Most Powerful Athletes Training for Rio Olympics -- Media Watch

(ATR)NBC Sports weighs in on the most dominant U.S. women most likely headed to Rio in 2016.

"U.S. women outnumbered the U.S. men in total athletes, total medals and gold medals at the London 2012 Games, all firsts for an Olympics," NBC Sports writer Nick Zaccardi says.

"It appears women [not allowed to compete in the first modern Games in 1896] will continue to lead the American contingent in Rio, based on results since the London flame was extinguished on Aug. 12, 2012."

Anderson Silva, a Brazilian mixed martial artist and former UFC middleweight champion, wants to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympicsin taekwondo.

In a letter written to the president of the Brazilian taekwondo federation (CBTKD), Silva lays out his Olympic aspirations.

"Everybody knows that for a high-performance athlete, the Olympic Games is the dream of every athlete, and it wouldn't be different with me," Silva said.

"When I was named the ambassador of the sport by president Carlos Fernandes, this Olympic spirit motivated me.

"I wish to represent taekwondo and Brazil in the Olympic Games in 2016. With all my esteem, strength and honor."

In response, CBTKD president Carlos Fernandes said he would welcome the opportunity to discuss with Silva the possibility of joining the team in Rio.

The Nevada Athletic Commission suspended Silva after he failed two drug tests earlier this year. Silva is scheduled to meet with the commission in May.

Alan Abrahamson, founder of 3 Wire Sports, spotlights another athlete coming off of a competition suspension--Olympian Michael Phelps.

USA Swimming suspended the 29-year-old for six months last September following a drunk-driving incident. With the suspension now over, Phelps is competing in a meet this week in Mesa, Arizona.

"In addition to that suspension," Abrahamson says, "Phelps and USA Swimming agreed--and 'agreed' is putting a spin on it--that he would not be on the U.S. team in Kazan. Now the time has come to fix that.

"For every reason you can come up with to keep Phelps off the Kazan team, there are better reasons to send him."

Abrahamson adds,"The U.S. team needs Phelps if it has any hopes of winning the 400 freestyle relay the way it did in Beijing in 2008.

"You only get so many chances to practice this relay before Rio in 2016."

Marilia Brocchetto, a writer for CNN, reports on an issue concerning athletes hoping to compete at the Rio Games in rowing and canoeing events.

"The bad news for Rio de Janeiro ahead of the 2016 Olympics keeps coming after scores of dead fish appeared in the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon," Brochetto says.

"Officials [in Rio] defended the belief that the latest rains caused a temperature change of the water and the excess of decaying organic matter, which would have led to lack of oxygen killing the fish."

The Irish Times says an environmental commission in Brazilis blaming a different source for the die-off.

"The Brazilian Environmental Defense Commisison [Alerj] have said the causes of the die-off were man-made, including contamination in the lake from domestic and industrial waste."

2024 Olympic Bid Race

Stephen Wilson, sports writer for the AP, says the bidding race for the 2024 Olympic Games is getting crowded.

"Paris, expected to get the final go-head in June, would join a race that already includes declared candidates Rome, Boston and Hamburg, Germany.

"The contest shapes up as a battle between Europe and the United States--if the faltering Boston bid manages to stay afloat and survive a referendum in 2016."

Daniel W. Drezner, a professor of international politics at Tufts University in Massachusetts and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, discusses Boston's 'souring' attitude toward the Olympics.

"Local public opinion on hosting an Olympics has soured considerably since January, forcing the Boston 2024 organizing committee to call for a statewide referendum to reaffirm support.

"One explanation has to do with the weather."

Drezner adds, "There's another explanation for Bostonian ambivalence that has nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with a peculiar trend of democracies not being interested in hosting the Olympics."

The Boston Herald's Howie Carr says winning Bostonians over on a 2024 Olympic bid will be a Herculean task.

"The overwhelming opposition to taxpayer funding [for the Games] may be extremely difficult for the proponents to overcome," Carr says.

"Despite their access to unlimited millions that would get pumped into a referendum campaign by trade unions and contractors desperate to create a new Big Dig to support themselves for another decade at the public trough."

In Other News

The Atlanta Business Chronicle highlights a project that would potentially mark the 20th birthday of Centennial Olympic Park.

"An effort is underway to raise $46.5 million to enhance downtown's premier gathering space--one of the most catalytic legacies from the 1996 Summer Olympic Games," ABC reporters Amy Wenk and Maria Saporta say.

"The Georgia World Congress Center Authorityis exploring the feasibility of the capital campaign to fund major improvements to the 21-acre green space."

Compiled byNicole Bennett

Home page photo: Getty Images

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