In an attempt to prevent future controversies like the one in Beijing where two Chinese Gold-Medalists were accused of being younger than the 16 years required for Olympic competition, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) announced on Monday.
Beginning January 1, all junior and senior gymnasts who represent their countries at most international meets will need a license from the FIG. This license will include gymnasts’ name, sex, country and birthdate and will be their proof of age for their entire career. Although this licenses could potentially be falsified, it will be much more difficult as most Olympic class gymnast begin competing in at the international level in their early teens. For example, Olympic all-round Gold-Medalist Nastia Liukin first competed in an international event at age 13.
Our remaining Olympian, Maurice Greene made in through the elimination night in week seven of the ABC reality show, “Dancing with the Stars.” However, I think his days way be numbered unless he picks up his game. The Gold-Medal-winning sprinter’s waltz lacked grace and charisma this week. It’s not his size; the NFL’s Warren Sapp, a much bigger guy, is incredibly light on his feet. The top spot may be up for grabs with front-runner, Brooke Burke injuring her ankle. We’ll just have to see what happens.
The other Olympian on the show, Misty May-Treanor withdrew from the competition in week four after injuring her Achilles tendon.
Australian Olympic, long-distance swimmer, Grant Hackett is announcing his retirement from swimming at Australia’s Swimmer of the Year awards banquet this evening. The 28-year-old has seven Olympic Medals to his name, including three Golds. Hackett competed in the Sydney, Athens, and Beijing Games. He is best known for winning the 1500m freestyle in 2000 and 2004. He finished second in that event in Beijing.
Eighteen-year-old Korean, Yu-Na Kim handily won the womens individual competition at Skate America in Everett Washington yesterday. Although Kim’s performance wasn’t perfect, it had a grace and fluidity that the other skaters’ routines lacked. Even more amazingly, this was her first appearance at Skate America, the first ISU Grand Prix event of the year.
Kim is definately a name to keep in mind for the Vancouver Games in 2010. She is a former world junior champion and two-time bronze medalist in the World Championships. Kim, who is ranked #2 in the world, is coached by former Olympian, Canadian mens singles two-time Silver Medalist, Brian Orser.
Below is Kim’s winning performance from yesterday afternoon:
This weekend, the world’s best figure skaters gathered in Everett Washington (outside of Seattle) for the 2008 Skate America competition, the first ISU Grand Prix event of the 2008/2009 season. Below are the winning performances:
Ice Dancing: the Gold Medal went to Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder (France), whose winning performance is featured below. Taking the Silver Medal were Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto of the United States. Sinead Kerr and John Kerr of the United States finished in third place.
The mens individual Gold went to Takahiko Kozuka of Japan. Johnny Weir of the United States won the Silver and Evan Lysacek, also of the United States, won the Bronze Medal.
The Pairs Gold went to Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany. The Silver was awarded to Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker of the United States and the Bronze went to Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov of Russia.
The womens individual competition is still underway as I write this. We will have the results of that competition tomorrow.
It’s been quite a year for Spanish tennis player, Rafael Nadal. He won two Grand Slam tennis tournaments; he won the Gold Medal in the men’s individual competition in Beijing; and he replaced Roger Federer as the #1 mens tennis player in the world. Now add to that list the Prince of Asturias Award for Sport.
The Prince of Asturias Awards, established in 1981, are one of Spain’s highest honors and are bestowed to individuals from around the world for excellence in a number of disciplines. Nadal was given his award on Friday, October 24 at a ceremony in Orvietas, the capital of the Asturias province for which the awards are named. His fellow award winners include the British author, Margaret Atwood; Columbian former hostage, Ingrid Betancourt; and the Internet giant, Google.
For those of us eager for the Winter Olympic Games to get here, there was a teaser this weekend as the season began for world cup skiing at the FIS Audi Alpine World Cup event in Solden Austria. Results included:
Men’s Giant Slalom: Daniel Albrecht (Switzerland), Didier Cuche (Switzerland), Ted Ligety (USA)
Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2001, announced this week that he will seek relection to the post. The 66-year-old Belgian is expected to be unopposed for this position when the IOC votes in October of 2009. Rogge, the eighth president of the IOC, has presided over four Olympic Games, the 2002 and 2006 Winter Games and the 2004 and 2008 Summer Games. He is eligible for a second term of four years.
Our remaining Olympian, sprinter Maurice Greene has made it to the half-way point on the ABC reality show, “Dancing with the Stars.” He and professional dance partner, Cheryl Burke danced the Salsa, earning a 27 out of 30 from the judges. No video is available of their performance, but there is this spoof of a political ad that for the show with Maurice and Lance Bass.
Next week, the remaining six pairs will learn two dances, one individual performance and a group dance. We continue to wish Maurice well.
In celebration of the Breeder’s Cup, we are having a little contest here in the Sports Channel. And what can you win?
A $200 gift certificate to Amazon to do whatever you please.
How do you win?
That’s easy.
All you have to do is leave a comment on any five of these blogs. You can choose which posts that you want to comment on, but one of them MUST be the horse racing blog - Thoroughbred Fever.
Contest ends at 9:00am on Monday. On Monday morning, we will track all the entries and draw a random winner who will be emailed the $200 gift certificate.
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