Bears Fan's $27,000 Game

I just saw this story and thought I'd share it.

Blade Runner Making Recovery

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, known by many as the 'Blade Runner', is soon expected to be moved out of the Intensive Care Unit in a Johannesburg, South Africa hospital after he sustained injuries to his head and face during a boating accident Saturday.

Pistorius is still hoping to compete in the 100-m and 400-m events at the Paralympic World Championships in Manchester, England in May, pending his full recovery and medical clearance, according to his manager, Peet van Zyl.   

The sprinter missed qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 400 m sprint by .7 seconds. 

Here's a cool Nike commercial I found on YouTube of Pistorius from before the Beijing Olympics:

Tour of California Wrap Up

Levi Leipheimer of Team Astana won his third straight Tour of California Sunday, with a final time of 31 hours, 28 minutes and 21 seconds. Leipheimer led the pack in overall time during the nine-day tour from last Monday on. 

"It's the sweetest victory of the three," said Leipheimer in an interview with the Canadian Associated Press. 

The win solidified the cycling world's view of Leipheimer as a confident leader of a team with a lot of depth, according to ESPN.com's Bonnie D. Ford.  

Leipheimer is now looking to race in the Tour de France and the Tour of Italy.

Lance Armstrong, returning from retirement and playing the supporting role to Leipheimer, placed seventh overall. Not too shabby.

The Tour of California's coordinating board will be looking to lengthen the race and elevate it to the Pro Tour level in the coming years, giving America her first prestigious Pro Tour cycling race. 

"We think there should be a great race in the United States, and we don't see any reason why it shouldn't be us,"Andrew Massick, President of AEG Sports, said. 

photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Swedes Threatened after Russian Doping

After the drama over the Russian doping scandal, the International Biathlon Union is dealing with threats received by the Swedish biathlon team.

According to the Swedish team's coach Staffan Eklund, the threats may be coming from Russia. (The domain name in the addresses which the e-mails were sent from is the Russian '.ru'.)

Eklund said that the threats are probably coming in response to Sweden's anti-doping stance.

Mattias Nilsson and Bjorn Ferry began receiving threats via e-mail around the time the Russians tested at the World Cup event in January, Eklund told the Associated Press.

The e-mails, which Eklund believes were from angry Russian fans, did not specifically mention the doping, but contained phrases like "We're going to kick your a--," and "I hope you die of cancer", according to the Associated Press.

The biathlon season ends with a race at the Russian resort Khanty-Mansiysk. While the Swedish team still plans to attend, Eklund said that he wants security guarantees for his athletes.

The Swedish team is currently gathering the e-mails to present to the IBU executive board.

Three American Riders Crash and Abandon Tour's Third-Stage

Tour of California competitors were cursed with bad weather for the third consecutive day as they passed through the tour's third-stage yesterday.

Tour organizers shortened the stage for safety reasons, but three American riders, Ted King, Omer Kim and Ian Macgregor, crashed individually during the third-stage and abandoned the race.

Favorite Levi Leipheimer and other riders crashed after Leipheimer bumped wheels with Lance Armstrong.

"It was my fault," Leipheimer told the Associated Press. "I landed on my butt. It hurts, but nothing's broken."

Leipheimer recovered from the crash, and got back in the race to maintain his overall lead.

Thor Hushovd won the 101 mile stage from San Jose to Modesto with a time of 4 hours, 28 minutes and 12 seconds.

The Tour continues today with a 115.4 mile road race from Merced to Clovis.

Lance vs. Motorcycle

Lance Armstrong returned to cycling after a 3 1/2 year retirement for the Tour of California, and met his match when he collided with a crashed motorcycle Monday 80-miles into the tour's second stage.

Somehow, he still moved up a spot in the rankings, from fifth place to fourth.

Lance told the Associated Press: "A motorcycle for the photographer from the race crashed right in front of me. Unfortunate, but it could have been worse. I don't feel too bad, hip is a little banged up but overall a great day." 

You go get 'em, Lance. Leave it to a seven time Tour de France winner to get up from a crash like that and pull himself up in the rankings.

With the help of Spanish teammate Jose Luis Rubiera and quick access to a new bike from a team car, Lance got back in the race, and finished 30 seconds behind first-place Thomas Peterson.

Levi Leipheimer, defending Tour of California champ, finished a close second to Peterson, according to the AP.  

Besides Armstrong's crash, a group of 15 riders also crashed, probably due to the weather and road conditions Monday.

The tour continues through the week, and concludes Sunday in Escondido, CA.

*photo: Associated Press

Another Doper Outed

Believe it or not, doping is not limited to pro baseball players.

Three Russian biathletes, including world champion Yekaterina Iourieva, recently tested positive for banned substances, according to International Biathlon Union (IBU) President Anders Besseberg.

The athletes are barred from competing in the World Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea and will face the IBU disciplinary panel once full lab results have been gathered.  

The testing was done before a World Cup event in Ostersund, Sweden in December, according to the Associated Press. 

Iourieva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitri Yaroshenko could each face a two-year ban, which would prevent them from competing in the 2010 Olympics.

"There is no, absolutely no excuse for what the three athletes and the people behind them have done," Besseberg said in a press-conference today. "We are here facing systematic doping by some athletes of one of the strongest teams. We have to ask ourselves if we caught them all now or if we have only seen the tip of the iceberg."

By testing and outing cheating athletes, the IBU aims to change their attitudes and those of their federations. 

"We try to establish a sound and continuous anti-doping program. Just punishing athletes is not enough to change the underlying attitudes," Besseberg said.

As of January 1, the IBU has legal rights to retest athletes, which is something they could not do before.

With all the recent news of illegal drug use going on in the world of sports, my question is this: Have athletics gone past the point of no return? 

Call me overdramatic and idealistic, but it seems that the purity of sport is being killed. 

*photo from Wikipedia

Swimmer's Story Runs Dry

Jennifer Figge, 56, became the first woman to swim the 2,100 mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean this weekend, according to the Associated Press.

Unfortunately for anyone who loves an inspirational story every now-and-then, this isn't true.

Reports surface today that the story was not only false, but filled with factual errors.

Figge started her journey, according to the original report, from Cape Verde, 500 miles off the western Atlantic coast, which would have given her a huge head-start.

The 56-year-old reportedly finished her swim from Cape Verde to Trinidad in 25 days, a feat which would be physically impossible, according to Yahoo Sports writer Chris Chase. Not to mention the fact that the distance is 2,400 miles, not the reported 2,100.

Figge's spokesman estimates that she only swam about 250 miles due to 'ocean hazards including incliment weather'.

The AP ran a correction yesterday.

While Figge claims that she never set-out to swim the entire Atlantic, earlier reports would indicate otherwise.

"Pitbull" Dies from Crash Injuries

The world of action sports was shaken by the death of freestyle motocross star Jeremy "Pitbull" Lusk Tuesday morning from injuries sustained during a crash this past weekend in Costa Rica. 

The 24-year-old San Diego native under-rotated a Hart Attack backflip off a 100-foot jump in the X-Knights competition in San Jose, Costa Rica, according to the LA Times. The under-rotation caused Lusk to land head-first on the landing ramp. He sustained injuries to his brain and possibly a spinal cord injury. 

Lusk attempted the same trick during the 2007 X Games and crashed, but walked away unscathed. 

"He was a great kid and a great athlete. I think he represented his sport very well. He was very passionate about what he did, and I think it's a great loss for the freestyle motocross community for sure," X Games General Manage Chris Steipock told the LA Times.

While other stars have incurred serious injuries while riding, Lusk is believed to be the only FMX star to die as a direct cause of the sport.

Jersey-Boy Lights Up NYC

New Jersey native Shayne Pospisil won the Red Bull Snowscrapers event in New York City Thursday night...Oh yeah, and half of the $10K pot. 

Sixteen of the world's top snowboarders tore up the epic jump, which was 80 feet long with a nine story drop in. The event featured a "jam session format", meaning that the winner was not determined by a single run, but by consistent landing of 'difficult and creative tricks with skill and style' (Redbullsnowboarding.com).

Notable riders included Shaun White, Travis Rice and Pat Moore, along with the man himself, Shayne Pospisil, who took first place with a backside 900. 

*photo by Mark Kohlman, ESPN.com

10 Feats of Human Excellence

As I walked home from class tonight at 8 o'clock with my 50-lb. backpack in the 17 degree weather, I started to feel sorry for myself... Then I got to thinking about people climbing mountains somehow, which spurred a whole cornucopia of thought, (good word, huh? I've been dying to throw it in there) and because I like making lists, this just seemed like a good idea.

Here's my top 10 amazing human feats in sports history:

10. 2008- Danica Patrick becomes the first woman to win a major closed course auto race. And she's from Roscoe, Illinois, about 20 minutes from my hometown. You go girl!

9. Michael Phelps, 2008 Olympics... Need I say more? (Nevermind the marijuana controversy... you can read about that elsewhere.)

8. 1936- Jesse Owens, an African American track and field athlete, wins four gold medals in the Summer Olympics hosted in Berlin Germany... in front of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. 

7. 1980 Olympics- A miracle on ice: The US Olympic Hockey Team pulls off an impossible victory over the Russians.

6. Travis Pastrana lands the first double back-flip in motocross history during the 2006 X-Games. I'm almost more impressed by the fact that his mother was watching...

5. For more than 25 years, Dick Hoyt has pushed, pulled and carried his son, Rick, who can neither walk nor talk, through countless marathons and triathalons. This is a seriously inspirational story.

4. 1947- Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American Major League baseball player since the league had been segregated in 1889.  

3. 2005- Lance Armstrong wins his record-breaking seventh consecutive Tour de France. Oh, did I mention he survived a massive bout of cancer?

2. Ancient Greece- Pheidippides, a Greek messenger boy, makes the greatest run of all time (or at least the most legendary) from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had lost the Battle of Marathon...or was it to from Marathon to Sparta to ask the Spartans for help? Either way, (legend, myth, or honest-to-goodness truth) it's a great story to tell. 

1. In April 2003, 27-year-old Aron Ralston is pinned under an 800-lb. boulder in a remote area of the Utah Canyons, and makes the decision to cut his own arm off with a dull pocket knife to save himself. Pardon my french, but that's pretty bad-ass if you ask me.  

Anyone want to add on to this list? 

Hounds Away

*This post wast deleted by accident (my bad), so I decided to re-publish it.*

I'm noticing my puppy has a little bit of what you might call 'cabin fever'. He's stuck inside dan in and day out, mainly because he only weighs four pounds and wouldn't last two minutes out in the cold. Or it could be that he is a pomeranian and annoying by nature...

Nonetheless, my dog problems have gotten me thinking about what to write about next: dog sports! I'm not talking dog fights (Sorry Vick). Some people have the ability to train their dogs to compete with them. I have a lot of admiration for these people because I'm having the hardest time training Rex to do anything (as he's chewing on a pair of my socks).

Frisbee dog, or Disc dog, is one of many competitive sports that dog owners choose to enjoy with their furry friends. Owners toss frisbees to their dogs and are scored based on the height of the dog's jump, accuracy, and of course whether or not the dog catches the disc, among other categories.

Ron Watson, creator of k9athlete.com, has been competing in Disc with his dogs for over ten years. "I got serious about the game because Kimo was a natural, we had to play. That's how most discdoggers are introduced to the game," Watson wrote in his blog on the site.

But the sport became so much more for Watson. After Kimo, one of Watson's dogs, turned four-years-old, Watson noticed that Kimo was starting to 'shut down' due to performance related pressure. "I started to see the value of dog training," Watson said.

From that point on, Watson noticed small alterations in training that could make Kimo a better and healthier performer. "I realized it was a technical marvel. It was amazing," he writes. 

On k9athlete.com, Watson writes that he aims to teach others the importance of training. "I've spent the last 5 years working to educate the discdog community...so they can play better, have more fun, avoid the mistakes that I've made and have happy and healthy relationships with their dogs," Watson said in his blog.

To get an idea of what it takes to compete and how seriously some people take this sport, check out this YouTube video of Ron Watson and his dog Kimo. Truly amazing!

Now, if only I could find a frisbee small enough for Rex...

Links:

Disc Dog Blog

k9athlete

In the news:

On January 24, Disc dog, or Frisbee dog, competitors and their canine friends attended the 2009 Hyperflite Skyhoundz competition in Melbourne, FL. Many of the dogs that competed were rescued from animal shelters, according to Central Florida News 13.

France Trumps Croatia in 2009 Handball World Championships

While perusing ESPN360.com, I came upon the World Handball Championship match from this past Sunday, Feb. 1, between Croatia and France. I'm interested, so here's a recap of the game, with some comments and observations that I'm coming up with as an outsider watching the sport for the first time:

Initial observations of the sport: It looks a lot like a mix between soccer and basketball. The court's set-up is very similar to soccer, with a net and a goalie at each end. Players carry the ball and must throw it into the net to score. The defense appears to have more in common with basketball. Penalty points also work a lot like soccer, with a one-on-one shots between the goalie and the shooter. It is a 60-minute game played in two halves.

Handball is aggressive, requires skill and tact, and is obviously very popular in Croatia where the match was held; The arena in the Croatian capital Zagreb was packed with over 16,000 wildly excited, noisy spectators.

The Olympic Champion French national team won the match, with a final score of 24-19. Croatia had beaten France 22-19 in their Jan. 27th matchup. 

The two teams were pretty well-matched early on in the game, going point-for-point for much of the first half. However, Croatia led 12-11 at the end of the first half.   

The match continued much the same, until about the 50th minute when France started to pull-ahead. The French offense showed patience, giving them a 2 point lead with 7:10 left to play and a score of 20-18. 

The Croatian offense kept a fast-pace throughout the match, but it failed them when faced with the French defenders. Croatia scored their final point with 5:15 to go. 

Trailing by 3 with 4:00 to go, the Croatian offense made some rushed plays and missed some key shots. Ultimately, France's aggressive defense and shooting accuracy won the game.

"I was hoping that we would play against Croatia so that we could get revenge for the defeat we suffered against them in the group," said French Player Jerome Fernandez to the AFP. "That match did not show the strengths of our squad."

Links:

International Handball Federation

*photo from www.javno.com