Haas earns third gold at world meet
2 Longhorns help U.S. women win silver in basketball.
Texas swimmer Townley Haas picked up his third gold medal and fifth overall Sunday at the world championships.
Team USA won the gold in the 400-meter medley relay on the meet’s final day at Budapest, Hungary, but Haas earned his medal by competing in the event’s preliminary round. He helped the team to a top qualifying time of 3 minutes, 29.66 seconds with an anchor split of 47.24 seconds.
The team of Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes, Caeleb Dressel and Nathan Adrian earned the gold medal for Team USA with a time of 3:27.91.
Great Britain won silver in 3:28.95, while Russia rounded out the awards podium in 3:29.76.
Haas also won golds in the 400 freestyle relay and 400 mixed freestyle relay.
Women’s basketball: Texas’ Alecia Sutton had 11 points and three rebounds and Joyner Holmes added seven rebounds in 14 minutes Sunday in Team USA’s 86-82 loss to Russia in the gold medal game of the U19 Women’s World Cup in Italy.
Team USA went 6-1 overall. The silver medal was the team’s ninth medal of all time (seven golds, one silver and one bronze).
Holmes led the U.S. team by averaging 8.7 rebounds during the tournament, and she was third on the team with an average of 9.0 points. Sutton started all seven games, averaging 8.0 points and 3.1 rebounds.
Former Longhorns All-American Kamie Ethridge served as an assistant coach for Team USA.
Track and field: Texas’ Steele Wasik finished 11th in the decathlon at the Thorpe Cup, an annual U.S. vs. Germany combined events competition in Germany.
Wasik, the Big 12 decathlon champion, also posted a personal best in the shot put at 47-1.75, which was tops in the competition.
Germany beat Team USA in the team competition, its 10th Thorpe decathlon title. Team USA has won 13.
Its contribution could jump to at least $2 billion by 2028 because of adjustments to the amount of sponsorship money L.A. would receive.
The city will also have the option of selling domestic sponsorships in any categories that remain unclaimed by the IOC’s international corporate partners.
Olympic officials also waived various payments that could ultimately save L.A. organizers tens of millions. Under normal circumstances, cities awarded the Games must begin preparations immediately but do not receive the majority of their IOC contributions until a couple of years before the opening ceremony. For 2028, the IOC agreed to advance L.A. a $180 million interest-free loan immediately. That is expected to cover the organizing’s committee’s costs for operating an extra four years and pump as much as $160 million into youth sports.
In Olympic circles, such public benefits are referred to as “legacy” and usually occur only after the Games have finished and left town.
Garcetti, who has spoken often in recent weeks about his desire for a more timely impact, predicted that youth programs could see increased funding within 12 months.
“I want something for the people of L.A. now,” the mayor said. “I want the excitement to build.”
But bid leaders seemed most enthusiastic about an element of the agreement that would have to wait until after the closing ceremony.
Their bid estimate includes a $487.6 million contingency — money that would be set aside to pay for the sort of cost overruns that have plagued recent Games, leaving hosts with substantial deficits.
Olympic experts have said that L.A. could be different because its plan relies on existing venues such as Staples Center, Pauley Pavilion and the Coliseum. It avoids spending billions to construct new stadiums and arenas. Further savings would arise from housing athletes and media at UCLA and USC rather than building villages.
If the Games finish at or under budget, the $487 million contingency would convert to a surplus — similar to the one left by the 1984 Los Angeles Games — and L.A. officials have struck a deal to keep most of that money. With the IOC waiving its customary right to 20 percent of any surplus, the resulting amount could total $100 million or more.
Still, accepting the 2028 Summer Games is risky. Politics and economies can make huge shifts over a decade. The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games offered a recent example — the Brazilian economy, booming a few years earlier, suffered a slump that left organizers making last-minute cutbacks and scrambling to pay their bills.
L.A. organizers will also have to renegotiate contracts with all the venues, shifting to a new date. Wasserman said talks are already underway.
Finally, the City Council will have to dive back into the issue after offering its support for 2024 earlier this year. An ad hoc committee is scheduled to reconvene later this week.
Garcetti and Wasserman said they are confident that they can reach an accord with all parties — which include state and federal officials — before the IOC meets in mid-September. At that point, IOC members will be asked to vote their approval and L.A. must sign the revised host city contract, making the deal official.
In a statement, the Paris bid committee welcomed the announcement in Los Angeles but stopped short of confirming the obvious: that Paris is in line for the 2024 Games.