ADVENTURE SPORTS BY WINA STURGEON 7/29
TERMINATOR MAKES SCRIPTED VISIT
Arnold Schwarzenegger paid a visit to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, to do a short meet-and-greet with the U. S. team athletes training there. The visit, as carefully choreographed as a ballet, also featured a large crew of tagalongs.
Here was the schedule of the visit:
Governor arrives, greets guests.
Governor moves to first stop, weight room.
Governor moves to second stop, Women’s Field Hockey
Governor moves to third stop, BMX Area.
Governor moves to last stop, track and field.
Hanging on his coattails were two California senators (a Republican and a Democrat), two members of the California House, a city supervisor and the mayor of Chula Vista, plus loads of press. Did anyone walk from stop to stop? Nope! Just to make sure the Olympians were suitably impressed with their politicians, the entourage was led by police motorcycles with flashing lights while the public servants rode in a line of luxurious limos.
CHINA SNEAKING INELIGIBLES ONTO TEAM?
China has some of the best female gymnasts in the world, and their training methods are simple: girls who show talent are taken away from parents and sent to sports schools at the age of seven or eight and forced to practice extreme gymnastic moves over and over again. Those few whose bodies hold up are then sent to elite schools. Training is their life---it's all they are allowed to do with their life. It's all about the honor of country.
But how far will a government go for that honor?
Two of the world's top female gymnasts are Jiang Yuyuan and He Kexin, both Chinese. Both are considered Olympic medal contenders, and were just named to China's Olympic team. But, previous stories on both girls show that they are each younger than 16, the minimum age at which an athlete is allowed to compete in the Olympics. Kexin, according to earlier reports, is only 14.
But now China's government is claiming that both athletes actually are 16, a fact disputed by the ages reported in stories about previous competitions, some as recent as May of this year, in which both girls broke world records. The only proof of age required by the international governing body for gymnastics is a passport. When questions about the girl's age arose, the Chinese Gymnastic Federation presented passports showing that both girls are---surprise! 16! Of course, the Chinese government would NEVER do something as dishonorable as forging the age on a passport to help their Olympic team's chances of winning a medal in Beijing. Of course not.
TARA LLANES COMMENTATES AT SURFING OPEN
BMX champion Tara Llanes is approaching the one year anniversary of the crash that paralyzed her from the waist down. But she has never spent time brooding over the alteration of her life. After learning to operate a motorized wheelchair and drive, she was off and---well, wheeling it.
On her Go211.com blog, she writes about attending the U. S. Open of surfing in Huntington Beach. The annual event now features BMX vert and motocross freestyle exhibitions as well as those part of LRO; Life Rolls On, an organization to support people with spinal cord injuries. Llanes writes that those with paralysis did some surfing, not to compete, but "to show people that you can still go out and do amazing things even if you have a spinal cord injury."
Llanes met up with Steven Murray, the rider who was paralyzed from the shoulders down last year while doing a BMX flip during a contest.
The Open was sponsored by the athlete blog site, Go211.com. While Llanes was watching the surfing, the head of Go211 asked her if she would like to be the announcer for the LRO events. After a quick "HELL, YEAH," she was given the mic and began telling the audience about her own accident and spinal cord injuries in general.
Her announcing was fantastic. Someone should tell NBC to hire her to do the color commentary for BMX at Beijing, Llanes would be perfect.
PAUL HAMM OFF OLYMPIC TEAM
The career of one of the most exciting male gymnasts in history could be at an end. Paul Hamm, who won gold in Athens after overcoming the mental and physical stress of a fall that dropped him down to 12th place, has withdrawn from the U. S. Olympic team.
Hamm broke a bone in his hand in May, and it has not healed sufficiently to allow him to compete at his best in Beijing. For gymnasts, any injury to the hand is the worst kind of problem, since they must be able to support their entire body weight with their hands for each of the six events in the sport. Gymnasts must compete in all six events to medal.
Hamm was considered the only athlete in the world who could challenge China's defending world champion, Yang Wei. Hamm's withdrawal lowers the medal chances for the United States.
The video of his comeback in Athens is used by a number of motivational speakers as an example of what is possible with strength of mind. After Hamm fell on the vault, he was in 12th place. There were just two events remaining. Instead of letting the fall interfere with his focus and concentration, Hamm did each of the remaining events, parallel bars and high bar, perfectly. He received the highest score of any athlete in any of the events and came back from disaster to win the gold medal.