Righting a Wrong
Yesterday J-Wire reported that prestigious UK publications The Guardian and The Telegraph together with the web-based TimesofIsrael had published a story based on a Reuters report that the International Olympic Committee had ceded to a Lebanese request not to train in view of the Israeli Judo team…the reports are not true.
We checked out the story with the Israeli Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.
A spokesperson for the IOC in Lausanne told J-Wire: “There is no truth to this story. It simply happened that one of the teams forgot to book their training room. When they arrived, the room was already occupied and the teams decided to split it in order to be able to train at the same time. All was done in a very amicable way.”
This has been confirmed by the Israeli Olympic Committee.
The 2012 Olympic Games in London continue.
I don’t believe the “explanation”. A judo training room – dojo – does not need to be split just because two teams are training. It certainly never was when I played judo several decades ago. And I don’t believe that dojos were not booked or that the team which was allowed in, out of turn, could not have trained later. This IOC white-wash will not do!
Excellent apology to the IOC and the Lebanese judo team, and for failing to check sources. So much for politics. So much for the Olympic spirit.