Women's Ski Jumping Possible Addition; Delhi 2010 to Open

Women’s Ski Jump Skis Up for Sochi Approval

The quest to add women’s ski jump to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi could be finished this month.

The IOC Program Commission is believed to be ready to deliver recommendations on new disciplines for the Sochi 2014 sports program, a package that would include women’s ski jump as well as ski halfpipe, ski slopestyle and snowboard slopestyle for both men and women.

These events have been endorsed by the International Ski Federation. The federation is also seeking to add a team alpine ski event.

The International Luge Federation is asking to include a team relay event.

While the IOC Program Commission met Sep. 30 at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, no details of the meeting have been disclosed.

The 16-member commission chaired by Franco Carraro will present its report to the ruling IOC Executive Board later this month. IOC rules require that new disciplines for an Olympics be approved three years before the Games, a deadline now looming for Sochi 2014.

Commonwealth Games Open Sunday

Neither construction delays, security concerns nor dengue fever could derail Delhi 2010, set to open Sunday after weathering a storm of doubt that once threatened its very existence.

A sense of calm has spread through the Indian capital, AP reports, and athletes are ready to focus on the task at hand.

"We just want to get on with it," Australian field hockey player Mark Knowles told the news agency Friday.

Indian president Pratibha Pratibha Patil and England’s Prince Charles will jointly open the Games at Sunday evening’s ceremony.

Competition begins Monday in 11 of the 17 CWG sports, including Indian favorite field hockey. Athletics kicks off Wednesday.

A total of 272 gold medals will be handed out through Oct. 14 — 143 for men, 123 for women and six in mixed events.

This will be the largest sporting event ever held in India. Many had viewed the competition as a stepping stone to the subcontinent’s first Olympic Games, a hope organizing chief Suresh Kalmadi insisted Thursday was still alive.

Olympic Speedskater Loses Appeal, Launches Another

Olympic speedskater Claudia Pechstein will fight her two-year doping ban elsewhere after Switzerland's Federal Tribunal became the latest court to dismiss her appeal.

The tribunal refused Friday to overturn the suspension upheld last November by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, just as the Swiss Supreme Court ruled in January.

The 38-year-old German, her country’s most successful Winter Olympian with nine medals, sat out Vancouver after the International Skating Union found her blood profile to show abnormal values at the World Allround Championships last season.

The Games would have been her sixth consecutive Winter Olympics. She medaled in each of her first five.

Pechstein announced Friday she would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights as her year-long battle to prove her innocence wages on.

"I will now do everything to prevent it being possible for the wrong that was done to me being done to other athletes," she said in a statement.

The ISU’s ban ends Feb. 8.

Mutko Downplays Sochi Expectations

Russia’s sports minister and Olympic committee chief said miracles won’t happen in Sochi with the Russian team.

Vitaly Mutko made the comments Friday, saying it could be eight years before Russia dominates the Winter Olympics again.

"We have a special program for preparing our national team for the Sochi Olympics" Mutko was quoted by Russia Today.

"It will be financed separately and will be transparent, but do not expect any miracles like Canada did at their home games. As we can only make use of these athletes that we have now in the country. At the moment there are two possible national team lineups for the Olympics, but in two years time we will see who is doing better and concentrate our efforts on them."

At the Vancouver Olympics, Russia won 15 medals but only three gold, seven fewer than the country earned in Turin in 2006.

Aloha Olympics

Media reports suggest the state of Hawaii is looking at a bid for the 2024 Olympics. A report in Hawaii Business magazine claims a University of Hawaii professor has mapped out three plans for the Games. One would spread the event throughout the state, and two would concentrate the Games in one location.

Written by Matthew Grayson,Ed Hula III and Steven Downes.