Olympic Times – Sports Daily

America’s Olympic pixie-in-waiting looks ready for the cameras, for the Russians and for the Chinese. Jordyn Wieber, 16, is the reigning all-around women’s world champion and isn’t resting on any past podia. Instead she is adding difficulty to her routines, looking to overwhelm judges and audiences in London this summer.

This is the way with gymnasts, who must keep advancing always like a shark. At the Garden on Saturday in the American Cup, Wieber will unveil more combinations on the balance beam, more twists on her floor exercise. She woke up one day in January, she says, and realized this was an Olympic year, her year, and that she’d better do something about it.

“I try not to think about the outside pressure, about being a favorite,” she said Friday, before a practice session. “I have to prove myself all over again.”

Wieber is a junior at DeWitt (Mich.) High School, where she misses all the football games and dances in order to train. She also takes some online courses and travels at least once a month to Houston, for five days at a time, to practice with other gymnasts and Marta Karolyi, the national women’s team coordinator for USA Gymnastics.

Competition for the team’s five Olympic spots will climax this June at the trials in San Jose. Meanwhile, there are tune-ups for tune-ups, and the American Cup on Saturday is really the first of them. The U.S. women won the team title at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo — which was Wieber’s first worlds — nipping second-place Russia.

Jordyn Wieber - Picture: Koji Sasahara/AP

The intramural battle among the Americans is tough and very real. Some of the 2008 Beijing stars, such as Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, have launched comebacks and are hoping to make the team as well, though they may find it difficult to excel in more than one or two specialties.

“We’re all in it together,” Wieber insisted. “We don’t feel competitive outside the gym.”

Wieber said that Liukin became her role model when she watched the Beijing Olympics on television back in 2008. At the time, Wieber was already an elite gymnast heading for the national team.

Barring injury, Wieber is considered the surest bet to make the U.S. team. By increasing the difficulty of her beam routine, already Wieber’s greatest strength, she is adding as much as five-tenths to her start value on that apparatus and may open ground on the opposition.

“You’ve never arrived,” Karolyi warned. “You always have to fight and try harder to win. The fact that she’s adding difficulty shows (Wieber) realizes that.”

She is also a groundbreaker on her other favorite event, the vault, in which she performs a 21/2 twisting Yurchenko — in which she does a cartwheel onto the springboard into a back handspring, then launches herself from the horse into those 21/2 twists. “Fun,” she calls it. Most others would call it impossible.

Wieber turned professional shortly after proving herself at the world championships. She will not be accepting any of the college scholarships available to her, a decision she realizes will further distance herself from classmates and their social lives.

“It doesn’t bother me that much,” Wieber said. “I get to travel all over the country and the world and that’s better.”

The Americans will have their top two young women gymnasts, Wieber and Aly Raisman from Needham, Mass., competing Saturday at the Garden. The Russians and Chinese, still smarting from defeat at the world championships and perhaps fearful of hometown judging, declined invitations to participate in the American Cup.

The Romanians are here, however, making this event feel a lot like the semi-boycotted 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com

The International Figure Skating Union’s Grand Prix Series enters its 15th season this weekend with its first event: The Trophee Eric Bompard Cachemire, in Paris. Competition starts Friday in competition, the first of six that will lead up to the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo in December and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. It will feature some interesting storylines.

Ladies’ Singles

Carolina Kostner

This event has perhaps the most stacked ladies’ field of the Grand Prix season. Two of figure skating’s greatest rivals will meet in this event as Korean World Champion Kim Yu-Na and 2008 World Champion and faces Grand Prix Final champ Mao Asada of Japan.

Kim, who has been training with Brian Orser in Toronto, blew away the field at the worlds in Los Angeles with a record score. She will show off new programs choreographed by David Wilson – George Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F Major” in the long program and a short program to a medley of music from “James Bond 007″, considered unusual music for figure skating.

The archrivals will also be joined by Italy’s Carolina Kostner, but the hotly-anticipated comeback of American Sasha Cohen has been iced as the 2006 Olympic silver medallist who is making a comeback, has pulled out of the competition after suffering an injured calf in practice. Japan’s Yukari Nakano and Caroline Zhang of the U.S. may also challenge. There are no Canadian women in this event.

Entries: Mao Asada (Japan), Candice Didier (France), Sasha Cohen, United States, Gwendoline Didier (France), Elene Gedevanishvili, (Georgia), Alexe Gilles (USA), Yu-Na Kim (South Korea), Kiira Korpi (Finland), Carolina Kostner (Italy), Yukari Nakano (Japan), Caroline Zhang (USA), Anna Jurkiewicz (Poland)

Men’s Singles

Brian Joubert, the 2007 world champion from France, launches his season in front of his home fans and will no doubt be trying to vindicate himself after finishing with what he considered a disappointing bronze medal at the 2009 Worlds.

A five-time world medallist known for his big jumps, Joubert is likely to be challenged in Paris by Nobunari Oda. The Japanese skater is in top form, winning last year’s NHK Trophy, after being banned for three months by his national federation in 2007 for drunk driving. Russia’s Sergei Voronov and Tomáš Verner of Czech Republic will also be in the running for spots on the podium. Vaughn Chipeur is the only Canadian man in the event as he begins his quest for the nation’s second spot at the Olympics.

Entries: Vaughn Chipeur (Canada), Chao Yang (China), Tomas Verner (Czech Republic), Brian Joubert (France), Yannick Ponsero (France), Alban Preaubert (France), Peter Liebers (Germany), Nobunari Oda (Japan), Sergei Voronov (Russia), Javier Fernandez (Spain), Ryan Bradley (USA), Adam Rippon (USA)

Pairs

Canadians Bryce Davison and Jessica Dubé will face the world’s finest pairs competition right off the bat in Paris when they return to the romantic style of skating that so suited them before their experimental season last year. They will meet world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, the reigning world champs. It’s the first of two meetings between the two teams during this Grand Prix season. The second will be at Skate Canada in Kitchener, Ont., in late November.

Russians Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov, coached by Olympic champ Oleg Vassiliev, may also figure into the podium.

Entries: Adeline Canac and Maximin Coia (France), Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir (USA), Huibo Dong and Yiming Wu (China), Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison (Canada), Vanessa James and Yannick Bonheur (France), Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov (Russia), Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, Germany

Ice Dance

Canadians Tessa Virtue, of London, Ont. and Scott Moir, of Ilderton, Ont. are making their return to the Grand Prix circuit after missing the series last season when Virtue had to have surgery on both of her shins. They returned late in the season to earn bronze at the world championships, and they feel confident now that they are the best ice dance team in the world. They will debut their highly-anticipated new programs: a flamenco original dance and a free dance to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

Virtue and Moir enter the competition as the clear favourite but can expect some good competition from the French team of Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, Sinead and John Kerr of Great Britain, and Americans Emily Samuelson and Evan.

Entries: Zoé Blanc and Pierre-Loup Bouquet (France), Kristina Gorshkova and Vitali Butikov, (Russia), Madison Hubbell and Keiffer Hubbell (USA), Sinead Kerr and John Kerr (Great Britain), Kimberly Navarro and Brent Bommentre (USA), Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat (France), Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer (Russia), Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates (USA), Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Canada)

Tokyo’s hopes of hosting the 2016 Olympics were shattered Friday as the Japanese capital was eliminated in the second round of voting by the International Olympic Committee.

Rio de Janeiro was named the winner of rights to stage the 2016 Games, beating Madrid in the final round of voting to become the first South American Olympic host. Rio had 66 votes to Madrid’s 32.

Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting before Tokyo’s exit left the race down to the Rio and Madrid. Tokyo had 22 votes in the first round and 20 in the second.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama released a statement Saturday congratulating the Brazilian people on Rio de Janeiro’s win in a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

‘‘I want to offer my heartfelt appreciation for the citizens of Tokyo and athletes,’’ said Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara. ‘‘Let’s use this precious experience, while tackling environmental issues and contribute to the development of world cities. I pray for the success of the Games in Rio de Janeiro.’’

Under host city voting procedures, the city with the fewest number of votes in each successive round of balloting is eliminated until one city has reached a majority of the valid votes cast.

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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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The United States Olympic Committee reached a temporary compromise Friday with the International Olympic Committee in their heated dispute over revenue sharing.

Officials from both organizations met in Denver and agreed to wait until 2013 to discuss the issue. At that time, they will restart talks about redistributing the revenue from global sponsorship partners and television contracts. Any changes to the agreement would be instituted after 2020.

The U.S.O.C. now receives 20 percent of that sponsorship money and 12.75 percent of the TV money, but a group of angry I.O.C. and international sports federation officials had complained that the United States was receiving too much.

The groups were at loggerheads over the issue just as Chicago is trying to win votes to host the 2016 Olympics.

Bob Ctvrtlik, one of the main negotiators for the U.S.O.C., said he never thought the revenue-sharing dispute would affect Chicago’s chances. An I.O.C. evaluation committee is set to visit Chicago next week. The vote over which city — Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo — will win the Games is scheduled for Oct. 2.

“We never felt there was strong linkage,” Ctvrtlik said Friday, according to The Associated Press. “But in a room where one or two votes can make a difference, we’d rather have this issue behind us.”

But for the U.S.O.C., putting the revenue-sharing negotiations on hold comes at a cost: the I.O.C. said Friday that the U.S.O.C. has agreed to pay more of the fees related to the running of the Games, including fees related to doping programs and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Right now, the cost of the Olympics is sliced into thirds, with the I.O.C., the 35 Olympic federations and the 205 national Olympic committees paying the bill.

Jacques Rogge, the I.O.C.’s president, said he was not sure how much more the U.S.O.C. would have to pay, but said that it would be more than what he termed “rank and file” Olympic committees. He said the dollar amount would be discussed in the future.

Earlier this week, Hein Verbruggen, an honorary I.O.C. member and former president of the International Cycling Union, said the U.S.O.C. was greedy. The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations passed a non-binding resolution Tuesday urging the end of the U.S.O.C.’s current open-ended contract with the I.O.C. The association wanted to negotiate a new contract.

On Friday, Verbruggen was pleased.

“We’ve always said we just wanted to get them to the table, talking seriously,” he said, according to the A.P. “We’ve said ‘We need you guys at the table. It takes some heat off Chicago.’ ”

from: nytimes.com

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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TOKYO (Reuters) – Baseball-mad Japanese celebrated outside electronic stores and at work on Monday morning after Japan crushed the United States to reach the final of the World Baseball Classic.

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Asian countries will unfortunately support Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Chinese State Sports General Administration Director Liu Peng told Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone on Monday, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry. In response to Nakasone’s request to support the bid, China’s state sports director said Japan is capable of hosting a successful Olympic Games.
Since Japan has several Human rights issues still open it should put efforts on that before having international events. Japan is still not a foreign-friendly country and foreigners are viewed with suspicion.
Liu was also quoted as saying that he felt that the Japanese government and people are determined to host the Olympics, after seeing the sites that would be used for the event. The Chinese official expressed the hope of promoting sports exchanges with Japan.

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Nearly two-thirds of Chicago-area residents want the city to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, but most don’t want tax money to pay for it, a new Tribune poll found.
Yet many supporters—as well as a vast majority of those opposed to bringing the Games here—don’t buy the idea that private funds will cover nearly all the costs.
Mayor Richard Daley’s push for the Games was favored by 64 percent and opposed by 28 percent in the poll of registered voters from Chicago and the suburbs.
But 75 percent of all those surveyed said they were against the use of tax money to cover any financial shortfalls.
The international sporting event could boost the city’s struggling economy, improve its international reputation and help fix a troubled public transportation system, those surveyed said.
Asked about the biggest potential disadvantages, they cited taxpayer costs, congestion and security threats.
Rev. Louis Reeves, a pastor in Englewood who was one of those surveyed, said he supports the Olympics and hopes it will benefit low-income communities. But he is concerned about the costs.
“It would be great if private dollars could fund this event, but I just see our government looking to our public for assistance,” Reeves said.
The survey of 350 people, conducted Wednesday through Thursday, has an error margin of 5.2 percentage points.
The poll comes a week before Chicago and its rivals—Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro—must submit formal bids to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland. The bids are due Thursday and international officials will choose a winner in October.

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North Side resident John Berchem says Chicago’s Olympic bid will be worth it.
“The benefits to the city seem fabulous,” Berchem says. “Sure, it’s going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money. But, so what?”
South Side housing activist Ora Williams says she’s concerned neighborhood residents will be displaced by Olympic-related development projects.
Their comments came during an event yesterday at the Union League Club previewing the city’s Olympic bid book, which the Chicago 2016 committee will present to the International Olympic Committee on Feb. 12.
John Murray, vice president and chief of bid operations for Chicago 2016, presented an outline of Chicago’s strengths, including landscape, culture and people, and a look at the proposed locations for sporting venues and the Olympic Village. He also gave an overview of the benefits the games will bring to Chicago.
“It’s not about trying to out-do a city like Beijing,” Murray said, noting the Chinese capital’s preparation for the games last summer. “It’s about pointing the way to Chicago and putting our own stamp on the Olympic festival for the millions of people in the city and billions of people around the world.”
Details of how the city will deal with transit, housing and public safety were scarce during his presentation.
Some of the nearly 100 people in the audience asked questions about the Olympics’ impact on the city, particularly how the games will be paid for and their impact on Chicago taxpayers.

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Could the Summer Olympics really come to the Twin Cities? There’s a new possibility that part of the 2016 games will be played here.
Chicago is one of four cities trying to get the Olympic bid in 2016 and if that happens, international soccer players may take the field at TCF Stadium.
The University of Minnesota confirms that the stadium committee is in negotiations with the Chicago Olympic group to host soccer matches should the windy city get the bid.
As far the economic impact of the matches, city officials said it’s still too early to say, but the worldwide publicity the games would bring is priceless
“The automatic impact is the international press that would come to Minneapolis-St. Paul area as we got with the Republican National Convention this summer—to show what a great market place we have. Any opportunities to have that is great for our cities,” Todd Kingel with the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce said.
He believes the proposed high-speed rail route between Chicago and Minneapolis is part of the reason the Chicago Olympic committee is considering an event site in the Twin Cities.
“There are moves in Congress now to be looking to add that additional infrastructure. So if those two could be linked together, I think it’s a great idea in some of their thinking,” Kingel explained.
Chicago is in the running with Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janerio. The International Olympic Committee will make their decision in October.

source: kstp.com

The city of Madison and the surrounding area, home to three major bicycle companies, will serve as the cycling hub for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in the event Chicago is chosen as the host city.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle Friday announced the selection by the Chicago 2016 Committee, which is organizing Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games.
“Not only is Madison a great place to live, it’s the nation’s premier area for bike riding,” Doyle said. “I am pleased that the Chicago 2016 Committee has chosen Madison to be its cycling hub and can’t wait for people from around the world to discover our beautiful region.”
To select an ideal venue, the bid committee worked collaboratively with cycling experts, Olympic athletes and the International Cycling Union (UCI) to select courses that are technically challenging and conducive to high-level competition.
The Wisconsin Road Cycling Course would begin on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, head east through downtown and feature several steep climbs near the finish line in Blue Mound State Park. The Wisconsin Mountain Bike circuit would take place in Tyrol Basin, a popular ski and snowboard destination in the winter that makes for a technically challenging course that meets the needs of the athletes while allowing for a great spectator experience during the Games, state officials said.
Doyle said Madison has one of the most extensive bike trail systems in the United States. Pacific Cycle, Trek and Saris, three of the cycling industry’s leading companies, are based in the Madison area.
Chicago is competing against Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid for the right to host the 2016 Olympics. The four candidate cities have until Feb. 12 to submit their plans to the International Olympic Committee. The final decision on the host city will be made by the full IOC membership on Oct. 2 during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen.

source. bizjournals.com

The Japanese Olympic Committee is considering holding a large-scale half marathon in Tokyo to boost the Japanese capital’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Games, it was learned Friday.

The JOC wants to jointly stage the event featuring around 30,000 competitors with the Olympians Association of Japan and is looking to pencil in the race for mid-September. The International Olympic Committee will select the host city for the 2016 Games in October at its general assembly in Copenhagen. To help gather momentum for Tokyo’s bid, the proposal involves Olympians from various sports helping with the operation of the event by distributing water and offering encouragement to general runners in the race, according to sources close to the matter.

No to capital punishment
No death by Hanging
No Tokyo Olympics

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Italy and Iran separately urged Japan on Wednesday to exercise its influence in coordinating international efforts to draw up a truce in Gaza and Tokyo promised to play an active role, including in contributing to humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini initiated a 25-minute phone call with his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone, during which they agreed to cooperate and coordinate humanitarian aid efforts among the Group of Eight countries. Italy succeeded Japan in assuming the annual G-8 presidency this year. Later in the evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called Nakasone and stressed the urgent need for Israel to halt its attacks on the Gaza Strip, noting the important role Japan can play given its current membership of the U.N. Security Council, the officials said.

In response, Nakasone requested that Iran also play a ‘‘constructive role’’ on its part to help resolve the crisis.

Since the latest outbreak of violence, Japan has repeatedly called on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides to immediately halt the use of force and has pledged to continue its assistance to the Palestinian people, including around $10 million worth of emergency aid for the Gaza Strip, in view of the situation.

Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda plans to ask outspoken Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara to make a presentation in Lausanne, Switzerland, in June for the Japanese capital’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. ‘‘We need Governor Ishihara, who is also the bid committee chief, to make an appeal,’’ Takeda said Monday, referring to the occasion when the four finalist cities will be granted the opportunity to speak before International Olympic Committee members.

The IOC will name the host city of the 2016 Olympics from among Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro at its general assembly meeting in Copenhagen in October 2009. ‘‘I believe the governor knows he is the one. He is a charismatic person known even to the media overseas,’’ said Mitsuru Arakawa, a senior official of the 2016 Tokyo Olympics campaign.
Tokyo is bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games but Japan should look at basic Human Rights Issues and only then after international events!

Amnesty International argues that the Japanese justice system tends to place great reliance on confessions and it has been claimed that these may be obtained under duress. According to a 2005 Amnesty International report:

“Most have been sentenced to death on the basis of confessions extracted under duress. The potential for miscarriages of justice is built into the system: confessions are typically extracted while suspects are held in daiyo kangoku, or “substitute prisons”, for interrogation before they are charged. In practice these are police cells, where detainees can be held for up to 23 days after arrest, with no state-funded legal representation. They are typically interrogated for 12 hours a day: no lawyers can be present, no recordings are made, and they are put under constant pressure to confess. Once convicted, it is very difficult to obtain a re-trial and prisoners can remain under sentence of death for many years.”

Amnesty International also reports of allegations of abuse of suspects during these interrogations. There are reports of physical abuse, sleep deprivation and denial of food, water and use of a toilet. It also criticises the fact that inmates usually remain for years, sometimes decades, on death row, knowing that executions come with little warning and each day may potentially be their last. According to Amnesty International, the intense and prolonged stress means many inmates on death row have poor mental health, suffering from the so called Death row phenomenon. The failure to give advanced notice of executions has been stated by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to be incompatible with articles 2, 7, 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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Japan’s football chief has vowed to bid for the World Cup finals in 2018 or 2022, despite Tokyo’s candidacy to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, press reports said Monday.

“We want to challenge it,” Football Association president Motoaki Inukai was quoted as saying on FIFA’s weekend decision to hold simultaneous bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Japan co-hosted the 2002 finals with neighbouring South Korea.

FIFA, the world’s football governing body, last year abolished a system under which the host nation of the four-yearly premier football event was rotated among six continents.

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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 International Olympic Committee is seeking to improve the ticketing system for upcoming Games in Vancouver and London to avoid the problem of empty seats that occurred in Beijing this year.

The IOC and London organizers, meanwhile, expressed confidence Thursday that the 2012 Olympics will be a success despite the global economic downturn. And London’s Olympic chief said the Games will be “secure” from terrorism.

Olympic officials concluded weeklong meetings aimed at passing on lessons learned from the Beijing Games, which the IOC described as “an indisputable success” that could lead to further social, economic and political progress in China.

The Beijing review was meant to transfer knowledge to upcoming host cities, particularly London for 2012. Organizers of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, also took part. So did officials from the four cities bidding for the 2016 Summer Games: Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

“The 2008 Games set new standards for organization, venues and athletic performances, but we can always improve,” IOC Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli said. “I’m confident that the London organizers will host a first class event with a uniquely British atmosphere.”

Ticketing and empty seats were singled out as key issues. While tickets were sold out in Beijing, there were still vacant seats at some of the venues, Felli said.

He said this may have been because ticket-holders did not stay at the venues for long or back-to-back sessions. Also, some tickets were allocated to groups across China which may not have shown up, he said.

Some tickets also ended up on the black market, while fake tickets were sold to unsuspecting fans in online scams.

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