Home2024 Olympic GamesPANORAMA: Tebogo and Alfred win ANOC Awards; fan voting open for USATF awards; World Boxing adds seven...

PANORAMA: Tebogo and Alfred win ANOC Awards; fan voting open for USATF awards; World Boxing adds seven members

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● Nike’s long-time Executive Vice President for Global Sports Marketing, John Slusher, announced he will retire and become the new chief executive of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties.

The USOPP is the joint-venture marketing arm of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the LA28 Olympic organizing committee, primarily run by LA28. Slusher, 56, has been with Nike for 26 years and will start at the USOPP on 2 December.

USOPP responsibilities focus on domestic sponsorship, licensing, and hospitality and ticket sales.

● Association of National Olympic Committees ● At the opening of the 2024 ANOC General Assembly in Casvcais (POR), International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach (GER) emphasized the important role of the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity program.

Of the 599 Olympic scholarship recipients who competed at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, 75 won medals; moreover, some 91 National Olympic Committees won medals, with Bach noting:

“We have to level the playing field for all your athletes. We can invite them to come to the Games but this is not the ultimate goal; the ultimate goal is to make them competitive, to level the playing field and to close the gap, or at least to narrow the gap between the privileged countries and less privileged countries.”

Looking to the future, he added:

“In the making of this new world order, we in the Olympic Movement have only one role to play, and this is to be the unifying factor and not to take sides with regard to the emerging geopolitical blocks, but to be open to all of them and to offer all of them what sport has to offer to any society. This is our contribution to a peaceful society and the mission of the Olympic Games.”

The ANOC Awards were handed out on Wednesday from Cascais, with the top individual awards going to track & field athletes Letsile Tebogo (BOT: men’s 200 m winner) and Julien Alfred (LCA: women’s 100 m winner).

The top teams were the Norwegian men’s handball squad and the Italian women’s volleyball team. Awards for the best teams within an individual sport were Japan’s artistic gymnastics team and the British women’s track cycling crew.

Career awards were given to table tennis star Long Ma (CHN) and women’s canoeing star Lisa Carrington (NZL).

● Athletics ● Fans can vote for the top U.S. performers of the year through 11 November, to be presented on 7 December 2024 at the USA Track & Field Annual Meeting. The results of the fan vote will directly determine the winner, in five categories:

Jesse Owens Award (men’s Athlete of the Year):
● Rai Benjamin ~ Olympic 400 m hurdles champion
● Ryan Crouser ~ Olympic shot put champion
● Quincy Hall ~ Olympic 400 m champion
● Cole Hocker ~ Olympic 1,500 m champion
● Grant Holloway ~ Olympic 110 m hurdles champion
● Noah Lyles ~ Olympic 100 m champion; 200 m bronze

Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award (women’s Athlete of the Year):
● Valarie Allman ~ Olympic discus champion
● Tara Davis-Woodhall ~ Olympic long jump champion
● Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ~ Olympic 400 m and 4×400 m champion
● Masai Russell ~ Olympic 100 m hurdles champion
● Gabby Thomas ~ Olympic 200 m and 4×100/4×400 m champion

The Breakthrough Performer of the Year nominees include Russell, Anna Cockrell (women’s Olympic 400 m hurdles silver), Annette Echikunwoke (women’s hammer silver), Jasmine Moore (women’s long and triple jump bronzes), and Kenneth Rooks (men’s Steeple silver).

The Inspirational Olympic Performance nominees include Echikunwoke, Grant Fisher (men’s 5,000 m and 10,000 m bronzes), Hall, Hocker, Moore and Rooks.

The Most Dominant Performer nominees are Allman, Davis-Woodhall, Holloway and McLaughlin-Levrone.

● Boxing ● The expanding World Boxing federation, hopeful of recognition to govern Olympic boxing by the International Olympic Committee, announced seven more members, bringing the total to 51.

The new members include Andorra, Belgium, Iraq, Lithuania, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand. World Boxing now has 11 members from Asia and the 42-member Asian Boxing Confederation will meet on 23 November to consider a motion for the ASBC “to be an independent organization until any new international organizations is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.”

● Football ●Over the 2024-30 period, €1 billion of competition revenues and UEFA investment will be committed to the game through senior and youth national team competitions, club competitions, distributions to clubs and national associations, and development activities.”

The European Football Union (UEFA) announced its “Unstoppable” initiative for women’s football on Wednesday (€1 = $1.09 U.S.), with strategic goals including:

● “To make football the most played team sport for women and girls in every European country, through developing football pathways for players, coaches and referees alongside grassroots opportunities.”

● “To make Europe the home of the world’s top players, with six fully professional leagues and 5,000 fully professional players across the continent.”

The program follows the highly-successful 2022 Women’s Euro, which had 374 million viewers and 574,000 live spectators, both massive increases on the 2017 totals.

The U.S. women completed their three-game schedule of friendlies on Wednesday against Argentina in Louisville, Kentucky, with a 3-0 shutout victory.

U.S. coach Emma Hayes (GBR) changed almost everything, with 10 new starters from the squad that defeated Iceland by 3-1 on Sunday, but the U.S. continued to dominant possession in the first half, on the ball 74% of the time in the first 30 minutes, but no goals.

In the 37th, however, a free kick by midfielder Rose Lavelle sailed toward the Argentina goal, where defender Aldana Cornetti and keeper Solana Pereyra tried to clear it, but Cornetti’s right-footed try sent the ball right toward the middle of the Argentine goal mouth, where it was easily headed in by American defender Naomi Girma for the 1-0 lead. It’s her first international goal.

Argentina managed a shot on U.S. keeper Mandy Haught in the 42nd, but in the 44th, a corner kick from Lavelle found Girma at the far side of the Argentina goal and her header looked like a possible score, but Cornetti’s try at a clearance went in instead for a 2-0 U.S. lead. The U.S. finished with 73% possession and a 9-3 edge on shots.

The second half was more of the same, with defender Alyssa Malonson – in her first appearance with the national team – sending a pass from the left of goal into the middle of the field, where Girma headed in a second goal, into the top of the net, in the 49th, to make it 3-0.

The U.S. finishes with 69% possession and an 18-4 shots advantage. The U.S. is now 7-0 all-time vs. Argentina, and Hayes has started her U.S. coaching career at 12-0-1.

The U.S. women will finish 2024 with matches against England in London on 30 November and the Netherlands in The Hague on 3 December.

In the first semifinal of the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, two-time champion North Korea got an 80th-minute goal from midfielder Un-hyang Ro to defeat the U.S., 1-0.

The game was tight throughout, but the Koreans had close to 60% possession and had a 12-5 edge on total shots, and had the only two actually on goal.

The second semi between two-time defending champion Spain and England is on Thursday and the final will be played in Santo Domingo on 3 November. The U.S. will play for the bronze, also on Sunday and has not won a medal since losing in the 2008 final.

● Wrestling ● The United World Wrestling World Championships for weight classes not held at the Olympic Games are being held in Tirana (ALB), with the Greco-Roman and women’s Freestyle concluded.

Azerbaijan dominated the Greco classes, winning three of the four with Eldaniz Azizli taking the 55 kg win, Nihat Mammadli taking the 63 kg gold and Ulvu Ganizade taking the 72 kg victory.

In the women’s Freestyle, Japan won three of the four classes, with Moe Klyooka (55 kg), Risako Kawai (59 kg) and Ami Ishii (72 kg) getting the victories. The U.S. won two bronzes, from Macey Kilty at 65 kg and Kylie Welker at 72 kg.

The men’s Freestyle competitions conclude on Thursday.

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