Are X Gamers now cool with the Olympic Games?

January 28, 2006

For most of the history of the X Games,  from the time they began as the Extreme Games back in 1995, X Games athletes have had a decidedly anti-Olympic bent, priding themselves on not being part of the overly-commercial Olympic Games machinery.

When snowboarding was first admitted into the Olympic Games in 1998, Norway's Terje Haakanson, considered at the time by many to be able to rightfully claim the title of best snowboarder in the world, decided to "boycott" the games, telling the Verdens Gang newspaper,  the International Olympic Committee organizers, are far removed from understanding the sport or its athletes and said "the big-wigs ride in limousines and stay in fancy hotels while the athletes live in barracks in the woods."

In 1997, Samantha Stevenson wondered in the New York Times if X Games athletes would "ever make it past the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games..." 

Chris Edwards, the bronze medallist in men's in-line vert at the 1997 X Games, told Stevenson "if it became an Olympic sport I wouldn't compete."  In 1997 Tony Hawk had concluded "we are already bigger than most athletes in the Olympics."

That was 1997.  Today, ESPN's coverage of the tenth X Games from Aspen was rampant with mentions of "Olympic," "Olympian" and "Torino." During the six minute segment of the men's boarder-x final, the announcers uttered those words no less than 10 times, with another graphic for good measure. 

Summer athletes may still feel differently about the issue, as the summer X Games events have still not been included in the summer Olympic Games, But winter games athletes have changed their tune.  Last year snowboarder Keir Dillon told the Colorado Springs Gazette "The X Games are rad and the X Games are special and everything," Dillon said, but "they're 9 years old." "The Olympics are the Olympics. There's nothing that can touch it."

Danny Kass told the same paper,  "It's definitely a great thing," Kass said. "The whole Olympic experience was a big eye-opener and a shock." "The Opening Ceremony, kind of realizing you're here with all these other countries, kind of meant something," he said. "And then, it was just more of a cool world event than like a normal competition we had been doing."

Some 30 X games participants are said to be part of their Olympic teams this year, and will be heading to Torino after their X Games events are over. Snowboarder X, a downhill type mass race has been added to the Olympic Games schedule this year. 

Some athletes are being cautious with their X Games chances. Several pulled out of this weeks X Games with slight injuries to save themselves and their Olympic medal chances. 

If you are concerned that there's just too much games activity going on, and much too close to the Olympic Games, you aren't the first. Organizers of the Winter Gravity Games cancelled their 2006 event claiming the schedule was already full, though those games had only been held twice in the past six years.  

The International Olympic Committee, over fifty years ago, tried to address the issue of too many competitions too close together.  One of the "Rules for Regional Games" that was proposed, was that other regional games " must not be held within the period of twelve months following or preceding the Olympic Games," a rule which was later rescinded.

El Salvador will not participate in the Central American Games

January 28, 2006

The National Olympic Committee of El Salvador notified ORDECA (Organizacion Deportiva Centroamericanos) last week, that it will not be sending athletes to the Central American Games, scheduled to begin a short five weeks from now.

El Salvador was originally to serve as a co-host for the games, with Guatemala, in 2005. Those plans were cancelled when hurricanes devastated the area last summer, and the games were first cancelled, then re-instated to March of this year.

ORDECA then parceled out the events, in a unique solution, planning to have six of the seven countries (excluding El Salvador) host a few events each. 

Now questions over security, transportation and housing have come up.

With El Salvador announcing it will not participate, the number of teams entered in some sports has been reduced, and those sports may be in danger of being dropped from the games., means that other sports may not be held for lack of entries.

Despite the extraordinary efforts of ORDECA to make arrangements there is concern that the games will simply collapse.

ORDECA still plans to open the games on March 3rd.

ESPN and Aspen sign Winter X Games Extension to 2010

January 27, 2006

The Winter X Games will stay in Aspen, Colorado for another three years, with the announcement today of the signing of an agreement between Aspen Skiing Co. and ESPN. 

The current agreement had the games in Aspen until 2007. The three year extension means that ESPN intends to keep the games in Aspen until 2010. 

ESPN reportedly had offers from ski resorts in California, Canada and Europe, but chose to stay with Aspen.  The games have never been held outside the United States, with this years event being the tenth edition.  The games have been hosted in Aspen since 2002.

CBC finally announces Commonwealth Games Coverage

January 21, 2006

The Canadian Broadcasting Company and organizers of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games have finally reached an agreement that will provide at least some coverage of the Games in March, to Canadian television viewers.  

The coverage will be minimal, only a one hour highlights package each day, which will be played twice per day. 

CBC has complained of a tight schedule, with the Paralympics, curling and other sporting events conflicting with the Commonwealth Games schedule. 

In November, Fox Sports announced that TV viewers in the United States would also be able to see a daily highlights package, and some live coverage, of the Commonwealth Games from Australia.

Doha Asian Games relay will be longest in history

January 19, 2006 by Daniel Bell

Doha Asian Games organizers have announced the most extensive torch relay in Asian Games history, an unprecedented route that will take the games flame to visit every former Asian Games host city.

Some form of the torch relay has featured in every Asian Games except one, but the relays have always been, with a few exceptions, relatively simple affairs.

The first Asian Games flame was lit in 1951 in Delhi, next to Delhi’s Red Fort.  The torch was lit using the sun’s rays, on the day of the Opening Ceremony, and relayed 11.4 miles (about 18 kilometers) by  44 runners until it arrived at Delhi’s Main Stadium. 

In between the first and second games, the International Olympic Committee passed “Rules for Regional Games” during its IOC session at the Olympic Games in Helsinki. One of the rules proclaimed “there must be no torch relay or flame used” at regional games.

Following this rule, there was no torch or flame at the second Asian Games in Manila in May of 1954.

However, as the games were going on in Manila, the IOC was meeting, in Athens. The minutes of the IOC Session read “The President proposes to omit the phrase in article 10 which forbids the use of a Flame at the Regional Games.”   The change was eventually adopted in time for a torch relay for the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo.

The 1958 torch relay, paying homage to the 1954 games, was lit on April 22, 1958 in Manila at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.  The flame was relayed through Manila that day, then flown to Okinawa, and then mainland Japan where it was relayed around for 26 days, until the Opening Ceremony on May 24^th.

For the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, the flame was lit near Madjakerta, Indonesia where “fire has been coming out of the ground since the olden days, and has never gone out (according to the 1970 Asian Games Official Report).  The torch was lit on August 20^th, and relayed to Jakarta over four days time, with 700 runners, over a distance of about 360 kilometers.

The torch relays for the 1966 and 1970 Asian Games, both held in Bangkok, were both begun by His Majesty, King Phumiphol Adulyadej (as spelled in the official report, now different).  In 1966 the flame was lit on December 8, next to Chitrlada Palace and carried in a procession about halfway to the stadium where it stayed overnight. The torch was relayed to the stadium by runners the next day for the Opening Ceremony.

In 1970, a similar protocol was followed, with one exception. Two typhoons hit the area in the week before the games.  Organizers had the King light a flame from the sun's rays ahead of time so that they would have one prepared, in case the sun did not shine the day of the ceremony. The flame ceremony was held one day before the games opening, and the flame relayed the next day to the stadium for the opening ceremony.

In 1974, for the games in Tehran, once again, the torch relay was very short. The torch was lit the day before the Opening ceremony with the assistance of then Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. The torch was then carried to the Shahyad monument, a monument honoring the monarchy, Shahyad loosely translated " remembrance of the king".  The name was changed to Azadi Tower after the Islamic revolution, Azadi meaning freedom, that freedom from the Shah.

After spending the night at the Shahyad Monument, the torch was relayed the next day to the stadium and the ceremonial flame lit at the stadium by Ali Bagbanbashi, winner of the gold medal in the 5,000 meters at the first Asian Games in Delhi in 1951, silver medallist in the steeplechase at those same games, and bronze medallist in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the Asian Games in Tokyo.

No documentation has been uncovered yet detailing the 1978 game's torch relay, when the games once again returned to Bangkok. Based on the consistency of the 1966 and 1970 and 1998 ceremonies and relays, one might reasonably assume so far, that the 1978 ceremonies were similar.

In 1982, when the games returned to Delhi, the torch relay remained a rather small production.  The games' flame was lit at the national stadium, on the location where the flame for the 1951 games was extinguished.

Prime Minister Indira Ghandi lit the torch, using the sun's rays, and it was relayed a very short 4.5 kilometers to Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, that same day.

Sri Ram Singh, Olympic Games 800 meter finalist in 1976, and Asian Games 800 meter gold medal winner in 1974 and 1978 received the torch from Prime Minister Gandhi to begin the relay. 

Games organizers had planned together with the Prime Minister that the flame would be lit by a man-woman team. Balbir Singh, India's three time field hockey gold medallist (1948, 1952, 1956), and Diana Simes (Indian track and field athlete) were chosen as the final torch bearers.

Up to this time most of the relays had lasted just a day or two, with the 1962 Indonesian relay at four days, and the 1958 Japanese relay at 33 days being the longest.

Torch relays began to be far more complex in 1986, for the games held in Seoul, South Korea. 

The 1986 Asian Games Torch relay had three routes, covered 4,175 kilometers, and involved 16,566 runners (counting escorts) dwarfing any previous Asian Games relay in terms of the number of participants. The relay took just eight days however, with the torch lit on September 12, 1986 and the opening ceremony on September 20th.

At each stop on all three routes, the torch was met with planned events and festivals.  The three routes were designated as the "route of harmony", "route of onward" and "route of prosperity."

The young woman who lit the flame from the sun's rays, Lee Hee-jong, said that she had postponed her marriage until after the games so that she would not lose the honor of lighting the torch. Evidently, marriage would have disqualified her from the role.

The 1990 Asian Games torch relay grew more involved. With the addition of a fourth route, the games' torch was relayed through all 31 provinces in China. The torch was lit by a fifteen year- old Tibetan girl named Dawayangzong on August 7, 1990, at the foot of Nianquing Tanggula Peak.

The four routes were begun in Urumqi, in the NW corner of China, Lhasa in the Southwest, Harbin in the Northeast, and the Shenzhen/Hong Kong area in the South.

The relays took 45 days, with the Beijing Asian Games opening ceremony on September 21st. The various routes took the games' flame to the Great Wall, The Marco Polo Bridge, the Straits of Taiwan and the Yellow River before arriving at the Summer Palace in Beijing.

Reports of the 1994 Asian Games flame seem to indicate a possibly more subdued role for the flame.  The flame was a combination of two flames, one, the "Flame of Asia" was lit in Beijing on September 7th, and the other, the "Flame of Peace" lit in Hiroshima on September 11th. The two flames were combined into one that same day in a cauldron in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.

The commemorative book from the games does not mention details of a relay, but the games did not open until October 2nd.

Up until this time, the origination of the games' flame was up to the host, and the Asian Games flame had originated in many different places, unlike the Olympic Games torch which is lit in Olympia on each occasion.

New Delhi offered itself as permanent host for the Asian Games' flame, and on December 14, 1997 a permanent flame was ignited in Delhi's National Stadium.  The intent was that every Asian Games torch relay should begin from this flame from now on.

However, one short year later, this flame was not used to light the torch for the next games.  

For the 1998 edition, back in Bangkok, King Phumiphol Adulyadej (now Bhumipol), the same King who lit the games' flame over thirty years ago in 1966 and again in 1970, once again took over the duties once again next to Chitrlada Palace.  The flame was taken to Sanam Luang park, where it remained for two days. On December 6th, it was relayed 100 kilometers around the city by 216 runners until it reached the stadium that evening for the opening ceremony.

Organizers of the 2002 Asian Games in Busan lit two torches: one at Mount Paekdu in North Korea, and the other at South Korea’s Mount Halla.

The torches were brought together at Unification Hill, next to the Korean border at Imjinkak. The Korean relay would take 23 days, and cover 4,300 kilometers.

Meanwhile, flame lighting ceremonies were being held in each of the 44 other Asian nations that participate in the games. Each nation was instructed to light a flame in its own country and bring it with them to the games.  These flames would then all be combined into one at the Busan Opening Ceremony.

The Doha Asian Games organizers have said the relay will begin on October 8, 2006 and take 50 days until the games open on December 1st.

Organizers intend to light the games torch in Doha, then travel to New Delhi, and on to every other former Asian Games host city, making this the longest Asian Games torch relay in history.

(Asian Games Official Reports from 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1982, 1986, 1990 were used as sources for the above information)  

Daniel Bell is the author of the Encyclopedia of International Games and the forthcoming History of the Asian Games (Fall 2006).

2011 Asian Winter Games confirmation

January 9, 2006

Kazakhstan's KAZINFORM news service is confirming that Almaty, Kazakhstan has been awarded the rights to host the 2011 Asian Winter Games.

Official contracts between the Olympic Council of Asia, the Kazakhstan National Olympic Committee and Almaty's Organizing Committee are due to be signed in March.

Preliminary dates for the games are January 30-February 6, 2011.

Almaty (formerly known as Alma-Ata) sits in the midst of Kazakhstan's prime apple producing territory, and the word variously translated into English (depending on the source) as  “apple abundance” "A city of apples",  "Grand father of apple" "full of apple-trees" "apple abundance” or "The Place of Apples".   Any way you slice it, its plain, Almaty and apples go together.  

This recalls the slogan of the 2003 Asian Winter Games host, Aomori, Japan, "Aomori is apples, and apples are Aomori."

Almaty is more famous in the sporting world for its high altitude skating rink, Medeo.

The rink gained almost mythical status as it was reserved almost exclusively for the use of skaters from the Soviet Union and East Germany who set scores of world records at the venue (with a little help from the Norwegians) from as early as 1951 until 1986 when indoor skating arenas began to take precedence.

It would be fascinating to see the 2011 Asian Winter Games take place at the venue, which has not been kept in good repair the past decade, and possible the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, of which Almaty is a candidate.

Pink and Carey Hart Married

January 8, 2006

Various news sources are reporting that singer Pink (Alecia Moore) and Freestyle Motocross star Carey Hart, an item since 2001, got married in Costa Rica this past weekend. That part we'll assume is factual.

However, sources are also reporting that the pair met at the 2001 X Games in Las Vegas. That part we know can't be true.

The 2001 Summer X Games were in Philadelphia, the winter version for good measure, in Mt. Snow, Vermont.

Hart, a Las Vegas native, in an ESPN chat transcript from the summer of 2002, recalls that the pair met at the X Games, and then met up again three months later in Las Vegas where things started to take off.

Winter Commonwealth Games: Past or Future, Fact or Fantasy?

January 7, 2006

Two years ago this month, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi announced that India would be seeking to promote winter sports and possibly hosting winter SAF Games and Commonwealth Winter Games.

The new year brings announcements from India that the Kashmir Region has been selected to host Commonwealth Winter Games in 2010, with several news sources quoting Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad as the source of the announcement.

However, no other official sources or channels are confirming the news, most notably, the Commonwealth Games Federation, and no one is stating who made the award for the rights for the games. India has stated that they hope to develop areas in the Himalayas as world class ski resorts.

As for a future Commonwealth Winter Games, 2010 is a strange choice, other than India is already hosting the summer edition of the Commonwealth Games that same year. Holding games in January or February would conflict with the 2010 Olympic Games, and holding 2010 Commonwealth Winter Games after the 2010 Olympic Winter Games would probably diminish participation in the Commonwealth version of the games. Holding the games in December 2010 might work.

No written documentation such as programs or official reports are known to exist that would confirm that Commonwealth Winter Games have ever been held, but there are one or two mentions in athletes and coaching biographies (one from the Canadian Ski Museum), one calendar listing in Olympic Review, and medals imprinted with Commonwealth Winter Games have been spotted on eBay. Research continues.....

Alaska's Arctic Winter Games gets budget boost

January 6, 2006

With just under sixty days to go until the opening of the 2006 Arctic Winter Games, games organizers on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska are smiling with the news that one of their state Senators, Ted Stevens, has found a way to work half a million dollars worth of funding for the games into a newly passed defense spending bill.  The money is supposed to be earmarked for security and communications for the games, and frees up other money to be used elsewhere in the games budget.

Last month, pleas from organizers for more sponsorship brought in almost $200,000 in cash and services from Avis Alaska, Marathon Oil Corp., Agrium Inc. Shell Oil, and the Canadian consulate.

Senator Stevens will also be guest of honor Jan. 13 at an Arctic Winter Games fundraiser in Anchorage.

Organizers are also selling products at the Arctic Games Web site to supplement their games budget.

Preliminary 2006 schedule information

Preliminary 2007 schedule information