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Sports digest

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 13, 2000


Venus Williams close to a deal for $40-million

Venus Williams is on the verge of signing the richest endorsement deal ever for a female athlete.

USA Today reported Tuesday that Williams would sign a five-year contract with Reebok worth $40-million. Reebok declined to discuss the terms, pending a news conference tentatively scheduled for Dec. 21 in New York to announce the deal.

Williams, 20, announced a deal Monday with Wilsons Leather, with terms undisclosed. She has been affiliated with Reebok since 1995.

"She is an exceptional athlete and an extraordinary individual with a multidimensional lifestyle," company spokeswoman Denise Kaigler said.

Williams' sister, Serena, has a deal with Puma.

MORE TENNIS: The ATP World Doubles Championship in Bangalore, India, is hurting even before it begins. Partners Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge have pulled out of the $750,000 tournament, and so have Olympic champions Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor. Play begins today.

AUTOS: SunCom renewed its sponsorship of the Busch Grand National series race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The March 17 race will be called the SunCom 200. ... The NHRA released its schedule. In addition to the 44-race divisional schedule, including Feb. 23-25 at Gainesville Raceway and March 9-11 at Orlando Speed World, the series will be featured at all NHRA national events, with 15 races scheduled to air on ESPN2.

BOXING: Tony Ayala Jr., whose once-promising career was cut short by a 1983 rape conviction, was shot after he allegedly broke into the home of a female acquaintance in San Antonio, Texas. Ayala, 37, was shot in the left shoulder by the 18-year-old woman, whom he had met at his father's gym, police said. He was shot in the left shoulder. He was released from the hospital and charged with burglary with intent to commit assault. He was released on $100,000 bond. A registered sex offender, Ayala could face up to 99 years in prison if convicted. ... Former world bantamweight champion Wayne McCullough, 30, will re-apply for his licenses even though he has had a cyst on his brain at least five years.

COLLEGES: The Florida men's and women's tennis teams are ranked among the preseason top 10 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The women's team is tied for second with Georgia, and the men's team is ninth. Stanford is No. 1 for men and women. ... Delaware, Towson, Drexel and Hofstra will leave the America East Conference for the Colonial Athletic Association. The moves do not take effect until the 2003-04 school year and will leave the CAA with 10 schools and America East with six.

CYCLING: Lance Armstrong is considering not defending his consecutive Tour de France wins because of an ongoing drug investigation of his U.S. Postal Service team by the French government. Armstrong was on a working vacation in Jamaica but updated his Web site diary by writing: "I will say that if the current situation exists, then I will not ride the Tour in 2001. Period. I'm not saying that to threaten or warn anyone as I really don't think the French care either way if I go." Armstrong found out several weeks ago that the prosecutor's office in Paris had decided to conduct an inquiry of his team because of an anonymous letter saying a French television crew had witnessed what it described as suspicious behavior. Armstrong said Saturday that his team will be cleared after suspicious medicine linked to the team is tested. ... 1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantani was found guilty of taking the banned drug EPO during a 1995 race and received a three-month suspended prison term in Forli, Italy.

OLYMPICS: The International Olympic Committee warned athletes against using food supplements that may contain banned substances, singling out the United States -- and Utah in particular -- as the main source of the problem. The IOC's athletes and medical commissions, meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, called on U.S. authorities to ensure stricter regulation and proper labeling of supplements that may contain elements of nandrolone or other banned steroids. While reiterating that competitors are responsible for any drugs found in their bodies, the athletes commission urged international federations and national Olympic panels not to enter into sponsorship deals with supplement manufacturers. The IOC pointed a finger of blame at Sen. Orrin Hatch, a longtime champion of Utah's dietary supplement industry and the sponsor of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. The law limited authority of the Food and Drug Administration to test and regulate food supplements. ... Organizer Mitt Romney expected the Salt Lake Games to reach $68-million in U.S. ticket orders by Tuesday, fulfilling a budget goal more than a year ahead of the 2002 Winter Games. Including foreign tickets, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee is fast approaching $180-million in sales. ... The IOC threatened to downgrade 11 drug labs around the world if they fail to comply with regulations by May 1. None of the downgraded labs were in the United States.

SOCCER: U.S. women's coach April Heinrichs added defenders Keri Raygor and Danielle Borgman for Sunday's match against Japan in Phoenix. Raygor, 28, was a member of the national team pool from 1991-94 and is the women's assistant coach at Oregon. Borgman, 20, is one of the top collegiate defenders in the country and helped North Carolina to the NCAA title this year.

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