Olympic athletes/stories in the news.

[RICHARD]

I thought a thread about stories about the people who are going to compete would be neat.

I just saw a story on the Lopez Family, They are sending 3 kids, two boys and one woman to Beijing to compete in Tae Kwan Do. One of the guys has two gold medals already!

I like it that some of the 'other' sports are getting recognition.

[Grace]

Wonderful - I had thought about the very same thing.

The NY Times has a special Olympic section in their online site. Here's an article I read earlier -


U.S. Swimmer Makes Tough Choice to Compete

By KATIE THOMAS
To his roommate, Eric Shanteau seemed his usual inscrutable self during the United States Olympic swimming trials in Omaha.

“He’s always been a guy who keeps his cards close,” Ian Crocker said.

Unbeknownst to Crocker and all but Shanteau’s inner circle, the 24-year-old swimmer was facing an excruciating choice. After beating Brendan Hansen to win a spot on the Olympic team in the 200-meter breaststroke, Shanteau had to decide whether he would compete in Beijing.

Only a week earlier, doctors had told Shanteau he had testicular cancer. Now he was faced with a difficult choice: undergo immediate surgery, or wait until after the Olympics.

“If I didn’t make the team, the decision would have been easy: Go home and have the surgery,” Shanteau told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview released Friday. “I made the team, so I had a hard decision.”

In the end, Shanteau chose Beijing. When caught early, testicular cancer is among the most treatable forms of cancer, and Shanteau’s doctors determined that it had not spread. He will monitor the cancer closely. If there is any sign it has advanced, he will withdraw from the team.

“I was sort of like: ‘This isn’t real. There’s no way this is happening to me right now,’ ” Shanteau told The Associated Press. “You’re trying to get ready for the Olympics, and you just get this huge bomb dropped on you.”

Shanteau broke the news to his teammates Thursday. Dara Torres, the 41-year-old who dominated the headlines at the trials last week, said the room was silent as Shanteau spoke. Her father recently died of cancer. “I immediately thought of my father and got tears in my eyes, then thought about how young and brave this young man is and more tears started to well up,” she wrote in an e-mail message. “He is the real hero on this team.”

His decision to go public with the disease was applauded by the cyclist Lance Armstrong, one of the most public faces of testicular cancer. “I think he’s very brave to open up and tell his story to the whole world,” said Armstrong, who was diagnosed with a more advanced form of the disease when he was 25, and went on to win seven Tours de France. “I think at the Olympics he will swim like a man possessed because he’s been reminded of how fragile his life — and our life — is.”

Armstrong, who spoke in a telephone interview from San Francisco, said he was aware of the diagnosis because Shanteau’s coach had contacted his agent for the name of a testicular cancer specialist. Armstrong said he passed along the name of Dr. Larry Einhorn, the doctor who had treated him.

Shanteau saw a doctor after he noticed an abnormality that was later found to be malignant. Testicular cancer is commonly diagnosed among men in their late teens and 20s, said Dr. Judith Kaur, a professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

“This particular cancer is almost always treatable and highly curable, so that makes a big difference in terms of having some flexibility as the timing of something like surgery,” said Kaur, who said she was not familiar with the details of Shanteau’s case.

Shanteau grew up in suburban Atlanta and graduated from Auburn, then trained in Texas with the University of Texas swimming coach Eddie Reese. He was not expected to make the Olympic team, but he nabbed a spot when Hansen, a former world record holder who was considered the overwhelming favorite, fell behind in the final lap. Shanteau came in second, behind Scott Spann.

Armstrong said Shanteau was likely to become an instant hero. “Cancer survivors from all over the world will say, ‘This is our guy,’ ” Armstrong said. “I think it’s a powerful force. I know I will be sitting back and cheering him on.”

Juliet Macur and Karen Crouse contributed reporting.

[RICHARD]

Scary, nonetheless!

I pray for him.

[RICHARD]

http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/8347046?MSNHPHMA


I love the rowing sports. This sucks. :(

[Grace]

Book recommendation -

ROME 1960
The Olympics That changed The World

by David Maraniss.


Names that pop out at you - Wilma Rudolph, Rafer Johnson, a kid from Louisville - Cassius Clay. And could anyone who watched ever forget Abibe Bikila, who ran the Marathon, BAREFOOT, through the streets of Rome.

[RICHARD]

I watched a T and F competition from Europe today. It was great.

I laughed when I saw the javelin throw.

After a throw I notice this little buggy come out on the grass with a javelin on it.

Later on the close up is of a tiny VW Bug that a guy is controlling from the sideline. They use it to take back the javelins to the athletes.

The women's high jump was fun to watch!

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I heard that two U.S. women athlete's suffered broken bones in the tune-ups.
A soccer player broke her leg and a gymnast broke her ankle. All that work and to have that happen.:eek::(


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This is the last year for woman's softball in the Olympics. This really stinks-especially when they put in stupid sports like bicycle moto cross. There already are annual extreme sports competitions for them, Why do they need the Olympics? I do like to watch people stuff their heads into the dirt when they do the bike/motorcycle stunts, but 30 seconds riding a bike in the dirt isn't any where near 'olympian'.

[Grace]

I had heard about the soccer player - she had a titanium rod inserted yesterday. Broke both fibula and tibia - ouch!! I can relate to that.

Just went looking for the gymnast. I think they are taking that expression - Break a leg - much too literally.

[Grace]

Terrible news - Michael Lohberg, the coach of Dara Torres, will not be with her in China. He is now at NIH, in Bethesda, being treated aggressively for Aplastic Anemia.

This is an awful disease. The bone marrow basically shuts down and no longer produces blood cells. Without treatment death can occur within 2 weeks.

He is receiving transfusions right now. They won't allow him to shave because his platelet count is so low, if he even nicked himself he could bleed out.

[Grace]

- Lopez Lomong, one of the 'Lost Boys' from the Sudan.

From CNN -
A U.S. athlete who overcame the chaos of war in Sudan to become a middle-distance runner in the United States will carry the American flag during Friday's opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Games.

Lopez Lomong, a 23-year-old competitor in the 1,500-meter race, will lead the U.S. Olympic team as the flagbearer.

Teammates chose him Wednesday, the U.S. Olympic Committee said in a statement.

[RICHARD]

HBO ran a story about him on the monthly sports show.

Wow, he had one heck of a road to hoe. Good on him.

[smokey the elder]

I'm really glad the team picked that Sudanese guy. He sounds like a good person.

[RICHARD]

DUDE!


If anyone knows who the cute U.S. soccer ref for the women's games is - let me know....I think her name is Cary/Kari/Carri Sykes.

Otherwise I am going to marry a woman pole vaulter.......Abs like that belong on a mutant!:eek::D

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Did anyone notice the American Flag that Phelps didn't bother to pick up after his race?

He was walking along the side of the pool when someone threw an American Flag into the area next to the first row. He bent over the railing to look at it and backed away. A photographer picked it up and attempted to hand it MP, buyt he turned and walked away.

Hmmmm, that kinda sucked.

[sparks19]

After which race richard? I didn't see that. The last race was the relay and they were all holding the flag for pictures.

Dangit. I had a story and now I forget what it was lol

OOOOH I remember.

the US women's beach Volleyball team May-Treanor/Walsh. Did anyone hear the story about Misty May's mom passing away in 2002 from Cancer? So when she went to Athens she brought a little pill bottle with her moms ashes in it to spread in the sand on the volleyball court if they won gold. She plans to do the same again if they win gold. and she has a nice little tattoo of her mom's initials with angel wings and a halo. I thought that was very touching.

ETA: Did anyone watch any of the women's marathon? We only watched the last half hour because I really don't need to see the full 2 1/2 hours of running. anyway romanian Tomescu-Dita is 38 years old and took the gold with a formidable lead for the last half hour of the race... and then continued to jog around the track multiple times with her flag on her back. I would have dropped dead and they would had to carry me out of there. Good for her.

[Grace]

ETA: Did anyone watch any of the women's marathon? We only watched the last half hour because I really don't need to see the full 2 1/2 hours of running. anyway romanian Tomescu-Dita is 38 years old and took the gold with a formidable lead for the last half hour of the race... and then continued to jog around the track multiple times with her flag on her back. I would have dropped dead and they would had to carry me out of there. Good for her.

We watched the entire race. ITA with you. When they said she was 38, I couldn't believe it!! And she took that lead with a good 10 miles to go, and continued to stay around a minute ahead of those young gals.

Did you see the British runner, Paula Radcliffe? She dropped out in the Athens Marathon, and the British press crucified her as a quitter. She had a stress fracture in a femur not that long ago, and the doctors told her not to race. But she did, and she finished this one.

[sparks19]

We watched the entire race. ITA with you. When they said she was 38, I couldn't believe it!! And she took that lead with a good 10 miles to go, and continued to stay around a minute ahead of those young gals.

Did you see the British runner, Paula Radcliffe? She dropped out in the Athens Marathon, and the British press crucified her as a quitter. She had a stress fracture in a femur not that long ago, and the doctors told her not to race. But she did, and she finished this one.

I did she her. she was in OBVIOUS pain and you could really see it on her face when she entered the stadium to finish on the track. such determination. I do hope she hasn't hurt herself too badly though.

[RICHARD]

After which race richard? I didn't see that. The last race was the relay and they were all holding the flag for pictures.



I think it was race 7, it also may have been number 6:confused:




He was looking up into the crowd, and he paused near a lower level of seats that looked like it was reserved for press and the photogs. After every medal ceremony the swimmers would stop at different areas around the pool to have some pics snapped.

He stopped for a second and the someone tossed the flag down. It landed to the right of the photog and MP looked over the rail at it. The camera guy picked it up and tried to hand it off but MP walked away. It may have not been a flag, but did see red and white stripes on the material.

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Did anyone hear about the "olympic effect"?

It has to do with all the people who get into shape after the games are over.
they get inspired because they see the fit people in the games.

I often wonder about the poor kids who show a little interest in a sport and their parents wreck their lives by making them take classes and push them to become 'gold medalists':rolleyes::confused:

That's scary.

[carole]

Did any of you see our Rower Mahe Drysdale collaspe after winning the bronze medal,poor guy was so sick, he had the bejing belly as they call it, food poisoning,he still managed a third, at one stage he looked set for the gold, was very disappointing for him,he had been vomiting just before the race and was after as well,he was suffering from dehydration,but he still stood up for the medal presentation, i liked how humble he was when interviewed, he never once blamed his stomach bug,even though it played a huge part in it.

Also did you know our silver medalist in the track pursuit cycling Hayden Rolleston has a heart condition, did not seem to hold him back though, thank goodness. :)

Richard i did not see Phelps do that ,but i must say that is pretty off isn't it? he has been down in NZ recently and is keen to come back.He may have done some training here i think,not quite sure.

[RICHARD]

The American women's teams have really been good this time out!

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Is it me?

Didn't the 'usual' Olympic schedule seem backwards? For some reason it seems to be all reversed this time out.

It seems that all the popular events were held in the first week!

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Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Laker, pariah and B-ball star isn't one of my favorite sports athletes.

He wanted to be traded last year, reneged on the idea, stated he wanted to be a Laker for life soon after.

He made a statement that he'd play in Italy if he could get 50 million dollars a year.:eek:

He gained my respect when I heard an interview with Cris Collinsworth from NBC. I loved to watch CC when he played football with the Bengals-but he lost my admiration when he spoke to KB about his patriotic spin on representing the U.S. in basketball.

KB said he was proud of the U.S. and said that it was the best country on earth. CC then called him out by saying something about it not being a time to be so rah-rah about the U.S. given the view of the world about us.

KB came back and told him he had no problem with being patriotic. I don't understand why people can't get over the political BS for 17 days every four years....:rolleyes:

[smokey the elder]

I think it's so neat how "older" athletes are excelling. Dara Torres, 41 years old, 3 silver medals... the 38 year old Rumanian marathoner...a 33 year old gymnast from Germany by way of the USSR, silver medal in the vault. There's a lady shooter who's 56, and a sailor who's around 60 years old.

[RICHARD]

In 2012 send an all women's team. Forget the men.:D;)

[Logan]

I've had so much fun watching everything I possibly can. I've truly loved it all. I think it has been one of the most popular olympics in a long time.

[RICHARD]

I've had so much fun watching everything I possibly can. I've truly loved it all. I think it has been one of the most popular olympics in a long time.

IF you get a chance, go.

I have been to rowing/canoeing, wrestling and baseball.

It's one of the most wonderful, exciting things to experience. It's magical and there is nothing like it on the planet. The host city shines and it sounds really stupid, but, you can feel the energy in the air.

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One of the NBC affiliates is doing an Olympic replay on 9/8/08 :)
I didn't get to see some of the sports that I wanted, track cycling, shooting, archery, indoor volleyball and rowing/canoeing.:cool:

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I am not a huge futbol fan, but I watched the whole America/Brazil game.
Field Hockey? I watched! Team Handball? Loved it! Archery? missed it!:(
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One of the announcers was talking about the 'drive' that the athletes have to win a medal. One team -think it was the men's beach VB team- talked about how it was a failure to go home with nothing less than a gold medal.

That made me kinda sad because of the fact that out of the thousands of athletes that go, a very few will ever make it to the podium.

India won their first medal, ever, in air gun, I think it was Pakistan that won their first medal ever in wrestling. THe stories of how one athlete from a country that you only hear about on a game show as the answer to "Which Pacific island country is the chief exporter of Komodo Dragon dung?" wins a bronze medal in 10 meter air pistol and becomes a national hero.:)

He gets a nice parade, a state dinner and a postage stamp with his picture on it.

Mike Phelps gets 10 zillion dollars, a pic on a corn flake box and never has to buy dinner in a restaurant again.

What is more impressive? Some 'amateur' athlete that makes 5 million a year in
endorsements to swim? Or a guy that works in a gas station for 12 hours, goes home and trains next to the pig sty behind his house lifting buckets of slop so he can compete in weight lifting?

I love my country and will get all goose-bumpy when we win and the National Anthem plays.

But I have to admit, the guy with the wacky name that consists of more vowels than consonants, the flag that isn't color coordinated or comes from country that has a name that ends in a vowel, ends in "stan" or can only be found on a map - if you know where to look - really impresses me.

I like the underdog. I like the country with a Jamaican Bobsled team, Eddie the Eagle, a one legged swimmer?

I do remember the Swiss runner that stumbled into the Los Angeles Coliseum at the end of the of woman's marathon. I remember her name -Gabriela Scheiss- not because she won or placed. She wobbled onto the track and I thought she was going to die. She looked like she had a stroke. But, she kept on trucking. Joan Benoit won that race, the first woman's marathon ever, but the gal in the red running shorts and shirt was the real winner that day-she's probably living a nice life in Switzerland now and get's embarrassed every four years when the Games start again. But she left an impression on me-and a few other people-it wasn't a real elegant, athletic way to be remembered, but there were four letters that really didn't matter to her that day.

Q-U-I-T.

Beijing may have not been the best place to hold an event like the Games.
But I'll follow them no matter where they are held.

I'll go back one day.

I figure four years is enough to find out all about Togo. ;)

[Grace]

I like so many of the events, some that are not on the front line. I really enjoy the 10 meter divers. That Chinese gal last night - her last dive was nearly perfect.

I enjoy the rowing events, especially the eights with coxswain. I would have liked to have seen some sailing.

Overall, I prefer the Winter Games - more personal, fewer competitors. Does anyone remember Lilliehammer in 1994 - perfection!

[RICHARD]

The Games have been great!

My only problems were with the announcers that were doing the events from NEW YORK!

What's up with that?


THere also is a gal doing the overnight hosting duties-Alex something. Her voice is pretty harsh.

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The last thing is why NBC had to include that no talent schmuck, Tiki Barber.

What a waste of airtime.

I was watching last week on the 12th when he got into an arguement with the two women and Brian Williams about the medal counts.

IT was a spirited discussion about what counts more-gold or total medals won.

One of the women said that it was the total medals that counted, than she asked BW what he thought about it. BW said that it was the total medal count.

Tiki (who thinks of these names, anyway?) who thinks that gold counts more, got ticked that the gals took BW's side. He then said something like
"Gold medal count" -without the 'o' in count- to both the women who were arguing their points.

The anchorwoman, who picked up on TB's remark, emphasized that it was GOLD MEDAL COUNT...

Barber has little talent and try to pass himself off as a somekind of cool dude.
You really can't help but see that he's nothing but a turd in host's clothing.

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Winter Olympics?

Short track speed skating, bobsled, biathalon, speedskating and cross country,
hockey and curling!

The 'extreme' sports are really stupid - dowhill halfpipe sledding and crashing?:rolleyes: The new sports like BMX, snowboarding and such are just crash and burn sports. You fall, fracture a bone and say, 'gnarly, dude!' There are the X Games held every year for them. Keep the Games as original and sporting as possible!

[RICHARD]

ON September 8th the Paralympics will begin in Beijing.

Those athletes will not get the recognition of the able bodied Olympians but they deserve a look see.

During the Barcelona opening does anyone remember the ABSOLUTE BEST torch lighting?

I seem to remember that the archer who lit the torch had polio.

That a great honor....anyway, remember and give them a little of your time.
The do more with alot less-Gold bless them!

[Grace]

Oh boy - never mind the LES. I was flat out bawling when the women won the gold today in basketball. There stood Lisa Leslie, with her previous 3 Gold Medals around her neck - waiting for the 4th.


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On another subject - in my next life I want a job like that of Mary Carillo. What an interesting time she has had. I could pass on the scorpions on a stick, but the rest of the venues have been fascinating. This afternoon she did one on Eric Liddell, Gold Medal winner in the 400m in Paris, 1924. His story was chronicled in the movie Chariots of Fire.

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Bryan Clay, Japanese-African-American. Gold Medal in the Decathlon. There used to be so much attention paid to this competition - now not so much. Too bad, this is one very nice guy.

[RICHARD]

I have stopped watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics....They are sad because I have to wait four years to have fun watching, If you go to any event on the Saturday before you can feel the party starting to slow down.

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I like the fact that the official flag is the same one that flies over every city....

I look forward to seeing it in Vancouver!

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Despite all of the 'problems' it was a great 17 days......but, where did they go?

Now it's back to baseball, football and car racing.......:eek:

[RICHARD]

I was watching a bit of the closing ceremonies and the camera caught the Lopez kids who all won medals in the judo competition.

THe announcer then stated that they were coached by their former brother.

Hmmmmmm.

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Do the closing ceremonies look more like a Disneyland Main Street parade more and more?:confused:

[Logan]

I still stand by my original thought, that the whole thing was exceptional! Of course, I say that every 4 years. ;) Just to be there for a little of it makes me envious. And I agree, Mary Carillo did some really neat things in her reporting. I like the way she and Bob Costas mesh, as if they are really good friends. They may be for all I know!

18 months until we get to see the Olympics again, winter sports, in Vancouver! :)

Richard, it is good that you took advatage of having the Olympics in LA and took in some of the events. I wish I had tried harder to attend some in Atlanta in 1996. I was there the weekend after they ended, just to enjoy some of the sights, but of course, it wasn't the same.