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A lot at stake for these games
By John Powers
Globe Staff / June 16, 2009
Though the voting won’t take place until October, this is a crucial week for the four remaining bid cities for the 2016 Olympics and the seven sports vying for two places on the program. For the first time, the vast majority of International Olympic Committee members (an estimated 94 of 107) will get briefings and a chance to question the candidate cities at the Swiss headquarters in Lausanne well before they have to make a decision at their annual session. Unlike at voting time, this week’s activities will have “no heads of states, no flashy videos, no presentation of fancy athletes,” says IOC president Jacques Rogge.
Still, it’s a priceless chance for the contenders to do some lobbying and for the sports federations to make their case to the IOC’s executive board, which will choose two of them in August for the main body to approve this fall. While baseball and softball, both lopped off after Beijing, have gotten most of the attention, golf and seven-a-side rugby have the inside track, according to the IOC program commission’s evaluation. With the IOC reportedly preferring one individual and one team sport open to both genders, those two both fit the bill, particularly considering the criteria – wide appeal, universality (i.e. practiced globally), inexpensive infrastructure, no doping.
Golf, which last was on the program in 1904, would offer 72-hole competition for 60 men and women with the world’s top 15 players given automatic berths, would arrange its tour schedules around the Games and employ nearby courses. “To be the first gold medal winner in 112 years? Definitely,” said Colin Montgomerie, who says he’d play at 53. Rugby, dropped after 1924, would have tournaments for both genders using existing stadia. Each of the other five sports has a drawback. Softball and baseball require separate (and unique) facilities. Karate would be the third martial art (judo and taekwondo) on the program, squash televises poorly and roller sports aren’t universal. If the membership turns thumbs-down on the two proposed sports, the others will be reconsidered.
Now pitching . . .
The four bid cities (Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro) make their pitches tomorrow in what is shaping up as another to-the-wire battle. “I think it’s going to be a very close call,” reckons Rogge, “a little like Singapore.” That 2005 vote for the 2012 Games was among London, Paris, Madrid, New York, and Moscow, with London defeating Paris by four votes on the final ballot. While Rio looks to be the outsider (South America never has staged the Games), the other three have excellent credentials. When the decision is made in Copenhagen, all four heads of state – including President Obama – likely will be on hand alongside the flashy videos and fancy athletes.
Money matters
While the US Olympic Committee has lost several sponsors (General Motors, Home Depot, Kellogg’s) and is trying to keep others (Bank of America) amid the recession, it’s raising the support payouts to the winter sports federations from $37.5 million for the last quadrennium to $55.2 million for this one, jacking up the pre-Olympic year amount from $11.1 million to $16.5 million. “Despite the economic environment, we are absolutely determined to put our athletes first,” said Stephanie Streeter, the USOC’s acting CEO.
Bonus babies
After the Americans won only one gold medal in Beijing (freestyler Henry Cejudo), USA Wrestling is offering $250,000 to any grappler who earns one in 2012. That’s five times the payoff for silver and 10 times for bronze. As a leadup inducement, the federation will pay $50,000/$25,000/$15,000 to medalists at the next three world championships. There were a number of startling results at the recent trials for this summer’s global tournament in Denmark. In men’s freestyle, Shawn Bunch knocked off former medalist Mike Zadick at 60kg, Dustin Schlatter defeated national champion Travis Paulson at 74k, and Tervel Dlagnev upended Olympian Steve Mocco at 120kg. In Greco-Roman, Chas Betts upset Olympian T.C. Dantzler, who’d made five straight world teams, at 84kg. And on the women’s side, Jessica Medina beat Pat Miranda, a 2004 Olympic medalist, at 51kg and Deanna Rix took out national champion Kelsey Campbell at 59kg. The biggest surprise, though, came from freestyler Danny Felix, who beat national champion Nick Simmons at 55kg to make his first world team at 35. “I’ve thrown my shoes in the garbage can a few times,” said Felix, who lost to Cejudo at last year’s Olympic trials. “But I always pulled them back out.”
Minor waves
Those recent “Phelps Loses” headlines should come with a footnote, since Michael Phelps has been experimenting with events which he didn’t swim at Olympus. At last weekend’s Santa Clara meet, Phelps finished second in the 100-meter freestyle to world champion Brent Hayden and in the 100 backstroke to Ryan Lochte. He won his other two races – the 200 butterfly and the 400 freestyle. Though he probably won’t swim the two individual medleys at next month’s trials in Indianapolis, Phelps still could make the world team in eight events if he wants.
Beach days
Olympic champions Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers will be defending their global title at next week’s world beach volleyball championships in the unlikely venue of Stavanger, Norway. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, the Beijing titlists and three-time women’s champs, will be absent. May-Treanor still is on the mend after tearing an Achilles’ tendon last year while “Dancing with the Stars” Walsh recently had a baby. That leaves Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, their fellow Olympians, as the top US hopes . . . It took her the better part of a decade but peripatetic figure skater Michelle Kwan earned her college diploma this month from the University of Denver. The 29-year-old Kwan, who originally enrolled at UCLA in 1999, switched to DU three years ago (after her post-Olympic hip surgery) and received an international studies degree. She’ll be doing further study at Tufts’ Fletcher School and will continue her diplomatic globetrotting for the State Deptartment . . . Skating’s pre-Olympic game of coach-switching continued yesterday when US medalist Caroline Zhang dropped Li Mingzhu to go with Charlene Wong, who recently lost former champion Mirai Nagasu to Frank Carroll . . . Good draws for both US water polo teams for this summer’s world championships in Rome. The men, who won the Olympic silver behind Hungary, will face Italy, Romania, and Macedonia while the women, second to the Netherlands in Beijing, meet Russia and Greece. The American women won their fourth World League title in six years in Russia last weekend, beating Canada in the super final. The US is grouped with Serbia and Japan in Italy in the men’s event, which begins today in Montenegro . . . Shawn Johnson, the gymnast who survived a stalker to win the “Dancing with the Stars” title with partner Mark Ballas, is the third Olympic gold medalist in five years to claim the crown, joining short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi. Besides the mirrorball, Johnson collected a reported $300,000 in prize money.
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.