Berlin, Hamburg submit Olympic bid intentions

By Nick ZaccardiSep 1, 2014, 1:09 PM EDT

The newest rival to a potential 2024 U.S. Olympic bid appears to be coming from Germany.

Berlin and Hamburg, two cities separated by about 175 miles, submitted proposals to Germany’s Olympic Committee on Monday. One could become a candidate city for the 2024 or 2028 Olympics, according to The Associated Press, though only 2024 was mentioned in Reuters’ report.

Germany’s Olympic Committee will decide if it will bid for the 2024 Olympics, and if so, which city, on Dec. 6, according to reports last week.

That date is interesting, as it comes two days before a two-day International Olympic Committee session in Monaco.

The U.S. Olympic Committee is waiting until after that session to decide if it will move forward with a 2024 Olympic bid. The finalist cities are Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The U.S. has not hosted a Summer Games since Atlanta 1996.

Germany last hosted the Olympics in Munich in 1972. Berlin hosted the 1936 Summer Games. Hamburg has never hosted an Olympics.

Munich bid for the 2018 Winter Games but finished second in a three-city vote for those Olympics on July 6, 2011. Pyeongchang, South Korea, won by a large margin.

Leipzig applied for the 2012 Olympics but was not chosen as one of the five finalist candidate cities.

Bidding for the 2024 Olympics begins in 2015. The host city will be chosen in 2017.

Other potential 2024 Olympic bids could come from Paris, Rome and a South African city, among others.

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French Open: Ons Jabeur completes Grand Slam quarterfinal set; one U.S. player left

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 6:56 AM EDT

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No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia dispatched 36th-ranked American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1 in the French Open fourth round, breaking all eight of Pera’s service games.

Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

Jabeur faces 14th-seeded Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia or Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, playing on a protected ranking of 68, in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Pera, a 28 year-old born in Croatia, was the oldest U.S. singles player to make the fourth round of a major for the first time since Jill Craybas at 2005 Wimbledon. Her defeat leaves Coco Gauff, the 2022 French Open runner-up, as the lone American singles player left out of the 35 entered in the main draws.

The last American to win a major singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought matches the longest in history (since 1877) for American men and women combined.

Later Monday, Gauff plays 100th-ranked Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Top seed Iga Swiatek gets 66th-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko. The winners of those matches play each other in the quarterfinals.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

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Jim Hines, Olympic 100m gold medalist and first to break 10 seconds, dies

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 6:06 AM EDT

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Jim Hines, a 1968 Olympic 100m gold medalist and the first person to break 10 seconds in the event, has died at age 76, according to USA Track and Field.

“I understand that God called him home today and we send the prayers up for him,” was posted on the Facebook page of John Carlos, a 1968 U.S. Olympic teammate, over the weekend.

Hines was born in Arkansas, raised in Oakland, California and attended Texas Southern University in Houston.

At the June 1968 AAU Championships in Sacramento, Hines became the first person to break 10 seconds in the 100m with a hand-timed 9.9. It was dubbed the “Night of Speed” because the world record of 10 seconds was beaten by three men and tied by seven others, according to World Athletics.

“There will never be another night like it,” Hines said at a 35th anniversary reunion in 2003, according to World Athletics. “That was the greatest sprinting series in the history of track and field.”

Later that summer, Hines won the Olympic Trials. Then he won the Olympic gold medal in Mexico City’s beneficial thin air in 9.95 seconds, the first electronically timed sub-10 and a world record that stood for 15 years.

Hines was part of a legendary 1968 U.S. Olympic track and field team that also included 200m gold and bronze medalists Tommie Smith and Carlos, plus gold medalists Wyomia Tyus (100m), Bob Beamon (long jump), Al Oerter (discus), Dick Fosbury (high jump), Lee Evans (400m), Madeline Manning Mims (800m), Willie Davenport (110m hurdles), Bob Seagren (pole vault), Randy Matson (shot put), Bill Toomey (decathlon) and the men’s and women’s 4x100m and men’s 4x400m relays.

After the Olympics, Hines joined the Miami Dolphins, who chose him in the sixth round of that year’s NFL Draft to be a wide receiver. He was given the number 99. Hines played in 10 games between 1969 and 1970 for the Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs.

He remains the only person to have played in an NFL regular season game out of the now more than 170 who have broken 10 seconds in the 100m over the last 55 years.

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