Ireland’s Olympic reputation took another blow yesterday with Michael Conlan and Stephen Donnelly two of three boxers given ‘severe reprimands’ by the International Olympic Council for betting on events at the Rio Games.
Donnelly was found to have bet against himself in a Welterweight contest which he won on points. He explained to the IOC that his bets had not been to fix the bout but to offer some compensation if he had lost.
To have done so without recognising how this would look to an outside world were it to be revealed betrays a quite astonishing level of naivety at best.
Online gambling has become an incredibly easy process and with all Olympians having been given new Samsung devices on arrival at the Games this year they will have been easily able to access the services of a wide range of betting companies.
All online transactions and data are though ultimately traceable and reputable betting companies as well as monitoring data agencies have entered into agreements with major sporting bodies to share information.
Principle
The amounts in question are believed to be relatively small but the principle is much worse. It was reportedly made clear to all competitors that betting on the games was forbidden, though that this was even needed to be said is a reflection on how bad it looks once breached.
The Olympic Council of Ireland, as well as the British Olympic Association whose competitor Antony Fowler was the third boxer sanctioned have also been reprimanded, adding to the woes of the summer for the former.
Both have to increase education on the prevention of the manipulation of competitions for all competitors in advance of Tokyo 2020.
The two Irish boxers have both turned professional now and will presumably not have to comply with their sanctions to complete education on the matter but for Donnelly in particular that fact that he bet against himself will be a shadow over the start of his career in the professional ranks.
Corruption
Conlon won the RTÉ Sports Personality of the Year last year. His angry reaction at the corruption which he claimed ran from the top to the bottom of the International Amateur Boxing game after defeat in Rio is no less heartfelt now. Neither does this finding mean it to be any more or less likely to be true. It does however take away some of his credibility in making the claim and standing up for a clean sport. That is a real shame.
It is not the first time that Irish competitors have been caught up in betting at the Olympics. Sailor Peter O’Leary was revealed on the eve of the London Games to have placed bets on an opponent at the Beijing Games four years previously. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by the IOC ethics commission but it is likely that the OCI will need to be a lot more stringent in their education programmes again after this latest adverse finding against Irish competitors.
Ger Gilroy of Newstalk and Jaimie Fuller of Skins International, a global advocate for better standards in sports administration will discuss the thorny subject of ethics in sport at One Zero, the global sports and technology event taking place in Dublin on October 21st. To find out more click here.
