USOC getting down to business
Hiring of Probst is a shrewd move
By naming Larry Probst its new chairman this month, the US Olympic Committee got the cutting-edge businessman it was looking for. Unlike predecessor Peter Ueberroth, who ran the Los Angeles Games in 1984, the 58-year-old Probst has no Olympic background. But his marketing and new-media credentials are stellar. In his 16 years of chief executive of Electronic Arts, the video-game titan that devised "Madden NFL" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour," Probst boosted revenues from $175 million to $3 billion.
While the USOC is nicely in the black these days, the committee is concerned about the sponsorships that supply more than a third of its $600 million budget (GM is already dropping out).
"We need to shore up and expand our partnerships with major corporations in the United States," said Ueberroth, "and Larry walks those halls better than I do."
Besides helping to retain sponsors such as AT&T,
Ueberroth was the initial chair of the streamlined board that followed the Congressional spanking in the wake of the embarrassing 2003 spat between former president Marty Mankamyer and chief executive Lloyd Ward, which pointed up the chasm between the committee's professional and volunteer sides. Ueberroth provided badly needed professionalism, stability, and perspective during his four-year tenure and made good on his vow to put the athletes first. He'll stay on for two more years as a non-voting honorary president, helping Chicago in its bid for the 2016 Games.
Stiff sentence
Liu Zhihua, the former Beijing vice mayor who oversaw Olympic construction and was convicted of corruption, has received a suspended death sentence from a Chinese court. Liu, who allegedly accepted $1 million in bribes, can get the penalty reduced in two years to life in prison with good behavior . . . Federal prosecutors want Trevor Graham to get 10 months in jail when he's sentenced today for lying to IRS investigators about his role in the BALCO doping case. Graham, who once mentored disgraced sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, has been banned from the sport and now is a part-time school bus driver . . . What's the casualty rate among those trying to be faster-higher-stronger at the Games? One in 10 athletes who competed in Beijing - as in 1,055 - were treated for injuries at the Games, according to the IOC. Three-quarters of them were hurt during competition, with half of them sustaining leg and foot injuries, mostly thigh strains and ankle sprains, with 100 head injuries. The lists were longest in boxing, soccer, team handball, field hockey, taekwondo, and weightlifting.Russians not running
The seven Russian female track and field stars who were suspended by the international federation for manipulating doping samples have received two-year bans. Among them were former world record-holders Olga Yegorova (5,000) and Gulfia Khanafeyeva (hammer), and two-time 1,500-meter world titlist Tatyana Tomashova . . . The Magnificent 7 gymnasts who won the gold medal in 1996 would be reduced to the Fab 5 if they were performing in the next Games. The international federation has reduced the team size from six to five for 2012 . . . Alpine skiers Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn will begin defense of their overall crowns when the World Cup circuit begins this weekend in Austria on the Soelden glacier. While the Americans, who claimed five of the 12 Cup titles last season (Vonn also won downhill, Miller combined, and Ted Ligety giant slalom), want to keep raising the bar on their Cup success, their focus this winter will be on the pre-Olympic world championships in Val d'Isere, France, in February. Besides Miller (Bretton Woods, N.H.), other New Englanders on the team include Jimmy Cochran (Keene, N.H.), Leanne Smith (Conway, N.H.), and Chelsea Marshall (Pittsfield, Vt.).Sharp skaters
The US is sending the first string to this week's Skate America in Everett, Wash.: Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Mirai Nagasu, Kimmie Meissner, and Rachael Flatt, plus the top two pairs in Keauna McLaughlin-Rockne Brubaker and Rena Inoue-John Baldwin, and dancers Tanith Belbin-Benjamin Agosto. Wakefield native Stephen Carriere, who made his first world team last season, has drawn Asian duty next month - Cup of China in Beijing and NHK Trophy in Tokyo . . . Steve Yzerman, who takes over from Wayne Gretzky as executive director for Team Canada for the 2010 Games, has a five-ringed pedigree. The former Red Wings star played in two Olympics, winning the gold in 2002 at Salt Lake. Yzerman, who was general manager for the Canadian squad that won silver and gold at the last two World Championships, will have the added pressure that the Great One didn't have at the last two Games, since the team will be playing on home ice for the first time since 1988 after finishing a deflating seventh in Turin last time . . . Encouraging start - a silver medal and three bronzes - for the US short-track speedskaters at last weekend's World Cup opener in Salt Lake City. Apolo Anton Ohno, the reigning global champion, rebounded after falling in the 1,000 to place third in the 1,500 and skated on the relay that finished second.Third man out
With Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel announcing his retirement after struggling with a chronic hip ailment, all of the Olympic men's skating medalists from two years ago have left the competitive stage. Russia's Evgeny Plushenko, who won the gold medal in Turin, is on what's likely to be a permanent sabbatical. And Canada's Jeffrey Buttle, the bronze medalist and current world champion, quit last month, saying he couldn't find the motivation to continue . . . Naomi Nari Nam, who once loomed as the heiress apparent to Michelle Kwan, finally hung up her skates at 23 after living with a bad hip for seven years. Nam, who finished second to Kwan at the 1999 nationals when she was only 13, made an improbable comeback as a pairs skater three years ago and finished third with Themi Leftheris, but decided to call it a career after her hip miseries continued . . . Lake Placid will be the pre-Olympic year mecca this winter. Besides hosting the world luge, bobsled, and skeleton championships in February, the Adirondack village will stage a World Cup freestyle skiing event in January, plus next month's Four Nations Cup ice hockey tournament, which will feature women's teams from the US, Canada, Finland, and Sweden.First-class judokas
Olympic medalist Jimmy Pedro is among the inaugural group of members of the USA Judo Hall of Fame, along with fellow medalists Kevin Asano (1988), Bob Berland (1984), Jim Bregman (1964), Allen Coage (1976), Jason Morris (1992), and Mike Swain (1988) plus former US Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who captained the 1964 team. Pedro, who now runs a Wakefield dojo that produced three competitors for Beijing, competed in four Games and is the only American to win two medals, earning bronzes in 1996 and 2004 . . . Connecticut native Karen Smyers and Sheila Taormina are among the inaugural group of inductees for the US Triathlon Hall of Fame. Smyers, who claimed seven national titles, won the Hawaii Ironman and the world championship two weeks apart in 1995. Taormina is the only woman to compete in three sports (swimming, triathlon, and modern pentathlon in Beijing) in four Olympics . . . The US women's soccer team, which hasn't played the South Koreans in nine years, will face them three times in eight days as part of their Achieve Your Gold domestic exhibition tour - in Richmond (Nov. 1), Cincinnati (Nov. 5), and Tampa (Nov. 8). The Olympic champions, who are 29-1-1 this year, haven't lost a match on home turf in two years.Material from Olympic committees, sports federations, interviews, and wire services was used in this report. 