Category: Olympics

looming IOC PR disaster Paris

The International Olympic Committee floated the worst possible solution to a real dilemma. Allowing some RUS athletes to compete in the Paris Olympics — but not those who support Putin’s attack on Ukraine.

Allow them all. Or ban them all. Simple.

… the IOC knows it will have a PR disaster on its hands if it allows Russians en masse into the Games. …

Insiders suggest that the IOC will instead place multiple conditions on entry, including banning the Russian flag and anthem and requiring its athletes to wear all-white uniforms.

More significantly, anyone with links to the Russian military is also likely to be barred – which could result in 75% of their team and officials being declared ineligible. …

Guardian – So Mr Bach, will nothing ever be enough to ban Russia from the Olympics?

Putin has been bombing civilian targets including Bakhmut’s stadium which is used as a training facility for Ukraine’s Olympic athletes.

RUS Gymnastics invited to Asian Games

This event does not qualify anyone to the Paris Olympics.

Russia’s gymnastics and wrestling federations said on Tuesday they had been invited to take part in this year’s Asian Games …

Organisers of the Asian Games — scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China, from Sep. 23 to Oct. 8 — did not immediately respond to a request for comment. …

reuters

I doubt any of the Asian nations will boycott in protest, but hope they do.

Denelle Pedrick interview

It’s been a long, strange journey for Denelle Pedrick from age-14 little-bit-of-a-train-wreck to Worlds medalist for Canada, qualifying the team to the Paris Olympics.

Listen to part 1 of the interview on Nicole Langevin’s podcast – What Makes DENELLE PEDRICK Think…” pt. 1

Click PLAY or watch a few highlights on YouTube.

She details how she learned the Pedrick by accident when Ellie and her coach were at the Tokyo Olympics. It started by working the Hecht back tuck dismount.

Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Sam Oldham on coach Sergey Sizhanov

Sergey coached Olympic medalist Sam Oldham for 15 years. They are now friends for life.

This from The Sam Oldham Podcast.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Lara Mori retired

Tokyo Olympian Lara Mori, age-24, was the 2018 Mediterranean Games champion in the all-around.

RUS Maxim Khodykin volunteers to fight in Ukraine

Russian gymnast Maxim Khodykin has travelled to fight in the country’s war on Ukraine, according to the national team doctor Sergei Gulevsky.

Khodykin has trained at the Russian gymnastics Olympic base – the Ozero Krugloye facility outside Moscow – although was not in the national team.

His last competition was at the Mikhail Voronin Cup in December, when he finished second in the men’s rings. …

Jessica Hutchinson – Floor

Jessica Hutchinson competing a variation on her mom’s — Silvia Mitova — Olympic Floor routine.

Great forward layout 2/1 twist.

Jessica’s Grandmother was Olympic gymnast Maya Blagoeva.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Here’s the TV version uploaded to Twitter.

Click PLAY or watch Silvia’s 1992 routine on YouTube.

#respect for the IOC

Though I disagree with the decision to possibly, maybe allow some athletes from Russia and Belarus to perhaps in some-way compete the Paris Olympics — I have to admire whomever wrote this clarification for them.

They answer the hard questions one-by-one without waffling.

That said, the best decision would be to ban those athletes from Paris if Russia does not withdraw by a preassigned date.

There have been precedents in the past when you have excluded complete teams from the Olympic Games, like South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.

The exclusion of South Africa was based on UN sanctions. Apartheid was also practised in South African sport. These UN sanctions applied to all walks of life. The IOC followed the United Nations with this decision. …

Do the current deliberations mean the IOC will allow athletes with a Russian and Belarusian passport at the Olympic Games Paris 2024?

This is premature. No decision has been taken on the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The topic under discussion is about their participation in international competitions in Asia in the forthcoming summer sport season. …

Who will be responsible for determining whether a Russian or Belarussian athlete actively supports the war? What are the criteria to determine this?

Currently, an exploration of a primary concept for conditions of participation is underway. No decision has been taken. What the details could look like will have to be worked out and decided on. …

What will happen in the case of athletes from Russia and Belarus who have already missed out on qualification?

Some qualification events in several sports have already taken place. The IOC will not ask IFs to adapt their qualification systems retroactively to allocate additional quota to athletes with a Russian or Belarussian passport that have missed out on qualification opportunities due to the war. …

What if an athlete expresses support for the Russian invasion before or during the Olympic Games?

As outlined in the primary concept for conditions of participation, only athletes who fully respect the Olympic Charter would participate. Such behaviour is not compatible with the Olympic Charter. …

First, only those who have not acted against the IOC’s peace mission by actively supporting the war in Ukraine could compete. …

#1 disqualified in all of Russia should be Nagorny.

Read the statement for yourself.

Abliazin, Nagorny, Belyavskiy, Dalaloyan are pro-war

This would seem to eliminate them from any consideration of competing Paris Olympics — even if Russia does qualify a men’s team.