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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● The living legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, the LA84 Foundation, announced new grants to 31 youth-service organization, totaling $2.3 million, in seven Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.
Youth will be supported in a total of 31 sports via these grants, with an estimated reach of 85,000 in total.
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● A report in the French newspaper Le Monde quoted from a report included in the draft budget bill for 2025 that indicated that the opening ceremony on the Seine for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris cost about €100 million (about $108 million U.S.).
This does not include state security costs, but the organizing committee’s expenditure for the lavish ceremony.
The Le Monde story also calculated the public costs of the 2024 Games at €2.8 billion, up from €2.4 billion at the last announcement. However, this also includes bonuses paid to French medal winners and the cost of tickets purchased and given away. A fuller report is not due until the end of the year at the earliest.
● Figure Skating ● American World Champion Ilia Malinin escaped with a win in the men’s Singles competition at Skate America in Texas last week, and will be back in action in Halifax, Nova Scotia this week at the Skate Canada International, the second of six legs on the ISU Grand Prix circuit.
Fellow American Jason Brown, fifth at the 2024 Worlds, and the U.S. runner-up the past two years, is his likely challenger.
Three-time World Champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan leads the women’s field. Two-time American champion Alysa Liu, the 2022 Worlds bronze winner, has returned and will compete, along with senior newcomer Elyce Lin-Gracey, sixth at Skate America.
World Champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps head the Pairs field, with Worlds fifth-placers Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel (GER) to challenge. Americans Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, 12th at the 2024 Worlds, are the only U.S. entry.
Of the 10 entries in Ice Dance, the U.S. and Canada have three each. Worlds runner-ups Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are the highest-ranked entry; the U.S. has siblings Oona Brown and Gage Brown, the 2022 World Junior Champions. France’s Evgenia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud were eighth at the 2024 Worlds.
NBC’s coverage is only on its Peacock streaming service, except for Sunday’s men’s Free Skate, on NBC at noon Eastern time.
● Football ● FIFA announced a working group to study “recommendations in relation to the FIFA Regulations Governing International Matches,” in response to the continuing call for reform of the International Match Calendar.
The 10-member group includes representatives from the FIFPRO player’s union and the World Leagues Association, both of which have sought legal action against the expanded 2025 FIFA Club World Cup next June in the U.S.
As no timetable was established for a report or action, there is no immediate impact expected, and so the challenges to the 2025 Club World Cup can be expected to continue.
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At the FIFA women’s U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, North Korea finished with a 3-0 record to win Group C and Japan won Group D at 2-0-1.
The quarterfinals are now set, with Nigeria (3-0) and the U.S. (2-1) meeting on Saturday with the winner to move on against the victor between North Korea (3-0) and Poland (1-0-2) on Sunday.
In the lower bracket, defending champ Spain (3-0) faces Ecuador (2-1) on the 26th and Japan (2-0-1) will play England (2-1) on Sunday.
● Gymnastics ● The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) will hold elections at its 85th Congress in Doha (QAT) on Friday, with a re-run of the 2021 match of Japanese incumbent Morinari Watanabe and challenger Farid Gayibov (AZE), the head of the European Gymnastics Union and the country’s Minister of Youth and Sport.
Watanabe won in 2021 by 81-47, for a second term in office. He is also running for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee next March and must win the FIG election to remain an IOC member.
● Speed Skating ● The German SportSchau site reported that the long-standing legal battle between Claudia Pechstein, the five-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time World Champion and the International Skating Union continues.
At a hearing in the Munich Higher Regional Court, no decision was announced and the judge is pushing both sides – hard – for a settlement. Pechstein was banned for two years for blood doping in 2009, lost appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Tribunal, but demonstrated a blood abnormality that could account for the circumstantial indicators of doping. She sued for €4.4 million in damages (€1 = $1.08 U.S.) in January 2015, and was finally cleared to litigate her claim in 2022.
Pechstein is demanding a formal apology from the ISU, and claiming €8.373 million in damages, but courtroom discussions indicate that about €4 million will suffice. But the ISU is not interested and the judge set a date of 13 February 2025 for the next hearing. But the judge also told the ISU that it is required to come up with a “declaration of honor” by 14 November, after which the damages question can be settled. Whether the ISU will accede is unknown.
Endless.
● Tennis ● Olympic medal winners Maria Sharapova (RUS) and brothers Bob and Mike Bryan (USA) were voted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.
Sharapova retired in 2020, finishing with wins in all four of the tennis Grand Slams between 2004 and 2014, and two French Open titles for five career Slams in all. She won the Olympic silver in 2012, losing to Serena Williams of the U.S. in the final.
The Bryan brothers dominated men’s Doubles and retired in 2020 having won 16 Grand Slams together (Mike won two more in 2018 when Bob was injured). Together, they won the London 2012 men’s Doubles gold.
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