Paris Olympics a Consensus Success; But Governance and Doping Questions Abound; U.S. Women Cyclists Grab Six Medals; Bach Will Retire ... Possible Implications for Cycling; Pogacar's Conditioning ...
Key Takeaways:
● Broadly Acclaimed and Profitable Paris Olympics Wrap Up ..
● .. But Sports Governance and Anti-Doping Concerns Also on Display
● All Six U.S. Cycling Medals Won by Women
● Who Will Replace Thomas Bach? Impact on Cycling
● How Does Pogačar Stay in Peak Condition?
The 2024 Olympiad is history, and its mark on the global sports landscape will likely be at least three-fold: (1) indelible memories of inspirational athletes, sportsmanship and competitive efforts; (2) a generally well-organized event with the likelihood of significant profitability – in strong contrast to recent Games; and (3) fractures in sports governance and anti-doping efforts unfolding on the world stage.
Cycling provided many of those inspirational moments, including Tom Pidcock’s mountain bike chase-back win, Remco Evenepoel’s exuberant victory in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Kristen Faulkner’s late attack to win the women’s road race and seamless teamwork to help the U.S. win the track team pursuit. And we’d be remiss to not recognize the significance of Jennifer Valente’s brilliant defense of her Omnium track gold (Tokyo and Paris in succession). Across the board, global fandom tuned in to watch all of the competitions, and early tallies show a turnaround from the COVID-interrupted 2021 Tokyo edition; as the Games wrapped up, Paris was generally getting strong kudos from most observers. Many sports observers said it was the best Olympics ever.
The U.S. had one of its best Olympic cycling efforts in recent decades, coming home with six medals (three of them gold) after heading to the Games with a goal of “three or four” medals. Of particular note is that all six medals were won by women – yet another data point suggesting the consistent growth of women’s cycling is accelerating – and that the achievements spanned nearly all of the Olympic cycling events. The results will hopefully be a shot in the arm for USA Cycling – the oft-maligned federation which has struggled through a years-long pattern of declining membership and budget cutbacks.
The Paris Games also look likely to buck recent tradition and end up showing a considerable profit for both the local organizing committee and for the IOC. Projections suggest that the Olympic and Paralympic Games will generate around €16.5 billion in revenue, potentially culminating in a multi-billion-euro profit,” although the exact figures won’t be known for several months. If this projection actually pans out, it could rejuvenate future interest in hosting the Games, and the planning, organization and execution of the Paris Games are likely to be intensively studied by future bidders. Almost all recent host cities have lost significant money in hosting the event, and Los Angeles – hosting the 2028 edition – was the last city to legitimately turn a profit in the modern Olympiad.
Unfortunately, sports governance issues and anti-doping integrity were also on broad display in Paris, and intersected in unexpected ways that may impact future Olympic events. Three major issues on the governance front attracted significant attention: athlete safety and remuneration rights, women’s sports, and the looming changeover in Olympic leadership when President Thomas Bach leaves in 2025. Athlete safety was highlighted by the triathlon and open swim events held in the Seine River; despite a $1.5 billion investment to clean up and safeguard the historic river from excess pollution, it nevertheless lived up to its historic reputation as an open sewer when heavy rains spiked the e.coli and contaminant levels and led to practice session cancellations. Several competitors complained of illness after their events, and while none were officially tied to exposure to the water, the image of a Canadian triathlete vomiting at the finish line became an uncomfortable meme of the situation. Other athletes across a wide variety of sports gave frank and appalling accounts of their financial insecurity; singularly focused on the training needed to compete on the world’s biggest stage, many are unable to maintain employment or garner the compensation needed to simply pay their rent. That is starting to change in certain sports, and some of the celebrities in attendance stepped in to promise funds to help the athletes concentrate on competition. But it once again raises the issue of when – not whether – athletes across sporting genres will utilize the power of unions to demand an equitable cut of the IOC’s multi-billion dollar annual revenues.
And women’s sporting issues were once again at the forefront. An old controversy came to a head when two boxing competitors – both of whom were assigned female at birth and raised female – were publicly outed as being DSD, or sharing male and female reproductive organ characteristics. The ramifications of making private health information public were ramped up by calls for DNA sex testing and amplified by the regurgitation of a Russian disinformation campaign reportedly aimed at disrupting the Games – in which the embattled pariah nation was not allowed to have athletes competing under its flag.
There had been serious concerns that Bach would try to amend the Olympic charter and serve for another term – something that many supporters wanted, but that many sports governance observers feared could threaten the reputation of the IOC. But in the end, Bach decided to respect the status quo, saying “After 12 years in the office of IOC president, our organization is best served with a change in leadership. I am not the best captain. New times are calling for new leaders. Change or be changed.” Despite his general reluctance to hold the Russians fully accountable for its state-sponsored doping machine, Bach was actually a progressive in the modern Olympic movement when compared to the eras helmed by Juan Antonio Samaranch (who famously demanded to be addressed as, “his excellency”) and Jacques Rogge. The early favorite to replace Bach is probably World Athletics President and former gold medalist Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom, who was also the chair of the London Olympics. There are a handful of other rumored candidates, including Samaranch’s son, and several women – which would be a first. There are also reports that Bach himself has recently been favoring current UCI President David Lappartient. The politics and back-room positioning over the next few months will be closely watched; the decision could potentially have a major impact on cycling.
Finally, the anti-doping pall and leadership impasse which erupted over Chinese swimming positives may eventually set in motion reforms that could redefine the landscape of global sports. The tit-for-tat release of secrets became a proxy gunfight between WADA and its biggest critic, USADA. This emerging stand-off first included revelations that WADA had only selectively followed its own code to clear the Chinese swimmers, despite mounting evidence against them. Then details emerged surrounding a secretive operation by USADA (in conjunction with the FBI and apparently with WADA’s knowledge) to “flip” an athlete and allow them to compete after a doping positive, in order to gather evidence for broader investigations. It appears that this confrontation between national anti-doping organizations and WADA will only intensify going forward.
For those paying close attention to the details, each of these sensational stories only underlined the IOC’s strategy to protect and maintain its control – and its stranglehold on both WADA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). This includes supplying half of the budget, and staffing both organizations with current and former IOC executives – ostensibly to prevent image-damaging controversies and to protect its coveted TOP (The Olympic Partners) sponsors program. There are also new tests being developed to detect novel doping products and small transfusions of blood – which could lead to retesting of old samples and potentially reorder the podiums, as previously experienced following the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic cycles. Despite posturing by the IOC to threaten the U.S. with revoking the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City if USADA doesn’t back down in its attacks on WADA, it’s becoming likely that the intersection of law enforcement and anti-doping science will determine the shape of anti-doping’s future, potentially disrupting the IOC’s global operating model.
As cycling’s worldview shifts back to the men’s and women’s WorldTours, we witnessed a highly competitive San Sebastian Classic finish, in which Marc Hirschi won a surprise two-up sprint against a favored Julian Alaphilippe. Fans everywhere were anticipating the start of the Tour de France Femmes this week in Rotterdam, where most of the Olympic stars will be back in their trade team jerseys. While Charlotte Kool (dsm-Firmenich) won today’s first stage sprint, a heated battle is expected among the A-list riders headed up by defending champ Demi Vollering.
The accessibility of terrestrial coverage and video streams of the San Sebastian race probably didn’t earn its content licensee partners much revenue, again underlining one of pro cycling’s key challenges. With tourism and regional promotion being a higher-priority objective, can races like San Sebastian survive without a better TV model to support both wider distribution and the tourism play? More and more pro races are being postponed or canceled due to sponsorship concerns, and without races like San Sebastian to round out the calendar, how does the overall sport remain sustainable? As the men’s pro cycling audience ages out – evidenced by this year’s Giro d’Italia viewer analysis and a drop in the Tour de France audience – should the sport be looking more closely at other avenues for growth, for example, elevating the Women’s WorldTour coverage model? Women’s sports are attracting younger and more diverse audiences – demographics which are vital regarding brand relationship decisions and loyalties – and the capability to build on that through sponsorship, social media, and television distribution could have an outsized effect on the entire sport. It will be informative immediately following the TdFF to analyze its viewership demographics for clues which might illuminate more nuanced business strategies for the entire sport’s future.
Tadej Pogačar has had a generational year of success in 2024, with dominant solo wins at the Giro, the Tour, Strade Bianche, Liège and Volta Catalunya. Indeed, the only race he entered and did not win in 2024 so far was Milan-San Remo, where he was third. It’s arguably the most dominant season of bike racing by any individual rider in history not named Merckx. He won the Tour by over 6 minutes, the Giro by almost 10 minutes and Strade Bianche with a long-range solo move that left the rest of the peloton far behind. In many sports, there seems to be one or two individual stars who are head and shoulders above the rest of the field, and Pogačar has certainly assumed that mantle in cycling. It may be that his physiology, his training, his nutrition and his technology are simply better than everyone else’s – and that is the conventional wisdom at the moment.
On the other hand, given the long history of doping in cycling, some observers are growing skeptical of his performances, despite his widespread popularity, affable personality, and demonstrated team orientation and sportsmanship. It’s well-known that his UAE team directors Mauro Gianetti and Joxean Matxin have had associations with teams and/or athletes who have been caught doping in the past, most notably the Saunier-Duval team, which featured doping violations by Ricardo Ricco, Juan Jose Cobo and Leonardo Piepoli. (A similar correlation of rumored and proven manager/athlete doping cases is rampant across athletics, for comparison.) It's very unfortunate that any outstanding performance in cycling seemingly has to lead immediately to whispers and rumors, even though few observers will go public with their concerns. Pogačar himself has admitted that “there will always be doubts,” and even Lance Armstrong advised him to perhaps take his foot off the gas a bit for appearance’s sake. For a rider to be as dominant as he has been throughout all of 2024 is undoubtedly going to lead to scrutiny, and some observers will question whether this kind of performance can run on “bread and water” alone. Pogačar is tested extensively, and at this point there is no evidence to suggest he is engaged in any illegal practices; indeed, with all of the doubts and quiet criticism, one wonders if he will simply channel that into motivation to further dominate the scene.
I appreciate that the issues when it came to protecting the privacy of the two boxers. However, whatever the issues with the IBA, the IOC were still in possession of findings (from accredited lab facilities) which suggested that competitors with me biological advantages were included in the female category. The IOC do not appear to have rejected these findings concentrating instead on the circumstances if the tests), but neither did they act upon them. Even to verify theit accurai or establish to a clearer picture. This seems to me to be a really significant governance failure from the IOC and one which had profound effect not only in the two boxers but also on the integrity, safety and fairness of the female category. The other athletes also lost out and there is a lot of, to me quite understandable, anger around about that.