Free Republic

Iran could face action over no-show at swimming Aug 10, 2008 BEIJING (AFP) - Iran could face action from the IOC if it deliberately pulled out of the Olympic men's 100m breaststroke heats because an Israeli was also racing, Olympic officials said Sunday. Iranian swimmer Mohammad Alirezaei's lane one was empty when the field left the starting blocks on Saturday as Israel's Tom Beeri, starting in lane seven, finished fourth. International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies said she was unaware of the facts, but reiterated IOC policy. "I wouldn't specifically comment on this incident," she said. "Under the spirit of...

The drug chief of the International Olympic Committee accused Russia of systematically doping its athletes on Tuesday, the same day that three of the country's race walkers, two of them Olympians, were nabbed for steroid use and less than a week after seven prominent female were caught in an elaborate doping and test-rigging scheme. In an interview with AFP, Arne Ljungqvist, who is also a vice-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), expressed his disappointment and disbelief at what has transpired with the Russian team.

IOC president: "Historic" Beijing Games to advance Olympic goals www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-04 23:01:55 BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Games will be a "historic" one and will significantly advance the Olympic goals of universality and fair play, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said here on Monday. "We are now just days away from what I believe will be a historic Olympic Games," Rogge said at the opening ceremony of the 120th IOC session, held in the National Center for the Performing Arts in central Beijing. The Beijing Games are already a "landmark event for the Olympic Movement," he...

While I wish I could feel sorry for Gosper, there is just one problem. Every time he opens his mouth, he seems to be defending or at least speaking for the Chinese government. Yesterday, for example, in response to criticism about the Internet censorship he said "that we are not working in a democratic society, we’re working in a communist society." He continued by stating that "this is China, and they are proud to be a communist society." Really? Did the IOC not know that China was a proud "communist society" when it bestowed the Olympics upon Beijing eight years...

If it was not already, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is now officially an accomplice to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and all of the Chinese government’s attempts to censor free speech and block personal freedoms in China. According to a report from Reuter’s on Wednesday, “some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday.” Cut a deal? There was no deal. The IOC ‘rolled over and played dead’ just like it has been doing since it bestowed the Olympics upon Beijing 8...

BEIJING: The Chinese government confirmed Wednesday what journalists arriving at the lavishly outfitted media center here had suspected: Contrary to previous assurances by Olympic and government officials, the Internet would be censored during the upcoming games. Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages - politically sensitive ones that discuss Tibetan succession, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown of the protests in Tiananmen Square and the sites of Amnesty International, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse. On Wednesday - two weeks after its...

BEIJING (AFP) - The Beijing Olympics were plunged into another controversy on Wednesday as China announced a backflip on Internet freedoms for the thousands of foreign reporters covering the Games. China's decision to reverse a pledge on allowing unfettered web access proved an embarrassment for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had repeatedly said foreign press would not face any Internet curbs in Beijing. It was also the latest in a long line of issues to have tarnished the run-up to the Olympics, which start on August 8, following controversies over pollution, human rights and terrorism threats. Beijing Olympic organising...

BAGHDAD, July 29 -- Two Iraqi athletes will be allowed to participate in the Beijing Olympics after a last-minute pledge by the Iraqi government Tuesday not to interfere politically in the country's Olympic movement. The agreement reversed a decision last week by the International Olympic Committee to ban Iraq from competing because of allegations that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had compromised the independence of the national Olympic committee. The government dissolved the panel in May and replaced it with a new group headed by a cabinet minister. But after negotiations between Iraqi officials and the international committee at its headquarters...

Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday... China had committed to providing media with the same freedom to report on the Games as they enjoyed at previous Olympics, but journalists have this week complained of finding access to sites deemed sensitive to its communist leadership blocked. "I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on Web site access during Games time," IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said, referring to Beijing's Olympic organizers. "I also now...

ATHLETES from Iraq have been banned from taking part in this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced. The team was already the subject of an interim ban after the Iraqi Government replaced the country's Olympic committee with its own appointees. Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence. As a result, the team of two rowers, two sprinters, one archer, one weightlifter and one judo competitor cannot attend the Games. "We sent a letter to the Iraqi Government today saying that as the situation stands, today it is unlikely to have Iraqi...

Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics Seven Iraqi athletes from five different sports qualified for the Olympics Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The International Olympic Committee has banned Iraq from competing in the upcoming Summer Olympics games because of what it says is political interference by the government in sports. An Iraqi Olympic Committee official said the IOC sent letters in Arabic and English confirming the ban. The official said the seven Iraqi athletes who were to travel to China for the games in August are disappointed by the decision

Chicago 2016 and U.S. Olympic Committee officials have one more reason to root for Barack Obama's election as president. The IOC apparently doesn't much care for McCain. Nearly all IOC remembers bitterly recall that McCain chaired Senate Commerce Committee hearings on the IOC's operations in the aftermath of the bid-city bribery scandal that erupted at the end of 1998.

BEIJING - Construction will halt, heavy industries will close, and even spray painting will stop in order to clean Beijing's polluted air for the Olympics — an issue that suddenly has taken a back seat to political protests. An aggressive plan to temporarily shutter belching steel and chemical plants, cut back emissions by 30 percent at 19 heavy-polluting companies and stop excavation and pouring of concrete at hundreds of sites around the city was explained Monday by the city's Environmental Protection Bureau. "From the suggestions of experts we think that we need to take these measures to guarantee the air...

BEIJING - The International Olympic Committee will not intervene to pressure China on Tibet or other political issues in the countdown to the Beijing Games. IOC president Jacques Rogge reiterated that stance Friday, saying it was not up to the Olympic body to get involved in the host country's political affairs. "This is the line we do not have to cross," he said at the close of a two-day IOC executive board meeting in the Chinese capital. China's recent crackdown in Tibet has fueled protests that have disrupted the global torch relay for the Beijing Games. Rogge has expressed hope...

Athletes who display Tibetan flags at Olympic venues — including in their own rooms — could be expelled from this summer’s Games in Beijing under anti-propaganda rules. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that competitors were free to express their political views but faced sanctions if they indulged in propaganda. He accompanied those comments with an admission that the Games were in “crisis” after pro-Tibet protests engulfed the Olympic torch relay. Mr Rogge’s call for Beijing to abide by its promise to address human rights was given short shrift by Beijing, which bluntly told him...

BEIJING - Crisis. Disarray. Sadness. Four months before the opening of what was supposed to be the grandest Olympics in history, the head of the International Olympic Committee is using words that convey anything but a sense of joyous enthusiasm. The protest-marred Olympic torch relay and international criticism of China's policies on Tibet, Darfur and human rights have turned the Beijing Games into one of the most politically charged in recent history and presented the IOC with one of its toughest tests since the boycott era of the 1970s and '80s. "It is a crisis, there is no doubt about...

BEIJING (AFP) - China bluntly told the world Olympics chief Thursday to keep out of politics, in a tart exchange on human rights following days of protests that have shadowed the Olympic torch around the world. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the Games were in "crisis" following the demonstrations, and urged China to respect its pledge to improve its rights record before the event begins in August. China fired back that Rogge should keep politics out of the Olympics, which Beijing hoped would showcase its much-touted "peaceful rise" to power -- but which have instead become a public...

April 8, 2008 IOC may scrap Olympic torch relay over protests Jenny Booth, and Chris Ayres in Los Angeles The International Olympic Committee may scrap the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay as a result of the protests over China’s military crackdown in Tibet. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, says the organisation’s executive board will meet on Friday to debate whether to allow the torch to continue its 85,000-mile, 21-country journey. Mr Rogge said this morning that he was “deeply saddened" by the violent protests in London and Paris, and concerned about tomorrow's torch relay in San Francisco....

The Internet must be open during the Beijing Olympics. That was the message a top-ranking International Olympic Committee official delivered Tuesday to Beijing organizers during the first of three days of meetings — the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the Chinese hosts before the games begin in just over four months.