Daily Archives: November 27, 2021

The Greeks invented athletic contests and held them in honour of their gods. The Isthmos game were staged every two years at the Isthmos of Corinth. The Pythian games took place every four years near Delphi. The most famous games held at Olympia, South- West of Greece, which took place every four years. The ancient Olympics seem to have begun in the early 700 BC, in honour of Zeus. No women were allowed to watch the games and only Greek nationals could participate. One of the ancient wonders was a statue of Zeus at Olympia, made of gold and ivory by a Greek sculptor Pheidias. This was placed inside a Temple, although it was a towering 42 feet high.

The games at Olympia were greatly expanded from a one-day festival of athletics and wrestling to, in 472 BC, five days with many events. The order of the events is not precisely known, but the first day of the festival was devoted to sacrifices. On the Middle Day of the festival 100 oxen were sacrificed in honor of a God. Athletes also often prayed and made small sacrifices themselves..

On the second day, the foot-race, the main event of the games, took place in the stadium, an oblong area enclosed by sloping banks of earth.At Olympia there were 4 different types of races; The first was stadion, the oldest event of the Games, where runners sprinted for 1 stade, the length of the stadium(192m). The other races were a 2-stade race (384 m.), and a long-distance run which ranged from 7 to 24 stades (1,344 m. to 4,608 m.).The fourth type of race involved runners wearing full amor, which was 2-4 stade race (384 m. to 768 m.), used to build up speed and stamina for military purposes.

On other days, wrestling, boxing, and the pancratium, a combination of the two, were held. In wrestling, the aim was to throw the opponent to the ground three times, on either his hip, back or shoulder. In ancient Greek wrestling biting and genital holds were illegal.

Boxing became more and more brutal; at first the pugilists wound straps of soft leather over their fingers as a means of deadening the blows, but in later times hard leather, sometimes weighted with metal, was used. In the pancratium, the most rigorous of the sports, the contest continued until one or the other of the participants acknowledged defeat.

Horse-racing, in which each entrant owned his horse, was confined to the wealthy but was nevertheless a popular attraction. The course was 6 laps of the track, with separate races for whereupon the rider would have no stirrups. It was only wealthy people that could pay for such training, equipment, and feed of both the rider and the horses. So whichever horse won it was not the rider who was awarded the Olive wreath but the owner. There were also Chariot races, that consisted of both 2-horse and 4-horse chariot races, with separate races for chariots drawn by foals. There was also a race was between carts drawn by a team of 2 mules, which was 12 laps of the stadium track.

After the horse-racing came the pentathlon, a series of five events: sprinting, long-jumping, javelin-hurling, discus-throwing, and wrestling.The ancient Greeks considered the rhythm and precision of an athlete throwing the discus as important as his strength.

The discus was a circle shaped stone, iron, bronze, or lead. There were different sizes according to age groups. The javelin was a long wooden stick shape with spear head, similar height to that of a person. In the middle was bound a thong for a hurler's fingers to grip and guide to the correct angle it was thrown.

To Jump long distances athletes used lead or stone weights to increase the length of the jump. These weights were known as 'halteres' were held in front of the athlete during his ascent, and then swung behind his back and dropped during his descent to help propel him.

Olympics Through Time the history of the Olympic Games from the time when athletic contests were held during religious ceremonies until the First International Olympic Games in 1896

Little has changed about the design of Horse racing tracks from ancient Greece to modern times.

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Ancient Greece - Olympic Games

The man who brought the Olympics to South America for the first time has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison after a judge in Brazil ruled that Rio de Janeiros success at securing the 2016 Summer Games was built on a bribery scheme.

The verdict against Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the former longtime head of Brazils Olympic committee and once a towering figure within the International Olympic Committee, came four years after he was detained by the authorities as part of a joint investigation into sports corruption by investigators in Brazil and France.

Nuzman, who also served as the head of the Rio 2016 organizing committee, was found guilty of corruption, criminal organization, money laundering and tax evasion in a ruling published late Thursday. Law enforcement officials who conducted a raid on his home in 2017 found about $155,000 in cash and a key to a vault in Switzerland in which 16 gold bars were discovered.

Nuzman, 79, will appeal the verdict, his lawyer said. He will not have to serve his sentence until those appeals are exhausted.

The verdict, laid out in a 50-page written judgment by Marcelo Bretas, a judge with experience in presiding over high-profile corruption cases, singled out Nuzman as the linchpin of a scheme to buy the votes of sports officials in an effort to secure the hosting rights to the Games. The former Rio de Janeiro governor Srgio Cabral, already serving a 200-year prison sentence for a string of other corruption-related offenses, and Leonardo Gryner, a close confidant of Nuzmans who was also the former director general of Rio 2016, also received prison terms. Arthur Soares, a Brazilian businessman known as King Arthur, who was said to have provided $2 million in bribe money, was sentenced as well.

The culpability is high, as Carlos Arthur Nuzman was the main creator of the illicit scheme examined in these records and thus acted taking advantage of the high position achieved over 22 years as President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, which is why his conduct must be valued more rigorously than that of any corrupt person, Bretas wrote in his ruling.

The courts verdict is the latest reminder of how the Rio Olympics, billed as a coming-out party for South Americas most populous nation, instead ended up as a stain on Brazils reputation. The multibillion-dollar project was mired in allegations of graft that implicated some of Brazils biggest construction companies even before the revelation that Brazil may have only secured hosting rights thanks to vote-buying behind the scenes.

The convict dedicated his public career to making Rio de Janeiro the host city for the Olympics, the judgment said. However, despite such social responsibility, he chose to act against morality and public property.

The revelations in the case also cast the International Olympic Committee in an unflattering light. Throughout the buildup to the Games, it issued statements in support of Rio organizers amid growing news media scrutiny about how the Games were being financed. It also ignored whistle-blower testimony, some of it dating back more than a decade, that Nuzmans conduct while he was the head of the Brazilian Olympic committee deserved to be investigated.

Im so emotional today, said Eric Maleson, a former member of the committee who had written several times to the current I.O.C. president, Thomas Bach, and his predecessor, Jacques Rogge, with details of wrongdoing by Nuzman. I tried everything I could to persuade the highest ranks of the I.O.C. to intervene before this situation got out of control. But they never looked for me, they never called me.

Perhaps now they will call me and invite me as someone who did the right thing.

Maleson was among the witnesses in Nuzmans trial, which also featured the introduction of emails between Gryner and Papa Massata Diack, a former I.O.C. official convicted of corruption in France, discussing bank transfers in October 2009. Gryner and Diack, the son of a former head of track and fields global governing body, swapped emails just after Rio de Janeiro overcame bids from Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to stage the 2016 Games.

Perhaps the most damaging testimony in the case came from Cabral, the former governor, who is serving what is effectively a life sentence for fraud and corruption.

Cabral told the court that the scheme to secure votes through bribery was arranged between Nuzman and Lamine Diack, a longtime Olympics power broker from Senegal and the father of Papa Massata Diack. (Lamine Diack was convicted last year by a French court of receiving bribes related to several sports schemes.)

In his testimony, Cabral supported prosecutors claims that Nuzman directed Soares, the businessman, about which officials to pay, a list that he said included sports legends and former gold medalists like the Ukrainian pole-vaulter Sergey Bubka and the Russian swimmer Alexander Popov. Bubka and Popov have both denied accepting bribes.

Cabral said the seeds for Rios victory had been planted months before the vote, when Nuzman contacted him. Nuzman came to me and said, Srgio, I want to tell you that the I.A.A.F. president, Lamine Diack, is a person that is open to undue advantages, Cabral said of the meeting, referring to a former name for tracks governing body. He can secure five or six votes. In exchange, he wants $1.5 million.

The emails revealed testy exchanges over delays in payments between Rio and the younger Diack. In one message sent to a Brazilian Olympic committee official, on which Nuzman and Gryner were copied, Papa Massata Diack sought assurances that the money would be wired to bank accounts he controlled in Dakar or Moscow. The signature block in the email noted that Diack was writing from Room 2112 of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Singapore.

Maleson, who was ousted from his role as head of Brazils ice sports federation after making complaints about Nuzman, also told investigators in the United States, France and Brazil about a meeting he had with a member of Rios bid committee before the vote. He repeated those claims in court.

He recounted how he had a chance encounter with a senior official connected with Rios bid in July 2009. As the men discussed the bidding cities chances, the official, Ruy Cezar Miranda, an aide to the citys mayor, told him that he had just returned from what he described as a successful trip to Nigeria before making a hand gesture that to Maleson signified that a payment had been made.

The judge said he would send the results of the investigation to authorities in Senegal and France, where Papa Massata Diack and Lamine Diack live. They were among five officials sentenced to prison terms by a Paris court last year for their roles in an extortion scheme that allowed athletes caught doping to escape punishment in exchange for cash.

The younger Diack has also been linked to a series of unrelated sports corruption schemes, including one connected to the awarding of the hosting rights to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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Carlos Arthur Nuzman, Who Brought Olympics to Brazil, Convicted of Bribery - The New York Times

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu, the first Asian skater to win the Olympic mens singles title, dealt with injury in late 2018 and had to pull out of Japans national championships. He returned to compete at the 2019 World Championships, still suffering from an ankle injury, and finished second behind Nathan Chen. Later in 2019, Hanyu competed in his first Japanese championships since the 2016-17 season, but took silver behind Shoma Uno his first loss to Uno. Later in the season, he became the first male skater to achieve a Super Slam with a win at the Four Continents Championships. At the 2021 World Championships, Hanyu took third overall, marking the first finish below second at any competition since 2014 for perhaps the greatest male skater in history. After reinjuring his ankle in November, Hanyu finds himself in the same situation as four years ago in a race to get healthy before the Winter Olympics begin.

Yuzuru Hanyu has one of the sport's most devoted fanbases.

USA TODAY Sports

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International athletes to watch at the 2022 Winter Olympics: Part 2 - NBC Olympics

China's Olympic preparations have been marred by coronavirus, human rights abuse allegations, and former Chinese Olympian and tennis star Peng Shuai accusing a senior government official of sexual assault.

Despite this, Beijing is pushing ahead with test events, hoping that sport will eventually come to the forefront and deliver a memorable Games. It will be a challenge.

Short presentational grey line

When you leave a wintery Beijing city and head north by high-speed train you're soon tearing through an arid landscape.

It doesn't rain in winter it only snows and, despite the cold, it doesn't snow very much.

This is where the Winter Olympics will be held in two months.

How cold can it be? The wind is the killer.

We arrive at in Chongli on a day which is -12C with icy winds howling down off the Mongolian Plateau. Our camera operator gets blisters on her fingers from filming in this temperature. Our radio recorder freezes up and won't work.

It was -12C in Chongli on the day we arrived

How arid? There has been extensive tree planting around the Olympic sites, the latest effort in a campaign over decades to counter deforestation here over centuries gone by.

In terms of the snow, there is only one way to guarantee there will be enough of it for the Games: make it artificially in enormous quantities.

The machines seem to run constantly. You can see them, operating by the dozen, running right up the sides of mountains spraying out huge fans of white powder.

When it comes to the sport, this isn't necessarily a problem.

Britain's Charlotte Bankes says artificial snow can actually make for quick, dynamic runs in her event, the snowboard-cross.

"The speed and everything is going to be key," she says, "and that's the difficult bit so it's going to be challenging for sure to try and get the most out of the track anyway."

She is here for a world cup which is also serving as a test event for the Olympics.

Artificial snow is being used to ensure there is enough of it for the Games

Although we are at the same place, we can only speak to her via video link. There are a series of bubbles which don't connect: journalists in one, athletes and their coaches in another.

Story continues

This is enforced strictly and is part of seeing if these mechanisms work so that there can be spectators at the Games in February. Organisers say they're still planning for this but it seems they have not yet decided how. The Olympics is very close and there has still been no announcement regarding ticket sales.

A worst case scenario would be to bus in crowds of students and Communist Party members who could even quarantine if need be.

The spanner in the works has been a fresh resurgence of the Delta Covid variant in a country still pursuing a complete elimination strategy with every outbreak.

The entire Olympic area around Chongli is now closed off to the outside world.

We are only allowed in because we have accreditation but even that is sometimes not enough.

The Olympic area around Chongli is closed to the outside world

We approach a boom gate on foot in order to enter our hotel but a police officer won't let any of the reporters through. He has been told that only journalists on board a special media bus can pass.

Specific buses are used to maintain the corridors which connect one part of a bubble to another.

After a series of phone calls an order comes through from his superiors to let us through.

It's only by having such separation between categories of people that the athletes can be allowed into China to compete without having to quarantine.

Britain's Ollie Davies, who's here for the Ski-cross, tells us that they arrived on a charter flight and were able to head straight out to train the next day.

Though they've been double-vaccinated he says there has been a lot of Covid testing.

"We had to do PCR tests on arrival and then again on arrival at the hotel and then every day from there onwards. But, if that's what we have to do to not quarantine, then so be it," he says.

Strict Covid measures are in place for global athletes

Apart from helping the athletes to prepare, these test events are also a big test run for the local Olympic Committee.

There has already been one accident chalked up to human error when a Polish luger slammed into a gate which was left open on the track.

It's a learning process so this doesn't happen at the Olympics.

Despite the political and human rights heat being placed on Beijing, the volunteers, the staff and many ordinary Chinese citizens really want these Games to be a success.

Those we speak to are proud of their country, their city and their athletes.

They want the original ideals of the Olympics to shine through but there is still plenty of time for other diplomatic meltdowns to cast a shadow over Beijing before it becomes the first city to host both the summer and winter versions of the Games.

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Winter Olympics 2022: Testing times in the Chongli mountains - Yahoo News

The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or onbangordailynews.com.

President Joe Biden has saidthe U.S. is considering a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. His administration should stop considering this and make it a reality.

With the games just a couple months away, and with political leaderssuggesting this kind of action for a while, its time for the U.S. government to make this strong statement against the Chinese Communist Partys documented human rights abuses, glaring authoritarianismand failure to engage as a good-faith partnerwith the international community on issues such as the origin of COVID-19.

At a certain point, a country has violated too many international norms to be treated normally by the global community. Were past that point with China. The U.S. should lead, and bring other countries along with it, by not sending a delegation of government officials for the winter games.

To be clear, this would not be an all-out boycott from American officials and athletes. The athletes would still attend, so that their years of preparation and training would not be wasted. A full boycottwould be unfair to them, and penalize American athletes for the Chinese governments actions. Instead, a diplomatic boycott would involve keeping top government officials home rather than having them travel to China and help the Chinese government project normalcy on the world stage, as if it hasnt beencommitting acts of genocide against the Uyghur minority population.

And make no mistake, acts of genocide is exactly what U.S. Secretary of State AntonyBlinken has said China has committed against the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group, in the region of Xinjiang.Similar rebukes of the Chinese governments treatment of minority groups have come from around the world, including from 50 independent United Nations human rights expertsand a group of 39 mostly western nations.

The Olympic Torch is supposed to represent peace and hope, but for our people who are living under the brutal Chinese Communist Party this represents global complicity in Chinas extreme repression, Zumretay Arkin, the program and advocacy manager of the World Uyghur Congress, said recently, as reported by Reuters.

It is no great stretch for activists to call these 2022 Winter Oympics the Genocide Games when U.S. officials saythe Chinese government has committed acts of genocide against the Uyghurs. And it should be no great stretch for the U.S. to withhold the diplomatic legitimacy it extends to an Olympic host nation by sending dignitaries to the games. China should not be treated like any other host nation, not right now.

The Chinese government may be able to suppressevidence and mention of their actions domestically, with an authoritarian gripon information within China, but it cannot ultimately hide these actions from the rest of the world. Now is not the time for the U.S. government to ignore the abuses the world can see plainly, even when obscured somewhat by initial denialsthat became deflections; now is the time to lead other nations in recognizing that what the world sees from China is unacceptable.

The world received another reminder of how the Chinese Communist Party treats dissent and inconvenient speech recently, with the hopefully improving saga of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. After she accused a powerful former Communist Party official of sexual assault, she and her allegations were scrubbedfrom state-controlled social media and she seemed to go missing for several weeks. She thankfully re-emergedafter pressure from the international community, but some officials rightly remain concernedabout her well-being and whether her allegations will be addressed. Now is not the time to ease up on the pressure.

There shouldnt be much left to consider. The U.S. should move forward with a diplomatic boycott of these winter games.

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Editorial: US should move ahead with diplomatic boycott of Olympics in China - Bangor Daily News

BEIJING, November 26. /TASS/. The Chinese authorities with the support of Russia and the international community firmly believe in the successful hosting of the forthcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in the heart of China, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian reported on Friday.

"China highly appreciates Russias stance in favor of the Beijing Olympics and hopes that it will be held. With the broad support of the international community, China is confident that it will manage to present a safe and illustrious Olympics to the world," he told a briefing.

The diplomat recalled that China and Russia are "great sports nations". "We always support one another when holding the Olympics," he stressed.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already received an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the opening of the Olympics. Zhao Lijian stressed that the Russian leaders visit "will create a new chapter" in the history of cooperation between both countries at the highest level. "The peoples of China and Russia have great expectations about the upcoming Olympics," he added.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Moscow opposed politicizing the Olympics everywhere in the world including the 2022 Winter Games in China. She expressed confidence that "China would organize this sporting event at the highest possible level under current anti-epidemiological measures."

The 24th Winter Olympic Games will be held in Beijing from February 4 to 20, 2022. Beijing was elected as the host city on July 31, 2015 at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur.

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With Moscows support, Beijing sure of success in 2022 Winter Olympics - TASS

TOKYO, JAPAN - AUGUST 05: Nathaniel Coleman of Team United States of America during the Sport ... [+] Climbing Men's Combined Final on day thirteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Aomi Urban Sports Park on August 05, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

In the last decade, interest in rock climbing and bouldering has been steadily rising in North America. New gyms have opened at an unprecedented pace, and the sport enraptured a new, global audience in the 2018 films Free Solo, starring professional rock climber Alex Honnold, and The Dawn Wall, starring Tommy Caldwell.

But after sport climbing made its debut this summer in the Tokyo Olympics, where American Nathaniel Coleman took silver in mens combined (an event that included the speed, bouldering and lead disciplines), interest has spiked to an all-time high.

In Google Trends, the term climbing reached its highest popularity of the last five years between August 17, 2021; the Olympics mens and womens combined events were held August 3August 6.

How will this surge in interest change the industry in 2022 and beyond?

On August 23, El Cap, the nations largest community of indoor climbing gyms, reported a spike in interest at its indoor climbing facilities across the U.S. Visitation was up at El Cap climbing gyms nationwide this summer and continued to rise, with the highest check-ins of 2021 during the last three weeks of August, which included the Olympics.

During the actual competition, there was a 100% increase in El Caps online interactions.

On the industry side, climbing gear shops are exceeding 2019 sale numbers, specifically in shoes and harnesses, which suggests new climbers are gearing up.

When you buy your first pair of shoes and first harness, thats when you start to identify as a climber, said Charlotte Bosley, the CMO for El Cap and a former competitive World Cup climber and athlete. Its a big commitment; a new climber might rent a few times and then they usually end up committing. Its amazing how often they stay and they stick for a very long time, become lifelong members, meet their significant others, raise their kids in our facilities. Kids become youth climbers and then future Olympians.

Bosley started competing in the sport in the early 2000s. It was definitely way different than it is now; it was a little more unorganized, she said. You had these grassroots events at the local climbing gyms, and wed all compete in little local comps to get to the national comps.

In the peak of her climbing career, Bosley and her husband were both professional climbers, competing in World Cups and traveling around the world, climbing outside. At that time, there wasnt a lot of exposure for the sport. Sponsors could pay for a plane ticket here and there, but we had to work to support our passion and level of climbing,Bosley said.

What a difference 20 or so years makes. Sport sport climbing was the top trending Olympic sport in Google search results during the qualifying events as the world tried to make sense of solving bouldering problems and watched agog as the speed climbers ascended walls in mere seconds.

With the Olympic eyeballs comes Olympic-sized sponsorships; Coleman is sponsored by The North Face, and on August 12, Prudential Financial announced a sponsorship of USA Climbing as well as the fourth athletes who represented the U.S. at the GamesSalt Lake Citys Coleman, Kyra Condie (Salt Lake City), Colin Duffy (Broomfield, Colorado), and Brooke Raboutou (Boulder, Colorado).

Controversially, at the Tokyo Games, the three distinct climbing disciplines were thrown together in the mens combined and womens combined event, as a total of 40 athletes, 20 men and 20 women, competed for two gold medals this summer.

Already, the International Olympic Committee has expanded the event to 68 athletes and four gold medals, with speed climbing as a separate discipline, in the 2024 Paris Games.

Theres no question the industry will continue to experience unprecedented growth between now and then. But in what way?

Most important, says Bosley, is making climbing accessible to everyone. At El Cap, her team is focusing on breaking down barriers to entry, providing access, making sure groups can come in and climb, and giving away time, passes and classes, so people who may not have the means can check it out. Anyone should be able to come in climb, she said.

The final numbers for climbing gyms opening in 2021 should be reported by end of year, and they will portray a more accurate picture of the health of the industry, as widespread vaccinations allowed people to return to gyms that had closed temporarily due to Covid-19.

While 18 climbing gyms closed permanently across the U.S. and Canada during the pandemic, 2020 saw 53 new climbing gyms open in North America. Bouldering gyms comprised 50% of those.

At the beginning of 2021, according to Climbing Business Journal (CBJ), 61 new U.S. gyms planned to open this year or later. Several already haveand they stretch far beyond the usual locations of California and Colorado: an El Cap gym next to Chicagos Wrigley Field, Movement Wrigleyville; an indoor-outdoor event venue in Colorado, Longmont Climbing Collective; MW Climbing, a gym built by two scientists in Lincoln, Nebraska; MetroRock Williamsburg at the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn; a completely open-air venue in San Diego, Asylum; BlocHaven, built in a historic textile mill in South Carolina.

While Colorado is a hot spot for the sport, were seeing interest from people all over the country, especially in cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, and Washington DC where people are making climbing their fitness activity of choice, said Robert Cohen, CEO of El Cap. The company will see its 20th gym open in 2022, in Dallas.

As almost all climbing gyms were considered nonessential businesses during the pandemic, many were temporarily closed during Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. That actually led to a spike in people building homewalls, yet another way the climbing industry has evolved.

But new climbing gyms and homewall projects alike have been hit with the effects of inflation, which has affected all essential climbing materials from lumber to foam and padding to resin for holds, as CBJs John Burgman explored in a piece this summer. Whether the prices of those goods continues to rise will be a significant indicator of the industrys potential for growth in 2022 and beyond.

Whether its on a homewall or at the local gym, however, its clear that after the media shine on climbing the last five years, ever since the IOC announced sport climbing would be added to the program for the Tokyo Games, people who may not have been exposed to the sport otherwise have gone on to pursue it.

Its been kind of surreal seeing climbing breaking into the mainstream with these films, and especially the Olympic coverage, said Andrew Chen, a Sacramento native who has been climbing casually for more than 20 years. So far, I think the impact has been mostly positivetheres a whole crop of young climbers who probably would have decided to specialize in a different sport as little as five years ago who are going to push climbing to whole new levels.

But the increased exposure the Olympics has brought climbing isnt universally lauded. There is concern that the commercialization of and competitive focus on the sport could harm its core tenets.

I worry the newfound exposure and attention on competition will move the sport away from what I believe is the core ethic of outdoor climbing, which is to simply enjoy the rock and the privilege of climbing it, Chen said. As Alex Lowe once said, The best climber is the one having the most fun. The climbing community is notoriously friendly, welcoming, and supportive, and the more competitive climbing becomes an avenue for competitive achievement (and parental helicoptering), the greater the threat to that spirit.

The most important thing is making sure youth who are interested in climbing are able to get in the door and on the wall; if they show a predilection toward competing in the sport, that can come later.

Some climbers will never step foot in a gym, preferring to solve problems on their local boulder. Some will never see the need to go outside, preferring the consistency of wall and the indoor community. But the sport has something to offer everyone.

The level of athlete has risen over the years; now we have youth programs catering to the Olympic format and were starting to see these amazing Olympic athletes being bred, Bosley said.

El Cap, which has always had youth training classes since it opened its gyms, has recently hired a new role for a national youth team director to develop the programs that will develop the future Olympians. There is definitely an increase in people wanting those classes and courses, seeing these Olympians and wanting to be them one day, Bosley said.

El Cap used to have one role that managed adult and youth programs nationally, and split them out because of the demand.

Im kind of jealous, Bosley added with a laugh. My husband and I always wanted to be Olympic athletes; we were psyched we even got the opportunity to climb at the World Cup level.

It tickled our hearts to watch the Olympics and see something we had always dreamed about.

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Interest In Climbing And Gym Memberships Have Spiked Following Sports Tokyo Olympics Debut - Forbes

Who might represent the Rangers and their countries in the upcoming Winter Olympics?

The NHL is sending players to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, China. Which players make the rosters for their respective countries will be a hot debate between now and when the final rosters are announced in January.

In October, the IIHF coordinated with the NHL and the NHLPA to name three provisional players for each countrys mens Olympic national team roster.

Only one New York Rangers player was one of the three provisional players named: Mika Zibanejad, who will represent Sweden. The other two players named for Sweden were Tampa defenseman Victor Hedman and Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog.

So who else from the Rangers might be headed to the Olympics? Here are a few options.

Zibanejad is already on the list for Sweden.

When the USA named their three, the defenseman on the list was Chicagos Seth Jones a surprise, until you consider the person who named the three players was then-Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman (who has since resigned both in Chicago and from USA Hockey duties). Fox is a lock to be a top-pair defenseman for the United States.

Panarin will be a top-six forward for Russia. They already named Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov, so Panarin may slot in as a second-line winger on a very good team.

Both of these young forwards could impress enough as the season continues to play important roles for their countries in the Olympics.

Shesterkin has an uphill climb in front of him. Russia already announced Andrei Vesilevski and two other goaltenders in town Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin might be the other two netminders on the Russian roster.

Kreider could be a useful bottom-six forward for the United States. Well see if he gets an invite in January when the rosters are formally announced.

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Which New York Rangers could be headed to the Winter Olympics? - Elite Sports NY

Although they did not win, Cameron Rittenour's curling team Team Brundidge competed in the trials in Omaha, Neb., from Nov. 12-21.

"It was a great opportunity for them to be on the ice with all these people," said Cameron's mother, Alexandria native Kathleen Rittenour. "It was pretty cool."

One of the reasons Kathleen was so excited for her son to be in the Olympic Trials is that he's still relatively new to the sport, with only five years of experience.

As a member of the Bosek snowmobile racing team, Cameron was involved in a serious snowmobile accident, injuring his hand.

"We told him he had to pick up a new winter sport, and he had a friend back in college at (North Dakota State University) that was a curler," Kathleen said.

Cameron picked up the sport himself and found success with it early on, becoming one of the best "sweepers" in the country, Kathleen said.

"He went to nationals every year so far because he picks good teammates," she said. "The teammates that he has picked have made all the difference in the world."

Nevertheless, Cameron's team is still "pretty new," Kathleen said.

"All the other teams have got junior champions, world champions, Olympic champions on them, and then you've got Cameron's team," she said.

The very first competition in the Olympic Trials was between Team Brundidge and Team Shuster, which includes John Shuster, who has been to the Olympics four times so far, and won the gold medal in curling in 2018.

Team Shuster ultimately won the trials this year, as well, and Shuster, a Duluth native, will be attending his fifth Olympic Games when he heads to Beijing.

Team Brundidge made it to the Olympic Trials after scoring second place in the national tournament this year, Kathleen said.

Six men's teams and six women's teams competed at the Olympic Trials in Omaha, she said.

"By having six, they played five other teams twice throughout the week, and then the two that had the best records competed for the Olympics," Kathleen said. "If there was a tie, then they would have done the tie-breaker between prior to the two top ones. But there wasn't a tie. It was pretty clean-cut."

Although Cameron didn't make the Olympics this time around, Kathleen said competing at the Trials was still a great experience.

"All in all, I'm super proud of my son to be at that level so quickly," she said.

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC), suspended AIBA in 2019 and conducted the Tokyo Olympics boxing event through a task force

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Lausanne: Desperate to save boxing's future as an Olympic sport, the suspended International Boxing Association (AIBA) has accepted crucial governance reforms suggested by an independent group, including holding elections by June next year, elevating the Secretary General's role and appointing a liaison officer to handle its troubled equation with the IOC.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which suspended AIBA in 2019 and conducted the Tokyo Olympics boxing event through a task force, has reiterated "that serious concerns about AIBA's governance, finances and refereeing and judging remain" and the future of boxing in the 2024 Paris Games is not secure.

The AIBA has responded by stating that it would do all that the IOC demands of it.

"...the Board of Directors is recommending to the Congress that elections shall be conducted no later than 30 June 2022," the AIBA stated.

"As an option, these elections may take place during the AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Istanbul, that were rescheduled to May 2022, however, the exact date to be determined by the Board on 31 December 2021 at the latest," it added.

The decision to implement the reforms came ahead of the AIBA Extraordinary Congress on December 12 at a meeting of its Board of Directors.

The Board unanimously approved the recommendations and constitutional amendments in a report by independent Governance Reform Group (GRG), led by Professor Ulrich Haas.

"Throughout the last year, AIBA has made continued progress in terms of sporting and financial integrity as well as good governance. Professor Haas and his team of independent legal experts have pointed us in the right direction, so that we can achieve a level of governance that is best practice for international federations," said AIBA President Umar Kremlev.

"I also urge all AIBA Member Federations to study the recommended changes and make a decision with the best interests of the future for our sport and our athletes in mind. Boxing should always come first," he added.

The enhancement of Secretary General's role would include assigning the responsible person the tasks of a CEO.

"...a person who not only administrates, but leads and manages AIBA's affairs," and to be overseen by the President.

"...the Secretary General should be, in principle, the sole legal representative of AIBA," the recommendation stated.

Among other proposed reforms, the independent GRG has recommended reducing the number of AIBA Board of Directors, and the world body has responded by agreeing to limit the size of the Board to 18.

Comprehensive eligibility checks will be in place to "ensure the best possible leadership team."

The developments are in addition to the establishment of an independent Boxing Integrity Unit which will be empowered to address competition manipulation, abuse, harassment, eligibility checks of election candidates and other issues.

The GRG also proposed establishing a new interdisciplinary Strategy Committee to review AIBA's long-term strategy, develop mid-term and short-term goals.

"The proposed constitutional amendments aim to significantly improve AIBA's governance with focus on integrity, democracy, checks and balances," said Professor Haas.

"While they are yet to be approved by the Congress, this decision by the AIBA Board of Directors to adopt the measures proposed by our group can certainly serve as a basis for real and positive change," he added.

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AIBA reforms push to secure boxings Olympic future; polls in 2022, liaison officer to work with IOC - Firstpost