Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will not return to coach USA Basketball after the Blue Devils' season, he said Tuesday.
Talking in a phone interview with ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in
the Morning", Krzyzewski said USA Basketball will likely name his
successor this summer in preparation for the 2014 world championships in
Madrid.
"I've loved, loved, loved, and it's been an honor being with the USA
Basketball team," Krzyzewski said. "And to coach the team and work with
[chairman and president Jerry Colangelo] for seven years has been
marvelous.
"And we're in a good spot," Krzyzewski added. "We need to keep building."
Krzyzewski was hired by Colangelo in the wake of the team's
disappointing sixth-place finish at the 2002 World Championships in
Indianapolis and a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Greece.
Under Krzyzewski, Team USA beat Spain in consecutive Olympic finals,
in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. His U.S. team won the 2010 FIBA
World Championship in Turkey without a single Olympian on the roster.
Duke is 24-3 and was ranked No. 3 in the AP's latest Top 25 poll on Monday.
Information from ESPN.com senior writer Marc Stein was used in this report.
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Esther Vergeer Retires: Wheelchair Tennis Star Says She's Retiring
By MIKE CORDER
02/12/13 01:04 PM ET EST
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — After a 10-year winning streak in wheelchair tennis, Esther Vergeer felt she had nothing left to prove.
The 31-year-old Dutchwoman retired Tuesday, ending one of the most amazing careers in any sport.
"I'm hugely proud of my performances, my titles, and can look back on my career with a great feeling,"
Vergeer said at the ABN AMRO tournament in Rotterdam. "Keeping going would not add anything."
Vergeer won the women's singles gold at four straight Paralympics starting in Sydney in 2000 and ending in London last year. She also won 21 Grand Slam singles titles, 23 Grand Slam doubles titles, three Paralympic doubles gold medals and a silver. Overall, she won 148 singles titles and 136 in doubles.
Vergeer took a break from the sport last year to consider the future after her Paralympic gold medal took her remarkable winning streak to 470 matches. In all those matches, she only faced one match point, in the final of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
Vergeer's retirement means she will not surpass what is widely believed to be the longest run of consecutive wins in sport – 555 by Pakistani squash great Jahangir Khan from 1981-86.
Like Khan, she was in a class of her own.
In the last 10 years, she won 120 straight tournaments, beating 73 different opponents, winning 95 matches 6-0, 6-0 and dropping only 18 sets, the International Tennis Federation said.
Sitting on the couch at home in the snowy Netherlands last month and watching the Australian Open on television, she knew it was time to end her playing career and concentrate on her efforts to promote sport for people with disabilities through a foundation she set up.
"It felt great," she said, choking back tears.
In a measure of Vergeer's status in Dutch sport, soccer great Johan Cruyff attended her announcement and wrote a foreword in the book about her life and career that she also presented to the media.
Sportspeople like Vergeer, "should be an example to us all," Cruyff said.
Roger Federer paid tribute in another foreword in the book.
"She is an astonishing athlete, a huge personality and she has achieved one of the most amazing feats in our sport," Federer wrote.
Vergeer, who was 8 when she lost the use of her legs following surgery to repair blood vessels around her spine, started playing wheelchair basketball while she recovered. She was good enough to make the Netherlands national team before focusing on tennis.
She rose to No. 1 in the wheelchair rankings in 1999 and never relinquished the top spot.
"Esther Vergeer is a tremendous ambassador not only for tennis but also for disability sports. She is an inspiration to many," ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said. "Wheelchair tennis owes her a huge debt of gratitude for her professionalism and her quality as a player."
The last time she lost a match was to Daniele di Toro in Sydney on Jan. 30, 2003.
"To be honest, I don't really know or remember what it feels like losing in singles," Vergeer said. "I've lost a couple of times in doubles, so I know what it's like to lose.
"And I know what it's like to lose a Monopoly game and I don't like losing. But this doesn't feel like something I lose. This is not the same thing at all."
Esther Vergeer of Netherlands with her gold medal after
defeating Aniek Van Koot of Netherlands in the final of the Women's
singles match in the Wheelchair Tennis on day 9 of the London 2012
Paralympic Games at Eton Manor on September 7, 2012 in London, England.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — After a 10-year winning streak in wheelchair tennis, Esther Vergeer felt she had nothing left to prove.
The 31-year-old Dutchwoman retired Tuesday, ending one of the most amazing careers in any sport.
"I'm hugely proud of my performances, my titles, and can look back on my career with a great feeling,"
Vergeer said at the ABN AMRO tournament in Rotterdam. "Keeping going would not add anything."
Vergeer won the women's singles gold at four straight Paralympics starting in Sydney in 2000 and ending in London last year. She also won 21 Grand Slam singles titles, 23 Grand Slam doubles titles, three Paralympic doubles gold medals and a silver. Overall, she won 148 singles titles and 136 in doubles.
Vergeer took a break from the sport last year to consider the future after her Paralympic gold medal took her remarkable winning streak to 470 matches. In all those matches, she only faced one match point, in the final of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
Vergeer's retirement means she will not surpass what is widely believed to be the longest run of consecutive wins in sport – 555 by Pakistani squash great Jahangir Khan from 1981-86.
Like Khan, she was in a class of her own.
In the last 10 years, she won 120 straight tournaments, beating 73 different opponents, winning 95 matches 6-0, 6-0 and dropping only 18 sets, the International Tennis Federation said.
Sitting on the couch at home in the snowy Netherlands last month and watching the Australian Open on television, she knew it was time to end her playing career and concentrate on her efforts to promote sport for people with disabilities through a foundation she set up.
In a measure of Vergeer's status in Dutch sport, soccer great Johan Cruyff attended her announcement and wrote a foreword in the book about her life and career that she also presented to the media.
Sportspeople like Vergeer, "should be an example to us all," Cruyff said.
Roger Federer paid tribute in another foreword in the book.
"She is an astonishing athlete, a huge personality and she has achieved one of the most amazing feats in our sport," Federer wrote.
Vergeer, who was 8 when she lost the use of her legs following surgery to repair blood vessels around her spine, started playing wheelchair basketball while she recovered. She was good enough to make the Netherlands national team before focusing on tennis.
She rose to No. 1 in the wheelchair rankings in 1999 and never relinquished the top spot.
"Esther Vergeer is a tremendous ambassador not only for tennis but also for disability sports. She is an inspiration to many," ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said. "Wheelchair tennis owes her a huge debt of gratitude for her professionalism and her quality as a player."
The last time she lost a match was to Daniele di Toro in Sydney on Jan. 30, 2003.
"To be honest, I don't really know or remember what it feels like losing in singles," Vergeer said. "I've lost a couple of times in doubles, so I know what it's like to lose.
"And I know what it's like to lose a Monopoly game and I don't like losing. But this doesn't feel like something I lose. This is not the same thing at all."
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Olympics Drop Wrestling: IOC Removes One Of Oldest Sports From 2020 Olympics Program
By STEPHEN WILSON
02/12/13 09:17 AM ET EST
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — IOC leaders dropped wrestling from
the Olympic program on Tuesday, a surprise decision that removes one of
the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games.
The IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon – the event considered most at risk – and remove wrestling instead from its list of 25 "core sports."
The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.
Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.
"This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling, it is what's right with the 25 core sports."
Adams said the decision was made by secret ballot over several rounds, with members voting each time on which sport should not be included in the core group. IOC President Jacques Rogge did not vote.
Wrestling was voted out from a final group that also included modern pentathlon, taekwondo and field hockey, officials familiar with the vote told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the voting details were not made public.
The board voted after reviewing a report by the IOC program commission report that analyzed 39 criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.
The international wrestling federation, known by the French acronym FILA, is headed by Raphael Martinetti and is based in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. Calls to the federation for comment were not immediately returned.
Wrestling
featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and
seven in Greco-Roman at last year's London Olympics. Women's wrestling
was added to the Olympics at the 2004 Athens Games.
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 session, or general assembly, in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It is extremely unlikely that wrestling would be voted back in so soon after being removed by the executive board.
"Today's decision is not final," Adams said. "The session is sovereign and the session will make the final decision."
The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Previously considered under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, and combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting.
Klaus Schormann, president of governing body UIPM, lobbied hard to protect his sport's Olympic status and it paid off in the end.
"We have promised things and we have delivered," he said after Tuesday's decision. "That gives me a great feeling. It also gives me new energy to develop our sport further and never give up."
Modern pentathlon also benefited from the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president who is a UIPM vice president and member of the IOC board.
"We were considered weak in some of the scores in the program commission report but strong in others," Samaranch told the AP. "We played our cards to the best of our ability and stressed the positives. Tradition is one of our strongest assets, but we are also a multi-sport discipline that produces very complete people."
An official familiar with the decision says IOC leaders
have dropped wrestling from the program for the 2020 Olympics. In a
surprise decision Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013, the official tells The
Associated Press that the IOC executive board decided to retain modern
pentathlon and remove wrestling instead.
The IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon – the event considered most at risk – and remove wrestling instead from its list of 25 "core sports."
The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.
Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.
"This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling, it is what's right with the 25 core sports."
Adams said the decision was made by secret ballot over several rounds, with members voting each time on which sport should not be included in the core group. IOC President Jacques Rogge did not vote.
Wrestling was voted out from a final group that also included modern pentathlon, taekwondo and field hockey, officials familiar with the vote told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the voting details were not made public.
The board voted after reviewing a report by the IOC program commission report that analyzed 39 criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.
The international wrestling federation, known by the French acronym FILA, is headed by Raphael Martinetti and is based in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. Calls to the federation for comment were not immediately returned.
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 session, or general assembly, in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It is extremely unlikely that wrestling would be voted back in so soon after being removed by the executive board.
"Today's decision is not final," Adams said. "The session is sovereign and the session will make the final decision."
The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Previously considered under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, and combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting.
Klaus Schormann, president of governing body UIPM, lobbied hard to protect his sport's Olympic status and it paid off in the end.
"We have promised things and we have delivered," he said after Tuesday's decision. "That gives me a great feeling. It also gives me new energy to develop our sport further and never give up."
Modern pentathlon also benefited from the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president who is a UIPM vice president and member of the IOC board.
"We were considered weak in some of the scores in the program commission report but strong in others," Samaranch told the AP. "We played our cards to the best of our ability and stressed the positives. Tradition is one of our strongest assets, but we are also a multi-sport discipline that produces very complete people."
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