Beijing Olympic Games

IOC investigation clears Chinese gymnasts

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (TICKER) —The International Gymnastics Federation concluded Wednesday that China did not enter any underage gymnasts at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Continue reading ‘IOC investigation clears Chinese gymnasts’ »

Rogge says IOC more credible on doping since Beijing

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a more credible organisation on doping since the Beijing Games where only eight athletes were suspended for using banned substances, said president Jacques Rogge.

Continue reading ‘Rogge says IOC more credible on doping since Beijing’ »

Updated: 2008-08-17 16:02:13

Liu Jian, BOCOG Volunteer Department director (Photo credit: Fan Fan)

(BEIJING, August 16) — Participants of the week-long Olympic dream tour activity met Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC honorary president, for a heart-to-heart talk on Sunday morning.

Continue reading ‘Olympic dream tour campers meet IOC honorary president Samaranch’ »

Chambers fails in bid to overturn Olympic ban

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - Sprinter Dwain Chambers cannot take part in the Beijing Olympics next month after failing to gain an injunction against a British Olympic Association (BOA) ban in the High Court on Friday.

The 30-year-old was challenging a BOA by-law which states that any athlete found guilty of using drugs is barred from competing for Britain in any sport at the Olympics.

Chambers, who won the 100 meters at the British Olympic trials last weekend in 10.0 seconds, completed a two-year doping ban in 2006 after he had tested positive for the designer steroid THG in 2003.

The London-based sprinter’s legal team had argued that the BOA ban represented a restraint of trade.

However, judge Colin MacKay said if the case had gone to a fully-contested hearing he was not satisfied that Chambers had a reasonable prospect of proving his case.

He said to have allowed the challenge meant “the harmony and management of the British team would have been upset.”

BOA chairman Colin Moynihan said the verdict sent a strong message to other athletes.

“It’s a matter of regret that Dwain Chambers, an athlete of such undoubted talent, should by his own actions have put himself out of the running to shine on the Olympic stage in Beijing,” Moynihan told reporters outside court.

“The BOA will continue to send a powerful message that nobody found guilty of serious drug-cheating offences should have the honor of wearing GB vests at the Olympic Games.”

Chambers made no comment after the hearing despite being surrounded by a throng of reporters and cameramen outside the court before escaping down a narrow side street.

APPEAL UNLIKELY

With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deadline for naming team members coming up this weekend, Chambers is highly unlikely to launch an appeal against the decision.

UK Athletics had named only Simeon Williamson, beaten by Chambers at the trials, for the 100 meters in Beijing. Sprinter Craig Pickering is now expected to be added to the team.

“We now consider the issue closed and look forward to Beijing and must all turn our focus to our final preparations with the athletes who will represent Great Britain,” UK Athletics said in a statement.

The Chambers case has dominated British athletics this year and split opinions throughout the sport.

He was controversially selected for the world indoor championships in Spain, against the wishes of UK Athletics, and won a silver medal.

The BOA’s stance has gained support from many leading names in the sport including former British gold medalist Sebastian Coe, now vice-president of the governing IAAF and chairman of the London 2012 Games, and rowing great Steve Redgrave.

After serving his ban Chambers briefly returned to athletics in 2006 and was a member of Britain’s gold medal-winning 4×100 meters relay team at the European championships that year.

Chambers was stripped of the gold he won at the European championships in 2002 and was asked to return a substantial amount of prize money he had earned while taking drugs.

He made an unsuccessful attempt to forge a career in American football and earlier this year had a trial with rugby league team Castleford.

(Editing by Ken Ferris)

Chambers ban stands and BOA defends bylaw

LONDON (TICKER) —British Olympic chiefs will review their lifetime ban on drugs cheats after the Beijing Games, it was revealed.

The British Olympic Association will order a survey of all Olympic athletes for their views on the bylaw after the Games, but the organization’s chairman Lord Moynihan insisted Friday’s court victory over Dwain Chambers would strengthen its resolve to keep the rule.

The sprinter lost his bid to run in Beijing after the High Court refused to grant an injunction temporarily suspending a lifetime Olympic ban.

Despite the ruling, judge Mr. Justice Mackay gave a warning to the BOA.

“Many people both inside and outside sport would see this bylaw as unlawful,” Mackay said. “In my judgment, it would take a much better case than the claimant has presented to persuade me to overturn the status quo at this stage and compel his selection for the Games.”

Afterwards, Moynihan insisted the ruling had strengthened the BOA’s position but revealed it would commission a survey to ensure the athletes were also behind the bylaw.

“We will ask the British Athletes Commission, which is independent of us, to undertake a survey on the bylaw after Beijing,” he told PA SportsTicker.

“Today has strengthened our resolve that it’s the right approach but we also want to make sure we are reflecting the athletes’ wishes. I don’t believe today will change that bylaw but we need to keep it under review.”

Moynihan said that a previous survey had shown 90 percent of the athletes were in favor of the BOA’s lifetime Olympic ban for serious drugs cheats.

The International Olympic Committee last month toughened its rules so that any athlete being banned for six months or more for a doping offense would miss the next Games after their ban has ended.

Moynihan said the judge had recognized that under the new IOC rules Chambers, who was given a two-year ban in 2003 after testing positive for the designer steroid THG, would have been ineligible for Beijing.

The judge also made the point that the BOA has a tougher law than the IOC or virtually any other national Olympic committee.

Asked if the BOA would consider falling into line the IOC, Moynihan replied: “We are aware that for 16 years we have taken a very tough line and the feeling has been to take into account what the athletes want.

“The IOC have now made a major move in the direction of the BOA, WADA have toughened up their position and with the High Court decision I think the tide has turned in our favor.”

Moynihan said he was not jubilant to have won as Chambers’ actions had damaged Olympic sport.

“I’m clearly pleased that the bylaw stays in place and is respected by the courts, but it’s a matter for regret that our best sprinter has put himself out of the running to shine in Beijing purely by his own actions,” Moynihan said.

“We have however sent a powerful message that serious drug offenders will not be part of Team GB.”

Chambers is unlikely to appeal against the decision and the 30-year-old’s lawyer Nick Collins said his client was very disappointed by the result.

“The difficulty of challenging the rules of a governing body was always going to be a tough,” Collins said.

Reaction among former and current Olympic athletes was one of relief that the bylaw had been upheld.

Colin Jackson, the former 110m hurdles silver medallist, said:

“I’m really happy Dwain has lost his appeal,” former 110-meter hurdles silver medallist Colin Jackson said. “This is more about a principle than anything else and the decision has sent out a clear message that we are not going to accept people in our team who have committed offenses such as this.”

“Dwain, get on with your life, whatever that might be - we don’t want you in our team.”

Jo Pavey, a strong candidate for a medal in the Olympic 10,000 meters, also agreed with Chamers exclusion, believing that it sent the right message prior to London hosting the 2012 Games in four years time.

“If they had let him run in Beijing it would have sent out the wrong message to youngsters in the sport as we prepare to stage the Games in London,” Pavey said.

“It is also good news for clean athletes who in the past have had to battle against the drug cheats. Who knows if he is still benefiting now from what he took. You can’t be sure.”

Updated: 2008-07-09

(BEIJING, July 9) — “Though sports, we can bring peace”, Chungwon Choue, President of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), recently told the IOC President Jacques Rogge and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The WTF launched the Taekwondo Peace Corps in Suwon, the Republic of Korea on July 5. Choue hopes that if successful, the Taekwondo Peace Corps will be expanded into the “Sports Peace Corps”, with the purpose of improving sports in developing countries.

“If the Taekwondo Peace Corps project is carried out successfully, then we will expand the program to involve all Olympic sports into a ‘Sport Peace Corps’ program, in cooperation with the United Nations and the IOC,” said Choue.

Seven Taekwondo Peace Corps teams will be sent to five countries by the WTF this summer. The destinations are Russia, Paraguay, India, Pakistan and China. Two teams will go to India and China.

Sport struggles to bridge Korean divide

By Peter Rutherford

SEOUL (Reuters) - While ping pong diplomacy worked wonders for China-U.S. relations, sport and politics have made for uncomfortable bedfellows on the Korean peninsula.

A half-century has passed since armistice brought the 1950-53 Korean conflict to a close but despite a significant thaw in relations in recent years the prospects for reunification of the capitalist South and communist North remain remote.

Efforts to harness the Olympics as a tool for reconciliation have met with some success and the two Koreas should once again march under a single flag at the Beijing opening ceremony on August 8, though they were unable to thrash out an agreement to compete as a joint team.

At other sporting events, progress has been patchy.

On June 22, a soccer World Cup qualifier between the two passed off without incident in a genuinely warm atmosphere in Seoul but three months earlier their first game had been moved from Pyongyang to Shanghai due to a diplomatic row.

North Korea refused to play the South’s national anthem or raise its flag, forcing FIFA to step in and switch the match to a neutral venue.

For the athletes, political issues should be a secondary consideration to success, said South Korea’s most successful female archer Kim Soo-nyung.

Kim, who earned four gold medals between 1988 and 2000, faced a North Korean for the individual archery bronze in Sydney at a time when relations between Seoul and Pyongyang were improving.

“There was talk about whether I should let her win,” she told Reuters. “If politics was the main priority I guess I could have.

“But what matters in sport is the result. I did my best as an athlete, won the bronze and the North Korean didn’t win anything. That’s sport.”

SYMBOLIC GESTURES

The two Koreas have found it easier to compromise on the Olympic stage and analysts say even symbolic sporting gestures could reap rewards given the current state of North-South relations.

Pyongyang has delivered particularly stinging criticism of the South’s new conservative president, Lee Myung-bak.

“North and South Korea marching together at opening ceremonies might be symbolic but with tension running so high between the two governments now the march at the Beijing Games may even play a role in improving ties,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea expert at Korea University.

The Olympics have no equal in terms of profile and prestige, focusing the attention of the world on the host nation.

Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan hoped hosting the 1988 Games in Seoul would showcase the country’s ‘economic miracle’ and deliver legitimacy to his authoritarian regime.

Instead, with the world and International Olympic Committee (IOC) watching, South Koreans protested their way to democracy, forcing Chun to step down. The Korean strongman’s reaction to pro-democracy demonstrations might have been very different without the fate of the Olympics hanging over his head.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

While the 1988 Olympics helped South Korea to become a genuine global player, they might also have widened the rift with the North, which demanded to co-host the Games.

South Korea rejected the North’s demand but negotiations with the IOC eventually led to an offer for North Korea to host several events, including archery and table tennis. The then IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch called it “a very generous proposal, an historic one.”

North Korea rejected the idea. Along with Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua, it boycotted the 1988 Olympics, while South Korea hosted one of the most memorable Games.

“The Seoul Olympic Games and the North’s boycott raised the South’s stature in the international community,” said North Korea expert Yoo. “At the same time it deepened the North’s isolation.”

Those Games featured the infamous Ben Johnson doping affair, Roy Jones Jr’s highly disputed loss to a South Korean boxer, Greg Louganis smashing his head on a diving board and gold-medal performances from Florence Griffith Joyner and Steffi Graf.

Seoul also saw Russian and U.S. athletes compete against each other following the boycotts of Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles four years later.

While Seoul’s experience showed the enormous impact of the Olympics, analysts believe the scrutiny associated with the Beijing Games will not force China to up the pace of change.

“When it made the bid in 2001, China pledged to clean up on the environment and human rights and make political reforms,” said Shin Sang-jin, a China expert at Seoul’s Kwangwoon University.

“It has done so to a certain degree but the leadership is not going to go as far as to put the question of its sovereignty and loss of its authority with the public on the line.”

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim, Editing by Clare Fallon)