Olympics
OLYMPIC AND WORLD CHAMPIONS AMONG RUSSIAN ATHLETES BANNED AFTER CAS RULING
A group of 12 Russian athletes, including the 2012 Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov, have been suspended for periods ranging from two to eight years after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled against them.
The athletes banned also included Svetlana Shkolina, winner of the high jump at the 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships and the bronze medallist at London 2012.
It is the first case of CAS issuing disciplinary procedures since it replaced the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) in hearing cases following their suspension by the IAAF.
The cases are based mainly upon evidence gathered by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren and the the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
The cases “against several Russian athletes, in particular to the effect that these athletes participated in and/or benefited from anabolic steroid doping programmes and benefited from specific protective methods (washout schedules) in the period 2012 (Olympic Games in London) – 2013 (World Championships in Moscow),” CAS said in a statement today.
This method was invented by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the Moscow Laboratory, who claims he invented a fast-acting steroid “cocktail” that could be swished orally and would “wash out” of athletes’ systems quickly.
Rodchenkov has claimed he
came up with the scheme of the Government in Moscow before fleeing the country
to the United States, where he later became the main whistle blower for
authorities investigating allegations of Russian state-sponsored doping.
A full list of the 12 Russian athletes banned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport today ©CAS
The decision means that Ukhov is set to be stripped of the Olympic gold medal he won at London 2012.
That is now set to be the United States’ Erik Kynard.
Three athletes shared the bronze – Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, Canada’s Derek Drouin and Britain’s Robbie Grabarz – meaning they will all be upgraded to silver.
Ukhov has been given a four-year ban starting from today and all his results from July 16 in 2012 retrospectively annulled.
Among other medals he is set to lose is the silver he won at the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot.
He also currently heads this year’s IAAF world indoor rankings with a best jump of 2.31 metres at Chelyabinsk on January 17.
Shkolina had won the gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow 2013, a year after finishing third at London 2012.
She will now be stripped of both of those medals, with her gold medal from Moscow set to be awarded to America’s Brigetta Barrett.
Spain’s Ruth Beitia is likely to be upgraded from fourth place to the bronze medal at London 2012.
Another significant name among those announced today is Tatyana Lysenko, winner of the gold medal in hammer at London 2012 but which she had already been stripped of in October 2016 following a re-test of her sample by the IOC.
She is now also set to lose the gold medal she won at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow, which is set to be awarded to Poland’s Anita Włodarczyk with China’s Zhang Wenxiu and Wang Zhengmoving up to silver and bronze respectively.
Lysenko has also been banned for eight years having already received a two-year doping suspension in 2008.
Russia have now been stripped of a total of 15 medals from London 2012 – five gold, eight silver and two bronze.
Lyukman Adams, a triple jumper who won the gold medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot, has also been banned.
Cubans Ernesto Revé and Pedro Pablo Pichardo are now set to be promoted to the silver and gold medals with Romania’s Marian Oprea moving from fourth to bronze.
Vera Karmishina-Ganeeva, gold medallist in the discus at the 2013 Summer Universiade, has also been banned for two-years and had her results from July 2012 retrospectively stripped.
“Today’s CAS rulings confirm that the evidence underlying the McLaren Reports is reliable and is capable of establishing anti-doping rule violations,” Brett Clothier, head of the AIU, said
“It needs to be noted that some of these cases were fought solely on the basis of the McLaren evidence, while others were combined with analytical evidence gathered through retesting.
“It is very encouraging for us and gives us the possibility to pursue more cases in the future.”
It could have a potentially significant impact on cases involving data from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) gathered from the Moscow Laboratory and using the underlying analytical data generated that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is currently in the process of authenticating.
“The AIU is in contact with WADA and is keeping a close eye on developments,” Clothier said.
“We will wait for more information concerning the practical aspects of the sharing of the athletics- specific data from WADA and decide on the need for any further re-analysis or investigation that may be required in order to pursue more cases.”
Other athletes among banned by CAS include Tatyana Firova, who becomes the third member of Russia’s 4×400 metre relay team that finished second at London 2012 to have been banned for doping.
They had originally won the silver medals behind the US but were stripped of them in November 2017 following positive re-tests of Yuliya Gushchina and Antonina Krivoshapka.
Firova has received a four-year ban.
A precedent for banning the Russian athletes was set in October 2017 when CAS ruled that Russian triple jumper Anna Pyatykh had used banned substances based on records of secret drug testing in 2013 following a case bought by the AIU.
Documents leaked by Rodchenkov mentioned Pyatykh as part of a “washout” scheme, with unofficial internal testing finding four banned substances in the run-up to the 2013 IAAF World Championships.
It was no surprise that WADA hailed the verdict to ban the 12 athletes and also claimed that it justified their decision to reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, allowing them to access to the Moscow Laboratory.
“These decisions come as welcome news for athletes, anti-doping organizations, WADA and all others around the world who care about clean sport,” said WADA director general Olivier Niggli.
“This should serve to reassure athletes that a lot of work is being conducted behind the scenes by various organisations that are committed to ensure that justice is rendered.
“It reinforces the importance of ensuring that due process is followed and that evidence is carefully presented.
“This highlights also, once again, just how important the successful retrieval of the analytical data from the former Moscow Laboratory by WADA last month is for clean sport and reinforces the decision taken by the WADA Executive Committee to reinstate as compliant the Russian Anti-Doping Agency under strict conditions, including access to the data.
“This large amount of data, which would not have been retrieved without that September ExCo decision, is currently being verified and assessed and, if found to be authentic, will be used to bring forward more cases against those who cheated.”
- Insidethegames.biz
Tickets for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games will go on sale to the general public on April 9, organisers said on Monday, as LA28 also moved to reassure fans over ticket security by naming a group of verified resale platforms that will begin operating in 2027.
A presale for residents in qualifying areas of Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will begin on April 2, with notification emails for selected buyers set to roll out from March 31 through April 4, LA28 said.
On April 7, the organising committee will notify remaining registrants whether they were selected for a purchase window in the first general sales round, known as Drop 1.
“This week marks the first opportunity for fans to claim a seat at the LA28 Olympic Games,” LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement.
LA28’s ticketing programme will include 1 million tickets priced at $28, the lowest price point. Roughly 5% of the Olympic tickets will cost over $1,000, while more than 75% of all tickets, including finals, will be under $400 and nearly 50% of all tickets will be under $200.
“Tickets are comparable to and in many cases well under what we see for other professional sporting and major entertainment events in the U.S.,” Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28 Senior Vice President, Games Delivery Revenue, told reporters on a call.
RESALE PROGRAMME
Separately, LA28 said its verified multi-platform resale programme would open in 2027, with AXS and Eventim serving as the official secondary ticket marketplace and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets also designated as verified resale platforms.
The announcement comes as organisers prepare for the first ticket drop and seek to warn fans against buying from unauthorised sellers before the resale programme launches.
LA28 said primary tickets would only be sold through its official ticket service providers, AXS and Eventim. It added that any LA28 tickets offered for resale before 2027 should not be considered verified.
“While LA28’s resale platforms will not be launched until 2027, having a variety of platforms was critical to providing fans multiple points of access to verified tickets,” Hoover said.
LOCAL PRESALE
Fans who registered for the LA28 ticket draw and whose billing postal codes fall within qualifying counties were automatically entered into the local presale draw. Those selected will receive 48-hour purchase windows running from April 2 through April 6 and must use a payment method tied to a billing postal code in an eligible county to complete their purchase.
For both the local presale and Drop 1, selected buyers will have 48 hours to purchase tickets, while any tickets placed in a cart must be checked out within 30 minutes. Buyers may complete multiple transactions during their allotted window until they reach the ticket limit.
LA28 said tickets would be available across all Olympic sports, as well as for the opening ceremony at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Fans selected for time slots may buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, plus up to 12 tickets for the soccer tournament that will not count toward the general Olympic-event limit. Ceremony tickets will be capped at four per buyer and will count towards the 12-ticket maximum.
Registrants who are not assigned a time slot in either the local presale or Drop 1 will be automatically entered into future draws, LA28 said. Paralympic tickets are due to go on sale in 2027.
Ticket-inclusive hospitality packages from official provider On Location are also expected to go on sale in April. Visa will be the official payment method for purchases.
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Organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled the event’s official visual identity on Monday, a floral-themed design system meant to reflect the city’s landscape, neighbourhoods and cultural character.
The branding will appear across competition venues, fan areas, citywide installations, signage, digital platforms and broadcast presentations during the Games, LA28 said.
At the centre of the design is the “Superbloom,” a reference to the bursts of wildflowers that can blanket parts of Southern California after periods of rain.
LA28 said the concept was intended as a metaphor for the Games, with years of preparation culminating in a short, high-profile global event.
The core graphic is built around 13 individual blooms, which organizers said represent different elements of Los Angeles, from its entertainment culture to its neighbourhoods, people and native landscape.
The colour palette draws on the Bird of Paradise, the official flower of Los Angeles, and is grouped into four families – Poppy, Scarlet Flax, Bluebell and Sagebrush – to evoke the region’s terrain and vegetation.
Organizers said the typographic style was inspired by Los Angeles street signage, including strip mall and hand-painted storefront lettering, in an effort to give the identity a distinctly local feel.
LA28 said the design was developed to work across a wide range of settings, from nearly century-old venues to new facilities, while also accounting for broadcast requirements, digital formats and lighting conditions. The organising committee partnered with design studio Koto on the project.
The identity was unveiled more than two years before the Olympic opening ceremony in what organizers described as an unusually early rollout, allowing partners and stakeholders more time to incorporate the branding into their materials.
Los Angeles will host the Olympics for a third time in 2028, after staging the Games in 1932 and 1984. It will also host the Paralympics for the first time.
-Reuters
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Organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics said on Monday that registration for the first ticket draw will close on March 18, as the Games begin to take shape with the first baseball qualifiers confirmed and the soccer tournament schedule expanded.
More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due to open on July 14, 2028.
Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.
There will also be a local presale running from April 2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom.
LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.
BASEBALL RETURNS
The ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.
Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger Stadium from July 13-19. The remaining three places will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.
LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to extend the competition window.
Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.
Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.
LA28 said kickoff times and the full schedule would be released later this year.
-Reuters
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