Int'l Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel said that the IOC "decided not to cover the transportation or insurance costs for NHL players to participate in the upcoming Winter Games." Fasel: "We had a meeting with the NHL last week and the prognosis is not really good. Our wish is to have the best players. [But the IOC] not covering the cost as they did at the last five Olympic Games puts us in a difficult financial situation. We still have challenges -- it is even more difficult than before" (NBC SPORTS, 4/23).
The development arm of the Int'l Paralympic Committee, the Agitos Foundation, launched the latest edition of its Grant Support Program, which has supported para-sport development projects around the world for the last three years.
The program will once again make €650,000 ($729,600) available to the IPC membership for awareness campaigns, education, training, research and equipment in both summer and winter sports. A total of 93 projects have been supported so far involving 35 national paralympic committees, 15 int'l federations, four regional organizations and three int'l organizations of sports for the disabled (IPC).
Rio de Janeiro authorities said that an oceanfront stretch of an elevated bike lane built ahead of the Olympic Games "collapsed on Thursday when it was hit by a strong wave, killing at least two people." Rio Municipal Secretary Pedro Paulo Carvalho said that "a third person was thought to be missing." He said that "a probe was under way to determine what caused the accident on the Tim Maia Bike Path, which was inaugurated in mid-January and connects the beachfront neighborhoods of Leblon and São Conrado" (AP, 4/21).
