The artist at 60: Sergei Bubka, the original at sport but make it art, thriving, as ever his authentic self

The artist at 60: Sergei Bubka, the original at sport but make it art, thriving, as ever his authentic self

PARIS – So that everyone understands how high Mondo Duplantis went Monday night at Stade de France in winning the Olympic men’s pole vault, a big – and we are talking now a very tall –  giraffe, at the tippy top of its ears, is way, way up there. Like, it’s 20 feet down to the ground.

Born and raised in Louisiana to an American dad and Swedish mom, Duplantis competes for Sweden. On the third of his three tries, having raised the bar a full 15 centimeters from what he had previously cleared easily, the crowd howling, truly one of the best bits of Olympic theater in recent memory, Duplantis went 6.25 meters to win gold and set a new world record – 20 feet, 6 inches.

 The new record was exactly one centimeter over the prior Duplantis mark, 6.24. The man is a showman. Like someone before him.

“I knew he would do it,” said Sergei Bubka, who is now 60 and knows a thing or two about pole vaulting and, at a newish chapter in his professional world, is, now more than ever, thriving, as ever his authentic self.

Paris 2024 women's boxing stirs so much emotion -- can facts take back the moment?

Paris 2024 women's boxing stirs so much emotion -- can facts take back the moment?

PARIS – If they had been running the tournament here at the Paris Games, International Boxing Assn. officials said Monday, the Algerian and Chinese Taipei fighters now in the medal rounds in women’s boxing, both figuring in a worldwide controversy, would never have been in the ring in the first instance.

That’s because, IBA officials said, both Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Yu Ting Lin of Chinese Taipei were disqualified at the 2023 IBA women’s world championships in New Delhi upon DNA tests that showed evidence of XY chromosomes – that is, a marker each is male.

The International Olympic Committee, which is overseeing Paris 2024 boxing, opted to base eligibility on an athlete’s passport. IBA officials suggested Monday that missed the mark, noting that as of June 2023, more than a year before these Paris Games, the IOC knew about the New Delhi DQs.

In boxing, asserted Gabriele Martelle, chair of the IBA coaches commission, “When there is an unfair advantage, people can die.” He also said, “We had two cases of disqualification,” adding a moment later, “They were publicly banned because of the rules.” And: “This is a sport. We have rules. If you cannot comply, I am sorry. It’s not discrimination. It’s just the rules.”

Noah Lyles wins men's 100, and as he falls into her embrace, his mom says, 'I'm so proud'

Noah Lyles wins men's 100, and as he falls into her embrace, his mom says, 'I'm so proud'

Other races, other events, surely command attention. But it is the men’s 100 that produced track and field’s biggest name, Usain Bolt. It is the men’s 100 for which the stadium went dark Sunday night. The crowd went ooh and ahh for a light show.

Then the bright lights came back up.

All eight guys settled into the blocks.

And on this Sunday night, Noah Lyles would silence – after one of the great hype campaigns in American history – every critic.

By five-thousandths of a second.

IBA letter to IOC, June 2023: Boxer's 'DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes'

IBA letter to IOC, June 2023: Boxer's 'DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes'

PARIS – The athlete who has ignited a worldwide controversy in Olympic women’s boxing was disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Assn. world championships in New Delhi after two tests, one in India amid that tournament and a prior test in Turkey in May 2022, “concluded the boxer’s DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes,” according to correspondence the IBA sent in June 2023 – more than a year ago – to the International Olympic Committee.

The June 5, 2023, letter, spotlighting Algeria’s Imane Khelif, reads, “This situation epitomizes the importance of protecting safe sport, and the integrity of sport in which the Olympic Movement is jointly committed to.”

3 Wire Sports has seen the letter and the tests.

The Games as a short play - on the track, the women's 100 prelims, four rounds: 'I'm doing my best'

The Games as a short play - on the track, the women's 100 prelims, four rounds: 'I'm doing my best'

PARIS – There are places that are out there in the Pacific Ocean, and then there is Tuvalu, which is halfway between Hawaii and Australia, a collection of three reef islands and six atolls. All in, maybe 11,000 or so people call Tuvalu home. That makes it the second-least populous country on Planet Earth, behind Vatican City, and the least populous country where English is an official language.

If you put the reefs and the atolls together, you have a land mass of 10 square miles. For comparison, San Francisco is, rounding off here, 47 square miles.

Tuvalu sent two athletes to these Paris Games, both in track and field, and when one of them, 20-year-old Temalini Manatoa, settled into the blocks Friday morning in her heat of the women’s 100 meters, she was shaking from adrenaline and excitement and, if we are being honest, fear. She was scared. She said so. It’s big out there on that track for a young woman from a very small place.

“I’m doing my best,” she said afterward, finishing in 14.04 seconds, a personal best.

Israel's judo team wins two medals on one day: joy and yet unspeakable heartache

Israel's judo team wins two medals on one day: joy and yet unspeakable heartache

PARIS – Thirty-two years ago, at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, a young Israeli, Yael Arad, won her nation’s first-ever medal in judo, a silver in the women’s under 61-kilo class. The very next day, in the men’s under-71 category, another young Israeli, Oren Smadja won a bronze.

The story of Israel at the Olympic Games, its hopes and dreams, particularly in the aftermath of 1972, is and forever will be intertwined with Yael Arad, who is far better known, because history summoned her first, but also Oren Smadja.

On Thursday, amid so much in our world that makes being Israeli at the Olympics extraordinary, with all that word conveys, destiny called again, a mixture of elation and unspeakable heartache as a new generation of Israeli judo players for the first time in that nation’s history won two medals on the same day – Arad now both president of the Israeli Olympic Committee and a member of the International Olympic Committee, Smadja the men’s national team coach.

The hip-gyrating, staying alive beautiful world of racewalk: 'It's a talent,' says Kenyan, finishing 22nd

The hip-gyrating, staying alive beautiful world of racewalk: 'It's a talent,' says Kenyan, finishing 22nd

PARIS — When one thinks of Kenya, does one’s mind skip to – racewalk?

“I believe,” said 36-year-old Samuel Gathimba of Kenya, “I was born a walker.”

He also said, and he has a flair for any number of aptitudes, including expressing himself, “It’s a talent.”

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome anew to the amazing and, if you allow yourself to see it the way it can be, beautiful world of racewalk.

Six medals in some 30 years. Suddenly, two in two days -- hope anew for one of Europe's poorest nations, Moldova

Six medals in some 30 years. Suddenly, two in two days -- hope anew for one of Europe's poorest nations, Moldova

PARIS – By any measure, landlocked Moldova, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans, is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south, Moldova has been buffeted by an array of crises made all the more challenging in the past two years by the war nearby.

Over the past 30 or so years, roughly half the people who once called Modolva home – they’re gone. This exodus, this demographic decline, is so profound the situation is potentially, as a nation, existential. When it gained independence amid the end of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the population of Moldova was more than 4 million. Currently: 2.5 million, and dropping.

Before these Paris Games, Moldova had won a total – since its first appearance, in Atlanta in 1996, as an independent entity – of six medals.

Now, already, here two.

Both in judo. Both bronze.

What does it mean to 'win'? Racked by civil war, team from Yemen says, 'We believe in love and solidarity and humanity'

What does it mean to 'win'? Racked by civil war, team from Yemen says, 'We believe in love and solidarity and humanity'

The national Olympic committee of Yemen's annual budget is about $370,000, all of which comes from outside the country, mostly from the International Olympic Committee. That money supports 16 sports and feeds a staff of 21. Each lives on roughly $200 per month. There is no government funding. “They don’t have the budget anymore,” the secretary general of the Olympic committee, Mohammed Al-Ahjeri, 66, said here Tuesday.

This, though, is not a story about pity for Yemen. Far from it.

This is a story about the true meaning of the Olympics.

What it means, ultimately, to “win.”

Again the soul poet Rodney King: can't we get along? Algerian judo player doesn't show against Israeli

Again the soul poet Rodney King: can't we get along? Algerian judo player doesn't show against Israeli

PARIS – Messaoud Redouane Dris of Algeria is the No. 14-ranked fighter in judo’s men’s under-73 kilo class. He’s the current African champion. A junior African champion. Last year, he took silver at the International Judo Federation Grand Prix in Zagreb, Croatia.  He is the gold medalist at the 2022 Mediterranean Games.

This is a guy who, one would think, by any measure would relish the chance to get on the tatami at his first – very first – Olympic Games.

But no.