International Capsules: Wife of former Armstrong teammate speaks to feds

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The wife of one of Lance Armstrong's former teammates said Wednesday she has spoken to a federal agent investigating the seven-time Tour de France winner and other cyclists.

Betsy Andreu, the wife of former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, said she has talked with Food and Drug Administration agent Jeff Novitzky about Armstrong, but declined to discuss details. She said in a phone interview that her husband has also talked to the agent.

Novitzky did not give her any details about the investigation or who else had been contacted, she said. Other Armstrong teammates, including riders George Hincapie and Tyler Hamilton, have reportedly confirmed that they have been contacted by investigators, but they have also declined to give details.

Betsy Andreu has claimed that Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs in a hospital room in 1996 while battling cancer. The allegations have surfaced before, including in a lawsuit involving Tour winner and Armstrong critic Greg LeMond, who has said he turned over 70,000 pages of records in the case to investigators.

Armstrong's team met on Tuesday with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, which is handling the inquiry.

"We will respect the privacy of our discussions with the government, but we can confirm that a meeting occurred yesterday to begin a meaningful dialogue with the government about this matter," Armstrong attorney Mark Fabiani said in a statement.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined comment.

Armstrong vehemently denies doping, and he and his attorneys note that the cyclist has never failed a drug test though he's been tested hundreds of times. Armstrong has also denied Betsy Andreu's version of the hospital room discussion.

"This old, discredited story is being regurgitated by people trying to legitimize what is clearly a fishing expedition that is wasting millions in taxpayer money and misusing FDA resources," Fabiani said. "The hospital story was long ago proven to be fictional — by a sworn statement from Lance's doctor, by hundreds of pages of medical records, and by the others in the room that day."

Andreu said she expects the federal inquiry to show that she has been truthful about the incident.

"Lance pays his PR firm hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote himself and to smear those who speak the truth about him," she said.

"I have something that they don't have and that's the truth," she said. "And I am overly confident that will come about. It will show all along I have said nothing but the truth."

Andreu's contact with federal investigators was first reported Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times.

Novitzky and a federal prosecutor have been handling an inquiry into allegations of organized doping in professional cycling, including whether Armstrong and members of his United States Postal Service team may have been involved. The team won six of Armstrong's record seven Tour de France victories after beating cancer.

Armstrong became a more important figure in the probe this spring after disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis, who won the Tour in 2006 but was stripped of his title for doping, dropped long-standing denials and admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs and accused Armstrong among others of doping.

American Farrar wins 5th stage of Spanish Vuelta

LORCA, Spain (AP) — Tyler Farrar of the United States won the fifth stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Wednesday, and Philippe Gilbert of Belgium maintained the overall lead.

Farrar capped the 123.5-mile stage from Guadix to Lorca by crossing the finish line ahead of Koldo Fernandez of Spain and Mark Cavendish of Britain. The Garmin-Slipstream cyclist won it in 5 hours, 3 minutes, 36 seconds.

The top of the overall standings did not change as Gilbert maintained his 10-second lead over Spanish pair Joaquin Rodriguez and Igor Anton.

Farrar said he was surprised by the result himself after struggling to sleep the previous night because of illness, but said "adrenaline" had pushed him over the finish line.

On a day of little surprises, one group of riders was forced to stop and wait for a train to pass before continuing in their chase of the peloton.

The Vuelta also paid tribute to two-time Tour de France champion Laurent Fignon, who died on Tuesday after a battle with cancer, with a moment of silence before the start of the race.

The sixth stage Thursday s a 93.2-mile ride from Caravaca de la Cruz to Murcia.

Olympics

Blair: Berlusconi helped London win 2012 Olympics

LONDON (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair credits Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi with helping London secure the 2012 Olympics.

Blair also says in his new autobiography that he was dubious about bidding for the games, never thought London would win and feared being "humiliated" by losing to the French.

In his book "A Journey" released Wednesday, Blair gives his fullest account to date of his role in London's victory over Paris in the International Olympic Committee vote in Singapore in July 2005.

After Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated in the first three rounds, London beat the French capital 54-50 in the final vote.

Blair played a crucial part by traveling to Singapore before the vote and meeting with dozens of IOC members, a strategy since followed by other world leaders to push their country's Olympic bids.

In the book, Blair reveals he had the help of an unlikely ally.

"There was one final person without whom we may not have won: Silvio Berlusconi," he writes.

Blair relates that the previous August he went to visit Berlusconi at his home in Sardinia to seek his help with the Olympic bid because Italy "was a key player."

Berlusconi asked if it mattered "greatly" for Britain to get the games and when Blair said it did, Blair writes:

"He said, 'You are my friend. I promise nothing but I see if I can help.' Typical Silvio, which is why I like him. Most politicians say 'I promise' but then do nothing. He said 'I promise nothing' but then delivered."

Italy had five IOC members, the most — along with Switzerland — of any other country.

"I have no idea how the Italians voted, but ..." Blair writes, leaving the rest unsaid.

A swing of three votes in the final round would have given Paris the games.

Blair says he and his Cabinet were doubtful about mounting an Olympic bid in the first place and that it was Tessa Jowell, his secretary of state for culture, media and sports, who finally convinced him to give the project his backing.

"Yes, but suppose we get beaten and, what's worse, we get beaten by the French and I end up humiliated?" Blair says he told Jowell.

Blair praises Sebastian Coe, the former middle-distance running great who replaced American businesswoman Barbara Cassani to lead the Olympic bid. Blair, leader of the Labour Party, says he was initially skeptical but then won over by Coe, a former Conservative Party lawmaker and chief of staff for opposition leader William Hague.

"He had none of the worst Tory traits and most of the best ones," Blair writes.

Blair also cites the role of David Beckham, who "generally sent Singapore into a twitter, which is exactly what was required."

For most of the campaign, Blair wasn't hopeful of London's chances because Paris was considered a heavy favorite.

"We weren't even second in the running, and personally I doubted we would ever win," Blair writes.

He debated whether to go to Singapore at all.

"In the end, I did, but as much because this was a crime scene I had to be present at in order to have an alibi, to avoid being criticized for not trying hard enough," Blair says.

Blair describes how he met with about 40 individual IOC members in his Singapore hotel suite. His aides gave him slips of paper detailing each member's likes and dislikes.

Blair recounts one incident in which he mistook a member for a champion javelin thrower until Coe broke in to clarify that he had been an ice skater. Blair also relates an "entirely elliptical" conversation with the Russian delegation.

"The gist of it was that we all understood each other very well, that they were very true to their word and so were we, and they didn't like people who weren't (I got a bit uneasy at that)," Blair writes.

Before Blair left Singapore to host the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, French President Jacques Chirac arrived to head the Paris delegation. Blair describes Chirac as "swinging into the party like he owned the Olympics and everything in it."

While Chirac spoke at the official presentation before the vote, Blair appeared in a video.

The French "affected an attitude of 'we are going to win and aren't you lucky when we do' and tried to sweep people along as if invincible — very French," Blair writes.

"We affected an attitude of 'we humbly beg to offer our services to your great movement' and paddled and conspired like crazy underneath the surface — very British."

Blair was in Gleneagles when he learned of the result.

"I, of course, shot up like a rocketing pheasant on one of the nearby moors," he writes.

Chirac, meanwhile, was one of the first leaders to arrive for the summit.

"I felt genuinely sorry for him," Blair writes. "No I really did."

-- Stephen Wilson

Ashley chosen new USOC chief of sport performance

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic Committee has picked Alan Ashley as its new chief of sport performance, part of a restructuring after a six-month internal review by CEO Scott Blackmun.

Ashley, who was the managing director of sport performance, takes over for Mike English, who will move into a position that oversees the Olympic Training Centers and other USOC facilities.

English got the job after Steve Roush was eased out in early 2009 and was the point man when the Americans led the world with 37 medals at the Vancouver Olympics.

The restructuring creates two distinct divisions — sports operations and sport performance.

The USOC is also making subtle changes in its marketing and communications divisions and its travel office.

Track & Field

Semenya’s slow run attributed to fatigue, sickness

ROME (AP) — Caster Semenya’s surprisingly slow performance at a meet in Italy can be explained by fatigue and sickness, the world champion’s manager said Wednesday.

Semenya finished a distant ninth in the 800 meters at the Palio della Quercia in Rovereto on Tuesday.

In her fifth race following an 11-month gender dispute, the South African clocked a dismal 2 minutes, 7.16 seconds — nearly seven seconds behind Italian winner Elisa Cusma Piccione.

"She had no energy during the warmup, her legs were really heavy. She just had a bad day," Semenya’s Finnish manager Jukka Harkonen told The Associated Press. "She was totally tired and coughing the whole night.

"She’s a 19-year-old girl and she hasn’t done a lot of races like this before. She wasn’t ready and we have to accept that."

Meet director Luigi D’Onofrio wasn’t satisfied by the explanation, saying it was still "incomprehensible" to see Semenya running so slow.

"There’s no certainty that she did it on purpose. I mean why would she? It hurts both her and the meet," D’Onofrio told the AP. "But it’s not a good enough explanation for me."

Despite his skepticism, D’Onofrio still paid Semenya an appearance fee "in line" with what world champions command.

It was Semenya’s second consecutive loss after she placed third at the Diamond League meet in Brussels on Friday. In Brussels, Semenya finished in 1:59.66 — the fastest time of her comeback.

In Italy, she was nowhere close to victory. Semenya was third to last after the first lap and never made a move to the front.

Harkonen acknowledged that Semenya gave up once she realized midway through the race that she couldn’t compete, but insisted that was better than not racing at all.

"It was better just to ease up and jog in," the manager said, adding that Semenya should recover in time to race in Milan next week and at the Commonwealth Games in October.

Cusma Piccione questioned Semenya’s gender at last year’s worlds in Berlin, calling her "a man" when Semenya won the 800 title. After Tuesday’s race, Semenya walked over to Cusma Piccione to congratulate her.

-- Andrew Dampf

Bolt: Sprint rival Gay ‘hates my guts’

LONDON (AP) — Olympic champion Usain Bolt said American sprint rival Tyson Gay "probably just hates my guts" because he has dominated major championships.

Bolt won both the 100 and 200-meter titles at the 2008 Olympics in world-record times, and helped Jamaica win gold and set another world record in the 4x100-meter relay.

A year later, he again set world records in the 100 and 200 at the world championships in Berlin.

"I think Tyson sits at home and cusses me," Bolt told BBC radio on Wednesday. "He just really gets upset because every time he runs fast, I run faster than he does. At the world championship he ran 9.71 and that’s the fastest a US athlete has ever run and he was still cussing. So deep down, I think he probably just hates my guts."

The 24-year-old Bolt hadn’t lost an individual race in two years until last month, when Gay beat him in Stockholm in a 100-meter race.

"It’s no stress. This year is not a championship year, this is my year off I would say, so it is no problem," Bolt said. "I am always ready, prepared and on top of my game (at the championships)."

Bolt says that he doesn’t speak to the 28-year-old Gay away from the track.

"We are cool, but we aren’t the best of friends," Bolt said.

Tyson Gay clocks 9.92 to win 100m in Zagreb

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — American Tyson Gay beat Jamaican rival Nesta Carter in the 100 meters in the Zagreb World Challenge on Wednesday, finishing in 9.92 seconds after the two briefly touched hands during the race.

Swimming

Trickett to end retirement

SYDNEY (AP) — Triple Olympic gold medalist Libby Trickett is coming out of retirement in the hope of representing Australia in swimming at the 2012 London games.

The 25-year-old Trickett told an Australian TV network Wednesday she realized in the months since her retirement that she wasn’t quite ready to stop competing.

"Throughout the course of this year there were little things that made me miss it," she said. "Just the smell of the pool during race time, just things that twinged my memories."

Trickett said her decision to return was "solidified" by watching swimmers at last month’s Pan Pacific championships.

"I guess I was just ready to test myself again and really I just want to see how far I can take my swimming and see how fast I can get," she said.

Trickett first raced for Australia at the 2003 world championships, winning a bronze medal in the 50-meter freestyle and 400-meter relay. She went on to win her first Olympic gold in the 400 relay at the 2004 Athens Games and peaked at the 2007 world championships, where she won five gold medals.

She won relay and individual golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but her performances waned by the 2009 world championships.

Trickett announced last September that she was taking a break from the sport and announced her retirement in December.