Sports > What about Track & Field
2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo Thread.
Flex:
BOLDON OFFERS SPRINT RELAY TEAMS HIS HELP IN OUR MEDALS QUEST FOR TOKYO 2020🇯🇵
SporTT
Four-time Trinidad and Tobago Olympic medallist now sports broadcaster Ato Boldon said he believes T&T can improve significantly in the 4x100 meter women’s relays for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo next year and is offering to help.
During an interview with Andre Baptiste on the ISports programme on I95.5 FM on Saturday, he pointed out that he had experience working with the coaching team in 2015 when the women won bronze in Beijing.
Boldon said they remain the tenth-ranked team in the world and offered his US-based facility and time to help prepare the team for next year.
“As I have said before and will say now, there are two athletes (Kelly-Ann Baptiste and Semoy Hackett) and three if we include Khalifa St. Fort, who all live in the same state, all the NAAA has to do is arrange for Michelle to fly over from her base and bring across the athletes from Trinidad and Tobago and we can use my facility here in Florida, it can be done,” Boldon said.
E-man:
Athletes completing bans get unexpected chance at Olympics
By KEN MAGUIRE
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Athletes completing doping bans over the next year will be eligible to compete in the postponed Tokyo Olympics, an unintended effect of the coronavirus pandemic that has some crying foul.
Turkish runner Gamze Bulut, for example, will now have plenty of time to qualify for a games she likely would have missed had they gone ahead as scheduled.
“It doesn’t seem like a fair punishment,” Irish race walker Brendan Boyce told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “They haven’t really missed the events they were supposed to miss.”
The 2020 Olympics were officially postponed last month for one year, with the opening ceremony now set for July 23, 2021.
Bulut originally won silver in the 1,500 meters at the 2012 London Olympics but was stripped of her medal because of irregularities in her biological passport, which monitors an athlete’s blood profile. She was given a four-year ban that began in 2016 and expires on May 29 — giving her an unexpected full year to qualify for Tokyo.
“I’m trying my best to (attend) the Olympics,” the 27-year-old runner said. “I hope I can join.”
The Athletics Integrity Unit estimates that about 40 of the 200 or so banned track and field athletes who stand to gain from the Olympic postponement are international-level competitors. The AIU maintains a global list of track athletes banned for doping violations.
More than 11,000 athletes are expected to compete in 33 sports in Tokyo, with about 2,000 of them in track and field.
Boyce, a two-time Olympian who has qualified for Tokyo, said restrictions on the number of competitors could make it harder for clean athletes to earn places.
“I wouldn’t be too happy now if I lost an Olympic spot because of an anomaly like what’s going on at the minute,” Boyce said.
The Irishman protested on social media but stopped short of filing any formal complaints. British long-distance runner and Tokyo hopeful Lily Partridge agreed.
“I don’t believe in second chances with regards to serious doping offenses unless you provide serious assistance to anti-doping authorities and even then I don’t believe you should have the privilege of being able to compete and earn money from the sport,” Partridge told the AP.
However, World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka said the unforeseen health crisis doesn’t mean authorities can “cherry-pick” when athletes have completed their bans.
“While an athlete cannot choose when he or she would like to be ineligible, an (anti-doping organization) cannot either,” Banka said. “This is entirely consistent with principles of natural justice and other areas of the law as it relates to sports or even criminal activity. When an offender has done the time, the sentence is considered to be served.”
Sebastian Coe, the Olympic great who is now president of World Athletics, was less definitive in comments shortly after the games were postponed.
“This is something we will need to look at,” Coe said. “I know it’s something the Athletics Integrity Unit, and I’m sure all the other agencies out there in concert with our sports, will need to think about, and that will just be another issue in an overflowing inbox at the moment.”
Athletes who have already qualified for Tokyo have been assured that they’ll keep their spots as future qualification decisions unfold.
Among notable athletes due to come off doping bans are Polish weightlifter Tomasz Zielinski and Irish boxer Michael O’Reilly. Neither returned messages seeking comment.
Boyce, the race walker, said it would be difficult for an Irish athlete to compete after a doping ban.
“Having a doping ban in Ireland is much more than serving time away from your sport,” he said. “It’s really crippling for your life because you’re basically seen as a criminal. It’s a form of fraud. In other countries, you see some athletes who are on doping bans just training normally and they’re just waiting to come back and nobody in that country seems to be too bothered.”
Deeks:
Aye, what happening? Oh Gorm, post something insignificant, nah. Let we keep the thread alive. Ato !!!!! Whey You?
asylumseeker:
Alright, Deeks ... there was a good chat with Ato, Brian Lewis and Andre on 95 a few days ago. It was sort of personally interesting to me because that very day I had messaged an acquaintance in Japan and given the time difference the response was incoming just as Ato and Brian were speaking about the Olympics. My Japanese acquaintance is not down with the Olympics happening (purely from a public health perspective). There is a crisis of confidence in the authorities.
It is unfortunate because here is a country that hosted a Confederations Cup, a WC and other mega sporting events, has an aging population and applicable infrastructure. The problem however may lie in how decisions are made and some cultural norms that are involved in negotiating across bureaucracies. Japan is a fairly bureaucratic place in which public expressions on issues do not necessarily match private sentiment. There is a process for public expressions to become aligned with private sentiment. While that is happening, COVID isn't on pause. Right now the J-league is resisting going back to closed door football.
In a sense the stereotypical expectation is that Japan being an advanced nation would have been at the forefront of treating with the virus ... especially in preparation for an event they've been planning for for years ... However, Japanese political institutions have been fractured for a minute and it appears that treating with the virus has exploited the ruptures and exposed where its hardwiring is vulnerable. Ato made a point about Japan never being at the bottom of any indicators, yet it is at the base of let's say G-20 nations in dealing with the virus.
Culturally, it will be real hard for the Japanese establishment to eat begging out of the Olympics and in terms of the internal politics.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/podcast/tokyo-olympics-coronavirus-explainer/
A.B.:
It's too late to turn around now. They are happening. I expect them to be very weird but they are happening.
Japan dropped the ball on the vaccination rollout, and it may be politically fatal for those in power to have not vaccinated and then allowed the Olympics to occur as well.
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