My Sports News Digest

LONDON- Here’s the scenario: Take a cramped, crowded, not-very-clean and none-too-modern subway system, add several hundred thousand tourists with the same destination in mind. Do what you can. Hope for the best. Olympic planners are taking steps to keep London’s creaking system from overloading during the 2012 Games. In some ways, this may prove harder than building the Olympic Park – with many who use the system daily expecting subterranean gridlock. “It’s hard enough today – and it’s just a normal day,” said Jenny Claydon, 67, from Essex, who paused last week at the cavernous Stratford station, the main transport [...]

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LONDON- There are no plans to check people’s bags on the London subway as part of extra security planned for the Olympics next year, the head of the city’s transport system said Wednesday. The London Underground, known locally as the Tube, will be stretched to its limits during the Games. Critics of the aging and often overstretched system have expressed fears that additional security measures would further delay journeys. But Peter Hendy, the commissioner for Transport for London, told The Associated Press that while authorities will take advice from the police, such additional checks are not envisioned. “It’s almost giving [...]

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LONDON, Oct 18- Londoners living anywhere near the Olympic Park next year will find that getting married, commuting to work, dining, drinking and even dying while the Games are on may be a little tricky. Churches, bars, banks, restaurants and thousands of other businesses near the park or on transport routes that millions of fans and athletes will take to Olympic events are already making plans for massive disruptions in service, deliveries, working hours and the availability of cash. All Londoners are being warned they may face a shortage of fish and meat and banks could struggle to fill up [...]

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RIO DE JANEIRO- Rio organizers are asking architects interested in designing the golf course for the 2016 Olympics to submit proposals this month, with a winner to be picked before Christmas. The Rio Olympic committee says companies or individuals wanting to design the course will have until Oct. 28 to apply, and the winning candidate will be announced Dec. 23. Applicants must have prior course design experience, and the project will have to meet several specifications put in place by organizers. The committee said Monday that the course would also have to leave a legacy to Rio and become “an [...]

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LONDON, Oct 14- Publicity seekers who turn their bodies into billboards to advertise brands during the Olympic Games in London next year face heavy fines under laws to protect official sponsors. Restrictions on so-called ambush marketing will also extend beyond the main Olympic sites to landmark buildings including clock tower Big Ben, parliament and nearby Westminster Abbey, according to rules set to be passed by legislators. The Olympics has a core group of sponsors with long-term contracts, while other companies sign up for individual Games. London is aiming to raise around 700 million pounds from domestic sponsors for 2012. These [...]

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BALA CYNWYD, Pa. – So long steel cages, pyrotechnics and theme music. Kurt Angle wants to get real about wrestling again. Angle believes the time is right to swap that big gold TNA Wrestling championship belt around his waist for another shiny gold medal around his neck. Creeping up on 43, Angle is serious about becoming an Olympic wrestler for the second time. The 1996 220-pound freestyle wrestling gold medal winner in the Atlanta Games has scaled back his professional commitments for TNA and dedicated the last seven months to training for a run at making the U.S. team for [...]

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“http://ad.doubleclick.net/pfadx/nbcu.unisport/sports_ol_video;area=sports;sport=ol;section=video;!c=sports;eboid=559817;pos=1;tile=1;sz=16×9″ August 28, 2011: LaShawn Merritt of the U.S. talks about his world-leading 44.35 in the first heat of the 400m at the World Championships in Daegu. Oct 6 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said it welcomed the guidance of a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision on Olympic eligibility on Thursday and did not believe changes were needed to the WADA Code or its international standards. “(WADA) welcomes the precise direction it (CAS) has given to the IOC and the sporting world in general, particularly with the next Olympics less than one year away,” the world agency [...]

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Olympic figure skating champion Yuna Kim will help promote the first Winter Youth Games.   The IOC says the 21-year-old South Korean skater will join Olympic ski champions Lindsey Vonn and Benjamin Raich as an “ambassador” for the games, which will be held in Innsbruck, Austria, from Jan. 13-22. Kim set a world record in winning Olympic gold at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. She also helped Pyeongchang’s winning bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee says ambassadors are meant “to inspire and mentor … while encouraging young people from all over the world to become [...]

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