Nigel McCarthy and Tiziana Apap where the two young participants chosen by the MOC to attend the two-week young participants session in Olympia Greece at the International Olympic Academy.

They attended several lectures and participated in a number of sport and cultural activities together with participants from 93 different countries.

This is what they had to say :

“Remember, whatever the strength of your body, whatever the speed of your feet, we are all people of the highest quality. Although the Olympic ideas are of historical heritage, the Olympic movement does not belong to the past. It belongs to the future and you the young participants, you are the future, we entrust the future to you. How will you shape that future? Let that spark be lit in you as you start your journey as peace makers in your communities!”

Hearing these words from Dr Sock Teo-Koh, from the Singapore National Olympic Committee and organiser of the Youth Olympic Games, lit something in us and made us realise that we were going to start something special, something that will affect us and people around us.

Many people ask us how the trip to Olympia was, but my reply is always that there are no words that can describe the whole trip. It is one of those rare things in life that you have to experience it to only understand the rollercoaster of emotions felt in this trip.

The main topic in the lectures was Olympism and the special subtopic was Peace through Olympic Values. The lectures were to promote Olympic Ideals to the participants and how the participants can educate others in their respective countries.

Some of the most important lecturers were Mr Wilfried Lemke from the United Nations who explained how sports programmes that promote peace around the world can get funding from the UN.

Prince Faisal Al Hussein of Jordan spoke about his efforts of reconciliation and recovery through sport and Mr Edward Kensington, director of the Olympic Solidarity Movement, explained how all the money the International Olympic Committee gained from TV Rights is then distributed back to sports around the world.

A lecture from Ms Irena Szewinska who is a Polish gold medalist in three Olympiads spoke about her sporting career and served as an inspiration especially for the women present as she was a very successful women in an age where women’s rights were not so promoted nor followed.

“One of the most important activities we had was the discussion groups where we had to discuss how we have to implement peace through sport values in our respective countries and debate the issues around it. What has struck us most in these discussion groups was that we had the chance to listen to critical views from different people with their different background on our own opinions.

“Other activities we had, to blend more together, were the sports tournaments, games, art, songs, dance, poetry and literature workshops, and numerous social events and activities. Participating in these activities with 200 participants from 100 different countries is an experience of a lifetime in a multicultural environment, which enhances international understanding and acceptance and forges lifelong friendships among us the participants.

“Tours to the Acropolis where we could see the Pantheon and the temples built to Greek Gods such as the temple of Zeus and the ancient site at Olympia where the first Olympic Games had been held in 776 B.C gave us a better understanding how and why the Olympics had been created.

“We are now back in Malta full of motivation to inspire others and are full of ideas on how to spread the Olympic values in our respective sports and surroundings.”

Nigel McCarthy and Tiziana Apap thanked their respective federations – Judo and Athletics federations – and the Maltese Olympic Committee for making this experience possible.

US relay runners win Olympic medals appeal

GRAHAM DUNBAR

AP sports writer

American sprinters who were stripped of their 2000 Olympics relay medals because teammate Marion Jones was doping won an appeal on Friday to have them restored.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favour of the women, who had appealed the International Olympic Committee’s decision to disqualify them from the Sydney Games.

The court said the IOC and International Association of Athletics Federations rules in 2000 did not allow entire teams to be disqualified because of doping by one athlete.

The IOC said the ruling was “disappointing and especially unfortunate for the athletes of the other teams who competed according to the rules.”

In Sydney, Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander Clark and Andrea Anderson were part of the squad that won gold in the 4x400 relay. Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson were on the 4x100 bronze medal squad.

All but Perry joined the appeal.

“The panel found that at the time of the Sydney Olympic Games there was no express IOC or IAAF rule in force that clearly allowed the IOC to annul the relay team results if one team member was found to have committed a doping offence,” CAS said.

Now that the case is over, Richardson can relax, her medal safe and secure in a wooden frame at the home of her parents in Florida.

“It’s been a long three years, a long hard fight,” Richardson told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “I wanted to believe they would do what was right, but there were some times where I wasn’t as certain. Today, they did what was right.”

Richardson spoke to Gaines and Miles-Clark and “everyone is extremely excited.”

“Finally, the fight is over,” Richardson said.

In 2007, Jones admitted she was doping in Sydney and also lost her individual golds in the 100 and 200 metres and bronze in the long jump. She spent about six months in a Texas prison in 2008 for lying about using performance-enhancing drugs and her role in a check-fraud scam.

She has since made a comeback in basketball with the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA.

“I’ve totally moved on,” Jones told The AP in San Antonio, where the Shock were preparing to play the Silver Stars. “I’m moving forward.”

Jones said she had not heard about the CAS decision and had not spoken to her former Olympic teammates recently. She declined further comment.

“She made some very poor choices. That’s something she has to live with,” said Richardson, who no longer has any ill will toward her former teammate. “We did what we were supposed to do and did it with fairness. You have to learn to forgive and forget.”

The CAS panel of three lawyers acknowledged the ruling might be unfair to relay teams that competed “with no doped athletes” but added the decision “exclusively depends on the rules enacted or not enacted by the IOC and the IAAF at the time of the Sydney Olympic Games.”

The CAS inflicted a further defeat on the IOC by ordering the Olympic body to pay 10,000 Swiss francs ($9,500) toward the athletes’ legal costs.

Mark Levinstein, the Washington, DC-based lead attorney for the athletes, said there is still a lawsuit pending against the USOC.

“All they had to do was say, ‘The rules are the rules, leave them alone,’ and this didn’t happen,” Levinstein said in a phone interview. “To have your own national Olympic committee turn its back on you, it was sad.”

The USOC issued a statement saying it respects the decision of the CAS.

“Although we continue to believe that the US medals in the 4x100 and 4x400 metre women’s relays were unfairly won due to Ms Jones’ doping, we have always recognised that the athletes who made up the US teams might have a legal basis on which to defend these medals,” said Patrick Sandusky, chief communications officer for the USOC.

“We are sorry that Ms Jones’ actions continue to have a negative effect on the world of sport and express our sympathy for all of the athletes who competed cleanly at the Olympic Games in Sydney and were damaged by Ms Jones’ poor decisions.”

United States Track and Field president Stephanie Hightower and CEO Doug Logan said in a joint statement, “Although USATF was not a party to this case, we are sympathetic to any clean athlete who was robbed of something because of Marion Jones’ cheating: competitors, teammates, fans and anyone who strives for fair competition.”

The IOC has now lost two CAS rulings within five weeks involving Olympic medals stripped.

“What better confirmation of independence can you have than the baby you have created says no to you?” IOC president Jacques Rogge told The Associated Press in New York. “We’re disappointed that we lose the case, of course. But it strengthens us to say to the athletes, ‘You can trust the court of arbitration. They are independent. They are free. They can rule against the IOC.’ ”

Belarus hammer throwers Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan won their appeals last month against disqualification from the 2008 Beijing Games and regained their silver and bronze medals, respectively. Both had elevated levels of testosterone, but the CAS panel said tests were invalid because international laboratory standards in Beijing were not respected.

“The IOC will continue to enforce its zero tolerance policy in the fight against doping for the sake of the athletes’ health and to ensure fair competition,” the IOC said in a statement.

The CAS panel said it accepted the IOC’s claim that Jones was possibly not the only US runner doping in Sydney, and it was mindful that Gaines later served a doping ban for cheating in 2002-03 with the same designer steroid – known as “the clear” – that Jones used.

However, CAS warned that judging an athlete based on suspicion could “deliver a fatal blow to any serious fight against doping and the CAS’s reputation.”

The case involving the sprinters was heard over two days in Lausanne, Switzerland, in May, when the relay runners’ legal team argued they should not be punished for cheating by Jones.

The panel agreed unanimously last week that the IAAF’s rule in 2000 was the decisive point.

The court also confirmed its own precedent set five years ago in a previous doping case involving US relay runners at the Sydney Olympics. That panel determined that teammates of Jerome Young should not lose their 4x400 gold medals after he received a retroactive ban from 1999-2001 – meaning he was technically ineligible to compete in Sydney.

Young’s relay partners – Michael Johnson, Antonio Pettigrew, Angelo Taylor, Alvin Harrison and Calvin Harrison – won their appeal to CAS after the IAAF annulled their result.

However, the IOC ended up stripping the entire team of the medals in 2008 following the admission of doping by Pettigrew. The IAAF amended its rules in 2003 so that relay teams could then be disqualified if one member was caught doping.

The ruling on Friday dashed the hopes of Jamaica’s team of being upgraded from silver to gold in the 4x400 relay. Russia finished third and Nigeria out of the medals in fourth. In the 4x100, the US edged France out of the medals.

Munich’s 2018 Olympic bid gets budget raise

Backers of Munich’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics have agreed that its budget should be increased – but not with taxpayers’ money.

Bid officials agreed the budget should be raised to €33 million ($42 million) from €30 million. But Munich Mayor Christian Ude said there are still no plans for “demands on the taxpayer.”

Bid chief Willy Bogner conceded organisers would have liked an increase to €37 million but said he still hopes “a decent bid” is possible. He rejected recent reports he had considered resigning.

Some €22 million has been raised from sponsors. Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer said there is “a series of things in the pipeline.”

Munich is competing against Annecy, France, and Pyeongchang, South Korea. The IOC will select the host city in July 2011.

Stella McCartney to design Britain’s Olympic kits

Stella McCartney will design the outfits worn by British athletes at the 2012 London Olympics.

The British fashion designer, who is the daughter of former Beatle Paul McCartney, will work with sportswear brand Adidas, which has provided the British team’s outfits since 1984.

McCartney said that “it is an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be creative director of Team GB as the host nation.”

London organisers also announced that Panini will produce sticker books for the Olympics featuring past and present athletes.

London 2012 commercial director Charlie Wijeratna says that “Panini sticker collections are a staple of playgrounds – and offices – across the country around major sporting events.”