World

Jimmy Carter’s Significant Impact on Sports and the Law

Published

1 year ago

December 29, 2024

Jimmy Carter’s Significant Impact on Sports and the Law

Former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, played an instrumental role in sports law by signing the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 and leading the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Carter served as the 39^th President, serving one term between 1977 and 1981. He defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election but lost to former California Gov. Ronald Reagan four years later. A recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, Carter had been in hospice care since 2023.

As president, Carter established the Department of Education, spearheaded efforts to deregulate the airline, trucking, telecommunications and other industries, promoted initiatives—including an expansion of national parks—to protect the environment, and eased tensions between Israel and Egypt through the Camp David Accords. His administration was also besieged with high levels of inflation and unemployment and a hostage crisis when militant college students overtook the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held the staff hostage.

The Amateur Sports Act, also called the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act in honor of the late Alaska senator who sponsored the bill, transformed amateur sports in America. Among other effects, the Act designated the U.S. Olympic Committee (later the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee) as a federally chartered corporation and coordinating entity for amateur sports. One key purpose of the Act was to advance U.S. interests in the Olympics at a time when the Olympics held added significance given the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The Act also empowered national governing bodies to oversee specific sports, such as USA Hockey and USA Track and Field. At the same time, the Act limited these NGBs’ authority by excluding oversight over high school and college sports. State athletic associations and the NCAA (and NAIA), respectively, were effectively given control over those areas of sports.

In signing the Act, Carter said he hoped a new framework would rectify “frequent disputes between some of our amateur sports organizations [that] have hindered the grassroots development of amateur sports as well as the performance of United States athletes in international and Olympic competition.” He also highlighted that the USOC would use arbitration to resolve disputes; since that time, arbitration has played a major role in the U.S. sports industry.

Carter’s use of the Olympics to send a political message proved key crucial later in his presidency as well. At the urging of Carter and Congress—with the House voting 386 to 12 and Senate voting 88 to 4 in favor of nonbinding resolutions—the USOC declined to send U.S. teams to the 1980 Olympics. The move was a boycott in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Sixty-four other countries joined the U.S, and only 80 countries participated that year. More than two dozen U.S. athletes sued the USOC over the boycott in hopes of obtaining an injunction to play. However, a court dismissed the case failing to state a plausible claim. Four years later, the Soviet Union and 14 allies including Vietnam, Cuba and Angola, boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as retaliation for the 1980 boycott.

Carter, who also served as governor of Georgia and was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, spoke of his love of sports while he was in the White House. In an interview with Sports Illustrated in 1978, Carter acknowledged that while he had “never been a really good athlete,” he stressed the value of running for working adults who want to stay in good shape.

“It’s not time-consuming,” he said. “I can go out and run, for me, a fairly fast two miles in about 15 minutes, or run three miles in 25 minutes, or take a slower pace—10 minutes to a mile—and run seven miles. Then I can come back in and go back to work shortly.”

Carter also recalled how as a child he built a pole-vaulting pit in his backyard to practice jumping and pole-vaulting.

“As a child,” he recalled, “I had dreams of someday being a famous athlete, but that never did happen.”

It didn’t happen, but he did become president of the United States. He was also the longest-lived president in U.S. history.

World

Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war

Published

4 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war

From being just a fringe risk, conflict in the Middle East has become a top worry for investors unsettled by the prospect of a power struggle in Iran and a protracted regional war, with ramifications for everything from global trade to inflation.

World

Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’

Published

5 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’

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The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.

“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.

Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”

“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”

Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.

As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.

According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.

Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.

The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.

TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ

People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.

“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.

“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.

EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME

Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)

Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.

Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.

“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.

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“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.

“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

World

Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM

Published

7 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM

Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.

As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.

EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.

Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.

“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”

On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.

“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.

“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”

Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”

“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.

When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”

On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.

Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.

“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.

Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET