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The International Olympic Committee is delaying the selection of the 2030 Winter Olympics host city after discussing climate change and sustainability during its executive board meeting on Tuesday. The 2030 host city was originally scheduled to be announced after the 2023 IOC session. The executive board is giving the Future Host Commission more time to look at the preliminary results of academic research that shows a potential reduction in the number of climate-reliable hosts. A proposal to ensure climate reliability would require hosts to show average minimum temperatures of below zero degrees for snow competition venues during the Winter Games...

Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest athletes in history and the victim of what many considered a century-old Olympic injustice, has been restored as the sole winner of the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games. Thorpe, who excelled at a dozen or more sports, had dominated his two events at the 1912 Games in Stockholm but was stripped of his medals after it emerged that he had briefly played professional baseball before his Olympic career. American officials, in what historians considered a blend of racism and a fanatical devotion to the idea of amateurism, had been among the...

The International Olympic Committee recommended that sports organizations allow biologically male, transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports without lowering their testosterone levels. The committee stated that no athlete should be excluded from competition based on unverified, alleged, or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to biological sex in a Tuesday report. The report says athletes should compete in sports based on their self-determined gender identity and should not be subject to “targeted testing” to determine biological sex. “Athletes should not be deemed to have an unfair or disproportionate competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status,”...

The recently completed Tokyo Summer Olympic Games were, in many respects, an unmitigated flop. NBC's prime-time coverage averaged a paltry 12.9 million viewers, making for the weakest ratings since NBC first began airing the Summer Games in 1988. Overall, the Tokyo Games saw a 49% ratings drop since the previous Summer Games, 2016's rendition in Rio de Janeiro, and a whopping 58% drop compared with the 2012 Summer Games in London. Many factors are likely to blame: The time difference between the U.S. and Japan made for difficult live viewing; the physical venues lacked camera-friendly enthusiasm due to the COVID-19...

The BBC did not broadcast live coverage of transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard’s event at the Tokyo Olympics after it warned that it would report viewers who questioned her right to compete as a woman to “the relevant authorities”. The British broadcaster did not air the women’s weightlifting on Day 10 of the Games live, when the transgender New Zealand athlete crashed out of the 87 kg+ category after failing to record a single valid “snatch” lift, and showed eventing, showjumping and athletics instead. It also did not broadcast US gymnast Simone Biles’ bronze-medal winning routine live on BBC1 this morning...

The International Olympic Committee has cleared a transgender athlete to compete in the upcoming Tokyo games. The IOC ruled Saturday that Laurel Hubbard, 43, who is a biological man, can compete for New Zealand in the women’s weightlifting super-heavyweight category and that her inclusion does not violate the current rules on the books. She is on track to be the first transgender athlete to ever compete in the games. “The rules for qualification have been established by the International Weightlifting Federation before the qualifications started,” IOC boss Thomas Bach said during a new conference Reuters reported. “These rules apply, and...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is loosening its ban on protests and rules against athlete expression for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The IOC's executive board voted to approve guidelines clarifying Rule 50 of the Olympic charter, which prohibits athletes from making any sort of political expression, particularly on medal podiums, in the field of play and at opening and closing ceremonies. Athletes have pushed back on the rule for years and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee took the unprecedented step in December of urging the IOC to "end the prohibition of peaceful demonstrations." The new policy allows athletes...

Athletes who try protesting by kneeling or raising a fist at official Olympic sites will face punitive measures, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this week. The Olympic Charter already says that any kind of demonstration or political, religious, or racial propaganda is barred in any Olympic sites, venues, or other areas. But athletes from America and other countries began kneeling protests in recent years, inspired by sports players in the United States. The IOC Athletes’ Commission examined the matter and found that roughly seven out of 10 athletes of nearly 3,500 polled feel it is not appropriate to demonstrate...

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said the organization has agreed to purchase China’s COVID-19 vaccine to administer to willing participants at the Tokyo Olympics this summer and the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. However, Japan’s athletes won’t be taking the China-made vaccines after the country’s Olympic committee said Japan wasn’t consulted regarding the IOC’s decision. The vaccine isn’t approved for use in Japan. The IOC has said it will pay for Chinese vaccines for the participating teams participating in the Olympic Games but didn’t offer details about the cost or quantity. Bach also said that distribution of China...

To protect human rights and preserve the integrity of the games, the 2022 Olympics should be moved to a location outside of communist China.In less than a year, the 2022 Winter Olympics will begin in Beijing, China. As the world emerges from the global war against a virus and responses to it that cost lives, jobs, and livelihoods, the time is ripe for athletes to come together to celebrate human achievement, perseverance, and grit. The Olympic Charter outlines the Fundamental Principles of Olympism. The first principle clearly states the objective of the games: “Olympism seeks to create a way of...

While ruling out cancelation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said Sunday it will consider delaying the Games and plans to reach a decision within the next four weeks. Sunday’s announcement by IOC president Thomas Bach came as USA Swimming and USA Track and Field have called for delay and several national Olympic committees, including those of Great Britain and Norway, have endorsed postponing the Tokyo Games because of the new coronavirus pandemic. World Athletics, which oversees track and field worldwide, said it “welcomes discussions with the IOC to postpone” from the scheduled July 24 start. Also,...

The sole female Iranian Olympic medalist has defected. Kimia Alizadeh bid farewell and has relocated to Europe. It is reported she has gone to the Netherlands. The bronze medalist in Taekwondo posted her letter of farewell on Instagram just one day after the Iranian government admitted it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet. She wrote in Farsi. “Let me start with a greeting, a farewell or condolences,” the 21-year–old wrote in an Instagram post explaining why she was defecting. “I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years.”“They took...

The former governor said he bought the votes for Rio to get to "the second stage of the vote" and that "no votes were bought after that." Rio was chosen over Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid to host the 2016 Games. Chicago’s bid, considered by most a strong one, was the first to be eliminated, despite the presence of then-U.S. President Barack Obama at the IOC meeting in Copenhagen.

As if the Olympic Games didn’t have enough problems already. Between nations being awarded hosting gigs and not being able to afford the cost of new facilities and alligators trying to eat some of the competitors, you’d think that the IOC might want to take a more mellow approach going forward. But according to one recent report, when the games come to Paris in 2024 you’ll probably be seeing a new event. Breakdancing. Oh, excuse me… we’re not supposed to call it that anymore. It’s just “breaking.” (LA Times) Outsiders might scoff, but the International Olympic Committee has recognized breaking...

To get a feel for the level of craziness of today's world, take a look at sports – women's sports in particular. It is on the cusp of being turned upside-down because of the rise and societal acceptance of the phenomenon known as "transgenderism." "Transitioning from male to female" does not make a man into a woman. In spite of any cosmetic surgery, hormone treatments, affected mannerisms, and so on, the cellular DNA of the body does not change. A man is still a man. As this relates to women athletics, it doesn't take a detective of Nero Wolfe's caliber...

The Marine Corps is on the defensive for a second time this month over changes to its famous Infantry Officer Course (IOC). Military communities were abuzz in early February when officials confirmed that successfully completing the Combat Endurance Test (CET) — the rigorous first stage of IOC — would no longer be a requirement for passing the 13-week course. The Corps answered criticism on Feb. 7, but found itself in the same position this week as new standards for IOC’s training hikes were revealed. The course previously required a Marine to complete nine hikes, of which six would be evaluated...

<p>Well this is certainly dumb. The International Olympic Committee wants two members of the USA Women’s Ice Hockey Team to remove images of the Statue of Liberty from their goalie masks. Why? Apparently it’s a little too political for the IOC, which is the one of the most political (and corrupt) organizations around. This is kind of like Planned Parenthood being upset that someone has an extremist position or the Democratic Party complaining that a group is too full of shit. Oh wait, both of those things happen all the time.</p>

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti acknowledged Saturday that the results of November’s U.S. presidential election could weigh heavily on his city’s chances of hosting the 2024 Olympics, saying that a victory by Donald Trump could turn off IOC voters. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Garcetti also said Los Angeles could offer “the last, best hope” for the United States to host the Summer Olympics again before the American people begin “tuning out” from the games. Garcetti, a 45-year-old Democrat and supporter of Hillary Clinton, is in Brazil to observe the Rio de Janeiro Games and pitch his...

Transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics and other international events without undergoing sex reassignment surgery, according to new guidelines adopted by the IOC. International Olympic Committee medical officials told The Associated Press on Sunday they changed the policy to adapt to current scientific, social and legal attitudes on transgender issues. ...