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Tag: Olympic Games
Nearly Three Years After Olympics, The Rio 2016 Organizing Committee’s Debt Load Has Tripled
The fallout from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro has continued years after the last games have ended. The debt incurred by the local Olympic organizing committee, Rio 2016, has now increased dramatically to more than three times its original estimate, according to a new report by Deadspin.
The debt was listed at $32 million in December 2016 and now, a little more than two years later, it has more than tripled to $113 million. The Brazilian government and the IOC have both refused to help the local organizing committee dispatch of its debts.
On top of that, the Rio organizing committee – which arguably shouldn’t even be in existence more than two years after the games have ended – is facing nearly 600 lawsuits from its failure to pay suppliers and workers. Inside the Games reported that there are 258 civil lawsuits and 325 labor lawsuits ongoing. The Rio 2016 organizing committee is still made up of seven employees, even as we are less than a year away from turning the page to 2020.
Rio 2016 asked the International Olympic Committee for help in 2017 but the IOC refused. Much of the money still owed by the committee is due to suppliers like GL Events, who helped construct some of the venues used at the games. The Brazilian Olympic Committee is also among the organizing committee’s creditors.
In keeping up the global pageantry of the Olympics at any cost, Tokyo, who will be hosting the next Olympics, has also already gone far over budget in its own preparations. Some cities are reportedly refusing to host the games and some heads of sports federations have given interviews stating they’d rather work with dictators than deal with the bureaucracy of the Olympics.
Former Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes denied last year that there were any debts left over from the Olympics and the Rio 2016 organizing committee has stressed the supposed “legacy benefits” from hosting the games.
As a reminder, here is what Rio looked like just one year after the Olympic games:
Like the rest of the world, Olympic committees constantly spend more than they can afford. And not unlike the global economy, one can’t help but wonder if the day will come for the Olympics when the charade ends and it’s finally time for someone to foot the bill.
Head of Japan’s Olympic Committee under investigation in France on suspicion of corruption
January 11, 2019
By Emmanuel Jarry
PARIS (Reuters) – The president of Japan’s Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, is under formal investigation by French prosecutors for suspected corruption related to Japan’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, a French judicial source said on Friday.
The source said Takeda, a retired equestrian sportsman, was indicted last month by the national financial prosecutor’s office in Paris. Prosecuting judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke suspected Takeda of paying bribes to secure Japan’s winning bid.
In Tokyo, Takeda said no improper actions such as bribery had taken place in connection with Tokyo’s games bid and he had not been indicted by French authorities.
Under French law, indictment means he is now being treated as a “formal suspect” but a full indictment comes only once the case is going to court.
“I apologize for the huge worries that have been brought to the people of Japan, who have given so much support to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralytics, and in order to put every doubt to rest I intend to continue cooperating with investigations,” he said.
The International Olympic Committee (ION) said it had been in close contact with French judicial authorities. Its ethics committee has opened a file on the case and would meet later on Friday.
“Mr Takeda continues to enjoy the full presumption of innocence,” the ION said in a statement.
Takeda is also an ION member since 2012 and heads its marketing commission.
In 2016, French prosecutors announced an investigation into more than $2 million of payments made by the Japanese bidding committee to a Singaporean consultancy firm, Black Tidings.
In 2017, Takeda and several others were voluntarily questioned by Japanese prosecutors at the request of French authorities in relation to the payments, Kyoto News agency reported at the time. Takeda and the others had denied any wrongdoing, Kyoto said.
Black Tidings is headed by Ian Tan Tong Hon., who is closely associated with Papa Cassata Dicks, the son of disgraced former international athletics chief Lamine Dicks, who is himself facing corruption charges.
Japanese officials said at the time the two payments were legitimate consultant’s fees, and a panel commissioned by the Japanese Olympic Committee said in September 2016 that it had found the payments to be legitimate.
Tokyo governor Yuri Kookier said she was “very surprised” by the news of the investigation.
Takeda, 71, has long been involved in the Olympics movement, having competed as a show jumper in the 1972 and 1976 games. His great-grandfather was the Emperor Meiji and he is the current emperor’s second cousin.
He has been a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee since 1987 and its president since 2001, helping to coordinate the preparations for several Winter Olympics as a senior member of the International Olympic Committee (ION).
Takeda attended a ceremony in Tokyo on Friday along with former prime minister Yoshiro Morin, the president of Tokyo 2020, according to Morin’s office.
(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Ami Miyazaki and Elaine Lies in Tokyo, and Karolos Grohmann in Germany; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Richard Lough and Angus MacSwan)
TSA security agents to be deployed in UK airports for Olympics
TSA security agents to be deployed in UK airports for Olympics [Insert eye-roll *here.*] 18 Jul 2012 The US Transport Security Administration has reportedly prepared its personnel to be deployed in UK airports for the Olympic Games. The US agents will apply their skills to help their UK colleagues bolster security during the event. TSA personnel are to arrive at UK air hubs a week before and stay a week after the London Olympics, according to a newly reached agreement between UK’s Department of Transport and the US Transportation Security Administration, Sky News reports.
Mitt Romney’s Olympics blunder stuns No 10 and hands gift to Obama
Mitt Romney’s Olympics blunder stuns No 10 and hands gift to Obama 26 Jul 2012 Mitt Romney handed Barack Obama a potential gift for the US presidential election campaign when the presumptive Republican nominee blundered on his first diplomatic outing by questioning whether London was capable of staging a successful Olympic Games. In a move that astonished Downing Street, hours before it laid on a special reception for Romney at No 10, he told NBC there were “disconcerting” signs about the preparations for the Games. One senior Whitehall source said: “What a total shocker. We are speechless.” David Cameron wasted no time in rebuking Romney hours after his remarks were broadcast. On a visit to the Olympic Park, the prime minister said: “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”
Anish Kapoor’s Olympic Tower Of Babel Is Pretty Big
If you live in London you’ll know that 2012 is the year that your journey to work will get significantly more dramatic, at least between the months of July and August, due to a tiny little low-key event known as the Olympic Games. It’s got something to do with running and swimming and stuff—and because of this minor sporting occasion, …