Olympic Times – Sports Daily

A group of women ski jumpers who are suing to have their sport included in the 2010 Winter Olympics received a boost from a Canadian athlete on Wednesday.

Zoya Lynch, a 17-year-old member of Canada’s national team, joined the lawsuit that includes 10 female athletes, most from the United States and Europe, who want women’s ski jumping included at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. No other current members of the team are part of the lawsuit.

Marie-Pierre Morin, 26, a retired ski jumper, is the only other Canadian involved in the lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

sponsor link: Action – bello della blogosfera

“As a Canadian, I don’t want to stand on the sidelines watching the boys compete. The Olympics is where I want to be,” said Lynch, as she stood outside the Vancouver courthouse where her name was added to list of women ski jumpers suing VANOC.

“I just feel we’re being discriminated against because we’re girls,” Lynch said.

At issue is whether women ski jumpers are being discriminated against by being barred from competing at the Games. The plaintiffs argue that allowing men’s ski jumping but not women’s violates their equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The International Olympic Committee has said its decision to exclude women’s ski jumping at the Vancouver Games is based on “technical merit” and isn’t discriminatory. In 2006 the IOC voted not to allow women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Games, saying the sport has not developed enough and that it didn’t meet basic criteria for inclusion.

Read the rest of this entry…

A tournament field of 204 golfers from 24 U.S. Special Olympics programs was joined by family, friends, volunteers, local dignitaries and golf organization executives from across the country to amass nearly 500 participants in Friday night’s Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics Golf National Invitational Tournament. The ninth annual tournament will be conducted at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie through Monday, Oct. 6, 2008.

scambio links gratis

The PGA of America is a five-time host of the national tournament at PGA Golf Club and a 20-year sponsor of the Special Olympics golf program.

Tonight’s program began with the “parade of athletes” where team mates from 24 U.S. Special Olympics chapters marched into the opening ceremony in a tradition synonymous with the Olympics Games.

Emcee responsibilities for the event were shared by Special Olympics global messenger and Port St. Lucie golfer Alex Perry who was joined by Jupiter resident Tim Rosaforte, who is a senior writer for Golf Digest, on-air contributor for the Golf Channel and NBC Sports and a New York Times Best-Selling author.

Read the rest of this entry…

Michael Phelps who claimed a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympic Games said it was harder for him to learn Chinese than to win swimming races.
Before the American came to China for the 2008 Games he seriously took a few Chinese lessons. A popular online video shows how hard he tries to imitate the voice of a Chinese learning multimedia software in saying such basic words as “guo zhi” (juice), “nan hai’er” (boy) and “nu hai’er” (girl).
But still, the 23-year-old rated his Chinese language studies as the most difficult thing he had tried in his life. “Learning Mandarin is even harder than winning eight gold medals in the pool.”
In primary school Phelps took French and German courses, but the swimming ace said, “all the words, characters and pronunciations in Mandarin are so different. All of them are hard to manage.”
He was not the only star athlete trying to learn some Chinese language and culture. When gymnast Nastia Liukin arrived back home in Dallas, Texas, with five medals around her neck, the Russian-born blonde appeared in front of her reception wearing a black T-shirt with two big Chinese characters “Beijing” in the front. (blog)
“The Beijing Olympics have brought world attention to the Chinese civilization and further enhanced the utility of the Chinese language worldwide,” said Zhao Guocheng, the Office of Chinese Language Council International (OCLCI) deputy director general.

Read the rest of this entry…

An Olympic star has admitted assaulting a man in a bar-room fight. The athlete was granted diversion by the court and his identity is a secret.
It is understood officials in the sport were briefed on the incident but it was unclear last night whether New Zealand Olympic officials had also been made aware of the matter.
Suppression orders prevent the Herald on Sunday from revealing the name of the high-profile sportsman, or his sport, but can confirm he competed at the Beijing Olympics.
The athlete and a fellow international sportsman were jointly charged with assault with intent to injure, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
But the serious charge was later downgraded to common assault for the 2006 incident, shortly after the sportsman competed at an international level for New Zealand.
He was dealt with by the courts last year, following the incident during a night out in a New Zealand city.
Last night the athlete and the victim had conflicting stories as to how the fight started.
The victim told the Herald on Sunday the two athletes approached him and a friend in a bar and asked if the pair were gay.
“We said no and tried to laugh it off. But they kept on persisting and making fun of us.
“Eventually I said to [the Olympian]: ‘What about you? You are wearing a pink polo shirt – you must be gay’.”
He said the Olympic athlete then punched him in the mouth and he fell back, hitting his head on a railing.
However, the athlete, through a family friend, said that the victim had started the fight by prodding him in the chest and then slapping him in the face. The athlete had asked the victim about an earring he was wearing and this was taken the wrong way. He had considered pleading self-defence.
The victim claimed the other sportsman then punched the victim’s friend in the face, breaking his jaw, before kicking the victim in the head while he was on the ground. “I was on the floor. There were lots of cuts and blood everywhere.”
The university student said the name suppression “bugs me”.
“I wasn’t happy. He has excelled, he is a hero, everyone thinks he’s a typical Kiwi bloke. But no one knows what he did.”
The athlete was granted diversion after admitting the assault charge, avoiding a conviction as a result.
The Olympic athlete has this year been one of dozens of recipients of a sought-after Prime Minister’s Scholarship. The taxpayer-funded scheme grants athletes up to $10,000 to put towards university fees and $6000 in living allowances.
Sparc chief executive Peter Miskimmin was not available to answer questions as to whether the assault was disclosed in the application, or if it would have jeopardised his chances of receiving the cash award.
A conviction for assault would have jeopardised his chances of representing New Zealand at international level because of overseas visa regulations in different countries.
His companion – a New Zealand representative who also has name suppression – pleaded guilty and was later convicted and discharged. He paid a $3000 fine to the victim.
Court diversion is a scheme by which police withdraw charges if the defendant admits the offending of a minor nature.
When contacted yesterday, the Olympian at the centre of the incident initially denied any knowledge of the incident.
“I think you have got the wrong guy… I don’t know where you got this from,” he said. In a later call, he said he had no comment.
It was confirmed yesterday the Olympian informed his sport’s governing body about the matter shortly after being charged.
The athlete concerned had explained that an altercation had taken place at a bar, punches were thrown and “someone was hurt”, said a person with links to the sporting organisation.

source: nzherald.co.nz

IF Australia’s wheelchair basketballers roll to a medal in Beijing, Brad Ness won’t have much time to celebrate.

Barely a week after the Games end, Ness is due back with his team in Europe, where growing numbers of disabled players are breaking down barriers as full-time professionals.

With a comfortable salary and a free car, apartment and other perks thrown in by his Rome club, athletes such as Ness are enjoying some of the rewards and recognition of able-bodied counterparts.

“Guys are able to live by playing their sport. It’s every athlete’s dream,” said Ness, who has been Australia’s top scorer at the Paralympics.

Ness played the last two seasons in Taranto, where players are local celebrities.

“In Taranto, everyone recognises you and you’re in the paper regularly. We get up to 2000 people at home games. It’s a great atmosphere. You really get the love there,” Ness said.

Pro leagues are already well-established in Spain and Italy, but other countries such as France, Germany and Turkey are also getting into the act.

Professional opportunities in Paralympic sports remain rare, with the basketballers, a handful of track-and-field athletes and competitors on the world wheelchair tennis tour the only ones to have made it big on pro tours.

“Down in Oz it’s still seen as an amateur sport, almost a disabled sport. You only have to come and watch a game to see that we are athletes and we play hard,” Ness said.

The exposure of the Paralympics makes them a proving ground for aspiring professional players, said South Africa’s top scorer Nicholas Taylor.

“(The Paralympics) give us the sort of competition we need to really prove ourselves at the international level and show pro teams in Europe we can hold our own,” said Taylor, who plays semi-pro basketball in Australia.

Catching the attention of a European club can mean salaries of up to E6000 ($8500) a month. Free cars and apartments are typically provided and clubs also pick up incidental costs including international airfares.

“(The packages) are not as much as an (able-bodied) player, but it’s nothing to scoff at,” said Australia’s Shaun Norris, who has two seasons in the Italian leagues under his belt and will switch to a Madrid club after the Games.

“They try to make you just concentrate on basketball and that’s it. That’s what’s so great — to not have a job and just make it 100 per cent basketball and become an even better player.”

from: theaustralian.news.com.au

Result of paralympic women’s 5000m race withdrawn after wheelchair crash

The result of the women’s 5000m T54 race of the Beijing Paralympics was withdrawn and a re-run was ordered after the race was marred by a crash, organizers said on Monday.
Switzerland’s Hunkeler Edith was disqualified and the Jury of Appeal.
Appeal has ordered the re-run of the race to be held on Sept. 12, according to a brief statement on the Beijing Paralympic website.
But the statement did not give further details.
An official from the organization committee said the Jury of Appeal made the decision after some competitors filed appeal.
The crash of athlete’s wheelchairs in Monday’s women’s 5000m race led to the injury of three athletes.
Only five out of the 11 competitors finished the race. Diane Roy of Canada ended first.

Australia’s Paralympic team is aiming to take its all-time medal tally over 1000 at the Beijing Games starting on Saturday.
The team of 170 athletes – 96 men and 74 women – which flew out from Sydney today is the largest team Australia has sent overseas for a Paralympic Games.
And the Australian Paralympic Committee is confident it can collect the 92 medals it needs to take Australia’s tally to 1000 over the past 48 years.
“Its a hard task, but we’re in the running for that and we could win the 1000th medal in these Games,” committee CEO Darren Peters said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
No more specific medal projections would be made so as not to place extra pressure on athletes already feeling the weight of expectation, he said.
The athletes will have a few days to acclimatise to conditions in Beijing before the 13th Paralympic Games, which run from September 6 to 17.
At the Paralympics in Athens in 2004, Australia won 100 medals and came fifth overall with 26 gold, 38 silver and 36 bronze.
China topped the medal tally with 63 gold and 141 medals overall and is expected to considerably exceed their 2004 tally at their home Paralympics.
The team’s best-known athlete Kurt Fearnley, who won gold in the wheelchair marathon in Athens, was impatient to get started.
“It’s been four years in waiting,” Fearnley told AAP.
“I’m putting myself in for individual medals and hopefully I’m on the higher end of the medals.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s wife Therese Rein, an honorary member of the Paralympic team, was at the airport to wish them luck.
“The team is brilliant and the atmosphere and support between athletes is amazing,” she said.
“They’ve all trained really hard and I’m sure they’re going to do brilliantly.”
Ms Rein’s father was an Australian Paralympic athlete in the 1950s.
“He was an archer, he played wheelchair basketball, he played tennis and he swam,” said Ms Rein.
“Sports was really meaningful for him and helped him to be the best he could be.”
Australian Paralympic Committee chairman Greg Hartung said the team was the best away team Australia had ever assembled.
“They are big on talent and big on toughness and we will expect our athletes to perform at peak value for Australia,” he said.

source: smh.com.au

A shot for Olympic gold can be an opportunity of a lifetime for athletes. But for companies that spent heavily on advertising and marketing at the Olympics, the Beijing Games offered a different kind of golden opportunity: the chance to advertise their goods to a worldwide audience and for more exposure to consumer-rich China.
“Until China, never before has the market potential of the host country on its own been viewed as possibly worth the significant investment,” says Julius Roberge of branding company Siegel + Gale.
Twelve companies from a variety of industries acted as worldwide Olympic sponsors for the 2008 Games, while others sponsored individual teams or athletes.
Of the represented industries, three stood out as successes — sportswear, media and food and beverage — in their bids to seize worldwide recognition for their brands to boost sales and profit potential.
Every men’s swimming event was won by an athlete donning the Speedo LZR Racer suit, with 94 percent of all gold medals going to swimmers who wore one.
Speedo International is a unit of privately held Pentland Group, based in London.
Chinese sportswear brand Li Ning also got a boost after its founder lit the flame in the opening ceremony. Shares jumped as much as 13 percent during the Olympic Games.
“Li Ning might well have been the official sponsor for the games, in our opinion,” says Stifel Nicolaus analyst Thomas Shaw.
Audiences returned to watching broadcast TV to view their favorite events, even as Internet downloads of the competition surged.
General Electric (GE), the parent company of NBC, had the exclusive broadcast rights for the 17-day games. The network averaged 27.7 million viewers a night for its prime-time coverage, which was higher than the averages for both the 2004 and 2000 Olympics.
Food and beverage companies, meanwhile, were awarded with strong advertising and marketing relationships, including a Kellogg (K) deal with gold-medalist swimmer Michael Phelps and Coca-Cola’s (KO) unity-themed marketing campaign featuring Chinese basketball star Yao Ming.

source: seattletimes.nwsource.com

The real He Kexin‘s age! two gold medal stolen by the cheating Chinese?
There has been a controversy as to He Kexin’s actual age. Her 2008 passport and the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) list her date of birth as January 1, 1992, which would make her 16 years, during the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies and therefore old enough to compete. However, before the 2008 Olympics, He’s age was reported by the Chinese press, including the state news service, Xinhua, as 13 in 2007 and 14 in 2008 in news articles that were later taken off-line. Her birth date has also been given on several registration lists of the General Administration of Sport in China, the Chengdu Sports Bureau and other registration sources as “1994-1-1″ (January 1, 1994), which would make her 14 years old during the Opening ceremonies, and therefore too young to participate in the 2008 Summer Olympics.In addition, in a November 2007 speech in Wuhan, Chinese sporting official Liu Peng introduced He as a 13-year-old.
Chinese officials have denied the allegations, stating in August 2008 that Xinhua had not confirmed He’s age before filing their news reports. He herself, speaking to reporters after the Olympic team final, noted, “my real age is 16. I don’t pay any attention to what everyone says.” On August 2, the International Olympic Committee stated that they would not investigate the discrepancy in He’s reported age, stating that the FIG’s own verification system would be acceptable proof of eligibility. The FIG, in responding to the situation, stated that they would not ask for additional proof of age beyond the passport already supplied by Chinese officials.

How old are you He Kexin?

However, the matter continues to be a source of controversy among members of the gymnastics community and the media. The Times reported that a computer expert “Stryde” working for a New York based firm called the Intrepidus Group was able to access cached pages on the search engine Baidu showing He to be underage after websites concerning the athlete on the search engine Google were blocked.
On August 21, the IOC announced that, in light of the new evidence, they had asked the FIG to reopen the investigation into He and her teammates’ ages. On Friday August 22, 2008, the IOC said they had not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing “so far” and expressed confidence that the Chinese Federation’s documents were correct. However, the FIG held an emergency meeting about the situation on August 23 and requested additional documentation for every gymnast on the Chinese team, with the sole exception of team captain Cheng Fei. On August 24, a Chinese official addressed the registration lists found online, stating that the discrepancy was due to an administrative error which took place when He was transferred between teams while participating in the InterCity Games in 2007.The FIG has not set any official timeline on closing the investigation, stating on August 23, “this process may take some time, but in due course, the FIG will make a full report of our findings to the International Olympic Committee.” The IOC confirmed on August 28 that the FIG investigation was still active and in progress.

How hacker found proof of He Kexin’s age

In his spare time Mike Walker likes to find things on web servers that were never meant to be found.

On Monday, after curiosity got the better of him, the 33-year-old computer security consultant toiled for hours without success, as he tried to dig up more information about the allegedly under-aged Chinese gymnast He Kexin.
On Tuesday, after redefining the parameters of his Google Hack, he hit the jackpot. Bingo! The mother lode.
On Google’s cache he found evidence of a record of He Kexin’s birth on a spreadsheet belonging to the General Administration of Sport of China – the country peak sports body.
But the data had been removed.
On the Chinese search engine Baidu, he went one better. He found two caches of Excel spreadsheet which had been published on the web and both of them showed He Kexin’s birthday as January 1, 1994.
The cache is the snapshot of web pages crawled by search engine spiders which map the web and database their findings.
The following day on Google’s Chinese search engine, google.com.cn, he found yet more cached spreadsheets from the General Administration of Sport of China also showing the birth date as January 1, 1994.
This would make the tiny gymnast – who won two gold medals at the Olympics – 14 years old. Her Olympic credentials list her birth date as January 1, 1992, which would make her 16.
Regulations that were introduced in 1997 by the world gymnastics federation require gymnasts to turn 16 in the year of the Games to be eligible to compete.
“I spent a large amount (of time) failing (to find anything) and a small amount succeeding,” Walker, who works for the Washington DC-based Intrepidus Group.
“It takes a little bit of faith to believe that you can find something out there and sometimes it pays off.
“I put it on Blogger (a free Google blog service) and went out to dinner and the world came calling.”
As a direct result of Walker’s findings and the resulting press coverage that it sparked, the International Olympic Committee yesterday announced that it had called for a review of the age falsification allegations surrounding China’s dual gold medal-winning gymnast.
“We have asked the gymnastics federation to look into what have been a number of questions and apparent discrepancies on this case. And they’ve been working with the [Chinese] national federation … to have a full clarification on this topic,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told a news conference yesterday.
Late last night, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) issued a statement saying that it had widened its inquiry into the age falsification claims.
The federation said it had asked the Chinese Gymnastic Association to submit further documents testifying to the birth dates of He Kexin and four fellow gymnasts – Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Deng Linlin and Yang Yilin.
“On receipt of these documents, the FIG will forward its conclusions to the International Olympic Committee. It is in the interests of all concerned, not least the athletes themselves, to resolve this issue once and for all,” the statement said.
Walker is still surprised by the reaction to his findings. “It’s become the centre of a maelstrom and international media attention,” he said.
“I never set out to change the course of the Olympics; I set out as I always do, a curious researcher, intent on the search for truth and the knowledge I could acquire along the way,” he said in a blog post.

The governing body of world gymnastics has demanded additional documentary evidence to prove that five gold medal-winning China gymnasts were old enough to compete in the Olympic Games.

The Chinese Gymnastics Association has been asked to supply further evidence to prove the birthdates of Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Deng Linlin, Yang Yilin and He Kexin, after more questions emerged over the stated ages of He and Yang.
The five competitors won gold medals in the team gymnastics event, while He became the darling of the host nation after she won gold on the uneven bars and Yang picked up two bronze medals in individual events.
A US computer expert told The Times on Thursday that he had uncovered Chinese government documents proving that He and Yang were only 14. Both appeared to have been registered as two years younger in previous years.
The online documents were the latest pieces of evidence to have emerged in recent months suggesting that the two athletes were two years beneath the minimum age of 16, in a sport where younger gymnasts are thought to have an advantage, being more flexible and thus better able to perform more difficult routines.
In a statement issued last night, the International Gymnastics Federation said that it was demanding additional evidence from the Chinese association “to resolve this issue once and for all”.
The federation did not specify precisely what documents it would require to satisfy itself that the two gymnasts were eligible. However, Lu Shanzan, China’s coach, said that the documents that had now been passed to the federation included He’s present and former passport, her ID card and family residence permit.
Lu said that all of these documents showed her to have been born in 1992 and complained that coaching staff and the girl’s parents were indignant and upset at the investigation. “Surely it’s not possible that these documents are still not sufficient proof of her birth date,” he said. “The passports were issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The identity card was issued by China’s Ministry of Public Security. If these valid documents are not enough to clarify this problem, then what will you believe?”
The investigation has not been reported in the state newspapers. Leading Chinese news websites also failed to cover the story, and yesterday sites running reports of the inquiry appeared to have been closed down. Even the debates of the issue in Internet chat rooms, which raged yesterday morning, disappeared in the afternoon as site-hosting companies moved to censor what could be a sensitive topic.
Some web commentators blamed the Americans for the inquiry and called for a retaliatory investigation of Michael Phelps, the US swimmer, who won eight gold medals at the Water Cube. Others were not surprised by the controversy. One wrote: “They will certainly now say that reports that she was 13 in 2007 were incorrect – so that she keeps her gold medal” – an apparent reference to a theory that He might previously have registered as younger than she was, in order to compete in a Chinese competition.
“Plank of Wood” commented: “Changing one’s age in China, especially in the past, is very common. When I was at school I changed my age to get into the class I wanted. Later I changed it back.” All of these comments had vanished from the web by the afternoon.
The latter point was repeated by a former Chinese sportsman yesterday. He told The Times that in his youth he had once changed his age to participate in competition with younger players. “It used to be very common, but it is getting less and less so,” he said.

How would you strip athlete of a medal?
Under statute of limitations rules, the IOC and other sports bodies can go back eight years to request the return of medals and nullify competition results. This means that even if the He Kexin case becomes a protracted affair, as is likely, the Committee has until 2016 to decide if it wishes to act on the findings of the investigation by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique.
However, once a decision has been reached, action is usually swift. When last year Marion Jones, the American five-time 2000 Olympic champion, admitted using steroids, she was officially stripped of her medals within weeks.
Given that the IOC is based in Lausanne, on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the usual method of return once the Games have ended is by postal courier. Two athletes have handed their medals straight back in Beijing – Ara Abrahamian, the bronze-medal winning Greco-Roman wrestler from Sweden, and Jong Su Kim, the North Korean shooter who won bronze and silver.
After disqualification, standings are normally readjusted, with the second-place finisher moving up to gold, third to silver and fourth to bronze.

As support for Tokyo 2016 continues to rise across all sections of Japanese society, the country’s Beijing 2008 Olympic medal-winning wrestlers today threw their considerable strength behind Japan’s Bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
At an official meeting with Tokyo Governor and President of Tokyo 2016, extremist right-wing Shintaro Ishihara, and Tokyo 2016 Chairman and CEO, Dr Ichiro Kono, the Olympians endorsed the Bid’s vision to host the most compact Games in Olympic history around iconic urban features at the heart of Japan’s vibrant capital city.
Gold medalists, Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho, silver medallists, Chiharu Icho and Tomohiro Matsunaga, and bronze medallists, Kyoko Hamaguchi and Kenichi Yumoto, were keen to pass on insights from their recent experience to help Tokyo 2016 enhance a Games plan that places the needs of elite athletes at its very core.
Ms Saori Yoshida, 2008 Olympic champion wrestler and member of the Tokyo 2016 Athletes’ Commission said:”The Beijing Games was an unforgettable experience. I want to help share this indescribable experience with the people of Japan, who are long-term supporters of the Olympic Games. I look forward to sharing Tokyo¡¯s unique culture and passion for sports with the world and to winning a medal in all classes of competition when the Games come to Tokyo in 2016.”
Ms Kyoko Hamaguchi, 2008 Olympic bronze medallist and Tokyo 2016 athlete ambassador said: “As athletes, the Olympic Games experience is the pinnacle of our dreams, hopes and aspirations. The chance to competing again in my home nation is would be more incredible still, and I am sure that Tokyo 2016′s uniquely compact, sustainable concept would make it a memorable Games for all of the athletes involved.”
Unfortunately Japan is not a country that welcomes foreigners. There was exceptional police and security personnel at the Soccer world Cup in 2002 and media warned Japanese citizen to be cautious of the foreigners coming to see the soccer games.

Dr Ichiro Kono, Chairman and CEO of Tokyo 2016, said: “We would like to thank the Japanese wrestling team for their committed support for Tokyo 2016 and congratulate them on their success in Beijing, where they inspired millions of people in Japan and across the world. Hosting the Games at the heart of Tokyo would lead to an incredible sporting, environmental and infrastructural legacy for the city, and set a precedent for urban evolution for the benefit of cities across the globe.”

Japan in it’s Human Rights problem is far behind any civilized country and should definitively not host any international sport event! Olympics should bring Olympic spirit and Japan is not at this time rife to go along international law.
To the IOC i like to advise not to do the same mistake as was made to China: award the Olympic games under promises. China didn’t go along with the promised it did. If Japan want to host the Games then, and only then, it should go along some basic rules and international laws. Only when past promises from Japan in the international scheme where fulfilled and new promises to safeguard human rights will be recognized should a candidacy be taken into consideration.

IOC: don’t take bribes from the Japanese and Tokyo government!

They will try to bribe you as in the past with the Nagano winter games! Let the sporting world have some credibility!

Angel Valodia Matos from Cuba, gold medalist of the Sydney Olympics, is to face life ban from international competitions by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), according to an announcement by WTF on Saturday.
The WTF’s recommendation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) included the disqualification of the athlete from the fifth place in the final classification and as further sanctions on the athlete and coach exclusion from future WTF-promoted and WTF-sanctioned events.
“It’s not a final decision. It has been recommended to the IOC. A final decision will be coming from the IOC,” said WTF secretary general Yang Jin-suk.
Matos, 32, is punished for attacking the judge. His coach was sanctioned due to the same reason.
The announcement came half an hour after the incident during the bronze-competing match in heavy weight level, when Matos, with a lead of 3-2, got injured in the second round and received medical treatment.
Taekwondo competition rules stipulate that medical treatment of an athlete should be limited to within one minute, otherwise the opponent would be announced as winner.
The Swedish judge Chakir Chelbat believed that time was up and hence decided that his opponent, Arman Chilmanov from Kazakhstan, succeed.
Matos’ coach rushed onto the mat to argue with the judge, and the sturdy athlete shook his finger at the latter in dissatisfaction.
The something rendered spectators gapemouthed.
The coach hit Chelbat with his fist, while the rash athlete attacked the Swedish with an axe kick on the head.
The chaos lasted for a few seconds until other referees went over to separate the trio. People watching the match stood up astonishment.
Fairness in judgement has become a problem at the Olympic arena of taekwondo.
Earlier in the afternoon, British athlete Sarah Stevenson filed a protest against the ruling of Chinese Chen Zhong’s victory, which caused no small a fuss among people. Finally the judgement was reversed.
Yang said the WTF will “maximize its efforts to minimize the human factors” in judge errors, indicating that an electronic scoring system will be fully used in the future.

from: xinhuanet.com

Dubbed “Sky, Earth and Human Beings,” the emblem of the Beijing Paralympics is a stylized figure of an athlete in motion, implying the tremendous efforts a disabled person has to make in sports as well as in real life. With the unity and the harmony of “sky, earth and human beings,” the emblem incorporates Chinese characters, calligraphy and the Paralympic spirit. It embodies the Paralympic motto of “Spirit in Motion” and reflects the integration of heart, body and spirit in human beings — the core of the philosophy of Chinese culture. The three colours in the emblem represent the sun (red), the sky (blue) and the earth (green).

Blanka Vlašic (born November 8, 1983 in Split) is a Croatian high jumper and current world champion. Her personal best jump of 2.07m (also a national record) was set on August 7, 2007. Only two other women (one indoor and one outdoor) have jumped higher than this. She jumped over 2 metre in 49 competitions, which ranks her third, behind Kajsa Bergqvist (52) and Stefka Kostadinova (197). She is known for striking a pose after she clears a height; she first did this in the IAAF World Championships in Osaka 2007. She is six feet and four inches (1.93 m) tall, taller than most male high jumpers.
As of 2007, Vlašic is the world’s top-ranked high jumper, as well as being first in the overall rankings.
Vlaši? used to be coached by her father Joško, a former decathlete, whose personal best, set in 1984, still stands as the Croatian national record; the two are a rare example of father and daughter simultaneously holding athletics national records. She is currently coached by Bojan Marinovic.

During the 2007 season, Vlašic jumped over two metres in seventeen of her nineteen outdoor competitions, along with several close attempts at a would-be world record of 2.10 m.

Vlasic also won eighteen out of nineteen outdoor competitions, with her only loss coming early in the season at the first Golden League meeting. As the women’s high jump was a jackpot event this year, had Vlaši? won here, she would have won (along with Russian Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and American sprinter Sanya Richards) a share of the Golden League jackpot ($1,000,000).

Vlašic’s consistency over two metres, and consistency at the first attempt, this season, put her as a firm favourite to challenge for honours at August’s World Championships and she proved the expectations had been right. She became a world champion with a jump of 2.05 m.

In early October, Vlašic was named female European Athlete of the Year by the European Athletic Association after the combined votes of a panel of experts, a group of journalists and the public.
She is the first Croatian athlete and the first high jumper to win this award.

Vlašic’s only loss of the outdoor season came at the Golden League meeting in Oslo. This cost her a share of the $1,000,000 jackpot, which was shared between Sanya Richards and Yelena Isinbayeva.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, Vlasic won the silver medal, beaten by the Belgian Tia Hellebaut (both cleared 2.05m, but Vlaši? needed one more attempt than Hellebaut). This ended her recent unbeaten streak of 34 competitions.

source: Wikipedia

- A Cuban taekwondo athlete and his coach were banned for life after Angel Matos kicked the referee in the face following his bronze-medal match disqualification.
Cuban coach Leudis Gonzalez offered no apology for Matos’ actions during the men’s over-80 kilogram (176 pounds) match.

Matos was winning 3-2, with 1:02 in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov. He was sitting there, awaiting medical attention, when he was disqualified for taking too much injury time. Fighters get one minute, and Matos was disqualified when his time ran out.

Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge, then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden. Matos then spat on the floor and was escorted out.

“He was too strict,” Gonzalez said, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him money.

“This is a strong violation of the spirit of taekwondo and the Olympic Games. The sanctions are the following and are effective immediately: Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the (World Taekwondo Federation) and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased,” said the announcer, reading a WTF release.

In his first match, Matos defeated Italy’s Leonardo Basile, then beat China’s Liu Xiaobo 2-1 in the quarterfinals. But he lost to South Korean Cha Dong-min in the semis to land in the bronze-medal match.

“To me it was obvious he was unable to continue,” Chilmanov said. “His toe on his left foot was broken.”

Matos won the gold medal in this division at the 2000 Sydney Games, dedicating the victory to his mother, who died on the day of the opening ceremony. At the 2004 Athens Games, he finished 11th.

from: foxsports.com

Ilchenko, who was often seen sitting behind the leaders and making a move in the last kilometer in world championships, repeated the “trick” at the Olympics and successfully took the gold away from British swimmers Cassandra Patten and Keri-Anne Payne.

The two British swimmers led the race shoulder to shoulder during most part of the race with Ilchenko following behind. But the Ilchenko speeded up in the last 400 meter and surpassed the two British to finish the race first in one hour 59 minutes and 27.7 seconds.

Payne finished second in 1:59.29.2 and world championships silver medalist Patten came third in 1:59:31.0.

Ilchenko has dominated open water swimming since 2004, winning five consecutive 5km world championships and three consecutive 10km races. She is known for her ability to win in all water conditions and temperatures.

“It was a tough race. I was trying to convince myself that it was a training test. It took a lot of willpower to convince myself. But I did it,” Ilchenko said after the race.

Questioned whether her tactic of coming behind is unfair to other swimmers, Ilchenko said “it doesn’t bother me in the least.”

“It’s a competition after all and the best athlete wins. How can I just stop and let somebody else win? How can I let other girls take my medal?” said she. “I actually worked as hard as anybody else and I don’t think it’s a question at all.”

British Payne was apparently elated with a silver medal. She was stung in the mouth by a jellyfish while leading the 10km open water event at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. She was forced to stop for a gel drink and eventually finished 11th.

“It has not sunk in at all, but I’m so pleased to have a silver medal. I might have a little cry later,” she Payne.

But her teammate Patten was in tears when facing the media one hour after the race, seemingly still angry at the confrontation with Germany’s Angela Maurer at the conclusion of the race.

“Some things do happen in races and I think a lot of it is unsportsmanlike. But after races emotions can run high. That’s all I want to say about it. I don’t want to sit and slag anybody else off. At the end of the day I have the medal,” she said.

The open-water event is slated to the 2008 Olympic Games for the first time. It is also referred to as a “wrestling match in water” due to the aggressive techniques employed in competing in the sport. Competitors often knock into each other as they fight for position around the marker buoys and at the feeding stations.

“Ten kilometers is a long distance and there are a lot of girls in quite a short distance and in a short space. At the start, you have clashes on and when you are swimming you knock on each other. That does happen, that is the hard part of the race,” Patten said.

Ilchenko also complained about the clashes in the race. “It’s difficult. I myself had to clash on numerous occasions, especially with the swimmers from Brazil. The last stretch was particularly difficult. I had to via away all the time.”

Ilchenko was given a yellow card warning during the race. But she said she didn’t know it. “I didn’t see I was given a yellow card. Perhaps at the time when I was trying to break away from the two Brazilian swimmers who were quite aggressive, sometimes bordering on being unsportsmanlike. This is swimming after all, not boxing.”

The combative and aggressive nature of the open water event has failed quite some superfish in the pool. Australia’s “long distance king” Grant Hackett was disqualified when trying to get a berth in the race in Beijing at the 2008 World Championships.

“Even if you are a super star, it doesn’t mean anything when it comes to open water,” Ilchenko said.

South Africa’s Natalie du Toit, the first amputee qualified to swim the 10km open water race at the Olympics, ranked 16th.

“For me this is dream come true. I think I’m a bit upset as I wanted to come in the top five. But I even couldn’t get out of the water at the finish, so I’ve done everything I possible could. I’m glad it’s over,” she said.

“Hopefully I’ll be back for 2012 (London Olympics), where I’ll be hoping for a top five place,” she said.

source: mathaba.net

Olympic pursuit king Bradley Wiggins seems more than ready for the challenge of equaling a 100-year-old British record when he aims for a third gold medal in Tuesday’s Madison here at the velodrome.
But the 27-year-old Londoner hasn’t even thought about the fact that in doing so, he will become the most decorated Olympic cyclist ever.
Wiggins’ bid for a third gold in Beijing could be the hardest he faces during a campaign that has seen him take his gold tally to three for a total of six since his Olympic debut in Sydney.
If Wiggins and Madison partner Mark Cavendish win the Madison, Wiggins will become the first British athlete to win three gold medals at a single Games since swimmer Henry Cotton took triple gold at London Games in 1908.
Minutes later, Wiggins’ feat could be quickly emulated by Scotland’s Chris Hoy, if he makes it through the final and triumphs.
But if Wiggins wins just a medal, it will be his seventh – and allow him to surpass American Burton Downing’s all-time Olympic track cycling medal haul of six, all won at the St. Louis Games in 1904.
Already happy to help Britain smash their own world record on their way to Britain’s first team pursuit gold in 100 years on Monday, Wiggins will now brush down his Madison bike in a bid for a third.
“At this stage, it’s got to be gold,” said Wiggins, whose stamina and endurance have been pushed hard in recent days, and will be pushed to another level in the chaotic 50km Madison.
“But we’ll see, the Madison is the hardest of the lot. You can have a crash early, anything can happen.
“We’ll be strong, we’re world champions. We just have to play it right and make sure we don’t lose a lap early on like we did at the world championships.”
It was at the world championships in Manchester that Wiggins last used a Madison bike, as opposed to the speed machines he uses for the pursuit events.
Cavendish arrived a few days ago for his only race at the Olympics. After after a stunning Tour de France campaign, where he made some history by winning four stages, the Manxman is apparently itching to go.
“I haven’t even touched my Madison bike since the worlds, so I better get that out of the bag,” added Wiggins, who admitted he had less sleep on Sunday night than he would have liked.
“Cav woke me up this morning just messing around the apartment and making noise. He’s running around like a school kid! But he’s up for it.
“We’ll have a game plan going into it, but we’ll be ready firing for gold.”
Britain’s gold medal haul stood at five from seven events and nine from a total of 21 at the close of play on Monday.
And Wiggins believes Cavendish’s sprint legs and his pursuiting will combine to add more.
“We’re doing 70km/h there (in the team pursuit), there’s not many people who are going to go faster than that in the Madison,” he added.
“The training we do for that is all sprint-intensive. It worked at the worlds, and we’ve never had a problem in the past in Madison.”

from: afp.google.com

A Swedish wrestler has been disqualified and stripped of his Olympic bronze medal for dropping it in protest.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Ara Abrahamian had been kicked out of the Beijing Games for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony.

Abrahamian walked off the podium and dropped the bronze medal on the mat after taking third in the Greco-Roman 84kg division on Thursday.

He was angry about a disputed penalty call that decided his semifinal match against Italian Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win the gold medal.

The IOC executive board ruled the wrestler’s action amounted to a political demonstration and a mark of disrespect to his fellow athletes.

It said no athlete would receive Abrahamian’s medal.

from: sbs.com.au

Communist China and the western media have been heading for a collision ever since the IOC’s daily press briefings began six days ago and unpleasant questions began to be asked about human rights, press freedoms, empty seats, armored personnel carriers parked outside the Main Press Centre, and assorted trickery and deception during the opening ceremonies.

On Thursday, they collided. East vs. West. Bang.

It began under the persistent questioning of Giselle Davies, director of communications of the IOC, who was repeatedly asked whether the IOC was embarrassed to be in Beijing considering the number of promises concerning press freedoms and human rights the organizers have broken since being awarded the Games seven years ago.
It ended with Wang Wei, chief spokesman for the Beijing Games and secretary general of Beijing 2008 bid committee, making an impassioned defence of the reforms China has made and will make because the Games are being staged here. The collision was inevitable. The world’s media has been itching for a fight every day during the briefings. The two sides are deeply suspicious and mistrustful of each other.

You have to wonder if China fully realized what it was getting into when it agreed to let 20,000 journalists in to cover the Games, considering what only a handful can do to the life of a NHL general manager in Canada.

For example, questioners in recent days have asked why no protests have yet been allowed so far in the three parks set aside for protests; why was a British journalist detained during an incident in downtown Beijing even though he was accredited; why hasn’t a Radio Free Asis correspondent of Tibetan descent been given accreditation for the Games; why was an armoured personnel carrier parked outside the Main Press Centre; why wasn’t the public told that certain elements of the opening ceremonies were faked; why hasn’t any information been provided about the dancer who was seriously injured during a rehearsal for the opening ceremonies; why are the stands empty when all the tickets were supposed to be sold.

It hasn’t made life easy for Wang and the Beijing organizers.

The Chinese have gone to enormous expense and trouble to stage a Summer Games that is unlikely to be equaled, in terms of venues and organization.

Yet, all they’re getting is criticism, which they had to be aware they would get in spades.

It will only get worse on Friday, because the Chinese can’t help shooting themselves in the feet.

Usually, the full transcript of the daily briefing is available on the publicly accessible Beijing Olympics site within hours.

On Thursday, six hours after the briefing ended, only half of the transcript – the one without the rancorous exchange over China’s broken promises – was available.

Highlights of it were available on the Games’ Info 2008 site, but that site is only available to journalists within the press centre and venues.

The Chinese version was also different from the English one and some of the questions were missing.

The trouble on Thursday started when Davies was asked whether the IOC was embarrassed because China hasn’t lived up to its pledges of media freedom and transparency during the Olympics.

Specific complaints in recent days have been over complete Internet access and the inability or unwillingness of officials to reveal how many requests have been made to stage protests and how many have been rejected.

Davies initially offered a roundabout response.

“There was certainly some hope and aspirations made in 2001 to have the Games have a positive impact on the wider social framework and I think we have to note that there have been enormous steps forward in numbers of areas,” she said.

“You’re here to report on the Games. The world is watching, and there will be commentaries made appraising how the Games have had an impact to bring sports, athletes and the world’s attention.

“We are very proud of the fact that these Games are progressing with spectacular sports, spectacular sports venues, operationally running smoothly, and that’s what we’re here for.”

Her questioner, a TV reporter from Great Britain, wasn’t buying the answer and wouldn’t let go, but that’s all he was going to get from her.

“We’re very pleased with how the organizers are putting on a good sports event,” she said.

“That’s what this is. This is an event first and foremost for the athlete and the athletes are giving extremely positive feedback about how they see these Games being held.”

Davies continued to be harangued by her questioner, but Sun Weide, chair of the briefing, seized control of the floor and tried to move on to the next questioner.

Before that could happen, though, the Rutgers-educated Wang, who began his professional career as an English teacher, signaled he wanted to speak.

His message was that for the last 30 years China has been making reforms step-by-step, but it was naive to think that one of the world’s oldest civilizations, with a history of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia, could or would make all the remaining changes in the three-week period of the Olympics.

“I was secretary general of the bidding committee,” said Wang.

“I was confronted with many questions about the opening up and the reform of China, and I did say that the Olympic Games coming to China would help China open up and reform better. And the effects show.

“After 30 years of reform, China is developing quickly. People enjoy more freedom and they have a lot to say and the welfare of people has improved a lot.

“Everybody can see that. The Olympic Games are a great platform. Everybody I see who comes to China for the first time will say to me, ‘China is so different,’ from what they read, what they saw in films, and in newspapers. “People are so friendly. People are living a good life. Everybody is happy. People are optimistic about their future.”

He noted that there are of course exceptions. Not everyone is doing better and some people have been disenfranchised. But it’s important to handle those grievances through the legal process because the country can’t be allowed to fall into “chaos.”

China welcomes the world, he said, and China also welcomes suggestions and constructive criticism.

It’s irritating, he suggested, that some journalists have come only to “peek and be critical, to dig into details and find fault with that.”

But finding flaws, he said, doesn’t mean that China is not trying to fulfill its promises.
“I did not say that China would promise to do whatever with the Games in China,” he said.
“I did not say that.
“But I said that the Games will open up the horizon about China.
“People will see better for themselves what China is like.
“You cannot underestimate the wisdom of the Chinese people.
“If you want to come over here and you want to be critical, it’s alright.
“But you have to believe the majority of the people, otherwise I think you are quite misled.”

from: canada.com