By Dr. Sandra Geringer |

I have two very exciting trips planned for 2020. I will be visiting my husband’s (Javier) homeland of Colombia and I will be co-facilitating a trip to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. As much as I am born and bred in the US of A, I have taken great interest in learning more about the Colombianos and especially their sport culture. Javier is an avid volleyball player. He started competing when he was 14 years old. He welcomed the discipline in his life, and the passion he has for volleyball shaped his confidence and he still maintains a healthy lifestyle. He made his college team, and even played for the Colombian National Team. He now enjoys playing beach volleyball and has become a certified beach and indoor volleyball official. He has taught me as much about volleyball as I have taught him about American Football. Unfortunately, I have unintentionally influenced him to be a Cleveland Browns fan… there is always next year!

As I look forward to my travels this coming year, I thought it would be fun to become a bit more familiar with Colombian athletes winning their way to the 2020 Olympics. There were some outstanding performances throughout 2019. Here are the top six athletes (with Javier’s approval) that have had a stellar year and to keep an eye on in the upcoming Olympic Games:

5) Anthony Zambrano – sprinter – Zambrano is best known as being ranked fifth in the world for the 400m sprint. He earned a silver medal in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar and set a national record at 44.15s. He also won two gold medals in the 2019 Pan American Games, one in the individual 400m and one as the anchor for the 4x400m relay. Fans will be hoping to see Zambrano’s proud smile on the photo finish.

4) Robert Farah and Sebastian Cabal – tennis – The Colombian doubles duo captured the two most prestigious doubles championships this year – Wimbledon and the US Open. They also clinched the year-end No. 1 world ranking in men’s doubles. They are the first South American team to achieve this feat since 1986. In an interview with Farah, he mentioned that tennis has become quite popular in Colombia these days. He also stated that he and Cabal are showing the next generation that it is possible to fight and to win these big tournaments. This pair is truly a smashing hit with their followers!

3) Mariana Pajón– BMX – Pajón is known as the Queen of BMX. She is the only Colombian to be a two-time Olympic gold medalist. She won her first national title at the age of 5, and her first world title at age 9. She has won 14 world championships, 2 national championships in the US, 9 Latin American Championships, and 10 Pan American Championships. She is looking to lap Colombia’s colors back to the top of the podium for the third time in the 2020 Olympics.

2) Egan Bernal – cyclist – Bernal won the 2019 Tour de France, becoming the first Latin American winner of the race. It is questionable at this time if Bernal will compete in the road racing event in the 2020 Olympic Games. Although, it is favorable for him to compete because the course has many hills which he excels at and it could be another historical achievement for the young Colombian as well as his country. But, he and Team Ineos are deciding what road to follow.  

1) Caterine Ibargüen – high jump, long jump, triple jump – Ibargüen is best known for her success at the triple jump. She won a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games, however she has pretty much been in the top spot ever since. She won the gold medal in the 2016 Olympic Games. She was named the 2018 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Female Athlete of the Year Award. She had to withdraw from the 2019 Pan American Games due to an injury. However, she is still the favorite to win the gold medal in the 2020 Olympic Games. Her homeland will be jumping for joy for her when she succeeds.

I do have to give an honorable mention to James Rodríguez for being one of the most popular (and many may say good looking (this side note is unapproved by Javier)) athletes for Colombia. He plays middle-forward for the national futbol (soccer) team. Associations affiliated with Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) can send teams to participate in the Olympic Games. However, men’s teams are restricted to players under the age of 23 years with a maximum of three players that can be over that age. Colombia will be sending a team, but it is yet to be determined if Rodríguez will be one of the overaged players.

Like Colombia, every country has their stars and expects them to compete at their peak performance on the world stage. The Olympic Games are the ultimate show for pride in an athlete’s country and just having the opportunity to be a part of such a tradition can be enough of an honor for someone who has given his or her life towards being a champion. And, for me, to be able to not only immerse myself in the Colombian culture but to also feel the Olympic spirit is definitely fulfilling a longtime desire. As much as 2019 was a stellar year – even for me, I am thrilled about what’s to come in 2020 by experiencing the Olympic dream!

The following links contributed to this article:

https://www.eltiempo.com/deportes/ciclo-olimpico/perfil-de-anthony-jose-zambrano-oro-en-los-juegos-panamericanos-2019-398714

https://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2019/10/juan-sebastian-cabal-and-robert-farrah-atp-doubles-columbia/85596/

https://readysteady.tokyo2020.org/en/news/detail/colombia-s-double-olympic-medallist-mariana-pajon-dreams-of-her-third-win-in-tok/

https://www.rcnradio.com/deportes/por-que-egan-bernal-pondria-en-riesgo-su-presencia-en-los-olimpicos-si-va-al-giro

https://www.globalsportscommunication.nl/athletes/most-successful-athletes/EN11866-Caterine-Ibarg%C3%BCen.aspx

Dr. Sandra Geringer is the Director of Recreation Management and Sports Studies at the United States Sports Academy.

By Mike Rowbottom |

The official line following this week’s record sale of the original Olympic Games manifesto – for a sum faster, higher and stronger than eight million dollars – is this: “The identity of the document’s buyer was not disclosed.”

Sorry?

So where is this historic document that was agonised over and re-worked into its finishing form by the founder of the modern Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin?

There is only one place it should be – within the International Olympic Committee’s archives.

But you can only conclude that it was not the IOC that laid out a small fortune for this template of its own being.

Otherwise, surely, it would be publicizing the fact? The indications are that they are not the new owners.

I put the matter to a friend of mine who is an expert on Olympic history, and they too expressed surprise that the IOC had not made its position clear vis-à-vis this formative document.

Has it been bought by a wealthy benefactor, who will present it with a flourish to the founding organization at an appropriate moment? Will it surface in a sporting museum somewhere other than Lausanne?

Or will it merely remain in some bank vault?

The 5,000-word Olympic Games Manifesto was expected to fetch between $700,000 (£535,000/€630,000) to $1 million (£770,000/€900,000) when it went up for auction last Wednesday at Sotheby’s in New York City. But after a 12-minute, three-way bidding war, the item was sold to an unidentified buyer for $8,806,500 (£6,764,543/€7,916,191). The identity of the vendor also remained undisclosed.

The documents were lost during the First and Second World Wars but, NBC News reported, were eventually recovered by a French nobleman, the Marquis d’Amat, who had located them in the possession of a collector in Switzerland.

The manifesto consists of 14 pages hand-written by Coubertin, who presented his argument for the re-establishment of the Olympic Games at the fifth annual meeting of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA) in 1892, which was held at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris.

Coubertin asserted that the world needed a “return to Olympian ideals” in time for the new century.

“It is clear that the telegraph, railways, the telephone, the passionate research in science, congresses and exhibitions have done more for peace than any treaty or diplomatic convention,” Coubertin wrote in the manifesto.

“Well, I hope that athletics will do even more. Those who have seen 30,000 people running through the rain to attend a football match will not think that I am exaggerating.

“Let us export rowers, runners and fencers; this is the free trade of the future, and the day that it is introduced into the everyday existence of old Europe, the cause of peace will receive new and powerful support.”  

Powerful words, and a powerful vision. But as it turned out on that day in Paris, the response from the USFSA was polite rather than enthusiastic.  Reports indicate that those present were more concerned with their own particular issues and preoccupations. Plus ca change…

Coubertin had to paddle hard to maintain his Olympic idea. It was formally presented and adopted at a Congress held at the Sorbonne on June 23 in 1894, although only in tandem with proposals to deal with the pressing issue of the time regarding the threat to amateurism within sport.

The Olympic movement was officially born on that day, and Demetrius Vikelas was established as the first President of the IOC that was then instituted and set in motion.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens two years later.

The auction price reached last Wednesday (December 18) was the highest ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia, surpassing the $5.4 million (£4.1 million/€4.8 million) bid made earlier this year for the New York Yankees jersey owned by baseball legend Babe Ruth.

The jersey in question had been in the possession of a private owner for 30 years – and the current owner is “undisclosed.” Excellent.

As such, the Ruth shirt, with its Spalding label and name embroidered into the inside collar, is lost to the world. It is just a chip in an investment game, to be played again at an opportune moment.

But unlike a shirt that was worn by Babe Ruth, the Olympic Manifesto is ultimately an expression of something intangible – a summation of the Olympic spirit.

As such, its deepest meaning transcends the physical form it takes. So while the original, with all its odd marks, and crossings-out and re-workings, is a timelessly fascinating record of a work in progress, a faithful rendition of the document still holds immense value.

Three years ago, on Olympic Day, I visited the very room in the Sorbonne where the Olympic idea had been posited, and then created – the Salle Greard.

Standing in this moderately-sized wood-panelled room I found it hard to fathom the passions that must have flowed through it on that summer’s day exactly 122 years earlier.

Did the 31-year-old Coubertin, his handlebar moustache yet to take on the grey of age, glance occasionally at the Salle Greard’s assymetric stained glass windows of pale lemon and mauve as he attempted to shape the delegates into acceptance of the vision that had been growing in his mind since he had read Tom Brown’s Schooldays, that paean to muscular Christianity, as a teenager and concluded that “organised sport can create moral and social strength”?

In his closing address to the Congress, Coubertin was exultant.

“In this year, 1894, and in this city of Paris, whose joys and anxieties the world shares so closely that it has been likened to the world’s nerve centre, we were able to bring together the representatives of international athletics, who voted unanimously for the restitution of a 2,000-year-old idea, which today, as in the past, still quickens the human heart,” he told delegates.

“I lift my glass to the Olympic idea, which has traversed the mists of the ages like an all-powerful ray of sunlight and returned to illumine the threshold of the twentieth century with a gleam of joyous hope.”

Yes. It is the sunlight that is valuable. Beyond price.

Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.

By Daniel Etchells |

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Athletes’ Commission has vowed to help globalize the sports and make sure participants all around the world play their part in the process.

The WBSC Athletes’ Commission recently completed elections and now has a full complement of members.

Co-chair María Soto played for the Venezuelan softball national team for 18 years, representing her country at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games – where she was also flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony – three Pan American Games and six World Championships.

As one of the longest-playing members in her national team, the 41-year-old is aiming to make a big difference inside and outside of baseball, softball and ubran discipline baseball5.

“I look forward to the Athletes’ Commission having a key role in 2020, an Olympic year,” Soto, who participated in the Softball Americas Olympic qualification tournament in Canadian city Surrey earlier this year, said.

“I think we can really work together and help the full reinstatement of baseball and softball in the Olympic programme for good.”

She added: “We have started to be more visible to our peers and I think they will have more confidence in us, thanks to the job we are doing.”

Soto’s fellow co-chair, Justin Huber of Australia, recently talked of the goals of the WBSC Athletes’ Commission in an interview published by the International Olympic Committee.

“We’re just continuing to stick to our main strategic drivers, one of which is to be the voice at the executive decision-making level of the athletes, and we’ve got some big projects that we’re working through to achieve that by the middle of next year,” Huber said.

“Probably the biggest, most immediate preparation step remaining is that we have an undertaking to support athlete well-being and safeguarding at the tournament.

“That’s something that we have taken on as a main focus.”

In addition to Soto and Huber, who are also members of the WBSC Executive Board, the other Athletes’ Commission members include Canada’s Ashley Stephenson and Erika Polidori for women’s baseball and women’s softball, respectively.

The list is completed by France’s Pauline Prade for women’s softball, Argentina’s Bruno Motroni for men’s softball and The Netherlands’ Randolph Oduber for men’s baseball.

Oduber’s election, which took place during last month’s Premier12, completed the WBSC Athletes’ Commission. 

A native of Aruba, Oduber is an outfielder who spent six seasons in the Washington Nationals organisation.

He also played in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse – the highest level of professional baseball in The Netherlands – for Neptunus Rotterdam and is currently on the roster of the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.

Meanwhile, Motroni, the starting catcher and team captain for world champions Argentina, was elected the men’s softball representative during the WBSC Men’s Softball World Championship in Czech Republic in June.

He received 53.92 per cent of the votes cast with Australia’s Nick Shailes second on 28.57 per cent and South Africa’s Tidima Kekana third on 16.13 per cent.

All 272 participating athletes in the WBSC Men’s Softball World Championship were eligible to vote, with a turnout of 79 per cent.

Both Oduber and Motroni were present along with Soto at last month’s WBSC Congress and Executive Board meeting in Japanese city Sakai.

Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.

By Dr. Brandon Spradley |

Recently, the Olympic Studies Centre hosted a conference call to discuss key information regarding the Olympic Agenda moving forward.

Just to provide some background about the Olympic Studies Centre, it is the official centre of reference for Olympic knowledge and part of the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage. The centre shares Olympic knowledge and provides reliable and relevant information that stimulates intellectual exchange among researchers and professionals in the sports industry.

The recent conference call was “Online the Line with an Expert – A new Approach to Future Host Elections”. The experts on the call were Mr. Christophe Dubi, Olympic Games Executive Director, and Ms. Jacqueline Barret, Associate Director of the Olympic Games.

The session included a presentation by the experts as well as a (Q&A) session for those invited to the conference call. Here are some of the key changes that were approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and further discussed on the conference call:

• Establish a permanent, ongoing dialogue to explore and create interest among cities/regions/countries and National Olympic Committees for Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games
• Create two Future Host Commissions (Summer/Winter) to oversee interest in future Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games
• The term “Host” does not necessarily refer to a single city but can refer to multiple cities/regions/countries.
• Election timings are flexible and adjusted to opportunities, context, and needs. A new approach has been approved to increase flexibility that will enable the IOC to better react to various developments and opportunities, whether it be strategic, economic, societal, or geographical.

This information is relevant for sport management professionals and researchers; especially those interested in the Olympic Agenda.

If you are interested, here are a few videos about the Olympic Agenda and the legacy of the Olympic Games:

• Olympic Agenda 2020- The New Norm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oybiaEtwBc&feature=youtu.be
• Legacy of Olympic Games: Moving Forward https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmK47842p4g&feature=youtu.be

References: https://www.olympic.org/olympic-studies-centre

Dr. Brandon Spradley is the chair of sports management at the United States Sports Academy. He recently discussed issues related to the rise of eSports in the sports profession.