#ICYMI: Austrian Athletes, 1980 USA Olympians, Nicaragua Boxing

#ICYMI -- In Case You Missed It ... Sometimes the best stories don't get the attention we think they deserve. Here are our staff picks for articles this week they really want you to know about..

Back on Track for Austrian Athletes

(ATR) Approximately 600 Austrian athletes have returned to training at six Olympic Training Centers and other sports facilities around Austria.

Additionally, Austrian ski racers will head to glaciers for on-snow ski testing camps this week. All athletes will undergo strict COVID-19 testing before being cleared for training.

Austrian NOC president Karl Stoss tells Around the Rings that the re-opening of the training centers is a vital step to some return to normalcy for Austrian athletes seeking to qualify for Tokyo 2020 and their coaches.

"It’s about equal opportunity for European countries," Stoss said. "Athletes can practice in quite normal conditions in Germany, Norway and other Scandinavian countries.

"Our athletes are really grateful they can go back to their work and practicing," said Stoss, an IOC member and the Austrian NOC president since 2009.

Olympic training centers in Dornbirn, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Salzburg-Rif, and St. Pölten opened last week. An additional center in Vienna, which normally is used by Austrian sailors and is normally available to the public, may also open in the near future. The breakdown of the Austrian athletes is roughly 400 from winter sports and 200 from summer sports.

In addition to coronavirus testing of all athletes, numerous other government safety measures have been implemented including the requirement for all coaches to wear masks, two-meter social distancing and for athletes training indoors to maintain 20 square meter distancing from their fellow athletes.

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1980 U.S. Olympians Vent About Boycott

(ATR) Members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team attend a "Zoom" town hall to express anger, resentment and regret regarding the Moscow boycott and counsel current athletes with dreams disrupted by the pandemic.

Edwin Moses, a two-time gold medalist in the 400-meter-hurdles, created the event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the boycott decision, calling it "Olympic Legacies – Remembered & Repurposed."

"My first thought was to have a cathartic session of 1980 Olympians and make sure we’re never forgotten because we paid a horrible price," Moses said, "but then it morphed into being able to advise athletes that are going though a similar situation today."

More than 150 people attended the webinar, which was recorded for future viewers.

Moses was Olympic champion in 1976. He was forced to sit out the Games in 1980 due to the boycott, which the U.S. government, led by President Jimmy Carter, attributed to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Moses was one of the fortunate athletes to still be in his prime in 1984, where he won his second gold.

Lee Kemp, a three-time world freestyle wrestling champion, said losing his chance to go to the 1980 Games "was like a death in the family, a close loved one where that person’s gone and you can never get them back. We can never get back 1980, but we had to try to move forward to try to grab 1984."

Alas, he came up short, placing second at the Olympic Trials.

Anita DeFrantz, a rowing bronze medalist in 1976, was the most vocal opponent of the boycott among the American athletes. She even filed a lawsuit and received death threats. But DeFrantz would never go to another Games as an athlete. She went on to become an IOC member in 1986 and is now a vice president.

"We are the team with no result," DeFrantz said. "They don’t know our names, no one cares about us, our glory days do not exist."

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Polemica Velada de Boxeo en Nicaragua

(ATR) La única velada de boxeo en el mundo en pleno apogeo de la pandemia del COVID-19 se ha celebrado en Nicaragua este último fin de semana.

El país centroamericano es uno de los muy contados en el planeta que no ha cancelado sus actividades deportivas y que tampoco aplica las recomendaciones de la Organización Mundial de la Salud.

Según el gobierno de Daniel Ortega, en Nicaragua sólo se han registrado 12 casos de contagiados y tres fallecidos.

En la noche sabatina ESPN se encargó de la promoción internacional de un cartel profesional en la capital Managua montado por un ex campeón mundial local, Rosendo Alvarez, con medidas en el lugar para preservar la salud y la seguridad de todos los involucrados.

El Canal 6 de propiedad estatal se encargó de la transmisión nacional.

"Nicaragua es un pais pobre y los boxeadores tienen que comer" dijo el promotor Alvarez.

Sin embargo, esa mismo noche se organizaron otros carteles de boxeo aficionado, sin exigencias sanitarias para los asistentes y competidores, infantiles y juveniles, situación que puede confirmarse en los videos difundidos en las redes sociales de la Federación NIcaraguense del Boxeo Olimpico en la sede de Granada.

En la velada profesional transmitida por ESPN Latinoamerica en Managua pudieron observarse las restricciones del distanciamiento social entre los espectadores quienes accedieron al auditorio Alexis Arguello luego de limpiarse la parte inferior de sus zapatos, se les chequeara la temperatura corporal y sus manos fueran rociadas con un producto desinfectante.

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