French Report Links Creatine to Cancer

Officials with France’s Food Safety Agency linked the sports supplement creatine to a potential risk of cancer and urged it be listed as a banned substance.

The report on the agency’s Web site said that potential risks associated with taking creatine were “currently insufficiently evaluated,” and that the product was of little benefit to athletes hoping to improve their performance.

Creatine is an amino acid produced naturally by the liver and kidneys and stored in muscles. Athletes take creatine supplements to gain extra energy, train longer and bulk up.

*

World doping experts and Olympic officials will hold a special conference on the potential misuse of gene therapy by athletes Sept. 23-26 in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., officials said.

Colleges

The State Gaming Commission lifted a long-standing ban on gambling on Nevada college sports teams Thursday.

The move was criticized immediately by an official with the NCAA.

“They’ve expanded college sports wagering,” said Bill Saum, director of the NCAA’s agent and gambling activities office in Indianapolis. “They actually went the opposite direction we were hoping for.”

The Gaming Commission’s new rules mean that for the first time since the 1950s betting will be allowed on games played by Nevada Las Vegas and the University of Nevada, and on games played by other college teams in Nevada.

The commission also added a new category, illegal sports bettors, to the “notorious or unsavory” section of the gambling industry’s “black book” of people banned in Nevada casinos.

It didn’t limit the size of bets that a bettor can place on college games, but set a $3,000 reporting threshold and ordered casinos to identify and report any unusual wagers by individuals or groups.

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden wants to promote his youngest son, Jeff, to offensive coordinator, but the school’s president says it could violate the university’s nepotism rule. Sandy D’Alemberte never has waived the policy since becoming president in January 1994. . . . Youngstown State picked defensive coordinator Jon Heacock to take over as coach after Jim Tressel’s departure to coach Ohio State.

Jurisprudence

Mark Ingram, the former NFL receiver who was arrested carrying $3,290 in counterfeit money, recently brought $11,000 in fake bills from New York and needed help passing it, said a car theft suspect arrested with him in Miami.

Miami-Dade County Judge Murray Klein set $10,000 bond but ordered Ingram, who played for four NFL teams from 1987 to 1996, to be detained for an initial court appearance today on the federal charge.

The teenager who accused Mark Chmura of assaulting her at a party later told a friend she had sex against her will with the former NFL player, the friend said Thursday. “She said it was not consensual in any way. She said it hurt,” the 18-year-old woman said during the first day of testimony in Chmura’s sexual assault trial in Waukesha, Wis. Chmura, 31, has pleaded not guilty to third-degree sexual assault and child enticement, both felonies.

Miscellany

Defender Mike Petke, a Major League Soccer all-star last season, signed a multiyear contract with the league and will remain with the New York-New Jersey MetroStars.

MLS signed two 16-year-olds for its Project-40 player development program, Edward Johnson of Palm Coast, Fla., and Santino Quaranta, of Baltimore, who at 16 years, four months, is the youngest ever to join the league.

Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon, 43, has been scratched from a 10-round fight Saturday after being injured in a traffic accident.

Yevgeny Plushchenko of Russia hit his unique quad-triple-double combination and another quad toe to defend his European Figure Skating title at Bratislava, Slovakia.

Sweden’s Anna-Karin Kammerling lowered her world record in the women’s 50-meter butterfly short-course event with a winning time of 25.36 seconds at a FINA World Cup meet at Stockholm.