The high temperature Sunday at the beach volleyball venue was 92 degrees, and tournament officials checked the temperature of the sand for the first time. It was 107. The mercury climbed to 99 at the main Olympic complex. It was still 89 for the 6 p.m. start of the women’s marathon. It was 92 at the softball site, but U.S. pitcher Lisa Fernandez twice asked for her warmup jacket after reaching base. She also wore long sleeves under her jersey. At the equestrian venue show-jumping riders wore formal team attire, including a scarlet wool coat. Bulgarian cyclist Evgenia Radanova said Athens was about 100 degrees too warm. A three-time winter Olympian in short-track speedskating, she raced in track cycling’s sprint. “Give me the weather in Lake Placid or Salt Lake City any day,” she said.
Gender bender
South Korean women’s field hockey coach Kim Sang-Ryul resigned, saying women were not coachable. “Never again will I coach a women’s team,” Kim said after South Korea’s loss to Germany. “This is my last competition with this team. I have had enough. How can I train them? I can’t get inside their heads. When I ask them to do things they never say no, never question, they just say yes. They don’t get involved.”
Touche
A Hungarian fencing referee was expelled from the Olympics and suspended for two years after making several errors during the gold-medal match in men’s team foil. Joszef Hidasi made mistakes in six scoring decisions–all in favor of Italy, International Fencing Federation spokesman Jochen Faerber said. The Italians beat China 45-42 to win the gold medal. Faerber said the result would stand. Chinese fencing official Li Xin said he knew the results wouldn’t be changed but said the team planned to appeal.
Also . . .
Secretary of State Colin Powell will attend the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, Greece’s foreign ministry said. . . . Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has signed up as an official ambassador for London’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Blairs attended the Opening Ceremony. London is one of five cities in the 2012 race, along with New York, Paris, Madrid and Moscow.
