2024 Summer Olympics

This year, for the first time, male athletes are eligible to compete in Olympic-level artistic swimming.

Yet, in an Olympic Games being touted as the first to achieve full gender parity, not one man made the cut for the competition in Paris. This has some critics asking questions about gender diversity in the sport and one swimmer calling it quits.

On Tuesday, four-time world gold medallist Giorgio Minisini posted on Instagram that the Italian championships would be his final competition. In a media conference that day, Minisini, who was left off the Italian Olympic team in April, said he preferred "the fear of uncertainty to the certainty of unhappiness."



https://www.cbc.ca/s...etics-1.7267426

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 July 2024 - 08:53 AM.

The Olympics going woke isn't going to make them any more popular and certainly not any cheaper.

Let’s just fast forward to when they allow men “who identify as a woman” in powerlifting and women’s basketball, so the whole world can see what a joke ‘gender fluidity’ is, and we can go back to normal male and female sports.

It's a sad day when even the modern olympic games can't avoid having a tarnished image.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if most people didn't care about the olympics anymore?

Pretty scary thought.

I miss the good old days when the olympics were free of scandal and political interference.

And so forth...

And the athletes were amateurs.

The Olympic flame has yet to be lit at the Paris Games, but the first scandal of espionage is underway.

 

The Canadian Olympic Committee announced Tuesday it has sent home an assistant women's soccer coach and an analyst with Canada Soccer after accusations of spying on an opponent. The New Zealand women’s soccer team said its training session was disrupted Tuesday by a drone − a drone operated by a staff member of the Canadian’s women’s soccer team.

 

In a statement, the Canadian Olympic Committee acknowledged there have been two incidents of drone flying in the city of Saint-Étienne, where the two teams are set to play Thursday. The COC has removed assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi from the team.

 

 

 

https://www.usatoday...da/74522912007/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 July 2024 - 04:19 AM.

Canadian women's soccer coach Bev Priestman removed herself from Thursday's Olympic Games opener against New Zealand and two team staff members were sent home after two drone incidents.

 

Assistant coach Jasmine Mander and Canada Soccer analyst Joseph Lombardi were ousted from the soccer team's staff, the Canadian Olympic Committee said Wednesday in a statement in which it accepted Priestman's decision to not coach the opener in Saint-Etienne, France.

 

The shakeup came after the COC's review of drone incidents in Saint-Etienne. There were reports that drones flew over New Zealand's practice sessions both Monday and last Friday.

 

 

"I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program," Priestman said in Wednesday's statement. "Accordingly, to emphasize our team's commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld."

 

"On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada. This does not represent the values that our team stands for."

 

The COC also said that Canada Soccer staff will be required to undergo mandatory ethics training.

 

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/s...ly-24-1.7273360

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 July 2024 - 05:27 AM.

The uniforms do kind of suck, but they are not the end of the world, plus they hardly matter.

 

Scandal at the Olympics. 😲 Say it isn't so!

She is the freakin' coach of the national team, if she knew what was going on she should resign.  And it's hard to think she did not know, as presumably the intelliegence gathered would be given to her or her assistants.

Canada: Major scandal! Fire everyone!! For shame!!! And....."we're so so so so so so so so so........................................SO very_sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

English Third League Wrexham FC Media team, on Global News today: "Well DONE Canada! You're getting what it means to be a true football nation! That's the spirit! Have fun with it!

Edited by AllseeingEye, 24 July 2024 - 11:43 AM.

Would there be a call for anyone to resign if Canada had simply snuck into the practice facility and watched the competitors ? What if they took notes while watching? What if they snapped some footage on their cellphone while watching?

It doesn’t sound like a serious offence to me. Unless it’s a clear breach of some rule I’m not aware of?

It doesn’t sound like a serious offence to me. 

 

 

Authorities in Paris have instituted a ban on drones flying in airspace both around the city and in venues across the country — restrictions authorities said would be strictly enforced during the Olympics.

 

And that is how, suddenly, Canada is in the spotlight.

 

https://nationalpost...soccer-olympics

 

 

 

 

 

The Canadian Olympic Committee says a "non-accredited" member of Canada Soccer's support team has been detained by French authorities in Saint-Étienne for allegedly using a drone to record New Zealand's women's soccer team during practice.

 

https://www.townandc...one-use-9259196

 

 

 

“Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach to whom Mr Lombardi reports to, is being removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and will be sent home immediately.”

 

Lombardi, 43, was also given a suspended eight-month prison sentence for flying the drone over the New Zealand training session on Monday in Saint-Etienne.

 

https://www.aljazeer...n Saint-Etienne.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 July 2024 - 12:49 PM.

Ok, but what’s the intent of the drone ban? And is the soccer person fired because they spied, or because they broke a municipal law?

If the ban on drones is for security, or to protect broadcaster rights, then there’s no reason to fire them. But if the ban is expressly and specifically to protect teams from spying… then I guess it makes sense.

Would there be a call for anyone to resign if Canada had simply snuck into the practice facility and watched the competitors ? What if they took notes while watching? What if they snapped some footage on their cellphone while watching?

It doesn’t sound like a serious offence to me. Unless it’s a clear breach of some rule I’m not aware of?

 

Canada - which LOVES to fall on any handy sword anytime anywhere to prove what an upstanding, fair and wonderfully lovable country we are - is the only place making this into a big deal. It was wrong. And they need to own up (they did) and take their punishment whatever it is including going home if need be (they are). End of "incident". But various individuals and orgs like our domestic media make it sound like we committed a heinous war crime...

 

Meanwhile the Brits and who take futbol one hell of a lot more seriously than we will ever be capable of doing, are laughing and cheering us on. Other Europeans are shrugging not caring one bit. 

Canadian soccer staffer gets suspended prison sentence after arrest for drone spying on New Zealand practice

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.thestar....c2791d65a8.html

 

 

 

 

 

The analyst, 43-year-old Joey Lombardi, was also given a suspended eight-month prison sentence for flying a drone over a New Zealand training session this week in Saint-Etienne.

 

Lombardi pleaded guilty when he appeared in court in Saint-Etienne on Wednesday, the court told AFP.

 

 

 

https://www.france24...c-drone-scandal

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 July 2024 - 12:52 PM.