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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

The Wire

By: Staff Writer

2/12/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

"ö The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is inducting three athletes, three builders and one coach into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.

The 2010 inductees are kayaker Caroline Brunet, sprinter Bruny Surin, speed skater Susan Auch, builders Walter Sieber, Peter Lougheed and Carol Anne Letheren and athletics coach Paul Poce.

The event will be held at the Bell Centre in Montreal on April 23.

Auch, a native of Winnipeg, competed in speed skating at five Olympic Winter Games and won two silver medals in the 500 metres.

"ö Bobby Bowden said Tuesday he will end his 44-year coaching career after the Florida State Seminoles play in a bowl game. Bowden was done in by a combination of off-field woes, too many defeats and coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher ready to take over.

The 80-year-old Bowden will retire as the second winningest coach in major-college football behind Penn State's Joe Paterno. The folksy coach has won 388 games at Samford, West Virginia and Florida State, where he spent the last 34 seasons.

"ö Martin Brodeur is now an American.

But don't worry, Canada, he's not about to go Brett Hull on us and play for the United States.

Brodeur, the odds-on favourite to again be Canada's starting goalie at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, passed his citizenship test early Tuesday morning in Newark, then walked across the street to the Prudential Center and joined the New Jersey Devils at their practice.

"You don't have to worry about that," Brodeur said to a suggestion that he might at some point consider playing for the Americans. "Whenever you play for a country, you can't go back. And I want to play for Canada. That's where I'm from."

"ö Marc Savard is staying put in Boston. The Bruins have signed the centre to an extension worth just over US$28 million over seven-years that will keep him with the club through the 2016-17 season.

The front-loaded contract will see the Ottawa native get $25.5 million over the first four years of the deal, which decreases drastically to just $525,000 in each of the final two seasons.

"ö Los Angeles City Council has voted to submit a bid for the city to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

Britain, Russia and Qatar are also hoping to host world soccer's showcase event.

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena and Stanford Stadium in Northern California were two of six stadiums used nationwide for the 1994 World Cup.

"ö Cagliari has been fined 10,000 euros (C$15,760) after supporters taunted Juventus midfielder Mohamed Sissoko with racist abuse.

The Italian league imposed the fine Tuesday after Sissoko, who is black, was targeted by Cagliari fans in Sunday's Serie A game.

Juventus was also fined this season after its fans sang racially offensive songs about Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli.

"ö Toronto goaltender Jonas Gustavsson had to be taken to hospital after the first period with a heart issue, but Joey MacDonald stepped in and made 18 saves to complete the Maple Leafs' first shutout of the season Tuesday in a 3-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Gustavsson was pulled from the game after stopping all eight shots he faced in the first and taken to hospital with an elevated heart rate.

He had a similar problem in the pre-season and had an ablation, a common medical procedure among athletes. The Leafs say he was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 2, 2009 C2

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