Sharapova Olympic-bound

Russia says Sharapova in Olympic plans despite doping case

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia says Maria Sharapova is still in its plans for the Olympic tennis tournament in August despite her provisional suspension for failing a drug test.

Sharapova has been suspended since last month, when she admitted she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium at January's Australian Open.

Sharapova said she had been taking meldonium for medical reasons for 10 years and had not seen a World Anti-Doping Agency ruling last year that it would be banned for 2016.

Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpishchev says in a statement ''we really hope that Sharapova will still be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games.''

No date has been announced by the International Tennis Federation for a hearing into the case of Sharapova, who won Olympic silver in 2012.

US women want equal pay or else

US women raise prospect of Olympic boycott

Los Angeles (AFP) - The United States women's football team could boycott the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro if demands to be paid the same as their male counterparts are not met, World Cup winner c said.

Sauerbrunn, a member of the USA team that lifted the World Cup in Canada last year and a gold medal-winning veteran of the 2012 Olympics, told ESPN that players would not rule out the possibility of a boycott.

The 30-year-old defender said a boycott would be discussed by the team if they believed no progress on the increasingly acrimonious dispute had been made.

"It would still be on the table," Sauerbrunn said. "We are reserving every right to do so and we're leaving every avenue open. And if nothing has changed, if we don't feel real progress has been made, then that's a conversation that we're going to have."

Sauerbrunn is one of five members of the US team who have filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the US Soccer Federation alleging wage discrimination.

High-profile stars such as World Cup Most Valuable Player Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo and Alex Morgan are the other signatories to the complaint, which was filed with support from the rest of the squad, Sauerbrunn said.

Sauerbrunn said she hoped the legal action would lead to "equal pay for equal play."

"I think, compensation-wise, respect-wise, that's what I'm really hoping comes out of this complaint," she told ESPN.

"I hope that it puts enough pressure on the federation to show them our worth, our value."

The US women earned $2 million in prize money for winning last year's World Cup, which the federation distributed to the women and the organization.

The men's team received $9 million after losing in the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

"The message they've been putting out by paying us drastically less than the men is that they don't value our contributions to the game as much as the men," Sauerbrunn told ESPN.

Opponents of the women players' complaint justify the disparity by asserting that the men's game generates more revenue than the female game.

However the US women are also pointing to other areas such as the quality and type of pitches used for their fixtures as evidence of discrimination.

For last year's "victory tour" following the World Cup, eight out of 10 games took place on artificial turf.

"The men never played in any friendlies on (artificial) turf so why are we playing eight out of 10 on turf when we just won a World Cup?" Sauerbrunn said.

"You'd think they'd want to present us on these beautiful sparkling pitches. It was mind-boggling to me that they would make us play on (artificial) turf on eight out of 10 games in our victory tour."

London new North Pole

Why the North Pole is now slowly moving towards London

London is calling. The planet’s North Pole mysteriously changed the direction of its travel in 2000, turning eastwards towards the Greenwich meridian. It now seems that this change in direction is down to the redistribution of water on land as well as to melting polar ice.

The Earth’s rotational axis, and with it the location of the physical North Pole, was travelling at a rate of about 10 centimetres a year over the last century towards Canada’s Hudson Bay along a line of longitude that runs through Toronto and Panama City.

This movement was down to the redistribution of Earth’s mass as the crust has slowly rebounded after the end of the last ice age.

But since 2000 it has made a dramatic 75-degree eastward shift heading along the Greenwich meridian. Some evidence suggested that the shrinking of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica caused by climate change was behind the surprise shift.

Now, a study says this change is also influenced by the changing distribution of water on land.

“This is the first time we have solid evidence that changes in land water distribution on a global scale also shift which direction the axis moves to,” says lead researcher Surendra Adhikari of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

For example, Adhikari says, the Indian subcontinent and the Caspian Sea are losing a massive amount of water, pulling the axis eastwards.
Always on the move

The study used data from NASA’s GRACE satellites to investigate how the distribution of water mass was related to the direction of Earth’s axis movement between 2002 and 2015.

The results also shed light on another long-standing puzzle: why the axis oscillates every few years. This oscillation is also down to changes in water mass around the planet, says Adhikari.

“The precise knowledge of polar motion, and Earth rotation in general, is indispensable for many applications,” says Florian Seitz of the German Geodetic Research Institute in Munich. This includes GPS navigation systems and the positioning of satellites. The findings could also help us study climate change, he says.

Because we have an accurate record of the axis’s movement since 1899, we may now be able to use that data to map out past changes in the distribution of land water more precisely.

This, in conjunction with factoring in where the axis is heading, could help make climate models more accurate.

Ja-born Olympians representing other countries

Bridge, Decasseres two Jamaican-born shooters representing the West Indies Federation

Jamaican-born athletes have represented several countries at the Olympic Games —  Canada, Bahamas, Great Britain, United States, and the Cayman Islands.
One of the first and oldest to do so was Keith De Casseres, representing the West Indies Federation in shooting at the 1960 Olympic Games.
The 5-10 Decasseres, born on May 27, 1910, took his place in the men's free pistol, 50 metres. He was 50-years-old and one of 67 men competing in the event.
Decasseres was one of just eight men 50 years and older taking part in the competition, none of whom got on to the podium. The closest oldster coming close to winning a medal was 52-year-old Swede and multiple world champion Tornsten Ulman who shot 550 points for fourth place.
In fact Decasseres was the only competitor who failed to finish the 50m free pistol at that Games.
Another Jamaican-born shooter, Tony Bridge, also representing the West Indies Federation, tied in 60th place in the same event, after shooting 319 points. Bridge was 39 years old at the time.
Decasseres died in 2003, three years after Bridge.
Bridge, however, was the leading pistol shooter in the region, competing in both the 1960 and 1964 Games (for Jamaica), before becoming a leading sports administrator.
A Wolmerian, Bridge graduated from high school in 1938 and became chairman and managing director of Novelty Trading Company. He was director of insurance, banking and other commercial companies in Jamaica.
Bridge, however, was by far one of the most sought-after sports administrators in Jamaica and he made himself available, heading the top sports associations in the land.
He was president of the Jamaica Olympic Association from 1958 to 1977, president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) from 1954 to 1962, and vice-president of the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control from 1947 to 1962.
Bridge was also vice-president of Jamaica Rifle Association (1960-62), Jamaica Amateur Weightlifting Association (1939-49), vice-chairman of the Organising Committee for the 1962 Central American and Caribbean Games, and the 1966 British Commonwealth Games.
Both the 1962 CAC Games and 1966 Commonwealth Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica.
An IOC member in October 1973, Bridge served until his death in December 2000.
He was a member of the Commission for the Olympic Programme from 1974-80 and a member of the Press Commission since 1983.

IAAF tests come too late

WADA says doping cases from 2005 worlds are past time limit

In this Tuesday, July 26, 2005 file photo Russian Tatyana Andrianova crosses the finish line to win the DN Galan 800m event in Stockholm. 

 

Numerous doping cases in track and field may go unpunished because the sport's governing body tested samples after their time limit had expired.

In at least one case, a Russian runner could be allowed to keep her world championship medal even though she tested positive for a banned substance.
The World Anti-Doping Agency said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the IAAF wrongly interpreted a rule change in April 2015 when it decided to retest samples from the 2005 and 2007 world championships. Testers found 28 athletes had tested positive at both championships, but only the samples from 2005 missed the deadline.
The IAAF believed it was able to retest the 2005 samples because the statute of limitations in the WADA code had increased to 10 years in 2015, but WADA said the previous eight-year limit should have been used.
"If the previous eight-year statute of limitations has expired prior to 1 January 2015, it does not extend to 10 years under the 2015 code," WADA spokesman Ben Nichols told the AP.
The IAAF has been under pressure to clean up the sport since a WADA commission report detailed state-supported doping in Russian track and field. The country's track team has since been banned from competition and could miss this year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Doping samples from the 2005 worlds in Helsinki stopped being eligible for retesting in 2013, well before the IAAF began its latest round of checks in April 2015.
One athlete who could benefit from the decision is Russian runner Tatyana Andrianova. She was banned by the IAAF in December after the steroid stanozolol was found in a sample from the day she won bronze in the 800 meters at the 2005 worlds. She has already appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Another athlete linked to the retests is Russian hammer thrower Tatyana Beloborodova, who won silver at the 2005 worlds and gold at the 2012 London Olympics. The IAAF confirmed Monday she has been provisionally suspended but refused to comment on reports in Russian state media that this was because of a retested sample from 2005.
Doping cases from the 2007 world championships and earlier retesting of 2005 samples that the IAAF performed in 2013, catching five medal winners, are within the deadline.
"As to the 2005 world championship retests, there is currently an ongoing case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport concerning an appeal by one of the athletes concerned, Tatyana Andrianova," the IAAF said in an e-mailed statement. "The IAAF will not be commenting further until the conclusion of that case."

More lows for Russian athletes

Russian doping scandal spreads to wrestling, sports minister prepared to quit

Mikhail Mamiashvili, President of the Russian Wrestling Federation

MOSCOW - Russia's sports minister said he was prepared to resign over a raging doping scandal in his country which could cost more Russian athletes their places at the Rio Olympics after "tens" more cases of cheating were exposed in wrestling.
Russian wrestlers may now join the country's track-and-field athletes in being barred from competing at the Games in August, after an internal Russian Wrestling Federation (WFR) investigation uncovered multiple doping cases, WFR President Mikhail Mamiashvili said.
The disclosure came a day after four Russian athletes were exposed as having tested positive for the banned drug meldonium, further damaging Moscow's efforts to overturn a doping suspension in time for the Olympics starting in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday his sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, would remain in his position despite the scandal. Mutko later said, however, that he was prepared to end his eight years in the job if asked to do so.
"The country has a leadership who take these decisions. When I see that the matter concerns me, I will leave my post," R-Sport news agency quoted him as saying.
Russian sport was thrown into turmoil last year when a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) exposed endemic cheating and corruption in Russian athletics.
Russian athletes have been suspended from international competition and will miss the Olympics if the country cannot get the ban overturned - a humiliating blow to the pride and prestige of a sporting superpower.
Since then, at least 18 Russian sportsmen and women have tested positive for meldonium, complicating Russia's drive to prove itself compliant with international anti-doping standards.
Mamiashvili said two male wrestlers, 2014 world championship silver medalist Evgeny Saleev and 2015 World Cup silver medalist Sergei Semenov, had been caught using meldonium.
But he said the sport's doping problem was widespread.
"There are tens of positive tests in the team, everyone is in a bad condition psychologically," Mamiashvili told R-Sport.
No female Russia wrestlers have tested positive for meldonium, R-Sport reported. The WFR declined to comment.
Talking to the state-owned TASS news agency about his team's chances of competing at the Rio Games, Mamiashvili said: "It may happen that simply none of us go."
Meldonium, which is used to treat diabetes and low magnesium levels, was banned by WADA on Jan. 1 after being linked to increased sporting performance.
It is particularly popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union, having been invented in Latvia and used to help Soviet soldiers fight at high altitude in the 1980s.
R-Sport reported Monday that around 40 Russian athletes from more than 10 different sports had tested positive for meldonium in the first two months of 2016.

Russians love meldonium

Russian athletics hit by first meldonium cases

Moscow (AFP) — Russia has announced four doping failures for meldonium in athletics as the country battles to be reinstated in time for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
These are the first known cases of the banned drug in Russian athletics in a potential blow to efforts to overturn an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspension from international competition because of doping scandals.
The athletics federation did not name the four athletes who tested positive. It was unclear whether sprinter Nadezhda Kotlyarova, who admitted to taking the banned drug on Sunday, was among them.
An unnamed source told TASS news agency however that the four athletes are Kotlyarova, long-distance runners Andrei Minzhulin and Gulshat Fazletdinova, and steeplechaser Olga Vovk. All are said to have tested positive for the drug at the Russian indoor championships last month.
The federation said in a statement it was conducting a "thorough investigation" into the cases and reiterated it had repeatedly warned athletes and trainers that the World Anti-Doping Agency was banning meldonium from January 1.
The drug is widely used for heart conditions and diabetes. But it also helps recovery from physical exertion so could help athletes.
A number of high-profile Russian athletes, including tennis star Maria Sharapova, short-track speed skater Semyon Yelistratov and swimmer Yulia Yefimova, have tested positive for meldonium.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the meldonium scandal was not affecting Russian athletes' preparations for the Rio Olympics which start August 5.
Russia was suspended by the IAAF for other doping failures said to be "state sponsored". The IAAF will only decide in May whether Russian authorities have made enough efforts to return to international competition.
"All those who are training for the Olympics are being monitored," Mutko told TASS. "The issue of meldonium is a separate issue."
President Vladimir Putin last week blamed Russia's sports officials for failing to warn athletes that meldonium was being banned by WADA.
WADA says that more than 100 suspected positive tests have been recorded since January 1.
The agency moved meldonium from its "monitored" to "prohibited" list "because of evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance."