JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, April 5, (Agencies): The head of the Saudi Olympic Committee has ruled out sending women athletes from the ultra-conservative kingdom to the London Olympics this summer, local dailies reported on Thursday.
Prince Nawaf bin Faisal said, however, that Saudi women taking part on their own are free to do so and the kingdom’s Olympic authority would “only help in ensuring that their participation does not violate the Islamic sharia law.”
“We are not endorsing any Saudi female participation at the moment in the Olympics or other international championships,” he told a press conference in Jeddah on Wednesday.
The Saudi official was reiterating a position he announced late last year, confirming that Saudi Arabia will be fielding only male athletes in London.

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of (Saudi) women who practice sports, but in private,” he said, adding that the sports body has nothing to do with their activities.
Equestrian jumping contestant Dalma Malhas, 18, is likely to be Saudi Arabia’s only female athlete at this summer’s Olympics, according to media reports.
Malhas won a bronze medal at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics without having been nominated by her country, following an invitation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The New York-based Human Rights Watch in February published a report damning the systematic exclusion of women from sporting activities in Saudi Arabia.
In July last year, the president of the IOC’s Women and Sport Committee, Anita DeFrantz, criticised Saudi Arabia, as well as Qatar and Brunei, for being the last three countries to have never sent female athletes to the Olympics.

Qatar, which is bidding for the right to host the 2020 Olympics, has already announced its firm intention to send female competitors to London.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s sports minister says the Cuban boxing team will train in Belfast ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.
Sports Minister Caral Ni Chuilin describes it as a “huge coup for the north” and says there is cause for excitement around a team recognized for being dominant in the sport.
The Cubans and Australia’s boxing squad will be among nine teams training in Northern Ireland ahead of the London Olympics, which take place July 27-Aug 12.
Other teams include artistic gymnasts from China, and athletics teams from Qatar, Sudan, Egypt and Kuwait. The Jordanian and Irish Paralympic teams also will train there.
Northern Ireland’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure said Thursday that the deal to bring the Cubans to Belfast was months in the making.

If not for the Power Rangers, British taekwondo athlete Aaron Cook might be watching the London Olympics on TV instead of competing for gold.
As an impressionable 5-year-old growing up in Manchester, Cook adored the intrepid television superheroes who battle to save Earth from dark forces like evil ninja masters and cryogenically frozen criminals.
Cook liked the show so much, he started to copy some of their kicks. That prompted his parents to enroll him in taekwondo classes, despite the instructor’s concerns that he might be too young to understand the Korean martial art.
“I wanted to beat all the baddies and be the hero,” Cook told The Associated Press, adding his goals have changed a little since then. “I used to want to be a Power Ranger, but now I want to be an Olympic champion.”

At 21, Cook is one of Britain’s top prospects for an Olympic taekwondo medal. He narrowly missed out on a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games and is currently ranked second in the world in the 80-kilogram (176-pound) division.
Last year, he ditched Britain’s taekwondo training academy and hired his own team of coaches. His parents even built him a customized gym in their backyard.
“Everything we have done has been to help and support (Aaron) to be the best that he can be,” his mother, Christine, said in an email. “Hopefully in a few months’ time, he’ll be rewarded with the Olympic gold medal he’s spent the last 16 years of his life working towards.”
Since striking out on his own, Cook has won six major competitions — more than his rivals at the national academy.
Some critics have slammed Cook for turning his back on Britain’s taekwondo program and say he is too focused on sponsorship deals and self-promotion; he and his team frequently wear “Team Cook” T-shirts at competitions.

Still, Cook was recently named part of Britain’s taekwondo team at the European Championships in May, the last major event before the Olympic squad is selected. Though he will keep his own coach and train independently, Cook will have some compulsory training sessions with the national team.
“Aaron is a really talented athlete,” said Gary Hall, the performance director for Britain’s taekwondo team. “How effective he is at the Olympics and world level will tell how effective his plan has been.”
On a recent break from training, Cook spent a day filming clips for a Nickelodeon series, “Olympic Heroes.” That included throwing a few high kicks in his taekwondo uniform as well as getting into a tight red-and-black Power Ranger costume, complete with red boots, white gloves, gold belt, and a helmet. Cook then performed a sequence of punches and blocks resembling the traditional forms of taekwondo.
He doubts whether any of the Power Rangers moves might come in handy on the taekwondo mats.

“In Olympic-style taekwondo, we don’t really use our hands,” Cook said. “It’s all about the fancy kicks.”
Cook is known for his aggressive style, often incorporating several high kicks into a single attack that lasts just seconds.
He also gets respect from his opponents, including Lutalo Muhammad, whom Cook defeated in the semifinals of the Dutch Open in March. Muhammad is competing with Cook for a place on the British team, but congratulated Cook on Twitter, describing it as “a deserved victory.”
Still, Cook said some of his competitors probably wouldn’t think much of his Power Ranger costume and moves.
“Some might laugh a little bit, but I’m a kid at heart,” Cook said. “I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for the Power Rangers.”