International Capsules: Lance Armstrong arrives in South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has arrived in South Africa ahead of his appearance in the Cape Argus cycling race.
Armstrong flew into Cape Town late Monday and is set to ride as part of the world’s biggest peloton on Sunday.
The Argus is a one-day, 65-mile race around South Africa’s Cape peninsula and is the world’s largest individually timed race. It is set to finish near Cape Town’s World Cup soccer stadium.
Armstrong was already on his bike Tuesday.
"Out for a gorgeous ride here in Cape Town," he said on his Twitter feed. "A nice 3hr ride. I’ve heard many times before that Cape Town is stunning. That was no lie. What a place."
The Team RadioShack rider also marked his arrival in the country on his Twitter page a day earlier.
"Well, made it in to SA," Armstrong said. "Not the friendliest welcome I’ve ever received but we’ve all seen immigration officers like that."
The 38-year-old Texan has also said he hopes to meet Nelson Mandela during his weeklong visit.
Armstrong finished a disappointing seventh in the Vuelta de Murcia in Spain on Sunday and Team RadioShack sporting director Johan Bruyneel has said his rider needs more preparation ahead of the Tour de France.
Armstrong is set to return to Europe for the Milan-San Remo one-day classic on March 20 and will race in France a week later.
Later this year, he American will ride in his second Tour since his high-profile return to the sport.
Bonnet wins 2nd stage of Paris-Nice, Boom leads
LIMOGES, France — William Bonnet of France won a sprint Tuesday to take the second stage of the Paris-Nice race, and Lars Boom of the Netherlands maintained the overall lead.
Bonnet surged ahead in the last few feet to beat Peter Sagan of Slovakia on the finish line. Defending champion Luis Leon Sanchez of Spain finished third and moved up to third overall thanks to time bonuses awarded for his podium finish.
Four riders were involved in a crash near the end of the 125-mile stage between Contres and Limoges after Slovenian sprinter Grega Bole fell just in front of Jimmy Casper of France in the last stretch.
Following his crash in the first stage, two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador spent the day in the pack and remains 25 seconds behind Boom.
Boom leads the overall standings by five seconds ahead of German rider Jens Voigt. Sanchez is 10 seconds back.
Olympic gold medalist Lionel Cox dies
SYDNEY — Australian Olympic cycling gold medalist Lionel Cox has died of pneumonia, the Australian Olympic Committee said. He was 80.
Cox won a gold medal with Russell Mockridge in the 2,000-meter tandem event and silver in the 1,000-meter sprint at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
AOC president John Coates described Cox as one of "Australia’s finest Olympians."
AOC historian Harry Gordon says the ride of Cox and Mockridge in the tandem event at Helsinki was one of the most remarkable gold medal performances by any Australians.
Their bike had been discarded by the British team and brought from London to Helsinki by Mockridge. Cox had never ridden a tandem nor ridden with Mockridge until a week before the games.
Olympics
Skater’s gaffe highlights politics of China sports
BEIJING— It was a political gaffe for Chinese short track speedskater Zhou Yang — failing to thank her country and its government after winning two gold medals at the Vancouver Olympics.
But the 18-year-old is winning widespread support for her honesty and naivete, after being criticized by a top sports official this week for mentioning her parents in a post-win interview but failing to express gratitude for the Chinese sports system.
"How can somebody love their country if they don’t even love their parents?" China Youth Daily reporter Ma Jing wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday, echoing the many online comments supporting Zhou in a case that is currently one of the hottest topics on Chinese internet sites.
Zhou won gold in the 1,500-meter race and the 3,000-meter relay in her Olympic debut. After her 1,500 win Feb. 20, a breathless Zhou told China Central Television: "It’s my dream. After winning the gold I might change a lot, become more confident and help my parents have a better life."
She thanked her coach and teammates, but never mentioned the state-run sports system in which she had trained as an athlete for much of her life.
"It’s right to respect and thank your parents but you also have to have the country in your heart. The country must come first. Don’t just talk about your parents," said Yu Zaiqing, deputy director of China’s General Administration of Sport, in widely reported comments earlier this week.
Yu, who is also an International Olympic Committee vice president, added that the sports system must step up "moral education" for athletes.
He’s been criticized in comments on countless Web sites, where many Chinese who are normally reticent to voice their opinions speak freely because of the anonymity found online. His entry on Baidu Baike, a site similar to Wikipedia, was temporarily changed to say "Yu Zaiqing, male ... no mother and no father, raised by the Communist Party."
Zhou’s family has defended her behavior, saying she is a young woman unfamiliar with the political demands facing Chinese athletes.
"Of course she’s naive! If she’s not naive why would she say something like that?" said Zhou’s aunt, surnamed Wang, who refused to give her name as is common among media-shy Chinese.
"Zhou Yang is very introverted, her life is eating, sleeping and training," Wang told The Associated Press. "Of course her parents have sacrificed a lot, too."
Yu’s remarks underscore the ties binding sports to politics in China, where youngsters picked for their athletic abilities and specific physical traits undergo years of grueling training, with the singular goal of "winning glory for the country."
But Zhou appeared to be more concerned about her parents’ welfare than her country, a move that has struck a chord among Chinese whose deeply ingrained Confucian heritage highly values respect for elders.
"For a girl who has a humble wish to let her parents live a comfortable life, she was heroic in her struggle to win these two gold medals for China but then encountered such criticism," wrote sports columnist Sa Fu of Chinese internet portal 163.com. "This is the real humiliation for the country."
Like many Chinese athletes, Zhou comes from a poor background. While parents hope their children can win Olympic medals and therefore financial awards, the payoff comes at a huge price. Before her two golds in Vancouver, Zhou was helping to support her disabled parents with her 500 yuan ($73) a month stipend.
She can now expect more than 1 million yuan ($150,000) in prize money to go with the new two-bedroom apartment that’s already been awarded to her parents in their hometown of Changchun in northeast China.
On Tuesday, officials tried to deflect criticism of Yu, who made his comments Sunday during a sports committee meeting of China’s top legislative advisory body. A fellow committee member said the group was discussing athletes in general and not Zhou specifically.
China’s General Administration of Sport did not respond to a faxed request for comment Tuesday.
And Zhou appeared to have learned her lesson in Chinese political correctness. Several Web sites on Tuesday carried comments attributed to the skater, in which she gave thanks to all the right people.
"I thank the country for providing us with excellent conditions, for giving us the excellent conditions for our Olympic campaign," she was quoted as saying. "And I thank everyone who supported us, I thank our coaches, I thank the staff, and I thank my mom and dad."
P&G extends mom aid to Paralympics
CINCINNATI — The Procter & Gamble Co. is extending its Winter Olympics "Thanks, Mom" campaign to include mothers of Paralympic athletes and to raise funds for the U.S. Olympic Team.
The Cincinnati-based consumer products company has offered to help with costs for travel to the Paralympic events that begin this weekend in Vancouver. P&G gave financial aid to more than 200 mothers of Olympics athletes in the games that ended Feb. 28, while sentimental television commercials highlighted mothers’ dedication to their athlete children.
A Team USA sponsor, the maker of Pampers diapers and Tide detergent said Tuesday it would raise up to $100,000 for athlete training through a "thankyoumom" Web site in which will give $1 to for each free online "thanks." P&G will also promote the site with multimedia advertising.
P&G Chief Marketing Officer Marc Pritchard says the company has gotten good response from the Olympics effort. The commercials featured the tag line calling P&G the "proud sponsor of moms."
"We want to keep it going," he said. "The business results are just starting to come in; we’re starting to see a nice bump."
P&G will review the results with an eye on planning for its 2012 London Summer Games sponsorship of the team, Pritchard said.
"We like the program, and we like the platform," he said.
Mark Kerrigan makes brief Mass. court appearance
BOSTON — The brother of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, charged with assaulting his father shortly before he died, has made a brief pretrial court appearance in Massachusetts.
Kerrigan and his attorney, Janice Bassil (BAZ’-uhl), both declined to comment after a scheduling conference in Woburn District Court on Tuesday morning. The next hearing is set for April 9.
The 45-year-old Kerrigan is free on $10,000 bail with electronic monitoring. Prosecutors have said they are considering whether to upgrade the charge against him.
Seventy-year-old Daniel Kerrigan died in January after a fight with his son. His family says a heart condition, and not the fight, were to blame.
London landmarks to be portrayed on Olympic pins
LONDON — The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and Wimbledon’s Centre Court are among the landmarks portrayed on pin badges in the buildup to the 2012 Olympics.
Olympic organizers revealed designs on Tuesday for the "Landmark London" pins, with each of London’s 33 boroughs represented. Residents voted for the most iconic landmark in their borough.
Other featured sites include Tower Bridge, the London Eye, the Globe Theatre, St. Pancras railway station, the Royal Observatory and Natural History Museum. Another pin features a statue in Redbridge of Winston Churchill.
The pins go on sale in London this month.
Winter Sports
Vonn on verge of 3rd overall World Cup title
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Her body aching but her outlook strong, Lindsey Vonn enters the final downhill of the season with a chance to win the overall World Cup title for the third straight season.
After winning six of seven World Cup downhills and the Olympic gold medal, Vonn is the overwhelming favorite in Wednesday’s race, the first event of the World Cup finals.
"I feel good coming into this week. I am fresher than I thought I’d be, at least mentally," Vonn said Tuesday after placing fourth in a practice run down the Kandahar course. "Physically, I definitely need a break, but mentally I feel fresh. I am skiing pretty relaxed now and I have a lot of confidence."
Fabienne Suter of Switzerland led Tuesday’s practice, ahead of Olympic silver medalist Julia Mancuso of the United States and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria.
Vonn is coming off a successful weekend in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, where she won a downhill and was runner-up in the super-G in tough conditions. She already has secured season titles in those two events. Vonn won the Olympic bronze in the super-G.
"Last weekend was a really fun weekend, it definitely helped me despite weather conditions," she said. "I had a good time skiing, I think that’s really important."
Vonn is still nursing a sore right shin and a broken little finger on her right hand. She bruised the shin before the Olympics and broke the finger in a spill in the Olympic giant slalom.
"My shin is not going to be better until I take a good chunk of time off, but it’s very manageable pain right now," Vonn said.
As for the finger, "its just broken, not a problem at all," said Vonn, who wears a special brace and tapes the finger to the glove when she competes.
Vonn has a 245-point lead over her friend and rival Maria Riesch in the race for the overall title. If Vonn has a lead of more than 300 points after the downhill, she will have clinched the overall title.
"It’s a good lead and if I ski well tomorrow, it could be over," Vonn said.
Riesch, who won slalom and combined gold medals in Vancouver, thinks it already is.
"Anyone who can count can see it. The overall title is unrealistic for me," said Riesch, who is competing in her hometown, which will host the World Championships next year.
After the downhill, the women also race the super-G, the giant slalom and the slalom, and a win is worth 100 points. The men have the same program.
Vonn can become the American with the most World Cup wins this weekend. She is tied with Bode Miller with 32.
Miller announced Tuesday that he will not compete this weekend, deciding to end his season early and rest a sore right ankle. The 32-year-old Miller is not in the running for any World Cup titles.
Miller won gold in the combined, silver in the super-G and bronze in the downhill at the Vancouver Olympics.
The men also have a downhill race, and Didier Cuche of Switzerland already has secured that title.
Two Austrians, Hans Grugger and Mario Scheiber, led the practice run, followed by Andrej Sporn of Slovenia. The Austrians will be hoping to end the season with a victory and prevent a shutout for the first time since 1991-92.
Riesch is the only one to snap Vonn’s streak.
The men’s overall title is still up for grabs, with Benjamin Raich of Austria leading Carlo Janka of Switzerland by 46 points.
-- Nesha Starcevic
Bode Miller decides to skip World Cup finals
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Olympic gold medalist Bode Miller has called it a season, a week before the World Cup finals in Germany.
The U.S. skier ended his season early to rest a sore right ankle, and added that he hopes to discuss his future with U.S. men’s coach Sasha Rearick.
"At some point, I’ll sit down with Sasha and see where we’re at and what kind of program we can put together and I’ll make a plan from there," Miller said in a statement released Tuesday.
Miller, of Franconia, N.H., has not competed since the Vancouver Olympics, where he won the super-combined gold medal and earned silver in the super-G and bronze in the downhill.
The 32-year-old Miller was not in the running for any World Cup titles. He missed much of the offseason as he considered retirement and then skipped some races after he injured his ankle in December while playing volleyball with teammates.
Miller showed he was rounding into shape in January when he captured the super-combined in Wengen, Switzerland. It was the 32nd World Cup victory of his career.
"My goal at the beginning of the season was to get ready for the Olympics and to win races in February," Miller said. "I just focused on that and I did that.
"If I wasn’t injured, I would have made a separate decision about going to World Cup Finals, but that’s not the case," he continued. "I feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to this season so it’s nice to just be able to relax."
Olympic biathlete Wilhelm of Germany to retire
BERLIN — Three-time Olympic biathlon gold medalist Kati Wilhelm has announced she will retire at the end of the season.
Wilhelm was part of the German relay team that won bronze at the Vancouver Olympics.
The 33-year-old said Tuesday that it’s time to make way for younger athletes, noting she’s "achieved everything there is to achieve."
Wilhelm started as a cross-country skier, then switched to biathlon in 1999.
She won gold medals in the sprint and relay at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 and in the pursuit in Turin four years later.
Wilhelm also was the overall World Cup champion in 2006.
Iditarod
Iditarod launches drug testing of mushers
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Every human competitor now running the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will be tested for alcohol and illegal drugs on the trail for the first time in the history of the 1,100-mile race — a change defending champion Lance Mackey believes is directed at him.
"I know for a fact," said the three-time winner.
Mackey, who has been open about using medical marijuana on the trail, on Tuesday was among the early front-runners in the race, which began with 71 teams Sunday in Willow. Four-time winner Jeff King of Denali Park was in the lead, the first to leave the Nikolai checkpoint Tuesday afternoon for the 54-mile run to the next checkpoint at McGrath. Canada’s Sebastian Schnuelle, who was leading earlier, left soon after, followed by Kotzebue veteran John Baker, then 2004 winner Mitch Seavey of Seward. Mackey was running eighth.
Rookie musher Pat Moon, 33, of Chicago, was injured when he crashed into a tree Tuesday in the Dalzell Gorge area, said race spokesman Chas St. George. Moon was flown to Providence Hospital in Anchorage for evaluation. His 15 dogs were not hurt.
Four mushers scratched Tuesday. Michael Suprenant of Chugiak and Zoya DeNure of Gakona cited personal medical problems. Karin Hendrickson of Chugiak cited a damaged sled and equipment problems. Kirk Barnum of Seeley Lake, Mont., said his dog team was tired.
Race organizers aren’t saying when or where on the route the testing will occur, but they add that they aren’t excluding anyone driving the 16-dog teams in the race. A musher who tests positive could face disqualification, a period of ineligibility from future races or both.
"We’re going to test everybody," said Stan Hooley, executive director of the Iditarod Trail Committee. "It’s not going to be random."
Race rules have included a policy on drugs and alcohol since 1984, but it has never been implemented, although the sled dogs have been tested for performance enhancers since 1994. Race organizers say they decided to formalize the policy for testing mushers beginning this year at the request of the Iditarod Official Finishers Club. The service is being provided by a drug testing company that’s among the Iditarod sponsors.
Officials say the idea has been discussed for years. However, Hooley said it would be difficult to deny Mackey’s contentions that he is being singled out for his acknowledged pot use and that other mushers have complained about it.
"The reality of it is he’s won the race three times and people would like to figure out a way to beat him," Hooley said.
Mackey, a throat cancer survivor who is seeking his fourth consecutive win, said other competitors have stated that his use of pot gives him an edge in the trek to Nome, which he adamantly denies. The 39-year-old Fairbanks resident is facing a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession after being found with a small amount at the Anchorage airport in January, after his medical marijuana card had expired.
The cancer, diagnosed in 2001, left him with lingering physical ailments, such as pain, bone deterioration and loss of his saliva glands. Marijuana helps him cope with his health problems, and it’s absurd that anyone would think that’s why he’s been winning, he said.
"Some people think that’s an advantage?" he said. "I don’t wish cancer on anybody."
Still, Mackey said he’s abiding by the new rule. He even will abstain from his prescription of government-approved Marinol, which contains the active ingredient in marijuana. Race officials say exemptions include the drug, but Mackey said he’s not taking any chances.
The 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, which Mackey has won four times in a row, has no rules that specifically address drug use among mushers.
Most mushers interviewed said they have no problem with the Iditarod policy.
"I think it’s about time," said Iditarod veteran Paul Gebhardt, who has twice placed second in the race. "The Iditarod is the Super Bowl of dog mushing and as far as I know it’s the only major sport that didn’t have drug testing for the athletes in it. They had drug testing for 16 of the athletes on the team, but not for the human one."
Canadian Hans Gatt, who won his fourth Quest in February and is running his 12th Iditarod, said the policy doesn’t matter to him because he never uses drugs. But he supports it because he considers the Iditarod a professional sports event.
"I think it’s a good thing," he said. "It keeps us clean."
Mackey conceded the Iditarod organizers are doing what they believe is necessary. But he does not consider himself a paid professional, because unlike other professional sports organizations, the Iditarod Trail Committee does not pay him a salary. If it did, he could understand being under its control in the Iditarod.
"It’s an event that we run nine days of the year," he said. "So what I do on the other 350-something days of the year is up to me, not them."
-- Rachel D’Oro
Wrestling
Painkillers linked to wrestler’s death
HOUSTON — An autopsy report says the December death of former pro wrestler Edward Fatu, who performed under the name "Umaga," was cause primarily by the combined effects of painkillers and a muscle relaxant.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences classified 36-year-old Edward Fatu’s death as "accidental" in the nine-page report released this week, which also noted hypertensive cardiovascular disease as a cause.
A World Wrestling Entertainment spokesman told the Chronicle on Tuesday that Fatu was released from his contract in June for refusing to enter a rehabilitation program related to drugs.
A call to Fatu’s home rang busy Tuesday night.
Fatu was found unconscious at his Spring home on Dec. 3 and died after being taken to a hospital.
