By straddling a line on Trump order, USOC loses its moral balance

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By straddling a line on Trump order, USOC loses its moral balance

It’s nice that the United States Olympic Committee has received assurances from the U.S. government that it will, in the USOC’s words, “work with us to ensure that athletes and officials from all countries will have expedited access to the United States in order to participate in international athletic competitions.”

Note that the USOC statement says nothing about guaranteed access and really contains nothing new.  The State Department always has worked with the USOC, and it always has had the right to deny access to undesirables of any sort, like the Chilean shooter refused a visa for the 1987 Indianapolis Pan American Games because he was accused of human rights violations, including murder, in his homeland.  Some say that justified denial hurt Anchorage's bid for the 1994 Winter Olympics.

But in the big picture, even assuring entry of athletes for international competitions is of little consequence in the face of the Trump administration’s order banning immigration and travel to the United States for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries.  It also would be overly optimistic to think the government is going to expedite access for athletes from those countries – or even grant it - while doing “extreme vetting” at the same time.

According to a person with knowledge of the situation, those assurances came too late to prevent an Iranian-born taekwondo athlete who is a citizen of Iceland from being denied entry to compete at a major event in Las Vegas, a situation first reported by ESPN.  The timing may have been unfortunate, but even that logical explanation will not allay fears of more to come.

That is why the rest of the USOC’s Monday statement on the issue was so disappointingly anodyne, even if that was expected.  It will do anything, as I suggested in a column posted yesterday, to avoid a Trump tantrum against the Los Angeles bid for the 2024 Olympics, because lack of national government support would sound a death knell for L.A. 2024.

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American arrogance? An Olympic bid while Trump tells the rest of the world to get lost

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American arrogance? An Olympic bid while Trump tells the rest of the world to get lost

It turns out, thankfully, that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will not tailor his conscience to suit the fascism of the times.

(Did I just write fascism instead of fashions?  Must have been a typo.)

In a statement about the Xenophobe-in-Chief’s travel and immigration bans on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, the most offensive but only the latest of the president’s unconscionable statements or orders, Mayor Garcetti said such action “only fans the flames of hatred that those who wish us harm seek to spread.”

So much for any worry that Garcetti would hold his tongue to curry the Madman-in-Chief’s support for the Los Angeles 2024 Summer Olympic bid.

The time also has come for the United States Olympic Committee to end its silence, no matter that the Third Grader-in-Chief might immediately give his usual “nyah, nyah” response on Twitter and do his best to undermine the Los Angeles bid (which he is doing already.)

And it is high time for the three International Olympic Committee members from the United States – including two women, one an African-American – to show they stand against intolerance. Neither of those two women, Olympians Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero, has replied to messages seeking comment.  DeFrantz once was courageous enough to defy the U.S. government by publicly criticizing the White House-mandated U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

And time for the IOC, which reaped such goodwill over its refugee team at the 2016 Olympics, to speak out rather than continue to hide behind the shibboleth of not interfering in the governance of sovereign nations.  That IOC already insists Olympic host cities – and by extension, their governments – play by its rules.

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U.S. champions no longer guaranteed spot on world figure skating team

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New selection rules mean none of the champions crowned at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships this week in Kansas City are guaranteed a place on the team for the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki this March.

According to a U.S. Figure Skating spokesperson, the rules change to eliminate the champions' automatic qualification was made in the fall by the U.S. Figure Skating International Committee, with approval coming Dec. 13 by the organization's board and its Athletes Advisory Committee.

That decision was made too late to make it into the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating media guide, which says the winner of each discipline at the current U.S. championships will earn an automatic spot on the world team.

There has been no public announcement of the new rules, nor are they available on the public area of U.S. Figure Skating's website. The change was first reported by International Skating Online.

The new selection procedure is the same as the one that was used for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games (PDF), and it will also be used for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

The process bases 2017 world team selection on results from events beginning with the 2016 World Championships and ending at the 2017 U.S. Championships.

The events under consideration are separated into three tiers (see below), with more weight accorded by tier level. There are no specific weighting numbers assigned to each tier.

The selection criteria is based on the body of work of those athletes who are believed to have the best chance to win Olympic medals, as opposed to relying on the results of a single competition, and, in the case of the 2017 worlds, those with the best chance to place well and earn the United States the most spots at the 2018 Olympics.

"This is the most important U.S. championships of the quad (four-year Olympic period)," U.S. Figure Skating Executive Director David Raith said.

While it seems highly unlikely that a national champion would be left off the world or Olympic teams, Raith said Friday he could imagine some scenarios in which it might happen.

Although the U.S. championships in an Olympic year are not called Olympic trials for financial reasons -- doing so would give the U.S. Olympic Committee broadcast rights and some of the marketing rights -- the USOC still has final approval over the athletes picked for its Olympic team in any sport.

With the possibility that a relatively undecorated athlete could win a medal at the U.S. championships, including the gold, U.S. Figure Skating officials now have the option to discount that result entirely if the athlete's record over the past year is less than impressive.

The following, excerpted from the new U.S. Figure Skating document "World Team Selection Procedures," outlines the essence of the new procedure:

Athletes shall be selected based upon performance(s) in the events below. The events have been stratified into tiers from the highest value events in Tier 1 through the lowest value events in Tier 3. Events within each tier shall be evaluated at equal weight.

Tier 1

- 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 ISU Grand Prix Final

- 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships

Tier 2

- 2016 Grand Prix Series Competitions

- 2016 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships

Tier 3

- 2016 Challenger Series Events and other senior international competitions

- 2016 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 World Junior Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final

The names of the top five athletes/teams at the current U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be automatically placed into the pool of athletes/teams being considered for the World Team, if eligible. Consideration will be given to add additional athletes/teams to the pool by reviewing the events above in priority order and adding others due to extenuating circumstances as approved by the respective International Committee Discipline Group. Discussion on, and the selection of the pool of athletes identified by the International Committee Discipline Group, will be limited to the competitions listed above.

(This article originally appeared on icenetwork.)