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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The International Ice Hockey Federation announced it will submit its proposal in January to add 3×3 hockey to the 2030 Olympic Winter Games.
A detailed questionnaire will be due by 30 March and a decision will be made in the fourth quarter of 2025. If accepted, it could add as many as 240 more players to the Olympic Winter Games and potentially require another venue, a consideration for the International Olympic Committee and the French organizers.
Compared with the 30 x 60 m (98 x 197 feet) rink needed for 5×5 play, the 3×3 surface would be much smaller at 18 x 26 m (59 x 85 feet). The first IIHF 3×3 World Championships – eight teams – are expected to be held in 2026.
● International Paralympic Committee ● While Toyota has left the Olympic Movement as a TOP sponsor, declining to renew for the 2025-28 quadrennial, the company made good on its promise to support the Paralympics separately.
The International Paralympic Committee announced Friday that the Toyota Mobility Foundation has agreed to a four-year grant program that “will provide grant funding to the IPC to deliver a wide range of transformational sport development initiatives under the umbrella of Sport for Mobility.”
● Archery ● The World Archery Indoor (18 m) World Series for 2024-25 has opened with the Swiss Open in Lausanne (SUI). Italy’s 2024 European Indoor runner-up Alessandro Paoli won the men’s Recurve division, winning a closest-to-the-center shoot-out over Romain Fichet (FRA), 6-5.
The women’s Recurve title went to home favorite, 17-year-old Olivia Doigo (SUI), 6-0, over Denise Barankova (SVK).
● Athletics ● Annie Rodenfels defended her 2023 USATF 5 km national championship on Saturday in New York, winning in 15:20, ahead of Emily Venters (15:25) and Emma Grace Hurley (15:31).
Venters had the lead with less than a mile to go, but Rodenfels surged ahead and was unchallenged at the line. It’s her third career USATF national road title, after she won the national 6 km event in July.
Ahmed Muhumed was second at the 2023 5 km championship and moved up to the top of the podium, pulling away from the lead pack of 10 in the final mile-and-a-half. He won in 13:38, with Sam Prakel pulling close with a sprint in the final 400 m (13:39), and Brian Barraza third in 13:42. It was Muhumed’s second USATF title in 2024, after the win at 8 km in July.
The race marked the close of the USATF Running Circuit for 2024, with Hillary Bor winning the men’s title and Hurley took the women’s championship.
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Grand Slam Track announced the signings of distance stars Tsigie Gebreselama (ETH), the 2023 World Cross Country’s women’s runner-up, and Kenyan Agnes Ngetich, the road 5 km and 10 km world-record holder. The new project has now signed 32 of its 48 “Racers” who will compete in all four events to be held in 2025.
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The Athletics Integrity Unit announced a provisional suspension of Japan’s Koki Ikeda, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 20 km Walk, for the use of a prohibited substance or method, based on his Athlete Biological Passport.
He’s the 2024 world leader in the men’s 20 km Walk at 1:16:51, from the national championships in February. He said in a statement that he plans to appeal, and
“For reasons that I know absolutely nothing about, I may not be able to compete in my next race and I am completely bewildered.”
Japan currently has no one listed on the AIU’s comprehensive list of ineligible persons.
● Badminton ● Denmark led with two wins at the Hylo Open in Saarbrucken (GER), with Mia Blichfeldt (DEN) winning the women’s Singles over Malvika Bansod (IND), 21-10, 21-15, and in Mixed Doubles, with Jesper Toft and Amalie Magelund (DEN) defeating Alexander Dunn and Julie MacPherson (SCO), 21-19, 21-16.
In the men’s Doubles, Ben Lake and Sean Vendy (ENG) kept the Danes from a third win, taking down Ras Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard, 18-21, 21-15, 21-18.
In the men’s Singles, the French Popov brothers faced off, with Christo – the younger – beating Toma Junior Popov, 21-13, 21-10.
The women’s Doubles saw Shuo Yun Sung and Chien Hui Yu (TPE) sweep Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr (UKR), 21-16, 21-14.
● Boxing ● The first World Boxing championship event, the World U-19 Championships in Pueblo, Colorado (USA), concluded, with England taking eight titles out of the 20 available.
The English squad took home wins from John-Joe Carrigan (men’s 70 kg), Leo Atang (men’s +90 kg), Ruby White (women’s 48 kg), Alice Pumphrey (women’s 51 kg), Caitlin Wise (women’s 54 kg), Ella Lonsdale (women’s 60 kg), Tiah-Mai Ayton (women’s 57 kg), and Lilly Deacon (women’s 70 kg).
India led the overall medal table with 17 (4-8-5), followed by England (9: 8-0-1), and the U.S. (8: 3-2-3), with wins in the men’s division from Lorenzo Patricio (50 kg), Joseph Awinongya (75 kg) and Elijah Lugo (80 kg).
● Curling ● China and Canada won the World Curling Pan Continental Championships in Lacombe (CAN), with Xiaoming Xu skipping the winning men’s rink from China to a 6-4 win over Shinya Abe and Japan.
The U.S. took the men’s bronze with 2018 Olympic champion John Shuster skipping the American squad to a 10-8 over 2006 Olympic winner (and two-time defending champ in this event) Brad Gushue and Canada.
In the women’s tournament, Canada and 2024 World Champion Rachel Homan won the final by 6-5 over South Korea (Eun-ji Gim). China (Rui Wang) won the bronze, 7-3, over Japan (Miyu Ueno). The U.S., with Cory Thiesse as skip, finished fifth.
● Figure Skating ● American national champion Amber Glenn won her first career ISU Grand Prix Series gold at the Grand Prix de France in Angers (FRA), taking a big lead in the Short Program and then hanging on in the Free Skate.
Glenn won the Short Program with a lifetime best and an American Record of 78.14, sailing past the 76.43 from Gracie Gold at the 2016 World Championships. She had a huge, 78.14 to 70.90 lead over South Korea’s Chae-yeon Kim, with fellow American Sarah Everhardt in fourth (66.95).
Japan’s 2018 Worlds runner-up, Wakaba Higuchi, won the Free Skate at 139.10 with Glenn third at 132.30 – despite a fall – and Everhardt fourth (129.99), but it was enough for Glenn to win the event at 210.44 to 206.08 for Higuchi. Kim faded to fourth (199.99) and Everhardt dropped to fifth (196.94).
The men’s title went to home favorite Adam Siao Him Fa, the 2023 and 2024 European Champion, who was only eighth in the Short Program, but zoomed up by winning the Free Skate by almost 13 points! He finished with 246.58 points to 233.84 for Koshiro Shimada of Japan and Andrew Torgashev of the U.S. (233.64). It’s Torgashev’s first career Grand Prix medal.
Worlds Pairs bronze medalists Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin (GER) won the Short Program and the Free Skate on the way to a 211.69 to 203.39 win over Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (ITA). Americans Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov finished fourth, scoring 171.92.
Two-time French champions Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud won their first Grand Prix gold in the Ice Dance competition, winning the Free Dance to move up from second. They scored 195.27 to edge Italy’s two-time European Champions, Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri (189.08). Americans Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville finished third at 185.88 – moving up from fourth to silver with a second-place Free Dance – for their first career Grand Prix medals.
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“It would be foolish to end my sports career at such a young age. I will do my best to make the audience, myself, my coaches and all my fans happy.”
That’s Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who will come off of her four-year suspension for doping on 25 December 2025. Now 18, she explained to the Russian news agency TASS:
“I am gradually getting into my shape at the moment. I am certainly a bit nervous ahead of my performance. I am trying to confidently execute all elements, that I showed during the last season, which are the triple toe loop and double Axel.
“I need more self-confidence, I will try to make the content more complicated, as there are no competitions at the moment, give or take a year and a half. It means that I have to keep up with the rest of the girls.”
● Football ● Spain was looking for an unprecedented third straight win in the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in Santiago, Dominican Republic in Sunday’s final against North Korea, but was denied as penalty kicks decided the title.
There was no score at the half, when the Spanish got the opening goal in the 61st minute from forward Celia Segura, but the lead was short-lived, as midfielder Il-Chong Jon equaled in the 65th. The Spanish had 58% of possession and a 15-13 lead on shots, but the match went to penalties.
The score was 1-1 after two rounds, but a save against forward Pau Comendador turned out to be the difference. The Koreans converted their third, fourth and fifth tries and won, 4-3. It’s their first win in this tournament since 2016 and third their overall, giving them the most of any country.
The U.S. won its first medal in this tournament since 2008 with a bronze after a 3-0 shutout of England on Sunday. The Americans got an early (24th-minute) header from midfielder Kennedy Fuller and then second-half scores from midfielder Ainsley McCammon (72nd) and striker Maddie Padelski (90+2). The U.S. out-shot the English, 19-10, and Evan O’Steen got the shutout in goal.
● Short Track ● The ISU World Tour stop no. 2, once again in Montreal (CAN), was another showcase for home favorite for Canada’s William Dandjinou, the 2024 men’s World 1,000 m gold medalist.
Last week, he won the 500 m and 1,500 m races; this time he took the 1,000 m and 1,500 m. He won the 1,000 in 1:24.963 over Sung-woo Jang (KOR: 1:25.010) and took the 1,500 m with a tight finish over Latvia’s Roberts Kruzbergs, 2:17.138 to 2:17.246.
Canadian teammate Steven Dubois, the 2022 Olympic 500 m bronze medalist, was second at 500 m last week, but moved up this week to win in 41.124, just holding off a Dandjinou triple (second in 41.183)!
The three women’s events had three different winners, with two-time World 500 m champion Xandra Velzeboer (NED) taking the 500 m for the second week in a row, at 42.087, over 16-time Worlds gold medalist Min-jeong Choi (KOR: 42.406), with American Kristen Santos-Griswold fourth.
Choi won the women’s 1,000 m in 1:30.496, with Velzeboer right behind (1:30.632) and American Corrine Stoddard getting the bronze at 1:30.779. Belgian Hanne Desmet, second last week in the 1,500 m, won this time in 2:27.149, beating 2024 World Champion Gil-li Kim (KOR: 2:27.232) and Stoddard (2:27.482).
Canada swept all three relay events, winning the Mixed Team Relay, the women’s 3,000 m and men’s 4,000 m relay events.
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