I'd like to add a few things to my take on the voting for the 2018 and 2022 soccer World Cups, which appeared in Friday's print and online editions of the Chicago Tribune.

(For that story, click here)

1.  What was President Obama thinking when he said, "I think it was the wrong decision'' when asked by reporters Thursday for a comment on Qatar having won the right to host the 2022 World Cup over the United States?

I understand this was a chance encounter between the president and the White House press corps, so he couldn't have prepared an answer.  But his reaction smacked of the attitude -- a combination of entitlement, superiority and sour grapes -- that has made the United States terra non grata in the international sports world.

Couldn't the president simply have congratulated Qatar on its historic triumph while expressing disappointment that the U.S. bid had failed?  What he actually said, effectively belittling Qatar with a wrong-headed answer, can do future U.S. bids for the World Cup no good, as the people who vote for these things have long memories.

President Obama also did Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid no good with his 11^th hour fly-by and soporific speech in the final presentation to International Olympic Committee voters 14 months ago in Copenhagen.

Yes, the gripes of some IOC members about being held on buses because of security involved for the president's late arrival were childish.  But the planning for his brief visit made Obama the only head of state whose presence caused significant inconvenience. After he committed to the trip, he should have done what his peers have in recent IOC host elections: stay long enough to do personal lobbying for votes.

You can say all you want about how ridiculous it is for presidents and prime ministers to fawn over the self-appointed grandees who vote for Olympic and World Cup hosts -- and every word would be justified.  But if you are in this game, you have to live with its absurd rules and understand the silly presumptions of the culture that surrounds it.

2.  The IOC all but said it is too hot for an Olympics in the Qatari summer when it announced in 2008 that the Summer Games must take place in a period from July 15 - Aug. 31, the dates favored by global broadcasters.  In its bid for the 2016 Olympics, Doha, Qatar had proposed dates of Oct. 14-30 because of the extreme heat in the desert summer.

That gave the IOC a reason not to include Doha among the four finalists for 2016, even though its bid got a higher technical score in the IOC's preliminary evaluation of the bidders (tied for third with Chicago) than eventual winner Rio, which was fifth.

So how can the World Cup go to Qatar in June and July?

The Qataris have promised a cooling system in all the stadiums, training areas and fan sites to keep the temperature at 78 degrees.  As my colleague Alan Abrahamson noted after getting an on-site preview, the system works.

And why wouldn't that work for an Olympics?

So many Olympic events, especially endurance events like the marathon and cycling road races, take place outside stadiums, and cooling those vast areas might require putting a dome over a large chunk of the small country (don't count out such an idea; Qatar has the money and the will to do it.)

Maybe some of those events could be run at night, when the intense desert sun would not be a factor.  I don't think the Qataris, with their enormous natural gas reserves, would have trouble fueling a lighting system.

Yes, there have been other very hot Olympics.  The first day in Atlanta (1996) was unbearable.  It was well over 100 degrees on the floor of the Barcelona (1992) Olympic Stadium during several days of the track competition.  Athens (2004) temperatures frequently hit the mid-90s in the afternoon, but the dry nights were beautiful.  And Beijing (2008) mixed heat, oppressive humidity and pollution.

There is another issue that should be a more significant impediment to an Olympics in Qatar.

Beginning in 1984, the country has sent an aggregate 98 athletes in 10 sports to the past seven Summer Olympics.

Not one was female.

And changing a culture may be harder than coping with a climate.

3.  Qatar's soccer team finds itself in a similar position to that of the United States when it was awarded the 1994 World Cup in 1988.

At that point, the U.S. men had not qualified for a World Cup since 1950.  And the team would need a dramatic victory in the final qualifying match against tiny Trinidad & Tobago to make the 1990 World Cup.

Qatar has tried unsuccessfully to qualify for every World Cup since 1978.  The Qataris made it to the final round of Asian qualifying for 2010, finishing a distant fourth in a five-team group, after being eliminated in the first round of qualifying for 2006. 

4.  Who knows how much final presentations count in these host city votes?

But I do know Qatar's was brilliant in showing off the modernity and global connection of a country many still see as an isolated, sandy empire.

(To watch it, click here).

Its Emir and bid committee president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad al-Thani, spoke beautiful English and French. (He also has a Facebook page). It brought out Bora Milutinovic, the citizen of the world who has coached five countries' teams (including the U.S.) in the World Cup, to tell the audience in Spanish why the compact Qatar plan would increase the level of play by decreasing the amount of travel. Its bid CEO also spoke English and Spanish.

(By comparison, the U.S. bid team spoke only English.)

It brought out an Iraqi to tell what the World Cup would mean to the entire Middle East, a region which has never hosted a World Cup or an Olympics.

And its final speaker was a woman, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chair of her country’s foundation for education, science and development, who pulled no punches in opening her presentation by asking simply, "When?" as the word appeared in capital letters on a large video screen behind her.  

A few minutes later, hectoring FIFA voters the way Brazilian President Lula had done to IOC voters last October about bringing the first Olympics to South America, she repeated the question, then answered it by saying, "The time has come. The time is now."

The voters agreed.

-- Philip Hersh

 

To paraphrase a famous utterance, the financial agreement announced Thursday between the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International is a small step in settling account ledgers and a giant leap in getting past the idea that this was more about settling accounts than reaching a reasonable solution.

The differences between the USOC and the IOC on financial issues had become so great and divisive over the past few years it seemed one side was from Mars, the other from Venus and both had chosen to emulate Ralph Kramden's threat when he got fed up with his wife, Alice, on the old ``Honeymooners'' sitcom:

"To the Moon, Alice."

The result of all the squabbling over games costs, the issue more easily taken out of play, and revenue sharing, which will remain much harder to solve, gave those of us who cover the Olympics some wonderfully vitriolic outbursts to report.

All that noise also gave Chicago's failed 2016 Summer Games bid a headache for which there was no medicine.  While it was not the prime reason Chicago lost to Rio, which was destined to win, it gave the IOC voters an easy excuse to humiliate the United States by eliminating a good Chicago bid in the first round a year ago.

So where does it all stand now, and how did the parties get there?

The war of words ended with the departure of Hein Verbruggen from the IOC and Peter Ueberroth as chairman of the USOC.

It took nearly another year for the USOC to overcome its internecine feud, which began when board member Stephanie Streeter engineered the ouster of USOC chief executive Jim Scherr. When Streeter, haplessly unfamiliar with the peculiarities of Olympic administration,  took Scherr's job on an acting basis, the USOC's constituents were so furious they tried to oust not only her but Peter Ueberroth's successor as chairman, Larry Probst, who had been looking at his post as a very part-time thing.

Streeter was forced out soon after the Chicago bid demise. Probst, both combative and chastened in reaction to the criticism, vowed to do the USOC work on a full-time basis and is keeping his word.   The USOC board then showed uncommon good sense in hiring Scott Blackmun as CEO, knowing his past involvement with the USOC would make Blackmun's learning curve a flat line.

Ten things I know, and you should:

1. I hope I'm wrong, but my gut feeling is 2010 Olympic figure skating singles champions Kim Yuna of South Korea and Evan Lysacek of the United States are done with competitive skating.

2.  Both Kim, 20, and Lysacek, 25, always will be remembered for having given a career-defining performance to win the gold medal.  Not a bad way to go out, if that's what either decides.

3. Helene Elliott's column about Michelle Kwan in Wednesday's Times reinforced my conviction that while Kwan never won an Olympic gold medal, she rapidly is becoming one of the greatest Olympians ever -- a person of so many more dimensions than she showed us in her extraordinary skating career.

4. The U.S. Olympic Committee should step in if USA Track & Field's board decides to dump CEO Doug Logan after this weekend's meeting in Las Vegas. Logan deserves to get through at least the 2012 Olympics.  Blaming him for a poor showing in Beijing two years ago is ridiculous.  The guy was on the job about 12 minutes before the 2008 Summer Games.

5. Ice Wars: Kim Yuna (Pyeongchang) vs. Katarina Witt (Munich). The two Olympic champions are big names on their country's bid team rosters in the effort to bring home the 2018 Winter Games.  The winner of the International Olympic Committee's vote next year?  Kim and South Korea.

Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yuna has many reasons to love L.A., most notably because she won the 2009 World Championship at Staples Center while building up to her gold-medal performance at Vancouver in February.

The 20-year-old from South Korea likes it here so much that she has begun training at the East West Ice Palace in Artesia, a rink owned by Torrance native Michelle Kwan, a two-time Olympic medalist, five-time world champion and nine-time U.S. champion.

Kim will make the rink her base at least for the next month while she practices for the All That Skate LA show Oct. 2 and 3 at Staples Center, in which she and Kwan will be featured alongside a stellar collection of Olympic and world champions. If Kim likes the conditions enough she might stay even longer because of the availability of rinks and quality coaches here, said Koo Dong Hoi, an executive with the agency that represents her.

Kim was surrounded by Korean TV and print journalists Tuesday at Burbank's Pickwick arena during a news conference to promote next month's skating extravaganza. That's nothing new. "In Korea, she is much more than a movie star," Koo said.

That constant attention might lead Kim to take up residence here for a while.

"I was training for about four years in Canada," she said through a translator, her only reference to her departure from her previous training base in Toronto and breakup with Coach Brian Orser. "My coach and where I am going to be training is not decided definitely yet. But I’m here for the show and also find out the atmosphere and environment of training.

"L.A. has a large Korean American community and I also won a world championship here and trained a little bit when I was young here. So I’m going to make those decisions slowly, step by step. Since L.A. is a city that gave me great support for skating, I think I’m going to be very comfortable and enjoy the great energy in the city."

Training here, she said, "I'm going to have a comfortable environment and plan out what's next."

Check www.latimes.com/sports later for an update on Kwan's life after competitive figure skating and how she's preparing to make an impact in another field: international diplomacy.

-- Helene Elliott

 

 

The sport of track and field -- and the sports world in general -- is far poorer today. Two track-and-field legends, Harold Connolly and Scott Davis, died Wednesday.

Connolly was an Olympic champion whose Cold War love story captivated the world in the days long before there were magazines and TV shows with the sole purpose of celebrating celebrity. And Davis did everything he could as a meet promoter, meet announcer, statistician and raconteur to celebrate his sport and its stars.  To those of us in the media, Davis was a bottomless font of knowledge and good cheer.

Read more: "Track and field loses two of its best: Hal Connolly, Scott Davis"

-- Philip Hersh, reporting for the Chicago Tribune

Photos, from left: Scott Davis in July 2010 at the World Junior Track & Field Championships in Moncton, Canada, where he was the event announcer. Credit: International Assn. of Athletics Federations. Harold Connolly at the 2006 unveiling of a statue in his honor at a middle school in Brighton, Mass., where he grew up. Credit: Connolly family photo

The future of one pro beach volleyball tour apparently is imperiled by financial trouble.

Another with a back-to-the-future set of rules hits its beachhead in Chicago this weekend.

As my boss pointed out when I mentioned the confluence of these happenings to him, this has the feeling of a lose-lose battle like the one for control of open wheel racing that pitted Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) against the Indy Racing League and forever reduced the impact of the Indy 500.

The relative newcomer is the second-year Corona World Light Open, which plays Chicago's North Avenue Beach on Saturday and Sunday for the sixth of its 10 events this season.

The Corona tour gets some immediate sand cred by having Karch Kiraly, the greatest volleyball player in history, as its "chief volleyball officer."

The old tour, run by the Association of Volleyball Professionals, has alerted its players to the possibility of its 2010 season being suspended for lack of funds,  according to a story in the Los Angeles Times last Saturday.  The AVP Nivea tour, which includes most of the recent U.S. Olympic stars,  is scheduled to come to Chicago Aug. 27-29.

In the release announcing the Chicago stop on the Corona tour, Kiraly takes a shot at the AVP, even if he does not mention the other tour by name.

"Somewhere along the way we lost track of what the legends of the sport had in mind when they started playing on the beaches of Southern California,''  said Kiraly, who won two Olympic gold medals in indoor volleyball and one in beach volleyball.

To get back to its roots, the Corona tour this year reverted to the sport's original rules, including a much larger playing area (30 feet by 60 feet as compared to the 26 by 26 court used in AVP play).   Kiraly, who once played on the AVP tour,  has said the larger court allows for a wider range of physical types to play, rather than the "one tall, one small" makeup of many teams on the smaller court.

The AVP, formed 27 years ago after a dispute between players and an earlier existing tour, has run its own circuit since 1984.  Its tour has helped develop many of the sport's best players, including the 2008 Olympic champion men's and women's teams.

The Times story said the AVP tour was trying to raise money to keep the season going during what tour CEO Jason Hodell called, "a period of a little uncertainty."

"We're super optimistic,'' Hodell said.

In a statement issued Sunday, the tour's majority owner, RJSM Partners, expressed a similar feeling.

"RJSM has invested heavily in beach volleyball, and we’re in the middle of negotiating additional financing with the AVP to make it an even stronger property,'' said RJSM managing partner Nick Lewin.

"We see a bright future for the tour and we will continue to support its future growth opportunities. We’re looking forward to the rest of a great season.''

A spokesman for the AVP tour said nothing has happened in the four days since to change the message of that statement.

One thing is sure: life's not a beach in a financial desert.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo:  Karch Kiraly, now the Corona tour "chief volleyball officer," in his playing days on the AVP tour.  Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Wednesday, I posted an essay from 1980 U.S. Olympian Anita DeFrantz on the pain she still feels over the 1980 Olympic boycott. (To read it, click here).

Here is a more anecdotal voice on the 1980 boycott, that of longtime U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Mike Moran, who would like to see the International Olympic Committee formally honor athletes from the more than 60 countries -- including the United States -- who did not go to the 1980 Moscow Summer Games because their political leaders supported U.S. President Jimmy Carter's boycott.

-- Philip Hersh

Read more: "A call to honor all the world's 1980 Olympians who were forced to stay home"

Photo: Mike Moran was the chief spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee through 13 Games, 1980 to 2002. He is now a media consultant.

By Philip Hersh

News and comment:

News:  U.S. Olympic Committee sponsor Proctor & Gamble will announce Wednesday it has become an International Olympic Committee global sponsor as well.

Comment:  Another plus for the USOC in its efforts to regain international favor -- especially if, as I suggested last week, it forgoes some or all of its share of the P&G; and Dow Chemical deals to help resolve the longstanding revenue-sharing conflict with the IOC.

Coincidentally, with the addition of Dow two weeks ago, the majority of IOC global sponsors -- six of 11 -- will once again be U.S.-based multinationals.  So much for the irrational ranting of some European IOC members who try to minimize the significance of U.S. sponsors in the big picture.

Even more significant:  Dow and P&G; both are paying for their sponsorship in cash -- some $75 to $90 million over four years.  The other four USOC sponsors also pay primarily cash, while at least two international sponsors -- Atos Origin and Omega -- give the IOC all value-in-kind, and Acer gives primarily VIK.

It's also worth noting the USOC is the only country in the handful (Germany, France and Italy among them)  with individual IOC global sponsorship revenue-sharing deals that takes some of its share in VIK.

News:  Monday, BMW and the USOC finalized a six-year sponsorship deal worth a reported $24 million in cash.  The German carmaker is the first foreign auto company to sponsor U.S. Olympians.  It also is providing substantially lesser amounts of cash in six-year deals with four U.S. sports federations - track and field, swimming, speedskating and bobsled / skeleton.  Bobsled also will get some technological assistance.

Comment:  The USOC was left in the lurch in 2007 when General Motors, which was headed for bankruptcy, decided to end after 2008 a partnership that had existed since 1984.  GM paid the USOC about $5 million a year in cash, provided vehicles and spent $100 million in advertising on Olympic telecasts, according to Sports Business Daily.   BMW will not supply vehicles but its cash is welcome for a USOC facing an uncertain financial future after 2012.

News:  USA Track & Field's volunteer board of directors is turning an annual review of its salaried CEO, Doug Logan, into a power play that could result in his being forced out after barely two years in the job, according to both media reports and Tribune sources.

Comment:  Just another example of the old axiom that the only amateurs left in the Olympics are those running them.

The USATF board has apparently given Logan about a month to respond to criticism in three areas, including sponsorships, athlete relations and expenditures.  His answers may determine his future.

Dumping Logan without just cause likely would not sit too well with the USOC, which spent several years hectoring USA Track & Field to reform its governance -- that reform occurred in December, 2008 -- and telling the board to stop meddling in the federation's day-to-day affairs.

It should be noted this is the third time in the past six years the USATF board has gone after the CEO.  It happened to Craig Masback in 2004 and 2007 -- and he resigned to join Nike in January, 2008.  That is the sort of meddling at issue.

And imagine how financially reckless it would be in these economic times for the board to fire Logan willy-nilly with an estimated $1 million -- and a severance fee -- left on a contract that expires in 2013.

When I spoke with him Monday, Logan referred any comment on his situation to USATF President Stephanie Hightower, an Ohio State grad who is the most decorated high hurdler in collegiate history.  When I reached her, Hightower declined to comment on a personnel matter.

News:  Star-crossed 2008 Olympian Alicia Sacramone made her post-Beijing return to competition in last Saturday's CoverGirl Classic at the UIC Pavilion. ( For my story on her comeback, click here.)

Comment:  Sacramone's return was a success, with victories in both events she entered, the beam and vault.  ``Now that it's over, it feels great,'' she said.   Sacramone will try to regain a spot on the national team at next month's U.S. Championship.

Photos: (Above) --  Olympic speedskating champion Apolo Anton Ohno on a BMW motorcycle during Monday's announcement of the German carmaker's sponsorship deal with the USOC and four U.S. sports federations (Associated Press / Evan Agostini); (Below) - Back on the beam:  Alicia Sacramone winning the event Saturday in her return to gymnastics competition after a two-year absence.  (courtesy USA Gymnastics / John Cheng)

The London 2012 Olympic Stadium as it looked earlier this month. (Associated Press / Kirsty Wigglesworth)

By Philip Hersh

Tuesday marks two years to go to the July 27, 2012 opening of the London Summer Olympics.

To the man running the 2012 organizing committee, it is like being in the back straightaway of an 800 meters you are expected to win.

``It's the killing zone in the 800,'' Seb Coe said Friday.  ``Everything you do in the back straight determines the platform you create in the finishing straight.''

And who knows that feeling better than Coe, one of the greatest middle-distance runners in history, who won two Olympic silver medals in the metric half mile and held the world record for the distance from 1981 through 1997?

``I broke 13 world records, and I don't intend to break the 14th by being the first president of an organizing committee not to have it ready on the day we're supposed to,''  Coe said during a conference call with international media.

And the biggest danger at this point in a race that began when the International Olympic Committee awarded London the Games in July, 2005?

``That you're not in the right position to get it across the line,'' Coe said.  ``This is the business end of the race now.  You don't want to make errors, you don't want to be off the pace.''

As boss of the London 2012 organizing committee, the two-time Olympic champion at 1,500 meters has run an operation that flew on the fast track of the world economic boom and now must deal with the consequences of the world economic bust.

While London 2012 is responsible only for the operation of the Olympics and Paralympics,  it inevitably is seen as sharing guilt for the tremendous cost increases involved in the government's massive urban redevelopment project that is part of London's Olympic Park.

The government's Olympic budget has more than doubled from the $6.1 billion projected in 2005, and the Olympic Park costs continue to be the flash point for critics of the London Olympics. 

The head of Britain's treasury this week announced an austerity budget that will include higher taxes and across-the-board government spending cuts of 25 percent over the next four years.  Coe said that situation will not affect London 2012 planning, although the government said in May it was cutting some $42 million from the Olympics budget.

``I don't think we're doing anything today we wouldn't have been doing any way,''  Coe said.  ``We won the bid in the high water mark of the world economy, but at the time it was central to the bid that we deliver the Games in a responsible, sustainable way.

``Of course, you wake up each morning wanting to do it in a more cost effective way but one that doesn't impact the client groups you're out to deliver a memorable Games for.   I recognize we are in an economic climate where we have to make a very strong argument that this is a project of national interest.''

Coe insisted the jobs being created and maintained by Olympic venue construction and Olympic Park rehabilitation are a boon to the British economy, particularly during the current economic crisis.

Asked whether London 2012 felt any discomfort with having BP as a principal sponsor, given its image as the villain in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Coe simply reaffirmed his support for a company that has been London's Olympic partner since the bid phase.

``We have a world-class business that shares our vision and are a fabulous partner and will be our partner right the way through,'' Coe said of BP.

On a more mundane matter, Coe said there have been no ongoing discussions with NBC, the U.S. television rights-holder, about moving event times to accommodate a U.S. audience.  That would be very difficult, given that London is only five hours ahead of New York -- but some have speculated about midnight events for NBC's benefit.

NBC got Beijing organizers to switch swimming and gymnastics finals to the morning in China so, with a 12-hour time difference to New York,  they aired during U.S. prime time.

``In one of the first conversations I had with Dick (NBC sports chief Dick Ebersol), he raised the subject, and he was very clear he was working in a very benign time zone with us and was very happy to allow us to set the time schedule as we felt it most benefited the Olympic movement.  There has been no pressure at all (for time changes).''

Coe knows time, in the general sense, no longer is his ally in preparing for July 27, 2012.  For a man who spent decades racing not only rivals but the clock, that pressure is welcome.

``I get more excited every day the Games gets closer,'' he said.  ``I'm a competitor.  Bring it on.''

Lower photo: Sebastian Coe beats teammate Steve Cram for the 1,500-meter gold at the 1984 Olympics, when Coe became the only man to win two golds in the metric miler.  (Associated Press / Dave Tenenbaum.)

The opening ceremony of the 1994 World Cup at Soldier Field (AP file photo)

By Philip Hersh

A few things have slipped by lately while I was working on other things.  I'm getting to them one-by-one -- this is the fourth and last -- and linking you back (below) to the three I have already covered.

4.  The 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands draws a rating of 8.1 on ABC, largest U.S. audience ever for a men's soccer game.

An 8.1 rating for any TV show is impressive these days.  And this was for a telecast on a summer Sunday afternoon.  And a match with teams from countries that do not have huge immigrant populations in the United States.  And the rating doesn't include all the U.S. viewers who watched the Spanish-language broadcast.  And the third-place match between Uruguay and Germany at the same time a day earlier drew a 3.1.

The significance of those numbers?

They don't mean that soccer is on its way to challenge the big three U.S. sports - football, baseball, basketball.

They do mean that the World Cup definitely is a big deal to U.S. viewers, even after their own team is eliminated.  That interest owes greatly to the ever-growing commitment to the event made by the Evil Empire (that's ESPN).  The coverage from South Africa was exhaustive (and exhausting during the opening round when there were three or four televised games a day).  The match commentary and in-studio analysis was compelling and informative.

They also mean Chicago needs to get aboard a boat it chose to miss last fall.

With those ratings and the measure of interest shown by the large number of U.S. fans who traveled to South Africa, the international soccer federation (FIFA) would be foolish not to give the 2022 World Cup to the United States when it awards the 2018 and 2022 tournaments Dec. 2.  (England has been considered the 2018 favorite.)

And, if that happens, maybe Mayor Daley (should he run and win re-election next year) will get over his hissy fit of post-Olympic-bid pique that led the city not to submit itself as one of the possible host cities in a U.S. bid.  As in the case of Olympic bids, venue changes for the World Cup can be made after a city or country is picked.

Chicago will have to spend some money on Soldier Field to meet FIFA requirements, but the amount -- some $1 to $2 million -- is not be a deal-breaker.  And, the experience of the 1994 World Cup, when Chicago hosted six matches (including the opener), showed how much positive exposure (and tourism dollars) it can bring the city.

In fact, Chicago could benefit more from the World Cup than the World Cup organizers would.

Because Soldier Field is smaller than stadiums in all the other 18 host city candidates -- it has more than 10,000 fewer seats than all but two of the other stadiums currently in the mix -- would be a substantial difference in ticket revenues, one of the organizers' primary revenue streams

The 1994 World Cup had nine venues.  There could be a couple more the next time in the United States, given the number of new stadiums built since 1994. 

Whether Daley or someone else is running the show, Chicago needs to be one of them.

The previous installments:

1.  Hurdler Allen Johnson leaves competitive track and field at age 39.

2.  The U.S. Olympic Committee board last week rejected the Tagliabue committee's recommendation to stop having immediate past chairmen serve as honorary president and attend board meetings.

3.   French cyclist Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli wins her 57th national title at four months shy of her 52nd birthday -- and 31 years after winning her first.

Old gold: Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli riding to her 57th national title June 24 in France and, below, holding the gold medal. (Photos: AP / David Vincent)

By Philip Hersh

A few things have slipped by lately while I was working on other things.  I'm getting to them one-by-one and linking you back (below) to the two I have already covered.

3.   French cyclist Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli wins her 57th national title at four months shy of her 52nd birthday -- and 31 years after winning her first.

This happened in late June, when the always controversial Longo crushed her competition in the time trial event at the French championships in Chantonnay.

While it would be easy to attribute Longo's victory to a lack of new French talent (the runner-up, Edwige Pitel, is 43), other factors argue for just how remarkable Longo is.

Longo covered the 15.35 mile course in 34 minutes, 51 seconds, an average speed of 26.4 miles perr hour.  She beat Pitel by 1 minute, 19 seconds.

That is faster than Longo rode over the same course four years earlier, when she averaged 25.6 miles per hour while beating Pitel by 7 seconds.

``I rode the same (as 2006),'' Pitel told reporters.  ``The difference was she (Longo) went faster.''

Longo, who also finished third in the 2010 national championship road race, will represent France in the 2010 worlds.

The way she is riding, it seems likely Longo will make an astounding 8th Olympic team in 2012.  She has won one gold, two silver and one bronze medal; two years ago, at age 49, she finished fourth in the 2008 Olympic time trial.

``I know I don't have a lot of room for improvement, but there are always things to do,'' Longo told the French newspaper, L'Equipe.  ``So, this year I worked on leg speed.''

 Even calling her the greatest women's cyclist in history -- a title she already had earned 20 years ago and which has gone unchallenged since -- seems to fall short of summing up her career.  As for her complex personality and relationship with her sport, it took me 2,167 words to try to sum it up in 2004.  To read that story, click here.

The previous installments:

1.  Hurdler Allen Johnson leaves competitive track and field at age 39.

2.  The U.S. Olympic Committee board last week rejected the Tagliabue committee's recommendation to stop having immediate past chairmen serve as honorary president and attend board meetings.

The U.S. Olympic Committee board last week rejected the Tagliabue committee's recommendation to stop having immediate past chairmen serve as honorary president and attend board meetings.

It was the only recommendation made by the advisory committee, chaired by former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, that the board chose not want to implement.

Read more: "Olympic committee move not an honor for Ueberroth"

-- Philip Hersh

A few things have slipped by while I was working on other things.  Among them: Allen Johnson left competitive track and field at age 39.

If hardly anyone noticed when the high hurdler quietly announced his decision a couple weeks ago, that would be ironically fitting for a man whose career highlights -- an Olympic gold medal and four outdoor world titles -- always seemed to have been overshadowed by something else.

Read more: "Hurdles' great Allen Johnson: Gone, too often forgotten"

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Allen Johnson, second from left, wins the 110-meter hurdles at the 2003 world championships. Credit: Lionel Cironneau / Associated Press

The announcement coming Friday in New York about the newest International Olympic Committee global sponsor should be a big part of helping the U.S. Olympic Committee resolve its ongoing problems with the IOC over global sponsorship money.

The new sponsor is Dow Chemical, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

And the USOC apparently will forgo its contractual share -- some $20 million -- of the Dow deal as a peace offering to the IOC.

Read more: Dow deal could improve chemistry between U.S. and International Olympic committees

-- Philip Hersh, reporting for the Chicago Tribune

Johnny Weir's off-ice charisma has overshadowed his competitive skating for several seasons. Now, the three-time U.S. champion has decided to step back and assess himself, for what may be a comeback in a different guise.

U.S. Figure Skating announced Thursday morning that Weir will take next season off from competition in an attempt, as Weir put it, "to reinvent myself as an athlete and artist.  I say this with the hope of returning as a competitor for the 2011-12 season.''

Read more: "Skater Weir taking competitive break to reinvent himself"

-- Philip Hersh in Chicago

Photos:  Johnny Weir gets into the Kentucky Derby spirit with an outlandish hat. Credit: David Perry / McClatchey-Tribune

Christian Vande Velde is out of the Tour de France because of injuries suffered during a crash in Monday's Stage 2.

Vande Velde, 34, broke two ribs and had a left eyebrow laceration requiring multiple stitches.

Read more: "Crash Injuries Knock Vande Velde Out of Tour de France"

Christian Vande Velde has what would seem to be a reasonable goal for the Tour de France. But the events of the past two years have made it look like a fantasy for the cyclist from Lemont, Ill.

"My contract (with the Garmin-Transitions team) has two more years after this one,'' Vande Velde said. "I definitely want to come back to the Tour when I'm injury-free.''

Vande Velde was speaking Wednesday via telephone from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where the 97th Tour de France begins its 2,262-mile, 23-day circuit of the Netherlands, Belgium and France on Saturday. He comes into the race eight weeks after breaking his collarbone in a May 10 crash at the Tour of Italy and three weeks after cracking ribs in a June 13 crash at the Tour of Switzerland.

That is nearly an exact repeat of his misfortunes in 2009, when Vande Velde's crash in the same stage of the Tour of Italy did more damage, but the ensuing crash in Switzerland was minor. 

"My overall form is pretty similar to what it was last year, but I didn't have as many nagging pains as I do now,'' he said. "I am fit, and I am ready.  But a lot of other things are taking up some of my peace of mind.'' 

In both seasons, he had to withdraw from the three-week-long Tour of Italy but finished the nine-day Tour of Switzerland. Vande Velde went on to finish eighth at last year's Tour de France after having been fourth in 2008, likely missing the podium because of time lost to (what else?) a crash in the final week.

"I'm a little bit worried,'' he said.  "I had to take some days off the bike when I got back from Switzerland to give myself a chance to heal.  The weeks between that and the Tour de France are when I usually like to sharpen up and do more high-intensity work.

"If anything is good from this, it is that I am more rested physically. Hopefully, that will pay dividends in the last week.  If I can get through the first week unscathed, I think I will be OK.

"I think there are going to be a lot of time differences in the first week and, if not, there still will be a lot of carnage and stress.''

The hardest part of the first week on Vande Velde's bruised body likely will be the bone-rattling traverse across eight miles of cobblestone roads during Stage 3, when the Tour follows part of the route of the annual Paris-Roubaix race, an event known as "The Hell of the North.''

The Tour moves into the Alps during the second week and hits the Pyrenees in the third week.  The highlight of the Pyrenees will be an ascent of the Col du Tourmalet from different directions on successive stages.  In either direction, the climb is ranked "beyond classification'' -- or maximum difficulty.

"I have never done a Tour de France with this much climbing,'' Vande Velde said.  "And it's where the mountains are placed.  When the Tourmalet comes early, like it did last year (Stage 9), not much happened.  This year, fireworks are going to go off.''

Vande Velde has started seven Tours de France and finished six.  He rode the first five as a domestique, or worker bee, twice for Lance Armstrong.  The last two, he has been a leader of the Garmin team, as he will be again this year.

There is no comparison between what was expected of him during his first Tour in 1999 and what he expects of himself beginning Saturday, or in the general intensity of racing, which Vande Velde says has been a factor in his crashes and the increased number of crashes in general.

"The stakes have gone up, the performance level has gone through the roof, the tension during races has skyrocketed,'' he said.  "In 1999, if I decided to go to the back, it was no big deal.  Now my goal is to stay at the front, stay out of trouble and race as hard as I can day after day.  If I lose a second here or there, I'll be up all night ticked off.''

-- Philip Hersh

(Photo: Christian Vande Velde (foreground) gets back on his bike after an 11th stage crash in the 2009 Tour de France.  Bas Czerwinski / Associated Press)

For four years after the 1996 Olympics, legendary Moroccan runner Hicham El Guerrouj kept a photo on his bedroom wall of the fall in the 1,500-meter final that likely kept him from winning the race in Atlanta.  Haunted by the memory, El Guerrouj, the greatest miler in history, used it as motivation for an exorcism that eventually took place at the 2004 Summer Games, when he finally took home Olympic gold and became the second person -- after Finland's Paavo Nurmi in 1924 -- to win the 1,500 and 5,000 at the same Olympics.

U.S. hurdler Lolo Jones needs no such personal daily reminder of how she finished seventh in the high hurdles final at the 2008 Olympics.

When she runs in a televised meet in the United States, they replay the video of her stumbling over the penultimate 33-inch-high barrier with the gold medal almost in her grasp.  When she lines up for a start, no matter where, they nearly always introduce her as the "girl who was leading the Olympic race..."'

"You know they're not going to forget it; I'm not going to forget it,'' Jones said before winning her second U.S. high hurdles title Saturday before family and friends from her high school days in Des Moines. "So the only way to wash this away is to kind of fix what happened.''

People kept telling Jones, 27, the cleansing would begin at last year's world championships.  But she failed to make the U.S. team for that meet after locking arms with Michelle Perry going over the fourth hurdle in the semifinals at the 2009 nationals.  Thrown off-balance, Jones stopped running before the next hurdle.

"That was like two slaps in the face -- two major hits,'' she said,  "I'm like: 'There's no redemption. There's nothing.'  That's when people start saying: 'Maybe she still can't come back.  Maybe she'll never be on top again.'  I think I used all the hurts and the painful things as motivation to train.''

Her goal for 2010, a year without a major outdoor international championship for U.S. athletes, was a second straight world indoor title. Jones won that in March.

"I can't be sour about what has happened,'' she said. "I can only look at the positive sides of it.''

One came from the public reaction to how graciously she handled the Olympic defeat, congratulating her rivals and fighting through tears to handle media obligations. Several people sent e-mails to the customer service address of Asics, her shoe and equipment sponsor, saying how much Jones' behavior had inspired and impressed them.

That is why Asics never wavered in its decision to renew a contract with Jones that had expired after the 2008 Olympics.  Not only that, the company increased the contract in each of the upcoming four years (through the 2012 Olympics) by giving her part of what would have been the gold medal bonus.

"So there I [was], an athlete who just lost a gold medal, and the Olympics is our money-maker,'' Jones said. "Every four years, we have a chance to secure our future.

"I know of athletes who won medals and got cut" by their sponsors.  Asics "could have dropped me, but they didn't. For them to do that (re-sign her and add the bonus) was huge. I couldn't believe it.''

Said Ben Cesar, the Asics athletes' representative in the United States: "She could have easily thrown a tantrum or shunned the media [in Beijing], but instead she showed the world the kind of person she is.''

(Asics America, something of a "boutique'' shop in track and field -- 27 athletes, only one of whom, marathoner Deena Kastor, has won an Olympic or world outdoor medal --  was similarly magnanimous to Kara Patterson after she set a U.S. record in the javelin last week. It not only gave Patterson a contractual record bonus of $25,000 but also added that amount to her base contract for each of the next two years.  The Japanese sporting goods manufacturer seems to take seriously its adaptation of the Latin epigram that became the company name:  Anima sana in corpore sano -- ``a sound spirit in a sound body.'')

With her income guaranteed, Jones saw no reason to change anything about her training.  She stayed in Baton Rouge, La., to continue working with her college coach, LSU's Dennis Shaver.  She uses the same workouts as she did nine years ago as a college freshman.

Jones had the world's fastest time in 2008, was second in 2009 and is fastest so far this season.  But she has yet to get over the stumbling block of winning a medal at the Olympics or outdoor worlds.  She wonders if working with a sports psychologist might help.

"They're really expensive,'' Jones said.  "I need a sponsorship.  Any sports psychologists who want to work with an Olympic hurdler to get over the ninth hurdle, please contact me.''

She knows that hurdle will loom larger as the 2012 Olympics approach.  She thinks about the London Games several times a week. "I know that going into London, everybody is going to play up that sobby story,'' she said.  Lolo Jones gets the big picture without having to look at it every day.

-- Philip Hersh in Des Moines

Photos, from top: Lolo Jones looks in disbelief at the replay of the stumble that cost her Olympic gold; credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times;  Jones exults after winning the high hurdles Saturday at the U.S. Championships; credit: Charlie Niebergall / Associated Press

When Chaunte Howard Lowe won the high jump and finished second in the long jump Saturday at the U.S. Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, I wrote that it was a rare double and that Lowe was "believed to be'' the first woman since Babe Didrikson in 1932 to win medals in both events at the national meet.

The "believed-to-be'' qualification was necessary because no one in the press box had access Saturday to records that would provide a definitive answer.

I have one now, thanks to statistical-historical guru Glen McMicken, as relentless and gracious a researcher of the sport's records as you could ever find.

And while few women indeed have attempted the double in the last few decades, Didrikson was not the most recent to win medals in both.

That distinction belongs to Pat Daniels, who finished third in both events at the nationals in 1964, back when there was both a U.S. Championship meet and an Olympic trials in Olympic years. The national meet was of decidedly lesser importance in such situations.

Lowe said Saturday that she is considering the double at next year's world championships.

Provided she qualifies for the U.S. team in both by finishing in the top three at the 2011 nationals, Lowe would have a favorable schedule at the world meet in Daegu, South Korea, in late August. The long jump is Aug. 27-28; the high jump is Sept. 1 and Sept. 3.

The risk, of course, would be an injury in the long jump that deprives Lowe of a chance to compete in the high jump, by far her better event.

Lowe has the two best high jumps in the world this year (setting a U.S record with each, the latter 6 feet 8 3/4 inches Saturday).  Her top long jump Saturday (22-7 3/4) makes her the fifth-best woman in that event this season -- and it would have been far enough to win a medal in the last six world meets.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Chaunte Howard Lowe became the first U.S. woman in 46 years to win long jump and high jump medals at the same national meet, and her U.S.-record high jump was worth the $25,000 top prize for best performance in the 2010 Visa Championship Series meets. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images

When a guy with a 6-foot-6, 320-pound body and an Olympic silver medal talks about creating a competitive monster, you figure he knows a little about the subject.

So you can take Christian Cantwell's word on how his success and that of veterans Adam Nelson and Reese Hoffa have spawned a new generation of young giants for the United States in the shot put.

After all, no other country could boast of having a shot put field in its national championships like the one that heaved the iron ball Sunday at Drake Stadium:

• The three 2008 Olympic team members -- Cantwell, 30 in September; Hoffa, 32; and Nelson, 35 next week -- who each won a gold medal at one of the last three outdoor World Championships.
• The two twentysomethings, Corey Martin, 25, and Ryan Whiting, 23, who have, respectively, the second- and third-longest throws in the world this season (behind the leading Cantwell).
• And Mason Finley, 19, a 6-8, 320-pound rising sophomore at Kansas who ranks 16th among the world's putters in 2010.

"Unfortunately, we're creating our own competitors,'' Cantwell said.  "There were always one or two young kids coming through; now there is a plethora. It's self-inflicting" for the veterans.

"But I ain't gonna let them take me down.  I may be old, but I ain't slow.''

That was apparent Sunday when reigning world champ Cantwell won his third U.S. title and had five of the six longest throws in the competition, topped by a heave of 71 feet, 1/2 inch -- and still was bummed over not breaking the meet record of 72 feet, 11 inches.

"To throw 21.65 [meters] today and be disappointed, that's a good life,'' Cantwell said. "There were times when I'd take a 21.65 and be tickled pink.''

Hoffa and Nelson aren't ready to step aside yet, either.  They finished 2-3 Sunday, each with his best throw of the season, 69-11 3/4 and 68-4 1/2.

Martin was fourth at 67-8, nearly 5 feet under his 2010 best. Whiting, who earlier this month won a second straight NCAA title in the shot for Arizona State, took fifth at 67-7 1/2, some 4 feet off his season best.  And Finley, the recent NCAA runner-up, was eighth at 64-9 1/4, 4 feet under his season best.

"These [young] guys are phenomenal,'' said Nelson, a two-time Olympic silver medalist.  "They are throwing distances I couldn't have dreamed of at their age.''

But the event becomes more mental than physical in the noncollegiate arena, which means more experience in big competitions is crucial.  No shot putter in the 2008 Olympic finals was younger than 26.

"They are still trying to figure out how to compete at this level, against bigger people throwing farther,'' Nelson said. "You've got to go execute every time.''

Cantwell, a three-time world indoor champion, had a related point of view about the transition from college.

"When you're a professional, everyone likes you but nobody is going to hold your hand and try to help you out,'' Cantwell said. "You lose that [support), and you have to find it in a different place.''

The younger U.S. throwers are stepping into an environment in which their countrymen have regained their world dominance during the two decades since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany.

From 1983 through 1991, when the outdoor worlds were quadrennial, U.S. shot putters won just one bronze medal at the meet; in the nine biennial world meets beginning with 1993, the U.S. record is six gold, four silver, two bronze.

"I've been in this game almost 10 years, and I think it's time to let the younger generation have a chance,'' Hoffa said.

But it was clear Hoffa doesn't want that time to come soon.

If he and Nelson retire as expected after 2012, Hoffa noted, Cantwell and Dan Taylor, 28, the 2009 U.S. runner-up, still should be around.

"That will push the younger guys ... into the 2016 Olympics,'' Hoffa said.

-- Philip Hersh in Des Moines

Photos: Christian Cantwell on Sunday at the U.S. Championships, top; Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images.  Ryan Whiting winning a second straight NCAA title; Credit: Greg Wahl-Stephens / Associated Press