Daily Archive for July 27th, 2012

Brisbane Times
Taller, heavier: the speedy evolution of the fastest people on the planet

By Richard Macey and Deborah Smith
August 18, 2009

A GIANT, standing more than two metres tall, will eventually smash the nine-second barrier in the 100 metre sprint for men.

Kevin Norton, a professor of exercise science at the University of South Australia, admitted yesterday he may not live to see such a race, but he is sure it will happen, with sprinters growing ever taller and faster.

Asked how Jamaica’s Usain Bolt shattered his own world record in Berlin this week, running the distance in 9.58 seconds, Dr Norton said: ”It is pretty clear that he is an unusually tall sprinter.”

Although Bolt did not have quite the same ‘‘leg power” as some other runners, his 196-centimetre stature meant ”he takes less steps. The guy who came second took more steps.”

Top sprinters have grown at more than three times the rate of most people in the past century.

Goto Full Article – “Click Here”

Published July 2012

World Sports Law Report (UK)
Editorial Insight
Illogical Science

By Sport Law Editor – Andy Brown
July 27th, 2012

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has a difficult task. When it was formed back in 1894, founder Pierre Baron de Coubertin didn’t have to worry about troublesome things such as human rights and sex discrimination. Such concepts were in their infancy, if they existed at all. Women weren’t allowed to compete in the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, gaining representation in tennis and equestrian events only, in Paris 1900. Since then, the world has changed, but sport continues to split events into ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ categories. It has generally been agreed that determining whether someone is female by examining their genitalia is not acceptable – and not always accurate – yet the IOC is still required to split men and women in the interests of ‘fairness’ and sporting history.

How should it do this? The IOC has come up with its Regulations on Female Hyperandrogenism for the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London 2012 on 22 June, after the Caster Semenya case forced it to rewrite its rules on eligibility of female athletes. It followed the logic of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which told World Sports Law Report “if we don’t have rules on this, we will also face legal challenge from other female athletes” when publishing its own Regulations on 1 May.

Goto Full Editorial – “Click Here”

Published July 2012

Playthegame.org
Meet the Real International Olympic Committee

By Nikki Dryden and Andrew Jennings
July 25th, 2012

In an new critical report, a group of Olympians, academics, athletes, journalists and students lead by human rights lawyer and former Olympic swimmer Nikki Dryden and investigative journalist Andrew Jennings put focus on how well the individual members of the International Olympic Committee live up to the Olympic ideals. In this comment, Dryden and Jennings explain their motivation behind the project and present what they call ‘the Real IOC’.

“Look Who’s Coming to London – Meet the real International Olympic Committee”
Transparencybooks.com - Free Download - “Click Here”

In just a few days the London Olympic Games will open to fanfare and fireworks. Athletes will parade around the Olympic stadium carrying their nation’s hopes and dreams on their shoulders. However these days, the athletes, the lifeblood of the Olympic Movement, not only have to do their best, they must also say, act, and be one way: Olympian.

The rules for athletes get stricter every year. Athletes cannot say or write anything that contradicts or criticizes the Olympic Ideals. If an athlete does tarnish the “Olympic” image in any way the IOC they are threatened with legal action, or worse, with expulsion from the Olympic Games through the IOC’s proxy National Olympic Committees.

Yet the leaders of the Olympic Movement, the 106 secretly chosen IOC members, are held to a different standard. In fact, it seems they are held to no standard at all. IOC members consistently violate the supposed Olympic ethics, Olympic Charter, and even international law. Their actions, even when exposed publicly (see PhD plagiarists M Moon and Mr Schmitt) or punished criminally (see France’s Mr Drut and Korea’s Mr Lee), are overlooked, at worst resulting in a slap on the wrist. But why? In almost every country in the world, the Olympic pursuit is government funded, so if athletes must be held to this public standard, why aren’t IOC members? Our guess is because most people, the citizens of the world who pay for the Olympic Games and Olympians’ dreams, don’t know the Real IOC.

Goto Full Article – “Click Here”

Other Publications by Investigative Journalist Andrew Jennings – “Click Here”

Published July 2012