Olympic expert available to media to comment on 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games

With the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games just one week away, the director of Western University’s International Centre for Olympic Studies (ICOS) is available to discuss socio-cultural issues such as politics, commercialism, doping, equity, and governance of the Olympic Games, as well as breaking news items from the South Korean venue.

Michael Heine specializes in researching Olympic spaces, including the host cities, stadiums and sports facilities, as well as the economic narratives of the International Olympic Committee and its public and private partners.

Speaking today about the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)’s ruling to overturn appeals from 28 out of 39 Russian athletes who were given lifetime Olympic bans for doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Games, Heine says:

“The CAS decision is a clear defeat for the IOC (International Olympic Committee) strategy and was mostly designed to appease the Russian administration while salvaging the credibility of the IOC’s stand on doping control.

“It can be expected that the allowed Russian appearance at the 2018 Games will easily be adjusted to edit the ostensibly absent Russian national symbols back into Russian Olympic media narratives. The tone of the immediate responses to the CAS decision by Russian media sources confirms this view.”

Media interested in contacting ICOS regarding the upcoming Olympics should contact Western University Senior Media Relations Officer Jeff Renaud at 519-520-7281 or jrenaud9@uwo.ca or email Michael Heine directly at mheine@uwo.ca

MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Renaud, Senior Media Relations Officer, 519-661-2111, ext. 85165, 519-520-7281 (mobile), jrenaud9@uwo.ca

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Commentary reflects the perspective and scholarly interest of Western faculty members and is not an articulation of official university policy on issues being addressed.