BIRMINGHAM, England -- British sailor Luke Patience has questioned the logic of allowing athletes to compete in the Olympics when the Games does not represent the summit of their sport.The build-up to next months Rio Games has seen a number of high-profile golfers withdraw, citing fears surrounding the Zika virus. Among those is world No. 1 Jason Day and No. 4 Rory McIlroy, who has denied his decision not to take part is?embarrassing for golf.Patience, a silver medallist at London 2012, has effectively had to qualify twice for Rio after his 470 teammate Elliott Willis was diagnosed with cancer at the end of 2015.He will travel to Brazil with realistic gold-medal ambitions having secured his place in Team GB alongside Chris Grube, and is unsympathetic to the concerns of athletes who do not hold the Games in the highest esteem.Possibly a controversial statement but I think if the Olympics isnt the pinnacle of your sport, I would question why the sport is part of the Games, he told ESPN. It should be the ultimate. There should be no harder feat than the Olympic Games for your sport.Aside from Zika there are fears over the water quality in Rio with an Associated Press report last December suggesting that athletes ran a very real risk of infection.However, World Sailing has since insisted that considerable progress has been made at the Marina da Gloria, where the Olympic sailing regatta will take place between Aug. 8-18.I have far bigger things to worry about, said Patinece. Is my boat ready? Have I understood the course correctly? Im far more concerned about that.Yes, theres Zika. Yes, the water pollution is bad, but what are you going to do? Thats not going to stop me going to the Games and it shouldnt stop anyone else.I just think Rio needs to start; [hold the] opening ceremony and let everyone forget about all of those things.Patiences fellow Team GB sailor Hannah Mills added that she would never skip an Olympics unless were told you cant because of x, y and z but explained the information passed on by British Sailing ensured she was confident the risk could be managed.The water obviously does [worry me], because for us its a huge deal; getting sick or not getting sick, she said. As a British Sailing Team weve spent a lot of time thinking about it and the support staff have been amazing in organising as much protection as we can against that.We feel in a very strong place in terms of all the other sailing teams, the protocols we have in place, which gives you confidence but obviously you can never completely guard against it. Unfortunately its the type of virus that if you do get sick there is nothing to make you better until youre done being sick -- which is scary.But we just have to keep doing what were doing and hope thats working.Wholesale Jerseys USA . Didier Drogba gave away the penalty that put Senegal one goal away from a major upset, but the veteran striker will get another chance -- probably his last -- at the World Cup after Salomon Kalous injury-time strike sealed the Ivorians place in Brazil next year. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . They were putting most of their energy into a record-setting offensive display. http://www.wholesalejerseysnflsports.com/ . "Theyve both been real good," said Babcock. "Havent changed our minds." A decision has seemingly been made - Sundays Group B-deciding tilt against Finland ahead - but it could not have been an easy one. Price opened the tournament with a sturdy 19-save performance against the Norwegians, yielding just one goal. Wholesale Jerseys . Malkin got tangled up with Detroits Luke Glendening early in the third period and his left skate took the brunt of collision with the boards behind Pittsburghs net.When Zach Bogosian spoke to Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff after signing a seven-year, $36-million contract, his first comments werent about that but rather new deals for teammates Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little. In what has turned out to be a busy off-season, the Jets have committed $93.1 million to those three restricted free agents, a major showing of faith in a young core that has yet to make the playoffs. Thats clearly the next step for Bogosian, Wheeler, Little, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and the rest of that group. "A lot of people forget there are still a lot of young guys that have big roles on the team. Everyone is growing up together," Bogosian said this week. "Weve had a lot of good players on our team for a couple years now. So, its going to be a good challenge for us, and I think this group can do good things going forward." Bogosian believes this group can bring the Stanley Cup to Winnipeg, the No. 1 goal the 23-year-old defenceman said he and his teammates talk about every year. But the Jets were four points out of a playoff spot in a shortened 2013 NHL season and eight out in their first year in Winnipeg in 2011-12. It doesnt look like much will change roster-wise going into next season. The Jets traded for right-wingers Devin Setoguchi and Michael Frolik, signed defenceman Adam Pardy, watched restricted-free-agent centre Alexander Burmistrov leave for the Kontinental Hockey League and have not re-signed forwards Nik Antropov and Kyle Wellwood or defenceman Ron Hainsey. Cheveldayoff didnt shake things up, instead building around and extending the current core. "I think you first have to evaluate where your group is, you have to show faith in them," he said. "You have to try and show some consistency from an ownership group, from an organization that you have a plan in mind, that youre sticking to it, that youre not changing directions in mid-stream." The Jets havee continued to do that as they prepare for life in the Central Division of the NHLs Western Conference.dddddddddddd Eleven players are signed for at least the next three years, including blue-chip prospects Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba, forward Evander Kane, goaltender Ondrej Pavelec and No. 1 defenceman Tobias Enstrom. Management knows what to expect from Kane, Pavelec and Enstrom, but the key to playoff games taking place at MTS Centre could be improved contributions from Bogosian, the 25-year-old Little and 26-year-old Wheeler. "If you look at the age of the players that we have signed here over the course of the summer, theyre all within relatively the same age demographic," Cheveldayoff said. "Now we need to keep growing, we need to keep pushing. We need younger guys that maybe we have drafted, hopefully it is their time now to start coming into our organization and start pushing." Those younger players are Scheifele, the centre the Jets took with the seventh pick in the 2011 draft, and Trouba, the defenceman they selected ninth in 2012. Both figure to be the plans next season. "The real exciting thing for us is to see some of the younger guys, like Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba, can try and push and make some difficult decisions for us going forward with the way the roster continues to evolve," Cheveldayoff said. The roster likely wont evolve much before camp starts. Cheveldayoff completed his summer to-do list, but he wasnt about to start bragging about his off-season of maintaining stability. "Were not sitting here, trying to say that, This is great, this is great. This is the process that we planned out," he said. "The real evaluation process starts when you drop the puck. No awards, no trophies, no wins or losses happen in June, July, August and September. Its really, truly when the puck drops and as you continue to play throughout the season. Thats the evaluation that really matters." ' ' '