Olympic basketball pairings announced
What about an early Olympics matchup where Joel Embiid could potentially guard Nikola Jokic? Or will it be another early game, a rematch of the women's gold medal match at the Tokyo Olympics?
The same will be true for the U.S. men's and women's basketball teams after the draw for the Paris Olympics was announced Tuesday.
The men's team will be joined by qualified teams from Serbia, ranked fourth in the world, South Sudan, and Puerto Rico, which include NBA players such as Jokic.
The women's team will be in the same group as Japan (the team the USA defeated in the gold medal match at the Tokyo Olympics), Belgium and Germany.
Both men's and women's teams will be divided into three groups of four, with the top two teams and the top two third-place teams advancing to the quarterfinals.
The other groups for boys are as follows. Group A — Australia, Canada, Spain qualifier, Greece qualifier. Group B — Winners of Germany, France, Japan and Latvia qualifiers.
The other groups in the women's division are as follows: Group A — China, Spain, Serbia, Puerto Rico; Group B — Australia, Canada, France, Nigeria
IOC bans Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in opening ceremony parade
Athletes from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics, but only as neutral athletes and not as representatives of their countries, a measure imposed by the International Olympic Committee after the invasion of Ukraine.
In light of this, the IOC announced on Tuesday that these athletes would not be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony parades scheduled along the Seine in Paris. This will be the first time that athletes from each country will be paraded on boats during the opening ceremony, rather than just walking into the stadium.
The IOC said athletes from Russia and Belarus will be able to experience the event by watching as fans, but will not be able to participate. Russian officials were not at all happy with this decision.
“Of course, this is a destruction of the ideals of Olympism. According to the ESPN article, this is a violation of the interests of Olympic athletes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Of course, this is completely contrary to the entire ideology of the Olympic movement and does not give a good impression to the IOC.”
Last week, the Russian Olympic Committee announced it would not boycott the Paris Games, despite an IOC order that athletes must compete as neutral competitors. Neutral athletes are only allowed to compete in individual competitions. Teams from Russia or Belarus cannot participate.
Brisbane focuses on stadium plans for 2032
Brisbane, Australia, host of the 2032 Summer Olympics, is already mired in debate over what to do with its flagship stadium when it's its turn to host the games.
Organizers had originally wanted to demolish and rebuild the famous cricket ground and hold the opening and closing ceremonies there, but they decided against that idea due to concerns that it would be too expensive.
One alternative was to build a brand new stadium costing more than $2 billion, but this plan was also rejected.
Instead, organizers decided to renovate an existing rugby stadium near downtown Brisbane to host the opening and closing ceremonies. Another existing stadium will also be renovated for track and field.
The cost of renovating the two stadiums is reported to be $66 million, which is well in line with the IOC's new goal of making the Games more cost-effective for host cities.
