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/st...47046?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.


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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!

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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.