#ICYMI -- Nuzman Trial Nearing Conclusion; Doping Cases at Cochabamba; Tunisia 2022 YOG Update

The trial against Carlos Arthur Nuzman for allegedly buying votes for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic bid enters its final stretch.

More than 20 witnesses called in to testify by lawyers for the former president of the Organizing Committee of Rio 2016 have already appeared before Judge Marcelo Bretas. That includes two members of the International Olympic Committee.

The Moroccan Nawal El Moutawakel, an effective member of the IOC, and the Ivorian Lassana Palenfo, honorary member of the organization, are among those to offer their testimony in a Rio de Janeiro court.

Both spoke in French through video conferences on different days. El Moutawakel did it from the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland while Palenfo spoke from his residence in Abidjan, the Ivorian capital.

No other IOC member or official testified at the trial.

El Moutawakel and Palenfo said they were unaware of the alleged purchase of African votes for the election of the Brazilian Olympic venue in October 2009 during the IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Two Doping Positives at South American Games

Two positive cases were registered in the anti-doping controls of the recent South American Games in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

The president of the Bolivian Olympic Committee (COB), Marco Arze, has confirmed to Around the Rings that both athletes are Bolivian.

One is Carolina Ocampo, a member of the 4 x 100 track and field relay team that won a silver medal during the event. She tested positive for a substance called Acetazolamide which is included in the list of banned diuretics and is also considered a masking agent by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Ocampo claims that due to a severe headache during the Games, she went to a pharmacy and asked for a pill to counter the effects of the altitude, but, according to her, the medication she bought had the prohibited substance without her knowing it. "It was a mistake to self-medicate," he said.

The second Bolivian athlete who tested positive is Rodrigo Carvajal, a boxer who won a bronze medal at 91 kg category. The substance found in this case is Drostanolone, a steroid from the Dihydrostestoterone group used for performance enhancement.

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Tunisia Back in Race for 2022 Youth Olympics

The IOC has reinstated Tunisia in the bidding contest for the African Youth Olympics after receiving assurances about discrimination of athletes.

In May, Olympic chiefs threatened to kick Tunisia out of the four-nation bidding race over the issue. One recent case of many highlighting Tunisian government intervention saw four Israelis banned from participating in the taekwondo world junior championships.

The IOC executive board on Wednesday confirmed that Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia are moving from the dialogue stage to the candidature phase.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a press briefing in Lausanne that Tunisia had provided the necessary reassurances "that everyone will be accepted under Olympic values and can participate in the Youth Olympics".

"Therefore we allowed them to carry on with the process," he said.

In a statement, the IOC said it had received the guarantees required from the Tunisian state in a June 26 letter "to strictly respect the principles and rules of the Olympic Movement and the international sports organisations concerned, and to ensure that all athletes and sporting delegations can now come and participate in any international sporting events held in Tunisia, under the same conditions and without any discrimination."

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