British Olympic execs will aim to secure an agreement for Team GB men's and women's football teams to "take part in the Tokyo 2020 Games after claiming a golden opportunity for glory was missed in Rio." Team GB was denied a women’s Olympic team "after opposition from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland" -- Sweden, which took Britain's place in the tournament, went on to win the Silver Medal. British Olympic Association CEO Bill Sweeney said, "We are all desperately disappointed that there isn't a football team for Team GB, primarily the women's because they are so strong, had a great season leading up to this, but also on the men's side as well. We'll be having meetings when we get back to try and sort that out with the FA" (LONDON TIMES, 8/22).
DOUBLING DOWN: Over the past three days, the IOC "has recommended sanctions against four Russian track and field athletes, alleging they failed drugs tests carried out in previous Olympics in Beijing and London." Old urine samples "have been retested and, thanks to advances in technology, the IOC says it has caught drugs cheats eight years on." The delayed discovery "highlights the fact that it will be impossible to know how clean the Rio games have been for many years to come." More than 5,000 samples have been taken from athletes in the past two weeks; "only a few have tested positive." With the 2016 competition over, officials "will now double down on efforts" to ensure the Games were clean. IOC Medical Dir Richard Budgett said, "The first priority is to make sure the thousands of tests taken in Rio are transported safely and securely, taken up to [IOC’s headquarters in] Lausanne and stored there. As we've found from the London and Beijing samples, science moves on. Substances we didn't detect ... we can pick up with new techniques" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 8/22).
UK SPORT BRACES FOR RAID: As sports leaders were "celebrating the greatest Olympics for a British team in more than 100 years," they were also bracing themselves for a raid on the best British coaches. UK Sport Head of Coaching Graham Taylor said, "You can take it as read our coaches are being targeted. It happened after London and it will certainly happen again." Taylor said that he did not "know how many coaches had been approached with foreign offers." GB lost two coaches after London, "but given the huge advertisement that Rio has been for British expertise, it could now be more" (LONDON TIMES, 8/22).
OLYMPIC BRIEFS ...
Ethiopia’s state-owned TV network "has refused to broadcast footage of one of its most successful Olympic athletes crossing the finishing line" or receiving his Medal after he staged "a political protest against oppression back home." Feyisa Lilesa won Silver in the men’s marathon on the last day of events in Rio, making him Ethiopia’s joint second most successful performer after the country won just one Gold in a "disappointing campaign." As he crossed the line on Sunday he raised his arms to form an "X," a "symbol of defiance that has been used by the Oromo people in Ethiopia as part of political protests against the government." Lilesa "repeated the act in a press conference after the race, and said he would repeat it at the medal ceremony." He told reporters he faced "being killed for doing so if he returns home after the Games" (London INDEPENDENT, 8/22).
After days of "being cast as the root cause of an underwhelming Olympics," Swimming Australia has "fired back" with senior coach Michael Bohl dismissing reports of "internal strife and backing senior management figures." Bohl, the Brisbane-based mentor and one of the "most widely respected figures in Australian swimming," was compelled to speak out after "reports of a bust-up with head coach Jacco Verhaeren regarding relay selections." He also responded to calls for SA President John Bertrand to step down and said the Dolphins "would undoubtedly learn from their Rio experience and tweak their final steps" toward Tokyo in four years. Bohl: "Nothing happened there at all. There's always discussion around relays. I was working with the 4x100m medley girls team and there was no bust-up at all" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 8/22).
Fiji's rugby sevens team received "a heroes reception" upon its return home after claiming the nation's first ever Olympic Medal. Parts of the country "came to a standstill" as Ben Ryan's side touched down in its homeland after "pummeling Team GB 43-7" in the Gold Medal match. Thousands lined the streets of Nadi "to welcome home the men who delivered Olympic glory for the very first time." The team rolled in to Prince Charles Park, where it was introduced to the crowd of 18,000 as "the greatest rugby sevens team in the world." The party was scheduled to "roll into" Monday after PM Frank Bainimarama declared Monday a national holiday (WALES ONLINE, 8/22).
