Athlete of the year

Usain Bolt has been named the world athlete of the year for a fifth time. Fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann

Fraser-Pryce took the women’s award. Both of them clinched 100m, 200m and 100m relay gold in

 the world championships in Moscow in August.

  Usain Bolt's golden collection

100m: 2008, 2012 Olympics; 2009, 2013 World Championships

200m: 2008, 2012 Olympics; 2009, 2011, 2013 World Championships

4x100m: 2008, 2012 Olympics; 2009, 2011, 2013 World Championships

WADA

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) established in 1999 is an independent international agency constituted and funded by the sports movement and the governments of the world. WADA works towards a vision of a world where all athletes compete in a doping-free sporting environment. Initially funded by the International Olympic Committee, WADA now receives half of its budgetary requirements from them, with the other half coming from various governments throughout the world. Its governing bodies are also composed in equal parts by representatives from the sporting movement (including athletes) and governments of the world. The agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code – the document harmonizing regulations regarding anti-doping in all sports and countries. It also produces an annual list of prohibited substances and methods that sportspersons are not allowed to take or use.

 Article.1

Doping is defined as the occurrence of one or more of anti-doping rule violations set forth in Article 2.1 through Article 2.8 of the Code.

Article.2

Athletes or other persons shall be responsible for knowing what constitutes an anti doping rule violation and the substances and methods which have been included on the prohibited list.

Article.2.1

Presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or markers in an athlete’s sample.

Article.2.2

Use or attempted use by an athlete of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method.

Article.2.3

Refusing or failing without compelling justification to submit to sample collection after notification as authorised in applicable anti-doping rules or otherwise evading sample collection.

Article.2.4

Violation of applicable requirements regarding athlete availability for out of competition testing, including failure to file required whereabouts information and missed tests which are declared based on rules which comply with international standard for testing. Any combination of three missed tests and/or filing failures within an eighteen month period as determined by anti-doping organisations with jurisdiction over the athlete shall constitute an anti-doping rule violation.

Article.2.5

Tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control.

Article.2.6

Possession of prohibited substances and prohibited methods.

Article.2.7

Trafficking or attempted trafficking in any prohibited substance or prohibited method.

Article.2.8

Administration or attempted administration to any athlete-in competition of any prohibited method or prohibited substance or any administration or attempted administration to any athlete out-of-competition of any prohibited method or any prohibited substance that is prohibited out-of-competition or assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, covering up or any other type of complicity involving an anti-doping rule violation or any attempted anti-doping rule violation.

Visit URL below for details:

http://www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/document/code_v2009_en.pdf

     The spirit of sport is the celebration of the human spirit, body and mind, and is characterised by the following values:

• EHICS, FAIR PLAY  AND HONESTY
• HEALTH
• EXCELLENCE IN PERFORMANCE
• CHARACTER AND EDUCATION
• FUN AND JOY
• TEAMWORK
• DEDICATION AND COMMITMENT
• RESPECT FOR RULES AND LAWS
• RESPECT FOR RULES AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS
• COURAGE
• COMMUNITY AND SOLIDARITY

WADA has approved stricter punishments for athletes found guilty of doping doubling bans to four years. The new code will come into effect from 1^st January 2015 means offenders will miss at least one Olympic Games.

WADA new code changes

• Bans for drug cheats will go up from two to four years.
• Introduces more flexibility in the punishment of athletes who are found to have mistakenly taken banned substances or who co-operate with doping investigations.
• Stronger powers for anti-doping authorities to punish coaches and trainers who help athletes dope.
• More emphasis on investigations away from drug tests to catch cheats.
• Allows WADA to tell sports for which illegal substances they should be testing.

Olympics - Origins & Legends

The legend of Olympics has its origins on the plains of Olympia in the ancient Greece in 776 BC. The Games laid emphasis on the promotion of art and discipline of the rhythmic movement of the human body at a level of excellence, which the Gods might envy. The ancient Greek civilization gave the world the institution of the athelete and organised sport as an art form on par with the arts of architecture, sculpture, poetry, theatre and discourse. " We must be immortal as far as we can ". The words of Aristotle sums up the spirit of human aspirations to pursue excellence.

Legend talks of the Greeks offering their best at the altar of Gods. The altar of Rhea, mother of Gods was set up in Olympia in 1370 BC. Her worshippers raced at dawn for the privilege of being the first to light the fire on her altar. For the Atheletes it was a form of prayer as much as a mark of human achievement. Another legend credits the origin of the Games to Hercules in honour of Zeus, his father. It is possible that the Olympics did start from a Greek tradition of funeral games held to honour dead heroes with feats of excellence by competitors. The Olympic games were held every four years in the environs of the temple of Zeus built on the Olympian Plain. The ivory and gold statute of Zeus created by Phidias, the master sculptor dominated the games. The chariot race between Pelops and Oenomaus is portrayed in the front gable of the temple with twelve labours of Hercules on the rear.

While violent games such as boxing and wrestling often resulted in fatal accidents the winner was honoured posthumously. The violation of rules was punished. The athelete represented the nobility of Gods symbolizing the most heroic virtues; beauty of form, strength of body, swiftness of limbs and skill of mind. The bronze figure of discus thrower and the bronze charioteer of Delphi remain symbols of victory and restraint. Besides Olympic games, the Pythian games sacred to Apollo were held at Delphi every four years. The Isthian games were founded in favour of Poseidon by Theseus and the Nemean games of Argolis were connected to Hercules.

The warring Greeks laid aside weapons during the Olympic games and the city states violating the truce were punished. The same code of peace protected individual atheletes. Many atheletes made a living from the many games as prize money was good. Homer’s Iliad details an unusual prize in the chariot race at the funeral games of Patroclus: “a woman skilled in all useful arts and a three legged cauldron with handles which would hold 22 measures”. The sporting heroes on their return home were welcomed with arches built in their honour and a grateful city would free them from taxes. Some are assured a lifetime’s food supply and front seat for public events. The garland of olive leaves, the most prized trophy of atheletic excellence to the winners of Olympic games was not intrinsically valuable.

The Roman conquest of Greece did not end the Olympic games. The new rulers joined them. The last Olympic games were held in 261 AD. When the Roman Emperor became a Christian the games lost their patronage. The terrifying piety of early Christians condemned both human ambition and achievements as symptoms of folly and arrogance. The religious fanaticism damned the search for beauty and artistry as pagan. All pagan shrines were closed in 393 AD by an edict of Emperor Theodosius I It took more than 1500 years to revive the Olympic games in 1896 amidst the wars of feudal Europe, which had become more bitter and destructive than the internecine warfare of the city states of Greece. The sense and sentiments of an Olympic movement afresh perhaps were never more sorely needed. Rest is History.