Olympic Briefs - COC President Re-Elected; Conference Reports Olympic Reform Slow

The Chinese Olympic Committee re-elected President Liu Peng to a second four-year term at the organization’s meeting in Beijing on Friday.

Liu was first elected COC president in 2005 on a vow to raise the performance levels of Chinese athletes.

During Liu’s first term as president, China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and won bids for a number of other international competitions, including the 2010 Asian Summer Games in Guangzhou, the 2012 Asian Beach Games in Haiyang and the 2013 East Asian Games in Tianjin.

A new Executive Committee for the Eighth Chinese Olympic Committee was also elected. The election was postponed last year because of the Beijing Olympics.

Conference Reports Olympic Reforms Moving Slowly

Progress has been slow on reforms that were recommended for the Olympics in 2000 in the aftermath of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, according to reports presented at a two-day conference at the University of Toronto earlier this week.

The reports stated that the IOC is lagging behind in reforms to provide transparency and good governance, increase the number of female members, curb corruption within the organization and promote human rights.

The conference also revealed that the IOC scored low in an assessment of the overall accountability capability of the organization, recording a score around the 70 percent mark.

The reforms were suggested in light of the revelations of efforts by officials with Salt Lake City’s successful bid for the 2002 Summer Olympics to buy IOC member votes through gifts, jobs provided for relatives and medical treatments. A number of IOC members were expelled from the organization as a result.

AIBA President Confident of Women’s Boxing in 2012

Women’s boxing has a good chance of being included on the program for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, according to AIBA President Ching-Kuo Wu.

Wu said in a statement on Fridaythat women’s boxing has made significant progress since AIBA began lobbying for the sport’s inclusion in the Games in 2005.

“Women’s boxing has grown significantly since AIBA put forward its original proposal four years ago and we believe women’s boxing now deserves the opportunity to participate in the greatest multi-sport event in the world,” Wu said.

Wu is also encouraged from an expression of support by IOC President Jacques Rogge earlier this week. Rogge told the Irish Times while visiting Dublin on Wednesday that conditions were right for women’s boxing’s inclusion in the Games .

Great Britain Aims for Olympic Football Team

Great Britain could soon have an Olympic football team, Football Association chairman Lord Triesman said.

Triesman confirmed that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are close to sealing a deal that would create a Great Britain men’s and women’s football team in time for the 2012 Olympics.

“I think it would have been extraordinary to have hosted a tournament as great as the Olympic Games and not to have competed, so I’m very pleased with the work we’ve been able to do and I hope within a day or two to be able to confirm that the whole of that is done.”

Briefs…

…German hockey goaltender Robert Muller, who played for Germany in two Winter Olympics has died of brain cancer. He was 28. Muller played for the German team at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy.

… Robert Jeangerard, a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, is missing from his San Francisco Bay area home, San Carlos police said. The 75-year-old Jeangerard has Alzheimer’s and left his residence Monday night.

Written by Greg Oshust and Isia Reaves