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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● While the drama in Los Angeles continues over budget cuts and City Council members demanding the LA28 organizers contract with area small businesses for their needs, the situation in Long Beach appears calmer.
At a Long Beach City Council Arts, Culture & Tourism Committee meeting on Tuesday (20th), Deputy City Manager Tyler Bonnano-Curley shared a 24-slide presentation which reiterated the large footprint the 2028 Games will have there, with eight sports and 11 disciplines: aquatics (artistic swim, open water, water polo), beach volleyball, canoeing (sprint), handball, rowing (classical, coastal), sailing, sport climbing and shooting (pistol-rifle).
(Sailing was shown in Long Beach on the City’s presentation, despite efforts by L.A. City Council member Tim McOsker to move it to San Pedro.)
Long Beach is still working on a plan for fan zones and will next conclude an agreement with LA28 on what constitutes “normal and customary services,” above which LA28 will reimburse the City. That agreement is due by 1 October 2025. The timeline estimates that ticket sales will begin in December 2026.
● Olympic Winter Games 2010 and 2014 ● The International Biathlon Union announced that a final appeal by Russian biathlete Evgeny Ustyugov was dismissed by the Swiss Federal Tribunal, clearing the way for a re-allocation of his medals:
“Ustyugov’s mass start gold from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games is now expected to go to Martin Fourcade, FRA, with silver to Pavol Hurajt, SVK, and bronze to Christoph Sumann, AUT, while the men’s relay bronze should be reallocated to Sweden. The gold in the men’s relay at the Sochi 2014 Games is set to be awarded to Germany’s team of Erik Lesser, Daniel Boehm, Arnd Peiffer, and Simon Schempp, with silver going to Austria and bronze to Norway. It is now the responsibility of the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to decide on the reallocation of medals from the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
“Ustyugov’s results at the 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, where he won two silver medals, are also disqualified. The mass start silver goes to Lukas Hofer, ITA, and bronze to Tarjei Boe, NOR. In the men’s relay, silver goes to Ukraine and bronze to Sweden.”
Ustyugov was disqualified based on data from the Moscow Laboratory Information System (LIMS) recovered in 2019 that showed data from the 2011-15 state-sponsored doping program, identifying irregularities with his Athlete Biological Passport.
● NBC ● At the 46th Sports Emmy Awards in New York, NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was honored with 10 awards, for Outstanding Live Special, Outstanding Short Feature, Outstanding Open/Tease, Outstanding Interactive Experience, Outstanding Technical Team Event, Outstanding Technical Team Studio, Outstanding Editing/Short Form, Outstanding Audio/Sound, Schaap Outstanding Writing Award, and Outstanding Graphic Design.
In addition, the legendary Peter Diamond, NBC’s now-retired Executive Vice President for Olympic Programming, received special recognition for “individuals who have performed distinguished service within the television industry, setting standards for achievement, mentoring, leadership and professional accolades for 25 or 50 years.”
Diamond was honored for his more than 50 years of work on Olympic television. NBC’s Rob Hyland, a Primetime Producer for NBC’s Olympic coverage, received recognition for 25 years of outstanding service.
● Enhanced Games ● More details on the 2026 pro-doping Enhanced Games, shown to be scheduled for 21-24 May 2026. There will be two events in track & field, the 100 m and 100 m or 110 m hurdles, and four in swimming: the 50 and 100 m Freestyles and 50 and 100 m Butterflys. Less details were available on weightlifting.
Four swimmers are shown to have signed up so far.
● Athletics ● The Athletics Integrity Unit provisionally suspended another Kenyan distance ace, Sheila Chelangat, 27, a 1:06:06 half-marathoner who was a Tokyo 2020 10,000 m Olympian.
The allegation is the use of the red blood cell stimulant erythropoietin (EPO).
● Boxing ● Massive move of national federations to World Boxing, which announced 17 new applications to bring its total membership to 106. The new applications are from Afghanistan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Hong Kong, Ireland, Lebanon, Macau, Mauritius, Mexico, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
These federations will now be able to compete at the 2025 World Boxing Championships in Liverpool (GBR) in September, and eventually participate in Olympic qualifiers for Los Angeles in 2028.
● Cycling ● Stage 12 of the 108th Giro d’Italia had a large early climb, but a long, flat finish across 172 km from Modena to Viadana, resulting in the expected mass sprint, won by Dutch rider Olav Kooij in 3:55:40, with the first 74 riders receiving the same time.
Fellow Dutchman Casper van Uden was second and Ben Turner (GBR) third. The race leaders – Isaac Del Toro (MEX), Juan Ayuso (ESP: +0:33) and Antonio Tiberi (ITA: +1:09) remained unchanged.
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At the USA Cycling National Road Championships in Charleston, West Virginia, Artem Shmidt won Wednesday’s men’s Time Trial over a flat, 33.4 km course in 39:03.08, ahead of Anders Johnson (39:09.49) and Joshua Lebo (39:21.29).
The women’s title went to Emily Ehrlich for her first national title, in 43:04.01, ahead of Kristen Faulkner (43:31.52), second for the second year in a row. Alia Shafi was third in 44:36.97.
The elite-level road championship races will be on Monday.
● Ice Hockey ● At the IIHF men’s World Championship in Sweden and Denmark, the U.S. sailed by Finland in its quarterfinal in Stockholm, 5-2, with Conor Garland scoring power-play goals in the first and second periods for the U.S. Shane Pinto’s third-period goal at 5:52 of the period extended the American lead to 4-2 and Clayton Keller scored an empty-netter with 2:45 left for the final score.
Switzerland, the winner of Group B, had no trouble with Austria, racing off to a 3-0 lead at the period and winning by 6-0, in Herning. But Group A winner Canada was upset by Denmark, 2-1, with the Danes scoring twice in 1:28 to erase a 1-0 deficit in the third period. Nikolaj Ehlers scored with 2:17 to go as Denmark pulled their goalie for a 1-1 tie and then Nick Olesen got the winner with 49 seconds to play.
Sweden whipped the Czech Republic, 5-2, taking a 3-0 lead after the first period.
With re-seeding after the quarters, Sweden will face the U.S. on Saturday and the Swiss will play Denmark, both in Stockholm. The medal matches will be on Sunday.
● Volleyball ● Michael Payne (IRL), who served as the marketing director for the International Olympic Committee from 1988-2004, was named as the Chair of Volleyball World, the independently-operated commercial arm of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB).
Payne was an advisor to CVC Capital Partners when it made a revolutionary $100 million investment in the formation of Volleyball World, which has performed very impressively in its first four years.
Fernando Lima (BRA), the former FIVB Secretary General who has been the Volleyball World Chair since formation in 2021, will remain on the Volleyball World board and transition to a new position with the federation.
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