Olympics
SEVEN OLYMPIC WINNERS STRIPPED OF GOLD MEDALS
BY LIAM MORGAN
A further seven Russian weightlifters, including two who were stripped of Olympic medals for doping, have been provisionally suspended based on evidence in the McLaren Report and data retrieved from the Moscow Laboratory.
The announcement from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) brings the number of weightlifters from the country to have been charged this week after the governing body received evidentiary packages from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to 12.
Among the latest to be sanctioned by the IWF are Dmitry Lapikov, who claimed the bronze medal in the under-105 kilograms category at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing before he was retrospectively disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Lapikov had earlier been stripped of the 105kg title he won at the 2011 European Championships for doping.
Three-time world women’s 75kg champion Nadezda Evstyukhina, stripped of her Beijing 2008 after retesting of her samples found the presence of banned blood booster Erythropoietin and anabolic steroid turinabol, has also been provisionally suspended.
Lapikov and Evstyukhina are joined on the list by 2017 European under-94 kilograms champion Adam Maligov, European medallists Maksim Sheiko and Yuliya Konovalova, 2013 Summer Universiade bronze medallist Magomed Abuev and Chingiz Mogushkov.
All seven have been provisionally banned pending further investigation.
In a statement announcing the first five athletes to be sanctioned earlier this week, the IWF claimed it had imposed the decisions “in view of the severity of the asserted anti-doping rule violations and compelling nature of the evidence”.
Two-time world champion and London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Ruslan Albegov, 2013 world champion Tima Turieva, David Bedzhanyan and Oleg Chen – who have both won two European titles and three World Championships medals – and Egor Klimonov are the others to have been provisionally suspended.
Chen and Albegov had their provisionally suspensions, imposed on suspicion of doping in November 2017, lifted in February of last year.
The IWF is the second Olympic International Federation to sanction athletes based on evidence obtained from the Moscow Laboratory by WADA.
The first was the International Biathlon Union.
WADA announced last month it had identified 300 athletes with the most suspicious data recovered from the facility in the Russian capital and had sent evidentiary packages on 43 competitors to the relevant world governing bodies.
It is up to International Federations (IFs) to pursue anti-doping rule violations against those found to have been involved.
WADA has pledged to assist IFs to help sanction or exonerate athletes but has also warned it will not hesitate to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if they choose not to act.
The global anti-doping watchdog said earlier this week that the IWF provisionally banning athletes based on the evidence packages provided by its intelligence and investigations department was “an excellent development for clean sport” and “shows justice being brought to those that may have cheated their sport”.
“The agency awaits more such announcements from federations that have commenced results management on the basis of evidentiary packages provided by WADA,” WADA added in a statement.
It is possible more cases could arise from weightlifting as the IWF and the International Testing Agency is conducting a joint investigation into the information handed over to the worldwide body by WADA.
-insidethegames
Tickets for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games will go on sale to the general public on April 9, organisers said on Monday, as LA28 also moved to reassure fans over ticket security by naming a group of verified resale platforms that will begin operating in 2027.
A presale for residents in qualifying areas of Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will begin on April 2, with notification emails for selected buyers set to roll out from March 31 through April 4, LA28 said.
On April 7, the organising committee will notify remaining registrants whether they were selected for a purchase window in the first general sales round, known as Drop 1.
“This week marks the first opportunity for fans to claim a seat at the LA28 Olympic Games,” LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement.
LA28’s ticketing programme will include 1 million tickets priced at $28, the lowest price point. Roughly 5% of the Olympic tickets will cost over $1,000, while more than 75% of all tickets, including finals, will be under $400 and nearly 50% of all tickets will be under $200.
“Tickets are comparable to and in many cases well under what we see for other professional sporting and major entertainment events in the U.S.,” Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28 Senior Vice President, Games Delivery Revenue, told reporters on a call.
RESALE PROGRAMME
Separately, LA28 said its verified multi-platform resale programme would open in 2027, with AXS and Eventim serving as the official secondary ticket marketplace and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets also designated as verified resale platforms.
The announcement comes as organisers prepare for the first ticket drop and seek to warn fans against buying from unauthorised sellers before the resale programme launches.
LA28 said primary tickets would only be sold through its official ticket service providers, AXS and Eventim. It added that any LA28 tickets offered for resale before 2027 should not be considered verified.
“While LA28’s resale platforms will not be launched until 2027, having a variety of platforms was critical to providing fans multiple points of access to verified tickets,” Hoover said.
LOCAL PRESALE
Fans who registered for the LA28 ticket draw and whose billing postal codes fall within qualifying counties were automatically entered into the local presale draw. Those selected will receive 48-hour purchase windows running from April 2 through April 6 and must use a payment method tied to a billing postal code in an eligible county to complete their purchase.
For both the local presale and Drop 1, selected buyers will have 48 hours to purchase tickets, while any tickets placed in a cart must be checked out within 30 minutes. Buyers may complete multiple transactions during their allotted window until they reach the ticket limit.
LA28 said tickets would be available across all Olympic sports, as well as for the opening ceremony at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Fans selected for time slots may buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, plus up to 12 tickets for the soccer tournament that will not count toward the general Olympic-event limit. Ceremony tickets will be capped at four per buyer and will count towards the 12-ticket maximum.
Registrants who are not assigned a time slot in either the local presale or Drop 1 will be automatically entered into future draws, LA28 said. Paralympic tickets are due to go on sale in 2027.
Ticket-inclusive hospitality packages from official provider On Location are also expected to go on sale in April. Visa will be the official payment method for purchases.
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Organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled the event’s official visual identity on Monday, a floral-themed design system meant to reflect the city’s landscape, neighbourhoods and cultural character.
The branding will appear across competition venues, fan areas, citywide installations, signage, digital platforms and broadcast presentations during the Games, LA28 said.
At the centre of the design is the “Superbloom,” a reference to the bursts of wildflowers that can blanket parts of Southern California after periods of rain.
LA28 said the concept was intended as a metaphor for the Games, with years of preparation culminating in a short, high-profile global event.
The core graphic is built around 13 individual blooms, which organizers said represent different elements of Los Angeles, from its entertainment culture to its neighbourhoods, people and native landscape.
The colour palette draws on the Bird of Paradise, the official flower of Los Angeles, and is grouped into four families – Poppy, Scarlet Flax, Bluebell and Sagebrush – to evoke the region’s terrain and vegetation.
Organizers said the typographic style was inspired by Los Angeles street signage, including strip mall and hand-painted storefront lettering, in an effort to give the identity a distinctly local feel.
LA28 said the design was developed to work across a wide range of settings, from nearly century-old venues to new facilities, while also accounting for broadcast requirements, digital formats and lighting conditions. The organising committee partnered with design studio Koto on the project.
The identity was unveiled more than two years before the Olympic opening ceremony in what organizers described as an unusually early rollout, allowing partners and stakeholders more time to incorporate the branding into their materials.
Los Angeles will host the Olympics for a third time in 2028, after staging the Games in 1932 and 1984. It will also host the Paralympics for the first time.
-Reuters
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Organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics said on Monday that registration for the first ticket draw will close on March 18, as the Games begin to take shape with the first baseball qualifiers confirmed and the soccer tournament schedule expanded.
More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due to open on July 14, 2028.
Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.
There will also be a local presale running from April 2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom.
LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.
BASEBALL RETURNS
The ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.
Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger Stadium from July 13-19. The remaining three places will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.
LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to extend the competition window.
Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.
Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.
LA28 said kickoff times and the full schedule would be released later this year.
-Reuters
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