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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● International Paralympic Committee ● “The 22nd IPC General Assembly will begin on Friday (26 September) and one of the main discussion points for IPC members will be around the membership status of National Paralympic Committee (NPC) Russia and NPC Belarus. Both NPCs were partially suspended at the 2023 General Assembly and on Friday, NPCs, International Federations, and International Organisations of Sport for the Disabled will decide whether to fully suspend NPC Russia and NPC Belarus, partially suspend them, or not impose any suspension at all.”
The General Assembly will be in Seoul (KOR) and on Saturday (27th), elections will be held, including for President, with Brazilian incumbent Andrew Parsons being challenged by South Korea’s Hyun-bae Dong. There are 26 candidates, including American Brad Snyder, for seven Member-at-Large roles on the IPC board.
● Athletics ● At a scientific forum on Friday in Tokyo (JPN), World Athletics Health and Science Department Director Dr. Stephane Bermon (FRA) presented research that showed 135 entries in women’s major international finals had “differences in sex development” (DSD) from 2000-23.
This count includes athletes who made multiple finals and Bermon said this indicated 50-60 individual athletes with DSD in total. World Athletics had said in cases before the Court of Arbitration for Sport that this represented 140 times more DSD representation than its incidence in the general population. At the presentation, Bermon said it that DSD representation in finals was actually 151.9x more than in the general population.
On 30 July, World Athletics introduced “once-in-a-lifetime test for the SRY gene – a reliable proxy for determining biological sex,” and all entrants in the women’s category for the just-concluded World Athletics Championships were required to take the test. Bermon explained that the data collected by the federation indicates that DSD athletes were significantly “over-represented” in top-level finals and that the new regulations were needed.
The fight over DSD and transgender athletes in the women’s category is also being looked at by the International Olympic Committee with view toward some sort of “consensus” on the “protection of the female category.”
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World Athletics reported that a total of 1,992 athletes took part from 193 different countries and the Athlete Refugee Team took part in the Tokyo Worlds, including 1,034 male and 958 female athletes.
World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe (GBR) confirmed that sex-screening tests were completed for all entrants in the women’s category.
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Kenya’s national Sports Cabinet approved the submission of a bid to host either the 2029 or 2031 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi. Other bidders are expected to include Ethiopia, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, South Korea and India.
● Basketball ● USA Basketball announced Duke women’s head coach and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Kara Lawson as its women’s head coach for the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Lawson was a U.S. assistant coach for the 2022 FIBA Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She takes charge of a program which has won 61 straight Olympic match-ups and eight straight gold medals, and the last four Women’s World Cups in a row, with a 30-game winning streak.
● Luge ● Austrian women’s star Madeleine Egle, the 2024 Worlds bronze medalist, has been suspended for 20 months by the International Testing Agency for “whereabouts” failures:
“Madeleine Egle committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period. The athlete did not challenge the ADRV and agreed with the consequences proposed by the ITA. Accordingly, the case was resolved via an acceptance of consequences.
“The athlete’s period of ineligibility is from 1 March 2025 until 31 October 2026.”
That keeps her out of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games; she had won Team Relay medals with Austria in 2018 (bronze) and 2022 (silver).
● Skiing ● The International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) took the next step in its centralized media-rights strategy, announcing that the Swiss-based sports marketing agency Infront has “exclusive distribution agreement for the international distribution of media rights to the FIS World Championships in the FIS Disciplines Alpine, Nordic, Snowboard, Freestyle & Freeski and Ski Flying for the period 2026 through to 2029.”
There are exceptions for specific rights in Switzerland and Austria (through the 2026-27 season), but otherwise combines worldwide rights for the Alpine, Nordic and Freestyle & Snowboard World Championships in 2027 and 2029.
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FIS is expected to consider whether Russian and/or Belarusian athletes can compete in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games at a FIS Council meeting on Wednesday, 24 September. It has so far not allowed their participation in FIS events, such as World Cup competitions.
● Volleyball ● The third-seeded U.S. men rallied from a first-set loss to run the table against no. 4 Slovenia at the FIVB men’s World Championship, winning their quarterfinal in Pasay (PHI) by 19-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-20. Opposite Gabriel Garcia led the U.S. with 26 total points, including 15 kills, outside hitter Ethan Champlin had 15 points (11 kills) and outside hitter Jordan Ewert added 14 (14 kills).
The U.S. will meet Pool E winner and no. 19 seed Bulgaria in the quarters, after a 25-19, 25-23, 25-13 win over Portugal.
The final round-of-16 games will be played Tuesday, with Tunisia facing the Czech Republic and Serbia playing Iran. The quarters will be on 24-25 September.
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