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Olympic Notes: London Has Not Confirmed Victory Parade For Olympic Heroes

Pressure is building for Britain’s "record-breaking Olympic heroes to be given a parade through central London to honour their achievements in Rio de Janeiro." A parade has been held after every summer Olympics and Paralympics since '04 "but there are no plans for one to be held at present despite it being the most successful Games outside of Britain in terms of medals." Team GB has "already smashed through their target of 48 medals, including 19 golds, and could even overtake the 65 their athletes won at the London 2012 Games." In terms of a parade, the resources needed to stage a parade "in terms of security, policing and disruption to traffic are significant and talks are taking place to find out whether such an event would be feasible." A spokesperson for London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that "a similar event had not yet been ruled in or out" (LONDON TIMES, 8/18).

AUSTRALIAN LOTTERY: Australia's "only hopes of an increase in Olympic funding before Tokyo 2020 lie in a national lottery scheme being aggressively pushed by the Australian Sports Commission." The nation’s Olympic team "looks set to fall well short of the ASC’s ambitious target for a top-five finish in the Rio medal tally." ASC Chair John Wylie said that with the Federal Government "unwilling to spend more on sport, alternate revenue streams will need to be found." Wylie: "More funding will be needed and we have to think about where that funding will come from, so we want to look at a sports lottery. We are going to look at it very, very seriously" (HERALD SUN, 8/18).

GAMES ON BEIN: The IOC and beIN Media Group have signed an exclusive Middle East and North Africa media rights deal for the next four Olympic Games. The agreement is for all media rights to the next four Olympic Games, both summer and winter, starting with the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang (beIN Sports). 

ATHLETES' COMMISSION: Britta Heidemann from Germany (fencing), Seug-min Ryu from Korea (table tennis), Daniel Gyurta from Hungary (swimming) and Yelena Isinbayeva from the Russian Federation (athletics) have been elected to the IOC Athletes' Commision by their peers at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 for a term of eight years (IOC). 

TEAM GB STICK-UP: A member of the British Olympic team in Rio has been "held up while enjoying a night on the town." The news has "caused deep shock among British athletes and officials -- many of whom were looking forward to enjoying Rio’s nightlife after finishing their competitions." It has also "led to an unprecedented warning" to Team GB members that it is “not worth the risk” to leave the athletes village because of "fears they might be targeted if they are seen wearing a British kit." Details at this stage "are sketchy but news of the incident, which happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning, spread quickly among athletes in Rio." The person in question "was in shock but was not seriously hurt" (London GUARDIAN, 8/17).

OLYMPIC BRIEFS ...
The Mexican Olympic Committee (COM) took to Twitter to accuse the Mexican National Commission for Physical Culture & Sport (CONADE) of "putting Mexican athletes' participation in the Olympics at risk." In a series of posts from its @COM_Mexico account, the COM "mentioned actions by CONADE that violate Olympic Charter rules" (LA AFICIÓN, 8/17).

Four days before the conclusion of the Rio Olympics, "the competition for TV ratings in Mexico City has shifted toward free-TV, while ESPN has dominated the pay-TV channels." According to HR Ratings, 72% of viewers in the Valley of Mexico "have accessed the Games on free channels, while only 28% are following the event on pay-TV." Among pay-TV viewers, ESPN is the leader, with 13% tuning into the U.S.-based broadcaster. In Mexico City, the most-watched event to this point was the football match between Mexico and Fiji, which attracted 1.7 million viewers (LA AFICIÓN, 8/17).

Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova believes the IOC will "bar her from competing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, having already blocked her attempt to compete in Rio." She said, "After these games in Rio, the path to the Olympics will be blocked for me. The IOC has led me to believe that I will not be allowed (to compete)" (AFP, 8/17).

A TV sports reporter is in a coma with malaria in a Rio hospital "following a 3,000-mile charity cycle ride." Charlie Webster, 33, who has worked for Sky and ITV, "became unwell after watching the Olympic opening ceremony." Sky said that Webster's agent had "confirmed that she was on life support with a rare strain of the disease." She was admitted to the hospital "the day after the Olympics opening ceremony after her condition deteriorated" (BBC, 8/18).

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