Olympics: IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch will travel to the United States next week with a diplomatic passport but it will not provide him with immunity or free him from any questioning by the FBI.
Samaranch, who holds a diplomatic passport as a result of his days as Spain's ambassador to the former-Soviet Union, is to appear before a US Congress hearing looking into alleged corruption surrounding Atlanta's successful bid to stage the 1996 Summer Games.
But US Justice department officials and the FBI are also anxious to talk to the IOC president about an ongoing investigation into the bribery scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2002 Winter Games.
Six IOC members have already been questioned by the FBI, including Canadian IOC vice-president Dick Pound.
Gaelic Games: Leinster Council secretary Seamus Aldridge has criticised plans to re-organise the football championship. He said if the proposals are passed and the Leinster championship is abolished the provincial council will lose £2.2 million and he also pointed out that the Leinster Council has 40 employees.
He claimed that major disruption would be caused to the provincial, under-21 and junior football championships and that not enough weekends would be allocated for club competition. This could mean that clubs will be deprived of their county players.
Motor Cycling: Australia's five-times 500cc world motorcycle champion Michael Doohan announced his retirement from racing yesterday due to injuries he received in a track crash in Spain seven months ago.
Doohan (34) said his decision had been prompted by delays with his recovery after a crash on May 7th at Jerez during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.
"I had hoped to continue racing, but unfortunately it's not possible," Doohan said. "Since the crash I've had three operations and I've done everything I can to get back to full fitness, and now I've got to accept that my body is not up to racing a 500 (bike) again."
Doohan was 500cc world champion for five successive years up to and including 1998. He had 54 Grand Prix wins, second only to Italian Giacomo Agostini's 68 victories, and also had 95 top-three podium finishes and 58 pole positions as fastest qualifier.
He said he would remain involved in Grand Prix racing with Honda Racing Corporation in the 2000 season. His new role was expected to be announced by the Japanese manufacturer next month.
Swimming: Anna-Karin Kammerling of Sweden set a new world short-course record of 25.64 seconds for the women's 50 metres butterfly at the European championships in Lisbon. Fellow Swede Therese Alshammar earlier broke the women's 100 metre freestyle world record with 52.80 seconds.
