Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The United States women's softball team has won every gold medal since softball became an Olympic sport in 1996. But as Chris Cox reports, the U.S. women's softball team is preparing to defend its gold medal in Beijing, knowing this will be the last opportunity to play softball at the Olympic games. The unbroken success of the U.S. team has boosted softball's popularity in the United States. Star pitcher Jennie Finch says the IOC decision is tough, but there's a silver lining. "It's heart breaking,” she said. “It's very disappointing to know that we're out for 2012, but for us the future's bright and our sport is at an all-time high, and we'll just keep pushing on and hope for 2016 to get it back in." "Well yeah, I think you know, this team has grown from 2004 when we had a tremendous performance but I think they also realize that what happened in the past, happened in the past and you got to do it again," Candrea said. Jennie Finch says it's an honor to play for her country. "For us, that's what's so special about wearing this USA uniform, is to know the dominance that it has and the tradition of USA, which is gold. Three gold medals. So, we definitely have a target on our back but that just makes us work harder,” she said. The U.S. women's team starts its gold medal defense against Venezuela on August 12 in Beijing.
In 2005, the International Olympic Committee voted to take softball off the Olympic schedule starting with the 2012 London games. To stay on the summer games program, softball needed a two-thirds majority. It was one vote short. U.S. women's softball team warming up
Head coach Mike Candrea also wants to see softball in the 2016 games. But right now he is focused on helping the team win. Star pitcher Jenny Finch
Nike will allow its swimmers to wear Speedo's sleek LZR Racer instead of its own suit at the Beijing Olympics.
Nike spokesman Dean Stoyer said Wednesday the company felt it was fair to extend the offer it made in June allowing its swimmers to wear Speedo's suit at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
"It is about putting their performance and their focus first," Stoyer said. "This is what they have trained for. It is the biggest moment of their lives."
Four swimmers who signed with Nike, which has some of the industry's tightest controls on athlete contract agreements, are heading to the Olympics.
Speedo's sleek LZR Racer has caused major waves this year. Since its launch in February, swimmers have broken dozens of world records and athletes not sponsored by Speedo have clamored to wear it.
It also caused some backlash. One Italian coach accused Speedo of technological doping. And Tyr Sport Inc. sued Speedo in May, alleging in its lawsuit that the company conspired with the U.S. swimming federation to stifle competition and lure top athletes away from other sponsors.
British-owned Speedo says the lawsuit is baseless.
It’s a bit of déjà vu for Iraqi athletes and sports fans. On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee said it will let Iraq participate in the games in Beijing after Iraqi government officials vowed that its Olympics committee would be independent and free from political influence.
The lifting of the ban on Iraq’s participation in the Olympics came with just enough time to let Iraq meet today’s deadline to submit the names of athletes competing in the track and field events. That means Iraq will be sending two competitors to Beijing. Other potential participants in the fields of judo, rowing, weightlifting and archery will have to sit this one out, because the deadline for name submissions for those events passed last week.
The IOC banned Iraq from the games after the Iraqi government dissolved the country’s national Olympic committee in May. The government said the committee hadn’t had a quorum for several years, ever since several members of the group were kidnapped, and alleged that the committee was mired in corruption.
A similar kind of back and forth occurred in the soccer world, also because of the Iraqi Olympics committee’s dissolution. That prompted FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body, to bar the Iraqi team from international matches for one year, including the World Cup. But Iraq said the dissolution didn’t apply to the Iraqi Football Association, and FIFA ended up letting the Iraqi team play.
In June, Iraq went on to win two of its World Cup qualifying matches against Australia and China, but ended up losing to Australia and Qatar in other games, which kept them out of the next phase of the qualifying matches.
As for the Olympics, the IOC agreed to allow Iraq to participate after Iraq said it would hold free elections by the end of November to choose members of a new Iraqi Olympics committee. The polling would be observed by international monitors. In the meantime, there will be an interim committee to oversee Iraq’s involvement in the Olympics.
Of course, actually meeting deadlines is often unheard of in Iraq, whether it’s for elections or other issues. The Iraqi government had intended to hold provincial elections in October this year, but because of disagreements over an elections law it’s unclear when the polling will take place.
But most Iraqis desperately want the government to resolve these matters so the country’s participation in future international athletic events isn’t in question. Sports, especially soccer, provide one of the few escapes from the daily stress of living in Iraq. Although violence is ebbing, there is still a lack of basic services such as electricity and clean water, while unemployment is high.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, who led a delegation to hold talks with the IOC that brokered the Olympics agreement, said Iraq needed to participate in the Olympics to provide hope to the country and to show that Iraq is slowly shedding its war-torn image.