Other Articles in this Category
Most Viewed Stories
Most Commented Stories
Most Recommended Stories
Save & Share this Article
International Capsules: USOC signs sponsorship deal with health care firm
Comments 0 | Recommend 0COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The U.S. Olympic Committee has signed a sponsorship deal that makes DISC Sports and Spine Center its official medical services provider through the 2012 Olympics.
The deal, announced Monday, will allow the USOC to partner with DISC to develop a sports medicine program for Olympic athletes. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
This is another in a list of smaller deals the USOC has signed in the 14 months since the Beijing Olympics. The federation is in renewal negotiations with AT&T and has recently lost corporate partners in the banking, automotive and home improvement categories.
Charity chips in $3 million of USOC payment
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A charitable foundation is donating $3 million to help keep the U.S. Olympic Committee headquarters in Colorado Springs.
The El Pomar Foundation, one of Colorado's largest charities, announced Monday it was donating the money to help Colorado Springs satisfy a $13 million requirement in the first phase of a $53 million project.
The project will pay for new USOC headquarters, Olympic Training Center improvements and buildings for a number of national governing bodies.
The rest of the $13 million, due to the USOC by Nov. 18, will be raised through the city's sale of "certificates of participation" and from a $500,000 state grant.
Another $3 million is due Sept. 18, 2011, and a committee including former USOC president Bill Hybl has been formed to raise the money.
Tokyo governor wants to bid for 2020 Olympics
TOKYO — Tokyo's governor says he wants to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics — a month after Japan's capital lost out to Rio de Janeiro for the rights to host the 2016 games.
Gov. Shintaro Ishihara told a group of reporters Monday he wants to give it another try. Rio won the vote by IOC members last month, beating bids from Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago for the 2016 Olympics.
Tokyo metropolitan government officials said Ishihara was expressing a personal view, and that a decision for another bid would require approval by the city assembly.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki have also announced plans to jointly seek to bring the Olympics to Japan in 2020. Ishihara said Tokyo should co-host the event with Hiroshima if his city wins.
Under existing guidelines, the IOC only allows one city to host each Olympics. But Ishihara said teaming up with Hiroshima, the site of an atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, would be good for the cause of peace. He did not mention if the plan would include Nagasaki, which also was decimated by an atomic attack three days after Hiroshima.
Other cities that have expressed interest in the 2020 Olympics include Istanbul, Budapest and New Delhi.
A host city is expected to be named in 2013.
UK to crack down on sex traffickers ahead of 2012
LONDON — Britain will take "pre-emptive action" to stop sex traffickers from targeting the 2012 London Games.
Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell told Parliament on Monday the government will work with London police and voluntary organizations.
"We are absolutely determined to take all pre-emptive action that we can ... to make sure the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics don't become a target for this vile trade and don't become tainted as a result," she said.
Some lawmakers suggested the influx of visitors for the Olympics would lead to an increase in sexual exploitation of women and men.
"We will be making sure that a very clear message goes out to the traffickers, that there is no point coming to London," Jowell said. "I want the House to be under absolutely no misapprehension about how seriously this threat is taken and its planning well advance of the games will make sure it does not materialize."
Figure Skating
Cohen bows out of Skate America with tendinitis
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen withdrew from Skate America on Monday, saying she is still struggling with the tendinitis in her right calf that forced her to drop out of last month's Trophee Eric Bompard.
"I have been battling this injury for a while," Cohen said in a release from U.S. Figure Skating. "After meeting with my orthopedic surgeon, it was determined that in order for me to fully recover, I should not compete this week."
As a reigning Olympic medalist, Cohen has a bye into the national championships Jan. 15-23 in Spokane, Washington. Though she said Monday she still hopes to compete there, she now would seem to be a long shot for the Vancouver Games.
The Americans have only two spots in Vancouver and a half-dozen contenders for them. Although Cohen did triple jumps and many competitive moves while touring with Stars on Ice the last two years, she hasn't appeared before judges. Her last competition was the 2006 world championships, where she won a bronze medal.
"I'm very disappointed I won't be able to compete in Lake Placid," Cohen said. "I've been going to physical therapy and training with every intention of being healthy and ready for this competition."
But with 10 weeks before nationals, Cohen can never be counted out, said her longtime former coach John Nicks.
"Some parts of her skating look absolutely wonderful. And there are still some weaknesses," Nicks said. "If she stays healthy and stays with the same enthusiasm — because she's very enthusiastic about nationals when she talks to me about it — I think she's going to do well."
Cohen is still coached by Rafael Arutunian, but has been working at her old rink recently to be closer to her doctors and physical therapists.
Cohen will be replaced by 2006 Olympian Emily Hughes at Skate America, which begins Friday in Lake Placid, New York.
Cohen's withdrawal is a blow for event organizers and U.S. skating.
Though she hasn't skated competitively in three years, Cohen is still hugely popular, and her announcement in May that she was returning for a go at Vancouver gave the struggling Americans some badly needed buzz. The United States has been searching — unsuccessfully — for a breakout star since Cohen and Michelle Kwan stepped away from the sport in 2006.
"She's a very interesting part of ladies figure skating, and has been for many years," Nicks said. "And I think we need interesting people in the sport these days."
Swimming
Phelps to test shape, old suits at World Cup meet
STOCKHOLM — Michael Phelps plans to wear the old-style swimsuit that will become the standard next year at the upcoming European World Cup meet in Stockholm.
The Olympic star will swim the 100-meter freestyle and backstroke plus the individual medley on Tuesday. He will also swim the 100 butterfly and 200 IM Wednesday.
"I think the biggest thing is just seeing where things stand in training and see what kind of shape, or not, I'm in," Phelps said Monday. "I've got a lot of things that I can improve on and a lot of things that I can change."
Phelps, who broke Mark Spitz's record by winning eight gold medals at last year's Beijing Olympics, welcomed the ban on the high-tech bodysuits that helped rewrite swimming records the past two years.
The new rules, which limit men to old-style suits from the waist to just above the knees, don't come into effect until January.
But Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, wants the swimmer to use the suit now in the lead-up to the U.S. national championships next summer that doubles as a trial for the worlds.
"I'm happy that that whole thing is sort of changing," Phelps said. "I think it took something out of swimming by having the suits added. It took away from the personal accomplishment."
The Stockholm meet will use a 25-meter pool, half the size that Phelps normally swims.
"There are gonna be a lot of events in the next two meets that are going to be very challenging to win," Phelps said. "A lot more turns, so hopefully I can use them to my advantage."
See archived 'Sports' stories »
We want our site to be a place where people discuss and debate ideas that foster stronger communities. We built this for you. Please take care of it. Tolerate broad thinking, but take action against obscene or hateful material. Make it a credible and safe place worth preserving and sharing.
