It is coming up to Pride season here in the UK. But effectively in Moscow there will not be a sanctioned Pride parade until 2112.
In Moscow applications for a parade have to be submitted not later than 30-45 days before the event. But there is no maximum time before the event that such an application has to be submitted. So gay rights activists submitted applications for each of the next 100 years. Only for City Hall to turn them all down. This decision has since been upheld by the district and city courts.
In a country where a little over 25 years ago there didn't appear to be an end to communism, where little more than 20 years ago homosexuality was still illegal, a decision has now been made that will last more than 4 or 5 times that long.
As recently as 2007 the then Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov considered attempts to hold a Pride parade in Moscow as 'satanic' so I guess here in Belfast we are lucky that one of our leading politicians only thought we were repugnant last year. There has never been a sanctioned Pride parade in the Russian capital and more cities across the country are taking the same stance as St. Petersburg in banning the dissemination of any homosexual propaganda, that included health issues both physical and mental pertinent to the LGBT community that exists there.
I remember how just 22 years I was distributing literature in the USSR that was illegal to be distributed, that was the bible then. I'm sure that these bans won't last 100 years, or even 10 years. But we need to be clear when telling the Russians that there are concerns of health, suicide and well being of young LGBT individuals that without literature and advise many young people will feel that they are alone.
There are concerns that by trying to hide the Russian LGBT community it is doing untold harm to those individuals. It is on a par to what was repressed by the communists before the Soviet Union dissolved to allow greater freedom, but with that freedom comes responsibility something that those in authority seem to be ignoring with these anti-LGBT decisions.
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Taekwondo selection ethics to be looked at by World body
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| Cook (Blue) v Muhammad (Red) at German Open 2012 |
While the British Olympic Assocation's (BOA) Qualification Standards Panel (QSP) are meeting to consider whether to ratify the decision which they have already rejected, the World Taekwondo Federation have stepped into the fray saying:
"The manner of the selection is bringing our sport into disrepute."
Last year cook removed himself from British Taewondo's programme after a disappointing showing in the world championships. He set up his own team of trainers and sparring partners in the gym his father had built for him in a shed in his own back garden. The end result of this doing his own thing has been a return to world number one spot in the latest rankings announced last Friday. But it does appear that somehow this is not enough for British Taekwondo.
Jean-Marie Ayer secretary-general of the World Taewondo Federation (WTF) has said today:
"We are extremely disappointed by the way in which British Taekwondo's selection process has been conducted and it is clear that the lack of a conclusive rationale has caused confusion.
"The manner of the selection is bringing our sport into disrepute among the UK media and major Olympic stakeholders due to a perceived lack of transparency.
"Our main concern is always that every athlete is given fair and equal consideration - their welfare must come first.
"We at the WTF have done our utmost to bring fair practices and transparency to our sport, and that is why we have committed to undertaking this review."
Adding:
"Up until now, the WTF had hoped that this matter could be resolved internally at British Taekwondo.
"As the global governing body, we do not interfere with the selection processes and internal affairs of our member nations. We have always stated that the athletes nominated for selection must meet minimum requirements set in the qualification system."We are not commenting on the decision to select or omit specific athletes, as the criteria imposed beyond our minimum requirements are the remit of the individual member nation.
"This review will not have the power to alter British Taekwondo's decision, but it will determine whether any rules of the WTF ethics code have been broken."
While there is no comment about any particular case but in light of the ongoing dispute about the athlete ranked number one failing to win the endorsement of his own nation's governing body, it is clear what the incident that may have led to this investigation stems from.
The QSP are consulting with the WTF and the BOA's baord of directors tomorrow before coming to their conclusion as to what action to take.
However, what is repugnant are fans sending Muhammad hate mail as a result of a decision that is out side his control. He like Cook has done all he can to represent his country at these home Olympics. He like Cook did win a European gold medal earlier this year, though his was in the slightly heavier -87kg category where he is ranked number 7 in the world.
Update On Friday Dr Steve Peters, non-executive director of GB Taekwondo, who didn't have a vote on selection, said:
"We all agreed that if world ranking and success in tournaments were the only selection criteria, then Aaron would be selected as he's an outstanding athlete who could get gold at the Olympics
"All we're saying is that there are two athletes who can achieve this.
"Lutalo is improving at a rate of knots and has potential which hasn't been tapped."
So there you have it result and ranking don't mean a thing when you come up against untapped potential that is improving. Well there are 50 more days of improvement ahead unless things change.
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Team Northern Ireland #London2012
Of course the Olympics is about Team GB, or is that team Ireland?
You see here in Northern Ireland we are mentioned in the full name of Team GB (ie Great Britain and Northern Ireland) but our local sports stars do appear on two different teams; both GB and Ireland.
It was a dilemma I myself faced when I was a runner. At the tail end of the great period of GB middle distance runners if I remained on the flat I would struggle for a place on team GB, but had a better chance on team Ireland. So that was why I started to concentrate on the 3000m Steeplechase where there was less competition for a GB vest.
But today the Olympic torch makes its only non-Grecian visit outside the UK to Dublin and will have a ceremonial handing over between boxers at the border. So here are the Northern Ireland Olympians who will be going to London 2012.
Sycerika McMahon (Swimming) - Ireland. The Portaferry teenaged managed the qualifying standard in the 100m women's breaststroke in the European Championships last month. She went on to win silver the 50m breaststroke an event not competed for in the Olympics. She is the only Irish women to have made the qualifying standard in that event so will be bound for London. She has also managed Olympic selection standards at four other events and may well feature in some of the others especially if Gráinne Murphy who has qualified for 800m freestyle decides not to go for either of the individual medley, or maybe the 200m freestyle but merely concentrate on the 400m and 800m.
Melanie Nocher (Swimming) - Ireland. 23 years-old from Belfast she has qualified for the women's 200m backstroke. She took bronze in the European 200m backstroke short course championships at the end of last year. Setting a new Irish record in the process. She is also in the mix for having made the standard to be the one swimmer selected for the 200m freestyle with McMahon and Murphy.
Na Liu (Table Tennis) - Great Britain. The 29-year-old has been living in Belfast since 2001 having grown up in the North Eastern Chinese province of Liaoning. Her father who is involved in coaching football was so impressed with Northern Ireland when he brought a youth team over for the annual Milk Cup in Coleraine that he sent his daughter here to learn English. She loved it so much that she stayed getting involved in coaching table tennis at schools and clubs across the province. She gained her UK citizenship in 2008, too late to take part in the Games in Beijing. She ill however be part of the women's team in London.
Paddy Barnes (Boxing) - Ireland. The Belfast born light-flyweight -49kg boxer is no stranger to one Olympic ring. In 2008 he took bronze in the same weight division, having lost out he feels controversially to China's Zou Shiming who had also beaten him in the Quarter Finals of the previous year's World Championships. He has since gone on to European and Commonwealth gold in 2010. But like Barnes both Zou Shiming and silver medalist Mongolia's Pürevdorjiin Serdamba who in 2009 became his nation's first world amateur boxing champion are going to be there in the ring in London. All three are contenders once again. Barnes didn't qualify by getting to the last 8 of last year's worlds because, you guessed it, he came up against Shiming in the last 16.
Michael Conlon (Boxing) - Ireland. Also from Belfast the 20-year-old secured his place while still in his teens at last years World Amateur Championships, in Baku. He reached the quarter finals, something Barnes failed to do, in the flyweight division sealing his place well ahead of the final qualifying tournament last month. He boxes out of St. John's Bosco Club in Belfast meaning that two different boxing clubs will be cheering on their boxers in London.
Alan Campbell (Rowing) - Great Britain. Like the boxer Paddy Barnes Coleraine born Campbell is not a stranger to the Olympics. He was the single sculler who made it to the finals in the Beijing Games in 2008. He has since medalled in three World Championships, silver in 2009 and bronze in 2010-11. He is of course the man who qualified the GB boat for that event on home water and should take up the berth when the team is announced. One of his early coaches, Seamus Reynolds, was the one who carried the Olympic Torch on the River Bann in Coleraine in the bow seat of the eight on Monday. Update Alan was indeed selected for the single sculls later on 6 June.
Peter and Richard Chambers (Rowing) - Great Britain. Two more graduates from the Coleraine Institution rowing programme with a real shout at making the GB squad in the light-weight four are the Chambers brothers. Richard, the elder brother, has been part of this crew since before the last Olympics. Having taken world gold in 2007 they were disappointed to only come 5th in Beijing. But after injury in 2009 he came back to help win gold in 2010 and bronze in 2011. He went to Oxford for University, though it was Oxford Brookes and not to win a blue. Young brother Peter is five years younger at 22 and broke into the GB squad last year, taking gold in the Lightweight Mens Pair. He was moved into the quad alongside his brother, Rob Williams and Chris Bartley for this season. He is studying sports science also at Oxford Brookes. Having been part of the squad all year it is likely that both brothers will be named in the boat when the team is finalised. Update both brothers were selected in the boat announced later on 6 June.
Aileen Morrison (Triathlon) - Ireland. Born in Derry but living in Lisburn she is currently ranked 7th on the International Triathlon Union world rankings and as top ranked Irish women she is certain to take up her nations sole spot when the event gets underway in Hyde Park later this summer. When the European Championships were held in Ireland in 2010 she came 5th.
Lisa Kearney (Judo) - Ireland. The Belfast born 22-year-old Judo player became the first Irish Women to automatically qualify for the Olympics when she ended up keeping her top 14 spot after the final qualifying event in April. She had come 5th in a World Cup event in Sofia, Bulgaria earlier in the year. She will take part in the -48kg category. She had been dogged by knee injury during the two year qualifying period so we can only hope she is fit and well when she takes her place on the ExCel London.
James Espey (Sailing) - Ireland. At the world championships in Germany last month, Bangor's own put up a good show to qualify in the Laser class for the Olympic regatta at Weymouth. He became the fourth boat to qualify under the Irish flag, the other three qualified in last years world Championships in Perth. Unfortunately for Espey a black flag at that event had denied Espey an easier time this May. But then again having to fight for that qualification to the last opportunity may only enhance his capabilities when the Olympic fleet first hear the starting gun.
Matt McGovern and Ryan Seaton (Sailing) - Ireland. Two out of the five boats in the Irish fleet that have qualified for the Games come from Northern Ireland. The other boat in the 49er of McGovern and Seaton courtesy of their 10th place finish in the World Championships in Perth last December. The Bangor and Carrickfergus pair (McGovern is like Espey from Ballyholme Yacht Club) came together in 2009 after McGovern failed to qualify for 2008 with his brother Russell. McGovern is 2 years older at 24.
Hannah Craig (Canoeing) - Ireland. Motorcycle mad village Armoy may turn their attention away from road racing to look at 29-year-old home town girl Hannah take on the rapids in the canoe slalom. Hannah was the highest placed boat of a country not yet qualified for the Olympics at last month's European Championships and so will compete in the K1 boat at the Lee Valley White Water Centre. She came 13th the the World Championships in 2010 which is the best ever by an Irish paddler. She is based in Dublin where she runs her own clothing company which has helped to finance her Olympic dream having just missed out on Beijing.
Martyn Irvine (Cycling) - Ireland. The Newtownards born cyclist has qualified for the multi-event Omnium. He has been Irish Champion on both the road and track in recent years and came 7th in the recent World Championships in Melbourne, securing his place in London. He shows the dichotomy of Northern Irish sportspeople having already taken part in the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland in Delhi, 2010, earning Northern Ireland bronze in the team pursuit. Today just happens to be his 27th birthday.
Wendy Houvenaghel (Cycling) - Great Britain. The woman from Upperlands, near Maghera (pictured on the extreme left) is at 37 the oldest Northern Irish Olympian at these games. But she is also the returnee with the best medal to date. She took silver behind Victoria Pendleton in the individual pursuit in Beijing. However, in what will be her last attempt to secure Olympic gold she will be teaming up with Laura Trott and Danielle King (whose combined age is only 4 years more than Wendy's) hoping to secure team pursuit gold. Considering that GB with Wendy in the team took gold in the World Champs in 2008, 2008 and 2011 with silver in 2010.
Mark Gleghorne (Hockey) - Great Britain. In 2008 Gleghorne from Antrim was trying to get Ireland to qualify, indeed he did a fine job being Ireland's top scorer, and indeed for his qualification tournament, with 9 goals. Though maybe one or two more may have got them into the play-off for that spot. However since 2011 he has been part of the GB set up earning 10 caps. The 27-year-old plays for East Grinstead and his hoping to make his Olympic Debut having switched between his possible allegiances between Games. Gleghorne didn't play in the test event in May
Iain Lewers (Hockey) - Great Britain. The Belfast born defender is a year older than Gleghorne and was part of the 18 man team in the test event last month. Like Gleghorne in the run up to 2008 Games he played for Ireland before ruling himself out to seek possible future selection for GB. He was the first of the two to declare he was switching. However, both men are still awaiting the final announcement of the 16 selected plus the 4 reserves for the Games.
These are all the currently qualified Northern Irish Olympians there may yet be more. But as you can see some of them do have an interesting time in deciding who to represent and for some it hasn't been straightforward.
You see here in Northern Ireland we are mentioned in the full name of Team GB (ie Great Britain and Northern Ireland) but our local sports stars do appear on two different teams; both GB and Ireland.
It was a dilemma I myself faced when I was a runner. At the tail end of the great period of GB middle distance runners if I remained on the flat I would struggle for a place on team GB, but had a better chance on team Ireland. So that was why I started to concentrate on the 3000m Steeplechase where there was less competition for a GB vest.
But today the Olympic torch makes its only non-Grecian visit outside the UK to Dublin and will have a ceremonial handing over between boxers at the border. So here are the Northern Ireland Olympians who will be going to London 2012.
These are all the currently qualified Northern Irish Olympians there may yet be more. But as you can see some of them do have an interesting time in deciding who to represent and for some it hasn't been straightforward.
Monday, 4 June 2012
Dissendents not news they are 106 years late
The news that dissident republicans caused a minor detour to the Olympic torch today near the Guildhall in Derry is a sad indication of a few still holding to the past. Especially as the Torch is actually traveling to Dublin on Wednesday as a reflection that team Northern Ireland athletes will be taking part under two flags in 54v days time.
Although maybe it is just their way of honouring the first Olympic protest in the 1906 Intercalated Games.
Cumberland born Peter O'Connor who was raised in Wicklow. He won gold in the hop, step and jump. But didn't want the Union Flag to be raised in his honour. Of course he was representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at the time. He climbed the flag pole while protected by other Irish and American athletes and hoisted a flag as a protest for Irish nationalism.
Of course 16 years later there was a division in the island of Ireland.
18 years after that protest in 1924 Ireland made their Olympic debut.
Four years after that debut the Tricolour was raised for the first time
for Pat O'Callaghan winning the hammer.
We have come a long way since then. Or at least it would appear a lot of us have. We have come an awfully long way in the last 14 years especially.
It is a shame that a small handful of people want to not only break the feeling of togetherness that all the people of Ireland and especially Northern Ireland have been feeling as the Torch progresses. We have had GAA players handing the torch unto protestant neighbours along the way and vice versa. All sports have been represented.
On the news as the disruption was happening BBC Northern Ireland had interviewed 1972 Irish boxer Charlie Nash and Jackie McWilliams who won bronze for GB in women's hockey at the 1992. You see many of us from Northern Ireland will be cheering on members of two nations because they are one of us. Some of us in Northern Ireland will also have faced the dilemma in who to declare our allegiance to for competitive purposes.Yes so we have some footballers who want to play for the Republic of Ireland and not Northern Ireland, but we also have some others from the Republic who have chosen to represent Great Britain, including 1980 Olympian Barry McGuigan who had already representing Northern Ireland at the 1978 Commonwealth Games who represented Britain to fight for British titles as a way to gain international success.
So the people of these six counties and indeed these 32 counties have always had a mixed history with the Games. But one thing we have always done is honour the sport and competition. Those who took this action to try and disrupt the torch today have brought shame upon themselves but not the many people from Northern Ireland who will be representing Great Britain or Ireland at the Games in London this year and the many thousands of us who will be supporting them for their achievement no matter who they are representing.
Although maybe it is just their way of honouring the first Olympic protest in the 1906 Intercalated Games.
Cumberland born Peter O'Connor who was raised in Wicklow. He won gold in the hop, step and jump. But didn't want the Union Flag to be raised in his honour. Of course he was representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at the time. He climbed the flag pole while protected by other Irish and American athletes and hoisted a flag as a protest for Irish nationalism.
We have come a long way since then. Or at least it would appear a lot of us have. We have come an awfully long way in the last 14 years especially.
It is a shame that a small handful of people want to not only break the feeling of togetherness that all the people of Ireland and especially Northern Ireland have been feeling as the Torch progresses. We have had GAA players handing the torch unto protestant neighbours along the way and vice versa. All sports have been represented.
On the news as the disruption was happening BBC Northern Ireland had interviewed 1972 Irish boxer Charlie Nash and Jackie McWilliams who won bronze for GB in women's hockey at the 1992. You see many of us from Northern Ireland will be cheering on members of two nations because they are one of us. Some of us in Northern Ireland will also have faced the dilemma in who to declare our allegiance to for competitive purposes.Yes so we have some footballers who want to play for the Republic of Ireland and not Northern Ireland, but we also have some others from the Republic who have chosen to represent Great Britain, including 1980 Olympian Barry McGuigan who had already representing Northern Ireland at the 1978 Commonwealth Games who represented Britain to fight for British titles as a way to gain international success.
So the people of these six counties and indeed these 32 counties have always had a mixed history with the Games. But one thing we have always done is honour the sport and competition. Those who took this action to try and disrupt the torch today have brought shame upon themselves but not the many people from Northern Ireland who will be representing Great Britain or Ireland at the Games in London this year and the many thousands of us who will be supporting them for their achievement no matter who they are representing.
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Didn't we have a lovely time when the Torch came to Bangor
Earlier this week my friend Chairman Cole sent the Olympic Torch Relay on its way to Bangor.
Well I am glad to inform him that it made her safely to the second Bangor this week early this morning. Just after six it left Belfast and via Holywood arrived in Bangor just before 7am.
I joined the crowd at the sea front.
As first the convoy of sponsors vehicles
Then the coaches and vans came by
Before we finally saw the Torch bearer
The reason we were all on the sea front was that a short walk/run away
Was Upper Main Street were we got to see it pass again.
Then me and my mum headed back to the car and ended up getting caught in a early Sunday morning traffic jam on the Newtownards Road as the convoy actually passed about 200m from our house.
Well I am glad to inform him that it made her safely to the second Bangor this week early this morning. Just after six it left Belfast and via Holywood arrived in Bangor just before 7am.
I joined the crowd at the sea front.
As first the convoy of sponsors vehicles
Was Upper Main Street were we got to see it pass again.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Norn Iron has the flame #Olympics #London2012
So a woman carrying a naked flame in a glass container has been allowed to cross the tarmac of one of Northern Ireland's airport.
What did the police do? Well some of them just stood there and watched. Some of them exited a nearby plane and joined in.
How times have changed!
Of course the fact that the woman carrying the flame was the Lord Lieutenant of Belfast, a member of the British Olympic Association and Northern Ireland's own golden girl Dame Mary Peters may give you some idea as to what flame it was.
For the next five days the flame will be touring this island, yes it even takes a morning sightseeing in Dublin. Which may well account for all the Northern Irish Olympians in team Northern Ireland. I may have to let you know a little bit more about them later as they will be spread across two teams.
But the flame is here. Well okay it is currently up in Belfast, but tomorrow it will pass within 200m of our house. But I may be up to catch it downtown a little earlier than that. Looking for some good locations to take pictures of it passing me. Sadly I suspect this will be the closest I get to the Olympics. But I'm looking forward to it.
What did the police do? Well some of them just stood there and watched. Some of them exited a nearby plane and joined in.
How times have changed!
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| Picture from the BBC's live feed |
For the next five days the flame will be touring this island, yes it even takes a morning sightseeing in Dublin. Which may well account for all the Northern Irish Olympians in team Northern Ireland. I may have to let you know a little bit more about them later as they will be spread across two teams.
But the flame is here. Well okay it is currently up in Belfast, but tomorrow it will pass within 200m of our house. But I may be up to catch it downtown a little earlier than that. Looking for some good locations to take pictures of it passing me. Sadly I suspect this will be the closest I get to the Olympics. But I'm looking forward to it.
Friday, 1 June 2012
1984 Summer Olympics Los Angeles: XXIII Olympiad and VII Paralympics
Initially there were two candidate cities for the 1984 Summer Games. There was the one from Los Angeles but also one from Tehran, Iran. But with growing political tension in Iran leading up to the decision in 1977 the bid from Tehran was withdrawn. Los Angelses was therefore the sole candidate up for selection. The last time that had happened with the exception of the post war Games was in 1932 when the host city was Los Angeles.
Nations 140 (+60)
Competitors 6829 (+1650)
Sports 21 (NC)
Events 221 (+18)
28 July to 12 August, 1984 hosted by Los Angeles, United States of America
and Paralympics
Nations 54 (+12)
Competitors 2900 (+997)
Sports 17 (+5)
Events 903 (+414)
17 June to 30 June 1984 hosted by New York, USA
and
22 July to 1 August 1984 hosted by Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom
The Games saw a return to the Coliseum the first time an Olympic flame had returned to the same stadium for the opening ceremony.
However, in revenge to the USA led boycott four years previously a 14 nation Eastern Bloc boycott (including Cuba but not Romania or Yugoslavia who had earlier hosted the Winter Games) affected these Games.
The Paralympics were the last to not be held in conjunction with the Olympics. Sports for wheelchair athletes were held at the place where the paralympic movement started in Stoke Mandeville and other wheelchair, amputee, cerebral palsy, the blind/visually impaired atheltes as well as the new les autres category were held in New York.
New kids on the block
The Olympic family continued to grow with Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Grenada, Mauritania, Mauritius, North Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and the United Arab Emirates all joining the party. The Republic of China also competed under the name Chinese Taipei and for the first time since 1952 the People's Republic of China were also present at the same Games.
The Bhutan team as so often since has been centred around their archers, indeed that was the only 6 competitors they sent.
Djibouti managed through Darma Robleh to come 8th in the Marathon. Qatar took part in the football and managed a draw against France, who eventually won gold, but failed to progress beyond the group stage.
Elsewhere in the Paralympics there were debuts for Bahrain, China, East Germany, Faroe Islands, Jordan, Leichtenstein, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
The first gold was a first
As this year the men's 50m pistol is one of the gold's decided on the first day. In LA it actually was the first medal to be decided. But in doing so it created a little bit of Olympic history, after a chequered past with the Games it turned out to be the first gold medal for China ever in Olympic history. His team mate Wang Yifu was able to join in the celebrations from the 3rd step on the podium. Wang Yifu would later go on to take gold in the 10m air pistol in 1992 and 2004, and silver in that event in 1996 and 2000 and silver in the 50m pistol in 1996.
It was was not to be his last involvement with the Olympics he would carry on to take bronze in the 10m air pistol at the 1988 Games in Seoul and when he retired in 1995 he became a coach for the national shooting team.
Bit of course when the flame entered the Birds nest for the lighting of the cauldron in 2008 in Beijing who better to carry the first torch into the stadium that the man who had won his nation's first of their 163 Summer Gold medals.
Young stroke on the start of a great Olympic journey
Great Britain had not won a Gold medal in rowing since the 1948 Games. Little did we know that the 22-year-old stroke seat of the coxed four was on the verge of making up for that lack of gold in a big way.
Adrian Ellison was the first man to cross the line in the cox seat, followed by Richard Budgett (who will be chief medical officer for London 2012), Martin Cross, Andy Holmes and the baby in the boat Steve Redgrave.
Their heat saw them win ahead of USA and then New Zealand. Both those other crew progressed through the repechage into the final where they finished in the same places and the GB and USA in roughly the same times with New Zealand being 4 seconds faster than their heats.
In the next Games Redgrave paired up with Holmes attempting to get double gold in both the coxed and coxless pairs. The only managed a bronze with Patrick Sweeney as cox, but did take that other gold in Seoul. Then in Barcelona and Atlanta it was Matthew Pinsent in the other seat for coxless pairs gold, before the two of them teamed up with Tim Foster and James Cracknell for that fifth Gold in the Coxless Four.
Adrian Ellison was
Women can run distance
Since women athletes first took to the track and field in the Olympics there had also been concern about their ability to compete in all the same disciplines whether it was distance running or some of the field events especially hammer, pole vault and triple jump.
However in 1984 in the warm smoggy environment that is LA the event that when it first appeared even made some of the men buckle under the effort was introduced for women: the Marathon.
The two Norwegian greats Ingrid Kristiansen and Grete Weitz were among the favourites along with Rosa Mota or Portugal and USA athlete Joan Benoit who had run the world best time in Boston the year before. Mota had run the first women's marathon in 1982 at the European Championships, Kristiansen who had been third in that race had set the season best time in the London Marathon. But Benoit took to the line wearing a reflective silver vest and shorts and a white cap. Thisrunning outfit was designed to give her maximum benefit under the Californian sun and she with the other three was opening a gap. But in the latter stages she opened that lead over Weitz and Mota for the other medals.
What is most remarkable about her performance was that she was on the start line at all. In March of 1984 she injured her knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery on it only 17 days before the US Olympic trials and event which she won by 30 seconds which allowed her 3 months after that to line up for the start of the first women's Olympic marathon.
Open field in the Gym
With the boycott from the Eastern European countries the Gymnastics was wide open, especially the women. It was something that Mary Lou Retton for the hosts took full advantage of. She was the first women from outside Eastern Europe to win gold in the women's all around. The main competition came from the Romanian's especially in the form of Ecaterina Szabo and Simona Păucă and her compatriot Julianna McNamarra. Szabo it was who took at least a share in three of the four apparatus finals, with the other two taking a gold each in those. Retton failed to win on any apparatus taking one silver and two bronze.
Her opposite number in the men's competition was Japan's Koji Gushiken. But the star of the event was China's Li Ning who had taken bronze in the all around.
He was to go on to take gold in three of hte six men's apparatus finals floor, pommel horse and sharing it with Gushiken on the rings. He was also one of the four men to share silver in the vault. It could very nearly have been 5 on that second podium as USA's James Hartung was on 0.025 further back the smallest possible margin.
Li Ning it was who magically ran around the roof of the stadium before lighting the cauldron in the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Romania it was who took the women's team gold over the USA then China. Whereas in the men's it was USA followed by China and Japan.
Women get on your bikes
Cycling finally allowed women's events into their programme. The first, indeed only, event was in the hills of Mission Viejo.
45 women lined up in the hope of making Olympic history but in the end it came down to a group of 5 broke away from the field and stayed away until the final sprint. They were Sandra Schumacher FRG, Unni Larsen NOR, Maria Canins ITA and the Americans Rebecca Twigg and Connie Carpenter.
Carpenter had started her Olympic career as a speed skater in the 1972 in Sapporo, but injury prevented her competing in 1976 so she took to the bike to get fit. That year she won her first US National title.
The five were being pursued by the French cycling legend that is Jeannie Longo who was still taking part in the women's road race in 2008 at 49. She had realised too late that the pace of the peleton was not going to catch the five riders up the road and despite trying to get across finished 1:21 down on the winner. In the sprint it was Carpenter who just got up half a bike length from Twigg who in turn had just edged out Schumacher.
The Big G Boys
Daley Thompson had won gold in the Decathlon in the 1980 Olympics but without the West Germans and USA who were famous for their multi-event athletes it was a little hollow. However, Thompson held European, Commonwealth and World Titles when he came to defend his crown in Los Angeles. This time his main rival Jürgen Hingsen who had set a new world record of corrected to 8832 earlier in the summer was there against him. Here is how to the two compared Thomspon first:
The best scores set by Thompson and Hingsen that summer still stand as the national records for Great Britain and Germany respectively.
Surfs up
Well at least on surfboards. California is famous for it's surf so just off the coast at Long Beach there was a new discipline then called windglider, but AKA board sailing or windsurfing.
It was a fresh faces Dutchman called Stephan van den Berg who would take that first gold.
He came 4th in the first race, before a second and first place in the next two. Race four saw him in a lowly 11th, before another 4th and second, then a third.
It meant he could disregard his 11th place finish and therefore his six scoring races were all in the top 4. His total score of 44.70 would actually have been better that silver medalist Scott Steele of the USA, whose net score was only 46.0.
In 1984 he won Dutch Sportsman of the Year for his achievement, he was back at the Olympics in 1992 but only managed 7th.
Some hot college stars
The basketball tournament was still open only to amateurs which meant that the USA team contained its top collegiate stars. Therefore in 1984 there was St. John's University's star shooting guard Chris Mullin, Georgetown's centre Patrick Ewing and University of North Carolina's shooting guard Michael Jordan.
These three were all soon snapped up by top professional NBA teams. But when the rule change allowing professionals came in in 1989 the three of them were to form part of that first Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics, therefore being team mates in two Olympic gold medal winning teams, one as college amateurs the others as some of the highest paid athletes in the world.
See also my full list of posts about past Olympics
Competitors 6829 (+1650)
Sports 21 (NC)
Events 221 (+18)
28 July to 12 August, 1984 hosted by Los Angeles, United States of America
and Paralympics
Nations 54 (+12)
Competitors 2900 (+997)
Sports 17 (+5)
Events 903 (+414)
17 June to 30 June 1984 hosted by New York, USA
and
22 July to 1 August 1984 hosted by Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom
The Games saw a return to the Coliseum the first time an Olympic flame had returned to the same stadium for the opening ceremony.
However, in revenge to the USA led boycott four years previously a 14 nation Eastern Bloc boycott (including Cuba but not Romania or Yugoslavia who had earlier hosted the Winter Games) affected these Games.
The Paralympics were the last to not be held in conjunction with the Olympics. Sports for wheelchair athletes were held at the place where the paralympic movement started in Stoke Mandeville and other wheelchair, amputee, cerebral palsy, the blind/visually impaired atheltes as well as the new les autres category were held in New York.
New kids on the block
The Olympic family continued to grow with Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Grenada, Mauritania, Mauritius, North Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and the United Arab Emirates all joining the party. The Republic of China also competed under the name Chinese Taipei and for the first time since 1952 the People's Republic of China were also present at the same Games.
The Bhutan team as so often since has been centred around their archers, indeed that was the only 6 competitors they sent.
Djibouti managed through Darma Robleh to come 8th in the Marathon. Qatar took part in the football and managed a draw against France, who eventually won gold, but failed to progress beyond the group stage.
Elsewhere in the Paralympics there were debuts for Bahrain, China, East Germany, Faroe Islands, Jordan, Leichtenstein, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
The first gold was a first
It was was not to be his last involvement with the Olympics he would carry on to take bronze in the 10m air pistol at the 1988 Games in Seoul and when he retired in 1995 he became a coach for the national shooting team.
Bit of course when the flame entered the Birds nest for the lighting of the cauldron in 2008 in Beijing who better to carry the first torch into the stadium that the man who had won his nation's first of their 163 Summer Gold medals.
Young stroke on the start of a great Olympic journey
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| The man on the right ready to spend 16 years chasing gold |
Adrian Ellison was the first man to cross the line in the cox seat, followed by Richard Budgett (who will be chief medical officer for London 2012), Martin Cross, Andy Holmes and the baby in the boat Steve Redgrave.
Their heat saw them win ahead of USA and then New Zealand. Both those other crew progressed through the repechage into the final where they finished in the same places and the GB and USA in roughly the same times with New Zealand being 4 seconds faster than their heats.
In the next Games Redgrave paired up with Holmes attempting to get double gold in both the coxed and coxless pairs. The only managed a bronze with Patrick Sweeney as cox, but did take that other gold in Seoul. Then in Barcelona and Atlanta it was Matthew Pinsent in the other seat for coxless pairs gold, before the two of them teamed up with Tim Foster and James Cracknell for that fifth Gold in the Coxless Four.
Adrian Ellison was
Women can run distance
However in 1984 in the warm smoggy environment that is LA the event that when it first appeared even made some of the men buckle under the effort was introduced for women: the Marathon.
The two Norwegian greats Ingrid Kristiansen and Grete Weitz were among the favourites along with Rosa Mota or Portugal and USA athlete Joan Benoit who had run the world best time in Boston the year before. Mota had run the first women's marathon in 1982 at the European Championships, Kristiansen who had been third in that race had set the season best time in the London Marathon. But Benoit took to the line wearing a reflective silver vest and shorts and a white cap. Thisrunning outfit was designed to give her maximum benefit under the Californian sun and she with the other three was opening a gap. But in the latter stages she opened that lead over Weitz and Mota for the other medals.
What is most remarkable about her performance was that she was on the start line at all. In March of 1984 she injured her knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery on it only 17 days before the US Olympic trials and event which she won by 30 seconds which allowed her 3 months after that to line up for the start of the first women's Olympic marathon.
Open field in the Gym
With the boycott from the Eastern European countries the Gymnastics was wide open, especially the women. It was something that Mary Lou Retton for the hosts took full advantage of. She was the first women from outside Eastern Europe to win gold in the women's all around. The main competition came from the Romanian's especially in the form of Ecaterina Szabo and Simona Păucă and her compatriot Julianna McNamarra. Szabo it was who took at least a share in three of the four apparatus finals, with the other two taking a gold each in those. Retton failed to win on any apparatus taking one silver and two bronze.
He was to go on to take gold in three of hte six men's apparatus finals floor, pommel horse and sharing it with Gushiken on the rings. He was also one of the four men to share silver in the vault. It could very nearly have been 5 on that second podium as USA's James Hartung was on 0.025 further back the smallest possible margin.
Li Ning it was who magically ran around the roof of the stadium before lighting the cauldron in the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Romania it was who took the women's team gold over the USA then China. Whereas in the men's it was USA followed by China and Japan.
Women get on your bikes
45 women lined up in the hope of making Olympic history but in the end it came down to a group of 5 broke away from the field and stayed away until the final sprint. They were Sandra Schumacher FRG, Unni Larsen NOR, Maria Canins ITA and the Americans Rebecca Twigg and Connie Carpenter.
Carpenter had started her Olympic career as a speed skater in the 1972 in Sapporo, but injury prevented her competing in 1976 so she took to the bike to get fit. That year she won her first US National title.
The five were being pursued by the French cycling legend that is Jeannie Longo who was still taking part in the women's road race in 2008 at 49. She had realised too late that the pace of the peleton was not going to catch the five riders up the road and despite trying to get across finished 1:21 down on the winner. In the sprint it was Carpenter who just got up half a bike length from Twigg who in turn had just edged out Schumacher.
The Big G Boys
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| Thompson running off last hurdle as Hingsen jumps it |
- 100m 10.44s (948) 10.91 (826)
- Long jump 8.01m (1022) 7.80 (980)
- Shot putt 15.72m (831) 15.87 (840)
- High Jump 2.03m (882) 2.12 (959)
- 400m 45.97s (950) 47.68 (914)
- 110m hurdles 14.34s* (922) 14.29 (928)
- Discus 46.56m (810) 50.82 (886)
- Pole vault 5.00m (1052) 4.50 (932)
- Javelin 65.24m (824) 60.44 (767)
- 1500m 4:35.00 (556) 4:22.60 (641)
The best scores set by Thompson and Hingsen that summer still stand as the national records for Great Britain and Germany respectively.
Surfs up
It was a fresh faces Dutchman called Stephan van den Berg who would take that first gold.
He came 4th in the first race, before a second and first place in the next two. Race four saw him in a lowly 11th, before another 4th and second, then a third.
It meant he could disregard his 11th place finish and therefore his six scoring races were all in the top 4. His total score of 44.70 would actually have been better that silver medalist Scott Steele of the USA, whose net score was only 46.0.
In 1984 he won Dutch Sportsman of the Year for his achievement, he was back at the Olympics in 1992 but only managed 7th.
Some hot college stars
 |
| Ewing and Jordan on the bench in the '84 Olympics |
These three were all soon snapped up by top professional NBA teams. But when the rule change allowing professionals came in in 1989 the three of them were to form part of that first Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics, therefore being team mates in two Olympic gold medal winning teams, one as college amateurs the others as some of the highest paid athletes in the world.
See also my full list of posts about past Olympics
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