Sports 2000

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy successfully defended their pairs title tonight at the World Figure Skating Championship in Los Angeles. The German duo scored a personal-best total of 203.48 points after combining last night’s short program and tonight’s free skate.

Dan and Hao Zhang of China finished second. Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia placed third. The American teams did not finish in a combined 13th place, meaning there will be only two places available on next year’s Olympic team in the discipline.

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin lead after the ice dance’s compulsory routine. The original dance–the second of three events–will be held Thursday. Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto of the U.S. are second, followed by Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and America’s Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

France’s Brian Joubert, the 2007 world champion, leads after the men’s short program. Evan Lysacek, two-time world bronze medalist, of the U.S. is in second. Patrick Chan, the Canadian winner of the Four Continents Championship last month, is in third. The free skate, also known as the long program, is tomorrow.

Amid all the Michael Phelps coverage, I nearly missed an item in the newspaper today. In the U.S., only one Olympian typically enjoys fame after the torch is extinguished. Someone like Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, Bruce Jenner, Eric Heiden or Carl Lewis. The rest fade back into oblivion.

Most Olympic sports are not followed in America, which loves its brands of football and auto racing more than any other sports. Track and field–athletics, as it’s called in most of the world–is very popular across the globe. It’s natural to run, jump and throw. The Golden League is an European professional circuit.

However, to be popular in the U.S., an athlete needs to crash into someone or something often. USA Track and Field is realizing that Americans don’t like to watch track, except during the Olympics. Therefore, USATF is shortening the eight-day Olympic Trials to five days.

The public also hates having the American relay team fail to get the baton around the track. While other nations may have one or two top-notch sprinters–most of whom were trained in the U.S. by American coaches–the U.S. usually can muster a better four-person team than can other countries.

However, that speed doesn’t matter if the baton is dropped or passed outside the allowable zones. USATF typically tries to fuse together a group of individuals who spend their careers competing against each other into a cohesive unit shortly before the Games. In recent years, that strategy hasn’t been successful.

The biggest problem is that some key sponsors are dropping their affiliation with track. Doping scandals, subpar results and lackluster media attention are among the reasons. The sport is barely a blip in the U.S. mainstream media.

USATF met to announce its “London 30″ program. The goal is earn 30 medals at the 2012 London Games. The mark would be a substantial upgrade. The U.S. claimed just seven track golds in Beijing.

The United States Olympic Committee announced that it won’t bid on the 2018 Winter Games. Applications are due in mid-October 2009. A host city will be named in 2011.

The USOC is heavily involved with Chicago’s effort to host the 2016 Summer Games. Chicago is one of the four finalists. Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo are the other finalists.

The International Olympic Committee will choose a host Oct. 2, just before applications to host in 2018 are due. The USOC does not want to divide its efforts between two bids.

The U.S. probably has a better chance of hosting a Summer Games. Atlanta hosted in 1996. Since then, Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) have held Summer Games. London will host the 2012 Games.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Games and the 2010 Games will be in Vancouver. While the 2014 competition has been awarded to Sochi, Russia, it’s not likely North America would be given three of five Winter Games.

Neither Africa nor South America has ever hosted the Olympics. Based on rotation, Rio makes the most sense. Madrid would mark three of four European hosts. Tokyo would make two of three in Asia.

However, Rio scored the lowest of the finalists during preliminary inspections. Tokyo performed the best, followed closely by Madrid. Chicago was third.