Stella Zakharova, now age-60, born in Odesa, Ukraine, was an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist in team competitions for the USSR.
Category: ethics
IOC partly complicit in Putin’s war
Ukrainian politician Рома Грищук posted this image on Facebook.
He’s not happy the International Olympic Committee decided to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris under a neutral flag.
It may have been first posted by Visegrád 24 on Twitter.
Canada’s “Future of Sport” commission
Canada’s Minister of Sport, Carla Qualtrough, this afternoon announced a national commission to address safe-sport issues, but stopped short of calling a national inquiry.
… a suite of measures, including a Future of Sport in Canada Commission that will hold a summit and produce two reports during its 18-month mandate.
An independent commissioner and two special advisers will head the commission.
Among other measures announced were moving the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) and its abuse-free program out of the Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC), increasing the capacity of AthletesCan, elevating Sport Canada’s athlete advisory committee to a ministerial committee, modernizing Sport Canada’s funding framework and developing a sport integrity framework, with policies around match manipulation and safeguarding children.
Toronto Star
Russian wrestlers cleared for Paris
Zaurbek Sidakov, Zaur Uguev and Abdulrashid Sadulayev are 3 of the eight athletes already named as eligible by IOC.
Attending a war rally with Putin did not disqualify.
Article from September 19, 2023:
Three Olympic champions from Russia were cleared to compete at the world wrestling championships this week because they were judged to have been pressured to appear at a pro-war rally in Moscow last year.
The United World Wrestling governing body explained Tuesday why Zaurbek Sidakov, Zaur Uguev and Abdulrashid Sadulayev were among the Russian wrestlers who passed vetting to compete as neutral athletes in Belgrade, Serbia.
All three won Olympic gold medals at the Tokyo Games held in 2021 and were paraded on stage at a flag-waving rally at Luzhniki Stadium in March 2022. It was attended by President Vladimir Putin three weeks after he ordered the military invasion of Ukraine.
The athletes’ presence there seemed likely to bar their return to competition with neutral status ahead of the Paris Games. The International Olympic Committee advised the governing bodies of each individual sport in March to exclude those who publicly supported the war.
However, a vetting process for the three wrestlers concluded “their participation in certain events is not (of) their own will,” United World Wrestling said in a statement.
The governing body’s vetting panel did bar 30 athletes, coaches and support staff from Russia and its military ally Belarus from coming to the Sept. 16-24 championships. …
Wrestling body says why Russian champions competed at worlds despite pro-war rally
Russians can compete Paris Olympics
After dragging their feet for as long as possible, the IOC made it official.
Still, it’s unlikely any in Gymnastics sports will be able to qualify. Valentina Rodionenko said the coaches of the National Team had decided they didn’t want to try for Paris under these restrictions.
“The executive board of the IOC has decided that individual neutral athletes (AINs) who have qualified through the existing qualification systems of the International Federations on the field of play will be declared eligible to compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in accordance with the conditions outlined,” the Olympic body said on Friday. …
… six “strict eligibility conditions” for AINs at Paris 2024 reflecting the same conditions under which they have qualified.
It said among the 4,600 athletes who have so far qualified for the Games, only 11 were AINs – eight with a Russian passport, three with a Belarusian passport.
BBC – Paris 2024 Olympics: Russian and Belarusian athletes allowed to compete as neutrals
The conditions for their participation are as follows:
- Qualified athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport will be entered as, and compete as AINs.
- Teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport will not be considered.
- Athletes and support personnel who actively support the war will not be eligible to be entered or to compete.
- Athletes and support personnel contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies will not be eligible to be entered or to compete.
- Any AIN, like all other participating athletes, must meet all anti-doping requirements.
- The sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian states and governments remain in place, including: No flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications of Russia or Belarus will be displayed in any official venue or function at Paris 2024, and no Russian or Belarusian government or state officials will be invited or accredited.
Dictator Putin invaded Ukraine
With no end in sight after more than 21 months of war, the number of people killed in the hundreds of thousands, intelligence estimates suggest.
It’s a mistake to allow any Russian athletes to compete Paris, in my opinion.
Gymnastics banned lists are incomplete
It makes no sense for the Gymnastics Canada Suspended/Expelled Members list to include people who are in prison alongside some who are under investigation — who might yet be found innocent.
At minimum, there should be two lists.
Next, there should be more detail attached to why the guilty individuals were suspended / expelled.
Here’s a news report from the U.K. on this issue.
European Gymnastics bans RUS 2024
The General Assembly of European Gymnastics has voted against allowing athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus to return to official European Gymnastics competitions from 1 January 2024 onwards, thus not following the FIG decision.
This begs the question whether it’s feasible for RUS athletes to compete in Europe at FIG World Cup qualifying meets.
toilet access for gymnasts
As much as possible, gymnasts should be able to go to the toilet at any time during training.
Common sense.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. This is the new policy of British Gymnastics.
The Teenage Brain
Recommended for coaches is a 2016 book looking at the latest research in brain development.
The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults – by Frances E Jensen & Amy Ellis Nutt
For those of us who have forgotten 😀, teenagers are capable of incredibly bad decisions.
There’s a reason for that.
The teenage brain is not yet fully developed.
Click PLAY or watch an interview with one of the authors on YouTube.
WaPo investigation into NCAA abuse
For many, many gymnasts the opportunity for a College scholarship to gain their education is a fantastic experience. Indeed, the vast majority of gymnasts I’ve spoken with are happy with their decision to compete after Club.
BUT it doesn’t work for all. I’m particularly concerned about risk of serious injury competing so many times each season in NCAA.
Recently, Molly Hensley-Clancy and Emily Giambalvo did a deep dive into female college gymnasts complaints for the Washington Post:
Beneath NCAA gymnastics’ glow, a familiar ‘toxic’ culture
Female gymnasts say college was supposed to offer a reprieve from intense club programs. Then they arrived on campus and found more of the same.
I believe that story is not behind the paywall.
Schools identified in the article:
- University of North Carolina
- LSU
- Utah
- Penn State
- Clemson
- Utah State
Eating disorders are common for many young women, especially college athletes. But studies consistently find female gymnasts are at a staggeringly high risk, with a 2004 study finding 42 percent of gymnasts and other elite “aesthetic sport” athletes, such as figure skaters, had disordered eating habits, compared with 16 percent in sports like soccer or basketball.
Certainly I believe the complainants.
I also believe that many of their teammates had positive experiences with the same coaches. Both can be simultaneously true.
Are things getting better in the NCAA?
Gymnastics Coaching.com 