Posts from — May 2008

They’re not really fighting but they’re also kind of fighting. Contradictory, eh? If you remember our earlier post, we reported that Elvis Stojko, a two-time figure skating Olympic gold medalist, urged Canadian athletes to boycott the Beijing Olympic Games in the name of human rights.

Adam Van Koeverden, world and Olympic kayak champion, is having none of it: “I respect Stojko and his opinion but I think he would have moderated his comments if he was headed to the Olympics to win a gold medal.” [cbcsports.ca]

Clearly, Adam is against an Olympic boycott as he wrote the following in his blog:

To suggest that participation in the Beijing Olympics is somehow ignorant of human rights violations or the situation in Tibet is ridiculous to me. I’m not pledging my support or choosing sides by going to China to compete, if anything I think a high profile event of this magnitude will draw attention to, and potentially lead to solutions to the problems that exist. The exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama doesn’t support an Olympic Boycott, citing that the people of China aren’t to blame for the situation; I don’t think athletes from around the world should be either.

Unless Elvis comes up with a strong comeback — like saying something like “Adam dude, figure skating is much more popular than kayaking, so shut up will ya” — we are putting the score at Adam: 1 vs. Elvis: 0.

[Read more →]

Thai taekwondo jins Buttree Puedpong, Chutchawal Khaola-or, and Chonnapas Premwaew (left) are good enough to win Olympic gold medals according to Pimol Srivikorn, president of the Taekwondo Association of Thailand (TAT).

If any of the three will win a gold medal, s/he will receive a bonus amounting to $314,000 as we noted here. Of the countries we’ve tracked so far, Thailand is awarding the richest financial incentive to its Olympic medalists.

RELATED POSTS:
The Money Report: Thai Olympic Medal Incentives
The Olympic Torch in Bangkok

PHOTO SOURCE: Yahoo

The sign for the men’s restroom in Beijing’s National Stadium also known as the Bird’s Nest. Fortunately or unfortunately, the sign for the women’s restroom isn’t as, ehem, graphic.

PHOTO SOURCE: Beijing 2008.

India’s best Olympic medal hope, the tennis doubles team of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes are not exactly best buds right now — Mahesh says he doesn’t want to pair with Leander because Leander is off doing other things instead of going to tune-up tournaments with him — but Leander believes that they can bring home a gold medal for the second most populous country in the world. [Ooops, sorry for the very long sentence.]

Will these two settle their differences in time to go for the gold? Let’s wait for the next chapter.

PHOTO SOURCE: ibnlive.com

Because they are banned from participating in the Beijing Olympic Games, Tibetan athletes will be having their own Olympics. Organized by Lobsang Wangyal (left) the Tibetan Olympic Games will be held at Dharamsala in northern India starting 22 May to 25 May 2008. Jack Leenars has a report about the Tibetan Olympics here.

Go, Tibet.

PHOTO CREDIT: JackLeenars