International Capsules: Merckx expects fiercely fought Tour for Armstrong
PARIS — Cycling great Eddy Merckx says seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong should focus on more than just beating Alberto Contador in his bid to become the oldest winner of the race.
Armstrong came out of retirement last year and finished third behind his then Astana teammate Contador in the 2009 Tour, amid reports of friction within the team.
Armstrong quit to start up his new RadioShack team, leaving the Spanish rider as Astana’s undisputed leader.
Merckx, who won five Tours, told The Associated Press that he considers Contador the biggest threat to Armstrong. But he warned that the 38-year-old Texan could be caught by other riders if he focuses too much on knocking the Spaniard off his perch.
"Contador has shown he is the most complete rider, when you see the way he won the Tour de France. He is much younger than Lance," Merckx said at a presentation in Paris for next month’s inaugural Tour of Oman. "But there’s not just him, there’s other young wolves like the Schleck brothers ... I think it will be a very open Tour."
Merckx won four straight Tours from 1969-72 and tied Jacques Anquetil with his fifth win in 1974 at age 29.
The 27-year-old Contador is entering his prime as a cyclist, while Luxembourg rider Andy Schleck, 24, showed during last year’s Tour that he is hard to drop in the punishing mountains.
Schleck finished second and his older brother Frank was fifth behind Bradley Wiggins.
Skeptics argue that Armstrong’s age is a barrier to success given that the Tour’s oldest winner, the Belgian rider Firmin Lambot, was 36 when he triumphed in 1922. Armstrong was 33 when he won his last, the 2005 edition.
But Merckx argues that Armstrong’s 3½-year retirement after winning his seventh straight Tour may have helped keep his body younger. While others trudged up the torturous climbs of the Alps and Pyrenees, Armstrong’s body was spared that punishment during those doping-marred 2006-08 Tours.
"That also counts. We’ll see, it’s a challenge and hats off to what he is doing," Merckx said. "What wears you out is the competing, not the training."
Armstrong made his comeback last year at the Tour Down Under in Australia. On Sunday, he will race there again with his RadioShack team.
Contador told a cycling magazine recently about how he "resisted the pressure" within his own team during last year’s Tour, with numerous reports of high tension between Contador and Armstrong.
Merckx, who also won the Giro d’Italia and the Spanish Vuelta, feels little can dim Armstrong’s ambition to win Tour No. 8.
"He’s doing it for himself," Merckx said. "The Tour is the No. 1 event in cycling."
Armstrong considers racing in Milan-San Remo
MILAN — Lance Armstrong wants to race in the Milan-San Remo single-day classic again.
In a message sent to race organizers RCS, published in the Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday, Armstrong said he’d like to race San Remo this year and hopes "it works out."
Armstrong is in Australia for the Tour Down Under, which begins Sunday. He’s planning to include several single-day classics ahead of his Tour de France preparation.
The opening classic of the cycling season, the Milan-San Remo is scheduled for March 20. Armstrong rode the nearly 200-mile race six times, placing 11th as his best finish in 1996. Last year, he was 125th.
CAS rejects making Valverde’s ban worldwide
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Court of Arbitration for Sport will not make cyclist Alejandro Valverde’s doping suspension worldwide while he appeals his two-year ban from competing in Italy. The court concluded a three-day hearing Thursday on Valverde’s appeal of the penalty handed down by the Italian Olympic Committee.
The World Anti-Doping Agency and international cycling body UCI had asked for the ban to be extended so that he couldn’t compete anywhere in the world. But the court said in a preliminary ruling that the request was outside the scope of the Spaniard’s ongoing appeal.
CAS said it was looking only at Valverde’s eligibility in Italy, and expects to issue a final ruling after March 1.
Valverde, last year’s Spanish Vuelta champion, was banned in Italy because of his alleged connections to a Madrid blood-doping clinic. The ban rules Valverde out of the Tour de France because the race crosses into Italy this year.
CONI said a blood sample taken from Valverde when the 2008 Tour de France traveled into Italy matched DNA from blood bags seized during a May 2006 raid in Spain.
Valverde said in a statement his lawyers were "satisfied" with the proceedings and that he had offered new DNA samples but CONI had refused them.
"Alejandro Valverde proposed to a DNA test in a neutral laboratory," the statement read. "UCI and WADA agreed with this proposal but the CONI refused the possibility to make the test out of Italy."
Valverde was in Australia preparing for the Tour Down Under.
German cyclist Matthias Kessler hospitalized
PALMA DE MALLORCA, Balearic Islands — German cyclist Matthias Kessler is in a Spanish hospital after suffering reported head injuries during a training crash.
The 30-year-old Kessler is in Son Dureta Hospital’s trauma unit in Palma after an accident in nearby Agaida, a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday. Kessler was admitted on Wednesday.
The spokeswoman could not give her name in line with departmental rules.
Cyclingnews reported that Kessler suffered severe head injuries after falling off his bike when an animal ran into his bike.
Kessler, a former Team Telekom rider, tested positive for testosterone while with Astana in 2007 and was suspended for two years.
Figure Skating
Lights, camera, skate! Your turn, American men
SPOKANE, Wash. — Get ready for your close-ups, Evan, Jeremy and all the rest of you guys. And no, we’re not talking about Johnny Weir’s new reality show.
It’s the men, not the women, who are the star attraction at this year’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Evan Lysacek is the world champion, Americans made up half of the six-man field at last month’s Grand Prix final and the battle for Olympic spots will be the fiercest it has been in years.
"We’re the strongest skating country in the world as far as men’s figure skating is concerned," said Weir, who joined Lysacek on the podium at the Grand Prix final. "Of course Russia has Evgeni Plushenko, Switzerland has Stephane Lambiel — one athlete. One athlete. The U.S. has eight athletes that are amazing that could all make the Olympic team.
"I think we’re definitely the strongest nation."
Nationals begin Friday with the men’s and pairs short programs. The men’s final is Sunday.
It wasn’t that long ago that men’s skating in the United States was little more than the "Evan and Johnny Show." The two had a stranglehold on the U.S. title from 2004-08, and last year was the first since 2004 that both were not on the podium. Lysacek was the world bronze medalist in 2005 and 2006, while Weir was third in 2008.
That rivalry helped drive the other Americans, who were eager to show that they, too, deserved a place in the spotlight.
Jeremy Abbott won the U.S. title last year, a month after becoming the first American man to win the Grand Prix final, skating’s biggest competition after the Olympics and world championships. Brandon Mroz pulled off the silver medal in his very first nationals as a senior, finishing ahead of Lysacek and Weir last year. Ryan Bradley has not one, but two quadruple jumps in his free skate this year, and does a quad in the short program, too.
As for Adam Rippon, all he’s done is win the last two junior world titles — easily.
"All of us have very different things to offer. There’s the artists, there’s the jumpers, there’s the guys that do a little bit of everything," Bradley said. "It’s really going to come down to who does it on that day, and that’s really exciting."
Especially because the men traditionally have been in the women’s shadow.
It’s not that the United States hasn’t had some strong men. Todd Eldredge was the world champ in 1996, and Timothy Goebel was "The Quad King," pushing the technical envelope with three quadruple jumps in his free skate. But the Russian men have dominated the men’s scene since Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano won back-to-back golds in 1984 and 1988, winning the last five Olympic titles.
And Michelle Kwan, well, everybody in every discipline took a backseat to her.
But the United States is still looking for its next "It" girl, a female star who can fill Kwan and Sasha Cohen’s skates. The men, meanwhile, have been slugging it out — on the ice, of course, this isn’t "Fight Club" — and climbing the international ranks.
"If you’d just show up at an event and just win it, like Michelle Kwan did — no disrespect to Michelle Kwan, she did an amazing thing and was always prepared and skated better than everyone else. But it kind of got a little boring for people sitting at home watching," Weir said. "The men, I’m Johnny Weir so I can say this, it was always a catfight. That’s what’s exciting about it. That’s what always drew me to watching the men’s event.
"Thank God I’m competing in them now," Weir added, "because it’s so intense and so exciting and everyone’s trying to outdo the other person."
The judging system has played a role, too. The points-based system is so technically demanding that critics say it has cost the women some of that artistry that made them so appealing. For the men, though, it has elevated the athleticism of the sport.
Sure, the quad became something of an endangered species for a season or two because of the way it’s valued. But it’s back with a vengeance this year. Plushenko has been working on quad-quad and triple axel-quad combinations, jumps so demanding few people even try them, and quads have been a staple of Abbott, Bradley and Mroz’s programs. At practice Wednesday night, Lysacek tossed off a quad-triple combo with ease.
Add in all the other elements the guys do, and the men’s event is a true test of strength and stamina.
"There’s not really a break," Goebel said of the current programs. "Our spins and our footwork were kind of throwaways. Yes, they counted. But no one really cared what we did, as long as it wasn’t a mess. The footwork I know takes a lot more energy now."
Added Bradley, "It’s just cool to watch. We’re going all out and we’re trying things that maybe we shouldn’t be trying, but we’re going to try them anyway because we’re athletes. Maybe that’s kind of caught the attention of the public."
And there’s nothing like an Olympic medal — or two — to really create a buzz. Especially when the games are in the United States’ back yard.
"To have the world watching the men’s event with such gaping mouths and be totally invested in everything that’s going on ... it’s just an amazing thing," Weir said.
-- Nancy Armour
Olympics
AP Interview: Rogge to meet with USOC leaders
LONDON — IOC president Jacques Rogge will meet with the top two leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee in Vancouver next month to begin healing the troubled relations that led to Chicago’s humiliating defeat for the 2016 Games.
Rogge told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that he has arranged a meeting with USOC chairman Larry Probst and new chief executive officer Scott Blackmun as part of an effort to improve ties and bring the American body back into the international fold.
"There is a lot of goodwill on both sides," Rogge said. "The IOC wishes to have a very good relationship with what is still today in sport the No. 1 national Olympic committee in terms of results.
"I’ve heard and read very good things about the intention of Scott Blackmun and Larry Probst to engage better the USOC in the mainstream of international activities."
Rogge said the meeting will take place in Vancouver before or during the Feb. 12-28 Winter Games.
"We will discuss the common issues. How can the USOC participate stronger in the Olympic movement? What do we expect from the USOC and vice versa?" Rogge said by telephone from Lausanne, Switzerland. "They will also say, ‘What we do we expect from the IOC?"’
Rogge said International Olympic Committee and USOC officials also would meet separately in Vancouver to discuss the thorny financial issues that have caused resentment among many IOC members.
Rogge and Probst spoke by phone after Blackmun’s appointment as CEO on Jan. 5. Blackmun, who officially takes over for Stephanie Streeter on Jan. 26, will be in charge of turning around the USOC’s international standing.
Rogge said he met Blackmun when he served as the USOC’s interim CEO in 2000. Rogge, who was elected IOC president in 2001, paid a visit to the USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Counting his own interim stint, Blackmun will be the seventh USOC leader since 2000. A decade of revolving-door and ineffective leadership has isolated the USOC in the international Olympic world, but Rogge is hopeful that Blackmun’s appointment will usher in a new era.
"He comes with a very good reputation," Rogge said. "There seems to be a lot of praise coming from all sides in the United States, so that bodes well. The advantage is he knows sport and the USOC very well."
The lack of U.S. influence in the IOC was brought home by Chicago’s last-place finish in the October vote in Copenhagen for the 2016 Games, which were awarded to Rio de Janeiro. Chicago was eliminated in the first round of the four-city contest with just 18 votes. That followed New York’s early defeat in 2005 for the 2012 Olympics.
Rogge was cautious when asked whether he would encourage another bid from the U.S., which last hosted the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
"I would say in general I always welcome bids emanating from well organized ... countries, of course," he said. "We always welcome bids."
The United States is unlikely to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, but Probst said this week that candidacy for the 2022 Winter Games was a possibility.
"It’s up to them to decide where their priorities lie," Rogge said.
One of the biggest sticking points in the USOC-IOC relationship is a revenue-sharing agreement that has been lingering for years. Many IOC members and international officials are annoyed that the USOC still gets a 20 percent cut of sponsorship revenue and 12.75 percent share of U.S. broadcasting deals.
The two sides agreed last year to begin negotiations on the revenue-sharing dispute in 2013. Before that, Rogge said, they will talk in Vancouver about a separate financial issue — how much the USOC should pay toward so-called "games-time" expenses, including the cost of anti-doping operations and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
-- Stephen Wilson
NBC plans 835 hours of Winter Olympic coverage
NEW YORK — NBC will spread 835 hours of coverage of the Vancouver Olympics over five networks and its Olympic Web site, all of it in high definition.
The network announced the numbers Thursday, saying it will be the most total hours ever for a Winter Olympics, and more than the last two Winter Games combined.
Coverage starts with Opening Ceremonies on Feb. 12.
In addition to NBC, programming will be on the USA Network, MSNBC, CNBC and Universal HD.
NBC’s prime-time coverage will consist mainly of figure skating and Alpine skiing, with some freestyle skiing, speedskating and snowboarding mixed in.
Unsaid was who will host "The Tonight Show," the only hour on the NBC schedule between 3 p.m. and 5 a.m. that will not consist of Olympic programming.
IOC’s Rogge: No tolerance for doping in Vancouver
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — IOC president Jacques Rogge is confident that out-of-competition testing and work with Canadian authorities will help stamp out drug cheats at the Vancouver Olympics.
Rogge said Thursday the lessons of the last two Winter Games proved the effectiveness of surprise doping controls and police action when needed.
He said the same strategy will be used at the Vancouver Olympics, which start Feb. 12.
Rogge also expressed confidence in post-competition testing, saying samples would be stored for eight years for possible retroactive testing.
Rogge said athletes would be targeted for testing when officials have suspicion of misconduct.
Winter Sports
Bobsledding and danger — bosom buddies
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Todd Hays knows he’s a lucky guy. He’s still standing.
"I feel pretty grateful for still being here and being able to participate in life," said the 40-year-old Hays, who retired from the U.S. bobsled team in mid-December, just days after a crash caused bleeding on his brain. "The way I choose to look at it, it could have been a lot worse."
Despite significant advances in safety since bobsledding became an Olympic sport at Chamonix in 1924, there’s no such thing as a safe bobsled run, and the athletes who compete on the serpentine layouts readily accept that. Every time they jump in the sled, they know they’re aboard a low-tech rocket ship.
"You’re made very, very aware," Hays said. "The first time you go down it’s quite apparent that this is a very fast and violent sport, and if you hit something it’s going to be bad."
That drivers steer with ropes and crew members never see what’s going on during a run — they’re tucked low and face-down behind the driver to minimize aerodynamic drag — only adds to the suspense.
"You’re always aware that horrible things can happen," said Darrin Steele, CEO of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (USBSF) and a former bobsledder. "At this level, I think everyone has come to grips with it, but there’s a certain fear factor every athlete has to overcome. Some don’t even care."
American driver Mike Kohn fits that bill. The son of a former Green Beret, Kohn viewed old movies of bobsled crashes soon after he joined the team in 1990. He wasn’t fazed then and isn’t now.
"I’ve had some pretty bad crashes," said the 38-year-old Kohn, who has walked away from more than 20 crashes in his career. "I crashed four times once and kept wearing the same helmet. (Teammate) John Napier saw my helmet and said, ‘What ... are you doing?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve gotta go down.’ He said, ‘But your helmet’s got a hole in it."’
"I probably shouldn’t have been doing that, but I didn’t care," Kohn said. "I wanted to win. At the end of the day, you just roll the dice and take your chances."
Push athlete Nick Cunningham agrees.
"If you really let it get to you, you’ll hinder your performance," said Cunningham, who suffered a concussion playing pickup football in college. "You have to go into it knowing that it’s there but kind of not think about it."
The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (FIBT), the sport’s governing body, has done much to regulate sleds and track design in the past two decades to increase safety. The FIBT is compiling data on all crashes of the past five years, according to Dr. Eugene Byrne, the USBSF’s chief medical officer.
"There’s no published bobsled crash data in the world," Byrne said. "There’s a sense of how can we help to make this sport any safer, if possible."
Byrne said there is concern about head injuries, but he said concussions "are a small percentage of all the injuries."
"The majority of the injuries are back and neck and athletic-type injuries — hamstring strains and muscle strains," Byrne said.
The crash that ended Hays’ 16-year career was an eye-opener. The CT scan he underwent was the first in Byrne’s six years with the team to show any abnormality — and Hays was wearing the best helmet money can buy.
"I’m not sure how much better they (the helmets) can get," Steele said. "We use NASCAR or motorcycle racing helmets. These are as good as they get. If Todd had been in a lesser helmet, it probably would have been a very sad story. The helmet did its job."
In bygone days, bobsledders wore leather football helmets, and both the fronts and sides of the sleds were open. Even after hard-shelled helmets debuted in the 1950s, crashes often were gruesome.
Italian star Sergio Zardini was killed in 1966 at Mount Van Hoevenberg when his sled hit the superstructure of the track in the famed Zig Zag curves, crushing his head.
In 1981, U.S. driver Jimmy "Nitro" Morgan died in a crash at the world championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy on the track used for the 1956 Winter Olympics. Morgan’s head slammed into a wall so violently that it broke his neck, leaving a pool of blood on the ice.
"We didn’t know any better," said Tony Carlino, a teammate of Morgan and now track manager at Mount Van Hoevenberg. "You got your bell rung in those days, you just kept going or you quit. We didn’t have the support they have these days."
Though safety has improved greatly, danger still lurks. Six years ago, 24-four-year-old German driver Yvonne Cernota was killed when her sled catapulted off course during a practice run in Konigssee, Germany.
Former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine, the first to wear a full-face helmet in Cup competition, suffered several concussions during his long auto racing career. A supporter of the U.S. bobsled team for nearly two decades, Bodine understands the dangers of both sports.
"I’m telling you because I did it once, when you hit your head on this solid ice, it hurts more than any crash in NASCAR that I ever had," he said.
Drivers face the most danger because they sit up front, with only the cowl and frame to blunt the force of a crash. Steven Holcomb, the top American driver, says he has never had a concussion and that the possibility of a serious injury doesn’t cross his mind.
It might at Vancouver, where speeds on the track at Whistler can approach 100 mph. Toss in the fact that Holcomb dubbed the 13th curve there "50-50" because there’s a 50 percent chance of not making it through, and you have the makings of some tension-filled racing.
"Whistler is the fastest and most violent track in the world now, and it’s not very forgiving," Hays said. "It’s crashed almost every single No. 1 pilot in the world, so it’s going to be very, very challenging."
-- John Kekis
McPhie ties for 1st place in World Cup moguls
PARK CITY, Utah — U.S. skier Heather McPhie improved her chances of qualifying for her first Olympics on Thursday, tying for first place in a World Cup moguls event at Deer Valley Resort with Jennifer Heil of Canada.
McPhie’s first World Cup victory moves her to No. 2 in the women’s moguls world rankings and likely locks up an Olympic berth.
"I was just there," said McPhie, who followed a helicopter at the top with a soaring back flip at the bottom." I was totally in the moment. I had no reservations."
Heil, the reigning Olympic champion, caught an edge and wavered before her bottom air, but recovered to stick her jump for her third consecutive World Cup victory and second in a row at Deer Valley.
Dale Begg-Smith of Australia also won his third straight World Cup gold by edging Guilbaut Colas of France. Dmitriy Reiherd of Kazakhstan place third and American Patrick Deneen, who won his first Olympic berth at the U.S. trials, finished fourth.
McPhie and Heil both posted the same scores for their runs and in the tiebreaker based on the turn component of their results.
"In my 10 years, I’ve definitely never seen anybody share the podium, but Heather obviously had a fantastic run," Heil said.
Shannon Bahrke, a 2002 Olympic silver medalist, placed third, and three more Americans rounded out the top eight: Michelle Roark in sixth, Shelly Robertson in seventh and Hannah Kearney in eighth.
McPhie was confident her performance would result in a trip to Vancouver.
"I cannot wait to walk into the Opening Ceremonies representing my country," she said.
She would join Kearney, a 2006 Olympian and the reigning World Cup overall champion, who earned her 2010 Olympic spot by winning the U.S. Olympic trials last month.
Nyman of U.S. 9th in downhill training, Miller 13th
WENGEN, Switzerland — American Steven Nyman was ninth and Bode Miller tied for 13th in training for a World Cup downhill.
A top-10 finish for Nyman in the downhill on Saturday in Wengen, Switzerland, would likely clinch his place on the U.S. team for the Vancouver Olympics.
Nyman, who is coming back from knee surgery, said Thursday he is gaining confidence after not getting much training this summer.
Andrej Jerman of Slovenia was fastest in the second training run for Saturday’s classic Lauberhorn race. He finished in 2 minutes, 33.42 seconds on the 2.77-mile course, the longest on the World Cup circuit.
Miller, who returns to the circuit after resting his injured ankle over the holidays, won the downhill event in 2007 and 2008.
-- Graham Dunbar
Svendsen wins biathlon, Burke loses WCup lead
RUHPOLDING, Germany — Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway won a biathlon World Cup 10-kilometer sprint race and Tim Burke of the United States finished 31st Thursday to lose the overall lead.
Burke missed two targets and lost his World Cup lead after 10 of 25 events, dropping to third overall.
Svendsen defeated five-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjorndalen for a 1-2 Norwegian finish. Svendsen covered the distance in 23 minutes, 27.5 seconds to edge Bjorndalen by 3.2 seconds.
Michael Greis of Germany was third, 33.5 seconds behind the winner. All three shot cleanly.
Evgeny Ustyugov of Russia regained the overall lead by finishing ninth despite two misses for a total of 358 points. Simon Fourcade of France, who finished fifth, moved into second.
Swiss ski star Lara Gut ruled out of Olympics
WENGEN, Switzerland — Swiss ski star Lara Gut will miss the Vancouver Olympics after failing to recover from a dislocated right hip. The announcement was made Thursday on her Web site. She met with Swiss team doctors and her surgeon, who performed the operation in October after a training crash.
The 18-year-old Gut hoped to ski again this week and compete later in the month at the World Cup meet in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Now she does not play to ski again before February. The Swiss Olympic team is selected Feb. 1. Gut was expected to challenge American star Lindsey Vonn in speed events at the Vancouver Olympics.
Hockey
Darwitz to captain U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Two-time Olympian Natalie Darwitz will be the captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team in Vancouver.
Four-time Olympic veterans Angela Ruggiero and Jenny Potter will be alternate captains along with two-time Olympian Julie Chu, USA Hockey announced Thursday.
Darwitz was the American captain during the past two international seasons, leading the U.S. team to IIHF world championships in 2008 and 2009. She has played in 197 games for the American team, scoring 231 points.
Potter has been on the U.S. team since 1997, while Ruggiero has played in a record 244 games for the team. Chu has been in the American program since 1999.
Finland might miss Selanne in Vancouver Olympics
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Teemu Selanne might not make his fifth appearance at the Olympics for Finland. The Anaheim Ducks star had surgery on his broken jaw Thursday, and the team said he is expected to be out for two to six weeks.
Finland’s first game at the Vancouver Olympics is Feb. 17 against Belarus. A deflected shot hit Selanne’s face Wednesday night against Boston. He was playing for just the third time after missing 17 games with a broken left hand.
Selanne has been the top scorer at the Olympics twice, including in the 2006 Turin Games where he helped the Finns win a silver medal. The 39-year-old forward from Helsinki has 595 goals and 1,235 points in his NHL career. He helped Anaheim win the Stanley Cup in 2007.
Sailing
Quick America’s Cup settlement expected
MADRID — A witness to the failed America’s Cup negotiations between Alinghi and BMW Oracle expects a quick settlement.
David Tillett, chairman of the international jury for the 33rd edition of the race, says the event is not "a dead duck" and he expects the teams to work out their differences in time for the best-of-three series, which starts on Feb. 8.
Tillett told The Associated Press the negotiations went smoothly until the "11th hour," when one team balked at signing the agreement over the race rules.
BMW Oracle says that Alinghi rejected an agreement at the last minute, while Alinghi claims the Americans broke off the talks.
BMW Oracle took the Swiss champions to court over the construction of its sails, which threatens to push back the start date.
