Britain’s Olympic athletes are being trained "to deal with stalkers and trolls on social media during the Games, including handling obsessed fans, religious extremists and people with suicidal tendencies, it can be revealed." The British Olympic Association has "commissioned Theseus, a security adviser, to give guidance on handling threatening, abusive, unwanted or bizarre messages." The athletes are being "helped by psychology experts who have warned them not to engage with abusers or peculiar messages but to report them to the BOA’s head of security as part of plans to maintain safety and minimise distractions." The advice has been put together by a team of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists working for Theseus’s “fixated risk management” team (LONDON TIMES, 7/21).
PROMOTION CENTER: The organizers of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Thursday said that "they will open a promotional center in Rio de Janeiro." The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games said that it will operate the "PyeongChang 2018 House in Rio" on Copacabana Beach during the Aug. 5-21 Rio Olympics. It will "also be open during the Sept. 7-18 Summer Paralympics" (YONHAP, 7/21).
OLYMPIC BRIEFS ...
China has reportedly "asked Olympic-bound athletes and coaches to sign a pledge not to use banned drugs and pass a written test, as it seeks to enforce its zero-tolerance stance on doping." Gao Zhidan, the vice director of China's General Administration of Sport who will lead China's 711-member delegation, said that rule violators "would be punished severely, and those who failed the written test -- which requires 80 out of 100 points to pass -- would be barred from traveling to Rio de Janeiro" (REUTERS, 7/21).
A petition calling for jousting to be made an Olympic sport "has been launched by English Heritage." The charity's jousting expert Dominic Sewell said that the medieval pursuit was a "worldwide phenomenon that should be recognised." Only about 20 people in the U.K. "joust competitively, but the charity said tournaments were held across the world" (BBC, 7/21).
