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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● A devastated Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur (PACA) region, pointed the finger directly at Nice Mayor Eric Ciotti for the removal of all ice events, likely to Lyon, for the 2030 Winter Games.
In a letter sent to Ciotti dated 30 May, Muselier pointed out that the refusal to use the Allianz Riviera stadium for ice hockey – which would impact the schedule of the Nice football club – means that the athlete village facility that would have created student housing for 400 and a new Olympic Omnisports Complex for ice events will not be built.
He noted an estimate of a total economic impact loss of €800 million to €1.1 billion for Nice and for the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region. (€1=$1.16 U.S.)
In a Monday news conference, Muselier added, “History will remember that while we spent five years building this bid, Mr. Ciotti destroyed it in two months. …
“No one abandoned Nice out of convenience or as a punishment. No one. Since the election of the new mayor, the technical teams have tried everything, absolutely everything. … Despite what some may have suggested, you can’t redraw the Olympic map against the rules of the [International Olympic Committee] and the International Federations. You can’t crave the spotlight of the Games and then be surprised by the rules that make them possible. What has just happened is a colossal waste.”
The PACA region will still host events in Briancon in Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard. A technical study is underway to validate the move of all ice events to Lyon.
● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● Seven coaches and four staff members were honored by the USOPC for 2025, including Alex Hoedlmoser (U.S. Ski & Snowboard) as Olympic Coach of the Year and Kris Mack (USA Track & Field) as Paralympic Coach of the Year.
Georgia track & field head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert was named the College Coach of the Year, USA Track & Field’s Nic Petersen as the Doc Counsilman Science & Technology Award recipient, and Rick Delia (USA Baseball) as Volunteer Coach of the Year.
U.S. Speedskating’s Li Geng was honored as Development Coach of the Year and U.S. Figure Skating’s Heidi Thibert as Coach Educator of the Year.
Staff awards recognized dieticians Carrie Aprik of the USOPC and Nuwanee Tamaki (USA Wrestling). Regan Dewhirst of U.S. Ski & Snowboard was selected as the sports medicine honoree and USOPC staff member Brandon Siakel won the strength and conditioning award.
● Athletics ● UK Athletics was fined £350,000 (about $471,440 U.S.) for the “tragic, untimely and wholly avoidable” death of UAE Paralympic shot putter Abdullah Hayayei in 2017 during a training session accident where a safety cage collapsed on him.
The sentence, at the Central London Criminal Court on Tuesday, also included a requirement for Keith Davies, now 79, then the head of sport for the 2017 World Paralympic Athletics Championships, to perform 175 hours of unpaid work for his role in the tragedy.
● Cycling ● The 37th women’s Giro d’Italia is almost at halfway, with Italian star Elisa Balsamo, the 2021 World Road Champion, winning the first three stages. The first two were fairly flat sprinter’s wins and the hillier third stage saw Balsamo edge American Lily Williams at the line at the end of 156 km to Buja in another mass finish.
Tuesday’s fourth stage was an Individual Time Trial of 12.7 km, with a rise to the finish from about the halfway mark. Dutch star Anna van der Breggen, a four-time winner of this race, won in 31:38.91 and took the race lead by 1:04 over Swiss Marlen Reusser and 1:10 over fellow Dutch star Demi Vollering as Balsamo faded to 56th.
The climbing stage is on Saturday (7th) and the race finishes on Sunday (8th).
● Fencing ● To the surprise of no one, the Federation Internationale d’Escrime, whose elected president is Russian Alisher Usmanov, removed all restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes for individual and team events.
The vote by the FIE Executive Committee makes fencing the sixth Olympic sports federation to re-admit Russian athletes fully.
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USA Fencing announced its Hall of Fame class for 2027, headlined by Ibtihaj Muhammad, who won an Olympic women’s Sabre team bronze in 2016 and five Worlds Team medals, including a 2014 Worlds gold and four bronzes from 2011-15.
Two “Legacy” members, both Olympians, will be honored: Sally Pechinsky (1968 women’s Team Foil) and Steve Kaplan (1976 men’s Sabre). Gary Copeland, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Coach of the Year in 1999 and a national-team coach more than 20 times, will be honored as a coach.
● Football ● The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Tuesday a ruling on two appeals by the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) against FIFA about a recurring homophobic chant by Mexican fans.
The FMF was fined CHF 60,000 for incidents at three summer 2024 matches where the chant was heard, and another CHF 80,000 fine was imposed for the chant at the October 2024 match against the U.S., and “a 15% partial closure of the stadium for their next FIFA match.” (CHF 1 = $1.27 U.S.; about $177,842 U.S.)
Per the summary of the decision, “The Panel recognises the unique nature of the FMF’s situation, who demonstrated that significant financial resources and efforts have been deployed to eradicate the offending conduct. However, they found that the prohibited conduct persists, and the preventative measures do not carry sufficient legal weight to exempt the FMF from liability.”
The fines were upheld, but the 15% fan reduction was removed. By the way, the FIFA World Cup will open in Mexico City on 11 June.
● Luge ● Two-time World Champion Jonas Mueller (AUT) has retired at age 28, ending a career which included 2026 Olympic silvers in the men’s Singles and the Team Relay, and five World Championships medals.
He won five European Championships golds and World titles in the men’s Sprint in 2019 and the men’s Singles in 2023. He finally got to the Olympic Winter Games in 2026 and “that was my driving force and my greatest goal.” He added:
“I had a wonderful time with great successes and I am deeply grateful to everyone who supported me along the way. Above all, my parents, the coaching and support team, the entire squad and the federation.
“The effort required to compete at the very top is enormous. A season lasts fourteen weeks, and the preparation extends over eight months. I would need to be back in full training by now to be in a position to compete for the top results. The hunger for success has faded – it is the right time to open a new chapter away from elite sport.”
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