Sure It Looks Bad If You Draw A Swastika On It: Foreign Olympics News NBC Couldn't Justify With A Gallup Poll [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

Last year, there was talk that Iran would boycott the Olympics due to Israel's inclusion in the Games (and the Iranian government's belief that Israel is trying to spread Zionism and take over the world). Then Iran decided it would participate on the condition that its athletes would not compete against any Israeli athletes. Islamic Republic of Iran Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Mohammad Abbasi went so far as to say, "Not competing with the Zionist athletes is one of the values and prides of the Iranian athletes and nation."

After an IOC warning that "any Olympic athlete who deliberately boycotts a competition in which he or she would have faced an Israeli opponent will be punished," the 2012 Iranian delegation promised to play nice. But before the only potential Iran-Israel showdown, Iranian judoka Javad Mahjoob came down with "digestive system infection" and withdrew from the Games.

Iran's complaints about Israeli influence at the Olympics extends to the Games' 2012 London logo, which government officials claim looks like the word "ZION." Iran's Press TV website claims that "it keeps reminding people of the racial imagery of Nazi Germany or of Zionism rather than British culture or history."

One other reason the logo might have those (conflicting) connotations? In a bad Photoshop job, the Press TV folks have altered the 2012 logo so that it clearly spells out "ZION"-with a swastika in the "O".

The New Zealand Herald has the exact figures: New Zealand's gold medalists are awarded (in $NZD) $60,000, while silver and bronze medalists come away with $55,000. That comes out to US $48,618 and $44,566 respectively, better than the $31,000 for gold, $18,000 for silver and $12,000 for bronze that members of Team USA can earn.

Though Olympic athletes were traditionally unpaid amateurs, the distinction between amateur and professional was officially written out of the Olympic rulebook in 1986. After that, it was a small step to economic incentives for medal-winning performances.

New Zealand (which officially calls the cash prizes "Performance-Enhancing Grants") pays well, but, as the New Zealand Herald notes, it isn't even in the top three. In Singapore, a gold medal nets you a (heavily-taxed) million dollars, while Malaysia and the Philippines offer $400,000 and $380,000 each. Worth remembering: those countries never actually win gold—Singapore has two bronze medals (for which they paid $500,000 in prizes), Malaysia has a silver and a bronze, and the Philippines is off the hook entirely, having won no medals in London. Cash incentives tend to drop with the likelihood that a delegation brings home any medals; for all it's generosity, New Zealand has only parted with $457,816. Among traditional sports powers, Russia is most generous, giving out $167,000 for each gold.

If you think there's something distasteful about paying for performance in this way (as opposed to paying athletes with contracts or not at all), you aren't alone: a sports historian quoted by Reuters said, "Cash incentives are just an incentive to cheat." For its part, India wants in: an editorial in the Times of India argues that India ought to be proactive and create cash incentives—though the editorial also notes, "Maybe India is not really interested in Olympics gold because the discs are only gilt anyway. China may think spending $3 billion on training athletes is fine—they did so for the Athens Olympics, which worked out to $50 million per medal won there—but India is smarter."

The Kenyans usually comprise one of the strongest distance running teams at the summer Olympics, and this year was supposed to be no different. With three talented runners participating in the men's 1500m on Tuesday, it was assumed by many that Kenya would come away with at least one, and possibly many, medals from the event. Unfortunately, all three participants from Kenya performed miserably, as Silas Kiplagat finished seventh, Nixon Kiplimo Chepseba finished 11th, and Asbel Kiprop finished 12th.

Omulo Okothin of Kenya's Standard Digital smells a rat: "Did the Kenyan 1,500m team throw away the race on Tuesday evening? And are the poor performances we are witnessing here a red herring? Is there something else that is not coming out yet, but is responsible for what we are seeing here? These are the questions that emerged after the three Kenyans made a fool of themselves."

Okothin goes on to speculate that a rift between Kiprop and the National Olympic Committee of Kenya may have brought a lack of unity and discord to the team, and floats a few other conspiracy theories before demanding an investigation into the performance. It's hard to imagine that an inquiry into Kenya's flop in the 1500m would reveal anything more than, "These guys ran poorly," but it is also nice to see that the American media aren't the only ones who turn reactionary and illogical in the face of an unexpected defeat.

One Israeli with a shot at a medal isn't competing for Israel, but he's willing to give the team advice. David Blatt is the American-Israeli coach of the Russian men's basketball team, which is still in the running for a medal. (Israel's only hopes for a medal of its own lie in tomorrow's rhythmic gymnastics event.)

Blatt's success has him thinking he knows what Israel needs to do to win more medals. "Coaches and the systems standing behind the athletes are no less important than the athletes themselves," he told Haaretz.

Having played and coached professionally in Israel for more than 20 years, Blatt says he considers himself a product of the country's athletic system. But since he was born in the US, and has coached in Russia for a while, he has plenty of knowledge of the way other nations train their athletes.

Blatt's advice to Israel boils down to two main points: find good coaches, and find good parents. "(Blatt) says [good parenting] is connected both to learning various branches of sport as well as education," Merav Michaeli wrote for Haaretz. "He says children should learn to grow up both in their home and in their sport the way athletes should be."

But Blatt also realizes that no matter how well-trained Israeli athletes are, there are certain sports that just won't bring them Olympic glory. "Let's be honest," he said. "There are sports that are appropriate for our people and there are other things that aren't."

Transport for London (TfL), the Olympic host's massive transportation agency, took a lot of flack for supposedly confusing motorists with its "Games Lanes"—30 miles of roads designated for use solely by athletes, judges, sponsors and members of the media while the Olympics are in session (or as The Telegraph termed it, "members of the 'Olympic family'"). Some locals have, less than affectionately, nicknamed them 'Zil' lanes, in homage to lanes reserved for political leaders in Soviet-era Moscow.

While congestion in London has, by most accounts, barely budged (or even declined) during the Games, TfL is apprently serious about getting motorists to comply. The agency has ticketed almost 2,500 drivers for Olympic lanes violations, the Independent reports—though it also claims a 98% compliance rate. A TfL spokesman told the Indpendent that the agency "has no interest in unnecessarily penalizing drivers."

What the Daily Mail termed a "huge haul of tickets" has netted TfL just £312,000 ($488,000), a pittance in public-expenditure terms. If TfL was, somehow, looking to net some gold from the Games Lanes, it hasn't done a very good job.

Kate Bennert, Isaac Rauch, Dan Gartland, Vincent Valk and Tom Ley contributed to this article.

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

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England And France Are Now At War: Foreign Olympics News Bob Costas Cut For An Interview With Shaun White [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

Nothing brings out centuries-old national tensions quite like the Olympic Games. Britain dominated the indoor cycling events at the Olympic Park Velodrome, winning seven of 10 gold medals. France, a proud cycling nation still smarting from Britain's first ever Tour de France victory on their soil, was shut out of the top spot on the podium.

Their top sprinter Mickaël Bourgain failed to medal in what he called, "an obvious athletic failure." So how are the French taking it? By continuing the proud French tradition of accusing their adversaries of cheating.

French cycling director Isabelle Gautheron complained that the Brits were using "magic wheels" and 70 percent of the 50,000 respondents to a survey conducted by L'Equipe said they suspected the British were "tainted by cheating." This, of course, was widely reported in England—"Quelle horreur!" mocked the Daily Mail—going all the way to the Prime Minister's office. "It's driving the French mad," David Cameron told the BBC radio, setting off another round of breathless coverage on Fleet Street.

As for those magic wheels? "They're round. They go fast because they pedal hard," the British PM said, Britishly.

Yesterday brought the story of seven Cameroonian Olympians who disappeared from the Olympic village, with hopes of making better lives for themselves as immigrants. Today, Radio Netherlands Worldwide spoke to a handful of Cameroonians who all were "unfazed and even empathetic" toward their fellow countrymen.

Those interviewed expressed an understanding of the stress of Cameroon's difficult economic conditions, compounded by the trying conditions endured by Olympic athletes who are forced to train without little-to-no financial backing. "Having been around these sportsmen and knowing the conditions under which they live and train, we can at least understand that in a survival reflex, they try to flee," journalist Jean-Bruno Tagne said.

A local Cameroonian added, "Admittedly not all of them are going to succeed, but those who are a bit lucky will be able to train one day under good conditions, will be paid correctly, which is currently very far from being the case for athletes engaged in Cameroon." That's a heavy condemnation of the Cameroonian Olympic body, as it's hard to imagine that an Olympic athlete would be better off as an immigrant because his or her home country is so detrimental to the training process.

Olympic officials from Cameroon have asked for the British police's assistance in trying to locate the missing athletes. It would seem that many of their fellow citizens are hoping that they aren't found.

"Young diver drools at prospect of competing for Ja," says the authoritative headline in the Jamaica Observer. Like Israeli papers claiming Aly Raisman, or Nigeria fielding a basketball team of American-born athletes, smaller countries will generally take what they can get when it comes to athletes of ambiguous provenance or varied cultural affiliations. So it makes sense that a Jamaican paper is thrilled to hear the awesomely named Leeds-born diver Yona Knight-Wisdom chose to compete for Jamaica.

But still, drooling is a bit of an exaggeration; Knight-Wisdom settled on Jamaica for, among other things, one reason they may not be all that proud of: "I figured I could get into international competitions this way instead of waiting to make the Great Britain team."

If he qualifies for the 2016 Games, the 17 year old will be the first Jamaican diver ever. If he chose to represent the UK, he'd be competing against internet-famous British diver Tom Daley and other members of the fairly robust British diving team. The situation highlights some of the paradoxes of the Olympics: "teams" are usually just people from the same country in direct competition with one another, and for all the jingoism and flag-waving of the games, athletes with complex lineages are often better positioned to find a smaller country willing to send them as its own.

There are other reasons Knight-Wisdom wanted to represent Jamaica. It has better funding than Barbados (where his mother was born) and, naturally, he's a huge fan of Usain Bolt, as evidenced by this tweet.

"In the end, it proved to be a false dawn; if anything, Indian hockey has only plunged deeper into darkness after an odyssey called nightmare in London." Bobilli Vijay Kumar opens in his Times of India blog. And from there, it seems, Indian field hockey (and the column) descend into a pit of wallowing self-pity.

"As a country, we alone are responsible for this gut-wrenching decline," Kumar pined. "We merely sat and watched the fun as selfish and squabbling officials destroyed the sport; we didn't even raise a whimper, let alone a protest, even though they have been gnawing at it for years. Finally, they have got to its soul too."

What will happen if we don't stop these soul-stomping tyrants? Kumar has the answer: "We must stop them before they take off on these fanciful flights and lull us into hope again; we must stop them before they plunder the game some more, not even leaving any remains for a decent burial."

Kumar is quick to crush any sense of optimism as he notes that the fact that the Indian field hockey team made it to the Games was just trickery that resulted from India playing diminished teams. This might explain why an over-hyped Indian team lost all of its matches in group play. And with that Kumar lost all hope, "Indian hockey is clearly dead; long live Indian hockey. Let us stop looking for a new dawn."

In 2008, Australia won 20 swimming medals (second only to the United States' 31). However this year the typically swimming-strong nation has won just 10 medals-including just one gold-in London's pools. As a result, the Sydney Morning Herald wrote up a laundry list of potential scapegoats.

"Susie O'Neill has blamed work ethic, Shane Gould says science has been prioritised over people, while John Coates says sports science in Australian swimming has fallen behind," wrote Caroline Wilson for the Herald. "Don Talbot agrees the swimmers have become complacent, while the coaches feel irrelevant, losing talented charges to a centralised program."

O'Neill, a two-time gold medalist, has been tapped by Swimming Australia to help conduct a review of the nation's swimming program.

In an act of preparation (and probably a bit of frustration) Swimming Australia chairman David Urquart left London earlier than he had anticipated to begin what the Herald called a "radical review of swimming," all in an attempt to get the swimmers from Down Under back on top.

Kate Bennert, Isaac Rauch, Dan Gartland, Michael Gluckstadt and Tom Ley contributed to this article.

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

North Korea And Australia Are Now At War: Foreign Olympics News NBC Didn't Like Enough To Tape-Delay [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

The contest may not be formally recognized by the IOC, but North Korea and Australia are going for gold in the event of childish name calling.

On Wednesday the tiny Australian paper mX published an Olympic infographic in which they listed South Korea as "Nice Korea," and North Korea as "Naughty Korea." North Korea, which does not take kindly to derision, responded this morning with an English dispatch from North Korea's Central News Agency.

"This is a bullying act little short of insulting the Olympic spirit of solidarity, friendship and progress, and politicizing sports," Norh Korea began, before sinking to the Aussie paper's level. The KCNA continued that the "naughty paper" will remain as "a symbol of a rogue paper" for its "misdeed to be cursed long in Olympic history."

mX's Sydney-based editor Craig Herbert told Wall Street Journal Asia, "The two teams (South Korea and North Korea) were sitting in fourth and fifth spot respectively on the medal ladder and we thought it would be a humorous, but harmless way of differentiating between the two, and a reflection on how much of the western world views the two countries."

Today mX published KCNA's response with a front-page headline that reads, "N. Korea launches missive. (...That's missive)."

Here's something you might not know about Usain Bolt's 100m gold medal: it's not simply a Jamaican honor. "A piece of this medal goes to Germany," said the world's fastest man, explaining that the Bavarian doctor who successfully treated his ailing back this year deserves part of the credit.

According to The Local, Bolt took time out from his various lightning poses to heap praise on the good doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt whom Bolt has nicknamed "Mull". (With so many tantalizing syllables to work with, we can think of several better nicknames for the man, but no matter.)

"He's the best doctor in the world," Bolt added. "The doctor is a great, great man. Thanks, doctor!"

Müller-Wohlfahrt has made waves by using controversial techniques to treat a variety of celebrities, including Bono and Ronaldo. Among the tools in his arsenal: a substance called Hyalart, extracted from the crest of cockerels, that he uses to lubricate joints.

One athlete he didn't treat is Kobe Bryant, who went to a different German doc for his knee treatment. That therapy, called Regenokine, was performed by Dr. Peter Wehling, who centrifuged Kobe's blood and then reinjected it into him in what appears to be a successful attempt to stave off the arthritic pain that was plaguing the five-time NBA champ.

Germany may not have the athletes to seriously compete for sprinting or basketball medals, but at least its countrymen can take pride in the fact that their scientists are helping to extend the careers of those athletes who can.

Israel's sense of national shame over their failure at this Olympiad is splashed all over their sports pages. Yesterday brought an editorial titled, "Don't forget to tell them off, Lee," which argued that, though Lee Korzits seemed likely to medal in women's windsurfing, she ought not to forget to use her moment in the sun to speak her mind to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

Hareetz's Eyal Gil argues, "A medal today would whitewash years of neglect and hostility toward sports, failed management and disgraceful budgets. For 20 years, select branches of sport have overcome these incredible obstacles and pitfalls and against all odds won honor for Israel where it was undeserved … Israel's Olympic athletes train in intolerable conditions. They survive on minimal stipends. They either have to subsidize costs out of pocket or find a generous patron. Along the way, the State of Israel-its government, Sports Ministry and sports associations-spends its time undermining and humiliating them."

Haaretz may have been gratified to see that Korzits finished sixth in her event. (The Jerusalem Post went with the sub-head, "Nightmarish 9th in decisive medal race leaves last Israeli hope with 6th-place finish.")

Today, there's another editorial: "Faster, higher, stronger? Not for Israel." Uzi Dann writes, "The Israeli failure is comprehensive … If success in sports really matters to Israel, we need a revolution. Not only in budgets, but first and foremost in education. Israel can't boast about its sports education. The old Hapoel slogan-a pun in Hebrew-was "from thousands to champions." This expressed the belief that if a sport was practiced by the masses, champions would emerge. Nowadays, we invest in those precious few who have already made it to the top. Maybe Israel should invest in thousands of children instead of a few dozen prodigies." Both pieces profess a desire for a revolution in sports training.

Seven Olympic athletes from the African nation of Cameroon have vanished from the Olympic village. Their disappearance was confirmed yesterday by the country's Ministry of Sports and Physical Education.

According to Vanguard, mission head David Ojon sent the following message to the ministry: "What began as rumour has finally turned out to be true. Seven Cameroonian athletes who participated at the 2012 London Olympic Games have disappeared from the Olympic Village."

The athletes who have gone missing are five members of the Olympic boxing team, a swimmer, and the goalie for the women's soccer team. Drusille Ngako, the soccer player, was the first to vanish, leaving her team just before a pre-Olympic match against New Zealand. The swimmer, Paul Ekane Edingue, left his team a few days later. The five boxers disappeared more recently, leaving the Olympic village after having all been eliminated from competition.

According to Vanguard, the most likely explanation for these athletes' disappearance is economic reasons. They are hoping to stay in Europe and find a better life for themselves rather than returning to Cameroon. This is not the first time that Cameroonian athletes have defected in such a way. Competitors have disappeared without warning before at past Francophine and Commonwealth games, as well as junior soccer tournaments.

On top of competing for their country, Canadian siblings Hughes and Emilie Fournel are kayaking in honor of their late father Jean, a kayaker at the 1976 Games, who died of leukemia at age 40.

"We paddle on emotions," Emilie told the Globe and Mail. "That's the kind of paddlers we are. We paddle from the heart. That's why I like racing the 500 metres because it's a gutsy race and it's power, power, power and at the end it's all guts. I just think it's part of us. It's the way we grew up. For us it's a way of living, I guess."

Emilie and Hughes didn't record very good times in Monday and Tuesday's preliminaries, so a medal might be a longshot, but the experience of competing together is enough of a reward.

"I was telling my brother, it's like we're creating a memory with him without him being here, which is pretty special," Emilie said. "Not many people get to experience something like that. That's why we appreciate this moment. We know he's up there somewhere, looking down."

Kate Bennert, Isaac Rauch, Dan Gartland, David Goldenberg and Tom Ley contributed to this article.

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Jamaica Parties: Foreign Olympics News Bob Costas Couldn't Get It Up For [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

Usain Bolt is a demigod—or, perhaps, a full-fledged god—in his home village of Sherwood Content, where the Jamaica Observer provided an insider's look at the village's post-world-record celebration.

"To the world! I am on top of the world. I am floating," exclaimed Bolt's aunt Lilian Bolt, who was elegantly captured mid-float by the reporter/photographer.

Once Lilian's nephew crossed the finish line, the Observer reported that "Lilian broke out into wild celebration, dancing to the beat of Mackie Conscious' song entitled Bolt, which was recorded after the phenomenon sprinter's victory at the Olympics in Beijing, China, four years ago."

Bolt supporters in Sherwood Content gathered in the streets, cheering, singing, dancing, and banging on pots and pans. The group then made an informal motorcade to Falmouth, the parish capital, and continued the celebration in historic Water Square.

"A so the ting go, a yah so nice," one reveler shouted.

"Lightning strike twice," said another as he mimicked Bolt's famous pose.

And how did Lilian end the historical night? According to the Observer, she "called upon the government to consider Bolt as a national treasure."

Kirani James won the first-ever Olympic medal—a gold in the 400-meter—for Grenada, the tiny Caribbean nation that is roughly the size of Winston-Salem, North Carolina (with less than half of Winston-Salem's population).

The BBC reports that "Grenadians danced, cheered and waved flags in the streets." The prime minister even declared this afternoon a national holiday.

But what's a local success story without a little political grandstanding?

That's exactly why Grenada's New National Party congratulated James and the people of Grenada with an editorial that ran in Spice Grenada at 8:37 pm last night. It was clutch, because it took the party's opposition, the National Democratic Congress, until nearly 11 pm to file their formal congratulations.

Did residents of Grenada think for two a half hours that the National Democratic Congress wasn't proud of the hometown hero? Probably not; it looks like these things are pretty pro forma.

The New National Party congratulated James and "[called] on all Grenadians that in their celebration of this historic achievement that we as a people do so in ways which would make Team Grenada as proud of us as we are of them." The New Democratic Congress's lengthier statement included a quote from their public-relations officer, Arley Gill, (who probably wrote the thing), saying, "The NDC and the rest of the nation are grateful to Kirani and wish him continued success. At the same time, let us continue steadfast in our support of the Grenadian athletes who are still competing at the Olympics." The press release added that "Gill described Government's renaming of Lagoon Road to Kirani James Boulevard, following his World Championship victory in 2011, as a 'visionary act.' "

The Grenada United Labour Party and any other Grenada parties had better start working up their statements quick, as the NDC and NNP are already locked in fierce battle for the most heartfelt congratulations.

At last, a taste of that trademark British cheek we've all heard so much about. Calling the Olympics "lethal to witness," moderately relevant indie demigod Morrissey unloaded on his blog this weekend, sparing from his bile neither the Royal Family nor their close consorts, "Lord and Lady Beckham."

Although the post from the Manchester-raised ex-Smiths frontman is dated to Saturday, the British press didn't report on it until Monday, probably because accusing the media of treating the British public like "undersized pigmies" is a poor lead-in to the magic of Kate's kiss cam.

Still, that over a week was able to pass before someone unleashed the haters seems remarkable.

This is Britain, for Pete's sake—land of Monty Python and the infamous lotto lout. Considering the moratorium, maybe Morrissey's invocation of "1939 Germany" isn't just the hysterical ranting of a shameless celebrity on the cusp of a new world tour. The nation has been rendered "foul with patriotism," he warns ominously, and "no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press."

On the other hand, what exactly is there to oppose about Jessica Ennis's abs?

With over half of the Olympic games behind us, Zimbabwe finds itself medal-less. One Zimbabwean newspaper, the Herald, believes that such a failure is the fault of the country's Olympic infrastructure, which doesn't do nearly enough to recruit and groom new athletes.

The Herald editorial argues that Zimbabwe came into London hoping to squeeze one last bit of Olympic magic out of its past hero, Kristy Co-ventry, who won a combined seven medals at the Athens and Beijing Olympics. Though Co-ventry, at 28 years old, may be past her prime and the editorial claims that Zimbabwe's Olympics committee was wrong to have put so much faith in her rather than trying to recruit new talent.

"Are we doing enough, as a country, to tap such talent and expose it, the way we did it with Makusha, or we just wait for a lucky break as and when it comes without putting a lot of our efforts into the project?" asks the editorial.

That seems to be a fair question, especially when South Africa is brought into the conversation as a comparison. South Africa took home just one medal at the Beijing games. In response the country redoubled its efforts in training and producing athletes. The result? South Africa has won three gold medals in London, thanks in large part to the arrival of two elite swimmers, Cameron Van der Burgh and Chad le Clos.

The Herald would love to see Zimbabwe take a similar approach, more aggressively recruiting and training athletes, heading into the 2016 Games. Though there is a lot of reforming to be done, as Zimbabwe sent more Olympic officials than athletes to London.

In a point/counterpoint editorial in the Global Times, two Chinese writers discuss how the media's obsession with gold medals-and blatant disregard of bronze and silver-came to be.

During this year's Games, China has been noticeably preoccupied with its gold-medal count. Zhang Yiwu, professor and deputy director of the Cultural Resources Research Center of Peking University, said in an interview with the Global Times that he finds this to be "quite natural.

"There are historical reasons why China attaches great importance to gold medals," Zhang writes. He writes that China's war-torn and poverty-stricken history, and China's gold-medal drought before 1984, contributed to the national—and media—obsessions with gold medals. Zhang also blames the media for overstating the country's obsession with gold.

Meanwhile, Liu Yuanju, a Chinese journalist, thinks that the call for paying more attention to athletes "should be encouraged." China's public is not that obsessed with medals this year, Liu writes, citing (again) a more "mature" social mentality rather than a structural problem with the sports system. By the end of the piece Liu seems to think that the media "gold medal fever" isn't even happening: "This is exactly why both new and traditional media are beginning to pay more attention to silver and bronze winners." But, nevertheless, Liu finds this to be a "pleasant" development for Chinese society.

Kate Bennert, Isaac Rauch, Dan Gartland, Max Lakin, and Tom Ley contributed to this article.

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Hours After Defeat, An Australian Rower Was Smashing Store Windows: Foreign Olympics News That Couldn't Fit On The Desk Of Bob Costas [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

After a disappointing sixth-place finish in the men's rowing final, Australian coach Andrew Matheson (who apparently knows his players quite well) took his team aside and warned them not to completely let loose now that the racing schedule had concluded.

The Age reports that the warning did not work, as the team went out drinking in the village of Egham (near the Lake Dorney Olympic rowing venue), and 21-year-old-rower Josh Booth allegedly destroyed two storefront windows. He was subsequently arrested by London Police at 1:40 am. After being taken to the station, he fainted (whether from shock or as a euphemism for "passed out drunkenly" isn't clear) and hit his head on something in the Egham police station. He spent the rest of the night in the hospital. Rowing Australia CEO Andrew Dee is withholding his comment on the incident until he is fully aware of the details.

In response to that incident, and to cyclist (and British Olympic hero) Bradley Wiggins announcing on Twitter that he was "blind drunk," IOC spokesman Mark Adams released a statement suggesting that athletes "drink wisely."

It's never good to be accused of embarrassing your country in front of the whole world and "[hogging] all the limelight," but those are the allegations against Olympic ceremony crasher Madhura Nagendra from chef-de-mission of India's Olympic delegation, Muralidharan Raja, according to the Agence France-Presse.

Nagendra caused quite the stir when she strolled up beside Indian team's flag bearer in her out-of-place red top during the opening ceremony.

She was one of 7,5000 volunteers taking part in the opening ceremony, when Olympic spirit got the best of her and she made an "error of judgment."

"I'm a proud woman of India and I was taken aback seeing all the comments. I hope this will be forgiven," she added.

India, however, is still hung up on the incident. Several people have taken to Twitter to vent about this injustice while, inevitably, someone has even created a Facebook page about Nagendra "dropping in" on other important events around the world.

According to Vanguard, the Nigerian government has allocated 2 billion naira ($12.4 million USD) for the country's Olympic team, but one "official who begged for anonymity" said the funds were released far too late to truly help the Nigerian team.

The official claims that the funds were turned over to the team at the last minute, rendering them effectively useless as they could not be used for the training or improvement of Nigerian athletes. The official also believes that releasing the funds so late greatly increases the likelihood of corruption, as the money can more easily be used for things that have nothing to do with Nigeria's Olympic team.

So why is the Olympic team receiving its money now rather than, say, four years ago, when it could have been used for the training of athletes? The problem rests with Nigeria's bureaucracy, which makes it very difficult for money to be allocated and spent quickly. The process of approving and implementing funds is so arduous that the Nigerian National Sports Commission actually had to borrow money in order to compete in some Olympic qualifying events, even though it now has more money than it needs with the release of this latest round of funds.

The anonymous official hopes to convince Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan to restructure the funding process for the Nigerian Olympic team.

As recently as the 1996 Olympics, the French swim team was more of a laughing stock than the powerhouse it is today. After the debacle in Atlanta—in which no French swimmer brought back a medal of any color—Claude Fauquet, the swim team's technical director, overhauled the entire system.

No longer were local swim clubs allowed to send their champions to regional meets; instead swimmers had to meet rigorous qualifying standards to have the opportunity to advance.

That severely limited the pool(!) of athletes, but those who made it through were battle tested and prepared, and the entire culture of the sport has been refocused on beating specific times.

In an article in France24.com, Tresor Kibangula explains how the now-revered Fauquet method has produced impressive results, including at least six French swimming medals in the last three Olympics.

The French stars of these games, 22-year-old Camille Muffat who set a new Olympic record in the 400m freestyle, and 20-year-old Yannick Agnel who powered past Ryan Lochte to help the French get revenge in the 4 x 100m freestyle, both started their careers at the Olympic Nice Natation training centre, one of the government-subsidized swim clubs to first adopt the Fauquet method.

In 1972, Anatoly Bondarchuk won a gold medal in the hammer throw. Four years later, he won a bronze in the same event while at the same time serving as coach to Yuriy Sedykh, his countryman and the eventual gold medal winner.

Bondarchuk's Wikipedia article says he's "regarded as the most accomplished hammer throw coach of all time," and we are not in a position to disagree. He has been awarded both The Order of the Badge of Honour and Order of the Red Banner of Labour, which both sound very prestigious and very, very Soviet.

Bondarchuk has coached athletes to medals in five different Olympic games, and has a PhD in pedagogical science (education, broadly speaking). He wrote this well-regarded book about athletic training and performance.

And now, for reasons the locals don't entirely understand, he's landed in Kamloops, British Columbia, where he's been coaching shot putter Dylan Armstrong. He applied for what the Globe and Mail describes as a "lowly assistant track and field coach [position]." What did the aforementioned locals think? "They thought it might have been a joke or a different Anatoly Bondarchuk."

As it turns out, aside from wanting to be closer to his daughter in Calgary, Bondarchuk had heard of Dylan Armstrong. At the time, the mountainous Armstrong was struggling as a young hammer thrower, laden with potential but unable to make the leap to the elite level. Bondarchuk switched him to shot put and started coaching him in "limited English." Canada's Athletics head coach Mike Gardiner said of the communication between Armstrong and Bondarchuk, "It was a series of hand movements and looks and single-syllable words. And everything seemed to work out. It was a code they were using, there's no doubt." Bondarchuk also has some unusual training methods: the coach has suspended a medicine ball against the ceiling and has Armstrong bat at it like a tetherball, and Bondarchuk has Armstrong and the other athletes he coaches throwing weight plates around. Those techniques don't generally make it into other Olympians' regimens.

This morning, after a close call that included a foul and one less-than-stellar attempt, Armstrong gathered himself and qualified for the shot put finals.

Kate Bennert, Isaac Rauch, Dan Gartland, David Goldenberg, and Tom Ley contributed to this article.

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

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A Vote For Haiti Is A Vote For Yourselves: Foreign Olympics News That Didn't Fit On The NBC Teleprompter [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

Of Haiti's five Olympians, only judoka Linouse Desravine is from Haiti. The others were born Stateside and use their parents' Haitian roots to compete for the Caribbean country, according to the Caribbean News Review.

Haiti's lack of homegrown talent is largely due to the country's impoverished economy—millions of Haitians live on $2 a day or less. There's also the woeful state of many athletic facilities; according to the article, "three of the country's five competitive running tracks are home to thousands of people in tents and shanties who were displaced by the January 2010 earthquake."

Hence the need for foreign-born talent. Of the four competing Haitian-Americans, none are better connected than triple jumper Samyr Laine, who shared a room with Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard and was the 14th person to sign up for Facebook. After the Games, Laine—also a Georgetown Law School graduate—hopes to form a non-profit designed to get more native Haitians involved in the Olympics. He added that he won't hesitate to call up an old friend for donations.

Qataris can send SMS messages to anyone in the world today, for free. The least they could do is text a "thx" to skeet shooter and certified badass Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah.

AME Info reports that Qatar's cell service provider Qtel was so elated with Al-Attiyah's bronze-medal victory that they're giving the whole country free domestic and international SMS to spread the good news. Al-Attiyah himself scored a line "with unlimited SMS, mobile Internet, local and international calling for life."

In addition to being one of the world's best marksmen, Al-Attiyah is also a top off-road racer; last year, he won the grueling Dakar Rally. In fact, the only reason he was able to make it to the Games is because his Hummer broke down early in race across South America. This allowed him to rush back to to Qatar to compete in an Olympic qualifier where despite harsh desert winds he finished "without missing a shot (75-75) in the qualifying round [and] he shot down all the 150-clay pigeon targets in the final to meet the world record to cement his place for the London Games."

Despite pre-game predictions from German scientists that the country would win 54 medals (15 gold, 19 silver and 20 bronze, to be specific), Germany got off to a slow start in these Olympic games, not winning their first medal until Britta Heidemann's controversial fencing victory.

Some in the country have been so disappointed that they've turned their attention to the ninth annual Wattolümpiade—the "Mudflats Olympics" staged in the intertidal zone at the mouth of the Elbe River, near the North Sea.

There, 300 athletes on 34 teams compete in sports ranging from mud soccer to mud volleyball to mud relay races featuring a fake eel in place of a baton. (Curiously, there's no mud wrestling.) The games, which feature a slogan "dirty sport for a good cause," have raised more than €150,000 for a counseling service for German cancer patients.

Germany has since bounced back from its slow start in the Olympics, winning gold in rowing and equestrian and a slew of silvers. And if mud-sledding is ever added to the Games, look for Germany to maintain a decisive edge.

Ugandan Hurdler John Akii-bua won a gold medal in the 400 meter hurdles at the 1972 Games, and ever since he has been Uganda's most treasured Olympian. He left behind 11 children when he died in 1997 and at least one of them is starting to feel rather abandoned by her home country.

Akii-bua's daughter, Maureen Akii-bua recently spoke to Radio Netherlands Worldwide about the hardships that she and her siblings have had to face. Akii-bua feels that the Ugandan government hasn't taken care of her family as they should have, given that her father is a national hero.

Akii-bua claims that she and several of her siblings were forced to drop out of school because they could no longer afford it. "We have never enjoyed life as people would expect of a hero's family," Ms. Akii-bua said. "As far as I can remember, life for us has been a living hell—right from the time when Dad was alive. But it only worsened in 1997 when he passed on and left the eleven of us to fend on our own."

It's hard to imagine exactly what the Ugandan government should have done for Akii-bua's children, as the country has no official policy regarding the rewarding of Olympic athletes. Maureen Akii-bua was given 700,000 Ugandan shillings ($281 USD) by the president of the Ugandan Olympic committee, which she used to invest in a fashion business.

China used to ridicule and shame athletes who fell short of gold medal opportunities, but according to the Global Times, that attitude is changing as China grows up.

In the past, Chinese athletes who failed to medal have notoriously been met with criticism and disdain upon their return home. Ai Dongmei, a 27-year-old former marathoner, found herself reduced to selling popcorn after failing on the world stage.

The Global Times claims this attitude toward Olympic athletes is changing. "Chinese society is maturing. Competing for success is encouraged. Failure is also met with more sympathy and acceptance. Athletes are showing more of their own personalities whether they win their matches or not," the article states.

But don't let that fool you into thinking that China is assimilating into Western culture: "China still has many facets that are different from the West. These differences, however, will not block its further integration into the world. The world is not Western-dominated, and integration doesn't mean being assimilated."

The entire article sounds perfectly reasonable, in fact, until you get to this part about the Chinese way: "Differences sometimes led to clashes, but throughout history, differences have generally been accepted and tolerated."

You don't need to be Tibetan to realize that's a pretty generous use of the word "generally".

Kate Bennert, Isaac Rauch, Dan Gartland, Michael Gluckstadt and Tom Ley contributed to this article.

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

A Ugandan Hero Is Trapped In London: Foreign Olympics News That Wasn't Big Enough For Bob Costas [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

Davis Kamoga is one of Uganda's most famous Olympic athletes, having won the silver medal in the 400-meter footrace at the 1996 Games. He's such a national hero that Uganda decided to fly him to London so that he could inspire and motivate the Ugandan track-and-field team.

The only problem is that the Ugandan Olympic officials forgot to give him any money.

Kamoga recently spoke to the Ugandan-government-owned newspaper New Vision by phone, and he told the paper that he was already out of money, and needed to be flown back home immediately. According to the article, Kamoga was given an allowance of 30 pounds per day, but was not made an official of the Ugandan Olympic team. Without such accreditation, Kamoga has had a very difficult time getting into the Olympic village or even seeing the athletes that he is supposed to be motivating.

"There is a lot I can do to help the athletes. I see a lot of weaknesses especially in attitude," a tearful Kamoga said on the phone. "Tell the officials I want to come back home," he added.

While he remains in London, he's often seen around the Games village, waiting for officials to take him inside, where he has a soda for lunch.

If you think you can help, or if you just want Ugandan motivation, the article's postscript reads: "Kamoga can be reached on a borrowed line +447424755107."

Lesson learned: Be sure to enjoy your fame while it lasts, Olympic athletes. One day you may find yourself abandoned by your home country in a strange land, having to call a local newspaper in order to beg that you be allowed to return home.

The Kazakhs are having a great Olympics—three gold medals as of this morning, ahead of host Great Britain—and they're looking forward to their favored events of boxing and wrestling. But for all their success, the mood of the national team is downcast, according to a deputy from the delegation that spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald: They just can't escape Borat.

The official, Aslan Amanov, said, "In the village there is absolutely no problem. The sports world knows Kazakhstan, our good side. It is when we go outside it is very disappointing. When you walk around the city sometimes they shout things at you which are not OK. Some were drunk and they were shouting all sorts of words."

The Herald takes the opportunity to remind us of the time that organizers of a shooting championship in Kuwait played the parody Kazakh national anthem (sample lyric: "Come grasp the mighty penis of our leader") instead of the real one.

Kuwaiti organizers messing up and drunken Brits making old jokes notwithstanding, Kazakhstan's investment in athletics appears to be paying off. The central-Asian republic is one of many embattled or traditionally peripheral countries using international athletic competitions to raise their profile, and new training programs and incentives have helped to cultivate a strong delegation.

The Herald details the cash prizes instituted for medal winners from the Kazakh delegation: In US dollars, gold medalists receive a $250,000, silver medalists get $125,000, and bronze medalists win $75,000. Money also is being invested in new infrastructure and equipment.

With a dedication to athletic excellence like that, soon enough Kazakhs will be able to high-five one another without someone yelling "HIGH FIIIIIVE!"

It's an election year in Quebec, and as always, there's a small but vocal contingent pushing for the province to declare independence. According to the Canadian Press wire service, one politician is using the Olympic success of Quebecers to argue for her province's sovereignty.

Pauline Marois, candidate for premier and leader of the pro-independence Parti Quebecois, was so elated with Canada's four bronze medals that she said, "This means, among other things, that it's another example of how Quebec could shine among the brightest … as an independent country. We could continue to win our medals, I'm sure of that."

Another Canadian publication was quick to argue that Marois is delusional. "With a leap of arithmetic worthy of Einstein, Marois determined that the four bronzes indicated Quebec could take its place among the nations of the world," David Newman wrote in Maclean's.
"Never mind whether any of the athletes are sovereigntists or separatists or share any of Marois' views whatsoever. Never mind what proportion of their funding was federal, provincial, municipal, personal, or private. The conclusion was obvious for Marois: four bronze equals independence for Quebec."

Right or wrong, if Marois wants to continue with tenuous correlations, she need only look south of her border as the US has earned more total medals (2,549) than Great Britain (737) since declaring its independence in 1776.

On Monday, Deadspin covered South Korean fencer Shin A Lam's tearful sit-in after losing a semifinal match to German Britta Heidemann on a controversial call in the final seconds. The last sentence of the piece informed us that Shin will be "denied a medal" after losing the bronze-medal match.

As it turns out, Shin won't score a medal-because she doesn't want one. The medal in question, however, is not Olympic gold, or even bronze. It is an International Fencing Federation (FIE) medal recognizing her "aspiration to win and respect for the rules," reports Agence France-Presse. An FIE spokeswoman told the French newswire that the medal was given because the group "understands the frustration and feelings of the athlete."

Whether or not FIE understands Shin's frustrations and feelings, the fencer has declined to accept what AFP called her "consolation medal." The UK's Guardian newspaper reports that she has opted not to accept the medal, as "it does not make me feel better because it's not an Olympic medal. I don't accept the result because I believe it was a mistake." So much for peace, love and understanding.

China's 16-year-old phenom swimmer Ye Shiwen has been hit hard with doping rumors after her two record-breaking gold-medal swims, yet the Chinese media claims this is nothing more than Western partiality.

"Negative comments about her and Chinese athletes come from deep bias and reluctance from the Western press to see Chinese people making breakthroughs," the Global Times opines. "If Ye were an American, the tone would be different in Western media. Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in the 2008 Games. Nobody seems to question the authenticity of his results, most probably because he is American."

Yet as Deadspin pointed out Tuesday, Phelps wasn't smashing records when he was a teenager and the US swim team hasn't had as many doping problems as China has had.

The Global Times believes it's all just a passing phase as China continues to grow, and in the future, once the country's athletes routinely compete with the West, it won't be "a big deal. Doubts will go away eventually."

Let's not count on it.

Kate Bennert, Isaac Rauch, Dan Gartland, Vincent Valk and Tom Ley contributed to this article.

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Olympics Fans Are Fat And Tired: Foreign Olympics News For The 6.7 Billion People Not Watching NBC [Zooming In]

Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

You've spent your whole life in practicing and preparing, traveled from your home country with bags and bags of equipment, and put countless hours of grueling work into this: a chance at gold and glory. And then your mom gives you a two-second penalty for touching a gate.

New Zealand's Stuff (unrelated to the US Stuff) has the story of slalom kayaker Mike Dawson, who is, along with every other slalom kayaker in Lodon, attempting to qualify for Wednesday's finals. Yesterday, Dawson made it through to the semifinals as one of 15. 10 rowers will ultimately compete for medals, and Dawson had the eighth fastest time through two rounds.

Dawson made it through despite hitting a gate during his run—a no-no for slalom kayakers. The official to mark Dawson down for that offense was none other than his mother, Kay Dawson, who is an experienced judge for the event both domestically and internationally. The elder Dawson told Stuff that there's no issue—she knows a lot of the competitors, and has practice putting her emotions on hold.

The IOC isn't concerned about a potential conflict conflict of interest either (frankly, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on if they were) saying, "If it were an issue, then the ICF technical committee would never have proposed Kay Dawson as a judge for the Olympic Games in the first place."

For his part, Dawson said of the infraction, "I hit it [gate 5] and she gave me my touch. I wasn't sure it was a touch, so we'll sort that one out later." Sounds like the family dinner will be a bit more animated than usual.
— Isaac Rauch

Imagine the employment listings surely being shorn apart this very moment at the University of Leipzig, whose researchers issued a tightly-braided medal prediction of 15 golds,19 silvers and 20 bronzes, with zero margin for error, as reported in The Local.

This week, however, Germany's major news outlets are indulging in a bit of self-flagellation on its front pages, bemoaning its to-date flat medal count as a national failure. "Medals, where are you?" asks Spiegel Online, in childlike yearning, of no one in particular. And both the Bild and Frankfurter Rundschau ran with "False Start" on its front page, chiding their Olympians for the paltry showing. "Man (and woman), are we bad," rues Bild, via translation in The Local.

"Even the Kazakhs are laughing at us," a cold knock which any proud Teutonic citizen will recognize as a supreme marker of embarrassment.
— Max Lakin

Two of Africa's top Olympic Boxers, Botswana's Oteng Oteng and his main rival Benson Gicharu Njangiru of Kenya, were supposed to be on a collision course at this year's Olympics. Yet both were eliminated yesterday, and Kenya's Standard Digital claims nefarious judging played a role in the boxers' losses.

Oteng Oteng was the first to lose in a shocking fashion, as the judges scored his match 14-12 in favor of his opponent, Puerto Rico's Javier Ocasio. Oteng was so confident that he had dominated the match that he was celebrating in the ring before the decision was even announced. The crowd loudly voiced its disapproval of the judge's decision.

Njangiru lost to Egyptian Hesham Abdelaal by a score of 19-16. The crowd once again showered the arena with boos of disapproval, but Njangiru was gracious in defeat, refusing to allege any foul play. His coaches were a little less hesitant, though, as they said, "We cannot understand this decision because Benson was clearly on the lead."

One anonymous official from the Kenyan side went even further, telling Standard Media, "Both Botswana and Kenya have been robbed. This is serious and we must protest."

Oh Olympic boxing, will you ever change?
— Tom Ley

"Midnight soup" for the late-night Olympic viewer's soul. That concoction of herbal ingredients is what some private hospitals in China are recommending for crazed fans that fight the six-to-seven-hour time difference to watch the games live.

ChannelNewsAsia.com reports that many Chinese fans are using face masks at work to avoid looking like they have been up all night. Others simply roll into work bleary-eyed.

The article also reports that convenience stores and fast food restaurants in Australia are experiencing a spike in sales due to late night snacking, which has some worried about obesity. The president of the Australian Medical Association warned late night sports fans that eating too much junk food late at night is not good for their health. Dr. Obvious also cautioned fans that if they don't get enough sleep, they will be in serious danger of going "berserk."

"We don't want people to have car accidents because they're fatigued and fall asleep on the way home from work," he also said.

Obviously not everyone is sacrificing sleep for the Games. "I can watch it when I want and where I want. Hail to the Olympics on Youtube," Hafiz Noor Shams from Kuala Lampur said.

And there you have it, the first time YouTube ever helped someone be healthier and more productive at work.
— Kate Bennert

The country of India is historically terrible at sports. Despite the second-largest pool of potential athletes in the world, they've won exactly one gold medal in the last 32 years (Millionaire playboy Abhinav Bindra won the10m Air Rifle event in Beijing.)

That dearth of hardware prompted a famous ESPN article, None in a Billion" about Indian athletic futility" and the Indian government-sponsored Olympic Gold Quest program, which works with various sports programs in the country to identify and nurture 21 athletes that have potential medal-winning talent.

That investment, it seems, is already paying off: Hyderabadi sharpshooter Gagan Narang claimed a bronze in London in the same event that Bindra won last Olympiad.

It's not quite gold, but India will take it. In fact, the whole country seems to be going a bit overboard: DNA India reports that famous cricketers and Bollywood stars have tripped over themselves to declare Gagan the Pride of India and the Deccan Chronicle notes that a leading electronics manufacturer is creating a special edition of its tablet PCs called the "Narang" in honor of the now-most-famous athlete in India.
— David Goldenberg

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Nigeria Is Changing The Channel: Foreign Olympics News That Did Not Move Bob Costas [Zooming In]

With Zooming In, Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics.

Throughout the Games, we're reading through hundreds of international news publications for stories and local perspectives that can't be found stateside. Each day, we'll post the five best pieces, giving you the chance to be as globally cultured as foreign-government-controlled papers permit.

Few of us know what it's like to push our bodies to a point of transcendent exhaustion. Canada's Clara Hughes knows that feeling quite well. When she gets there, she sees Elvis, according to Montreal's The Gazette.

With a training mandate of, "Ride until you see Elvis," Hughes is one of those rare athletes to not only compete in both the summer and winter Olympics, but actually win medals in each. She won two bronzes in road cycling in 1996, and scored four more medals in speed skating. After winning bronze in the 5,000 meters at the Vancouver Games in 2010, Hughes announced her retirement, but she decided to give it one last try at these Olympics.

While she didn't place in Sunday's women's cycling road race, the 39-year-old Hughes has one more shot to win her seventh Olympic medal in a cycling time trial this week. In other words, "It's now or never."
— Dan Gartland

That's how Israeli newspaper Haaretz describes Aly Raisman (sign-up req'd, but free), the US gymnast that stole the show yesterday by qualifying for one of the two spots reserved for the American squad in the all-around individual finals.

Jewish sports fans have a long history of living vicariously through prominent Jewish athletes, and prior to the era in which a little Googling could turn up a site which claims authority on the subject, it was a popular pastime to debate the all-around Jewishness of athletes whose religious affilitations were ambiguous (David Cone, anybody?). Well, on the off-chance that video of Aly Raisman's parents watching her bar routine left any doubt, Haaretz clears it up: they're claiming Raisman for the tribe. [Haaretz actually notes that Gawker posted the video—"mocked on the website Gawker," is how they put it—and describes the scene as "a classic illustration of what any nervous Jewish parents look like when their kid competes in the Olympics."]

The Israelis had reason to gravitate toward an American in this year's games: during the first weekend of competition, their sole gymnastic competitor, Valeria Maksyuta, turned in "one of the worst performances of an Israeli gymnast since Limor Fridman at the 1984 Los Angeles Games."

Raisman proved to be a good alternative for Israeli gymnastics fans. She did her floor routine to "Hava Nagila," and, like a proud grandparent, Haaretz kvelled over Raisman's many laurels, including the "Pearl D. Mazor Outstanding Female Jewish High School Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award given out by the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in New York."
— Isaac Rauch

Nobody in Nigeria wants to watch the Olympics because the national soccer team failed to qualify for the games, says the Nigerian newspaper, Vanguard.

Americans aren't the only people who often prefer the safe cocoon offered by their favorite sports over the pageantry and spirit of the Olympic games. In Nigeria, passion for the summer Olympics is running low due to the fact that the country is not being represented in the Olympic soccer tournament.

Instead, many Nigerians are choosing to take in pre-season soccer than the are the Olympics. So says Chidi Mbah, a soccer viewing center operator (you know your country is crazy about soccer when you have soccer viewing centers), who told Vanguard that soccer fans preferred to watch European friendlies over Olympic soccer matches.

Nigerian newspapers are suffering as well, as they had hoped for a boost in sales during the Olympics, as people would be eager for updates on the Nigerian soccer team's exploits. With the team not qualifying, though, the papers have been unable to sell much of their coverage featuring other teams in the Olympics.

So, the next time you want to turn your nose up at your friend Hank for being a "typical American" because he says he'd prefer to watch a pre-season Cowboys game than an Olympic event, remember that people in Nigeria can be just as chauvinistic.
— Tom Ley

Four years ago, most current Olympians were practicing their craft. Japan's current equestrian show-jumper, Kenki Sato, though, spent 2008 secluded in a Buddhist temple, forced to secretly follow the Beijing Games as Monks are not supposed to interact with the outside world.

China Daily reports that Sato, 28, is on extended leave from his temple to compete in the London Games, where he hopes to win Japan its first equestrian medal after an 80-year drought.

The 460-year-old temple and the equestrian club are more related than you might think, though. In fact, they're next door to each other and Sato's father, Shodo, heads both of them. Shodo was also a show jumper; his Olympic dreams were dashed in 1980 when Japan boycotted the Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Kenki said that his father's past motivated his efforts to be an Olympian, but unlike most stars seeking endorsement deals and the covers of Wheaties boxes, Sato is pursuing a higher path.

"I may learn something as a human being when I encounter various people with different religions and languages abroad," Sato said. "I want to feed it back into my path to Buddhist enlightenment."
— Kate Bennert

Reasons Spain should not care that they were eliminated from the Olympic soccer tournament: 1) It's Olympic soccer 2) Spain won the 2010 World Cup and 2008 & 2012 Euro Cups 3) The Spaniards are olive-pit-spitting champions.

Barcelona's La Vanguardia (thanks to ThinkSpain for the English version) reports that Spain's Ricardo Legidos and Daniel Lozano took home gold and silver, respectively, in Sunday's olive pit spitting competition, which took place off Olympic grounds in London's Notting Hill. Britain's Gabriel Buttimore earned his homeland the bronze medal.

On top of dominating the event with a spit of 13.15 meters (43.143 feet), Legidos is covering the Games for the EFE (the Spanish equivalent to the Associated Press). According to the event organizer, the world record for olive pit spitting is 21.43 meters (70.308 feet).

In 2007 the Asociación Amigos de las Oliveras de Cieza (Association of Friends of Olive-Growers of Cieza) began petitioning the IOC to recognize olive pit spitting as an Olympic Sport. They argued that the practice dated back to the Stone Age, it's environmentally friendly, and the sport doesn't discriminate in terms of gender, race, nationality, age, ideology.

The IOC still refuses to credit the sport, which is reason 4,296 why nobody likes the IOC.
— Justin Adler

Gelf Magazine, the purveyor of fine NYC-based events including the Varsity Letters speaking series, has been looking over the overlooked since 2005.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.