Tag Archive - olympics

Maelle Ricker: No Retirement in Sight

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: April 10, 2010 at 3:19 pm
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 0 Comments

Olymipc Gold Medalist Maelle Ricker has finally made up her mind about retiring from snowboarding.

“Before the Games, I was always asked ‘Are you going to retire after the Games? Are you going to retire after the Games? I was like ‘I don’t know.’ I sort of shrugged it off. Now the answer to me is very obvious: Yes, I am going to continue. I’m not going to stop because of the results. I’m going to continue because I absolutely love the process of everything that happened before the Games and travelling with my team and doing the training and feeling like I’m still progressing on my snowboard.”

She certainally hasn’t slowed down since the Olympics! She won the Crystal Globe as the World Cup champion in snowboard cross and the overall women’s Crystal Globe for collecting the most World Cup points of any female snowboarder. This past weekend, she defended her Canadian snowboard cross title.

Rebecca Adlington: Still the Best

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: April 3, 2010 at 12:59 pm
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 0 Comments

Rebecca Adlington, 21-year-old, two-time Olympic gold medalist and world record holder, is still on top. At the British Gas Championships, she won the 800 metres freestyle heat by nearly a length and sealed her place in the finals with eight seconds to spare over her nearest rival. It has been a good week for Rebecca. Earlier this week, she reclaimed the British title in the 200-meter freestyle. Now, she can focus on her favorite event, the 800-meter, which is 16 lengths in the pool.

“It felt really controlled, which was good,” said Rebecca. “I just tried to exaggerate some of the things I have been working on in training ahead of the final.”

At the 2008 Olympics, Rebecca won the 400 and 800 meter freestyle events. During the Olympics, she set the world record for the 800 meter freestyle with a time of 8:14.10. She is Britain’s first swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908 and most successful Olympic swimmer in 100 years.

Twenty Year Career On Ice

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: April 1, 2010 at 11:45 am
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 0 Comments

Kristina Groves, 33-years-old, has had a 20-year career on the the ice. She has been a Games medallist in four Olympics. This past winter in Vancouver, she took silver and bronze and missed a third medal by six one-hundredths of a second. She just won the 1,500-metre race at the World Cup final, leaving her with her third straight overall women’s title for the distance race.

Kristina has recently said she plans on competing another year and will take her career a year at a time, but has no current plans of another Olympic appearance. She has been rather back-and-forth about even putting in another year, but right now, her heart is all speed.

Severe Asthma Leaves Olympic Swimmer Gasping For Air

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: March 29, 2010 at 5:43 am
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 0 Comments

Jo Jackson landed bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games in the women’s 400m freestyle, but this season is looking grim. The swimmer suffers from asthma, a condition that affects the lungs.  Jo’s recent battle with the  flu and respiratory illnesses in recent months has made her miss training and has compromised her season.

“I’ve had asthma before but I’ve never been through anything like this and it’s been scary,” Jo said. “I have no expectation of myself this year. Realistically I have a long way to go to be near my best.

 ”Because I’m breathing so hard while trying to train that my ribs keep popping out. I’m desperate to train well and get back to my best but it’s hard given my health. I’m training the best I can and I am aiming for the Commonwealth Games [this October, in India] and will be targeting qualification events later in the year.”

A common remedy to Jo’s situation is a steroid that would allow her lungs to return to normal function. However, because she is under such strict anti-doping regulations she will have to seek special permission or other remedies. Until then, she will train, suffer and continue to do everything in her power to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.

Summer Sanders Joins Battle of the Sexes

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: March 21, 2010 at 4:05 pm
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 2 Comments

Olympic gold medalist and acclaimed sports reporter, Summer Sanders has joined the 2010 Celebrity Apprentice cast in the battle of the sexes.

Summer won three gold medals at the Goodwill Games in 1990 before heading off to college at Stanford. She was a college sensation racking up six individual NCAA titles and winning four relay championships in two years. She was NCAA Swimmer of the year in back-to-back seasons. In the 1992 summer Olympics she won the gold in the 200-meter butterfly and the 400-meter individual medley.

This year Summer will be a part of an all-star cast on Celebrity Apprentice. NBC reports:

They’ll be subjected to long hours, grueling mental challenges, personality clashes and intense scrutiny — all without the help of their regular support system of agents, managers and personal assistants. Certain tasks encourage the contestants to reach out to their network of celebrity contacts for assistance or donations — making for entertaining surprise visits by some of the world’s biggest stars along the way.

ISU World Figure Skating Championships Short One Canadian

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: March 18, 2010 at 1:25 pm
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 0 Comments

The  ISU World Figure Skating Championships will have to go on with out Canadian Olympic bronze medalist, Joannie Rochette, 24-years-old. She held strong through the passing of her mother at the Olympic games to take the podium, but now she will be sitting out to regroup from her loss. She told press:

“With everything that has happened over the past few weeks, I have missed a significant amount of training time.  That means I’m not prepared either emotionally or physically to skate well at these championships and once again challenge for the podium. Whenever I compete I want to give my best to the fans, and to respect the competitive nature of the sport.  I just would not be able to do that for either the fans or myself next week.

“I also want to thank everyone in both Canada and around the world who have been so supportive of me.  There has been so much kindness shown to me and to my family.  I want you all to know that your words of encouragement have truly helped me to get through this very difficult time. I also want to wish our Canadian team members all the very best as they compete in Torino.  They all have my best wishes for a great competition.”

Veronica Campbell Brown: New Personal Record & Win

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: March 14, 2010 at 2:07 pm
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 0 Comments

Veronica Campbell Brown, Jamaican Olympic 200 meters gold medalist, set a new personal best for herself in the 60 meter, at the 2010 world indoor championships March 14th. She ran it in 7.00 seconds. Her new personal record was rewarded with a first place finish in the event. LaVerne Jones-Ferrette of the U.S. Virgin Islands came in just 0.03 behind Veronica. Rounding out third was American Carmelita Jeter.

Veronica was the second female athlete in history to win the 200-m consecutive years in the Olympics; she holds 3 Olympic gold medals, one silver and one bronze. The picture above is from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games when she won the Gold in the 200m with a time of  21.74 seconds.

Stripped Down And Stepping Back Out

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: March 11, 2010 at 5:28 pm
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 2 Comments

Marion Jones was stripped of five medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics due to using steroids, an accusation she fought for a long time. Once she stopped the fight she admitted to using the once undetectable steroid TGH. Lying about her use of steroids and a check fraud scheme cost her six months in a federal prison.

She has put all of that behind her and on Wednesday it was announced that she would be joining the WNBA. The Tulsa Shock will have the once track star on their roster. Marion spoke in an interview about her recent move to the WNBA and what her history has cost her.

“The past few years have been very tough. I’m about looking forward now. Life is much bigger than just sport. It’s about sharing my story of second chances and how that might help some other people in their lives. I’m a competitor. I want to play against the best in the world and I know that I will be doing that. I said a number of times I made mistakes in the past. I’ve paid for that. Now I’m on to something new. I knew I’d be a public figure the rest of my life based on my history. I’m certainly not going to go away and hide in a cave and disappear. I’m passionate about what I’m doing and that it’s the right thing.”

Joannie Rochette Skates Amongst Heartache

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: February 24, 2010 at 3:41 pm
In: Female Athletes, Galleries With: 0 Comments

Just two days after her mother passed away, Joannie Rochette delivered an amazing performance. She entered the ice composed and focused and skated from her heart. When she finished the crowd rose, cheering widly for Joannie as she fell into tears. Her near perfect performance left her in third place half way through the competition and  in the running to become the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic figure skating medal since Elizabeth Manley claimed silver in 1988.

“Words cannot describe (how I feel),” she said in a statement read by Skate Canada’s high performance director Mike Slipchuk. “It’s hard to be precise but 10 years from now I’d want to come back and try this again — I have no regrets. (It was a) very nice warm welcome, hard to handle but I appreciate the support. I’ll remember this forever.”

The video of her performance is on the NBC Olympics website. This gallery shows her emotion as she finished an amazing routine and received a gracious and over whelming ovation from the crowd.

Flying High With A Heavy Heart

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: February 23, 2010 at 1:38 pm
In: Female Athletes, Galleries With: 0 Comments

Canada’s Joannie Rochette, 24-years-old, will be skating today in the women’s short program of the Olympics under some pretty tough circumstances. Sunday, her mother Therese, died in Vancouver from a heart attack. She was only 55-years-old.

Joannie’s parents had flown into Vancouver to watch their daughter compete. There is a picture below of Joannie and her mom. Just hours after hearing the news, Joannie was back on the ice focusing on her skating, the reason her parents had come and honoring what her mom had come to see.

“We have received so many emails and texts, and we wanted people to know that we read everything that you are sending,” Joannie and her coach Manon Perron said in a release. “We also want everyone to know that these messages are helping us to get through this. We are going to do it with Therese. Even though we aren’t able to respond to everyone, please keep them coming for both of us.”

“Joannie is a very courageous person, and just to be here in the practice hall, I was very impressed,” Canadian teammate Cynthia Phaneuf told the New York Times. “I think she is doing the right thing. She won’t get any better staying in her room. It shows how strong she is. It shows that she is a person to look up to here.”

Olympics: Women’s Hockey

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: February 23, 2010 at 1:06 pm
In: Female Athletes, Galleries, Video With: 0 Comments

As the story has repeatedly gone, the Olympic finals in women’s hockey on Thursday finds the United States and Canada facing off against each other. The only time these rivals did not meet in the finals was in 2006 when Sweden shocked the world by beating the United States in the semifinals. Here is a look back at these two teams:

Tone Down The Olympics?

Post Author: Lori Braun Posted on: February 19, 2010 at 5:28 pm
In: Female Athletes, Stuff With: 0 Comments

The 2010 Olympics have been plagued with injury and even death. There are numerous critics out there who want the Olympic committee to take control and do something to ensure the safety of the athlete, like bild.com. I don’t know that is a reasonable request, for a few reasons:

First, competition is all about being the best, and in order to become the best, you have to preform better (sometimes that means faster) than the previous ‘best.’ So trying to safeguard speed is counterproductive to the progression of competition. Second, in order to determine the best in the world, the tracks must be challenging. There is no argument that the tracks at Whistler are just that, challenging. Third, people don’t watch sports and competition to see safe, they want to see something new, something fantastic and with that comes the potential for injury.

Progression and evolution of sports is dangerous, but it is a part of the game that athletes are willing to chance to be the best. Maybe we should slow down NASCAR, use safer bats in MLB, have a ‘no touching’ rule in NHL, and change the NFL to the NFFL (National Flag Football League).

What do you think? Make the Olympics tamer or let the athletes compete at the very essence of the word?

What do you think? Make the Olympics tamer or let the athletes compete at the very essence of the word?

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