Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Olympics

Olympic Notes: Australian Women's Rugby President Calls For National Holiday

Australian Women's Rugby President Josephine Sukkar has called on PM Malcolm Turnbull to declare a national holiday in recognition of Australia's "historic" Gold Medal in Rio. And Sukkar "has urged corp­orate Australia to support women's rugby: not just the victorious ­sevens team, but the national 15-a-side Wallaroos as well." Sukkar and her husband, Tony, own construction company Buildcorp, which is a "major sponsor of women’s rugby in Australia." Sukkar: "A great day. Surely Malcolm Turnbull should be declaring this a national holiday. ... I really hope that corporate Australia will see what we have seen and genuinely get behind women’s rugby in this country. ... With very little investment in women's rugby, you get an enormous return. I think these girls are evidence of that" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/10).

COOKSON SPEAKS OUT: Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) President Brian Cookson said that rider "misjudgments," not Rio's "scenic" Olympic road race course, "were responsible for a series of bone-crunching crashes over the weekend." Only "63 of the 144 men who started the men's 237.5km road race finished." But Cookson said that riders "had to take responsibility." Cookson: "We will have a look at things and do a review, but a large number of riders managed to go down those hills without crashing so maybe some people took too many risks. Every rider has to make judgments and sometimes they get it wrong." Cookson said that the Rio road course, "starting and finishing on the Copacabana beach, and taking in loops of Rio's spectacularly hilly coastline," had provided the backdrop for "arguably the best Olympic road races ever seen" (REUTERS, 8/8).

FLAG FIASCOFaulty Chinese national flags "were raised again on the third day of the Rio Games," as a new batch was still being manufactured with Olympics organizers "insisting it was not their mistake because the Chinese delegation approved the flags." A Rio Olympic Committee spokesperson said, "New flags are being manufactured and will be sent here as soon as possible." The spokesperson said, "We are taking necessary actions to solve the problems." The flag has "a printing fault with the four smaller stars all positioned horizontally rather than circling around and pointing to the larger star" (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 8/9).

MEDALIST REFUSED TEST: The Int'l Judo Federation said on Monday that Kosovo's judo Gold Medalist Majlinda Kelmendi had "refused to take an unscheduled drug test in France" ahead of the Rio Games but that the procedure looked "questionable" and any sanction given "would not be applied outside France." Just the previous day, Kelmendi "made history at the Rio Games by becoming the first athlete from Kosovo to win an Olympic medal." Kosovo Judo Federation President Agron Kuka confirmed that Kelmendi "had refused the drugs test but was clean." The London Guardian reported Kuka said, "The team was in the training camp in France and some person came and asked to do the doping control. But the person involved, she didn't have any authorization from WADA or anyone. And that's the end of the story" (REUTERS, 8/9).

BRITISH ATHLETES WARNEDBritish athletes "have been warned against voicing any criticisms" of Rio 2016 for fear it could come across as "arrogant." British Olympic Association Vice-Chair Hugh Robertson said that "talking down Rio's hosting of the event may be perceived as an attempt to blow London's trumpet, after the English capital hosted a hugely successful Games four years ago." Robertson: "It's enormously annoying when you get involved in some of the things that have been going on but it is really important for us that we don't come here and stick too many pins into it, particularly the local organizing committee, because the suspicion will be that we are just doing this to big up London" (OMNISPORT, 8/9).

OLYMPIC BRIEFS ...
Dutch gymnast Yuri van Gelder "has been sent home from the Olympics after drinking alcohol on a night out in Rio." Having qualified for the finals of the rings event on Saturday, Van Gelder "spent the night celebrating and returned in the early hours of Sunday." The Dutch team said that he "violated rules concerning alcohol consumption and leaving the team base" (BBC, 8/9).

The editor of an Italian sports newspaper "has been fired" for publishing a headline calling three female athletes competing in archery at the Rio Olympics "the chubby trio," or "il trio cicciottelle" in Italian. Giuseppe Tassi, who edited Quotidiano Sportivo, was dismissed "with immediate effect" after running the headline in the wake of the three Italian athletes -- Guendalina Sartori, Lucilla Boari and Claudia Mandia -- "narrowly missing a bronze medal at the Games on Monday" (THE LOCAL, 8/9).

The Indonesian Weightlifting Federation "will give a house to each lifter who wins a medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games." Indonesian weightlifters have so far won two Silver Medals: Sri Wahyuni in the women's 48kg and Eko Yuli Irawan in the men's 62kg category. Each of them will receive a house as a bonus, IWF Chair Rosan Roeslani said (JAKARTA GLOBE, 8/9).

BT and London Sport will jointly host Sport 2.0 -- an exclusive event at the British House in Rio on Wednesday. 100% Sport, a global campaign supported by BT to inspire a more sustainable and environmentally aware world, will be featured throughout an afternoon of debate (BT).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2016/08/10/Olympics/Notes.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2016/08/10/Olympics/Notes.aspx

CLOSE