Ice Hockey Hopes World Cup, Olympics Can Coexist -- Federations Focus

(ATR) The president of the International Ice Hockey Federation wants a meeting with National Hockey League officials, who sound more interested in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing than the 2018 Games.

Rene Fasel is looking to set up a meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players Association president Donald Fehr. He says having the pros in PyeongChang is critical to the growth of the game.

"If we can make our sport strong [in Asia]," Fasel told the AP, "we really will have a great future."

He also downplayed NHL concerns about player safety.

"If you want to grow the game globally, you have to take risks every four years that some of your top players will be injured," said Fasel.

Bettman, meanwhile, appears more focused on the 2022 Games than 2018.

"The possibility of being at an Olympics in China is something we have to look at very carefully," said the commissioner. "There may be a lot of opportunities to grow the game quicker than any other way possible based on the nature of the way the Chinese government focuses on sports and initiatives.

"Not to diminish South Korea, but in terms of sheer magnitude, it’s not the same as China."

The 2016 return of the World Cup of Hockey leads some to believe that NHL players will not be Olympic-bound in 2018, but Bettman says that speculation is baseless.

"I don’t think one has anything to do with the other."

World Rugby Warns Fans About Scams

The City of London police force and World Rugby are spreading the word about email scams that claim the reader has won a sweepstakes or lottery for free rugby world cup tickets.

Fans are being contacted primarily through email with accounts claiming to be World Rugby, Rugby World Cup 2015 and other associated trademarks.

The emails range from offering prize money in varying currencies to free tickets to the Rugby World Cup 2015 matches and trips to England and Wales to watch the matches.

As a result of the scams, the London police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau is investigating the fraudulent emails and working towards shutting down the unofficial email accounts.

"This appears to be a classic lottery fraud that is using the good name of the Rugby World Cup to try and persuade people they have won a genuine competition. It is very important that recipients of these scam emails do not make contact in any way with the sender and instead report to us, via Action Fraud," said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe.

"As the tournament approaches we urge fans to only buy through official channels to ensure entry and have the best possible Rugby World Cup 2015 experience," said England Rugby 2015 managing director Stephen Brown.

Real tickets to the event are still available on the Rugby World Cup 2015 website here.

The world cup begins on September 18.

ITTF Confirms Rio Test Event

Invitations for eight men’s and women’s teams have been sent out for the Rio 2016 table tennis test event.

The International Table Tennis Federation confirmed the invitations on Sept. 10 for the event that will take place on Nov. 18-21 at the Riocentro venue.

China, Germany, Japan, Korea Republic, Portugal, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Brazil were invited for the men’s competition, while China, Japan, Singapore, Korea Republic, Hong Kong, Korea DPR, Netherlands, and Brazil were invited for the women.

In addition, 20 men and women who were not invited through team qualification received invitations to Rio de Janeiro to participate.

Both men and women's team and singles competitions will be held at the test event, which aims to give organizers and idea how the field of play will function ahead of the Olympic Games.

Written by Nick Devlin, Kevin Nutley and Aaron Bauer

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.