Rio's Maracana stadium will host the draw for the 2016 Olympic football tournaments on April 14, ahead of hosting the men’s and women’s Olympic finals on Aug. 19 and 20, respectively.
The stadium's auditorium will see the groups drawn with the event scheduled to kick off at 10:30 local time (FIFA). ... Kazakhstan's Olympic champion Ilya Ilyin is on the list of the Int'l Weightlifting Federation, "which requires athletes to provide information about their location during the entire 2016."
Ilyin, Svetlana Podobedova, Zulfiya Chinshanlo and Maya Maneza "are among the 17 weightlifters from Kazakhstan to provide information that is necessary for taking doping tests" of the World Anti-Doping Agency during their non-contest season (XINHUA, 2/23). ... Russian Athletics Federation (VFLA) Head Dmitry Shlyakhtin said that Russian athletes "will be unable to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games if a ban on their participation is not lifted by June." He said, "We believe, that our team will perform at the Olympics ... but we understand that there is a point of no return. That is June" (REUTERS, 2/23). ... The Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University released the results of its recent public opinion survey that found that 88% of Angelenos support L.A. hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, compared with 12% opposed. Including those respondents who did not answer in the survey, 85% support LA hosting the Games, 11% oppose and 4% did not answer. LMU conducted its telephone survey of 2,425 adults in January and February (LA 2024).
