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Friday, August 25
Dokic wants to live at home, not in village
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Jelena Dokic, Australia's top-ranked
female tennis player, wants to play in the Sydney Olympics,
provided organizers meet her demands.
The 17-year-old Dokic, who had threatened to boycott the games,
doesn't want to stay with the Australian team in the athletes'
village because she lives nearby.
She also wants her father, Damir Dokic, accredited as her coach
and says she wants to use equipment and clothes supplied by her
sponsors instead of those provided as part of the Australian
team uniform.
Dokic, a semifinalist at Wimbledon, said she'll negotiate
further with the Australian Olympic Committee before signing a
letter of agreement.
"Hopefully, they'll let me off it and I think they will," she
told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "By the sounds of it I
think I'll get away with it and be able to play."
The AOC said it would permit Dokic to live outside the athlete's
village as long as she took responsibility for her own security and
transport arrangements.
AOC media director Mike Tancred said Australian officials were
delighted to hear Dokic wanted to play.
He said Damir Dokic could be accredited as a hitting partner for
his daughter during the games, but the AOC was unlikely to meet the
demands of nonofficial team sponsors.
"Everyone on the team, it doesn't matter how high profile you
are, has to abide by the team agreement in that you wear our
sponsors' clothing -- Nike, or Speedo if you are a swimmer," he said.
Dokic had threatened to boycott the Olympics earlier this year,
saying she felt betrayed by tennis officials and the media.
She said a boycott would be in response to the treatment she
received during the Australian Open, where she was fined for
arriving late for a news conference after being eliminated.
She said she was late because she'd been to church, then read
from a statement describing the woman who beat her, Rita Kuti Kis
of Hungary, as a player without a future.
Her father made headlines last year after being ejected from a
tournament in Birmingham, England, and then lying on the road in
front of traffic outside the stadium.
At Wimbledon this year, Damir Dokic was questioned by police
after smashing a telephone belonging to a reporter.
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