This is not a problem happening just in Russia – a win-at-all-costs mentality is affecting young athletes more than everWhat price an Olympic gold medal these days? We know about the blood, sweat and tears, but the costs paid by the 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva in pursuit of the glittering prize rose exorbitantly over the past week in Beijing. The already unstable Olympic currency of values, integrity and humanity devalued further. There was almost universal horror watching Valieva’s coach, Eleni Tutberidze, in action. Her harsh questions as Valieva sought to escape the rink after her unravelling performance caused consternation. Even the fence-sitting International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, spoke out. But after the initial repudiation and disgust, her approach...
From the Olympics to the oche, women trained, performed and competed on the same stage as men in a breakthrough yearIt was one of the most heartwarming images of the Tokyo Olympics. In the aftermath of the women’s BMX final, the newly minted gold medallist Beth Shriever sat slumped on the track in front of a metal barrier, her legs splayed uselessly in front of her. She had pumped every last drop from them to see off the world No 1, Mariana Pajón, in a thrilling chase to the line. Now they couldn’t even lift her to her feet.Within seconds, her GB teammate Kye Whyte was at her side. Whyte had taken silver in the men’s race that preceded Shriever’s,...
The convicted super criminal’s death could lead to a series of revelations with his son dropping hints of other scandalsChampion long jumper. Coach of the Senegal national football team. Mayor of Dakar. Head of global athletics for 16 years and hailed as a spiritual leader by Seb Coe. Olympic powerbroker. Fixer. Corruptor. Convicted super criminal. Lamine Diack packed a lot into his extraordinary 88 years, which came to a quiet end on Friday. Yet we are perhaps still nowhere close to knowing all of his felonies – and the friends he helped along the way.True, what we know is staggering enough. Last year Diack received a four-year sentence from the French courts for masterminding a scheme in which the IAAF,...
Simply replacing horse riding with cycling, as proposed, would not tackle the Olympic sport’s anachronistic make-upNow here’s an intriguing proposition for Guardian readers, a letter from Major General EHH Allenby, inspector of cavalry, aka the Bloody Bull, on behalf of the British Olympic Council, published on Thursday 7 August 1913, calling for volunteers to step forward for the British team in the new Olympic discipline of modern pentathlon at the Berlin Games in 1916. “The competition consists of the following five events,” Allenby explained, “revolver or pistol shooting at a whole figure decimal target, distance, 25m, swimming, 300m free style, fencing, weapon; epee, riding cross-country, 5,000m, cross-country running, 4,000m.” Tempted?The Guardian, it has to be said, didn’t go in much...
The full financial impact is yet to be determined but there is loose consensus in Japan over the ‘coercive’ approach of IOCThe public square outside Shimbashi station, the scene of anti-Olympic protests this summer, has resumed its usual role as an after-work rendezvous. Newspapers that juxtaposed athletic feats with a rising coronavirus caseload now wonder how Japan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, will fare when voters go to the polls at the end of this month.The recent lifting of Covid-19 emergency measures has added to the feeling that “normality” is being restored in Tokyo after months of Olympic controversy and virus-induced anxiety. Residents who were banned from attending all but a few events might be tempted to ask if the...