Most athletes who make it to the Olympics have dreamed of winning a gold medal for years. After years of hard training and many sacrifices they finally qualify for the Games, only to suffer an injury. An injury so serious that their Olympic dream is threatened. Others suffer an injury during their event.
Yet inside them is a spirit and fight that burns so bright, they are able to overcome the setback and compete. Here are four athletes who have done just that. They exemplify the real meaning behind the Games.
The Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics were held on the
auspicious day of 08/08/08 at 8:08 local time. As the torch relay
carrying the Olympic flame entered the stadium, I wondered if
the Organizing Committee had come up with a new or unique way to light
the cauldron signifying the start of the Games.
I've watched every Olympic Games since 1976 with the exception of the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games. So I've seen numerous opening ceremonies. The most spectacular and heart-stopping of all was the 1992 Barcelona Games. An archer on the stadium floor, with the tip of his arrow aflame, aimed at the cauldron situated above the crowd. With perfect aim the arrow landed in the cauldron and set it afire. The video below is 59 seconds and worth the look!
A close second was the 1996 Games when Muhammad Ali, with visible tremors caused by Parkinsons Syndrome, lit the cauldron.
The Beijing lighting was indeed creative and unique! Li Ning, a triple gold-medalist gymnast at the 1984 LA Games, was hoisted from the stadium floor to the ceiling while holding the flame. As a virtual carpet unrolled on the edge of the stadium roof, Ning appeared to be running along the carpet around the stadium before finally stopping to light the cauldron. All this while suspended by cables. Click here for a photo of Ning as he begins to rise.
Olympic Game highlights will be broadcast on YouTube in countries where digital rights have not been sold. The main regions these broadcasts will be available are Africa, Asia and the Middle East. If you live outside the area, you will be blocked from viewing the content.
While Dara Torres may not have been your typical underdog going into the US Swimming Olympic Trials, she certainly had the crowd and the media buzzing with her performances. Torres already has nine Olympic medals (4 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze) to her name and was seeded #1 in the 50 meter freestyle and 6th in the 100 meter freestyle going into the meet. Hardly an underdog right?
In the Sydney 2000 Games Torres was the oldest American to win a gold medal in swimming in US Olympic history – at the age of 33. Imagine winning an Olympic gold in swimming at age 41! That’s what she aims to do in China next month. Plus she will be the first American to swim in five Olympics, having competed and medaled in Los Angeles (1984), Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992) and Sydney (2000).
Not only did Torres win both the 100 and 50 meter freestyle finals at the 2008 US Olympic trials, she also broke the American record in the 50 meter race twice (in both the semi-final and final). The announcers on TV said she first broke the record in the 50 when she was 15 (at least that’s what I think I heard – it could have been 19)!
Comparing her times at the Olympic qualifier to the top times on the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA.org) site, Torres is ranked #5 in the world in the 50 and would rank approximately #7 in the 100. Her ‘oldest’ competitor in the top 5 rankings is 29. Most of her competitors are in their early 20′s.
Even though I’ll be cheering for my fellow Canadians, I’ll also be cheering for Dara Torres to win gold at 41. By going after her dreams in a sport dominated by those in their twenties, Torres shows us all that it’s not to late for us to go after our dreams.
For more US Olympic trial swimming results visit: USA Swimming.
If you're a football or soccer fan you're likely watching Euro 2008. There have definitely been some surprises, great goals, and amazing comebacks.
Let's start with 2006 World Cup finalists Italy and France. Both are in pool C with the Netherlands and Romania. You'd think they'd be favored based on the 2006 World Cup. Whoops! Pool C is probably the toughest pool of the four.
Italy started Euro 2008 without their captain Fabio Cannavaro, who is injured. They are also without Alessandra Nesta and Francesco Totti who have retired from world play after the 2006 victory. You do remember Totti right? He taunted Frenchman Zidane in the 2006 final and was head-butted, which resulted in Zidane being ejected from the game.
I never thought I'd see both Italy and France lose to the Netherlands by 3 goals each. Both teams tied Romania in pool play as well. France seems to be lost without Zidane. In the must-win game between France and Italy, France's Franck Riberry suffered an injury and was carried off the field. He's since had surgery for a ruptured ligament. Plus they played most of the game with 10 men after Abidal was given a red card. Despite scoring chances France just couldn't score and lost 2-0 to the Italians.
The Dutch have been brilliant! Their swift counter-attack has resulted in some beautiful goals. They seem to have peaked at the right time.
The best comeback award, at this point anyway, should go to Turkey. They were down 2-0, at the 74th minute mark, in a must-win game with the Czech Republic. They came back to win 3-2 and advanced to the quarter-finals.
I'll admit that my favorite team going into Euro 2008 was Portugal. They made it to the quarter-final round but were eliminated by Germany today. Portugal is a fairly young team but, like France, miss their former captain Figo. They had numerous scoring chances and some deft passing but just couldn't match the Germans.
Spain have looked sharp winning all three pool games. David Villa is the tourney top scorer with 4 goals. They play Italy in a quarter-final match on Sunday, June 22nd. That should be a very exciting game!
Croatia play Turkey on Friday, June 20th and Russia take on the Dutch on Saturday, June 21st. There's no telling what surprises and thrills Euro 2008 has in store!
In just over two years the 2010 Olympic Games will start in Vancouver / Whistler. The competition schedules were released today. You can view them by sport or by date.
Talk about exciting! Three of the first four Round of 16 soccer matches at the 2007 U20 World Cup required over-time to decide who would advance to the quarter-final round.
At the completion of pool play in the U20 World Cup Soccer, the top two teams and the best four 3rd place teams advance to the Round of 16. The teams that advanced, with their win, tie and loss records in brackets, are:
After the first sixteen games at the FIFA U.20 World Cup a Canadian single-event attendance record has been set. Over 400,000 spectators have been in attendance and 11 of the 16 games were sold out!
For any Canadian fans – Canada takes on Austria in it’s 2nd game of the tournament. After the 3-0 loss to Chile on Canada Day, the host could use a win to keep it’s hopes of advancing to the next round alive! The game is in Edmonton and airs on CBC at 4:30 pm Pacific.
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