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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2034: Salt Lake City ● One of the reasons Salt Lake City was chosen to host the 2034 Winter Games is its continuous hosting of national and international events at its 2002 Winter Games venues.
Same for the 2024-25 winter season, as the Utah Sports Commission detailed the schedule, to include 12 events:
● Bobsleigh & Skeleton North American Cups (2)
● Freestyle Skiing North American Cups (2)
● Freestyle Skiing Intermountain Health International
● Luge Youth Continental Cup
● Speed Skating World Cup Qualifier
● U.S. Junior Championships in Biathlon, Cross Country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Nordic Combined and Short Track skating
Summer-sport events are also scheduled in judo and volleyball.
● World University Games ● The third FISU Americas Games concluded on Thursday in Cali (COL), with about 1,000 athletes from 17 countries, contesting 13 sports.
Host Colombia won the most medals with 111 (39-40-32), with Brazil taking the most wins with 60 (106 total: 60-30-16). Mexico was third with 100 medals (32-37-31) and the U.S. was fourth with 76 total medals (27-21-28).
● Alpine Skiing ● The weekend brings the annual FIS World Cup slalom races at Levi (FIN) at the Arctic Circle, with the race winners being gifted with a reindeer. Sort of.
What they get to do is name the reindeer and American star Mikaela Shiffrin has a record seven reindeers named since the gimmick started in 2013. She has named Rudolph (in 2013), Sven (2016), Mr. Gru (2018), Ingemar (2019), Sunny and Lorax (2022 races), and Grogu in 2023.
She’ll be going after no. eight, as well as a record 98th career World Cup win on Saturday.
● Football ● The U.S. men got a goal from striker Ricardo Pepi in the fifth minute and made it stand up for a 1-0 win in Kingston, Jamaica in the first leg of the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals.
The U.S. enjoyed more than 59% possession in the game, but Jamaica had 12 shots for the game to six for the U.S. It was, as usual, a physical game with 25 fouls, but midfielder Christian Pulisic’s through-ball to Pepi on the right side of the Jamaica goal was the difference, as Pepi sent a shot from right to left that struck the far post of the Jamaican goal and ricocheted in for the only score of the match.
U.S. keeper Matt Turner got the shutout, including a 14th-minute penalty-shot save against midfielder Demarai Gray after Turner committed the foul against striker Shamar Nicholson.
The two teams will play the second leg in St. Louis on Monday, with the winner on aggregate score advancing to the semifinals in March 2025.
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