Iran is threatening to boycott of the 2012 London Olympics because it claims the official logo for the games resembles the word "Zion," which is a biblical term for Jerusalem.

Bahram Afsharzadeh, the secretary-general of Iran's National Olympic Committee, says he sent a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge in which he condemns the logo as "racist" and calls upon other Muslim countries to join in protest.

The logo was unveiled four years ago to mass criticism, almost all of which had to do with the awkward, bulky design and not pro-Zionist conspiracy:

If you're reading vertically rather than horizontally and think an irregular pentagon resembles the letter "I" then you can sort of make out "zion" in the logo. Although if you read counterclockwise from the bottom left it also looks like "Izzo," which may draw copyright complaints from Jay-Z and cries of protest from Ohio State fans.

"There is no doubt that negligence of the issue from your side may affect the presence of some countries

A snowboarding leopard, a figure-skating bunny and a polar bear wearing a scarf will be the three mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. Though those are some of the safest choices imaginable, the decision has led to charges of plagiarism, corruptibility and vote-rigging.

The winners were announced on a live television show broadcast throughout the country. Viewers cast over 1 million votes for the nine candidates and officials selected the top-three to serve as Sochi's official mascots. The snow leopard came out on top with 28 percent of the vote.

The announcement was not without some controversy. Ded Morez, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, had led in early polling but was pulled from the ballot at the last second when Russian organizers feared that their country's folk hero would become official property of the IOC. That decision left room for the following three winners, which are said to "encapsulate much of Russia's self-image."

Snow leopard

The snow leopard was

The newest space race is on. A top Russian official revealed on Wednesday that the nation is thinking about sending the 2014 Olympic flame to the International Space Station.

There are no immediate plans to lift the flame into space, but the deputy head of Russia's Federal Space Agency said it's an "interesting" concept that requires further study. He said his agency is open to the idea if Olympic officials express a desire to become the first nation ever to send the flame into orbit.

"It is not a bad idea," Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, said.

He's right. It's not a bad idea, it's a really, really bad idea.

Putting the flame into space would be undeniably cool and would garner worldwide attention to the Olympic torch relay, which usually takes a terrestrial trek throughout the globe. The cost, logistics and possibility for catastrophic error far outweigh any novelty.

I mean, it's a fire in space. If something goes wrong it's not like the astronauts

Ida Keeling may be 95 years old, but she looks, acts and runs like a woman 20 years her junior.

The Bronx native set a world record last week by running 60 meters in 29.86 seconds, the fastest time ever for a 95-year-old. Setting records is nothing new for Keeling. Three years ago she broke the mark for the fastest sprint ever by a runner over the age of 90.

Keeling started running in 1983 when she was a spry 67. Even then, she says she was the oldest person around. Her daughter convinced her to take up the sport after her two sons were killed in drug-related incidents and her husband died of a heart attack. Since then, she has been competing in meets across the globe.

When she's not running in the corridors of her apartment or on the track, Keeling said she eats well and lifts weights to maintain her healthy lifestyle.

"My secret is, feel good about yourself [and] have a good attitude about yourself," she told ABC News. "I just close my eyes and say count your blessings, Ida. Count

Greg Louganis won four Olympic golds and five world championships during his illustrious diving career. During the 1988 Olympic springboard competition he hit his head on the board and suffered a concussion but still returned to win gold, capping one of the most memorable comebacks in the history of the Games. In 1995, Louganis revealed he was HIV positive. The New York Times caught up with the diving great, who recently returned to the sport as a juniors coach. Some interesting tidbits from the piece:

1. Louganis accepted a job with SoCal divers four months ago only after being assured that he could implement his "building blocks mentality," which keeps a focus on mechanics. It's the first coaching he's done since 1976, when he helped out his high school team after returning from the Montreal Games.

2. The diver threw himself a "spectacular party" when he turned 33 because he expected it to be his last birthday. Eighteen years later he says his health is so good "you kind of forget

Like with any Olympic games that are three years away, there's a long list of concerns about the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Will the Black Sea resort be able to handle the influx of international visitors? Can the power grid hold up? How will the nation deal with terrorism threats? And, the classic, will the venues be ready in time?

One thing Sochi organizers shouldn't have to worry about, however, is the weather. Heavy snows forced the postponement of the first Olympic test events at the newly built Rosa Khutor ski resort. A second-tier Europa Cup event was to serve as the inaugural test of the new venue, but a large winter storm delayed the start of races.

It's a big change from test events for the last Olympics in Vancouver, which were marred by cancellations due to warm weather. Rain and unseasonal temperatures had organizers scrambling in the days leading up those Games.

Though the weather is fickle, Sochi officials won't be worrying yet about high temperatures. Daytime

Has it really been two and a half years since Fourth-Place Medal solved the mystery of the hot Paraguayan? My, how time flies when you're out solving Olympic-based conundrums.

In case you've forgotten, while watching the Opening Ceremony to the Beijing Games, we caught a glimpse of a stunning athlete with the Paraguayan delegation and needed to know who it was. (Only to quench our thirst for knowledge, of course.) The crack Fourth-Place Medal investigative unit was assembled, we looked into it and discovered that the woman in question was Leryn Franco, a javelin thrower competing for her home country.

Franco didn't qualify for the javelin finals in Beijing, finishing second-to-last in qualifying, and thus breaking the collective hearts of the billions watching on television. But she didn't go away; no sir. Like the Bard said, "can't nobody hold [her] down." (Or was that Puff Daddy?)

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Leryn Franco is featured in the 2011 Sports Illustrated

China is once again under fire from the international sporting community after eight figure skaters were found to have different birthdates from the official ones given to the International Skating Union.

The Associated Press discovered discrepancies in the birthdates of eight athletes on the official website of the China Skating Association. In a twist, some of the doctored ages made athletes appear younger in order to get under the age limit at junior skating events. Previously, China had been caught altering ages of gymnasts to make them old enough to get past international age minimums.

It doesn't appear that the age issues will affect any Olympic medals, but a junior world championship could be in jeopardy if the allegations are proven to be true.

The Associated Press writes:

According to ISU rules, skaters must be 15 by the preceding July 1 to compete at an Olympics or senior world championships, and 14 for other senior-level international competitions, such as the Grand Prix