Olympic Times – Sports Daily

In a highly unusual show of discord between Olympic leaders, IAAF chief Lamine Diack sharply criticized IOC president Jacques Rogge on Friday for displaying “a lack of respect” for track and field.

Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, issued a strongly worded statement vowing to fight for the “rightful place of athletics at the summer Olympic Games.”

He assailed the International Olympic Committee president for criticizing Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s celebrations in Beijing and for suggesting the Olympic track in London could be ripped up after the 2012 Games.

“Destroying the track would be totally unacceptable,” Diack said.

Diack is scheduled to meet with Rogge in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Nov. 17.

Diack took issue with Rogge for accusing Bolt of excessive showboating and showing a lack of respect to other sprinters after his world-record performances in the 100 and 200 meters.

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CHICAGO may be riding a wave of Obama-mania, but can the American city receive a “yes you can” from the International Olympic Committee to host the 2016 summer Olympic Games?
Bookmakers certainly believe so.
The lengthy process of awarding hosting rights to the Games is well and truly under way as the competing field has been narrowed to a shortlist of four: Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid.
A final decision is to be made on October 9 next year.
Japan’s capital has hosted the Games already — in 1964 — while a Chicago Games would take the Olympics back to the US for the first time since Atlanta in 1996. Chicago has previously bid for the Olympics three times (including losing out to Melbourne for the 1956 Games).
Rio, if successful, would be the first South American city to host the Games.
Previous Brazilian bids have failed due to concerns about lack of modern facilities and security fears. But the country will hope to springboard from the legacy left by hosting the soccer World Cup in 2014.
Madrid lost out to London for the 2012 Games but is bidding again, pushing its sporting culture and stadiums, status as one of the few major European capitals to have never hosted the Games and support from former IOC head Juan Antonio Samaranch.

source: theage.com.au

With Barack Obama in the White House, baseball officials think their sport could have a better chance of getting back into the Olympics.

“If the perception internationally of the United States improves by virtue of his election, then I think the U.S. stature in international sport of every type will be enhanced,” San Diego Padres chief executive officer Sandy Alderson said Wednesday at the general managers’ meetings. “I don’t think the United States has the international stature in sport that it once had.”

Baseball was added as a demonstration sport in 1984 and 1988, then was a medal sport starting in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in July 2005 to drop baseball and softball following the 2008 Beijing Games. When a vote for reinstatement took place the following February, baseball lost 46-42 and softball failed 47-43.

At the time, International Softball Federation president Don Porter said: “I think anti-Americanism was a factor.” Softball was added for the 1996 Atlanta Games.

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Officials aiming to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to Tokyo fear that Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S. presidential election will have a positive effect on the bid of his hometown of Chicago, one of the three rival cities competing with Tokyo to host the Games. ‘‘I wonder how IOC members will react when Mr Obama appears in a presentation for Chicago,’’ Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda said Wednesday.
Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro have moved to the final phase of the selection process after their bid plans were given the nod by the International Olympic Committee in June. The IOC will name the host city of the 2016 Olympics at its general assembly meeting in Copenhagen on Oct 2, 2009. ‘‘Mr Obama is popular and good at speeches, so things could get tough for Japan,’’ said Tomiaki Fukuda, a senior JOC executive board member.
But Ichiro Kono, the 2016 Tokyo Olympics campaign chief, showed a subdued reaction to Obama’s victory, saying, ‘‘It was within expectations. We will just do what we have to do no matter who becomes U.S. president.’’

source: japantoday.com

ATHENS, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S. presidential election has given Chicago, bidding to host the 2016 Olympics, the chance to shine on the international stage, its bid leader said on Wednesday.

“I think the eyes of the world have been on Barack Obama and therefore on Chicago and the eyes of the world will be on Chicago more than in the past,” Chicago 2016 bid chief Patrick Ryan told Reuters.

Democrat candidate Obama, who has spent most of his political life in Chicago, enjoyed a sweeping victory in the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.

Chicago is one of four candidates vying for the 2016 Summer Olympics alongside Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will choose the winner at its session in Copenhagen in October next year.

“Last night gave us a global opportunity to show the city’s beautiful skyline, its lake and parks,” Ryan said of Obama’s speech in front of more than 200,000 cheering supporters in Chicago’s Grant Park.

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IOC president Jacques Rogge foresees no immediate threat to the Olympics from the global financial crisis and says the fight against doping will be a key priority for a second term in office.

Rogge, a 66-year-old Belgian who has led the International Olympic Committee since 2001, notified members last Friday that he will seek re-election next October for a final four-year term that will take him to 2013.

He spoke in a telephone interview with The Associated Press ahead of a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday where he publicly announced his candidacy for another term at the helm of the IOC.

No challengers are expected and Rogge’s re-election is considered a formality at the October 2009 assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Rupert Murdoch’s media group scored another Olympic coup Friday when it was awarded the Turkish broadcast rights to the 2014 and 2016 games.

The International Olympic Committee announced the deal with Fox Turkey, part of the Fox entertainment network owned by Murdoch.

It is the IOC’s third Olympic deal with a Murdoch channel in Europe this year, and second this month. On Oct. 21, SKY Italia was awarded the 2014 and 2016 rights in Italy, following the contract announced in February for the 2010 and 2012 games.

Fox Turkey will provide coverage on free-to-air television, pay channels, and through the Internet and mobile phones.

The value of the contract was not disclosed. It covers the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The 2016 host city will be chosen next October, with Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro the finalists.
“Fox Turkey presented a comprehensive package that will allow not only the broadest coverage of the Olympic Games but also the promotion of Olympic sports and Olympic values beyond the 16 days of competition,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said in a statement.

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Tokyo 2016 today called on the National Olympic Committees of Asia to share in its unique vision to inspire the world by hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games at the heart of city life in one of the region’s most vibrant capital cities.
Bid Chairman and CEO, Dr Ichiro Kono said he was humbled by the support Tokyo 2016 had received from Japan’s partner nations within the Olympic Movement in Asia and expressed his pride at leading Asia’s Bid for the world’s greatest event in 2016.
Addressing the 27th Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) General Assembly in Bali, Dr Kono said:
“Japan needs an iconic event with new sports venues to help inspire millions more Japanese to play and stay with sport. This will be made possible, because the 2016 Games coincide with Tokyo Big Change – our Ten Year Plan for the comprehensive urban and environmental transformation of the Greater Metropolitan Tokyo area.
“The 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a catalyst for the world’s greatest, metropolitan make-over. This will leave the Olympic Movement with an incredible legacy to inspire future bid cities.
“We aim to unite the Olympic Family with the heart and soul of our cosmopolitan capital city. That is why our vision and theme is called: ‘Uniting Our Worlds’. To ensure this vision becomes a reality we plan to create the most compact Games ever, based in the very centre of Tokyo, and promise athletes and the whole Olympic Family the friendliest, most exciting and most memorable Games in history.”
Dr Kono began Tokyo 2016’s presentation. He was joined by International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member and IOC Vice President, Chiharu Igaya; IOC Member, Shunichiro Okano; Japanese Olympic Committee President, Tsunekazu Takeda; Executive Director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bid Promotion Division, Nagatoshi Nakamura; and Chair of the Tokyo 2016 Athletes’ Commission and Seoul 1988 Olympic medallist, Mikako Kotani.

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With Russia mired in its worst financial crisis in a decade, the Kremlin is throwing boom-time profits at its problems. But as the coffers empty out, concerns are mounting for the government’s pet project – the Winter Olympics in Sochi just six years from now.
Recent tenders for key Olympic facilities have failed for lack of interest. The country’s debt-laden construction industry is putting projects on hold. And, wealthy Russians brought on board to spearhead flagship developments are showing signs of financial pain.
All this as the price of oil – the backbone of Russia’s economy – is heading down. Since peaking in July, oil prices have more than halved to hover around $60, dipping below the critical $70 level at which the government balances its budget.
Few in the Olympic movement doubt that the Kremlin has the commitment and the will to see the 2014 Games go on – at any cost. But the cost looks increasingly steep.
Vladimir Putin, when he was president, traveled to Guatemala last year to personally lobby International Olympic Committee members. There he delivered his first address in English – a sign of just how important these games are to Russia.

source: usatoday.com

Nearly one in 10 Olympians were treated for injuries at the Beijing Games, the IOC said yesterday.

More than half of all the 1,055 athletes hurt had leg and foot problems and at least 100 suffered head injuries, according to figures based on medical reports from 92 of the national teams competing.
Almost three-quarters of all injuries were sustained in competition, and the most common were thigh strains and ankle sprains.
The sports most dangerous to Olympians’ health were boxing, football, handball, hockey, taekwondo and weightlifting. Each reported injuries to around one in seven athletes.
Four sports reported that none of its athletes lost training or competition time: flatwater canoeing, diving, sailing and synchronised swimming.
An International Olympic Committee team of medical experts recorded and analysed injuries in detail at Beijing for the first time at a Summer or Winter Games.
A detailed report will be published in a sports medical journal and distributed to all national teams.

source: jamaicaobserver.com

International golf officials have used Adelaide as their meeting ground to plot the sport’s Olympic bid.
Australia and other around 70 other nations contesting the world amateur teams championships in Adelaide have been implored to lobby International Olympic Committee (IOC) members for golf’s inclusion at the 2016 Games.
Golf is among seven sports vying to compete at the Olympics – the others being baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens, softball and squash.
The IOC will announce the two inclusions in October next year.
International Golf Federation officials in Adelaide have asked national amateur body officials asking to keep the Olympic bid in mind.

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Wembley is poised to play a much bigger role in the organisation of the 2012 Olympics than originally planned.
BBC London has learned that London 2012 officials have been looking for some time at scrapping their original plans to build a temporary arena near to the 02 to stage badminton and rhythmic gymnastics.
There had been proposals to move the two sports to ExCel indoor arena, which is already staging a variety of 2012 events, but there is not enough space.
Now officials are seriously looking at taking badminton back to the Wembley Arena, a spiritual home for the sport. The prestigious All-England championships were staged at the arena – which is right next to the outdoor stadium – between 1957 and 1993.
Given the currently financial crisis, it is clear that London 2012 needs to save money. This temporary arena was due to cost around £40 million. There are a few problems with limited space for back-of-house facilities which the Olympics needs but the Arena is perfect for sports like badminton because it holds around 6,000.

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Cheating athletes who evaded detection during the Olympic Games in Beijing will only know if they got away with it in eight years’ time.
Jacques Rogge, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee, which has a statute of limitations on results of eight years, said that the urine and blood samples taken from competitors in Beijing can be repeatedly tested until 2016 as scientists develop new methods of analysis.
The process has already started, with 5,000 samples shipped from Beijing to Lausanne so that they can be tested for Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, or Cera, a new generation of the blood-booster drug, EPO discovered recently in the urine of cyclists on this summer’s Tour de France.
Rogge said: “This is the first stage of retroactive testing.
“We are going to keep, to preserve the urine and the blood for eight years.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday is to put one of his most trusted troubleshooters in charge of preparations to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a project that could be hit by the global financial crisis.
Medvedev will soon sign a document promoting Dmitry Kozak, who until now has been minister for regional development, to the post of deputy prime minister overseeing the Games, the Kremlin press service said.
Kozak, 49, graduated from the same university as Medvedev and the two men have been close associates for years. Kozak’s previous jobs included that of the Kremlin envoy in the turbulent North Caucasus region.
Kozak warned last week that the global crisis might affect Moscow’s preparations to host the Olympics, which are to take place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Russia has pledged to spend $12 billion on developing Sochi for the Games, of which $7 million will be public funding and the rest from private sources. Much of the infrastructure for the Olympics will have to be built from scratch.

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Mexico wants to host a small-scale version of the Olympic Summer Games in 2010 to celebrate the country’s bicentenary, a high-ranking official said.

Jaques Rogge, chairman of the International Olympic Committee, authorized the event on Sunday, said Mario Vasquez Rana, president of the Pan American Sports Organization.

Rana was speaking at a conference on American Olympic sports in the Mexican beach resort Acapulco.

Time and date of the Olympic events were to be fixed by the beginning of next year, he added.

Tokyo made its mark in “enemy territory” with its presentation in the Mexican resort of Acapulco bidding to host the 2016 Olympic Games, delighting an audience of Olympic committees from the Americas.
The Japanese delegation generated applause and provoked laughter with its sense of humour, even though the participants of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) were geographically nearer to bidders Chicago and Rio de Janeiro, and historically closer to Madrid.
“It was our first opportunity to make the official presentation to the members of PASO, and also to many members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). I enjoyed it very much,” Ichiro Kono, director of Tokyo 2016, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The Acapulco meeting brought together not only the presidents of 42 Olympic committees of the Americas and international federations, but also various members of the IOC, including its president Jacques Rogge.
For Kono, it was a unique opportunity that he did not consider a battle in hostile terrain. “This is a competition between friends,” he said. “Chicago, Madrid and Rio, they are all my friends.”

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Peter Ueberroth took a swipe at international officials critical of the money the U.S. Olympic Committee receives, setting up some possibly uncomfortable moments for the Chicago group trying to land the 2016 Games.
“Who pays the bill for the world Olympic movement?” Ueberroth said Saturday in his final speech as USOC chairman. “Make no mistake about it. Starting in 1988, U.S. corporations have paid 60 percent of all the money, period. Be sure you all understand that. The rest of the world pays 40 percent. It’s pretty simple math.”
It was Ueberroth’s first extensive response to comments made by European IOC members Denis Oswald and Hein Verbruggen, who said earlier this year that the amount of money the USOC received was not morally acceptable and called for the revenue-sharing deal to be revisited.
As part of a long-standing deal with the International Olympic Committee, the USOC receives about 13 percent of U.S. TV rights fees and 20 percent of global marketing revenues. That added up to about $300 million in the four-year period ending in 2008.

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The International Olympic Committee is to retest frozen blood samples taken from athletes during the Beijing Games in August for traces of Cera, the so-called “third-generation erythropoietin“.
It announced the move after Tour de France officials confirmed on Tuesday that the German rider Stefan Schumacher and the Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli had tested positive this year for Cera, which is a form of EPO that has a longer-lasting effect in boosting the blood’s oxygen delivery system.
“The IOC intends to retest the samples collected this summer during the Olympic Games in Beijing,” the IOC spokeswoman, Emmanuelle Moreau, said. “Substances that will be tested for across all sports include EPO Cera.
“All samples are currently being repatriated to the Wada [the World Anti-Doping Agency]-accredited laboratory in Lausanne where Olympic samples are usually stored after the Games. The details of the retesting procedure are currently being discussed with Wada.”

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