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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● The LA84 Foundation, the living legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, announced $1.8 million in grants to 26 organizations, serving youth in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties.
These programs are projected to reach 188,720 youth, with seven grants made to Boys and Girls Clubs for free recreation and leagues, inter-club competitions in multiple sports, coach training, and repairs of a gymnasium roof and a swimming pool. Three grants were aimed at youth access to golf and four are for new opportunities in adaptive and inclusive sports for youth with disabilities.
Founded with 40% of the surplus from the staging of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the LA84 Foundation has touched more than four million young people in Southern California over its 41 years of service.
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) told the UEFA Congress meeting in Belgrade (SRB) that the time has come to recognize the importance of the women’s Olympic football tournament – in which all top-level players can participate – and the men’s tournament, an under-23 tournament with three any-age players allowed:
“We had been asking the IOC whether we can have 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams. It seems this is not possible so our proposal would be that we should think about swapping it and having 16 women’s team and 12 men’s team to foster even more the women’s football movement.”
“I think we owe that to women’s football. It would be a strong signal but we will see where that leads us.”
The men’s tournament is degraded by FIFA to protect the value of its men’s World Cup and such measures began essentially when the World Cup started up in 1930. But with women’s football on the rise, more women’s teams is attractive to FIFA.
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Los Angeles City 15th District Council member Tim McOsker, who is insisting that San Pedro must host the sailing competitions in 2028, added another motion to his prior demands for more dispute resolution information vis-a-vis the LA28 organizing committee on Wednesday. The new motion asks for information about LA28 contracts with venue owners or operators outside of the City of Los Angeles and the “[r]esponsibility for cost overruns, capital improvements, or operational disruptions” and “[i]nsurance, indemnification, and risk mitigation provisions.”
Further, he has asked Los Angeles City staff to determine:
● “The City’s authority and options for negotiating terms to protect public funds and limit liability for venues outside of its ownership or control”
● “Recommendations to ensure consistency across all venue-related funding agreements and alignment with the City’s broader goals for equity, sustainability, and fiscal responsibility.”
Although he asked for a report back in seven days, this is only after the motion has passed the City Council; the motion was sent to the Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, slated to meet later in April.
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● Costs are a big issue with the French organizers and it appears speed skating may be headed elsewhere. Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regional president Renaud Muselier told the French newspaper Le Figaro:
“It’s too expensive, around 50 million euros. We will find a solution and [President Edgar Grospiron/FRA] will go to Holland and Italy to see how we can do it with them.”
The Dutch are the dominant nation in speed skating and will likely welcome the opportunity to put on the Games in front of a raucous home crowd. (€1 = $1.11 U.S.)
● Paralympic Games 2024: Paris ● The International Paralympic Committee posted some highlights of a study by Nielsen on television viewing of the Paris 2024 Games, with a record 349.4 million estimated audience worldwide for the opening ceremony.
The closing ceremony was estimated to be watched by 193.6 million, another record. The live worldwide audience for the entire Games was reported to grow 40% from Tokyo 2020, but no specific figure was given.
● Alpine Skiing ● A terrible tragedy for seasonal World Cup women’s champion Federica Brignone (ITA), on Thursday at the Italian national championships. Per the International Ski & Snowboard Federation:
“Federica Brignone suffered a fall during the second run of the women’s giant slalom valid for the Italian National Championships, held at Alpe Lusia (Trentino). She was taken to Santa Chiara Hospital in Trento, where a CT scan revealed a displaced, comminuted fracture of the tibial plateau and fibular head in her left leg.
“The FISI Medical Commission is closely monitoring the condition of the athlete from Valle d’Aosta and has arranged her transfer to the ‘La Madonnina’ clinic in Milan, where further radiological examinations will be conducted and the surgical plan will be defined.”
She was operated on in the evening, and also suffered a rupture of her anterior cruciate ligament.
Brignone won the seasonal titles in the women’s World Cup (her second), and in the Downhill and Giant Slalom, winning 10 races on the season. Now, her status as one of the possible heroes of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games will depend on her recovery, which is expected to take many months.
● Athletics ● Grand Slam Track published the start lists and lane assignments for its opening, three-day “Slam” in Kingston, Jamaica that begins Friday.
The meets will start at 6 p.m. Eastern on Friday (on Peacock) and Saturday (Peacock and The CW), and 3 p.m. on Sunday (Peacock and The CW). Look for results here.
● Curling ● Three-quarters of the way through the round-robin portion of the World Curling men’s World Championship in Moose Jaw (CAN), home favorite Brad Jacobs’ rink leads with an 8-1 record, with three matches remaining before the playoffs.
Canada’s Jacobs, the 2014 Olympic champion, has competition from Switzerland at 7-2 (Yannick Schwaller) and China, Sweden and Scotland, all at 6-3. The U.S., with Korey Dropkin as skip, is 4-4 and in eighth place.
The top six will advance to the playoffs beginning on Saturday (5th), with the medal matches on Sunday.
● Modern Pentathlon ● Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne President Rob Stull of the U.S. wrote about the opening World Cup of the season in Cairo (EGY) at the end of February, noting that changes will be needed to the new obstacle element:
“The athletes did well on the Obstacle course, perhaps too well – it will likely need to evolve to become more challenging. It is a step-by-step process, and I can see how senior athletes are going to eat this up as they develop their skills and fine-tune their training.
“I have been told that the difficulty will need to be increased, but only after this season. Of course, it’s something the UIPM Athletes, Coaches and Technical Committees will need to address, and everything is on the table.”
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