Why was Jamaica so Dominant in Olympic Track?
September 5, 2008
Jamaican runners took six gold medals in track and field during the Olympics. This is an outstanding number for a country as small as Jamaica. Thus, there were a lot of attempts to explain Jamaican track dominance. Similarly, tiny Lithuania has consistently produced one of the best basketball teams in the world, including the 2000 Olympic team that nearly upset the Americans. In attempting to explain this phenomenon, there’s been the usual mix of genetic (nature) explanations and nurture explanations. Which do you believe is true?
2008 Olympics: Racism 101 in Black and White
August 25, 2008
If this article is posted Monday morning, we can safely say the sporting press is generally racist. We can also say that certain black sportswriters and columnists are little more than shuffling, scuffling, buffoons; house slaves who love “Massa” more than they love themselves. You see Thursday evening just after 10:30 p.m. EST defending 400-meter gold medalist Jeremy Wariner finished a disappointing second in his event to fellow American LaShawn Merritt. Wariner, in fact, trailed Merritt, who posted a personal best time of 43.75 seconds, by nearly a full second (44.74) at the finish line.
But that was not the entire story of the Men’s 400-meter event in Beijing.
Not even close.
The real story was Wariner’s pitiful finish. With only 20 meters remaining in the race Wariner looked to his left and saw Merritt ahead of him. Instead of pushing himself to the end, Wariner, realizing there was not enough track left in the race to come back against his countryman, gave up.
Jeremy Wariner, the gold medal favorite in the 400-meter dash, gave up on his primary Olympic event before the finish line. He jogged to the tape and nearly cost himself a silver medal.
But as despicable as Wariner’s lack of effort was, that is only part of the story.
2008 Olympics: Triathlete Snowsill Demans the Games with Her Showboating Finish
August 19, 2008
Australian triathlete Emma Snowsill won an Olympic gold medal by torching her archrival, Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal. Snowsill crossed the finish line over one minute ahead of Fernandes, a winner of 20 triathlon World Cups.
Fernandes has won a record 20 World Cups, took the world title from Snowsill last year, and beat her again at the triathlon test event in Beijing last September. The Portuguese triathlete trained specifically for the Beijing environment in an attempt to get as leg up on her competition for this Olympics.
In the morning events Fernendes and Snowsill were close and in the bicycling portion of the event it appeared Fernandes might take command of the race. However, when it came to the third and final leg, the run, Snowsill, asthma and all, took control of the contest and left Fernandes far behind.
But what should have been a triumphant moment was soured by Snowsill’s showbooat finish to her gold medal run. Some 400 meters from the finish Snowsill was offered an Australian flag which she draped over her shoulders. As she trotted toward the finish line she alternately waved the flag behind her, mugging for the cameras.
Snowsill’s act cost her at least 30 second; she could have defeated Fernandes by an astounding two minutes. Instead she cheated a worldwide audience of Olympics watchers out of knowing exactly how dominant was her performance.
Notes: Tyson Homosexual; Sonics Move Despised by Most; Adios Upshaw?
July 3, 2008
How “Homosexual” of Them
American Family Association’s OneNewsNow is so offended by the word “gay” that they’ve tasked their webmasters to automatically change the word to “homosexual” in every mention in every Associated Press article that comes their way.
How does this impact sports?
Tyson Gay, U.S. 100-meter sprint champion had his name changed to “Tyson Homosexual” in the original reprinting of a June 29 article titled, “Gay Eases into 100 Final at Olympic Trials.”
The only thing I want to know is, did the altered headline read, “Homosexual Eases into 100 Final…,” instead of Gay?
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Sonics gone: Seattle pissed Seattle players pissed (OK City will be pissed, too as bad as they are)
The Seattle Supersonics are leaving for Oklahoma City. Team owner Clay Bennett is paying the city of Seattle $45 million to move and $30 million more should the state fund the renovation of the Seattle arena in the next three years and the team not have a new franchise in the next five years.
Bennett cannot use the name “Supersonics,” the team colors, statistics ———- nothing form the former Seattle franchise. In essence, then, because the Supersonics struggled mightily most of last season, the people of Oklahoma City are taking in an expansion team.
Why Trevor Graham Now?
May 23, 2008
Like steroid distributor, Angel Heredia, Justin Gatlin, according to Jeff Novitzky, worked undercover for the government in 2000 and recorded phone calls with Trevor Graham. The testimonies of Heredia and Gatlin are particularly damning to Graham’s claims of altruism in conjunction with anonymously sending a syringe full of a designer performance-enhancing (PED) growth hormone drug, THG, to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) allegedly created at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) for testing:
In an 2004 interview with federal agents, Graham downplayed his relationship with [Angel] Heredia and denied being involved in banned drugs. Two years later, after Heredia became a government informant and secretly tape-recorded phone calls and a meeting with Graham, the coach was indicted on three felony charges of lying to federal agents.
Graham’s lawyer, William Keane, says the coach told the truth when he denied providing drugs to his athletes. In court, he accused Heredia of testifying falsely about Graham to avoid being prosecuted for steroid dealing himself.
