Posts tagged ‘American’
One Says No, While The Other Waits.
So often in sport one person will say one thing, while another will say the complete opposite. It appears that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) are sending out different messages.
The IPC has said that Oscar Pistorius will be banned from participating at the Rio Paralympic Games in 2016 even if he does not have to serve his full five year jail sentence for the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The IOC however are refusing to comment on the possibility of him taking part at the able-bodied games. To complicate matters further the organisers of the Rio 2016 Games have said he “will be welcome in Brazil like anyone else.”
Pistorius was the first double amputee to compete in the Olympic Games in London in 2012 and his participation after a long battle, garnered a great deal of publicity. He was not the only athlete with a disability who competed in London, although the others did not share the limelight despite some outstanding performances. For example South Korean archer Im Dong Hyun, who has 10 percent vision in his left eye and 20 percent his right, set the first world record of the 2012 Games, and his team walked away with a bronze medal. Polish table tennis player Natalia Partyka, who was born without a right hand or forearm, also took part in the London Games which were her second consecutive Olympic Games.
In fact it is believed that at least 11 disabled athletes had participated in the Games prior to Pistorius.
One of the most remarkable of these would have to American gymnast George Eyser, who won three gold medals, two silvers and one bronze at the St. Louis Games in 1904. Apart from the fact that he won all of these medals in one day what made his achievements particularly impressive was that his left leg was made of wood. His leg had been amputated after he was run over by a train, although some sources say he was attacked by a wild animal that bit his leg and infected it leading to amputation.
Another South African to compete before Pistorius was the swimmer Natalie du Toit, who lost her left leg in a traffic accident, and who participated in the 10 km swimming marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and finished 16th.
We have to wait and see if the IOC follow the IPC. That is of course if Pistorius is released early and achieves the qualifying times.
Cold War Revisited?
In these days of neutral officials at sporting events one has to sympathise with the Russians at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
In the host nation’s Ice Hockey match with the USA, the referee, Brad Meier, an American, disallowed a goal that would have given them a lead late in their key match, that they eventually lost in a shoot-out.
“The referee made a mistake,” said Russian coach Zinetula Bilyalerdinov. Before stating the obvious, “Of course it would have been more effective to have a different judge.”
The game was played in front of a parochial raucous crowd of 11,678 at the Bolshoi Ice Dome, and it is believed not many went home happy! Should the two teams meet later in the final stages of the Games, expect sparks to fly.
In the meantime ,many are siding with the Russians and wondering how the organisers could possibly have appointed a referee from either country in such a key game.
Ladies First – At Last.
One of the reasons it took women so long to be accepted as competitors in the Olympic Games was the view that they should only engage ‘in restrained and non-violent’ exercises to protect their ‘peculiar function of multiplying the species.’ An incredibly sexist view that was put forward in the 1800’s and upheld in the early 1900’s.
Despite many breakthroughs by women in sport until these games women had not been allowed to compete in ski jumping. Apart from concerns for their safety, the other reason given was that there simply were not enough high profile athletes to merit a separate event.
Ski Jumping became and Olympic event in 1924 and it was a male only event. Women have been fighting for the right to compete for years since. Even despite the IOC passing a rule in 1991 stating that any new events added to the Olympic calendar must be available to male and female competitors women were still barred from Ski jumping.
Women have had to fight for inclusion in many sporting fields but in 2011 women won the right to be a part of the ski jumping event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
One woman credited with helping the women break through this barrier is American Lindsey Van. who was quoted as saying “It makes me nauseous. I kind of want to vomit. I’m sorry but my baby making organs are on the inside. Men have an organ on the outside. So if its not safe for me jumping down, then my uterus is going to fall out, what about the organ on the outside of the body?” An argument very few men are likely to win.
Sochi may have witnessed the men’s ski jump event having more than 20 more competitors than the women’s, but this is a big event for the women and one that they have fought hard for, so they deserve to be given the chance to make it grow. Just like a baby, it has to start from small beginnings!
Playing To Bach’s Tune
The new President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach has shown on the eve of the Sochi Winter Games that he is not to be tangled with.
Bach has forced the Russians to back pedal from allowing athletes to express political opinions in press conferences.
Last week Vladimir Putin’s local man in charge of the Games Dimitry Chernyshenko stated that athletes would not be allowed to “express views that are not related to the sport.” This was in spite of Bach’s earlier assurance that athletes were entitled to free speech.
It is believed that Bach and the IOC have made it quite clear that they make the rules and not the Russians and Mr. Chernyshenko has done a backflip worthing of the aerial skiing event. He claimed there had been a misunderstanding.
Protests will not be allowed on the medal podium, but athletes have been told they have the right to free speech at a press conference and if they wish to make a political statement they “are absolutely free to do so.”
It is expected that some athletes will speak out on the gay rights issue in Russia. Many Olympians from past games have signed a petition urging Russia to repeal their widely condemned anti-gay laws, but it is believed very few participating athletes have signed this for fear of being prevented entry into the country.
American snowboarder Seth Wescott and Canadian Bi-athlete Rosanna Crawford along with the four man Australian bobsled team are the only known competitors to have openly backed the campaign.
It will be interesting to see if Russia tries to limit freedom of speech when they host the FIFA World Cup, and whether FIFA takes as strong a stance as the IOC. Time will surely tell.
A Dramatic Win
The US Open has been another tournament to forget for American men’s tennis, with their worst showing in over ten years. This was the 40th Grand Slam tournament since an American won a major title. Just last month in the 40 year history of the ATP Rankings for the first time no American men were ranked in the top ten. John Isner was teh highest ranked at thirteen.
It was lucky that they had the story behind the star to take their mind off such events, and we are talking about the 17 year old who defeated Sam Stosur, Victoria Duval. Her life story so far reads like a movie and will no doubt one day become one.
Born in Miami but living in Port au Prince, in Haiti, Duval’s family moved to the USA after Victoria had a pistol shoved in her face and was kidnapped by a gang. Her father, a gynaecologist, however decided to stay behind and carry on his medical practice, while her mother a former ballet dancer created a new life for her and her two brothers in Atlanta.
In the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed approximately 250,000 people, Victoria’s family home collapsed on top of her father leaving him with broken legs, shattered vertebrae, broken arms and a punctured lung. He was convinced he was going to die, but he managed to fine his mobile phone and told his wife and family he loved them. Against all odds he crawled eventually to safety. He was airlifted to the USA and was nursed back to good health.
Victoria acknowledged that her father was lucky that a US mission of mercy helicopter found her father after eleven hours under the rubble. At that point in time they were not allowing planes to land in Haiti.
Her father has been unable to resume his medical career as he continues to have treatment. No doubt seeing his daughter defeating former champion Sam Stosur will have been just the tonic he needed.
She may not have won her second round match against Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchkova, but she reminded many that the pain of Haiti lives on with many, and her win meant just as much as if she had won the tournament.
Changing of Guard
Wimbledon has not disappointed this year in terms of upsets. Top seed Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova all not making it through to the second week. Federer’s exit bringing to an end a remarkable run of 36 Grand Slams in which he consecutively made the quarter finals.
Then there was the feat of Japanese player Kumiko Date-Krumm who turned back the clock to be at the age of 42 to the oldest player to make it into the final 32, although Serena Williams was too strong for her in the that stage of the competition. She beat Briton Virgina Wade’s achievement making the third round aged 39 years 362 days in 1985.
However just as Australia struggled twelve months ago with players getting through the early rounds, so too has America in 2013. In fact the American men recorded their worst Wimbledon for over a century being left without a player in the third round for the first time since 1912.
It has now been almost 10 years and 39 Grand Slam tournaments since the United State was able to applaud a men’s trophy winner. Pete Sampras being the last to win Wimbledon in 2000 and Andy Roddick the last to win a major when he took out the US Open in 2003. He also suffered heartbreak losing at Wimbledon in the finals of 2004, 2005, and 2009 to Roger Federer.
Despite many declaring that there has been a change in the guard in Tennis with Australia and the United States struggling to produce players capable of challenging the final rounds of the major tournaments the US believe that there is a new crop of players coming through, names to keep an eye out for are Jack Sock and Steve Johnson as well as those knocked out in the early rounds at Wimbledon, in Ryan Harrison and Denis Kudla.
There is no doubt that Tennis is going through a change and the traditional powerhouses are not producing the volume of players they did in past but rest assured they will always produce top class players but there will be fewer of them, in the mean time Australia pins its hopes to Bernard Tomic.
Rogers Medals – 8 Years on!
Australian Michael Rogers has picked up another Olympic medal for Australia, even though he was not taking part in the recently finished London Games.
Back in Athens in 2004 Rogers finished fourth in the road race time trial, and missed out on a medal. The gold went to American Tyler Hamilton, silver to Viatcheslav Ekimov of Russia and bronze to Bobby Julich from the USA. However following Hamilton’s recent admission of doping the IOC have announced that they will be stripping him of his Gold medal and assigning the medals.
The IOC asked for the documents from the US anti Doping Agency before re-allocating the medals.
Break a Leg Son – No Not Literally!
There were many heroes in the recent London Olympic Games but American sprinter Manteo Mitchell has to be one of them. The 25 year old ran the first leg in their 4x400m relay, he was at the 100m mark and his leg he claimed ‘felt weird.’ As soon as he was at the 200m mark ‘I felt it break’ he said. ‘ I heard it. I even put out a little war cry but the crowd was so loud you couldn’t hear it.”
Incredibly he kept running, ‘I didn’t want to let those three guys down so I just ran on it. It hurt so bad.’
His efforts weren’t in vain as his team mates went on to finish with fastest time ever run in the first round of the relay, 2:58:87.
Unfortunately Mitchell was in no way able to run in the final, but he really put his body on the line for his team mates.
Gutsy Glory?
We have criticized Perth Glory in the past for their disconnect with their fans and the marketing misfiring, but we are pleased to say that although still flawed their “No Guts, No Glory” campaign is getting closer to the mark.
The concept is an excellent one. The club is hoping to sell thousands of shirts with a Shane Smeltz face on the inside, and when the Glory scores they hope to see the fans pull the shirts over their heads. It is a superb concept, but the flaw is Perth Glory is asking the fans to buy these shirts for $10. Not a lot of money but in these hard economic times will a thousand fans shell out $10 for a gimmick?
If the $10 was going to charity there may be a stronger reason to buy a shirt. Maybe if the club wanted this to be a success then it would have been wise to have a sponsors logo on the back of the shirt, and give the shirts away.
Here is a copy of the advertisement, check it out. We have to say that we are not sure the American voiceover works and again could cause a disconnect with Australian fans. Let us know what you think.
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