ICYMI: New IOC Legal Eagle, Lamine Diack Trial Delayed

#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..

New IOC Legal Eagle

(ATR) The new director of legal affairs for the IOC comes with experience in Olympic marketing.

Mariam Mahdavi will join the IOC headquarters staff March 16 as legal affairs director. She currently is head of legal for AGICOA, a Geneva-based non-profit.

Mahdavi’s experience includes eight years as director of Commercial Legal at Meridian Management. The Atlanta-based firm was the IOC’s marketing agent for the worldwide sponsorship program.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Lamine Diack Trial Delayed

(ATR) The corruption trial of Lamine Diack and his son, scheduled to begin on Monday after a four-year investigation by the French Financial Prosecutor’s Office, has been pushed back until June.

Diack, 86, is accused of bribery and money laundering to purchase the votes of IOC members for Olympic host cities. He is also implicated in the cover-up of doping violations of Russian athletes while he was president of the athletics federation IAAF, now known as World Athletics.

Diack, a former member of the IOC, is accused along with five other people including his son Papa Massata. The younger Diack remains in Senegal where he has managed to escape extradition to France.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

3-on-3 Hockey Unites Athletes at Lausanne 2020

(ATR) Nothing like it has ever been seen in 100 years of Olympic ice hockey.

With 13 players from 13 different countries comprising teams, 3-on-3 ice hockey is extraordinarily unique, pushing boundaries as far as event formats go.

"We made history yesterday – the first sensation we got is that this is really dynamic," said Luc Tardif, the IIHF tournament director regarding the first day of 3-on-3 at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games on Friday. "Basketball plays 3-on-3, rugby went 15 to seven and now is the time for our experimentation."

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Putting Israel on the Winter Sports Map

(ATR) Noa Szollos can certainly be proud of her accomplishments at Lausanne 2020, racing to Israel’s first-ever alpine skiing medals at a Winter Youth Olympics or Olympic Winter Games.

Szollos didn’t finish her first run of slalom at the Les Diablerets Alpine skiing venue on Tuesday, but her bronze and silver medals in the women’s super-G and alpine combined over previous days are a cause for celebration for the Middle Eastern country.

"It’s crazy – I never thought that this would be such a successful week," Szollos told Around the Rings in the Les Diablerets finish area. "I was hoping for the best, but I didn’t actually think that I could accomplish this. Standing on the podium twice was an amazing feeling that I really can’t describe."

Click here to read the rest of the story.