International Capsules: Strained relationship with father for top U.S. skier

The Vancouver Olympics are shaping up to be Lindsey Vonn’s shining moment, the apex of a career that began years ago when her father introduced her to skiing. He saw enough talent in his daughter to move the whole family to Colorado.

Yet Alan Kildow, himself a former competitive skier, will almost certainly have to watch on television, not in person, when Vonn competes as perhaps the biggest U.S. star of the Winter Games. They had a falling out a few years ago.

Vonn does not like to discuss the estrangement, but by all accounts the feud began before the 2006 Turin Olympics.

"He always supported me when I did well, which was 90 percent of the time, but when I didn’t, he didn’t handle it very well," Vonn told the Denver Post a few months before those games. "It was so hot and cold. It was so much criticism and so much negativity, and it was really hard to balance my emotions."

It’s become an off-limits subject for all concerned. Kildow, a Minneapolis lawyer, is happy to chat about his daughter’s skiing, just not the source — or extent — of the rift.

"I don’t get into the details," Kildow told The Associated Press in a recent telephone interview. "She’s my daughter, I love her, and in that sense it’s great."

The tension escalated with Lindsey’s relationship with Thomas Vonn, a former U.S. Olympic skier who is nearly nine years older. Kildow disapproved, but the two were married in 2007, and Vonn became the rock in her life.

For that, Lindsey’s mother, Linda Krohn, couldn’t be happier. No need to worry as her daughter travels all around Europe.

"He’s so good to her, so that she only has to worry about ski racing," said Krohn, who was divorced from Kildow in 2003 and now lives in Apple Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis. "It’s a wonderful relationship."

Krohn has hardly missed a race this season, getting up in the early morning to watch her daughter’s competitions on the Internet. She sits close to the fire with her cat, Cocoa, always close by.

After each race, Krohn sends off an e-mail to her daughter to say how proud she is. The response is typically the same: "Thanks, Mom. I love you," with a little smiley face.

In another suburb of Minneapolis, Kildow watches, too. He takes in the competitions with a keen eye.

What he sees is the skier he pretty much always envisioned, the one who at 17 showed a glimpse of her great promise, making her first Olympic team in 2002 and finishing sixth in the combined in Salt Lake City.

"Technically, she is so perfect," Kildow said. "The hip position, the shoulder position, the hand position — she’s the best. ... I think Lindsey is the best now as far as I’ve ever seen. Of course, I’m biased."

In 2006, competing as Lindsey Kildow, she suffered a harrowing crash during a training run for the Turin Games, slamming into the frozen course at 50 mph. She was hospitalized and failed to medal when she came back.

Vonn has blossomed into one of the top skiers in U.S. team history. She is the first American woman to win back-to-back overall World Cup championships, in 2008 and 2009. She’s one victory shy of matching Bode Miller’s national record of 32 World Cup victories and is closing in on her third consecutive World Cup overall and downhill titles.

She’s already secured her second straight super-G crown after winning in St. Moritz, Switzerland, last month. In the Vancouver Games, she’ll ski all five women’s Alpine races — downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super-combined — and is an overwhelming favorite in the downhill.

Kildow’s own promising skiing career was cut short by a knee injury. While he’s quick to say she doesn’t need his advice, he credits his daughter’s success to an extreme work ethic and fearlessness on the slopes.

"The ability to hold the throttle down when most reasonable people would let up on the throttle — Lindsey has that," he said.

Kildow calls his daughter and drops her e-mails, just to check in. Whether she responds, he wouldn’t say. "That’s between her and I."

Thomas Vonn said the relationship has not thawed.

"Nothing has changed there, but that’s as far as we really comment on it," he said. "She chooses not to speak with him, and there’s nothing really going on there at all."

Lindsey’s mother plans to be front and center at the Vancouver Games, which begin Friday. So possibly will some of Vonn’s four siblings, who include a set of triplets and another sister.

They’ve been building for this practically all Vonn’s life. She first strapped on skis at age 2. As a preteen, she commuted to Colorado to train before the family moved to Vail in the late 1990s.

She burst onto the world skiing scene at age 14, when she won the slalom at Italy’s Trofeo Topolino competition for skiers aged 11-14, the first American female to take the event.

For the family to leave friends behind so Vonn could pursue a skiing career was a difficult choice for sure, but there was never really any animosity.

"They understood how good she was," Krohn said. "We had a fun life out there."

Kildow, on the other hand, will probably watch from home as Vonn, now 25, competes at the Olympics. He said it would be wonderful to see her climb the medal stand, but he said that as a trial lawyer, he’s wary of predicting outcomes.

"I’m cautious about those types of things," he said. "Don’t write your victory speeches in the starting gates. Just do your best. I’m sure she will."

Ruggiero leads U.S. women’s hockey into 4th Olympics

Angela Ruggiero is fond of saying hockey is just her first career, and the defenseman always thought she would be on to her next big thing after Vancouver.

She’s not so certain any more. Even if her fourth American Olympic team adds a second gold medal to the prize she first won as a teenager in Nagano, the most accomplished defenseman in the history of the women’s game might not be ready to ditch her sport for the corporate world, the coaching ranks or anything else.

Although she still gets infuriated by bad officiating and frustrated by an amateur athlete’s meager options for making a living, the 2007 contestant on "The Apprentice" still loves the discipline, camaraderie and competition of her first career.

Hockey is a hard habit to break, even when she has a Harvard degree to help her to the next challenge.

"I’m cautious right now," Ruggiero said. "I don’t want to close any doors. I’ve enjoyed this immensely, and I still don’t know when the second career is supposed to start. I don’t know what it will be, and that’s not a bad thing."

Ruggiero and forward Jenny Potter will be the only Americans to play in every Olympic women’s hockey tournament, emerging as the most enduring American stars to a generation of young women rising to join them on the U.S. team. While Ruggiero was the youngest player on the 1998 team, the 30-year-old has evolved into the physical cornerstone of a club hoping to take down Canada on its home ice.

"She’s a presence," said U.S. coach Mark Johnson, who took over for three-time Olympic coach Ben Smith after the Turin Games. "You look at different players that have great leadership skills, and one common theme is that they have a presence on the ice and a presence in the locker room. You’re going to respect them, and that’s Angela all the way."

It’s difficult to overstate how much the U.S. team depends on Ruggiero, who plays the toughest shifts and frequently matches up against the opponents’ top lines. Always a solid offensive player, Ruggiero is most valuable as a defensive dynamo who’s simply too big and tough for all but a handful of players to match.

Ruggiero credits part of her evolution to watching seasoned NHL defensemen like Chris Chelios, who anticipate a forechecker’s moves before they’re made, and then incorporating those skills into a body that isn’t nearly ready to diminish with age.

"I was more like Bobby Orr in the last two Olympics: I rushed the puck, took chances, got way more involved," Ruggiero said. "Even though women’s hockey is faster now than it was four years ago, I just get it. I’m not huffing and puffing every time I’m on the ice. I’ve recognized over the last four years that our team needs more steadiness on the blue line, so I’ve altered my game to give us what we need. I don’t jump into the play as much. I’m way smarter."

Sometimes she’s almost too smart: She’s been a regular victim of flopping over the years during any physical contact. Ruggiero, Canada’s Hayley Wickenheiser and most top players bemoan the inconsistent officiating of their game, which doesn’t allow bodychecking but is highly subjective in deciding what contact is legal.

"Literally, I have players that will fall in front of me if I get near them, and I have to go to the box," Ruggiero said. "It’s frustrating. I work hard to get faster and stronger, and then you end up punished for it instead of rewarded."

That’s just one frustration of the amateur athlete’s life for a player who has always known her career wouldn’t last forever. She graduated cum laude from Harvard in 2004 and is five credits shy of a master’s degree in sports management from the University of Minnesota, planning to complete it from wherever she moves after the Olympics. She’s also a candidate for a place on the IOC’s athletes’ commission.

With roots in Simi Valley, Calif., the Detroit suburbs and Boston, Ruggiero has been away from her various homes for several months while training in Blaine, Minn. She spent part of last summer in Southern California, working on strength and endurance with several NHL players.

Ruggiero’s ability to stay in the game this long is evidence of her love. She could have left for a job with Donald Trump, who offered to hire her after their television interactions, and her Harvard education would open countless doors — perhaps even helping her further her dream of starting a women’s pro league that would pay its players enough to make hockey a more lucrative career.

"For a while I was putting pressure on myself to figure it out, to have a deadline, but now I’m trying to enjoy it," Ruggiero said. "If I were in the NHL right now making millions of dollars, I’d play until I was 40, no problem. The reality is the same opportunities aren’t out there, and there’s a lot of sacrifices to keep playing.

"We’re a bunch of amateurs playing because we love the sport. We’re all here for the right reasons, and that’s cool. You have that true Olympic spirit on our team."

-- Greg Beacham

Reutter top U.S. hopeful in women’s short track

KEARNS, Utah — Katherine Reutter remembers figure skating lessons as a little girl, thinking how much more fun it would be to just cut loose and zip around the rink as fast as she could.

So she dumped her figure skates for the longer blades of speedskating and now is one of top short-track racers in the world.

"I was a figure skater, and I just always wanted to race. I never wanted to look cute or smile or do spins," she said. "I always wanted to go fast."

She still does.

Reutter is one of the best hopes for the United States to end a long drought in women’s short track skating. Although Apolo Anton Ohno has led the U.S. men to six short track medals in the last two Olympics, an American woman hasn’t medaled in the sport for 16 years.

She’s ranked No. 2 in the 1,000 meters and third in the 1,500 in the World Cup standings entering the Vancouver Games. She will make her Olympic debut Feb. 13 in the opening heats of the 500, in which she’s ranked No. 8 in the world, and women’s 3,000 meter relay.

Her two best events, the 1,500 and 1,000, come later. Reutter already has won golds in both races in the World Cup this season — the first two of her career — and is skating with a confidence she lacked four years ago when she didn’t qualify for the Olympic trials.

"Just the fact that I have won before just puts that little spark under my tail end to try and do it again," she said. "I already feel like I’ve done every bit of training and mental preparation I could have done to be at my peak in February. So just when it comes to race day, I want to have my racing skills be the same way — there’s nothing else I could have changed."

Cathy Turner was the last American woman to win an Olympic short-track medal, taking gold in the 500 and helping lead the U.S. team to bronze in the relay at the Lillehammer Games in 1994.

Reutter was a 5-year-old in Champaign, Ill., at the time, fresh off her brief stint in figure skating. During that Olympics, American Bonnie Blair repeated as champion in the long track 500 and 1,000. Blair was also from Champaign, so Reutter had an immediate role model.

"We’d watch videos of her finals at the Olympics over and over," Reutter said. "It was really just ingrained in my head that it’s not like I’m some country kid that has no chance. I have a chance to follow in someone’s footsteps."

She read about Blair training with boys and Reutter’s dad, Jay, liked the idea and pushed her to do the same.

"That’s what my dad basically told me. ‘If you want to be one of the best women, you have to be able to train with the boys,"’ Reutter said.

She still does some training with the U.S. men. At 5-foot-7, Reutter is tall enough not to get overwhelmed in a pack of men jockeying through lap after lap. She also doesn’t get intimidated.

"She’s had a lot of success these past couple of years," Ohno said. "She’s had a lot of very, very good races. She trains very, very hard. She busts her butt, man, every single day. You have to respect that. She’s very focused, and I think she’s got a lot of great chances to medal at these games."

Reutter is in four Olympic events and says — with modesty — that’s she’s hoping for three medals — the 1,500, 1,000 and in the relay if she and teammates Alyson Dudek, Allison Baver and Kimberly Derrick can sneak in among powers China, Korea and Canada.

"A lot of people are good at the 1,000. It’s as fast as a 500 but it’s twice as long, so it’s the hardest race," she said. "By the time you get to the final, everyone knows that everyone is strong, so it turns into a pretty strategic race rather than just sprinting."

Reutter would rather have it just be an all-out sprint, but has been working on the navigation skills needed to excel in short track. That’s been one of the biggest developments since Reutter left Champaign at age 16 for the Olympic Training Center in Marquette, Mich.

Another was just maturing.

An only child, Reutter said she would call home daily from Marquette in tears. She spent two years there before moving to Salt Lake City when U.S. Speedskating set up shop at the Utah Olympic Oval. By then, Reutter had outgrown her awkward teens — or at least enough that she was more ready to focus more on her skating.

"Occasionally I catch myself being like ‘I’m a grown woman now.’ And then I’m like ‘what are you talking about, Katherine? You’re just a little girl,"’ she said. "I have that fight with myself all the time."

If she wasn’t already the poster girl for the U.S. women’s short-track team, Reutter got that title in a December taping of the Colbert Nation when she had host and speedskating sponsor Stephen Colbert sign her thigh.

Reutter giggled while making the unusual autograph request and as Colbert obliged, then turned to the camera and pleaded to his wife that he was doing it for the Olympic team.

If Reutter comes home from Vancouver with a medal or two, Colbert will likely be asking for her autograph.

-- Doug Alden

Notebook: Ohno lightens up in quest for gold

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A lot has changed since Apolo Anton Ohno used to visit Vancouver as a 12-year-old eager to improve as a speedskater.

The biggest reminder of how far Ohno has come since those days when his dad drove three hours north from Seattle comes in the final minutes before every race, when he skates past the coaches’ box toward the starting line.

"I’m like ‘I skated against you, you, you and you,"’ Ohno said Tuesday. "I skated against all these guys, and now they’re coaching athletes to beat me."

The short-track star returns this week for his third Olympics, poised to make U.S. Olympic history, needing just one medal to match speedskater Bonnie Blair as the most-decorated U.S. Winter Olympian.

Now 27, Ohno takes a lot of pride in staying competitive in a sport where two-year cycles cast past competitors by the wayside.

Much of Ohno’s evolution — from five Olympic medals to victory on Dancing with the Stars — has been done in the public eye. But the changes that allow him to remain a medal threat for require the trained eye of a tailor.

"I was 165 pounds in 2002, I was 155 in 2006 and now I’m about 145 and about two and a half percent body fat," Ohno said of the evolution of his sport and his waistline. "But I’m lifting more (weight) than I was — actually about double — than I was before the World Cups about three months ago."

Dropping 20 pounds from his 5’8’ frame was the result of a strict diet and three-a-day workouts that have left Ohno leaner, lighter and "in the best shape of my life." It’s all part of staying on top in a rapidly evolving sport.

"It feels good to stay in a sport that changes totally every two years," Ohno said. "Many athletes get left behind during those cycles of changes, but I’ve been lucky enough to be here and be solid throughout."

Solid enough to likely add to his Olympic haul in Vancouver, but Ohno has been steadfast in his resistance to talking about medals or passing Blair.

"Every single day when I train, when I prepare, when I eat, when I go to sleep, everything has been about no regrets. That’s been my mentality towards preparing for these Olympic Games," he said. "I’d like to finish and cross the line of my last race and have absolutely no regrets, and smile regardless of the outcome. Because that to me means I have left absolutely every single thing I can out on the ice."

CELSKI SHOWS OFF SCAR

Short-track speedskater J.R. Celski might be one of the few first-time Olympians trying to think about having to perform on the world stage.

Anything is better than thinking about his last race, which ended with him in a bloody heap, his left thigh gashed to the bone by his own skate, narrowly missing an artery.

Saturday’s 1,500-meter race will be Celski’s first big one since that horrific crash at the Olympic trials in September left him in need of 60 stitches. The 19-year-old has competed against teammates and in one small meet after three months of rehabilitation, but admits it’s still on his mind.

"You can’t go out there in short track thinking ‘I am going to get hurt today, I’m going to put a blade through my leg.’ If we did that we wouldn’t be able to excel," Celski said. "When we get on the ice it’s mostly just the fact you’re against the whole world, and the whole world is watching you."

Celski estimates he’s between 90 percent and 95 percent, but admits "recovering from this injury has taken a lot out of me." It has not, however, prevented him from showing off his scar, including a photo on his cell phone he’s happy to share.

"It’s been my life the last half year and very prominent in my career, and I want people to know it and know I have this humongous gash in my leg," he said.

NORDIC COMBINED ATHLETES CAUTIOUSLY CONFIDENT

The U.S. Nordic combined team is favored to win America’s first-ever Olympic medal in the sport that mixes ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Although the men that forged those odds were careful not to heap any added pressure on their shoulders with bold declarations, they admit a lot has changed since narrowly missing the podium in 2002 and failing to meet expectations in 2006.

"In previous years we were hopefuls, not contenders," Johnny Spillane said. "Now I feel we don’t have to do anything special to get a medal. We have to do our best, but we don’t have to perform a miracle, which is a difference from years past. The pressure is different. This is exciting. Our stress levels are low, because all we have to do is the same things we’ve been doing."

Led by five-time Olympian Todd Lodwick and four-time Olympians Spillane and Billy Demong, they’ve done it well since a frustrating finish in Turin. In a sport long dominated by Europeans, the U.S. team has become a power on the world stage, dominating last year’s world championship. And just as it has fueled their quiet confidence in Vancouver, it also has affected their opponents.

"You are seeing a lot of confidence on our face, and that is real confidence," Lodwick said. "Before it was like, ‘yeah they’ve got confidence, but what have they got to back it up with? Now we’ve got something to back it up with. The more I can strike fear into the eyes of my opponents with my two gold medals and our team’s four, I know that they know that they are scared."

SWITCHING SIDES

Mark Ladwig is competing in his first Olympics, but the U.S. pairs figure skater had plenty of relative experience to prepare him for his first taste of Winter Games media. In addition to working as an Olympic volunteer in Salt Lake City in 2002, Ladwig also spent time as a weekend DJ at a radio station.

"In terms of doing press conference I’ve actually been critiquing other people on the radio, so it’s actually a joy to be on this side and have fun," Ladwig said of his work at Froggy 99.9, a country station in Fargo, ND, 10 years ago.

Ladwig is also happy to be on the other side of an Olympic credential, sharing stories about his time in Salt Lake City with the Vancouver volunteers.

"I was laughing with an older gentleman who said ‘now I have to come back and compete at the Games.’ I told him curling is definitely for him."

Ladwig and partner Amanda Evora are coming off a second-place finish at the U.S. nationals. After years of just missing the podium at nationals, both are enjoying the experience, even if Evora isn’t quite as media hardened.

"This is like a dream come true for us. Everyone else on the USA skating team had been to worlds or a past Olympics, and we’d never gotten anything higher than fourth," Evora said before breaking into tears. "We learned to never give up and to stand here and know it’s still true and to live it is amazing."

-- Kevin Woodley

Organizers can’t wait for 1st Canadian gold

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Like most of the entire country, Vancouver organizers are waiting for the moment when Canada finally wins its first Olympic gold medal on home soil.

Leading the medals standings and topping it all off by winning the men’s hockey gold on the final night of the games wouldn’t hurt, either.

As host of the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Canada failed to win a single gold medal.

That is bound to change in Vancouver, and it can’t happen fast enough for leaders of local organizing committee VANOC.

"We’d really like to get that monkey off our back," VANOC chief executive John Furlong said Tuesday, three days before the opening ceremony. "I’d like to be in his brain for 15 seconds to understand how it feels to be the first Canadian to win that gold medal."

The biggest gold medal of all for Canada would be in the country’s national sport — hockey.

Terry Wright, VANOC’s executive vice president of games operations, said organizers received 155,000 applications for just 4,000 gold medal tickets.

"There isn’t a Canadian out there who doesn’t have their fingers crossed that Canada will win the hockey gold medal on the last day of the games," Furlong said. "If we are in the final, there will be nobody in the country not watching TV. I don’t now who will be running the country."

The pressure on the Canadian hockey team has been building for months.

"I can’t think of any group of athletes under more pressure," said Dave Cobb, VANOC’s executive vice president. "But I think they welcome the pressure. I think they will thrive on it."

Organizers hope Canadians will get behind their athletes in all sports, not just hockey, especially now that Canada has a realistic chance of topping the medals table.

Four years ago, at the Turin Olympics, Canada was third behind Germany and the U.S. with 24 medals, its best showing. Now, after investing more than $110 million in its Own The Podium program supporting medal contenders, Canada believes it has a chance to finish on top when the competition ends Feb. 28

"We are such a hockey nation, but we have never been in a position to be at the top of the medal table before," Furlong said. "I hope the country will experience success across all sports."

The confidence among Canadians is so high that it was evident in the response Gary Lunn, national minister of sport, provided a German reporter who asked whether the country had set a medal-count total.

"How about we want to win more medals than Germany?" Lunn said with a laugh. Lunn declined to give an actual goal, but did promise a Canadian would win gold and that the team would surpass previous medal counts.

And failing to win gold is not even part of the discussion as far as Chris Rudge is concerned. The Canadian Olympic Committee chief characterized not winning gold as "hypothetical in the extreme."

"I have no doubt that there will be any number of (gold) medals," Rudge said, noting Canada won seven in each of the past two Winter Games.

Rudge acknowledged that the ambitious goals inspired by the Own The Podium program is a departure from the mild-mannered nature of Canadians.

"This phrase, ‘Own the Podium,’ isn’t this a little arrogant for Canada?’ No it’s not," Rudge said. "Being self-confident and being the nice people we’ve always been at Games, these things aren’t mutually exclusive. You can be both. You can be aggressive and win with grace and humility the way Canadians always have. But let’s do it more often. Let’s win more often."

Beyond the medals, VANOC is convinced the games are uniting all of Canada behind one project, something that has been on display during the torch relay across the land.

"When the flame arrives at the stadium on Friday night, I hope all Canadians will feel they have played their role," Furlong said. "We want all Canadians to feel they are part of something great."

One concern is the threat of protests by anti-Olympic activists, who plan to march on the opening ceremony.

"I just hope it will be respectful and people will not ruin the experience for people who have waited 10 years for this moment," Furlong said.

-- Stephen Wilson

Rogge: Vancouver is ‘blueprint’ for future games

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — IOC president Jacques Rogge believes the Vancouver Olympics will leave a legacy as a "blueprint" for future games.

Three days before the opening ceremony, Rogge praised Vancouver organizers for their policies on the environment and long-term use of facilities. He singled out the organizing committee for its ability in coping with the economic downturn.

"Hosting the games is always a complex and challenging undertaking," Rogge said Tuesday. "VANOC and its partners rose to the challenge without compromising the original vision for these games."

"That vision has established new standards for environmental sustainability and legacy planning," he said. "Everything that has been done to prepare for these games was done with the athletes, the environment and the legacy in mind. The lessons learned here are a blueprint for future games."

Rogge spoke at the opening of the 122nd International Olympic Committee session. The three-day assembly will examine the preparations for the Vancouver Games as well as planning for future Olympics in London; Sochi, Russia; and Rio de Janeiro.

The audience included Canada’s Governor General Michaelle Jean, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.

Rogge offered condolences to the people of Haiti as they try to recover from last month’s devastating earthquake.

"We will not let them down," Rogge said. "The Olympic movement will support the reconstruction of the sports infrastructure in Haiti."

He also remembered the victims of the attack on the bus carrying Togo’s national soccer team in Angola last month, and a suicide car bomber that killed volleyball fans in Pakistan.

Rogge paid tribute to Jack Poole, who played a large role in bringing the Olympics to Vancouver. The former chairman of the organizing committee died last year from pancreatic cancer.

Rogge noted that more than 2,500 athletes from 82 countries will be competing at the Vancouver Games, which will be followed by more than 10,000 media, 250,000 spectators and a global television audience of 3 billion.

Rogge also said athletes should serve as role models and spurn performance-enhancing drugs.

"The vast majority of athletes take that responsibility quite seriously," Rogge said at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. "They know that there are no shortcuts to success. We owe it to them to do everything we can to ensure that the competition is fair and free of doping. We will do our part."

The IOC is conducting 2,000 doping tests at the Vancouver Games, 800 more than in Turin four years ago.

Canadian speakers at the ceremony referred to their country’s hope of finally winning a gold medal on home soil after failure to do so at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games and the 1988 Calgary Winter Games.

This time, Canada is a contender to lead the medal standings for the first time.

"The last gold rush was in 1858," Robertson said. "I predict that the next gold rush will begin within one week."

John Furlong, the chief executive of VANOC, received a long round of applause when introduced. He said "all of Canada prays these games are truly golden."

Rogge followed Furlong to the podium.

"You obtained a standing ovation even before the start of the games. I am tempted to close them on the spot," Rogge said. "I will not do it because I am sure you will give us 16 days of magic."

-- Stephen Wilson

IOC president raves about athletes’ village

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — IOC president Jacques Rogge offered rave reviews of the athletes’ village Tuesday after looking at the place he’ll call home for part of the Vancouver Olympics.

Rogge and members of the International Olympic Committee executive board visited the $1 billion waterfront village Tuesday where about 2,700 athletes and team officials will be staying during the games.

"People who have experienced more games tell me that it’s the best village they have seen," Rogge said, adding that the same applies to the athletes’ mountain village in Whistler.

The IOC officials attended an Olympic Truce ceremony in the village plaza, inspected a residential apartment, toured the leisure and game center and ate lunch in the giant dining hall.

"Everything that I’ve seen is really outstanding," Rogge said. "It’s a prime location, good quality building with lots of comforts for the athletes. It’s also going to leave a great legacy for the city."

He said the acoustics of the rooms are also crucial.

"Sometimes after a victory an athlete can make some noise," he said. "You need to make sure the other athletes are not woken up."

Rogge, who competed in sailing for Belgium at three Olympics, has chosen to stay in the athletes’ villages since he was elected IOC president in 2001.

"I’m just going to my room now to check the quality of my mattress," he said.

Rogge said he expects to sleep in the Vancouver village about 40 percent of the time. Otherwise, he’ll be staying at the official IOC hotel because of morning meetings.

The village has 1,100 units, which will be sold off to the public after the Olympics. Local organizing committee VANOC contributed $30 million to the project, while the cost and construction of the village was the responsibility of the city of Vancouver.

During the tour, a few athletes in their national colors stopped and stared at the IOC delegation. Others worked on their laptops or played video games in the lounge equipped with pool tables and Wii consoles.

The dining hall offered food from around the world and, of course, McDonald’s. The IOC members ate with paper plates and plastic forks like everyone else. Rogge munched on cheddar cheese, British Columbia salmon, pasta, a diet cola and a chocolate bar.

Walking out of the dining hall was Eric St. Pierre, a U.S. team chiropractor who works with short-track speedskaters.

"The village is phenomenal," he said. "It’s a little town, a city. It has everything. The food is wonderful, the people are so friendly. The athletes have everything they need."

The IOC visit began with a ceremony marking the Olympic Truce, an initiative backed by the U.N. General Assembly calling for a cessation of hostilities during the games. The appeal is based on a tradition observed during the ancient games and revitalized in 1992.

"Sport cannot enforce peace," Rogge said. "Sport cannot change the world, but it can make its citizens better."

The ceremony was attended by Canada’s governor general, Michaelle Jean, who will officially open the games Friday night. She and others paid tribute to the victims of last month’s earthquake in Haiti.

Unveiled at the ceremony were "truce installations" consisting of two pillars featuring Aboriginal artworks. Part of the pillars will be auctioned after the games to support relief efforts in Haiti.

-- Stephen Wilson

Helicopters and trucks bring snow to Cypress

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A clattering helicopter and a rumbling truck dumped more snow on Cypress Mountain, the warm weather-plagued venue where the first Winter Olympic event is just four days away.

Olympic organizers opened parts of the mountain to media for the first time Tuesday, showing off a snow-covered moguls course with big patches of dirt on either side. The snowboard halfpipe remained off limits.

"All in all, I think we are very positive about how things have come together," said Dick Vollet, the Vancouver organizing committee’s head of mountain operations. "We are quite happy with where we are given that we are fighting Mother Nature, and sometimes she can be very unforgiving."

The steep slope got a mixed reception from skiers after training.

"Everybody needs to adapt to that course," 2009 World Cup champion Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada said. "It’s obviously not the best course we’ve had this year, and it’s not the type of skiing we’re used to."

American athlete Bryon Wilson, however, said the course was shaping up well.

"It’s a little different to anything we’ve been on before, but it’s soft and it’s pretty ripping," he said.

The conditions on Cypress Mountain have been the most dominant concern leading up to the games, which open Friday.

VANOC chief executive officer Jack Furlong described the efforts to get the venue prepared as being organizers’ greatest challenge.

Rainfall and the warmest January on record in the region have forced crews to work around the clock to prepare the tracks.

"The amount of work that has been done against these conditions is really hard to believe," Furlong said.

As reporters walked into the resort just under an hour’s drive from Vancouver, blue-clad workers with brooms were sweeping snow around the top of the moguls course and a helicopter ferried back and forth with crateloads of snow dangling beneath it from a long rope.

Flags and fences already line the course, which was hosting its second day of training Tuesday. A giant scoreboard stood atop a rocky outcrop that was completely free of snow.

Vollet said about 170 truckloads of snow have arrived from three hours away to help build up and maintain the courses and halfpipe. He repeatedly had to halt his news conference because of a helicopter landing and taking off nearby.

Temperatures dipped below freezing overnight, Vollet said. Long-range forecasts are mixed and include the possibility of rain through Saturday, the day of the first event — qualification and finals of the women’s freestyle moguls. The men’s freestyle moguls follow Sunday.

Wilson wasn’t worried about the forecast.

"If it rains, it probably won’t do too much to this thing," he said. "The only thing that would change it would be if it got really cold — that would make it a little more difficult. It would freeze it, and that would be a little harder."

Ramone Cooper of Australia said the conditions were great.

"The snow’s strange though. It’s like a sand almost," Cooper said. "Every single mogul is like a mini sand castle. It’s a bit difficult in parts, but overall it’s super good."

Two days of training already have been canceled to help maintain the snowboard halfpipe, and organizers are ready to drape tarps over the entire halfpipe if it starts raining.

"Rain is always not a very good thing up here," Vollet said.

Vollet did manage to find one upside of the lack of snow around the mountain.

"Conditions are going to be great for spectators," he said. "They’re going to be walking on gravel paths, not snow."

-- Mike Corder

Snow forces changes to Alpine training at Whistler

WHISTLER, British Columbia — With a series of storm fronts rolling in off the Pacific, Vancouver Games men’s Alpine race officials pushed up the start of the first downhill training session on Wednesday in a bid to ensure this weekend’s opening race starts on schedule.

Team captains were formally informed of the decision by FIS race director Guenther Hujara on Tuesday after learning that as much eight inches of snow could fall at Whistler over the next three days. The training session will begin at 10:30 a.m. — up from 11:45 a.m. — because snow and fog are expected to limit visibility on the mountain early in the afternoon.

"You heard the weather report, and that’s why we discussed already what we could do earlier in the day," Hujara said.

The weather is supposed to get worse, possibly wiping out training sessions on Thursday and Friday. The men’s downhill is scheduled for Saturday, a day after the games open.

Under Olympic rules, skiers must complete one test run before a competition can proceed.

The forecast, however, doesn’t look good for the weekend, as rain and snow are both projected to continue through Sunday.

Mother Nature has dominated the conversation in the weeks leading up to the Olympics. While there might be too much snow in Whistler, there hasn’t been enough down south at Cypress Mountain, where freestyle skiing and snowboarding events will be held on the slopes overlooking Vancouver.

In examining the Dave Murray course at Whistler on Tuesday, Hujara described it to be in near perfect shape.

Race officials have been careful in preparing the course over the past month, including injecting the men’s run with water to harden the surface. Such a practice allows a course to better withstand warm weather and rain, and is not uncommon in international competition.

Critics, however, say courses injected with water can cause more skiers to fall. Lindsey Vonn fell during a giant slalom on such a course in Austria in December, leaving her arm in a sling.

FIS assistant race director Mike Kertesz said the injections have been done over the past month. The women’s downhill will be raced on Whistler’s Franz’s course, which has not been injected.

Having one downhill training run favors the Canadians, a team that’s trained extensively at Whistler and features two members, Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Robbie Dixon, who grew up skiing on the mountain. Osborne-Paradis, ranked fourth in the World Cup standings, is considered a favorite to win the downhill.

Canadian men’s coach Paul Kristofic expressed confidence his team will be ready.

"The weather’s not going to be an issue for us. We’ve had plenty of runs down this course," Kristofic said. "The guys are pretty comfortable to let it rip at any moment. So one training run suits us just fine."

U.S. men’s coach Sasha Rearick has four starting positions available for the downhill, two of which are locked up by Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht. Rearick said he’ll consider numerous factors — including training run performances — to determine who will fill the final two spots.

He all but ruled out Ted Ligety from competing in the downhill. Ligety, however, will train to prepare for the super G.

-- John Wawrow

Olympic official: Russia sent clear doping message

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Russia has been sent a clear message that its athletes have a problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, and its government is taking action to deal with it, the leader of the International Olympic Committee’s medical commission said Tuesday.

The comments by medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist came a day after IOC president Jacques Rogge voiced concern at the high number of doping cases among Russian biathletes and cross-country skiers. Rogge said he raised the matter in meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian sports officials.

At a news conference, Ljungqvist said the IOC’s concern was related to the fact that Russia will be hosting the next edition of the Winter Games, in Sochi in 2014.

"The Russians have therefore been made aware that they have a problem," he said. "If you don’t realize that you have a problem, you have no way of dealing with it.

"So I am pleased to understand that the Russians have got the clear message that they have a problem to deal with and they are taking actions. I am confident that they will continue to take action."

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency, known as RUSADA, was set up last year after the Russian Olympic Committee and the country’s sports ministry decided an independent operation, similar to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, was needed.

Ljungqvist, detailing IOC efforts to catch drug cheats at the Vancouver Games that begin Friday, said he was hoping that the Russian government gives RUSADA "substantial support" to act efficiently and independently as an anti-doping agency.

More than a half-dozen Russians have been suspended in the past year for using banned blood-boosting drugs.

Russian athletes will be under tight scrutiny during the Vancouver Games, where the IOC is conducting a record 2,000 urine and blood tests — 800 more than in Turin four years ago. Under a testing program that began Feb. 4, athletes are subject to surprise out-of-competition controls at any place and at any time.

Three top Russian biathletes — including five-time Olympic medalist Albina Akhatova and former world champion Yekaterina Iourieva — received two-year suspensions last year after testing positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO.

Russian cross-country skiers Julia Chepalova, Yevgeny Dementiev, Nina Rysina and Natalia Matveeva also were banned for two years for using EPO.

Another cross-country skier, Alena Sidko, was dropped from Russia’s team for the Vancouver Olympics last month for the same offense. She won a bronze medal in the individual sprint competition at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver medal after becoming the only athlete to test positive at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. After serving a ban, she is back with the Russian team for the Vancouver Games under her new married name of Olga Medvedtseva.

Dr. Christiane Ayotte, the scientist in charge of the state-of-the-art doping lab operating for the Vancouver Games, acknowledged that there are "designer substances" made in Russia that are used by athletes to enhance their performance. But she added that there were also "pseudo-scientists" in the United States trying to make undetectable drugs for use by athletes.

"Russians are not the only athletes doping," Ayotte said.

-- Brian Friedman

Doping lab already testing dozens of samples

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Vancouver’s state-of-the-art doping lab already has tested more than 200 blood and urine samples from Olympic athletes, and there have been no positives.

Dr. Christiane Ayotte, the scientist in charge of the facility, said Tuesday the new facility at the Richmond Oval aims to process about 2,000 samples — 1,600 urine and about 400-500 blood samples — during the games, which open Friday.

"We are fully ready," Ayotte said.

Dressed in long white coats complemented by a Vancouver Olympic symbol in red, the 23 working scientists staff the facility 24 hours. Ayotte said there will be 35 scientists working once the games start.

The lab is expecting about 90 samples per day. Samples come to the lab via courier from the Olympic venues. Overnight, staff do the paperwork and initial screening of samples and put the prepared samples on the testing machines. Day staff then can analyze the data.

"Therefore we are able to report in the very short timeframe that is required by the IOC, which is 24 hours," Ayotte said.

In the instrument room, silver tubes hang from the ceiling hooked up to mass spectrometer machines, which can separate minute elements of urine samples to look at them in fine detail.

-- Mike Corder

Kramer wants to turn Olympics into Svencouver

What Sven Kramer wants, Sven Kramer gets. What the Dutch speedskater wants is an Olympic gold medal.

"It is the only thing I don’t have yet, and I will do my utmost to get it," he said.

The last time he really felt the sting of losing was at the Turin Olympics, where Italy’s Enrico Fabris became the star of the oval with two golds and a bronze. Kramer made an Olympic rookie mistake when he clipped a marker and brought down his Dutch pursuit team, which seemed destined for gold. And Kramer left Turin as a surly 19-year-old with only silver and bronze.

Since then there have been four European and three world all-round titles, world titles in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters each of the last three years, and world records in the 5,000 and 10,000. Now 23, he has enough gold for a lifetime.

Ever the glutton, he wants to win three gold medals in Vancouver and become the undisputed master of the Olympic Oval. The overwhelming favorite in the 5,000 and 10,000, he’s also eager to undo his mistake of Turin and lead the pursuit team to gold.

Born and bred in Heerenveen, the heart of Dutch skating in northern, freezing Friesland, he is the son of skating parents, with a father good enough to race in world championships and famous marathon races. As a kid, Sven would join Yep at foreign camps, and he became world junior champion five years ago.

His latest European all-round title last month in Hamar, Norway, was little more than a glorified training session for Vancouver.

"In four weeks, we have a way more important competition. And that is what counts," he said after winning an unprecedented fourth straight European title.

It certainly is what the whole of the Netherlands is banking on.

Every four summers, the country dresses up in orange to cheer on an overly confident national soccer team heading to the World Cup, and invariably fans end up crying in their beers with disappointment. Every four winters, enthusiasm centers on the Olympics, and there, the Dutch speedskaters rarely disappoint.

This year though, the depth of the speedskating team is nowhere near what it has been in the past. That only adds to Kramer’s stature; already imposing enough his body-hugging suit, his smile after another inevitable victory disarms everyone.

"He exudes success, he looks good. He has so many things going his way, and because of that, he became a national hero," said Ruud Bakker, the band leader of Kleintje Pils which goes wherever Dutch skaters need cheers and support. "It is beautiful to watch a hero at work."

For most athletes, that would translate into suffocating pressure, which does get to Kramer.

"A great many people expect everything from me, and that is not always easy," he said.

Then again, Kramer gladly puts that pressure on himself: "I set the bar extremely high."

His coach, Gerard Kemkers, understands the issue.

"He has all the Olympic pressure, and on top of that all the pressure of being unbeaten," Kemkers said. "Every now and then, that can make it extremely difficult."

-- Raf Casert

Aussies win appeal on women’s bobsled entry

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Australia’s two-woman bobsled team may compete at the Vancouver Olympics after winning its appeal Tuesday before the top sports court.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled the international bobsled federation did not apply its qualification rules properly when it excluded the team of Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Cecilia McIntosh. The Australians contended the pair deserved an Olympic berth as the top-ranked team in Oceania.

CAS said in a statement that its panel "found that the clear wording of the qualification system ... could not be interpreted otherwise than as formulated."

The case also involved the Irish team, which had been the last to qualify based on performance. CAS ruled that the Irish should keep their place, meaning there would be 21 teams instead of 20 when the women’s competition starts Feb. 23.

"Considering the situation of the Irish athletes, who expected legitimately to be entitled to participate in the Olympic Winter Games 2010 after their entry had been validated by the FIBT and the IOC, the CAS panel has recommended to the IOC and VANOC the inclusion of a 21st team in the women’s bobsleigh event," CAS said.

Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming to stay amateur

BEIJING — China’s Olympic light flyweight gold medalist, Zou Shiming, will retain his amateur status and box at the 2012 games in London, a state newspaper reported Wednesday.

Zou said he decided to defer plans to leave the national team following appeals from Chinese sports officials. But he said he still plans on having a professional career someday, the China Daily reported.

London would mark the third Olympics for Zou, whose bronze at Athens was the first games podium finish for China in a sport long banned by the communist regime.

The two-time world amateur champion started out in traditional Chinese martial arts before switching to boxing at age 16.

Zou’s decision to remain an amateur highlights the influence of China’s government controlled sporting establishment. State sports federations operate academies and tightly control not only the training and competition schedules of its athletes, but also their commercial endorsements and some aspects of their private lives.

Zou said he was unable to say no when officials asked him to turn down offers to go professional. But he indicated that the decision did not come without regrets.

"It would take another four years. It will be more difficult when I grow older, for the Olympics and for the pro competition," Zou said.

Canadian sponsor to pay $1 million for luge gold

WHISTLER, B.C. — A Canadian luge gold medal will be worth $1 million, thanks to a team sponsor.

Fast Track Group, an Alberta-based company that bills itself as a financial education specialist, is putting up $1 million for a Canadian gold, to be split between the champion Canadian luger and the Canadian Luge Association.

The company also is offering $50,000 for silver and bronze, plus $5,000 for the top Canadian in each luge event.

A medal is considered a long shot. The team’s best hopes are Calgary sliders Alex Gough and Sam Edney.

The 22-year-old Gough is ranked seventh in the world; the 25-year-old Edney is ranked 15th.

The Canadian Olympic Committee also has promised a medals bonus, with $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.

Skateboarding

Maloofs expand skateboarding competition to NYC

IRVINE, Calif. — The Maloof Money Cup skateboarding competition is expanding to New York City this year.

Joe and Gavin Maloof, who own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, said Tuesday they will hold Maloof Money Cup New York June 5-6 at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, featuring street skateboarding competition. The winner will earn $100,000.

The Maloofs have agreed to donate the $1.8 million, world-class skate park they will build for the competition to the city of New York through the City Parks and Recreation Department’s "Adopt-A-Park" program. Joe Maloof said the cost of the skate park will be defrayed by contributions from sponsors Vans and Monster Energy.

The Maloof Money Cup will return to Southern California for the third straight year, featuring street and vert competition, from Aug. 4-8 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

"I always felt the most important thing was to start in California, where it was born," Joe Maloof said. "We’ll always stay in Orange County and the L.A. area. That will always be No. 1. However, we needed to get an East Coast presence. It’s a privilege to get into New York. It’s not easy to have an event in New York."

The New York competition will include a wild-card contest to give local skaters the opportunity to compete against the top pros in the industry. Pro skaters Chris Cole and Geoff Rowley, New York skating icon Steve Rodriguez and Joe Ciaglia of California Skateparks will lead the design of the street course. The New York prize purse is nearly $250,000.

The Maloof Money Cup Orange County will expand to five days.

Invited pros include defending champions Cole in the street competition and Alex Perelson in vert. The 18-year-old Perelson won last year’s vert after becoming just the fourth person to land a 900 during a competition.

The Maloof Money Cup Orange County pays out nearly $500,000 in cash and prizes, with $100,000 going to the street winner and $75,000 to the vert winner.

Maloof said the competition will expand to South Africa in 2011.

"I think this thing has evolved from a small skateboarding camp to a major skateboarding event," Maloof said. "It’s going to expand opportunities for skateboarding around the world."

Sailing

Strong wind keeps America’s Cup boats off water

VALENCIA, Spain — Strong wind and rough seas on Tuesday kept Alinghi and BMW Oracle from training the day before the first race of their America’s Cup showdown pitting the fastest, most powerful sailboats ever built.

Cup holder Alinghi decided against launching its catamaran, while American challenger BMW Oracle got its trimaran on the water — with president Larry Ellison aboard — but eventually decided to abandon a planned practice.

The American challenger had wanted to test some sails, but said conditions made training "too risky."

"If it wasn’t the day before a race we would have been out there," BMW Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill said. "We’ll see what tomorrow brings and if it is like it was today we’ll be out there."

The first race was called off on Monday because of light, unsteady wind, pushing back the start of the three-race series to Wednesday.

Both teams are hoping for good conditions, but are also expecting choppier waters. Another postponement would shift the first race to Friday.

Late Tuesday, race organizers pushed back the scheduled start of Race 1 by almost two hours, to just before noon (6 a.m. EST).

Harold Bennett, the principal race officer, said strong winds forecast for overnight could kick up a swell that organizers want to monitor.

"I don’t want to put the boats out there if they are not going to sail," Bennett said. "I do not want to put them all the way out there and bring them back without a race."

The northwest front that blew into Valencia on Tuesday was expected to continue into Wednesday and create a good sailing breeze, although boats are not likely to race if waves are larger than a 3 feet.

Spithill said dealing with choppy conditions was part of the challenge, although there is always a limit.

"We’ve pushed this boat really hard," the Australian said. "On a boat like this you push hard but you always keep a bit in the bank because if something like (capsizing) were to happen it would be catastrophic."

Crews remained optimistic despite the Valencia winter throwing up erratic conditions.

"This time of year, it’s pretty up and down," Alinghi meteorologist Jack Katzfey said. "We’ll get a race off eventually, it just might take awhile."

Ellison seemed keen to get onboard USA-17 a day after Alinghi counterpart Ernesto Bertarelli — who will take the helm of the Swiss champion — said "winning the America’s Cup for a sailor means being on board." Ellison had previously said he would only sail the second race.

"He’s pretty keen to sail, and he hasn’t spent much time sailing with us. I think he would like to race," BMW Oracle tactician John Kostecki said. "(But) he’s going to race when he’s comfortable with us."

The Deed of Gift, the 1887 document that governs the event, does not allow for races to be sailed on back-to-back days. The recent conditions illustrate how difficult this regatta could be, especially when wind patterns vary across a race course that encompasses 400 square miles.

The teams are finally settling their differences on the water after the sailing classic was disrupted by a bitter court fight that lasted 2½ years, leading to the Mediterranean city hosting the series in less than ideal winter conditions.

Because Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing couldn’t agree to rules for a conventional regatta involving several challengers sailing for the right to meet the defender, it defaulted to a rare head-to-head showdown, or Deed of Gift Match.

-- Paul Logothetis

Cricket

Afghanistan hopes to defeat U.S. — in cricket

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Like athletes everywhere, Afghan and U.S. cricketers want their match to be about which team is better — not the relationship between their countries.

Afghanistan has been grouped with the United States in the qualifying tournament for the Twenty20 World Cup and the two sides will meet at Dubai Sports City on Thursday. Both teams are trying hard to downplay the political overtones connected to the nine years of war between the Taliban and U.S. and allied forces.

"We are not even thinking about it," U.S. team captain Steve Massiah said. "It’s politics, but we are here to win the match and the entire tournament. That’s our objective."

A victory by Afghanistan would offer a moment of pride — and a welcome diversion — in the war-torn country.

As hundreds of U.S. troops in Afghanistan prepare for the battle of Marjah, the biggest military offensive of the conflict, Raees Ahmadzai, a 25-year-old middle-order batsman is confident of a victory that would move his team closer to joining the elite nations at the World Cup in the West Indies in May.

"We will beat them, but our goal is not just to defeat the Americans, but to qualify for the World Cup," said Ahmadzai.

Cricket is little known in the U.S., but it has been part of Afghanistan’s sports landscape for decades. More recently, the passion for the game developed among Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan.

Like all sports, cricket was banned during the Taliban rule. Then in 2000, it became the only sport allowed by the hardline Islamic movement. A year later the national team was formed and Afghanistan became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council, the game’s Dubai-based governing body.

With no sports infrastructure and continued instability, the Afghan team meets on improvised cricket grounds and plays for spectators on makeshift soccer fields. The players often travel to Pakistan for training, said Seed Shah, the team’s manager.

Despite a lack of security, the number of cricket fans is growing and the game has the support of "many factions," including the Taliban and President Hamid Karzai, Shah said.

"There are groups trying to sabotage sports events in Afghanistan, but the interest in cricket has rapidly picked up and luckily the players have not been threatened," Shah said.

In the U.S., cricket players struggle with different problems. The national team rarely practices together since players — mostly of immigrant background and with regular jobs — live far apart.

The game struggles for funding since sponsors pour money into popular sports like baseball and football. And unlike international cricket matches, played on the turf wicket, most cricket in the U.S. is played on a synthetic surface.

"We are the underdogs," said Sushail Nadkarni, a U.S. player. The team’s expectations in playing Afghanistan are realistic, he said, but hopes of qualifying for the World Cup are high. "We’ll take it one game at a time."

Imran Khan Suddahazai, the U.S. team manager, said American cricketers are focusing on the sport and not politics.

"There’s conflict in Afghanistan and the U.S. government is involved, but we’d like to dissociate ourselves from that," Suddahazai said. "Cricket is sport, a healthy way of competition."

The Afghan team is made up of "a great bunch of guys," Suddahazai said. He praised their achievements, their dedication to cricket and hailed their "remarkable spirit."

"We represent the world power in politics, but in cricket we have a lot to learn from Afghanistan," Suddahazai said. "We’d like to emulate their success, qualify for