Getting slightly off topic
A skinny Week That Was and Weekend That Will Be
Nothing from the sporting week really jumped out at me that I haven’t already covered here and here.
Well, a couple of things did but they can only very loosely be described as sport.
Is it really going to take a hard-to-get-to concert in the rain by a septuagenarian warbler for people to realise what a dreadful venue Mt Smart Stadium is?
Meanwhile, from Stuff, another story focusing on just how many people drown at our beautiful beaches, rivers and lakes every summer. It’s a story you could roll out every bloody year and the fact New Zealand has one of the highest drowning rates in the OECD and a rate nearly twice that of Australia remains a national disgrace.
There was a time when nearly every primary school in the country had a pool and knowing someone who had a key to the pool for summer was one of those status symbols that only kids of the 70s and 80s will appreciate.
I’m not sure if there’s even a loose correlation between school pools disappearing, basic swim instruction being outsourced to for-profit operators and the country’s drowning statistics, but the whole thing has always bugged me.
Rant over.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Given the craven history of the International Olympic Committee it should come as no surprise that they would be “looking for a pathway” for Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to competition.
The IOC claimed that “the vast majority of the participants in each of the consultation calls” supported its stance on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
These include a view that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport” and “Governments must not decide which athletes can participate in which competition and which athletes cannot”.
In the same piece from website Inside the Games, it cited Ukraine’s sports minister and National Olympic Committee of Ukraine president Vadym Guttsait urging the IOC not to lift the ban ahead of Paris 2024, highlighting that athletes from Russia were now serving in the country's armed forces.
The UK Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan is far more sympathetic to Ukraine’s stance than the IOC, stating: “This position from the IOC is a world away from the reality of war being felt by the Ukrainian people – and IOC president Bach’s own words less than a year ago where he strongly condemned Russia for breaking the Olympic Truce and urged it to ‘give peace a chance’. We will strongly condemn any action taken that allows President Putin to legitimise his illegal war in Ukraine – a position the IOC previously shared. We, and many other countries, have been unequivocal on this throughout, and we will now work urgently across like-minded countries to ensure that solidarity continues on this issue.”
There will be a whole lot more stories like this in publications around the world in the next 12 months.
Rowing legend Hamish Bond has joined Team Emirates Barcelona.
Blair Tuke, who has been intricately involved in the selection process, is encouraged by the calibre of the team that has been established around him.
“We have a really potent mix of America’s Cup and AC75 experience, fresh hungry talent and raw power which I am sure will set us up strongly by the time we are on the start line for the America's Cup Match on October 12th 2024 in Barcelona.”
Um, how does one become “intricately” involved in a selection process? How might this differ, say, from being “merely” involved in a selection process. Did Tuke say to the comms person before the press release went out, “Hey Hamish, don’t forget to mention that I’m intricately involved”?
For some reason, this use of the word in this context bothers me almost as much as all the public money wasted on Team Emirates.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
The Australian Open has organically become a far more effective Russian propaganda tool than anything Pravda could rustle up.
The women’s final is a match-up involving Russian Elena Rybakina, who switched allegiance to Kazakhstan aged 19 for money, and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
Belarus, which is seen as a Putin puppet state, lost another player in the semifinals, former champ Victoria Azarenka. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t really up for a chat about the pro-Russia demonstrators at the tennis.
The men’s semifinals include Russian Karen Khachanov who has used his platform to foment unrest between neighbouring former Soviet states Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Novak Djokovic, whose father Srdjan decided it was politic to pose with pro-war Russian supporters at Melbourne Park. Even Stephanos Tsitsipas has strong Soviet links, with his mother, Julia Salnikova, representing the USSR in tennis and his grandfather, Sergei Salnikov, a former Soviet union gold medal-winning footballer and manager of Spartak Moscow (which is known as the People’s Team because it does not have links to the Red Army or the police).
Australian Open, men’s semifinals, Melbourne, today 4.30pm and 9.30pm; women’s final, tomorrow 9.30pm; men’s final, Sunday 9.30pm, all Sky Sport 1
In name at least, this is a Black Caps side but one that in its squad has the following pace bowlers to call upon to try to repel the most explosive T20 batting lineup in world cricket: Blair Tickner, Henry Shipley, Jacob Duffy, Ben Lister and Lockie Ferguson. Good luck with that, fellas.
India v New Zealand, 1st T20I, Ranchi, tomorrow 3am, Sky Sport 1
There is something deliciously petty about the Rory McIlroy- Patrick Reed “storm in a tee cup” feud that may tempt me to tune into the Dubai Desert Classic. This is a wonderful forensic breakdown on the incident from golf.com, which includes this supremely awkward press conference interaction.
Interestingly, bad weather has intervened in the desert, the result of cloud-seeding technology that has increased the rainfall in the UAE by 25 percent (well, I find it interesting even if you don’t). Perhaps even more interesting, Ryan Fox is there and playing well.
Dubai Desert Classic, Rds 2-4, tonight 8.30pm Sat-Sun 8pm, Sky Sport 6
BYC host Jason Hoyte reckons the Super Smash might be homespun and small scale but it’s the best little T20 competition in the world because the players represent something more than money and therefore it has integrity that other competitions don’t and this is a really long sentence without any punctuation and I’m flying through it because I have somewhere to get to sorry.
Canterbury v CD, Christchurch, today 2.50pm followed by the women at 6.40pm, Spark Sport
Most reports I have to edit at work are too intricate and lose virtually no meaning if the adjectives and adverbs are removed
Hi Dylan,
There's also the Daytona 24 Hour race with five Kiwis in the field. Also the FIM sanctioned 3rd round of the Toyota Racing Series and Mitch Evans in Formula E. All this weekend.