Olympics
AT LAST, WADA TEAM GAINS ACCESS TO RUSSIA ANTI-DOPING LABORATORY
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed their three-person team has started work to retrieve crucial data from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) Laboratory in Moscow and have reported “no issues” so far.
In a statement sent to insidethegames the global anti-doping body confirmed their team have successfully gained access to the facility in the Russian capital and have begun retrieving data from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).
WADA had initially hoped to take control of the LIMS before a December 31 deadline, on the assumption it will help catch more cheats.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, Russia’s Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov has said several Russian officials are also working alongside WADA in the lab.
“WADA experts arrived yesterday and today they have started their work jointly with a group of Russian experts,” he said.
“Representatives of the Russian Investigative Committee and of the laboratory are also participating in this process.
“They have started work on the installation of the equipment and of the data transfer block.
“The work is done under a complete coordination as we have previously discussed all technical and organisational details, which are in full compliance with the criminal procedure code and all WADA procedures.
“The work is in full swing at the moment.”
On their first attempt to retrieve the data last month, WADA’s five-person team was blocked by the Russian authorities who claimed their equipment had not been certified under the country’s law.
Access to the facility before December 31 was a compulsory condition set when the WADA Executive Committee controversially lifted the suspension of RUSADA on September 20 and with the deadline having now elapsed, calls have been made for them to be declared non-compliant again.
A smaller expert team returned to Moscow yesterday as the Kremlin announced an “understanding” had been reached.
WADA have now confirmed their team have gained access to the lab 10 days after the initial deadline, but there are still fears that the data could have been manipulated.
Sir Craig Reedie, the WADA President, has said that if the trip is successful “it will break a long impasse and will potentially lead to many cases being actioned”.
He added, however, that the organisation is still working on the basis that the December 31 deadline was missed and he appeared to suggest RUSADA could still be declared non-compliant even if the data is acquired this time.
WADA are considering “all the consequences” that missing the deadline could bring, he said.
Critics have raised concerns that even if WADA do leave with the LIMS data this time around, it may have been tampered with by the Russian authorities.
“This appears to be the sequel to the cat and mouse game between WADA and Russia that we have unfortunately come to expect,” Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said in a statement.
“We are all holding our breath this is not going to be a whitewash and WADA actually gets the data on the roughly 9,000 presumptive positive test results on over 4,000 Russian athletes that hopefully have not been destroyed.”
Irrespective of the condition of the data, WADA’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC) is set to meet to discuss the situation on Monday and Tuesday (January 14 and 15) in Montreal, after which they will make a recommendation on whether to declare Russia non-compliant once again to WADA’s Executive Committee.
The Executive Committee will then consider the recommendation via a conference call.
There have been widespread calls for the CRC to meet sooner than January 14 and 15, with critics suggesting Russia have been handed a “two-week extension” in which to comply.
Those calls have been dismissed by the CRC’s head Jonathan Taylor, though, who claimed that by following “due process” and giving Russia time to respond there will be less risk of legal challenges.
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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