International Capsules: Contador dismisses Armstrong threat in Corsica

PORTO VECCHIO, Corsica — Alberto Contador dismissed Lance Armstrong as a challenger at the Criterium International in Corsica, their first competitive encounter since last year’s Tour de France.

Contador, the reigning Tour champion from Spain, said he is wary of other riders, such as Cadel Evans of Australia, for the two-day race, which begins Saturday.

"Other riders are in better shape than he is right now," Contador said.

He earlier called Armstrong "a rider like any other" in comments on the race Web site.

Seven-time Tour champion Armstrong, riding with his new RadioShack team, is aiming for a record eighth Tour victory this year, but admittedly isn’t in his best condition.

The Tour is still four months away. But at age 38, time isn’t on Armstrong’s side, and rivals will be looking for any signs of weakness that they could exploit come July.

The race will have some of the dramatic offerings of a Tour, just crunched down to two days. A 109-mile ride awaits Saturday with an uphill finish at the Ospedale Pass. Sunday, the pack gets a double-dose: a mostly flat 46.6-mile ride in the morning, before a 4.8-mile time trial in the afternoon.

Armstrong and Contador were testy teammates on Astana last year, and bared their rivalry both during and after the Tour, in which Armstrong finished third.

This month, Contador has been in impressive form, winning the Paris-Nice, while Armstrong finished a disappointing seventh in the Vuelta de Murcia in Spain.

While Contador exuded quiet confidence at the news conference Friday, Armstrong didn’t speak to reporters after flying in by private jet. He tweeted that he inspected Ospedale, and found it a "Tough one. Long and windy."

RadioShack sports director Alain Gallopin noted Armstrong had a case of acute gastroenteritis that kept him out of the Milan-San Remo last week. He said the Texan knows what he’s doing.

"The big favorites tomorrow are Alberto Contador, (Luis Leon) Sanchez (of Spain), and Cadel Evans. They are today a notch above Lance," Gallopin said.

"He doesn’t have to prove that he knows himself perfectly," said Gallopin. "If we can win, we’re going to try, but in my view that’s going to be difficult."

"Lance is taking a slower approach to his objective," added Gallopin. "Lance isn’t stupid, he knows what his level is, and in any case, this a two-day race: His strength is a three-week race."

This Criterium is the first big pro race in Corsica since 1982. It’s also the first time in a decade that the Criterium International has not started in Charleville-Mezieres in northern France.

Australia wins 5th gold at track worlds

BALLERUP, Denmark — Australia won its fifth gold medal at the track cycling world championships Friday, edging Britain in men’s pursuit.

Jack Bobridge, Dennis Rohan, Michael Hepburn and Cameron Meyer finished the 4-kilometer race in 3 minutes, 55.654 seconds, less than two-tenths of a second faster than the British. New Zealand beat 2009 world champion Denmark for the bronze.

Earlier, Teun Mulder won the men’s 1-kilometer time trial for the Netherlands’ first gold medal at the championships.

Mulder finished in 1 minute and 0.341 seconds, averaging 37 mph. He was more than a half second faster than France’s Michael d’Almeida. Francois Pervis of France won the bronze. Stefan Nimke of Germany, last year’s world champion, was fourth.

Britain’s Victoria Pendleton easily made it to Saturday’s final in the women’s sprint. She will face Australia’s Anne Meares, who already has won two gold medals.

UCI asks CAS to overturn Swiss decision on Ullrich

GENEVA — The International Cycling Union has asked sport’s highest court to force the Swiss Olympic Committee to resume its doping probe against German rider Jan Ullrich.

UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani says cycling’s governing body filed its protest to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. Officials at the tribunal were unable to immediately comment Friday.

UCI says the Swiss were wrong to stop investigating the 1997 Tour de France champion, who was barred from the event in 2006 because of suspicions of a link with the Operation Puerto doping ring.

Ullrich was investigated by the Swiss because he lives in Switzerland and held a license there until his retirement in February 2007.

Olympics

Panel suggests USOC increase size of board by four

DENVER — A U.S. Olympic Committee advisory panel recommends expanding the board of directors from 11 to 15 people as one strategy to get more Olympic insiders in on the decision-making process.

The panel, led by former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, released its findings Friday, and the USOC board began discussing the 24-page report at its quarterly meeting in Colorado Springs.

The board is expected to act on the recommendations later in the year, and USOC chairman Larry Probst said he expected many of them to be enacted.

"My quick read is that the input, the recommendations, are very thoughtful," Probst said. "These are not revolutionary, but they are evolutionary changes to the board’s size, structure and operating policies."

The advisory panel was formed last year, after several months of tumult that included two changes at CEO and Chicago’s embarrassing last-place finish in the race to host the 2016 Olympics; Rio de Janeiro won the bid.

Although the panel did not recommend wholesale changes, it didn’t hold back its criticisms.

"For too many years, the USOC has suffered from the high turnover of chief executives and others in leadership positions, from a lack of continuity in strategy, and from a lack of transparency that accompanied much of that instability," Tagliabue wrote in the report.

"These activities have been very negative not just in shaping public perceptions of the USOC, but also in having had long-lasting deleterious effects on the trust, credibility and confidence of many key constituencies and partners," he wrote.

The report calls for one of the four new proposed board members to come from the Athletes’ Advisory Council and another from among the leadership of the national governing bodies of Olympic sports. The two others would be "independent" members, including a Paralympic representative who would chair a Paralympic advisory council.

In 2003, in the wake of scandals that led to congressional hearings, the board was reduced from 125 members to 11. The panel said that move was good overall, but needed slight adjustments — including adding the USOC’s new CEO, Scott Blackmun, to the board as a nonvoting member.

The advisory committee also said the chairman of the board’s term should be increased and that person’s role in international relations clarified.

The report recommended several other adjustments it described as "fine-tuning," much of which would give board members more time to learn the complexities of the USOC and build relationships domestically and abroad.

Those included doubling the two-year renewal terms for directors, injecting more transparency into the board’s actions and making the CEO the point person on all communications.

The report emphasized the board should, as a way to increase the talent pool, eliminate the requirement that board members nominated by the AAC or the National Governing Body Council sever ties with their organization as a condition of service.

"It broadens the pool," said USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus, who applauded the report. "It gives us the opportunity to make sure there are people at the board table who have intimate day-to-day knowledge of NGB life. That’s been missing for some time now."

Tagliabue, who cemented the NFL as America’s most successful and popular sport while he was commissioner from 1989-2006, said his experience in pro football was "quite instructive in terms of the NGB’s abilities to serve on the board without disqualifying themselves from their current NGB position."

He noted some of the most respected team owners and general managers "served on NFL committees, high-ranking committees, while they continued to have their positions at the team level, and they were able to do both. They were able to take off their team hat when they were working on a league committee and look at the common and collective interests of the league."

Since the Tagliabue panel was formed last year, Blackmun has replaced Stephanie Streeter, who was named CEO last March when the board ousted Jim Scherr, and the U.S. team led the world with 37 medals at the Vancouver Olympics. Overall, the tenor of the conversation has become more positive.

Tagliabue’s report is seen as another step in the right direction.

"I think Mr. Tagliabue and the committee have done a very good job of cutting through some of the clutter and presented constructive recommendations for the organization," USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny said.

-- Stephen Wilson

Olympic Park taking shape for 2012 London Games

LONDON — The light towers are in place atop the Olympic Stadium. The diving pool is filled with water. The athletes’ village is expanding daily.

With less than 2½ years until the opening ceremony, the Olympic Park is rapidly taking shape for the 2012 London Games.

A bus tour of the 500-acre site on Friday revealed steady and visible progress in turning a once-unused swath of east London into the centerpiece complex for the Olympics, as well as a new city neighborhood after the games.

The $13.8 billion project has taken on added urgency now that the Vancouver Winter Games are over, leaving London as the next Olympic host city.

One of the biggest construction sites in Europe, the area is covered by cranes, bulldozers and trucks, and crisscrossed by 30 permanent and temporary bridges. About 10,000 construction workers are on the site, with the figure to grow to 14,000 next year.

The most striking venue on display is the $788 million Olympic Stadium, whose main external structure is already in place and has been a fixture on the east London skyline for months.

Newly installed are the 14 light towers — each weighing 34 tons — which have been lifted into place above the field of play over the last three weeks, taking the stadium to its full height of 175 feet above ground level.

Olympic Delivery Authority chief executive David Higgins said the next step will be to install the roof in the next three months. He said the structure will cover about 40 percent of the seating areas of the stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies and the track and field competition.

"The roof is not to keep people dry," Higgins said. "It’s to deflect the wind from the track."

The stadium will have 80,000 seats during the Olympics, but is designed to be dismantled to a 25,000-capacity arena after the games, mainly for track and field. However, the post-games capacity and use of the stadium is now back under discussion, as soccer and other sports have expressed interest in moving in.

A separate London Olympics legacy company invited expressions of interest in the stadium this week, with the West Ham soccer team immediately declaring its hopes of relocating to the venue after the games. A final decision will be made by May 2011.

Despite the current size of the stadium, the design is relatively intimate, with even the highest-level seating areas providing good views of the field.

"The stadium is much tighter than Wembley or other stadiums," Higgins said.

The stadium will be completed by Christmas, except for the track and infield grass, which will be installed around May 2011, Higgins said.

Still under wraps is the planned location of the Olympic cauldron, where the flame will be lit at the opening ceremony and kept burning throughout the games.

"We’ve got some interesting ideas and options," London organizing committee chief executive Paul Deighton said. "I guarantee we will surprise and delight you on the night of the 27th of July."

Another signature venue is the $500 million aquatics center, which had its 525-foot wave-shaped roof lowered into place in November. The 17,500-seat venue, which is scheduled to be completed in mid-2011, will host swimming, diving and water polo finals.

"Water is now in the diving pool," Higgins said. "It hasn’t leaked. So far so good."

Rising rapidly on the northeastern edge of the park is the Olympic village, which will house 17,000 athletes and officials in 2,800 apartment units during the games.

Also under construction are the 6,000-seat handball arena, 20,000-seat field hockey center, 12,000-seat arena for basketball preliminaries and handball final, and 6,000-seat velodrome. The international broadcast and press center, which will accommodate 20,000 media members, is well under way.

The Westfield shopping center, billed as the biggest urban mall in Europe, is being built just on the edge of the park’s main entrance near the Stratford railway station.

"This is the first time such a major center has been located next to the Olympic Village," Deighton said. "This creates a bit of a problem. Do we let the athletes loose in there? Or do we give them a few more pool tables in the village? We’ve never had so much stuff next to an Olympic village."

Medvedev warns against repeat of Vancouver debacle

MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev blasted sports officials for the nation’s debacle at the Vancouver Games and told them on Friday to make sure the team wins more medals, especially in four years at Sochi.

"You must work 24 hours a day, not just wear out the seats of your pants and rove abroad," Medvedev told sports federations chiefs in televised remarks during the Olympic flag-raising ceremony in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Games.

Medvedev said the team’s abysmal performance in Vancouver came despite generous funding on par with other nations and blamed sports officials for inefficient use of state money. He said that seven of Russia’s 12 sport federations will get new bosses, and he demanded a sprawling audit of how the government money has been spent.

He also warned the new federation chiefs that they will be replaced if they don’t perform.

"We must show that we are a capable, hospitable and technologically developed nation," Medvedev said. "And the Olympics must also show that we can stand for ourselves and win."

Russia brought home just 15 medals from Vancouver. The team was 11th in the gold medal count with only three — the team’s worst Olympic performance.

The Olympic and Paralympic flags were carried from the airport on a special train to the center of Sochi for the ceremony at the Black Sea resort. Russia’s Olympic and Paralympic medalists then carried them to the city’s main square.

Medvedev said Russia still has to do a lot to prepare for the games, but voiced confidence that Sochi will prove to be the right choice. "We must do everything to make the 2014 games one of the most memorable events of the century," he said.

Medvedev said Russia needs to shed the image of a doping-tainted nation, but added that Russian athletes sometimes have been targeted unfairly.

"Let’s not forget that doping scandals are to a certain extent an element of score-settling and an element of global sports competition," Medvedev said. "We must know how to defend ourselves and not offer the other cheek."

He added that Russia must increase its profile in international sports organizations, saying Russian representatives haven’t been active enough in defending their athletes.

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said that from 2006 to 2009, 343 Russian athletes, including 31 participants in international competitions, have been caught doping.

Many participants in the ceremony acknowledged that Russia has effectively lost its sprawling Soviet-era network of sports facilities in the economic quagmire that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Many athletes, coaches and doctors have left abroad seeking better wages and conditions.

Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov blasted sports officials for inefficiency, corruption and infighting.

"We are witnessing a complete collapse of the Russian Olympic Committee, many sports federations are corrupt and the sports ministry is helpless," he said. "The system of financing sports is corrupt from the top to the bottom."

Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev, deputy sports minister Gennady Alyoshin and several other sports officials have stepped down since the Vancouver Olympics.

-- Vladimir Isachenkov

Figure Skating

Nagasu is surprise leader after short program

TURIN, Italy — While Olympic champion Kim Yu-na crumbled, American Mirai Nagasu soared.

Nagasu was in first place after a nearly flawless short program at the World Figure Skating Championships on Friday. Kim, who has lost only one competition over the last two seasons and was downright majestic in winning gold in Vancouver, was in seventh place after three major errors in an uncharacteristically sloppy performance.

Coming off the ice, Kim told reporters that her left foot was "shaking." But it was unclear if there was a medical issue, and coach Brian Orser couldn’t be reached for comment.

"The first triple combination was perfect, then I felt not sure on my left foot. It was shaking. It wasn’t feeling good and I don’t know why," the South Korean star said.

Nagasu scored a season-best 70.40, putting her two points ahead of Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan — and more than 10 in front of Kim. Finland’s Laura Lepisto was third. The free skate is Saturday.

"I think they will be back on their game tomorrow," the 16-year-old Nagasu said after seeing Kim and Asada skate. "I am sure they are tired after the Olympics, as I am, but I just have to concentrate on myself and do the best long program I can."

Later Friday, Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir try to wrap up their first world title. The Canadians have a slight lead over Olympic silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White going into the free dance.

Kim has been in a class of her own the last two seasons, and she capped it with her dazzling performance in Vancouver. Adored in her native South Korea, she handled the massive expectations with cool grace, setting world records for both her short and long programs. Her total score was more than 23 points better than Asada’s, a massive rout.

But there’s a reason many of the Olympic gold medalists skip the world championships, held just a month after the games end. There is bound to be a letdown after achieving the sport’s greatest prize, and it’s hard to get back into training.

"One week ago, before I got here, I was a little bit scared," Kim acknowledged. "But I was ready."

She didn’t look like herself Friday.

She received no credit at all for a spin, underrotated a triple flip and bungled a spiral that received only a first level and was downgraded on execution to just 1.46 points. Not even her strong opening triple-triple combo could make up for that.

Her score of 60.30 points was more than 18 points behind her record-setting performance at the Vancouver Games.

"I felt very good at the warmup. My first jump, the triple-triple, was really great. And then after that I felt I was ready to do a triple flip. It was really weird. I don’t know what happened," Kim said. "It’s the first time I missed the elements like that."

Nagasu won the U.S. title in 2008, but then struggled with a growth spurt and ordinary teenage angst. She switched to coach Frank Carroll last spring — she now trains alongside Olympic men’s champion Evan Lysacek — and the move has done wonders for her skill and confidence.

She was fourth at the Vancouver Games, and has made it clear she wants to be the one to watch in the lead-up to the 2014 Sochi Games. This was a good start.

Before skating, she spent a few minutes at the board talking to Carroll, holding both of his hands and concentrating on his words.

"She said she was scared. I said, ‘Well, you said to me you wanted to be the Olympic champion someday,"’ Carroll said. "I said, ‘Future Olympic champions don’t get scared. They get tough."’

Though her opening triple-triple combination was slightly underrotated, the rest of her short program was exemplary. Lysacek, not competing in Turin, was ecstatic with his training partner’s success, posting a message on Twitter that said, "Wow!!!! So happy for you!"

Nagasu has been working to get the triple-triple into her short, and credits Carroll for getting her there.

"I just listened to my coach," she said. "He just has a positive aura about him."

Carroll said he just reminded her that she wanted to put the triple-triple in at the Olympics and didn’t.

"So what are we here for? ... Back up your words with action," Carroll said.

Asada, the 2008 world champion, trails Nagasu largely because she underrotated the triple axel in her opening combination.

"Of course, I am very disappointed about the downgrading of the axel. However, I think I was able to perform relatively well. And I think I picked up the right momentum going into tomorrow’s long program," she said.

-- Colleen Barry

Sumann ties Svendsen in biathlon overall race

KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia — Christoph Sumann of Austria drew even with Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway for the biathlon World Cup overall lead after finishing fourth in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint on Friday.

Sumann and Svendsen have 801 points going into the final race of the season, Saturday’s mass start event.

Summann trailed Svendsen by nine points going into Friday’s race, which was won by Ivan Tcherezov. The Russian, who is third with 750 points, claimed his fourth World Cup victory of the season by shooting cleanly to finish in 24 minutes, 24.3 seconds.

Italy’s Christian De Lorenzi also shot clean and came in second, 13.8 seconds behind. Andriy Derezemlya of Belarus missed one target and was 16.7 seconds back in third.

Tim Burke of the U.S. finished 11th

Sumann missed one target, finishing 20 seconds behind Tcherezov, while Svendsen, who missed one target and had to ski a penalty loop, finished eighth, 29.5 seconds behind the winner.

It was enough for the Norwegian to win the sprint discipline title with 354 points from 10 races. Tcherezov was 10 points behind for second, followed by Sumann with 292.

The mixed relay will wrap up the season-closing event on Sunday.

Former ski cross world champion Huttary retires

VIENNA — Former ski cross world champion Karin Huttary of Austria has retired after having surgery on a knee she injured in a crash at a World Cup race in Switzerland.

Huttary said Friday in a statement released by the Austrian Ski Federation that she had "come to a point where health has become a main issue regarding my future life."

The 32-year-old Huttary was hurt in Grindelwald on March 12.

She won gold at the first ski cross world championships in 2005 and silver four years later.

Huttary started her career as an Alpine skier, but switched to ski cross in 2001. She finished fourth in last month’s Olympic ski cross race and holds four World Cup titles.

Canada’s Emily Brydon retires from Alpine skiing

CALGARY, Alberta — Olympian Emily Brydon is retiring from Canada’s Alpine skiing team after a 13-year career that includes one World Cup victory and nine podium finishes.

The team announced her decision Thursday.

The 29-year-old Brydon won a World Cup super-G race at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 2008, and her podium total ties her for third among Canadian women. She turned in top-three finishes in consecutive downhills at Lake Louise in December.

A three-time Olympian, Brydon was 14th in the super-combined, 16th in the downhill and did not finish the super-G at the Vancouver Games last month.

Sailing

America’s Cup court case officially ends

SAN DIEGO — The America’s Cup has finally sailed away from one of the bitterest chapters in its 159-year history.

The new trustee, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, announced Friday that it and vanquished trustee Societe Nautique de Geneve agreed to drop their remaining legal actions against each other, the remnants of a 2½-year court fight between two of the world’s richest men.

The agreement was signed a month and a half after the speedy space-age trimaran owned by American software tycoon Larry Ellison routed a catamaran sailed by defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland in Valencia, Spain.

"We want to right the ship and get the Cup fixed," GGYC spokesman Tom Ehman said.

GGYC, which backs Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing, will drop its breach of fiduciary duty claim against SNG, which backs Alinghi. Both sides will drop claims concerning the legality of the design and construction of the yachts. The matters had been pending in the New York State Supreme Court since before the teams faced off in their giant multihulls on the Mediterranean.

Ellison and Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli, a biotech billionaire, fought since July 2007 over their interpretations of the Deed of Gift, the 19th-century document that governs the America’s Cup. Ellison’s syndicate eventually prevailed, forcing a rare head-to-head showdown that the Americans completed with a two-race sweep last month.

The convoluted court spat cost each side untold millions of dollars and seriously damaged the image of sailing’s marquee regatta. A New York judge declined to address the breach of fiduciary duty claim and the design and construction issues before the races.

Although unhappy with SNG’s conduct before and during the racing, GGYC decided it was time to end the fight.

"We just felt it was best to move forward to America’s Cup 34 and put the past behind us," Ehman said.

"We are pleased with this agreement," Alinghi spokesman Paco Latorre said, declining further comment.

Although the Swiss handed over the trophy hours after Race 2, they have 10 days to officially sign it over, a procedural move. The Swiss also will give GGYC pieces of the damaged trophy that SNG recovered four years ago from various people in New Zealand. In March 1997, a Maori protester used a sledgehammer to smash the America’s Cup in its display case at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland. The trophy was repaired.

GGYC and BMW Oracle Racing officials have been consulting with other teams about the venue, timing, format and class of boat for the next Cup. They expect to have specifics later this year.

"Good decisions, not hasty decisions — this is what the Cup community wants," BMW Oracle Racing CEO Russell Coutts said in a statement. "Our focus is looking ahead and making the 34th edition of the oldest trophy in international sports the best America’s Cup yet."

-- Bernie Wilson