In brief: Los Angeles organizers want 2016 Olympics
Los Angeles already is equipped to stage the 2016 Summer Olympics – only one venue needs to be built – and hold the games within a more compact area than it did as host in 1984, bid organizers said Friday.
Los Angeles is competing with Chicago to be the U.S. Olympic Committee’s candidate city for the 2016 Games.
The only new venue to be built would be for shooting at the county fairgrounds in suburban Pomona.
A refurbished Los Angeles Coliseum near downtown would be used for opening and closing ceremonies and for track and field.
College Basketball
Dukes’ center sidelined
Duquesne center Almamy Thiero was hospitalized in Pittsburgh with blood clots in his lungs and will be sidelined indefinitely.
Thiero’s illness is the latest setback for the Dukes, who had five players shot on campus Sept. 17 – only one of whom is playing.
“North Carolina guard Bobby Frasor will miss the fourth-ranked Tar Heels’ game today against Georgia Tech with a nagging foot injury.
Cycling
Thomas pleads
Former elite cyclist Tammy Thomas pleaded not guilty in a San Francisco federal court to charges of lying to a grand jury investigating steroid use.
Thomas was the first athlete charged in a probe that has implicated some of the biggest stars in baseball and track and field. Thomas was banned from cycling for life in August 2002.
“France’s anti-doping agency received paperwork from Tour de France runner-up Oscar Pereiro explaining why he took an asthma drug during the 2006 race.
“Former Cofidis cyclist David Millar was acquitted of doping charges by a French court in a case for which he had served a two-year ban.
Miscellany
Mancuso wins Cup race
American Julia Mancuso won a super-giant slalom after a 3 1/2-hour rain delay in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, her second World Cup victory in a row.
It was the third win this season for Mancuso, the gold medalist in giant slalom at last year’s Turin Olympics.
“Ukranian boxer Wladimir Klitschko will defend his IBF heavyweight title against American Ray Austin on March 10 in Mannheim, Germany.
“The U.S. soccer team will play Ecuador in an exhibition March 25 in Tampa Bay, Fla. The U.S. team is preparing for the CONCACAF Gold Cup (June 6-24) and Copa America (June 26-July 15).
“One spectator was killed and at least 16 others injured Thursday night in a human stampede during a soccer match near La Paz, Bolivia.
“The University of California said it would pay $725,000 to former wrestling coach Michael Burch, who claimed he was fired in 2001 after challenging the school for excluding women from the sport.
“The president of the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association has been accused of injecting racehorses with alcohol 75 times, charging $15 a shot and writing it off as a “prerace adjustment.”