Speaker John Waterhouse on the Rio Olympics

John gave a run down on gave a run down on his view of what the Rio Olympics were likely to produce in various categories of event.

Firstly he started off by saying how the Brazilian economy had been powering ahead when they were awarded the games but how it was now in serious trouble. With the games forecast to cost up to $20 billion U.S. it was likely that there would be a significant loss to Brazil. Because of the political unrest and Zikka the numbers attending were expected to be lower than originally forecast.

He then turned to the drug testing regime. Re-tests on samples taken in 2008 and 2012 were now showing through new technology that there had been a lot of cheats who had got away with using banned drugs. There was a Russian whistle blower who had revealed systamatic ccheating by Russia. This had caused Seb Coe to get the I.A.F. to ban Russia but the I.O.C. had pushed the responsibility to individual sports bodies rather than banning them on mass.

A question was raised about Lizzie Armistead's run in with the drugs testers. John explained that on her first missed test she was cleared because the tester had telephoned her room but not actually gone to it as he should have done. He explained that athletes have to give the testing agency a schedule of where they will be 24 hours a day 365 days a year. A tester can then turn up with only an hour notice. Lizzie didn't originally appeal this missed test but then was forced to do because she then missed 2 others which would have seen her banned from the games.

He then went through where the UK might expect to get medals in the athletiv arena.