Olympic Notes: Former IOC VP Dick Pound Backs Squash Inclusion

Former IOC VP Dick Pound "is confident the IOC will drop regulations limiting the number of sports on the Games program and says squash should be brought into the Olympic fold." Pound, also the former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said that "the sport had women to thank for raising standards and bringing squash into the Olympic debate" (REUTERS, 12/2). ... Eight months after warning that the 2016 Olympics were at risk because of delays, sports federations said Brazil has made "considerable progress" but must accelerate preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Games. The Association of Summer Olympic Int'l Federations said that "the crisis has eased since the sports publicly raised concerns over Rio's delays at a meeting in April in Belek, Turkey." But ASOIF said in a statement Monday that "timelines remain tight for the construction of the venues" (AP, 12/1).