Category: Olympics

“Enhanced Games” with no drug testing?

One again, dumb people are planning a multi-sport games with no restrictions on performance enhancing substances.

Gymnastics included.

Here’s what happened last time this idea came up. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Giarnni Regini-Moran documentary

Giarnni’s quest for Paris.

The comeback from posterior cruciate ligament injury.

Inspiring.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Authorized Neutral Athletes – Belarus

FIG has published a list of gymnasts and support personnel who can return to FIG sanctioned events starting 1st January 2024 only in an individual neutral capacity.

Ad hoc rules are posted here.

So far, the entire list is from Belarus. None from Russia.

It includes Tokyo Olympics trampoline champion Ivan Litvinovich.

Belarus fully supports Putin’s war, but claims not to have their military attack Ukraine directly.

I fear that this is a first step. And that Russian athletes will be added to the list soon.

A mistake, in my opinion.

Of many bad options, least bad is a full ban of Russia by FIG until Putin ends the war.

Morinari Watanabe, the President of the International Gymnastic Federation (FIG), led a minute’s silence in remembrance of a young Ukrainian gymnast called Kateryna Dyachenko and her father who were killed during the siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

George Eyser – amputee Olympic gymnast

George Eyser was a German-American gymnast who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics, earning six medals in one day, including three gold and two silver medals.

Eyser competed with a wooden prosthesis for a left leg, having lost his real leg after being run over by a train. Despite his disability, he won gold in the vault, an event which then included a jump over a long horse without aid of a springboard. …

The Paralympic Games began 1948. Most physically challenged athletes now compete there.

Prior to 2008, Eyser was the only person with an artificial leg to have competed at the Olympic Games. In 2008, Natalie du Toit, a South African swimmer who lost her left leg in a traffic accident, participated in the 10 km marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and finished 16th …

Read more ➙ George Eyser: Medals, mystery and the Games’ first amputee

Thanks Jim Holt for remembering Eyser, one of the most amazing Olympic stories of all time.

USA National Team Camp

January 2024.

No Gabby Douglas. But Trinity is there.

Youth Olympic Games 2024 metaverse

Gangwon 2024 (Korean: 강원 2024), are an upcoming youth winter multi-sport event scheduled to be held between 19 January and 1 February 2024 in Gangwon, Korea.

… From virtual tours of the venues to games and challenges where fans can compete against other users in online mini games of ski jumping, bobsleigh and curling, the Gangwon 2024 Metaverse enables fans to engage with the YOG in new and exciting ways. …

To ensure the metaverse is as accessible as possible, it features automatic translation of six languages (Korean, English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese), while users are also able to create custom avatars for their digital experience.

Olympics.com

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hashimoto Daiki or Zhang Boheng?

One BIG question for 2024 …

Will Olympic Champ Hashimoto Daiki defend his title in Paris? 

Or is it time for Zhang Boheng to finish atop the podium?