|
Post by Admin on Jul 26, 2016 1:29:07 GMT
The International Olympic Committee has announced that it will not impose a blanket ban on the entire Russian team from the upcoming Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro despite evidence of state-sponsored doping. Instead, it has called on sports federations to carry out assessments on individual athletes to determine whether they can compete. The decision is an attempt to balance "the desire and need for collective responsibility versus the right to individual justice of every individual athlete," IOC President Thomas Bach said in a teleconference with reporters on Sunday. "This may not please everybody on either side," he said, "but still, the result today is one which is respecting the rules of justice and which is respecting the rights of all the clean athletes all over the world." The individual federations "should carry out an individual analysis of each athlete's anti-doping record, taking into account only reliable adequate international tests, and the specificities of the athlete's sport and its rules, in order to ensure a level playing field," the IOC's decision reads.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 27, 2016 1:33:04 GMT
Nineteen more Russian rowers have been banned from competing at next month's Olympics, taking the number of suspended Russian athletes to 37. Earlier on Tuesday, eight athletes across canoeing, modern pentathlon and sailing were banned, as seven swimmers and three rowers were on Monday. Governing bodies are making the rulings following the damning World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report into state-sponsored doping in the country. Governing body Fisa said the latest 17 rowers and two coxes to be banned are "not considered to have participated in doping" but do not meet the IOC's criteria of having been tested in labs outside of Russia. The decision leaves Russian with six eligible rowers from its squad of 28, and Fisa added the places of four Russian boats would be attributed to other nations.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 12, 2016 1:33:33 GMT
The Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, who was booed on the podium after taking the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke, hit out at competitors who badmouthed her for doping, and claimed the West was using sport to fight a new cold war. The USA swimmer Lilly King, who won gold, had been involved in a spat with Efimova prior to the race, and a number of other competitors had registered their frustration that Efimova, who was banned twice for doping, had been allowed to take part. “I understand the people who didn’t congratulate me because the media was full of fake stories about me,” said Efimova, according to Russia’s Tass agency in Rio. “But on the other hand I don’t really understand the foreign competitors. All athletes should be above politics, but they just watch TV and believe everything they read. I always thought the cold war was long in the past. Why start it again, by using sport?” Her comments reflect the widely held view in Russia that the bans are part of an anti-Russian conspiracy, despite evidence of the state colluding in a massive doping programme. “I’m really happy, because what has happened to me is unbelievable. I made a mistake once, and I served the punishment. What happened the second time wasn’t my fault. I don’t know if I should explain in front of everyone,” Efimova said.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 15, 2016 1:53:27 GMT
Japan took the team all-around gold medal in gymnastics at the 2016 Rio Olympics on Monday. Japan was dominant throughout, and clearly took the win with a final score of 274.094. Russia came up in second to get the silver at 271.453, with China getting the bronze at 271.122. The United States finished with a final score of 268.560, in fifth place behind Great Britain in fourth. They were out of the podium places for much of the event, but looked like they might be able to grab one when the final event came around. Unfortunately, Danell Leyva had to remount on the high bar and his decreased score pushed them out of the medals. The men's team got off to a slow start, and after two rotations they found themselves all the way down in seventh place. Things looked bleak, but when they arrived at the vault competition they were dominant. Jacob Dalton posted a score of 15.466, Sam Mikulak managed 15.366 and Alex Naddour put up a score of 15.033. Those scores were their first 15-plus scores of the day, putting them in third place just behind Brazil in second and Japan in first. When that rotation ended and every country had put in their scores, though, the US moved down to sixth, trailing behind China, Brazil, Great Britain, Japan and Russia in first.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 17, 2016 2:05:36 GMT
The victory was a crowning achievement for national team coordinator Marta Karolyi, who at 73 is set to retire after these Games. Since taking over for her husband, Bela, at the turn of the century, the U.S. had turned into a gymnastics juggernaut both on the individual and team level that has left the rest of the world unable to maintain a competitive level. Biles was the American anchor, the only member to perform in all four disciplines, batting clean up on three of them. The 19-year-old from Spring, Texas, and UCLA delivered team-high scores on vault (15.933), balance beam (15.300) and floor exercise (15.800) and showed a level of gymnastics that far exceeds anyone else in the world. Her gold-clinching final performance on floor left her teammates bouncing and cheering in jubilation and the gymnastics hall on its feet in appreciation of history unfolding. Raisman, of Needham, Mass., and Douglas, of Virginia Beach, Va., were also members of the 2012 gold medal team, returning, in part, for an afternoon like this. Raisman was solid as ever on vault (15.833), beam (15.000) and floor (15.366). Douglas, the all-around champion at the London Games, participated in bars and delivered an impressive 15.766. Kocian, the team’s bars specialist out of Dallas, brought the house down with a brilliant 15.933. Meanwhile, New Jersey’s Laurie Hernandez, who was bypassed for Douglas for all-around qualifying, proved her overall skill by competing in three events vaults (15.100), beam (15.233) and then floor, where her typically electric performance delighted the crowd and the judges (14.833).
|
|