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≡ SPOTLIGHT ≡
● Table Tennis ● The International Table Tennis Federation published its 2025 financial statements, showing $71.08 million U.S. in revenue, but $85.47 million in expenses, notably due to new tournaments, with spending up by $21.363 million (43%) for the year!
This was noted during the ITTF Summit in London (GBR) as “reflecting investment in event delivery, record prize money exceeding US$11 million, enhanced broadcast production, and the build-out of operational capabilities to support an expanded global footprint.”
This meant a sizable loss of $14.39 million for 2025, vs. a surplus of $1.51 million for 2024. Worse, the federation’s balance sheet now shows a swing to negative equity of $8.0 million: $51.06 million in assets and $59.06 million in liabilities (absorbing some restricted funds). The ITTF had $6.801 million in reserves at the end of 2025.
Even with the IOC’s payment of $18.11 million as a share of the Paris 2024 television rights to the federation (to be spent over four years), the statement auditors noted:
“[T]he Executive Board has established a plan to execute specific measures to achieve a return to profitability, including – among others – a significant reduction in overhead and structure costs starting from the second half of 2026, along with a focus on more profitable events.
“Should the Group be unable to achieve profitable results in the foreseeable period, such condition would indicate that a material uncertainty exists, that may cast a significant doubt on the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Yikes!
≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● There is a lot of negativity right now around Los Angeles and the LA28 organizing committee, but it’s just not about the Olympics or Paralympics. Angelenos aren’t too happy with being in Los Angeles.
The 11th annual survey of Los Angeles resident attitudes about L.A. County by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs shows the lowest satisfaction index in the history of the poll:
“Los Angeles County residents are less satisfied with their quality of life than at any time in more than a decade. Those were the findings of the 11th annual UCLA Los Angeles County Quality of Life Index, a project of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. The overall Index dropped to the lowest point in its history – 52 — while six of the nine categories which make up the Index also declined to their lowest point.
“Cost of Living concerns continue to drive the Index rating more than any other category, but it has been supplemented by declining scores for Education and Transportation/Traffic.
“The survey also quantified the experiences and opinions of County residents on a number of different timely issues including impacts of this past year’s ICE sweeps and other immigration actions; lasting impacts from last year’s wildfires; optimism and concerns related to housing and other affordability issues.”
The midway mark of the index is 55 and the satisfaction score was 59 in 2016 and 2017, but dipped below halfway in 2022 (53), rebounded slightly in 2023 (55) and down to 53 in 2024 and 2025 and now 52 in 2026. Eight of the nine categories of measurement showed a decline, and “Cost of Living” was by far the most important element to respondents – 68% – 10 points ahead of “Public Safety.”
The Games was not mentioned in the research summary at all. But it’s impacted by the pressures of everyday living in Los Angeles and will be right through the closing.
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The 2030 Winter Games organizing committee confirmed Tuesday it is looking for an alternative to the Allianz Arena in Nice for ice hockey.
Mayor Eric Ciotti has objected to using the venue, which would eliminate home matches for the Nice club football team. So, a Tuesday statement from the organizers noted:
“With a focus on efficiency and budget optimization, the [organizing committee] has decided to broaden its investigations by examining the use of existing facilities in other major metropolitan areas such as Lyon or Paris, particularly those offering a minimum seating capacity of 10,000.”
A report will be made on 11 May and a decision is expected as soon as June. Facilities in Lyon and Paris have signaled interest for the 2030 Winter Games hockey matches.
● NCAA ● On Monday, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors advanced an initiative which:
“if adopted in its current form, would permit student-athletes up to five years of eligibility beginning the regular academic year after they turn 19 or graduate from high school, whichever happens earlier. Under that model, Division I student-athletes would no longer be limited to only four seasons of competition within their five-year eligibility window.”
This would have a significant impact on the current chaos of the transfer portal in that “redshirt” years would be eliminated and everyone has the same timeframe to complete eligibility. If enacted, the “new rules are not expected to retroactively apply to student-athletes whose eligibility is or will be completed by the spring of 2026.”
The NCAA Division I Cabinet will meet in May for possible further action.
● Athletics ● The London Marathon did more than see the first in-competition sub-2:00 marathon:
“Guinness World Records has announced that the 2026 TCS London Marathon has broken the record title for the Largest number of finishers in a marathon, with a total of 59,830 beating 59,226 set by the TCS New York City Marathon in November 2025.”
That’s a lot of finishers and applications have opened for 2027. There has been talk of holding marathons on two consecutive days to allow more than 100,000 to run, but no agreement as yet.
● Badminton ● A major scoring change was approved at the Annual General Meeting of the Badminton World Federation, with matches to be played – beginning in 2027 – in the best two-of-three sets with scores to 15 points instead of 21, known as “3×15.”
Rally scoring is maintained and a match must be won by two points up to 20-20. After that, the next point wins. The measure passed by the required two-thirds majority of votes cast and will result in shorter matches in a more dependable timeframe, designed to maintain more fan interest.
● Boxing ● World Boxing announced its process for allowing Russian and Belarusian “neutrals” to compete:
“It means that delegations from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to participate with national flags, uniforms or anthems and will have to pass a detailed vetting process to be able to take part in World Boxing events.”
In terms of checks, the statement noted:
“World Boxing will work with an expert, independent third party to conduct a series of checks on all athletes from Russia and Belarus that are entered into its competitions to ensure they do not have a history of supporting the war in Ukraine, are not paid by the military or security forces, are not members of clubs linked to the army or police force and have not participated in any events organised by The International Military Sports Council (CISM) since the start of the war in Ukraine.”
The athlete review will not be used for Russian or Belarusian athletes ages 18 and younger.
¶
The World Boxing Executive Board endorsed seven new member federations in Antigua and Barbuda, Cameroon, Curaçao, Gabon, Grenada, South Africa and Vanuatu, bringing the federation total to 175. They will need to be confirmed at the federation’s Congress in November to become actual members.
● Fencing ● The International Fencing Federation (FIE) and USA Fencing signed a Memorandum of Understanding to “establish a comprehensive cooperative framework on the road to the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.”
Cooperation between IFs and their member national federations is simply assumed prior to major events, but given that the (recused) FIE President is Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who has been fighting sanctions since 2022, the MoU formalizes the relationship and “creates a joint ‘Fencing Road to LA28 Working Group’.” The two federations “will coordinate on major marketing and communications initiatives, athlete promotion and ambassador work. The two organisations will collaborate on content, events and activations as excitement builds towards LA28.”
● Football ● The FIFA Council, meeting in Vancouver (CAN), agreed to increase payments to the 48 participating teams at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, by 15% overall to a total of $871 million:
● “Preparation money: increase from USD 1.5 million to USD 2.5 million;
● “Qualification money: increase from USD 9 million to USD 10 million;
● “Additional team contributions: subsidies for team delegation costs and increased team ticketing allocations totalling over USD 16 million.”
Rule changes for the World Cup included a change in yellow-card accumulation, with “single yellow cards … cancelled after the group stage and then again after the quarter-finals.” Also, a change already proposed was agreed, approving red cards for players “covering their mouth in a confrontational situation with an opponent” and “any player who leaves the field of play in protest at a referee’s decision.”
¶
A FIFA request for a police-escorted motorcade in Vancouver (CAN) for President Gianni Infantino (SUI) for the FIFA Congress was denied by the Vancouver Police Department. Deputy Chief Don Chapman said in a statement:
“Formal motorcades where traffic is stopped are reserved for heads of state.
“As the FIFA executive do not meet Internationally Protected Person (IPP) standards that would warrant such an escort (closing roads, intersections, not adhering to traffic devices, etc.), the request was declined.”
● Gymnastics ● USA Gymnastics announced its class of 2026 for the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame, including seven-time U.S. trampoline champion Logan Dooley; two-time World Artistic Championships team gold medalist Kara Eaker, 2019 Pan American Games Rhythmic Clubs gold medalist Camilla Feeley, Athens 2004 Olympic Team silver winner Courtney McCool Griffeth and three-time U.S. Acrobatic women’s Pairs champions, Maren Merwarth and Jessica Renteria.
Tim Klempnauer was honored for lifetime achievement, as an athlete, coach and former member of the USA Gymnastics Board.
The induction ceremony will be in August during the U.S. nationals in Phoenix, Arizona.
● Sport Climbing ● A new men’s Speed world record of 4.58 for Chinese teen Yicheng Zhao (16) at the Asian Breach Games in Sanya (CHN), shaving 0.06 off of American Sam Watson’s 4.64 in 2025.
Zhao set the mark in the Speed preliminaries on Tuesday; he won the event in a walkover as Antasyafi Al Hilmi (INA) false-started in the final.
● Swimming ● U.S. distance superstar Katie Ledecky was on fire at Wednesday’s opening night of the Ft. Lauderdale Open in Florida, storming to the no. 5 performance in history in the women’s 1,500 m Freestyle, winning in 15:25.62. She was more than a minute ahead of second-place, 15-year-old Sydney Hardy (16:42.76).
Ledecky surprised with an 800 m Freestyle world record at this meet last year, and now has the top 13 times in history in the 1,500 m Free.
¶
It was reported that Konstantin Grigorishin, 60, the Ukrainian founder and funder of the International Swimming League, has been accused by the Ukrainian government of “Especially Large-Scale Misappropriation of Another’s Property,” which could result in imprisonment from 7-12 years.
About $1.54 million U.S. was said to have been embezzled from an energy distribution company in northern Ukraine between 2020-24.
He is considered to be, as of 25 February 2026, a “Person hiding from pre-trial investigation bodies.” The last ISL season was in 2021.
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