Rio Olympics Live:IOC awards TV rights for 2016 Rio Olympics to STAR India

Despite India serving a ban from the Olympic fold, the International Olympic Committee has awarded broadcast rights of several important multi-sporting events, including 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, for seven South Asian countries to an Indian channel.

'STAR India' has been handed the broadcast rights for the XXII Olympic Winter Games (2014) in Sochi, Russia; the Games of the XXXI Olympiad (2016) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games (2014) in Nanjing, China.

 "STAR India acquired the rights to all media platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, internet and mobile, in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. STAR India will work to ensure that the broadest possible audience has access to broadcasts of the Olympic Games," the IOC said in a statement on its website.

IOC President Jacques Rogge welcomed the granting of the broadcast rights to STAR India. "We welcome the opportunity to work with STAR India for the upcoming editions of the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games. We are confident they will do a great job providing the best possible broadcast coverage of the Games, on a variety of platforms, to the largest possible audience in the seven different countries."

IOC Finance Commission Chairman Richard Carrion, who led the negotiations, said, "Traditionally IOC has negotiated broadcast rights on a pan-Asian basis; however, the media landscape is changing and we have adapted our approach recently by negotiating directly in certain markets. We are pleased to have reached this agreement directly with STAR India."

Nitin Kukreja, Head of Sport Business for STAR India, said, "The Olympic Games remain the pinnacle of sporting achievement where the world's best in various disciplines face off for the title of Olympic champion. Indian athletes have also performed admirably over the last few editions, which is evident in the medal-winning performances that we have come to admire. We value our partnership with the IOC and feel that this spectacular extravaganza can be taken to even greater heights in India on both television as well as on digital platforms."

Olympic boxers to fight without head guards

Olympic boxers will fight without head guards in a pro-style scoring system starting this year after several significant rule changes by the sport's international governing body.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) unveiled several rule amendments this week, but the two biggest changes will move the amateur sport much closer to the professional version. The rejection of headgear and the introduction of 10-point scoring could make the sport once known as amateur boxing more appealing to young boxers seeking professional careers.

Male boxers at the world championships in October and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 won't wear the protective head guards adopted before the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Although the move might seem counterintuitive in preventing brain injuries, the chairman of AIBA's medical commission, Charles Butler, cites numerous medical studies that suggest fighting without head guards will decrease concussions.

"There's no evidence protective gear shows a reduction in incidence of concussion," Butler said. "In 1982, when the American Medical Association moved to ban boxing, everybody panicked and put headgear on the boxers, but nobody ever looked to see what the headgear did."

AIBA's executive committee unanimously voted to add head guards to amateur competition in April 1984, and they stayed in place through eight straight Olympics.

But the headgear has long been criticized for diffusing the impact of a blow and allowing fighters to continue sustaining more head shots for a longer stretch of time. The gear also offers no protection to the chin, where many knockout blows land in boxing, while the bulky sides of the device impede fighters' peripheral vision, preventing them from seeing every head blow.

The head guard ban will only affect male boxers at the top levels of AIBA competition, meaning women's boxers and younger fighters will still wear the gear.

The amateur sport also is moving to a pro-style, 10-point scoring system, discarding the latest version of the much-criticized computer punch-count systems implemented after the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Each fight will be scored by five ringside judges with the traditional 10-9 or 10-8 rounds familiar to fans of professional boxing.

The sport moved to a punch-counting system after the infamously bizarre results in Seoul, including Roy Jones Jr.'s inexplicable loss. But the computer system has been highly subjective and arcane, often turning the sport into a sparring session that emphasizes punch volume over technique and ring generalship. North American boxers have been particularly critical of the computerized scoring, with many top U.S. and Mexican prospects declining even to participate in amateur boxing.

The traditional scoring system also should indirectly improve fighters' safety, according to Butler. Since body shots and combinations notoriously scored few points in the computerized punch-count system, fighters have long placed a premium on a high volume of head shots, since an opponent's neck snapping back is the surest way to make sure a punch is seen and counted.

"Boxing isn't bean-counting," Butler said. "The thing that makes (the computer system) dangerous is if you're a boxer, you know you're not going to get a point for a body shot, so what are you going to do except punch the head? There were no points given for combinations. You might get one point. If a kid was a counterpuncher, you'd lose."

AIBA has been moving its sport to a professional model for the past several years under the direction of President Wu Ching-Kuo, even opening two professional boxing ventures: the team-based World Series of Boxing and the individual APB Boxing, slated to debut this fall. AIBA even dropped the word "amateur" from its name and competitions to emphasize its desire to control boxing at every level.

"It is AIBA's duty to bring the sport of boxing to the pinnacle of the Olympic Movement, and I am convinced that these changes will critically contribute to the development of our beloved sport," Wu said. "Decisions have not been made lightly, and we will now put a lot of efforts in educating our national member federations, our officials, boxers and coaches, as well as boxing fans around the world."

Cricket may soon become an Olympic sport

Fresh moves are taking place to have cricket become an Olympic sport perhaps in time for the 2024 Summer Games. The popular Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) World Committee is lobbying for Twenty 20 cricket to be included, claiming it could significantly raise the profile of the sport.

The earliest the International Cricket Council (IOC) can apply to be part of the Olympics is for the 2024 Games."The MCC World Cricket committee appreciates that a great deal of effort may be needed to lobby for the inclusion of cricket in the Olympic Games of 2024," MCC said in a statement.

Cricket has already passed the first stage of selection when it received full Olympic recognition in 2010. The MCC World Cricket Committee, which acts as a complementary body to ICC, admits it would cost the game financially but feels the positives of being an Olympic sport can make up for such losses.

"The committee accepts that, were cricket to be played in the Olympics, there would be a short-term loss in income for the ICC, and therefore for dispersion to its members," the statement said following a two day meeting in New Zealand. IOC president Jacques Rogge has encouraged the sport to put forward a case for its inclusion, saying they would welcome an application, adding cricket is an important, popular sport and very powerful on television.

Also, one of the game's more outspoken advocate's Australian cricketers Adam Gilchrist has been pushing for T20 cricket to be included in the 2020 Olympic Games. Cricket was part of the 1900 Olympics in Paris and has not appeared since.

Oscar Pistorius arrested after killing girlfriend

South Africa's Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius was arrested early Thursday for allegedly shooting dead his girlfriend after mistaking her for an intruder, media reports said.

According to the Beeld newspaper, the athlete known as the "Blade Runner" was arrested early Thursday following the shooting at his home in an upscale area near the South African capital.

Police spokesman Katlego Mogale said a "26-year-old man had been taken into custody for shooting a 30-year-old woman".

Reeva Steenkamp  with Oscar Pistorius

Mogale could not confirm if the suspect was Pistorius, saying his identity would be revealed only once he appears in court later on Thursday.

"The deceased was shot four times and died on the scene. It is believed that she was the girlfriend of the accused," said Mogale.

The shooting took place in a house inside an upmarket security compound in Silverlakes, outside Pretoria, he said. Pistorius lives in the compound.

Oscar Pistorius

The "Blade Runner" made history in 2012 when he became the first amputee to compete in the Olympics.He won gold in the 4x400m relay at the Paralympic Games.

He had both legs amputated below the knee before the age of one, because of a congenital condition, and runs on carbon fibre blades.

Last year Time Magazine named him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

The Johannesburg-born runner had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old after being born without lower leg bones. But he played sports unhindered while growing up, switching to running after fracturing a knee playing rugby.

At high school, he was so good that his personal fitness coach said she was unaware for six months that he ran on prosthetic legs.

Oscar Pistorius

But he was initially banned from competing in the Olympics in Beijing by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on the grounds that his blades gave him an unfair advantage.

That decision was later overturned on appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), although he ultimately failed to meet the Olympic qualifying standard time.

He went on to win a silver medal as part of the 4x400m relay team at the 2011 World Championships in South Korean city of Daegu before representing his country at the London Olympics and Paralympics last year.

Off the track, Pistorius is an adrenalin junkie, with a love of speed reflected in a passion for motorbikes.

Four years ago he crashed his boat in a river south of Johannesburg, breaking two ribs, an eye socket and his jaw.

He also once owned two white tigers but sold them to a zoo in Canada when they became too big.

IOC to drop wrestling from 2020 Olympics

IOC leaders have dropped wrestling for the 2020 Games in a surprise decision to scrap one of the oldest sports on the Olympic programme. The IOC executive board decided on Tuesday to retain modern pentathlon -- the event considered most at risk -- and remove wrestling instead from its list of core sports. 

The decision, announced by the IOC, was first reported by The Associated Press. The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic programme. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the programme later this year. 

Wrestling

Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. Wrestling featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year's London Olympics. 

Wrestling will now join seven other sports in applying for inclusion in 2020. The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020.

The IOC executive board will meet in May in St Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the programme since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the programme at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Dubai to bid for 2024 Olympics

Yousuf Yaqoob Alserkal, the vice president and chairman of the United Arab Emirate's National Olympic Committee (NOC), said here that the sheikhdom still plans to bid for future Olympic Games, despite a withdrawal of a bid for the 2020 edition.

Speaking at the sidelines of the Emerging Host Cities conference, a two-day forum on hosting major sporting events which started Tuesday, Alserkal said the Dubai committee, which was formed in 2008 to work out Olympic bidding procedures, was still in place and he confirmed that the sheikhdom will effectively submit a bid for 2024, Xinhua reports.

Dubai has all sorts of required infrastructure for athletic sports, swimming, football, tennis or basketball, said Alkersal, "so we think in general we would be ready to host a multi-sports events."
The UAE's NOC vice president added that Dubai proved to be ready when it hosted the 7th FIFA Club World Cup in 2010 and the 9th Asian Swimming Championships last month, besides organising annually the Dubai Duty Free Tennis event.
However, temperatures rise up to 50 degrees Celsius during summer amid high humidity. This would force Dubai to move the summer games to the winter months, which might reduce the emirate's chances against potential competing bidders.

Dubai was hit severely by the global financial crisis and was at the brink of bankruptcy end of 2009, which forced the government to put Olympic dreams on hold at that time. Dubai was financially saved by a USD 10 billion guarantee from neighbouring Abu Dhabi.

Dubai's economy is now witnessing a strong comeback. According to Dubai department of statistics, in the first six months of 2012, Dubai's real economy grew by 4.1 percent year on year, representing the highest half-year growth in five years.

Usain Bolt looks at alternative career in football

 You have seen him running in the track like Chiitah  and one day you may see dribling the ball and scoring the goal in football Ground.He may already be a legend on the track but Usain Bolt is not done, yet. The fastest man on Earth sees himself playing football once he retires from the track.The Olympic and world champion said that he might try his hand at the global game. "I have said I wanted to try football," said Bolt, world-record holder in both 100 and 200m. "I always wanted to try to play soccer. Maybe at the end of my career. It would be something I would love to try. I watch it on TV and see these guys play. I play it all the time with my friends. I played childhood matches in Jamaica and I did well. I think it is something I would like to try to do."

Usain Bolt

Two days after saying he would like to defend his 100 and 200m titles at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 26-year-old said he may still branch out to other track events.

After becoming the first man to defend both 100 and 200m Olympic titles, the Jamaican said his accomplishment hit him only after he returned home.

"It's a great thing to achieve a goal you always wanted," Bolt said. "For me it was an honour. I have worked hard to become a legend. For me to go home after the races, sit down, and reflect on what just happened, it was emotional.

"It's a wonderful stepping stone in my life to be a legend in my sport."

Doha and Baku out from race of 2020 Olympic

Doha and Baku were eliminated from the race for the 2020 Olympics on Wednesday as the IOC trimmed the field of candidates from five cities to three.

Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul made the cut as the International Olympic Committee executive board settled on a shortlist of finalists.

Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, and Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, were rejected for a second time in a row after failing to make the final list for the 2016 Games.

Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul — all former bidders — now advance to the final phase, a 17-month race that will end with the IOC vote on Sept. 7, 2014, in Buenos Aires.

Madrid is bidding for a third consecutive time, Tokyo a second time in a row and Istanbul a fifth time overall

.

The executive board, headed by IOC President Jacques Rogge, chose the finalists after examining a technical evaluation report compiled by a panel of Olympic experts. The board voted on each candidate.

An official familiar with details of the selection told The Associated Press the board voted unanimously in favor of Tokyo and Madrid at 12-0 and supported Istanbul by 11-1. The vote was 0-12 for Baku and 3-9 for Doha, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the totals are not being made public.

Qatar is already hosting the 2022 World Cup, but faced questions over the heat, the timing and other issues for the Olympics. The IOC agreed to let Doha bid based on Qatar`s proposal to hold the games from Oct. 2-18 to avoid the brutal summer heat, but officials remained concerned about the weather, conditions for athletes and potential conflicts with television and other sports events going on during that time of year.

IOC executive director Gilbert Felli said the October date was "not the only reason" Doha was dropped from the race.

The dynamics of the race changed dramatically when Rome, considered a potential 2020 favorite, pulled out of the bidding in February after the Italian government declined to provide financial guarantees at a time of economic austerity.

Madrid is bidding against the backdrop of Spain`s financial crisis, something the IOC said it would take into account.

Madrid bid leader Alejandro Blanco said the city would go the distance until the vote in Buenos Aires. He insisted the Spanish government fully backs the project and said the games would be a catalyst for economic recovery.

Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, is bidding in the aftermath of last year`s earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The Istanbul bid had been knocked off course by Turkey`s concurrent bid for soccer`s 2020 European Championship. The IOC has made clear that Turkey cannot both hold both events, but Istanbul gained breathing room last week when UEFA extended the bidding process for the Euros and scheduled the final decision for early 2014.

Istanbul leaders assured the IOC that the Olympic bid was the No. 1 priority of the Turkish government.

Olympic Dream for women boxers of Nepal shattered in China

The last hope of Nepal in Olympic Qualifier has been shattered as Sarsawti Gurung and Dina Rana both loses their Bout in 7th AIBA world women's boxing championships 2012 being held on Qinhuangdaoof city ofChina . 

 On the match played on 12th of may  Sarsawti rana  of Nepal on 60 kg category  loss her Bout against Beata Szabo of Hungary on the basis of points. She managed to score just seven points while her opponents scores 17points on total of four rounds.. sarsawti scored 3-2 in first round while she scores just 1 in all other three rounds while her opponents take the match on the grip by scoring 6,4,4 in other three rounds.

Dina Gurung (photo Nagarik)

Sarswati Rana(Photo  Nagarik)

In other bout played on the same day the Nepalese boxer who came from Britain named Dina Gurung lose against Edith Agu OGOKE of Nigeria on the first round on the RSC Basis.

ICC considering about introducing T20 cricket in Olympics by 2020

Are you the fan of cricket if yes its time to cheer as The International Cricket Council is considering a bid to have cricket back into the Olympics after over a century, Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat has said.

Lorgat said Twenty20 format in international cricket is suitable for the Olympics.

ICC logo

"We have never had a format that would lend itself to playing in the Olympics until Twenty20 came to the fore .We are starting to have a look at that," Sport 24 quoted Lorgat, as saying.

"In the strategic plan the board approved in 2011, we will evaluate properly what the benefits are for Olympic participation. There are pros and cons to that decision. We would need to see what the implications would be on the Cricket World Cup," he added.

Olympic logo

Cricket has been played only once at the 1990 Olympics but it was officially recognized as an Olympic sport 12 years later.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport's world governing body, was officially recognised as a federation by the International Olympic Committee in 2010, which means cricket can bid for its return in the 2020 Games.

Lorgat, however said that international cricket's tight playing schedule would be a major obstacle in ensuring the sport's return to the Olympics.

"If we were to introduce cricket into the Olympics, that is another extended period of time taken out of the calendar," he said.