Governing Bodies
CORONAVIRUS: NO GOOD OPTION IN SIGHT FOR TOKYO OLYMPIC LEADERS
In his two decades as a consultant to organisations vying to host the Olympic Games, Terrence Burns helped write and review official bids and plans from dozens of potential candidate cities.
In all those bids, he said, discussions of potential disruptions to the event were fairly narrow in scope: mostly natural disasters, like earthquakes or fires, and, more recently, terrorist attacks.
“I’ve never seen an Olympic organising committee asked, ‘Are you prepared for a global pandemic?’” Mr Burns said this week.
Now, with just under five months to go before the scheduled opening of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo on July 24, organisers in Japan and at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Switzerland are grappling with the coronavirus outbreak, which is threatening to derail the world’s largest sporting event.
In preparing for the Olympics, Japan’s public health planning until now had focused on the prevention of measles and rubella, sexually transmitted diseases and food poisoning.
A new disease, like the coronavirus, was not central to their calculations.
Still, as the virus has begun to spread through the country, officials in Japan have played down suggestions that plans for the games could be altered or even cancelled.
At a news briefing on Wednesday, chief Cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said that preparations for the games were proceeding “as planned”, adding that the Olympic torch would begin its journey to Japan in March according to schedule.
The IOC has also declined to entertain the possibility that the games might not take place exactly as planned.
But sporting events in Japan and elsewhere are already being cancelled, as governments try to discourage large gatherings in major cities.
Many who have procured tickets and made travel plans are now wondering whether they will have to scrap them.
“We’ve had our first guests calling to ask questions about cancelling,” Mr Anbritt Stengele, president of Sports Traveler, a travel agency specialising in packages to international sporting events, said this week.
“Everyone in the industry is monitoring it and concerned.”
People across the Olympic world have begun to ponder, then, what might happen if the coronavirus has not been brought under control before the summer.
“I’m sure somewhere within the walls of the IOC headquarters there’s a big board with various scenarios on it where people are thinking about, ‘OK, what do we do in a worst-case situation?” said Mr Dick Pound, a longtime IOC member.
There are options, of course, according to people like Mr Burns who have worked with the Olympics for decades. None are very appealing.
MOVING THE GAMES
One theoretical solution involves moving the Olympics to a different locale – perhaps a city that has recently hosted the games, like London, or one that might be gearing up to, like Los Angeles.
It has happened with other major sports events. The 2003 Women’s World Cup was relocated from China to the United States during the outbreak of Sars.
But the Women’s World Cup, particularly back then, was a considerably smaller event in scope than the Olympics, with far fewer travelling fans, athletes, sponsors and media members.
And in general, stadiums that can accommodate soccer, the world’s most popular sport, are easy to find. Venues that can host surfing, sailing, equestrian dressage and track cycling? Less so.
Olympic host cities block out rooms in countless hotels. They reserve high-profile venues, generate public safety and transportation plans, and deal with a host of other logistical and legal issues years in advance, in anticipation of tens of thousands of visitors.
“Who could put on an event the size and scope of the Olympic Games even beginning today, five months out?” Mr Pound said. “Nobody, realistically.”
There is also the question of whether it would even make sense amid a viral epidemic to have thousands of people from around the world congregate in another city and then return to their homes.
Dr Yasuyuki Kato, professor of infectious diseases at the International University of Health and Welfare in Narita, Japan, noted that the games could act as “a hub to disseminate the virus to other countries”.
CANCELLING THE GAMES
The Olympics have been cancelled outright three times – in 1916, 1940 and 1944 – during the world wars.
The prospect of a cancellation now, when so many parties have invested billions of dollars and years of labour – and have legal contracts – seems almost unthinkable.
Broadcasters have carved out huge programming blocks, and marketers have built campaigns meant to culminate in Tokyo. Athletes have trained for years to appear on that stage.
“I’ll tell you who definitely doesn’t want to cancel is NBC,” said Dr Jules Boykoff, a professor of politics and an expert on Olympic history at Pacific University in Oregon.
“They have put billions into the rights to these Olympics. There will be serious disgruntlement from those who have power. They will insist that the games go on.”
A spokesman for NBC said, “The safety of our employees is always our top priority, but there is no impact on our preparations at this time.”
The spread of viruses can be suppressed in warmer months, and Dr Melissa Nolan, an expert on infectious diseases at the University of South Carolina, said “most predictions estimate we’ll see a major decline by July”.
But Mr Pound said he believed any decision to cancel or modify the games would have to be initiated by late May.
Asked about Mr Pound’s comments, Mr Suga, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, said they were “not the official view of the IOC”.
And the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, responding to questions from The New York Times, said that it was “not considering cancelling”.
POSTPONING THE GAMES
In 2001, days after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, organisers of the Ryder Cup, a team golf competition between the United States and Europe that was historically staged in odd-numbered years, decided to postpone the event for 12 months after top golfers like Tiger Woods expressed concern about flying.
To accommodate the change, the Presidents Cup, a team golf competition that had been staged in even-numbered years, was also pushed back a year, to 2003.
A similar but more complicated sort of rejiggering would be required if the Olympics were to be postponed by a few months or a full year.
Pushing the games to the summer of 2021 would put them in direct conflict with world championship events in several sports, which would likely have to be moved as well.
Holding the games just a few months later would put them in direct competition with a host of other professional sports competitions that would not move to accommodate them.
For example, while NBA basketball players are available in July, they are not available in October.
In addition, NBC is busy with football in the fall, while its summer programming is largely dedicated to the Olympics.
“Olympic parties don’t want to host Olympic Games in the middle of the NFL football season for obvious financial reasons,” Mr Burns said.
ATHLETES ONLY
With few good options, organisers could be forced to get creative.
One way to satisfy broadcasters could be to hold the events behind closed doors, a nod to the reality that most fans watch the games on television.
But it’s unclear if public safety concerns would be addressed if thousands of athletes, coaches and staff members from around the world were still congregating in competition venues.
Or could the Olympics go on in Tokyo as planned – with, perhaps, travel from certain countries barred, screening zones in every venue and public space, and plenty of hand sanitiser and masks on hand?
At some point, though, such an event might not feel like the Olympics, which is supposed to be a peaceful celebration of people from more than 200 countries.
Can the Olympics be the Olympics without majestic opening and closing ceremonies in packed stadiums, or if events are spread out across multiple cities?
The questions may grow louder as the virus spreads further.
“It’s unusual, it’s unprecedented, it’s a complex issue,” Mr Burns said, “and if something indeed happens, it will have a complex solution.”
-New York Times
Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.
The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.
Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.
Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.
Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.
Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.
“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).
“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”
‘Pure passion’
Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.
“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.
“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”
Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”
“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.
“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.
“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”
Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.
“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.
“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”
Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.
After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”
“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.
“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”
-AFP
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Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.
Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.
Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.
However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.
Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.
Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.
Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.
On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.
“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.
“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”
Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.
“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.
A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.
“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”
-Reuters
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Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.
During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.
Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.
Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo
“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.
“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”
The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.
IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.
The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.
-Reuters
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