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The year that was: 2009
By Christopher Galakoutis
| Tuesday, December 29 2009 4:36:33 PM |
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Dreadful season for Greek athletics
A red sky morning greeted Greek tack & field in 2009, when SEGAS published its list of top carded athletes. It included only four names, soon down to three after the suspension of Athanasia Tsoumeleka. Piyi Devetzi, the shining star of Greek athletics, Periklis Iakovakis and Louis Tsatoumas were it. With a Devetzi injury that sidelined her most of the year, the Greek team’s best performance at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August was a 5th place by Iakovakis in the 400m hurdles final. The other major hopeful, long-jumper Louis Tsatoumas, disappointed yet again in his final, missing two out of three jumps and not advancing. New talents to look out for in the years ahead include Likourgos Tsakonas (200m), Kostas Baniotis (HJ), Spyros Lembesis (Jav.) as well as Parashevi Papachristou (TJ) and Nicol Kyriakopoulou (PV).
Lights out for Greek Weightlifting?
The Greek weightlifting nightmare of 2008 did not see a respite this year, after star lifter Nikos Kourtidis tested positive for a banned substance on a June 1st test administered by Greece’s domestic anti-doping agency 'ESKAN.' News of that positive test was only made public one month later however, on the day after Kourtidis won 2 gold medals at the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy. The timing of the news release infuriated HWF president Pyrros Dimas, who learned of the positive tests on the evening of Kourtidis’ competition but after the lifter had won his medals. Dimas argued that he would not have allowed Kourtidis to compete had he been made aware of the results sooner, and that the timing of the release was meant to embarrass the weightlifting team. We don’t envy Dimas’ position, but he might be the only person capable of bringing the storied sport back from the brink.
Rethinking position on Usain Bolt
Jamaica has produced some of the greatest sprinters of all time. It should come as no surprise then that Jamaica might sit atop the sprint world at any given time. That is the case today with Usain Bolt, the man that has destroyed both the 100m & 200m world records in successive seasons. Given all the drug stories within track in recent years however, we have been skeptical of these achievements; in fact, it would be foolish to not entertain a healthy dose of skepticism in such times. But Bolt is a special talent to be sure. According to a Jamaica insider who contacted us shortly after we published this piece, Bolt was a “party-holic” during the middle of this decade whose “training and performance suffered as a result while not fulfilling his potential.”
Despite Bolt’s legendary partying, he still managed flashes of brilliance in spurts, like the 19.93 seconds at the Carifta Games in Bermuda in 2004, becoming the first junior to break 20 seconds for the event (so it shouldn’t come as any surprise to see him do what he did in 2008 & 2009, we were told). As he grew into a man’s body, the lack of proper training caught up to him, and he developed back and leg injuries that kept him out of Paris 2003 and saw him eliminated in the first round at Athens 2004. The rivalry with fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell also lit a fire under Bolt, who was routinely criticized by Powell’s coach, Stephen Francis, and castigated by callers to local radio shows. By 2007, Bolt had had enough, and teamed up with Glen Mills, the man who had coached Kim Collins to the 2003 World 100m title. Mills took Bolt “under his wings and sought about correcting the problems that were plaguing the young man,” said the insider. Mills “conferred with doctors on creating a program for Bolt to strengthen his back and leg muscles,” and credit also goes to a local gym who, “gave Bolt a free membership at that time and also threw in a fitness trainer.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Bolt went from a very talented runner with enormous potential in 2007 to a world-beating Olympic champion in 2008. For the IAAF and his country’s sake, we hope that what brought about the transformation is as pure as the winter’s snow. Still, what better way to remind the world’s star athletes of their obligations than with the words of Aristotle: “The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand-fold.”
WADA and the right to privacy
The legal authority of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to subject athletes to unannounced drug testing came into question in Europe this year, after the Spanish government passed laws that give athletes who live or train in that country the right to refuse doping tests during the nighttime hours. In addition, a report of an independent advisory panel on data protection and privacy stated that the 27-nation EU must disregard the WADA drug code when it contradicts domestic law -- a clear attempt to force WADA to change its practices to incorporate Europe's stringent privacy legislation.
Belgian tennis stars Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse have challenged the "whereabouts rule" in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, on the basis that the rule violates their privacy. They also cite a European Union statute that requires that workers receive a minimum four weeks of paid vacation per year. They argue that with the whereabouts rule no vacation is possible from drug testing, which is discriminatory. We are sympathetic to the plight of the athletes (see Michael Phelps privacy case) in what is surely a very tough issue. CAS should rule in the first quarter of 2010.
IOC Television contract - not business as usual
The Olympic movement has benefited from the economic boom since the 1980’s and as a result, the IOC receives billions via its television and sponsorship contracts. But with many of the economies of the world whose growth was financed by cheap credit having gone bust, might the IOC be spared a similar fate? We don’t think so. If the worldwide credit crisis has taught us anything, it is that the easy credit that propelled U.S consumption has dried up for good, leaving millions of people jobless and homeless. Since it was the profits from that consumption that drove advertising campaigns, projections for reduced profits will simply eliminate many, and scale back other, such campaigns in the future. Deflating budgets at broadcasters and elsewhere will most certainly be felt by the likes of the IOC, who continue to prepare as if business as usual. It isn’t. With a U.S mired in a severe recession that will last many years, the U.S portion of the global television revenue pie will shrink as well. The IOC had better plan for tough days ahead.
Katerina Thanou
We are often asked why we have been supportive of Ms. Thanou in our reporting of her infamous case from 2004, through to her current travails with the IOC. Let it be clear that we are not supportive of any one athlete; what we are supportive of is the rule of law and that it is applied equally to each and every athlete. To that end, we have been critical of what appear to be certain delays by design. The IOC decided recently to not upgrade Ms. Thanou to the 100m gold medal position from Sydney, a decision that we believe was discriminatory. The case is now in the hands of the lawyers, and 2010 will hopefully mark an end to this very troubling saga for Greece.
Happy New Year to ALL!
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Chris Galakoutis is a business and sports writer, as well as the founder and managing editor of HellenicAthletes.com. He can be reached at Chris@hellenicathletes.com
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