Olympic Times – Sports Daily

First lady Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron, wife of British Primer Minister David Cameron, talk with United States Women's National Soccer Team midfielder Lori Ann Lindsey, left, and defender Becky Sauerbrunn as they join with students participating in a mini-Olympics competition in celebration of the 2012 London Summer Olympics and Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative, Tuesday, March 13, 2012 in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

After-school sports got a new spin Tuesday as first lady Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron led a group of fifth-graders through a mini-Olympics.

They were joined by former Olympians Dominique Dawes and Lisa Leslie, as well as Paralympian Kortney Clemons, who lost his leg while fighting in Iraq. At the event, they stressed the hard work and determination that got them to the games — but not before the 55 fifth-graders from three Washington-area schools cycled through stations where they played basketball, soccer and tennis. There were also machines to simulate swimming, and a section of the gym was dedicated to a relay race.
Obama and Cameron, the wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who’s in Washington this week for an official visit, billed the event at an American University gym as an advance celebration of this summer’s London games.

“I’m particularly excited that the Camerons are visiting our country this week,” the first lady said, “because as it turns out, I will be visiting their country this summer.”

The White House announced Tuesday that Obama will lead the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games in London. First ladies often lead the U.S. delegation — Hillary Clinton led the American group at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and Laura Bush led the U.S. delegation to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Obama dovetailed into her “Let’s Move” initiative, which promotes exercise and healthful eating for children.

“In the months ahead, I’ll be talking to Americans all across the country to encourage even more young people to tap into that Olympic spirit and turn their inspiration into action,” the first lady said.

Obama has in recent months taken on a higher-profile role in promoting the two-year-old initiative. She went on a multistate tour to mark the anniversary last month and has appeared on television with celebrities, including Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres. Next week, she will appear on “The Late Show With David Letterman.”

At the event Tuesday, the first lady urged the students to find things they’re passionate about, whether sports or other activities.

“You are all champions in our minds,” Leslie, a Women’s National Basketball Association player who won four gold medals as part of the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team, told the kids before a ceremony in which they were all given medals. “You do not have to be an Olympian or a Paralympian to be active and to be healthy. Whether you play sports or not, we’re really encouraging you to do that with ‘Let’s Move’”

Other Olympians at the event included tennis player MaliVai Washington, soccer players Lori Lindsey and Becky Sauerbrunn, runner Benita Fitzgerald Mosley and decathlete Dan O’Brien. Paralympians April Holmes and John Register and tennis player David Wagner, who plays in a wheelchair, were also on hand.

At one point, Dawes, who competed in three games, asked the kids to list the sports included in the summer games. Kids shouted basketball, swimming and track; one suggested yoga.

“That’s not an Olympic sport — yet,” she said. “That would be awesome.”

Read the full story and more at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73970.html

Ian Thorpe of Australia swims during the Australian swim team training session ahead of the 2011 FINA World Cup at Singapore Sports School.

Already under enormous pressure to break into Australia’s Olympic swimming team as the headline act of this week’s national trials, Ian Thorpe was forced to wade into controversy on Wednesday over preferential payments made to marquee swimmers.

Local media have reported disaffection within Australia’s swimming ranks over alleged preferential funding benefiting former Olympic champions on the comeback trail like Thorpe, Michael Klim and Libby Trickett in the days leading up to the trials that start on Thursday.

Reports have questioned the value of funding Thorpe’s comeback ambitions, which has entailed providing individualised training overseas in Switzerland and the Middle East, while other front-line swimmers have trained at home and shared coaches.

Thorpe denied receiving preferential funding, which local media have estimated cost Swimming Australia A$150,000 ($158,000) — up to 10 times the amount given to other swimmers.

“Firstly, I haven’t been paid a cent,” five-time Olympic champion Thorpe told reporters at the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre, the venue for the trials that start on Thursday. “Its been clarified by a number of people that what’s been reported isn’t factual.

“There’s been a number of athletes who’ve been Olympic champions or world record holders who have been supported by Swimming Australia.

“The funding that’s come from that is not dissimilar as to what’s been funded for other people in this sport.

“There hasn’t been any preferential treatment, as such, given.

“There may be a higher cost because I’m training outside (Australia) and it’s not shared amongst a number of athletes, that’s it.”

Thorpe, whose image dominates promotional material at the meeting and around South Australia’s state capital, has attracted a huge media presence to the trials, despite the swimmer all but writing off his chances to make the team.

He will compete in the 100 and 200 metres freestyle events, with most pundits forecasting his only hopes of selection for London lie in cobbling a spot on the relay teams.

Swimming Australia has conceded Thorpe’s programme overseas may have cost more than preparing domestically-trained swimmers but has pointed to the raised attention the swimmer’s comeback has brought back to the sport.

A flop of their headline act in the trials would nonetheless be an embarrassment for the governing body, whose head coach Leigh Nugent has backed Thorpe to the hilt and shot back at critics that have said the swimmer left his run too late to be fit for London.

Thorpe was offering little comfort on Wednesday, two days before he swims the 200 freestyle heats.

“I’m not sure how fast I can go at this stage and like most of the other athletes here, I am nervous about the upcoming days,” the 11-times world champion said.

“It’s going to have be much faster than what I’ve swum previously.

“What I said was that I’d come to terms with, this is what could happen, that I more than likely could fail in this.

“But once you can kind of accept that you can let yourself go and be able to do what’s necessary to be able to prepare and be able to train without having that level of fear in what you’re trying to accomplish.

“I’m probably as confident as I’ve been in my preparation, I’m happy with how I’ve trained recently and I’m looking forward to the competition.”

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
By Ian Ransom
source: http://www.reuters.com

This weeks Sexy Sport Hot Babe of the week is Haley Cope
Haley was born in Chico, California. Her best swimming performance was the gold medal on the 2001 world championship.
Top performances:
2001: LC World Championships – 1st 50m backstroke (28.51), 6th 50m free (25.25), 11th 100m backstroke (1:02.61)
2002: SC World Championships – 1st 100m backstroke (59.07), 2nd 50m backstroke (27.44), 4th 50m free (24.70), 2nd 4x100m medley relay (3:57.17), 4th 4x100m free relay (3:37.10), Pan Pacs – 3rd 100m backstroke (1:01.74)
2003: LC World Championships – 8th 50m backstroke (28.99), 13th 50m free (25.52), 25th 100m backstroke (1:03.45)
2004: Olympic Games – 8th 100m backstroke (1:01.76); SC World Championships – 1st 50m backstroke (27.49), 1st 100m backstroke (59.03), 2nd 4x100m medley relay (3:55.68)

Haley Cope - hot pictures (nude)

Beautiful, charitable and talented, Ana Ivanovic has battled the pretty tennis player stereotype and proved her critics wrong.
But as this 21-year-old is finding out, staying at the top can be harder than getting there.

It is in a karaoke booth that Ana Ivanovic proves she is flawed. Wearing tracksuit pants and a blue singlet top, coloured lights spinning, she twirls and waves one hand goofily in the air as she dances to a Diana Ross tune.
“Upside down you’re turning me,” Ivanovic sings out of key. “You’re giving love instinctively”.

She moves awkwardly, theatrically pulling the microphone back, as she points her finger at the camera.

She descends into giggles and resorts to miming parts of the song. Singing is something Ivanovic can’t do well. But what does it matter? This is the woman who calls up UNICEF to volunteer her services, studies economics and takes exams between grand slams. The woman who says the roguish Andrew Symonds is her favourite Australian sportsman and often decorates magazine pages like a supermodel.

She’s a sports beauty devoid of pretension, and one who has won a grand slam title. But when asked about her imperfections she insists there are many things she can’t do. “I mean I can’t sing,” Ivanovic admits through a torrent of giggles. That’s an understatement; she couldn’t hold a note in a bucket. The incriminating YouTube footage is proof.

Ana Ivanovic

“But obviously I appreciate what I have and I feel very fortunate to have what I have at a young age,” Ivanovic, 21, says. “I think it’s normal as human beings that we want more and more and more. You think: ‘Have I got everything? Can I have more?’ There’s always something. But you’ve got to appreciate, realise: ‘Hey, I’ve got so many things in my life so I should just appreciate it’. Obviously I have goals, and something more that I want to achieve, but I have to take life as it comes. I don’t need to have everything right here, right now.”

Ivanovic has graced the pages of US Vogue and models expensive watches. She has the most visited website of any sportswoman in the world, which is unsurprising as she is often voted “sexiest”, “most beautiful” and as having the “most beautiful body in sport” by various polls.
“She has everything,” her long-time manager, Dan Holzmann, says. “And she is natural. Some people are made. But with Ana we didn’t have to do anything. She is smart, has a good heart – a pretty girl who’s very competitive and fights for every ball.”

Oh yes, let’s not forget she can play. Ivanovic has won eight WTA singles titles but, of course, the highlight is her French Open win last year. During that perfect French spring Ivanovic also collected the No.1 world ranking.
She had everything. But since she cried tears of joy on clay nearly a year ago, Ivanovic has wobbled under the weight of having it all, with her ranking dropping to seven. She injured her thumb between the French Open and Wimbledon and was bundled out in the third round at the All England Club. Following that, Ivanovic failed to win back-to-back matches in her next five events including an early second round exit at the US Open. During this time she admitted being No.1 was a cross to bear. After her 12-week reign at the top she wondered how Roger Federer had survived as No.1 in the men’s game for so long.

When she bowed out of the Australian Open this year in the third round, the critics again questioned her heart and talent. Would she just be a one-slam wonder?

Ivanovic says she knew the magnitude of her French Open success last year. Her Roland Garros win relieved the burden that comes with being a beautiful and talented sportswoman. The parallels once drawn between her and Anna Kournikova were quickly dismissed.

“Yes, before definitely people were [distracted by my looks],” Ivanovic says. “I’d played disappointingly before that French Open win. People were saying: ‘Can she do it?’ It was great to make that happen. It’s one thing getting into the final, it’s another altogether winning it. That gave me a lot of confidence.” However, since winning her first grand slam title she admits she has struggled to maintain that confidence. But if anything, Ivanovic has proved that adversity is a fuel for her.

She grew up scheduling her training sessions according to when the bombs would be most likely to drop on Belgrade. She remembers as a 12-year-old she had to practise between seven and nine in the morning because from midday the bombing would start. Those dark days during NATO’s 78-day bombardment of the city amid the Kosovo crisis of 1999 were harrowing times for Ivanovic. The grief of that period aside, the tennis facilities were unconventional. In the winter Ivanovic crafted her game in an abandoned Olympic-sized swimming pool that had been drained of water, carpeted and converted into an indoor court. In trying financial circumstances her parents, Dragana, a lawyer, and Miroslav, a businessman, still managed to support her tennis dream. “My family was in a very tough situation, my country was in a very bad place,” Ivanovic says. “They were some very hard years [but] my parents always supported me.
I was just this kid who wanted to play and people were finding it hard to survive.”

During the spring of 1999, Ivanovic spent four months sheltering from the air raids. She remembers her crippling fear as she heard the bombs and felt the building shake. Despite the bombardment her family refused to tuck themselves away in the cellar. They filled the house with “positive” people and made an effort to remain emotionally resilient. Ivanovic now wears her positivity like an armour.

While many sports stars may sour with success, Ivanovic has not changed. She’s a walking Disneyland. Ivanovic bubbles through press conferences and even the most inane questions don’t trouble her cheery demeanour. “Yeah, I always have been like this,” Ivanovic says. “Ever since I was a kid I’ve always thought it very important to be happy inside. There’s a lot of bad things happening in the world, but it’s important to try to stay happy and appreciate what you’ve got and don’t look externally for the happiness.”

Her parents have been the key to her attitude and success, says Holzmann. “If you met her parents you’d know she’s their daughter,” he says. “I have met many tennis parents on the tour and some of them are so crazy and manipulative.”

Everything changed for Ivanovic when, as a 14-year-old, she met Holzmann, a Swiss businessman with a passion for tennis. His tennis coach told him about Ivanovic, whose sponsor was facing bankruptcy, so the teenager and her mother flew to Switzerland for a visit.

In their first meeting, Holzmann remembers Ivanovic having “warm eyes” but a steely determination. “She knew what she wanted,” Holzmann says. “She said to me: ‘I want to be No.1.’ And I believed her.
I believed this 14-year-old girl.”

Holzmann, who had made his riches from the vitamin drink Juice Plus, decided to finance and manage Ivanovic’s career. However, her first match with Holzmann on her side was a disaster. She lost. This led to tears and a locker room lock in. He had travelled to Milan to watch Ivanovic and she was devastated that she had failed. She sobbed for hours. “She wanted to prove she was great,” Holzmann says. “She thought I was going to cancel her contract.”

During the next few years Holzmann spent $500,000 on Ivanovic’s career. Within two years of becoming a pro, she had repaid his investment. Today, the pair have a sturdy friendship. He is kept busy helping manage her multi-million-dollar empire, seeking the right endorsement opportunities. Selling Ivanovic requires little effort. Her image is faultless and she has remained an unchanged “modest girl” since he met her seven years ago. “She’s not Little Miss Perfect but the nice thing about Ana is she is very natural. She is very different to, say, Jelena Jankovic, the Williams sisters. You look at Maria Sharapova, these people, they are thinking: ‘What can I do to be loved, to be more respected by my fans today?’
“Ana has a life outside tennis. If she didn’t play tennis she would be a doctor.”

The attention lately has also been on Ivanovic’s love life. In the past she has dated Spanish player Fernando Verdasco and she was recently linked to Australian golfer Adam Scott. The pair are both brand ambassadors for Rolex and are said to have “hooked up” in the last Australian summer. Her management states the pair are “friends”. For now there is no significant other. The only man Ivanovic has recently brought into her life is American coach Craig Kardon. It’s the first time in two years she has employed a full-time coach. In her first tournament in February under Kardon’s tuition she defeated Alisa Kleybanova, the Russian who had rubbed her out of the 2009 Australian Open. “We have a firm view of how my game should develop,” she says.

Holzmann says Kardon could be just the man she needs, reflecting on her slump after the French Open. “It was tough,” Holzmann says. “A lot happened to her; she became No.1, won a grand slam tournament. Once you get there it is even more difficult to stay at the top.” And she has 10 million people in Serbia watching her. Ivanovic is feted in her home country. The President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, attended her 20th birthday party.

She admits it can be hard constantly having people approach her in the street, but, Ivanovic finds good in this, saying it’s nice to be a role model. “Wherever I go many people come up to talk to me and give me advice on my shots, on my game – on everything,” Ivanovic says and then descends into another heap of giggles.

“I understand it’s how it is,” she says. “If I make a change to a young kid to play any sport, not only tennis, instead of spending time in front of the TV or computer, that is good. I want to give them a good example: ‘Hey, go out and play and see the world’.”

Although the tennis road may have been bumpy, Ivanovic says, in her optimistic way, that things will get better. “I want to win more grand slams. I think I’ve got the ability to achieve that, I know that I’ve got to work very hard for it. Yes, I think I’ve the game and talent to do that.”

source: www.watoday.com.au

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Jessica Gomes-Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2009
Jessica Gomes is an Australian model of Singaporean Chinese and Portuguese heritage who appeared in the 2008 & 2009 Swimsuit Issue of the United States–published magazine Sports Illustrated. She was featured in a bodypainting layout as a canvas for bodypaint artist Joanne Gair, who is in her tenth year of producing bodypaint art for the Swimsuit Issue. She was part of a record group of seven “rookie” Swimsuit Issue models, along with Quiana Grant, Melissa Haro, Yasmin Brunet, Melissa Baker, Jeisa Chiminazzo and Jarah Mariano.
Her father is from Portugal and her mother is from Singapore.
Jessica was born in Perth, the baby of a family that includes two older sisters, an older brother, a Portuguese father, and a Singaporean-Chinese mother. Jessica’s mother sent her to finishing school at the age of 13. It was there that she appeared on the hit TV show “Bush Patrol,” which lead to a modeling contest and the start of a successful career. She has appeared in Vogue, Teen Vogue, Glamour, and the Victoria’s Secret catalog, as well as ads for Adidas, Gap, Motorola, and DKNY. She also recently signed with Estee Lauder as the face of Diddy’s Unforgivable fragrance. When she’s not walking the catwalks, Jessica enjoys interior design, yoga, dancing, painting, gymnastics, playing tennis, squash, surfing, swimming, and boxing. She currently lives in NYC.

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Is the Olympics sexist?

Tessa Jowell seems to think so. The Olympics minister has raised the spectre of “gender discrepancies” at the 2012 games in London, specifically the fact that men will compete in 164 events, compared with 124 for women. Perhaps predictably, the Daily Mail has already made a sneery reference to “the equality Olympics” and many have chosen to concentrate on the prospect of men adopting the only two all-female Olympic sports, synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics (the one where you wear a leotard and throw hula-hoops in the air).

Jowell is of course thinking more of boxing, the only totally female-free Olympic sport, not to mention canoeing, cycling, rowing, shooting and wrestling, which offer fewer medal events for women for no apparent reason other than that’s the way it’s always been. After the 2008 games the cyclist Victoria Pendleton pointed out that while Chris Hoy was able to compete for three gold medals on the track, as a woman she got just the one shot. This seems both unfair and pointless. Women’s cycling is as much an elite sport as the men’s event, and its under-representation seems to be based solely in genteel – and largely historical – reservations about ladies going fast on bikes.

There is another side to this. Current estimates suggest there are no more than 60 female wrestlers in the whole of Britain. It’s hard to make much of a case here for instant elevation, particularly with professional sports such as darts and the now-demoted baseball lobbying for their own inclusion.

In any case, the makeup of the 2012 programme is a matter solely for the International Olympic Committee, an organisation that pursues its own labyrinthine agenda largely unhindered by the opinions of UK cabinet ministers. Plus, the IOC would no doubt point to the recent inclusions of the women’s pole vault (2000) and steeplechase (2008) as evidence of its own creeping progressiveness. But the issue has at least been decisively raised. And perhaps, also, it wouldn’t really be the London Olympics without a little fevered talk of political correctness gone mad.

source: guardian.co.uk

The city’s proposal to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games has strong ties to Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago. The bid’s motto, “Stir the soul,” plays on the famous words attributed to Burnham: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” And in the spirit of the Burnham Plan, the effort’s mastermind aims to leave a great physical legacy for future generations of Chicagoans.

Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin spoke with Chicago 2016 chairman and CEO Patrick Ryan (left) about the bid. An edited transcript follows:

Q. What’s the relationship between the history of the modern Olympic Games, which were founded by French educator Pierre de Coubertin, and the Burnham Plan?

A. De Coubertin was developing the modern Olympic movement in Paris at the same time Burnham was developing the plan for the City of Chicago. There’s a real kinship between the two of them in their ideals and visions: the importance of body and mind; the importance of aiming high; and the importance of achieving lasting results.

Q. How are you drawing upon these connections in preparing Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Games?

A. As we were planning our Olympic bid, we looked back in history to see the impact of the Burnham Plan. The vision that he had — of the lakefront and keeping the parks open and everything for the people — is something that really shapes our plan.

Q. What sort of legacy might the 2016 Games leave in Burnham Park and the portion of that park called Northerly Island?

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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.

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Relish the memories – 2008 was a special year for sport, and the outlook for the next few does not appear half so rosy.

Next year is thin in terms of big international events. The World Athletics Championships take place in Berlin, and it is left to rugby union – a minority sport globally – to provide another highlight when the British and Irish Lions tour South Africa, the world champions. And further ahead, the successor hosts of two of this year’s stellar events, the Olympic Games and the European Football Championships, have hard acts to follow, with fewer resources and the global economic crisis to combat.

The Beijing Olympics was the apex of 2008. China opened its doors to the world and demonstrated that it could organise a successful sporting extravaganza. It did so by hurling massive amounts of money and manpower at the Games, in a manner that perhaps only an authoritarian state could. The yin and yang nature of the event was symbolised by the happiness and pride of the Chinese people at hosting the world’s biggest sporting party on the one hand, and their government’s refusal to budge an inch over human rights on the other.

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The competition pool for a Chicago Olympics would last about as long as a swimming world record does these days.

Chicago 2016 organizers unveiled several venue changes Friday that they say will benefit athletes and the community, and make their bid more attractive in the highly competitive international field. In addition to moving the aquatic center and making the competition pool a temporary facility, the sailing, canoe/kayaking, track cycling and BMX cycling venues all will be moved under Chicago’s retooled bid plan.

“We worked very closely with international sports federations and national governing bodies,” said Doug Arnot, Chicago 2016′s operations chief. “This plan is better for sport, better for the games and, perhaps most importantly, better for Chicago’s youth sports legacy. This plan remains very financially responsible.”

The changes will add about 5% to the budget, which remains at $4.7 billion, Chicago 2016 chairman Patrick Ryan said. That’s a bargain compared with other Summer Games; London estimates its overall costs for the 2012 Olympics will be about $16.5 billion, three times the original estimate.

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The economic crisis has forced the U.S. Olympic Committee to cut its administrative costs by 10 percent in 2009, although athletes will see their funding increased by the same amount a year ahead of the 2010 Winter Games.

The proposed 2009 budget will be presented to the USOC board on Saturday, when new chairman Larry Probst runs his first meeting since succeeding Peter Ueberroth in October.

The USOC hopes to reduce its 450-member staff through attrition and by not filling open positions, chief executive Jim Scherr said Friday. He would not provide a specific number of positions to be cut.

Staff travel, meetings and professional training also will be curtailed to achieve the necessary cost reduction, USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said.

“We’re also looking at a reorganization throughout the U.S. Olympic Committee to make us more effective and that reorganization will result in a few less people,” Scherr said.

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Nearly one in 10 Olympians were treated for injuries at the Beijing Games, the IOC said yesterday.

More than half of all the 1,055 athletes hurt had leg and foot problems and at least 100 suffered head injuries, according to figures based on medical reports from 92 of the national teams competing.
Almost three-quarters of all injuries were sustained in competition, and the most common were thigh strains and ankle sprains.
The sports most dangerous to Olympians’ health were boxing, football, handball, hockey, taekwondo and weightlifting. Each reported injuries to around one in seven athletes.
Four sports reported that none of its athletes lost training or competition time: flatwater canoeing, diving, sailing and synchronised swimming.
An International Olympic Committee team of medical experts recorded and analysed injuries in detail at Beijing for the first time at a Summer or Winter Games.
A detailed report will be published in a sports medical journal and distributed to all national teams.

source: jamaicaobserver.com

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.

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After he hosts NBC’s Saturday Night Live this weekend, there might not be much more the network can squeeze out of Michael Phelps.
For now, anyway. Phelps’ historic eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics were the driving force behind NBC’s prime-time Olympic ratings, just as Phelps’ six golds in Athens were the key to NBC’s 2004 Olympic ratings. NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol told The New York Times that after NBC gained Olympic officials’ support in its bid to have swimming finals moved from evenings to mornings so they could be shown live in prime time on the East Coast, the “first outsider” he consulted was Phelps, who was agreeable. After Phelps worked his way through various NBC outlets — this week giving Jay Leno his best rating in nearly three months — it was inevitable he’d end up on SNL.
But even though rehearsals have left Phelps “completely confident” about hosting SNL, he also says he’s “more nervous doing this than swimming in Beijing, I’ll tell you that.” Not to worry, says SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels: “No matter what happens, they can’t take those medals away.”
Phelps says he enjoys watching SNL when he can stay up to watch, adding he grew up as a “huge, huge fan” of the late SNL comic Chris Farley — who skated with Olympian Nancy Kerrigan when she hosted SNL— and that Farley’s Tommy Boy is his favorite movie.
Phelps says he has a funny side the public hasn’t seen: “In my group of friends, I’m one of the most sarcastic. … I’m actually a really, really sarcastic guy.” (And he didn’t sound sarcastic saying that.)
In hosting SNL, whose stage was used for NBC’s coverage of some Beijing Olympics action as announcers called events off TV monitors, Phelps joins a long line of athlete-hosts, including LeBron James and Peyton Manning in 2007. Charles Barkley mauled Barney the purple dinosaur on a basketball court. Tom Brady appeared in his underwear for a mock sexual harassment training video. Michael Jordan danced in a hula skirt. Says Phelps: “I’m just looking forward to having fun.”
Michaels says Amy Poehler played Phelps’ mother in rehearsals, although it’s still unclear which skits will appear on the show. Michaels added it’s possible Tina Fey will play GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. But don’t expect Phelps to perform anything that suggests his political preferences: “I’ve tried to stay away from jumping on political bandwagons. That’s something I try to keep to myself.”
Asked if future SNL shows might include Beijing Olympians, Michaels says probably not. Instead, “we’ll start thinking about 2010″ — meaning the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
Think NBC is asking Phelps if he snowboards?

from: usatoday.com

Host nation China pulled away from its rivals at the Beijing Paralympics Friday as its medal tally soared over 100.
China has now won more medals in just over five days of competition than it did during the whole of last month’s Olympics, when it won exactly 100.
The Paralympic haul is made up of 34 golds, 40 silvers and 27 bronze. Second-placed Britain has 29 golds and an overall total of 61.
More than 4,000 competitors from nearly 150 countries and regions are battling for 472 gold medals in 20 sports at the eye-catching venues used for last month’s Olympics, such as the “Bird’s Nest” and the Water Cube.
China’s Olympic tally of 100 medals included 51 golds, meaning it finished atop the table ahead of the United States, with 36 golds.
The sports at the Paralympics, which end on September 17, include athletics, swimming, powerlifting, wheelchair fencing and five-a-side and seven-a-side football, as well as the lesser-known goalball and boccia.

source: thenews.com.pk

Natalie Du Toit of South Africa won her fourth gold medal in swimming at the Beijing Paralympics, taking the 400-meter freestyle on Friday in a world-record time for her disability group.

Du Toit, who lost a leg in a 2001 motorcycle crash, finished in 4 minutes, 43.81 seconds — 0.15 better than the mark she set three years ago in London.

One of two athletes in the Paralympics who also competed at the Beijing Olympics, Du Toit has set three disability group records in winning four golds. She also set records in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley. Her other gold came in the 100 freestyle, where she already holds the record.

She will wrap up her Paralympic program Sunday in the 50 freestyle, where she also holds the disability group record.

Du Toit won five golds and a silver at the Athens Paralympics, but chose to compete in only five events in Beijing. She said she could have done even better Friday.

“I had a really bad turn and had to stop and start again, which wasted a lot of energy,” she said. “I didn’t think I would do a best time.”

Du Toit finished 16th at the Beijing Olympics in the 10-kilometer open-water swim. A promising Olympian until her injury, she’s hoping to qualify for the 2012 London Games.

Fifty-four medals were up for grabs Friday. In the major disciplines, there were 16 in swimming, 15 in cycling and 18 in track and field. Spain won three golds in swimming to lead all countries.

Britain dominated cycling with four gold medals and six overall. The United States won seven medals in cycling, including three gold. Spain also managed three gold medals in cycling and six overall.

In track, sprinter Oscar Pistorius is expected to win the 200 on Saturday, adding to the gold he won earlier in the week in the 100.

In the medal standings, China leads with 37 gold and 109 overall. Britain has 33 gold and 69 overall, followed by the United States with 23 and 56 overall.

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from: ap.google.com

The Japanese team is aiming to win 39 medals at the Beijing Paralympic Games–11 golds and 14 silver and bronze medals.
It will be difficult for the Japanese team to top the number of medals it won in Athens in 2004 because events at the Paralympics have decreased.
Japanese athletes won a record 52 medals in Athens–17 golds, 15 silvers and 20 bronzes.
After the Athens Paralympics, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) reduced the number of events that had a small number of participants. Most of these events were designed for athletes with severe disabilities. The IPC stated it made the decision to enhance the value of the medals.
At the Beijing Paralympics, 472 events will be held, an about 10-percent decrease from the number held at the Athens Paralympics. The decrease in the number of events is expected to be a heavy blow to the Japanese team, which has done well in events for severely handicapped athletes.
Paralympics participants have various disabilities, including amputated limbs, neurological disorders and vision impairment. The degree of participants’ disabilities differs widely. To ensure fairness, the IPC classifies athletes according to their specific disabilities and the severity of the disability. For example, participants were grouped into 13 classes in the men’s 100-meter freestyle swimming event at the Athens Paralympics, and 13 different swimmers won gold.

source: yomiuri.co.jp

Natalie Du Toit won the 100-meter butterfly gold medal at the Beijing Paralympics on Sunday, less than three weeks after her open-water Olympic swim in which she finished 16th in a race beset by problems.

The South African, who won five golds and a silver in the Athens Paralympics, finished in 1 minute, 6.74 seconds — a world record for her disability class.

A swimmer with Olympic promise, Du Toit lost her left leg above the knee in a 2001 motorcycle crash. She qualified for the Beijing Olympics in the 10-kilometer swim, a race in which her cap came off as she brushed the buoy on the first turn. Du Toit struggled the rest of the way with hair in her eyes, stopping at times to fix the cap.

“It’s been a bit of a rough ride from before the Olympics until now,” Du Toit said. “It’s awesome. Finally I’m swimming a bit faster, which is great.”

Du Toit will try for five golds in Beijing.

“Hopefully I’ll come back with five,” she said. “But there are going to be one or two races that are tight.”

Du Toit said her Olympic training was less than ideal, and the 10K race was about as bad as it could have been.

“I panicked,” she said. “I should have stopped and put the cap on properly. For 10 kilometers I stopped three times every lap trying to put my cap on. It wasn’t the best race and from lap one. I was swearing at myself.”

Sixteen gold medals in swimming were up for grabs Sunday in the Paralympics, with 11 others awarded in shooting, judo and cycling.

The United States won four gold medals in swimming on the opening day, the most of any country. The winners were: Erin Popovich, Rudy Garcia-Tolson, Miranda Uhl and Jessica Long.

Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia won the first gold medal of the Paralympics, taking the women’s 10-meter air rifle (standing position) early in the day. Manuela Schmermund of Germany won the silver and Nilda Gomez Lopez of Puerto Rico the bronze.

Britain won the first medal in cycling with gold for Simon Richardson in the 1-kilometer time trial. Masaki Fujita of Japan was second and defending Paralympic champion Greg Ball of Australia was third.

China won two of the four gold medals in judo with victories by Guo Huaping (women’s 48 kilograms) and Cui Na (women’s 52 kilos).