Kritik und Anregungen » t and on the Oly

PARKER, Colo. -- For nearly a half-hour, the Europeans joined rules officials in a hunt for a golf ball and a place to drop it while the Americans paced around impatiently, looking for answers that never quite came. Fans that had been chanting "USA! USA!" started shouting "While were young! While were young!" After that strange scene at the Solheim Cup played out Friday, Spanish rookie Carlota Ciganda dropped a 15-foot putt to halve the 15th hole in her match against Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson. It gave the Europeans the momentum for a win in that match, which spurred them to a 5-3 lead after a wacky Day 1 at Colorado Golf Club. "Obviously, we were extremely happy with that," European captain Liselotte Neumann said. Cigandas victory with Suzann Pettersen was still being dissected well after sundown when rules officials, after looking at replays, conceded they had made the wrong call during that 25-minute-plus delay on the 15th hole. Nothing they could do about it after the fact, however, so the result stood. Lewis, who spent the delay pacing, stretching, bending, trying to stay loose, was livid. "Im very frustrated by the situation," she said. "I think there were a lot of things that went wrong within the ruling." As much as the ruling, she and captain Meg Mallon were frustrated with the amount of time it took. When the Lewis foursome -- the first out for Friday afternoons best-ball matches -- reached the 15th tee box, they were nearly two holes ahead of the next group. By the time they putted out, there were three groups stacked up on the par-5 hole. The group behind, Angela Stanford and Gerina Piller, had just made their third straight birdie to close their deficit against Caroline Hedwall and Caroline Masson to one. They didnt win another hole and fell 2 and 1. "Heres my team sitting there, after they are just charging and making a comeback, and then they have to sit," Mallon said. "And so, not only does it change the psyche of my team, but it changes the psyche of the other team, because they can have time to regroup." Farther back on the course, Brittany Lang chipped in from the bunker on 14 to give the Americans a momentum-proof, 3-up lead en route to a 4-and-3 victory over Anna Nordqvist and Giulia Sergas. In the days last match, Michelle Wie, a controversial captains pick, teamed with Cristie Kerr for a 2-and-1 win over Catriona Matthew and Charley Hull. The Americans got their only point of the morning alternate-shot matches from Morgan Pressel and rookie Jessica Korda. Korda hit her very first Solheim Cup shot straight down the middle, then walked to the edge of the fairway to throw up. Moments later, she nailed an approach on the par-5 to 8 feet and the U.S. was ahead. "I cant explain what happened," Korda said. "I just knew that the banana did not sit." Europe is trying to retain the cup and win for the first time on U.S. soil. The team that has held the first-day lead has gone on to win nine of 11 times. "Not awful," Mallon called the first-day deficit. "But we would like to be in better position, and hopefully, we can get all that back tomorrow." In Saturdays alternate-shot matches, Mallon is putting Pressel and Korda out first against Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall. On Friday morning, Nordqvist and Hedwall opened for Europe and defeated Lewis and Lizette Salas 4 and 2. Neumann, meanwhile, will keep a winning combination together Saturday, sending Azahara Munoz and Karine Icher out against Lewis and Paula Creamer. On Friday, Munoz and Icher strung together 15-foot-plus birdie putts on 8, 9 and 10 to take an insurmountable lead in a 2-and-1 victory over the Kerr and Creamer, handing that power pairing their first loss as a team in four tries. "It was great to win this match and I think I found a friend forever," Icher said. Other pairings Saturday: Matthew and Caroline Masson against Brittany Lincicome and Salas; and Pettersen and Beatriz Recari against Wie and Lang. Ciganda will get the morning off after working her heart out Friday afternoon. She played from the scrub and the trees through most of the back nine, but made some of her best shots from there, as well. Her approach on the 13th from the scrub to 4 feet set up a birdie putt that drew the match even. Then, there was the 15-foot make from the fringe after the 25-minute delay on No. 15. Talk about a game-changer. "That completely turned things," Lewis said. "The good news is, were only two points down." Asdrubal Cabrera Jersey . Boucher previously coached the Tampa Bay Lightning and had a 97-78-20 record over two-plus seasons. He was dismissed by the team last March after the Lightning struggled in the lockout-shortened season with a 13-18-1 record. 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RIO DE JANEIRO -- IOC president Thomas Bach issued another defense of his handling of the Russian doping scandal Monday, saying the decision not to exclude the entire Russian team from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics was based on human rights and justice.Bach used his speech at the opening ceremony of the IOCs general assembly to address the continuing criticism of the Olympic bodys response to evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia, declaring that individual athletes cannot be punished for the wrongdoing of their government.This decision is about justice, Bach said. Justice has to be independent from politics. Whoever responds to a violation of the law with another violation of the law is destroying justice.Rejecting calls from anti-doping bodies for a total ban on Russia, the IOC instead gave international sports federations the authority to rule on the entry of individual Russian athletes. The IOC also ruled that any Russian athletes with prior doping sanctions could not compete in the Rio Games, which open Friday.While more than 100 Russians -- including the track and field team -- have been banned from the games, more than 250 have so far been cleared to compete by the federations.We had to take the necessary decisions, Bach said. Because of the seriousness of the allegations, we could not uphold the presumption of innocence for Russian athletes. On the other hand, we cannot deprive an athlete of the human right to be given the opportunity to prove his or her innocence.You cannot punish a human being for the failures of his or her government if he or she is not implicated. These principles are now being implemented.The IOCs rejection of a full ban has been harshly criticized by many anti-doping bodies, athlettes groups and Western media.ddddddddddddCalls for a blanket ban grew after Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, who was commissioned to investigate by the World Anti-Doping Agency, issued a report accusing Russias sport ministry of orchestrating a vast doping scheme involving athletes in more than two dozen winter and summer sports.If proven true, such a contemptuous system of doping is an unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games, Bach said. With the Olympic Games just a few days away, we had to take action even though the McLaren report is not yet finished and the Russian side has not been heard yet.We took immediate measures to shed full light on the allegations. and more actions and sanctions will follow if necessary.Bach spoke at a ceremony ahead of the IOCs 129th session, a three-day assembly starting Tuesday.He expressed support for South Americas first Olympics, whose build-up has been overshadowed by Brazils political and economic crises and concerns over Zika, water pollution, crime and budget cuts.It has been a long and testing journey to get to this point, Bach said. It is no exaggeration to say that the Brazilians have been living through extraordinary times. The political and economic crisis in the country is unprecedented. It goes without saying that this situation has made the final preparations for the Olympic Games challenging.In a time when the country is divided politically, economically and socially, the transformation of Rio de Janeiro is truly historic. Rio de Janeiro would not be where it is today without the Olympic Games as a catalyst. ' ' '