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Sponsors let Kuerten play

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2000

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Gustavo Kuerten will join Brazil's tennis team after sponsors compromised on a dispute that nearly kept him out of the Sydney Games.

"Everything is resolved," Kuerten said Thursday.

His sponsor, Italy's Diadora, and the Brazilian Olympic Committee agreed that Kuerten's uniform won't display any trademarks unless he wins a medal. Then, he would wear a uniform provided by sportswear manufacturer Olympikus, the team sponsor.

Earlier this week, the committee said Kuerten, No. 2 in the ATP Tour ranking, was off the team because sponsors could not agree on which trademark he would wear.

Although Brazil's soccer team and track athletes wear uniforms from other sponsors, the Olympic Committee refused to make the same allowance for Kuerten, claiming he spoke up too late about his plan to wear a uniform provided by his sponsor.

"I think it was the power of the people that put me in the Olympics," Kuerten said.

As for the uniform, he said, "If I have to play without a shirt with my chest painted green and yellow, I'm up for it."

DRUGS: Mark Spitz believes the IOC can do more to catch athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs. "The reality is that they can test for every single drug," said Spitz, who won seven swimming gold medals and set seven world records at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He said television networks don't want Olympic coverage marred by drug cheats because advertising revenues are linked to ratings. Spitz has a solution for keeping the Olympics drug-free: Offer $1-million to every winner, and athletes would demand airtight testing. ... At least 10 athletes have recorded suspected positive tests for banned drugs in out-of-competition controls. A cyclist from Britain has been confirmed as positive, while others are under investigation for "indications of possible positive or irregular results," said Harry Salvasamy of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which began unannounced tests in April. ... Analysis results are expected today of a substance, labeled in English as the banned performance-enhancing drug HGH, that was found in an Uzbekistan team official's luggage at Sydney's airport. If it is HGH, the official would be expelled from the Games.

BASEBALL: John Cotton went 2-for-3 and drove in four runs as the U.S. team defeated Italy 11-2 in its pre-Olympic exhibition opener. Cotton, Shawn Gilbert and Sean Burroughs homered, and Anthony Sanders had three of the team's 15 hits. Brad Wilkerson added two doubles and two RBI.

BASKETBALL: Lisa Leslie had 23 points and 11 rebounds and Katie Smith scored 16 as the United States routed Poland 86-39. Sheryl Swoopes, the WNBA's MVP, missed the game with a sprained left ankle. Teresa Edwards, about to become a five-time Olympian, was out with a hip pointer. The Americans shot 53 percent and outrebounded Poland 51-27. The United States, 8-0 since resuming its training last month, has won by an average 36 points. The U.S. team plays Australia on Saturday.

RUNNER KILLED: A Nigerian was killed when he was struck by a car in southwestern Sydney. The official Olympic News Service identified him as Hyginus Anugo, 22, a 400-meter runner and a reserve for the 1,600-meter relay. Sydney's Channel Seven television said Anugo was killed while running to catch a bus, but the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported Anugo was killed while crossing a road back to his room at a Bible college.

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