Will throw up a tough challenge in London Olympics: Sushil

INDORE: World wrestling champion Sushil Kumar, who skipped the Asian Games due to injuries on his neck and shoulders, has almost recovered and is now all set to throw up a tough challenge in 2012 London Olympics.

"I have almost recovered from my shoulder injury. After a fortnight I will start my training with an eye on the Olympics," Sushil, who came to attend a wrestling competition, told reporters on Tuesday's night.

"I will try to give an excellent performance in the Olympic ring," added the 27-year-old wrestler.

A bronze medallist in 66kg weight category at Beijing Olympics, Sushil said that he was happy that wrestling on mat has been gaining momentum in the country where traditionally the fights used to take place in soil.

He said that the fights on mats will brighten the Indian wrestlers' chances in excelling at international competitions.

"There is no dearth of wrestlers in the county," he said.

To a question, he said that the players should keep off from doping.

Sushil, who got engaged to Savi, daughter of his coach Satpal Singh on November 8, is getting ready for his marriage to be held on February 18.

The wrestler said he was entering into the wedlock as per his family's wishes, adding that his family members were taking care of all his marriage preparations.

"My entire focus was on wrestling," he said, adding, "I will just reach the venue dressed up like a bridegroom."

Sushil, who hails from a middle-class family, gets full support from his family members and it helps him in concentrating on wrestling.

"I am sure I will continue to get this support from my family after marriage too," he added.

Read more: Will throw up a tough challenge in London Olympics: Sushil - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/more-sports/wrestling/Will-throw-up-a-tough-challenge-in-London-Olympics-Sushil/articleshow/7105513.cms#ixzz18BCXLFA5

China accepts IOC's decision to take back Olympics medal

Beijing, Apr 30 (ANI): The Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) has said it respects the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision of stripping its women's team of a bronze medal won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The decision to strip the women's team of the medal was taken after one of its athletes, Dong Fangxiao, was found to be under age.

"The Chinese Olympic Committee has always been committed to safeguarding the fair-play principle in sports and has always ordered its athletes and officials to comply with all rules and regulations of the relevant international federations," said a COC statement.

"The COC has learnt a lesson and will endeavor to prevent a repeat of such incidents in future," the statement added.

FIFA dress code rules Iran's girls out of Olympics

FIFA dress code rules Iran's girls out of Olympics

ZURICH (AP) — Iran's girls football team has been kicked out of the Youth Olympic Games because FIFA rules prevent players wearing an Islamic head scarf.

Thailand was nominated on Monday to replace the barred Iranians, the Asian Football Confederation said on its Web site.

The Asian governing body said the hijab scarf -- worn to observe Islamic dress code -- was not allowed under FIFA rules relating to on-field equipment.

Iran was scheduled to compete in a six-nation tournament for girls at the games being held Aug. 12-25 in Singapore.

Around 3,600 athletes aged 14-18 will compete in 26 sports at the inaugural Youth Summer Games.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Debate over Olympic ticket spending continues

Debate over Olympic ticket spending continues

Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal says she has no regrets about the city spending almost $170,000 on tickets for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

But COPE councillor Ellen Wordsworth, who paid for the Olympic ticket she used, says she thinks the money could have been used better. "Wait a minute, didn't we just cut $61 million from the budget -- and we're closing services and increasing fees?" said Woodsworth.

"About $170,000 can do a lot of things in the city," she said.

All the details about the spending and who got the tickets is in a report going to council Tuesday.

Also included is similar information on the additional $18,920 the city spent on tickets for the Paralympics.

Of the 1,555 Olympic tickets and 534 Paralympic tickets, only two went unallocated.

Steel from Mittal for London's Olympic monument

Steel from Mittal for London's Olympic monument

The mayor of London has unveiled the design of a 115-metre tall monument that will mark the 2012 London Olympics.

The structure, which will be built in the Olympic Park, has a strong India connection as it is designed by prize-winning artist of Indian-origin, Anish Kapoor, and is being funded by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

This spiraling structure that incorporates the five Olympic rings will be London's answer to the Eiffel Tower. It will be taller than New York's Statue of Liberty, offering panoramic views of London.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, called the statue, "a legacy of the Olympics to London".

Sweden wins 2nd straight gold medal, beating Canada in women’s curling on Norberg’s last shot

Sweden wins 2nd straight gold in women’s curling

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Sweden went the distance in capturing another gold medal in Olympic women’s curling, beating a Canadian team cheered by a cowbell-clanging crowd.

Anette Norberg played through the din, nailing the last shot to give her team a 7-6 victory in an extra 11th end Friday to spoil the Canadian party.

Olympics: Living it up on the slopes

THE 2010 Winter Olympics have brought very different results for two New England natives: Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., and Lindsey Jacobellis of Stratton, Vermont. Sunday in Vancouver was Miller time, when a breathtaking slalom run won Miller the gold in the men’s super combined, adding that medal to his super G silver and his downhill bronze.

While redemption is a cliché of sports narratives, Miller’s performance did show an athlete who has matured markedly since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. There, his party-boy attitude and blasé platitudes proved profoundly off-putting. In Vancouver, Miller understood the Olympics matter - and not just to millions of spectators worldwide, but to himself as well. With his performance, Miller, 32, has finally lived up to his Olympic promise.

Olympics tops 'American Idol' in ratings

(AP)

NEW YORK — Shani Davis, Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White are the true American Idols.

In a startling turnaround from the night before, the Olympics clobbered Fox's "American Idol" in the ratings Wednesday night. The Nielsen Co. said that during the one hour the two shows competed against one another, the Olympics were seen by 30.1 million people while 18.4 million watched "American Idol."

It was the first time in six years that anything has beaten the nation's most popular program head to head in the ratings.

Davis, Vonn and White were all heavily promoted American contenders who won gold medals Wednesday.

On Tuesday, "Idol" beat the Olympics by nearly 4 million viewers.

Elder Pharma’s Uttarakhand facility on stream

Mumbai-based Elder Pharmaceuticals has commenced commercial operations at its new U.S. FDA compliant manufacturing facility at Langa Road in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), which is an excise benefit zone.

The company plans to move manufacturing of all syrup-based products to this Rs.150-crore facility. These products are now either being manufactured or being outsourced.

Production lines

The facility has production lines for liquid orals, sterile injectables, cephalosporin block for tablets as well as dry powder injectables.

Anger as Olympic flame fenced off

VANCOUVER–They came by the thousands to get a photo with the Olympic flame. They had to settle for a shot of the Olympic fence.

The chain-link wall keeping the unwashed away from the outdoor Olympic cauldron is a menacing doozy, maybe 10 feet high and peaked with sharp prongs. It's more North Korea than West Coast Canada, but there it is, fronting a demilitarized zone the size of a football field that separates the flame from the public's closest vantage point.

Winter Olympics Open Friday in Vancouver

And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Winter Olympic Games that open February twelfth in Vancouver, Canada.

About five thousand men and women from more than eighty countries will compete for seventeen days at the Vancouver Olympics. They will compete in more than eighty separate medal events in fifteen sports. The games are about sportsmanship, hard work, and national pride. The athletes share a common goal -- to do their best and win a gold medal.

Our Winter Olympics coverage

While many in the UK have spent the past month hoping for less snow, in unseasonably warm British Columbia they want the opposite.

Not that the organising commitee are letting a lack of the white stuff worry them. Their planning continues apace and in our own way, so does ours as the BBC prepares to cover the Winter Olympics, which takes place 12-28 February in Vancouver, for the 14th time.

So what can you expect from us? Well, Vancouver is eight hours behind GMT, so if you are watching in the UK, your live TV coverage will start most evenings at around 7pm and continue through to the early morning UK time.

BBC Two will dedicate approximately 160 hours to the event over the 17 days, plus 2,000 hours of interactive coverage from BBC Red Button.

Viewers with digital TV can access up to six additional streams of coverage to see extended coverage of the 86 individual events. In addition BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer will carry a 30-minute Highlights show - available everyday from 0600 on the red button and around 0800 on iPlayer, encapsulating all the day's action.

There will be a catch up show every lunchtime on BBC Two featuring the best of the overnight action.

Cuche still hopeful on Olympics despite thumb injury

(AFP) – 2 days ago

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Swiss veteran Didier Cuche still expects to compete at next month's Winter Games in Vancouver despite fracturing his right thumb in a fall in Friday's giant slalom at Kranjska Gora.

Cuche will have surgery on Saturday in Zurich but expects to make a swift recovery to keep his Olympic dream alive.

"The Olympics are still on. We will see how the operation goes and how (the injury) can be protected," said the super-G world champion, who last week produced a double downhill-super G triumph on the Streif at Kitzbuehel to take his season win tally to four and career total to 13.

Cuche, 35, will be operated on by Dr Walter Frey at Zurich's Schulthess clinic after he suffered the injury in clipping the third last gate "pretty hard".

The veteran has already been racing through the pain barrier in recent weeks after he fractured a rib six weeks ago at Val d'Isere, a problem which took three weeks to clear up.

Vancouver Olympics 2010: American snow boarding hopes a win

Vancouver Olympics 2010: American snow boarding hopes a win

2010 Olympic Torch returns to B.C.

KICKING HORSE PASS, on the B.C.-Alta border — At exactly 4:27 p.m. Alberta time, with about 200 loudly cheering people huddled on the side of the highway, the Olympic torch was passed by former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed to B.C. Lions coach Wally Buono.

With a spectacular backdrop of mountains that would be the envy of any Hollywood producer, the two former football players touched their torches together and Lougheed passed the flame on.

"I shouldn't be puffing like this, should I?" said the smiling 81-year-old Lougheed.

‘Lethal force’ an option in Olympic Games airspace: Norad

“lethal force” in a worst-case scenario to defend new airspace-security restrictions being imposed during the 2010 Olympic Games.

Lieut. David Lavallee, spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command, told The Vancouver Sun on Tuesday that the response to a violation of flight restrictions could range from simple radio contact with the pilot to the use of Canadian military CF-18 fighter jets and Griffon helicopters.

“There are many facets to a situation like that,” he said. “Suffice it to say we will have aircraft and people ready to respond to violations of the restricted airspace. Norad has a graduated response that can, if necessary, culminate in the use of lethal force.”

Zoë Gillings Winter Olympics diary: fasten your seatblets for Vancouver 2010

Welcome to the first of several blogs from me, as I swap the snow for the pen as I give you the lowdown on everything happening from Team GB camp here out in Vancouver for the 21st Olympic Winter Olympics over the next few weeks. Our first stop is training camp, a two-week warm-up ahead of the Vancouver Games on Feb 12th.

I’m hoping to represent my country in snowboarding cross - and as the No 1 ranked snowboarder in the UK – I’m hoping to bring home gold.

Kohn clinches 4-man Olympic bobsled spot

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — Mike Kohn of the United States has secured a four-man bobsled spot at the Vancouver Olympics, after finishing sixth in a World Cup race at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Kohn's result on Sunday means the Americans will have three sleds in the Olympic four-man competition, with Steven Holcomb and John Napier having already secured enough points to mathematically wrap up bids that will be formally announced later Sunday by the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. The USBSF said Sunday that Kohn had enough points to clinch his trip.

Kohn earned a spot in the two-man Olympic competition on Saturday, also giving the U.S. the maximum allotment of three sleds in that discipline. The USBSF took 14 of a possible 15 Olympic start positions in bobsled and skeleton.

Kohn won a bronze medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics as a push athlete in Brian Shimer's four-man sled.

Winter Olympics: Winter panel takes a cooler approach

New Zealand's summer Olympic selection policy has long been known as being demanding on athletes.

Tough standards are set. Expectations are such that in some sports simply achieving the international standard is insufficient.

So too the Commonwealth Games. But for the winter Olympics, which are in Vancouver from February 12-28, the philosophy is rather different.