Posts from — May 2008

We offer our condolences to the family and friends of two-time fencing Olympic gold medalist Witold Woyda. He passed away today.

From polskieradio:
Witold Woyda, one of the finest fencers in the history of Polish sport, has died in Bronxville, New York state, at the age of 69. Born in 1939, he took part in four Olympic Games, in 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972.

He achieved his greatest success at the close of his career, winning two gold medals – in the individual and team foil tournaments – at the Munich Games in 1972. Woyda also had one silver and one bronze Olympic medals, as well as ten medals at the World Fencing Championships to his account.

Witold Woyda was a graduate of the Law Department at Warsaw University. His honours included the Knight’s and Officer’s Crosses of the Order of Reborn Poland and the ‘Best Polish Athlete’ title in 1972.

PHOTO SOURCE: olympiaclub.de

Hey Bahamas sports officials, give Chris Brown his money already. This is a he said, he said story which goes like this:

Chris brown won a bronze medal during the 2006 World Indoor Championships. He says that his medal entitled him to a $15,000 reward as stated in the rules. Bahamas officials denied his claim on the ground that there’s no such incentive rule. Chris says that an incentive rule was in place in 2006 but was removed in 2007; since he won in 2006 then that old rule should apply to him.

So that’s the controversy between Chris and the sports officials. We are not familiar with the rules they’re arguing over but it seems like Chris has a valid claim. What do you think?

Because this blog is all about Olympians we tend to side with athletes when they’re up against sports authorities. So, at the risk of being redundant, we’ll repeat what we said at the beginning of this post, “Hey Bahamas officials, give Chris Brown his money already.”

[Read more →]

Just when I finished slightly making fun of those who quote Baron de Coubertin’s overused “not the triumph but the struggle, not to win but to take part”, I came across this story of Canadian Greco-Roman wrestler Ari Taub which made me want to bow my head in shame.

To understand why, here’s a list of things you should know about Ari Taub:

1. He is a Canadian wrestler who qualified for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He, however, lost his spot when he agreed to a wrestle-off with another wrestler.

2. Doctors told him that he developed bone spurs in his neck and that he was at risk of being a quadraplegic if he continues to wrestle. His dream crushed, he then goes to law school. Eight years later, it was discovered that he was misdiagnosed and that he can actually wrestle.
3. He returned to wrestling in 2004 and won the Canadian open. He was on the verge of going to Athens but was told that he is not eligible because he lacked international matches.

4. In 2008, he got a spot for the Beijing Games but he has to finance his own training, his trip to the Olympics and other international competitions. Odd, no? Here’s why according to our reliable source: For some inexplicable reason, freestyle wrestlers are funded athletes but Greco-Roman wrestlers are not.

[Read more →]

The Olympian Blog has found its political idol. You can now rightfully accuse us of idolatry. Ladies and gentleman, met Nigerian President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, The Olympian Blog’s “Idol Extraordinaire”.

Why is he our idol, you ask? Because he directed/charged/ordered Nigeria’s Olympic athletes to win not less that eight gold medals during the Beijing Olympic Games.

So unlike timid national leaders who say, “We wish our country will have x medals” or “We are hoping for x medals” or the very lame “The important thing in the Olympics is to take part, its not the triumph but the struggle”, our idol raised his voice and said to his athletes: “Thou shalt win eight or more gold medals”.

Between wishy washy timid leaders and one who is like Moses, we really have no choice. We will gladly take the latter. Expectedly, the doubters are spreading their virus of doubt. According to our reliable source, a doubter supposedly said this:

“Where are the eight gold medals going to come from? Are they going to be stolen from other countries or is the minister thinking of counting the paralympic gold medals to be won by our disabled athletes?”

[Read more →]

Is he a doper too? I know it’s unfair but that’s the first thing that came to mind when I read this:

Usain Bolt was on fire at Saturday night’s Jamaica International Invitation, posting a sizzling 9.76sec, the second fastest 100m time ever.

Following the doping scandals involving Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Antonio Pettigrew, and the endless lists of athletics cheats, it is tragic that youngsters are left with no models to look up to these days. It is also tragic that honest athletes are cheated of their victory. But maybe the greater tragedy resulting from the recent drug scandals is that the record-setting achievements of guys like Usain Bolt are met with questions like, “Is he a doper too?” It is unfair, yes. But that’s what it is. For his sake, and our sake, and the sake of athletics, I surely hope he’s not.

By the way are you, like me, wondering what Michael Johnson, our crystal ball gazer, will say of Usain? What will he say now that Jamaica has a one-two punch who could outrun his bet, American sprinter Tyson Gay? Michael, maybe you should bring out your crystal ball again, eh?

[Read more →]