Iourieva gets 1st biathlon World Cup win of season
(Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:54:57 PST)
Ekaterina Iourieva of Russia won the 7.5-kilometer sprint Friday, her first biathlon World Cup victory of the season. Iourieva shrugged off one penalty and completed the Oberhof course in 22 minutes, 9.7 seconds to edge Germany's Andrea Henkel, who shot clean and finished 2.4 seconds behind. Sweden's Helena Jonsson was third, 19.6 seconds back, also without missing a shot.

Nations may face curb on Olympic rowing events
(Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:50:30 PST)
The traditional powerhouses of rowing -- including Australia, Britain and the United States -- could face limits in the number of events they compete in at the 2012 London Olympics. The 126 member nations of FISA, the sport's world governing body, will vote next month on a Swiss proposal that would restrict countries to entering a maximum 10 of 14 gold medal classes.

Tokyo's 2016 venues approved by sports federations
(Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:52:28 PST)
Tokyo's proposed venues for the 2016 Olympics have been approved by all 26 participating international sports federations, the Tokyo bid committee said Friday. The 26 federations signed off on the operational aspects for their respective sports and the logistics required for each competition venue, the Tokyo 2016 bid committee said in a statement.

Back injury forces Belbin-Agosto out of nationals
(Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:25:21 PST)
Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto will have to share the record for U.S. dance titles a little while longer. Belbin and Agosto withdrew from this month's U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Thursday because of his back injury. It's the same injury that knocked the Olympic silver medalists out of last month's Grand Prix final.

US Olympic Committee loses major sponsor
(Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:56:19 PST)
Home Depot is ending its US Olympic Committee (USOC) sponsorship after spending between 15 million and 20 million dollars to support US Olympians over the past four years.

Austria wins biathlon relay; Russian suspended
(Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:47:58 PST)
Austria won its second straight World Cup men's biathlon relay Thursday, and a Russian competitor was ruled out after failing a pre-race blood check. Daniel Mesotitsch, Friedrich Pinter, Dominik Landertinger and Christoph Sumann won the 4x7.5-kilometer race in 1 hour, 19 minutes, 36.6 seconds after zero penalty laps and 12 missed shots.

Olympics: No US bid for 2018 Winter Games
(Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:33:48 PST)
The United States will not bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, concentrating full efforts upon Chicago's 2016 Summer Olympic bid, US Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said.

Home Depot ends USOC sponsorship, jobs program
(Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:25:03 PST)
The days of walking into Home Depot and having an Olympic gold medalist help you pick out paint could be coming to an end. The big-box home store said Wednesday it was ending its multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee and discontinuing a program that offered jobs and benefits to American athletes.

Liu likely to miss Berlin worlds, says coach
(Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:55:14 PST)
China's Liu Xiang will probably not defend his world 110m hurdles title in Berlin later this year because of the injury that forced him out of the Beijing Olympics, his coach told local media on Wednesday.

APNewsBreak: USOC's official resigns
(Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:00:37 PST)
Steve Roush resigned from the U.S. Olympic Committee on Tuesday, leaving a post in which he played a key role in organizing logistics for American athletes at the last three games. He was the USOC's chief of sport performance since 2003. For the three years before that, he worked as sports partnership director.

Olympics behind him, Lomong still dreaming big
(Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:46:14 PST)
Watching a young Sudanese girl arrive at her new school this fall, Lopez Lomong felt the same kind of pride he did when he led the U.S. team into the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. Running saved him when his native country was being ripped apart by civil war. Educating the next generation of Sudan will help ensure it never happens again.

Belarusians appeal Olympic doping violations
(Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:00:52 PST)
Two Belarusian hammer throwers who were stripped of their Olympic medals for doping have appealed to world sport's highest court to get them back. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Tuesday that Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan filed appeals to overturn a Dec. 11 ruling by the International Olympic Committee's executive board disqualifying the pair from the Beijing Games.

Golden League organisers seek big expansion from 2010
(Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:46:35 PST)
The IAAF plans to take its flagship Golden League athletics series outside Europe from 2010 in a major expansion that could also see London, Lausanne and Stockholm added to the programme.

Staviski gets 2 1/2-year sentence for fatal crash
(Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:19:16 PST)
A court in Bulgaria has sentenced world ice-dancing champion Maxim Staviski to 2 1/2 years in prison for a fatal drunk driving accident. The court on Monday overturned an earlier suspended sentence for the same term. Staviski was found guilty of crashing his car into an oncoming vehicle in August 2007.

Napier, Schaaf qualify for bobsled Worlds
(Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:19:54 PST)
John Napier and Bree Schaaf won the U.S. National Bobsled Championships at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Sunday and qualified for the World Championships. Napier, of Schenectady, N.Y., and brakeman Cory Butner of Yucaipa, Calif., won in 3 minutes, 45.87 seconds in the four-heat race. They held off Mike Kohn of Chantilly, Va., and brakeman Jacob Miller of Waterford, Va., by 0.30 seconds.