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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
1. World Athletics to pay $50,000 to Paris Olympic winners
2. ASOIF: New Olympic-program sports want IOC TV money earlier
3. Montano: “How can clean athletes be supported better?”
4. FloTrack to take over U.S. Diamond League rights in 2025
5. New auction features Dillard’s London ‘48 100 m gold!
● World Athletics became the first International Federation to award prize money for the Olympic Games, promising $50,000 to the 2024 Olympic champions in that sport in Paris. Moreover, the federation will pat the top three medal winners in 2028 in Los Angeles!
● At the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations meeting on Tuesday, the ASOIF Council and the head of the sport climbing federation asked the International Olympic Committee to help the new sports on the LA28 program with advanced TV rights sales money between 2025-28, instead of waiting until after the 2028 Games are over.
● Former U.S. 800 m star Alysia Montano is happy that she appears to be set to receive the London 2012 women’s 800 m bronze medal, but wants her ceremony in Los Angeles during the 2028 Olympic Games!
● FloTrack announced that it will have exclusive rights to the Diamond League track & field rights for all meets outside of the U.S., beginning in 2025, as NBC has decided not to continue showing the series, even with the 2028 Olympic Games coming to Los Angeles.
● A huge new auction of Olympic memorabilia has some memorable lots, including an Athens 1896 winner’s medal (in silver in those days), but especially Harrison Dillard’s 1948 Olympic 100 m gold, with the opening bid set at $120,000!
● Panorama: Paris 2024 (logo designer accuses organizing committee of fraud) = Olympic Winter Games 2034 (IOC Future Host Commission visits Salt Lake City) = Cycling (UCI hires ex-Homeland Security investigator on technological fraud) = Sport Climbing (Narasaki wins men’s Boulder World Cup) = Swimming (Finke and Madden take Tyr Pro Swim 1,500s) = Weightlifting (China’s Li returns with big win in IWF World Cup) = Wrestling (Italian star Chamizo alleges bribe attempt at European Olympic qualifiers) ●
● Errata: Wednesday’s post had a typographical error in the list of under-18 athletes at the Olympic Games in 2012-16-21; the London 2012 entry was shown as “London 2023″ and has been corrected. Thanks to Jill Jaracz of the “Keep The Flame Alive” podcast for the first notice.
1.
World Athletics to pay $50,000 to Paris Olympic winners
“In a landmark decision, World Athletics has today (10 April) announced it will become the first international federation to award prize money at an Olympic Games, financially rewarding athletes for achieving the pinnacle of sporting success, starting at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
“A total prize pot of US$2.4 million has been ring fenced from the International Olympic Committee’s revenue share allocation, which is received by World Athletics every four years. This will be used to reward athletes who win a gold medal in each of the 48 athletics events in Paris with US$50,000.”
Wednesday’s announcement was truly a first, and the federation promised to do more in four years:
“This initiative by World Athletics also includes a firm commitment to extend the prize money at a tiered level, to Olympic silver and bronze medal winners at the LA 2028 Olympic Games.”
While it is true that no International Federation has been paying Olympic prize money, Olympic medal winners routinely receive cash awards from their National Olympic Committees. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s “Operation Gold” will pay Paris 2024 Olympic medal winners $37,500-25,000-15,000 to gold-silver-bronze medal winners and many other countries provide awards to medal winners.
While the $50,000 Olympic winner’s bonus from World Athletics is a breakthrough, it is less than the federation pays for its own World Championships, where the top eight receive prize money. At the 2023 Worlds in Budapest (HUN), the prize pool was $8.498 million, with individual awards of $70,000-35,000-22,000-16,000-11,000-7,000-6,000-5,000 and relay awards of $80,000-40,000-20,000-16,000-12,000-8,000-6,000-4,000.
Said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR):
“While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games, I think it is important we start somewhere and make sure some of the revenues generated by our athletes at the Olympic Games are directly returned to those who make the Games the global spectacle that it is.”
Observed: This is a leadership moment for World Athletics and Coe, a two-time Olympic champion himself, from 1980 and 1984.
There has been commentary that such a move would infuriate the International Olympic Committee, but this hardly seems likely as so many National Olympic Committees already award prizes for their athletes who win medals. Moreover, this was the tradition at the ancient Olympic Games in Greece, with the city-states who sent their athletes to the Games rewarded them for success at the Games.
As for the International Federations, they didn’t exist in ancient times, and the Olympic federations each receive millions from the IOC as a share of the television rights sales from the Games. For Tokyo in 2020, World Athletics received $39.48 million and expects to receive more after Paris 2024.
2.
ASOIF: New Olympic-program sports want IOC TV money earlier
Only a 10-minute discussion out of a day-long series of presentations at the General Assembly of the Association of Olympic International Sports Federations (ASOIF), but one to keep an eye on came at the end of the International Olympic Committee presentation by Sports Director Kit McConnell (NZL).
ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti (ITA) followed with some issues raised by the ASOIF Council for the IOC to hear – not necessarily for McConnell to respond to – but to take back to Olympic House in Lausanne.
Ricci Bitti, the former head of the International Tennis Federation, again asked for a raise to $596.5 million in the IOC’s payments to the International Federations, as requested in 2023; the IOC paid out $540.0 million for both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Of note in this regard is that the new contract with NBC – $7.65 billion for the 2022-24-26-28-30-32 Games – is now in effect.
He also asked for a review on how the federations are “rated” for the purposes of how that money is distributed:
“The third point, we believe that, not in the short term, but perhaps in the longer term, means the next cycle – I don’t want to commit my successor, but I have to represent what the [ASOIF] Council feel – we need to review or to study – that doesn’t mean that you have to take measures [on the grouping] – but at least we have to review, to update, the study of the criteria of our federations because, basically, at the end, our aim is to evaluate data which is the level of contribution of each sport.
“And the sports are very different. Some sports are one discipline, some sports have many disciplines, so we have to see from a little bit different perspective what we did 10 years – 20 years ago, sorry – so we start to review, I think for many reasons and I hope you will always be available … to help us.”
Ricci Bitti then asked for the IOC to look at the situation for the federations for sport climbing (IFSC), skateboarding (World Skate) and surfing (ISA), which have now been included in three straight Games – Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles – and their need for some advanced payments from what they will finally get following LA28 as a full, Olympic-program sport:
“We raise also the point that in the case of the new statute, that means that the new sports become full sports of the scheme in the third cycle, perhaps considering in the third cycle because these sports normally needs more money to have an advance payment, not to pay only after the Games some money they have cash-flow problems.
“I think this would be very useful to the small sports, and to the new sports.”
(At present, federations receive IOC TV money only after a Games has taken place. )
This was followed by International Federation of Sport Climbing President Marco Scolaris (ITA), to address “the topic of the transition from additional sport, now OCOG sport to program sport.
“The transition today affects us, climbing, surfing and skateboarding, our athletes and our governing bodies. It is not a caprice, it is a real issue. Please, you international federations, our colleagues, our friends, put yourselves in our shoes, and imagine to deliver in Paris the event of your dreams, and then you start living in the uncertainty, not having the resources to move from Paris to Los Angeles.
“The issue now on the table, some of you expressed their solidarity to us already and I wish that you could help us to find a solution together with the IOC. Thank you.”
Ricci Bitti added, “We are working on that as you know, to clarify what the IOC could do, and we are very sensitive to your needs.”
McConnell commented briefly on all of the requests, including on the money:
“We have continuing discussions with ASOIF on the revenue distributions, and we won’t go into that now, but I think being on the program for L.A. opens us a different discussion as we go forward to L.A.
“We fully understand the point you’ve raised regarding the timings of those payments, particularly for you, and you’re not building on the back of payments from Paris to get you through the cycle to Los Angeles, but in that regard I think we can also say we’ve had a lot of dialogue and provided a lot of support both through the Tokyo cycle and the Paris cycle, not only directly, but also through all of the other ways that the sports on the program benefit, through Olympic Solidarity, through CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport], WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency], ITA [International Testing Agency], other investments, including the investments we’ve made for some of you around the Olympic Qualifier Series as well.”
This is not going to go away, especially as all three of these federations are veterans of a brutal process to get into the Games and then to stay in.
3.
Montano: “How can clean athletes be supported better?”
This has been a whirlwind week for former U.S. women’s 800 m star Alysia Montano, who is in position to be advanced to the bronze medal in the London 2012 Olympic women’s 800 m after the All-Russian Athletics Federation retroactively disqualified Ekaterina Poistogova (now Guliyev) for doping based on evidence from the Moscow Laboratory which supervised the Russian state-sponsored doping program from 2011-15.
Poistogova was originally third, then moved up to silver after Russian winner Marina Savinova was disqualified. Now, she stands to be disqualified by World Athletics and for the International Olympic Committee to move Montano up to third, behind Caster Semenya (RSA: gold) and Pam Jelimo (KEN: silver).
Montano expressed her mixed emotions about the news and what she wants to see happen in the future in an Instagram post on Tuesday:
“Time. It waits for no one. We’ve all heard that. It’s true, and it’s what we have that makes life’s moments so precious. Olympic Bronze medalist 12 years later … I think about loss, but I try not to … who was here that isn’t, mainly my grandma, Mama, our biggest supporter and inspiration. What could have been that isn’t … the struggle that didn’t have to be (my stomach in knots doing so). A mixed bag of emotions, truth prevailing, heartbreak and relief, joy and pain. A constant dull ache over the last 48 hours, one that I’d learned to suppress over the years, but there. It’s not a good feeling to live with for so many years. How can clean athletes be supported better?
“2012 – 12 years ago. A lot of loss. 3 podium moments that should have happened in real time that didn’t?!
“There is also a lot I moved forward with by knowing deep down. I couldn’t let dopers win. I moved forward with my family knowing this Olympic medal was mine. I laid it out there every time. I have no regrets, only that I wish I was supported in real time – I ran with integrity I represented myself, my family, my country, my friends, my supporters and my community with honor. I respected and respect my competitors and their pursuit. That’s what the Olympic spirit is suppose to embody. Respect, bravery, courage. I fought well and true and I always will. I put my foot forward to leave the sport better than I found it and I fight for the future and I’ll continue to fight. It’s time to fight for me in the present, but also her in the past … we fight for justice.
“We need policy reform we need to institute an athlete mental health protection policy plan and a institute a framework that pays athletes for their loss. Here’s my ask at the very least: I want my medal at LA2028 in front of my entire family and friends on my home turf. I waited this long, 4 more years to do it right. I also want financial losses recouped. The emotions are so very mixed, but I believe this is the least that can be done. Who’s with me?”
Montano’s story is excruciating. As she mentioned, the 2012 Olympic bronze would be her third medal awarded as a result of doping positives. At the 2011 World Championships in Daegu (KOR), she finished fourth in a race won by Savinova, later disqualified for doping as one of eight such Russian women medal winners.
In 2013 in Moscow (RUS), she was fourth again, with Savinova second and later disqualified for doping, and again moved up to third.
The only international medal she was awarded at the site of the race was her 2010 World Indoor bronze, in a race won by the Russian Savinova. Now 37, Montano says she wants her London 2012 bronze – still to be re-allocated by the IOC – in Los Angeles in 2028.
4.
FloTrack to take over U.S. Diamond League rights in 2025
“In a major announcement on April 10, FloTrack revealed it will add to its five-star live content schedule by streaming the Wanda Diamond League for U.S. audiences and territories beginning in 2025.
“FloSports, the global sports media company and operator of FloTrack, signed a multi-year media rights agreement with the Wanda Diamond League to distribute the world’s very best track and field meets, including events held in London, Monaco, Stockholm and Rome, among others.”
Wednesday’s statement signaled the end of NBC’s coverage of the Diamond League, except for Diamond League meets held in the U.S. (i.e., the Prefontaine Classic). NBC Sports Communications Vice President Dan Masonson confirmed that “this is our final season presenting Diamond League.”
The World Athletics Championships will remain on NBC’s channels through 2029, as will some other meets, but the top-tier invitational circuit will now only be on streaming. Much of NBC’s coverage had been heading to its Peacock streaming service anyway, but many of the Diamond League meets were shown – live or delayed – on CNBC or USA Network.
Peacock reached 31 million subscribers as of the end of 2023, well behind Disney+ (150.2 million) and Paramount+ (67.5 million), also with linear television networks. Peacock is available at $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year; Flotrack charges $29.99 per month or an annual rate of $150 per year.
Founded in 2006, FloSports provides streaming coverage of about two dozen sports, and has expanded its track & field footprint by absorbing the Track and Field Results Reporting System (TFRRS, for NCAA statistics) and MileSplit.com, a national high school reporting site.
Observed: Whether FloTrack will be a good home for the Diamond League is yet to be determined. But what is clear is that, with the Olympic Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028, NBC was getting so little interest in the Diamond League that it simply jettisoned it.
That’s not good.
5.
New auction features Dillard’s London ‘48 100 m gold!
A new, 478-lot auction of Olympic memorabilia from Ingrid O’Neil is on now featuring an enormous inventory of medals and some rare torches, including one of Harrison Dillard’s famous golds from the 1948 London Olympic Games.
Dillard was the heavy 1948 favorite in the 110 m hurdles, but failed to make the U.S. team, but did make it in the 100 m. In the final, he upset teammate Barney Ewell as both were timed in an Olympic Record of 10.3; this 100 m gold is on auction – with its leather presentation case – with a starting bid of $120,000. Dillard won the 110 m hurdles four years later in Helsinki, was on winning 4×100 m relays in both Games and passed away at age 96 in 2019.
There are 37 items with starting bids of $10,000 or more:
● $240,000: 1972 Sapporo Winter cased set of Olympic badges (48)
● $120,000: 1948 London gold medal won by Harrison Dillard
● $80,000: 1896 Athens first-place medal
● $65,000: 1952 Oslo Winter torch
● $65,000: 1992 Albertville Winter torch
● $30,000: 2012 London silver medal for men’s gymnastics
● $30,000: 1964 Tokyo Imperial Family badge
● $28,000: 1972 Sapporo Winter torch
● $24,000: 1956 Stockholm gold medal for equestrian
● $24,000: 1964 Tokyo gold medal for canoeing
● $22,000: 1956 Cortina Winter torch
● $22,000: 1988 Calgary Winter torch
● $20,000: 1908 London gold medal for football
● $20,000: 2016 Rio silver medal
● $20,000: 2016 Rio bronze medal (2 offered)
● $18,000: 1924 Sevres Porcelain Award vase for Johnny Weissmuller
● $16,000: 1936 Garmisch Winter gold medal
● $15,000: 1904 St. Louis silver medal for football
● $15,000: 1932 Lake Placid Winter bronze medal
● $15,000: 1968 Grenoble Winter gold medal for ice hockey
● $12,000: 1920 Antwerp gold medal for swimming
● $12,000: 1924 Chamonix Winter bronze medal (2 offered)
● $12,000: 1976 Innsbruck Winter gold medal for speedskating
● $12,000: 1988 Calgary Winter silver medal
● $12,000: 1994 Lillehammer Winter bronze medal for luge
● $12,000: 2000 Sydney gold medal for taekwondo
● $12,000: 1904 St. Louis Participation Medal
● $11,000: 1960 Rome gold medal for wrestling
● $11,000: 1964 Tokyo gold medal for fencing
● $11,000: 1988 Seoul gold medal for women’s fencing
● $10,000: 1948 London gold medal
● $10,000: 1964 Innsbruck Winter gold medal for speedskating
● $10,000: 1972 Munich gold medal for canoeing
● $10,000: 1984 Los Angeles gold medal for women’s gymnastics
● $10,000: 2008 Beijing silver medal for baseball
The 1896 winner’s medal from the first modern Olympic Games in Athens is silver, as the use of gold medals for winners did not start until Paris in 1900. The 1920 Antwerp gold is from the 4×200 m Freestyle relay, given to second-leg swimmer Pua Kela Keoloha of the U.S. team.
The 1924 vase presented to star American swimmer Weissmuller was authenticated by his wife in 1993 and was offered at a post-Paris ceremony by the French President, the head of the French Olympic Committee and IOC chief Baron Pierre de Coubertin!
There are many items from the 1906 Athens anniversary Olympic Games and the 1912 Stockholm Games, and a couple of badges from the 1919 Inter-Allied Games held after World War I. A large selection of items from the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles is available, including a child’s kimono ($150 starting price) and a gear-shift knob ($120)!
Lot 1 is a mystery package of “Winners Medals of the Olympic Summer and Winter Games” but without further details. The auction continues to 4 May 2024.
≡ PANORAMA ≡
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● The FrancsJeux.com site reports allegations by the designer of the Paris 2024 logos, Sylvain Boyer, that his work has been insufficiently promoted and was “fraudulently sidelined” in 2020 by the hiring of another marketing agency. The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) is looking into the matter.
● Olympic Winter Games 2034 ● The IOC’s evaluation team for the 2034 Winter Games is in Salt Lake City, Utah, seeing the planned venues and program details in person this week. While the IOC team, led by Winter Future Host Commission Chair Karl Stoss (AUT) is not promising the Games are a sure thing – an evaluation report will be followed by votes by the IOC Executive Board and the IOC Session – he said, “We have a very good feeling” at the introductory presentation.
● Cycling ● The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has hired a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigator to head its efforts against technological fraud.
Nicholas Raudenski served with Homeland Security before moving on to FIFA and then UEFA in football, dealing with match-fixing and other corruption issues. He comes to the UCI from the International Testing Agency, where he headed investigations since 2021. His mission:
“[L]ead a detailed global strategy for the fight against technological fraud in cycling, building on the work already carried out by the UCI in this domain. He will strengthen the UCI’s programme, optimise the use of existing resources, monitor and assess current technological advancements and supervise the development of new methods to detect technological fraud. He will also analyse and investigate – swiftly and robustly – all allegations and reports of possible technological fraud.”
● Sport Climbing ● Heavy weather canceled the qualifying and 19 climbers went directly to the final of the men’s IFSC Boulder World Cup in Keqiao (CHN) on Wednesday, but it didn’t bother Japan’s Tomoa Narasaki.
The two-time Bouldering World Champion led a Japanese 1-2, winning with two tops and four zones (2T4Z ~ 2/4), ahead of teen star Sorato Anraku (17), who managed 2T4Z ~ 4/8. Hannes van Duysen (BEL) was third at 2T3Z ~ 4/4.
● Swimming ● The Tyr Pro Swim Series in San Antonio, Texas started on Wednesday, with Olympic champ Bobby Finke scoring a decisive win in the men’s 1,500 m Freestyle.
Finke won in 15:05.96, just behind his best for the year (15:04.43), which ranks 20th on the world list. He beat Austria’s Felix Auboeck, the 2021 World Short-Course 400 m Free winner (15:13.62) and American William Mulgrew (15:19.25). Paige Madden of the U.S. won the women’s 1,500 m in 16:19.77, well ahead of Densz Ertan (TUR: 16:33.20) and Paige Downey (USA: 16:35.01).
The meet continues through Saturday.
● Weightlifting ● At the IWF World Cup in Phuket (THA) – the final Olympic qualifier – Tokyo Olympic champ and world-record holder Wenwen Li of China returned from injury and destroyed a good field in the women’s +87 kg class by lifting 145/180/325 kg to win the Snatch, Clean & Jerk and the overall total. South Korean Hye-jeong Park – the 2023 World Champion – was second at 130/166/296 kg and teammate Young-hee Son was third (283 kg total).
American Mary Theisen-Lappen, the 2023 Worlds runner-up, finished fifth, lifting a combined total of 274 kg.
Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Akbar Djuraev (UZB) was an easy winner of the men’s 109 kg class, winning all three segments at 189/227/416 kg, way ahead of Dadash Dadashbayli (AZE: 177/211/388 kg). The competition ends on Thursday.
● Wrestling ● Shocking allegation of bribery reported in the Italian press involving Frank Chamizo, the two-time Freestyle World Champion at 65 kg (2015) and 70 kg (2017), who lost at the European Olympic Qualifier in Baku (AZE) last week in the semifinals of the 74 kg class to Azerbaijan’s 2021 European runner-up Turan Bayramov on criteria after an 8-8 tie in regulation.
Chamizo was awarded what appeared to be a two-point score late that would have won the match, but the decision was reversed on an appeal from the Azerbaijan corner. Chamizo, originally from Cuba, wrote on his Instagram page (computer translation from the original Spanish):
“sorry to whoever is watching this my sport is beautiful. This is just a group of bribed and corrupt people that sadness the heart cries to me … my sport is beautiful my sport is beautiful I’m sorry I’m sorry.”
By winning the semi, Bayramov qualified for the Paris Games.
According to an interview with the La Repubblica daily, Chamizo said:
“I knew I had to give double, triple in Azerbaijan, because I was fighting at their house and they had bought everything. The same referee was with the Azerbaijanis throughout the tournament. I made it, but then something happened that reminds me of boxing from many years ago. And so yes, I mean it, they came to me offering me money, $300,000 to lose.
“But Chamizo (not kindly) returned the offer to the sender: ‘I don’t want to say who did it, but it happened on the morning of the weigh-in. I sent them to … because I represent not only myself, but also Italy, my federation FIJLKAM, and the Army. I’m so disgusted that I don’t feel like talking about sports.”
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