African Olympic Vow; FIBA Hall of Fame; Phelps Too Slow

IOC Member Pledges Support for South Africa 2020

Four-time silver medalist Frank Fredericks will do his part to bring Africa its first Olympics, the IOC member from Namibia vowed Friday to AFP.

"I will take up the challenge of improving athletics in Africa and take up the international challenge to make changes," he told the French news agency.

Fredericks, chairman of the IOC’s Athletics Commission, is in Singapore for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, where he participated Friday in a "Chat with Champions".

"It would be nice to share our culture, to share our vuvuzelas, to share our food, to share the way we do things with the world," he said.

"I do think we should get a chance to host the largest event in the world."

South Africa’s recent World Cup success ignited hype in the media and hope throughout Africa that the continent was ready for the bigger stage. Or, at least, that South Africa could be ready by 2020.

IOC President Jacques Rogge encouraged the country to submit a bid for the Olympics at a meeting with South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee chiefs in Johannesburg on July 12.

Durban will host the IOC Session in July 2011, the first-ever in South Africa.

A senior IOC member told Around the Rings late last month that Durban is the best city in South Africa to make a strong bid for the 2020 Olympics.

FIBA Hall of Fame to Enshrine Class of 2010

Brazilian icon Oscar Schmidt, Laker great Vlade Divac and Olympic champion Cheryl Miller headline the FIBA Hall of Fame’s class of 2010.

A total of 17 basketball personalities from 12 countries will gather for induction Sept. 12 at the FIBA World Championship in Istanbul, the International Basketball Federation announced Friday.

Schmidt was the top scorer in three of his five Olympics and is perhaps the greatest player the NBA has never seen.

Divac won silver in 1988 and 1996 with Yugoslavia and is president of the Serbian Olympic Committee.

Miller dominated U.S. college basketball at the University of Southern California, won gold at the Los Angeles Summer Games and is an accomplished WNBA coach and TV sportscaster.

Natalia Zassoulskaya, Dino Meneghin, Arvydas Sabonis and Dragan Kicanovic round out the player inductions.

Zassoulskaya led Russia’s women to gold in Barcelona. Meneghin won silver with Italy in 1980. Sabonis won gold with the Soviet Union in 1988 and bronze with Lithuania in 1992 and 1996. Kicanovic helped Yugoslavia win silver in 1976 and gold in 1980 and is a past SOC president.

Australia’s Lindsay Gaze and Russia’s Evgeny Gomelsky and Mirko Novosel are the Class of 2010’s three coaches.

The 10 players and coaches own a combined 14 Olympic medals and 15 FIBA World Championship medals.

"The 2010 Class has stardom, character and countless merits for the promotion of our game," FIBA president Bob Elphinston said in a statement.

"The inductees were and still are brilliant on and off the court."

Referees Jim Bain and Konstantinos Dimou and contributors George Killian, Hans-Joachim Otto, Ernesto Segura de Luna, Abdoulaye Seye Moreau and Al Ramsay will also be enshrined.

Hammer Thrower, 79, Defied Odds, Politics

Olympic champion hammer thrower Harold Connolly died Wednesday at the age of 79.

The 12-time U.S. champion passed out during his regular workout and hit his head on the floor, his family said.

Complications during birth left Connolly’s left arm withered, so he took up the sport in college to build strength.

He won gold in 1956 but became more famous for his romance with discus champion Olga Fikotova of Czechoslovakia, whom he met at the Melbourne Games.

Their Cold War-defying marriage lasted 18 years, after which Connolly wed U.S. Olympic runner and pentathlete Pat Winslow.

Connolly, a four-time Olympian, broke the hammer throw world record six times.

Teammates Outshine Phelps In Medley

Michael Phelps’ return to the 400m individual medley didn’t go as planned at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California.

The 14-time gold medalist finished fourth in the prelims, but only two swimmers a country can advance. U.S. teammates Ryan Lochte and Tyler Clary finished one and two, then did the same in Thursday night’s final.

Phelps set the world record in Beijing but hadn’t swam the event since.

Pan Pacs is 2010’s lone major international competition, giving the world’s top swimmers a chance to measure their progress ahead of London 2012.

The quadrennial meet is also a test of new rules banning the full-body suits that yielded 43 world records at the 2009 world championships in Rome.

Events run through Sunday.

South African Returns From Gender Tests

Caster Semenya returns to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on Sunday for her first major race since winning the World Championships 800 meters on the same track a year ago.

The 19-year-old South African was held out for 11 months while the IAAF conducted gender tests to determine if she could compete against female runners. She was cleared in July and ran two minor races in Finland.

Semenya also plans to run the Diamond League final in Brussels on Aug. 27 and two meets in Italy and hopes to make South Africa's roster for the Commonwealth Games.

TV Deals Take IAAF Worldwide

Track & field will reach a truly global audience thanks to a spate of broadcasting deals announced Friday by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

The IAAF secured its largest ever contract with the OTI, who will broadcast to 15 Latin American countries.

ASTRO and VCTV will hold TV rights in southeast Asia, Zuku TV in east Africa and a consortium of broadcasters in Ghana.

The IAAF will confirm additional deals for sub-Saharan Africa soon.

Marketing partners IEC and Dentsu brokered the agreements.

Written by Matthew Grayson and Karen Rosen.