Ridiculous reason why Olympic boss shattered Raelene Boyle’s hope for justice

Raelene Boyle thought she had found an ally of injustice in IOC boss Thomas Bach who himself was robbed of the chance at Olympic gold. What happened next surprised nobody.

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When Raelene Boyle found out the most powerful man in world sport would be the guest of honour at Saturday’s Australian Olympic Committee’s annual general meeting, it never crossed her mind to challenge him over one of the most shameful injustices in sport.

After all, Thomas Bach was only in Sydney as a courtesy stopover ahead of this week’s SportAccord conference at the Gold Coast, Queensland’s golden opportunity to press its credentials to hosting the 2032 Olympics.

But in the final moments before she was about to be called on to the stage to be presented with the AOC’s Order of Merit award, she felt a sudden call to arms.

WASTED BREATH

In an impassioned State of the Olympics address, AOC President John Coates outlined his belief why the Olympic movement needs to remain independent of government.

In acknowledging his VIP guest, Coates reminded everyone Bach was himself a casualty of political interference because he was prevented from defending the gold medal he won in fencing in 1976 because West Germany boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

As she listened in, Boyle, Australia’s most high-profile victim of Cold War Olympic politics, decided to speak up, believing she had found a kindred spirit.

Boyle (R) is beaten by Stecher in at the Munich Games.

So she looked Bach in the eye and told him it was time the IOC did the right thing by disqualifying all the doped up East Germans who cheated their way to victory and reallocating the medals to the athletes who deserved them.

What happened next surprised nobody.

A lawyer by profession, Bach explained that it was too late to change the past because the statute of limitations had expired so the case was closed.

Move on folks, nothing to see here.

That’s the IOC’s default position for every thorny issue.

SWEPT UNDER THE CARPET

When the World Anti-Doping Agency recommended Russia be banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics after revelations about state-sponsored doping, the IOC passed the baton to individual sporting federations, telling them to make up their own minds.

Then again last week, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced its verdict in the Caster Semenya case, the IOC remained firmly on the fence.

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While the International Association of Athletics Federations has been simultaneously slammed and applauded for forging ahead with its contentious solution to the complex issue of intersex athletes, the IOC deferred the matter to each sporting federation rather than introducing a blanket for every sport on the Olympic program.

The IOC has distanced itself from the Caster Semenya saga. Picture: AP

TURNING A BLIND EYE

When it comes to dealing with problematic sporting bodies, the IOC likes to keep its distance.

It has launched an investigation into boxing’s governing body AIBA amid concerns about its finances and governance, but has no plans to look into swimming’s international body FINA, despite growing complaints from competitors and officials about how it runs the sport.

In 2016, three members of FINA’s independent anti-doping board, including the chairman, resigned in protest after FINA allowed Russian swimmers to compete at Rio.

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Last year, three elite international swimmers lodged an antitrust class-action lawsuit in California, alleging that FINA unlawfully wielded its power by trying to stop competitors from joining a proposed professional league.

And FINA’s leadership remains under heavy scrutiny following allegations of bribery against the man widely expected to become the sport’s next president of Australia’s most successful Olympic sport.

Convicted drug cheat Sun Yang. Picture: AFP

MURKY WATERS

In 2017, then 81-year-old Julio Maglione of Uruguay was elected president for a third term after FINA changed its rules to remove an age limit that would have made him ineligible.

One of his key allies, Husain al-Musallam from Kuwait, was re-elected as FINA’s first vice-president, making him next in line for the top job, despite having been identified by the US Department of Justice as a co-conspirator in the FBI’s investigation into corruption within soccer’s global body FIFA.

A former airline pilot, “captain” Al-Musallam was also accused of seeking a pay-off for a sponsorship deal through his role as director-general with the Olympic Council of Asia after the leaking of a taped recording of the conversation. FINA cleared him to run for the vice-presidency.

Paolo Barelli, the head of the European swimming federation, is one of the few voices for reform inside FINA’s inner circle.

The Italian senator ran against Maglioni for the FINA Presidency in 2017 on a platform for greater transparency but lost the vote so settled for a lesser but still important role as a continental vice president on the FINA bureau.

Barelli is expected to run against Al-Musallam at the next election in 2021 but sources have told The Daily Telegraph it could be a dirty tricks campaign with plans to add new hurdles.

The Daily Telegraph understands that rather than encourage more candidates to run against Al-Musallam for the top job, FINA has drafted a proposed change to its constitution that would prevent anyone who runs for the presidency, but fails to get elected, from applying for any other positions on the bureau.