The Hadzic Hazard

This week I want to take some time to provide a brief explanation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics sports.

There are 9 basic divisions of Olympic sports: gymnastics, cycling, basketball, canoe/kayak, baseball/softball, swimming, volleyball, wrestling & equestrian. Though now that I am typing this I am realizing that diving wasn't mentioned in the source I used (Wikipedia..y'all gotta start giving $5!). But - what's done is done. Would diving go under swimming? Or maybe even climbing, those things are high! That's a lot of ladder.

The next infographic is, I swear, no shade no tea. These are just the other sports, some that I find very cool and others that I tend to ignore if any other Olympic event is airing. And as you will see, I think it wouldn't hurt the IOC to create a new category of martial arts. Karate, taekwondo & judo are martial arts, no?

Now that we're on the same page about the Olympics, let's get on the same page about sexual assault.

Alen Hadzic made the U.S. fencing team for the 2020 Olympics as an alternate. Two of his fellow Olympic fencers sent letters saying Hadzic should not represent the United States due to not 1, not 2, but 3 open sexual misconduct cases against him.

Luckily, he was suspended from international competition during these investigations. However Hadzic fought the suspension and was allowed to travel to Tokyo! But don't worry. Everyone is safe because he wasn't allowed on the same plane, in the same hotel, or at the same practices as the female fencers. Women the world over breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing says "you better learn your lesson buddy" quite like free air travel and hotel accommodations, a slew of USA-themed swag, and a place on the world's stage. All for an ALTERNATE. A freaking alternate.

And for my readers (likely male readers) who are thinking wait just a minute, we can't assume these accusations are true. Let me just say that rumors of sexual misconduct have plagued Hazdic since his undergrad days of 2010. This certainly does not seem like a case of he said, she said or it's all a misunderstanding. The 3 other members of the men's épée team wore pink face masks to protest Hadzic's presence. When Hadzic pushed back against his restrictions in Tokyo, every member of the U.S. fencing team signed a letter demanding the Hadzic-specific protocols stay in place.

Keep in mind that the organization in charge of what I am referring to as "the Hadzic hazard"TM, is SafeSport. An internal organization. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is also an internal organization. An internal organization that banned sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson from Tokyo due to a positive drug test. Not steroids or whatever "allergy pills" the Russian Olympic Committee claims are harmless, but marijuana.

Now. I am very anti-marijuana. Even more so after a recent trip to Denver. Sha'Carri knew the rules, broke the rules & she has said as much. In my opinion she has handled this situation gracefully and accepted responsibility for not complying with a rule that as far as I can tell, is arbitrary. I am a paranoid rule-follower myself, but this is stupid, right?

So is this the line our country draws? We won't allow smoking pot from a record-breaking runner but we're fine with sexual misconduct from an alternate fencer? It's almost like one of them is rich and male and white.