Olympics
‘COUP PLOT’ BREWING IN US OLYMPIC BODY
BY MICHAEL PAVITT
A group of more than 50 Olympians have called for the “near complete” resignation of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Board and senior leadership.
The group who have dubbed themselves the ‘Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOC’, issued a press release which urged resignations from the Board following the Ropes & Gray report published last month.
The independent report published by the law firm claimed both USOC and USA Gymnastics had facilitated former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s abuse of hundreds of athletes and had failed to act when the allegations against him emerged.
Senators have called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate and USOC has begun the process to potentially revoke USA Gymnastics’ recognition as the member national governing body for the sport.
The report also accused former USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun and chief of sport performance Alan Ashley of being aware of the accusations more than a year before they became public.
Ashley was sacked from his role following the release of the 252-page document, which details the alleged lack of action taken by bodies including USA Gymnastics and the USOC.
Blackmun resigned shortly after the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, citing ill health as the reason for his departure.
The Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOC, which previously called for the resignation of Blackmun prior to the Pyeongchang, has now called for further resignations following the Ropes & Gray report.
They state the investigation and a Congressional House subcommittee report call for “profound cultural changes to the USOC; a re-organisation that puts athletes’ interests and their well-being first”.
In particular, the group have criticised the appointment of Rich Bender and the re-appointment of Steve Mesler to four-year terms on to the USOC Board.
Rich Bender was one of three new Board members approved last week ©Getty Images
The group allege Mesler “frequently defends the USOC’s cultural status quo” and have claimed the Athletes’ Advisory Council were not asked for feedback before confirming the Olympic bobsleigh gold medallist to a second term.
They also allege Bender has previously “intimidated and insulted athlete-leaders that spoke out against the USOC’s current culture”.
Bender was appointed to the USOC Board as a National Governing Bodies Council representative.
He has been the executive director of USA Wrestling in 2001, reportedly helping membership reach an all time high in 2018.
Bender has also been given credit for assisting the effort to maintain the wrestling’s place in the Olympic Games.
Athletes who are part of the Committee to Restore Integrity include 18-time Grand Slam tennis champion Martina Navratilova and four-time Olympic diving gold medallist Greg Louganis.
The appointments were criticised by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Olympian and chief executive of Champion Women.
“It is disappointing that the USOC still fails to look inward, even after independent reports demonstrate their culpability in failing to help athletes,” she said.
“Their two recent appointments to the Board, without athlete involvement, further demonstrate why.
“They should not be leading America’s Olympic Movement.
“The problem remains; we must strengthen athletes’ rights against bureaucrats acting with a five-ring-fuelled sense of self-importance.”
Hogshead-Makar has tweeted support for the two other appointments to the USOC Board last week, with Brad Snyder and Beth Brooke-Marciniak having both been approved.
Snyder is a five-time Paralympic swimming gold medalist, having competed at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
He was named a member of the Paralympic Advisory Committee in 2018 and is a part-time instructor in ethics and leadership at the US Naval Academy.
Brooke-Marciniak, an independent member, is global vice chair of public policy for professional services firm EY.
She had previously worked for two years in the United States Department of the Treasury and was responsible for all tax policy matters related to insurance and managed care.
Her other roles include serving on the Board of trustees of the Aspen Institute, the Women’s Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum and the advisory board of Out Leadership.
When announcing the appointments last week, USOC chair Susanne Lyons claimed the trio would be advocates for athletes.
“The USOC is at a pivotal point and, now more than ever, we have a unique responsibility to ensure that athletes are protected, supported and empowered in equal measure,” Lyons said.
“I look forward to working with Rich, Brad and Beth as we continue our critically important work to confront the challenges facing our organisation so that we can emerge as a stronger, better community for the athletes we serve.”
Paris 2024 sold a record 12 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, beating the Games record previously set by London 2012, organisers said on Sunday.
Some 9.5 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and 2.5 million for the Paralympics, which end on Sunday.
In 2012, London organisers set the record for the Paralympics with 2.7 million tickets sold but only 8.2 million were sold for the Olympics.
-Reuters
The French capital will pay tribute to Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on fire by her boyfriend, by naming a sports facility in her honour, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced on Friday.
The marathon runner, who competed in the Paris Games last month died on Thursday, four days after she was doused in petrol and ignited by her boyfriend in Kenya, in the latest attack on a female athlete in the country.
The 33-year-old, who finished 44th in her Olympic Games debut, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in Sunday’s attack, Kenyan and Ugandan media reported.
“She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom, and it was in all likelihood her beauty, strength and freedom which were intolerable for the person who committed this murder,” Hidalgo told reporters.
“Paris will not forget her. We’ll dedicate a sports venue to her so that her memory and her story remains among us and helps carry the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Cheptegei is the third prominent sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described Cheptegei’s death as a loss “to the entire region”.
“This is a critical moment— not just to mourn the loss of a remarkable Olympian, but to commit ourselves to creating a society that respects and protects the dignity of every individual,” Uganda’s Athletes commission Chair Ganzi Semu Mugula said on Friday.
-Reuters
Engineer’s descendants say French capital landmark ‘not intended as advertising platform’
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
The five rings – 29m (95ft) wide, 15m high and weighing 30 tonnes – were installed on the Eiffel Tower before the Paris Olympics opened on 26 July, and were expected to be taken down after the Paralympics’ closing ceremony on 8 September.
But Ms Hidalgo said she wanted to keep the interlaced rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red, symbolising the five continents.
She added that the current rings – each one measuring 9m in diameter – were too heavy and would be replaced by a lighter version at some point.
The Socialist mayor also claimed that “the French have fallen in love with Paris again” during the Games, and she wanted “this festive spirit to remain”.
Some Parisians as well as visitors to the French capital supported the mayor.
“The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful, the rings add colour. It’s very nice to see it like this,” a young woman, who identified herself as Solène, told the France Bleu website.
But Manon, a local resident, said this was “a really bad idea”.
“It’s a historic monument, why defile it with rings? It was good for the Olympics but now it’s over, we can move on, maybe we should remove them and return the Eiffel Tower to how it was before,” he told France Bleu.
Social media user Christophe Robin said Ms Hidalgo should have consulted Parisians before going ahead with her plan.
In a post on X, he reminded that the Eiffel Tower featured a Citroën advert in 1925-36.
The Eiffel Tower was built in1889 for the World’s Fair. The wrought-iron lattice tower was initially heavily criticised by Parisian artists and intellectuals – but is now seen by many as the symbol of the “City of Light”.
Ms Hidalgo, who has been running Paris since 2014, is known for her bold – and sometimes controversial – reforms.
Under her tenure, many city streets, including the banks of the river Seine, have been pedestrianised.
Last year, she won convincingly a city referendum to ban rental electric scooters. However, fewer than 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
But both drivers’ groups and opposition figures attacked the scheme, saying the SUV classification was misleading as many family-size cars would be affected.
France’s Environment Minister Christophe Béchu said at the time that the surcharge amounted to “punitive environmentalism”.
And just before the Paris Olympics, Ms Hidalgo and other officials went into the Seine to prove the river was safe to swim.
-BBC
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