The insidethegames.biz Magazine Autumn Edition 2018 by Dunsar Media Company Limited

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Autumn Edition 2018

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Contents

Published: October 2018 by Dunsar Media Company Limited Editor: Duncan Mackay Magazine Editor: Daniel Palmer Managing Director: Sarah Bowron Design: Elliot Willis Willis Design Associates Pictures: Getty Images Staff headshots: Karen Kodish Print: www.csfprint.com Dunsar Media Company Limited Office Number 5 @ 8/9 Stratford Arcade, 75 High Street, Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes, MK11 1AY. Great Britain + 44 1908 563300 contact@insidethegames.biz www.insidethegames.biz No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission of the publisher. Data is published in good faith and is the best information possessed by Dunsar Media Company Limited at the stated date of publication. The publisher cannot accept any liability for errors or omissions, however caused. Errors brought to the attention of the publisher and verified to the satisfaction of the publisher will be corrected in future editions, if any.

Introduction

Duncan Mackay

Give youth a chance? Liam Morgan

Welcome to the family David Owen

Viva la revoluciĂłn Mike Rowbottom

Olympic boxing facing KO? Michael Pavitt

The Olympic Games made these boxers Michael Pavitt

What is Olympism? Mike Rowbottom

In the belly of the beast David Owen

Play Ball!

Duncan Mackay

Much too much, Much too young Mike Rowbottom

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HOSTING WINNERS

Sport Event Denmark is celebrating 10 Years! With numerous World Championships and European Championships in Denmark, we are proud to welcome the World of Sport. In the coming years Denmark will host many more world-class events. Starting in 2018 including: Sailing World Championships for all Olympic classes, ITU Multisport World Championships Festival and IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

See you in Denmark!

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ports are of course very different but at present they all seem to have one thing in common – an obsession with youth. Barely a week goes by at insidethegames without a press release dropping into our inbox which details efforts being made to appeal to the younger generation. In sport’s corridors of power, this is a huge issue. How do you make sport and the Olympic Games relevant to the young people of our time, who are growing up in a world filled with other distractions? It was no coincidence to see “youth orientated” sports such as skateboarding and surfing added to the programme for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and one wonders if other pursuits such as break dancing could one day follow. The debate over esports potentially joining the programme is also a discussion which will not go away anytime soon. In July, the International Olympic Committee held a first Forum on the issue in Lausanne and for some it is a question of when, and not if, video gaming makes its debut on sport’s grandest stage. At August’s Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, our reporter James Diamond shared a photograph of esports being watched on the big screen at the Main Press Centre. Other more “traditional” sports had been

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relegated to smaller televisions in what, perhaps, is a sign of things to come. Youth, of course, will be a key buzzword in October when Buenos Aires takes centre stage for the third edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games. Argentina’s capital will welcome nearly 4,000 athletes across 32 sports but the future of these Games remains very much a talking point. Are Youth Olympics really the best way to engage youngsters with sport, keeping them fit and active and breeding the next generation of superstars? Chief senior reporter Liam Morgan explores this issue and hears arguments from both sides of the fence. One sport which cannot be described as “young” is boxing. The fight game’s Olympic pedigree dates back to the Ancient Games and has been involved at its Modern cousin at every edition since Antwerp in 1920. That run, however, is in serious risk of coming to an end with the IOC threatening to remove boxing from the programme for Tokyo 2020. Senior reporter Michael Pavitt analyses a crisis-hit sport which is quite literally fighting for its life. If boxing is not at the Games in the Japanese capital, baseball and softball most certainly will be. The sports will return to the Olympic programme in a country which is obsessed by them, following their removal after Beijing 2008. However, the sports are not assured of their continued participation and their place at Paris 2024 remains in doubt.

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I spoke to World Baseball Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari to find out the work that is being done in the bid to remain on the scene in the French capital and beyond. Confirming the sporting programme is always one of the most debated decisions the IOC has to make. Nine new members will soon be joining the most powerful club in sport, including a member of Bhutan’s Royal Family, the President of the International Gymnastics Federation and a 24-year-old from Afghanistan who will become the youngest member since 1958. Chief columnist David Owen runs the rule over the fresh recruits who will be voting on sport’s biggest issues in the years to come. If youth is a popular buzzword in sport, another word we are getting used to hearing is “Olympism”. Chief features writer Mike Rowbottom explores this phrase and tries to get to the bottom of a question we have probably all asked: what, exactly, is Olympism? insidethegames will have reporters on the ground at all of the key sporting decisions which are coming up. But you would expect nothing else from your favourite publication. We do not have to claim we are first with breaking stories because you all know we are. Enjoy the magazine.

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GIVE YOUTH A CHANCE?

The world’s young athletes will gather in Buenos Aires but do the Youth Olympic Games have a future? Liam Morgan reports.

homas Bach has been forced to deal with several considerable challenges during his tenure as President of the International Olympic Committee. Russian doping, corruption and a dearth of candidate cities for the Olympic Games, to name but three, have dominated his in-tray since his election at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires in 2013. Although not quite to the same extent, an event in the Argentinian capital this month has also given Bach a headache or two. The Youth Olympic Games, the brainchild of Bach’s predecessor Jacques Rogge, have come under intense scrutiny in recent years over their relevance, cost and overall positioning in the Olympic Movement.

Discussions were even held not so long ago about whether the event had a future at all and it came perilously close to being scrapped entirely. The success of the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer seemed to briefly ease such fears and a series of recommendations largely made up of the usual platitudes accompanied by IOC jargon - to develop the Games were then approved nearly six months later at the Session in Rio de Janeiro. But the steps agreed by the IOC do not seem to have cemented the future of an event Rogge once claimed would become “as much an indispensable fixture of the Olympic calendar as its grown-up brothers”. At a time where the IOC is desperately attempting to cut costs from all aspects of bidding for and hosting the Summer and Winter Games, it is valid to question whether the Youth Olympics are worth it and if the event will achieve the aims it set out to do. IOC doyen Richard Pound has led the opposition to the Youth Olympics from the start and has continually voiced his doubt that

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the Games were “getting couch potatoes off the couch” as Bach had promised they would. The Canadian, the IOC’s longest-serving member, believes they are yet to reap the rewards of the recommendations made two years ago. “It was clear that the original model was unsatisfactory and eventually a commission was formed to try to create a new paradigm. We have yet to see whether that will be sustainable,” he said. “I was originally opposed to the YOG because the financial information provided had been unreliable, there had been no consultation with other organisations concerned with sedentary lifestyles and juvenile diabetes (the supposed reasons for creating the YOG) regarding the proper role for the IOC in that sector, there was no plan for getting couch potatoes off their couches and, to be eligible, one had already to be engaged with organised sport.” Pound’s last point is an interesting one. The IOC has struggled to strike a balance between enticing new athletes and simply providing a platform where competitors tipped for greatness and who might have already enjoyed success on

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The Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games were considered a success. Photo: Getty Images

the international stage can further their careers. Do those type of athletes really need it? This was a central theme in suggestions the Youth Olympics could be axed entirely. One possible solution was to turn it into a culture-based, rather than multi-sport, event but the decision was taken to keep its current format. “What has been clarified is that it is an event of the highest athletic performance for young elite athletes,” Antoine Goetschy, IOC associate director for the Youth Olympic Games, said. “To achieve that, the objective is to have the best athletes of that age group for the different events to attend. We need to attract these young athletes. “It is a sports festival in addition to being a high-level of athletic performance event. It is the new way to deliver a competition; to turn it into a festival to be attractive to young people as spectators and as participants. “It is a flexible event and is not carved into stone. At the same

time, if you want to have a high level of athletic performance you need to have some elements which will need to be maintained.” IOC vice-president Uğur Erdener agrees. “I support that the YOG remains a multi-sport event as the main idea is to prepare talented young athletes for future Olympics,” he said. “In that sense, YOG proves to be a very good platform for the National Olympic Committees and their young potential.” It is difficult to deny the pathway the Youth Olympics can provide for athletes. At Rio 2016, for example, 80 medals were won in total - 19 gold, 33 silver and 28 bronze - by competitors who had previously represented their country at the YOG. That trend continued at Pyeongchang 2018, where 22 athletes who competed at Innsbruck 2012 and Lillehammer 2016 claimed 28 medals in all. But critics and sceptics will still cast doubt on whether the ends justify the means. Concerns over the financial strain the event puts

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on the IOC and host cities came to the fore post-Nanjing 2014, described by those who were there as a mini-Olympics and where costs were thought to have spiralled, while the Buenos Aires 2018 bill is likely to come in around the $200 million mark.

“I am all for getting youth involved in physical activity, but am more concerned with getting additional active participants, not just those already in the sports system,” said Pound. “Otherwise the risk is that some very nice young people will

The Youth Olympics aim to provide a pathway for young athletes. Photo: Getty Images

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British taekwondo star Jade Jones later added double Olympic gold to her Youth Olympics title. Photo: Getty Images

simply enjoy a really, really, expensive summer or winter camp.” Others have also questioned whether the YOG drains too much of the IOC’s resources, while some suggest the money could be better spent elsewhere, especially for the host cities. This is also true for Argentina itself, which is one of several South American countries to have felt the financial pinch over the years. “Personally I don’t share the idea related to this approach,” said Erdener. “It is the IOC’s mission to bring Olympism to the youth. If we agree that YOG is a necessity in that direction for young generations, we have to arrange and allocate some financial support for this organisation. I also must point out that it is not a big reserve in the general income of the IOC. “After changing the bid procedure at the Rio Session, we reduced most of the bid city expenses. “In addition to that, with the recent YOG review, the new norm is that the costs of hosting a YOG will be shared by the IOC and the host city, while the travel costs of athletes and coaches are paid by the IOC. “The revised YOG model includes use of existing infrastructure and affordable temporary fields of play with more flexibility and adaptation to the local context. “Having said that, I think the reduced money spent can be regarded as an ‘investment’ rather than a ‘cost’ and justified. “The Youth Olympics are now not an www.facebook.com/insidethegames

expensive but a low-cost event compared to other multi-sport events.” In fairness to the IOC, the YOG does provide discernible benefits. The event can prove to be a testing ground for elements not previously seen at an Olympics, such as Buenos Aires 2018 holding their Opening Ceremony in an urban setting rather than a traditional, large-scale stadium. Buenos Aires 2018 is also the first Olympic event where the same number of women and

men will compete, reaching the hallowed gender equality the IOC are desperate to achieve. Lausanne 2020, hosts of the next Winter Youth Olympics, are also “innovating” - a familiar buzzword connected with each YOG by introducing a two-wave approach when it comes to the arrival of athletes. This rotational system will see athletes competing in events which take place in the first half of the Games arriving before and attending the Opening Ceremony, before they depart for home once their competition has finished. The second “wave” of competitors will then descend on the Olympic Capital to participate in the second half and will attend the Closing Ceremony. IOC officials also often describe the YOG as a “laboratory”, where International Federations trial new events and disciplines with a view to possible elevation to the programme at the main Games. Sport climbing and skateboarding, for example, both featured at Nanjing 2014 and will make their Olympic debuts at Tokyo 2020. This is also the case for the Winter YOG, particularly for the various skiing disciplines. “From an International Ski Federation perspective, the competition programme has shown itself to be a useful platform to introduce competition formats into the Olympic environment,” FIS secretary general Sarah Lewis said. “For example, freestyle ski big air will join Snowboard in Lausanne 2020, before making

Nanjing’s Youth Olympic Games bill was questioned. Photo: Getty Images

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its Olympic debut in Beijing 2022. “Similarly the Alpine Skiing team parallel event and the ski jumping mixed team competition were both on the YOG programme since the first edition in Innsbruck 2012, while the Alpine team event has already been successfully included in Pyeongchang 2018 and the ski jumping mixed team event added to the programme for Beijing 2022.” That may be true, but the Winter version has unquestionably been the most vulnerable of the two events when it comes to discussions surrounding the YOG’s future. For a start, the Winter Olympics themselves struggle to garner the same attention and interest as the summer equivalent and that is always going to get worse when you remove the allure of senior-level competition. The Winter YOG got off to a promising start as the inaugural edition in 2012 attracted four bidders in a contest eventually won by Innsbruck. But, as they say, the first issue of a new magazine will often sell out. Four years later, Lillehammer was the only candidate, although that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the 2016 Games were

A festival atmosphere often develops between athletes at the Youth Olympic Games. Photo: Getty Images

exactly what the IOC wanted; a relatively cheap, low-cost event held in a city with winter sports heritage and where there wasn’t the need to build expensive, lavish new facilities.

The 2022 Youth Olympics will be taken to Africa and Senegal. Photo: Getty Images

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It is also well-known that venues for the Winter Games, with their technical complexities and narrower target market, are more difficult to maintain, are more expensive and can rarely be justified from a legacy standpoint. Cities constructing such facilities for the YOG version therefore seems rather futile. With that in mind, the only way the Winter YOG can survive is if the Lillehammer 2016 model is used, although Goetschy says there are ways cities can get around their lack of winter sport venues if they want to stage the Games. “The concept of using existing facilities is at the core of the revised version,” he said. “There are options like we have taken in Lausanne, where the sliding events are in St Moritz, where speed skating will take place on a natural lake - that was a good option. “We can investigate the different options but building or paying for an expensive temporary solution will not be contemplated. “For the YOG, if a city is interested which doesn’t have the facilities, then they can propose a revised sports programme. It is accepted now that the sports programme can be adapted to the city. “The Winter YOG is closer to the model that we have tried to implement for the summer. “Maybe the winter version is more what we would like to have in the long term.” Beyond Lausanne 2020, the immediate

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Buenos Aires will welcome the world’s youth this year. Photo: Getty Images

future of the YOG lies in Africa after the IOC targeted the continent to host the 2022 summer edition, due to be held in Senegal. It was a move which could be considered brave as the IOC are taking a product which has an uncertain fate into uncharted territory; Africa has never hosted any edition of the Olympic Games and events held there over the last few years have been gripped by organisational chaos, disputes and withdrawals of star names. The 2015 African Games in Brazzaville were shunned by a host of top athletes and several sports on the programme lost their right to serve as Olympic qualifiers following a row over the ownership of the Games. The African Athletics Championships in Nigeria in August were deemed among the worst in recent memory as athletes were left stranded at airports when making their journeys to Asaba, while Durban was stripped of the 2022 Commonwealth Games www.facebook.com/insidethegames

last year after the city failed to meet a series of financial deadlines. This is not to tar Africa with the same brush; it is more to highlight the issues the continent faces when staging major events, some of which are through no fault of their own. “It is clear that organising an event of the complexity of a multi-sport Games is always a challenge anywhere you go, and we know there are risks,” Goetschy said. “We think the opportunities are greater than the risks but it is not going to be easy, for the IOC, for the International Federations and for the NOCs. Because we are the Olympic Movement, and with everybody’s support, it is very clear that the event will be a success. “Everyone will have to contribute and participate in the preparation and delivery, and at the same time adapting to the reality of the continent.” @insidethegames

Richard Pound has questioned the Youth Olympics in their current guise. Photo: Getty Images

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Welcome to the

FAMILY

Nine people will soon become the latest members of sport’s most exclusive club. David Owen profiles the new additions to the International Olympic Committee.

or years, decades even, I have described the International Olympic Committee routinely as “the most powerful club in sport”. Given the recent centralisation of power close to IOC President Thomas Bach and the changed processes via which host cities are being selected, I have concluded this is no longer appropriate. The label, “the most privileged club in sport” is for now probably closer to the mark. The power transfer is in large part an abdication: it is happening with members’ acquiescence. Under these circumstances -

and with money, if not exactly short, still tighter than in the previous decade - you might think it an appropriate juncture at which to be contemplating reducing the IOC’s size. With nine new members set to be proposed in October at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires - a city with happy memories for Bach, who won the Presidency there five years ago - there is little prospect of this happening any time soon. With the number of full members standing at time of writing at 96 - there are also 41 honorary members, two honour members and an honorary President - the new influx is

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set to take the full membership back comfortably over 100. With the likes of North Korea’s Ung Chang, Malaysia’s Prince Tunku Imran and Saint Lucia’s Richard Peterkin attaining their respective age-limits at the end of this year, however, numbers may well fall back below the hundred mark relatively swiftly. Powerful or not, the nine newcomers - six men, three women - constitute a diverse and eclectic bunch, representing four continents and ranging in age from 24 to 60. We thought insidethegames readers would like to know a little more about them.

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Samira Asghari, 24 Afghanistan

me the youngest Samira Asghari will beco Picture: Facebook

IOC member since 1958.

A symbol and advocate of women’s right to play sport, even in the most difficult circumstances, Asghari looks set by my reckoning to become the youngest IOC member since HRH Prince Albert of Liège checked into the club at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel, aged 23, in May 1958.

The future Albert II, King of the Belgians, remained for only six years before informing colleagues, again in Tokyo, that he regretted that too often his obligations had prevented his being present at IOC meetings and now obliged him to offer his resignation. Asghari might conceivably stay for as long as 46 years. This is when she would attain the current age-limit of 70. A basketball international and holder of a degree in political science, international relations, diplomacy and negotiation, Asghari has crammed a prodigious amount of experience into remarkably little time. She has already served four years on the IOC’s Athletes’ Entourage Commission and was made head of the finance department of the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee in 2012. Two years ago, she was elected the NOC’s deputy secretary general.

A recent article by Sayer Zaland, President of the Afghanistan Sports Journalists’ National Federation, recounts how Asghari’s sports-loving family was forced to flee to Iran shortly after her birth in 1994 – a year which also saw the emergence of the Taliban. Hailing from one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous provinces, Zaland says there are relatives she still cannot visit. In spite of such tribulations, “when she speaks to you, she looks very calm and confident”. Asghari is now also a member of the OCA Cultural Commission and a volunteer at the Afghanistan Red Crescent Society. As a rare IOC member with experience of being a refugee, she might be thought a natural source of ideas on how best to develop the concept of the refugee Olympic team that took part at Rio 2016.

The 24-year-old com es from one of Afg Pict ure: Facebook hanistan’s most dan gerous provinces.

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HRH Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, 34 Bhutan

HRH Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck will be the first IOC

member from Bhu tan. Picture: Facebo ok

Royal families have long been a popular source of IOC members. De Coubertin’s template for the body included what he described as “a façade of more or less useful people whose presence satisfied national pretensions at the same time as it gave prestige to the committee as a whole”. So you can understand why. There has never, however, been an IOC member from the remote Himalayan mountain kingdom of Bhutan, with its population of just 800,000, before. Wangchuck, who has been President of the Bhutan Olympic Committee since 2009, appears well-equipped to act as the country’s figurehead in international sports circles. His education spanned four foreign countries – the United States, Great Britain, France and Singapore – and took in two

of the world’s most prestigious educational establishments: Oxford University and INSEAD. A member of the Executive Board of the Olympic Council of Asia as chairman of the International Relations Committee, a colleague reports that he speaks excellent English and tends to stand out at OCA functions due to his national dress. Commissioned into the Royal Bhutan army while still a teenager in 2003, Wangchuck has a certain amount of experience with putting on sports events, having initiated and organised a 268 kilometre mountain bike race called the Tour of the Dragon in Bhutan in 2010. He is also said to have facilitated development of the King’s Challenge, an epic 14-day journey across the most challenging and less explored terrains of his native land. He is an honorary director of the Explorers Club in New York.

en Grandmother of ngchuck with the Que HRH Jigyel Ugyen Wa k role. Pict ure: Faceboo this d hol to ld wor the

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Bhutan. She is the only

person in

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Andrew Parsons, 41 Brazil

Andrew Parsons wil

l represent the Par alympic Movement

. Photo: Getty Ima ges

Parsons succeeded Sir Philip Craven as President of the International Paralympic Committee last year. As such, while his induction to the IOC was always on the cards, the most important message to be taken from the Brazilian’s inclusion on the new members’ list is that the period of strained relations between the IOC and IPC is definitively over. These tensions followed the IPC’s decision to ban Russian Para-athletes from Rio 2016. Described by one who knows him as “the most English-sounding Brazilian on this earth”, Andrew George William Parsons is the son of an English mother and Argentinian father (with

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English parents). Parsons’s parents met in Rio after his mother’s family had emigrated there and his father moved there for work purposes. One of the more intriguing entries on his CV is the award of a diploma from the International Fair Play Committee. The story goes that in Athens in 2004, where Parsons was deputy chef de mission of the Brazil team, misfortune befell the French contingent in the Para equestrian competition. The horse of French rider Valérie Salles died of a heart attack in the arena on the warm-up day. With Salles faced with having no horse to ride after years of training, the

Brazilians stepped in and offered her the opportunity to ride the mount of their sole entrant, Marcos Alves. The rules prohibited two riders using the same horse. Nonetheless, Salles took up the Brazilian offer. She rode Alves’s horse in competition, but was not allowed to be marked. Alves himself finished thirteenth. President of the Americas Paralympic Committee from 2005 until 2009 and of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee from 2009 until 2017, a period including the Rio Games, Parsons is already quite a familiar figure in IOC circles.

Like others on this list, he has cut his teeth on one or more IOC Commissions. He currently sits on both the Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission and the Olympic Channel Commission. Parsons, who has no physical impairment, originally offered himself as an intern at the CPB - which happened to be based in Niteroi, where he lived and studied - in 1997. Within weeks, he says he realised that “it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life”. Four years later, he was secretary general.

mpic Committee Andrew Parsons with French Paraly Photo: Getty Images

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Presid ent Emmanuelle Assmann.

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William Blick, 43 Uganda

William Blick has a background in Photo: Getty Images

rugby and motor-rallying.

President of the Uganda Olympic Committee since 2012, Blick is the father of two national motocross champions and readily admits he would love that activity to become an Olympic sport. In the meantime, daughter Isabella has switched to BMX and is targeting the 2022 Youth Olympic Games, as Blick says, to “hopefully win Uganda’s first gold medal”. No pressure, Isabella! Blick’s

Ugandan sporting interests will be

own sports included rugby, where he played as full-back and on the wing, and motor-rallying. He was named national rugby player of the year in the early 1990s and Clubman rally champion a decade later. His father and uncle were also motorsports champions. His sports administrative career has included spells as chairman of the Uganda Rugby Union, from 2006 to 2013, and marketing adviser to the Commonwealth Games Federation Executive Board, from 2016 to the present day. A member of the Executive Board of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, Blick says that, in spite of some rumours to the contrary, he will not stand for the ANOCA Presidency in the election

boosted by William Blick’s arrival.

scheduled for later this year. “I will play a supportive role in ANOCA with special emphasis on my marketing and managerial background,” he says. “I would like to rebrand ANOCA and be part of the team to transform the ANOCA Games into a very successful brand.” ANOCA, he explains, “does not fully own the All Africa Games; it manages them on behalf of The All Africa Union. “It has been a struggle. These Games do not have a sponsorship base and lack a strong brand name,” he said. “We lack sponsors, a television broadcaster and a strong brand identity. We need to first make the majority of events Olympic qualifiers, rebrand, set strategic objectives then systematically look for suitable long-term partners.” The last Ugandan IOC member, the late Francis Nyangweso, elected in 1988, was a Major General.

Photo: Getty Images

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Camilo Pérez López Moreira, 49 Paraguay

President of the Paraguayan Olympic Committee since 2011, López Moreira has emerged as head of the South American Sports Organization in the wake of Brazilian Carlos Nuzman’s resignation last year. As such, he might be characterised, along with Parsons and Chile’s Neven Ilic, as one of a new wave of sports administrators in the region. A young man of evidently catholic sporting interests and versatile abilities,

Olympic medal, Paraguay won their only Photo: Getty Images

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he was Paraguay’s top schoolboy tennis player from the age of 12 to 16 and was also once national ski-jump champion in the sport of water-skiing. As a former South American rally champion, meanwhile, López Moreira should find that he and prospective new IOC colleague William Blick have plenty to talk about. In the business field, he is President of companies in the telephone and livestock and real estate sectors.

a silver, in men’s football

at Athens 2004.

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n Olympic Committee

Paraguaya Moreira has led the Camilo Perez Lopez Panam Sports. ure: Pict 1. 201 e sinc

As you would expect, much of his early sports administrative experience was in sports he used to compete in tennis and car-racing. He served as President of the Paraguayan Tennis Association between 2006 and 2013, and is now President of the South American Tennis Confederation and a member of the International Tennis Federation’s Olympic Committee. López Moreira, who is noticeably diligent about documenting his many meetings – and the achievements of Paraguayan athletes – on social media, seems popular with those in the sports movement who have had dealings with him. His extensive CV also includes a stint as member of the National Association Against Cattle Theft and Timber Trafficking of the Interior Ministry of Paraguay.

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Daina Gudzinevičiūtė, 52 Lithuania

Daina Gudzinevičiūtė is an Olympic shooting gold medallist. Photo: Getty Images

The only Olympic gold medallist among the nine prospective new members, Gudzinevičiūtė attained this pinnacle at Sydney 2000 in the trap shooting event. She competed at five Olympics in all, participating in each of the Games between Atlanta 1996 and London 2012. Her best placing outside her gold medal year was fifth at Beijing 2008. This period as a top-level athlete coincided partly with a lengthy spell of 17 years, from 1988 until 2005, working at the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Her 11 years as chair of the Athletes’ Commission of the Lithuanian NOC brought initiation of legislation ensuring that the highest-achieving athletes would receive Government

annuities at the end of their careers. She has now been President of the Lithuanian NOC for six years, one of very few woman NOC heads in Europe. An Italian speaker, she has been on the Executive Board of the European Olympic Committees since 2013, serving as chair of the EOC Gender Equality in Sport Commission for three years until 2017. That same year she acted as chair of the Organising Committee for the IOC Forum “Advancing Women in Leadership Roles”. Progress towards gender equality has been one of the IOC’s relative success stories during recent difficult times. With Gudzinevičiūtė fully inside the tent, further progress might be anticipated.

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Morinari Watanabe, 59 Japan

Morinari Watanabe Photo: Getty Images

tional Gym nas tics sident of the Interna

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With athletics’s Sebastian Coe not yet elevated to the club and aquatics’s Julio César Maglione, soon to celebrate his 83rd birthday, now an honorary member, Watanabe is set to become the only President of a Group A summer sport for the purposes of revenue distribution who is a full IOC member. The International Gymnastics Federation President would also join Tsunekazu Takeda as the second IOC member from the 2020 Summer Games host country of Japan. Watanabe took up his post

Fed eration.

at the start of 2017 after beating France’s Georges Guelzec convincingly in an election to decide the successor to Bruno Grandi who had held the top job since 1996. At this time, he came across as humble, but also determined, driven and passionate. And there was certainly no lack of ambition in his bold acceptancespeech assertion that “Together, we can be the king of sports”. Since then, FIG has generated publicity by attempting to integrate parkour, a discipline with

enviable “urban” credentials. Gymnastics has also had to come to terms with the Larry Nassar case and its fallout. Watanabe travelled to USA Gymnastics’ headquarters in Indianapolis in December 2017 to lend support to the now departed President Kerry Perry after her appointment, saying he respected her courage. FIG is also working to set up a new Ethics Foundation. A board member of the Japan Gymnastics

Morinari Wat

anabe with

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former FIG

Association for 20 years from 1996, Watanabe is largely credited with the overhaul of the sport in his country after Japan failed to earn medals at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Summer Games. He is said to have been taking intensive English lessons since winning the FIG Presidency with noticeable results. His formal education included a spell at a sports academy in Bulgaria in the early 1980s.

Presid ent Br un

o Grandi. Ph oto: Getty

Images

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Giovanni Malagò, 59 Italy President of the influential Italian Olympic Committee since 2013, the tall, elegant figure of Malagò was for a time an especially frequent sight in hotel lobbies frequented by IOC members, where he would discuss the merits of the ultimately doomed Rome 2024 Olympic and Paralympic bid, a secondconsecutive Italian Summer Games bid to drop out of a hosting race long before the finish-line. Full IOC membership would make him an even more important advocate of the tripartite Italian bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, embracing Milan, Turin and Cortina d’Ampezzo, that was announced in the summer. Regarded as a brilliant and entertaining networker, Malagò was President for 20 years of the prestigious Circolo Canottieri Aniene, described to me as Italy’s Leander Club, on the Tiber. There is plenty of substance beneath the style. Over the years, Malagò has been involved, usually as President, with Organising Committees for volleyball, basketball and swimming events.

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Giovanni Malagò has been a

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strong figure in Italian sport

The World Swimming Championships he had a hand in are said to have produced the legacy of a training pool complex that is now operated by the Aniene club and available for public use. One regular visitor describes it as “clean, wellorganised and orderly”. The CONI President is as familiar a figure in Italy in luxury car circles as sporting ones. His list of Organising Committee Presidencies includes that for the 50th anniversary of the celebrated Ferrari marque in 1997. He is managing director and partner of a family company – Sa.Mo.Car – in the luxury car sector. His prominence in this field is also said to have contributed to his liked and respected position in Italian society. The company has been selling Italian Ferrari and Maserati vehicles for more than 60 years, since 1957. In his youth, Malagò was a futsal player accomplished enough in the left midfield berth to have won the Italian Championship three times and to have played for Italy in the 1986 World Championship in Brazil, where the Azzurri placed fifth. He has been a member of the Association of National Olympic Committees Marketing and New Sources of Finance Commission since 2015 and is a Commissioner of Serie A, the Italian football league. He secured a new term by the overwhelming margin of 67 votes to two when re-elected to the CONI Presidency in 2017.

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Felicite Rwemarika, 60 of African Felicite Rwemarika will join the ranks Photo: Getty Images

Rwanda

IOC members.

You would not normally expect an election for the Presidency of the Rwandan football association to warrant coverage by The Sun, the brash UK tabloid. Yet the outcome was deemed so singular that early this year the news organisation ran a report. “One candidate runs for head of Rwanda FA…and still manages to lose,” read the headline. The unfortunate candidate was Rwemarika [or Rwemalika, as her name sometimes seems to be spelt] and, according to details in The New Times, a Rwandan daily, she won just 13 out of 52 votes, with 39 declared invalid. Incumbent President, Vincent de Gaulle Nzamwita, was said to have pulled out of the contest at the last minute, citing “family reasons”. Since Rwemarika did not secure the required majority vote, the existing Executive Committee was asked to continue pending a new election. But football has long been only one string in this nurse and businesswoman’s bow, and if you are going to be deprived of one big sports job in this way, then a place on the IOC is not a bad consolation.

If any country has an interest in highlighting sport’s potential for fostering reconciliation, one would have thought it would be Rwanda. And this is one field in which Rwemarika has been active, organising workshops to promote sport as a tool for peace-building, conflict resolution, gender equality and economic empowerment. Health issues, not surprisingly, are a further focus. She has been chair of a Rwanda NGO forum on HIV and Aids and health promotion since 2015. Founder, chair and legal

The official is involved

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representative of the Association of Kigali Women in Sports, she has also served as President of FERWAFA’s Women’s Football Commission. In 2016, she received an IOC award for women and sport on the African continent. An article last December on the Panorama website said she is one of 13 children of a doctor and spent her childhood in Congo. She qualified as a midwife and married a dentist who practised in western Uganda. She worked for a decade until 1995 at Mulago Hospital, also in Uganda.

in Rwandan football. Phot o: Getty Images

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A protest remembers the 1968 massacre in Mexico City. Photo: Getty Images

The Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games were politically-charged like no other. Mike Rowbottom looks back, five decades on.

olitics has been intermingled with sport in every one of the modern Olympic Games. That mixture was at its most violent and shocking at the 1972 Munich Games, when the Palestinian Black September group took 11 Israeli Olympic team members hostage, seeking a release of prisoners, and ended up killing them along with a West German police officer. Boycotts also had a deep effect on the Olympics, both in 1980 - when the United States, China and numerous other countries refused to compete at the Moscow Games following Russia’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan - and in 1984, when Russia and 14 other sympathetic nations in turn snubbed the Los Angeles Games. But the Games that took place 50 years ago in Mexico City were perhaps the most politically fraught, given the huge forces of historical events bearing down upon them. Interviewed in the 1999 HBO Sports documentary Fists of Freedom: The Story of the ’68 Summer Games, United States athlete Larry

James, who won 400 metres silver and 4x400m gold at those Olympics, commented: “1968 was cram-packed with enough events to cover the whole century.” Large parts of the world were in political turmoil in the months leading up to that quadrennial sporting event, which took place from October 12 to 27. In the United States, widespread protests against the Vietnam War, involving students and others with the Peace Movement, were rising. In April, Martin Luther-King, charismatic head of the American civil rights movement, who had used non-violent means for years to campaign against racial inequality, was shot dead. That led to riots in 125 US cities including Baltimore, Washington D.C and New York. National politics was brutally jolted in June by the assassination of Bobby Kennedy as he ran for the Presidency. In Europe there were mass student protests, most notably in France, where students battled with police on the streets and were soon joined by workers demonstrating against the De Gaulle Government. The protests prompted a general strike that involved more than 10 million people. Elsewhere in Europe, Czechoslovakia’s attempt to free itself from a Communist regime was crushed by an invasion of Soviet troops. And in Mexico itself, trouble was brewing with a large student population that was also calling for greater democracy in the face of an

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authoritarian regime, and also protesting against economic measures that had been taken against labour unions. As the Government prepared for a Games that it hoped would enhance its standing in the world and its growing trade links following economic growth that was known as the Mexican Miracle, the students were pulling in the opposite direction. In August a series of protest marches took place in Mexico City involving around half a million people. President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, who would open the Games less than two months later, ordered the occupation of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. But the protests continued. The student organisers were well aware of the fact that world attention was falling on Mexico in the run-up to the Olympics. On October 2, ten days before the Games were due to start, thousands of students massed in the

Legendary swimmer Mark Spitz won the first two of his nine Olympic gold medals in 1968. Photo: Getty Images

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MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco area of Mexico City to call for greater civil and democratic rights. Their views on the coming Olympics were clear from their banners: No queremos olimpiadas, queremos revolución! - “We don’t want Olympics, we want revolution!”. Around 5,000 soldiers surrounded the plaza and, in circumstances that have still not been definitively clarified, shooting began. Eyewitnesses, including some members of the European media including The Guardian’s then athletics correspondent John Rodda, who was caught on a balcony as the shots rang out and had to duck in a hurry, maintain hundreds of protesters and civilians were killed and many arrested. Among those present was Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, a special correspondent for the political magazine L’Europeo, who was shot three times by Mexican soldiers, dragged downstairs by her hair and left for dead. Her eyewitness account became important

evidence in the face of the Government’s denials that a massacre had taken place. There has been subsequent speculation that the firing started when Government snipers positioned around the plaza took aim at the surrounding soldiers. Others have claimed that events tipped over when flares were dropped on the crowd from a helicopter. The initial official figure was that four had died. That figure was later revised to just over 300. The shock waves from this savage occurrence continued to ripple through Mexican society, and world opinion, as the Games started - and started without South Africa. Banned from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by the International Olympic Committee because of its apartheid system, South Africa had been provisionally invited to the 1968 Games on the understanding that all segregation and discrimination in its sport would be eliminated by the time of the 1972

The famous “Black Power” medal ceremony. Photo: Getty Images

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Vera Caslavska was ostracized after her protests at the Games. Photo: Getty Images

Olympic Games. However, African countries and African-American athletes promised to boycott the Mexico City Games if South Africa was present, as did eastern bloc countries. In April 1968 the IOC conceded that “it would be most unwise for South Africa to participate”. South Africa would remain isolated from the Games, and much of world sport, until the ending of the apartheid system allowed its return to compete in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Once the sport got underway at the Games, it wasn’t long before politics reared its ugly head again. Or in this case, lowered its beautiful head. The gymnastics career of Vera Caslavska, the seven-times Olympic champion who died in August 2016 aged 74, will live on in history. But above and beyond her sporting achievement is the memory of how she effectively ended that career at the 1968 Mexico City Games with a podium protest against the Soviet Union, whose forces had invaded her homeland of Czechoslovakia two months earlier. Having won the all-around, vault and beam golds at Tokyo 1964, Caslavska completed her set in Mexico as she retained her all-around title by winning the

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vault again, and the asymmetric bars, as well as taking joint gold in the floor exercises. The latter event was where her crucial action occurred. Originally adjudged as winner, she was going up to receive her medal when it was announced that the score of the Soviet Union’s Larisa Petrik had been upgraded and the title was to be shared. When the Soviet Union’s national anthem was played, Caslavska stood with her head down and turned away in a silent but unmistakable protest. Earlier in the Games after another very controversial judging decision that had cost her gold on beam - with Soviet rival Natalia Kuchinskaya taking the title Caslavska had also turned her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem. Upon her return to a country under Soviet rule she gave her four golds to the Czech leaders of the “Prague Spring” - the doomed attempt to liberalise the Communist regime that had been established by a coup d’etat in 1948. The podium demonstrations had already settled her fate, and after that defiant homecoming there was no chance of any other outcome. Caslavska was shunned by the establishment for more than 20 years, losing her job and

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The Aztec Stadium was among the venues. Photo: Getty Images

Tommie Smith wins gold in Mexico City before the famous medal ceremony which followed. Photo: Getty Images

her right to travel, until the changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall reestablished her in triumphant fashion. In making that point on the podium, Caslavska had defied not only the Soviet ruling system but the International Olympic Committee. Chapter five of the Olympic charter insists: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in the Olympic areas.” She was not the first, or the last, Olympic athlete to transgress. The men’s 200m final was one of many sprint events in which the thin air of Mexico City - at an altitude of 2,250 metres - and a first Olympic

British hockey player Richard Oliver wears a sombrero. Photo: Getty Images

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all-weather track helped bring about a world record. It was won in 19.83 seconds by Tommie Smith of the United States, whose team-mate John Carlos took bronze in 20.10. Silver went to Australia’s Peter Norman in a national record of 20.06. All in all, a memorable Olympic race. The figures, however, are not what it is remembered for. Or at least, not those figures, but instead those of Smith and Carlos standing solemnly on the podium, each holding up a clenched fist in a black glove. Thus did the most famous individual athlete protests in Olympic history take place as the two US athletes, nobly abetted by the Australian, turned the medal ceremony into a profound political statement of solidarity which effectively ended both of their athletics careers as it drew a furious reaction from, principally, the IOC, but also from many of their fellow Americans. As they took to the podium, Smith and Carlos were both shoeless but wearing black socks something they later explained was to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top undone to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the US and also wore a necklace of beads which he subsequently described as being “for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred.” Each wore a single black glove, which they raised in a fist, with bowed heads, as the Star Spangled Banner anthem played. @insidethegames

All three on the podium, including Norman, who had been a critic of Australia’s former White Australia Policy, wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges. He had suggested that the two US athletes take one glove each after Carlos had accidentally left his pair in the Olympic Village. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd. Smith later said: “If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.” The gesture raised boos from many of the spectators. The US National Olympic Committee was leaned upon by the IOC - whose American President, Avery Brundage, later referred to the incident as “the nasty demonstration against the American flag by negroes” - to suspend the athletes and send them home. Both received death threats, and Carlos’ home was attacked. Although no formal action was taken against Norman, his actions were resented by many in his home sporting establishment, and he was controversially left off the 1972 Olympic team, retiring soon afterwards. When Norman died of a heart attack in 2006, Smith and Carlos acted as pall bearers and Carlos recounted the conversation they had before going out for the medal ceremony. He said he and Smith had asked Norman if he believed in human rights, and he had said he did. He said they asked him if he believed in God and Norman, who came from a Salvation Army background, had said he believed strongly in God. “We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat,” Carlos recalled. “Peter said, ‘I’ll stand with you.’” Carlos added that he had expected to see fear in Norman’s eyes, but didn’t. “I saw love,” he said.

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? O K G N I C A F

Boxing must satisfy the IOC to remain on the Tokyo 2020 programme. Photo: Getty Images

After a period of turmoil the International Boxing Association is facing being axed from the Olympics. Michael Pavitt reports as the sport fights its most important bout yet.

his recurring threat to exclude boxing from the Olympic programme offends our glorious Olympic history, our tradition of a popular sport spread all over the world,” said Franco Falcinelli, as the Italian reached the finale of his speech to the International Boxing Association Congress. “Boxing cannot be out on the brink of exclusion from the Olympic programme, because the values of our sport belong to the world history and to the sport history. “Due to the incomparable social, cultural, and great political heritage nobody has the right to expel boxing from the Olympic Movement.” If playing to the gallery was an Olympic event, Falcinelli would have secured a gold medal. To those in the room it, of course, was illogical that boxing could potentially find itself off the programme for Tokyo 2020. The delegates agreed with the Italian that it would be a scandalous move to end the sport’s run of 23 consecutive appearances at the Olympic Games, a streak stretching back to 1920. How could the International Olympic Committee even contemplate removing the stage once taken by the likes of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, countless Cubans including three-time Olympic champions Félix Savón and Teófilo Stevenson, as well as the new generation of stars including Anthony Joshua, Nicola Adams and Claressa Shields? Yet, the threat remains real.

While Falcinelli’s final words as AIBA’s Interim President were a rallying cry for the Congress, an IOC delegation sat silent and were evidently unmoved by the performance. “The IOC is extremely worried about the governance in AIBA,” an IOC spokesperson stated the following day. There were several possible reasons for this declaration. There was first the coup on President Ching-kuo Wu, which led to the governing body’s headquarters being placed under the guard of security and ultimately led to the Taiwanese’s downfall. Financial fears and the threat of bankruptcy had caused great alarm. Disputes with the IOC over the Tokyo 2020 programme have not helped, while governance troubles have added to problems around the fairness of the sport. A series of judging scandals overshadowed boxing at the Rio 2016 Olympics, while a lack of drug testing completes an unwelcome bingo card which shows a sport in genuine crisis. These accumulative factors led to the IOC Executive Board deciding to suspend payments to AIBA towards the end of 2017, citing “significant ongoing concern with a number of key areas including governance, ethical and financial management that require further information and some confirmation”. The measures remain in place, with AIBA so far unable to satisfy the IOC that the required improvements have been made.

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MICHAEL PAVITT REPORTER, INSIDETHEGAMES While these issues have damaged the sport, the IOC’s later declaration of their extreme worry happened to come a day after Gafur Rakhimov moved into the Interim President position. The timing perhaps indicated that the Uzbek’s trouble with the US Treasury had caused alarm amongst sport’s powerbrokers in Lausanne. Only two months before his ascent to the position, Rakhimov was sanctioned by the Treasury in connection with the alleged Eurasian criminal entity, the Thieves-in-Law. “Gafur Rakhimov is being designated for

Gafur Rakhimov is a controversial interim head of AIBA. Photo: AIBA

providing material support to the Thieves-inLaw,” a statement read. “Rakhimov has collaborated with Thieves-in-Law on business, as well as assisted Thieves-in-Law by providing warning of law enforcement issues, arranging meetings, and addressing other problems. “Rakhimov has been described as having moved from extortion and car theft to becoming one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals and an important person involved in the heroin trade.” In light of this the IOC’s reaction to the news is hardly surprising. The organisation also questioned his apparent elevation, rather than his election, to the position. AIBA defended the move, pointing out that their statutes declare the longest serving vice-president will always take up the position on an interim basis. The governing body have, justifiably, pointed out that Rakhimov has been involved in the organisation for 20 years, yet only now has his presence caused a storm. He has been an AIBA vice-president for 15 years, as well as having served as the President of the Asian Boxing Confederation and as a vice-president of the Olympic Council of Asia. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has since instructed lawyers to file a petition for his removal from the US sanctions list. “The move to engage two legal powerhouse firms shows that he is serious about proving his innocence in the face of what he called ‘fabricated media allegations of criminal www.facebook.com/insidethegames

associations that do not exist,’” the AIBA statement published at the time said. Rakhimov added: “I have never been associated with any organised crime group, and I have never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime by the authorities in any jurisdiction in the world.” Rakhimov is right to say he has never been prosecuted, but while his name appears continually linked to organised crime, concerns will still exist surrounding his leadership of the organisation. It is understood his existing sanction in the US sees the Uzbek subject to a travel ban from the country. He was also previously prevented from entering Australia for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games due to his alleged links. He has, however, been removed from a list of alleged criminals who faced arrest if they entered Uzbekistan, a country he was forced to leave after falling out of favour with the Government of then-President Islam Karimov. These concerns surrounding Rakhimov, whether right or wrong, could potentially have a detrimental impact on the running of the federation. The sheer fact that his appointment has garnered headlines about “links to organised crime” at a time when the sport movement is facing a battering from critics about integrity, has certainly added to the unease. The IOC confirmed Rakhimov’s name was mentioned when discussing the current situation surrounding the sport at their recent Executive Board meeting, where they maintained their threat to potentially remove boxing if issues are not resolved.

“It is a range of questions that are open with AIBA,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “These questions cannot all be answered by the Executive Board of AIBA or by the secretary general alone.” The inference was that the situation surrounding Rahkimov would need to be resolved for the sport to remain on the Olympic programme. Bach reinforced this view among many observers when he claimed the fate of boxing as an Olympic sport “greatly depends” on the result of AIBA’s Congress in November, at which the Presidential election is the key item on the agenda. While candidates for the election are set to be announced on October 2, it seems clear that despite the controversy, Rakhimov’s name will be among them alongside Kazakhstan’s Serik Konakbayev. “I would like to assure you all of my personal dedication to our sport and to our organisation,” he stated in August. “The progress we are making has given me renewed inspiration and I am more determined than ever to continue devoting my life to the great sport of boxing.” With an AIBA statute change ruling that a candidate for the Presidency “must have a record of serving in the Executive Committee as an Executive Committee member”, it seems likely his competition will be small. He has been able to strengthen his position by negotiating a deal with Azerbaijan company Benkons, whom AIBA reportedly owed $10 million, which had been a significant factor in the organisation being plunged into the threat of bankruptcy.

Boxing is facing the biggest fight in its Olympic history. Photo: Getty Images

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Promoting women’s boxing is seen as a key priority. Photo: Getty Images

“According to this agreement, out of AIBA’s total debt of $10 million, $2 million will be returned to Benkons via sponsorship,” Rakhimov stated. “Further discussions will be held for another $3 million to be also covered through sponsorship, which will significantly improve AIBA’s financial situation.” The view of Rakhimov rescuing AIBA from financial abyss has certainly boosted him, while a recent report claimed to have uncovered “disturbing facts related to past mismanagement” of the organisation. It would be fair to state that this is one of several steps taken by the AIBA leadership in recent months to seek to alleviate the threat of the IOC’s axe falling upon boxing. AIBA enlisted the help of consultants Burson-Marsteller Sport, who worked with wrestling to preserve the sport’s place on the Olympic programme in the past. They have clearly had a major influence on the recent introduction of AIBA’s “Foundation Plan”, which has sought to set out the road-map to rebuilding the credibility of the sport. Introducing term limits for Executive Committee members, measures to reduce the power of the President and the ability to remove them from power by the Executive Committee and Congress are welcome advances, with these checks seemingly absent in Wu’s reign. This led to a drawn out and at times embarrassing stand-off between the President and a rival faction. Creating campaign policy to allow Presidential hopefuls to present their candidacy is logical, as is improving the gender balance of the Executive Committee - albeit to a still paltry figure of a minimum of five women for 28 positions. AIBA have also placed the International Testing Agency in charge of their anti-doping programme, encompassing each of their events, including the team-based World Series of Boxing. Concerns over anti-doping were one of the key areas raised by the IOC for AIBA to resolve, with the strength of the anti-doping programme run by the governing body having been heavily criticised. It followed reports in 2016 that only one out-of-competition anti-doping test had been conducted by the world body in the whole of 2014 and 2015. AIBA will hope the appointment of the ITA will go some way to reassuring the IOC in this area, but the under-fire organisation may still have to convince the organisation, boxers and the public that judging standards are improving. The governing body’s executive director Tom Virgets claimed earlier this

year that judging at the Rio 2016 Olympics was “incompetent” but not corrupt, following a spate of eye-opening decisions. Irish bantamweight Michael Conlan was on the end of one of the more controversial verdicts at the Games and his expletive laden rant about AIBA created huge embarrassment for the organisation. “I think that we had significant incompetence in the judging, I have no reason to believe that there was corruption,” Virgets said in April. “There’s no evidence of corruption. “We had incompetence and we are addressing that by putting in better training and looking at ways to improve the objectivity of our judging using technology, changing positions of where our officials are and just making sure that we have individuals who are more capable of judging in such a large arena.” With all 36 judges involved in Rio 2016 still suspended and an IOC investigation into the possibility of match fixing ongoing, it clearly remains an area of concern. This was highlighted when the IOC ruled boxing could remain on the programme for the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, but only with judges appointed independently. It feels impossible to ignore the similarities between boxing and weightlifting, with both sports placed on probation by the IOC, leaving their Olympic future in doubt. The two sports have essentially been handed a long rope by the organisation, giving them the option of using it to climb their way out of the hole they find themselves in by complying to their demands. The alternative is they end up hanging themselves by failing to meet the standards required, blowing their Olympic place in the process. While weightlifting seemingly have understood they need to play to the IOC’s tune, it has been less clear with AIBA. A fight was picked with the World Anti-Doping Agency over the location of Sochi in Russia for their World Championships in 2019, with a threat to launch legal action hardly sending an ideal message about their commitment to fighting doping. AIBA officials had previously also vowed to fight the IOC ruling that they must drop two male weight classes from the Tokyo 2020 programme to make way for two additional female ones: meaning eight male and five female. Perhaps aware they could lose all categories if they do not appease the IOC, AIBA backed down and talked up their efforts to improve gender equality. The governing body perhaps have a point about a premature expansion of the women’s sport, given that Taylah Robertson of Australia won an under-51 kilograms bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games by default, despite not winning a single fight as there were only seven entries. However, they have since played to the IOC’s tune, with an equality conference held and a diversity in boxing programme launched which they claim will be used to help national federations access various initiatives in the coming years. A focus will also be placed on developing youth and women’s boxing. The real test looks set to come in November, when AIBA’s reforms and elections will be watched closely by the IOC at their Congress in Moscow. There remains a very real possibility that an unsatisfactory outcome in the IOC’s eyes could spell the end for boxing’s long run at the Olympic Games, even if it is just for one cycle. Some feel a missed Olympics could provide the shockwave needed for boxing to shape up, while delivering a stern warning for other federations. AIBA will continue to attest that they feel they are on the right track and deserve to keep their place. It leaves the AIBA Congress and subsequent reaction as one of the most interesting storylines as 2018 draws to a close.

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The

Olympic Games made these boxers Frankie Genaro, United States, Antwerp 1920 Jackie Fields, United States, Paris 1924 William Smith, South Africa, Paris 1924 Pascual Perez, Argentina, London 1948 Muhammad Ali, United States, Rome 1960 Joe Frazier, United States, Tokyo 1964 George Foreman, United States, Mexico City 1968 Sugar Ray Leonard, United States, Montreal 1976 Slobodan Kacar, Yugoslavia, Moscow 1980 Patrizio Oliva, Italy, Moscow 1980 Lennox Lewis, Canada/Britain, Seoul 1988 Henry Maske, Germany, Seoul 1988 Oscar De La Hoya, United States, Barcelona 1992 Joel Casamayor, Cuba, Barcelona 1992 Wladimir Klitschko, Ukraine, Atlanta 1996 Istvan Kovacs, Hungary, Atlanta 1996 Yuriorkis Gamboa, Cuba, Athens 2004 Vasyl Lomachenko, Ukraine, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 James DeGale, Britain, Beijing 2008 Anthony Joshua, Britain, London 2012 Katie Taylor, Ireland, London 2012 Nicola Adams, Britain, London 2012 and Rio 2016 Claressa Shields, United States, London 2012 and Rio 2016

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What is

Olympism? Olympism is a buzzword that you hear a lot in sporting circles. But what does it actually mean? Mike Rowbottom reports.

lympism. We all know what it means. Don’t we? In essence, that is. It’s the spirit in which Baron Pierre De Coubertin delivered the zealous ideals that led to the creation of the modern Olympic Games, 1,500 or so years after Theodosius I, in his wisdom, had banned the Ancient Games that had taken place for more than 1,000 years, in one form or another, at the Greek site of Olympia. Except that, like everything in life when we turn to examine it, it’s not quite that simple. Theodosius, many scholars argue, did not ban the Games. He merely issued the Theodosian code that was based on the enforcement of the Christian faith, and thus prohibited pagan practices, many of which were a traditional part

of the Games. So it was a form of collateral damage rather than a direct proclamation. Similarly, many of the things we think we know about De Coubertin have been challenged. His views on the benefits and purity of having only amateur athletes taking part in the Games has been critiqued as an elitist attitude, consciously favouring those who have the private means to compete. A class distinction, in fact. Others have pointed out that athletes of the Ancient Games were effectively professional, or at least, those taking part since 480 BC. The quote for which De Coubertin is best known is the one that has been reprised at so many of the modern Games: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” But scholars have pointed out that this was entirely at odds with the spirit of the Ancient Games, where it was deemed highly important to win, with large rewards on offer for doing so.

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So large, in fact, that many cases of cheating were recorded, and those found guilty were made to pay for statues that displayed confessions of their guilt and were set out on the route athletes had to pass in order to get to the stadium. But let’s not go down that road right now… Coubertin’s assertion that the Games were the impetus for peace - through the mechanism of the Olympic Truce - is also seen as an exaggeration. The peace of which he spoke only existed to allow athletes to travel safely to Olympia. It didn’t prevent, or stop, war. Even the idea that athletic competition leads to greater understanding between nations has been strongly challenged, although in fairness this is not a topic where there can be an unequivocal judgement. All of which leaves us no nearer a clear idea of what Olympism means. What of De Coubertin? How did he describe it? There are one or two specific definitions offered by the man whose vision, evaluate it how you may, has helped create something

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huge and important in human life. “Olympism”, De Coubertin said, “seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of a good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” He also described it in terms of a single, ideal athlete: “Olympism... exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, mind and will.” These quotes are certainly helpful, but far from definitive. “In our view the Olympic idea involves a strong physical culture supplemented on the one hand by mobility, what is so aptly called ‘fair play’, and on the other hand by aesthetics, that is the cultivation of what is beautiful and graceful.” Another De Coubertin take on what the whole Olympic thing is all about. Are we getting closer? Maybe we will have an even clearer vision in October, or more precisely on October 6, when a two-day International Olympic Committee initiative associated with the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires will conclude the Olympism in Action Forum. This gathering, according to an IOC release, is “focused on building a better world through sport”. The release continues: “The role of sport in our world is more relevant today than ever before. By bringing together thousands of athletes and inspiring billions of viewers, the Olympic Games and the spirit of Olympism unite people around the world and promote peace in our society. To further the momentum of using sport for good, the International Olympic Committee is launching the first ever Olympism in Action Forum. “Join us in Buenos Aires for this important discussion…it will address the most important topics related to sport and society through a constructive dialogue with a diverse group of speakers and guests. “The Forum will not only involve Olympic Movement stakeholders, such as private and public sector leaders, athletes and media, but it will also welcome broader spheres of society with the power to effect change, including NGOs, academics, businesses, artists and more.” The Forum will have plenty to do over the two days, given the list of questions down to be considered: “How can we better protect clean athletes and the integrity of sport? What concrete ways www.facebook.com/insidethegames

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can sport help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals? Why should a city host the Olympic Games? What will the future of sport look like? Which grassroots sport organisations are making a real impact in the lives of young people? How can we strengthen our institutions and fight corruption in sport?” Those involved in the discussions will be drawn from a wide field in and around sport “Olympic champions, UN leaders, IOC Members, grassroots NGOs, young changemakers, Government officials, experts and academics, international sports federation leaders, Refugee Olympic Team members, Mayors of Olympic cities, Olympic partners.” The year of 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of Olympic Day, which the IOC describes as “an annual global celebration that sees millions of people – of all ages and from all walks of life – participate in events across the globe to raise awareness of the vital role that sport and physical activity play in society”. “To celebrate the power of the Olympic values - Excellence, Friendship and Respect - in every part of life to deliver a better world now and for generations to come, we have released our United By video,” the IOC adds. “The video seeks to define Olympism and to highlight that it is more than the Games, and more than Olympians. It is a philosophy of life that brings together sport, culture and education for the benefit of humanity. “United By also shows the world the role that the Olympic Movement can play in opening the door to peace, and how sport can build bridges and bring people together. This was never more apparent than the coming together of the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games.” Main picture: The Olympic world has often asked “What is Olympism?”. Photo: Getty Images Far left: A re-enactment of the Ancient Games. Photo: Getty Images left: Pierre de Coubertin is the founding father of the Olympic Games. Photo: Getty Images Bottom: The Olympic flag flies proudly. Photo: Getty Images

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The Olympics are the pinnacle of an athlete’s career. Photo: Getty Images

This gets us close to the official IOC take on Olympism. How about another view from an individual IOC member? Richard Peterkin, representing the St Lucia Olympic Committee, has obliged; and eloquently so. “For me, Olympism is essentially the philosophy of the Olympic Games, as outlined by the Olympic Charter and the works and writings of Pierre de Courbertin,” Peterkin writes. “It cannot be defined in one sentence or one paragraph, as it has become a global philosophy, a way of life, that seeks, through sports, and through the Olympic Games in particular, to influence the way people and organisations blend sport with culture, education and international cooperation. “On a more practical level, Olympism is all about how a strong global network of organisations, led by the International Olympic Committee, has attempted, through a blend of rules and principles enshrined in the Olympic Charter, to place sport at the service of the harmonious

The Olympics are often seen as a symbol of peace. Photo: Getty Images

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development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity. “The philosophy, promulgated through educational programmes and multi-sport Games, has used sport and an internationally accepted series of events culminating in the Olympic Games, both Winter and Summer, to spread values, ethics and international cooperation while providing tangible benefits to athletes, affiliated organisations, and cities and countries that are granted the right to host these Games. “Given the current political changes now sweeping the world, and the polarisation that is present within and between countries, the philosophy is particularly significant, as witnessed by the close relationship between the IOC and the United Nations. “Both organisations share the belief that the enjoyment of rights and freedoms to practice sport should take place without discrimination of any kind, and the practice of sport is both healthy for the individual and for local and international cooperation. “So, in essence, it is a bedrock of values and principles embedded on a platform of organised activity that seeks to provide opportunity, enjoyment and support for those persons and organisations that actively participate in these activities. “It extols the value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental principles, in the hope that these values can make the world a better place for us all.” That certainly gives a clear and wide view of what Olympism does, and how it can operate for the benefit of wider society. In the end, perhaps, one has to adopt the same approach as the one articulated by Bob Dylan in the Nobel Lecture he gave last year accepting his award of the Nobel Prize for Literature. After offering a vivid description of some of the influences that have helped form his work, Dylan concludes: “So what does it all mean? Myself and a lot of other songwriters have been influenced by these very same themes. “And they can mean a lot of different things. If a song moves you, that’s all that’s important. I don’t have to know what a song means.”

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In the belly of the BEAST Richard Peterkin has never been afraid to speak his mind during his time as an International Olympic Committee member. David Owen meets the soon to be retiring Saint Lucian.

he International Olympic Committee stands to lose one of its most distinctive and thought-provoking voices when Richard Peterkin stands down as a full member at the end of this year, on attaining the applicable age-limit.

Richard Peterkin will bow out as an IOC member. Photo: Getty Images

The chartered accountant from the small Caribbean island of Saint Lucia will have clocked up just under a decade since he entered sport’s most prestigious club in 2009. Before he leaves, the 70-year-old consented to an interview reflecting on his time, as he put it at one point,

Richard Peterkin helped put St Lucia on the sporting map. Photo: Getty Images

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“in the belly of the beast”. Peterkin was admitted in a year when the IOC felt confident enough to thumb its nose at a United States President, by making the adventurous choice of Rio de Janeiro as host of the 2016 Olympics, in preference to Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago. Given the transformation that has swept over Olympic affairs since then, it is no surprise that change is a recurrent theme of our conversation. “When Thomas Bach was campaigning for the IOC Presidency, one of the phrases he used repeatedly was, ‘We must change or be changed’,” Peterkin recalls. “I do not think that even he can have realised how prescient those words were. “Almost from the moment he became President in 2013, the challenges posed as a consequence mainly of outside influences such as the state of the global economy have become severe. Having to deal with all of this has taken an enormous amount of time, energy and money. I believe we have made a lot of progress, even if the main missions are not yet fully accomplished. We have reacted to the need for change before we were changed.” Peterkin cites as an example progress made towards equality of representation and

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ensure that corruption cannot become a problem”. On the positive side, he feels that the Olympic brand has shown itself to be “amazingly strong and resilient. Major companies are continuing to extend their sponsorship agreements,” he points out, adding that these brands “can be a great force for good by insisting on proper governance in the sports bodies they support and pulling their sponsorship when things go wrong”.

Referendum defeats in potential Olympic bid cities are a huge concern for the IOC. Photo: Getty Images

opportunity for women. “This has meant,” he says, “that when campaigns such as #metoo have materialised, we have been able to say, ‘We have been talking about such issues for years’.” Regarding the state of the Olympic Movement as his time on the IOC draws to a close, Peterkin identifies three “major challenges”. • Generating “credible” bids for the Olympic Games, especially the Winter Games. “Assuring the resident populations that there is a legacy for them and that it is not going to cost $51 billion - that remains a challenge,” he says. • Doping - a scourge he predicts may be with us for decades. “You think you have won one battle and another one pops up,” he says. “There seem to be more and more people prepared to introduce new ways of doping. Even at state level, it has appeared that certain states were not doing what they should have been. One of my hopes now is that everyone will find agreement about how to approach this problem.” • Corruption, which “is still an issue”. While he does not see the IOC itself as at fault here, Peterkin believes there are still institutions that “do not have sufficiently good governance to www.facebook.com/insidethegames

He goes on: “The IOC is a very transparent organisation and still has the financial strength which means that if we need to take on more bidding costs or professional staff, we can do so. We have the future commitments from sponsors and broadcasters to enable that money to be replaced.”

Doping remains as one of sport’s hot topics. Photo: Getty Images

He is also supportive of the Agenda 2020 reform initiative for “institutionalising the idea of scrutinising the IOC’s processes” and “getting us into the habit of questioning things”. This is important in turbulent economic and political times. “Who could have foreseen what has happened in global politics in the past few years?” he asks rhetorically. “The process of change in the world is speeding up all the time. That makes it very difficult for any organisation to commit to global principles and ideals if it is using outdated processes and rules. “The IOC now finds itself in a world that is a lot more polarised and has to thread a way through that in order to achieve the level of support from Governments that it inevitably needs.”

Richard Peterkin speaks at the 2017 ANOC General Assembly in Prague. Photo: Getty Images

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esports is growing in influence. Photo: Getty Images

Peterkin says he will depart the IOC with “mixed feelings”. There are, he says, “some things I would have liked to have done and other things I would have liked to have done better.” “When I started, I served on Commissions such as Solidarity and Finance where I felt I had expertise. I felt competent and that I could have an impact. But I learnt that the IOC - as it must do - has a bureaucracy and a professional management that deals with these issues and that, since those folks are permanent staff, we were mainly there, as volunteers, to help to guide them along. Even so, at least I felt I was in the belly of the beast that was doing wonders

for sport in the world. “When the time came for change, however, I ended up on Commissions where I did not have such capacity to influence change. If you are not on the Executive Board, you are not going to be in a position to deal with specific issues or help resolve them. Ordinary members are not marginalised, but it would be impossible for all decisions to be made by a Session. “I have tried my best to comment on things. But if you are confident that the governance framework allows for the proper election of leaders and that the leaders are trying to get the best information they can before taking

Thomas Bach once said sport needed to “change or be changed”. Photo: Getty Images

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decisions, you have to accept that they will not have time to discuss every detail of how each decision was taken. And if you disagree publicly with a decision, you have to ask yourself whether you are sufficiently informed to do so.” As for the future, Peterkin - who will continue as treasurer of Panam Sports, the regional sports organisation for the Americas - says he is “very curious about the recent rapprochement with esports” and whether they, or for that matter extreme sports or urban sports, will “do the trick by keeping young people interested”. He goes on: “We have to move away over time from an entrenched programme of 28 Olympic sports. We have to make it easier for sports, or disciplines, to come in or out. “Maybe in five years’ time, some sport that does not even exist now will be banging on the door of the Olympics. What is important is that we are open to embracing change, so that the Olympic values can continue to be transmitted via the most effective vehicles. “The encouraging thing at the moment is that nothing is being dismissed out of hand.” In closing, he expressed the hope that the nomination and election of new members would soon include other capable persons from the Caribbean.

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Play ball! Baseball and softball are preparing for their Olympic return. Photo: Getty Images

Baseball and softball will make their Olympic return at Tokyo 2020 but the battle to make sure the sports stay at the Games is only just beginning. Duncan Mackay speaks to WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari who is up for the fight.

nless you are Japanese, you probably have little idea of how big an impact the return of baseball to the Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020 is going to

have. From the moment the Japanese capital was selected in September 2013 to host the Games until baseball’s place was finally confirmed two years ago, it was the only question the Japanese media ever seemed to ask at Olympic press conferences. “Will baseball be played at Tokyo 2020?”

The country is obsessed with the sport. Drive down any motorway and it is short odds that you will soon pass a batting range which stressed Japanese businessmen visit to help relieve some of their tension. Top-level matches in the Nippon Professional Baseball League regularly sell-out. Baseball matches are often the most watched events on Japanese television. It was the Japanese who were hit hardest by the controversial decision by the International Olympic Committee at its Session in Singapore in 2005 to remove baseball and softball from the programme after Beijing 2008. The decision to drop them was largely because of the belief that baseball was an American-centric pursuit and Major League Baseball did not seem to care whether it was part of the Olympics or not, so why should the IOC? Softball, it was widely believed, was just unfairly booted out by association. Since then, the two sports have grown closer together by forming a united international governing body - the World Baseball Softball Confederation - which spearheaded the

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successful campaign for them to be returned to the Olympic programme for Tokyo 2020. Under its Italian President Riccardo Fraccari, the WBSC has positioned itself as a forwardthinking International Federation, promoting the traditional forms of the games, while at the same time also seeking new versions that will appeal to millennials whose attention span seems to grow ever shorter. A sign of how important baseball and softball is to Tokyo 2020 is that both sports have been chosen to play some matches in Fukushima. The 30,000-capacity Azuma Baseball Stadium, some 70 kilometres northwest of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, will host at least one baseball and softball game during Tokyo 2020. The prefecture was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 that triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. “Japan is using baseball and softball to play in Fukushima,” Fraccari told insidethegames. “That is a sign of the significance of our sport to Japanese society. They are using our sport to

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DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES send a message of hope to the people. It’s beyond participation in the Olympic Games, it’s beyond winning medals, it’s about offering a ray of hope. “For me, it will be an emotional moment. I will be proud for the men and women who are back in the Olympics. And I will be proud of the message playing in Fukushima will send to Japanese society.” The baseball tournament at Tokyo 2020 may be smaller than Fraccari wanted - more on that later - but there is no doubt its financial impact for Japanese organisers will be huge. Tickets for the games in large arenas appear certain to be among the hottest of the Olympics and the money the sport will generate for the local Organising Committee is expected to be considerable. It is, therefore, something of a frustration for Fraccari that the IOC and Paris 2024 are set to decide before Tokyo 2020 which sports will be added to the programme for the first Olympics in the French capital for a century. Fraccari, along with his counterparts at karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, the other sports added to the programme by Tokyo 2020, believe it would have been fairer to hold back until after they have appeared at the Olympics before judging whether to retain them or not for Paris 2024. “Of course, if the decision was made after

Tokyo 2020 officials after the sports were welcomed back to the Olympics. Photo: Getty Images

Tokyo 2020 then I am sure it would be judged as one of the most successful sports,” Fraccari said. It would be a surprise if Los Angeles 2028 did not include baseball and softball on its programme, especially with the prospect of being able to use the iconic Dodger Stadium - home of the world-famous Los Angeles Dodgers. The WBSC efforts are, therefore, largely being focussed on trying to convince the French

Baseball and softball are hugely popular in Asia. Photo: Getty Images

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to make them part of Paris 2024. Plans could include shortening games from nine to only seven innings and reducing the number of matches so that each team needs fewer players and, therefore, help Paris 2024 keep within the quota of 10,500 athletes set by the IOC. The sport’s stakeholders, including the MLB, could also help construct facilities to help lessen the financial impact of staging the sport. New rules designed to boost the appeal have already been launched by the WBSC. A strict 12-second time limit between pitches is among the alterations to the rules already trialled. Other changes include a 90-second time restriction between innings and the establishment of an “automatic intentional walk rule”. Managers will now only have to signal to the umpires for an intentional walk to be issued. It is claimed the new rules will make the game faster and improve the tempo of the sport. Making the game more compact and

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attractive to audiences, broadcasters, hosts and eventorganisers and players is a key target of the WBSC. “We are working on several aspects to try to modernise our game,” Fraccari said. “These new measures to increase the action and speed of the game will help attract and retain the attention of new audiences and athletes around the world, particularly young people, while providing a model for National Federations and leagues to follow. “More study and action in this direction will come, including the review of reducing national team roster sizes and athlete-quotas, which will streamline hosting Baseball and Softball World Cups and also make our sport more attractive and sustainable within the Olympic and Paris 2024 context.” But for baseball to really establish itself as a major international sport, Fraccari believes it needs to guarantee its place on the Olympic programme for a guaranteed period. “I think

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Japan hosted the Women’s World Softball Championships this year. Photo: Getty Images

that it is important between Tokyo and Paris and Los Angeles for the Olympic programme to be consistent,” he said. “A sport like baseball is a global sport. It does not belong to just one city or country. It can add some value to every Olympics. If we can be on the Olympic programme at Paris 2024 then,

very likely, baseball and softball will be permanently included in the Olympic Games.” With Asia, the Americas and even Oceania largely conquered, Europe is the next big target for baseball. The MLB have already announced that two regular-season matches are due to be staged next year at the Olympic Stadium built

Riccardo Fraccari is leading the fight to stay on the Olympic programme after Tokyo. Photo: Getty Images

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for London 2012 and much of the sport’s international promotional efforts are centered on the continent. “Our stakeholders are working hard in Europe,” Fraccari said. “We have the MLB games in London. For us, Paris means also the opportunity to grow in Europe.” The message “baseball is a global sport” is one that Fraccari is keen to push at every opportunity. He is acutely aware that it was the perceived lack of interest from the MLB and its chronic problems with drug-taking which contributed largely to the sport losing its Olympic place the first time round. “When we talk about our sport we must not only talk about MLB,” Fraccari said. “Now, thanks to the development of the sport worldwide, we have strong professional leagues in Japan, [South] Korea, Taiwan. I think the sport at Tokyo 2020 will be more professional than the others because we have these leagues, which are really strong.” Indeed, it is worth noting that in its five appearances at the Olympics since making its debut at Barcelona 1992, the United States have only won the gold once – at Sydney 2000. Cuba were crowned champions at Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004, while South Korea triumphed at Beijing 2008.

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Cracking the European market is seen as a key aim. Photo: Getty Images

Fraccari, however, also acknowledges that he needs the MLB on board and fully engaged if Tokyo 2020 is to be considered a success. He knows he must avoid a National Hockey League-style row that overshadowed the build-up to the ice hockey tournament at this year’s Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Persuading the MLB clubs to release their highly-paid players in the middle of the season for Tokyo 2020 will not be easy. “In past Olympics, many players from the MLB have played,” Fraccari said. “Now we have the format decided we are holding discussions. Until now, the cooperation has been good. We hope we can find a positive solution to have MLB players in the Olympics.” How many MLB players get to take part at Tokyo 2020 will be limited, though, by the fact there will be only six countries competing. Fraccari has fought since the announcement baseball would be included at Tokyo 2020 to have an expanded tournament. It is a battle he lost. It means some of the top countries will be missing. Fraccari had also campaigned for a round-robin format, ensuring more games for participating players. Tokyo 2020, however, insisted a group format consisting of two pools of three teams would be best, something he has had to accept. Japan will qualify automatically as hosts, leaving the rest of the world chasing just five places at four international qualifying events. “To have only six teams is tough,” Fraccari said. “We have to select five teams between America, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. Then we have another one from Asia, one from Europe, one from Africa. To qualify will be very, very difficult.” The decision to remove softball, along with baseball, after Beijing 2008 was widely condemned, especially as it was the only women’sonly sport on the Olympic programme. Its development probably suffered more than that of baseball, which was already big and rich

enough to survive the impact of losing its Olympic status. Softball made its Olympic debut in 1996 after several attempts to be included in the Games. The US has won three of the four gold medals awarded in the sport, losing the final to Japan at Beijing 2008, meaning the hosts will enter Tokyo 2020 as defending champions. But at the World Softball Championships in Chiba in August the US came out on top. The two are expected to battle for the Olympic gold medal at Tokyo 2020. “I was very impressed by the attendance and the quality of the teams at the World Championships,” Fraccari said. “One of the best things you see now is a lot of emerging young players in the teams. They are all fired up for Tokyo 2020. “We lost one generation of athletes. In places like China, when the sport is part of the Olympic Games, they invest more. To be back in the

Softball is the sole women-only team sport on the Olympic programme. Photo: Getty Images

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Japan won the last Olympic softball title at Beijing 2008. Photo: Getty Images

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Baseball taking place in Fukushima, which was devastated by a natural disaster. Photo: Getty Images

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“A key part of baseball/softball’s popularity is the universality of the sport. It offers an accessible route for young people all over the world to play and stay in sport.” At the same time as planning for its return to the Olympics, the WBSC is also trying to ensure its future by creating new exciting versions of its sport. The one it is currently pinning its hopes on is Baseball5. It features five-inning games played by five on-field players on each side, as opposed to the traditional baseball model of nine players per side and nine innings. Competitors are also limited to using only their bare hands to hit and field the balls. The “WBSC Baseball5 Championships” took place last November in Cuba’s capital Havana and saw champions crowned in the men’s, women’s, mixed and youth categories. The two-day urban competition on the streets of Havana served as a pilot event to further develop and evolve the new discipline. It followed on from what, the WBSC described, as the “successful introduction” of Baseball5 at the Friendship Games in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura in August 2017. Baseball5 is also set to be showcased in the sport initiation zone at this month’s Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. “I think it will be the future, like basketball 3x3, like rugby sevens,” Fraccari said. “I think it will be huge, really huge. You can play indoors, you can play in a park, you can play anywhere with no equipment other than a rubber ball. It is dynamic.”

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Much too much, Much too young The Youth Olympic Games are a huge event but is there too much pressure on the shoulders of the young athletes? Mike Rowbottom explores the issue. the IAAF World Youth Championships - would not continue beyond the last scheduled running at Nairobi in 2017. “We decided it’s not the best pathway for those athletes at that stage of their career,” said Coe, adding that greater emphasis in future would be put upon Young athletes are about to gather in Buenos Aires for the Youth Olympics. Photo: Getty Images organising regional championships. A large part of the message ight now, the International Olympic seemed to be that such competition caused Committee and the International young athletes to specialise too early in their Association of Athletics Federations don’t events, and perhaps to become over-exposed or see eye to eye. No, I’m actually not talking - for pressurised. once - about banning or not banning Russian It is a matter of speculation whether the athletes from international competition. I’m experience of US sprinter Candace Hill had any talking about, to use the average sports bearing on the shift of policy. The then administrator’s favourite phrase, The Youth. 16-year-old won the 100 and 200 metres The Youth, as we have heard many times, double, setting a 100m Championship record of holds the key to keeping middle-aged and elderly sporting administrators in their positions. 11.08sec in the process. On December 17 she skipped college athletics and turned professional The Youth must be engaged. The Youth can after being offered a 10-year contract by ASICS. never be left vacant. This might yet turn out to be a marvellous For instance, in order to keep The Youth engaged, the IOC, like a dad at a disco, is getting decision for this highly talented young athlete. But, indisputably, she is now under a new level into esports. Encouraging young people to get of pressure to deliver. Let’s hope it doesn’t off the sofa and be active is all fine and good, become a case of, as The Specials once sang, but this esports thing, well, the kids love it, and Too Much, Too Young. it’s a massive earner, so you’d be a fool to rule it It should be said that some more cynical souls out even if it is, effectively, anti-sport. suggested that the IAAF policy change was just Okay. This disco dad is going to pipe down a convenient way of cutting costs. Honestly, now and return to the theme, which is - if you people… haven’t forgotten, because if you are young, as As we approach what will be the third we all know, your attention span is very short. Summer Youth Olympic Games, which will be Very short. Young people aren’t like we used to held in Buenos Aires from October 6 to 18, it is be, reading books and everything. clear that the IOC has followed a different path. So yes. The theme is: The Youth, and the The total number of competitors has risen differing approaches to it adopted by the IOC from the level of around 3,500 that contested and the IAAF. the first Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore At the IAAF Council meeting held in Rio eight years ago, and the second in Nanjing in during the 2016 Games, the IAAF President Sebastian Coe announced that the IAAF’s World 2014. Around 4,000 athletes are expected in Under-18 Championships - previously known as Argentina.

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The IOC has recognised the Youth Olympic Games as being the brainchild of retired Austrian industrial manager Johann Rosenzopf. The idea was adopted amid growing global concerns over childhood obesity and dropping sports participation levels. It was also seen as a means of fostering participation in the main Olympics. Four new sports will be making a debut in Buenos Aires - sport climbing, dance sport, karate and roller sport - and there will be other new events and competition formats such as BMX freestyle, kiteboarding, futsal and beach handball. So are the Youth Olympic Games a good or a bad thing? A portal to future activity and success, or an unwelcome early pressure? I wrote down the answer to this question on a piece of paper, but have now lost it, and can’t remember what it was. Looking back at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics, as I so often do, what can be said is that there are many competitors who achieved success there and have gone on to replicate it, sometimes spectacularly so, at senior level. In athletics, the winner of the boys’ 400m, Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic, was London 2012 silver medallist and won world bronze a year later. Russia’s girls’ high jump champion Mariya Kuchina, now Lasitskene, has won two world titles. Boys’ pole vault silver medallist Thiago Braz Da Silva became Thiago Braz Da Gold at his home Olympics in Rio six years later. The picture is the same across a range of sports. Super heavyweight boxing gold medallist Tony Yoka of France went on to win the 2016 Olympic title before turning professional. In canoeing, girls’ K1 slalom champion Jessica Fox of Australia has gone on to win Olympic silver and bronze and seven world golds. China’s diver Qiu Bo, winner of the boys’ 3m springboard and 10m platform events, has since earned Olympic silver and four world titles… For these, and many other young athletes, the Youth Olympic Games have been a springboard. Then again, there is no clear means of measuring Too Much, Too Young…

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