Nigeria’s 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Blessing Okagbare of University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) is one of four track and field women athletes nominated for the Collegiate Women Sports Award presented by Honda to the top NCAA Division I female athletes in their sport.
Okagbare becomes the first UTEP athlete to be nominated for the [...]
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Bahrain athlete Rashid Ramzi, who won gold in the 1500m and Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, who won a silver, are among the six athletes who are found positive for doping in retesting of Beijing samples.
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Amy Lyn Acuff (born July 14, 1975, Port Arthur, Texas) is an athlete from the United States. An aggressive high jump competitor, Acuff competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics as a member of USA Track and Field and is a three-time Olympian. Her personal best is 2.01 m, which she achieved in Zürich on 2003-08-15.
Acuff is also known for her career as a model, including multiple cover appearances.
The Omni Lie Millennium Calender of Champions 2000
Taxpayers in Vancouver may have to pay for building the 2010 Winter Olympics‘ main athletes’ village after private funding dried up amid rising costs and a slowing economy, officials said on Friday.
The city said it was committed to completing the C$1 billion ($840 million) project in time for the Games in February 2010, but was struggling to renegotiate financing for the complex that will house up to 2,800 Olympic competitors.
“The Olympic village is a billion dollar project, and the city’s on the hook for all of it,” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters. “It’s a bitter pill for taxpayers to swallow.”
The project’s original financing called for the athletes’ accommodations to be built by a private developer on city land, with the units converted into regular housing that would be sold off after the Olympics to pay for it.
The facility near Vancouver’s downtown is being built by privately held Millennium Development, which would also buy the land from the city after the Olympics.
The project lenders, led by U.S.-based Fortress Investment Group, stopped advancing money to Millennium in September amid rising construction costs and fears that Vancouver’s slowing housing market meant real estate sales would not pay off the loan.
City officials said Vancouver may now end up paying for the project because it agreed in 2007 to guarantee the loan to Millennium. The city did so by promising Fortress it would complete the project in time for the Olympics if Millennium was unable to do.
Robertson, who was elected mayor in November, accused the city’s previous administration of trying to hide that agreement from the public.
The funding cut-off in September forced the city to lend Millennium C$100 million ($84 million) so construction could continue. That money will be exhausted in mid-January.
City officials said they did not question Fortress’ decision to cut off funding and added they believed a new financing deal could be reached with the lender.
Fortress officials were not available for comment.
The amount of money the city eventually loses on the deal would depend on how much real estate prices have recovered in 2010, city officials said.
Fortress also owns resort operator Intrawest Corp that runs the Whistler ski area north of Vancouver where alpine ski events will be held in 2010. The Games will have a smaller athlete village in Whistler that is funded separately.
($1 = $1.19 Canadian)
source: reuters.com
As athletes stroke the sporting gold at the Beijing Olympic Games, those big-name sporting brands hope that the effort or cash spent in preparation for the Games would also be proved lucrative. However, sometimes, things are unpredictable, just like “anything is possible”.
Being one of the of ficial sponsors, Adidas, involved with the Games since 1928, determined to secure a bigger slice of the Chinese market, where it is in strong competition with Nike.
“The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will serve as a platform for the brand to become the leading sports brand in China,” said Erica Kerner, director of Adidas’s Beijing 2008 Olympic program me. Through a combination of TV, pr int , outdoor, public relations, digital, point-of-sale and roadshows across the country, the”Im possible is Nothing” Olympic marketing campaign aims to bring sport engagement with Chinese consumers to a new level”.
Especial ly on July 5, Adidas opened its largest Brand Center worldwide, with a size of 3,170m² occupying four floors, inside the new Sanlitun Village Shopping Center in Beijing, featuring a range of unique interact ive elements that will provide consumers with a truly special retail experience.
IT’s a strange world in which Michael Phelps can win a record eight Olympic gold medals and still be challenged for pre-eminence in the year of the Beijing Games.
But a bolt from the blue Caribbean, in the shape of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, managed to drag the spotlight from the Water Cube to the Bird’s Nest, as two of history’s greatest athletes framed the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge declared the two men the “icons of the Games”.
In a record-breaking year for records, the pair were also the foremost exponents of the art of going where no athlete has gone before.
Appropriately for the first Olympics staged in China, Phelps and Bolt represented the Yin and Yang of great champions — the swimmer and the runner, water and earth, a diet of 12,000 calories a day versus chicken nuggets for breakfast. Phelps lit up the Games by day (thanks to NBC’s insistence on morning finals in the pool) and Bolt by night.
But where Phelps’ triumphant march was expected, even demanded (NBC was counting on it), Bolt’s sudden rise to superstardom was a joyous gift for his troubled sport, beset by doping scandals which had tarnished its credibility along with some once-great names.
It takes a huge talent to hold 90,000 people in thrall but Bolt captured them at the Bird’s Nest from the moment he dashed down the straight to win the 100m in a world record 9.69sec, becoming the fastest man on the planet, despite a side-stepping celebration over the last 20m that may have cost him up to 0.1sec.
But Bolt’s Calypso rhythm and youthful exuberance brought much-needed star quality to the main stadium.
The only time that 21-year-old Bolt was deadly serious was when he stepped onto the blocks for the 200m final. A 200m specialist as a junior competitor, he was desperate to break his hero Michael Johnson’s lauded world record of 19.32sec from Atlanta in 1996.
Bolt ran the half-lap with his eyes only on that mark and every fast-twitch fibre straining forward, stopping the clock in an astonishing 19.30sec.
And he wasn’t finished there. The showman of the Games then combined with former world 100m record-holder Asafa Powell and his Jamaican team-mates to set a third world record in the 4×100m relay.
His name was attached to three of the five world records to fall at the Bird’s Nest.
If Bolt was the king of the track, Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva was the queen of the air, after she soared to a world record of 5.05m in the pole vault to clinch her second successive Olympic gold medal.
Usain Bolt let those long legs loose at the Bird’s Nest, and he left Beijing with three Olympic gold medals, three world records and hundreds of millions of new fans around the world.
Virtually unknown at the start of the year, the Jamaican sprinter was the star of the track in 2008, first setting a world record in the 100 meters at the end of May and then lowering the mark to 9.69 seconds at the Olympics. A few days later, he set a 200 record of 19.30, taking two hundredths of a second off the mark set by Michael Johnson at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
To cap it off, the 1.96-meter (6-foot-5) Bolt helped Jamaica win gold in the 4×100 relay — again in world-record time.
“I’m Lightning Bolt. I’m not Flash Gordon or anybody,” Bolt said after the 200. “My name is Lightning Bolt.”
Two of the greatest distance runners of all time also had stellar years, with Kenenisa Bekele winning both the 5,000 and 10,000 at the Olympics. In the longer race, the Ethiopian great beat 1996 and 2000 Olympic 10,000 champion Haile Gebrselassie, who only competed in that event after opting out of the marathon because of pollution fears.
But Gebrselassie’s sixth-place finish in Beijing didn’t stop him from breaking his own world record in the marathon, lowering that mark to 2:03:59 in Berlin in September.
“I knew I can do something here in Berlin because since I started running, Berlin is my lucky city,” said Gebrselassie, a three-time Berlin Marathon champion who had set the previous world record at the race in 2007.
In women’s competition, Yelena Isinbayeva was undefeated outdoors in 2008, defending her Olympic pole vault title in Beijing with one of her four world records this year — three outside and one inside.
“I love to be alone at the top,” Isinbayeva said after raising the outdoor world record to 5.05 meters in Beijing.
Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu was named athlete of the year by the British Olympic Association on Saturday, a year after she overturned the organization’s ban for a doping violation.
The 24-year-old Londoner beat favourite Sanya Richards at August’s Beijing Games to become Britain’s first ever female Olympic gold medallist over 400 metres.
Ohuruogu was banned for 12 months after missing three out-of-competition doping tests from October 2005 to July 2006, and had to win a court battle to overturn her lifetime BOA ban.
UK Athletics had said she was guilty of a technical offence and welcomed her onto the Beijing team, but Ohuruogu’s achievements have consistently been overshadowed.
She won the world championship in Osaka, Japan, in August 2007 barely weeks after returning to competition.
source: google.com
taly’s triumphant Olympic fencers are using their fighting skills to stay in the limelight and promote their sport now that interest has waned after the Beijing Games.
The fencing team drew wide attention after it brought home two individual gold, two individual bronze and three team bronze medals.
The swashbucklers have used media appearances at home to great effect, knowing that soon the focus will return to more traditionally popular sports like soccer and auto racing.
Diego Confalonieri, who won bronze in the team épée, wants to avoid the fate of most smaller Olympic sports that must wait until the 2012 Games in London for another 15 minutes of fame.
Few people know about Lindsey Van, just as few had heard of Stacy Dragila before she became famous at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The U.S. Olympic Committee named Van athlete of the month for October. The ski jumper had just won her 13th national championship on Oct. 11. She holds the record for longest jump among men or women.
Unfortunately for Van and for the USA, ski jumping is the only sport in which women will not be competing at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Van says it is her last shot at the Olympics and that her sport would draw a following as passionate as women’s pole vault did when Dragila was first permitted to compete in on the Olympic stage eight years ago.
Nearly everyone involved, except members of the International Olympic Committee, would like to see Van stand at the gate at the top of the hill, slide down the runway and get her shot at a gold medal in 2010. The IOC executive board said no in 2006, citing “their development is still in the early stage thus lacking the international spread of participation and technical standard required for an event to be included.”
Michael Phelps was named Athlete of the Year last night by USA Swimming at the annual Golden Goggle Awards, which recognize outstanding achievement in the pool for American athletes.
Phelps was something of a shoo-in for the award after winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, but the 23-year-old Fells Point resident was happy to take a night off from his busy traveling schedule to celebrate the honor.
He also received an award for Performance of the Year for his victory in the 100-meter butterfly, as well as one for being a part of the men’s 400relay.
“It’s been an awesome run,” Phelps said. “I’ve had so much support, from my family, my coach and my friends. My coach, in particular, has put up with a lot. I look forward to seeing what we can do in the future.”
Phelps took some time to talk about his business partnership with his coach, Bob Bowman, and the recent announcement that the duo had purchased the business side of the Meadowbrook Aquatic Center, as well as control of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. It’s something Bowman and Phelps had talked about for more than a year before deciding to go forward with their plan.
A group of women ski jumpers who are suing to have their sport included in the 2010 Winter Olympics received a boost from a Canadian athlete on Wednesday.
Zoya Lynch, a 17-year-old member of Canada’s national team, joined the lawsuit that includes 10 female athletes, most from the United States and Europe, who want women’s ski jumping included at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. No other current members of the team are part of the lawsuit.
Marie-Pierre Morin, 26, a retired ski jumper, is the only other Canadian involved in the lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee.
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“As a Canadian, I don’t want to stand on the sidelines watching the boys compete. The Olympics is where I want to be,” said Lynch, as she stood outside the Vancouver courthouse where her name was added to list of women ski jumpers suing VANOC.
“I just feel we’re being discriminated against because we’re girls,” Lynch said.
At issue is whether women ski jumpers are being discriminated against by being barred from competing at the Games. The plaintiffs argue that allowing men’s ski jumping but not women’s violates their equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The International Olympic Committee has said its decision to exclude women’s ski jumping at the Vancouver Games is based on “technical merit” and isn’t discriminatory. In 2006 the IOC voted not to allow women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Games, saying the sport has not developed enough and that it didn’t meet basic criteria for inclusion.
A tournament field of 204 golfers from 24 U.S. Special Olympics programs was joined by family, friends, volunteers, local dignitaries and golf organization executives from across the country to amass nearly 500 participants in Friday night’s Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics Golf National Invitational Tournament. The ninth annual tournament will be conducted at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie through Monday, Oct. 6, 2008.
The PGA of America is a five-time host of the national tournament at PGA Golf Club and a 20-year sponsor of the Special Olympics golf program.
Tonight’s program began with the “parade of athletes” where team mates from 24 U.S. Special Olympics chapters marched into the opening ceremony in a tradition synonymous with the Olympics Games.
Emcee responsibilities for the event were shared by Special Olympics global messenger and Port St. Lucie golfer Alex Perry who was joined by Jupiter resident Tim Rosaforte, who is a senior writer for Golf Digest, on-air contributor for the Golf Channel and NBC Sports and a New York Times Best-Selling author.
Michael Phelps who claimed a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympic Games said it was harder for him to learn Chinese than to win swimming races.
Before the American came to China for the 2008 Games he seriously took a few Chinese lessons. A popular online video shows how hard he tries to imitate the voice of a Chinese learning multimedia software in saying such basic words as “guo zhi” (juice), “nan hai’er” (boy) and “nu hai’er” (girl).
But still, the 23-year-old rated his Chinese language studies as the most difficult thing he had tried in his life. “Learning Mandarin is even harder than winning eight gold medals in the pool.”
In primary school Phelps took French and German courses, but the swimming ace said, “all the words, characters and pronunciations in Mandarin are so different. All of them are hard to manage.”
He was not the only star athlete trying to learn some Chinese language and culture. When gymnast Nastia Liukin arrived back home in Dallas, Texas, with five medals around her neck, the Russian-born blonde appeared in front of her reception wearing a black T-shirt with two big Chinese characters “Beijing” in the front. (blog)
“The Beijing Olympics have brought world attention to the Chinese civilization and further enhanced the utility of the Chinese language worldwide,” said Zhao Guocheng, the Office of Chinese Language Council International (OCLCI) deputy director general.
An Olympic star has admitted assaulting a man in a bar-room fight. The athlete was granted diversion by the court and his identity is a secret.
It is understood officials in the sport were briefed on the incident but it was unclear last night whether New Zealand Olympic officials had also been made aware of the matter.
Suppression orders prevent the Herald on Sunday from revealing the name of the high-profile sportsman, or his sport, but can confirm he competed at the Beijing Olympics.
The athlete and a fellow international sportsman were jointly charged with assault with intent to injure, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
But the serious charge was later downgraded to common assault for the 2006 incident, shortly after the sportsman competed at an international level for New Zealand.
He was dealt with by the courts last year, following the incident during a night out in a New Zealand city.
Last night the athlete and the victim had conflicting stories as to how the fight started.
The victim told the Herald on Sunday the two athletes approached him and a friend in a bar and asked if the pair were gay.
“We said no and tried to laugh it off. But they kept on persisting and making fun of us.
“Eventually I said to [the Olympian]: ‘What about you? You are wearing a pink polo shirt – you must be gay’.”
He said the Olympic athlete then punched him in the mouth and he fell back, hitting his head on a railing.
However, the athlete, through a family friend, said that the victim had started the fight by prodding him in the chest and then slapping him in the face. The athlete had asked the victim about an earring he was wearing and this was taken the wrong way. He had considered pleading self-defence.
The victim claimed the other sportsman then punched the victim’s friend in the face, breaking his jaw, before kicking the victim in the head while he was on the ground. “I was on the floor. There were lots of cuts and blood everywhere.”
The university student said the name suppression “bugs me”.
“I wasn’t happy. He has excelled, he is a hero, everyone thinks he’s a typical Kiwi bloke. But no one knows what he did.”
The athlete was granted diversion after admitting the assault charge, avoiding a conviction as a result.
The Olympic athlete has this year been one of dozens of recipients of a sought-after Prime Minister’s Scholarship. The taxpayer-funded scheme grants athletes up to $10,000 to put towards university fees and $6000 in living allowances.
Sparc chief executive Peter Miskimmin was not available to answer questions as to whether the assault was disclosed in the application, or if it would have jeopardised his chances of receiving the cash award.
A conviction for assault would have jeopardised his chances of representing New Zealand at international level because of overseas visa regulations in different countries.
His companion – a New Zealand representative who also has name suppression – pleaded guilty and was later convicted and discharged. He paid a $3000 fine to the victim.
Court diversion is a scheme by which police withdraw charges if the defendant admits the offending of a minor nature.
When contacted yesterday, the Olympian at the centre of the incident initially denied any knowledge of the incident.
“I think you have got the wrong guy… I don’t know where you got this from,” he said. In a later call, he said he had no comment.
It was confirmed yesterday the Olympian informed his sport’s governing body about the matter shortly after being charged.
The athlete concerned had explained that an altercation had taken place at a bar, punches were thrown and “someone was hurt”, said a person with links to the sporting organisation.
source: nzherald.co.nz
IF Australia’s wheelchair basketballers roll to a medal in Beijing, Brad Ness won’t have much time to celebrate.
Barely a week after the Games end, Ness is due back with his team in Europe, where growing numbers of disabled players are breaking down barriers as full-time professionals.
With a comfortable salary and a free car, apartment and other perks thrown in by his Rome club, athletes such as Ness are enjoying some of the rewards and recognition of able-bodied counterparts.
“Guys are able to live by playing their sport. It’s every athlete’s dream,” said Ness, who has been Australia’s top scorer at the Paralympics.
Ness played the last two seasons in Taranto, where players are local celebrities.
“In Taranto, everyone recognises you and you’re in the paper regularly. We get up to 2000 people at home games. It’s a great atmosphere. You really get the love there,” Ness said.
Pro leagues are already well-established in Spain and Italy, but other countries such as France, Germany and Turkey are also getting into the act.
Professional opportunities in Paralympic sports remain rare, with the basketballers, a handful of track-and-field athletes and competitors on the world wheelchair tennis tour the only ones to have made it big on pro tours.
“Down in Oz it’s still seen as an amateur sport, almost a disabled sport. You only have to come and watch a game to see that we are athletes and we play hard,” Ness said.
The exposure of the Paralympics makes them a proving ground for aspiring professional players, said South Africa’s top scorer Nicholas Taylor.
“(The Paralympics) give us the sort of competition we need to really prove ourselves at the international level and show pro teams in Europe we can hold our own,” said Taylor, who plays semi-pro basketball in Australia.
Catching the attention of a European club can mean salaries of up to E6000 ($8500) a month. Free cars and apartments are typically provided and clubs also pick up incidental costs including international airfares.
“(The packages) are not as much as an (able-bodied) player, but it’s nothing to scoff at,” said Australia’s Shaun Norris, who has two seasons in the Italian leagues under his belt and will switch to a Madrid club after the Games.
“They try to make you just concentrate on basketball and that’s it. That’s what’s so great — to not have a job and just make it 100 per cent basketball and become an even better player.”
from: theaustralian.news.com.au
Result of paralympic women’s 5000m race withdrawn after wheelchair crash
The result of the women’s 5000m T54 race of the Beijing Paralympics was withdrawn and a re-run was ordered after the race was marred by a crash, organizers said on Monday.
Switzerland’s Hunkeler Edith was disqualified and the Jury of Appeal.
Appeal has ordered the re-run of the race to be held on Sept. 12, according to a brief statement on the Beijing Paralympic website.
But the statement did not give further details.
An official from the organization committee said the Jury of Appeal made the decision after some competitors filed appeal.
The crash of athlete’s wheelchairs in Monday’s women’s 5000m race led to the injury of three athletes.
Only five out of the 11 competitors finished the race. Diane Roy of Canada ended first.
Australia’s Paralympic team is aiming to take its all-time medal tally over 1000 at the Beijing Games starting on Saturday.
The team of 170 athletes – 96 men and 74 women – which flew out from Sydney today is the largest team Australia has sent overseas for a Paralympic Games.
And the Australian Paralympic Committee is confident it can collect the 92 medals it needs to take Australia’s tally to 1000 over the past 48 years.
“Its a hard task, but we’re in the running for that and we could win the 1000th medal in these Games,” committee CEO Darren Peters said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
No more specific medal projections would be made so as not to place extra pressure on athletes already feeling the weight of expectation, he said.
The athletes will have a few days to acclimatise to conditions in Beijing before the 13th Paralympic Games, which run from September 6 to 17.
At the Paralympics in Athens in 2004, Australia won 100 medals and came fifth overall with 26 gold, 38 silver and 36 bronze.
China topped the medal tally with 63 gold and 141 medals overall and is expected to considerably exceed their 2004 tally at their home Paralympics.
The team’s best-known athlete Kurt Fearnley, who won gold in the wheelchair marathon in Athens, was impatient to get started.
“It’s been four years in waiting,” Fearnley told AAP.
“I’m putting myself in for individual medals and hopefully I’m on the higher end of the medals.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s wife Therese Rein, an honorary member of the Paralympic team, was at the airport to wish them luck.
“The team is brilliant and the atmosphere and support between athletes is amazing,” she said.
“They’ve all trained really hard and I’m sure they’re going to do brilliantly.”
Ms Rein’s father was an Australian Paralympic athlete in the 1950s.
“He was an archer, he played wheelchair basketball, he played tennis and he swam,” said Ms Rein.
“Sports was really meaningful for him and helped him to be the best he could be.”
Australian Paralympic Committee chairman Greg Hartung said the team was the best away team Australia had ever assembled.
“They are big on talent and big on toughness and we will expect our athletes to perform at peak value for Australia,” he said.
source: smh.com.au
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