Olympic Notes: Refugee Athletes Can Compete At Rio Under Olympic Flag

IOC President Thomas Bach said on Monday at the United Nations General Assembly that top refugee athletes with no home country to represent "will be allowed to compete at the 2016 Rio Games." A resolution, which was supported by 180 out of the 193 U.N. member states, "calls for the Olympic Truce to be respected from seven days before the start of the Aug. 5-21 Olympic Games until seven days after the Sept. 7-18 Paralympic Games" (REUTERS, 10/26). ... For the second time in five years, Kuwait "was suspended by the IOC for political interference on Tuesday, leaving the Gulf country's athletes in limbo for next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro." The IOC exec board said that Kuwait's national Olympic committee was suspended in order to "protect the Olympic Movement in Kuwait from undue government interference" (AP, 10/27).