Sports Briefs - Metro Edition: Golf will return to Olympics in 2016

COPENHAGEN -- After more than a century on the sidelines, golf will return to the Olympics at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, and rugby, last played in 1924, is also coming back.

Both sports were reinstated for the 2016 and 2020 games after a vote yesterday by the International Olympic Committee. They are the first sports added since triathlon and taekwondo for the 2000 Sydney Games.

Each sport received majority support in separate votes after leading athletes and officials from both camps gave presentations, including a taped video message from Tiger Woods and other top pro golfers. Woods has indicated that he would play in the Olympics if golf were accepted for 2016.

Golf was approved 63-27 with two abstentions. Rugby was voted in 81-8 with one abstention.

Golf will stage a 72-hole stroke-play tournament for men and women, with 60 players in each field. Rugby will organize a four-day, seven-a-side tournament -- instead of the more traditional 15-a-side game -- for 12 men's and women's teams.

More Olympics

■ Jacques Rogge easily won re-election as president of the International Olympic Committee yesterday for a final four-year term. Rogge, a 67-year-old Belgian who has served as IOC president since 2001, was the only candidate and needed a simple majority in the vote. The IOC voted 88-1 in favor of his re-election, with three members abstaining.

■ A group of former American Olympians wants more input into how the U.S. Olympic Committee is run.

In a statement released yesterday, Willie Banks -- a former track-and-field star and the leader of the U.S. Olympians Association -- called for a larger role for the alumni association. The group represents more than 6,000 American Olympians. The group wants a spot on the USOC's board of directors, among other things.

Basketball

■ Coach Rick Carlisle of the Dallas Mavericks isn't sure when swingman Josh Howard will be able to play after offseason surgery on his left ankle.

Asked yesterday whether Howard could miss the start of the regular season, Carlisle replied: "Stay tuned."

Howard averaged 18 points and 5.1 rebounds last season, missing 30 games.

■ Zydrunas Ilgauskas is hinting this could be his last season in the NBA. Ilgauskas, 34, is entering his 12th season -- all with the Cleveland Cavaliers -- and is in the final year of his contract. He said yesterday that the grind of long seasons, road trips and playing on consecutive nights all wear him down.

■ The Phoenix Mercury are WNBA champions for the second time in three seasons, leaning on their "big three' to pull out a 94-86 victory against the visiting Indiana Fever in the deciding Game 5 last night.

League MVP Diana Taurasi scored 26 points, Cappie Pondexter 24, and Penny Taylor sank two crucial free throws with 37.7 seconds left as the Mercury held off a late rally to win the intense series 3-2.

Tammy Sutton-Brown scored 22 points, and Jessica Davenport had a career-high 18 for Indiana in its first finals appearance. Temeka Catchings added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Fever.

■ Swingman Francisco Garcia of the Sacramento Kings will have surgery after breaking his right forearm while lifting weights. The Kings said Garcia was injured yesterday and will have the surgery today. Last month, Garcia broke his right ring finger.

Garcia averaged 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 65 games, 36 starts, for Sacramento last season.

Hockey

■ Forward Johan Franzen of the Detroit Red Wings will miss at least four months after tearing the anterior-cruciate ligament in his left knee. The team says that Franzen was injured in Thursday night's 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. He scored the winning goal in the second period.

Miscellaneous

■ Owner Jess Jackson made it official yesterday, announcing that his star 3-year-old filly, Rachel Alexandra, is finished racing for the rest of this year. The move had been expected for more than a month.

Rachel Alexandra will spend the rest of the year at Churchill Downs, then resume training for a 4-year-old campaign that would likely wind up with a career-ending race in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. She was 8-0 this season, with historic wins against older males in the Preakness Stakes, the Haskell Invitational and the Woodward Stakes. After she became the first filly to win the Woodward on Sept. 5, Jackson reiterated that he had no interest in sending her to next month's Breeders' Cup Classic.

■ Coach Trent Johnson of LSU was given a 25 percent raise yesterday, while football offensive coordinator Gary Crowton was given a 12.5 percent raise.

The LSU Board of Supervisors yesterday increased base pay from $1.2 million to $1.5 million per year. He can also gets bonuses for the team's performance.

Crowton's pay increased from $400,000 to $450,000.

■ Nathan Smith won his second U.S. Mid-Amateur title yesterday, defeating Tim Spitz 7 and 6 in the 36-hole final at Kiawah Island, S.C. Smith won by third-largest margin in Mid-Amateur history and should be headed to the Masters next April, because the winner of this USGA competition traditionally receives an invitation to Augusta National.

■ Sasha Cohen, an Olympics silver medalist, has withdrawn from the first Grand Prix figure skating event of the season because of tendinitis in her right calf.

Cohen, the 2006 runner-up at the Turin Games, is making a comeback after not competing since the 2006 world championships. But she said yesterday she will not skate at the Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris after consultation with an orthopedic surgeon.