Posts from — April 2008

Include South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee President, Moss Mashishi, among those who would rather not make medal predictions for this coming Beijing Olympiad. Here’s what he says on the prospective performance of South African Olympians:

“We have avoided targets with specific numbers but hope to improve from one Olympic Games to the next. We encourage the athletes to do their best without any undue pressure”.

So far, 40 South African athletes are going to Beijing. They are:

Archery: Calvin Hartley
Boxing: Jackson Chauke
Cycling: Robbie Hunter, John-Lee Augustyn, David George, Burry Stander, Yolande Speed
Diving: Jenna Dreyer
Fencing: Jyoti Chetty, Adele du Plooy, Elvira Wood, Michael Wood, Dario Torrente, Sello Maduma
Gymnastics (rhythmic): Odette Richard
Sailing: Penny Alison, Dominique Provoyeur, Kim Rew
Shooting: Diane Swanton, Esmari van Reenen
Swimming: Kathryn Meaklim, Melissa Corfe, Jessica Pengelly, Lize-Mari Retief, Mandy Loots, Wendy Trott, Suzaan van Biljon, Cameron van der Burgh, Darian Townsend, Gerhard Zandberg, George du Rand, Gideon Louw, Jean Basson, Lyndon Ferns, Neil Versfeld, Riaan Schoeman, Roland Schoeman, Ryk Neethling, Troy Prinsloo, William Diering

On Olympic predictions and that kind of stuff:

“I don’t think anyone can be placed as the favourite, because really that is what an Olympics is all about – people come out from the woodwork, people perform out of their (comfort zone).”
– World 50m and 100m freestyle record holder Libby Trickett, Australia.

Read more about Libby here.

When did Ian Thorpe get old? Just asking.

Will the politicians calling for an Olympic boycott please shut up. Hear ye now the voice of the Olympian gods headed by our idol Sergey Bubka who certainly lived up to the “higher” part of the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger”.

So the gods have spoken. Shut up already, you politicians who’re trying to gain political points by calling for boycotts.That includes you Hillary.

Statement by the Athletes Commission:
Lausanne, Switzerland
24 April 2008

“In 2001, the International Olympic Committee voted to award the Olympic Games in 2008 to Beijing, China. We believe the rationale for that choice – that the bid was the best one, technically excellent and that the Games should be brought to a country where one fifth of the world lives – was a sound rationale then, and remains sound today. Indeed, some of our Commission members were members of the IOC at the time and fully supported the choice of Beijing and still do.

The Olympic Games are an event that allow athletes from across the globe to show us a world as it can be when people come together peacefully to celebrate their commonality rather than focus on their differences. We believe firmly that sport has, over the past seven years of Games preparation, served as an entry point to allow a growing understanding between China and the world and vice versa. Of particular note is that in the past weeks three World Championships, which by the way are also the test events for the Olympic Games, have been staged smoothly and successfully. There can be no better way to encourage China’s change and celebrate the positive steps already taken, than to engage through sport. And no better way than through the Olympic Games, watched by billions around the world, and millions who will come to Beijing.

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AP report:
BOSTON – Cecilia Colledge, an innovative figure skater who was the youngest athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics, has died.

Colledge died at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said Ben Wright, vice president of The Skating Club of Boston where Colledge was a teacher for nearly four decades. She was 87.

Colledge was 11 years and 3 months old when she competed for Britain in the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

She won a silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Germany, second to Sonja Henie. She was world champion in 1937, British champion five times and European champion on three occasions.

Colledge was the first woman to execute a double jump (a salchow) and is credited with inventing the camel and layback spins and the one-foot axel jump.

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