Phelps’ personal coach, Bob Bowman, was already recognized this month as coach of the year by the American Swimming Coaches Association.

Also honored were U.S. Olympians Mark Warkentin and Chloe Sutton, who took part in the debut of open water swimming at the Olympics. Open water head coach Bill Rose received the Glenn S. Hummer Award, given to the person who has made the greatest contribution to long-distance swimming.

Erin Popovich, winner of six medals at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, was awarded the Trischa L. Zorn Award for the top performance by a swimmer with a disability.

The Diversity Inclusion Award went to Cullen Jones, who won a relay gold medal in Beijing and has worked to get more African-Americans involved in the sport and improve safety.

Earlier in the day, USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus gave his annual state of the sport speech, reflecting on the success of the American team in Beijing and setting his goals for the next four years.

Among them: expanding membership by at least 20 percent, attracting new corporate and organizational partners, increasing USA Swimming’s revenues and net worth, and improving on the number of gold medals at the 2012 London Games.

In addition, USA Swimming president Jim Wood was re-elected to a second term.

“When I met with U.S. President George W. Bush last week at the United Nations, the first thing that he said to me was ‘What a powerful performance by your athletes in Beijing,’” said Bruce Golding.

“When I wanted him to assist Jamaica, he was only interested in asking how Jamaica could assist the U.S. with its athletic program,” the prime minister said.

Swelling with pride, Golding spoke at the official start of weeklong celebrations in Jamaica to mark the performance of its athletes, led by flamboyant sprinter Usain Bolt, at the recent Olympic Games in Beijing.

Cheering crowds lined streets across Kingston as all 56 Jamaican athletes who made the trip to Beijing joined in a motorcade celebrating their record haul of 11 medals in the Beijing Games, including six gold.

Bolt shattered the world record each time to capture Olympic gold in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4×100 relay. Jamaicans also swept the medals in the women’s 100 metres.

Golding praised the athletes responsible for a meteoric rise in fame for Jamaica’s sprinters.

“You carried the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the Jamaican people. What you did in Beijing was more than your best,” Golding said.

“I don’t think that any of you can appreciate the excitement that you brought to the hearts of Jamaicans.” (Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney)

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP)—Equestrian rider Rodrigo Pessoa has been stripped of his fifth-place finish at the Beijing Olympics and banned from competing for 4 1/2 months after a positive drug test on his horse.

The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said Friday that evidence from Pessoa—a five-time Olympian and 2004 gold medalist—suggested “poor stable management for this level of event.”

Pessoa’s horse Rufus tested positive Aug. 23 for nonivamide, a banned pain-relieving medication.

The sport’s governing body also fined the 36-year-old Brazilian $1,766. He is suspended until Jan. 10, 2009.

“The behavior of anyone at the top of the sport and particularly at the Olympic Games must be faultless,” the FEI said in a statement.

Pessoa lost in a jump-off for the bronze medal won by Beezie Madden of the United States.

Pessoa was defending the individual title he won at Athens in 2004. He had finished second in Athens but was given the gold after Irish rider Cian O’Connor was disqualified.

He also won bronze medals for Brazil in team jumping at Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.

Pessoa’s case is one of six doping and medication violations from the Olympic equestrian events, which were held in Hong Kong.

He has 30 days to appeal the verdict at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

DENVER (AP)—The U.S. Olympic Committee is replacing a name most sports fans know—Peter Ueberroth—with an architect of a game most sports fans know—EA Sports.

Larry Probst, a longtime executive at the company that makes some of the nation’s most popular video games—including Madden NFL and Tiger Woods PGA Tour—was elected Thursday to replace Ueberroth as the USOC’s chairman of the board.

He’ll take office next month at the USOC’s annual assembly.

“There wasn’t any debate at the board meeting,” Ueberroth said of the unanimous vote that ended in Probst getting a four-year term.

Ueberroth will stay on with the USOC in a nonvoting capacity, his presence considered essential to the federation’s attempt to land the 2016 Olympics in Chicago; the International Olympic Committee vote is set for next October.

The 58-year-old Probst will be involved in the bid, but also was tabbed because of his business acumen. He has worked at Electronic Arts, a company that includes EA Sports, since 1984. Annual revenues at the company grew from $175 million to $3 billion over the 16 years during which he served as CEO. Last year, he retired that post and became chairman of the board.

“The EA Sports brand is one of the most recognized brands in the video games industry,” Probst said. “I’ve been doing that for 15-plus years. As a consequence of that, I’ve had a lot of exposure to commissioners, leaders in sports.”

Ueberroth thinks Probst will also have great access to board rooms of billion-dollar companies that help pay the USOC’s bills through sponsorships. The federation took in about $600 million over the four-year period that ends this year, about 35 percent of which came through 17 sponsorship deals with the likes of Anheuser-Busch and Bank of America.

Given the current state of the economy, though, this is no time to take any financial deal for granted. It’s a reality the board recognized in its meeting Thursday. Probst will be counted on to establish new relationships for the USOC that could result in new sponsorship deals.

“We know the economy is distressed right now,” CEO Jim Scherr said. “We’re very solid in our current sponsorship group and sponsor family. We feel the 2008 Olympic Games reinvigorated our country” in the way it views the Olympics.

Also on Probst’s to-do list will be to start the USOC Network, a long-planned project that many thought would get off the ground before the Beijing Olympics but didn’t.

The USOC has secured rights to televise events from more than half the individual sports on the Olympic program, but the strategy of bringing them to air has been slow to develop.

Probst was named to the board last month along with Ursula Burns of Xerox. They take spots being vacated by Ueberroth and Erroll Davis.

Probst got the most high-profile job and takes over for a huge figure in the Olympic movement. Ueberroth is considered an icon on the Olympic scene, widely credited with making the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles a success and asked to return to the movement in June 2004 to help the USOC implement its restructuring and buoy its sagging reputation abroad.

The board drafted new rules to keep Ueberroth on through the IOC selection process, not wanting to lose his influence at such a critical moment.

It figures he’ll remain the most recognizable face of the USOC administration through next year, at least. Probst, not as well known to the public and with no background in the Olympic movement, was given a four-year term and can stay on for two years after that, much the way Ueberroth is this year.

The goal is to establish more continuity within a federation that was often derided for changing leadership too often.

Though it’s a volunteer position, it is hardly a part-time job.

“This position, I think, is exactly right for me,” Probst said. “I’ve got plenty of time to devote to this. We’ve talked about the time commitment and I’m very comfortable with the amount of time it’s going to take.”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)—Ticket sales start Friday for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and aren’t first come, first served.

Instead, they will be available for five weeks through an online process designed to thwart scalpers trying to snap up tickets to the best events.

“There are people that are experts at getting to the front of the line and they make a living doing that,” Caley Denton, vice president of ticketing for the Vancouver organizing committee for the 2010 Olympics, said Thursday.

“We have a built-in reason why that’s not important. It’s not a race.”

The organizing committee will accept applications for tickets between Friday and Nov. 7, submitted either online at vancouver2010.com or through a paper application available by phone.

There won’t be any decision on who gets which tickets until after the deadline for applications.

“It’s about taking your time and planning your experience,” Denton said of the five-week process.

If there is more demand for an event than there are seats, a lottery will be held.

People who apply for tickets will be notified in late November or early December if their application is successful.

Around 1.6 million tickets will be available to the public, representing 70 percent of the overall tickets being sold, with prices ranging from $25 for some Nordic events, to $1,100 for the opening ceremonies.

That doesn’t include service charges, taxes or delivery fees, which could bump the cost of an individual ticket up as much as $28.

The cost of transportation to the mountain venues outside Vancouver also isn’t included, though the service charge will give access to public transit.

The remaining 30 percent of the tickets have been sold to the so-called Olympic family—sponsors, Olympic committees and other partners of the Games.

Altogether, the Olympic family will buy up as much as 70 percent of the tickets to the highest-profile events at the Olympics, making already scarce tickets to gold-medal hockey or the opening ceremonies that much harder to come by for the general public.

By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Four cities vying to host the 2016 summer Olympics throw themselves into a final year of hectic campaigning on Thursday to convince the IOC their bid has what it takes to deliver a successful Games.

The bid cities; Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo should not be affected by the current financial crisis after securing funding.

The International Olympic Committee will elect the winning bid at its session on Oct. 2 next year in Copenhagen, Denmark. London will stage the 2012 Games.

Each city must submit a candidature file, a detailed description of its project by February 2009 and then host a evaluation commission visit in the spring.

The commission reports to the IOC a month before the vote.

“There is a long road ahead and we will be using every hour of every day between now and Copenhagen to achieve our ultimate objective,” Tokyo bid leader Ichiro Kono told Reuters.

“We have the concept, team and resources to succeed.”

FINANCIAL CRISIS

All bid leaders have been closely watching the global financial turmoil wondering how it will affect a multi-billion Games budget should their city win. Beijing poured in more than $40 billion to host the Olympics in August.

“While Tokyo 2016…are concerned by the world wide issue of the banking and credit crisis, the finances for our bid are all in place so there is no negative impact on the Tokyo 2016 project,” he said.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said this week the crisis would not affect the London Olympics or the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

All four cities are locked in a tight race with very little separating them.

Chicago is hoping a new U.S. president, to be elected in November, will boost the city’s chances by attending the IOC session for the first time. Democratic candidate Barack Obama has spent much of his political life in Chicago.

The city, though, still needs to iron out details for its Olympic village.

Madrid has been working to make its bid more compact.

“The infrastructure is ready and 70 percent of the other work required is in place,” bid leader Mercedes Coghen said on Thursday.

Rio, after hosting successful Pan-American Games last year, wants to become the first South American city to host the Olympics, a sentimental point that has some resonance within the IOC.

Bid leader Carlos Nuzman’s own IOC membership is a plus as is Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s vocal support. (Editing by John Mehaffey)

(Adds VANOC reaction)

By Allan Dowd

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct 1 (Reuters) – A coalition of international women ski jumpers, suing for the right to compete in the 2010 Olympics, boosted their case on Wednesday by adding an another athlete from host country Canada.

Zoya Lynch said she decided to join the lawsuit because an earlier out-of-court effort by Canadian jumpers to convince Olympic officials to allow women to compete in the Vancouver Winter Games had not worked.

“I don’t want to have to sit on the sidelines and watch the boys,” Lynch, 17, told reporters outside the Vancouver court where the lawsuit was filed in May.

Lynch is the 10th current or retired international ski jumper to join the lawsuit.

The North American and European women allege they are being discriminated against because the Olympics allows male ski jumpers to compete but there is no corresponding competition for female athletes.

Ski jumping has been an Olympic sport since 1924, and is one of the few events in either the Winter or Summer Games to not have both a men’s and women’s competition.

The group sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), saying that as a Canadian organization getting public funding it has to abide by laws against gender discrimination.

VANOC argues the International Olympic Committee decides what events will be in the Games, and the IOC is not covered by Canadian law.

“We recognize that efforts are continuing by some to raise the profile and awareness of the issue, however, neither the facts nor our position have changed. It is not our decision to make,” VANOC Executive Vice-President Cathy Priestner said.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said in February that only 80 women were competing in ski jumping, far fewer than for other Olympic sports. He said that including the event in the 2010 Games would dilute the value of medals won in other events.

Women argue there are more females involved in ski jumping than in some sports, such as ski-cross, that are included in the Games.

“I think, ultimately, it leads to sexism and gender inequality,” Lynch told reporters, adding she has dreamed of being in the Olympics since she took up ski jumping as a little girl.

“I love everything about (jumping). Who wouldn’t want to fly through the air,” she said with her mother at her side.

Canadian ski jumpers had filed a complaint to Canada’s Human Rights Commission, but dropped it when the federal government agreed take their issue to the IOC.

The women’s lawyer said he hopes the case can be argued before a judge before the end of the year.

VANOC said the jumpers should be focusing on joining the Olympics in 2014, adding they are welcome to use the facilities built for the 2010 Games to practice. (Reporting Allan Dowd, editing by Rob Wilson)

By NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer

Though the case is closed on China’s Olympic gold medalists, the age controversy in gymnastics is far from over.

Documents confirm all six members of China’s gold medal team at the Beijing Games were old enough to compete, the International Gymnastics Federation said Wednesday. But it wants more answers from two members of China’s 2000 squad— Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun—saying it “does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory.”

It also is moving forward with a licensing system that would serve as proof of age for a gymnast’s entire career.

“It’s not about the medal,” said Dominique Dawes, part of the U.S. squad that finished fourth behind China at the 2000 Olympics. “The important issue is them righting a wrong and hopefully prohibiting future Olympians from being underage. It’s really about making sure every athlete is doing things the right way.”

Dong’s official birthdate is listed as Jan. 20, 1983. But her accreditation information for the Beijing Olympics, where she worked as a national technical official, lists her birthdate as Jan. 23, 1986, said Andre Gueisbuhler, the FIG’s secretary general.

“If that document is the correct one, that would suggest she was 14 years old at the Sydney Olympic Games,” Gueisbuhler said.

Gymnasts must turn 16 during an Olympic year to be eligible to compete.

Calls to Yang and Dong’s mobile phones rang unanswered Wednesday, a national holiday. So did phone calls to the Chinese gymnastics team’s media officers.

Questions about the ages of China’s Beijing squad had swirled for months, with media reports and online records suggesting some girls could be as young as 14. China insisted—heatedly and repeatedly—that all six gymnasts were old enough and said it had the documents to prove it. Any discrepancies, Chinese officials said, were the result of Web site inaccuracies or paperwork errors.

When the IOC asked the FIG three days before the games ended to investigate one last time, China provided original passports, ID cards and family registers for He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan. All showed the girls were 16 or would turn 16 this year.

“For the FIG, the age of the Chinese team is well documented and proven,” Gueisbuhler said.

The furor surrounding the ages of China’s gold medalists might have gotten the most attention, but underage gymnasts have been the sport’s dirty little secret for years. Since the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 in 1981 to protect young, still-developing athletes from serious injuries, there have been several examples of countries trying to skirt the rules.

The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.

Romania admitted some of its gymnasts’ ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu. Gymnasts from the Soviet Union said their birthdates were changed to allow them to compete.

And North Korea was banned from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

“There is a history of this, which is why I think the FIG feels so strongly about needing a license,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. “If you’re going to have the rule, you have to be able to enforce it.

In this Sept. 19, 2000 file ph…
AP – Oct 1, 6:29 am EDT

“This situation has brought a higher sense of (emphasis) on, how do we address that in such a way that we don’t give someone just another piece of paper to show but there’s a policy in place that leaves no question.”

A licensing system might have prevented all of the controversy—or at least brought it to a quicker end.

Beginning next year, the FIG will require any gymnast who competes in an international competition at the junior or senior level to have a license based on a passport. The hope is this will prevent cheating, because most gymnasts begin competing internationally several years before appearing at an Olympics or world championships.

“I’m really applauding anything they’re going to put in place to try and avoid this situation from happening again,” Dawes said. “People are just going to brush it off, saying, ‘Oh, they were 14.’ It’s just as serious, I feel, as the performance-enhancing drug issue.”

There are loopholes, of course. Gymnasts who don’t compete internationally until right before an Olympics or worlds would not need a license, and therefore the FIG wouldn’t have its own record. The FIG also would have to trust that the passports gymnasts submitted were, indeed, legitimate.

In this Aug. 18, 2008 file pho…
AP – Oct 1, 6:02 am EDT

“Be it with age, be it with doping, be it with judges, if we believe in fair play in sport and to be a role model for youth and we believe in the values of the Olympic movement, then I think it is our duty to be serious about it,” Gueisbuhler said, “and do all we can to ensure these rules are enforced.”

That’s why the FIG is pursuing its investigation of the 2000 squad.

“Clearly they feel that there is more to be looked at for Sydney,” said Emmanuelle Moreau, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee. “We encourage them to pursue their inquiry and shed some light on these cases. We now rely on them to get to the bottom of that and get back to us.”

In addition to Dong’s Beijing accreditation, her blog says she was born in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac, which dated from Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986. Dong has not denied that, but she refused to answer any questions about her age, telling the AP last week, “I’ve left the gymnastics team.”

Yang, who also won a bronze medal on the uneven bars in 2000, said in a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in Sydney.

Yang, who is engaged to Beijing men’s all-around champion Yang Wei, told the AP last week that she had misspoken, declining further comment.

“Everyone has misspoken before. On television shows, there are always slips of the tongue,” she said, declining to comment further.

While it continues to investigate the ages of Dong and Yang, the FIG also is exploring its legal options. The FIG’s statute of limitations in disciplinary issues is five years, but it can be extended to 10 years for criminal matters. If cause were found, the punishment could be as severe as stripping medals.

“I would hope that the whole world in sport realizes that the FIG is serious about these rules and the ethics and moral questions,” Gueisbuhler said.

Associated Press Writers Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Stephen Wilson in London and Anita Chang and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.

(Updates with quotes/details)

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters) – World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe will attempt for a second time this November to atone for an Olympic disappointment by winning the New York marathon.

The 34-year-old Briton told a teleconference on Wednesday she would defend her title on Nov. 2 after finishing 23rd in the Beijing Olympics marathon. Her training had been badly disrupted by a stress fracture of her left femur sustained in May.

Four years ago Radcliffe came back after failing to finish the Athens Olympic marathon to win her first New York title.

Radcliffe said she believed she would be in good enough shape to bid for her third win in the race through each of the city’s five boroughs.

“Definitely, definitely,” Radcliffe said. “I mean, that’s why I would be going there.

“I think what Grete (Waitz) did here winning nine was amazing. But to even just win New York three times is a big achievement and would be to me. That’s certainly the aim in going there.”

“I’m hopefully in good shape, I think good enough shape to commit now to running the race and building on that between now and the race.”

Last year Radcliffe won in New York after maternity leave during which she gave birth to daughter Isla.

Radcliffe said her troubles in Beijing stemmed from a lack of road racing in her preparation for the Olympics, won by 38-year-old Romanian Constantina Tomescu.

To save the pounding on her healing leg, she used a high-tech, anti-gravity treadmill and a variety of cross-training methods to build stamina.

“I should have run a lot better than that,” she said. “But what I didn’t have was running-specific fitness and enough time on my legs, which I guess is what caused the calf to cramp up.

“I just needed to get out there. There is no substitute for running.”

NO REGRETS

Radcliffe said she stood by her decision to compete in Beijing, even if she was disappointed in the result.

“I totally don’t regret being there because I worked really hard to give myself that chance,” she said. “Being in the race and giving it a shot is 100 times better than watching it on TV.

“I would have watched it on TV and I would have thought, ‘I could have gone there, I could have gone there and done something.’ But I don’t regret it at all.”

Radcliffe confirmed she wanted to run in the 2012 London Olympics.

“I think there’s more Olympics for me,” she said. “I don’t think my Olympic career is over yet. I know that probably the best years for achieving it might have gone, but then you never know.

“I mean, Constantina was 38 and…she ran really well and she went out there and seized it and deserved it fully in Beijing. So there is still a chance.” (Editing by John Mehaffey)

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)—The head of the Belgian Olympic Committee wants his top anti-doping official to resign after a retiring athlete said the doctor had advised him to take illegal products a decade ago.

Dr. Renno Roelandt, who also holds a post at the World Anti-Doping Agency, however, refused to step down as deputy chairman of the committee despite the urging from chairman Pierre-Olivier Beckers.

Instead, the Belgian Olympic committee decided Monday to open an investigation into the allegations from sprinter Erik Wijmeersch that Roelandt advised him in 1998 to take illegal growth hormones.

“It is Dr. Roelandt who is best placed to know what he should do,” committee spokesman Luc Rampaer said.

Wijmeersch, a Belgian champion who never broke through at an international level, said he took doping products for three years, until 2001. Roelandt is not accused of providing him with drugs, only giving advice.

Roelandt is a volunteer expert serving on WADA’s List Working Committee, which provides recommendations and guidance to WADA on the list of prohibited substances.

“As a matter of fairness for all those involved, WADA will not comment until all facts are known to the agency,” WADA spokesman Frederic Donze said.