The Olympics

Reports are coming in that Didier Gailhaguet, the head of France's figure skating federation, has resigned.



During the winter Games in 2002, at Salt Lake City, Gailhaguet was accused by French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne of putting undue pressure on her to vote in favour of a Russian pair. This caused Canada to miss out on the gold medal. She later retracted the accusation.



The reasons for Gailhaguet's resignation have not been clarified.



Whoever said that sport was meant to be about "fair play"?



In other news, it seems that the official website of the Olympic Games is having a little trouble with its geography.



It seems that for whatever bizarre geopolitical reasons, that only the organisers of the Olympic Games could tie themselves up with, Jerusalem is not listed as Israel's capital city on the website.



The name of the capital city is, according to the website, (*).



The footnote, at the bottom of the webpage, helpfully directs the geographically challenged to the UN website for further information regarding the capital of Israel.



To make matters worse, a while ago the website had 'Jerusalem' as the capital of 'Palestine', while Israel's capital slot was left empty.



There were, not surprisingly, a series of complaints from all and sundry.



The Olympic officials running the site decided that, in order to avoid being "controversial", they would simply avoid answering the question and refer it to the UN.



Needless to say, this little spat will run and run.



The Olympics is not about sporting excellence, in the spirit of friendly competition between nations; it is about the imposition of individual nation state's cultural values and views on others.



The strongest wins; to the detriment of the others, and to the ideal of sporting achievement and co-operation.