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On This Date, October 31: The First London Olympics End

10/31/2014

 
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​On this date in 1908, the first London Olympics finally ended, after 187 days of official competition. Yes, 187. And, yes, this is the longest Olympic Games in modern history. Despite what must have been an incredibly challenging effort to manage events and maintain records, the Games didn't start to really shrink in time length until much later. Antwerp's 1920 Games lasted almost four months.

London wasn't supposed to host the Games in the first place, but were offered them when Mt Vesuvius' eruption in 1906 forced Rome to drop out. Starting on April 27th, and were held in complement to the Franco-British Exhibition. In fact in early modern Games' iterations, they were usually sideshows to World's Fairs and the like. Unthinkable today, no?

Officially, there were 110 events across 22 sports. Those sports, characteristic of the Games of that era, included quaint competitions as jeu de paume (like indoor tennis), tug of war, and even power boating (the only time motorized sports were officially contested). But the sports calendar did introduce diving, field hockey, and figure skating. Yes, figure skating...that didn't move to winter until there were an actual Winter Olympics in 1924. 

Finland made its debut, as did - depending on your version of records, Turkey and New Zealand. The Games were also credited as the first to position a nation versus nation format, as athletes marched in the Opening Ceremony under national flags for the first time. The organizing committee compiled the first official reports, and these Games featured the first time a marathon was officially distanced at 26miles, 385 yards.

187 days? For 110 events? Compare that to 14 days and 302 events for London in 2012. My, how a lot has changed for sure...

Athlete Spotlight: Mirinda Carfrae

10/28/2014

 
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Oi! Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) won her third Ironman Triathlon yesterday in spectacular fashion, coming from over 14 minutes behind at the start of the run and third leg. She was the likely favorite going into the race, and again had a course record for the run portion in overtaking Swiss Daniela Ryf who must have been so frustrated to not have had enough of a lead against Carfrae to hold her off.

In cementing her status as the best current female triathlete, Carfrae increases her podium finishes at Kona to six straight, including now three 1st places. Amazingly, though, those six podiums don't put her at the top of the record books, as the sport lends itself to a remarkable string of superlative athletes. Since 1979, Natascha Badmann (SUI) has six titles and seven podiums overall. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) has four podiums - all first places, and Fernanda Keller (BRA) has six podiums. But the real historical champ is Paula Newbury-Fraser (ZIM) with eight titles and a whopping eleven overall podiums.

Carfrae is certainly amongst those names, though, and her running power will likely cement her legendary status. And, oh, by the way, Australia continues its run as a triathlon power, too. There has now been either a men's or women's winner every year since 2006 from Australia. Oi!, indeed.

Nigeria Restores Order To African Women's Football

10/26/2014

 
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Winning their 9th title at the CAF African Women's Championship, Nigeria restored their old order at the top of women's football on the continent, and regained the dominance they had lost in the last tournament in 2012.

Good news out of the tournament was that also making the qualifications behind Nigeria to next year's World Cup will be Cameroon and Ivory Coast, two newcomers to that stage of competition - an always refreshing turn of events to see a diversification amongst competitors at the top of the podium. I doubt either of them, or Nigeria for that matter, will make much of a threat in Canada, but it'll still be great to see them make their debut.

I actually think it's also nice to see the absence of Equatorial Guinea, which is a team notoriously filled with transplants and newly established citizens. In fact, they didn't even qualify for the African finals after winning in 2012 (they're the only non-Nigerian titlists). I'm all for smaller countries making good, but I cringe when dictatorships try to buy their way to athletic stardom through buying athletes. (Um, my next rant may be at the Arabian peninsula)

On This Date, October 23: The 1st Women's Team Sport Gold

10/23/2014

 
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When volleyball was introduced to the Olympics in 1964, both a men's and women's tournament were played. So volleyball became the first team sport played by women in the Games, and the only one until 1976, when team handball and basketball were added.

And so also began one of the legendary rivalries in the sport. Japan and the Soviet Union had split the previous two world championships, with Japan winning in 1962. But in the Olympics on their home soil, the Japanese were not seriously threatened, going 5-0 in the six-nation tournament and losing only one set throughout. Their final game against the Soviets reportedly gained an 80% share on national television.

Over the course of the next three Olympics, the two teams claimed the top spots. The Soviets won in 1968 and 1972 with the Japanese in second, but the tables turned in 1976. Japan hasn't quite been able to continue their success as well as the Soviets / Russians in the decades since - Japan has only been on the podium since, in 1984, while the Soviets / Russians have medalled 5 more times - but their victory in Tokyo on this date in 1964 vaulted them toward iconic status in the sport and in their country. And as the first team sport champions for women, legends of the Games, too

On This Date, October 22: Grete Waitz's Marathon Debut

10/22/2014

 
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On this date in 1978, Grete Waitz (NOR) emphatically and surprisingly started her legend. After a solid career on the track, where she was known at that point as a good middle distance runner - she won bronze at the 1500 and 3000 meters at the 1974 and 1978 European Championships, respectively - she actually considered hanging up her shoes in frustration of not achieving more. On somewhat of a retirement-delaying whim coming out of a conversation with her coach and husband, she agreed to enter the New York Marathon just a couple of months later. As she was known amongst serious racing aficionados, and had recent cross-country experience, fate would have it that she was granted a late entry.

With most of the field paying little attention to her entry as she was not a marathoner, she stunned them all - running a world record of 2:32:30 in her first-ever marathon. From then on, the New York Marathon, and even women's long-distance racing became synonymous with her name. She returned for the 1979 race, winning again in a world record - and then again in 1980. In all, she won this race nine times between 1978 and 1988. (for perspective, Paula Radcliffe [GBR] is next in line with only three titles) She won the silver in the 1984 Olympic marathon, and finished fourth in her last NYC race in 1990.

Beyond all that, Waitz is just as known for her long promotion of marathoning and long-distance running for women, and children, often working in concert with NYC Marathon director Fred Lebow to promote the sport. Truly a legend for the sport, on and off the race course, Waitz's time records may have been broken, but her legend will not.

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