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I guess I'm not politically correct if this makes me LMAO: Oh, yeah, while I'm at it: Stop the "Pride" parade in Jerusalem!!

Irina Slutskaya will compete in next world championship Irina Slutskaya decided to take part in figure skating world championship, which will take place in Calgary (Canada) on March 20-26. “I will certainly go to world championship,” stated Slutskaya, who has not been earlier included in the national team. At the same time, Slutskaya does not still know, whether she will compete in the next Olympic Games. “I do not plan so far ahead,” stressed the figure skater, informs UTRO.ru web site. For President of Russian Figure Skating Federation Valentin Piseev, Slutskaya’s decision was surprise. “I am surprised and pleased,” confessed...

TURIN, Italy - Put down the remote and find another time to wash those socks. After two decades of being the most skippable event at the Olympics, figure skating's ice dance is actually worth watching this year. For the first time since 1976, an American couple not only has a chance to medal in dance, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto have an outside shot at winning it. "Any Olympic medal would be an amazing, amazing thing to achieve," said Belbin, whose silver with Agosto at last year's world championships was the first medal by an American couple in 20 years....

Russia has a string of young male prospects ready to plunder future Olympic gold in figure skating but top coach Alexei Mishin says his countrywomen are fit only to work on the railways. "Russian women are not very good for figure skating," Mishin told Reuters on Friday. "They are good for building rail tracks in Siberia, for example. They are just too strong and big." Mishin, a former medal-winning figure skater whose top pupil Yevgeny Plushenko won gold in the men's figure skating on Thursday, said he has a new generation under his charge ready to take over when the...

I just watched the news conference where Michelle Kwan pulled out of the Olympics. She said that she hurt after practice, and even after physio, she couldn't sleep, so about 2 am their time she consulted a doctor and he recommended she withdraw. She noted that she called her parents, and they said they would support her in whatever she did. Some idiot asked what she would do next, but Kwan said that she hadn't thought about that.

It was just announced (2:30 a.m. central time) on NBC TV that Michelle Kwan has officially withdrawn from olympic competition. Said that the U.S. team has filed a replacement form with the Olympic committee.

TURIN, Italy - The impending figure skating train wreck has left the station. Figure skater Michelle Kwan, granted a medical exemption into the Olympics, may wind up withdrawing. She struggled through her practice on Saturday morning, later complaining of stiffness. In fact, she didn't even perform her routines. "I really have to pay attention to how I am feeling these days. Dropping out, it's not something I want to do, but I have to listen to what my feelings are." This could lead to another melodramatic, Olympic figure skating type moment. Many were buzzing about her poor practice and health...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Michelle Kwan's task is simple. Prove she's healthy enough to skate, and her quest for that elusive Olympic gold medal can continue. Appear to still be hobbled or ailing, and that dream is likely over. The "Should she or shouldn't she?'' debate that's swirled around U.S. figure skating all month will finally be resolved Friday. A five-person monitoring committee will watch her do her short and long programs on her home ice in Los Angeles, and determine whether she's fit and healthy enough to compete. Kwan will do run-throughs of her short and long programs...

HOUSTON -- Angry Houston athletic director Dave Maggard, calling Nebraska "gutless," accused the Cornhuskers Friday of backing out of a verbal agreement to play next fall and scheduling Division I-AA Maine instead. "This is absolutely unprofessional in every way," Maggard said in online editions of the Houston Chronicle. "It's gutless. Spineless. They're going to have to live with it. I've lost a tremendous amount of respect for that program. I think that for college athletics, it's shameful." Maggard said he arranged a nationally televised game between the Cougars and Nebraska. Then, he said he learned two days ago on a...

I would have voted for Peterson, but it's a good pick.

NEW YORK Fox will be the new television home of the Bowl Championship Series. The network and the B-C-S announced a four-year, 80 (m) million dollar deal today that gives Fox the broadcast rights to the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls from 2007-to-2010 and the national title game from 2007-to-2009. A-B-C has held the broadcast rights to the B-C-S since college football's major conferences implemented the system to crown a national champion in 1998. A-B-C withdrew from the bidding last week, with network officials saying they were unhappy with the new B-C-S structure, which added a fifth game. Starting with...

The new BCS formula isn't quite as simple as advertised, but it is simpler, and for that the Division I-A commissioners should be congratulated. The simplest solution would have been to use the ranking of the teams in each poll. Instead, the commissioners chose precision over simplicity. The percentage of votes that a team receives in each poll, and not simply its ranking, will be that team's score in the BCS standings. Here's how it works: in The Associated Press media poll there are 1625 possible points. The percentage of that amount will be a team's AP score in the...

Mar. 28, 2004. 09:26 AM JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES A man identified as Ron Bensimhon of Montreal makes a spectacle of himself at worlds yesterday. Black mark for Canada Montreal man dressed in tutu takes spin on ice Japan's Arakawa pulls off shocker, wins women's gold ROSIE DIMANNO SPORTS COLUMNIST DORTMUND, GERMANY—Canada may not have won any medals but it earned a cameo flash of notoriety at the world figure skating championships. Missing on the medal tote board, present on the police blotter, some dork in a tutu reported to be a Canuck penetrated security during the women's final yesterday. He...

RANK TEAM RECORD PTS PVS 1. USC (48) 12-1 1,608 1 Last game: Def. Michigan 28-14 (Jan. 1) 2. LSU (17) 13-1 1,576 2 Last game: Def. Oklahoma 21-14 (Jan. 4) Next game: vs. Oklahoma (Jan. 4) 3. Oklahoma 12-2 1,476 3 Last game: Lost to LSU 21-14 (Jan. 4) Next game: vs. LSU (Jan. 4) 4. Ohio State 11-2 1,411 7 Last game: Def. Kansas State 35-28 (Jan. 2) 5. Miami 11-2 1,329 10 Last game: Def. Florida State 16-14 (Jan. 1) 6. Michigan 10-3 1,281 4 Last game: Lost to USC 28-14 (Jan. 1) 7. Georgia 11-3 1,255...

The disgraced former figure skating champion, Tonya Harding, has lost her first ever bout in the professional boxing ring. Harding, 32, made her professional debut against another novice, Samantha Browning, as a show-opener for the equally controversial Mike Tyson bout in Memphis on Saturday. "This was much, much harder than I ever figured. But it only makes me want to work that much harder," Harding said. Harding was twice US national figure skating champion, but fell from grace after being involved in an attack on her Olympic Games rival Nancy Kerrigan in 1994. She was subsequently banned for life from...

Filed at 4:50 p.m. ET VENICE, Italy (AP) -- The man accused of trying to fix Olympic figure skating told ice dancing champion Marina Anissina her event could be banned from the games because of ``the mess,'' Italian police said Thursday. According to police wiretap transcripts, reputed Russian mobster Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov told Anissina, who won the gold medal with partner Gwendal Peizerat, that she could be ``the last champion.'' The latest transcripts were obtained by The Associated Press a week after the arrest of Tokhtakhounov on U.S. and Italian charges of corrupting judges at the Salt Lake City Games. Prosecutors...

Rank, name, # of 1st place votes, 2001 record, # of total votes. 1. Miami (Fla.) (34) 12-0 1,444 2. Texas (9) 11-2 1,399 3. Oklahoma (11) 11-2 1,397 4. Florida State (7) 8-4 1,357 5. Tennessee 11-2 1,255 6. Colorado 10-3 1,010 7. Florida 10-2 972 8. Nebraska 11-2 951 9. Washington 8-4 914 10. Michigan 8-4 894 11. Georgia 8-4 858 12. Ohio State 7-5 761 13. LSU 10-3 749 14. Washington State 10-2 748 15. Oregon 11-1 663 16. Virginia Tech 8-4 550 17. Louisville 11-2 378 18. Michigan State 7-5 371 19. Southern California 6-6 20....

WASHINGTON -- An alleged Russian crime boss was arrested in Italy on U.S. charges he tried to fix the ice dancing competition at the Salt Lake City Olympics, a senior law enforcement official said Wednesday. Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won gold after their tribute to the United States. The federal government alleges that Alimzan Tokhtakhounov attempted to influence judges to award the gold medal to Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France. They did win. Federal investigators have in their possession recorded telephone conversations between Tokhtakhounov and a French ice dancer, in which he brags about being able to...