In a letter to 206 National Olympic Committees, the IOC stated that national boxing federations that remain members of the International Boxing Association (IBA), will lose all rights. The NOCs are not to maintain any relations with these boxing federations. That is the game changer.
A few surprises and deliberate confusion are guaranteed by the IOC rules and what feels like a thousand possible exceptions. But the list of candidates for the presidency has been finalised. One woman and six men want to take the Olympic throne next spring.
... she submits her candidature by Sunday. Go ahead and bet while the odds are still attractive. Could anybody beat the Moroccan? Nicole Hoevertsz? At least nobody would have to talk anymore about the non-transparent IOC rules and the strange opinions of a dubious IOC Ethics Commission.
Berlin wants to host the 2040 Olympics as the centre of a German bid. Politicians claim, the city has almost all the sports facilities. Yet the German NOC only lists 12 suitable locations in Berlin - and even that is an exaggeration. Roughly half of them are suitable for the Olympics.
DPRK athletes endure rigorous checks for potential contamination by foreign influences. The selfie of table tennis medalists from North Korea, South Korea and China was widely regarded as one of the top Olympic moments in Paris. In North Korea, it could lead to severe consequences for the athletes.
UIPM board member and treasurer John Helmick, son of former corrupt IOC member Robert Helmick, was sent home from Paris. The pentathlon official is alleged to have traded in accreditations on his own account. UIPM president Klaus Schormann refuses to answer specific questions about the case.
Thrilling times ahead of us. Important decisions are being made for the future of Olympic sport - everything is interwoven: the IOC presidency, the Russia issue, Saudi Arabia 2034, the 2036 and 2040 Olympics, the 2030 and 2038 Winter Games, WADA ... there could be landslide changes.
The IOC will have its tenth president or its first female president next year. Elections will be held at the session in Greece in March. In June, Thomas Bach will hand over the Olympic sceptre in rotation after twelve years.
About the IOC's non-transparent disciplinary commission, the decision of commission chair Denis Oswald to caution a courageous Afghan woman, which in turn led to her disqualification by the world federation - and about other practices under the Great Olympic Leader.
Saudi Arabia, India and Qatar are known to be in the mix among several nations vying to host the next available Summer Games in 2036. The IOC is considering changing Summer Games to autumn due to climate change.
The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) is once again creating bad news. John Helmick, son of a former IOC vice president and ally of UIPM Supremo Klaus Schormann, who has been in office for 31 years, has had his Paris accreditation withdrawn. The case raises many questions.
In its desire to "clean" Paris, the French authorities have hidden from the eyes of cameras and tourists more than 160 homeless people and migrants in a gymnasium in the 20th arrondissement of the capital.
Crazy Monday: Putin's henchman Kremlev at the IBA, Rodchenkov on Russia's Wanted List, the cowardly irresponsibility of the IOC and one of the most bizarre press conferences of all time.
The CEO of USADA urges the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to expedite Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov’s 2016 application for asylum in the US after WADA and the international Olympic sport failed to help the Russian couple.
Russia's will and IOC' gigantic failure: The IOC should have been better prepared, first and foremost to protect the athletes involved and to ensure the integrity of the Olympic competition. That did not happen. The victims are, as always, the athletes.
Why does the IOC have other Olympic bid rules for France than for Sweden? The Swedish NOC president Hans von Uthman notes that the lack of state guarantees were used as an argument to exclude Sweden from the 2030 bidding process but let France and its half-baked French Alps project win.
