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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano wrote in a 7 August post that L.A. should abandon the 2028 Olympic Games because it will be a showcase for U.S. President Donald Trump. That was quickly followed by a rebuttal by retired Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre a few days later and then a third story, with a detailed explanation of why a withdrawal was contractually and financially impossible.
On Tuesday, the Orange County Register got into the discussion with its own editorial, “Los Angeles should focus on costs instead of Olympic hype,” noting
“Even though Los Angeles has previously hosted the games twice before, there’s good reason to worry about whether the current leadership has the skills to pull off such a complicated endeavor in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The January wildfires exposed myriad layers of incompetence that had festered here for years.
“If LA28 organizers were trying to set everyone’s minds at ease, they could have done better than its recently unveiled Impact and Sustainability Plan, which depicts the Games as ‘a once-in-a-generation opportunity to uplift our communities and lead by example,’ per its CEO’s statement in this newspaper. We’ll be relieved if the city competently manages transportation and trash collection.”
The bottom line:
“[T]he 1984 L.A. Games were the only time a city has profited from them. But as CNBC reported, modern Los Angeles is near the fiscal cliff – and there’s no room for even a small revenue miscalculation. So we’ll see. Here’s hoping Los Angeles officials spend less time bloviating about generational uplift and more time getting the revenue numbers right.”
One correction for the Register: the Los Angeles 1932 Games also had a surplus, and paid back – with interest – the State bond that initially funded the organizing committee and donated the remainder of about $196,267 (about $4.61 million in 2025) to the city-county Community Redevelopment Agency.
● Commonwealth Games ● Commonwealth Sport announced that India and Nigeria both submitted proposals to host the centennial Commonwealth Games in 2030. The process now:
“Both proposals will now be assessed by an Evaluation Commission appointed by the CS Executive Board, including in-person presentations by the Candidate Hosts at a meeting in London in late September 2025. The Evaluation Commission will report its findings to the CS Executive Board, which will recommend a host to the 74 member nations and territories for approval at the General Assembly in late November 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland.”
India produced a very-poorly run Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010; the Commonwealth Games have never been held in Africa, but Nigeria hosted the African Games in 1973 (Lagos) and 2003 (Abuja).
● Athletics ● Paris Olympic women’s 200 m champion Gabby Thomas said Tuesday that she will not compete at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo (JPN) in view of continuing Achilles tendon issues since May.
She said in a statement, “As an athlete, you always want to keep grinding, but sometimes you simply can’t outwork an injury.” Now 28, she ran 21.95 for 200 m – still no. 4 in the world for 2025 – at the Grand Slam Track meet in Miramar, Florida, on 3 May, but had not looked the same since.
She is still listed to compete in the ATHLOS NYC meet on 10 October.
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Nigerian (and former LSU) star sprinter Favour Ofili, in the top eight in the world in 2025 in the women’s 100 m (10.87) and 200 m (22.00) confirmed her decision to affiliate with Turkey, writing on Monday on her Instagram page:
“Wrapping up my 2025 season has been a whirlwind of new experiences and big decisions. Racing back-to-back across amazing cities and learning from the best has been incredible. As some of you have heard, I’m also starting a new chapter representing Turkey.
“I am proud to have represented Nigeria for many years in a highly successful way! Having won SIX gold medals, TWO silver medals and TWO bronze medals in championship meets and a 200 meter Olympic finalist while experiencing the biggest disappointment from AFN [Athletics Federation of Nigeria] and NOC [Nigeria Olympic Committee]. For their negligence towards me in two Olympic (Tokyo/Paris). I have made this decision.
“While that means sitting out this year’s championship in Tokyo, this change comes from the heart, not from financial motives. I’m truly grateful to have discovered a new home in Turkey, I’m excited for what’s ahead and grateful for all the support I got from my coach, agent, sponsor @adidas and my loved ones during this difficult time.”
Her intention to transfer was reported in June, following announcements by Jamaican Olympic discus winner Roje Stona, shot bronzer Rajindra Campbell, Olympic long jumper runner-up Wayne Pinnock and triple jump star Jaydon Hibbert.
AFN President Tonobok Okowa told ESPN:
“Ofili herself knows the whole truth. This is all about money. Herself and her coach, they are trying to make some money. I don’t see anything wrong with that, but as far as I am concerned, if she wants to go, it’s okay. She’s an adult but she should stop using these reasons as her excuse.
“Okay, the Kenyans and Jamaicans that are going to Turkey, what reasons do they have? Let her go in peace. She’s an adult, she has the right to make her decision if she wants to switch allegiance or not.”
World Athletics has a three-year waiting period for transfers of allegiance, which would make all five eligible in mid-2028, just ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, assuming they filed earlier this year.
● Biathlon ● Former International Biathlon Union President Anders Besseberg (NOR), now 78, lost his appeal on gross corruption charges to the Borgarting Court of Appeal; according to the Norwegian prosecutors (computer translation from the original Norwegian):
“The Court of Appeal has sentenced the man to 3 years in prison. He must also endure the confiscation of just over 1 million kroner. In addition, he has been sentenced to the confiscation of two watches and assets originating from hunting trips.”
The decision also noted:
“Besseberg has received significant financial benefits that clearly exceed NOK 1,000,000, that several of the individual actions have caused and had a risk of causing significant reputational damage to the IBU, and that the corruption act continued over many years and consisted of a long series of individual actions. In addition, the Court of Appeal emphasizes that Besseberg’s action was a clear breach of the trust that came with his position as president of an international sports federation.”
Besseberg served as the head of the IBU from 1993 to 2018 and the corruption charges related to activities in the period from 2009-18. He will undoubtedly now appeal to the Norwegian Supreme Court, in Oslo.
● Boxing ● Per Taiwan’s semi-official Central News Agency:
“Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting will not attend the 2025 World Boxing Championships held in Liverpool due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing (WB).
“The Chinese Taipei Boxing Association (CTBA) stated on Monday that it had submitted all relevant tests to the WB federation, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the games.
“The CTBA said its decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the United Kingdom without a guarantee of participation.”
Lin, now 29, won the Paris Olympic women’s 57 kg gold medal last year, but was disqualified by the International Boxing Association for “gender ineligibility” at the 2023 IBA World Championships, after having won IBA world titles in 2018 and 2022 in the women’s 54 kg and 57 kg classes.
She agreed to submit to the now-required World Boxing sex test in order to compete at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool (GBR) beginning Thursday (4th), but did not receive results back in time for travel, according to the Taiwanese federation.
Algerian 66 kg gold medalist Imane Khelif appealed against the use of the test to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which refused a request to allow her to box without it. So both are now out of the World Boxing Championships in 2025.
● Cycling ● Australia’s Jay Vine won his second individual stage at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana, with an attack 5 km from the finish of yet another uphill-finishing stage, this time after 175.3 km to El Ferial Larra Belagua.
Vine broke away from Spain’s Pablo Castillo to win in 3:56:24, some 35 seconds up on Castillo and 1:04 ahead of Javier Romo (ESP). An 11-rider group followed at 1:05 behind, including Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard and Portugal’s Joao Almeida. As Norway’s Torstein Traeen finished 2:08 behind, in 23rd place, Vingegaard re-assumed the overall lead.
With 11 stages remaining, Vingegaard now has 26 seconds on Traeen and 38 seconds on Almeida in a lively race for the lead.
● Fencing ● The Federation Internationale de Escrime (FIE) announced Tuesday the election of four new athlete members of the FIE Hall of Fame, including U.S. Foil star Alexander Massialas, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist and a seven-time Worlds medal winner.
Joining him will be Korean Sang-uk Oh, the Paris 2024 Olympic men’s Sabre winner; Italian Andrea Borella, a 1984 Olympic Team gold medalist, and Gyorgy Nebald of Hungary, who won bronze, gold and silver Team medals in men’s Team Sabre at the 1980-88-92 Games.
● Gymnastics ● The head of the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation, Irina Deriugina, said that the federation has protested the approval as a “neutral” of Tokyo Olympic Team gold medalist Angelina Melnikova at the FIG Artistic World Challenge Cup in Paris on 13-14 September.
If the FIG does not disallow Melnikova’s status to compete, the Ukrainians may boycott the event as a “passive protest.” The Ukrainian federation believes Melnikova’s ties to military-related sports clubs and personal political activity.
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The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), with tremendous viewership during the Olympic Games, has lagged for decades behind the commercial efforts of federations in athletics, aquatics and others. On Tuesday, FIG noted the formation of a new committee to try and fix this:
“The ‘Setting up the Marketing Company’ Working Group has the most ambitious objective. Inspired by the path taken by other international sports governing bodies. FIG President Watanabe’s vision is to have a separate commercial arm of the FIG that is responsible for handling all of the federation’s commercial interests. The objective for this Working Group is to produce a business plan by the end of this year.”
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