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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● “Right now it’s all green lights for Cortina. Looking good.”
That’s International Luge Federation (FIL) Secretary General Dwight Bell of the U.S., speaking with TSX correspondent Karen Rosen at the IOC Session in Greece, confirming confidence that the new sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo will, in fact, be the venue for bobsled, luge and skeleton for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. He added:
“We’re set to train, do our pre-homologation next week along with IBSF [International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation]. And so, right now we’re planning to be there. We’ll be there on Monday and we’re ready to go.
“They’ve been working hard and doing a great job. The quality is great. We’ve got a number of athletes and coaches and experts going there, along with IBSF, going to show up Monday and we’ll be there all week. So it looks good.”
The head of SiMiCo, the Italian government organization charged with overseeing the time-challenged construction effort, Fabio Saldini, told The Associated Press:
“The track’s structure is done. We had it in our calendars to finish by March 16 and that’s when it was finished.
“As of today, 50% of the ice is ready. We had some trouble last week due to high temperatures, rain and snow. But then we covered the track with nets and yesterday we actually put down too much ice.”
Some 20 construction staff are engaged in finishing the preparations, aiming to finish on Sunday. The Monday homologation trials will be carefully monitored by the FIL, IBSF and International Olympic Committee officials. An IBSF World Cup is already scheduled for November as the first major competition on the new track.
If for some reason, the track cannot be used for the Winter Games, the Milan Cortina organizers have arranged a back-up plan, using the famed Mt. Van Hoevenberg track in Lake Placid, New York.
● World Anti-Doping Agency ● The WADA Annual Symposium opened in Lausanne, with the furor over the Chinese swimming incident in January 2021 continuing to reverberate.
WADA President Witold Banka (POL) spoke to the concerns about contamination claims, which were incidentally the excuse used by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency to exonerate 21 swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine in 2021. Banka explained in his address:
“[O]f course, 2024 wasn’t just about celebration. It was also a year of challenges faced, in particular due to the serious matter of contamination. As has been the case over WADA’s history, we saw this as an opportunity to further strengthen the global anti-doping system — this time as part of the World Anti-Doping Code update process that is currently underway and will culminate in December at the sixth World Conference on Doping in Sport in Busan, Republic of Korea.
“The cases sparked an essential discussion about how we can better manage contamination. Nowadays, laboratories can detect smaller and smaller quantities of substances, which means that, more and more, we are seeing those who test positive putting forward contamination defenses.
“The challenge for WADA, other Anti-Doping Organizations and, ultimately, for tribunals adjudicating these cases is to distinguish between cases of genuine contamination, and cases of well-resourced cheats who fabricate a contamination defense. If the system is too rigid, innocent athletes will suffer injustice. If the system is too lenient, cheats will prosper.
“Accordingly, WADA is asking its Code Revision Team to reflect on this and consider the need for regulatory improvements – always with the goal of ensuring harmonization for athletes and Anti-Doping Organizations, which is at the core of WADA’s global collaborative movement for doping-free sport.”
Observed: Perhaps, this is progress for WADA, given the continuing fury over the Chinese swimming incident? Could be.
● Transgender ● The Trump Administration has frozen $175 million in Federal funding from the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services, for continuing to allow transgender women to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics.
A senior White House official confirmed to the New York Post, “UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room,” referring to 2022 NCAA women’s 500-yard Freestyle champ Lia Thomas.
Added the White House official, “This is immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to those universities.”
● Cross Country Skiing ● Another FIS World Cup, another win for Norwegian superstar Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo.
In Tallinn (EST), Klaebo won his 11th race of the season and has clinched the seasonal overall title, his fifth. He took the Freestyle Sprint in 2:22.92, ahead of teammate Harald Amundsen and Jules Chappaz (FRA), who tied for second at 2:23.10.
The women’s Sprint went to Swiss Nadine Faehndrich, the 2025 Worlds Sprint bronze medalist, who got her first World Cup of the season in 2:42.37, almost a second ahead of Maja Dahlqvist (SWE: 2:43.35) and then American Julia Kern (2:43.67), who won her first World Cup medal of the season.
The World Cup season wraps up in Lahti (FIN) this weekend.
● Figure Skating ● The International Skating Union announced the finalists in its awards categories for 2025, for Best Costume, Best Newcomer, Most Entertaining Program, Best Choreographer and Best Coach.
U.S. finalists include Ilia Malinin (costume), Sarah Everhardt (newcomer), and Malinin again for Most Entertaining Program. A panel of six former World Champions will make the final selections, with the winners to be announced on 30 March during the ISU Worlds in Boston.
● Football ● U.S. men’s National Team coach Mauricio Ponchettino (ARG) told reporters that the U.S. can be a power in men’s football too:
“I think we can dominate soccer, football, maybe in 10 or 15 years’ time, or maybe less: five, six, seven years. The potential is massive. In five or 10 years, for sure we can be no. 1 in the world.
“For us, the pressure is going to be there because we are a host. In sport, in everything that Americans are involved in, they want to win. The players know it’s going to be massive pressure and now our President [Donald Trump] likes to put pressure on, but it’s welcome. That means we are going to feel the adrenaline we need to feel. We are ready to deliver.”
● Freestyle Skiing & Snowboard ● The Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships are on, in Engadin (SUI), with the Freestyle Moguls first up, and familiar faces on the podium.
Japan’s Ikuma Horishima, the men’s World Champion way back in 2017, won his second Worlds gold over Canadian star Mikael Kingsbury by 89.03 to 82.68, denying Kingsbury a ninth Worlds gold. Korea’s Dae-yoon Jung was a surprise third at 81.76, ahead of American Nick Page (80.77).
France’s Perrine Laffont won the 2018 Olympic Moguls and won her sixth Worlds gold in the women’s competition, scoring 77.92 to 75.15 for Japan’s Hinako Tomitaka, who her first Worlds medal. Canada’s Maia Schwinghammer got the bronze at 74.92; American Jaelin Kauf, the Beijing Olympic runner-up in 2022, finished eighth.
● Gymnastics ● USA Gymnastics announced six new members of its Hall of Fame, to be inducted in August in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the U.S. nationals. Three were athletes:
● Morgan Hurd, the 2017 World All-Around champ and 2018 Worlds Team gold medalist;
● Missy Marlowe , a five-time NCAA champion for Utah and a 1988 U.S. Olympian;
● Rebecca Sereda, a Rhythmic star who was the 2014 Pan American Championships silver medalist and Team gold medalist.
Three coaches are to be honored: Gary Anderson, Barry Weiner and Marc Yancey.
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