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Organisers of the Sydney Olympics admit they did not do enough to secure long term spin-offs from the Games.

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SYDNEY – Australia is set to host the 2015 Asian Cup finals after presenting its bid to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur Thursday.

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SYDNEY: A six-man delegation of Fifa inspectors arrived here today to examine the credentials of Australias bid to host the 2022 World Cup. The team, led by Chilean Football Federation president Harold Mayne-Nicholls, was treated to a traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony welcome on the Sydney Opera House forecourt on the opening day of their three-day visit, Football Federation Australia …

Originally posted here: Fifa team arrive to inspect Australia’s World Cup bid

FIFA delegates have touched down in Sydney to run the rule over Australia’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

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He has hardly touched a football in eight months – but former English Premier League and Sydney FC star Dwight Yorke is adamant he won’t let anyone down in the one-off clash with Everton this weekend.

Link: Football: Yorke won’t let down

Allegations in the Sydney Morning Telegraph quote documents from Football Federation Australia that also detail payments of up to £6.4million to consultants if the bid for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup is successful. …

Visit link: FIFA To Investigate Football Federation Australia Over Bribe …

SYDNEY – Australia has emerged as one of the favourites to host the 2022 football World Cup after the Football Federation Australia (FFA) decided to drop the 2018 bid.

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The International Olympic Committee is no stranger to tough decisions. It took the risk of sending the games to Beijing and said “No” to New York in the aftermath of 9/11. Yet, despite all of that accumulated experience, some IOC members are struggling with their latest conundrum: choosing the Olympic host for 2016.
Just two days ahead of the vote, many were undecided.
And that means two things—it’s still too close to call between Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid and, for the next couple of days, IOC members are going to feel that they are the most popular people on the planet. Everyone in Copenhagen, where they are gathered, seemingly wants to be their new best friend.
Want to meet Michelle Obama? Not a problem if you’re an IOC member who needs a little pointer on which way to vote. The first lady, beating her husband to the Danish capital, has a two-room suite in the IOC hotel, with homely white leather furniture and an interactive table that, at the touch of a hand, gives bird’s eye views of how a Chicago Olympics might look.
Mrs Obama arrived Wednesday, two days ahead of the U.S. leader, and got straight to work on impressing IOC members.
“We’re not taking anything for granted, so I’m going to go talk to some voters,” she said.
IOC members who have been through this selection process repeatedly, previously sending the games to London, Beijing, Athens and Sydney, told The Associated Press that they could not remember a tougher choice. The AP canvassed the opinions of a dozen IOC members. With all four cities seen as amply capable, technically at least, of holding the Olympics, they said much will ride on how well or badly the cities make their case in final 45-minute presentations to the IOC on Friday before the successive rounds of secret balloting.
“I have two favorites,” IOC member Nicole Hoevertsz said. “It’s going to come down to the last, last presentation. It’s going to come down to the last minute.”
As tension mounted, so did tempers. Despite fresh IOC warnings that the cities should avoid criticizing their rivals, the Spanish Olympic Committee’s vice president, Jose Maria Odriozola, told the national Efe news agency that “Rio is the worst bid.”
Rio bid organizers said the criticism was “totally unacceptable” and formally complained to the IOC.
The outcome Friday could hinge on which cities are eliminated first and, if and when their favorites are knocked out, how IOC members subsequently line up behind the other candidates. That makes predicting a winner perilous and means that even members who say they already have made their choice are still worth lobbying.
“It is difficult enough to know where the first-round votes are going to go, so trying to imagine where the swinging votes are going to go is impossible,” said Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, whose father served as IOC president for 21 years.
“Events in the next 48 hours will decide the winner, because they will have a significant influence on the second- and third-round votes,” he said.
Samaranch said he believes nearly all the IOC’s 106 members already have a favorite. But IOC vice president Chiharu Igaya said “many” members are undecided.
Added British IOC member Craig Reedie: “This is really close. The closer it gets the more people will say, let me think about it. We all want to see the presentations. It’s what people see that will count. Decided? No, I haven’t actually. I’m getting close.”
Late, high-powered lobbying can be important—as then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, proved when London campaigned successfully for the 2012 Olympics. Blair traveled to Singapore ahead of the vote and spent two days lobbying members, inviting them to his hotel suite for one-on-one meetings.
Chicago tore a leaf from Blair’s playbook: Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett met with him last week to solicit his advice and get tips on navigating the IOC voting process.
But for the first time, there are no IOC executive board meetings in the days leading up to the vote. That means less opportunity for schmoozing.
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England must score 167 to win the Women’s World Cup after bowling New Zealand out for 166 in the final in Sydney.
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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Tiger Woods will make his first appearance Down Under in over a decade after the world number one agreed to play at this year’s Australian Masters.

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IOC president Jacques Rogge foresees no immediate threat to the Olympics from the global financial crisis and says the fight against doping will be a key priority for a second term in office.

Rogge, a 66-year-old Belgian who has led the International Olympic Committee since 2001, notified members last Friday that he will seek re-election next October for a final four-year term that will take him to 2013.

He spoke in a telephone interview with The Associated Press ahead of a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday where he publicly announced his candidacy for another term at the helm of the IOC.

No challengers are expected and Rogge’s re-election is considered a formality at the October 2009 assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Equestrian rider Rodrigo Pessoa has been stripped of his fifth-place finish at the Beijing Olympics and banned from competing for 4 1/2 months after a positive drug test on his horse.

The sport’s governing body Friday also fined the 36-year-old Brazilian $1,766. He is suspended until Jan. 10, 2009.

Pessoa’s horse Rufus tested positive Aug. 23 for nonivamide, a banned pain-relieving medication.

They placed fifth in the individual jumping final. Pessoa lost in a jump-off for the bronze medal won by Beezie Madden of the United States.

Pessoa was defending the individual title he won at Athens in 2004. He also won bronze medals for Brazil in team jumping at Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.

from: ap.google.com

The International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) have concluded their five week investigation into the scrutinised ages of the Chinese gold medal-winning gymnastics team at the Beijing Games, however doubts continue to shroud their participation at Sydney in 2000.

Due to concerns about the wellbeing of young gymnasts, whose bodies are under huge stress when they reach the elite level, the FIG introduced a ruling in 1997 stating that athletes had to turn 16 during an Olympic year in order to compete at the Games.

Questions were raised throughout the Games about China’s squad of gymnasts with many critics suggesting some of the girls were as young as 14.

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The selected host city for the 31st Olympic Games in 2016 will be announced tomorrow (Thursday) at an IOC meeting in Copenhagen. There are currently four cities competing to host what is one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world.

Chicago (USA) is the favourite to win the rights to host the 2016 Games, followed by Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Madrid (Spain) and Tokyo (Japan).

The other cities on the shortlist were Prague (Czech Republic), Baku (Azerbaijan), and Doha (Qatar), however they have now been eliminated.

Hosting the Olympic Games is likely to have a positive impact on the winning nation’s property market. Average property prices in the run-up the Olympic Games in the last five host cities – Beijing (China), Athens (Greece), Barcelona (Spain), Atlanta (USA) and Sydney (Australia) – appreciated at a significant pace, outstripping average national property price growth.

source: homesoverseas.co.uk

The London Olympic Games budget will break through the 10 billion ($A22 billion) barrier, largely because officials have ”vastly underestimated” the cost of protecting the event from terrorists, The Independent on Sunday has revealed.

Security costs for the 2012 Games were now likely to reach $A3.3 billion nearly three times the original estimate, a senior official involved in planning the event said.

The army was to be drafted to help protect athletes and spectators from an atrocity, the official revealed. Military helicopters would patrol overhead and jets would be on standby to intercept any suspect private plane heading for the main Olympic stadium in east London. Under Treasury rules, the Ministry of Defence would charge the Olympic authorities for such a deployment.

The security operation is expected to be the largest in peacetime Britain, with the two-week event classed in Whitehall as a major terrorist target. Yet detailed planning for policing and security has barely started.

Insiders said a price could not be put on preventing a large-scale terrorist attack on the main Olympic site or in London’s parks, where thousands will watch the events on giant TV screens.

The London bombings of July 7, 2005, took place the day after the capital celebrated winning the 2012 bid.

”It will cost whatever it takes to ensure terrorism does not once again try to rob London of celebrating the 2012 Games,” a source said.

The insider said security planning was ”basically starting from scratch. There are no detailed plans yet but of course it will cost far more, around 1.5 billion [$A3.3billion].”

Balancing security concerns with ensuring spectators can enjoy a friendly and open atmosphere in contrast to Beijing’s rigid controls is proving to be the greatest headache for organisers, alongside transport.

Officials want the experience of 2012 to be open and shared by all Londoners, with street parties similar to those in Sydney at the turn of the millennium. Giant video screens will be placed in Hyde Park and at other sites where events will take place.

In addition to police officers from Scotland Yard and other forces, tens of thousands of volunteers will be needed to check bags and tickets. Unmanned military planes, as used to monitor the Taliban in Afghanistan, could be deployed to monitor suspected terrorist aircraft.

The transport network is likely to carry 240,000 passengers an hour during the Games. Extra officers will be needed to identify suspected bombers, and stadiums will be built with special blast-proof material, including shatter-proof glass.

Officials from the Cabinet Office and the Home Office have been meeting regularly to discuss the operation.

If organisers are to keep to budget promises, cuts will have to be made elsewhere, such as in the construction of stadiums and the Olympic village to house 17,000 athletes, and in the funding of the 2012 ”legacy”, intended to promote sport in the community.

source: canberratimes.com.au

China’s gold medal gymnasts aren’t the only ones whose ages are getting a closer look.
The investigation into the eligibility of the Chinese women’s team in Beijing has been expanded to include members of the 2000 squad, which won the bronze medal in Sydney, The Associated Press has learned.
International gymnastics officials are examining whether Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao, in particular, were old enough to compete.
“If we had a look at all the articles that came before, during and after the games, there were always rumors about the ages of China’s athletes in Sydney,” Andre Gueisbuhler, secretary general of the International Gymnastics Federation, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
“We did not have another choice,” he said. “If we want to remain credible, then we have to look into things.”
No other Chinese teams are being looked at, Gueisbuhler said.
“At this moment in time, we just have concerns about 2000 and 2008,” he said.
The investigation is ongoing, a month after the Beijing Games ended, and there is no timetable for when it will be finished.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Emmanuelle Moreau, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee. “Until the work has been completed, there is nothing we can say.”
Yang’s age has long been an issue for debate.
In a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television, Yang said she was 14 at the Sydney Games.
Gymnastics rules require athletes to be 16 during an Olympic year in order to compete.
“At the time I was only 14,” she said in the interview, done in Chinese. “I thought that if I failed this time, I’ll do it again next time. There’s still hope.”
That interview, which has been widely reported, contradicts her official birthdate, which is listed as Dec. 2, 1984 and made her eligible for Sydney.
Dong’s birthdate is listed as Jan. 20, 1983, making her 17 at the time of the Sydney Games. Her blog, however, includes a reference to being born in 1985.
Yang is now engaged to Olympic all-around champion Yang Wei. Dong was a national technical official at the Beijing Olympics, serving as the secretary on vault. She was not part of any judging panel.
Kui Yuanyuan, Ling Jie, Liu Xuan and Huang Mandan were the other members of China’s 2000 squad.
Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 in an effort to protect young athletes, whose bodies are still developing, from serious injuries. Younger gymnasts are also thought to have an advantage because they are more flexible and are likely to have an easier time doing the tough skills the sport requires. They also aren’t as likely to have a fear of failure.
The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.
There were questions about the ages of China’s Beijing squad months before the games, with media reports and online records suggesting several of the gymnasts on the six-woman squad might be as young as 14.
In August, The Associated Press found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed He Kexin and Yang Yilin were too young to compete. A Nov. 3 story by the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, suggested He was only 14.
But Chinese officials insisted — repeatedly and heatedly — that all of its gymnasts were old enough, and they had not cheated their way to their first Olympic team gold. The FIG and IOC hoped the matter had been put to rest before the games, when the IOC said it had checked all of the girls’ passports and found them to be valid.
The controversy never went away, though, and the IOC announced three days before the games ended that it had asked the FIG to investigate one more time.
China turned over birth certificates, passports, ID cards and family residence permits for He, Yang, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan.
“The international federation has required the delivery of birth certificates and all the documents like family books, entries in schools and things like that,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said on the final day of the games. “They have received the documents, and at first sight it seems to be OK.”
If evidence of cheating is found, it could affect as many as four of the six medals the Chinese women won in Beijing. In addition to the team gold, He won gold on uneven bars and Yang got bronze medals on bars and in the all-around.
“We are waiting to hear the outcome of the IOC investigation just like everyone else,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics.

from: ap.google.com

There has never been a Paralympics that has not been hailed the best ever.

The first time I heard the phrase delivered “live” in the stadium was at Atlanta, which was almost certainly the worst ever.
On Wednesday evening in Beijing, President of the International Paralympic Committee Sir Phillip Craven did not let me down, delivering the mantra word for word.
So how does it stand up to the claim?
Let us do the pluses first, and there are plenty of them.
My own personal abiding memory of the Beijing games, the fourth I have attended, was the crowds.
Disabled athletes over the years have been used to performing at most of their meets to sparse crowds made of friends, family and other team members.
Even at the best of the games – Sydney – there was still an element of “rent-a-crowd” about the attendances.
Many of the audiences were almost entirely made up of children, allocated tickets en bloc as an educational exercise.
They were reminiscent of those schoolboy and schoolgirl hockey internationals that used to be staged at Wembley, where the pitch and decibel level of the cheering were excruciating.
Nothing like that in Beijing but many of the events were total, or almost total, sell-outs.
The Bird’s Nest stadium several times had its full complement of 91,000 spectators. The swimming events were full every night. Great attendances too at the basketball.
And when GB quadriplegic wheelchair tennis star Peter Norfolk was winning his gold in the singles, there were more people watching him than turned up to see Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the Olympics.
Perhaps people were benefiting from the fact that the Paralympic tickets were considerably cheaper than at the Olympics, and also yielding to a huge curiosity to get inside stadiums like the Bird’s Nest?
Another major plus was access. I am guided by the athletes here. I talked to many of them, and they all said the same – that facilities in the village, the stadiums and around the Olympic complex were second to none.
Libby Kosmala, a Paralympian attending her 11th games, said she thought that Beijing’s access was “faultless”.

Avoidable glitches
Now for a couple of minuses. These reflect as much on the nature of the games themselves, and their management by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), as they do on Beijing.
There were a number of foul-ups in the running of events trackside and poolside.
It has been hard to get to the bottom of what led to them, but they need to be sorted if the Paralympics is to take its place as a major sporting event.
For instance, two events were ordered to be re-run. One actually took place, the other re-run was cancelled after the objection was withdrawn.
But the re-run is an odd concept in all but the most extreme cases. To be honest, it smacks of patronising attitudes. Olympic gold medallist Steve Cram said he could not remember a re-run ever being ordered.
In one case a re-run was deemed necessary because of a crash, which led to a disqualification.
The disqualification was fair enough, but ordering a re-run because someone screws up smacks too much of the sports day “oh give them another go” attitude, which has no place in the Paralympics.
The other was caused by an administrative error, a wrong lane allocation. The protest about that should have happened before the race was ever run.
Both of these re-run decisions were reached after the medal ceremonies had taken place – so that athletes who had publicly been cheered suddenly found themselves deprived of that medal.
Whether it was miscommunication between the IPC and local organisers is not clear.
What is clear is that in terms of rigorous organisation, these games must look as professional as the Olympic counterparts they seek to be compared to.
Which leads me to the other matter that must be sorted out before London 2012 – classification.

A job well done
There has to be classification in Paralympic sport. The principle of grading people on the basis of their severity of disability, so that like competes with like, is essential. But classification must be managed better.
In these games, there were a number of examples of people being thrown out of events because they were felt to be less disabled than their classification allowed.
Clearly, if there is a blatant example of cheating, it must be dealt with. But the answer to that is not expulsion during the games, but a proper, independent and transparent programme of classification before the games ever begin.
If a competitor performs above the level which appears to be consistent with their disability, it should be dealt with after the games.
We cannot have a situation where doing particularly well, is regarded as a reason for re-classification within the games.
Classification is confusing enough for spectators, and I think in London there should be more attempts to explain it to crowds.
What happened here is likely to lower the reputation of the games, which on the whole is rising exponentially.
The Beijing games have done plenty to continue that process, and they should be congratulated on that.
They should also be congratulated on changes to the environment which will provide a permanent legacy for disabled Beijingers for the future.
It seems impossible to think that the exposure of huge numbers of people to disabled athletes performing extraordinary feats would not change the perception of disability in China.
Though whether change will be sustained at the rate achieved by the needs of staging the Paralympics remains to be seen.
Was it the best ever? It is a subjective judgment, but I would say yes. I would put it on a par with Sydney, but with the added dimension of genuine, deeply enthusiastic crowds. Well done, Beijing!

source: bbc.co.uk

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