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Bill Shaikin, the national baseball writer for the Los Angeles Times, grew up in L.A. and knows the city in depth, covering its teams across five decades. His Tuesday column, “Can L.A. decide on the Dodger Stadium gondola, or anything, in a timely manner?” perfectly encapsulates the exasperating reality of the City of Los Angeles, three years ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.
In short, a “gondola” to carry 2,500 people an hour from Union Station to Dodger Stadium was proposed in 2018. It has been bitterly opposed by residents close to the project and in 2024, the City of Los Angeles asked for a study on traffic alternatives for Dodger games. A request for proposals was issued 16 months later, in July; the study is hoped to be delivered in the fall of 2026! Wrote Shaikin:
“If it is delivered on time, that could be nearly a three-year wait for one study in advance of one vote for one of the several governmental approvals the gondola would require.
“Is the city – or, at least, the elected representatives opposed to the gondola – slow-walking the project?
“‘We’re not slow-walking nothing,’ said [L.A. City Council member Eunisses] Hernandez, whose district includes Dodger Stadium. ‘This is how the city moves.’”
Speaking to Shaikin at a rally against the project, she then pointed to a tree behind her, adding, “It takes us 15 years to trim a tree.” Shaikin was stunned; Hernandez explained, “We’ll trim this tree this year, and we won’t get to it again for 15 years.”
Whether the LA28 organizing committee will be ready to stage the Games in 2028 is unknown; that team is still in formation. But with the City of Los Angeles in a continuing fiscal crisis, as is the State of California, questions about whether public services can meet the needs of the event continue to be questioned. And will be. Buckle up.
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Do the revenue hounds at FIFA know about this? The University of Oklahoma is offering 10 different football “Sooner Magic Memories” to fans this season, including high-fiving the Sooners as they come onto the field, delivering the game ball to officials, pre-game pictures on the field and … “postgame media access”:
“[Y]ou’ll step into the press area at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and see where the real-time reactions happen. Stand in the media zone and observe OU coaches and players address reporters after the game, just moments after the final whistle. This is your chance to witness the postgame storyline unfold – the insights, the questions, and the atmosphere that shapes the headlines. It’s a rare, behind-the-curtain look at what happens after the lights go off.”
It isn’t free; media access for the 30 August game against Illinois State – for two – is $461.61, but $692.11 for the 6 September Michigan game and $576.86 for the 20 September match-up with Auburn.
Can you imagine Brazil fans attending a 2026 FIFA World Cup post-match news conference after a loss? Even after a close win? Or what they would do to a reporter who asked a question they didn’t like?
★★★ LA28 II: Warm profile of LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman by Peter Kiefer in The Hollywood Reporter, with some well-documented details of the influence of his grandfather, Lew Wasserman, and Casey Wasserman’s look at how the Games has to bring people together.
★★★ LA28 III: The LA28 organizing committee isn’t going to put on any sporting events for a while – mid-2027 at the earliest – but small delegations of 30-40 National Olympic Committees are coming to Los Angeles next week for the second session of “NOC Open Days.”
The program includes, as in May, the usual venue tours and a lot of time at UCLA, which will be the site of the Olympic Village in 2028.
★★★ LA28 IV: Noted at the World Games 2025 in Chengdu (CHN), that the eight-team women’s tournament in Lacrosse Sixes – the LA28 Olympic format – had national teams from the U.S. (gold) and Canada (silver) and six other countries, but not the Haudenosaunee Nationals, which has players of both nationalities.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals women’s team is ranked no. 8 worldwide (for field lacrosse), and the men are ranked third, but appear to the on the outside of any Olympic participation, which is based on National Olympic Committees. Lacrosse, of course, was originated by tribes in North America and thus has an honored, independent position within World Lacrosse, just as Hawaii does within the International Surfing Association. But, so far, for LA28, the Haudenosaunee are not eligible to be play as a team.
★★★ LA28 V: A “pause in routine visa operations” in Zimbabwe by the U.S. State Department since 7 August wouldn’t normally draw much interest in TSX, but that’s where International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry is from. However, the post stated that “Applications for A-1, A-2, G-1, G-2, G-4, C-2, and C-3 diplomatic and official visas will continue to be processed.” So, no worries for her (probably).
The U.S. Embassy posted on X: “We have paused routine visa services in Harare while we address concerns with the Government of Zimbabwe.”
★★ U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee travel planners for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Games won’t have to worry about booking a return flight for luge star Emily Fischnaller (nee Sweeney; pictured below, courtesy FIL).
A two-time Olympian in 2018 and 2022 and a three-time Worlds medal winner in 2019 (silver) and 2025 (silver and bronze), Sweeney, 32, married Italian luge star and 2022 Olympic men’s bronze winner Dominik Fischnaller earlier this year and after the Games will head to her new home in Meransen, Italy.
“We’re still splitting our time for now, but after the Olympics, I plan to stay in Italy,” she said in an FIL feature. Badly injured in the neck and back in a crash at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, she has recovered, with perspective:
“It’s an Olympic year, and the pressure is on. But I’m ready to push myself – a little more every day. I’ll always feel my back. But I’m not crying about it – it’s okay. I’ll live with it.”
★★ USA Fencing has been on a roll, announcing an all-time high of 45,157 members (and 752 clubs), and a new, monthly, Saturday afternoon television show on CNBC.
What about 2025-26? USA Fencing chief executive Phil Andrews wrote in an e-mail, “53 000 is our goal for this coming year! That’s ambitious, but possible.” Wow. Fencing!
★★ The Sports Examiner has enough to cover across 40 sports on the Olympic and Winter Games program, so not much attention is given to junior competitions. But the U.S. has been going strong recently.
The American women out-muscled Spain to win the water polo World Aquatics U-20 Worlds in Salvador (BRA), 16-15, with Emily Ausmus named the Most Valuable Player. It’s the fifth time the U.S. has won this tournament, but for the first time since 2015!
American men’s Freestylers went wild at the United World Wrestling U-20 Worlds in Samokov (BUL), winning the team title by 185-112 over Kazakhstan with Iran third at 111. The U.S. won half of the 10 classes: Marcus Blaze (61 kg), Luke Stanich (65 kg), Peter John Duke (70 kg), Max McEnelly (86 kg) and Justin Rademacher (125 kg), and medals in 8 of 10 weights!
At the UCI U-20 Track Cycling Worlds in Apeldoorn (NED), 17-year-old Emma Jimenez Palos of the U.S. won the women’s 30-lap Scratch final with a final surge off the last turn to win by a bike length.
★ World Archery announced that CBS will show the World Championships – in Gwangju (KOR) from 6-12 September – in the U.S., although without any details on specific airings.
It’s a move up for archery, which has strong U.S. medal contenders such as Olympic medal winners Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold, and women’s national champ Catalina GNoriega.
★ U.S. Soccer will honor retired midfielder Michael Bradley, now 38, who was a stalwart of the American men’s national team from 2006-19, with 151 appearances and 17 goals and was a captain in 48 matches.
Bradley will be saluted in a pre-game ceremony in Harrison, New Jersey, ahead of the USA-South Korea match on 6 September as part of a continuing series for players who retired in 2019 or later, with 100 caps and two World Cup and/or Olympic appearances.
★ The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) has promoting its seventh “Pierre de Coubertin Pentathlon Day” – named for the modern Olympic founder who is credited with inventing the sport, which debuted at the 1912 Stockholm Games – with two challenges.
The first is a fast online quiz, which requires registration, opening on 2 September, with the winner being the fastest who got all of the questions right. Second is the de Coubertin “Wear Your Moustache With Pride” challenge “encouraging Olympic sports fans everywhere to wear a moustache — real, fake or drawn — while training or performing everyday tasks” and post the photo(s) on social platforms.
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