OLYMPIC GAMES

The British Olympic Association could be landed with legal costs of up to £200,000 if, as anticipated, it loses its attempt to bar Dwain Chambers and David Millar from competing in this summer’s Olympics.

The BOA is increasingly resigned to its policy of life bans for convicted drug users such as Chambers and Millar being overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), though it may have to wait up to another week for confirmation.

While the BOA is anticipating a ruling from the CAS next week, Telegraph Sport understands the verdict may not be handed down until handed down until Friday of next week, or sometime the week after.

The CAS has already postponed its own deadline of mid-April to give it more time to rule on the case, brought following a challenge from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Neither party has yet received a copy of the CAS judgment, and the CAS agreed not to publish the verdict this week after the BOA requested any verdict avoid London’s '100 days to go' celebrations.

The CAS was asked to mediate after Wada ruled that the BOA’s life ban does not comply with the global doping code, under which the maximum ban for serious offences is two years, or four in aggravated circumstances.

As Millar and Chambers have long-served their initial bans, and have both appeared in British teams at global events, they would be free to compete in London if the BOA is defeated. The BOA argues that it should be free to choose who it selects, and to consider “character” issues such as doping when doing so.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London organising committee, on Friday backed the BOA’s stance. “I think it is right for sporting organisations to have the autonomy to decide who they want to see in their teams,” he said.

The cost implications of the case are among the issues the CAS is considering, with the losers potentially liable to meet the fees of the other side as well as their own.

Both the BOA and Wada employed some of the most experienced and expert figures in sports law to argue their cases, and the total costs have been estimated at £100,000-£200,000. With the BOA’s budgets under constant pressure it is a cost it can ill afford as it prepares to send its largest-ever team to an Olympic Games.

Any costs will be mitigated by the fact that the BOA’s counsel in the case, Adam Lewis QC and David Pannick QC, are understood to have agreed to appear for significantly reduced rates.

As well as who meets the parties’ costs, the CAS panel is also considering who should pay for the cost of the arbitration as a whole. In normal sports arbitration cases the CAS is a free service for governing bodies and agencies, but the court is thought to have ruled that this case may not qualify.

The BOA’s life ban has looked vulnerable since last November when, following a challenge by US sprinter LaShawn Merritt, the CAS ruled that an International Olympic Committee’s rule banning doping cheats from at least one Games in addition to its ban was incompatible with the Wada code.

Following a hearing before the CAS last month, the BOA has had little reason for optimism, with those close to the case on both sides predicting that the bye-law would be overturned.

The judgment may not be clear cut, however, with suggestions that even if Chambers and Millar are cleared to compete there will be significant comfort for the BOA in the ruling.

The CAS panel is likely to restrict itself to the legal issue of compliance with the Wada code, and could offer support for the BOA’s desire to preserve team places for clean athletes.

That CAS ruling in favour of Merritt exposed the gap between the desire of the Olympic movement to be tough on doping, and the rules of the agency it founded to police them, Wada.

Wada relies for its legitimacy on a single global standard for doping supported by all its signatories, including on sanctions. Currently it operates a standard two-year ban, and argues that the BOA and IOC rules represent additional sanctions.

Chambers’ lawyer, Siza Agha, said he would not comment on the outcome of the case until it has been published.

Meanwhile, Dave Brailsford, performance director of British Cycling, said he would consider selecting Millar, the British team’s “captain on the road” when Mark Cavendish won the world title last year, if he was eligible.

“My job is to pick the fastest team, the best team that can win that race in London,” Brailsford said. “I will get shown a list of people who are eligible, then I will look at performance and decide.”

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

April 15 - London 2012 has set itself the target of completing the Parade of Nations during the Olympics Opening Ceremony on July 27 in only an hour-and-a-half by restricting the number of officials able to take part in the event, it was revealed here today.

The Parade, during which participating athletes march into the stadium, country by country, led by a sign with the name of their country and by their nation's flag.

Led by Greece, as has been the tradition since Antwerp in 1920, more than 200 countries took more than two hours to complete the Parade at Beijing in 2008.

London 2012 hope that by restricting the event to accredited competitors and a limited number of key officials that this time it will be much quicker, which could help encourage some of the top athletes to take part.

London 2012 are also optimistic that the proximity of the Athletes' Village to the Olympic Stadium will also mean as many competitors as possible are able to take part.

"London 2012 is working hard to make the athletes parade as positive an experience for athletes as possible," Debbie Jevans, the London 2012 Director of Sport, told the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly.

"Athletes, for example, will be able to walk to the stadium as it is so close to the Olympic Village inside the Park and no buses will be required."

The athletes will be cheered on during the 1500 metres wlak by more than 2,500 schoolchildren who will line the route, Jevans announced.

They will also be able to watch the event on giant screens before they march into the arena.

Britain's athletics and swimming teams have already announced that they will miss the Ceremony because they will be preparing for their events.

But the British Olympic Association (BOA) has now agreed a policy with the other sports so that everyone is given the chance to take part in the event.

As the host nation, Britain will be the last team to march in the Ceremony.

"We would like every athlete to be given the opportunity to take part, except where there are exceptional circumstances, such as when they are competing within 72 hours and would have to consider how it would impact on their preparations," Andy Hunt, Britain's Chef de Mission, told insidethegames here.

"We think there is a reasonable contingent of athletes who want to march because it's an incredible opportunity.

"Let's get back to basics where athletes should be at the centre of the Opening Ceremony.

"I hope that London 2012 will set a new standard."

London 2012 has developed its Opening Ceremony plans in consultation with Frankie Fredericks, the four-time Olympic silver medallist, who is the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission.

"London 2012 have put everything in place so that the athletes feel like they are part of the event," he told insidethegames.

"Now it is up to the delegations and athletes to help keep the Ceremony short.

"We need to understand that if it takes three hours to march then athletes are going to get to bed too late."

-Duncay Mackay

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

April 15 - Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard has turned down the opportunity to attend the Olympics in London and also to take part in a major fundraising dinner on the eve of the Games.

The decision has been criticised by John Coates, the President of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).

"I thought London [2012] would be an absolute must for Julia, so I'm disappointed," he told Fairfax newspapers.

"It's a disappointment to us.

"It will be a disappointment to our team.

"You'll find every one of the European heads - [Angela] Merkel, [Nicolas] Sarkozy, [Vladimir] Putin - they will all be there,"

Gillard had been personally invited to attend the Opening Ceremony on July 27 by London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe during a visit to Australia in May last year.

But a spokesman defended Gillard's decision and send Sports Minister Kate Lundy instead.

"This year, as has happened in the past, the Prime Minister will be represented by the Sports Minister," said Coates, who is attending the Association of National Olympic Committees here.

Kevin Rudd, Gillard's predecessor, had become the first Australian Prime Minister since Malcolm Fraser at Montreal in 1976 to attend an overseas Olympics when he travelled to Beijing four years ago for the Opening Ceremony.

"Rudd got it," said Coates.

"I saw him chatting away to all these people and it was a great opportunity."

Coates is also reportedly upset that Gillard will not attend a fundraising event in Melbourne, where up guests are expected to attend.

Gillard will be attending the G20 leaders meeting and the UN Sustainable Development Conference at the time of the dinner, which Coates claimed he understood.

"The only thing I've done is talk to Kate Lundy about it and say if it is irreversible I think it would be wise if you were to get the Prime Minister to put that out as a position before you read about this," he said.

Gillard's spokesman claimed that it was the AOC who were to blame for her missing the event.

"It is crucial that the Prime Minister make Australia's voice heard at international meetings like these," he said.

"What John Coates didn't mention was that we offered alternative dates to the AOC - but the AOC turned them down."

-Duncan Mackay in Moscow

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

Lord Coe claims he can deliver the 'most anticipated' event in memory as countdown to London Games hits landmark
With 100 days until the opening ceremony, the man indelibly linked with delivering the London 2012 Olympics will be fretting nervously, desperately hoping for the best while at the same time fearing the worst.
But once his beloved Chelsea's clash with Barcelona on Wednesday is out of the way, Lord Coe will go back to attempting to project an air of intense confidence in his team's ability to deliver the biggest sporting show on earth.
"One hundred days has got that ring of 'it's here'. It is a big moment," says Coe, chair of the London 2012 organising committee, Locog.
"The really important facet of all this is that it's 100 days before we welcome the world. Of course, there has been interest in other Games. But I don't think I've ever witnessed a level of excitement at this level in so many different countries for what we're doing."
In the face of a towering in-tray, from final preparations for the torch relay to the completion of the controversial ticket sales process and mounting fears of protests, Coe claims the London Olympics is the most anticipated since the modern Games began in 1896.
The double Olympic gold medallist and former Tory MP fishes out a spread of international newspaper cuttings, saying he has had an epiphany in recent months as he has travelled the world. He is just back from updating the Association of National Olympic Committees on final preparations in Moscow on Sunday.
"It's really occurred to me in the last few weeks. From Dar es Salaam to Marrakech, Los Angeles to Tokyo and Beijing – I don't think I've ever witnessed that level of excitement, particularly among the elite competitors," claims Coe from Locog's offices on the 23rd floor of a Canary Wharf tower overlooking the Olympic Park.
"It was a really good wake-up call. We are delivering for 200 countries and many of them have never been as excited about coming to an Olympic Games."
There are longstanding fears that the conditions to which host cities must sign up will stifle the atmosphere – from obsessive control of the Olympic brand to the huge security operation and the "Zil" lanes for transporting competitors, the media and VIPs around the capital.
But Coe promises that the party won't be dampened, even with the 35,000 security guards and police on duty inside and outside the venues and the array of military hardware including a warship on the river Thames and rocket launchers on Blackheath.
"I'm a proud Londoner. I want to show London at its best, the UK as well. I want London to be seen at ease with itself. That's the city I recognise. It's a relaxed city, a great place to be, a great place to celebrate, a great place to be educated," he says.
To that end, he is insistent that organisers will take a relatively relaxed attitude to protests that will inevitably accompany the torch relay, which starts its 70-day tour of the UK in Land's End on 19 May, and to the Games itself.
Protesters claiming that sponsors such as Rio Tinto, Dow and BP are using the Games to "greenwash" their image, and offshoots of the Occupy movement who may use the event as a backdrop to anti-capitalism protests, do not leave Coe unduly worried.
"I don't know if it's inevitable, but we should be realistic. We live in a democracy; we do have a long tradition of peaceful protest," he says.
"As long as that protest doesn't disrupt or become a public order issue or endanger the safety of our competitors or the public, I'm not going to sit here fulminating or becoming completely paranoid about it."
While he was "profoundly depressed" by the antics of the "completely self-indulgent" Trenton Oldfield, who secured blanket media coverage by successfully stopping the Boat Race, he said it was important not to get the threat out of proportion.
"From time to time, you will get people who will use whatever platform is available to them to get their message across. I'm not being cavalier or sanguine about it. It comes with the territory. That is the nature of the country we live in and, on balance, I'd rather live here than anywhere else."
With the 100-day countdown beginning on Wednesday, one of the biggest challenges facing organisers is a simple logistical one. The vision expounded by Coe in 2005 – of a "compact" Games that would not leave any white elephants and use temporary venues in famous central London locations – has left Locog with a big construction task in the final 100 days.
"We are absolutely on the right time lines. But the vision has loaded more work for an organising committee at the back end. We always recognised that, which is why we were keen to get out of the traps quickly," says Coe. "I'd have rather put more pressure on to deliver at the end of the project than be asked what I'm going to do with my permanent water polo venue after the Games."
The other pressing task for organisers is to get the country on board. Much will depend on the reaction to the final tranche of ticket sales. The final batch of 1.2m tickets, aside from 1.5m remaining football tickets, go on sale next month.
Coe accepts it is vital that the sale does not fall victim to the technical issues that dogged earlier sales rounds if public confidence is to be maintained. He insists that organisers are on target to keep a promise that two-thirds of the 1 million who missed out in the opening round of the ballot will get a ticket.
One lingering fear is that the crowds within the venues will be more SW19 (mostly white, middle class and middle aged) than E20 (the new postcode given to the Olympic Park in Stratford).
But Coe says the test events attracted a mixture of fans, and Olympics-linked cultural and community projects have had an encouraging response. "I do spend a lot of time travelling around the country," he says. "The story is there, I see it every day of the week. I was in Becontree and 1,000 new members had joined the leisure centre in January; the diving club 50 yards to the left had tripled its numbers since Beijing because they all want to be Tom Daley. I know it's happening out there.
"I go 10 minutes down the road to Hornchurch and I'm talking to a 16-year-old rock band who have written an Olympic anthem."
He says he has not come face-to-face with Olympic cynics who believe the whole thing is a waste of money in a time of austerity: "I come in on the tube, I'm on public transport. I've been an MP. Anyone who went through the 1992 to 1997 parliament – people were not slow in telling you what they thought. Overwhelmingly, in the cold conversations I have with people on the train, I don't for one minute think people will sit this dance out. I think it will be an extraordinary few weeks.
"I'm quintessentially British. It doesn't feel instinctively right to force-feed people into a funnel of excitement. I just don't think you can do that."
But he remains supremely confident that public excitement will begin to bubble around the torch relay and come to the boil with Danny Boyle's opening ceremony on 27 July.
Coe insists, too, that the most contentious aspect of the 2012 story – the legacy promises made to secure the Games in the first place – are on track to be delivered.
"There is a political consensus that a good sports policy is a good health policy is a good education policy. I don't think there's any question about that. I think we've shifted that dial a long way. It would be quite hard to turn that dial back," he says.
Others are altogether less sure whether momentum can be maintained once the circus has left town and political focus has dulled.
But, before he can look to the future, Coe invokes his experience as a competitor to illustrate the need to focus obsessively on the detail of 100 days that he accepts will make or break the Games.
"It's not at risk of unravelling. But there is not a single person, including me, that doesn't think we've got to do the best work of our lives. This is our time. There are no tomorrows here. We have got to nail this now."

-Owen Gibson

Source:www.guardian.co.uk