vancouver olympics Times – Sports Daily

Pressure on the United States Olympic Committee to renegotiate its existing revenue-sharing agreement with the International Olympic Committee rose to another level when an angry group of Olympic leaders voted to terminate the contract and renegotiate a new one.
The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations passed a non-binding resolution on Tuesday to end the U.S.O.C.’s current open-ended contract that agreement gives the United States 20 percent of the I.O.C.’s global sponsorship revenue — the same amount as all the other Olympic committees, combined — and 12.75 percent of the television revenue.
“The greed of this organization is unlimited. Totally unlimited,” Hein Verbruggen, the former chief of the International Cycling Union and an honorary I.O.C. member, said to The Associated Press. “It infuriates everybody and especially me.”
The international federations are meeting this week in Denver at a gathering called Sportaccord. Verbruggen is its chairman.
“The way they treat us, there’s no respect, no respect at all,” Verbruggen said. “It’s infuriating. I have no other words.”
The U.S.O.C., however, has emphasized that the United States generates a big chunk of the I.O.C. revenues and that U.S.-based companies provide most of the sponsorship money. The United States television contract is also far more lucrative than in any other country. To televise last year’s Beijing Games, NBC paid about $894 million. The European Broadcasting Union paid about $443.5 million. Chinese television networks paid about $7 million.
“We’re looking for a long-term solution, and it’s probably not best to do it in an emotional or pressure environment,” Bob Ctvrtlik, the U.S.O.C.’s vice chairman for international relations, told The Associated Press. “It’s not easy. It is complicated. I think we need to do that in a nice, calm manner.”
The impassioned debate comes at a delicate time for the U.S.O.C., with the bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016 ramping up. The vote on which city will host those Games is scheduled for October.
An I.O.C. evaluation commission will visit Chicago in early April. It will also visit the other three cities vying for the Games, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
Both sides in the revenue-sharing tiff deny that the Chicago bid would be affected by the revenue disagreement, which is not expected to be resolved this week.
Chicago 2016 chairman Pat Ryan said that the disagreement has nothing to do with the bid.
Even so, Verbruggen said: “I like the guys in Chicago. I really like Pat Ryan. I’d think they might be embarrassed with this whole thing.”

Female Ski Jumpers Ask to Meet With I.O.C. President
A group of international female ski jumpers have asked the I.O.C. president, Jacques Rogge, to meet with their representatives in Denver this week, in hopes of convincing the committee to allow female ski jumpers into the 2010 Games. In a 2006 decision, the I.O.C. barred women from participating in the sport at the Vancouver Olympics.
The athletes said that participation in their sport was growing quickly, outpacing several other Winter Games sports.
“We’re ready,” Lindsey Van, a world champion and American national team member, said in a statement. “Our sport has developed incredibly in the three years since that decision, and we would really appreciate the opportunity to tell our story to him personally.”
Fifteen female ski jumpers, including Van, have brought a lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympics organizing committee, citing gender discrimination. A hearing is scheduled for April 20 in British Columbia Supreme Court.

source: nytimes.com

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Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi wants South Africa to stage the tournament, BBC Sport understands.
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The top U.S. military official said Sunday that Iran has sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon, declaring it would be a “very, very bad outcome” should Tehran move forward with a bomb.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered the assessment when questioned in a broadcast interview about a recent report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog on the state of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which can create nuclear fuel and may be sufficiently advanced to produce the core of warheads.
Mullen was asked if Iran now had enough fissile material to make a bomb. He responded, “We think they do, quite frankly. And Iran having a nuclear weapon I’ve believed for a long time is a very, very bad outcome for the region and for the world.”
State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said Sunday that it was not possible say how much fissile material Iran has accumulated.
“There are differing view not only outside government but also inside the government” on how far Iran has gone, Wood said. He added that while he was not suggesting Mullen was incorrect, “We just don’t know” exactly how much fissile material Iran now holds.
“We are concerned they are getting close” to having enough to build a nuclear weapon, he added. Wood spoke to reporters traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Egypt.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has processed 2,222 pounds (1,010 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium. But the report left unclear whether Iran is now capable, even if it wanted, of further processing that material into a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium to arm one weapon.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who like Mullen appeared on the Sunday talk shows, did not go as far as Mullen. The Iranians, Gates said, are “not close to a weapon at this point and so there is some time” for continued diplomatic efforts.

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President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama charted a dramatic new course for the nation Thursday with a bold but contentious budget proposing higher taxes for the wealthy and the first steps toward guaranteed health care for all — accompanied by an astonishing $1.75 trillion federal deficit that would be nearly four times the highest in history.
Denouncing what he called the “dishonest accounting” of recent federal budgets, Obama unveiled his own $3.6 trillion blueprint for next year, a bold proposal that would transfer wealth from rich taxpayers to the middle class and the poor.
Congressional approval without major change is anything but sure. The plan is filled with political land mines including an initiative to combat global warming that would hit consumers with considerably higher utility bills. Other proposals would take on entrenched interests such as big farming, insurance companies and drug makers.
Obama blamed the expected federal deficit explosion on a “deep and destructive” recession and recent efforts to battle it including the Wall Street bailout and the just-passed $787 billion stimulus plan. The $1.75 trillion deficit estimate for this year is $250 billion more than projected just days ago because of proposed new spending for a fresh bailout for banks and other financial institutions.
As the nation digs out of the most serious economic crisis in decades, Obama said, “We will, each and every one of us, have to compromise on certain things we care about but which we simply cannot afford right now.”
Signaling budget battles to come, Republicans were skeptical Obama was doing without much at all.
“We can’t tax and spend our way to prosperity,” said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio. “The era of big government is back, and Democrats are asking you to pay for it.”
Obama plans to move aggressively toward rebalancing the tax system, extending a $400 tax credit for most workers — $800 for couples — while letting expire President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for couples making more than $250,000 a year. That would raise the top income tax bracket from 35 percent to 39.6 percent for those taxpayers and raise their capital gains rate from 15 to 20 percent as well.
Thursday’s 134-page budget submission, a nonbinding recommendation to Congress, says the plan would close the deficit to a a more reasonable — but still eye-popping — $533 billion after five years. That would still be higher than last year’s record $455 billion deficit.
And the national debt would more than double by the end of the upcoming decade, raising worries that so much federal borrowing could drive up interest rates and erode the value of the dollar.
Also, to narrow the budget gap, Obama relies on rosier predictions of economic growth — including a 3.2 percent boost in the economy next year — than most private sector economists foresee.

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With their venue plans now having received the necessary approvals from the 26 international sports federations, Chicago 2016 bid officials now can focus entirely on the issue that will have the greatest impact on their chances to win the Summer Games.

Money.

But the thorniest part of that issue is out of their hands.
It will be up to Chicago 2016 to do two things:

1.) Convince International Olympic Committee members that it has sufficient guarantees to cover operating expenses in case of possible shortfalls in projected revenues – especially if the recession drags on.

2.) Convince the same members, who will choose the 2016 host at an Oct. 2 vote in Denmark, that it can find developers willing to build a $1-billion Olympic Village just south of downtown Chicago.

Given the financial problems that have hit village plans for both the 2010 Winter Games and 2012 Summer Games, the IOC wants as much certainty as possible from all four candidates, despite – or because of – the global recession.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee must resolve the hot-button financial issue, the ongoing dispute over the USOC share of global sponsorship revenues and U.S. broadcast rights.
USOC chairman Larry Probst, who took over that position from Peter Ueberroth in October, traveled this week to Lausanne, Switzerland, to introduce himself personally to IOC president Jacques Rogge and officials of several international federations that also have headquarters in Lausanne.
The revenue issue apparently was not discussed during Probst’s trip, described as a “meet-and-greet” by someone familiar with its purpose.
Exactly what role Probst is playing in the interminable USOC-IOC negotiations on the matter is unclear.

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Preparations for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) gained
further momentum at the end of the year with the launch of two new programmes: the Olympic Education Programme (OEP) and Friends@YOG. “Since Singapore won the bid to host the 2010 YOG, our schools have been actively organising various activities to intensify the YOG buzz. These two new initiatives will further lay the foundation for a successful and memorable YOG event in 2010”, said IOC member and Chairman of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) Ser Miang Ng at the launch ceremony.

Friends@YOG
Under “Friends@YOG”, each of the 360 Singapore schools will be “twinned” with one of
the 205 National Olympic Committees.” It will be a fun and exciting learning journey for our students as they cultivate a global mindset through the forging of international friendships, learning about other countries’ cultures and developing respect for cultural diversity”, underlined Ser Miang Ng.

Friends@YOG aims to achieve the objectives of:
• building international friendship through collaboration and cultural exchanges among young people;
• promulgating the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect;
• cultivating among young people a global outlook, a passion for sport and good
habits that are part of a healthy lifestyle.

Olympic Education Programme
With the launch of the Olympic Education Programme (OEP), youngsters in Singapore will have more opportunities to experience and embrace the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. They will also get to better understand the diverse cultures of the world. All schools will receive the specially designed “Living Olympism” Education Resource Package as part of the associated teaching materials. Teachers can draw on the various interesting ideas in the package to develop innovative learning activities for students to acquire knowledge about the Olympic Games and understand the Olympic spirit in a fun way.

source: olympic.org

Lawmakers are under orders to finish action on President-elect Barack Obama’s nearly $800 billion economic recovery plan by mid-February. But already it is plain that a set of serious fissures need to be bridged if the bill is to be completed within five weeks.
Obama urged Congress on Thursday to “act boldly and act now” to fix an economy growing perilously weaker, even as top Democrats said they dislike key provisions, especially the design of his tax cuts.
Democrats such as Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad complained openly that many of the incoming administration’s proposed tax cuts wouldn’t work. Republicans warned against excessive new spending, with both parties signaling the incoming president they intend to place their own stamp on the economic recovery effort.
Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., also staked a firm position against using the economic recovery plan for permanent spending increases, opening a split with House Democrats hoping to use the plan to broaden eligibility for unemployment insurance and boost education spending.

galleria fotografica Giappone

“Doing things that would have a permanent effect when we face trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see is just unwise,” Conrad said.
A call for a $3,000 tax break for job creation drew particular criticism in a closed-door meeting, and numerous lawmakers said Obama had not ticketed enough of his tax proposal for energy.
But there was little or no dispute about the need for action, and Obama’s remarks coincided with a pair of government reports showing fresh weakness in an economy already in recession. An updated reading on unemployment was expected to bring even more bad news on Friday.
“If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years,” with unemployment reaching double digits, Obama said in a speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. “A bad situation could become dramatically worse.”

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The competition pool for a Chicago Olympics would last about as long as a swimming world record does these days.

Chicago 2016 organizers unveiled several venue changes Friday that they say will benefit athletes and the community, and make their bid more attractive in the highly competitive international field. In addition to moving the aquatic center and making the competition pool a temporary facility, the sailing, canoe/kayaking, track cycling and BMX cycling venues all will be moved under Chicago’s retooled bid plan.

“We worked very closely with international sports federations and national governing bodies,” said Doug Arnot, Chicago 2016’s operations chief. “This plan is better for sport, better for the games and, perhaps most importantly, better for Chicago’s youth sports legacy. This plan remains very financially responsible.”

The changes will add about 5% to the budget, which remains at $4.7 billion, Chicago 2016 chairman Patrick Ryan said. That’s a bargain compared with other Summer Games; London estimates its overall costs for the 2012 Olympics will be about $16.5 billion, three times the original estimate.

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The economic crisis has forced the U.S. Olympic Committee to cut its administrative costs by 10 percent in 2009, although athletes will see their funding increased by the same amount a year ahead of the 2010 Winter Games.

The proposed 2009 budget will be presented to the USOC board on Saturday, when new chairman Larry Probst runs his first meeting since succeeding Peter Ueberroth in October.

The USOC hopes to reduce its 450-member staff through attrition and by not filling open positions, chief executive Jim Scherr said Friday. He would not provide a specific number of positions to be cut.

Staff travel, meetings and professional training also will be curtailed to achieve the necessary cost reduction, USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said.

“We’re also looking at a reorganization throughout the U.S. Olympic Committee to make us more effective and that reorganization will result in a few less people,” Scherr said.

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The first venue for the 2012 London Olympic Games is complete and ready for competition more than three years out from the event.
The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) is the venue for the sailing events at the Games, and it has had extensive renovations including a new slipway to cater for the competition.

The project cost was approximately $23m –which was under the budget, and it was also finished ahead of the planned schedule.

As well as hosting the ten events at the Olympics, Weymouth and Portland will also be the venue for Paralympic sailing — playing host to about 400 athletes.

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The families of British athletes competing at the London Olympics will be guaranteed tickets after a landmark agreement yesterday between Games organisers and the British Olympic Association (BOA).

Further discussions will be held in the next fortnight on the number to be provided from the national allocation in an effort to avoid forcing the parents and siblings of Olympic competitors on to the black market.

The agreement, struck on the eve of completion of the first official Games venue in Weymouth today, is a response to problems over ticket allocation in China. The squeeze on supply led the parents of Rebecca Adlington, the double Olympic swimming champion, to a rogue website where they were conned out of £1,100. Five people behind the widespread scam were arrested this week by serious fraud investigators.

The small velodrome meant that key members of the British cycling set-up could not get access; the parents of Chris Hoy, the triple gold medal-winner, watched their son perform only after receiving last-minute tickets from a sponsor. The demand in London is expected to be even greater.
“Our first priority is an allocation of tickets to the athletes,” Colin Moynihan, the BOA chairman, said. “The principle has been agreed. The athletes have given their lives to be members of Team GB and their family should be given the opportunity of enjoying the Games around them.” The ticketing issue was hotly discussed at a formal Beijing debrief in London this week. The organisers want to avoid an embarrassing repeat of empty seats in Beijing that occurred despite its billing as the first sold-out Games.

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More than 800 firms have won £3.5bn of work in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics, it has been revealed.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said the majority are small and medium-sized businesses and 98% are UK-based.
The firms are building the venues and infrastructure for the Games, to take place in Stratford, east London.
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said: “These figures are yet more proof that London 2012 is a golden opportunity at a time of economic need.”
The Olympic site will include an 80,000-seat stadium, a 17,500-seat aquatics centre and 3,000-home Olympic Village.
‘Increase competitiveness’
The ODA said 54% of the 801 firms working on contracts awarded so far were based in London.
It added that 12% of the work was being carried out by firms based in the Olympics host boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham and Waltham Forest.

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The IOC are growing increasingly frustrated at Britain’s refusal to introduce legislation to outlaw the possession, supply and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.

Their stance leaves them out of step with other European countries such as Sweden, France, Italy, Greece and Germany where anti-doping laws mean athletes and their suppliers can go to jail.

Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the IOC’s medical commission, said he would be pressing for a change in the British law, which would be an important legacy of the 2012 Olympics.

The subject will be raised by the IOC when Olympic host and bidding cities gather in London later this month for a post-Beijing debrief.

The IOC are considering making it a condition of bidding for future Olympic Games that candidate countries have anti-doping laws. In the meantime, just as the Chinese authorities were persuaded to introduce new legislation in the run-up to this summer’s Games, Britain will be under pressure to fall into line.

Ljungqvist, who is also a board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said: “I think legislation is very important that criminalises certain offences as detailed in the WADA code because it allows public authorities to intervene where we cannot.

“We as sports authorities have our limited possibilities regulated by our code. We can do testing but we cannot do searches.”

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City of Vancouver officials played down suggestions Thursday that its $1-billion Olympic athletes’ village being built in the southeast False Creek area may be at risk. But they would not reveal what went on in a closed council meeting about the project in October.

They refused to confirm reports that the city has agreed to loan Millennium Development Corp. or its financial backer, Fortress Investment Group, up to $100 million in addition to the $190 million the city had already offered as a loan guarantee to make sure the 1,100-unit project is built in time for the 2010 Winter Games.

The new deal, apparently approved in a tightly scripted in camera meeting Oct. 14, was confirmed by Sun columnist Miro Cernetig after it was first reported by a national newspaper, which also claimed the city’s longtime finance director, Estelle Lo, had resigned over concerns about the city’s financial exposure on the project.
Mayor Sam Sullivan, Coun. Peter Ladner and other elected politicians who attended the in-camera meeting all refused to discuss it, citing confidentiality rules. However, both the mayor and Ladner, who is running under the Non-Partisan Association banner to replace Sullivan, said Lo continued to work for the city and that she had never expressed to them or to council as a whole, any concern over financing for the village project.

“She has not quit and continues to work for the city,” Sullivan said. He said he would have been told by city manager Judy Rogers if Lo had resigned, and instead had been assured that “she is still on the city’s payroll.”

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GE, a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games, is kicking off a number of new marketing and sales efforts in advance of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and London 2012 Olympic Games.
For the London 2012 Olympic Games, GE has launched a ground-breaking moving image campaign on the side of London taxi cabs featuring a technique known as ‘motion lenticular technology’, never before used on the exterior of a taxi cab. The campaign, which runs until February 2009, features 300 London cabs displaying the new Olympic Games designs as side panels. Two creative executions have been developed – one that depicts an Olympic hurdler, the other a cyclist. As a result of the printing technology used, as the cab moves along the streets, the images appear to be animated.

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In the wake of Beijing’s Olympics, London is preparing for what will be the most demanding multimedia Olympics ever in 2012.

The U.K.’s home broadcaster, the BBC, and operator BT are among the many stakeholders figuring out how to provide for a record amount of coverage for the Games as well as build a massive IP (Internet Protocol) network to support broadcasters and journalists from around the world.

The BBC has seen exponential growth in interest in Web-based Olympics coverage, said Ben Gallop, head of interactive for BBC Sport. Gallop was one of several presenters at a forum on Thursday discussing media technology for the 2012 Olympics.

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Cheating athletes who evaded detection during the Olympic Games in Beijing will only know if they got away with it in eight years’ time.
Jacques Rogge, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee, which has a statute of limitations on results of eight years, said that the urine and blood samples taken from competitors in Beijing can be repeatedly tested until 2016 as scientists develop new methods of analysis.
The process has already started, with 5,000 samples shipped from Beijing to Lausanne so that they can be tested for Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, or Cera, a new generation of the blood-booster drug, EPO discovered recently in the urine of cyclists on this summer’s Tour de France.
Rogge said: “This is the first stage of retroactive testing.
“We are going to keep, to preserve the urine and the blood for eight years.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday is to put one of his most trusted troubleshooters in charge of preparations to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a project that could be hit by the global financial crisis.
Medvedev will soon sign a document promoting Dmitry Kozak, who until now has been minister for regional development, to the post of deputy prime minister overseeing the Games, the Kremlin press service said.
Kozak, 49, graduated from the same university as Medvedev and the two men have been close associates for years. Kozak’s previous jobs included that of the Kremlin envoy in the turbulent North Caucasus region.
Kozak warned last week that the global crisis might affect Moscow’s preparations to host the Olympics, which are to take place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Russia has pledged to spend $12 billion on developing Sochi for the Games, of which $7 million will be public funding and the rest from private sources. Much of the infrastructure for the Olympics will have to be built from scratch.

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