Ukraine NOC Expels Secretary General; FIBA Turns 80; SASCOC Ultimatum

UNOC Expels Disgraced Secretary General

The Ukraine National Olympic Committee expelled its former secretary general Vlodomyr Geraschenko on Wednesday.

Gerashcenko was shown attempting to sell black market tickets to the London Olympics on a BBC program in May.

A statement posted on the UNOC website says the Investigation Commission found Geraschenko "grossly violated the basic principles of Olympism by his unacceptable behavior to engage in a conversation regarding the possible selling of tickets, thus damaging the image of the national and international Olympic Movements."

An investigator accused Gerashenko of being drunk at the time.

The statement added: "According to the NOC of Ukraine Statutes, Volodymyr Gerashchenko should be excluded from the Members of the NOC of Ukraine for violation of membership obligations."

Geraschenko resigned shortly after the report aired.

80th Anniversary for FIBA

FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann looks forward to another 80 years of basketball as the federation turns 80 this week.

"We are at a crossroads where we have to figure out the right path to follow for the next 80 years," he said in a statement Monday, 80 years to the day since hoops honchos from eight countries signed the document forming FIBA.

"We are working on adding to that half a billion who are involved in basketball because we know there are a lot more people out there and that basketball can be enjoyed by so many more."

Baumann cited FIBA’s half-court, three-to-a-side discipline that debuted at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games as critical to the growth of the game.

"That is why we have launched 3x3," he said.

"We're thinking about how, 20 years after the Barcelona Olympics, we can continue to improve and reinforce the relationship between the best professional basketball league in the world, the NBA, and the rest of world basketball."

Over its 80 years, FIBA has organized 16 men’s and women’s world championships and taken part in 17 Summer Olympics. Its membership now sits at 213 national federations.

SASCOC Chief Ultimatum

Gideon Sam, president of SASCOC, South Africa’s National Olympic Committee, says he will resign if the country fails to reach its medal target in London.

In Beijing, South Africa won one medal – a silver in men’s long jump. SASCOC set a target of 12 medals in London.

"If you are a leader you have to take the knock. It’s all well and good to duck and dive but in the final analysis: who is blamed when the country doesn’t go right? You blame the president," he told South African weekly Mail & Guardian on Tuesday.

"If it doesn’t work after all the effort we have put in, why would you want to carry on? People should think bigger than themselves and realize it’s not in anyone’s interests to go to the Olympics and fail – it does not sit well with me."

SASCOC announced 109 South Africans will compete in London.

"This time we are really going to throw the dice," he said. "Every single person who is there is a medal contender. We are going in there to do not only our best but excel because South Africa deserves nothing less."

USA Today Vet Takes Teaching Post

Olympic beat veteran Vicki Michaelis tells Around the Rings "it’s been an incredible ride" covering the past six Games for USA Today.

"I’ll miss all of my colleagues," she says by phone from Denver, her home for only a couple months more.

"I’ll miss all the people that we cover within the USOC, the IOC, the NGBs […] There’s not a lot of other beats that you’re going to cover where you meet as many interesting, intelligent, intriguing people as you do on the Olympic beat."

Michaelis, owner of USA Today’s lead Olympics post since Sydney 2000, will join the faculty of the University of Georgia this fall, a career move she says amounts only to a day-to-day departure from the Games and not a goodbye.

As the John Huland Carmical Distinguished Professor in Sports Journalism and Society, she will teach courses titled "Social Media & Sports" as well as "Reporting & Writing for Sports Media" beginning next spring.

In the meantime, she says she’s still hoping to freelance from London 2012, after which she will make the cross-country trek to Athens.

That will mark just her third trip to the quirky college town after April’s final interview and a quick visit back in 1996.

The occasion? The women’s football final from the Atlanta Olympics, of course.

Written by Matthew Grayson and Ed Hula III.

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