Liu Xiang, the first Olympian we blogged about, records his first victory in 2008 during the recently concluded IAAF Japan Grand Prix in Osaka.

Who between Chinese-Taipei’s Yang Shujun and China’s Wu Jingyu will emerge victorious come August?

For now, Yang has the upper hand because she just beat Wu Jingyu in their taekwondo match. Says Wu, 2007 world champion, of her loss:

“I am still confident and this failure won’t destroy my mood or leave any shadow in my mind. This failure will do good to my preparation for the Olympics, because I can find my problems in strategy and techniques.”

For her part, Yang doesn’t view Wu as her main Olympic rival:

“I don’t think Wu is the only opponent in the Olympics. She’s outstanding, but I am not afraid of her, because there are many brilliant rivals in the Olympics. I am confident and my advantage is the strong mentality. I don’t think I am good at the strategy and I believe I still have room to improve myself.”

For now, we’re cheering for Yang because she’s representing David (Chinese Taipei) against Goliath (China). As we said somewhere in this blog, we tend to side with the little guy. Go, Yang!

Wondering about Australia’s financial incentives to its athletes? Maybe this will give us an idea, eh?

We have a medal incentive scheme which only goes down to number four and the best are getting $18,000.

The above quote is attributed to John Coates, president of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC). Coates warned that Australia might fall off the Olympic top five if the Australian government doesn’t put more funding for sports. Read more.

Update: A listing of financial incentives to Olympic athletes from different countries is published at How Much Money Do Olympians Make.

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The Money Report: Malaysia’s Incentives for Olympic Medalists
The Money Report: How Much Do Malaysia’s Olympic Athletes Make?
Money Stuff: Incentives for Azerbaijani Olympic Medalists
Palestine: How Much Money Do Olympians Make?

[Read more →]

Former pole vault world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco of Italy is looking forward to the Beijing Olympic Games after his two-year suspension was rescinded last Friday, May 9.

He was banned by the Italian Athletics Federation last July for “having contact with” Italian doctor Carlo Santuccione, who has been linked to doping and is alleged to have provided illegal drugs to athletes. The Commission on Arbitration for Sports overturned this ban following an appeal by Gibilisco.

PHOTO SOURCE: AFP/Getty Images