Fast Break

Olympics

Chicago 2016 U.S. candidate

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley jumped out of his seat. People around town cheered. But now the hard work begins for the city that was picked Saturday as the American bidder for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“I was like a little kid watching the Olympics,” Daley said of his elation at hearing U.S. Olympic Committee announce the city’s name.

Daley and the city’s Olympic organizers were in Washington when the USOC picked Chicago over Los Angeles.

But there is much work to be done to make sure Chicago is ready for the international competition it will face. If Chicago is finally awarded the games, it will have to build many of its venues.

The International Olympic Committee won’t award the 2016 Games until 2009. Other bidders are expected to include Rome; Tokyo; Madrid, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Media

Cowherd gets some static

While Don Imus was getting the headlines last week for his remarks on his radio show about the Rutgers basketball team that got him fired, ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd, who attended Eastern Washington University, also got himself in a little hot water recently.

A little more than a week ago, Cowherd asked his listeners to shut down an Internet site by flooding it with visitors. His request resulted in thebiglead.com, a sports blog that has been critical of ESPN, being shut down for more than 48 hours.

ESPN apologized for Cowherd’s actions. He wasn’t disciplined but Traug Keller, senior vice president of ESPN radio said: “Such attacks are now off limits. Zero tolerance.”

College basketball

Winthrop loses coach to Wichita

Wichita State hired Gregg Marshall as its men’s coach, four weeks after he led Winthrop to a first-round upset of Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament at the Spokane Arena. Winthrop picked assistant coach Randy Peele to replace Marshall.

Marshall replaces Mark Turgeon, now at Texas A&M.