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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● The French government collapsed on Monday, with a vote of no-confidence over the proposed budget, with Prime Minister Michel Barnier – who was the co-head of the 1992 Albertville Winter Games organizing committee – resigning, but stay on as a caretaker until a new government can be formed.
Financial guarantees are due to the International Olympic Committee for the 2030 Games, which must be approved by the National Assembly, which voted Barnier out. IOC President Thomas Bach said Thursday that he was not concerned at present.
● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● The U.S. Olympic Endowment award winners for 2024 were announced and will be honored at the New York Athletic Club on Friday.
The George Steinbrenner Sport Leadership Award was given to U.S. Soccer President – and former star midfielder – Cindy Parlow Cone, and to Brad Snyder, a Navy veteran who lost his sight from an explosive device during his service in Afghanistan. He became a Paralympic swimmer and has won five gold and two silver medals at the Paralympic Games in 2012 and 2016. He then won a gold in the triathlon at Tokyo 2020.
The William E. Simon Award for advancing the ideals of the Olympic Movement will honor NBC’s iconic figure skating commentators, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. Lipinski was the Olympic women’s gold medalist at Nagano 1998, and Weir was a two-time Olympian in men’s Singles, winning the Worlds bronze in 2008.
The Gen. Douglas MacArthur Award for exemplary service honors Dr. David Weinstein, a sports medicine practitioner and Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado. He has been the orthopedic consultant at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center since 1995, serving athletes at nine Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The U.S. Olympic Endowment is a continuing financial legacy of the surplus from the 1984 Los Angeles Games, now with net assets of approximately $250 million. It has awarded grants to the USOPC and its member organizations totaling $386 million over the last 40 years.
● Alpine Skiing ● The Associated Press reported that 40-year-old Lindsey Vonn will compete for the first time since 2019, at the FIS Fall Festival at Copper Mountain, Colorado in a Saturday Downhill and a Sunday Super-G.
These races are a level below the FIS Alpine World Cup, where Vonn won 82 races from 2005-18 and was a four-time winner of the seasonal World Cup title. After multiple injuries, she is working back to World Cup form.
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Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin updated her condition on X after her crash at Killington:
“Gonna be a minute…like a few weeks minimum…to be able to take on much of any force. Thank you all for every ounce of love and support, in the grand scheme, it’s a small pot hole (pun intended), and I’m very thankful for that!”
● Athletics ● Grand Slam Track teased the opening of its ticket sales on Friday (6th) at 1 p.m. Eastern time with a post on X that stated ticket prices would start at $10 to $25, depending on the meet. More details Friday.
The 2025 schedule has meets on 4-6 April (Kingston), 2-4 May (Miramar), 30 May-1 June (Philadelphia) and 27-29 June (Los Angeles).
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Interesting note in the announcement that the Bislett Games in Oslo (NOR), first run in 1965, was awarded a platinum certification on the Athletics for a Better World standard:
“One of the most noteworthy initiatives was a zero-emission transfer of 120 athletes, personnel and media from Oslo to Stockholm for the Bauhaus-Galan meeting in the Swedish capital. Via a collaboration between organisers of the respective events that was four years in the making, electric buses transported everyone from the meeting hotel to Oslo’s central station, where specially booked trains awaited.
“The five-hour train journey, which passed through serene settings dotted by dense forests and clear Nordic lakes, ended at the central station in Stockholm, just a two-minute walk from the meeting’s main hotel. That one-way train journey released 247.46 kg of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere, 12 times less than the CO2e that would have been emitted if those 120 people flew, contributing to a substantial reduction in the event’s carbon footprint.
“The arrangement will be expanded in 2025. After a train journey connects all meeting stakeholders traveling from Oslo (12 June) to Stockholm (15 June), all competitors, personnel and officials participating in the Paavo Nurmi Games (17 June), a Continental Tour Gold event in Turku, will travel by ferry to the southwestern Finnish city.”
Studies show that air travel is overwhelming the greatest source of emissions related to events; this kind of cooperation between meets is a true response.
● Cycling ● The Italian all-sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport published a comprehensive survey showing that the average salary for a rider on a UCI World Tour team has reached €500,000 (€1 = $1.06 U.S.), with team budgets reaching about €570 million by 2025, up a third from 2022!
More sponsorship support has been the driver of the increases. The UCI Women’s World Tour, founded in 2016, is much smaller, but also improving. Average rider salaries were reported at €82,000 and the total budget to €70 million, doubling since 2022.
● Equestrian ● British dressage star and three-time Olympic gold medalist Charlotte Dujardin was suspended for one year by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) and fined CHF 10,000 (~$11,382 U.S.). Per the federation:
“Dujardin has been provisionally suspended since 23 July 2024 for engaging in conduct contrary to the principles of horse welfare. The time served during her provisional suspension will be credited towards the one-year suspension. …
“On 22 July 2024, the FEI received a video, submitted by a lawyer representing an undisclosed complainant, that showed Dujardin excessively whipping a horse during a training session at a private stable. …
“Dujardin confirmed she was the person in the video on 23 July, and informed the FEI that she would withdraw from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. She also agreed to be provisionally suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Dujardin, now 39, agreed to the sanction, which is now not subject to appeal.
● Figure Skating ● The ISU Grand Prix Final is on this weekend in Grenoble (FRA), with American entries in all four senior events:
● World Champion Ilia Malinin, the decisive winner at Skate America and Skate Canada International, is the favorite in this field, as the defending champion.
● The women’s competition has 2024 U.S. champ Amber Glenn, who is leading after the Short Program at 70.04, after Japan’s three-time World Champion Kaori Sakamoto suffered a fall and is fourth. Glenn comes in with wins at the Grand Prix de France and the Cup of China.
● In Pairs, Americans Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea finished second at Skate America and third at the NHK Trophy. Japan’s 2023 World Champions (and 2024 silver winners) Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara are the likely favorites.
● World Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. won the NHK Trophy and were second at Skate America. Worlds runners-up Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (CAN) and Italy’s 2024 European Champions Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri are the challengers.
U.S. television coverage is on the Peacock streaming service, with a Saturday highlights program on E! (9 a.m. Eastern time) and on Sunday on NBC at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
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