DESPERATE BACH OUT OF TUNE WITH OLYMPIC IDEALS

ONE of the most amusing aspects of the Thomas Bach Olympic era, is watching the president’s increasing desperation as potential host cities turn their backs on his tainted organisation. He currently has five cities interested in hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, but will be hoping none of the candidates decides to hold a referendum. Sion in Switzerland did that last month, and its Olympic candidacy went down the tubes, with a 61 per cent no vote in the city and 54 per cent across the wider Valais canton. Indeed, Bach (right) has yet to see an Olympic referendum won on his watch. There have been three defeats in Switzerland alone — the home of the Olympic movement — plus losses in Munich, Krakow, Innsbruck and Hamburg. Budapest and Boston would have held referenda but were so certain the public were opposed, they didn’t bother. Some of the early votes were close but Sion was a landslide of antipathy. Good. Maybe Bach will now realise that his many years of being soft on drug cheats and sucking up to dictators and corrupt regimes has damaged his organisation almost beyond repair. The public worldwide do not wish to entertain a jamboree of crooks and freeloaders at eye-watering expense. When Bach decided to award two summer Olympic cycles in one sitting, his organisation mustered a grand total of two willing host cities, Paris and Los Angeles. The only decision was who went first. As it stands, of the five candidates for 2026, the Italian bid is so chaotic they haven’t decided on a location as yet, Sapporo would rather host in 2030, Stockholm is politically lukewarm and Calgary is now discussing the referendum route. This leaves Erzurum in that noted hotbed of winter sports activity, Turkey. Total number of Turkish athletes at the 2018 Winter Games: eight. Total number of medals won by Turkey at any Winter Games: none. Bach must hope they don’t go to a vote, either. Mobilising the Turkish friends of skiing at the polls might be beyond even his greasy proclivities. Johanna Konta exited Wimbledon at the second-round stage, complaining that her opponent — the unseeded Dominika Cibulkova — was putting her off by slapping her thigh between serves. this could be a problem for Konta when she retires because she will never make it in panto.