Invites issued to hockey orientation camp

The Ducks, Kings and one likely soon-to-be-former King were well represented when USA Hockey invited 34 American players to an Olympic orientation camp to be held in Woodridge, Ill., outside Chicago, Aug. 17-19.

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, defenseman Jack Johnson (rumored to be out the door) and right wing Dustin Brown were invited, as was former King defenseman Tim Gleason.

The Ducks will be represented by winger Bobby Ryan and defenseman Ryan Whitney.

The list is dominated by youngsters. No Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk or Bill Guerin to be found among them, although 39-year-old Mike Modano did get an invitation. But the graybeards (and no-beards) can still have hope. Players who were not invited to the camp can still be nominated to the Vancouver Olympic roster, so there's time for other players to impress General Manager Brian Burke and Coach Ron Wilson.

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: United States forward Dustin Brown celebrates after scoring a goal against Russia in the IIHF World Championships on May 8. Credit: Anja Niedringhaus / Associated Press

Chicago financial bump for U.S. Olympic sports? No surprise

EUGENE, Ore. -- It is hardly a surprise that the boss of any U.S. federation governing an Olympic sport would be "actively advocating'' for Chicago to become host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, as USA Track & Field chief executive Doug Logan said Friday he was doing.

After all, an Olympics in the United States always generates higher sponsorship and TV rights revenue for the U.S. Olympic Committee, and the individual federations see some of that increase in their grant allotments from the USOC.

And the sports also find it easier to attract their own sponsorships if the Games are in the United States, which Logan made clear when he also said that USATF's new deal with Nike would include a "significant increase'' if Chicago gets the Games.

The new Nike-USATF deal goes only through 2013, but includes an option to renew through 2017.

A smile and hello: Meeting Michael Jackson in Berlin

When I arrived in Berlin in June 1988 for the start of what turned into the Particularly Bad Shoes and Brown Gravy Tour (more on the name later), I knew Michael Jackson also was making a tour stop there.
Jackson, at the height of his fame, was in the middle of his 16-month "Bad" world tour, which at the time became the largest grossing and most attended tour in history.

I was embarking on a dog-and-pony show tour staged for the benefit of Western media by sports authorities in East Germany, which then was at the height of its athletic fame (or infamy).

Our tour got its (unofficial) name after we were served brown gravy on everything -- including sliced pineapple in Leipzig -- and my colleague, Jere Longman of the New York Times, accurately observed there were two kinds of shoes in East Germany: bad shoes, and particularly bad shoes.

Anyway, no sooner had I checked into my hotel in what then was West Berlin than I realized Jackson also was a guest in the hotel, because there were hundreds of fans on the street chanting his name.

But I didn't think anything more of my relative proximity to the pop superstar until I was walking from my room to the elevators so I could join some friends for dinner.

Out of nationals decathlon, Oly champ Bryan Clay can focus on Chicago 2016

EUGENE, Ore. -- As you learned first what was possible from my Twitter feed Wednesday, 2008 Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay has pulled out of the U.S. Track & Field Championships with a hamstring problem.

According to Clay's agent, Paul Doyle, Clay tried a variety of treatments, including acupuncture and time in a hyperbaric chamber, before making his decision about an hour before the decathlon was to begin with the 100 meters this morning. He had first felt tightness in the hamstring Tuesday.

Clay's withdrawal means he also is out of the August World Championships, for which nationals is the qualifying meet.

"Unfortunately, we need a few more days,'' Doyle said. "He did a few knee lifts this morning and felt immediately he couldn't compete without putting the hamstring in jeopardy.''

Chicago 2016 moves Fasulo, a key player, where the action is

Chicago 2016 and the U.S. Olympic Committee have moved one of the key operatives for the city's Olympic bid closer to the action, sources say.

Robert Fasulo, the USOC chief of international relations, will be spending the summer in Europe after  establishing a base near International Olympic Committee headquarters -- and several international sports headquarters -- in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The relocation makes sense, since Fasulo long worked in Europe as an aide to the late international track federation President Primo Nebiolo and director of the Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations. He speaks English, Italian, Spanish and French.

And since about half the IOC members who will vote for the 2016 host are from Europe, being close enough to schmooze them regularly can only be helpful. Fasulo is doing just that at this week's Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy, where about 20 IOC members are expected to attend.

There also are major world championships (track and swimming) in Europe this summer, and the bid cities will have a presence at them.

Fasulo and his family, who now live in Newport Beach, intend to return to Southern California in the fall.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Robert Fasulo discusses the bid city process. Credit: Associated Press

ISU president: Sasha was 'Santa' in 2006

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- After I had finished talking with International Olympic Committee member Ottavio Cinquanta last week about his opinion on Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid, I asked Cinquanta to put on his other hat for a different question:

As president of the International Skating Union, what did he think of U.S. skater Sasha Cohen's decision to return to competitive figure skating after a three-year hiatus?

"It is a good decision for the ISU and for her,'' Cinquanta said. "I think she wasted a year, because she could have come back earlier, but one year is not the end of the world.''

Cinquanta hopes Cohen will be a different skater from the one whose free skate failures cost her the 2006 Olympic and world titles. She was first going into the free skate both times but wound up second in the Olympics and third at worlds.

"The Sasha I saw in Calgary [worlds] and in Torino [Olympics] was not Sasha Cohen but Santa Claus,'' Cinquanta said, feeling that Cohen had given away those gold medals. "Maybe she will come back with a different attitude. She was terrified.

"I believe the era of Sasha Cohen as loser when [she was] the favorite is over. Now we can have the Sasha Cohen era as a strong skater with more experience. If she wanted experience as a loser, she has enough.''

IOC member Cinquanta: Chicago the favorite

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy is unsparing in his praise of U.S. contributions to sport.

That is among the reasons why Cinquanta, an International Olympic Committee member and president of the International Skating Union, likes the Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

"To me, Chicago is the favorite,''  Cinquanta said Thursday. "Why? The dossier is excellent and, for me, yet again, it is a matter of the U.S. contribution to sport. The U.S. has given [the world] athletes, organization, television and innovation in competition.

"The candidatures are from cities, but the cities are in countries, and what Chicago's country has done for sport in general over the years is very important.''

Cinquanta said his IOC colleagues have been impressed by a change in U.S. attitude toward the world.

A plus for Chicago: IOC-USOC dispute has calmed

LAUSANNE,  Switzerland -- Chicago's Olympic committee certainly had to feel good about one question that wasn't asked after presenting its bid plans Wednesday to International Olympic Committee members.

The ongoing revenue-sharing dispute between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee did not come up, according to IOC member Gerhard Heiberg of Norway, who has been involved for three years in negotiations on this issue.

To Heiberg, that means the members have accepted the agreement announced in late March for a new framework to the negotiations.

"I have not had any IOC member come to me and say, 'This was not right. You should have done it differently,' '' Heiberg said Thursday. "On the contrary, they have said it is fine that this has been put off until after the [2016 host city] election on Oct. 2 so it doesn't interfere, which is what I wanted to achieve.  I haven't had anybody talking to me negatively about this.''

 

The fractious negotiations had become a negative for Chicago's bid.

No second chances for rejected sports in Olympic program vote

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge cleared up the confusion (see my Monday Blog) over what will happen if the IOC members vote down one or both of the two sports that the IOC executive board recommends to join the Summer Games sports program.

Rogge said today that such a rejection in the Oct. 9 vote will not create an opportunity for one of the five other sports trying to get on the program.

"There cannot be a proposal for a third or fourth or fifth sport,'' Rogge said.

-- Philip Hersh

No Games Chicago shows up at IOC's door, bearing books

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Three delegates for No Games Chicago, a group opposed to the city's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, showed up at International Olympic Committee headquarters Tuesday evening with 50 copies of a book titled "The No Games Chicago Book of Evidence for the International Olympic Committee.''

Journalists from media outlets in Spain and Brazil helped No Games carry 50 copies of the book into the building, apparently unconcerned how that looked given that their countries have cities (Madrid and Rio de Janeiro) bidding against Chicago for the 2016 Summer Games.

IOC communications director Mark Adams told No Games delegate Tom Tresser that the IOC would accept the books, a compilation of reprinted news clippings.  Adams then took Tresser aside for a private meeting.

Adams said he assured Tresser that IOC President Jacques Rogge would get a copy of the No Games book but that it was "not very likely'' he could fulfill Tresser's two other requests: a meeting with Rogge and a chance to sit in on Chicago 2016's Wednesday presentation to the IOC members.