HEARD AT HALFTIME: Chile proposes cheap Pan Am Games … at $507 million; the 2020 medal count; coaches in jail!

January 8, 2020

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● XIX Pan American Games 2023 ● The organizing committee of the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile announced its venue plan and budget, with competition sites to be scattered among 16 communities in the Santiago and Valparaiso regions.

According to the statement, “The total estimated budget will be $507 million USD, of which $170M will be allocated to the construction, adaptation and improvement of sports facilities.” Four of the sites will be ‘Choose Healthy Living Centers,’ with temporary facilities for the Pan Am Games and legacy use as sports parks after the event.

The $507 million budget – if realized – would be a considerable achievement for the Chileans, considering what the Pan Am Games have cost in this century:

● 2003: $292 million in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, although this figure has been disputed as being far too low.

● 2007: $2.1 billion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, based on a reported cost of 4 billion Brazilian Reals; the original budget was about $400 million.

● 2011: About $1 billion in Guadalajara, Mexico; the budget submitted with the bid was for $200 million, but government-financed construction alone was reported at $750 million.

● 2015: $2.6 billion in Toronto, Canada, based on a government audit finding the total cost at C$2.5 billion.

● 2019: $1.2 billion in Lima, Peru, after the bid for the Games was won in 2013 with a projected cost of $712 million.

So the Santiago organizers have set a worthwhile goal for themselves; let’s see how it turns out once the construction gets done.

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● The quadrennial projection of Olympic medals based on the actual outcome of the relevant world championships by Italian mega-event organizer and statistician Luciano Barra is now out. Based on what happened in Olympic events in 2019, the final count shows (ranked by total number of medals):

1. 107 by United States (51-29-27)
2. 96 by China (43-30-23)
3. 72 by Russia (28-26-18)
4. 61 by Japan (18-26-17)
5. 51 by Australia (17-18-16)
6. 51 by Great Britain (13-15-23)
7. 40 by Germany (13-9-18)
8. 39 by Netherlands (14-15-10)
9. 39 by France (11-8-20)
10. 37 by Italy (8-12-17)

Barra notes that any projection to 2020 must take into account the disposition of Russian participation, which could have a significant effect on the overall outcome. He has a total of 51 countries winning medals in 2020; note Japan’s projected total of 16 is +20 vs. Rio in 2016!

● Athletics ● The 2020 track & field season is just getting started, but there is a lot going on:

● The formation of The Athletics Association by U.S. triple jump star Christian Taylor has been welcomed by World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, and the federation even showcased Taylor and his concepts in a 30 December post in its online magazine, Spikes.

But not everyone is supportive. Triple Olympic gold medalist Tianna Bartoletta, also a noted writer, posted on Twitter:

“Speaking of backlash…after voicing my support, my manager was advised by some of his peers not to work w/me anymore. He said he needed a few days to consider what working with me meant for his business. I let him go. These are the conversations that are actually happening.”

Nothing is easy.

● Wadeline Jonathas, who exploded onto the world stage in 2019 with an NCAA 400 m title for South Carolina and then fourth in the World Championships, has turned pro.

She will skip her final year of eligibility at South Carolina, but will continue to train in Columbia. In her junior season, she improved from a lifetime best of 52.81 to win the NCAA title in 50.60, then ran 50.44 to finish third at the USATF Nationals, then set two more lifetime bests of 50.07 and then 49.60 to get to the final and then finish fourth! She then won a gold medal on the U.S. 4×400 m relay.

● London Olympic vault champ Jenn Suhr continues to amaze, clearing 4.71 m (15-5 1/2) at the Expo Explosion in Belton, Texas on 4 January. At age 37 – she’ll be 38 on 5 February – Suhr is a contender for medals in Tokyo if she can maintain her health. She ranked no. 2 on the world list for 2019 at 4.91 m (16-1 1/4) and said on her Instagram page that she’s “Not rushing the season and working on building a good base and making technical corrections. It’s a big year!”

● VOX POPULI: Reader Doug Thomson is worried about the new name of track & field’s international federation:

“With all the doping issues in sport and with track and field being – sadly – one of the most prominent sports affected, might those in charge of the federation have thought a little bit longer before changing the name of their organization to one whose initials are WA?

“Remember, you can’t spell WADA without WA!”

● VOX POPULI: Reader Linda Wallace is very unhappy with USA Track & Field’s support of “EPOCA: The Tree of Ecrof,” a children’s book by Ivy Claire and published by Kobe Bryant’s Granity Studios:

“USATF partnering with Kobe Bryant and promoting his new book??? Wow. Tone deaf. After his arrest for sexual assault in 2003 first he lied and denied contact, then his statement acknowledged his inability to know whether a woman is consenting. Just the sort of person USATF wants to model youth leadership. All part of same sad picture for women when governing bodies fail. Would Kobe pass a SafeSport investigation? Pathetic.”

● Cycling ● The attraction of the Olympic Games will cause Spanish star Alejandro Valverde to abandon the Tour de France at some point during that race, in order to be ready for Tokyo. He told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca:

“[The Olympics] will be the priority objective, but there will be others. I want to get to Tokyo in as good form as possible. The World Championships will also be an important event, but for now I am focused on the Games. It is the great achievement that I lack and makes me very excited.”

The Olympic race on the lower slopes of Mt. Fuji will be difficult with considerable climbing. Valverde also said he will cut short his riding in La Vuelta a Espana to get ready for the UCI World Road Race Championships in Switzerland. After winning at age 37 in 2018, Valverde wants to take his best shot at two more titles, even at the expense of competing in the biggest races in the sport.

● Football ● The U.S.-Iraq-Iran conflict has reached U.S. Soccer. After the U.S. strike in Iraq, the U.S. Men’s National Team canceled its scheduled training camp on Qatar that was to begin on 5 January.

The USSF statement noted: “Due to the developing situation in the region, U.S. Soccer has decided to postpone traveling to Qatar for the Men’s National Team’s scheduled January training camp. … We are working with the Qatar Football Association to find an opportunity in the near future for our team to experience Qatar’s world-class facilities and hospitality.”

Why Qatar? Because the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be played there. The team opened its training camp in Bradenton, Florida instead. It’s first game in 2020 will be a friendly against Costa Rica on 1 February in Carson, California.

● Weightlifting ● Corruption and doping issues in weightlifting are not confined to the International Weightlifting Federation.

News reports in Cairo noted that Egyptian federation technical director Mohamed Moussa and national coach Mohamed Hosni were jailed in late December over “charges of embezzlement, wasting public money and forging official documents,” as well as promoting doping by making available drugs to the country’s top lifters.

Rio super-heavyweight fourth-placer Shaimaa Khalaf said that 23 Egyptian lifters had tested positive; 13 positives have been reported by the IWF and Egypt has been removed from the 2020 Tokyo competition.

● Wrestling ● Rio Olympic champ Helen Maroulis has been out of action for most of the last two years, but told the Associated Press that she feels better, is recovered from her concussion and shoulder injuries and expects to return to the mat in March.

Still just 28, Maroulis won the Olympic 53 kg title in 2016, and World Championships golds in 2015 (55 kg) and 2017 (58 kg). She plans to compete at 57 kg and will have her chance to make the U.S. team at the Olympic Trials in April.

● XXII Commonwealth Games 2022 ● The Commonwealth Games are scheduled for 27 July-7 August in Birmingham, England, but will start three months earlier in India.

What began as a boycott threat by the Indian Olympic Association when shooting – a very important sport for India – was not included on the program, has now turned into a pre-Games competition in both shooting and archery.

India has volunteered to host – and pay for – both competitions, to be held in March. The medals will count in the overall title for the Games, with a cost to the hosts of about £20 million (~$26 million). David Grevemberg, the head of the Commonwealth Games Foundation, said “The proposal is supported by the National Rifle Association of India, the Government of India, the International Shooting Sport Federation and World Archery.”

The British news site TheGuardian.com noted that the British government “is hoping the £788m Games [~$1.03 billion U.S.] – the largest and most expensive event to be staged in the country since the 2012 Olympics – will be an advert for post-Brexit Britain and help to secure trade deals.”

● XXIV Olympic Winter Games: Beijing 2022 ● The head of the International Ice Hockey Federation said that the National Hockey League needs to declare whether its players will compete at the Beijing 2022 Games by the end of August.

At a news conference following the end of the World Junior Championships last Sunday (5th), Rene Fasel (SUI) told reporters, “We would like to have a decision as early as possible if they’re coming to Beijing – ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ In Pyeongchang, there was a late ‘No.’ Especially the North American teams, U.S. and Canada, had some problems to find the players and to build up a good team.

“If there is a ‘No’ these teams should have time to prepare a competitive team to go to the Olympics in 2022. We want to have an early answer from NHLPA and NHL if they’re coming or not.” As of now, the answer is probably “no.”

● At the BuZZer ● There is great excitement in China – and elsewhere – for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, or so the Beijing organizers report on Twitter at @beijing2022:

“It’s been less than a month since we launched our global volunteer recruitment and we’ve already received over 616,000 applications! Applications are open until June 2021, so there’s still plenty of time to be part of the #Beijing2022 family.”

THE BIG PICTURE: German documentary drops a bomb on weightlifting, alleging doping and financial corruption

Rich Perelman

January 6, 2020

tsx pix 2020-106 ajan, tamas 750 — Former International Weightlifting Federation president Tamas Ajan (HUN). (Photo: IWF)

The folks who brought you the Russian doping scandal in December of 2014 are back at it again.

The ARD network of regional public-service broadcasters in Germany aired a documentary on Sunday evening (5th) which investigated the International Weightlifting Federation, summing up its findings as:

“Black coffers, indulgences for entire countries, a ‘culture of corruption’ and doping without end. The Hungarian Tamas Ajan, President of the International Weightlifting Federation, has brought the traditional sport of weightlifting to the edge. Research by the ARD doping editorial office raises the question: How did it get this far?”

(The English above is a Google Translate version of the original German.)

Entitled “Geheimsache Doping – Der Herr der Heber” (in English, “Secret Matter Doping: The Master of the Lifters”), the 45-minute program was produced by the ARD team of Hajo Seppelt, Nick Butler, Grit Hartmann and Sebastian Munster. A lengthy list of allegations and findings crammed into less than an hour included:

● ARD states that between 1992-2009, some $23 million paid to the IWF by the International Olympic Committee was not shown on the IWF financial statements and diverted into two bank accounts controlled by Ajan alone. The show concluded that even after these funds were declared in 2009, at least $5.5 million remains unaccounted for. According to ARD, as notice of these potential crimes has been surfaced, the Swiss authorities – the IWF is headquartered in Switzerland – must investigate the situation.

● A careful review of the IWF’s doping control program between 2007-18 showed that some 16,000 tests were made. However, of the 453 medals awarded at the Olympic Games or World Championships during the same period, 45% – 204 – were won by athletes who were never tested outside of competitions in the year they won medals. The show notes that 42 of 62 Russian medalists from 2008-17 were not tested outside of competitions in the year they won medals, and there are many others.

● In 2013, 18 Azerbaijani lifters registered positive tests, but these were not reported by the IWF until March of 2014, during which time some of these lifters won World Championships medals. The program further alleges that the Hungarian anti-doping agency (HUNADO) was paid to accept manipulated samples which would then be tested and be declared clean. The team doctor for Moldova told an ARD undercover reporter that substitutes would appear to give samples in place of the actual athlete to be tested, and the HUNADO doping control officers would not look too closely at the passport. The program stated that 77% of all doping controls carried out by the IWF were done by HUNADO. But at the 2015 World Championships in Houston, Texas, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency did the testing and found 24 positives in that meet alone!

● The show noted a lack of clarity about the payment of fines by national associations as a result of doping positives. The Azerbaijan federation was fined $500,000 in 2013 for its rash of positive tests, but had not paid as of 2014 and a financial reconciliation in 2017 still did not show payment of this amount. What happened? One more note: the fines were often paid in cash, a requirement alleged to be insisted upon by Ajan.

● An undercover team spoke to Thailand’s Rattikan Gulnoi, who was given the bronze medal for the 2012 Olympic 58 kg class in 2018 due to the disqualification of the original Ukrainian medal winner for doping. But then Gulnoi told the reporters that she had been doping herself since 2011, when she was 18. And she said that Thai lifters as young as 13 had been started on a doping regimen! The doping program had been worked out to the point that any trace of the drugs was undetectable within 24 hours.

The reactions came fast and furious on Monday:

● From the International Weightlifting Federation:

Two statements were posted on Monday. The first was “IWF rejects ARD allegations” which included:

“The IWF has to express its shock and dismay at the program as it contains many insinuations, unfounded accusations and distorted information, and it categorically denies the unsubstantiated and very serious accusations made against it by the show.”

The federation claimed that its finances are in order, and have been examined, that there has been out-of-competition testing, especially for Georgia’s 2016 Olympic and four-time World Heavyweight Champion Lasha Talakhadze and that the USADA worked in conjunction with HUNADO at the 2015 and 2017 World Championships.

The second statement, “IWF Follow-up on Widespread Doping Among Thai Athletes,” included:

“On 5 January, German TV channel ARD broadcast a show in which a former Thai weightlifter, Rattikan GULNOI appeared to have implicated herself and other Thai weightlifters in doping. The IWF has immediately followed up with the Thai Federation. The IWF has also requested copies of ARD’s materials.

“The widespread abuse of the same anabolic agent, especially among juniors, in Thailand would appear to be indicative of an organised system of doping that may have extending beyond the sanctioned athletes themselves. This impression would appear to have been reinforced by the apparent confession secured by ARD. The IWF will now confer with WADA and the International Testing Agency, in order to establish whether a wider investigation may be appropriate.”

The IWF said more comments would be coming later.

● From the International Olympic Committee:

The IOC, to its credit, did not wait until Wednesday’s Executive Board meeting to respond. A statement from the IOC noted that “The accusations are very serious and worrying” and that it does not have documentation of either the financial irregularities or the doping information.

The “doping confession” of Gulnoi will be investigated immediately, and a lengthy paragraph noted that a complaint against Ajan in 2010 was barred from inquiry by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But, “Given the change in the IOC Code of Ethics since then and the fact that the television programme may contain new information, the IOC Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer will ask ARD for all the documentation in its possession to properly address it.”

● From the World Anti-Doping Agency:

WADA’s statement was short, including “WADA can confirm that its independent Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) Department is aware of the allegations and will continue to pursue its enquiries regarding potential breaches of the World Anti-Doping Code. However, as these enquiries are ongoing, WADA has no further comment to make in this regard at this time.”

It added that the allegations of Thai doping in weightlifting “are new and of great concern to WADA” and it will be following up immediately.

USA Weightlifting chief executive Phil Andrews also released a statement which underlined the need to investigate the Thai situation, to also look into doping practices in Egypt, and to continue the fight against doping. He noted that the anti-doping program of the IWF is now under the control of the International Testing Agency (ITA) and no longer overseen by the federation. He called for a thorough investigation of all of the allegations in the program.

So now what?

The timing of the ARD program could hardly be worse for weightlifting, which has only in recent months come out of the shadow of an IOC review of rampant doping in the sport that could have kept it off the program in Paris for 2024. Heads will now turn to the IOC’s Executive Board, which will meet on Wednesday (8th) to see if further actions will be undertaken to determine whether the sport will continue to be part of future Games.

It never ends, does it?

LANE ONE: The top stories coming in 2020, part 2: More courtroom drama, more doping and the Tokyo Games

Rich Perelman

January 5, 2020

Look for tumultuous year on and off the field of play in 2020, with the Tokyo Games coming, but a lot of drama before then. We looked at the bottom half of our projected top-10 stories of 2020 last week, so here are our top five:

● 5. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the U.S. Congress ●

In November, the Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill entitled “Empowering Olympic and Amateur Athletes Act of 2019” developed after a series of hearings in a sub-committee that examined the U.S. Olympic Movement in detail.

The proponents are Kansas Senator Jerry Moran and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, and their bill proposes a series of measures designed to protect U.S. Olympic-sport athletes, including a required $20 million in annual funding by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, expanding the USOPC Office of the Ombudsman to assist and advise athletes on any kind of abuse, holding U.S. National Governing Bodies much more responsible for athlete training and support programs they administer and holding the USOPC much more responsible for the NGBs.

The legislation also proposes increasing the level of athlete representation on the USOPC Board of Directors to 33% from 25% and creates a procedure by which the Congress “can dissolve the Board of the U.S. Olympic Committee and decertify National Governing Bodies.”

Even these measures are not enough for some activists, but the possibility of these reforms have galvanized the USOPC into action. It pushed through a series of reforms late in the year which adopted some of the items included in the Moran-Blumenthal bill, which has now been passed to the full Senate for action.

There are many issues with the bill, however. At the top of the list is the ability for the Congress to require a new USOPC Board, which the International Olympic Committee will see as governmental interference with the operation of international sport in the U.S. That could lead to at least the threat of a suspension of the USOPC, something most observers would consider almost unimaginable.

The U.S. House of Representatives is well behind at this point and it is not clear how it will move forward. Moreover, with the Congress completely tied up with the Presidential impeachment process and with 2020 an election year and an Olympic year, it is not at all clear that this issue will fall by the wayside and have to be re-started in 2021.

At the same time, the USOPC will be doing everything it can to avoid having this bill become law. And it is possible that – given everything else going on – that it may be successful.

● 4. Athletes are taking a stand, but with what success? ●

The “athlete’s voice” was a big issue in 2019, but 2020 will test how far this movement can go.

On the docket for May is a trial in the class-action suit for discrimination in pay and playing conditions by 28 members of the U.S. Women’s National Team, against the U.S. Soccer Federation. It’s not at all clear that the women will prevail and the suit also comes just a couple of months prior to the start of the Olympic Football Tournament in Tokyo in late July.

The smart money says this suit will be settled prior to trial, but as the women’s suit has been buoyed by favorable media coverage as well as its victory in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, it’s not at all clear that can happen.

Less confrontational, but still high-profile is the new group headed by triple jump Olympic and World Champion Christian Taylor of the U.S. In response to the revamping of the IAAF Diamond League program – now the Wanda Diamond League – that eliminated the 200 m, steeple, triple jump and discus from the 2020 program, Taylor has been organizing “The Athletics Association” to be an independent representative of track & field athletes.

Taylor has noted that World Athletics has an Athlete’s Commission, but emphasizes the importance of having a fully independent group to work with World Athletics to make the worldwide competition program better for everyone. He has not specified a platform other than to obtain “a seat a the table” to discuss major changes that impact professional athletes, but that could change as we go through the year.

As the Olympic Games draw near, expect to hear a lot more about athlete advertising and the loosening of restrictions around Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter. This section restricts the ability of athletes to promote themselves through commercial relationships which are separate and apart from the IOC, the Games organizers or their own National Olympic Committee.

German athletes won a national judgement on the issue that could be adopted across Europe, allowing more flexibility in such sponsor promotion of athletes, but still without any use of the Olympic Rings or other IOC intellectual property. The USOPC also relaxed its rules, but the British Olympic Association remained fairly tight in its restrictions and is in the process of being sued.

The suits are local, as the IOC has stated the rules are now essentially up to each National Olympic Committee and no blanket prohibition is now in place.

However, the IOC has come out strongly against athlete protests during the Olympic Games, as was seen at the Pan American Games by U.S. fencer Race Imboden (kneeling during a victory ceremony) and American hammer thrower Gwen Berry (raised right fist during her awards ceremony) and at the FINA World Championships in protests against China’s Yang Sun.

In his end-of-year message, IOC chief Thomas Bach (GER) pointedly wrote:

“Athletes have an essential role to play in respecting this political neutrality on the field of play. It is important to note in this regard that there is broad support and understanding among a great majority of athletes that the field of play and ceremonies should not become an arena for political statements or any kind of protests. Respecting one’s fellow athletes also means respecting their unique Olympic moment and not distracting from it with one’s own political views.”

It’s worth noting that the Tokyo Games will be held between the U.S. national political conventions: after the Democratic Party confab and before the Republicans.

● 3. After five years, former IAAF chief and IOC member Lamine Diack will go on trial ●

World Athletics is the new name for what was known as the IAAF from 1912 until last December, but a former head of that federation will be on trial in France for corruption, beginning on 13 January.

Former IAAF President Lamine Diack of Senegal will be among six defendants charged with taking bribes, extortion and money laundering for activities including buying votes of IOC members in Olympic Host City elections, covering up doping violations by Russian athletes and corruption within the IAAF.

Diack, 86, was the elected head of the IAAF from 1999-2015, when the scandal broke and has been under house arrest in France since 2015. Also to be tried are his son, Papa Massata Diack, former IAAF Treasurer and Russian Athletics Federation head Valentin Balakhnichev, Russian coach Alexei Melnikov, Diack aide Habib Cisse and the former IAAF anti-doping manager Gabriel Dolle.

Papa Massata Diack has remained in Senegal and has refused to talk with the French authorities. Balakhnichev and Melnikov have remained in Russia and are similarly beyond the current reach of the prosecutors. They are expected to be tried in absentia.

The trial promises to be bad news for the IOC, for World Athletics and for international sport in general, with millions of dollars having changed hands for dubious purposes. With an investigation that has spanned more than four years, though, the pressure will very much be on the French prosecutors to make a strong case that justifies the lengthy development period.

● 2. The Russian doping drama drones on, but is there hope for the future? ●

The seemingly endless saga of Russia and doping continues in 2020, with sanctions on the line that could keep a Russian team out of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The World Anti-Doping Agency formally declared the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) as non-compliant in December, endorsing internal recommendations of a four-year suspension. No Russian team would be allowed to compete at the Tokyo Games in 2020 or the Bejing Winter Games in 2022, but Russian athletes who can “prove” that they are clean could compete as neutrals.

Naturally, the Russians have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with lawyers now appointed not just for RUSADA, but also for the Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian Paralympic Committee. The tactics are fairly clear, with the Russians planning to slow down the process sufficiently so that a Russian team can compete in Tokyo (but then the sanctions would cover Paris 2024). Whether this actually is allowed is yet to be seen.

At the same time, World Athletics has suspended its reinstatement process for the Russian Athletics Federation altogether, thanks to a new interference with a possible doping positive for a “whereabouts” failure of high jumper Danil Lysenko, the 2018 World Indoor Champion. This could result in no Russian track & field athletes competing in Tokyo, regardless of what happens with the WADA sanctions.

At the same time, the science of anti-doping is being moved forward by some promising new technologies. Testing via samples of a dried blood spot would make the collection process much easier, faster and less expensive. Significant advances in tracking doping efforts through analysis of gene sequencing – especially for blood doping – is another highly promising possibility. IOC chief Bach has urged WADA to adopt these processes for Tokyo, and the IOC has also provided $5 million for the storage of pre-Olympic, out-of-competition doping samples for 10 years so that they can be re-tested as more advanced analysis procedures are available.

There is reason to think the anti-doping movement could be significantly advanced in 2020 if the promising new technologies come online soon enough. But it will be the Russian case that will dominate the headlines right through the spring.

● 1. The Games of the XXXII Olympiad finally come to Tokyo ●

At the end of another tumultuous organizing period, seven years of preparation will finally end on 24 July as the 2020 Olympic Games open in Tokyo, Japan.

The New National Stadium, built at a cost of $1.4 billion, will be the site for the Opening Ceremony for a Games which has been continuously buffeted by controversy since Tokyo was selected in 2013:

● The total cost of the Games was originally pegged at $7.3 billion (U.S.), zoomed to as much as $25 billion by some estimates, but has settled at $12.6 billion (+72.6%) over the past year or so. Worries over spending are continuing, but the savings effort has been real: the original stadium plan was to cost upwards of $2.3 billion, but a new plan was developed with the final cost almost 45% less.

● The enduring concern about the Tokyo Games has become the summer heat. Some of the pre-Olympic test events in the summer were held in hot conditions and some athletes were affected.

After the IOC watched 20 of the 68 competitors in the 2019 IAAF World Championships women’s marathon fail to finish because of the hot conditions in Doha, Qatar – with many more suffering through the race – it switched the marathons and race walks to the northern city of Sapporo. The start time for the cross-country equestrian event was moved to 7:30 a.m. from 8:30 and the individual triathlons will start at 6:30 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m. The open-water swimming events will start at 7:00 a.m., but could be moved earlier.

(In case you were wondering, sunrise in Tokyo in late July will be about 4:45 a.m.)

● There are lingering questions about whether the Tokyo bid committee’s payments for “consulting” made close to the IOC’s vote in 2013 might have been used for bribes of African IOC members. This topic is expected to be touched on during the Diack trial later this month.

On the other hand, the Tokyo organizers are moving along towards a successful staging of the Games. IOC President Bach said in his New Year’s Message that “I have never seen an Olympic host as prepared as Tokyo at this stage before the Games.”

What is true is that the interest in the Games in Japan is remarkable. About 7.8 million tickets for the Games are available, but the organizers have reported combined requests in the three rounds of distributions of more than 60 million! This is good news for the Paralympics, which will undoubtedly sell out thanks to the unrequited demand for Olympic seats.

Applications for volunteer positions at the Games were similarly overwhelming at 204,680 from a short campaign that closed in January of 2019. So the public support for the Games is at perhaps unprecedented levels.

It’s going to be quite a show in Tokyo (and Sapporo) and it’s going to be quite a year.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HIGHLIGHTS: Shiffrin takes ninth medal in 12 World Cup races this season in Zagreb Slalom

Rich Perelman

January 5, 2020

tsx pix 21518 shiffrin, mikaela gnt slm 750 — Defending World Cup overall champ Mikaela Shiffrin (USA)

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

● ALPINE SKIING ● The men and women were racing together in Zagreb, Croatia in a Slalom, with a mild surprise on the women’s side.

American Mikaela Shiffrin had won three straight Slaloms this season, but ended up second to chief rival Petra Vlhova (SVK). The Slovakian star was in charge from the start, finishing the first run with a solid 1.16-second lead over Shiffrin and then extending it to win the second race as well by 0.15 for a 1.31 margin of victory. It was Vlhova’s second win of the season and 11th in her career; she won in Zagreb after taking second in two of the last three years and collected her first Zagreb Snow Queen trophy.

“I’m never going to a race expecting that I’m going to win – especially when I have competitors like Petra,” said Shiffrin afterwards. “She doesn’t win these races from luck. She wins because she’s working really hard.”

Shiffrin’s consistency – which is what will bring her a fourth consecutive World Cup overall title – was on display again. Her silver medal gave her nine top-three finishes in her 12 races this season. That’s amazing.

In the men’s Slalom, France’s Clement Noel won his first race of the season with a solid second run that brought him from fourth to first, ahead of first-race leader Ramon Zenhaeusern (SUI) by just 0.07. Full results here.

● BOBSLED & SKELETON ● Germany swept almost all the honors in the third IBSF World Cup of the season, winning all three Bobsled races at Winterberg, Germany.

Two races were held in the men’s four-man event, with Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich (GER) and countryman Nico Walther running 1-2. The second race was a German sweep, with Johannes Lochner winning, Friedrich second and Walther third.

The women’s race was another German sweep, with 2019 Worlds silver medalist Stephanie Schneider winning, ahead of Olympic champ Mariama Jamanka and Laura Nolte. The American pair of Kaillie Humphries and Lauren Gibbs – who had won the first two races of the season – finished fourth.

World Champion Tina Hermann won her first Skeleton race of the season, ahead of Canada’s Mirela Rahneva, and Korea’s 2018 Olympic gold medalist Sung-Bin Yun took the men’s race, defeating Germans Alexander Gassner and Axel Jungk. Full results here.

● ICE HOCKEY ● The men’s World Junior (U-20) Championship finished in Ostrava, Czech Republic, with Canada defeating Russia, 4-3, in the final, scoring three goals in the third period to overcome a 3-1 deficit. Sweden defeated Finland, 3-2, for the bronze medal; the U.S. lost to Finland in the quarterfinals, 1-0, and finished ranked sixth. Sweden’s Samuel Fagemo was the top scorer with eight goals and 13 total points. Full results here.

The United States won the IIHF Women’s U-18 World Championship held in Bratislava, Slovakia, with a 2-1 win over Canada in overtime. Kiara Zanon scored the game-winner from an assist from Maggie Nicholson at 16:52 of the first overtime period. It’s the eighth title for the U.S. women and fifth in the last six editions. Russia won the bronze medal with a 6-1 win over Finland; Russian Kristi Shashkina was the top scorer with eight points and four goals. Full results here.

● NORDIC SKIING ● Two major Nordic tournaments highlighted the weekend, the Tour de Ski in Cross Country and the famed Four Hills Tournament in Ski Jumping.

The seven-race Tour de Ski finished in Val di Fiemme on Sunday, with Norway’s Simen Hegstad Kruger winning the 10 km Freestyle Mass Start race ahead of teammate Sjur Roethe and Russian Alexander Bolshunov.

But that third-place finish was enough to give Bolshunov the overall title in the 14th edition of this tour, the second-ever Russian winner. Bolshunov finished in the top three in six of seven races and won the 15 km Classical Pursuit. The first Russian winner, Sergey Ustiugov (2017) was second overall, piling up two wins and three seconds to edge Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who won both Sprint events and the 15 km Mass Start.

The women’s title went to Norway’s relentless Therese Johaug, who won the 10 m Freestyle Mass Start, 10 km Freestyle and 10 km Freestyle Mass Start Climb events and was second in the 10 km Classical Pursuit. It’s her third Tour de Ski title; she also won in 2014 and 2016. Russian Natalya Nepryayeva finished second and Ingvild Flugstad Ostberg (NOR) was third. Full results are here.

In the 68th Four Hills Tournament, Japan’s defending champ Ryoyu Kobayashi won the opener in Obertsdorf (GER), but gave way to Marius Lindvik (NOR) in Garmisch (GER) and Innsbruck (AUT). The final event will be in Monday in Bischofshofen (AUT), with Poland’s Dawid Kubacki (830.7) currently leading, with Lindvik second (821.6) and German Karl Geiger third (817.4). Kobayashi sits fourth at 817.0. More results here.

● SHORT TRACK ● Thomas Hong and Kristen Santos were the big winners at the 2020 USA Short Track Speedskating National Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah over the weekend.

The three-day event saw Hong, a 2018 Olympian, win the 500 m and 1,000 m and finish second in the 1,500 m to win the American Cup title with 89 points to 45 for Ryan Pivirotto and 39 for Andrew Heo. Pivirotto won the 1,500 m, with Hong second.

The women’s racing looked to be a showcase for 2018 Olympian Maame Biney, who won the 500 m and 1,500 m races on Saturday. In the 1,000 m final on Sunday, Biney finished second to Santos, but was disqualified for an aggressive pass on the penultimate lap against Corinne Stoddard and that made the difference in the final standings. Santos, who said she was trying to fight off some sickness and was sure that Biney would win the overall title, finished with 76 points to 71 for Biney and 35 for Stoddard. Full results here.

● COMING ATTRACTIONS ● The winter sports season comes back to a full schedule this week, with the third Winter Youth Olympic Games starting on Thursday (9th) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC Executive Board will also be meeting in Lausanne on the 8th; what will they be up to?

LANE ONE: The top stories coming in 2020, part 1: Showdowns coming in Tokyo! Doping trials! Unfair shoes!

Rich Perelman

January 1, 2020

tsx-pix-81718-lyles-noah-750 — U.S. sprint superstar Noah Lyles

The calendar has turned and we are now in the Olympic year of 2020. But although the Tokyo Games will be the top story of this year, there are plenty of others to look for in the months ahead:

● 10. Will Australia steal the 2032 Games for Queensland? ●

Australia’s Queensland region – which includes Brisbane – has made no secret of its interest in the 2032 Olympic Games and has been working flat out to prepare to essentially steal the Games before anyone else can get organized.

A bidding committee is being established now, with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszchuk already on board, as well as Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner and plenty of Australian Olympians.

The plan is to further develop their plan in 2020 and present “official documents” to the International Olympic Committee in Tokyo prior to the 2020 Games. That goal is a discussion with the IOC that could lead to the appointment of Queensland by 2021, giving it 11 years – like Los Angeles for 2028 – to put on the event.

There are plenty of other possible bidders, but none that are anywhere near as advanced – or enthusiastic – as Queensland.

● 9. Will Yang Sun be suspended for doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ●

Triple Olympic swimming champion Yang Sun of China expects to be contending for medals in Tokyo, but the World Anti-Doping Agency is against the idea.

Sun, who has won 11 FINA World Championships gold medals – including the 200 and 400 m Freestyles in 2019 – served a three-month suspension for doping in 2014. In September 2018, he was visited for an out-of-competition doping test at his home, felt the tester’s credentials were invalid and sent them away. A blood sample was smashed, opening possible sanctions against the swimmer.

FINA looked into the case and issued only a warning, but WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Sun demanded that the hearing be public – only the second time such a request has been made – and was held in November. The Chinese interpretation service selected by Sun’s attorneys was so bad the hearing was jeopardized, but a corrected transcript is being provided and the Court expects to render a decision in mid-January.

If found to have committed a doping violation, Sun could be suspended for years as a second-time violator. One of the memorable moments of the 2019 FINA World Championships came during the awards ceremonies following Sun’s wins. Australia’s silver-medal winner Mack Horton refused to stand on the podium with him after the 400 m Free and Britain’s Duncan Scott refused to shake Sun’s hand after the 200 m Free. The tension was palpable and Sun was furious.

Expect considerable turmoil regardless of how the case is decided.

● 8. How many gold medals can Caeleb Dressel win? Or Katie Ledecky? ●

After winning seven gold medals at the 2017 FINA World Championships and six last summer at the FINA Worlds in Gwangju, Korea, American sprinter Caeleb Dressel will be one of the superstars of the first week of the Tokyo Games.

He’s clearly the favorite in the 50 m Freestyle, 100 m Freestyle and 100 m Butterfly, events he won in Gwangju. He can’t compete in the 50 m Butterfly since it’s not on the Olympic program, so the question comes down to how many relays he could participate in.

He was a member of the winning U.S. teams in the men’s 4×100 m Free and Mixed 4×100 m Free, which would give him five golds. He won a silver medal in the men’s 4×100 m Medley, and the U.S. should have a stronger team in 2020 than in 2019. That would be six.

Dressel, 23, has revved up his media profile and has a clear understanding of what could be in front of him. So he’s been casting around for another opportunity, as a seventh gold would tie him with Mark Spitz from 1972, one behind Michael Phelps’ haul of 2008.

Look for Dressel to look into entering the men’s 200 m Free at the U.S. Trials in Omaha in June, not so much to swim the event individually, but as a member of the American 4×200 m Free relay. He’s not close yet, but it could be an option for him.

In addition to Dressel, American distance star Katie Ledecky will be coming back from a disappointing 2019 Worlds, where she fell ill and famously lost the 400 m Free to Australian teen Ariarne Titmus, 3:58.76-3:59.97, on the final lap.

Ledecky had for years been so dominant that the only question was about whether she would take down one of her own world records. Now she wants to demonstrate her brilliance … and perhaps take a shot at equaling East German Kristin Otto’s 1988 feat of six gold medals, the most ever won in a single Games by a women.

Ledecky’s likely program for Tokyo includes the 200-400-800-1,500 m Frees and the 4×200 m Free relay. She has been a member of the U.S. 4×100 m Free relay in the past, winning a silver in Rio in 2016, but Australia has been almost unbeatable in the event in the past couple of years. But U.S. depth is improving in the event and it could be a true tug-of-war in Tokyo … and possibly a chance at equaling Otto’s feat.

● 7. The newest furor is over Nike’s Vaporfly shoes ●

If you thought Nike had enough on its plate contending with the fallout from the closure of the Nike Oregon Project following the four-year suspension of star coach Alberto Salazar for doping violations, more is coming.

The new cause celebre is its Vaporfly shoe series, a special version of which was worn by Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge in his historic 1:59:40.2 marathon time trial and Brigid Kosgei, who set a world record for the women’s marathon of 2:14:04, both in October.

The Vaporfly model developed for these runners further reduces the shoe’s weight and has special carbon plating which creates more bounce from contact with the road. Over the course of 26.2 miles, even tiny advantages make a significant competitive (and time) difference to those wearing these shoes.

Irish journalist Cathal Dennehy has been racing after this story and noted in recent weeks to “Get set for the Vaporfly debate to hit sprinting … the Nike prototype spike that could change the game in 2020.”

But on 30 December, he also tweeted that “A new rule that’s been drafted by World Athletics could put a stop to the current arms race in shoe technology” and writing in the Irish Independent that “Nike’s Vaporfly shoe is giving some athletes an unfair advantage in distance events.” His story starts with this:

“Enough. This can’t go on, and no longer can the sport be in denial. No longer should athletics tolerate such flexible bending – or outright breaking – of its rules.” Stay tuned.

● 6. Christian Coleman or Noah Lyles? Kipchoge or Bekele? Dalilah Muhammad or Sydney McLaughlin? ●

The Olympic track & field competition in Tokyo may be one of the best ever, thanks to a series of rising rivalries among the top stars in several events. Just some of the match-ups to look forward to this summer:

● Men/100 & 200 m: A showdown of World Champions, with 2019 winners Christian Coleman in the 100 m and Noah Lyles in the 200 m. Both have said they plan to double in 2020.

● Men/Marathon: The world record is 2:01:39 by Kipchoge in Berlin (GER) in 2018, and Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele won the 2019 race in 2:01:41. What will happen when they meet in Sapporo?

● Men/400 m Hurdles: Norway’s Karsten Warholm beat Rai Benjamin of the U.S., 47.42-47.66 in Doha, but don’t expect Benjamin to be satisfied with silver. Also, how good will Qatar’s Abderrahame Samba be if he’s actually healthy?

● Men/Pole Vault: American Sam Kendricks won the 2019 Worlds battle against Mondo Duplantis (SWE) and Piotr Lisek (POL), but that’s no guarantee for Tokyo.

● Men/Triple Jump: Former Florida stars Christian Taylor and Will Claye were 1-2 again in Doha, but both have their eyes not only on the gold medal, but the world record!

● Men/Shot Put: Americans Joe Kovacs and Ryan Crouser, with Tom Walsh (NZL), put on the greatest shot competition in history in Doha, with Kovacs winning by one cm at 22.91 m (75-2). Could they possibly do better?

● Women/Steeple: Kenya’s world-record holder, Beatrice Chepkoech, has been invincible, but could American Emma Coburn shock the world as she did in 2017?

● Women/400 m hurdles: It took world records for American Dalilah Muhammad to beat Sydney McLaughlin at the U.S. Nationals and the Doha Worlds. Muhammad will be trying to win her second straight Olympic gold and may have to be the first to ever run sub-52 to do so.

Will any Russians be allowed to compete? Will Allyson Felix continue her comeback and try for more medals? It’s going to be a great spectacle in the new National Stadium.

All of the Americans in these duels have to make the U.S. team first. The Olympic Trials will be held from 19-28 June in Eugene, Oregon, in the first major test of the under-construction Hayward Field, the site of the 2021 World Championships.

Our picks for the top five stories ahead in 2020 comes next Monday; in the meantime, a very Happy New Year once more to our readers!

Rich Perelman
Editor

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GLOBETROTTING by Phil Hersh: With gold haul from world meets, Biles and Dressel get more as best of international sports in 2019

Phil Hersh

December 31, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1231 biles, simone medals 750 — All that glitters is Simone Biles, showing her five gold medals from the 2019 Worlds.

Courage was the key word on the international sports scene in 2019.

Competitive courage, like the grit alpine skier Lindsey Vonn showed in making her final race a triumphant World Championships downhill bronze medal only five days after her landmark career seemed on the verge of ending with yet another frightening crash.

Emotional courage, like two-time U.S. champion Gracie Gold’s decision to pursue a figure skating comeback on her own terms while battling the mental health issues that seemed to have ended her career in 2017. Or one-time running phenom Mary Cain’s decision to go public with allegations of psychological and physical abuse against a sulfurous coach, Alberto Salazar, and others at the since-disbanded Nike Oregon Project running team.

Megan Rapinoe embraced her roles as a star and a spokesperson for human rights.

Ethical courage, like the perennially outstanding U.S. women’s soccer team pushing a suit for pay equal to that of the perennially underachieving men despite the potential for having the issue become a distraction before and during the 2019 World Cup.

Moral courage, like soccer national team captain Megan Rapinoe speaking out for gay (and human) rights and giving a verbal smack down to the sulfurous U.S. President in her insistence before the World Cup that she would not be going to the “[expletive deleted] White House” if the team was invited,

But there was, as has often been the case, another “c” word prominent in international sport again in 2019.

Cheating.

Russia added another chapter to its interminable doping story with revelations that it had apparently tampered with and/or altered Moscow anti-doping lab data before turning it over to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Once again, it risks going to another Olympics as a no-name country – or one that should have SHAME in the place of a national logo.

Kenyan distance runners continued to get busted or provisionally banned for doping offenses – nearly 50 at present, according to insidethegames.biz.

The Kenyan question affects what follows in this column, Globetrotting’s 33rd annual international sports awards to athletes for whom an Olympic gold medal is the ultimate prize.

That caveat about the highest goal and the development of the World Cup into the most important event in women’s soccer means Team USA’s brilliant championship performance in France, with Rapinoe the high scorer (Golden Boot) and best player (Golden Ball), is outside the parameters applied since I began these awards in the pages of the Chicago Tribune.

But it goes without saying that the soccer team deserves a loud shout-out.

And now the medalists:

WORLD MEN’S ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

Caeleb Dressel looks at his world record time in 100 butterfly

Gold – Caeleb Dressel, United States, swimming. At the 2019 worlds, Dressel won six gold medals (five in events on the Olympic program, four in individual events) and two silvers (one in an Olympic event.) In the process, he broke Michael Phelps’ 10-year-old world record in the 100-meter butterfly, his own U.S. records in the 50- and 100-meter freestyles and the meet record as part of the 4 x 100 free relay.

Silver – Nathan Chen, United States, figure skating. While a full-time student at Yale, Chen won a third straight U.S. title, a second straight world title and a third straight Grand Prix Final title with six flawless performances that got progressively more remarkable, reaching a level of extraordinary brilliance. No previous U.S. man ever had won two GPF titles, and none had won consecutive world titles since Scott Hamilton’s fourth straight in 1984.

Bronze – Marcel Hirscher, Austria, alpine skiing. He etired at age 30 after having won a record eighth straight World Cup overall title, three more than anyone else; his sixth season titles in slalom and giant slalom; and nine races, giving him a career total of 67, second best in history. Hirscher also won gold (slalom) and silver (giant) at the 2019 World Championships.

WORLD WOMEN’S ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

Gold – Simone Biles, United States, gymnastics. The most dominant athlete in her sport’s history, Biles could have kept winning world titles with the same repertoire of tricks. But in winning her fifth all-around world title as well as 2019 world golds in team, vault, balance beam and floor exercise, becoming the most gilded and decorated gymnast in worlds history, Biles included two new and ridiculously difficult moves.

Silver – Brigid Kosgei, Kenya, marathon. In an era when all jaw-dropping performances in distance running are questioned, Kosgei delivered one at the Chicago Marathon, and it deserves recognition. Her winning time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds lopped 1 minute, 21 seconds from the 16-year-old, oft-questioned world record set by Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe. Kosgei also won the London Marathon in 2:18.20, joining Radcliffe and Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia as the only women to have run two sub-2:20 marathons in the same year.

Bronze – Mikaela Shiffrin, United States, alpine skiing. Shiffrin won her third straight World Cup overall and slalom season titles (her sixth slalom title in all) and her first in both giant slalom and Super-G. She won world championship golds in slalom and Super-G. Her record-breaking 17 World Cup race wins (2018-19 season) included three in Super-G, making her the only alpine skier to win in all six disciplines currently contested on the circuit. Her 63rd World Cup career win in the penultimate race of 2019 (followed a day later by No. 64) left her second only to Lindsey Vonn (82) among women.

U.S. MEN’S ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

Gold – Caeleb Dressel (see above)

Silver – Nathan Chen (see above)

Bronze – Christian Taylor, track and field. His event, the triple jump, may not command attention, but Taylor should for the way he commands the event. Eight years after becoming at age 21 the youngest world champ in the triple jump, Taylor won his fourth world title, double the total of anyone else in history. He seeks a third straight Olympic gold next year.

Simone Manuel after anchoring U.S. medley relay to world title and record.

U.S. WOMEN’S ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

Gold – Simone Biles (see above)

Silver – Mikaela Shiffrin (see above)

Bronze – Simone Manuel, swimming. Manuel won a second straight world title in the 100 free with a U.S. record time (52.04), her first world title in the 50 free and swam anchor with her fastest split ever as the U.S. won gold in the medley relay in world-record time. Her overall 2019 worlds medal count: 7, most ever by a woman.

WORLD MEN’S PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

Gold – Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya, marathon. In a contest more contrivance than competition, the 34-year-old Kipchoge became the first to break two hours in the marathon. He covered the distance on a Vienna, Austria course in a time, 1 hour, 59 minutes, 40 seconds that was historic but will not count as a world record (he has that at 2:01:39) because it was a time trial, not a race, in which a pack of professional pace-setters aided his effort. Kipchoge will forever be known as a barrier-breaker with an asterisk*.

Silver – Mutaz Barshim, Qatar, track and field. He was the home-town hero high jumper at a World Championships foisted upon a home town that could have cared less about it. Some Qataris finally showed up at the Doha stadium to watch Barshim, who had overcome a career-threatening ankle injury from 2018, become the first man to win consecutive world titles in the event.

Bronze – Great Britain men’s medley relay, swimming. Anchor Duncan Scott overtook the favored USA with the second fastest relay split in history, and the Brits set a European record for their first world title in the event.

The message and the time say it all: Eliud Kipchoge ran the first sub-2-hour marathon

WORLD WOMEN’S PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

Gold – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, track and field, Jamaica. After missing the 2017 worlds while giving birth to her first child, Fraser-Price, 32, won the 100-meter world title in 10.71 seconds, matching the fastest time in the world since 2017. It made her the first to win four world titles in the event.

Silver – Dalilah Muhammad, United States, track and field. At the U.S. Championships in June, Muhammad’s time of 52.20 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles lowered the 16-year-old world record by .14. She dropped it again (to 52.16) in winning the world title.

Bronze – Regan Smith, United States, swimming. Became the first woman to go under 2 minutes, 4 seconds in the 200-meter backstroke with a tine of 2:03.35, breaking a seven-year-old world record, in the semifinals at the World Championships. Went on to win the event and break the 100-meter world record leading off the victorious medley relay.

LANE ONE: The top stories of 2019, from no. 5 to no. 1, a year of change, upheaval, women and Russia

Rich Perelman

December 29, 2019

Let there be no doubt, this was a wild year in Olympic sport, and as with so many areas today, full of contention, argument and disagreement. In some cases, these were coupled with the results of competition on the field of play.

As we count down the top stories of 2019 in international sport, our picks for nos. 10-6 are here and let’s count down the top five:

● 5. The IAAF rules on hyperandrogenism are upheld against Caster Semenya’s appeal ●

After its 2011 regulations on women with “differences in sex development” that banned competitors with high levels of testosterone was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) came with a narrowed set of rules in April 2018.

Normal female testosterone levels are from 0.06 to 1.68 nanomoles/liter, while normal male levels are from 7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L. The new regulations limit the level of testosterone for athletes entering women’s events from 400 m to the mile, to 5.0 nmol/L, or almost three times the level ordinarily found in women. Women with too-high testosterone levels can lower them with oral contraceptives.

The new rules were challenged by South Africa’s double Olympic 800 m champion Caster Semenya at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the Court decided in April that while discriminatory on their face, the regulations were sufficiently “necessary, reasonable and proportionate to preserve the integrity of female athletics (‘protected class women’) in the restricted events as well as to ensure fair competition.”

Semenya appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which initially struck down the IAAF’s regulations in May, but on 29 July issued an order reinstating the regulations, noting that “in a first summary examination, that Caster Semenya’s appeal does not appear with high probability to be well founded.” The final decision on the appeal has still not been issued, but is expected eventually.

With the new rules in place and as Semenya has stated that she will not be taking any medications to lower her naturally-high testosterone levels, she did not compete in the World Championships in Doha, Qatar and – if the regulations stand – would not be eligible to run in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in the 800 or 1,500 m. She could run in events longer than the mile, but has not indicated that she will do so.

The IAAF (now World Athletics) moved on quickly, and hosted an October meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland to apply the same limitations to transgender athletes, attended by the international federations for golf, rowing and tennis, as well as the International Paralympic Committee, with the aim to spread these rules more widely across sports. This is only the start of the discussion on transgenders and will continue in 2020, but was a major win for the IAAF.

● 4. International Swimming League challenges FINA and hosts its inaugural season ●

Founded and funded by Ukrainian energy billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin, the International Swimming League promised to “revolutionize” the sport by creating a new professional league, with eight teams competing across seven meets between October and December.

A lot of the sport’s top athletes signed up, such as superstars Caeleb Dressel, Katie Ledecky, Adam Peaty (GBR), Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), Chad le Clos (RSA), Katinka Hosszu (HUN), Daiya Seto (JPN) and many more and the seven meets were indeed held, with the final at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

But the meets were modestly attended, with the best turnouts in Europe and very little attention in the U.S., even though four of the seven meets were held there. The meets were produced with television in mind, had a live disc jockey on the deck and lots of graphics to eliminate any shots of the (small) crowds.

Despite repeated shouts by the announcers that the times did not matter, most of the attention that was paid to the ISL events was from the three world Short Course records set in the men’s 50 m Free (20.24, Dressel), 400 m Medley (3:54.81, Seto) and the women’s 100 m Backstroke (54.89, Minna Atherton (AUS)).

Grigorishin promised that the league would expand to 10 teams – adding Toronto and Tokyo – in 2020-21 and host 27 meets from October to April. But the first-year program drew no visible commercial sponsors and had broadcast exposure that was almost all online. And while the project was a sure financial loser in year one, the proposed, expanded program would cost many times that in year two. Will it happen? Probably only if Grigorishin pays for it.

ISL had more success pressuring FINA to cooperate with it. After a trial meet in December 2018 was canceled, ISL filed suit against FINA in U.S. District Court in Northern California as operating a monopoly in professional swimming, and got Hosszu and U.S. swimmers Tom Shields and Michael Andrew to front a class-action suit on the same basis. That action has survived a dismissal attempt by FINA and will be heard in mid-2020.

More impactful was a January announcement from FINA that it would not prevent the holding of meets by ISL and would not sanction any athlete for participating in such a program. Moreover, FINA felt pressured into creating its own “Champions Swim Series” which included three meets and $3.1 million in prize money in 2019 and is scheduled for two meets (in January) and $2.3 million in athlete compensation in 2020.

So, ISL can claim some significant accomplishments in year one, even its own meets didn’t make much of a splash. But how much money Grigorishin will put in for 2020 will be a story to watch.

● 3. A hot and wild IAAF World Championships in Doha leads to change in Tokyo for 2020 ●

The IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, was one of the most talked-about events during the year. Held in late September and early October because of the high heat in the Middle East, the training schedules of athletes were significantly impacted, and there was concern over a whole range of issues, from athlete safety to attendance.

The Qatari organizers made a major effort to ameliorate the heat issues inside the Khalifa International Stadium, creating reasonable – if somewhat warm – conditions. The partial roof over the stadium and the heavy air conditioning flow created a situation that almost resembled running indoors. The results, therefore, were sensational, with three world records and six World Championships meet records, including two world marks in the Mixed 4×400 m relay by the United States teams, and a world 400 m hurdles record (52.16) by Dalilah Muhammad of the U.S. At least 86 national records were set during the competition.

The U.S. dominated the medal table once again, winning 29 medals (14-11-4) to 12 for Jamaica (3-5-4) and 11 for Kenya (5-2-4).

One of the major shortfalls of the event was the very low attendance in the first several days of the event. In part this was due to the economic sanctions against Qatar imposed by other Arab nations for political reasons, having nothing to do with the meet. Schools were asked to bring children and the crowds came out late in the meet to see national hero Mutaz Essa Barshim win the men’s high jump and then for the final weekend, featuring the relays.

But the legacy of this event came in the long-distance events, especially the two marathons, both held at midnight to try and escape the high heat. The women’s race took place on the first day, with temperatures ranging from 86-92 F and only 40 of the 68 entrants were able to finish. The men’s race, held on the next-to-last day, had 55 finishers out of 73 starters.

Despite heavy preparations for medical assistance, a 7 km loop course which allowed for extra water stations and athlete monitoring and extensive pre-race instructions to athletes, the sight of so many world-class athletes dropping out from the conditions caused alarm at the International Olympic Committee.

Facing a severe heat scare in Tokyo during the summer and early fall in which athletes at some of the test events were impacted, the IOC moved the 2020 Olympic marathons and racewalking events out of Tokyo and to the northern city of Sapporo in Japan, site of the 1972 Olympic Winter Games. This was protested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, but to no avail, with the IOC stating it would pick up the marginal additional costs of holding the events in Sapporo. There were athletes who were angry as well, but it was a reminder to future organizers that the IOC does, in fact, own the Olympic Games.

● 2. U.S. Women’s World Cup win changes soccer, and Simone Biles makes gymnastics history ●

The case can be made that 2019 was very much the Year of the Woman, in many areas. One of the most memorable moments came in June, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament held in France.

This event set new standards for worldwide interest in the women’s game, with FIFA announcing that 1.12 billion viewers had watched at least some of the tournament, and 263.6 million watching some part of the final. In addition, attendance was 1.13 million (not a record) and interest was swelled by the outstanding performance of European teams, which accounted for half of the Round-of-16 teams and seven of the eight quarterfinalists. The U.S. won the tournament – its fourth title – by surviving strong challenges from Spain (2-1) in the Round of 16 and England (2-1) in the semis; the American women won the final, 2-0, over The Netherlands.

The tournament was so successful that FIFA, in addition to pouring in more money into the development of the women’s game worldwide, is now considering whether to hold the Women’s World Cup every other year. Four bidders have come through for an expanded Women’s World Cup (32 teams) in 2023.

That victory came against the backdrop of a class-action suit by 28 members of the U.S. Women’s National Team against the U.S. Soccer Federation, charging discrimination in pay and playing conditions vs. the Men’s National Team. An attempt at mediation failed and the suit is scheduled to go to trial in May of 2020, a couple of months prior to the 2020 Olympic Games.

If this was the Year of the Woman in international sports, then the Woman of the Year was American gymnast Simone Biles. Already an icon in the sport as well as an abuse survivor, she re-wrote the sport’s record book in 2019 with her performance at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Still just 22, Biles – who stands 4-8 – stood tallest at the FIG World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, winning the All-Around, Vault, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise, in addition to the Team gold. Those five victories gave her a career total of 25 Worlds medals, the most ever won by anyone (man or woman) and increased her record total of gold medals to 19. Her five golds at a single Worlds tied the record and was done for the first time since 1958.

She is, by far, the greatest female gymnast in history and is considered in some circles as the finest gymnast ever. She will be the favorite for another five golds at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

● 1. The unending saga of Russia and doping ●

Will this ever end?

There are a lot of folks who just roll their eyes when you mention Russia and doping, as this soap opera is now headed for its sixth year in the Olympic spotlight. From January through December, this saga has confused, confounded and clouded the world of international sport.

The year started well enough, with the World Anti-Doping Agency finally able to obtain a copy of the Moscow Laboratory database from Russian authorities in January, one of the requirements for Russia to maintain its compliant status. The scope of the data was enormous and required a lengthy review by the WADA staff to determine its validity.

In September, WADA announced that there were substantial “inconsistencies” in the data and sent questions to the Russians – with a three-week deadline – to answer concerning possible tampering with the data. When the answers came back, the WADA Investigations and Intelligence team put together a detailed report for the Compliance Review Committee, which could then make recommendations on whether the Russian Anti-Doping Agency should continue to be considered compliant.

Nope.

The Compliance Review Committee not only agreed with the WADA staff that thousands of changes had been made to the data provided in January, but suggested a long list of sanctions on 21 November. These included a declaration that Russia would be considered non-compliant for a period of four years and would not be able to compete under the Russian flag for that period in major events including the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and world championships. The only opening was if a Russian athlete can prove – under circumstances yet to be specified – that he or she was personally drug-free and not implicated in any of the data available to WADA as being involved in the state-sponsored doping system from 2011-15.

There were shrieks of favoritism from those demanding a blanket ban, but the sanctions – which were approved by the WADA Executive Board on 9 December – were specifically developed to withstand a certain court challenge from Russia.

After the sanctions were approved by WADA on 9 December, the Russians confirmed their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 27 December.

Now the matter is in the CAS system and the Russians have already announced that its interests will be represented by separate sets of attorneys for the Russian Anti-Doping Agency and the Russian Olympic Committee. The likely strategy is to slow the process down as much as possible and drag it past the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, allowing Russia to compete as an invited nation.

That won’t work in track & field, as World Athletics has halted its procedure which allowed Russians to compete as neutral athletes, and could expel Russia from the federation altogether.

WADA’s head of the Compliance Review Committee, British attorney Jonathan Taylor, made it clear that if Russia is able to delay the CAS decision past Tokyo, the four-year period will simply start later – if upheld – and keep Russia out of the 2024 Games in Paris.

This is far from being over, but it was – and is – the top story in international sport for 2019.

There was another important doping development which was a major bombshell this year, involving Alberto Salazar, the high-profile coach of the Nike Oregon Project, and Dr. Jeffrey Brown, a physician associated with the club. An American Arbitration Association panel upheld a four-year sanction against both on 30 September; the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency had determined that “each should receive a 4-year sanction for orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct.”

Salazar immediately filed notice of appeal to CAS, but Nike chief Mark Parker announced 10 days later that the Nike Oregon Project program was being shut down. While USADA noted that none of the Nike Oregon Project athletes had been part of any doping violations, both the International Olympic Committee and WADA asked for a review of the status of all of the athletes involved in the program, including Olympic and World Championships stars Mo Farah (GBR), Galen Rupp (USA), Sifan Hassan (NED) and others. It’s another story that won’t be closed up until sometime in 2020.

Quite a year, wasn’t it?

And 2020 will be even wilder, with the long-awaited, $12.6 billion Tokyo Games coming in July, and even more off-the-field intrigue coming soon. We’ll have our picks for the top stories to look for in 2020 starting on Thursday; in the meantime, best wishes for a healthy and happy new year!

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HIGHLIGHTS: Two races, two wins and more history for Mikaela Shiffin!

Rich Perelman

December 29, 2019

tsx pix 2019-105 shiffrin, mikaela news conf 750 — American skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin (USA)

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

● ALPINE SKIING ● The amazing Mikaela Shiffrin moved to no. 4 on the all-time World Cup wins list with a pair of victories in the FIS Alpine World Cup in Linz, Austria.

On Saturday, she won both runs of the Giant Slalom, 11 days after she finished 17th in the Giant Slalom at Courchevel (FRA). “It sounds a little bit stupid, actually, to say the last week was a tough time because I still have already an amazing season,” she said afterwards. “One bad race, it’s stupid, really. It’s just ski racing. But I care.”

On Sunday, she won both runs in the Slalom to sweep the weekend and claim her 64th career World Cup victory and 43rd in the Slalom. That moves her to no. 4 all-time in World Cup history and no. 2 among women, behind Ingemar Stenmark (SWE: 86), Lindsey Vonn (USA: 80) and Marcel Hirscher (AUT: 67). Full results here.

She now has 43 career World Cup Slalom wins, tying Vonn (43 in Downhill) for the most wins in a single discipline by women. Stenmark has the all-time mark with 46 Giant Slalom wins.

Still just 24, Shiffrin’s triumphs gave her four on the season, with 12 of 39 races completed. The schedule has been thinner than in past season and the four wins in November and December are her fewest since 2016. There are six more Slaloms, five more Giant Slaloms and two more Parallel Slalom races still remaining in the season, in which she will be a definite contender for more wins.

She continues to extend her lead in the overall World Cup and now has a 746-451-413 lead over Federica Brignone (ITA) and Petra Vlhova (SLO) heading into 2020. Amazing.

The men were in Bormio, Italy for three races, including a re-scheduled Downhill from Val Gardena. All to the good for home favorite Dominik Paris, who won both Downhills on Friday and Saturday, beating Swiss Beat Feuz and Urs Kryennuhl on consecutive days. France’s Alexis Pinturault won the first Alpine Combined of the season on Sunday, ahead of Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who won his second World Cup medal this season. Full results here.

But, surprise, it’s Kilde who ends 2019 on top of the World Cup standings, with 474 points, just ahead of Paris (454) and Pinturault (401). That’s after just 14 of the 44 races scheduled this season.

The skiing resumes in Zagreb (CRO) with Slaloms for women on Saturday (4th) and for men on Sunday (5th).

● CROSS COUNTRY ● The 14th annual Tour de Ski is underway in Switzerland and on the way to Italy, with familiar faces on the top of the podium.

In Lenzerheide (SUI), Russia’s Sergey Ustinov won the 15 km Freestyle Mass Start race on Saturday over series leader Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) and Russian Alexander Bolshunov. The Sunday Sprint was another win for Klaebo, his third in the four Sprints held this season, finishing ahead of Federico Pellegrino (ITA).

The women’s 10 km Mass Start was won, of course, by Norway’s Therese Johaug, who stayed perfect this season with her fifth win in the five distance races. She beat teammate Heidi Weng and Sweden’s Ebba Andersson.

Sunday’s Freestyle Sprint went to Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampic, her second career World Cup gold (and first in three seasons). She finished ahead of Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla, who claimed her third Sprint medal in four races on the season. Full results from Lenzerheide here.

In the overall World Cup standings, Klaebo leads the men’s table with 616 points, with teammate Emil Iversen (495) and Bolsuhov (459) still in striking distance. Johaug has the women’s lead at 599 points, trailed by Weng (495) and American Jessica Diggins (387).

● SKI JUMPING ● The 68th edition of the Four Hills Tournament, one of the biggest annual prizes in the sport, got underway in Obertsdorf (GER) with jumping off the 137 m hill.

Once again, it was Ryoyu Kobayashi, the defending Four Hills champ and reigning World Cup champ, who won over Karl Geiger (GER) and Dawid Kubacki (POL), 305.1-295.9-294.7. Kobayashi has now won two straight event and three of his last four, plus his fifth straight win in the Four Hills. Full results here.

● SPEED SKATING ● World Champion Brittany Bowe won yet another U.S. National title in the women’s 1,000 m, but the big stars of the 2019 USA Speedskating National Championships were Joey Mantia, Kimi Goetz and Mia Kilburg-Manganello.

Mantia, himself a two-time World Champion in the Mass Start, won the 1,000 m and 1,500 m titles at the Utah Olympic Oval and was one of two men to win two events. Emery Lehman swept the 5,000 m and 10,000 distance. Kimani Griffin won the 500 m over Brett Perry and then finished second to Mantia in the 1,000 m.

Among the women, Goetz won the 500 m and 1,000 m, ahead of Erin Jackson and Brianna Bocox in the shorter distance, with Bocox second in the 1,000 m.

The workhorse of the women’s racing was Mia Kilburg-Manganello, who won the 3,000 m and 5,000 m, finished second in the 1,500 m and took the bronze in the 1,000 m.

The Nationals was the U.S. qualifier for the ISU World Single Distance Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval next February. Those qualified:

Men:
● Joey Mantia (1,000 m/1,500 m/Mass Start)
● Emery Lehman (1,500 m)
● Ian Quinn (Mass Start)

Women:
● Brittany Bowe (500 m/1,000 m/1,500 m)
● Kimi Goetz (500 m/1,000 m)
● Brianna Bocox (500 m)
● Erin Jackson (500 m)
● Mia Kilburg (3,000 m/5,000 m/Mass Start)
● Paige Schwartzburg (Mass Start)

Full results here.

● THIS WEEK ● Not much of a New Year’s break in Cross Country and Ski Jumping, which have two prestigious tournaments ongoing.

In the 14th Tour de Ski, the action moves to Tolbach (ITA) and Val di Fiemme from Tuesday through next Sunday. The men will have a Sprint, two Mass Starts, and a Pursuit for men, and two Sprints, two Mass Start races and a 10 km Freestyle for women

In the Four Hills Tournament, the jumping continues in Obertsdorf on Monday, then moves to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) on New Year’s, Innsbruck (AUT) on Saturday and Bischofshofen a week from Monday.

Our predictions for the top stories of 2020 are coming on Thursday! Happy New Year!

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Russian strategy for doping case now plain; Women’s World Cup could be held biennially

Rich Perelman

December 26, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1226 olympic manifesto 750 (sothebys) — Pierre de Coubertin's 1892 Olympic manifesto: the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia in history! (Photo: Sotheby's)

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Doping ● What appears to be a coordinated Russian strategy to contest the World Anti-Doping Agency’s sanctions saw the appointment of two sets of lawyers and a projection that the appeal could take so long that Russia could compete under its own flag in Tokyo.

The Russian news agency TASS quoted Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyzkov on Tuesday:

“Regulations do not state in particular the timeframe for WADA to turn to [the Court of Arbitration for Sport], but the previous experience shows that it should take the period of between one and two weeks.

“The question about the timeframe of the appeal can be answered by lawyers, who will be representing our interests in CAS. There are preconditions indicating that the whole story would be over either on the brink of the [2020] Olympics or after the Games. It will take approximately three months after the appointment of CAS arbitrators before the verdict is announced.”

The Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency have hired different attorneys to handle their interests in the appeal, a signal that delays, objections and requests for extra time will be forthcoming to slow the process.

Jonathan Taylor, the British lawyer who heads the WADA Compliance Review Committee, said earlier this month that the four-year sanction period could be moved forward. “If they drag it out so that it doesn’t cover Tokyo [2020], it will cover Paris [2024]. They have to decide which we want to do, which athletes they want to suffer.”

In the meantime, the head of the Russian modern pentathlon federation told TASS that the sanctions could lead to Russian athletes changing their nationality in order to compete.

Gunter Younger, the head of WADA Intelligence & Investigations unit, said earlier this month that a report is being prepared for the International Olympic Committee indicating that a witness who helped acquit 28 of 39 Russians of doping accusations at the 2014 Winter Games was involved in tampering with the Moscow Lab data and that these cases could be reopened.

● Athletics ● Russia’s two-time high jump World Champion Mariya Lasitskene continues to be the outspoken voice of Russian track & field athletes in the face of the doping sanctions.

She told Radio Kosomolskaya Pravda that “We were admitted to the World Championships in neutral status. I won the last two Championships in neutral status. The national team is small, but these are the people who were allowed.

“In connection with the latest events that took place in our Federation [World Athletics], this was taken away from us. That is, the actions of the leadership of our [Russian] Federation have led to the fact that we even had their neutral status recalled.

“For four years, this somehow continued and went even worse.”

Lasitskene referenced the latest action of World Athletics, which has withdrawn its program of approving “Authorized Neutral Athletes” from Russia to compete internationally, based on a review by a three-person board. World Athletics was reacting not only to the WADA sanctions and its finding of manipulated data, but also to obstruction of an investigation into “Whereabouts” violations by 2018 World Indoor High Jump Champion Danil Lysenko via “false explanations and forged documents.” The head of the Russian Athletics Federation, Dmitry Shlyakhtin, was specifically identified for a provisional suspension for tampering or complicity in the matter. Shlyakhtin subsequently resigned.

The Athletics Integrity Unit has given the Russian federation until 2 January 2020 to answer its charges, announced on 21 November.

The annual Bowerman Awards for the top collegiate performers of 2019 were announced on 19 December, with Florida’s Grant Holloway and LSU’s Sha’Carri Richardson taking the honors.

Holloway won the 110 m hurdles in a world-leading 12.98, breaking Renaldo Nehemiah’s 1979 record of 13.00 along the way. Richardson won the women’s 100 m in a stunning 10.75, the world-leading mark at the time. Both turned professional after the NCAA Championships, with Holloway going on to win the World Championships in October.

● Figure Skating ● In the category of “all glory is fleeting,” 17-year-old Alina Zagitova announced earlier this month that she is taking a time-out in her figure skating career.

After rocketing to fame as the winner of the 2018 Olympic Winter gold and then the 2019 World Championship, she fell to second and third in her ISU Grand Prix appearances in the 2019-20 season and finished sixth in the Grand Prix Final. She could not keep up with new Russian stars Alena Kostornaia (16), Anna Shcherbakova (15) and Alexandra Trusova (15), who finished 1-2-3 in the Grand Prix Final.

Is she done?

Olympic Ice Dancing bronze medalist Maia Shibutani is recovering after the removal of what turned out to be a cancerous tumor on one of her kidneys.

After surgery on 14 December to remove what had been identified as a “mass,” Shibutani was told that it might be cancerous. She wrote on her Instagram account on 20 December:

“I got my pathology report back – the tumor that was successfully removed on Saturday was unfortunately malignant (cancer). (SDH)-deficient renal cell carcinoma. This wasn’t the news I was hoping for, but I am beyond thankful that it was detected early and that my surgery went well. No further treatment is required at this time – the next steps are for me to continue focusing on recovering and healing.”

Shibutani and her brother and skating partner Alex have been away from international competition since winning a bronze medal at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. Their plan has been to recharge and concentrate on an even better placing at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

● Football ● Four countries have come forward to bid for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, including Brazil, Colombia, Japan and joint bid by Australia and New Zealand. The winner will be announced in June 2020.

However, the tournament will not only be expanding to 32 teams in 2023, but may be played every two years instead of four. FIFA chief Gianni Infantino (SUI) told reporters on 20 December:

“With France 2019, we had more than 1 billion viewers around the world and some incredible figures in countries where normally women’s football is not anywhere close to the men’s game, such as Italy, Brazil or England.

“This tremendous success triggered a few proposals, on which we are already working. Besides, [French Football Federation] president [Noel] Le Graet came up with a proposal that went a bit unnoticed: of playing the FIFA Women’s World Cup every two years instead of four. This would generate benefits and momentum that fit exactly with what the women’s game needs right now. It is something we should put up for discussion.”

● Swimming ● The dual lawsuits against the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) by the International Swimming League and three swimmers representing a class of elite athletes avoided dismissal on 16 December, thanks to a ruling by a U.S. District Court/Northern District of California Magistrate in San Francisco.

Mag. Jacqueline Scott Corley kept the suits alive and required that FINA file an answer to both in January. The federation is accused of being part of a “global anti-trust conspiracy” in the area of professional swimming.

Because of the circumstances of the case and the specific actions of FINA that are being contested, it’s unlikely that the case – if decided in favor of ISL or the athletes – will have much of an impact on other sports, despite the gleeful predictions of some of the plaintiffs. But that has not stopped overheated commentaries that this suit somehow threatens the IOC’s ownership of the Olympic Games or the way international sports are organized. But FINA itself will now be spending considerably more on legal fees as it contests both suits.

Four-time Olympic champion Roland Matthes, who swam for East Germany, died on Friday, 20 December in Wertheim, Germany, at age 69.

He won eight Olympic medals in a career that spanned the 1968-72-76 Games, winning the 100 m and 200 m Backstrokes in Mexico City and Munich. He won a bronze in the 100 m Back in the Montreal Games and three other relay medals. In fact, he was undefeated in any Backstroke event from 1967 to 1974!

SwimSwam.com noted that “While Matthes swam in an era where many East German swimmers have later admitted to participation in a systematic state-sponsored doping system, Matthes denied his involvement, saying that his club was too small to participate in the scheme.”

● Commonwealth Games ● In case you’ve missed it, there is a serious battle going on over India and the 2022 Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham, England.

The organizers did not include shooting in its list of 21 sports to be contested, raising the ire of India, which has had notable success in the sport at the Commonwealth Games. In fact, India has threatened to boycott the Games on that account!

Now, discussions between the Commonwealth Games Foundation, the International Shooting Sports Federation and India have led to a unique proposal to include shooting … sort of.

A Commonwealth Games shooting competition would take place in India in March, well ahead of the 27 July-7 August dates for the full Games in England. The costs would be underwritten by the National Rifle Association of India, but the results and medals would be included as part of the Commonwealth Games program.

The next step is for the proposal to be approved by the Indian Olympic Association on 30 December and then sent to the Commonwealth Games Federation for consideration.

● At the BuZZer ● The most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold is now the original manuscript of Pierre de Coubertin’s speech to the Union des Societes Francaises de Sports Athletiques [French Athletics Association] in Paris on 25 November 1892. In it, de Coubertin proposed the revival of the ancient Olympic Games, leading to the formation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894 and the first modern Games in Athens, Greece in 1896.

Expected to bring from $700,000-$1 million, the 12-minute auction at Sotheby’s New York sales room on 18 December quickly zoomed into the stratosphere. Two buyers vied for the item, with the final price ending at $8,806,500 for the 14-page document. The identity of the final buyer has not been revealed.

The final price shattered the record for a sports memorabilia item of $5.4 million paid for a New York Yankees baseball jersey worn by icon Babe Ruth earlier this year.

LANE ONE: The top stories of 2019, from no. 10 to no. 6, and big years for five superstars

Rich Perelman

December 25, 2019

tsx pix 122518 hirscher, marcel 750 (crystal globe) — Austria's Marcel Hirscher with yet another Crystal Globe

As 2019 comes to a close, there were people, places and events that made a bid impression in this pre-Olympic year. We’ll bring you our top 10 here and next Monday; there are a lot of stories that could have made the cut, but here are no. 10 through no. 6:

● 10: Boxing will go on in Tokyo, but without AIBA for 2020 and beyond ●

Known for decades as one of the most inept of the international federations, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) was pushed aside by the International Olympic Committee, which will itself run the boxing tournament at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

After the ridiculous judging at the 2016 Games in Rio, after which all 36 of the judges were suspended two months later, AIBA went from bad to worse. It pushed out its president, IOC member C.K. Wu (TPE) over financial mismanagement that left it deeply in debt, then elected Uzbek Gafur Rakhimov in 2017, who has been identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as involved in international drug trafficking.

The combination of Rakhimov, debt, judging and other issues led the IOC Executive Board to suspend AIBA as the international federation for boxing last May, a decision confirmed by the full membership in June. There is a “roadmap” for redemption for AIBA, monitored by a special IOC working group, but in the meantime, the IOC appointed its own team to operate a series of Olympic qualifying tournaments and the Olympic events in Tokyo in 2020.

AIBA nevertheless held World Championships for men and women in Russia late in the year, dismissed most of its staff, and has called an Extraordinary Congress for next March to revamp its governance procedures and so elect a new president. Is this the beginning of the end for AIBA, or the start of its re-emergence?

What is clear is that the IOC is monitoring the situation closely and appears more than ready to shut the federation out forever, which would require a new body to be formed. Stay tuned.

● 9: Marathon magic from Kenya’s Kipchoge and Kosgei ●

Running history was made on consecutive days in October as two Kenyan stars re-wrote the marathon record books. The first was expected, but the second was not.

Rio Olympic Champion Eliud Kipchoge tried for a second time to run a sub-2:00 marathon in a special time trial, this time in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday, 12 October. The “INEOS 1:59 Challenge” followed up on his 2:00:25 run in a similar time trial at the famed race track in Monza (ITA), but this time was held in a park with the public able to see him and cheer him on.

The conditions were good and Kipchoge was led by rotating teams of pacesetters, who also shielded him from the wind. He was the only one to run the entire distance, and with the special pacing set-up and other aides, the run was not record-eligible. But it was a magnificently-staged time trial and he finished with plenty of speed in a stunning 1:59:40.2, the fastest time ever recorded for the 26.2-mile distance.

Kipchoge also holds the world record, made in an actual race, of 2:01:39 from the 2018 Berlin Marathon, but Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele ran 2:01:41 in the 2019 Berlin Marathon, just two seconds short of his mark. Look for them to meet up in Tokyo, with both realizing that the next barrier to be broken will be 2:00 in an open race.

One day later, Kenyan Brigid Kosgei had the idea to challenge the women’s world record of 2:15:25 in the Chicago Marathon. Set by Britain’s Paula Radcliffe in 2003, that mark had been thought almost untouchable and Radcliffe was there as a television commentator (and the world-record holder).

But Kosgei felt good and ran hard from the start, had strong pacesetting help and smashed Radcliffe’s mark by 81 seconds in an unexpected 2:14:04. She won by almost seven minutes and showed that the ceiling for women’s marathoning has hardly been reached.

Two days, two “records,” two favorites for Tokyo.

● 8: U.S. dominates the World Champs, as Caeleb Dessel wins eight medals ●

The United States is the world’s swimming powerhouse and demonstrated it again by winning 27 medals to lead all nations at the 2019 World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. But the American team had a different look than in past years.

With U.S. Freestyle superstar Katie Ledecky suffering from a virus, she was overtaken on the final lap of the 400 m Freestyle by Australia Ariarne Titmus, 3:58.76-3:59.97, then had to skip the 200 m Free. She did come back to win the 800 m Free, but in a modest – for her – 8:13.58.

Meanwhile, sprinter Caeleb Dressel, who had won seven golds at the 2017 Worlds, showed that he is going to be one of the faces of the American Olympic team in Tokyo. He smashed Michael Phelps’ world record in the 100 m Butterfly, finishing in 49.50 and went on to win six gold and two silver medals (both on relays) for a total of eight. That’s the most medals ever won at a single World Championships, and he will be able to swim in six of those events in Tokyo in 2020 (the 50 m Butterfly and Mixed 4×100 m Free are not contested).

Dressel won the 50 m Free, 100 m Free, 50 m Fly, 100 m Fly and golds on the 4×100 m Freestyle and Mixed 4×100 m Free relays; he won silvers on the men’s 4×100 m Medley relay and Mixed 4×100 m Free relays.

The U.S. also got four gold medals from Freestyle sprint star Simone Manuel and three golds from Breaststroke queen Lilly King on the was 27 total medals, well ahead of Australia (19) and Russia (16). The American power was shown by its 14 golds, with the Aussies next highest with just five.

● 7: More World Cup magic from Mikaela Shiffrin and Marcel Hirscher ●

One era ended and another continued in alpine skiing, as Austrian star Marcel Hirscher and American Mikaela Shiffrin both repeated as seasonal winners of the FIS Alpine World Cup.

For Hirscher, it was his eighth straight overall title in a row – a record – and capped his brilliant career as he retired at the end of the season at age 30. He won nine races and had 15 total World Cup medals, taking the season title by 1,546-1,145 over France’s Alexis Pinturault.

He finished with 68 career World Cup wins, second among men only to all-time leader Ingemar Stenmark (SWE: 86). He won the discipline titles in Slalom (6th) and Giant Slalom (6th), giving him a total of 20 World Cup championships.

He also won a Slalom gold at the 2019 World Championships, tying countryman Toni Sailor for the most career golds won at the Worlds. He retired in September, with essentially no more goals to conquer.

Shiffrin, 24, is still on the rise and might break all of the records still standing if she remains healthy. In the 2018-19 season, she did nothing less than smash the record for the most wins in a single season with 17, flashing past Swiss Vreni Schneider’s mark of 14 from way back in 1988-89.

The American star won not only the overall title for the third straight year, she also won the discipline titles in Super-G (1st), Giant Slalom (1st) and Slalom (6th). She finished the season with 60 wins, now no. 5 on the all-time World Cup list (and climbing).

Consider this for dominance: in the final six weeks of 2018, she won eight of the 14 races held on the circuit and – at one point – five out of seven in December. And she is still going strong, having won two of the first four races of the current season and medals in an additional four races through mid-December.

● 6. Iranian anti-Semitism sends World Champion Saeid Mollaei to Mongolia ●

One of the truly insidious elements in international sport has been the practice of avoiding, or refusing to contest, games and matches against athletes from specific countries. This has involved Kosovo and Pakistan, but this action is most often taken against Israel.

This flared up into one of the most talked-about incidents of 2019, at the World Judo Championships last August in Tokyo, Japan. There, one of the most anticipated bouts was between reigning World 81 kg Champion Saeid Mollaei of Iran and challenger (and no. 2-ranked) Sagi Muki of Israel.

Both got to the semifinals, when Mollaei was instructed by Iranian officials to withdraw from the tournament in order to avoid competing with Muki. Instead, Mollaei contested his semifinal, but lost in a stunning upset to Belgium’s Matthias Casse. Mollaei then lost again in his bronze-medal match, to Georgia’s Luka Maisuradze. These results ensured that he did not have to stand on the podium as the Israeli flag was raised for Muki’s victory over Casse in the final.

In fact, Mollaei had been threatened and with the assistance of the International Judo Federation, left Tokyo and went to Germany as a political refugee.

While Mollaei was contemplating asylum and possibly competing as a refugee in the 2020 Games, the IJF Disciplinary Commission suspended the Iranian Judo Federation on 22 September from all competitions until “the Iran Judo Federation gives strong guarantees and prove that they will respect the IJF Statutes and accept that their athletes fight against Israeli athletes.”

In early December, it was announced that Mollaei had been granted citizenship in Mongolia and can qualify for Tokyo 2020 under the Mongolian flag.

Iran, meanwhile, remains suspended and the issue was noted in the declaration of the eighth Olympic Summit, hosted by the International Olympic Committee in December:

“[T]he participants expressed serious concerns over the growing politicisation of sport. Examples include: governments calling on athletes and teams not to participate in competition in specific countries; calls for boycotts; the non-issuance of visas for athletes wanting to participate in international competitions; the resistance by organisers to raising particular national flags and to playing national anthems; and the repeated interference of governments in the basic operations of national sports bodies.”

This sends a signal to the Iranians and others that their continued presence in the Olympic Games could be in jeopardy if such behavior continues. That too is noteworthy as 2019 ends and 2020 starts.

Look for our picks for the top five moments of 2019 on Monday! Happy holidays to all of our readers, with thanks for your interest and support.

Rich Perelman
Editor

You can receive our exclusive TSX Report by e-mail by clicking here. You can also refer a friend by clicking here.

LANE ONE: The numbers are in, and while Tokyo’s budget stays level, WADA reports increased testing

Rich Perelman

December 22, 2019

Two important sets of reports were released late last week, by the Tokyo Olympic organizers and the World Anti-Doping Agency. Both showed good news, sort of.

The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee reported its version four budget, which included both the Games operating budget and that for the local and national government, with no change in the overall total of $12.6 billion (converted from Japanese yen).

The governmental budgets of $5.6 billion for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and $1.4 billion for the Japanese national government remained unchanged in this edition, as did the Tokyo organizing committee budget of $5.6 billion.

However, the Tokyo organizers reported strong revenues:

● Marketing: up $300 million to $3.3 billion total
● Ticketing: up $70 million to $840 million total

So the overall revenue is projected at $5.9 billion, with the $300 million overage now counted as contingency funds.

This is all good news for the Tokyo Games, as the budget has not changed since 2017, when the first estimate of $14.0 billion was cut to $12.6 billion. It’s worthwhile to remember that the 2013 budget projected in the Tokyo bid was $7.3 billion, so if the current estimates hold, the project will come in about 74% higher than originally thought.

However, it’s also true that after wild predictions from some government finance staff that the total cost of the Games could rise to $25 billion, the costs have – apparently – come under control.

The World Anti-Doping Agency released two reports, showing the number of tests carried out in 2018 and the number of doping positives in 2017.

The anti-doping testing figures from 2018 and the doping positives from 2017 continued to show more tests and a relatively small number of positives, hardly in line with the widely-voiced fears of doping from Russia and elsewhere.

In terms of testing, the totals went up again in 2018:

● 2016: 300,565
● 2017: 322,050 ~ increase of 7.1%
● 2018: 344,177 ~ increase of 6.9%

The total number of adverse findings and atypical findings was higher in 2018 at 4,896 vs. 4,596 in 2017. As a percentage of the total tests:

● 2016: 4,822 positives or atypical results for 1.60%
● 2017: 4,596 positives or atypical results for 1.43%
● 2018: 4,896 positives or atypical results for 1.42%

This includes all of the testing tracked by WADA, which comprises many sports outside the Olympic Games events. In Olympic-sport testing:

● Summer: 199,602 tests and 1,575 positives (0.79%)
● Winter: 21,072 tests and 84 positives (0.40%)

Among the summer sports, those with the biggest percentage of positive tests included equestrian (2.0%), boxing and weightlifting (1.5%), shooting and wrestling (1.3%), cycling (1.2%), and field hockey, handball and triathlon (1.0%).

The biggest losers in terms of total positives were cycling (307: 1.2%), athletics (242: 0.7%), weightlifting (202: 1.5%) and football (125: 0.3%).

Among the winter sports, the largest percentage of positives was in curling (!) with 2.0%, but the largest actual number was in ice hockey (34, or 0.8%).

In the tests tracked by the WADA database (known by its acronym of ADAMS), the main culprit continues to be anabolic steroids, which accounted for 44.3% of all doping positives and 64% of the atypical findings. Second on both lists was stimulants.

One very positive note was that the total of out-of-competition tests has surpassed the number of in-competition tests by 164,454-148,376 for urine and 25,271-6,081 for blood.

What can we make out of all these numbers?

On the surface, there isn’t all that much doping going on: 0.79% positives in summer Olympic sports and 0.40% in winter Olympic sports. But once you get into the numbers, you see that even those small percentages can impact medals. The testing figures for national anti-doping agencies show this; look at which countries had the highest number of positives (includes non-Olympic sports):

● 161 ~ United States
● 152 ~ France
● 121 ~ Russia
● 109 ~ India
● 90 ~ Italy

This includes non-Olympic sports like bodybuilding, which has a high rate of positives, but it demonstrates that doping continues. Even the German National Anti-Doping Agency, which took more tests than any other anti-doping agency – 14,963 – had a minimal positives rate of 0.3%, but that was still 55 total positive tests! And that means medals could be impacted.

One worthwhile note from the WADA report on 2017 positive tests: some 1,459 (81%) came as a result of testing, but 345 (19%) in 41 sports were from investigations and intelligence work.

The WADA reports point to the inescapable conclusion that, at the highest levels of sport, doping is still very much a threat to clean athletes and that more work is needed.

WADA chief Craig Reedie (GBR) and incoming Chair Witold Banka (POL) have both stated that WADA needs more funding to be effective. Technical advances such as genetic sequencing tests to detect blood doping and the dried-blood-spot test as an eventual replacement for urinalysis and bloodwork are promising advances which could be implemented in Tokyo for 2020.

The sooner, the better.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HIGHLIGHTS: Corning wins second Snowboard Big Air World Cup title in Atlanta

Rich Perelman

December 22, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1222 corning, chris wins in Atlanta (sarah brunson) — American Chris Corning wins in Atlanta and claims second career Snowboard Big Air World Cup title (Photo: U.S. Ski & Snowboard/Sarah Brunson)

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

On the last major weekend of Olympic sports action around the world for 2019, American Chris Corning capped off a remarkable week with his second World Cup seasonal title in the last three seasons in Snowboard Big Air.

Corning won the season’s final event on a scaffold tower built into Atlanta’s Sun Trust Stadium and became the first to land a quad-cork 1800 off a scaffold! “I feel great right now and I’m very happy to be alive after that,” he said afterwards. “It’s always scary trying it because I really don’t ever do it in practice or anything like that. I have to get pumped up to do that trick and let go of anything I’m thinking about. Also, it’s really cool to go to a place I have never been and take in the atmosphere. It was great to see how many people showed up and feel that support.” More below and the rest of the weekend highlights:

● ALPINE SKIING ● Weather was the winner in the FIS Alpine World Cup, as one of the men’s races in Val Gardena (ITA) was canceled and the entire women’s program in Val d’Isere (FRA) was wiped out.

The only racing that did take place was a Super-G at Val Gardena and even that was postponed three times due to fog and only 48 of the 64 skiers actually got to compete. The winner was Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr, ahead of Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud.

The Giant Slalom at Alta Badia (ITA) was held, with Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) claiming his second World Cup win of the season, beating France’s Cyprien Sarrazin. There is a Parallel Slalom scheduled for Monday.

The women’s mid-week Giant Slalom in Courchevel (FRA) was won by Italy’s Federica Brignone, beating Mina Furst Holtmann of Norway, who won her first-ever World Cup medal. American star Mikaela Shiffrin was 17th Find links to results here.

● BIATHLON ● The third World Cup of the season was in Annecy (FRA), with defending champion Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) continuing to dominate the racing. He won the 12.5 km Pursuit and 15 km Mass Start on Saturday and Sunday, after German Benedikt Doll won the 10 km Sprint on Friday.

After seven of 24 races, he now has a 372-313 lead over his brother, Tarjei Boe, with France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet (281), the legendary Martin Fourcade (267) and Simon Desthieux (266) trailing.

Fellow Norwegian Tirill Eckhoff was even better than Boe in the women’s division, winning all three races, the 7.5 km Sprint over Justine Braisaz (FRA); the 10 km Pursuit over teammate Ingrid Tandrevold and the 12.5 km Mass Start in front of Italy’s Dorothea Wierer. Eckhoff has now won four races in a row, but still trails Wierer in the overall standings, 304-287. Full results here.

● BOBSLED & SKELETON ● The women’s Monobob will be a new event for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and the IBSF is running this event in separate competitions away from its World Cup circuit.

China’s Qing Ying won the third event held this season, winning in Konigssee (GER) over Breeana Walker (AUS) and Melissa Lotholz (CAN). Ying is the third different winner in three races: Canada’s Cynthia Appiah won the openet in Lake Placid (USA) and Russian Anastasiia Makarova won in Lillehammer (NOR). Full results here.

● FREESTYLE SKIING ● Very busy weekend, especially in Ski Cross, as the fourth Cross Alps Tour was completed in Innichen (ITA), with wins for Kevin Drury (CAN) on Saturday (final canceled; placings on qualifying times) and Swiss Joos Berry on Sunday. Drury won the overall title – and won three of the six races – with teammate Khristofor Mahler second (one win, two silvers) and France’s Bastien Midol third.

The women’s Cross Alps winner was Sweden’s relentless Sandra Naeslund, who won only once, but finished 1-2-2-3-2-4 in the six races! The week’s winners include Marielle Thompson (CAN) on Tuesday in Arosa (SUI), then Marielle Berger Sabbatel (FRA) on Saturday in Innichen (race canceled; placings on qualifying times) and Swiss Fanny Smith on Sunday. Smith finished second in the Cross Alps standings and Thompson was third (both had two wins and one second).

The penultimate Big Air competition of the season was held in an elaborate set-up in Sun Trust Park in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) and was the second win in three events for American Alex Hall. He scored 187.50 to edge France’s Antoine Adelisse (186.50) and Canada’s Teal Harle (CAN: 185.25).

The women’s Big Air was won – also for the second time in three events – by Norway’s Mathilde Gremaud, ahead of Swiss Guilia Tanno, who finished second for the third straight time this season! The final Big Air event won’t be held until the end of February.

The Halfpipe World Cup in Secret Garden (CHN) was the first win of the season for Canada’s Noah Bowman, who had already won a silver and bronze in the first two events. He defeated Americans Aaron Blunck (also his third medal in three events) and Lyman Currier for the win. Russia’s Valeriya Demidova won the women’s Halfpipe, ahead of Canada’s Rachael Karker.

Links to results are here.

● NORDIC SKIING ● We can now say that Norway’s Jarl-Magnus Riiber is not unbeatable in the Nordic Combined. He lost for the first time in six races this season on Saturday at Ramsau (AUT) off the 98 m hill and 10 km race to German star Vinzenz Geiger … by 1.6 seconds!

He came back, however, on Sunday to post another victory – six out of seven – by winning over teammate Joergen Graabak by 2.8 seconds, with Geiger third (+4.1). For the season, Riiber is already up 680-451 over Graabak after seven of 21 races. Wow! Full results here.

The only Cross Country events held were 1.26 km Freestyle Sprints in Planica (SLO), with Lucas Chanavat (FRA) winning the men’s race over Federico Pellegrino (ITA) and Jonna Sundling leading a Swedish 1-2 ahead of Stina Nilsson. American Julia Kern was third in the women’s Sprint and earned her first career World Cup medal, with teammate Sophie Caldwell fourth. This was the fifth straight race in which an American woman has won a medal and six out of seven this season! Full results here.

In Ski Jumping, the men were in Engelberg (SUI) for two events off the 140 m hill, with wins for triple Olympic champ Kamil Stoch (POL) and defending World Cup winner Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN). Next up will be the prestigious Four Hills Tournament starting on Sunday in Obertsdorf (GER). Full results from Engelberg are here.

● SHOOTING ● The 2019 Winter Air Gun Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado served as the first section of the U.S. Olympic Trials for Air Pistol and Air Rifle.

In 10 m Air Pistol, 2012 Olympic Nick Mowrer compiled an enormous lead in the men’s rounds, scoring 1,163 points to 1,146 for 17-year-old Hunter Battig and 1,142 for 19-year-old Jack Leverett III. The women’s race is much tighter, with Lexi Lagan (1,144) and Sandra Uptagrafft (1,142) locked in a tight battle, and Miglena Todorova third (1,129). Lagan and Uptagraft are also standing 1-2 in the qualifying for the 25 m Sport Pistol Trials as well. Full results here.

In 10 m Air Rifle, Pan American Games gold medalist Lucas Kozeniesky led the men’s competition at 1,259.5 points, Tim Sherry (1,256.4), William Shaner (1,255.0) and Dempster Christenson (1,252.7).

Mary Tucker, a freshman at Kentucky, was the women’s leader with an impressive 1,256.4 score, ahead of Pan Am Games champ Ali Weisz (1,256.0), Sarah Beard (1,255.1) and Mindy Miles (1,253.6). Reigning Olympic champ Ginny Thrasher stands sixth at 1,250.0. Full results here.

These scores will carry over to the second section of the Trials, to be held from 24 February-2 March at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

● SNOWBOARD ● Believe it or not, the FIS World Cup for Snowboard Big Air is over!

The final of four competitions was held at Atlanta’s Sun Trust Park, with 2019 World Slopestyle champ Chris Corning winning for the second time and finishing 1-3-3-1 in the four events to take his second seasonal title with 3,200 points. He finished 900 points ahead of Atlanta and seasonal runner-up Nicolas Laframboise (CAN: 2,300) with Japan’s Ryoma Kimata (1,820) third in Atlanta and third overall.

Japan’s Reira Iwabuchi won the Atlanta stage to secure her second win of the season and second straight World Cup seasonal win. Teammate Kokomo Murase was second and Canada’s Brooke Voigt was third in Atlanta and second to Iwabuchi on the season, 2,900-1,620.

The second Halfpipe competition of the season was another showcase for Australia’s three-time World Champion Scotty James and essentially a re-run of last week’s Copper Mountain event. James won again, ahead of Japan’s Yuto Totsuka and Ruka Hirano; exactly the same medal winners once again! The women’s Halfpipe was won by China’s Jaiyu Liu, moving up from silver at Copper Mountain, with teammate Xuetong Cai second and American Maddie Mastro third (for the second week in a row).

The Snowboard Cross events in Cervinia (ITA) had home winners in Lorenzo Sommariva leading an Italian 1-2 with Emanuel Perathoner second, while Michela Moioli led a women’s 1-3 for Italy as Chloe Trespauch (FRA) was second and Sofia Belingheri (ITA) was third. Links to results are here.

● SWIMMING ● Caeleb Dressel showed once again that he will be one of the stars of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, with a superb performance in the International Swimming League final in Las Vegas (USA).

Swimming in front of a modest crowd in a temporary pool at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, Dressel was the highest individual scorer in the final, winning five of his six individual events and setting a world Short-Course record in the 50 m Free (20.24) and American Short-Course Record in the 50 m Free, 100 m Free (45.22) and 50 m Fly (22.06).

In all, some eight American records were set and two world marks, with Japan’s Daiya Seto erasing a 2010 mark by American Ryan Lochte in the 400 m Medley (3:54.81). The Energy Standard team, nominally based in Turkey, won the team title over the London Roar as the seasonal Most Valuable Player went to Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom of Energy Standard.

The ISL promises to expand its schedule to 27 meets from seven this season in 2020 and announced new teams in Tokyo (JPN) and Toronto (CAN). Much more here.

● TAEKWONDO ● Current and former world champions won six of the eight weight classes in the season-ending World Taekwondo Grand Slam Champions Series in Wuxi (CHN). Korea won half the classes – four – with 2019 54 kg champ Jun-Seo Bae (58 kg), three-time Worlds winner Dae-Hoon Lee (68 kg) and 2019 73 kg women’s winner Da-Bin Lee at +67 kg; Kyo-Don In was also a winner, in the men’s +80 kg class.

Russia’s 2017 74 kg World Champion Maksim Khramtcov won the men’s 80 kg division, and two-time Worlds winner Panipak Wongpattanakakit (THA) took the women’s 49 kg crown. Full results are here.

SWIMMING: Two world records and eight new Americans marks in ISL finale in Las Vegas

Rich Perelman

December 21, 2019

tsx pix 2019-826 dressel caeleb splash 750 — Three World Championships gold medals in two hours for Caeleb Dressel (USA).

Despite the television announcers saying over and over again that “the times don’t matter,” the headlines from the International Swimming League final in Las Vegas were two world Short-Course records, both set on Friday:

● Men/50 m Freestyle: 20.24, Caeleb Dressel (USA) ~ old, 20.26, Florent Manaudou (FRA), 2014.

● Men/400 m Medley: 3:54.81, Daiya Seto (JPN) ~ old, 3:55:50, Ryan Lochte (USA), 2010.

In addition, the U.S. record book saw new marks in eight events:

● Men/50 m Freestyle: 20.24, Caeleb Dressel
● Men/100 m Freestyle: 45.22, Dressel
● Men/50 m Breaststroke: 25.75, Nic Fink
● Men/50 m Butterfly: 22.06, Dressel

● Women/50 m Breaststroke: 28.90, Lilly King
● Women/400 m Medley: 4:24.15, Melanie Margalis
● Women/4×100 m Freestyle: 3:27.65, Olivia Smoliga, Kelsi Dahlia, Natalie Hinds, Mallory Comerford (Cali Condors)

Fink won the 200 m Breast and finished just 0.01 off the American Record of Cody Miller in 2:02.34. He upset British Breaststroke superstar Adam Peaty to win the 50 m Breast with his American Record of 25.75.

But the individual stars were Dressel and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom. Dressel won the Most Valuable Player award for the finals, winning five of his six individual events (plus relays):

● Friday:
1) 100 m Fly
7) 50 m Breast
1) 50 m Free ~ World Record

● Saturday:
1) 100 m Free
1) 50 m Fly
1) 50 m Free Skins

Sjostrom beat out Dressel for the season’s Most Valuable Player title and an extra $50,000, competing in five individual events (plus relays):

● Friday:
4) 100 m Fly
1) 50 m Free

● Saturday:
2) 100 m Free
2) 50 m Fly
1) 50 m Free Skins

Just as impressive was American Breaststroke star Lilly King, who not only won the 50-100-200 m events in Las Vegas, but completed a perfect season with 12 wins in 12 tries in her four meets in those events. Japan’s Seto also grabbed three wins at the meet, winning both medleys plus the 200 m Fly.

The team title went to Energy Standard, nominally based in Turkey, which clinched the meet with Sjostrom’s win in the women’s 50 m Free Skins race and Manaudou making the men’s Skins final. They ended with 453.5 points to 444.0 for the London Roar, 415.5 for the Cali Condors and 318.0 for the L.A. Current.

The meet featured the usual heavy television production values, masking small crowds on both days at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, which had already been reduced from its normal 12,000 capacity to 3,708 for the meet.

The ISL announced after the meet that the league would expand to 10 teams for 2020 with teams in Toronto, Canada and Tokyo, Japan. According to ISL, “The 2020-2021 season of the ISL is scheduled to run from September to April with 27 matches taking place, including regular season, playoffs and the Grand Final.”

ISL founder and funder, Ukrainian energy billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin, told the Wall Street Journal that “he will invest between $60 and $70 million next year as the ISL adds two teams, 20 more meets and another $4 million in prize money. He hopes to offset costs by selling expanded media rights to an American broadcast company.

“‘This season we are not expecting to make big money,’ said Grigorishin, who will most likely see multimillion dollar losses for the ISL’s debut year. ‘I think next year our target is to break even, but this is an upside scenario.’”

While attendance was pretty modest for the first season, the swimmers are hoping the league will succeed. Said Rio triple Backstroke gold medalist Ryan Murphy to the Journal, “The money is pretty sparse in the sport of swimming right now. This is the best opportunity we’ve had to professionalize.”

Click the links for results from Friday and Saturday.

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Russia appeals; PR star Pete Cava passes suddenly, another 2012 positive

Rich Perelman

December 19, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1219 cava-tenen-maz wcup 1981 750 — Fun with the TAC Press Box Crew: Pete Cava (r) being told by the late Bruce Tenen that his 1981 IAAF World Cup credential is not valid for the "press box" at the Colosseum in Rome (with Alan Mazursky at left).

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● RUSADA confirms sanctions appeal to CAS ● To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency began the process of formally appealing the sanctions imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

According to the Russian TASS news agency:

“The Supervisory Board of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has recommended the agency’s Board of Founders to disagree with sanctions of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against Russian sports and to turn this case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne, RUSADA told TASS on Thursday.”

Alexander Ivlev, head of the RUSADA Supervisory Board, said that the filing would take place within 10-15 days. “After that the ball will be in the court of WADA and the situation will be developing within the legal boundaries.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin also chimed in, with themes likely to be seen in the appeal:

“In my opinion, this decision is not only unjust, but it also goes against a common sense. … Decisions were made against athletes competing under a neutral flag at the previous Olympics.

“We do everything to make Russian sports clean. RUSADA was formed in close collaboration with colleagues from WADA and we even have appointed the agency’s administration based on their recommendations.

“Unfortunately, this decision [of WADA] is more likely to be again of a political nature.”

Putin also came back to a claim he has made multiple times previously:

“The WADA decision contradicts the Olympic Charter. If there are no claims against the Russian Olympic Committee [ROC], the national team must be competing under the national flag, while we have to render support and assistance.

“Any punishment should be individual. If anyone is caught, then [punishment] is absolutely natural and fair. But if the overwhelming majority of athletes are clean, how can they slap sanctions on them?”

(This ignores the fact that the International Olympic Committee is now bound by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories, but maybe he’s busy with other matters.)

One of the possible Russian strategies in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport is to drag out the proceedings so long that the Russian team will be able to compete in Tokyo without sanctions. This was addressed by Jonathan Taylor (GBR), the head of WADA’s Compliance Review Committee, who stated “If they drag it out so that it doesn’t cover Tokyo, it will cover Paris [2024]. They have to decide which we want to do, which athletes they want to suffer.”

● Athletics I ● Stunning and sad news from Indianapolis that Pete Cava, 73, the longtime information director for the Amateur Athletic Union and then The Athletics Congress, passed away suddenly on Wednesday evening (18th).

His daughter, Nancy, wrote to friends that “Dad was enjoying dinner with friends last night, when he felt ill and had serious chest pains. He was taken to Methodist Hospital via ambulance. Fortunately, my mom made it to the hospital in time to be with him before he passed.”

Cava’s impact on Olympic sports cannot be minimized. He joined the AAU in 1974 to work on the association’s Junior Olympics program and then became the Media Information Director a couple of years later. He immediately began updating the AAU’s press information operations, starting with a series of media guides for most of the AAU’s sports, at a time when Olympic sports received far more coverage than today.

Suddenly, the AAU championship events began providing the same level of services that were common at the baseball World Series, NFL Super Bowl and at major NCAA championships: pre-event media guides and daily notes, pre-event athlete availabilities and news conferences and post-event record recaps, statistics and quotes.

This was quite an undertaking as the AAU functioned as the national governing body for eight Olympic sports, including aquatics, bobsled, boxing, judo, luge, track & field, weightlifting and wrestling. Pete led the press operations program for the 1978 World Weightlifting Championships and 1979 World Wrestling Championships.

In 1979, he left the AAU to become the Media Information Director of The Athletics Congress, devoted specifically to track & field. He greatly expanded the media information and operations efforts, becoming a publisher of statistical guidebooks on cross country, the decathlon and heptathlon, race walking, indoor track & field, junior track & field, the U.S. National Championships and a seasonal track & field guide, the American Athletics Annual. Under his direction, the first-ever comprehensive calendar of U.S. meets was produced in 1983.

Pete was also the face of U.S. track & field press services on the road, serving as the U.S. team press officer for numerous international meets, as well as five editions of the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials. He created a mobile but ever-changing team of sports information professionals, statisticians and track nuts to help serve the media at national and international events, known as the “TAC Press Box Crew.”

(The photo above shows TAC Press Box Crew members, left to right, Alan Mazursky, with the late Bruce Tenen explaining to Cava at right, that his 1981 IAAF World Cup credential was not good for admission to the “press box” at the Colosseum in Rome!)

Beyond all of this publicly-seen activity, Cava was also a gifted advisor and counselor to TAC Executive Director Ollan Cassell, to the AAU and TAC officers, on communications matters large and small. While he had detractors, Cava was widely appreciated – especially in the days before electronic mail was commonly available – for being accessible, friendly and well informed, among not only U.S. news media, but track & field reporters around the world, as well as many U.S. officials, promoters, agents, and, of course, athletes.

He was a large man, but gentle, easygoing and fun. He and the AAU and TAC reaped the benefit of his upbeat personality and sunny outlook, but he was not someone to be crossed, and certainly not a second time.

Pete left USA Track & Field in 1999 (the name changed in 1992) and continued to work as a contract press officer for many events, including two editions of the World Baseball Classic, where his language skills made him an excellent choice to support teams such as Italy and Venezuela. He also wrote for the Indianapolis Star, was a U.S. correspondent for Agence France Presse and contributed to the National Scholastic Sports Foundation Web site.

But he also indulged his love for baseball writing and statistics and had encyclopedic knowledge about major-league players born in Indiana, as well as almost everything to do with his beloved New York Yankees, and his wife’s favored Chicago Cubs. And he was known to enjoy, on occasion, handmade cigars, especially when his travels took him to Cuba.

Born in Staten Island, New York on 26 July 1946, Pete graduated from Fordham University, where he worked in the sports information department, and during his stint in the U.S. Army, served in the Public Affairs Office of the First Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kansas. He joined the AAU after working as a sports reporter and a radio program director.

He is survived by his wife and lifelong love, Molly, and son Andy and daughter Nancy. Services are pending. He is already deeply missed by the many, many people whose lives he touched … and made better.

(Special thanks to Bob Hersh for the correct year in which TAC became USA Track & Field, and to Dan O’Brien for noting Pete’s passion for the Yankees and Molly’s for the Cubs).

● Athletics II ● One of the four gold medals won by the legendary Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, sold in an online auction to a private collector for $615,000 on 8 December.

It’s not clear which event this medal was awarded for, as there was no engraving of names or event in 1936. This medal was offered by weightlifter John Terpak, who befriended Owens as a teammate in 1936 and later helped him as he got his public relations business off the ground as a speaker in the 1950s.

● Athletics III ● Reader (and track coach) Ron Brumel of Los Angeles, California, sent in personal memories of New Zealand great Peter Snell, who passed away on 12 December:

“Very sad to hear of Snell’s passing.

“He was my first hero as I began my H.S. running career in 1961. He was an upset winner in Rome 1960, upsetting Roger Moens of Belgium in the 800. He set a then world record for 800 meters on a grass track in New Zealand running 1:44.3 and 1:45.1 for 880 yards in the same race.

“He then went on to break the legendary Herb Elliott’s world mile record, running 3:54.4, then 3:54.1 later on.

“He dominated in Tokyo ’64, winning both the 800 and 1500 with devastating kicks from 300 meters out.

“His running style was more of a lope than a steady rhythm, he had the legs of a short sprinter, not a middle distance runner, and carried his arms in a long, low carriage, elbows straight, with his index finger pointing downward.

“I used to imitate his running form, including the kick from 300 out in the 880, though with not the same results. Usually, I would get beat in the last 50 yards, having begun my kick way too early. Alas, I was no Peter Snell.

“He deserved much more than the single sentence, throw-away line in the L.A. Times. And yes, he was a student of physiology and highly regarded as an academic. (see the pre-Olympic Sports Illustrated article in 1964, a terrific article about Snell, his training, his personal life, and his thinking: ‘The Fastest is Faster’).

“RIP Peter Snell.”

● At the BuZZer ● The International Olympic Committee announced yet another doping positive from the 2012 London Games, this time knocking out another gold medalist.

Ukraine’s Oleksiy Torokhtiy won the 105 kg division in London, but the IOC’s re-testing program – now carried out by the International Testing Agency – found his “samples from London 2012 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substances Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone.”

This was the 62nd doping positive found by the IOC in its re-analysis program of the London Games and now 71 total positives at the 2012 Games. Only the 2008 Beijing Games have had more positives: seven during the Games and 65 afterwards for a total of 72.

LANE ONE: Puerto Rico now has a chance to host events in the 2028 Los Angeles Games

Rich Perelman

December 18, 2019

tsx pix 2019-915 ferreira italo w surf gms 750 — Brazil's Italo Ferreira uring his gold-medal-winning ride at the World Surfing Games (Photo: Int'l Surfing Assn.)

In the United States, very little attention is generally paid to the ebbs and flows of Olympic politics, processes and procedures unless it directly impact U.S. athletes, or whether an Olympic Games is coming to the U.S.

So there wasn’t much notice taken of the astonishing announcement made by the Paris 2024 organizing committee last week that it was submitting a recommendation to the International Olympic Committee that the 2024 surfing events be held in Tahiti.

Tahiti! The island that is about 9,766 miles from Paris, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

Now, to be clear, Tahiti is part of French Polynesia and its residents are citizens of France. The official language there is French and the capital, Papeete, isn’t a village, but a city of 136,777. The travel site Booking.com lists 366 hotels on the island, so there shouldn’t be much trouble booking the 48 competitors and accompanying officials.

But the broadcast and competition infrastructure for an Olympic competition in any sport is hardly insubstantial. But space for just 1,500 spectators is projected, maybe a tenth of what could be expected in, say, Biarritz in France, some 487 miles south of Paris on the Atlantic coast.

And who can blame the Biarritz folks for being furious, especially after the area quite successfully hosted the 2017 World Surfing Games and the 2019 World Longboard Championships.

So it’s worth asking if the reform movement of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach of Germany, starting with the passage of his Olympic Agenda 2020 in 2014, hasn’t gone haywire.

The key elements of this reform flipped the IOC’s own concept of the Games, that the event should fit into the nature of the host city, and even have events outside the host city, if that would keep the costs and environmental impact of the event to a minimum. No more requirements of new venues being required to host events, with little or no regard for any future use for the sites.

So now a Games awarded to France and specifically to Paris, is going to put on one of its sports in the middle of the Pacific Ocean instead of in Europe. Isn’t this going too far?

The IOC sees it, so far, as an experiment and a way to bring more of the world into the Games. The magnificent, sometimes brutal waves off Teahupo’o certainly will be more spectacular than anywhere in Europe and Bach signaled that he’s in favor of this wild idea. At his news conference following the Executive Board meetings on 5 December, he was asked if the Paris 2024 venues should be closer to home.

“For equal conditions, we stay closer,” he said. So much for that.

But Bach and his colleagues have to also understand that such decisions, taken freely and without extenuating circumstances – like the quarantine of horses in Australia that forced the equestrian events to be held in Stockholm in 1956 – create precedents.

Taken to its logical conclusion, the placement of surfing in Tahiti – the only foreign country to be part of the French Republic – is the start of the deconstruction of the Olympic Games.

The idea of holding an Olympic Games all over a country or even across a geographic region with multiple countries included, is here. Now.

Stockholm’s unsuccessful bid for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games proposed the sliding sports in an existing facility in Sigulda, Latvia, 356 miles across the Baltic Sea. Now the approved distance will be about 10,000 miles.

So what can we look for in the future?

First, as the IOC is desperate to hold events in Africa, as shown by the award – without election – of the 2022 Youth Olympic Games to Dakar, Senegal – which events from Paris 2024 can be switched to former French colonies? Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia in the northern part of the continent, and Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Mali, Gabon, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal all qualify.

Beyond 2024, the question can then be asked about Los Angeles in 2028?

In 1984, FIFA insisted that the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee hold soccer matches outside the L.A. area, even though there were sufficient venues to host the entire tournament locally. Besides the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, preliminary matches were held at Stanford, California (Stanford Stadium) and on the East Coast at Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard Stadium) and Annapolis, Maryland (Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium).

So why not have 2028 events in Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth? Major League Baseball has held games there over several decades and there are good arenas for basketball or similar sports. And the distance is just 3,364 miles from L.A. to the middle of the Caribbean, or just a third of way from Paris to Tahiti.

The LA28 organizers will have little interest in this, and are readying to host the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad in a region which has welcomed this event like nowhere else on the planet for nearly a century. And as the IOC and Paris 2024 consider beginning the disassembly of an event modeled after an ancient celebration that took place in only one venue – Olympia – for centuries, Bach himself gave the rationale for staying together at the IOC’s eSports Forum back in July 2018. Noting the comments of Overwatch star Jake Lyon of the U.S. about the feeling of online competitors for each other through eSports events, Bach explained:

“That’s our world. This is why the Olympic Games, so far, as the only event and they still are, even with regard to e-games, where we have all the world together at one place at the same time. We have in the Olympic Games all 206 National Olympic Committees being in one stadium and living together in one Olympic Village. So this is just the idea of our universe.

“You manage this in a different way. And again, it’s the same passion, it’s the same idea in some respects but there is still the difference, you know? In our world, the communication is real. They look into each other’s eyes. They go afterwards to share their meal. In your world, it’s online.”

With the IOC’s imminent approval of surfing in Tahiti for “Paris 2024,” the only glimpse those competitors will get of the Olympic Village, or of athletics, swimming or gymnastics, will be on television or online. Is there an eSports surfing game? Let’s hold that in Tahiti, too.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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LANE ONE: Is anything going on in world sport besides Russia and doping? Yes, actually …

Rich Perelman

December 15, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1215 snell, peter 750 — New Zealand great Peter Snell, three-time Olympic gold medalist, who passed away at age 80.

There’s the NFL heading toward the playoffs and the baseball Hot Stove League is on fire right now, but in the Olympic world, all anyone seems to talk about is Russia and whether the World Anti-Doping Agency’s sanctions were appropriate.

The latest to weigh in was the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, whose Board of Directors met in New York on Friday. Board chair Susanne Lyons and Chief Executive Sara Hirshland had a short conference call with news media while waiting to fly out, and most of the discussion was about Russia.

Said Lyons:

“I wanted to take a moment to comment a little bit on some of the important news that came out this week. The whole sporting world, I think, was awaiting the WADA recommendations regarding the doping sanctions for Russia.

“We had a good discussion, a robust discussion in our Board, and I think here kind of reflects what the Board’s feeling was. One of the foundational anchors of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is certainly the staunch defense of fairness and ensuring a level playing field. And doping and corruption should never have a place in the Games. The world’s athletes have a right to know that they are competing against clean opponents. And these repeated failures of Russia to comply with the WADA Code truly demands the strongest sanctions.

“So we support WADA’s recommendations. We’re hopeful that the Court of Arbitration for Sport, on the assumption it will be appealed, will keep those bans in place. And, you know, I think a concern we have is that considering the data manipulations that occurred right up until the 11th hour of WADA’s investigations, it’s going to be incredibly difficult for clean Russian athletes to prove their innocence, and therefore it is very difficult for us to see how justice can be served, and how there will be a true deterrent against future corruption if any of the athletes from Russia have a right to compete at Tokyo under any flag, neutral or otherwise.

“And, put simply, the past sanctions have not been effective and we simply can’t afford a similar outcome once again. So we very much support WADA’s sanctions and will continue to watch this with great interest.”

She was asked an excellent follow-up question by Ed Hula of AroundTheRings.com, about the discussions on this topic at the Olympic Summit in Lausanne, which took place on 7 December, prior to the WADA sanctions announcement on 9 December. The concluding statement from the meeting said that “It was stressed by the participants that full justice must be finally done so that the guilty ones can be properly punished and the innocent ones are fully protected.”

Lyons attended the Summit and added some important details of the discussions:

“I think there was a lot of agreement that those who are guilty need to have punishment, that there should be strong and firm sanctions, and I think there was pretty good unanimity around that.

“I think where there was some concern is that how do you – if there are innocent athletes in Russia – you know, can they participate, and I think the real question is how will we know? If the data truly has been corrupted, which it seems that the reports would indicate that it has, it’s very unclear how you can decide and siphon out who has been part of the doping and who has not. So I think there was not necessarily unanimity on that. I there are some who think that athletes should be able to compete if they can be proven clean; I think it’s just difficult to know how that proof would be obtained.

“As you said, my counterpart from Russia [Stanislav Pozdnyakov] was recused from that conversation. They did have a statement, and I think they do not necessarily see their culpability in this the same way that perhaps others do, and again, since he was not in the room, he was not part of that conversation.”

David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times further asked Lyons about the request for a complete ban on Russian participation from some athlete groups. Her response included:

“It’s a difficult question. It’s a balancing between the right to compete, and a clean athlete’s right to do so, and the balance, knowing that this data is not clean and that it is going to be very difficult for someone to ascertain whether an athlete is, in fact, clean or not. And I know that there are those who are proposing a blanket ban.

“I think if there is a way that it is able to determine that there are Russian athletes who are clean, we would support their right to compete. I think we just find it challenging to understand how that will happen for many of those athletes. … If they can’t prove that they are clean, they shouldn’t compete.”

In Russia, the TASS news agency continued posting stories about the domestic reaction to the sanctions. Last Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any discussion of an “alternative” event to the Olympic Games “is a question to our sports authorities. This issue is not discussed in the Kremlin.” The idea has been surfaced by Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko earlier in the week.

So, did anything else happen, anywhere in the world of Olympic sport? Actually, yes, and some quite important:

● At the same Olympic Summit, a “two-speed” approach was suggested for working with eSports and gaming. For electronic sports which simulate existing sports – such as football – there is “great potential for cooperation and incorporating them into the sports movement,” but not so much for other games. For those programs, “ the sports movement should focus on players and gamers rather than on specific games.” That’s a pretty clear message going forward.

● At the first regional SportAccord Conference, held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the eSports issue was also highlighted. The summary of the event included:

“GAISF Director Philippe Gueisbuhler also took to the stage during the panel session on the emergence of esports and spoke about the challenges and opportunities for traditional sport.

“‘This train is already on the move, it is not a question of stopping esports,” Gueisbuhler said. ‘It is there and will continue to grow, our kids and young people are on board and all we can do is try to bring it in the right direction.

“‘We need to have a look at how people can use it as a balance between real sport, work and have a bit of fun, as well as making a competition out of esports. It is a question of balance.’”

The choice of words on “real sport” vs. eSports was interesting and worth noting for the future.

● International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach continued his campaign to free sport from political interference. The Olympic Summit declaration included:

Bach made the same pitch in an address to the United Nations General Assembly last Monday (9th), stating that “We depend on the support of you, the governments, for our mission and our neutrality.”

● Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium for the 2020 Games was officially declared complete on Sunday. The Associated Press noted that “The stadium is sure to be the centerpiece of the 2020 Olympics, built at a cost of 156.9 billion yen, about $1.43 billion at the present exchange rate. The capacity for the Olympics will be 68,000 and can be expanded later to 80,000.”

● A major story from the summer in judo was resolved when the International Judo Federation announced that Saeid Mollaei, the 2017 World 81 kg Champion, will compete for Mongolia. He received confirmation of his Mongolian citizenship earlier this month.

Mollaei, born in Iran, had been ordered to lose a match at this year’s World Championships in order not to have to fight Israeli star Sagi Muki, who eventually won the world title at 81 kg. Fearing for his safety, he fled to Germany before making arrangements to compete for Mongolia.

Mollaei competed at the IJF World Tour Qingdao Masters in China on the weekend in the 81 kg division, but lost in the second round to Christian Parlati of Italy.

● Sad news from Dallas, Texas, where the legendary New Zealand middle-distance star Peter Snell passed away on 12 December, at age 80. He was a triple Olympic gold medalist at the 800 (1960-64) and 1,500 m (1964) and held world records at the 800 m-880 y-1,000 m-mile.

After his running career was over, he moved to the U.S. and graduated from U.C. Davis, then went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from Washington State. He became an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Director of its Human Performance Center. That’s a true example of a scholar-athlete.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HIGHLIGHTS: Shiffrin scores again with Super-G bronze; Bowe wins third straight 1,000 m

Rich Perelman

December 15, 2019

tsx pix 2019-308 bowe, brittany (ISU) — U.S. Speed Skating star Brittany Bowe (Photo: ISU)

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

Anyone who pays attention to alpine skiing is running out of superlatives to shower on American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin.

Skiing in a Super-G race – not her forte – in St, Moritz, Switzerland, she claimed her sixth medal in eight races this season with an impressive third on Saturday. Starting 13th, she flew down the slope in 1:13.09, second at the time, but finally third after Italian star Sofia Goggia won from the 16th position in 1:12.96, just ahead of teammate Federica Brignone (1:12.97).

Shiffrin’s ability to pile up points in the “speed events” in addition to being almost unbeatable in the Slalom and Giant Slalom is what makes her to tough to deal with in the overall World Cup race. After just nine of the 41 scheduled races for 2019-20, she already has a 532-281 points lead on Brignone. The bronze in St. Moritz was her fourth in a Super-G and the 89th of her brilliant career.

She is also entering a stretch of 10 races in which seven are Slaloms or Giant Slaloms, meaning she could be running away with the World Cup points race in about a month.

● ALPINE SKIING ● In the other event in St. Moritz, Slovenia’s Petra Vlhova won the Parallel Slalom over Anna Swenn-Larsson (SWE); results are here.

The men’s events at Val d’Isere (FRA) were burdened by heavy snows and the Giant Slalom had to be canceled. France’s Alexis Pinturault claimed a popular win in Sunday’s Slalom over Andre Myrher (SWE) and Stefano Gross (ITA) and took over the seasonal points lead. Full results here.

● ARCHERY ● The second leg of the World Archery Indoor World Series was in Italy for the Roma Trophy, with home favorite Marco Galiazzo pulling off an upset win in the men’s Recurve final (18 m) over American star Brady Ellison, 6-4. But U.S. fans were happy with the third-place finish of 19-year-old Jack Williams, continuing his rise in international competition. The women’s Recurve final was won by Korea’s Chae Young Kang in a 6-5 overtime thriller against Italy’s Tatiana Andreoli, as both shot 10 in the extra end, but Kang’s was measured closer to the center. Full results here.

● BADMINTON ● As he has been all season, Japan’s Kento Momota was the story at the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou (CHN). “King Kento” defeated Indonesia’s Anthony Ginteng, 17-21, 21-17, 21-14 and set a new record in men’s singles of 11 titles in a season, overtaking Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei’s 2010 record of 10.

China’s Yufei Chen won the women’s Singles title over two-time champ Tzu Ying Tai (TPE) in three sets, and China won the women’s Doubles (Qingchen Chen and Yifan Jia) and Mixed Doubles titles (Siwei Zheng/Yaqiong Huang). Indonesia’s Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan won the men’s Doubles. The winners each received $120,000 (singles) or $126,000 (doubles), with the silver medalists getting $60,000 and the bronze medalists, $30,000 each. Full results here.

● BIATHLON ● The second World Cup of the season in Hochfilzen (AUT) was once again dominated by Norwegian star Johannes Thingnes Boe. He won both the 10 km Sprint and the 12.5 km Pursuit and has won three of the four races held so far this season. Russian Alexander Loginov was third in the Sprint and second in the Pursuit to also claim two medals on the weekend.

The women’s races were won by Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (7.5 km Sprint) and Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff (10 km Pursuit). Wierer has now won both Sprints this season and leads the overall standings. Norway’s Ingrid Tandrevoid won silver (Sprint) and bronze (Pursuit) for two medals in two races. Full results here.

● BOBSLED & SKELETON ● The second leg of the IBSF World Cup was once again in Lake Placid (for the second straight week), with familiar winners. Canada’s Justin Kripps, the 2018 Olympic two-man gold medalist, drove to wins in both of the four-man races, beating Oskars Kibermanis (LAT) in the first race and German Johannes Lochner in the second (no two-man races this week). The women’s two was won – again – by the new American team of Kaillie Humphries and Lauren Gibbs, this time edging German Kim Kalicki, 1:54.03-1:54.18.

Russians won both of the Skeleton events, with Alexander Tretiakov and Elena Nikitina winning tight match-ups with Martins Dukurs (LAT: second for the second week in a row) and last week’s winner, Jacqueline Loelling (GER). Full results here.

● CURLING ● The third of six stops on the Grand Slam of Curling tour for 2019-20 was the Boost National in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland (CAN), with 2014 Olympic champ Brad Jacobs (CAN) winning his sixth career Grand Slam title over four-time World Champion Niklas Edin (SWE), 3-1 in the final. The women’s final was another Canada-Sweden match-up, but this time it was 2018 Olympic champ Anna Hasselborg (SWE) getting the win over 2018 World Champion Jennifer Jones (CAN), 7-3. Full results here.

● CYCLING ● The penultimate Track Cycling World Cup was held in Brisbane (AUS), with two gold medals each for Sam Welsford (AUS: men’s Madison and Team Pursuit) and Georgia Baker (GBR: women’s Madison and Team Pursuit). American Jennifer Valente won the women’s Omnium and reigning World Champion Wai Sze Lee (HKG) won the Sprint. Full results here. The last meet of the season will be in late January in Milton (CAN).

● FENCING ● A busy weekend, with three World Cups on three continents! In the men’s Foil in Tokyo, Italy’s 2018 World Champion, Alessio Foconi defeated France’s Maxime Pauty in the final, 13-5. In St. Maur (FRA), fellow 2018 World Foil Champion Alice Volpi (ITA) eased past countrywoman Martine Batini, 15-10. Reigning World Champion Inna Deriglazova (RUS) and American Lee Kiefer earned the bronze medals. In Salt Lake City, the women’s Sabre title went to four-time World Champion Olga Kharlan (UKR), who won over China’s Jiarui Qian, 15-9. Links to results are here.

● FREESTYLE SKIING ● The first Freestyle Halfpipe event since September was held at Copper Mountain, Colorado, with the U.S. winning again. This time, it was reigning World Champion Aaron Blunck winning, after finishing third in Cardrona (NZL) in the early fall. Two-time Olympic champ David Wise of the U.S. was second and Canada’s Noah Bowman was third.

The women’s Halfpipe title went to Britain’s unheralded Zoe Atkin, who won ahead of Brita Sigourney (USA) and Rachael Karker (CAN).

The Ski Cross titles in Montafon (AUT) went to Ryan Regez (SUI) and Marielle Thompson (CAN) with Sandra Naeslund (SWE: G-S-S) and Courtney Hoffos (CAN: S-B-B) winning medals for the third race in a row!

The Moguls events in Thaiwoo (CHN) were won by Ikuma Horishima (JPN) over superstar Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) on Saturday, but Kingsbury came back to win the Dual Moguls on Sunday, ahead of Ben Cavet (FRA) and Horishima. It’s Kingsbury’s 58th World Cup win, extending his own record. France’s Perrine Laffont, the 2018 Olympic Champion, continued her perfect season – 3-for-3 – by winning both events.

Beijing (CHN) hosted a Norwegian sweep in the Big Air events, with Birk Ruud winning the men’s competition and Johanne Killi winning over Swiss Giulia Tanno, who second for the second event in a row. Links to full results are here.

● HANDBALL ● The Netherlands won its first-ever IHF Women’s World Championship with a thrilling 30-29 win over Spain in Sunday’s final at Higashi-ku, Japan. Estavana Polman led the Dutch with nine goals and secured their place in the 2020 Olympic tournament.

Norway (4-1) and the Netherlands (3-2) qualified for the semis as the first and second finishers in second-round Group I, and Russia (5-0) and Spain (3-1-1) went 1-2 in Group II. In the semifinals, the Dutch squeezed past Russia, 33-32, to reach the final. Spain defeated Norway, 28-22.

Russia defeated Norway, 33-28, in the bronze-medal match.

Polman was named Most Valuable Player in the tournament; the top scorer was Dutch star Lois Abbingh, with 71 goals. Full results here.

● JUDO ● The final tournament of 2019 was the Qingdao Masters in China, which turned into a showcase for Japan’s stars. Japanese entries won five divisions and 12 medals in total, well ahead of France (7: 1-3-3) and the Netherlands (5: 3-1-1). Interestingly, not a single 2019 World Champion won, but Israel’s Sagi Muki (81 kg), Czech Lukas Krpalek (+100 kg) and France’s Clarisse Agbegnenou (63 kg) all won silvers. Full results here.

● LUGE ● The third stage of the FIL World Cup was held on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games track at Whistler (CAN) with strong results for Russia. Former World Cup champ Roman Repilov won the men’s race and was second to Reinhard Egger (AUT) in the Sprint, while Tatiana Ivanova won both women’s races, with Anna Berreiter (GER) second in the standard race and American Emily Sweeney the Sprint runner-up. German stars Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken won both Doubles races, finishing ahead of countrymen Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt in both. Full results here.

● NORDIC SKIING ● Situation normal for the Cross Country World Cup racing in Davos (SUI): Norway in front.

Superstar Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won the Sprint Freestyle and confirmed his season in the overall standings, then saw countryman Simen Hegstad Krueger win the 15 km Freestyle on Sunday, ahead of Russia’s Sergey Ustinov and legendary Swiss Dario Cologna, now 33.

The women’s Sprint was won by Sweden’s 19-year-old Linn Svahn for her first World Cup medal and first World Cup win, defeating 2014 Olympic champ Maiken Caspersen Falla. But Norway was back on top on Sunday with Therese Johaug (NOR) winning the 10 km Freestyle for her fourth win in four distance races this season.

The U.S. has a strong weekend in the women’s races, with Sophie Caldwell scoring a bronze in the Sprint and Jessica Diggins winning a bronze behind Johaug and Heidi Weng (NOR) in the 10 km Free. Diggins has been on fire, winning three medals in the four distance races held so far and the American women have taken a medal in five of the six races held this season! Full results here.

In Ski Jumping, last year’s sensation, Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN) returned to the top of the podium for the first time this season. Jumping off the 140 m hill in Klingenthal (GER), Kobayashi earned his second straight medal and took the seasonal lead with the win, ahead of Austria’s Stefan Kraft and Marius Lindvik (NOR). The women’s jumping, off the same hill, was a triumph for Austria’s Chiara Hoelzl, who won over Ema Klinec (SLO) and Katharina Althaus (GER). Hoelzl has now won medals in all three events this season. Full results here.

● RUGBY ● The men’s and women’s Seven Series were both in Cape Town, South Africa this week, with New Zealand winning both tournaments in hotly-contested finals. The men’s tournament saw Australia and New Zealand win close semifinals and then the All-Blacks won the final by 17-7, with Canada third (22-17 over France. Full results here.

The women’s tourney had New Zealand and host South Africa as semifinal winners. The final was a tough, defensive match, but the Black Ferns managed a 7-5 victory, with France defeating Fiji, 29-24, for third. Full results here.

● SNOWBOARD ● A very busy weekend, with events in Italy, the U.S. and China.

The Big Air season is now 75% complete (!!!), with Canada’s Max Parrot – the 2018 Olympic Slopestyle silver medalist – winning in Beijing (CHN), ahead of Sven Thorgren (SWE) and Chris Corning of the U.S. With one event remaining next week (in Atlanta), Corning is the seasonal leader at 2,200 points, followed by Nic Laframboise (CAN: 1,500) and Finland’s Kalle Jarvilehto and Ryoma Kimata (JPN), both with 1,220.

In women’s Big Air, Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN) won her first medal and first gold of the season, winning over Austrian star Anna Gasser and Canada’s Laurie Blouin. Going into the finale in Atlanta, Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) leads with 1,900 points, ahead of Gasser (1,400) and Britain’s Katie Ormerod (1,150).

The Snowboard Cross openers in Montafon (AUT) were won by home favorite Alessandro Hammerle and 2014 Olympic Champion Eva Samkova (CZE). The Parallel Giant Slalom races in Cortina d’Ampezzo had back-to-back winners for both men and women as Roland Fischnaller (ITA) and Germany’s Ramona Hofmeister both triumphed again.

The Halfpipe opener at Copper Mountain, Colorado saw three-time World Champion Scotty James of Australia win the men’s title, ahead of Yuto Totsuka (JPN) and Ruka Hirano (JPN). Spain’s Queralt Castellet, the 2015 Worlds silver medalist, won her fifth World Cup victory, out-pointing Jiayu Liu (CHN) and Maddie Mastro of the U.S. Links to results are here.

● SPEED SKATING ● The last World Cup for 2019 was held at the famous M-Wave Arena in Nagano (JPN), but Russia had the most to celebrate with four wins.

American Brittany Bowe dominated the women’s 1,000 m for the third straight meet, winning in 1:14.344, ahead of Japanese star Miho Takagi (1:14.894).

The hosts had plenty to cheer about, as Olympic star Nao Kodaira won the first women’s 500 m ahead of Russia’s Angelina Golikova, 37.496-37.515. And Yuma Murakami led a men’s 1-2 in the first 500 m over Tatsuya Shinhama, 34.584-34.672.

But the Russians took over, finishing 1-2 in the second men’s 500 m with Viktor Mushtakov and Pavel Kulizhnikov taking top honors, then Kulizhnikov won the men’s 1,000 m and Danila Semerikov won the men’s 5,000 m. Golikova won the re-match with Kodaira in the second women’s 500 m, with Vanessa Herzog (AUT) second and Kodaira taking the bronze.

The women’s distance races were won by Canada’s Ivanie Blondin, at 3,000 m and the Mass Start. American Mia Kilburg scored an impressive bronze in the Mass Start final. The men’s Mass Start was another Canadian win, this time for Jordan Belchos, who finished ahead of American Joey Mantia.

The last two World Cups will be held in February and March. Full results here.

● TABLE TENNIS ● China won four of five events in the World Tour Grand Finals in Zhengzhou (CHN), with all-China finals in both the men’s and women’s Singles matches. The men’s final had no. 2-ranked Zhendong Fan winning over no. 3 Long Ma, 4-1, and no. 1 Meng Chen defeated no. 6 Manyu Wang, 4-1. Fan teamed with Xin Xu to win the men’s Doubles title and then Xu and Shiwen Liu won a tight Mixed Doubles final over Japan’s Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito, 3-2. But Japan’s Miyuu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki won the women’s Doubles title, 3-0, over Korea’s Jihee Jeon and Haeun Yang. Full results here.

● WEIGHTLIFTING ● China dominated the IWF World Cup held in Tianjin (CHN), winning six of the 10 men’s classes and five of the 10 women’s classes. South Korean lifters won two men’s division titles and North Koreans won women’s classes. World 73 kg Champion Zhiyong Shi (CHN) set a world record of 198 kg in the Clean & Jerk and superstar Wei Deng set a women’s 64 kg world record in the Snatch at 117 kg. Full results here.

LANE ONE: WADA did this much right: they got the Russians angry! Or is it for show?

Rich Perelman

December 11, 2019

Monday’s decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency to hold the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to be non-compliant for a period of four years was cheered by some, but was considered too lenient by others who wanted Russia banned completely from the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo and beyond.

Lost in most of the coverage, of course, was any reference to the regulations under which the Russian sanctions were imposed, namely the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories, issued in April 2018.

In it, section 11.2.6 controls the situation; simplified below to show only the pertinent text:

“The consequences should not go further than is necessary to achieve the objectives underlying the Code. In particular, where a consequence imposed is exclusion of Athletes … consideration should be given to whether it is feasible … to create and implement a mechanism that enables … Athletes … to demonstrate that they are not affected in any way by the Signatory’s noncompliance.

“If so, and if it is clear that allowing them to compete in the Event(s) in a neutral capacity (i.e., not as representatives of any country) will not make the … Consequences … less effective, or be unfair to their competitors or undermine public confidence in the integrity of the Event(s) … or in the commitment of WADA … to defend the integrity of sport against the scourge of doping, then such a mechanism may be permitted, under the control of and/or subject to the approval of WADA …”

In order for the decision of the WADA Executive Committee to be upheld at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, it must follow these rules. MUST follow these rules, or have its sanctions reversed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

There were some hysterical comments that the sanctions were too light, some very considered views that the Russians simply will not learn from even this level of sanction, and comments from Russian sources that the penalties were too severe.

● The always-thoughtful Edwin Moses, Emeritus Chair of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (and two-time Olympic gold medalist), told the Associated Press on video that he doesn’t feel the penalties will result in a change in future actions by the Russians:

“I’m not optimistic at all that that’s going to change. They’ve had three swings at the bat. Struck out three times. The duplicity, deceit and deception that they exhibited is just beyond the pale, and I think it’s an embarrassment to the athletes in the world that now, at this stage, they’re fighting for the rights of their clean athletes, as they call them. Meanwhile, they’ve destroyed all the data that could either exonerate them of find that they’re guilty. So that within itself is another layer of deception.”

(WADA’s statement disagreed, noting that “WADA now has the names of all suspicious athletes in the LIMS database, and thanks to the painstakingly forensic nature of the investigation, this includes the athletes whose data was manipulated or even deleted” and endorsed a comment on the current operations of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency that “the evidence (including from WADA’s recent audits of RUSADA’s operations) indicates that RUSADA’s work is effective in contributing to the fight against doping in Russian sport.”)

● For its part, the International Olympic Committee issued a statement that underscored that its view of the sanctions had been implemented:

“At the same time, we also note that the report finds that the sports movement has not been involved in any of this manipulation, and that the report does not indicate any wrongdoing by the sports movement in this regard, in particular the Russian Olympic Committee or its members. In this context, the IOC welcomes the opportunity offered by WADA to Russian athletes to compete, ‘where they are able to demonstrate that they are not implicated in any way by the non-compliance’.”

● The response from Russia was predictably furious. The Russian TASS news agency posted 27 stories on the topic of “Doping Scandal in Russian Sports” from Monday through Wednesday, including these headlines:

= “RUSADA’s deputy chief says WADA’s verdict in Russia case was well-expected”
= “Russian athletes’ status in 2020 Olympics depends on length of CAS review”
= “Russian players to fly national colors at 2020 UEFA Euro Cup matches, says official”
= “Medvedev says WADA’s decision is continuation of anti-Russian hysteria”
= “Russian may file appeal to CAS since WADA’s decision violates Olympic Charter – Putin”
= “Collective responsibility must not violate interests of athletes from Russia, says Peskov”
= “Russian chess players to compete in global tournaments under national flag, says official”
= “WADA’s thorough probe into doping abuse in US is needed – Russian legislator”
= “Tretiak says Russia’s ice hockey team may play under national flag at 2022 Olympics”

On Wednesday, Russian Boxing Federation Secretary General Umar Kremlev – the same guy who offered to pay the $16 million of accumulated debt of the International Boxing Federation last May – told the Associated Press that Russian boxers will participate in the 2020 Olympic Games only if the sanctions requiring them to compete as neutrals are reversed.

Moreover, the AP reported in the same story:

“Separately, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament said Russia could create an alternative to the Olympics.

“‘This ruling show the clear crisis in international sports institutions. I believe that Russia could host its own games at home,’’ Valentina Matviyenko said in comments reported by the Interfax news agency.”

So what about all this?

In my view, the sanctions were very carefully crafted to work within the regulations, and therefore withstand an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that everyone knows is coming.

That means a “mechanism” to allow a forum for Russian athletes to demonstrate their compliance with the anti-doping rules must be included in the sanctions, and it was.

But the WADA decision had some curious shortcomings, which do undercut its effectiveness.

The most troubling is that the sanctions apply only to the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and World Championships at the senior level, and not to age-group, cadet or junior (or Masters) events. TASS reported it confirmed this with Jonathan Taylor, the British lawyer who headed the WADA Compliance Review Committee that drafted the sanctions.

Per TASS, “‘Age grade champs not included,’ Taylor said.”

Moreover, the defined events in the sanctions do not include continental or regional championships such as the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship, where Saint Petersburg will host games in Group B and a quarterfinal. No problem for the Russian team there.

Doesn’t this send a mixed message to exactly those athletes who WADA is trying to reach with an anti-doping message. For those younger athletes competing in age-group regional and world events, and for athletes competing in prestigious European Championships of all kinds, the sanctions have no impact.

This is a serious omission, but one which has not been talked about much so far. A blanket ban on Russian athletes would face serious scrutiny from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and WADA did not want to risk having its most serious sanction blow up. But those athletes who WADA wants to educate most – younger competitors – should be the ones to see the real consequences of doping on both a national and individual scale. Wouldn’t making them do through a personal anti-doping application process be exactly the time of educational tool that would make the biggest impact?

In cases like the Russian doping scandal, a ban from the Olympic Games is always seen as the biggest possible penalty. But if the idea is to change the anti-doping context in Russia, isn’t a program aimed at emerging elite athletes also needed?

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE BIG PICTURE: WADA approves four-year ban on Russia, but no blanket ban on athletes

Rich Perelman

December 9, 2019

As expected, the World Anti-Doping Agency Executive Committee approved the recommendations of its Compliance Review Committee and declared Russia to be “non-compliant” with the World Anti-Doping Code.

The penalty recommendation adopted bans Russia as a country from specific worldwide, multi-sport events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games – and all world championships – for four years and will encompass the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Japan.

What WADA did not do was ban any participation by Russian athletes in these events. However, the standard for inclusion of any Russian athletes appears to be quite high. The sanction specifies (split up and numbered for readability):

“Russian athletes and their support personnel may only participate in Major Events staged in the Four-Year Period where they are able to demonstrate that

“(1) they are not implicated in any way by the non-compliance with conditions including (without limitation) that

“(2) they are not mentioned in incriminating circumstances in the McLaren reports,

“(3) there are no positive findings reported for them in the database and no data relating to their samples has been manipulated, and that

“(4) they have been subject to adequate in-competition and out-of-competition testing prior to the event in question according to WADA, in accordance with strict conditions to be defined by WADA (or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if it sees fit), pursuant to the mechanism foreseen in ISCCS Article 11.2.6.”

If WADA adopts this standard as written, including the burden of proof being on the athlete to show their personal compliance, it will not be easy for any Russian athletes to show that they should be allowed to compete.

However, the specific procedure for applying to participate has not yet been detailed, so there is more to come on this.

The other elements of the recommended sanctions included a ban on participation by Russian officials in most capacities at larger events and world championships, a ban on Russian hosting of future world championships and a prohibition on bidding for the 2032 Olympic Games, a fine and a requirement that Russia pay WADA’s costs in this matter.

Importantly, WADA’s statement included a comment from Compliance Review Committee chair Jonathan Taylor (GBR) about what information it does have from its investigation of the Moscow Lab database:

“WADA now has the names of all suspicious athletes in the LIMS database, and thanks to the painstakingly forensic nature of the investigation, this includes the athletes whose data was manipulated or even deleted, including the 145 athletes within WADA’s target group of most suspicious athletes but also others beyond that target group.

“While I understand the calls for a blanket ban on all Russian athletes whether or not they are implicated by the data, it was the unanimous view of the CRC, which includes an athlete, that in this case, those who could prove their innocence should not be punished, and I am pleased that the WADA ExCo agreed with this.”

The International Olympic Committee had signaled its agreement with the idea that Russian athletes who can prove their compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code should be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games and other events. Other groups claiming to speak for athletes were not happy that a blanket ban was not imposed, and as usual, the most colorful denouncement came from U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Travis Tygart, including:

“To allow Russia to escape a complete ban is yet another devastating blow to clean athletes, the integrity of sport and the rule of law. And, in turn, the reaction by all those who value sport should be nothing short of a revolt against this broken system to force reform. …

“The world has to wonder which is worse, the original Russian fraud and robbery of medals and the rights of clean athletes or the extent to which the leaders of sport have bowed to the Russian money and influence in failing to adequately deal with this sullen affair years ago.”

The process forward now rests with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, which was interestingly praised for its current operations in fighting doping in the country. RUSADA, as a member of WADA, now has 21 days to either accept the sanction, or to contest it with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Once the expected notice of appeal is filed, the case will then proceed to arbitration.

The response from Russia was predictable. Prime Minister Dmitry Medevedv told TASS, “The fact that these decisions keep on repeating and are often applicable to those athletes who have already been punished this or that way, obviously makes one think that it is a continuation of the anti-Russian hysteria that has already grown chronic.”

Russian Minister of Sport Pavel Kolobkov said the process needs to be worked through and “It is too early to speak about sanctions.” Svetlana Zhurova, the first deputy chair of the International Committee of the Russian State Duma, said, “A meeting of RUSADA’s Supervisory Board will be held on December 19. It will decide whether RUSADA accepts these recommendations or not. And the court in Lausanne after that. I am 100% sure [Russia will go to court] because we must defend our athletes.”

So the process has started in earnest, but it will continue for a while. How long will determine, in large part, whether the sanctions are, in fact, credible.

LANE ONE: World Athletics and The Athletics Association should be talking schedule, not events

Rich Perelman

December 8, 2019

tsx pix 2019-710 taylor, christian 2015 (mohan) — Olympic and World Triple Jump champ Christian Taylor of the U.S. (Photo: Mohan via Wikipedia)

Though the focus of the Olympic world is on what will happen to Russia at Monday’s World Anti-Doping Agency meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, there is considerable tumult in the track & field world over meets and money.

World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) has re-shaped its top-level Diamond League meets and shortened the broadcast time from two hours to 90 minutes. In doing so, it eliminated the 200 meters, Steeplechase, Triple Jump and Discus as primary events in the 14 meets, causing a considerable uproar among athletes in those events, and among others who were unimpressed by the rationale.

The result of this was a call for the formation of The Athletics Association, an organization designed to represent professional track & field athletes worldwide. This is much different than the Athletes Commission of World Athletics; in the announcement of the group, Olympic and World Champion Christian Taylor of the U.S. wrote, “We will fight for athletes’ rights and ultimately demand a seat at the table and a say in how our sport is run and how the sport can grow and evolve without ripping out its very core.”

In late November, World Athletics released – as promised – the schedule and prize money for a new, second-tier set of meets to be called the Continental Tour Gold level, with 10 meets and about 67% of the prize money for the relegated events compared to the Diamond League, and no final competition.

All of this is being done by World Athletics in an attempt to broaden the appeal of track & field as a spectator sport.

Taylor, in an insightful interview with Sieg Lindstrom of Track & Field News, said of the changes to the Diamond League format:

“It’s just for me a poor effort of this idea of growth—when you’re making the program shorter you’re actually essentially taking people out of the platform of the Diamond League. [World Athletics President Sebastian Coe and Chief Executive Jon Ridgeon] did understand our concerns, frustrations, and unfortunately things are locked in for the 2020 season but now efforts are all for 2021. Not just in getting the sport back to where it was, but how can we be more innovative, how can we be more creative. How can we start actually having a voice and influence as athletes in the direction that the sport is going in.”

This is a good time for this discussion, with the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 and the 2021 World Championships to be held in the U.S. (Eugene) in 2021. But if one looks at the schedule of Diamond League and Continental Tour Gold events for 2020, the obvious conclusion is that this is a sport which can only be considered chaotic. The 23 meets now scheduled (Continental Tour meets are labeled “CT”; the others are Diamond League):

● April (1): 17 ~ Doha (QAT)

● May (7): 10 ~ Tokyo (JPN-CT); 13 ~ Nanjing (CHN-CT), 16 ~ Shanghai (CHN), 22 ~ Ostrava (CZE-CT), 24 ~ Stockholm (SWE), 28 ~ Rome (ITA), 31 ~ Rabat (MAR)

● June (6): 1 ~ Hengelo (NED-CT), 7 ~ Eugene (USA), 9 ~ Turku (FIN-CT), 11 ~ Oslo (NOR), 13 ~ Paris (FRA) and Kingston (JAM-CT)

● July (3): 4 ~ London (GBR), 7 ~ Szekesfehervar (HUN-CT), 10 ~ Monaco (MON)

● August (2): 16 ~ Gateshead (GBR), 20 ~ Lausanne (SUI)

● September (4): 4 ~ Brussels (BEL), 6 ~ Silesia (POL-CT), 11 ~ Zurich (SUI), 15 ~ Zagreb (CRO-CT)

So there is one early meet, then seven meets in 21 days in May and six meets in 13 days in June. Then nothing for three weeks, three meets in 10 days in July and nothing for five weeks, until mid-August. Plus four meets in 11 days in September.

(And, it must be pointed out, that one of the highest-attendance meets in the world is not part of either schedule: ISTAF in Berlin, which attracted 40,500 spectators in 2019 and will be held on 13 September in 2020. It says something about the Diamond League and Continental Tour that a 98-year-old meet held in a world capital has chosen not to participate.)

If you are in the sport, you know that the three weeks at the end of June are open to accommodate national championships and Olympic Trials, but the potential fan would only see a hole in the schedule.

Same for the blank spot for the last three weeks of July and first two weeks in August. That space is to accommodate the Tokyo Olympic Games, where the track & field events will be held from 31 July-8 August, with the men’s marathon on the 9th. Again, only true fans will realize this without a listing.

For Taylor and his associates who want to see interest in the sport expand, there are a lot of questions to ask about 2021 and beyond. What is not being discussed publicly so far, but is a constant topic of conversation amongst athletes, coaches and sometimes meet managers and promoters, is scheduling.

How many meets should there be? On what dates? How many events can individual athletes compete in over what period of time; this will not be the same for every event.

From a promotional standpoint, is there consideration of potentially attractive match-ups in the assignment of events to specific meets? What are the responsibility of athletes who are potential ticket sellers to be available to compete in these meets?

If this sounds like a boxing promoter trying to make matches that will sell tickets, it should. Interesting fights sell; Britain’s Anthony Joshua reportedly earned more than $70 million for his heavyweight title fight last Saturday vs. Mexico’s Andy Ruiz, Jr. That’s much more than the entire Diamond League is worth.

Taylor is right to get more athletes involved and he told Lindstrom that “With the understanding that we won’t agree on everything, but fundamentally we think [World Athletics] want to listen and work with us.”

To actually move the sport forward, however, bringing World Athletics and athletes together is only the start, with coaches, meet promoters and news media – at all levels – all needed in order to find the solution to growing the sport … and the ability for athletes to earn a livelihood in it.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HIGHLIGHTS: Superb Chen routs Hanyu to win ISU Grand Prix Final by almost 44 points!

Rich Perelman

December 8, 2019

2019 ISU World Figure Skating Championships Saitama — World Champion Nathan Chen of the U.S. (Photo: ISU/Atsushi Tomura)

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

“Stunning” is probably the best way to describe the dominating performance by two-time World Champion Nathan Chen of the U.S. in the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy.

Competing head-to-head with double Olympic champ Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN), Chen led after the Short Program by a staggering 13 points. He then set records for the best scores ever in the Free Skate and the total score with 224.92 and 335.30 to Hanyu’s 194.00 and 291.43.

Said Chen, who had five quadruple jumps in his program, “It felt amazing, I got pretty gassed at the end of my program so I guess I need to work on my stamina a little bit, but overall I’m really happy to be here, I’m really thrilled with the score. It’s awesome experience and exposure for me to be able to compete against these amazing guys and every time it’s a lot of fun for me, so I’m happy to be here and excited to keep moving forward.”

The women’s Final was a Russian sweep, but a disappointment for 2018 Olympic Champion Alina Zagitova, who finished sixth! Alena Kostornaia (16) won with 247.59 points, ahead of Anna Shcherbakova (15: 240.92) and Alexandra Trusova (15:233.18). American Bradie Tennell was fifth at 212.18.

World Champions Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (CHN) won the Pairs by 211.69-204.27 over teammates Cheng Peng/Yang Jin. Four-time World Champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) won the Ice Dance quite handily, scoring 219.45. The U.S. went 2-3 with Madison Chock and Evan Bates (210.68) and Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue (207.93). Full results are here.

● ALPINE SKIING ● The North American swing of the FIS Alpine World Cup concluded on the weekend with an American winner … but it wasn’t Mikaela Shiffrin!

Instead, it was 30-year-old Tommy Ford who came through with his first-ever World Cup win and first career World Cup medal in taking the Giant Slalom on Sunday’s race at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Ford had the best time after the first run and the second-fastest second run to win over Norwegians Henrik Kristoffersen and Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen.

Swiss stars Marco Odermatt and Beat Feuz won the Super-G and Downhill at Beaver Creek.

At Lake Louise (CAN), the first women’s speed races of the season were held, with Shiffrin showing her versatility and earning another medal. But the headlines were reserved for Czech star Ester Ledecka.

Remember that Ledecka, a superstar in Snowboard, won an unbelievable Olympic gold medal in 2018 in the Alpine Super-G before going on to take the Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom. On Friday, she won the women’s Downhill for her first-ever Alpine World Cup medal and her first win; it was first time she finished higher than seventh in a World Cup race! She also became the first ever to have won both an Alpine and Snowboard World Cup race.

In Saturday’s Downhill, reigning World Cup Downhill champ Nicole Schmidhofer won her fourth career World Cup title, with Shiffrin second. It’s her fourth career Downhill medal in the World Cup and it’s results like these that will help her to a fourth straight World Cup overall title. At age 24, she now has 88 career World Cup medals.

The Sunday Super-G was won by Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, her fourth career Super-G win. Links to results are here.

● BOBSLED ● After technical problems moved the IBSF World Cup opener from Park City in Utah to Lake Placid, New York, new “American” star Kaillie Humphries scored another victory in the women’s races.

Humphries married an American sledder during the off-season and because of a very public dispute with the Canadian federation, asked to be released in order to compete for the U.S. She was eventually approved to drive for USA Bobsled & Skeleton and teamed with PyeongChang silver medalist Lauren Gibbs to win over Germany’s Stephanie Schneider and Lisette Thoene, 1:53.48-1:53.79. Humphries and Gibbs had the fastest times on both runs and it was Humphries’ 23rd career World Cup win.

Two two-man races were, with Germany going 1-2 in both. Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer upset Olympic champ Francesco Friedrich (with Thorsten Margis) in the first race by 0.08 (over two runs), but Friedrich and Alexander Schueller won the second series, 1:49.77-1:50.00.

Germany swept the Skeleton races, with Axel Jungk edging Martins Dukurs (LAT) in the men’s race and Jacqueline Loelling winning the women’s Skeleton over Janine Flock (AUT). Full results are here.

● CYCLING ● The fourth stage of the 2019-20 UCI Track Cycling World Cup took place in Cambridge, New Zealand, with many of the stars from the first three legs absent given the long trip.

New Zealand’s Campbell Stewart won two events, taking the men’s Omnium and then teaming with Aaron Gate to win the Madison. The men’s Sprint was won by Poland’s Mateusz Rudyk and the Keirin by Malaysia’s Mod Awang.

The women’s Sprint was won by Russian Anastasiia Voinova and the Keirin was won by Hyejin Lee (KOR). Japan’s Yumi Kajihara won the Omnium, with American Jennifer Valente second. Full results are here.

● FREESTYLE & SNOWBOARD ● The Freestyle World Cup in Moguls opened up in Ruka (FIN) and once again, it was superstar Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) with the win, his 57th career World Cup title. Olympic women’s Moguls gold medalist Perrine Laffont won the women’s event in Ruka.

The Freestyle Ski Cross season also opened, in Val Thorens (FRA), with Canadians Kevin Drury and Kristofor Mahler winning the men’s races and Sandra Naeslund (SWE) and Fanny Smith (SUI) winning the women’s events. Links to results are here.

The Snowboard World Cup opened for the Parallel events in Bannoye (RUS), Austrian star Andreas Prommegger winning the Parallel Slalom and Italy’s five-time Worlds medal winner Ronald Fischnaller winning the Parallel Giant Slalom. The women’s Slalom was won by Julie Zogg (SUI) and the Giant Slalom by Ramona Hofmeister (GER).

● HANDBALL ● The IHF Women’s World Championship is continuing in Japan, with action now in the second round of play.

In the first round, the group winners included the Netherlands (4-1), Korea (3-0-2), Spain (5-0) and Russia (5-0). The top three in each of the four groups advanced to the second round of pool play. Halfway through, Germany (2-0-1) and the Netherlands (2-1) lead Group I and Russia 93-0) and Spain (2-1) lead Group II. The top two in each group will advance to the semis on 13 December. The final will be on the 15th. The tournament summary is here. Only the winner will qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

● NORDIC SKIING ● The World Cup seasons are fully underway now for Cross Country, Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping.

In Cross Country, the action was in Lillehammer (NOR), as part of a winter festival which also included the Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping. The men’s 30 km Skiathlon was won by Russian Alexander Bolshunov for his seventh World Cup victory, but first in a Skiathlon event.

The women’s 15 km Skiathlon was taken by the nearly unbeatable Therese Johaug (NOR), who has won all three distance events this season and now has 50 individual career World Cup wins. She was chased to the finish by American Jessica Diggins, skiing better than ever, and scoring her second medal in four races this season and her second career medal in a Skiathlon.

In Nordic Combined, 22-year-old Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) – the defending World Cup champ – is now undefeated after two weekends and five events in the 21-race World Cup season. He won both of the 140 m/10 km races in Lillehammer, with teammate Jorgen Graabak second … for the third straight race!

In Ski Jumping, the two jumps at Nizhny Tagil in Russia (134 m hill) were won by Yukiya Sato of Japan (his first World Cup win) and veteran Stefan Kraft of Austria (his 17th). The women’s jumping for started in Lillehammer and the home fans were elated with a double win for two-time defending World Cup champ Maren Lundby. She finished ahead of Austrians Eva Pinkelnig on Saturday and Chiara Holzl on Sunday.

● RUGBY ● The Sevens Series was in Dubai (UAE) for both men and women, with South Africa and New Zealand taking the titles.

In the men’s tournament, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were undefeated in pool play, but the Aussies were eliminated in the quarters and the Kiwis and South Africans met for the title, with South Africa winning, 15-0. England finished third, beating Samoa, 19-17.

The U.S., Australia and France all went 3-0 in the women’s tournament pool matches, but France was dropped in the quarterfinals. Canada surprised Australia in the semifinals, 26-12 and New Zealand ran past the U.S., 24-7, in their semi. The Kiwis edged Canada, 17-14, in the final, while the U.S. was third, beating Australia, 24-7. Links to full results are here.

● SAILING ● Three World Championships concluded 10 days of racing off of Auckland, New Zealand in the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 classes, all of which will be part of the Olympic regatta in 2020.

The men’s 49er class was won by New Zealand’s reigning Olympic Champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who won a tight battle with Rio bronze medalists Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel of Germany, 86.0-92.0.

The women’s 49erFX regatta was won by reigning World Champions Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz (NED), who held off Rio Olympic gold medalists Martine Soffiatti Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA) by 96.0-110.0.

In the mixed-crew Nacra 17 class, Italy’s Vittorio Bissaro and Maelle Frascari won a very tight battle over Lin Chenolt/C.P. Lubeck (DEN) and Rio Olympic silver medalists Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin (AUS), 93.0-96.0-103.0. Full results are here.

● SHORT TRACK ● The third leg of the ISU World Cup series had one important similarity to the first two: no one can touch Canada’s Kim Boutin over 500 m.

She won the first final at the Shanghai (CHN) World Cup, giving her four wins in her four races and the overall lead in the 500 m class with two events remaining. Dutch star Suzanne Schulting won the 1,000 m – her second title of the season – and has the seasonal lead at that distance.

The men’s headlines included two 500 m wins for Hungary’s Shaolin Sandor Liu, vaulting him to the top of the 500 m standings with 43,438 points to 28,118 for Chinese star Dajing Wu, with Shaoang Liu (brother) in third with 23,025. Full results are here.

● SPEED SKATING ● Exotic Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan was the site for the third Speed Skating World Cup, but the stars of the show came from Canada, the U.S. and the Netherlands.

Canada’s Ivanie Blondin won both the 1,500 m and 5,000 m in tight battles, winning first over Czech star Martina Sabilkova by 0.05 in the 5,000 m in 6:54.945-6:54.995. Then she won the 1,500 m, finishing just faster than Ireen Wust (NED: 1:55.881) and American Brittany Bowe (1:55.960).

Bowe won the 1,000 m for the second straight time in the World Cup this season, timing 1:14.280 for a clear victory. Russia’s Angelina Golikova led a 1-2 finish in the women’s 500 m with Daria Kachanova, with both ahead of Japan’s Nao Kodaira.

Russian Viktor Mushtakov won the men’s 500 m in 34.636 and China’s Zhongyan Ning took the 1,500 m in 1:44.918, but the other winners were Dutch. Thomas Krol led a 1-2-3 sweep for the Netherlands in the 1,000 m in 1:08.420, and Patrick Roest won the 10,000 m in 12:59.442. Full results are here.

● SWIMMING ● It’s still a time of heavy training, but a lot of the top American swimmers gathered for the Toyota U.S. Open in Atlanta, including three wins for Freestyle superstar Katie Ledecky.

Ledecky won the 400-800-1,500 m Frees in 8:14.59, 4:00.81 and 15:52.10, and had the fastest time in a fourth event. She only qualified for the B Final in the 200 m Free, but won that in a very fast 1:56.24, better than Allison Schmidt’s A Final winning time of 1:56.47.

The other big winner was Chase Kalisz, the 2017 World Champion in both the 200 and 400 m Medleys, but who struggled in 2019. He won both events in 1:57.28 and 4:13.07, defeating Carson Foster (1:57.59 and 4:14.76) twice. Ryan Lochte finished third in the 200 m Medley in 1:58.89.

There were some eyebrow-raising upsets as well. Olympic and World Freestyle sprint champ Simone Manuel won the 50 m Free in 24.43, but was second in the 100 m Free to Erika Brown, 53.42-53.72.

Breaststroke star Lilly King won the 100 m Breast in 1:05.65, but finished second to Emily Escobedo in the 200 m Breast, 2:22:00-2:22.63.

World Champion and world-record setter Regan Smith was upset in the 100 m Backstroke Phoebe Bacon, 58.63-57.68 (both are 17 years old). Bacon was then defeated by Isabelle Stadden in the 200 m Back, 2:08.49-2:08.82.

The men’s 100 m Free was won in an impressive 47.69 by Zach Apple, and Townley Haas won the 200 m Free in a very good 1:45.92.

The other double winner was Melanie Margalis, who took the 200 m Breast (2:08.84) and 400 m Medley (4:37.34). Full results are here.

● TAEKWONDO ● The World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final was held in Moscow, with a strong showing from Korea and China, which each won two titles.

In the men’s division, Korea’s three-time World Champion Dae-Hoon Lee defeated reigning World Champion Bradly Sinden (GBR) at 68 kg, and Kyo-Don In won his third straight Grand Prix title, this time at +80 kg over Iran’s Sajjad Mardani. Russian Maksim Khramtcov, the 2017 World Champion at 74 kg, overcame two-time 80 kg World Champion Milad Beigi to win the 80 kg title.

In the women’s classes, China had wins by Zongshi Luo at 57 kg and Olympic champ Shuyin Zheng at +67 kg. Cote d’Ivoire’s Ruth Gbagbi, the 2017 World Champion at 62 kg, won here at 67 kg. The U.S. won two bronze medals, from Anastasija Zolotic at 57 kg and two-time World Championships medalist Paige McPherson at 67 kg. Full results are here.

ATHLETICS Panorama: Lananna restored to USATF Presidency by Court of Arbitration for Sport

Rich Perelman

December 5, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1205 lananna, vin — USA Track & Field President Vin Lananna (Photo: Wikipedia, by trackinfo)

Hours before the opening of the 2019 USA Track & Field Annual Meeting in Reno, Nevada, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordered that Vin Lananna be reinstated as the organization’s elected President.

Lananna, now the head coach for cross country and track & field at the University of Virginia, was elected by the USATF membership as a reform candidate in 2016, but was put on “administrative leave” in early 2018 due to perceived conflicts of interest due to his affiliation with Track Town USA, the Olympic Trials organizing committee in Eugene, Oregon. He was also interviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its probe into sports bribery that primarily focused on soccer.

But Lananna left Track Town USA and his position as an Associate Athletic Director at the University of Oregon to go to Virginia, and after filing a grievance with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, received word on Thursday of his immediate reinstatement.

And he was on the podium Thursday evening for the opening of the USATF Annual Meeting. He presented several awards and will preside as Chair and President at the Board meetings held this week.

Activists within USATF have been pushing for Lananna’s reinstatement, and he says he plans to run for re-election in 2020 … and be able to actually serve a full term.

USATF announced Donavan Brazier and Dalilah Muhammad as Athletes of the Year, winning the Jesse Owens Award and Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award, respectively.

Brazier won the World Championships gold at 800 m in an American Record 1:42.34, won the Diamond League title at 800 m and set an American Indoor Record at 1:44.41 at the Millrose Games.

Muhammad not only won the World Championships in the 400 m hurdles, but set two world records in the event. She won the U.S. title in rainy conditions in Des Moines, Iowa in 52.20 in late July and then lowered the mark to 52.16 to win at the Doha Worlds.

Both are now favorites in their events for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Muhammad’s coach, Lawrence “Boogie” Johnson was honored as the Nike Coach of the Year, the second time he has won the award (also in 2013).

World Athletics handed out its Athlete of the Year awards in late November, with Muhammad winning the women’s award and marathon star Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) winning the men’s award.

Kipchoge’s best-known achievement was his time trial in Vienna, Austria, in which he became the first runner to complete the marathon distance in under two hours, in 1:59:41. The mark was not eligible for record status due to the pacing, hydration and food-aid program on the course.

But in competition, he was just as superb, winning the London Marathon in 2:02:37, the no. 3 performance of all time.

British distance star Mo Farah confirmed that he will be returning to the track, with the aim of winning the 10,000 m in Tokyo for a third consecutive Olympic Games.

Farah moved to the marathon after his 2016 Rio wins in both the 5,000 m and 10,000 m and a gold (10,000 m) and silver (5,000 m) at the 2017 World Championships. He won the Chicago Marathon in 2018 in a European record of 2:05:11, but finished “only” fifth in London in 2019 (2:05:39) and eighth at Chicago (2:09:58).

Will he still have the speed at age 37? Will he be dogged by continued inquiries into his time with now-suspended Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar? Time will tell, but Farah must be counted among the leading contenders for Tokyo, although he has not raced at 10,000 m since the 2017 Worlds.

The Athletics Integrity Unit continues issuing sanctions for doping and other violations, but what might be the start of solutions to the problems in Kenya was held on Wednesday.

What was called the “2020 Road Running Integrity Program” was held in Eldoret, Kenya – the heart of the running community – by the AIU in partnership with Athletics Kenya and the Kenyan Anti-Doping agency.

The AIU tweeted that the seminars directly reached “over 140 road runners and 175 top track and field athletes” and included participation by marathon world-record holders Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei. Hopefully, this will be the start of a turn away from doping in Kenya, which has had 17 athletes sanctioned by the AIU alone in 2019.

LANE ONE: Did the IOC just cut the size of the 2032 Olympic Village by 40%?

Rich Perelman

December 4, 2019

tsx pix 100517-rio OG village 750 — The 2016 Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro, Brazi

For more than a century, the International Olympic Committee asked cities to stage its Olympic Games, often requiring the building of new housing, hotels and stadiums and arenas of all sizes.

If the current path of the IOC’s new direction under German chief Thomas Bach continues, the logical conclusion will be a Games that comes and goes without much more than a few pictures to remind everyone that it happened.

Over the first two days of its Executive Board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, the IOC signaled two major changes in the way future Olympic Games will be staged, departing once again from the standard procedures of more than a century.

The first is already underway for the Paris 2024, the second won’t be in place for more than a decade, but it’s also on the way.

(1) The IOC’s Executive Director for the Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi (SUI), announced that the Paris 2024 organizers have begun exploring a program to contract out the organization of the sports events to existing companies which already manage similar programs.

Comments on the Paris 2024 report to the Board, Dubi noted that “They also explained that for each of the sports and the disciplines, they are looking for current operators in the market.

“They are doing this research, and what will come out of Paris is a different organizing model, one that can build on the strength of the national sports and the operators, something that we pushed and we are very proud that they are heading in this direction.”

This is already happening in other large-scale events; the outdoor endurance events of the 2015 Special Olympic World Games in Los Angeles were quite successfully contracted to Spectrum Sports Management, which provided the management team and planning for their events, integrating the organizing committee’s requirements for other areas into its plan.

Similarly, the Tokyo 2020 organizers contracted out – to the dismay of some of the international federations – the organization of many of the test events.

But using this model for the sports competitions at an Olympic Games is an expansion of the concept and is designed to further compress the organizing effort. It won’t work everywhere, but it’s an interesting idea that will have some applications for Paris 2024 and could have more for Los Angeles in 2028.

(2) More startling was the announcement that the 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, will almost halve the number of beds required for athletes and teams to 2,650, despite planning for a record number of 4,564 athletes, up from 4,000 from the 2018 event in Buenos Aires (ARG).

This will be achieved by housing most of the athletes in two “waves,” keyed to their competition schedules. The first wave will come in prior to the Opening Ceremony, compete and then leave; the second will come for the final week. IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell (NZL) explained:

“So, all of the athletes will stay in the Youth Olympic Village rather than spreading out in accommodation outside . The two waves, obviously, varies by sport. There are some sports – team sports, or weight-category sports – where you can only fight every couple of days for the recovery period that is spread out a little bit longer over the two waves. But in the general case, the athletes arrive a few days before their competition and leave afterwards, but still fully engage in all of those particular athlete education, engagement, fun activities, learning activities that we have around the Youth Olympic Games as well.

“All of them will be part of either the Opening or the Closing Ceremony; some both, where the schedule stretches in between, right across the Games, but most are one or the other. And you can see by the numbers, if we are looking at 4,500 athletes in Dakar, and a maximum of 2,650, then the vast majority are there for one of the two waves, but some of them are spread across.”

Sounds logical, right? But this is a major change in the nature of an Olympic Village, which has always been required to host everyone for the entire length of a Games. And that requirement has always come with a enormous cost of building a major new housing project, to be used first for the Olympic Games (or Youth Olympic Games).

The IOC has changed this requirement, using its favorite testing ground, the Youth Olympic Games. McConnell noted the financial impact goes even further:

“The other benefit is it also gives us more flexibility in terms of use of venues. So, by adding a few more competition days in Dakar, compared to Buenos Aires, we can actually use less venues for the same number of sports. And finally, if an athlete did want to stay, I think we would obviously look to support that bearing in mind if the Village capacity was available, we would be looking to engage with that athlete and that NOC as much as possible.”

The YOG was held over 12 days in 2018; although the dates have not been announced for Dakar, watch for the Games to expand to nearly the same two full weeks of the regular Olympic Games.

McConnell was asked quickly about whether this model will be applied to the Olympic Games, and when. He was quick to discount any immediate applicability:

“We’re not looking to implement it at the Olympic Games. It’s something very specific to the Youth Olympic Games. Obviously, part of the experience of the Olympic Games remains for the athletes to be in the Olympic Village for the whole period, so we’re not looking to extend that to the Olympic Games themselves. But as I have highlighted, I think it gives real flexibility and additional positive possibilities around the Youth Olympic Games, but no, not planned to be the model for the Olympic Games with that athlete experience in the Village is very precious and we’ll keep it the way it is.”

Sure, for now.

After committing to using existing venues to the furthest extent possible, the IOC is now beginning to attack another large cost center of an Olympic Games – the Village – with the same determination to lower the cost of staging the event. And despite McConnell’s quite correct assertion that no change is planned for the Olympic Games now – Paris ‘24 is building new housing and Los Angeles ‘28 will use the massive UCLA student housing program – watch for changes after the 2022 experiment in the IOC’s testing ground – the Youth Olympic Games – is completed.

Have no doubt; this is a revolution, and the cost of athlete housing was the biggest infrastructure requirement that was still on the table. With the next Games to be awarded well in the future – 2032 – this is the start of another new cost-reduction measure that will be welcomed by potential future hosts.

And look for the IOC to use this concept – in the future – to try to add more sports, events and total athletes to the Olympic Games, by shuttling them in and out of the host city in waves, although the number of athletes in some sports will have to be reduced to get their competitions completed quickly.

Most of the headlines from the Executive Board meeting came from the announcements concerning the re-arrangement of the marathons and race walks for Tokyo 2020, now to be held in the 1972 Olympic Winter Games city of Sapporo.

The five events – two marathons, the men’s 50 km walk and the men’s and women’s 20 km walks – will be held over four consecutive days at the end of the Games period:

● 6 August: Men’s 20 km Walk, at 4:30 p.m.
● 7 August: Men’s 50 km Walk, at 5:30 a.m.; Women’s 20 km Walk, at 4:30 p.m.
● 8 August: Women’s Marathon, at 7:00 a.m.
● 9 August: Men’s Marathon, at 7:00 a.m.

Short loop courses will be used for the 20 km events (1 km loop) and 50 km (2 km loop). The marathons will use a 20 km opening loop course, but the last half of the race is yet to be confirmed. One of the ideas is to have the back half run in three loops of a 7 km course so that athlete services and medical attention can be more readily available, as it was in Doha for the midnight marathons during the IAAF World Championships in September and October.

Dubi also made it clear that the IOC will look at funding only the marginal cost difference between holding the event in Tokyo vs. in Sapporo. He called the costs “fairly limited” for Sapporo, but that is yet to be determined.

The IOC Executive Board will finish on Friday; you can check out Bach’s post-meeting news conference here. For him, the only constant is to keep changing the way the IOC operates and that its events are organized. The YOG experiment in limiting housing costs is one of the innovative yet, and he’s certainly not done.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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LANE ONE: Fiction becomes Olympic reality in Russia: “You arrogant ass. You’ve killed us!”

Rich Perelman

December 1, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1129 hunt for red october 750 — "You arrogant ass. You've killed us!" ~ Christopher Janczar as Andrei Bonovia in "The Hunt for Red October"

The dramatic climax to the 1990 thriller “The Hunt for Red October” saw the ultra-aggressive Captain Tupolev trying to torpedo the runaway Soviet submarine Red October, but instead – as First Mate Andrei Bonovia famously said – he ended up destroying his own boat, the Konovalov.

That fictional finish has turned into real life over the past year in Russia, as the World Anti-Doping Agency staff determined that the long-desired Moscow Laboratory database provided by the Russians in January 2019 was “neither complete nor fully authentic” and that severe sanctions are in order.

So, just a week after the suggested sanctions were made public, let’s get this straight:

(1) Elements of the Russian Sports Ministry hatched a plan for national-scale doping in 2011 to improve its medal performance. This was uncovered by whistleblowers in 2014 and 2015, leading to varying sanctions against Russian teams at the 2016 Olympic and 2018 Winter Games.

(2) After lengthy negotiations with WADA and a 31 December 2018 deadline to turn over the database in order to maintain its reinstated status, Russian authorities made massive changes to the Moscow database to try and cover up many positive tests.

The cover-up was, apparently, massive. The Associated Press added crucial details in a story which reported on the 89-page staff review document. The report indicated that there were “thousands of manipulations that were concocted long after Russia had agreed to hand over the data in its original form. In fact, Russia was doctoring files as late as Jan. 16, 2019, while WADA’s team was already in the building, one day away from leaving Moscow with the now-sullied data in tow.”

The WADA report stated that “Such bad faith is indeed stunning, and … it provides a lens through which the explanations offered by the Russian authorities for the following subsequent events should be observed.”

So the WADA Compliance Review Committee, an independent arm of the agency, reviewed the staff work and just a week ago, sent a 26-page recommendation to the WADA Executive Committee that included a series of what were characterized as “severe” sanctions:

● Russian government officials are to barred from attending or participating in any Olympic events or World Championships for four years;

● Russia is not allowed to host any Olympic events or World Championships for four years, although it may continue to host already-allocated events if a replacement cannot be found;

● The Russian flag may not be flown at any Olympic event or World Championships during the period;

● Russian athletes may only participate in Olympic events or World Championships “where they are able to demonstrate that they are not implicated in any way by the non-compliance (i.e., they are not mentioned in incriminating circumstances in the McLaren reports, there are no positive findings reported for them in the database, and no data relating to their samples has been manipulated), in accordance with strict conditions to be defined by WADA (or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if it sees fit), pursuant to the mechanism foreseen in ISCCS Article 11.2.6. In this circumstance, they may not represent the Russian Federation.”

● A fine of $100,000.

These recommendations will be reviewed by the WADA Executive Committee on Monday, December 9.

There’s no doubt that the proposed sanctions are substantial. But are they enough?

Travis Tygart, the always-quotable head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, thinks not. He released a statement that noted “The response proposed by the CRC is inadequate especially given the deceit perpetuated by the Russian sport system which is controlled by the government.

“History has taught us the response to Russian doping used in Rio 2016 and PyeongChang 2018 – in which a secretly-managed process permitting Russians to compete – did not work. The world’s athletes saw through this charade and it apparently only emboldened Russia to simply destroy evidence and to tamper with more samples to make it impossible to confirm whether any clean Russian athletes actually exist.”

Tygart has a point. The recommended sanctions, including allowing athletes “untouched” by doping to compete leaves us in a situation parallel to the 2018 PyeongChang Games, where 168 “Olympic Athletes from Russia” were allowed to compete after an application procedure operated by the International Olympic Committee.

Tygart has called that “a farce” and demands harsher penalties.

The issue for the WADA Executive Committee will be section 11.2.6 of the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories (ISCCS), which says in part:

“The consequences should not go further than is necessary to achieve the objectives underlying the Code. … if it is clear that allowing [athletes] to compete in the Event(s) in a neutral capacity (i.e., not as representatives of any country) [1] will not make the Signatory Consequences that have been imposed less effective, or [2] be unfair to their competitors or [3] undermine public confidence in the integrity of the Event(s) … then such a mechanism may be permitted.”

So the question is fairly put: what punishment will encourage Russia not to cheat in the future?

This isn’t simple; it’s incredibly complex.

The Compliance Review Committee noted explicitly that “RUSADA’s work is effective in contributing to the fight against doping in Russian sport,” so the “new” anti-doping effort there seems to be working. But in recent months, Russian Athletics Federation officials were engaged in obstructing the investigation of a whereabouts violation case concerning high jump star Danil Lysenko, and World Athletics announced that it has suspended its efforts to re-admit the Russian Federation … and could vote to expel Russia altogether.

What about the International Olympic Committee? The IOC issued a strongly-worded statement that said “This flagrant manipulation is an attack on the credibility of sport itself and is an insult to the sporting movement worldwide. The IOC will support the toughest sanctions against all those responsible for this manipulation.” That’s about the Russian government again; not a word about suspending Russia or any athletes.

So it’s a mixed bag.

The comments from within Russia are mixed as well. WADA’s decision on December 9 can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, so the ultimate penalties may not be known for a couple of months.

That ensures that this issue will remain a hot topic right up to Tokyo, but focused this time on WADA and it’s new chief, Polish minister (and former 400 m runner) Witold Banka. Watch for a lot of references to “athlete rights” as at least some Russians are allowed to compete in Tokyo.

But those who are not allowed to compete – it’s possible that all of Russia’s track & field athletes could be excluded – they will remember the last words spoken aboard the fictional submarine Konovalov: “You’ve killed US!”

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HIGHLIGHTS: Amazing Shiffrin scores gold and bronze in World Cup in Vermont

Rich Perelman

December 1, 2019

tsx pix 120518 shiffrin mikaela 2018 (Andreaze-Wiki) 750 — Back on the podium again: American skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin (Photo: Andreaze via Wikipedia)

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

● ALPINE SKIING ● The Alpine World Cup is in North America, with women’s racing at Killington, Vermont and the men at Lake Louise, Canada, and it was another great weekend for American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin.

The three-time defending World Cup overall champion won her second World Cup Slalom of the season, winning on Sunday for the fourth straight year in Killington. It’s her 42nd career Slalom win (extending her record) and her 62nd career World Cup win. Shiffrin got out to a huge lead with a 51.98 first run, then cruised in with a total time of 1:50.45-1:52.74 over Petra Vlhova (SVK).

Shiffrin was third on Saturday in the Giant Slalom, won by Italy’s Marta Bassino for her first World Cup title. It’s Shiffrin’s 87th World Cup medal; amazing; only four women and three men have ever won 100 career World Cup medals.

In the men’s Downhill and Super-G in Canada, Italy’s Dominik Paris won silver medals in both events, with the wins going to Thomas Dressen (GER: Downhill) and Matthias Mayer (AUT: Super-G). Full results here.

● BIATHLON ● The IBU World Cup season started with a week-long festival in Oestersund, Sweden, and a good start for Norway’s reigning World Cup Champion, Johannes Thingnes Boe. He led a Boe-family 1-2 with a win in front of his brother Tarjei in the men’s 10 km Sprint, 24:18.3-24:37.3.

Defending women’s World Cup winner Dorothea Wierer (ITA) also won her season opener, the 7.5 km Sprint, ahead of Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (NOR), 19:48.5-19:57.1. The events continue on Wednesday. More results here.

● CROSS COUNTRY SKIING ● The two-time World Cup champ, Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, got a good start on a third title by finishing 1-2-1 in the season-opening series in Ruka, Finland. Klaebo won the Sprint Classical and the 15 km Free Pursuit and was second to home favorite Ilko Niskanen in the 15 km Classical.

Norway’s Therese Johaug, who won 10 World Cup races last season, won the women’s 10 km Classical and 10 km Free Pursuit in the women’s division, and teammate Maiken Caspersen Falla won the Sprint Classical. The U.S. got two bronze medals, with Sadie Bjornsen third in the Sprint, and Jessie Diggins taking third in the Pursuit. Full results here.

● CYCLING ● The third UCI Track Cycling World Cup was held in Hong Kong, with home favorite Wai Sze Lee winning the women’s Sprint and Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen winning the men’s Sprint. The two are the only riders who have won their event in all three of the World Cups held so far. Lavreysen won a second gold as a member of the winning Dutch Team Sprint trio. Full results here.

● GYMNASTICS ● The FIG World Trampoline Gymnastics concluded in Tokyo, Japan, with history for China’s Lei Gao. He became the first man to win four consecutive world titles in the individual trampoline, an event that will be on the Olympic program in Tokyo. He won a tight battle with Ivan Litvinovich (BLR), 61.705-61.520, with three-time World Champion Dong Dong (CHN) third.

Japan’s Hikaru Mori won her first world title, leading a home 1-2 finish with Chisato Doihata second (55.860-55.225) and Canada’s defending champ Rosie Maclennan third (54.820).

The U.S. won seven medals (1-3-3) in the non-Olympic events, including the women’s Double Mini team title. American men won three individual medals: Ruben Padilla and Alex Renkert were 2-3 in Double Mini and Kaden Brown won the Tumbling bronze. Full results here.

● KARATE ● The final Karate-1 Premier League meet was held in Madrid, Spain, with seasonal champions crowned in six men’s and women’s weight classes. Four of the seasonal winners were also World Champions in 2018: women’s winners Sandra Sanchez (ESP: Kata) and Irina Zaretska (AZE: 68 kg) and Ryo Kiyuna (JPN: Kata) and Steven Dacosta (FRA: 67 kg) in the men’s weights. Madrid results are here; seasonal standings are here.

● LUGE ● The annual FIL World Cup stop in Lake Placid, New York, was a good one for Austria’s Jonas Mueller, who won for the second straight week, this time over American Tucker West and Dominink Fischnaller (ITA), who was also third last week. In the first Sprint event of the season, Russian Roman Repilov won, with West second and Mueller third.

Germany’s Julia Taubitz won both the women’s race and the Sprint, beating Emily Sweeney of the U.S. in the standard race and American Summer Britcher in the Sprint, with Sweeney third. Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, second in the season opener, won the men’s Doubles. Full results here.

● NORDIC COMBINED ● Norway’s Jarl-Magnus Rieber dominated the 2018-19 Nordic Combined season and is starting out the same way. He won all three of the season-opening races in Ruka, Finland, off a 142 m hill and 5 km/10 km/10 km cross-country races, repeating his triple win from last season! Norwegians won eight of the nine medals, with Espen Bjornstad and Jorgen Graabak getting silvers in the first and third races and Jens Luras Oftebro taking all three bronzes! Full results here.

● SHORT TRACK ● The third Short Track World Cup was another showcase for Canada’s Kim Boutin, who won her third straight title at 500 m, in Nagoya, Japan. Korea’s Ji Yoo Kim won her second straight women’s 1,500 m to take the seasonal lead with 20,000 points. In the men’s 1,500, Korea’s Ji Won Park won his second straight meet and also assumed the seasonal lead at 20,000. Full results here.

● SKI JUMPING ● Norway’s Daniel Andre Tande won the second World Cup of the season, in Ruka, Finland, following up on his season-opening in Poland last week. Austria’s Philipp Aschenwald and Andre Lanisek (SLO) went 2-3. Sunday’s jumping was canceled because of weather; full results here.

● SPORT CLIMBING ● The Olympic qualifying event in Toulouse, France continued to fill the field for Tokyo for 2020. The top six finishers in the Combined event advanced to Tokyo, with Kokoro Fujii (JPN), Adam Ondra (CZE) and Meichi Narasaki (JPN) taking the top three positions in the men’s event (Japan has more qualifiers than the two allowed and will have to decide who will compete). In the women’s competition, Futaba Ito (JPN) was the winner, ahead of Julia Chanourdie (FRA) and Mia Krampl (SLO). Full results here.

● TABLE TENNIS ● The men’s World Cup was held for the 40th time, this time in Chengdu, China, with a familiar face on top of the podium: China’s Zhendong Fan. The two-time World Championships medal winner won for the third time in the last four years, defeating Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto, 4-2, in the final. Full results here.

LANE ONE: Giving thanks to Maximilian F. Ihmsen for Los Angeles’s Olympic history

Rich Perelman

November 27, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1127 pre-coliseum horse track 750 — The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was erected on site of an abandoned horse-racing track!

(Thanks to all who sent get-well wishes during my recent illness, which were very much appreciated.)

Los Angeles is well known today as the host of two ultra-successful Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984, with a third coming in 2028. But that history had a start and it was 100 years ago this week.

The post-event Official Report of the Games of the Xth Olympiad noted that while the 1932 Games was a major success, the genesis started more than a decade earlier, in a typical manner associated with expanding cities of the early 20th Century:

“In the year 1919 there was formed in Los Angeles, at the instance of the publishers of the daily newspapers of the city, the California Fiestas Association, for the purposes of reviving the old Spanish fiestas typical of the atmosphere of our State and City.”

There were quite a few newspapers in those days and the dailies pushing to promote the area likely included the Los Angeles Evening Express, Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles Examiner, Hollywood Citizen, Los Angeles Record and the only still-existing publication, the Los Angeles Times.

The Fiestas Association didn’t last long, only for about a year, but it had an impact. In order to mount a “fiesta” of some stature, the report says, it “became obvious almost immediately that the contemplated project could not proceed without there first being provided the facilities of a stadium.”

That was the birth of what turned out to be the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

At the same time, there was another idea brewing to help promote the Los Angeles area:

“For several years there had been a growing consciousness in local sports circles of the possibility of holding the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. At a meeting of the California Fiestas Association held November 26, 1919, Maximilian F. Ihmsen, one of the directors, presented the suggestion that later resulted in the first formal application by the City of Los Angeles to the International Olympic Committee for the award of the Games.”

Max Ihmsen. Who was he?

It turns out that Ihmsen was a political and press dynamo, working in the service of William Randolph Hearst. Born in Pennsylvania, he had worked for Hearst when the latter entered the newspaper field in 1895, originally for the New York Journal.

Ihmsen became the head of the Hearst Washington Bureau during the Spanish-American War, went back to the Journal, then was political editor of one of Hearst’s new papers, the New York American in 1902. He helped try to have Hearst selected as the Democratic Party candidate for the 1904 Presidential election, and later helped manage Hearst’s unsuccessful campaign for Mayor of New York.

In 1908, Hearst sent Ihmsen west to head another new paper, the Los Angeles Examiner, and it was as head of the Examiner that he proposed bringing the Olympic Games to Los Angeles.

His suggestion had legs. The head of the California Fiestas Association was a real-estate developer named William May Garland, who was already planning a European vacation in the summer of 1920, when the Olympic Games would be held in Antwerp, Belgium.

Completely in line with what happens today, Garland took with him a set of plans for the new stadium, letters of invitation from the City and County of Los Angeles and the State of California and documentation about how Los Angeles would make a great host.

Garland met with the International Olympic Committee while in Belgium and while the organization did not award the Games to Los Angeles for 1924 (Pairs) or 1928 (Amsterdam), it did elect Garland as a new member of the IOC!

At the same time, the stadium concept was taking shape. The California Fiestas Association dissolved and was replaced by the Community Development Association, which became a powerhouse organization in the expansion of Los Angeles. The CDA arranged with the City and County for a joint program of financing and construction of a new stadium, to be placed on the site of an abandoned horse-racing facility south of downtown that had previously been a gravel pit.

The stadium got built straightaway and by the time Garland proposed Los Angeles as the site for the 1932 Olympic Games in 1923, it was nearly completed and the IOC awarded the Games to Los Angeles unanimously.

The Coliseum – originally called the Colosseum as per the famed Roman structure from antiquity – was completed with 76,000 seats and had its first sporting event on October 1, 1923, when the USC Trojans football team defeated Pomona, 23-7, before 12,836.

The original, 76,000-seat Colosseum, c. 1923.

That first game attendance wasn’t too impressive, but a month later (Nov. 10), some 63,408 showed up to see the Trojans lose to the University of California, 13-7. Just three years later, the Coliseum had 74,661 on hand to see USC play Stanford in 1926 and 74,378 a month later for the first game of the USC-Notre Dame series.

By 1928, the Olympic organizing effort got moving and the stadium was expanded with a third section all the way around the top to enlarge the capacity to 105,000 seats, where it remained until individual seats replaced the bench seating in the 1960s.

Ihmsen, unfortunately, didn’t live to see any of this. Following a lengthy illness, he died in early May of 1921 – at age 53 – and never saw the Coliseum in operation, or the 1932 Games.

But he started the process by which Los Angeles became one of the world’s greatest Olympic cities and the Coliseum became the first stadium to host two Olympic Games, and will become the first to host three Games, in 2028.

So in this Thanksgiving Day, we should say thanks once more, Max.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HIGHLIGHTS: Shiffrin wins 41st career Slalom in Levi, names reindeer for Ingemar Stenmark

Rich Perelman

November 25, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1130 shiffrin & reindeer-levi 750 — Another win - and another reindeer - coming up for American star Mikaela Shiffrin in Levi?

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

● ALPINE SKIING ● The annual Slalom competitions in Levi, Finland, ended with a fourth reindeer for American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin.

It’s her 41st career World Cup Slalom win, giving her the career record over Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark (1974-89), and her 61st career victory. Winners are “awarded” a reindeer, meaning they get to name the animal; Shiffrin previously named Rudolph (2013), Sven (2016) and Mr. Gru (2018), and decided to call this one Ingemar, in honor of the great Stenmark.

Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen won the men’s Slalom, his second win in Levi, coming from fourth to first on the second run. He called his reindeer Trenki.

● ARCHERY ● Canada’s Crispin Duenas and Korean Young Keyong Kim won the GT Open in Luxembourg, the second event in the World Archery Indoor World Series. Duenas defeated Willem Bakker (NED) in the final, while Kim bested 2016 Olympic Champion Hye-Jin Chang (KOR), with American teen Casey Kaufhold third. More here.

● BOBSLED ● The Women’s Monobob is being added to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games program in Beijing, China, so it’s being contested now by the IBSF.

The first two events took place in Lake Placid, New York (18th) and Lillehammer, Norway (20th), with Canada’s Cynthia Appiah winning in the U.S. over Yooran Kim (KOR), 1:57.65-1:58.23, and Russia’s Anastasia Makarova (1:56.56) taking the win in Norway vs. Margot Boch (FRA: 1:56.64). More here.

● FIGURE SKATING ● Japan’s double Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu was the headliner at the NHK Trophy meet in Sapporo, Japan, the final leg in the ISU Grand Prix, winning the men’s division easily.

Hanyu won both the Short Program and Free Skate to overwhelm the field with 305.05 points, to 250.02 for runner-up Kevin Aymoz (FRA). He will face American Nathan Chen in an eagerly-awaited Grand Prix Final on December 5-8 in Turin (ITA).

Russia’s Alena Kostornaia (240.00) won both segments to edge Japan’s Rika Kihira (231.84) in the women’s division; same for World Champions Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (CHN) in Pairs with 226.96 to 208.49 for Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. In Ice Dance, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron (FRA: 226.61) were decisive winners over Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin (RUS: 208.81). More here.

● GYMNASTICS ● The FIG Artistic World Cup season ended with the 44th Turnier des Meister in Cottbus (GER), with China winning four of the 10 events. Hao Weng won the Pommel Horse and 2014 World Champion Yang Liu won the Rings; in the women’s division, Linmin Yu won the Vault and 2015-17 World Champion Yilin Fan won the Uneven Bars. Ukraine’s Rio Olympic champ Oleg Verniaiev won the Parallel Bars. More here.

● LUGE ● Austria’s Jonas Mueller was an upset winner in the World Cup season opener in Innsbruck, edging Russia’s Roman Repilov, 1:41.015-1:41.162.

Russian Tatyana Ivanova won the women’s racing, winning the second run to finish just ahead of American Summer Britcher, 1:21.304-1:21.414. Perennial winners Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken (GER) led a German 1-2 over Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, 1:20.732-1:20.741. More here.

● SKI JUMPING ● Norway’s Daniel Andre Tande won the World Cup season-opener, winning by 241.4-225.6 over Slovenian Anze Lanisek in Wisla, Poland.

● SPEED SKATING ● Dutch skaters won four individual events at the second stop of the ISU World Cup in Tomaszow Mazowlecki (POL), with World Champion Thomas Krol winning the men’s 1,500 m, World Allround Champion Patrick Roest winning the 3,000 m, five-time Olympic gold medalist Ireen Wust taking the women’s 1,500 m and Irene Schouten won the Mass Start. The amazing Martina Sabilkova (CZE), winner of 20 World Championships golds (!) won the women’s 3,000 m, and American Joey Mantia, the two-time World Champion, won the Mass Start event. More here.

● SWIMMING ● The final “regular-season” meet of the International Swimming League took place in London (GBR), with Energy Standard (467.5) and the London Roar (458.5) winning the European Derby to advance to the finals in Las Vegas on December 20-21.

South Africa’s Chad Le Clos and Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) – both from Energy Standard – were 1-2 in the Most Valuable Player standings at 44.5 and 44.0 points. Australia’s Minna Atherton scared the world Short-Course record in the women’s 200 m Backstroke, swimming 1:59.25, just 0.02 off Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu’s 2014 mark of 1:59.23. More here.

UPDATE: Out sick; posts will resume in a few days (hopefully)

Rich Perelman

November 20, 2019

Dear readers:

Some have noticed just the single post so far this week and this is due to a ferocious head cold that has reduced me to bed rest for the most part. I am on the mend and hope to be posting again shortly … as soon I am recovered!

Rich Perelman
Editor

FOOTBALL: U.S. cruises past Cuba to win CONCACAF Nations League Group A

Rich Perelman

November 19, 2019

tsx pix 101618 sargent josh 120416 U17s 750 — U.S. striker Josh Sargent

It wasn’t pretty, but in the end, it all worked out. The U.S. men advanced to the final round of the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League with a 4-0 win over Cuba in front of a small crowd in George Town in the Cayman Islands.

The victory gives the U.S. Group A title over Canada (both 3-1-0 for nine points) by goal differential (+12 to +6) with Cuba finishing 0-4 (and -14). The stunning loss to Canada in October is now merely a footnote.

The U.S. wanted to get off to a fast start against Cuba … and scored after 34 seconds! Paul Arriola sent a cross toward the Cuban goal and a confused tangle saw striker Josh Sargent tap the ball and it rolled past keeper Sandy Sanchez for a 1-0 lead.

Jordan Morris got the second goal in the 26th minute, finding himself all alone in front of Sanchez after a cross was deflected. A deke to the right and then Morris sent a strike into the far corner of the net.

Morris scored the third goal as Aaron Long’s arching shot went over Sanchez’s head and was headed for the back of the net, but Morris made sure with a tap-in in the 39th minute. For the half, the U.S. had 75% of the possession and a 13-2 edge in shots.

The second half was lackluster and while the Cubans manufactured a couple of chances, Sargent had the only goal. In the 66th minute, a Reggie Cannon cross from the right side looked like it was going out of bounds, but a backheel flip by Tyler Boyd sent the ball back to Sargent, who buried it for his second of the night.

Having won Group A, the U.S. advances to the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals next June, to play Honduras, while Mexico will play Costa Rica.

TSX INTEL REPORT: Here’s how the 2028 Olympic Games can be taken away from Los Angeles + four U.S. swim records in ISL Derby & a dominant U.S. men’s soccer win!

Rich Perelman

November 17, 2019

= TSX INTELLIGENCE REPORT ~ 18 November 2019 =

● LANE ONE ● Conspiracy theorists, here’s how Los Angeles loses the 2028 Olympic Games!

Although there were a lot of other things going on the Congress last week, the Senate Commerce Committee approved 20 bills for consideration by the full Senate, including the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee reform act originally introduced by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut).

There is one element in the bill which is giving the USOPC and the International Olympic Committee a lot of indigestion, specifically the section which allows the Congress – by a Joint Resolution – to remove the entire USOPC Board of Directors, or to end the governing authority of a U.S. National Governing Body (starting with USA Gymnastics).

There is good reason to think that the IOC would find these powers as interfering with the autonomy of sport in the United States and could lead – as have incidents in other countries – to a possible suspension of the USOPC.

Think there’s no way the IOC would do such a things to its cash cow country, for television rights and sponsorships? Think again.

Depending on what happens and how it happens, there is a scenario for the 2028 Olympic Games to be removed under the Host City Contract, with a replacement host already in waiting. It’s hardly likely, but it is possible.

There is also a set of circumstances under which the IOC might find it to its advantage to suspend the USOPC and force U.S. athletes to compete under the Olympic Flag at the Winter Games in Beijing (CHN) in 2022.

Impossible? Read on here.

● FOOTBALL ● U.S. men sail past Canada and are ready to advance in CONCACAF Nations League

The U.S. men’s National Team came out and dominated Canada from the kickoff in Orlando on Friday evening and won, 4-1, to set itself up to advance out of Group A in the inaugural season of the CONCACAF Nations League.

After losing to Canada in Toronto, 2-0, earlier, the U.S. had to win to be in position to win the group in its final match vs. Cuba on Tuesday (19th).

They left no doubt.

Jordan Morris scored in the second minute and the U.S. scored three goals in the first 33 minutes and won, 4-1. That margin flipped the goal-differential in favor of the American side going into the Cuba game, so all the U.S. has to do is win in George Town (CAY) on Tuesday and they can move on.

The team is still very much a work in progress, but the energy and drive shown in Orlando was light-year away from the tepid effort against Canada in the first game. That’s a start. More here.

● SWIMMING ● Four U.S. Short-Course records in ISL American Derby

The first season of the International Swimming League is coming to a close and the four U.S. teams competed together for the only time in the U.S. Derby in College Park, Maryland, to select the two finalist teams.

There was little doubt that those would be the L.A. Current and the Cali Condors and they advanced, but not before four American Short-Course (25 m) records were set during the meet:

● Men/50 m Breaststroke: 25.99, Ian Finnerty
● Men/100 m Breaststroke: 56.29, Finnerty
● Men/50 m Butterfly: 21.21, Caeleb Dressel
● Women/400 m Medley: 4:24.46, Melanie Margalis

Dressel continued to confirm his place as the top sprinter in the world, winning five individual events (plus two relays) and winning the Most Valuable Player award for the meet.

Breaststroke star Lilly King won all three of her events – 50-100-200 m – and set world-leading marks in the two longer races. She’s won all three of the Breaststrokes in all three of her meets!

The European Derby will be held in London (GBR) next week, with Energy Standard and the London Roar sure to go through to the final in Las Vegas, Nevada in December. More here.

Ukrainian Konstantin Grigorishin, the ISL founder and funder, told The Washington Post last week that his plan for the second year of the ISL program is to have 10 teams and 27 meets, instead of eight and seven.

It’s a big investment, but as a billionaire, he can afford it and still believes in the effort. Time will tell.

The public arbitration of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s case vs. Chinese distance Freestyle star Yang Sun was held last week in Montreux, Switzerland.

FINA had cleared Sun from charges that he avoided a test last September, when a doping-control officer came to his home. Sun said the DCO did not have the proper identification and he was therefore not required to provide a sample. But the World Anti-Doping Agency has appealed the finding and wants to suspend Sun from 2-8 years, as he is a repeat offender.

The procedure was marred by very poor interpretation from Chinese to English at the start of the day, but this was eventually fixed. The testimony took all day and there is no due date for the decision of the panel.

● WRESTLING ● U.S. finishes second in UWW Women’s World Cup

The annual Women’s World Cup, the dual-meet championship tournament among the world’s top teams was won, as usual, by Japan, which took the title for the 11th time in the 18 times it has been held.

With a powerful team of current and former World Champions, Japan defeated the U.S. by 7-3 in the championship bout on Sunday.

The U.S. did get wins from its three 2019 World Champions: Jacarra Winchester, Tamyra Mensah-Stock and Adeline Gray, but that was it. More here.

● SCOREBOARD ● Superb wins for Jake Gibb and Brittany Bowe on sand and ice

The ISU Speed Skating World Cup season opened in Minsk (BLR) with Japan’s Nao Kodaira suffering a surprise loss at 500 m, ending her 23-race win streak. But American Brittney Bowe made a strong start to the season, winning the 1,000 m and finishing third in the 1,500 m.

As usual, the Dutch men dominated the competition, winning five of the six races. Canada won two women’s races, with Ivanie Blondin taking the Mass Start and Isabelle Weidemann winning the 3,000 m.

At the FIVB World Tour 4-star tournament in Chetumal, Mexico, the U.S. duo of Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb won their first World Tour gold as a team, defeating former World Champions Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen (NED) in three sets.

This was especially noteworthy because Gibb is 43 and become the oldest man ever to win a World Tour event; American John Hyden had held the distinction, at 41. Moreover, Crabb’s older brother, Trevor, won the bronze medal, paired with Tri Bourne!

Australian stars Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar won the women’s tournament over China’s Fan Wang and Xinyi Xia.

Click here for our summary coverage of the weekend’s results in Badminton ~ Baseball ~ Beach Volleyball ~ Fencing ~ Football ~ Speed Skating ~ Table Tennis.

At the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, the fifth of six ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix events, the hosts dominated, with 15-year-old Alexandra Trusova winning the women’s competition over two-time World Champion Evgenia Medvedeva, and American Mariah Bell.

Russian skaters went 1-2-3 in the men’s event, won by Alexander Samarin, 1-2 in Pairs and won the Ice Dance as well. More here

LANE ONE: Conspiracy theorists, here’s how Los Angeles loses the 2028 Olympic Games!

Rich Perelman

November 17, 2019

tsx pix 122018 us capitol 750x531 — The U.S. government will contribute $9.15 million to the staging of the Oregon22 World Championships

In the midst of all the other activity in Washington, D.C. last week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation approved and sent to the full Senate some 20 bills, including a modified version of S. 2330, the Empowering Olympic and Amateur Athletes Act of 2019.

This bill was originally introduced in July by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) as a re-write of the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, originally passed in 1978. The mark-up incorporated into the bill another legislative concept, from Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colorado) to create a commission to evaluate the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and suggest further changes.

One aspect of the Moran-Blumenthal bill that has drawn very significant attention is section 4, which details how the U.S. Congress, by a Joint Resolution, can “dissolve the board of directors of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee” or “with respect to a national governing body, the recognition of the applicable amateur sports organization as a national governing body shall cease to have force or effect.”

For those in the Olympic Movement, this language set off alarm bells, as it conflicts directly with the mandate of the International Olympic Committee as specified in Rule 27 of the Olympic Charter:

“5. In order to fulfil their mission, the NOCs may cooperate with governmental bodies, with which they shall achieve harmonious relations. However, they shall not associate themselves with any activity which would be in contradiction with the Olympic Charter. The NOCs may also cooperate with non-governmental bodies.

“6. The NOCs must preserve their autonomy and resist all pressures of any kind, including but not limited to political, legal, religious or economic pressures which may prevent them from complying with the Olympic Charter.”

This “autonomy” business is a big deal for the IOC, which has suspended multiple NOCs in the past from participating in the Olympic or Winter Games. The most famous instance is South Africa, which due to its government-mandated apartheid policy, was expelled from 1970-1991. More recently, the NOC of India was suspended in 2012 due to governmental interference in its elections, and the Kuwait NOC was on suspension for similar reasons from 2015-18.

Russia’s suspension for government-run doping ran from 2015-18, and the country’s participation for Tokyo 2020 is up in the air because of possible manipulation of the lab data which was supposed to clear all of the cases from that period. The World Anti-Doping Agency actually has the authority in that case.

India is in hot water again because of proposed changes to the country’s National Sports Code. The government proposal would create an age limit for directors of the Indian Olympic Association and ban government officials from serving on the IOA or any of the national sports federations. These changes were made to avoid corruption, but the IOA is deeply concerned about such requirements “interfering” with the IOA and could lead to a suspension.

In case anyone thought no one was watching the Commerce Committee, letters were sent by both the IOC and the USOPC concerning S. 2330. USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland’s letter read in part:

“The USOPC should be the sole entity with authority to terminate NGB recognition in order to eliminate any confusion surrounding NGB accountability. Additionally, the International Olympic Committee has made clear that Congress assuming the power to dissolve the USOPC board would violate the Olympic Charter and endanger our recognition by the IOC as a National Olympic Committee.”

Colorado Senate Gardner laughed off the suggestion, saying at one point, “There’s no outrage from the International Olympic Committee about government interference from China’s own Olympic Committee. There’s no call for [Chinese NOC President] Gou Zhongwen to step down from his position that is either from the government or from the Olympic Committee to ensure that there’s no interference, so that this interference standard can be upheld.”

He missed the point; no surprise. China complies, at least superficially, with the Olympic Charter. What S. 2330 proposes does not.

So how does any of this impact the Los Angeles Games in 2028?

It shouldn’t, but here goes:

● Section 4 of S. 2330 becomes law and in either an election-year furor, or in 2021 with a new Congress, the Congress decides to vaporize, first, USA Gymnastics, and then the USOPC Board via the Joint Resolution procedure.

● The IOC objects and suspends the USOPC.

● An impasse proceeds, gets nasty and seriously impacts the NBC-USOPC-LA28 fundraising efforts already underway.

● Due to the interference and the subsequent turmoil in the marketplace, the IOC decides to implement sec. 38.2 of the Host City Contract, which allows the IOC to remove the Games because a “material Candidature Commitment of any Host Country Authority is not respected …” The non-respected commitment would be to uphold the Olympic Charter.

● The 2028 Games are awarded to Queensland, Australia, which is already saying it’s ready to host 2032 and could do it sooner.

Is this likely? Certainly not. Possible? It’s hard to imagine. The IOC needs Los Angeles to show – again, as in 1932 and 1984 – that a commitment to sports infrastructure allows an Olympic Games to be staged without governmental funding. But we’re dealing with the U.S. Congress here, folks.

But here is another scenario which is not beyond the realm of possibility:

● The bill, with sec. 4 in it, becomes law, the Joint Resolutions are passed, and the IOC suspends the USOPC in 2021.

● The Congress does not move, and as the invective gets (much) stronger, the IOC decrees that since the USOPC is suspended, a team of “Olympic Athletes from the USA” – a la the 2018 faux-Russian team – will be allowed to compete at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, subject to the normal qualification procedures.

● U.S. athletes compete at Beijing 2022, marching in the Opening Ceremony under the Olympic Flag and, for any victory, seeing the Olympic Flag raised and the Olympic Hymm played instead of The Star-Spangled Banner.

● After the 2022 Winter Games, the Congress revises the law to form a commission (like the one Gardner proposes) as a permanent oversight body, but with other sanctioning tools that are agreed by the IOC to comply with the Olympic Charter. And all is well for a U.S. team for Paris 2024.

No way the IOC suspends the USOPC, right?

Wrong. This scenario actually benefits the IOC long-term. In the short-term, there will be a significant financial loss for the IOC as the television rights deal for NBC would be impacted, as would some sponsorships. But the costs for a Winter Games are far less than for a summer Games, and the IOC has $1.5 billion in reserves just for this kind of calamity. It would weather the financial storm for the 2022 Winter Games.

But the long-term implications of penalizing – and humiliating – the United States would send a thunderous signal to EVERY National Olympic Committee and International Federation that the IOC is gravely serious about its non-interference rules, which will quickly be far more respected. The impact of such an action could last 50 years.

Some U.S. athletes will miss their chance at Beijing 2022, the USOPC will be damaged, but not irreparably, and the Congress will look incompetent and stupid. Gee, imagine that.

And the Games will go on. Let the whispering begin.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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SCOREBOARD: Wins for U.S. skating star Brittany Bowe and 43-year-old Jake Gibb

Rich Perelman

November 17, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1117 bowe, brittany minsk 750 (isu) — Gold medal for American Brittany Bowe in the World Cup opener (Photo: ISU)

Highlights and results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

● BASEBALL ● Japan wins WSBC Premier 12 over Korea, as Mexico gets third over U.S.

There will only be six teams in the 2020 Olympic Baseball Tournament in Tokyo and four of them are now known: Japan as the host, Israel as the European qualifier and South Korea and Mexico from the Premier 12 tournament that finished Sunday in Tokyo.

The Japanese, already the favorites for 2020, won their group with a 3-0 record, as did South Korea and Mexico. In the six-team Super Round, Japan lost only to the U.S., 4-3, and finished on top with a 4-1 record. That sent them into the championship game in the Tokyo Dome against the Koreans, who finished second at 3-2.

In front of 44,960 fans in Tokyo, Japan defeated South Korea, 5-3, to win the tournament. However, as 2020 hosts, Japan is already qualified and so the next two placers got an invitation for 2020.

In the third-place game, Mexico battled and U.S. and the Mexicans prevailed in 10 innings, 3-2, to earn the second qualifying spot. The U.S., which played a team of younger, minor-league talent, will get another chance in the Americas Qualifier in March to make it to Tokyo.

Scores and statistics are here. Japan’s right fielder Seiya Suzuki was named Most Valuable Player for the tournament; the U.S. had four players on the All-Tournament squad, including Erik Kratz (catcher), Bobby Dalbec (1B), Brent Rooker (DH) and reliever Brandon Dickson.

● BADMINTON ● Joy for Hong Kong as unseeded Lee wins men’s Singles in Hong Kong Open

It’s one of the reason we watch sports, to see the underdog come through. On Sunday, it was unseeded, 23-year-old Cheuk Yiu Lee who thrilled the home crowd with a stunning men’s Singles victory in the Hong Kong Open.

Lee had played the tournament of his life, coming out of the qualifying round into the main draw and then defeating China’s Yuqi Shi (world rank: 7) in the second round, Dane Viktor Axelsen (5) in the quarters, and India’s Srikanth Kidambi (13) in the semifinals. He then had to deal with Indonesia’s Anthony Ginteng (8) in the final and after dropping the first set, 16,21-, he rallied to win the next two, 21-10 and then 22-20 to win his first BWF World Tour title. He’s only second Hong Kong men’s player to win the Hong Kong Open!

The men’s Doubles was another upset as SolGyu Choi and Seung Jae Seo (13) took down no. 2 Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.

The women’s events held more to form, as no. 3 YuFei Chen and no. 2 QingChen Chen and YiFan Jia won the Singles and Doubles titles. Japan’s no. 3-ranked pair of Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino won the Mixed Doubles. Finals:

BWF World Tour/Hong Kong Open
Hong Kong ~ 12-17 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Singles: Cheuk Yiu Lee (HKG) d. Anthony Ginteng (INA), 16-21, 21-10, 22-20. Men/Doubles: SolGyu Choi/Seung Jae Seo (KOR) d. Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA), 13-21, 21-12, 21-13.

Women/Singles: YuFei Chen (CHN) d. Ratchanok Intanon (THA), 21-18, 13-21, 21-13. Women/Doubles: QingChen Chen/YiFan Jia (CHN) d. YeNa Chang/Hye-Rin Kim (KOR), 21-11, 13-21, 21-15.

Mixed Doubles: Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino (JPN) d. Ji Ting He/Yue Du (CHN), 22-20, 21-16.

● BEACH VOLLEYBALL ● Jake Gibb, 43, teams with Taylor Crabb to win in Chetumal

Maybe age really is just a number.

At the FIVB World Tour 4-star tournament in Chetumal, Mexico – part of the 2019-20 schedule – Americans Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb won the final over top-seeded (and former World Champions) Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands, 21-16, 16-21, 15-12.

It was the first World Tour title for the pair (and Crabb’s first World Tour medal), but it was especially noteworthy as Gibb is 43, making him the oldest man to win a tournament, surpassing John Hyden of the U.S. (41).

Said Gibb, “It feels amazing right now. That’s obviously pretty cool but what makes it more important to me is that it’s my first gold medal with Taylor. I have to thank him for believing in me and sticking with me. The older I get the more court he covers and that’s a wonderful thing. Today we’re the number one team in the world and we’ll enjoy it.”

Even better for Crabb was that his older brother Taylor was half of the bronze-medal-winning team with Tri Bourne, who overcame Germany’s Sven Winter and Alexander Walkinhorst, 21-16, 21-12.

The women’s final was a showcase for Australian stars Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar, who defeated China’s Fan Wang and Xinyi Xia, 15-21, 21-14, 15-12. It was the sixth Tour win for the Australians. The Dutch pair of Madelein Meppelink and Sanne Keizer defeated Brazil’s Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima for the bronze when the Brazilians had to withdraw due to injury. Complete results are here.

● FENCING ● Anstett wins third career World Cup gold men’s Sabre in Cairo

France’s Vincent Anstett returned to the top of the podium in the FIE World Cup in men’s Sabre in Cairo, Egypt over the weekend, defeating Italian Luigi Samele in the final.

It was the first World Cup medal for the 37-year-old Anstett in two years and his first win in three years. Summaries:

FIE World Cup
Cairo (EGY) ~ 15-17 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men: 1. Vincent Anstett (FRA); 2. Luigi Samele (ITA); 3. Fares Ferjani (TUN) and Jungwhen Kim (KOR). Final: Anstett d. Samele, 15-14.

Men/Team: 1. Korea (Gu, Jungwhan Kim, Junho Kim, Sang-Uk Oh); 2. Hungary; 3. Italy; 4. Russia. Third: Italy d. Russia, 45-31. Final: Korea d. Hungary, 45-41.

● FOOTBALL ● Brazil wins transplanted FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brasilia

The 2019 FIFA men’s U-17 World Cup was originally going to be played in Rwanda and then in Peru, but it was moved to Brazil, and the hosts came away happy with their fourth title with a 2-1 win over Mexico.

It wasn’t easy, however, as the Brazilians eked out a 3-2 over Chile in the Round of 16, then defeated Italy, 2-0, in the quarters and France, 3-2, in the semis. In the final, Mexico scored in the 66th minute on a Bryan Gonzalez goal, but Brazil came back late. A penalty was called on the Mexicans in the 84th minute and Kaio Jorge converted to tie the game.

With overtime almost assured, the Brazilians kept attacking in stoppage time and Lazaro managed to score in the 93rd minute for the game- and trophy-winner. He had already been the hero in the 3-2 win over France, scoring in the 89th minute for the win.

The French won the bronze medal with a 3-1 win over the Netherlands, as Arnaud Kalimuendo-Muinga scored a hat trick at the 22nd, 54th and 62nd-minute marks to turn around a 1-0 deficit.

Complete results are here.

● SPEED SKATING ● Bowe starts 2019-20 World Cup with two medals and a win at 1,000 m

The 2019-20 ISU Speed Skating World Cup got started in Minsk, Belarus and there were lots of familiar names on the medal stand … except one.

Japan’s super sprinter Nao Kodaira had a 23-race winning streak coming into the season in the women’s 500 m, but found herself in a tough spot when her heat partner, World Champion Vanessa Herzog (AUT) false-started twice. That left Kodaira to race by herself and she finished third behind Russia’s Olga Fatkulina, with American Brittany Bowe sixth.

Bowe, however, was busy and won the 1,000 m and finished third in the 1,500 m, the only medals of the meet for the U.S.

Dutch skaters, used to dominating World Cup racing, won four men’s races with Thomas Krol taking the 1,000 m and Kjeld Nuis (1,500 m), Patrick Roest (5,000 m) and Jorrit Bergsma (Mass Start) taking the gold medals. Ireen Wust took the women’s 1,500 m, but Canada scored two golds in the women’s events with Isabelle Weidemann (3,000 m) and Ivanie Blondin (Mass Start). Winners and other notable placers:

ISU World Cup
Minsk (BLR) ~ 15-16 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men: 500 m: Jun-Ho Kim (KOR), 34.870. Team Sprint: Netherlands (Mulder, Nuis, Berboj, Krol), 1:21.63. (Also: 11. United States (Griffin, Perry, Kleba)).

1,000 m: Thomas Krol (NED), 1:09.011 (18. Kimani Griffin (USA), 1:11.303). 1,500 m: Kjeld Nuis (NED), 1:46.223. 5,000 m: Patrick Roest (NED), 6:16.615. Mass Start: Jorrit Bergsma (NED), 7:50.360 (13. Joey Mantia (USA), 7:53.490).

Women: 500 m: Olga Fatkulina (RUS), 37.920 (3. Nao Kodaira (JPN), 38.172; … 6. Brittany Bowe (USA), 38.452; … 14. Kimi Goetz (USA), 38.990). Team Sprint: Netherlands (L. de Jong, de Neeling, Leerdam, M. De Jong), 1:29.230.

1,000 m: Bowe (USA), 1:15.354. 1,500 m: Ireen Wust (NED), 1:56.468 (3. Bowe (USA), 1:57.253). 3,000 m: Isabelle Weidemann (CAN), 4:04.679. Mass Start: Ivanie Blondin (CAN), 8:22.630 (6. Mia Kilburg-Manganello (USA), 8:25.050.

● TABLE TENNIS ● Japan wins three at Austrian Open

The powerful Japanese team had the best of the Austrian Open in Linz, especially with world no. 7 Mima Ito overcoming no. 4 Yuling Zhu in the women’s Singles final.

Ito, still just 19, had only won once against Zhu in their four meetings, but she had no trouble with a 4-1 win. It was one of three for Japan, with Miyuu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki winning the women’s Doubles and Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata taking the Mixed Doubles.

World no. 1 Zhendong Fan of China looked like it in the men’s Singles, winning 4-0, 4-0, 4-2 in his first three elimination matches. He had a tough win over German star Timo Boll, 4-3, in the semis, then stomped countryman Zihao Zhao, 4-0 in the final. Finals:

ITTF World Tour Platinum/Austrian Open
Linz (AUT) ~ 23-17 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Singles: Zhendong Fan (CHN) d. Zihao Zhao (CHN), 4-0. Men/Doubles: Jingkun Liang/Gaoyuan Lin (CHN) d. Youngsik Jeoung/Sangsu Lee (KOR), 3-0.

Women/Singles: Mima Ito (JPN) d. Yuling Zhu (CHN), 4-1. Women/Doubles: Miyuu Kihara/Miyu Nagasaki (JPN) d. Szu-Yu Chen/HsienTzu Cheng (TPE), 3-2.

Mixed Doubles: Tomokazu Harimoto d. Hina Hayata (JPN) d. Gaoyuan Lin/Yuling Zhi, 3-1.

SWIMMING: Four American 25 m Records in ISL U.S. Derby as Dressel wins MVP

Rich Perelman

November 17, 2019

The swimming was fierce at the University of Maryland’s natatorium in College Park for the two-day U.S. Derby in the International Swimming League, which decided which two American team qualified for December’s final in Las Vegas.

The star, as expected, was sprint superstar Caeleb Dressel, who won five individual events and two relays and was named Most Valuable Player, scoring 61.5 points.

But the meet also re-wrote the U.S. Short-Course (25 m) record book with four new marks:

● Men/50 m Breaststroke: 25.99, Ian Finnerty (old, 2615, Cody Miller, 2016)

● Men/100 m Breaststroke: 56.29, Finnerty (old, 56.43, Cody Miller, 2015)

● Men/50 m Butterfly: 21.21, Caeleb Dressel (old, 22.32, Michael Andrew, 2018)

● Women/400 m Medley: 4:24.46, Melanie Margalis (old, 4:24.62, Caitlin Leverenz, 2011)

In addition to his 50 Fly record, Dressel won the 50-100 m Frees, 50-100 m Flys and the 50 m Free Skins event at the end of the program. His times in the 100 m Free (45.69) and 100 m Fly (49.16) are 2019 world leaders.

Of the 50 m Fly record, Dressel said – with a straight face – “That was actually a really bad race. My breakout and turns were really bad. No matter what, there will never be a perfect race. There is always something to work on.”

Also scoring world-leading marks was Breaststroke superstar Lilly King, who won the 50-100-200 m triple for the third straight meet. Her 1:03.00 in the 100 m and 2:18.78 in the 200 m are on top of the world list.

Katie Ledecky, for whom this would have been a home meet, did not participate as she is in the middle of a heavy training period. But she would not have made a difference for her D.C. Trident team, as the L.A. Current came back in the final three events to win the meet, 495.0 to 489.5 for the Cali Condors. The Trident was third at 322.5 and the New York Breakers were fourth with 315.0. The Current and Condors will advance to the final in Las Vegas; the two European teams will be confirmed next week in the European Derby in London, with Energy Standard and the London Roar sure to advance.

Click here for full results.

ISL founder and funder Konstantin Grigorishin (UKR) told The Washington Post late last week that the plan for the second ISL season is to expand the league to 10 teams and have 27 meets instead of seven, in a season that would run into April 2021.

“We’re in the most tough financial stage. We’re investing the money,” Grigorishin said. “But how do you convince a sponsor to sponsor something that does not exist? Now we have a product.”

Grigorishin is a reported billionaire, so he can afford to wait. But a post-Tokyo schedule into the spring of 2021 places him directly in competition with the top pro leagues in basketball, ice hockey and the European soccer season. Time will tell.

WRESTLING: U.S. claims silver (to Japan) in annual Women’s World Cup

Rich Perelman

November 17, 2019

tsx pix 102418 gray adeline UWW champ 750 — Five-time World Champion Adeline Gray of the U.S. (Photo: UWW)

It was going to be an uphill battle, but the U.S. made a good showing in the United World Wrestling Women’s World Cup, the annual dual-meet tournament among the top teams in the world.

The favorite was always Japan, which had won 10 of the prior 17 editions of the event, and came out on top again, defeating the U.S., 7-3, in the final.

After finishing fourth three times in a row, the U.S. won both of its group matches, romping past Russia, 8-2 and Mongolia by 6-4. In Group A, Japan cruised past Ukraine and then managed to get past China, 6-4.

In the championship final, all three of the American World Champions won their matches – Jacarra Winchester (55 kg), Tamyra Mensah-Stock (68 kg) and Adeline Gray (76 kg) – but that was it. Four of Japan’s wins in the other weights was by 10-0 or 11-0, by current or former World Champions Yui Sasaki (50 kg), Haruna Okuno (53 kg) and Risako Kawai (57 kg), plus Yuzuka Inagaki (59 kg).

However, the U.S. won its sixth medal in the 18 editions of this event, and fourth silver, its first medal-winning performance since 2011.

In the third-place match, China defeated Mongolia, 7-3, and Ukraine and Russia tied 5-5, but Ukraine was awarded the match on criteria. Summary:

UWW Women’s World Cup
Tokyo (JPN) ~ 16-17 November 2019
(Full results here)

Final Standings: 1. Japan; 2. United States; 3. China; 4. Mongolia; 5. Ukraine; 6. Russia. Final-match scores: Gold: Japan d. U.S., 7-3; Bronze: China d. Mongolia, 7-3. Fifth: Ukraine d. Russia, 5-5 (criteria).

FIGURE SKATING: Russia sweeps Rostelecom Cup and Trusova overtakes Medvedeva

Rich Perelman

November 17, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1117 trusova, alexandra 750 (isu) — Rostelecom Cup winner Alexandra Trusova (RUS). (Photo: ISU)

It was a fun show for the home crowd in Moscow in the fifth ISU Grand Prix meeting, the Rostelecom Cup, as Russian entries won all four events.

In fact, Russians went 1-2 in the Men’s, Women’s and Pairs events, with Alexander Samarin, Alexandra Trusova and Alexandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii the winners.

Most of the attention was on the women, with a match-up of the new sensation, 15-year-old Trusova, competing against two-time World Champion Evgenia Medvedeva. The latter had a slim lead after the Short Program, 76.93-74.21, but Trusova came back with a strong Free Skate to score 160.26 vs. 148.83 for Medvedeva and win by 8.71 points.

Trusova included four quadruple jumps in her program, but also had a fall on a triple-triple combination, or she would have scored higher. But she is already thinking of a new challenge:

“I would like to compete with the men, because they can do a quad in the short program and we are not allowed to. Also, it would be interesting to compete with skaters that do many quads in the programs.”

Medvedeva included six triple jumps in her program and more is coming. “I am very satisfied with what I did today and yesterday, finally I did what I should do. It is in my plans to learn a quad, I am working on the quad Salchow, but at the same time I need to make sure I stay healthy. I’ll do everything I can for it and I hope to put it out there as soon as possible.”

American Mariah Bell won her second bronze medal of the Grand Prix season and was third in both the Short Program and Free Skate.

Samarin led a rare podium sweep in the men’s event, only the second time it happened for Russian men: Alexei Urmanov, Evgeni Plushenko and Alexander Abt did it in 1998.

Boikova and Kozlovskii won decisively in Pairs and Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov won a tight battle with Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. Summaries:

ISU Grand Prix/Rostelecom Cup
Moscow (RUS) ~ 15-17 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men: 1. Alexander Samarin (RUS), 264.45 (1st in Short Program + 1st in Free Skate); 2. Dmitri Aliev (RUS), 259.88 (2+2); 3. Makar Ignatov (RUS), 252.87 (3+3). Also: 10. Alexei Krasnozhon (USA), 216.28 (10+11).

Women: 1. Alexandra Trusova (RUS), 234.47 (2+1); 2. Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS), 225.76 (1+20; 3. Mariah Bell (USA), 205.67 (3+3).

Pairs: 1. Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii (RUS), 229.48 (1+1); 2. Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS), 216.77 (2+2); 3. Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nolan Seegert (GER), 186.16 (4+4). Also: 8. Andrey Lu/Misha Mitrofanov (USA), 153.61 (8+8).

Ice Dance: 1. Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS), 212.15 (1+1); 2. Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN), 207.64 (2+2); 3. Sara Hurtado/Kirill Khaliavin (ESP), 185.01.

FOOTBALL: U.S. stomps Canada, 4-1, to get back into Nations League contention in Orlando

Rich Perelman

November 15, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1115 morris, jordan v can 750 — Opening goal scorer Jordan Morris of the U.S. (Photo: USSF)

Would the rainy field at the Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida be the site where the U.S. men’s National Team was drowned in the CONCACAF Nations League?

No one knew the stakes more than the American players, who came out aggressive from the opening, and no one more so than 19-year-old Sergino Dest, making his third appearance . Off a corner, Dest sent a hard cross from the right side of the box toward the Canadian goal and Jordan Morris finished from in front of the goal for a 1-0 in the second minute!

While the U.S. had more energy, the game changed with Canada taking more possession, and got a couple of good looks at the U.S. goal, both saved easily by Brad Guzan.

The game changed even more dramatically in the 23rd minute, when a clearance by Canadian keeper Milan Borjan was chested down by Paul Arriola in the midfield. He saw an opening for Morris on the left side and his perfect pass found Morris, who dribbled toward the end line and sent a laser-like cross right to the front of goal and Gyasi Zardes ran right onto it with a powerful header to make it 2-0.

Astonishingly, the U.S. scored again just 11 minutes later. Tim Ream sent a left-footed free kick from the left corner of the box into the middle of the scrum, right to the head of Aaron Long, whose shot crossed to the far left side of the goal and right past Borjan. 3-0? Yes, on the fourth U.S. shot of the game!

For the half, the U.S. had only 38% of the possession, but out-shot Canada, 7-3 and had all three goals. Wow!

The game got chippy at the end of the first half and into the second, with plenty of pushing and shoving. But the Canadians continued to hold the majority of the possession and after a Guzan save that led to a corner kick, the visitors scored. The corner sailed toward near corner of the goal, with Jonathan Osorio heading the ball on toward the back post and Steven Vitoria popped it into the net in the 72nd minute.

But the U.S. defense held up and in the 89th minute, a long ball from midfield found sub DeAndre Yedlin down the right side of the Canadian defense. He crossed it back into the middle of the field; the ball was contested and came to the foot of Zardes, who booted a rocket into the net for the 4-1 final.

Canada ended the game with a 64-36% possession edge and trailed the U.S., 11-12, in total shots. But it didn’t matter.

By avenging the stunning 2-0 loss to Canada last month – the first U.S. loss to its northern neighbor since 1985 – the U.S. is now 15-9-11 all-time vs. Canada and 12-1-9 in matches played on American soil.

This result sets up the U.S. for its final game of Group A vs. Cuba in George Town (CAY) on the 19th. The U.S. can win the group – and advance – with a win; Canada has nine points and a +6 goal differential, and the U.S. has six points and a +8 goal differential. So a win will do it; one game at a time.

TSX INTEL REPORT: Nike’s critics look to the past, but Mary Cain is about its T&F future; hurdles star Greg Foster needs a heart transplant & U.S. men’s do-or-die date with Canada

Rich Perelman

November 13, 2019

≡ TSX INTELLIGENCE REPORT ~ 14 November 2019 ≡

● LANE ONE ● Nike’s critics look to the past, but Mary Cain asks about Nike’s T&F future

Mary Cain’s stunning video posted by The New York Times last week portrayed a program of emotional and physical abuse while she was a member of the now-shuttered Nike Oregon Project training group. Once the brightest high school running star in the country, she detailed how her life had descended into misery under the direction of coach Alberto Salazar.

There has been more reporting about the Oregon Project, which had been known for noteworthy successes by Olympic and World Championships medal winners such as Mo Farah, Matthew Centrowitz, Galen Rupp and Sifan Hassan. But Cain’s comments in the video ended with specific suggestions for the future, perhaps the most important element of the piece.

In specific, she said that (1) Nike must change, and that (2) more women need to be involved in coaching and supporting athletes, vs. the all-male team which handled her training.

The latter issue will come as more women are encouraged or recruited into these areas as professionals, but they will need to be coached and trained themselves … in many cases by men. But the number of women will increase.

What Nike does is perhaps the most interesting.

The company is the dominant force in sports footwear and apparel worldwide, but it has rivals. European giant adidas is moving closer and there are multiple smaller players which have found significant niches.

Nike’s long-time chief executive, Mark Parker, is retiring and will be replaced by John Donahue, a former chief executive of eBay and a Board member at Nike for the last five years. Where Parker ran cross country and track at Penn State, Donahue went to Dartmouth and a quick search did not turn up any T&F affiliation.

Which brings up the question: in the future, does Nike need to continue its passionate embrace of competitive track & field, as it did with the Nike Oregon Project? It has a sponsorship agreement with USA Track & Field until 2040, but it might be ended sooner.

Is its support for competitive track & field actually contributing to its outstanding revenues from sales of running shoes and apparel? Or, are its customers – fitness runners, joggers and walkers – not that interested?

Cain said – correctly – that Nike must change. Will its support for competitive T&F be part of that? More here.

● ATHLETICS: Four-time World Champion Greg Foster needs a heart transplant!

Anyone who saw the powerful stride of four-time high hurdles World Champion Greg Foster (pictured) in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s will find it hard to believe that after beating a rare disease twice with chemotherapy, he now needs a heart transplant.

But after a series of tests at multiple hospitals, Foster is now on the list for a heart transplant and has posted a GoFundMe page, with a $350,000 goal. Wrote son Bradey on the GoFundMe page: “Every day is a struggle for him, either physically, psychologically or emotionally but he has come this far and cleared some damn high hurdles through this race he’s not quitting.”

You can read more about Foster’s situation and his determination to live here.

What was the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) – an acronym in place since 1912 – is now World Athletics, as its new Web site and identity package came on line on Monday.

One of its first actions was a reply to the excellent letter sent by Global Throwing, protesting the near-elimination of the discus, as well as the triple jump. Chief Executive Jon Ridgeon sent a detailed reply, which also included new details about the to-be-announced Continental Tour, a new, second-tier circuit of meets to replace the World Challenge program.

Ridgeon said more details would be forthcoming in a couple of weeks, but he described it as a 10-12 meet program with “opportunities for high level competition, significant prize money, top flight world ranking points and visibility to fans, both live and through international broadcast.”

He also said that he had already arranged a meeting with Shaun Pickering of Global Throwing for December to discuss further the way that events are included in the Diamond League in the future.

This will hardly mollify the discus crowd, or the triple jumpers, but the speed of the reply and the additional specifics indicated a responsive attitude by the “new” federation. More here.

● FIGURE SKATING ● Stars Uno and Medevdeva looking to rebound in Rostelecom Cup

There are only two events left in the ISU Grand Prix “regular season,” with the first in Moscow, Russia this weekend in the annual Rostelecom Cup.

Fans will be looking at two skaters who will be themselves looking for strong performances to offset earlier disappointment. Japan’s Shoma Uno, so brilliant as the 2018 Olympic silver medalist, finished a stunning eighth at the Internationaux de France in Grenoble, and two-time World Champion Evgenia Medvedeva was just fifth at Skate Canada International last month.

Fellow Russian Alexandra Trusova, just 15 and the two-time World Junior Champion in 2018 an 2019, won at Skate Canada International and is part of a surge of new, mid-teens stars set to take over from Medvedeva and even 2018 Olympic champ Alina Zagitova!

Russia’s Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov and Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii figure as the favorites in Pairs. The Ice Dance competition will be a match-up of Grand Prix winners: Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier from Skate Canada Int’l and Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, who won last week at the Shiseido Cup of China. More here.

● FOOTBALL ● Redemption or disaster for U.S. men vs. Canada on Friday?

The disastrous failure to quality for the 2018 FIFA World Cup marked the disappearance of the U.S. men’s National Team from worldwide relevance. But even worse would be the decline out of contention to be among the top teams in the CONCACAF region.

That’s what’s on the line on Friday in Orlando, Florida, as the U.S. faces Canada, currently leading Group A of the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League. In order to advance out of the group, the U.S. has to beat Canada and then defeat Cuba in a game in the Cayman Islands, scoring a cumulative five or more goals more than Canada.

After defeating the U.S. for the first time since 1985, 2-0, in Toronto back in October, the Canadians have the momentum. Moreover, the U.S. will be missing stars Christian Pulisic and Michael Bradley due to injuries.

There is a lot on the line on Friday, and then again on the 19th vs. Cuba. More details here.

The FIFA U-17 World Cup is getting serious now, with the semifinals set for Thursday:

● Mexico vs. Netherlands in Gama (BRA)
● France vs. Brazil in Gama (BRA)

In the quarters, Mexico defeated South Korea, 1-0; the Netherlands pounded Paraguay, 4-1; France stomped Spain, 6-1, and the host Brazilians edged Italy. 2-0.

The medal matches will be played on Sunday, also in Gama. Scores and schedules here.

● ICE HOCKEY ● NHL participation in 2022 Beijing Winter Games unlikely … for now

“I don’t want to sound like a broken record on the subject, but I think going to the Olympics is a challenge for us. I know the players love representing their countries, I know that the players like going, I know that the players that don’t go like having a break in the middle of the season. But from our standpoint, we have found going to the Olympics to be incredibly disruptive… to our season.”

That was National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman at a news conference in Stockholm (SWE) last Friday, noting that he and NHL Players Association chief Don Fehr had met with International Ice Hockey Federation Rene Fasel (SUI) on the issue yet again.

“But as I said previously, there’s nothing new to report in that regard because for us, at best, it’s a mixed bag. And again, I think it has some pretty material downsides in terms of what happens to our season.”

● JUDO ● Former World Champion Mollaei safe and sound in Germany

If you were wondering what happened to 2018 World 81 kg Champion Saeid Mollaei, the Iranian judoka who fled to Germany after being told to quit the 2019 Worlds in order to avoid a match with eventual winner, Israeli Sagi Muki … he’s OK.

The International Judo Federation posted a story earlier in the month, that Mollaei had been granted the protected status of “Recognized Refugee” in Germany. According to the story:

“This status, obtained in record time, thanks to the diligence of the German authorities and based on clear facts, gives him the right to live legally and safely in Germany, where he trains now and prepares to resume the course of his career, which had been halted following the events in Tokyo at the end of August.”

Mollaei now has the normal issues in front of him for 2020: qualifying for the Tokyo Games. This means he must compete to collect enough points to earn his spot, and there will be more administrative formalities for travel, but he is on the path back to the tatami.

● WEIGHTLIFTING ● IWF’s Jaloud suggests out-sourcing doping entirely

The International Weightlifting Federation was nearly bounced from the Olympic program for 2024 due to all of the doping positives from prior years. But even after being cleared for Paris, the federation is keeping an eye out for trouble.

The newest debate is whether to keep the IWF’s own doping disciplinary panel, which has been in charge of sanctions during the federation’s reform period, or to out-source the entire program to the International Testing Authority.

A suggestion to that effect by IWF Secretary General Mohamed Jaloud (IRQ) on the sidelines of the IWF Grand Prix in Peru, with the ITA to handle the doping program for weightlifting, then make recommendations on sanctions to the IWF Executive Board.

That the IWF Executive Board would have a say in the sanctions pleases some of the countries which have been hammered by suspensions and reduced participation, the idea of self-governance for a federation which has had so many problems in the past does not impress USA Weightlifting chief Phil Andrews (GBR).

Andrews issued a statement which included: “I agree entirely with the General Secretary that we should outsource every bit of our anti-doping operation and results management, including sanctions for national federations, to an independent body such as the International Testing Agency (ITA), and I applaud his suggestion to do so. However, that result must be binding at the ITA level with no elected, political or otherwise influenced body able to change the decision, aside from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”

The issue will come up shortly, with an IWF Executive Board meeting scheduled for Lausanne (SUI) in the first week of December.

● U.S. OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE ● USOPC files to de-certify USA Badminton

A 12 November letter from USOPC Chief Executive Sarah Hirshland posted on the organization’s Web site included:

“I’m writing to let you know that earlier today, I filed a complaint against USA Badminton under Section 8 of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s bylaws. In filing the complaint, the USOPC is seeking to revoke USA Badminton’s recognition as the National Governing Body for badminton and Para-badminton in the United States and has offered USAB the option of voluntarily surrendering its recognition.

“This isn’t a step I’ve taken lightly, but it is a necessary one and in the best interest of the athletes we serve. We have set high standards in order to associate with the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the United States, and we must hold organizations accountable when they don’t live up to those standards.”

Echoing the process used for USA Gymnastics, Hirshland has filed to de-certify USA Badminton for continuing issues in background checks and SafeSport training. The process going forward includes a hearing, a report and then possible action by the USOPC Board of Directors. The entire process may take several months.

Following up on the USA Gymnastics inquiry, the USOPC is getting serious about compliance; its fate with the U.S. Congress – if the impeachment inquiry doesn’t sideline everything in its way – will depend on it.

● THIS WEEK ● Possible records in ISL American Derby if Ledecky swims at home

With the FINA Swimming World Cup completed, the International Swimming League is back to work, this time with a meet at the University of Maryland natatorium in College Park featuring the four U.S. teams: Cali Condors, L.A. Current, D.C. Trident and New York Breakers.

The results will decide which two squads will qualify for the ISL Final in Las Vegas in December, with only the Breakers not in the running.

But it’s also a rare home meet for Washington, D.C. native Katie Ledecky of the D.C. Trident. If she does compete – she has only been in the Indianapolis opener so far – there are record possibilities.

Ledecky won three events, in good early-season times, at the USA Swimming Tyr Pro Swim Series opener in Greensboro, North Carolina last week. She scared the world Short-Course record in the 400 m Freestyle at Indianapolis, and she appears fit enough to take a shot at it this week! More here.

● In Fencing, the FIE World Cup season starts for the men’s Sabre in Cairo (EGY), with reigning World Champion Sang-Uk Oh (KOR) the favorite and American Eli Dershwitz – ranked no. 2 worldwide – looking for his fourth career World Cup win.

● In Wrestling, the annual women’s World Cup will be held this weekend, in Narita, Japan. Perennial winner Japan is favored, but the U.S. has a strong team that include 2019 World Champions Jacarra Winchester, Tamyra Mensah-Stock and Adeline Gray. In the 17 prior editions, Japan has won 10 times, China six and the U.S. once (in 2003). More here.

Our previews of Badminton ~ Beach Volleyball ~ Fencing ~ Table Tennis are here.

LANE ONE: Nike’s critics look to the past, but Mary Cain asks about Nike’s future

Rich Perelman

November 13, 2019

The “Opinion” video by Mary Cain that was posted by The New York Times on 7 November drew added focus – and outrage – to the now-shuttered Nike Oregon Project and its former leader, marathon star and now star coach Alberto Salazar.

The seven-minute video and accompanying story detailed some of the tactics and practices used by Salazar, especially those aimed at controlling her weight. Said Cain, “I joined Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete ever. Instead, I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike.”

This followed a 30 September ruling by an arbitration panel which upheld four-year bans by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Salazar and Nike Oregon Project-affiliated physician Dr. Jeffrey Brown. According to the USADA, the decisions confirmed the agency’s view that the two had “ trafficked testosterone, a banned performance-enhancing substance, administered a prohibited IV infusion, and engaged in tampering to attempt to prevent relevant information about their conduct from being learned by USADA.”

Salazar and Brown have appealed the arbitration ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport; the announcement of the appeals noted that hearings probably won’t take place until March.

Nike closed the Oregon Project program on 10 October in the aftermath of the ban rulings, and issued a statement on the same day as the Cain video appeared:

“These are deeply troubling allegations which have not been raised by Mary or her parents before. Mary was seeking to rejoin the Oregon Project and Alberto’s team as recently as April of this year and had not raised these concerns as part of that process. We take the allegations extremely seriously and will launch an immediate investigation to hear from former Oregon Project athletes. At Nike we seek to always put the athlete at the center of everything we do, and these allegations are completely inconsistent with our values.”

Social media has been full of comments from former Oregon Project athletes and coaches, and lots of comments from others. A lot of this has been about the activities, coaching and performances of the Oregon Project athletes, including Olympic stars Mo Farah (GBR) and Americans Matthew Centrowitz and Galen Rupp and current World Champions, including Dutch star Sifan Hassan.

The World Anti-Doping Agency announced that it will begin a review of the Oregon Project doping program and investigate further the athletes involved, looking for further possible sanctions. USADA head Travis Tygart, whose own group had already done this, criticized the action, saying it was pointless.

That’s where we are now.

But Cain’s most important comments came at the end of her video, looking not at the past, but at the future:

“First, Nike needs to change. In track and field, Nike is all-powerful. They control the top coaches, athletes, races, even the governing body. You can’t just fire a coach and eliminate a program and pretend the problem is solved. My worry is that Nike is merely going to rebrand the old program and put Alberto’s old assistant coaches in charge.

“Secondly, we need more women in power. Part of me wonders if I had worked with more female psychologists, nutritionists and even coaches, where I’d be today. I got caught in a system designed by and for men which destroys the bodies of young girls. Rather than force young girls to fend for themselves, we have to protect them.”

The “more women in power” suggestion will inevitably lead, over time, to a greater separation of coaching – in all sports – of women by women and men by men, including support staff. Futurist Faith Popcorn told Advertising Age in 2018 that she sees “female-only floors in companies and male-only floors” in the future; in sports, this will require the training of many more women as coaches and trainers … which will be fully dependent on women being interested in these jobs. Watch for more recruitment and transitioning efforts in this area, and soon.

That path is clear enough and can have some very beneficial outcomes, if the training is done well. There will be significant fights over funding, teaching, certification and the like. But this is not new and will eventually be worked out. And outstanding female coaches will be found, just as coaching found Salazar, himself a champion distance runner.

The question of what happens to Nike is more fascinating and unsure. Cain’s comments about Nike’s position in the United States are worth repeating:

“In track and field, Nike is all-powerful. They control the top coaches, athletes, races, even the governing body.”

There is good business sense behind this. Looking at Nike’s financial report for fiscal year 2018, about 2/3rds of its revenues come from footwear, with apparel most of the remainder. Within the footwear category, “running” was the largest seller, with $5.2 billion, compared to $3.1 for “training,” $2.9 billion for Jordan Brand (featuring basketball), $1.5 billion for basketball and $2.1 billion for soccer.

But does Nike need to develop programs like the Oregon Project to maintain and grow this revenue? Adidas is moving up on Nike – although still a third smaller – and has no such programs.

It is certainly true that Nike’s “running” revenues are not tied to competitive track & field, but to individual fitness activities such as running, jogging and walking. While the company was born out of the Oregon track & field program of the 1960s – it was founded in 1967 – it has no obligation to continue to support competitive track & field, especially in the U.S., in the comprehensive way it does now.

In fact, the 2017 USA Track & Field financial statements notes that while “a sponsor” – Nike – has committed its support to 2040, “The sponsorship agreement may be terminated by either party in advance of 2040 for various reasons…”

With long-time chief executive Mark Parker leaving, to be replaced by former eBay CEO John Donahue in January (a Nike Board member since 2014), will Nike take Cain’s comments to heart and simply reduce its track & field involvement to a level which serves its marketing and sales needs, and not the emotional ties to the company’s beginnings?

Not that this matters especially, but Parker ran cross country and track at Penn State. Donahue graduated from Dartmouth, but an online search found no such association for him during his school years.

Cain’s comments about the future are important and should be taken seriously. If Donahue does so, the company may decide that it does not have to support competitive track & field in the way it does now. As she said, “Nike needs to change.”

It will be fascinating to see if one of those changes is to focus a little less on its passion for track & field, and devote that energy into training a new generation of women coaches.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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WRESTLING Preview: Japan goes for 11th Women’s World Cup title in Narita

Rich Perelman

November 13, 2019

tsx pix 2019-918 gray, adeline 750 wch2 (uww) — World 76 kg Champion Adeline Gray of the U.S. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

A strong U.S. women’s team is in Narita, Japan to compete in the 18th UWW Women’s World Cup, the annual dual-meet competition among the top teams in the world.

Eight teams are usually included, but Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan declined, so there will be two pools of three teams:

● Pool A: Japan (ranked no. 1), China (4), Ukraine (5)
● Pool B: United States (3), Russia (2), Mongolia (7)

Pool matches will be held on Saturday, with the medal matches on Sunday. Look for results here.

Japan has dominated this event, winning 10 titles in the prior 17 editions. China has won six times and the U.S. has won once, back in 2003, in Tokyo. However, the American squad has also made it to the final, championships match three other times (last in 2011) and has won a bronze medal in 2006. Most recently, the U.S. has been fourth three times in a row.

The U.S. will be led by three World Champions: Jacarra Winchester (55 kg), Tamyra Mensah-Stock (68 kg) and Adeline Gray (76 kg). The 2018 Worlds silver winner Sarah Hildebrandt will fight at 53 kg with additional veteran talent in Whitney Conder (50 kg), Forrest Molinari (65 kg) and Victoria Francis (72 kg).

Japan’s three-time World Champion Risako Kawai (57 kg) is the headliner for the four-time defending World Cup winners. The hosts will also have former World Champions Yui Sasaki (50 kg) and Haruna Okuno (53 kg) in the line-up and 2019 Worlds medalists Hiroe Minagawa (76 kg silver), Yukako Kawai (62 kg bronze) and Masako Furuichi (72 kg bronze, but will compete at 68 kg).

SPEED SKATING Preview: ISU World Cup season starts in Minsk

Rich Perelman

November 13, 2019

tsx pix 2019-221 bowe, rbittany (ISU) — American sprint star Brittany Bowe (Photo: ISU)

The ISU World Cup for Speed Skating will celebrate 35 years in 2019-20 after its start in 1985, beginning with the first of six meets, at the Minsk Arena in Belarus.

It’s a long season, with the World Cup Final on early March, but let’s start with the top performers from the last two seasons:

Men/Overall:
● 2018: Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen (NOR)
● 2019: Not named

Men/500 m:
● 2018: Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen (NOR)
● 2019: Pavel Kulizhkinov (RUS) ~ Third title

Men/1,000 m:
● 2018: Kjeld Nuis (NED)
● 2019: Kjeld Nuis (NED) ~ Fifth title (and fourth in a row)

Men/1,500 m:
● 2018: Denis Yuskov (RUS)
● 2019: Denis Yuskov (RUS) ~ Third title

Men/5,000 & 10,000 m:
● 2018: Ted-Jan Bloemen (CAN)
● 2019: Aleksandr Rumyantsev (RUS)

Men/Mass Start:
● 2018: Bart Swings (BEL)
● 2019: Cheon-Ho Um (KOR)

Women/Overall:
● 2018: Miho Takagi (JPN)
● 2019: Not named

Women/500 m:
● 2018: Vanessa Herzog (AUT)
● 2019: Vanessa Herzog (AUT) ~ Second title

Women/1,000 m:
● 2018: Yekaterina Shikhova (RUS)
● 2019: Brittany Bowe (USA) ~ Third title

Women/1,500 m:
● 2018: Miho Takagi (JPN)
● 2019: Brittany Bowe (USA) ~ Second title

Women/3,000 & 5,000 m:
● 2018: Antoinette de Jong (NED)
● 2019: Martina Sabilkova (CZE) ~ 12th title

Women/Mass Start:
● 2018: Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) ~ Second title
● 2019: Bo-Reum Kim (KOR) ~ Third title

Bowe returns to the circuit off an excellent year in which she won the World Cup in two events, won the World Championship in the 1,000 m and a bronze in the 1,500 m.

Look for results here.

SWIMMING Preview: Record watch for Ledecky at ISL “American Derby” this weekend?

Rich Perelman

November 13, 2019

The International Swimming League’s fifth meet is the “American Derby” featuring only the four U.S.-based teams, to determine the qualifying teams for the ISL Final in Las Vegas in December.

Two U.S. teams will advance to the final and the meet will be held at the University of Maryland’s Natatorium in College Park. And that’s important.

Why? Because it’s essentially a home meet for the great Katie Ledecky, a member of the D.C. Trident and born in Washington, D.C. … and she is in shape.

Ledecky won three events at last week’s (long-course) Tyr Pro Swim Series opener in Greensboro, North Carolina, swimming 1:55.68, 4:01.68 and 8:14.95 in the 200-400-800 m Frees.

Those marks are far off the Short-Course world records, which are faster thanks to double the number of turns, but Ledecky scared the 400 m Free record in the first ISL meet back on 5-6 October in Indianapolis, finishing in 3:54.06, the no. 2 performance ever. The current short-course marks:

● 200 m: 1:50.43, Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 2017
● 400 m: 3:53.92, Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 2018

Sjostrom’s mark appears safe, but Titmus’s standard could be in jeopardy. All of this, of course, assumes that Ledecky will swim; she hasn’t appeared in any other ISL meets since Indianapolis. But how can she pass up a meet at home?

As far as the teams go, the current standing for the four U.S. teams show:

1. 6 points ~ Cali Condors (947.5 points scored)
2. 5 points ~ L.A. Current (865.0)
3. 4 points ~ D.C. Trident (652.5)
4. 2 points ~ New York Breakers (571.0)

As the scoring is 4-3-2-1 according to placings, the Breakers are out and the top three teams will battle for the two places in the final.

With the schedule so heavily tilted toward the sprint events, look for a big meet from American stars Caeleb Dressel for the Cali Condors and Nathan Adrian for the L.A. Current.

The meet will be shown in the U.S. on ESPN3 (online only), at 11 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

FOOTBALL Preview: Redemption or disgrace for U.S. national team Friday vs. Canada?

Rich Perelman

November 12, 2019

tsx pix 2019-630 mckennie, wes 750 — U.S. midfielder Wes McKennie

How serious is the situation for the U.S. men’s National Team?

Consider this: the preview of Friday’s CONCACAF Nations League match vs. Canada in Orlando, Florida was titled “For the USMNT It’s Time to Respond.”

True.

Only the winner of each of the four preliminary groups in the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League will advance to the final; Honduras (Group C) is already in, and Mexico (also 2-0) is poised to clinch Group B. In Group A:

1. 9 points ~ Canada (3-0; +9 goal differential)
2. 3 points ~ United States (1-1, +5)
3. 0 points ~ Cuba (0-3; -14).

Only the U.S. has two games left: vs. Canada in Orlando on Friday (15th) and vs. Cuba in George Town (CAY) on the 19th (next Tuesday). So for the U.S. to advance, the task is clear: win both games, and by a combined margin of five or more goals.

Given that the U.S. stomped Cuba by 7-0 in their first meeting, that’s possible, but the American side has to defeat Canada first. The Canadians embarrassed the U.S. in a dominant, 2-0 win in Toronto on 15 October, their first win against their southern rivals since 1985!

The U.S. will need to start by scoring a goal. Canada has out-scored the U.S. and Cuba by a combined 9-0 in its games so far. U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter will not have stalwarts Christian Pulisic or Michael Bradley available due to injuries. Brad Guzan will be in goal.

Simply put, the Americans must get more action from strikers Jordan Morris, Gyasi Zardes and Paul Arriola and midfielders Sebastien Lletget, Wes McKennie, Cristian Roldan and Wil Trapp.

Another loss to Canada, which clearly wanted the first game more than the U.S. did, would sink the American team not simply into irrelevance on the worldwide scene, but raise the question of who is the second-best team in the region behind Mexico.

The game will start at 7 p.m. Eastern time and shown on ESPN2, TUDN and Univision.

The two sides first met in 1925 – won by Canada, 1-0 – but the U.S. has a 14-9-11 lead in the all-time series and 11-1-9 in games played in the U.S. The only home loss was in 1957.

FIGURE SKATING Preview: Redemption for Uno or Medvedeva at Rostelecom Cup in Moscow?

Rich Perelman

November 12, 2019

tsx pix 11618 medvedeva, janny 750 — Two-time World Champion Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS),

The ISU Grand Prix circuit is in Moscow, Russia for the fifth of six competitions and skaters trying to qualify for the Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy in early December.

The fields are good, but do not include most of the top performers. Some of the expected stars include:

Men:
● Kazuki Tamono (JPN) ~ 5th at 2018 World Championships
● Shoma Uno (JPN) ~ 2018 Olympic silver, 2017-18 Worlds silvers
● Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) ~ 6th at 2018 World Championships
● Dmitri Aliev (RUS) ~ 2018 Olympic 7th; 7th at 2018 Worlds
● Alexander Samarin (RUS) ~ 2019 European Champs silver

Women:
● Satoko Miyahara (JPN) ~ 2018 Olympic 4th; 2015 Worlds silver; 2018 Worlds bronze
● Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS) ~ 2016-17 World Champion; 2018 Olympic silver
● Alexandra Trusova (RUS) ~ 2018 and 2019 World Junior Champion
● Mariah Bell (USA) ~ 9th at 2019 World Championships

Pairs:
● Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii (RUS) ~ 6th at 2019 Worlds
● Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS) ~ 2018-19 Worlds silvers; 2017 Worlds bronze

Ice Dance:
● Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) ~ 2018 Olympic 8th; won Skate Canada Int’l 2019
● Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) ~ 2019 Worlds silver; won Shiseido Cup of China
● Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (CAN) ~ 2019 World Junior Champions

The big question in the men’s division is about Japan’s Olympic silver winner Uno. He was an unsteady eighth at the Internationaux de France; will he be back in form? The same is being asked about two-time women’s World Champion Medvedeva, who now trains in Canada, but finished a modest fifth at Skate Canada International in October. She’ll turn 20 on the 19th of this month; she’ll be happy with a victory as a birthday present for herself! Fellow Russian ATrusova was the winner at Skate Canada and American Bell took the bronze at the Internationaux de France and figure in the medal hunt in Moscow.

In Pairs, the Russian duos of Tarasova and Morozov and Boikova and Kozlovskii figure as the favorites. Boikova and Kozlovskii won at Skate Canada International, with Tarasova and Morozov third.

In Ice Dance, Canada’s Gilles and Poirier won at Skate Canada Int’l and home favorites Sinitsina and Katsalapov won last week in China and should battle for the top spot this time.

The six-event series will conclude next week with the NHK Trophy event in Sapporo, Japan. The prize money for Moscow is, as normal, $18,000-13,000-9,000-3,000-2,000 for the top five. Look for results here.

THIS WEEK I: Winter isn’t quite here yet; U.S.’s Dershwitz looks for Sabre gold in Egypt

Rich Perelman

November 12, 2019

tsx pix 2019-202 dershwitz eli 750 — American Sabre fencing star Eli Dershwitz

We’re just finishing the transition to winter sports this week, so the schedule is a little light. In the first of two preview sets for this week, we look ahead to action in badminton, beach volleyball, fencing and table tennis:

● BADMINTON ● Top Doubles teams face off in Hong Kong Open

The BWF World Tour is at the Hong Kong Coliseum this week for the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open, with $400,000 in prize money on the line and a great line-up of stars in the Doubles brackets.

In both the men’s and women’s draws, the top three teams in the BWF World Rankings will be in action, headlined by Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) for the men and Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota for the women. Both posted major wins last weekend in the Fuzhou China Open and both are defending champions in this event from 2018 (the Indonesians are two-time defenders!).

The no. 1-ranked Singles players, Japan’s Kento Momota and Tzu Ying Tai (TPE), both withdrew, as did Mixed Doubles leaders Siwei Zheng and Yaqiong Huang (CHN). The top seeds:

● Men/Singles: 1. Tien-Chen Chou (TPE: 2); 2. Yuqi Shi (CHN: 7); 3. Anders Antonsen (DEN: 3).

● Men/Doubles: 1. Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA: 1); 2. Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA: 2); 3. Junhui Li/Yuchen Liu (CHN: 3).

● Women/Singles: 1. Akane Yamaguchi (JPN: 4); 2. Yufei Chen (CHN: 3); 3. Nozomi Okuhara (JPN: 2).

● Women/Doubles: 1. Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara (JPN: 3); 2. Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN: 1); 3. Qingchen Chen/Yifan Jia (CHN: 2).

● Mixed Doubles: 1. Yilyu Wang/Dongping Huang (CHN: 2); 2. Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapirsee Taerattanachai (THA: 4); 3. Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino (JPN: 3).

The Singles winners will receive $30,000, then 15,200-5,800-5,800 for the top four places; the Doubles purse includes $31,600-15,200-5,600-5,600 for the top four. Look for results here.

● BEACH VOLLEYBALL ● Strong U.S. teams in first World Tour 4-star, in Chetumal

The first FIVB World Tour 4-star tournaments for 2019-20 comes this week in Chetumal, Mexico, with a good field entered, although not the top stars. The top seeds:

● Men:
1. Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (NED) ~ 2013 World Champions
2. Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl (POL) ~ Three World Tour medals in 2018-19
3. Taylor Crabb/Jacob Gibb (USA) ~ 4th at 2019 World Tour Final

● Women:
1. Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho (AUS) ~ 2019 World Championships bronze medalists
2. Madelein Meppelink/Sanne Keizer (NED) ~ 2019 Ostrava Open bronze medalists
3. Barbara Seixas/Fernanda Alves (BRA) ~ Barbara: 2016 Olympic silver

The U.S. is well represented, with Trevor Crabb and Tri Bourne also seeded fifth for the men, and Brooke Sweat/Kerri Walsh Jennings (6) and Sarah Sponcil/Kelly Claes (7) also seeded in the top 10. Look for results here.

● FENCING ● Men’s Sabre World Cup opener in Cairo

The FIE World Cup season for the men’s Sabre stars opens this week at the indoor complex of the Cairo Stadium in Egypt, with individual competition on Friday and Saturday and the Team event on Sunday. A large field of 194 fencers will start, with eight of the top 10-ranked Sabreistas entered:

1. Sang-Uk Oh (KOR) ~ 2019 World Champion
2. Eli Dershwitz (USA) ~ 2018 Worlds silver medalist
3. Max Hatung (GER)
4. Luca Curatoli (ITA) ~ 2019 Worlds bronze medalist
7. Veniamen Reshetnikov (RUS)
8. Sandro Bazadze (GEO)
9. Bolade Apithy (FRA)
10. Mojtaba Abedini (IRI) ~ 2019 Worlds bronze medalist

Dershwitz, 24, will be looking for his fifth career World Cup medal; he’s won at least one in each of the past three seasons. Look for results here.

● TABLE TENNIS ● Two-time Worlds medalist Fan headlines Austrian Open in Linz

The 12th of 13 stages of the ITTF World Tour is in Linz, Austria for the annual Austrian Open. The top seeds, along with world rankings in Singles only:

● Men/Singles: 1. Zhendong Fan (CHN: 2); 2. Gaoyuan Lin (CHN: 4); 3. Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN: 5).

● Men/Doubles: 1. Youngsik Jeoung/Sangsu Lee (KOR); 2. Cheng-Ting Liao/Yun-Ju Lin (KOR); 3. Jingkun Liang/Gaoyuan Lin (CHN).

● Women/Singles: 1. Yuling Zhu (CHN: 3); 2. Shiwen Liu (CHN: 5); 3. Mima Ito (JPN: 7).

● Women/Doubles: 1. Miyuu Kihara/Miyu Nagasaki (JPN); 2. Hoi Kem Doo/Ho Ching Lee (HKG); 3. Barbora Balazova (SVK)/Hana Matelova (CZE).

● Mixed Doubles: 1. Chun Ting Wong/Hoi Kem Doo (HKG); 2. Yun-Ju Lin/I-ching Cheng (TPE); 3. Jun Mizutani/Mima Ito (JPN).

Fan, as a two-time World Championships medalist – and ranked no. 2 in the U.S. – is the focus, and only two of the 2018 tournament winners are back: China’s Jingkun Liang in the men’s Singles and Japan’s Ito in the women’s Singles. Look for results here.

ATHLETICS Panorama: Four-time World hurdles champ Greg Foster needs a heart transplant

Rich Perelman

November 12, 2019

Forget the four World Championships golds in the high hurdles, and the rivalries with Renaldo Nehemiah and Roger Kingdom. Once again, Greg Foster is fighting for his life.

Foster, 61, beat back the rare AL Amyloidosis disease twice, in 2016 and 2018, but has now been told that he needs a heart transplant. A heart transplant?!?

This is almost unthinkable to those who saw him run at UCLA and then on the international circuit for another 15 years. Powerfully built at 6-3, with long, muscular legs, Foster set an American Record of 13.22 in winning the 1978 NCAA title in Eugene and then improved to 13.03 in 1981. He won the IAAF Worlds in 1983-87-91 when it was held only once every four years, an Olympic silver medal in 1984 in Los Angeles and the 1991 World Indoors. He retired in 1995.

After beating back the Amyloidosis at the end of last summer, he felt weak in November and was told that a heart transplant was needed. There were a lot more tests to be taken, but the diagnosis was confirmed in October.

His son Bradey wrote on their GoFundMe page (link):

“Going forward I’m not sure what the future holds for my dad, but for now we are not going to give up.? Every day is a struggle for him, either physically, psychologically or emotionally but he has come this far and cleared some damn high hurdles through this race he’s not quitting.? My Dad is a fighter but has gone through a heck of a lot for someone that has done so much for so many. My brother’s and I just want to make this part of Dad’s life one of comfort and happiness. The road will be a costly one, but our plan is to fight to the end. …

“This journey has been and will continue to be one of great financial, emotional and physical challenges to dad. Although it’s been one hell of a fight and a high ass hurdle to clear, if you know my DAD he’s not giving up. The financial hardship that this is going to cause my dad will be more than he can handle right now. Unfortunately, he is still paying medical costs from his stem cell transplant three years ago.”

The GoFundMe page was posted on 6 November and has a $350,000 goal. Who knows when the transplant will come through, but Foster continues his fight for life. More of the details are here.

(Special thanks to Brian Russell, one of Foster’s teammates at UCLA, for forwarding the link.)

The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) name has now been retired and the new “World Athletics” name is now being used. One of the first activities under the new name was a letter from Chief Executive Jon Ridgeon to the excellent Global Throwing letter which protested the demotion of the discus (and triple jump) in the 2020 Diamond League program.

Ridgeon’s letter explains that the broadcasters of the Diamond League meets wanted 90-minute – rather than two-hour – shows and that the events themselves depend on the support of television rights sales and sponsorships. He claimed that the new sponsorship from the Chinese media giant, Wanda, was made possible

He added:

“Knowing that some disciplines would not be included within the 90 minute international broadcast window and shortened final, World Athletics has invested time and considerable funds to create a new strong one day Meeting series – The World Athletics Continental Tour. The Continental Tour will offer those athletes affected by next year’s changes to the the Diamond League, opportunities for high level competition, significant prize money, top flight world ranking points and visibility to fans, both live and through international broadcast. This is in addition to signature disciplines being held within the Diamond League, either in or outside of the international broadcast window.”

He also noted some details of the Continental Tour:

“The [new] Wanda partnership has also enabled us at World Athletics to invest more significantly in the World Athletics Continental Tour, which will be a series of between 10 and 12 Meetings covering disciplines that will not be in the Diamond League, as well as some that are. The details of the 2020 Continental Tour will be shared with the World Athletics Council and the Athletes Forum in Monaco in a couple of weeks time.”

He further underlined that the events line-up for 2021 will be reviewed at the end of 2020, and that he will meet with Shaun Pickering from the group in December.

That’s hardly going to satisfy the throwers, but it is good that Ridgeon took their letter seriously enough to respond quickly.

In the meantime, The Athletics Association, founded by World Triple Jump Champion Christian Taylor tweeted that the response has been excellent:

The reaction to @Taylored2jump's announcement last week has been inspiring and motivating. Thank you to the many hundreds of athletes who have signed up from all over the world – from Olympic champions to National champions, we see you! #WeAreTheSport
[email protected]

— TheAthleticsAssociation (@WeAreTheSport) November 11, 2019

In addition to changing its name, World Athletics also revamped its Web site – lots of images, but harder to find information – and named its finalists:

● Men: Joshua Cheptegei (KEN), Sam Kendricks (USA), Noah Lyles (USA), Eliud Kipchoge (KEN), Karsten Warholm (NOR).

● Women: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM), Sifan Hassan (NED), Brigid Kosgei (KEN), Dalilah Muhammad (USA), Yulimar Rojas (VEN).

The voting is already over; the winners will be announced on 23 November.

TSX INTEL REPORT: Athlete shrieking over the Diamond League obscures the real issue; world title for teen Hannah Roberts; U.S. women win first two games for new coach

Rich Perelman

November 10, 2019

≡ TSX INTELLIGENCE REPORT ~ 11 November 2019 ≡

● LANE ONE ● Athlete shrieking over dropped Diamond League events misses the point completely

When the International Association of Track & Field Federations (IAAF) announced a set of changes for its top-tier Diamond League meets for 2020, it did so with the intention of making the sport more attractive on television.

It shortened the broadcast time for each meet to 90 minutes from two hours, limited the number of times that the 200 m and steeplechase would be shown and essentially eliminated the triple jump and discus. The hammer throw had long ago been relegated to a separate “challenge” series.

As expected, this did not go over well at all with the triple jumpers and discus throwers. The reaction from the steeplers was more muted, but four-time World Triple Jump Champion Christian Taylor of the U.S. posted a notice on his social media accounts, calling for a new organization to be called The Athletics Association, “an association for all professional Track and Field Athletes around the world” with the goal to have “a say in how our sport is run.”

A group representing the discus community called Global Throwing sent a four-page, well-prepared letter to IAAF chief Sebastian Coe that included:

“We cannot believe that any athlete or coach in any event within the sport, agrees with the decisions taken yesterday. We believe that you and your staff are isolated in your own world trying to sell and please your paymasters rather than your own assets, namely your athletes and coaches.”

Both Taylor and the throwers are passionate and are furious to be relegated to a secondary series of meets, to be called the “Continental Tour,” to be further detailed later this month. But they have missed the issue.

Coe and the rest of the folks involved in the IAAF and the Diamond League are not out to get the jumpers or throwers or anyone else. They are trying to figure out some way to grow the sport and make it more attractive to new fans worldwide.

That’s the issue, not which events are in the Diamond League meets or not.

Coe identified this back in 2015, when he was running to be the head of the IAAF (soon to be called World Athletics). He wants to work on it now, after getting some of the major doping and corruption issues under better control during his first term.

Among Taylor, the throwers and others who are unhappy with the Diamond League changes, there are some very bright, inventive people. Solutions that make track & field more popular, more interesting and more desired by television audiences are needed and that’s where the action needs to be. Really? Yes; read on here.

● DOPING ● Banka elected President; Russian compliance meeting coming 17 November

The World Anti-Doping Agency concluded its World Conference on Doping in Sport in Katowice, Poland, with the as-expected election of Poland’s Witold Banka as the organization’s next President.

Banka, 35 (pictured), is the Polish Minister for Tourism and Sport, and is a former 400 m runner with a best of 46.11. His Vice President will be China’s Yang Yang, a double-Olympic gold medalist in Short Track Speed Skating. Both will assume office on 1 January 2020.

The attendees passed a “Katowice Declaration” which encourages all stakeholders “to present a unified front with a view to eradicate doping in sport; to increase resources dedicated to protecting clean sport; and to bring all perpetrators to account, without limitation.”

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart encouraged the attendees to raise the level of activity against doping, pointing out that “Tokyo 2020 will be the fifth Games where state doping and not the athletes are the issue,” and added:

“We can do more and we must do more. We cannot allow one country to steal medals. We must have a strong and independent WADA and not a weak service provider some have enjoyed in the last few years.”

Regarding Russia, the next step will be a meeting on 17 November of WADA’s Compliance Review Committee with the WADA staff and investigative team examining the “inconsistencies” between the Moscow Lab data retrieved in January and that provided by a whistleblower previously. If the committee recommends a specific course of action, the WADA Executive Committee will meet “as soon thereafter as practicable” to consider the suggestion. This could, of course, include a holding of Russia as non-compliant and trigger possible sanctions.

In the meantime, Russian officials squared off in the press concerning the data manipulation charges and the future of Russian participation in the Olympic Games.

Last Thursday, Russian Sports minister Sergey Kolobkov told the TASS news agency that “Experts say that there were no deletions and it is about technical issues regarding the system. All these issues will be clarified at the next meeting between experts from Russia and WADA,” which is expected on 17 November.

An Associated Press story, also filed last Thursday, quoted the head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, Yuri Ganus (pictured), as saying of Kolobkov, “He lives in the world of illusion.”

Kolobkov replied, “Yuri … needs to do his own job and not interpret documents which don’t contain the information he is expressing publicly. The so-called manipulations which Yuri … is talking about aren’t there, and that word isn’t mentioned anywhere.”

● U.S. OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE ● By-law reforms confirmed

The governing documents of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee were changed to reflect many of the promised changes last Thursday, with the amendments effective as of 1 January of 2020.

The USOPC Board of Directors approved the modifications, which include, but are not limited to:

● The first listed goal of the organization now reads “We promote and protect athletes’ rights, safety and wellness.”

● The Board composition was changed to include three members elected directly by the Athletes Advisory Council, three from the National Governing Body Council, two members from the USOPC Alumni organization and five independent directors elected by the Board itself (total: 13 members), plus the U.S. members of the International Olympic Committee (currently: 2). Board membership is limited to two, four-year terms, except for the Chair (maximum of three terms).

● The athlete representation on committees was maintained at 20%, usually one member selected by the Athletes Advisory Council out of five positions on the group.

● Oversight of the National Governing Bodies was strengthened, with compliance audits that require a long list of actions including a demonstration of “financial operational capability to administer its sport.”

● The “Athlete Ombudsman” function was expanded and will include availability of a designated fund for use by athletes “lacking adequate resources” to file a complaint against the USOPC or a National Governing Body.

These steps are the first of many promised, and by which the USOPC hopes to avoid major changes by the U.S. Congress to the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act which governs it. While the reforms continue, it’s worthwhile to consider whether the Congress will even consider the Ted Stevens Act in view of the continuing impeachment inquiry, not to mention government funding and the 2020 election cycle.

● CYCLING ● Hannah Roberts confirms favorite’s role for Tokyo with second world title

For the third year in a row, the UCI World Urban Championships were held in Chengdu (CHN), but once again the star was American teen Hannah Roberts (pictured).

She won the World Freestyle Park title for the second time in three years – she won bronze last year – and qualified for the event’s debut at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. She led both the qualifying (89.95) and the final (90.00). Chile’s Macarena Perez Grasset was second (86.80) and grabbed the other qualifying spot.

The men’s title went to Australian Brandon Loupos, who moved up from third in 2018, with countryman (and 2027 champ) Logan Martin second, 93.20-92.90, with Americans Nick Bruce third and (defending champ) Justin Dowell fourth. More here.

● FIGURE SKATING ● China’s Jin and Sui & Han win at home in Shiseido Cup of China

It’s hard to believe, but the ISU Grand Prix is already 2/3rds over, with the fourth of six events in Chongqing (CHN), and good results for the home team.

World Pairs champs Wenjing Sui and Cong Han were decisive winners, scoring 228.37 to easily outdistance teammates Cheng Peng and Yang Jin (199.97). China also went 1-2 in the men’s division, with two-time Worlds bronze medalist Boyang Jin winning and Han Yan second, 261.53-249.45.

The story of the event, however, might have been the confirmation of the newest Russian teen star, Anna Shcherbakova (15), as a contender. After a win at Skate America, she won again, ahead of Japan’s Satoko Miyahara and 2015 World Champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS), 226.04-211.18-209.10.

Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov won a close Ice Dance competition with Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, 209.90-208.55. More here.

● FOOTBALL ● Two wins in first two games for U.S women under new coach Andonovski

The Vlatko Andonovski Era started well for the U.S. women with two wins to end the year, beating Sweden, 3-2, last Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, and Costa Rica, 6-0 at Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday.

Against Sweden, the American side got off to a dream start, with Carli Lloyd, Christen Press and Lloyd again (pictured) scoring in the first half-hour for a 3-0 lead and the game looked like a rout. But the Swedes came back after the hour mark, with Anna Anvegard scoring in the 75th and 79th minutes to close to 3-2. But the U.S. closed it out for the victory. More here.

Against Costa Rica, Lloyd scored in the fourth minute for a 1-0 lead, followed by Morgan Brian for a 2-0 lead at half. Sub Lynn Williams scored twice in the second half, Press also got a goal and there was a late own-goal for Costa Rica for the 6-0 final. More here.

These were the last games of the year and the U.S. women finished at 20-1-3 for 2019, unbeaten in their last 23 games after a January loss to France. The next challenge will be the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament, starting in late January. But new coach Andonovski has two wins and the team has earned some much-needed rest.

● SWIMMING ● Morozov & Campbell win FINA World Cup; Ledecky wins four at Tyr Pro Swim

Lots of swimming action on the weekend, with the end of the FINA World Cup and the start of USA Swimming’s Tyr Pro Swim Series:

● In Doha (QAT), the seventh and final leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup for 2019 saw Vladimir Morozov (RUS) finish with three wins and the seasonal title in the men’s division and Australia’s Cate Campbell win a tight competition with Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu.

Campbell’s win was all about quality vs. quantity. Hosszu won many more events during the season, but the scoring also included significant points for the top three performances in each meet, according to the FINA Points Table. Campbell was a champ on that score and her single-best performances were consistently better than Hosszu’s during the season. The Australian ended with 347 points to 312 for Hosszu, despite Hosszu winning four events in Doha and Campbell winning two and finishing second in a third. More here.

● In Greensboro, the first stage of the Tyr Pro Swim Series was held with a familiar face in the headlines: Katie Ledecky.

The great freestyler won the 200 m, 400 m and 800 m events in strong times of 1:55.68, 4:01.68 and 8:14.95 and was the only three-time winner in the meet.

This is a period of heavy training for most of the swimmers, building core fitness for the Olympic year. But many of the big stars were in the meet, with double wins for Simone Manuel (50-100 m Frees), Madisyn Cox (200 m Breast & 200 m Medley), Zane Grothe (400 m-1,500 m Frees) and teenager Luca Urlando (200 m Free, 200 m Fly and second in the 100 m Fly).

Ryan Lochte was busy, swimming in five finals; he was second in his specialty, the 200 m Medley, to world Junior Champion Carson Foster. More here.

● SCOREBOARD ● Momota wins amazing 10th tournament of 2019 at Fuzhou China Open

Among the other highlights of the weekend:

● Badminton: Japan’s Kento Momota won his 10th BWF World Tour event of the season at the Fuzhou China Cup, defeating no. 2-ranked Tien Chen Chou (TPE) in three sets in the final. It’s the most wins ever in a single World Tour season since the current format of the BWF SuperSeries and then the BWF World Tour started in 2007. In women’s Singles, China’s Yufei Chen won her fifth title of the year, overcoming top-ranked Nozomi Okuhara (JPN). Both Momota and Chen defended their China Open titles from 2018.

● Fencing: Good results for the U.S. in the FIE World Cup opener for men, the Lowe von Bonn Foil event in Germany. Gerek Meinhardt finished second to France’s Julien Mertine in the individual event and then the U.S. trio of Race Imboden, Alexander Massialas and Nick Itkin won the team event over Korea.

More here on the weekend highlights in Archery ~ Badminton ~ Curling ~ Fencing ~ Short Track.

LANE ONE: Athlete shrieking over dropped Diamond League events misses the point completely

Rich Perelman

November 10, 2019

Last Wednesday, the IAAF announced the 24 events that would be contested during the 2020 Diamond League season. The 12 events for both men and women included the “most popular” events according to the IAAF’s research, the 100 m, long jump and high jump, but dropped four events: 200 m, 3,000 m steeple, triple jump and discus.

The shrieking started immediately.

While popular, the 200 m was dropped because it would be too difficult to hold both the 100 and 200 m in multiple meets. But it will be included in 10 of the 15 meets (five for men, five for women) and the same for the Steeple. The triple jump and discus will only be part of two meets each: one meet for men and one meet for women for each event.

There will be additional opportunities for those events according to IAAF chief Sebastian Coe, “The Continental Tour, an enhanced global series of one-day meetings supporting the Diamond League, will integrate these eight disciplines to ensure athletes get opportunities to compete extensively and earn prize money. We will also work more closely with the athletes in these eight disciplines to help promote them and their events.”

While the Steeple wasn’t cut back entirely, 2017 World Champion Emma Coburn of the U.S. wasn’t happy:

https://twitter.com/emmajcoburn/status/1192206062926979072

She was polite as always, but the comments from the triple jump and discus community were less so. Four-time World Champion Christian Taylor of the U.S. announced the formation of a new group, The Athletics Association, independent of the IAAF:

It's time for real change.

I refuse to sit back any longer.

Please read the full statement below and join and follow the movement.

REMEBER:#WeAreTheSport

Register:
[email protected] @WeAreTheSport @WorldAthletics @Diamond_League pic.twitter.com/eGPmdYTeyB

— Christian Taylor (@Taylored2jump) November 7, 2019

Another group called Global Throwing, which includes a dozen of the world’s top discus throwers, nine of the event’s most notable coaches and a lot more, sent a well-constructed, must-read four-page letter to the IAAF. In pertinent part, the letter includes comments directed at Coe:

“Under your first term as president of the IAAF you have been preaching to federations and athletes alike, cooperation between all of us, so that we should work together for the good of the sport in developing Athletics as the number one Olympic Sport. We have been supportive of this need to cooperate as requested but we do not feel that you have been cooperating with us. We cannot believe that any athlete or coach in any event within the sport, agrees with the decisions taken yesterday. We believe that you and your staff are isolated in your own world trying to sell and please your paymasters rather than your own assets, namely your athletes and coaches. We have seen evidence that you are not even listening to your own Athletes Commission.”

It further insists that the change to a 90-minute television program window (vs. two hours up until now) will not be a panacea for the sport:

“You are focused on 90 minutes as the key determining factor for success for our sport like it is a football game. There is no evidence that 90 minutes is the answer and by choosing this as the key metric you are placing yourself in a box which has led to these unnecessary changes. …

“If nothing is allowed to take longer than 90 minutes, we would not have any Golf, Tennis, opera or theatre.”

All well and good. Of course, there is money involved; the pay scale for the Diamond League meets is well known; this past season, it paid $10,000-8,000-6,000-4,000-3,000-2,500-2,000-1,500-1,000 to the top eight placers and for the final, $50,000 down to $2,000 for the top eight.

No one knows what the “Continental Tour” is yet, how many meets there will be, what exposure it will have and what the pay scale will be.

But all of this misses the central issue that is driving the IAAF (soon to change its name to World Athletics) to make these changes, whether good or bad: making the sport more popular with the general public.

Coe identified this as his top priority in his election manifesto in 2015, but his first term was clouded with doping issues, the alleged criminal behavior of the Diacks and associated problems. He has said that these issues are not finished, but sufficiently under control that more attention can be paid to what the sport needs to be more successful.

It’s not well known, but the IAAF published its first-ever financial information in its application form for its newly-created Executive Board, mentioning that the organization has 90 full-time staff and annual revenue of about $40 million U.S.

This had never been revealed before. Assuming this is correct, then the IAAF ranks roughly ninth among the International Federations in terms of revenue for the last reported year (see our coverage from April 2018 here). Of course, FIFA is far and away the leader, but the others ahead of the IAAF in annual revenue include:

● $60-70 million (3): UCI (cycling), FIVB (volleyball), FINA (swimming)
● $50-60 million (3): ITF (tennis), FEI (equestrian), FIBA (basketball)
● $40-50 million (1): IRB (rugby), then the IAAF.

This is not where the worldwide federation for track & field needs to be and Coe and his team know this. The Global Throwing letter referenced Coe’s past comments that “something has to be done” to help track & field attract a wider audience.

Neither Taylor’s new Athletics Association concept and the Global Throwing letter accept this challenge, only protest against the way that the Diamond League presentation was changed so that it cuts them out.

The real question on the table is how to make track & field more popular. That’s the real issue.

For those athletes who say it’s not their problem, it is. Actors may not be responsible for the success or failure of a specific film or play, or singers of the sales of a specific album, but consider how heavily they are involved in the promotion of their films, plays and music.

Are track & field’s athletes that involved?

Taylor’s idea of having an energized group of athletes actively discussing how to promote the sport, broaden its reach and play a role in its renaissance would be fabulous. There are bright minds there and they are rarely tapped, not due to any conspiracy on the part of the IAAF, but because there is so little cohesion thanks to distances and training schedules (how many coaches will tolerate a star athlete missing multiple days of practice to attend a marketing meeting in a far-away country?).

Coburn, Taylor, the discus community and all the rest of those who are disgusted with the changes to the Diamond League program are welcome to their discontent. But the central problem to be solved is how to arrange the sport so that it grows as a commercial enterprise, as have the big team sports, tennis, golf, MMA and others over the past two decades.

That’s the issue, not the 90-minute television time window.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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FOOTBALL: Lloyd leads U.S. women to 6-0 win over Costa Rica in final match of the year

Rich Perelman

November 10, 2019

tsx pix 101218 lavelle rose 750 — U.S. midfield star Rose Lavelle

Alex Morgan who?

The amazing Carli Lloyd, 37, has been a scoring machine for the U.S. women’s National Team and continued right from the start in the final match of the year against Costa Rica, in Jacksonville, Florida.

After scoring twice against Sweden on Thursday, including the opener in the sixth minute, Lloyd was the beneficiary of a seeing-eye pass from Rose Lavelle from the midfield to the left side in the fourth minute. Lloyd lifted the ball over the head of Costa Rican keeper Noelia Bermudez and into the far right side of the net for a 1-0 lead. It was Lloyd’s 121st career goal for the U.S. team and a team-high 16th in 2019.

With Morgan out on maternity into 2020, Lloyd has been making the most of her opportunity to showcase her scoring ability for new coach Vlatko Andonovski.

Lavelle wasn’t done and was on fire in the midfield in the early minutes. Midfielder Julie Ertz found her five minutes later in the middle of the field and she made an almost identical pass that gave midfielder Morgan Brian a clear shot at goal from the left side. Brian sent an arcing shot past Bermudez for a 2-0 lead just 10 minutes in.

The U.S. continued to press, but couldn’t come up with another goal. Both teams had 50% of the possession in the half, but the Americans had all of the good chances and a 7-2 lead in shots.

The U.S. started hot in the second half, with halftime sub Lynn Williams taking a lead pass into the middle of the field, eluding two defenders, then whipping the ball back to the left corner past Bermudez for a 3-0 advantage.

Christen Press hit the post on an open goal in the 55th minute, but got the ball back in the middle of the box a minute later and after faking to her right, popped a left-footed laser into the net for a 4-0 lead. Williams got another goal in the 68th minute on a right-footed shot off a loose ball in the box. Margaret Purce sailed a shot from the right endline in the 86th minute which deflected off of defender Stephanie Blanco for an own goal and the 6-0 final.

Melissa Herrera got the best chance at a goal for Costa Rica, hitting the crossbar from the right side of the box in the 62nd minute. She hit the crossbar again in the 76th minute, just over the outstretched hand of substitute U.S. keeper Adrianna Franch.

The U.S. dominated play in the second half and ended the game with a 52-48% possession edge and a 17-6 edge in shots.

The Americans extended their perfect all-time record against Costa Rica to 15-0-0. However, the two will play a much more meaningful match next year on 3 February during group play in the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Houston.

The U.S. women finishes their triumphant 2019 with a 20-1-3 record and was 20-0-3 after an opening loss in France way back in January. It also gave new Andonovski a perfect 2-0-0 in his first month on the job. It will be a year long remembered.

SCOREBOARD: Amazing 10th seasonal title for Kento Momota in Fuzhou China Open

Rich Perelman

November 10, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1110 momota, kento fuzhou 750 (BWF) — A 10th season title for Japan's Kento Momota (Photo: BWF)

Highlights and results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

● ARCHERY ● Korea sweeps Recurve titles at World Indoor Series opener in Macau

The World Archery Indoor World Series in Macau opened with a traditional result in the Recurve (Olympic) division, with Korean wins.

In two all-Korean finals, Dusol Ko defeated Jongyoung Lee, 6-2, in the men’s final and Seon Jin Park won over Siyeon Ha, 6-4. Korean archers also finished fourth in the men’s division and third in the women’s standings!

But the most remarkable performance came in the men’s Compound competition. The 2018 World Indoor Champion, Mike Schloesser (NED) shot a perfect round – 60 10s in 60 shots – in the qualifying round, then won his first four elimination matches with perfect scores of 150 each for another 60 in a row entering the final vs. American star Kris Schaff.

Schloesser shot six more 10s in a row – 126 in all – before a nine. Schaff took advantage and as Schloesser ended with two more nines, Schaff shot 148 to edge the Dutchman, 148-147 for the title. Finals:

World Archery Indoor World Series/Macau Open
Macau (CHN) ~ 9-10 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Recurve: Dusol Ko (KOR) d. Jongyoung Lee (KOR), 6-2. Women/Recurve: Seon Jin Park (KOR) d. Siyeon Ha (KOR), 6-4.

Men/Compound: Kris Schaff (USA) d. Mike Schloesser (NED), 148-147. Women/Compound: Andrea Robles (PHI) d. Paige Pearce (USA), 141-35.

● BADMINTON ● Momota wins 10th, Chen wins fifth title of season at Fuzhou China Open

Two amazing seasons continued as Japan’s Kento Momota and China’s Yufei Chen both won the Singles titles at the Fuzhou China Open on Sunday.

No. 1-ranked Momota won his 10th Singles title of the season with a 21-15, 17-21, 21-18 victory over no. 2-ranked Tien Chen Chou in the final, to defend his 2018 title in this event. With his 10th win, this is the most ever in a single season of the BWF SuperSeries – inaugurated in 2007 – or the BWF World Tour, which began in 2018. The old best was nine by Chinese star Ling Gao, who won nine titles in women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles in 2007. Momota already had the men’s Singles record; Chong Wei Lee (MAS) had won seven men’s Singles titles in 2013.

Meanwhile, China’s Yufei Chen, ranked no. 3, came from behind to defeat top-ranked Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) for her fifth title of the season, and also defended her title from last season.

In the Doubles events, no. 1-ranked Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo also defended their 2018 win, this time against Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda (JPN) and no. 3 Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota won in straight sets vs. no. 5 So Hee Lee and Seung Chan Shin (KOR), 21-17, 21-15. The top-ranked Mixed Doubles team of Siwei Zheng and Yaqiong Huang were upset by no. 2 Yilyu Wang and Dongping Huang – both from China – in straight sets.Summaries:

BWF World Tour/Fuzhou China Open
Fuzhou (CHN) ~ 5-10 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Singles: Kento Momota (JPN) d. Tien Chen Chou (TPE), 21-15, 17-21, 21-18. Men/Doubles: Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) d. Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda (JPN), 21-17, 21-9.

Women/Singles: Yufei Chen (CHN) d. Nozomi Okuhara (JPN), 9-21, 21-12, 21-18. Women/Doubles: Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN) d. So Hee Lee/Seung Chan Shin (KOR), 21-17, 21-15.

Mixed Doubles: Yilyu Wang/Dongping Huang (CHN) d. Siwei Zheng/Yaqiong Huang (CHN), 21-14, 21-13.

● CURLING ● Jacobs and Hasselborg earn first GSOC wins in Team Challenge

Last week’s surprise results, featuring first-time winners in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling, were a memory after the Tour Challenge in Pictou County, Nova Scotia in Canada, as two stars came forward with wins in the second tournament of the 2019-20 season.

Canadian Brad Jacobs’ rink – he of the 2014 Olympic title in Sochi – won a tight battle with 2017 World Champion Brad Gushue (CAN) in the men’s final, 6-4, coming from behind with three points in the seventh end to take the lead. He added one more in the final end for the 6-4 final.

The women’s 2018 Olympic champ, Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, won the women’s tourney over Canada’s Kerri Einarson, 8-5. The key was two ends with three points each, in ends three and six, while Einarson’s squad managed two points each in ends two and seven and that was the difference. Summaries:

Grand Slam of Curling/Tour Challenge
Pictou County (CAN) ~ 5-10 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men: 1. Brad Jacobs (CAN); 2. Brad Gushue (CAN); 3. Kevin Koe (CAN) and Brendan Bottcher (CAN). Final: Jacobs d. Gushue, 6-4.

Women: 1. Anna Hasselborg (SWE); 2. Kerri Einarson (CAN); 3. Satsuki Fujisawa (JPN) and Nina Roth (USA). Final: Hasselborg d. Einarson, 8-5.

● FENCING ● Mertine wins men’s Foil in Bonn; U.S. men win team title

A good weekend for the U.S. at the FIE World Cup season opener for men, as Gerek Meinhardt win the silver medal in the men’s individual Foil and the Americans took the team title.

France’s Julien Mertine, 31, won his fifth career World Cup medal – and second win – in the final against Meinhardt, 15-9. It’s the second win of the year for the Frenchman, who also won at the Anaheim Grand Prix back in March.

It was a modest upset, as Mertine came in ranked 13th worldwide and Meinhardt was fifth. For Meinhardt, it was his eighth World Cup medal and second career silver (0-2-6).

His U.S. teammates, however, scored the win in the team event. Race Imboden, Alexander Massialas and Nick Itkin were strong in all four rounds, winning 45-28 over Denmark, 45-3 vs. Germany and then 45-42 over Russia. In the final, the trio had no trouble with Korea, winning 45-31. Summaries:

FIE World Cup/Lowe von Bonn
Bonn (GER) ~ 8-10 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Foil: 1. Julien Mertine (FRA); 2. Gerek Meinhardt (USA); 3. Andrea Cassara (ITA) and Alessio Foconi (ITA). Final: Mertine d. Meinhardt, 15-9.

Men/Team Foil: 1. United States (Race Imboden, Alexander Massialas, Nick Itkin
2. Korea; 3. Russia; 4. Italy. Third: Russia d. Italy, 45-40. Final: U.S. d. Korea, 45-31.

● SHORT TRACK ● Boutin wins two at home in Montreal World Cup

Canada’s Kim Boutin set the Short Track on fire last week with a world record of 41.936 in the 500 m at the World Cup opener, so she was the headliner at the second World Cup in Montreal (CAN).

She delivered with two wins, in the 500 m and the first of two 1,000 m races. She won the longer race decisively over Whi Min Seo (KOR), 1:30.827-1:31.268 on Saturday. On Sunday, she managed a very tight 42.568-42.659 win over the winner of one of last week’s 500 m races, Italy’s Martina Valcepina.

Koreans won three other events, with Dae Heon Hwang taking the men’s 1,000 m and Ji Won Park winning the men’s 1,500 m. Ji Yoo Kim won the women’s 1,500 m. Summaries:

ISU Short Track World Cup
Montreal (CAN) ~ 8-10 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men: 500 m: Shaolin Sandor Liu (HUN), 40.995. 1,000 m: Dae Heon Hwang (KOR), 1:26.553. 1,000 m II: Semen Elistratov (RUS), 1:29.275. 1,500 m: Ji Won Park (KOR), 2:26.025. 5,000 m Relay: Hungary (Burjan, Krueger, Liu, Liu), 6:55.968.

Women: 500 m: Kim Boutin (CAN), 42.568. 1,000 m I: Kim Boutin (CAN), 1:30.827. 1,000 m II: Yu Tong Han (CHN), 1:30.712. 1,500 m: Ji Yoo Kim (KOR), 2:36.255. 3,000 m Relay: China (Fan, Qu, Zang, Zhang), 4:09.184.

Mixed: 2,000 m Relay: China (Han, Qu, Ren, Zhang), 2:40.246.

CYCLING: U.S. star Hannah Roberts wins second World BMX Freestyle title, qualifies for 2020

Rich Perelman

November 10, 2019

tsx pix 2019-1110 roberts, hannah bmx 750 — A second world title for American teen sensation Hannah Roberts!

It’s official now. You can make American teen Hannah Roberts the favorite for the first Olympic edition of the BMX Freestyle Park event next year in Tokyo after she won at the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Chengdu (CHN).

The top two in both the men’s and women’s finals earned spots for Tokyo and Roberts – who also won in 2017 – had the top score with 89.95 in qualifying, and then again in the final. Riding last, she put up a 90.00 score to win easily.

Trailing well behind was Chile’s Macarena Perez Grasset at 86.80 and then Britain’s Charlotte Worthington (86.54). Last year’s world titlist, Perris Benegas of the U.S., struggled and finished eighth at 62.20.

In the three years of the World Urban Championships, Roberts, 18, has finished 1-3-1 and is the clear favorite for Tokyo.

The men’s situation is much cloudier, with the third new champion in three years in Australia’s Brandon Loupos. Third at the Worlds last year, he won a brilliant competition with a 93.20 score, just ahead of countryman – and 2017 World Champion – Logan Martin (92.90) and American Nick Bruce (90.40). Defending champ Justin Dowell of the U.S. was fourth at 88.20. Summaries further below.

At the second UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow (GBR), sprinters Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands and Hong Kong star Wai Sze Lee established themselves as the season leaders with their second straight wins of the year.

Lavreysen repeated his first-week victory in Minsk over fellow Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland with another 2-0 win in the men’s Sprint final. The two both ended up winners on the victorious Dutch Team Sprint squad.

France’s Benjamin Thomas was the only other two-event winner among the men, taking the Omnium and then teaming with Donavan Grondin for the victory in the Madison.

Lee, the reigning World Sprint and Keirin champ, disposed of German Emma Hinze in the final, also by 2-0, for a repeat win after Minsk. Summaries:

UCI World Urban Championshiups
Chengdu (CHN) ~ 6-10 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men

BMX Freestyle Park: 1. Brandon Loupos (AUS), 93.20; 2. Logan Martin (AUS), 92.90; 3. Nick Bruce (USA), 90.40; 4. Justin Dowell (USA), 88.20; 5. Rimu Nakamura (JPN), 87.80. Also: 6. Daniel Sandoval (USA), 87.20.

BMX Flatland: 1. Dominik Nekolny (CZE), 91.08; 2. Matthias Dondois (FRA) 90.13; 3. Moto Sasaki (JPN), 89.00; 4. Terry Adams (USA), 83.13; 5. Matthieu Bonnecuelle (FRA). 82.75.

Women

BMX Freestyle Park: 1. Hannah Roberts (USA), 90.00; 2. Macarena Perez Grasset (CHI), 86.80; 3. Charlotte Worthington (GBR), 86.54; 4. Lara Lessmann (GER), 84.10; 5. Nikita Ducarroz (SUI), 81.40. Also: 8. Perris Benegas (USA), 62.20; … 11. Chelsea Wolfe (USA), 51.40.

BMX Flatland: 1. Irina Sadovnik (AUT), 82.25; 2. Misaki Katagiri (JPN), 78.13; 3. Julia Preuss (GER), 70.75; 4. Eri Funatsu (JPN), 62.50; only finalists.

UCI Track Cycling World Cup
Glasgow (GBR) ~ 8-10 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Sprint/Final: Harrie Lavreysen (NED) d. Jeffrey Hoogland (NED), 2-0. Third: Tomohiro Fukaya (JPN) d. Mateusz Rudyk (POL), 2-0.

Team Sprint/Final: 1. Netherlands (Hoogland, Lavreysen, van Thoenderdaal), 42.163; 2. Great Britain, 43.515. Third: 3. France, 42.813; 4. Beat Cycling (NED), 43.261.

Team Pursuit/Final: 1. Denmark (Hanson, Johansen, Madsen, Pedersen), 3:49.246; 2. Italy, 3:49.920; Third: France, 3:52.143; 4. Great Britain, 3:55.450.

Keirin: 1. Sebastien Vigier (FRA); 2. Maximilian Levy (GER), +0.011; 3. Denis Dmitriev (RUS), +0.012.

Scratch Race: 1. Felix English (IRL), 16:26; 2. Sebastian Mora Vedri (ESP); 3. Maxmilian Beyer (GER).

Omnium: 1. Benjamin Thomas (FRA), 130; 2. Mark Stewart (GBR), 109; 3. Francesco Lamon (ITA), 106. Also: 15. Gavin Hoover (USA), 60.

Madison: 1. Benjamin Thomas/Donavan Grondin (FRA), 96; 2. Ethan Hayter/Oliver Wood (GBR), 86; 3. Sam Welsford/Leigh Howard (AUS), 84.

Women

Sprint/Final: Wai Sze Lee (HKG) d. Emma Hinze (GER), 2-0. Third: Olena Starikova (UKR) d. Lea Sophie Friedrich (GER), 209.

Team Sprint/Final: 1. Ekaterina Rogovaya/Daria Shmeleva (RUS), 32.789; 2. Tianshi Zhong/Wei Zhuang (CHN), 32.792. Third: 3. Lea Sophie Friedrich/Pauline Grabosch (ERD/GER), 32.953; 4. Simona Krupeckaite/Migle Marozaite (LTU), 33.399.

Team Pursuit/Final: 1. Great Britain (Evans, Archibald, Barker, Dickinson), 4:12.244; 2. Germany, 4:14.522. Third: 3. Italy, 4:19.649; 4. France, 4:19.868.

Keirin: 1. Katy Marchant (GBR); 2. Hinze (GER), +0.002; 3. Mathilde Gros (FRA), +0.111.

Scratch Race: 1. Karolina Karasiewicz (POL); 2. Anastasia Chulkova (RUS); 3. Diana Klimova (RUS).

Omnium: 1. Kirsten Wild (NED), 121; 2. Olga Zabelinskaya (UZB), 115; 3. Anette Edmondson (AUS), 111. Also: 17. Christina Birch (USA), 33.

Madison: 1. Annette Edmondson/Georgia Baker (AUS), 40; 2. Katie Archibald/Elinor Barker (GBR), 31; 3. Kirsten Wild/Amy Pieters (NED), 19.