Category: safety

easing military tensions on the Korean peninsula

If North Korea participates in the Winter Olympics, it will be a truce. And — perhaps — the beginning of improved communication / cooperation.

IOC to convene Olympic participation meeting with North, South Korea

Number of North Korean athletes, issues over flags and anthems to be discussed

Heart this cartoon on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/joehoffecker/status/951817117468422144

I’ve not heard of any athlete refusing to go for reasons of personal safety.

The U.S. Olympic Committee is committed to compete though a few American politicians have discussed boycott.

OU: We stand beside Maggie

Collegiate gymnast breaks silence about sexual abuse by former USA Gymnastics doctor

 It’s not easy putting your name into the headlines. I respect the courage of Maggie and all those who have come forward. They want to make sure this can never happen again to gymnasts in future.

 

Her Mom has been making TV appearances. VERY unhappy with USA Gymnastics and MSU.

USA Gymnastics is liable

I can’t arrive at any other conclusion.

According to court filings and interviews, it was Nichols and her coach, Sarah Jantzi, who reported Nassar to USA Gymnastics officials on June 17, 2015, after the coach overheard Maggie and another gymnast talking about Nassar’s behavior. …

Jantzi reported her concerns to USA Gymnastics women’s program director Rhonda Faehn and to Maggie’s mother, Gina.

According to the complaint, then–USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny “discouraged [Gina and John Nichols, Maggie’s parents] from reporting Nassar’s conduct to law enforcement and pressured them to keep the matter quiet.” …

Sometime between June 21 and July 2, USA Gymnastics brought on Fran Sepler, an expert on workplace harassment with experience interviewing children in sexual assault cases, to interview Maggie. …

In a statement to SI, Penny’s lawyers said, “The matter was reported to the FBI on Monday, July 27, 2015, and [chairman of USA Gymnastics] Mr. Parilla and Mr. Penny met with the FBI on July 28. …

USA Gymnastics did not contact MSU or the Michigan-based gymnastics club Twistars whose athletes were also treated by Nassar. The national governing body is currently contending in court that it did not have a responsibility to inform either MSU or Twistars of allegations against Nassar.

The Nichols family says it was not contacted by the FBI until July 2016, nearly a year after Maggie had come forward …

At least 19 people whose treatment occurred between the time Maggie spoke to USA Gymnastics and the time she was interviewed by the FBI have filed civil complaints against Nassar. …

Sports Illustrated

If you are one of those 19 people you have to ask why Nassar wasn’t stopped sooner? 😦

Yesterday USAG responded:

Contrary to reported accusations, USA Gymnastics never attempted to hide Nassar’s misconduct. The suggestion by plaintiff’s counsel John Manly, who indicates that he is representing Maggie, that USA Gymnastics tried to silence athletes or keep the investigation secret to avoid headlines before the Rio Olympics and to protect Los Angeles’ Olympic bid is entirely baseless. USA Gymnastics kept the matter confidential because of the FBI’s directive not to interfere with the investigation. …

Has the FBI confirmed? I assume directives like that are put on paper.

Still … USAG paid McKayla Maroney $1.25 million to keep quiet in late 2016. How is that not trying to cover up the crimes of their former team doctor?

In the end, this will be decided in a court of law. Unless USA Gymnastics goes bankrupt first.

Maggie Nichols #MeToo

Maggie Nichols, a member of the 2015 World Championships gold medal-winning team and now an NCAA champion at Oklahoma, said in a statement to SCNG that she was sexually abused by Nassar during a U.S. national team camp in 2015 at the remote Texas ranch owned by U.S. national team directors Bela and Martha Karolyi, a U.S. Olympic Committee Training Site, and elsewhere.

“Up until now, I was identified as Athlete A by USA gymnastics, the US Olympic Committee and Michigan State University,” Nichols said. “I want everyone to know that he did not do this to Athlete A, he did it to Maggie Nichols.” …

Maggie Nichols, first Nassar whistle-blower, goes public

Maggie is the first known gymnast to tell USA Gymnastics chief executive Steve Penny and other top officials.

Why were they so slow to react after that first complaint?

Nastia on the Nassar scandal

In the wake of the scandal, Liukin is the first to acknowledge that the organization still has a long way to go. “What’s going on in our sport is awful. Change is needed. I’m hoping that this is now the beginning of change and hopefully a brighter future.”

Liukin’s commitment to change is a vision she shares with her father, Valeri Liukin, the current coach of the US National Team …

Nastia Liukin Calls For Change In USA Gymnastics Following Sexual Abuse Scandal

Actually, the Olympic Champion was one of the last prominent American gymnastics spokespersons to call for real change. But it’s nice to see her finally get on board. She wore black at the Golden Globes.

John Orozco, Laurie Hernandez and Nadia were there too.

Oprah’s speech

“… I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.”

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This was her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award, an honorary Golden Globe for lifetime achievement.

You get the feeling this is yet another turning point. Yet more women will feel empowered to speak.

‘Time Is Up’ for Sexual Predators.

SPOTTING – education and respect

Alina Williams:

I call gymnastics a contact sport because we cannot teach our athletes without touching them. We spot, poke, shape, and catch our athletes every day, but if we don’t teach them early that they have a say in how and when they are touched we are failing in our duty as educators. …

But here’s the kicker and the hardest part of all of this to implement in the gym: if a child refuses your touch, you must respect that refusal. Sometimes that means watching a kid go around the bar in an ugly shape you really want to fix …

Contact Sports: Teaching Touch and Consent to Young Athletes

At a coaching course last week we had a number of demonstrators from the host club. Of course we explained what spotting was included and encouraged the kids to opt out of anything that made them feel uncomfortable in any way.

DANGEROUS playgrounds

Coaches complain about helicopter parents. But unsupervised play in the bad old days was pretty scary.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Audi’s gender equality Superbowl ad

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’m hoping women and girls will feel empowered to strive for their goals in 2018.

WADA Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)

Athletes may have illnesses or conditions that require them to take particular medications.

If the medication an athlete is required to take to treat an illness or condition happens to fall under the Prohibited List, a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) may give that athlete the authorization to take the needed medicine. …

WADA

A few examples:

This list evolves over time “based on the evolution of medical best practice“.

Simone in 2015

Athlete medical records should be private. But in 2016 Russian hackers broke into the WAG database and revealed that athletes including Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Simone Biles had received TUEs.

Russian boxer Mikhail Aloyan, who won a silver medal in Rio, had one, as well.

Simone had received an exemption for her attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

There are those who feel that some TUEs are another form of cheating. If you agree, lobby to have those medications taken off the list.

For now, TUEs are legal. 

Everyone I know agrees that Răducan, 2000 Olympic Champion, should not have been stripped of the gold medal for testing positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned substance at the time. Some medications should be allowed.

___ In a separate issue …

The International Olympic Committee finally took meaningful action against what it acknowledged had been “systematic” cheating by the nation at London 2012 and Sochi 2014, outlawing its flag, uniform and anthem from Pyeongchang 2018. …

Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, who was sports minister at the time of the scandal, was also handed a lifetime Olympic ban …

Telegraph

Better late than never.

It’s false equivalency to claim that what Simone did is the same as a nationally organized, top down deliberate system of cheating.

I’m very unhappy for the clean Russian athletes, including all of the Artistic gymnasts. But I support the IOC sanction. Otherwise Putin’s team would continue deliberate cheating as vigorously as possible.