Changing China

Beijing podcast — day seven

In which Julian Linden, Martin Petty, Ossian Shine and myself combine to discuss Harry Potter, Rocky and Mary Poppins, as well as all the sport you could shake a stick at.

This one’s short and sweet so go ahead and give it a click. What else have you got to do for the next seven minutes?

Greek sprinter Thanou barred from Games

Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou has been barred from competing at the Beijing Olympics over her involvement in the doping scandal that overshadowed the Athens Games.

Thanou came back from her two-year ban to qualify for these Games but she still needed permission from the IOC to compete and that has been emphatically denied.

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davis told reporters on Sunday the decision was meant “to send a firm signal of the IOC’s moral consideration that this case has brought the Olympic movement very much into disrepute”.

Haze clears but doping cloud darkens

I flew into Beijing today and was pretty surprised to find clear blue skies. Smog? What smog?

Maybe it will last, maybe not, but it’s clear that the issue of drugs in sport is not going away. Italian fencer Andrea Baldini became the latest athlete to fail a doping test in the run-up to the Games, as it was revealed on Friday that the gold medal hopeful had tested positive for the diuretic furosemide in Kiev last month.

Baldini has said he is innocent but he has been suspended pending the B sample. If that confirms the result he will miss the Games.

The news is the latest doping blow to the Olympics. On Thursday we heard that seven leading Russian women athletes would miss the Games after the IAAF said they were suspected of manipulating samples.

IOC president Jacques Rogge was recently quoted as saying that 40 athletes might test positive at the Games. Sadly, that number would not longer be much of a surprise.

FILE PHOTO: Italy’s Andrea Baldini at the World Fencing Championship in St. Petersburg in September, 2007. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk