BACH DOES A LENNON A YEAR BEFORE PARIS

PARIS—The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday formally invited the world’s nations but not Russia or its military ally Belarus to gather in one year in Paris for the Olympics—launching the final countdown to the 2024 Games against the backdrop of war in Ukraine.

IOC president Thomas Bach accompanied his invite with a plea for togetherness and invoked the memory of John Lennon as he argued that “our fragile world, with conflicts, divisions and wars rising,” needs the Olympics’ “unifying power more than ever.”

The Olympic Games must always build bridges. The Olympic Games must never erect walls. Imagine. You may say we are dreamers. We are not the only ones,” Bach said, borrowing from Lennon’s famous peace anthem, “Imagine.”

B ach has heaped praise on Paris’s preparations this week as the French capital marked the year-to-go milestone to the opening ceremony on July 26, 2024. Paris is maybe at this stage the best-prepared city ever,” Bach said.

W ithout the usual worries about whether Olympic venues will be ready, the biggest unknown this time is whether Bach and the IOC will let athletes from Russia and Belarus compete.

I n Paris this week, the IOC president has not deviated from his line that there may be a pathway for some of them to compete as “neutral athletes,” without their countries’ flags, names or colors, but that the final decision will come later.

“ There’s still one year to go,” Bach said Wednesday. “We have not taken any decision about the participation of individual neutral athletes yet.”

The sending out of formal invites for national Olympic committees and their best athletes to take part in the July 26 to August 11 Olympics is an IOC tradition to mark the year-togo milestone of both Summer and Winter Games.

Th is time, 203 NOCs are getting them. Some picked up their invites from Bach in person Wednesday at a ceremony at the Paris Games headquarters. An invite also went to the IOC’s team of refugee athletes.

Guatemala joined Russia and Belarus on the list of NOCs that aren’t invited. Guatemala is suspended from the Olympic movement because of alleged government interference with the independence of its NOC.

O ther year-to-go events this week have been less formal than the ceremony where Bach spoke about Olympic values and where a violinist played France’s national anthem and Lennon’s “Imagine.”

O n a visit to the Olympic village that will house many of the 10,500 Olympians and 4,400 Paralympic athletes, Bach got to test one of the cardboard beds they’ll sleep on. Cardboard beds were also used at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 and became something of a hit when athletes posted videos of themselves testing their durability.

I can assure them that they will

Tagaytay City gradually transforming into national sports hub

PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino led the inauguration ceremony for the Tagaytay City Combat Center on Thursday, signaling what could be the world-famous tourist destination’s gradual transformation into the country’s multi-sport hub.

T he former Tagaytay City multi-purpose arena was fully rehabilitated into a combat center that would cater to martial arts including taekwondo, karate, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, vovinam, boxing, arnis, wrestling, muay, among others.

The dome-shaped facility on Crisanto M. de los Reyes Avenue is adjacent to the Tagaytay City BMX Park, which hosted the Asian BMX Racing and Freestyle Championships only two weeks ago, and the Skateboard Park—both international-standard facilities.

“ I am happy to announce that, I think, we’re the first LGU [local government unit] to have a facility like this one,” Tolentino, also head of the PhilCycling, said during the inauguration where national combat sports athletes who won medals at the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games entertained the packed crowd with demonstrations of their respective sports.

THE Philippines—with seasoned aces Bryan Bagunas and Marck Espejo on board—is out to wage a stronger fight when it hosts the second leg of the inaugural Southeast Asia (SEA)

Volleyball League Friday at the City of Santa Rosa

Multi-Purpose Complex in Laguna. Bagunas and Espejo, two of the country’s top spikers, will mark their national team return in the V.League to form a lethal troika with rising star Steven Rotter, who earned Best Opposite Spiker honors in the first leg held in Jakarta last week. They’re experienced players. They’re smart. They can share their experiences with others,” said national men’s team head coach Sergio Veloso as his wards brace for their SEA neighbors anew. “We can make a stronger job. I feel we can play better now.” e Philippines takes on Thailand at 7 p.m. for the main event after

Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino (front, third from left) and Philippine Sports Commission Commissioner Edward Hayco (front, second from left) lead the ribbon-cutting ceremony with (front, from left) Cavite Vice Governor Athena Tolentino and Tagaytay City Vice Mayor Agnes Tolentino, DMD, as well as combat sports officials (rear, from left) Alvin Aguilar (president, wrestling), Jose Malonzo (secretary-general, Vovinam), Alexander Sulit (president, judo), Tongson Rene (secretary-general, arnis), Ferdie Agustin (president, jiu-jitsu) and Atty. Wharton Chan (secretary-general, kickboxing).

Philippine Sports Commission commissioner Edward Hayco, representing chairman Richard “Dickie” Bachmann, joined Tolentino in the ribbon-cutting ceremony that had all the makings of a fiesta celebration complete with a drum-and-bugle corps and an enthusiastic local crowd.

A lso present in the ceremony were Cavite Vice Governor Athena Tolentino, Tagaytay City Vice Mayor Agnes Tolentino, DMD, Alvin Aguilar (president, wrestling), Jose Malonzo (secretary-general, Vovinam), Alexander Sulit (president, judo), Tongson Rene (secretary-general, arnis), Ferdie Agustin (president, jiu-jitsu) and Atty. Wharton Chan (secretary-general, kickboxing).

Tagaytay City, through Tolentino, has regularly hosted national and international chess tournaments, as well as cycling competitions— including the 2019 Southeast Asian Games—because of its technical terrain with the mystical Taal Volcano and Lake as backdrop.

Tagaytay will not only be known as the country’s cycling hub, but also the country’s combat sports capital,” added Tolentino, who announced that the country’s first indoor and wooden velodrome would also rise very soon next to the combat center.

The POC chief also announced that an athletes dormitory and hotel will be constructed in the same area known locally as the Tagaytay City Atrium. He encouraged the combat sports officials to bid for international competitions saying Tagaytay City has the available facility, including hotels, restaurants and other peripherals required for global events.

Bagunas, Espejo, Rotter lead PHL charge in SEA tilt

the opener between Vietnam and Indonesia at 4 p.m. Up next for the hosts are Indonesia and Vietnam on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

M ore than the games, the Philippines is putting a premium on another international tournament after successfully hosting the Volleyball Nations League Men’s Week 3 earlier this month at the Mall of Asia Arena for the second straight year.

Men’s volleyball is getting popular and we’re very happy to have our close neighbors with us here. We hope to expand next year with more countries,” said Philippine National Volleyball Federation president Ramon “Tats” Suzara in the event presser Thursday at the Seda Nuvali.

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This tournament is very important for Southeast Asia as we, the Philippines along with Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are bidding to host the 2025 Volleyball Women’s World Championship,” he added. The SEA VLeague—presented by PLDT and backed by the City of Santa Rosa, Philippine Olympic Committee, Philippine Sports Commission, One Sports and Cignal, is a brainchild of Suzara and Thailand federation president Shanrit Wongprasert.

VOLLEYBALL federation president Ramon “Tats” Suzara (seated, center), with Seda Nuvali general manager Armand Angeles and secretary-general Donaldo Caringal pose with the team coaches and captains of Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia during the tournament press conference Thursday at the Seda Nuvali.