Monthly Archives: July 2023

One Year to Paris: World Politics Drive 2024 Concerns

The Summer Olympics are back. 

Expect that to be the message as Paris marks one year to go until the 2024 Games.

 

IOC Pres. Thomas Bach and leaders of a dozen national Olympic committees from around the globe will celebrate the day Wednesday at Paris 2024 headquarters. They are gathering for the official invitation for the athletes of the world to come compete in Paris.

Bach and colleagues have reason to be joyful about Paris. This will be the first time since 2016 for a Summer Games to be held without the crushing rules and regimentation of the Covid 19 crisis. These Olympics are supposed to mark a return to noisy crowds and full venues that were forbidden under Covid rules.

But they also are the first Olympics in Europe to be held while three of its nations engage in bloody warfare. The Olympics stopped for World War I and World War II. No one has suggested Paris do likewise.

 

Against the uncomfortable backdrop of an unprovoked war against Ukraine by Russia and its ally Belarus, leaders of the IOC and Paris 2024 will publicly assure everyone that the Games are in good  shape and ready to make the most of the 12 months known as the delivery phase.

Economy, Not Excess

Compared to some previous Summer Games, Bach and friends would be correct. No one is worrying if venues will be ready on time. Nor is anyone worrying about cost overruns for giant projects, because organizers have used existing facilities.

Indeed, Paris may be the Olympics that proves the IOC has succeeded in turning the Summer Games in a new direction. Sustainability is the overall driver with the objective to cut costs and complexity (and IOC demands) for host cities. 

Bach is the driving force behind the reforms known as Olympic Agenda 2020. They were adopted unanimously by the IOC soon after he took office 10 years ago. Another supplemental group of changes was adopted in 2020, covering the last five years of his mandate.

“Change or be changed” has been Bach’s refrain as he shepherded reforms at the IOC and their implementation at two organizing committees, Paris and Los Angeles 2028. Bach is hoping that 2024 and 2028 will be proof of the Olympics’ new direction.

“Economy not excess” is the right way to do it under the new IOC doctrine.

France Delivers Worry-Free Venues

There is no anxiety in Paris or Lausanne about venue construction snafus because there are no construction projects. 

Expensive rail construction to reach the airport or to connect Olympic venues? Not needed. The Paris transit system is one of the world’s best. In fact, organizers are so confident in the public transit system that the customary bus service to venues for the media will not be organized. That alone will save millions.

Competition will be staged at world-famous landmarks that were there before the Games were envisioned and will remain when they’re gone: beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, equestrian (already sold out) at Versailles, the marathon swim in a renewed River Seine. Marseilles already hosted the sailing test event earlier in July.

Wide Open Games

The slogan says it all — “Wide Open”.

Paris 2024 will celebrate the return of human contact with an opening ceremony that will fill the heart of the city. Hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to line the banks of the Seine River where they can wave to the athletes of the world as they float by on barges.

These athletes — unlike those of the 2020 and 2022 Games — will be able to cheer back, as loudly as they want. They’ll feed off the energy of the crowds wishing them well.  

The change will be striking — and welcome — after the eerie silence of Tokyo and Beijing. 

France Delivers Stability

Along with the IOC president, Paris 2024 CEO Tony Estanguet will speak at Wednesday’s ceremony. 

He brings to the job youth and experience as an Olympian. His leadership has been consistent from the start of the bid nearly 10 years ago. He has not been subject to political whims that have derailed leaders of preceding Olympics. Continuity has helped keep the organizing committee focused on their mission: Games ahead.  A raid by police in June at the offices of the state company involved with Olympic preparations so far has not yielded serious concern about Games preparations. Estanguet and colleagues at the organizing committee are not involved in the inquiry.

The French government led by President Emmanuel Macron seems to be the one that will be in power as the Games approach. Protests and strikes have troubled France as Macron has tried to boost the age of retirement. There have been other protests spurred by the death of a teenager in police custody. The NoOlympics movement has an arm in France that may organize followers to enlist as volunteers and then fail to come to work.  The ceremony Wednesday is set for the Paris 2024 offices in the suburb of St. Denis which should keep the event free from possible protester interruption.

Fog of War

But protests and volunteer saboteurs aside, the biggest existential threat for Paris will come from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The war and its consequences for athletes dominated the conversation last week when Bach spoke to world media in a roundtable organized to discuss Paris and one year to go. 

Bach is committed to keeping the Games open to Russian and Belarussian athletes who have no ties to the military. They are able to compete as neutrals without national identity.

He is leaving it to individual sport federations to determine whether they will permit athletes from the two nations to enter qualification events for Paris 2024. The gymnastics federation said last week that it will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes who meet IOC requirements to try for Paris.   (For anyone seeking further guidance, the IOC policy is detailed in a 10,000 word document updated earlier this month. 

https://olympics.com/ioc/news/q-a-on-solidarity-with-ukraine-sanctions-against-russia-and-belarus-and-the-status-of-athletes-from-these-countries).

Whether Ukraine will accept the terms of engagement proposed by the IOC is not certain. Ukraine leaders and athletes are not too keen on going head-to-head with their invaders. In addition to the possibility of Ukraine staying home, it’s possible other nations might threaten to sit out the Games in solidarity. 

Uncertainty seems to be the only thing that is certain as the Russian war against Ukraine drags on in year two. Maybe peace will come before the Olympics. Maybe conflict continues.  

Olympic Truce Issues

Bach was careful last week when he responded to a question during the media roundtable about the Olympic Truce. The resolution is usually affirmed without any controversy  by all member nations of the UN ahead of the next Olympic Games.  

But Russia is now a two-time violator of the truce. First instance came at the end of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi when Russia annexed territory in the Crimean peninsula. The second was last year in the final days of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games when Russia launched its unprovoked war on Ukraine. Bach plans to be in New York in October to lobby for the truce. He says it will be up to France, as the host nation for the Olympics, to sponsor the resolution and lead the push for adoption.

No word yet on the Russian position on an Olympic Truce resolution, nor anything from Ukraine, which has the most to lose in bargaining with the two-time truce violator. Russia has been a signatory to every one adopted by the UN, including the two it blatantly ignored in 2014 and 2022. Whether that history will be part of the debate in October remains to be seen. Historically, no nation has been known to reject signing the resolution since the UN first adopted it in 1993.

Along with the Olympic Truce resolution, the coming months will bring constant developments as sports federations determine the eligibility of Russian and Belarusian athletes in Paris. 

Ukraine sports leaders also will be watching for orders from their government, which may not follow the wishes of the IOC. 

While sport is an important part of life for Ukraine, the fight for the country’s existence may be more important than fighting for medals in Paris.

Remembering Two Movers and Shakers from Atlanta

Bill Shipp helped make my Olympic journey possible. Bob Cohn was one of the brilliant figures I would joyfully encounter on the journey.

Both men died hours apart from one another this month. Shipp, 89, lived in the Atlanta suburb Cobb County.  Cohn was 88, residing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama for just over a year after decades in Atlanta.

Shipp was the quintessential Georgia newspaper reporter who refused to be pushed around. He was fired as editor of the University of Georgia newspaper Red and Black when he refused to back down on reporting the integration of the university.  Offered a job in Atlanta, Shipp spent 30 years with the Atlanta Journal and Constitution newspapers, establishing himself as a preeminent expert on Georgia politics.

He left the paper in 1988 to launch Bill Shipp’s Georgia, a biweekly review of state politics in newsletter form, mailed to subscribers.

Ever a good eye for talent, Shipp had the foresight to inquire whether I might be interested in writing a column covering preparations for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. That was in 1992 as I went to Barcelona for my first Games as a credentialed journalist.

I covered the struggles over plans to build a new stadium, threats to  boycott due to an anti-gay ordinance adopted in Cobb county, the savage attacks on Atlanta’s scorned mascot Izzy.

Every week Shipp would be on the telephone with me to go over things. He had great sources in government whose doors he was able to open for me. Always a skeptic, he had doubts about how well Atlanta would stage the Olympics.

In 1995 as my work on the Olympic beat expanded to an international scope, Shipp gave me his blessings to take the Hula Report, as it was known, and turn it into a separate publication under my ownership. From then on, the newsletter was the product of this writer and the many colleagues who would be a part of our team through the next 25 years.  In 1996, The Hula Report was rebranded as Around the Rings, which is now under the wing of Infobae, the Buenos Aires-based content platform, since 2021.

Shipp retired from the newsletter business in 2000. He is a member of the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame.

A funeral is scheduled for July 14 in Marietta, Ga.

Thank you, Bill Shipp.

Bob Cohn was a brash Brooklyn born kid when he ended up in the deep south in the 1960s, a newspaperman of the same era as Shipp. But Cohn saw greater opportunity in public relations and opened shop in Atlanta in 1971. His personality and hustle boosted the firm toward a portfolio of blue-chip clients, including Coca-Cola. The firm became a worldwide player as Cohn and Wolfe, known today as Burson, Cohn & Wolfe.

Cohn’s passion for the Olympics led him to convince Coke in 1980 that the company should invest in pin trading centers for the Games. He was involved with marketing plans for torch relays sponsored by Coke.

Along with the professional angle, the Olympics also turned Cohn into one of the top collectors of memorabilia, At one time he assembled  a  collection of Olympic torches, now part of  the Olympic collection of the Atlanta History Center.

Cohn was an avid pin collector, delighting in swapping to obtain  pins from each national Olympic committee at a Games. He wore a pin vest and waded into the crowds at the Games to score his treasures, mounted on huge framed displays at his home.

Cohn also served as a member of the Metropolitan Atlanta Olympic Games Authority from 1992 to 1997. MAOGA was an oversight board established by the state of Georgia to make sure the 1996 Olympics did not leave a deficit. The MAOGA board was successful in that mission. A close friend of Bill Shipp, George Berry, was chair of the watchdog group, incidentally.

Coincidentally this week, another former member of the MAOGA board died. Marvin Arrington Sr. was Atlanta City Council president during the lead up to the ’96 Games. He was 82.

A memorial is planned for Cohn August 5 in Atlanta.

International Olympic Committee Presents Pierre de Coubertin Medal to Ed Hula

June 23, 2023 (Lausanne, Switzerland) – The International Olympic Committee today presented the Pierre
de Coubertin Medal—among the rarest honors bestowed by the organization—to longtime Olympic editor and reporter Ed Hula, commemorating over 30 years of news coverage of the Olympic Movement.
The medal was presented to Hula at a special ceremony hosted by IOC President Thomas Bach at the IOC
headquarters in Lausanne.

The IOC Executive Board voted to bestow the medal in March 2023 to honor Hula’s 35 years of Olympic
reporting and 30+ years as founder and editor of Around The Rings, which became known as the world’s
leading news source for the Olympic Movement.

“While I have put in some hard yards covering the Olympics, this recognition from the IOC is only possible through the talents and support of great colleagues, including family,” said Hula. “Thanks to the IOC for including me, us, among the Pierre de Coubertin medalists. It is an honor to join these ranks named for the founder of the Games I became destined to follow.”

Upon presenting the medal to Hula, IOC President Thomas Bach said: “Over the past 40 years, Ed Hula has covered the Olympic Games for radio, television, print and online publications, making him one of the few, if not the one and only, truly multimedia Olympic Games correspondent. During this time, the world of journalism and the Olympic Movement have undergone tremendous changes, and Ed was always at the forefront to report on those developments—and to report them using the leading medium of the day.”

“In doing so, you have established yourself as one of the foremost Olympic experts,” Bach added, addressing Hula directly. “Knowing that Coubertin shared the same passion for Olympic journalism as you … it is only appropriate that we honor your today with the medal that bears the name of our dear founder.”

Hula began his Georgia career during the 1980s as a writer / producer for CNN, then moved to Peach State Public Radio. He became news director for the then nine-station network and started following the nascent bid for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. Hula’s voice became familiar to thousands of Atlanta listeners when he was named Olympics editor for WGST News Radio, “the information station” for the 1996 Games.

Shortly before the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Hula launched his own company and published The Hula
Report, which was later re-branded Around the Rings. In the years since, Hula has become one of the world’s most respected sports business journalists, travelling to nearly 100 countries in his coverage of the Olympics and elite sport events. Hula has interviewed world leaders including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. ATR was acquired by Infobae (Argentina) in May 2021.

Created in 1997, the Pierre de Coubertin Medal is awarded by the IOC to educators, writers, sports
executives, cultural figures, corporate leaders and others, including Olympic family members, who exemplify the Olympic spirit and its ideals through exceptional service to the Olympic Movement. The medal was previously awarded 45 times, with Hula as the fourth U.S. recipient following former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 2000, Utah businessman Spencer Eccles in 2002 and Atlanta-based writer/producer and Olympic bid veteran George Hirthler in 2022. Today’s ceremony also included Coubertin Medal recipient Jean Durry of France for his decades of Olympic historian work.

Following Hirthler, Hula is the second Coubertin Medal recipient with significant ties to the 1996 Olympic
Games.

Hula graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in government. He met Sheila during their overlapping tenures at CNN in Atlanta. They now reside near Orlando in Mount Dora, Fla., where earlier this year the Hulas launched a consultancy, Hula Sport Communications.

#Photos/interviews available. Please contact Nick Wolaver at nicholas.wolaver@gmail.com or +1 678-358-
7476