Japan wants to prove the world

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara expressed his intention Friday to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, to show the world that Japan has recovered from the ravages of the March 11 twin disasters and despite falling short in seeking the 2016 Games.

Saying the reconstruction effort from the Great East Japan Earthquake is unprecedented and comparable with rebuilding from the ashes after World War II, Ishihara said Tokyo's bid will be a symbol of Japan's recovery.

"If we can show that Japan has recovered, and we will, nine years later, it will be the best appreciation for the friendship and encouragement that were given to us from all over the world" in the wake of the disasters, Ishihara said during a session of the metropolitan assembly."Keeping the torch burning" in pursuit of the Olympics "will have a great significance for our country's future," he said.Ishihara also called for support from the residents of Tokyo and the rest of the country.

Tokyo lost in 2009 to Rio de Janeiro in the race to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, using ¥15 billion in taxpayer money for the campaign. Officials say Tokyo still has a special ¥400 billion fund for hosting the games.

Applications must reach the International Olympic Committee by Sept. 1. The winner will be decided at the IOC general assembly in Buenos Aires in 2013, metro officials said, adding Rome is also likely to bid for the games.

Michael Phelps eying less golds in London

The swimmer who won eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008 says he won't be competing in eight events next summer. Phelps is headlining the Santa Clara Invitational this weekend along with Ryan Lochte.
Swim icon Michael Phelps couldn't have been more emphatic on the burning topic of again trying to go after eight Olympic gold medals. There is no doubt he won't be winning eight gold medals because he said he won't be competing in eight events in 2012.
Been there, done that.

But that is only part of it. Phelps pulled off the record, three summers ago at the Olympics in Beijing. He won five individual gold medals and three more in the relays. Phelps talked about the golds, and goals, still looming, sitting down with a handful of reporters on a sun-splashed Thursday morning.

"There are still things I want to do, that's obvious," Phelps said. "I wouldn't have come back if I still didn't have things to accomplish. I won't be doing eight again; that is out of the question. There are still some small goals I want to accomplish that will probably be just as challenging."

Long-time coach and mentor Bob Bowman was sitting next to Phelps at the swim complex and put the situation in proper context in his usual succinct way.

"I think there are things he needs to do if he wants to, performance-wise," Bowman said. "But he's climbed Mount Everest. I don't think he needs to do it twice to show he can do it. Everybody saw it."

Not that anyone would mind seeing the sequel.


Phelps, who is coming off an intense training camp in Colorado Springs, will be swimming in four events at the Santa Clara Invitational, the 100 freestyle, the 100 butterfly, the 200 backstroke and the 200 butterfly. Phelps and Ryan Lochte are the headliners of the meet, which features many of the top American swimmers and a sprinkling of international athletes.

The meet — the last significant competition before the World Championships next month in Shanghai — started Thursday night with two distance events, and Phelps will be in two events Friday, the 100 freestyle and the 100 butterfly. The 200 backstroke is Saturday and Phelps will swim the 200 butterfly Sunday.

Lochte is coming off a strained left knee, which has hampered his breaststroke preparation. He hurt it about two months ago when he went to get something out of the back seat of his car. The knee twisted and Lochte said his medial collateral ligament popped.

"I wish I did it doing something like break dancing," Lochte said.

Here, Lochte will swim the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke and will swim the 400 individual medley for the first time since the Pan Pacific Championships last summer in Irvine. If it does not go well, Lochte said he could drop the 400 IM from his World Championship program.

Lochte talked about what Phelps is trying to do, post-Beijing.

"I give credit to Michael for just coming back," he said. "He's done everything there is to do in the sport of swimming. What else is there to prove? He's done it all. I'm just glad he's still in the sport and just wanting to race against him. I love racing against him."

What Phelps will not do is retire after London and then come back more than a decade later. It is certainly not wildly impossible, considering he will turn just 26 on June 30. The topic came up when he was asked about the current comeback of Janet Evans, who returned to competition for the first time in 15 years.

"I'll say one thing: that will not happen," said Phelps, grinning.

London 2012: More than half tickets miss out

Two-thirds of applicants for London 2012 tickets have been left empty handed in the face of "huge demand", it emerged as organisers outlined details of the sale of the next batch of 2.3m tickets.

A total of 21 events have sold out altogether, with only limited availability for others. There will be only 40,000 athletics tickets available, mainly at high prices, when the second phase opens at 6am on 24 June to the 1.2 million applicants who received nothing in the first phase on a first come, first served basis.

Around 1.7m of the remaining 2.3m tickets are for the football tournament, which is taking place at large stadiums around the country. Of the 600,000 remaining for other events, the next most are for volleyball and hockey.

There will be a further 1m tickets on sale next year to the general public once venue layouts have been finalised.

The London 2012 chairman, Sebastian Coe, said he "empathised with and understands the level of disappointment" but said that the commitment to low pricing had helped drive huge demand.

"I don't know if it's unprecedented, but I would be hard pushed to give you an example of such a demand for any sporting event anywhere in the world in my lifetime," he said.

Although the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) has to work within the framework laid down by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding ticket allocation, there is likely to be further anger at the distribution of tickets for the biggest events.

It has emerged that the men's 100m final attracted 1.3m applications, but only 30,000 of the 80,000 seats at the stadium will be sold to the British public.

The rest of the stadium will be made up of a further 30,000 tickets given to sponsors, hospitality, international sales and international sporting federations, and the rest to the media and IOC officials.

Of the 30,000 available to the public, 21,000 went in the first round – half in the more expensive A, B and C categories and half in the D and E categories – and the remaining 9,000 will go on sale next year.

Paul Deighton, the Locog chief executive, said that 16m of the 22m ticket applications were for the bottom two price categories.

"It all comes back to the number of people who wanted tickets. There were a lot of really affordable tickets and that generated enormous demand," he said.

"The sheer level of demand has left more people disappointed than we would want and we are committed to fixing that as best we can."

There were 1.3m applications for the men's 100m final, 5m in total for the athletics and 2m for the opening ceremony, including 1.5m who hoped for a £20.12 seat.

A total of 1.9 million people applied for 22m tickets in the first phase of the sales process, with 700,000 of them securing a total of 3m tickets. More than 1,500 ballots were held for oversubscribed sessions.

The ticketing process had come in for criticism from consumer groups including Which? and many applicants for apparently favouring those who could afford to bid for lots of highly priced tickets in lots of sessions. Organisers were also criticised for withdrawing money from the accounts of successful applicants weeks before they learned which tickets they had received.

But Deighton said the figures did not bear out the worst fears of consumer groups. He said the average successful application was for four tickets costing £275. Eighty percent of applicants applied for between one and five sessions, with just 5% applying for more than five and "a fraction of 1%" applying for the maximum of 20.

"The 3m tickets that were sold will mostly go to different people. Between 2.5 million and 2.7 million people will get to use those tickets," he said. "We don't have a situation where there was a small number of people who got a large number of tickets to the detriment of people who didn't get any."

Unsuccessful applicants will have a 10-day window from 24 June to apply for the 2.3m tickets available in the second round. They will be available on a first come, first served basis. On 8 July, the 700,000 successful applicants will also be offered another chance to buy what is left.

Deighton also hinted that Locog, which expects to bring in £400m of its £500m ticket revenue target by the end of the second phase, would have limited the number of sessions and tickets that could have been applied for if it had known the extent of the demand.

In the second phase applicants will be restricted to up to six tickets in up to three sessions – apart from those for football, volleyball and the race walk where there are lots of tickets left."Learning from the demand we had in the first session, we have pared down the event and ticket numbers in this first come, first served second session," he said.

The remaining tickets, expected to total around 1m across all price points and sessions, will start to go on sale from December this year. A ticket exchange service for those who can no longer use their tickets will be set up early next year and organisers will also release tickets that will allow access to the Olympic Park but not to any of the venues.