Olympic officials took action on two fronts on Wednesday, ramping up efforts to keep drug cheats out of the upcoming Games in Rio de Janeiro and recommending the inclusion of baseball-softball and four other sports for the 2020 Tokyo event.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board agreed to double its budget for pre-Games drug testing to US$500,000, to target athletes from Russia, Kenya and Mexico, and to extend retesting of stored doping samples to include medal winners from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
“We want to make sure any targeted athletes who have a positive result will be stopped from competing in Rio,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “That is for us the No. 1 priority.”
The board backed the proposed inclusion of baseball-softball, surfing, karate, sport climbing and skateboarding for Tokyo.
Under new IOC rules, local organizers can propose the inclusion of at least one additional sport for their Games.
The five sports, which were proposed for inclusion last year by Tokyo organizers, were presented as a package and they are to go to a vote of the full IOC at its session in Rio in August on the eve of the Games.
“We have successfully passed the first gate,” Tokyo chief organizer Yoshiro Mori said.
The committee also called a summit meeting of sports leaders for June 21 to “coordinate and harmonize” the approach on eligibility of athletes for Rio.
The meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, will come four days after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decides whether to uphold its suspension of Russia’s entire track and field team in time for Rio.
That sanction was imposed in November last year after a report by a World Anti-Doping Agency panel detailed state-sponsored doping, cheating and cover-ups in Russia.
“The discussion will have to address the difficult decision between collective responsibility and individual justice,” the IOC said.
Some officials oppose a blanket ban on all Russian track athletes, or Russia’s entire Olympic team, saying it would punish some athletes who are clean and have never been accused of doping.
Critics say evidence of state-backed doping should be enough to keep the Russians out of Rio.
Calls to bar the Russians have grown since a former Russian drug-testing director alleged that he ran a state-supported doping scheme for Russian athletes and helped switch tainted samples for clean ones at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
Asked whether the June 21 meeting could pave the way for some Russians to compete, even if the IAAF maintains its ban, Adams called it “pure speculation.”
“Let’s wait until the IAAF comes back with a decision before we decide what happens next,” he said. “It’s wrong to speculate on what we may or may not do.”
The IOC said its pre-Rio anti-doping program would put “special focus” on countries whose testing program is non-compliant with global rules, naming Russia, Kenya and Mexico.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB