Olympics
Fierce rivalries ready to be renewed on Paris 2024 Athletics track
Jamaica and the United States will renew their sprint rivalry at the Stade de France, as old grudges bubble to the surface across the Paris Olympics athletics programme which kicks off this week.
The track and field events at the Tokyo Olympics may be better remembered for good sportsmanship than bitter feuds, as the world came together in the face of a global pandemic to carry out the COVID-delayed Games.
Not so in Paris where the masks, and the gloves, are off.
U.S. world champions Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson are set to collide with a host of talented newcomers and established stars from longstanding rival Jamaica in the 100 metres.
“Rivalries have to be nurtured correctly – if they happen too often, then people get bored. If they happen too few, then again people get disappointed,” said Lyles.
“It’s something that has to be intentional, for sure. But at the same time, both parties have to agree with it.”
Jamaica’s men were absent from the Tokyo final but are fully expected to make a big impact this time around.
Rising star Oblique Seville handed Lyles his only 100 metres defeat of the season in Kingston last month, while Kishane Thompson captured the pre-Olympic spotlight with a 9.77 seconds world lead at the Jamaican national championships.
The rivalry resumes on the women’s side too after the U.S. struggled to make an impact in Tokyo without Richardson, who was denied a place at the Games due to a positive cannabis test.
America’s brightest hope of ending a 28-year gold medal drought in the women’s event, she will compete alongside Jamaica’s 2008 and 2012 Olympics 100 metres gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and five-time medallist Shericka Jackson.
“If the Americans are in the field, I’m sure that the Jamaicans are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to bring my A-game’,” Gail Devers, the last U.S. woman to win the 100 metres after she took gold in Atlanta, told Reuters.
“And (it’s) the same way with the U.S.”
‘THE NEXT GUY’
In the men’s 1,500 metres, defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen resumes his feud with Britain’s Josh Kerr, who denied him the world championship crown last year.
The two have traded barbs since Budapest, with the Norwegian calling Kerr “just the next guy” and saying he expects his trip to Paris will be a breeze.
Kerr got the better of Ingebrigtsen in their last meeting over the mile at the Prefontaine Classic in May, and it will be game on Paris.
“The headlines will be me versus him but I will be racing those other guys on the line too. I’m the best in the world,” Kerr said in remarks reported by the Daily Record.
“I’m looking to go to war.”
The old foes in the 400 hurdles – Norwegian world record holder Karsten Warholm, American Rai Benjamin and Brazilian Alison dos Santos – will get a rematch after finishing first, second and third on the podium in Tokyo.
The trio’s rivalry intensified after Tokyo, as Dos Santos claimed gold at the world championships in Eugene in 2022 and Warholm won in Budapest last year.
American Benjamin has vowed to make an impact in Paris.
“Paris is going to be madness. I have to win there. I believe I can do it,” he told reporters after beating his two adversaries at the Monaco Diamond League earlier this month.
The Olympic athletics programme kicks off on Aug. 1.
-Reuters
Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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Ukraine’s skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Thursday over the use of a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, the International Olympic Committee said.
He was informed of his disqualification after a meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry early in the morning at the sliding venue.
His team said they would appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Coventry told reporters she had wanted to meet the athlete face to face in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.
“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters.
“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory.
“The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution” she added, choking up.
“I really wanted to see him race, It’s been an emotional morning.”
The IOC offered him the opportunity to display his “helmet of remembrance” depicting 24 images of dead compatriots before the start and after the end of Thursday’s race at the Games, while also allowing him to wear a black armband while competing.
“I am disqualified from the race. I will not get my Olympic moment,” said Heraskevych.
The skeleton competition starts later on Thursday.
-Reuters
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