MOSCOW — Russian athletes are overwhelmingly in favor of competing at the upcoming Pyeongchang Games despite a ban on the national team, the country’s Olympic committee said Monday. Sofia Velikaya said the Russian Olympic Committee’s athletes’ commission, which she chairs, has heard from “all the athletes in all sports” on the Olympic program, with a majority in favor of competing. Velikaya said no athletes have told the ROC they would rather boycott. “At the current moment, everyone’s training and everyone’s hoping to take part in the Olympics,” Velikaya said.The logo of the Russian Olympic Committee is mounted at the entrance of the head office in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. The International Olympic Committee has barred the Russian team from competing at
Tag: IOC
Olympic double: IOC says yes to Paris in 24, and LA for 28
LIMA, Peru — This was one of those rare Olympic moments where everyone walked away a winner.Paris for 2024. Los Angeles for 2028. And the International Olympic Committee for transforming an unruly bidding process to lock down its future by choosing not one, but two Summer Olympics hosts at the same time.The IOC put the rubber stamp on a pre-determined conclusion Wednesday, giving Paris the 2024 Games and LA the 2028 Games in a history-making vote.The decision marks the first time the IOC has granted two Summer Olympics at once. It came after a year’s worth of scrambling by IOC president Thomas Bach, who had only the two bidders left for the original prize, 2024, and couldn’t bear to see
Rio Olympics look to IOC for help with $40 million debt
RIO DE JANEIRO — Almost a year after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Brazilian organizers are asking for help from the International Olympic Committee to satisfy creditors who are still owed about 130 million reals ($40 million).A spokesman for the Rio organizing committee says officials will meet next week at IOC offices in Switzerland. Rio spokesman Mario Andrada says the IOC “might help us in the dialogue to get the government to pay.”However, the IOC was cautious in a statement on Wednesday to The Associated Press, saying it needs “reliable and understandable information from those in charge, something which regrettably at the present time we do not have.”Contractually, host cities and countries are obligated to pay Olympic debts.Kelly Tan, left,
Sports federations face obstacles in sanctioning Russian ath…
In announcing the final revealing details of Russian state-sponsored doping in a report earlier this month, Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren was clear on his mandate — investigating Russian doping but not adjudicating it. The Herculean task of doing that now falls to the international federations (IFs), who could spend months if not years pursuing anti-doping rule violations against the hundreds of athletes involved in the Russian state-sponsored system. As those federations pursue individual cases, calls remain for a larger sanction for Russia. ”I think what will be a problem is individual cases with individuals pleading I was forced to do it or I didn’t know how it was done,” said Dionne Koller, director of the Center for Sport and the Law at the