Liz Clay is poised to make her major international championship debut at Tokyo this year, and extend an Australian strength in sprint hurdling. Belarusian Maksim Nedasekau put his name on the high jumpers to watch list after his victory over favorite and defending champion Gianmarco Tamberi at the World Indoors earlier this month. Patryk Dobek is a 400 meter hurdles specialist who won the world indoor 800 meter title in his first senior level competition. Asuka Terada is Japan's leading 100 meter hurdler...coming back to track & field for a try at Tokyo 2020 after a stint at rugby sevens.
2032's Summer Games Appear Set, But No Word on 2030's Winter Games YetAt the International Olympic Committee's virtual IOC Session last week, the IOC supported the Future Host Commission's recommendations for a 'new approach' in awarding Olympic Games to a targeted host site. Particularly eyeing the 2032 Games, the IOC has now confirmed 'continuous' and 'targeted' dialogue with Brisbane and the southeast Queensland region in Australia for their candidacy. This is certainly reinforcing a new way to award the Games site. Previously, Games were awarded to a candidate after reviewing and narrowing multiple bids, with a winner announced seven years before the respective Games. Traditionally, this bid process spurred exorbitant spending, and frequent malfeasance speculation, in frequent 'losing' bids. That meant bids became increasingly unpopular, with public scrutiny against spending and often causing would-be-competent bids to fizzle.
When Budapest dropped out of the running for the 2024 Summer Games, it left only Paris and Los Angeles as candidates. Faced with two logical hosts, and looking to avoid a messy 2028 bid season, the IOC awarded 2024 to Paris and 2028 to Los Angeles, setting up today's 'targeted dialogue' with a single preferred future host. While some struggle to adjust to the new world, from journalists to other would-be bids, there is some logic to a revamped awarding. In addition to the opportunity to pre-select a very capable host, the new approach also helps avoid a repeat of the 2022 Winter Games bid season, in which the IOC found itself caught between a choice of either Almaty or Beijing, neither of which ideal. Beijing was the obvious choice for getting a Games held, but predictably has still caused the IOC headaches. There was luckily no such public rancor in the race for the 2026 Winter Games, awarded to Milano-Cortina over Stockholm-Are in what is likely to be the last host selection under the old multi-bid candidature system.
Ryan Regez takes life's turns in stride. Get well soon!
Presenting one of track's golden couples...
Jessie Diggins honors a couple of retirees.
Daniel Goodfellow serves a good photoshoot.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh is out and about.
In a preview for the event's Olympic debut at Paris 2024, Gil Cohen and Noam Homri make history as the first-ever mixed 470 world champions at Vilamoura, Portugal this weekend. Ahead of Brazil's successful push for Tokyo 2020 qualification, IHF spoke to Thiagus Petrus of the men's handball team for a quick Q&A. Figure skating champion Brian Boitano gets a feature in Mr. Feel Good, discussing life after competition, using his athletic experience, and more. Meanwhile, current men's world champion Nathan Chen is ready to defend his title despite lingering Covid-19 concerns. Dustin Johnson: the world's top-ranked men's golfer doesn't have Tokyo on his calendar this year. Forbes asks if Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is the "world's best all-around female snowboarder"? Argentine tennis great Juan del Potro, double Olympic medalist, is using Tokyo 2020 as motivation to return from injury. Habiba Marzouk looks forward to representing Egyptian gymnastics at Tokyo 2020, after securing her nation's place on the rhythmic program in 2019. Two of the standout performances from the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships came from Matthew Boling's fastest 200 meters this year and JuVaughn Harrison's rare high jump/long jump double (!). The 14th seeded pair of Czechs Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner take down some goliaths en route to their maiden FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour win. No poles and a broken hand? No issue for star freestyle skier Eileen Gu as she wins two golds at the World Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding Championships.
57 (!) players are finalists for the United States' men's basketball team for Tokyo 2020. The final selection will be down to 12, to be determined during the late-ending NBA season this summer. Can trampolining "legend" Dong Dong make it four Olympic podiums in a row at Tokyo 2020? From Mongolia and the Philippines to the United States and France (and more), FIBA3x3.com shares 10 women and 10 men to watch in 2021. Weightlifting: the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on Olympic qualification and preparation goals. Volleyballer Ivan Zaytsev and his power for aces is the latest "Roster 100" feature from FIVB. Six-time Olympic fencing medalist Valentina Vezzali gets a new challenge...overseeing sports in Italy. Brothers Attlia and Miklos Ungvari make a special visit to inspire aspiring judokas in Uzebkistan. World-ranked John Epping and his club scored more than a curling victory at the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier last week, with an opportunity to raise LGBT awareness. Should An Old Way Showcase New Sports?A number of sports will debut as Olympic sports across Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, a few strikingly more unconventional than those we're used to seeing at the Summer Games. While some newer sports have integrated well into the program in recent editions, the rapid change brings to question, why are sports not "demonstrated" first? A Long History of Demonstration Sports looking to win a coveted place on the Olympic sports program, and with it perceived precious validation as a sport that matters globally, used to have an opportunity at the Games as a 'demonstration sport', presented as a scheduled event but usually without official medals or records. Demonstration sports were first officially included alongside the main Olympic Games agenda at Stockholm 1912. Most Games editions through Barcelona 1992 had at least one demonstration sport. While some Games chose events with particular local flavor (e.g. basque pelota at Barcelona 1992), the practice mostly served as sort of a testing ground for sports seeking official inclusion. Baseball was "demonstrated" five times before official inclusion in 1992 and for the next four editions. Taekwondo was demonstrated twice before its upgrade. Tennis, badminton, handball, volleyball, canoeing, and women's judo all were demonstration sports before their own inclusions in today's official summer program. On the winter side, curling, freestyle skiing, and short track speed skating all had their turn as demonstration sports. The idea of a sport being 'demonstrated' tested an event for TV and fan appeal, and whether or not the sport 'fit' into an Olympics setting, or maybe whether just whether it was safe or not. But since holding demonstration events usually meant adding equivalent operational expense as if they were official, the International Olympic Committee discontinued them.
Now, without a demonstration step, sports and event disciplines can become an official Olympic sport without any similar testing, or proof of appeal on an Olympic level. And combined with a new vision of "increasing its appeal to younger sports fans", this has meant new sports being seemingly suddenly added that may be jarring to Olympic purists. Some changes have integrated well: beach volleyball (officially added at Atlanta 1996) and rugby sevens (Rio 2016) have been marked successes. Snowboarding (Nagano 1998) is a massive hit today, despite initial concern, proving any purists' hesitations wrong. |
Above: Athens' Kallimarmaro, the site of the 1896 Summer Olympics
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