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THE BIG PICTURE: McLaren Report paints picture of ex-weightlifting chief Ajan at top of a criminal empire

By
Rich Perelman
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Not only validating, but going well beyond the charges leveled in January’s “The Lord of the Lifters” documentary on German television, an independent report commission by the International Weightlifting Federation slammed ex-federation chief Tamas Ajan (HUN) with numerous criminal acts.

The report, released on Thursday, started with this remarkable statement:

“Dr. Ajan’s autocratic authoritarian leadership of the International Weightlifting Federation resulted in a dysfunctional, ineffective oversight of the organisation by the Executive Board, which had an ill-informed understanding of the organisation. This was achieved through various control mechanisms. As a consequence, Dr. Ajan disabled anyone other than himself from understanding the overall affairs of the IWF.”

In the following pages, the report of independent investigator and Canadian law professor Richard McLaren’s noted:

● “The foundational control mechanism used by Dr. Ajan was the tyranny of cash. Cash collected, cash withdrawn, and cash unaccounted for, which Dr. Ajan was the sole collector. The primary sources of this cash were doping fines paid personally to the President and cash withdrawals of large amounts from the IWF’s accounts, usually withdrawn before major competitions or IWF congresses. It is absolutely impossible to determine how much of the cash collected or withdrawn was used for legitimate expenses. The McLaren Independent Investigation Team has determined that $10.4 million USD is unaccounted for.”

● “Weightlifting has a history of use of performance enhancing drugs. Over 600 lifters in the past decade have tested positive. While Dr. Ajan has impermissibly interfered with the IWF Anti-Doping Commission, the real problem is the culture of doping that exists in the sport. The investigation uncovered 40 positive Adverse Analytical Findings hidden in the IWF records. This includes gold and silver medalists who have not had their samples dealt with. This information has been passed on to WADA for further investigation.”

● “The two most recent Electoral Congresses were rampant with vote buying for the President and senior level positions of the Executive Board, despite monitoring. Such actions are a fundamental violation of the sport’s By-Laws on Disciplinary and Ethics Procedures.”

These are, in criminal terms, allegations of bribery, fraud, theft and more. In his 122-page report – released just 125 days after his appointment – McLaren, on behalf of his team of seven staff members goes on to detail information and evidence considered to be “reliable and firmly established” and which is based on documents and more than 50 interviews.

(1) Despite “stepping down” from his position as IWF President, Ajan continued to run the organization as if nothing had happened. “Dr. Ajan effectively blocked the Acting President from fulfilling her position, granted to her by the Terms of Reference, which authorised her management and supervision of the activities of the IWF and of the Secretariat. She did not even have a key to the office of the Secretariat until the day before the visit. Despite assurances to the contrary, Dr. Ajan did not provide her signatory authority to the Hungarian OTP account as necessary for the effective running of the organisation. Furthermore, he failed to make a full disclosure of bank accounts to the Acting President and to the [investigators].”

(2) Although there were comments that doping cover-ups went back as far as the 1980s, the report focused on the period from 2009-19, where better records were available. Even for this period alone:

“As the investigation progressed, the MIIT [McLaren Independent Investigation Team] became aware of activities that demonstrated possible criminal conduct, with millions in cash unaccounted for and not entered in the books of the IWF. The MIIT however, has reported separately, on a strictly confidential basis, to the [IWF Oversight] Commission on these matters.”

And the team’s verdict on Ajan’s conduct was clear:

“The IWF is an organisation in need of resuscitation and fundamental foundational restoration. It has been held together for nearly 45 years by the iron grasp of Dr. Ajan, one of the longest serving sports federation presidents. Failure for the organisation to act on the [report’s] recommendations has the potential to cause irreparable harm to an organisation facing constitutional, governance and membership challenges as a result of his reign.”

First among the 17 recommendations was a full-scale audit “of the last ten fiscal years, including information uncovered in this investigation and with full access to all accounts. In this regard, an immediate examination of the books and records held in two ‘safe’ cupboards in the Budapest office discovered 2 weeks ago.”

(3) Ajan acted as not only the IWF President, but also its head of finance. The report states that from 2009-19, Ajan received cash payments of about $27.8 million, of which only $17.4 million can be accounted for as paid out or otherwise accounted for. That leaves a gap of $10.4 million.

The investigation uncovered two accounts, one in Hungary and one in Switzerland, over which Ajan had total control and which the IWF’s own accountant did not include as part of the federation’s records!

The IWF receives much of its funding from its share of the IOC’s television rights payments. The McLaren team was able to reconcile these IOC amounts from 1992-2009, but after questions were raised about the veracity of the IOC’s financial reports in 2009, funds suddenly started disappearing once the monies moved from their initial landing place in the IWF’s Swiss accounts to Hungarian banks over which Ajan has sole control. From 2009-19, Ajan had $12.5 million withdrawn in cash (!) without any documentation of the use of such funds.

McLaren’s team found two undisclosed Hungarian accounts, and was able to obtain records for only one of them. More than $13.2 million flowed into one account from 2010-20, with $8.3 million in cash removed, all outside of the IWF financial reports.

The report heavily criticized Ajan’s insistence on doping fines and other payments being made in cash, on which he repeatedly insisted. There are still many questions to be answered in this area.

(4) While Ajan was elected to the IWF Presidency five times, beginning in 2000, the investigation showed that

“His successful tenure however has not been the result of a fair or democratic process. To have and maintain a strong power base and control of the administrative hierarchy, Dr. Ajan had to ensure his own re-election to the office of President, together with the election of his favoured candidates to the senior positions of influence within the IWF. His re-election was assured through his supporters causing the manipulation of the results in the Electoral Congresses.”

Ajan exercised control with threats of uncovering doping positives from a particular country, or possibly excluding a country’s team from the Olympic weightlifting competition, among other tactics.

The report noted that bribery was commonly used and noted that “Corruption was rife with rampant cronyism and outright bribery. The buying of votes was accomplished through individuals acting on behalf of the President as ‘vote brokers.’” and

“Documentary evidence supported through witness testimony, indicates that a considerable amount of cash was spent at the 2013 Moscow and later the 2017 Bangkok Electoral Congresses in order to guarantee votes for Dr. Ajan and his team through bribes.”

The report specified that bribery efforts were focused on federations in Asia, Africa and Oceania, with payments ranging from $5-30,000 each in 2013 and 2017.

(5) On doping and cover-ups, the report found that while some of the allegations made against Ajan were unfounded, “The behavior of Dr. Ajan is what the MIIT refers to generally as ‘meddling’. The President would gain access to the confidential and independent functioning of the [IWF anti-doping group], in order to frustrate its operations.”

Ajan tried and was sometimes able to obtain prior notice of testing dates or targeted countries. In cases where doping positives came back, Ajan would delay the announcement of the positives, sometimes for months, or even a full year. There were also 109 doping positives from 2009-13 which were not submitted into the World Anti-Doping Agency’s tracking software, and another 45 cases from 2009-14 which were apparently not submitted either.

The reporting team has forwarded its information to WADA for further investigation.

These revelations are all the more stunning in view of the lack of cooperation that McLaren team received from senior IWF officials. Only two of the five IWF Vice Presidents, two of the eight elected members of the Executive Board and one of the five area presidents offered testimony. Of the 20 member federation heads or chief executives that the investigators asked to speak to, “only four responded and ultimately only one of those provided information of significant value.” And:

“The appetite for Members and stakeholders of the IWF to come forward was practically non-existent. Only one current athlete spoke with the [team of] investigators.”

Nevertheless, the report places weightlifting at a crossroads once again. The International Olympic Committee released a statement, noting it is “studying it very carefully. The content is deeply concerning.”

WADA also issued a statement, including “Once WADA has had the opportunity to review that evidence as well as the report in full, the Agency will consider the next appropriate steps to take.”

In simple terms, this is a mess. While Ajan is the immediate loser, the future of weightlifting in the Olympic Games has to be reconsidered once again.

The only winner appears to be ARD and its investigating team of Hajo Seppelt, Nick Butler and Grit Hartmann, whose work tore the cover off of Ajan’s control of a federation whose Olympic pedigree goes back to 1920 … and may effectively end in 2020.

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Court of Arbitration for Sport sets hearings for Russia, Salazar & Brown; Morrow passes & FIFA pressures Iran

By
Rich Perelman
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News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Court of Arbitration for Sport ● It will be a busy November for the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with two major hearings set for the first half of the month.

On 2-5 November, the CAS will take up the appeal of Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) against the World Anti-Doping Agency, which imposed a four-year ban last December as sanctions for the lengthy Russian doping program and subsequent cover-up.

The date for the hearing, likely to be held in Lausanne (SUI), comes amid a rise in the verbal sparring between the two sides. Russian Olympic Committee chief Stanislav Pozdnyakov, who told the Russian news agency TASS:

“In a steady flow of attempts to punish RUSADA, we see an intended desire of our colleagues from the international governing body [WADA] to assume the right of being an investigator, prosecutor and punisher at the same time.”

WADA replied in a statement that included:

“WADA is very confident in the robustness and independence of its processes. In every investigation they conduct, WADA investigators operate thoroughly and independently from WADA management and governing bodies, and go wherever the evidence leads them. …

“In the case of RUSADA, both the Compliance Review Committee and Executive Committee were unanimous [in assigning sanctions]. Ultimately, it is the Court of Arbitration for Sport that decides, not WADA, which adds another layer of independence to the process.”

WADA’s sanctions were approved on 9 December 2019, so the hearing will come just short of 11 months later, with plenty of time for a decision well in advance of the Tokyo Games in July 2021.

On 8-16 November, the CAS will hear the appeals from Alberto Salazar and Dr. Jeffrey Brown against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, whose sanctions of four years each for doping violations of the World Anti-Doping Code were upheld by an arbitration panel on 30 September 2019.

Salazar was coach of the celebrated and successful Nike Oregon Project, which has since been disbanded and Brown provided medical support to that team. The arbitration panel found that Salazar’s violations included:

“1. Administration of a Prohibited Method (with respect to an infusion in excess of the applicable limit),

“2. Tampering and/or attempted tampering with the doping control process, and

“3. Trafficking of testosterone through involvement in a testosterone testing program in violation of the rules.”

The case attracted the attention of the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency in regard to possible doping violations by Nike Oregon Project athletes who won medals in major competitions, but USADA maintains that its investigation showed that no such violations were made.

● Athletics ● Sad news of the passing of triple Olympic gold medalist Bobby Morrow, who passed last Saturday (30 May) at age 84.

Morrow was the star of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, winning the 100 m (10.5 into a headwind after a 10.3 Olympic Record in the heats), 200 m (20.6 Olympic Record) and 4×100 m (39.5 world record).

He set or tied world records in the 100 yards (9.3), 100 m (10.2 three times), 200 m (20.6, plus two unratified marks) and six times in relay events in 1956-57-58. As a collegian at Abilene Christian, he won 14 national titles in the sprints: six NAIA, four NCAA and four AAU National titles.

He won the Sullivan Award as the nation’s premier amateur athlete for 1956 and later donated all three of his Olympic golds to the Smithsonian Institution. His injury at the 1959 AAU Nationals ended a promising season in which he had run 9.4 three times and 10.2 once, and hampered him in 1960, where he was not able to make the team for Rome, finishing fourth in the 200 m at the Olympic Trials.

He retired from the sport to return to Texas, where he was a banker, farmer and business owner, with three children. He was the greatest sprinter of his era and, at his peak, almost unbeatable.

Competitions are slowly returning, with strong javelin marks in the Czech federation’s first “Back on the Track” meet in Kladno on 1 June.

Olympic and world champ Barbora Spotakova earned a win at 63.69 m (208-11) and countryman Jakub Vadlejch started with 84.31 m (275-11) and held on for the win.

Czech shot star Tomas Stanek reached 21.13 m (69-4) to win his specialty, among a full set of events for youth and juniors as well.

The Kladno meet was the first of six “micro-meetings” designed to reintroduce sport in the Czech Republic, and are part of a 100-event series to encourage children to exercise and enjoy sports again in the country.

Thanks to David Monti of Race Results Weekly for a note following our mention of Leo Daschbach (Highland H.S. of Gilbert, Arizona) and his 3:59.54 mile, only the fourth time a U.S. high schooler had broken 4:00 in an all-high school race. The others were Jim Ryun in 1965, Lukas Verzbicas (2011) and Michael Slagowski (2016).

Monti added that “Lukas Verzbicas was a citizen of Lithuania in 2011 when he broke 4:00. He was a legal resident of the USA and went to an American high school (Orland Park Sandburg in Illinois), but was not an American [citizen].” So we can say that Daschbach was the third American prep to break 4:00 in a high school race, and the fourth U.S. high schooler.

(Thanks to sharp-eyed readers Doug Kelly for catching the typo in Ryun’s name as originally posted, and Don Kopriva for noting that Verzbicas attended Orland Park Sandburg High School!)

● Cycling ● Doping samples from the 2017 Tour de France – won by Britain’s Chris Froome – are being retested, based on information developed during the Operation Aderlass doping bust in 2019.

During the World Nordic Skiing Championships in February 2019, the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office raided the hotel rooms of several teams and identified five skiers from Kazakhstan, Estonia and Austria suspected of doping. German officials arrested Dr. Mark Schmidt, a physician with ties to cycling, as a mastermind of the doping scheme, which eventually also included athletes from Croatia, Germany and Switzerland.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) asked for re-testing of samples from the 2016 and 2017 seasons after getting information from law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation. At issue now is a substance which had previously been undetected, but for which tests are available now.

● Football ● FIFA is continuing its pressure campaign on Iran, which has included requirements than women be able to watch football matches in person, and that the government not interfere with the operation of its national federation.

Now, the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran could be suspended as its governing statutes do not declare it to be independent of the government, as well as other shortcomings. The Iranian federation has a 5 June deadline to comply.

This is an interesting development and one worth watching. The International Olympic Committee had a similar issue with government interference in the operation of the Kuwait Olympic Committee and suspended the KOC for almost four years, between 2015-19. Its athletes competed (if qualified) as part of the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio in 2016; FIFA could simply knock Iran out of all international competitions, including qualifications for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar.

● Rugby ● Despite the current bankruptcy of USA Rugby, The Associated Press reported that World Rugby is highly interested in bringing the Rugby World Cup to the United States in 2027 or 2031.

“A Rugby World Cup (in the United States) would be the pinnacle of raising the profile of the game,” Bob Latham, U.S. rugby’s most high-ranking official, told The Associated Press, “but we need to make sure we are ready to do it.”

World Rugby has loaned funds to USA Rugby to help it out of its current crisis, and even though the U.S. is not a power player in the 15 vs. 15 game, it is a contender for medals in the Olympic format of Rugby Sevens.

More complex for World Rugby is an already crowded calendar of major events in the U.S. with the World Games in 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama; the FIFA World Cup in 2026 in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.; the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and likely future bids for the Olympic Winter Games from Salt Lake City (2030? 2034?) and the FIFA Women’s World Cup (2031?).

● Collegiate Sports ● The AP reported on Monday that “more than a dozen” sports associations have signaled considerable worry that collegiate athlete compensation for name, image and likeness could be disastrous.

“‘Legislation like this, if it goes wrong, could be incredibly catastrophic to Olympic sports,’ said Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, which supports the memo. ‘Our position is: Let’s pump the brakes and just be really, really careful what is agreed to and what’s not agreed to.’”

The story noted that “The concerns include reduced resources for lower-profile programs, the risk of ‘crowdfunded recruiting’ for boosters to ‘buy talent’ for a competitive advantage, increased influence by agents and whether schools can effectively monitor for compliance.”

Sent to the College Athlete Name, Image and Likeness Issues Committee of the Uniform Law Commission, the memo outlines grave concerns that athletic departments which have received sponsorship funding for all of its sports will end up receiving little or nothing, as commercial interest will quickly be focused on name athletes only. The story stated that the Committee is to provide a report to the larger commission by 15 June.

● At the BuZZer ● British statistician Stan Greenberg, who has been a devotee of track & field for nearly 75 of his 88 years, has been circulating some of his favorite memories of the sport to friends, including this one:

“I have witnessed many cases of hilarity in our sport, not always intended, and I think one of the best occurred at Oslo on 26th June 1981. The race was 1500 m, and was thought to be an attempt on the world record by Steve Ovett, with a tremendous field including such as Cram (GBR), Scott (USA), Walker (NZL), Wessinghage (GER) and Gonzalez (ESP). As the pacemaker or hare (and NOT rabbit as current commentators call the status) was a good class American named Tom Byers, himself a 3:36 1500m runner.

“Byers did a great job of pacemaking passing 400 m in 57.52 sec, and the next lap in 57.31. However, except initially for a virtually unknown Ethiopian, the rest of the field hung back, and were now some 50 m behind, watching each other it seems, but crucially not the American. His next lap was 58.26, for a 1200 m time of 2:53.09, and by now he was about 70 m in front. Needless to say Byers began to fade after such a pace, but entering the final straight he was still some 30 m ahead. An amused Ovett, and Scott and Gonzalez were closing fast – Ovett’s last 400 m was 52.3 sec – while Byers could only do 61.5, but he just made it in 3:39.01, while a grinning Ovett did 3:39.53, just ahead of the mob.”

MILLER TIME: Thomas Bach’s bid to upstage Sisyphus

By
David Miller
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The tragic Greek figure of Sisyphus, forever rolling the stone uphill, but will he ever get it over the top?

/It’s a great pleasure to present this guest column by one of the most knowledgeable observers of the Olympic Movement, Britain’s David Miller. For more than 50 years, the former English footballer has covered the Olympic Games and the sports within it, including 15 years as the Chief Sports Correspondent of The Times of London, with stints at the Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph. Author of books on athletics, football and the Olympics, he was Official Historian of the IOC from 1997-2018. His opinions are, of course, his own alone./

The history of the Olympic Games over 124 years has been punctuated by turbulence, mostly the Summer Games, never more so than now. The eight presidents of the IOC prior to Thomas Bach responded not always decisively. The Covid-19 crisis confronting Bach is not merely how to fulfil a postponed Games in Tokyo, but potentially, with essential adjustment, the very continuation of subsequent Games as a unique global festival.

The responsibility resting on Bach, wilful German Olympian and lawyer, is immense – isolated in a lonely hotel suite in Lausanne with the world hanging upon his words. He needs to be up to it, especially in the absence of conspicuous intellectual leadership among younger IOC Members.

Founder de Coubertin was dependent upon a multi-cultural Greek, effective ombudsman and temporary president Vikelas, to launch the inaugural Games. Nondescript Paris and St Louis followed; London and more particularly Stockholm, the latter under guidance of far-sighted Edstrom, established a blueprint. Aristocratic Belgian banker Baillet-Latour faltered in confronting Hitler’s antisemitic Berlin triumphalism; Brundage clumsily misinterpreted Munich’s terrorism; benign Killanin wilted in the face of Montreal and Moscow boycotts.

Samaranch circumvented Soviet boycott of L.A. and even more adroitly negotiated threatened Seoul’s emergence as superb hosts. With minor friction at commercially preoccupied Atlanta, modest Athens, totalitarian Beijing and cash-strapped Rio, the last stretching Thomas Bach’s moral compass in reaction to endemic Russian cheating. Bach, aware of diminishing host availability, then smartly tweaked the Paris-L.A. double election, now dons the mantle for devising escape, both short and long term, from unprecedented health and economic catastrophe. With supposed “safe” South Korea now encountering a renewed infection spike, and Brazil, USA and Russia out of control, a new health “normal” portends a cloud over Paris ’24… and beyond.

Probably by nature autocratic, yet democratic by education and the IOC’s Constitution, Bach has circulated a 13-page memorandum to IOC colleagues inviting ideas prior to an imminent Executive Board meeting. While his presidency has thus far been studiedly self-determining, his scheduled re-election next year ensures he must rely upon opinion from the floor being predominantly behind him. Video conference evidence indicates there is a common mood for reassessment. With open debate on the future Games programme of sports and events, one experienced IOC colleague observes that “everything is on the table”; the streamlining of the current 33-sport leviathan, though as a past vice-president reflects “no matter what may be desirable, it is difficult to do anything while the priority remains, if possible, sustaining Tokyo’s commitment for next year.”

Besides the size of the Programme, and economics, equally equivocal is the future dimension of the IOC itself: seventy Members plus fifteen ex officio from each of IFs, NOCs and athletes, the last a concession to democratic principle but inevitably short on administrative experience. Another vice president observes: “Reducing the IOC’s numbers would require articulate intervention.” And some!

Though far from de Coubertin’s concept of an elite private self-elected club – long gone since Samaranch’s necessary egalitarian expansion – a progressive business model would be for a professional chief executive in partnership with an elected president; in effect, the current operation with director general de Kepper alongside Bach, and Australia’s Tokyo coordinator John Coates an auxiliary.

The hundred-plus membership has become an uneconomic, constitutional anachronism, doing little more than rubber-stamp, at annual Sessions, proposals from the Executive Board; with that likewise compliant with Bach’s intentions. Yet the entire circus inordinately travels the world for annual Sessions, expecting courtesy limousines 24/7 at any Games. At what cost to the host city for just this one item of indulgence (a lament in Oslo’s failed 2022 bid)?

It shocked many elderly conservatives, yet the unrestrained criticism by veteran French IOC Member Guy Drut – hurdles champion ’76 – condemning Paris preparations as being woefully out of date, stirred many minds. Drut’s forthright views triggered widespread alarm: provoking momentum towards a re-negotiation of the Games’ contracts for both Paris and Milan’s Winter Games of 2026, the latter uncomfortably reviving memories of Turin ’06, when much of Italy was barely aware of the event’s existence. Paris has been conscious of inevitable necessary financial reductions – even prior to Covid – with only four years to go.

Meanwhile, hovering on the horizon beyond Covid are global ramifications. Were Donald Trump re-elected in November, what impact might his rift with China – over health and trade – have upon suspiciously China-sympathetic World Health Organisation? Could WHO strategically propose a China-related embargo on U.S. travel to Beijing’s Winter Games six months following Tokyo’s postponement? And will there be airlines compliant with traffic movement to Tokyo? An IOC marketing guru observes: “looking at the practicality of continuing investment in postponed Games in Tokyo and then Beijing, the IOC should be careful with commitment of its seed corn (insurance and capital reserves).”

So, how will Bach dispense the promised $650 million supplementary benefit to harassed Tokyo? How will he attempt to lead the IOC membership toward radical revision of future Games – those already scheduled or yet to be assigned – or prune IOC membership? It is an overwhelming prospective itinerary for this guardian of Olympic ethics. Richard Pound, most senior IOC Member, Montreal lawyer and so long a prominent intellect in the Olympic arena, saliently predicts: “The Olympic Movement now relies on the remarkable work ethic of Thomas Bach. I know of no-one who could handle this the way he does. We are lucky to have him” – a generous tribute when remembering the two were not always tuned on the same administrative wavelength.

Comments are welcome here or direct to David Miller here.

LANE ONE: It isn’t easy being an Olympic athlete in almost any sport, and even harder decisions are coming soon

By
Rich Perelman
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Wayne Collett and Vince Matthews on the men's 400 m victory stand at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich (Photo: Associated Press via Wikipedia)

It’s hard enough to be an Olympic athlete, especially from hyper-competitive teams like the United States, China, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and elsewhere.

It got harder with the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020, moving the Tokyo Games to 2021 and wiping out most – if not all – of the worldwide 2020 international sports calendar.

Now, in the U.S., even the chaos of the coronavirus has been pushed aside by widespread protests and violence over the arrest of George Floyd for allegedly using counterfeit money that led to his death through the actions of a (now former) Minneapolis police officer, now charged with third-degree murder.

If we look past the looting and violence which accompanied the protests in many large U.S. cities – and which have been renounced by many protesters seeking societal changes rather than anarchy – the question of jobs and wages and opportunity come up again and again.

And for most Olympic athletes, that’s as much of a problem as for everyone else. And it’s getting worse.

An explosive story posted by the cycling site VeloNews on 27 May carried a headline of “The Outer Line: Lance Armstrong says it’s ‘time for riders to seize power’”

Author Steve Maxwell quoted an Armstrong post on Instagram from 6 April that included:

“To all you cyclists sitting at home, not sure about your paycheck – now is the opportunity to reset the scales, to get a seat at the table, to take the power back. You are the actors in this play, and remember – without the actors, there is no play.”

This seems like the cry in a lot of other sports. But in cycling, the issue is particularly vexing, since riders actually have collective bargaining through a union: the Cyclistes Professionnels Assoces (Professional Cyclists Association or “CPA”). Under the 1 September 2019 agreement signed between the CPA and the AIGCP (Association Internationale des Groupes Cyclistes Professionnels – the professional cycling teams) for men’s road cycling:

● Minimum salaries are established; for veteran, contracted riders on the UCI World Tour, the minimum is €40,045 ($44,470 U.S.) in 2020, and €65,673 ($72,930 U.S.) for riders who are independent contractors and not team employees;

● Health, disability and life insurance for employee riders (the higher pay for independent contractors cover this aspect), with a minimum of 35 vacation days per year for all riders;

● Pension insurance, depending on the retirement system (if any) in the country of each rider.

Athletes in track & field and more recently in swimming might think this sounds great, but let’s also remember that the UCI World Tour was scheduled for 36 races in 2020, including the three Grand Tours (three weeks each) and 10 other stage races of 5-7 days each. Not all riders races in every one (many overlap), but this is a far busier schedule than ever seen for swimmers and for almost all track & field athletes.

The riders want more of the pie, but as Armstrong noted, there are real problems:

“Think it through. What happens if a group of riders started to try to pull together a work stoppage, or a real union? Their teams would get a call from the UCI or the ASO [which owns the Tour de France and other races]. ‘By the way, shut down these riders or you guys aren’t coming to the Tour.’ Then layer in a couple of big sponsors who only invested the team to get to the Tour. And remember – there is always another talented son of a Spanish beet farmer out there, ready to race for almost nothing. It’s no wonder that attempts to unify the athletes in the sport have always failed. The powers that be don’t want to see it happen. ASO is happy where it is right now; they don’t want to acknowledge that a rising tide could lift all ships.”

Armstrong thinks that the current panic in the sport, with races postponed or canceled and money from sponsors dwindling in response, might be the time to create a new equilibrium. He said in a 2018 interview in VeloNews:

“If the riders had more skin in the game, it could really work to change their collective behavior. If the riders got a share of the revenues or profits of the sport – if they felt like they were business partners and they shared in the financial upsides or downsides of the sport, they would probably behave themselves better. The peloton would police itself better.”

Attempts like this have failed miserably in track & field, and swimming is in the midst of an experiment funded from the outside with the International Swimming League, which showed a large loss in its first year in 2019.

Athletes in basketball, soccer, golf and tennis generally make enough money that these aren’t the top issues they are chasing, but in most other Olympic-program sports, it’s a real issue. Even tennis is not immune; consider what Noah Rubin (USA) recently told FrontOfficeSports.com about the origin of his “Behind the Racquet” podcast:

“I had to have fans relate to players on a deeper level. I needed to bring this new excitement to the world of tennis because tennis was and is dying out right now. We’re losing that grab from the next generation, and I think that’s a lot due to the fact that we just aren’t connecting, and we do not understand what’s really happening. It’s tough to admit, and it’s a sport I’ve dedicated my life to, but I just needed to do something to help everybody involved.” (emphasis added)

Tennis dying? What does that say for so many other, much smaller sports?

Now place these employment and financial pressures that plague so many athletes in the Olympic sports – especially in the U.S., where there is no government sports ministry that doles out annual stipends to potential medal winners – and add to it the pressure to participate in social action, especially for African-American athletes.

The International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission issued “Rule 50 Guidelines” last year that included:

“Where are protests and demonstrations not permitted during the Olympic Games?

“ • At all Olympic venues, including:
“ o On the field of play
“ o In the Olympic Village
“ o During Olympic medal ceremonies
“ o During the Opening, Closing and other official Ceremonies”

That speaks specifically to the famous raised-fist protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos after the men’s 200 m at the 1968 Mexico City Games and the casual stance of Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett after the men’s 400 m at the Munich Games in 1972. American Gwen Berry resurrected the raised-fist stance on the victory stand after her win in the 2019 Pan American Games women’s hammer. American fencing gold medalist Race Imboden took a knee during his Team Foil victory ceremony at the Pan Am Games.

The protest restrictions issue has already been raised by gifted author and three-time Olympic gold medalist Tianna Bartoletta in her 30 May commentary. And showing wisdom well beyond his 22 years, World 200 m Champion Noah Lyles posted a two-panel tweet on Sunday morning that encapsulates the challenge he and so many other athletes – of all races – face in the coming 14 months before Tokyo, and what he plans to do about it:

“I FEEL IT MY JOB TO SAY SOMETHING

“I want to post something about what going on with the protesting but [I don’t know] how to go about it.

“There is so much I want to say but it’s hard because of all the positions I am in. But at a certain point you just have to say forget it because people need to see they have support.

“It hurts my heart because as an athlete I love running for my country. But as a Human being it is disheartening to know that my people are being killed while I go out and win medals for them to try and make the US look good.

“I Love to see people coming together and protesting for those who can’t. It gives me Hope that change will happen. It hurts me to see that there are so many people trying to undermine something that’s supposed to be peaceful and make it violent. They are trying to prove people that we as Black people are violent by nature. When all we are asking for is to NOT BE KILLED!!!!

“Recently I have started looking for nonprofit organizations to donate money to that help push the agenda of Black Lives Matter. I was taught early that you have to play the game to win. God has blessed me with funds to donate I know nothing gets done in this country without money. We need to help these non profits because when they finally ask us what we want we have people to represent us. Lawyers that will fight on the ideas we believe in. Above all else we can Register to VOTE. Change starts at the lower levels. We can put he right people in power instead of the people who have no problem Killing us.

“Please be SAFE and be SMART in these harsh times. God Bless”

It’s not easy to make an Olympic team in any sport. And today, it doesn’t get any easier once you make an Olympic team, either.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE TICKER: Honoring Dick Shea; more money info on ANOC and UIPM; Diack trial set to start again in June

By
Rich Perelman
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Former IAAF President and IOC member Lamine Diack of Senegal (Photo: Wikipedia)

The latest news, notes and quotes from the worldwide Five-Ring Circus:

● More Memorial Day memories ● Further to Tuesday’s notes from Barry Schreiber on famed American athletes who lost their lives in service to their country is another salute to a fallen track & field star.

Bob Hersh, the longtime IAAF Council member from the U.S. and National Track & Field Hall of Fame member, remembered:

“The first track meet I ever saw was the 1952 IC4A indoor championships at Madison Square Garden and the runner who impressed me the most was Dick Shea, who I believe won the mile and 2-mile races, both very impressively. …

“When I think of track people who were killed in action, the first name that pops into my mind has always been Dick Shea. Not quite in the same league as the ones you mentioned athletically, but still worth remembering on Memorial Day.”

Shea attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and won three straight IC4A cross-country titles from 1949-51 and was twice winner of the Heptagonal Championships in 1951 and 1952. He went to Korea after graduation in 1952 as a First Lieutenant, and was killed in action in 1953 in the second battle at Pork Chop Hill near Sokkogae (KOR). For his efforts in leading counterattacks against Chinese soldiers, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Army track & field and lacrosse facility is now named in his honor: Shea Stadium.

● More money matters ● Our series on the finances of the International Federations has had an impact, with the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) posting their 2018 financial statements earlier this week.

The audit report shows results for 2016-17-18 with the federation reporting revenues of $12.23 million in 2016 (when it receives most of its IOC television revenue share), $2.17 million in 2017 and $584,550 in 2018.

Expenses were consistent across the years at $4.32 million (2016), $4.17 million (2017) and $4.29 million in 2018. There was a surplus in 2016 of $7.91 million and then losses of $2.00 million in 2017 and $3.70 million in 2018.

The UIPM had reserves of $6.17 million at the end of 2018, showing that it is one of the most careful – by necessity – of all of the IFs in terms of spending. As UIPM Treasurer John Helmick (USA) pointed out in a telephone discussion, “We get more bang for our buck than any other international federation.”

Totally true. As the federation is a creature of the Olympic Games – invented by modern Games founder Pierre de Coubertin – it is completely dependent on the IOC for survival. (The stories which noted that UIPM statements were missing will be updated tomorrow.)

That leaves World Athletics as the only Olympic Games federation which does not post – somewhere – its financial statements, although it obviously produces them. The last set of World Athletics statements that were circulated were at last year’s Congress in Doha (QAT). There have been reports of World Athletics revenue in the $55 million range, but President Sebastian Coe (GBR) has said publicly that the IF lost about $20 million in its last fiscal year and has asked for support from the International Olympic Committee.

In the meantime, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) announced on 20 May that it will “provide additional funding to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in order to support them in their preparations for the Olympic Games 2020 during these difficult times.”

That’s great, but raises the question of how much money does ANOC have to help out?

The answer comes from the financial presentation from its October, 2019 General Assembly in Doha. It showed that the ANOC has reserves of $36.88 million as of 30 June 2019, but with $10 million expected to be spent in the last half of 2019 and another $11-13 million “earmarked to cover additional expected costs related” to the 2019 General Assembly and the World Beach Games held on Doha.

So perhaps only $15 million is still available to ANOC now, not counting the scheduled support payment of $12.25 million from the International Olympic Committee. In fact, the presentation shows that the ANOC is essentially underwritten by the IOC.

● Athletics ● Competition is slowly returning to the track as countries begin to re-open sports facilities. And there are already noteworthy highlights, especially a sub-4:00 high school mile.

Last Saturday (2rd), Highland High School (Gilbert, Arizona) senior Leo Daschbach stormed from behind over the final half-lap to win the “Quarantine Clasico” mile at Oak Ridge High in El Dorado, California in 3:59.54.

He finished with a 56.81 final 400 m and became the 11th U.S. high schooler to break the 4:00 mark. He became only the fourth – behind Jim Ryun (1965), Lukas Verzbicas (2011) and Michael Slagowski (2016) – to run sub-4:00 in a high school race.

Russia’s TASS News Agency reported that 2018 World Indoor High Jump champ Danil Lysenko could be suspended for up to eight years for a cover-up of “whereabouts” failures.

Lysenko missed multiple tests, but Russian Athletics Federation officials were alleged to have falsified documents to keep Lysenko from being suspended. Lysenko, still just 23, cleared his lifetime best of 2.40 m (7-10 1/4) in 2018 and would otherwise be a medal contender for Tokyo in 2021.

The 2020 Boston Marathon, originally postponed to 14 September, has been cancelled. A “virtual” event will be held from 7-14 September; worries of a second wave of the coronavirus in the Boston area led to the decision to cancel the race for the first time since its inception in 1897.

Good news for World Athletics, which confirmed the British law firm Pinsent Masons as its “official supplier of legal services.”

It’s an unusual commercial agreement in the professional services field, not certainly not unheard of. Said World Athletics head Coe:

“Their global presence and relationships will allow us to access their services wherever we are, which is particularly useful for an organisation with 214 member federations and major events staged across the world, and their expertise will help us to maintain world-best practice in our governance and commercial relationships.”

Translation: World Athletics hopes that the firm’s “global presence and relationships” can create opportunities for further commercial opportunities. It’s a creative and noteworthy concept, especially as the federation has had a long-term relationship with the Japanese marketing giant Dentsu for its worldwide sponsorship sales. But with World Athletics in need of more money, this looks like an intriguing idea.

Bad news for World Athletics, as the former head of the federation, Lamine Diack (SEN), is now scheduled to have his trial for bribery, extortion and money-laundering to resume in Paris (FRA) on 8 June.

The trial got started in January, but a report from Senegal on testimony given in a judicial proceeding there by Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack – also a defendant, but who the French prosecutors have been unable to extradite – caused the lengthy delay.

Agence France Presse reported that Diack, now 86 and under house arrest since 2015, is facing up to 10 years in prison and that

“The prosecution alleges Diack obtained $1.5 million of Russian funds to help fund Macky Sall’s 2012 succesful campaign for Senegal presidency election, in exchange for the IAAF’s anti-doping arm to cover up offenses by 23 Russians.”

The trial, once started, is expected to conclude by 18 June.

● Games of the XXXV Olympiad 2032 ● The Olympic bid process for the 2032 Games has slowed to a crawl during the coronavirus pandemic, especially in Australia.

A strong bid from the Queensland region was aiming to present a detail proposal to the International Olympic Committee this summer at the Tokyo Games, but the effort has been derailed by the delay of the Games and efforts against the virus in Australia.

However, even with some gadfly complaints about the concept by fringe politicians, the Queensland ‘32 concept passed a small – if little-noticed – trial with the implosion of a public petition to stop the bid effort.

A public petition on the Queensland Parliament site called “Say no to the 2032 Olympic Games bid” was posted on 31 January and needed 10,000 signatures to be taken up as an issue. Although it got off to a fast start, interest faded rapidly and it ended on 31 March with just 5,032 signatures, far short of the total for further action.

That’s a rate win for an Olympic bid, and its importance in demonstrating interest in the area for the 2032 Games should not be discounted.

LANE ONE: Staggering, brilliant, astonishing portal to Olympic history opens with debut of Olympedia.org

By
Rich Perelman
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Yes, the information contained in the new Olympedia.com site is truly stupefying! (Photo via temposenzatempo.blogspot.com)

What makes the Olympic Games different from all other competitions in sport is history.

From its beginning as a religious festival in ancient Greece to honor Zeus to its modern revival, shepherded by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, the Games have stood apart from any rival program thanks to its pageantry and placement as the pinnacle in competition.

All of that has now been captured – in the lowest-key form possible – by the public debut of the Olympedia.org site formerly only available to Olympic researchers. The leader of the effort behind this site is Dr. Bill Mallon, a Duke All-American golfer who played on the PGA Tour and then became one of the nation’s leading orthopedic surgeons.

He also became one of the world’s pre-eminent authorities on the Olympic Games, authoring multiple books on its history and working with a multi-national team to create an in-depth database of Olympic facts, figures and lists of stunning detail and quality. He noted on the sister OlympStats site today:

“The Olympedia research site contains the profiles and results of all Olympic athletes and informative descriptions about the Games, events, venues, and much more. It is the most comprehensive database about the Olympic Games and is the result many years of work by a group of Olympic historians and statisticians called the OlyMADmen. …

“We have recently received permission to open Olympedia to the public, and it will no longer require a password. We thank the International Olympic Committee for working with us on this project, and granting us this permission. We are excited and hope you will be, too.”

This site is awesome, and if you think that word is overused, a few minutes with the Olympedia site will convince you that it applies:

● The home page is too simple and needs work. It simply offers search tools for athletes, results and Games. But the depth of what’s included is amazing.

● There are six categories in the navigation bar at the top and this is where the fun begins. The choices are Athletes, Countries, Games, Sports, IOC and Statistics. Let’s try Statistics, which shows a drop-down menu with nine choices. When we try “Athlete Bio Data” we find a list of every country which has competed in the Olympic or Winter Games and the total number of athletes sent.

Looking quickly down the list, you find that the U.S. has sent 9,492 athletes to the Games, beginning in 1896, for which the Olympedia database has birthdates on 9,403!

But statistics make stories, and as the United States sent 555 participants to Rio in 2016, it is likely that someone on the 2020 Tokyo team will be the 10,000th U.S. Olympian!

● In the “Countries” tab, you can not only find comprehensive results by country, but an amazing feature called “Head-to-Head,” in which you can generate results of competitions during the Games between two nations in any sport.

So, in men’s basketball, you can see the record between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The two teams played eight times, with the Americans winning the first six, “losing” the controversial 1972 final and losing again in 1988, 82-76, in the semifinals, a game which helped to bring NBA players into the Olympics in 1992.

The U.S. women were 1-1 against the Soviets, losing in 1976, but winning, 102-88, in the 1988 championship semifinals.

Since the Russian Federation came into the Games in 2000, the American men are 1-0 and the women are 3-0 against them through 2016.

● In the “Athletes” section, there are bios of not only men and women, but also horses! Plus an extensive selection of special lists, including

(1) Country doubles: Athletes who competed for more than one country. There are a lot, with 1,854 shown.

(2) Name doubles: Athletes competing under multiple names. There were 1,339 of these, mostly women competing first under their maiden names, then under a married name.

(3) Season doubles: Athletes competing in both the Olympic and Winter Games. Amazingly, there are 144 of these, including several Americans who doubled in track & field and bobsled, and in track cycling and speedskating.

(4) Sport doubles: Athletes competing in more than one sport in their Olympic careers. There are 1,666 of these, including a handful who competed in four!

How about members of the same family competing in the Games? Sure, and you can search by kind of relative, including husbands and wives … together, separated or divorced!

● The “Games” section has overviews and complete results of each Games from 1896 to the present, of course. But you can also look up who opened each Games, the torch bearers and flag bearers of each nations.

And nowhere else will you find a list – more complete than anywhere else – of winners in the ancient Olympic Games! Yes!

The site has lists of the winners of known events, starting from 776 B.C. through 385 A.D. So if you need to settle a bet on who were reigning Olympic champions when Julius Caesar was made Rome’s Emperor in 31 B.C., here’s where you can find that Ariston of Thourioi won the Stadion race and Thaliarchos of Elis won the Boxing competition (probably).

And there are a series of “Lists” in the “Statistics” section which simply boggle the mind:

● Doping Irregularities at the Olympics
● Olympians involved in James Bond movies
● Olympians of Royal Blood
● Olympians who committed suicide
● Olympians who competed posthumously (yes, really)
● Olympians who competed while pregnant
● Olympians who died in Nazi concentration camps
● Olympians who survived Nazi concentration camps
● Olympians who fought at WrestleMania
● Olympians who were Head of State
● Olympic Games defections
● Transgender and Intersex Olympians

And there are a lot, lot more.

It’s a sensational achievement in research, dedication and sacrifice. None of the 21 folks who created this work were paid for it; they are devoted fans of the Olympic Games and deserve our thanks. Mallon identifies them as the “OlyMADMen” with proper emphasis on the “mad” part of it. Their names should be known (and there is one woman in the group):

Bill Mallon (USA)
Arild Gjerde (NOR)
Jeroen Heijmans (NED)
David Foster (ENG)
Hilary Evans (WLS)
Taavi Kalju (EST)
Wolf Reinhardt (GER)
Martin Kellner (AUT)
Ralf Regnitter (GER)
Ralph Schlüter (GER)
Paul Tchir (CAN)
Morten Aarlia Torp (NOR)
Stein Opdahl (NOR)
Carl-Johan Johansson (SWE)
George Masin (USA)
Ian Morrison (GBR/ESP)
Michele Walker (CAN)
Kristof Linke (GER)
Andrey Chilikin (RUS)
Rudolf Laky (HUN/GER)
David Tarbotton (AUS)

Now, this site also needs your help.

As a new site, there are errors, misspellings and so on. You can help make the site better by reporting these – where you find them – by using the Feedback link at the bottom of the page.

But this is a marvelous, wonderful and enchanting site for Olympic fans, researchers and news media and well worth the long wait for its transfer to this new home. A gold medal for the OlyMADMen!

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HEARD AT HALFTIME: Remembering the day Jesse Owens set six world records in 45 minutes!

By
Rich Perelman
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Ohio State's Jesse Owens, who had perhaps the greatest hour in the history of sports in 1935 (Photo: USTFCCCA via Team USA)

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Athletics ● Today is Memorial Day in the United States, remembering those who gave their lives in service to their country. It is also the 85th anniversary of the most remarkable one-man show in track & field history, as Jesse Owens won four events at the 1935 Big Ten Championships at Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Owens wasn’t even sure he could run that day, having been hurt in a fall down some stairs a few days earlier. But once he got to the starting line, he felt no pain at all:

● At 3:15 p.m.: Won the 100 yards in 9.4, tying the world record. Remember, this was before starting blocks, so he raced out of foot-holes he dug into the cinder track.

● At 3:25 p.m.: Ten minutes later, he won the long jump with his first and only leap of 26-8 1/4 (8.13 m), a mark not broken for 25 years!

● At 3:45 p.m.: Owens then won the 220 yards on the straightaway, setting world marks for both the 220 and the shorter 200 m in 20.3. That mark lasted until 1949!

● At 4:00 p.m.: He won the 220-yard hurdles on the straightaway, again claiming world marks for the 200 and 200 m, in 22.6.

Amazing, and the crowd of 12,000 at Michigan’s Ferry Field was duly impressed … even if it was a Buckeye who did it. Owens’ performance was even more stunning, considering that he had trouble with the pains from his fall again just minutes after finishing the hurdles.

In many ways, this performance far surpassed his four gold medals at the Berlin Games the following year, but the glory that accompanies the Olympic Games has elevated those races to another level.

But Owens will always have the greatest hour in track & field history.

The always-interesting Tianna Bartoletta, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the women’s long jump and two-time Olympic gold winner on the 4×100 m relay, has been running a “garage sale.”

It’s quite a sale, with two IAAF Diamond League trophies already sold for $2,015 and $2,014, shoes, uniforms, earphones, relay batons and more on sale. On Twitter, the 34-year-old Bartoletta explained:

“I love you all. I’m getting a lot of messages asking ‘why’ I’m selling all of my stuff! A few things: 1) it’s not even close to ALL my stuff 2) as I get older my attachment to things changes. I lived it, have the experience, and the medals

“I find it really cool that I’ve found a way to share memorabilia from my special moments with people who also cherish my special moments. I don’t want to be a collector of my own “stuff” I don’t want to live in a shrine dedicated to me.

“Lastly, I’m looking forward. I want to defend my Olympic Title, I know the financial investment required. $$ is uncertain for (not just) me but athletes all over. I want to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to preparing myself to do what it takes to achieve this.”

World Athletics opened the application period for grants from its $500,000 fund to support athletes whose earnings have been impacted by the corona virus pandemic. Grants of up to $4,000 will be available, based on the following criteria:

● Must be qualified (entry standard met) for selection for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games;

● Must have never had an anti-doping rule violation;

● Must be able to demonstrate a justifiable welfare need through significant loss of income in 2020 compared to 2019.

Athletes who are in the top six in the World Athletics World Rankings, finished in the top six in a World Athletics Gold Label road race in 2019, or who earned $6,000 or more in Diamond League prize money are ineligible.

● Alpine Skiing ● The 2014 and 2015 FIS Alpine World Cup champion, Austria’s Anna Veith, announced her retirement on 23 May, ending her outstanding career on the slopes.

As Anna Fenninger, she won those two World Cup overall titles, won three discipline titles (Giant Slalom-2, Alpine Combined-1), six World Championships medals (3 gold) and three Olympic medals, including the Super-G gold in Sochi in 2014, a Giant Slalom silver in Sochi and a Super-G silver in PyeongChang in 2018..

Now 30, she finishes with 15 World Cup wins and 45 World Cup medals over the course of 13 seasons on tour. After tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in 2019, it was too difficult to return to world-class form and she retired.

“I have lived my childhood dream and now is the right time for me to take a step back.

“I am so very proud of everything I’ve achieved. I acknowledge the hardships and sacrifices that came along with it. My passion for sports is what has always continued to fuel my drive. I repeatedly gave it my all and my hard work was rewarded. But it was not to be this time. Last winter I did everything I could to come back and to find trust within myself to get there, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out as planned.”

● Bobsled ● Good news for the U.S. men’s Bobsled team, as Carlo Valdes, a 2018 Olympic Team brakeman, has decided to return and contend for a post on the 2022 U.S. Team.

Valdes was a member of the U.S. four-man sled driven by Justin Olsen in PyeongChang, finishing 20th overall. He started his athletic career as a javelin thrower at UCLA, reaching 61.91 m (212-11) in 2013 before taking up a career in winter sports.

Now 30, he’s been away from Bobsled for two seasons, focusing on other business interests.

● Cycling ● For some of our readers who were members of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1984 Games, you may have heard a familiar name associated with ESPN’s highly-promoted, two-part documentary, “Lance” concerning the rise and fall of cycling icon Lance Armstrong.

The name is Marina Zenovich, who directed the four-hour program that covers Armstrong’s rise to unparalleled success as a seven-time Tour de France winner from 1999-2005 and then his downfall when his doping regiment was finally unveiled in 2012. Zenovich was a member of the LAOOC’s Press Department – headed by Amy Quinn – before and during the Games, while Zenovich was a student at the University of Southern California.

“Lance” is part of the ESPN “30 for 30″ documentary series, for which she previously produced “Fantastic Lies” in 2014 about the Duke Lacrosse rape scandal. She’s also created well-received films on comic legends Richard Pryor and Robin Williams.

● Football ● There was no doubt that the U.S. Soccer Federation filing that tried to make the assertion that the World Cup champion Women’s National Team was somehow in a different class or had different responsibilities than the Men’s National Team was going to lead to someone losing their job.

That person was Lydia Wahlke, the USSF’s chief legal officer, who resigned last Thursday (21st) after being on administrative leave. According to the ESPN report, Wahlke will be available for consulting services if needed through 15 September.

The USSF’s law firm which filed that brief, Seyfarth Shaw L.P., was also dismissed and the case is now being handled by another U.S. mega-firm, Latham & Watkins.

Interestingly, despite the controversy over language in the March filing, the other arguments made by Seyfarth Shaw and ostensibly overseen by Wahlke proved successful. U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner granted summary judgement to the federation on the Women’s National Team’s main claims under the Equal Pay Act. The Women’s National Team has indicated it will appeal the ruling.

● Swimming ● Swimming World Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Craig Lord has never been someone to hold back an opinion. On Saturday, he posted a well-worth-reading comment, asking whether lists of top performances by 9-10 year-olds and 11-12 year-olds should be celebrated, or even allowed.

USA Swimming, in coordination with the American Swim Coaches Association, posted the lists, and Lord asked:

“The trouble with the notion of a 9-12-year-old coupling the improvements they’re working on to rankings is clear: the tool is one that often means more to coach, club and parent than child.”

Long-time Australian coach Michael Gale commented on the Swim Coaches Idea Exchange Group, in part:

“We need children to experience a variety of sports when they are young. It’s when they are in that age group of 16-18 where they need to specialise in 1-2 sports and have the time and mental dedication to aspire to be amongst the best.

“SADLY, it’s at this Age Group where we lose so many people from sport.

“WHY? Often because they have parents/coach who have their child marked as a future World Champion. Most often, a child discovers something that they are good at. Not many youngsters will excel at something they dislike and that is a true basis to expose children to a variety of sports.”

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted the national state of emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, but warned that there is more work to be done against the threat.

He told reporters that rapid development of a vaccine and other treatments are top priorities in the effort to hold the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. He noted that control of the illness in Japan along was insufficient to hold the Games, because athletes and spectators from around the world will be an integral part of the event.

In an interview with the BBC, IOC President Thomas Bach confirmed that the Tokyo Games must be held in 2021 if at all, saying “you cannot forever employ 3,000, or 5,000, people in an Organising Committee. You cannot every year change the entire sports schedule worldwide of all the major federations. You cannot have the athletes being in uncertainty.”

This mirrors Abe’s recent comments, and Bach added that “There is no blueprint for it so we have to reinvent the wheel day-by-day. It’s very challenging and at the same time fascinating.”

And Bach confirmed, as he has again and again, that the directives of the World Health Organization will play a major role in future decisions on how the Games can be staged in Tokyo and possibly beyond to Beijing for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

● At the BuZZer ● Remembering Owens’s great feat in 1935 and today’s Memorial Day commemoration, it also worthwhile to remember that some great American athletes lost their lives in combat in the forthcoming World War and in later conflicts.

Ace statistician Barry Schreiber, one of the editors of the glorious FAST Annual (FAST stands for “Federation of American Statisticians of Track”), wrote with the names of four U.S. track stars we salute on this day:

● “Captain Ron Zinn, a West Point graduate who competed in the 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games and was 3rd at the 1963 Pan Am Games. He was killed in Vietnam.

● “Foy Draper, USC graduate who held the 100-yard world record and won gold in the 4×100 m at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Killed during WWII.

● “Albert ‘Al’ Blozis, Georgetown Univ. graduate in 1942 who won the AAU (USA) and NCAA shot put three years, 1940-1942. He then played football for the New York Giants. I read that his number was retired after he died during World War II.

● “Charles Paddock, USC graduate. He served in the Marine Corps in World War I before going to USC. At the 1920 Olympics in Amsterdam he won the 100 meters, was 2nd at 200 meters, and was on the gold medal 4×100 m relay. He won silver at 200 m in the 1924 Paris Olympics and was 5th at 100 meters. His running was a part of the movie ‘Chariots of Fire.’ That is likely how his name is familiar to most track fans. He rejoined the Marine Corps in World War II and was killed in an airplane crash.”

It’s worth noting as well as Zinn is remembered annually by USA Track & Field with the presentation of the Captain Ron Zinn Memorial Award, given to the outstanding U.S. race walker.

LANE ONE: Who’s in the money? EXCLUSIVE analysis of our survey of International Federation finances

By
Rich Perelman
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/Updated to include new posting for Modern Pentathlon/ Each of the International Federations which have a sport on the program of the Olympic Games is its own fiefdom, setting its own rules and governing their programs as they fit. Some are big, some are small; a few are rich and most are not-so-rich.

A familiar refrain among observers was expressed with clarity by the senior member of the International Olympic Committee, former Canadian swimming star Dick Pound. During a 12 May interview with SailingIllustrated.com, he noted that the IOC has agreed to help support IFs, National Olympic Committees and other sport-related organization during the coronavirus pandemic. He added:

“International Federations and National Olympic Committees have come to depend, more and more and perhaps to too great an extent, on their share of the [IOC’s television] revenues.

“Some of the receipts are going to be deferred until after the Games take place and one of the questions we will have to wrestle with is, do we have to finance the next year’s activities to enable them to prepare for the Games a year later and the deferred revenue comes in after the Games has finished?

“The IOC is certainly capable of doing something because we have been putting money aside for the proverbial rainy day for some years now and have a little bit of a war chest that is available.

“You have to be careful in managing your money and while we would like to help, and probably will help, part of it will involve the IFs coming clean on their actual state of their financial affairs and that has always been more closely guarded than nuclear secrets.”

Well, maybe not so much as supposed.

As we shared over the last week, 27 of the 28 International Federations with sports on the program of the Olympic Games make available either audited financial statements (24), or harder-to-find summaries of their finances in Congress minutes and similar proceedings (3: Basketball, Equestrian and Volleyball). With a late posting by the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), only World Athletics shares nothing.

(For reference: Part 1 covered Archery to Hockey and Part 2 included Judo through Wrestling. This was our second IF finances survey; for our 2018 review, click here.)

So who stands where? Let’s survey the financial standing of the IFs with a look at their finances from two different viewpoints (all amounts converted to U.S. dollars; 1 CHF = $1.04) from the last reported year:

● IF rankings by annual revenue

There was FIFA and then everyone else. Note that, in the year last reported, 10 of the 28 IFs had revenues of $10 million or less (and no information was available for Modern Pentathlon):

1.  $ 4.64 billion (2018) ~ Football (FIFA)
2.  $102.2 million (2018) ~ Basketball (FIBA)
3.  $72.84 million (2018) ~ Tennis (ITF)
4.  $65.34 million (2017) ~ Volleyball (FIVB)
5.  $65.08 million (2018) ~ Equestrian (FEI)
6.  $55.00 million (2019) ~ Athletics (World Athletics; estimate)
7.  $41.86 million (2018) ~ Cycling (UCI)
8.  $33.92 million (2018) ~ Aquatics (FINA)
9.  $33.46 million (2018) ~ Rugby (World Rugby)
10. $31.11 million (2018) ~ Judo (IJF)

11. $25.79 million (2019) ~ Badminton (BWF)
12. $21.35 million (2018) ~ Table Tennis (ITTF)
13. $19.89 million (2018) ~ Handball (IHF)
14. $17.32 million (2019) ~ Gymnastics (FIG)
15. $14.08 million (2018) ~ Hockey (FIH)
16. $11.89 million (2018) ~ Sailing (World Sailing: 3 entities)
17. $10.19 million (2018) ~ Taekwondo (World Taekwondo)
18. $ 8.52 million (2018 pro-rated) ~ Boxing (AIBA)
19. $ 8.04 million (2018) ~ Triathlon (ITU)
20. $ 7.11 million (2018) ~ Rowing (FISA)

21. $ 5.35 million (2017) ~ Shooting (ISSF)
22. $ 5.12 million (2017) ~ Wrestling (UWW)
23. $ 6.35 million (2018) ~ Fencing (FIE)
24. $ 4.10 million (2018) ~ Weightlifting (IWF)
25. $ 3.81 million (2019) ~ Archery (World Archery)
26. $ 0.87 million (2018) ~ Canoe & Kayak (ICF)
27. $ 0.59 million (2018) ~ Modern Pentathlon (UIPM)
28. $ 0.58 million (2018) ~ Golf (IGF)

As with all financial information, it’s important to note that these revenue rankings are only one year, and the last year reported. For most of the IFs, this is 2018, but some only have information publicly posted for 2017, and some already have their 2019 numbers available.

● IF rankings by financial health: reserves vs. spending

More important today is not how much an IF takes in annually, but how deep are its reserves in this period of pandemic, when revenues are shrinking to nothing.

The relative health of the IFs is demonstrated in a ranking of IF reserves, and a reference to the annual spending of each in the last reported year (all figures in or converted to U.S. dollars):

1.  $ 2.74 billion reserves: Football (vs. $2.89 billion spending in 2018)
2.  $136.49 million reserves: Handball (vs. $12.13 million spending in 2018)
3.  $121.68 million reserves: Volleyball (vs. $60.54 million spending in 2017)
4.  $111.31 million reserves: Aquatics (vs. $47.53 million spending in 2018)
5.  $ 74.78 million reserves: Rugby (vs. $109.64 million spending in 2018)
6.  $ 59.98 million reserves: Equestrian (vs. $61.20 million spending in 2018)
7.  $ 55.25 million reserves: Tennis (vs. $72.63 million spending in 2018)
8.  $ 49.56 million reserves: Gymnastics (vs. $16.19 million spending in 2019)
9.  $ 47.00 million reserves: Cycling (vs. $48.05 million spending in 2018)
10. $ 46.18 million reserves: Basketball (vs. $107.74 million spending in 2018)

11. $ 39.72 million reserves: Badminton (vs. $28.27 million spending in 2019)
12. $ 36.75 million reserves: Wrestling (vs. $8.89 million spending in 2017)
13. $ 30.26 million reserves: Fencing (vs. $9.08 million spending in 2018)
14. $ 29.54 million reserves: Weightlifting (vs. $9.19 million spending in 2018)
15. $ 17.68 million reserves: Canoeing (vs. $4.00 million spending in 2018)
16. $ 17.30 million reserves: Table Tennis (vs. $20.14 million spending in 2018)
17. $ 13.27 million reserves: Taekwondo (vs. $10.31 million spending in 2018)
18. $ 13.22 million reserves: Rowing (vs. $7.36 million spending in 2018)
19. $ 11.51 million reserves: Triathlon (vs. $7.71 million spending in 2018)
20. $ 11.19 million reserves: Shooting (vs. $6.15 million spending in 2017)

21. $ 6.96 million reserves: Hockey (vs. $13.05 million spending in 2018)
22. $ 6.17 million reserves: Modern Pentathlon (vs. $4.29 million spending in 2018)
23. $ 5.30 million reserves: Sailing (vs. $13.99 million spending in 2018 [3 entities])
24. $ 4.82 million reserves: Judo (vs. $32.08 million spending in 2018)
25. $ 2.69 million reserves: Archery (vs. $7.10 million spending in 2019)
26. $ 0.40 million reserves: Golf (vs. $2.32 million spending in 2018)
27. $-16.93 million reserves: Boxing (vs. $7.00 million spending in 2018 [pro-rated])

(No information available for Athletics)

These are figures are not as exact as might be hoped, since they are based only on the financial information provided. For example, the counting of reserves does not count (1) possible borrowing or advancement of funds from a foundation or other organization allied with a federation, or (2) future revenues – such as TV contracts, sponsorships or hosting fees – already received or due, but which are shown as deferred assets, only to be assigned in the year of those events. For example, three IFs disclosed such revenues on their statements: Rugby, $204.45 million (!); Judo, $27.14 million; Cycling, $22.21 million.

Also, using one-year figures does not factor in when a lucrative (or costly) world championship might be held (or is not held). For example, FINA realized $81.44 million in 2017, when its World Aquatics Championships was held (with an annual surplus of $21.85 million), but only $33.92 million (and a big loss) in 2018. A much better – but much more complex – comparison would take in averages of four-year periods which include one Olympic Games (e.g., 2016-19); that’s for the IOC’s accounting team to explore.

But these figures are a useful indicator of who’s sailing and who is in some trouble. The house judgement:

● Sailing (7):
● Football, Handball, Volleyball, Aquatics, Rugby, Tennis, Basketball
All have more than $30 million in annual revenue and good (if not excellent) reserves.

● Stable (8):
● Equestrian, Gymnastics, Cycling, Badminton, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Judo, Golf
Equestrian and Judo have good revenue, but reported high costs. Cycling and Badminton have good revenue and have kept spending in check. Weightlifting and Wrestling have excellent reserves, but their modest revenues are a future concern. Golf is backed by a very well-funded professional tour program.

● Concerned (7):
● Fencing, Canoeing, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Rowing, Triathlon, Shooting
Table Tennis has excellent revenues, but also high costs relative to its reserve. Fencing survives only on the donations of its Russian president (and billionaire) Alisher Usmanov. Canoeing, Taekwondo, Rowing, Triathlon and Shooting all reported thin revenues of $10 million or less in the last period; all of these IFs are careful spenders, but would be deeply challenged without their IOC television revenue shares.

● Worried (5):
● Hockey, Sailing, Archery, Boxing, Modern Pentathlon.
Despite being invented by the legendary Pierre de Coubertin, the driving force behind the revival of the Olympic Games, Modern Pentathlon continues to be the subject of speculation as to whether it will continue on the program. Boxing is in deep trouble and the AIBA will undoubtedly dissolve if it is not reinstated as the governing body for the sport for the IOC. The IFs for Hockey, Sailing and Archery have modest reserves and all three appear dependent on their IOC television shares to stay afloat. The FIH has made an investment in its new Pro League, for which it has high hopes.

● Unknown (1):
● Athletics
World Athletics has never published a financial statement and is under-revenued at a reported $55 million per year. But it has perhaps the highest ceiling of all … although isn’t that what’s said about this sport, year after year?

Pound expressed widely-felt concerns that the International Federations do not share their true financial standing publicly and should be held to account. As we have seen, there is some fairly good financial information available for 26 of the 28 summer IFs. But about half are no doubt already concerned or worried about their futures, especially with the delay of the Tokyo Games to 2021 … or, catastrophically, a cancellation beyond that.

Disagree? Don’t be shy with your comments (click here); we’re waiting to hear from you.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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LANE ONE: Show me the money, part 2! Our EXCLUSIVE research on the finances of 14 more International Federations, from Judo to Wrestling

By
Rich Perelman
-

/Updated: see Modern Pentathlon below/ Yesterday, we profiled the financial situation of 14 of the 28 International Federations with sports on the program of the Olympic Games. Today we have the details on the remaining 14, with several in very good shape and some in pretty poor conditions.

The Sports Examiner was the only site to survey the finances of all of the IFs when our first review was published back in 2018. Let’s see how they’ve done since:

(Many of the IFs report their finances in Swiss Francs [CHF], which are quite close in value to U.S. dollars. As of 20 May 2020, 1 Swiss franc = $1.04 U.S.)

● Judo ● The International Judo Federation publishes financial statements on its Web site, with the 2018 file the most current. It showed revenue of CHF 29.92 million and operating expenses of CHF 30.85 million for an operating loss of CHF 933,312. There were investment losses as well, but a return of a reserve for major events of CHF 1.96 million, so 2018 ended with a surplus of CHF 293,746.

The balance sheet shows reserves of CHF 4.63 million, but there is also deferred income of CHF 26.1 million, so the IJF has considerable money in the bank.

● Modern Pentathlon ● /Updated: Following the initial posting of this story, the UIPM had not posted its financials, but did so the week of 25 May. Details:/

The audit report shows results for 2016-17-18 with the UIPM reporting revenues of $12.23 million in 2016 (when it received most of its IOC television revenue share), $2.17 million in 2017 and $584,550 in 2018. Expenses were consistent across the years at $4.32 million (2016), $4.17 million (2017) and $4.29 million in 2018. There was a surplus in 2016 of $7.91 million and then losses of $2.00 million in 2017 and $3.70 million in 2018.

The UIPM had reserves of $6.17 million at the end of 2018, showing that it is one of the most careful – by necessity – of all of the IFs in terms of spending. As UIPM Treasurer John Helmick (USA) pointed out in a telephone discussion, “We get more bang for our buck than any other international federation.”

● Rowing ● The World Rowing Federation (FISA) posts its annual financial statements in the “Publications” section of its. The latest is from 2018, with CHF 6.84 million in revenue and CHF 7.08 million in operating expenses and further investment losses of CHF 494,500 for an annual loss of CHF 736,239. It had a small surplus of CHF ~203,000 in 2017.

However, the federation has reserves of CHF 12.71 million, of which CHF 7.41 million represents the unspent portion of its 2016 Olympic television revenue share. No wonder the statements identify IOC revenue as “core financing” for FISA,

● Rugby ● World Rugby has full sets of its financials posted, from 2009. The statements for 2018 are in British pounds (current exchange: £1 = $1.22) and showed £27.43 million in revenue and expenses of £89.97 million for a massive loss of £62.54 million (~ $76.31 million). That was on top of a loss of £47.66 million (~ $58.17 million) for 2017!

Have no fear, however. Rugby’s worldwide popularity has secured its finances. Even with the losses, it continues to hold reserves of £61.27 million (~ $74.78 million) plus deferred revenue from future events (television and sponsorships) of £167.50 million (~ $204.45 million). Its Olympic revenue is actually quite insignificant.

● Sailing ● World Sailing posts its financial statements on its site, but the organization has multiple parts which present individual reports:

(1) World Sailing UK Limited: The 2018 statements showed income of £3.18 million and £119,023 (~ $145,244 U.S.) after all expenses. The balance sheet showed reserves of £351,971 (~ $429,510).

(2) World Sailing Event Management: In 2018, this division collected revenues of £3.06 million and ended with a surplus of £2.72 million (~ $3.32 million). This amount was transferred to World Sailing Limited, as this division was closed.

(3) World Sailing Limited: The statements showed income of £3.44 million, but a loss for the year of £4.63 million (~ $5.64 million). Reserves were used to cover the deficit, leaving a balance of £4.34 million (~ $5.30 million).

There is some money there, but not a lot.

● Shooting ● The Munich-based International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) posts financial statements, but a little late. The last posted statement was for 2017, showing revenue of €882,061 (~$ 966,271 U.S.) and expenses of €5.61 million (~ $6.15 million) for a loss of €4.73 million (~ $5.18 million).

However, once the pro-rated share of €4.00 million (~ $4.38 million) from the IOC television revenue is added in, the loss shrinks to €731,788 (~ $801,652). The balance sheet for 31 December 2017 noted €10.22 million in reserves (~ $11.19 million). This federation is very much dependent on its IOC television share.

● Swimming (and diving, artistic and water polo) ● The Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) posts its financials on its Web site, with 2018 the last reported year. Revenue was CHF 32.62 million, way down from the CHF 78.31 million for 2017, when the FINA World Aquatics Championships was held.

Where FINA realized a surplus of CHF 21.01 million for 2017, expenses in 2018 were CHF 45.70 million and the resulting loss was CHF 13.08 million. This was covered by reserves, and FINA is still in a strong financial position with CHF 55.87 million on hand and another CHF 51.16 million set aside for digital and development projects (which may or may not be undertaken in the future). No problems here.

● Table Tennis ● The Lausanne-based International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) publishes its financials on its corporate Web site. The last posted was for 2018, noting $21.35 million U.S. in revenue and $20.14 million in expenses for a surplus of $1,214,107.

The ITTF has a solid reserve of about $17.30 million, including a carefully-managed $10.27 million remaining from its 2016 Olympic television rights share.

● Taekwondo ● World Taekwondo now posts its annual financial statements on its site, with amounts shown in Korean won and U.S. dollars. For 2018, WT had $10.19 million in revenues (including $3.82 million in IOC TV money) and expenses of $10.31 million for a small loss. However, tax benefits flipped the ledger to a small gain of $60,053 for the year.

The federation has $6.07 million in reserves and another $7.65 million remaining from its 2016 Olympic television rights share. It is fairly heavily dependent on IOC television rights money.

● Tennis ● The International Tennis Federation (ITF) publishes its financials on its Web site. The 2018 edition showed very impressive income of $72.84 million, of which only $5.78 million was from its Olympic television share, and was mostly from the Davis Cup and Federation Cup national team events. Expenses were $72.63 million, including the Davis Cup and Federation Cup prize monies. After taxes, the operating surplus at the end of the year was $100,000.

But the ITF suffered financial and investment losses that threw the annual total to a sizable loss of $8.36 million. However, it still shows reserves of $49.47 million, plus another $5.78 million held for its 2019 Olympic television share.

While the Olympic revenue is important to the ITF, its financial future is primarily tied to the Davis Cup and Federation Cup events.

● Triathlon ● The International Triathlon Union (ITU) posts financial information on its Web site, including audited financials for 2018. The figures showed $8.04 million in operating revenue – including $3.82 million from IOC television rights – and $7.71 million in expenses. A modest gain on non-operating activities meant the year ended with a surplus of $346,893.

The ITU balance sheet indicates reserves of $4.47 million, plus $7.04 million carefully remaining from its 2016 IOC television payments. The federation has managed its finances quite responsibly, but needs the IOC money to operate.

● Volleyball ● The Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) does not post its financial statements as a downloadable item on its Web site. However, it was possible to see the audited financials for 2017 in its online compilation of its 2018 World Congress proceedings.

Those statements show the FIVB as one of the richest federations, with 2017 income of CHF 62.83 million, with CHF 27.1 million from television rights sales and CHF 6.14 million from sponsorships. Only CHF 4.88 million came from Olympic TV rights.

Expenses were CHF 58.21 million (22.86 million for competitions and 9.70 million for staff salaries), and after investments, there was a yearly surplus of CHF 6.09 million. The balance sheet showed reserves of CHF 117.00 million for the period ending 31 December 2017. Very, very impressive.

● Weightlifting ● The IWF is – along with Handball – one of the two federations which have stated they will not need IOC financial assistance in 2020. For all the other faults he has been accused of, former IWF chief Tamas Ajan was a careful spender and was well aware that the federation could be cut off from IOC funding at any point.

The last set of financial statements posted was for 2017, but the financial report to the IWF Congress for 2018 is available and refers to the (unseen) audited financials. This showed a rough year in 2018, with $4.10 million in revenue and operating expenses of $9.19 million, plus an investment loss (unrealized) of another $1.41 million. That adds up to an annual loss of $6.50 million. Ouch!

Of that operating cost of $9.19 million, 24.5% was spent on anti-doping.

Overall, however, the IWF showed reserves of $29.54 million. But the reality is that the federation lives off of its Olympic television revenue share. But few other federations have been thrifty enough to have more than three years of operating costs in reserves.

● Wrestling ● United World Wrestling does post its financial statements on its Web site, but the last year which is available is 2017. Those statements show a loss of CHF 3.22 million for the year, off of CHF 4.92 million in revenue and operating costs of CHF 8.55 million, plus depreciation and investment results.

There was a surplus of CHF 8.71 million in 2016, due to the receipt of the IOC’s television revenue share (wrestling got CHF 15.07 million in 2016).

UWW shows healthy reserves of CHF 35.34 million on its balance sheet, equal to almost four years of operating expenses, which is quite good.

There you have it: 28 summer Olympic federations, of which (now) only Athletics does not show financial statements or summaries somewhere on their Web site. Part III of our overview of IF finances will analyze the health of the group and provide some rough rankings of the richest and poorest of the governing bodies of international sport.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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LANE ONE: Show me the money! Our exclusive research on the finances of the International Federations, part 1

By
Rich Perelman
-

The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent postponement of the Games of the XXXIInd Olympiad in Tokyo to 2021 has put a hole in the finances of many of the International Federations which govern the individual sports on the Olympic program.

The International Olympic Committee announced last week that it will set aside $150 million to help the IFs, National Olympic Committees and others to help get through the current crisis. In addition, the Swiss government will also provide assistance to those IFs which are based in Switzerland.

The International Handball Federation and the International Weightlifting Federation have signaled that they do not require such assistance, and FIFA has plenty of money and will be using its exceptional resources to help its own member federations.

So how does everyone else stand? We surveyed the finances of the IFs with sports in the summer Olympic program back in 2018. Let’s see how they’ve done since:

(Many of the IFs report their finances in Swiss Francs [CHF], which are quite close in value to U.S. dollars. As of 20 May 2020, 1 Swiss franc = $1.04 U.S.)

● Archery ● The World Archery Federation publishes annual financial statements and its 2019 filing showed CHF 3.66 million in revenue against CHF 6.83 million in expenses for a loss of CHF 3.16 million. Results for 2018 were also tough, with a loss of CHF 3.81 million. The federation had reserves of CHF 2.59 million at the end of 2019.

● Athletics ● World Athletics – formerly known as the IAAF – has never published any financial information, although some numbers have seeped out recently. In its Executive Board application notice in 2019, the introduction stated that “Its headquarters are in Monaco with 90 full time staff. It has turnover of circa USD 40 million.” Other sources have placed annual revenues at about $55 million, and the federation is planning to release financial information this year.

Apparently, the clean-up of the accounting mess created during the Lamine Diack years – he’s still under house arrest in France and awaiting trial on extortion, bribery and money-laundering charges – has required more time than originally thought.

● Badminton ● The Badminton World Federation issues annual financial statements, with the latest covering calendar year 2019. Registered in Malaysia, the BWF had a losing year at the bank in 2019, with revenues of $25.79 million – down $4.15 million from 2018 – and operating expenses of $28.27 million for a loss of $2.48 million. There were some financial-item adjustments which helped and the loss for 2019 was reduced to $1.81 million. That’s a big dive from a surplus of $4.69 million in 2018, mostly due to lower tournament revenues. The BWF is quite healthy, however, with unrestricted reserves of $39.72 million as of the end of last year.

● Basketball ● FIBA does not publish financial statements, but includes financial information its showy Activity Report and related documentation. The latest is the “Activity Report 2017-2019″ which actually covers financial results through the end of 2018. For the period of 2015-18, FIBA took in CHF 324.2 million and spent CHF 336.8 million. For 2018, income was CHF 98.3 million and expenses were CHF 103.6 million.

However, FIBA appears to be financially sound, with about CHF 44.4 million in equity reserves at the end of 2018. And with a successful men’s World Cup in China in 2019, its ledger should have been better last year. Its principal financial driver is the men’s and women’s World Cups; marketing and television rights brought in 65% of its revenues from 2015-18.

● Boxing ● The AIBA is the saddest of all of the IFs in the summer Olympic program, as it is on suspension from the IOC and deeply in debt. Its last posted financial report was a six-months snapshot ending 31 December 2018, showing a total accumulated debt of CHF 16.93 million. Ouch!

But that’s a couple million better than at the end of 2017! For the six months from July-December 2018 – the period examined by the new auditors – AIBA had revenues of CHF 4.26 million and operating expenses of CHF 3.50 million, a surplus of CHF ~761,000 … with CHF 2.26 million in IOC revenue pro-rated into this period. That money was received in 2016 and 2017; taking that 53% of AIBA revenues out of the picture, AIBA lost CHF 1.49 million in the last six months of 2018. Oy.

● Canoeing ● The International Canoe Federation has posted financial statements, with the last one for 2018 (after posting nothing for 2017). For 2018, the ICF had just CHF 872,579 in total revenues and CHF 3.85 million in expenses for an operating loss of CHF 2.97 million; after financial adjustments, the total annual loss was CHF 3.01 million Yikes!

The ICF’s total reserves stood at CHF 17.00 million at the end of 2018. Worth noting: it received CHF 15.11 million from the IOC in 2016-17 for its share of Olympic TV rights.

● Cycling ● The Union Cycliste International (UCI) publishes its financial information in its lengthy Annual Report, with the last issue available covering 2018. In that year, UCI took in CHF 40.25 million in revenues and had CHF 46.20 million in expenses for an operating loss of CHF 5.95 million. However, there was a further investment loss, so the total loss for 2018 was CHF 7.35 million.

The UCI shows CHF 26.59 million in investment reserves and CHF 45.19 million in total capital. It’s biggest drivers are, as always, road cycling, following by Mountain Biking.

● Equestrian ● The Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) publishes comprehensive financial statements, but they can be tough to find. The latest disclosure was from 2018, presented as part of the federation’s Annual Report.

The statements show CHF 62.58 million in revenue, with CHF 27.77 million from sponsorship and CHF 7.07 million in calendar fees and dues. Operating expenses were CHF 58.85 million, and after investment losses of CHF 3.01 million, the net was still CHF 724,148. The FEI is quite healthy overall, with CHF 57.67 million in cash and securities shown on its balance sheet.

● Fencing ● The Federation Internationale de Escrime (FIE) does publish financial statements, buried in its “Information Letters” to member federations. For 2018, the report shows CHF 6.11 million in total income, including a CHF 5.0 million donation from federation chief Alisher Usmanov (RUS). Operating expenses were CHF 8.73 million for a loss of CHF 2.62 million.

However, there were good investment results and another Usmanov donation of CHF 11.34 million for the FIE’s 105th anniversary activities (which cost CHF 6.31 million), so all together, the federation had a surplus of CHF 2.78 million for the year. As of the end of 2018, the FIE had CHF 29.10 million in reserves, almost entirely due to Usmanov’s donations. As long as Usmanov keeps giving, the FIE will thrive.

● Football ● The most successful federation by many miles, FIFA publishes extensive financial statements. The last statements on file are for 2018, showing U.S. $4.64 billion in revenue and a surplus of $1.81 billion, primarily from the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Reserves are $2.74 billion, even more than the IOC.

Wow.

● Golf ● The International Golf Federation is small, with its primary task to organize the playing of the sport in international events like the Olympic Games. Its financial report for 2018 showed revenue of CHF 553,891 and expenses of CHF 2.23 million for a loss of CHF 1.68 million. That wiped out most of the federation’s reserves, and the balance sheet showed assets of just CHF 389,052 at the end of 2018.

As the IGF is simply a proxy for the quite-wealthy golf tours that support it, its future is assumed to be quite well assured, regardless of how much is or isn’t in the bank at any one time.

● Gymnastics ● The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique is one of those groups that never posted anything about its finances for years. That finally changed in 2019, as it posted financial statements for 2018. That was updated with 2019 statements, that showed CHF 16.65 million in revenue – that’s all – and CHF 15.57 million in expenses. That operating surplus of CHF 1.08 million was helped by investment income that pushed the final, year-end surplus to CHF 3.04 million.

The federation has good reserves of CHF 47.65 million, impressive for such a (surprisingly) low-revenue sport.

● Handball ●The International Handball Federation posts an odd-looking summary of its financial statements in the documents section for its 2019 Congress. It explains why the IHF does not need any help from the IOC to outlast the coronavirus pandemic.

The federation realized television rights sales for its men’s and women’s World Championships in 2017 of CHF 22.00 million, and CHF 12.13 in 2018. All together, IHF revenues were CHF 32.38 million in 2017 and CHF 19.13 million in 2018, with net surpluses in those years of CHF 17.90 million and almost CHF 8 million.

At the end of 2018, the IHF had financial reserves of CHF 131.24 million. No need for help.

● Hockey ● The Federation Internationale de Hockey (FIH) has financial statements available back to 2013. The most current ends in 2018 and showed that CHF 13.54 million in revenue – including the pro-rated IOC contribution of CHF 4.13 million – and operating expenses of CHF 12.55 million.

The remainder of CHF 983,147 was reduced to CHF 436,195 by some non-operating losses and another CHF 748,560 for the 2019 launch of the FIH Pro League left the year at a loss of CHF 313,364. The balance sheet shows reserves of CHF 6.69 million, down from 10.96 million at the close of 2017.

That’s a thumbnail sketch on the first 14 IFs in alphabetical order. We’ll have the remaining 14 in our next issue, following by more analysis.

Although the numbers may be somewhat blinding, it is worth noting that 13 of these first 14 have posted at least financial summaries, if not actual financial statements. Only World Athletics is outstanding (so far).

Even these summary numbers show that many of the federations are, frankly, in rough shape as going concerns if not for the IOC’s quadrennial distribution of a portion of its television rights fees. Stay tuned for more.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HEARD AT HALFTIME: What’s in the IOC’s $650 million cost for postponing Tokyo; Stefanidi wins women’s vault challenge; another USAG lawsuit

By
Rich Perelman
-

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Vox Populi ● We received a lot of response to Sunday’s Lane One column, “Bach asks for “frugal Games” in Tokyo; what can be learned from the ultimate “frugal” organizers in Los Angeles four decades ago?”

Among the most noteworthy replies include this tweet from former International Olympic Committee marketing director Michael Payne:

“Late in the day to pull this one off. The all powerful Dentsu has generated record local sponsorship revenues (like LA at the time) but also created budget expenditures many times over previous OCOGs. Take torch relay as example- managed by Dentsu at 300% normal budget.”

A very special message came from John M. Argue, son of the long-time Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games leader John C. Argue, the driving force behind bringing the 1984 Games to Los Angeles:

“Rich, thanks for reminding the Olympic movement of the basics that made LA84 so great. My dad was frugal in many ways but he was always consistent with providing quality. Keep up the great work.”

Thanks to everyone who sent in comments, some with interesting personal memories of one of the pivotal events in the Olympic Movement.

● If you enjoy The Sports Examiner, why not tell your friends? ●
● They can sign up for free here! ●

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● The IOC announced last week that it expects to incur up to $800 million in costs for the delay of the Tokyo 2020 Games to 2021, with $650 million for its own operations and $150 million available to International Federations, National Olympic Committees and other organizations to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

No breakdown of what the $650 million in costs will entail at this point, leading to endless media speculation. But there’s actually not that much mystery, as the IOC has previously detailed what its Games costs are in its annual reports:

For the Rio Games in 2016, the IOC spent $463.7 million, primarily on:

● $321.1 million ~ Host broadcaster services
● $ 43.4 million ~ IOC operations
● $ 39.8 million ~ NOC support (travel and services)
● $ 14.4 million ~ Insurance against cancellation
● $ 14.3 million ~ Coordination Commission & bid service costs

The remaining $30.7 million included technology support, marketing commissions, technology support, direct athlete services, the Knowledge Transfer Program and other items.

For the PyeongChang Winter Games in 2018, the IOC’s costs were $364.3 million, including:

● $246.1 million ~ Host broadcaster services
● $ 32.8 million ~ Games operations
● $ 23.3 million ~ Candidacy, Games prep and Transfer of Knowledge
● $ 18.6 million ~ Medical and anti-doping operations
● $ 14.4 million ~ Technology costs
● $ 12.8 million ~ Insurance against cancellation
● $ 11.0 million ~ NOC support (travel and services)

So the big cost for 2021 is going to be for broadcasting, which the IOC pays for itself now, through its subsidiary, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). Will the total really get to $650 million?

Doubtful, unless the IOC has internally decided that it will support that figure as a total it is willing to absorb, including more support to the Tokyo organizers. Can the IOC afford it? It’s 2018 annual report showed “fund balances” of $2.45 billion. It can afford it.

● Athletics ● The women’s pole vault challenge held on Saturday was another triumph for Greece’s Olympic and World Champion Katerina Stefanidi.

She competed against Canadian Alysha Newman and American Katie Nageotte in separate facilities in Athens, Bolton (Ontario) and Marietta (Georgia) over a 30-minute challenge, with all vaults at 4.00 m (13-1 1/2).

Stefanidi cleared the bar 34 times, compared to 30 for Nageotte and 21 for Newman. The Greek star had 19 clearances by halftime, but slowed after the five-minute break. All told, Stefanidi had 34 successful clearances in 36 tries. Her triumph was all the more remarkable as she was vaulting in 102-degree (F) temps in the Greek capital!

Correspondent Paul Roberts noted that for those in their late 20s who think you are too old to keep competing, USA Track & Field has the answer for you: a new “Masters” category for ages 25-29.

The announcement noted that “The addition of this new ‘pre-masters’ age group was championed by the late [USATF Masters Track & Field] Chair, Rex Harvey, in a push to retain post-collegiate non-elite, intramural, and recreational athletes.”

This “pre-Masters” category joins the USATF’s “sub-Masters”group for ages 30-34. For international competitions, however, the Masters entry limit will still be age 35.

The first national championships in this division was supposed to be held in 2020, but that appears unlikely at present. So who will be the first to win both the USATF National (open) Championships and the Pre-Masters title in the same event in the same year?

● Football ● FIFA announced that the host for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 will be made by the FIFA Council on 25 June 2020.

There are four bidders, from Brazil, Colombia, Japan and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand. The site evaluation report is expected to be completed by early June.

● Gymnastics ● As if USA Gymnastics didn’t have enough trouble in the courts, it filed a new suit on Monday, asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for an injunction against the U.S. Small Business Administration.

USAG is protesting the SBA’s rule against allowing loans to organization in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, preventing it from receiving loans under the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program. Said the complaint:

“USAG has had to cancel or postpone virtually every competition, meet, or other event that it manages or sponsors, out of concerns for the health and safety of its members and in order to comply with shelter in place orders issued by numerous state governments, including Indiana. These event cancellations and postponements have had a devastating impact on USAG’s budget. The events will no longer generate revenues that USAG intended to use to support its general operations and to defray event costs, which USAG has already incurred and is already obligated to pay.

“Despite the material decrease in USAG’s revenues, USAG’s non-event expenses have remained constant. USAG still must support athletes, coaches, and gyms in order to fulfill its statutory mission as a national governing body. USAG also is required to satisfy the accumulating professional fees and other administrative expenses associated with this chapter 11 case.”

No specific dollar figures were mentioned in the complaint.

● Swimming ● The South China Morning Post reported that the Sun Yang Global Support Association has announced its dissolution in the aftermath of freestyle superstar Sun’s eight-year ban from swimming by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Sun, a triple Olympic gold medalist and 11-time World Champion in freestyle events from 200 m to 1,500 m, interfered with a doping-control collection at his home in September 2018. FINA’s doping-control panel let him off with a warning, but the World Anti-Doping Agency filed an independent appeal and Sun was assessed a doping sanction of eight years since he had previously had a short doping ban previously. He is appealing to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

His “Global Support Association” had been active on social media, but posted a notice on the Chinese social-media site Weibo, including (translated from Chinese by the SCMP):

“For some time there has been a lot of criticism on the internet for Sun Yang fans, we sincerely accept that. To all those who have been forced to pay attention to fan behaviour and persecution, we sincerely apologise and decide to disband the support group.

“Under the premise of Sun Yang’s public voice causing cyber bullying, stirring up nationalism, and violent resistance to inspection, here we would like to say sorry to the Chinese people and all athletes.”

The SCMP report, noting the heavy criticism – and intimidation activities – vs. Australian freestyler Mack Horton, who refused to stand on the awards podium with Sun after the 2019 FINA World Championships 400 m Free last July, that the announcement also noted:

“‘We feel guilty about not being able to guide fans effectively’ and describing ‘recent acts of irrational behaviour’ as a ‘wake up call’”

and also included an apology

“‘to all those who have been threatened and cursed, to all the people who have been misled and deceived, and to the party and the country’ adding they will ‘focus on rules, laws and self-reflection’.”

Sun remains enormously popular in China, with 33.7 million fans on his personal Weibo account.

LANE ONE: Bach asks for “frugal Games” in Tokyo; what can be learned from the ultimate “frugal” organizers in Los Angeles four decades ago?

By
Rich Perelman
-
John C. Argue (1932-2002), driving force behind the bid for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He famously wrote of the organizing philosophy of the Games: "Arrangements are to be spartan." (Photo: LA84 Foundation)

For those of a certain age, who lived through a prior crisis that threatened the existence of the Olympic Games, it was simply staggering to hear International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach of Germany talk about the future relevance of the Olympic Games during an online teleconference with 300-plus reporters last week:

“I think, first, as society, we will be much more health conscious than before. Society will also be, to say, more relying, I guess, on human efforts, less maybe on algorithms predicting the future and taking their fate in their own hands. Society will also be more concentrated on essentials, and maybe not so much anymore than the ‘nice to have’ things in society. And all this will be reflected in the organization of these postponed Olympic Games.

“You know, we were discussing this among us, and I think I mentioned it at the beginning, to say, that we want to have – we want this Olympic Games – to be frugal Games, concentrating on the essentials, and the spirit and the message of the Olympic Games.” (emphasis added)

Frugal Games? F-R-U-G-A-L Games? The IOC? Really? What?

Before the end of the 47-minute session, Bach made sure that everyone got the message, again. Asked about when the sports program of the Paris 2024 Games would be confirmed, Bach doubled down:

“We are in discussion concerning this question with Paris 2024. As we are in discussion with Paris 2024, on a wider scope, already, what can be transferred, maybe, from the new measures we take for Tokyo; also to Paris ‘24. So, how can Paris ‘24 benefit from this new approach there in line with Olympic Agenda 2020 and in line with the New Norm, and where we are – as I said in this Olympism and Corona message – now already in a new phase of looking into a new reduction of costs, or better said, focusing on the essentials of the Games. So you can see this, the question you are raising, in this wider context.” (emphasis added)

For those who were part of the Los Angeles organizing effort leading up to the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad in 1984, this was the realization, the validation and the vindication of the approach summarized in the first sentence of the bid committee’s responses to the questionnaires of the IOC and the International Federations back in 1978:

“Arrangements are to be spartan.”

As outlined by Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games chair John Argue, the principal driver of the L.A. bid effort for the ‘84 Games, that sentence and the 149 pages that followed underscored the determination not to follow the example of Montreal, whose just-concluded 1976 Games ended with a deficit of more than C$1 billion, which was not paid off until 2006.

It’s now well remembered that the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee ended its tenure with a record surplus of $232.5 million. Although mostly disrespected by the Olympic Movement in the years after the ‘84 Games, many LAOOC staff members have wondered when the careful approach that made our success would be widely adopted.

Maybe that time has come. So how did it happen?

The key document that crystalized the as-developed LAOOC approach wasn’t issued until 16 January 1984. Created primarily by LAOOC Planning Director Lee Aurich and called the “Commissioner’s Mandate for the Preparatory Phase,” it was a 15-page list of instructions to the LAOOC Commissioners for each of the 21 sports on the program.

Selected primarily from business, these individuals had the ultimate authority of each of their sports … within limits. Those limits, and the overall goals of the organization, were outlined with clarity in this document. Two highlights:

● “The Commissioner should strive to prepare and operate the venue in a manner consistent with overall LAOOC policy. The Commissioner is not staging a world championship. Rather LAOOC is staging 23 sports which create an integrated event perceived by the world as a unified whole. Consequently, deviations between sports as to services which will not be recognized as different by anyone other than the IF are not appropriate.”

● “The primary objective is to make the Games work. Whatever emergencies occur, the show must go on. The public perception of the Commissioner’s venue and the overall Games should be of a smooth, functioning, integrated event.

“The Commissioner’s second goal is to make the venue function for each of the audiences. These are:

Competitors
TV Public
IFs
NOCs
Spectators
Press (written and photo)
Staff

“Finally, the events at the venue should be staged at a reasonable cost; not a minimal cost, not a spartan cost, not a lavish cost, but at a cost which provides for a reasonable show.”

Those were the goals, reinforced by an 8 June 1984 document called the “Commissioner’s Authority Memo,” which further detailed the responsibilities of the sports commissioners and those of the operating departments.

Not everyone was happy with the mandate memo, including those of us in Press Operations, working feverishly to meet the needs of the 9,150 news media accredited for the Games and who felt our priority was way too low. But, as it turned out, our allocation of facilities and staff was more than satisfactory to meet everyone’s needs; our authority was also strengthened later in the mandate memo.

The LAOOC’s “reasonable show” turned out to revolutionize the Olympic Games, sports marketing worldwide, event staffing and many technical areas, such as accreditation (where the LAOOC-created approach is still in use).

Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 will find their own innovations on the way to success in staging their Games, especially now that impact, rather than cost, is being emphasized by no less than the President of the International Olympic Committee.

Those who served with the Los Angeles organizing committee were told, almost continuously, that the Games would fail, and probably end after 1984. We never believed a word of it and worked desperately to make the event a success for our city, for sport and for the future.

That an IOC President has, actually and enthusiastically, endorsed Argue’s strategy – albeit a little less dramatically – 42 years later, is one of the most rewarding legacies that any organizing committee can have.

Thanks, Thomas.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE TICKER: IOC says Tokyo delay will cost it $800 million, including IF bail-outs; college sports cuts start in earnest in Ohio

By
Rich Perelman
-

The latest news, notes and quotes from the worldwide Five-Ring Circus:

● International Olympic Committee ● “We anticipate we will have to bear costs of up to $800 million for our part and responsibilities in the organization of the postponed Games Tokyo 2020.”

That was IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) during a Thursday teleconference, following an online meeting of the IOC Executive Board.

Bach outlined a series of measures approved by the group:

● A fund of up to $150 million will be made available by the IOC to support IFs, National Olympic Committees and IOC-recognized organizations. The IFs, especially, need support as they would normally be looking forward to a quadrennial windfall of a share of the IOC’s television rights revenue later this year.

Bach noted that discussions with many IFs are already underway. FIFA, the International Handball Federation and the International Weightlifting Federation have signaled that they will not require financial assistance from the IOC.

● A further fund of $150 million, jointly funded by the IOC and the Swiss Federal Council, will be available as loans to the Swiss-based International Federations.

● The IOC has, for now, estimated its added costs for its operating responsibilities for the Tokyo Games at $650 million. This notably includes its responsibilities as host broadcaster through its subsidiary, Olympic Broadcast Services, and its hospitality responsibilities for the TOP sponsorship program.

The Tokyo organizers have not disclosed its costs, or that of the Japanese government, for the delay, but have promised to do so.

Said Bach:

“This situation requires compromises, requires sacrifices by everybody. Therefore we are leaving no stone unturned in this respect to reduce the cost while maintaining the spirit of the Games and the quality of the sports competition.

“Around these principles there are no taboos and everything is on the table and this also includes the service level for the stake holders of the Olympic movement.”

Translation: Everyone other than athletes and their support groups can expect revisions in service levels. This will especially hit the news media, Olympic Family sectors, celebratory and entertainment elements in venues, Games staff and volunteers and the public, likely through the cancellation or pruning of public programming.

And Bach made the point that such measures may become permanent:

“We are already in discussion with Paris 2024 on a wider scope about what can be transferred from the new measures we are taking in Tokyo. How can Paris 2024 benefit from this new approach in line with a new norm .. looking into reduction of costs or – better said – focusing on the essentials of the Games?”

Bach also reflected on what now looks like an even-more-brilliant choice to select both the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games at the same time. Asked about the continuing discussions the IOC is having with potential hosts for 2032, he noted:

“You have to consider we are now 12 years ahead of the Games in 2032 and as you can imagine we are also very happy that with our result of Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms and in particular the double allocation for Paris and Los Angeles.

“Otherwise we would now in this crisis time have to start the candidature procedure for the Games in 2028, and this, to say diplomatically would have not likely been the best moment to do this.”

It has been hinted that the award of the 2032 Games could be made in 2021, with Queensland the clear early favorite, but Bach cautioned: “Nobody knows what the world looks like tomorrow.”

● Athletics ● The second World Athletics pole vault challenge is being organized for this coming Saturday (16th), featuring World and Olympic champ Katerina Stefanidi (GRE), Canadian Alysha Newman and two-time U.S. champ Katie Nageotte.

Parallel to the men’s event, the “competition” will measure who can clear 4.00 m (13-1 1/2) the most times in a 30-minute span. None of the women will be vaulting from their backyards, but will be in local facilities in Athens, Greece (Stefanidi), Bolton, Canada (Newman) and Marietta, Georgia (Nageotte).

The event is set to go off at 6 p.m. Central European Time (noon Eastern time) and will be livestreamed on the World Athletics pages on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

World Athletics also released a provisional schedule of Diamond League meets, beginning in Monaco on 14 August and continuing through 17 October, somewhere in China.

The schedule calls for 11 events, with confirmed cancellations of meets in Rabat (MAR), London (GBR) and Zurich (SUI).

Will any of these actually happen?

● Gymnastics ● USA Gymnastics announced the cancellation of its national championships, including all four disciplines: Artistic, Rhythmic, Tumbling & Trampoline and Acrobatic.

Dates are still pending for the U.S. Olympic Trials for Artistic Gymnastics in 2021.

● Collegiate Sport ● Another major development in the COVID-19 influence on college sports came on Wednesday, as the Mid-American Conference (MAC) announced the suspension of conference championship events in eight sports, and a contraction of its post-season basketball tournament. Per CBSSports.com:

“The sports that will no longer have a postseason indefinitely are baseball, softball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, women’s lacrosse and field hockey. A basketball postseason tournament will still be held but all first-round home games will be eliminated. Instead, the top eight teams from the regular season will automatically advance to Cleveland for second-round play at Quicken Loans Arena. The conference is also eliminating divisions for men’s and women’s basketball and will expand to a 20-game conference slate in the regular season, expanding from the previous format of 18 games.”

These restrictions are expected to be maintained for four years and then be re-evaluated.

The MAC currently includes Akron, Bowling Green, SUNY at Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Ohio, Ball State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo and Western Michigan.

On Thursday, Akron announced it would be cutting the sports of men’s cross country, men’s golf and women’s tennis. The savings are expected to save $4.4 million annually, or 23% of the school’s athletics budget. The reduction leaves Akron with 17 teams – seven for men and 10 for women – one more than required to be part of NCAA Division I.

It is going to get worse before it gets better.

LANE ONE: The U.S. Women’s National Team’s equal-pay suit lost in court, but the timing could be right for them to “realize our worth”

By
Rich Perelman
-

The highly-publicized lawsuit brought by the U.S. Women’s National Team was gutted by the opinion of U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner on 1 May, when he granted summary judgment to the U.S. Soccer Federation on the major equal-pay issues in the case and left open for trial only smaller issues on travel and support.

The Women’s National Team has asked for an appeal to the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals, which requires some legal gymnastics, but which will not – even in the best of circumstances – be heard for a while and won’t be decided for more than a year at best.

In the meantime, the calendar moves ahead, and some fortunate timing offers an opportunity for the two sides to go forward … uneasily.

Plaintiff Megan Rapinoe repeated her oft-cited claim “we’re not going to settle; we know what we’re worth,” most recently on CBS This Morning on 4 May, underlining her comments to The New York Times during an interview back in 2019:

“We realize our worth now, and in the past we haven’t quite known what our market value is. If we get to the next round of collective bargaining agreement negotiations, which I think is in two years, and we’re not getting what we want, then we’re going to need to take more serious action than we’ve taken before and not settle for crap.”

Rapinoe noted in 2019 that the Women’s National Team’s collective bargaining agreement will end at the close of 2021. And that’s not the only thing ending about that time:

● The joint broadcast deal with Major League Soccer and the U.S. Soccer Federation, concluded in 2014, will end its eight-year span with the 2022 season. This agreement not only includes MLS games, but also USSF men’s and women’s national team matches between ESPN, Fox Sports and Univision. The MLS has already signaled that discussions on a new agreement are underway

● The USSF’s “marketing representation agreement” with Soccer United Marketing (SUM), which includes sponsorships, expires on 31 December 2022. The federation’s separate marketing agreement with Nike expires on the same date.

● U.S. Soccer has stated its intention to move to new headquarters, as it has outgrown its long-time headquarters building in Chicago. The federation listed 1,228 total employees in its latest tax return, most of whom are working outside of Soccer House, but the need for more space is becoming acute. The USSF moved into its current quarters in 1991.

So within a year following the close of the current Women’s National Team collective bargaining agreement, the television and sponsorship deals which currently support all of the federation’s efforts will end.

Perfect.

As women’s soccer fans know, the USSF – in response to the desire to further develop women’s football in the U.S. – helped form the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in December 2012. According to the USSF’s 2019 financial statements:

“As of the date of these financials, NWSL is owned by its nine member teams. USSF is not a member of NWSL but, pursuant to a 2016 Amended and Restated Management Agreement, serves as the Manager of NWSL LLC and, in this capacity, USSF performs management, governance, operational, administrative, and advisory services for NWSL. The management agreement is currently effective through December 31, 2019. USSF does not receive any management fees or rent from NWSL as part of the arrangement but does receive expense reimbursement.”

This opens up the intriguing possibility for the Women’s National Team – and the men as well – to create their own Limited Liability Companies (LLC) for the purpose of managing their own finances in conjunction with the USSF. (The men aren’t happy either, as its CBA ran out in 2018 and are continuing to play under its terms.)

Each LLC would partner on a 50/50 revenue basis with the USSF. As with the NWSL, the USSF would provide administrative, operational and management services and be reimbursed directly. The USSF’s 50% of revenues would be allocated to its responsibilities for the junior and youth national teams, grass-roots development, rules administration and so on. The Women’s National Team LLC would be responsible for putting on its games, just as is done now.

After all, the men’s and women’s National Teams are essentially separate entities now. Their camps, practices and games are held in different places in different times. The coaching staffs are different, and the support staffs are mostly, if not completely, separate.

Although blanket fees for sponsorship and television rights are currently in effect, let’s have no doubt that broadcasters and sponsors figure out on their own what they can or will spend for every game the men and women’s National Teams play. Now, those negotiations can happen separately.

There will be well-placed criticism of this model from those who believe that selling the whole package will bring more than selling it piecemeal.

That’s not the point. Rapinoe made this clear in her comments on the court ruling to CBS This Morning, saying she was “shocked, to be honest, very shocked, and of course disappointed in this. I didn’t feel like the ruling really captured the heart of what we’re after.”

That’s an activist talking, not a lawyer. The District Court, of course, has to pay attention to the applicable law in this case.

So for the Women’s National Team, forming a separate LLC would allow it to find out its worth directly on the open market. No doubt would remain, as the women would be marketing their own broadcast and sponsorship deals. The USSF would receive 50% for its role as the U.S. National Governing Body and responsible for all of the non-elite elements of football in the U.S.

With its share of broadcast, sponsorship, net ticket sales and merchandise, the USWNT LLC can pay its players whatever it wants (and can afford). It will have to file its own tax returns and so on, but its future will be its own.

Instead of haggling with the USSF, the players can sit across the table from the folks who actually pay the bills: broadcasters and sponsors, as well as dealing directly with where to play, when to play and then renting the stadiums, selling the tickets and putting on the games.

This raises the question of why not just have a separate women’s football federation altogether?

It’s an interesting idea, but would require amending the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. The current text, at 36 U.S. §220521(a), states “The [U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee] may recognize only one national governing body for each sport for which an application is made and approved, except as provided in section 220522(b) with respect to a paralympic sports organization.”

That’s hardly going to happen now, with the coronavirus pandemic upon us and continuing partisan gridlock that shows no signs of abating.

Same for the case at hand; the chances of a true settlement in Morgan et al vs. U.S. Soccer Federation (2:19-cv-01717) appear very poor and the litigation will play out in court over the next few years (yes, years). In the meantime, the two sides (and the Men’s National Team, too) can move forward on a new basis, one in which the two National Teams will really find out, first-hand, “what we’re worth.”

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HEARD AT HALFTIME: Track not dead; UK Sports asks for more money; UK Athletics “couldn’t get any worse”; Ritz retires and Lewis says “dream big”

By
Rich Perelman
-

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Vox Populi ● On the responses to our 24 April story about World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe asking for more world-class meets in the U.S.:

I disagree that track is “dead” in the U.S. I think that it is has not been marketed well and that the athletes have had little say on how it is marketed. The presentation of the sport has to be reimagined. More one on one competition in particular events, made for a TV audience. Securing events to a sports betting company. Allowing top-tier athletes to form their own tour groups like the ATP or WTA. Virtual reality e-gaming. I think there is some room for growth.
~ Mark Conrad

Regarding our 6 May story remembering IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, and ranking the IOC President from 1-8, we received a few comments. All had Pierre de Coubertin as no. 1 and Samaranch as no. 2. One commenter had Jacques Rogge as no. 3, but another had him lower (we had him no. 4, behind Sigfrid Edstrom).

The worst? Said one: “Brundage should be last…as a bigot and Nazi supporter.” We had him seventh of eight, with the luckless Irishman Lord Killanin in the final slot.

What of the current IOC chief, German Thomas Bach? Two opinions placed him third, behind Samaranch and ahead of Edstrom. But who knows what the future holds; Bach’s first term isn’t up until 2021 and he can be re-elected to one further term of four years (into 2025). But he says he has not decided on whether he will run yet.

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● To the surprise of absolutely no one, the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission chief said last Saturday that “We’re proceeding on the basis that there is no Plan B of deferring the Games again or anything like that.”

Australian John Coates told the Australian Olympic Committee’s annual general meeting that “Because we all must wait longer than the already-long wait for an Olympics, the Games of Tokyo will gently but perceptibly echo the sheer joy and relief of the other delayed Olympics of Antwerp in 1920 and London in 1948.”

UK Sport, the agency which oversees Olympic programs in Great Britain, has asked the British government for £53.4 million (~ $65.9 million) as an advance against its normal allocation in order to ensure athlete funding through the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Said chair Katherine Grainger:

“Every athlete that would have right now been three months away from the biggest event of their lives is isolated individually at home.

“The sports that support them we already know are at some financial risk. The longer the situation goes on, they will be at greater risk going forward, and it means that the risks going to the Games next year are increasing.

“What we really need, and ideally need confirmation of in the next few weeks, is that we could get a one-year rollover to go into March 2022 to make sure we can reassure all the sports that their funding is going to be in place and they can have some consistency going forward through to the Games next summer.”

The Telegraph reported that “The £345 million that has been invested in high-performance summer sport for the Tokyo cycle lasts only until next March.”

Take notice, U.S. fans. Britain – a country of 67.9 million people – contributes the equivalent of $425.7 million from national lottery funds into its Olympic-sport programs. By contrast, the USOPC, as well as the National Governing Bodies, gets zero.

● Games of the XXXV Olympiad: 2032 ● “We are serious and definitely pitching for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games and the 2032 Olympics.”

That’s IOC member Narinda Batra of India, head of the Indian Olympic Association and an unapologetic booster of his country as a major future site for Olympic events, in comments last Friday to Agence France Presse.

However, the country has – at best – a spotty track record in recent hosting. Batra’s comments immediately raised a wave of questions, such as those from former IOC marketing chief Michael Payne:

“would be great to see Olympics go to India BUT needs honest review of shortcomings of [2010] Commonwealth Games to make sure those failings are not repeated. After debacle of Rio IOC out of the risk business if at all possible.”

A Bloomberg report in April 2011 characterized the event thus:

“The 2010 Commonwealth Games, which cost the government $4.6 billion to host, attracted attention worldwide after newspaper headlines described filthy accommodation for athletes, missed construction deadlines, the collapse of arena footbridge and inflated bills for event equipment.”

Mumbai will be the host of the IOC Session in 2023, but India’s Olympic future no doubt runs through a Youth Olympic Games or another major regional Games before it can be seriously thought of as a contender to host a future Olympic Games in 2036 or 2040.

● Athletics ● World Athletics reported that the “Ultimate Garden Challenge” – pole vaulters Mondo Duplantis (SWE), Renaud Lavillenie (FRA) and Sam Kendricks (USA) competing in their backyards – drew about 250,000 live viewers and more than 1,000,000 views from 90 countries in the first 24 hours following the event.

Not too bad, to see who could clear 5.00 m (16-5) the most times in 30 minutes. Duplantis and Lavillenie each cleared their bars 36 times and Kendricks – who had no misses – had 26.

Commented Australian vault coach Warren Hill on Twitter: “Just stay away from all those boring track events and you’ll be fine! :-)”

American distance star Dathan Ritzenhein, 37, announced his retirement on Twitter last Thursday (7th), finishing as one of the best all-around distance runners in American history.

“Running has been my passion and devotion. It will continue to be. I love this sport and I couldn’t go without it. It has given me so much that it’s time to give back. I won’t be on the start line, but I’ll never be far away.”

An All-American at Colorado, “Ritz” won four U.S. titles, was a 2008 Olympian in the marathon (9th) and in the 10,000 m in 2004 (dnf) and 2012 (13th). He won a World Half Marathon Championships bronze in 2009 and finished with impressive bests of 12:56.27 ‘09 for 5,000 m (then the American Record), 27:22.28 ‘09 in the 10,000 m and 2:07:47 ‘12 in the marathon.

An in-depth review of UK Athletics by the former senior minister for the country’s Culture, Sport and Media department was reported last Thursday (7th), with consultant Sue Street reporting that “The impression formed during the review was that athletics in the UK is not (currently) in a good position.”

Commissioned in February by UK Sport, the review included 40 separate interviews and existing reports. UK Athletics has been beset by problems including the resignation of its senior leadership, questionable medical support for distance superstar Mo Farah, allowing Farah to be coached by the now-banned Alberto Salazar with the Nike Oregon Project as well as middling performances by many athletes at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha.

Street’s report noted that “It was often referenced that the current state of Athletics ‘couldn’t get any worse’.”

She did note that “A consistent message throughout was that all is not lost. There is an appetite within the sport to make this work, with contribution from all parties. The recent collaborative approach adopted from new leadership within UKA has been well received within the sport, and it would be advisable to maintain this.”

However, she was notably critical that “It was surprising to discover that there was little evidence of a digital strategy for the sport.” And she added:

“A fast improvement is needed in the sphere of communications. It is no secret that the sport has suffered from persistent leaks of information over the past 18 months. This could be attributed in some part to the disaffection with the approach taken by UKA to communication.

“A highly defensive approach to relationships with the media is counterproductive. A more proactive approach and tone from the leadership might have a positive impact in this area.

“A new approach is also necessary for internal communication, marketing, and communication with the sport as a whole.”

● Bobsled ● Former U.S. Olympic brakeman Pavle Jovanovic died on Sunday at age 43, apparently as a suicide.

Steve Mesler, a teammate, reported on his Instagram account that “My personal legend — the athlete that set the standard for focus, dedication, meticulousness and drive — tragically took his own life at the age of 43.”

Jovanovic was a brakeman for Todd Hays in the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin (ITA) in the two-man and four-man sleds, finishing seventh in both. He had apparently made the 2002 team, but was suspended for doping and did not compete in Salt Lake City. He also pushed for Latvia after finishing his World Cup career with the U.S. in 2008.

A U.S. Bobsled & Skeleton tribute to Jovanovic is posted here.

● Football ● The proposal to allow – on a temporary basis – an increase from three to five substitutes in competitive matches was approved, with immediate effect, through the end of 2020.

The International Football Associated Board (IFAB), the game’s rulemaker, approved the request of FIFA for the change on a temporary basis, for matches through 31 December 2020.

According to the IFAB, “The decision on whether to apply this temporary amendment will remain at the discretion of each individual competition organiser, while The IFAB and FIFA will determine at a later stage whether this temporary amendment would need to be extended further.”

As expected, the U.S. Women’s National Team class suing U.S. Soccer filed motions last Friday to appeal the summary judgement against it in its “equal pay” dispute and to postpone the June trial on the remaining minor issues in light of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the judgement against their suit was made in a Los Angeles court, the appeal is to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The current collective bargaining agreement with the Women’s National Team expires at the end of 2021. Megan Rapinoe, one of the lead plaintiffs in the case, told “CBS This Morning” last week that “[W]e’re not going to settle. We know what we’re worth. We feel very strong in our case, even with this ruling. Maybe even — even stronger now.”

● Gymnastics ● The Federation Internationale de Gymastique (FIG) released, for the second year in a row, a set of financial statements, showing CHF 16.7 million in 2019 revenue and an operating surplus of about CHF 1.1 million.

That’s almost identical to 2018, with a slightly lower CHF 723,000 surplus. However, the FIG’s investments provided a pleasant CHF 2.1 million surplus for an annual surplus of CHF 3.1 million.

The federation shows total assets of CHF 47.65 million, including about CHF 24 million in cash and securities, a healthy situation going into an Olympic postponement. FIG holds annual World Championships in each non-Olympic year, but even with the Tokyo Games in mid-2021, it could still holds its 2021 Artistic Worlds as scheduled for Copenhagen (DEN) for 18-24 October.

● At the BuZZer ● If you had any doubt about the competitive desire of Olympic great Carl Lewis, he dispels them consistently on his Twitter account. In April, he tweeted:

“Like I always say. You need to Win the heat, to win the meet. Train to run all of the rounds.”

Last week, he remembered his first national interview, at 17, when he was at Willingboro High School in New Jersey in 1979.

He tweeted, “Dream big. Even when you’re young.” The story in Track & Field News started with “This may sound funny, but my goals is to be the best of all-time.”

Wrote interviewer Roy Conrad, “Those who saw Lewis jump a new prep record of 26-6 at the International Prep meet, or 26-6 1/2w to take 2nd at the AAU and qualify for the Pan-Ams aren’t laughing.”

A year after, Lewis made the U.S. Olympic Team in the long jump and by 1981 was NCAA champion in the 100 m and the U.S. and IAAF World Cup champ in the long jump. And then he got better.

LANE ONE: NCAA stonewalls calls for universities to sponsor less (Olympic) sports … for now; but what happens if there’s no football?

By
Rich Perelman
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Sha'Carri Richardson's World Junior Record 10.75 in the 2019 NCAA omen's 100 m final

While the coronavirus has brought collegiate sports to a standstill, the off-the-field activity has hardly slowed, with the NCAA Division I Council Coordinating Committee making a critical announcement last Wednesday.

In the face of direct requests from five conferences for relief from, among other things, Division I scholarship requirements, football attendance minimums and the number of sports participated in to be in Division I, the Division I CCC voted only to allow waivers for one year of:

● “Schools to provide less than the currently legislated minimum financial aid requirements to maintain membership in Division I. …

● “Reclassifying schools to count as Division I opponents in the first year of the reclassification process, whether or not the school meets Division I scheduling requirements.

● “Basketball and football student-athletes to participate in currently defined summer athletic activities without being enrolled in summer school.”

There were some other technical adjustments to recruiting rules, but no reply to the request from the Group-of-5 conferences and 22 small leagues to allow schools to drop below the requirements to field teams in 16 sports for a period of up to four years (asked by the Group-of-5 conferences) or two years (the other 22 conferences).

(The Group-of-5 conferences include the American Athletic Conference, Mountain West Conference, Mid-American Conference, Sun Belt Conference and Conference USA. The other 22 conferences include all other Division I conferences outside of the big five: Atlantic Coast, Big 10, Big XII, Pac-12 and Southeastern.)

This is crucial to maintaining participation in the many other NCAA sports – almost all of which are part of the Olympic sports program – and which especially includes every women’s sports except perhaps basketball, which does generate some revenue (more on this below).

There was considerable pushback to the request of the conferences, including a passionate letter from 17 coaches associations, representing baseball, equestrian, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling, that included:

“Reducing the minimum sports sponsorship requirement that would open the door to eliminating sports should not be an option.”

(The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association was not a signatory to this letter.)

So as of now, the requirement to field 16 sports to be part of Division I still stands.

The caveat in all of this, of course, is whether there will be a college football season. Way back in 1929, the Carnegie Foundation reported that “Football carries the bulk of the monetary burden” and later the same year, Big 10 commissioner John L. Griffith noted:

“Those who charge college athletics are commercialized think only in terms of football. Football is the only one of 14 intercollegiate sports that has any considerable earning power, and actually supports the remaining 13.”

In 2017, BusinessInsider.com reviewed the finances of the 127 Division I schools that play football and found that:

“While the average school generates $31.9 million in football revenue each year, the next 35 sports on average generate $31.7 million combined each year.”

Compared to the football average of $31.9 million in revenue per year, men’s basketball was second with an annual average of $8.2 million, with men’s ice hockey third ($2.9 million) and women’s basketball fourth ($1.8 million). No other women’s sport generated an annual average total of even $1 million in revenue, although women’s ice hockey was close at $960,466.

If there is no college football, or the season is severely truncated, the NCAA Division I Council will have no choice but to reduce the number of sports required … and that’s bad news for many smaller programs on a lot of campuses. (More on this from last month here.)

At the same time, the NCAA is working through new rules for athlete payments for “name, image and likeness,” with changes slated to be adopted by 31 January 2021. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, this is continuing, with the NCAA Board of Governors supporting the development of rules for all three divisions based on the 17 April report of its Federal and State Legislation Working Group.

The report focuses mostly on long-overdue changes to rules which deprive students who are on athletic teams from the same rights as other students on campus, for example, a well-known actor or musician, for autographs, endorsements and personal appearances.. But it also notes that today’s technologies create new opportunities which should be allowed:

● Digital content creation and distribution, such as a video series on cooking, nutrition or exercise;

● Social-media influencer marketing.

The suggestion of the working group is to keep the universities and conferences far away from involvement with any of this and prohibitions on any school hiring one of its student-athletes for direct endorsement activities.

Moreover, the working group also sounded a warning concerning support from companies directly involved with universities already:

“When considering those regulations, the working group recommends that the Board of Governors encourage the divisions to consider the following issues in particular: …

“(2) Whether certain categories of third-party businesses (e.g., athletics shoe and apparel companies) should be precluded from, or have limited participation in, the newly permitted activities, due to their history of encouraging or facilitating recruiting and other rules infractions.”

Exhibit one is the ongoing recruiting payment scandal being pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, ESPN reported today (Sunday):

“Attorneys representing Zion Williamson’s former marketing representative and her company have asked the New Orleans Pelicans star to admit that his mother and stepfather demanded and received gifts, money and other benefits from persons acting on behalf of Adidas and Nike and also from people associated with Duke to influence him to sign with the Blue Devils and to wear Nike or Adidas products.”

Looking to the future, the question will be whether universities will be able to obtain equipment and apparel support from companies such as adidas, Nike, Under Armour and others when their “stars” have endorsement deals with others? If this is allowed, look for such companies to simply skip sponsoring schools and just try and sign their top athletes.

Beyond the warning on “shoe and apparel companies,” the working group does not address questions of conflicts between a university team sponsor and an endorsement – perhaps from high school days – by a scholarship athlete. This will need to be addressed in the forthcoming rules for Division I at least.

Like so much else today, these are unpredictable times for collegiate sports and while the future of football, men’s and women’s basketball and some number of other women’s sports to make up the scholarship difference are foreseeably safe, everything else could be on the cutting block.

As it always has in college sports, it’s all about football.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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LANE ONE: Was Juan Antonio Samaranch, the man who made the IOC modern, its greatest president?

By
Rich Perelman
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Spain's Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC President from 1980-2001

In the continuing tumult over the future of the Tokyo Games and the worldwide struggle with the coronavirus, the 10-year anniversary of the passing of one of the most important man in the history of world sport was only slightly noticed.

Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch, who led the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001, changed it and the world sport movement forever. He passed away on 21 April 2010 at age 89, in his native Barcelona.

Much of Samaranch’s life was involved with Olympic sport and he was Spain’s chef de mission for the 1956 Winter Games, 1960 Olympic Games and 1964 Olympic Games. He was elected to the IOC in 1966 and became a member of the Executive Board in 1970.

In the meantime, he was involved in local and regional governmental posts in Francoist Spain. He was the head of the governing council in Catalonia in 1977 when Spain re-opened diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and Samaranch was appointed as Spain’s ambassador to Moscow (and to Mongolia).

From 1977 to 1980, Samaranch was posted to Moscow and continued his involvement in sport, not only as an IOC member, but with a front-row seat to the workings of the Warsaw Pact countries in the sports arena. He watched the impact of the U.S.-led boycott on the 1980 Games in Moscow and was elected by the IOC as its seventh president on 16 July 1980 – three days before the opening ceremony – and took office on 3 August, at the close of the Moscow Games. The backing of the IOC members from the Warsaw Pact countries was an important element in his election.

He took over in the middle of a mess.

Not only had their been boycotts in Montreal in 1976 and Moscow in 1980, but the IOC itself was on thin financial ground, with the next Games coming in Los Angeles in 1984 … with – for the first time – no governmental guarantees to cover any potential deficits.

Where his predecessor, Ireland’s Lord Killanin, had been a largely absentee president, Samaranch moved to Lausanne and placed him personally at the center of the Olympic Movement at the IOC’s modest offices at the Chateau de Vidy. The staff numbered about 30 and was led by the former French Olympic swimmer Monique Berlioux, herself a sizable authority figure in the Olympic Movement.

But it became quickly clear that Samaranch was in charge, and over the succeeded years led a stunning change in the IOC’s fortunes, making the organization so popular, rich and successful than it descended into corruption. Some of the major milestones:

● 1980: Samaranch took over an IOC of 83 members, all men. He brought the first women into the IOC in 1983 and at the time he left in 2001, the IOC had 127 members, including 11 women, including two on the Executive Board.

● 1981: He created the first IOC Athletes’ Commission, led by Finnish sailor Peter Tallberg and including German fencer Thomas Bach and British middle-distance star Sebastian Coe.

● 1984: In response to the Soviet boycott of the Los Angeles Games, Samaranch worked closely with the L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee to recruit nations to attend the Games. A record total of 140 paraded into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the opening ceremony.

● 1984: Shortly after the Los Angeles Games, the Court of Arbitration for Sport was created, providing a venue for the resolution of trans-national disputes in the sports world. Until this body was activated, obtaining jurisdiction over any of the International Federations and even the IOC had been difficult.

● 1985: Following the dazzling financial model pioneered by the Los Angeles Games, Samaranch created The Olympic Programme, the first worldwide Olympic sponsorship program that offers marketers not only local rights to the Games, but rights across (almost) all of the National Olympic Committees worldwide.

● 1986: The IOC moved into a new, modern headquarters, adjacent to the Chateau de Vidy. The Chateau had originally been leased in 1968 to house a staff of 12. The new headquarters held more than 100 staff and has expanded continuously to today.

In the same year, the IOC voted to stagger the staging of the Winter and Olympic Games, so that a Games was held every two years.

● 1992: The IOC took over the negotiation and sale of all television rights to the Games, starting with the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville (FRA) and Barcelona (ESP). More than any other area, this secured the IOC’s financial future.

● 1993: Samaranch had championed the creation of a permanent Olympic Museum, which finally opened in 1993, next to the IOC’s new office building

● 1996: With the IOC’s blessing, International Sports Broadcasting was formed in Spain, and contracted as the host broadcaster for the Olympic Games, taking the production effort away from Olympic organizing committees and national broadcasters. The IOC formed its own operation, Olympic Broadcast Services, in 2001.

● 1999: The World Anti-Doping Agency was founded in Montreal (CAN) to answer the needs for a coordinated, worldwide effort against doping.

With significant money coming into the IOC, Samaranch also expanded the Olympic Solidarity program in 1981 to give assistance to National Olympic Committees, and distribute a big share of the IOC’s television revenues to the International Federations.

In 1992, the Barcelona Games was hailed as one of the best ever and, held in Samaranch’s hometown, has become a paradigm for the use of the Games as part of a civic renovation effort.

Against all of this expansion, however, was a loss of integrity of some IOC members. In 1998, Swiss member (and Federation Internationale de Ski chief) Marc Hodler complained that IOC members had received bribes in regard to the vote for the 2002 Winter Games, won by Salt Lake City. That resulted in a major scandal, with the expulsion of 10 IOC members (and sanctions against 10 more), a prohibition – still maintained – against IOC members visiting candidate cities and Samaranch’s appearance before a U.S. House Commerce subcommittee in December of 1999.

In some ways, the IOC has still not recovered. Samaranch has further been pilloried by those who rail against his participation in Spain’s Fascist regime (it was a one-party state until 1975 and was in transition to a constitutional monarchy during Samaranch’s tenure in Moscow). But the IOC of the 21st Century is very much Samaranch’s handiwork.

So where does he rank among the list of IOC Presidents? For me, he’s no. 2 of eight:

(1) Pierre de Coubertin (FRA: president from 1896-1925)

He formed the IOC and created the revival of the Games in the 1890s and his continuous lobbying and promotion of the event helped make it a major international spectacle by 1906. His ceaseless leadership led to a continuous improvement in the quality of the Games, the revival of the Olympic Movement in the aftermath of World War I, the introduction of the Olympic Winter Games in 1924 and even the award of what turned out to be a revolutionary Games in Los Angeles for 1932. De Coubertin is the reason the Olympic Games exist today.

(2) Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP: 1980-2001), as noted above.

(3) Sigfrid Edstrom (SWE: 1942-52)

Belgian Henri de Baillet-Latour died in 1942 as the world was engulfed in the second World War and the Olympic Movement teetered on extinction. But Edstrom, who had been an IOC member since 1921, had participated in the organization of the 1912 Stockholm Games and was one of the founders of the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), had the advantage of living in neutral Sweden and kept up a correspondence with the IOC membership. This led to a 1945 Executive Board meeting and the first Session in six years in 1946. He oversaw the revival of the Games in London in 1948 and an excellent Games in Finland in 1952, at age 82. An important and under-appreciated link in keeping the Olympic Games alive.

(4) Jacques Rogge (BEL: 2001-2013)

The Belgian physician who succeeded Samaranch as president, he had significant issues in the aftermath of the Olympic bid scandal in Salt Lake City. Rogge was a steady hand and introduced a more democratic, more relaxed style to the IOC in which differing opinions could be heard. With IOC revenues increasing significantly during his two terms, he insisted on building a large reserve so that even a cancellation of an Olympic Games (!) would not shut the IOC down. Under his watch, he nurtured the troubled Athens Games over the finish line in 2004, the IOC controversially selected Beijing to host the 2008 Olympic Games and sent the Games to South America for the first time with the selection of Rio de Janeiro in 2009. Rogge also championed the creation of the Youth Olympic Games, first held in 2010; the event has been criticized as unnecessary and wasteful, but has morphed under Thomas Bach into a living laboratory for future Olympic programming concepts.

(5) Henri de Baillet-Latour (BEL: 1925-42)

How do you follow Pierre de Coubertin? An IOC member since 1903, Baillet-Latour had been a key in the success of the 1920 Antwerp Games and ensured that there would be no letdown in the work of the IOC after the retirement of its founder. He worked energetically with the Los Angeles organizers in 1932 to help ensure the success of that Games during the Great Depression and then did what he could to hold the Movement together through the infamous 1936 Games in Berlin (which had been awarded to Germany in 1931, before the ascension to power of Adolf Hitler). It has been repeatedly reported that Baillet-Latour told Hitler not to congratulate event winners in the Olympiastadion, unless he would congratulate all of them. But he was more concerned that the Games take place than to press the Nazis to change their racial attitudes, a stance which later IOC chiefs have been repeated since.

(6) Demetrios Vikelas (GRE: 1894-96)

Vikelas was the first elected head of the IOC, as the initial rules required its president must be from the country where the next Games will be held. He convinced the in-formation IOC that the first modern Games must be held in Athens in 1896, instead of in Paris in 1900. Thus, he was the first IOC chief and enthusiastically promoted the concept in his native country, receiving enough governmental support to allow the event to happen and start the modern Games on its way.

(7) Avery Brundage (USA: 1952-72)

Perhaps the most controversial of the IOC Presidents, Brundage came into the IOC as a “younger man” at age 64 in 1952. He became an authoritarian figure within international sport, especially insistent on maintaining the amateur standing of athletes and only reluctantly accepting the Games as a worldwide television spectacle. In the post-World War II environment, he was immediately challenged by determining what to do about the re-entry of Germany into the Games, allowing West Germany into the 1952 Games and then forcing a combined – “unified” – team of West and East Germans in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Games. The two nations competed separately beginning in 1968. Similar problems arose with China refusing to compete as long as Taiwan was allowed, and South Africa was not allowed to compete due to its racist policies from 1964 on. Brundage was adamantly against any Olympic athlete making money in sports, even as “state amateurs” in the Warsaw Pact countries emerged. And faced with the Palestinian terrorism at Munich in 1972, he insisted at the memorial service that “the Games must go on.” Out of touch with many elements of the world-sport movement, especially from American athletes, his retirement after the Munich Games was widely cheered.

(8) Lord Killanin (IRL: 1972-80)

Taking over for Brundage was going to be difficult, but Killanin had no luck at all. He was quickly faced with the withdrawal of Denver as the host city for the 1976 Winter Games and Innsbruck was named instead. African nations boycotted the Montreal Games in 1976 and the organizing committee ran up a C$1 billion deficit that was not paid off for another 30 years. In the aftermath, only one city – Los Angeles – bid for the 1984 Games and even then without any governmental financial guarantees. And then there was the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Games, after which Killanin relinquished the IOC presidency with many speculating that a privately-financed Los Angeles Games would never even happen.

What about Bach, the current IOC chief? He has not completed even one term as President as yet, so he is not ranked. Let’s leave that for 2021, after the end of his first term.

And your rankings? Send in your top three (and any comments) by Sunday (10th) and we’ll compile the results … if anyone is interested.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HEARD AT HALFTIME: Comments on Guy Drut and reinventing the Games; pole vaulting for quantity vs. height; analyzing the U.S. women’s team loss in court

By
Rich Perelman
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Sunday's wild backyard pole vault challenge with Renaud Lavillenie (FRA), Sam Kendricks (USA) and Mondo Duplantis (SWE) (Photo: World Athletics)

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Vox Populi ● We received a lot of comments following our 29 April Lane One column on Guy Drut’s declaration that the Olympic Games must be reinvented in a post-pandemic world. A sampling:

I am in full support of the comments by Guy Drut and The Sports Examiner. The Olympic Games have become too bloated and require too much of a financial investment by the host city. It’s time to take a fresh look at the sports that have been added over the past few decades and start trimming (what is “sport climbing” anyway). The idea of staging certain sports in the same location permanently is genius, in my opinion. It’s all a TV spectacle and will not affect anything if certain competitions are in a different location. And, yes, out with all the sports that rely on subjective judging to determine winners and losers. Gymnastics can stay, however.
~ Steve Ritchie

That article will make you a popular guy in a lot of places, but it is well thought. You should list, after (1) Drut’s suggested permanent locations (like Dayton in the NCAA basketball tournament) plus those of your own using his rationale plus (2) your deletions based on your criteria (but with your 1896 exceptions included), what the program would then look like and what facilities a host city would actually have to provide. And what the reduction in athletes would be. This was really interesting.
~ Scott LeTellier

Given the issues inherent in hosting the Olympic Games, it seems to me that the issue of profitablility has superceded the issue of universality.

Given the number of countries that have had years of debt to finance the games (Greece, Montreal, probably Rio), I’ve long held the opinion that there should be a number of sites around the globe that would rotate every Olympiad.

The sites would be situated on each of the continents, and would be maintained through financing from the neighboring countries.

The example of L.A. 84 is prime, in that it use(d)(s) existing facilities, acquired corporate sponsorship, and continues to this day to contribute to the community, both athletically and culturally.

Other possible examples might be maintaining ongoing facilities in Western Europe (London), East Asia (Beijing or Tokyo), Central/South America (Rio, Mexico City), Oceania (Sydney or Melbourne).

The major areas of Africa and South Asia may bid for representation, with, of course, the stipulation that the neighboring countries contribute.

This is a way of maintaining the great number of sports that have accumulated over the years.

On a personal level, I’ve believed that many sports have no place in the Olympics at all, given the Citius, Altius, Fortius foundation.

Track & Field, Swimming, Gymnastics and the combative sports all have roots as classic. Does baseball, golf, tennis, etc., all of which are great sports in and of themselves, don’t fall into the CAF category, requiring the intense focused training of the individual sports mentioned.

I’m also of the opinion that professionalism, which killed the ancient Games, will also do the same for the modern Games. If we are to maintain team sports, shouldn’t there be a limit (maybe two games) to the number allowed? The 1980 Hockey “Miracle” will never occur again, simply because of professionalism into the games.

I realize that this is an argument that would spiral out of control under any circumstances, however, I am hoping that the points mentioned would be considered for discussion as focal points for the continuance and refreshment of the Games.
~ Ron Brumel

On our 24 April story in which World Athletics President Sebastian Coe asked for more top-level U.S. track & field meets:

Track is dead in USA. Post-high school. Dead.
No fans.
No money.
Meters no one cares or understands.
Cannot compete with entertainment-rich NBA, NFL, NCAA sports.
Track is just a hobby.
Dead.
~ Brian Theriot

Always happy to have your opinions; you can give us your view by clicking here.

● Athletics ● There was competition – of a sort – on Sunday as three of the world’s top vaulters combined for a unique event in their own backyards!

London 2012 Olympic champ Renaud Lavillenie (FRA), world-record holder Mondo Duplantis (SWE) and World Champion Sam Kendricks (USA) each vaulted in their own backyards. The goal was to clear 5.00 m (16-5) as many times as possible in 30 minutes.

Duplantis (vaulting in Lafayette, Louisiana) and Lavillenie (Clermont-Ferrand, France) both cleared 32 times and Kendricks (Oxford, Mississippi) managed 26, but was the only one to make every attempt!. The event was streamed live to several thousand fans.

“I’m done, I don’t want to take any risks,” said Lavillenie. “I’ll share the gold with Mondo.

“I was really missing the feeling I get competing. It’s crazy but even doing this in my garden, I get the same feeling I’d get at a major championships. It was very exciting and I’m very happy to be a part of it. I’m not going to do it every week, but I’m happy to do it once a year.”

Said Duplantis, “It was really fun being out there competing against those guys. I had really missed competing. I didn’t think it was going to end in a tie, but that’s sports!”

It’s hardly a substitute for a track meet, but it’s something, right? The World Athletics story noted that other such “challenges” are possible, but how many jumpers or throwers have facilities in their own backyards?

The Athletics Integrity Unit has been busy, posting four more suspensions, two from Kenya and two Americans.

The Kenyans were Alex Oloitiptip (10,000 m: 27:28.74 in 2019) for a Whereabouts failure and Mikei Kiprotich Mutai (Marathon: 2:09:18 in 2012) for doping. That brings the total number of Kenyans on the ineligible list to 60.

The Americans were both hit for Whereabouts failures: star sprinters Deajah Stevens (11.00/22.09 ‘17) and Gabby Thomas (11.10 ‘19 & 22.19 ‘18).

Thomas’s agent told LetsRun.com that she missed one test in 2019 and the situation on the second is confused. But Thomas sent a note to Reuters declaring she did not miss the third:

“I am confident that at least one of these missed tests is not valid and that I will be completely cleared. Phone tracking data and multiple witnesses will conclusively show that I was at the exact location I established in my whereabouts and that the doping control officer simply failed to locate me and failed to follow proper protocol.

“Athletes are held to an incredibly high standard and the doping control organizations are supposed to be held to similarly high standards.”

One of the sport’s biggest-ever stars, Carl Lewis, tweeted Monday that his favorite sport is in trouble:

“It’s time we have an honest conversation abut the future of our sport. The present financial model is unsustainable. The global pandemic has changed the future of sport forever. We need to discuss the federations and the number of athletes competing.”

● Badminton ● USA Badminton announced the end of a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee move for decertification in view of its actions on some abuse cases.

The federation statement included “Given the challenges USAB was facing as an organization last year, we understand why the USOPC believed it was necessary to bring this case forward. While it took longer than all of us hoped, we worked hard to address the issues that prompted the USOPC’s intervention and firmly believe we are better equipped to meet similar challenges in the future.”

● Football ● It’s easy to understand the shocked response of U.S. Women’s National Team players like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan to the summary judgement against most of their sex-discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation last Friday.

After all, all they heard from their own attorneys and the news media was how powerful their case was and how far-reaching their inevitable victory would be for their cause of equal rights.

That was before they read Friday’s 32-page opinion by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, which granted summary judgement against their primary assertions of pay discrimination and field surfaces.

In order to understand the true meaning of the decision, one has to appreciate how strong the holding was against them. A holding for summary judgement says essentially to the losing party: you have no case.

That’s what Klausner’s decision says in a slow, methodical march through the facts and then through the applicable law. The opinion is thorough, clean and precise, which bodes well for being upheld in the inevitable appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Among the key items in the decision:

(1) In the negotiations for what became the 2016-21 collective bargaining agreement, Klausner notes that a U.S. Soccer proposal in May 2016 “included the same per diem, camp fee (…), ticket-revenue-share agreement, and friendly-appearance fee as the [Men’s National Team Collective Bargaining Agreement].”

But the Women’s National Team negotiators than asked for many additional items and within a month, a U.S. Soccer reply noted nine added requests for (1) minimum annual compensation and minimum number of games per year, (2) automatic increased in compensation of the Men’s National Team compensation is raised, (3) a guaranteed number of players contracted each calendar year, (4) injury guarantees, (5) pregnancy guarantees, (6) severance, (7) post-termination health insurance, (8) retirement benefits and (9) significant financial support of a professional league. The Men’s National Team’s collective bargaining agreement has none of these provisions.

(2) Offers went back and forth into 2017, including three Women’s National Team proposals within 33 days and a collective bargaining agreement was finally concluded for 2017-21 on 4 April 2017. It contained a mix of provisions, including most of the added requests, at varying levels of compensation. Klausner’s opinion noted that the Women’s National Team Player’s Association “has never asked USSF to reopen the 2017 CBA to renegotiate its terms.”

He further states that for the women to prevail on an Equal Pay Act claim, they must show that they were paid less than the Men’s National Team for the same work. The evidence cited showed that payments to the Women’s National Team from 2015-19 was $24.5 million (in 111 games) vs. $18 million for the men (in 87 games), and on a per-game basis, was $220,747 for the women vs. $212,639 for the men. This did not include the payments to the women’s team for playing in the National Women’s Soccer League. Game over.

In fact, Klausner further noted that “Defendant has submitted evidence that had MNT players been paid under the WNT’s 2017 CBA, they too would have made more than they did under their own CBA.” The opinion goes on to find – and this is the key clause – that:

“This approach – merely comparing what each team would have made under the other team’s CBA – is untenable in this case because it ignores the reality that the MNT and WNT bargained for different agreements which reflect different preferences, and that the WNT explicitly rejected the terms they now seek to retroactively impose on themselves.”

(3) The second major cause of action was under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for being paid less and for unequal working conditions. The less-pay issue had already been disposed of. On working conditions, the claims were on playing more games on artificial turf than the men played, and on commercial flights vs. charters.

On the field surfaces, the Court held that U.S. Soccer had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for playing some women’s games on artificial turf in 2015 and 2017. In these cases, U.S. Soccer contended that it elected to play the games on turf because of financial reasons and the opinion noted that the claimants “failed to raise a triable issue as to pretext.”

On the charter vs. commercial flights, Klausner found that there is a triable issue and this and a smaller claim for medical and other support services were approved for trial, scheduled for June.

Comment: The obvious next step is for the two sides to negotiate an extension of the current labor agreement beyond 2021. Interim U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone, herself a former Women’s National Team star, has signaled as much. Whether the WNT side is willing is not yet apparent.

● Swimming ● The International Federation for aquatics, FINA, finally announced the new dates for what would have been the 2021 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

After some discussion about holding the event right after the 2021 Olympic Games, sanity prevailed and the new dates are 13-29 May, 2022.

This is not the earliest that the FINA Worlds have been held; the three championships held in Australia were much earlier, from 3-13 January 1991, 8-17 January in 1998 and 18 March-1 April in 2007. However, for the northern hemisphere, this is the earliest event, well ahead of the 12-28 July dates for 2003 and 2019.

The early dates might end up being another point of friction with the International Swimming League, whose plans for 2020-21 have already been impacted by the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. But that’s in the future.

● World Beach Games ● The modest success of the inaugural World Beach Games on Qatar in 2019 led the Association of National Olympic Committees to open bids for the second edition in 2021 and a third in 2023.

With the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 and the Beijing Winter Games coming in 2022, ANOC announced Friday that it was postponing the second edition of the World Beach Games to 2023.

● At the BuZZer ● Carl Lewis, named the 1988 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 m after the infamous disqualification of Canada’s Ben Johnson for doping wants to you to be clear about his own record. On Twitter on Monday:

Heino van Zyl (RSA):
“Are you 100% sure you’ve never used any banned substance not even in off season. If you lie the truth will be with your coach and that answer you can take to the grave.”

Lewis replied:
“Look, it is clear and proven that I never took performance enhancing drugs. I see you have 114 followers. I’m sure you hope my answer will get you to 200. Goodnight.”

LANE ONE: Will a year’s delay really be so bad? Seven ways the Tokyo organizers can keep the cost down

By
Rich Perelman
-

Almost as soon as the announcement that the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo would be delayed by a year, estimates began appearing of the cost of postponement.

The Nikkei Asian Review came out the most popular forecast, stating in a 25 March story that “The Tokyo organizing committee has estimated that the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will cost an additional 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion).”

That was a day after the postponement was announced, and two weeks after the World Health Organization labeled the coronavirus a worldwide pandemic. That’s not anywhere close to enough time for an actual examination of the costs, but in today’s world of instant, non-expert non-analysis, who cares, right?

The budget for the Tokyo Games – prior to the postponement – including $5.6 billion (converted from Japanese yen) – from the organizing committee, another $5.6 billion from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and $1.4 billion from the Japanese federal government. Of that, some $3.2 billion has already been spent by both governments in creating the new permanent venues that will be used by the Games, including the new national stadium.

There is also a $300 million contingency fund in the organizing committee’s budget, not included in the $12.6 billion total.

Some experienced observers, who have actual experience with Olympic organizing efforts, have cast doubt on the speculation – up to $6 billion – on additional costs. British marketing executive Michael Payne, the former International Olympic Committee marketing director from 1989-2004, scoffed at the projections last month:

● On 17 April, he tweeted:

“No question that there will be significant extra costs for the Tokyo olympic postponement – but just don’t understand these talk of $ billions. Basic look at Olympic economic history / OCOG dynamics. Just does not add up.”

● On 21 April, he followed up:

“Just don’t understand where these $2b to $6b can come from. @Tokyo2020 All venues are now built. All OCOG heavy lifting from technology to operation planning done. This does not have to be repeated. Full Games 7 year OCOGs can be delivered for $3b. Something missing here!”

He’s quite right. However, IOC chief Thomas Bach (GER) has said the cost for the IOC will be in the hundreds of millions, and organizing committee chief executive Toshiro Muto has promised “transparency” on the additional costs involved.

So what happens now?

Having worked on more than a dozen multi-day, multi-site events, personal experience says there is no magic, but a lot of hard work and a lot of pressure on the organizing committee staff to find ways to reduce costs and still present a memorable event next summer. Just to be helpful, here are seven ideas that could be considered … and probably are being thought about right now. Not in any specific order:

● Scope reduction in the cultural program

A program of cultural events is required in the Olympic Charter and in the Host City Contract. But the scope is up to the organizers and could easily be cut back, depending on the status of the contracts for performers and venues in 2020 and whether they can re-book in 2021. Many acts and sites may already have other plans.

● Scope reduction in fan festivals

This is one of Bach’s favorite elements, where the Games reach the people “where they are.” But this is a “nice to have” aspect of the Games and not required in order to stage the sporting events.

And, let’s not forget, that Tokyo is one of the world’s great capitals and already a magnet for tourism regardless of the Games. Individual communities in Tokyo or in other areas of Japan, can be offered opportunities for inexpensive banners, signage and other elements that they can mount on their own to show support for the Games.

● Reduce the number of volunteers

A very careful examination of staffing needs is undoubtedly already in the works. While volunteers are not paid, staffing is a significant cost element. Uniforms, meals, transportation and technical support all cost something.

Some 80,000 volunteers – out of more than 200,000 applicants – were scheduled to work the Games, but there will undoubtedly be attrition with the Games moved to 2021. A rigorous review of staffing needs, especially off the field of play, could reduce the total by several thousand and by tens of millions of yens.

● Ask athletes done competing to go home before the Closing Ceremony

Many athletes do not stay to the Closing Ceremony at any Games, opting to move on to other summer competitions, to become tourists or go home. This especially true of those with sports concluded in the first week. But some do stay and continue to live in the Olympic Village, enjoying the high service levels, free meals and free admission to most other Olympic events.

The Tokyo organizers would need to get the IOC’s approval, but it would hardly be inappropriate – under the circumstances – to ask athletes to leave the Village not more than three days after their competitions are over. This will make the Village less costly to operate, but there will still be plenty of athletes left for the Closing Ceremony.

Let’s not forget that the IOC has already adopted a “two-wave” concept for Village occupancy for the 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar (SEN) for 2022, in order to cut down the expense for that organizing committee. So it’s not as if this concept is totally new.

● Ensure more efficient use of press seating areas

Having been deeply involved in Olympic press operations area for more than 35 years, this an old pain that never goes away: empty press seats. With about 6,000 written press and photographers expected in Tokyo, we’re talking about a lot of seats.

In most sports, media seating inside arenas and stadiums is split between seats with built-up tables (and electrical power and WiFi support) and ordinary seats which are in the reserved press area. The idea is that the media assigned to specialize in that sport use the tables for all sessions and those who come occasionally use the non-tabled seats and do their filing from the media workroom.

This is fine for most Games, with modest attendance in many of the preliminary sessions. But for Tokyo, which is looking at a total sell-out and high demand for any tickets, it makes sense to evaluate – carefully, but it can be done (and I have done so many times) – the likely press attendance at each session of each sport and release seats on a session-by-session basis for public sale. The result will be several million dollars of added revenue.

● Reduce Olympic Family seating … and sell them

The same argument for press seating can be made for those seats reserved for “Olympic Family members,” which include members of the International Olympic Committee and officials from the International Federations, National Olympic Committees and many others.

These are the folks who have reserved seating areas in some of the best seats in the house and … unfortunately, are not always used.

The IOC has been under pressure for decades – especially from broadcasters – to do something about empty seating sections which are obvious on television. In a situation where the organizers can sell any tickets they can find, it makes sense to revisit the entire concept of in-arena seating for officials and guests.

How many seats are really needed? For which sessions? Can some of the guests just watch from a hospitality room via television? Instead of allowing some groups to come and go to these seating areas as they please, can all such seats require hard tickets to be picked up in advance? All of these questions will be asked, especially for seats which are usually the best in the house.

● Ask Tokyo’s super-rich to help support the Games

It’s not well known, but there was a 1983 plan in Los Angeles to ask L.A.’s wealthiest individuals to help underwrite a potential deficit at the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad through the purchase of “Patron” programs.

It included the best seats in the house for the ceremonies and for whatever other events were desired. The idea was not to offer strong value, but to give those who could afford it, a way to keep the L.A. Games in the black. It also funded tickets, transportation and meals for several thousand local youth to attend the Games.

It wasn’t needed, as it turned out, but the idea was a good one, and was implemented with 684 packages bought at $25,000 each ($17.1 million then, maybe $43.4 million today!) Tokyo already has “hospitality packages” available of up to about $60,000 for first-rate tickets and hospitality services, but to help the organizers lessen the cost of the postponed Games, let’s talk about packages of $1 million or more, the bulk of which is to help underwrite the cost of the one-year delay.

There won’t be a lot of takers, but 100 or so could really help!

There are other options, of course, such as reducing the Look of the Games where production of the materials has not been completed, cutting down on the number of officials allowed and so on. The IOC has said it will not compromise the “athlete experience,” but there is a lot of other ground to review.

How much will the delay cost? Reality check: no one knows yet. But there will be substantial costs, unless substantial measures are taken to narrow the experience of everyone except the athletes in Tokyo. And that might be good for the Games in the future as well.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE TICKER: Aimless chatter on Tokyo; Bach sees virus crisis leading to a coordinated world sport calendar; 298 more Russian dopers?

By
Rich Perelman
-

The latest news, notes and quotes from the worldwide Five-Ring Circus:

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● The endless cycle of comments, questions and “analysis,” followed by more of the same continues over the Tokyo 2020 Games, to be held in 2021. This week:

● On Tuesday, Yoshitake Tokokura, the Japan Medical Association President said of the Games during an online news conference that “My opinion is that it will be hard to host them unless an effective vaccine is developed.”

He added that “The global state of infections at that particular time will be a key issue. It will be difficult even if the situation in Japan has become better if infections continue to spread” elsewhere.

● On Wednesday, IOC Coordination Commission chair John Coates (AUS) told the Australian Associated Press, “I saw that opinion. But the advice we’re getting from [World Health Organization] says we should continue to plan for this date and that is what we’re doing, and that’s not contingent on a vaccine.”

● Also on Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Diet, “We’ve been saying the Olympic and Paralympic Games must be held in a complete form, in that athletes and spectators can all participate safely. It would be impossible to hold the Games in such a complete form unless the coronavirus pandemic is contained.”

● The situation was further clarified earlier in the week by organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori, who told Nikkan Sports on Monday that the event cannot be carried over past 2021.

“In that case, the Olympics will be scrapped.

“We have delayed the Olympics until next summer after we will have won the battle. The Olympics would be much more valuable than any Olympics in the past if we could go ahead with it after winning this battle. We have to believe this otherwise our hard work and efforts will not be rewarded.”

The chair of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, Toshiro Muto said last week “It’s highly likely that the expense will be higher than the originally planned budget” and that “we will proceed with transparency and explain to the taxpayers about the costs.”

Muto added the sanest comment uttered recently: “How this coronavirus infection situation will develop and when this will end – nobody can answer this question for sure.”

● International Olympic Committee ● IOC President Thomas Bach posted a 2,286-word open letter on the IOC’s Web site on Wednesday, covering the current crisis and looking ahead. His most important comments came at the end:

● On the costs for Tokyo 2020: “For our part, we have made it clear that the IOC will continue to be responsible for its share of the operational burden and its share of the costs for these postponed Games, under the terms of the existing agreement for 2020 that we have with our Japanese partners and friends. Although it is too early to give an exact figure, we already know that we have to shoulder several hundred million US dollars of postponement costs. This is why we also need to look into and review all the services that we provide for these postponed Games.”

● The post-COVID-19 future: “What is clear, however, is that probably none of us will be able to sustain every single initiative or event that we were planning before this crisis hit. We will all need to take a close look at the scope of some of our activities and make the necessary adjustments to the new realities. In this context, the IOC administration is reviewing the IOC’s budget and priorities.”

● Social impact: Bach claims a spot for sport as a way forward for the world, noting that “public health will play a much more important role. … the coronavirus crisis teaches us how much a sound general health situation helps to overcome communicable diseases as well. Sport and physical activity are therefore the perhaps most low-cost tool for a healthy society. To make this even more evident too, the IOC is about to conclude a new Memorandum of Understanding with the WHO.”

● Economic impact: Bach wrote, “the current health crisis will lead to a long and deep economic crisis, the effect of which on sport may differ from country to country. This will depend greatly on the importance governments will give to the enormous social capital represented by sport when it comes to the allocation of the financial assistance provided by them for the recovery of economy. Therefore, we should strongly request governments to appreciate and honour the immense contribution of sport to public health, its importance for inclusion, social life and culture, and its important role for their national economies.”

● Future of sports: These were the most important comments in the letter, as they are areas where the IOC has direct impact:

“[T]he IOC should further strengthen the sustainability and feasibility reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020 with a new phase of the “New Norm” to make even more savings possible for the Organising Committees of the Olympic Games. These new measures should lead to an even more restricted footprint for all the stakeholders at the Olympic Games.”

and

“[W]e may also have to look more closely into the proliferation of sports events, as we already discussed at previous Olympic Summits. The financial pressure on all the stakeholders, including NOCs, IFs and Organising Committees, may require more consolidation in this respect.”

Translation: Fewer events and a coordinated international calendar for all sports receiving support from the IOC. This will be a sea-change for worldwide sport and how many IFs will be ready to comply?

The latter may be the most crucial outcome of Bach’s comments and if properly implemented, could create a favorable environment for worldwide, year-round broadcast and sponsorship of Olympic-sport programs. It will be difficult to coordinate, but the effort could be well worth it.

● Athletics ● World Athletics and the International Athletics Foundation announced a $500,000 fund to support professional athletes facing economic hardships during the virus pandemic.

A 10-member committee chaired by World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe and including Americans Willie Banks (Council member) and Sunil Sabharwal (Executive Board member) will figure out how to distribute the funds for maximum impact.

The idea apparently came from Olympic champion and 1500 m world record-holder Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR), who will be a member of the distribution committee. IAF Chair Prince Albert II of Monaco noted that since its creation in 1985, more than $30 million has been distributed for charitable purposes.

The IOC also announced another doping positive from its re-test program of the London 2012 Games, upping its record for the most positives of any Games in history. Turkish steepler Gulcan Mingir, who finished 27th, was disqualified for using the steroid turabinol.

London now has 74 positives, including 65 from the re-testing phase, just ahead of Beijing 2008 (72: 7+65). The IOC’s re-testing program has now registered 148 positives since it began in 2004.

● Gymnastics ● The Southern California News Group reported that celebrated gymnastics coach Maggie Haney has been suspended for athlete abuse for eight years. According to the story:

“USA Gymnastics can confirm that the Safe Sport Hearing related to Maggie Haney has concluded,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement to SCNG. “The independent hearing panel – comprised of three members of the gymnastics community, including an attorney, a club owner, and a former national team athlete – found that Ms. Haney violated the USA Gymnastics Code of Ethical Conduct, Safe Sport Policy, and other policies. As a result, the hearing panel determined that Ms. Haney is suspended from membership, and any coaching of USA Gymnastics athletes or in member clubs, for a period of eight years, effective immediately, followed by a two year probationary period. After the suspension concludes, Ms. Haney may reapply for membership after submitting proof of completing certain specified Safe Sport courses.”

Haney’s attorney stated that an appeal – in arbitration procedure – is the likely next step. Haney coached 2016 Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez and 2018 World Team Champion Riley McCusker, among other stars. Haney, 42, has been with MG Elite Gymnastics in New Jersey since 2007.

● Doping ● The World Anti-Doping Agency announced the transmittal of evidence concerning 298 Russian athletes to 27 International Federations and one “major-event organization” for further consideration of anti-doping violations.

This is the latest outcome of the lengthy process in the Russian doping scandal. The WADA statement noted that “The evidence that identified the target group was based on information within the Moscow LIMS database obtained by WADA I&I, evidence from the 2016 WADA-commissioned McLaren Investigation, as well as the retrieved samples.”

The statement also explained that 153 of the 298 cases were not impacted by the manipulation of the Moscow lab data prior to its transfer to WADA in January 2019.

What the organization do with the evidence is subject to review by WADA. “The evidence available for each package is different, and the relevant organizations will have to decide in each case whether to bring it forward as an [doping violation] or not. WADA will review and discuss the facts with each [anti-doping organization]. WADA will also review the decisions rendered by the ADOs and appeal, if appropriate, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In addition, WADA has the option under the World Anti-Doping Code (Code), where no decision is rendered in a reasonable timeframe, to bring cases directly to CAS.”

So far, 57 doping violations have been found as a result of the WADA investigations, and WADA continues to work on the data it has on hand.

The four-year suspension of Russia from the Olympic Games and other events is currently being appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

● The Last Word ● The weekend magazine of The Australian carried a feature on 25 April showcasing the abuse showered on Australian freestyle star Mack Horton – and his family – over Horton’s protests against China’s now-suspended Olympic champion Yang Sun. From the lengthy story:

“The [parents] knew immediately where the broken glass [in their backyard pool] had come from, and why it was there. Just three months earlier their son, Olympic 400m freestyle gold medallist Mack Horton, had refused to join Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, a three-time Olympic gold medallist and 11-time world champion, on the medal podium at the World Championships in the South Korean city of Gwangju. Horton had just won silver in the 400m freestyle; Sun Yang gold. Mack Horton’s mute protest – standing up for clean sport by refusing to stand beside Sun – unleashed a wave of hostility more disturbing than anything the family had ever experienced. And since their son famously labelled Sun a drug cheat at the 2016 Rio Olympics, they’ve experienced a lot. ‘We’ve had so many death threats that we’ve stopped taking them seriously,’ says Andrew with a grim chuckle.”

The pressure on the Hortons has decreased significantly since Sun was suspended for eight years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for resisting a doping test in September 2018. But the story is disturbing.

Special thanks to reader David Simon for passing along the story.

LANE ONE: France’s Guy Drut says the Games “must reinvent themselves”; how about throwing out 17 sports disciplines! Or 20! Or more!

By
Rich Perelman
-

France’s Guy Drut is best known as the 1976 Olympic champion in the 110 m hurdles and a a controversial politician in his home country. He served as the Youth and Sports minister from 1995-97, has served in multiple appointed and elected local offices and was convicted – and later pardoned – for taking a “fictitious job” in the Ile-de-France public markets scandal in the 1990s.

Now 69 and a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1996, he has been a headline maker many times, most recently on Sunday in a column for the France Info Web site under headline – translated in English – “The Games of yesterday will not be the Games of tomorrow”

Noting that “the Games are useful – even more in times of crisis,” Drut then challenges the status quo (English version via Google Translate):

● “This is the reason why they must take place. This is the reason why we must rethink them to adapt them, to keep them suitable for the changing world. They will not be able to stand at any cost, disconnected from reality, on the ‘margins’ of the world.”

● “The beautiful project that we built and carried in the bid phase for Paris 2024 is now obsolete, outdated, out of touch with reality. … we must review the means, and refocus on the essential. The first necessity is to make a budgetary reassessment of what the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will cost.”

● “The Games of yesterday will not be the Games of tomorrow. We must accept it and together imagine a new model. Within a few weeks and as I had expressed the wish, the IOC could bring together the Organizing Committees for the next Olympic Games (Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles). The objective of this meeting will be – in line with ‘Agenda 2020′ which had already laid the foundations for change – to explore new avenues, to think useful, sober, and responsible.”

● “We could thus sanctuarize certain events on a single site, whatever the organizing country. It is very expensive to build new equipment for an event that lasts only three / four days.

“Take the case of surfing. The Olympic site could always be the same and be, for example, in Tahiti or Hawaii. Same thing for canoeing, where you have to build an artificial river with each new edition. Again, this involves reusing existing sites. You have to keep the unit of time with the Olympic Games which take place from such date to such date, but the unit of place and action can vary. Another line of thought: limiting the number of additional sports on the program.”

Drut’s rambling commentary finally gets to the bottom line at the end:

(1) Make the Games smaller by limiting the number of sports on the program.

(2) Try to reduce costs by re-considering events that last only 3-4 days at most.

(3) If it makes sense, place some events – he suggested canoeing and surfing – in a permanent location so the main host city of region does not have to build a new facility (whether permanent or temporary).

These are interesting idea and if the conference he proposes were to take place, they would find the Los Angeles organizers from 1984 thinking – from home, of course, since no one would be invited – “nice of you to figure out what we showed you 36 years ago.”

But let’s take Drut seriously and look at what his reforms could entail:

(1) Cut costs by eliminating sports that take only 3-4 days and are therefore inefficient uses of time, space and money. Looking at the Tokyo 2020 schedule by discipline, this could mean casting aside

● 2 days: Cycling BMX Freestyle
● 2 days: Cycling BMX Racing
● 2 days: Cycling Mountain Biking
● 2 days: Aquatics Open-Water Swimming
● 2 days: Trampoline Gymnastics
● 3 days: Cycling road races
● 3 days: Karate (added sport for 2020)
● 3 days: Modern Pentathlon
● 3 days: Rhythmic Gymnastics
● 3 days: Triathlon
● 4 days: Skateboarding (added sport for 2020)
● 4 days: Sport Climbing (added sport for 2020)
● 4 days: Taekwondo

Based on the Tokyo 2020 presentation of 46 total disciplines in the Games – including the one-time added sports – 13 could be eliminated (and 12 venues) in this way. This is a good start.

(2) Let’s go further and look at removing sports altogether. Which should go? How about eliminating those sports which are not timed or measured, but judged. Do we really need to have judging – so often a source of controversy and/or corruption – in the Games? Such sports were not part of the ancient Games, so why not dispense with them now:

● Artistic Gymnastics (but see the comment below)
● Artistic Swimming (introduced 1984)
● Boxing (1904)
● Cycling BMX Freestyle (2020)
● Diving (1904)
● Equestrian Dressage (1912)
● Rhythmic Gymnastics (1984)
● Skateboarding (2020 ~ added sport for 2020)
● Surfing (2020 ~ added sport for 2020)
● Trampoline Gymnastics (2000)

I would personally retain Artistic Gymnastics for the sole reason that it was in the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The rest can go and would eliminate four more complete disciplines or sports, bringing the total to 17 out of 46.

You could go further and question the participation of sports such as fencing, judo, taekwondo, karate and wrestling, which are scored sports and do depend on officials or referees. The difference between these sports and boxing or diving is that the scoring in these combat sports is qualitative – yes or no – vs. quantitative, in which entire performances are assigned an overall score.

The question for the combat sports – ancient and modern – such as archery, boxing, fencing, judo, karate, shooting, taekwondo and wrestling – is whether they belong in the Games at all, given the announced goal of sport for the furtherance of peace as a core value of the Olympic Movement. Personally, I would give a pass for fencing, shooting and wrestling, since they were on the Athens program in 1896.

How many martial arts do we need? Judo came in in 1964, taekwondo was added in 2000 and Karate is in for the first time in 2020.

And racquet sports? Tennis was in the Athens Games of 1896, but badminton came in in 1992 and table tennis debuted in 1988.

And looking to finances, should any sport be part of the Games whose international federation cannot sustain itself in business without the TV rights handout from the IOC every four years?

Drut is echoing his countryman Pierre de Coubertin, who back in 1909 told his fellow IOC members after the 1908 London Games:

“It will be necessary to avoid attempting to copy the Olympic Games of London. The next Olympiads must not have exactly the same character; they must not be so comprehensive. There was altogether too much in London.

“The Games must be kept more purely athletic; they must be more dignified; more discreet; more in accordance with classic and artistic requirements; more intimate, and above all, less expensive. …

“The Olympic Games now stand at the parting of the ways – and we need Sweden.”

The 1912 Games in Stockholm was the best yet up to that time, reducing the number of sports from 22 to 14, disciplines from 24 to 18 and the length of the Games from six months to 16 days. De Coubertin was right then and perhaps Drut is right now.

Less is more. Let the arguing begin!

Rich Perelman
Editor

You can receive our exclusive TSX Report by e-mail by clicking here. You can also refer a friend by clicking here.

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Coe on Kenya and doping: “The Russian situation is entirely different” + weightlifting starts a new era

By
Rich Perelman
-

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Athletics ● During our online time with World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe last week, he was asked if Kenya – with 57 individuals on the ineligibles list at present – should be treated more like Russia, which currently has 91.

His answer was no:

“The Russian situation is entirely different. Yes, we have our challenges in Kenya, and as you know, the Athletics Integrity Unit no longer sits there having countries on watch lists. We do it now according to risk, and the number of athletes that are at a high level. And that’s a good way of doing it.

“Russia for me is an entirely different situation. That was, and we all know now, that that was supported at the level that went way, way beyond member federations. And some of the charges that we had to deal with, and the damage that was caused through that, was really important. It was really a massive issue.

“The Athletics Integrity Unit [is] not sitting there just wanting to penalize countries. We’re actually trying to create structures, and Kenya is a good example. It wasn’t possible to have any blood analysis in Kenya; most of that had to go out of the country and certainly, actually, even out of the continent. We’ve been able to fund, in large part, a laboratory in Nairobi where we can do these tests now.

“The Kenyan federation, under its chair, Jackson Tuwei, works incredibly closely with us and the Athletics Integrity Unit. I don’t need to speak for them, they’ll speak for themselves, that there is a lot of shift in Kenya at the moment. We have some challenges around just the number of athletes that are out there and our new approach to anti-doping controls on the road is really important. I’m really grateful to the Marathon Majors and some of our Gold Label races for agreeing to contribute to that.

“I’m not glossing over some of the challenges we have in these countries, but I see that in a very, very different light, given the history of that challenge that we had to deal with in Russia.”

Coe also talk about the postponement of Olympic qualifying mark to 1 December of this year, which has been criticized in some quarters:

“We wanted to make sure that the athletes, when they did come back – there’s a very big difference here between wanting to get them back in competition and getting them into the kind of shape and specificity at the same time – to allow them to be on that level playing field and not giving some of them opportunities way beyond those that are available to others.

“The reality of it is, we don’t know. We really, genuinely, do not know. We’ve tried, as I’ve said through national championship windows, we’ve tried through, you know, some of the Bislett-type initiatives to keep this going, but look, we do not know for sure whether we are going to be able to do any of this. And the reality of it is, I just think we have to be very careful that we didn’t create a landscape where some of the athletes coming back from good, lengthy periods of training, specificity that I talked about, getting straight back into competition and gaining Olympic qualification status, while others probably wouldn’t be able to do that until significantly later in the year, if at all.

“There is another consideration, of course, and that is around our anti-doping process. You know, I am not going to do into massive detail, but it’s hardly going to be a surprise when I say to you that they have been disrupted. And we need to make sure that with Olympic qualification goes, at least a good chunk of certainty that those systems are up and running and optimal again.”

There is some positive news – sort of – in athletics, with the announcement in Oslo (NOR) that although the 2020 Bislett Games will not be held on 11 June, “The Impossible Games” will be staged instead.

This is a one-hour television exhibition drummed up by the Bislett Alliance, with events schedule in the men’s 300 m hurdles, pole vault and discus and women’s 100 m, 600 m, 3,000 m and 200 m hurdles.

Hurdles superstar Karsten Warholm (NOR) will be trying for a world-best mark in the 300 m hurdles; Mondo Duplantis (SWE) and Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen will compete in the vault in Oslo while France’s Renaud Lavillenie will jump from his backyard pit in France and Sweden’s World Champion in the discus, Daniel Stahl, will throw against two others.

There will be no fans in the stadium. Pretty wild, but why not?

World Athletics announced last Thursday that the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene (7 June) and the Meeting de Paris (13 June) have also been postponed. The first meet on the calendar now is in London on 4 July. The 2020 European Championships, scheduled for Paris (FRA) from 25-30 has been canceled completely; the 2022 edition will be held in Munich (GER).

Track is coming back in the Czech Republic in a limited way in June. The Czech federation announced last Thursday that the Odlozil Memorial in Prague will be held as scheduled on 8 June with 50-60 athletes in total and no more than 40 people on the field of play at any one time.

The program, as of now, will be limited to the men’s 100 m, 200 m, 1,500 m, 110 m hurdles, long jump and javelin, and the women’s 800 m and javelin.

Further, with the Czech government allowing stadiums to reopen for limited use on 1 June – with a limit of 50 people – the Czech Athletics Federation is creating a “Back on the Track” program, with six “micro-meets” to be held. The first would be on 1 June in Kladno and will include the women’s javelin with Olympic star Barbora Spotakova scheduled to compete.

Also, special competitions for youth are being arranged in 100 stadiums on 1 June, in accordance with the local health rules to “re-start” the track & field season. An additional five elite meets will be added to the schedule in the coming days.

Further to our report on our interview with Coe came this comment from Jody Cleveland of The Athletics Report:

“Sebastian Coe complemented the USA World Champs superiority, however one must remember the USA, despite a lack of domestic popularity, has a big training advantage over the rest of the world. The college system or NCAA Track & Field (semi-pro league) program supported by the colleges is unique worldwide and prepares athletes for competitive dominance on the world stage. It’s a fairly obvious advantage. How many NCAA champions go on to become world or Olympic champs?”

Cleveland is quite right about this, but it’s also worth pointing out that 20-25% of each year’s NCAA outdoor T&F scorers are foreign-born and do not compete internationally for the U.S. Perhaps the most amazing, unduplicated advantage for the U.S. in track, swimming and a host of other sports is the amazing high school sports system available nationwide.

● Football ● FIFA confirmed that it will begin sending “operational funding due to member associations for the years 2019 and 2020 in the coming days as the first step of a relief plan to assist the football community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The first series of payment will include $150 million to 211 national federations worldwide. According to the FIFA statement:

“Under normal circumstances, FIFA’s member associations would have only received the full amount of the contribution upon fulfillment of specific criteria. Instead, FIFA is now transferring this amount as an active support to help safeguard football across all member associations.

“Concretely, this means that FIFA will release USD 500,000 to each member association in the coming days as well as any remaining entitlement for 2019 and 2020.”

On Monday, FIFA proposed a rule change for the remainder of the 2020 season and the 2020-21 season, to allow five substitutes during a game instead of the traditional three.

“When competitions resume, such competitions are likely to face a congested match calendar with a higher-than-normal frequency of matches played in consecutive weeks. Safety of the players is one of FIFA’s main priorities. One concern in this regard is that the higher-than-normal frequency of matches may increase the risk of potential injuries due to a resulting player overload.”

The change must be voted in by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), but the concept should get a warm reception.

UEFA announced that the 2021 European Women’s Championship is being moved to 2022 in order to avoid scheduling conflicts with the postponed 2020 Olympic Games and the 2020 European Men’s Championship.

● Weightlifting ● The resignation of long-time weightlifting chief Tamas Ajan of Hungary is quickly leading to major changes at the International Weightlifting Federation.

Acting President Ursula Papandrea of the U.S., also the head of USA Weightlifting, posted a lengthy message to the weightlifting community last Thursday that:

(1) Signaled the move of the IWF headquarters fully to Lausanne, Switzerland, and away from an office run by Ajan in Budapest; Papandrea noted “I have a goal to be fully functional in Lausanne by January 2021.”

(2) Appointed USA Weightlifting’s highly-regarded chief executive, Phil Andrews (GBR) as IWF Deputy Director General, and help with the search for a permanent IWF Director General (for which Andrews will not be eligible) and part-time Chief Financial Officer.

(3) Further developed the process of handing its anti-doping programs to completely independent, outside organizations, to remove any doubt about influence, reviews or funding. She noted that the IWF “signed the agreement with CAS ADD (Court of Arbitration of Sports Anti-Doping division, which is a separate Division of CAS) to hear and decide anti-doping cases as a first instance authority upon written delegation of powers from the IOC, ITA, and other WADA signatories.”

(4) In view of Ajan’s 44 years of devoted service to weightlifting, he was recognized as an “Honorary Ambassador of Weightlifting.”

(5) Noted the McLaren Global Sport Solutions report on the allegations made against Ajan and others in the ARD television documentary “Lord of the Lifters” in January is expected to be delivered on 4 June. An interim report was made to the IWF on 22 April (but has not been released).

(6) The IWF Executive Board approved a combination of a special projects fund with its development fund to form a pool of money that can be applied for by national federations for financial relief from the COVID-19 impact.

It’s a good start for a federation whose future has been uncertain for some time.

● World Games ● To the surprise of absolutely no one, the 11th World Games has been moved from 2021 to 2022 with new dates of 7-17 July, but remaining in Birmingham, Alabama (USA).

This is a good move for the International World Games Association and the Birmingham organizers, but now creates a new problem: two major events in “Birmingham” a couple of weeks apart in 2022.

The World Games in Alabama will finish on 17 July, but the XXII Commonwealth Games will begin on 27 July and run to 7 August in Birmingham, England!

● International Olympic Committee ● The IOC’s program of subsidies to National Olympic Committee for travel expenses prior to the Games and Games-related operating costs was increased from $46.7 to $57.0 million, as of last week.

The funds will be distributed based on applications from any of the 206 National Olympic Committees eligible to participate in the Tokyo Games in 2021.

The IOC had already announced another $15 million in athlete support, specifically in athlete scholarships for the Games, team support grants and refugee athlete support.

● At the BuZZer ● Sport may have stopped, but bidding never does. Doha (QAT) and Riyadh (KSA) have signaled their interest in the 2030 Asian Games, with the winner to be announced (as of now) on 29 November.

This will be an interesting choice. The two countries continue to be embroiled in a diplomatic struggle – since 2017 – with the Saudis leading a boycott of Qatar over its relations with groups considered by the Saudis and others as terrorists. Doha has hosted the Asian Games previously, in 2006, but Riyadh has never hosted an event of this scale before.

(Thanks to sharp-eyed reader Barry Schreiber for noting a typo on the abbreviation for Saudi Arabia: KSA and not RSA.)

LANE ONE: Coronavirus could impact the path forward for Nassar survivors, especially if Tokyo Games is canceled

By
Rich Perelman
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One of the few absolutely true statements being made about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is that there is no way to know how it will impact our future, individually and collectively.

The survivors of the Larry Nassar sex-abuse tragedy could very well be looking at a different future in terms of their claims against USA Gymnastics and others, most especially if the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games cannot be held as re-scheduled in 2021.

Here’s the situation:

● On 21 February, USA Gymnastics filed an 88-page amended plan of re-organization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana, which must be accepted by the claimants to become active.

● On the same day, the federation filed a 183-page Disclosure Statement to explain the plan, which includes an option of agreed-upon damages, and a reserve for future claims, of $217.125 million to 10 different classes of claimants, including survivors of Nassar’s abuse.

All parties have an opportunity to comment on the Disclosure Statement, which will be revised based on a hearing on specific objections, and must be approved by the Court to allow a vote on the plan to take place. That hearing has been put off indefinitely due to the inability for the arguments to be made in-person before Bankruptcy Judge Robin Moberly.

● The Disclosure Statement itself, once finally approved by the Court, offers three options for the Claimants to vote on: (1) against the plan, in which case various options are available, including dismissal of the Bankruptcy filing, a liquidation of USA Gymnastics, or assembly of a different plan; (2) approval of the plan, including the Settlement Option, in which the $217.125 million will be paid out to the claimants, or (3) approval of the plan, but with a Litigation Option, in which each claimant must file individually against USA Gymnastics and anyone else desired, in a race to see who can get the most money first.

● Attorneys for 256 or more of the 517 abuse claimants immediately signaled objections to the Settlement Election in comments to news media, and then filed for a paid “financial advisor” to examine the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s “financial condition or its ability to make a contribution of its own funds as consideration for its release while maintaining viability to fulfill its mission.”

The Court dismissed the request to hire the financial advisor, but the filing showed that the ultimate goal of the attorneys for the claimants is to attack the assets of the USOPC to try and get more money at trial.

● The USOPC’s financial situation is not in much doubt at present. It’s 2018 financial statements showed $594 million in assets, including about $495 million in cash and investments. Of that total, $295 million is held in the U.S. Olympic Endowment and is the legacy of the USOPC’s share of the surplus from the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

However, the coronavirus pandemic is changing the situation by the day.

Last Tuesday, USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland sent a letter to the U.S. National Governing Bodies noting cuts of 10-20% at the USOPC itself and warning that if the Tokyo Games did not take place in 2021 – for whatever reason – the impact could be enormous:

“We have to fully understand what that possibility would mean for our organization, so we certainly have considered it and evaluated it. The impact of cancellation would be devastating to our athletes, first and foremost, but also to our financial health and stability. We would survive such a scenario, but the impact would be severe.”

In an accompanying note, Hirshland explained that the U.S. Olympic Endowment money isn’t being used now, because it might be desperately needed later:

“We need to retain the ability to deal with things getting significantly more difficult, for example if there were a cancellation of the Tokyo Games.”

The USOPC asked the U.S. Congress for $200 million from the direct-payment stimulus package for athlete and NGB support, but was refused. Loan programs are available, but even the USOPC’s wealth will not be anywhere close to propping up the finances of the 50 U.S. governing bodies.

If the Tokyo Games takes place as planned in 2021, then the monies from television rights and sponsorships due to the USOPC would come as expected, but a year late. But if the coronavirus continues to pose significant problems worldwide, the decision to cancel will likely come about this time next year.

The vote by claim holders against USA Gymnastics on the plan of reorganization should come before then, but who knows how long it will be before the matter can be heard, the Disclosure Statement revised and the vote takes place? Then the Bankruptcy Court has to approve the plan and make it active.

Under the plan as proposed, the claimants in Class 6: Abuse Claims have $206.375 million on the table, rejected as wholly insufficient by attorneys for many members of the class. The offer includes payments to all 517 (non-duplicative) claims already filed:

● Class 6A: 66 elite gymnasts, who competed in USA Gymnastics events and were abused, would receive $1,250.757.58 each.

● Class 6B: 142 gymnasts, who were abused at competitions staged by others (but whose events were sanctioned by USAG), would receive $508,670.77 each.

● Class 6C: 284 claimants, some of whom are not gymnasts, who were abused in non-gymnastics settings, such as at Michigan State University, would receive $174.401.41 each.

● Class 6D: 25 “derivative” claimants, who are relatives or loved ones of individuals who were abused and are claiming injuries for themselves, and would receive $82.550.00 each.

If approved, each of the claimants would receive their damages “without the need to present evidence as to the merits of their claim or the amount of damages suffered.”

So, should the attorneys for the claimants try and delay the proceedings to see if the Olympic Games do take place in 2021? If so, the USOPC’s finances would be in much better shape.

But what if the Bankruptcy Court wants to move this matter along and forces a vote on a further-amended Disclosure Statement?

The 66 elite gymnasts who were abused by Nassar at USA Gymnastics events – about 13% of the total claims – have serious cases against the federation. But under the Litigation Election, they will have to prove their cases in court, in individual trials, and many of the verdicts will be appealed. The question of what responsibility USAG actually had and then what liability the USOPC had under the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act and under other applicable laws, is sure to be strongly contested.

The other 451 claims have a much poorer chance of recovery against USA Gymnastics, let alone the USOPC. Will the spectre of a possibly cash-poor USOPC influence their vote of the settlement vs. an individual lawsuit against USAG, the USOPC and others?

The coronavirus and the fate of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are now a part of this calculus.

In case you were wondering, the phrase “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” originated perhaps 2,000 years ago in the writings of the Greek scholar Plutarch, and in English as far back as John Capgrave‘s The Life of St Katharine of Alexandria, in 1450.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE BIG PICTURE: World Athletics chief Coe: “We’ve just got to get more one-day meetings going in the U.S.”

By
Rich Perelman
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World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe (Photo: Leaders Business Summit)

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) may be confined in his London home, but he’s hardly resting. As part of a continuing series of online interview sessions with news media from around the world, he spent 48 minutes taking questions from three American track & field writers.

His priorities?

“Much of my day is spent trying to figure out how to get the athletes back into competition again, safely and securely, and not do it in a way that offends the communities, or is in breach of any of the protocols being set down by governments, although that’s a very bearable approach, and given that I’m talking to all of you from the United States, that’s an interesting landscape for anybody that’s been so locked down – as my colleagues in Monaco have, you know, getting on for 50 days – it’s quite laissez-faire in some parts of the world.

“It’s important that we get the athletes back. We’ve had to make some adjustments, to this period of suspension to the [Olympic] qualification and that’s just to make sure we’ve got athletes coming back at roughly the right time, with the right anti-doping processes in place, and we haven’t got them coming back at various speeds, and that’s why we’ve also tried to create some structure for member federations around providing the dates for the second window of national championships, which is 8th and 9th of August. Look, in the end we may not be able to do as much as we want; we may have to re-schedule.

“But I think it’s important that we set ourselves the ambition of reinstating competition as quickly as we can. And I guess this has also not just given us the opportunity to run our own business here, and some of the innovation that we take into the new, post-pandemic world, but I think it gives us an even greater impetus to – you know, it’s Shakespeare, isn’t it – a fair stake in the flood. And if ever there has been a time for athletics to fill that void in physical inactivity that is besetting most advancing and advanced countries, the opportunity for us to get really down and dirty with some politicians here, you’ve got to get school sport back into the agenda. It’s pretty clear to me that that has been withering on the vine.”

Coe is also looking to the future, and he had a message for the U.S. track & field community:

“And moving forward, and I guess given who I’ve got on the call – and I know you’ll take this in good spirit – we’ve just got to get more one-day meetings going in the U.S. Now you are the powerhouse of track & field, your athletes consistently come back from World Championships as the leading nation, and NACAC makes a massive contribution, but the U.S. we know is the powerhouse. Too many of your athletes still walk around in relative anonymity in their hometowns, but can’t walk down the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich without being mobbed. (emphasis added)

“So we do, you know, need to get more one-day meetings going in the States, because it’s really important. We had 2014 Eugene [World] Junior Championships, 2016 [World Indoors] in Portland, we have ‘21, now ‘22 Eugene, which will be a great World Championships. We’ve got ‘28 [Olympics] in L.A. and we’ve got to use this as a stepping stone that can only happen if we get a greater critical mass of one-day meets going.

“You know, we just don’t want this to be a singular flow of U.S. athletes in May into Europe, important as that is. It has to be the other way around. You do, you know, have to have European athletes – top European athletes – also competing in the U.S. and we do have to give more opportunities for U.S. athletes to be earning their crust from shining sea-to-shining sea.” (emphasis added)

That comment led to a later question about the work of the new World Athletics Calendar Commission – which includes USATF Chief of High Performance Duffy Mahoney – and how the seasonal schedule needs to be revised into something that promotes the sport instead of leaving potential fans confused.

Coe has a lot to say about this:

“The guiding principle here for me is – I have said for a long time and we’ve all individually, collectively had these discussions; it’s one of those hardy perennials that’s always there in the coffee shops or the bars of our major championships – that [for] far too many, including the athletes, yourselves, me sometimes and our fans particularly, it’s very difficult to understand the rhythm and pace and nature of the season. You know it does seem to hop around – athlete welfare is important as you know – [but] you’ve got athletes one week in the Middle East, next week in China, flying over to Eugene, 8-10 time zones away.

“The overwhelming aim of this is to try and create more understanding in the season, and look, Diamond League was already a good example of some of the work we’ve been doing around that. You know, it wasn’t broken, but it just could have been so much better. And making sure that, for instance, we don’t have three Diamond League events all in a six or seven-day span. We’re trying to get them to be roughly between Thursday and Sunday and spaced a week apart.

“The windows we have created around our national championships are important because I spent far too much time on the phone to sort out warring parties that have suddenly got very angry because a member federation, without any prior notice, has moved a national championship right smack dab in the middle of a Diamond League period.

“We will want to create a calendar that also has some sanctions here, so that member federations and our one-day meetings which are an important part of our ecosystem, and then to make sure that we have other windows – and it’s not easy; it’s a sport that is multi-faceted, it’s not just one sport. We have the road, we have cross country, indoors, we have outdoors, we have juniors, we have youth competitions (and not a championship any more) and we have a lot of things to try and fit in.

“I think the work that we’ve done and we’re doing at the moment to try and at least create a rhythm and a pace in the season, so that when people sit and absorb athletics, they at least know what a competition means.”

He also touched on the World Athletics World Rankings, a program just in its infancy, but which Coe believes can have some important results for fan development:

“I think also the world-ranking lists will help here. I’ve always seen that as a really important marketing tool. We’re one of the few sports where you genuinely don’t know at any one point who is the no. 1. You never that doubt in tennis or in golf, and I want to have that marketing tool where you see a list of athletes on the starting line, with also a caption underneath [on TV] saying currently sitting third in the world, on the ranking list, and people need to know what it means when they win or they lose. Not every tennis player goes to Wimbledon thinking they are going to win, but you at least know that they go ranked no. 1 through to, you know, 200.

“Again, it’s allowing a bit more understanding, particularly for our fans.”

Coe, just re-elected for a second term as World Athletics President, also comments on the unique opportunity to expose the sport with major meets each year from 2021-25:

“We’re sort of lamenting the fact that we had to fit all sorts of things into odd shapes, and with new jigsaw. But actually the one thing I do take comfort from is, if you look at 2020, it’s in ruins for all intents and purposes – a write-off – we know that.

“But on the basis that we do get the Games up and away in ‘21, we then have the World Championships that will be center stage ‘22 – but also the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships that are great shop windows for our sport – but equally, if you then go into 2023, we have a World Championships in Budapest, we’re then center-stage again with athletics, because athletics is the no. 1 sport by some distance in an Olympic Games [in 2024] and then in ‘25 we’re back – we don’t have the venue yet – but we are back into a World Championship year. So, we do have the opportunity for four or five seasons where athletics sits center stage in a very virtuous part of the year for people to watch it. We need to build on that, we need to absolutely make sure we capitalize on every moment.

“People say, ‘oh well, you know, you’ve got three championships in one year.’ It wasn’t that long ago that everybody was lamenting that we don’t have enough athletics on television. Well, actually 2022 is a great opportunity. We’re going to have the best athletes in Eugene, we’re going to have a big chunk of those athletes in those Commonwealth countries performing again quite soon afterwards, and then again the European Championships, which – look at Berlin – were a massive shop window for the sport. So I am very comforted by the fact that that’s going to happen.”

Opportunity, yes, but with the outcome yet to be determined. Asked about the possibility of having a third World Championships added to the schedule – placing one in each non-Olympic year, Coe said he was open to it … sort of:

“I don’t think so at the moment. Let’s be really liberal about this and think about all these things now. This is the opportunity to do it.

“I think that’s one step at this moment too far, and organizing championships is – with all due respect – it’s not as easy as in some sports, where you have one arena, a ball and a couple of bats. It’s actually an inordinate piece of complexity.

“We would have to look at that in a different way, but let’s look at it. I don’t have any tightly prescripted views at the moment about what we’re able to sort of free-range over.”

Living in London, Coe is – of course – staying at home like everyone else. But the double Olympic champion does try to maintain some sort of training regimen:

“I do try to work out, and I do that early in the morning, because my days start really early. And you understand why, because trying to keep in touch with all of our major stakeholders, whether it’s our Area Presidents; I’ve got a Council where I’ve got people in Northern Mariana Islands right the way through to Manaus [Brazil] – it’s not that easy – so sometimes it can be a bit anti-social. I try not to just build it around my own comforts. I started my first conversation this morning was at 6:45 [London time] and at about 8 o’clock tonight, I should be able to finish and with a little bit of luck, I might be able to get onto a treadmill.”

Following 48 minutes taking questions, he then left to go to another live-streamed event where he was raising money for charity by doing two hours and six minutes on a treadmill!

LANE ONE: When you disassemble Max Siegel’s $4.2 million comp reported for 2018, it all comes back to Nike and the USATF Board

By
Rich Perelman
-

Track and field insiders were agog on Wednesday when USA Track & Field’s Form 990 federal tax return was posted for 2018, showing chief executive Max Siegel with total compensation of $4,294,650, including $3.027 million for “retirement and other deferred compensation.”

So what is this all about?

In simple terms, it’s about the stunning Nike sponsorship agreement announced in April of 2014.

There’s a lot of accounting to go through to understand all of this, so have patience.

In that single deal – with the actual terms never released publicly – Nike promised to sponsor USATF to the tune of an estimated $500 million from 2018 through 2040. Most of this was in cash and part in-kind, such as for national team uniforms. Based on a review of the publicly-posted USATF financial statements, a reasonable estimation is that USATF has been receiving about $20 million in Nike sponsorship support annually, including a share of a $25 million “one-time commitment bonus” for the deal, paid out in 2014 ($15 million), 2015 ($5) and 2016 ($5), but spread – for accounting purposes – over the length of the deal.

With the commitment bonus averaging about $1.1 million a year, that leaves about $18.9 million annually in Nike support. That’s not all cash, since there is a significant in-kind commitment.

Over the last three years, Nike has provided $2.80 million (2016), $2.46 million (2017) and $1.83 million (2018) in in-kind product support. That leaves $16-17 million in actual cash payments by Nike – more or less – to USATF annually.

So where does the $3 million in deferred compensation to Siegel fit into this?

A note on page 22 of the 2018 USATF Financial Statements explains:

“Employment cost:
In 2018, USATF entered into compensation agreements with key members of management for their employment through December 31, 2021. Certain provisions of these agreements resulted in $3,000,000 being accrued as of December 31, 2018. The board has designated cash to be escrowed to cover the future minimum payments that will be paid as follows:”

The figures show that as of December 31 of the next four years, “minimum” payments will be made of:

● 31 Dec. 2019: $500,000
● 31 Dec. 2020: $500,000
● 31 Dec. 2021: $500,000
● 31 Dec. 2022: $1,500,000

The amount of $3 million is shown on the Statement of Activities as a “Non-Recurring Employment Cost.” That’s all clear.

It also explains the $3,000,000 deferred compensation amount on the Form 990 federal tax return for Siegel. Because the $3 million payment has been escrowed – set aside and not available for other purposes – it has to be shown as an expense in the year it was sequestered. And if you believe the federal return, all of that money will go to Siegel. The other $27,250 of the deferred compensation is clearly for retirement fund contributions and is in line with the federation’s contributions to others.

Some confusion on the timing has been introduced by a cover letter placed at the front of the 2018 financial statements on USATF letterhead, not that of CliftonLarsenAllen accounting firm which prepared the financial statements. The USATF letter reads in part:

“CEO current year reported compensation includes contractual deferred bonuses payable over a period of seven years through 2024. For accounting purposes, these bonuses were deemed earned in the current and prior years, but they will not be paid until the future years stated in the employment contract. This resulted in higher expense on the financial statements and deferred compensation being reflected on the Form 990, however the CEO has not yet received these future bonuses.”

The statement that payments are due to 2024 instead of 2022 as shown in the page 22 note in the actual financial statements must be explained. But the comment does shed more light on Siegel’s compensation program.

As USATF chief executive, his annual salary has ranged from about $500,000 annually from his hire in mid-2012 up to $611,014 in 2018. He received no bonus in 2013, but significant bonuses in each year since the Nike agreement was signed in 2014:

● 2014: $500,000
● 2015: $500,000
● 2016: $1,000,000
● 2017: $500,000
● 2018: $500,000

Combined with the $3 million he is to be paid through 2022 – per the financial statements – Siegel will receive bonuses of $6 million total from 2014-22.

Why?

The obvious explanation would be that this $6 million is a essentially USATF Board-approved “commission” for Siegel’s role in delivering the 23-year Nike agreement, worth about $400 million in total cash (and about $100 million in-kind) from 2018-2040, with $25 million paid early, from 2014-16.

What Siegel’s role in this deal was is not exactly clear. In a lengthy story about Siegel in October 2016, The Washington Post reported that then-Board chair Steve Miller “acknowledged that the deal that produced most of that new income — a long-term sponsorship agreement with Nike worth a reported $500 million — was primarily negotiated by two former Nike executives whose small consulting firm is collecting $23.75 million in commission payments from USA Track and Field through 2039.”

and

“Board chairman Miller, a former Nike executive, said the idea to approach Nike about a long-term extension did not come from Siegel. Instead, Miller said, the idea came from former Nike executives Adam Helfant and Chris Bevilacqua, friends of his, who contacted him not long after Siegel took over as CEO and asked for Miller to introduce them to Siegel. Helfant and Bevilacqua then led negotiations for USA Track and Field on the Nike deal, Miller said.”

But in a Sports Business Daily story announcing the deal in April 2014:

“USATF CEO Max Siegel said that the NGB reached out to Nike about extending its sponsorship after the ’12 London Games. He proposed negotiating a long-term deal to Nike because the organization wanted the stability such an agreement would provide.”

So, between the commissions to the former Nike execs and if the bonuses to Siegel are in fact another commission on the same deal, the cost of the possibly $400 million in cash and $100 million in in-kind support from Nike cost USATF about $30 million, or about six percent of the total deal.

Let’s be clear on this: while Siegel may have requested added compensation for bringing the Nike deal to fruition – Helfant and Bevilacqua’s terms – the USATF Board of Directors is the group responsible for agreeing to it. You can see here the minutes from USATF Board meetings back to 2009 and who was on the Board at each step of the way.

Don’t bother looking for approvals of these commissions; those are done in “Executive Session,” during which all personnel matters are reviewed, and which are not recorded in the minutes (of any corporation or association). Moreover, don’t look for even a mention of the Nike deal in the 2014 minutes … because there isn’t one! Amazing.

Certainly, when the Nike deal came through, there was great hope for even more significant sponsorships, but USATF has not signed a superstar new deal since. The financial statements show that much more than a majority of USATF’s total operating revenues come from two sponsors – Nike and Hershey – and grants from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee:

● 2013: $19.6 million ~ 63% from 2 sponsors and USOC
● 2014: $35.1 million ~ 80% from 2 sponsors and USOC
● 2015: $32.4 million ~ 73% from 2 sponsors and USOC
● 2016: $37.3 million ~ 65% from 2 sponsors and USOC
● 2017: $35.1 million ~ 68% from 2 sponsors and USOC
● 2018: $34.5 million ~ 72% from 2 sponsors and USOC

Note the major rise from 2013 to 2014, when the Nike deal came in, but the financial performance has leveled off since. But with the Nike agreement in hand, USATF’s total assets rose from $9.3 million in 2013 to $42.3 million in 2014, and now back to $39.9 million at the end of 2018.

There you have it, from as much information as could be pieced together from publicly-available sources and some confidential conversations with some folks in the know. If you were on the USATF Board, would you have given Siegel those bonuses annually from 2014-18 and then agreed in 2018 to $3 million more?

(If the financial statements are correct that the $3 million in bonuses from 2019-22 were agreed to by the Board in 2018, this could have been during the time that elected president Vin Lananna was suspended by the Board on 18 February 2018 for conflicts of interest with his then-position at TrackTown USA.)

That’s the question you have to ask yourself, and the former and current members of the USATF Board of Directors.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HEARD AT HALFTIME: Are the IOC and Japan falling out of love? Can a Tokyo professor see the future? Yes, the USOPC is worried about money.

By
Rich Perelman
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News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● “The International Olympic Committee said Monday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe committed Japan to absorb its share of the additional costs for the postponed Tokyo Olympics but later retracted the remark at the request of the local organizing committee.”

That was the lead from a Kyodo News report from Tokyo on Tuesday, reporting the latest tizzy from the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games into 2021. The IOC posted a statement as part of its questions-and-answers page about the postponement noting:

“Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo agreed that Japan will continue to cover the costs it would have done under the terms of the existing agreement for 2020, and the IOC will continue to be responsible for its share of the costs.

“For the IOC, it is already clear that this amounts to several hundred millions of dollars of additional costs.”

This drew a request from the Tokyo organizers to re-word the comment. Spokesman Masa Takaya said “What we are requesting to the IOC team is that the name of the Japanese Prime Minister should not be quoted, plus the IOC’s website should not express beyond what was agreed between the IOC and Tokyo 2020.” In fact, no specific discussions on costs have been held and the only decision was to hold the Games in 2021.

The new text on the IOC’s site now reads:

“The Japanese government has reiterated that it stands ready to fulfil its responsibility for hosting successful Games. At the same time, the IOC has stressed its full commitment to successful Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The IOC and the Japanese side, including the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, will continue to assess and discuss jointly about the respective impacts caused by the postponement.”

Comment: Yawn.

Another breathless report from Kyodo featured comments by Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious diseases at Kobe University, who told an online news conference:

“Japan might be able to control this disease by next summer…but I don’t think that would happen everywhere on earth. I’m very pessimistic…unless you hold the Olympic Games in total different structures, such as no audience or a very limited participation.”

Comment: As is the usual scenario in times of crisis and uncertainty, no one really knows anything. The coronavirus is a new strain, but reports indicate much wider testing and development work on possible vaccines is moving along. Governments worldwide are now heavily involved. References to standard development and testing procedures for new drugs are obsolete.

What is true is that the real answer of whether the Tokyo Games can be held in 2021 won’t be even approached until the end of this year. If athletes can train effectively throughout 2021, and the situation in Japan itself is under control, the opportunity to hold the Games is good. If not, the Games could be in jeopardy. Right now, anyone who claims to know more … probably should take a remotely-administered test for doping.

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee has its own headaches, worried both for its own future and for those of the National Governing Bodies which operate the sports on the Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic Games program in the U.S.

USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland sent a letter, seen by The Associated Press, to the NGBs on Tuesday, indicating that the USOPC is looking at cuts of 10-20% in its own operations, which will then impact the NGBs in terms of grants and other support usually provided. Wrote Hirshland:

“We have to fully understand what that possibility would mean for our organization, so we certainly have considered it and evaluated it. The impact of cancellation would be devastating to our athletes, first and foremost, but also to our financial health and stability. We would survive such a scenario, but the impact would be severe.”

Many of the U.S. National Governing Bodies are small operations to begin with and U.S. Rugby filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on 30 March. The USOPC asked for $200 million in relief funds from the U.S. government for the NGBs and for direct athletes to athletes, but no allocation was made in the final bill.

The USOPC does have a significant reserve of $270 million in its U.S. Olympic Endowment, as shown in its 31 December 2018 financial statements. Of this, $60 million belongs to those National Governing Bodies who have made investments which are managed by the USOPC. The genesis of almost all of this money was the $139 million received from the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee following the success of the 1984 Olympic Games.

Hirshland noted that if the 2020 Games are in fact held in 2021, the massive payments due to the USOPC from its share of U.S. television rights fees from NBC will come in, but a year late. Wrote Hirshland, “We need to retain the ability to deal with things getting significantly more difficult, for example if there were a cancellation of the Tokyo Games.”

A truly catastrophic scenario would be cancellations of the 2020 Tokyo Games and then a follow-on cancellation of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing (CHN). But, for now, belts will be tightened and the pants do not have to be sold … yet.

● Athletics ● The U.S. Olympic Trials in track & field have been confirmed for 18-27 June, essentially the same time frame as scheduled for 2020.

USATF confirmed the dates for the event, to be held at the new Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. The Trials will start just six days after the finish of the 2021 NCAA Division I Championships, also scheduled for Hayward Field.

The annual Prefontaine Classic meet, part of the Wanda Diamond League circuit, will be held prior to the NCAA meet. It’s not clear whether the Pacific-12 Championships – the meet that was supposed to open the new facility in 2020 – will be held in Eugene for 2021, or moved on to the next scheduled venue.

The new dates for the track trials partially coincide – as previously planned – with the swimming trials, now set for 13-20 June in Omaha, Nebraska. No word yet on new dates for the U.S. trials in Artistic Gymnastics, originally scheduled for 25-28 June 2020 in St. Louis, or for diving, slated for Indianapolis.

Said U.S. hurdler Devon Allen, now training with his former collegiate coach Jamie Cook in Annapolis, Maryland:

“I’m just excited for the time to come, with the Olympics coming up in 2021. This gives everybody a chance to restart and be reenergized. This Olympics, I think, will be one of the biggest and most anticipated ever.”

Allen told Track & Field News that constant injury issues make the move of the Games from 2020 to 2021 a positive for him. “I have more time to be healthy and train. It is probably the best case for me. If the Olympics were this year anyways, I think I would have been ready. But it doesn’t hurt me to have another 18 months.”

● Cycling ● “Cycling is a poor sport because it’s only supported by business, if the Tour is not held it would be a catastrophe.”

That’s Colombian road racing star Rigoberto Uran, from an interview with the Colombian Cycling Federation, and referring to the postponement of the 2020 Tour de France to 29 August-20 September. Uran’s predicted total chaos in the sport if this year’s Tour had to be canceled.

“For example, of the 18 [WorldTour] teams, only three could survive, and the others face a very complicated future. Right now, there are only three teams that are economically strong. There are only a few businesses in the world doing well at the moment. If this keeps going, there’s going to be a crisis, and when a company needs to make cuts, they begin with their marketing plans and that will impact cycling. …

“It will be difficult to return to normal life, I think it will be difficult for us all but we have to continue. I hope that everything is eventually resolved, that a vaccine is found, that people get jobs, that the world economy is good again. We’ve perhaps learnt that everything must be valued: being able to go out into the street, to a bar to have a beer, to travel. They are normal things but we’ll value them very much in the future.”

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announced on 15 April that the World Road Race Championships are still hoped to be held in Switzerland from 20-27 September – a week after Le Tour – with the Giro d’Italia taking place soon after (possibly 4-25 October) followed by the Vuelta a Espana, possibly on 1-22 November.

Said Uran, “If they tell us we have to race in the cold, we’ll race in the cold. We’ll also have to see how all this works out, if they let us travel, if they let us enter Europe, or if they let us leave Colombia.”

● Football ● The federation with the most money, FIFA, is using it to support its member federations and reiterating its commitment to women’s football development.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) previously confirmed that its financial allocations to national federations be paid in full for 2020. “Thanks to the work that we have been doing together in FIFA during the past four years, we are today in a very strong financial situation.

“FIFA enjoys a good reputation on the financial markets… This has helped us consolidate a solid foundation with large reserves. But our reserves are not FIFA’s money. It is football’s money. So when football is in need, we must think what we can do to help… It is our responsibility and our duty.”

On Tuesday, FIFA issued a statement to The Associated Press on women’s football funding, which included:

“In line with the FIFA Women’s Football Strategy and FIFA’s long-term vision for the development of women’s football, this funding will be invested into a range of areas in the women’s game including competitions, capacity building, development programmes, governance and leadership, professionalisation and technical programmes.

“We can confirm that this funding has already been committed by FIFA and will not be impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis.”

These commitments are in line with Infantino’s pledge during his first campaign to be FIFA President to use the federation’s enormous financial assets for development and support, and not to gather more interest and value. Good for him.

THE BIG PICTURE: After 16 months, USA Gymnastics, 0; survivors, 0; lawyers $9,576,196 in Nassar abuse case so far

By
Rich Perelman
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The legal fallout of the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal is mostly – but not completely – stalled with the absence of in-person hearings in front of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis.

But the legal billings are continuing. A filing made on 16 April 2020 detailed the payments to attorneys for both sides, through 31 March of this year. From the commencement of the case on 5 December 2018, to the end of March 2020, the legal costs have totaled $9.58 million so far:

For USA Gymnastics: $6,845,744
● $3,953,139 for Jenner & Block LLP (Chicago)
● $1,056,712 for Miller Johnson (Grand Rapids)
● $1,633,555 for Plews, Shadley, Racher & Braun (Indianapolis)
● $202,338 for Barnes & Thornburg, LLP (Indianapolis)

For the claimants: $2,730,452
● $2,281,238 for Pachulski, Stang, Ziehl and Jones LLP (Los Angeles)
● $238,258 for Rubin & Levin, P.C. (Indianapolis)
● $131,451 for Development Specialists (Chicago)
● $79,505 for FrankGecker LLP (Chicago)

The current status shows that USA Gymnastics has filed a re-organization plan last 21 February and proposed a Disclosure Statement which, if approved, would lead to a vote of the Claimants on that Plan. Within the proposed Plan are options for a settlement, which could pay $217.5 million to various classes of claimants from insurance proceeds, or for a “litigation option,” in which every claimant would be on their own.

A hearing on the Disclosure Statement was scheduled for 31 March, but with the Federal Courthouse in Indianapolis closed due to COVID-19, this has been delayed indefinitely. Written objections to the proposed Disclosure Statement are due by 30 April or 14 days prior to the actual hearing date, whichever is later and the next teleconference on the case is slated for 29 April.

USA Gymnastics won a round in court on Monday, as Bankruptcy Court Judge Robyn Moberly dismissed a claim by 1978 World Uneven Bars Champion Marcia Frederick Blanchette, on behalf of herself and those “similarly situated” to amend the complaint of a specific group, to allow a USA Gymnastics Directors & Officers insurance policy to be attacked for as much as $15 million in damages under the Safe Sport Act of 2017. This specific policy is not mentioned in the Disclosure Statement as being included in the $217.5 million offer.

Moberly’s opinion denied Frederick Blanchette’s request to organize a class claim against the D&O policy, finding the claim to be untimely – filed after a 10-month wait – and not helpful in administering the case.

In fact, Moberly brought forward some interesting points, noting that “it is unsettled whether the Safe Sport Act gives the Claimants a private right of action to assert claims against [USA Gymnastics] for its alleged failure to report abuse to authorities.” There is a clear criminal sanction, but no private right listed in the statute, and the opinion pointed out that the survivors did not bring an action under the Safe Sport Act in its main claim against USA Gymnastics.

Moberly added that the failure of USA Gymnastics Board members or officers to report abuse is already included in the claims made, and that if the Survivors Committee wants to negotiate the D&O policy into the final settlement, they are free to try. They are also free to reject the settlement plan and try their luck individually.

The opinion also praised the USAG counsel team, stating that “significant progress has been made for a case this large and complex” over its 16 months since filing.

Frederick Blanchette, of course, can appeal the ruling, as the case grinds on.

LANE ONE: Like a ‘70s disco classic, Kenya and Russia (and others) appear to just keep on dopin’

By
Rich Perelman
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The Kay-Gees's 1974 hit album: Keep on Bumpin' & Masterplan

With the coronavirus keeping everyone apart these days, it seems impossible that – at one time – the most popular dance in America was The Bump, extolled by groups such as The Kay-Gees with their 1974 smash, Keep on Bumpin’.

The dance, the style, the bell bottoms are all long gone, but the tune could be re-recorded for track & field meets in Kenya and elsewhere under a new title, Keep on Dopin’.

While the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 and the resulting fallout has been all the news for the past month, the parade of doping penalties for Kenyan athletes announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit has continued without end. So far this year alone:

● Jan 10: Wilson Kipsang: whereabouts failure
● Jan 14: Alfred Kipketer: whereabouts failure
● Feb 14: Peter Kwemoi: doping
● Feb 25: Kenneth Kipkemoi: doping
● Mar 18: Mercy Jerotich Kibarus: doping
● Mar 27: Vincent Yator: doping
● Apr 10: Daniel Wanjiru: doping

That’s seven cases in 3 1/2 months – all distance runners – not to mention two provisional suspensions and 14 decisions – 16 total – against Kenyan distance athletes in 2019. And these are not minor players.

Already suspended are Asbel Kiprop, the 2008 Olympic 1,500 m champ; Sarah Chepchirchir, the 2017 Tokyo Marathon winner and Jemima Sumgong, the 2016 Olympic marathon gold medalist. In this year’s class are former world marathon record holder Kipsang, 2018 Rotterdam Marathon winner Kipkemoi and Wanjiru, the 2017 London Marathon winner.

In all, there are 57 Kenyans listed on the AIU’s “Global List of Ineligible Persons” as of 30 March 2020 – you can add Wanjiru to bring the total to 58 – but they are hardly the worst offender. Russia leads the pack with 91, of course:

(1) 91, Russia
(2) 57, Kenya
(3) 48, India
(4) 34, Morocco
(5) 33, Turkey
(6) 32, China
(7) 29, Ukraine
(8) 26, Italy

The U.S. has 17 persons listed, including two coaches.

USA Weightlifting chief executive Phil Andrews (GBR) contrasted the sanctions protocol for weightlifting and track & field on Twitter back on 4 April after the International Weightlifting Federation banned Malaysia and Thailand from participating in the 2020 Tokyo Games:

“A correct and fair sanction handed to Thailand and Malaysia, the @iwfnet policy of national sanctions for multiple offences is tough but fair and reasonable especially with independent panel. I point out in our sport, Kenya’s long issues in Athletics would have been sanctioned.”

Further, TheGuardian.com (GBR) reported on a Leeds Beckett study of 301 athletes and 154 coaches, in Great Britain and the U.S., that found potential whistleblowers not sure of where to turn to report possible infractions.

Said lead researcher Dr. Kelsey Erickson (GBR): “In recent years we have seen a huge increase in the number of reporting mechanisms available for athletes and coaches to blow the whistle,. Yet while we found they often want to come forward, they often don’t know who to voice their concerns to, and they don’t necessarily trust action will be taken.”

The weightlifting policy against doping (2019 edition) includes penalties against those committing doping violations, but also against member federations. Three or more violations of the anti-doping policy “by Athletes or other Persons affiliated to the Member Federations” within a calendar year requires payment of a fine and the IWF’s Independent Disciplinary Panel may “impose a Suspension on the Member Federation of a period of up to (4) years.”

Further:

“If any Member Federation or its affiliated Athletes, other Persons or officials, by reason of conduct connected or associated with doping or anti-doping rule violations, brings the sport of weightlifting into disrepute, the Independent Panel shall impose any penalty upon the Member Federation that it considers just and proper in all the circumstances.”

This includes bans of up to four years as well, plus fines.

Isn’t it time that more federations start looking at these kinds of tiered sanctions programs for anti-doping violations? This puts pressure not just on the individual athlete to comply with the anti-doping regulations, but holds every athlete – and coach, agent, trainer and physician – responsible to all other athletes in their country not to be part of a doping regime that could get the federation banned.

Weightlifting’s situation is extreme and the sport was very nearly eliminated from the Paris 2024 Games because of its ridiculous doping history. But should individual sports like track and swimming be looking to reduce the number of qualifiers for Olympic or World Championships events if the number of sanctions is above a certain level, either in a specific year, or on a rolling average of, say, the three prior years?

Yes.

World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) has already taken a tough stance against Russia, essentially eliminating the country from competing in the 2016 Rio Games and then allowing only a carefully-vetted group of athletes to compete in its World Championships since then – 19 in 2017 and 29 in 2019 – owing to its egregious doping program from 2011-15 that is still yielding sanctions today.

But then the Russian federation tried to cover up a whereabouts violation for 2018 World Indoor Champion Danil Lysenko and the reinstatement process came to an abrupt end. In fact, the World Athletics Council issued a report in March noting that even these suspensions “have apparently been insufficient to prompt the required change in culture and behaviour in Russian athletics.”

So now the number of Russian athletes who can be entered in the Tokyo Games is limited to 10, assuming they pass whatever new criteria the World Athletics Doping Review Board comes up with.

For Russia’s part, a new set of senior officials at the federation has apologized for past transgressions – a first for RusAF – and promises to do better in the future. An important part of that is a national educational program against doping and a strict separation from those with past violations. On 5 April, a TASS story explained:

“Under the criteria, candidates to Russian track and field teams cannot be athletes who have violated anti-doping rules after November 18, 2015, with the exception of those [already] suspended for life. A team cannot admit an athlete suspected of anti-doping violations or under investigation. A candidate cannot work with a coach who has been disqualified for violating the anti-doping rules after November 19, 2015.”

But last Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport “upheld an appeal from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and issued a four-year suspension against Russian track and field coach Andrei Yeremenko for his attempt to bribe a doping-control officer in 2017.” Yeremenko tried to get officials at the Russian national championships to allow 100 m hurdler Yulia Maluyeva to skip her post-event doping test because “she was ill” and apparently offered a bribe.

And Russia is still squirming to get out from under harsh penalties – four years of sanctions – handed out by the World Anti-Doping Agency, at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with hearings possibly to be held in July. But on 10 April, new Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin asked “we’re living in completely different conditions and this crisis which has been created, including the crisis in relationships, should probably come to an end, turn a new page and understand that the main thing right now is to be together.”

He offered to host events in Russia that have had to be abandoned elsewhere, and asked for “respect for the rights of the countries which are among the main actors on the international arena. Russia has always been, is and will remain that sort of partner.”

The answer to this has to be no, and WADA’s authority to hand out such sanctions must be confirmed in order for its credibility as a deterrent force to be maintained. In this light, WADA asked for the hearings on the Russian sanctions to be public, but it was the Russians who said no.

In track & field at least, the Athletics Integrity Unit has been pushing hard and the list of those on suspension is publicly available, in detail. It’s now time to put every national federation – in every sport – on the scoreboard to see if they can continue competing, or if their participation has to be reduced due to doping.

Otherwise, it’s time for find Ronald Bell from The Kay-Gees, author of “Keep on Bumpin’” and commission a revision for a new decade of doping.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE TICKER: Weightlifting loses two presidents; is Thomas Bach an IOC immortal? Cycling needs the Tour de France to be held in ‘20

By
Rich Perelman
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Former International Weightlifting Federation president Tamas Ajan (HUN). (Photo: IWF)

The latest news, notes and quotes from the worldwide Five-Ring Circus:

● Weightlifting ● An era ended on Wednesday, as International Weightlifting Federation chief Tamas Ajan (HUN) formally resigned his office, bowing to internal pressure before he could be expelled by the federation itself.

Owing to his continuing activities as IWF President while he is under investigation of allegations made in January in a German ARD television documentary, including managing IWF financial accounts, speaking for the federation in meetings with the International Olympic Committee and interfering with the work of Acting President Ursula Papandrea (USA), Ajan’s retirement was approved by the IWF Executive Board Wednesday.

The IWF statement noted that “As part of his retirement, Ajan has tendered his resignation from the position of IWF President with immediate effect.” ARD reported that the Executive Board had, in fact, voted to expel him, but Ajan retired before the vote was announced.

Said Papandrea in the statement, “The IWF thanks Tamas Ajan for more than four decades of service to weightlifting, and most notably for his work in recent years to ensure an anti-doping programme which meets the standards of the IOC and WADA is in place. We can now begin the work of determining a fresh path towards achieving the full potential of our sport.”

Ajan, now 81, had an amazing career in international sport, becoming the Secretary General of the IWF in 1975 and President in 2000, winning five elections for the sport’s top position. He succeeded Austrian Gottfried Schodl, whose passing (at age 96) was announced by the IWF on Tuesday (14th). Schodl was also a long-time IWF chief, serving as president from 1972 through 2000. Ajan was, for 10 years, a member of the International Olympic Committee.

One of the positive attributes of Ajan’s stewardship was a determination to maintain strong financial reserves, recognizing the precarious position of weightlifting in the Olympic Games due to its outrageous doping record. The last set of financial statements posted on the IWF Web site showed that at the end of 2017, the federation had almost $35 million in reserves against a typical annual expenditure of about $4 million a year (a quarter of which goes for anti-doping activities).

Ajan saw the IWF through a possible elimination from the Olympic program for 2024 and has been returned by the IOC to regular status, although with increased scrutiny for the future. After the Tokyo Games, the IWF will once again be entitled to an IOC payment of about $15.37 million.

Papandrea and the IWF Board will now be able to focus on the administration of the Olympic competition in Tokyo, on the results of the continuing investigation of the allegations made in the ARD documentary, and eventually on removing the federation’s affairs from Ajan’s Budapest office to the IWF’s listed office in Lausanne (SUI).

It will also, no doubt, undertake more serious promotion of the sport; the federation’s Web site is one of the worst among all of the International Federations, but given the sport’s long history, could be one of the most interesting.

● International Olympic Committee ● In the aftermath of his brilliant interview in Welt am Sonntag, where he brushed aside a lengthy series of accusatory questions about his stewardship of the Olympic Movement, and especially the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games, IOC President Thomas Bach is now being hailed as a possible “president for life”?

You could get that impression from no less than ARD documentary boss Hajo Seppelt (GER), who tweeted on Tuesday:

“I would not exclude anymore that Bach will find claqueurs who will desperately ask whether he would be ready to stay longer in charge as the maximum of 12 yrs (means until 2025) and that there could be a majority to adopt the IOC regulations for a Lex Bach”

Seppelt’s tweet in German was a bit less – shall we say – respectful (per Google Translate)

“How long will this man stay IOC President? I no longer consider it out of the question that he will find claqueurs who wish him to last for a maximum period (until 2025 = 12 years) and officially adjusted (Putin style 😉 regulations.”

Seppelt’s ARD associate, Grit Hartmann, chimed in with:

“Anything but that Bach naturally extends his term of office would be the surprise. By 2024/25 – what difference does that make? And: There isn’t a single opponent in sight, is there?”

Bach, for his part, told the Welt am Sonntag that he hadn’t made up his mind whether to run for an additional four years as IOC President in 2021. However, there is no doubt that he will be re-elected for an extended term … at this point.

Comment: Although Seppelt and Hartmann are supremely sure of their opinions, what is true is that there is no such thing as a sure thing.

● Gymnastics ● A small development in the USA Gymnastics case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana, where the motion by several insurers to delay the time to file objections to the federation’s plan for reorganization was granted. The new due date for the filings is 30 April 2020.

This isn’t going to be concluded anytime soon.

● Football ● Former FIFA Secretary General and President Sepp Blatter (SUI) was back in the news this week.

First, one of the two charges against him filed by Swiss prosecutors was dropped, in specific an allegation that he deliberately arranged the below-market sale of television rights to the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups to FIFA Vice President Jack Warner (TTO), allowing the latter to make millions off the sale to an actual broadcaster. There is still the matter of a $2 million payment to former UEFA chief Michel Platini (FRA) … for no apparent reason!

Then on Wednesday, Blatter – now 84 – suggested that the United States could serve as a replacement organizer for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, in view of a U.S. Department of Justice indictment made public last week that indicates that both Russia (for 2018) and Qatar (for 2022) paid bribes to secure their selection as host countries.

In comments to German magazine Sport Bild, Blatter noted:

“Germany could do it. But this would mean the World Cup being staged in Europe again after 2018.

“Europe therefore would not be first choice. The United States could do it instead of 2026. They are capable, it’s not rocket science! Japan could also do it. They also bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

“Fortunately, the 2022 World Cup will only have 32 teams and not 48 as [FIFA president Gianni Infantino] had planned. The organisational effort would not be bigger than 2018.”

As one might imagine, the Qatar organizers were not pleased with the comments.

Blatter has maintained his innocence continuously since resigning as FIFA President in 2015, and expects to be named as “Honorary President” once his name is cleared. Not likely.

● Cycling ● The centerpiece of the cycling world is, of course, the annual Tour de France. That race was postponed on Wednesday, from a 27 June to start to 29 August and finishing on 20 September … at least for now.

As the UCI World Tour calendar has been wiped out by the coronavirus, the importance of the Tour de France has been highlighted. A Tuesday story from Agence France Presse warned of a possible “economic meltdown” in the sport if the Tour is not held in 2020.

Said Jean-Francois Mignot, a demographics expert for the French National Centre for Scientific Research and a Tour de France historian, “Cancellation opens the door to a possible economic meltdown in the cycling sector. …

“Most sponsors are in cycling for this reason alone, the whole thing is centered around the Tour de France. If these sponsors invest money it is because television viewers recognize the team jerseys, it is the only cycling race watched by such a vast audience.”

According to Groupama-FDJ boss Marc Madiot, “It’s as simple as this. If the Tour does not take place, teams could disappear, riders and staff alike would find themselves unemployed.”

The French government has prohibited mass gatherings until mid-July at the earliest, although there has been discussion that since the economic impact of the Tour de France is primarily vested in its television audience, the event could be held without spectators. Riders who have had to put up with spectator clowns getting in their way on dangerous uphill climbs probably won’t mind having a clean path … for once.

LANE ONE: Financial implosion of college athletics now threatens Olympic-sport programs in the U.S.

By
Rich Perelman
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It was going to happen, the only question was when. And when is now.

Yahoo! Sports obtained and published a 9 April letter from the commissioners of five Division I collegiate conferences to the head of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, asking for relief from the requirements to be classified in Division I.

The five signatories, representing the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference, called the current situation “the direst financial crisis for higher education since at least the Great Depression.”

In specific, the letter asks “temporary relief from several regulatory requirements for a period of up to four years.” These include:

● Minimum of 16 varsity intercollegiate sports for Division I status;
● Minimum number of games/meets/matches in each sport;
● Offering a minimum of 200 athletics scholarships (or spent $4 million) annually;
● Qualifying requirements to compete in Division I championships;
● Home-game and scheduling requirements in football and basketball.

The letter continues that “Providing short-term relief from a handful of regulatory requirements will facilitate the opportunity for institutions to retrench and rebuild the financial structures of the institution. Additionally, this will allow time for the membership to engage in discussions about a post-COVID-19 world.”

The Yahoo! Sports story noted the recent elimination of men’s soccer at the University of Cincinnati and wrestling at Old Dominion. These are not catalysts, only symptoms of the financial sickness which is enveloping Division I programs.

Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson told reporter Pete Thamel:

“We have to be creative in these times. I cannot emphasize enough that our intent is to maintain the same level of sports sponsorships. Is there a way to work on the edges or requirements, like the minimum number of contests? How can we reduce sports without eliminating sports?”

Along with the Tokyo 2020 reset, unrest in Congress over its response to the Larry Nassar and other athlete-abuse scandals and questions about the financial viability of several National Governing Bodies, this is an oncoming crisis for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. The U.S. elite-athlete feeder system depends on collegiate programs for the vast majority of its athletes in track & field, swimming, volleyball and wrestling – among others – and indirectly for baseball and basketball.

If collegiate competition withers, especially in track and swimming – which account for 54% of all medals won by Americans in Olympic history – the U.S. could cease to be among the top medal winners at the Games. Not important? Think about what happens to U.S. television rights sales beyond 2032 and sponsorships from American corporations. Winning means ratings, ratings mean money.

These collegiate finance issues are well known, with scholarships and travel two of the largest expenses. These can add up quickly.

Take track & field at UCLA for example. A long-time power under Jim Bush and Bob Larsen, the program has fallen on hard times this century, but is returning to competitiveness under third-year coach Avery Anderson. But consider the travel scheduled for the Bruins for 2020, in a department that has to overcome a $36 million deficit over the last two academic years:

● Indoor meets in Flagstaff, Arizona; Seattle, Washington (3 different meets); New York, New York; Albuquerque, New Mexico (2), and Notre Dame, Indiana, plus the conference meet in Seattle and the NCAA Indoors in Albuquerque. None of those are driving distance from Los Angeles.

● Outdoor meets in San Luis Obispo, Riverside, Palo Alto, Azusa, Walnut and Northridge, California, plus the conference meet in Corvallis, Oregon, NCAA Regionals at Kansas and the NCAA Championships in Texas.

If you’re looking at UCLA’s finances, how can all that indoor travel be justified when the Bruins really don’t compete that strongly in indoor track? And is it that important, anyway? The outdoor season keeps everything within driving distance except for the trip to Palo Alto and the only out-of-state trips are for the Pac-12 Conference meet and NCAAs. That’s the future.

The USOPC isn’t asleep on this, having formed its own Collegiate Advisory Council back in 2017. It includes NCAA sports heavyweights, including the athletic directors from Alabama, Duke, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State.

But even with their support, there are significant sports already on life-support at the collegiate level. In the latest report on NCAA sports participation (for 2018-19) multiple Olympic-sport programs show very low levels of participation:

● Men/Fencing: 21
● Men/Gymnastics: 15
● Men/Rifle: 18
● Men/Volleyball: 22
● Men/Water Polo: 25
● Men/Wrestling: 76

● Women/Fencing: 26
● Women/Rifle: 24
● Women/Water Polo: 33

By contrast, women’s basketball has 349 schools participating in Division I and men’s basketball has 351. Some 254 schools play football, either in the Football Bowl Subdivision (129) or Football Championship Subdivision (125).

Along with wrestling, swimming and diving has a fairly low number of Division I schools participating, with 133 men’s programs and 195 women’s programs. The healthiest sports in terms of participation are basketball and track and cross country; the running sports have more than 330 women’s teams and 286 men’s teams competing in Division I.

In addition to the sports themselves, look for a close examination by each school of the number of scholarships supported. Cross country and track combined are allowed a paltry limit of 12.6 for men and 18 for women; men’s swimming tops out at 9.9 while the women get 14.

The financial crisis already well along in collegiate athletics has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis and the possibility that the 2020 college football season could be canceled, partially canceled, postponed, or played without fans in stadiums will only make matters worse.

The next question is what to do about this, and the USOPC has taken its first steps to work with colleges on co-branding strategies and saluting its Olympic athletes. But the question is going to come back to money, something most collegiate athletic departments are short of, now and at least until college football – with fans in the stands – comes back in force.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HEARD AT HALFTIME: DeFrantz on spineless USOC ‘80 boycott vote; Bach slaps critics; is IWF’s Ajan out this time?

By
Rich Perelman
-
Olympic bronze medalist and U.S. IOC member Anita DeFrantz (Photo: anitadefrantz.com)

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Games of the XXII Olympiad: Moscow 1980 ● Anita DeFrantz was a 1976 Olympic bronze medalist in rowing, made the 1980 U.S. team, and later became a member of the International Olympic Committee. She composed an open letter to Olympic fans on yesterday’s 40-year anniversary of the USOC vote not to attend the Moscow Games:

The Modern Olympic Games started in 1896, and since then, the only Olympic Games cancellations were for WWI and WWII. Now for the first time there has been a postponement of the Games. The Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled for this year will instead take place in 2021.

As an IOC member and Olympian, I know how difficult this postponement is for the host city and certainly for the athletes training to compete in those Games. No one knows how adding a year to the quadrennial effort will affect athletes. I know that athletes will find some way to train. Although some may lose their chance to be known as Olympians.

Forty years ago, I looked at April 12 as my date with destiny. And that day certainly changed my path in life. April 12, 1980 was the date for the USOC House of Delegates meeting which would vote on the US athletes’ right to compete in Moscow. It was crushing for me to know that only 30% of the assembled delegates voted to support the athletes’ right to compete. The others I called medical miracles because they could walk without a spine.

They knew that every athlete had found their own way to an Olympic sport and that we had to finance all our training. Not a penny of federal, state or local taxpayer funds supported the US athletes training with the goal of becoming a member of the 1980 US Olympic Team.

As an attorney, I knew that our only chance was to sue the USOC. Spoiler alert, we lost at both the district level and on appeal. During one of the administration’s briefings held at the State Department, I asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, General David C. Jones, USAF, if our staying at home would save at least one life. His response was, “No.”

The IOC supported the 1980 Moscow Games, as we do for each Host City. Documents from the Carter Presidential Library reveal the Carter Administration’s wish to destroy the IOC. In addition to the U.S., Canada, Japan, West Germany and others, kept their teams at home. Many others, to avoid governmental embarrassment, competed under the Olympic Flag, not their national flag.

Much has changed in 40 years. Today, of the 15 members of the IOC Executive Board there are eight Olympians, four women and four men. Two of us suffered through political machinations of 1980 and we have firsthand knowledge of the how that affected the rest of an athlete’s life.

I admire today’s athletes and hope they will stay safe and healthy. Unlike 40 years ago, it is abundantly clear that through this postponement, countless lives will be saved.

Anita L. DeFrantz
IOC Vice President
1976 Olympian
1980 U.S. Olympic Team member

DeFrantz’s note that two members of the current IOC Executive Board were impacted by the 1980 Olympic boycott include her and IOC President Thomas Bach of Germany.

If you’re interested in DeFrantz’s lawsuit, you can find the decision in DeFrantz vs. United States Olympic Committee, 492 F.Supp. 1181 (D.D.C., 1980) here. The decision was affirmed, without opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeal for the D.C. Circuit at 701 F.2d 221.

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● If you were worried about the beating that Bach has been taking on social media and in the German, Canadian and American media, don’t be. Because he isn’t.

In a lengthy interview in the German newspaper Welt on Sonntag, Bach responded to a series of sharply-worded questions as if the reporter was trying to jab him with a paper airplane. A sampling:

Q.: Herr Bach, how does it feel to be the bogeyman of world sport?

Bach: You could perhaps get that impression from a certain section of the German press, but in reality I think it’s far from being true. When you consider that the postponement of the Games was supported by all 206 National Olympic Committees, all the Summer Olympic Federations, all IOC members and the athletes’ representatives elected by their peers, then the situation is pretty clear. It took us just three days to get agreement for the postponement of the Olympic Games and another six to announce a new date. That speaks for itself.

Q: How do you explain the especially harsh criticism you’ve received in your home country?

Bach: As ever, we can’t speak of “the” German media, since there have also been examples of balanced reporting. It’s a well-known fact, though, that there are a handful of people in the media who make no secret of their personal animosity towards me. So far as they are concerned, I haven’t made a single good decision in over ten years. This animosity finds particularly forceful expression on social media, with the people in question sometimes even resorting to defamatory statements in their attempts to intimidate those who express a different view.

A few more Bach quotes worth noting:

● “There have been all kinds of conspiracy theories. The facts paint a completely different picture.”

● “[U]nlike cancellation, [postponement] was not a decision the IOC could take on its own. And to counter the conspiracy theories on this point, too, I want to make it clear that the IOC’s insurance would have covered cancellation, but does not cover postponement. But postponement required the agreement of the Organising Committee, which needed to be prepared to carry on for another year; and the Japanese government also had to be willing to go on supporting the preparations.”

● “We really cannot be accused of either undue hesitation or a lack of consultation or transparency. The process was simply the result of consultations with our Japanese partners, which progressed much faster than our initial discussions on 22 March had led us to expect.”

● “In critical situations like this, you can’t expect universal support. You can’t satisfy everyone. The support that really counted was the trust that the Olympic Movement placed in its leadership. This support never wavered, even when some of the critical voices were at their loudest and most public. The many personal messages I have received from all over the world in the last three or four weeks have also been very uplifting.”

In response to a question about Canada declaring it would not send a team to Tokyo in 2020, Bach noted “Under the terms of the Olympic Charter, every NOC is obliged to send a team to the Olympic Games. This rule was put in place in the wake of the boycotts of 1980 and 1984″ and added “It is our view that no group, however constituted, can override the right of the individual athlete to decide. We would even take any necessary steps to assist individual athletes in the exercise of this right,” setting up the hypothetical possibility that an athlete could compete from an NOC that refused to attend the Games! Watch for that comment to be activated in the future.

This was by far Bach’s most pointed response to criticism he has received. While some will continue to dismiss him, he will get high marks for taking the interview and then taking on the interviewer. Whether you like Bach or not, this was an impressive performance.

● Weightlifting ● The situation within the International Weightlifting Federation has come to a head. In the aftermath of the German ARD television documentary on weightlifting and its president, Hungary’s Tamas Ajan, he “stepped away” from his duties and Ursula Papandrea, head of USA Weightlifting, was installed as acting president.

But in a letter circulated to the other members of the IWF Board last week and promptly leaked to ARD’s Hajo Seppelt – Papandrea detailed a series of actions showing that rather than releasing his position, Ajan has continued almost as usual, in charge of IWF finances, representing the IWF on teleconferences with the IOC and more.

Papandrea further stated that she was “explicitly threatened to be arrested among other insults and implicit threats,” and resolved: “I feel you are no longer suited to either represent or lead this organization in accordance with the Terms set forth by the IWF Executive Board and continue to violate them.”

She then asked the Executive Board members to vote on her motion to expel Ajan as a member of the Executive Board until the matter can be voted on by the IWF Congress.

The votes were to be made in response to Papandrea’s e-mail, with the results expected in the next few days. Stay tuned.

LANE ONE: Remembering the worst day in the history of the U.S. Olympic Movement: the vote to boycott Moscow ‘80

By
Rich Perelman
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U.S. President Jimmy Carter in April 1980

Forty years ago, the United States Olympic Committee faced a choice it hopes never to face again. Mike Moran served as the chief spokesman for the USOC for nearly 25 years, from 1979-2003 and remembers that day. He is currently the Senior Media Consultant for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.

April 12, 1980, was a day 40 years ago in Colorado Springs that changed the course of history for American Olympic athletes and destroyed the careers of more than two hundred of them who would never compete in future Games.

By a vote of 1,704 to 697 at the Antlers Hotel, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s House of Delegates voted to accede to President Jimmy Carter’s demand for a USA boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. It almost put the USOC out of business. Colorado Springs would never have become “Olympic City USA.”

Ahead of the fateful vote that morning at the Antlers Hotel in downtown Colorado Springs, speeches by Vice President Walter Mondale and USOC Treasurer and former Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon kept a packed, closed ballroom in suspense and silence, though a vote to stay home from Moscow seemed to be a foregone conclusion after what the USOC had endured since Carter announced the boycott option on January 20.

Carter proposed on that day that the Moscow Olympics be moved to another country or postponed or canceled if the Soviet Union failed to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within a month. Declaring that “it is very important for the world to realize how serious a threat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is,” the President said that if the troops were not withdrawn in a month he would ask the United States Olympic Committee to urge the International Olympic Committee to transfer or cancel the Moscow games. Failing that, the President said he would suggest to the USOC that it formally withdraw American athletes from the games.

The Soviet incursion, though widely debated, wasn’t as well reported then as it would be in today’s massive 24/7 news cycles. Americans knew that the USSR army was in Afghanistan, but that stayed unimportant for most. That is until Carter decided to use the Olympics and American athletes as a political tool.

Mondale had flown into Colorado Springs to address the group, pulling out some powerful rhetoric that sounds ironic four decades later: “History holds its breath for what is at stake is no less than the future security of the civilized world. If one nation can be subjugated by Soviet aggression, is any sovereign nation truly safe from that fate? … If the Soviet lunge toward the most strategic oil-rich spot on earth fails to unite us, what will?”

Simon told the group before the vote, “It is somewhat incredulous that a group of mature persons whom I consider to be among the most patriotic of Americans can seriously discuss defying the President of the United States on a national security issue.” Ever the patriot despite his lofty USOC position and support for American athletes, Simon toed the line, rolling over for the White House and its hollow script.

After those remarks, the USOC’s House of Delegates bitterly accepted the president’s order, voting to withdraw from the Moscow Games. But the vote was far from unanimous, and some feared for the USOC’s future. All who were part of that weekend knew, beyond doubt, they would never forget or feel any better about what they had done. And they despised the fact that the White House had forced them, as the USOC, to stab American athletes in the heart.

Today, this special team is still not recognized by the IOC as an Olympic Team, and I hope that USOPC might do the right thing and deliver a special recognition event for these athletes someday in Olympic City USA.

Carter, desperate for a supportive vote from the USOC, was informed that the International Olympic Charter states that “National Olympic Committees must be autonomous and must resist all pressures of any kind whatsoever, whether of a political, religious, or economic nature . . .” and that the USOC constitution itself maintains “no member of the USOC may deny or threaten to deny any amateur athlete the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games.” So, Carter decided to use national security as his rationale to force the committee to violate these rules.

The deplorable decision by the USOC came after intense pressure from the Carter administration that included pointed calls to USOC sponsors urging them not to make critical payments to the organization unless it supported the boycott.

The Carter State Department team threatened President Robert J. Kane and Executive Director Col. F. Don Miller in other ways.

Miller was privately threatened with the loss of his U.S. Army retirement benefits (he was a decorated World War II combat officer), and the loss of some of the Olympic Training Center property in Colorado Springs that still belonged to the Defense Department related to the site’s former designation as ENT Air Force Base. Members of Congress hinted at elimination of the USOC’s charitable deductions for contributions.

Reflecting on the boycott years later, I wrote that “466 American athletes sat out the Olympics while 81 nations competed in Moscow: 219 of them never got another chance to make a future Olympic team, their dreams dying in the embers of a fire that proved to be one of the biggest mistakes ever in using sport and athletes as political pawns.”

Eventually 60 other countries joined the United States in staying away from Moscow. A number of Western countries did not observe the boycott, notably Great Britain, France, Italy, and Sweden. In all, about 5,000 athletes representing 81 countries did attend the Games. Protests against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan continued, however. Several of the participating countries refused to attend the opening ceremony, and the Olympic hymn was played at several medal ceremonies, rather than the appropriate national anthem. The Games were also hurt by rowdy behavior from spectators, cheating by officials, and security so intrusive that winners in track events were physically prevented from taking victory laps.

On July 26, 1980, we came to Washington, the U.S. Olympic Team that wasn’t. American athletes and our USOC staff and delegation had nowhere else to go while 5,512 athletes from 81 nations competed in Moscow, in the hollow Olympic Games boycotted by the U.S. and 65 other nations.

During a week of events staged and funded by the financially strapped USOC to celebrate the team, there was little talk of the Games going on in Moscow, no live television in the United States, and little in the newspapers of the day.

On a sweltering July 30 morning on the steps of the Capitol, we heard President Jimmy Carter incredibly thank the athletes for their sacrifice, telling them it would be significant in the effort to force the Soviets out of Afghanistan. To have gone to Moscow, he said, would have validated the USSR’s incursion into Afghanistan in 1979.

When Carter departed, the American athletes, one by one, mounted the steps to receive special medals commissioned and ironically paid for by the USOC, medals eventually recognized in 2007 by the Congress of the United States as Congressional Gold medals, the highest and most distinguished civilian award of our nation.

The boycott had nearly destroyed the USOC. Miller went to Washington and got a commitment of $10 million, based on a matching fund-raising campaign with Congress. He told me and four other USOC executives that he was going to have to furlough us until he got the commitment. I almost took a job at Princeton University, but then Miller asked me to stay. The money came only after Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1981 with the help of future, two-time USOC President Bill Hybl of Colorado Springs, who was part of the Reagan team at the White House.

It ultimately fell on the shoulders of the USOC and Los Angeles Games leader Peter Ueberroth and the success of the 1984 Games to produce stability for the USOC and its bright renaissance that continued today. The Soviets boycotted the L.A. Games in revenge.

Years later, 1984 the late Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling gold medalist Jeff Blatnick, who was on that ’80 team, told a story that startles me even now. He was on an airplane, flying from Bismarck, N.D., to Minneapolis and came upon former President Carter, seated in the first-class cabin.

“As soon as the plane gets up in the air and levels off, he gets up and starts saying hi to everybody,” recalls Blatnick. “I say to the person next to me, ‘I wonder how this is going to be.’ He gets to me, I go, ‘President Carter, I have met you before, I am an Olympian.’ He looks at me and says, ‘Were you on the 1980 hockey team?’ I say, ‘No sir, I’m a wrestler, on the summer team.’ He says, ‘Oh, that was a bad decision, I’m sorry.’”

In the spring of 1996, when it was announced that Carter, a Georgia icon, would run a leg of the official Atlanta Olympic torch near Plains, his hometown, a cadre of 1980 U.S. Olympians who were denied their place in history went to Carter representatives and threatened a major retaliatory response if the former President were to touch an Olympic Torch, wear official clothing, and join in the run.

Carter soon notified the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games that he would not participate because of a schedule conflict. He was scheduled by ACOG to carry the torch on July 12, in his hometown of Plains, Ga.

“He was honored to be chosen and he wanted to run, but he can’t because of a scheduling conflict that will take him out of the country,” said a Carter representative.

In June, 2005, I was the Senior Communications Counselor for NYC2012, the bid group for New York City for the 2012 Olympic Games.

In the early morning hours of July 5, 2005 at Rockefeller Center, we had the feed of the final vote among Paris, London, New York, Madrid and Moscow displayed on a big screen for scores of people at a site erected to celebrate if NYC won.

After the first round of voting by the IOC in Singapore, a terse announcement appeared on the big screen.

“Moscow will not advance,” said the IOC spokesman.

Sometimes, what comes around …

Our thanks to Mike for allowing to share his memories of a bad day in Olympic history.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE TICKER: USA Swimming confirms dates for 2021 Olympic Trials, but T&F faces a possible conflict with the NCAAs in Eugene

By
Rich Perelman
-

The latest news, notes and quotes from the worldwide Five-Ring Circus:

● U.S. Olympic Trials ● The highest-profile U.S. Olympic Trials events had been lined for a two-week show this June, but with the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games for a year, the question of the Trials dates also has to be resolved.

The first to declare its dates is USA Swimming, which today announced new dates of 13-20 June, 2021, once again at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Said USA Swimming Chief Operating Officer Mike Unger:

“We are incredibly thankful to the USOPC, NBC, the Omaha Sports Commission, the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority and every other partner involved in successfully moving an event of this magnitude to new dates that will best prepare our team to succeed in Tokyo in 2021.

“Fans can expect to witness the same incredible level of competition and entertainment throughout this highly-anticipated event.”

It’s worthwhile to note the mention of NBC in the statement, as the network had two weeks of Trials events lined up for this summer in advance of the Games. As scheduled for 2020:

● 14-21 June 2020: USA Diving Olympic Trials in Indianapolis
● 19-28 June 2020: USA Track & Field Olympic Trials in Eugene
● 21-28 June 2020: USA Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha
● 25-28 June 2020: USA Gymnastics Artistic Olympic Trials in St. Louis

With the dates of the Tokyo Games essentially in the same place on the calendar in 2021 as in 2020, the question is whether the American Trials events will be lined up again as was the plan – especially for NBC – for this year.

For diving and gymnastics, there is no reason to change, as there are no impediments to the competition schedule, but the use of the Enterprise Center in St. Louis could be in question.

For track & field, the situation is more complex. For 2020, the NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships were scheduled for 10-13 June in Austin, Texas, with the Olympic Trials to follow the week after.

But for 2021, the NCAAs are scheduled for Eugene’s Hayward Field for 9-12 June – Wednesday through Saturday – meaning that the Trials could not be held there concurrent with the swimming trials in Omaha.

Further, there would be significant pressure on the T&F Trials organizers to be able to arrange their installations – just five days – in time to start the following Friday for an 18-27 June Trials schedule … in the same stadium.

If the 18-27 June dates could work, that could also work well for NBC, giving the network the same two-week spread it had planned for this year. The diving trials could likely be moved as needed, but the gymnastics event is still subject to venue availability in St. Louis.

But the Trials really need to end by 27 June, as the qualifying deadline for the Tokyo Games is on 29 June 2021.

Will the NCAAs be moved to allow more time for Trials set-up? Can the television cabling, sponsor signage, media seating and mixed zone infrastructure and hospitality arrangements all be made in time? Will the Trials build-out be half-completed around the Pre Classic and NCAAs, and then finished during the following week?

NBC, among many others, would like to know. Then again …

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● Confirming once again that he is the chief executive of an organizing committee and not a fortune teller, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto told a media teleconference today (English via an interpreter):

“I don’t think anyone would be able to say if it is going to be possible to get it under control by next July or not. We’re certainly are not in a position to give you a clear answer.”

COVID-19 infections have been on the rise in Japan, with a significant escalation over the past week, but how long this will extend is anyone’s guess.

● Gymnastics ● The legal tug-of-war at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana has picked up again in the USA Gymnastics case.

Because of the COVID-19 situation, hearings have been put off, but a 13 April date had been set for the filing of objections to the USA Gymnastics reorganization proposal, which includes an election by survivors on a $217.5 settlement offer.

On Thursday afternoon, seven of the insurers in the case asked for an extension to 30 April to file their objections to the USA Gymnastics proposal. The filing included some aggressive language from the insurers, including:

“[T]he undersigned Insurers desire that the Proposed Plan include a settlement option. However, the Proposed Plan does not reflect necessary material terms, injects different terms than proposed when offers were made, and further, is deficient as to other fundamental terms, including scope of injunctive protection, scope of buy back of insurance, releases (including from USOPC and other Protected Parties) and other affirmative obligations.”

and

“More fundamentally, the changes necessary to effect a settlement with the insurers will require not only changes to the disclosure statement, but changes in the Proposed Plan. Releases from additional insureds and USOPC in favor of the insurers are lacking, as are Proposed Plan definitions, the Channeling Injunction, the Settling Insurer Injunction, terms of insurer buy back agreements (which are not included in the Plan). All of these provisions must be expanded to encompass all Abuse Claims and other claims being barred and all coverages and policies being released.”

In other words, the insurers are asking that a complete plan – including all of the promised injunctions and releases mentioned in it – be included. This will lengthen the preparation process, but allow the insurers to have all of the claims against them settled at once … if the settlement option is approved.

The Survivors Committee followed up six hours later with a filing in agreement with the insurers, accusing USA Gymnastics of wasting its time in preparing a detailed objection to the proposal plan.

USA Gymnastics’ attorneys were ready with a response by 10:21 a.m. Friday morning, lambasting both filings:

“The Insurers’ Motion and the Response [of the Survivors Committee] filed just hours later give this Court a glimpse into the gamesmanship that is impeding the Debtor’s ability to reorganize.

“The Insurers’ apparent strategy is to create leverage by dragging out the case and adding additional and unnecessary administrative expense (all the while failing to reimburse the Debtor’s legal fees that they are obligated to pay). The Committee’s apparent strategy is to create leverage by resorting to media campaigns against the Debtor instead of engaging in good faith negotiations over the Committee’s issues with the Disclosure Statement and the Plan. The Court should not condone this behavior.”

The USA Gymnastics filing goes on to note that the very purpose of the objections deadline is to get everyone’s comments together so that a final reorganization plan can be created and then voted on by the claimants.

Further, the USAG filing slapped back at both parties. The insurer filing stated that USAG had not responded to its comments on the original proposal, but the USAG response noted that

“[T]he Insurers’ suggestion that the Debtor failed to engage with them over their comments to the Disclosure Statement and Plan is simply not true. The Debtor has participated in a series of telephone conferences and e-mail exchanges with the Insurers, including a lengthy conference on March 19, 2020, and the Debtor intends to continue this dialogue. The Debtor’s counsel provided the Insurers … (along with the [Survivors] Committee …) with an amended plan and disclosure statement on April 10, 2020, that incorporated comments from the Insurers, Twistars, and the United States Trustee (the only parties who provided preliminary comments to the Disclosure Statement). The Debtor is continuing to work through the comments it received from the Insurers and other parties and expects to file an amended disclosure statement with its response to any objections on April 16, 2020. Notably, the [Survivors] Committee has not provided the Debtor with any comments as of the date of this Objection.”

Now it’s up to the Bankruptcy Court to decide whether to grant the extension.

● Wrestling ● Looking to the future, one of the goals of USA Wrestling is to help the development of women’s wrestling at the collegiate level. To that end, USA Wrestling posted a story announcing a plan to create a community college national women’s wrestling championships event in 2021.

A conference call with community-college coaches and administrators, and USA Wrestling staff took place in February, with the first community-college nationals in Freestyle wrestling slated for February 2021. According to the statement:

“Those teams invited will include community college programs affiliated with the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC), the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA), the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) and others, as well as wrestling-related college organizations including the National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA).”

Women’s wrestling is not a championship sport within the NCAA, but this is another step to build the foundation which can support its eventual inclusion.

That is, if wrestling – and many other limited-revenue sports – can survive.

LANE ONE: Did World Athletics give the U.S. a golden gift with July dates for 2022 World Champs?

By
Rich Perelman
-

/Updated/ World Athletics announced on Wednesday that it had settled on dates of 15-24 July for its 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

That’s the earliest date in history for the track & field Worlds, two weeks before the 1-10 August dates of the 1997 World Championships in Athens, Greece.

It also solves the scheduling problem for two other important events, the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England (27 July-7 August) and the European Athletics Championships in Munich, Germany (11-21 August).

According to World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe (GBR), “This will be a bonanza for athletics fans around the world.

“They will be treated to six weeks of absolutely first-class athletics. More than 70 of our Member Federations are part of the Commonwealth and more than 50 of our Member Federations are European so our guiding principle in rescheduling the World Championships was to ensure enough space was created around the centrepiece World Athletics Championship for athletes to choose other major events to compete in. We were also very mindful that we did not want to damage the other major championships in 2022, because they are also very important to our sport.”

There is another question to be asked: whether the re-scheduling of the 2022 Worlds has created a potential bonanza for the U.S. team?

The likely answer is yes.

After all, the World Championships has always been held in mid-summer or later, with 11 of the prior 17 meets starting on 10 August or later. So those athletes – especially collegians – who were in strong form at the end of the traditional U.S. season in June had to peak again for the U.S. Nationals in July and then a third time for the Worlds in August.

No problem now. USA Track & Field hasn’t announced revised dates for its Olympic Trials in 2021 – also in Eugene – but now has to determine how it will handle the condensed time frame for the 2022 Nationals that will select the World Championships team.

All of this starts with the collegiate schedule, which has already been fixed for 2022:

● 26-28 May: NCAA Division I Regionals (in Bloomington and Fayetteville)
● 26-28 May: NCAA Division II and Division III Championships
● 08-11 June: NCAA Division I Championships

(Update: Garry Hill of Track & Field News notes that Eugene was announced as the venue for the 2021 and 2022 NCAA Division I meets in 2018, but the site is not listed on the current NCAA Championships calendar.)

The World Championships in Eugene come five weeks after the NCAA Division I meet … wherever it is. So the options for the USATF Nationals – assuming a three-day, Friday-Sunday meet – include:

● 17-19 June: Week after the NCAAs; not likely
● 24-26 June: Two weeks after NCAAs: most promising slot
● 01-03 July: Three weeks after NCAAs, but only two weeks to Worlds: no.
● 08-10 July: Too close to Worlds

In addition to the collegiate schedule, there is the matter of the Wanda Diamond League calendar, which offers significant earning opportunities for elite athletes. For 2019, those meets started early in May and the first six (of 14) were completed by 16 June, with a two-week break until the Prefontaine Classic on 30 June. So a U.S. Nationals from 24-26 June – two weeks after the NCAA meet – would work, based on the 2019 line-up.

But then there is the matter of the Pre Classic, usually held in early June, but which has been staged as late as early July. Perhaps it gets held the same weekend as the NCAAs; maybe on Sunday (12 June) as the NCAA meet will finish on Saturday? Maybe the next week?

But complicating matters further is the installation schedule for the World Championships, which is exceedingly complicated. The timing, scoring, scoreboard, warm-up, meet management, sponsorship, television and media requirements are major construction projects in their own right, even with a shiny new Hayward Field facility.

If I’m Jakob Larsen (DEN), the new World Athletics Director of Competition & Events, I’m already well aware of this, having run the highly-regarded World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus in March, 2019. The course included an iconic uphill section on the grass roof of the Moesgaard Museum, so he should be ready to plan just about anything. But he and his very experienced production team will need time to get Hayward Field ready.

For Doha in 2019, the technical installations for the meet itself – not including television broadcast needs – included 100 laser projectors and more than 500 sq. m (~ 5,400 sq. ft.!) of temporary LED screens for event production, scoreboards and decor, on top of what was already installed in the Khalifa International Stadium. The program for Eugene should be just as lavish … and will take time to install, test and program.

With all of this in mind, it may not even be possible to hold the USATF Championships – and Worlds selection meet – at Hayward Field. Certainly the top U.S. athletes will have some experience with the new facility from the 2021 Prefontaine Classic and 2021 Olympic Trials, so it may not be essential to hold the USATF meet there. But then another spot has to be found; in recent years, Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa has been a willing USATF host, and the Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas has been a good host for the NCAA Championships. Perhaps Sacramento once again? And in a year with the Worlds in the U.S. for the first time, there will likely be others interested.

All of this leaves American athletes with a cultural and experience advantage over their foreign counterparts. For generations, track & field has been a spring sport in the U.S., culminating in June with the NCAA meet on the first weekend and – for many years – the AAU Championships, then the nationals – on the weekend following.

The schedule runs a little later now, but if the American selection meet is just three weeks before the Worlds – that would be the 24-26 June slot – look for more of the collegians to be able to hold on to their form and challenge for a spot at the Worlds. And in the last Worlds held early – 4-13 August 2017 in London (GBR) – the U.S. dominated with 30 medals (10 gold) with no one else close, as Kenya was second with 11 medals (5 gold).

One cautionary note. In the only IAAF Worlds previously held in North America, in Edmonton (CAN) in 2001, the U.S. had its worst performance ever, with only 13 medals (5-5-3), second to Russia’s 18 (5-7-6)!

Since then, American track & field athletes have won 16-25-26-22-28-26-18-30-29 medals in the succeeding Worlds, topping the total medals table every time from 2005 onwards: eight times in a row.

Look for nine in Eugene, and perhaps a new medals record. The most ever won at a single IAAF Worlds is 31 by the chemically-enhanced East German team in Rome in 1987 (23 by the East German women), one ahead of the 30 the U.S. won in London in 2017. What are the odds for a new record at a World Championships not only held in the U.S. for the first time, but for the first time on a U.S.-style schedule?

Rich Perelman
Editor

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HEARD AT HALFTIME: U.S. Dept. of Justice indicts four on bribes for 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups

By
Rich Perelman
-
Opening Ceremony of the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens (Photo: Wikipedia)

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed indictments against four men accused of receiving bribes for votes for the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.

The formal charges follow up testimony in previous cases that alleged at least three men – all from South America – received bribes to vote for Qatar, which won the right to host the 2022 event over the U.S. by 14-8, in 2010.

On Monday, Nicolas Leoz (PAR) and Ricardo Teixeira (BRA) were charged with taking bribes in the vote for the 2022 World Cup, and that Jack Warner (TTO) and Rafael Salguero (GUA) received bribes of more than $1 million to vote for Russia for the 2018 event.

Leoz, head of the South American football confederation (CONMEBOL) in 2010, died in 2019. Teixeira and Warner have remained in their home countries; 2017 testimony in other cases indicated that Argentine Julio Grondona, who died in 2014, also took a bribe to vote for Qatar.

Three broadcast executives, two of whom were part of 21st Century Fox subsidiaries, and a marketing company were charged with bribery and other crimes in the solicitation of rights to the Copa Libertadores tournament.

This is the latest installment of charges against FIFA and other football executives that began in 2015. According to the Associated Press, “there have been 26 publicly announced guilty pleas.”

A complete list of the FIFA Executive Committee members who voted for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 (and what happened to them as of December of 2015) is here.

● Athletics ● Further to our comment last week that moving the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon to July of 2022 could raise issues with the pollen season there, Prefontaine Classic meet director Tom Jordan suggested it shouldn’t be an issue:

“[M]ore effective (doping-)legal medications have really reduced the allergy problems among athletes. For example, it has been 20 years since an athlete has been seriously affected at the Prefontaine Classic, which is usually held during the peak of the pollen season. July 4th is known as Independence Day around here because beyond that date the allergens have lost their potency.”

● Basketball ● With all the hubbub surrounding the election of a great class of players into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, including Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and Tamika Catchings, the international committee also elected the late Patrick Baumann of Switzerland.

Baumann died at 51 from a heart attack in 2018 while at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires (ARG). Starting as a player, referee and coach, he was the Secretary-General of the International Basketball Association (FIBA) from 2002 until his death and was a key adviser to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach. He was a member of the International Olympic Committee himself and was prominently mentioned as a possible successor to Bach after the latter’s near-sure re-election in 2021.

Baumann was also the head of the IOC’s Coordination Commission for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles and established a close relationship with Mayor Eric Garcetti and organizing committee head Casey Wasserman.

● Swimming ● Swimming World Magazine added details to the announcement that the International Swimming League’s initiative to pay contracted swimmers a monthly stipend during what would have been the ISL season after the 2020 Olympic Games.

With the Games moved to 2021, ISL sent a letter to an estimated 320 swimmers, the 10 ISL teams and managers and coaches. The swimmers will receive $1,500 per month for 11 months from the start of September 2020 through the start of July in 2021. The 30 ISL “ambassadors” will receive from $3,500 to $5,000 per month. Swimming World called it the “first regular wage in their sport.”

The ISL’s planned five-week “solidarity camp” from mid-October to mid-November will include a series of competitions in the ISL style; possible locations could be in Australia, Japan, Budapest (HUN) or in the U.S., in Florida. The meets will be televised, and a documentary will be made of the program.

ISL founder and funder Konstantin Grigorishin (UKR) also updated the status of its lawsuits against FINA in U.S. federal court in the Northern District of California:

“We’re still in litigation process in the United States and we’re negotiating with them through lawyers. We’ve won the case but now we’re waiting for some final court decision or settlement with FINA. We’re not against FINA in principle, we’re against a monopoly and against FINA’s approach to organising competitions and treating athletes. We’re not against an organisation that can regulate the sport.”

In fact, ISL has won nothing yet, as the main issue in the case was rendered moot by a FINA policy declaration that non-FINA entities are welcome to organize competitions. But the two suits are going nowhere fast and should be settled, sooner rather than later.

● Weightlifting ● Doping and weightlifting continue to be a couple, as the International Weightlifting Federation announced substantial penalties against the national federations in Malaysia and Thailand due to multiple doping violations.

The sanctions were imposed by the federation’s independent disciplinary panel on 1 April:

● Malaysia was banned from the 2020 Olympic Games, taking place in 2021, and its athletes are banned for 11 months from the date when the next IWF competition takes place (in addition to the country’s voluntary recusal since 30 May 2018). The federation was banned from all IWF activities through 1 April 2021, but could be reinstated as early as 1 October 2020, based on a series of requirements.

● Thailand was banned from Tokyo 2020 (for 2021), was fined $200,000 and its under-18 lifters are banned for five months from the date of the next IWF event, and its senior-level competitors are banned for 11 months from that date (in addition to their voluntary recusal since 7 March 2019). The federation is suspended from the IWF until 1 April 2023 (three years). This could be reviewed as early as 7 March 2022, based on federation compliance with a defined set of anti-doping actions.

These sanctions can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by 21 April.

The IWF-ordered independent investigation into major doping issues raised by the German ARD documentary “Lord of the Lifters” that aired in January continues, under the direction of Canadian law professor Richard McLaren.

● At the BuZZer ● In addition to all of the tumult, it’s also worth noting that Monday (6 April) is also the 124th anniversary of the revival of the Olympic Games, in Athens, Greece in 1896.

The Opening Ceremony, with 241 athletes from 14 countries, took place in the ancient Panathenaic Stadium before an estimated crowd of 80,000 (pictured above). Five events and two finals took place in the stadium on that first day, all in track & field.

● The preliminary round of the 100 m began the program, with American Francis Lane winning the first race in modern Olympic history in 12.2. Heats were also held in the 400 m and 800 m.

● In the triple jump, Harvard’s James Connolly became the first Olympic gold medalist in the modern era, reaching 13.71 m (44-11 3/4). Connolly also finished third in the long jump on 7 April.

● In the discus, Princeton’s Robert Garrett won on his final throw, of 29.15 m (95-7 1/4). He also won the shot and was second in the high jump and long jump. He competed in Paris in 1900, taking bronzes in the shot and the standing triple jump.

From this humble beginning, a giant tradition grew.

LANE ONE: The coronavirus crisis is an opportunity to blow sport up and start over; FIFA’s Infantino is already on it

By
Rich Perelman
-

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In the wake of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, business has appeared to stop. It hasn’t.

Instead, as one veteran television executive put it to me recently, it’s an opportunity to blow everything up and start over. And in sports, the head of the world’s largest international federation is doing exactly that.

Just before the virus shut down the world of on-field sport, FIFA’s Gianni Infantino (SUI) addressed the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) at its 44th Ordinary Congress in Amsterdam (NED). In an excellent, 11-minute address, he told the assembly of the heads of European soccer that it’s time to look into changing everything:

“It’s important to have a spirit, a philosophy of debate, of discussion and to see what comes out. Maybe nothing, maybe something, but if we don’t discuss, we will not know it.

“As FIFA vice-president and president of the English F.A. [Greg Clarke] said after that meeting as well of the [International Football Association Board] where he praised the spirit of cooperation between everyone and mentioned in this spirit of cooperation the ongoing discussions on the international match calendar. I think that this will be really the topic – the international match calendar – that we have to focus on for the future of football. … It has to be fine-tuned. It has to be debated. It has to be discussed by all stakeholders.

“We have to ask ourselves many questions that maybe we avoided to ask ourselves in the past. ‘How many matches can a player play in a year?’ ‘How many competitions do we have?’ ‘How many competitions should we have?’ ‘What kind of competitions do we need for the future?’ ‘Do we play too much or don’t we play enough, maybe, in some parts of the world?’ And we have to realize that the international match calendar is a global match calendar which has to take into account many issues such as, of course, climate and geography.

“And, you know, [in] this we need to consider the fans as well. The fans are the lifeblood of football. I had the pleasure to assist in Belfast on Saturday the quarterfinal of the Irish F.A. Cup between Glentoran and Crusaders, and it was freezing cold. But there were a few thousand people watching this game and supporting their team. These are the true, core football fans and we have to work for them, of course, and offer them what they want to see, and if possible even a little bit more.”

How many sports as successful as football – the world’s most financially successful sport – are willing to look at everything? Not enough.

The questions Infantino is asking are the keys to success, but you rarely hear even the athletes involved voicing these issues in the comprehensive way Infantino did. Read them again:

(1) How many matches can a player play in a year?
(2) How many competitions do we have?
(3) How many competitions should we have?
(4) What kind of competitions do we need for the future?
(5) Do we play too much or don’t we play enough?
(6) How can fans get what they want to see, and if possible even a little bit more?

These questions – and one more noted below – apply to every sport, but most are set in their ways with a calendar that is either set by chance, by tradition or according to the whim of a supporter or sponsor. Time to blow it up – at least on paper – and start again … and see if the new concepts look anything like the current program.

One sport already in tumult is swimming, which has seen FINA, one of the most financially-sound federations, challenged by the new International Swimming League, founded and supported by Ukrainian metallurgy billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin.

With swimming’s schedule now being reset in the wake of the move of the 2020 Olympic Games to 2021, Swimming World Magazine reported that the head of the 14,000-member World Swimming Coaches Association, American George Block, has asked the FINA Coaches Commission to completely revise the way the sport is contested at the international level.

The magazine reported Block’s letter as suggesting:

“● handing the northern winter season over to the International Swimming League (ISL) in a new Pro-Sports partnership

“● shunting the World long-course Championships to 2022 or even 2023

“● dropping universality in favour of soccer-style regionalism; and

“● using the knockout blow of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic ‘as an opportunity to de-clutter the international schedule, create co-branding strategies … and to re-think international swimming, rather than focus on short-term finances’.”

Wrote Block:

“This opens a bigger, philosophic question. There are already too many ‘championships’. The International Federations (in all sports) have created – strictly for financial reasons – additional World Championships, World Cups, World Qualifiers, etc. The profits from these events grew the corruption capacity of the IFs, but it also lessened the importance of the unique, historic and traditional regional events.

“I cannot see FINA (or any of the other IFs) giving up their revenue-generating events, but this would be a wonderful opportunity to relook at the world calendar and rebuild it around the local events.”

Infantino is not the only one thinking about the future.

The head of World Athletics, Britain’s Sebastian Coe, wanted to tackle this question when he was elected in 2015, but has been bogged down in the Diack bribery and extortion scandals and the Russian doping quagmire. The recent hiring of Dane Jakob Larsen to head the federation’s Competition and Events team also carries with it the responsibility to figure out the sport’s disjointed calendar for the future (and with a new commission to do so).

Not mentioned by Infantino – because in football, it’s not a major issue – or by Block, is the added question that many athletes will raise if given the opportunity:

(7) How can I make a living in my chosen sport?

In the case of many of the sports on the Olympic program, it’s impossible. But if athletes, coaches, promoters, broadcasters, current and potential sponsors and the applicable federation actually discussed this together, the result would be (a) a better grip on reality and (b) the start of a real plan for the future.

FIFA, with Infantino pushing already, is moving ahead, trying to make the world’s biggest sport even bigger. In fact, he has released his own vision to do so, entitled “Football 2020-23: Truly Global.”

Everyone else is already playing catch-up with FIFA and if there isn’t vigorous movement in other sports to consider what they could be – as opposed to what they are – they’ll be even further behind.

And then there may be nothing to blow up at all.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE BIG PICTURE: World Games moved to 2022; three T&F champs in six weeks in ‘22, and pollen problems in Eugene?

By
Rich Perelman
-

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The ripple effects of the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games into 2021 are now being dealt with by international federations and multi-sport event bodies.

The XI World Games, to be held in Birmingham, Alabama, has been moved to 7-17 July of 2022. This is about a week earlier than the expected 2021 dates, but maintains the event in the American summer.

The reasons, as we will hear again and again, centered on logistics:

“When the IOC announced its decision, the [Birmingham Organizing Committee] urgently set about assessing what alternative dates might be viable, particularly regarding venues and accommodation. Meanwhile, the staff of the IWGA were establishing when the vital services provided by key partners, such as Swiss Timing and International Sports Broadcasting, could still be made available.”

More of these decisions are coming soon.

● Athletics ● The decision to move the 2021 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon to 2022 has already been made, but now the schedule is really crowded, with the Worlds, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (ENG) and the European Athletics Championships in Munich (GER) all on the schedule.

World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe (GBR) hopes for all three to be held in 2022, with perhaps one each in July (Worlds), August (Commonwealth Games) and Euros (August).

“I do want the treble to be on,” said Coe. “We’ve really not left any stone unturned here and we’ve still some conversations to go. We’re trying to navigate our way through what is a window, not much more than about six weeks, which is really challenging. But my guiding principle is that I don’t want to put athletes in a position where they’re perming one from three.”

A new problem for the Oregon21 organizers to consider: any early summer date for the World Championships in Eugene must take into account the ferocious pollen season in the area! According to OregonAllergyAssociates.com: “Usually the grass season is at its peak from Memorial Day (end of May) to Fourth of July, but depending on the climate can shift a little earlier or a little later.”

As for the Commonwealth Games, currently set for 27 July-7 August, Commonwealth Games Foundation President David Grevemberg (USA) told Britain’s The Telegraph, “We are working collaboratively with our international federation partners, including World Athletics and UEFA, to ensure the XXII Commonwealth Games maintains its position and stature on the global sporting calendar.”

Because of the coronavirus, the UEFA men’s championship has been pushed from 2020 to 2021 and the UEFA women’s tournament from 2021 to 2022.

Kenya’s The Standard reported that nearly 20 people were arrested on Thursday evening after locking themselves into a bar, violating a 7 p.m. curfew in Iten to fight the coronavirus.

The group included former marathon world-record holder Wilson Kipsang (2:03:23 in 2013), as well as a County Assembly member. “Our officers found the [County Assembly member], the athlete and other revelers hiding in a popular club in Iten. These are high profile individuals who should be helping us in enforcement of the curfew,” said Police Commander John Mwinzi.

● Swimming ● The International Swimming League, imperiled by the move of the Olympic Games to 2021, made a bold move to re-structure its 2020-21 program to accommodate – and induce its contracted athletes to continue their participation.

The ISL Solidarity Initiative announcement states “each athlete that has signed or will sign a contract with an ISL Club will receive an equal amount of money per month, starting 1st September 2020 until 1st July 2021. This financial grant shall assist the swimmers during these challenging times to prepare for major events in 2021 and a full ISL season in 2021/22. …

“As part of our initiative, ISL will organize later in 2020 an innovative training and competition experience for athletes and coaches for a duration of 4-5 weeks. We propose to host all athletes in one location in a world-class facility and cover all associated expenses. All athletes involved will have the opportunity to be accompanied by their home coach. During this period, scheduled from 14 October to 17 November, ISL will organize a commercial tournament in its revolutionary club format and add an exciting new reality concept to the production.”

This placement on the calendar conflicts with the last two of the six scheduled FINA Swimming World Cup events on 23-25 October (Berlin (GER)) and 30 October-1 November in Budapest (HUN), but steers clear of the short-course Worlds slated for 15-20 December in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

Comment: For the ISL perspective, this is probably better than actually having to produce its promised 27-event schedule from September to April, and offers a better opportunity to obtain buy-in from potential sponsors in the disrupted sports calendar of the next year. But even this bold programming idea could fall apart if there are further pandemic-related issues.

● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● The first to deepening the mental-health resources available to elite American athletes was taken with the formation of a 13-member “Mental Health Taskforce.” The group includes four athletes, a coach, two medical doctors, a psychologist and a professor in counseling.

“We are acutely aware of the mental health concerns facing our athletes – heightened by the current environment in the Olympic and Paralympic community – and are fully dedicated to being an active leader in providing support and resources to help athletes navigate the pressures, and at times, uncertainty, of their careers,” said Dr. Jonathan Finnoff, the USOPC’s chief medical officer. “The goal of the taskforce is to ensure athletes, and the staff who are entrusted with their care, are well-informed and prepared to recognize and respond to individuals in need, both before and once mental health concerns arise.”

The USOPC expects the work of this new group to lay the foundation for a more comprehensive mental-health program for American athletes, but no timetable has been set.

This is another step by the USOPC in fulfilling its promises to its Athletes Advisory Council and to the U.S. Congress, which may revisit its inquiry into the suitability of current legislation governing the U.S. Olympic Movement whenever it gets back to regular business.

LANE ONE: “All of us, we have to look at whether we are going to do exactly the same in a year from now, or whether we will have to adjust”

By
Rich Perelman
-

With the postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021 now confirmed, the enormous task of re-organizing the event for one year later is now underway in Tokyo, as well as around the world as staff members of International Olympic Committee work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

This was explored in a rare teleconference that featured four of the IOC’s staff directors and not President Thomas Bach (GER). Instead, the speakers included Executive Director of the Olympic Games Christophe Dubi (SUI), Sports Director Kit McConnell (AUS), National Olympic Committee Relations and Olympic Solidarity Director James Macleod (GBR), and Timo Lumme (FIN), the Managing Director of the IOC Television and Marketing Services. About 200 news media telephoned in live and more grabbed the audio recording here.

The short summary: the athlete experience is expected to be the same – more or less – in a year’s time. Everything else is up for review.

Dubi articulated this well in his opening remarks:

“One has to understand that Tokyo 2020 and the authorities were really close to delivery. When we speak [of] four months out, this is a machine that is ready to deliver. It has been trained, they have their volunteers identified, everybody is ready to go …

“And it’s a machine that was built on fundamentals built at the time of the candidature; this is seven years ago, where you have an Olympic Village that was contracted at the time, built and ready to operate. You have 41 sport venues, sport being the very core of everything: 41 venues that had very detailed contracts. Convention centers that would be hosting some of the competitions, but also media centers, such as the Tokyo Big Sight. Forty thousand hotel rooms that were booked by the organizing committee, plus many thousands of others booked internationally by agencies to host the world. Two thousand buses, logistics spaces, thousands of contracts for good and services, and all this towards a date, which was this summer.

“And all of this now has to be re-secured, one year later. So, it’s a massive undertaking to get to the fundamentals and make sure that, in a matter of weeks, we have secured all of this so that then, you have a task which is to plan for the remainder of the 16 months to go, [which] can be done with some certainty regarding these fundamental pieces that needs to be in place.”

There were lots of questions about the financial impact of the postponement on athletes, on National Olympic Committees and the International Federations. As regards athletes, especially those receiving IOC support through the Olympic Solidarity program, Macleod explained:

“We’re under no illusions; this [crisis] will have an impact in the future. NOCs are already looking at how they are going to be working and operating in the future. But some of the things we have managed to do immediately is to re-assure them that some of the key programs that are preparing for the Olympic Games – so you may have seen yesterday – we confirmed already Olympic Solidarity scholarships for athletes who are preparing for the Tokyo Games, and the refugee athletes program. And these are very important programs for NOCs just to have that assurance that their athletes will continue to get support in the lead-up to the Games.

“We’ve got over 1,600 scholarship holders from 185 NOCs that are currently benefitting now, and the feedback that we got from the NOCs on just that one move – which was important for us to make right quickly – allows them really to look forward in a positive way and say that the teams that they’ll be sending to the Games will still get that support.”

McConnell addressed the IF question … very carefully:

“We’re very conscious of the impact of the coronavirus across the world of sport, and sport not operating in isolation of wider society. We know the federations have lost a number of events this season and the revenues not only from this season, but potentially the next calendar year will be impacted as well. … And it is not only the IFs obviously, it’s the national federations, their event operators and everyone else. …

“I think it’s too early for us to speculate in terms of what the situation will be coming out of it and what the IOC’s role with the federations will be. But I think we again would acknowledge the challenge a lot of them will have, are having and the fact that they are assessing that themselves at the moment, and we will continue to discuss that with them, to assess it and see what role we can play with them in addressing that.”

Asked about what arrangements are being made with broadcasters in terms of payment of rights fees, Lumme also said that discussions had been started, but that’s all.

Dubi indicated that the costs involved, and the new timeframe of the Games, will provide both the opportunity and the requirement to review almost – but not quite – everything once again:

“Sport remains front and center of everything we do and there we can guarantee that it’s going to be the same great delivery when it comes to the core, and the athletes at the very center as well, where nothing will be touched here, so they can maximize, and we can all witness, their performances.

“Now, when it comes to all of us, and I mean the media organization, the IOC and everyone that has an operation in Tokyo, we are facing a different landscape. All of us, we have to look at whether we are going to do exactly the same in a year from now, or whether we will have to adjust.

“I’m not revealing any secrets here: we were with some of the big media organizations earlier in the day and asked exactly that question. How do you see the Games in a year for you? Will you have exactly the same operation or not? Should we change some of the baseline assumptions in order to plan for these Games one year later according to what will be needed at that time?

“So it’s a combined effort from everyone to look at what will be needed, what we have to adjust and address and this work has started with Tokyo 2020 as well, because a number of things, they can look at maybe slightly differently. Can we review some of the logistics spaces that we had? Can we optimize some of these spaces? Where can we find different solutions in order to reduce the pressure? And the one thing we have delivered as a message to everyone in our different conversations and dialogue with stakeholders is ‘let’s make sure we all do the right thing in trying to be creative, innovative; we have time ahead of us to further help Tokyo’; although we have this incredible commitment from the government, at the highest level, we still have to do this work to assist and make sure we do the right thing. So we’re looking at the entire piece and see where we can gain efficiencies.”

Taking Dubi at his word, this is another indicator of the maturation of the IOC into the 21st Century. In a prior time, a postponement of the Games would have been unheard of, and a delay of a year would have been an opportunity to pour on the pressure for more bells and whistles, all at the expense of the organizing committee.

But Dubi and his fellow directors – especially McConnell and Macleod – will be pressed hard by IFs and NOCs to advance some of their “Tokyo 2020″ money before the Games take place in 2021, in order to stay afloat. How the IOC handles this will shape its place in international sport well into this decade.

Having already reformed the financial environment in which Olympic Games are organized, the IOC now has an opportunity in front of it to cool some of the criticism it always receives about how well its members are treated during the Games. Buses instead of private cars, more modest hospitality and more recognition for the organizing committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese national government and the enormous volunteer corps set to support the Games can go a long way.

(Flashback: One of the surprise gestures of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles was the distribution of a special pin to all of the LAOOC staff at the end of the Games, featuring the word “Gracias” above the initials J.A.S., from IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. A small thing, but still a prized possession in many personal collections of Games memorabilia.)

McConnell also explained the qualification program, noting that while about 57% of all of the Games entries had been assigned, that did not mean that a specific athlete had been identified. For example, the U.S. men’s basketball team has qualified for the Tokyo tournament, but the specific players have yet to be selected. But for those who have qualified personally, like marathoners Galen Rupp and Aliphine Tuliamuk of the U.S., their spots are safe, as long as endorsed by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

McConnell also noted that discussions are ongoing with several international federations over athletes who are subject to age limits, such as the under-23 requirement for men’s football. He expected those discussions to be concluded in the next couple of weeks. McConnell also confirmed that, at least for now, the competition schedule will remain the same, including the marathons and race walks in Sapporo.

This teleconference was a great idea by the IOC, showing that it is more than simply Thomas Bach. Spokesman Mark Adams (GBR) promised more sessions in the future, which can help to humanize the IOC to an extent rarely seen in its century-plus history.

What of Tokyo? There are a lot of details to chase after, but if the organizers can hold on to the 41 competition venues and the major support sites, much of the work already completed can be re-confirmed in a few months. But to do that, the coronavirus crisis must pass, and neither the IOC or the Japanese can say when they will be.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE TICKER: More Tokyo bid questions? Swimming in chaos after Tokyo goes to 2021; USA Rugby files for bankruptcy

By
Rich Perelman
-

The latest news, notes and quotes from the worldwide Five-Ring Circus:

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● Just when it seemed like the Tokyo organizers could take a deep breath and start to re-set their plans for 2021, a lengthy Reuters story re-surfaced questions about how Tokyo was awarded the event back in 2013.

Former International Assn. of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President and International Olympic Committee member Lamine Diack of Senegal is to be tried on bribery, extortion and money-laundering charges in France in June, after a January trial start was delayed due to new information received from a Senegalese court procedure involving his son, Papa Massata Diack.

One of the allegations in Diack’s trial is receipt of more than $2 million just days in advance of the vote on the 2020 Games, suspected to part of a bribery campaign run by Diack and funded by the Japanese bid committee through a consulting contract with a firm in which the younger Diack had an interest.

The Reuters story revealed that Hariyuki Takahashi, a former senior managing director of the Japanese advertising giant Dentsu, was paid $8.2 million by the bid committee for lobbying activities, which included contacts with – and gifts for – Diack. According to the story:

“He said he urged Diack to support the Tokyo bid and denied any impropriety in those dealings. He said it was normal to provide gifts as a way of currying good relations with important officials like Diack. He said there was nothing improper with the payments he received or with the way he used the money.”

Reuters also reported that “The Tokyo bid committee also paid $1.3 million to a little-known non-profit institute run by former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, a powerful figure in Japanese sports and the head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.”

The news agency stated that while the banking records that included these payments were sent to the French investigators, no one has been asked about these payments.

As for Takahashi’s $8.2 million payment, “Nobumoto Higuchi, the secretary general of the bid committee, said Takahashi earned commissions on the corporate sponsorships he collected for the bid. ‘Takahashi has connections,’ Higuchi said. ‘We needed someone who understands the business world.’”

The Tokyo organizers sent a message to its ticket buyers on Wednesday that included:

“The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 has been postponed as was announced on 24 March 2020, and the new dates for the Games have now been confirmed. In light of this, we would like to state that the tickets that have been already purchased will be valid for the same session on the new date where possible, in accordance with the following policies:

“∙ Your tickets will be refunded if you will not be able to visit the venue on a new date and wish to get a refund.

“∙ In case it is not possible to honour your tickets due to the change in competition schedule or venue, your tickets will be refunded.

“∙ Previously, we planned to deliver the Games tickets in June, but we will reschedule it for a later date.

“*If you have requested a full refund of your tickets for Men’s Marathon and/or Women’s Marathon, we will proceed with your request as we announced earlier.

“The tickets that have been already purchased will be handled in line with the above principles. We will make a further announcement once the details of the Games are decided.

“Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. We are currently working hard to finalize plans and will provide more information as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

None of this is surprising, considering the organizers can sell any tickets they can get back to the domestic market, which has shown overwhelming demand for the Games. But just days after the Games were postponed, the organizers are already in touch with those who have purchased tickets already; that’s very good.

● Gymnastics ● One of the difficult aspects of the Olympics moving to 2021 is that some athletes were ready to retire after the 2020 Games. That includes superstar Simone Biles.

She told the Associated Press of the change of date, “It’s a letdown. It’s hard to keep looking at that like, ‘We have another year.’

“Well, nothing is really set in stone yet. We’re trying to figure out the right training [regimen] just so mentally and physically we can try and stay on top of our game. We’re just playing it by ear and really just listening to my body. …

“I was just mentally battling my mind and I was so ready and not mentally checked out, but I was ready after three months to be done. That’s a lot to take mentally.”

● Rugby ● On Monday, USA Rugby filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, a move toward a reorganization only partly due to the coronavirus epidemic.

“The current suspension of sanctioned rugby activities caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the existing financial challenges facing the Union, and a reorganization process will now be progressed with input from World Rugby. …

“Given the ongoing financial challenges following a 2019 budgetary overspend, the unplanned loss of income advanced an insurmountable cashflow deficit and immediate action needed to be taken in order to sustain operations within USA Rugby and the rugby community.”

World Rugby is supporting the federation to the tune of $1.09 million (€1 million) plus administrative assistance, according to chief executive Brett Gosper, and the reorganization could conclude in as little as 30 days.

National federations in Australia and England have also reported financial losses and Gosper noted that “The various World Cups, as well as the very interesting financial outlook of the 2023 World Cup in France, put World Rugby in a favorable position. I’m not saying we have unlimited funds, but we can borrow to help federations that are, or will be, in great financial difficulty.”

● Swimming ● Of all the sports dealing with the postponement of the 2020 Games, swimming might be the most impacted.

At the top is what to do about the 2021 World Aquatics Championships, scheduled to be held in Fukuoka (JPN) in the last two weeks of July. That’s in direct conflict with the 2021 Olympic dates.

The obvious choice would be to go to 2022, but there are reports that FINA is also considering moving the event to mid-August of 2021 (or a little later), right after the Games, or to the springtime, to maintain the event in 2021. But – paralleling its objection to holding the Olympics in 2020 – Swim Canada has come out against a 2021 date. According to Swim Canada’s Head of Performance John Atkinson:

“Having the two premier Games and championships staged close together in the same year would create many challenges. From budgets to program planning, to timing, to the risks of athletes being overloaded, there are so many unknowns. As we continue to navigate the uncertainty of this current global situation, we encourage FINA and World Para Swimming to choose 2022 as the best alternative for the world championships.”

Now the German Swimming Federation has declared its preference for 2022 as well. Its performance director, Thomas Kurschilgen told Swimming World Magazine:

“We consider staging two absolute highlights on a global scale in one year as a challenge that [the sport] would struggle to cope with. Beyond the additional stress of peak performance for the athletes, the economic stresses that would be placed on national associations would further strain the federal budget and that needs to be taken into account.

“It is also important to ask whether a World Championships n the Olympic year would have the resonance it normally enjoys.”

The clear answer is that a FINA Worlds held after the Games would be an afterthought.

Hall of Fame coach Bill Sweetenham (AUS) told Swimming World that the Olympic Games need to be the priority:

“The Olympics is the only competition that matters, the rest are pretenders! They should prioritise the Olympics first and foremost as, historically, no-one, but no-one, recognises or remembers any other result or competition.”

He added later in the story:

“Remember, only the Olympics count! Forget FINA or any associated events. Maintain focus; handle distractions; manage emotions; and … instill all advantages in place for the athletes in your care.”

Already deeply impacted by the move of the Olympic Games to 2021 is the International Swimming League, which had promised to expand its post-2020 Games program to 27 meets held from September 2020 through March 2021. That’s clearly not viable now, with swimmers focused on training for Tokyo during much of this time. ISL will need a new strategy to figure out how to work around the Tokyo Games schedule and then the FINA Worlds, whenever it is.

● U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee ● Almost lost in the hubbub over the movement of the Tokyo Games to 2021 was a modest new set of bylaw amendments proposed by the USOPC Board.

The new language, now available for public review, raises the level of representation for athletes to 33.3% with at least 20% for athletes who have represented the U.S. within the past 10 years and 13.3% (or more) for athletes who represented the U.S. more than 10 years ago.

There are also a large number of technical changes listed, and further changes coming. A third set of revisions is in discussion, which could include raising the athlete representation on National Governing Body boards and committees to 33.3% as well, and more specificity on NGB oversight from the USOPC Board and committees.

● The Last Word ● It’s not all gloom and doom. U.S. Figure Skating reported a major change in the Americans Pairs scene, with Chris Knierim deciding to retire, but his wife Alexa, continuing to compete. The two were three-time U.S. Pairs champs.

Haven Denney and long-time partner Brandon Frazier, the 2017 U.S. champs, decided to split up, and a few days later, Frazier and Alexa Knierim announced that they would skating together going forward.

The story added that everyone is fine with the decisions, and that “The team includes coaches Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, as well as Chris, who will join the pair’s primary coaching team. Chris was present for the tryout, offering both technical advice and more emotional support for his wife and old friend [Brandon].”

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Tokyo 2020 dates confirmed for 2021; domino effect on calendar begins; new Olympic Rings for Tokyo?

By
Rich Perelman
-

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● To the surprise of almost no one, the Tokyo Games will take place exactly a year later, as jointly announced by the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo organizers:

“These new dates give the health authorities and all involved in the organisation of the Games the maximum time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new dates, exactly one year after those originally planned for 2020 (Olympic Games: 24 July to 9 August 2020 and Paralympic Games: 25 August to 6 September 2020), also have the added benefit that any disruption that the postponement will cause to the international sports calendar can be kept to a minimum, in the interests of the athletes and the IFs. Additionally, they will provide sufficient time to finish the qualification process. The same heat mitigation measures as planned for 2020 will be implemented.”

Essentially, the Games were postponed on 23 March and re-scheduled by 30 March, in both cases, far faster than the time frames that the IOC and the organizers gave themselves.

From the standpoint of the organizing committee, maintaining the same place on the calendar will save thousands of hours of work that would have been needed to re-figure ordering, training and deployment milestones leading to the Games. The current plan can be maintained, and implemented once the pandemic has subsided. There has still not been a declaration in Japan of a state of emergency from the virus, and “Japan is moving toward approving [anti-flu drug] Avigan’s use for COVID-19 patients following cases in which the medicine has proved effective.”

The question was immediately raised in many quarters about whether the coronavirus threat will be over in enough time to permit not only the Games, but training and qualification. The answer: no one knows. As Abraham Lincoln said in 1861 of a threat of hostilities with Great Britain over a diplomatic incident known as the Trent Affair: “One war at a time.”

● Vox Populi: From 1976 four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist John Naber:

“With all the sympathy being shared for the unfortunate Olympians and Olympic hopefuls, (and sponsors and broadcasters and tourists) let’s not forget about the Paralympians and Paralympic Games.”

True, and the dates of the Paralympic Games have also been fixed – as noted above – for 2021.

As reported by Reuters, the Australian Olympic Committee denied that its 22 March announcement that it could not assemble a team for Tokyo 2020 on its original dates was made in “collusion” with either the Canadian Olympic Committee or the IOC: “At no point were either the IOC or COC aware of, or involved in, this process.”

The COC has also denied any outside collaboration in their declaration that it would not attend the Games in 2020. It had been suggested that the Australian statement had been developed at the behest of an IOC member to help pressure the Japanese government to agreement to postpone the Games.

● International Federations ● World Athletics quickly issued a statement that noted the new Olympic dates and confirmed that the 2021 World Championships scheduled for Eugene, Oregon, will be moved to 2022, and is in contact with the Commonwealth Games Federation due to the potential conflict in the Birmingham 2022 Games.

While the track & field federation indicated that the planned World U-20 Championships in Nairobi (KEN) are being postponed (for now), USA Track & Field posted a notice that the U.S. U-20 Champs planned for mid-June in Miramar, Florida, are canceled. Also in the U.S., bans on collegiate practices are being extended; the Pac-12 had already eliminated all competitions through the spring and today banned “organized team activities” through 31 May.

FINA posted a statement that it will “examine a revision” of its 2021 World Aquatics Championships, scheduled to take place from 16 July-1 August in Fukuoka, Japan. FINA will “consult with stakeholders including athletes, coaches, national federations, TV partners and sponsors in order to determine the most appropriate solution.”

One group which has only slightly altered its plans, is FISU, the governing body for worldwide university sport. It’s 2021 World University Games will take place in Chengdu (CHN), but moved two days later to 18-29 August, starting nine days after Tokyo closes.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA), still on IOC suspension, has had to postpone its Extraordinary Congress again due to the pandemic, possibly all the way to the end of the year. Its status was supposed to be revisited by the IOC after the Tokyo Games, and that’s now more than a year away. AIBA’s internal governance process may be improved by the measures taken at its Congress, but its dismal financial situation is yet to be repaired.

● Gymnastics ● The coronavirus has also slowed the hearings schedule in the many actions vs. USA Gymnastics, relating to the Larry Nassar abuse scandal. A hearing scheduled for Tuesday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana to consider the federation’s Disclosure Statement for its reorganization plan – which could lead to a vote by claimants on the $217.5 million settlement offer – has been postponed until the matter can be heard in a live court with all interested parties present.

A side matter dealing with USA Gymnastics’ objection to “misclassified claims” is scheduled for a telephonic hearing tomorrow.

● At the BuZZer ● There isn’t a lot to laugh about in these difficult times, but reader Jan Fambro noted there is still humor out there, as Brands of the World (@brandsotw) shared on Instagram a new look (via @madovermarketing_mom) for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic rings (as shown above).

Social distancing indeed!

LANE ONE: Ingratitude, money, politics, winners and losers ~ 5 takeaways from the Tokyo move to 2021

By
Rich Perelman
-

I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little rain some time
~ from the 1970 Grammy Award-winning “Rose Garden”
by Lynn Anderson (1947-2015)

With the Tokyo organizers now working to determine, with the International Olympic Committee, when a re-scheduled Games of the XXXII Olympiad would be held, it’s worth considering what we learned during the process.

The national news agency in Japan, Kyodo, reported in a Saturday post that “a time frame from July 23, 2021 to Aug. 8 has emerged as a strong candidate. … Holding the event later rather than earlier [in the spring] would allow more margin for error and give the coronavirus pandemic more time to run its course.”

This would be on the same date footprint as for 2020, when the Games were slated for 24 July to 7 August. Now to the takeaways:

[1] Postponement will cost money, and this could have an impact on the Games

There can be no doubt that the current $12.6 billion budget for the Tokyo Games is going to be insufficient to put on the event in 2021. Said organizing committee chief executive Toshiro Muto:

“We need to assess whether [the venues] will be available when we need them next year. There will be additional costs that come with this – and we expect it will probably be massive.

“We are dealing with the postponement of the Games, which has never happened in history. The task is daunting.”

The organizers and the Japanese government will get the job done; after all, they could have walked away from the project altogether. But it will be interesting to see how the costs are managed, especially with regard to staff and to items which were planned, but not yet ordered or delivered.

Two groups to watch in this area will be the National Olympic Committees and International Federations. The NOCs, which sends the athletes to the Games, will be looking for refunds and re-bookings of pre-Games training camps and hospitality arrangements with groups other than the organizing committee. The IFs were already on record in May of 2019 as being unhappy with Tokyo’s budget cuts from its original plan. The then-chief executive of World Sailing, Andy Hunt (GBR), said “I don’t have any guilt on my part that I’m asking for things that aren’t needed” (he has since left World Sailing).

Regardless of the financial situation for Tokyo, the federations are likely to be quite intolerant about any cuts for 2021. The International Judo Federation’s Relations Manager, Larissa Kiss (HUN) complained last year, “We do not want to be as we were in Rio, where the Look was quite cheap.”

Easy to complain when it’s not your money at stake.

[2] Athletes are on the razor’s edge already, so hard to expect much understanding from them

It was easy to appreciate the frustration from athletes in countries in which the coronavirus was spreading. On 22 March (Sunday), when the IOC announced that a change in the dates of the Games was possible and that a decision would be coming within four weeks, British sprint star Dina Asher-Smith posted on Twitter:

“So wait… does this mean that athletes face up to another FOUR weeks of finding ways to fit in training – whilst potentially putting ourselves, coaches, support staff and loved ones at risk just to find out they were going to be postponed anyway!!!”

The Games were postponed a couple of days later, but where Asher-Smith thanks the British National Health Service for their efforts against the coronavirus, not a word of thanks to the Tokyo organizers for agreeing to spend billions to put on the Games in 2021.

And not much on this from other athletes, or from the NOCs or IFs, with a couple of notable exceptions. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, which launched a widely-ignored “Thank You, Japan” initiative in 2019, sent a letter from chief executive Sarah Hirshland to all American athletes, and which was also posted publicly, starting with:

“Despite the feeling of eventuality that so many of us have felt in the lead up to this moment – my heart breaks for you, your fellow athletes around the world, our friends at Tokyo 2020, the people of Japan, and all who are impacted by this global pandemic and the decision to postpone the Tokyo Games 2020.”

The Australian Olympic Committee, which four days earlier said it was impossible to attend the Games in 2020, posted a statement from chief executive Matt Carroll that included:

“But I have no doubt that when the world moves past these very difficult times, the Tokyo Olympic Games will provide an opportunity for the world to reconnect in a spirit of unity and hope. Japan is up to the task and they will do a great job.”

Most of the other NOCs and IFs made perfunctory references to “supporting” Tokyo 2020.

That’s not enough.

It’s pretty common to see “Thank you [name of city]” shirts or signs from athletes when they tumble into the Closing Ceremony of any Games. For 2021, the IOC should require a “Thank You Tokyo” patch, sash or sign on every person who marches in the Opening Ceremony in 2021.

The same should be done in the Olympic Village, during the Welcome Ceremony for each National Olympic Committee. Let’s see how many NOCs care enough to recognize the sacrifice being made on their behalf by the people of Japan and Tokyo.

[3] The whining about the IOC not being athlete-centric is laughable

There was plenty of commentary from athletes, officials and news media about “how long” it took the IOC and the Japanese to postpone the Games, an “enormous” stretch of 13 days from the World Health Organization declared a worldwide pandemic.

The predictable call was, of course, for everyone involved in the IOC to resign and put in “athletes” who would have done better. This is actually pretty funny to anyone who has watched the IOC morph over the decades. In fact, of the 15 members of the decision-making IOC Executive Board, six are former Olympians themselves and three more were international-class competitors in their sports:

President (1 of 1):
● Thomas Bach (GER) ~ Olympian/Fencing 1976

Vice Presidents (1 of 4):
● Anita DeFrantz (USA) ~ Olympian/Rowing 1976

Members (7 of 10):
● Sergey Bubka (UKR) ~ Olympian/Athletics 1988-92-96-2000
● Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) ~ Olympian/Swimming 2000-04-08-12-16
● Nicole Hoevertsz (ARU) ~ Olympian/Artistic Swimming 1984
● Denis Oswald (SUI) ~ Olympian/Rowing 1968-72-76
● Ivo Ferriani (ITA) ~ International competitor/Bobsled
● Ser Miang Ng (SGP) ~ International competitor/Sailing
● Dr. Robin Mitchell (FIJ) ~ International competitor/Athletics and Field Hockey

For those who have followed the IOC for a long time, this kind of ex-athlete-dominated Executive Board – nine of 15 members – was unthinkable until recent years. It’s also worth noting that both Mitchell and Turkey’s Ugur Erdener (a Vice President) are medical doctors. But that doesn’t mean much to the activists, who simply want their own way. Pathetic.

[4] A 2021 Games could create a new look for the international calendar

Despite the silly statement of at least one International Federation executive that the move to 2021 for the Games won’t change their calendar of events next year, the reality could herald a change for the future.

If the Tokyo Games are held on essentially the same dates as scheduled for 2020, it will force both FINA and World Athletics to move their World Championships from 2021 to 2022. By doing so, it will set up World Championships in consecutive years for both for the first time ever.

Could this become permanent?

It’s possible, as both will be able to judge the worldwide reception to having such events each year instead of every other year. For both federations, it could usher in the possibility of holding their Worlds in all three non-Olympic years. We’ll know by the end of 2023.

[5] Winners and losers

The move to 2021 will make a significant difference in the competitions, as well as for the hosts. Some who might have made the Games in 2020 won’t make the trip and youngsters who needed more time will have it, in 2021. At this point:

Winners:
● Athletes returning from injury or maternity, such as two 400 m stars: defending Olympic champ Wayde van Niekirk (RSA), who hasn’t been himself since 2017, and American star Allyson Felix, the most decorated female track & field Olympian in history.

Felix is especially worth watching. Her comeback from maternity was already one of the standout stories of the 2020 Games, but her chances of even making the U.S. team were unclear at best. But with a full year to train again, she could be dangerous and could be one of the darlings of a 2021 Games.

South Africa’s Caster Semenya has said she wants to try the 200 m, since that event will not require her to lower her testosterone levels to comport with World Athletics rules on hyperandrogenism. A full year of speedwork would help her at least contend for a spot in the Games and from there, who knows?

● Beijing, the host of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, is also a winner. International news media can be counted on for a steady drumbeat of stories about China as an inappropriate host due to its human-rights policies. That storyline will disappear for a full year with Tokyo 2021 coming on, and pick up only after the Closing Ceremony next summer.

Losers:
● Russia. Where the Russian strategy to fight the four-year sanction by the World Anti-Doping Agency was to delay its hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport long enough to allow its team to compete in Tokyo, that’s gone now. The decision will come in time for Tokyo and Russia’s outlook is not promising.

● Anti-doping agencies: There is rampant fear that during the pandemic, there are many athletes taking advantage of relaxed enforcement by national anti-doping organizations. This will require a significantly stepped-up testing and enforcement regimen in 2021.

● The IOC, which will have to work overtime to see the Tokyo Games to completion, then come back with Winter Games in Beijing about seven months later and then the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar (SEN) in mid-2022.

The transfer of plans from 2020 to 2021 will be exceptionally challenging, starting with money to pay everyone involved for another year … without any new revenue to cover those costs. Here’s hoping there will be more roses than thorns in the extra year ahead.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE BIG PICTURE: 2020 Games postponement confirmed; the back story behind the decision; USOPC asked $200 million for NGBs; more Russian doping

By
Rich Perelman
-

There’s no let-up in the stories – and intrigue – with the Games of the XXXII Olympiad and the decision to postpone to 2021:

● The International Olympic Committee held teleconferences with the 33 International Federations involved in the Tokyo Games, as well as with most of the IOC members on Thursday, confirming the movement of the Games to 2021.

The IOC also released a five-page letter sent by President Thomas Bach (GER) to the membership on Wednesday, which described the sequence of events that led to the agreement with the Tokyo organizers and Japanese government for the Games to be held in 2021.

During the previous call to the IFs about the Games, Bach had proposed – and all agreed – that those athletes already qualified for the 2020 Games would have that status continued for 2021. That’s about 57% of the total of more than 11,000 athletes expected, but some of those spots are not guaranteed to individual athletes, but are quota allocations for countries, which can substitute other individuals to compete in the Games. The remaining 43% are not allocated as yet and will be the subject of either further qualifying events, or decisions by the International Federation on selection procedures from rankings or from prior competitions.

● The venerable e-mail newsletter SportIntern carried a story today (Friday) by David Miller (GBR) with more details on how the decision was reached to postpone the Tokyo Games. Miller, the former long-time Chief Sports Correspondent for the British newspaper The Times, has enjoyed close contacts with the IOC for decades, so when he writes, it’s worth reading.

Miller writes that IOC chief Bach was well aware of the need to move the Games from its 2020 dates – ostensibly by mid-March – but “was being stalled” by those in Japan who hoped the crisis would pass in April. After all, there was not even a national-emergency declaration in Japan as yet.

But a former IOC staff member who is now an “agent” for two IOC sponsors, suggested that the change had to be made and quickly, far faster than the four-week timeframe to be suggested in the IOC’s 22 March news release.

To speed things along, IOC member – and Bach confidant – John Coates (AUS) “negotiated” the declaration of the Australian Olympic Committee that it would not send a team, which also appeared on 22 March, following a no-go statement from Canada. Rather than embarrass the Japanese by a unilateral declaration that the Games must be postponed, senior IOC member Dick Pound of Canada told USA Today on 23 March (last Monday) “On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” to which the IOC’s official response was that this was his opinion only.

According to Miller, these developments then placed enough pressure on the Tokyo organizers and the Japanese government to have both agree to a postponement.

How true is all this? It rings at least partly right, as there are some holes in the timeline, and the aggressive spread of the virus in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere is not mentioned, and clearly was a factor. It paints Bach in a more favorable light, which Miller and his sources would clearly prefer. But it is spot-on that the Japanese organizers and government very much wanted to wait as long as possible to see if the Games could be held as scheduled. But they preferred a postponed Games to no Games at all and agreed with the IOC to go to 2021.

● The Washington Post reported that the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee made an ultimately unsuccessful request to the U.S. Congress for $200 million in stimulus funds for American athletes and U.S. National Governing Bodies suffering from the business interruption caused by the coronavirus.

The Wall Street Journal carried a story with a USOPC estimate that the NGBs could see combined losses of up to $800 million from the business effects of the coronavirus and the postponement of the Games. According to USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland:

“We did a survey of (national governing bodies) and asked the NGBs a couple of questions about what the financial implications of Covid-19 would be to them as a result of all the canceled events and things. And the NGBs in turn gave us what I would describe as a back-of-the-napkin assessment. We rolled up that assessment and sent something to Congress saying, ‘This is going to have significant impacts on the NGBs and we would love to be considered in some of the stimulus package or some of the funding support that you’re offering’.”

The stories indicated that of the $200 million requested, $50 million would be for direct payments to athletes who are suffering severe income losses due to event cancellations and the move of the Games to 2021, and $150 million to support the NGBs. The USOPC did not request any money for its own operations.

Veteran commentator Alan Abrahamson sees this request as piercing the USOPC’s self-support narrative, a possibly damaging event with major changes to USOPC and NGB governance still on the table for the Congress in the future. In any case, it didn’t make it into the final relief bill that was signed into law today.

● Aquatics ● According to NBC’s Olympic Talk site:

“Cornel Marculescu, FINA’s executive director, said there is no chance of the next worlds being bumped back to 2022.

“‘No, no, no, no, no, no,’ he defiantly told The Associated Press by phone.”

The 2021 World Aquatics Championships are scheduled to be held in Fukuoka, Japan, from 16 July-1 August.

Said Marculescu (ROU), “If they do it in summer, then we (will have to change) the dates. If they do it at the beginning of the year, maybe we don’t need to touch the dates. The only thing we do, we wait to see what is the IOC decision.”

What he didn’t say is that the Japanese government may have its own view about holding an event like the FINA Worlds in 2021, when it is also hosting an Olympic Games.

● Athletics ● World Athletics announced the postponement of all of its Wanda Diamond League meets through the end of May. This now includes the 24 May Bauhaus-Galan in Stockholm (SWE), the 26 May Golden Gala in Naples (ITA) and the 31 May meet in Rabat (MAR). The first meet now on the schedule is the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on 7 June, but that’s subject to the completion of the new Hayward Field, as well as the worldwide coronavirus situation.

The Athletics Integrity Unit lowered the boom on four more Russian doping cases, three of which are based on evidence collected in the McLaren Reports:

● Natalya Antyukh (now 38) ~ 2012 Olympic 400 m hurdles champ; bronze in 2004 (last competed in 2016)

● Oksana Kondratyeva (34) ~ Fifth in 2013 World Champs hammer (last competed in 2016)

● Andrey Silnov (35) ~ 2008 Olympic high jump champ; 2006 European champ (last competed in 2016)

● Yelena Soboleva (37) ~ 2006 World Indoor 1,500 m silver (last competed in 2016)

The listings in the AIU’s roster of “Pending First Instance Decisions” did not specify the period of ineligibility or the dates of nullified results; the Russian doping program investigated in the McLaren Reports was from 2011-15. All of these cases will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Ex-Kenyan Albert Rop (BRN), a 2016 Olympian in the 5,000 m, was suspended for two years for whereabouts failures” from 24 September 2019 and nullifying his results from 11 April 2019. His last competition was a 27:31.01 lifetime best in the 10,000 m on 31 August 2019.

More to come, no doubt.

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Tokyo Games in 2021 in July-August timeframe? U.S. ticket seller says 2020 purchases good for 2021

By
Rich Perelman
-

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● The International Olympic Committee’s task force on the format of the 2021 Games in Tokyo is reported to be looking “to arrange a July-August window for the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and hopes to confirm the schedule within a month” according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.

The “Here We Go” working group, formed from the IOC’s Coordination Commission, has to figure a way to schedule the Games that works as well as is possible with the existing annual sports calendar, and with the 33 International Federations which hold their major events during the summer. The World Championships in Aquatics (16 July-1 August in Fukuoka, Japan) and Athletics (6-15 August in Eugene, Oregon) are clearly in conflict and would have to be moved.

There is talk of holding the Games earlier, in part to avoid the hot summer weather that had been the biggest concern prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus. The head of the IOC’s task force, John Coates (AUS) has said that he hopes the dates for the 2021 Games can be fixed by mid-April.

● Tokyo 2020: Vox Populi ● The two-time World Cross Country Champion and former American record holder in the 10,000 m, Craig Virgin doesn’t want to wait until 2021 for the Games. He writes to TSX:

“As a three-time U.S. Olympian in T&F/Athletics …. I was happy to learn that the IOC and Tokyo 2020 had finally come to their senses and decided to postpone the Tokyo Olympic Games that were slated to open in late July.

“Then, I was chagrined to learn that the IOC and Tokyo 2020 had not considered simply moving them back to October and giving us just 2-to-3 months more to try to get this coronavirus pandemic under control in the next 4-to-8 weeks and our life back to ‘normal.’ That way the Tokyo 2020 Games might still be held in 2020!

“Incidentally, the Tokyo Olympic Games of 1964 had their opening ceremonies on October 10 and their closing ceremonies on October 24. So, a precedent to set them later in the fall (with its much better weather in Tokyo) has already been set in the past at the same exact city location!

“The IOC could even set a review date of July 1 to see whether the coronavirus pandemic was under control enough and that athletes could satisfactorily train as well as travel as needed for both training and competition. Not to mention the media and spectators! Then, if not, they could push the games back into 2021. But, I would argue that if we are still dealing with the coronavirus as a serious threat in June then the Olympics will be far less important as the whole world struggles to either survive the health threat or the economic threat. Both could be deadly!

“I try to be optimistic and hope that the better weather and higher temperatures of late April and May in combination with the emergency scientific and medical efforts now underway around the globe… could help us bring this pandemic well under control before July 1.

“When I first heard that the IOC did not even list this conservative step as one possibility right away then I thought ‘why not?’ So, I got an idea and looked up the present value of the last year of the NBC contract with the IOC … and the increased value of the extension that was just signed in the past year or so… and I knew probably knew why!

“I believe that NBC might be more concerned about avoiding a broadcast schedule conflict with MLB playoffs, NCAA football, and NFL football… than doing what is the right thing for the Olympic Games and the Olympic athletes. Admittedly, this just a ‘guess’ on my part but as the famous line in the movie ‘Jerry McGuire’ says… ‘follow the money… fool!’ … and he is generally right about that!

“For all kinds of logistical and athletic reasons I implore the IOC to strongly consider the historically appropriate option of trying to hold the 2020 Games at Tokyo in October FIRST… then in 2021 ONLY if absolutely necessary. Thank you!”

Comment: Craig is not the only one who feels this way; USA Weightlifting chief Phil Andrews (GBR) also prefers a late-2020 date. But it’s not going to happen. There is no assurance that the coronavirus situation is going to improve enough worldwide to allow athletes to train for the Games and if we learned one thing from this experience (so far) is that those competitors who are contenders for medals want no impediments to their success from any factors they cannot control. Although already well recognized, the wringing of hands and tearing of hair over about a week’s time when the IOC and Japan came to the conclusion that the Games had to be postponed showed again the razor’s edge on which elite athletes exist.

There is also widespread concern about the reduced scope of anti-doping activities in this period due to the social-distancing requirements of fighting COVID-19. In order to ensure a robust pre-Games anti-doping effort is made for Tokyo, it must be moved well into 2021.

What about those who purchased tickets for the 2020 Games? In the U.S., ticket buyers received a message on Wednesday from Robert Long, head of CoSport, the authorized ticket retailer of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee:

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC), Tokyo Organizing Committee and Japanese Government have officially postponed the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games until 2021, with specific dates still to be determined but held no later than the summer of 2021, due to concern for the wellbeing of spectators, athletes and supporters in light of the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19.

“We know there are questions surrounding such an unprecedented move and want you to know that CoSport Tokyo 2020 purchases will be honored at the Games in 2021, and we continue to work in support of our customers in addressing issues.

“With next year’s dates not yet determined, we are in communication with the IOC, Tokyo Organizing Committee and U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee to plan and follow new processes with regard to spectator purchases, which will take some weeks to develop.

“As we work to address those issues, we appreciate the patience of all who share in CoSport’s belief that the Olympic and Paralympic spectator experience is integral to the Tokyo Games, no matter the year or obstacles overcome, a mission we have delivered for the past 10 Olympic Games.

“When the new Tokyo dates are determined and those processes can be implemented, we will be back in touch regarding 2021, as well as share information at CoSport.com/update/.

“Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you in Tokyo next year.”

● Boxing ● The BBC reported today (Thursday) that six individuals who attended the truncated Olympic qualifying event in London (GBR) from 14-16 March have contracted COVID-19.

The Croatian Boxing Federation reported an athlete and two coaches, and the Turkish federation claims that two fighters and a coach tested positive on their return from the event, cut short due to the spread of the virus.

Turkish Boxing Federation president Eyup Gozgec sent a letter to the European Boxing Confederation that included: “This is the disastrous result of the irresponsibility of the IOC Boxing Task Force.”

He told the BBC, “The organisers were irresponsible, and I think they didn’t realise the severity of the issue so they just didn’t care. They just didn’t take this outbreak seriously and they didn’t care about it. They did no tests for us. They just told us to go. They dropped us at the airport and that was it.

“They knew they were going to have to cancel – why go with it? The health of our athletes and staff is our priority.”

The IOC’s statement to the BBC noted:

“The BTF wants to express its sympathy for the affected athletes and officials and wishes them a very speedy and full recovery.

“The BTF is not aware of any link between the competition and the infection.

“Many participants were in independently organised training camps… before the competition started… and have returned home a while ago so it is not possible to know the source of infection.”

The London organizers of the tournament stated that they provided “extra measures” for the health of the teams “which included the provision of hand sanitisers throughout the competition spaces and routine temperature tests which enabled the medical team to track and identify any underlying changes during competition.”

● At the BuZZer ● Even with all of our troubles in the present, some are planning for a new future. One of them is 2018 Olympic Champion Stina Nilsson (SWE), who won the Cross Country Sprint gold in PyeongChang.

But at 26, and after seven years as a star in Cross Country – with 23 World Cup wins – she is changing sports and taking up Biathlon. “My basic idea was to run Cross-Country skiing for another Olympics and then change after the season 2022. But because of my [stress fracture in 2019] I have been given a lot of time to think and test shoot and I feel that I really do not want to wait any longer.

“I am humbled by the biathlon challenges, where I believe that the routine of the rifle and learning all about the weapon, such as when and how to screw, will be the biggest challenge, but they are a challenge I look forward to. I just get to practice ‘a little’ extra on it.”

LANE ONE: IOC followed World Health Organization advice, not athlete criticism, to arrive at Tokyo 2020 postponement: the play-by-play

By
Rich Perelman
-
In sync: IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) and Athletes' Commission chair Kirsty Coventry (ZIM)

The World Health Organization and Africa. Those were the triggers that led the International Olympic Committee to decide, in concert with the Japanese government and the organizing committee, to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Games into 2021.

During a nearly-one hour teleconference on Wednesday morning (25th), IOC President Thomas Bach gave a lengthy, 11-minute recitation of the step-by-step process that led to Tuesday’s landmark agreement to postpone an Olympic Games for the first time.

The key moments of the past week, with Bach’s comments:

● Tuesday: 17 March 2020 ~ Reported COVID-19 cases worldwide = 180,159

The IOC issues a statement noting the situation is changing “day by day” and with more than four months to go, “there is no need for drastic actions at this stage.”

● Wednesday: 18 March 2020 ~ Reported COVID-10 cases worldwide = 194,909

The IOC holds teleconferences with the National Olympic Committees, International Federations and with 220 athlete representatives about the situation. Said IOC Athletes’ Commission chair Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), “I think the goal is definitely to get to the 24th July and the Tokyo Olympic Games but we also have to be realistic and not panic at this stage and know that this landscape is changing hourly and daily for everyone around the world and we share the concerns.”

● Friday: 20 March 2020 ~ Reported COVID-19 cases worldwide = 242,473

National Olympic Committee officials in Brazil, Great Britain and Norway ask for the Games to be postponed. USA Swimming and USA Track & Field ask the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee to ask the IOC for a postponement.

● Sunday: 22 March 2020 ~ Reported COVID-19 cases worldwide = 305,275

The IOC Executive Board announced changes in its planning for the Games, including “changes to the start date of the Games.” Bach posts an open letter to athletes, noting that “we are relying on the advice of a Task Force including the World Health Organization” and that a decision on possible postponement will be taken within the next four weeks.

National Olympic Committees in Canada and Australia posted statements that they would not participate in a 2020 Games held in July.

Said Bach in the teleconference:

“We had at the very beginning of this crisis, a clear focus on the development in Japan, where we had always to evaluate whether Japan would be in a position to offer a safe environment for every participant of the Olympic Games.

“This focus then shifted, more and more, to the international world, because we could see on the one hand, the progress being made in Japan fighting the virus, and the efficiency of the measures being taken. But we could, and had to see on the other side, that the virus was spreading so rapidly that it became, more and more, a question whether the world could travel to Japan and whether Japan there, could afford, in the spirit of containing the virus, to really invite the world.

“This situation we had to address. Japan was very confident to go ahead, and then we saw there, last Sunday, in the morning, we saw the figures from Africa – in particular – where we are, obviously at the beginning of an outbreak. Still a low number, but many countries being affected; this is how it started everywhere. We saw there the dynamic development in South America, and in U.S. and in other countries, and this was the moment when we saw this, on Sunday morning, I called an emergency meeting of the IOC Executive Board, with the aim to open a discussion with our Japanese hosts and partners and friends, to start opening a discussion about the postponement of the Games.

“Because we could not, you know, manage such a postponement without the organizing committee, without the full support of Japan. Before this Executive Board meeting, I called President Mori from the organizing committee, who had then taken contact also with Prime Minister Abe. There, the result of this conversation was, that the organizing committee in Japan, is ready to enter into a discussion about the different scenarios, in particular about postponement, after having heard and being confirmed by our commitment that a cancellation would not be one of the scenarios to be considered.

“We then had the Executive Board meeting, on Sunday afternoon, our European time, with the result you know, opening up there the door to study there, also, postponement. Hours after this Executive Board meeting, new, alarming informations were coming in. We saw there, more and more travel restrictions there coming up. During the Executive Board we heard that the virus starts to spread on a number of islands in Oceania.”

● Monday, 23 March 2020 ~ Reported COVID-19 cases worldwide = 338,303

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee released a survey of 1,780 athletes, with 68% stating the Games could not be held fairly if begun in July. Some 64% said the local coronavirus restrictions had either severely impacted their ability to train, or kept them from training altogether. Based on this, the USOPC asked the IOC to postpone the Games.

A poll of track & field athletes by The Athletics Association reported 4,036 responses, of which 78% preferred postponement of the Games.

In Lausanne, the wheels were already turning. Said Bach:

“The next morning, Monday morning, then we received a declaration from the World Health Organization which was pretty alarming, where the Director General said that the spreading is accelerating and that the Director General of the World Health Organization wants to have an emergency call with the G-20 leaders to address this situation.

“This, then, led us to contact the organizing committee again and to advise them that in the phone call being scheduled for the next day, for Tuesday – yesterday – between Prime Minister Abe and me, that we, in the light of this developments after the Executive Board meeting, we would like to propose to take a decision on the postponement of the Games, already in this phone call.”

Abe told reporters in Tokyo that it was not possible to hold the Games as planned, saying “It’s important that not only our country but also all the other participating countries can
take part in the Games fully prepared.”

● Tuesday, 24 March 2020 ~ Reported COVID-19 cases worldwide = 378,040

Said Bach:

“And then we had this phone call and as a result of this phone call, where then Prime Minister Abe himself, after his introductory remark, suggested there a postponement as the decision of the IOC. Then after consultation in this phone call, we came to the conclusion that this must be a decision, cannot be a unilateral decision of the IOC, but must be a joint decision because in order to organize there successful Games, we need to be in full agreement and need to be united.”

Later on Tuesday, a joint statement between the IOC and the Tokyo organizers explained “In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.”

● Wednesday, 25 March 2020 ~ Reported COVID-19 cases worldwide = 416,916

Bach was asked if he had any regrets on the way the crisis had been handled, especially in view of the criticism over how long it took to announce a postponement:

“No, because this was the commitment and is the commitment to our Japanese partners. I think I at least tried to explain that the focus was shifting. What we expressed was the confidence in our Japanese partners and friends to organize there, in July, in safe conditions, Olympic Games. And to this, we were committed, and to this, we are committed there also for the postponed Games.

“[What] then made the change was, there, the dynamic changes in the worldwide health situation and there, for a postponement – because again, a cancellation we could have decided in our own – but for a postponement, we need of course there the full commitment of our Japanese partners, also for the postponed Games. And this is what we were looking for there with our approach, and this is what we then yesterday [Tuesday] have achieved, in this way, making it possible that the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 are happening, have not to be cancelled, but can give the athletes, you know, the hope, and now also the athletes to be assured that their Olympic dream can come true, even with a delay.”

Bach was asked a half-dozen times whether, essentially, he and the IOC were wrong in the way they handled the situation, especially in how long it took to announce the postponement. He brushed each question aside easily, and had this snappy comeback for a question from Tarik Panja of The New York Times:

“[D]on’t forget that, in this time, during the last couple of weeks, the measures of many governments, you know, they were limited until mid-of-April, some beginning of May and, you know, we could not see measures having been taken lasting until July and you have maybe seen the latest declarations there in United States from President Trump about the prospect of mid-of-April there, being able to lift many restrictions.

“And so, there, we were in line with these developments and we were, again, there in line with the advice of the World Health Organization, and the moment they changed, then also their advice with this statement of the Director General on Monday and even before, you know, when we saw the day before, Africa, because there I must say, from the very beginning, this was a big worry for me personally also, but for all of us that if the virus, you know, would outbreak there in Africa, on this huge continent, with the challenges many countries in Africa have to face already now, that this would be then a very dramatic development, which will not only affect Africa but will again affect then the entire world.

“And this is why, you know, this was such a crucial moment and again, then, the advice by the World Health Organization of the declaration by the World Health Organization there, the day before yesterday.”

Bach was also asked if the “voices of the athletes” were taken into account:

“The athlete’s voice we have always taken into consideration and playing a very important role. We are in constant contact there, with our Athletes’ Commission; the chair of the Athletes’ Commission being a member of the IOC Executive Board, taking part in any consultation, in any decision, in any vote.

“I also had addressed a letter to the athletes, already a couple of weeks ago. There were calls between our Athletes’ Commission and many athlete’s representatives there, around the world, and then finally, in all this consultations last week, we had telephone conferences with all the National Olympic Committees, with all the International Federations and at the end of this conference, a one-by-one vote for each NOC and for each International Federation, whether they agree with the strategy there proposed by the IOC Executive Board. And we had there, in this one-by-one vote, unanimous support, including from the Canadian Olympic Committee.”

Asked about the impact of Canada’s statement last Sunday that it would not attend the Games if held in July, Bach replied:

“It is the right of every athlete to decide, if qualified, if he or she wants to participate in the Olympic Games. I do not think that such a decision can be taken by a majority vote by anybody. There we have to respect the rights of the athletes, and if an athlete decides not to go to the Games, this is his good right.”

In light of this answer, it would have been instructive if the Games would have been green-lighted for July and a Canadian athlete wanted to attend the Games … as a refugee from his or her own National Olympic Committee!

But the postponement is on and the myriad details are being worked out. The IOC declared a postponement in concert with the Tokyo organizers and the Japanese government 13 days after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic and two days after the WHO announced that the spread of the virus was accelerating. And, frankly, if a successful Games is held next year, almost no one will remember these details.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE TICKER: What now for the Tokyo Games? Says IOC chief Bach, “This is like a huge jigsaw puzzle”

By
Rich Perelman
-

The latest news, notes and quotes from the worldwide Five-Ring Circus:

In the aftermath of the joint decision by the International Olympic Committee, the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and the Japanese government to delay the 2020 Olympic Games into next year, IOC President Thomas Bach held a Wednesday morning teleconference for 53 minutes, with about 400 media on the line and many more receiving a recording.

He gave an extraordinarily detailed, 11-minute account of the process by which the question of what to do about the 2020 Games turned from the question of whether Japan would be a safe place to host the Games in July, to whether anyone could get to Tokyo as the coronavirus exploded worldwide.

Bach was forthcoming and detailed a consultative process in which the information provided by the World Health Organization proved the most compelling and the most concrete.

He was pressed, for most of the 16 questions he was asked by journalists from 10 countries, to explain the timing of the postponement decision, his response to criticism that the IOC was too slow, and one question asking if he had considered resigning. He gave expansive answers to all but the last inquiry, to which his reply was “no.” (More coming on this later today.)

On the more relevant questions about the future planning, he noted:

“This indeed a very challenging question. We have there, already yesterday, following there the agreement with Prime Minister Abe, we have asked there our Coordination Commission together with the Organizing Committee to study this question in detail.

“They have now formed a task force, with what I find a very good name. With a good spirit, the task force calls itself ‘Here We Go.’ So they are now looking into it. This needs consultation, first of all, with the 33 International Federations. There, we will have a telephone conference, I think by tomorrow already, contacts have been made yesterday by telephone. So this is the first step, we have to see with them what the options are.

“And after having consulted with them, we, of course, also have to take into account the sports calendar around the Olympic Games and many, many other issues. So there I think we should come to a solution as soon as possible, but first priority there should be the quality of this decision to really be able to take the input of all the stakeholders into account: the National Olympic Committees, the athletes, the partners, of course the organizing committee is key also in this.”

Bach was further asked about the difficulties inherent in a first-ever delayed Games:

“Now, this is like a huge jigsaw puzzle, putting together. And there, every piece has to fit. If you take out one piece, the whole puzzle is destroyed. Therefore everything has to come together and everything is important.

“This is why I really do not envy the members of this task force in their work, but having seen the proof of the professionalism, the dedication of the organizing committee which made Tokyo the best prepared Olympic city ever and knowing about the professionalism of our Coordination Commission and our Olympic Games department, I’m really confident that we can also master this first-ever challenge. The Games have never been postponed before, we have no blueprint, but we are nevertheless confident that we can put a beautiful jigsaw puzzle together and will then, in the end, have wonderful Olympic Games.”

He also left open the possibility that the Games could be postponed to the spring of 2021:

“The agreement is that we want to organize this Olympic Games, at the latest in summer 2020 [sic], that means that this task force can consider there the broader picture. This is not restricted just to the summer months; all the options are on the table before or including the summer 2021.”

Bach was also asked about whether the IOC’s TOP sponsors whose agreements expire after the 2020 Games – reportedly including General Electric and Proctor & Gamble – will be able to participate in 2021. The answer was yes:

“We have contacted there, in the meantime, all of the sponsors and what we can see is that we have their full support for this decision, and we will now work to implement it. You know, these Games are called the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Therefore, for me, it’s a logical consequence that the sponsors of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 that they keep their rights, even if these games are organized in ‘21.”

Bach did not discuss costs, and they will be substantial. Wild estimates have already appeared, including 300 billion yen (~$2.7 billion U.S.) from unnamed sources, published in the Nikkei Asian Review.

ESPN published an added-cost estimate of 640.8 billion yen (~$5.7 billion) from Kansai University emeritus professor Katsuhiro Matsumoto.

The truth: no one knows. As is usual in Olympic Games with significant government investment, there is the official budget – still at $12.6 billion U.S. – and lots of estimates from others, which claim the “total cost” of the Games is as much as $30 billion, including programs which have nothing to do with the Games proper, but just happen to take place in the same time frame.

It’s not all confusion, gloom and doom. One athlete with a happy take on the postponement was three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic 100 m hurdles finalist Lolo Jones. Her twitter post:

“FINALLY The OLYMPICS OFFICIALLY postponed for a year!! No box of Wheaties for me today. #breakfastofchampions”

and showed her pouring a huge tote bag full of candy into her morning cereal bowl!

LANE ONE: Cue the dominoes, as the collateral damage of moving the Olympic Games to 2021 begins

By
Rich Perelman
-

The joint announcement by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad will be celebrated in 2021 rather than 2020 is only the beginning of a chaotic process that will take years to unwind.

Today’s agreement only starts a process that will reach around the world multiple times and will tax the patience and goodwill of thousands of people who have nothing to do with sports. For openers:

In 2020:

● Now that the Games have been postponed, what happens to the tickets that were purchased, the airfares that were booked, the hotels that were reserved, the equipment, the parties, the vacations and all the rest?

For the Tokyo organizing committee, the entire staff and office infrastructure, all planned to be vaporized by mid-2021, now must be maintained for another year. That’s millions of dollars in salaries, rent and support costs. Were leases already concluded for use of their office space, to begin in 2021? Where is that money going to come from?

For the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, its newly-constructed venues must be maintained for a full year – at their cost – and any event rentals for the coming year will have to be re-evaluated and possibly canceled or postponed. Will the International Federations which already had test events demand another set of events? Who pays for that?

Moreover, all of the planning for local projects to take place after the Games have to be reviewed and likely rescheduled or moved up, again at substantial cost.

The Japanese federal government has the same issues, plus the cost of having ramped up for Olympic passport controls and security, which must stand down for a year. This is a costly and convoluted mess.

● For the National Olympic Committees, their plans for outfitting, transporting and supporting their teams in Tokyo are now worthless. What happens to the dozens of contracts for training camps, special food and kitchens, local assistants and interpreters and so much more? What about the short-term warehouse spaces for team processing and – in some cases – millions of dollars in airfares? All of this has to be unwound and can’t be rearranged until the new dates of the Olympic and Paralympic Games are announced, hopefully by mid-April.

● For the International Federations, their 2020 schedules now have a giant hole. Will it be filled, or is everyone off for a month.

For the national federations in each country, the postponement of the Tokyo Games presents multiple, immediate problems, starting with those sports with Olympic trials events. In the U.S., what happens to these (formerly) high-profile programs:

=> 04-05 April: U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials, in State College
=> 14-21 June: U.S. Olympic Diving Trials, in Indianapolis
=> 19-28 June: U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, in Eugene
=> 21-28 June: U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, in Omaha
=> 25-28 June: U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, in St. Louis

Each of these has the same problems as Tokyo, with tickets already sold, airfares purchased, hotels reserved and so on. In the case of USA Gymnastics, it already has its regular national champs scheduled for 4-7 June in Ft. Worth, Texas, so it could go on as normal … but what about its reservations for St. Louis?

For track, swimming and diving, their trials events were designed to be the 2020 national championships in their sports. What happens now? There’s no way these events could be held as scheduled; there’s no need … and there will be no interest. Will the CHI Health Center in Omaha have dates available for the Olympic Trials (and a test event?) in 2021? Will a convention have to be bought out and moved? Who pays for that? Along with the tickets, travel and more?

All of the same questions have to be resolved for the Paralympics and its related events as well.

That’s just this year and only some of the questions to be solved. Those who follow business closely will be asking about the cost of all these questions to insurers and whether one or more major insurers could be (a) bankrupted by these events, or (b) whether event cancellation insurance will be available in the future, and at what cost?

In 2021:

Now things really get messy, as major summer events such as these will be directly impacted:

● July (15-25): World Games in Birmingham, Alabama (USA)

● July (16-01): FINA World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka (JPN)

● August (6-15): World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon (USA)

Add to this two major soccer tournaments, the Copa America and European Championships, both moved from 2020, and the summer is now really crowded.

With the Olympic Games moving to sometime in 2021, the possibility is open for an earlier date, which might help meet the pre-COVID-19 concern about the heat during the Tokyo summer. However, it’s worth noting that the European soccer league schedules run into the middle or end of May (as does the UEFA Champions League). That means that European broadcasters are not going to be interested in having an Olympic Games start any earlier than the middle of June and that might be pushing it.

However, June in Tokyo is usually significantly cooler than July – on average, 72 F vs. 81 F – but June is usually rainy, with an average of nine rain days in the month and often as many as 20. Who wants that during an Olympics? Not an easy problem to solve.

For the events which are now scheduled for June, including the World Games, World Aquatics Championships and World Athletics Championships, these will need to be moved. The FINA Worlds cannot take place in Fukuoka in the same time frame as the Olympics; no chance. In fact, almost every federation will have to re-arrange its world championships schedule for 2021 to accommodate the Tokyo Games.

For the World Games in Birmingham and the track & field worlds in Eugene, their visibility – and financial prospects – will drop to near-zero and be completely overshadowed by the Olympic Games. Both will need to move to 2022, with the added cost of another year of staffing and the snarl over tickets, hotels and travel arrangements all needing to be worked out.

(The one winner in all of this is the construction effort for the new Hayward Field in Eugene, which has been struggling toward completion in time for the 2020 Olympic Trials there. The question of the 2020 Prefontaine Classic, scheduled for 6-7 June, has to be considered, but there is otherwise no rush needed now for the new facility, which won’t be in serious use until the spring of 2021).

There are domino effects into 2022 as well, especially for the Commonwealth Games, scheduled for 27 July-7 August in Birmingham (ENG). How does that conflict with the movements of the worlds in aquatics and athletics?

These are only some of the questions that will need to be resolved, along with thousands more, and few can even start to be answered until the 2021 dates for the Tokyo Games are set. But the first domino has fallen; let’s see where the rest end up.

Rich Perelman
Editor

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THE BIG PICTURE: Japan and IOC agree to move Games to sometime in 2021; details still to be worked out

By
Rich Perelman
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.”

One day after the Japanese government determined that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 could not be held as planned, the date for the event was moved from 2020 into 2021, as announced in a joint statement between International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach (GER) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Simple, but not easy.

Abe told reporters that “I confirmed with President Bach that there will be no cancellation. We agreed to hold the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in the summer of 2021 at the latest.

“I agreed with President Bach to closely coordinate toward holding the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in a complete way to demonstrate that humankind has overcome the new coronavirus.”

This is the first time than an Olympic Games has changed dates; the Games scheduled for 1916, 1940 and 1944 were canceled due to war.

Significantly, the joint statement referenced the World Health Organization’s status report on the spread of the coronavirus:

“The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating. Yesterday, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the COVID-19 pandemic is ‘accelerating.’ There are more than 375,000 cases now recorded worldwide and in nearly every country, and their number is growing by the hour.”

In addition., the planned 121-day Olympic Torch Relay, set to start on Thursday, was canceled by the Tokyo organizers on Tuesday. “We will not start the torch relay, while we will discuss countermeasures,” said organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori. “In response to the postponement of the Olympics, we will draw a new plan for the relay.”

A message from U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee chief executive Sarah Hirshland included:

“Despite the feeling of eventuality that so many of us have felt in the lead up to this moment – my heart breaks for you, your fellow athletes around the world, our friends at Tokyo 2020, the people of Japan, and all who are impacted by this global pandemic and the decision to postpone the Tokyo Games 2020. …

“This summer was supposed to be a culmination of your hard work and life’s dream, but taking a step back from competition to care for our communities and each other is the right thing to do. Your moment will wait until we can gather again safely.

“I wish I had answers to every question out there, but the reality is this decision is unprecedented, and therefore, presents an entirely new process – for you, for the organizers, for the NGBs and for the USOPC. Please know we are committed to working with you in the coming days, weeks, and months to address them together.”

So now everyone – except the IOC and all those involved in the Games in Japan – can relax  for a few minutes and worry about things other than an Olympic Games this summer. But, without doubt, the collateral impact of this decision will be enormous and alter the sports landscape worldwide for two or more years.

But the decision has been made. As Winston Churchill famously said in another context 78 years ago: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

HEARD AT HALFTIME: Canada, Australia say they won’t go to Tokyo in 2020; Athletics Assn. survey shows 78% in favor of 2021 Games

By
Rich Perelman
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News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport:

● Games of the XXXII Olympiad: Tokyo 2020 ● Sunday was one of the wildest days in Olympic history – off the field – as:

● The International Olympic Committee announced that it was considering new scenarios, including postponement of the Tokyo Games, with a decision to come in four weeks;

● The Canadian Olympic Committee released a statement that “Team Canada to be absent from Olympic Games if held in summer 2020.” The news release noted “The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring.”

● The Australian Olympic Committee told its athletes that its Executive Board “unanimously agreed that an Australian Team could not be assembled in the changing circumstances at home and abroad.”

● World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR) sent a letter to IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) stating that “an Olympic Games in July this year is neither feasible or desirable” and goes to list his reservations, including competition fairness, possible injuries from excessive training and emotional well being. It’s the first International Federation to call for a postponement.

On Monday, new developments continued the momentum toward postponement:

● The Athletics Association, a start-up group designed to represent professional track and field athletes, released the results of a survey taken over the weekend that showed 78% in favor of postponing the Games for a year.

The survey also showed the same 78% were against cancellation of the Games and 87% who said their training had been compromised in some way by the COVID-19 outbreak. A total of 4,036 responses to the survey were recorded, although it is not clear that individuals could not vote more than once.

The accompanying statement, signed by U.S. athletes Christian Taylor and Emma Coburn – both Olympic medal winners and world champions – added that “we’re imploring the IOC to announce the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics much sooner than four weeks’ time.”

Their closing comment: “The Olympics is the pinnacle for all competitors in the sport of Athletics, but asking athletes to risk their physical and mental health preparing for an Olympic Games in the middle of a pandemic that is crippling the world, in unfair, immoral and shows a huge lack of empathy.”

● British Olympic Association chief Hugh Robertson told the Sky Sports News that “We can’t see any way that this can go ahead as things are constituted. I expect we will be joining Canada and Australia shortly.”

● Most important in all of this were comments by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Parliament on Monday:

“If I’m asked whether we can hold the Olympics at this point in time, I would have to say that the world is not in such a condition. … It’s important that not only our country but also all the other participating countries can take part in the games fully prepared.”

This is the key to the situation, and from here, the IOC and the Japanese hosts can figure out the next steps: postponement, a new set of dates and a long list of logistical issues to be solved, none of which will make everyone (anyone?) happy.

● Basketball ● Nearly lost in the COVID-19 panic was the passing of one of the giants of international basketball, former FIBA Secretary-General and IOC member Boris Stankovic, at age 94 on 20 March.

Stankovic was a basketball player himself in Yugoslavia and played in the first FIBA World Cup in 1950. He became the federation’s Secretary-General in 1976 and in the run-up to the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles began a long relationship with the National Basketball Association Commission David Stern that eventually led to the approval of NBA players in the Olympic Games. The 1992 “Dream Team” was a direct result of Stankovic’s leadership, as were many lesser-known contacts during the Cold War between western nations and the Warsaw Pact countries.

Stankovic was a consummate gentleman, a good listener, but always knew what he wanted and was dedicated to high standards of play, sportsmanship and cooperation in promoting the game. He ended his term as FIBA Secretary-General in 2002, having taken the federation to heights it could not have imagined.

● Swimming ● South African breaststroke star Cameron van den Burgh, 31, shared his experience on Twitter after having contracted COVID-19:

“1/ Some personal thoughts/observations for athletes health,The summer games & my own experience with contracting Covid19.

“2/ I have been struggling with Covid-19 for 14 days today. By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs(no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at risk demographic)

“3/ Although the most severe symptoms(extreme fever) have eased, I am still struggling with serious fatigue and a residual cough that I can’t shake. Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours.

“4/ The loss in body conditioning has been immense and can only feel for the athletes that contract Covid-19 as they will suffer a great loss of current conditioning through the last training cycle. Infection closer to competition being the worst.

“5/ Athletes will continue to train as there is no clarification re summer Games and thus are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk – and those that do contract will try rush back to training most likely enhancing/extending the damage/recovery time.

“6/ Please, look after yourself everyone! Health comes first – COVID-19 is no joke!”

Van den Burgh retired in December 2018, and finished with an Olympic gold (100 m Breast 2012) and silver (100 m Breast 2016), plus 18 World Championships medals in both Short- and Long-Course events.

● At the BuZZer ● Not everyone is excited to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic. Olympic sprint champ Simone Manuel posted on her Twitter account:

“Please please please stop asking what I, and other athletes think about the Olympics/How do I/we feel if the Olympics is postponed. I have NO control over the situation, and as important as the Olympic dream is to me as an athlete, as a human, I am more concerned about the safety and health of my fellow Americans, and the entire world.”

Pretty good advice there.

THE BIG PICTURE: IOC acknowledges planning for postponement, with decision coming within four weeks

By
Rich Perelman
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“So, like you, we are in a dilemma: Cancellation of the Olympic Games would destroy the Olympic dream of 11,000 athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committees, from the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, most likely for the Paralympic athletes, and for all the people who are supporting you as coaches, doctors, officials, training partners, friends and family. Cancellation would not solve any problem and would help nobody. Therefore it is not on our agenda.

“A decision about a postponement today could not determine a new date for the Olympic Games because of the uncertain developments in both directions: an improvement, as we are seeing in a number of countries thanks to the severe measures being taken, or a deteriorating situation in other countries.”

These comments, from International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach (GER), in a posted letter to athletes on the IOC’s Athlete365 site, and in conjunction with a news release, announced a change in the IOC’s stance on the Tokyo 2020 Games:

● Various scenarios for a postponement of the Games are being drawn up, with a goal of completing the reviews within four weeks (about 19 April);

● The spread of the coronavirus worldwide has caused significant confusion. As Bach wrote in his athlete’s letter, “What we all share, however, is tremendous uncertainty. This uncertainty rocks our nerves and raises or strengthens doubts about a positive future; it destroys hope. Some even have to fear for their very existence. This uncertainty stems from the fact that, at this moment, nobody can really make fully reliable statements about the duration of this fight against the virus.”

● The plans must integrate the abilities of the IOC, the National Olympic Committees, the International Federations, the Tokyo organizers, Japanese governments, television broadcasters, sponsors and health officials to put on the Games.

● Bach noted that even if the spread of the virus in Japan is curtailed, “A number of critical venues needed for the Games could potentially not be available anymore. The situations with millions of nights already booked in hotels is extremely difficult to handle, and the international sports calendar for at least 33 Olympic sports would have to be adapted. These are just a few of many, many more challenges.”

So now the work is underway to – almost certainly – move the Games. Reuters reported that the Tokyo organizers have begun planning for different possibilities, including the costs involved and options to scale the event back, including possibly holding the Games without spectators. Delays as short as 45 days, or one or two years, are being reviewed.

It’s worth noting that if the Games are postponed in mid-April, this will come more than three months ahead of the planned 24 July date for the Opening Ceremony, and offer a significant window for the revamping of the sports calendar for 2021 and 2022.

The International Paralympic Committee chief, Andrew Parsons (GBR), released a statement noting “The IPC and I am certain, the whole Paralympic Movement, fully support the IOC’s decision to look into the potential scenarios regarding the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, including postponement.”

NOLIGHTS: International sport is dark this week and for weeks to come; an IF-by-IF survey

By
Rich Perelman
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An almost-empty arena in Barcelona, Spain (Photo: Staffan Cedarborg via Flicker)

Headline results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

As the COVID-19 pandemic has taken hold worldwide, competition has ceased. Here is a listing of the current status of each sport with events on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic program:

● AQUATICS ● FINA has postponed or canceled events essentially through the end of April. A COVID-19 Task Force will review new dates not earlier than 20 April.

● ARCHERY ● International competition suspended until 30 April.

● ATHLETICS ● Wanda Diamond League events suspended through 16 May.

● BADMINTON ● BWF World Tour events suspended through 26 April.

● BASEBALL/SOFTBALL ● The WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier for March has been postponed; no other events are scheduled until June.

● BASKETBALL ● All FIBA competitions suspended indefinitely as of 13 March.

● BOXING ● Olympic qualifying tournaments suspended.

● CANOEING ● All ICF and international competitions suspended through 31 May.

● CYCLING ● UCI had suspended competitions in all disciplines until at least 3 April.

● EQUESTRIAN ● FEI requests cancellation of all events through 10 April.

● FENCING ● FIE suspends all competitions through 12 April.

● FOOTBALL ● FIFA does not have any of its own tournaments coming in the near future; individual countries and confederations are making their own decisions. CONCACAF has suspended its tournaments through 10 May.

● GOLF ● The PGA Tour has suspended or canceled events through 21 May. The LPGA Tour has postponed or canceled tournaments until 14 May.

● GYMNASTICS ● The FIG calendar shows events canceled or postponed through 1 May, with a full schedule not currently shown until June.

● HANDBALL ● The IHF has suspended its Olympic qualifying tournaments until sometime in June.

● HOCKEY ● The FIH Pro League for men and women has matches postponed through 20 May.

● JUDO ● The IJF World Tour events are canceled through 7 May.

● KARATE ● The WKF has canceled all tournaments through 7 May; the Olympic qualifying tournament for 8-10 May in Paris (FRA) is still scheduled.

● MODERN PENTATHLON ● The UIPM World Cup schedule has been postponed until 1 May.

● ROWING ● World Rowing has canceled or postponed events through 31 May.

● RUGBY ● The remaining Sevens Series events for men and women, scheduled to be held in May, have been postponed.

● SAILING ● The forthcoming World Sailing World Cup in Genoa (ITA) from 11-19 April was postponed, as was the 470 class World Championships from 13-21 March in Palma de Mallorca (ESP).

● SHOOTING ● The Olympic test event in Tokyo in April was canceled. The ISSF World Cup schedule has been postponed until at least 5 May in New Delhi (IND).

● SKATEBOARDING ● With regard to Skateboarding – slated to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo – World Skate has canceled or postponed events through 21 April, with one event still shown as scheduled for 22-26 April. The SLS World Championships for 19-24 May is still on (for now).

● SPORT CLIMBING ● The IFSC has canceled or postponed its tournaments through 22 May.

● SURFING ● The International Surfing Association shows the World Surfing Games in El Salvador from 9-17 May as still scheduled, but nothing between now and then.

● TABLE TENNIS ● The ITTF has postponed events until at least 5 May.

● TAEKWONDO ● All events have been postponed or canceled through the end of April.

● TENNIS ● The ATP and WTA tournament calendars have been stopped through 8 June.

● TRIATHLON ● The ITU has suspended all competitions through the end of April.

● VOLLEYBALL ● The FIVB pushed the Volleyball Nations League into the fall, and has canceled or postponed its Beach Volleyball World Tour through the end of May.

● WEIGHTLIFTING ● All IWF events have been postponed through the end of May.

● WRESTLING ● Competitions are canceled or postponed through the end of April.

In addition to these summer-sport federations, the International Ice Hockey Federation has canceled its men’s World Championships, slated for 8-24 May in Switzerland and its other 2020 championship events. World Curling has canceled all of its 2020 championships, including the men’s and women’s World Championships.

Olympic sport is, for now, dark.

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