"... I don’t know if I can wait another month to be terrorized/intrigued by another iteration of you all over again.
To be honest I can’t tell whether the anticipation of you or the threat of you plagues me more. All I know is I’m conflicted about your existence. Let’s examine that.
[...]
AGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH. Are you a sparkly serpent head or a fabulous car? Either way, you look lopsided and drunk! And I’m suffering haunting flashbacks of those tight-ass rubber bands from BRACES tugging at my teeth...
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Hi Tony,
I hope you are well. I wanted to reach out on behalf of the U.S. Olympic Committee regarding an inspirational video from seventeen year-old swimmer and Olympic qualifier Missy Franklin!
The video, which can be found here, is part of a series of animated athlete videos speaking to how Olympians and Paralympians got to where they are today and who is their “Team Behind the Team” which has debuted in conjunction with the U.S. Olympic Committee’s program “Raise Our Flag” campaign.
Unlike other countries, the United States receives no financial support from the government. It relies on solely on the American people and corporate sponsors to support our Olympic athletes on their path to the Olympics. We hope you’ll join us and lend your support to Team USA’s Raise Our Flag campaign. Here’s how:
- Visit HERE and buy a stitch from now through July 12, 2012. Each $12 stitch directly supports the athletes.
- Every stitch – sharable on Facebook and Twitter – will be honored on the site’s Donor Wall and can be dedicated to a friend, family member or athlete.
With Missy’s recent success at trials, we thought this would be a perfect fit for your audience. We’d love for you to share this video and the new Raise Our Flag campaign with your readers, so they can show their support for Missy and the rest of Team USA as they travel to compete in London in less than a month.
Best,
Kelsey
"...Upon exiting the pool, Lezak gathered enough breath to ask Lochte, a multievent monster, if he planned to scratch from the final. Lochte’s answer gave Lezak a new lease on the London Games. No, Lochte said, he had no intention of swimming in the final. His withdrawal opened a spot for Lezak. ..."
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Why are you such a hater? Phelps coming back to Lockte's level is the best thing that could happen to swimming this quadrennial.
Would people be interested if Phelps was blowing everyone out of the water like he did four years ago?I would actually prefer to see him tearing it up and beating everybody "like a boss." Once he stopped doing that look what he became...
[On playing Cat and Mouse' or in this case cat or mouse]"...Ryan and Michael are so focused on racing each other they do stuff like not take it out fast enough … in the process they forget to swim fast."
Outside the conference room later, SwimNews asked Bowman if he though it would be dangerous to play cat and house when Yannick Agnel, Park Tae-hwan and others are in the mix. "It can be," replied the coach before revealing that he had spoken to Lochte's coach and Us [ What's "Us" mean? -tony] head men's coach Gregg Troy on the topic.
"When they started out racing each other they would do that. They stopped doing it but now they're doing it again," said Bowman.
That to me tells me that their vanity got in the way. Did you see Phelps glancing at Lochte after his turns? Both their times were a full second slower than Yannick Agnel's best time this year and slower than Lochte's Shanghai time of last year.
There's more here:
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I’m in the water 10 times a week for two hours apiece. During the regular season I lift weights twice a week for a total of three hours. I also do dryland exercises that add up to another hour. So it’s basically 24 hours of working out a week. I’m also pretty active outside of training. I’m constantly working out, basically. Anytime I’m not, I’m resting. People don’t realize how valuable resting [is] when you’re working as hard as we do.
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From Science Daily:
"... Proposed Olympic policies for testing the testosterone levels of select female athletes could discriminate against women who may not meet traditional notions of femininity and distort the scientific evidence on the relationship between testosterone, sex and athletic performance, says a Stanford University School of Medicine bioethicist and her colleagues. ..."
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"There are many biological reasons some athletes are better than others," the authors write, pointing to several runners and cyclists who have rare mitochondrial variations that give them extraordinary aerobic capacity, or basketball players who have acromegaly, a hormonal condition that results in exceptionally large hands and feet. Such biological differences don't cause them to be banned from competition, they write.
"It bears noting that athletes never begin on a fair playing field; if they were not exceptional in one regard or another they would not have made it to a prestigious international athletic stage," the authors note.
"... Debbie recalls Bowman coming to speak with her and Michael’s father about their son’s swimming future. Bowman laid out a plan for Michael’s swimming career all the way up to 2012, and Debbie started to laugh...
Bowman asked what was the matter and Debbie was blunt. “I told him, ‘If [Michael] doesn’t enjoy it, this isn’t going to happen!...”
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"... Jaecks spoke to a staffer at the pool, who didn't have an issue with her intent to swim topless. Neither did the assistant manager, who wanted to clear it with the pool manager. Eventually, Jaecks says she spoke with Kathy Whitman, aquatics manager for the city parks department, who eventually told her that despite the fact that she no longer had breasts, she would still have to cover up. ..."
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Artist Leroy Neiman was the the kind of guy who inadvertently would put himself at the right place at exactly the right time ultimately achieving both fame, fortune and a cadre of influential buyers and admirers. In 1954 Leroy Neiman bumped into a guy named Hugh Hefner when they when he was commissioned to do do some fashion illustrations for a department store where Hefner was working as a writer. The two eventually collaborated for 1/2-a-century. - [Link]"... Neiman sponsored and supported several organizations from coast to coast that foster art activities for underprivileged children such as The LeRoy Neiman Center for Youth in San Francisco and the Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center in Harlem. He also has established the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University in New York and scholarships at his Alma Mater, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. ..."
[Link]I only like Neiman's sketches. Every year when I travel to San Francisco to do my favorite open water race I check out his work at a local gallery nearby. Though I find his paintings to "splashy", over-saturated with colors that you would never find in nature, I do admire how he can take a sporting event and give it a personality that transcends a photograph.
One with the Water™ - [Errata: Ken prefers the line to read:] welcomes athletes of the US Paralympics to provide year-round training for those that want to learn to compete!
This program is designed for persons with mental or physical challenges, what we call "flawless imperfections." Designed to help swimmers learn and improve skills, maintain and increase physical fitness, achieve success and receive recognition through competition, and experience self-actualization in a regular aquatics environment. The program include one weekly technique lesson and as many workouts a week as you can make!
We offer lessons and swim team practices to those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, Asperger's, ADD, ADHD, sensory integration, anxiety, Down and CHARGE syndrome, auditory processing disorders, dyslexia and other neurological flawless imperfections. We welcome Service-Disabled Veterans and athletes of the U.S. Paralympics and U.S. Special Olympics!
She told Sierra Magazine: “...It gives me a sense of calm. I just go out and stare at the beds.” Between caring for 10 citrus trees, seven different vegetable beds, an array of herbs AND five chickens, Natalie will no doubt still find time to train for the London Games this summer. ..."
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From Fox News:
"Based on the autopsy findings and the investigative history that is available to me, it is my opinion that Alexander Dale-Oen died of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease," Coconino County medical examiner Lawrence Czarnecki wrote in a report.
The second tests revealed "severe atherosclerotic disease of the coronary arteries" supplying blood to the heart, and found that the left descending artery was "occluded" by "atherosclerotic plaque." "The decedent's only known risk factor for heart disease was familial," Czarnecki found, noting that one of Dale Oen's grandfathers died suddenly of heart disease at age 42.
"Given the decedent's young age and significant atherosclerotic disease, a follow-up and evaluation of family members is recommended," he added...."
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From the MSNBC Blog:
Lochte recently posted a photo of his custom-designed kicks on Twitter, writing “Don’t duplicate!! #swagismine.” Another pair, which he designed for one of his sponsors, Speedo, feature emerald rhinestones and will be sold in flip-flop form for $24.99.
“He wanted green, he wanted bling,’’ the director of marketing at Speedo told the Times. “He likes to make a statement when he walks onto that pool deck.”
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From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Five years ago, on a camp that Sullivan attended, Olympic gold medallist Libby Trickett was snapped firing a vintage pistol with her teammates watching on, apparently in an exercise to build team harmony. D'Arcy and Monk, meanwhile, have already been ordered by the Australian Olympic Committee to return early from the London Games after they posted photos of themselves on Facebook and Twitter posing with firearms in America.
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Executive Director Christopher Lytle, adding that his port will start seeing more mega ships call to Long Beach on a regular basis in the coming months as the busier season approaches. "It's not just that they're bigger ships; the fact of the matter is these vessels are much more efficient on a per-container basis," Lytle said. The benefits, Lytle said, include fuel efficiency, and they are cleaner burning and have less harmful pollutants or air emissions.
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From the Wall Street Journal:
The damage adds up. At the 2008 Beijing Games, foreign athletes from U.S. universities earned at least 28 medals for their countries—and possibly twice that many. About half don't cite their NCAA affiliation in their Olympic bona fides, says U.S. Olympic Committee historian Bill Mallon, who estimates that foreign athletes from U.S. universities may have won 60 medals in 2008—more than 6% of the total. In Beijing, 48 countries fielded athletes from the Pacific-12 Conference alone.
The situation troubles Americans such as swimmer Rowdy Gaines, the three-time Olympic gold medalist. He favors capping the percentage of international athletes on U.S. college teams to preserve a majority of opportunities for U.S. athletes. Fielding so many foreign athletes, Gaines said, "hurts our Olympic movement, which we have to think of, first and foremost."
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"...The photo of Monk holding two pump-action shotguns and standing beside D'Arcy, who had a pistol in each hand, in a U.S gun shop spread quickly in social and traditional media Thursday, with Sydney Daily Telegraph taking to Twitter to ask: "Are you offended by this photograph of Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk in a US gun shop?"
Swimming Australia issued a statement saying it became aware of "inappropriate photos" and "instantly contacted the athletes involved to ask for them to be removed..."
[Link]It's my opinion this photos are simply "thug life" satirical poses on their part. They look about as dangerous as a bad actor on a "soap opera." Unfortunately these guys are public figures and when you are a public figure your personality has to be more mythical than factual.
"... This means that USA Swimming currently does not have jurisdiction to begin the process to add Tatro to the public Banned for Life list. However, there is the potential for USA Swimming to convene the process that will lead to Tatro being added to the private flagged list the organization keeps in case someone attempts to gain membership at a later date...."
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In the comment section of another blog post I mentioned that the Olympics are becoming less relevant and the ratings are getting generally lower. I mentioned that that the 1976 Olympics were ultimately the "grand apex" of the movement here in the states and that the World Cup and perhaps the X-Games could become a bigger deal.According to, Bob Bowman, Phelps still continued to loaf and failed to show up for workouts. Bowman and Phelps even traded expletives regarding his workout attendance. When asked by ESPN what has been going on with his "day job", it was suggested that the French Open EDF, the 2010 USA Swimming Nationals, and the Pan-Pacific Championships were summarily events held during an off year. He credited his lack of workout participation for giving him time to relax, to take up golf, and discover or define who he is as an adult.
From ESPN:
"... Bowman said he wonders whether he shouldn't have just told Phelps to take an entire year off after winning eight gold medals in the 2008 Summer Games. Phelps has shown up for about 40 percent of the year's work ..."
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Police began investigating Joshua David Tatro, 25, of El Granada last month after a student at Aragon High School told authorities that Tatro had touched her inappropriately.
Attorneys for the victim alleged in a statement that Tatro had been grooming the student and had promised her a Division I scholarship.
Some evidence to arrest Tatro was taken from the student's cell phone, according to her attorneys.
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The blurb underneath one result reading something like "leaving first alternate Anna Crandall at home when she should have been invited" caught my eye. I looked at the title and it said something like "NCAA 2010 Predictions Recap", so I immediately thought "WHAT?!!" and clicked on the article to find out what it was talking about. "
That's right. Crandall spent two years thinking she'd been the first alternate -- the first one not to make it. No one told her she should have been at the meet, even though she continued to train and toil in hopes for a scratch.
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The four American trials were scheduled concurrently in the final weeks of June because of NBC's desire to create interest for the London Games, July 27-Aug. 12. But the schedule makes it difficult for athletes to peak twice within a month to try to win medals.
[Link]Two words could end all this: "Collective bargaining." Don't forget, the USOC got 1/2-a-billion dollars from the IOC and all our athletes got was what?
Claudio Rosetto, Magnini's coach: "...I don't think they really hit the mark with that suit. Nobody is using the three-part system," [...] "For the men, the suits don't make such a big difference now, but if there's a big negative effect, that's significant."
Netherlands coach Titus Mennen: "The new suit is horrible," [...] "It gets very heavy and it's difficult for the women to put it on, pulling the (straps) over their heads. Then it bunches up in the water. That's something Speedo has to work on."
Fabio Scozzoli, Italian team swimmer: "As long as that keeps working for me, [The 2010 Speedo LZR] I'll use it," [...] "The new one compresses too much. It's heavy and it seems like it holds water."
Jessica Hardy on the speedo goggles: "The depth perception is really different and I can see more than I would like to see in them" [...] "I think I'm just going to try it later, after the summer."
A differing view from Bob Bowman: "The suit does matter, it does help," [...] "But it just gives them a little sharpness. It doesn't completely change them as a swimmer."
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