Paris on track for 2024 Olympics, says mayor

PARIS, France -- Paris is on time and on budget for the 2024 Olympics, the city's mayor said on Tuesday, dismissing concern expressed recently by a senior Olympics official.

"Look at all the previous Olympics and Paralympics around the world, one year before the Games, generally it's stressful and people are saying 'we'll never manage this'. Well, we're ready," mayor Anne Hidalgo told the France Inter radio station on Tuesday.

"We're on budget and we're on time."

During a visit to Paris on Monday, International Olympic Committee (IOC) official Pierre-Olivier Beckers, who is responsible for monitoring the Paris Games, voiced concern about the work needed to balance the budget.

French authorities chipped in another 111 million euros ($119 million) last December to take into account inflation, taking the overall budget to 4.48 billion euros.

Delays in signing major sponsorship deals, including with French luxury goods giant LVMH, has also left a major question mark about the finances of the event.

"There is still plenty of work to do," Beckers told reporters.

A provisional report from the French national auditor, revealed by Le Monde newspaper on Monday, said that "substantial uncertainties remain, notably for domestic partnerships."

The Games have also become embroiled in a row over ticket pricing, with the high cost of attending many events leading to criticism of organizers amid a cost-of-living crisis in France.

Agence France-Presse

Phelps urges U.S. lawmakers to push for anti-doping reform

WASHINGTON - Michael Phelps urged U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to push for a reform of the global anti-doping effort in sport after a career in which the Olympic great said he was never confident he was competing against clean athletes.

Testifying in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Finance, the most decorated Olympian expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in the battle against the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport.

"I don't believe I've stood up at an international competition and the rest of the field has been clean," said Phelps, whose Olympic haul includes 23 gold medals. "I don't think I've ever felt that. I know when I do stand up in the U.S. I know we're all clean because we go through the same thing.

"Throughout my career I have though that some athletes were cheating and in some cases those suspicions were confirmed.

"Given all the testing I and others have been through, I have a hard time understanding this."

  
Phelps was joined at the hearing by Athens Summer Games shot put gold medalist Adam Nelson who waited nine years to receive his medal after Ukraine's Yuri Belonog was stripped of his gold following a failed drugs test.

Nelson delivered an emotional account as he recalled the day he received his gold medal while at a food court in the Atlanta airport from a U.S. Olympic Committee official who was there changing planes.

"The medal came with a side of fries and a free toy. Don't worry about it." Nelson joked. "It was nine years after that moment had passed.

"The color and timing of a medal matter, folks. Silver does not hold the same value and gold loses its shine over time."

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart, who has called for stronger sanctions against Russian athletes after investigations uncovered evidence of state sponsored doping, used the stage to once again blast the International Olympic Committee for refusing to get tough on dopers.

Ignoring calls to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics, the IOC left it up to individual sport governing bodies to determine if Russian athletes should be allowed to compete in last year's Rio Summer Games.

"At least two Olympic Games were corrupted and at the Rio Games this past August scores of Russian athletes were allowed to compete without credible anti-doping measures," said Tygart.

"When the moment came, despite mountains of evidence and vocal opposition from anti-doping leaders and clean athletes from around the world, the IOC chose to welcome the Russian Olympic Committee to Rio."

IOC President Thomas Bach declined an invitation to attend Tuesday's hearing.

The U.S. government provides funding for the World Anti-Doping Agency budget and the House committee may make recommendations on any funding increases they feel are may be needed to improve the current system.

(Editing by Steve Keating and Frank Pingue)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

High-stakes summit eyes anti-doping overhaul

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND -- After a Russian doping scandal plunged the Olympic movement into one of its worst crises, top figures in world sport meet on Saturday in a bid to overhaul global drug testing.

Relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the body it created to promote clean competition, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), hit historic lows ahead of this summer's Rio Games.

Some IOC leaders accused WADA of reacting too slowly to evidence that Russia was running a massive state-sponsored doping programme and questioned the agency's governance.

WADA countered that it has been left dangerously under-resourced.

Saturday's summit in Lausanne, Switzerland is an effort to turn the page and forge "a more robust, more efficient and more independent worldwide anti-doping system," an IOC statement said.

Olympic chief Thomas Bach will huddle behind closed doors with the head of the world athletics governing body (IAAF) Sebastian Coe, FIFA boss Gianni Infantino and WADA president Craig Reedie.

The heads of the Russian, American and Chinese Olympic committees will also be on hand.

Bach will hold a conference call with reporters at 2:30 pm (1230 GMT) to discuss the summit's outcomes, but the prospects for concrete decisions are uncertain.

WHAT DOES THE IOC WANT?

Currently, anti-doping controls are run by individual sports federations, with WADA overseeing global compliance -- essentially trying to ensure that federations follow a broad set of rules.

Bach has said unequivocally that the IOC wants testing to be removed from the federations' hands to do away with a system that is ripe for conflicts of interest.

What that means for WADA's future is not entirely clear.

In October 2015, before the Russia scandal exploded, the IOC floated the idea that global testing could be taken over by an independent body.

It seemed logical to some that a beefed-up WADA could assume responsibility for drug controls across all sports, but months of acrimony and accusations have clouded the situation.

Aside from the Russia doping crisis that saw dozens of its competitors banned from Rio, WADA's integrity took a further hit when hackers seemingly intent on exposing perceived double standards leaked WADA medical records of more than 100 top global athletes.

The hack was carried out by a group calling itself "Fancy Bears", believed to be Russian, and revealed which banned medications major stars were legitimately taking under so-called "therapeutic use exemptions" (TUEs).

WADA's difficulties and its tensions with the IOC fuelled suggestions that a new entity could be created to oversee testing.

Asked about the expectations for Saturday's talks, Bach told AFP that the IOC "will make some constructive proposals", underscoring that Olympic leaders were already looking at overhauling anti-doping measures "well before" the latest crises came to light.

Bach has also backed reforms that would see the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decide on penalties for anyone caught cheating. At present, sanctions are decided by the sports themselves with CAS only hearing appeals.

Bach argues that letting a single court punish dopers in all sports would improve transparency and save money.

- WADA confident -
WADA, established in 1999, is 50 percent funded by the IOC.

But despite simmering tensions with its powerful parent WADA officials have predicted that the agency will remain a strong presence in the intensifying fight for clean sport.

"I do not think that the situation is critical for WADA," its director general Olivier Niggli said last month.

Highlighting the agency's essential role, he stressed it was WADA that commissioned the bombshell report on Russian doping, unveiling perhaps the largest cheating scandal in Olympic history.

That report, led by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, is due to be published in full in the coming weeks.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

USADA wants blanket ban on Russian athletes in Rio

The United States and Canadian Anti-Doping Agencies want a complete ban on Russia competing at the Rio Olympics after next week's key report into allegations of state-backed doping at the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics is published, according to a leaked draft letter seen by Reuters on Saturday.

Russia's track and field athletes are already banned from competing at next month's Olympics by the world governing International Association of Athletics' Federations (IAAF) over widespread doping in the sport.

In the draft letter addressed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will be sent once the report into Sochi led by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren is presented on Monday, United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart calls for a ban on all Russian athletes, not just in track and field.

"We write on behalf of a community of clean athletes and anti-doping organizations with faith that the IOC can lead the way forward by upholding the principles of Olympism," said the draft letter signed by Tygart and Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES) CEO Paul Melia.

"Therefore, consistent with the Principles, Charter and Code we request that the IOC Executive Board take the action to suspend the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committee from participating in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

"The only appropriate, and permissible, course of action in these unprecedented circumstances is for the IOC to immediately suspend the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committees from the Olympic Movement.... and declare that no athlete can represent Russia at the Rio Olympic Games."

USADA and CCES were not immediately available to comment.

The draft letter has also been circulated to the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) Athlete Committee members by Canada's Beckie Scott, who chairs the committee, asking whether they agree to support it.

"The letter outlines a basis for suspension of the Russian NOC (National Olympic Committee) from Rio, in light of the evidence and information that will come as a result of this report, and aligns very much with the position we have taken so far in this (long) process," Scott wrote in an e-mail dated July 16.

"You will also note that it presents a caveat - much as with the IAAF decision - to permit athletes who have lived outside the regime, been subject to strict doing controls, etc, to still compete in Rio."

IOC President Thomas Bach said last month that individual Russian track and field athletes assessed as clean would be able to compete for their country in Brazil.

WADA set up an investigation under McLaren to the probe allegations of state-backed doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Russian gay law raises alarm among Olympic sponsors

U.S. sponsor among those concerned with law

BUENOS AIRES - Fears Russia's controversial gay law could affect next year's Sochi Winter Games has reached sponsors despite efforts by the hosts to play down the issue, the International Olympic Committee said on Sunday.

The Russian law, which forbids the dissemination of information on homosexuality to minors, has been seen by critics as discriminatory.

It has overshadowed preparations for the Sochi Olympics - a priority for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who wants it to show the country as a modern state with top-notch infrastructure.

"Lately there has been a lot of discussion and I am pushed by several sponsors about what will happen with this new law in Russia," IOC marketing chief Gerhard Heiberg told Sochi Games chief Dmitry Chernyshenko.

"Especially the American sponsors are afraid what could happen. This could ruin a lot for all of us.

"We are not there to try to change the law in Russia," he said during an official Sochi Games progress presentation to the IOC in the Argentine capital.

"This is an internal Russian decision but what will the consequences be? This is possibly a way where we could get some kind of invitation for people to make demonstrations."

The IOC has said it has received written assurances from the Russian government that the issue would not affect Games participants, including accredited people as well as Olympic spectators.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said while athletes could not use the Games as a platform to make political statements under rule 50 of its Charter, they could speak out outside Olympic venues.

He said the IOC was assured the Russian law would not affect Games participants.

"How this will work in practice is for Russian authorities to work out," Adams told reporters.

But despite the assurances it is still unclear what repercussions this could have on anyone talking about homosexuality in front of minors during the Games or choosing to express his or her sexual orientation in an Olympic venue.

"All necessary clarification has been provided to the IOC directly by the Russian ministry of justice," Chernyshenko said in response.

NO DISCRIMINATION

"The constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees equality of rights for everybody in the country. It explicitly prohibits any form of discrimination," he told the IOC session.

Critics, however, claim it is one of a string of repressive measures introduced by former KGB spy Putin in the first year of his third presidential term that clamp down on dissent, violate gay rights and restrain non-governmental organisations.

"We make this clear. This law recently passed does not prohibit homosexuality directly or indirectly. It does not contradict elements of the Olympic Charter. It will not stop 2014 proudly upholding the Olympic values," Chernyshenko said.

"The law will have no impact for any guest visitor. Whether athletes or just fans or members of the Olympic family, everybody is welcome to enjoy the fantastic Games."

Chernyshenko said Putin had awarded "the highest Russian order" to a homosexual recently. "This is a greatest example of diversity of our country. It's important to have your (IOC) support in this campaign."

IOC officials also questioned Chernyshenko about what they perceived as a lack of media exposure of the Sochi Olympics as well as concerns over empty seats following Moscow's world athletics championships last month that drew only small crowds.

"To my big surprise on the (Moscow) opening day with the president of the country present, the stadium was a third full despite promises of the organising committee," said IOC member Alex Gilady, also a member of the athletics federation (IAAF) television commission.

"Moscow is of course 12-13 million people, Sochi is (much smaller). Would it be in ice competitions or will they (spectators) get to the mountains in numbers to make TV happy?"

Gilady, a former NBC official, said empty seats would be a turnoff for viewers around the world.

"Why should I be the only idiot watching this?", viewers would ask themselves, Gilady said.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Tom Bartlett and Alison Wildey)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

London sets bar high for 2020 bid trio

PARIS - The three candidates still standing to win the right to host the 2020 Olympics all acknowledge that they have a tough task to emulate the Games hosted so successfully by London this year.

Delegations from the Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo bids were all in London and the appraisal of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge at the closing ceremony will still be ringing in their ears.

"These were happy and glorious Games," said the 70-year-old Belgian.

Buenos Aires will be a momentous time for not only the three bid cities, who will learn their fate when the 100+ IOC members vote there on September 7, but also for Rogge, as he will step down after 12 generally highly successful years.

All of the cities enter 2013 eyeing the finishing straight with reason to be optimistic.

Istanbul believe that they can prevail at the fifth attempt -- though this is the first realistic chance they have had of winning -- with the government wanting to prioritise the Olympics rather than a bid for the Euro 2020 football championships.

Rogge had emphasised that IOC rules did not allow another major sporting event to be held in the country of the host city in the same year.

The Istanbul bid chief, former basketball player turned successful businessman, Hasan Arat told AFP that the IOC would be making an historic decision by giving them the Games.

"My dream is to make Olympic history, to really catch an historic moment - one city, one Games and two continents.

"The athletes will have the unique experience of sleeping on the European continent and competing on the Asian continent."

Tokyo, who are the only one of the trio to have previously hosted the Games (1964), also are looking to tug at the IOC heartstrings and persuade them the perfect panacea for the 2011 tsunami that devastated the country would be the Games.

"The bid process - and ultimately having the chance to host the Games - is helping Japan heal and re-unite after a difficult 2011," bid chief Tsunekazu Takeda told AFP.

"Without a doubt, Tohoku (the region affected by the tsunami), and the rest of Japan, will benefit from the Games."

Madrid too can dream of securing the Games, after finishing surprise runners-up behind Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 edition, especially as despite Spain's severe economic crisis they made the short list, easily seeing off Doha.

It was the second successive time Doha flopped in their efforts to make the short list and serious questions will be asked why the successful formula that worked on FIFA for winning the race to host the 2022 World Cup falls well short when their message gets to be put across to IOC members.

While there are no officially declared candidates to succeed Rogge, it is generally accepted German lawyer and former team fencing Olympic gold medalist Thomas Bach will throw his hat into the ring.

However, while many have seen him as the Crown Prince, there may be a wish to take the presidency away from European hands after the last three supremos have been from the 'old continent'.

Indeed, only one non-European has held the position, the unloved American Avery Brundage.

Puerto Rican banker Richard Carrion is prominent in some lists and won respect for his handling of the television broadcast rights negotiations with NBC.

One seen as a possible compromise candidate is the impressive Taiwanese architect, and president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA), Dr Ching-Kuo Wu.

But his age may count against him as he will be nearly 67 by the time of the election.

Rogge for his part, as he told AFP in May, will retire gracefully and is just looking forward to reading, visiting art galleries and driving his grandchildren around.

"Normally with regards to legacy you only speak about that when people die," he said.

"I didn't take the mandate up to leave a legacy and historians can write about that in 20 years time if they so wish. However... I took up the baton of (Juan Antonio) Samaranch and I believe I will leave behind some notable successes."

source: abs-cbnnews.com