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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● Positive comments on the possibility of Major League Baseball players participating in the 2028 Olympic tournament, now scheduled for six days at the start of the Games.
Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters, “I think it is a opportunity to market the game on a really global stage. Obviously the clubs are going to have to endorse this. I mean, it’s a big deal.”
MLB Players Association chief Tony Clark said, “There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done. We do know players are interested in playing, whether it’s for the Team USA or any number of other teams around the world. … There’s just a lot of conversation that needs to be had sooner rather than later to see how viable this is, but we’re hopeful that we can figure our way through it for the benefit of the game.”
● Special Olympics ● Major announcement from Washington, D.C.-based Special Olympics International, with Nike signing on for a three-year partnership, a first for the apparel and shoe giant, with a focus on promotion of the Sports Olympics Unified Sports project where players with and without intellectual disabilities compete together:
● “This partnership will be delivered through Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools (UCS). The support to UCS will help advance Nike’s commitment to powering the future of youth sport where all youth have access to sport.”
● “The partnership will concentrate on four key communities: Oregon, Berlin, Johannesburg, and Tokyo. Nike will engage its employees as volunteers in all four communities as a key element of the partnership, beginning with employee volunteer opportunities at both Special Olympics Oregon and Special Olympics Berlin Summer Games this July.”
● “Over the course of the three-year partnership, Nike and Special Olympics will collaborate on updating Special Olympics’ Global Unified Sports Coach courses and train-the-trainer materials, leveraging Nike’s three decades of youth sport coaching experience and deep insights with global partners and experts focused on quality coaching that’s inclusive and welcoming to all youth. They will also work to recruit more Unified Sports coaches to more closely reflect community demographics—with the ambition of training and certifying more than 600 additional volunteer coaches across the four key communities.”
Special Olympics International also announced that chief executive Mary Davis (IRL) will retire at the end of the year, concluding 10 years at the head of the organization and 47 years in the Special Olympics movement. David Evangelista (USA) has been named as her successor, currently the Regional President & Managing Director, Europe Eurasia for Special Olympics.
● Memorabilia ● Time is running out for the RR Auction of Olympic memorabilia that will close on 17 July (Thursday). The bidding always get heavy at the end, but multiple items are already with bids of $10,000 or more by Tuesday afternoon:
● $53,148: 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympic torch (8 bids)
● $26,329: 2024 Paris Olympic torch and gold medal set (10)
● $19,976: 1984 Greg Louganis Olympic 3 m diving gold (11)
● $18,782: 1988 Greg Louganis Olympic 10 m diving gold (15)
● $15,520: 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympic torch (16)
A very rare Oslo 1952 Winter Games torch is at $9,889, a triple torch collection (1984 Olympic-1998 Winter-2002 Winter) is at $8,531, a Paris 2024 torch is at $8,480 and Louganis’ 1976 10 m silver medal is at $4,784.
Open bidding is available up to 6 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday (17th), with conditions beyond that time (consult the auction catalog details here).
● Aquatics ● The men’s and women’s 10 km open-water swimming events continue to be in doubt as World Aquatics announced that pollution levels are still too high for competition on Wednesday morning (16th).
So, pending better results, the races have been moved to the afternoon of the 16th, at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., with a scheduled off-day on the 17th. Ticket refunds are available for those not wishing to see the events at the re-scheduled times.
● Athletics ● USA Track & Field, which has shed some of its staff in a budget-saving exercise and seen others depart, hired Running USA Executive Director Jay Holder to be its Chief Content and Communications Officer. Holder had been an independent director of USA Track & Field since January; that director position is now vacant.
Holder was the head of Running USA from November 2023, coming from seven years with the Atlanta Track Club and 10 years in local television producer roles in New York, Charlotte and Syracuse.
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The Athletics Integrity Unit announced the suspension of Kenyan marathoner Felix Kirui for “2 years from 8 July 2025 for Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Triamcinolone acetonide). DQ results from 4 May 2025.”
This will nullify his lifetime best 2:10:45 win in the Durban (RSA) Marathon, on 4 May.
● Football ● FIFA announced that the “first ticket draw” for assignments to be able to buy tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be on 10 September 2025. Those wishing to buy tickets must register on the FIFA ticketing site:
“There will be several distinct ticket sales phases from the start of sales on 10 September 2025, through to the final match on Sunday, 19 July 2026. Each phase may differ in purchasing processes, payment methods and ticket products, and full details on each phase will be released in the coming months.”
Hospitality packages which include tickets, are already on sale.
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Sergio Marchi (ARG), the President of FIFPRO, the worldwide football player union, blasted FIFA and the just-concluded FIFA Club World Cup, including:
“FIFPRO cannot fail to point out, with absolute clarity, that this competition hides a dangerous disconnection with the true reality that most footballers around the world are going through.
“What was presented as a global festival of football was nothing more than a fiction staged by FIFA, driven by its president, without dialogue, without sensitivity and without respect for those who sustain the game with their daily efforts. A grandiloquent staging that inevitably recalls the ‘bread and circuses’ of Nero’s Rome, entertainment for the masses while behind the curtain the inequality, precariousness and lack of protection of the real protagonists deepens. …
“The tournament also took place under unacceptable conditions, with matches being played in extremely hot weather and at temperatures that put the physical integrity of the players at risk. This situation must not only be denounced, but must also be strongly condemned. Under no circumstances must this happen again at next year’s FIFA World Cup.”
● Gymnastics ● Belgian star Nina Derwael, 25, the Tokyo 2020 gold medalist on the Uneven Bars, announced her retirement, effective immediately. Across eight years, she won four World Championships medals (2-0-2) all on the Uneven Bars and five European Championships medals (4-1-0), including the Uneven Bars and Balance Beam at the 2025 Euros in Germany.
“I have achieved everything I wanted to. I proved what I was capable of. Recently, I have increasingly found myself asking: ‘Hasn’t it been enough? Is it worth risking my body?’ Ultimately, I have to conclude that it has been enough.”
● Swimming ● Three brilliant Virginia stars – Olympians all – Kate Douglass, Alex and Gretchen Walsh announced the “Olympic Endowment Scholarship for Women’s Swimming Fund,” to also receive a 50% match from the Virginia Athletics Foundation to create a scholarship for a women’s swimmer at the school.
● Water Polo ● At the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, the U.S. women’s national team completed a 3-0 group stage with a 26-3 rout of Argentina and finished with a 52-19 goals-against total.
Now into the quarters (19th), the Americans will face the winner of the Japan (1-2) vs. Great Britain (2-1) match on the 17th. Australia, Hungary and Spain – all 3-0 – won the other groups.
● Wrestling ● The final spot on the U.S. men’s Freestyle team for the 2025 World Championships was filled on Monday, as Bishop McCort (Johnstown, Pa.) High School senior (and Oklahoma State commit) Jax Forrest defeated 2023 World Champion Vito Arujau in the men’s 61 kg class, 4-3, 7-2.
It will be Forrest’s first seniors Worlds team; he won a Worlds U-17 55 kg silver in 2022.
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