In the matter of Shelby Houlihan: white privilege confronts reality

In the matter of Shelby Houlihan: white privilege confronts reality

There’s an obvious point that seemingly no one else wants to say about Shelby Houlihan, the American middle-distance runner who has been suspended for four years. So it’s coming at you right here. Check your privilege, white people.

The running sites and even the mainstream press are full of stories that center on the facts of the case and the do-you-believe her or do-you-not. That’s not the issue.

All journalists — at least the decent or better ones — are trained to be skeptical, and after listening for more than 20 years now to athlete after athlete cry, sometimes literally, about circumstance and unfairness, please. Houlihan’s expressions of how much she loves running, how she didn’t get due process, all of that — that’s all noise.

Here’s why this case has struck a chord:

The running community in the United States tends to be white and middle- to upper-class. Shelby Houlihan fits that demographic precisely. The point is that seemingly no one in that circle thinks — or wants to think — that the nice, white distance runner would ever cheat. Never, ever.

With the MP Show over, now what? Where are the U.S. men?

With the MP Show over, now what? Where are the U.S. men?

OMAHA, Neb. — Here in Omaha, for the fourth time in a row, the U.S. Olympic Trials for swimming are on. This was always a big stage for Michael Phelps, and no more so than in 2008, when he qualified for five individual events and put himself in place to swim on three relays — setting the stage for the unmatched performance he would put on later that summer in Beijing, going a perfect eight-for-eight.

The Phelps Show that summer proved must-see TV on NBC. Some significant cohort of 5- to 8-year-old boys tuned in. Those boys are now 18 to 21, prime time for swimmers.

Where are they?

Girls across America back then clearly saw Michael on TV and said, let’s be like Mike. The U.S. women’s team heading for Tokyo is likely to be strong if not dominant.

The men? Did they get drawn to football? Or — since competitive swimmers tend to be tall — basketball? Or volleyball? Or what? Where are the dudes?

Ten weeks to go, and are even Hello Kitty and Super Mario wondering: really?

Ten weeks to go, and are even Hello Kitty and Super Mario wondering: really?

Every day, those of us whose lives are in some way shaped by the Olympics get asked the same question — is Tokyo going to happen?

Let’s be clear. despite any fantasy to the contrary, I am in no way, shape or form an Olympic athlete. I could blame the two shoulder surgeries in the past seven months but, nah. Not even a working left shoulder would make me world-class in anything except maybe this — typing and thinking and, believe me, many of my critics and detractors would say I am farthest thing from, and thanks as always for your thoughts and prayers.

So with admiration for the thousands of athletes whose hopes and dreams have been on hold for the past year — absent something freaky, between now and July 23, freaky in this context meaning apocalyptic, there will be Games in Tokyo.

As IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Wednesday in a video press briefing, “We are confident we can deliver good Games and we will continue working toward that.”

Epic, colossal, like -- what? IOC's latest esports misstep

Epic, colossal, like -- what? IOC's latest esports misstep

Let’s imagine the college-age version of me. I maybe thought i was something special. This was testosterone talking. The mirror said something different. So did my college friends.

Let’s imagine further that we walked into an establishment. Incredibly, at the bar was sitting the one and only Christie Brinkley.

What to say? What to do? Hey, I’m something special! “Uh, hello? What are you doing here?”

Weak, right? Smacks of desperation? Despair?

Something like what the International Olympic Committee put out a few days ago when it announced it was hurriedly getting into the esports business with a series before Tokyo 2020 — a weak, ill-thought-out, ill-conceived, desperate, dumb approach. Like, what are you doing here?

Keep it that way: the Olympic podium as sacred space

Keep it that way: the Olympic podium as sacred space

Twenty or so years ago, I had the privilege of being part of a two-year post-graduate fellowship in Jewish studies. It was there that I first learned at length about the concept of “sacred space.”

As human beings, we can make very different kinds of places and things “sacred.” A place can be religiously interpreted, such as a mountain or a river. Something can be built, like a temple, a church, a mosque.

In Jewish tradition, a bride and groom meet under what is called a chuppah — a sacred space, a Jewish home, constructed only by four poles and a cloth canopy, often topped with flowers, open on all four sides, replete with symbolism, the structure temporary and yet fit for a lifetime of memories.

There are three key players under the chuppah. It would be unthinkable for the rabbi to drop to one knee and start pontificating about Israel’s land-use policies in the West Bank, wouldn’t it?

The 2032 Summer Games, already? Australia? Why the rush?

The 2032 Summer Games, already? Australia? Why the rush?

The International Olympic Committee’s policy-making Executive Board announced Wednesday it would enter into “targeted dialogue” with Brisbane for the 2032 Summer Games, seemingly all but ensuring the Olympics will return to Australia 32 years after Sydney in 2000.

The announcement marks the first turn of the IOC’s new way — formally introduced in 2019 — of selecting Games hosts. No more fancy, expensive bid-city contests.

Among Olympic insiders, the Brisbane announcement had been expected for months. John Coates, head of the Australian Olympic Committee, is also the senior IOC member overseeing preparations for the Tokyo 2020/1 Games and, moreover, one of IOC president Thomas Bach’s trusted allies.

All the same, this Australia development misses the why-did-this-happen news.

That would be Doha, and the Middle East. Once again, Doha got the shaft. And the IOC missed an opportunity to at the very least inquire about an opportunity. If not worse.

83-year-old guy out, 84-year-old in: very definition of missed opportunity

83-year-old guy out, 84-year-old in: very definition of missed opportunity

One of my favorite memories of Gianna Angelopoulos, the dynamic businesswoman who rescued the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, came the year before, at an International Olympic Committee session in Prague.

Holding court in the mezzanine area of the Prague Hilton, smoking a cigar (for real), she explained that running an Olympic organizing committee is, in fact, all about crisis management. In Athens, there were untold numbers of crises. Her job was bringing those crises to heel. Which she was doing — and, ultimately, did.

“The moment you understand that you actually do crisis management,” she was saying, “then it’s good.

“Then you feel control things. You can always expect the unexpected.”

The crisis right now in Tokyo, where the 2020/1 Games are due to open in five short months, is that the longstanding president of the organizing committee, 83-year-old Yoshiro Mori, will resign Friday over a sexist remark he made at a Feb. 3 meeting. He said that women talk too much.

What's your history? What's on your Insta page? Should it be?

What's your history? What's on your Insta page? Should it be?

Roughly twice a month, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee sends out a fundraising appeal. Each appeal features a different Team USA athlete. So, in all, these appeals feature roughly 25 athletes a year, each of whom gets what is described as a modest fee for appearing in the USOPC advertisement.

Fundraising is big business for the USOPC. Over what is called the 2017-2020 quadrennium, it exceeded its $125 million overall goal; the final numbers are still being calculated, according to Paul Florence, senior vice president for strategy and operations. The twice-per-month appeals — which go out via direct mail and electronically — accounted for $3.54 million in 2020, up ever-so-slightly from $3.50 in 2019, Florence said.

This is the story of one such recent appeal — a tale that underscores two basic tenets.

First, athletes are entitled to their personal lives, which they assuredly can express on their social media pages. But when the USOPC opts to feature an American athlete in its fundraising materials, it should — must — perform adequate due diligence in reviewing what’s on those pages to ensure it does not undermine or contradict the Olympic values and the USOPC mission.

Second, though this story centers around track and field, it is well beyond that. To effect change going forward, it is key to understand how things not just are changing but have changed, and dramatically. Social media is increasingly central as a means for athletes to tell their own stories without using the press, which traditionally served as a filtering — and thus, in its way, a vetting — medium. The upshot: these issues can affect any and every sport. There are literally dozens in the USOC landscape. All the same, the USOPC must do such due diligence for any and every athlete it chooses to promote. Track and field is not unique. Not hardly.

How to put sport at the service of humankind

How to put sport at the service of humankind

The key purpose of the Olympic movement is not to make money. It is “to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind.”

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, has many times said the Tokyo Olympics can — should — serve as a “beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times.”

This week, the IOC is due to reveal what it is calling the Playbook, the layers of protocols and policies it has for months been developing in a bid to pull off the Tokyo Games, Olympic and Paralympic, amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The Olympics are due to open July 23. The Paralympics are scheduled to open Aug. 24.

The Playbook, the IOC has made clear, is about trying to create safe bubbles in Tokyo. It will be revised — and revised again — as July 23 draws near.

The Playbook is essential. But there needs to be more.

Bach's legacy is upon him: the world needs not just leadership but his humanity

Bach's legacy is upon him: the world needs not just leadership but his humanity

The International Olympic Committee is due this week to hold its policy-making executive board meeting. it comes more or less with six months to go until July 23, when the Tokyo Olympics are due to commence. To make those six months feel all the more real: that’s 26 Fridays.

In March, the IOC president, Thomas Bach, is going to be re-elected to a four-year term. He has served eight already, once again more or less. These last four will be his last in the office.

Starting with this board meeting, Bach has a unique opportunity. These first eight years have been marked by a succession of crises, some unforeseeable — the Russian doping scandal, the organizational disaster that was Rio 2016, the almost-didn’t-happen PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games.

This space has many times been critical of Bach. His Agenda 2020, for instance? Not much there there. All the same, throughout these first eight years, and this is difficult indeed for Bach’s many critics — some voluble indeed — to comprehend, he has shown genuine leadership. Now he must do more. His legacy is at stake. He has the chance, starting now, to define that legacy rather than let others define it for him.