Olympic notes

Small field for 2018 favors Pyeongchang

NICOLE BOBEK
May face jail time

By John Powers

Globe Staff / June 23, 2010

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Though the International Olympic Committee’s executive board announced its short list of candidates for the 2018 Winter Games yesterday, it was a formality. Only three cities are bidding — Pyeongchang, South Korea, Munich, and Annecy, France — and all were fast-forwarded to the final vote at the IOC session in Durban, South Africa, a year from next month.

That’s the fewest winter contenders since Calgary, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, and Falun, Sweden, bid for 1988. Global economics clearly is a major reason. After watching how Vancouver had to scramble amid the dramatic downturn that it couldn’t have foreseen in 2003 and how London is crossing its fingers for 2012, few cities have the appetite to spin the roulette wheel and bid for an event that’s still eight years away.

“We live in a more complicated financial world than before,’’ British board member Craig Reedie told the Associated Press. “You look at the concerns of Vancouver and London in this present climate and the IOC should be pleased to have three first-class bids.’’

Another explanation for the paucity of bids is Olympic geopolitics. After the Winter Games went to Europe in 2006 (Turin, Italy) and 2014 (Sochi, Russia), it’s unlikely that the IOC would return there for a third time in a dozen years, especially with an obvious favorite in Pyeongchang, which was runner-up for the last two Games, both times leading after the first ballot.

No Asian city has been the winter host since Nagano, Japan, in 1998, and with Tokyo losing out for the 2016 summer bid that went to Rio de Janeiro, it’s likely that the Lords of the Rings will look to the Far East.

Pyeongchang and Munich were given the highest marks by the working group that put Annecy, which isn’t far from 1992 host Albertville, a distinct third because of “a number of significant challenges and a higher degree of risk.’’

“They need to catch up,’’ reckoned Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s executive director for the Games. “But they have the time to do it and we think they can do it.’’

Skater on ice?

Figure skating’s former “Wild Child’’ could get up to five years in jail for her role in a huge New Jersey crystal meth ring that was busted last year. Nicole Bobek, who won the 1995 US title in Providence, earned a world medal and competed in the 1998 Olympics, pleaded guilty last week. Since she has no previous record, Bobek could be given probation, but according to the Jersey Journal, prosecutors will recommend a year’s time . . . Although he says he’s planning on competing next season, figure skater Evan Lysacek isn’t on the list for the Grand Prix circuit, which begins in Japan in late October. Lysacek, who skipped last season’s World Championships after winning the Olympic gold medal, still can be added, though, and he’ll get a bye into the US Championships in January if he wants to try to reclaim his crown from Jeremy Abbott. The rest of the US squad from Vancouver will be in action. Johnny Weir is entered in Skate Canada and the Trophee Eric Bompard, and Abbott in the NHK Trophy and Cup of Russia. Mirai Nagasu will be at Cup of China and Bompard, while Rachael Flatt is deferring enrolling at Stanford to compete in Skate America and NHK. Watertown’s Ross Miner has been assigned to NHK and Cup of China while Wakefield’s Stephen Carriere is going to Skate America . . . As expected, ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are hanging up their skates after an Olympic silver, four world medals, and five US titles. “We feel we can move on from our competitive careers without regret,’’ concluded the 25-year-old Belbin, who skated with the 28-year-old Agosto for 12 years. Parting ways after four years are Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, who won two US pairs titles but had a rocky winter and failed to make the Olympic team. McLaughlin, who’s still only 17, wants to focus on schoolwork before returning to the ice, while Brubaker will look for a new partner.

Dynamic duo

Defending New York City Marathon champion Meb Keflezighi will have at least one formidable foe in his bid to be the first man to retain his title since Kenya’s John Kagwe in 1998. Haile Gebrselassie, the world record-holder and two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 10,000 meters, will make his Gotham debut in the Nov. 7 race. If the 37-year-old Gebrselassie wins, he’ll be the first Ethiopian man to make it there since Tesfaye Jifar, whose 2001 course record (2:07:43) still stands . . . Marion Jones, reborn as a basketball player, has been riding the pine for the Tulsa Shock, who are at the bottom of the WNBA’s Western Conference after losing five in a row. The 34-year-old disgraced sprinter, who had her Olympic medals taken away for doping, is the league’s oldest rookie. She averaged half a dozen minutes and 1.3 points for the first 11 games . . . The US men’s basketball team will play its way eastward for the August World Championships in Turkey with exhibitions against four of the top seven finishers from the 2006 tournament. After a six-day camp in Las Vegas, the team will face France in Madison Square Garden (Aug. 15), then meet Lithuania (Aug. 21) and defending champion Spain (Aug. 22) in Madrid before heading for Athens for an Aug. 25 date with Greece, which stunned the Yanks in the semis last time. The Americans play their first tournament game against Croatia Aug. 28.

All in a row

By finishing fourth at last weekend’s second World Cup regatta in Munich, the men’s double of Warren Anderson and Glenn Ochal and lightweight double of Brian de Regt and Jon Winter earned tickets to this autumn’s global rowing championships in New Zealand. They’ll be joined by defending women’s champions Erin Cafaro and Susan Francia (pair), Kate Bertko and Stesha Carle (double), and Abby Broughton and Ursula Grobler (lightweight double). All of them have until July 19 to accept. If any decline the option in order to try for another event, their replacements will be determined by trials at the end of September. Anderson also can earn the spot in the single at the final Cup event in Lucerne next month, as can Newton sculler Gevvie Stone. The world finals will be spread across four days instead of being crammed into two to make the event more attractive to broadcasters. The stretch-out also will ease the burden on athletes who want to double up, as did Francia and Cafaro, who won gold in both the eight and pair last summer . . . Rulon Gardner, who cheated death twice and knocked off Russia’s “unbeatable’’ Alexander Karelin for Olympic greco-roman gold in 2000, achieved immortality this month when he was enshrined in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla. Gardner, who won a 2004 bronze after losing a toe in the wake of a snowmobiling accident and survived a 2007 plane crash into a Utah lake, was joined in the Hall by 2000 freestyle medalist Lincoln McIlravy and former Olympians Russ Camillieri (1960-64) and David Auble (1964).

Wheels come off

Great Britain’s track cycling team, which already took one hit when the individual pursuit and points events were dropped from the 2012 Olympic program, got another flat tire when the international federation decided to limit countries to one entrant per race. The Brits, who won five medals in the discarded events, went 1-2 in both the individual sprint (Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny) and keirin (Hoy and Ross Edgar) in Beijing. The International Cycling Union’s reasons for the program shakeup: gender equity (five events apiece for men and women) and global development (more countries entered) . . . Though the US sent its kiddie corps to the women’s world table tennis team championships in Moscow, the Americans still managed to earn a place for the 2012 event. “I told them that this is like Mission Impossible 4,’’ said technical director Doru Gheorghe after 14-year-olds Ariel Hsing, Natalie Sun, and Erica Wu and 13-year-old Lily Zhang joined 41-year-old matriarch Gao Jun in a 16th-place finish. Singapore shocked 17-time champion China to win its first title . . . The Olympic gymnastics trials, which have been held on the East Coast four times since 1992, are headed back to California. San Jose, site of the 2007 nationals and 2008 Pacific Rim championships, will stage the 2012 event. Philadelphia played host last time, as did Boston in 1996 and 2000 and Baltimore in 1992. Anaheim was the 2004 choice.

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