Brazil optimistic to win bid to host 2016 Olympics

Brazil optimistic to win bid to host 2016 Olympics

STAFF WRITER 9:34 HRS IST

Rio De Janeiro, Sep 24 (Kyodo) Brazil is optimistic that it will win the race against Japan, Spain and US to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will meet in Copenhagen on Oct 2 to announce the host city for the 2016 Games. Rio De Janeiro, Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago are cities contending to host the prestigious event.

"We are aware that anything can happen on Oct 2, but we are optimistic because we have done our homework well," Rio De Janeiro's mayor Mayor Eduardo Paes told reporters yesterday.

Paes said that IOC gave a positive analysis of Rio de Janeiro's bid report although most local sports commentators feel Tokyo will be the main rival in the race for the Games.

Brace up for glamorous women boxers in the ring

NEW DELHI: In a bid to get women’s boxing included in the 2012 London Olympics, the game’s governing body (AIBA) has decided to ‘sex up’ the sport. Taking a leaf out of beach-volleyball, which moved from T-shirts and long shorts to strictly-bikinis dress-code to beef up TRP ratings, the AIBA has commissioned some leading designers of the world with the job of creating a new dress code for the women boxers.

The AIBA is of the opinion that if it wants to make its ‘‘case stronger’’ in front of International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the upcoming meetings in June and October this year, it will have to present women’s boxing as a ‘‘popular sport".

And to popularise the sport, AIBA has realised it will have to make it ‘‘more attractive and viewer-friendly and not let the female boxers appear more like men in the ring" in order to achieve its end.

India’s MC MaryKom, the four-time women’s World boxing champion, laid out the pros and cons of the change in attire when the news was broken to her about AIBA’s intention. ‘‘I agree with the fact that our attire at the moment is boring and manly. And it irritates quite a few boxers because of it," the boxer told TOI from Imphal.

‘‘But the designers should keep in mind some of the conservative countries like India. Many boxers come from Mizoram and although they are quite cool with wearing trendy clothes in their normal lives, I’m sure they won’t be that comfortable when it comes to wearing ‘sexy dress’ in a sporting arena. I hope the AIBA will keep this in mind when it approves the design."

It might be recalled that Indian beach volleyball players refused to wear bikinis in the World Beach Volleyball tournament in Chennai last year because they thought it was ‘objectionable’. The players claimed that the skimpy outfits - mandatory dress - were against their tradition. As a result, the rules were relaxed for the Indian team and they were allowed to compete in T-shirts and long shorts.

‘‘AIBA’s argument on changing the dress-code in the recently-concluded meeting of Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) in China was that the women and men boxers look alike in the ring at the moment with their baggy-attires. Therefore the change of dress-code is essential," said PK Muralidharan Raja, secretary of the Indian Boxing Federation, who was present at the meeting.

‘‘It will help in grabbing more eyeballs which will in turn make the IOC look into the matter of including women’s boxing in Olympics with more seriousness. The fact is out of all the disciplines in the Olympics apart from boxing, every sport has women participating. The question is: Why should women’s boxing be left behind? In fact, in 1904 at St. Luis Games, women’s boxing was a demonstration event," Raja said.

The IOC has already looked into this matter and has proposed an initial plan of accepting 44 women boxers if the number of male boxers is correspondingly reduced from the present allotment of 286 at the Games. But it has not been finalised yet. The AIBA in the meantime is doing all it can to sell the dress code idea.

Source: http://sports.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Brace_up_for_glamorous_women_boxers/articleshow/3986175.cms

IOC must be realistic to survive credit crisis: Rogge

LAUSANNE (Switzerland): The International Olympic Committee will be able to sustain any blows from the global financial crisis but will need to be realistic and flexible, President Jacques Rogge said on Thursday.

The IOC recently ended a half-century partnership with the European Broadcasting Union over the Games' broadcasting rights for the 2014-2016 Games, saying other bidders were offering more money.

It has also delayed awarding the US TV rights for the 2014/16 Games package until financial conditions improve to get a better deal.

"The IOC is in a position to weather the storm but we have to be realistic and flexible and be ready for anything that might come," Rogge said at the end of an Executive Board meeting. "We are in a mode for lean Games."

He said the end of the partnership with the EBU, which accused the IOC of having surprisingly high financial expectations, was dictated by market conditions.

"The reality is that there were companies in the market that have given more money than the EBU has done at this stage," he said. "It appeared the EBU was not the highest bidder."

"The IOC is doing exactly what UEFA and FIFA is doing and maybe there is a new landscape in Europe," he said.

He also defended the IOC's decision not to clinch a deal with US broadcasters for 2014/16 Games TV rights because of the crisis.

"We are waiting for the best economic circumstances to be present to negotiate," he said.

"We can wait for as long as needed, we have a big cushion of time," he said of the deal which for the two-Games package of Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 netted some $2.2 billion.

Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are in the running to host the 2016 Games with a decision set for October, 2009.

Rogge did not rule out getting a deal even after the city has been chosen, potentially improving Chicago's chances given US broadcasters would be more interested in paying a higher price to broadcast home Games.

The IOC has also been locked in discussions with the US Olympic Committee over its share of sponsorship and TV revenues and Rogge said he hoped a deal could be reached soon.

The IOC wants to reduce the committee's share of TV rights revenues and top sponsor income with the Americans staunchly refusing to accept any cuts.

The USOC under long-standing agreements receives about 13 per crnt of US broadcasting rights revenues and about one fifth of the IOC's top sponsors programme worth close to a billion dollars as most of the companies investing in the Games in the past were from the United States.

The IOC has called the size of the share immoral given it exceeds the combined total of all other national Olympic committees and several non-American companies are nowadays major IOC sponsors.

Rogge said he would propose "to finalise discussions" by the end of March during an IOC executive Board meeting in Denver.

It is estimated the row could negatively impact Chicago's hopes of winning the bid if it dragged on into the summer.

Source: http://sports.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/IOC_must_be_realistic_to_survive_crisis_Rogge/articleshow/3825744.cms

No cricket at 2016 Olympics

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge on Friday rejected growing demands from the cricket community to include the popular Twenty20 format at the 2016 Summer Games.

"Twenty20 cricket will not feature in London 2012 or for that matter in 2016," Rogge told reporters on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Youth Games here.

"We are adding two more disciplines for the 2016 Games. The new sports that could be added are squash, softball, baseball, karate, rugby and golf.

"But there is no cricket."

Leading cricketers like Australian captain Ricky Ponting have called for cricket's shortest version to be included in the Olympics, although only 10 nations play the game at the top level.

Ponting said after the Beijing Olympics in August that it was only a matter of time before the sport's newest form was included in the Games, given its popularity in South Asia.

"I actually think it's inevitable Twenty20 cricket will be an Olympic sport," Ponting said in a speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Australian player Donald Bradman in August.

"You think about the audiences in South Asia, 22 or 23 per cent of the world's population is based in that area.

"The IOC could do a lot worse than put cricket into the Olympics."

The explosion of Twenty20 cricket over the last few years led to the successful organisation of the Indian Premier League earlier this year.

The International Cricket Council also held the inaugural World Twenty20 championships in South Africa in September last year. The next event will be held in England in 2009.
Soruce: www.cricbuzz.com