sidelined

The has been a lot of interesting sporting news to come out of the 119th Olympic Session held in Guatemala.

Firstly there was the announcement that Sochi, Russia is the next host city of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today elected Sochi (Russian Federation) as the host city of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014 during its 119th Session in Guatemala City. Sochi beat PyeongChang in the final round of voting by 51 votes to 47.

I’m going to have to look up where Soci is on the map. But good on the Russians. I think we all know who’s going to be topping this medal table.

Continuing with it’s focus on youth the IOC also announced the formation of a Youth Olympics.

The Youth Olympic Games – age group 14 to 18 – will bring together approximately 3,200 athletes and 800 officials for the Summer Games and 1,000 athletes and 580 officials for the Winter Games. The sports programme will encompass all sports on the programme of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the 2012 Summer Games with a limited number of disciplines and events. Proposals from Sports Federations to integrate youth-driven disciplines that are not part of the Olympic Games may be accepted.

This is a good idea, and not just because of the branding exercise it clearly is. It also gives smaller nations the ability to host a slimmed down format of the Games, and a focus on youth is a good idea especially with the growing obesity problem seen in the young in so many wealthy countries.

Important too is a simplified system that allows for an easier path of inclusion into the Games.

The number of core sports has been increased from 15 to 25 from the Games of 2020 onwards. For the 2016 Games of the Olympiad, the 26 core sports from London 2012 will be proposed. The maximum number of sports included in the programme remains capped at 28. In the future, the Session will cast a bloc vote for 25 core summer sports, proposed by the EB. These 25 core sports will need a simple majority to be included in the Olympic programme. If no majority is reached to vote for the core, additional rounds of votes by the Session, determined by the President, will be implemented

A nice political trick that will probably see the death penalty for really stupid sports like Synchronised Swimming and Modern Pentathlon and something that should see a more modern playing list. For example BMX is in the Beijing Games. Skateboarding should be next. The flipside though is that Bowling will probably end up in the Games. So with both Skateboarding and Bowling included in future, the Simpsons men, Bart and Homer could be sharing a room.

Of interest was this report in the Age that talks about the IOC considering allowing athletes to blog.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering allowing athletes to write internet diaries or blogs at next year’s Beijing Olympic Games. A committee set up by Australian Kevan Gosper, who is IOC Press Commission chairman, has recommended blogging be permitted.

They will be so heavily regulated of course, that they will end up as blogs only the athletes grandmothers will ever be interested in reading. Though I’m seeing a nice tie in here for the IOC and News Corp for a comprehensive My Space agreement. With that platform providing all the bandwidth and templates for the athletes. Hmmm.