Olympic Times – Sports Daily

Harbin, capital city of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province and host to the 2009 Winter Universiade, is considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, senior officials revealed two months before the opening of the Universiade, from Feb 18-28.
“If the hosting of the 2009 Winter Universiade can win applause from all the guests, it will enhance our confidence to bid for the Winter Olympic Games,” said Li Zhanshu, governor of Heilongjiang province. “We are considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, although the decision has to be approved by Chinese sports authorities.”

Harbin, dubbed as “ice city” due to its beautiful scenery in winter, failed to make the short list for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, but won hosting rights for the 2009 Winter Universiade four years ago.
Vancouver, Canada, will host the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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With only two days left in the Phase 1 Request
Period of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games ticketing program, the
Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter
Games (VANOC) is advising Canadians not to wait until the last moment before
requesting tickets. This is the public’s best chance to request tickets; the
deadline is midnight, on Friday, November 7, 2008 (Pacific Time).
“Interest and new accounts have been increasing every day, and clearly
Canadians are enthusiastic about attending the Games. Our data shows that they
are taking some time to complete their requests and are building their ticket
requests over several days as they consider their options with friends and
family,” said Caley Denton, vice-president, ticketing and consumer marketing.
“So with only two days remaining, our message is simple: this is your best
chance to get Olympic tickets, so give yourself enough time and don’t wait
until the last minute.”

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The morning of Nov. 4 polls will have officially opened all across America, as Election Day 2008 begins.
After over a year of intense media coverage of the 56th Presidential Election, with Canadian news channels covering the material as enthusiastically as their American counterparts, the results should become quite clear as polling stations begin to close and the final ballots are counted.
With the Canadian and American elections only 20 days apart this year, there has been much comparison between the two events.
Canada’s record-breaking low voter turnout has now been succeeded by millions of Americans having already voted at early polling stations.
This seems to provide the idea that the US voter turnout might actually increase from the 2004 election, and the comparison leaves citizens and political scientists alike wondering, ‘why’?
“I think it is our particular situation.” said Marc James, a political science professor at Brock. “Most people weren’t really unhappy with the government – but on the other hand, [they] weren’t really excited about the government enough to give them a majority here in Canada, so I think that [Canadian citizens] really didn’t have a lot motivation to go out and vote.

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If people are cutting spending on luxury items in these uncertain economic times, they’re not doing it on tickets to the Olympic Games.
With just over a week to go in the first phase of ticket sales, packages to the 2010 Olympics are selling out and individual requests are increasing daily.
Around 120 packages that contained tickets to the gold-medal men’s hockey game were gone two weeks after they went on sale, said Jean-Paul Modde, the president of CoSport, the official hospitality provider for the Vancouver Olympics.
Packages that include tickets to the opening ceremonies are also selling quickly.
Modde said sales have been brisker than expected, in spite of the economic uncertainty facing the world.
“This is not something that somebody wakes up on Friday morning and says, ‘oh you know what, let’s buy an Olympic package today,”‘ said Modde.
“People have been planning this for a long time and they know that things are going to turn around.”
The packages include other event tickets, accommodation and in some cases, transportation and meals.
They range in price from $3,800 to $34,500.

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Activists met in Vancouver yesterday to discuss strategy around resisting the 2010 Winter Olympics.
While opposition to the Games has been steady since before Vancouver won them in 2003, protests have usually been connected to one of the many issues around them. But dozens of people gathered at the one-day conference to focus on bringing together Canada’s diverse activist community under one banner for the Games.
The issues around the Olympics range from the displacement of low-income people to the environmental consequences of development for the Nordic venues near Whistler.
The Olympic Resistance Network is also hoping to draw activists for other causes by arguing that many environmental and social issues can be connected to the Games.

from: theglobeandmail.com

Angered by the decision to drop the Canadian Grand Prix from the Formula One calendar, teams said Friday that they wanted not one but up to three races in North America each season.
The dropping of the Montreal race left the manufacturing teams – which invest in F1 as a marketing tool to sell road cars – without an F1 presence in the world’s most important continental car market.
“We are hugely disappointed,” Honda team principal Nick Fry said at the Japanese Grand Prix. “It’s difficult to emphasize just how much.
“It will be a major topic at the next meeting of the teams. We need to look at North America on a more strategic basis.”
The dropping of the American race from the F1 calendar left Canada vulnerable, as the one-off costs of transport to North America were steep.
To overcome that economy-of-scale issue, Fry advocated two races in the U.S. and one in Canada.
“Really we need to look at how we not only get back Canada, but back to America – potentially more than once, because its such an important market,” he said.

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Vanoc predicts 2010 Olympic Games sellouts despite the economy.

Organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics say demand for tickets is so strong that more events than expected will go to lottery and all events will sell out.
“Our confidence that we will sell out all of our tickets by the time the Games come has gone up,” said Dave Cobb, executive vice-president of marketing, revenue and communications for the Vancouver organizing committee.
Those predictions come despite a softening economy and forecasts of a recession in Canada and the United States.
Cobb said Vanoc is not worried about the downturn, saying initial tracking on its website shows strong demand.
And even if people change their buying habits, Vanoc is still confident it will sell out all of its tickets, he said.
The total number of people requesting tickets may decline – or people may decide to buy less expensive tickets than they would have had the economy not been struggling – but “the numbers are still well beyond what we need to sell out the Games,” Cobb says.

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A group of women ski jumpers who are suing to have their sport included in the 2010 Winter Olympics received a boost from a Canadian athlete on Wednesday.

Zoya Lynch, a 17-year-old member of Canada’s national team, joined the lawsuit that includes 10 female athletes, most from the United States and Europe, who want women’s ski jumping included at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. No other current members of the team are part of the lawsuit.

Marie-Pierre Morin, 26, a retired ski jumper, is the only other Canadian involved in the lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

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“As a Canadian, I don’t want to stand on the sidelines watching the boys compete. The Olympics is where I want to be,” said Lynch, as she stood outside the Vancouver courthouse where her name was added to list of women ski jumpers suing VANOC.

“I just feel we’re being discriminated against because we’re girls,” Lynch said.

At issue is whether women ski jumpers are being discriminated against by being barred from competing at the Games. The plaintiffs argue that allowing men’s ski jumping but not women’s violates their equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The International Olympic Committee has said its decision to exclude women’s ski jumping at the Vancouver Games is based on “technical merit” and isn’t discriminatory. In 2006 the IOC voted not to allow women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Games, saying the sport has not developed enough and that it didn’t meet basic criteria for inclusion.

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Traffic to the 2010 Winter Olympics website stayed at 10 times its normal levels Friday as tickets to the Games went on sale for the first day.
Organizers wouldn’t release the number of applications they received for tickets, but said people were making the requests as well as just looking for information.
When sales began early Friday morning, organizers said they saw a massive spike in activity, but it levelled off by the end of the day.
“We had about 30 times our normal volume when we turned it on first thing this morning,” said Caley Denton, the Vancouver Olympic committee’s vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing.
Demand for the estimated 1.6 million tickets publicly available tickets was steady from all across Canada, he said.
Sales around the world are managed by the various national Olympic committees, many of whom have contracted out the process to agents.
For the United States, Australia and the European Union, sales are being handled by a company called CoSport, which with its sister company JetSet are the official suppliers of hospitality packages to the Olympics.

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The high-spirit United States beat Australia 53-44 to win their third Paralympic gold in wheelchair rugby here on Tuesday.

The U.S. team won their first two gold medals since the wheelchair rugby was introduced to the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics as a demonstration sport. They took the bronze in Athens four year ago.

Having a redemption of Athens’ loss, the exciting Americans celebrated their fifth straight victory at the tournament with a “wheelchair dance”, spinning their “vehicles” at the court, while the Aussies, with obvious disappointment on the face, gave each other consoling hugs.

“Winning a gold medal compares only to when I was born and when I got married,” said Will Groulx, the American leading scorer.

“This feels so great. We set a goal four years ago, we promised to each other we were going to make it and it is great to see how all the hard work and determination became a gold medal.”

The Aussies, who won a silver at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, should be proud of their own performances as the Americans hardly took any advantage to end the second quarter 21-20.

However, the world’s No. 1 U.S. strengthened their defense at the second half of the game, when the Australian top scorer Ryley Batt often found himself blocked by two or three aggressive Americans.

Will Groulx, who scored 11 of his 16 goals, helped the U.S. to establish a five goal lead by the third quarter and extended the gap to seven in the end.

However, the 19-year-old Australian “Magic Boy” Batt remained the shiniest star of the game with 23 goals and 12 assists.

“I’m not disappointed at all. I would have liked to win gold of course but the U.S. played a better game. Both teams had such great defence, you couldn’t have asked for a better match,” said Batt.

Earlier, the Athens runner-up Canada defeated Britain 47-41 to win the bronze medal. The Britons, ranked No. 4 in the world, repeated their Athens 2004 fourth place.

Mike Whitehead scored 14 goals to become Canda’s best scorer, while Briton Troye Collins led his teammates with 16 goals.

In another two matches of the day, defending champion New Zealand beat Germany 28-25 to place fifth.

The New Zealanders were far from their tournament goals as they missed out on the semifinals by losing the first two preliminaries to Britain and Australia with identical 39-38. Germany, however, bettered their Athens position of seventh to stand on the sixth.

New Zealand captain David Klinkhamer took the fifth finish as a “complete heartbreak”, saying his team “has gone from hero (winning Athens gold) to zero”.

“We underperformed and there is no way to sugar coat it,” said Klinkhamer. “We failed in executing our game plan and we lacked basic rugby techniques. We don’t get to compete often and need to travel more.”

Asian powerhouse Japan, who are also set for a medal, suffered another major setback after they surprisingly lost to Germany at the first round of the fifth place playoffs.

However, the Japanese, most of whom got a haircut to show their determination to win after preliminaries, found no trouble to defeat inexperienced China, trouncing the host 58-32 to finish seventh.

China, who trained less than one year, finished their first Paralympics with five straight losses but showed no regret after the match.

“As rookies, we are here to learn from the world’s top-level teams and I’m proud that we have been improving match by match and my players have never given up on the court,” said China head coach Wen Yan.

“The losses have only inspired us to work harder to do better in London,” she said.

from: xinhuanet.com

Oscar Pistorius completed his gold-medal haul at the Paralympics on Tuesday, winning the 400 meters to go with sprint victories in the 100 and 200.

The South African double amputee known as “The Blade Runner” finished in 47.49 seconds, a world record for his disability class.

Jim Bob Bizzell of the United States won the silver medal at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium, the venue for Olympic track and field. Ian Jones of Britain took the bronze.

Pistorius was cleared in May to run in the Beijing Olympics by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This followed a decision by track and field’s governing body that said he was ineligible.

He then failed to make the Olympic qualifying standard in the 400. He needed to run 45.55, and his best time was 46.25 run against able-bodied athletes.

Pistorius’ next goal is to qualify for the world championships next year in Berlin, where he would face able-bodied runners. He also is looking toward the London 2012 Olympics.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do before that,” he said. “I have five or six able-bodied meets in Europe next year and those are all stepping stones to get to the bigger meets and perform there. I’m looking forward to next year’s calendar and next four years.”

Pistorius, who won gold in the 200 in the Athens Paralympics, runs on carbon-fiber blades. He was born without a fibula, a bone in the lower leg, and both legs were amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old.

Away from the Bird’s Nest, Ukraine defeated Russia 2-1 in seven-per-team soccer to win the gold medal. Volodymyr Antonyuk scored twice for Ukraine and Lasha Murvanadze had Russia’s only goal. Iran defeated Brazil 4-0 in the bronze-medal game.

In the wheelchair rugby final, the U.S. defeated Australia 53-44. Canada took the bronze-medal game, beating Britain 47-41.

In the men’s wheelchair basketball final, Australia beat Canada 72-60. Britain defeated the U.S. 85-77 for the bronze.

Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday, Sebastian Coe said London is ready to match — or surpass — the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

“It is a massive responsibility,” said Coe, chairman of the organizing committee for the 2012 London Games. “We don’t find it daunting. … Beijing has delivered a spectacular games and we will also deliver a spectacular games.”

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from: ap.google.com

Oscar Pistorius, the South African “Blade Runner,” won his second gold medal of the Beijing Paralympics with a victory in the 200-meter sprint on Saturday, but the day was marked by controversy as the Iran wheelchair basketball team pulled out of the Games ahead of a possible matchup against Israel.

The Iran team was scheduled to play the United States on Saturday in a quarterfinal-round match but withdrew before the game. The winner would go on to meet the winner of the Canada-Israel game.

A spokesman for the Iranian delegation denied that Iran pulled out because of the possibility of playing Israel. The country has had a longstanding no-contact policy with Israel, and Iranian athletes have pulled out of events rather than meet Israelis in sports events.

The spokesman said that the Iran wheelchair basketball team withdrew because the Beijing organizers had swapped the starting times of the US-Iran and Canada-Israel matches. That swap had been made without explanation.

“Each match should be done one after another,” Iran deputy chef de mission Iran Doust said. “But unfortunately, concerning our match they didn’t observe the order and that’s the reason” for the pullout.

As it happened, Canada defeated Israel. The Canadians will face the Americans on Sunday.

TRACK AND FIELD: Pistorius won his second gold at the Bird’s Nest before a crowd of more than 50,000, taking the 200 meters by nearly a full second over the silver medalist, Jim Bob Bizzell of the U.S.

“This race is definitely going down as one of my best ever races,” Pistorius said. “I’ve never run in front of a crowd this big and just the crowd, the athletes, it was an awesome race and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”

He has one race to go, the 400 meters on Sunday.

China won five gold medals at the stadium on Saturday. Eighteen-year-old Yang Sen won the men’s 100-meter T35 in a world record 12.29 seconds, while Wang Fang retained her crown in women’s 200-meter T36. Yu Shiranwon the men’s 200-meter T53, and Xia Dong (men’s shot put) and Jimisu Menggen (women’s discus throw) won gold medals with world-record performances.

Xinhua’s wrapup of the day’s action is at this link.

The International Paralympic Committee’s “Sixty Seconds” YouTube show for Friday/Saturday (see window below) begins its highlights package with Friday’s Canadian sweep of the women’s 200-meter medley (SM13). Chelsey Gotell of Antigonish, N.S., finished first in a world record 2 minutes 28.15 seconds, followed by Winnipeg’s Kirby Cote of Winnipeg and Valerie Grand’Maison of Montreal. That’s followed by early Saturday road racing action, including American Oz Sanchez’s gold medal in the 12.7-kilometer hand-pedaled cycle time trial with an average of 23.35 mph, and the victory by Heinz Frei of Switzerland in another HC category. There’s also football seven-a-side (S9) action, with Russia taking on Brazil:
Universalsports.com’s re-stream of its coverage of Saturday’s track and field events is available at this link. The site’s one-hour-20-minute highlight package from Saturday’s early events are at this link.

SWIMMING: At the Water Cube, Erin Popovich finally didn’t win a gold medal — she won a silver. Popovich finished second to Huang Min of China in the women’s 50-meter butterfly (S7). “She took it out fast and had a better race than me,” Popovich said. “Hats off to her. China is having a phenomenal meet.”

Popovich, who has won 4 golds at these Games and 14 in her Paralympic career, has one more race in Beijing: the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday.

Justin Zook of the U.S. won gold in the men’s 100-meter backstroke (S10) after setting a world record in the preliminary heat of the event.

Countryman Jarrett Perry also set a world record during a preliminary heat of his event, the 100-meter backstroke (S9), but the final was won by Australian Matthew Cowdrey, his third of the Beijing Games to go along with two more from Athens 2004. Perry took the bronze.

WHEELCHAIR RUGBY: The American team had its hands full with a tough Japan team, winning by 44-37. Will Groulx led the U.S. with 12 goals and four steals, while Bryan Kirkland pitched in 11 goals and four assists.

The murderballers’ final group-stage game is Sunday against Canada, the team that beat the Amerks in the semifinal at Athens four years ago.
WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL: While the U.S. men’s advanced through forfeit, the women’s team advanced to the gold medal game by beating Australia, 60-47, in the semifinal.

With less than five minutes to go, the U.S. was clinging to a 46-45 lead after fighting back after trailing for most of the third quarter. But the Americans pulled away at the end.

Christina Ripp and Stephanie Wheeler led the U.S. with 18 and 15 points, respectively.

The Amerkas will play Germany for the gold medal on Monday.
WHEELCHAIR TENNIS: Nick Taylor and David Wagner won the quad doubles gold with a three-set victory over Boaz Kramer and Shraga Weinberg of Israel. Taylor and Wagner overpowered the Israelis in the first set, 6-0, lost the second by 4-6, but won the third, 6-2, to defend their gold from Athens four years ago.

TABLE TENNIS: The U.S. duo of Mitch Seidenfeld and Tahl Leibovitz lost, 3-2, to Ukraine’s Yuriy Shchepanskyy and Vadym Kubov in the Class 9-10 teams tournament to end American participation in the table tennis competition at the 2008 Paralympics.

Seidenfeld, who won a gold and bronze in the 1992 Games and a silver and bronze in 1996, lost his singles match while Leibovitz, of Ozone Park, won his. But the Ukranians won the doubles match to prevail over all.

source:olympics.blogs.nytimes.com

The Iranian men’s wheelchair basketball team has withdrawn from the Beijing Paralympics competition on the first day of quarterfinal competition.

The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and the International Paralympic Committee today announced that Iran have pulled out of competition “due to their dissatisfaction with the draw proposed for the cross-over round and subsequent schedule”.

There is conjecture that this in in reference to the possibility of Iran playing Israel if they got through to the next round.

Iran was due to play the USA today.

In a statement the IWBF said it “regrets this decision taken by Iran and the disruption caused to the tournament”.

The move means the US teams goes through to the semi-finals. The ABC has been unable to contact the Iranian team.

The spokeswoman for the United States Paralymic team Jeannine Hansen would not be drawn on whether the Iranian team was making a political statement.

“The team is focused on playing and looking forward to Canada,” she said.

“But beyond that I’m not going to comment. Iran really needs to speak for their reasons for withdrawing.”

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source: abc.net.au

Australia’s Paralympic swim team produced a memorable night at the National Aquatic Centre on day five of the Beijing Paralympics last night when Peter Leek, Matthew Cowdrey and Rick Pendleton grabbed an historic triple gold medal haul – all in world record time.
The Australians dominated their respective 200 metre individual medley events with Leek (S8), Cowdrey (S9) and Pendleton (S10) in a memorable night at the Water Cube.
One of the rising stars of the sport, Leek kicked off the golden run with the teenage cerebral palsy sufferer from Sydney clocking his second win of the Games in a new world time of 2:20.92, blitzing his nearest rival, Wang Jiachao of China (2:29.71) by almost nine seconds.
Leek is set to return home a star with his medal tally now standing at two gold, two silver and one bronze.
Leek said the only secret to his “awesome” results in Beijing was 18 years of hard work.
“And every minute of that hard work has been worth it to get results like these,” he said.
“I knew I had to go out hard to win a race like this. So I just went for it and I can’t believe how fast the time is. I’m just stoked that time belongs to me because I think it’s going to be a long time before anyone beats it.”
South Australian teen sensation and two-time Paralympian, Cowdrey also grabbed his second gold of the Games and the fourth of his career with an amazing world record display in his 200 medley final, slashing nearly three seconds off his previous world mark to take the victory in an unbelievable S9 category time of 2:13.60.
Cowdrey who has a congenital amputation of his left arm to the elbow flew home over the final stages of the race to grab gold ahead of Ukrainian, Andriy Kalyna (2:17.21) with the South Australian having a running tally in Beijing of two gold and two silver.
“I knew I’d be close to going under 2:15 but I didn’t think a 2:13 was quite possible, so hey, I definitely came out, enjoyed the night and swam fast,” Cowdrey said.
“That was probably the biggest race of the meet for me, so now I’ve defended both titles from Athens I’m ecstatic. And that time was really, really quick so I don’t think I could have had a better night than tonight.”
Cowdrey, who trains with Peter Bishop and alongside Olympic silver and bronze medallist, Hayden Stoeckel at Adelaide’s Norwood Swim Club,believes confidence helped him more than anything else.
“In the marshalling area I was the only one really talking and just enjoying the time, and confidence is a good thing,” he said.
“Tonight’s the first night we’ve got more than one Aussie gold in the pool and I don’t think that even happened in Athens so it’s a good night. ”
A devastating breaststroke leg capped an unforgettable come from behind victory to John Shaw coached Coogee boy, Rick Pendleton who claimed his maiden Olympic gold four years after missing a medal in Athens by just 0.07 of a second.
Pendleton came from third place at the half way mark of the race to power home in the breaststroke and freestyle legs to a new world record time of 2:12.78 and upset Brazilian, Andre Brasil (2:14.20) and former world record holder of Canada, Benoit Huot (2:15.22).
“I’m glad to be the third one in the same category or same event to smash the world record – it’s a good trifecta,” he said.
“I’m just over the moon with that..wow! What a big swim and a big race and I’m glad to be on top at the moment.”
Pendleton, who was born without a left hand, said he was shocked with his time.
“I was expecting maybe a 2.14, so four seconds off my personal best, that’s a massive swim.
“I always knew that I’d be behind in the fly and backstroke so once I got to the breast stroke I knew I just had to drop the hammer and go for it.
“Just everything came together at the same time – everything falls into line properly for you, that’s the reason you go so fast.”
Adelaide 18-year-old, Jay Dohnt who lost both his legs and one hand to meningococcal disease at age 13 picked up Australia’s final medal of the night, a bronze in the S7 400 metres freestyle in a time of 4:59.47 to take their overall tally after five days to six gold, five silver and four bronze.
“I came here to get a medal and didn’t care what colour it was. This is the best. I am so relieved and happy,” he said.
In other news Australian team officials have taken responsibility for a mix up that witnessed female swimmer, Ellie Cole miss her final in the S9 200 metre individual medley on day five. Cole claimed a silver medal earlier this week in the S9 100 metres backstroke.
“For the team I take full responsibility. We probably didn’t warm her up enough. She’s a bit upset but we’re working through it,” he said.

source: hansonmediagroup.com.au

The Montreal Canadiens will roll out the red carpet to welcome goaltending great Patrick Roy back to the club.

The NHL team announced Thursday that it will retire Roy’s jersey No. 33 at a Bell Centre ceremony before a game against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 22.

BEIJING – Canada’s Michelle Stilwell captured her second Paralympic Games gold medal Thursday, but her first as a wheelchair racer.

Stilwell, from Nanoose Bay, B.C., a gold medallist in wheelchair basketball in 2000 in Sydney, raced to gold in the 200-metre T52 classification race in a Paralympic record time of 36.18 seconds.

MILAN, Italy – Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa resume their tight title chase at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, the last European race of the Formula One season.

Hamilton’s lead over Massa in the overall standings dwindled to two points after a time penalty cost the McLaren driver a dramatic victory at the Belgian GP last weekend.

SUANCES, Spain – Italian rider Paolo Bettini won the 12th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Thursday while Egoi Martinez of Spain retained the overall lead.

Bettini, a Quick Step rider who also won the sixth stage, completed the 186 kilometre trek from Burgos to Suances with two major mountain climbs in four hours 42 minutes 44 seconds.

CONOVER, N.C. – Jay Haas has a chance to widen his lead over Bernhard Langer in the Charles Schwab Cup standings with a good finish in the Greater Hickory Classic.

The Champions Tour event begins Friday at Rock Barn Golf and Spa’s Robert Trent Jones course and features five of the top 10 players in the standings.

ROLLA, Mo. – Canadian Michael Barry pulled away from a group of four riders to win the fourth stage of the Tour of Missouri on Thursday while Christian Vande Velde maintained his overall lead.

Barry, riding for Team Columbia, emerged alone approaching the three 2.1-mile finishing circuits. The Toronto native completed the 152.95-kilometre race from Lebanon to Rolla with a 46-second margin in three hours, 16 minutes, three seconds.

The new leader of USA Track and Field analyzed the team’s underwhelming performance at the Beijing Olympics – including dropped batons and a record-low men’s gold medal count – and judged the federation’s overall performance to be “seriously deficient.” After watching both U.S. relay teams drop the baton in the 400-metre preliminaries and seeing the U.S. men win only four gold medals, CEO Doug Logan has decided to form a panel of former athletes and coaches to analyze USATF’s high performance programs. “This will probably be an uncomfortable exercise,” Logan wrote Tuesday in his blog on the USATF website. “But, this is not a ‘knee jerk’ reaction, or a ‘witch hunt,’ or an attempt to castigate anyone. Indeed, this panel may determine that the factors leading to less-than-optimal performance were beyond anyone’s control.”

The Americans took home 23 medals from Beijing – most of any country – but the results were still disappointing on many levels.

Everyone is chasing Usain Bolt.

The world’s fastest man is in high demand, the latest invitations coming from David Letterman and the Real Madrid soccer team.

STUTTGART, Germany – Asafa Powell will get another shot at regaining the world record in the 100 metres at the World Athletics Final this weekend.

After five races in eight days, however, Powell may not have enough left to challenge his Jamaican countryman Usain Bolt’s 9.69-second mark set at the Beijing Olympics.

BEIJING – For 14 years Steven Daniel viewed life through a soldier’s eyes.

The Sudbury, Ont., native sees things a lot differently since a parachuting accident left him in a wheelchair and rearranged his priorities.

BEIJING – Canadian swimmer Stephanie Dixon won her second medal at the Paralympic Games on Thursday, finishing runner-up to Natalie du Toit in the SM9 200 metres.

The Victoria resident finished more than nine seconds behind the South African swimming machine who picked up her third gold of the Paralympics after competing at the Olympic Games.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Magic forward Pat Garrity is retiring from the NBA.

Garrity played 10 pro seasons – nine with the Magic – after spending his rookie year with the Phoenix Suns. He appeared in 513 games for Orlando, second most in franchise history.

LONDON – Manchester United is expected to unveil its new strike force of Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney this weekend, and it couldn’t come at a better time for the defending champions as they travel to fierce rival Liverpool.

Liverpool, which plays United on Saturday (7:45 a.m. ET), is level on points with early leader Chelsea, which is at Manchester City in another of the day’s eight matches.

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Stefan Schumacher of Germany has joined the Quick Step team of world champion Paolo Bettini and sprint ace Tom Boonen, the team said Thursday.

Schumacher finished third in last year’s world championship and won two stages in the Tour de France this year. He is an expert time-trial rider and has good climbing abilities that serve him well in the hilly, one-day classics.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The Swedish wrestler stripped of his bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics for protesting during the medal ceremony filed an appeal Thursday with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Ara Abrahamian, who was disqualified from the games after the protest, asked the top court in international sports to downgrade his punishment to a warning. CAS said it would rule within four months.

CHICAGO – The Toronto Bue Jays’ 10-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday thanks to Chicago White Sox veterans Mark Buehrle and A.J. Pierzynski.

Buehrle outpitched Toronto’s Roy Halladay and Pierzynski had three RBIs against the Blue Jays ace as the White Sox won 6-5 to stay one game ahead of Minnesota in the AL Central. “I’ve never had a loss that wasn’t frustrating,” said Halladay, who’d won five in a row. He lasted six innings, giving up nine hits and five runs.

BEIJING – A pair of powerlifters caught using banned substances Thursday increased to four the number of athletes found guilty of doping violations at the Paralympic Games.

Fracourou Sissoko of Mali and Liudmyla Osmanova of Ukraine both failed drug tests, the International Paralympic Committee said in a release.

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from: ckwstv.com

The South African double-amputee Oscar Pistorius won the 100 meters Tuesday at the Paralympic Games, though he missed his objective of beating his own world record time.

Pistorius, nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs, finished in 11.17 seconds at the Bird’s Nest stadium, about a quarter of a second slower than his world mark of 10.91 set last year.

Pistorius surged past Jerome Singleton of the United States in the closing stages to take the title in the T44 class, with another American, Brian Frasure, coming in third.

Marlon Shirley also of the United States fell down during the race. Pistorius is also hoping to win gold medals in the 200 and 400 meters.

“Regardless of what the time was, I’m really happy,” Pistorius, 21, told reporters.

Pistorius was born without his fibula, the smaller of the two bones in the lower legs, and when he was 11 months old both limbs were amputated below the knee. He took up running as a teenager to recover from a rugby injury and has broken more than 20 Paralympic world marks. He holds world records in his category for the 100, 200 and 400 sprints and won the 200 at the Athens Paralympics in 2004.
The International Association of Athletics Federations, track’s ruling body, ruled that Pistorius’s J-shaped carbon fiber blades gave him an advantage and barred him from competing against able-bodied athletes. In May, he won a ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that overturned the ban.

But he failed to make the Olympic qualifying standard for the 400-meter individual sprint. The South African Olympic Committee bypassed him for its 1,600-meter relay team for the Beijing Games.

Also Tuesday, Paralympics organizers annulled a track result and ordered the winner to return her medal after upholding a protest over the race, in which six wheelchair athletes fell and one was taken to the hospital.

A crash during the final lap of the women’s T54 class 5,000 meters on Monday night resulted in just five of the 11 racers finishing. Diane Roy of Canada was asked Tuesday to give her gold medal back as organizers rescheduled the race for Sept. 12.

Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland, whose fall produced a domino effect at the Bird’s Nest stadium, was disqualified from the rerun, organizers said.

Japan’s Wakako Tsuchida was taken to the hospital for X-rays but had no broken bones, said Peng Mingqiang, the medical services manager at the stadium.

The annulment was declared after Australia’s team said their racer Christie Dawes had been obstructed. A U.S. protest about another incident wasn’t heard, nor was an objection by the Swiss team about officials blocking racers in the last 50 meters as they tried to help the injured, Cohen said.

from: iht.com

Result of paralympic women’s 5000m race withdrawn after wheelchair crash

The result of the women’s 5000m T54 race of the Beijing Paralympics was withdrawn and a re-run was ordered after the race was marred by a crash, organizers said on Monday.
Switzerland’s Hunkeler Edith was disqualified and the Jury of Appeal.
Appeal has ordered the re-run of the race to be held on Sept. 12, according to a brief statement on the Beijing Paralympic website.
But the statement did not give further details.
An official from the organization committee said the Jury of Appeal made the decision after some competitors filed appeal.
The crash of athlete’s wheelchairs in Monday’s women’s 5000m race led to the injury of three athletes.
Only five out of the 11 competitors finished the race. Diane Roy of Canada ended first.

A country often criticized for a long history of shunning people with a disability put on a dramatic show Saturday designed to demonstrate the idea that all life should be valued.
In the packed 91,000-seat National Stadium, on a muggy, sweat-inducing night, the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Paralympic Games began with a thunderous fireworks display over the open air roof of the stadium, which is more commonly known as the Bird’s Nest for its massive steel lattice exterior.
The 50-minute performance included the impeccably co-ordinated dance and theatrical movements that have become such a traditional part of opening ceremonies. But it also included a blind singer, a blind pianist playing his own composition, 300 white-dress-clad deaf girls doing a sign language dance, and 12-year-old ballet student Li Yue, who lost her left leg in the Sichuan earthquake earlier this year, but who “never gives up her pursuit of dreams.”
In a moving scene, the young girl – wearing a white ballet dress and seated on a wheelchair surrounded by several kneeling dancers – slipped a red ballet shoe onto her right foot and did an extended arm dance. At the end of the performance, a male ballet dancer put her on his shoulder for a brief twirl then held her by her hips as she stood on her one leg on the seat of her chair.
Liu Qi, president of the Beijing organizing committee, told the crowd that the Games “educate people to the power of love, and encourage people to devote more understanding, respect and support to people with a disability.”
Eleven days of competition in 20 sports – from traditional able-bodied ones like swimming, track and cycling to Paralympic-specific disciplines such as goalball, wheelchair rugby and boccia – begin on Sunday. Nearly all the events take place at the same venues used for the Olympics.
Unlike the Olympic opening ceremonies, where the athletes parade comes at the end of the show, the 4,000 Paralympians from 148 countries and regions came into the stadium shortly after the pyrotechnics had ended.
It was also a 90-minute parade that had a much different look than the Olympic one. While some of the athletes walked in, others rolled in on wheelchairs – some under their own arm power, others with team officials or volunteers pushing from behind. Some athletes used prosthesis or crutches, while many of the visually impaired were assisted in by team officials, parents, friends or guide dogs.
Canada’s red-and-white clad, 144-strong contingent was led by flag-bearer Donovan Tildesley, a charismatic blind swimmer from Vancouver.
The three-time Paralympian was decked out in HBC-designed wear, including a red vest with a big maple leaf on the back, and had his father, Hugh, at his side.
Several of the beaming Canadians, many of them holding up video recorders, were waving small maple leaf flags and gesturing animatedly to family and other Canadian supporters in the crowd.
China, with one-armed swimmer Wang Xiao Fu as its flag-bearer, had the biggest contingent, with a record 322 athletes. The blue jacket-clad athletes drew raucous cheers from the crowd when they entered the stadium as the final country.
After the athletes from each country paraded in, they were seated in the lower front rows of the stands and on the stadium floor to watch the three-hour program that ended with six Chinese Paralympians doing a torch run around the stadium before it was handed to athletics gold medallist Hou Bin.
With the torch attached to his wheelchair, which was linked to a cable, Hou pulled himself hand over hand at least 100 metres to the top of the stadium to light the Games cauldron.
While several seating areas were set aside in the stands for spectators in wheelchairs, China hasn’t always been so accommodating of its estimated 83 million people with a disability. Observers who had been to Beijing earlier in the year noted that the disabled beggars seen on the street back then had since disappeared, apparently told to go to – or escorted back to – their villages.
Over the last two weeks in places like Suzhou, just northwest of Shanghai, and in the old capital of Xi’an, several hundred kilometres from Beijing, beggars who literally dragged themselves along sidewalks with sticks could be seen rattling cups looking for change.
“In terms of tolerance and understanding, not everybody understands the need of people with disabilities,” Wang Wei, executive vice-president and secretary general of the Beijing organizing committee, told a news conference on Friday. “It is a process. China is a developing country.”
In the media briefing notes for the opening ceremony, the performance was described as an elaborate interpretation of the idea that “all life has value, all life has dignity, all life has dream.”
Executive artistic director Zhang Jigang said he often remembers a blind man playing a bowed string instrument on a small street in his hometown.
“(He) has never seen this world, but he lighted up the coziness and beauty of a city with his music,” said Zhang. “Maybe this is the value and dignity of life. Tonight, we also open a door, light a lamp and brighten a road for everyone to transcend space and time and pursue more brilliant dreams.”

from: canada.com