Koffi Olomide charged with assaulting female dancer

Renowned Congolese musician Koffi Olomide (left) on arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on Friday 22, 2016. Police arrested the rhumba star in his home town of Kinshasa on July 26, 2016

Congolese music star Koffi Olomide will spend the next three months in jail as he awaits a ruling on prosecutors' request to imprison him for a longer period for assaulting one of his female dancers in Nairobi.
The singer's free fall started when he kicked a woman in his band at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last Friday.
Olomide was deported on July 23 alongside three of his female dancers.
Police arrived at his residence in a continuation of perhaps the worst run in Olomide’s fortunes, a painful price to pay for his moment of madness in Nairobi.
According to reports from Kinshasa, a campaign to have him arrested was started by Congressman Zakarie Bababaswe, who had filed a petition on behalf of the Congolese public to get the musician punished for assault.
Mr Bababaswe had in a televised press conference wondered why Olomide was “still walking scot-free and yet there was video evidence that he assaulted his dancer in Kenya?”
Incidentally, the congressman and Olomide used to be good friends until they fell out after the musician and Cindy Le Coeur, his lead singer, were accused of belittling him in their songs.
His arrest, which was ordered by the attorney-general, was received with jubilation by locals and foreigners, who feel justice must be done for all, and especially in enforcing women’s rights.
Since video footage of the incident, in which one of Africa’s leading musicians lashed out with a “Kung Fu kick” at one of his dancers, came to light, Olomide has suffered a huge setback in a career the mercurial singer, composer and band leader has diligently nurtured for several decades. 

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Roger Federer to miss Rio 2016 Olympics

Swiss tennis great Roger Federer will miss the Olympics and the rest of the season with a knee injury.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion said he needs "more extensive rehabilitation" if he wants to prolong his career.

Federer, 34, had knee surgery in February before missing May's French Open with a back problem.

Federer said on his Facebook page he was "extremely disappointed" to not be representing Switzerland in Rio and it was "tough" to miss the rest of 2016.

"I am as motivated as ever and plan to put all my energy towards coming back strong, healthy and in shape to play attacking tennis in 2017," he added.

Federer won doubles gold at Beijing in 2008, but has never won an Olympic singles title and lost to Britain's Andy Murray in the final at London 2012.

Federer twice required treatment during a five-set semi-final defeat by Canada's Milos Raonic at Wimbledon this month, but found a "silver lining" in his injury-troubled year.

"This experience has made me realise how lucky I have been throughout my career with very few injuries," he said.

"The doctors advised that if I want to play on the ATP World Tour injury free for another few years, as I intend to do, I must give both my knee and body the proper time to fully recover."

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Russian drug cheats will still be at Olympics

Russian drug cheats will be competing at next month's Olympic Games despite efforts to target them, according to the whistleblowers who highlighted the country's state-sponsored doping.

The International Olympic Committee has asked governing bodies to ban Russians either implicated in a recent report into doping, or previously sanctioned.

But former Russian Anti-Doping Agency official Vitaly Stepanov and his 800m runner wife Yuliya told BBC Sport: "There will be athletes who have used doping from Russia in Rio."

The IOC decided against enforcing a blanket ban on Russian sportspeople for Rio, despite calls for tough action in the wake of last week's McLaren report, which detailed widespread, state-sponsored doping in the country.

Instead, the IOC said it would be up to individual sports federations to decide which athletes were eligible for Rio. So far, 37 athletes across six sports have been banned since the IOC made its decision.

That is in addition to athletics' governing body, the IAAF, already opting to ban Russian track and field athletes from the competition unless they can satisfy strict doping criteria. So far, only one athlete has been able to do that.

"The IOC showed that first of all there is no punishment for running a systematic doping programme in the largest country in the world," Vitaly said.

"And second, they protected not the majority of clean athletes globally, but they protected clean athletes in Russia."

The pair gave evidence to a German documentary maker in 2014 that led to an independent report being commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency which found evidence of widespread doping.

That in turn led to last week's McLaren report, which detailed extensive attempts to cover up doping in Russia and implicated the Russian ministry of sport, secret service and anti-doping agency.

Since their testimony, the Stepanovs have been unable to live in Russia, although Vitaly said they "feel safe" in their new home.

"Unfortunately the reaction to our actions in our home country is not positive," he said.

"A lot of people in general and athletes as well hate us for what we did and we would not go back to Russia right now. There, we would feel unsafe."

The Stepanovs were speaking just a day after criticising the IOC for banning Yuliya, 30, from Rio.

Despite being cleared to compete under a neutral flag by the IAAF, the IOC ruled she should not be allowed to take part because she was sanctioned for doping in 2013.

The Stepanovs said this sent out the wrong signal to potential whistleblowers, with Vitaly saying: "You didn't really have a choice if you wanted to be a member of the national team.

"She has served her ban, fully served her ban, she thinks that she should not be punished a second time for something that she did in the past."

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