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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2024: Paris ● The Paris 2024 Endowment Fund announced Tuesday a series of programs to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the successful Olympic and Paralympic Games, using a portion of the €76 million (about $88.6 million U.S. today) organizing committee surplus.
Events will mark the anniversary of the Olympic opening on 26 July, Paralympic Day on 6 September and National Sports Day on 14 September. The 26 July program includes the unveiling of the “Monument of Champions” – supported by the City of Paris as well – listing the names of the Paris 2024 medal winners. Also, the opening ceremony statues of the 10 “illustrious women” will be inaugurated on the Rue de la Chapelle. An allocation of €6.36 million has been made for these projects.
The “Parc des Jeux” program with sports and cultural activities will also be re-activated at the Parc Georges Valbron, with a special concert on 26 July.
● Beach Volleyball ● In another sign of the wide impact of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Volleyball World announced a 12th Elite 16 event for 2025, to be held in Newport Beach, California, from 7-11 October.
The tour will be in Brazil for tournaments in Joao Pessoa from 17-21 September and Rio de Janeiro from 24-28 September, before coming north. Elite 16 events carry prize money of $300,000, split evenly between men and women; it’s the first Elite16-level tournament in the U.S. since October 2018, in Las Vegas. A follow-on 4×4 tournament for men and women on 12 October will have a $250,000 prize purse.
● Bobsled & Skeleton ● “USA Bobsled/Skeleton today announced a multi-year Official Premier Technology and Official Automotive Partnership with American Honda, strengthening support for the organization’s world-class athletes through 2030. The collaboration brings together the elite performance of USA Bobsled and Skeleton athletes with the advanced engineering capabilities of the U.S.-based research and development (R&D) teams at Honda.”
Tuesday’s announcement confirmed that the Honda Auto Development Center in Raymond, Ohio will assist with sled development and performance efficiency, and wind-tunnel testing is already being done at Honda Automotive Laboratories of Ohio (HALO), in East Liberty, Ohio.
The partnership is branded for Acura, Honda’s “premium performance division,” and is a welcome assist for USABS, for the Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina in 2026 and French Alps 2030.
● Cycling ● No change in the leaderboard at the 112th Tour de France after Wednesday’s 11th stage, a hilly, 156.8 km route in and around Toulouse, with Jonas Abrahamsen (NOR) winning the final sprint with Mauro Schmid (SUI), both in 3:15:56.
Race leader Ben Healy (IRL) was 24th, in a large pack that finished 3:28 back, including nos. 2-3-4 Tadej Pogacar (SLO: +0:29, who survived a small crash), Remco Evenepoel (+1:29) and Jonas Vingegaard (DEN: 1:46).
Expect fireworks on Thursday with a brutal, 180.6 km double climb, finishing with a climb from 456 m to 1,519 m at the Hautacam ski resort in the Pyrenees! An uphill Individual Time Trial follows on Friday.
● Fencing ● USA Fencing announced Poplin as the “Official Laundry Service” of the federation. How is that supposed to help? Here’s the pitch:
“The service’s convenient app lets you schedule a pickup, hand off your sweaty gear to a trusted Poplin Pro, and get it back fresh and folded as soon as the next day. Translation: you can schedule a pickup from your hotel during a NAC [North American Cup], snag a mid-trip ‘laundry refresh,’ and still fly home Monday morning with clothes that smell sweet, not sour. It’s also a great option for officials and coaches who spend long stretches away from home and need a quick clothes reset.”
Now, that’s service that geared to the needs of your customers!
● Freestyle Skiing ● Sad news from Norway, where Audun Groenvold, 49, who won a 2005 Worlds bronze in Ski Cross and a 2010 Olympic Winter Games bronze, died Tuesday night after being hit by lightning on 12 July (Saturday).
Following his skiing career, he had been involved in coaching, selling sports equipment and as a television analyst. He is survived by his wife Kristin, and three children.
● Swimming ● Familiar faces topped the podium at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, with the men’s and women’s 10 km open-water races both finally held at a water quality delay, but in hot conditions of about 85 F or even a little higher on Wednesday afternoon.
The men’s race saw Tokyo Olympic 10 km winner Florian Wellbrock (GER) was at or near the lead for most of the race and had teammate Oliver Klemet for company on the final lap, with Kyle Lee (AUS) and Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) following.
The Italian moved up to second, but was never able to challenge Wellbrock, who won his third Worlds 10 km gold (also in 2019 and 2023) in 1:59:55.5, with Paltrinieri, the 2022 World Champion, second in 1:59:59.2, his eighth career Worlds open-water medal (2-5-1).
Lee outlasted Klemet for third, 2:00:10.3 to 2:00:10.4; Joey Tepper was the top American, in 12th at 2:01:53.8. Of the 78 starters, 16 did not finish or were lapped.
The women’s race was all about Australia’s Moesha Johnson, the Paris Olympic silver winner. She had the lead by the third of six laps and maintained a steady lead over Italy’s Ginerva Taddeucci and Monaco’s surprising Lisa Pou, who separated from the rest of the chasers on the final lap. At the touch, Johnson won by 2:07:51.3 to 2:07:55.7 to 2:07:57.5. It’s Johnson’s first individual Worlds medal; Taddecci moved up one position from her Paris Olympic bronze last year, while Pou got her first career Worlds medal.
Mariah Denigan was the top American, finishing 14th in 2:11:54.1; 16 of the 69 starters did not finish.
● Table Tennis ● As a follow-up to hosting its first United States Smash in Las Vegas last week, the International Table Tennis Federation and its commercial arm, World Table Tennis, announced Tuesday that a combined business and training center will be launched in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.
This is part of a grow-the-game effort in the U.S. and the Pan American region by the ITTF, with the commercial and federation activities opening by the end of 2025 and the WTT Global Training Center in the second quarter of 2026.
● Water Polo ● Group play in the men’s tournament at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore concluded on Wednesday, with Italy, Spain, the U.S. and defending champ Croatia all finishing at 3-0.
The play-in games to the quarterfinals will be held on Friday (18th) and the quarters on the 20th (Sunday), with the U.S. facing the winner of Paris Olympic champ Serbia (2-1) and Japan (1-2).
● Wrestling ● USA Wrestling confirmed a dual meet of younger national men’s Freestyle team members against Russia on Monday (21 July) in Budapest (HUN), in coordination with the Professional Wrestling League:
“The teams are meeting in a neutral site in Budapest due to the logistical convenience for both federations. Some of the U.S. athletes in the dual meet also will compete in the Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial UWW Ranking Series Event in Budapest, July 17-18. Based upon the success of PWL 9, there is hope that more dual meets can be organized, including a return to matches in Russia and the United States.”
United World Wrestling allows Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as “neutrals” under the UWW flag; those who have shown support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are considered ineligible.
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