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Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek is taking some time off. How much time off, he hasn’t decided.

Lysacek said Thursday he won’t compete the rest of this year, meaning he will skip the Grand Prix season. But he still wants to skate, and hasn’t ruled out the U.S. championships in mid-January.

“I miss it. I miss competing. I miss training,” Lysacek said. “Obviously I love doing all the work I’m doing with charities and sponsors. At the same time, I’m a skater and I love to skate. I’m itching to get back on the ice as much as I can. I guess I would know if I felt my career was done.

LONDON (AP)—Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair credits Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi with helping London secure the 2012 Olympics.

Blair also says in his new autobiography that he was dubious about bidding for the games, never thought London would win and feared being “humiliated” by losing to the French.

In his book “A Journey” released Wednesday, Blair gives his fullest account to date of his role in London’s victory over Paris in the International Olympic Committee vote in Singapore in July 2005.

ROME (AP)—They were the Summer Games that ushered in the Olympics as we know them today.

Starting 50 years ago on Wednesday, Rome hosted the first Summer Olympics to be commercially broadcast.

They were the first games with a major doping scandal, as Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen collapsed during his race under the influence of Roniacol and died the same day.

NEW YORK (AP)—The U.S. Olympic Committee will announce a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with BMW next Monday.

The deal, reported last month to be worth about $24 million through 2016, will make BMW the first foreign car maker to sponsor the USOC and will fill a void left when General Motors decided not to renew its sponsorship after the 2008 Olympics.

It continues a good few weeks of Olympic sponsorship news, coming shortly after the International Olympic Committee signed on Dow Chemical as one of its major sponsors.

NEW YORK (AP)—Dow Chemical announced its new 10-year deal with the International Olympic Committee on Friday, making it the official “chemistry company” for the games.

The American giant became a top-tier sponsor through 2020. Olympic and Dow officials declined to reveal terms, but IOC marketing commission chairman Gerhard Heiberg said the value of deals was increasing even with the global financial crisis. Each four-year IOC sponsorship contract usually goes for up to $100 million.

“The five Olympic rings are the only medium that we have in the world that is recognized by 95 percent of the global population,” said Dow vice president Heinz Haller. “Developing countries, developed countries, mature economies, emerging economies.”

EventStar Services, a Surrey-based event production firm, says it is owed $80,000 for work done on broadcast centres used by CTV during the 2010 Olympics.

EventStar official Cary Campbell said Tuesday that his company provided crews to Blackwalnut TV, an American company, hired by CTV to build and maintain sets used by the Canadian television network at Olympic broadcast centres in Vancouver and Whistler.

NEW YORK (AP)—Ice dancing once was the ugly stepchild of figure skating, so scorned that there was discussion of dropping it from the Olympics.

Now, particularly after the sensational showings by the Canadians and Americans at the Vancouver Games, skating fans are clamoring for more.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White are ready to give it to them.

LONDON (AP)—They are just two words—white and elephant. Together, they are enough to make any Olympic planner wake up in a cold sweat.

“Absolutely—usually at 3 in the morning,” said Andrew Altman, a leading American urban developer who has a key role in deciding the long-term use of the Olympic Stadium and flagship complex being built for the 2012 London Games. “You don’t want to create these facilities at great investment just to sit idle.”

The former deputy mayor of Philadelphia and head of the Anacostia waterfront project in Washington, D.C., Altman is chief executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which is in charge of ensuring the post-games success of one of the biggest British regeneration projects in decades.

By STEPHEN WILSON AP Sports Writer

LONDON(AP)—They are just two words - white and elephant. Together, they are enough to make any Olympic planner wake up in a cold sweat.

“Absolutely - usually at 3 in the morning,” said Andrew Altman, a leading American urban developer who has a key role in deciding the long-term use of the Olympic Stadium and flagship complex being built for the 2012 London Games. “You don’t want to create these facilities at great investment just to sit idle.”

The former deputy mayor of Philadelphia and head of the Anacostia waterfront project in Washington, D.C., Altman is chief executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which is in charge of ensuring the post-games success of one of the biggest British regeneration projects in decades.

NEW YORK (AP)—Evan Lysacek is headed for the airport. Again.

It’s time for another cross country flight—not that the Olympic gold medalist needs an airplane to be flying high these days. He’s traveling back to Los Angeles for rehearsals for “Dancing With The Stars” after a whirlwind couple of days in New York.

All part of the spoils from Vancouver.