COLORADO SPRINGS — Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, the reigning Olympic and world silver medalists in ice dance, have withdrawn from next week’s Grand Prix final.
Belbin had surgery Tuesday to treat an infected wisdom tooth and has been advised to avoid strenuous activity for a week. Agosto said the pair is confident it will be ready for the U.S. championships in January.
D.C. United’s Olsen retires
WASHINGTON — Longtime D.C. United and U.S. team midfielder Ben Olsen retired, finally succumbing to the numerous ankle injuries that kept interrupting his career.
Olsen was the MLS rookie of the year in 1998 and helped the United win the MLS Cup in 1999 and 2004. He was the MVP of the 1999 championship game and a two-time league all-star. Olsen retires in second place in United history in games (221), minutes (17,098) and game-winning goals (13). He ranks third in assists (49) and shots on goal (155) and seventh in goals (29).
• Denis Hamlett will not return to the Chicago Fire next year after leading the team to the Eastern Conference finals in each of his two seasons as head coach.
Fire technical director Frank Klopas said the organization “has decided to take the team in a new direction in 2010.” The Fire went 24-17-19 in two seasons under Hamlett.
Germans restore 1936 record
NEW YORK — Gretel Bergmann matched a German high jump record on June 30, 1936. Two weeks later, the 5 feet, 3 inches she jumped in Stuttgart, Germany, was all but obliterated and she was kicked off the team.
Bergmann was Jewish. She would miss that year’s Berlin Olympics. There was no way the Nazis would allow a Jew to compete and possibly win.
Now comes news that Germany’s track and field association restored the mark, calling the decision an “act of justice and a symbolic gesture” while acknowledging it “can in no way make up” for the past. It also requested that she be included in Germany’s sports hall of fame.
This was all a pleasant surprise for the 95-year-old Bergmann, who changed her name to Margaret Lambert after emigrating to the United States in 1937.
“That’s very nice and I appreciate it. I couldn’t repeat the jump today, believe me,” said Lambert, who lives in the New York City borough of Queens.
Footnotes.
Ottawa Senators starting goaltender Pascal Leclaire will be sidelined about a month with a broken cheekbone.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs placed goalie Vesa Toskala (groin) and forward John Mitchell (knee) on injured reserve and recalled goalie Joey MacDonald and forward Christian Hanson.
• Roger Federer bounced back after losing the first set, rallying to defeat Andy Murray 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the ATP World Tour Finals in London and ensuring he will have the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fifth time.
• The U.S. women’s basketball team was placed in Group B at the world championships, pitting the Americans against Greece, Senegal and France in opening pool play of the tournament that begins Sept. 23.
The Associated Press
