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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Winter Paralympic Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Two curling stones were stolen from the Cortina arena, but were being replaced. World Curling stated to The Associated Press:
“The spare stones from the set are now being used and have been brought to the same specifications as the rest of the set so there has been no impact on the competition.”
Police are investigating the thefts.
● Athletics ● The New York Road Runners said that the 2026 NYC Marathon received a record “240,000+ applicants from more than 160 countries – a near-20 percent increase from 2025.”
Only about 1% of the applicants will be selected to run; other options to join the race are through charity partners or through a series of other, small entry programs. The 2025 race once again set a record as the largest marathon ever with 59,226 finishers.
● Baseball ● The World Baseball Classic opened in Tokyo (JPN), with wins for South Korea, by 11-4 over the Czech Republic, and Australia, a 3-0 winner over Taiwan.
The Aussies got home runs from Robbie Perkins in the fifth and Travis Bazzana in the seventh to generate all three runs, while the Koreans got two home runs from Shay Whitcomb and homers from Bo-gyeong Moon – a grand slam in the first – and Jahmai Jones.
Defending champion Japan opens on Friday in Tokyo against Taiwan.
● Basketball ● FIBA announced a deal through 2029 for U.S. cable-caster TNT Sports to show the FIBA women’s World Cup in Germany in September 2026 and the FIBA men’s World Cup in 2027, being held in Qatar.
Games will be shown on TNT, TBS and truTV, with added events on the HBO Max streaming service. The first event to be shown is the FIBA women’s World Cup qualifying tournament in San Juan (PUR) from 11-17 March.
● Cricket ● Defending champion India faced off with prior winner England in a tight semifinal of the ICC men’s T-20 World Cup in Mumbai and the hosts came out on top, 253/7 (20) to 246/7 (20) and will play for a second straight title against New Zealand on Sunday (8th).
India won in 2007 and in 2024; New Zealand has been on one final, in 2021, and lost to Australia.
● Football ● FIFA was reported to release 800 of its 2,000 hotel rooms reserved in Mexico City (40%), citing no need for so many people for operations.
Alberto Albarran Leyva, the Executive Director of the Mexico City Hotel Association said that the current occupancy target for the opening of the tournament in Mexico City on 11 June is 85%.
● Swimming ● American Olympic relay gold medalist Chris Guiliano started off the Wednesday prelims of the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Westmont, Illinois with a sensational, world-leading 47.38 in the men’s 100 m Freestyle. And that signaled a meet with significant swims ahead on day one:
● Katie Ledecky won the women’s 800 m Freestyle in another duel with Canadian superstar Summer McIntosh, 8:08.57 to 8:10.45. Ledecky pulled away in the second half of the race and produced the no. 13 time in history; she has 14 of the top 17. It’s McIntosh’s fourth-fastest time ever.
● Six-time Worlds gold medalist Regan Smith won the women’s 200 m Back in a speedy 2:04.90, fastest in the world in 2026, chased by Isabelle Stadden in 2:05.91, a lifetime best and no. 13 all-time (no. 7 all-time U.S.).
● Olympic champ Kate Douglass of the U.S. won the 200 m Breaststroke in a world-leading 2:22.01, winning by more than six seconds.
● French Olympic hero Leon Marchand won the men’s 200 m Back in 1:57.56, well ahead of Blake Tierney (CAN: 1:58.61), and took the 200 m Breast in 2:10.06 later in the same session!
● American Michael Andrew won the men’s 50 m Fly in 23.10, no. 3 in the world for 2026 and his fastest since 2024.
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There were technical issues on the first night as well, with SwimSwam.com editor-in-chief Braden Keith scolding USA Swimming:
“[I]n spite of being a really good session by Pro Swim standards, anybody who wasn’t able to attend the meet wasn’t able to follow the meet in anything resembling real time. That means last night’s live recap conversation was almost entirely around the technical failures.
“The live stream didn’t work. It never does when it’s in the USA Swimming app.
“The live results didn’t work. The current systems seem to become somehow less reliable by the year.
“Even USA Swimming’s data hub didn’t work, which probably only we noticed, but was just the cherry on top of a mess of a night for America’s ‘professional’ swimming series. …
“So we’re left with a meet in an out-of-the-way place that makes it hard to attend in person, with an out-of-the-way app that makes it hard to stream, that didn’t work, and no results, for a professional swim meet where prize money is being awarded. China for darn sure isn’t going to have these issues when they pay the world’s best swimmers more money to go race there in a few months.
“I guess it could be worse. USA Track & Field recently didn’t even attempt to live stream a national championship event (the combined events championship), missed streaming women’s shotput, and they charge $100 per year for access to their streaming platform (albeit with a lot more events).”
● Volleyball ● The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), following the path of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has renamed its men’s and women’s “World Championship” as the “World Cup,” to fall in line with the ultra-popular FIFA World Cup for men and women.
This will first apply to the FIVB men’s 2027 “World Cup” in Poland and the women’s “World Cup” in the U.S. and Canada.
FIBA changed the name of its championship in advance of the 2014 men’s tournament after the “FIBA World Championship” was held from 1950 to 2010. The 2014 women’s tournament was still called the “FIBA World Championship,” but this was changed to “World Cup” for the 2018 tournament.
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