Heiberg "Doing Fine"; High Stakes for Ski Jump; Judo Outraged

Heiberg Back to Work Monday

IOC marketing boss Gerhard Heiberg tells Around the Rings he is doing fine after Thursday’s heart attack and will be back at work on Monday.

"I am doing fine after a minor surgery. Looking forward to seeing you in London," Heiberg said, referencing the April 5-6 IOC Executive Board meeting.

His secretary Unni Johnsen added that he’ll be back in the office on Monday.

Norwegian news reports indicate the 71-year-old IOC member was on ski holiday in the mountains Thursday when he fell ill and underwent surgery at an Oslo hospital. He expects to be released over the weekend.

Sochi at Stake for Women’s Ski Jump

Women’s ski jumpers can only wait and see if their event will grace the program of Sochi 2014.

Friday’s competition at the Nordic world championships in Oslo was their last chance to impress before IOC president Jacques Rogge singlehandedly decides in April which events to add to future Winter Olympics.

An IOC delegation – minus Gerhard Heiberg – was at the city’s famed Holmenkollen hill as 43 skiers from 15 different countries took flight.

Women's ski jumping was turned down twice by the IOC Executive Board in the run-up to Vancouver, and backers of the sport were unsuccessful with litigation in the Canadian courts.

The IOC said the sport did not have enough elite jumpers, a notion the International Ski Federation has fought to remedy with this season’s first-ever women’s World Cup.

Friday was the second time women jumped at the world championships.

Judo President Shocked by Successful Doping Appeal

The International Judo Federation is up in arms about the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s latest decision.

CAS ruled Wednesday in favor of reigning 78kg+ Olympic champion Tong Wen of China after she appealed the doping violation and subsequent two-year suspension that stripped her of a 2009 world championship and would have kept her from competing in the 2012 Olympics.

"Judo is considered as an ethical, fair play and educative sport," IJF president Marius Vizer said Thursday in a statement.

"How will it be possible to explain that a well-known athlete who was controlled positive during a World Championship will be reintegrated into the circuit as if nothing ever happened, because of a failure of procedure, which, once again, was due to the confessions of the concerned athlete?"

Men’s skeleton kicked off Thursday at Lake Koenigssee and wraps up Friday. The women’s field is in action Friday and Saturday.

The championships come to a close Sunday with the showcase four-man bobsleigh.

Koenigssee – the world’s first permanent, artificially refrigerated track – is located roughly 150km southeast of Munich and roughly 200km east of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Bavarian bid’s alpine hub.

Written by Matthew Grayson.