News In Brief

Judge denies women's plea to add two Olympics races

A US judge denied a request Monday by 82 leading women athletes to include women's 5,000- and 10,000-meter races in the Los Angeles Olympic Games. The athletes, in a suit filed on their behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, had argued that the International Olympic Committee and other sports groups had engaged in sex discrimination by arranging 5,000- and 10,000-meter events for men but not for women.

Federal Judge David Kenyon said he appreciated the frustration that must be felt by women 5,000- and 10,000-meter runners who could not compete in their events in the games. But he said that, although the games were clearly a sexist event at their inception, the thrust in recent years had been to reverse that pattern.