"Quite frankly, any sport that cannot deliver its best athletes, in my view, should not be there." One of New Zealand's own International Olympic Committee members is calling out sports which are not fronting top athletes at the Rio Olympics. The statement comes off the back of numerous high-profile athletes such as basketballer LeBron James and golfer Rory McIllroy announcing they will skip the games for different reasons. Barry Maister, an Olympic gold medalist in 1976, told Tony Veitch on Newstalk ZB that sports such as golf risk losing their Olympic spot if they are not able to secure the best in their sport. Maister said the IOC will undertake an enormous review once the games are complete and sports like golf and basketball which have lost a number of high-profile athletes, will face rigid scrutiny.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 25, 2016 01:31 UTC