PANORAMA: No French Alps 2030 guarantees yet, but no worries; record 54,280 finish Berlin Marathon; Choue runs for sixth World Taekwondo term

U.S. Olympic weightlifting star Hampton Morris (Photo: IWF)

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Confident that the new sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo will be completed on time, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation scheduled an International Training Period for the facility for 7-16 November 2025.

A full World Cup will then be held at the “Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre” to open the season from 17-23 November.

The training period starts three months before the opening of the 2026 Winter Games on 6 February and is another indicator that the federation believes the track will be built on schedule. Certification of the new track will have to be completed near the end of winter in 2025 and the schedule is tight. But work is progressing, and at least the IBSF thinks it will be ready.

● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● FrancsJeux.com reported that the French Alps 2030 bid did not submit the required government guarantees by the 1 October deadline from the International Olympic Committee … but it’s OK.

Michel Barnier, the new French Prime Minister, is still in the set-up phase of a new government and the Olympic guarantees for 2030 are not the highest, immediate priority. He is no stranger to the IOC, having been with skiing legend Jean-Claude Killy, the co-Presidents of the 1992 Albertville Winter Games organizing committee.

Barnier reportedly asked for a short delay to get the formalities concluded, with the guarantees to be signed soon, then going through the legislative process and confirmed in 2025.

● Athletics ● The 50th Berlin Marathon set a new record for the most finishers with 54,280, including an amazing last-place runner.

It was Peter Barthel (GER) – now 82 – who had also run in the very first Berlin Marathon in 1974, who crossed last, finishing the record day. Some 58,212 runners from 161 countries started the race.

The prior record was 54,175 finishers from April’s Marathon de Paris in France, which eclipsed the New York City Marathon’s 2019 record of 53,627.

The World Athletics Continental Tour, a four-level program of meets offering more modest prizes and support than the Diamond League, concluded a very successful fourth year in 2024, with 271 meets across all categories and 20,443 athletes competing.

The growth of the program, which allows even fairly small meets to obtain some cache under the World Athletics banner, has been impressive:

● 2021: 69 meets
● 2022: 152 meets
● 2023: 230 meets
● 2024: 271 meets in 63 countries

The countries with the most Continental Tour meets were Germany (29), followed by the U.S. (18) and France (18), Poland (14) and Spain (12).

● Shooting ● Paris is over and the road to Los Angeles for some of America’s Skeet stars started with the USA Shooting Skeet nationals in Hillsdale, Michigan that finished on 22 September.

The seemingly immortal Kim Rhode, now a Vice President of the International Shooting Sports Federation – and a six-time Olympic medalist – won the women’s title in a shoot-off over 2022 Worlds bronze medalist Sam Simonton. Dania Jo Vizzi, the 2017 World Champion, was third at 45.

Simonton edged Rhode and Vizzi in the qualifying, 242-241-240, but Rhode took the final by a single point, 55-54, over Simonton. That left both at 244 points, with Rhode, 45, winning the shoot-off.

The men’s division had 2019 Pan American Games champion Christian Elliott in front in the qualifying at 250 – a perfect score – then taking second in the final at 59-60 against 2022 and 2023 World Junior Champion Benjamin Keller. But the combined scores gave Elliott the overall win at 252 to 248 over Keller. Dustan Taylor, a 2022 Worlds Team silver winner, finished third in qualifying at 244 and was third overall.

● Taekwondo ● World Taekwondo President Chung-won Choue (KOR), now 76, announced at the federation’s General Assembly that he will run for a last term as President at the elective General Assembly in Wuxi, China in 2025.

Choue has been President of the federation since 2004, winning full-term elections in 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021.

During the 2024 General Assembly in Chuncheon (KOR), the World Taekwondo Council was re-shaped from 37 members to 25. In a significant change, 14 members will be elected by the General Assembly and one member appointed by the President, and the five Vice President seats will include three elected officers, the woman with the highest vote total and one appointed member.

This brings the number of Council members appointed by the President from 10 to two.

● Weightlifting ● Strong results for the U.S. at the 2024 World Junior Championships held in Leon (ESP) that finished on the weekend. The American team won the most classes – four – and tied for the most medal with six:

Men/61 kg: The Paris Olympic bronze medalist, American Hampton Morris dominated this class, winning the Snatch, Clean & Jerk and the combined total, at 291 kg. He led a U.S. 1-2 with Gabriel Chumm second in both lifts and the combined, at 278 kg.

Men/73 kg: Caden Cahoy won the Clean & Jerk at 180 kg and that was enough to give him the combined gold at 326 kg.

Women/59 kg: Miranda Ulrey was second in the Snatch, then won the C&J and took the overall gold at 210 kg, just one more than Thai Thanaporn Saetia.

Women/76 kg: Ella Nicholson swept all three segments, taking the class at 244 kg and winning by 12 kg.

In the team scoring, Colombia won the men’s division over the U.S., 617 to 538, and the American women won their team title, scoring 610 to 599 for Colombia.

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