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Hussein Haleem: The Games changed my life

07/11/2014

Hussain Haleem’s life changed for good the day he became the Maldives’ first ever Olympic flag bearer, at Seoul 1988. In the latest video in our “Words of Olympians” series, the intrepid marathon runner tells his remarkable story.

Hussain Haleem of the Maldives made a little piece of national history at the Opening Ceremony of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, when, at the age of just 19, he became his country’s very first flag bearer.
Describing the impact that experience had on him, he says: “That was the first time Maldives actually participated [at the Games]. I got the honour of carrying the flag, and it’s very difficult to explain right now, because until 1988 I was a high-school dropout and I was just a nobody. But carrying the flag into the Olympic Stadium changed my whole life. That experience is still the best memory, or the best experience I have had so far in my life.”
Reflecting on an inspiring night and the change it bring about in him, he adds: “When I walked into that stadium with 100,000 people and I’m carrying the weight of my country, I felt I had a purpose, something to give back.
“I cannot be the old person that I was, because I was a high-school dropout and I was just running around the island doing nothing other than just running. I wanted to be a role model to my people so I started studying. I started doing night classes. I learned English and then because of my Olympic participation a few years later I got a scholarship from Australia to study, and I went there for five years.” 
Though Haleem failed to reach the finish line in the marathon in Seoul, he returned to the event at Barcelona 1992, where he came in 86th. Since then he has been doing a lot more than long-distance running.
As well as embarking on a PhD in sports coaching theory, he has become a national coach, a vice-president of the Maldives Olympic Committee and a member of the National Sports Council. To cap it all, in 2013 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the National Defence Force, where he holds the position of director of sport.
Haleem continued his university studies in Sydney and the University of Otago in New Zealand and published a number of research papers. In recognition of his achievement in becoming the first Maldivian national to be presented with a sports PhD, he received the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence in 2006.
Displaying the same stamina and tenacity he once showed on the Olympic stage, the intrepid Haleem has come a long, long way since he carried the flag for his country that distant September afternoon in Seoul.

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IOC President praises Sierra Leone NOC for quick action in fight against Ebola

©Thananuwat Srirasant (JOKE)

07/11/2014

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach today met Dr Patrick Coker, the President of the Sierra Leone National Olympic Committee (NOC), to discuss efforts to fight against Ebola.

President Bach praised the NOC for its swift action in supporting the United Kingdom’s Joint Ebola Task Force in setting up an Ebola treatment facility in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The two met at the General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) in Bangkok, Thailand.
An official from the UK Joint Ebola Task Force said hundreds of lives could have potentially been saved as a result of the quick approval by the NOC, coordinated by the IOC, to allow work to begin on the site at the Milton Margai College of Education and Technology (MMCET). Earlier this year, the Sierra Leone NOC continued work at the college on its OlympAfrica project to develop sporting infrastructure in the country. The project includes a 400-metre athletics track, football pitch and facilities for other Olympic sports such as tennis, volleyball, basketball and aquatics.
“I would like to thank the NOC of Sierra Leone for its swift action and stepping in to help with the tragedy that is sweeping through West Africa. It is good to see sporting organisations playing their part and offering their support,” said President Bach.
The IOC also promised assistance to the NOC to help the athletes and the Olympic Movement in Sierra Leone. “We want to help athletes in Sierra Leone in their day-to-day activities and in their preparations for any upcoming events,” the IOC President added.
The UK Government has plans to build six Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone, one of the countries hardest hit by the recent outbreak of the virus, which has already claimed over 4,800 lives in eight affected nations (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, and the United States of America).
For more information on Ebola, please visit the UN’s Global Ebola Response site.

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The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, helping athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.

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IOC disqualifies athlete for violating anti-doping rules at the Summer Youth Olympic Games

05/11/2014

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today reported that one athlete committed an anti-doping rule violation during the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG), which took place in August in Nanjing, China.

The athlete, who competed in taekwondo, tested positive for the diuretic Furosemide, a prohibited substance. After reviewing the files and information at hand, the IOC Disciplinary Commission, set up by the IOC President and chaired by IOC member Richard Pound, disqualified the athlete from the 2014 YOG. Due to the fact that the athlete was a minor at the time of the anti-doping violation, the IOC has chosen not to disclose his/her name.
The Disciplinary Commission also called upon the World Taekwondo Federation and the respective National Olympic Committee to gather additional information in relation to the circumstances that led to such an anti-doping rule violation with respect to not only the athlete, but also the entourage - be it coaches, doctors or other medical staff.
The IOC is placing strong emphasis on investigating the entourage of the athletes. A Commission chaired by IOC member Sergey Bubka was specifically created back in 2010 to address the responsibility of the athletes’ entourage in the case of doping allegations as well as to educate athletes, coaches and the athletes’ support staff through the provision of guidelines.
Education on anti-doping, in particular for minors, is essential to protect clean athletes. The IOC Disciplinary Commission clearly indicated that the athlete should be provided with some additional support and information on the danger of doping.
As part of the “Learn and Share” Programme put in place during the YOG in Nanjing, an interactive educational booth run by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and called “Say No to Doping” was at the athletes’ disposal, including information provided by specialists from all around the world. 
The IOC conducted 596 tests (490 urine and 106 blood) during the YOG in Nanjing. All samples were tested at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Beijing.
Tests were conducted pre- and post-competition. Doping controls included testing for all prohibited substances and methods listed in the WADA Prohibited List.
As part of its zero-tolerance policy against doping, the IOC is storing samples collected during the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games for 10 years to conduct further analysis should new fully validated tests to detect new prohibited substances/methods become available.

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The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, helping athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.

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Nanjing 2014: Diver Yang Hao swoops to double gold

03/11/2014

China’s Yang Hao dominated the men’s events at Nanjing 2014, claiming both individual golds. He was joined on the podium on both occasions by Mexico’s Rodrigo Diego Lopez and Canada’s Philippe Gagne, who each came away with a silver and bronze.

Yang plays it cool

Though the crowd at Nanjing’s Natatorium greeted his victory in the men’s 3m springboard with understandable enthusiasm, 16-year-old Chinese diving sensation Yang Hao appeared largely unmoved. After recording a winning score of 614.80, he simply said: “I’ve just realised I’ve got the gold medal. I’m not too moved, I’ve simply done my job out there.”
The undemonstrative ace brought the home fans to their feet with his final dive, a 3.0-degree-difficulty forward two-and-a-half somersault with one twist that earned him almost perfect marks from the judges. “The crowd cheering so warmly helped me a lot,” acknowledged Yang. “I was feeling a little nervous in the beginning but felt better dive after dive.”
Yang, who comfortably held off his rivals in the final, added that he was not particularly satisfied with his performance: “During training I generally do better than this.”
Mexico’s Rodrigo Diego Lopez stacked up 593.65 points to land the silver. “I feel really good,” said the Mexican. “Through the competition I always expected the gold. At the end it doesn’t come [home] with me but I am happy with the result.”


Bronze medallist Philippe Gagne (CAN) said he was surprised to find himself on the podium. “I didn’t expect a medal. I was expecting maybe top five, top four, but a medal feels great,” he commented.
The Canadian clinched his place on the podium with his last two dives. The first of them, a 3.5-degree-difficulty reverse three-and-a-half somersault, took him into fourth, with the second, a reverse one-and-a-half somersault with three-and-a-half twists, easing him into the top three.
“I saved those for my last two dives, the high difficulty, and they were the dives I was most stressed about,” he explained.
Two out of two for Yang Hao
Yang then wrapped up his brilliant contribution to Nanjing 2014 by winning the men's 10m platform gold medal, matching the achievement of his female compatriot Wu Shengping.
The gulf in class between the Chinese diver and his rivals was reflected in a winning margin of 134.20 points.
“Yang is a great diver,” said silver-medallist Philippe Gagne. “All his dives are very, very good, all the time. I'm really impressed by his consistency.”
Yang’s penultimate effort – an armstand back triple somersault – was his most difficult of all and brought him three 10s, three 9.5s and a 9 in a stunning total of 101.50 points.
“Of course I felt some pressure from seeing him dive,” Gagne said, in reference to the Chinese star, the only man to break the 100-point barrier in the final. “On all his dives he usually came up with an average of 9.5 points. I was trying to maybe get those marks to get closer to him but it was kind of hard.”
Greeting victory with a minimum of words, Yang insisted he felt no pressure and revealed the secret of his success: “My mentality? Not to think too much,” he said.
With Yang in a class of his own, Gagne’s only goal was to improve on the bronze he won in the 3m springboard competition, an objective he duly reached when 3m silver-medallist Rodrigo Diego Lopez made a mistake on his fourth dive.
“Today I was expecting just a bronze, like I did from the 3m [event],” Gagne said. “Getting a silver is more than I expected so I'm very proud of myself. My preparations didn't go too well and I didn't expect to get two medals here.”


He added: “The key today was to stay concentrated. Before the Games, I used to think about my harder dives when I was doing another dive, but now I just go one dive at a time and try not to think about the other dives. I also tried to think what can go right about a dive and not what can go wrong.”

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Historic milestone: United Nations recognises autonomy of sport

©IOC/Richard Juilliart

03/11/2014

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today welcomed the historic recognition by the United Nations of the autonomy of the IOC and sport.

The recognition comes in a resolution adopted by consensus at the 69th regular session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. The document states that the General Assembly "supports the independence and autonomy of sport as well as the mission of the IOC in leading the Olympic Movement".
IOC President Thomas Bach had emphasised the need for the autonomy of sport in a speech he delivered to the UNGA in New York in November 2013. "Sport [is] truly the only area of human existence which has achieved universal law," he said at the time. "But to apply this universal law worldwide, sport has to enjoy responsible autonomy. Politics must respect this sporting autonomy."
The resolution acknowledges sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace, and highlights the important role of the IOC and the Olympic Movement in achieving these goals. 
It recognises "that major international sports events should be organised in the spirit of peace, mutual understanding, friendship, tolerance and inadmissibility of discrimination of any kind and that the unifying and conciliative nature of such events should be respected". This clearly implies that full participation at sporting events is encouraged, and that in turn boycotts are incompatible with this UN request for respect of the values of sport.
"We highly welcome this resolution as a historic milestone in the relations between sport and politics," President Bach said today. "We must form partnerships with political organisations based on this recognition of the autonomy of sport. The excellent relations between the UN and the IOC can in this respect serve as an example for relations on the national level between National Olympic Committees and national governments. This relationship with governments requires that sport always remains politically neutral."
The UN acknowledged the Olympic Charter, and in particular Principle 6, that "any form of discrimination is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement". This acknowledgement reflects the IOC’s responsibility to have Principle 6 and the Olympic Charter fully respected at the Olympic Games and in its Olympic activities.
As a sports organisation, the IOC does not, however, have a mandate to impose measures on sovereign states outside its own fields. The Olympic Games can show the world and the host country that a peaceful society is possible, that competition among people can happen in harmony and with respect for the dignity of all.
In a letter to the Presidents of the 205 National Olympic Committees, the IOC President called on them to strengthen the autonomy of sport in their countries and, in any dialogue with their national political leaders, to encourage them "to give sport due consideration in the context of the UN post-2015 Development Agenda".
"It is essential that NOCs work with national governments to integrate sport into those goals, particularly in the fields of education, health, urban planning, cohesion of society and peace-building," President Bach wrote.
The announcement by the UNGA was taken after the UN Secretary-General presented a biennial report on Sport for Development and Peace. The IOC, enjoying UN Observer Status since in 2009, was represented by IOC member and Permanent Observer of the IOC to the United Nations Mario Pescante.
In his speech on behalf of the IOC, Pescante said: "The IOC’s collaboration with the UN demonstrates the positive impact that results from effective engagement between sport, business, politics, culture and other aspects of society. Sport can change the world, but it cannot change the world alone. That is why the IOC, under the leadership of President Thomas Bach, is engaging more than ever before with political and business leaders at the highest levels."
The UN Secretary-General will report back to the UNGA at its 71st Session on the implementation of the initiatives outlined in the resolution during an item on the agenda called "Sport for development and peace".

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The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, helping athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.

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To request archive photos and footage, please contact our Images team at: images@olympic.org.
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Anum Bandey, flying the flag for Pakistani swimming

31/10/2014

At London 2012, Pakistani swimmer Anum Bandey achieved her ambitious goal of trimming a whole three seconds off her country’s 400m medley record. In the latest instalment of our “Words of Olympians” series, she recalls her Olympic experience.

In taking to the starting block for the semi-final of the women’s individual 400m medley at London 2012, Anum Bandey became only the third female Pakistani swimmer in history to compete in the Olympics, following in the footsteps of Rubab Raza at Athens 2004 and Kiran Khan at Beijing 2008.
Pakistan’s lone female swimmer at London 2012, the 15 year-old felt very much at home. Although opting to represent Pakistan, the country of her parents’ birth, she herself was born and brought up in the English capital, and continues to live and train there.
She owed her Olympic place to the wild card invitation she received from the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) following her performance at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, where she broke the Pakistani women’s individual 400m medley record for the first time.
“I was really nervous at the start because I knew that all my family back home was watching and loads of my friends and my coach were in the audience,” she says, reflecting on her race in London. “But I knew that I’d done the training so I was confident that I would do well. I think at the end of my race, when it got to the freestyle, I was really tired, but I knew I had the endurance to push myself.”
Though she was unable to make it through to the final, Bandey’s time of 5:34.64 earned her a place in her country’s sporting annals, which she was thrilled about. “My main aim was to break the Pakistani national record, which I did by three seconds. When I looked at my time I was really happy. You can’t really explain how you feel because it’s just amazing.”
The teenager also enjoyed plenty of unforgettable moments away from the pool at London 2012. “To share time and experiences with people from all over the world, it’s an amazing thing, because loads of your role models are here and you can look at them and you can see how they train, what they eat, so you improve yourself as well as looking at them. It’s amazing.”

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UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Youth Refugees and Sport completes first UN mission in Jordan

©CIO/Richard Juilliart

29/10/2014

IOC Honorary President Jacques Rogge completed his first mission as Special Envoy of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General for Youth Refugees and Sport.

With the goal of raising awareness on the conditions of youth refugees and the impact of sport for their well-being, Rogge visited Syrian refugees currently living in the UN camp of Azraq, located in the desert 100 kilometres east of the Jordanian capital, Amman. He was accompanied by HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, IOC Member in Jordan and President of the National Olympic Committee.
The Azraq camp formally opened last April and is run by the Jordanian authorities with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its humanitarian partners. The camp currently hosts 5,000 shelters housing some 18,000 refugees.
During the visit Rogge spent time with refugee families and youth. He also visited the site that will soon host a multi-sport playground financed by the IOC. In addition to providing the facility, the IOC, together with local partners, will also implement a full programme for kids to play sports including football, volleyball, basketball, field hockey, and handball in addition to taking part in the recreational programme already underway in the camp. The facility and the programme will be designed to encourage girls to also participate.  Almost all children in the Azraq camp have experienced traumatic forms of violence and sport is considered a key component to their healing process. The sports programme should be operational in the course of 2015 and aims to benefit over 2,000 young people/refugees per year.
©CIO/Richard Juilliart “I am really honoured to have been appointed to this role and grateful to the UN Secretary-General for the trust he put in me. This first mission has been particularly moving and inspiring,” said Special Envoy Rogge. “Refugee populations are largely composed of young people and children and having talked to families today there is no doubt that leisure and physical activities can have a positive impact on their lives in disarray.”
“Sport will improve their physical health, give these refugee youth a sense of enjoyment and hope, and bring structure to their daily routine,” he continued. “We cannot underestimate the important role of sport and I am proud to be here to see that these are not only words but a reality.”
Rogge was appointed Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Youth Refugees and Sport last April in New York when the IOC and the UN signed a historic agreement aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two organisations. 
The IOC, which has been working in close collaboration with the UNHCR for two decades, has already seen thousands of refugees benefit from sports programmes and equipment donated by the IOC. 
Since 2004, the IOC and UNHCR have organised a “Giving is Winning” programme in the run-up to the Summer Olympic Games. This global solidarity campaign has become an iconic experience through which athletes, officials and sponsors of the Olympic Games, National Olympic Committees , International and National Federations, and other Olympic Movement stakeholders have expressed their support for young people in need, particularly in refugee camps, by donating tens of thousands of clothing items . The campaign has already collected over 170,000 items of clothing, which have reached refugees in 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.
In 2013 and 2014, the IOC, Worldwide Olympic Partner Samsung and the UNHCR have joined forces to distribute IOC Sports Kits to more than 180,000 internally displaced young people living in refugee camps in 20 countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America.
In Namibia, the IOC, UNHCR, and the local NOC implemented a Sport and Education programme for some 8,500 young people living in the Osire refugee settlement in the centre of the country. The programme was specifically designed to involve young people in sports activities in order to alleviate some of the major problems affecting them, namely teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (such as HIV) and drug abuse.

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The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, helping athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.
For more information, please contact the IOC Media Relations Team:
Tel: +41 21 621 6000 e-mail: pressoffice@olympic.org, or visit our web site at www.olympic.org.
Broadcast quality footage
Please use the following link to download broadcast-quality footage to help you with your coverage of this event: http://vimeopro.com/afpservices/ioc-jordan
password: IOC JORDAN
 This video news release includes:
- Footage of Jacques Rogge’s visit to the UN camp of Azraq
- An interview with IOC President Thomas Bach in English and French
Photos
For a selection of photos from this event, please go to www.afpforum.com, or contact images@olympic.org.
VideosYouTube: www.youtube.com/iocmedia
Social mediaFor up-to-the-minute information on the IOC and regular updates, please follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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