Chateau de Bethusy, Lausanne, where the CAS sports arbitration court, holds its hearings
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne Thursday 6 October announced a decision that could have far-reaching implications for the sports world, saying it has overturned an IOC (International Olympic Committee) ban on athletes found guilty of doping.
The immediate result of the decision, which follows an appeal against a Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) decision by US athlete LaShawn Merritt and the US Olympic Committee, is to allow Merritt to defend his 400-metre title in the London 2012 Olympics.
The IOC has banned athletes with suspensions of more than six months for doping from taking part in the next Olympic Games. Merritt was sentenced to two years, later reduced by three months, in early 2010 for failing tests for a banned steroid.
The IOC had argued that its rule was an attempt to take a tough stance on doping, but the CAS ruling notes that “”The IOC Executive Board’s June 27, 2008 decision prohibiting athletes who have been suspended for more than six months for an anti-doping rule violation from participating in the next Olympic Games following the expiration of their suspension is invalid and unenforceable.”
The CAS says in its statement that “The CAS Panel also emphasized that if the IOC wanted to exclude athletes who have been sanctioned for doping from the Olympic Games, it could propose an amendment to the World Anti-Doping Code, which would allow other Signatories to consider such an amendment and possibly to adopt it.” Such a move would allow the principle of proportionality to be met, according to the CAS, because “only one adjudicatory body would be in position to assess the proper sanction for a behaviour”.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – McAfee, the computer security firm, has issued a startling report showing what it calls a “historically unprecedented transfer of wealth” through hacking, with signs that the party behind the attacks is more interested in information than econonic gain. Among the 72 identified victims of attacks that quietly occurred from 2006-2011: the United Nations in Geneva, whose system was infiltrated for two years and the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, infiltrated for just one month. National Olympic Committees were also infiltrated, as were a number of multinational companies, non-profit political groups and more.
McAfee says it is naming some of the victims because “after painstaking analysis of the logs, even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators. Although we will refrain from explicitly identifying most of the victims, describing only their general industry, we feel that naming names is warranted in certain cases, not with the goal of attracting attention to a specific victim organization, but to reinforce the fact that virtually everyone is falling prey to these intrusions, regardless of whether they are the United Nations, a multinational Fortune 100 company, a small non-profit think-tank, a national Olympic team, or even an unfortunate computer security firm.”
Will France's Christophe Lemaitre outrun Powell in the 100m in Lausanne Thursday?
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Athletissima, the seventh stop in the 2011 Samsung Diamond Leagues series of world-class athletics events, has now posted the lineup for Thursday night, 30 June, in Lausanne.
Top billing goes to a Powell-Lemaitre battle for the men’s 100 metres, but a new headline item has cropped up: a Vaud court has ruled the event must invite Hind Dehiba Chahyd, French-Moroccan runner who holds European silver in the women’s 1,500 metres. News agency AP Tuesday afternoon quotes Pierre-Andre Pasche, Athletissima spokesperson, as saying she will now be invited.
Hind Dehiba Chahyd served a two-year drug ban for EPA use, from 2007-2009.
The court, which has jurisdiction only in Switzerland, has ruled in favour of the runner, who has argued that her right to work is restricted bo continuing bans.
If the news is confirmed it could have wide-ranging implications, with a possible impact on an upcoming decision by the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne that will consider whether an IOC (International Olympic Committee) ban on formerly suspended athletes is legal.
The CAS has set a date for the IOC/USOC hearing 17 August and it will issue a final decision towards the end of September. The arbitration will remain confidential, except for the final decision, says the CAS, which in early June issued a statement on the hearing’s review: “The Regulations at stake state that any athlete receiving a doping sanction of greater than six months is barred from competing in the next Olympic Games and Olympic Winter Games following the expiration of the doping sanction.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – IOC boss Jacques Rogge says that negotiations for European broadcast rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games are nearly completed. The deals may not receive the same level of attention as last week’s $4.2 billion award to NBC for the US rights for 2014 to 2020, but Europeans can rest confident that they will be able to see the televised Games.
“We’re 85-90 percent close to our goal, so we’re nearly there,” Rogge told journalists at a press conference in Geneva 14 June.
European rights were open to bidders nearly three years ago and two bids were put forward, by Geneva-based European Broadcast Union and Sportfive, both representing groups of countries. The EBU bid was turned down by the IOC despite a 50-year relationship. Sportfive represents 40 countries in a $316 million agreement reached in 2008. Five large markets have been negotiating separately, however: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The deal with Spain was concluded early on and Rogge said Tuesday that Italy’s rights negotiations have been concluded and most of the others are nearing completion, with the UK looking likely to be the last to be sewn up. Rogge says that the IOC is negotiating with several British broadcasters, including the BBC and ITV.
Fifa’s Blatter doesn’t need to hear from the IOC about stricter rules: “he knows them”
Rogge also fielded questions about whether the IOC, which withstood its own corruption scandal in Salt Lake City in 1998-99, will step in and help the international football federation, Fifa. He says he is convinced that “if Fifa takes the necessary steps it will be saved”, referring to the need for very strict rules for candidate cities applying to host games. He pointed out that Sepp Blatter was an IOC board member at the time and voted for tougher rules. “We don’t need to remind him of the rules. He knows them.”
The Globe & Mail in Canada recently put forward a list of how Fifa and the IOC differ, however.
Rogge, as expected, gave no hints about which of the three cities trying to win the 2018 games is in the lead. Annecy in France, Munich in Germany and PyeongChang in South Korea are all “excellent” he says: “The three of them would stage great games”.
The winner will be announced 6 July.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – NBC, the tried and true broadcaster of the past 10 Olympic Games for American TV watchers, will be there again for 2014 and 2016, in Sochi, Russia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as well as for the two Games in 2018 and 2020, for $4.38 billion, the highest contract ever awarded for TV coverage by the IOC.
The IOC (International Olympic Committee) deliberated Tuesday evening after the sealed bids from three contenders were presented: NBC, Fox and ESPN.
NBC credits its success to support from its new owner, Comcast.
Jacques Rogge said, in a teleconference with journalists, that the agreement is “a good sign” for the US Olympic Committee because it gives the US organization some financial security for the next four Games.
NBC addressed questions about its promise to expand live coverage: “It’s way too early for us to talk about live coverage . . . but what we can say for Rio is that all the events will be covered live,” said NBC’s Mark Lazarus, who noted that they will be live on all platforms. “It will be more hours than ever on both broadcast and cable.”
Lazarus replaced “longtime sports and Olympics chief Dick Ebersol [who resigned] in a dispute with the new owners”, NBC says on its site, giving credence to sports world gossip for the past month, since Ebersol left.
An IOC official said of the proposal from NBC that “the intention is to have everything live on every platform, but we don’t have everything scheduled . . . we think they have reached the right balance.”
Pre-television: swimmers training for 1912 Stockhom Olympics (Photo, ©2011 International Olympic Committee, by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Beau Rivage in Lausanne will be bustling with sports and TV executives Monday and Tuesday 6-7 June, as intense bidding gets underway to win US broadcast rights for upcoming Olympic Games. Day’s end Tuesday, after a cocktail party where the bidders will socialize while waiting for news, should see the winner named—or just possibly, everyone adjourned to come back another day with another bid.
The stakes are high for all concerned: US rights provide about one-third of all IOC (International Olympic Committee) revenues for the Games and about half of the TV revenues, according to USA Today. The US Olympic Committee, whose senior executives are in Lausanne for the bidding, receives 12.75 percent of the rights, according to Insidethegames.
The Beeb will be watching closely for the impact on world Olympics coverage
And the BBC in London is watching closely because this week’s bids could have a major impact on their ability to continue covering the Olympics, reports the Telegraph in the UK.
The IOC is hearing bids from three networks, ESPN, Fox and NBC, who are vying for the potentially valuable TV broadcast rights to two and possibly four Olympic Games after the 2012 London Games.
“Nothing else in US sports costs so much and has so many variables. Airing the Olympics means selling millions of viewers on largely unknown athletes in sports few Americans watch,” USA Today sums up.
American Lindsey Vonn will play a key mentoring role for younger athletes at the first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The International Olympics Committee, meeting in London this week, approved six new events for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia: ski half-pipe (men and women), women’s ski jumping, biathlon mixed relay, figure skating team event and luge team relay.
Five other sports are under consideration and a decision is expected in coming weeks, the IOC said Wednesday 6 April in a press release. The sports under consideration: ski slopestyle (men and women), snowboard slopestyle (men and women), and Alpine team parallel competition.
The IOC said its choices were made after weighing several factors that included whether the changes would “increase universality, gender equity and youth appeal, and, in general, add value to the Games. Other considerations included the cost of infrastructure, and the impact on the overall quota and the number of events.”
Vonn to play key role at 2012 Games where new sports will be introduced
Anti-doping agency appeals Spanish court ruling on cyclist Contador
Rowing to Lausanne, home to many of the world's sports federations
Update 30 March Lauanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lausanne’s role as an international centre for sports organizations has been highlighted in recent days with a number of decisions taken in the city at the “other” end of Lake Geneva.
The city has been much in the sports world news in recent months as doping decisions in several sports, notably cycling, have gone to Cas (Court for Arbitration in Sport). Last week the Union Cycliste Iternationale said it will contest a decision made by the Spanish cycling union to clear Alberto Contador of doping in 2010.
Contador won the Tour de France four days after testing positive, but he argued that it was due to eating contaminated meat, reports Bloomberg.
Sports Illustrated reports 30 March that Wada, the World Anti-Doping Agency based in Lausanne, has also appealed to Cas to overturn the Spanish ruling, and that Cas aims to hear the appeals and make a decision before the next Tour de France cycling race in July.
Other Lausanne decisions include:
- SportAwards has announced the shortlist for its various Spirit of Sports awards that commend athletes and sports organizations for commitment and humanitarian spirit, to those who have made an exceptional and lasting contribution “to using sport as a tool for positive social change”; the awards are handed out 8 April (Sports Features)
- The international equestrian federation, FEI, was scheduled to have a vote on reorganizing what many consider its too heavy structure at an extraordinary general meeting 15 May, but country federations have said they need more time to study the proposals and the meeting will now be used only to discuss changes; a move to reduce the 19-person bureau with a smaller board failed in 2009 (Horse and Hound)
- The IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) Swiss director general Urs Lacotte is retiring 31 March for health reasons; he has been responsible for the IOC’s administrative side (USA Today)
- China’s “impressive tally” of 12 medals at the Fina/Midea Diving World Series 2011 sealed their dominance of the sport, with European countries together winning 8 medals, at Beijing’s Water Cube (Swimming World Magazine)
- Also in swimming, Lubos Krizko, 31-year-old Slovakian who twice won at the Olympics, has been banned by Fina for two years after he failed a doping test, for taking tamoxifin, a drug used to treat breast cancer but sometimes used to hide the side effects of steroids (AP)
- The International Figure-skating Union announced 24 March that it is moving the world championships from Japan to Moscow and rescheduling them for 24 April following the earthquake in Japan (Bloomberg).
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Olympic Movement has lost one of its all-time greats with the death Tuesday 22 March of Russian gymnast Nicolai Andrianov, age 58. Andrianov won more medals in his sport than any other gymnast: 15 medals in total, including 7 gold, in 1972, 1976 and 1980.
He held the honour of having more medals than any other male Olympic athlete until US swimmer Michael Phelps took it in 1980. Only Larisa Latynina, also a gymnast, has had more medals than Phelps, 18.
Andrianov, from a poor family in Vladimir, Russia, then part of the Soviet Union, retired in 1980. He worked in Japan from 1994-2006, where he coached Naoya Tsukahara, son of former competitor and friend Mitsuo. Father and son credited him with helping the son have the confidence to compete in the Olympics and helping Japan take a team gold at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. SportsFeatures writes thtat “Andrianov was inducted into the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Hall of Fame in 2001, widely recognized as the best gymnast of all time.”
He was ill for the last few years of his life with multiple system atrophy, according to the Russian Gymnastics Federation, a neurological degenerative disease that left him without the ability to use his arms and legs, or to speak.
He is survived by his wife, former Olympic gymnast Lyubov Burda, and two sons.
Links to other sites: IOC page on Andrianov’s medals, Sports Reference, Wikipedia
Video A fascinating look at the politically charged world of gymnastics events in 1978, World Championships in Strasbourg, France, US commentators:
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The world football federation (Fifa) is not ready to set dates for the controversial 2022 Qatar World Cup, but its president, Sepp Blatter, told journalists at the IOC (Internationasl Olympic Committee) in Lausanne 25 January that the Cup could be held at the start or end of the year.
Fifa has come under fire for saying the World Cup could be held in winter to avoid the summer heat of Qatar, since it will be held in a year when the Olympic Winter Games will be on. These run at the start of the year, normally beginning at the end of January. The 2022 Games will not be awarded until 2015.
Blatter was in Lausanne for a visit to the IOC by UN head Ban Ki-moon.
UN Director-General Ban Ki-moon and IOC head Jacques Rogge meet in Lausanne
Sports for peace projects include Olympics work on achieving MDGs
IOC's Jacques Rogge with UN's Ban Ki-moon in Lausanne 25 January 2011 (photo ©2011, ioc/Richard Juilliart)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The heads of the United Nations and the Olympic movement met in Lausanne 25 January to review work they have done together since the UN gave the IOC observer status in 2010.
The move was linked to the IOC starting a number of sports for peace projects. The Tuesday meeting covered new joint efforts to make it easier for Palestinian and Israeli athletes to participate in sports competitions and the adoption by the UN of the Olympic Truce Resolution for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The meeting follows by five days a landmark “modus vivendi” understanding that was reached between the Israeli and Palestinian National Olympic Committees when the two met for the first time in Lausanne last week.
Part of the agreement calls for Israel to help Palestinian athletes train in order to be able to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Namibia refugee camp project has IOC working on non-competitive sports agenda
The next generation of Ghana's Black Stars has future in the air (photo: wikipedia, 2008)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The IOC (International Olympic Committee) at a 13 January meeting in Lausanne suspended Ghana’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), meaning that unless there is a major change the country will not participate in the London Games in 2012. The reason for the suspension was political interference, the IOC says in a statement, citing “the obvious lack of cooperation of the government authorities in Ghana and lack of respect of the Ghana public authorities’ written commitment to take all necessary actions to revise the sports legislation in Ghana before the end of 2010.”
The problem goes back to the election of the NOC’s president in 2009, the results of which were disputed. Ghana has had an NOC since 1952.
Kuwait was suspended in 2010 for similar problems.
The Globe & Mail in Canada reports that hardest hit “could be Ghana’s soccer team. The under-20 team is the current world champion”, and it points out that Ghana is also having trouble with Fifa, the world football body, which has threatened the country with sanctions if political interference does not end.
Links to other sites: GhanaWeb
Fifa named best for press facilities for 2010 World Cup by world sports journalists
Rafael Nadal wins US Open 2010 (photo, Ella Ling)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The AIPS (International Sports Press Association) has named Rafael Nadal the world’s top male athlete and Blanka Vlasic the top female, in its annual sports awards. Nadal, Spanish is the number one tennis player in the world and Vlasic, from Croatia, has won 18 of 20 high-jumping competitions in 2010, and she currently holds the world indoor and European titles.
The AIPS named Fifa, the world football federation, as the organization providing the best media facilities, at the 2010 football World Cup matches in South Africa. The IOC, International Olympic Committee, was second, for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. The AIPS and the IOC are both based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The Moscow Times reports that parliamentary committees in Georgia have been meeting to plan ways to “destabilize” the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, following their failure to convince the Lausanne-based IOC (International Olympic Committee) to move the Games elsewhere because of continuing tensions between Georgia and Russia. “Georgia, which fought a five-day war with Russia after attempting to retake its breakaway province of South Ossetia in 2008, appealed in November that year to the International Olympics Committee to relocate the Olympics from Sochi because of the possibility of conflict in neighboring Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian region. The committee ignored the request,” write the newspaper, which quotes Maxim Agerkov, an analyst with a think tank, as saying that “The only possible option is destabilizing the situation in the region,” and that Georgia could use existing local ethnic conflicts and separatists to influence the situation.
Links to other sites: The Voice of Russia, Pravda
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Dow Chemical is the latest company to join the International Olympic Committee’s Top programme, which gives a small number of companies exclusive marketing rights to summer and winter Games. Dow will be the official chemical sponsor for Games through to 2020.
Other Top companies are: for the London 2012 Olympic Games: Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa. Atos Origin, Panasonic and Samsung are signed up through to 2016. Coca-Cola, Dow, Omega and Visa are signed up through to 2020.
The AISTS is housed on the EPFL campus in Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lausanne’s role as the world’s sports management capital is about to be strengthened by a new programme that will kick off in 2011: an executive MBA in sports management and technology for established sports industry professionals. The course is offered by the AISTS, the International Academy of Sports Science and Technology, which was set up in 2000 and which in 10 years has become a top education and research centre in sports.
The AISTS already has a master’s programme in sports administration and technology for people starting out in sports management and it has for some time offered continuing education seminars.
Open enrollment programme also open to managers not on the MBA course
The school will also offer an open enrollment executive programme, starting in January 2011, available to people in the new MBA programme as well as to anyone who participates in individual programmes for continuing education purposes. Two-, four- and five-day course offerings cover the following: finance and accounting; supply-chain and management; decision support systems; project management; sports business management and strategy I and II; leadership and human dynamics; inside the Olympic Capital; sports innovation and technology; management of law in sport organizations; the sociology of sport; information, communications, technology; health and sport; sports marketing sponsorship, and communications I and II, anti-doping and genetics, women’s sport management and leadership, and a sport event lifecycle diploma that coves several topics.
The cost will be CHF3,500 to 6,000 for individual courses. Participants who complete more than two courses will receive a certificate in sports administration and technology. People who complete more than six will receive a diploma in sport administration and technology. The executive MBA, diplomas and certificates are signed by the AISTS, the EPFL and additional AISTS founding academic institutions.
The AISTS, an unusual joint creation by top universities, government, sports groups
The AISTS’s credibility comes in part from its unusual background. It was created as a cooperative effort among the top universities in the Lake Geneva region, government and sports bodies: the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the University of Geneva, the University of Lausanne, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), IMD Business School, the City of Lausanne, and Canton of Vaud.
It’s located on the campus of EPFL in Lausanne and offers a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates management, economics, technology, medicine, biology, law, logistics, sociology, sustainability and ethics into the study of sport.
How the MBA will work
MBA candidates will complete 60 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits comprised of in-class lectures and workshops, plus a personal project/thesis over a period of two to three years. Some classes and courses will be held during the week, while others will be on evenings and weekends to accommodate work schedules.
Details for the MBA programme:
- the executive MBA will begin in 2011
- the application deadline is October 31, 2010 with the first course commencing in February 2011
- total cost of the 2011 MBA is CHF 31,000. Additional costs associated with transportation to lectures and any necessary accommodation are the responsibility of the participant
- further information regarding application requirements will be available this summer at www.aists.org.
For more information: contact AISTS at info@aists.org or by phone +41 21 693 8593.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC head from 1980-2001 (1920-2010), photo ©2010 IOC
Update 14:45 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Juan Antonio Samaranch, who for 21 years headed the International Olympic Committee based in Lausanne, has died in Barcelona of heart failure. He was 89 years old. He died early Wednesday, three days after being admitted to a hospital for coronary problems.
The news was announced by the IOC in Lausanne.Samaranch headed the sports organization from 1980-2001. His tenure was the longest for the IOC after that of founder of the modern Olympics movement, Pierre de Coubertin.
Samaranch is widely credited with moving the Games in a new direction, described by the IOC as “less amateurish”, but his time as head of the IOC, often described as turbulent, was also notable on several other levels:
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The International Olympic Committee has backed Fifa’s (international football federation) decision to bar the Iranian girls’ football team from the Youth Olympic Games if they insist on the right to play wearing Islamic head scarves, the Associated Press reported 7 April. The IOC declared the ban was “in line with the rules of the game” in a statement issued Tuesday 6 April, according to the news agency, which says Iran’s place in the tournament will be taken by Thailand.
Links to other sites: IOC, FIFA, ESPN
But Russia threatens to close down some federations
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – SportAccord has its work cut out for it, keeping governments’ hands off sports federations. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Friday 26 March opened a meeting in Sochi, where preparations are underway for the 2014 Olympics Games. Russian media described him as “seething” over the poor performance of Russian athletes and the over-budget spending for the Vancouver Games. He noted that state auditors are already checking on the use of funds.
SportAccord, which regroups 104 sports federations, opened a head office in Lausanne in 2009, with a staff of 10, and one year on President Heim Verbruggen says it is making headway helping federations work together to meet their goals, including ensuring their independence from governments.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) has at last announced the findings of its investigations into underage gymnasts at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The FIG Disciplinary Committee ruled that Ms Dong Fangxiao was only 14 years old at the time of the Games, rather than 17 as reported by the Chinese Olympic Committee. The FIG Executive Committee has recommended that the IOC withdraw the Bronze medal awarded to the Chinese Olympic team as well as cancelling her results in a number of meetings in 1999 and 2000. Ms Yang Yun was also warned but the FIG ruled that there was insufficient proof that her birthdate had been falsified on official documents.
Update 13 February 09:15 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Georgia’s athletes, wearing black armbands and with a black ribbon on their flag, received a sombre standing ovation from the 60,000 people attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Their countryman, luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili, died Friday 12 February while training for the Olympic Winter Games. The death of the 21-year-old is reportedly the first during a Winter Games. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) in Lausanne issued a statement saying that he died at the Whistler Sliding Centre and that the circumstances of the accident are being investigated. “Mr Kumaritashvili died after crashing on the last corner of the course during training. Doctors were unable to revive the athlete, who died in hospital.”
Early news agency reports say that he hit a beam after flying out of the luge at 144kph, but Olympics organizers have not officially confirmed this, although the IOC footage as a reposted video is publicly available on YouTube, showing the official clock.
The luge event will still take place as planned Saturday, Vancouver Games officials say, but the course is closed until then for a police investigation into the accident.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Winners of the awards to Switzerland’s and the world’s “most dismal” corporations – the 2010 Public Eye Awards – will be announced in Davos 27 January to coincide with the opening of the World Economic Forum in that Alpine resort. The Hall of Shame candidates are those companies with the most “dismal record in terms of social/environmental responsibility” during the year, according to the Public Eye Award site.
Frontrunners this year include:
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Kuwait’s National Olympic Committee has been suspended by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) because of government interference in the committee’s work, which is against Olympics rules. The country’s athletes will not be allowed to train or compete in the Olympics nor will the Kuwait Olympic Committee receive any funds from the IOC.
The IOC says it has been working with the Kuwait Olympic Committee since 2007 on the problem but that the committee failed to meet a 31 December 2009 deadline to ensure that Kuwait legislation is changed.
Barbara Ann Scott, a diminutive 81-year-old with a girlish smile, carried the large Olympic torch into Canada’s Houses of Parliament in Ottawa Thursday 10 December, to warm applause. Scott was Canada’s sweetheart when she won the Olympic figure skating gold medal in St Moritz, Switzerland in 1948. The torch is wending its way to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Links to other sites: The Globe & Mail, Olympics Vancouver 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Marion Jones, the six-time Olympic winner who was stripped of her medals in 2007, has had her medals reallocated, the IOC announced 9 December. She participated in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and in one event in Athens in 2004.
The medals reallocated were for:
- 100m, where Jones placed first, but the Gold was not given to the runner-up, Greek Ekatirini Thanou, who herself missed a mandated drugs test prior to the Games in Athens. She was awarded the Silver medal.
- 200m, where Jones placed first: Gold awarded to Pauline Davis-Thompson (Bahamas)
- Long Jump, where Jones placed third: Bronze awarded to Tatyana Kotova (Russia)
- Jones ran in the 1,600m and 400m relay races which placed first and third. The medals in those races will be reallocated following a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Close of Olympic Games for doping
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne has stripped Rashid Ramzi from Bahrein of his gold medal. He won the men’s 1,500 metre race in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Italian Davide Rebellin, who placed second in the men’s road cycle event, will have to return his silver medal, the IOC announced. The world governing body for the Olympic Games sanctioned three other athletes who participated in the Beijing Olympics for using the banned hormone CERA, 18 November.
The IOC’s zero-tolerance policy in the use of endurance or performance-enhancing drugs means that it will store blood and urine samples taken during the Games for eight years so that the laboratories can do retroactive testing.
Visa goes to Rio
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The International Olympic Committee in Lausanne and Visa International have extended Visa’s sponsorship agreement to 2020, the two announced 27 October. Visa was one of the founding members of the worldwide TOP Olympic Games partners programme in 1986. The agreement means that Visa is the only official payment services card accepted by the Olympic Games.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The International Olympic Committee was bestowed observer status at the UN General Assembly in New York, USA Monday, 19 October, in recognition of the IOC’s efforts to promote the UN’s Millenium Development Goals and the importance of sports in promoting development and peace.
Observer status is a privilege given to non-member states – currently only the Vatican is a non-member – and non-governmental organizations, like the International Red Cross. Observers may speak, but cannot vote or introduce resolutions.
The only contender
Update 2 – video on Rio’s plans 19:23 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games in a vote that saw Chicago eliminated in the first round, and Tokyo in the second round of voting.
Copenhagen was the only contender for the pre-Olympics fun and games
Which of four cities would win the right to host the Olympic Games in 2016 kept the crowds guessing before a meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Copenhagen Friday 2 October. Following a precedent set by then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair who went to Singapore four years ago to pitch London’s bid for the 2012 Games, the heads of state or government of each of the countries whose cities are bidding for the Games in 2016 are in Copenhagen to make the case on their behalf.
Copenhageners lapped up the publicity. US President Obama took time off from reforming the country’s health care system and saving the world from Iranian nuclear bombs to help his wife Michelle sell their hometown, Chicago.
Beijing Olympics opening ® IOC 2009
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The International Olympic Committee IOC said 2 September it will make a final selection from among four cities vying to be host of the 31st Olympic Games. The IOC says the technical capabilities, which include venues, budget, transportation, of all four cities was comparable.
