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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● The Seine River was triumphantly re-opened to public swimming at three locations on Saturday as promised by the City of Paris, but then closed again on Sunday.
The Seine cleaning project was a major focus of the City’s preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games, with open-water swimming and the triathlons held there, and the re-opening on Saturday was celebrated with plenty of swimmers.
But rain on Sunday created potential overflows of the cleaning system and caused the river to be closed once again. Under good conditions, Seine river swimming will continue through August.
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● While there was plenty of debate and turmoil over the 2025-26 City of Los Angeles budget, completed with a pending $1 billion deficit in sight, the $14.10 billion spending plan did include a specific allocation related to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In a list of miscellaneous expenditures, $5,281,868 was allocated for “2028 Games Project Public Right of Way Improvements.” This was not requested by Mayor Karen Bass, but added by the City Council during its budget hearings and accepted by the Mayor in the final resolution.
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● The famed 1956 ski jump at Cortina d’Ampezzo, used for the 1956 Winter Games, is being renovated and restored, along with the construction of a multipurpose building, but will not be a venue for the Games.
The jump will be restored by next February, but the building and stands will be finished later; the 2026 ski jumping will be held at the Predazzo in Val di Fiemme, with 106 m and 134 m hills.
● Athletics ● The logo for the 2026 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida was unveiled, ahead of the 10 January 2026 event:
“The WXC Tallahassee 26 logo highlights Florida’s global identity as the Sunshine State, and features an orange, the state fruit, and orange blossoms, the state flower, reflecting Florida’s deep agricultural heritage. The lush greenery includes the sabal palm, Florida’s official state tree, reinforcing Tallahassee’s scenic natural beauty and its 700 miles of trails. The depiction of water represents Florida’s abundant rivers, lakes and expansive coastline statewide.”
The Apalachee Regional Park course will welcome more than 400 runners from 45 countries, returning to the U.S. for the first time since 1992.
● Basketball ● The U.S. women had to fight hard to win the FIBA AmeriCup in Santiago (HI), finally overcoming undefeated Brazil by 92-84 in the final. Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes scored 27 in the final to lead the U.S. and received the Most Valuable Player award for the tournament. She averaged 14.0 points per game and 3.4 rebounds.
The AmeriCup title qualifies the U.S. for the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Germany.
Mexican forward Gabriela Jaquez, who plays for UCLA, won the Rising Star award, averaging 12.0 points and 6.1 rebounds a game.
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The American men’s U-19 FIBA World Cup champions were honored after Sunday’s 109-76 win over Germany in the championship final, with the Most Valuable Player award going to BYU guard A.J. Dybantsa, who averaged 14.3 points per game and 4.1 rebounds, shooting 50% from the field.
The U.S. also set a record for the highest per-game scoring average in the history of the tournament, with 114.6 points per game, replacing the 1987 Yugoslavian team that averaged 108.9. The previous best by a U.S. team was 104.7 by the 1979 champions.
● Cycling ● Belgian sprint star Tim Merlier won stage 3 of the 112th Tour de France on Monday, leading all 181 riders across the line in the 178.3 km flat course ending in Dunkerque in 4:16:55.
Merlier won the chaotic finish over Italy’s Jonathan Milan and German Phil Bauhaus at the line; second stage winner Mathieu van der Poel (NED) maintained his overall lead on defending champ Tadej Pogacar (SLO: +0.04) and two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard (DEN: +0:06).
First stage winner Jasper Philipsen (BEL) had to abandon the race after a crash at an intermediate sprint mark about 60 km from the finish.
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There was outrage from the second stage, finishing in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northwest France, as spectators were photographed watching the race from a cemetery, with some actually standing on gravestones to see the riders.
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At the eight-stage women’s Giro d’Italia, Swiss Marlen Reusser won the opening time trial, then Britain’s Anna Henderson took the 92 km uphill climb to Aprica in 2:24:30, just ahead of Dilyxine Miermont (FRA), the only one close.
With 26 seconds or more on the rest of the field, Henderson is the race leader by 15 seconds over Reusser and 31 seconds in Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA).
● Fencing ● The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency against the clearance of French fencing star Ysoara Thibus of a doping charge by the International Fencing Federation (FIE).
Thibus, the 2022 World Foil Champion, tested positive for Ostarine, a prohibited substance with effects similar to testosterone, on 14 January 2024. She was cleared by the FIE’s doping panel, which “determined that Ms Thibus was found to bear no fault or negligence and did not impose any period of ineligibility.” Thibus was then able to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
WADA appealed the finding, “rejecting the Athlete’s explanations that the most probable cause for the ADRV was a contamination through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge.” The outcome:
“The CAS Panel considered the evidence and noted that it is scientifically established that the intake of an ostarine dose similar to the dose ingested by Ms Thibus’ then partner would have left sufficient amounts of ostarine in the saliva to contaminate a person through kissing. The Panel also accepted that Ms Thibus’ then partner was taking ostarine from 5 January 2024, and that there was contamination over 9 days with a cumulative effect.”
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