Sports Director for Sochi Quits
Sochi 2014 will have to search for a new sports director following the resignation of Werner Augsburger.
Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung first reported the departure of Augsburger, who cited a language barrier in Russia as well as the distance between Moscow and his family back home in Switzerland.
However, Dmitry Chernyshenko, CEO and president of Sochi 2014, tells Around the Ringsthere were no language problems between Augsburger and Games organizers.
"We accepted the resignation of Werner that he asked for due to personal reasons," he told ATRlate Thursday.
Ausburger held the post for just four months.
He will reportedly return to Switzerland and has no immediate employment.
Rogge Talks Legion of Honor
IOC president Jacques Rogge tells Around the Rings his recent receipt of the Legion of Honor is fitting considering France’s ties to the Olympic Movement.
"The founder of the IOC – and of the modern Olympic Games – was after all a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin," he tells ATR.
"France is a country which loves sport, which has great athletes competing at the highest international level, and which has a long sporting tradition. Five editions of the Olympic Games (two Summer and three Winter) have been held in France, as well as numerous world championships."
Rogge was bestowed the honor by French president – and current Grand Master of the Legion of Honor – Nicolas Sarkozy in a ceremony late last month at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
"I am particularly proud and honored to receive this distinction in the city which saw the creation of the IOC," he adds.
"It is important to re-emphasize the link between the Olympic Movement and France and French culture."
The distinction – France’s highest – came for Rogge’s work as IOC president.
Leader Named for Swiss 2022 Bid
Gian Gilli will lead a joint Swiss bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics with Davos and St. Moritz.
The Swiss Olympic Association made the announcement Thursday.
Gilli is the sports director for the SOA as well as the Swiss team's chef de mission for London 2012.
A referendum in the ski resorts on the Games is scheduled for November, and the SOA’s sport federations must first approve a bid at an April meeting.
St. Moritz hosted the 1948 and 1928 Olympics.
London May Revise Legacy Plans
Mayor Boris Johnson will face pointed questions about the future of London’s Olympic Park next week.
The London Assembly will question him about legacy plans following a Thursday hearing with Johnson's chief of staff, Edward Lister.
According to an LA statement, Lister said plans "will have to be looked at again" following a $360 million deal to cover debt from the Olympic Park.
The money tied up in the site is now a part of Johnson’s regeneration budget, says the LA.
Lister claims that going forward, the funds need to be spent to the best advantage of the Greater London Authority as a whole.
"The new deal, while welcome in the long term, means that the Mayor will have to balance reducing the GLA’s debt against his regeneration aims," addsJohn Biggs, chair of the Budget and Performance Committee.
"When we meet the Mayor next week we will ask him how he plans to manage these pressures going forward to ensure he gets the best outcome for Londoners."
Johnson will head to the LA on Jan. 10.
IAAF Begins Year-Long Party
Celebrations are underway for the 100th birthday of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
In a Thursday release, the IAAF revealed that a special centenary section of its website is now ready and waiting for visitors.
Heavy on history and light on fluff, the page includes features on the IAAF’s origins and development as well as a message from athletics boss Lamine Diack and a calendar of centenary events to come.
That includes the creation of a special logo, look, book, medal, diploma, T-shirt, TV series, Facebook page and accompanying PR campaign as well as a temporary exhibit at Barcelona’s Olympic and Sports Museum and branding at all IAAF spaces during London 2012.
The year’s celebrations will culminate Nov. 24 and 25 with a meeting of the IAAF Council and special centenary edition of the annual International Athletics Foundation Gala in the Spanish capital instead of usual host Monaco.
"The IAAF Centenary is an occasion for athletics to celebrate the past and present and look ahead to the next 100 years where we must strive to build an environmentally sustainable competition program, to reinforce the importance of the mother of all sports, and to help motivate an increasingly sedentary global population," says Diack.
"I am confident that the IAAF can secure these goals and as we begin our celebrations to mark this special anniversary I take this opportunity to offer everyone in the athletics family the very best wishes of the IAAF."
Kodak Nears Bankruptcy?
Former Olympic sponsor Eastman Kodak Co. is readying for a possible bankruptcy filing.
Kodak’s Olympic partnership dated back to 1896 before the company decided in 2007 to end its sponsorship after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Kodak served as the official imaging sponsor of the Games.
"Digital technology changes everything, including the way we market our products and services, " Elizabeth Noonan, Kodak’s director of brand management, said at the time in a statement announcing the end of the sponsorship.
"Our new business strategy requires us to reassess our marketing tactics as well, and adapt them to changing market conditions and evolving customer behavior."
An indication of that evolution in customer behavior is that the IOC has yet to replace Kodak in the TOP Sponsor program.
Kodak was a worldwide sponsor for two decades and supported the Games in many ways including its Kodak Image Center – a work area for accredited photographers.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Kodak could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the upcoming weeks unless the company can sell off some of its patents.
A spokesman for the former photography giant did not confirm the news in the report and said Kodak "does not comment on market rumor or speculation."
Media Watch
Howard Berkes of National Public Radio in the U.S. writes about possible resentment toward Denver’s potential 2022 Olympic bid. Denver became the first and only city to give up hosting rights to the Olympics after being awarded the 1976 Games.
An analysis from The Atlantic magazine finds potentially troubling news for Madrid 2020 –that for the year ahead "every single economic indicator in Spain looks disastrous."
Written by Ed Hula III.
20 Years at #1:
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