News and Notes

Marion Jones is now officially a member of the Tulsa Shock. I hope she is able to take advantage of her athletic second chance, though she has not played much organized ball since winning a national title with North Carolina in 1994.

Top swimmers recently competed in the Charlotte UltraSwim, the first long-course race of the season. In the upset of the meet, Nick Thoman beat Micheal Phelps in the 100m back. I am a huge Thoman fan and am always excited to see him win. I hope that he is able to make the major world or Olympic team that has always eluded him. Peter Vanderkaay won two individual races and captured the overall Grand Prix series title. Rebecca Soni and Chloe Sutton also captured individual titles to secured second and third place finishes in the overall Grand Prix standings respectively. Another personal favorite, Dagny Knutson, also took home two individual titles. Her short course swimming is generally better than her long course swimming, but I expect that to change once she begins college in the fall and has access to better training facilities. Other winners from the weekend included Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Elizabeth Beisel, Eric Shanteau, Emily Brunemann, Missy Franklin, and Ryan Lochte.

Lindsey Vonn was named the US Ski and Snowboard Association Athlete of the Year, while Nordic Combined Coach Dave Jarrett was named the coach of the year. Other athletes recognized include Alana Nichols (adaptive athlete), Kikkan Randall (cross country), Hannah Kearney (freestyle), Johnny Spillane (Nordic combined), Sarah Hendrickson (ski jumping), and Seth Wescott (snowboarding).

Tyson Gay set a world record of 19.41 seconds on a 200m straight track.

Bobsled gold medalist Curt Tomasevicz got to play on stage with Pearl Jam at concert in Kansas City.

Pairs skaters Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski officially retired.

A friend of mine will be guest blogging about the World Cup. Get excited!

News and Notes

American Sarah Hammer set a world record of 3 minutes 22.269 seconds in the 3,000 meter individual pursuit in track cycling at the Pan American Cycling Championships.

Bob Bradley announced the 30-man roster for the US's World Cup Team. Standout forward Charlie Davies is not on the roster following an October car crash.

Pacman Jones signed with the Bengals. He'll fit right in...

2008 judo Olympic gold medalist Tong Wen tested positive for Clenbuterol and has been suspended for two years. The IOC will decide if she will keep her medal.

Ice dancers Kimberly Navarro and Brent Bommentre officially retired.

Michelle Kwan, aka my favorite figure skater since she was a 14-year-old in 1994, gave a commencement address at Southern Vermont College. Videos can be found below.

Update Time

Former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch was hospitalized earlier today in critical condition. Twenty minutes after checking into the hospital with heart trouble, he went into shock and is now on a respirator.

Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, and Armenia are scratching from the men's European Gymnastics Championships due to travel difficulties following the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Since these countries are not members of the European Union, securing visas to travel across Europe by car or train was too costly. Russia is making every effort to send its women's team to Birmingham as the competition begins later.

The South African government will be issuing free visas to any foreigners holding World Cup tickets. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Ryan Miller signed 139 pucks to commemorate the number of saves he made during the Olympics. President Obama will get one of them.

I am heading out of town again and will probably not be able to post again for a bit. Until then,

News and Notes

World Cup tickets are selling for as little as $20 and are not selling as quickly as predicted. Now if only I had the time and money to go to South Africa...

Amy Palmiero-Winters, an amputee ultra marathon runner, won the 2009 Sullivan Award. On New Year's Eve, she beat all able-bodied men and women competing the Race to the Future, a 130.04 mile event. Read about her impressive accomplishments here.

China will be sending Zhou Qiaohong, Zeng Siqi, Tan Sixin, Huang Qiushuang, He Ning, and Jiang Tong to Pacific Rims. The US's nominative team is Bridget Sloan, Rebecca Bross, Aly Raisman, Kyla Ross, Jordyn Wieber, and Sabrina Vega. That team is rather meaningless though because the selection camp has not been held. I hope that Aly Raisman is not sent to three major international competitions in a row.

Russia is sending to Aliya Mustafina, Tatiana Nabieva, Ekaterina Kurbatova, Anna Myzdrikova, and Ksenia Semenova to Euros. Their junior team will include Viktoria Komova, Violetta Malikova, Anastasia Grishina, Anastasia Sidorova, and Maria Paseka. Their Pacific Rim team includes Anna Rodionova, Kristina Sidorova, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko, Yuliya Belokobylskaya, and Ramilya Musina. Zamo will be a judge at PRC.