OLYMPICS
IOC starts making changes
International Olympic Committee (IOC) leaders have begun work on implementing a new bidding process and launching an Olympic television channel. Committee president Thomas Bach has been chairing meetings in Lausanne, Switzerland, on applying some of the key changes approved on Monday in Monaco, the organization said on Friday. “It is critical we utilize the momentum and energy we have created ... and start implementing right away,” it said. The bidding process for the 2024 Olympics opens on Jan. 15 with a new “invitation phase” for potential candidates to discuss their plans with the committee. Former NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol attended meetings on the digital TV channel as an unpaid special adviser. The channel is designed to promote Olympic sports in the years between the Games.
SOCCER
Croatia punished for racism
Croatia must partially close its stadium for a Euro 2016 qualifying match as punishment for fans’ racist and hooligan behavior in Italy. Fans twice disrupted Croatia’s 1-1 draw at the San Siro in Milan on Nov. 16, where they threw lit fireworks. The teams left the pitch and riot police were deployed. UEFA says its disciplinary panel ordered an 8,000-seat section of Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb closed when Group H leaders Croatia hosts Norway on March 28. UEFA did not specify details of the racist behavior. The Croatian Football Federation was also fined 80,000 euros (US$100,000). UEFA imposed the same fine when Croatia fans made monkey noises at Italy forward Mario Balotelli in a Euro 2012 match in Poland.
BASEBALL
Yankees sign Dutch knight
Derek Jeter earned five titles for the New York Yankees, but newcomer Didi Gregorius already has one: Sir Didi Gregorius, proud member of Order of Orange-Nassau. New York’s new shortstop was knighted after playing for the Netherlands in the 2011 IBAF Baseball World Cup, where the Netherlands beat Cuba 2-1 in the final. Gregorius goes by his noble rank on his Twitter account. “Some people actually call me Sir Didi,” he said on Friday. “I don’t really mind if they just call me Didi.” Gregorius was acquired from Arizona on Dec. 5 as part of a three-team trade that sent right-hander Shane Greene to Detroit.
BASEBALL
Ex-Sox now US ambassador
A former Chicago White Sox outfielder is all lined up for the diplomatic field: Mark Gilbert, who played seven games in July 1985, has become the first major leaguer to be confirmed as a US ambassador. The US Senate approved his nomination to New Zealand and Samoa by voice vote on Friday. US Department of State spokeswoman Marie Harf said the agency could not find any other record of a former MLB player having served as an ambassador. Gilbert hit .273, scored three runs and drove in three, starting alongside future Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Carlton Fisk with the White Sox. The 58-year-old Gilbert was nominated by US President Barack Obama in October last year. Cal Ripken Jr and Barry Larkin are some of the big league players who have served the Department of State in various capacities, including as goodwill ambassadors and sports envoys. Former Texas Rangers president Tom Schieffer was the US ambassador to Japan and Australia. Gilbert has worked as a banking executive and was on the Obama for America national finance team.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier