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

Women's world puck championships on Universal Sports

Get a preview of the Vancouver Olympics by watching the final stages of the women's world hockey championships, which will be on Universal Sports later this week.

Universal will show 10 hours of play from Hameenlinna, Finland, where Team USA is defending its title. The gold-medal game will be shown live on Sunday. Check your local listings, as the saying goes, for where you can find Universal Sports.

The analyst will be A.J. Mleczko, who won a gold medal with Team USA at the 1998 Nagano Games -- the first to include women's hockey -- and a silver medal at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Here's the schedule, with all times PDT:

Date            Events                                                                  Time

Thursday       Qualifying Round Game #15                       1-3:30 p.m.
Friday         Qualifying Round Game #18                       1-3:30 p.m.
Sunday     Bronze Medal Game #19                  6-8:30 a.m.*
Gold Medal Game LIVE              9 a.m.-noon.

*Bronze medal game to be broadcast only if Team USA is competing

--Helene Elliott

Cinquanta and Grandi, they must be related.

As Phil Hersh pointed out, figure skating's czar, Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy, speaks a lot, says little and seems committed to doing stupid things that hurt the sport. Since figure skating is consistently one of the most popular sports in the Winter Olympics, it would seem that someone associated with the International Olympic Committee -- or, you know, the sport itself -- might eventually want to look for a new guy to give hour-long state-of-the-sport addresses that are both imperious and insipid.

One of the most popular Summer Olympic sports, gymnastics, has the same deal. Bruno Grandi, also of Italy, runs the International Gymnastics Federation. He, too, is fond of meddling with the scoring system -- making it something impenetrable to the casual fan -- and ignoring important issues (Chinese age controversy, anyone?) He also loves speaking for hours at a time and saying nothing. How has it happened that these two men, who seem far removed from the sports they are supposed to help foster, have kept their jobs?

-- Diane Pucin