Around the Olympics

Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Monday, Jul. 30, 2012

Interloper mystery

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This article was published 30/07/2012 (4836 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Interloper mystery

LONDON — A mysterious woman in red has caused an international incident at the London Olympics.

Indian officials are mystified — and miffed — after an unknown young woman managed to march with the country’s athletes and officials during the opening ceremony Friday night.

Games organizers on Sunday downplayed security concerns around the unscripted moment, saying the interloper was a ceremony cast member and had been screened before entering the Olympic Park.

Images from Friday’s ceremony showed a young woman in turquoise jeans and a red jacket marching alongside Indian flag-bearer Sushil Kumar at the head of the delegation of 40 athletes in bright yellow and navy blue.

Indian officials said they had no idea who the woman was. The country’s Deccan Chronicle newspaper said she was likely Madhura Nagendra, a graduate student from the southern city of Bangalore who had been living in London.

The newspaper said she had displayed her Olympic passes on her Facebook page, which used the name Madhura Honey. It said the page was later deactivated.

The case of the ceremony’s mystery woman dominated Indian media’s coverage of the opening of the Games.

“Who’s That Girl?” asked the front page of the Hindustan Times.

Twitter war of words

MANCHESTER, England — Hope Solo met with the coach and captains of the U.S. women’s soccer team Sunday to discuss her latest outburst of candour, a Twitter rant that did no good for the image of the squad and distracted from preparations for the upcoming game against North Korea in the Olympic tournament.

Coach Pia Sundhage said Solo will not be disciplined for the tweets that criticized former U.S. player Brandi Chastain’s commentary during the NBC broadcast of the Americans’ 3-0 win over Colombia Saturday.

Solo rattled off four tweets following Saturday’s game, upset over Chastain’s criticisms of the team’s defensive play.

“Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game,” tweeted Solo. She also told Chastain to “lay off commentating about defending” and goalkeeping “until you get more educated” and “the game has changed from a decade ago.”

Chastain, one of the most accomplished players in U.S. team history, refused to be drawn into the fray.

“I’m here to do my job, which is to be an honest and objective journalist at the Olympics, nothing more than that,” said Chastain, who earned 192 caps from 1988-2004 and is best known for scoring the decisive penalty kick in the World Cup final in 1999.

Son beats dad in v-ball

LONDON — Father and son saved the hugs for afterward.

The opening day of competition in men’s volleyball in the London Games featured an afternoon match between Australia and Argentina. Jon Uriarte coaches the Australians, while his son Nicolas is a setter for Argentina.

The younger Uriarte’s team emerged with the victory on Sunday with a sweep of the Volleyroos, as they’re known, 25-21, 25-22, 25-20.

Any acknowledgment of the familial bond between the two wasn’t obvious.

Nicolas Uriarte was used only sparingly. During the pre-match warm-ups he slightly raised his hand in the direction of Australia’s bench following the handshake between opposing players.

But afterward Jon Uriarte put his arm around his son as they faced the post-match TV cameras.

— from the news services