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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The continuing drama over the founding of the organizing committee and who will lead it continues in France, with Edgar Grospiron, 55, the Albertville 1992 Freestyle Moguls gold medalist, now confirmed as a candidate. He was deeply involved in the ultimately unsuccessful bid for the 2018 Winter Games for Annecy, which eventually was awarded to PyeongChang (KOR).
Also declaring interest is the long-time, well-known French sports reporter Gerard Holtz, who has the idea to work in concert former figure skater Nathalie Pechalat, the two-time World Ice Dance bronze medalist, who retired in 2014.
● Olympic Winter Games 2034: Salt Lake City ● Friday will see the announcement of the formal opening of the organizing committee for the 2034 Winter Games, including the naming of the leadership, and the structure of the Board of Directors.
The announcement will be made at the State Capitol building’s Gold Room (of course), with Utah Governor Spencer Cox and U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee chief executive Sarah Hirshland in attendance.
● NCAA ● The U.S. Department of Education rescinded – as expected – the Biden Administration’s prior “guidance” on name-image-likeness payments to collegiate athletes being subject to Title IX discrimination guidelines. Per Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor:
“Without a credible legal justification, the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student athletes are akin to financial aid and must, therefore, be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX.
“Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student athletes. The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist.”
Have no doubt, this matter will be resolved through one or more court cases, possibly reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.
● Alpine Skiing ● In a show of strength for the ages, Switzerland swept the medals in the first-ever men’s Team Combined at the FIS World Alpine Championships in Saalbach (AUT) on Wednesday.
Swiss skiers have now won all three men’s events and Downhill winner Franjo von Allmen got his second gold.
In the Downhill opener, Alexis Monney, the Downhill bronze winner, led the field at 1:42.09, just 0.02 ahead of von Allmen, with Italian star Dominik Paris third (1:42.55). In the Slalom, the U.S. – 12th in the Downhill with Ryan Cochran-Siegle – got a strong run from Benjamin Ritchie to move into the lead, with a combined time of 2:43.07.
That time held up until the fourth Swiss team – eighth in the Downhill with Stefan Rogentin – took over, with Marc Rochat skiing the third-fastest Slalom of the day, and a combined time of 2:42.81.
No one could challenge that time until the final two Swiss skiers headed out. Loic Meillard, a four-time World Cup event winner, took he and von Allmen into the lead at 2:42.38, with teammate Tanguy Nef skiing as the leader. Nef recorded the 14th-fastest Slalom on the day and ended up with the silver with the combined time of 2:42.65, pushing the U.S. out of the medals by 0.26 seconds.
While the individual Combined has atrophied badly in recent years and was barely seen outside of the Worlds, this new event, with the top specialists in each race, appears to be much more popular.
The women’s Giant Slalom will be held on Thursday.
● Athletics ● USA Track & Field announced that the national Paralympic championships in the sport, now managed by USATF, will be held concurrently with the already-scheduled USATF Nationals at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, from 31 July to 2 August.
The meet will also be the team selection event for the 2025 Para Athletics World Championships, in New Delhi (IND), in September.
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Letsrun.com’s Jonathan Gault reported Wednesday that USATF will allow direct-to-final access for up to four athletes each in the men’s and women vault and men’s and women’s shot put during the 2025 USATF National Championships. The finals slots would be available to the 2025 USATF Indoor Champion, the top American at a specific USATF-sponsored in-season meet and the two athletes with the top performances in the U.S. prior to the Nationals.
A free-pass idea for the Steeplechase was suggested, but sidelined after consultations with athletes and coaches. The idea is only experimental and for 2025 alone, and will be reviewed for future applicability; it was revealed during a Monday online meeting with athletes and coaches.
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The high-profile abuse trial of Gjert Ingebrigtsen (NOR), the father of track stars Henrik, Filip and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, will be open to the public and expected to start on 24 March.
The case could last for two months and has all the trappings of a media circus, with 18 media organizations requesting coverage credentials, including outlets from Denmark, Germany, Great Britain and Poland.
All seven children are expected to be called, along with other athletes coached by Gjert.
● Biathlon ● The IBU World Championships got underway in Lenzerheide (SUI) on Wednesday, with the 4 x 6 km Mixed Relay, and a repeat win by France by more than a minute.
The quartet of Julia Simon, Lou Jeanmonnot, Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin finished in 1:04:41.5 (7 penalties) to easily defeat the Czech Republic (1:05:55.3/9) and Germany (1:05:59.9/11).
Simon and Perrot were on the 2024 championship team and Simon gave the French the lead from the first leg. For Simon, it’s her seventh career Worlds gold (in all events), the fifth for Jacquelin, third for Jeanmonnot and second for Perrot.
The U.S. team was one of seven that were lapped; Chloe Levins and Deedra Irwin completed their legs, but Maxime Germain was lapped on the third stage.
The Championships continue through the 23rd.
● Football ● Former Spanish women’s head coach Jorge Vilda said at his trial in Madrid on coercion charges related to the infamous Luis Rubiales-Jenni Hermoso kiss incident during the awards ceremony at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia that he was not asked by Rubiales to pressure Hermoso to downplay the incident.
Vilda said he spoke to Hermoso’s brother to try and calm the player down:
“I decided to talk to him myself because I was seeing the importance that (the kiss) was gaining and I started worrying that it was becoming more important than what we had achieved (as a team). …
“I asked him if we could find a formula to normalize the situation so we could talk about what we thought was really important, which was the championship and the good performance of the national team. I didn’t say anything specific about a video, only about her coming out to speak or making some kind of a statement.”
Rafael Hermoso said that Vilda approached him to obtain help in getting Jenni Hermoso to record a video to downplay the kiss incident. Wednesday’s testimony also include defendants Albert Luque, the Spanish federation men’s sports director, and marketing manager Ruben Rivera.
The prosecution began its closing arguments, which will continue Thursday. A decision could come as early as next week.
● Gymnastics ● The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) posted notices about the changes in the Code of Points for Artistic Gymnastics – which determine how routines are scored – to be used for the 2025-28 time frame. The major update is for the men:
“Only eight elements will count toward the difficulty score on most apparatus.
“Far and away the biggest overall change in the Code of Points is that the number of elements used to build difficulty has dropped from 10 to 8 everywhere except Vault. This is a big change for the sport: 10 has been the number of skills counted in men’s gymnastics since the open-ended scoring system took effect in 2006.”
The Code has been revised to encourage more innovative and difficult moves to increase scoring.
The women’s Code did not change much:
“In terms of element values, the 2025-2028 women’s code looks much like its predecessor. But a closer read shows that small changes have been seeded throughout the text, refining how Artistry is defined on Balance Beam and Floor Exercise, and adding new incentive for gymnasts to show two dramatically different vaults.”
● Table Tennis ● The “retirement” of the two Paris 2024 Singles champions – Chinese stars Zhendong Fan and Meng Chen – over requirements to play tournaments has resulted in a significant change from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and its commercial arm, World Table Tennis.
On Tuesday, the World Table Tennis announced:
“In a major shift aimed at providing greater flexibility for athletes, WTT has decided to remove the mandatory participation requirement for all WTT Grand Smashes, effective immediately.
“This means that players will be invited according to the current regulations to the remaining three WTT Grand Smashes in 2025 – the United States Smash (3 – 13 July [Las Vegas]), Europe Smash (14 – 24 August [Malmo]), and China Smash (25 September – 5 October).
“Additionally, players will now be granted two annual exemptions from WTT Champions event participation, allowing them to better manage their schedules and planning, commencing from WTT Champions Incheon (1 – 6 April) onwards.”
So, instead of being obligated to play in four Smash events – the Singapore event finished last weekend – and six WTT Champions events during the year, plus the World Championships, the burden is now down to four WTT Champions tournaments.
No immediate word if Fan or Chen will return. In their absence, Shidong Lin pulled off a rare “triple crown” of victories in Singapore, winning the men’s Singles over countryman Jingkun Liang, then teaming with Paris Team and Mixed Doubles gold medalist Chuqin Wang to take the men’s Doubles, and with Man Kuai to win the Mixed Doubles!
Yingsha Sun, who also won Team and Mixed Doubles golds in Paris, took the women’s Singles.
Another rule change was aimed directly at luring Fan and Chen back:
“Olympic gold medallists will be granted a prestigious opportunity to compete in all four WTT Grand Smashes and six WTT Champions events, ensuring they remain at the heart of the WTT Series. This special privilege will be valid for four years following their Olympic triumph, celebrating their achievement and elevating the competition.”
Prize money for the entire season structure was also increased by $1 million.
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