GO NEW ZEALAND!

 I'm watching the Olympics this week and next week.

I follow the games every four (this time 5) years and have done so since about 1960. The spectacle, the highs, the lows, the athleticism is breathtaking. This year the Tokyo '2020' games are being contested in venues that are largely empty because of Covid-19 restrictions. While there are some great competitions, to me, the overall impact is a bit limp. Sure the pandemic is to blame for a lot of that but, in reality I think that the Olympics have had their dash. 

The emergence of annual World competitions in nearly all of the Olympic events is having quite an effect on the Olympics (and the Commonwealth Games) with the best athletes placing more importance on the annual events. By the time that the Olympics come around most of the world rankings have been sorted.

On top of this is the very poor reputation that the Olympics governing committee (IOC) has. Like the world football (soccer) organisation (FIFA), IOC has been involved in scandal and controversy since ...... well, since forever. See LIST OF OLYMPIC GAMES CONTROVERSIES

You probably won't read that and maybe you are already aware of them but as you can see the scandals are numerous.

One of the latest ones and one that certainly shows up the greed of the IOC is how they have allowed Russia, under the guise of Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to compete at the Tokyo 2020 games even though Russia has been formerly disqualified from competing because of consistent drug cheating.

Russia as a country has been banned from competing at a range of major international sporting events over a state-sponsored doping programme that ran for many years. While we might assume many over the years who have competed in the Olympics have been drug cheats, this was on a different level.

Former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Dick Pound described it as "institutionalised, government-organised cheating on a wide scale across a whole range of sports in a country".

If Russia is banned, then what are Russian athletes doing competing for a Russian team?

The compromise came after WADA's decision was appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which lessened the punishment. Effectively, the CAS decision paved the way for this workaround.

It's not without precedent for athletes from banned countries to still compete. Kuwaiti athletes were involved at Rio 2016 after the Kuwait Olympic Committee was suspended for "government interference" over a piece of legislation passed by the Kuwaiti government.

          - NZ Herald

WADA, CAS and IOC are a pack of bastards. Did you notice the name of WADA's president? Dick Pound! It says it all.

On top of the scandals, greed and dodgy dealings the Olympics seem to be shooting itself in the foot by desperately trying to drum up new interest by including non traditional sports and, in some cases, non-sports into the mix - things like surfing, skateboarding, darts and rock-climbing. What next - tiddlywinks, marbles and bullrush?

If you have time read this: OLYMPICS IN 2040?

In the meantime I'm really pleased that Sevens rugby was introduced at the Rio Olympics particularly as I've just watched New Zealand beat Great Britain to take a place in the finals to go for gold. 

I get a buzz out of hearing the name of the new player Andrew Knewstubb as it sounds like 'Newstuff' when the commentators mention him.

The name of one of the wings, Dylan Collier also amuses me as at 6 foot three and 16 stone he's an aptly named big vessel.