Posts with the International Olympic Committee tag

Barris Beat

Perils of tech empowerment

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Drones, the tech equivalent of performance-enhancing drugs?

It’s now been just over two weeks since women’s Olympic soccer players from New Zealand spotted a drone flying over their training session near Saint-Étienne, France. Police quickly detained the operator as the New Zealanders registered a protest.

Within a day, the International Olympic Committee sent the drone operator and Bev Priestman, head coach for Team Canada’s women’s team, home. As penalty, FIFA, the soccer governing body, deducted six points from any Canadian women’s winnings. Meanwhile, Canada Soccer promised:

“(We shall) seek to understand the historical culture of competitive ethics within all our programs.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Summer for women

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Marie-Philip Poulin – Captain Canada scores the winner! Toronto Star

On Aug. 31, I joined my daughter for an event to remember. Canada’s women’s hockey team faced its arch rival – the Americans – in a three-on-three overtime period in Calgary for the International Ice Hockey Federation world championship. Just over seven minutes into sudden death, team captain Marie-Philip Poulin broke in on the U.S. goal and put a wrist shot off the crossbar down into the net for the victory. The Toronto Star interviewed former Leafs goalie coach Steve McKichan after the game.

“That’s the Hall of Fame bardown shot in women’s hockey,” and he went on to say in the history of greatest Canadian hockey goals, “it was top-five.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Principles worth competing for

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Diane Jones (Konihowski) in full flight over hurdles early in her career. University of Saskatchewan photo.

She said it was one the most difficult decisions of her life. She weighed every option. She considered the reactions of her peers. She wondered what other Canadians might think of her, that her choice might turn fellow citizens against her at the time she most needed their support. She agonized over it as she prepared for perhaps the greatest opportunity of her career.

“I considered giving up my Canadian citizenship,” she told me back in the 1980s at her home in Saskatchewan.

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Barris Beat

Empty Olympics

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Courtesy CBC.ca, Susan Nattrass, Edmonton-based trap shooter.

Somewhere in the palatial offices of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, they missed something. Yes, they’ve awarded the successful bids: it’s Sochi, Russia, in the winter of 2014 and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the summer of 2016. They finally got all nations signed on to having women recognized as athletes. That’s all good. But when it came down to the most basic quotient of the games – putting bums in seats – it appears the IOC brain trust has bobbled the baton. The commentators spotted it right away.

“Why are there so many empty seats?” one of them said, Sunday.

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