Timeline: Los Angeles’ path to 2028 Olympics

By Nick ZaccardiJul 31, 2017, 2:49 PM EDT

A timeline of Los Angeles’ path to becoming an Olympic host city for the third time in 2028:

Dec. 16, 2014: The USOC announces it will bid for the 2024 Olympics. It names four finalists to be its bid city — Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Jan. 8, 2015: The USOC announces it has chosen Boston to be its 2024 Olympic bid city.

July 27, 2015: Boston drops its 2024 Olympic bid after mayor Marty Walsh refuses to sign a document that could put taxpayers at risk if there are cost overruns. The USOC says it would like to bid for 2024 with a different city, but it has less than two months to submit a bid to the IOC.

Sept. 1, 2015: The LA 2024 Olympic bid becomes official, two weeks before the IOC deadline. It joins Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome as bidders.

Nov. 29, 2015: Hamburg drops its 2024 Olympic bid after a majority of its voting residents opposed the bid.

Feb. 16, 2016: LA 2024 unveils its new bid logo and slogan — “Follow the Sun.”

Oct. 11, 2016: Rome suspends its 2024 Olympic bid after staunch opposition from the city’s new mayor. The bid is never revived.

Dec. 8, 2016: IOC president Thomas Bach doesn’t rule out awarding both the 2024 and 2028 Olympics in 2017, saying the current bidding process produces “too many losers.”

Feb. 22, 2017: Budapest 2024 says it will withdraw its bid, leaving LA and Paris as the only bidders for the 2024 Games set to be awarded in September.

February-March, 2017: Paris 2024 co-bid chief Tony Estanguet is quoted in reports issuing an ultimatum that Paris will accept the 2024 Olympics or nothing. LA bid officials issue no such ultimatum.

May 4, 2017: LA 2024 chairman Casey Wasserman reportedly says the city will not renew its Olympic bid for a future Games if it comes away empty-handed in host city voting this summer.

June 9, 2017: The IOC executive board discusses and recommends both the 2024 and 2028 Olympics to be awarded this summer — one to Paris, the other to Los Angeles, in some order. IOC membership is set to vote to approve the measure in early July.

July 11, 2017: The IOC approves awarding both the 2024 and 2028 Olympics this summer — one to Paris, the other to Los Angeles. Paris is seen as the 2024 favorite, but the move all but ensures the U.S. gets its first Olympics since 2002 (and first Summer Games since 1996). LA, Paris and the IOC will negotiate to try and agree to which city gets 2024 and which gets 2028. If they can’t agree, a scheduled IOC members vote of the 2024 host city will still take place in September.

July 31, 2017: It is announced that LA has reached an agreement to host the 2028 Olympics.

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 7, 2023, 5:18 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

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But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

IOC board recommends withdrawing International Boxing Association’s recognition

Associated PressJun 7, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT

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The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Federation on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.

While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.

IOC members rarely vote against recommendations from their 15-member board and the IBA’s ouster is likely a formality.

The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.

An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”

The IBA criticized what it called a “truly abhorrent and purely political” decision by the IOC and warned of “retaliatory measures.”

“Now, we are left with no chance but to demand a fair assessment from a competent court,” the boxing body’s Russian president Umar Kremlev said in a statement.

The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.

The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the sport or its athletes — just the IBA and its current president Kremlev, plus financial dependence on Russian state energy firm Gazprom.

In a 24-page report on IBA issues published Wednesday, the IOC concluded “the accumulation of all of these points, and the constant lack of drastic evolution throughout the many years, creates a situation of no-return.”

Olympic boxing’s reputation has been in question for decades. Tensions heightened after boxing officials worldwide ousted long-time IOC member C.K. Wu as their president in 2017 when the organization was known by its French acronym AIBA.

“From a disreputable organization named AIBA governed by someone from the IOC’s upper echelon, we committed to and executed a change in the toxic and corrupt culture that was allowed to fester under the IOC for far too long,” Kremlev said Wednesday in a statement.

National federations then defied IOC warnings in 2018 by electing as their president Gafur Rakhimov, a businessman from Uzbekistan with alleged ties to organized crime and heroin trafficking.

Kremlev’s election to replace Rakhimov in 2020 followed another round of IOC warnings that went unheeded.

Amid the IBA turmoil, a rival organization called World Boxing has attracted initial support from officials in the United States, Switzerland and Britain.

The IBA can still continue to organize its own events and held the men’s world championships last month in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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