Posts from — June 2008

British football star David Beckham is bound for Beijing during the Olympics but he’s not going there to play football. Rather, he’s there to “star in the closing ceremony” where he will reportedly “play a key role role in the the official handover to Britain for the London 2012 Games”.

It is fitting that Beckham is joining this handover because he’s one of the “ambassadors” for London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Argentina is giving sports diplomas and scholarships to its athletes who qualified for the Olympics.

Argentinas Travel: 130 of the amateur athletes headed to this year’s Olympics were honored by the Argentine government on Tuesday in Buenos Aires. According to the China View, the athletes received sportsmen diplomas and scholarships of 4,000 pesos.

Sports Minister Claudio Morresi attended the event and commented on what made it unique. He noted that while most countries honor their medal winners, Argentina was proud to honor their athletes for the incredible effort it took just to get to that place. Attendees included the members of the Argentine women’s field hockey team, Las Leonas, who recently won the Champions Trophy in Germany and are hoping for Olympic gold.

I particularly like that scholarship stuff because it encourages athletes to also think about going to school. Sports stars have shorter fame-minutes than Hollywood celebrities so its good if they also plan a future beyond sports. Surely, no one wants to be one of those “yesterday’s athletes who beg on the streets” that Nigeria’s Olosuji Fasuba lamented about here.

Note: For the financial and other incentives received by Olympic athletes from different country’s click here .

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Ack. I included British royalty Zara Phillips in our Olympians to Watch but she’s not going to Beijing after all. The problem? Her horse, Toytown, got injured forcing the two to withdraw from the Olympics.

Too bad, no? Zara is pretty popular in this blog because of you guys who are googling for “sexy pics Zara Philips” or “naked/nude Zara Philips”. You, perverts. Have you no respect for them British royals? There’s still hope in the world though because no one’s been googling for naked pics of Toytown.

Anyways, I wouldn’t mind uploading a sexy pic of Zara Phillips but will draw the line when it comes to naked ones.

RELATED:
Olympian to Watch: Zara Phillips

PHOTO SOURCE: Landrover.eu

Liu Xiang and Dayron Robles may be rivals in the track but they’re great pals outside of it. The top photo shows Liu consoling Dayron when the latter was eliminated during the World Indoor Championships last March 2008.

PHOTO SOURCE: IAAF

Oh boy. Seems like an Olympic gold for Liu Xiang in the Beijing Games isn’t a sure thing after all. Who could grab the gold from him? Cuban Dayron Robles who just set a new world record in the 110 meter hurdles.

From the AP:

Dayron Robles of Cuba has set a world record in the 110-meter hurdles, clocking 12.87 seconds at the Golden Spike meet.

The 21-year-old Robles was 0.01 seconds faster than the previous mark, set by China’s Liu Xiang in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2006.

Terrence Trammell of the United States was second in Thursday’s race, in 13.21 seconds, followed by Ukraine’s Sergey Demidyuk in 13.42.

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