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Thread: Tokyo Olympics

  1. #181
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    WaPo what to know

    What to know about karate at the Tokyo Olympics

    France's Alexandra Feracci is among the competitors in the Olympic karate competition. (Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP/Getty Images)
    By
    Matt Bonesteel
    July 18, 2021|Updated July 19, 2021 at 10:12 a.m. EDT

    Karate will be an Olympic sport for the first time in Tokyo this year. It might be the last: Japanese Olympic organizers added it to the list of sports at this year’s Games under new IOC guidelines that allow organizing committees of each Olympics to include provisional new events for the Games they host. Karate will not be a competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and its status for Los Angeles in 2028 has yet to be determined.

    So this might be your last chance to see the world’s top karatekas practice their craft on the world’s biggest athletic stage. Here’s what you need to know about karate at the Tokyo Olympics.

    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
    How does the Olympic kata competition work?
    How does the Olympic kumite competition work?
    Where will the Olympic karate competitions take place?
    What is the schedule of Olympic karate events?
    Who are the top American hopefuls in Olympic karate?
    Who are the top international hopefuls in Olympic karate?
    How does the Olympic kata competition work?
    Athletes will compete in two karate competitions in Tokyo: kata and kumite.

    In kata, athletes demonstrate offensive and defensive moves against a virtual opponent. In each demonstration, athletes must choose from one of 102 kata movements that are recognized by the World Karate Federation, and they are not allowed to perform the same kata twice in one tournament.

    Get a daily guide to the Games with our Tokyo Olympics newsletter

    Points are awarded by a panel of seven judges for stance, technique, transitional movement, timing, correct breathing, focus and conformance (70 percent of the score) and strength, speed and balance (30 percent of the score). The two highest and two lowest scores garnered by each performance are thrown out, and the remaining three scores are added up.

    All athletes compete in the same weight class in kata, so only one set of medals will be awarded in men’s and women’s kata.


    How does the Olympic kumite competition work?
    In kumite, two athletes square off on an 8x8-meter mat. Matches end either after three minutes or when one of the competitors has amassed eight more points than their opponent, whichever comes first. Points are awarded for straight punches delivered to the body or face (one point), middle kicks delivered to the body (two points) and high kicks delivered to the head or punches delivered on an opponent who has been taken to the ground via sweep or takedown (three points).



    If three minutes elapse, the competitor with the most points wins. In the event of a tie, whoever scored the first point is declared the winner. Scoreless draws are broken by a panel of five judges.


    Medals will be awarded to different weight classes in kumite: under 67, under 75 and over 75 kilograms for men; and under 55, under 61 and over 61 kilograms for women.

    Where will the Olympic karate competitions take place?
    The karate events will be held at the Nippon Budokan, which was originally built to host the judo competition at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and will again host judo this year. Yes, it’s the same arena where Cheap Trick’s 1978 live-album colossus “Cheap Trick at Budokan” was recorded.

    What is the schedule of Olympic karate events?
    Aug. 4-5

    Women’s kata, women’s kumite (under 55 kg), men’s kumite (under 67 kg)

    Aug. 5-6

    Men’s kata, women’s kumite (under 61 kg), men’s kumite (under 75 kg)

    Aug. 6-7

    Women’s kumite (over 61 kg), men’s kumite (over 75 kg)

    Who are the top American hopefuls in Olympic karate?
    Sakura Kokumai, a native of Hawaii, is the only American woman competing in karate and is ranked seventh in the World Karate Federation’s world kata rankings. Her parents both hail from Japan, and she has family still in the country.


    Sakura Kokumai competes in Paris in 2020. (Baptiste Fernandez/Icon Sport via Getty Images)
    Thomas Scott (ranked sixth globally in under-75-kg kumite) and Ariel Torres Gutierrez (10th in men’s kata) are Team USA’s top chances to medal in men’s karate. Brian Irr rounds out the American karate roster in over-75-kg kumite.

    Who are the top international hopefuls in Olympic karate?
    The top men’s and women’s kata karatekas per the WKF rankings — Damián Quintero and Sandra Sánchez — both hail from Spain. Japan has both No. 2s (Ryo Kiyuna and Kiyou Shimizu).

    In kumite, men’s medal contenders include 2018 world champion Steve Da Costa of France and Italy’s Angelo Crescenzo in the under-67-kg competition. Five-time world champion Rafael Aghayev of Azerbaijan (under 75 kg) and Turkey’s Ugur Aktas (over 75 kg) should also contend for spots on the podium. Croatia‘s Ivan Kvesic (over 75 kg) is a recent gold medalist at the world championships and European championships.

    On the women’s side, Ukraine’s Anzhelika Terliuga (under 55 kg) tops the world rankings in her weight class. Serbia’s Jovana Prekovic (under 61 kg) and Azerbaijan’s Irina Zaretska (over 61 kg), both 2018 world champions, will also compete in Tokyo. China’s Yin Xiaoyan leads the world rankings in the under-61-kg weight class and finished second to Prekovic in 2018.
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  2. #182
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Hold the phone...cheerleading?
    Then all they got to do to get Wushu in the Olympics is change the dresscode to be more like that of ice-skaters...

  3. #183
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    Lee Kiefer - 1st ever US gold in indie foil!!!

    Olympic fencing: Lee Kiefer wins USA's first-ever gold in individual foil
    Jay Busbee
    Sun, July 25, 2021, 5:27 AM·1 min read
    In this article:

    Fencing has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the modern incarnation of the Games began in 1896. In that time, no American had ever won gold in fencing's individual foil discipline ... until now.

    Team USA's Lee Kiefer defeated Inna Derglazova (ROC) 15-13 to claim gold, triumphing in a tightly-fought match in which she mostly led, but never comfortably.

    Deriglazova, who won gold in the event in Rio, battled back from multiple deficits to close to within 14-13, but Kiefer was able to hold on for the final point. This marks only the third Olympic gold for the United States in fencing. Mariel Zagunis won in saber at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

    Kiefer, a graduate of Notre Dame aligned with the Bluegrass Fencers' Club in Lexington, Kentucky, is a decorated victor, a four-time NCAA champion and a nine-time individual Pan American champion. She finished fifth in the event in the 2012 Olympics, and 10th at the 2016 Olympics.


    Lee Kiefer celebrates the first individual foil Olympic gold medal in American history. (Elsa/Getty Images)

    _____

    Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.


    Quote Originally Posted by YinOrYan View Post
    Then all they got to do to get Wushu in the Olympics is change the dresscode to be more like that of ice-skaters...
    Honestly, YinOrYan - have you seen competition Wushu uniforms lately? We crossed that bridge years ago...

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  4. #184
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    Anastasija Zolotic - US gold in TKD

    18-year-old becomes first US woman to win gold in taekwondo
    BY OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN - 07/25/21 06:48 PM EDT 277


    Anastasija Zolotic on Sunday became the first U.S. woman to win a gold medal in taekwondo, Yahoo Sports reported on Sunday.

    Zolotic, 18, defeated Tatiana Minina of the Russian Olympic Committee 25-17 in the women’s 57-kg final at the Tokyo Olympics, in a competitive three-round bout. Entering the final round with a one-point lead, Zolotic gained seven more points to beat the fifth-ranked taekwondo fighter in the world.

    Zolotic defeated Morocco’s Nada Laaraj, Turkey’s Hatice Kubra Ilgun and Chinese Taipei’s Lo Chia-ling en route to her gold medal match, according to Yahoo Sports.

    Zolotic is the fourth Team USA athlete to win gold in Japan, joining swimmer Chase Kalisz, shooter Will Shaner and fencer Lee Kiefer.

    Zolotic was the fourth American to reach the taekwondo final match, with former team USA athlete Steven Lopez holding two gold medals from the event, Yahoo Sports noted.
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  5. #185
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Honestly, YinOrYan - have you seen competition Wushu uniforms lately? We crossed that bridge years ago...
    Uh, can you point me some good examples??? If so, beach volleyball dresscode is the next level, then the Americans may score better with all the young judges, since older experienced judges are not allowed for wushu, ha ha

  6. #186
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    Alexander Massialas

    Sad to hear this. Greg was on the SJSU team one generation before me.

    Olympic dream derailed: Stanford fencer Massialas spends days in COVID isolation, loses 1st match
    Ann Killion
    Updated: July 25, 2021 11:03 p.m.

    San Francisco fencer Alexander Massialas lost his first Olympic match Monday, ending his dreams of adding another Olympic medal to his collection and continuing a nightmarish week due to COVID-19 protocols.
    Massialas spent the past eight days quarantined in a hotel, apart from his teammates in the Olympic village. He was placed into contact tracing due to being seated on his flight to Japan near beach volleyball player Taylor Crabb, who tested positive for COVID-19 and had to withdraw from the Games last week.
    Crabb, who said he is vaccinated, has remained in quarantine at his hotel.
    Massialas, who is vaccinated and continues to test negative, was quarantined completely for three days and then allowed to only do certain kinds of limited training, but not be near any of his teammates.
    “I’m obviously really disappointed,” said Massialas by Facetime after his loss to Germany’s Peter Joppich. “I’ve been trying to stay positive and make the best of a bad situation.”
    But his father Greg, a former Olympic fencer, and a coach for the fencing team, thinks the week took its toll on his son.
    “He’s been locked up in isolation and I think it got to him,” Greg said.
    The ordeal started after Massialas landed in Tokyo and was held for 12 hours at the airport. He was taken to a quarantine hotel and stayed there for three days. Then he was transferred to another hotel, where more of Team USA is staying, but remained under strict protocols.
    The three-time Olympian, who won a silver individual medal and a bronze team medal in Rio, spent much of the week wondering if he would be able to compete at all. He finally received clearance to compete in his foil match on Monday a few days ago. But he was unable to train with his teammates.
    After the disappointment, he is looking toward Sunday’s team competition. He hopes by then, he will have been cleared to move into the village.
    “Everyone’s flying blind - there’s not a lot of clarity,” Massialas said. “But the best athletes have the shortest memories. I’ll take some time to be upset and sad but then I’ll look forward to winning gold with my teammates.”
    Massialas qualified for Tokyo several weeks before the Games were postponed. He spent 2020 training in his parents’ San Francisco home and working to save Stanford sports, including fencing. He was a key member of “36 Sports Strong” the Stanford alumni group that successfully fought to overturn the university’s decision to drop 11 sports.
    Ranked fifth in the world, Massialas had hopes for gold at his third Olympics. He also looked forward to sharing the experience with his younger sister Sabrina, who is on her first Olympic team. He had hoped to walk in opening ceremonies with her and hang out in the village. Instead, Monday was the first time he saw her.
    “I’m trying to get her to enjoy the moment, because this is something she’s dreamed of for a long time,” Massialas said. “Sometimes life throws something at you that you didn’t expect.”
    Though Crabb was vaccinated and is apparently a breakthrough case, Massialas wishes that all his teammates were vaccinated because he’s an example of exactly what’s at risk. Close to 100 U.S. Olympians are unvaccinated, according to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. All are rolling the dice with not only their own Olympic dreams but those of their teammates.
    “It’s definitely perplexing,” said Massialas, who added that the entire fencing team is vaccinated. “I like to think about my teammates and whether or not I’m putting them in a dangerous situation. I don’t want to hurt them in any way.”
    Massialas’ five-year dream was derailed by the seat he was assigned on an airplane.
    “Sometimes you get unlucky in life,” he said. “But at least I got to compete. And I will try to help my team win.”
    Massialas’ teammate Gerek Meinhardt, another San Francisco native, also lost his first match on Monday. His potential pre-match distraction was for a far happier reason than Massialas. His wife Lee Kiefer won gold in individual foil on Sunday. The married fencers are both in medical school at the University of Kentucky.
    “I think he had a really emotional, wonderful day and was a little bit drained,” said Greg Massialas.
    The men’s team event will take place on August 1.

    Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.comTwitter: @annkillion
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    Quote Originally Posted by YinOrYan View Post
    Uh, can you point me some good examples??? If so, beach volleyball dresscode is the next level, then the Americans may score better with all the young judges, since older experienced judges are not allowed for wushu, ha ha
    srsly? Have you watched any world competition Wushu in the last half decade? It's not quite as sequined and embroidered as ice skaters yet, but it's aspiring to be so. It's definitely moving that direction.
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  7. #187
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    Wait...wasn't Russia banned?

    OLYMPIC GAMES IN TOKYO27 JUL, 08:57 Updated at: 27 Jul, 10:37
    Putin says Russia’s taekwondo Olympic victory shows martial arts on the rise in Russia
    The Russian President thanked coaches and mentors of the athlete, specialists of the national team and everyone who supported Vladislav Larin on his path to the gold medal

    MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Vladislav Larin for his Tokyo Olympic victory in the taekwondo men’s +80 kg event, the Kremlin published the telegram on its website on Tuesday.

    "Your success is a clear example that martial arts are on the rise in Russia, while the Russian taekwondo school trains worthy fighters who can face up to the most serious challenges," the telegram reads.

    Putin thanked coaches and mentors of the athlete, specialists of the national team and everyone who supported Larin on his path to the gold medal.

    On Tuesday, Larin defeated North Macedonia’s Dejan Georgievski in the final of the +80 kg tournament at the Tokyo Olympics. Russia’s taekwondo athletes have already won four medals at the Olympics, two golds, one silver and one bronze. Larin’s victory came after Maksim Khramtcov became the first Olympic taekwondo champion in Russia on Monday in the men’s 80 kg category. Moreover, Tatiana Minina fought her way to the silver medal (women’s 57 kg), while Mikhail Artamonov won bronze (men’s 58 kg).
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  8. #188
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    Yosh Uchida

    I've mentioned this before but I used to work for Uchida sensei at Laboratory Services. Never trained under him though.
    TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPICS
    At 101, judo coaching great Yosh Uchida still isn’t done helping Olympians

    Prolific judo coach Yosh Uchida still heads San Jose State’s storied program 70 years after assuming the post.(San Jose State Athletics Archives)
    BY JORGE CASTILLO STAFF WRITER
    JULY 25, 2021 5 AM PT
    TOKYO — Yosh Uchida made a promise to Colton Brown in 2016, right after Brown competed in judo for the United States at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics: Qualify for the 2020 Games in Tokyo and I’ll be there.
    Attending the Tokyo Olympics would have closed a circle for Uchida. The son of Japanese immigrants and raised in Orange County, he was the U.S. judo team’s coach at the Games in 1964, when the sport made its Olympic debut in its birthplace. The city, the country, the martial art supplied him more than a lifetime’s worth of memories.

    Uchida was 96 years old in 2016. He would be a centenarian by the next opening ceremony. People his age usually don’t make plans four years in advance. But Uchida reached his 100th birthday in April 2020 and bought his ticket to the Nippon Budokan to fulfill his pledge.

    The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the Games a year. Still, Uchida, at 101, was ready to make the long journey to watch Brown — until spectators were banned from most Olympic venues.

    The gut punch precluded what would have been a fitting conclusion to Uchida’s international judo life.

    Over decades, through tireless advocacy, he became the godfather of judo in the United States, and he still heads San Jose State’s storied program 70 years after assuming the post.

    He pushed for the implementation of weight classes in the sport, a necessary step for inclusion in the Olympics, and helped bring about its breakthrough on the international scene. He’s received both the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government for his work.

    But five years after his Rio de Janeiro promise, Uchida will be stuck thousands of miles away at home in Northern California while Brown, the 17th of his San Jose State pupils to reach the sport’s top competition, takes the mat Wednesday in the men’s 90-kilogram weight class. Uchida hopes to watch the match on television.

    “I’m going to be glued to it,” Uchida said, “unless it’s late.”

    ::

    Uchida wore a blue San Jose State Spartans jacket over a black sweater in his living room for a recent video call. With the help of his assistant, he keenly relayed his thoughts and experiences. After spending a year inside his home, he was a seasoned Zoomer — more than 120 people joined him on a Zoom call to celebrate his 100th birthday, and he held classes on judo history during the pandemic. Finally, COVID-19 vaccinations have slowly expanded his bubble.

    He had 15 people visit him for a backyard barbecue for his 101st birthday. His daughter traveled from Hawaii recently for the first time since the pandemic began, and he enjoyed his first meal at a restaurant in more than a year while she was in town. Japanese, of course.


    Yosh Uchida founded the National Collegiate Judo Assn. in 1962 and coached the first U.S. Olympic judo team at the 1964 Tokyo Games.(San Jose State Athletics Archives)

    “This man will not die of COVID,” said Jan Cougill, his assistant since 2008 and a family friend for 56 years. “He will die from boredom if we don’t get socialization.”

    Uchida was born in Calexico in 1920, two years after the deadliest pandemic in modern history ravaged the country, and raised in Garden Grove. His father grew strawberries and tomatoes. His mother pushed him into judo when he was 10 years old.

    “I was a Nisei, born in the United States,” Uchida said, “and she wanted me to know something about Japanese culture.”

    He attended San Jose State before he was drafted for World War II and sent to segregated military camps in the Midwest while his family was split among Japanese incarceration camps. He served for four years and married his late wife, Mae, at the Poston prison camp in Arizona in 1943.

    “My parents were in concentration camps because they were suspected of being spies,” Uchida said. “If you know my parents, they had very little education. They knew nothing about spying.”

    He returned to San Jose State in 1946, finished his degree in biological science the next year and stayed at the school to coach the judo team.

    ::

    Japanese educator Kano Jigoro created judo, a system of unarmed combat, in 1882. Its origins can be traced to jujitsu. The participants — judoka — are taught to use an opponent’s force against them. The goal is to cleanly throw, pin or master the opponent. Strikes of any kind are not allowed. It is intended to train the mind and body.

    Uchida was a small judoka, topping out at 5 feet 2, 135 pounds, but his presence off the mat stretched internationally. While establishing himself as a prominent businessman in the Japanese American community — he opened 41 medical laboratories in the Bay Area — he championed the sport he credits for cementing his identity.
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  9. #189
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    Continued from previous post

    I walked into San Jose State and I thought that I knew everything. He taught me that I really don’t know much.

    COLTON BROWN, YOSH UCHIDA’S PUPIL AND U.S. OLYMPIAN
    He started the San Jose Buddhist Judo Club and another in Palo Alto. He was the director of the first national Amateur Athletic Union championships in 1953. He founded the National Collegiate Judo Assn. in 1962. A year later, he helped initiate the first nationwide high school interscholastic judo championships. A year after that, he coached the four-man U.S. team in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

    “He had a wonderful ability to organize things, and I don’t think that judo would’ve become a national collegiate sport, a national high school sport, a national open sport, if it didn’t have somebody with Yosh’s organizational skills,” said Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a San Jose State graduate and one of the four American judoka at the 1964 Games. “It wouldn’t have grown that fast in the 1950s and ’60s.”

    Campbell, who would become a U.S. senator from Colorado, was forced to withdraw from the open weight class in 1964 after tearing the ACL in his knee in his second match. James Bregman emerged from the middleweight division with a bronze medal, the first of 16 Olympic medals won by Americans in judo.


    Yosh Uchida, center, coached the four-man U.S. judo entry in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics: from left, George Harris, James Bregman, Paul Maruyama and Ben Nighthorse Campbell.(San Jose State Athletics Archives)
    Knowing that Mr. Uchida is not here but he’s still going to be watching, in a sense, that means that he’s with me.

    COLTON BROWN
    Mike Swain took bronze at the 1988 Seoul Games after becoming the first American man to win the judo world championships in 1987. A New Jersey native, he enrolled at San Jose State upon qualifying for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which the United States boycotted after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. By that time, Uchida’s program was an unparalleled powerhouse. Swain didn’t think twice.

    “He was very demanding,” said Swain, who became a coach with the program after qualifying to compete in four Olympics. “Wherever we were going, you had to travel with a suit and tie, and you always got there really early. He was all about discipline. He was the coach of the San Jose State judo team, but he was more of a mentor.”

    ::

    Brown, also a New Jersey native, met Uchida in 2009 when he arrived at San Jose State as a teenager. Uchida was approaching 90, but the two connected.

    “I walked into San Jose State and I thought that I knew everything,” Brown said. “He taught me that I really don’t know much.”

    Brown visited Uchida’s office nearly every day. They regularly ate meals together. Their talks focused not on the sport but on life. On education, on preparing Brown for the day when judo would be in the rearview mirror.

    On the mat, Brown helped extend San Jose State’s national judo dominance. The school has won 48 of the 59 men’s National Collegiate Judo Assn. team championships and 24 women’s team championships since women’s competition began in 1975 — the most titles for a school in any American collegiate sport ever.

    Brown was a three-time national champion. He rose to team captain — chosen by Uchida — and graduated in 2015. He reported to Brazil the next summer representing the United States, with Uchida in the crowd. He won his first match but lost his second and was eliminated.

    Six American judoka competed that year. Travis Stevens won the country’s one medal — a silver in the half-middleweight division. This time, Brown, 29, is one of four Americans and the only man. He’s scheduled to fight at the Nippon Budokan on Wednesday against Liechtenstein’s Raphael Schwendinger. Brown, ranked 28th in the world, is the favorite over the 117th-ranked Schwendinger.

    Competitors are guaranteed a medal with four wins by the end of the day. Five victories and Brown would become the second American to earn an Olympic judo gold medal.

    “Knowing that Mr. Uchida is not here but he’s still going to be watching, in a sense, that means that he’s with me,” Brown said. “Him being on this earth for this long and being coherent enough to still take interest in me and know that and support me, it means the world to me.”

    Brown hasn’t seen Uchida since before the pandemic. He was supposed to attend Uchida’s 100th birthday celebration in April 2020 before it was canceled, and he plans on visiting sometime after the Olympics.

    Uchida might be coaching again by then. He wants to return to San Jose State’s dojo — named after him in 1997 — if it reopens this fall.


    Yosh Uchida plans to coach again in the fall if San Jose State’s dojo reopens.(San Jose State Athletics Archives)
    Uchida’s checklist isn’t complete. He’s worked with San Jose State President Mary Papazian in recent years to create an exchange program between the school — one of six official U.S. judo Olympic training centers — and Japanese universities. The timeline is unknown, but he’d like to see his efforts come to fruition before he turns 110. Brown isn’t betting against him.

    “I didn’t know if he was still going to be here after 2016, and here he is,” Brown said. “He’s still kicking. He’s lived a spectacular life and he’s still going. He’s still going strong.”



    Jorge Castillo

    Jorge Castillo covers the Dodgers for the Los Angeles Times.

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  10. #190
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    Alex Hadzic

    US fencers wear pink masks after teammate accused of sexual misconduct
    Fencing team reportedly object to teammate’s place on team
    Alen Hadzic denies allegations against him

    The US men’s épée team lost to Japan on Friday. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP
    Guardian sport
    Fri 30 Jul 2021 10.41 EDT

    Three members of the United States Olympic men’s épée team wore pink masks on Friday amid allegations their teammate is guilty of sexual misconduct.

    Jake Hoyle, Curtis McDowald and Yeisser Ramirez all wore pink facemasks before the start of the competition. Alex Hadzic, who has been accused of sexual assault, was the only member of the team who did not.

    Hadzic qualified for the Tokyo Games in May. Shortly afterwards, three women accused him of sexual impropriety in incidents that occurred from 2013 to 2015. Hadzic’s attorney, Michael Palma, told the New York Times the fencer was innocent of all allegations. He did confirm that Hadzic was suspended from Columbia University for the 2013-14 school year after an investigation involving sexual consent.

    In the wake of the allegations, the US Center for SafeSport suspended the 29-year-old from all fencing activities on 2 June. Hadzic appealed that suspension and won. The arbitrator ruled Hadzic should not contact his accusers while saying his suspension had been “inappropriate to the allegations”. However, he travelled to Tokyo separately from his teammates and had to stay in a hotel away from the athletes’ village.

    While Hoyle, McDowald and Ramirez’s facemasks were an apparent rebuke of Hadzic they did not comment verbally on the matter on Friday. One of Hadzic’s teammates, Katharine Holmes, says she collected electronic signatures from every member of the fencing team objecting to Hadzic’s inclusion at the Olympics. Palma has distributed a letter of objection from Holmes, which includes only her written signature.

    Hadzic was an alternate on the US team and did not compete. The US men’s épée team lost to Japan on Friday, ending their Olympic campaign.
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  11. #191
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    Aidan Walsh

    Yahoo Sports
    Irish boxer Aidan Walsh out of Olympics after he injured ankle celebrating win
    Ryan Young·Writer
    Sat, July 31, 2021, 8:44 PM·1 min read
    Irish boxer Aidan Walsh has withdrawn from his semifinal bout in Tokyo after he injured his ankle celebrating.

    Walsh didn’t attend the medical check and weigh-in for his fight against Great Britain’s Pat McCormack on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. His absence means that McCormack will advance to the gold medal welterweight fight.

    Walsh will still win a bronze medal. McCormack will now take on either Cuba’s Roniel Iglesias or Russia’s Andrei Zamkovoy in the gold medal fight.

    “What Aidan did this week is an incredible achievement,” Ireland boxing team leader Bernard Dunne said, via The Associated Press. “His performance throughout the tournament has been outstanding, and it is great to see him write his name in the annals of Irish sport.”

    Walsh hurt his ankle celebrating QF win

    Walsh reached the semifinal match after beating Mauritius’ Merven Clair in the quarterfinals. After he was given the win, though, Walsh started a wild celebration.

    He jumped up and down multiple times and then landed awkwardly on his ankle.

    He was later seen leaving the arena in a wheelchair.

    The Irish team said that Walsh injured his ankle, but only said that he did so during the fight. His ankle wasn’t an issue until after his win.

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  12. #192
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    There's always controversy with a new Olympic martial art

    Red Flags Were Raised, but an Olympic Dream Was Dashed
    Maya Wasowicz, a top karate fighter, was knocked out of qualifying under suspicious circumstances. A U.S.O.P.C. report backed up her claims, but Wasowicz still won’t be in Tokyo.


    Maya Wasowicz is an elite fighter, and was favored in a U.S. tournament that could have propelled her to the Tokyo Olympics. The circumstances of her loss raised many questions.Credit...Brittainy Newman/The New York Times

    By David Waldstein
    Published July 16, 2021
    Updated July 24, 2021
    Maya Wasowicz was all alone when the last flicker of her Olympic dream died.

    The world’s best karate fighters were throwing punches in Paris to determine who would go to the Olympics. Wasowicz and her supporters all felt that she should have been there, too. Instead, she sat on a bed in her grandmother’s apartment in Opole, Poland, streaming the event live on her phone — alone, in the dark.

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    “I was definitely grieving it,” Wasowicz said, days later. “My family and friends refused to watch. But I had to see it.”

    Over the next few weeks, fans of the Olympics will ingest a tidal wave of heartwarming tales illuminating the realized dreams of scores of dedicated and exceptional athletes. Tales of sacrifice and success, of years of hard work rewarded in a moment of glory. Then there are the stories of those left behind, many of them dedicated athletes like Wasowicz, who dream of medals, but find complex political roadblocks in their way.

    A Polish émigré to the United States at the age of 11, Wasowicz discovered karate in Brooklyn as a girl and rose to become one of the elite fighters in the world. In 2016, when word filtered out that karate would be introduced at the next Olympiad, Wasowicz made the life-altering decision to try to be one of the handful of competitors in Japan, the ancestral home of the sport.

    She put the rest of her life on hold, moved back in with her parents and dived into training. She even dared to visualize herself in Tokyo, in the arena, the American flag on her suit, fighting for her adopted country.

    In order to earn that coveted place, Wasowicz first needed to win a domestic tournament in Colorado Springs in January 2020, an event she entered as one of the favorites. But in a day filled with controversy and acrimony, Wasowicz lost — unfairly, in her mind. An investigation by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee appears to back her contention, shared by other athletes, that the USA National Karate-Do Federation is rife with favoritism and conflicts of interest.

    In a scathing report in April, the committee found that the federation “is not capable of fulfilling the responsibilities of an Olympic Sports Organization” and warned that if it did not address some serious issues, it would be stripped of its status as a national governing body.

    But for Wasowicz and others, the report came too late. The U.S.O.P.C. did not require the federation to hold a new competition to correct whatever injustices may have existed in Colorado Springs.

    “I feel validated that I’m not just a sore loser,” Wasowicz said. “People on the outside saw what was happening. But seeing them get away with all of this is just really tough to accept.”


    Today, Wasowicz is back in New York, searching for work and trying to make sense of everything that happened.


    When her family moved to the United States from Poland, Wasowicz found a home at the Goshin Ryu dojo in Brooklyn. Credit...Brittainy Newman/The New York Times

    Learning to Be New Yorkers

    Wasowicz, 27, was born in New Jersey, but she spent her first 11 years of life in Poland, before her family moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2005. Wasowicz remembers everything about her first day in the new metropolis. Her father took her across the Williamsburg Bridge and showed her the magnificent view of Manhattan spreading below. A few hours later, she spotted her first rat in the subway.

    Life in a bustling urban environment could sometimes be overwhelming, especially that first bewildering year in school where Maya and her younger brother, Kuba, struggled to grasp morsels of English. The Polish markets and restaurants that dotted the city were places the Wasowicz family found temporary sanctuary and support.

    “We talk about it all the time,” Wasowicz said. “What if we ended up in a random city in the middle of America? Here I found people who could relate to my experience. We were very lucky that we ended up in New York.”

    One day they happened upon the Goshin Ryu dojo, a karate school in Brooklyn. It was run by Luis Ruiz, who remains Wasowicz’s sensei, or coach. Maya and Kuba reveled in the physical outlet that karate offered, a place where English was not as important as dedication, discipline and honor — or a good measure of athletic ability.

    Wasowicz’s parents welcomed an activity that would help their children, who had faced bullying in school, defend themselves and gain self-confidence. For Maya and Kuba, it was just fun, and she continued to work with Ruiz, even after her family moved to Manhattan’s East Village.

    It was there, while attending the Tompkins Square Middle School, that Wasowicz also discovered basketball. When she moved on to Beacon High School, Wasowicz joined the school’s varsity team, and four years later she was the school’s career scoring leader and the first Beacon player to have her number retired. She earned an academic scholarship to New York University, and played basketball all four years for the Violets while negotiating the complicated balance of varsity sports, rigorous academics (she majored in economics) and karate.

    “I was in awe of Maya,” said Lauren Mullen, N.Y.U.’s coach at the time. “Here’s this 11-year-old girl who knew no English and then goes to N.Y.U. playing two sports at a really high level, and all with this self-confidence and toughness that you rarely see. She was just a winner.”

    But as her basketball career ended in 2016, Wasowicz’s Olympic dream zoomed to the fore. She put any career business ambitions aside and moved back into her parents’ apartment in the East Village for the next five years while training two or three times a day with Ruiz in Brooklyn.

    “Every athlete has to make that decision,” she said. “You put your life on hold and commit everything to going for it.”

    A heavyweight who fights in the plus-68-kilogram class, Wasowicz grew stronger and more dangerous. In 2016 she was part of a U.S. team that won bronze at the world championships in Austria and reached a No. 7 worldwide ranking. In 2019, she won gold at the Pan American championships.
    Continued next post
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    Continued from previous post


    Wasowicz was a star athlete at New York University, excelling at basketball in addition to her karate. Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York Times

    The Match

    Heading into the U.S. team trials in Colorado Springs in early 2020, Wasowicz was brimming with confidence and poised for destruction. But during her matches against rival Cirrus Lingl that day, curious things happened, according to Wasowicz and Ruiz — their claims backed by both video footage and the independent investigation.

    John DiPasquale, the president and chairman of USA-NKF, which has enormous influence over the sport, walked behind the scorer’s table several times during Wasowicz’s matches against Lingl. DiPasquale runs a top dojo in Illinois where Lingl trained, and during one of the early matches between the fighters that day, Wasowicz grew incensed, feeling DiPasquale was trying to influence the scoring in favor of Lingl. During a break, Wasowicz and Ruiz decided that if it happened again, she would complain to the referee.

    A video of one of those later matches shows Wasowicz gesturing in consternation toward DiPasquale as he hovered behind the table during a scoring review. He is also seen pacing behind the table, perhaps just nervous for his fighter, during the action. But as the U.S.O.P.C. pointed out, it looked inappropriate and raised doubts.

    Wasowicz contends that she had Lingl beaten earlier in the day but was not awarded the points she deserved. That result kept Lingl in the competition, and ensured she and Wasowicz would fight again, in the final. There, Lingl, an expert in her own right, won with a deft head kick. Furious, Ruiz unloaded on DiPasquale, charging that the president had affected the outcome.

    When reached by phone for comment on the investigation, DiPasquale said, “Not a chance, pal,” and hung up.

    Others in the U.S. federation dismissed complaints of bias. “Maya is one of the best we have,” said Brody Burns, the head coach of the U.S. Olympic team and a sensei at a top dojo in Texas. “But it’s not like she lost to a no name. She lost to a good fighter.”

    Wasowicz agrees that she and Lingl are evenly matched. But on that day, she felt she was better, and that she should have earned a spot in the all-important Paris qualifying event.

    A few weeks later, though, her problems were dwarfed by the pandemic. During the shutdown, Wasowicz stewed and pondered her options, and learned that other athletes were making similar charges against DiPasquale and the federation. The U.S.O.P.C. agreed to look into the matter and hired DLA Piper, an international law firm, to investigate.



    While disappointed that she was not given another chance to qualify for the Olympics, Wasowicz, left, has continued to watch matches. She plans to watch the Olympics as well. Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York Times

    The Report

    In a blistering letter from Holly R. Shick, the chief ethics and compliance officer of the U.S.O.P.C., to DiPasquale and the national karate federation, dated April 24 and obtained by The New York Times, the committee demanded immediate reforms. It noted the “severity of the issues” and said termination of the federation’s status as the national governing body “may be appropriate at this time.”

    The investigation found numerous actual and perceived conflicts of interest, and the letter noted that there is a perception by athletes and coaches “of bias in favor of Mr. DiPasquale’s and Brody Burns’ dojos’ athletes.” Other athletes routinely feel, the investigators wrote, that “they have to ‘beat the system to succeed.’”

    Phil Hampel, the chief executive of USA-NKF, declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S.O.P.C. referred all questions back to the letter.

    It read like an indictment, but it did nothing to further Wasowicz’s hope of a redo of the qualifying event. That is why she sat alone in that dark room in Poland while on a family vacation in June, streaming Lingl’s fight in Paris on her phone’s tiny screen.

    Lingl lost in the first round, ensuring that not only would she not go to Tokyo, but that the United States would not have a woman karate fighter in Japan.

    “There is a part of me that obviously wanted her to win to keep the hope alive,” said Wasowicz, who until the final loss had held out faint hope that she might somehow go as an alternate. “There was also the part I don’t like about myself, that if she loses first round, it will prove my point.”

    Now back in New York, Wasowicz is in a recovery phase. Her focus is on starting a career, like most of her N.Y.U. classmates, except it’s five years later. She teaches at her dojo a couple of days a week, sends out 20 résumés a day, and prepares to attack the next phase of her life as she did the last.

    “You look back from where I was as an 11-year-old girl and where I am right now,” she said, “if I can do all that, I can do many things.”

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  14. #194
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    Olympic Karate: A New Martial Art Enters the Ring

    Gene Ching
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  15. #195
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    Tareg Hamedi loses gold medal after knocking opponent out cold | Tokyo Olympics | NBC



    I understand why this was ruled so, but it's a laughing stock for those who don't understand sports vs. martial arts.

    Makes me wonder if the medalist took a dive...

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