and respectful, and pledged a zero tolerance policy to remove anyone who was disruptive and shouted profanities at players.The Americans dont have an easy time when they play the Ryder Cup in Europe,

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Less than a week before the opening of the Olympics, IOC leaders will meet in Rio de Janeiro this weekend to review the final preparations for the games and deal with the fallout from the doping scandal that has led to the exclusion of more than 100 Russian athletes.The International Olympic Committees ruling executive board opens a two-day meeting on Saturday, its last formal gathering before next Friday nights opening ceremony at the Maracana stadium.The meeting comes less than a week after the IOC board decided not to ban Russias entire team from the games because of state-sponsored doping. Rejecting calls by more than a dozen anti-doping agencies for a complete ban on Russia, the IOC left it to individual sports federations to vet which athletes could compete or not.Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Friday that, so far, 272 of the countrys athletes had been cleared by international federations, out of an original team of 387. More than 100, however, have been barred -- including the track and field team banned by the IAAF and more than 30 other athletes rejected under new IOC eligibility criteria.Russias eight-member weightlifting team was kicked out of the games on Friday for what the international federation called extremely shocking doping results that brought the sport into disrepute.The IOC has been roundly criticized by anti-doping bodies, athletes groups and Western media for not imposing a total ban on Russia. Pressure for the full sanction followed a World Anti-Doping Agency report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren that accused Russias sports ministry of overseeing a vast doping conspiracy involving the countrys summer and winter sports athletes.Bach has defended the decision as protecting individual athletes from collective punishment.This is a decision we just had the opportunity to discuss with some athletes, Bach said in Rio. I think the general feeling is that it is appreciated that, on the one hand, we are sanctioning a (doping) system, but on the other hand we have given athletes who were not part of the system the opportunity to demonstrate this and then to be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games.Rios preparations, meanwhile, remain clouded on several fronts, including budget cuts, raw sewage that pollutes the sites of rowing, sailing, canoeing, open water swimming and triathlon, slow ticket sales, and concerns over crime and the Zika virus. The games come with the president awaiting an impeachment trial and the country gripped by a severe recession.The Australians and at least eight other Olympic teams complained this week about their accommodations in the athletes village, citing plumbing leaks, electrical faults and dirty conditions. On Friday, Australian athletes and staff had to be evacuated from their building after a small fire broke out in the basement. They returned safely after about 20 minutes.Bach remains publicly upbeat.In the end you will see a fantastic Olympic Village and great games, he said. The Brazilians will overwhelm all of us with their passion, with their joy of life, their great hospitality, and with their energy.The full IOC will hold a three-day session next week, starting Tuesday. A top item on the agenda is Wednesdays vote on a recommendation to add five sports to the program of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics -- baseball/softball, surfing, karate, skate boarding and sport climbing.The proposed sports -- backed by the executive board and to be voted on as a package -- would add 18 events and 474 athletes to the program.An IOC program commission report released on Friday said the five sports are a blend of the traditional and emerging, youth-focused events, and all have international and local appeal.--This story has been corrected to show that skate boarding not roller skating is one of the 5 proposed new sports for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.Stitched Custom Shirts .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at Boston Strong - a citys recovery from tragedy. Custom Soccer Shirts Black Friday . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. http://www.customcheapshirts.com/ .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. Clearance Custom Shirts Online . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. Custom Shirts Discount . Durant finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson matched his career high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Lamb scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, lifting the Thunder to a 94-88 win over San Antonio and snapping the Spurs 11-game winning streak.CHASKA, Minn. -- When players broke away from the PGA of America in 1968 to form what is now the PGA Tour, two properties had to be divided. The tour took the lucrative World Series of Golf at Firestone. The PGA of America was saddled with the Ryder Cup, which attracted hardly any attention in the U.S.Just look at it now.Try to count the more than 150,000 fans over three days who roamed Hazeltine, standing a dozen deep, shoulder to shoulder, and filled every grandstand even when a match was an hour from getting to that hole.It was the latest example that the Ryder Cup has become the biggest spectacle in golf (but only because the Masters would never want spectacle to be associated with its tournament). The Phoenix Open boasts of record attendance, but those figures tend to be inflated and half the crowd isnt even interested in golf.The buzz at Hazeltine was incredible.It was the brutish behavior that comes with such an enormous crowd that should make the PGA of America pause.The stories players once shared from the Ryder Cup used to be about how nervous they were on the first tee. Now the stories are about the verbal abuse from the American fans -- certainly not the majority, but enough to leave a bad taste.I got called a turd, which is the first time since I was about 12 years old, so it made me feel young again, said Lee Westwood, trying to make light of a dark situation.Emotions were raw Sunday night, and the crude comments from the gallery became a popular topic among the Europeans. This wasnt sour grapes. They simply were answering questions. They gave full credit to the putting and prowess of the Americans that led to a 17-11 victory.Years from now, the 41st edition of these matches will be remembered for shots from the players, not shouts from a few unruly fans.The lasting image from Hazeltine will be Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy producing a four-hole stretch that instantly became part of Ryder Cup lore, especially on the par-3 eighth hole. McIlroy holed a 60-foot putt and cupped a hand to his ear to bait the crowd. Reed answered with a 25-foot putt and wagged his finger at McIlroy. Both players laughed, bumped fists and patted each other on the back. It was great theater that defined the spirit of these matches.No moment was more painful than Westwood missing two short putts, including a 2-foot birdiie attempt on the 18th hole that cost Europe a crucial point going into the final day.dddddddddddd No one match was more compelling than Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia combining for 19 birdies in a singles match that fittingly ended in a draw.All that sullied this week was the crowd.McIlroy got into it with one vulgar fan, stopping to confront him and asking that he be removed. Thomas Pieters was about to take his putter back on a 4-footer to halve the hole in a foursomes match when some genius screamed out, Hit it in the water.The cheering and jeering at the Ryder Cup is unlike any other golf event.There were indications early that Hazeltine might be over the top, however. Fans tend to wait a second or two when the visitors hit a bad shot before cheering the good fortune of the home team. As early as Friday morning, cheers for Europes bad shots were loud and immediate. Andy Sullivan hit a tee shot into the water on the 17th hole and cheers rang out before there was so much as a ripple in the water.And it got worse.We want to play this tournament in the manner in which it should be played, McIlroy said. The American gallery are fantastic. They really are. We play week in, week out on the PGA Tour, and they couldnt be nicer to us. They greet us like we are one of their own. But this week, at times, it went a little bit too far.The PGA of America stepped in, but not until Sunday when the Americans had a three-point lead. It urged fans to be passionate and respectful, and pledged a zero tolerance policy to remove anyone who was disruptive and shouted profanities at players.The Americans dont have an easy time when they play the Ryder Cup in Europe, though the tone is undeniably different. American fans tend to make it personal. Maybe thats a product of having lost the Ryder Cup too many times over the last 20 years.Or maybe there are simply too many fans on the course for 32 matches over three days.Selling more tickets is only going to increase the odds of having more bad eggs who give American fans a bad name. It started at Brookline. It isnt getting better. If the PGA of America is not careful, the biggest spectacle in golf is going to become a spectacle for all the wrong reasons. ' ' '