No sure road to gold
National squash legend Datuk Nicol David warned that it is still too early to expect too much from Sivasangari and Eain Yow, adding that anything can happen in the next three years, including fiercer competition from other countries.
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The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
Ski jumping-Norway ski jumpers charged over alleged suit tampering
FILE PHOTO: Nordic Skiing - FIS Nordic World Ski Championships - Trondheim, Norway - March 8, 2025 Norway's Marius Lindvik during men's large hill first round REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo (Reuters) -Norway's Olympic gold medallist ski jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang plus three team officials have been charged with ethics and competition violations following allegations of tampering with ski suits, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said on Monday. Lindvik and Forfang, together with two coaches and a service staff member, face charges of equipment manipulation in the men's large hill event at the World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, in March after an FIS investigation. Lindvik finished second but was denied the silver medal having been disqualified following an equipment inspection along with compatriot Forfang who came fourth. The Norwegian Ski Federation admitted shortly after the competition that the team had manipulated the suits but said the ski jumpers were not at fault for the violations. Norway's then-head coach Magnus Brevik, assistant coach Thomas Lobben and service staff member Adrian Livelten were also been charged by the FIS, having been provisionally suspended along with Lindvik and Forfang in March. The FIS did not say when its ethics committee would issue a ruling, with the Milano-Cortina Olympics starting in six months' time. Lindvik had been tipped to retain his men's Olympic large hill title at next year's Games. Forfang won the large hill team gold and normal hill individual silver at the 2018 Olympics. JUMPERS DEFENDED The head of Norway's ski jumping team Jan-Erik Aalbu said he was surprised by the decision to charge Lindvik, 27, and 30-year-old Forfang. "We have listened to our athletes and believe them when they say they did not know about the manipulation of the ski suits," Aalbu said in a press release from the federation. "There is no evidence that they were aware of the manipulation that took place. We therefore disagree with FIS's assessment that there are grounds to bring a case against Forfang and Lindvik, but we respect the process." Brevik and Livelten apologised in March for modifying the jumpsuits that led to the initial suspensions. "... they chose to put a reinforced thread in the jumpsuit of Forfang and Lindvik," Aalbu told a press conference in March. "This was done knowing that this is not within the regulations, but with a belief that it would not be discovered by FIS's equipment controller. "The way I consider this. We have cheated. We have tried to cheat the system. That is unacceptable." (Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk; Editing by Ken Ferris)
New Straits Times
7 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Too much too young? China's 12-year-old phenom Yu sparks wonder and concern
MELBOURNE: Beating a 12-year-old rival was once child's play for an elite swimmer but it has become an unlikely badge of honour when China's Yu Zidi is in the race. Only the very best in women's swimming were able to beat Yu at the world championships where the prodigy became the youngest medallist in the global meet's 52-year history. Yet even as the swimming world marvelled at Yu's talent, her age raised questions about the ethics of someone so young competing at the highest level. In a sport where the mental and physical toll can prove overwhelming for adults, Yu's success at the world championships was viewed dimly by some child protection advocates. "Twelve-years-old is incredibly young in swimming," author Linda Flanagan, a vocal opponent of children competing in elite sport, told Reuters. "A 12-year-old does not train like an 18 or 20-year-old because their bodies aren't equipped to handle the work involved. "And also emotionally, it's not in their best interest. "It flies in the face of what psychologists say about what's healthy for kids, which is not to put all your eggs in one basket, to spread your interests so you don't become this narrow person." Adolescents are hardly rare in swimming, particularly in women's competition where athletes tend to reach peak performance earlier than men. Dane Inge Sorensen was 12 when she won the 200 metres breaststroke bronze at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. She remains the youngest Games medallist in individual events. Sharron Davies swam for Britain at 11 and made her Olympic debut at the 1976 Montreal Games at 13. Far from being concerned about Yu's wellbeing, Davies said the Chinese wunderkind, who won a relay bronze and came fourth in three individual events on her world championships debut, would have found it a thrill. "It is a total misconception that that young girl would have been extremely nervous. It would have been the opposite," Davies told Reuters in an interview. "(When) I made that Olympic Games, I was just on cloud nine. "There was nothing for me to lose and everything to gain. And it would have been the same for her: she had nothing to lose and everything to gain." There was little sign of Yu being overawed as she recorded personal bests in the 200m and 400m individual medley (IM), and 200 butterfly. Her time of 4:33.76 in the 400 IM final would have taken the Paris Olympic bronze medal away from 23-year-old American Emma Weyant. Yu told Chinese media the Singapore meet was more intense than she had imagined but the atmosphere was great. "This relay bronze motivates me to keep working hard," Yu told Xinhua. "Right after the race, I talked to my family. I want to bring back the medal .... to share the joy with them." Yu's may be the last world swimming medal won by a 12-year-old pending a World Aquatics review. Although the global swimming body has a minimum age of 14 for Olympics and world championships, its by-laws allow younger swimmers with qualifying times to compete. Yu qualified at the national championships in May. World Aquatics executive director Brent Nowicki said the governing body would have to take a look at the age rule. "I didn't think I'd have this conversation, but now I think we have to go back and say, 'Is this appropriate?'" Nowicki told reporters in Singapore. "Do we need to do other things? Put other guard-rails up? Do we allow it under certain conditions? I don't know the answer." An International Olympic Committee (IOC) consensus statement on elite youth athletes published last year noted adolescent athletes are more susceptible to "musculoskeletal injuries" while the intense physical and mental demands of sport can bring "psychosocial strain" and mental health challenges. China's state broadcaster CCTV reported that Yu nearly quit swimming last year when she was 11 because she felt pressure before the national championships. "I was just overwhelmed with emotion and didn't want to train anymore," Yu said in comments published by the broadcaster in May. But "patient encouragement" from her coach and family helped her persevere. The Chinese Swimming Association and China's General Administration of Sport did not respond to requests from Reuters to interview Yu or her coaches, or for comment on the national swim team's safeguarding protocols for child athletes. Australia head coach Rohan Taylor said he would be cautious about selecting a 12-year-old for open competition at a major global meet – but would not rule it out. "I would go through a process to make sure everything was in place to support that athlete and that we felt we weren't putting any expectation or pressure," he told Reuters. "There's a lot of hurdles before we put (athletes) in that situation." Three years out from the Los Angeles Olympics, rivals and pundits see a big future for Yu. But predictions of super-stardom may not bear out, according to Michael Bergeron, co-author of the IOC's consensus statement on youth athletes and a sport science expert with the Women's Tennis Association. Citing IOC data, Bergeron said just over 30 per cent of under-18 athletes who competed at Olympics returned as adults. "Maybe she is going to be a superstar down the road but the ones that usually excel at a young age are rarely the ones to excel as an older adolescent, never mind as an adult," he said. - Reuters
The Star
7 hours ago
- The Star
Swimming-The time of her life; Davies thrilled by 12-year-old's medal feat
FILE PHOTO: Swimming - World Aquatics Championships - Women's 400m Medley Final - World Aquatics Championships Arena, Singapore - August 3, 2025 China's Zidi Yu in action REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) -Sharron Davies will never forget the thrill of swimming at the Olympics as a 13-year-old and is sure Chinese sensation Yu Zidi will have felt similar excitement as the youngest world championships medallist at 12. The pre-teen prodigy made headlines when she took bronze with her country's 4x200m freestyle relay team in Singapore last month. Davies swam for Britain at 11 and made her Olympic debut in Montreal in 1976. At 14, she twice won bronze at the European championships and by 15 was a double Commonwealth Games champion. While some have raised questions about safeguarding, mental health, stress and the ethics of someone competing at elite level while still so young, Davies saw no reason to be concerned. "I don't have any particular qualms," she told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It didn't traumatise me. In fact, when you're young, people presume that this is going to make you extremely nervous but in fact the opposite happens. "You know that every time you get into the water you're going to swim faster, because you're just growing and getting better at 12 and you have the next 10 years in front of you." Davies compared that to the stress of being an older athlete in their last major meet and knowing that one final race, maybe only seconds in the pool, could be life-changing. Yu's experience, she suggested, will have been very different. "That 12-year-old thought this was just 'everything is a bonus, I'm just having the best time ever...' the pressure is not there," she said. "At 12, you just don't even think about that. You just think about how amazing it is to be part of this." Davies, who won 400m Individual Medley silver at the 1980 Moscow Olympics at a time when doped East German swimmers dominated the pool, said she was "on cloud nine" at making the Olympic squad. "I just thought everything was amazing. I was just so lucky to be there and to experience it all and just to be part of it," she explained. "There was nothing for me to lose and everything to gain. And it would have been the same for her (Yu)." Davies said age limits, with 14 the usual entry point for less elite performers, were meaningless when such an obvious talent came along. "If someone is good enough to be there, how do you say 'Well, you can't come?'," she asked. "I think if someone is good enough, it'd be very unfair to take her moment away. "God forbid something terrible happened to her and she tripped and broke her leg or something next year and it ruined her career. And she never had that opportunity when she was good enough. "So I think it's a tough one to say she shouldn't have been there. It didn't mark me. It certainly didn't mark (diver) Tom Daley. From personal experience, the pressure comes later in life not early." Daley, the 2020 Olympic 10m synchro gold medallist, was 14 when he competed for Britain in the 2008 Olympics -- younger than Yu will be if she competes at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Davies broke both her arms at 11 falling out of a tree and then resumed training in the pool with plaster casts wrapped in plastic bags. Much has changed in a more professional era. "I think that we have a lot more medical attention now than we used to have," she said. "They understand rest breaks as well, whereas we just didn't get those. We were lucky if we got three weeks off a year. "Nowadays they will say to some of the more senior athletes, 'go and take a year off, take six months off, go just be normal for a little while and come back hungry again'. None of those things happened back in my day, sadly. "So I think we've learned a lot of lessons." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
