APATHENS, Greece - An IOC vice president denied casting a ballot that might have helped London win the 2012 Olympics.
“All this speculation surrounding my role in the third round ... is totally unfounded,” Lambis Nikolaou of Greece said in a statement Wednesday. “I state that I did not vote in the third round, as I had announced at the time of the vote.”
Senior Olympic official Alex Gilady said last week that Nikolaou mistakenly voted for Paris rather than Madrid during balloting July 6 in Singapore — tipping the balance toward London.
Gilady, an Israeli and member of the London 2012 Coordination Commission, described his claim as a “very serious assumption.”
Paris received 33 votes to Madrid’s 31 in the third round, eliminating the Spanish capital. Had Madrid received the vote, Gilady argued, the cities would have tied with 32 each, seven fewer than London, and entered a tiebreaker.
London beat Paris 54-50 in the final round. Moscow and New York were eliminated in the first two rounds of voting for the Summer Games.
On Tuesday, an IOC statement said one of its 104 voting members did not cast a third-round ballot in Singapore.
“Even if the 104th vote had been cast it is mathematically impossible that it could have changed the outcome of the third round of voting,” the statement said.
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NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
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