International Capsules: Doc for Armstrong's USPS team denies doping claims
MADRID (AP) — The chief doctor for Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service-backed cycling team when the rider won five of his seven Tour de France victories is dismissing Floyd Landis' doping allegations.
Luis Garcia del Moral oversaw the team's medical staff from 1999 to 2003. He said Wednesday he never witnessed any doping programs during his time with the American team. Armstrong also won the Tour in 2004 with U.S. Postal and the 2005 Tour with the Discovery Channel.
"I don't know anything about all of this," Del Moral told The Associated Press by telephone. "I never saw any such things."
Landis has accused Armstrong of doping to get an illegal edge in cycling, which Armstrong vehemently denies. A former Postal teammate of Armstrong's, Landis was himself stripped of his 2006 Tour title after testing positive for drugs, and failed to overturn his disqualification in an expensive and lengthy arbitration process.
After years of denials, Landis admitted last spring to doping and accused Armstrong among other cyclists of also using performance-enhancing drugs.
Del Moral was not named in an e-mail Landis sent to USA Cycling chief Steve Johnson on April 30 detailing his claims of blood doping within cycling.
"I'm very relaxed in all of this because I have nothing to worry about," said Del Moral, who had two doctors reporting to him on the team. "Landis didn't name me, so if I'm not named it means something.
"I have nothing to hide. This is ridiculous."
Del Moral says he would answer questions for U.S. investigators should he be summoned. Authorities in the United States have been examining cheating in professional cycling for months.
Johan Bruyneel was team manager of the U.S. Postal team. He also denies the allegations and says Landis attempted to blackmail him for money or a spot on a team.
Swimming
Plans for $14 million natatorium in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A $14 million state-of-the-art outdoor aquatics center is planned for San Antonio.
Bexar (bayr) County Judge Nelson Wolff says the complex, to comply with USA Swimming standards, would make a significant difference in attracting tournaments.
County commissioners on Tuesday authorized an agreement with the Northside Independent School District to develop and operate the Northside Swim Center. Each side will contribute $7 million.
Voters in 2008 authorized the county's share. Northside voters in May approved the issurance of bonds.
The San Antonio Express-News reports that plans call for a 50-meter outdoor pool with shaded bleachers and a capacity of 1,000 athletes, 2,500 spectators and 300 coaches. The complex also would have a 25-meter diving and warmup pool with 1-and 3-meter boards.
Peirsol to attend Missoula swim clinic
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Olympic gold medalist and world-record holding backstroker Aaron Peirsol is scheduled to participate in a swim clinic in Missoula on Friday.
Peirsol will be joined by Olympian Neil Walker and Missoula native David Cromwell at the clinic hosted by the Missoula Aquatic Club. It runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the University of Montana's Grizzly Pool.
Peirsol is a seven-time Olympic medalist and holds the world record in both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke races.
Cromwell is a former Missoula Aquatic Club swimmer and seven-time all-American at Harvard, where he holds the school's 100- and 200-meter backstroke records. He twice won national championships in the backstroke and will soon be starting law school at the University of Washington.
Walker has won several Olympic medals and has been part of an Olympic gold medal winning relay team. He retired from competitive swimming in 2008 and is now coaching swimming in Dallas.
Despite pharmacy error, swimmer gets 3-month ban
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Despite a pharmacy error, Australian swimmer Ryan Napoleon must serve a three-month doping ban and miss the Commonwealth Games.
FINA's doping panel said Napoleon tested positive for the banned drug formoterol last year because a pharmacist incorrectly labeled an asthma inhaler. The swimming governing body acknowledged that Napoleon "had no intention" of enhancing his performance.
However, it suspended him for three months through Nov. 20, noting the ruling "underlines the responsibility of the athlete to check his medicine."
"It's devastating," Napoleon said in a statement from Swimming Australia. "A mistake was made, and the FINA panel accepted that a mistake was made in the hearing, but as an athlete I still understand that I have a responsibility to check all my medication thoroughly."
Australia selected Napoleon to swim the 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle at the games, scheduled for Oct. 3-14 in New Delhi. He can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Spanish Olympic swimmer Garcia gets 1-year ban
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Spanish Olympic swimmer Sergio Garcia is ineligible for the 2012 London Games after being banned for one year for failing to report his whereabouts for drug testing.
Swimming's governing body FINA says it imposed the ban because Garcia broke the rules three times within 18 months.
Garcia swam the 200-meter breaststroke heats at the Beijing Olympics. Under IOC rules, he cannot compete in London because the doping ban is more than six months.
Garcia is the second Spaniard this month to face FINA for whereabouts violations.
FINA declined to ban Rafael Munoz after dismissing his first reporting failure due to his "vulnerable" emotional state. Days later, Munoz won the 50 butterfly European title.
Olympics
Rogge: New event could become part of Olympics
SINGAPORE (AP) — IOC president Jacques Rogge said some of the new events introduced at the Youth Olympics could become part of the traditional Olympics in the future.
The Youth Olympics include such formats as 3-on-3 half-court basketball, a mixed team triathlon relay and mixed swimming relays.
"We will look at expanding these events in the future," Rogge said. "I am a fan of mixed events. We are considering adding them to the summer Olympic lineup."
The Youth Games feature 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18 from 204 national Olympic committees competing in 26 sports from Aug 14-26.
Rogge promised the next Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, will feature higher quality competition. Bolivia beat Haiti 5-0 to win the boys' soccer gold medal Wednesday in a tournament that didn't feature any of the traditional soccer powers.
"Every four years it will go to another city and they will improve the quality of the event," he said. "By the next Youth Olympic Games, there will be far more media attention.
"We will endeavor to help publicize this event and make it even bigger."
Organizers also emphasized cultural and educational activities at the Youth Olympics, and Rogge said similar programs would not be a part of the 2012 Summer Games in London but may be included at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"We are most definitely considering introducing a limited culture and education program into the traditional Olympic Games," he said. "There's definitely a place for it. It's too late for London but perhaps in Rio."
Bolivia beat Haiti despite being a man down for most of the match. Luis Banegas scored twice for the Bolivians. The Haitian team was formed only six weeks before the games began after a Jan. 12 earthquake left an estimated 300,000 people dead on the Caribbean island and devastated its sports infrastructure.
In other action Wednesday, Cuba continued its tradition of boxing excellence by winning three gold medals.
China added one more gold, extending its lead in the games to 30 while Russia is second with 19 and South Korea third with 11. The U.S. team has won four golds.
-- Alex Kennedy
Running joke: London 2012 planning parodied by BBC
LONDON (AP) — The BBC plans to parody preparations for the London 2012 Olympics in a new comedy series.
"Twenty Twelve" has been shot in the style of the mockumentary series "The Office," and the British broadcaster says it hopes it will "bring some humor" to the serious logistical challenges facing organizers.
The BBC says the six-part series will deal with "such hot topics as how to phase the traffic lights across London to get people from west to east."
Writers have also tried to make light of the process of selling a taekwondo hall after the Olympics, the search for someone to run the Cultural Olympiad and how wind turbines will operate in the absence of wind.
Broadcast dates haven't be announced.
Rome honors 50th anniversary of 1960 Olympics
ROME (AP) — Giancarlo Peris has lit a cauldron to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1960 Rome Olympics, re-enacting the duties bestowed upon him half a century ago.
Peris won a regional race in 1960 that came with the prize of being the final torchbearer. Now 68, Peris jogged at an impressive pace up some stairs in Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio before a crowd featuring dozens of medalists from the games and re-lit the cauldron.
The ceremony was held 50 years to the day of when the games began — Aug. 25, 1960.
Nino Benvenuti, who won the boxing welterweight division in 1960, and Don Bragg, the American pole vault winner, were among the speakers.
Bragg concluded his speech with the same Tarzan yell he performed on the medal stand in 1960.
Track & Field
Semenya heading to Commonwealth Games in India
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Caster Semenya will return to major competition at the Commonwealth Games in India after she was included in South Africa's team on Wednesday.
The country's Olympic committee, SASCOC, selected the 800-meter world champion as one of 32 athletes, swimmers, cyclists and rugby sevens players added to South Africa's initial 115-strong team for the Oct. 3-14 games in Delhi, which was announced last month.
"I'm very happy to see the return of Caster Semenya to duty for South Africa," SASCOC president Gideon Sam said. "We have observed her progress closely since the IAAF cleared her to run and it's good to hear her say that she's focusing all her efforts on the Commonwealths."
Semenya has won all three of her comeback races since she was cleared to run by world athletics body, the IAAF, following an 11-month break because of a gender dispute.
She beat a strong field at the ISTAF meet on her return to Berlin on Sunday to continue her winning return to the sport, although public comments by at least two athletes, questioning Semenya's eligibility, have reignited the debate over the teenager's gender status.
"We are not bothered by those comments," Athletics South Africa acting head Ray Mali told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We are all excited that she is back in the team. I watched the meet in Berlin on Sunday and was quite happy to see the way she was received by the crowd.
"Caster is back and the world has accepted Caster is back."
Mali added Semenya's preparations for the Commonwealth Games were going very well. She ran 1 minute, 59.90 seconds at the ISTAF meet, the first time she ran under two minutes since her return.
"The fact that she's unbeaten in her three races thus far and has improved her time on each occasion is good news for our medal effort in New Delhi," Sam said.
Semenya will run later this week at the Diamond League final in Brussels and at two meets in Italy in preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
-- Gerald Imray
Commentary: Silence on Semenya opens door to ignorance
PARIS (AP) — Happily, Caster Semenya is racing again. About time, too. But the 800-meter world champion cannot outrun the questions, some of them legitimate, about how and why medical experts cleared her to compete as a woman.
The decision by track and field's governing body, the IAAF, to give out nothing more than a terse, uninformative 56-word statement announcing the end of Semenya's nearly yearlong gender-testing ordeal increasingly looks like a mistake.
It respected Semenya's privacy, but it was too short to stop tongues wagging. Although Semenya has competed sparingly since her ban was lifted in July — Semenya's fourth race will be this Friday in Brussels, Belgium — the drumbeat of "she's half a man" is starting up again and could get louder as her times improve, as they surely will as she returns to peak form. Such whispers are wrong, ugly and uncharitable, but they also are not surprising given how poorly this saga has been handled from the start and how little effort authorities have made to dispel the misunderstandings about Semenya's case.
Kept in the dark, competitors lining up against and being beaten again by Semenya have been left to make uninformed guesses about the gender-testing process she was subjected to. Saying simply that doctors concluded that she can compete, as the IAAF did, is not enough. Its silence and brush-offs from Semenya about what, if anything, doctors prescribed to enable her to compete again is keeping the door open for the type of intolerable ignorance voiced this past weekend by Diane Cummins. The Canadian runner should be made to wash out her mouth with soap for her stupid insensitivity.
"Is she man, is she lady?" Cummins complained to the Daily Telegraph of London after she finished 1.21 seconds behind Semenya in Berlin on Sunday.
"Even if she is a female, she's on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing. So, from that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man," the newspaper quoted Cummins as saying.
Clearly, Cummins doesn't get it. That means other, more diplomatic competitors likely don't, too. They need some help figuring out the complex and sensitive issues of gender and biology that are involved here. In truth, we all do. It would help if the IAAF took the lead instead of simply clamming up.
The public admission by NBA star Magic Johnson in 1991 that he was living with HIV marked a step toward ending the shame that was associated with that disease.
If handled with tact but also with more openness, is it possible that Semenya's case could be used to generate wider acceptance and understanding for people with so-called "disorders of sexual development"?
As it is, as Cummins' comments showed, some people are still incapable of looking any further than Semenya's muscular frame and thinking "man" — even though that is mistaken and cruel.
It is unreasonable to expect Semenya herself to become a Johnson-like advocate, at least not now. She is only 19. She comes from a poor village in South Africa and seemingly had no idea that she might be differently biologically from most other women until this whole affair blew up around her. She needs to focus on herself and her promising career after the horrid 11 months that she spent being prodded, poked and debated over by doctors and public opinion.
But someone does need to speak up — either her lawyers, her manager or the IAAF. They don't need to open up Semenya's medical files to public scrutiny. But it would help if they gave more information than simply, to cite the IAAF statement, "she can compete" and "please note that the medical details of the case remain confidential and the IAAF will make no further comment."
If Semenya has a condition that might have been giving her a competitive edge over other women, then perhaps that could be explained privately to those runners who race against her. If she has since undergone hormone treatment to reduce or negate that advantage, then that should be explained, too. The risk otherwise is that the doubts about Semenya will simply linger, which is unfair for her and those who race against her.
"It's obviously a human rights issue but human rights affect everyone in the race, not just one person," British runner Jemma Simpson told the Telegraph after finishing fourth in the Berlin race that Semenya won. "No way is it a personal issue but it's a debate about what is right and fair for everyone."
John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester@ap.org.
Kenyan Keitany to make NYC Marathon debut
NEW YORK (AP) — Reigning world half-marathon champion Mary Keitany of Kenya will make her New York City Marathon debut in November.
The New York Road Runners announced Wednesday that it will be the first marathon of Keitany's career. She joins Olympian Shalane Flanagan of the United States, who also will be making her marathon debut on Nov. 7.
Others in the women's field are two-time Olympian Kim Smith of New Zealand and former world champion Werknesh Kidane of Ethiopia.
Keitany owns three of the top 12 times in half-marathon history and has not lost a half-marathon race since October 2007. She set the 25K world record of 1 hour, 19 minutes, 53 seconds at the BIG 25 event in Berlin in May.
Sailing
S.C. sailor prepares for another solo global race
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Brad Van Liew has raced alone around the world not once, but twice. Now, at age 42, he's preparing for a third race that will take him into some of the most treacherous seas on the planet.
"Of course it's a risky thing to do," Van Liew said on Wednesday shortly before he was to take his 60-foot yacht out for a shakedown to test its new sails and electronics as he prepares his boat for the Velux 5 Oceans race.
"But the sport has changed a lot with the technology," said Van Liew, one of eight skippers and the only American in the Velux field. "It's more of a head game now than just raw guts and sheer strength."
Van Liew leaves Charleston Sept. 5 for France, where the race starts Oct. 17 from La Rochelle. The Velux has a stopover in Charleston next spring before ending back in France.
He finished in 1999 in third place in the Around Alone, the predecessor of the Velux which began and ended in Charleston. Four years later, he won the Around Alone staged out of New York.
"The first one was to see if we could. The second time we wanted to win," he said.
After that race, Van Liew became director of the South Carolina Maritime Foundation, helping the nonprofit lunch the tall ship "Spirit of South Carolina" and developing Charleston's annual Harborfest and race week.
But racing still called to Van Liew, who said he found out "I just wasn't built to drive a desk and needed a break." So began the third around the world attempt.
Van Liew's wife and two children, ages 5 and 8, will travel to each stopover location.
"The kids are at a proper age where we could go and do something adventurous before they get to the point where they don't want to hang out with mom and dad," he said.
His race campaign has been named The Lazarus Project, a facetious reference to Van Liew's new life rising from behind a desk. Lazarus was the man who, according to the Bible, Christ raised from the dead.
The Velux skippers sail vessels called Eco 60s — older vessels refurbished for a race that will take them to the southern Indian Ocean where waves can reach 50 feet and winds hurricane strength.
Race rules require all boats to have been originally launched before 2003, Van Liew said.
Van Liew's vessel, "Le Pingouin" — French for "The Penguin" — was relaunched earlier this month. It has already been raced around the globe three times.
Besides a family adventure, Van Liew hopes to spark more interest in sailing in the United States.
With a planned reality show and skippers able to provide live interviews and shoot video with satellite technology, the race should appeal to Americans who like to see things live, he said.
"I want to see this sport advance in the U.S. market," he said. "I would like that to be my legacy."
-- Bruce Smith
