Fifteen jumpers had sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) over their exclusion from the Games, saying that it violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Judge Lauri Ann Fenlon agreed that the plaintiffs "will be denied this opportunity for no reason other than their sex," but said the International Olympic Committee -- which determines which sports are included in the Olympic program -- is not bound by Canada's Charter.

"There will be little solace to the plaintiffs in my finding that they have been discriminated against [but] there is no remedy available to them in this Court," she wrote in a decision released today.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott

Click on the thread for the official IOC statement.

Here is the official IOC statement:

Over the past several months, I have blogged about the ongoing revenue-sharing dispute between the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.

Each time, I have taken the position that former USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth was correct in taking a hard line about not reducing the USOC share. Sometimes, I have criticized the behavior of two people speaking out on the issue, former IOC member Hein Verbruggen of the Netherlands and current member Denis Oswald of Switzerland. (Oswald is one of three people negotiating for the IOC; the others are Gerhard Heiberg of Norway and Mario Vazquez Rana of Mexico.)

Not long ago, Verbruggen, who has called the USOC share "immoral,'' e-mailed to object to my characterization of him (and Oswald) as "intemperate'' and to contest my basic premise in all the Blogs:  that the USOC is entitled to and needs the revenue it receives by contractual obligation from both the IOC's global sponsorship (TOP) program (20 percent) and U.S. television rights (12.75 percent).

Verbruggen contended in his original e-mail that I had not given him adequate opportunity to explain his convictions in the issue. I wrote back that I had done so, immediately after his first "intemperate" statements a year ago in Greece, but that he had not answered my questions.

That began a spirited exchange of e-mails, in which Verbruggen explained his point of view on several aspects of the revenue-sharing issue.

With his permission, I am reproducing nearly all of his most recent e-mail.

My statements are in plain type. His answers are italicized and preceded by [HV]. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mr. Verbruggen,

You may not remember this, but we talked at length about your convictions at SportAccord in Athens last year, when your remarks about USOC morality clearly were intemperate.

[HV] I do remember we talked but I never find one single mention of our arguments in your articles. It is just one way (read Peter Ueberroth) of thinking and reasoning.

I asked you if the U.S. should get some credit for all the athletes who train at U.S. universities (yes, I understand that the universities gain from their presence as well), and you dismissed that notion out of hand.

[HV] I still dismiss this as a criterion for the IOC to allocate funds to a National Olympic Committee. There is lots of self-interest of the universities (as you say yourself), and there is no credit whatsoever to USOC.

Chicagoan Nicole Bobek was one of the most gifted -- and troubled -- U.S. figure skaters of the past 20 years.

Her spiral was so eye-catchingly exquisite that Michelle Kwan emulated it, then refined it into her signature move. But Bobek's life rarely was refined and often seemed to be spiraling downward with behavior that made her a poor man's Tonya Harding.

Monday, a New Jersey prosecutor said Bobek had played a ``significant role'' in a drug ring that was allegedly involved in the distribution of methamphetamine.  According to nj.com, the website of the Jersey Journal newspaper, prosecutor Edward DeFazio said Bobek ``was actively involved in the upper echelon in this thing.''

Until Monday, Bobek's name had not been publicly linked to the case, for which 19 arrests were announced June 20, because she had not been taken into custody, according to the prosecutor.  She was arrested in Florida, where she lists a residence.

Bobek appeared on closed-circuit television from the Hudson County jail in Kearny, N.J., when she was arraigned Monday in a Jersey City court.  She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

When she won her only U.S. figure skating title in 1995, Bobek was on a two-year probation for a felony charge under terms of a Michigan program for young adult offenders.  A judge later dismissed the probation because he felt information leaks had subverted confidentiality terms of the program.

She had been arrested in November, 1994 and charged with first-degree home invasion of the residence of another skater in the suburban Detroit club where Bobek was training.  She entered a conditional plea of guilty on the charge, which was to have been expunged if the probation were completed successfully.

That followed by less than a year the Harding-Nancy Kerrigan affair, in which Harding would be stripped of her 1994 U.S. title for her role in the attack on Kerrigan.

A few hours after Bobek won the 1995 championship, Frank Carroll, then Kwan's coach, noted the link.

``I was just thinking,'' Carroll said, ``that we've gone from Tonya Harding to Nicole Bobek.  Oh, my God!''

By 1995, Carroll had been one of Bobek's seven ex-coaches.  Her teenage rebelliousness and indifference to training (like Harding, she smoked cigarettes) drove most of the coaches crazy, but all of them were as crazed by her talent.  Bobek's mother, Jana, and her mother's friend, Joyce, bounced around the country looking for the coach who could harness it, which Richard Callaghan did for one season.

Renee Roca, a U.S. ice dance champion who had choreographed some of Bobek's programs, gave a chillingly accurate analysis in 1995 of the skater's future.

``It is hard to say what will become of Nicole,'' Roca said.

Bobek went on to win a world championships bronze medal in 1995.  Two years later, when she made her last of three appearances at the worlds, Bobek's coach, the legendary Carlo Fassi, died of a heart attack at the competition in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bobek, whose father deserted the family when she was an infant, had been coached by Fassi and his wife, Christa, at two stages of her career.

``He was always here for me,'' Bobek said the day Fassi died.  ``He always cared.  He took the place of a father for me.''

Monday, a New Jersey prosecutor said Bobek had played a "significant role'' in a drug ring that was allegedly involved in the distribution of methamphetamine.  According to nj.com, the web site of the Jersey Journal newspaper, prosecutor Edward DeFazio said Bobek "was actively involved in the upper echelon in this thing.''

Until Monday, Bobek's name had not been publicly linked to the case, for which 19 arrests were announced June 20, because she had not been taken into custody, according to the prosecutor.  She was arrested in Florida, where she lists a residence.

Bobek appeared on closed-circuit television from the Hudson County jail in Kearny, N.J., when she was arraigned Monday in a Jersey City court.  She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

When she won her only U.S. figure skating title in 1995, Bobek was on a two-year probation for a felony charge under terms of a Michigan program for young adult offenders.  A judge later dismissed the probation because he felt information leaks had subverted confidentiality terms of the program.

She had been arrested in November 1994 and charged with first-degree home invasion of the residence of another skater in the suburban Detroit club where Bobek was training. She entered a conditional plea of guilty on the charge, which was to have been expunged if the probation were completed successfully.

That followed by less than a year the Harding-Nancy Kerrigan affair, in which Harding would be stripped of her 1994 U.S. title for her role in the attack on Kerrigan.

A few hours after Bobek won the 1995 championship, Frank Carroll, then Kwan's coach, noted the link.
"I was just thinking,'' Carroll said, "that we've gone from Tonya Harding to Nicole Bobek. Oh, my God!''

By 1995, Carroll had been one of Bobek's seven ex-coaches. Her teenage rebelliousness and indifference to training (like Harding, she smoked cigarettes) drove most of the coaches crazy, but all of them were as crazed by her talent. 

Bobek's mother, Jana, and her mother's friend, Joyce, bounced around the country looking for the coach who could harness it, which Richard Callaghan did for one season.

Renee Roca, a U.S. ice dance champion who had choreographed some of Bobek's programs, gave a chillingly accurate analysis in 1995 of the skater's future.
"It is hard to say what will become of Nicole,'' Roca said.

Bobek went on to win a world championships bronze medal in 1995.  Two years later, when she made her last of three appearances at the worlds, Bobek's coach, the legendary Carlo Fassi, died of a heart attack at the competition in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bobek, whose father deserted the family when she was an infant, had been coached by Fassi and his wife, Christa, at two stages of her career.

"He was always here for me,'' Bobek said the day Fassi died.  "He always cared.  He took the place of a father for me.''

Bobek organized a Fassi tribute at the California rink where they trained.  Christa Fassi coached Bobek to the 1998 Olympic team, but she flopped all over the ice at the Nagano Olympics and finished 17th.

One season later, after switching coaches for the 11th time, she was out of competitive skating.

The last time I talked with her, in April 2001, Bobek told me she had begun training pairs with an utterly unremarkable Spanish singles skater.  Nothing came of it.
I had heard virtually nothing about her since.

The first I heard of her was in 1990, when Bobek, at age 12, stood the skating world on its head while winning the U.S. Olympic Festival.  She attracted so much attention that George Steinbrenner began paying some of her training expenses.

Now she needs somebody to post a $200,000 bond.

--Philip Hersh

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, defenseman Jack Johnson (rumored to be out the door) and right wing Dustin Brown were invited, as was former King defenseman Tim Gleason.

The Ducks will be represented by winger Bobby Ryan and defenseman Ryan Whitney.

The list is dominated by youngsters. No Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk or Bill Guerin to be found among them, although 39-year-old Mike Modano did get an invitation. But the graybeards (and no-beards) can still have hope. Players who were not invited to the camp can still be nominated to the Vancouver Olympic roster, so there's time for other players to impress General Manager Brian Burke and Coach Ron Wilson.

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: United States forward Dustin Brown celebrates after scoring a goal against Russia in the IIHF World Championships on May 8. Credit: Anja Niedringhaus / Associated Press

After all, an Olympics in the United States always generates higher sponsorship and TV rights revenue for the U.S. Olympic Committee, and the individual federations see some of that increase in their grant allotments from the USOC.

And the sports also find it easier to attract their own sponsorships if the Games are in the United States, which Logan made clear when he also said that USATF's new deal with Nike would include a "significant increase'' if Chicago gets the Games.

The new Nike-USATF deal goes only through 2013, but includes an option to renew through 2017.

The Associated Press, citing sources familiar with the contract, said it is worth more than $10 million a year.  And the AP story suggested the idea of an increase based on a Chicago win could rub the International Olympic Committee the same -- and wrong -- way as the comments made by a McDonald's executive who said the company would be more likely to continue its global IOC sponsorship if Chicago is chosen.

The situations are not the same.

IOC ethics rules forbid its global sponsors from trying to influence host city elections, as McDonald's made clear in a statement disassociating the company from what one of its senior vice-presidents had said.

And Nike is not a global IOC sponsor.  It sponsors national teams in several countries, including Brazil's soccer team, the Japanese junior track teams and USA Track & Field.

The Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo bids proudly trumpet their corporate sponsors -- including sporting goods companies.  (Chicago 2016 has chosen not to publicize its corporate sponsors for reasons it never has made entirely clear, saying that it is up to the donor corporations to identify themselves as such). 

Is anyone naive enough to think those bid sponsors won't be inclined to increase their support for a domestic Olympics?

That is how the refreshingly candid Logan sees the Nike bump for a Chicago victory.

"The partnership simply recognizes added value in the event of a domestic (Olympic) competition,'' Logan told me in a text message.  "You cannot avoid reality.  We are certainly not going to attempt to unduly influence anyone.''

Nike spokesman Derek Kent declined to comment on issues related to an increase based on Chicago winning.

"We have a longstanding deep relationship with (USA Track & Field),'' Kent said in an email.  "As today's announcement indicates, the partnership continues to be very strong now and in the future.

"No matter where the 2016 games are held, we will have a stong presence on the track with footwear and apparel on the world's best athletes.''

One IOC member who undoubtedly is thrilled that U.S. track will get continued Nike support is international track federation president Lamine Diack of Senegal.  Diack understands what a strong U.S. track team is worth to Olympic competition. 

If Team USA gets stronger, that is value added.

To Nike, USA Track and Field and whoever is the 2016 Olympic host.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Doug Logan. Credit: Courtesy USA Track & Field

I was embarking on a dog-and-pony show tour staged for the benefit of Western media by sports authorities in East Germany, which then was at the height of its athletic fame (or infamy).

Our tour got its (unofficial) name after we were served brown gravy on everything -- including sliced pineapple in Leipzig -- and my colleague, Jere Longman of the New York Times, accurately observed there were two kinds of shoes in East Germany: bad shoes, and particularly bad shoes.

Anyway, no sooner had I checked into my hotel in what then was West Berlin than I realized Jackson also was a guest in the hotel, because there were hundreds of fans on the street chanting his name.

But I didn't think anything more of my relative proximity to the pop superstar until I was walking from my room to the elevators so I could join some friends for dinner.

In a hallway stood two very large men, who tensed as I approached.  They were outside the open door of a room I was passing.  When I reached the open door, I looked inside the room, and there, unmistakably, was Jackson, looking right in my direction.

I said, "Hello.''  He smiled and returned the greeting. The bodyguards, expecting me to ask for an autograph or something else that would bother their charge, seemed taken aback when I simply kept walking, satisfied with the exchange of pleasantries.

As it turned out, Jackson would be inadvertently involved in some communist chest-thumping not unlike what I would see in East Germany.

The Washington Post reported that Jackson and East German figure skating icon Katarina Witt "squared off on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall this evening in an East-West battle of the bands that delighted the city's music fans and gave headaches to East Germany's Communist authorities. Witt hosted a concert in East Berlin -- featuring Canadian singer Bryan Adams and the British group Big Country -- that clearly was designed to placate fans barred from traveling crosstown to hear Jackson performing in the western side of this divided city.''

The Post said East German authorities counted 120,000 fans at their open-air concert, exactly double the total given for Jackson's open-air performance.

Three months later, East Germany, a country of 16 million, would win more gold medals at the 1988 Olympics than the United States, nearly 20 times more populous.

That was East Germany's final Olympics as an independent nation. The  Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the two German countries re-unified in 1990.

In 2002, Jackson ignited a firestorm of criticism when he dangled his infant third child over the fourth floor balcony of his Berlin hotel room.

It was not the same hotel where I saw him in 1988.

Michael Jackson in 1988 was in a different place in every sense of that phrase.

Then as now, his smile and "hello'' are indelible to me. They are my lasting memories of a 5-second encounter that was better than any autograph.

Photo: Michael Jackson's 1988 concert poster in Berlin.

-- Philip Hersh

EUGENE, Ore. -- As you learned first what was possible from my Twitter feed Wednesday, 2008 Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay has pulled out of the U.S. Track & Field Championships with a hamstring problem.

According to Clay's agent, Paul Doyle, Clay tried a variety of treatments, including acupuncture and time in a hyperbaric chamber, before making his decision about an hour before the decathlon was to begin with the 100 meters this morning. He had first felt tightness in the hamstring Tuesday.

Clay's withdrawal means he also is out of the August World Championships, for which nationals is the qualifying meet.

"Unfortunately, we need a few more days,'' Doyle said. "He did a few knee lifts this morning and felt immediately he couldn't compete without putting the hamstring in jeopardy.''

Doyle said Clay, of Glendora, might try to find another decathlon competition in the next few weeks but intends to end his season by the end of July.

"Bryan was pretty exhausted from the whole Olympic experience, not only physically but mentally,'' Doyle said. "Our plan had been to take it relatively easy this year and then next year begin the three-year build for Bryan to try to win decathlon medals in three straight Olympics (he won silver in 2004).  He wants to compete in the indoor worlds and try to break indoor and outdoor world records in 2010.''

The abbreviated season will give Clay more time to work for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. He has won universal praise for his speeches on behalf of the bid. Mayor Richard M. Daley called one of Clay's presentations, given when he was Principal for a Day at the Williams Preparatory School of Medicine at Chicago's DuSable Campus, "one of the best speeches I ever have heard.''

Clay was the lead narrator on the venues video Chicago 2016 showed last week to the International Olympic Committee.

"I really believe in this bid,'' Clay said. "They are putting the athletes first.''

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Bryan Clay celebrates his victory in 2008 Olympic decathlon. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Robert Fasulo, the USOC chief of international relations, will be spending the summer in Europe after  establishing a base near International Olympic Committee headquarters -- and several international sports headquarters -- in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The relocation makes sense, since Fasulo long worked in Europe as an aide to the late international track federation President Primo Nebiolo and director of the Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations. He speaks English, Italian, Spanish and French.

And since about half the IOC members who will vote for the 2016 host are from Europe, being close enough to schmooze them regularly can only be helpful. Fasulo is doing just that at this week's Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy, where about 20 IOC members are expected to attend.

There also are major world championships (track and swimming) in Europe this summer, and the bid cities will have a presence at them.

Fasulo and his family, who now live in Newport Beach, intend to return to Southern California in the fall.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Robert Fasulo discusses the bid city process. Credit: Associated Press

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- After I had finished talking with International Olympic Committee member Ottavio Cinquanta last week about his opinion on Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid, I asked Cinquanta to put on his other hat for a different question:

As president of the International Skating Union, what did he think of U.S. skater Sasha Cohen's decision to return to competitive figure skating after a three-year hiatus?

"It is a good decision for the ISU and for her,'' Cinquanta said. "I think she wasted a year, because she could have come back earlier, but one year is not the end of the world.''

Cinquanta hopes Cohen will be a different skater from the one whose free skate failures cost her the 2006 Olympic and world titles. She was first going into the free skate both times but wound up second in the Olympics and third at worlds.

"The Sasha I saw in Calgary [worlds] and in Torino [Olympics] was not Sasha Cohen but Santa Claus,'' Cinquanta said, feeling that Cohen had given away those gold medals. "Maybe she will come back with a different attitude. She was terrified.

"I believe the era of Sasha Cohen as loser when [she was] the favorite is over. Now we can have the Sasha Cohen era as a strong skater with more experience. If she wanted experience as a loser, she has enough.''

Cohen's first scheduled competition in her comeback is the French Grand Prix event Oct. 15-18. She also plans to compete at Skate America in Lake Placid, N.Y., from Nov. 12-15 and at the U.S. Championships in January, when the 2010 Olympic team will be selected. Only two women's spots are available.

*More Olympic figure skating? The success of a team event (World Team Trophy) held this spring in Tokyo has led Cinquanta to consider such a competition in the Olympics.

He said a team event would come before the individual competitions in singles, pairs and dance.

"The [national] federations could use the same skaters [in individual events] or not,'' he said.

It is possible the ISU would test such an event at worlds before asking to have it included on an Olympic program. It could not happen before the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

-- Philip Hersh

Sasha Cohen tumbling during her free skate at the 2006 Olympics. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

"My colleagues much prefer the American approach of today to the one of seven-eight months ago,'' Cinquanta said. "It is the friendly American. And now their attitude is not 'the world needs Chicago' but that 'Chicago needs the world.' ''

Cinquanta also said he was impressed that the U.S. presented another candidate after New York was next-to-last of five in the 2012 bid race.

"This is an expresssion of dignity and being a sportsman,'' Cinquanta said.

European Olympic Committees President Pat Hickey of Ireland, who sat with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley during a Wednesday lunch at the Olympic Museum, said he is solidly behind Madrid after the EOC gave it a strong vote of support.

IOC member Richard Pound of Canada said Madrid may be "handicapped because it has to split the votes of the Hispanic world.''  He figures some will go to Madrid and others to Rio de Janeiro, in a Portuguese-speaking country in South America, which never has had an Olympics.

Pound said Chicago can "only gain from the exposure it gained'' in three days of close contact with IOC members, both before and after Wednesday's presentations.

"Competing with world capitals, Chicago was starting a meter back,'' Pound said. "Not many IOC members know Chicago and how good it is.''

IOC member Kevan Gosper of Australia also is impressed with Chicago.

"Each candidate brings its own strengths, but the Chicago presentation of venues on the waterfront of a great city has to be taken seriously,'' Gosper said.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: IOC member Ottavio Cinquanta speaks during a press conference at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Credit: Lionel Cironneau / Associated Press

"I can't say [the issue] is off the table, but there is a confidence that [USOC chairman] Larry Probst and [IOC] President Jacques Rogge will resolve it,'' Chicago 2016 CEO Patrick Ryan said. "I think the [IOC] membership has confidence in them.''

But he got plenty of attention from a couple dozen media members, nearly all from outside the U.S., by coming to IOC headquarters just after the Rogge press conference that followed the two-day IOC executive board meeting.

Tresser said that IOC members would find Chicago's bid "deficient'' once they saw the facts in the No Games book.

Answering a question I raised in an earlier blog today about the No Games Chicago claim that the three people were spending "about $10,000'' on this trip, which includes just four hotel nights, Tresser replied, "That's how much it's costing us, pal.''  He said the donated plane tickets were worth $2,000 -- far more than what a round-trip from Chicago to Geneva could be bought for.

No Games delegate Rhoda Whitehorse said the tickets actually came from donated miles in an airline mileage program and added that the third delegate, Martin Macias Jr., was "couch surfing'' -- an exchange program developed on the Internet to allow people to trade free accommodations.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Tom Tresser, left, and other members of the organization "No Games Chicago" protest in front of the IOC headquarters in Switzerland on June 16. Credit: Dominic Favre / EPA

"I don’t think commercial aspects will play a great role here,’’ Heiberg said.  "I’m the IOC marketing director, and I’m not going to them [the four candidate cities] asking what kind of sponsorships we can get and what kind of TV deals we can get. I would like to keep commercial aspects out of the race as much as possible.’’

Heiberg’s statements, made to a small group of reporters outside IOC headquarters, came a day before each of the bid cities makes a 45-minute presentation to the IOC members.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune last week, Chicago 2016 CEO Patrick Ryan said he would cite commercial aspects during the presentation.

"We will certainly highlight the marketing opportunity and the sponsorship opportunity that is presented by the Fortune 500 and international [corporate]  headquarters concentration in Chicago and the Midwest,’’ Ryan said. "We believe that with Chicago and the Midwest we can demonstrate -- and I think we did to the EC [IOC Evaluation Commission that visited in April] -- that there is a unique opportunity for sponsorship support that will be lasting and an opportunity for the Olympic movement to establish long-term relationships with this corporate world.''

Heiberg said today that he would "not start comparing what each city can get for TV rights and sponsorships.’’

An Olympics in the United States traditionally draws larger TV rights from a U.S. network, although there is a feeling that U.S. broadcasters would pay almost as much for an Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, because it is just one hour ahead of New York during the dates projected for the Olympics.  In the past, U.S. companies also have been more interested in a home-soil Games, although that generally has more impact on domestic sponsorships for the U.S. Olympic Committee than IOC global sponsorships.

Heiberg, a member of the IOC executive board and chief executive of the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, said there was no timetable to begin negotiations with U.S. networks for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics. NBC holds U.S. rights through 2012.

"Can you tell me when the economic climate in the U.S. gets better? That is when we will start negotiating," Heiberg said.

Heiberg described Wednesday’s presentations, to be followed by a 45-minute question period, as "an important learning experience’’ for both the cities – Chicago, Rio, Madrid and Tokyo -- and the IOC members.

"They need to make us believe they can do it, and they can listen to find out if there is something they could improve and should improve [before the Oct. 2 vote],’’ Heiberg said.

These presentations, to focus on technical aspects of each bid, were added to the bidding process last year as a result of restrictions placed on interaction between members and cities in the aftermath of the votes-for-bribes scandal that was revealed in December 1998. A year later, the IOC decided to prevent members from making individual visits to the cities and cities from visiting individual members.

"A lot of the IOC members have complained they don’t know enough [about the bids], and they are right,’’ Heiberg said.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: International Olympic Committee marketing commission chairman Gerhard Heiberg of Norway. Photo credit: Beijing 2008 Olympic Organizing Committee

No Games delegate Tom Tresser said today that he hoped to have a press conference at the Olympic Museum, where the four finalists are to give their presentations, but he was not sure whether his group would be allowed on the museum grounds.

No Games Chicago held some demonstrations, which were sparsely attended, when the IOC evaluation commission toured Chicago in early April. Two evaluation commission members met with No Games representatives at the end of the IOC's Chicago visit.

Tresser said the message here will essentially be the same one delivered in Chicago, although he said this will be tailored more to IOC members.

"They want to know if the OIympics will be welcome in Chicago, whether they will be successful and whether they will bring credit to the IOC,'' Tresser said. "We will say the answer is 'No.' ''

[Updated 9:25 a.m.: No Games says on its website that the trip has cost about $10,000. They must be living the high life, since flights here go for about $1,000 round trip, and even a week of hotels and meals for three people should not cost more than $5,000.

Since they need to be here only through Thursday and said they arrived Monday, the cost should be much lower.]

-- Philip Hersh

So it is with the process to decide which new sports, if any, will be added to the program for the 2016 Summer Games.

As I discussed in an earlier blog posting today, seven sports have applied for admission. The IOC executive board is to decide Aug. 13 which two it will recommend to the IOC members, who are to vote on them Oct. 9. They can accept one, two or none.

Seems pretty simple, right?

Not exactly.

It remains to be decided whether the members will vote for the two recommended sports individually or as a combined entry.

And should the IOC members reject either -- or both -- they could decide to reconsider one or more of the five that their executive board did not recommend.

And they could also decide to let one of those sports make its case to the voters, as each tried to do to the IOC executive board Monday.

And, according to IOC Director General Urs Lacotte, it is not even certain the executive board will immediately announce which sports they have chosen Aug. 13.

Is there any wonder the self-appointed, self-governing, answerable-to-no-one IOC still draws mainly skepticism when it talks about transparency?                                        

-- Philip Hersh