IOC Cuts Teams Sizes For Olympics. Time To Consider Change Of Allegiance?

IOC Cuts Teams Sizes For Olympics. Time To Consider Change Of Allegiance?

Newsfeed
Bad news for Swedish female skiers. Ditto for the Russian males. But the much the worst for the Norwegians of both genders: The IOC rather severely cut the quota for participation in the 2022 Olympics. If in Korea 2018 the teams in cross country skiing were supposed to have no more than 20 athletes, in China in two and half years time it will be reduced to 16 total, 8 girls and 8 boys. Which is really tight for 6 events for each but that's a different story. The one we want to raise and debate today is called " change of allegiance". We all know that some counntries produce talents in excess e.g. Brazilian footballers, Chinese table tennis players or long-distance runners from Kenya. It became a norm for…
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Russian XC Ski Team Reacts With Dismay To Olympic Ban

Russian XC Ski Team Reacts With Dismay To Olympic Ban

Leaders, Newsfeed
..They watched and listened in utter silence. Some wee fidgeting thier fingers. A rising star of international skiing, a 20 year old Alexander Bolshunov had his head buried in his hands almost entire time. [caption id="attachment_6018" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Russian skiers listen to Thomas Bach, the IOC Chairman, speech[/caption] After the man in Lausanne had announced the decisions taken, they have started to get up and leave, one by one, without saying a word. Thus the Russian cross country skiing team met the ruling of the Internatinal Olympic Committee under which their country is not allowed to have a national team, no anthem shall be played or flag displayed at the Winter Olympic Games in Korea. The Russian skiing team is as strong as it probably ever was since the break-up…
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IOC Suspends Second Russian Olympic Champion In One Week But Russia Gets To Keep Golden Medal

IOC Suspends Second Russian Olympic Champion In One Week But Russia Gets To Keep Golden Medal

Leaders, Newsfeed
The situation with the Olympic doping in cross country skiing is getting more and more difficult to comprehend. Last week Alexander Legkov had lost his Olympic Golden medal for the 50k race thus – formally – ceding the title to the second placed Maxim Vylegzhanin, both of Russia. But not for long. Because today the IOC's Oswald Commission had disqualified Vylegzhanin as well – and then the Golden medal goes to...Ilia Chernousov of Russia, who came third. How does this bode with the allegations of the "Russian state sponsored doping program"? Was it only for certain athletes on the Russian team, but not for the others? The IOC decision appears to be based almost exclusively on  the so-called McLaren Report, which does not seem to explain or even address "the…
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Upshot Of Decision To Ban Legkov/Belov

Upshot Of Decision To Ban Legkov/Belov

Leaders, Newsfeed
Yesterday's verdict of The IOC Disciplinary Commission, handing out a lifetime Olympic ban and stripping medals off the Russian skiers Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov will go down in history. Regardless of which side of the argument you're on, the history is made because for the first time ever in sport a doping ban is given in the case where there is no direct evidence of actual doping, no evidence of sportsmen being involved and still no clear understanding of what had actually happened. The formula under which international sports bureaucrats judge sportsmen is notoriously vague and deserves to be quoted in full: “...The standard of proof shall be whether the IOC has established an anti-doping rule violation to the comfortable satisfaction of the hearing panel bearing in mind the…
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