Capriati pulls out with injury

Jennifer Capriati was forced to pull out of the Athens Games with a hamstring injury on Tuesday and was replaced by Lisa Raymond.

Capriati won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, but she missed the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. She told coach Zina Garrison on Sunday she couldn’t play in the Olympics because of the injury, which has been bothering Capriati since July.

Raymond, who was to play doubles with Martina Navratilova, was picked for the singles spot vacated by Capriati, spokesman Randy Walker said. Raymond, a native of Norristown, Pa., who turned 31 Tuesday, is a right-hander ranked No. 40 by the Women’s Tennis Association and has four WTA singles titles.

USOC chief to fight for medals

U.S. sports authorities will try to prevent world track officials from stripping the gold medals of Michael Johnson and other members of the 1,600-meter relay team from the Sydney Olympics, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee said Tuesday.

USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said it is not yet clear whether the USOC or USA Track & Field will file the appeal, which must be turned in to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport by Sept. 18.

The squad could lose its medals because of a doping violation by team member Jerome Young a year before the 2000 Olympics. Young already has been stripped of his medal, and the International Association of Athletics Federations recommended last month that the entire team be penalized because Young should have been ineligible.

Somali official not welcomed at Games

The head of Somalia’s Olympic Committee was declared persona non grata at the Olympic Games amid allegations he embezzled money from a national football federation, the IOC’s ethics commission said Tuesday.

The International Olympic Committee withdrew Farah W. Addo’s accreditation for the Athens Games after a complaint from world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, who last month banned Addo from soccer for 10 years for embezzling funds from the Somali Football Federation while he was its president.

Long jumper McKinney falls short, Richmond jumps in

Long jumper Rose Richmond had some fast packing to do after getting last-minute notification that she’d be on the U.S. team.

Richmond placed fourth in last month’s Olympic trials, her 21-6 1/4 leaving her a half-inch behind Akiba McKinney. But she knew that McKinney would have to meet the qualifying standard of 21-11 3/4 to ensure herself a place on the team.

McKinney’s last chance to do so was Sunday in Germany’s Team Challenge, where she finished more than a foot short.

Richmond, meanwhile, made a jump of 22-2 1/4 on July 24 at a meet in Carson, Calif. – enough to get her on the team.

South, North Korea will march together

In a show of reconciliation between two old foes, the South and North Korean Olympic teams will march together again at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.

The two teams will enter the Olympic Stadium on Friday under the same flag — a blue image of the Korean Peninsula on a white background — and to the tune of the Korean folk song “Arirang,” South Korea’s Olympic committee said.

Oldest U.S. Olympic medal winner dies

James Stillman Rockefeller, the oldest-known U.S. Olympic medal winner and the former head of the bank that became Citigroup, died Tuesday. He was 102.

Rockefeller suffered a stroke on Thursday, said his grandson, Stillman, who lived with him at his Greenwich home.

Records of the U.S. Olympic Committee show that Rockefeller was the oldest American medal winner, a USOC spokeswoman said.

He was the captain of Yale University’s eight-man rowing team with coxswain that won gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics — beating the Canadian team by less than 16 seconds. The oars from the winning race and the gold medal were prominently displayed in Rockefeller’s house, Stillman Rockefeller said. “I think he was really proud of that — probably more than the bank career,” his grandson said.

IAAF rules out Greek javelin thrower

A Greek javelin thrower cannot compete with the Palestinian Olympic team because she did not meet the qualifying standard, Athletics’ world governing board said. Sofia Sakorafa, a 48-year-old former javelin champion, stirred controversy when she became a Palestinian citizen this year and applied at the last minute for a berth on the Olympic team.

Dead workers commemorated

Anti-Olympics protesters gathered in central Athens to hold an open-air memorial service for 13 workers killed during round-the-clock construction of venues for the games.

About 500 demonstrators stood in silence as the names of the workers were read out and olive wreaths placed on 13 crosses erected outside Greece’s parliament three days before the Games start.

“We have paid for the Olympic games in blood,” said Andreas Zazopoulos, head of the Communist-backed Greek Construction Workers Union. “All the money spent on the Games means our children and grandchildren will have fewer benefits and will be worse off.”

Deaths at construction sites have spurred a small but vocal anti-Olympics movement in Athens, adding to anger over massive security measures and commercialism surrounding the world’s biggest sporting event.

Ticket sales continue to surge

With the opening ceremony drawing closer, ticket sales for the Athens Games are making an expected surge, including a mad dash by cycling fans.

Organizers said that the number of tickets sold has increased to 2.5 million, slightly less than half of the 5.3 million available. Organizers want to sell at least 3.4 million. The latest best sellers included track and field events, along with soccer, which has accounted for about 25 percent to 30 percent of overall ticket sales. Every ticket for all six days of competition in the Olympic velodrome has been sold.