Thomas Bach

What might have been, and a warning for what IOC presidential voting needs to be

What might have been, and a warning for what IOC presidential voting needs to be

COSTA NAVARINO, Greece – Before Thursday’s vote here for the next president of the International Olympic Committee, it’s worth taking a moment to think about what might have been.

And how one of the most shocking deaths in the Olympic scene reverberates, still – with a warning for what is to come in arguably the most consequential IOC presidential election, ever.

It was the summer of 2018, and on the outdoor patio of the Royal Savoy hotel in Lausanne, Patrick Baumann and a few others were enjoying cigars and libations. 

Three months later, he was gone — dead of a heart attack at the Buenos Aires Youth Games.

IOC Empire threatens World Olympians with Death Star - hardy band bucks control

IOC Empire threatens World Olympians with Death Star - hardy band bucks control

Most everyone knows there are nine movies in the core Star Wars canon. Then there is the 2016 prequel Rogue One, arguably the best in the anthology. It’s about a band at the outskirts of the galaxy in confrontation with the Empire. 

This brings us to the situation involving the World Olympians Association and the International Olympic Committee. 

Nominally, this situation would appear to be about money. There is a compelling argument, however, that it marks a set piece about the state of the IOC under the presidency of Thomas Bach even as it points to urgent consideration of a different direction the IOC might well consider under a new president — he or she will be elected in March.

UN expert on violence against women and girls takes shot at IOC over women's boxing

UN expert on violence against women and girls takes shot at IOC over women's boxing

The International Olympic Committee under president Thomas Bach has sought to work closely with the United Nations. Particularly when it comes to the rights and roles of women and girls. 

So it was all the more noteworthy that the UN’s “Special Rapporteur” for, among other matters, women in sports took a plain shot Tuesday at the IOC for the controversy that erupted at the Paris Games in women’s boxing.

Here we go: back to LA, the one place a Summer Olympics should always be in the United States

Here we go: back to LA, the one place a Summer Olympics should always be in the United States

News alert: the Games famously were in LA in 1932 and 1984 and will be back in 2028. If you think Paris was the best ever, and it’s right up there with London, with the proviso that all Games have backstage glitches, and on TV you lived none of that, none of the Olympic Village food drama, the COVID cases or, anywhere, the signage that would send you on trips to nowhere — LA formally now has next.

To be clear, the bar is set high, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach calling these Games, which came Sunday to a close, a “love story.”

Thomas Bach pulls a George Washington -- he is not IOC king after all but president

Thomas Bach pulls a George Washington -- he is not IOC king after all but president

PARIS – As most everyone knows, George Washington is the first president of the United States of America.

One of the stories American schoolkids learn about Washington is how he decided to stop being president at the end of his second four-year term. The new country had broken away from Britain. There they had a king. The king is king until he dies. In this new country, Washington said, things were going to be different.

In 21st century jargon, we would call what Washington did an expression of best practices and world-class governance.

Speaking Saturday before the fuil membership of the International Olympic Committee, president Thomas Bach, nearing the end of his second term, pulled a George Washington. He said he would step down next year, at the end of his mandated 12 years.

Algeria's Imane Khelif wins gold. Will this worldwide controversy spark constructive change?

Algeria's Imane Khelif wins gold. Will this worldwide controversy spark constructive change?

PARIS – In a unanimous decision, Algeria’s Imane Khelif defeated China’s Liu Yang Friday night at Roland Garros Stadium to win women’s Olympic under-66 kilogram boxing gold, a seemingly inevitable turn in the controversy that has shaken the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The issue is not, as IOC president Thomas Bach sought to depict it Friday – who is a woman?

Rather, it’s what rules does a sport seek to apply in deciding who gets to compete in the women’s category?

Those are two different things.

IBA letter to IOC, June 2023: Boxer's 'DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes'

IBA letter to IOC, June 2023: Boxer's 'DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes'

PARIS – The athlete who has ignited a worldwide controversy in Olympic women’s boxing was disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Assn. world championships in New Delhi after two tests, one in India amid that tournament and a prior test in Turkey in May 2022, “concluded the boxer’s DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes,” according to correspondence the IBA sent in June 2023 – more than a year ago – to the International Olympic Committee.

The June 5, 2023, letter, spotlighting Algeria’s Imane Khelif, reads, “This situation epitomizes the importance of protecting safe sport, and the integrity of sport in which the Olympic Movement is jointly committed to.”

3 Wire Sports has seen the letter and the tests.

What does it mean to 'win'? Racked by civil war, team from Yemen says, 'We believe in love and solidarity and humanity'

What does it mean to 'win'? Racked by civil war, team from Yemen says, 'We believe in love and solidarity and humanity'

The national Olympic committee of Yemen's annual budget is about $370,000, all of which comes from outside the country, mostly from the International Olympic Committee. That money supports 16 sports and feeds a staff of 21. Each lives on roughly $200 per month. There is no government funding. “They don’t have the budget anymore,” the secretary general of the Olympic committee, Mohammed Al-Ahjeri, 66, said here Tuesday.

This, though, is not a story about pity for Yemen. Far from it.

This is a story about the true meaning of the Olympics.

What it means, ultimately, to “win.”

Plus ça change: IOC love fest (not) for USA as SLC wins for 2034

PARIS – Here in France they have a saying for the thing that transpired as Salt Lake City won the right to the 2034 Winter Games, delivered amid an International Olympic Committee thrashing of the IOC’s favorite dog to beat, the United States of America.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The more things change, Uncle Sam, the more they stay the same.

The IOC gave Salt Lake 2034 because it had to. It needs American money. The U.S. television rights deal expires in 2032.