^{The Vortex is SOS’ digest and soak of swimming news, views and links to noteworthy mainstream media coverage of the sport as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games approach; additions to the file made most days and collated in one monthly file.}

Sunday Vortex, May 5

Unfair Play, by Sharron Davies with this author, has been shortlisted for the Sports Book Awards 2024 “Sports Writing Award”. The Shortlist on the way to the awards ceremony at The Oval in London next month:

Unfair Play was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of The Year in 2023 and won the public vote “Judge a Book by Its Cover” after the hardback launch of the book in June.

The paperback is out this July, with an insightful update chapter on the fight to save women’s sport and the campaign for justice on behalf of generations of women impacted by the GDR doping era.

Comment: It was great to work on the book with Sharron. We put in some serious hours, and that on the back of decades of never accepting injustice of the kind she and generations of women have endured. Lovely to be shortlisted and have the work recognised. The day Unfair Play can be shifted to the shelf marked “History” will be one worth celebrating. As things stand, the fight to save women’s sport for female athletes and uphold rules on safe and fair play, is alive and kicking. Indeed, not a day goes by without another absurd example of male advantage being allowed to colonise female sport.

Related:

Jim Thorpe Leaves No More Room For Excuses: Let The Justice Afforded To One Man Be Extended To Generations Of Olympic Women

The Vortex – November 2023: Unfair Play Wins Public Vote Among William Hill Sports Book Of Year Shortlisted

Unfair Play Out Today – Why Males Don’t Belong in Female Sport

Existential Threats To Olympic Sport?

The Guardian and Observer have two fine lines on potentially existential threats to Olympic sports: climate change and corporate packages that raise a lot of questions and invite us to look at the deal of moaning within the Olympic Movement when Sebastian Coe and World Athletics recently announced $50k prizes for gold medallists at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the sums a pittance compared to what some are prepared to pay for access to “the right kind of athlete”:

The Observer:

‘We’re looking at losing 20% of Olympic nations’: how the climate crisis is changing sport

The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/may/04/super-rich-exclusive-paris-olympics-packagesSuper-rich spending up to $500,000 on exclusive Paris Olympics packages

Saturday Vortex, May 4

Ellen Walshe Confines Smith* 1996 Standard To Irish History In 4:37 Over 400IM At Leinster Championships

Ellen Walshe took down one of Michelle Smith‘s 400m medley standard from 1996, one of Ireland’s longest standing national swimming record, during at the Leinster Swimming Championships at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre today.

Walshe, of Templeogue Swimming Club, clocked 4:37.94, inside the 4:39.18 in which Smith* claimed Olympic gold at Atlanta 1996 before she fell from grace and was banned from swimming for manipulation of an anti-doping test sample in 1998.

The story of Smith’s anti-doping challenge was broken by this author in The Times in 1998 and led to the first public hearing of a Court of Arbitration for Sport case. The next case to be heard in public was that of Sun Yang* in late 2019 after the same author and title broke the news of an incident in 2018 that would lead to the Chinese controversy being served a suspension of four years and three months, a penalty that was spent at the start of this month.

Back to the here and now and Walshe improved on a previous best of 4:41.30, clocked at the Mare Nostrum Swim Tour in Barcelona last year. Swim Ireland noted: “Already qualified for the Paris Games in the 200m Individual Medley, the 22-year-old’s time today was under the Olympic Qualification Time of 4:38.53, but she’ll need to have a similar performance at the Irish Open Championships and Olympic Trials (22^nd – 26^th May) in less than three weeks to be able to swim it in Paris.”

Friday Vortex , May 3

Katie Ledecky Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom & Says She’s Gunning For LA2028 Home Games

Katie Ledecky has towed her her 10 Olympic medals, 7 of them golden, and 26 World championship podiums back to home waters in Washington to receive the USA’s Presidential Medal of Freedom in honour of her stellar achievements in the pool.

At 27, she’s almost 12 years beyond her first gold medal at London 2012, has more golden and podium chances at Paris 2024, assuming all goes well at USA trials next month, and has let it be known that she’s set her sights on a fifth Olympics in 2028, Los Angeles a possible home-Games swansong.

On taking time out to fly north from her base at the Florida Gators to receive a different kind of medal in the 61st year of the ward being handed out, Katie told the Washington Post:

“Obviously, growing up in this area I know what a huge honour this is. feel very connected to this area. I know this is a national kind of award, but to me it feels almost local. I get to come home for this for a couple of days. This is my community.”

In an interview with NBC, she also said: “The [2028] Olympics being in LA is very appealing. Not very many athletes get an opportunity to compete in a home Games. I definitely at this point am planning on going through 2028… whether I compete in one event, multiple events, a relay, whatever.”

Wednesday Vortex, May 1

Qatar Makes Its Olympic Ambitions Official

Qatar has formally launched a bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games, as widely expected after long years of campaigning on the long and often troubling trail of Olympic politics.

Part of the warm-up for its bid produced a popularity record: Qatar hosted the FIFA World Cup football tournament for men, the most viewed sports event in history. Estimates of engagement with football’s 3.5 billion fans worldwide suggest that popularity converted to 1.5 billion viewers watching the World Cup final on television and streaming services, while more than 5 billion viewers tuned in across the tournament as a whole.

Heat, corruption, discrimination against the gay community and death of a great many migrants on building sites during the construction of stadia were all among controversies along the way and will doubtless be raised once more as Qatar’s bid to become the smallest nation (pop. estimated to be just under 3 million come 2036) 2.6 million) ever to host the Olympics should it win the right to do so. Helsinki and Finland hold the record: the national population was around 4 million when the capital hosted the 1952 Games.

April Vortex: The New China Crisis, & WADA’s Decision To Launch An Investigation As Paris Games Loom

Our coverage after the news of 23 Chinese positives broke on April 20

ARD’s “Doping Top Secret – The China Files” – Parts 1-4 – Watch Why WADA U-Turn Is Urgent

SOS Analysis

The ARD China Files: Part 1 – SOS Analysis: Spies, Spice & Mass Contamination

The ARD China Files: Part 2 – SOS Analysis: On The Trail Of An Existential Precedent?

The ARD China Files: Part 3 – SOS Analysis: Lab Trials For TMZ & Testing Timeframes

SOS Related Coverage

WADA Tested On State Of Independence In Go-Free-23 Chinese Doping Positives Inquiry

WADA Denies Donations From Vaud Where Investigator Was Lead Prosecutor Add Up To Lack Of Independence

USADA Fires Back: By Calling Chinese Inquiry ‘Independent’ WADA Is Trying To Pull The Wool Over Our Eyes

Chinada Says It Has Worked With “Zero-Tolerance” Attitude Towards Doping

Sport Integrity Australia Backs USADA Call For WADA Review Of China’s Go-Free 23 Positives

Chinada Says It Has Worked With “Zero-Tolerance” Attitude Towards Doping

Zhang Yufei Books Ticket To Defence Of 200 ‘Fly Crown Under A Cloud Of Controversy (see below in this Vortex- Chinese Championships coverage)

USADA Calls For Independent Prosecutor & Overhaul of WADA In New China Crisis

WADA In Staunch Defence Of Decision Not To Challenge 28 Positives In 23 Chinese Swimmers

Sunday Essay: Caution: Olympic Hotel Contamination May Contain Trimetazidine? We’d Be Nuts To Think So

New China Crisis As ARD Reveals That 23 Swimmers, Zhang, Wang & Qin On The List, Tested Positive For Sun’s 1st-Offence Drug