A stateless refugee from South Sudan and three athletes from the Dutch Antilles can compete as independent athletes under the Olympic flag in London, the International Olympic Committee said Saturday.
LONDON — A stateless refugee from South Sudan and three athletes from the Dutch Antilles can compete as independent athletes under the Olympic flag in London, the International Olympic Committee said Saturday.
The executive board agreed to let marathon runner Guor Marial of South Sudan compete at the Games. The war-torn country has no Olympic structures.
“The voice of South Sudan has been heard,” Marial, 28, told The Associated Press from his home in Flagstaff, Ariz.
The Dutch Antilles trio of sprinter Churandy Martina, Philip Elhage (shooting) and Rodion Davelaar (swimming) also got the IOC nod.
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Located in the Caribbean, the Dutch Antilles was an independent territory of the Netherlands until 2010 and had its own Olympic Committee and team. The islands are part of the Netherlands as special municipalities and have had no National Olympics Committee since 2011. Their athletes will compete within the Dutch team in the future.
Martina was disqualified at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing after originally finishing second in the 200 meters behind Jamaican Usain Bolt. About an hour after the race, Martina was DQ’d for a lane violation.
IOC rules out
minute of silence
IOC President Jacques Rogge won’t budge: There will be no minute’s silence for the Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich massacre at Friday’s opening ceremony of the London Olympics.
Rogge rejected the latest calls for a special observance to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian gunmen at the Munich Games.
“We feel that the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident,” said Rogge, noting the IOC will honor the slain Israelis at an Aug. 6 reception in London.
Notes
• U.S. runner Crystal Cox was stripped of her gold medal from the 1,600-meter relay at the 2004 Athens Games after admitting to doping; the IOC put off a decision on whether to disqualify the U.S. team.
Cox, 33, admitted in 2010 to using anabolic steroids and accepted a four-year suspension and disqualification of her results from 2001 to 2004.
• Iziane Castro Marques — a former player for the WNBA Storm — was removed from the Brazil women’s basketball team after violating a team rule.