Olympic Impact in America's Cup; London Olympic Venue Legacy

Olympians in the America’s Cup

Seven Olympians, including one rower, took part in the America’s Cup.

Oracle CEO Russell Coutts, tacticians John Kostecki and Ben Ainslie, and strategist Tom Slingsby all participated in the Olympics as sailors, and Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker and wing trimmer Glenn Ashby were Olympian sailors as well. Emirates pedestal Rob Waddell won a gold medal for New Zealand in the single sculls rowing event.

The Cup was retained by the United States after winning the best-of-17 series. Team Oracle had been down eight races to one before completing the comeback on Wednesday.

Jerome Pels, director general of ISAF, the international sailing federation, made his second tweet in three years regarding the America’s Cup final.

"Been glued to youtube every night last weeks and loved it," he posted. "Good for sailing."

London to Host Track Cycling World Championships

London was awarded the 2016 UCI Track-Cycling World Championships.

UCI’s Management Committee selected London during its meeting in Florence, Italy on Wednesday. The Championship will take place February 24 to 28 at the London Velodrome, site of track cycling for the London Olympics.

"Winning the bid to host the final Track Cycling World Championships of the next Olympic cycle is important strategically for us," said British Cycling’s chief executive, Ian Drake.

"It’s good for the current generation of athletes, but it’s also an important tool for inspiring the next generation who will follow in their footsteps."

WADA Publishes Prohibited List for 2014

The World Anti-Doping Agency released its Prohibited List for 2014.

No substances were dropped from the list.

WADA made a number of technical changes related to names of substances, organization names, and other topics.

Mitragynine was added to the Narcotics class of the Monitoring Program "to detect potential patterns of abuse," WADA said in a statement.

Archive for Sochi Olympics

Officials from Sochi 2014, the City of Sochi and other Russian Olympic leaders dedicated the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games Archive on Thursday.

The archives will be stored at the Russian International Olympic University and hold documents and other information tied to staging the Games.

"The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated," said Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov. "It ensures open access to the 2014 Games archive materials and their use for informational, research, and educational purposes, which will certainly broaden the horizons of science in sports and the Olympic Movement. I'm proud to be involved in this project."

Ireland Rules Out Men’s Rugby Sevens Squad

Ireland’s governing rugby union has ruled out a top-flight men’s squad competing in rugby sevens at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Eddie Wigglesworth, director of rugby for the Irish Rugby Football Union, told The Irish Independent the organization’s finances were too precarious to guarantee an elite men’s team in Rio.

"Realistically, there is not a hope in hell we're going to be in Rio," Wigglesworth said. "The big question for us is, how long does it take us to prepare to go to Tokyo?

"It is three years before we'd even get a sniff at the Sevens World Series. The World Series is a professional series, the level of which is a substantial difference from where we are now."

Ireland is one of the strongest teams in the 15-a-side version of rugby.

Written by Ed Hula III and Aaron Bauer.

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