TROON, Scotland — Golf waited 112 years to get back into the Olympics. The top four players in the world are waiting a bit longer.
Jordan Spieth delivered the final blow Monday when he told the International Golf Federation he would not be going to Rio next month, leaving the sport without its four highest-ranked players who have captured six of the last eight majors.
The IGF president, Peter Dawson, said Spieth cited his concern over “health issues” for withdrawing.
All have indicated support for 2020 in Tokyo.
Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy previously withdrew, all citing the Zika virus. Day and Johnson have said they plan on having more children, while McIlroy is engaged and said he would soon be starting a family.
TRACK AND FIELD: Sprinter Tyson Gay will be going to the Olympics, where he’ll have a chance to help the U.S. win a relay medal more than two years after his doping case cost the team its silver from the 2012 Games.
Gay, 33, who dominated sprints for a time before Usain Bolt came onto the scene, struggled at the Olympic trials, finishing fifth in the 100 and sixth in the 200.
But U.S. coaches chose him for the relay team, meaning he could run in the Olympic preliminaries or the final.
n The Jamaican Olympic Committee released its delegation for next month’s Rio Games, and Usain Bolt is among the selections even though an injury kept him from formally qualifying at his country’s national championships.
THE HEAD inspector for the IOC said she’s confident the trouble-plagued Rio de Janeiro Olympics are “ready to welcome the world” with the games opening in just under four weeks.
“I cannot imagine more spectacular backdrops for the world’s top sportsmen and women to showcase their talents to a watching world,” Nawal El Moutawakel said in a statement from the International Olympic Committee.
Rio has been beset by a long list of problems: the Zika epidemic, rising violence and security risks, severe water pollution and slow ticket sales. In addition, the county is in its worst recession since the 1930s and the impeachment trial of President Dilma Rousseff is set to begin just days after the Olympics end.
TELEVISION: NBC will broadcast the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics on a one-hour delay.
The NBC Sports Group chair, Mark Lazarus, said that will allow producers to “curate” the coverage to provide proper context.
With Rio just one hour ahead of the United States’ Eastern time zone, the network will televise most competition live, with the notable exception of gymnastics. For the third straight Olympics, NBC will stream every event live, but that hasn’t included the opening ceremony. This year viewers will need to wait only an hour.
RELIGIONS OF African origin should be represented in the ecumenical center of the athletes village for the Rio de Janeiro Games, Brazilian federal public defenders told city hall and Olympic organizers.
Public defender Edison Santana said his recommendation is based on the fact that only Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism are currently included. Rio Games organizers said other services could be provided, but so far haven’t replied to the public defenders.
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