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Former city sportscaster writes books to get kids moving

A lightbulb went on as Lisa Bowes was preparing to call women’s hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Malagò: 2026 Olympics on track after difficult few years

MILAN (AP) — Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malagò is confident everything is on track for the country’s first Olympics in two decades but admits that the past few years have been akin to “running a marathon with a backpack.”

Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo will stage the 2026 Winter Games and the country’s preparations have been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic as well as political upheaval.

But Malagò hailed a productive first in-person meeting with the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission for the Games, which spent three days in Milan.

“In the past three years since we won the Games, I have met with four governments, four different institutions and structures, four people with whom to deal with … without forgetting COVID, inflation and the international crisis,” Malagò said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Winter Olympics focus on climate change, rotating hosts

To hear the world's Olympic leaders tell it, the bidding for future Winter Games has been jumbled by internal disputes at India's Olympic committee, a newfound affinity for streamlining the bidding process and, most recently, a long-overdue nod to the impact of climate change.

Left unsaid might be the biggest reason of all: It's becoming nearly impossible to find any place, outside of Salt Lake City, that truly wants to host these events.

It's a reality that has been building for decades, and one the IOC said could reach a tipping point soon, when its Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, raised the idea at a meeting last week that the narrow list of eligible cities could be narrowed further by the realities of a warming planet with fewer mountain towns that can realistically host the Games.

That, in turn, leads to the idea that the Olympics could someday be rotated between a handful of cities — an idea that long has been floated for both summer and winter as the bloated budgets and overbuilt infrastructure of Olympic hosts becomes as inevitable as the lighting of the flame.

Smith, Maier both get bronze 10 months after Beijing Games

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — A second bronze medal will be awarded to end a dispute over third place in women’s skicross at the Beijing Olympics.

Under a settlement reached 10 months after the race — and following a second change in the result — both Fanny Smith of Switzerland and Daniela Maier of Germany will get a bronze medal.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Tuesday it had ratified the settlement.

Smith had originally been demoted to fourth — and Maier upgraded — following the Feb. 17 race. An International Ski Federation (FIS) race jury had blamed Smith for causing contact with other skiers.

50 years later, sprinter Matthews welcomed back to Olympics

More than 50 years after banning him for his low-key racial injustice protest at the Munich Olympics, the International Olympic Committee says it will allow American gold-medal sprinter Vince Matthews back at the games.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee was copied in on a letter from the IOC, which said it would allow the 75-year-old Matthews to attend future Olympics.

“This is good news, and a long time coming,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said Monday.

The Americans Matthews and Wayne Collett, both Black men, finished 1-2 in the 400 meters in 1972. While the “Star-Spangled Banner” played during their medals ceremony, Collett stood with his hand on his hips. Matthews rubbed his goatee, crossed his arms and shifted his feet. Four years after Tommie Smith and John Carlos had raised their fists defiantly during their own medals ceremony in Mexico City, Matthews twirled his medal as he stepped off the podium. Fans booed and whistled as he and Collett, who died in 2010, headed for the tunnel.

USOPC sees ‘impossible’ hurdle to Russian return to Olympics

The leader of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee conceded it would be “impossible” to monitor which athletes have supported the war in Ukraine if a plan is devised to allow some Russians to compete as neutrals in international competitions, and potentially the Olympics.

USOPC chair Susanne Lyons said Monday that the federation supported last week's decision at an IOC summit to explore a pathway for Russian athletes back into competition. Among the conditions would be that those athletes would be subject to a strict ban on displaying Russian flags and colors, and that they could not have backed the war.

There have, however, been Russian athletes who have been vocally supportive of the war.

“It's going to be impossible to figure out how they would monitor it,” Lyons said.

Federal government commits $2.4 million in crisis money to athletes’ mental health

Canada's sports minister has committed $2.4 million in crisis funding for athletes' mental health.

Pascale St-Onge announced Monday in Montreal the money will support crisis care, education and training for Olympic and Paralympic athletes and coaches.

A wave of active and retired athletes have pointed to abusive and toxic environments in Canadian high-performance sport. They've demanded culture change from the system and their federations, and there have also been calls for a national inquiry into sport.

St-Onge told The Canadian Press her conversations with athletes touched on two themes: the stress and isolation of training for and competing in two Olympic Games through COVID-19 restrictions, as well as anxiety and tension over relationships with those who oversee and manage them.

Russia may join sports events in Asia ahead of 2024 Olympics

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Russia could return to some international sports events and Olympic qualifiers by competing as part of Asia rather than Europe.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach welcomed a “creative” plan Friday to allow athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to join competitions in Asia after more than nine months of isolation from most Olympic sports following the invasion of Ukraine.

The statement did not directly address whether Russia and Belarus can send teams to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but a move from Europe to Asia offers a potential way for Russian athletes to compete in continental events which serve as qualifiers for the Games. Qualifying in some sports is already underway.

“Something which few believed in even recently could soon become reality,” Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov wrote on the Telegram app. He predicted Russian athletes could be back in Olympic qualifiers “in the near future".

Canada’s Olympic gold medallists in speedskating have eye on world record

CALGARY - After an Olympic gold medal, going where no team as gone before drives Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais.

The trio captured gold in women's speedskating team pursuit in Beijing in February after four years of making the event a priority in their training.

Canadian women have a strong history in the six-lap race, which features two teams of three racing both the clock and each other, but Ottawa's Weidemann and Blondin and Maltais of La Baie, Que., are Canada's first Olympic champions in it.

Reclaiming a world record for Canada is the next carrot the trio will chase.

Ukrainian Olympian auctioning medals to help war effort

One of Ukraine's most decorated Olympians is auctioning his medals — two golds and a bronze — in hopes of raising a six-figure donation to contribute to the war effort in his native land.

“My Olympic medals won’t matter if Ukraine can’t stand for this fight for freedom and independence,” two-time canoe champion Yuri Cheban told The Associated Press in an email exchange Wednesday.

Cheban won Olympic gold in the 200 meters in 2012 and 2016 and a bronze in the 500 meters in 2008. SCP Auctions, which is conducting the sale, expects the gold medals to fetch in the neighborhood of $75,000 each, an impressive estimate buoyed by the relative scarcity of available recent medals, and also their meaning.

Cheban will give the proceeds to the Olympic Circle charity fund, a collection started by athletes and targeted toward helping the city of Mykolaiv, which isn't far from the recently liberated city of Kherson and also close to Cheban's home, the Black Sea port city of Odessa.

Break it down: Dancers begin charting path to Paris Olympics

NEW YORK (AP) — Breaking is in Victor Montalvo’s blood. He is a descendant of twin breakers — his father and uncle — who were performing in Mexico long before they taught a young Montalvo to spin on his back.

Born in Kissimmee, Florida, the 28-year-old who also goes by B-Boy Victor has mastered the foundations of the dance form. He has power. He has the flavor and swagger expected of a diehard b-boy. His movement syncs with the breakbeat flowing from the DJ’s turntables.

Scribble, chirp, rip, boom, blip.

He hopes to take breaking further than his relatives ever dreamt, to battle his way to a medal ceremony, when the now-global dance art debuts at the Olympic Summer Games less than two years from now.

Three-time Canadian Olympian Natalie Achonwa announces pregnancy

MINNEAPOLIS - Canadian basketball star Natalie Achonwa has announced she is pregnant.

The three-time Olympian from Guelph, Ont., made the announcement on her 30th birthday, posting an image of an ultrasound on her Instagram account with a sign that said "adding a new teammate 2023."

Achonwa averaged 5.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 22 games with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx in the 2022.

She most recently helped Canada to a fourth-place finish at the 2022 FIBA Women's World Cup in Australia.

China-made Paris Olympics mascots fuel criticism in France

PARIS (AP) — The mascots for the 2024 Paris Olympics are a symbol of the French Republic. Most of them are made in China, and that does not go down well in France.

The Phryges mascots are manufactured by French companies Gipsy Toys and Doudou et Compagnie. They use fabric developed in the French region of Brittany, but the toys are primarily manufactured in China. Only about 8% of the mascot will be made in France.

At a time when European Union leaders express increasing concern about economic dependency on the world’s second-largest economy, the manufacturing of the stuffed toys shaped like a Phrygian cap is fueling criticism.

The manufacturing of the mascots in China was due to a “structural problem," French government spokesman Olivier Véran said on Thursday.

Column: Izzy’s long run as worst Olympic mascot is over

ATLANTA (AP) — Hey, Izzy, we've got some good news.

Your 26-year reign as the worst Olympic mascot is over.

The much-despised, often-ridiculed, computer-generated blob from the 1996 Atlanta Games has been toppled as the G.O.A.T. (Grossest Of All Time) by a ... well, we're not quite sure what it's supposed to be.

A blood droplet?

Non-disclosure agreements complicate safe sport reporting in Canada

TORONTO - The past few months have seen an outpouring of Canadian athletes decrying the maltreatment and abuse experienced in their sports.

But how many other athletes have been silenced by non-disclosure agreements? And how will those gag orders impact the work of agencies hoping to clean up sport?

Canada's sport minister Pascale St-Onge launched the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) in June, as a one-stop, independent complaint investigator. And the Standing Committee on the Status of Women recently unanimously passed a motion to undertake a study on the safety of women and girls in sport.

But the rules around NDAs for both remain murky.

AthletesCAN latest organization to join federal government’s Abuse-Free Sport

OTTAWA - AthletesCAN, the association of Canada's national team athletes, has joined Abuse-Free Sport, the federal government's new program to prevent and address maltreatment in sport.

AthletesCAN will have access to the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC), which is the central hub of Abuse-Free Sport, following a transition period that will end no later than Dec. 21.

"We are happy to have joined Abuse-Free Sport and to soon have the OSIC to administer our safe sport complaints," AthletesCAN vice-president Bo Hedges said. "As the only independent organization representing Canada's national team athletes, the development, implementation and successful execution of this new mechanism has been a priority for our members for many years."

Canada's sport minister Pascale St-Onge has given national sport organizations a deadline of April to sign on with OSIC, or risk losing federal funding. Athletes in numerous sports including gymnastics, bobsled and skeleton have been vocal about maltreatment in their sports, amid what St-Onge has called a "safe-sport crisis" in Canada.

Russian skater Valieva could miss 2026 Olympics over doping

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva faces a potential four-year doping ban which would rule her out of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Monday.

CAS said it had registered an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency, which said last week it was taking the case to the Switzerland-based tribunal. WADA argues Russian officials have not made progress in resolving the 16-year-old Valieva's case nearly a year after she tested positive for a heart medication banned in sports.

The CAS statement said WADA is seeking “the athlete be sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility starting on the date on which the CAS award enters into force." If granted, that would cover the next Olympics in Italy.

WADA also wants Valieva to be disqualified from all competitions since December 2021, when she gave a sample which later tested positive. That would include losing the gold medal she won in the team event at the Beijing Olympics in February, when she was 15.

Paris 2024 Olympics, Paralympics mascot is a smiling hat

PARIS (AP) — The mascots for the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics have been revealed — a Phrygian cap.

The soft red cap, also known as a liberty cap, is an updated version of a conical hat worn in antiquity in places such as Persia, the Balkans, Thrace, Dacia and Phrygia, a place in modern day Turkey where the name originates. It later became a symbol of the pursuit of liberty in the French Revolution — and is still worn by the figure of Marianne, the national personification of France since that time.

The Olympic cap is triangular in shape, and comes complete with friendly smile, blue eyes, tricolor ribbon and big colored sneakers.

The Paralympic version features a prosthetic leg that goes to the knee — the first time such a mascot sports a visible disability, organizers said.