ICYMI: Takeda Inquiry Dropped; Junior PanAm Games; Rio Suppliers in Limbo

(ATR) #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.

IOC Drops Takeda Ethics Investigation

The IOC will not punish Tsunekazu Takeda after the Japanese Olympic Committee president’s membership was ended amid a corruption storm.

The ethics case involving the embattled former IOC marketing chief was discussed by the IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne on Tuesday.

In a letter to the EB, Takeda once again denied any wrongdoing and protested his innocence in the Tokyo 2020 vote-buying scandal. Last week, he announced that he would resign his JOC presidency and IOC membership in June.

But after discussing the ethics case, and following an in camera meeting of the IOC ethics commission Tuesday, the Olympic ruling body today accepted Takeda’s resignation and agreed it should happen with immediate effect.

"We have the highest respect for his decision," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference in Lausanne.

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1st Junior Pan American Games Host City

Cali, Colombia will host the inaugural edition of the Junior Pan American Games in 2021.

Two other cities were bidding for the event, Santa Ana, El Salvador and Monterrey, Mexico

The announcement was made on Facebook Live, a first for Panam Sports.

The three candidates presented themselves today at a meeting of the Panam Sports Executive Committee in San Jose, Costa Rica.

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ATR First: Rio 2016 Suppliers Still Waiting to be Paid

Suppliers tell Around the Rings they are still waiting for payments from Rio 2016 nearly three years after the Olympics.

There also appears to be no end in sight to the delay, which has left some companies in a financial bind.

Rio 2016’s debt is estimated at around $113 million (R$420 million) according to a report from the Jornal Noroeste, in Brazil. Rio 2016 did not return multiple requests from ATR for comment about the status of the committee’s debt.

Any true confirmation on Rio 2016’s debt would have to come from the committee itself, which is subject to numerous lawsuits, or an external audit. ATR understands that the printed number in Jornal Noroeste is largely accurate, but there is no public audit of Rio 2016 available to view.

Rio 2016 underwent audits following the arrest of former President Carlos Nuzman in 2017 to determine if any of Nuzman’s alleged corruption touched the committee. Rio 2016’s Brazilian website remains under construction, despite a note saying it would return online on July 2, 2018 at 9 o’clock in the morning. The English version of the website redirects to the IOC website's landing page about Rio 2016.

Ivo Silva, a board advisor to IRMARFER Structures, says that Rio 2016 has routinely breached its agreement with the company dodging payment for services the company provided to the Olympics. IRMARFER, a Portuguese company, provided temporary tents used throughout the Olympic Park and Olympic Village, including the Olympic dining hall.

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