Five "key events, remarkably including the 200-metre sprint, and the
shot put, are in jeopardy" after the IOC pushed for the athletics program
"to be tightened to allow other sports to be added to the Olympics
schedule," according to Michael Gleeson of THE AGE. The events regarded "most at risk under an athletics
shake-up are, in order: the 10,000 metres, one of the men's race walks -- most likely the 20-kilometre event -- the 200, shot put and triple
jump." Athletics administrator Brian Roe, a senior
int'l technical official at the Olympics and world
championships, said he was at a meeting of "influential thinkers in the
sport when the options were put and those five events were all presented
as the most obvious choices if there were to be changes." The 200 is, "at first blush, a surprise as sprint events are popular but
it is deemed unnecessary or superfluous with the 100 and 400." Swimming
is confronting a "similar push to consolidate the events it stages, with
multiple similar distances in different strokes." The 10,000 is "most vulnerable because it barely features at IAAF track and field events outside the Olympics." The shot put is a traditional event but does not "capture the public's imagination." Discus would remain. Roe said that the triple jump was "considered safer than the other events
because over recent times athletes from six continental areas have done
well" (THE AGE, 12/10). REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann reported potential bidders
for the 2024 Summer Olympics will be "invited for a consultation" with
the IOC as early as next month, with the IOC
looking to "enforce new bidding rules quickly." So far "only Germany has officially announced it would submit a bid with either Berlin or Hamburg." The
U.S. is also "very likely to throw their hat in the ring along
with possible bids from Rome, Istanbul, Doha, Baku, Budapest, Paris and
an African city among others" (REUTERS, 12/10).
