NEW YORK (AP) - Former Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis plans to get married this fall.

People magazine says the 53-year-old Louganis will marry paralegal Johnny Chaillot.

The four-time gold medalist is the only man to win consecutive Olympic titles in springboard and platform diving _ in 1984 at Los Angeles and 1988 at Seoul.

After his diving career ended, Louganis revealed he was gay in 1994 and announced he was HIV-positive a year later.

Louganis is helping Olympic hopefuls as an athlete mentor for USA Diving. He's also been featured as a coach on ABC's reality diving competition "Splash."

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) - From blockbuster movies to hit TV shows to greater Olympic exposure, archery seems to be hitting all the right targets.

Elite archers are competing this week in the World Cup series in Antalya, Turkey, the first major event since the sport was elevated by the IOC to a higher ranking that will ensure a bigger share of Olympic revenues every four years.

Archery's rising reputation is partly built on its success at last year's London Games, and a boom in pop culture attention.

"The announcement of these groups clearly shows we are an important Olympic sport," World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen told The Associated Press in an interview at the governing body's headquarters. "We've done what we were supposed to do."

High-technology aids for scoring and showcasing the sport are also in the works for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to help retain a new generation of fans and attract more.

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, playing a bow-toting heroine in "The Hunger Games" early last year, helped point a young fan base toward the London Olympic stage _ where archery was contested at the historic Lord's cricket ground.

There's more to come: Three more "Hunger Games" movies are set to open before the next Olympic flame is lit in Rio on Aug. 5, 2016. "Catching Fire" is scheduled for release in November, followed by a two-part adaptation of "Mockingjay," the final book of the series.

In the hit HBO series "Game of Thrones," the bow and arrow is a weapon of choice for children of the Stark family. And don't forget last year's hit animated movie "Brave," featuring the skilled archer _ and princess _ Merida.

"Hollywood adores archery for the moment," Dielen said. "London has delivered beyond what we expected. It has definitely put the bar higher for Rio and it will be a challenge to deliver at least the same, if not better."

A high-profile venue in the city famous for its annual Carnival party should certainly help.

Archery will be contested in the Sambadrome, the narrow parade route for Carnival floats packed with dancers and drum bands. The venue also will welcome the finish of the marathons.

"It's very iconic," Dielen said. "It will be more of a tunnel effect and spectators will feel closer to the athletes (than in London)."

It's a step up from Rio's original plan to host archery in the more distant Deodoro neighborhood.

The sport is getting a taste for picturesque venues: In September, the five-event World Cup series climaxes beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

"It will be the best backdrop we have had so far," Dielen said. "We really want to continue going in that direction."

Archery will surely also do well if Istanbul is chosen to host the 2020 Olympics. The Turkish city is competing with Madrid and Tokyo, with the winner to be chosen by the IOC on Sept. 7.

World Archery's president is Ugur Erdener, a Turkish IOC member who is prominent in the Istanbul bid. He will seek a third term in an election scheduled on the sidelines of the archery world championships, which open Sept. 29 in Antalya.

Over the next presidential term, World Archery has a $1 million windfall to spend on development. The sport received more than it budgeted for when the IOC shared out better-than-expected commercial revenues from the London Games.

Boosted by its London showing, archery was elevated into the third of five tiers ranking the 28 sports. The IOC weighed factors including a sport's popularity with broadcasters and with social media users. Now, more money could flow from its share of Rio revenues.

Dielen said any surplus should be invested at the grassroots level rather than directed toward top athletes such as Brady Ellison of the United States, who is among "maybe 10 to 15" archers earning enough from prize money and endorsements to be independent professionals.

France has been a big success story for archery, but clubs there have reached the limit with 70,000 total members _ tripled since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

"We could probably have 80,000 members if we had the resources with the coaches and space in the clubs," said Dielen, whose native Belgium has a model program in shaping its national championships to the format and presentation style of a World Cup event.

The World Cup is also the testing ground for new technology, including a precision scoring monitor using lasers and displaying archers' heart rates as on-screen graphics.

While tennis has Hawk-Eye to review line calls, archery has a system from Hungary called FalcoEye which measures arrows more accurately than judges using a magnifying glass.

"We're trying to take the human error factor out of the game," Dielen said of a system that's "affordable and reliable" after years of development.

Soon, viewers also will be taken to the heart of the action as monitors, discreetly attached to an archer's leg, will record the pulse rate _ on average, around 105-110 beats per minute _ at the moment of firing.

"We really need to show how it follows from the athlete's point of view," said Dielen, who also hopes to see an archer's sighted aim projected onto television graphics.

All these changes in presentation could be ready for Rio, where the traditional Olympic dominance of South Korea and the United States is likely to face tougher challenges.

The boy's gold medalist from the 2010 Youth Olympics was Ibrahim Sabry of Egypt.

That, said Dielen, is an "unbelievable" development in a sport that seems to be finding new believers every year.

(AP) - U.S. Olympic Committee leaders are playing the role of interested observers in the bidding process for the 2020 Games, hoping they can learn something from Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo as they try to land the Olympics.

The USOC board met Tuesday and received an update from a committee formed to decide whether the United States should try for the 2024 Games.

CEO Scott Blackmun said the USOC is in discussions with about 10 potential bid cities, hoping to narrow the list to two or three by December. The USOC has until late 2014 to decide whether to bid for 2024.

Meantime, USOC chairman Larry Probst said U.S. Olympic leaders are paying attention to the presentations the 2020 bidders are giving this summer, as they prepare for the vote in September.

SOCHI, Russia (AP) - Drones hovering overhead, robotic vehicles roaming Olympic venues to search for explosives, high-speed patrol boats sweeping the Black Sea coast _ Russian officials say they will be using cutting-edge technology to make sure the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi will be "the safest Olympics in history."

But intelligence analysts and regional experts say an Islamic insurgency raging across the North Caucasus mountains that tower over the seaside resort of Sochi presents daunting threats. Despite the deployment of tens of thousands of Russian troops, police officers and private guards equipped with high-tech gadgetry, the simmering unrest in the Caucasus could put President Vladimir Putin's pet project at risk.

The Sochi games are the first Olympics in history that are almost on the doorstep of an active insurgency whose members could potentially try to "upstage the games with some kind of attack, which would provide a kind of bad PR for the Russian government," said Matthew Henman, a senior analyst at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London.

Potential assailants could disrupt the games even with scarce resources, he said, pointing at the recent Boston Marathon explosions, where two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs killed three people and injured more than 260 in April.

"You don't need an awful lot of expertise to create primitive but largely effective explosive devices," Henman said.

The elder of the two ethnic Chechen brothers from Russia who are accused of staging the Boston bombings spent six months last year in the restive Russian province of Dagestan, which lies about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Sochi, about the distance between Boston and Philadelphia. Russian investigators have been trying to determine whether he had contact with local Islamic militants.

Dagestan has become the center of the insurgency that spread across Russia's North Caucasus region after two separatist wars in the 1990s in neighboring Chechnya. Rebels seeking to carve out a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the region have targeted police and other officials in near-daily shootings and bombings.

"The Caucasus poses a threat because the situation there isn't fully controlled," said Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasus expert with the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office. "It's unclear who could deal a blow, and how and where."

Police, security and medical personnel in Sochi have conducted dozens of drills to train for potential threats. In the most recent exercise at the end of May hundreds of police officers, rescue workers and ambulance crews responded to various emergency scenarios.

"We conduct training to respond to a broad range of terror threats, like explosives at Olympic facilities or an attack by a group of criminals," said Sarkis Pogosian of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's branch in southern Russia. More than 50 such exercises have been conducted in the past 18 months, according to the Interior Ministry.

The drills have highlighted several logistical problems that could make it hard for rescue workers to respond quickly.

Nikolai Vasilyev of Sochi's search and rescue service, who took part in the latest maneuvers, said the exercises have been relatively small-scale and a bigger real-life challenge could prove daunting. He said it would be hard for rescue crews to arrive quickly by road because of Sochi's chronic traffic jams. The few rescue helicopters the service has would be of little help if there were a large number of casualties.

"It would be practically impossible for ambulances and our vehicles to get to an Olympic facility," Vasilyev said. "We can only hope that everything goes forward smoothly."

Vasilyev said authorities need to reserve designated lanes for ambulances and other emergency services, create a network of mobile hospitals near Olympic facilities and remove parking lots cluttering the access to sports venues.

Security always has been tight in Sochi, where Putin has a presidential residence that he uses often and where he frequently hosts visiting foreign leaders.

The government has further beefed up security before the games, which officially begin Feb. 7. It has deployed 25,000 police officers and thousands of other military and security personnel to protect the city, patrol Olympic facilities, screen incoming vehicles and X-ray construction materials for explosives.

The Defense Ministry has sent a special forces brigade of battle-hardened veterans of the Chechen wars and other conflicts to patrol the forested mountains forming Sochi's scenic background.

The government also has spent big on security equipment, providing security forces with drones, robotic vehicles to search for and defuse mines and new high-speed patrol boats.

But Russia's recent history shows that security cordons aren't always effective.

Insurgents in the Caucasus have mounted a number of large-scale terror attacks in Russia. They include a 2002 hostage-taking raid on a Moscow theater in which 129 hostages died _ most from the effects of the narcotic gas that Russian special forces pumped in to incapacitate the attackers.

In 2004, militants from Chechnya took more than 1,000 people hostage at a school in the southern city of Beslan. More than 330 people died in that attack, more than half of them children.

There also have been numerous bombings in Moscow and other cities, including attacks at a Moscow airport and on a high-speed rail line to St. Petersburg. In those attacks, the assailants drove long distances across Russia with weapons and explosives, using ruses or bribes to pass through numerous police checkpoints.

Corruption is deeply ingrained in many aspects of Russian society. But Elena Panfilova, the head of Transparency International Russia, a corruption watchdog, said federal authorities will likely make every possible effort to squelch it within the Sochi security force.

"People in charge of security there are aware of the practice, and they will make sure that the personnel there are disciplined in such a way that they wouldn't even think about it," she said.

Endemic poverty and unemployment in the North Caucasus and brutal tactics used by Russian security forces to quash the rebellion have helped swell the ranks of militants. In Dagestan in particular, the rebellion has turned into a lucrative industry, with many of the gangs associated with ethnic and business clans dividing generous federal subsidies and waging turf battles.

After seeing Dagestan slide into violence for years, Putin in January replaced the provincial leader with a Kremlin stalwart. Earlier this month, SWAT teams from Moscow backed by armored vehicles arrested the mayor of the provincial capital on murder charges and flew him out in a military helicopter to dodge his private army of several hundred bodyguards.

The mayor, Said Amirov, had been seen as the most influential figure in Dagestan and the second-most powerful man in the entire Caucasus behind the Moscow-backed strongman in neighboring Chechnya. In a wheelchair for the past 20 years after one of the 15 assassination attempts against him, Amirov had amassed extensive power and wealth, and had been accused by some of links with the rebels.

Some analysts said Putin took a gamble with Amirov's arrest, which could open the door for even greater instability.

"It's risky, and it may have the opposite effect because thousands stood behind Amirov," said Carnegie's Malashenko.

Denis Sokolov, the head of the Caucasus Center of Project Solutions, an independent Moscow-based think tank, said while Amirov's arrest created risks by sharply upsetting the regional balance of power, he and his supporters might try to hunker down.

"The main tactics of Amirov and his clan would be to try to minimize their losses, not to engage in an open confrontation," Sokolov said. "The regional elites who risked such a confrontation would be doomed to destruction."

Malashenko said while the Kremlin has moved to bring Dagestan's local government back under control, security agencies could also try to make informal deals with rebel leaders to make sure they pose no threat to the Olympics.

Doku Umarov, a widely-known Chechen rebel leader, has claimed responsibility for a number of other recent attacks, including a January 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport that killed 37 people and injured more than 180. Since then, Russia has seen no major terror attacks outside the Caucasus. Umarov said last year that he told his men to avoid hitting civilian targets because Russians in Moscow have risen up against Putin in a series of mass protests.

Many militant cells in the Caucasus have become increasingly integrated into local politics and business and could have a vested interest in seeing the Sochi Games go off without disruption.

Still, they are not the only terror networks around.

Henman, the Jane's analyst, said other terror groups _ like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who have trained along the Pakistan-Afghan border_ could also plot a strike on Sochi.

Just last week in Moscow's suburbs, Russian security services arrested several suspects with roots in Russia who they said had come from Afghanistan to conduct terror attacks in the capital.

Malashenko said Islamic militants from the Caucasus who have fought alongside Syrian rebels could also come back and try to strike Russia for its support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"They are gaining combat experience and getting angry at Russia down there," he said.

The chief of Russia's top KGB successor agency said last week that 200 militants from Russia are fighting alongside Syrian rebels and acknowledged they could be a threat when they return.

Malashenko also warned that organized rebel cells may pose less of a threat than potential "lone wolf" assailants like the ethnic Chechen brothers suspected in the Boston attack.

"Lone attackers like those in Boston are the most dangerous ones," he said.

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Isachenkov reported from Moscow.

(AP) - As Jacques Rogge called the executive board meeting to order, signs of change were staring him right in the face.

Four of the six candidates vying to succeed Rogge as International Olympic Committee president were sitting around the same conference table. The two other contenders were down the hall in the same Russian convention center, mixing with the delegates.

With just over three months until the election, the IOC presidential campaign is one of a series of hot-button issues stirring up the Olympic movement.

Rarely have so many critical questions and decisions come together at the same time _ the president's race, the bidding for the 2020 Olympics, the fate of wrestling and proposed new sports, the role and future of the World Anti-Doping Agency, muscle-flexing by various power brokers and kingmakers.

"There's a lot of politically loaded decisions that will have occurred in the last six months of my mandate," Rogge told The Associated Press.

Rogge's departure in September after 12 years as president has created the opportunity for power plays around the Olympic world. Organizations and individuals are staking out positions and forging alliances, each trying to secure a place in the shifting landscape.

The political maneuvering was in overdrive at last week's SportAccord convention and IOC meetings in St. Petersburg, Russia, where presidential hopefuls, bid cities, sports federations, national Olympic committees, consultants, strategists and spin doctors all lobbied furiously for their agenda.

"With the elections, things are changing a little bit," veteran Swiss IOC member and international ski federation chief Gian-Franco Kaspar said. "There's a lot of rumors, a lot of gossip, but things are really moving at the moment."

Added Canadian member Dick Pound: "Certainly a lot of the stars and planets are lining up at roughly the same time."

The road show moved to New York this week, with the key players attending the 3rd International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development at the United Nations.

The presidential contenders are everywhere: IOC vice presidents Thomas Bach of Germany and Ng Ser Miang of Singapore, finance commission chairman Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, amateur boxing association head C.K. Wu of Taiwan, former pole vaulter Sergei Bubka of Ukraine and rowing federation chief Denis Oswald of Switzerland.

Next stop on the campaign trail: the Association of National Olympic Committees assembly in Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 14. The candidates return to Lausanne on July 4 to present their manifestos to IOC members. The meeting will be held behind closed doors, with each candidate given 15 minutes to make a pitch.

From there, it will be a mad sprint to the finish line in Buenos Aires, with the 100-plus IOC members voting by secret ballot on Sept. 10.

Bach, a former Olympic fencing gold medalist, has been seen as the front-runner but faces the most crowded field ever for an IOC presidential race. Carrion and Ng appear to be the top challengers, but anything can happen in IOC elections.

Many of the candidates have spoken of a need to review the way sports are added to or dropped from the Olympics, reflecting dismay with the process that led to wrestling's surprise removal from the 2020 Games in February.

Wrestling is now back on a shortlist with squash and baseball-softball, competing for a single spot on the 2020 program, which will be decided by a Sept. 8 vote in Buenos Aires.

None of the candidates is espousing radical change. Instead, their manifestos have centered on common themes: giving more power to IOC members, controlling the size and cost of the games, engaging with youth, fighting doping and irregular betting, and protecting the Olympic ideals.

"Everybody's come together to try to occupy the middle and hint at perhaps some of the tougher edges," Pound said.

Personal friendships and relationships are likely to count more than any specific issues.

"It's almost ridiculous," Kaspar said of the material he has been receiving from the candidates. "We all know the candidates since 20 years or whatever. Why the hell should they try to inform the IOC members all of a sudden who they are and so on? It's more for the media.

"At the end, they are more or less on the same level, the same direction and philosophy."

Change is also afoot for WADA, which has come under criticism from sports federations it accused of not doing enough to catch dopers. The IOC and federations insist WADA is a "service organization" created to support the sports bodies, not order them what to do.

A new WADA president will be elected in November, succeeding John Fahey. It's up to the Olympic movement to nominate a candidate. Prospective contenders include British IOC vice president Craig Reedie, who sits on the WADA executive committee, and former IOC medical director Patrick Schamash.

Meanwhile, other movers and shakers are making their mark in the Olympic world.

Among those working the corridors of power in St. Petersburg were Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah of Kuwait and international judo federation president Marius Vizer.

Sheik Ahmad took over last year from Mario Vazquez Rana as head of the Association of National Olympic Committees. He has raised eyebrows by proposing a multi-sport ANOC games and is seen as a key ally of Bach in his IOC presidential bid.

The sheik also was seen hugging Vizer, after the Romanian-born Hungarian was elected as head of SportAccord, the umbrella body for Olympic and non-Olympic sports. In a direct challenge to the IOC, Vizer proposes holding a "United World Championships" for all the federations every four years.

"We have some guys like the sheik and Vizer who come in with a lot of power and a lot of money and their intentions are quite interesting," Kaspar said. "What do they want?"

Almost overshadowed by the politicking has been the bidding for the 2020 Olympics, with Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo making up the field. They made their first presentations in St. Petersburg, with each portraying itself as a safe and financially sound choice.

The presentations came before the anti-government rallies and police crackdown in Turkey that have raised issues for Istanbul.

"That's the elephant in the room for Istanbul: Is the country willing and able to remain secular?" Pound said. "People will now be looking a little more attentively at it."

The three cities will make technical presentations to the IOC members in Lausanne on July 3, a potential turning point ahead of the Sept. 7 vote in Buenos Aires. It was at a similar meeting in 2009 when Rio de Janeiro seized the momentum in the race for the 2016 Games.

With all this activity swirling around him, Rogge said he still has plenty to do before handing over to his successor.

"My agenda will be full until the very last day," he said. "It's an agenda with major decisions. It's not an agenda of someone running out of his mandate quietly."

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Follow Stephen Wilson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevewilsonap

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) - It's officially a six-man race to succeed Jacques Rogge as International Olympic Committee president.

The deadline closed Friday without any new candidates entering the campaign.

The six who had already declared their candidacies are: IOC vice presidents Thomas Bach of Germany and Ser Miang Ng of Singapore; executive board members Sergei Bubka of Ukraine and C. K. Wu of Taiwan; and former board members Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico and Denis Oswald of Switzerland.

The election is scheduled for Sept. 10 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Rogge is stepping down after completing the maximum 12-year mandate.

The six candidates will present their manifestos to the 100-plus IOC members at closed-door meetings in Lausanne on July 3-4.

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - Oscar Pistorius stood for his entire 15-minute court hearing Tuesday, staring straight ahead, hands clasped in front of him and giving away little emotion as the world got its first close up view of the double-amputee Olympian and murder suspect in nearly four months.

In stark contrast to the sobbing figure Pistorius presented through much of his bail hearing in February, the athlete appeared composed as Acting Chief Magistrate Daniel Thulare postponed the case until Aug. 19 to allow police more time to investigate the Valentine's Day killing of his girlfriend.

Pistorius spoke just three words in court after the magistrate asked him if he understood he was still bound by the same bail conditions and must reappear then.

"Yes, your honor," Pistorius replied in a voice which croaked at first, but which also had an air of newfound calm ahead of a trial which won't start until September, at least, and will likely be a long, slow process.

Pistorius faces a life sentence in prison, with a minimum of 25 years, if convicted of premeditated murder, the charge against him for the Feb. 14 shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp.

Having faced up to the rows of television cameras and photographers that gathered around him Tuesday when he entered Court C, clamoring for their first images of him in months, Pistorius then kissed a family member and left the dock after the short appearance. He didn't comment to reporters.

In a macabre coincidence, the case will continue on what would have been Steenkamp's 30th birthday, and the model and law graduate's parents this week pleaded in an interview with a British television channel for answers to the killing where only Pistorius and Steenkamp were present.

"I want to know why he shot her because she must have been so afraid," Steenkamp's mother, June Steenkamp, told Channel 5.

The extension was sought by the prosecution, and will eventually give investigators six months to gather evidence, interview witnesses and prepare a case against Pistorius by the time he returns to court in August. Prosecutors said police should finish their investigation by then and the trial could start in September, but a verdict possibly won't come until next year.

Since he was freed on bail on Feb. 22 _ just over a week after killing Steenkamp in his home _ Pistorius has been living as a virtual recluse, his family has said, with just two reported sightings of him in public.

The 26-year-old Pistorius has said he shot Steenkamp accidentally through a toilet stall door, thinking she was a nighttime intruder. The state alleges he and his 29-year-old girlfriend may have argued before her death and he intentionally killed her.

An athlete who had his lower legs amputated when he was a baby, and who then went on to run at the Olympics, Pistorius has faced up to challenges before _ although none with the immensity of his looming murder trial.

Pistorius' family said he was broken with grief in the immediate aftermath of Steenkamp's death, but his uncle said he would be prepared for trial.

"He will be ready once the court case starts and he will be able to stand as a man in that courtroom," Arnold Pistorius said in excerpts from a South African television interview Sunday and released by his family.

Steenkamp's family _ none of whom were in court _ also spoke out ahead of the hearing, with her parents telling Britain's Channel 5 on Monday that they were still desperate to know the reasons behind the shooting, and also that their daughter had told them about previous arguments with Pistorius.

"I just feel why couldn't I have warned her, or known something about this person (Pistorius), that they could be capable of doing something like that," June Steenkamp said in the interview.

Pistorius arrived at the courthouse in a silver SUV with black blinds covering the windows, and used the main public entrance and not the back or side entrances he arrived at during his four-day bail hearing. He was then forced to walk past dozens more photographers and television crews which crowded him outside, with police roughly pushing back reporters to make way for Pistorius to pass.

The Olympian's news-dominating case has never been far from the world's headlines, but Acting Chief Magistrate Thulare also warned Tuesday of "scandalous and possibly contemptuous" reporting by some media in Pistorius' case following the publication of pictures by another British television station last week. The leaked photographs purport to show the blood-spattered bathroom where Pistorius fatally shot Steenkamp, firing his 9mm pistol four times through the locked door of a toilet stall and hitting his girlfriend with three bullets.

Prosecutors wouldn't comment on those leaked images or which areas of the police investigation were still ongoing.

"The investigation is continuing and we believe by August, or even before August, we will have wrapped up everything," prosecution spokesman Medupe Simasiku said. "As soon as everything is completed the court will announce a trial date."

Pistorius' trial will likely be heard at Pretoria's High Court.

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Follow Gerald Imray at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP

ISTANBUL (AP) - Olympic bidders say the Turkish people "remain united" in the effort to hold the 2020 Summer Games in Istanbul despite fierce anti-government protests in recent days.

As riot police used tear gas against protesters Monday for a fourth straight day in Istanbul, two senior IOC officials said the unrest should not harm the bid.

The demonstrations grew out of anger over a violent police crackdown of a peaceful environmental protest at Istanbul's Taksim Square and spread to other Turkish cities. The protests by mostly secular Turks have spiraled into Turkey's biggest anti-government disturbances in years.

The protests are seen as a display of frustration with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who critics say has become increasingly authoritarian.

Istanbul bid organizers say they're monitoring the demonstrations in Istanbul "very carefully." While they're buoyed by the "positive community spirit in helping to clean up and repair damage," the situation remains fluid.

"Despite these recent events, all sections of Turkey remain united in our dream to host our nation's first ever Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020," Istanbul 2020 said in a statement. "The slogan for our Olympic bid is `Bridge Together' and there is a common desire to unite in the Olympic spirit and show the world that we can work together for a better Turkey."

Istanbul is vying with Madrid and Tokyo, with the International Olympic Committee to select the host city on Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Denis Oswald, a candidate to succeed IOC President Jacques Rogge in September, said Monday the protests shouldn't threaten the bid _ at least for now.

"It's a beginning of a protest that can happen in any democratic country," the Swiss IOC member and international rowing federation chief said. "For the time being we'll see how it develops, how important this protest is. We have had that in many countries where we had Olympic Games.

"I don't think it would necessarily affect the candidature. We are still three months away from the decision. It will depend if this continues and develops, but for the time being I don't think it's a real threat for the candidature."

IOC Vice President Thomas Bach of Germany, another presidential candidate, also dismissed the protests as a factor in the bidding.

"It's not going to have any influence on the decision of the IOC members," he told German agency dpa. "All of them are experienced enough to realize that you are talking about a bid for the Olympic Games in seven years."

All three bid teams made presentations to the SportAccord conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, last week _ each claiming to be the safest and most financially secure choice. Istanbul is bidding for a fifth time.

"In the past, Turkey bid for the games as an emerging nation," Istanbul bid leader Hasan Arat told the conference last week. "This time, Turkey is bidding as an emerged nation."

The IOC evaluation commission will issue a report on June 25 assessing the three bids and the candidate cities will make presentations directly to IOC members in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 3.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - The world will likely only be given a 10-minute snapshot of Oscar Pistorius at a hearing Tuesday ahead of his murder trial, a fleeting glimpse of the Olympic athlete when he appears for the first time since he was whisked away into a near four-month period of reclusion after being freed on bail.

Prosecutors say the hearing at the Pretoria Magistrate's Court will probably only last around 10 minutes and will be postponed until a date in August as police investigators continue to gather the evidence that will be presented at trial, possibly in September or October at the city's High Court.

There, a judge will determine if the double-amputee runner could spend 25 years in jail for the Valentine's Day killing of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Since leaving the magistrate's court building in South Africa's capital city on Feb. 22, released on bail after being charged with premeditated murder, Pistorius has been seen in public just twice. And while Tuesday's hearing will likely provide little new insight into the case against him, it will give millions their first close _ if short _ look at the 26-year-old runner in months.

Pistorius was sobbing the last time he was in court, days after shooting Steenkamp dead through a locked toilet door in his home in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14.

He says he killed his 29-year-old girlfriend by mistake, believing she was a dangerous intruder in his home. Prosecutors maintain he killed her intentionally, knowing she was behind the door when he fired four times into the stall with his 9mm pistol.

Since he was removed from public glare in an SUV with darkened windows at the end of that intensely scrutinized bail hearing, Pistorius has been photographed in his famous carbon fiber blades on his practice track in March, and reportedly visited a Johannesburg restaurant with some friends in April.

Other than that he has been living in self-imposed isolation, his family says, surrounding himself with memories of Steenkamp, sometimes growing a beard to disguise his identity and only occasionally leaving his uncle's house to attend church services.

The smiling global sporting inspiration is gone.

"He's battling. But with the family behind him, his sister living in the same house as he lives ... they assist him a lot," his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said Sunday. "And we are preparing him. He will definitely be ready. Being the mind that he is, being the man that he is, he will know what it's going to take to do this event."

Arnold Pistorius said his nephew will be ready "once the court case starts and he will be able to stand as a man in that courtroom."

As his trial edges closer and prosecutors gather the final pieces of evidence and complete the state's witness list, Pistorius' team is preparing to defend the 11-page affidavit he presented in bail proceedings and which allowed him to be freed.

He will deny murder and argue he believed he was acting lawfully and in self-defense when he fired the shots that killed Steenkamp with his licensed handgun, criminal and firearm law experts say, even though the athlete concedes now that he made a deadly error.

Pistorius also will be expected to explain his justification for those tragic actions in minute detail by taking the stand and testifying at his trial. A judge will ultimately pronounce him guilty or innocent. South Africa does not have trial by jury.

The Olympian is claiming "putative self-defense," said lawyers who are knowledgeable about the case but are not representing Pistorius. The lawyers, drawing from the unusually detailed affidavit Pistorius' presented, said Pistorius will maintain that in the darkened room, and in a calculation that was gravely mistaken, he decided to fire the shots that killed the model and law graduate because he was certain she was an intruder and both their lives were in danger.

It's a difficult defense for any accused, legal experts say.

"The fact that he has admitted that he has killed her by pulling the trigger means the state has a prima facie case and it is expected of the accused to come and convince the court otherwise," Marius du Toit, a former prosecutor, magistrate and now defense attorney with over 20 years' experience in South Africa's justice system said. "His version is going to be exposed and scrutinized in the finest, finest detail."

And there will be many questions.

"I do not see how Oscar Pistorius could have concluded that a closed door constitutes danger to such an extent that his life is in danger, bearing in mind that he had gone into that situation," leading firearm lawyer Martin Hood said. "So, it begs the question, why did he go looking for trouble?"

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Follow Gerald Imray at http://www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A recap of the key elements in the Oscar Pistorius case as the double-amputee Olympian returns to court Tuesday for a hearing ahead of his murder trial for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Feb. 14:

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THE CASE THAT STUNNED MILLIONS:

A legal case with few equals for global attention when it comes to sports figures, Pistorius went from inspiring Olympic runner to murder suspect in a swirling frenzy of front-page headlines after the athlete killed his girlfriend in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day. Pistorius will appear in court Tuesday for the first time since being released on bail on Feb. 22, having convinced a magistrate that there were exceptional circumstances to allow him to be freed despite a premeditated murder charge. Pistorius denies murder and contends in an 11-page affidavit submitted to the court in his bail hearing that he shot Steenkamp dead by accident in the darkened bathroom of his villa, mistaking the model for a nighttime intruder. Prosecutors say he intended to kill her, possibly after a loud argument, and knew she was there when he fired four times through a toilet door with his 9mm pistol.

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THE BLADE RUNNER:

The 26-year-old Pistorius made history at last year's London Olympics by becoming the first double-amputee to run track at the games, a momentous achievement after he was born without fibulae and had his lower legs amputated before he was a year old. A natural athlete, Pistorius achieved instant success at his first Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004, just a year after taking up athletics. He fought through an international ban and a very different court case in 2008 to win the right to compete against able-bodied athletes on his carbon fiber blades. Along the way he became a huge star, earning endorsements from companies like Nike and hero status in South Africa, and around the world, for his determination in overcoming adversity.

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THE PAST 3 MONTHS:

Since he was freed on bail in February and whisked away in the back seat of an SUV with blackened windows, there have been just two sightings of Pistorius in public: A grainy cellphone photograph of him on his practice track taken by a teenage schoolgirl in March, and a reported visit to a restaurant in April, when he was criticized by a South African newspaper for "partying." His family said he had gone to the restaurant with friends but strongly denied any inappropriate behavior. Since then, Pistorius has been living in virtual isolation, his family says, sometimes growing a beard to disguise his identity and rarely leaving his uncle's house, except to attend church services. Pistorius' older brother, Carl, was recently cleared of a culpable homicide charge in relation to a road crash in 2008.

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PISTORIUS' DEFENSE:

Pistorius' legal team will argue that the athlete believed he was acting in self-defense and within the law when he fired the shots that killed Steenkamp in the early hours of Feb. 14, even though the athlete now accepts that he made a terrible error. Pistorius said in his affidavit, where he effectively gave his version of the night's events, that his fear of South Africa's high rate of violent crime and the fact that he didn't have his prosthetic legs on led him to feel "vulnerable" and believe his and his girlfriend's lives were threatened by a dangerous intruder.

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THE PROSECUTION:

The prosecution has already had almost four months to gather evidence in the killing, evidence that it hopes will back up its assertion that Pistorius may have argued with Steenkamp on the night of the shooting and then shot her intentionally after she fled to the bathroom and locked herself in a toilet stall. The prosecution said in initial arguments at the four-day bail hearing that Pistorius took the time to put his prosthetic legs on before walking to the bathroom to shoot an "unarmed and innocent" Steenkamp, and charged him with premeditated murder. He faces a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison if he is convicted of that charge.

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WHAT'S AHEAD?

Prosecutors say Tuesday's appearance will be brief, possibly lasting just 10 minutes, as the state applies for more time to complete its investigation, gather evidence and compile a list of witnesses to call at trial. Pistorius' case is expected to be postponed for another hearing in August. A trial would then be sent to the High Court in Pretoria, the National Prosecuting Authority says, and could start in September. What the world will see Tuesday is Pistorius up close for the first time in months since he cut a sobbing, broken figure during his bail hearing _ just a few days after he killed his girlfriend.

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) - New sports could be added to the Summer Olympics by cutting less competitive events within existing sports, IOC presidential candidate Denis Oswald said Monday.

Oswald said a "more creative approach" is needed to establish the sports program following the IOC's handling of wrestling's Olympic status.

"If you streamline some sports and keep only their events which are really universal, you could go further," Oswald said at a news conference to detail his campaign platform in the six-man race to succeed Jacques Rogge. "This space can go to different sports so that we can really create fresh blood within the program."

Oswald said he is "pretty convinced" that wrestling will return to the Olympics after being eliminated in February from the core list for the 2020 Games in a process that was designed to bring in a new sport to fulfill the 28-sport limit.

Wrestling, squash and a joint baseball-softball bid made the IOC shortlist last week for inclusion as an additional sport in 2020. A final decision will be made at the IOC session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two days before the Sept. 10 presidential election.

If wrestling wins the vote, no new sport will be brought in.

"I was very surprised that was wrestling was eliminated," Oswald said. "I think there were other ways to warn them. At the end, the wish was to have a new sport."

Oswald is competing against IOC Vice Presidents Thomas Bach of Germany and Ng Ser Miang of Singapore, Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, C.K. Wu of Taiwan and Sergei Bubka of Ukraine. Rogge steps down after completing a full 12-year mandate.

Oswald picked up on widespread dissatisfaction with the sports program review, which shut out youth-oriented sports such as wakeboarding and roller sports.

The IOC has imposed a cap of 28 sports and 10,500 athletes to help host cities control costs and prepare for the 16-day event.

"It's not necessary to stick to 28 sports," Oswald said. "Every sport can make a certain effort, then you could have more than 28. There are some events which are pretty similar in which the athletes can win."

Even in established sports, only "four or five nations" were likely to win medals in some events, the longtime rowing federation president said.

Oswald also spoke against a proposed "United World Championship" to be held every four years for Olympic and non-Olympic sports. The project was put forward by judo federation president Marius Vizer after his election last Friday as head of the umbrella body SportAccord.

"I don't think there is any city in the world which can accommodate such a games," said Oswald, who oversaw preparations for the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2012 London Games. "Everyone being a bit realistic realizes it is not possible."

Oswald also proposes simplifying the process of cities bidding to host an Olympics, which currently involves bid officials traveling to make presentations to sports conferences and regional Olympic meetings.

The 100-plus IOC members who will elect Rogge's successor could also be given more work and responsibility under Oswald's leadership.

"I think we should make better use of the members we have. I know many of them are willing to do more," he said.

Oswald said it was "very difficult to know" how his election prospects shaped up.

Still, his commitment to an IOC campaign has ruled him out of consideration for the presidency of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which becomes vacant in November.

Oswald, with a background in sports law and as an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport, has been mentioned as a possible WADA candidate, along with IOC Vice President Craig Reedie of Britain and former IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch.

"The two things are not compatible. I had to make a choice," Oswald said. "WADA is no longer a consideration for me."

Oswald calls his platform "My 5 Rings" and says he will present it to IOC members in the next few weeks. All six candidates will speak to the members in Lausanne on July 4.

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AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson in London contributed to this report.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - Nine years later, Adam Nelson can finally call himself an Olympic gold medalist.

The American was officially elevated Thursday to shot put champion from the 2004 Athens Games, taking the gold that was stripped from a Ukrainian rival for doping.

The International Olympic Committee reallocated the medals from Athens events in which athletes were retroactively disqualified after their doping samples were retested and came back positive for steroids.

Nelson finished second in Athens behind Yuriy Bilonog, who was stripped of the gold medal by the IOC in December after his reanalyzed sample tested positive for oxandrolone.

The IOC held off changing the medals until the results were officially adjusted by the International Association of Athletics Federations. On Thursday, the IOC board announced that Nelson had been bumped up to the gold.

The medal will be given to the U.S. Olympic Committee to present to Nelson.

Nelson and Bilonog finished with the same best throw in Athens, but the Ukrainian was declared the winner because his second-best attempt was longer. It was the first time an Olympic field event was decided by a second-best mark.

Nelson recently retired from competition and is living in Athens, Ga., where he's opening a sports performance center and volunteering to help raise awareness for rare diseases.

"It's not just a victory for me, but a victory for the system," Nelson said in December when Bilonog was stripped of the medal. "I can't dwell on what happened or didn't happen eight years ago. I can only look forward to what the next phase in life brings. At least now I can do that with a gold medal."

As for his silver medal, Nelson said he tucked it away in a sock drawer years ago and thought his wife may have moved it to the attic.

With Nelson moving up to gold, the other medal placings are also revised. Joachim Broechner of Denmark goes from bronze to silver, and Manuel Martinez of Spain from fourth to bronze.

Bilonog's disqualification meant that both shot put winners in Athens were disqualified for doping: Women's champion Irina Korzhanenko of Russia was stripped of gold at the games after testing positive for stanozolol.

Bilonog was one of five Athens athletes busted in the retroactive IOC tests.

Also stripped were hammer throw silver medalist Ivan Tskikhan of Belarus and four bronze medalists _ women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia, discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus and weightlifter Oleg Perepechenov of Russia.

The IOC said Yatchenko's medal will go to Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova of the Czech Republic, while Perepechenov's bronze in the 77-kilogram weightlifting class goes to Reyhan Arabacioglu of Turkey. There was no immediate word on the medals won by Tskikhan and Krivelyova.

The Athens Games were already considered the dirtiest on record, producing 26 doping cases and catching six medalists _ including two gold winners _ at the time. The retroactive tests brought the number of Athens cases to 31, including 11 medal winners and three gold medalists.

Since Athens, the IOC has been storing doping samples from each Olympics for eight years to allow for retesting when new detection methods become available.

Retesting of samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics led to five positive cases _ including the stripping of Bahrain runner Rashid Ramzi's gold medal in the 1,500 meters.

The IOC is preparing to retest samples from the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian officials and businessmen have stolen billions of dollars during the years of preparations for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, a prominent Russian opposition figure claimed Thursday.

Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister-turned-Kremlin critic, and an associate said in a report released Thursday that up to $30 billion was stolen in the run-up to the games in the southern Russian city.

Russia had originally announced in 2007 that the 2014 games would cost about $12 billion. Within six years, that estimate went up to $51 billion, making Sochi the most expensive Olympics in history, winter or summer. In contrast, the 2012 London Summer Olympics cost $14.3 billion.

Nemtsov arrived at the figure of $30 billion by comparing the initial cost estimate of the games with the final $51-billion price tag and with typical cost overruns at previous Olympics. He also compared the per-seat cost of Sochi's Olympic stadium with stadiums at previous games.

Nemtsov said the difference between the initial and final costs of Olympic games in the past 14 years was two-fold on average _ in contrast to four-fold in Sochi's case.

"We account this irregularity for corruption, fraud, sloppiness and unprofessionalism," Nemtsov said at a press conference in Moscow.

Nemtsov did not provide a specific breakdown of the overruns that formed the basis of his $30 billion estimate of corruption.

"It's up to investigators to do so," he said.

Russia is notorious for the extensive corruption that prevails in many fields, especially in construction, and the number of new venues needed to host the games in Sochi could have offered ample opportunities for graft.

Preparations for the Sochi games included not only building an Olympic stadium, three Olympic villages, a ski jump, hockey arenas, Alpine facilities and an Olympic cross-country venue, but major upgrades to the city's roads, bridges, hotels, trains, port, airport and its underlying power grid.

Alexander Zhukov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee, said he needed time to analyze the figures in Nemtsov's report but expressed confidence that Russian prosecutors and the Audit Chamber are keeping an eye on Olympic costs.

Zhukov defended some of the cost overruns, however, explaining that authorities had to build additional infrastructure at some of the venues, thus raising the total cost.

Jean-Claude Killy, the French Alpine star who now heads the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission for the Sochi games, sounded fatalistic about the potential for corruption in the Russian city on the Black Sea.

"I don't recall an Olympics without corruption," Killy said. "It's not an excuse, obviously, and I'm very sorry about it, but there might be corruption in this country, there was corruption before. I hope we find ways around that."

Mark Adams, an IOC spokesman who is in St. Petersburg, where the IOC executive board is meeting, said there are two budgets for the Olympic Games. The organizing committee's budget includes money from the IOC, but the government also earmarks funds for infrastructure projects.

"For us, the IOC, the budget is normal, we don't see any issues there at all," Adams said. "For the other I would refer you to the Russian government for more details on what they're trying to achieve, what the budget will go for."

In general, he said, Russia seems to be taking Olympics corruption seriously, and addressing the issue "pretty much head-on from the president down."

State auditors at Russia's Audit Chamber have repeatedly voiced concerns about the skyrocketing overruns at Sochi and have issued recommendations that prosecutors look into some of them.

Russian officials have filed numerous charges against officials at the state contractor Olympstroi and their sub-contractors. None of them has ever yet resulted in charges or a trial.

The Sochi Olympics will run from Feb. 7 to 23.

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Jim Heintz and Irina Titova contributed to this report from St. Petersburg, Russia.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - Less than four months before the IOC vote, the three cities vying for the 2020 Olympics took their campaign to a key international audience on Thursday _ with each claiming to be the safest and most financially secure choice at a time of global uncertainty.

Officials from Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo made presentations to the SportAccord conference in St. Petersburg, their first chance to pitch their bids in public to sports and Olympic officials.

With speeches and videos, officials promised compact games, packed venues and convenient transportation. They're hoping to gain momentum in a race that will culminate with the vote on Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The IOC evaluation commission will issue a report on June 25 assessing the three bids.

On July 3, the candidate cities will make presentations directly to IOC members in Lausanne, Switzerland.

All three cities are repeat bidders: Istanbul is back for a fifth overall time, Madrid is bidding for a third straight time and Tokyo for a second consecutive attempt.

Each said they had learned from their previous defeats and improved their bids.

"In the past, Turkey bid for the games as an emerging nation," Istanbul bid leader Hasan Arat said. "This time, Turkey is bidding as an emerged nation."

With financial issues looming over the bid race, all three sought to portray themselves as risk-free choices.

Spain has been battered by recession and is facing an unemployment rate of 27 percent, issues which have hung over Madrid's candidacy.

Madrid brought Jaime Garcia-Legaz, Spain's secretary of state for trade, to hammer home the message that the city's bid is financially secure. He said Spain will have steady economic growth in the next five years.

"Spain's economic fundamentals are sound, diverse and fully able to support the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and so is the Madrid 2020 budget," he said. "The fundamentals of the Spanish economy are strong and deep."

Garcia-Legaz noted that Madrid's infrastructure budget for the games is only $1.9 billion, "one of the lowest in Olympic history."

Istanbul's is $19 billion and Tokyo's $4.5 billion.

Madrid bid CEO Victor Sanchez said the construction budget is lower than the games-time operating budget and called the Spanish capital "a city that offers no risk to the Olympic movement."

Madrid noted that 80 percent of its facilities are in place, requiring little new expenditure.

"We are prepared for the games and we are a safe choice for the movement," Mayor Ana Botella said.

Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, praised its reputation for safety and reliability.

"I understand that many people are saying that our bid is the `safe' option in this campaign," Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose said. "What I don't understand is why some people seem to think that this could be a bad thing. We are proud that our city is the safest in the world.

"If you lose something, many times it returns to your hands, including cash."

Tokyo leaders also stressed the strength of Japan's economy, with Inose saying "our finances offer the strongest foundations to host the games."

The governor said the $4.5 billion fund for hosting the games is already in place.

"This is cash in the bank, ready right now to pay for all new permanent venues and infrastructure," Inose said.

With Spain mired in recession and Turkey representing a new destination, Japan is positioning itself as a stable and certain option.

"Tokyo is the safe pair of hands," bid leader Tsunekazu Takeda said. "In these uncertain times, Tokyo 2020 offers certainty. You can have total confidence that we will deliver."

Istanbul played up the opportunity of bringing the Olympics to a new region. That would follow the recent trend of the IOC, which has awarded games to Sochi, Rio de Janeiro and Pyeongchang, South Korea.

With Istanbul connecting two continents, the bid presentation raised the image of marathon runners crossing a bridge over the Bosphorus from Asia to Europe.

"We have a city that bridges light and shade, old and new, east and west," Sports and Youth Minister Suat Kilic said. "Istanbul shines like a diamond."

With that, Istanbul showed a video of the city featuring the Rihanna hit "Diamonds."

"Turkey has totally transformed since our last bid," Kilic said. "We are ready to step onto the global stage and welcome the world as we have for millennia. But now, to a new Turkey."

The minister said Turkey has one of the world's strongest growing economies, with average annual growth of more than 5 percent over the past decade.

"We now have the financial strength to host the games," Kilic said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - And now for the gold-medal match.

Three months after wrestling got kicked out of the 2020 Olympics, the ancient sport is back in the frame and will compete against baseball-softball and squash for a spot in the games.

"We had the opportunity to have a second chance to compete," international wrestling federation head Nenad Lalovic said Wednesday after the three sports made the IOC short list. "We took the opportunity. We won the first match but there is another one to fight."

Of eight sports competing for a place on the 2020 program, five were eliminated _ karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and the Chinese martial art of wushu.

The IOC executive board decided to recommend wrestling, squash and baseball-softball to the full IOC assembly for a final decision on Sept. 8 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Only one will get through.

"We are competitors. We had seven and now we have two," said Lalovic, a Serb who has revamped FILA and led the campaign for reinstatement. "Be careful, we are good fighters."

Despite a tradition dating to the Olympics of ancient Greece, wrestling was cut from the list of core sports by the IOC board in February. The decision caused an international uproar and prompted the United States, Russia, Iran and other countries to join forces in an unlikely political alliance to save the sport.

Wrestling has gone through a major upheaval since the rejection. Raphael Martinetti resigned as FILA president within days of the decision and was replaced by Lalovic, who won election as full-time leader 10 days ago.

FILA has brought women and athletes into decision-making roles and enacted rule changes to make the competition more compelling. Matches will now consist of two three-minute sessions instead of three two-minute periods, and scoring will be cumulative instead of the previous best-of-three system.

"Everybody understood what we have done," said Lalovic, wiping away sweat from his forehand after the decision was announced in a packed conference room. "They probably trust us that we can do more and this is the result.

"But we have to do much more, and to prepare ourselves for Buenos Aires with additional arguments. These will not be sufficient in Buenos Aires."

Asked whether the result showed the IOC's earlier decision was a mistake, Lalovic said: "I can't say that. Simply, I don't judge them. They are in the position to judge us."

Wednesday's announcement came after the eight sports federations each made 30-minute, closed-door presentations to the IOC board.

The board voted by secret ballot over several rounds, with a majority required for making the short list and low vote-getters eliminated. Wrestling showed its newfound strength by winning on the first round with eight of the 14 votes. It took baseball-softball and squash several votes before they secured enough votes for selection.

"The number of this vote today doesn't have any influence on the voting in the session," Lalovic said. "It doesn't mean we have any advantage in Buenos Aires. In Buenos Aires, we'll have the same starting position."

Baseball-softball beat karate 9-5 in a head-to-head vote to win its spot on the list. Squash got through in the final round, getting eight votes to defeat wushu with four and sport climbing with two.

"It was never going to be an easy decision but I feel my colleagues on the board made a good decision in selecting baseball-softball, squash and wrestling to be put forward in Buenos Aires," IOC President Jacques Rogge said in a statement. "I wish the three shortlisted sports the best of luck in the run-up to the vote in September and would like to thank the other sports for their hard work and dedication."

The process has created some embarrassment for the International Olympic Committee, which was forced to row back from its previous ruling. The addition of wrestling to the mix has not gone over well with all the applicant sports and some IOC members. If wrestling wins the vote in September, that will defeat the IOC's original goal of bringing in a new sport in 2020.

Men's baseball and women's softball, which have been off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games, merged into a single federation to improve their chances of getting back in. The two were cut by the IOC in 2005, the first sports dropped since polo in 1936, and failed several times to win reinstatement as individual sports.

"We're just very happy that we made that shortlist and now I guess we're in the seventh inning and we've got to go on to the ninth," said Don Porter, the American co-president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation. "We've got a lot of young girls and boys out there who want to get their Olympic dreams back.

"I think that's what all of us feel, that it vindicated (us) in one sense, at least to give us another chance to try to do that."

Cuba's Antonio Castro, a son of Fidel Castro and a vice president of the WBSC, was part of the delegation. The federation proposes separate baseball and softball tournaments of eight teams each, played as back-to-back six-day tournaments at a single venue.

The lack of major league players has always been a disadvantage to baseball's Olympic bid. MLB commissioner Bud Selig has said the season won't be stopped to free players for the Olympics, but the federation is working to get some MLB players committed to coming.

Squash is bidding for Olympic inclusion for a third time and tennis star Roger Federer is one of its backers. Squash, which would join tennis and badminton as racket sports in the games, would hold singles tournaments featuring 32 male and 32 female players. Matches would be played in two glass courts.

"I said to the executive board that the one big regret in my career is that I have never had the chance to compete in the Olympic Games, but I would happily trade all my seven world titles for the chance of Olympic gold," women's squash No. 1 Nicol David of Malaysia said.

World Squash President N. Ramachandran said he wasn't worried by the fact it took many rounds of voting before his sport advanced to the final.

"As long as you're on the short list, what does it matter?" he said. "That's how I look at it. I think our chances are better than ever before. And who knows what will happen between now and September? Anything can happen."

Perhaps the sport most disappointed with the result was karate, another third-time bidder after losing out in 2005 and 2009. Karate, which had been considered a likely finalist, scored well with four or five votes through several rounds before eventually dropping out with two.

Karate may have suffered because two other martial arts are already on the Olympic program, judo and taekwondo.

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Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in St. Petersburg contributed to this report.