World Briefs -- Golf 2016 Names Ambassadors; China Sentences Alleged Saboteurs

Nicklaus, Sorenstam Named Global Ambassadors for Golf's 2016 Bid

Golf legends Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam have been selected as Global Ambassadors by the International Golf Federation to support the sport's bid to be reinstated as an Olympic sport for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In their new roles, the two World Golf Hall of Fame members will represent the Olympic golf effort at select international events and will provide support to the IGF's Olympic Golf Committee, which is spearheading the bid. They will assist the committee in its future communication and meetings with the IOC.

"We've said all along that it is critical to have the support of the game's leading players and now to have two of golf's icons serve as Global Ambassadors for the Olympic cause speaks volumes to the degree of support we have," IGF Olympic Golf Committee Executive Director Ty Votaw said.

Nicklaus, who won a record 18 professional major championships and 118 tournaments in his storied career, says golf fits in perfectly with the ideals of the Olympics.

"Golf truly embodies the Olympic spirit with a foundation built upon honor, dignity and sportsmanship," Nicklaus said. "I believe with its inclusion, golf can strengthen the Olympic movement throughout the world. At the same time, it can have a tremendous impact on the growth of golf where it is a developing sport. I'm pleased to lend my support to the cause."

Sorenstam, a native of Sweden, has recently retired after a stellar career in which she won 89 tournaments around the world, including 72 on the LPGA tour.

"It is an honor and privilege to take an active role in assisting golf's bid to become an Olympic sport," Sorenstam said. "Now, as I step aside from competitive golf, a major objective of mine is to help grow the game around the world, and I can think of no better way to grow it than through the Olympics."

Golf is among the seven sports that are bidding for the two open spots in the Olympic program for 2016, which will be determined at the 121st IOC session in Copenhagen, Denmark in October 2009. The other contenders are baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby, softball and squash.

China Sentences Alleged Olympic Saboteurs to Death

On Wednesday, a Chinese court sentenced two people to death for what it said was an attempt to sabotage the 2008 Summer Olympics with an attack in the city of Kashgar. The incident in the far west region of Xinjiang killed 17 people a few days before the start of the Games.

The two men sentenced were 33-year-old Abduraham Azat and 28-year-old Kurbanjan Hemit, both natives of Kashgar.

The Xinhua News Agency said the sentences were handed down by the Kashgar Intermediate People’s Court.

The attack took place on Aug. 4 -- four days before the start of the Olympics -- near China’s border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. The two men stole a truck and rammed it into a group of police on a morning job, then continued attacking with homemade bombs and knives, killing the officers and wounding 15 others.

Possible Bidding war for U.S. Olympic Broadcast Rights

CBS and Time Warner executives announced they are considering joining together to bid for the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States. The two companies would be able to bid for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics. NBC's current contract expires after the 2012 Olympics. NBC has shown no inclination that it won't try to renew its contract with the IOC.

Broadcast giant ABC - which, along with 24 hour sports cable network ESPN, is owned by the Walt Disney Company -has also expressed interest in bidding for the Olympic rights.

Should CBS, which had its last Olympic experience broadcasting the Nagano Olympics, get the rights to the Games with Time Warner, events could be shown on CBS plus Time Warner's many cable networks. NBC currently broadcasts the Olympics in that same fashion.

Due to the state of the economy, the IOC said it would postpone negotiation talks until after the 2016 host city is selected in October.

NBC has shown every Summer Olympics since 1988.

China Said to Have Blocked Foreign Web sites

China has resumed blocking access to the Web sites of some foreign media that it had unblocked during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, reversing itself on earlier promises to expand press freedom as part of its bid to win the Games, human rights groups and press advocates say.

The Chinese language Web sites of the BBC and Voice of America, along with Hong Kong-based Ming Pao and Asiaweek, are among those that have been inaccessible since early December, according to press rights group Reporters Without Borders.

"Right now, the authorities are gradually rolling back all the progress made in the run up to this summer's Olympic Games, when even foreign Web sites in Mandarin were made accessible. The pretense of liberalization is now over," the group said in a statement.

Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao refused to confirm that the government was behind the censorship during a news conference, but added that some Web sites violated Chinese law.

"For instance, if a Web site refers to 'two Chinas' or refers to mainland China and Taiwan as two independent regions, we believe that violates China's anti-secession law as well as other laws," Liu said.

China allowed access to long-barred Web sites such as the BBC and Human Rights Watch at the Olympics after foreign reporters complained that Beijing was failing to live up to its pledges of greater media freedom.

Olympians Claim Year-End Awards

A number of the top athletes from the Summer Olympics in Beijing were selected to the Most Influential Men and Women of 2008 lists put together by Web siteMSN Lifestyle.

Olympic gold medal winners Michael Phelps (swimming), Usain Bolt (track and field) and Rafael Nadal (tennis) were among the 12 figures chosen as the Most Influential Men of 2008.

Named to the Most Influential Women of 2008 list are Beijing gold medal winners Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Trainor (beach volleyball), Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker (basketball), Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin (gymnastics) and silver medalist Dara Torres (swimming).

Bolt was also honored as French sports daily L'Equipe's athlete of the year, while Walsh and May-Trainor were also selected to Glamour magazine's women of the year list. The 41-year-old Torres, who won three silver medals at the 2008 Games, was named the Euflexxa Masters Athlete of the Year by Masters Athlete magazine in its December issue.

NBC Re-airs Opening Ceremony

Dubbing it the "TV Event of the Year," NBC will re-broadcast the Beijing Opening Ceremony next Saturday.

Hosted by NBC Sports & Olympics host Bob Costas and "Today" co-host Matt Lauer, NBC will show the ceremony in prime time starting at 8 p.m., taking a new look at the most widely-watched ceremony not part of a U.S. Olympics.

NBC said nearly 70 million people tuned in to watch the ceremony.

...Briefs

...Zhang Yimou, who directed the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, finished fifth in voting for Time magazine's Person of the Year Award. Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel said the Olympic opening ceremony was the "greatest spectacle of the 21st century so far...and a symbol of China’s rise." President-elect Barack Obama was selected as the Time Person of the Year.

...Track and Field athlete Maria Mutola of Mozambique, the 800-meter gold medalist at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, IAAF President Lamine Diack of Senegal and former soccer star Roger Milla of Cameroon will be inducted to the Africa Sports Hall of Fame. Mutola, Diack and Milla will officially enter the hall of fame in a ceremony in Bamako, Mali on Saturday. The inductees were selected at the Africa International Sports Convention (CISA) meeting in Abuja, Nigeria in February.

...The Olympics may have not seen the last of swimmer Dara Torres as she is keeping the door open for a bid for the 2012 Games in London. Appearing on HBO's "Costas Now," Torres stated that she has not yet retired and she is considering making a run for a berth on the U.S. Olympic swim team in 2012. "I've learned never to say never...I love competing...I'm still improving, so why not keep going until I've hit my peak."

...Swimmer Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain, a double gold medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, has signed with Australian management company Elite Sports Properties. The 19-year Adlington, who won gold medals in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle events in Beijing, passed over offers from 20 British-based management companies to join Elite Sports Properties."Nationality was irrelevant and didn’t even come into the equation and I thought ESP gave a very professional presentation and that was the clincher in the end," Adlington said.

Written by Greg Oshust.