A decision on whether two Chinese gymnasts were old enough to compete at the Sydney Olympics is expected in February after the athletes appeared before a disciplinary commission.
Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun, along with their parents and two Chinese gymnastics officials, met Saturday and Sunday with the International Gymnastics Federation’s disciplinary commission. Dong and Yang are suspected of being as young as 14 in Sydney, where China won the bronze medal and Yang also won a bronze on uneven bars.
Gymnasts must turn 16 during an Olympic year to be eligible to compete.
The three-person disciplinary commission will submit its opinion to the FIG’s executive committee at its Feb. 26 meeting. If the commission decides Dong and Yang were underage, it also could recommend sanctions.

Chinese gymnasts Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao, Sept. 19, 2000, after receiving the bronze medal in the women's gymnastic team finals © AP

Because the case involves the Olympics, however, it would be up to the International Olympic Committee to decide if China should lose any medals. The IOC has said previously it would take “necessary measures” if the FIG finds Dong and Yang were underage.
Questions about their ages arose during the FIG’s investigation into the eligibility of members of China’s team that won the gold medal at the Beijing Games. The 2008 gymnasts were eventually cleared, but the FIG said it wasn’t satisfied with “the explanations and evidence provided to date” for Dong and Yang.
Yang said in a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in Sydney. Yang later told The Associated Press she had misspoken, but declined further comment.
Dong’s official birthdate is listed as Jan. 20, 1983, but the FIG said accreditation information for the Beijing Olympics, where Dong worked as a national technical official, listed her birthdate as Jan. 23, 1986.
That would have made Dong 14 in Sydney.
Dong’s blog also said she was born in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac, which dated from Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986. Dong has not denied that, but she refused to answer any questions about her age when reached by the AP.

source: sports.yahoo.com/olympics

“Obviously, we’re very disappointed by the IOC decision today as we were hoping for softball to be considered for inclusion in 2016,” said Ron Radigonda, the executive director of the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA)/USA Softball. “However, softball is still an international sport power as we have been. We have to continue to focus on the World Championships next July here in Oklahoma City and future international events. Despite today’s announcement, softball will continue and move on and work to be stronger than ever.”

Also eliminated from contention were baseball, karate, roller sports and squash.

In Copenhagen on October 9, at a meeting that will also decide the host of the 2016 Olympic Games between four candidate cities, golf and rugby are being put forward by the Executive Board for an entire vote of the IOC. Both sports must be approved by the majority of 107 IOC members in order to be added to the Olympic Programme starting with the 2016 Games.

“The (International Softball Federation) and wider softball family is certainly disappointed by today’s decision by the IOC Executive Board not to recommend softball for reinstatement onto the Olympic Games Programme in 2016,” ISF President Don Porter said in a statement. “However, we respect the IOC’s decision and I tip my cap to golf and rugby for getting recommended and offer my sentiments to the other four sports that were not successful today.

Despite exclusion from the Olympic Games the sport will continue on at an international level at prestigious events including the European Championships, the Pan American Games and the World Cup. The softball world will also converge July 16-26, 2010, in Oklahoma City, Okla., for the ISF Women’s World Championships, which will bring 16 countries to the ASA Hall of Fame Complex.

The Olympic Games have been the marquee event of the sport since softball joined the programme at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Falling one vote short necessary of the majority, softball was eliminated from 2012 London Games programme following a vote of the entire IOC in 2005. With no reinstatement for 2016, the Olympic future remains unclear for softball, which has approximately 9 million players across the world, according to the ISF.

Back Softball, a worldwide initiative the ISF started to support the reinstatement of the sport for 2016, has been successful in increasing the reach of the sport to African and Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan and Sierra Leone, each which started national federations. The campaign has also brought more than $250,000 worth of softball equipment to almost two-dozen developing nations, almost $3 million since 2002, and has started wheelchair softball programmes for the disabled in others.

“The ISF has worked tirelessly for more than four years since we were voted off the 2012 Olympic Programme and we have made tremendous advances in that time,” Porter said. “Softball has more players, a long list of member federations, a more solid and appropriate organizational framework, and development programs that are producing phenomenal results on every continent.”

Another goal of increasing the amount of worldwide television exposure for the sport was also met. On Wednesday, the ASA announced that ratings for the 2009 World Cup of Softball, held July 16-20 in Oklahoma City, increased 9-percent from the 2007 World Cup broadcasts. The Beijing Rematch between Japan and the USA on ESPN saw the highest single game rating, 0.8, of the17 telecasts providing more than 34 hours of softball coverage. While all seven USA games were broadcast and also streamed online, selected games from ESPN’s coverage were televised globally to 146 countries across ESPN International networks including Atlantic, Pacific Rim, Australia HD, Brazil HD, Israel, Middle East, ESPN Caribbean, ESPN2 Caribbean, and ESPN America.

The United States won the first of three consecutive Olympic Gold Medals in Atlanta. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, the Japanese women took home the Gold Medal, with the USA and Australia joining Japan on the podium. With close to 180,000 spectators throughout the Beijing tournament and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests at any of the four Olympic Games that the sport has been a part of, the 2008 Olympic Games proved to be another success for the growing sport that looks toward other events in the absence of the next two Olympic Games.

“Softball players continue to dream of Olympic gold, the ultimate prize in our sport, and we will carry on our campaign for Olympic reinstatement to prove to the IOC that our sport fits with Olympic values and ambitions and deserves a place on merit on the Games Programme,” Porter said.

Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco will head the 10 member Evaluation Commission, having also chaired the evaluation commission for the 2012 Summer Olympics bids. The commission will make on-site inspections in the second quarter of 2009. They will issue a comprehensive technical appraisal for IOC members one month before elections; the final selection will be made by the 115 voting members of the IOC membership on 2 October 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

There are many restrictions barring the bidding cities communicating with or influencing directly the 115 voting members. Cities can’t invite any IOC members to visit them and they can’t send them anything that can be construed as a gift. However, bidding cities invest large sums in their PR and media programmes in an attempt to indirectly influence the IOC members by garnering domestic support, support from specialist sports media and general international media. Jon Tibbs, a consultant on the Tokyo bid, was recently quoted as saying “Ultimately, you are communicating with just 115 people and each one has influencers and pressure groups but you are still speaking to no more than about 1,500 people, perhaps 5,000 in the broadest sense. It is not just about getting ads out there but it is about a targeted and very carefully planned campaign.”

Based on the design which city would you pick?

2016 olympic games candidate

Female Ski Jumpers Ask to Meet With I.O.C. President
A group of international female ski jumpers have asked the I.O.C. president, Jacques Rogge, to meet with their representatives in Denver this week, in hopes of convincing the committee to allow female ski jumpers into the 2010 Games. In a 2006 decision, the I.O.C. barred women from participating in the sport at the Vancouver Olympics.
The athletes said that participation in their sport was growing quickly, outpacing several other Winter Games sports.
“We’re ready,” Lindsey Van, a world champion and American national team member, said in a statement. “Our sport has developed incredibly in the three years since that decision, and we would really appreciate the opportunity to tell our story to him personally.”
Fifteen female ski jumpers, including Van, have brought a lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympics organizing committee, citing gender discrimination. A hearing is scheduled for April 20 in British Columbia Supreme Court.

source: nytimes.com