(ATR) With five months until the Rio Games, Brazil’s trouble-plagued preparations will dominate discussions at this week’s IOC Executive Board.
As Rio organizers slash costs across the Olympic project against the backdrop of Brazil’s economic slump, the IOC will demand assurances from 2016 officials about the impact on federations, NOCs, athletes and spectators.
Venue construction delays at the velodrome and aquatics center, combined with ongoing concerns about the sewage-infested waters at the sailing venue Guanabara Bay, slow ticket sales and the spread of the Zika virus are among the IOC’s top concerns.
Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman is scheduled to update the IOC on Wednesday. Nawal El Moutawakel, the IOC’s watchdog chief for Rio 2016, will also spell out the list of items requiring close attention in her report.
Organizers of the next three Olympics in PyeongChang, Tokyo and Beijing also update the IOC board tomorrow.
On Tuesday, the summer and winter federations’ bodies reported to the IOC’s rule-making body. WADA president Craig Reedie updated his colleagues on the progress of Russia’s efforts to achieve compliance with the anti-doping code as it bids to regain its IAAF membership.
The IAAF Council could make a decision on whether to readmit Russia at its meeting in Monaco next week. Russia was suspended in November following revelations of state-sponsored doping in the report of WADA Independent Commission chair Richard Pound.
Kenya’s doping crisis along with fresh problems for Ethiopia are also set to be discussed.
Reedie said Tuesday that Kenya has set aside funding and legislation for an anti-doping agency but must deliver by April 5 or could be declared non-compliant, according to Reuters. If it is, its track and field athletes may have to sit out the Rio Olympics. Around 40 Kenyan athletes have been banned for doping offenses in the past three years.
The IOC will also be closely monitoring developments in Ethiopia after the country’s anti-doping agency told the Associated Press on Monday that nine of its runners, including five top athletes, are under investigation for doping.
President Thomas Bach holds a press conference Thursday to wrap up the IOC meeting.
The EB meeting is taking place at the Palace Hotel for the first time since the committee’s headquarters in Vidy closed in December to make way for the four-year build of the $160 million Olympic House. IOC staff are now working at temporary office space in the Lausanne suburb of Pully, about 5km east along Lake Geneva.
Reported by Mark Bisson
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
