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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● The formal invitations to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina, Italy, were distributed on Thursday in the year-to-go ceremony, held at the Teatro Strehler.
Present at the ceremony itself were representatives of the National Olympic Committee of Greece, plus the countries of recent and future Games: China (2022 Winter), France (2024 and 2030 Winter), Italy (2026 Winter), the U.S. (2028 and 2034 Winter) and Australia (2032).
Catherine Raney Norman, a four-time Olympic speed skater and Chair of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games bid team, was the U.S. rep for the ceremony.
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Milan Cortina chief executive Andrea Varnier reported that some 85,000 volunteer applications had been received, with about 18,000 expected to be needed for the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year.
On the construction front, the new Arena de la Santa Giulia in Milan, slated for ice hockey, is now anticipated to be finished and turned over to the organizing committee some time in the fall of 2025.
● Canada ● The Canadian Press filed a lengthy story about hard times for Canada’s national federations and athlete development program, with no national funding increase in years:
“The last increase in core federal funding for Canada’s 62 summer and winter national sport organizations was in 2005.
“Core funding is money all [national sports organizations] count on to fund operations, athletes, coaches and support staff.”
Most of the world’s National Olympic Committees, and then the national federations, depend on government funding for support of current and development athletes. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, which receives a share of the NBC television rights paid to the International Olympic Committee as well as TOP sponsorships, national sponsorships and donations, is the only National Olympic Committee which is not government funded.
Requests for C$104 million more in national funding for Canadian programs were turned aside last year, and the request is now up to C$144 million in 2025 (~$100.65 million U.S.).
Now, athletes are having to pay fees to national federations:
“Bobsledders fork anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000 from their own pockets to Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, which CEO Kien Tran said was a five-fold increase over the previous year.
“‘If I could sum it up, because of this lack of funding, sports in Canada is becoming just pay to play,’ Tran said. ‘It falls on the athletes. You may be not be getting the best athletes. You may be getting the best athletes that can afford this.’”
Luge Canada chief executive Tim Farstad warned, “The athletes aren’t just paying for their travel. They’re having to pay for us to have an organization. … The government doesn’t understand how critical it is right now. It’s not just us asking for more money again. We’re at the end of the rope.”
Canada won 27 medals at the Paris Olympic Games (9-7-11), ranked 11th by total medals, and 26 Winter Games medals – ranked fourth by total – at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games (4-8-14).
● Alpine Skiing ● The FIS Alpine World Championships are often a showcase not for the consistent World Cup winners, but for skiers who get it just right on the right day.
On Thursday, 31-year-old Stephanie Vernier (AUT), a skier with three World Cup wins across 11 seasons, won her first Worlds medal in eight years and got her first gold with a splendid performance in the women’s Super-G.
Starting seventh, she timed 1:20.47 to take the lead from Italian star Federica Brignone (1:20.57) … and it held up! There were more challengers and Norway’s Kajsa Vickhoff Lie – the bronze winner in 2023 – skied into third place in 1:20.71. That held up under the challenge of Italian star Sofia Goggia – the silver medalist in this event at the 2019 Worlds – who was just behind at 1:20.77.
Up 14th was the rising American Lauren Macuga, 22, who won her first World Cup medal (a gold) on 12 January. She was fast from the start and had the fastest first split, then settled down and ended up at 1:20.71, the same as Vickhoff Lie and they shared the bronze medal!
Breezy Johnson of the U.S. was 19th (1:22.20) and Keely Cashman was 24th (1:22.46). Lindsey Vonn, who won this event at the 2009 Worlds, started 30th and did not finish, as she hooked a gate with her arm.
The men’s Super-G comes on Friday, the women’s Downhill on Saturday and the men’s Downhill on Sunday.
● Athletics ● The 117th Millrose Games comes on Saturday from New York and will be shown nationally on NBC from 4-6 p.m. Eastern time. The featured race is once again the Wanamaker Mile, with Paris Olympic 1,500 m silver medalist Josh Kerr (GBR) – the 2023 World 1,500 m Champion – competing with American Olympic bronze winner Yared Nuguse, the two-time defending champion.
Olympic men’s 1,500 m winner Cole Hocker of the U.S. moves up to 3,000 m and will face two-event Olympic bronze winner Grant Fisher and Tokyo Olympic 5,000 m silver medalist Moh Ahmed (CAN), and the women’s mile will have Paris Olympic 1,500 m bronze winner Georgia Bell (GBR) competing with American Elise Cranny, who moved to no. 4 all-time U.S. last week in the indoor mile at 4:20.83, and U.S. Olympic Trials 1,500 m winner Nikki Hiltz.
World Indoor men’s 800 m champ Bryce Hoppel will face New Balance Grand Prix 1,500 m winner Josh Hoey.
The sprints have 2016 World Indoor champ Trayvon Bromell of the U.S. against Tokyo 2020 100 m champ Lamont Marcell Jacobs (ITA), and comebacking Jacious Sears – who won at the New Balance Grand Prix – headlines the women’s 60. The best short race might be the women’s 60 m hurdles, with Olympic champ Masai Russell and world indoor record holder Devynne Charlton (BAH), who were 1-3 in Boston.
There’s more, with teen 400 m star Quincy Wilson moving up to 600 m, and Tokyo Olympic women’s vault winner – and world leader – Katie Moon slated to compete.
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A new report says that as many as 30 Kenyan athletes are being investigated by Athletics Kenya and the Athletics Integrity Unit for falsifying their ages.
The inquiry is focusing on the national trials for last year’s World Athletics U-20 Championships held in Peru, an event where age cheating has been an issue in the past. Said Athletics Kenya’s Director of Youth and Development, Barnaba Korir, “It involves parents, coaches, teachers, and athletes, who are already talking to us. They have given us credible leads, and the revelations are disturbing.”
● Football ● The FIFA Council suspended the national federations of the Congo and of Pakistan:
● “FECOFOOT [Congo] has been suspended with immediate effect due to a particularly serious situation of undue interference by third parties in the affairs of the organisation, which constitutes a clear violation of FECOFOOT’s obligations in accordance with the FIFA Statutes.”
FIFA requires that “the FECOFOOT headquarters, the Ignié Technical Centre and the association’s other facilities” must be returned to the control of FECOFOOT and that the federation be allowed to operate normally.
● “The PFF has been suspended with immediate effect due to its failure to adopt a revision of the PFF Constitution that would ensure truly fair and democratic elections and thereby fulfil its obligations as mandated by FIFA as part of the ongoing normalisation process of PFF.”
The suspension will be continued until the federation approves a new constitution “presented by FIFA and the AFC [Asian Football Confederation.].”
● Freestyle Skiing ● The penultimate FIS World Cup Big Air competition was in Aspen, Colorado on Thursday, with Austria’s Matej Svancer – the 2021 World Junior Champion – getting his first win of the season, scoring 190.25 to edge New Zealand’s Luca Harrington, the seasonal leader, who finished with 187.25 points. American Konnor Ralph was third at 183.75 for his second career World Cup medal.
Canada’s Megan Oldham, the 2023 Worlds bronzer, won the women’s event at 183.75, ahead of Flora Tabanelli (ITA: 175.25). Tabanelli is the only one to medal in all five of the Big Air events this season (1-3-1) and is the discipline leader heading to the finale in France in March.
● Gymnastics ● The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation, the disciplinary arm of the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, imposed a four-year ban on judge Evangelia Trikomiti (CYP). A three-person panel:
“found Ms. Trikomiti guilty of score manipulation at the 2024 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships and sanctioned her with a 4-year period of ineligibility from all gymnastics-related activities, excluding coaching activities. Moreover, her FIG Judge Brevet is annulled.”
She was accused of supporting an athlete from Cyprus, Vera Tugolukova, who qualified for the Paris Olympic Games with an individual quota spot out of the qualifying round over Liliana Lewinska (POL) by 0.025 points. The GEF held that Trikomiti “manipulated the competition through interfering in the scores to ensure that ‘her’ athlete, the athlete from Cyprus, obtained the Olympic quota.”
European Gymnastics, of which Trikomiti was the head of the Rhythmic technical committee, was also found liable and fined €8,000.
● Snowboard ● The FIS World Cup Big Air concluded in Aspen, Colorado, with 17-year-old Eli Bouchard (CAN) winning his first World Cup medal with a gold at 189.00, ahead of Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa (184.50) and Yuto Miyamura (171.25). Americans Oliver Martin (170.75) and Red Gerard (168.00) – the 2018 Olympic Slopestyle winner – finished 4-5.
It was Hasegawa’s fourth medal in five events (2-2-0) and he ran away with the seasonal title with 360 points.
New Zealand’s 2022 Olympic silver winner Zoi Sadowski Synnott won the women’s event at 172.25, followed by Japan’s Kokomo Murase (170.25) and Momo Suzuki (150.00), and Americans Lily Dhawornvej (145.50) and Hahna Norman (144.25).
British star Mia Brookes, the 2023 World Slopestyle champ, took the seasonal title at 305 points, tied with Mari Fukada (JPN), but with two wins to one on the season.
● Wrestling ● Strong performance for the U.S. men’s Freestylers at the first United World Wrestling ranking event for 2025, the Zagreb Open in Croatia, with three wins.
Three-time World Champion Kyle Snyder took the 97 kg gold with a 12-1 technical fall over Iran’s Abolfazi Babaloo, while Paris 2024 silver winner Spencer Lee (57 kg) won his final by 6-2 over Islam Barazganov (AZE). Zahid Valencia, the 2023 Worlds bronzer, won the 86 kg gold with an 8-0 victory against Arseni Dzhioev (AZE).
The U.S. also had three silver medalists, with the 2023 Worlds bronze winner, Mason Parris, making the final at 125 kg, Joey McKenna at 65 kg and David Carr at 74 kg.
The American men’s Freestyle squad won 13 medals in total and won the team title over Iran, 190-182. Competition continues in women’s Freestyle and men’s Greco-Roman.
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