Olympic Newsdesk: Dubai 2013 FINA WC Host; Verbruggen Honorary Beijing Citizen; Olympic Broadcaster Walter Cronkite

Dubai to Host 2013 FINA Worlds

FINA used the opening weekend of its world championships in Rome to choose a host for the 2013 edition of the event, selecting Dubai as the site on Saturday.

Dubai, which is also hosting the 2010 world short course swimming championships, was picked over Moscow and Hamburg, Germany.

Competition in diving and synchronized swimming were on the schedule as the worlds began its 17-day run.

The weather in Italy played havoc on the open-water swimming competitions, which were postponed due to a storm that caused damage at the race venue Ostia on the Italian coast on Friday.

As a result, the men’s and women’s 5-kilometer races were postponed from Sunday to Tuesday and the women’s 10km races were moved from Thursday to Saturday. The men’s 10km races will still be held on Saturday, as scheduled.

The rest of the schedule went off without a hitch, however, as a number of world championships were crowned on the opening weekend, with China and Russia claiming most of the gold medals.

China’s Qin Kai won two gold medals, winning the men’s 1-meter springboard diving and pairing with Chinese teammate Wang Feng to win the men’s 3-meter synchronized diving.

China also got a gold medal from Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin in the women’s 10-meter synchronized diving, while Russia won the synchronized swimming team tech competition and got individual golds from Julia Pakhalina in the women’s 1-meter springboard diving and Natalia Ishchenko in the women’s synchronized swimming tech solo event. Mexico’s Paola Espinosa

The FINA worlds will continue this week with diving, synchronized swimming, water polo and open-water swimming. The swimming competition will get underway on Sunday.

U.S. Ski and Snowboard Dedicates Training Center

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association officially dedicated its new $22.5 million training center in Park City, Utah at a ceremony on Friday.

Olympic gold medal skier Ted Ligety and Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert were among the dignitaries on hand to dedicate the USSA’s new Center of Excellence training facility.

The 85,000-square-foot facility features training equipment such as treadmills and weights, a skateboarding bowl, a trampoline for snowboarders and aerial skiers and a starting ramp that can measure the force with which ski-cross and snowboard-cross races push off. It also includes a state-of-the-art sports medicine department and athlete lounges.

“It’s pretty incredible that we have a place like this,” Ligety is quoted as saying. “Not a lot of other teams have this.”

Verbruggen Honorary Beijing Citizen

SportAccord president Hein Verbruggen was awarded an honorary citizenship by the city of Beijing for his role in the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Verbruggen, the 24th recipient of the honor since 1983, was presented an honorary citizenship certificate, a medal and a key to the city by Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong.

“This is a real honor, which will allow me to make of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games an unforgettable and everlasting memory,” Verbruggen said.

Walter Cronkite: 1st U.S. TV Host for Olympics

In addition to his many achievements in broadcast journalism, Walter Cronkite also has the distinction of being the first television host of the Olympic Games.

Cronkite, who died on Friday at the age of 92, served as the host for CBS’ coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif., the first time the Games were broadcast in the U.S.

Richard Sandomir has written an article in the New York Times about Cronkite’s foray into Olympic broadcasting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/sports/19sandomir.html

Written by Greg Oshust.