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Injured Sabonis to skip Games

Vilnius, Lithuania Portland Trail Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis won't play for Lithuania in the Olympics because he is still recovering from major foot surgery, local media reported Thursday. The 7-foot-3 Sabonis helped his country to bronze medals in the last two Olympics.

The loss of the 35-year-old center dampens the team's hope of adding another medal at the Sydney Games. Lithuania will also play without injured Cleveland Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Sabonis, who has been plagued by foot injuries for much of his career, consulted Trail Blazers trainer Jay Jensen before making a final decision about skipping the Olympics, the Lytuvos Rytas daily reported.

His swollen foot shouldn't threaten the resumption of his career in the NBA later this year, the daily said.

Pentathlon accepts testing; volleyball next

Lausanne, Switzerland Modern pentathlon's governing body has signed up for unannounced out-of-competition drug tests on Olympic athletes and its volleyball counterpart says it will follow, the World Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday.

The International Modern Pentathlon Union, known by its French initials UIPM, was one of three criticized by WADA earlier this week for their failure so far to join the program before the Sydney Olympics, which open Sept. 15.

The International Gymnastics Federation is the last of the 28 summer sports federations to remain outside the testing program.

WADA, created last year to coordinate a worldwide testing campaign for performance-enhancing drugs, has set a target of carrying out 2,150 tests before the Olympics.

Injury, surgery end Moceanu's hopes

Boston At 14, Dominique Moceanu won a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics.

After finally putting a sordid split with her parents behind her and getting her life back under control, her dream of a second Olympics a redemption of sorts was shattered by a tiny piece of bone.

Moceanu, 18, withdrew from the Olympic trials Wednesday night because of a bone chip in her right knee, the same knee on which she had surgery last summer She'll return to Cincinnati on Monday and have surgery next week.

Her teammates, meanwhile, will be packing for the Sydney Olympics.

She wants to go to Sydney to support her teammates, and she'll participate in the post-Olympic tour.

Cuba won't allow two to compete

Madrid, Spain Niurka Montalvo, the world champion in women's long jumping, and water polo player Ivan Perez have been refused permission by Cuba to compete in the Olympics for Spain, where they are now citizens.

Under the Olympic charter, any athlete who has competed in an Olympics and changes his or her nationality must wait three years or get permission from their country of birth before suiting up for their adopted homeland.

Montalvo, 31, competed for Cuba in the Atlanta games of 1996, but has lived in Spain for nearly three years. She was granted citizenship last year after marrying a Spaniard.

Cuban athletes training in Spain for the Sydney Olympics, including world record-holding high jumper Javier Sotomayor, were told on Sunday by Cuban sports officials to leave Spain.

Olympic sites merging

Salt Lake City Winter Games organizers and NBC will merge their 2002 Olympic Web sites next year at www.olympics.com, currently the home page for next month's Sydney Games. The Salt Lake Games will merge NBCOlympics.com and saltlake2002.com into olympics.com. Typing any of the addresses will get viewers to the same place.

Leavitt backs SLOC payment of legal fees

Salt Lake City Gov. Mike Leavitt says the Salt Lake Organizing Committee should pay to defend Tom Welch and Dave Johnson of fraud and bribery charges stemming from their role in the Salt Lake Olympic bid.

"It is still unclear if they broke the law. Only a court can determine that," Leavitt said.

"Tom and Dave should be presumed innocent of breaking the law while they prepare for trial. I think SLOC should advance their legal fees."

Welch and Johnson were hit earlier this month with a 15-count indictment alleging they broke the law when they gave $1 million in bribes and gifts to International Olympic Committee officials to help land the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Both men have pleaded innocent to the charges and trial is set for October.

But since the men were acting in their official capacity as Olympic representatives, their attorneys claim they are entitled to have their legal costs paid for by SLOC under the committee's bylaws.

The SLOC has already spent more than $1 million on scandal-related attorney fees for Welch, Johnson and other Olympic officers.

Should Welch and Johnson be convicted they would be obligated to repay the legal fees.