COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - If Olympic business is a who-you-know world of negotiations and secret handshakes, the recent makeover at the U.S. Olympic Committee couldn't have come at a more awkward time.

CEO Stephanie Streeter and another newcomer, chairman Larry Probst, are the new point people for an organization that has two critical missions over the next several months: Trying to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago and trying to do well at the Winter Olympics next February.

If they deliver, their move to the top will be considered a success. If they don't, fair or not, they're bound to get most of the blame from the multiple groups that didn't agree with the sudden rise of these relative unknowns.

"We're just scratching our heads going, ‘What's going to happen next?"' said USA Triathlon executive director Skip Gilbert, one of the most outspoken skeptics of the move. "We're wondering, how can we all pull together to make it work?"

Streeter's rise to the top ended a six-year period during which Jim Scherr, the man she replaced, became the well-established leader and helped restore the USOC's reputation. Scherr's tenure was a welcome change for an organization that went through six presidents and CEOs from 2000 through 2003, in the wake of the Salt Lake City Olympics bid scandal and other internal problems.

Now, it's the 2016 bid that's up for grabs, with Chicago as one of the four finalists, and Streeter's reputation is on the line.

Awarding the Olympics is the most important thing an IOC member does, and as much as being assured of solid finances and good presentations, the members want to be comfortable with the people they put in charge.

The USOC made an unprecedented effort over the past two years to coordinate the American bid after a scattered and embarrassing effort doomed New York City's try for the 2012 Games.

The message this time: We're all on the same page.

But two of the key messengers - Scherr and former chairman Peter Ueberroth - are gone, replaced by Streeter and Probst.

Why now?

Streeter said there were too many things that weren't working well at the USOC to wait any longer - that the bad economy called for a more businesslike approach at the CEO level.

Among her top goals will be improving the USOC's mediocre use of new media - Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. - while also trying to bring to air the USOC TV network; negotiations for that game-changing venture have been dragging on for more than two years.

"We've got to start using that and using it effectively," Streeter said.

Among her biggest accomplishments so far has been getting a temporary resolution to a long-simmering argument with the IOC over revenue sharing. It was an agreement Ueberroth and Scherr never could obtain.

Still, Streeter's rise to the top has been greeted with more skepticism than praise, and much of the talk in the back rooms and hallways in Olympic circles has been about whether this move was necessary and above board.

"You don't just get rid of people," said John Dienhart, director of the Business Ethics Initiative at Seattle University. "It's expensive to get rid of people. If I were a major shareholder in a company that did this and the CEO departed for a lot of small reasons, none of which looked compelling to me, I'd worry about the governance of that."

Streeter acknowledges the difficulties her rise has brought.

"There are many different constituencies with really divergent opinions about what's going on," she said. "It's even more than I expected, and I expected a fair amount."

To casual fans, all these inner workings don't matter so much.

They judge success by wins and medals and success stories. The Americans brought home 110 medals from Beijing last year - the most of any country - after some experts picked the hosts to win more than the United States.

The trip to Vancouver for the Winter Games comes with simpler logistics and lower expectations - the U.S. team has never been considered a power on snow and ice.

Still, if the Americans win fewer than the 25 medals they captured in 2006. it will be looked at as something of a disappointment, and Streeter will, fair or not, take a good portion of the blame.

Same goes with the Chicago bid.

Failures in either area will give the critics, domestic and international, a chance to look at an organization that seemed to be running smoothly, see all the changes and ask, ‘Why now?' and ‘Why her?'

"It's her ship to run," Gilbert said. "And we're hoping she's going in the right direction."

Phase 2 of Vancouver ticket sales to begin June 6

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The second round of ticket sales for the 2010 Winter Olympics will begin next Saturday.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee said on Friday that thousands of individual tickets will be available for medal presentations and celebrations at Vancouver's BC Place stadium each night of the games. Those tickets were previously only available as part of packages sold last fall.

Besides victory ceremonies, more than 150,000 tickets are going on sale for all Olympic events, including the opening and closing ceremonies.

The tickets are being sold on a first-come, first-serve basis on the committee's Web site beginning June 6 at 7 a.m. EDT.

The first phase of ticket sales raised $94.7 million. Organizers are aiming to make up to another $50 million in the second phase.

Altogether, they want to make $260 million on ticket sales with much of that revenue pegged on sales to sponsors, national Olympic committees and other partners.

Caley Denton, the committee's vice president of ticketing and consumer marketing, said there is still strong demand for tickets from those groups despite the recession.

"We're seeing the odd one return some but nothing I would say that's unexpected," said Denton.

There will be a third phase of sales this fall.

English-only ‘Britain' soccer team for Olympics

LONDON - A soccer team of only English players is set to represent Britain at the 2012 London Olympics.

The four "home nations" - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - sent a joint letter to world governing body FIFA on Friday saying they had agreed that an English team could represent Britain in both the men's and women's tournaments.

The deal must still be ratified by FIFA, which had given the four soccer associations until the end of May to come to an agreement.

The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish associations refuse to be part of a Britain team, fearing it would jeopardize their independence and voting rights within FIFA.

The arrangement will allow Britain to enter an Olympic soccer tournament for the first time in 52 years.

Ex-Olympic kayaker gets 5 years over drug charges

LISMORE, Australia - Australian Olympic silver medalist and former world kayaking champion Nathan Baggaley was sentenced to at least five years in prison on Friday on charges of supplying and manufacturing ecstasy pills.

The 33-year-old Baggaley was sentenced in Lismore District Court to a maximum of nine years with a non-parole period of five years after pleading guilty to the sale and distribution of 1,509 ecstasy tablets in November 2007.

His brother Dru Baggaley, 27, was sentenced in the same court to a minimum of eight years in jail for the manufacture and supply of the same drug.

With time already served, Nathan Baggaley will be eligible for parole on Nov. 20, 2012.

Baggaley, who won two silver medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and his brother have spent more than 18 months in prison following their arrest.

Baggaley won silver in both the K1 and K2 over 500 meters in Athens. He also won gold medals in the K1 class at the world championships in 2002, 2003 and 2005.

Nathan Baggaley tested positive for two steroids - stanozolol and methindione - in September 2005 and was subsequently banned for 15 months by the Australian Canoe Federation. The suspension was extended to two years by the International Canoe Federation, and he was barred from competing at the Beijing Olympics last year because of the pending criminal charges.

Baggaley's lawyer, John Weller, said Friday that his client's 2005 suspension led him to dealing in drugs.

"From becoming a world champion, becoming an award winner ... he'd done nothing else," he said. "Suddenly his world was gone and he didn't address the issues."

"It's been a hard comedown from being a world champion, a revered person in his hometown, internationally and nationally, to someone who has been completely vilified."

Former Olympic champion Ruby dies in climbing fall

CHAMONIX, France - Karine Ruby, a former Olympic snowboarding champion who had been training to become a mountain guide, died Friday in a climbing accident on Mont Blanc. She was 31.

Ruby was roped to other climbers when she and some members of the group fell into a deep crack in the glacier on the way down the mountain, Chamonix police official Laurent Sayssac said.

A 38-year-old man from the Paris region died in the fall, and a 27-year-old man was evacuated by helicopter with serious injuries and hospitalized, Sayssac added.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon called Ruby an "exceptional sportswoman."

"Karine incarnated the emergence of snowboarding in France," Fillon said in a statement. "The people of France will hold on to the memory of her talent and her joie de vivre."

Ruby won a gold medal in the giant slalom at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and a silver in the parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. She was a six-time world champion with 65 snowboard World Cup victories.

She retired after the 2006 Turin Olympics, where she was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the snowboardcross event. Ruby had since been working toward becoming a mountain guide and was expected to finish her training in the coming weeks.

WADA, swim body want 2-year ban for Jessica Hardy

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - The World Anti-Doping Agency and swimming's governing body appealed to sports' highest court to restore Jessica Hardy's two-year doping ban.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Friday that WADA and FINA want the American swimmer barred for two years and ruled out of the 2012 London Games. CAS is expected to rule within four months.

Hardy tested positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol at the U.S. Olympic trials last July and missed the Beijing Games.

The American Arbitration Association reduced her ban to one year instead of the standard two this month. The arbitrators found the failed drug test was caused by a contaminated nutritional supplement and requested that Hardy not lose her eligibility for London.

Hardy's attorney, California-based Howard Jacobs, had not seen details of the appeal but said he confident it would be turned down.

"While Jessica is obviously disappointed by this development, she takes comfort in the fact that her case was already heard over a period of many days by a very experienced panel of CAS (approved) arbitrators in the United States, who considered all of the evidence and came to a just and well-reasoned decision," Jacobs said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "We are confident that when the same facts are presented to a different panel of CAS arbitrators, they will agree that the first case was decided correctly."

Jacobs said WADA and FINA have requested the entire case file from U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

"We hope that after these institutions have had an opportunity to actually review the facts of the case, they will both agree that the decision of the first panel of CAS arbitrators in the United States was both just and well reasoned, and will dismiss the appeals that they have filed," he said.

International Olympic Committee rules state that athletes are barred from the next games if they incur a doping ban of at least six months. Hardy's suspension is to end July 31.

She was supposed to swim in Beijing in the 100-meter breaststroke, 50 freestyle and the 400 free relay.

"Jessica Hardy has already endured 10 months of torment and heartache, which included missing the 2008 Olympic Games, as a result of a positive test which was determined by the first panel of CAS arbitrators to have been caused by a contaminated supplement," Jacobs said. "She looks forward to returning to competition at the end of her suspension."

Chambers to defend 100m title in Greece

LONDON - Dwain Chambers will defend his 100-meter title Saturday at the Papaflesia international meet in Greece as he prepares for the world championships.

The Briton, who served a two-year doping ban, will race in Kalamata, where he won last year in 10.26 seconds.

The 31-year-old Chambers is banned from more than 50 events organized by the Euromeetings consortium, which refuses to allow former drug cheats into their meets. That means he will mainly compete in smaller events as he tunes up for the worlds in August in Berlin.

Chambers, who tested positive for the previously undetectable steroid THG in 2003, will compete in four races before the British trials for the championships from July 10-12 in Birmingham.

Next week, he will run the 100 and 200 at a meet in Dessau, Germany, followed by outings next month in Montreuil, France, and Uden, Netherlands.

Chambers wants to compete for the British side at the European Team Championships in Leira on June 20-21 although he is uncertain whether UK Athletics will select him.

"(The) European Cup is on the books, we will wait and see what happens with team selection," said Chambers, who is banned for life from future Olympic Games but eligible to represent his country at other major events.