In scheduling, time is money

Though Europeans are steaming about the International Olympic Committee's decision to switch the swimming and most gymnastics finals to morning for the 2008 Beijing Games, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anybody who's familiar with rights fees and ratings. NBC, which asked the Lords of the Rings to make the change, is paying them $3.5 billion for the five Games between 2000 and 2008. Only one of them -- Salt Lake in 2002 -- offered marquee events live in prime time.

With Beijing's clock 12 hours later than New York's, NBC didn't want another Games where its viewers would be watching a menu filled with stale offerings in the Internet age. As it is, only one of the next three Olympics (Vancouver in 2010) will be held in North America. What convinced the IOC (other than those 3.5 billion reasons) was physiological evidence that the athletes wouldn't be harmed if they had sufficient time to prepare for morning races.

The European broadcasters (who pay only half of what NBC does) are wringing their hands at showing events in the wee hours on the continent, and some prominent Australian swimmers (most notably Grant Hackett) have protested to the IOC. USA Swimming and USA Gymnastics, though, are happy with morning finals, saying they will showcase their sports back home.

As it was, the network didn't get everything on its wish list. The track and field events (except for the marathon) will be at night in China and the men's basketball final will be in the afternoon.

With San Francisco dropping out, the race to be the American bidder for the 2016 Summer Olympics is down to two-time host Los Angeles and Chicago. That's if -- and it's a significant if -- the US Olympic Committee decides to enter a city. "You can make the case that after New York, nobody in the US should bid," said USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth at a bid seminar. "After the New York bid, the United States has not increased its respect in the world; it has decreased it. But the world changes fast." San Francisco, which was a strong contender to get the USOC's nod that went to the Apple for 2012, knew it was finished when the 49ers decided to build their new stadium in Santa Clara. The stadium issue, which hurt New York badly, is huge. Chicago would have to build one (Soldier Field doesn't have a track) and LA would have to renovate the Coliseum again . . . Look for the Lords of the Rings to add skicross, the freestyle version of snowboardcross, to the 2010 Winter Games when the executive board meets in Kuwait this week. Odds are, though, that they'll turn thumbs down on women's ski jumping, an Alpine team event, individual curling, and team luge. Though jumping is the only sport on the program that is still men-only, a women's event won't be added to the World Championship program until 2009, so the IOC is likely to wait until 2014 . . . The biggest barrier to North and South Korea forming one team for 2008 is representation. The North, which won only five medals in Athens, wants the squad split 50-50. The South, which won 30, wants it based on performance. The neighbors, still technically at war more than half a century after their cease-fire, marched together at the opening ceremonies at the last two Summer Games and will again at next month's Asian Games in Qatar.

World figure skating champion Kimmie Meissner, who didn't win either of her Grand Prix events this fall, probably won't qualify for next month's final in Russia. Meissner is right at the cutoff point, with Japanese rivals Mao Asada, Fumie Suguri, and Yukari Nakano all competing on home ice in this weekend's NHK Trophy in Nagano. Already qualified for the final are Evan Lysacek, the pair of Rena Inoue -John Baldwin, and dancers Tanith Belbin-Benjamin Agosto. All of them, plus Olympic medalist Sasha Cohen and US champion Johnny Weir, will be competing in the Marshalls Challenge at BU's Agganis Arena Dec. 10. Once again, fans will be able to vote for the winners by punching onsite keypads, calling 1-900 numbers, or going on the Internet . . . After an empty opening weekend on the Olympic run at Cesana Pariol, the US lugers are counting on a home-ice edge when the World Cup circuit returns to Park City this weekend. On the line is the amazing streak by the German women, who've won 65 straight. Among those giving chase will be Westborough's Ashley Hayden, back for another go after missing the Olympic team last winter . . . Why did Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe retire just four months before the World Championships in Melbourne? Because he wasn't excited about breaking records anymore. "I know how to do it, but it wasn't as inspiring as it should have been," said Thorpe, who has been bothered by illness and lack of motivation and hasn't competed in a major international meet since Athens. Would he consider a comeback? "I never rule anything out," said the Thorpedo, "but it's not going to happen."

Sheila Taormina may just make the Olympics in her third sport. Taormina, who competed in the 1996 Games in swimming (winning a relay gold) and in the 2000 and 2004 Games in triathlon, was the No. 2 American women's finisher at the recent modern pentathlon World Championships in Guatemala City after taking up the sport only a year ago. Top US male, in 22d, was Dennis Bowsher, who outpointed two former world champions . . . Lynn Jennings and Olympic champions Dan O'Brien (decathlon), Kevin Young (400-meter hurdles), Rex Cawley (400-meter hurdles), Ollan Cassell (4x400 relay), Bill Nieder (shot put), and Matt McGrath (hammer throw) will be among Saturday's inductees for the National Track & Field Hall of Fame. Jennings, who won the bronze medal in the 10,000 meters at the 1992 Games, is the queen of American cross-country, with a record nine national titles and three consecutive world crowns. A three-time Olympian who still trains 70 miles a week in the park next to her home in Portland, Ore., Jennings is also a sculler and road biker. "I'm very busy," she reports, "and I stay out of trouble nicely." . . . Easiest World Cup qualification ever for the US women's soccer team, which needed only to beat Mexico in last week's Gold Cup semifinals to make it to next September's tournament in China. Abby Wambach scored both goals, which were orchestrated by ageless Kristine Lilly, whose overtime penalty kick beat Canada for the title. "Kristine Lilly is our savior," saluted Wambach, whose teammates finished the year with a record 32-match unbeaten streak. "She is our legend." With Argentina and Brazil also qualifying last week, all but two of the 16 Cup teams have been determined. The winner of the Mexico-Japan playoff and the Oceania victor also will make it.

Familiar story at the Four Nations Cup in Ontario, where the US women's ice hockey team lost twice to nemesis Canada (3-0 in the opener, 5-2 in the final) and settled for the silver medal for the third straight year. The Americans did get some satisfaction by hammering the Swedes, 7-0, in their first meeting since the US lost to them in a shootout in the Olympic semifinals . . . The US volleyball teams went halfway around the world for nothing at this month's World Championships in Japan. The women, who were returning silver medalists, ended up ninth after losing their first three second-round matches, including a killer to Azerbaijan. The fifth-ranked men, who lost their first two outings to Venezuela and Bulgaria, are near the bottom of their second-round group with two matches to play and probably won't finish higher than ninth . . . With Norman Bellingham being named chief operating officer and Jim Scherr already chief executive, it's the first time that Olympians have held the USOC's top two management positions. Bellingham, a Harvard grad, was a kayaker in three Games and was on the 1988 squad with Scherr, a freestyle wrestler.

Material from Olympic committees, sports federations, interviews and wire services was used in this report.