As the scandal over international corruption and vote buying for the 2016 Olympic Games escalates the International Olympic Committee’s myopic response has again left more than a little to be desiredAs the Olympic flame was lit before beginning its journey to Rio last year the IOC president, Thomas Bach, intoned: “The Olympic flame means hope to us all.” Mr Bach will likely be feeling hopeful now, with the news that the Rio home of Brazil’s Olympic committee chief has been raided, along with various other addresses, as part of a major investigation into international corruption and vote buying for the 2016 Olympic Games.Bach will be hopeful that this is just a cosmic misunderstanding, hopeful that the £155,000 cash the police reportedly...
It’s all very well eliminating every speck of dust, but eliminating medical records is less easy to get behind – people will wonder which was the more significantTime for another shot of Team Sky, whose functionaries seemingly will not rest until no human can utter the phrase “marginal gains” without deploying sarcastic air quotes. Many will have found themselves at this point some time ago.The relentless curiosity always said to have underpinned the culture at Team Sky and British Cycling is revealed as more selective by the week. Each new revelation of slapdashery is harder and harder to square with the old fables about painting the floors white and getting a surgeon to speak to riders about how to wash...
The older, wiser Olympic champion is finally addressing the doping epidemic that he’d always avoided, but will it be enough to prompt real change?Michael Phelps sat before a congressional panel on Tuesday, no longer a silent superstar whistling past the Olympics doping problem. For years, the most-decorated Olympian ever seemed content to pretend the controversy swirling in sports was not his problem. Best to duck his head, mumble nothings and dive into the pool.But the older, wiser Phelps who found his voice in Rio has kept talking into retirement. The sticky subject he always avoided is no longer taboo. He seems to want to be swimming’s elder statesman at 31 and being an elder statesman means taking stands. He is...
The IOC may find fewer cities eager to host the Games with experts agreeing that staging the event is economically damaging despite a larger revenue cakeThese days even the Olympics is going on the 5:2 diet. Less than 18 months ago, the politicians and panjandrums of Hamburg, Rome, Budapest, Paris and Los Angeles all craved the right to host the 2024 Games. Now, following Budapest’s withdrawal last week, only Paris and Los Angeles remain. But it is merely reflective of a bidding process that is getting worryingly slimmer.Twelve cities fought over the 2004 Olympics. Yet only two were in the running for the 2022 Winter Olympics. And now here we are again. Even LA, one of the last pair standing...
LA’s mayor may have accused Donald Trump of ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ – but one man’s flames of hatred is another’s flames of desireBack in 1994, IOC member Dick Pound declared the only way Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games would lose to Quebec City was because Utah’s capital had “no more rabbits to pull out of the hat”. Yup, I know – bless Dick for thinking that’s how Olympic bids are won.Working on more conventional lines, however, the Salt Lake City bid president and his senior vice-president shipped $1,200 worth of rabbits (trivia buffs may care to know that amounted to 12 rabbits) to Pound. Dick and his wife declined to accept the rabbits,...