Beijing Olympic Games

Swimming HomeAthletesScheduleResultsNewsMedalsPhotosVideo Dara Torres top qualifier for 50 free finals

BEIJING (AP)—Dara Torres, the 41-year-old mom swimming in her American-record fifth Olympics, will have the top starting position for the finals of the 50-meter freestyle after posting the fastest time in Saturday’s semifinal heats.

Torres’ time of 24.27 was the sixth-fastest this year, and 0.15 better than a

Tennis HomeAthletesScheduleResultsNewsMedalsPhotos Tennis becomes Olympic marathon

By STEVEN WINE, AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP)—It was 1:15 a.m. at the Olympic Tennis Centre, and top-ranked Jelena Jankovic sprawled out across her changeover chair and closed her eyes to catch some rest.

That can be hard to do at an event that has become an Olympic marathon.

The mixture of rain, long matches and a heavy schedule has kept players— and hardy spectators—at the venue until the wee hours.

On Friday morning, a weary Jankovic settled into her courtside when rain started falling as she was about to begin warming up for a match. Fifteen minutes later, the tournament called it a night—or morning.

The Friday night session went even later, in part because all four center-court matches were three-setters.

A couple thousand fans stayed until 3:35 a.m. Saturday, their flag-waving chants drowning out the sound of crickets outside the stadium, as Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China beat Svetlana Kuzn

Updated: 2008-08-05 22:46:19

The scene of the Press Conference

(BEIJING, Aug. 5) — Though Team China will be first in the hearts of Chinese fans at the Olympic Women’s Volleyball tournament, the United States may rank a close second. The reason? US Coach Lang Ping. Widely considered one of the best volleyball players in the history of China, the beloved star has returned to her home country as the coach of the US Women’s Volleyball team.

“I think that’s such a rare thing to see Chinese fans support our country because of Lang Ping,” said Nicole Davies, a US volleyball player who joined her coach at a press conference at the Main Press Center in Beijing on Tuesday, August 5.

Lang Ping

During the 2005 World Grand Prix in Ningbo, China, Chinese fans held up “Lang Ping” signs in one hand while holding the US flag in the other.

Lang, a former Chine

IOC considering pending Beijing doping cases

By GRAHAM DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP)—The International Olympic Committee will examine several pending doping cases from the Beijing Games this weekend.

An IOC disciplinary commission will meet Sunday to consider sanctions against, among others, the silver and bronze medalists from Belarus in the men’s hammer throw.

Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan tested positive for traces of testosterone after the hammer final Aug. 17. If the two are found guilty of doping, they would be disqualified and stripped of their medals.

Devyatovskiy’s silver would go to Krisztian Pars of Hungary, while Tsikhan’s bronze would go to Koji Murofushi of Japan. Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia won the gold medal.

The 31-year-old Devyatovskiy faces a lifetime ban if found guilty of a second doping offense. He served a two-year drug suspension from 2000-02.

It would be a first offense for 32-year-old Tsikhan, a three-time world champion and silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Other doping cases also will be examined.

IOC executive board member Gerhard Heiberg told Norwegian television that “several people from several nations” were implicated. He would not name them.

Emmanuelle Moreau, an IOC spokeswoman, said the panel would review “all pending cases from Beijing.” She said these included samples “that might have come back with adverse findings after the games were finished.”

Six athletes were disqualified for doping during the games.

The Olympics ended Aug. 24. It can take several days for samples to clear testing, so any positive tests from the second week of the games might only be confirmed afterward.

Moreau said the panel was only meeting now, nearly a month after the end of the games, because of the logistics in getting the members together and allowing athletes to attend the hearing.

The disciplinary panel can disqualify athletes on its own. It also can forward recommendations to the IOC executive board for a final ruling.

Disqualified by the IOC during the Beijing Olympics were Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska, Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov, Greek hurdler Fani Halkia, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Spanish cyclist Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do.

Blonska was stripped of her silver medal, while Kim’s silver and bronze medals were revoked.

The IOC carried out more than 5,000 doping tests during the games.

Track & Field HomeAthletesScheduleResultsMedals Kenya’s Jelimo feted with marriage proposals

By Ben Makori

KAPSABET, Kenya, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Kenya’s 800 metres Olympic champion and millionaire Pamela Jelimo has returned home to dozens of placards proposing marriage.

The 18-year-old police constable claimed the Golden League $1 million jackpot earlier this month after winning her event at the season’s six meetings. She had taken Olympic gold in Beijing last month. As she toured her Rift Valley home area on Thursday and Friday, huge crowds turned out to see her after she landed by helicopter. Traditional dancers performed and women sang praise songs. Young men brandished signs saying “Pamela Marry Me!”

“Jelimo’s performance really inspired me,” Nancy Cherotich, a friend from the runner’s schooldays, told Reuters. “It made me wish that I could run again.”

A convoy of nearly 200 vehicles followed her up the dusty road from Eldoret town to her home village near Kapsabet.

There, her father John Busienei, was jubilant.

“When I speak about her and her performance I can cry because of pride,” he said. She is my daughter and I love her so much … the whole world knows her because of her performance.”

Jelimo will have a street in Kapsabet named after her—an honour normally reserved for top politicians in a country better known for its long-distance runners.

Post-election violence in Kenya at the start of the year disrupted the training of a number of the country’s athletes in the Rift Valley, but Jelimo’s home village was unscathed. (Writing by Daniel Wallis; editing by Keith Weir)

Student, city fight for Olympic Web site

CHICAGO (AP)—A 29-year-old MBA student is countersuing the Chicago Olympic committee for rights to Chicago2016.com.

Northwestern University student Stephen Frayne Jr. bought the Chicago2016.com site from a Japanese company in 2004. Chicago kicked off its bid to host the 2016 Olympics two years later. The city’s Olympic committee has trademarked “Chicago 2016,” and uses Chicago2016.org as its official web site.

The Chicago and U.S. Olympic committees appealed to an international arbitration organization for ownership of Chicago2016.com, and a decision is expected Monday. Frayne filed suit against both groups Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago to stop the proceedings.

“We certainly see Chicago2016.com as the logical default domain for our site, and we believe having someone else control it is misleading for people seeking information about Chicago’s bid,” Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky said.

Frayne owns 40 other sites whose names combine a city name and year, including Tokyo2016.com. He launched Chicago2016.com late last month as place for discussion about Chicago’s Olympic chances. The site states that it is not hosted by the Olympic committee and directs users to Chicago2016.org.

“This case represents an important battle for First Amendment rights and the use of the Internet as a forum to foster debate over a topic that deserves to be discussed,” Frayne’s lawsuit states.

Freedom of speech is not at issue, but “the domain name that is rightfully ours,” Sandusky said.

Chicago is competing against three other cities to host the 2016 Olympics.

El Moutawakel to head panel on 2016 Olympic bids

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP)—Former Moroccan gold medalist Nawal El Moutawakel will lead the IOC panel assessing the four bids for the 2016 Olympics.

The highest ranking woman on the International Olympic Committee, El Moutawakel was appointed Thursday as chair of the 2016 evaluation commission.

The panel will visit the four candidate cities—Chicago; Madrid, Spain; Tokyo; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—in the first quarter of 2009 and compile a report assessing the bids.

The report will be sent to IOC members one month before they vote on the host city on Oct. 2, 2009, at their session in Copenhagen, Denmark.

El Moutawakel also headed the IOC evaluation commission for the 2012 Olympics, which were awarded to London in 2005.

“The team will have the complex and exciting task to evaluate the potential of four highly capable candidate cities,” she said in a statement. “Our role will be to assess their technical capabilities in a transparent and neutral way.”

El Moutawakel became the first woman from a predominantly Muslim nation to win an Olympic medal when she took gold in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. She was the first Moroccan athlete to win a gold medal.

El Moutawakel was elected to the IOC executive board at the Beijing Olympics, the first woman from a Muslim nation on the rule-making body.

Members of the evaluation commission also include Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli; IOC members Craig Reedie of Britain, C.K Wu of Taiwan, Guy Drut of France and Mounir Sabet of Egypt; athlete representative Alexander Popov of Russia; Els van Breda Vriesman of the Netherlands, representing the international sports federations; and Australian Gregory Hartung of the International Paralympic Committee.

A representative of national Olympic committees and advisers will be appointed later.

“We have a professional team with a wide range of knowledge and experience,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said.