Julius OkorieThe 33rd Olympics to be held in Paris is less than two months away and like most international sports events there are worries some athletes may use performance enhancing drugs to win. There are however strong indications that athletes wishing to do so this time, will meet a brick wall after World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, revealed plans to battle such athletes to a standstill.
Olympic spirit insists that athletes who win events must win fair and square without any form of enhancement.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelCoe himself an Olympiad and middle distance specialist who emerged champions in the 1500m at Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 revealed the plans at the 10-day Hay Festival which ends in Wales this Sunday.
According to Coe technology will be heavily deployed to checkmate athletes who would love to cut corners in their quest to claim medals.
The former British athlete insists that rewarding those who do not compete fairly undermines the rest of the athletes and athletics itself, warning such athletes who choose to be on the wrong side of the law “You will not sleep easy”.
The 67 year old sports administrator remains optimistic that the use of technology will make this year’s games cleaner than previous ones thanks to its ability to detect banned substances even as he expressed regrets that athletics is never free of doping controversy.
“Human nature tells me that, even with proper education programmes and strong deterrents, there will always be a few people who will take that risk/reward decision and step outside the moral boundaries,” lamented Coe, who was also chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee.
Intensified deployment of technology he insists will make a huge difference in this year’s games which is billed for 26 July to 11 Aug 2024.
One of the highlights of the forthcoming Olympics in Paris will be the debut of breakdance sometimes simply called Breaking. Interestingly, it will be the only new sport making its debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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Breaking previously featured at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach stated that they added breakdancing as part of an effort to draw more interest from young people in the Olympics. The international organising body is the World DanceSport Federation.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
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