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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) was interviewed by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Friday, and expressed her continuing confidence in the upcoming Games:
“Remember the incredible atmosphere of Paris 2024? Well, in Italy, in a month’s time, I expect something similar. You Italians bring a unique passion to sport, and your mountains will be a beautiful backdrop. Winter sports were born on Europe’s peaks. It will be an Olympic edition from which we can learn a lot.”
She also confirmed that regardless of what might happen with negotiations between Russian and Ukraine, “At this point, nothing would change the decision already made: neutral athletes on an individual basis.”
Coventry noted the unique aspect of the Milan Cortina Games with venues spread so widely, explaining, “We’re entering a different phase: the new normal is that of Games spread across the country. The data we collect in Italy, by consulting with stakeholders, will guide us for the future. If adjustments need to be made, of course, we will.”
Asked how future bidding will be handled, she explained:
“The IOC commissions are working on it. We’d like to overhaul the Games’ bid process: it must become even more inclusive and transparent. We’re talking about 2036 and beyond: the Games are already assigned until Brisbane 2032 (summer) and Salt Lake City 2034 (winter). We’re receiving interest from many different regions of the world, who would like to harness the power of sport to change things.”
● Mediterranean Games ● The International Committee for the Mediterranean Games announced the death of its President, Italian Davide Tizzano, on 29 December at age 57, in Naples after a long illness.
He was a two-sport athlete, winning Olympic golds in rowing in the men’s Quadruple Sculls in 1988 and in the Double Sculls in 1996. He also competed in sailing, and was part of America’s Cup crews in 1992 and 2007.
He was elected as the President of the Italian Rowing Federation in 2004 and served until his death; he was a member of the ICMG Executive Committee from 2013 until he was elected as President in 2021.
● Germany ● A new German law allows athlete bonuses for medal performances at the Olympic Games to be tax-free.
The final passage came on 19 December, and in effect for the Milan Cortina Winter Games in February. The amounts of the bonuses were also raised, to €30,000 for gold, €20,000 for silver and €10,000 for bronze. (€1 = $1.17 U.S.)
Olympic medal bonuses are paid by the Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe (German Sports Aid Foundation), which receives government support as well as private funding.
● Russia ● The Russian Sports Minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, who is also the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, wrote on his Telegram page about expectations for 2026:
“Our main goal for the coming year is to restore the full status of the Russian Olympic Committee, to participate as a unified Russian national team in the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, and to reach the finish line for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“Dialogue with the IOC and international federations is yielding results: eligibility for Russian athletes is being expanded, our anthem is being played at many competitions, and the Russian national flag is being raised. This year, we have significantly increased the participation of our athletes in World and European Championships, and the number of medals won in Olympic sports has increased by 50 percent.”
● Athletics ● Per industry news site Road Race Management:
“USATF has received multiple bids to host the 2028 Olympic Marathon Trials. Identities of the bidding cities have not been publicly announced at this time. The bids are currently undergoing legal review to ensure they are eligible for selection as is the case with all USATF National Championships. An announcement is anticipated by late spring of 2026.”
Bids from cities were due in back on 1 September, but the federation has been completely silent on any details of bids received so far.
● Gymnastics ● The Associated Press reported on the slow response and incomplete handling of the cases against former gymnastics coach Sean Gardner by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, noting complaints against him in 2017 and 2018, but no action by the Center until 2022. Further:
“[A] new AP investigation has found that months before Gardner’s [August 2025] arrest on allegations of installing cameras in a girls’ gym bathroom in Purvis, Mississippi, he was willing to accept a lifetime ban from coaching gymnastics as part of a deal where he would admit to the abuse, according to three people involved with SafeSport and its handling of the case.”
He is facing Federal charges of child pornography with trial set for 2 March 2026.
Gardner was temporarily suspended in July 2022, but has never been permanently banned. He is shown as “ineligible” as of 12 September 2025 due to a “Criminal Disposition – involving a minor; Criminal Disposition – Sexual Misconduct.” Others in the database are shown with “Permanent Ineligibility.”
● Swimming ● World Aquatics named repeat winners of their swimming Athlete of the Year awards: French men’s star Leon Marchand and Canadian women’s world-record setter Summer McIntosh.
McIntosh collected four golds at the World Aquatics Championships, while Marchand won three.
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In an interview with SwimSwam.com, McIntosh, still just 19, said she is looking for more world-record time in the future. She is already the world-record holder in the 400 m Free and 200 m and 400 m Medleys, and has eyes on going “8:04 or faster” in the 800 m Free, with the current world record belonging to American Katie Ledecky at 8:04.12.
McIntosh also said she wants the world record in the 200 m Butterfly, currently 2:01.81 by Zige Liu (CHN) from 2009 and is aiming to swim in the 1:52s for the 200 m Free, with three swimmers having been that fast, with Ariarne Titmus (AUS) holding the world record at 1:52.23.
Wow.
≡ RESULTS ≡
● Alpine Skiing ● Swiss Camille Rast, the 2025 World Champion in the Slalom, won her third straight medal in a FIS women’s World Cup race and got her first win of the season in Kranjska Gora (SLO) in Saturday’s Giant Slalom.
She led after the first run and was third in the second for a total of 2:00.09, to best three-time Giant Slalom winner this season Julia Scheib (AUT: 2:00.29) and American Paula Moltzan (2:00.56), who was second after the first run and got her first World Cup medal of the season.
Fellow Americans Mikaela Shiffrin (2:01.14) and Nina O’Brien (2:01.94) finished fifth and eighth.
Sunday’s Slalom was an all-out battle between Rast and Shiffrin, who had won all five Slaloms on the World Cup circuit this season. Rast led after the first run by 50.24 to 50.34 and after Shiffrin had the lead with a 50.00 second run, Rast responded with a brilliant 49.96 to get the victory, 1:40.20 to 1:40.34. Swiss star Wendy Holdener was third (1:42.03) and Moltzan completed a brilliant weekend with a 1:42.17 fourth-place finish. Fellow American A.J. Hurt was 13th (1:43.80).
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Tragedy for 2022 Olympic women’s Slalom silver winner Katharina Liensberger (AUT), who suffered a right knee fracture and meniscus and medial collateral ligament damage in a training crash on Friday in St. Michael (AUT). The 2021 World Champion in the Slalom, she will require surgery and will miss the rest of the season.
● Bobsled & Skeleton ● The IBSF World Cup in Winterberg (GER) had weather trouble that cancelled the men’s Skeleton racing, but the women’s got in, with 2016 Worlds runner-up Janine Flock (AUT: 2:00.22) getting her second win of the season, ahead of American Worlds runner-up Mystique Ro (2:00.60) and Anna Fernstaedt (CZE: 2:00.83).
Kendall Wesenberg and Kelly Curtis of the U.S. finished 10-11.
Two-time World Champion Laura Nolte (GER: 1:59.37) won the women’s Monobob over Cynthia Appiah (CAN: 1:58.53) and Germany’s two-time Worlds medalist Lisa Buckwitz (1:58.57). American stars Kaillie Armbruster Humphries (1:58.70), Elana Meyers Taylor (1:58.73) and Kaysha Love (1:58.78) finished 5-6-8.
The Two-Woman race on Sunday belonged to Nolte as well, with Deborah Levi, winning in 1:53.63, leading a German sweep ahead of Buckwitz and Kira Lipperheide (1:53.79) and Kim Kalicki (1:54.29) with two push athletes. Armbruster Humphries and Sylvia Hoffman were fourth at 1:54.58. Meyers Taylor and Jasmine Jones were eighth (1:54.87).
The Two-Man race was the fourth win in five World Cup races this season for 2023 World Champion Johannes Lochner (with Georg Fleischauer) in 1:49.81, ahead of Adam Ammour (GER: with Alexander Schaller: 1:50.11) and double Olympic champ Francesco Friedrich (GER; with Alexander Schueller: 1:50.32).
Sunday’s Four-Man was another German sweep, but with Friedrich winning in 1:49.07, ahead of Lochner (1:49.09) and Ammour (1:49.13). Kris Horn had the fastest American sled in eighth (1:49.61); Lochner celebrated his 100th career World Cup medal with his runner-up finish.
How competitive was this race? Consider this: the top 16 sleds – 16! – finished with one second of Friedrich’s 1:49.07 winning time.
● Cross Country Skiing ● American star Jessie Diggins, the three-time World Cup seasonal champion, has been tearing up the 20th Tour de Ski women’s racing, taking third in last week’s 10 km Classical race in Tolbach (ITA), then winning the 5 km Freestyle Interval Mass Start race on 31 December in 10:51.2 from Swedes Emma Ribom (10:56.7) and Moa Ilar (10:58.1), with U.S. teammate Julia Kern 10th (11:01.9).
Diggins then took the New Year’s Day 20 km Classical Pursuit in 52:14.8, way ahead of Ilar (52:50.0) and Teresa Stadlober (AUT: 52:36.3).
The skiing moved to Val di Fiemme (ITA) and a Classical Sprint, won by Finn Jasmi Joensuu in 3:45.75, beating Swiss Nadine Faehndrich (+0.44), with Diggins seventh overall and leading by 1:19 into Sunday’s 10 km Freestyle Mass Start finale.
Norway’s Karoline Simpson-Larsen won in 37:05.3, but Diggins was second in 37:14.1 to wrap up the Tour de Ski title over Stradlober, 2:11:26.1 to 2:13:43.8. It’s her third career Tour de Ski title and she is the only American ever to win it.
In the men’s Tour de Ski racing, American Gus Schumacher stunned the field with a win in the 5 km Freestyle Mass Start in 9:36.4, beating Benjamin Moser (AUT: 9:35.6) and Lars Heggen (NOR: 9:36.0). It’s Schumacher’s second career World Cup gold. Norway went 1-2 in the 20 km Classical Pursuit with Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo winning his fifth World Cup race of the season in 46:01.7, trailed by teammate Mattis Stenshagen (46:52.8), with Schumacher sixth in 47:01.9.
In Val di Fiemme, Klaebo won the Classical Sprint in 3:21.28, ahead of Jules Chappez (FRA) and Anton Grahn (SWE), and started Sunday with an 83-second lead on Heggen for the Tour de Ski title.
In the 10 km Freestyle Mass Start, Stenshagen got the win in 33:25.5 over Jules Lapierre (FRA: 33:32.1) and Iversen (33:45.9), with Schumacher in 16th. Klaebo won the Tour de Ski title – his fifth – in 1:56:12.4, with Stenshagen second at 1:56:42.5. Schumacher finished a very creditable seventh, 2:17.0 behind Klaebo.
● Freestyle Skiing ● Three-time Olympic medalist Nick Goepper of the U.S. – now 31 – popped up at the FIS Halfpipe World Cup on Saturday in Calgary (CAN), winning at 94.80 to edge New Zealand’s 2025 World Champion Finley Melville Ives (92.20) and American 2021 Worlds bronzer Birk Irving (89.80).
New Zealand’s 15-year-old Indra Brown won her first World Cup gold in the women’s final, scoring 85.20 ahead of Kexin Zhang (CHN: 84.20) and American Svea Irving (83.20).
● Ice Hockey ● /Updated/The annual IIHF men’s World Junior Championship continues in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, with Sweden winning Group A at 4-0 ahead of the U.S. (3-1). Canada won group B at 4-0, with the Czech Republic second (3-1) and Finland third (2-2).
In the playoff quarterfinals, Sweden and Canada advanced easily, with the U.S. eliminated by Finland, 4-3, in overtime. In Sunday’s first semifinal, Sweden advanced with a 4-3 win over arch-rival Finland in an eight-round shoot-off (2-1) after a 3-3 tie in regulation and overtime. The second semi was a wild match with the Czech Republic scoring with 1:14 to play to take a 5-4 lead on Canada and adding an empty-netter for a 6-4 win.
The final will be on Monday.
● Luge ● The fourth FIL World Cup of the season was in Sigulda (LAT), and American Summer Britcher showed her Lake Placid women’s Singles win was no fluke, coming from third after the first run to win the second and take the combined race in 1:23.840, just ahead of Lisa Schulte (AUT: 1:23.877) and two-time World Champion Julia Taubitz (GER: 1:23.91). American teammate Ashley Farquharson was fifth in 1:24.131.
In the women’s Doubles, two-time World Champions Selina Egle and Lara Kipp won for the second straight World Cup in 1:24.814, with 2025 Worlds bronzer Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina second (1:24.845). The U.S. went 4-5 with Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby (1:25.640) and Maya Chan and Sophia Gordon (1:25.672).
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Felix Loch got his third men’s Singles win of the season in 1:35.409, winning both runs to edge 2023 World Champion Jonas Mueller (AUT: 1:35.490) and reigning World Champion Max Langenhan (GER: 1:35.508)
The men’s Doubles was an upset, first-time win for home favorites Eduards Sevics-Mikelsevics and Lukass Krasts in 1:23.508, ahead of three-time Olympic champs Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt. Latvia also got the bronze with veterans Martins Bots and Roberts Plume (1:23.593). The U.S. was 9-10 with Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa (1:24.316) and Zach DiGregorio and Sean Hollander (1:24.218).
Austria won the team relay in 3:01.215, with the U.S. squad of Britcher, DiGregorio and Hollander in men’s doubles, Jonny Gustafson, and Forgan and Kirkby third in 3:01.643.
● Ski Jumping ● The 74th Four Hills Tournament continued on the 142 m hill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) with the second leg and another win for 2025 World Champion Domen Prevc (SLO), scoring 303.1 and winning both jumps. Austria’s Jan Hoerl was a distant second at 287.7.
On to the third leg in Innsbruck (AUT) on Sunday on the 128 m hill, and Prevc almost pulled off a third straight win, but Ren Nikaido (JPN) led after the first jump, with Prevc third. The Slovenian star won the second jump, but fell short, 276.5 to 276.0, and had to settle for second.
American Jason Colby was ninth (250.9). Going into the final leg in Bischofshofen (AUT), Prevc has a huge 895.8 to 854.4 lead on Hoerl.
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The women’s Two Nights Tournament started in Garmisch-Partenkirchen off the 142 m hill with double World Champion Nika Prevc (SLO) taking her fifth win of the season at 271.1, well ahead of Selina Freitag (GER: 248.0) and star newcomer Nozomi Maruyama (JPN: 244.1).
On New Year’s, Canada’s Abigail Strate took the win at 268.2 in Obertsdorf (GER) on the 137 m hill, getting her first World Cup victory, ahead of Ping Zeng (CHN: 257.7) and Freitag (257.3). Prevc was fourth but took her third Two Nights title at 527.7, ahead of Freitag (505.3).
● Snowboard ● The third stage of the FIS World Cup Halfpipe season was in Calgary (CAN) on Saturday, with Australia’s Valentino Guseli – the 2023 Worlds runner-up – winning his third career World Cup gold at 87.75, ahead of Swiss David Habluetzel (80.00).
Canada’s Elizabeth Hosking won her first-ever World Cup title in front of home fans, scoring 82.50 to 77.50 for Shaotong Wu (CHN).
● Speed Skating ● /Updated/The U.S. Olympic Trials were on in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and continuing into Monday (5th). The American superstar, Jordan Stolz, was already qualified for his main events in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 m based on prior performance, so while he was required to start each race, his status was already set for those events.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t the center of attention, and in Saturday’s 1,000 m, he tripped in the first five strides, got up and then raced to the third-fastest time of the day (1:07.968)! But it also allowed for Conor McDermott-Mostowy (1:07.606) and Cooper Mcleod (1:07.845) to finish 1-2 and in line to make the squad as the U.S. has three entries.
Sunday had the first 500 m and the 1,500 m, and Stolz was in winning form, taking the 500 m in 34.761, ahead of Mcleod (34.820) and Zach Stoppelmoor (34.940). Preferring to rest, Stolz started the 1,500 m, but quickly stopped the skated off the track. Emery Lehman (1:44.202) and Casey Dawson (1:45.601) went 1-2, with McDermott-Mostowy third (1:45.897).
On Saturday, the women’s 1,000 m went to Olympic 500 m champ Erin Jackson, skating in the final (11th) pair and winning in 1:14.625. She was a decisive winner ahead of three-time World Champion Brittany Bowe (1:15.016), who will be on her fourth Olympic team. Mia Manganello (1:16.559) was third.
Jackson was in strong form for the first women’s 500 m on Sunday, winning in 38.158 over Sarah Warren (38.863). Bowe was a big winner in the 1,500 m in 1:55.030, with Giorgia Birkeland a distant second in 1:59.451.
In the distance races, Dawson won the men’s 5,000 m in 6:12.857 and was named to the U.S. team for both the 5,000 and 10,000 m races. Dawson was a clear winner over Ethan Cepuran (6:19.335) and Kelin Dunfee (6:31.960).
Greta Myers won the women’s 3,000 m in 4:06.799, edging Birkeland (4:08.652), and is currently an Olympic alternate.
The meet continues on Monday with two Mass Start races and the second 500 m for men and women.
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