and what better way to celebrate them than in the historic Times Square in New York City.

My thanks of course to Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans and his incredible team, for helping us put together these amazing shows. I also want to thank Chris Martin and Phil Harvey of Coldplay, who will be working with us at FIFA to finalise the list of artists who will perform during the half time show, as well as at Times Square.”

The FIFA Ethics Committee’s adjudicatory chamber imposed a lifetime ban and a fine of CHF 1,000,000 on former Gabon national boys U-17 team coach Patrick Assoumou Eyi for sexual abuse of four players between 2006-21.

● Nordic Skiing ● Norway and Sweden continued their domination of the cross country portion of the FIS Nordic Skiing World Championships in Trondheim (NOR), each winning again on Wednesday.

Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won his fourth event (out of four), teaming with Erik Valnes to take the Classical Team Sprint in 18:27.71, clearly ahead of Finland’s Ristomatti Hakola and Lauri Vuorinen (18:31.81) and Oskar Svensson and Edvin Anger (18:31.82). The U.S. pair of Gus Schumacher and J.C. Schoonmaker finished a very creditable sixth in 18:40.01.

In the women’s Classical Team Sprint, it was Sweden sweeping its fourth event in a row in these Championships. Jonna Sundling got a second Sprint gold, with Maja Dahlqvist, in 20:51.63. That was clear of the American pair of Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern, second in 20:54.53 – the first U.S. medals of this Worlds – with Anja Weber and Nadine Faehndrich third (21:00.76).

It’s the seventh career Worlds medal for Diggins (2-3-2) and second for Kern. Competition continues through Sunday.

In ski jumping, the Mixed Team event went to Norway, with second golds for Marius Lindvik, Anna Odine Stroem and Eirin Kvandal (plus Johann Forfang) with 1,020.4 points to 959.3 for Slovenia and 906.8 for Austria. The U.S. squad of Paige Jones, Kevin Bickner, Annika Belshaw and Tate Frantz finished sixth (739.1).

● Ski Mountaineering ● The ISMF World Championships are ongoing in Morgins (SUI), with familiar stars on the awards podiums.

Swiss star Remi Bonnet won the Vertical race in 18:50.3, way ahead of Maximilien Drion du Chapois (BEL: 19:37.0) and fellow Swiss Aurelien Gay (19:40.3). Cameron Smith was the top American, in 20th (+2:04.5).

For Bonnet, it’s his fifth career Worlds gold, including the Vertical title in 2021-23-25.

The women champion was France’s Axelle Gachet-Mollaret, also a runaway winner in 22:24.9, followed by Tove Alexandersson (SWE: 23:06.0) and Sarah Dreier (AUT: 24:01.0). Hali Hafeman was 20th (+4:00.1) was the top U.S. finisher.

Gachet-Mollaret won her 11th career Worlds gold; she had previously won the Vertical in 2021 and 2023.

In the relay opener on Monday, French stars Emily Harrop and Thibault Anselmet won in 32:44.1, barely ahead of Ana Alonso Rodriguez and Oriol Cardona Coll (ESP: 32:45.0), with Swiss Marianne Fatton and Robin Bussard close in third at 33:02.9. Americans Jessie Young and Smith were 12th (37:15.6).

Racing continues on Thursday, on to Saturday.

● Speed Skating ● The years-long doping tug-of-war between German star Claudia Pechstein and the International Skating Union has come to an end, with the parties agreeing to settle their dispute.

Pechstein, now 53, was a German star, winning nine Olympic medals from 1994-2006, including five golds, and an astonishing 41 World Championships medals (6-21-14), beginning in 1996.

She was suspended for blood doping due to elevated reticulocyte counts in 2009, for two years. She appealed the finding to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, explaining the condition as hereditary, and that she never failed a single doping test. Refused entry into the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, she sued the ISU in Swiss courts, but the ban was upheld, and she finally returned to competition in 2011.

Pechstein then sued the ISU for damages in Germany courts, losing at the Federal Court of Justice level in 2016, but her appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court in 2022 succeeded, with the court ruling that her rights had been violated. The case was sent back for further hearings, with Pechstein asking for €8.4 million in damages. In October 2024, the Munich Court of Appeal asked the parties to settle. (€1 = $1.08 U.S.)

Pechstein said last year she would be willing to settle for less, but wants an admission of wrongdoing from the ISU. The ISU statement said Pechstein showed a “mild form of dehydrated hereditary stomatocytosis (DHS)” and the statement was issued Tuesday that “[t]he Parties have mutually agreed to settle their litigation in a spirit of conciliation.”

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ATHLETICS: World Road Running Championships removed from San Diego, another site to be selected

By
Rich Perelman
-

★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★

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≡ WORLD ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡

The World Athletics notice was brief and to the point:

“Following detailed discussions between World Athletics and the Local Organising Committee of the World Athletics Road Running Championships San Diego 25, it has been agreed that the World Athletics Road Running Championships will no longer be held in San Diego in September as planned.

“World Athletics is currently talking to other potential hosts and expects to announce another location shortly. We would like to thank the San Diego 25 team for their work over the last few months and hope we are able to find another opportunity to host a World Athletics event in San Diego in the future.”

The posting also included a comment from Tracy Sundlun, the head of the organizing effort:

“We really looked forward to welcoming the running world to San Diego this September but sadly it is not to be at this time. For now, all of us here on Team San Diego will do everything in our power to assist World Athletics in the seamless transition of the 2025 Championships to a new venue.”

Slated for 26-28 September, the event Web site has already been taken down.

This was about money.

Reporting by Ken Stone in the Times of San Diego noted:

“A source with knowledge of the matter who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record told Times of San Diego that ‘San Diego isn’t the problem. (It’s) more the model doesn’t work, same for the for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. These governing bodies – USATF, WA – want the host cities to cover all the expenses to the tune of millions of dollars and don’t want to help.’”

Paul Greer, head of the USATF San Diego-Imperial Association said that a $3 million title sponsor had been found, but that it was not enough.

Canadian Running Magazine reported that the 2025 World Road Running Championships will likely be moved back to November now, contingent on finding a new host. 

This is another blow for San Diego, which has lost multiple teams and events over decades. The NBA San Diego Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984 and the beloved NFL Chargers moved to Los Angeles in 2017.

In 2019, San Diego gave back the ANOC World Beach Games for lack of financing and it took place in Doha (QAT), where money was not an issue.

Now the World Road Running Championships has left, underscoring the challenges of U.S. hosting of large events which do not have government funding, either via direct subsidies or through tourism authority support.

In 2022, the World Games was held in Birmingham, Alabama and finished with a $15.6 million debt (on a $65 million budget) that was finally covered by some corporate help, but mostly by the City of Birmingham ($5 million), Jefferson County Commission ($4 million), the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau ($1 million) and finally, the state of Alabama ($5 million).

It’s not easy.

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