ALTHOUGH there was no intention to manipulate any event, the IOC has reprimanded three boxers for betting at Rio 2016 and asked them to take part in ‘integrity educational programmes’.
Participants at the Olympic Games are not permitted to bet on Olympic events.
Michael Conlan, Steven Donnelly and Antony Fowler were handed severe reprimands for placing bets on boxing events on Rio 2016.
If those boxers want to take part in the next Olympic Games they will have to demonstrate they have successfully followed the IOC’s educational programme. Conlan though has already turned professional and left Olympic boxing.
The Olympic Council of Ireland and the British Olympic Association were also sanctioned with reprimands for not having properly informed its athletes about the content of the different rules that applied to them at the Olympic Games in Rio, as well as about the content of the contract signed with them
The IOC also recommended that AIBA, the international federation, should make sure that its rules and regulations for its own competitions are compliant with the Olympic Movement Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions and put in place education programmes on the prevention of the manipulation of competitions and betting on the Olympic Games.
Steven Donnelly did bet on a bout he was competing in, as part of a number of cumulative bets. He actually bet on Mongolia’s Tuvshinbat Byamba to beat him, a contest which Donnelly in fact won. There no evidence of an attempt to manipulate the competition. Steven did not intend to lose his bout, he suggested that it would have been ‘some compensation’ in the event that he did lose.
Conlan, unaware that it was prohibited, bet a relatively small amount, not on his own bouts but on contests in his own weight class. He actually lost all his bets.
Antony Fowler did not bet on contests he was involved in and he was not aware that he could not bet on his own sport or on the Olympic Games competitions. Antony has publicly apologised, saying, “It was a lifelong goal to represent Great Britain in the Olympics and I would never want to overshadow this by not conducting myself in the appropriate way.”
