Olympics News

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, the reigning Olympic and world silver medalists in ice dance, have withdrawn from next week's Grand Prix final.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Vernon Davis stepped onto the ice and started moonwalking, fully confident he could conquer the sport of curling — or at the least be respectable. He is an NFL star, after all.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Comedian Stephen Colbert took the "Night Train" and it nearly left him speechless.

Tony Benshoof's back problem is back, already causing concern for the Olympic season.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Steven Holcomb said the U.S. bobsled team was going to be a powerhouse this year. He sure seems like a prophet.

LONDON - The projected final cost of construction for the 2012 London Olympics has risen slightly, but the overall budget for the games remains unchanged.

MOSCOW - Marcel Hirscher of Austria won the second edition of the parallel slalom Champions Cup on a giant ramp in a promotion of Alpine ski events for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

KITCHENER, Ontario - Listening to her coach paid off for Joannie Rochette.

VAIL, Colo. - U.S. skier Resi Stiegler is out for the season after breaking two bones in her left leg in a crash during giant slalom training.

LONDON (Reuters) - When injured American Andy Roddick was caught on camera watching the action at the ATP World Tour Finals, the applause that rang around the cavernous O2 Arena spoke volumes for his popularity in London.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Sochi residents deplored on Tuesday the manner in which their houses had been seized and destroyed under government orders as the Black Sea resort prepares for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.

DENVER - Rena "Rusty" Kanokogi, known as the "Mother of Judo" partly for her role in bringing women's judo to the Olympic Games, has died. She was 74.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - The home-ice advantage for the U.S. skeleton team vanished for the second straight week in World Cup competition and Canada and Germany took advantage in the snowless Adirondack Mountains.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Vancouver Olympic organizers didn't violate women ski jumpers' rights because they had no power to include their event in the 2010 Winters Games.

Petter Northug enters the Olympic season as the man to beat in cross-country skiing, and he isn't doing much to downplay expectations.

Olympic luge slider Tony Benshoof's back is aching again, just as the international racing season is set to begin.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - An Olympic housing plan in which thousands of visitors would have stayed on cruise ships has been called off because of the rough economy.

NEW YORK - Fans will have a chance to design the artwork that appears on star skier Lindsey Vonn's helmet during February's Vancouver Olympics.

LONDON - BMW is the latest top-tier domestic sponsor of the 2012 London Olympics, and organizers remain in talks with additional potential investors.

DENVER - NBC might have a partner in the cable company that wanted to be its Olympic rival.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - Five months after lifting the Stanley Cup, Sidney Crosby carried the Olympic torch as thousands of people lined a downtown street.

For $5.89, anyone can taste how Erin Hamlin was immortalized. Vanilla ice cream, stacked with Reese's peanut butter cups, Oreos and hot fudge, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. In the sleepy village of Remsen, N.Y., pop. 514, that's how homage was paid to a local who stunned the luge world — the World Champion Erin Hamlin Sundae, a popular item at The Soda Fountain in town.

LONDON - Fifteen months after the Beijing Olympics, Bahraini middle-distance runner Rashid Ramzi was stripped of his 1,500-meter gold medal Wednesday and four other athletes were disqualified because of doping at the games.

STEVENS POINT, Wis. - U.S. curler Chris Plys will appear on a new reality show and try to win some cash to get his family to the 2010 Olympics, including his ill father.

MANAMA (AFP) - Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his Beijing Games 1,500 metres gold medal for doping, Bahrain's Olympic Committee said Wednesday.

DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Bahrain's Olympic 1,500 meters champion Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his gold medal for doping at the Beijing 2008 Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.

PARIS (AFP) - Veteran Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin who tested positive for the new generation of EPO (CERA) at the 2008 Olympic Games is to be stripped of his road race silver medal the sport's governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) announced on Tuesday.

ROME - Cyclist Davide Rebellin of Italy will be stripped of the silver medal in the road race from the 2008 Beijing Olympics because of doping.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's Olympic chief has slammed a government-commissioned report criticizing the country's obsession with medal counts.