Olympic Newsdesk -- Guadalajara Weighs Youth Olympics; Pound Says Figure Skating Corrupt

Guadalajara Decides Next Week on Youth Olympics Bid

Guadalajara Mayor Jorge Aristoteles Sandoval Diaz will announce next week if the Mexican city will continue its bid for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

Guadalajara is bidding for the YOG against Nanjing, China and Poznam, Poland. Last week Guadalajara 2014 suffered a major blow with an unfavorable review from the IOC Evaluation Commission.

Diaz entered his new office earlier this month and faces the tough task of preparing Guadalajara to host the 2011 Pan Am Games while also supporting a YOG Games. A report on OEM.com says that Diaz will announce next week if the city will continue bidding for the YOG. The IOC will select the 2014 YOG host city on Feb. 10 at its Session in Vancouver.

Guadalajara is facing an uphill chance in the YOG race after the IOC report. The commission concluded its report on Guadalajara by saying "the Evaluation Commission believes Guadalajara's project to host the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games presents a number of risks to the IOC." The commission expressed concerns over the lack of budget shortfall guarantee, planning of the Youth Olympic Village and the organization of Guadalajara 2014.

Guadalajara 2014 is an operation of the Guadalajara 2010 Pan American Organizing Committee (COPAG). IOC officials worried that the Youth Olympic Games would be on the backburner while the city prepares for the Pan Am Games. Bid organizers say a separate committee would form if the city hosts the YOG.

Pound Calls Figure Skating Corrupt

IOC member Richard Pound calls the sport of figure skating “corrupt”.

Pound was speaking at a business conference in Canada and reportedly said anonymous judging lead to corruption.

“You don’t know what’s going through (the judges’) minds” the Canwest News Agency quoted Pound. “It’s so corrupt that the judging is anonymous.

“Any time you’ve got judges not having to account for the scores, that’s a problem. In my respectful view, they don’t have control of it yet.”

After a bribery scandal at the 2002 Olympics, the International Skating Union adopted anonymous judging to help prevent corruption in judging.

However, one of the individuals who helped implement the system called Pound’s remarks “irresponsible.”

Ted Barton, executive director of Skate Canada British Columbia told Canwest a “man of his stature should know better to do your homework before making a comment like that. I don’t mean to be rude to Mr. Pound, and I have tremendous respect for his work, but that does not mean he deserves respect for a comment like that.

“Can it be better? Yes, it can. But we greatly reduced the impact of intent, of incompetencies, giving the power back to the athletes to have in their control the points that they earn. We have greatly reduced the ability of a judge to be subjective on the technical part of skating.” Says Barton.

Webb for Olympic Park Media Post

Veteran Olympics media expert Karen Webb is named Director of Marketing and Communications for the Olympic Park Legacy Company in London.

Webb, who began her career as a journalist, served on the media staff for Sydney 2000 before moving to the IOC. She joined the staff of Vero Communications in 2008 and then moved to the Visit London/Greater London Authority last year.

Webb is responsible for the overall positioning and promotion of the Olympic Park, including brand development. She begins work Feb.1.

Webb is one of three executives announced Tuesday for the Olympic Park company.

Jonathan Dutton was named Director of Finance and Corporate Services and Malcom Ross will become Director of Operations and Venues.

The company is responsible for the long term planning, development, management and maintenance of the Olympic Park and its facilities after the London 2012 Games.

Briefs…

…The International Fencing Federation postponed the world epee championships originally scheduled to take place in Kuwait from Jan. 15-17, reports the Kuwaiti News Agency. No reason for the postponement is given.

… Bahrain NOC President Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa was appointed to the national Supreme Council for Youth and Sports. Prime Minister and Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa is president of the council.

To subscribe to Around the Rings Click Here

Written by Ed Hula III.