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Contents
Published: April 2017 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 C222 MK:TWO Business Centres 1-9 Barton Road Bletchley Milton Keynes MK2 3HU Great Britain +44 1908 821239 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.
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Introduction
Duncan Mackay
Will the 2024 and 2028 Olympics be awarded together? Duncan Mackay
10
16
SportAccord’s 50th birthday David Owen
22
Solving the Russian doping crisis Liam Morgan
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Rio 2016 – legacy or liability? Nick Butler
Going for Gold – countdown to the 2018 Commonwealth Games Michael Pavitt
The race to lead PASO
32 36
Nick Butler
40
The Great Danes – the success of Sport Event Denmark David Owen
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The Olympics – and the Nitro effect Mike Rowbottom
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. © and Database Right 2017 Dunsar Media Company Limited All rights reserved.
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T
his moment feels like a crossroads for the Olympic Movement and the mega-events industry. After more than two decades of unprecedented growth the train seems to have hit the buffers. And hit them hard. There is no question the shine has gone off the opportunity to host major sporting events. So expensive, and lavish, are Games these days that the cost is increasingly hard to justify for those in charge of the funds of any city large enough to even consider it. Politicians are now being held more closely to account than at any time in history thanks to the staggering rise of social media and they ignore the views of the Twitterati at their peril. The list of five cities who lined up for the start of the race to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games has now been whittled down to just Los Angeles and Paris. The days when the International Olympic Committee could simply announce that the bid process was open, sit back and wait for the cities to come knocking at their door are over. It seems astonishing to think that when the campaign for the 2012 Olympics opened 14 years ago, there were nine – NINE! – cities who wanted to host them.
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Such was the interest that the IOC had to cut four of them – Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig and Rio de Janeiro – from the field. Now, it seems, they are just grateful if at least one of them makes it to the final vote. It has led to the situation where IOC President Thomas Bach is actively campaigning for a change in the Olympic Charter so they can award Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 together. What can be done to help make staging the Olympics attractive again is something I explore in my article on page 10. It would be interesting to know your views so why not email me at duncan.mackay@insidethegames.biz. The IOC is not alone. The Commonwealth Games Federation are searching for a host for their event in 2022 after Durban, their original choice, were stripped of the event because they failed to meet any of the conditions. At least the CGF can confidently look forward to a successful Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast next year. Michael Pavitt has travelled there and reports on how the preparations are going. Australia will be hoping the event leaves a better legacy than the Olympic and Paralympic Games did after Rio 2016. Nick Butler examines what has gone wrong in the City of God. The problems the Brazilian city suffered up to, during and after the Games does not seem to have damaged the ambitions of Carlos Nuzman, the President of Rio 2016. Even though he is now 75 and clearly ill, the former lawyer is the favourite to become the new President of the Pan American Sports Organization. We take a look at Nuzman and
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the other candidates. Many of you will be reading this magazine at the annual SportAccord Convention, this year taking place in Aarhus, an old Viking settlement and the European City of Culture. Sport Event Denmark have been the most active of organisations seeking to host major conferences and championships. If my previous experiences are anything to go by, then we will all be treated splendidly. The Convention has become closely associated with SportAccord, the umbrella organisation representing the International Federations. It is something that often causes confusion. One of the proposals is that SportAccord will this year change its name to the Global Association of International Sports Federations. GAISF is the acronym that they used to be known as before then President Hein Verbruggen changed it in 2009. This fascinating fact – and many others – is retold in a special feature by insidethegames. biz chief columnist David Owen, who has written an article to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SportAccord/GAISF. In 1967 the IOC were entering a period of uncertainty as the Olympic Games suffered consecutively from terrorism, boycotts and spiralling costs. It led many to question whether the event had a future. Well, it is still here. Perhaps, though, it is again time for the industry to take a hard-long look and decide which direction it wishes to travel in.
Duncan Mackay Editor
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Two for the price
one?
of
At the IOC Session on September 13, two Olympic Games could be awarded instead of just one. Duncan Mackay reports on what would be a major shift in policy.
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here is mounting speculation that a deal will be reached to allow the 2024 and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games to be awarded together later this year. Just think about that for a moment. The International Olympic Committee is now so worried that an event which claims to be the most watched event on the planet and
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has helped shape history is now such a poisoned chalice that they are not sure they will be able to find a city to host it in the future. An event that as recently as 2005 attracted bids from London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris and New York City – cities which would feature in most people’s top 10 destinations in the world – has become so unattractive that the IOC are running scared. The Olympics, an event which offers an unapparelled opportunity to cities like Seoul and Barcelona who want to showcase themselves on the world stage, is now so toxic that the fear is no-one will come forward for 2028 so an emergency solution needs to be found now. The unprecedented withdrawal of three candidate cities during the process to select a host for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games has caused widespread panic at the
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IOC. It has prompted its President Thomas Bach to begin investigating seriously the possibility of awarding the 2024 Olympics to Paris and 2028 to Los Angeles. It may be a coincidence but Bach first began talking about wanting to revise the bidding process in December because it “produces too many losers” shortly after a telephone call with the then President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. The two are said to have hit it off straight away and what was supposed to be just a short introductory call stretched to 45 minutes (By way of a comparison, the same day Trump spoke to British Prime Minister Theresa May for the first time. That call lasted 10 minutes). Trump expressed enthusiasm for the Olympics and the idea of Los Angeles hosting them, so much so he even enquired about the possibility of travelling to Lima for the IOC
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Session in September to support the Californian city’s bid. For Bach, a man who seems to enjoy the company of politicians much more than he does athletes, this was a potential photo op made in heaven. Relations between the IOC and Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama were soured less than a year into his first term when, amid great fanfare, he and wife Michelle travelled to Copenhagen in October 2009 for the IOC Session to support their home city, Chicago, who were bidding for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Pressure at home meant Obama had to make what was effectively a day trip. He was mid-air on Air Force One on his way back to Washington D.C. after addressing the IOC when he was told Chicago had been eliminated in the first round of a contest eventually won by Rio de Janeiro. Obama was “incandescent with rage” www.facebook.com/insidethegames
when he found out, according to one official on the Presidential plane. Shortly after Rio had finished hosting the 2016 Games, America’s Commander-in-Chief trained his sights on the IOC and the Olympic bid process. “I think we’ve learned that IOC’s decisions are similar to FIFA’s decisions: a little bit cooked,” Obama said in an interview with New York Magazine. “We didn’t even make the first cut, despite the fact that, by all the objective metrics, the American bid was the best.” Last month, allegations emerged that French police are probing a company linked to an influential Brazilian businessman Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho. He allegedly paid $1.5 million to a firm set-up by Papa Massata Diack, the son of Senegal’s former International Association of Athletics Federations President Lamine Diack, shortly before the host city was decided at the IOC Session in Copenhagen on October 2. At the time Lamine Diack had a vote as an IOC member and was seen as key powerbroker in Africa. According to French newspaper Le Monde, Namibia’s IOC member Frankie Fredericks was also involved in the scheme. Documents provided by American tax authorities allegedly showed Papa Diack transferred $300,000 to a Seychelles-based offshore company called Yemli Limited which was linked to Fredericks in 2009. This was done through Pamodzi Consulting three days before the vote for the 2016 Games, for which the former sprinter was a scrutineer. Fredericks has denied doing anything wrong but the scandal forced him to step
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down as chair of the IOC’s 2024 Evaluation Commission and relinquish all responsibilities until an investigation is completed. Following similar allegations that Papa Massata Diack also helped influence the result of the bid process for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in favour of Tokyo, it has led to further erosion in the public’s trust that the system is transparent and fair and rewards the best bid. With this cynicism, allied with the media feeding them a steady diet of pictures of dilapidated venues from previous Olympic Games, including Rio 2016, and stories of broken budget promises, is it any wonder fewer and fewer citizens in major cities around the world are willing to support a bid? Many cities when they bid project a confidence that feels like the other side of the looking glass compared to what they deliver. Sochi estimated it would cost $12 billion to host the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics but reportedly ended up spending $51 billion, a figure that will be a millstone around the Olympic Movement’s neck for at least a generation. Citizens in these cities are not only willing to express their opposition vocally but are prepared to do something about it. The power of Facebook and Twitter now affords them the opportunity to launch highlyeffective ambush social media campaigns.
Main: Thomas Bach is planning to award the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time. Photo: Getty Images Bottom: Boxes of votes calling for a referendum on the Budapest 2024 bid. Photo: Getty Images
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Los Angeles is now one of just two cities left in the 2024 race. Photo: Getty Images
Oslo, Boston, Hamburg, Rome, Budapest… the list of cities whose Olympic bids have been cut off at the knee is growing. The momentum went out of Budapest’s bid quicker than air out of a punctured balloon in February once fledgling political party Momentum Mozgalom submitted more than 266,000 signatures, almost twice as many as it needed, to call a referendum. The city’s bid leader Balázs Fürjes argued that those opposed to the bid represented a small minority of Budapest’s total population of 1.732 million but referendums, by their nature, have always attracted the most vocal of critics. The reasons why a city should not host the Olympics are well rehearsed: cost, infrastructure challenges, security fears. The list is a long one. The anti-Olympic playbook is well thumbed by now. But the IOC seem powerless to come up with a game-plan to counter it. Olympic Agenda 2020, the 40-point plan put into action in December 2014 to address these issues and to make bidding and hosting more flexible and less costly is a wellmeaning but futile attempt to demonstrate the benefits of hosting the Games. It looked weak at the time and now just looks like a www.facebook.com/insidethegames
document that is not worth the paper it is written on. Bach and the IOC high command, however, seem incapable of grasping the seriousness of the problem they now face, particularly in Western Europe, where opposition to the idea of hosting the Olympics is strongest. Bach admits Agenda 2020 has not solved everything, but refuses to admit the IOC are the problem, instead saying they have been affected by “more changes in the decisionmaking mechanisms in politics”. He added: “You can see how in many countries, you have populist movements and anti-establishment movements getting stronger and stronger, asking different and new questions.” Chris Dempsey led the successful “No Boston Olympics” campaign in 2015, leading to the American city being replaced as its country’s candidate for 2024 by Los Angeles. He now exports his powerful anti-Olympic message and was involved in the campaigns by citizens in Hamburg and Budapest that killed their bids. Dempsey argues that “the bidding model is certainly flawed. It is an auction, set up to get the best bid for the International Olympic Committee, not for the host city”. @insidethegames
The IOC will contribute $1.7 million to help the city awarded the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics and Bach claims they do not want cities to waste money on unnecessary projects. The problem is that once a city is awarded the Games local politicians often see it as an opportunity to re-badge expensive infrastructure projects as “vital for the Olympics” and suddenly, hey presto! Something that may have taken years to complete is fast-tracked. Dempsey has a radical solution. “A step in the right direction would be for the IOC to more closely align its financial outcomes with those of host cities,” he says. “One way to accomplish that might be to agree to be responsible for both a percentage of costs and a percentage of cost overruns. “This would provide the IOC with a financial incentive to do its due diligence and only accept bids that had responsible plans.” That could potentially expose the IOC to a massive financial hit, a risk they would not be prepared to take. It is little wonder then that Bach finds the idea of awarding both the 2024 and 2028 Olympics together at the IOC Session in Peru on September 13 an attractive idea. Both Paris and Los Angeles are
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Top Left: Paris already knows the feeling of bidding unsuccessfully for the Olympics. Photo: Getty Images Bottom Left: A referendum ended Hamburg’s 2024 hopes. Photo: Getty Images Below: Rome’s 2024 bid was scuppered by the city’s Mayor. Photo: Getty Images
high-quality options and awarding two events together would give the IOC the certainty of security for the next decade. It could allow them to re-examine the current model, re-group and hope that big cities will soon once again see hosting the Olympics as an attractive opportunity. It would also help ease the Olympic Movement’s fears that the loser in the race to host the 2024 Games may be lost forever. If Paris are overlooked yet again, it means they would have bid unsuccessfully for four of the last nine Olympics. If Los Angeles are turned down then the IOC would have burnt through America’s three biggest cities in four bids – New York City in 2012, Chicago in 2016 and LA in 2024. The Olympics needs the US. Bach, though, could face opposition in getting his plan approved. Perhaps in a sign that the German’s grip on power is not as secure as it was only a few months ago, three
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of his vice-presidents have publicly criticised the idea. Australia’s John Coates, a man widely seen as Bach’s most loyal lieutenant, told insidethegames he “hasn’t worked out how it would be done”. Turkey’s Uğur Erdener said that, in his opinion, “it is not feasible at this time”. China’s Yu Zaiqing claimed it “would need to be discussed at an IOC Session” because the Olympic Charter would require changing. According to Rule 33.2 of the Olympic Charter it says, “Save in exceptional circumstances, such election takes place seven years before the celebration of the Olympic Games.” Are these “exceptional circumstances”? After all, it is exactly the same situation as the last election for an Olympic host city when Beijing and Almaty were the only candidates to host the 2022 Games and Bach did not suggest awarding both Games together then. There were also only two bidders for the 1988 Olympics when Seoul defeated Nagoya and in 1980 when Moscow beat Los Angeles. Critics to Bach’s plan could argue that the future of the Olympics was in a much more precarious position then than it is now following the Munich Massacre in 1972, the financial disaster of Montreal 1976 and politically-led boycotts undermining consecutive Games. @insidethegames
There is an historical precedent, though. In 1921 Amsterdam dropped their bid for the 1924 Olympics, awarded to Paris, on condition they were awarded 1928. In a neat bit of history, the Americans protested the decision at the time because they wanted to put Los Angeles forward. The Californian city was eventually awarded the 1932 Olympics. Back to the 21st century. Apart from needing to change the Olympic Charter, those against awarding the 2024 and 2028 events together argue that it would be unfair to change the rules of the game midway through the process. They also claim it would discriminate against cities already considering a bid for 2028 (This might explain why Coates, Erdener and Yu are so reticent about backing Bach’s plan as Brisbane, Istanbul and Shanghai may be potential candidates…).
Bach, though, does have an unlikely ally in Richard Pound, the IOC’s longest serving member. The two have clashed over doping - particularly what action to take against Russia - but, on this topic, are on the same page. “As to the choice of host cities, I think we can improve that and perhaps the time has come for the IOC to go ‘shopping’, rather than to see what comes in from time to time over the transom,” Pound told Philip Hersh of Globetrotting. “I don’t think the modalities have been considered yet - more the idea that we might be more proactive in seeking hosts.” So, there you go, that is what hosting the Olympic Games has been reduced to after nearly a century and a quarter: a sort of massive global version of Supermarket Sweep.
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Half a
century of
SportAccord This year marks 50 years of the umbrella organisation now known as SportAccord. David Owen looks back at an eventful and somewhat chequered history.
Y
ou might easily have missed it, but 2017 will bring the 50th anniversary of the birth of SportAccord – or the Global Association of International Sports Federations, as we may soon have to get used to calling it. On April 21, 1967 (a Friday), delegates from more than 20 International Sport Federations gathered in the Continental Hotel, opposite Lausanne railway station, and began a three-day meeting. On April 22, they settled on the title, General Assembly of International Sports Federations, by a majority vote. GAIF, not GAISF, was the designated acronym, with the latter rejected because ISF was the standard abbreviation for the International Ski Federation. On April 23, William Berge Phillips, Australian President of the International Swimming Federation, was elected GAIF’s first President with a one-year term. He defeated two other nominees in the vote - R. William Jones, long-serving secretary general of the International Amateur Basketball Federation and Thomi Keller, the forceful young President of the International Rowing Federation. Keller was to take over the Presidency in 1969 and led the body for the next 17 years. Some context would probably be helpful. By 1967, Olympic IFs had been having to try and deal with Avery Brundage, the largely Chicagobased International Olympic Committee President, for 15 years. This must have been a bit like living with an older relative who loves you sincerely, but is prone to fits of temper and whose views seem increasingly outdated,
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yet who always thinks they know best what is good for you. According to historian David Miller, writing in his magisterial Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC, Brundage was “the best and occasionally the worst friend that the Olympic Movement could have, for his obsessive commitment to the past, to traditional sporting ideals of the nineteenth century and what he perceived as de Coubertin’s philosophy, blinded him to the changes of an evolving society”. Another Olympic specialist and author Allen Guttmann, who wrote an Olympic biography of Brundage, The Games Must Go On, published in 1984, cites a comment made by the long-time United States IOC member Doug Roby in an interview in 1981. “We’d have meetings with the National Olympic Committees or the IFs,” Roby is quoted as saying, “And [Brundage] would say, ‘we’ll take it under advisement’. It was a brush-off… He just wouldn’t listen…Let them talk, and then forget it.” Not surprisingly, by the mid-1960s, there was mounting frustration among both IFs and NOCs at what they perceived as the IOC’s condescending attitude and failure to take many of their concerns seriously. This coincided with the first flowerings of the television rights bonanza that was to transform and enrich some sports over coming decades. This glimpse of a substantial new revenue source helped to persuade leaders in both sets of institutions, the NOCs and the IFs, that the time had come to translate frustration into action.
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It was the NOCs, influenced in addition by the increasingly flagrant encroachment of politics - especially Cold War and, subsequently, racial politics over South Africa - into sport, who moved first. In October 1963, led by Giulio Onesti, the ambitious, energetic head of the Italian National Olympic Committee, which had negotiated breakthrough television deals for the 1960 Rome Olympics, the NOCs made the seemingly modest request for an annual meeting with the IOC’s ruling Executive Board. Onesti’s election to the IOC the following year failed to take the wind out of the NOCs’ sails, as Brundage may have hoped that it would. In 1965 a first general assembly of NOCs was staged over three days in Rome. Three years later, a permanent general assembly of NOCs was created. The last push encouraging IFs to set off down a similar route by establishing a new body more effectively to pursue their common interests appears to have come at the IOC Session in Rome in April 1966. This was the meeting where agreement was reached on the distribution around the various constituent parts of the Movement of the sums
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arising from sale of broadcasting rights to the 1972 Summer and Winter Olympics. The agreed formula put Olympic IFs on course to securing a much bigger slice of revenues than they had got up until that point. However, it still left them well short of the one-third share they had been asking for since 1963. (The NOCs succeeded in negotiating an identical share of the spoils, after a process that had started with appointment of an IOC committee chaired by Onesti). While IFs approved the Rome formula by what minutes of the meeting describe as “a large majority” albeit after a “long discussion”, the arrangement left some far from thrilled. This was hardly surprising. Announcement 10 days before the Session of a $4.5 million deal for US rights to the 1968 Summer Games made it patently clear how fast broadcasting rights values were escalating. Yet, under the new formula, federations stood to get only one-ninth of income generated by the 1972 Summer Games beyond the first $2 million, of which they stood to receive $555,555. In the event, broadcasting revenue from Munich 1972 totalled a whopping $17.8 million - more than 10 times the amount generated by Tokyo 1964, the last Summer Games before this Rome
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Top: SportAccord’s members include a number of non-Olympic sports, such as lacrosse. Photo: Getty Images Below: The sale of broadcasting rights for the 1972 Olympics in Munich was among the first items of business. Photo: Getty Images
meeting. Perhaps understandably given the pace at which their pot of gold was expanding, it seemed that Olympic leaders were simply not taking account of how quickly the commercial realities were changing. By September 1966, Keller was telling rowing colleagues that in their collaboration with the IOC, the IFs had a “dominant position from
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SportAccord is now an important part of the Olympic Movement. Photo: Getty Images
which, up until now, they have only profited to a very modest degree”. By January 1967, plans were being laid for the April meeting at which GAIF would be created. Not all IFs were in favour of the growing militancy being exhibited by some IF leaders. In particular, the International Amateur Athletic Federation, whose President, the Marquess of Exeter, was also a senior IOC member, remained broadly comfortable with the status quo. Accordingly, when IF representatives gathered in the Olympic capital on April 21, neither the IAAF, nor FIFA, the football governing body, nor AIBA, the international amateur boxing association, were among them. Even among those present at the meeting, there was some disagreement as to whether creation of a body like GAIF was necessary. When International Judo Federation President Charles Palmer proposed formation of a Secretariat of IFs “in order to promote and maintain their authority and autonomy and stand for [their] objects and aims”, the motion was very strongly opposed by ice hockey’s Bunny Ahearne. There was no shortage of seconders, however, and, on the second day, the title General Assembly of International Sports Federations was accepted. www.facebook.com/insidethegames
An interested observer on this second morning was Onesti, who was welcomed by Roger Coulon, President of the International Amateur Wrestling Federation and convenor of the meeting. Coulon commented that the Italian was “fighting a battle similar to ours, exposing himself to reproval by the IOC who did not concur with this policy”. One further curiosity from the gathering was an interjection by a Mr Goode, who submitted a report on motor sport and proposed the inclusion of motorcycling in future Olympic Games. There was also an appearance by a man from Omega, the Swiss timing specialists who had laid on a cocktail reception for delegates at the Lausanne meeting. He invited IFs which had not yet done so to contact the company “in order to solve all problems” regarding timing of events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In this way, the company was already using the gathering as a sort of one-stop shop for IF liaison. As the business of sport gathered momentum, and the range of potential IF partners and interlocutors particularly in the private sector expanded accordingly, this was to become one of the new body’s most useful and important functions, never more so than after @insidethegames
its move to Monaco in 1978. An extensive six-page letter to Brundage was drafted informing him of GAIF’s formation and enclosing a copy of its constitution. Addressed to the Hotel Hilton in Tehran, where the 65th IOC Session was soon to get under way, this letter provides a comprehensive but succinct summary of the federations’ aims and demands. Of its many “requests”, the most eyecatching are arguably a) a reiteration of the call for one-third of the TV money raised by the Games; b) a proposal for an Olympic Congress - an event, last held in 1930, bringing together the constituent parts of the Movement - every four years starting in 1970; and c) a call for the Federations, under the guise of GAIF, to play a much more prominent part in the selection of Olympic Games host-cities. (Concerns were running high at this point over the state of preparedness of Mexico City for the 1968 Games that were less than 18 months away). There is also a call for the IOC to “reconsider” its rules on amateurism, a particular bugbear of the time, not least for the IOC President who took an especially hard-line stance on the issue. The letter ends with expression of GAIF’s wish to “further the friendly atmosphere of cooperation between the members of the IOC
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and the IFs”. But, underlining how one of the triggers for GAIF’s creation was a perception that IFs were often ignored, it also requests that all decisions taken at its meetings be “thoroughly and carefully considered” and that if and when the IOC chose not to adopt a GAIF proposal, that it be given “an explanation and the reasons for the rejection”. Brundage, predictably, was less than impressed. Welcoming IOC delegates to the Session in the Shah’s capital on May 6, he told them that “several” international sports federations had recently formed “a kind of association”. They had sent a letter dealing with matters that were “not of their competence and only the concern of the IOC”. Back in Lausanne on May 22, he wrote a short reply to Phillips that, while somewhat more measured, underlined this same concern over jurisdiction. “We were astonished,” he noted, “to see among the subjects suggested for discussion, several which are the exclusive concern of the IOC”. The letter also informs the GAIF President that the IOC is suggesting a meeting between IFs and the IOC Executive Board – but not until January 1968, just before the Grenoble Winter Olympics. While a meeting between Brundage on one side and Coulon and Palmer on the other did take place in July during the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, the months after GAIF’s formation turned into a rather sterile stand-off, with the new body urging an official response to its letter before committing to the pre-Grenoble meeting. The IAAF’s Exeter, meanwhile, wrote
Former IOC President Avery Brundage opposed the organisation. Photo: Getty Images
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Lord Killanin oversaw improved relations with International Federations. Photo: Getty Images
to Brundage underlining, inter alia, that GAIF did not include Olympic IFs “who are together responsible for some 60 per cent of the public support of the Games”. For a time, it looked like the new body was more likely to split the IFs than unite them. Indeed, Brundage’s successor, Lord Killanin, later suggested that, were it not for TV money, the whole Movement might have fractured. In his 1983 autobiography, My Olympic Years, Killanin wrote: “I was never in any doubt that television, and the funds it brought in from the Games TV contract, was a compelling part of [the IFs’] need to stay within the Movement. In this way TV has played an extraordinary part in binding the Olympic family together. If there had not been this magnetism, then I think that the frustrations some of them suffered in the 1960s might well have brought about a splintering of the Movement.” Helped by this TV miracle-glue, the understrain Olympic edifice did indeed manage to hold together, and GAIF succeeded in achieving many of its key early demands. While Brundage had tended to dismiss suggestions of a Congress as a waste of money, the first such gathering for 43 years finally took place in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna in 1973, a year after the American’s replacement as IOC President by the more conciliatory Killanin. The IOC’s new Dublin-based leader also allowed a so-called Tripartite Commission, composed of IOC, NOC and IF representatives, which had been set up in 1970 to prepare the Congress, to continue in existence as a @insidethegames
permanent body for the remainder of his Presidency, which lasted until 1980. While this did not confer executive power over IOC decision-making, it gave IF and NOC top brass direct and regular access to the IOC President’s ear. Killanin was undoubtedly right to assert in My Olympic Years that “the relationships with the IFs are now much better than they were when I first became a member” and to observe that “Brundage treated them like his children”. By the time Killanin wrote this, however, some, including his successor Juan Antonio Samaranch, had concluded that the power pendulum had swung too far in the IFs’, and specifically GAIF’s favour. Armed with the knowledge that, then as in the late-1960s and 1970s, few IFs could afford to countenance life without their share of the Movement’s still fast-growing broadcasting rights revenues, the wily Spaniard took steps successfully to redress the balance. But while the relationship with the IOC has had its ups and downs, this umbrella body of IFs has done plenty - from devising new events to disseminating expertise and best practice - to promote and protect the interests of its members over a fast-moving half century. From Phillips to Patrick Baumann, Lausanne to Aarhus, it has been an eventful, sometimes turbulent ride. Nevertheless, for as long as IFs, however disparate, share certain common goals and obligations, there seems every chance that this now 50-year-old entity will continue to find a role – whatever it decides to call itself.
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e h t r e w s n a t r o p s How will
? n o i t s e u q Russia Russian doping has rarely been away from the headlines in recent times, and it is still far from certain when the crisis will end. Liam Morgan investigates.
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round a year from now, we will be in the immediate aftermath of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. We will be reflecting and reminiscing, digesting and dissecting the sporting action we would have witnessed in the little-known South Korean resort. What is still uncertain is whether there will be Russian performances to talk about. The country is still reeling from the evidence presented in Richard McLaren’s Report in December, where the Canadian lawyer outlined his detailed and damning findings of what he described as an “institutional conspiracy”. Since then, the International Association of Athletics Federations and the International Paralympic Committee have both maintained Russia’s suspension from their respective governing bodies, largely to widespread adulation, while the nation itself has continued along the same denial-ridden path they have been on ever since the phrase “state-sponsored” doping became permanently engrained in the lexicon of sport. Recently, the dismissal of the evidence in the McLaren Report by
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Russian officials has intensified, mainly due to the publication of a letter from the International Olympic Committee which revealed the World Anti-Doping Agency had conceded the findings in the explosive document may not be enough to pursue sanctions against some of the athletes involved. Cue mass rebuttals of McLaren’s findings from Russian officials. Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov was among those to take particular pleasure in WADA’s contrite admission, claiming the evidence of an orchestrated doping scheme was “non-existent”. He was not the first and he is unlikely to be the last. There’s no doubt there are issues here. After all, proving a Russian athlete’s direct culpability in the system, for example knowing their sample was being tampered with, is hugely difficult and is causing a major headache for the International Federations. But, as WADA continue to stress, McLaren was never in the business of pursuing anti-doping rule violations against individual competitors; his job was to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the country operated an institutionalised conspiracy to cheat to win
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medals at international competitions. McLaren said more than 1,000 Russian athletes had been involved in the system, in operation between 2011 and 2015. Even providing clear proof that 10 per cent of this number willingly participated in the scheme would surely be enough for severe sanctions to be imposed. WADA President Sir Craig Reedie, exuding stout defence of both the report and McLaren himself, believes critics are some way off the mark and that they are missing the fundamental point of the entire investigation.
“As far as I am concerned, McLaren did exactly what he was asked to do under his terms of reference and that is to produce evidence of an institutionalised doping conspiracy, which he did, absolutely,” he said. “In terms of the evidence, he produced whatever evidence he had because he could not get any more due to a lack of cooperation from Russian authorities on the laboratory information that we wanted and the fact that lots of samples have been destroyed. “He did what he was asked to do and the evidence is there and it is up to people to act on it now.” While the evidence debate continues, at the time of writing action has been taken based on the report’s findings, most notably by those involved with Winter IFs. The likes of the International Biathlon Union and the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation have already stripped major events from Russia and reallocated them elsewhere and investigations into those implicated continue. The Winter IFs have had to deal with the report with the utmost urgency amid their respective competition seasons and with Pyeongchang 2018 looming large on the horizon. They have had to deal with the extent of the evidence against Russia presented by McLaren amid constant www.facebook.com/insidethegames
pressure to act swiftly and sternly for the benefit of clean sport and have been criticised for not acting quickly enough. “It is clear from everything that McLaren wrote and all the materials there that these cases are not your traditional A sample positive B sample positive,” IBU vicepresident for sport Max Cobb said. “These are much more complicated cases with all kinds of different evidence that needs to be processed and it needs to be done correctly to protect the athletes that are mentioned as we need to treat everyone exactly right. It takes a long time to process these cases but what we have done is a clear sign that IBU is moving forward. “It is easy for people on the outside to make those kinds of critical comments because they don’t understand what needs to be dealt with. It is naïve to think things can move as quickly as traditional doping cases do and I hope that people understand that everything is being done in the deliberate and correct way and we are moving as quickly as possible.” Of course, some of these problems were their own doing. The IBU opting to award their 2021 World Championships to the Russian city of Tyumen in September, a decision which has subsequently been revoked, sparked a widespread backlash and eventually led to over 170 biathletes writing a letter to the governing body calling for “resolute action” against Russian doping. This in turn was the reason for an Extraordinary Congress, held before February’s World Championships in
Hochfilzen, during which the Executive Board ordered Russia to return the hosting rights for the 2021 event or they would be forced to seek an alternative location. The power of the athletes had clearly yielded some discernible results. “The decision regarding Tyumen was necessary to maintain our good standing and avoid any issues of non-compliance with WADA,” said Cobb. “So that issue was pretty easily settled even though it is never comfortable to change the vote of the Congress or alter a decision made by the Congress. “Everybody understood it was necessary. Personally, it was a surprise for me [when Tyumen was awarded the event] and I think the IBU definitely understands the WADA Code now in a way that maybe had been clouded a little bit by the advice that was coming in from the IOC in Rio. “I think it was a big misunderstanding there and I think it is clear to everyone now. I think everything is on track to go forward as it should.” Despite the rulings from the IBU and the IBSF, who moved their 2017 World Championships from Sochi to Königssee in Germany amid boycott threats led by Britain’s Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold and following the McLaren Report, Russia had not publicly admitted they have a problem until early March when Vladimir Putin finally acknowledged the existence of the findings from the Canadian lawyer and said their anti-doping system had “failed”. A complete lack of admission is
Vitaly Mutko, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin have regularly defended their country. Photo: Getty Images
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considered one of the main frustrations of sports officials and those within the antidoping movement. It is also a key barrier to Russia’s reinstatement with WADA, the IAAF – who have said that Russia must either “convincingly rebut” or “acknowledge and properly address” evidence in the McLaren Report before they are welcomed back – and the IPC. Acceptance has never been forthcoming from Russia. From Zhukov to Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko to honorary IOC member Vitaly Smirnov, who is leading an anti-doping commission in the country, the powers-that-be in one of the world’s largest countries are sticking to their message and dare not stray away from the party line. As IAAF vice-president Hamad Kalkaba Malboum tells me: “Acceptance is the first step to reconciliation.” Zhukov in particular has been guilty of this, while Mutko is seemingly denying in public but admitting there is an issue in private. This is all part of Putin’s plan to ensure they do not lose face – something which appears endemic in Russian culture – and even his acknowledgement of the McLaren Report came with a reiteration that there has “never been any institutional conspiracy to conceal positive doping tests in Russia and there never will be”. “Over these last two years Russian sport has showcased the high level of cleanness from doping, which is the highest in the world, as well as high performance at numerous international competitions,” said Zhukov. “This disarms the argument that the success of Russian athletes is inextricably connected with doping.” Zhukov went on to claim only 0.6 per cent of the tests carried out on Russian athletes as part of the efforts of UK Anti-Doping and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency had come back positive. This, he said, “is lower than the average index number in other countries”. “It confirms the fact that no doping test manipulations orchestrated by the Russian Government or state-sponsored doping programme has ever existed in Russia,” added Zhukov, who is also a member of the IOC. It is the phrase “state-sponsored” which remains a bone of contention even to this day. What, exactly, does it mean? The fact that McLaren opted to change his wording from “state-sponsored” to “institutional conspiracy” from his first report to the www.facebook.com/insidethegames
Biathlon is a sport which has become embroiled in the Russia controversy. Photo: Getty Images
second suggests an unease with the wording within WADA, which Sir Craig has also expressed. “First of all, there seems to be a difference in people’s understanding of the phrase state-sponsored,” the WADA President said. “The Russian definition of state-sponsored seems to assume that it goes to the very highest political organisation in the country and I am not sure that is entirely what the rest of the world believes. “We know and have been told on any number of occasions that they understand there is an issue in Russia and that they need to fix it. It is their habit not to say publicly ‘yes we had state-sponsored doping’. They deny that under their definition. “As far as I am concerned, they understand there is a problem and we need to get on and fix it.” Getting on with it, from a WADA perspective anyway, is ensuring RUSADA regain compliance. The IAAF are also tackling the issue head on, with the Taskforce, led by Rune Andersen, confirming earlier this year that their suspension would not be lifted @insidethegames
until November at the earliest and therefore after this year’s World Championships in London in August. They have, however, granted athletes who have met their strict criteria, including demonstrating they have not been part of the system and have been tested outside of Russia, the opportunity to compete as neutrals. Some have rejected this while others are keen on distancing themselves from a doping scandal which has rocked world sport to its core. The move has received generally positive feedback and is perhaps a method other IFs could consider adopting. “Our sport has of course been damaged by the doping and corruption allegations,” said Malboum. “The IAAF Taskforce is positive about progress and has confidence working with the new Russian Athletics Federation team. “Our job is not to stop countries from competing, it is the opposite, finding ways to ensure they compete cleanly and fairly. We want all countries to compete but athletes and fans need to know that the playing field is level.”
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Timeline Russian Doping Crisis November 9, 2015 – First WADA Independent Commission report alleges state-sponsored doping in Russia and calls on the All-Russia Athletic Federation to be suspended. November 13, 2015 – ARAF (now RusAF) provisionally suspended by the IAAF. November 18, 2015 – Russian Anti-Doping Agency declared non-compliant by WADA. January 2016 – Second Independent Commission report claims the IAAF must have known about the extent of Russian doping. Says corruption was “embedded” in the governing body. May 2016 – WADA confirm they will launch an investigation after former Moscow lab director Grigory Rodchenkov makes a series of stunning allegations about a state-run cover up of doping at Sochi 2014 in a New York Times interview. Sir Craig Reedie has faced a testing time as WADA President. Photo: Getty Images
In spite of the optimism of some officials, the future remains uncertain for Russia. Will there be enough cases from the McLaren Report to warrant a blanket ban on athletes competing at Pyeongchang 2018? Will RUSADA regain their compliance before the Winter Games go to South Korea for the first time? A lot of this may depend on the work of two IOC commissions. One, led by former Swiss Confederation President Samuel Schmid, is addressing “substantial allegations about the potential systematic manipulation of the anti-doping samples”. The other, headed by Swiss IOC member Denis Oswald, is examining evidence “against individual
Lizzy Yarnold led calls for Sochi to lose the IBSF World Championships. Photo: Getty Images
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Russian athletes and their entourage”. Their progress thus far has been relatively slow and all interested parties will hope their results come sooner rather than later. “I hope that whatever decisions are needed from the two IOC Commissions that they get them at the earliest possible date so we can put this whole episode behind us and move on,” said Sir Craig. “Certainly there is a lot more time involved here and certainly as far as I can see, the IOC is taking this very seriously indeed. “President Bach’s immediate reaction that this was an attack on the integrity of sport seems to be the right thing to say and we have to make sure that does not recur. “I understand the IOC’s situation. Sports officials in the main are not in the business of taking decisions that stop people taking part and intellectually I want people to take part in sport and ultimately the Olympic Games. “But I want them to take part in the knowledge - of the whole world - that they have gone through a proper, organised and responsible doping process. “Part of that would be a quickly resumed, very effective RUSADA. This for WADA is the priority at the moment – you have to get RUSADA compliant so we move forward otherwise sports rattles around with doping arguments on things that happened now two-and-a-half years ago and that is not hugely productive.” @insidethegames
June 2016 – IAAF upholds blanket ban on Russian athletes. July 18, 2016 – McLaren Report published. Says Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme for four years across the “vast majority” of summer and winter Olympic sports. WADA then call for complete ban on Russians from Rio 2016. July 19, 2016 – IOC announce several measures against Russia, including urging them to “freeze preparations” and find alternative hosts for winter events. July 24, 2016 – IOC opts against a blanket ban on Russian athletes. Defers decision on their participation to International Federations. August 7, 2016 – IPC ban entire Russian team from Rio 2016 Paralympics. December 9, 2016 – McLaren delivers second part of the report, which provides evidence of an “institutionalised conspiracy” in Russian sport between 2011 and 2015. January 2017 – Winter IFs move events from Russia. Königssee replaces Sochi as hosts of IBSF World Championships. February 2017 – IAAF and IPC keep respective suspensions on Russia in place. March 2017 – Vladimir Putin admits anti-doping system in Russia failed. Calls on country to “heed demands” of report but denies the presence of any “institutionalised conspiracy”.
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Legacy or
Liability?
The Maracanã Stadium is an iconic venue but has faced problems post-Rio 2016. Photo: Getty Images
Rio 2016 six months on Rio’s Olympic and Paralympic Games were meant to demonstrate the triumphant arrival of Brazil on the global stage. But, transport improvements aside, Nick Butler finds the most obvious legacy so far to be one of crumbling venues and empty promises. 28
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here is no more powerful tool in journalism than images. Words and opinions shape or alter views, but a hard-hitting photograph is best for leaving an immediate and profound impression. Take Olympic legacy. To my generation, Barcelona 1992 always conjures that iconic image of a diver somersaulting off a platform against the backdrop of a revitalised city, while Sydney eight years later evokes the Opera House illuminated by the five rings. Rio 2016 tried hard to follow suit. “You wait,” we were told repeatedly as problems mounted last year. “All our challenges will be forgotten when the world sees TV images of Copacabana and Christ the Redeemer.” They were right, for the most part, but pride so often comes before a fall. In recent weeks, we have duly seen a series of embarrassing yet
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equally powerful images of dilapidated venues cluttering the landscape in a powerful reminder of a missed opportunity. Legacy was always such an integral part of Rio’s appeal. It was a huge - perhaps the hugest - part of their successful bid in 2009. Brazilian official after official stood up at the International Olympic Committee Session in Copenhagen and promised how the Games would usher in a new superpower. It would eradicate water pollution, poverty and favelas while creating new schools, hotels and sporting facilities. Less so in practice. Six months after the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympics, and the main Olympic Park at Barra de Tijuca is empty. A beach volleyball tournament did take place at the tennis venue in February, something bizarre in itself given the abundance of local
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A new subway line was hailed as a legacy benefit. Photo: Getty Images
beaches, but that has virtually been it. A practice pool used during the Games has now turned a “rusty orange” while the Olympic Aquatics Stadium’s iconic artwork covering has torn and fallen away. Cycling and tennis venues are similarly desolate, and an 850-person “Olympic Experimental School” planned for Carioca Arena 3 is currently an experiment only in fantasy. Park ownership has been transferred to City Hall and the Federal Government’s Sports Ministry on a 50-50 basis, with a tender process promised but not yet delivered. The nearby Reserva de Marapendi golf course has also been shut down, despite costing around $20 million to construct amid huge environmental opposition. Similar traits can be found in the second main hub of Deodoro, 30 minutes to the north. A fresh tender process is envisaged after corruption allegations tarred initial venue construction, but at the time of writing nothing is open. The canoe slalom venue was due to become a giant public swimming pool for local people, but has not yet opened even though, ironically, it was used last year before the Games. “We’ve made an early legacy here,” said former Mayor Eduardo Paes then. “I think this is something unheard of in the history of the Olympics.” How hollow this sounds now. Even worse is the state of the Maracanã Stadium where Brazil won their historic men’s football gold. Entertainment group AEG and constructors Odebrecht SA - whose name seems to crop up in virtually every negative Rio story - reclaimed ownership from Rio 2016 in November, but the media has been awash with stories of stolen seats, smashed windows, brown turf and a “nasty stench”. Oh, and for the record, any water pollution improvement around the Marina de Gloria sailing venue is thought to have worsened again since the Games. “These things take a while,” replied the www.facebook.com/insidethegames
Organsing Committee’s always upbeat communications director Mario Andrada when asked about delays. “Remember how the Olympic Stadium and some other venues in London were empty for a long time after 2012? We already have a legacy in the downtown area, in transportation and accommodation. Yes, the Olympic Park could be better, but we are not worried.” Delays, it is claimed, are explained by economic and political distractions and are thus “not the fault of the Organising Committee”. A change in City Governments as “Olympic Mayor” Paes was replaced by Marcelo Crivella has also proved a distraction. I
inclined to cite that solely as a Games-related legacy. The jury also remains out on accommodation. New hotels supposedly came into their own on New Year’s Eve and during Carnival, but have been far emptier at other times. Only 20 out of more than 3,000 apartments in the former Olympic Village site have been sold. The situation here is so bleak that construction companies Carvalho Hosken and Odebrecht - them again - are finalising a deal with City Hall to allow apartments to be sold cheaply to civil servants and military personnel. Considering these problems in Barra in relation to the downtown success, it makes
A protester makes their point on the Olympics on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Getty Images
managed to hold my tongue rather than suggest they could have anticipated the scheduled change in Mayors…but it was hard. We have simply heard too many empty promises from Rio to take this at face value. Time provides an excuse right now; but who would bet against us asking the same questions in six or 12 months? Andrada has a point about transportation. The metro line four extension linking Barra with the city centre was hit by repeated delays, and could only be opened on a limited basis during the Games. Yet it proved a success and has survived growing demand over recent months. Around 600,000 people now travel on it every week, reducing journey times by up to 90 minutes, and it has enjoyed extended opening hours during Carnival week. Improvements to the port area in downtown Rio are also notable, although I am less @insidethegames
you wonder if it was fundamentally flawed to base the Games in what was effectively a ghost town outside the centre. Federal University of Rio researcher Renato Cosentino indeed claims the Barra Olympic Park “was born as a white elephant” for this reason. Former IOC marketing director turned
Artwork at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium fell away. Photo: Getty Images
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consultant Michael Payne disagrees and is in no doubt who is to blame. “Original vision for Rio Olympics so powerful - potential best legacy ever,” he tweeted. “But failed leadership created [the] true crisis.” “Yes, they had a perfect storm, politically and economically,” he added when pressed. “But ultimately it was a case of Organising Committee leadership just not being up to the job unable to manage the local political dynamics - gross incompetence in a way never seen before with any Organising Committee.” This is an interesting argument. The Carlos Nuzman/Sidney Levy President and chief executive axis was clearly less effective than the Sebastian Coe/Paul Deighton one at London 2012. Nuzman, by most accounts, was a poor delegator and increasingly struggled at navigating the tricky political forces of international sport, let alone the multi-faceted complexity of Brazilian politics. But it is unfair to blame him solely. To me, the underlying structure of Brazilian society guaranteed problems. “What we see today is the result of an improvised and unprofessional team of people who were given the right to host the Games,” concurs Jamil Chade, a leading Brazilian journalist for O Estado de S. Paulo. “The lack of a project for the aftermath of the Games only proves that there was never a real long term plan for the venues. This is not, however, the
Images like this are what Rio 2016 organisers are hoping will be remembered. Photo: Getty Images
exclusive failure of the Organising Committee. It is a joint responsibility and a myopia by politicians. “One has to understand only that the Brazilian political system has collapsed and was engulfed by the corruption. Taking this into consideration, there is no surprise the Games were also a victim of a failed democracy. The stench of the white elephants is beginning to be unbearable.” Chade then delved deeper into the dichotomy between the optimism of 2009 and the misery of today. Seven years ago, the Brazilian Government was seeking a seat on the United Nations Security Council, greater weight in the World Bank, and even moving from a debtor to a creditor nation in the International Monetary Fund. They were opening
The golf course has fallen into disrepair. Photo: Getty Images
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embassies across Africa, helping mediate conflicts in Palestine and Iran and attempting to send an astronaut into space. Newly discovered oil reserves also added confidence. “That impressive country that [ex-President Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] had sold to the IOC delegation no longer exists,” Chade adds. “Seven months after the Games, the recession is the worst in decades, while unemployment eclipsed historic records. The country is broken. Many were hoping that the radiant light of the Olympic flame could blind out any queries about the project, its financing and its purpose, but it didn’t.” Is the true legacy of Rio 2016 therefore highlighting the failures of Brazil? Yes, by the skin of their teeth they produced a largely successful Games, but any deeper benefit was rendered impossible. Time does remain on Rio’s side and it is still possible the planned venues legacy could be realised. But, as it stands, it appears highly unlikely. This is disastrous news for the IOC at a time when bidding apathy across the Western world has never been higher. But, when asking them for an update on Rio’s legacy, I was
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simply re-sent last year’s ludicrously titled factsheet answering that most difficult of questions: “How do we know that Rio 2016 was a success?”. In the first paragraph, we were boldly told that the Games “set new standards for legacy planning” before an outline of “plans” which have still not even approached fruition. It seemed like they had finished Rio 2016, slapped each other on the back, produced a gushing press release about a “marvellous Games in a marvellous city” and then erased it from their memories. Clearly this is not good enough. It is the IOC’s Olympic brand which is ultimately being harmed by every story about white elephants, after all. Surely the IOC should at least send someone to Brazil full-time to help coordinate legacy with the Organising Committee and Governments? The IOC may constantly claim that the media and public “misunderstand” Olympic budgets and the revenue the Games can bring. But it will take more than press release propaganda to deaden the impact of images showing Olympic venues neglected and falling apart. And, if nothing changes, these images will prove the enduring legacy of Rio 2016.
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Will Gold Coast 2018 provide the Midas touch? Gold Coast will bring the Commonwealth Games back to Australia next year – and expectations are high. Michael Pavitt explores how organisers plan to produce a memorable event.
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n a little over a year’s time, Gold Coast in Australia will host the Commonwealth Games. Located in Queensland, just an hour outside of the state capital Brisbane, it is fair to say the city has a lot going in its favour. As the name Gold Coast suggests, the glorious sandy beaches are one of the alluring reasons why tourism is one of the city’s main sources of income. A high percentage of visitors come from across Australia, while people from further afield are among those to head there for some relaxation by the sea. One thing is for certain when the Games roll around: Gold Coast is going to look extremely impressive to viewers watching on television throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.
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The panoramic shots which will be used during events such as the cycling road races and triathlon will showcase the city’s backdrop of skyscrapers, coupled with the beaches. This will also be a feature of the swimming competitions as the outdoor community pool, which will enjoy a temporary seating upgrade for the Games, is placed just metres from the shore. The location does pose problems for organisers, as they prepare for an estimated 1.5 million spectators, officials and athletes, who will descend on the city for the start of 11 days of competition from April 4 . In contrast to the highly successful last edition of the Games in Glasgow in 2014, where venues were spread in all directions from the city centre, the sea means the vast majority of Gold Coast’s facilities are dotted down the coast. It poses a challenge as most people will be seeking to head in the same direction when commuting around the Games. With the city enjoying a series of waterways (there are claims it has a bigger system than Venice), transport is not always easy. This is a place where the use of cars, and not public transport, is considered the norm. Gold Coast City and the Organising Committee, led by its chairman Peter Beattie,
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have sought to tackle the biggest challenge facing them by publishing a draft transport plan. This aims to provide the local population and businesses with information on proposed temporary changes to services and road networks. Modifications, extra traffic management measures, encouraged travel behaviour and a call for the public to take an active role in ensuring transport systems run efficiently are among the topics covered. Plans include athletes and team officials being given access to dedicated buses and coaches, while extra train, bus and light rail services will be scheduled to meet increased demand. It is hoped that initiatives such as park-and-ride schemes will help to avoid problems suffered by organisers of recent multi-sport events, such as the Rio 2016 Olympics. Another contrast with the most recent Olympic Games is the readiness of venues, with all competition sites expected to be “Games ready” a year in advance of sporting action getting underway. For instance, the Anna Meares Velodrome, named after the Queensland track cycling great and one of two venues located in Brisbane, is already constructed and ready to host competition. While there is little fear over the readiness of
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infrastructure for the Games, this does not mean to suggest organisers have been able to put their feet up. Gold Coast 2018 are seeking to deliver an “outstanding” Games for the athletes as well as aiding the city’s future aims. “There is certainly a lot going on at Games headquarters,” said Beattie. “We officially launched our volunteer recruitment programme in February with over 10,000 applications received on the first day and many thousands more in the time since. “As we are all well aware, no major world event can be staged without the tireless and selfless contributions of volunteers and, make no mistake, our 15,000 volunteers - people from all places and all walks of life - will be the very lifeblood of our Games.” The former Queensland Premier also expressed his belief that the Games were having a positive impact a year from getting underway. “Infrastructure development - Government
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Main: Gold Coast 2018 will be played out in spectacular surroundings. Photo: Getty Images Top left: Borobi, the Games’ mascot, will become a common sight. Photo: Gold Coast 2018 Top right: Mark Peters, Gold Coast 2018’s chief executive. Photo: Getty Images
and private - is already Bottom left: The Queen receives the Gold Coast 2018 Baton from CGF President Louise Martin. having a massive Photo: Getty Images transformational impact on the Gold Coast, viewed as vital to boosting these sectors. Brisbane and other parts of Queensland,” he Gold Coast 2018 chief executive Mark Peters said. told insidethegames the ambition to host the “The Games already are doing their part for Games came from a desire to help diversify the the local economy. By the start, Gold Coast economy of the city, with the aim of 2018 will have released to the market more than supplementing tourism. 210 major procurement packages. This “It is a beautiful city, a superb location and the represents a strong and healthy pipeline of climate is brilliant, but it has relied on tourism opportunities for regional, local and Aboriginal and construction,” Peters said. “If you have a and Torres Strait Islander businesses.” downturn in your economy and the Australian Work is continuing to help deliver a first-class dollar fluctuates too much, then it does not athlete experience, in and outside of become that developing city. The reason you bid competition. Organisers were keen to stress that for a major event is to hopefully change that. they hope athletes take full advantage of the The legacy is the diversification of the economy, opportunity to visit key landmarks, including the strengthening the tourism component and the nearby jungle which is often frequented by desire for Gold Coast to be an events city.” different international versions of the reality A cultural precinct, another project brought television programme I’m A Celebrity... Get Me about by the Games, will be located in the heart Out Of Here! of the city and will include an arts centre and Having driven past the Athletes’ Village on a gallery, entertainment spaces, performance number of occasions during the recent stages and creative spaces. An outdoor Commonwealth Games Federation amphitheatre is part of stage one of a AUD$37.5 Coordination visit in December, the first thing to million investment by the city. The Games’ stand out is the colourful nature of the squash venue is another key example, with the accommodation. As the final touches are put development of Sound Stage 9, where together, a large fountain will be placed at its competition will now be held, providing Village heart, with the sight expected to prove popular Roadshow film studios with the largest sound for athletes with Instagram accounts during the stage in the southern hemisphere. This Games. AUD$15.5 million project has already been used Post-Games, the long-term plan is attracting for the latest Thor movie, and will aid Gold thousands of jobs to the area. Located in Gold Coast’s movie business when it switches back to Coast’s “health and knowledge” precinct, its original function after the Games. Parklands, it is hoped the site will become a “The Games are helping advance our vision future engine of the Gold Coast economy by for the Gold Coast of the future - a world class creating thousands of new jobs in the education, regional city internationally recognised for its medical and science sectors. The legacy of liveability, economic prosperity and vibrant having 1,200 apartments and townhouses is cultural identity,” Gold Coast Mayor @insidethegames
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Tom Tate told insidethegames. “My priority has been that every dollar spent by the city on hosting the Games must deliver economic and social legacy benefits for our community. If a project or activity can’t pass that test, then we look for other innovative ways to secure better long term legacies. The Commonwealth Games Federation is clear that legacy needs to be at the forefront of Games planning and we agree with them.” The public are also set to be involved from the start of the Games, with a 388 day and 230,000 kilometre long Baton Relay seeking to boost engagement. Beginning at Buckingham Palace in London and concluding at the Opening Ceremony of the Games, the Queen’s Baton Relay will be taking a slightly different path in the build-up to Gold Coast 2018. The total number of Relay runners in the host nation will be around 4,000, representing a slightly lower figure than previous editions. It is hoped instead that communities selected to welcome the Baton - which has been made using macadamia wood and recycled plastic sourced from Gold Coast waterways - will become “regional hosts” and invite people to celebrate at their respective events. The concept aims to remove an “impersonal” nature from past Relays, where the public can wait for hours for the Baton, only to see it dash past in a matter of moments. Organisers instead hope the Baton will stay in locations for a longer period of time, giving the public, in particular young children, a greater chance to touch and find out more about the meaning behind it. “The Queen’s Baton Relay is a Games tradition that celebrates the Commonwealth’s diversity,
The Gold Coast 2018 Athletes’ Village is taking shape. Photo: Gold Coast 2018.
inspires community pride and excites people about the world-class festival of sports and culture to come,” Beattie said. “Significantly, the places the Baton will visit constitute more than one third of the world’s population, shining a light on the Gold Coast and our Games and encouraging millions of people to share the dream.” Ultimately, the focus of the Games will remain firmly on the action in the pools, roads, basketball courts and in the case of beach volleyball, the sands of Gold Coast itself. It will mark the first time the latter sport has featured on the sport programme at the Games. While the countries of the Commonwealth are not known to be superpowers in the sport, beach volleyball’s inclusion makes a great deal of sense. The beaches are golden and the event is expected to be a profitable one for organisers. Its
Organisers have claimed good progress on venue construction. Photo: Gold Coast 2018.
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inclusion reflects the growing focus of the CGF to work with the hosts of their flagship event to deliver a programme best suited to existing facilities and future aims. Another major milestone will be achieved by Gold Coast and the CGF, with the Games set to be the first multi-sport event in history to boast full gender equality in terms of the number of medals on offer. And, following the success of the inclusion of Para-sport events at Glasgow 2014, a record seven different Para-events will feature on the Gold Coast 2018 programme. “The one year to go milestone on April 4 will be especially significant as we reveal our sport competition schedule,” Beattie said. “An extravaganza of 18 sports, including the first ever presentation of beach volleyball at a Commonwealth Games, and the largest integrated Para-sport programme ever, will be presented in the first large-scale multi-sport spectacle to be hosted in Australia for over a decade. “The team sports programme will also feature women’s rugby for the first time, whilst Para-triathlon will also make its debut appearance at a Commonwealth Games.” With the Games coming close to the midway point between the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, the emergence of new talents, as well as existing faces, will continue to provide the narrative of the Games in Australia. The likely battle for top spot will feature the hosts and the team from Commonwealth Games England, who are backed with significant funding as they look to repeat their finish from 2014, when they ended top of the medals table in Glasgow. The friendly rivalry and wide-ranging stories from across the Commonwealth look set to provide the colour of the Games. One which will be supported by a truly golden backdrop.
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Change or continuity? The race to lead PASO A contest to be elected President of the Pan American Sports Organization is set to be decided on April 26. Nick Butler reports.
E
ven by the autocratic standards of sport, the Pan American Sports Organization is a body formed, shaped and built around the instincts and leadership of one man. Mexican media oligarch Mario Vázquez Raña took over in 1975, the same year as the fall of
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Saigon, and died while still at the helm four decades later. A lot happened in those intervening 40 years; both in sport as the Olympic Movement threw off the shackles of boycotts for a new age of commercial prosperity, and in the wider world as the rigidity of Cold War politics was replaced by more pluralistic times. By the time an 82-year-old Vázquez Raña passed away in February 2015 we were just 18 months away from the first South American Olympic Games. European apathy for all things bidding gave the Pan Americas, like Asia, confidence that they were the future as far as hosting international sporting events was concerned. But new times has brought new problems and PASO has so far struggled to adapt to this new identity - let alone to new leadership. History suggests that the death or removal of a longstanding ruler provokes one of three changes. First, an appointed successor already
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manoeuvred into position by the previous ruler takes over with a broadly similar form of governance. Venezuela, for instance, when Hugo Chávez gave way to Nicolás Maduro in 2013. Second, a power battle commences between former allies turned enemies all jostling for position. The Soviet Union in the 1950s after the death of Joseph Stalin being one obvious example. Third, the entire fabric of society is ripped up by a leadership vacuum which eventually ferments revolutionary changes in style and structure. Spain, maybe, as it began the path towards democracy following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. PASO has clearly not managed the first scenario. Time will tell whether the second or third proves more feasible. Vázquez Raña’s death swiftly triggered a flood of meetings, conventions and Extraordinary General Assemblies. His fellow Mexican and first vice-president Ivar Sisniega took over on an interim basis
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before Uruguay’s International Swimming Federation boss Julio Maglione was elected by acclamation to replace him for the remainder of his term at the first such EGM in Miami. More meetings followed in Toronto, Washington D.C, Brasilia and that well-known Pan-American city of Doha as a convoluted process unfolded to approve new statutes. PASO’s constitution dictates that elections for all Executive Committee positions must take place in the year following the Pan American Games, so in 2016. Attempts to respect this proved fruitless, however, as the date of April 26 was eventually proposed for a meeting taking place in Punta del Este in Maglione’s home country of Uruguay. Five candidates put themselves forward by the January 25 deadline. In alphabetical order, these were St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Keith Joseph, Chile’s Neven Ilic, Brazil’s Carlos Nuzman, St Lucia’s Richard Peterkin and Dominican Republic’s José Joaquín Puello. Joseph, 64, is the St Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic Committee general secretary and currently sits on the PASO Executive Committee as third vice-president. Ilic, at 54 the youngest contender, is President of the Chilean Olympic Committee. IOC honorary member Nuzman, 75, heads the Brazilian Olympic Committee and, lest we forget, also served as President of the Organising Committee for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Peterkin, 68, is a serving IOC member and the current treasurer of the Association of National Olympic Committees. Puello, 76, spent 22 years as the Dominican National Olympic Committee President until 2004. He also played a key role in organising the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo. The most obvious observation about this list of names was the sheer diversity between the nationalities of the contenders. PASO’s 41 constituent nations and territories includes big hitters like Brazil, Mexico, United States and Canada. It includes other regional giants of the Latin American world like Argentina, Colombia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. And then there are the small island nations of the Caribbean, wielding almost as much importance despite being tiny in geographic and demographic comparison. English and Spanish are the dominant languages of the region, while French, Dutch and Portuguese are also prevalent. Ensuring an appropriate balance of power www.facebook.com/insidethegames
Carlos Nuzman is standing after his Rio 2016 role. Photo: Getty Images
between the membership was a key bone of contention to sort out before the election. Under the old system in operation since 2010, each member received one vote in the election of host cities and all Executive Committee positions, but countries enjoyed an additional vote - up to a maximum of five - for each time they had hosted the Pan American Games. A proposal was made by the Caribbean bloc during the meeting last May in Brasilia to scrap any system of proportionality. “How can we contemplate weighted voting, giving an advantage to some over others?” demanded an impassioned Joseph. “We are saying to our youth and our athletes that we don’t trust each other enough.” Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Paraguay hit back, however, by calling for Pan American Games hosts to be rewarded. Nuzman himself then successfully proposed a “compromise” third option in which every country to have played host would receive one additional vote. Such a system was seen as something that would help his bid rather than those of his three Caribbean rivals. A proposed rule stipulating that candidates must have “at least three years of experience immediately preceding their nomination as a President, vice-president or secretary general of their respective NOCs or must be the incumbent President of PASO at the time of being nominated and elected” was also rejected @insidethegames
in the Brazilian capital. It was widely viewed as an attempt to force Puello and Peterkin out of the contest. This proved unsuccessful and the following day the three Caribbean candidates held a breakfast meeting in which they vowed to eventually unite behind the individual who proved the strongest. Only a cursory glance at football politics is required to show how the Caribbean has long been a region with disproportionate power in sporting elections. It contains 22 of the 41 PASO members. It is therefore impossible for a candidate to win the PASO Presidency without penetrating the Caribbean heartlands and, if one candidate can unite the region it will be very hard for them to be beaten. This has proved far from easy, however. An informal meeting of the Caribbean bloc took place in Doha following the latest General Assembly meeting, chaired by Trinidad and Tobago’s Brian Lewis. But he was soon drowned out by a chorus of criticism as the meeting descended into arguments and disagreements. No consensus was reached. Peterkin, whose bid was always audacious, has now formally withdrawn. It is expected that whoever wins may appoint him treasurer. Joseph, who has struggled to permeate beyond the English-speaking islands, is expected to follow suit soon. He will then focus on his secondary bid for vice-president and ordinary Executive Committee positions.
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Richard Peterkin dropped out of the race. Photo: Getty Images
Puello, the bilingual and widely respected septuagenarian neurosurgeon, is thus expected to be last man standing. He should also enjoy plenty of support among Central American countries and could permeate into South America. However, both Ilic and Nuzman have also been angling for the Caribbean vote. Ilic even embarked on a tour of the region earlier this year alongside Sisniega, the aforementioned first vice-president who has teamed up with the Chilean rather than launch a bid of his own. So what are the differences between the three leading candidates? Not too much in policy terms, it appears, with Nuzman only just releasing his manifesto at the time of writing. Both Ilic and Puello are suggesting a move in headquarters away from Mexico City to Miami. They also agree on the need for more regional Games, be they youth or beach orientated. Both are seeking to professionalise the organisation while also promising a more egalitarian approach to boost the smaller nations, although this is likely a vote-winning strategy. Another important subplot relates to the respective choices for secretary general. Ilic would be expected to plump for Sisniega, who would otherwise lose any position on the Executive Committee. Nuzman may go for his longtime Argentinian ally Mario Clienti, who served as director of the Olympic Village at Rio 2016. The other contender is Mexico’s current postholder Jimena Saldaña, who is thought to be working hard to solicit the support of both www.facebook.com/insidethegames
Nuzman and Puello. But the main contrast appears to be in leadership style, and this brings us back to Vázquez Raña. Nuzman is thought likely to continue his predecessor’s authoritarian approach while Puello and Ilic would be more prone to shift away to a more inclusive - and dare I say modern - tactic. It does seem amazing that Nuzman could be considered a viable candidate given the huge organisational problems up to and during Rio 2016, not to mention the subsequent corruption scandals and legacy failures. This has certainly cost him some support but time will tell how much. It remains unclear exactly who the International Olympic Committee and other sporting powerbrokers support, and how important this will prove, but for many it may be a case of “the better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”. Nuzman is not a perfect candidate but may be easier to control than his more unpredictable alternatives. He would also be expected to serve just a single term tenure, thus providing an opportunity for others to take over in four years’ time. Ilic is, at 54, the young whippersnapper of the frontrunners. As with the other two, he is a good linguist, while he is also personable and well liked throughout the region. He would thus seem the obvious contender to lead PASO into a new age while, due to the age of his rivals, he is the only candidate who has a chance of being appointed a member of the IOC. But he is still thought to be struggling. Sport @insidethegames
is notorious for not liking change and he may have upset the applecart to too great a degree. Another challenge is how he is bidding at the same time as Chilean capital Santiago is vying against Buenos Aires to host the 2023 Pan American Games. It is hard to fight two battles at once and, if nothing else, this is likely to push the Argentine Olympic Committee and its well-connected IOC member President Gerardo Werthein further into the Nuzman camp. This leaves Puello who, like Nuzman, also faces concerns over age and health. He will try to position himself as the best compromise. The region most notably absent from the contest is North America, and both Canada and the US are keeping their cards close to their chest. The US, desperate not to create enemies as Los Angeles bids for the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, is expected to sit and wait before backing the likely winner. But you feel an active North America is vital to the success of the new regime. The main challenge for me is negating the many differences and rivalries within the organisation to take PASO into the modern age. The body does not shape up well in comparison with other continental groupings. PASO did not even hold control over their own website until late last year and they simply must improve their marketing and communications, as well as their output of events and support for athletes. This month’s election will prove to what degree they really want to change and modernise.
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The
Great Danes
Denmark will stage SportAccord Convention this year and the small European country is beginning to make its mark as an event host. David Owen investigates.
G
iven the reluctance of inhabitants of many Western European cities to countenance staging international sports events, in particular mega-events, at present, you might expect these to be testing times for an organisation such as Sport Event Denmark. Yet this small agency, with an annual budget of just DKr24 million, continues to build its reputation as one of the canniest and most knowledgeable practitioners in the sector. And, as a consequence, the small country - population 5.7 million - that it represents continues to build its reputation as an exceptionally efficient and imaginative sporting host. The last time I caught up with Lars Lundov, the body’s chief executive, was in 2015 and it had just been announced that SportAccord Convention 2017 would be staged in Moscow. After far-reaching, sometimes tumultuous, changes within SportAccord, however, those attending this year’s event instead find themselves heading to the one-time Viking settlement of Aarhus on Jutland’s east coast. This will be the first SportAccord Convention hosted by Denmark and the 15th edition in all. Lundov tells me that the rather short lead-time for arranging the Convention that was an inevitable consequence of these changes did not cause problems for Sport Event Denmark, “as we have a solid cooperation between SportAccord Convention, the city of Aarhus and ourselves.”
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“Aarhus is a brilliant convention-city,” he goes on. “It is cosy, compact and convenient, and the venue - the Scandinavian Congress Center - is right in the heart of the city”. Furthermore, “Billund International Airport, Denmark’s second international airport, has several daily flights to many major hubs in Europe, for example Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and London”. Getting on for three-quarters of Sport Event Denmark’s budget has traditionally been used to provide direct subsidies for events put on in the country, and Lundov confirms that the agency is both subsidising SportAccord Convention on its first visit to Aarhus and contributing support staff, along with its detailed knowledge of local services markets. As a long-time attendee of the Convention and a gold partner for many years, Lundov and his organisation well appreciate its value. “SportAccord Convention is a good place for us to do business,” he says. “The International Sports Federations are all in one place, and ideas and knowledge are being shared.” The sort of “solid cooperation” with essential stakeholders that helped pull everything together so quickly for this year’s SportAccord Convention is one of the key ingredients in the success of Sport Event Denmark. The body claims to have won 80 per cent of its international bid campaigns since being established in 2008 by the Danish Government and Danish National Olympic Committee and to have achieved an even higher strike rate in the last couple of years.
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“I think our very strong focus on only doing what we are doing is important,” is the way Lundov puts it. “Denmark is a small country, so Sport Event Denmark needs to cooperate very closely with the National Federations and the host cities. “We only bid for and host events that make sense to Denmark, the host city and the National Federation. As long as an event generates a positive economic return, raises Denmark’s international profile and is beneficial for ‘softer’ factors such as national pride and sports development, it is good business.” In terms of hard numbers, the agency has assessed the “accumulated tourism revenue” from the International Handball Federation Women’s Handball World Championships, staged in the country in December 2015, at DKr104 million. Just over half of this – DKr54 million – came from international handball tourists. Out of just over 150,000 tickets sold, some 19,000 were purchased by foreign spectators. An economic impact study of the 2011 International Cycling Union Road Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen, meanwhile, quantified the “total tourism economic turnover” generated at some DKr232 million - 76 per cent from international tourists. The number of bed-nights attributable to the event was put at 118,000 One area on which Lundov says Sport Event Denmark has started to focus “even more strongly” than in the past is the
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Aarhus is the host of this year’s SportAccord Convention. Photo: Getty Images
potential, whenever possible, to combine elite and mass participation events. This approach worked well in 2014 in Copenhagen, when the International Association of Athletics Federations /AL-Bank World Half Marathon Championships were combined with a mass event involving 30,000 runners. Now, Lundov reveals, similar mass participation races, including for schoolchildren, are planned alongside the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, to be staged, also in Aarhus, in 2019. Besides fostering an active population, mass events are clearly a very tangible way of encouraging a host-city’s inhabitants wholeheartedly to embrace the spirit of the occasion and turning a high proportion of them into genuine stakeholders in the event. This should perhaps provide food for thought for more event owners, especially in these rather difficult times for the sports industry in Western Europe. As of early this year, Sport Event Denmark has had a new venue to offer potential clients, in the shape of the DKr1.4 billion Royal Arena in Copenhagen. This multi-use facility will probably stage more concerts than sports events. Nonetheless, it is a sign of the holistic approach the country has been able to apply to the sports business that Sport Event Denmark’s advice was sought to ensure the arena was suited to big sports events. Lundov says the agency now makes a small annual support payment and has a guarantee that sports events can be held at the facility if adequate notice is given. This year, it will stage the European Short Course Swimming Championships, while in May 2018 the International Ice Hockey Federation World www.facebook.com/insidethegames
Men’s Ice Hockey Championships will take up residence. While the country’s small size is likely to keep the biggest mega-events out of reach, former UEFA President Michel Platini’s grand experiment in staging Euro 2020 across the continent has opened the way for Copenhagen to host four matches of that European football championship, making it one of 13 cities that will stage games. Asked about the Danish capital’s pitch, Lundov says that emphasis was placed on how all the main amenities - airport, stadium, hotels - were within 20 minutes travel time of each other across the city. “Another critical element was that, having already hosted the Under-21 European Championship with great success in 2011, we could present a well-proven partnership between the city, the Danish Football Association and Sport Event Denmark,”
he says. As of 2015, the agency – which has just five full-time employees – has been funded out of national lottery income, rather than directly by the Danish taxpayer, as was the case previously. Lundov says the new arrangement has brought extra security, since its Government funding had been short-term in nature, first four years, then two years, then just one year. Even if the number of lottery tickets sold starts to fall, he explains, Sport Event Denmark’s funding would be guaranteed at the 2016 level. Denmark’s agenda of international sports events over the balance of 2017, after SportAccord Convention delegates have packed their bags and returned home, is testament to the effectiveness with which Lundov and his small team go about their business. Between then and December, when the short course swimmers arrive in the Royal Arena, at least a dozen international events in sports popular in Denmark such as badminton, triathlon, sailing, athletics and cycling will come to a range of Danish cities from Herning to Troense, Viborg to Vallensbaek. Nor do the bookings stop there. As well as those ice hockey worlds, we already know that 2018 will bring European Bowling Championships to both Aalborg, in Denmark’s far north, and Odense, on the island of Funen. In addition, there will be the World Sailing World Championship, for all Olympic classes, in Aarhus in July and August and the International Triathlon Union Multisport World Championships on Funen in July.
Denmark has become a keen bidder for major handball tournaments. Photo: Getty Images
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2015
IIHF Women’s U18 World Championship IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships FIS Alpine Ski World Championships IPC Sled Hockey World Championships WA Youth World Championships UWW World Championships ITU World Triathlon Grand Final UCI Road World Championships IWF World Championships
2016
WS 49er/49er FX World Championships IAAF Indoor World Championships ISU Figure Skating World Championships WS Star World Championship IIHF Men’s U18 World Championship ITU Long Distance World Championships UIPM Biathle/Triathle World Championships
2017
FIS Nordic Ski Junior/Cross-Country Ski U23 World Championships UCI Paralympic Track Cycling World Championships IIHF Women’s World Championship ISU Synchro Skating Championships UCI BMX World Championships FINA World Junior Swimming Championships FISA World Championships IWF World Championships
2018
IIHF Junior World Championship WCF Men’s World Championship FEI World Equestrian Games WA Indoor World Championships IRB Sevens World Cup ISU Long Track Junior World Championships
2019
FIS Freestyle Ski/Snowboard World Championships ANOC World Beach Games
2020
WA Field World Championships UCI BMX World Championships
UCI Road Cycling World Championships Richmond, Virginia
2021
IWGA World Games IAAF World Championships
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Copenhagen will host matches at Euro 2020. Photo: Getty Images
The year 2019 will see a feast of world championships in sports as varied as curling and mountain-bike orienteering. Already in January, Copenhagen’s Royal Arena and Herning’s Jyske Bank Boxen are planning to stage matches in the 26th IHF World Men’s Handball Championship, a tournament Denmark is co-hosting with Germany. It will be the first time in more than 40 years that Denmark - traditionally among the world’s strongest handballing nations though it has yet to win a men’s world title - will play a part in hosting the competition. Then 2020 will bring not only those four matches in the far-flung European Football Championship, but more handball, in the shape of the European Handball Federation European Women’s Handball Championship and, in July,
Denmark will host the World Ice Hockey Championships in 2018. Photo: Getty Images
the World Urban Orienteering Championships, earmarked for Vejle, another city in eastern Jutland to the south of Aarhus. Once again with handball, Denmark will be co-hosting, this time with Norway. These
Copenhagen hosted the Road Cycling World Championships in 2011. Photo: Getty Images
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nations also co-hosted in 2010. Since Denmark hosted alone in both 1996 and 2002, walking off with the title on both occasions, this tournament should be familiar territory for it. Looking even further ahead, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were announced in January as joint hosts of the 2023 IHF World Women’s Handball Championship. Over recent times, Denmark has successfully cultivated for itself an edgy, green, sophisticated image that is a far cry from the shipping and agricultural products it used to be mainly known for. It does, though, also have a reputation for a relatively high cost of living. I ask Lundov whether this makes cost containment a perennial issue for Sport Event Denmark as it seeks to broaden its client base still further. “Costs are always an issue of course,” he acknowledges. “But we believe we have good arguments relating to quality to set against this, and that we are able to offer a variety of good and affordable solutions to event owners in general.” That packed list of future events, with doubtless more to come, in deals that might perhaps be agreed - some of them - at SportAccord Convention 2017, suggests strongly that the Sport Event Denmark chief executive is right.
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MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES
The Olympics.
And the Nitro effect
The Nitro effect. Is there one? Will there be one? Only time will tell. But Usain Bolt doesn’t strike me as a man who is careless about money and he has put his where his mouth is, and his mouth says that Nitro Athletics is the future. Usain Bolt has championed the Nitro Athletics concept. Photo: Getty Images
S
o it looks as if athletics as the number one Olympic sport (want to make something of it? Go soak your head, swimming! And get back in or on your box, gymnastics!) has got itself a Template for Youth. As we know, every sport now worships or seeks to worship at a Template for Youth. The question is - how might this recently pioneered combination of innovations, old and new, transfer to other parts of the Olympic sporting realm? Randomly, let us take modern pentathlon. One of the exalted Olympic disciplines - child, indeed, of Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s own exalted imagination - and a part of the Games since 1912. Has modern pentathlon moved with the times? As Bjorn Borg used to say: “That is for sure.” Five days of competition now concentrated into one. Running and shooting combined into a final event. Pistols becoming air guns becoming lasers… But there is so much more that could be done to produce a complementary “Nitro” version. At the very least, stick the fencing on horseback - with, perhaps, an imminent risk of a sousing in the pool for any unhorsed rider. As for the run-shoot finale - how about replacing the laser shooting with the taking and posting of selfies? The craziest expression as judged in online public voting earns 15 seconds off the completion time. Triathlon. Three sports good; two sports shorter. Therefore better. Just get competitors to do the first section on water pedalos. Then - final twist - put some fun obstacles on the course and get them to run it backwards. Rowing. It is all very decorous, isn’t it? Unless all the competitors get drunk at the
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post-regatta meal and start molesting the waitresses and throwing bread rolls at each other, as some did at the 1948 London Games. That apart, you get the odd clash of oars and a warning. The full potential of the rowing “blades”, I always feel, is scandalously underused. So how about a 250 metre sprint where you can employ your rowing blade in whatever fashion suits you? Do you stick or twist? Batter or sprint? The choice is yours, and the spectacle could be like watching Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada all over again (always assuming you saw them in the first place. Or at least a decent YouTube recording). And all the lanes converge 50 metres from the end. Epic! Show jumping. Has it ever occurred to you as unfair that the horses do all the work here? Obviously it would be ridiculous to expect riders to clear the barriers in the manner of their equine charges. Simply require them, at specified parts of each round, to tether their horse to the side of a jump and then clamber over it in the best manner they can devise before remounting and proceeding. Rhythmic gymnastics. Balls and ribbons. All very nice - but not too edgy, is it? Swap the party streamers for some spray paint, pump up the volume and hey bingo, check out the floor graffiti. Again, winner by online public vote. Winter Olympic sports can also benefit from creating their own spin-offs. Curling. It is an old sport, replete with subtlety and strategy. Fine. But what about grabbing everyone’s attention with a Stone of Destiny Shoot-Off? Each skip has three shots at a central pole which registers the power of
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their effort. Decent collisions earn a sound like a bell. Really decent collisions earn the sound of a gong. While the stone travels, team members must defend its passage by using their brooms to fend off efforts at sabotage by the opposition. Ice skating. It is a time-honoured Olympic sport combining technique, strength, skill and artistry. Fine. But what about getting everyone on the ice at the same time, and last man standing is the winner? Simple. Brutal. Compelling. Of course there are some Olympic events that are already effectively Nitro-ised. Take mogul skiing. Please!!! I may be sticking my neck out here, but I’ve always worked on the understanding that skis were invented to speed man’s progress over snow. Moguls, perversely, turn snow into boulders. And every time I see freestylers making that manic, juddering progress down their long, white egg-box of a course it makes as much sense to me as watching underwater archery. That said - underwater archery could almost be…that is, if looked at in the right, post Agenda 2020, sort of way….oh my, wait… When you think about it, the Olympics is still utilising only a relatively small spectrum of its competitive possibilities. That is, competition on land, or on the surface of water. Sure, divers get to plunge a bit deeper before they bob up to the surface like so many blinking seals. But for too long the tantalising challenge of underwater Olympic competition has been woefully disregarded. Expect some deep research to emerge on this very soon…
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