Category — Countries

Ahh, our first Olympic-related love story. We don’t blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for shopping in the young girls section, but Alina Kabaeva what are you thinking?

According to reports (a.k.a. rumors), which the Russian President pooh-poohed, the two are planning to tie the knot sometime in June after the lovestruck Vlad (he looks smitten in this photo, di ba?) steps down from office.

It’s not clear whether the President divorced his wife (some reports say he did, others say he did not) and the President criticized those who are speculating about his love life. We guess we are included in his target, although we deny having a snotty nose, when he said this:

“I have always had a negative opinion of those who, with their snotty noses and their erotic fantasies, meddle in other people’s lives.”

Aww, come on Vlad. For a former KGB official who spied on peoples lives, you shouldn’t be too sensitive about us “meddlers”; at least we are not putting recording devices in your bedroom. And what’s that bit about erotic fantasies? We think all people are guilty of having some but we don’t think they fantasize about you. [In fairness to Vlad, maybe that erotic fantasies bit is just a bad translation from Russian.]

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The torch is going to be snubbed by Buddhist monks according to the Kyoto News Agency (via GMA).

Kyodo News agency reports that a major Japanese Buddhist temple is refusing to host the Olympic torch relay.

The report says Zenkoji Temple has pulled out of the relay plans, amid speculation that monks there sympathize with anti-Chinese government protesters in Tibet.

The report on Friday follows a series of protests of the torch relay as it has circled the globe over China’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Tibet.

Zenkoji originally was scheduled to be the starting point for the relay in Japan in the mountainous Nagano region.

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The torch makes its round in New Delhi.

Not unexpectedly, Tibetan exiles were there to protest. Not unexpectedly, they were arrested by police authorities.

Next stop for the Olympic torch, Thailand.

We like it when athletes continue to have a life outside of their sport so we’re picking our quote of the day from someone who does that. Tash Hind of New Zealand was just named to her country’s swimming relay team. She also continues to attend university. Asked how her training affect her studies, she goes:

“It can affect your marks – you might go from an A+ to a B+ – you’ve just got to make sure you can get through both study and swimming”.

Here’s hoping that you’ll get A pluses, Tash. But then a B+ isn’t bad either. In fact, President Bush made mostly Cs and still got to be elected President. Twice. [But maybe that says something about those who voted for him, eh?]

Olympic silver medalist Scott Miller of Australia was arrested following a drug bust by authorities in Sydney.

Miller, according to Australia’s heraldsun, used to be the “pin-up boy of Australian swimming”. Unfortunately, if the charges stick and he’s convicted, he’ll be staring at pin-ups in a jail cell or something. You can read the report about Miller’s arrest here.

Ahh, Olympians, we admire them for their achievements but we have to remember that they are people too.