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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● The LA28 organizers kicked off their community volunteer effort on International Volunteer Day on Friday with a clean-up of the Venice Beach area that will be the start for the 2028 marathons and triathlon.
The effort was coordinated with Heal The Bay, a long-time advocate for beach health and water safety. Said LA28 chief executive Reynold Hoover:
“Today’s beach cleanup is the beginning of a multi-year volunteer initiative in honor of the 2028 Games that will uplift Los Angeles and engage people across our region in meaningful, service-driven moments.”
● Olympic Games: Television ● Friday’s announcement of the purchase of Warner Bros.-Discovery by Netflix for $72.0 billion in equity and an “enterprise value” of $82.7 billion means that the streaming service will also acquire Olympic television rights.
Warner Bros.-Discovery’s Sports Europe unit holds the streaming rights for the 2026-32 Olympic and Olympic Winter Games, with the European Broadcasting Union holding the over-the-air and cable rights.
● World Anti-Doping Agency ● Three days after International Olympic Committee chief Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) asked for unity in the anti-doping community, The Associated Press reported on a letter sent by four members of the U.S. Congress asking about the agency’s efforts to find whistleblowers concerning the mass-positives incident of Chinese swimmers in January 2021, that surfaced in news reports in 2024.
“While WADA claims that their motivations are innocent, it appears this investigation’s intent is to intimidate and suppress whistleblowers. If these allegations are accurate, WADA is not defending clean sport but is continuing to defend a cover-up.”
The letter was send by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Chris van Hollen (D-Maryland) and Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Michigan) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) in a bi-partisan moment. Blackburn’s Senate Sub-Committee on Consumer Protection, Technology and Data Privacy held a hearing on 17 June 2025 titled “WADA Shame: Swimming in Denial over Chinese Doping.”
WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald (IRL) told the AP:
“I can state that WADA I&I is not chasing whistleblowers but rather it is seeking to find out how the leak happened and what was the real motivation behind it. … Politically motivated allegations of a cover-up were made without evidence and have ultimately been proven to be entirely false.”
● Athletics ● USA Track & Field revealed its annual award winners for 2025, with triple World Champion sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden honored with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award for best female athlete and Rai Benjamin receiving the Jesse Owens Award for the top male.
Jefferson-Wooden dominated the sprints, winning the Worlds gold in the 100 m, 200 m and as a member of the American 4×100 m relay. Benjamin, the Paris Olympic gold medalist in the 400 m hurdles, won the Worlds gold in Tokyo and earned a silver on the anchor of the men’s 4×400 m relay.
Dennis Mitchell, the 1992 Barcelona Olympic men’s 100 m bronze winner, was selected as Coach of the Year. He was not only Jefferson-Wooden’s coach, but he was also the coach of all four of the U.S. women’s 4×100 relay gold medalists: Jefferson-Wooden, TeeTee Terry, Kayla White and Sha’Carri Richardson. He also coached 200 m medalist Kenny Bednarek and 4×100 m relay winners Christian Coleman and Courtney Lindsey.
Prep 800 m sensation Cooper Lutkenhaus was named the Youth Athlete of the Year for his amazing 1:42.27 under-18 world record in his second-place finish at the USATF Nationals.
The Para Athletes of the Year were Jadyn Blackwell (T38 100 and 400 m World Champion) and Annie Carey, the T44 women’s long jump world-record setter and gold medalist in the women’s T44 200 m.
● Shooting ● U.S. Skeet stars Vincent Hancock and Sam Simonton were selected as the ISSF Athletes of the Year in Shotgun at the year-end awards presented on Friday in Qatar ahead of the ISSF World Cup Final.
The Norwegian pair of Jon-Hermann Hegg and Jeanette Hegg Duestad won for the men’s and women’s Rifle athletes of the year and China’s Kai Hu and Yujie Sun won the Pistol athletes of the year awards.
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