Do We Finally Have Trans Olympians Present In Rio?

The IOC is declining to say whether that history has happened, and neither is the British Olympic Association or the Great Britain delegation, but the Daily Mail is reporting that a pair of unnamed British trans feminine athletes back in July were being considered for inclusion on the British Olympic team.

Trans athletes since 2004 have been eligible to compete in the Olympics, but starting with these Rio Games, provided they meet certain parameters, can compete without having genital surgery.

The two trans feminine athletes have represented Great Britain at a European championship event, and one of them has been described by Delia Johnston of Trans in Sports as 'a potential medal winner'.  According to Johnston both potential Olympians transitioned long ago, and their respective international sporting federations associations are aware of their trans status.

Their consistent sporting performances would quality them for inclusion on the team, and once selected by their sporting association would need the assent of the British Olympic Association in order to officially become part of the team.

But they are so afraid of the negativity and publicity that would inevitably come with being the first trans feminine competitors  Johnson said that one of the unnamed potential trans Olympians stated that if she were in position to win a medal, she'd hold back on her performance

I'm sorry, that's bull feces if that comment is truthful, and if this unnamed British trans athlete really feels that way, she doesn't deserve to be selected by the BOA to compete in the Olympics.  

Should you be selected, we as an international trans community deserve nothing less than you going all out for Olympic glory because you are not just competing for yourself, you are representing the hopes and dreams of a marginalized community.

It would be an insult to I and everyone around the world and our trans allies who fought tooth and nail and advocated in the IOC and international sporting federation ranks for trans athletes like you to be able to do so,  That would be an insult to the out trans athletes who have taken slings and arrows like Fallon Fox, Kye Allums,Chris Mosier  and others who want nothing more than to be able to compete in the sports they love to the best of their ability.

It would be an insult to the trans kids growing up around the world who their parents and trans elders are instilling with pride in their trans selves and the belief they can accomplish anything they wish to do, including standing on the top step of an Olympic medal platform.  

I hope that if you British trans athletes are wandering the Olympic Village in preparation for your event, congratulations for making that history, and you bear in mind you're not only representing yourselves and your country, but the entire international trans community..

The 2020 Olympic Finalist Cities

With the 2016 Summer Olympics set to take place in Brazil, the world is about to find out thirty days from now which mayor of what international city will be handed the Antwerp Olympic flag during the closing ceremonies of the Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 21, 2016.. 

The International Olympic Committee will hold its 125th Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 7.   One of the items on the agenda in addition to electing the new president of the IOC will be to decide which of three candidate cities will get to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.   

The three finalist cities vying to snag the bid are Tokyo, Madrid, and Istanbul.  They delivered their final presentations to the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 3-4 and will get one final chance to sway the delegates their way at that September 7 meeting in Argentina.

The three host committees along with their national leaders will be nervously watching on that date as the assembled IOC delegates vote to see which candidate city gets an absolute majority of votes and will be signing the coveted 'Host City Contract'  to organize and stage the Games. 

The frontrunner to host the 2020 Games is considered to be Tokyo.  

This is Tokyo's fifth Olympic bid overall and its second consecutive one after being eliminated in the second round of bidding for the 2012 Games.  If this one is successful it would become the fourth city to host the Summer Olympic Games twice. 

Tokyo won the right to host the 1940 Summer Games that were cancelled by World War II.  It bid for the 1960 Games but was eliminated on the first ballot but successfully won the right to host the 1964 Olympic Games, becoming the first Asian city to do so.

The 1972 and 1998 Winter Games were hosted in Sapporo and Nagano in addition to those 1964 Summer Games, so Japan has been there done that when it comes to Olympic hosting experience.   It also hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2006 FIBA men's World Basketball Championships, the 2011 Gymnastics World Championships and the 2019 Rugby World Cup. 

Tokyo also scored highly on the IOC Evaluation Committee reviews and there is enough of a time separation since the Asian-Pacific region last hosted a summer games  (Beijing 2008) to make it a front running candidate along with sentiment in the wake of the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami to bring the Games there.  It is also regarded as a safe and secure city in comparison to its finalist rivals.

The fact the $4.8 billion budgeted for the Games is sitting in the bank along with a compact Olympic venue plan in which the competition venues are within 8km of the Olympic village with the exception of the football prelims are other pluses in their favor.

Soft public support for the Tokyo bid is one negative that people are throwing at it although that support has continued to rise since the London Games concluded.   73% of Tokyo residents and 86% of Japan now support the bid and it has the backing of Tokyo's mayor and the Japanese government.

Controversy erupted when Tokyo 2020 Chairman Naoki Inose made a shady comment interpreted to be about Istanbul's bid when he was quoted as saying, “Well, compare the two countries where they have yet to build infrastructure, very sophisticated facilities. So from time to time, like Brazil, I think it’s good to have a venue for the first time. But Islamic countries, the only thing they share in common is Allah and they are fighting with each other and they have classes.”

Criticizing another candidate city's bid is against IOC rules and Tokyo 2020 quickly went into damage control mode.  In addition to Tokyo 2020's statement reiterating they "have the utmost respect for all candidate cities and have always taken pride in bidding in a spirit based on the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship,” Inose apologized for the comment a few days later.   

How much that comment will affect the IOC votes Tokyo gets in Buenos Aires has yet to be determined since as Chicago painfully found out, ranking very highly on the site evaluations and being considered the frontrunner doesn't necessarily guarantee you'll get the Games, especially in a body as political as the IOC.  

Madrid is attempting its third consecutive bid (and fourth overall) to host the Games.   It lost to Munich in the final round of voting to host the 1972 Games, was knocked out of the third round of voting for the 2012 Games that London eventually beat out Paris for in the final round and lost to Rio de Janeiro in the final round of voting for the 2016 Games.

So Madrid feels it's due.  Madrid like Tokyo also has a compact venue plan with the exception being the sailing events held in Seville and football prelims would be held in various Spanish cities. The bid has national (84%) and citywide (75%) support.   Barcelona hosted the 1992 Games, and Spain will host the upcoming 2014 FIBA World Cup of Basketball with Madrid being one of the host venue cities.   Madrid's Mayor Ana Botella and the Spanish government also support bringing the games here.     

The negatives affecting the bid is Madrid will have to build six new venues and two temporary ones out of the 36 needed.  They will have to upgrade other ones in the midst of a Spanish economic crisis. 

Since London already hosted the 2012 Games, the IOC usually likes some time separation before it returns to a continent..  Only eight years will have elapsed between the time of the 2012 Games and the 2020 ones, but people supporting Madrid's Olympic bid can point out there was only eight years separation between the 1976 Montreal Games and the 1984 LA ones on the North American continent. 

Istanbul is the third candidate city finalist.   It has yet to host a Games but has made four previous bids.  It was one of five candidate cities vying for the 2000 Games but was eliminated in the first round of voting.   It failed to become a candidate city for the 2004 and 2012 Games, and finished fourth in both rounds of balloting for the 2008 Games that were held in Beijing.

Istanbul's bid is proposing to host the Games from Friday, August 7 to Sunday, August 23, 2020.  It is playing up the fact the city is on the Asian and European continents, is new Olympic territory and if selected would be the first time the Games would be hosted in a predominately Muslim nation. 

It was voted the number one city in Europe by the international travel magazine Travel & Leisure for its 2013 'World's Best Awards', and recently completed the Marmaray Rail Tunnel underneath the Bosporus strait that will open in October as part of a major expansion of Istanbul Metro's rail system.    

It does have high level international sport hosting experience.  Istanbul hosted the knockout phase and the final of the 2010 FIBA men's World Basketball Championships with Turkey set to play host next year to the FIBA women's World Basketball Championships.   It has also hosted the 2001 EuroBasket final and the 1992and 2012 Euroleague finals in addition to having a bid in for the 2002 Euro 2020 football tournament.

The Istanbul bid also have the support of the Turkish governement and the city of Istanbul. 

But the protest in Taksim Square that beamed photos around the world of Turkish police violently beating down peaceful protestors, anti-trans violence, getting called out by IAAF president Lamine Diack about doping issues and a negative IOC Evaluation Committee report have started to impact the momentum that was building toward Istanbul winning the 2020 Games bid. 

All three candidate cities cities have bids with strengths and weaknesses and we really won't know until September 7 which city wins the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

The Host City For The 2018 Winter Olympics Is...

"The International Olympic Committee has the honor of announcing that the 23rd Olympic Winter Games in 2018 are awarded to the city of Pyeongchang."

With those words spoken by IOC president Jacques Rogge after opening a sealed envelope, cheers erupted amongst the Korean IOC delegates in the conference hall

The third time was the charm in its quest to bring the Winter Games to Korea.   PyeyongChang was considered the favorite going into the IOC meeting in Durban, South Africa to determine who would be the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

The city beat out its competitors Munich, Germany and Annecy, France for the honor on the first ballot, something that hasn't happened since Salt Lake City won the right to host the 2002 games on the first ballot in 1995.    PyeyongChang received 65 votes, easily surpassing the 48 votes majority required out of the 95 eligible IOC delegates to win.

Munich, Germany, which was trying to become the first city to host both the winter an the summer Games was second with 25 votes and Annecy, France received only 7 votes. 

The national delegations bidding for the Games aren't allowed to vote, and had PyeyongChang not gotten a t majority, Annecy would have been eliminated as the city with the lowest number of votes (as Chicago painfully remembers) and another round of voting would have occurred until a candidate city received a majority.    .  


PyeongChang was a frustrated bridesmaid to Vancouver and Sochi in its previous bids for the 2010 and 2014 Games.  It lost by three votes to Vancouver for the 2010 Games despite handily winning the first round of voting and by four votes to Sochi for right to host the 2014 Games.    

PyeyongChang's changes were looking good because the 2014 Games are being held in Europe, there were two European finalists and the IOC is loath to put them on the same continent in back to back Olympiads.   The IOC is also wanting to put the winter and summer games in terriitories where they haven't been before, and both times the Winter Games came to Asia in 1972 an 1998, Japan has hosted them in sapporo and Nagano

Today was PyeyongChang's day, and after their mayor receives the Antwerp Flag at the closing ceremonies in Sochi, they and all of Korea will be looking forward to February 9-25, 2018, the dates for the 23rd Olympic Winter Games.  

And for the cities that lost, there's always the 2022 games.   The IOC makes the decison who gets them in 2015.

Who Will Be The 2018 Winter Olympic City?

When they hold the closing ceremonies for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the mayor of that town will hand off the Antwerp Olympic flag to his counterpart hosting the next games in 2018

On July 6 in Durban, South Africa the International Olympic Committee will hold a meeting to answer a question many of us Olympic junkies and the citizens of the three finalist nations want to know.

Who will be the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games?

The three candidate cities in the running to take the big prize in Durban are PyeongChang, South Korea, Munich, Germany and Annecy, France.

PyeongChang is making its third bid and considered the front runner right now for multiple reasons.  The city is located 180 kilometers east of Seoul and narrowly lost its two other Olympic bids.  It lost by three votes to Vancouver for the 2010 Games despite handily winning the first round of voting and four votes to Sochi for the 2014 Games.

So they've been Olympic bridesmaids twice, and with the 2014 Games being hosted by a European nation (Russia), and it once again being the Asian nation in the finalist field versus two European contenders, the IOC may be reluctant to vote against it for a third time in addition to having back to back winter Olympiads on the European continent.

They may wish to not only seek new winter sports territory in granting the games to the South Korean city, but have one in Asia for the first time since Nagano, Japan hosted in 1998.

The bid is also being supported by 2010 Vancouver Games figure skating gold medalist Kim Yu-Na 

Munich has the advantage of having hosting the 1972 Summer Games, and if their bid is successful, it would be the first time in Olympic history that a city has hosted the Winter and Summer Games

Munich also plans to not only use some of those facilities from that summer games, but also the ones from the 1936 Winter Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen

They've also got their own winter Olympian star power to counter PyeongChang in 1988 Calgary Games figure skating gold medalist Katarina Witt.  She is the chair of the Munich bid committee.

Munich has also been considered by Olympics watchers to be gaining ground on their Asian rivals despite the solid presentation PyeongChang made.

The long shot in this field is Annecy.   Between the late start, being another European contender for the Games, resignation of the bid committee President Edgar Grospiron, and issues about an alleged shortfall in its funding, Annecy's chances aren't looking good despite the announcement of the new president of six new sponsorship deals from various corporations in support of the bid.

Annecy's Olympic star power was provided by French triple gold medal skiing champion from the 1968 Grenoble Games and former IOC member Jean Claude Killy


All three cities made their final presentations in Lausanne, Switzerland a few weeks ago.   You can bet that they will pull out all the stops, including having their nation's leaders there in person to ensure that their nation's bid impresses the 100 people at the July 6 meeting in Durban and emerges victorious.