Olympic Newsdesk - Skating in Turin, Youth Olympics Cheats Warned, Hiroshima Olympic Woes

Youth Olympic Games Cheats Not Welcome

Leaders of teams heading to the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore are warned that drug testing and age verification will help keep scandals from breaking out at the inaugural event this August.

The Games, from Aug. 15 to 25, will include 3500 athletes, from ages 14 to 18, competing in 26 sports.

"You are responsible for the athletes. This is a question of fair competition. We would not like to have some scandal," is how Singapore media quoted IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli when he spoke this week to the 200 chefs de mission who werein Singapore.

The chefs meeting, which ended Wednesday, is the first and only one for the team leaders ahead of the YOG.

One participant tells Around the Rings that the chefs seemed impressed with the level of preparation for the Games. There was some concern for limits on the number of officials allowed for each team, which some countries feared will be too few.

"It took some time for some NOCs to understand that this is the youth games and not the Olympic Games," reports our source at the meeting.

Plans for ticket sales in Singapore are to be announced next week.

Hiroshima Government Rejects Bid Budget

The Hiroshima city council rejected a budget for a nascent 2020 Olympics bid.

According to Kyodo News, the budget included more than $275,000 to create an exploratory committee, formulate strategy, and pay for "other costs" with a bid.

The council said the city’s lack of money and public support led to the rejection.

Originally Hiroshima planned to launch a joint bid for the Games with Nagasaki to promote a nuclear-free world. Nagasaki dropped the idea earlier this year.

Chinese Skaters Capture Turin Title

Vancouver silver medalists Pang Qing and Tong Jian are the 2010 figure skating pairs world champions, winning the title Wednesday at the ISU World Championships in Turin.

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany finished second.

Vancouver 2010 pairs gold medalists Shen Xue and Hongbo of China chose not to compete in the championships.

In men's figure skating, Vancouver Olympic bronze medallist Daisuke Takahashi of Japan leads after the short course program on Wednesday. Takahashi is the only medal-winner from Vancouver competing in the men's completion. Canadian Patrick Chan is second and Brian Joubert of France is third.

Medvedev Bans Sports Leaders

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev banned two Russian sport federation heads from preparations for the Sochi Olympics.

Valentin Piseyev, president of the Russian figure skating federation and Vladimir Loginov, head of the Russian cross-country skiing federation, were removed from their posts on the PresidentialCouncil for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport. Medvedev also banned them from any preparations for the Sochi Olympics and the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia.

Russia is going through the aftermath of its worst performance in the Winter Olympics since the Soviet era. Russian figure skaters failed to win any golds for the first time since the 1964 Olympics and the cross-country ski team won just four medals. At the Turin Games, Russian cross-country skiers won seven medals, two gold.

The debacle has led to the resignation of the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, a deputy sports minister and calls for the resignation of the sports minister, who has refused to do so.

Kazakh Olympic Chief Reelected

Temirkhan Dosmukhambetov was reelected as the president of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan Wednesday at the NOC’s congress. Dosmukhambetov, whoalso serves as sports minister, will serve for four years.

Timur Dossymbetov will return as secretary general.

UCI Track World Championships Underway

IOC member Prince Frederik of Denmark opened the 2010 International Cycling Union World Championships on Wednesday at Ballerup Super Arena in Copenhagen.

The 5-day world championships are one of six major cycling events that Copenhagen is hosting from 2008 to 2011. The event is part of the initiative Bike City Copenhagen, which is program that Frederik oversees in the role of protector.

Last week Prince Frederik personally road the cycling track with some of the competitors. He spoke about the experience during the opening ceremony.

"I had the pleasure to go with the riders and I was happy to be able to keep pace with them until I realized that they were just warming up," Frederik said.

The championships run through Sunday.

Briefly…

The PyeongChang government will invest $4 million over the next four years four ski jump prospects to have access to facilities at PyeongChang’s Alpensia Resort. PyeongChang is bidding to host the 2018 Winter Games against Munich and Annecy, France. ..

The International Boxing Federation finalized an agreement for a Milan franchise in the World Series of Boxing. The WSB is set to have its inaugural season starting in the fall…

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Written by Ed Hula III and Sam Steinberg.