Category: Sports

Canada’s women’s softball team lost their game today 3-0 to Greece. Except that only one player of 15 on the team was actually born in Greece. And she’s a bench player. You see, the rules were massaged so that anyone with a grandparent born in Greece could compete for Greece. That’s why all these Californians with names like Farnworth, James, Gail, Kloezeman, and Czarnecki can call themselves Greeks. Pshaw. Am I the only one with a problem with this?

Well, the Opening Ceremonies begin in an hour or so. I’d like to take this chance to ask you to consider submitting a story (or even an idea for a story) for Runner-Up. There will be lots of medals handed out, but many many more people compete and don’t get the glory. Sure, the networks will have a token story about some struggling athlete with no shoes or something, but I need your help to discover the many more interesting stories taking place in Athens over the next few weeks. Please consider contributing!

With just two days to go until the Opening Ceremonies, I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve. Despite all the drug scandals and terrorist threats, these Olympics are still quickening my pulse. Here are some stories I’m watching:

1. Canada’s Perdita Felicien (PDF) looks like a good bet for a medal, hopefully gold. I just heard today that her main competition in the hurdles, American Gail Devers, will be taking the place of Torri Edwards in the 100m. This bodes well since Devers will be competing in two high-pressure events, while Perdita can just focus on the hurdles.
2. American 1500m runner Carrie Tollefson has had an interesting journey to the Olympics. Although she won the US trials in July, she hadn’t reached either of the Olympic standards (“A” or “B”) and was in jeopardy of losing her place on the team. She had until August 9 to make the standards, and along with other hopefuls Amy Rudolph and Jen Toomey, she’d been running a flurry of races in Europe over the past few weeks in an attempt to qualify. She made the “B” standard just a few days ago and due to some other permutations, she’ll be the sole US runner in her event. I’ve been following her career for a while now, probably because she’s tall and blonde and beautiful, but she’ll have her work cut out even trying to reach the final against the powerful Russian women. She’s only ranked 39th in the world. (Her selection to the team also dashed the hopes of Suzy Favor Hamilton, who suffered a panic attack while leading the race in the Sydney Olympics and crashed to the track. These would have been her last Olympics.)
3. Still on the 1500m, Canada’s own Carmen Douma-Hussar (PDF) has been getting precious little attention, even though she’s ranked a very respectable 12th and was the silver medallist at the 2004 World Indoor Championships. Along with Malindi Elmore (PDF) (16th), she’s showing the world that Canada’s women are very strong contenders at this distance.
4. Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj has dominated the 1500m distance for years, but has never won an Olympic gold medal (he won the silver in Sydney). In the runup to this year’s Olympic competition, he’s been beaten several times, finishing a remarkable 8th in one race. After getting treatment for allergies, he’s started returning to form, but will he be able to hold off Kenyan Bernard Lagat (bronze in Sydney)? And what about rising American star Alan Webb?
5. In the men’s 10,000m event, Ethiopia seems to have it all sewn up. But the interesting story is whether it will be veteran Haile Gebreselassie (perhaps the greatest distance runner in history) or young up-and-comer Kenenisa Bekele who prevails. This will probably be Gebreselassie’s last Olympics running this distance; he’s stated that he will probably begin running marathons very soon.

As you can tell, I tend to focus my attention on the track. Despite the fact that even more athletes will undoubtedly fail drug tests in Athens, I’m hoping for an exciting and competitive Games.

I’ll probably be posting more here during the Games. But also keep your eye on Runner-Up for stories that won’t make the front pages of the newspapers.

What a strange and wonderful weekend in the world of sports. Smarty Jones loses the Belmont Stakes to Birdstone, Guillermo Coria lets the French Open slip away to Gaston Gaudio, and the Pistons upset the Lakers at home to open the NBA Finals. I love underdogs!

As for us, Brooke was running today in the Bread and Honey 15K in Mississauga. Sadly, there were no upsets there, but she ran under her goal time of 1:25:00 (she ran 1:23:36) and finished 15th in her age group (out of 41) and 74th of all 205 women! Full results are here. I was there as supportive husband only, which was a feat in itself, since we had to get up at 5:00 am. We’re running two more races in the next three weeks.

My poor wife is obsessing about the Boston Marathon these days. And though it’s being broadcast live next Monday on ESPN2 from 11:30am-2:30pm, we don’t get that channel up here in the frozen north. So I’m appealing to you, my American friends.

The low-tech option: could somebody tape ESPN2’s coverage and mail us a videotape? I’ll be happy to pay whatever you think is fair.

The high-tech option: if you have TiVo and some way to get the video to your computer and a DVD-R drive, could you make us a spiffy DVD and mail it to us? Again, I’ll pay whatever you think is fair.

Please help me to keep my wife happy!