The Republic will host the 2029 SEA Games, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and Sport Singapore announced in a joint statement on Thursday (May 12).They added that members of the SEA Games Federation accepted Singapore's interest in hosting the biennial event at a meeting in Hanoi. SNOC president Tan Chuan-Jin, who is in the Vietnamese capital, said:"We are pleased to host the prestigious regional sporting event in Singapore again. The SEA Games holds special memories and experiences for Singapore and our South-east Asian neighbours.The 2029 Games will mark the fifth time Singapore is organising the Games after playing host in 1973, 1983, 1993 and most recently in 2015 , when it yielded its best performance ever - a haul of 84 gold, 73 silver and 102 bronze medals.
The biennial SEA Games, which was first held in 1959 as the SEA Peninsular Games, is the most visible multi-sport event in the region. Back in 2015, more than 10,000 athletes and officials from 11 countries participated in the Games, which featured 402 events across 36 sports. Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law said that hosting the SEA Games will give Team Singapore athletes an opportunity to compete against some of the best in the region, with strong home ground support. He added: "The spirit of the SEA Games can also bring Singaporeans from all walks of life together, to cheer and rally behind our athletes, and strengthen our national unity. Following the successful hosting of the 2015 SEA Games, we are confident that the 35th SEA Games in 2029 can be another defining moment for Singaporeans and also an opportunity to showcase our hospitality, and tighten bonds with our Southeast Asian neighbours." The current Games - the 31st edition - is currently being held in Hanoi after it was delayed from 2021 due to the pandemic. It was also announced on Thursday that Malaysia has been selected to host the 34th edition in 2027. The 32nd edition will be held in Cambodia and the 33rd Games will be in Thailand.
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Comprising seven gallery spaces housing objects from around the world, the 19,000-square-metre (204,514-square-foot) 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum has opened its doors next to Khalifa Stadium in the capital, Doha. A member of the Olympic Museums Network (OMN), 3-2-1, designed by Spanish architect Joan Sibina, is one of the largest museums of its kind. “The 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum comes after Qatar’s outstanding performance at the Tokyo Olympics and just before we host the World Cup,” said Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums (QM).
“Culture and sports are two sides of the same coin, and there is no better time to celebrate our nation’s investments in both.” The museum contains objects from the origins of sports to the present day, and is located on the side of Qatar’s national stadium which is also one of the eight venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. “The Museum delivers a multi-layered educational narrative that combines a comprehensive collection with state-of-the-art technology and documents the significance of sports in Qatar,” QM said in a press release.
From human rights to coronavirus and now tennis star Peng Shuai, preparations for February's Beijing Olympics have been overshadowed by several controversies. China's ruling Communist Party is however determined to frame the Winter Games as a chance for the country to showcase its prowess and help the world unite in the face of the pandemic. The International Olympic Committee has lauded Beijing for making history in becoming the first host of a Summer Games, in 2008, and now a Winter one. With just over 70 days to go, what are these issues hanging over the Olympics:
Tibet, Hong Kong
Human rights campaigners and exiles have accused Beijing of religious repression and massively curtailing rights in Tibet. Activists unfurled a Tibetan flag at the Olympic flame-lighting ceremony in Greece. Tibet has alternated over the centuries between independence and control by China, which says it "peacefully liberated" the rugged plateau in 1951 and brought infrastructure and education to the previously underdeveloped region. But many exiled Tibetans accuse the Beijing government of religious repression, torture and eroding their culture ― part of broader fears for human rights in China. There has also been international concern about a clampdown in Hong Kong, which China is remoulding in its own authoritarian image after huge and often violent democracy protests in the city two years ago. Coronavirus The coronavirus has loomed large over the build-up to the Beijing Olympics, which take place just six months after the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Summer Games. China has managed to restrict domestic infections to small clusters through aggressive lockdowns and mass testing, but Beijing organizers have admitted that protecting the Games from the coronavirus is their "biggest challenge". The Winter Olympics will be held in a "closed loop" ― a strict bubble insulating athletes from the outside world for the whole Games. Only people living in China will be allowed to attend as spectators. The estimated 2,900 athletes must be fully vaccinated or face 21 days in quarantine upon arrival. They, along with media and others in the bubble, will also be tested daily. China's digital yuan trials racked up 34.5 billion yuan ($5.34 billion) in transactions by the end of June, according to a white paper released Friday by the People's Bank of China. The currency has been used in 70.75 million payments so far across more than 1.32 million "scenarios" -- not only in retail settings like stores and restaurants, but also for public transportation, utility bills and government services. The central bank said it has "no preset timetable" for a full launch.
The test shows the rapid strides Beijing has made toward a central bank digital currency, an idea that is seeing increasing interest elsewhere in the world, including in the U.S. China has recently cracked down on other digital currencies, with the PBOC warning that asset-linked "stablecoins" pose risks to global financial systems. The pilot program for the virtual currency began in late 2019 in five locations, including Shenzhen and venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, with Shanghai and five others added last November. More than 20.87 million personal wallets and 3.51 million wallets for organizations and companies have been created so far. Smartphone apps, wearable devices and smart cards can all house digital-yuan wallets. According to a source familiar with the situation, the PBOC intends to continue local trials during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing toward an official rollout as early as next year. For now, the central bank will further expand the pilot program to cover "all possible scenarios" for transactions and improve the system's stability and data security. Research will continue into the digital yuan's impact on monetary policy and the financial system, and Beijing will move forward with changes to the relevant legislation to provide a legal basis for the currency. Pete McGee TOKYO, August 23 -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday some 90 percent of around 3,700 vehicles and mobility devices it will provide to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be electrified, as it seeks to showcase its advanced low-emission technology at the world event. Of the total, 1,350 units will be either electric or fuel-cell vehicles that produce no carbon dioxide when running, while the rest will be hybrids and plug-in hybrids powered by electric-gasoline engines, Toyota, a sponsor of the Summer Games, said. With the lineup to be used to transport athletes, officials and spectators to and within venues, Toyota said it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 50 percent compared with when the entire fleet was made up of conventional gasoline and diesel models. The official fleet will include more than a dozen box-shaped autonomous electric vehicles, 500 Mirai, the world's first mass-produced fuel-cell car, 200 cart-like EVs specially designed for the games that can be used by people with impairments, and 300 standing-type mobility devices for use by security and medical staff, Toyota said. Fuel-cell vehicles are powered by electricity generation through a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, a green system that Toyota has long been focusing on as a promising future technology. TOKYO, July 9 -- Roughly 3.2 million tickets were sold in the first phase of ticket sales for next year's Tokyo Olympics, the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee said Monday. Japan residents who won the right to purchases tickets through the first-phase ticket lottery were required to complete their purchases on Thursday when organizers announced another round of sales for those who tried but failed to get any tickets in the first phase. Hundreds of thousands of tickets will be available in August's "second chance" lottery, organizers revealed. However, tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies, and many finals are expected to be excluded. Originally, organizers estimated they would have approximately 7.8 million tickets available for the games, which run from July 24 to Aug. 9 next year, but that figure is now expected to exceed 9 million, according to sources close to the matter. Less than 10 percent of the tickets assigned in the first-phase lottery remain unsold. A second-phase ticket lottery is scheduled for this autumn when tickets for all events will be up for grabs, but Tokyo 2020 Ticketing Director Hidenori Suzuki said, "There won't be more tickets available than during the first phase." Author: Linda Lim TOKYO, May 18 -- Reports released by a global union federation on Wednesday demanded better conditions for laborers working on the construction of Tokyo Games facilities after several "alarming" alleged labor violations were uncovered. The report from the Building and Wood Workers' International titled "The Dark Side of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics" is based on interviews with construction workers and documents how low pay, overwork and poor access to grievance mechanisms are creating a "culture of fear" among crews at Olympic projects. The BWI, headquartered in Geneva, is seeking an end to "dangerous patterns of overwork," citing the example of construction workers at the National Stadium and Olympic Village who reported being required to work up to 26 and 28 consecutive days, respectively. "The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics was Japan's opportunity to address some of the long-running gaps within the construction industry in Japan, however, these problems have just got worse," BWI General Secretary Ambet Yuson said. "Wages remain low, dangerous overwork is common, and workers have limited access to recourse to address their issues," Yuson said. According to the report, the Japanese construction sector is currently facing an "acute labor shortage," with 4.3 positions vacant for every construction worker. At the same time, an increase in construction activity has been driven by Japan's hosting of the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Games, as well as ongoing reconstruction efforts in Fukushima. Among the findings, one case at the National Stadium was highlighted for being particularly grievous. The report cited a complaint about a worker's injury being rejected because it had been brought by the union and not the injured party. The alleged rejection "constitutes a serious violation of the right to be represented, a core component of the right to freedom of association," the federation said in the report. The BWI sent a delegation to Tokyo last September to meet with key decision-makers and investigate the "conditions faced by workers in the construction of Tokyo 2020 Olympic facilities." Their findings were further substantiated by interviews conducted in February by BWI and its Japanese affiliate, the National Federation of Construction Workers' Unions, with workers involved in the construction of the National Stadium and Olympic Village. The report was sent Tuesday to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Japanese Sports Council -- groups responsible for the construction of Olympic facilities. The 2020 organizing committee said Tuesday evening the report is "under review." Through their "Global Sports Campaign for Decent Work and Beyond," the BWI has been examining large-scale international sporting events for over 10 years to "improve working conditions and ensure safety and health for workers building all projects related to mega-sporting events."
This should give them the confidence and stimulus to put these rules in place." Under the previous IOC guidelines, approved in 2003, athletes who transitioned from male to female or vice versa were required to have reassignment surgery followed by at least two years of hormone therapy to be eligible to compete. Now, surgery will no longer be required, with female-to-male transgender athletes eligible to take part in men's competitions "without restriction". Meanwhile, male-to-female transgender athletes will need to demonstrate that their testosterone level has been below a certain cut-off point for at least one year before their first competition. "The overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition." "To require surgical anatomical changes as a precondition to participation is not necessary to preserve fair competition and may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights," it added. |
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