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Fact of the day
Frank Kugler won four Olympics medals in freestyle wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war at St Louis in 1904, making him the only competitor to win a medal in three different sports at the same Games. He claimed a silver medal in the heavyweight category in wrestling, bronze in the two hand lift and all-around dumbbell events in weightlifting and another bronze in the tug of war competition as a member of Southwest Turnverein of Saint Louis No. 2 team. He is recognised as an American by the International Olympic Committee although he was a German national at the time of the Games.
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Bolt "too expensive" for Moscow 2013 video promotion
Tuesday, 09 October 2012
October 9 - Moscow 2013 has declined the services of Usain Bolt, who was supposed to appear in its promotional video for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships, after the Jamaican star asked for too high a fee, it has been reported.Bolt (pictured top), who won gold in the men's sprint at the last two Olympics in Beijing and London, is expected to compete in the Russian capital next year.
He has a wild card entry, although he says he will give that up to his fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake and seek to qualify by the normal process.
The Jamaican featured heavily in the IAAF's ad campaign for the last world championships in South Korea, but Moscow 2013 says it will not include him in the promo video this time.
"Usain Bolt's representatives got in touch with us about including the Jamaican sprinter in a promotional video," Aleksandr Polinsky, the head of sport department at Moscow's City Council, told the RIA news agency.
"But when they named their price, we decided that we have enough of our own talented athletes who could advertise the competition."
Organisers also said that the event's overall prize fund would reach $7.2 million (£4.5 million/€5.6 million), with world record breakers pocketing an additional $50,000 (£30,000/€39,000).
The World Athletics Championships will be held at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on August 10 – 18 next year.
Usain Bolt celebrates winning gold in the men's 100m at the London 2012 OlympicsMeanwhile, Bolt has confirmed that he will defend his Olympic sprint titles at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Bolt, who said in August that he was considering swapping sprinting for the long jump to provide a fresh challenge ahead of the 2016 Games, said he had decided to defend the titles he won at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
"Rio is about going and defending my titles," the reigning 100 metres, 200m and 4x100m relay Olympic champion told reporters during a visit to New Zealand.
"I don't want to try any different events at Rio because at Rio I will just defend my titles to show the world that there is a possibility that I can do it again – to do the three-peat; that is the focus."
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Last month's Boston Marathon bombings showed just how vulnerable some events can be to terrorist attacks but Helmut Spahn, executive director of the International Centre for Sport Security, claims that sharing information and early planning can help reduce the risk of such incidents in the future
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