International Games News

January 2000

Full 2000 Schedule

Upcoming Television (US) The Winter Gravity Games held January 20-23, will be televised on NBC February 12th, 13th and 20th. TNT will televise the Winter Goodwill Games (Feb 16-20), while ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will televise the Winter X Games between February 4-8.

Winter Prize Money The Winter Goodwill Games will offer prize money of over $650,000, the Winter Gravity Games over $300,000. No figures are listed for the Winter X Games.

Winter Goodwill Games Update. Pack very warm if you're headed to Lake Placid for the inaugural winter Goodwill Games. Temperatures in mid-January have been nippy. 33 degrees below zero on Whiteface Mountain with the wind-chill reported to be 100 below zero. The newly finished bobsled run was due to have the ice prepared this week (January 17), but it was too cold. The lines supplying water to create the ice for the track are frozen solid. Extra January 19. Temperatures warmed enough so that workers have begun the icing.

The elementary school in Los Angeles where Olympic Champion Florence Griffith-Joyner went to school has been renamed in her honor. The 102nd Street School will now be known as Florence Joyner Elementary.

Sydney Venues are ready for 2000 Games. Sydney Olympic organizers have announced that all of the permanent sport facilities for the 2000 Olympic Games have been completed, including the Sydney International Archery Park, the Sydney Showground and exhibition complex (for baseball, badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, handball, fencing, judo, modern pentathlon), the State Hockey Center, Sydney Aquatic Center, Sydney Superdome, NSW Tennis Center and the Olympic stadium. Temporary facilities for other sports will be constructed closer to the games and work continues on the Athlete's Village, International Broadcast Center and a major hotel complex.

Still angered over the bridge disaster at the 1997 Maccabiah Games, the Jewish community in Australia has asked the Israeli Olympic Committee not to include Zvi Varshaviak, Israel's Olympic chief, and a member of the Maccabi World Union executive, in Israel's delegation to the 2000 Olympic Games. The Australian Jewish community has said that any Maccabi World Union executive member attending the 2000 Games will not be officially welcomed or acknowledged.

The Australian Jewish community continues to call for the resignation of high level Maccabi World Union executives and full compensation to be paid to the victims of the bridge collapse.

Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who also presides over the Belorussian National Olympic Committee, has promised his athletes that he will take good care of them if they perform well at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. At a December meeting of the nations Olympic prospects, Lukashenko said, "Just produce the results and you'll have an apartment and thousands of dollars and you'll provide for yourself for the rest of your life." "I'll buy you anything you need, guns, boats, swimming trunks, even undershorts. "But God forbid if I hear any complaint or question on the eve of your departure for Sydney." "I want you to know that we have quite a few problems besides sport, if you show good results, I'll have the grounds to reward you at the expense of others."

Not exactly your usual "Work hard, stay in school" message.

USOC sued again. Rival bid groups from the Washington D.C.-Baltimore area have spawned a dispute and lawsuit over the rights to bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Elizabeth Ganzi of the Greater Washington Exploratory Committee, which she organized in 1997, has accused the Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition of launching a rival bid that shut her out.

Ganzi is suing the USOC, the former mayor of DC Marion Barry, and the rival bid organization for $10 million plus reinstatement of her committee.

"They pulled the rug out from under her and tried to keep it, in effect, for themselves," said her lawyer Larry Klayman, noting that Ganzi had put up her own money and has been virtually bankrupted by the process.

American sprinter Dennis Mitchell's drug suspension has retroactively affected the results of the 4X100 meter event from the 1998 Goodwill Games. Canada is now recorded as the winners of the event. No mention of a change in the amount of prize money to be awarded however, or if the Americans will have to return their prize money.

Obituaries. Vladimir Kondrashin, the coach who led the Soviet Union to the Olympic basketball title in 1972, died December 23rd at the age of 70.

Bill Bowerman, the renowned former University of Oregon track coach, and co-founder of Nike, died in his sleep Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Bowermans' most famous pupil was Steve Prefontaine. Bowerman was 88.

Anniversaries

75 years ago, Socialist Worker Sports International Winter Worker Olympiad in Schrieberhau, Germany, January 31- February 2, 1925.

70 years ago, Winter World University Games Davos, Switzerland, January 4-12, 1930

25 years ago, New Zealand Games, Christchurch, New Zealand, January 23-26, 1975

Games for the Year 2000

Winter Gravity Games, Mammoth Mountain, United States, January 20-23

Winter World Corporate Games, Gastein, Austria, January 28-30

Olympic Hopes Winter, Tchepelare, Bulgaria, Winter

Winter X Games, Mount Snow, United States, February 3-6

Winter Goodwill Games, Lake Placid, United States, February 16-20

Australian Corporate Games, Sydney, Australia, March 16-19

Arctic Winter Games, Whitehorse, Canada, March 5-11

Pacific School Games, Sydney, Australia, April 27 - May 8

PNG Corporate Games, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, May 12-14

South East Asian Corporate Games, Singapore, Singapore, May 19-21

Olympic International Children's Festival, Hamilton, Canada, July 1-8

Stockholm Summer Games, Stockholm, Sweden, July 1-8

World Medical Games, Cannes, France, July 1-8

Can-Am Police-Fire Games, Milwaukee, United States, July 2-10

Firefighters World Games, Mantes-en-Yvelines, France, July 6-13

World Corporate Games, Aberdeen, Scotland, July 13-16

FISEC Games, Nantes, France, July 19-25

Great Outdoor Games, Lake Placid, United States, July 20-23

European Police Games, Avila, Spain, July

International Law Enforcement Games, Cocoa Beach, United States, August 3-13

JCC Maccabi Games, Tucson, United States, Aug. 6-11

JCC Maccabi Games, Boca Raton, United States, Aug. 13-18

JCC Maccabi Games, St. Louis, United States, Aug. 13-18

JCC Maccabi Games, Cincinnati, United States, Aug. 20-25

JCC Maccabi Games, Staten Island, United States, Aug. 20-25

Olympic Games Summer, Sydney, Australia, September 16-October 1

Paralympics Summer, Sydney, Australia, October 14-24

Central Europe Corporate Games, Salzburg, Austria, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1

Huntsman World Senior Games, St. George, United States, October

Asia Pacific Masters Games, Gold Coast, Australia, Oct. 25 - Nov. 5

Asia Pacific Games for the Deaf, Taipei, Taiwan, November 1-12

South American Corporate Games, Montevideo, Uruguay, Nov. 24-26

Other games. Dates to be confirmed.

Irelands' Scholar Athlete Games, Jordanstown, Northern Ireland

World Senior Games, Newport, United States

World Wheelchair Games, Buckinghamshire- Stoke Mandeville, England

Alps-Adriatic Summer Youth Games, Friuli-Venezia Giulia,

European Special Olympics (Summer), Groningen, Netherlands

SELL Games (Summer), Latvia,

Gravity Games, Providence, United States

African Student Games Zone VI, Maputu, Mozambique

Winter Australian Corporate Games, Thredbo, Australia

Summer X Games, San Francisco, United States