SwimSwam will periodically update you on the biggest news around the Olympic and Paralympic world, outside of aquatic sports. Read on to learn about the International Skating Union raising its minimum age for senior competitions, financial challenges at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and an update on the U.S. Olympic gold medal that was stolen last month.
International Skating Union raises age limit
In the wake of February’s doping scandal surrounding 15-year-old Russian star Kamila Valieva, the International Skating Union (ISU) voted Tuesday to gradually increase the minimum age for senior competitions from 15 to 17 before the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Valieva was the favorite to win individual figure skating gold after helping the Russians win the team title. Then a positive doping test surfaced from last December, creating a controversy that overshadowed the competition. Amid intense scrutiny, the Russian national champion finished fourth and faced rink-side criticism from her coach, Eteri Tutberidze.
The ISU said its decision was made “for the sake of protecting the physical and mental health, and emotional well-being of the skaters.” In the age-limit proposal, they cited “burnout, disordered eating, and long-term consequences of injury” as risks to young skaters who are pushed to perform more quadruple jumps.
The change won’t affect Valieva as the age limit will increase to 16 for the 2023-24 season and 17 for the 2024-25 season. However, it could disrupt the career of top Russian junior Sofia Akateva. The 14-year-old’s birthday is days after the July 1 deadline for the upcoming season. Akateva will be eligible for the 2026 Olympics as an 18-year-old.
By comparison, USA Swimming’s age minimum for competitors at Worlds is 14 years old for women and 15 for men. At the Olympics, though, qualifying athletes of any age can compete, as evidenced by 12-year-old Hungarian Judit Kiss swimming in Tokyo last summer. Divers, on the other hand, must be 14 years old to participate in the Olympics.
The news was not received well in Russia, where skaters are currently banned from competing internationally by the ISU due to the country’s military invasion of Ukraine.
“I think it was done to more or less even out the competition, so that our Russian female skaters couldn’t have the opportunity to win world championship, European, Olympic medals,” Dmitri Soloviev, who won a gold medal for Russia at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, told broadcaster Match TV.
“But in my opinion Eteri Tutberidze will find a way to get our athletes into ideal condition at the age of 17 or 18,” Soloviev added, “so that they can show their best results at international competitions at that age in particular.”
Paris 2024 dealing with budget challenges
With a budget of $4.28 billion, the Paris 2024 Olympics have been on track to be cheaper than the Games in London, Sochi, Rio, or Tokyo. But organizing committee president Tony Estanguet recently told senior executives of 27 federations that inflation and supply chain delays have put the budget “at risk.”
“This is why we have two main objectives for the months to come,” said Estanguet, a three-time Olympic canoeing gold medalist for France. “The first one is to continue – thanks to your support – to push optimization and savings even further, behind the scenes, avoiding any risk for the Games delivery.
“And the second objective is to maintain the level of ambition, to best showcase your sport’s athlete performance and send to the world the best possible image of the Olympic Movement. We don’t want to choose between responsibility and ambition. This is why our project remains attractive for the stakeholders and the general public, with 82% of public support, according to the last survey.”
The modest budget is in part thanks to the emphasis on using temporary or existing facilities. About 95% of the venues Paris needs to host the Games already exist, but FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis wants to make sure they meet the Olympic standard – which he acknowledged might be lower than some world championships.
“We fully respect that the Olympic Games may not [any] longer be able to offer conditions equal to some of the world championships – in our case, the basketball World Cup – but I think everyone is ready to accept this because this is about the experience of the Olympics,” Zagklis said. “It’s about the Opening Ceremony, it’s about the Olympic Village, it’s about the feeling of belonging to the No. 1 sporting event on the planet, and in this case, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
“[But] we don’t feel that our athletes should be subject to the conditions that we currently have on the table. I’m talking about being able to be accommodated in Paris, in the Village, to have transportation up to one hour, not three hours to the venues, and a venue which complies with technical requirements. For example, guarantees on the safety of play during the hottest days of the summer, and conditions that we can take care of the recovery and the meals of the athletes.
“We’re happy to fill up the big venues, to help the organizing committee generate ticketing revenue, but we feel some basic conditions for our players, like in all previous Olympics, should be respected since the athlete experience is at the heart of the Games.”
Estanguet responded by reiterating his vision of the Paris 2024 Olympics taking place sustainably throughout the city and its suburbs.
“Everyone would like to play in the center of Paris, in the best arena, in the best location, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and since the beginning globally, you all assist and support [the] Paris 2024 vision to be spectacular, ambitious, but also popular, and putting the sport out of stadiums also when it’s feasible to marry the best of France, the iconic landmarks, with the sport emotions was key for us,” Estanguet said. “It was a promise and we are still on track to deliver it.
“We have to adapt, we have to optimize, we have to find solutions to maintain the level of ambition as much as we can with our budgetary limits, and that’s why we are together studying, optimizing and finding the best optimization, compromise. I know it’s not easy for you and I really appreciate the effort you made already, in the past – in the recent past and recent years – to stand where we stand today. We will still have challenges and probably beyond basketball. We don’t know exactly what will happen in the coming two years, but we have to be ready to adapt, to be flexible, to find collective solutions acceptable – and when I say acceptable, it’s acceptable for you first – but it’s also acceptable for all our stakeholders.
“The public opinion is so far very in support of the Games,” he added. “But we also know that it could be some kind of fragility where we will continue this very difficult context to increase the budget, so that’s why we need to find solutions.”
The budget talks come a few weeks after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released its annual financial report. The IOC’s revenues grew to $7.6 billion in the 2017-2020/21 Olympiad from $5.7 billion in the previous Olympiad.
No medal recovered after suspect arrested
Last week, we filled you in on U.S. Olympic volleyball setter Jordyn Poulter, who had her Tokyo 2020 gold medal stolen from her rental car last month. On Tuesday, Anaheim Police made an arrest, but her Tokyo 2020 gold medal was not recovered.
31-year-old Jordan Fernandez was charged with first-degree residential burglary, second-degree vehicle burglary, felony identity theft, and felony possession of narcotics.
“Unfortunately, Jordyn’s Olympic Gold Medal has not yet been recovered and she is offering a $1,000 reward for its safe return, no questions asked,” the police statement said.
Raising the age limits do not solve the issue of abusive coaches. Young figure skaters and gymnasts will be at their home clubs training just as hard and doing the difficult skills. The issue is abusive coaching. Not age. Look at the Cal situation- that coach was mentally abusing grown adult women. The coach is the issue, not age.
To paraphrase Dmitri, “We’ll continue to dope and cheat and work them over a longer timeline.”
#AthleteLivesMatter
At first though, it seems very discriminatory for the ISU or any International Federation to even have a minimum age to compete. Is there a maximum age as well? My opinion is that an athlete who is good enough to qualify for the highest level of competition, regardless of their age, should be allowed their opportunity to compete. But what does the law say about this. I am going to quote from the Olympic Charter – Fundamental Principles of Olympis Amendment 6:
“The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property,… Read more »
Part of ‘human rights’ is also the protection of children as demonstrated in the UN Convention on The Rights Of The Child. Many would argue that allowing children to perform the incredibly dangerous manoeuvres in ice skating (and gymnastics, aerial skiing, diving etc) is a failure to protect children. As Gymnastics USA has shown even having unaccompanied children in sports camps exposes children to unacceptable risks of sexual and other abuse.
‘Rights’ are rarely absolute or black and white, and are sometimes contradictory. Children’s rights are more complex as adults ultimately have a ‘duty of care’ to them, and children cannot legally do many things like enter a legal contract, manage their own finances or consent to many medical procedures.
International Federations and the IOC are not apart of the United Nations and should not be. They have an obligation to the supporters of their sport to facilitate athletic competitions at the highest level. The fact that a 15 year old girl won the gold medal at the Olympics demonstrates that it is possible to be the best athlete in the world at a young age. If sports government ban athletes who are 15 or 16 from competing, then they cannot claim that the Olympic gold medal represents the best athlete in the world. Let’s say that 15 and 16 year olds are banned from the Olympics in figure skating or any sport for that matter…the gold medal would not… Read more »