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Olympic notes

Seeking to locate an advantage

By John Powers
Globe Staff / June 30, 2009
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Just in case the International Olympic Committee wasn’t up on its history and geography, the Rio de Janeiro folks turned up for their recent briefing in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a global map pinpointing host cities for previous Games, with South America a massive blank. In what’s shaping up as a tight four-way race for the 2016 Games, geopolitics may make the difference when the Lords vote in October in Copenhagen.

Though Tokyo may have the best technical package, the IOC could be reluctant to choose another Asian city so soon after Beijing. And while Madrid is a heavyweight contender (with former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch working the lobbies), it would be the third European host for a Summer Olympics in four quadrennia after Athens and London. In terms of continental rotation Chicago has an edge, since the US will not have hosted in two decades (Atlanta). The concern there, as it always is with an American city, is the financial guarantee. Though the bidders say they’ll have private insurance to cover any shortfalls, Chicago’s aldermen are fretting that the taxpayers might end up on the hook for more than the agreed $500 million.

Though money wasn’t an object for Beijing, which spent a mountain of renminbi on its Games, the global economic crunch has the IOC concerned about the next several editions. That likely was why Rio brought the head of Brazil’s central bank to its briefing, to remind the Lords of the Rings that his country no longer is an oversized banana republic.

Rio, which didn’t make the short list for 2004 and 2012, is a serious contender now. The city successfully staged the 2007 Pan American Games and Brazil will host the 2014 soccer World Cup. The last remaining blank spot is the Olympics.

While Washington won’t be issuing any blank checks on behalf of Barack Obama’s hometown, the President gave Chicago a significant boost recently when he created a White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport to “promote the values of the Olympic Movement’’ and coordinate federal resources for any US organizing committee. Support from the highest levels of government is a major selling point for bidders and US candidate cities (most recently New York for 2012) rarely have had it.

Global positioning
While the US track and field team will have nearly all of last year’s Olympic medalists competing in the August world meet in Berlin, it’ll be missing several key performers in Bryan Clay (decathlon gold), Hyleas Fountain (heptathlon silver), and Walter Dix (100 and 200 bronze), all of who were hurt before or during last week’s national championships in Oregon. With all of their world titlists returning, the Americans still should have enough talent to top the table, as they did easily two years ago in Osaka.

Sprinter Tyson Gay is back on track to take on Olympic champion Usain Bolt after posting a wind-aided 9.75 in the prelims, the only race he ran in Oregon. Though Gay proclaimed his race “horrible,’’ his time was still the world’s best this year.

Bolt, who swept both sprints at last weekend’s Jamaican championships, apparently is more concerned about teammate (and former world record-holder) Asafa Powell, and politely dismissed Gay’s musing that he could break the global mark with a better start. “Personally, no disrespect to Tyson, but that is going to be a hard task for him,’’ said Bolt, who ran a 9.86 in Kingston.

Seven other 2007 victors got wild cards to Berlin - Bernard Lagat (1,500 and 5,000), Jeremy Wariner (400), Kerron Clement (400 hurdles), Brad Walker (pole vault), Reese Hoffa (shot put), Allyson Felix (200), and Michelle Perry (100 hurdles).

Lowering the bar
Literally a bad break for steeplechaser Nicole Bush, who fractured her right foot after officials set the water hazard barrier too high in the prelims and she took a tumble. “Deplorable,’’ declared USA Track and Field CEO Doug Logan, who later apologized to Bush, who recovered to make the final but didn’t run. Officials had been told after the first heat that the barrier height was wrong but left it to not give the second group an advantage. If nothing else, the screwup strengthens Logan’s assertion that the sport has to become more professional in the US . . . It came six years after the fact but Tyree Washington finally received the gold medal he deserved at the 2003 world meet, where he was beaten by doped teammate Jerome Young (who later was banned for life) in his only loss of the year. “It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t enjoy the moment in Paris, but I will take my medal and title with open arms,’’ said Washington, who was given the medal by Logan in a special ceremony last week . . . While the book is closed on China’s alleged use of underage gymnasts in Beijing, the Americans might still pick up a retroactive bronze from 2000 if the international federation decides that Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun were too young when they competed in Sydney. If so, the IOC would take “necessary measures,’’ which likely would mean medals for Elise Ray, Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, Kristin Maloney, Jamie Dantzscher, and Tasha Schwikert . . . Carly Patterson, the first American woman to win the Olympic all-around at an overseas Games (2004), headlines the inductees for the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. She’ll be joined by fellow Olympians John Macready (1996), Steve McCain (2000), and rhythmic athlete Mary Sanders (2004).

Situation wearing thin
Though it has had nearly a year to draw up new swimsuit rules, the international federation still has its head under water when it comes to deciding what’s legal and what isn’t. After sending back 136 designs to manufacturers for modifications, FINA this month ended up approving more than 400 by more than two dozen companies, conceding that the air-trapping effect of skintight bodysuits requires “considerable time’’ to determine which designs provide unfair buoyancy. Since Speedo unveiled its breakthrough LZR Racer two winters ago, there should have been ample time to come up with a clear scientific standard. Now, with the Rome world championships next month, chaos reigns. USA Swimming, which wants tougher design restrictions, reluctantly adopted the revised list of approved suits, which have to be available to all swimmers . . . Open-water (i.e. outdoor marathon) swimming is becoming quite competitive in the US, with neither of last year’s Olympians (Mark Warkentin and Chloe Sutton) making the team for Rome. Earning the men’s spots were Fran Crippen, Andrew Gemmell, Sean Ryan, and Alex Meyer, with Emily Brunemann, Emily Hanson, and Eva Fabian of Keene, N.H., claiming the women’s berths . . . Germany’s Isabell Werth, the five-time Olympic dressage gold medalist, has been banned after her horse tested positive for fluphenazine, a drug that chills out skittish mounts. Following the problems in Beijing, where half a dozen horses came up dirty, and the revocation of Irish jumper Cian O’Connor’s gold from 2004, it’s another kick in the rump for the horse set, whose continued presence in the Games is shaky. It’s also a major headache for the Kentucky folks organizing next year’s World Equestrian Games, the biggest event apart from the Olympics . . . Jimmy Pedro, who’ll be directing the US judo team a decade after he won his world title, will be coaching five players from his Team Force dojo in Wakefield at this year’s championships - Aaron Kunihiro (60kg), Travis Stevens (81kg), Daniel McCormick (100+kg), Janine Nakao (63kg), and Kayla Harrison (78kg). Katelyn Bouysson, 14, of Hope, R.I., is the youngest ever to make the senior world team.

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com; material from Olympic committees, international and domestic sports federations, personal interviews, and wire services was used in this report.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.