Paralympian told shorts ‘inappropriate’
Olivia Breen, a double Paralympic world champion for the United Kingdom, said she was stunned after a sporting official said her sprint briefs were “too short and inappropriate” at a recent competition.
Breen, whose account of the remarks made Sunday at the English Championships stirred debate on social media, said she planned to wear the same shorts while she competes at Tokyo’s Paralympic Games next month and made an official complaint over the remarks.
The 24-year-old, who won a bronze medal at the London 2012 Paralympics, said she has been wearing the same style of shorts for almost a decade and that up until now, it had never been an issue. Breen won a gold medal at the 2017 IPC World Championships in the T38 long jump and set a world record at the same competition in 2015 in the T35-38 100meter sprint relay.
Notebook
Breen told Sky News on Tuesday that she was approached by an official shortly after she had finished participating in a long jump competition in Bedfordshire, England.
“Your briefs are too revealing. I think you should consider buying a pair of shorts,” the official said, according to Breen.
No shorts
Norway’s women’s beach handball team was fined by the European Handball Federation, after players wore shorts, instead of the required bikini bottoms, during a game over the weekend. Men, on the other hand, can wear shorts as long as 4 inches above their knees and are “not too baggy.” A spokesperson for the International Handball Federation, Jessica Rockstroh, said she did not know the reason for the rules. “We’re looking into it internally,” she said.
Companies opt out
More Japanese companies have decided against sending executives to Friday’s opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics as concerns about holding the Games during the pandemic grow. Senior officials from Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp. will skip the event given that organizers decided to hold the Games without spectators, spokespeople for the technology giants said, a day after Toyota Motor Corp. announced its top executive wouldn’t attend.
More positives
The Mexican national baseball team is in quarantine after two 32-year-old pitchers tested positive for coronavirus ahead of traveling to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics. Hector Velazquez and Sammy Solis were asymptomatic and isolating in their hotel rooms, the federation. Mexico’s first game in the Olympics is scheduled for July 30, against the Dominican Republic.
Last hurrah
The Olympics will be Jerry Colangelo’s final tournament as the managing director of USA Basketball’s men’s national team. He took the Americans from their darkest days back to the top of international basketball, getting the sport’s biggest stars to give up portions of their summers and commit to playing for the national team — sometimes multiple times — after many had begun to shun the program.
The Americans have won three consecutive Olympic gold medals and added a pair of world championships since Colangelo took over in 2005.
“My focus is on the win, for everyone’s sake,” said Colangelo, 81. “For the country, for USA Basketball, for the players who have committed the time to do this under the circumstances, we want to win. It’s all about winning the gold medal.”