Beijing Summer Olympics 2008

[aaosmts19]

WILL SOMEBODY TELL ME WHY, IN THIS DAY OF USADA, ARE PEOPLE STUPID ENOUGH TO DO THIS??

How, in this day and age, can an olympic athlete even PRETEND to not know what drugs are illegal and what aren't. Do they know how ridiculous they sound?

www.comcast.net/olympics/story.asp?i=20080802014822520000201&ref=hea&tm=&src=OLYMPICS_PREMIUM

Swimmer Hardy withdraws from Olympic team

Swimmer Jessica Hardy withdrew from the U.S. Olympic team Friday, four weeks after testing positive for a banned substance at the Olympic trials.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced Hardy's decision, saying she did so "in the best interests of the team."

The 21-year-old from Long Beach, Calif., could have contested the drug test results before the American Arbitration Association and potentially filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which would have kept her first Olympic berth in doubt until the eve of the games that open Aug. 8.

"While some might have chosen to exhaust their legal options to try to force their way into the games, Jessica instead chose to put her team's interests ahead of her own," said Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of USADA.

Hardy tested positive for a low level of clenbuterol, a prohibited anabolic agent, at the trials on July 4.

She didn't immediately return a cell phone message left Friday by The Associated Press, but Hardy told the AP in a July 25 interview that she was innocent and said she had no idea how she tested positive for clenbuterol.

"I had never even heard of this drug," she said. "I've never wanted to do anything remotely close to doping. It's never, ever crossed my mind. I've never been approached about doing it. It's never been an issue my entire career. It's the last thing I would ever do."

The U.S. swim team was training in Singapore on Friday and leaves Monday for Beijing.

Hardy qualified for the Olympics in two individual events - the 100-meter breaststroke and 50 freestyle - and the 400 free relay. She was a strong contender to medal in her specialty, the breaststroke.

Hardy's withdrawal allows USA Swimming to place swimmers already on the team in her open events, according to executive director Chuck Wielgus.

Olympic rookie Rebecca Soni, who trained with Hardy at Southern California, will swim the 100 breast and Kara Lynn Joyce will swim the 50 free, he said.

It's the second lucky break Joyce has gotten since the trials.

The 22-year-old Georgia swimmer was initially added to the team as an alternate on the 400 free relay after Dara Torres withdrew from the 100 free.

Joyce finished third in the 50 free at the trials - one spot out of making the team. She was seventh in the 100 free at the trials - one spot out of making the team, which left her in tears afterward. She earned two silver medals in Athens, in the 400 free and 400 medley relays.

The 100 breast will be Soni's second individual event; she had qualified in the 200 breast.

A panel from the American Arbitration Association issued a decision Friday that was jointly agreed to by Hardy and USADA after Hardy had a full opportunity to review the laboratory test results and to have those results analyzed by independent experts.

Hardy did not contest the laboratory findings and was granted additional time by the arbitration panel to investigate possible causes of her positive drug test.

The decision allows for a two-year period of ineligibility but allows Hardy to come back to the panel to present evidence that could reduce her period of ineligibility.

Hardy was tested three times during the trials in Omaha, Neb. The results were negative for the samples taken on July 1, after she won the 100 breaststroke, and on July 6, shortly after she finished second in the 50 free.

But Hardy's "A" and backup "B" samples both came back positive from the test on July 4, when she finished fourth in the 100 free.

[aaosmts19]

Not necessarily related to Beijing, but yet another doping scandal for the US....

www.comcast.net/olympics/story.asp?i=20080802134320280000101&ref=hea&tm=&src=OLYMPICS_PREMIUM

BEIJING (AP) The International Olympic Committee stripped gold medals Saturday from the U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay team that competed at the 2000 Olympics in the aftermath of Antonio Pettigrew's admission that he was doping at the time.

The IOC executive board disqualified the entire team, the fourth gold and sixth overall medal stripped from that U.S. track contingent in the past eight months for doping.

Three gold and two bronze were previously removed after Marion Jones confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs.

Saturday's decision was almost a formality after Pettigrew gave up his gold medal in June. During a trial involving former track coach Trevor Graham, he admitted in May that he used EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003.

Five of Pettigrew's teammates also lose their medals: Michael Johnson and twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison ran in the final; Jerome Young and Angelo Taylor ran in the preliminaries.

It was Johnson's fifth gold medal of his stellar career. He has already said he was giving it back because he felt "cheated, betrayed and let down" by Pettigrew's testimony. Johnson still holds world records in the 200 and 400 meters.

Three of the four runners from the relay final have been tainted by drugs.

Alvin Harrison accepted a four-year ban in 2004 after admitting he used performance-enhancers. Calvin Harrison tested positive for a banned stimulant in 2003 and was suspended for two years. Young was banned for life for doping violations.

"We support the action taken today by the IOC," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "Athletes who make the unacceptable choice to cheat should recognize that there will be consequences. Those consequences can be severe including the loss of medals and results. We're in full support of this action. In other matters like this in the past we've worked with the IOC to make certain medals will be returned, and we'll do so again."

The IOC also disqualified Pettigrew from his seventh-place finish in the individual 400 meters in Sydney. And the committee banned him from attending the upcoming Beijing Games "in any capacity," including as a competitor, coach or technical official. Pettigrew has retired from competition, and the U.S. Olympic Committee said there were no plans for him to be in Beijing.

The IOC had previously tried to strip the relay team after it became known that Young tested positive before the Sydney Games. But a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport said the entire team should not be disqualified, and Pettigrew and the others were allowed to keep their medals.

Saturday's move came four months after the IOC stripped the gold from the U.S. women's 1,600-meter relay team and bronze from the women's 400-meter relay squad because of doping by Jones. She admitted last year that she used drugs at the time and returned her five medals, including gold in the 100 meters and 200 meters and bronze in the long jump.

The IOC has put off any decision on reallocating the U.S. medals until later this year when it takes into account all the files from the BALCO investigation in the United States.

No time frame for a decision on medal redistribution has been set, although an eight-year statute of limitations expires on Oct. 1.

Nigeria finished second in the men's 1,600-meter relay, with Jamaica third and the Bahamas fourth.

"That's such a shame, especially for the ones who were clean, and it's most important for the athletes who were second," Sanya Richards, who won gold on the 1,600-meter women's relay in 2004, said from training camp in Dalian. "You lose that opportunity to stand on top of the podium and feel the joy of winning the race. Those are the people who hurt the worst when there are cheaters ahead of them. Giving back the medals is just a technicality because you can't repair the hurt feelings and the hard work that went into it."

The IOC is reluctant to hand Jones' 100 gold to silver medalist Katerina Thanou, a Greek sprinter at the center of a doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Games. She and fellow Greek runner Kostas Kenteris missed drug tests on the eve of the opening ceremony and claimed they were injured in a motorcycle accident. They were forced to pull out of the games and were later suspended for two years.

An IOC disciplinary panel will meet next Thursday to consider whether Thanou can run at the Beijing Games. The 33-year-old sprinter qualified for the Greek team in the 100, but the IOC is reviewing her eligibility.

Thanou's lawyer has threatened legal action if she is barred from the games

[mtnme]

Interesting blog on Summer vs Winter Olympics, and I kinda have to agree...I'm much more of a Winter Olympics fan, myself. (Although not necessarily for the same reasons as the authors.)

I've quoted this before, but it's such a great line, it deserves repeating: (From a Time magazine article several years ago)

Summer Olympians do things we coudn't do...
Winter Olympians do things we WOULDN'T do....

(for which 'luge' comes immediately to mind....)

And wouldn't it be nice if just once, a journalist spelled Apolo's name right? (Or got the network right....isn't it NBC who is broadcasting the games?

__________________________________________________
SportsOne

Monday, August 4, 2008
Olympics vs Olympics
It’s 2008 and that means it’s an Olympic year and this year it’s the Summer Olympics turn to show off its skills and hopefully generate two weeks of rip roaring competitive excitement not seen since the final days of Charlie Sheen’s divorce from Denise Richards. (Has there ever been a better icon for the bachelors of the world than Charlie Sheen? Really?) The opening ceremonies of the much-hyped and controversial Beijing Games take place Aug 8, and as CBC gets ready to bombard us with “round the clock” coverage over the next two weeks I have to admit, for all its history, sportsmanship, memories and moments, the Summer Games just don’t do it for the SportsOne the way the Winter Games do.

Don’t get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy watching the Summer Olympics. Who could forget Donovan Bailey, Silken Laumann, Simon Whitefield, Ben Johnson (Oops!), Kerri Strug, Marion Jones (Oops again!) and of course the blonde bomber: Kurt Harnett. Who could forget the everlasting images of the US Olympic gymnastics team leading the fans in what has got to have been the largest mass Macarena dance ever in 1996. (I’m not kidding. This actually happened! Even I can't make this kind of stuff up) I love watching all different events, from swimming to rowing and of course the steeplechase, if for no other reason than I like to see the runners fall in the pool after they hurdle that huge beam. For all its pluses though, it just doesn’t stack up to the magic and new age excitement of the Winter Games.

First of all, the Summer Olympics has far too many events and because there are only a certain number of consecutive hours that even the biggest Olympic fan can watch tv, it is hard to keep track. Remember, I’m the guy who gets up on Sunday morning at 11 to watch NFL countdown, then watches 13 live games from 1-7 and THEN stays tuned for another 3+ hours during highlight shows and the Sunday night football game. By the time it’s all over more than 12 straight hours have been spent sitting watching tv, and if I have trouble following the Summer Olympics imagine how lost others must be. CBC signs off after day 1 and already 20 medals have been awarded. How can this be? Who gets a medal and then is done competing after the first day? Isn’t there supposed to be an agreed upon rule, like in Monopoly where you can’t buy properties the first time around? In the Winter Olympics, nothing happens the first day. In fact, the first three days are usually for qualifying which bring nights worth of drama and excitement to any event. How will Apollo Anton Ohno fare in the semi finals two days from now? Will all those “Dancing With The Stars” practices screw up his legs? Will Pierre Lueders be able to finally beat the Germans in heat 2? Will any of the snowboarders oversleep and have to forfeit their Olympic dreams? These are the burning questions that take a day or two of pondering, and therefore make it that much more compelling.

Speaking of which, with the addition of snowboarding, freestyle skiing and skeleton, the Winter Olympics has suddenly become the “trendy, hip, cool” Olympics while the Summer Games has that “old man in the bar with the whiskey face” feel to them. These events at the Winter Games are a step up from the X Games which despite being around for more than ten years still has that feeling of “ESPN came up with the idea” to a) appeal to younger people and b) pad medal stats for American athletes. (Really, is anyone else floored when they see a Norweigian or German on the medal podium at the X Games??) Meanwhile, the Summer Games have Judo, Boxing, Wrestling and Taekwondo, but no MMA event. What is the holdup? UFC is all over the place!! Who wouldn’t be totally up for the worlds best amateur mixed martial arts fighters taking the ring against each other for the chance to bring home Olympic gold and the chance to be interviewed by the newest CBC intern! I guess they’re trying to be hip by having beach volleyball an Olympic sport, but they already have team volleyball! This would be like the Winter Olympics coming out with a 3 on 3 mini-stick hockey tournament. All in all, the Winter Games is like the new cool micro-brewery while the Summer Games still has that Pabst Blue Ribbon feel to it.
Also, because there are fewer events to cover and fewer people participating, certain events in the Winter Games get magnetized and become riveting at the same time. Throw away events such as Luge and Ski Jumping for instance. The Winter Games are the only venues for events such as these, and because they’re often the only things going on at the time, people tune in. Who could forget Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards in 1988, the man who had never ski jumped a day in his life, going to Calgary with the hopes of landing a jump for mighty Team Great Britain? (The IOC even made up a rule in his honor, stipulating that every one must now qualify for the Olympics and that a country has to have a set number of athletes competing in a said event in the country before anyone can make it to the games.) And the Luge, like it or not, is still a pretty cool event. Just a guy (or two?) going down an icy slope hanging on for dear life. While we’re on the subject, is the Luge the only event where you could conceivably have women competing against men and it wouldn’t change? That would add even more spellbinding excitement. Who knows the gender of the luger until that final moment where they pull off the helmet and voila! It was a woman after all! And there’s always the added chance of someone flying into one of those big stacks of hay they have. These events would get lost in the shuffle if the Winter Games were as big as the Summer Games, much the same way that Fencing and Yachting are completely glossed over. I mean, have you ever willingly watched people yacht?

And how about the fact that the Winter Games has that element of extreme danger facing its athletes all the time. Events such as Bobsled, Skeleton, Luge, and Alpine Skiing all have huge danger factors attached to them, where serious injuries could take place at any moment. Isn’t that the same reason people watch the Daytona 500? To see a giant multi-car crash in turn 4? Limbs can brake, people going flying off the track! These things add depth to any Olympic event. How often have you seen 4 or 5 short track speed skaters desperately trying to get around each other when one of them blows a tire and goes teetering off into the Nikon ad banner? It’s moments like these that keep us coming back for more and the Summer Games just don’t deliver on the same thrill level. I guess a weightlifter could conceivably drop the weight on his foot, but that’s going a little too far, plus there’s always the fact that he could have already won too. No, for sheer adrenaline rushes you have to turn to the winter Olympics. What if a curler fell down while the rock is going toward the house? Can you say “Curling Brawl”? Complete with weapons no less!

The Summer Games also have three events that seem to be absolutely meaningless: Baseball, Tennis and Soccer. As much as I have no doubt that the worlds best water polo and handball players are competing in the Olympics, the same cannot be said about either Baseball or Soccer. In fact, if you were to ask a soccer player where the Olympic gold placed in his “Things to Accomplish This Year” list, it would fall between “pay alimony” and “haircut”. The World Cup and Euro Cup are the biggest national tournaments for nearly every soccer player on earth, which is why they have the Olympic soccer tournament consist of under 23 year olds. To put it in perspective, Nigeria and Cameroon won a double dip for Africa in 1996 and 2000. Baseball also sees its greatest players not playing for their country come Olympic time, which is why Cuba dominates. Not letting most of their players play in the majors in North America allows them to tear into the competition like John Daly into a pack of Ho Hos. Poor Netherlands (a Dutch baseball team???) never had a chance in 2004. (In fact, the IOC agrees. 2012 in London, England will be the last time baseball is played at the Olympics.)

At least the worlds greatest tennis players show up for the Olympics. Unless the country is too filled with top players and then only a certain number get to compete. Or unless you’re like many top ranked players and feel that the Olympics is a hassle in the middle of a busy hard court season to which you withdraw altogether. (This year its Andy Rodthingy and Richard Gasquet, but the list also includes past champions like Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Kim Clijsters) It’s hard for fans to get excited about Olympic tennis when the players don’t. Now hockey on the other hand is a big deal in the Winter Games. They even stop the season right in the middle and cancel the All Star game for the Olympics! It’s a big deal for the players, and that rubs off on the fans as well. They don’t rearrange the hockey season for any other reason. The New Jersey Devils had to start out on the road for almost the first month of the season last year because Bon Jovi wanted to play TEN straight concerts at the team’s arena!! Yet they do it for the Olympics and why? Because the Winter Games matter to the best players on earth who play it, unlike the Summer Games.

I’m not saying for an instant that nobody cares about the Summer Games. They’re one of the biggest television draws in the world and everybody remembers something captivating about an event or story that has happened at the Olympiad. It’s just that for me, the Winter Olympics hold a little more water and create a little more excitement. Plus they’re way easier to follow. Below is a list of a few more reasons the winter games beats out the summer games


1) The summer games anti-nordic country bias.


2) The always compelling and exciting “Canada vs the Far East” in short track speed skating.


3) Hockey is in the Winter Olympics, 1920 not withstanding.


4) A recreation sport (ping pong) somehow found its way into the Summer Olympics. I propose a Magic Carpet downhill time/style points race at the 2010 games in Vancouver!


5) Figure skaters are generally cuter and more legal than gymnasts. Even Roman Polanski would pick Sasha Cohen.


6) You just know all the weightlifters have been in touch with their country’s version of Brian McNamee and are all on legal versions of HGH.


7) The Winter Olympics is the only Olympics where a gold medal winning athlete has tested positive for weed.


8) Three words: Men’s floor exercise.


9) Lindsay Jacbellis participates in the Winter Games. (Maybe this one needs a breakdown. In 2006 Lindsay Jacobellis, during the gold medal race in snowboarding, had a substantial lead heading into the final 100m or so. Instead of simply coasting to the finish line and collecting her medal, she inexplicably attempted a hot-dog move on the second to last jump, falling down and allowing Switzerland’s Tanja Frieden to overtake her. Lindsay fell to 2nd place and accepted the silver medal. This doesn’t happen anywhere else but in the Winter Games! This would be like a marathon runner, knowing he’s about to win with 50 meters to go, turning around and running backwards and then falling like Charles Barkley did during his famous race against referee thingy Bavetta during the 2007 NBA All Star weekend! It’s just one great story after another!)


10) 3 of the 4 coolest events in the entire Olympics are in the Winter Games. In no particular order: downhill skiing, aerials, and skeleton. 100m dash is the fourth.


11) The winter Olympics have been held in a city that has the same first name as a brand of beer. Sapporo, Japan in 1972. God help us if Milwaukee ever gets to host the summer games.


12) The winter Olympics now has a mortal enemy. Marie-Reine Le Gougne: The evil French judge.


And the last reason the Winter Olympics is greater than the summer Olympics:


13) I dare you to find an Olympic champion with a cooler or more menacing sounding name than speed skater Johann Olav Koss. The fact that he is from Norway just compounds it. You can just picture the Viking horns!


Either way, I along with you will be watching closely as our athletes attempt to bring home a medal and with that honor for themselves and our great nation. I just wish it was winter again.


On a side note, Canada’s water polo team FINALLY made it to the Olympics! Make sure you tune in Saturday night at 8:30pm! Spain can’t be good at everything you know!

Posted by The Sports One at 10:58 AM

[aaosmts19]

For those who might not be familiar with Joey Cheek, he won the men's 500M long track speedskating medal in the 2006 Olympics. He and Apolo were awarded their Wheaties boxes at the same time. He was headed to Beijing....until he found out that the chinese revoked his visa....

www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/articles/2008/08/06/the_other_cheek/

The other Cheek
Gold-medal speedskater is making new strides as advocate for Darfur

PROVIDENCE - Speedskater Joey Cheek, 29, glides through T.F. Green International Airport as if he's in a race with himself, his long, thin torso leaning slightly forward when he walks. His Olympic gold medal is stashed in his backpack. He's in New England to give a motivational speech for a pharmaceutical company to help pay those pesky Princeton tuition bills. But he has his eyes on a bigger prize. Peace in Darfur, Sudan.

At the 2006 Turin Olympics, Cheek won the gold medal in the 500-meter speedskating event. When he met the media, he was different from the other athletes. Instead of gushing about his performance ("I skate around in skates and tights, it's not that big a deal"), Cheek used his 15 minutes of fame to talk about death in the desert. Specifically, the genocide in Darfur, where an estimated 400,000 people have died. He donated his award money ($25,000 for his gold medal, $15,000 for his silver) to Darfur refugees through "Right To Play," a humanitarian group working in Africa. And he challenged others to join him.

"From the $40,000 I donated, we raised over a million," he said. "That's over 20 times the effectiveness."

Talk about a win-win, Cheek then co-founded Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes committed to bring peace to Darfur.

Though some urged Cheek to just shut up and skate, he will do neither. He retired after the 2006 Games and was planning to attend the Beijing Olympics as a human rights activist - until his visa was revoked by Chinese authorities yesterday.

Cheek was hoping to support the 390 athletes who have joined Team Darfur, 73 of whom will be competing.

"That was a big shock," Cheek told the Associated Press. "I wasn't expecting to get a call the evening before I was leaving for Beijing."

China is the largest economic supporter of Sudan and also provides weapons to the Sudanese government. Both countries' human rights abuses are well documented.

In July, Cheek and Team Darfur released an open letter signed by 150 elite athletes calling for an Olympic Truce - historically dating back to ancient Greece - to demand that the Sudanese government cease all attacks on civilians in Darfur for at least the 55-day period surrounding the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the Paralympic Games.

"Despite the complexities of the fighting that's going on between the rebels and the government, there are 2 1/2 million men, women, and children who have been driven from their homes by a government that doesn't want them there. The UN needs to get peacekeepers into the area. There should be 26,000 troops in there."

Last fall, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution introduced by China and signed by Sudan calling for an Olympic Truce during the Games.Continued...

Cheek wants that agreement honored.

"We're saying, 'You've called for this truce. The world community has signed off on this. Maybe we can forestall the starvation of 10,000 or 20,000 people and work towards a more permanent truce.' "

He wants to hear voices
Cheek wants athletes to speak their minds freely.

"Athletes should have the right to say, 'There are things in this world that are not right and we need to address them,' " he said. "One of them is Darfur, and China is the host country and it's keeping those people from fulfilling their dreams. There's potential Olympians there."

Cheek was upset because one Team Darfur member, Kendra Zanotta, a former bronze medal-winning synchronized swimmer who is now a journalist, recently was denied a visa, he says, because of her affiliation with Team Darfur.

"I'm not stunned that a non-democratic government that doesn't endorse individual rights would be heavy-handed," he said. "Now we look at China, it seems like they're clamping down more and more and more in every single regard."

He is also upset about the lack of support Zanotta received from the international community.

"Who is objecting?" he said. "Everyone's so desperate to do business in China that nobody's calling them on it. Now everybody's kowtowing, saying, 'We don't want to do anything to insult anybody.' "

Cheek says China's support of the regime of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir - whose arrest is sought by the International Criminal Court - is despicable. Sudan sells 80 percent of its oil exports to China.

"China has great economic ties with Sudan so they back the Sudanese," he said. "They don't really care what happens, it seems like, to the people in Darfur. And so in the broad cloth of ethnic cleansing, whatever can happen happens and China goes 'Hey, it's just business.' "

Cheek, a sophomore at Princeton studying economics and Chinese language, chooses his words carefully. He lives in Washington, D.C., and still admires the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan.

He also was a member of the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative.

Cheek can't remember the last time he laced up his skates. He's not interested in hockey (sorry, Bruins) or, for that matter, any team sports. Don't be surprised if he spends his life in politics.

But peace in Darfur means more to him than all of his Olympic accomplishments.

"Peace in Darfur would be a much more huge accomplishment, infinitely more satisfying," he said.

Getting the skating bug
In the past two years, Cheek has visited Zambia, Ethiopia, and refugee camps in Chad where Darfurians languish. He also has visited China and Egypt with Academy Award-winning actor George Clooney and testified before Congress and United Nations officials. He has shared a stage with Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.

The path he has taken to becoming a human rights advocate is unusual.

When he was 9 years old in Greensboro, N.C., he told his mother that for $2 he could join a roller skating team.

"As soon as I put my skates on, I thought, 'This is what I want to do,' " he said.

By the time he was 14, he was an inline skating junior national champion.

"When I was 15, I watched the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics and saw Norway's speedskater, Johann Koss, win three gold medals," he said.

It was Koss who counseled Cheek to support Right To Play, an agency Koss helped start, and to designate the funds for Darfur victims.

But as a wide-eyed teen watching the Lillehammer Games on television, Cheek simply turned to his mother and said, "Mom, I want to do that next."

She looked him in the eye and said, "That isn't going to happen here."

And she let him skate away to pursue his dream.

He lived with a host family in Calgary, then Milwaukee, then Montana, and finally Park City, Utah, where he trained for the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. He became so obsessed with improving his times he couldn't sleep.

"You'd have the worst insomnia because you'd be worrying about, 'Am I going to be able to skate the same times I skated yesterday?' " he said.

"It was just miserable. I couldn't eat. Calling home every day and talking to the sports psychologist and generally freaking out. I kind of limped through the year. My own self-worth was wrapped up in my performance. If I had a great day, I was on top of the world. If I had a bad day, I thought, 'I'm not going to make the team.' "

But he surprised a lot of people when he won a bronze medal in 2002.

"I skated the best 1,000 meters I've ever skated and got the bronze," he said. "It is, of course, fantastic, and a big relief, but the biggest realization I had was basically that I had just pushed myself to manic depression and had been miserable and then when I did it, I looked around and thought, 'This is it?' The sun rises the same way and I still had to train seven hours a day."

A matter of awareness
At Salt Lake City, Cheek was surprised at the media attention he received, all the "what's a kid from North Carolina doing ice skating?" questions.

"I realized you have a real shot to do something and not just win a medal and feel good about yourself," he said. "I decided next time not to do just a puppies-and-ice-cream interview."

He started Team Darfur because he wanted to bring attention to an area he believes was largely ignored by the American public.

"So much of the news in the US is absolute garbage," he said. "It's easy to say, 'I'm not going to watch anything serious, I'll watch this garbage on Britney Spears.'

"I don't blame the media as much as I blame ourselves. If that's all you know, it erodes a lot of what makes this country as great as it is.

"Do I think it's wrong? That Britney Spears got 10 million more minutes of air time than 300,000 people in Africa getting slaughtered? Yeah, I think it's bad, but I try to focus on what I can do."

What he saw in Chad changed his life.

"Seeing those people in the camps is soul-crushing," he said. "You feel helpless.

"As an American citizen, if things get rough, I can always pack up and go somewhere else. People in refugee camps in Chad can't. There's 40,000 people living under a plastic sheet. There's no farming, no crops, they eat whatever trucks bring in. They are 100 percent dependent on someone taking care of them. They're stuck, and if someone rides in and starts gunning them down, there's nowhere else to go.

"What infuriates me, though, is when you see people willfully supporting the dictator that enables this or giving the arms to one group of poor people so they can slaughter another slightly poorer group of poor people, that infuriates me."

It also angers him that some nations are muzzling their athletes from making political statements.

"Olympic committees in the United Kingdom, Belgium, or New Zealand, countries that enjoy the same freedoms that we do, tell you, 'It's not our place to be talking about this, that's someone else's issue,' and no one else is solving it. That infuriates me."

Joshua Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director for Amnesty International USA, said Cheek is making a difference.

"It is great that Mr. Cheek's voice is raising awareness, especially at this time," said Rubenstein. "The situation in Darfur has cried out for international attention for years. The suffering continues and still requires human intervention and protection for millions of civilians who are displaced.

"It is our hope that more athletes use the platform to shine the spotlight on human rights. China needs to be pressed on their involvement in Sudan."

"A lot of people are attacking me personally," said Cheek, "but not a lot of people are attacking the idea that these 2 million people need protection. They may want me to go away, but you can't assail the fact that these people need our help."

Stan Grossfeld can be reached at [e-mail]

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

[number1fan]

i'd like to see and hear someone speak up for Team Darfur during the games.
let's hope the global networks gets the message out and exposes china as sudan's major supporter and start pressuring them to end aid to that country.



eta: china revokes gold medalists's visa:
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080806/ts_nm/usa_china_bush_dc_1;_ylt=ApVSnEAkWmpokyzNpBVZa3ffjOQA

under news video (left side of page)...click joey's photo

[aaosmts19]

The US team captains have elected who will carry the US flag in the Opening Ceremony: one of the lost boys of Sudan who got his US citizenship last year. What a great story!

www.comcast.net/olympics/story.asp?i=20080806141908610000201&ref=hea&tm=&src=OLYMPICS_PREMIUM

Lomong chosen as US flagbearer for Beijing Games



By EDDIE PELLS,
AP National Writer

Updated August 6, 2008

(AP Photo/Andy Wong)DALIAN, China (AP) Eight years ago, Lopez Lomong didn't even have a country. Now he'll be carrying the flag for his adopted nation, leading the U.S. Olympic team at opening ceremonies Friday night.

Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, won a vote of team captains Wednesday to earn the honor of leading America's contingent into the 90,000-seat Bird's Nest Stadium.

The 1,500-meter track runner will be the flagbearer only 13 months after becoming a U.S. citizen.

"It's more than a dream," Lomong said in an interview with The Associated Press moments after he got the news. "I keep saying, I'm not sure if this is true or not true. I'm making the team and now I'm the first guy coming to the stadium and the whole world will be watching me carry the flag. There are no words to describe it."

He was born in Sudan, separated from his parents at the point of a gun at age 6, and with the help of friends, he escaped confinement and made it to a refugee camp in Kenya. In 2001, he was brought to America as part of a program to relocate lost children from war-torn Sudan.

Earlier this week, Lomong said he was mounting a campaign to be nominated by the track and field team for the flagbearer's position. He said the honor would be memorable, but he also was thrilled to be part of the democratic process that might get him there.

"In America, everyone has a chance to do all these things," Lomong said. "You follow the rules, people will choose, and if I'm blessed to get that opportunity, I'll get it."

In 2004, Dawn Staley did the flagbearer's honors. In 2000, they went to kayaker Cliff Meidl, who survived a 30,000-volt jolt of electricity in a construction accident and became an Olympian.

Lomong's story is every bit as inspiring.

He knew nothing of the Olympics in 2000, when his friends at the refugee camp in Kenya talked him into running five miles and paying five shillings to watch Michael Johnson on a black-and-white TV set with a fuzzy screen.

All three Americans in the 1,500 are naturalized citizens - Lomong, Bernard Lagat (Kenya) and Leo Manzano (Mexico).

"I feel great," Lomong said Wednesday night. "I feel happy, honored. I'm feeling so blessed to get an opportunity to present the United States of America, to present the United States flag in front of my team."

[mellie]

^^^Thanks for this inspiring story. He must be thrilled to be the flagbearer for his adopted country. I feel honored that someone who went through so much is representing my country.

[number1fan]

great find aaosmts19!
mellie....couldn't have said it better myself!



some more disappointing news in gymnastics...
Morgan Hamm out of Olympics with ankle injury

sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=ap-gym-mhammout&prov=ap&type=lgn

[susie]

Here are some photos of the closing ceremony look and the village wear for Team USA. The African-American man is US Olympic boxer Deontay Wilder. The Chinese characters spell, "Beijing".

[susie]

This is the US version of the famous Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit. It's modeled by US Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin.



Here are Nike's Team USA track and field uniforms:



I love this cool Adidas soccer ball!

[susie]

Here's the uniform for the opening ceremony (the two outfits to the left.) Thanks to Mariea at AJ.com for the catch.

[susie]

These are the medals for the Beijing Olympics. (Credit to Agildog at AJ.com)

Center: Gold medal w/ white jade
Left: Sillver medal w/ light green jade
Right: Bronze medal w/ dark green jade

They look beautiful, don't they?

[mtnme]

Very Cool Susie,
thanks for posting the pic of the medals. I love when countries do something unique with the medals that really is indicative of the region and associated with that country. The Jade inserts remind me of when France held the Olympics and made the medals with Lalique Crystal because it was made in the area. Very beautiful and creative.

The Torino medals were SO Italian, the look of very cutting edge design and craftsmanship - Simple yet Elegant - I loved them.

The Beijing website has the pics of medals from past summer and winter Olympics. They really have gotten more creative over the years. Lillihammer's had inserts of granite (how heavy must THOSE be?)
- and the reverse had Norwegian primitive inspired caricatures of the various sports. (click on the pictures of the medals to see the reverse)

en.beijing2008.cn/94/79/column211997994.shtml

[number1fan]

susie & mtnme, thanks for showing us the '08 summer olympics wardrobe and current and past olympic medals!


gotta say....ol' ralphy is getting his logo across 'loud and clear' ain't he?

and.......

i wouldn't mind seeing APOLO in the male version of this suit

[lisam]

Those are great looking outfits! But I thought that the girl from Project Runway who won the Olympic outfit challenge was going to have her design worn at the opening ceremony. Or maybe I missed something, sometimes I'm a little slow.