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International
Games on Internet Radio
Jerusalem
Post Radio made available several excellent interviews on
Maccabiah Games topics. One day after the games there were eleven
interviews available in the Maccabiah Games archive discussing the
opening and closing ceremonies, a chat with Lenny Krayzelburg and
Maccabi World Union President Jean Futeran.
The Sports
Factor a radio show from Australian National Radio also has
an archive with topics relating to the recent Olympic
Games and Paralympic
Games as well as the Maccabiah
Games, Commonwealth Games World
University Games and Masters
Games.
Francophone
Games athletes ask for refugee status
Five athletes have asked for refugee status since the
Francophone Games began July 14th. Names and countries were
not released.
Canada is a popular landing spot for international games refugees.
In 1999 eleven Cubans defected during the Winnipeg Pan-American
Games.
At the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, B.C., in 1994, several
athletes from Ghana left the village and asked to stay in Canada. Kwaku Boateng, now one of Canada's top high
jumpers was part of this group.
One Nigerian, Daniel Igali, stayed in Canada after the 1994 Games
and became an Olympic Champion in wrestling for Canada.
Francophone Games boxing officials
threatened to strike because of their housing arrangements, isolated
so far out of town that they were spending all of their per diem
money on taxis. Soccer officials were also upset when they heard
that other officials in other sports were getting more money. Games
organizers were able to smooth out the problems with both groups of
officials.
No Shoplifting!
No Hugs!
Cultural differences have arisen at
the games for French speaking nations. Two female volunteers complained to police
that they received hugs from athletes that made them feel
uncomfortable.
Police met with an
unnamed delegation to tell them what is culturally acceptable in
Canada. No sexual harassment charges were filed. "We concluded there was nothing illegal," said Lieut. Yves
Martel of Hull police. Shoplifting,
however is neither acceptable culturally or legally and two athletes
were sent home from the Francophone Games after being caught
shoplifting in a downtown store.
Flame relit
on 25th anniversary of Montreal Games
A ceremony was held in Montreal on
Tuesday, July 17th to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the
Opening Ceremony of the Montreal Olympic Games.
The Olympic Installations Board, also relights the urn during each summer Olympic Games.
The urn will remain lit until Aug. 1, the day the 1976
Olympics ended.
A small crowd of perhaps 25 people
were on hand for the ceremony according to the press, but many were
fondly reminiscent of the games in Montreal.
Stephane
Prefontaine one of the final torch lighters for the 76 games said,
"The construction of the facilities had some problems. But what
we did in '76 was very good."
"We organized almost-perfect Olympics, the athletes were very
happy and we had great performances."
Mayor Jean Drapeau had estimated in 1970
that a Montreal Olympic Games would cost around $120 million
dollars. The Games ended up with a debt of $1.3 billion.
As of June 30, 2001, $334 million was still owed on the bill for the
Montreal Olympic Games.
Maccabiah
Games open in Jerusalem
The Maccabiah games opened in Teddy
Stadium in Jerusalem under what a Jerusalem Post Radio reporter
described as "probably the tightest security for any event in
Israel."
The security will be continued
throughout the games, the necessity underscored by a bomb explosion
in the dead of night near the stadium. Two Palestinian terrorists,
trying to plant a bomb had the device unexpectedly explode, killing
them instantly.
The ceremony for the 16th Maccabiah
Games came off beautifully later that evening. Olympic Swimming star
Lenny Krayzelburg carried the flag for the United States
delegation. Krayzelburg's swam a Maccabiah record in the 100
meter backstroke the next day but injured a shoulder and will not
swim in any more events.
A memorial service for the
Australian victims of the opening ceremony bridge disaster at the
1997 games was held in Tel Aviv on the evening before this years
opening ceremony.
Numerous Australians in attendance
were angered that the Maccabi World Union, had an official part in
the ceremony. Many Australians are still very upset at how the MWU
handled the tragedy the past four years.
Sadly, many at the memorial noted
that the Yarkon River is still heavily polluted, despite plans to
clean the river. The pollution contributed heavily to several of the
injuries in 1997.
Francophone
Games Open In Ottawa-Hull Canada
July 15,
2001
On Bastille Day, perhaps
coincidentally, perhaps not, the Francophone Games opened in
Ottawa-Hull Canada, with some 3,000 international athletes from 48
delegations.
A crowd of just over 20,000 was one
hand for the games which celebrate athletes and artists from French
speaking lands. Gasps and a few boos were heard when a few of the
officials on hand to open the games dared to speak a few words of
English.
Jeff Adams the world-champion
wheelchair racer was one of Canada's six flag-bearer. Canada,
Canada-Quebec and Canada-New Brunswick each had a flag-bearer for
their sport and art delegations.
2008
Decision a Formality. Its Beijing.
In
what many considered to be a foregone conclusion the International
Olympic Committee voted in Moscow, Friday July 13 to award the 2008
Olympic Games to Beijing. Beijing had held a strong lead since the
report of the final evaluation committee was released in May and was
never headed.
The Vote:
| City |
Round 1 |
Round 2 |
| Beijing |
44 |
56 |
| Toronto |
20 |
22 |
| Paris |
15 |
18 |
| Istanbul |
17 |
9 |
| Osaka |
6 |
|
The decision was made with the
fewest rounds of voting since vote for the 1984 games. The choice
for the 1996 games went five rounds, 2000 four rounds and 2004 five
rounds. Beijing was a close second in the vote for the 2000 Games to
Sydney 45 to 43 votes.
In one sense the awarding of the
games to Beijing is an acknowledgment by the IOC of the human rights
issues in China.
The IOC believes that its ideals,
Olympism, are stronger than other ideals and will open up China and
make the Chinese government and its treatment of its citizens better
place. We'll wait and see.
How
will China do at hosting the games?
2012?
A "short list" of
34 cities that have been mentioned in the past year or two as
possible suitors for the 2012 games. (Not counting Seattle,
Pittsburgh and Bangkok who are no longer interested, and any other
cities on the Asian continent that, after the Beijing confirmation,
will have to wait a while)
Brisbane, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Cape Town,
Cincinnati, Dallas, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Durban, Havana, Houston,
Istanbul, Johannesburg , Kranay-Polyana (Russia), Lisbon, London,
Los Angeles, Leipzig, Madrid, Monterrey, Moscow, New York, Paris,
Rio De Janeiro, Ruhr
Valley (Germany), San Francisco, Saxony, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tel
Aviv, Toronto, Vienna, Warsaw, Washington/Baltimore.
Francophone competitors barred from entering Canada
Canada has refused visas to five competitors
at the Francophone Games in Ottawa this month.
"We had reasonable grounds to believe they had committed war
crimes or a crime against humanity," said
Simone MacAndrew, spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration. The
identities of the individuals, or their countries were not released.
Doping
Lab for Africa
The IOC will help Africa to set up
an anti-doping laboratory in Nigeria in time for the 2003 African
Games. The IOC will help coordinate funding and personnel. Currently
South Africa has the only IOC accredited anti-drug laboratory on the
African continent.
Paralympic
Drug Agreement
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) have signed an
agreement to develop the first in- and out-of-competition doping
control program for Paralympic events and will observe drug testing
at the 2002 Paralympic Games.
WADA will help the IPC develop
international, anti-doping educational programs for athletes,
coaches, and sports administrators within Paralympic sports.
The 2000 Paralympic Games were hit
with a rash of positive drug test, mostly in the weightlifting
events.
Pan-American
Games Construction
Santo Domingo is still debating
where to place facilities for the 2003 Pan-American Games.
Construction was to start early this month, awaiting funding
authorization, of the Mirador del Este Pan American
sports complex.
Former President Joaquin Balaguer has who created the Mirador del
Este park has opposed placing sports facilities in the park saying
the park is an important city green area. Proponents disagree saying
the park would be improved.
The Mirador del Este sports complex would include
tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, facilities for weight
lifting, hockey, handball, table tennis, badminton, gymnastics and
archery spread throughout the park.
Pan American Games Organizing
Committee president, Jose Joaquin Puello also announced that one of
twelve blocks of apartments for the Pan American athletes village
would be finished in time for the visit of the members of the Pan
American Sports Organization on 12 August.
World Scholar Athlete
Games
Just over 2000 athletes from 151
nations converged on the campus of the University of Rhode Island
for the third World Scholar Athlete Games.
The games opened with the induction
of the 2001 class of the World Scholar Athlete Hall of Fame on June
23. Those inducted included among others:
The 2001 class includes:
Althea Gibson (Tennis)
John Wooden (Basketball)
LeRoy Walker (Track and Field)
Max Manning (Negro Leagues Baseball)
Nancy Hogshead-Makar (Swimming)
Kip Keino (Running)
Chi Cheng (Track and Field)
Fridtjof Nansen (speed skater)
Adhemar Ferreira da Silva (Track and Field)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver (Special Olympics Founder)
Norman Taber (Track and Field) - Rhode Island Class
Selection into the International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame is
based on athletic, scholarly and humanitarian accomplishments.
Academicians, journalists, representatives of national Olympic
organizations and former athletes contribute to the selection
process.
A new class of inductees will be
selected every two years. Eligible individuals are those who
competed athletically at least the college level, demonstrated a
high level of success as a scholar, have made outstanding
contributions to society and have maintained high ethical personal
standards.
Visit the Scholar-Athlete Hall of
Fame.
The 2001 Scholar Athlete World Games included a seminar on
"Ethics and the Sports media."
Attorney Ken Starr was invited to debate with Mark Toohey on the
topic of "Presidential ethics from Nixon to Clinton."
World Games for the
Deaf to be known as Deaflympics.
In a surprise the World Games for
the Deaf organized by the Comité
International
des
Sports des Sourds (International Committee of Deaf Sports- CISS)
have changed their name and with the blessing of the IOC will now be
known as the "Deaflympics."
The organization also started a new
website for the 2001 Rome games, http://www.deaflympics.com.
The games will be held from 22 July
22 to 1 August,
2001.
Some 4,500 athletes from at least 70 countries will
compete in
fifteen sports.
Commonwealth Games funding
Crisis?
A report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper
claiming next year's Commonwealth
Games could collapse because of a cash shortfall was very quickly
dismissed by games organizers.
The paper had claimed the games
might be cancelled if organizers did not come up with another 124
million pounds.
Manchester City Council chief executive Howard Bernstein
dismissed the report, saying "There is no question of the Games being cancelled."
Discussion were still continuing
with the government regarding funding however.
Maccabiah Games
will go on.
Hundreds of athletes
have cancelled but the Maccabiah Games are still scheduled to go on
as of the beginning of July. Olympic backstroke champion Lenny
Krayzelburg has announced his intention to compete at the games.
Afro-Asian Games
The organizers of the Afro-Asian Games have started a bank
account and set up a board to monitor the progress of preparations
for the 2001 Afro-Asian Games, including renovations to the
stadiums.
It's about time considering that the games are scheduled to be
held in November. Presumably everything will be prepared by
September.
Athletics, boxing, weightlifting, taekwondo, hockey, shooting,
football and swimming are included in the games. Representatives
from the eight sports federations from the two continents are
scheduled to meet in New Delhi on 17-18 August to decide on the
entries.
Kenya is expected to make up the majority of the team for
athletics and boxing for Africa.
The Afro-Asia Games are expected to bring together 2,500 athletes
from 95 countries.
Organizers will meet all their cost of accommodation, travel and
competition.
Arab Games Rule Changes
The technical committee of the Arab Sports Ministers Council has
endorsed recommendations by sports experts to be introduced at
the 10th Pan-Arab Games in Algeria.
The number of sports for the next Games was set at 12 for men and
10 for women with the host country having the option to add more
Olympic sports and two exhibition sports, the results of which will
not count in the medals
tally.
Among the other rule changes are: Athletes will not be able to
compete if they are serving suspension by Arab, regional or
international federations at the time of the
Games. Players with dual nationality cannot represent their first
country if they represented the second in an international
championship in the four years prior to the Games.
The Games have been organized nine times since 1953. Women first
participated in the 6th Games in Rabat in 1985.
The second Pan-Arab Games for Special Needs will take place
immediately after the Pan-Arab Games and will include basketball,
football, targetball and athletics.
Kuwait Cancels Women's Events at 2nd West
Asian Games
The organizers from oil-rich Kuwait have cited "budget
shortages" as the reason for dropping women's events at the 2nd
West Asian Games to be held Oct. 20-30.
Kuwait also cited the short amount of time available for
organizing the games. Kuwait took over after Lebanon gave up the
games in January.
The bylaws of the West Asian Zone allow
the host country to organize the Games as it chooses but the
decision came as a tremendous surprise to delegates from other
countries.
The 12-nation West Asian Zone had also previously included the
Central Asian
republics of the former Soviet Union who opted out of the group last
month and formed the Central Asian Zone.
Syria will host the next West Asian Games in 2003, and Qatar in
2005.
The Exposition Park Intergenerational
Community Center
Construction is now underway to refurbish the 1932 Los Angeles Swim
Stadium. The pool is being restored and this wonderful facility will
become a community center for young and old.
New Games Websites
www.Deaflympics.com
Anniversaries
Pan-American Games
Cali, Colombia, July 30 - Aug. 12, 1971
World Games Santa Clara, USA, July 24 - Aug. 2, 1981
World Games for the Deaf
Cologne, Germany, July 24 - Aug. 2, 1981
World University Games
Bucharest, Romania, July 19-30, 1981
Maccabiah Games
Tel Aviv, Israel, July 6-16, 1981
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