In the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, defending champion Serena Williams was fined $10,000 for her tirade directed at a line judge. She said: ‘If I could, I would … shove [this ball] down your throat’. There were a few expletives deleted from that quote. Can you get a bigger contrast between the champion of men’s tennis, Roger Federer and her? Thankfully such bad sportsmanship has not gone unnoticed, with the big fine and her losing the final match point based on that outburst. She was going to lose the semifinal to Kim Clijsters anyway, and the fine is only a smidgeon of what she earned playing the tournament. Let’s hope she gets punished in more ways, but somehow I think she will not be repentant.
Related Pages: US Open, About Tennis, Roger Federer profile
Tags: bad sports·grand slam·serena williams·sportsmanship·Tennis·us open
A new book by Robert Tuchman, who works in Sports promotion and management, is called, The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live: An Insider’s Guide to Creating the Sports Experience of a Lifetime
. He has used live appeal as the main criteria for his selection. There is a US bias, which is not surprising considering that many Americans think that they are the centre of the sporting universe (which in true in some sports). I don’t doubt his top four, but am not sure that the UNC vs. Duke Basketball Game at Cameron Indoor Stadium deserves top 10 status. I have not seen such as game, so maybe I am not qualified to comment. I have ticked off two of the ten, quite a way to go. Check out the complete list of 100.
Here are the top 10 events you must see, according to Robert Tuchman. What you think?
1. The Golf Masters
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Super Bowl
4. Summer Olympics
5. Army vs. Navy Football Game
6. New York City Marathon
7. World Series Baseball
8. Winter Olympics
9. Red Sox vs. Yankees at Yankee Stadium
10. UNC vs. Duke Basketball Game at Cameron Indoor Stadium
Tags: events
Nathan Deeks, an Australian Champion race walker, appeared in a full page color advertisement for the fast food restaurant McDonalds, saying that he eats ‘Maccas’ after his events, including at the Olympic Games. I know that he was probably only trying to earn a few sponsorship bucks in return from all the effort he puts into his training, but as a sporting role model it was such a disgusting thing to promote eating undoubtedly unhealthy food. I don’t mind that he had the occasional fast food snack, but it is not right for an athlete representing Australia to say it so publicly. It does not say much about the dietitians at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) if one of their athletes comes out of there with this attitude that this is OK to do. A few days later, a very similar looking ad was published (obviously on purpose), with an ex- Australian Olympian and NBA star Luc Longley, promoting healthy eating, saying that he never considered eating junk food before or after competing. The ad was a welcome response to the McDonalds one, which needed to be done, but I don’t think enough ho-ha was made of it. The government spends millions of dollars trying to address the problem of childhood obesity, including trying to get more people active and into sports, and also millions are spent on the AIS getting athletes including Nathan Deeks properly prepared for the Olympic Games. I don’t think he has done his long time supporter (AIS) any good and hopefully he got into trouble, all for a small financial reward.
see more about sports nutrition
Tags: athletics·fast food·nutrition·olympics
When any athlete beats their opposition by a large margin at the international level, there are always suspicions that an artificial aid has been used. I have always thought that when something is too good to be true, it often is. At the Olympic Games there were two athletes that dominated the opposition and surprised many: Bolt and Phelps. Why has the questions not been asked? As in many of these cases, time will tell, and then people may be saying ‘why did we not see it? It was right in front of my eyes”.
Related Pages: Doping in Sports, Michael Phelps Profile,
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By all accounts the TV coverage of the Olympic Games in Australia by channel 7 was disappointing. The TV coverage is not made for the sports fan. They spent too long interviewing the families of athletes, devling into the stories behind the stories, and about China and Beijing. What the sport fan wants is educated commentary of whole events, without breaks at crucial points in the events. The alternative on Australia TV was SBS, which was better as it showed continuous coverage of some events, but the mainstream sports were not given to them to show. What we did hear on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) radio coverage was excellent. I wonder why they cannot take lessons from radio for the TV coverage. The radio is able to convey the excitement of events as they are happening, cross from one event to the other when they are on at the same time, and be thoroughly entertaining.
Related Pages: Summer Olympic Games, Australia at the Olympics
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The Olympic Games have come and gone, and I practically missed it. I have been traveling around Australia in a campervan (see website) with no TV and mostly out of radio range as well. We stopped at caravan parks that have a TV room a few times and dropped in for a beer at the pub to catch a little bit of the highlights, but there is so much on you need to sit in front of the TV all day to get a good viewing. We did manage to regular buy the newspaper to read about what was going on, and to check the news updates on our mobile phone. On a positive note, we did miss a lot of the disappointing TV coverage, and what we did hear on the radio coverage (ABC) was as usual excellent.
Related Pages: Summer Olympic Games, Australia at the Olympics
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