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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● An activist coalition called “Revers de la medaille” released a report claiming that 19,526 people were evicted from their homes from 26 April 2023 to 30 September 2024 and referred to documents to support allegations that the movements were linked to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
A spokesman said that 260 “informal living sites,” characterized as “camps, shanty towns and squats” were cleared; some people were evicted more than once, so there may be some double counting.
French authorities said prior to the Games that eviction rates did not increase during the Games period and that displaced individuals were offered alternate housing.
● Olympic Games 2040 ● Reports from Germany quote Chancellor Olaf Scholz as supporting a return of the Olympic Games in 2040:
“The time has come. Attempts have been made repeatedly since Munich in 1972. Next time, I think it should work.
“In 2040, Germany will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its reunification, and this is the best reason to hold the Games in Germany.”
● Anti-Doping ● The World Anti-Doping Agency’s Compliance Review Committee met in mid-October, with a summary of the meeting posted on Monday. The post noted the current organizations currently out of compliance, or being monitored includes:
● Suspended (4): Cameroon national anti-doping organization, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), the International Federation of Basque Pelota and the International Federation of Fitness and Bodybuilding;
● Watchlist (7): national anti-doping organizations in Namibia, Samoa, Pakistan, Panama, Senegal, Uganda and Uruguay.
Disputes over non-compliance and sanctions are now in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport for Nigeria, South Africa and Venezuela, plus a case on consequences and reinstatement conditions for RUSADA.
● Athletics ● Citius Magazine reported that Sunday’s New York City Marathon had 55,646 finishers, the most ever for a marathon. It surpassed the 54,280 from the Berlin Marathon in September.
● Beach Volleyball ● American star Alix Klineman, who teamed with April Ross to win the Olympic women’s tournament in Tokyo in 2021, announced her retirement in a video posted to Instagram.
She explained, speaking to the sport of volleyball as a whole, her reasons for concluding her career:
“There is something about winning the gold medal; it checks the box, at least it did for me.
“Sure, I still love you [volleyball]. I’m still here, but the desperation is gone. I used to do anything for you. Exhaustion, pain, none of that mattered. It’s actually crazy how much pain I withstood for you, and it was all worth it. But now there’s something, someone, worth it more. It’s no longer just about you, volleyball. It’s not about me, either. It’s about my family. It’s about my priorities, and they’re different now.
“I thought I could do both – be a mom and play – and I did. I am right now, but I can’t do both the way that I want to do both. When I do things, I do them to be the best. It’s not necessarily relative to anyone else, but the best that I’m capable of. I know I can be better at volleyball right now. You know it, too. But to do that, I have to sacrifice the way that I show up for Theo, and I don’t want that.”
Klineman, now 34, was an All-American indoor star at Stanford, and was an outside hitter for multiple clubs in Italy and Brazil through 2017. She teamed with Ross – who also announced her retirement at the end of this season – in late 2017.
The duo won the 2019 FIVB Worlds silver and won six times on the FIVB World Tour between 2018 and 2021. Following their Olympic triumph in Tokyo, Klineman married former NHL right winger Teddy Purcell (CAN) and the couple’s son, Theo, arrived in June 2023.
● Boxing ● A 25 October story on the French-language site Le Correspondant reported on a June 2023 medical report on Algerian boxer Imane Khelif – winner of the 2022 IBA Worlds silver in the women’s Light Welterweight division and the Paris Olympic gold in the women’s Welterweight class – that describes a condition of genetic males:
“an ‘Alpha 5 reductase type 2′ deficiency, a genetic anomaly which leads to metabolic dysfunction in testosterone and dehydroandrosterone.”
The story further describes part of the process of Khelif’s registration for the Paris Games, and a March 2023 altercation at the IBA Women’s World Championships between Algerian and federation officials.
Observed: One follow-on to this story will be a closer review of the call for gender testing to protect women’s sport, voiced in October by U.N. Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem (JOR), who explained that “[c]urrent technology enables a reliable sex screening procedure through a simple cheek swab that ensures non-invasiveness, confidentiality and dignity.”
● Swimming ● SwimSwam.com compiled the biggest money-makers from the three-stop World Aquatics World Cup series, with American Kate Douglass on top. The combined top 10:
● 1. $184,000: Kate Douglass (USA)
● 2. $174,000: Leon Marchand (FRA)
● 3. $152,000: Regan Smith (USA)
● 4. $142,000: Noe Ponti (SUI)
● 5. $61,400: Siobhan Haughey (HKG)
● 6. $59,500: Duncan Scoitt (GBR)
● 7. $54,500: Pieter Coetze (RSA)
● 8. $48,100: Qianting Tang (CHN)
● 9. $42,000: Haiyang Qin (CHN)
● 10. $35,100: Kasia Wasick (POL)
The lists showed 15 men and 13 women who earned $10,000 or more from the series and 20 men and 20 women who made $5,000 or more.
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