ABU DHABI — Here is one measure of how far the cause of women in sports has come:

They held a news conference here Tuesday at the Emirates Palace hotel in advance of Wednesday’s Laureus awards. The dais, from right to left: Edwin Moses, the incomparable 400-meter hurdles champion from the 1970s and 1980s who is now chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy chairman; Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mahmood, general secretary of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council; and Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco, the 1984 Los Angeles Games women’s 400-meter hurdles champion who over the past dozen years has become one of the most influential leaders within the International Olympic Committee.

Here is one measure of how far the cause of women in sports has yet to go:

“In Abu Dhabi,” the Laureus organizers cautioned in inviting the members of the press to a photo op at the hotel’s soccer field (it’s the Gulf – the hotel, $3 billion to build, has its own FIFA-caliber field), “it is not generally accepted that photos are taken of women or girls.

Read more from Alan here:  http://www.universalsports.com/blogs/blog=alanabrahamsonsblog/postid=456944.html#the+iocs+first+female+president

ABU DHABI — Watching Shaun White throw down in the men’s halfpipe in Vancouver, you had to wonder, for perhaps the gazillionth time: why isn’t skateboarding in the Summer Games?

Lots of reasons, actually, all of them having to do with the International Olympic Committee’s politics and policies, but then there’s this — the IOC is purportedly on a quest to connect with young people, and young people like skateboarding. Like, a lot.

“It should be [in the Games] immediately,” Tony Hawk, the skateboarding pioneer, said here Wednesday in an interview ahead of the Laureus awards, Hawk having now achieved such standing in his professional and charitable works that he’s one of the 46 members of the Laureus academy.

Which, along with his enormous street cred and financial acumen, gives him license to speak even more frankly: “As far as the Summer Games go, the Olympics needs skateboarding more than skateboarding needs them — as far as getting a cool factor.

“You see what snowboarding has done in the Winter Olympics. Skateboarding could do the exact same thing for the Summer Olympics.”

Read more from Alan here:  http://www.universalsports.com/blogs/blog=alanabrahamsonsblog/postid=456946.html#skateboarding+olympics