Olympic Heavyweights Attend Wimbledon
Olympic organizers and IOC members are out in full force this week as the Wimbledon tennis championships wind down.
London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton, British IOC member Craig Reedie and Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman were spotted in the royal box on center court Wednesday for Roger Federer’s quarterfinal matchup against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, according to a tweet from The London Guardian.
IOC president Jacques Rogge, a regular at Wimbledon, will not be attending this year’s tournament, Around the Rings is told.
Wimbledon is serving as LOCOG’s official test event for next year’s Olympic tennis tournament, hence the British turnout.The presence of Nuzman, also an IOC member from Brazil, comes less than two weeks after he was hospitalized in Rio de Janeiro for an irregular heartbeat. He returned to work days later.
International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci Bitti, an IOC member from Italy, is also attending the championships.
Of course, organizers and IOC members aren’t the only Olympic heavyweights hanging around All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club this week. Six of the remaining eight men’s players are Olympians, including Beijing singles champion Rafael Nadal and doubles gold medalist Federer.
Two of the four players remaining in the women’s singles draw are also Olympians – Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.
Norwegian Olympic President
The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) has a new president.
Børre Rognlien succeeds Tove Paule, in charge since 2007. On June 25’s elections for the NIF executive committee, he was elected for a four-year term.
Rognlien was second vice-president in the previous board, and is a politician and speed skating administrator.
In the new-look executive, the vice-presidents are Jorodd Asphjell and Kristin Kloster Aasen.
Kalmadi Still in Jail
Ex-Commonwealth Games chief Suresh Kalmadi remains in a New Delhi jail awaiting trial on several counts of corruption.
Kalmadi was ousted from the organizing committee in January, then sacked as president of the Indian Olympic Association on April 26, a day after he first entered police custody.
Central Bureau of Intelligence agents arrested the former organizing committee president Monday over a $33 million timekeeping contract suspiciously awarded to a Swiss bidder ahead of Delhi 2010.
Crane Driver Dies on Olympics Site
London 2012 organizers are aiding investigations into the death of a crane drive at the Olympic Village site - the first known fatality during Games construction work.
A man in his 60s was found dead in the exit stairwell from his crane on Tuesday. The death is believed to be from natural causes, not accidental.
"The sympathies of everyone at the ODA and its contractors are with this individual’s family and friends at this very difficult time." said a spokeswoman for the Olympic Delivery Authority
Written by Matthew Grayson and Mark Bisson
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