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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● Praise for the French security services from Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who said last week, “These Olympic Games involve both great French medals and a great gold medal for the ministry of the interior and the security forces.”
There were some 75,000 security personnel in all, including 2,000 specialists from other countries.
Crisotech founder Louis Bernard (FRA), whose firm consults on crisis management, noted:
“Everything went very smoothly. It’s almost surprising that things went just as well as we imagined they would in the stadiums (where there was lots of security) as in the streets.
“The road cycling event, for instance, brought together 500,000 people in the streets of Paris, with zero violence. It seems that the spectators didn’t come to Paris to fight, which is sometimes the case during football matches. …
“It’s always difficult to say for certain whether an attack didn’t occur because the security services performed their job well. Many arrests were made before the opening ceremony. Groups and people who had vowed to disrupt the event were prevented from doing so, so yes, the hard work must have paid off.”
The Games were not without incident and multiple arrests were made prior to the Games based on planned threats, and there was a short shutdown of the French railway systems prior to the Games. But the highly-debated opening on the Seine River was smooth and the Games were mostly without incident.
Officials are asking for the same vigilance for the Paralympic Games, to open on 28 August.
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British athletes whose Paris 2024 medals have been tarnished, notably by moisture, or chipped, have an offer of free repair from the Birmingham-based Vaughtons firm, which makes the emblems for luxury automobiles such as Aston-Martin.
This Is Money reported:
“[A]head of any official commissions, Vaughtons managing director Nick Hobbis, has already offered to help any British Olympic medal winner free-of-charge with any work on their medals.
“That offer applies to both the recently ended Olympic and forthcoming Paralympic Games.
“Mr Hobbis said: ‘We are so proud of our Olympic and Paralympic athletes. It would be an honour to help provide those athletes with a lifetime of care for their medals.’”
The Paris 2024 medals were manufactured by the Monnaie de Paris, the French Mint.
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One of the enduring memories of Paris 2024 will be American basketball icon Steph Curry’s four three-point shots in the final three minutes against France, sealing the win for the U.S. It caused disappointment, and for McDonald’s in France, a possible change in menu.
A tongue-in-cheek post after the game showed a package of “Classic Curry” sauce, which is offered in France, with the caption:
“For obvious reasons, we are considering removing this sauce. For 4 years minimum.”
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A lot of American collegians – from many countries – won medals at Paris 2024. The tally offered by the NCAA showed:
“At the 2024 Paris Olympics, 272 former, current and incoming NCAA student-athletes combined to earn 330 medals for 26 countries. The medalists competed in 21 Olympic sports and represented 90 schools and 22 conferences.
“Of the medals earned by athletes with NCAA ties, 127 were gold, 95 were silver and 108 were bronze. Women accounted for 58% of all NCAA medalists and 80, or 63%, of the 127 gold medals.
“The United States included the most NCAA medalists of any country, with 184 medalists [and 236 medals].”
The top medal-winning schools included Stanford (34 medals by 22 athletes); Cal (17 by 13), Texas (16 by 13), Virginia (15 by 8) and USC (13 by12).
The top medal-winning sports were swimming (79 medals won by 40 athletes), track & field (76 by 62), basketball (28 by 28), volleyball (27 by 27) and water polo (23 by 23).
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● In the first of dozens of such announcements coming over the next four years, the “Nederlands Olympisch Comité ∙ Nederlandse Sport Federatie” – known as NOC*NSF – has agreed to partner with the City of Mission Viejo as its primary pre-LA28 Games training site.
Mission Viejo, in Orange County, is about an hour south of the City of Los Angeles. The announcement noted:
“Primary sports training in which the Dutch will train in Mission Viejo and surrounding communities include athletics, swimming and possible team sports like handball and volleyball. The final selection of sports will be confirmed at a later date.
“Specific training dates are to be determined with the focus on TeamNL conducting training camps as early as 2026 and then again in 2028 weeks prior to the respective Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
The Mission Viejo effort was led by two-time Olympic champion Brian Goodell, a star swimmer at UCLA and winner of the 400 m and 1,500 m Frees in Montreal in 1976. He’s now a Mission Viejo City Council member and Chair of the City’s Sport and Economic Tourism Committee.
● Olympic Games 2040 ● Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, said Friday:
“I dedicate this decision to the 10, 12 and 15-year-olds of today. Poland will officially bid to host the Olympic Games.
“The realistic prospect, given the decisions, commitments and preliminary statements of the International Olympic Committee, is that we can talk about 2040 or 2044.”
The IOC has said it has more than 10 countries interested in discussions on future Games, from 2036 and beyond. Poland very successfully hosted the 48-nation, 29-sport 2023 European Games in Krakow and the Malopolska region.
● Athletics ● They promised it a year ago and now it’s on.
Sweden’s world-record-holding pole vault star Mondo Duplantis and Norway’s world-record-holding 400 m hurdler Karsten Warholm will race over 100 m prior to the Weltklasse Zurich Diamond League meet, on 4 September at the Letzigrund Stadium.
The two argued over who was faster before the Zurich meet last year and now they will run it off. Duplantis hasn’t run the 100 since 2018 in high school, when he clocked 10.73 and 10.57w bests. Warholm’s last 100 was indoors (!) in 2017, timed in 10.49.
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If you noticed those unfamiliar-looking headbands being worn during the Paris 2024 Olympic marathons, by Kenya’s defending champ Eliud Kipchoge and Dutch women’s marathon winner Sifan Hassan and others, they’re a new style from Colorado-based Omius, Inc.
Twenty squares of graphite are used to help with cooling. According to Canada’s Running Magazine:
“The graphite pieces contact the skin directly and are held in place by a silicon grid. They function by absorbing sweat, and their irregular surfaces greatly increase the amount of surface area subject to sweat evaporation, which speeds cooling.”
Hassan wore the headband, as did Belgium’s men’s silver medalist, Bashir Abdi.
● Breaking ● Australia’s Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, 36, a PhD in Cultural Studies, lost her three Olympic battles in the B-Girl division by 18-0 scores, or 54-0 in total. As a result, she has been heavily criticized and a petition was set up on change.org that drew 45,000-plus signatures condemning Gunn for “manipulating” the qualification process and misappropriated funding, asking for an apology from her and the Australian chef de mission, Anna Meares.
Matt Carroll, the Australian Olympic Committee chief executive, blasted back:
“It is disgraceful that these falsehoods concocted by an anonymous person can be published in this way. It amounts to bullying and harassment and is defamatory. We are demanding that it be removed from the site immediately.
“The petition has stirred up public hatred without any factual basis. It’s appalling.
“No athlete who has represented their country at the Olympic Games should be treated in this way and we are supporting Dr Gunn and Anna Meares at this time. It’s important that the community understands the facts and that people do not form opinions based on malicious untruths and misinformation.”
The petition has been removed. Gunn wrote on Instagram:
“I really appreciate the positivity, and I’m glad I was able to some joy in your lives. That’s what I hoped. I didn’t realize that would open the door to so much hate, which is frankly, been pretty devastating.”
“I went out there and I had fun. I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics, and I gave my all.”
● Cycling ● The first sport to really get going again after Paris has been cycling, with the UCI World Tour and UCI Women’s World Tour both with important events that started the day after Paris 2024.
At the third Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma moved up from third in 2022 and 2023 to win in 2024, taking the lead on the hilly fifth stage.
The race began in Rotterdam (NED), with Dutch star Charlotte Kool winning the first two stages, then countrywoman Demi Vollering won the third stage and maintained the lead through stage 4. Niewiadoma was runner-up to Blanka Vas (HUN) in stage 5 and took the lead by 19 seconds over American Kristen Faulkner, the Olympic Road Race champion.
Niewiadoma was sixth, fourth and fourth on the last three stages, staying close to Vollering, who won stage 8, with Niewiadoma 1:01 back. That was just good enough, as the Pole timed 24:36:07 for the race, just four seconds up on Vollering, the defending champion. Third went to another Dutch rider, Pauliena Rooijakkers, 10 seconds back. Faulkner was 38th.
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The 81st Tour de Pologne for men also started on the Monday following the Paris 2024 Games, with two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) winning a tight battle with Italian Diego Ulissi, by 13 seconds.
Vingegaard didn’t win a stage, but was in the lead after his second-place finish in the second-stage Individual Time Trial. He was ninth in the hilly stage 3 and fourth in stage 6, staying with the other race contenders. Wilco Kelderman (NED: +0:20) was third and American Magnus Sheffield was fifth, 37 seconds back.
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The final Grand Tour of the year, the 79th Vuelta a Espana has started, this time in Portugal, with a 12 km time trial won by American Brandon McNulty, who was fifth in the Paris 2024 time trial.
Sunday’s second stage, a hilly, 194 km ride to Ourem, was a mass sprint at the end, won by Kaden Groves (AUS) over Wout van Aert (BEL), the Paris 2024 time trial bronze winner, who took the race lead. He’s up three seconds on McNulty.
The race continues to 21 September in Madrid.
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