Gymnastics "controversy"

Image credit: Gregory Bull/AP

On Sunday night, Jordyn Wieber of the U.S. failed to qualify for the All Around finals, despite finishing fourth overall. How is this possible, you ask? Because two of Wieber's teammates - Gabby Douglas and Ali Raisman - finished ahead of her, and the idiotic rule is that only two athletes from each country can go on to compete in the All Around Final. 

Here's what I have to say about that - only two athletes advancing from each country is a joke. The rule is intended to keep a single nation (or a few select nations) from single-handedly dominating the medal podium, but what it's really doing is keeping deserving gymnasts who legitimately earn high scores from taking part in competitions they've earned the right to dominate. The "top 24" advance to the All Around, but the best 24 aren't competing - the 3rd-place athletes from the U.S., Russia and Romania, though having top -24 scores, won't be there.

I know this has been a rule for awhile, but it still infuriates me;  it's like the Olympic Committee is saying, "I know you've worked out 7 hours a day every day of your life, but let's give someone from (insert gymnastics non-powerhouse country here) a chance - even though they will never medal and you may have had a chance." 

Case in point: in 1992, Tatiana Gutsu (of the then "Unified Team") had a rough qualification and finished fourth on her team (then, each country could send three to the All Around). But her coaches knew she had a chance to win, so the 3rd place finisher on that team, poor Roza Galieva, was forced (in her words) to say she had an injury and couldn't compete so Gutsu could - and Gutsu won the gold medal. If not for being on a powerhouse team, Gutsu would have made it to the All Around without a teammate having to fall on the proverbial sword.

Top 24 should mean TOP 24, no matter what country they are from.

This one of for the ladies: Olympic hotties

It's finally that time I wait every 4 years for - The Olympics! It's been 1,433 days since the Beijing closing ceremonies, and I can hardly contain my excitement!

Every four years my friends and I discuss what all women who love sports discuss - who are the hottest male Olympic athletes? I have seen many lists going around the internet and I just had to compile my own. So ladies, without further adieu, here is MY list of the Hottest 2012 Olympic Athletes (in no particular order)...

Ryan Lochte, Swimming, USA  

Duh.

James Magnussen, Swimming, Australia

 I hate to say this, but he’s giving my love Ryan (Lochte, of course) a run for his money. Known as “The Missle,” he is the current 100-meter freestyle world champion, and Ian “The Thorpedo” Thorpe (I guess those Aussies love their nicknames) says this hottie has the chance to be one of the best Aussie swimmers in history (and he’s only 21).

Andreas Thorkildsen, Javelin, Norway

First of all, he is BAD ASS; Thorkildsen (try saying that three times fast) is the first male javelin thrower in history to be European Champion, World Champion and Olympic Champion (gold in 2004 AND 2008). Secondly, he is SUPER hot and his nickname is - no joke - “The Nordic God of Javelin.” Also, he is known as “more California than a Californian” and lives in San Diego. Maybe I should go visit my brother there soon….

Giuseppe Lanzone, Rowing, USA

Lanzone could be a legit Ralph Lauren model. Lucky for him, since I don’t think rowing pays too many bills. This is his second Olympics, he went to the University of Washington (class of 2006), and is a native of McLean, Va... do we care about any of this? Look at his picture and enjoy.

Sam Mikulak, Gymnastics, USA

 I will make an exception on the “shorty” rule (he’s 5’6”) for this wee hottie.

Troy Dumais, Diving, USA

Even though he participates in perhaps the most homo erotic of all sports (synchronized diving), I will give him a hottie pass because he is primarily a singles-diver.

Clemente Russo, Boxing, Italy  

A true Italian Stallion is every sense of the word. A policeman during the day, Russo won the silver as a heavyweight in Beijing in 2008, and is competing in his third Olympics.

Ricky Berens, Swimming, USA

What is with swimmers being so hot? And the four on this list are even super hot with their shirts on, which is WHY they are on the list. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Berens swam the third leg of the gold-medal winning and world-record-setting men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay, with Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Peter Vanderkaay. These swimmers really stick together - his girlfriend is Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Rebecca Soni.

Luca Marin, Swimming, Italy

The final swimmer on our list, this hottie is probably best known in Italy for his out-of-the-pool activities. He's had soap-opera-like relationships, once with a French swimmer, then a fellow Italian swimmer; he made tabloid headlines when Olympic gold medalist Federica Pellegrini, the best Italian swimmer of all time, left him and got engaged to another Italian swimmer;  he was on the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars, and has been on an Italian “telenovela.” This Olympics, he said he hopes to put the gossip aside and reach the medal stand - I concur! The better he does, the more heats he swims and the more we get to see of him!

 

Hans Van Alphen, Decathlon, Belgium

Probably won’t medal, but as long as he takes his shirt off during the competition, I’ll be happy.

Pascal Behrenbruch, Decathlon, Germany 

The prototypical German-looking hottie, Behrenbruh won the 2012 European Championships. Though I’ll be rooting for Ashton Eaton, Behrenbruch and van Alphen will make this 10-event marathon F-U-N to watch.

Do you agree/disagree? Who do you think I left out?

So long y’all: My farewell to Coastal Georgia

Spanish moss-draped live oaks in one of Savannah's famous squares

 (my last column for The Frontline)

When I moved to Savannah nearly five years ago, I was expecting to find a black hole of sports. I moved to Georgia from the Washington, DC, area, where Redskins football, Capitals hockey and Nationals baseball ruled the airways and going to the stadium or arena was a common occurrence. Before that, I’d spent my life in and around Boston, growing up at Fenway Park and living and breathing the Patriots, Bruins and Celtics. So Savannah, while a lovely town, was an anomaly to a major sports fan – who did the people in Savannah even follow, the Braves and the Falcons? Really, Savannah is much closer to Jacksonville, so I wondered if it was a town of Jaguars fans – if a town of Jaguars fans even exists?

When I first arrived and made my way down River Street, around Forsyth Park and to Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, I quickly realized that I was deep in Southeastern Conference country. In fact, early on I learned that THE Georgia Bulldog, Uga himself, was a fellow Savannahian. My goal soon became to meet the pride of the University of Georgia in person, as I heard his caretakers took him on daily jaunts around Forsyth. Alas, four-plus years later, the closest I’ve ever come to the revered pooch is watching him on TV. But every time I go to Forsyth, my eyes are peeled for the gorgeous four-legged creature.

At Grayson Stadium watching a Sand Gnats game with my then-two month old (never too young for sports!)

While there aren’t any major professional sports in town, I quickly came to appreciate the “small townness” of Savannah Sand Gnats games – I mean, what major sports team has “Thirsty Thursdays” where you get two drinks for the price of one? I reveled in sitting in Historic Grayson Stadium with locals and fellow transplants, watching the “maybe” stars of tomorrow on a warm summer night under the "Big Ass Fans" (the actual name), all for a $5 ticket. And where else can you watch a game live, have a drink (or two on Thursdays) and dinner for less than $15?

Once I looked below the surface, I found so many other sports around Savannah to love, from the annual St. Patrick’s Day Rugby tournament at Forsyth Park, to the annual run over the Tallmadge Bridge, to the Rock and Roll Marathon that made its debut last November, and even the annual “Weiner Dog Races” on River Street during Oktoberfest. All of these events are uniquely Savannah, along with Spanish moss draped live oaks, Paula Deen and Southern hospitality.

Savannah's Tallmadge Bridge

As I venture to leave this town I’ve fallen in love with, I look back on my time in Coastal Georgia to see how much I’ve learned and grown here. Savannah is the first place my family called home – it’s where I met and married my husband and where my daughter was born; it’s where I met some of the most wonderful people I have had the privilege to know, from neighbors and coworkers to those I met around Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield and Savannah; it’s a town and a community that has truly captured my heart.

I will miss Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield and I will deeply miss working for the Army; I will miss the historic district, the true Southern hospitality and the frequent references to “the book”; I will miss the Savannah Sand Gnats, but not the pesky sand gnats; but most of all, I will miss the people that make this charming town so exquisite.

Savannah's (in)famous River Street

 

So in a couple of weeks, when I hop in my Jeep and head down the road to Atlanta, I will leave a small piece of my  heart in this lovely, sleepy town that I will always call “home.”

But at least I’ll have the Braves, Falcons and Hawks.

Seau’s death brings concussion talk to forefront of sports discussion

Tiaina Baul "Junior" Seau Jr.
January 19, 1969 – May 2, 2012

Last week’s untimely passing of legendary linebacker Junior Seau brings up a sad reality of the National Football League – the short lifespan of its athletes.

Seau is the latest in a long list of professional football players dead before their time. The story this seems to weave is that, whether we like to admit it or not, all of the hits take their toll. Football players as a whole suffer more concussions than other athletes, which have been found to lead to brain damage.  The popular belief is the brain damage can lead to depression, which results in former players not taking care of themselves. In extreme cases like Seau’s, suicide can occur; but even outcomes such as former athletes just not watching their weight anymore (many die of heart attacks) or taking unnecessary risks (many die in accidents, as well) fall into the same category. I believe the correlation is undeniable.

Seau’s family is thinking about allowing scientists to study his brain to see if he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is a progressive degenerative disease, diagnosed post-mortemin individuals with a history of multiple concussions and other forms of head injury. Individuals with CTE may show symptoms of dementia, such as memory loss, aggression, confusion and/or depression, which may appear within months of the trauma or many decades later. The way he killed himself – a shot to the chest – seems to indicate he wanted his head intact. Many have drawn the conclusion that he wanted his brain studied, like Dave Duerson, the former Bears player who shot himself in the chest to save his brain. Duerson’s intent was undeniable – he left notes and sent text messages indicating he wanted his brain to be donated to Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. Seau didn’t leave a note, but the manner of his suicide is eerily like Duerson’s and one would be naïve to think Seau didn’t know the message he was sending.

Duerson and Seau are not the only retired NFL players to kill themselves and the results are startling. The list of former players whose brains tested positive for dementia in examinations following suicides or reckless deaths include Terry Long, Tom McHale, Justin Strzelczyk and former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling who shot himself in April shortly after joining a lawsuit against the NFL.

In recent years, more than 1,500 players have sued the NFL, believing that the league hid the link between repeated concussions associated with football and brain damage. In the most recent lawsuit filed in Atlanta, more than 100 players, including former Falcons running back Jamal Anderson and Easterling, alleged the NFL "repeatedly refuted the connection between concussions and brain injury."

And that is where Roger Goodell comes in; while his suspensions for bounties and illegal hits may seem harsh, he is doing it to protect the game. As more and more studies prove the correlation between concussions and brain injury, the game must change because the players won’t. The innate nature of those few men who become professional football players will never change; they won’t idly sit back and let doctors tell them they can’t play after a concussion, it is in their nature – which got them to the NFL level – to push their bodies to the limit and not think about consequences. So therefore, the commissioner has no choice but to change the way the game is monitored for the safety of players and the good of the game.

There may be a link between Seau’s death and repeated concussions leading to lasting brain injury, or he might have killed himself because of many other personal reasons. Unfortunately we’ll never know his personal reason for this tragic ending, so we have conversations about what we think triggered his demise.

The relief of winning

There are two emotions that can come with winning a championship – joy or relief. Teams that are expected to win celebrate their victory with a sense of relief to have lived up to expectation; teams that are the underdog show unbridled joy in their win, free of the expectation.

In the 2011-2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, Kentucky was the unquestionable favorite; for the Wildcats, anything but a win would have been failure. In fact, their coach John Calipari said, “At Kentucky, we don’t hang up banners for conference championships.” The writing between the lines is clear – at Kentucky, anything less than a national championship is a failure.

In this game, Kansas was the clear underdog, with no one expecting them to make the championship. If not for the injury to Kendall Marshall, everyone expected North Carolina to be in the championship against Kentucky. So despite it being a game between the two winningest programs in NCAA basketball history, everyone expected the outcome to be as it was.

Kentucky was the best team in the nation, by far. With as many as six players who could go in the first round of the 2012 NBA draft, it would have been hard for any team to compete with the Kentucky thoroughbreds. Led by Anthony Davis, just the second freshman to be named player of the year (the other being Kevin Durant) and the consensus number one pick in the draft, Kentucky was a team that, on paper, might look like the Miami Heat – lots of talent, with some difficulty working together. But the Wildcats won this national championship not because of diva offense, but incredible defense and uncommon selfishness. And as much as many hate to admit it, it is the work of the much-maligned Calipari – he took a team of six great players and got them to put aside their egos for the better of the team.

The best team in the nation with the best players; of course Kentucky was going to win, right? It seems simple, but we know from years of watching March Madness that this isn’t always the case in college basketball. For instance, last year UConn and Butler played for the championship – were they the two best teams in the country? No. It takes winning six do-or-die games in a row, under extreme pressure, to win a national championship. A lot of things can muck that up, from bad shooting to key injuries. So it takes talent, and a little luck, to win the NCAA basketball title.

Kentucky had a dominant interior defense; a balanced and efficient offense and the most talented collection of players on the same the team that we’ve seen in years – maybe ever. So on Monday night, the Wildcats expected to win; they knew they were the better team, and they performed like it. They were so good that they won despite Davis only scoring six points. And you could see the relief on the players’ and coach’s faces when they celebrated – the relief of living up to expectations.