Yoga Gets Competitive

IOC execs reject baseball, softball; decision faces Oct. vote

(AP) - Olympic leaders selected golf and rugby today for proposed inclusion in the 2016 Summer Games, rejecting bids from baseball, softball, and three other sports. The IOC executive board narrowed the field to two from a list of seven, which also included squash, karate, and roller sports. The board will submit golf and rugby sevens—a faster-paced version of the standard game—for ratification by the full IOC assembly in October. More»

Ashrams enjoying newfound popularity

(NEWSER) - Many left unemployed or weary by recession are heading to yoga retreats, where they get meals, lodging, spiritual education, and quiet reflection for some chores and a low fee. “I figured if I stayed for a year, the economy would be warming up by then, and I could head back and see what’s available,” one participant—who’s been at Pennsylvania’s Himalayan Institute since 2007—tells the New York Times. More»

(AP) - Sporting a goatee and an old-school swimsuit, Michael Phelps picked up right where he left off in Beijing. Two races. Two wins. The world's greatest swimmer left a 9-month layoff and marijuana travails in his wake tonight at his first meet since a triumphant Olympics. None of it seemed to matter when Phelps dove in for two events less than an hour apart at the Charlotte UltraSwim in Charlotte, NC. More»

Religious leaders say sports are unfeminine

(NEWSER) - Though obesity and diabetes are on the rise in Saudi Arabia, officials there are cracking down on women-only sports clubs because they lack licenses—which no government body will actually issue. Leaders say their opposition is based on Islam, but, Caryle Murphy writes for GlobalPost, it stems as much from views about women long extinct in other societies. “Depriving women of this is yet another way of marginalizing them,” says one activist. More»

Medvedev to attend instead

(NEWSER) - Even though Russia will be hosting the next Winter Olympics in 2014, Vladimir Putin will snub this summer's games in Great Britain, reports the Guardian . Apparently Russia's recently re-elected president is unhappy with Britain for a range of reasons—being accused of human rights abuses, British MPs blocking travel visas for Russian officials implicated the death of an anti-corruption lawyer , the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006—and is taking out his displeasure by dissing the Olympics. Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev will attend instead. More»