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ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Alice Coachman Davis, the first black female to win Olympic gold, died Monday. She was 90 years old. Coachman Davis suffered a stroke in April, and died at an Albany hospital Monday morning.

Four Slovenian ski officials were suspended Friday for allegedly rigging the results of pop violinist Vanessa-Mae to help her qualify for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Competing in Sochi for Thailand as Vanessa Vanakorn, using the surname of her Thai father, she finished a distant last among the 67 racers who completed the two runs in the Olympic giant slalom. To earn enough points to be eligible for the games in February, she had to compete in official races in Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland. The Slovenian Ski Association said Friday it found evidence indicating that the races it hosted...

Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic runner and war hero who survived 47 days at sea and three years in a Japanese POW camp after his plane crashed in the Pacific during World War II, died of pneumonia late Wednesday. He was 97. "After a 40-day long battle for his life, he peacefully passed away in the presence of his entire family, leaving behind a legacy that has touched so many lives," Zamperini's family said in a statement, according to Deadline. "His indomitable courage and fighting spirit were never more apparent than in these last days." The Olean, N.Y., native's astonishing...

If the U.S. Olympic Committee decides to enter a city in the selection process, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington are the host site contendersSan Francisco is one of four U.S. cities on a short list of possible host sites for the 2024 Summer Olympics, part of a lengthy and expensive process that will not result in a selection for about three more years An American bid would come from Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington, if the U.S. Olympic Committee decides to put a city in the running. A United States Olympic Committee process that began 16...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The city of Los Angeles is on a short-list of four finalists to potentially host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, officials announced Friday. San Francisco, Boston and Washington, D.C., landed the other three spots on the United States Olympic Committee list of potential bidders for the game following its board of directors meeting earlier this week outside Boston. If Los Angeles is chosen to make the U.S. bid, and is ultimately chosen as host, it would become the first American city to host the Games three times, tying it with London as the only worldwide city...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Six-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Amy Van Dyken severed her spine in an all-terrain vehicle accident over the weekend, and told emergency workers she could not move her toes or feel anything touching her legs. The 46-year-old swimmer, who goes by her married name Van Dyken Rouen, was injured Friday. She was airlifted to a hospital and had surgery to stabilize her spine. Hospital spokeswoman Alice Giedraitis didn't provide details Monday on Rouen's injuries. She said the swimmer was in good condition. A letter from the Van Dyken and Rouen families said she severed her spinal cord...

The next Olympics to be awarded, a little more than a year from now, will be the 2022 Winter Games. Rather than going to the strongest bid, the games may end up going to the last city standing—a long list of potential hosts have given up on their Olympic dreams because the whole thing is one huge, useless waste of money. Yesterday, Krakow, Poland, officially withdrew its bid for the games, a day after a citywide referendum where 70 percent of voters came out against hosting the Olympics. "Krakow is closing its efforts to be the host of the 2022...

Yikes! During training of the cadet corps of the Units of Pacifying Police (UPP) in Rio de Janeiro last week, Brazilian police evidently thought it would be a swell idea to let this girl with zero experience toss  a grenade -- a LIVE grenade. Well let's just say it didn't exactly go as planned... WATCH:

Rio's preparations damned as 'worst ever' but IOC knocks down suggestion London could be last-ditch replacementMisty-eyed fans can forget about digging out their Team GB shirts, the army of 2012 volunteers can leave their distinctive purple uniforms in the wardrobe, and Boris Johnson can stand down. Much to the disappointment of those hoping for an action replay of the heady summer of 2012, the International Olympic Committee has rejected as "totally unfeasible" claims that London could step in for troubled Rio to host the 2016 Olympics. A report in the London Evening Standard has claimed that the capital had been...

So worried are Olympic organisers by how far behind schedule the 2016 Rio Games has fallen, London has reportedly been asked, in secret, if it could host the event at the last minute. According to the London Evening Standard, an informal approach has been made by IOC chiefs to ascertain whether London's 2012 Olympic venues could be brought back into use.

The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday announced that it has awarded NBCUniversal the broadcast rights in the USA for the Olympic Games through 2032. NBC was in competition with ABC/ESPN and Fox/Fox Sports.

A Finnish man attempted to 'hijack' a plane using a Toblerone chocolate bar, demanding to be taken to Sochi so he could watch the Winter Olympics. Antti Oskari Manselius, 23, from Finland, had wrapped two economy class blankets around his head, wearing a third as a cape when he waved the chocolate bar 'like a sword' as he walked towards the cockpit. Manselius also made a false bomb threat on the Cathay Pacific flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong on February 14, and said he was robbing the plane, airplane staff said. SNIP He said he was trying to entertain...

Australian swimming great Ian Thorpe is in intensive care in a Sydney hospital receiving treatment for an infection that could result in him losing the use of his left arm, Australian media reported on Tuesday. The five-times Olympic champion reportedly contracted the bug after surgery at a hospital in Switzerland, where he now lives. In February, Thorpe's manager James Erskine said the 31-year-old was suffering from depression after being found disorientated and behaving oddly near a vehicle in Australia after taking a mixture of anti-depressants and painkillers for a shoulder injury. Thorpe, who made his Games debut in Sydney in...

The future of the Sochi Olympic venues is unclear. Alexander Valov, a Russian reporter for BlogSochi, visited Sochi's "coastal cluster" — a site that includes six venues, the Olympic Village, and the Olympic Park, all built from scratch on an undeveloped plot of land — and he took some eerie photos this week. He called the area around the Olympic Village "Dead City." The photos are a reminder that much of what was built for the Olympics has no long-term use. While a few arenas and other buildings have plans going forward — the media center is being turned into...

Demonstrators from both ends of Brazil's political spectrum clashed briefly Saturday in Rio, where leftists came to blows with a group commemorating 50 years since the military coup. More than 2,000 people meanwhile demonstrated in Sao Paulo, sending out a message to President Dilma Rousseff which read, "Dilma, listen, there will be fighting at the (World) Cup," and there were smaller protests in various other Brazilian cities. "Democracy doesn't exist in Brazil -- we don't have a majority but a slew of minorities, such as Indians and feminists, with Dilma in charge," activist Felipe Paulomo told AFP. "Our government is...

At 15 years of age, Amy Purdy took up snowboarding and quickly advanced in the sport she came to love and master. At 19, Amy contracted meningococcal meningitis. She had less than a 2 percent chance of living. Amy miraculously survived, but not without the life-altering loss of her spleen, her kidneys, the hearing in her left ear and both of her legs below the knee because of the ravage of the disease upon her circulatory system. But against all the odds, Amy learned not only to walk again but also to snowboard. In fact, she became a world champion!...

Costas In Context: His critics owe no apologies by Daniel Clark In a March 3rd appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, NBC sports anchor Bob Costas complained that right-wing ideologues had taken his Olympic remarks about Vladimir Putin “out of context.” Let’s see if that’s true. On the night of the opening ceremonies, Costas said this about the Russian president: “Just in the past year, Putin brokered a deal to allow Syria to avoid a U.S. military strike by giving up its chemical weapons, and helped bring Iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear intentions. He has repeatedly showcased his...

Bob Costas got his infamous case of Olympic pink eye from botched Botox, a source claims to Page Six. NBC’s prime-time Olympics host, who had to take a six-day absence after coming down with viral conjunctivitis in both eyes, contracted the infection after a Botox procedure to smooth out wrinkles prior to the Olympics. Our source said, “Bob’s eye infection was due to botched Botox. This isn’t the first time he’s had it.” NBC strongly denies that Costas — who arrived to host the games in Sochi with a forehead smoother than the Olympic luge track — developed the infection...

The United States announced Monday it would boycott the upcoming Paralympic Games in Sochi to protest Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, as a State Department spokesperson said it was “likely” that the U.S. would impose sanctions on Russia. The boycott effectively means a presidential delegation will not be attending the games, an announcement that comes as President Obama and Congress scramble to respond to Russia’s aggression on Ukrainian territory in Crimea. “In addition to other measures we are taking in response to the situation in Ukraine, the United States will no longer send a Presidential Delegation to the upcoming Winter Paralympic...

MOSCOW - The Sochi Olympics "opened Russia's soul" to the world and wrongfooted critics of the host country, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks broadcast on Tuesday. Taking stock after Russia topped the medals table and avoided major security problems at its first post-Soviet Games, Putin said constructive criticism from the International Olympic Committee had helped make Sochi 2014 a success. But there were other critics whose jabs were motivated by "the competitive struggle in international politics, maybe even geopolitics". "They used the Olympic project to achieve their own aims in the area of anti-Russian propaganda," he said. "Because when...