n, Vermont, two weeks ago.Shiffrin, the American who won the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, lost a big

ALICANTE, Spain -- The Volvo Ocean Race has announced several changes for the next edition of the round-the-word race, which will start in October 2017.Among them are double points on long trans-oceanic legs and various bonus points, new crew-size rules that encourage teams to have more women sailors, on-board reporters that can rotate among the boats and a new route that includes more Southern Ocean racing. At close to 45,000 nautical miles, it will be the longest edition of the marquee offshore race.The change in the scoring system will encourage strategic risk-taking by the teams, designed to open up the competition in an era of close one design racing. That will give teams an incentive to gamble more often to split the fleet.Double points will be awarded for the two Southern Ocean legs, from Cape Town to Hong Kong, and Auckland to Itajai, Brazil; and the North Atlantic leg from Newport, Rhode Island, to Cardiff, Wales.Additionally, a bonus point will be awarded to the winner of each leg, to the first team to round Cape Horn in a nod to the mythical significance of this turning point in the race, and to the team with the best total elapsed time overall.On the crew front, all-male teams will be limited to seven sailors, one fewer than in 2014-15. Mixed teams will be given a significant numerical advantage. Combinations can include seven men and either one or two women, five men and five women, seven women and one or two men, or 11 women.If female offshore sailors want to compete at the same level as the best in the world then they need to train and race with the best, said Ian Walker, the winning skipper in the 2014-15 race. It would be very hard to compete with only seven people on a Volvo Ocean 65 against teams of eight or nine. This new rule will almost certainly force teams to hire women and that will create a great platform for learning.Team SCAs all-female crew finished third in the In-Port Race series in the last VOR and became the first to win an offshore leg in 25 years. But it still saw a ceiling in its overall offshore performance without being able to learn from the more experienced sailors.In the last race, onboard reporters were assigned to each team. In the next edition, a team of on-board reporters will be created that can move from boat to boat on leg to leg, balancing both integrity and trust.As part of mandatory qualifiers, the fleet will sail in the Rolex Fastnet Race, one of the most revered and feared tests in sailing, from England to the Fastnet Rock off the southwest coast of Ireland and back to England. The Volvo fleet will then race from Plymouth, England, to Lisbon to complete Leg 0. The fleet will then sail a new prologue from Lisbon to Alicante, Spain.In other changes, sailors can post social media updates direct from the oceans for the first time; Adam Henrique Jersey . The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling "puts an end to my dreams of being a top player," the 27-year-old Troicki said in a statement. "I worked my entire life for it, and it has been taken away from me in one afternoon by a doctor I didnt know," said Troicki, whose ranking peaked at No. Korbinian Holzer Jersey . Tests earlier this week revealed a Grade 2 left hamstring strain for Sabathia, who was hurt in last Fridays start against San Francisco. Its an injury that will require about eight weeks to heal. He finished a disappointing campaign just 14-13 with a career-worst 4. http://www.authenticduckspro.com/Josh-manson-ducks-jersey/ . "No difference at all," chirped U.S. roommate and linemate James van Riemsdyk. "Its still the same cranky Phil. Cam Fowler Ducks Jersey .C. at the helm of the top team in the Eastern Conference. His tenure as the GM in Vancouver was all too brief. Though he led the Canucks to what was then a franchise record-shattering campaign in just his second season, Nonis was gone and replaced one year later. John Gibson Jersey . After the whistle, Thornton skated the length of the ice, pulled Orpik to the ice from behind and punched him in the face several times. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Helicopters were up at daybreak spotting rubbish flows at the Olympic sailing venue, with boats below collecting the debris.Dozens of barricades dammed up streams that flushed garbage into the bay. They caught waterlogged sofas, Styrofoam cups and deflated soccer balls.A sewer pipe at Marina da Gloria stopped raw sewage from being pumped into the harbor where Olympic boats were moored.Rio de Janeiros water remains filthy as the Olympics wrap up, even after a final push to clean up the water for the worlds largest sporting event. Fans were reminded by the stench from a lagoon contaminated with raw sewage that abuts the Olympic Park.Long after the athletes and fans leave, the city will continue to struggle with water teeming with bacteria and viruses.Rio organizers promised in their 2009 bid document that the Olympics would drive a cleanup of Rios waters, pledging to treat 80 percent of the waste. Estimates vary, but most suggest the area is still treating less than 50 percent of its sewage.For two weeks, Olympic athletes competing in the water largely avoided falling ill by building immunity to pathogens, using preventive measures, or by trying to limit contact with the water in water-based sports.An independent study by The Associated Press conducted at sites around the city over more than a year -- including the sailing venue in Guanabara Bay and the rowing venue in Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon -- showed dangerously high levels of contamination.In over 16 months of testing leading up to the games, there was no decline in the very high bacterial and viral levels in the water, underscoring that the cosmetic measures authorities took to make venues appear cleaner ultimately didnt reduce the risks.The contamination is always there, and the sad thing is that its not going away any time soon, said Dr. Fernando Spilki, the Brazilian virologist and coordinator of the molecular microbiology laboratory at Feevale University in southern Brazil, who was commissioned by AP to conduct the water tests.Falling ill depends on a variety of factors.The majority get infected, a few get sick and adults normally (have built up) some immunity, Spilki added.It is difficult to link symptoms to Rios water because many gastrointestinal illnesses can be blamed on things like simple travelers diarrhea, and some symptoms may not show up immediately.That could make it hard for anyone looking to blame the water for illnesses that emerge when they go home. Dr. Nebojsa Nikolic, medical director of World Sailing, attempted to trrack sailing illness during a test event a year ago in Rio.ddddddddddddHe concluded that the frequency of illness was not unusual, but also said the exact causes could not be determined without human stool samples of sailors in dozens of countries.Nikolic said hell conduct a follow-up study of the Olympics.From what we know there were only a few cases scattered across different teams without influencing the sailing performance, Nikolic said in an email.Sailors and rowers said the water appeared cleaner than it was a year ago, the result of numerous stop-gap measures employed by the Brazilian government. Most of it focused on corralling floating trash, but officials also deployed bioremediation efforts during test events, but declined to specify exactly what it entailed.We had taken precautions just in case, because the water quality last year and the year before probably wasnt that good, said Lisa Carrington of New Zealand, who won gold in womens 200-meter singles. But I feel that the water here today, this week, is really good.Precautions taken by athletes across polluted venues included keeping water bottles in plastic bags, bleaching oars or paddles, using hand sanitizers, and washing clothes immediately after practicing or racing.Brazilian canoeist Isaquias Queiroz said hes trained in Rio for two years and noticed the water is much cleaner.I even wondered if they had some kind of chemical product in it, he said.Andy Hunt, the CEO of the governing body World Sailing, said Belgian Evi Van Acker was the only sailor he knew of who fell ill during the games. Her coach said it was due to an intestinal infection she contracted while training in Rio last month.World Sailing gave extensive hygiene guidance beginning a year ago after sailors fell ill in Rio at a test event.Everyone has been very careful in using hand hygiene, washing down clothing, boats and so on, Hunt said.Dorian van Rijsselberghe of the Netherlands, who won gold in mens windsurfing, criticized Brazilians for not keeping their promise to thoroughly clean the bay.Not everything is OK, Van Rijsselberghe said. Thats the thing. Brazil made a promise a couple of years ago and they couldnt keep their promise.---AP reporters Karl Ritter, Bernie Wilson, and Peter Prengaman contributed to this report.---Stephen Wade on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP .His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/stephen-wade ' ' '