Category: safety

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.

Gymnastics Canada – Safe Sport webinars

… our newest initiative, the Winning Well Safe Sport Speaker Series, designed to enhance awareness and knowledge regarding various topics related to safe sport.

Recognizing that the well-being of children and athletes is a collective responsibility, this monthly webinar series aims to foster a culture of safety within our gymnastics community.

Gretchen Kerr, Dean, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at U of Toronto, is the first speaker.

great SPOT – coach Chad Buczek

Chad is coach and owner of Metro South Gymnastics Academy, Canton, Mass.

At a competition in Tennessee, 9-year-old gymnast Cherrish Remy barrels her way toward the vault and launches herself off the springboard, but she’s off the mark.

Luckily, her quick-acting coach Chad Buczek appeared out of nowhere and caught little Cherrish before her fall could go really badly.

“I instantly broke out into a sweat,” said the girl’s mother. “It’s definitely not the first time he’s saved her,” she continued, speaking of Coach Buczek.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (2020)

new NCAA Landing “Finishing Position”

An excellent improvement on College rules. This will definitely help separate the best of the best routines.

Hopefully we’ll see NO MORE College Sticks getting a 10.0 score.

LANDING is a skill. And should be evaluated as a SKILL. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Nikita Nagorny on the IOC decisions

Nikita has not said much publicly about the Paris Olympics, until now.

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics linked to an interview he gave lately to a domestic sports publication.

“THE IOC LEADERSHIP SHOULD PRESERVE OLYMPISM AND NOT MIX IT WITH POLITICS FOR PERSONAL GAIN.” INTERVIEW WITH NIKITA NAGORNY

2017

Stella Zakharova on Russians in Paris

Stella Zakharova, now age-60, born in Odesa, Ukraine, was an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist in team competitions for the USSR.

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