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AQUATICS: World Aquatics financial report for 2023 shows $22.4 million surplus and $191.5 million in assets

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ THE BIG PICTURE ≡

World Aquatics posted its financial statements for 2023, showing a surplus that was more than double what was expected and assets nearing $200 million.

The report from Treasurer Dale Neuburger (USA) explained:

● “World Aquatics generated an operating surplus of $10.69 million USD, and combined with investment income of $11.70 million USD, the net result was a surplus of $22.40 million USD. Our budget projected a surplus of $11.93 million USD, and through sound management and prudent expense reduction, the result is far more favorable than our original expectation.”

● “The [2023] World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka (JPN) was an extraordinary success, generating $59.49 million USD in host partnership fees, broadcast rights, sponsorship income, and VIK revenues. Based upon expenses of $21.98 million USD, the net result was a surplus of $37.50 million USD. I express gratitude to the City of Fukuoka and Japan Swimming Association for an exceptional partnership with World Aquatics that exceeded all expectations.”

● “World Aquatics projects a very favorable outcome for the period 2021 to 2024 – prospectively, an operating surplus of more than $40 million USD. This is in sharp contrast to the 2017 to 2020 quadrennium that produced a $10.21 million USD deficit, owing largely to the absence of an Olympic Games within this period, as well as the postponement of other events because of the pandemic.”

For the calendar year 2023, World Aquatics showed operating revenue of $64.41 million against expenses of $53.71 million; with $11.70 million in investment income added, that’s a $22.40 million surplus for the year.

The federation’s balance sheet now shows $191.51 million in assets, actually down by $10.51 million from 2022 as deferred revenues came down significantly. Financial reserves, however, increased from $98.40 million to $120.80 million. That’s an extraordinarily impressive financial position for any international federation outside of FIFA.

As noted, the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka (JPN) was an enormous financial windfall, with $26.50 million in hosting rights and fees, and $28.98 million in television rights and sponsorships, plus another $4.02 million in in-kind support.

Athlete prize money for 2023 was shown at $11.65 million all together, across multiple events. World Aquatics spent $3.78 million on anti-doping activities, mostly through the International Testing Agency.

World Aquatics expects to get richer in 2024, estimating more than $100 million in revenue. The projected budget includes $107.73 million in income:

● $39.25 million from the International Olympic Committee
● $67.32 million from hosting fees, TV rights and sponsorships
● $0.19 million from penalties and other fees
● $0.98 million from other income

The Olympic television rights income from the IOC is a significant increase from the $31.36 million received from the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Expenses were estimated at $85.75 million, including $25.47 million in event expenses, $15.17 million in athlete prize money and $12.77 million in administrative expenses (there were 48 employees at the end of 2023). Some $5.71 million was budgeted for national federation support and $4.29 million for athlete and staff travel support to the 2024 World Championships held in Qatar in February.

(World Aquatics is one of the few federations that subsidizes the travel and lodging to its World Championships. Neuburger noted in his comments that for 2023, “$4.57 million USD was allocated to athlete, coach, and other Federation representatives to attend the World Aquatics Championships and other events within the competitive calendar. This travel subsidy has produced consistently higher levels of participation and involvement.”)

The financial statements for 2023 noted that World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam (KUW):

“has waived Per Diem payments and receives no remuneration from World Aquatics. The President’s personal office organises and pays for the majority of his travel costs, as well as, on occasions, accompanying World Aquatics personnel (athletes, officials, staff etc). The value of the contribution of the President to World Aquatics is impossible to accurately estimate but is at least 100k US Dollars and does not exceed 500k US Dollars.”

And as for the intention of World Aquatics to move its headquarters from Lausanne (SUI) to Budapest (HUN), the statements noted:

“On 26 May 2023, World Aquatics and the Government of Hungary announced that they were engaged in discussions about transferring the headquarters, and the seat, of World Aquatics to Budapest, Hungary. Such discussions are still ongoing in 2024 and, should the discussions end in an agreement, based on anticipated timelines, there is no impact on the going concern of World Aquatics for the foreseeable future.”

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ATHLETICS: Fan vote for World Athletics athletes of the year in six categories open now through Sunday!

By
Rich Perelman
-
Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins the Diamond League Final 1,500 m in Brussels (Photo: Diamond League AG)

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≡ ATHLETES OF THE YEAR ≡

World Athletics announced its two finalists in its six categories for Athlete of the Year, with fan voting open through Sunday, 10 November; click here for a link to vote.

The nominees:

Men’s track athlete of the year:
● Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR): Olympic 5000 m champion
● Letsile Tebogo (BOT): Olympic 200 m champion

On the track, Ingebrigtsen ran in 13 events and won 10, including the Olympic 5,000 m. He ended the season as the world leader in the 1,500 m (3:26.73, no. 4 all-time) and 3,000 m (amazing world record of 7:17.55). Tebogo won seven of nine meets in the 200 in 2024 and had the world-leading mark at 19.46 to win in Paris. He’s no. 5 all-time. Tebogo ran seven times in the 100 m, winning twice and finishing sixth in the Paris final with a lifetime best of 9.86.

Women’s track athlete of the year:
● Julien Alfred (LCA): Olympic 100 m champion
● Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA): Olympic 400 m hurdles champion

Alfred won all of her three meets in the indoor 60 m, including the World Indoor gold, then won four of seven meets in the 100 m and two of four outdoors at 200 m, including the Olympic silver. She ranked no. 2 in the world for 2024 in the 100 at 10.72 and no. 3 in the 200 m at 21.86. McLaughlin-Levrone ran only nine events in 2024, but won them all: 3/3 in the 200, 2/2 in the 400, 1/1 in the 100 m hurdles and 3/3 in the 400 m hurdles, including world records at the U.S. Olympic Trials (50.65) and at the Olympic Games (50.37). She also ran on the winning U.S. 4×400 m relay in Paris.

Men’s field athlete of the year:
● Mondo Duplantis (SWE): Olympic pole vault champion
● Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE): Olympic long jump champion

Duplantis was everywhere in 2024, competing in 15 meets and winning them all, including the World Indoor, European outdoor and a second Olympic gold. He set world records of 6.24 m (20-5 1/2), 6.25 m (20-6) and 6.26 m (20-6 1/2). And he won a much-hyped match race in Zurich against Norway’s Karsten Warholm, running 10.37 for 100 m. Tentoglou also competed 15 times in 2024, winning 12 and defended his Tokyo Olympic gold. He was the world leader in 2024 with his European Championships winner of 8.65 m (28-4 1/2) in June, now no. 13 all-time.

Women’s field athlete of the year:
● Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR): Olympic high jump champion
● Nafi Thiam (BEL): Olympic heptathlon champion

Mahuchikh competed seven times outdoors, winning each time and taking the European title and Olympic gold in Paris. She set the world record of 2.10 m (6-10 3/4) at the Paris Diamond League meet in July and won five Diamond League titles during the season. Thiam won her third straight Olympic heptathlon title in Paris, scoring 6,880 to be the world leader in the event for 2024. She only competed in two heps, taking the European title in June and the Olympic win in August.

Men’s out-of-stadium athlete of the year:
● Brian Pintado (ECU): Olympic 20km Walk champion
● Tamirat Tola (ETH): Olympic marathon champion

Pintado competed five times, winning twice, but one was the Olympic gold in Paris in 1:18:55. His best time of 1:17:54 ranked him 11th on the year. Tola, the 2022 World Champion in the marathon, ran only his 10th-fastest marathon ever in Paris, but won in 2:06:26. He finished fourth in the New York City Marathon (2:08:12) in November.

Women’s out-of-stadium athlete of the year:
● Ruth Chepngetich (KEN): world marathon record-holder
● Sifan Hassan (NED): Olympic marathon champion

Chepngetich, the 2019 World Champion in the marathon, ran three times in 2024: ninth in London in April, won a Half in Buenos Aires in August and smashed the world record with a barrier-shattering 2:09:56 at the Chicago Marathon in October, for her third win in that race. The amazing Hassan followed up her 5,000-10,000 m Olympic gold double in Tokyo with bronzes in both events in Paris, then won the Olympic marathon in 2:22:55. She had earlier finished fourth in the Tokyo Marathon in March in 2:18:05, ranking no. 13 on the world list for 2024.

The Athletes of the Year in each category, as well as the overall winner, will be revealed at a ceremony in Monaco on Sunday, 1 December as part of the World Athletics Awards 2024.

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BOXING: Paris Olympic medals leader Uzbekistan among four to join World Boxing

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

“World Boxing has approved applications from the National Federations (NFs) for boxing in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Guatemala and Laos to take its membership to 55 countries.”

Monday’s announcement followed the close of the second World Boxing Congress, held in Pueblo, Colorado in conjunction with the first World Boxing U-19 Championships for men and women that also finished over the weekend.

The addition of Uzbekistan is especially noteworthy, as the country co-led the Paris Olympic boxing medal table with five, all gold (China also had five: 3-2-0).

The addition of Kazakhstan had been expected, since the head of the Kazakhstan National Olympic Committee, Gennadiy “Triple G” Golovkin, is the head of the World Boxing Olympic Commission and has been lobbying national federations to join World Boxing.

With the International Boxing Association having been expelled by the International Olympic Committee in June 2023, World Boxing – which held its founding Congress last November – has been scrambling to create a workable governing body to become recognized by the IOC as the international federation for boxing.

The IOC has said that a new governing body needs to be in place early in 2025, in order for boxing to be confirmed on the program of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Said World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst (NED):

“On the date of our second Congress, it is fantastic that World Boxing is able to welcome four new countries whom I am sure will all play an important role in our mission to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic Movement.

“Only last week we announced seven new members to take World Boxing past the milestone of 50 countries. To be able to announce four more members – including two major powers in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan – so soon after this, is a sign of the growing momentum shift in international boxing.

“It is clear that there has been a change in impetus and that more National Federations want to join World Boxing as they recognise it is the only way to keep the Olympic dreams of their boxers alive.”

Another turning point could come on 23 November, as the 42-member Asian Boxing Confederation will meet in Thailand for an Extraordinary Congress to consider a motion for the ASBC “to be an independent organization until any new international organizations is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.”

Thus far, World Boxing has 13 members in Asia.

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ATHLETICS: Sydney Marathon for 2025 approved as first new World Marathon Majors addition in 12 years

By
Rich Perelman
-
The Sydney Marathon will become a World Marathon Major race in 2025, featuring this iconic image of runners crossing over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (Photo: Sydney Marathon on X).

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≡ WORLD MARATHON MAJORS ≡

Now, there are seven, as the Sydney Marathon was announced a new member of the World Marathon Majors program on Sunday (3rd) as the seventh race in the World Marathon Majors program:

“ABBOTT WORLD MARATHON MAJORS today confirmed that the TCS Sydney Marathon presented by ASICS will join the series in 2025 to become the seventh marathon in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series.

“The TCS Sydney Marathon, which will take place on August 31, 2025, joins six races including the Tokyo Marathon, the Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America, the TCS London Marathon, the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and the TCS New York City Marathon as part of the greatest marathon series in the world.”

Inaugurated in 2000 as a lead-up event to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and continued as a legacy of that Games, the race has expanded to 20,272 finishers on 15 September 2024. However, Sunday’s announcement was clear that this is not the end of the World Marathon Majors expansion program:

“Sydney will form part of the journey towards the next Major milestone, the new Nine Star medal, which will begin when two more races are added to the series; however Sydney finishers can start counting the race toward their Nine Star in 2025.

“Sanlam Cape Town Marathon and Shanghai Marathon, which are currently in the candidacy process, could join the series in as early as 2026 and 2027 respectively should they pass two years of assessments.”

The original World Marathon Majors schedule had five races for the initial season in 2006: Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. Tokyo was added for 2013 and Sydney will be added 12 years later as the seventh.

The original Sydney Marathon course was quite hilly, but was flattened in 2010 and the current race records were set in the 2024 race:

● 2:06:18 for men, by Brimin Kipkorir (KEN)
● 2:21:41 for women, by Workenesh Esesa (ETH)

The Sydney men’s race record is slower than the six current World Marathon Majors, but the women’s mark is faster than the New York City Marathon record of 2:22:31 by Margaret Okayo (KEN) from 2003.

In terms of scheduling for 2025, the seven-race plan shows:

● 02 Mar.: Tokyo Marathon
● 21 Apr.: Boston Marathon
● 27 Apr.: London Marathon

● 31 Aug.: Sydney Marathon
● 21 Sep.: Berlin Marathon
● 12 Oct.: Chicago Marathon
● 02 Nov.: New York City Marathon

Wayne Larden, race director of the TCS Sydney Marathon said:

“Becoming the seventh Abbott World Marathon is just incredible for the event, the city of Sydney and State of New South Wales. We could not have achieved the incredible growth and uplift in delivery to make it into the Majors if it wasn’t for the support of the NSW Government and Destination NSW plus our key partners TCS and ASICS. Our team are first rate and have put in so much work to make this happen. It is really special for all of us.

“This amazing milestone is going to have a profound impact on running in Australia, inspiring the community to become marathoners and do something special for themselves, their families and friends. Community health will benefit alongside a huge increase in fundraising.”

Becoming a World Marathon Major brings with it interest from runners who want to complete all of the Major races. There were 12,772 six-star finishers through the end of 2023, with more after the finish of the NYC Marathon on Sunday, and while the next new medal will be the nine-star, runners will come to Sydney in 2025 to start working toward that goal.

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PANORAMA: IIHF asks 3×3 hockey for 2030 Winter Games; Toyota sponsors Paralympics; U.S.’s Glenn gets first ISU Grand Prix gold!

By
Rich Perelman
-
American national champ Amber Glenn won her first ISU Grand Prix gold at the Grand Prix de France (Photo: ISU).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The International Ice Hockey Federation announced it will submit its proposal in January to add 3×3 hockey to the 2030 Olympic Winter Games.

A detailed questionnaire will be due by 30 March and a decision will be made in the fourth quarter of 2025. If accepted, it could add as many as 240 more players to the Olympic Winter Games and potentially require another venue, a consideration for the International Olympic Committee and the French organizers.

Compared with the 30 x 60 m (98 x 197 feet) rink needed for 5×5 play, the 3×3 surface would be much smaller at 18 x 26 m (59 x 85 feet). The first IIHF 3×3 World Championships – eight teams – are expected to be held in 2026.

● International Paralympic Committee ● While Toyota has left the Olympic Movement as a TOP sponsor, declining to renew for the 2025-28 quadrennial, the company made good on its promise to support the Paralympics separately.

The International Paralympic Committee announced Friday that the Toyota Mobility Foundation has agreed to a four-year grant program that “will provide grant funding to the IPC to deliver a wide range of transformational sport development initiatives under the umbrella of Sport for Mobility.”

● Archery ● The World Archery Indoor (18 m) World Series for 2024-25 has opened with the Swiss Open in Lausanne (SUI). Italy’s 2024 European Indoor runner-up Alessandro Paoli won the men’s Recurve division, winning a closest-to-the-center shoot-out over Romain Fichet (FRA), 6-5.

The women’s Recurve title went to home favorite, 17-year-old Olivia Doigo (SUI), 6-0, over Denise Barankova (SVK).

● Athletics ● Annie Rodenfels defended her 2023 USATF 5 km national championship on Saturday in New York, winning in 15:20, ahead of Emily Venters (15:25) and Emma Grace Hurley (15:31).

Venters had the lead with less than a mile to go, but Rodenfels surged ahead and was unchallenged at the line. It’s her third career USATF national road title, after she won the national 6 km event in July.

Ahmed Muhumed was second at the 2023 5 km championship and moved up to the top of the podium, pulling away from the lead pack of 10 in the final mile-and-a-half. He won in 13:38, with Sam Prakel pulling close with a sprint in the final 400 m (13:39), and Brian Barraza third in 13:42. It was Muhumed’s second USATF title in 2024, after the win at 8 km in July.

The race marked the close of the USATF Running Circuit for 2024, with Hillary Bor winning the men’s title and Hurley took the women’s championship.

Grand Slam Track announced the signings of distance stars Tsigie Gebreselama (ETH), the 2023 World Cross Country’s women’s runner-up, and Kenyan Agnes Ngetich, the road 5 km and 10 km world-record holder. The new project has now signed 32 of its 48 “Racers” who will compete in all four events to be held in 2025.

The Athletics Integrity Unit announced a provisional suspension of Japan’s Koki Ikeda, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 20 km Walk, for the use of a prohibited substance or method, based on his Athlete Biological Passport.

He’s the 2024 world leader in the men’s 20 km Walk at 1:16:51, from the national championships in February. He said in a statement that he plans to appeal, and

“For reasons that I know absolutely nothing about, I may not be able to compete in my next race and I am completely bewildered.”

Japan currently has no one listed on the AIU’s comprehensive list of ineligible persons.

● Badminton ● Denmark led with two wins at the Hylo Open in Saarbrucken (GER), with Mia Blichfeldt (DEN) winning the women’s Singles over Malvika Bansod (IND), 21-10, 21-15, and in Mixed Doubles, with Jesper Toft and Amalie Magelund (DEN) defeating Alexander Dunn and Julie MacPherson (SCO), 21-19, 21-16.

In the men’s Doubles, Ben Lake and Sean Vendy (ENG) kept the Danes from a third win, taking down Ras Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard, 18-21, 21-15, 21-18.

In the men’s Singles, the French Popov brothers faced off, with Christo – the younger – beating Toma Junior Popov, 21-13, 21-10.

The women’s Doubles saw Shuo Yun Sung and Chien Hui Yu (TPE) sweep Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr (UKR), 21-16, 21-14.

● Boxing ● The first World Boxing championship event, the World U-19 Championships in Pueblo, Colorado (USA), concluded, with England taking eight titles out of the 20 available.

The English squad took home wins from John-Joe Carrigan (men’s 70 kg), Leo Atang (men’s +90 kg), Ruby White (women’s 48 kg), Alice Pumphrey (women’s 51 kg), Caitlin Wise (women’s 54 kg), Ella Lonsdale (women’s 60 kg), Tiah-Mai Ayton (women’s 57 kg), and Lilly Deacon (women’s 70 kg).

India led the overall medal table with 17 (4-8-5), followed by England (9: 8-0-1), and the U.S. (8: 3-2-3), with wins in the men’s division from Lorenzo Patricio (50 kg), Joseph Awinongya (75 kg) and Elijah Lugo (80 kg).

● Curling ● China and Canada won the World Curling Pan Continental Championships in Lacombe (CAN), with Xiaoming Xu skipping the winning men’s rink from China to a 6-4 win over Shinya Abe and Japan.

The U.S. took the men’s bronze with 2018 Olympic champion John Shuster skipping the American squad to a 10-8 over 2006 Olympic winner (and two-time defending champ in this event) Brad Gushue and Canada.

In the women’s tournament, Canada and 2024 World Champion Rachel Homan won the final by 6-5 over South Korea (Eun-ji Gim). China (Rui Wang) won the bronze, 7-3, over Japan (Miyu Ueno). The U.S., with Cory Thiesse as skip, finished fifth.

● Figure Skating ● American national champion Amber Glenn won her first career ISU Grand Prix Series gold at the Grand Prix de France in Angers (FRA), taking a big lead in the Short Program and then hanging on in the Free Skate.

Glenn won the Short Program with a lifetime best and an American Record of 78.14, sailing past the 76.43 from Gracie Gold at the 2016 World Championships. She had a huge, 78.14 to 70.90 lead over South Korea’s Chae-yeon Kim, with fellow American Sarah Everhardt in fourth (66.95).

Japan’s 2018 Worlds runner-up, Wakaba Higuchi, won the Free Skate at 139.10 with Glenn third at 132.30 – despite a fall – and Everhardt fourth (129.99), but it was enough for Glenn to win the event at 210.44 to 206.08 for Higuchi. Kim faded to fourth (199.99) and Everhardt dropped to fifth (196.94).

The men’s title went to home favorite Adam Siao Him Fa, the 2023 and 2024 European Champion, who was only eighth in the Short Program, but zoomed up by winning the Free Skate by almost 13 points! He finished with 246.58 points to 233.84 for Koshiro Shimada of Japan and Andrew Torgashev of the U.S. (233.64). It’s Torgashev’s first career Grand Prix medal.

Worlds Pairs bronze medalists Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin (GER) won the Short Program and the Free Skate on the way to a 211.69 to 203.39 win over Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (ITA). Americans Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov finished fourth, scoring 171.92.

Two-time French champions Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud won their first Grand Prix gold in the Ice Dance competition, winning the Free Dance to move up from second. They scored 195.27 to edge Italy’s two-time European Champions, Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri (189.08). Americans Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville finished third at 185.88 – moving up from fourth to silver with a second-place Free Dance – for their first career Grand Prix medals.

“It would be foolish to end my sports career at such a young age. I will do my best to make the audience, myself, my coaches and all my fans happy.”

That’s Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who will come off of her four-year suspension for doping on 25 December 2025. Now 18, she explained to the Russian news agency TASS:

“I am gradually getting into my shape at the moment. I am certainly a bit nervous ahead of my performance. I am trying to confidently execute all elements, that I showed during the last season, which are the triple toe loop and double Axel.

“I need more self-confidence, I will try to make the content more complicated, as there are no competitions at the moment, give or take a year and a half. It means that I have to keep up with the rest of the girls.”

● Football ● Spain was looking for an unprecedented third straight win in the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in Santiago, Dominican Republic in Sunday’s final against North Korea, but was denied as penalty kicks decided the title.

There was no score at the half, when the Spanish got the opening goal in the 61st minute from forward Celia Segura, but the lead was short-lived, as midfielder Il-Chong Jon equaled in the 65th. The Spanish had 58% of possession and a 15-13 lead on shots, but the match went to penalties.

The score was 1-1 after two rounds, but a save against forward Pau Comendador turned out to be the difference. The Koreans converted their third, fourth and fifth tries and won, 4-3. It’s their first win in this tournament since 2016 and third their overall, giving them the most of any country.

The U.S. won its first medal in this tournament since 2008 with a bronze after a 3-0 shutout of England on Sunday. The Americans got an early (24th-minute) header from midfielder Kennedy Fuller and then second-half scores from midfielder Ainsley McCammon (72nd) and striker Maddie Padelski (90+2). The U.S. out-shot the English, 19-10, and Evan O’Steen got the shutout in goal.

● Short Track ● The ISU World Tour stop no. 2, once again in Montreal (CAN), was another showcase for home favorite for Canada’s William Dandjinou, the 2024 men’s World 1,000 m gold medalist.

Last week, he won the 500 m and 1,500 m races; this time he took the 1,000 m and 1,500 m. He won the 1,000 in 1:24.963 over Sung-woo Jang (KOR: 1:25.010) and took the 1,500 m with a tight finish over Latvia’s Roberts Kruzbergs, 2:17.138 to 2:17.246.

Canadian teammate Steven Dubois, the 2022 Olympic 500 m bronze medalist, was second at 500 m last week, but moved up this week to win in 41.124, just holding off a Dandjinou triple (second in 41.183)!

The three women’s events had three different winners, with two-time World 500 m champion Xandra Velzeboer (NED) taking the 500 m for the second week in a row, at 42.087, over 16-time Worlds gold medalist Min-jeong Choi (KOR: 42.406), with American Kristen Santos-Griswold fourth.

Choi won the women’s 1,000 m in 1:30.496, with Velzeboer right behind (1:30.632) and American Corrine Stoddard getting the bronze at 1:30.779. Belgian Hanne Desmet, second last week in the 1,500 m, won this time in 2:27.149, beating 2024 World Champion Gil-li Kim (KOR: 2:27.232) and Stoddard (2:27.482).

Canada swept all three relay events, winning the Mixed Team Relay, the women’s 3,000 m and men’s 4,000 m relay events.

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NCAA: College coaching associations now lobbying Congress around Olympic-sport implosion

By
Rich Perelman
-
The axe is coming to college sports, as a settlement over athlete pay and team sizes will start eliminating walk-ons and eventually, sports.

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≡ THE BIG PICTURE ≡

With the pending approval of the House vs. NCAA settlement that will pay college athletes $2.78 billion for retroactive damage payments dating back to 2016, and a new revenue-sharing model going forward, the pressure on non-revenue sports has coaches scrambling.

Politico.com reported last week that the American Baseball Coaches Association, American Volleyball Coaches Association, College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America, Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association, Intercollegiate Tennis Association, National Field Hockey Coaches Association, U.S. Track & Field And Cross Country Coaches Association and National Wrestling Coaches Association retained FGS Global – which has worked with the Big Ten Conference in the past – as a lobby arm to forge a solution through the U.S. Congress.

The NCAA and the other large conferences have been lobbying Congress for months, if not years, on the issue, but the pressure has increased dramatically.

The current push for college athletes to receive shares of the money generated from broadcasting contracts, ticket sales and sponsorships primarily impacts football, and to a lesser extent, men’s basketball. Very few other sports, or even individual teams, make money.

So, almost all of the money to be paid out is going to go to football and basketball players. Other sports will see the number of scholarships rise, but these teams will also face a hard cap, limiting the number of walk-ons who can be included.

Football, quite properly, will get the biggest cut. The average Football Bowl Subdivision team size for the 2022-23 academic year was 128 athletes and the new cap will be 105.

But Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, who has been following this issue closely, wrote in October:

“In all, the 68 power conference schools are expected to eliminate at least 3,000 roster positions as administrators work to adhere to new roster limitations, reallocate resources from lower-tier to revenue-generating sports, and balance men and women opportunities to comply with the federal Title IX law. …

“The settlement is a groundbreaking and landmark agreement between the defendants (NCAA and power conferences) and the plaintiffs (those suing mostly over athlete-compensation restrictions). The deal features three main parts: (1) nearly $2.8 billion in backpay to former athletes distributed over a 10-year period; (2) a revenue-sharing concept permitting schools to share as much as $23 million annually with their athletes; and (3) the overhauled roster structure.”

Dellenger noted that parent groups are working to put together an objection to the roster limits, but the money being removed from college athletic departments to pay football players, basketball players and a few others is going to mean fewer sports at the NCAA level and others either eliminated or reduced to club status, without funding.

The current NCAA regulations require Football Subdivision Schools to participate in 16 sports to be in Division I, while all others must have 14 sports. With so much money to be paid for football, look for future reductions in these minimums, and a whole new series of lawsuits dealing with Title IX issues as women – who do not play football – will receive a tiny percentage of all of the money paid to college athletes.

The House vs. NCAA settlement is only one element of the disruption to the college sports ecosystem which is being more and more unsettled by the day.

Is there a solution. We have one. In April, a TSX Lane One column suggested that “an NFL-style, 68-team, U-23 professional football league should pay the 68 universities which would host their teams at least $1.037 billion a year to make them whole for the revenue lost from football “

Check out the numbers; this is all about football, and if “college” football players really want to be professionals, let them be professionals. But of a professional team, not a university.

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ATHLETICS: Chepkirui and Nageeye make late moves to win at the New York City Marathon

By
Rich Perelman
-
Dutch star Abdi Nageeye, winner of the 2024 New York City Marathon (Photo: Erik van Leeuwen via Wikipedia)

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≡ NYC MARATHON ≡

The 53rd New York City Marathon had excellent conditions, with sunshine and temperatures in the 40s to start the race, but the winners were not determined until the very end.

The women’s race had 21 in contention at the half, with defending champion and Paris bronze winner Hellen Obiri (KEN) at or near the lead. By the 30 km mark, 10 were hanging together, but the pace thinned out the race to five by 35 km, with Kenyans Sheila Chepkirui, the 2023 Berlin runner-up, ahead of Obiri and Rio 2016 Olympic 5,000 km gold medalist and 2018 NYC Marathon runner-up Vivian Cheruiyot, and Senbere Teferi (ETH), fifth in Berlin last year.

Chepkirui moved into the lead over Obiri and Cheruiyot, with Teferi falling back, and by the 40 km mark, Chepkirui was leading Obiri and Cheruiyot. Into Central Park, Chepkirui was being shadowed by Obiri, with Cheruiyot right behind, and then Chepkirui and Obiri pulled away by 40 km.

Chepkirui led, with Obiri a step behind, but Chepkirui surged with less than a mile to go and put the race away with less than 400 m to go. Chepkirui cruised in for the win at 2:24:35, the no. 17 performance in NYC Marathon history.

Obiri was second in 2:24:49, followed by Cheruiyot in 2:25:21 for a Kenyan sweep of the medals. Chepkirui was in her fifth career marathon and got her first win, after finishing sixth in London in April. A Kenyan woman has won this race in 10 of the last 11 runnings.

Sara Vaughn was the first American, in 2:26:56, finishing sixth, with Jessica McClain in eighth (2:27:19), Kellyn Taylor in 10th (2:27:59) and Des Linden, now 41, 11th in 2:29:32.

In the men’s race, there were a dozen in contention at the half, but after the 25 km mark, Olympic champ Tamirat Tola (ETH) had the lead as the pack was whittled down to seven and then six by 27 km.

That six-pack continued to run at the front, with 2022 NYC Marathon winner Evans Chebet (KEN) in front at 30 km, but no one breaking away. The pack dropped to five by 32 km, and Tola was dropped by 35 km, with Chebet, Tokyo Olympic silver winner Abdi Nageeye (BEL) and two-time NYC winner Geoffrey Kamworor (KEN) putting distance on the rest of the field.

Chebet and Nageeye broke away by 37 km, while Tola moved past Kamworor into third place as they moved into Central Park. Chebet and Nageeye were right together with a mile to go, with Albert Korir (KEN), the 2023 runner-up, moving past Tola into third.

Finally, Nageeye got to the lead with less than 800 m left and broke away, becoming the first Dutch winner of this race, in 2:07:39, a considerable redemption after failing to finish in Paris this summer and at the 2023 Worlds in Budapest. It’s the no. 10 performance in race history; he’s the first non-African champion in this race since American Meb Keflezighi in 2009.

Chebet was second in 2:07:45, followed by Korir (2:08:00) and Tola (2:08:12). Chebet has now finished in the top three in nine of his last 10 marathons, going back to 2019!

Americans Conner Mantz and Clayton Young were together again at the finish, in sixth and seventh, in 2:09:00 and 2:09:21. Mantz and Young were 8-9 in Paris and now moved up two spots each in New York. Mantz’s sixth place is the best by an American since 2021, when Elkanah Kibet was fourth.

American Daniel Romanchuk won the men’s Wheelchair division for the third time, in 1:36:31, and fellow American Susannah Scaroni took the women’s division in 1:48:05, winning for the second time and by more than 10 minutes!

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SWIMMING: U.S.’s Smith smashes two world short-course records at World Cup Singapore, and Douglass gets two U.S. records

By
Rich Perelman
-
More records for American swim star Regan Smith! (Photo: World Aquatics)

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≡ WORLD CUP SINGAPORE ≡

The record machine was on full speed at the World Aquatics short-course (25 m pool) World Cup in Singapore, as a total of five world records were set during the three days:

● 31 Oct.: 2:12.72, Kate Douglass (USA) in women’s 200 m Breaststroke
● 01 Nov.: 1:48.88, Leon Marchand (FRA), in men’s 200 m Medley
● 01 Nov.: 54.27, Regan Smith (USA) in women’s 100 m Backstroke
● 02 Nov.: 1:58.83, Regan Smith (USA) in women’s 200 m Backstroke
● 02 Nov.: 21.50, Noe Ponti (SUI) in men’s 50 m Butterfly (heats)

Douglass broke her own world mark on Thursday, and then Marchand crushed the 1:49.63 time by American Ryan Lochte from 2012, winning by more than two seconds over Britain’s Duncan Scott.

Smith followed Marchand in the pool on Friday and slashed 0.14 off of her own world short-course mark of 54.41 from last week in Incheon (KOR). Then on Saturday, she took down the 2020 mark of 1:58.94 by Australian star Kaylee McKeown, with a brilliant 1:58.83 swim, winning by almost three seconds.

Ponti lowered his own record of 21.67, set in the heats at Shanghai (CHN) two weeks ago, in the first meet of the series.

Douglass wasn’t done, either, setting American Records in Singapore in the 50 m Butterfly and 100 m Freestyle. In all, she set five records in three meets: world marks twice in the 200 m Breaststroke, two in the 50 m Fly and one in the 100 m Free!

There were a load of “triple crown” winners, who won all three meets in the series in a specific event. Of the 22 possible triplers coming into the Singapore leg, 18 took home the title and a $10,000 bonus:

● Men/200 m Free: Duncan Scott (GBR)
● Men/100 m Back: Pieter Coetze (RSA)
● Men/200 m Back: Pieter Coetze (RSA)
● Men/50 m Breast: Haiyang Qin (CHN)
● Men/50 m Fly: Noe Ponti (SUI)
● Men/100 m Fly: Noe Ponti (SUI)
● Men/100 m Medley: Leon Marchand (FRA)
● Men/200 m Medley: Leon Marchand (FRA)
● Men/400 m Medley: Leon Marchand (FRA)

● Women/50 m Free: Kasia Wasick (POL)
● Women/200 m Free: Siobhan Haughey (HKG)
● Women/100 m Back: Regan Smith (USA)
● Women/200 m Back: Regan Smith (USA)
● Women/50 m Breast: Qianting Tang (CHN)
● Women/100 m Breast: Qianting Tang (CHN)
● Women/200 m Breast: Kate Douglass (USA)
● Women/50 m Fly: Kate Douglass (USA)
● Women/100 m Medley: Kate Douglass (USA)

In the Friday and Saturday men’s racing in Singapore, Marchand won two events (200-400 m Medleys) and Qin, Coetze and Ponti completed triple crowns. Olympic 100 m Free champ Zhanle Pan (CHN) won the men’s 100 m Free in 46.09, Isaac Cooper (AUS) beat Coetze in the 50 m Back, South African star Chad Le Clos won the 200 m Fly over American Trenton Julian, 1:50.42 to 1:51.68, and Caspar Corbeau (NED) won the 200 m Breast final.

In the women’s Friday and Saturday action, Douglass won the 50 m Fly in an American Record of 2.42, lowering her own mark of 24.54 from the Shanghai World Cup and moved to no. 2 on the all-time list.

She then won the women’s 100 m Free on Saturday in another American Record of 50.82, smashing Abbey Weitzeil’s 51.26 time from 2020; Douglass moved to no. 5 all-time.

In Smith’s 100 m Back world record swim, American Beata Nelson got a lifetime best in second in 55.72, now no. 5 all-time U.S. And the U.S. got two more wins from distance star Katie Grimes, who won the 800 m Free in 8:14.36 over Australia’s Olympic open-water silver medalist Moesha Johnson (8:18.24), with Claire Weinstein of the U.S. third (8:18.41), and in the 400 m Medley, in 4:24.19, to move to no. 3 all-time U.S.

Haughey and Tang (two events) also won triples, and Swede Louise Hansson won the 100 m Fly (55.46), and China’s Yiting Yu won the 200 m Medley (2:03.99), with Nelson of the U.S. third (2:05.00).

In the race for the women’s overall title across all three meets, Douglass edged Smith, 178.5 to 178.4. Marchand won the men’s title at 175.7 to 171.9 for Ponti.

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MEMORABILIA: Two extra-rare Olympic Winter Games torches highlight Ingrid O’Neil’s auction 97

By
Rich Perelman
-
One of just 33 Grenoble Olympic Winter Games torches from 1968, a star attraction in Ingrid O’Neil’s Auction 97 (Photo: Ingrid O’Neil Auctions).

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≡ SCENE & HEARD ≡

Collectors alert! The Ingrid O’Neil Auction 97 is now on, with 465 items from the Athens 1896 Games forward available for bids over the next two weeks.

In terms of rarity and price, two items stand out:

● An incredibly rare 1968 Grenoble Winter Games torch is offered, beginning at $180,000.

This is one of only 33 torches made for that Games, giving it a special place among collectors. The torch relay began in December 1967 and 5,000 torch runners shared the 33 available torches until the opening of the Grenoble Winter Games on 6 February 1968.

The torch itself is extra slender and 76 cm (29.9 inches) long. It has partial red original wrapping, and weighs about 4.5 pounds, originally made in France by the Societe Technique d’ Equipment et de Fournitures Industrielles (STEFI).

● Another rare torch, also from France, but this time from the 1992 Albertville Olympic Winter Games from 1992, with bidding opening at $65,000.

The reason again is rarity, with only 133 produced. This is a gracefully-shaped steel, which designer Philippe Starck created to look like a flame itself when turned upside down. It’s only 16.5 inches long with the width expanding to 3.2 inches from a point at the bottom. Some 5,500 torch runners shared this and the other 132 torches used for the 1992 Winter Games, the last to held in the same year as the Olympic Games.

There are 10 additional items which have starting prices at $10,000 or more:

● $40,000: 1896 Athens second-place medal
● $26,000: 2024 Paris torch
● $20,000: 2020 Tokyo silver medal (cycling)
● $20,000: 2010 Vancouver Winter silver medal
● $20,000: 2012 London silver medal (gymnastics)
● $18,000: 1904 St. Louis gold participation medal
● $18,000: 1992 Albertville Winter silver medal
● $14,000: 1964 Tokyo torch
● $12,000: 1956 Stockholm equestrian bronze medal
● $10,000: 1924 Chamonix Winter bronze medal

Another recent medal won by a Ukrainian athlete is up for auction, a Tokyo 2020 women’s cycling silver medal in the Individual Sprint, won by Olena Starikova, her only Olympic medal. She is also the 2019 Worlds silver medalist in the women’s 500 m Time Trial.

As always, there are some unusual items for the curious collector:

● A set of three 1932 Olympic trading-type cards, with the “Call to the Olympic Games” official color poster on the back. There are three cards, with the fronts picturing movie stars, flags of the participating nations, the Memorial Coliseum and other Olympic venues. Bidding starts at $140.

● A 30 by 70-inch commemorative tapestry of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, picturing the Berlin Cathedral and Castle, with bidding starting at $600.

● How about two commemorative fork-and-knife sets from the cancelled Tokyo 1940 Games? The bottom end of each utensil has a torch runner under the words, “Tokyo Olympic.” Bidding starts at $160.

● A set of four coin banks from Tokyo 1964, Los Angeles 1984 (Sam the Olympic Eagle) and Nagano 1998, plus a U.S. Olympic Committee bank for Barcelona 1992 using the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile! Bidding starts at $160 for the lot.

● The “final report” from the ill-fated Denver 1976 Olympic Winter Games, including the official account of the bid and the rejection of the Games – given back to the IOC – after a funding initiative was defeated. This 120-page item starts at $300.

The auction runs through 16 November 2024.

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PANORAMA: China’s Peak Sport sponsors apparel for 72 small NOCs; will Mahuchikh become the first women’s 7-foot high jumper?

By
Rich Perelman
-
Could Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh become the first women's seven-footer? (Photo: Diamond League AG)

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2026-2032 ● The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) announced a unique and potentially impactful sponsorship at the end of its General Assembly in Cascais (POR) with Chinese sportswear brand Peak Sport:

“The value-in-kind sponsorship deal, worth $7.1 million to NOCs, will see all NOCs who had six athletes or less at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 offered free Peak Sport uniforms for all Olympic Games, Olympic Winter Games and Youth Olympic Games through the end of 2032.

“The 72 NOCs who fit the criteria will be eligible to receive uniforms for the eight IOC events scheduled to take place over the next eight years, including the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032. They will also be given the opportunity to purchase Peak Sports uniforms at a discounted rate at all continental and regional games.”

The deal includes the 2026-28-30-32 Olympic and Winter Games, and the 2026-28-30-32 Youth Olympic and Winter Youth Olympic Games. It could displace multiple familiar apparel sponsors for these small teams, and expands Peak Sport’s reach. Per deputy chief executive Bingrui Wu:

“We have worked with NOCs such as Belgium, Brazil, New Zealand, Slovenia and Romania but now through our partnership with ANOC we will provide more kits to more NOCs. We believe we can coordinate with our Peak international distributors to bring the latest technology to the global sports movement.”

Peak will also make a cash contribution to ANOC and provide apparel for ANOC staff and officers.

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● A lengthy story on GamesBids.com explored the context of the LA28 decision to ask for cricket to be added to the 2028 Olympic program.

Following a recent statement by LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman at a conference that the likely cricket venue will be on the U.S. east coast to be a better fit for viewing in India – which is expected to pay a much higher rights fee for 2028 than for past Games due to cricket’s presence – the story notes:

“Remember the planned stadium in Brooklyn that will host the MI New York (MI stands for Mumbai Indians) MLC cricket club? The team and the stadium-to-be are owned by Indiawin Sports, an enterprise controlled by conglomerate Reliance Industries that is owned by the family of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, one of the wealthiest people on the planet. Ambani is married to Nita Ambani, an IOC member with a direct line to the executives and president Thomas Bach.

“Not only will Ambani’s teams benefit from the exposure an Olympic cricket tournament brings, but if it were to be held in New York his business could help stage the event and shine even more attention on his club.”

The story suggests that the International Olympic Committee’s interests in new TOP sponsors from India could fit well with Reliance, noting Nita Ambani as an IOC member. Further, the Indian television rights-holder for Paris 2024 was Viacom18, majority-owned by Reliance.

No accusations are made, only observations: “This is not necessarily nefarious though, arguments can be made that it is all just shrewd business in the high-stakes world of sport and the Olympics.”

● Athletics ● “The AIU has banned Tsehay Gemechu (Ethiopia) for 4 years from 30 November 2023 for Use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (ABP case). DQ results from 22 March 2020 until 30 November 2023″

The Thursday announcement takes out a 2:16:56 women’s marathoner from her second-place finish at the 2023 Tokyo Marathon, ranking 17th all-time, and who was a Tokyo Olympian in the 10,000 m.

Still just 25, she was suspended after the analysis of 31 samples taken between 2018 and 2023 showed repeated abnormalities in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), with an expert panel stating that “it is highly likely that a prohibited substance and/or method has been used” and the arbitration panel agreed, stating that it is the “only plausible explanation.”

European women’s athlete of the year Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) set a world record in the women’s high jump of 2.10 m (6-10 3./4) in July and went on to win the Olympic gold in Paris. But she is not done.

In an interview with European Athletics, she added:

“I think that I have room for improvement. I think that jumps until maybe 2.15 m, I can jump. I want to prove my skills and of course everything is possible.”

That would be 7-0 1/2 and make her the first women’s seven-footer!

● Football ● Two-time defending champion Spain got a goal from forward Alba Cerrato in stoppage time at the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic for a 1-0 lead at halftime of the second semifinal.

Forward Pau Comendador made it 2-0 in the 58th, and a fast break at 90+9 saw substitute forward Iris Santiago get a strong shot off in the box that bounced off English defender Zara Shaw for an own goal and the 3-0 final.

Spain finished with 57% possession and a 15-10 shots edge. The Spain-North Korea final and the U.S.-England third-place match will be played on Sunday in Santo Domingo.

● Wrestling ● The United World Wrestling World Championships for weight classes not on the Olympic program concluded on Thursday in Tirana (ALB), with wins for four different countries in the men’s Freestyle classes.

Japan and Georgia tied for the men’s team title with 55 points each and both had individual winners. Japan’s Masanosuke Ono won at 61 kg for his first senior Worlds gold, after winning the World U-20 title earlier this year.

Georgia got its win at 79 kg with Avtandil Kentchadze, winning his first Worlds gold after a silver at 74 kg back in 2018. Kazakhstan’s Nurkozha Kaipanov won the 70 kg class, after a silver in 2019.

Russian Abdulrashid Sadulaev – competing as a “neutral” – won his sixth Worlds gold in his third different weight class at 92 kg.

The U.S. won bronze medals by defending champ Vito Arujau at 61 kg and by David Taylor at 92 kg, his fifth career Worlds medal.

The American team wore a special “AV” patch on their uniforms in Tirana to honor the late Alan Vera, 33, a member of the U.S. Greco-Roman national team, who suddenly passed away from cardiac arrest on 23 September. He is survived by his wife Elena, a two-time Olympian and 2012 World Champion in women’s 63 kg Freestyle class, and their daughter Alina, born in June this year.

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ATHLETICS: Defending champs Tola and Obiri among six past winners back for 2024 New York City Marathon

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ NEW YORK CITY MARATHON ≡

The final World Marathon Majors race of 2024 is Sunday’s New York City Marathon, with Olympic gold medalist and defending champion Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia looking for his second win in New York and three prior New York City women’s winners, including defending champ Hellen Obiri of Kenya. The top elite entries:

Men:
● 2:03:00 ‘20: Evans Chebet (KEN) ~ 2022 NYC winner, two-time Boston champ
● 2:03:36 ‘21: Bashir Abdi (BEL) ~ Paris Olympic silver, Tokyo Olympic bronze
● 2:03:39 ‘21: Tamirat Tola (ETH) ~ Paris Olympic gold; 2023 NYC winner
● 2:04:23 ‘23: Geoffrey Kamworor (KEN) ~ 2017, 2019 NYC winner
● 2:04:45 ‘24: Abdi Nageeye (NED) ~ Tokyo Olympic silver
● 2:05:01 ‘24: Addisu Gobena (ETH) ~ Dubai 2024 winner in debut
● 2:06:49 ‘22: Abel Kipchumba (KEN) ~ Berlin 5th in 2022

The top American by lifetime best is Paris Olympian Conner Mantz at 2:07:47, who was eighth in Paris this year.

Women:
● 2:17:29 ‘22: Sheila Kipkirui (KEN) ~ 2023 Berlin runner-up
● 2:17:56 ‘17: Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) ~ 2017 Chicago winner; three Olympic golds
● 2:18:31 ‘18: Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) ~ 2018 London winner, 2018 NYC second
● 2:19:21 ‘23: Senbere Teferi (ETH) ~ 2023 Berlin 5th; 2015 Worlds 5,000 m silver
● 2:19:24 ‘23: Dera Dida (ETH) ~ 2023 Dubai winner; NYC debut
● 2:19:50 ‘12: Edna Kiplagat (KEN) ~ 2011/2013 World Champ; 2010 NYC winner
● 2:20:02 ‘22: Eunice Chumba (BRN) ~ 2023 Rotterdam winner; 10th at Paris 2024
● 2:21:38 ‘23: Hellen Obiri (KEN) ~ Defending champion; Paris Olympic bronze
● 2:22:38 ‘11: Des Linden (USA) ~ 2018 Boston winner; Rio 2016 seventh
● 2:22:45 ‘24: Sharon Lokedi (KEN) ~ 2022 NYC winner; Paris 2024 fourth

Dibaba, the Olympic 5,000-10,000 m champ in 2008 and 10,000 m winner in 2023, is 39 now and stopped in 2018, but returned to running in 2023. It’s her first marathon since 2018. Linden, the famed winner of the 2018 bad-weather Boston Marathon, now 41, is back for her fifth New York City Marathon.

The prize money for the elite runners goes 10 places at $100,000-60,000-40,000-25,000-15,000-10,000-7,500-5,000-2,500-2,000. That’s $267,000 each for men and women, or $534,000 total.

Time bonuses of $50,000 are available for course records: 2:04:58 by Tola for the men in 2023, and 2:22:31 for the women, set by Margaret Okayo (KEN) in 2003.

The race will be shown nationally on ESPN2 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, with pre-race and continuing coverage on ESPN3 (available through the ESPN app).

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ATHLETICS: World Athletics study shows social media abuse small at Paris 2024, but with two athletes getting 44% of the hate!

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ PARIS 2024 ≡

World Athletics has been monitoring social-media platforms for athlete abuse over the past four years, with a report issued Thursday on abuse at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

This is separate and apart from the social-media abuse monitoring and reporting efforts by the International Olympic Committee, and the study by Signify Group was not made available for download. But the story on the World Athletics site noted:

● 1,917 athletes, coaches and officials covered
● 355,873 posts monitored in 36 languages
● 34,040 posts flags for evaluation (9.6%)
● 809 posts verified as abusive; 128 reported

So, of the 355,873 posts monitored on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (ex-Twitter), only 0.22% were confirmed as abusive. That’s a low number, but still more than desired.

This is an expansion of the program used by World Athletics and Signify for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest (HUN), which covered:

● 1,344 athletes (only)
● 449,209 posts on Instagram and X (only)
● 258 abusive posts (0.05%)

The heightened rate of abusive posts for Paris 2024 as opposed to the 2023 Worlds is partly due to the added coverage on Facebook and TikTok, but also the higher profile of the Olympic Games vs. the World Athletics Championships.

Two disturbing parallels between the 2023 Worlds and 2024 Olympic Games:

● Two athletes (not named) received 44% of all accounted abuse, and at Paris 2024, two athletes (not named) received 82% of all abuse!

● U.S. athletes were especially targeted. In 2023, 46% of all athletes abused were Americans, and for Paris 2024, 49% of all abuse was directed at U.S. team members.

For Paris 2024, athletes from 20 countries were targeted, with racism (18% of all abusive posts) and sexualized comments (30%) both highly prevalent. Generally abusive comments made of 32% of the total. Other categories of abuse included homophobia (5%), doping accusations (3%), violence (2%) and family (2%).

The International Olympic Committee’s own Paris 2024 system reviewed 2.4 million posts and comments in 35 languages, covering the social-media handles of more than 10,400 athletes using 20,000 accounts, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X.

More than 152,000 posts were identified for review and more than 10,200 were flagged (about 0.4%) and reported to the platforms for action. About 8,900 accounts were detected as sending abusive messages, with 353 athletes specifically targeted for abuse.

Observed: Nope, not going to guess who the two most-abused athletes were, either in Budapest in 2023 or Paris in 2024.

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SWIMMING: Douglass smashes women’s world short-course 200 m Breast record again, this time at Singapore World Cup

By
Rich Perelman
-
She did it again! Another world record for American Kate Douglass in the women's 200 m Breaststroke! (Photo: World Aquatics)

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≡ SINGAPORE WORLD CUP ≡

The final leg of the three-stage World Aquatics World Cup is in Singapore, with American Kate Douglass making another big splash on Thursday, crushing her own world mark in the women’s 200 m Breaststroke.

She took the record with a 2:14.16 swim in Incheon (KOR) last week, then destroyed it in Singapore, winning in a sensational 2:12.72, taking the mark down by almost two seconds in two weeks. Splits:

● 50 m: 30.47 vs. 30.68 in Incheon
● 100 m: 1:04.07 vs. 1:04.75 in Incheon
● 150 m: 1:38.33 vs. 1:39.20 in Incheon
● 200 m: 2:12.72 vs. 2:14.56 in Incheon

Douglass was faster on every split in Singapore by 0.21, 0.47, 0.19 and a major difference on the last lap, 34.39 in Singapore vs. 34.96 in Incheon: +0.57!

She won the race by a staggering 6.07 seconds, with Belarus’ Alina Zmushka (competing as a “neutral”) second in 2:18.79!

An important part of the Singapore stop was possible $10,000 bonuses for swimmers who swept individual events at all three World Cup stops – Shanghai, Incheon and Singapore – with possible sweeps in 22 events. On Thursday, all six available “Triple Crowns” were converted:

● Men/200 m Back: Pieter Coetze (RSA)
● Men/100 m Fly: Noe Ponti (SUI)
● Men/100 m Medley: Leon Marchand (FRA)

● Women/50 m Free: Kasia Wasick (POL)
● Women/200 m Breast: Kate Douglass (USA)
● Women/100 m Medley: Kate Douglass (USA)

The U.S. also saw a win on Thursday from Katie Grimes in the women’s 400 m Free at 3:57.61, beating Mary-Sophie Harvey (CAN: 3:58.21) and fellow American Claire Weinstein (4:00.17). The time moves Grimes to no. 4 all-time on the short-course list.

American star Regan Smith won the women’s 50 m Back for the second straight World Cup, timing 25.48, easily ahead of Iona Anderson (AUS: 25.95), and close to Gretchen Walsh’s 25.37 American Record earlier in the month.

Douglass’s win in the 100 m Medley – in 56.57, a lifetime best – came only about 30 minutes after her record swim, but she won by 0.73 over China’s Yiting Yu, with fellow American Beata Nelson in third (57.53).

Marchand not only completed a sweep of the men’s 100 m Medley World Cup races, but moved to no. 2 all-time, winning in 49.92, only the second to go under 50 seconds and a European Record. He beat Ponti by 0.47 (50.39).

Britain’s two-time Olympic relay gold medalist Duncan Scott won the men’s 400 m Free in 3:34.46, a national record, ahead of American Kieran Smith (3:36.97), with Olympic 100 m Free winner Zhanle Pan (CHN) third in 3:38.78, after winning in Incheon in 3:36.43.

Dylan Carter (TTO: 20.82) won the men’s 50 Free; 2023 World Champion Haiyang Qin (CHN: 55.61) took the men’s 100 m Breast. And Brittany Castelluzzo (AUS: 2:03.44) won the women’s 200 m Fly.

The meet continues on Friday and Saturday.

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TELEVISION: Yowsah! NBC confirms profitable Paris 2024 Olympic Games amid $1.9 billion in revenue!

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ COMCAST CORPORATION ≡

“[L]et me talk about Media, where the truly outstanding and universally praised production of the Paris Olympics demonstrated the power of NBC broadcast and Peacock. We brought new relevance and excitement to the Olympics by flawlessly presenting the biggest and most complex Olympic Games in history, dominating television, streaming, news and social media for 17 straight days.

“Daily viewership averaged over 30 million across our platforms, an increase of 80% compared to the prior Summer Olympics in 2021, and Peacock streamed 23.5 billion minutes, up 40% from all prior Summer and Winter Olympics combined. All of this leading to a record high $1.9 billion of incremental Olympics revenue in our Media segment this third quarter.

That’s Mike Cavanagh, the President of Comcast Corporation, on the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday morning. Comcast’s revenue for Q3 in 2024 were up from $30.1 billion to $32.1 billion, almost all attributable to its Paris 2024 Olympic broadcasts, according to Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong:

“Total revenue increased 6.5% to $32.1 billion, benefiting from NBCUniversal’s highly successful airing of the Paris Olympics. Excluding the Olympics, our revenue was relatively flat year-over-year. …

“Now, let’s turn to Media, where revenue increased 37% to $8.2 billion, including the strong results from the Paris Olympics, which generated $1.9 billion in revenue, a record level for any Olympics. Strength in the Olympics was mainly driven by a record $1.4 billion in advertising revenue, with Peacock contributing over $300 million of that. Excluding the Olympics, total advertising revenue was flat year-over-year as the overall market remained stable, while total media revenue increased 5%, driven by an exceptional quarter for Peacock.”

Comcast has major businesses in telecommunications – broadband and wireless – and theme parks, in addition to its broadcasting portfolio. Armstrong noted that Peacock subscriptions grew by three million in the quarter (net), due to the Olympic Games, but also the start of the NFL season.

Asked about the profitability of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic project, Cavanagh added:

“[J]ust on the Olympics, as I said earlier, we couldn’t be more proud of what our teams accomplished across the whole company on the Olympics. So, we were cautiously optimistic going into the Games that they would perform well given all the effort we put in in Paris to their backdrop, but viewership, ad sales exceeded our expectations and the Games were profitable.

“I won’t go into the level of profitability, but profitable Games for us. And so, we walk away from it very excited as we look forward to future Olympics from here, because it was a spell leading up to Paris where prior Olympics, for a variety of reasons, had not performed as well as we had hoped. So, I think there’s an incredible amount of energy and excitement as we look ahead to L.A. and beyond and Milan in between.”

Cavanagh confirmed that Comcast made money on Paris 2024, but not that much. Although the actual rights fee paid to the IOC has not been disclosed, it’s believed to be in the range of $1.675 billion, and there are significant production costs on top of that. Profitable yes, but not by so much.

But after the grave concerns over the very low ratings and engagement for Tokyo, the Paris results were far better and pave the way for a major expansion for Los Angeles in 2028.

That’s good news for NBC, for the International Olympic Committee and for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, which receives substantial revenue from NBC’s rights fee as a pass-through from the IOC.

Comcast holds rights to the Olympic and Winter Games through Brisbane 2032.

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PANORAMA: Tebogo and Alfred win ANOC Awards; fan voting open for USATF awards; World Boxing adds seven members

By
Rich Perelman
-
A second Jesse Owens Award for American shot put superstar Ryan Crouser? (Photo: Diamond League AG).

★ 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 ● Nike’s long-time Executive Vice President for Global Sports Marketing, John Slusher, announced he will retire and become the new chief executive of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties.

The USOPP is the joint-venture marketing arm of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the LA28 Olympic organizing committee, primarily run by LA28. Slusher, 56, has been with Nike for 26 years and will start at the USOPP on 2 December.

USOPP responsibilities focus on domestic sponsorship, licensing, and hospitality and ticket sales.

● Association of National Olympic Committees ● At the opening of the 2024 ANOC General Assembly in Casvcais (POR), International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach (GER) emphasized the important role of the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity program.

Of the 599 Olympic scholarship recipients who competed at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, 75 won medals; moreover, some 91 National Olympic Committees won medals, with Bach noting:

“We have to level the playing field for all your athletes. We can invite them to come to the Games but this is not the ultimate goal; the ultimate goal is to make them competitive, to level the playing field and to close the gap, or at least to narrow the gap between the privileged countries and less privileged countries.”

Looking to the future, he added:

“In the making of this new world order, we in the Olympic Movement have only one role to play, and this is to be the unifying factor and not to take sides with regard to the emerging geopolitical blocks, but to be open to all of them and to offer all of them what sport has to offer to any society. This is our contribution to a peaceful society and the mission of the Olympic Games.”

The ANOC Awards were handed out on Wednesday from Cascais, with the top individual awards going to track & field athletes Letsile Tebogo (BOT: men’s 200 m winner) and Julien Alfred (LCA: women’s 100 m winner).

The top teams were the Norwegian men’s handball squad and the Italian women’s volleyball team. Awards for the best teams within an individual sport were Japan’s artistic gymnastics team and the British women’s track cycling crew.

Career awards were given to table tennis star Long Ma (CHN) and women’s canoeing star Lisa Carrington (NZL).

● Athletics ● Fans can vote for the top U.S. performers of the year through 11 November, to be presented on 7 December 2024 at the USA Track & Field Annual Meeting. The results of the fan vote will directly determine the winner, in five categories:

Jesse Owens Award (men’s Athlete of the Year):
● Rai Benjamin ~ Olympic 400 m hurdles champion
● Ryan Crouser ~ Olympic shot put champion
● Quincy Hall ~ Olympic 400 m champion
● Cole Hocker ~ Olympic 1,500 m champion
● Grant Holloway ~ Olympic 110 m hurdles champion
● Noah Lyles ~ Olympic 100 m champion; 200 m bronze

Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award (women’s Athlete of the Year):
● Valarie Allman ~ Olympic discus champion
● Tara Davis-Woodhall ~ Olympic long jump champion
● Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ~ Olympic 400 m and 4×400 m champion
● Masai Russell ~ Olympic 100 m hurdles champion
● Gabby Thomas ~ Olympic 200 m and 4×100/4×400 m champion

The Breakthrough Performer of the Year nominees include Russell, Anna Cockrell (women’s Olympic 400 m hurdles silver), Annette Echikunwoke (women’s hammer silver), Jasmine Moore (women’s long and triple jump bronzes), and Kenneth Rooks (men’s Steeple silver).

The Inspirational Olympic Performance nominees include Echikunwoke, Grant Fisher (men’s 5,000 m and 10,000 m bronzes), Hall, Hocker, Moore and Rooks.

The Most Dominant Performer nominees are Allman, Davis-Woodhall, Holloway and McLaughlin-Levrone.

● Boxing ● The expanding World Boxing federation, hopeful of recognition to govern Olympic boxing by the International Olympic Committee, announced seven more members, bringing the total to 51.

The new members include Andorra, Belgium, Iraq, Lithuania, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand. World Boxing now has 11 members from Asia and the 42-member Asian Boxing Confederation will meet on 23 November to consider a motion for the ASBC “to be an independent organization until any new international organizations is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.”

● Football ● “Over the 2024-30 period, €1 billion of competition revenues and UEFA investment will be committed to the game through senior and youth national team competitions, club competitions, distributions to clubs and national associations, and development activities.”

The European Football Union (UEFA) announced its “Unstoppable” initiative for women’s football on Wednesday (€1 = $1.09 U.S.), with strategic goals including:

● “To make football the most played team sport for women and girls in every European country, through developing football pathways for players, coaches and referees alongside grassroots opportunities.”

● “To make Europe the home of the world’s top players, with six fully professional leagues and 5,000 fully professional players across the continent.”

The program follows the highly-successful 2022 Women’s Euro, which had 374 million viewers and 574,000 live spectators, both massive increases on the 2017 totals.

The U.S. women completed their three-game schedule of friendlies on Wednesday against Argentina in Louisville, Kentucky, with a 3-0 shutout victory.

U.S. coach Emma Hayes (GBR) changed almost everything, with 10 new starters from the squad that defeated Iceland by 3-1 on Sunday, but the U.S. continued to dominant possession in the first half, on the ball 74% of the time in the first 30 minutes, but no goals.

In the 37th, however, a free kick by midfielder Rose Lavelle sailed toward the Argentina goal, where defender Aldana Cornetti and keeper Solana Pereyra tried to clear it, but Cornetti’s right-footed try sent the ball right toward the middle of the Argentine goal mouth, where it was easily headed in by American defender Naomi Girma for the 1-0 lead. It’s her first international goal.

Argentina managed a shot on U.S. keeper Mandy Haught in the 42nd, but in the 44th, a corner kick from Lavelle found Girma at the far side of the Argentina goal and her header looked like a possible score, but Cornetti’s try at a clearance went in instead for a 2-0 U.S. lead. The U.S. finished with 73% possession and a 9-3 edge on shots.

The second half was more of the same, with defender Alyssa Malonson – in her first appearance with the national team – sending a pass from the left of goal into the middle of the field, where Girma headed in a second goal, into the top of the net, in the 49th, to make it 3-0.

The U.S. finishes with 69% possession and an 18-4 shots advantage. The U.S. is now 7-0 all-time vs. Argentina, and Hayes has started her U.S. coaching career at 12-0-1.

The U.S. women will finish 2024 with matches against England in London on 30 November and the Netherlands in The Hague on 3 December.

In the first semifinal of the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, two-time champion North Korea got an 80th-minute goal from midfielder Un-hyang Ro to defeat the U.S., 1-0.

The game was tight throughout, but the Koreans had close to 60% possession and had a 12-5 edge on total shots, and had the only two actually on goal.

The second semi between two-time defending champion Spain and England is on Thursday and the final will be played in Santo Domingo on 3 November. The U.S. will play for the bronze, also on Sunday and has not won a medal since losing in the 2008 final.

● Wrestling ● The United World Wrestling World Championships for weight classes not held at the Olympic Games are being held in Tirana (ALB), with the Greco-Roman and women’s Freestyle concluded.

Azerbaijan dominated the Greco classes, winning three of the four with Eldaniz Azizli taking the 55 kg win, Nihat Mammadli taking the 63 kg gold and Ulvu Ganizade taking the 72 kg victory.

In the women’s Freestyle, Japan won three of the four classes, with Moe Klyooka (55 kg), Risako Kawai (59 kg) and Ami Ishii (72 kg) getting the victories. The U.S. won two bronzes, from Macey Kilty at 65 kg and Kylie Welker at 72 kg.

The men’s Freestyle competitions conclude on Thursday.

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ATHLETICS: USA Track & Field to take charge of U.S. Paralympic track & field starting in January 2025

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 BIG PICTURE ≡

Since becoming the “United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee” in 2019, one of the goals of the USOPC has been to integrate the Paralympic sport programs in the country with the existing National Governing Bodies for those sports.

The number of combined NGBs has been steadily growing and Wednesday brought a major announcement that USA Track & Field will absorb the American Paralympic track & field program as of 1 January 2025.

Said USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland:

“We’ve committed to working toward this model of integration, because we know it will allow Para athletes to fully access a powerhouse of resources, support and training as they pursue excellence and represent Team USA.”

The announcement did not indicate any added financial support for USATF for taking on the Paralympic program, but in 2023, the USOPC provided $5.23 million in benefits for Paralympic track & field that included:

● $2.576 million for national governing body support
● $1.561 million in direct athlete support
● $1.097 million in indirect support (travel, equipment, sport science)

USATF has been in a revenue rut over the past 10 years, raising the question of how it will add services for Paralympic track & field beyond what is provided now:

● 2014: $35.05 million
● 2015: $30.40 million
● 2016: $38.43 million
● 2017: $33.67 million
● 2018: $36.71 million
● 2019: $37.24 million
● 2020: $23.30 million (Covid impact)
● 2021: $35.52 million
● 2022: $36.54 million (last available statements)

Nevertheless, track & field has been the top sport for the U.S. at the recent Paralympics:

● 38 at Paris 2024 (10-14-14) ~ top U.S. medal sport
● 41 at Tokyo 2020 (10-17-14) ~ top U.S. medal sport
● 42 at Rio 2016 (16-15-11) ~ top U.S. medal sport

In all three Paralympic Games, the U.S. track & field medal total was second to China.

USATF chief executive Max Siegel said, “USATF has a strong commitment to providing inclusive and comprehensive support, and by uniting our Olympic and Paralympic programs, we are setting the standard for what an integrated sports program can achieve. We believe the benefits of being one team will drive success on and off the field of play.”

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LOS ANGELES 2028: City of Pasadena OKs LA28 Games Agreement for historic Rose Bowl Stadium

By
Rich Perelman
-
Pasadena's famed Rose Bowl, slated to be a venue for a third Olympic Games in 2028 (Photo: Wikipedia, via Ted Eytan)

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

The Los Angeles 2028 organizing committee added an important endorsement from the City of Pasadena on Monday as the City Council approved a motion to allow the City Manager to execute a “Games Agreement” for the use of the Rose Bowl Stadium.

The historic Rose Bowl, opened in 1922 and expanded and upgraded ever since, will join the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2028 as venues used for three Olympic Games. For the Rose Bowl:

● 1932: Cycling, with a temporary track
● 1984: Football
● 2028: Football

The City’s staff report on the agreement repeated the concerns voiced loudly by the Santa Monica City Council earlier in October, but Pasadena voiced considerably more confidence in the LA28 organizers:

“The nature of negotiating Olympic agreements at this relatively early stage in the process means that the fiscal impact to the City of Pasadena by hosting the Games is unknown at this time but will be negotiated and developed in supplemental agreements.

“While the City is reasonably confident that it will recover its costs related directly to the provision of Enhanced City Resources, there are no guarantees in the Games Agreement that this will occur. The City’s ability to recover its costs are dependent on several factors, including the ability to secure favorable reimbursement terms in supplemental agreements, the financial success of the Games, and ultimately, the solvency of the OCOG [LA28].

“Despite the financial uncertainties, the City is well-positioned to enter into this Games Agreement. The venue and surrounding infrastructure to support the Games already exist, and the City has a long history of successfully hosting major events at the Rose Bowl, including international and Olympic soccer events, Super Bowls, the Olympic Games and the College Football Playoff.

“As such, in contrast with some other venues in the region, staff does not anticipate the need to fund and to construct capital improvements to support the Games. The primary cost drivers to the City are those to enhance the level of services that will be required to support the Games and related events. These may include costs for enhancements to public safety, sanitation, streets and roadways maintenance, code enforcement, traffic control, and other services that will be defined in supplemental agreements to be negotiated in the coming years.”

A fascinating sidelight to the City Council’s unanimous agreement to move forward was that Pasadena had engaged the well-known law firm of Sheppard Mullin for assistance, the same firm which is advising Santa Monica. This was referenced in the Santa Monica City staff report.

The Pasadena report further noted another item which had been issue of discussion in Santa Monica:

“The OCOG generally prefers to maintain uniform contract terms in its Games Agreements with its venue cities; however, City staff has negotiated several contract modifications that allow for greater City authority or input in decision-making, operational flexibility, and fewer ambiguities in contract language.”

This is apparently the fifth agreement with Southern California Olympic venue cities for LA28, beginning with Los Angeles:

● 2021 (Nov.): City of Los Angeles
● 2024 (May): City of Carson
● 2024 (May): City of Long Beach
● 2024 (Jun.): City of Inglewood
● 2024 (Oct.): City of Pasadena

There will be many others ahead and the Games Agreement with each city will be followed up with others:

● Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement, by 1 October 2026
● Venue Use Agreement, by 31 December 2026
● Venue Service Agreement, by 1 October 2027

The City Report noted that there are expected to be significant economic benefits from hosting the Games, but also for the future of events booking the Rose Bowl:

“It is anticipated that the economic impact from hosting the Games at the Rose Bowl Stadium will be substantial to the City, the Rose Bowl, and the local and regional community. Hosting the Games presents a unique opportunity for the City and the Rose Bowl Stadium to continue its storied history of hosting international soccer matches, which has included the Olympics, the COPA America, the national teams of United States, Brazil, and Mexico, as well as European club teams. Hosting the Games will once again elevate the City’s profile on a world-stage and position the City and the Rose Bowl to host future large-scale events.”

Observed: It will be interesting to see if the Pasadena approval, using the same outside counsel, has any impact on the thinking in Santa Monica. There are considerable differences between the cities; Pasadena (about 132,000 population) has long experience with major events at the Rose Bowl as well as the annual Tournament of Roses Parade.

Santa Monica (population 89,000) has no such experience, and is not promoting any in-city venues for the long-term and a strange economic impact study commissioned by the city could only come up with an eight-night, free 2017 concert series spread over nine weeks for comparison to 30 sessions of Olympic beach volleyball across two weeks in 2028.

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PANORAMA: Russia’s Usmanov, major fencing funder, back to run for fifth term as FIE chief; Los Angeles-area “people mover” defeated as too costly

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC President Thomas Bach (left) and then-FIE President, Russian Alisher Usmanov, who donated an $8.8 million, 1892 Pierre de Coubertin manuscript to the Olympic Museum in 2020. (Photo: IOC/Greg Martin).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● Southern California traffic has been a notorious problem for decades, not only for congestion, but for the cost of creating new infrastructure that might help.

The Los Angeles Times reported that a proposed $2.4 billion, 1.7-mile “people mover” that would bridge between local transit lines and the Inglewood entertainment district that includes SoFi Stadium, the new Intuit Dome arena and the Kia Forum – all proposed 2028 Olympic venues – did not obtain some $493 million in additional funding needed.

The South Bay Cities Council of Government voted down the added funding, 11-6, noting it would take away from more than 100 smaller projects and create construction headaches for as much as three years. Added buses could be an alternative, but hundreds of millions have already been raised for the project, which now does not have the funding to move forward.

While it may be funded in the future, it is now not likely that construction will be completed by 2028. The LA28 Olympic bid was not conditioned on any improvements to the area’s transit infrastructure, vastly expanded and improved since the 1984 Olympic Games.

● Olympic Games 2040 ● GamesBids.com reported on an initiative by Poland’s Minister of Sport and Tourism, Slawomir Nitras, who explained to an audience of athletes and sports leaders in Warsaw:

“We need to build a national strategy for the development of sports. This strategy is called Warsaw 2040, but in reality it is not a strategy for organizing the Games, it is a strategy for changing Polish sports in such a way that the Games in Poland are possible.

“We do not have financial barriers. We have organizational, structural, certain infrastructural and social barriers that we need to overcome to move forward.”

Nitras added:

“So we can ask the question, not whether we can afford the Games, but why we couldn’t afford the Games until now. We have really good budgets, but we spend this money inefficiently and this is the task that lies ahead of us. In terms of money spent on sports from public funds, we are not far behind wealthy European countries.”

● Fencing ● Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who stepped away from his position as President of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) in March 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions imposed on him, is standing for election once again as FIE President.

Usmanov, 71, was nominated by 103 national federations and will stand against Sweden’s Otto Drakenberg, 58, a 1988 fencing Olympian and a senior executive for major companies including Goodyear Dunlop in the Nordic region and Carlsberg Sweden.

Usmanov was first elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, 2016 and 2021 and has given millions to the FIE to support its finances. Greece’s Emmanuel Katsiadakis has served as interim head of the federation while Usmanov recused himself.

● Football ● At the 68th Ballon d’Or awards held in Paris, Spain swept the main awards, with midfielder Rodri (Manchester City) winning the men’s player of the year award and midfielder Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona) repeating as the women’s award winner.

Argentina’s Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa) won for best keeper, and the new Johan Cruyff Trophy for coaches, was given to Carlo Ancelotti (ITA, coach of Real Madrid) and Emma Hayes (GBR, coach of Chelsea and the U.S. women’s national team).

● Rugby ● World Rugby confirmed three candidates to be the federation’s next Chair, at the 14 November Interim Meeting of Council in Dublin, Ireland:

● Abdelatif Benazzi (France: 56) nominated by France and seconded by South Africa;

● Andrea Rinaldo (Italy: 70) nominated by Italy and seconded by Ireland;

● Brett Robinson (Australia: 54) nominated by Australia and seconded by England.

The four prior heads of the federation have come from Europe, with two from Britain (including outgoing Chair Bill Beaumont/GBR), and one each from France and Ireland.

● Short Track ● The second leg of the ISU Short Track World Tour was to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, but:

“The International Skating Union (ISU) was informed by US Speedskating and the Utah Olympic Oval that due to supply-chain related delays, the new padding system compliant with ISU Communication 2626 will not arrive in time for the start of the ISU Short Track World Tour #2 event (November 1-3, 2024) or the ISU Four Continents Short Track Championships (November 8-9, 2024), both events due to take place in Salt Lake City (USA).

“The well-being and safety of athletes remains ISU’s foremost concern. Therefore, further to a careful consultation process with the participating teams, it was concluded that the safest course of action would be to relocate the ISU Short Track World Tour #2 event to Montreal (CAN), where all appropriate safety measures and equipment is already in place.”

Montreal hosted the opening leg this past weekend; a new site and date will have to be found for the Four Continents Championships.

● Table Tennis ● At the WTT Champions tournament in Montpelier (FRA), the hone fans were rewarded with a men’s Singles win for France’s Felix LeBrun, defeating Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN) by 4-1 (11-7, 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4).

The women’s title went to Satsuki Odo in an all-Japan final, taking down Miwa Harimoto by 4-2 (11-4, 9-11, 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 11-4).

● Wrestling ● USA Wrestling President Bruce Baumgartner, a two-time Olympic champion, was elected to the United World Wrestling Bureau, the governing council of the sport, during the UWW Congress, held on 27 October in Tirana (ALB).

Baumgartner, 63, essentially replaces fellow American Stan Dziedzic, a UWW Vice President, who was ineligible to run again due to term limits. Said Baumgartner of his election:

“This role carries a tremendous responsibility, and I am committed to the growth of our sport. I look forward to making a positive impact on wrestling not just in the United States, but globally. Together, we can continue to elevate wrestling to new heights for future generations.”

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MILLER TIME: Diplomatic blasphemy, from Russia’s Putin, with shadows reaching across LA28 and the IOC

By
Rich Perelman
-
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a June 2023 address (Photo: Russian government via Wikipedia)

/It’s a pleasure to present this guest column by one of the most knowledgeable observers of the Olympic Movement, Britain’s David Miller. For more than 50 years, the former English footballer has covered the Olympic Games and the sports within it, including 15 years as the Chief Sports Correspondent of The Times of London, with stints at the Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph. Author of books on athletics, football and the Olympics, he was Official Historian of the IOC from 1997-2018. His opinions are, of course, his own alone./

 

Can the modern Olympic Games, inspiration of Pierre de Coubertin, survive another century?

During October the sun temporarily shone for the world’s ultimate assassin, Czar Vladimir Putin, his specialty being the destruction of Ukrainian maternity hospitals.

A duplicitous proverbial witch’s cauldron was brewing simultaneously between Moscow and Kazan, a prosperous Muslim provincial city 500 miles east of the capital and host of this year’s gathering of BRICS: a financial/political amalgam of predominantly non-democratic states sharply contrasted to the U.N., NATO, and the European Union. A would-be Russian empire haven. Proclaiming to some 36 assembled nations there should be a tranquil approach for “competent resolution” of the “war” with Ukraine was the theme paraded from Moscow.

This was a futile falsification: Russia’s U.N. crime is not a war but an unwarranted invasion, condemned with its perpetrator as a crime justifying trial. Supplication being proposed by new Minister of Sport and a proposed Russian National Olympic Committee President Mikhail Degtyarev – with Putin’s approval – suggesting a portrayal of “international co-operation to promote mutual values” is political blasphemy.

Degtyarev pleads a “readiness for dialogue” alongside Russia’s “return to the Olympic movement in accord with our social contribution, restoring the rights of our athletes.”

While the International Olympic Committee and the global arena has welcomed a beguiling, justified vanity of an outstanding Paris Games, the simultaneous prospect of Donald Trump’s presidential re-election and potential withdrawal of military and moral reinforcement of Ukraine, spells not Olympic fortitude for Los Angeles in 2028 but continued torment with U.S.-Russia relationships inviting the boycott scenario of 1980-84.

Here potentially emerges an echo of my 70 years as Olympic commentator, attending and analysing 28 Games and a majority of 60 annual IOC Sessions, and witnessing five of the last seven IOC presidents experiencing more wobble than wisdom. The Olympic spirit will tremble if adventurous LA28 leader Casey Wasserman and euphoric aides become trampled upon by Trump.

Coincidence of Kazan’s hosting was fortuitous for Putin, nestling alongside an array of potential sympathisers in his ideological field, including China, India, South Africa and Iran, though unity of opinion regarding Ukraine’s destruction was far from conclusive: a reflection of the judgement expressed on BBC TV recently by past U.K. premier John Major: “The world’s future hangs heavily in coming years on the capability of democratic nations to uphold their principles in the face of dictators who now rule some 30 major global nations.”

If Putin felt more comfortable, opinion within BRICS was less than unanimous, not least from Narendra Modi of India. Only Brazil actively deplored Moscow’s invasion; any support for Russia was denounced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, yet BRICS’ increasing membership effectively strengthens Russia’s economic influence across a politically divided globe, the more so with its mounting Muslim and Arabic membership.

Concern about the impending election of a new IOC president in March next year is evident among those with long experience of IOC administrative uncertainty, not least by Michael Payne, a former marketing director whose inexhaustible journeys among crucial TOP sponsors during the Salt Lake voting scandal of 1999 did much to prevent the IOC’s destruction. “Paris brought a massive sigh of relief, wonderful if not perfect” Payne reflects.

“Whoever succeeds Thomas Bach will need serious leadership, politically and financially, and the challenge will not be for the faint-hearted. It needs a heavyweight, as we learned from the inadequate years of Jacques Rogge’s presidency. The presidency is no place for an empty suit, and the mandate has become more complex, especially with the departure of several leading TOP financial contributors and the arrival of less experienced sponsors from the Middle East.

“Yet when did the IOC ever fully comprehend the true dimension of its responsibilities?”

Outgoing President Bach, whose legal competence and administrative perception did much to adjust IOC constitution, reluctantly acknowledging the time for him to retire, concedes: “You now need to be immersed in the digital world, a new way of living, calling for new leaders.” Richard Pound, eminent Canadian lawyer, irresponsibly ignored as ideal president in past elections, acknowledges: “Bach’s successor will inherit a more expert administration than the IOC has previously enjoyed.” Yet the stakes are crucially demanding, as Pound questions: “Is there one or more candidate who can put the magic back into the Games? It’s not just administration, but who can excite the next generation of youth and supporters and sponsors?”

Of the contesting seven candidates, four are leaders of International Federations: Sebastian Coe (athletics), Johan Eliasch (skiing), David Lappartient (cycling) and Morinari Watanabe (gymnastics). All honourable, competent figures but short on diplomatic international negotiating experience beyond the world of finance. Handling diplomatically the likes of Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping in the destination of bi-annual global events is hardly akin to trading in sports equipment and building the odd stadium. Coe, the most prominent of the seven, remains compromised by the introduction of prize money exclusively for his sport of track and field, and this might play into the hands of the sole female contestant Kirsty Coventry, former Olympian swimmer from Zimbabwe.

In the wake of Paris celebrations, the Olympic world attempts to believe the ethical, humanitarian-civilised concept of Coubertin is safe and secure for all time: the evidence is contradictory. The forces of economy and climate have just been exposed by a drastically re-scheduled Commonwealth Games of 2026 in Glasgow, replacing financially-defunct Victoria (Australia), with 10 sports abandoned. Worldwide industry’s future – with climate upheaval and million-strong cross-continent migration – is unpredictable. Can seven honourable souls muster between them the intellectual, diplomatic strategy to sustain Coubertin’s concept within civilisation’s existence?

This consistently challenged by the rivalries of John Major’s lamented dictators. It is a lonely, alarming call. Olympism has been but a blink of minute existence across a billion years. Putin or Xi Jinping are no more than a passing, minuscule squeak within history. As the immortal Bard reflected:

Ye, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a wreck behind.
We are such stuff as dreams are made of,
And our little life is rounded with a sleep.

 

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ATHLETICS: 10 nominated for World Athletics out-of-stadium athletes of the year, with voting open to 3 November!

By
Rich Perelman
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Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich, the new women’s world-record holder at 2:09:56 in Chicago! (Photo: Bank of America Chicago Marathon)

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≡ ATHLETES OF THE YEAR ≡

The third group of World Athletics “Athletes of the Year” nominees was announced on Monday, for the “out of stadium” category, with five men and five women from a total of five countries selected:

Men:
● Yomif Kejelcha (ETH) ~ World Half Marathon world record
● Jacob Kiplimo (UGA) ~ World Cross Country gold medalist
● Benson Kipruto (KEN) ~ Tokyo Marathon winner; Olympic bronze
● Brian Daniel Pintado (ECU) ~ Olympic 20 km walk winner
● Tamirat Tola (ETH) ~ Olympic marathon champion

The timing of the announcement was good for Kejelcha, who set the world record for the Half on Sunday in Valencia, Spain!

Women:
● Sutume Asefa Kebede (ETH) ~ Tokyo Marathon winner
● Ruth Chepngetich (KEN) ~ World record 2:09:56 in Chicago
● Sifan Hassan (NED) ~ Olympic marathon gold medalist
● Tigist Ketema (ETH) ~ Dubai and Berlin marathons winner
● Agnes Jebet Ngetich (KEN) ~ World records in 5 km and 10 km

The 2024 selections include a remarkable three world-record setters and four world marks, with Ngetich getting the 5 km record en route and the 10 km record at Valencia on 14 January, plus the no. 2 time in history at the Valencia Half Marathon on Sunday.

Chepngetich stunned the world with her 2:09:56 world marathon record in winning the Chicago Marathon on 13 October, the first woman ever under 2:10.

Among the men, Kejelcha got the world Half Marathon record on Sunday in Valencia at 57:30, shaving one second off of Kiplimo’s 2021 mark in Lisbon (POR).

Under a new process for 2024:

“The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and social media votes will each count for 25% of the result.

“The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while the social vote will be open on Facebook, Instagram and X. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted later today; a ‘like’ on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on X will count as one vote.”

The field-event nominees were announced on 14 October and the track nominees on 21 October; voting for both of those categories has closed. The winners will be announced in December.

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MILAN CORTINA 2026: Report says Veneto region already reserving €143.5 million to cover organizing committee losses

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ THE BIG PICTURE ≡

“[T]he precautions refer to the concrete risk of having to contribute directly to the losses that may arise from the budget deficit in the organization of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.”

That’s from a Friday report in the Rome daily, Il Fatto Quotidiano – “The Daily Fact” – that explains that the region of Veneto has placed significant set-asides in its 2025-27 budget to take care of its possible share of losses by the Fondazione Milan Cortina 2026, the organizing committee for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy.

Under the agreement between the affected Italian regional governments to organize the Games, the relative share of loss responsibility corresponds to the amount of Olympic and Paralympic activity in each. The story notes that the Veneto region share is 25% of the whole, specifically half of the entire risk – 50% – assigned to the Dolomite area, also including Trentino-Alto Adige (40%), and 10% to the autonomous region of Bolzano. (The Dolomite region concerned with the 2026 Winter Games is partly in Veneto and partly in Trentino-Alto Adige; the Lombardy region has the other 50%.)

In the Veneto budget:

● €115,971,831 for the “Fund for the contribution to cover the possible deficit of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

● €27,500,000 “for the share of competence equal to 50 percent of which in the ‘letter of patronage ‘ (equal to 55 million euros) signed by the Veneto Region and the Lombardy Region.”

That’s €143.472 million combined, with €1 equal to $1.08 U.S. today, against a projected possible total Milan Cortina 2026 deficit of €397,887,324, to be shared among the parties.

That’s not the actual projection, but a calculation of the possible worst-case deficit based on current data, with deficit payments assigned over a period of years.

Is this going to happen? Not necessarily, but the public finance office in Veneto is taking no chances, expecting the worst but still hoping for a break-even or surplus situation by the Milan Cortina organizers. 

But it’s a considerable sum, considering the current Veneto annual budget is €18 billion.

Good news from the construction front on the development of the time-challenged sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo. During last week’s 45th Forum Nordicum in Lenzerheide (SUI), International Luge Federation sports director Matthias Boehmer (GER) explained that the pre-certification inspection date for the new track has been set for 25 March 2025 and that track testing will take place in the fall of 2025. Said Boehmer:

“They’re really stepping on the gas.”

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BRISBANE 2032: LNP takes Queensland Legislative Assembly, so what now for the Olympic Stadium?

By
Rich Perelman
-
The famed Brisbane Cricket Ground (the Gabba), a center of controversy for the 2032 Olympic Games (Photo: Queensland.com)

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

Saturday’s Legislative Assembly elections in the Australian state of Queensland saw a change in government after three terms of Labor Party rule, as the Liberal National Party (LNP) has won more than 48 seats, sufficient for a majority.

That means that Labor, which brought the 2032 Olympic Games to Queensland, is out of power and LNP is in, with leader David Crisafulli set to be the Premier, into 2028.

Why does this matter?

Crisafulli has been harshly critical of the decision by Labor Premier Steven Miles to support a A$1.6 billion refurbishment of the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (QSAC) to host track & field and possibly one or more ceremonies at the 2032 Games. Crisafulli said in September, criticizing Miles’ plan:

“[H]e knows it’s not the right option and he knows that Queenslanders don’t back it. QSAC is not the right venue. I haven’t met a Queenslander who thinks that’s either visionary or value for money, other than Steven.

“I don’t think there’s any scenario where any Queenslander looks at that plan and doesn’t see anything but cringeworthiness from a desperate government.”

However, the alternatives are far more costly:

● A renovation and expansion of the iconic Brisbane Cricket Ground – the Gabba – to 55,000 seats that would swallow a local school and take the venue out of action for a couple of years and cost A$2.7 billion (A$1 = $0.66 U.S.). The long-term beneficiaries would be the local cricket and football clubs, who are looking for a better venue.

● A totally new, 55,000-seat venue for the 2032 Games and the local teams, recommended by a commission asked to look into the issue by Miles, in Victoria Park and costing even more, at an estimated A$3.4 billion.

Crisafulli said in a Sunday news conference he sided with former Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – in office when the 2032 Games was awarded to Brisbane – who was in favor of the Gabba rebuild:

“I might just allow the former premier to be able to put her point of view across and I’ll put mine.

“And that is, within 100 days Queenslanders will see a plan that they are proud of and in doing so, we can restore faith in that process.”

Crisafulli has promised a 100-day review of the Olympic main stadium and Gabba future question once in office, and now has to deliver. He has not been in favor of the Victoria Park solution, preferring the Gabba rebuild.

All of this haggling is at the government level and does not directly involve the Brisbane 2032 organizing committee, headed by former Dow chief executive Andrew Liveris. He said in September:

“We’ve been very, very clear. I’ve been very, very clear that until we see numbers on QSAC there is no position Brisbane 2032 is taking.

“We need to know the cost aspect of what would be an athletic stadium. In terms of the Olympics and the delivery, we’re committed to a budget – $5 billion – and we’ve got to get that budget right.

“You just have to be in the [Paris] Stade de France, watching the sevens rugby with 80,000 people providing revenue and top sponsors providing revenue, to understand the power of having a right-sized stadium.”

“We have 2,865 days to get this right. Paris were still deciding on venues 600 days out. Los Angeles still hasn’t finalised many of their venues for many of their sports.

“So, please don’t panic. We’ve got this.”

But the political issues are not likely to go away, as Miles appears to be ready to continue as the head of Labor, ensuring a future argument over costs and benefits of more than A$1 billion.

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PANORAMA: Cyberbullying charges vs. seven on Paris OpCer director; Kenyan President promises anti-doping support; Milanin wins again

By
Rich Perelman
-
Kenyan President William Ruto (center, in hat) promising more anti-doping support in his meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach (at left) (Photo: Kenyan Olympic Committee on X).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● French prosecutors filed charges on Friday against seven individuals accused of cyber abuse against Paris 2024 ceremonies director Thomas Jolly.

Following the 26 July Olympic opening on the River Seine, Jolly was hit with both praise and criticism for the ceremony’s cultural events, with considerable anger at some of the scenes. Jolly filed a complaint on 31 July with French prosecutors, saying the show was not intended to be controversial, but inclusive.

On Friday, officials reported that seven individuals, aged 22 to 79, were charged with making death threats, aggravated insults, and cyberbullying, with possible fines and prison sentences. They were ordered to appear on 5 March 2025.

● International Olympic Committee ● IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) continued his African tour with a three-day visit to Kenya, where he met with Kenyan President William Ruto.

Bach promised that additional Olympic Solidarity funding will be made available to Kenya not only for elite-athlete support, but also for youth development programming. Bach also asked Ruto for support for the Anti-Doping Agency of Kanya (ADAK), which has had its funding slashed due to a budget crisis.

A post by the IOC on X last Friday included:

“President Ruto confirmed the fight against doping was a ‘high priority’ for him. He informed President Bach that he has given instructions to the government that all the necessary funds and human resources will be made available to the National Anti-Doping Agency.”

Bach has visited Senegal, South Africa, Lesotho, Uganda and Kenya.

● Alpine Skiing ● The 2024-25 FIS World Cup opener was, as usual, in Soelden (AUT) for Giant Slaloms, with plenty of surprises.

In the women’s Giant Slalom on Saturday, American star Mikaela Shiffrin raced to the lead in the first run, timing 1:05.82 to 1:06.04 for New Zealand’s Alice Robinson. On the second run, Austria’s Julia Scheib, the no. 16 starter – out of 30 – roared into the lead at 2:17:13.

No one touched Scheib’s time until Italian Federica Brignone, the two-time Olympic Giant Slalom medalist and the no. 28 starter, put together a quality run that moved her into the lead at 2:16.05. Robinson was next, and although only 10th-fastest on the second run, moved into second at 2:16.22. That left Shiffrin, who had trouble and had the no. 27 second run and fell to fifth at 2:17.36.

For Brignone, 34, it was her second career win at Soelden – also in 2015 – and she became the oldest-ever winner of a women’s World Cup Giant Slalom. It was her 28th World Cup gold, in her 18th season on tour.

Sunday’s men’s racing saw defending World Cup champion Marco Odermatt (SUI) skied out on the first run, eliminating the two-time winner. Instead, Alexander Steen Olsen (NOR) led the first run at 1:04.31.

In the second run, eight-time World Cup overall champion Marcel Hirscher – now skiing for the Netherlands – returned from five years off to take second from the 28th position with a time that held up for third-fastest in the field for the second run. He would finish 23rd overall, but with some confidence for the future.

Former Norwegian skier Lucas Braathen, now skiing for Brazil, was 19th following the first run, but was the fastest on the second run to take the lead (2:10.40 total). That held up until former teammate Atle McGrath took over as the no. 26 skier to start (2:10.16). He was passed by Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen (2:10.15), but Steen Olsen, skiing last, was good enough to take the victory in 2:09.50 for his second career World Cup win and a Norwegian sweep.

● Athletics ● World-record setters Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine were named European Athletes of the Year on Saturday, in a ceremony in Skopje (MKD).

Both won Olympic golds in Paris and Duplantis’ latest world record was in August at 6.26 m (20-6 1/2), while Mahuchikh set her world mark before the Olympic Games, scaling 2.10 m (6-10 3/4) in the women’s high jump in the Diamond League meet in Paris in early July.

● Figure Skating ● Three world champions were on ice for the Skate Canada International in Halifax (CAN) and all three came away with convincing wins.

American Ilia Malinin, who barely won at Skate America in the ISU Grand Prix opener, was a dominant winner this time, winning both the Short Program and the Free Skate.

Malinin had a 106.22 to 96.52 lead after the Short Program over Japan’s Shun Sato, with U.S. teammate Jason Brown in seventh (79.03). In the Free Skate, Malinin executed four quadruple jumps and scored a sensational 195.60 points, far ahead of Junhwan Cha (KOR), who had 171.93.

Malinin totaled 301.82 points to 261.16 for Japan’s Sato, with Cha moving up from fourth to third (260.31). Brown finished eighth overall at 218.75. With wins at Skate America and Skate Canada, Malinin equaled the feat by Russian Alexei Yagudin in 1999, the only other male skater to win the first two events of the season.

World Champion Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) defended her 2023 Skate Canada Int’l victory with a 201.21 to 192.16 win over teammate Rino Matsuike, with Japan completing the medal sweep with Hana Yoshida in third (191.37). Matsuike won the Free Skate and came from 10th to second, while Sakamoto suffered a fall in her Free Skate program.

Americans Alysia Liu and Elyce Lin-Gracey finished sixth and seventh at 187.69 and 182.37. Liu was second after the Short Program, but seventh in the Free Skate.

Canada’s World Pairs Champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps won the Pairs for the second year in a row, scoring 197.33 to sail past Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigirev (UZB: 189.65).

The Canadian stars won the Short Program by more than eight points, but Geynish and Chigirev moved from fourth to first by winning the Free Skate, 126.12 to 124.10 over Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps. Americans Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe finished fifth at 178.31.

Canadian stars Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, three-time Worlds medal winners, were looking for a fifth straight Skate Canada win, and led after the Rhythm Dance by 86.44 to 77.34 over teammates Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha.

They won the Free Dance to cruise to a 214.84 to 199.90 win over Lajoie and Lagha; Americans Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were fifth (189.41) and siblings Oona Brown and Gage Brown finished sixth (179.14). Fellow Americans Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville finished ninth (173.08).

● Football ● U.S. women’s head coach Emma Hayes (GBR) continued trying out more players as the American women faced Iceland again, on Sunday in Nashville, making seven changes to the starting line-up from Thursday’s match.

The U.S. had control of the game from the start, but the American offense was too deliberate and had little success against the packed-in Iceland defense. The Icelanders were quick to counter-attack, but had very little success generating many chances.

But they got the only goal of the first half, in the 31st minute on a corner kick from forward Karolína Lea Vilhjalmsdottir. Her curving ball sailed toward the far corner of the U.S. net and was tipped by the right hand of backtracking U.S. keeper Casey Murphy, caromed off the far post and into the net for the 1-0 lead. It’s the first time an Emma Hayes-coached U.S. team trailed in a game.

For the half, the U.S. had 64% of possession and and five shots to two for Iceland, but no goals.

Hayes made three substitutions to start the second half, and substitute star midfielder Lindsey Horan sent a hard free kick at goal in the 62nd that was saved by Iceland keeper Cecilia Runarsdottir.

But the U.S. offense was unleashed, with subs Alyssa Thompson, Lynn Williams, Sophia Smith and Horan all prowling in the Iceland end. In the 72nd, it was Thompson at the left side of goal, sending a pass into the middle to Smith, whose right-footed touch went wide to the right. It ended up with sub midfielder Emma Sears – in her U.S. debut – left-footing the ball toward Williams in front of goal, who got possession, turned to the right and slammed it into the net to tie the game.

Then in the 76th, Mallory Swanson sent a free kick from the right side of the field to the left of the Iceland goal, where it was volleyed by Williams toward the middle of the field and tapped in by a rushing Horan for a 2-1 lead.

The American pressure continued, with the occasional Iceland counter-attack, and in stoppage time, the U.S. got loose again. Thompson smashed a drive off the left post, with the rebound coming to Smith, who passed to Sears on the right side, who sent a left-footed liner into the Iceland net for the 3-1 final at 90+3.

The U.S. finished with 65% possession and a 17-4 shots advantage, mostly from the final half-hour.

The U.S. now leads the overall series with Iceland, 15-0-2. U.S. coach Emma Hayes (GBR) has started her U.S. coaching career at 11-0-1.

The U.S. women have another match coming up, on 30 October against Argentina in Louisville. They will finish 2024 with matches against England in London on 30 November and the Netherlands in The Hague on 3 December.

The U.S. and North Korea will meet in one semifinal of the FIFA women’s U-17 World Cup on Wednesday in Santiago (DOM), after wins on Saturday.

The American women (3-1) won their third straight game with a third-straight shutout by beating Nigeria, 2-0, on a 43rd-minute penalty by midfielder Kennedy Fuller and then a 74th-minute score by midfielder Kimmi Ascanio. Nigeria out-shot the U.S. by 17-14, but it didn’t help, only two were actually on goal; Evan Osteen got the shut-out for the Americans.

North Korea, which won Group C at 3-0 (11-1 goals-against), also got a third-straight shut-out at 1-0 over Poland, with Rim-jong Choe scoring in the 14th minute. The North Koreans had a 14-5 shots edge.

Two-time defending champion Spain (4-0) sailed past Ecuador, 5-0, in its quarterfinal and will meet England on Thursday. The Lionesses defeated Japan on penalties, 4-1, after a 2-2 tie in regulation time.

● Short Track ● The newly-rebranded ISU World Tour launched in Montreal (CAN), with the same stars leading the way.

The men’s racing saw home favorite William Dandjinou, the 2024 World 1,000 m gold medalist, take two races, winning the 500 m over teammate Steven Dubois, the 2022 Olympic bronze medalist, 40.701 to 40.797, and the 1,500 m by 2:18.607 to 2:18.606 over 2023 World Champion Ji-won Park of South Korea, with Dubois third (2:18.679).

Dutch star Jens van’t Wout, the 2024 1,000 m Worlds runner-up, won that race in 1:23.79, with Latvian Robert Kruzbergs taking second in 1:23.491.

Two-time World 500 m champ Xandra Velzeboer (NED) won the women’s 500 m in a tight finish with American Kristen Santos-Griswold, the 2024 Worlds bronze winner, 42.089 to 42.109. And it was the same in the women’s 1,000 m final, with Velzeboer at 1:31.011 and Santos-Griswold second at 1:31.044. American teammate Corinne Stoddard was third in 1:31.380.

Korea’s Gil-li Kim, the 2024 World Champion at 1,500 m, won that race in 2:24.396, ahead of Belgian Hanne Desmet (2:24.438) and 2024 World champ Santos-Griswold (2:24.612); Stoddard was fifth in 2:24.729.

● Swimming ● A choppy World Aquatics Open Water World Cup in Hong Kong had to be moved up due to a typhoon warning, but the events did get completed.

The men’s race came down to a battle – literally – between Italians Dario Verani and Marcello Guidi, who kept swimming into each other in the closing meters, with Guido allowing Verani to win in 1:57:39.2 to 1:57:39.8. France’s 2024 Worlds runner-up, Marc-Antoine Olivier, finished third in 1:57:48.7, with Dylan Gravley the top American in seventh at 1:57:55.1.

Australia’s Moesha Johnson, the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalist, powered ahead on the final lap to win the women’s race in 2:06:38.1, with Ginevra Taddeucci (ITA: 2:06.40.5) second and Lea Boy (GER: 2:06:57.4) in third. American Katie Grimes, third at the 2023 Worlds, finished fifth in 2:07:15.8.

Australia, with Johnson on lead-off, won the 4×100 m mixed relay in 1:10:53.1, beating Brazil (1:11:02.0) and the youthful U.S. squad, with Grimes (age 18), Claire Weinstein (17), Gravley (22) and Luke Ellis (17), in 1:11:23.9.

The Open Water World Cup has one more stop, from 22-23 November, in Neom (KSA).

● Volleyball ● With U.S. men’s volleyball coach John Speraw named as the new USA Volleyball chief executive as of 1 October, one of the first things he had to do was to name a successor.

Speraw was also the UCLA men’s volleyball head coach and had led the Bruins to consecutive NCAA titles in 2023 and 2024. So, naturally, he turned to Bruin legend and three-time Olympic champion Karch Kiraly!

Kiraly, now 63, has been the highly-successful coach of the U.S. women’s team since September 2012, winners of the Tokyo 2020 gold, Rio 2016 bronze and Paris 2024 silver, with an overall record of 327-81. Said Kiraly:

“Chances to collaborate with some of the best people and players on the planet – and to represent our country while striving for incredibly difficult goals like Olympic gold medals – are precious beyond words.

“For one-quarter of my life, I’ve poured everything I have into the U.S. Women’s Team; first as an assistant, then as head coach. Now, it’s time for new adventures and new challenges.

“Huge thanks to USA Volleyball for all the chances to represent the United States; to the players and staff of the U.S. Women’s Team, too many to name, who did so much of the heavy lifting over the last 16 years; and finally, to the players and staff of the Men’s Team for the chance to work alongside you. Life has a way of humbling us all; the way you responded to adversity, and seized the bronze medal in Paris, should be a model for all to follow.”

He takes over Speraw’s successful squad, which won the Paris bronze medal.

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ATHLETICS: Kejelcha screams 57:30 in Valencia for new Half Marathon world record!

By
Rich Perelman
-
World record Half Marathon for Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha in Valencia! (Photo: Valencia Trinidad Alfonso Zurich)

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≡ VALENCIA HALF ≡

Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha loves the Valencia Half Marathon, having won it in 2019, and finishing second in 2022 and 2023, both times with national records.

He loves it even more now, after setting a world record of 57:30 on Sunday at the “Medio Maraton de Valencia Trinidad Alfonso Zurich.”

Already no. 3 all-time from last year’s 57:41 runner-up finish in Valencia, Kejelcha lined up for his fourth Valencia Half in cool conditions of about 60 F, but with a light rain. Nevertheless, he and six others passed 5 km in a hot 13:38 and then increased the pace to 27:12 at 10 km, at which point only Kenya’s Paris 10,000 m 11th-placer, Daniel Mateiko, and teammate Isaia Kipkoech Lasoi.

Those three were still together at 15 km in 40:56, but Kejelcha was much too strong and pulled away, reaching 20 km with a 39-second lead in 54:32. He charged to the finish in 57:30, getting a world record, one second faster than the 57:31 by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon (POR) in 2021. The splits:

● 13:38 for 5 km
● 27:12 for 10 km (13:34)
● 40:56 for 15 km (13:44)
● 54:32 for 20 km (13:36)
● 57:30 for 21.1 km (2:58)

Mateiko (also known as Daniel Kibet) was second in 58:17, a lifetime best, and Lasoi finished third in 58:21. Mateiko moves up from no. 14 all-time to no. 13.

Said a happy Kejelcha afterwards:

“It was a difficult race. I told myself I had to do 57 minutes, I was looking at it on the clock and I saw that it was possible, despite the rain. I wanted to do it and that’s why I’m very happy.

“At kilometer 15 I was very comfortable and I thought I could get the record. At 18 and 19 I got nervous, there was a change of pace and I didn’t know if I could do it. I was looking at the clock in the car and all the time wondering if I could do it.

“I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the shoes, they were slippery in the rain. It wasn’t easy to turn right. The half marathon record was my dream and I beat it. I’m very happy. I beat my personal record in Valencia and now I’ve beaten the world record.”

Still just 27, Kejelcha has had a wild career, alternating from brilliance to disappointment. He’s a two-time World Indoor gold medalist at 3,000 m from 2016 and 2018 and has silver medals at the 2019 Worlds 10,000 m and the 2023 Worlds Road 5 km.

But he was seventh in the Paris Olympic 10,000 m and sixth in Tokyo in 2021 and fourth at the Worlds 10,000 m in 2015 and 2017. He has the world indoor mile record of 3:47.01 (2019), is no. 2 all-time in the road 5 km (12:50 2023) and no. 3 ever in the road 10 km (26:37 2024).

Now he has the world record in the Half, in his sixth try at the event. No, he’s never run the marathon. Yet.

The women’s race in Valencia was almost a record, too, as Agnes Ngetich (KEN), already the 2024 world leader in the road 5 km and 10 km, and the 10 km world-record holder from her 28:46 at Valencia (!) in January, ran away from the start and won in 1:03:04, the no. 2 performance of all-time.

Only the 2021 Valencia race by Letsenbet Gidey (ETH) of 1:02:52 is faster, and this was Ngetich’s debut at the distance!

She led by 17 seconds by the 5 km mark, 41 seconds at 10 km and tiring, by 14 seconds at 20 km, winning by 17 seconds over Foyten Tesfay (ETH: 1:03:21, now no. 3 all-time) and 29 seconds against Lilian Kasait (KEN: 1:03:32, no. 4 all-time). Splits:

● 14:39 at 5 km
● 29:18 at 10 km (14:39)
● 44:15 at 15 km (14:47)
● 59:42 at 20 km (15:27)
● 1:03:04 for 21.1 km (3:22)

Said the 23-year-old winner:

“I am very happy and proud to have achieved the second fastest time in history in my debut. Valencia will always be in my memory.

“I will always remember my record in the 10K and now this. I hope to run in Valencia again. It was not a mistake to run the first 10K very fast, it was done with the intention of trying to win in Valencia. It is a great achievement for me. I made a good time and I achieved the result despite the rain. One day I will try to get a new record, I hope it will be in Valencia.”

There were some notable additional finishers in this race, with Ethiopian distance stars Ejgayehu Taye (fourth at the Paris 5,000 m) finishing fourth in 1:04:14 in her debut at the distance and now no. 7 all-time,, and Tsigie Gebreselama (2023 World Cross Country silver medalist) finishing fifth in 1:05:18.

By the way, the Valencia marathon is coming up on 1 December.

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SWIMMING: World record for American Regan Smith in short-course 100 Back and U.S. record in 200 Back at Incheon World Cup!

By
Rich Perelman
-
More records for American swim star Regan Smith! (Photo: World Aquatics)

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≡ INCHEON WORLD CUP ≡

The second of three legs in the 2024 World Aquatics World Cup was in Incheon, South Korea, where American star Regan Smith grabbed two short-course (25 m pool) records.

After winning the women’s 50 m Backstroke on Thursday, she dominated the 100 m Back on Friday, easily out-distancing the field and winning in 54.41, smashing the world mark of 54.56 by Olympic champ Kaylee McKeown (AUS) from her national championships earlier this year. She won by more than a second-and-a-half from Canada’s Ingrid Wilm (56.14), with American Beata Nelson third (56.41).

Smith, 22, who won Olympic silvers in the 100 and 200 m Backstrokes in Paris, another silver in the 200 m Butterfly and two relay golds, completed a record set as she also owns the long-course (50 m pool) record in the 100 Back at 57.13 from the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis last June.

But she wasn’t done and came back on Saturday to win the 200 m Back in an American Record of 1:59.60, erasing Missy Franklin’s 2:00.03 mark from 2011. She again won by more than 1.5 seconds.

So, Smith finished with three wins in Incheon, plus a second in the women’s 200 m Butterfly, held on Friday, 10 minutes after she won the 50 m Back.

Olympic teammate Kate Douglass, who claimed the world short-course record in Incheon in Thursday’s 200 m Breaststroke at 2:14.16, also won the 100 m Medley in 56.97 the same night and then returned on Friday to repeat her Shanghai World Cup victory in the women’s 50 m Butterfly in 24.73, a full-half-second ahead of the field.

In the women’s Freestyle events, Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey – the 100 and 200 m Olympic Free bronze winner – won both events, in 51.73 and 1:51.02, repeating her wins in Shanghai. Poland’s Kasia Wasick was second in the 100 m Free in 52.19, but repeated her Shanghai won in the 50 m Free in 23.51.

Canada’s Mary-Sophie Harvey won twice, in the women’s 400 m Free in a lifetime best of 3:56.78, with Haughey second (3:58.06), and in the 400 m Medley – as in Shanghai – in 4:26.23.

China’s Yiting Yu won the 200 m Medley on Saturday in 2:04.74, beating Harvey (2:05.23), after being second to Douglass in the 100 m Medley on Thursday and second to Harvey in the 400 m Medley on Friday.

Teammate Qianting Tang, the Paris 100 m Breaststroke silver winner, repeated her Shanghai wins in the 50 m Breast (29.03) and 100 m Breast (1:02.82). Finland’s Laura Lahtinen repeated as the 100 m Fly winner, in 55.76.

The men’s events did not have the record-setting performances of the women, but many of the Shanghai winners were once again first to the touch.

First and foremost was French star Leon Marchand, the Paris quadruple gold medalist, who repeated his three wins from Shanghai in the 100 m Medley (51.00, in a tie with Swiss star Noe Ponti) on Thursday, then by himself on Friday in the 200 m Medley (1:50.91) and Saturday in the 400 m Medley (3:58.20, national record). Two meets, six races, six wins (one a tie).

Ponti, who got a world record in the men’s 50 m Fly in Shanghai and won the 100 m Fly, triumphed in both again in 21.76 and 48.81. That’s five wins in two meets.

South African star Pieter Coetze repeated his wins in the 100 m and 200 m Backstrokes from Shanghai, but added the 50 m Back, winning in 22.80 over Australia’s Isaac Cooper (23.10). Coetze was a clear winner in the 100 Back (49.93) and 200 Back (1:50.05).

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Olympic 100 m Free gold medalist – and world-record setter – Zhanle Pan (CHN) defeating quality fields in the 400 m and 800 m Freestyles! Pan won the 400 m Free on Thursday in 3:36.43, taking down Britain’s Duncan Scott (3:37.04), the Tokyo 2020 200 m Free silver medalist, with American Kieran Smith third (3:37.15). He set a national record in the 800 m Free on Friday in 7:35.30, crushing the field by almost four seconds.

Scott repeated his Shanghai win in the 200 m Free in 1:40.29, with Smith third in 1:42.36. He was also second to Marchand in the 200 m Medley.

China’s Haiyang Qin, who swept the 50-100-200 m Breast Worlds titles in 2023 but had a tough Olympics in 2024, won the 50 m Breast on Friday in 25.76 and the 200 Breast on Saturday in 2:02.57. He was second in the 100 m Breast on Thursday.

The Freestyle sprints were won by Yuchan Ji (KOR: 20.80) at 50 m, and Australian Jamie Jack in 46.48 at 100 m. American Trenton Julian repeated his Shanghai win in the 200 m Fly in 1:51.00.

The World Cup series will conclude in Singapore from 31 October to 2 November, with a lot of money on the line for the overall series winner – Smith and Douglass are right up there – and for those who can string together event sweeps of all three legs.

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GYMNASTICS: 85th International Gymnastics Federation Congress easily re-elects Watanabe to third term as President

By
Rich Perelman
-
Federation Internationale de Gymnastique President Morinari Watanabe (JPN) (Photo: FIG)

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≡ FIG CONGRESS ≡

It wasn’t close, as Japan’s Morinari Watanabe was elected to a third term as President of the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) at its 85th Congress in Doha, Qatar on Friday.

Watanabe, 65, was running again against Farid Gayibov, 45, the head of European Gymnastics since December 2017 and the Azerbaijan Minister of Youth and Sports since September 2021. He won in 2021 by 81-47, but the vote was even more decisive this time: 102-54.

This clears the way for Watanabe to continue his campaign to be President of the International Olympic Committee – and leave gymnastics, of course – with a presentation to the IOC membership in January and the vote at the IOC Session in Greece in March.

Elections were also held for FIG Vice Presidents and Executive Committee members, with current Vice Presidents Ali Al-Hitmi (QAT) and Suat Celen (TUR) re-elected. But Nellie Kim, the former star Soviet gymnast in 1976 and 1980, and now representing Belarus, was defeated after serving on the FIG Executive Committee since 2005, and as a Vice President since 2017. Mexico’s Naomi Valenzo Aoki was elected as a new Vice President.

Seven Executive Committee members were elected, including the re-election of USA Gymnastics chief executive Li Li Leung and Russian federation chief Vassily Titov. Five new members were elected, including Qiurui Zhou (CHN), Edwin Rodriguez (DOM), Jeffrey Thompson (CAN), Eirini Aindili (GRE) and Srayuth Patanasak (THA).

Said Leung:

“It is an opportunity to be actively involved in decisions that shape the future of gymnastics and ensure the sport remains athlete-centered. It’s a privilege for us to work with our colleagues internationally to continue advancing gymnastics globally.”

Three other Americans were elected or re-elected. Butch Zunich was re-elected to the Men’s Artistic Technical Committee and Ron Froehlich was re-elected as an Auditor. Lori Laznovsky was elected to the Gymnastics for All Committee, the first time the U.S. has had a representative on that committee.

In the FIG Executive Board meeting which took place on Wednesday, two important proposals on the federation’s competition programming were approved:

● The World Cup and World Challenge Cup programs for all disciplines will be reviewed for the 2025-28 quadrennial.

● A “world ranking list” that incorporates the World Championships, World Cups and World Challenge Cups is to be established.

These are potentially important changes in directions for FIG, which – despite being a first-tier federation in terms of receiving Olympic television money – pays no prize money at any of its competitions, even the World Championships.

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FOOTBALL: Olympic champ U.S. women return with goals from Thompson, Shaw and Smith for 3-1 win over Iceland in Austin

By
Rich Perelman
-
Alyssa Thompson (left) celebrates her first international goal with midfielder Sam Coffey in the U.S. women’s match with Iceland (Photo: U.S. Soccer on X).

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≡ U.S. WOMEN 3, ICELAND 1 ≡

After the thrill of the Olympic victory in Paris, the U.S. women’s National Team took the field again on Thursday in Austin, Texas against 13th-ranked Iceland, breaking the game open late for a 3-1 win.

The first half saw the U.S. on offense from the start, but without a quality shot on Iceland keeper Telma Ivarsdottir during the first 20 minutes. In fact, an Iceland corner in the 20th led to a good chance for Iceland forward Sandra Jessen that was saved by U.S. keeper Alyssa Naeher.

The U.S. continued to probe, causing Iceland a lot of trouble on their own half with pressure on the ball, and creating turnovers. But the American defense went to sleep in the 34th as a lead pass from midfield to forward Dilja Zomers split two defenders, but her one-on-one shot against Naeher was weak and easily caught on the fly.

After the U.S. got possession in the 39th, a pass from midfielder Sam Coffey to the left side found forward Alyssa Thompson, 19 years old, with lots of space, moving toward the box. Unchallenged, she headed toward goal, dribbled to her right and let fly with a right-footed smash into the upper right corner of the Iceland goal for a 1-0 lead.

It’s Thompson’s first international goal, in her 10th appearance, for one of the future stars of the U.S. squad. Midfield star Lindsey Horan almost made it 2-0 on the final kick of the half at 45+2, but her free kick from the top of the box barely missed, outside of the right goalpost.

The U.S. had 70% of possession in the half and an 8-7 edge on shots; Iceland piled up nine fouls to one for the U.S. as they tried to manage so much American possession in their half of the field.

Iceland made three substitutions at half and showed a more determined offense to start the second half. The game went back and forth, but in the 56th, substitute defender Guony Arnadotter had the ball on the right side of the pitch in the U.S. half and passed to midfielder Selma Magnusdottir above the box. But she had space, dribbled left and smashed a left-footed strike that flew past Naeher into the far left side of the American goal for the 1-1 tie.

The U.S. also got some fresh legs into the game in the 66th and moved to the offensive again, and substitute striker Jadeyn Shaw found the answer in the 85th. Substitute defender Casey Krueger sent a left-footed lead pass from the right side into the box, with Shaw gaining possession, moving left and then right, finally sending a cue shot under the Iceland keeper that rolled into the net for the 2-1 lead.

Another build-up in the 89th, trying to keep possession, saw Thompson with the ball on the left side and sent a pass to sub striker Sophia Smith, who returned it, then got it back and with space to shoot, send a right-footed rocket all the way across goal and scored into the far right side of the net for the 3-1 final.

The Americans finished with 71% possession and 13 shots to nine, despite 17 fouls from Iceland.

The U.S. now leads the overall series with Iceland, 14-0-2, in the first match between the teams since 2022. U.S. coach Emma Hayes (GBR) has started her U.S. coaching career at 10-0-1.

The U.S. women have another match with Iceland on 27 October in Nashville and then on 30 October against Argentina in Louisville. They will finish 2024 with matches against England in London on 30 November and the Netherlands in The Hague on 3 December.

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PANORAMA: Paris 2024 opening on the Seine cost €100 million? Skating star Malinin at Skate Canada; FIG elections in Doha on Friday

By
Rich Perelman
-
The Team USA boat on the Seine River during the Paris 2024 Olympic opening ceremony (Photo: Wikipedia via U.S. Sgt. 1st Class Kulani Lakanaria).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● The living legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, the LA84 Foundation, announced new grants to 31 youth-service organization, totaling $2.3 million, in seven Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.

Youth will be supported in a total of 31 sports via these grants, with an estimated reach of 85,000 in total.

● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● A report in the French newspaper Le Monde quoted from a report included in the draft budget bill for 2025 that indicated that the opening ceremony on the Seine for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris cost about €100 million (about $108 million U.S.).

This does not include state security costs, but the organizing committee’s expenditure for the lavish ceremony.

The Le Monde story also calculated the public costs of the 2024 Games at €2.8 billion, up from €2.4 billion at the last announcement. However, this also includes bonuses paid to French medal winners and the cost of tickets purchased and given away. A fuller report is not due until the end of the year at the earliest.

● Figure Skating ● American World Champion Ilia Malinin escaped with a win in the men’s Singles competition at Skate America in Texas last week, and will be back in action in Halifax, Nova Scotia this week at the Skate Canada International, the second of six legs on the ISU Grand Prix circuit.

Fellow American Jason Brown, fifth at the 2024 Worlds, and the U.S. runner-up the past two years, is his likely challenger.

Three-time World Champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan leads the women’s field. Two-time American champion Alysa Liu, the 2022 Worlds bronze winner, has returned and will compete, along with senior newcomer Elyce Lin-Gracey, sixth at Skate America.

World Champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps head the Pairs field, with Worlds fifth-placers Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel (GER) to challenge. Americans Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, 12th at the 2024 Worlds, are the only U.S. entry.

Of the 10 entries in Ice Dance, the U.S. and Canada have three each. Worlds runner-ups Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are the highest-ranked entry; the U.S. has siblings Oona Brown and Gage Brown, the 2022 World Junior Champions. France’s Evgenia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud were eighth at the 2024 Worlds.

NBC’s coverage is only on its Peacock streaming service, except for Sunday’s men’s Free Skate, on NBC at noon Eastern time.

● Football ● FIFA announced a working group to study “recommendations in relation to the FIFA Regulations Governing International Matches,” in response to the continuing call for reform of the International Match Calendar.

The 10-member group includes representatives from the FIFPRO player’s union and the World Leagues Association, both of which have sought legal action against the expanded 2025 FIFA Club World Cup next June in the U.S.

As no timetable was established for a report or action, there is no immediate impact expected, and so the challenges to the 2025 Club World Cup can be expected to continue.

At the FIFA women’s U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, North Korea finished with a 3-0 record to win Group C and Japan won Group D at 2-0-1.

The quarterfinals are now set, with Nigeria (3-0) and the U.S. (2-1) meeting on Saturday with the winner to move on against the victor between North Korea (3-0) and Poland (1-0-2) on Sunday.

In the lower bracket, defending champ Spain (3-0) faces Ecuador (2-1) on the 26th and Japan (2-0-1) will play England (2-1) on Sunday.

● Gymnastics ● The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) will hold elections at its 85th Congress in Doha (QAT) on Friday, with a re-run of the 2021 match of Japanese incumbent Morinari Watanabe and challenger Farid Gayibov (AZE), the head of the European Gymnastics Union and the country’s Minister of Youth and Sport.

Watanabe won in 2021 by 81-47, for a second term in office. He is also running for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee next March and must win the FIG election to remain an IOC member.

● Speed Skating ● The German SportSchau site reported that the long-standing legal battle between Claudia Pechstein, the five-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time World Champion and the International Skating Union continues.

At a hearing in the Munich Higher Regional Court, no decision was announced and the judge is pushing both sides – hard – for a settlement. Pechstein was banned for two years for blood doping in 2009, lost appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Tribunal, but demonstrated a blood abnormality that could account for the circumstantial indicators of doping. She sued for €4.4 million in damages (€1 = $1.08 U.S.) in January 2015, and was finally cleared to litigate her claim in 2022.

Pechstein is demanding a formal apology from the ISU, and claiming €8.373 million in damages, but courtroom discussions indicate that about €4 million will suffice. But the ISU is not interested and the judge set a date of 13 February 2025 for the next hearing. But the judge also told the ISU that it is required to come up with a “declaration of honor” by 14 November, after which the damages question can be settled. Whether the ISU will accede is unknown.

Endless.

● Tennis ● Olympic medal winners Maria Sharapova (RUS) and brothers Bob and Mike Bryan (USA) were voted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.

Sharapova retired in 2020, finishing with wins in all four of the tennis Grand Slams between 2004 and 2014, and two French Open titles for five career Slams in all. She won the Olympic silver in 2012, losing to Serena Williams of the U.S. in the final.

The Bryan brothers dominated men’s Doubles and retired in 2020 having won 16 Grand Slams together (Mike won two more in 2018 when Bob was injured). Together, they won the London 2012 men’s Doubles gold.

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SWIMMING: U.S.’s Douglass grabs women’s short-course 200 m Breaststroke world record in Incheon World Cup

By
Rich Perelman
-
American swim star Kate Douglass (Photo: Team USA).

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≡ WORLD AQUATICS WORLD CUP ≡

Olympic and World Champion Kate Douglass grabbed four wins and two American Records at the opening 2024 World Aquatics World Cup in Shanghai, China last weekend. That, apparently, was just a warm-up, as she scored a brilliant world record of 2:14.16 to win the women’s 200 m Breaststroke and shatter a 15-year-old mark from the “super-suit” era on the first day of the second leg, at Incheon (KOR).

American Rebecca Soni – the two-time Olympic 200 m Breaststroke winner in 2008 and 2012 – had held the women’s short-course 200 Breast record since 2009, swimming 2:14.57 at the “Duel in the Pool” against Australia in December.

Coming in the time when non-textile suits were legal, the mark has stood unchallenged; Douglass swam 2:15.96 in Shanghai to win the event there. But in Incheon, Douglass – the Paris Olympic champion in this event – flew off the blocks and destroyed the old mark. Splits:

● 50 m: Douglass 30.68, Soni 31.05
● 100 m: Douglass 1:04.75, Soni 1:05.18
● 150 m: Douglass 1:39.20, Soni 1:40.00
● 200 m: Douglass 2:14.16, Soni 2:14.57

Australian Tara Kinder was a distant second in 2:19.21. Said Douglass:

“It was a surprise to come away with a new world record time; I never thought I would be capable of getting that. It’s a very exciting feeling, and I look forward to seeing how I improve in the 200 m breaststroke this year.”

She wasn’t done for the day, coming back for the final event of the day in the women’s 100 m Medley, winning – as she did in Shanghai – and bettering her time to 56.97, remaining no. 3 on the all-time list.

She was one of two double winners on the first day at Incheon, with Swiss Noe Ponti – who set the men’s 50 m Fly world record in China – taking the men’s 100 m Butterfly in 48.81, even after losing his goggles on the entry dive, and then coming on to tie Olympic hero Leon Marchand (FRA) at the touch in the 100 m Medley, in 51.00.

American star Regan Smith won the women’s 50 m Backstroke in 25.71, ahead of Canada’s Ingrid Wilm (26.09) and fellow American Beata Nelson (26.17), then returned about 10 minutes later for the 200 m Fly. She just missed the double, with Australia’s Bella Grant holding on for the 2:03.13 to 2:03.21 victory.

China’s Olympic 100 m Free champion Zhanle Pan surprised the field with a win in the men’s 400 m Free in 3:36.43, with Shanghai winner (and Tokyo Olympic silver winner) Duncan Scott (GBR) in 3:37.04, and American Kieran Smith third in 3:37.15.

Two other Shanghai winners repeated in Incheon, with Peter Coetze (RSA) taking the men’s 200 m Back in 1:50.05, and Poland’s Kasia Wasick winning the women’s 50 m Free in 23.51.

Douglass also won the 50 m Fly in Shanghai in a U.S. record of 24.54 and the 200 m Medley – in which she is a two-time long-course World Champion – and she’s already entered in the 50 Fly, so she’s not done in Incheon, with the meet continuing through Saturday.

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LANE ONE: New Hollywood Bowl report shows why public transportation for the LA28 Games does not have to be a disaster

By
Rich Perelman
-
From the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 23 October agenda package: its Mobility Hubs Map from 2023.

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≡ LOS ANGELES 2028 ≡

Transportation issues have plagued Los Angeles for decades, and were predicted to destroy the 1984 Olympic Games. Instead, traffic flowed relatively smoothly, and helped Angelenos to remember the Games as a two-week civic dreamland.

Transportation issues are again flagged to strangle the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to Los Angeles. A new report shows there is no reason for that to happen.

On 4 October, the County of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department issued a triumphant statement that breathlessly announced:

“The Los Angeles Philharmonic, the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, and the County of Los Angeles Fifth Supervisorial District have jointly announced that bus ridership to and from the Hollywood Bowl for LA Phil events, through the Hollywood Bowl Shuttle or Park & Ride options, has increased to an average of 36% of Bowl visitors, up from an average of 29% in 2023.

“This represents the highest ever bus ridership season to date, making the Bowl more accessible than ever while also mitigating traffic to the Bowl and adjacent neighborhoods. Thanks to the increase in bus ridership, auto traffic in the Hollywood Hills and surrounding neighborhoods has decreased by approximately 115,400 vehicles through this point in the season.”

This is not really much of a surprise, for three reasons:

● The Hollywood Bowl is one of the most cherished venues in the Los Angeles area and is highly desired as an entertainment venue, especially during the summer. People really want to go there.

● The Bowl’s parking capacity is next to nothing, its location is between very busy Hollywood street traffic and on-ramps to the usually-congested 101 Freeway, and Angelenos are completely aware of the hassle in arriving and departing.

● Therefore, the idea of using inexpensive park-and-ride systems to deliver concert-goers within walking distance of the Bowl is more and more attractive to potential users.

It’s that simple. Public transit (and amenities) activist Alissa Walker, writing on her Torched.la Web site, explained:

“One year ago, an excellent column by Los Angeles Times sports reporter Bill Shaikin urged Dodger Stadium to think more like the Hollywood Bowl, where about a quarter of 2023 season ticketholders arrived to the 17,500-seat venue without cars. The secret? The Bowl famously buses ticketholders from 14 park-and-ride locations all over the region, plus four offsite shuttle lots located at the LA Zoo, Burbank Metrolink station, and two nearby B line stations. Last season, an incredible 29 percent of the audience got to the Bowl using these modes. (For comparison, only about 5 percent of Dodger Stadium’s 56,000 fans get there on the Dodger Stadium Express.)

“It’s all very impressive. But since Shaikin’s story, the Bowl has stepped up its game. This season, to further discourage driving, the Bowl reconfigured its Uber and Lyft lot and eliminated hundreds of parking spaces to create more room for transit options. A new bundled Metro ticket was offered along with a free transfer to a B line shuttle.”

The 2028 Olympic transportation scenario can be simplified, too, if – and only if – the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority applies the lessons it listed in a nine-page review (full agenda packet PDF here) of the Paris 2024 programs used for transportation by the Ile-de-France Mobilities authority.

What came out from the review was, first and foremost, this:

● Ile-de-France Mobilities: “Paris set up a unified transport command center for the Games, and work was done ahead of time to familiarize the different partner agencies in Paris so that they could work together more seamlessly.”

● Metro takeaway: “Members of the [Games Mobility Executives working group] and other regional transit agencies should plan to engage in similar levels of collaboration leading up to the 2028 Games.”

A dour Los Angeles Times story that appeared on Wednesday predicted doom if billions of dollars are not rushed to expand the regional transit system in advance of 2028. A briefing by Paris transit officials for Metro, the California Highway Patrol and others was held last week, with “Paris officials and others were trying to impress upon employees the level of urgency planning must take.”

The City of Paris, the Ile-de-France region and the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee did work closely together, especially at the staff level. But there was hardly much harmony among the leadership as Paris’ Socialist Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, constantly insulted Ile-de-France President Valerie Pecresse, a member of rival party The Republicans, over predicted transit woes. Amid many things that turned out well, Hidalgo got that one wrong.

So it wasn’t all sunshine.

And there is worry about the L.A. Metro Mobility Concept Plan for 2028, with a presentation slide that showed only 3% of the $2.5 billion in Games-related funding had been secured and another 10% pending. Legacy projects of $800 million are faring better, with 12% of funding secured and another 5% pending. A report on a motion to establish a lobbying effort for more federal and state funding noted:

“The preliminary total cost for both legacy and essential Games-specific projects, including Games Route Network (GRN), and Games Enhanced Transit System (GETS), is approximately $3.1 billion. Funding to continue advancing the next phases of these projects needs to be secured no later than the end of Q4 of calendar year 2024 to be able to deliver the projects in time for the 2028 Games.”

The report asked for Metro to provide $9.67 million in funding for the 2025 fiscal year to advance Metro-led, Games-related projects. Another slide showed that grant applications for a total of $602 million had been refused.

So there is room to worry. But the reality of the Hollywood Bowl situation is a reminder that transit for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games – a total of 30 days – can be handled if the transit authorities, cities involved and the organizing committee remember to tell (and tell and tell) attendees:

● This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Make it a great one.

● Los Angeles has lots of traffic. But it doesn’t have to inconvenience YOU.

● Here are easy ways to get to your events, using shared transportation.

Although it had a lot of other problems, the Atlanta 1996 Olympic organizers did an excellent job of tying ticket purchases with included ridership on public or shared transportation from specific sites for specific venues. Metro already has a Mobility Hubs concept for 2028, even though many of the competition venues have not yet been confirmed by the LA28 organizers and no included shared-transit plan for ticket holders has been announced yet.

It can work. It did in 1984, and the Hollywood Bowl experience in 2024 shows it can again.

Whether it will or not is up to the teams at Metro, LA28 and elsewhere which have this major responsibility. But the doom-and-gloomers – even Paris Mayor Hidalgo – were wrong before and can be wrong again.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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ALPINE SKIING: New FIS World Cup season opens in Austria, with Shiffrin ready to make more history

By
Rich Perelman
-
American skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin (Photo: Reese Brown/U.S. Ski & Snowboard)

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≡ SPOTLIGHT ≡

The 2024-25 alpine skiing season will open on Saturday with the annual Giant Slalom down the Rettenbach Glacier near Soelden, Austria, and American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin ready to go, with history in front of her once again.

She was on her way to a sixth seasonal World Cup title until a bad knee injury during a crash on the downhill course at Cortina d’Ampezzo last January sidelined her for six weeks. She won the season’s final Slalom race on 16 March and still finished third overall for the season.

Now rested and recovered, she is ready to re-write the record books once again in her 14th season on the World Cup tour:

● Shiffrin is the all-time leader in World Cup wins – men or women – with 97, and can reach 100 by the end of the year (in fact, by the end of November).

● Shiffrin has 152 career World Cup podiums – 97 wins, 27 silvers and 28 bronzes – and is within three of tying Swede Ingemar Stenmark (1973-89) for the most ever at 155.

● Shiffrin has won five seasonal women’s World Cup titles, one shy of the women’s record of six by Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Proell, from 1969-1980.

● Shiffrin has won the most Slaloms ever – men or women – (60) and the most Giant Slaloms ever among women (22). Every win this season will extend those records.

She’s still only 29, but in a bid to try and better maintain her health, she has decided to skip Downhills this season and concentrate on her Slalom and Giant Slalom specialties, plus the Super-G speed race.

“My prep has been great this season, and this is just such a stark contrast to last year, where we fought and struggled with the weather all through the entire summer and the fall,” she said on Wednesday in a season-opening news conference.

“This year, I’ve had a pretty significant amount of really solid training in slalom, GS, and super-G, and that has been great.”

On her decision to skip the Downhill, she explained:

“I’m actually pretty excited because you’ve all heard me talk about is juggling training for every discipline, and it’s always a struggle.

“It’s always a challenge to find the timing to really train Slalom and GS, which have always been my priorities, but then Super-G and Downhill I love, they feed my soul.

“We kind of had to reevaluate after Cortina and say, ‘What are we doing here that is potentially setting me up for a little bit of failure?’ And one of those things is really trying to juggle every event.

“At some point we ended up sacrificing quality. I feel like these last couple of years my Super-G hasn’t been where I wanted it to be.

“This prep block, I cut out downhill entirely, focus on the Super-G training, try to get the combination of the Downhill speed skills and the technical GS skills and put that back together, and we’ll see where that takes us this season.”

She’s aiming to be at a high level right from the season start and then accelerate into the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach (AUT) next February.

Shiffren has repeatedly said she is not motivated by records, but she appreciates the attention it brings to skiing:

“I feel energized when I feel like other people bring energy to the sport. Bringing energy to the sport is never a bad thing, whether you want to talk about records or statistics or really anything.

“I’m feeling right now energized when people bring up 100 [wins] and I think it’s incredible that people are still following along this journey and are excited about it. I would say that’s an incredible positive.”

She won’t be the only history-maker in Soelden, as the men’s World Cup will see the return of Marcel Hirscher, the all-time leader in seasonal World Cup titles with eight between 2007-19. Retired for five years, he will now ski for the Netherlands, the homeland of his mother, Sylvia.

Hirscher, 35, ranks second behind Stenmark in men’s World Cup wins with 67, 31 in Giant Slalom and 32 in Slalom. He and everyone else on the men’s side will be chasing after Swiss star Marco Odermatt, who has won the last three seasonal World Cups, and owns Soelden wins in 2022 and 2023.

Then there is the question of American speed star Lindsey Vonn, now 40, who has hinted at a racing comeback after retiring due to injuries in the 2018-19 season. She’s won 82 World Cup races in all from 2001-19, 43 in Downhills and 28 in Super-Gs, and has been rumored to race in Soelden.

But the entries for Saturday’s women’s races won’t be confirmed until Friday. But it looks like this will be a busy pre-Olympic season on the slopes, including for Shiffrin as she expands her entry in the all-time skiing record book.

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PANORAMA: USA Basketball moves games to NBCU for 11 years; Olympic winner Khelif turning pro; shooting was worried about LA28 inclusion

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic Biathlon champ Martin Fourcade of France (Photo: Peter Porai-Koshits via Wikipedia)

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The five-time Olympic champion biathlete, Martin Fourcade, made it clear that he is interested in being the chief executive of the in-formation organizing committee for the 2030 Winter Games.

He told the French all-sports newspaper L’Equipe he would focus on the domestic sponsorship program and refining the organizing effort for maximum efficiency.

Fourcade, 36, and retired since 2020, is a member of the International Olympic Committee from his 2022 election to the IOC Athletes’ Commission. If selected – and it’s a major political issue with the national government and the two French regions which will host the Games involved – he would follow in the path of Olympic canoe slalom star Tony Estanguet, 46, who successfully led the Paris 2024 organizing effort.

● Alpine Skiing ● Norwegian star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, a two-time Olympic medalist in 2022, will not compete in the 2024-25 season:

“I now need another surgery to fully fix the shoulder. This unfortunately means I won’t be competing this winter.”

Kilde, 32, suffered a bad crash in January during a Downhill in Wengen (SUI), with injuries to his shoulder and right leg, and has been recovering since. He explained in a statement, “two of the [shoulder] muscles are still not attached at this moment, which means I need to do another surgery and reconstruct everything again.” He is expected to be back for the 2025-26 season.

● Basketball ● USA Basketball announced an 11-year agreement with NBCUniversal and its owned platforms – USA Network and Peacock – for the federation’s own events, including the pre-World Cup and pre-Olympic “Showcase” exhibition games.

This is a move for USA Basketball from Fox Sports, which televised the American exhibitions ahead of the 2023 FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games.

Observed: This is an important development. NBCU owns Olympic television rights in the U.S. through 2032, but the purchase of USA Basketball rights to 2036 demonstrates NBCU’s continuing devotion in the Olympic space.

Or does it? The deal with USA Basketball covers the same period – 2025-36 – as the NBCU agreement with the National Basketball Association, announced in August.

● Boxing ● Imane Khelif, the controversial Algerian 2024 Olympic women’s gold medalist at 66 kg, said recently she will continue her career:

“I will soon enter the world of professional boxing. I have many offers. Currently, I have not made up my mind about where I will enter professional boxing.

“But very soon I will take this step.”

Khelif, who has always competed in the women’s division, was accused of failing a gender test by the Russian-led International Boxing Association, which disqualified her at the 2023 World Championships after she defeated Russian Azalia Amineva in the quarterfinals of the welterweight-class tournament.

Earlier this year, British boxing promoter Eddie Hearn told iFL TV he might have interest in signing Khelif, but that questions have to be answered:

“I look at it like this: if there is an unfair physical advantage that this individual has, that is something that has to be looked at correctly – not by a rival organisation, not by someone that might have an agenda.”

● Football ● The first two quarterfinals are set at the FIFA women’s U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, with Group A winner Nigeria to meet the U.S. on 26 October and Group B winner Spain to play Ecuador, on 27 October.

On Tuesday, Nigeria completed a 3-0 finish in Group A with a 1-0 win over the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador defeated New Zealand, 4-0, to finish second at 2-1.

Spain won Group B at 3-0 with a 2-1 victory over Colombia, and the U.S. thrashed South Korea, 5-0, to finish at 2-1.

Group play continues today, with the quarterfinals to be set for Groups C and D.

● Shooting ● The head of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) said in his season-end message that the drama of the sport needs to be better communicated on television, and soon.

Luciano Rossi (ITA) wrote on the ISSF Web site:

“When I was elected at the end of 2022, the relationship was very strained and shooting sport was very close to being removed from the LA 2028 Olympic Games.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that if this had happened then it would have meant the end of our sport as the Olympics is the dream for all our athletes and brings crucial funding to the sport at national level, thanks to Olympic development programmes.

“So, I am very proud that thanks to the lobbying of our leadership team, we have rebuilt our relationship with the IOC and have ensured that we will be part of the 2028 Olympics.”

Now the challenge really begins:

“[W]e are discussing directly, both with the IOC and with LA 2028, ways to improve the presentation of our sport, to make sure that the TV production and media promotion of our athletes is top class and adds value to the Games.

“If we want our sport to grow, then we need to be open minded about ways to improve what we are showing so that the excitement and suspense you feel in the finals hall can be transmitted to those watching on TV and social media.

“We are developing ways to improve our story telling of the athlete experience, and our new marketing and communication units are working hard on this.”

Rossi also remarked on the placement of the Paris Olympic competition in Chateauroux, home of the French national shooting sport center, 168 miles south of Paris, “we want to be at the heart of the Olympic experience in LA – in the city and not hundreds of miles away!”

The shooting site for 2028 has not been named, but is expected to be outside of the City of Los Angeles proper.

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PANORAMA: Grand Slam Track up to 30 of 48 “Racers”; hotel “disaster” for swimming World Cup in Korea? Table tennis “Grand Smash” coming to Vegas

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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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Commonwealth Games 2026: Glasgow ● International Shooting Sport Federation chief Luciano Rossi (ITA) said in a statement Tuesday:

“As President of ISSF, I am very disappointed that shooting sports will not be part of the sport programme for 2026.

“But I am also not surprised because of the unique challenges facing the CGF to organise the Commonwealth Games in 2026 following the withdrawal of the original host city. …

“I have been reassured by the CGF leadership that any decision not to include shooting sport in the 2026 sports programme will not set a precedent for future Games.

“ISSF, along with other international federations, has been invited to discuss ways the CGF can create a sustainable future for the Commonwealth Games.”

● Athletics ● Grand Slam Track announced 10 more “Racer” signings for its four-meet series in 2025:

Men:
● Devon Allen (USA) ~ Two-time Olympic 110 m hurdles finalist
● Marco Arop (CAN) ~ Olympic 800 m silver and 2023 World Champion
● Luis Grijalva (GUA) ~ Fourth in the 2022, 2023 Worlds 5,000 m
● Jereem Richards (TTO) ~ 2022 World Indoor 400 m champion
● Daniel Roberts (USA) ~ Olympic 110 m hurdles silver medalist

Women:
● Rushell Clayton (JAM) ~ Two-time Worlds 400 m hurdles bronze medalist
● Jess Hull (AUS) ~ Olympic 1,500 m silver medalist
● Jasmine Jones (USA) ~ Fourth in the 2024 Olympic 400 m hurdles
● Shamier Little (USA) ~ Two-time Worlds 400 m hurdles silver medalist
● Marileidy Paulino (DOM) ~ Olympic 400 m champion

This brings the “Racer” total to 30 of a planned 48-athlete core for the 2025 series, with meet dates and locations still to be announced. Another 48 “Challenger” athletes will be selected for each meet.

● Boxing ● World Boxing will host its first-ever World Championships event, with 180 boxers from 30 member federations in Pueblo, Colorado (USA) for the World U-19 Boxing Championships.

The tournament will run from 26 October (Saturday) through 2 November, for boxers aged 17 and 18, with 10 weight categories for men and women. It’s another step for the new federation to show its ability to organize a championship-level event.

● Football ● At the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, Group B play concluded with matches in Santiago and Santo Domingo, with Spain and the U.S. both winning and advancing.

Spain won the group at 3-0, defeating Colombia, 2-1, on an Iris Santiago goal in the 90th minute in Santo Domingo.

The U.S. crushed South Korea, 5-0, and finished second in the group at 2-1. Midfielder Mel Barcenas scored in the first minute for a 1-0 lead, followed by fellow midfielder Kennedy Fuller in the 10th for a 2-0 halftime edge. Barcenas scored her second in the 47th to put the game out of reach, and forwards Mary Long (68th) and Maddie Padelski (87th) added the final goals.

The American women had an 18-3 edge on shots, and Evan Osteen got the shutout in goal.

Pool play continues on Wednesday and the quarterfinals will begin on the 26th.

● Swimming ● Swimswam.com reported comments from swimmers in Incheon (KOR) for this week’s second leg of the World Aquatics World Cup that the hotel chosen “is ‘filthy,’ lacking hot water, cleaning services, and has mold.”

The report said 11 swimmers have been moved to other accommodations, but that 275 athletes are still in the original facility.

● Table Tennis ● World Table Tennis announced that its top-tier invitational event, the Grand Smash, will be headed to the United States in 2025, to Las Vegas from 3-13 July, at the Orleans Arena.

The Grand Smash program is the highest-level event out of the World Championships and features the world’s top players in men’s and women’s Singles, men’s and women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Said World Table Tennis chief executive, Steve Dainton (AUS):

“Bringing the United States Smash to Las Vegas is a game-changer for our sport, now ensuring a top tier table tennis event enters the most professional sports market in the world.

“The US Smash will bring table tennis into the spotlight as one of the most electrifying, fast-paced sports, guaranteed to captivate and energise American audiences. We’re excited to bring our most prestigious event to Las Vegas and continue our journey to elevate the sport’s global growth.”

● Triathlon ● The ever-inquisitive German investigative journalist Jens Weinreich reported in his Sport & Politics newsletter that a preferred list of candidates was circulated to a select group of delegates at Monday’s elections at the World Triathlon Congress in Spain.

The two-page list of candidates, listed by office, includes 71 names of the total of 160 candidates, nearly all of whom were elected; Weinreich notes only two that were not. According to his report, “The list was distributed in advance by email and WhatsApp, and the lists were also distributed in paper form at the meetings of continental confederations that preceded the congress on Monday.”

Weinreich asked new World Triathlon President Antonio Arimany (ESP) if he knew about the list and the distribution; Arimany replied that he did not know anything about them.

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INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS: ASOIF Executive Director Ryan tells federations they must develop their markets, not rely on IOC television money

By
Rich Perelman
-
From the “30 Years of IF Sport Development” presentation by ASOIF Executive Director Andrew Ryan at the 2024 IF Forum.

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≡ IF FORUM ≡

“Aspiration to be part of the Olympic Games is a very worthwhile IF ambition, but should not, in my view, mainly, and certainly not only, be based on direct financial gain. Through the IFs and the NOCs the IOC has provided billions of dollars of direct funding for sports development worldwide in the last 30 years, but times are changing.

“In future, it may not be that this direct funding will be able to just grow and grow. Uncertainty about the value of future broadcast rights and sponsorship values, combined with significantly continuous rising costs of staging major events for all of us, not just the IOC, but especially the federations, provide questions that have to be answered.”

That’s Andrew Ryan (GBR), the retiring Executive Director of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), speaking at the IF Forum in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a perspective on the last 30 years of development among the federations.

Ryan illustrated his talk with a fascinating set of slides, which demonstrated the enormous growth of sport over the last 50 years:

● Competitions held by International Federations totaled just 90 in 1970, but were up to 434 by 1990, 1,200 by 2000 and 2,391 by 2013 and are continuing to grow.

● Funding from the International Olympic Committee’s television rights share was $37.5 million for Barcelona 1992, and $161 million by Sydney 2000. But it exploded up to $296 million for Beijing 2008, then $520 million for London 2012 and $540 million for 2016 and 2020.

● International Federation dependance on IOC funding for operations has slowly decreased from an average of 41% for Athens 2004 to 33% for Rio 2016.

● For the 2013-16 quadrennial, IOC funding made up less than 50% of revenues for 19 of 27 ASOIF federations, with four at 65% or more and two at more than 80%.

So, most federations are getting more able to manage their own affairs and raise their own money to run their own programs. But Ryan pointed out that “defensive” costs are on the rise – things that federations have to guard against – and will continue to rise:

● Doping
● Fan betting and corruption
● Event and cyber security
● Sustainability and environmental issues
● Medical issues at events for athletes and fans

Moreover, federations are being looked to for support up and down each sport’s ecosystem:

● Athlete scholarships and prize money
● Athlete coaching and training support
● Youth and junior competitions
● Coaches and officials training and testing
● Athlete safeguarding and mental health
● Good governance and transparency

Ryan explained that he sees International Federations maintaining five primary roles:

● “Maintain exclusive control of rules and regulations.
● “Own World Championships as primary rights holder.
● “Secure a name reflecting position in sport hierarchy.
● “Control the global competition calendar.
● “Secure the right to name World Champions and establish the world ranking.”

And into the future. Ryan emphasized that a modern IF needs three primary characteristics: to be entrepreneurial and professional, to be commercially driven and to be proactive and creative.

Using these three elements, federations can take on multiple partnerships with event promoters, businesses and governments to make their events successful, balance their risks with up-side rewards for all partners and develop their own routes to the marketplace through assembling audiences via digital offerings.

Observed: Ryan came from the Badminton World Federation and became the ASOIF Executive Director in 2006. He has seen a lot change across 17 years with ASOIF and is well positioned to note that IOC television money as the “golden goose” for the Olympic federations is not assured forever.

He notes, as one element of the characteristics of a modern International Federation is to be “commercially driven” and to find partners in event promoters, sponsors and governments. That is exactly how the Olympic Movement has prospered since the pivotal 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

And it is now the most successful of all IFs – FIFA – has prospered like never before. Like the Olympic Games, it now has fans, spectacle and reach, combined as a powerful magnet to attract both companies and countries to its side. Those are the models that are winning today.

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COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Glasgow officially confirmed for 2026, with 10 sports only, and no athlete village

By
Rich Perelman
-
Commonwealth Games and Glasgow 2026 officials celebrate the confirmation of the event in Scotland (Photo: Commonwealth Games Federation).

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≡ GLASGOW 2026 ≡

“The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) is pleased to officially confirm Glasgow as the host city of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.”

That’s the understatement of the year for the CGF, as it now has a host for the XXIII Commonwealth Games, after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out in 2023, and paid A$380 million (about $254 million U.S. today) in damages.

But the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will look significantly different from recent versions of the event: smaller and much less costly. Per Tuesday’s announcement:

● Glasgow 2026 will have only 10 sports across just four venues, compared to 20 sports at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (ENG) and 17 at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

● About 3,000 athletes are expected, compared to 5,054 in 2022 and 4,947 in 2014. Teams will be housed in hotels; no athlete village will be created.

● “Para sport will once again be fully integrated as a key priority and point of difference for the Games, with six Para sports included on the sport programme.”

The 10 sports for 2026:

● Athletics and Para Athletics (required)
● Swimming and Para Swimming (required)
● Basketball: 3×3 and Wheelchair 3×3
● Bowls and Para Bowls
● Boxing
● Cycling: Track and Para Track
● Gymnastics: Artistic
● Judo
● Netball
● Weightlifting and Para Powerlifting

The total budget for the Games is projected at £140 million (~$181.7 million U.S.), with 71% coming from what Victoria paid to get out of staging the 2026 Games.

The sports that were held in 2022 but will not be held in 2026 include:

● Aquatics: Diving
● Badminton
● Beach Volleyball
● Cricket
● Cycling: Mountain Bike and Road
● Field Hockey
● Rugby Sevens
● Squash
● Table Tennis
● Triathlon
● Wrestling

The response of the International Table Tennis Federation was typical of those sports left off of the program:

“The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) expresses profound disappointment regarding the non-inclusion of Table tennis and Para table tennis in the sports programme announced today by the Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Games Scotland for the 2026 Commonwealth Games. …

“While we acknowledge the challenges facing Glasgow 2026 and support efforts to create an innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable event model, we find the exclusion of Table tennis and Para table tennis perplexing. Our sport has consistently demonstrated unparalleled adaptability, successfully delivering events across diverse venues and temporary facilities under various inclusive competition formats. We firmly believe our sport was ideally positioned to help the organisers achieve their objectives.”

But this is about the survival of the Commonwealth Games. Commonwealth Games Foundation chief executive Katie Sadleir (NZL) explained it this way to BBC Radio 5 Live:

“This Games is about the resetting and reframing of the Games for the future.

“We want to create a sustainable model that can go around the Commonwealth because the Commonwealth members love the Commonwealth Games and we want to take it there as well.”

Kate Richardson-Walsh, a former British women’s field hockey captain, told the BBC:

“These are small windows of opportunities for minority sports to be seen and to get support which they’re now going to miss out. What does that mean for these sports and countries?”

It means they have to get smaller in size, smaller in days needed for competition and cheaper and be able to play in venues which can host other sports as well. That’s the future.

And there is no host yet for the centennial Commonwealth Games for 2030, and no obvious or eager bidders around either. But there will be a Commonwealth Games in 2026. Observed Conal Heatley, head of Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland:

“Given where the Commonwealth Games was after the state of Victoria withdrew last summer, there was a fear the Games could just slip away.

“I think if we had looked at the future of the Games six or nine months ago, I’d have been nervous. I’m a lot more confident now.”

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PANORAMA: Federations will get more IOC TV money for 2024; Bass confident L.A. will be ready for 2028; IOC says “we have to go to esports”

By
Rich Perelman
-
IOC Vice President Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba speaking to the IF Forum on esports on Monday (Photo: SportAccord).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● The Council of the Association of National Olympic Committees met in Lausanne, Switzerland on Monday, in advance of the IF Forum, and outlined the arrangements for distribution of the International Olympic Committee’s television rights fee shares to its members:

“The Council discussed the success of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the related distribution of revenues from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the International Federations (IFs). The IFs recently received the first of three instalments which presents an increase from Tokyo 2020.

“The Council agreed that now is the time to review and update the IF revenue grouping criteria ahead of the LA28 Olympic Games and recommended that the IOC should once again lead this process. This is important with the inclusion of three new IFs into the revenue distribution scheme, namely the International Federation of Sport Climbing, the International Surfing Association and World Skate.”

The IFs received the same amount – $540 million – from the IOC for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● “What I loved about it was the way the whole city was engaged. What’s the secret sauce in that?”

That’s Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, speaking to Reuters last week during a break in meetings with French officials who were involved in the support of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She recognized the challenges ahead for 2028:

“It was an incredible experience. Now it’s time to get busy. The city’s dirty, graffiti everywhere, we’ve got to deal with the homeless issue, all of those issues. And you can’t do every street in the city. So where do you prioritize?

“One thing that’s drastically different with L.A. versus Paris is the size and the density. Paris is a smaller geographic area. Our sprawl is one of our advantages, but one of our challenges too. How do you create this sense of Olympic spirit citywide?”

She said she is confident in the outcome for Los Angeles. “Not cocky, but confident.”

● International Federations ● The International Olympic Committee’s vision of the future includes esports, and in a big way:

“Whatever our views are on esports and gaming, the numbers speak for themselves. Globally, there are well over 3 billion people familiar with gaming, a figure that continues to grow by the day. While in 2021, the global gaming live-streaming audience was just around 800 million people, this figure will grow to 1.5 billion spectators next year. These are all young people.

“We cannot ignore these staggering numbers. They make it crystal clear: if we want to continue to be relevant in the lives of young people, if we want to continue to inspire the next generation with our Olympic values – then we have to go to where the young people are. Therefore, to be ‘future-ready’ also means: we have to go to esports.”

That’s from IOC Vice President Nicole Hoevertsz (ARU), speaking during the first day of the three-day IF Forum in Lausanne, Switzerland, emphasizing that the IOC has already undertaken the creation of an IOC Esports Games, with the first edition to be held in Saudi Arabia in 2025.

She repeated the IOC’s insistence on the continued adherence to “Olympic values” in the choice of games to be contested, and the preference for games which are already available in cooperation with an existing Olympic-sport International Federation.

● Football ● A two-page letter with three more pages of signatures ripped FIFA for its sponsorship agreement with the Saudi-owned Aramco energy giant announced in April.

The letter, posted on the activist Athletes of the World Web site, starts with the headline, “Aramco sponsorship is a middle finger to women’s football” and includes:

● “FIFA’s announcement of Saudi Aramco as its ‘major’ partner has set us so far back that it’s hard to fully take in. Saudi Aramco is the main money-pump for Saudi Arabia, and is 98.5 % state-owned. Saudi authorities have been spending billions in sports sponsorship to try to distract from the regime’s brutal human rights reputation, but its treatment of women speaks for itself.”

● “The Saudi authorities trample not only on the rights of women, but on the freedom of all other citizens too. Imagine LGBTQ+ players, many of whom are heroes of our sport, being expected to promote Saudi Aramco during the 2027 World Cup, the national oil company of a regime that criminalises the relationships that they are in and the values they stand for?”

● “We urge FIFA to reconsider this partnership and replace Saudi Aramco with alternative sponsors whose values align with gender equality, human rights and the safe future of our planet. We also propose the establishment of a review committee with player representation, to evaluate the ethical implications of future sponsorship deals and ensure they align with our sport’s values and goals.”

The letter closes with “We deserve so much better from our governing body than its allyship with this nightmare sponsor,” and follows with 106 signatures, including former U.S. Women’s National Team captain Becky Sauerbrunn.

FIFA said in a statement to The Associated Press, “FIFA values its partnership with Aramco and its many others commercial and rights partners. FIFA is an inclusive organisation with many commercial partners also supporting other organizations in football and other sports.”

After holding its 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, FIFA will confirm in December the hosting of the 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia, the only candidate for the event.

● Swimming ● Swimming Australia announced an agreement with World Aquatics for changes to the organization that will satisfy the continuing World Aquatics concerns over governance, including an agreement for “50 per cent of voting rights will be split between the clubs and athletes, with clubs gaining 30 per cent of the voting rights and 20 per cent for the athletes.”

The remaining 50% of the voting rights will be for the current Swimming Australia member organizations (40%), Swimming Australia affiliate members (5%) and any World Aquatics Bureau members (5%).

The announcement noted, “Swimming Australia maintains its membership status with World Aquatics and confirms athletes will continue to compete under the Australian flag, despite media reports to the contrary late last week and there is no change to funding.”

● Table Tennis ● Brazil dominated the Pan American Championships in San Salvador (ESA), winning three titles and reaching the final in a fourth.

Brazil’s Hugo Calderano swept the men’s final against countryman Vitor Ishiy, 4-0, but Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi lost in the women’s final against Adriana Diaz (PUR) by 4-2. It’s Calderano’s fifth Pan Am title and fourth in a row, and the sixth individual gold for Diaz.

Calderano came back for more in the Mixed Doubles, with Takahashi, to win, 3-0, over fellow Brazilians Guilherme Teodoro and Bruna’s sister, Giulia Takahashi. In the women’s Doubles, Guilia Takahashi and Laura Watanabe were 3-0 winners over Paulina Vega and Daniela Ortega (CHI).

Argentina’s Horacio Cifuentes and Santiago Lorenzo won the men’s Doubles with a 3-0 sweep of Andy Pereira and Jorge Campos (PUR).

In the team events, the U.S. defeated Argentina in the men’s final, and Cuba won the women’s final over Chile.

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ATHLETICS: Nominees for track and field athletes of the year now posted; voting ends on 27 October!

By
Rich Perelman
-
U.S.’s Rai Benjamin wins the Paris Olympic men’s 400 m hurdles over Tokyo champ Karsten Warholm (Photo: Dan Vernon for World Athletics)

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≡ THE LATEST ≡

World Athletics has posted its nominees for its track and field athletes of the year, with voting on now and continuing through 27 October. It’s a quick turnaround:

“The vote to determine the Track Athlete of the Year finalists is now open on World Athletics social media platforms – on Facebook, Instagram and X. It will close on 27 October.”

The track athlete nominees include:

Men:
● Rai Benjamin (USA) ~ Olympic 400 m hurdles champion
● Grant Holloway (USA) ~ Olympic 110 m hurdles champion
● Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR) ~ Olympic 5,000 m champion
● Noah Lyles (USA) ~ Olympic 100 m champion, 200 m bronze
● Letsile Tebogo (BOT) ~ Olympic 200 m champion
● Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN) ~ Olympic 800 m champion

Women:
● Julien Alfred (LCA) ~ Olympic 100 m champion
● Beatrice Chebet (KEN) ~ Olympic 5,000/10,000 m champion
● Faith Kipyegon (KEN) ~ Olympic 1,500 m champion
● Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) ~ Olympic 400 m hurdles champion
● Mariledy Paulino (DOM) ~ Olympic 400 m champion
● Gabby Thomas (USA) ~ Olympic 200 m champion

Chebet set the world 10,000 m record during the season, Kipyegon set the 1,500 m mark and McLaughlin-Levrone shattered her own world record in Paris. Among the men, Ingebrigtsen got an impressive world 3,000 m record.

The World Athletics field nominees were posted on 14 August and the voting is already over:

Men:
● Ryan Crouser (USA) ~ Olympic shot champion
● Jordan Diaz (ESP) ~ Olympic triple jump champion
● Mondo Duplantis (SWE) ~ Olympic vault champion
● Ethan Karzberg (CAN) ~ Olympic hammer champion
● Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) ~ Olympic long jump champion

Women:
● Valarie Allman (USA) ~ Olympic discus champion
● Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) ~ Olympic long jump champion
● Nina Kennedy (AUS) ~ Olympic vault champion
● Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) ~ Olympic high jump champion
● Nafi Thiam (BEL) ~ Olympic heptathlon champion

Duplantis and Mahuchikh both set memorable world records in 2024, and Crouser, Tentoglou and Davis-Woodhall also won the World Indoor titles earlier in the year.

The road athletes of the year nominees will be announced on 28 October, with another quick vote to follow. Finalists will be announced on 4 November, with another round of voting to be available.

Fan voting accounts for only a quarter of the total vote. Per World Athletics:

“The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and social media votes will each count for 25% of the result.”

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POLITICS: Belarus Minister calls for Coe “impeachment”; Putin OKs Russia Sports Minister as ROC chief

By
Rich Perelman
-
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images for World Athletics)

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

On one hand, Russian sports officials continuously demand that their athletes to be reintegrated into international sports competition, while, on the other, ripping the International Olympic Committee for sanctions related to doping, the invasion of Ukraine and more.

Now, their allies in Belarus have joined the party.

On Friday, during a forum on Russia and sports in the southern Russian city of Ufa, Belarusian Sports and Tourism Minister Sergey Kovalchuk lashed out at the one candidate the Russian cannot stand to be elected as International Olympic Committee President next March, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR):

“He only cares about his own career, and he uses the situation with Russian and Belarusian athletes for his own personal gain.

“Coe is currently running for the post of IOC head, and such approaches are of great concern. If he heads the international Olympic movement today, and it is already on its last legs, we propose calling on members of World Athletics to consider the issue of impeachment, since his policy is aimed at the collapse of the Olympic movement. Before it is too late.”

Coe is serving his third and final term as World Athletics President, originally elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 and 2023. He took over a federation in disarray under Lamine Diack (SEN), who was placed under house arrest by French authorities in 2015 and convicted in 2020 of corruption for covering up Russian doping cases. Since then, Coe has restored order, and has been emphasizing competitive opportunities and growth, although it has not reached the high worldwide profile and funding its most ardent supporters expect.

World Athletics has also been extremely stiff with Russia over its state-sponsored doping program from 2011-15, and has banned Russian entries in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Russian government has now preparing its efforts to restore its athletes to international competition, with the Belarusian minister’s comments simply part of an evolving campaign to get someone else elected as IOC chief next March.

Another element is the consolidation of power within Russian sport to one person: Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Degtyarev directly last week at a meeting of the Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports that he supports Degtyarev as both Sports Minister and to be elected as the head of the Russian Olympic Committee:

“If our sports minister really does head the National Olympic Committee, then he – the minister and president of the National Olympic Committee in one person – will have more opportunities and powers to communicate with the regions, regulate work in the regions and work more closely with the federations.

“That is why I consider it possible to support this proposal by [Russian IOC member] Shamil Anvyarovich [Tarpishchev].

For his part, Degtyarev sees no conflict in holding both posts:

“I am a lawyer by my second education and as a minister and member of the government I must ask permission to nominate a non-profit organization for one or another elective post.

“The [Russian Olympic Committee] executive committee is scheduled for November 7, I am, in principle, ready to ask the president’s permission to run, and then the Olympic Assembly. We must understand that the National Olympic Committee is a self-governing non-profit organization. Combination is possible, one person for two seats on a non-profit basis; this is an absolutely workable scheme.”

Degtyarev is carefully navigating the Olympic Charter requirements of “autonomy” of National Olympic Committees from governments, although this scheme leaves no doubt of control whatsoever.

Said Degtyarev in an interview last week, his top priority is clear:

“Return to the Olympic Movement, in line with the contribution of Russian and Soviet sports to the international Olympic movement.

“And the restoration of the rights of all our athletes, this is definitely the course from which we will not deviate. Compliance with the Olympic Charter, sharing Olympic values, this is our main task. There is every reason to say that we are ready for dialogue, and we have many contacts, including with IOC members, unofficial ones.”

The next Russian target is the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina in Italy, and the head of the Russian Cross Country Skiing Federation, Elena Vyalbe, said the effort is continuing despite Russia’s current ban:

“We work, we are not outside these organizations, there is communication, the Ski Association receives all the documents from them, they respond to our letters, and so on. But it is probably more difficult for Olympic sports, international federations to make decisions, because they all have to be under the IOC. And as the IOC decides, that is what they do.

“I know that negotiations are currently underway, including on the part of our FIS president, with representatives of the International Olympic Committee on allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes in neutral status to participate in the next season, so that, perhaps, some licenses could be earned for the Olympic Games. But I am sure that no one will offer us the next Olympic Games with a flag and anthem.”

The next event which will help to determine Russia’s status for Milan Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 will be the IOC election next March in Greece.

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TRIATHLON: World Tri Secretary General Arimany elected federation president, U.S.’s Gallegos re-elected as Vice President

By
Rich Perelman
-
New World Triathlon President Antonio Arimany (Photo: World Triathlon)

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≡ THE BIG PICTURE ≡

Spaniard Antonio Arimany was elected on Monday as the new President of World Triathlon, ascending from his position as Secretary General of the federation.

The vote at the XXXVII World Triathlon Congress in Torremolinos (ESP) showed an overwhelming total of 90 votes for Arimany, with Ian Howard (GBR) a distant second with 29, Mads Freund (DEN) with 19 and Tamas Toth (HUN) with two votes.

Arimany has been with the triathlon federation since 2010:

● 2010-14: Administration, Legal and Finance Director
● 2014-16: Director General
● 2016-24: Secretary General

He succeeds fellow Spaniard Marisol Casado, in office since 2008 as the second president of what was formerly known as the International Triathlon Union (ITU). She was re-elected in 2012, 2016 and 2020, and has been an International Olympic Committee member since 2010; her IOC membership is now ended since it was tied to her role at World Triathlon.

Arimany’s candidate brief promised to grow the sport commercially, increase interest through better event production and better support the national federations and regional confederations.

There was very little drama in his election, which was widely anticipated. However, the outcome of the entire election program was odd:

● World Triathlon announced eight candidates for President on 7 August, including Arimany, Howard, Freund and Toth, but also Debbie Alexander (RSA), Antonio Alvarez (MEX), Michelle Cooper (AUS), and Shin Otsuka (JPN).

The last four all withdrew, with Cooper exiting the election just before it was held, as her photograph was still shown today on the World Triathlon Web site list of candidates.

● Of the four remaining candidates for President, Howard also ran for re-election as a Vice President, and Freund ran for President, Vice President and Executive Board seats. Neither was elected to any post.

Of the candidates who abandoned their Presidential campaigns, Alexander and Alvarez were re-elected as Vice Presidents and Otsuka was elevated from Executive Board member to a Vice President slot. Cooper – who got out at the last moment – lost for both Vice President and the Executive Board; she had been a member of the Executive Board as the head of the Oceania Triathlon regional confederation.

● American Gabriela Gallegos was elected as a Vice President, tying for the most votes – 90 – with Otsuka. She was re-elected to a second term after serving since 2020.

Arimany helped stabilize the World Triathlon finances following the Covid-19 pandemic, but the federation still relies heavily on the International Olympic Committee television rights share it receives. World Tri received $15.144 million from the IOC for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 (in 2021) and spends only a portion of this money each year:

Revenues:
● 2022: $9.247 million (IOC: $4.500 million: 48.7%)
● 2021: $6.522 million (IOC: $2.637 million: 40.4%)
● 2020: $3.328 million (IOC: $1.983 million: 59.6%)
● 2019: $8.132 million (IOC: $3.572 million: 43.9%)
● 2018: $8.035 million (IOC: $3.816 million: 47.5%)

Assets:
● 2022: $15.556 million
● 2021: $20.037 million
● 2020: $8.670 million (Covid impact)
● 2019: $10.149 million
● 2018: $12.846 million

Reserves:
● 2022: $4.381 million
● 2021: $4.803 million
● 2020: $4.686 million
● 2019: $4.586 million
● 2018: $4.467 million

The federation has a long way to go to be self-sufficient beyond the IOC’s contribution. It can expect a raise in the IOC television money from Paris 2024 as the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations has said that there should be more money available from Paris 2024 than from previous Games.

Yet, triathlon remains a small presence in the Olympic Games, debuting only in 2000 and adding a third event (the mixed relay) for Tokyo 2020. The sport had 110 competitors from 42 nations competing in Paris.

Triathlon’s founding President, Les McDonald (CAN) and Casado have placed the sport firmly on the Olympic program. Arimany asked for the presidency and won it; now he has to show that he can expand the sport’s profile and finances in an ever-more-crowded worldwide sports landscape.

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PANORAMA: LA28 looking east for Olympic cricket venue; Vonn coming back next week? Malinin escapes with Skate America win

By
Rich Perelman
-
World Champion Ilia Malinin of the U.S. wins his third Skate America in a row (Photo: ISU)

★ 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 ● LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman said Friday at the Texas Business of Sports Summit in Austin that the 2028 Olympic cricket competition would likely be placed at an eastern venue.

Placing the sport, requested by LA28 to be added to the sports program, on the East Coast will place it in a better time zone for viewers in India, where it is hoped that a much larger Olympic television rights fee will be paid with cricket on the program.

While there are no large, permanent cricket stadiums on the East Coast, a temporary, 34,000-seat facility was successfully mounted at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium for the 2024 ICC Men’s T-20 World Cup and used for eight matches.

Wasserman gave no specifics on a possible venue.

● Alpine Skiing ● A news release from the Soelden organizers of the FIS Alpine World Cup opener next week says that American star Lindsey Vonn, retired for five years, will return at the Soelden Giant Slalom in Austria.

The 2010 Olympic Downhill champion, Vonn turned 40 on Friday (18th) and owns 82 career World Cup wins. Her last season was in 2019. She has not confirmed her appearance.

● Archery ● Triple Olympic gold medalist Woo-jin Kim completed a dream season at the World Archery World Cup Final in Tlaxcala (MEX), winning the men’s Recurve final, 7-3, against Korean teammate Woo-seok Lee. Lee, also on the Paris Olympic men’s gold-medal team.

It’s Kim’s fifth World Cup individual title. Brazil’s 2021 Worlds runner-up, Marcus D’Almeida, won the bronze by 6-2 over Mexico’s Matias Grande.

Paris Team silver medalist Jiaman Li (CHN) won the women’s title, 6-0, over India’s Deepika Kumari. Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia took the bronze, 6-2, over Hun-young Jeon (KOR).

● Athletics ● Ethiopia swept the men’s and women’s titles at the Amsterdam Marathon (NED) on Sunday, with Yalemzerf Yehualaw, the 2022 London Marathon winner, running away from the women’s field to win by more than two minutes in 2:16:52 to move to no. 9 on the 2024 world list.

The men’s winner was Tsegaye Getachew, the 2022 winner in this race, in 2:05:38, just ahead of countryman Boki Asefa (2:05:40) and Israel’s 2023 Worlds silver medalist Maru Teferi (2:05:42).

● Badminton ● China took three wins at the Denmark Open in Odense, with second-seeded Zhi Yi Wang (CHN) defeating top seed Se Young An (KOR), 21-10, 21-12, in the women’s Singles final, top-seeded Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang (CHN) beating Denmark’s second-seeded Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen, 21-18, 21-17, in the men’s Doubles and Yan Zhe Feng and Dong Ping Huang winning the all-China final in the Mixed Doubles, over Zhen Bang Jiang and Ya Xin Wei, 15-21, 21-18, 21-17.

Japan took the women’s Doubles, as Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi defeated China’s Sheng Shu Liu and Ning Tan, 21-18, 21-14.

The home fans saw a Danish win in the men’s Singles, for Anders Antonsen over Koki Watanabe (JPN), 21-15, 21-16.

● Beach Volleyball ● Tokyo Olympic champion Anders Mol and Christian Sorum won their third Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 tournament of the season with a win at Joao Pessoa (BRA) over Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan.

This was a replay of the Paris Olympic bronze medal match, won by the Norwegians, who won this time coming from behind: 25-27, 21-17, 19-17.

In the third-place match, Olympic champs David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig (SWE) defeated Nicolas Capogrosso and Tomas Cappogrosso (ARG), 19-21, 21-18, 15-11.

The women’s final was an all-Brazilian affair, with 12th-seeded Thamela Galil and Victoria Pereira Tosta facing third-seeds Taiana Lima and Talita Antunes. Both had won a bronze medal on tour this season, and Thamela and Victoria swept the final, 21-14, 21-14.

The third-place match saw top-seeded Kimberly Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst (USA) defeat fellow Americans Deahna Kraft and Lexy Denaburg, 21-18, 21-14.

● Cricket ● New Zealand won its first-ever ICC Women’s T20 World Cup title with a 158-126 victory over South Africa, in the final play in Dubai (UAE) on Sunday.

The Kiwis squeezed by West Indies, 128-120 in their semifinal, after South Africa upset three-time defending champs Australia, 135-134. In the final, Amelia Kerr scored 43 runs, Brooke Halliday had 38 and Suzie Bates had 32; South Africa had 33 runs from captain Laura Wolvaardt, but no more than 17 from anyone else.

The third time was the charm for New Zealand, winning this tournament in their third final, after losses in 2009 and 2010. T20 cricket will be a medal event in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

● Curling ● Sweden repeated as winners of the World Mixed Championships (four-member teams), held in Aberdeen (SCO), edging Japan by 5-4 in the championship match.

This was a completely different team from the 2023 Swedish champs, with Simon Granbom as skip and finishing undefeated: 7-0 in group play and then sailing through the playoffs with wins over Scotland (4-2), Poland (9-6), Switzerland in the semis by 6-4 and then piling up a 4-1 lead on Japan through four ends of the final and hanging on for the 5-4 victory.

The Swiss won the bronze medal, 4-2, over Spain for the bronze medal. The U.S., skipped by David Falco, finished 7-0 and won Group C. After a 6-1 win over New Zealand in the round-of-16, the U.S. lost to the Swiss, 5-2 in the quarters.

● Cycling ● The 121st UCI World Track Cycling Championships in Ballerup (DEN) finished with another showcase for Dutch sprint star Harrie Lavreysen, who won three golds to run his career total to 16! And he’s still just 27.

Lavreysen teamed with Roy van den Berg and Jeffrey Hoogland to win the Team Sprint on the first day, then followed up with his sixth career Worlds gold in the Sprint, defeating Hoogland in the final. And Lavreysen won his first-ever Worlds gold in the 1,000 m Time Trial, again over Hoogland, 57.321 to 58.252.

The only other men’s double winner was Denmark’s Tobias Hansen, who was part of the winning Team Pursuit squad and then won the Elimination Race over Italy’s Elia Viviani, on Sunday for a second gold.

The sensational Individual Pursuit saw a world record in the heats from Britain’s Josh Charlton in 3:59.304, who faced off with Italy’s Jonathan Milan in the final. Milan needed another world record, of 3:59.153 in the final, to win over Charlton (4:00.232). It was Milan’s first Individual Pursuit gold after a silver in 2021 and bronze in 2023.

Belgian Lindsay de Vylder won the Omnium, 150-138, over Simone Consonni (ITA), then finished second with Fabio van den Bossche in the Madison, 76-60, to Germany’s Roger Kluge and Tim Tom Teutenberg, the third Worlds gold for Kluge.

Japan’s Kazushige Kuboki, second in 2023, won the Scratch Race over Denmark’s Hansen, and Spain’s Sebastian Mora – age 36! – took the Points Race from Denmark’s Niklas Larsen.

Great Britain’s women swept the sprints and pursuit, with Emma Finucane defending her 2023 Sprint title over Hetty van de Wouw (NED), and leading the Team Sprint win over the Dutch. Anna Morris won the Individual Pursuit in an upset over defending champion Chloe Dygert of the U.S., 3:16.560 to 3:16.877. Dygert, a three-time winner of the event, had set a world record of 3:15.663 in the qualifying.

Morris then helped the Brits to a win in the Team Pursuit, overtaking Germany in the final.

New Zealand’s Alla Wollaston won two events, the Omnium, by 131-119 over Jessica Roberts (GBR), and the Elimination Race over Belgian road star Lotte Kopecky.

Kopecky won another silver in the Points Race, finishing second to Denmark’s Julie Norman Leth, who won a second gold with Amalie Didriksen in the Madison, 46-43, over France’s Victoire Berteau and Manon Borras.

Japan’s Mina Sato – a two-time silver winner in 2021 and 2022 – finally won the Keirin on Sunday. over van de Wouw by 0.102. Russian Yana Burlakova won the 500 m Time Trial in 32.863, competing as a “neutral.” Britain’s Sophie Capewell was second in 33.010.

Britain won the most medals at 13 (4-4-5), followed by the Dutch (11: 4-5-2) and host Denmark (7: 4-2-1). The U.S. finished with three medals (0-2-1).

At the season-ending Gree-Tour of Guangxi (CHN) in the UCI World Tour, Belgium’s Lennert van Eetvelt won the six-stage race in 22:21:45, five seconds ahead of Oscar Onley (GBR) and 15 seconds up on Alex Baudin (FRA). Van Eetvelt vaulted from 37th place overall to first after winning the uphill-finishing fifth stage on Saturday and then maintaining his place through the mass sprint finish of the flat sixth and final stage.

It’s his second World Tour win of the year; he took the UAE Tour title was back in February!

The UCI Women’s World Tout also concluded with two races, beginning with the three-stage Tour of Chongming Island in China, won by Pole Marta Lach, who finished in 8:32:24, eight seconds up on Mylene de Zoete (NED). Lach won both the second and third stages to overtake de Zoete, the first-stage winner. It was Lach’s first win of a Women’s World Tour multi-stage race.

At the season-ending, 134.3 km Tour of Guangxi on Sunday, Spain’s Sandra Alonso won the final sprint to the line against Italy’s Giada Borghesi, both in 3:39:02. Lach headed the next group of sprinters, taking third.

In the BMX Freestyle World Cup in Shanghai (CHN), Japan’s 2022 World Champion Rim Nakamura won the men’s Park final at 91.00, ahead of Olympic bronze winner Anthony Jeanjean (FRA: 88.90) with Nick Bruce of the U.S. in third place (86.10).

The women’s final saw China go 1-3, with Sibei Sun scoring 90.20 to win, ahead of 14-year-old Ozawa Miharu (JPN: 80.30) and Jiaqi Sun (CHN: 78.00).

Legendary track cycling star Chris Hoy (GBR), a six-time Olympic gold medalist in 2004-08-12, announced that he has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, with a diagnosis that he has two to four years left.

Only 48, he posted on Instagram:

“You may see in the news this weekend some articles about my health, so I just wanted to reassure you all that I’m feeling fit, strong and positive, and overwhelmed by all the love and support shown to my family and me.”

Hoy said he has known of the diagnosis for a year; it was discovered in a scan for shoulder pain. His wife, Sarra, was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; the couple have two children, now seven and 10.

● Figure Skating ● Nothing came easy at the opening leg of the ISU Grand Prix at Skate America in Allen, Texas, but World Champion Ilia Malinin of the U.S. managed to win for the third time in a row at this event.

He led after the Short Program, scoring 99.69 to 99.54 for Japan’s Kao Miura, the 2023 World Junior Champion. In the Free Skate, however, France’s Kevin Aymoz, fourth at the 2023 Worlds, had a career day, scoring 190.84 and taking the lead with three skaters to go.

Both Nika Edadze (GEO) and Miura faltered and so Malinin came in as the final skater. He had four quadruple jumps in his program, but faltered on two moves, but scored 190.43 to finish second in the segment, but won the overall competition at 290.12 to 282.88 for Aymoz. Miura was third at 278.67. Americans Maxim Naumov and Lucas Broussard finished seventh (216.38) and 10th (206.57).

The other American World Champions competing were Ice Dance stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who suffered a fall and were upset in the Rhythm Dance by Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, 83.56 to 77.88. Chock and Bates won the Free Dance by 127.75 to 122.82, but that was not enough and Fear and Gibson – fourth at the last two World Championships – earned the victory by 206.38 to 205.63.

Japan won both the women’s Singles and the Pairs. Wakaba Higuchi, the 2018 Worlds silver medalist, was only fourth after the Short Program, led by U.S. champs Isabeau Levito and Bradie Tennell, 68.43 and 66.99. But Higuchi won the Free Skate at 130.81, as Levito was fifth (126.40, with a fall) and Tennell was sixth (125.05). So, Higuchi moved up to the top at 196.93, with teammate Rinka Watanabe second at 195.22. Levito finished third (194.83), Tennell was fifth (192.04) and 17-year-old Elyce Lin-Gracey finished sixth (183.94).

The 2023 World Champions in Pairs, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, won both the Short Program and the Free Skate to win at 214.23, ahead of American entries Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea (201.73) and Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov (191.51). Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman of the U.S. finished seventh at 168.08.

The show moves on to Halifax in Canada next week for the Skate Canada International.

● Football ● At the eighth FIFA women’s U-17 World Cup, being played in the Dominican Republic, pool play is continuing, with two-time defending champion Spain leading Group B with wins over the U.S. (3-1) and South Korea (5-0).

The U.S. women are second in the group at 1-1 (3 points) after beating South Korea, 2-0, on Saturday. Pool play continues through the 23rd.

● Freestyle Skiing & Snowboard ● The Freestyle and Snowboard Big Air seasons opened at Chur (SUI), with Japan sweeping the Snowboard events.

Taiga Hasegawa, third in the seasonal standings for 2023-24, was the clear winner in the men’s Snowboard final, scoring 177.25, as Rocco Jamieson (NZL: 163.50) and Romain Allemand (FRA: 158.00) went 2-3.

Mari Fukada and Rika Iwabuchi were 1-2 for Japan for the women, scoring 181.50 and 167.50, with Canada’s Laurie Blouin third (163.00). For Fukada, 17, it’s her second career World Cup win.

Austria’s Matej Svancer took the men’s Freestyle win, scoring 186.00 to 178.00 for Tormod Frostad (NOR) and 172.25 for Dylan Deschamps (CAN). Svancer scored 94.25 in the first round and 91.75 in the third to win, overcoming Frostad’s event-leading 95.50 first-round run.

Troy Podmilsak was the top American, in eighth (115.25).

Swiss Mathilde Gremaud, the 2023-24 seasonal Big Air champion, continued her winning ways at 178.50, ahead of Flora Tabanelli (ITA: 161.00) and Muriel Mohr (GER: 143.75). Rell Harwood was the only American finalist, in eighth at 70.00.

Ordinarily, a 2002 Olympic snowboarder who finished 24th in the Parallel Giant Slalom would not be widely remembered, but Canadian Ryan Wedding has gone on to an infamous post-Olympic career.

Convicted on drug trafficking in 2010 and sentenced to four years in prison, the U.S. Justice Department announced a superseding indictment on Thursday for Wedding and 15 others,

“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, and whose leaders orchestrated multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes.

“Ryan James Wedding, 43, a Canadian citizen residing in Mexico, and Andrew Clark, 34, a Canadian citizen also residing in Mexico, were previously charged in the original indictment with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder, and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine. Clark was arrested October 8 by Mexican law enforcement and is detained. Wedding is a fugitive.

“The first superseding indictment, unsealed on October 16, names 14 additional co-defendants. The superseding indictment alleges that Wedding, Clark, and others conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine – weighing hundreds of kilograms – from Southern California to Canada through a Canada-based drug transportation network run by Hardeep Ratte, 45, of Ontario, Canada, and Gurpreet Singh, 30, of Ontario, Canada, from approximately January 2024 to August 2024. The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives would store the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for transportation to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks.

“As alleged in the superseding indictment, the organization resorted to violence – including multiple murders – to achieve its aims.”

Wedding is wanted for eight felony counts, including three murders.

● Triathlon ● The World Triathlon Championships Series Finals in Torremolinos (ESP) got off to a bad start for Olympic women’s champion Cassandre Beaugrand of France, as she veered off course during the swim segment and ended up coming out of the water some 15 seconds behind the leader.

She got back into contention in the bike phase, logging the fourth-fastest time and getting into a battle with 2023 World Champion Beth Potter (GBR) and France’s 2023 bronze-medal finisher, Emma Lombardi.

But on the run, Beaugrand was fastest, breaking away in the second half and clocking the fastest time at 33:08, way ahead of Potter (33:47) and Lombardi (34:00), to win in 1:56:44. Potter was a distant second in 1:57:22 and Lombardi was third for the second season in a row in 1:57:34.

Beaugrand won her first Worlds to cap a dream season, including the Paris title in front of home fans, and scored 4,000.00 points to 3,792.51 for Potter and 3,508.06 for Lombardi. Kirsten Kasper was the top American in the race, in 10th (1:58:35), with Gwen Jorgensen finishing an impressive comeback year in 12th (1:59:19).

The men’s final came down to another showdown between Britain’s Olympic winner, Alex Yee, and runner-up Hayden Wilde of New Zealand. Yee had the seasonal points lead and only needed to finish in the top six to win the 2024 title, but Wilde was out to win.

Wilde was 13 seconds behind out of the water, but was fastest on the bike and had taken a small lead into the 10 km run with 2022 World Champion Leo Bergere (FRA) in hot pursuit. Wilde was good on the run at 29:29, but Yee was coming hard from behind and was second-fastest in the field at 29:17, moving him up to third.

Wilde could not be caught and won going away at 1:42:22, with Bergere second (1:43:24) and Yee third (1:43:50). Morgan Pearson was the top American in 16th (1:45:08).

Yee took the seasonal crown – his first – at 4,069.53, with Bergere second (3,728.33) and Wilde third (3,726.40).

● Water Polo ● The Aquatics Integrity Unit suspended the Italian men’s national team for six months last Thursday, penalizing the team for accosting the referees after their Olympic quarterfinal loss to Hungary in Paris.

When leaving the venue, they saw and then surrounded the officials in the parking lot, shouting verbal abuse and pursuing them physically, back into the venue. Other World Aquatics officials were also pushed and shoved before the Italian team got back on the bus.

On the next day (8 August), the Italians played in a classification match vs. Spain, with the team turning their back to the officials during the anthems and the coach called a time-out five seconds into the match and substituted the entire team, as another protest.

So, the panel’s decision was:

“to impose on the Team a six-month suspension from taking part in any World Aquatics competitions and events, effective from the date of issuance of this decision, i.e., 17 October 2024, and a fine of USD 100,000. For the sake of clarity, the six-month suspension prevents the Respondent from taking part in the next World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup, which is due to be held between January and April 2025. While it doesn’t prevent the Respondent from being part of a draw for competitions to be held after the end of their suspension, it precludes them from having any representative attend the draw. In the unlikely event that the World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup is rescheduled, the Adjudicatory Body will automatically review the matter and impose a new decision accordingly.

“That said, considering the Team’s clean disciplinary record, the prompt admission of the charges and the accompanying letter of apology as mitigating factors, the Panel decides that, with respect to the fine of USD 100,000, only an amount of USD 50,000 shall be payable within 90 days from the date of issuance of this decision, i.e., by 15 January 2025. The remaining USD 50,000 is suspended and will only become payable if the Team commits another violation of the Integrity Code before 17 October 2026.”

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SWIMMING: Two world records fall, seven U.S. marks in wild weekend at Shanghai World Cup and in Virginia

By
Rich Perelman
-
Four swims, four records for Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh! (Photo: USA Swimming)

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≡ WORLD CUP SERIES ≡

This was the first week of meaningful meets since the Paris Olympic Games and the stars were out in force at the first of three World Aquatics World Cup meets, in Shanghai (CHN). Some were sensational and some decided to stop; this was wild.

The best performance of the weekend, however, might have been in Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday (18th), for the Virginia vs. Florida dual meet, with Cavaliers star Gretchen Walsh on fire!

The Paris Olympic runner-up in the 100 m Butterfly and a three-time relay medalist (2-1-0), Walsh swam in four races and set short-course (meters) records in each:

(1) She led off Virginia’s winning women’s 200 m Medley relay with a 25.37 backstroke leg for an American Record, breaking Clare Curzan’s 25.54 mark from the 2022 World Championships.

(2) Walsh won the women’s 100 m Back in 54.89, another American Record, breaking Olivia Smoliga’s 55.04 mark from 2020.

(3) She won the women’s 50 m Freestyle in 23.10, another American Record, bettering Abbey Weitzeil’s 23.44 time from 2021.

(4) Walsh ended her day with a time trial in the women’s 100 m Medley, winning in a world-record 55.98, smashing Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu’s 56.61 mark from 2017.

Wow! But the Shanghai World Cup was also going on, with plenty of records and surprises.

In Shanghai, the three-day meet saw the return of French superstar Leon Marchand, who won three events. But he was not the headliner:

● Australia’s Olympic women’s 100-200 m Backstroke gold medalist Kaylee McKeown won a tight battle with American Regan Smith, again, in the 50 m Back, 25.36 to 25.70, with lifetime bests for both and a national record for McKeown.

But afterwards, she posted on Instagram:

“I would like to thank World Aquatics for the opportunity to come out and race at World Cups, it’s been so much fun here in Shanghai.

“Putting my mental health first I’ve decided to cut my experience short. As an athlete It’s so important to listen to your heart and to know when enough is enough.

“Time for a well overdue break. Peace and love to you all.”

● Smith, second to McKeown in the 100-200 Back races in Paris, continued on and won three events, equaling Walsh’s new American Record of 54.89 in the women’s 100 m Back, ahead of U.S. teammate Beata Nelson (56.26).

Smith took the 200 m Back in a lifetime best of 2:00.42, moving to no. 9 all-time and no. 3 all-time U.S., with Nelson third (2:02.56).

And Smith won the women’s 200 m Fly in 2:01.85, just behind Kelsi Dahlia’s U.S. record of 2:01.73 from 2018.

● U.S. teammate Kate Douglass, the Paris 200 m Breaststroke winner and 200 m Medley runner-up, was everywhere and won four events, with two American Records.

She won the 200 m Breast final in 2:15.96, just 0.4 off of the American Record, then got the U.S. mark in the 50 m Butterfly final in 24.54, shaving 0.01 off of Curzan’s 2021 mark of 24.55. It moves Douglass to no. 4 on the all-time list.

In the 100 m Medley, Douglass tied the U.S. record of 57.72 by Nelson in 2021 in the morning heats, then won the final in 56.99 (Nelson was fifth in 58.10). Douglass’ mark only stood for hours before Walsh set the world mark in Charlottesville, however.

Douglass also won the 200 m Medley for her fourth win, in 2:04.09, touching more than a second ahead of the field.

● Swiss Noe Ponti, the Tokyo 2020 bronze winner in the 100 m Fly, snagged the world record in the men’s 50 m Fly in the heats, touching in 21.67, taking 0.11 off the marks by Nicholas Santos (BRA: 2018) and Szebasztian Szabo (HUN: 2021).

Ponti then won the final in 21.68, the no. 2 performance all-time.

Marchand was outstanding as expected, winning the men’s 100 m Medley in 50.65, 1/100th ahead of Ponti (50.66), setting a European Record of 1:50.30 to win the 200 m Medley in 1:50.30, and taking the 400 m Medley easily in 4:00.03.

Eight-time Olympic medal winner Duncan Scott (GBR) was second to Marchand in the men’s 200 m Medley, and won the 200 m free (1:40.92), and the 400 m Free (3:36.98), ahead of American Kieran Smith (3:38.44).

Double-event winners also included South Africa’s Peter Coetze in the 100-200 m Backstrokes and Chinese breaststroke star Haiyang Qin, who took the 50 m Breast (25.38) and 100 m Breast (55.73 Asian Record), but was upset in the 200 m Breast by Australia’s Joshua Yong, 2:01.67 to 2:01.92.

Italy’s Thomas Ceccon, the Paris 2024 men’s 100 m Backstroke winner, upset Chinese sprint superstar (and world-record holder) Zhanle Pan in the 100 m Free, 46.32 to 46.35. Ceccon was the last qualifier out of the heats and pulled the shocker from lane eight!

Two American men earned wins, with Charlie Clark taking the 1,500 m Free in 14:40.57 and Trenton Julian taking the 200 m Fly in 1:51.24.

Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey, the Tokyo silver winner in the women’s 100-200 m Frees, won those events in Shanghai in 51.89 and 1:51.46. China’s Qianting Tang took the 50-100 m Breast events in 28.76 and 1:02.53.

The swimming World Cup moves on to South Korea, to Incheon for the second leg, from 24-26 October. Could this get better?

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LOS ANGELES 2028: L.A. Recreation & Parks asks LA28 Olympic organizers for $30 million for 2024-25 youth sports plan

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

The landmark $160 million commitment by the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee back in 2017 channeled an advance by the International Olympic Committee into youth sports programs through the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department.

This “Youth Sports Partnership” money was designed to lower or eliminate costs of youth to be able to participate in all sorts of sports programming, starting with swimming and expanding to recreation centers across Los Angeles and to specific-sport programs, including adaptive programs for the physically challenged.

The City’s “Play LA” program got off to a slow start, limited to swimming in the first couple of years and then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, taking down most of the next year of the program. But the project has been rebuilt, with more activity and growth. The expenditures so far:

● 2018: $0.91 million
● 2019: $1.09 million
● 2020: $2.48 million
● 2021-22: $ 7.65 million
● 2022-23: $13.22 million
● 2023-24: $14.81 million + $4.45 million pending

That’s only $44.62 million of the $160 million used across the first seven years of the program. But the city’s Recreation & Parks is making up for lost time, asking for $30.54 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year. According to the Recreation and Parks (RAP) department plan, submitted last Thursday:

● “The requested amount of $30,535,849 will be used for RAP’s 2024-25 fiscal year, to be apportioned as follows:

● “a. $20,697,820 to support recreational leagues and classes at 90 prequalified sites and available eligible participants at the City’s 35 non-prequalified sites. Eligible participants are those who self attest in meeting the Low Income Limit established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for three-member families in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, California HUD Metro Fair Market Rent Area ($90,850 as of June 1, 2023.)

“This includes Legacy Signature programs such as Golf, Judo, Marathon Training, Skateboarding, Tae Kwon Do, Tennis, and Track and Field. It also includes a soccer development pilot program detailed in the YSP Project Plan narrative.

● “b. $1,614,053 to support Aquatics Swim Classes at RAP’s 37 prequalified aquatic sites and available to eligible participants at the City’s remaining 16 nonprequalified aquatic sites (Attachment 7) as well as the surfing program.

● “c. $7,050,476 to support Signature Youth Programs in aquatics, sports & fitness, and adaptive sports.

● “d. $1,173,500 to support Safe Sport, marketing for non-adaptive sports, marketing for adaptive sports, printing, and media buys.”

The various programs differ at each of the 125 Rec Centers, but include badminton, boxing, cheer, dance, dodgeball, fitness and exercise, golf, gymnastics, kickball, lacrosse, martial arts (judo and tae kwon do), rugby, skating and skateboarding, tennis and track & field. There are leagues in baseball, basketball, flag football, soccer, softball and volleyball, and clinics also in field hockey and roller hockey in addition to the league sports.

There is also a huge, continuing swimming program, including teams in swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo. There are smaller programs in kayaking and surfing.

Among the “Signature” programs are instruction in archery, boxing, climbing, equestrian, fencing, karate, table tennis and triathlon.

The Recreation and Parks Department tracks participation in the programs and reports that the effort has increased city-wide:

“Using FY2018-19 as our baseline, RAP had 148,274 youth participant enrollments in YSP programs at recreation and aquatic sites during that fiscal year. RAP’s projection for FY2024-25 is 217,769 youth participant enrollments, an increase of 47% over the baseline.”

That would be a substantial increase over the 2022-23 total of 176,596 participants; no report was available for the recently-completed 2023-24 fiscal year.

The original funding plan from LA28 to the Recreation and Parks Department was for $6.4 million in the first half of 2020 and then $19.2 million annually from 2020-21 through 2027-28. The projection at the end of the 2024-25 program year was that $60.1 million would be left for the final three years of the program.

Even with the request for $30.54 million for 2024-25, the LA28 funding commitment will still have $84.84 million remaining, still well behind the original funding schedule.

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PANORAMA: World champs Malinin and Chock & Bates at Skate America; two deaths at World Tri finals in Spain; volleyball’s biggest game-changer

By
Rich Perelman
-
World Champion: American skating star Ilia Malinin (Photo: ISU)

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Athletics ● Two more signings for Grand Slam Track, both from Jamaica in the hurdles: women’s 2024 world leader Ackera Nugent (12.24) in the 100 m hurdles and men’s 400 m hurdler Roshawn Clarke – still just 20 – who finished fourth at the 2023 Worlds in Budapest.

This brings the total signees to 20 of the 48 “Racers” expected for the 2025 season.

● Cricket ● In a re-match of the 2023 final, three-time defending champion Australia was eliminated in the first semifinal at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, being played in the UAE. South Africa won, 135-134, with eight wickets remaining, to advance to the final. Beth Mooney scored 44 runs for Australia, with Laura Wolvaardt scoring 42 for the winners.

The Proteas will face the winner of Friday’s West Indies-New Zealand semi, with the winners to meet on Sunday for the title.

● Cycling ● Japan had a big second day of the 2024 UCI Track World Championships, in Ballerup (DEN), taking individual titles in the men’s Keirin and Scratch races.

Kento Yamasaki, 31, surprised the field in the men’s Keirin, winning the final in a tight finish with Israel’s Mikhail Yakovlev (+0.34) and Colombia’s defending champion Kevin Quintero (+0.68). Olympic winner Harrie Lavreysen (NED) was relegated to the B Final, finishing eighth overall.

After silver medals in the 2022 and 2023 Worlds Scratch Races, Kazushige Kuboki got to the top of the podium, ahead of European bronze medalist Tobias Hansen (DEN) and Clement Petit (FRA).

In the Team Pursuit, defending champs Denmark won again, led by Tokyo 2020 Team Pursuit winner Niklas Larsen, with Hansen also along, and Carl-Frederik Bevort and Frederik Madsen. Britain was second, 3:45.642 to 3:45.963 in the final, with Germany winning the bronze final.

The women’s Elimination Race was a win for Paris Omnium bronze medalist Ally Wollaston, who won the Scratch Race bronze on Wednesday. She outlasted Belgian star Lotte Kopecky, the two-time defending champion, and American Jennifer Valente, who repeated her bronze-medal performance in this race from 2023.

In the Team Pursuit, Great Britain defended their 2023 Worlds gold, winning over Germany by lapping them. It’s the seventh straight Worlds in which the British women have medaled in this race! Canada overtook Italy to win the bronze.

The Worlds continue through Sunday.

● Figure Skating ● The ISU Grand Prix circuit begins in Allen, Texas this weekend with Skate America, led by two American star attractions.

World Champion Ilia Malinin of the U.S. heads the men’s Singles, and included a somersault (backflip) in an earlier routine in a Challenger event; maybe a Grand Prix first, now that the move has become allowed?

Two-time World Ice Dance Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S, will be in action and looking for a fifth Skate America title. In Pairs, the 2024 Worlds silver medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) are the favorites.

American Isabeau Levito, the 2024 Worlds runner-up, was beaten by U.S. newcomer Elyce-Lin Gracey, 17, at the Challenger Series Nebelhorn Trophy event, and former U.S. champ Bradie Tennell is back from injury to challenge as well. All three will be pushed by Japan’s 2018 Worlds runner-up, Wakaba Higuchi and teammate Rinka Watanabe.

NBC has coverage on Sunday at noon Eastern (men’s Free Skate), but blanket coverage on Peacock. The men’s Short Program and women’s Free Skate will be on E! on Saturday and E! will have the Ice Dance Free Dance on Sunday as well.

● Shooting ● The ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi (IND) concluded with the shotgun events, including a gold for American Sam Simonton in the women’s Skeet final.

The 2022 Worlds bronze medalist, Simonton missed two of her first four targets and three of her first 14, but then hit 35 in a row before missing and then finished with 10 straight for a final total of 56. That was just enough, with Italy’s Rio 2016 Olympic champ Diana Bacosi at 54 and France’s Lucie Anastassiou third at 42. Fellow American Dania Jo Vizzi, the 2017 World Champion, finished fourth.

San Marino’s Alessandra Perelli, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist, won the women’s Trap title, 45-39, over Erica Sessa (ITA).

The men’s Skeet final was an Italian 1-2, with 2019 Worlds silver medalist Tammaro Cassandro winning over Rio 2016 Olympic champ Gabriele Rossetti, 57-56, as Rossetti missed his final shot. Paris silver medalist Ying Qi won the men’s Trap, 47-44, over India’s Vivaan Kapoor.

● Swimming ● The first of three World Aquatics World Cup meets will be in Shanghai (CHN) this weekend, with 100 m Freestyle world-record holder Zhanle Pan in action for the host country.

This meet is short-course (25 m pool), with marks qualifying for the Short-Course Worlds in mid-December in Budapest (HUN). French Olympic superstar Leon Marchand will make his return to the pool in Shanghai, entered in five events: the 100 m Free, 200 m Breast and the 100-200-400 m Medleys.

Olympic 200 m Breaststroke gold medalist Kate Douglass of the U.S. is entered in eight events, but may not swim all of them. She is in the 200 Breast and the 200 m Medley, where she won the Olympic silver.

The Kaylee McKeown (AUS) vs. Regan Smith (USA) battles, with McKeown winning the 100 and 200 m Backstroke events in Paris, will continue as both are entered in the 50-100-200 m Back events.

● Triathlon ● Two deaths were reported at the World Triathlon Torremolinos-Andalucía AG Sprint Distance World Championships in Spain on Thursday, both older competitors.

Agence France Presse reported that a British triathlete, age 57, died after suffering a heart attack, and the Mexican Triathlon Federation said that 79-year-old Roger Mas Colomer died at the event.

World Triathlon posted a statement including, “Our deepest condolences go to their respective family, friends, National Federations and all the triathlon family. World Triathlon, the Spanish Federation and the LOC are in contact with their families and NFs to provide all the support needed in these difficult and sad times.”

The Torremolinos event will include the World Triathlon Championship Series seasonal finals over the weekend.

● Volleyball ● A recent post from the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) extolled the achievements reached under Brazilian President Ary Graca, now 81, noting the expansion of the annual FIVB Nations League, and added participation in the FIVB World Championships, as well as a better world-ranking system.

The story, however, left out what may be the most important development during Graca’s 12 years as the FIVB chief since 2012 and now termed out in 2024.

That would be the groundbreaking $100 million private-equity investment by Luxembourg-based CVC Capital Partners in February 2021, creating a new entity: Volleyball World. Owned by the FIVB (67%) and CVC (33%), it’s a strictly commercial entity, dedicated to expanding the sport’s profile and popularity worldwide.

The concept, per Volleyball World chief executive Finn Taylor (CAN), speaking in 2022:

“The challenge is that [indoor] volleyball and beach volleyball have huge fanbases in the hundreds of millions both participating and interested in the sport.

“But the sport has never been able to aggregate that audience into a mass number. It’s very dispersed, it’s very spread out. So we’re not trying to reinvent the sport, but we’re trying to provide it in a platform that is digestible for as many people as possible.”

Whether the venture turns out to be a success or failure is still to be determined, but the introduction of private equity into an international federation like volleyball is very much a landmark that Graca should be recognized for, and has already led to discussions and smaller-scale experiments in other sports. It may turn out to be a major pivot point for Olympic-focused sports worldwide, and it started with volleyball.

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RUSSIA: Putin gives instructions for more government control of sport, and telegraphs the next Russian Olympic Committee chief

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

The Russian government will exert more influence in all sectors of Russian sport, including the Russian Olympic Committee. That’s from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who explained to the Russian Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports on Thursday:

“The coordination of joint work of government bodies, state organizations and private businesses is assigned to the Ministry of Sports. This is a necessary measure in modern conditions and a very big responsibility. …

“The sphere of physical education and sports is directly related to solving such important tasks as preserving the population, realizing the potential of each person, increasing the level of well-being of Russian families, therefore any activity in this sphere should be of a national, interdepartmental nature, be coordinated, clear, effective, built around common goals and common performance indicators.”

To that end, he also instructed the national sports federations on their role in youth sports development:

“The activities of federations in sports require updating. Let me remind you that it is not limited to issues of professional sports and high-performance sports.

“The volume of support for federations from all sources must be linked, among other things, to their contribution to the development of mass sports: amateur, corporate, youth.”

Putin also pointed to the Russian Olympic Committee, expected to name a new president in December:

“The activities of the Russian Olympic Committee also need adjustments. Despite all the known problems, it is important to increase efforts in the area of international cooperation, to work with all interested partners, to conduct creative, meaningful, educational work to promote the universal values of sport, especially among young people.”

So, it made perfect sense for fairly new Russian Minister of Sport, Mikhail Degtyarev, to instantly become a candidate for the ROC presidency, saying he is ready to run but will continue to respect the “autonomy” of the ROC required by the Olympic Charter.

Already, the lone Russian member of the International Olympic Committee, Shamil Tarpischev, is on board:

“The time has come to consolidate efforts in sports activities. The issue of considering the possibility of our Minister Degtyarev putting forward his candidacy for the post of President of the National Olympic Committee has matured. Power in one hand will perhaps allow us to work more effectively for the benefit of our Motherland.”

Putin, at another conference, did not miss an opportunity to slam the Olympic Movement:

“Today it is already obvious that they are trying to make world sports and the Olympic movement not an arena for fair competitions, but a platform for geopolitical games, for the imposition of a destructive, neoliberal agenda, the propaganda of unnatural norms and pseudo-freedoms and the denial of traditional values, by which the overwhelming majority of countries and peoples of the planet have lived for centuries, millennia.”

Observed: OK, is there now any doubt of the outcome of December’s Russian Olympic Committee elections?

Degtyarev has only been the Russian Minister of Sport since 24 May of this year, but at 43 and a member of the State Duma from 2011-2020, he is fully integrated into the Russian government.

The direct, effective, publicly-announced control of the ROC by the Russian government will now be another potential headache for the International Olympic Committee, either to be handled at the end of the year or in January by President Thomas Bach (GER), or by a successor, who will take office on 24 June 2025.

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LOS ANGELES: Who needs the Olympics? L.A.’s sports economy grew 31% in 2023, to $11.7 billion in total impact!

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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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡

The sports economy of Los Angeles, one of the world’s busiest sports cities, exploded in 2023, growing by almost a third to a record $11.7 billion and 83,880 jobs.

And none of that was related to the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games, to be held in Los Angeles.

Revealed at the Los Angeles Sports Council’s Innovation Conference held at the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California on Monday, the annual study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) used in-depth (and confidential) data provided by the area’s teams and related companies to estimate the economic impact of sports in the Los Angeles region.

The bottom line: it’s big and rapidly getting bigger. Per the report:

● “The increase in economic activity resulted from the sizeable growth in the sports industry. Direct revenues grew by more than $816.2 million from 2022 to 2023, a 22% increase. Most of this growth ($749.6 million) came from professional sports, through additional events, higher ticket prices, and higher wages.

● “In 2023, the sports industry in the region supported 83,880 total jobs, an increase of 450 jobs from 2022. Professional sports played a more significant role, adding over 1,700 jobs, while collegiate sports saw a reduction of more than 1,200 jobs. As a result, professional sports accounted for 84.6% of the total jobs and direct revenues in the industry, up from 83.0% the previous year.

● “Attendance at professional sports events grew by an average of 4.3% across all major teams in the MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, NWSL, and WNBA from 2022 to 2023, reflecting strong local support.”

Consider the comparisons to the prior two years:

● 2023: $11.7 billion total economic output
● 2022: $8.9 billion
● 2021: $7.0 billion

Direct spending was $3.8 billion for professional sports and approximately $692 million for collegiate sports (about $4.49 billion total), with indirect and induced impacts adding up to the $11.7 billion total impact last year. About 84.6% of all economic activity came from professional sports events.

● 2023: 83,880 sports-related jobs
● 2022: 83,430 jobs
● 2021: 39,790 jobs (pandemic)

Jobs directed created by sports in the L.A. area totaled 46,740, with another 37,140 from jobs indirect and induced jobs from activity and earning in the sports industry. Labor income was $8.9 billion, with 85.4% from the pro sports sector.

● 2023: $704.8 million estimated state & local taxes
● 2022: $365.1 million
● 2021: $363.6 million

This does not count Federal income taxes, estimated to be more than $1.84 billion for 2023.

There are additional contributions by smaller events outside of the pro and collegiate sports teams, such as the Rose Bowl Game – estimated to be worth $119 million to the area economy for the 2024 game, a College Football Playoff semifinal – and highly-attended soccer matches, annual events such as the Long Beach Grand Prix and NFL training camps, and sports-related companies in the area, such as the NFL Network.

The future looks bright as well, with the Intuit Dome – where the conference was held – now open, and additional one-time, mega-events coming such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup and, of course, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It’s worthwhile to consider that while 67% of the LA28 budget of $6.9 billion is expected to be spent in 2028 alone – that’s $4.6 billion – that amount will be significantly less than the direct spending of the rest of the sports industry in the greater Los Angeles area in that year.

That’s from the area’s 12 major professional league teams and the eight universities that play today in the NCAA’s Division I. Are there more coming?

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PANORAMA: French budget slashes post-Olympics sports funding; Alaysha Johnson has Hooters-to-hero year; call to cancel FIFA Club World Cup

By
Rich Perelman
-
The elegant FIFA Club World Cup Trophy

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● France ● Just a couple of months after the close of the 2024 Olympic Games, the French budget challenges are already hitting the sports sector.

The National Olympic Committee of France (CNOSF) posted a Tuesday statement, voicing concern over proposed cuts:

“The Sports Movement is fully aware of the challenges and efforts required to restore public finances in a complex budgetary context. These efforts affect all sectors and all French people; everyone must make their fair contribution.

“However, the CNOSF wants to warn both about the particularly significant reduction in appropriations for the 219 Sport program: –10.38% in commitment authorization and –23.47% in payment appropriations, and about the €5 billion savings effort requested from the largest local authorities, which are major financiers of sport. The combination of these two elements poses a particularly strong threat to the ability to sustainably accommodate the millions of French people who, in the wake of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, have pushed open the doors of our federated association clubs.” (€1 = $1.09 U.S.)

Didn’t take long, did it?

● Russia ● Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that relations with the International Olympic Committee slipped badly in recent months:

“Of course, [President Stanislav] Pozdnyakov‘s work came at a very difficult time for the [Russian] Olympic Committee. A lot was done, but, for objective reasons, of course, it was a time of crisis.

“The [Russian] Olympic Committee has effectively lost contact with the Olympic Movement, the International Olympic Committee. In this regard, a very difficult situation has developed for high-performance sports, for our Olympians.”

ROC President Pozdnyakov proposed to step down early, in December, with new elections to head the currently-suspended ROC.

Russia had some success at the Paralympic Games, with 88 athletes approved to compete and winning 64 medals (20-21-23). Now, they have a chance to cash in.

The Russian Sports Ministry is proposing payments to the medal winners of RUB 4 million for gold, 2.5 million for silvers and 1.7 million for bronze winners. Converted to U.S. dollars, that’s $41,240-25,775-17,527 per the Russian news agency TASS. And:

“Coaches of the Russian medal winning Paralympians in Paris may be paid 3.2 million rubles (almost $33,000) for the gold, two million rubles (over $20,600) for the silver and 1.36 million rubles ($14,000) for the bronze medals.”

● Athletics ● U.S. hurdles star Alaysha Johnson, the U.S. Olympic 100 m hurdles runner-up and seventh at Paris 2024, had a career year in 2024, running a lifetime best of 12.31, moving to no. 12 all-time.

She was noticed, with a feature posted Tuesday on Forbes.com, “Olympian Alaysha Johnson’s Race to Reshape the Future of Track & Field.” The story noted her independence from training groups and wearing her own apparel rather than that of a shoe company: “I’ve never ever worn a shoe company kit … I consciously decided not to promote brands for free.”

She’s pretty happy about all this, posting on X on Tuesday: “Literally went from working at Hooters to an Olympic finalist with a write up in Forbes.”

Now that’s a career year.

USA Track & Field announced its selection events – and national championships – for the road mile, 5 km and Half Marathon, all to be contested at the 2024 World Athletics Road Running Championships in San Diego next September:

● 02 Mar.: USATF Half Marathon Champs in Atlanta, Georgia
● 22 Apr.: USATF Road Mile Champs in Des Moines, Iowa
● 03 May: USATF road 5 km Champs in Indianapolis, Indiana

The World Road Champs will be held from 26-28 September.

● Beach Volleyball ● Reader Darren Peters sent along news that retiring Olympic triple medal winner April Ross has joined El Camino College in Torrance, California as its head beach volleyball coach.

She replaces ECC head coach LeValley Pattison, who retired from the position following the 2024 spring season.

● Cycling ● The 121st edition of the UCI World Track Cycling Championships are underway in Ballerup (DEN), with the Netherlands scoring two golds on the first day.

The Paris Olympic champion Dutch won the men’s Team Sprint for the seventh time in the last eight Worlds, with their 2023 team intact: Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland, who between them have 16 Worlds golds in this event! The Dutch defeated Australia, 42.046 to 42.673 in the final, with Japan beating Great Britain, 42.877-43.322 for bronze.

Lorena Wiebes (NED) won the non-Olympic women’s 40-lap Scratch race over Olympic Omnium champ Jennifer Valente of the U.S., with Alla Wollaston (NZL) third. An accomplished road rider, this was the first career Track Worlds medal for Wiebes. For Valente, it was her 18th career Worlds medal and fourth in Scratch (1-2-1).

The women’s Team Sprint went to Olympic champs Great Britain, with the same team of Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane. They eased past the Netherlands in the final, 45.949 to 46.593. Australia won the bronze over Germany, 47.358 to 48.188.

Competition continues through Sunday.

● Football ● Speaking at a club forum in Brussels (BEL), Javier Tebas, the President of Spain’s LaLiga, asked for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup to be shelved:

“FIFA president, you know that you have not sold the audiovisual rights for the budget you said for that Club World Cup. You know that you do not have the sponsorships for that Club World Cup as you had budgeted.

“You know that the leagues and the players’ football unions we don’t want that Club World Cup. Withdraw that Club World Cup now.”

LaLiga has joined with other domestic leagues and the FIFPRO players union to file an opposition to FIFA’s match calendar and the 2025 Club World Cup, saying that the schedule is too crowded, that players do not have the proper rest time between matches, or after each season to recover.

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup was expanded from seven teams to 32 and scheduled for 15 June to 13 July at 12 venues in the U.S. Tebas said that FIFA would have to use its reserves to fund the tournament:

“If you are going to use FIFA funds to finance the money that is missing from the promise you have made to the clubs, you are taking it away from all those federations or places that FIFA says it is there to help. We are talking about more of €1.5 billion that will have to be drawn from that fund.”

FIFA is going ahead with the tournament, believing it has little overall impact on the question of player fitness.

● Shooting ● The first day of finals at the ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi (IND) showed that being Olympic champion is not always a guarantee of future success!

On Tuesday, China’s Paris winner Lihao Sheng took the men’s 10 m Air Rifle final by 251.4 to 251.3 by Hungary’s Istvan Peni. China won the women’s 10m Air Rifle final, as Olympic runner-up Yuting Huang got to the top of the podium, scoring world record 254.5, just ahead of India’s Sonam Maskar (252.9).

China got a third gold from Olympic winner Yu Xie in the men’s 10 m Air Pistol (244.6), ahead of Robin Walter (GER: 243.3). Paris silver and bronze winners Federico Maldini (ITA: 221.7) and Paolo Monna (ITA: 196.6) were 3-4. France’s Camille Jedrzejewski won the women’s 10 m Air Pistol (240.8), with Heng Yu Liu (TPE: 237.4) second.

Of the four finals held on Wednesday, China’s Yuehong Li was the only Paris winner to be victorious, following his Paris Olympic victory in the men’s 25 m Rapid-Fire Pistol with a win, scoring 34 in the final to defeat German Florian Peter (30).

In the men’s 50 m Rifle/3 Positions, Hungary’s Peni, the 2019 European Games bronze medalist, was the winner at 465.3, ahead of Czech Jiri Privratsky (464.2). Olympic winner Yukun Liu (CHN) finished fourth at 442.4.

The women’s 25 m Pistol was a win for German Josefin Eder, with 36 points to edge Paris silver medalist Jedrzejewski (FRA: 35), with Olympic champ Ji-in Yang (KOR: 13) in seventh. Denmark’s Rikke Ibsen won the women’s 50 m Rifle/3 Positions at 466.2, over 2022 Worlds bronzer Jeanette Hegg Duestad (NOR: 465.6), with Olympic winner Chiara Leone (SUI) failing to qualify for the final.

The shotgun finals will be held on Thursday.

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ATHLETICS: Kenyan National Assembly members rail for 20 minutes, demanding apologies (and more) to Chepngetich for questions on doping

By
Rich Perelman
-
Kenyan National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Shollei (Kenya National Assembly screen shot)

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≡ THE LATEST ≡

Credit to LetsRun.com’s Jonathan Gault for quoting from a lengthy, vitriolic excerpt from the Kenyan National Assembly on Wednesday, with congratulations to Chicago Marathon winners Ruth Chepngetich and John Korir and condemnations of questions to Chepngetich from LetsRun co-founder Robert Johnson during the post-race news conference.

Johnson asked Chepngetich, fresh off her 2:09:56 women’s world record (per Chris Chavez on X):

“Ruth, unfortunately in recent years there’s been a number of doping positives in Kenya. What would you say to someone who says when they see 2:09:56, ‘This is too good to be true. I have questions about it.”

Chepngetich: “I don’t have any idea.”

Johnson: “Some people may think that the time is too fast and you must be doping. What would you say to them?”

Chepngetich: “You know people must talk but…people must talk so I don’t know.”

On Wednesday, during a comment period at the Kenyan National Assembly in Nairobi, Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Shollei was the first to stand and, after congratulating both winners, read a prepared statement, asking for an apology:

“Honorable Speaker I must however express my deep concern and disappointment regarding the baseless allegations made by a journalist from the LetsRun.com, namely a Mr. Robert Johnson during the post-race press conference.

“The journalist’s reckless insinuation suggesting that Ruth Chepngetich’s world record time of 2 hours 9 minutes and 56 seconds is too good to be true and linking it to doping without evidence and is both unprofessional and disrespectful.

“Chepngetich is a highly decorated runner having previously won several marathons including the Chicago Marathon in 2021 and in 2022, and is a former world champion having won the 2019 World Championships in Doha.

“Honorable Speaker, the blanket accusations against Kenyan athletes, particularly in the light of Kenya’s long-standing reputation as a world leader in marathons are not only unfair but deeply harmful and therefore stereotyping Kenya as a nation plagued by doping. This discredits the immense talent and commitment and sacrifice of our athletes.

“Such unfounded allegations have the potential of unjustly tarnishing their hardworking achievements and creates an atmosphere of mistrust.

“Honorable Speaker, I urge the Cabinet secretary for sports Athletics Kenya and the Kenya anti-doping agency to stand up for our athletes and demand an immediate and unequivocal apology from Mr. Robert Johnson and others who have shamed our athletes and those who propagate false narratives and undermine the integrity of Athletics and our nation.

“Athletics Kenya and ADAK should also develop sensitization programs to athletes so that they are able on matters doping and publicity management so are they able to deal with these difficult questions when it is raised to them.

“I know that were it an American athlete that question would not have been posed.

“Honorable Speaker, Kenya remains steadfast in its commitment in upholding the highest standards of Integrity in sports we shall continue to collaborate with International bodies to ensure that the sports remain fair and clean for all and we I would like to request the members of Parliament to join me in celebrating our athletes and their incredible achievements and especially requesting this as Member of Parliament for Wasing Gishu County, which is the city of Champions. the home of Champions, and the source of Champions, I thank you.”

She was followed by 11 more speakers across 20 minutes, more or less on the same track, demanding an apology from Johnson, repeatedly raising the racism card, asking for legal action … and (1) ignoring the fact that Kenya has 106 individuals listed on the Athletics Integrity Unit’s “ineligible persons” list, more than any other country, and (2) that U.S. and other athletes have repeatedly been asked about doping. But some of these speakers had more to say beyond congratulating Chepngetich and Korir and criticizing Johnson, and at least hinting at the serious doping issues in Kenya:

● Julius Kipletting Rutto: “I dare also say, Mr. Speaker, through this House we need to allow our [athletes] to express themselves with the language they understand because I’ve also realized, sometimes, some of these questions come in difficult English and they find it difficult in expressing themselves.

“What is wrong for us to use our own language, Swahili? And that is the first national language that we learn from school we want to ask them let them find the interpreter so that they can interpret the way we they always interpret their language. Our language should be worshipped, should be respected, that our athletes at least are able to express very well and they be understood.”

● Elachi Beatrice Kadeveresia: “Mr. Speaker, it is time we protect our athletes it is also good for the government to give them – and Mr. Speaker it’s important – in this house we either approve a Service passport or a Diplomat passport for our athletes so that they just don’t go in a country and people are wondering and these are people who when they go to the other countries you can see even journalists are worried about them.

“But we must protect them, so if the government can also recognize them and just give them a Service passport [so] wherever they go, they know these are Kenyans who are coming to do what is best for Kenya to carry the flag of Kenya, they are ambassadors of Kenya and that will be better than any other thing.”

There were also calls for completing a regional doping center in Eldoret as soon as possible so that Kenyan athletes can have their results quickly, and for better education of financial management so they are not taken advantage of.

The unfortunate final word came from National Assembly Speaker Moses M. Wetangula, speaking to Deputy Speaker Shollei:

“I’m sure you know you can write the ministry tell the minister to take up this matter, because I see a [tinge] of racism in this. Yes, when white people win races nobody raises a question. When our girls and boys beat the world all manner of inexplicable questions are asked.”

For his part, Johnson set the record straight on the LetsRun message board:

“We have been very consistent since day 1 at LetsRun in regards to doping. Since the year 2000, we have asked the doping questions that need to be asked (and let the messageboarders discuss it as well) whether you are white (Galen Rupp, [Alberto] Salazar, etc), black (Regina Jacobs, Justin Gatlin, etc.), male, female, American or Kenyan. …

“And for the record, I didn’t accuse Chepngetich of being a doper. I simply asked her what she would say to those who think her performance is too good to be true. I gave her the opportunity to proactively get ahead of the cynics.”

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ATHLETICS: Athletics Kenya criticizes criticism of Chepngetich’s 2:09:56 women’s marathon record in Chicago

By
Rich Perelman
-

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≡ SPOTLIGHT ≡

The continuous, swirling doubts over the sizzling 2:09:56 women’s marathon world record by Kenya’s 2019 World Champion Ruth Chepngetich at Sunday’s Chicago Marathon drew a rebuke from Athletics Kenya on Wednesday.

The federation, already under siege from more than 100 current doping sanctions
issued a statement calling for restraint and respect, including:

“Once again. Athletics Kenya would like to congratulate Ruth Chepngetich for her remarkable achievement at the Chicago Marathon. By winning the title for the third time and setting a new World Record, Ruth has earned her status as one of the finest athletes of our time.

“Her familiarity with the course, having won this prestigious marathon on two previous occasions in 2021 and 2022. played a pivotal role in her third victory, showcasing her tactfulness and athletic mastery.

“Ruth’s ascent as a star in Kenya’s athletics scene has been nothing short of extraordinary. From her World Championships win in 2019 to her consistent performance on the global stage over 5 years, she has set a high standard for others to follow. She now joins the league of other Kenyan Women World record holders including Faith Kipyegon, Beatrice Chebet, and Beatrice Chepkoech among others. Her latest triumph is a continuation of this stellar career, despite missing the 2024 Paris Olympics games due to illness.

“In any case, many world records were broken this year, and to single her out is utterly unfair. It is therefore disheartening to witness some sections of the media casting unwarranted doubt on her achievements. Such aspersions, made without due process, undermine not only her efforts but the integrity of the sport. It is important to note that Ruth, like all athletes in major competitions, underwent multiple anti-doping tests, both pre-race and post-race. These are standard procedures in events of this magnitude, and only after all results are verified will her record be officially ratified.

“Ruth’s achievement, while impressive, is not without precedent. Marathon records have been broken by even wider margins, affirming that her feat is well within the bounds of possibility for an athlete of her calibre.

“Her consistent performance over the years stands as testament to her dedication and excellence in the sport.

“We urge the media and the global community to give Ruth the respect she deserves and protect athletes from harassment. Let her celebrate this hard-earned victory and let us acknowledge the years of hard work and discipline that have brought her to this moment. Unfounded doubts and unfair treatment have no place in this proud moment for Kenya and for Ruth.”

Doping among Kenyan track & field athletes has been a major issue in the sport, and in the country. At present, it leads all nations with 106 individuals listed on the “ineligible persons” roster on the Athletics Integrity Unit.

Another way to look at Chepngetich’s 2:09:56 is by comparison to the men’s marathon world records in recent years. It took 16 years for British star Paula Radcliffe’s 2003 women’s mark of 2:15:25 in London to be broken, but the women’s record is now been improved three times in six years in the super-shoe era.

At the same time, the men’s marathon record has been continuously improved and might have been broken again in 2024 except for the untimely death of Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum in a car crash last February, at just 24. A look at recent women’s vs. men’s marathon records:

● 2:15:25 Paula Radcliffe (GBR): 13 Apr 2003 in London (1:53 improvement)
● 2:05:38 men’s marathon record at that time: 9:47 gap

● 2:14:04 Brigid Kosgei (KEN): 13 Oct 2019 in Chicago (1:21 improvement)
● 2:01:39 men’s record at the time: 12:25 gap

● 2:11:53 Tigst Assefa (ETH): 24 Sep 2023 in Berlin (2:11 improvement)
● 2:01:09 men’s record at the time: 10:44 gap

● 2:09:56 Ruth Chepngetich (KEN): 13 Oct 2024 in Chicago (1:57 improvement)
● 2:00:35 men’s record at the time: 9:21 gap

Kiptum was slated to make a run for a sub-2:00 marathon in Amsterdam in the spring, but never got to race. Now, Chepngetich has narrowed the gap to the closest ever … until the next record.

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FOOTBALL: Mexico outclasses American men, 2-0, in rare friendly in Guadalajara, for first win since 2019 over U.S.

By
Rich Perelman
-
Mexico was much the better team in a 2-0 win over the U.S. men in Guadalajara (Photo: Mexican National Team/@miseleccionmxEN on X).

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≡ MEXICO 2, USA 0 ≡

Tuesday’s friendly match between the U.S. and Mexico was a little odd from the beginning, with the teams playing at Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron, a FIFA World Cup 2026 venue, but only the second time Mexico had played there and the first since the venue opener in 2010.

And it was the first game played by Mexico in Mexico in 2024! Coming in with a 4-4-2 record (W-L-T) this year, all of its matches had been played in the U.S. The American men were playing their second game under Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino, and without midfielder Christian Pulisic, who returned to his club team AC Milan, after a starring role in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Panama.

The first half saw Mexico mostly in control, with only occasional forays by the U.S. into the offensive zone. And Mexico got the lead in the 22nd minute on a brilliant strike on a free kick from striker Raul Jimenez. He sent a powerful, spinning kick from about 10 yards beyond the box that barely touched the outstretched hand of the U.S.’s 6-3 keeper Matt Turner and stayed under the crossbar for the 1-0 lead.

The game continued to be played in the U.S. end, with the Mexican midfield thoroughly frustrating the American offense. Mexico enjoyed 59% of possession in the half and outshot the U.S. by 12-0!

It didn’t get better. Jimenez was a problem again in the second half, and after his run at goal was cleared by U.S. defender Tim Ream, Jimenez circled back and sent a left-footed pass to oncoming forward Cesar Huerta, who booted it with the right foot into the lower left corner of the U.S. net for a 2-0 lead in the 49th.

Mexico led on shots by 15-0 at the hour mark, and the U.S. showed so little offense that Pochettino made three changes, and defender Kristoffer Lund finally got the first U.S. shot in the 64th, but missed a promising opportunity, hitting wide of the net from the left side.

Mexico committed 14 fouls in the game, and there was a scuffle in the 74th with U.S. substitute defender Alejandro Zendejas after a shoving incident with Mexican defender Jesus Angulo, and Zendejas and midfielder Edson Alvarez received yellow cards.

U.S. substitute forward Brandon Vazquez had a significant chance in the 79th, with a right-footed laser that was saved by Mexican keeper Luis Malagon, the U.S.’s first and only shot on goal.

Mexico finished with a 17-5 edge on shots, but the U.S. had enough possession in the second half to end with 53% for the game. But it didn’t matter.

The loss ended a long streak of success by the U.S. against Mexico, which was 5-0-2 in its last seven matches and hadn’t lost since a 2019 friendly in New Jersey. And in the all-time series in games played in Mexico, the American men fell to 1-24-4.

The game also marked the 182nd and final cap for Mexican midfielder Andres Guardado, who played the first 19 minutes as a send-off. He’s the most-capped Mexican player in history and got a loud ovation when he left the field in the first half.

The U.S. men will be in action again on 14 or 15 November on the road in a CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal, with the opponent yet to be determined.

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PANORAMA: O’Neil wins ISOH Lifetime Achievement Award; Fisher, Kwemoi, Hiltz new Grand Slam Racers; Belarus meets with IOC

By
Rich Perelman
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New Grand Slam Track “Racer” Grant Fisher leading the pack at the 2022 World Athletics Championships 5,000 m (Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images 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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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● International Olympic Committee ● The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee on 12 October 2023, for taking over sports organizations in Ukraine as part of its continuing invasion.

However, Belarus was not a party to that and it was noted in an IOC news summary last week:

“The Secretary General of the Belarus NOC, Kseniya Sankovich, was at Olympic House this week for consultations and to discuss the Olympic Games Paris 2024. She met the NOC Relations team and also had the opportunity to greet the IOC President.”

Belarus had 17 athletes competing as “neutrals” at Paris 2024 and won four medals (1-2-1).

● International Society of Olympic Historians ● The ISOH named Ingrid O’Neil, operator of one of the most respected Olympic and international sports memorabilia auctions, as its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Per the announcement:

“Ingrid has been selected for her outstanding contributions to the preservation of Olympic history. Her dedication to curating and auctioning invaluable memorabilia has greatly deepened our understanding of the Olympic Movement and its enduring legacy. …

“In the 1970s, she immigrated to the United States with her family. As an auctioneer, Ingrid’s professional career began at an auction house in Michigan City. From 1990, she began conducting auctions of Olympic-Games memorabilia. She organized the first Olympic auction during the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, as well as an exhibition entitled ‘100 Years of Olympic Memorabilia’ as part of the Culture Olympiad.”

Based in Corona del Mar, California, her online site, ioneil.com, is home to the online auction catalogs and bidding, with 96 successful auctions to date.

● Athletics ● Grand Slam Track announced three more racers: Grant Fisher (USA), the Olympic 5,000 m and 10,000 m bronze medalist, Kenyan Ronald Kwemoi, the Paris 5,000 m runner-up and American 1,500 m champ Nikki Hiltz.

This brings the total number of signed athletes – “Racers” – to 18 out of 48.

● Cricket ● The ninth ICC Women’s T-20 World Cup in Dubai (UAE) has concluded group play and is headed to the semifinals with only three-time defending champion Australia still undefeated.

The Aussies won Group A at 4-0, with New Zealand second at 3-1 and both on to the semifinals. In Group B, West Indies – players from six Caribbean countries – won at 3-1, with South Africa also at 3-1.

In the semis, beginning on Thursday, 2023 runners-up South Africa will be re-matched with Australia in Dubai, with West Indies and New Zealand playing Friday in Sharjah. The final will be on Sunday. The Australian women will be trying for their seventh World Cup title in nine editions.

T20 Cricket is on the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

● Football ● The situation over the Nigerian team’s treatment in Libya and return before its Tuesday match has gotten more complex. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced Tuesday:

“The TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Qualifier fixture between Libya and Nigeria will not take place as scheduled tonight.

“The matter will be referred to the competent CAF bodies.”

It also issued an earlier statement:

“The Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) has been in contact with the Libyan and Nigerian authorities after it had been informed that the Nigerian National Football Team (“Super Eagles”) and their technical team were stranded in disturbing conditions for several hours at an airport that they were allegedly instructed to land by the Libyan authorities.

“The matter has been referred to the CAF Disciplinary Board for investigation and appropriate action will be taken against those who violated the CAF Statutes and Regulations.”

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