International Games News September 2000

Alphabetic List of Games	Games in September

Games in Africa	Olympic Games Sydney Australia September 16-Oct. 1
Games in Asia	Central Europe Corporate Games, Salzburg, Austria, Sept. 29 -Oct. 1
Games in Europe	October
Games in North America	Summer Paralympic Games, Sydney Australia October 18-29
Games in South America	Islands Corporate Games, St. Helier Oct. 13-15
Games in Oceania	Huntsman World Senior Games, St. George Utah
Games for Disabled Athletes..	Asia Pacific Masters Games, Gold Coast, Australia Oct. 25- Nov. 5
Masters/Seniors Games
Games for Youth	November
Winter Games	South American Corporate Games. Montivideo, Uruguay Nov. 24-26
	Victorian Corporate Games, Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 24-6

Beijing, Istanbul, Osaka, Paris and Toronto are the five cities selected by the International Olympic Committee on August 29 to continue on as possible candidate cities for the 2008 Summer Games.

Havana, Cairo, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Buenos Aires were eliminated from the running.

The front-runner for the "not thinking clearly" award is race-walker Simon Baker, Australia's representative on the Athletes' Commission of both the IAAF and Athletics Australia.

A few days after the US Olympic Trials, Baker wondered aloud whether Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene pulled up lame in the 200m meter event in those trials in an attempt to avoid mandatory drug tests.

Baker told Radio 2UE that "it just looked like a couple of guys who wanted to avoid scrutiny." "You start to wonder when you suddenly have two athletes of that caliber pulling out. You start to think maybe there's a bit of pressure, maybe they're starting to think they have to be a bit more circumspect in terms of if they had finished first, second or third, they would have been specifically up for a drug test."

The premise is patently absurd Mr. Baker. Both athletes, as world champions and world record holders, have been tested as many times and in as many meets as anyone else, and of course were tested in the very same meet they are accused of "pulling out" of.

The notion that Johnson and Greene pulled muscles in order to avoid drug testing is preposterous and absurd.

The IOC has added verbiage relating to doping to the Athletes Oath, which is recited at the Opening Ceremony of each games.

The oath now reads: "In the name of all the competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams."

One newspaper writer has proposed that the Olympic Motto be revised to read, "Citius, Altius, Fortius, Urinalysis"

The shot-put winner at Vietnam's national youth games was awarded her gold medal despite the runnerup's claim that she is really a male.

The victory by 19-year-old Nguyen Thi Phuong Kieu was held up pending medical examinations. An ultrasound test determined that while Kieu has male genitalia, she also has ovaries and Kieu was awarded her gold medal at the close of the competition.

Maccabiah Games Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 28- Oct. 9, 1950
Paralympic Games, Rome, Italy, Sept. 17-22, 1960
Olympic Games Summer, Rome, Italy, Aug. 25 - Sept. 11, 1960
Bolivarian Games, Maracaibo, Venezuela, Aug. 22-Sept 6, 1970
World University Games Summer, Turin, Italy, Aug. 26 - Sept. 6, 1970
Indian Ocean Island Games, Antananarivo, Madagascar, Aug. 24 - Sept. 2, 1990
Pan-American Winter Games, Las Lenas, Argentina, Sept. 18-20, 1990
Asian Games, Beijing, China Sept. 21 - Oct. 5,1990