Olympics
ART MUSEUM REMOVES BUST OF FORMER IOC PRESIDENT OVER “RACIST LEGACY”
BY NEIL SHEFFERD
The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco has removed a bust of former International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Avery Brundage from its foyer because of concerns over his “racist legacy.”
The bust was unveiled by the Asian Art Commission in 1972 and has sat in the foyer since in honour of the institution’s founding patron, as reported by The New York Times.
Brundage, who had represented the United States in 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm in the pentathlon, served as President of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, having joined it as a member in 1936.
Brundage, who died in 1975, opposed the boycott of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, during his time as President of the American Olympic Committee.
There were calls, led by politicians in the US, to boycott the Games because of concerns around the morality of supporting an Olympics in a country led by a Nazi regime.
There was concern in the United States about Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler’s treatment of Jewish people, his belief in the superior race and how Jewish and black athletes representing the US at Berlin 1936 would be treated.
Brundage argued politics had no place in sport claiming: “The Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians.”
In December 1935, the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States voted to send a team to Berlin 1936, with Brundage playing a key in swinging the vote in favour of participation.
The Museum benefactor also expelled African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos from the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City after they raised their fists in support with the Black Power movement on the podium after winning silver and bronze medals in the 200 metres.
Brundage deemed the pair’s actions to be a domestic political statement unfit for the Olympic Games.
Asian Art Museum director Jay Xu claimed they had not fully aware of Brundage’s controversial past until 2016, when staff were preparing for the Museum’s 55th anniversary celebrations.
In an open letter earlier this month, published in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has Black Lives Matter marches all around the world, Xu addressed the thorny issue of the Museum’s history.
“If we pride ourselves as guardians of a historical art collection, we must contend with the very history of how our Museum came to be,” Xu wrote.
“Avery Brundage, whose collection forms the nucleus of this institution, espoused racist and anti-Semitic views.
“We have removed his name from Museum initiatives but have yet to address this history in a fully open and transparent way.
“Only by publicly condemning Brundage’s racism and examining the foundation of our Museum can we become an even greater source of healing and connection.
“Addressing this history is only a modest beginning.
“We must ensure that anti-racist measures are foundational to all Museum work and processes, and to the experience of every visitor.
“Our Museum is still learning how we can nurture the kind of intersectionality that allies us to larger movements and promote change from within our own institution.
“We must engage our communities for guidance, insight, and partnership, and welcome all comments, suggestions, and criticisms.
“In this way, we can evolve into a Museum that is truly for all.”
Brundage, whose wealth was based upon his construction business, had first became interested in Asian art after a visit he made to an exhibition of Chinese art at the Royal Academy in London in early 1936, after the Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which had also been organised by the Nazi regime.
In 1960, it was estimated that Brundage’s collection was worth $15 million (£12 million/€13 million).
Much of Brundage’s collection was based upon stock he had bought which had originally been owned by Japanese dealers in the US that was impounded during World War Two.
He agreed to donate parts of his collection to the City of San Francisco, and in 1966 the Asian Art Museum was opened to showcase it.
Brundage continued to make donations to the new Museum and left the remainder of his collection to it in his will.
Today, the museum has 7,700 pieces from Brundage among the 17,000-plus objects which make up its collection
The bust, which has now been moved into storage, was unveiled on the occasion of Brundage’s 85th birthday, and had an inscription which read: “It is evidence of the lasting appreciation of the people of San Francisco for the magnificent gift to San Francisco of his collection of Asian art.
“The Avery Brundage collection is the nucleus of the city’s collections of Asian art and is the foundation of the centre of Asian art and culture.
“The lives of untold millions of men, women and children of this and future generations will be enriched by his generosity.”
-insdiethegames
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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Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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