Games and Rings
  • A Blog for Olympic Sports Fans

A Little Roundup 01.11.21

1/11/2021

0 Comments

 
"World's Greatest Athlete" Kevin Mayer speaks with Olympic.org on goals for Tokyo 2020, Japanese culture, his world record, and much more.
Picture
Tamyra Mensah-Stock defeats Adeline Gray in a rare marquee matchup, and previews what is sure to be a tough Olympic trials for the lone 76kg spot in women's wrestling.

Race walkers Damian Blocki and Alana Barber have unique challenges in this pandemic: maintaining an enforced long-distance relationship while still each striving for Tokyo 2020.

Steeplechaser Emma Coburn is the latest profile on The Olympic Channel's podcast, sharing thoughts on her 2021 outlook, the new Athletics Association, and more.

Cold Water: Australian soccer star Steph Catley tells the The Sydney Morning Herald her reservations on seeing the Olympics happen this year, given the current state of the pandemic.

Ever want to see a 300lb+ bodybuilder try gymnastics? Let Nile Wilson show you the training.

Canadian Cynthia Appiah strives to represent her community in sport, as she pushes through barriers as a bobsled pilot.

More Canada: Sara Groenewegen is aiming for softball success at Tokyo 2020, after overcoming a coma in the run-up to qualification.
Picture
Kamila Stormowska opens up to isu.org on her recent struggles with focus and motivation, as she looks to "have fun" with her short track speed skating.

The Olympic Channel asks Willy Hernangomez what the secret to Spanish success in basketball is.

Multiple-time world and European medalist Damian Quintero sees an Olympic medal as the "jewel in the crown" to his career in karate.

Need some heartwarming news these days? CNN's latest "African Voices" includes a look at Ugandan boxer Hellen Baleke's work to empower women in her community through her sport and trade.

Rugby sevens player Camille Grassineau offers tips to fellow athletes on training in warmer weather.

Jessie Diggans becomes not just the first American, but the first non-European to win the prestigious Tour de Ski. (Thanks, Norway!)

Erin go Bragh! It's not often that Ireland is mentioned in elite winter sports. Congratulations to Thomas Maloney Westgaard's cross-country success this weekend.
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Team Ireland (@team_ireland_olympic)

0 Comments

A Little Roundup 12.17.20

12/17/2020

 
Mondo Duplantis makes the cover of Cafe magazine for a wide-ranging interview on sports usccess, family, golf, and more.
Picture
Middle-distance runner Halimah Nakaayi shares with Spikes her rise from a "small village" upbringing to world champion.

Laetitia Guapo has her eyes set on proving her #1 ranking in 3x3 basketball at Tokyo 2020.

One trend that 2020's pandemic lockdowns have caused is a disruption in local training options. Suddenly, more U.S. water polo players take to overseas opportunities to find competition.

​Table tennis...the new bookie's favorite?

​Amanda Chidester and Anissa Urtez are an Athletes United couple, but will be rivals on the softball pitch at Tokyo 2020.
Picture
After 91 World Cup podium finishes and 63 wins across ten straight years, freestyle skier Mikael Kingsbury is sitting out the start of this season to recover from injury.

Take a look at a short track speedskater's weekly regimen, through the eyes of Slovakian Petra Rusnakova.

​Karl Geiger isn't just this year's Ski Flying World Champion...he's also a new dad.

Dissension rising in Australian field hockey?

​Can Team USA make it out of last place at their next Handball World Championship appearance next year, and showcase the sport to potential U.S. fans?
Picture

An Olympic Data Treasure Trove

6/25/2020

 
OMG: Olympedia.org debuted late last month, and I'm just now finding it. A digital encyclopedia for Olympic athletes and results, Olympedia offers a destination true Olympic fans and researchers will pore over. Produced by noted Olympic historians and with some collaboration with the IOC, the site is a companion to any fan's curiosity about results.

One might consider the site an online successor to the analog The Complete Book of the Olympics series. I certainly spent many hours - days, weeks - enjoying Olympic details in David Wallechinsky's opus, which provided such inspiration for me to follow the Games. It was such a disappointment when that series ended after 2012, as Wallechinsky moved on to less time-consuming projects. I had bought every edition since 1988!
Picture

A Little Roundup

Kudos to the team members of the Scrap Yard Fast Pitch softball team, who quit en masse this week in response to the insensitive politicalization of their team by management. Players, including past and hopeful Olympians, reacted to a pro-President Trump message on Twitter that implied team consensus. It's not often one finds such strength of conviction in athletics that stirs mass action, but here is one for the books.

.@catosterman joined @SarahSpain tonight to share her anger in the tweet sent out by her softball team regarding the Anthem, and explain why her and her teammates will not play for the team again.https://t.co/y3TGVj1aGzhttps://t.co/ixxWwR6UEn

— Spain and Company (@SpainandCompany) June 24, 2020
New Zealand field hockey star Gemma McCaw retires.
Picture
As does Slovenian cross country skier Vesna Fabjan.
View this post on Instagram

THE END! It was a hard decision, but I know it is right time to say goodbye, on this special #OlympicDay! It was a long journey, I have learned so much and will never forget all the experiences along the way. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all incredible opportunities and support! â–¡ #olympicday #timetosaygoodbye #olympics #olympicgames #torino2006 #vancouver2010 #sochi2014 #pyongchang2018 #specialmoments #thankyou

A post shared by Vesna Fabjan (@vfabjan) on Jun 22, 2020 at 11:51pm PDT

Great Britain Has Its Own Olympic Omission Scandal

5/13/2020

 
Picture
What was that about Isaiah Thomas and the 1992 Dream Team? David Beckham in the news lately as Team Great Britain's football manager from 2012, Stuart Pearce, recently revealing the intense pressure received to include Beckham in the London 2012 squad. I remember what a story it was - his not being selected, despite his prominent profile in the sport and being named to the provisional team. But I applaud Pearce's holding to a best-player-available policy, if that's how he saw it, and I actually shudder at the sideshow the tournament would have been had Beckham played, and the tabloid spotlight there would have been.

A Little Roundup

The CBC checks in with Olympian couple Georgia Simmerling and Stephanie Labbe as they negotiate the coronavirus lockdown together at home and face an extended wait for their last Games.

A quick look at the state of baseball and softball's return to the Olympics.

Weightlifting: to be fair, it's a sport that needs to spend that level of revenue to improve itself.
Let's Get Social

Congratulations
 to the super couple of modern pentathlon!
View this post on Instagram

She said YES! . . Don’t know what was more nerve racking... proposing or the olympics but this time I took home the gold □ #engaged□ #loveofmylife❤️ #winning

A post shared by Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe (@arthur_lok1) on May 11, 2020 at 2:27pm PDT

Decathlete Martin Roe shows off the Norwegian landscape.

Joey Mantia continues his leg show.

World Taekwondo presents either a very cool GIF or a flicker vertigo gift.

Nicholas Roche: who can't be happy riding alongside that view?

Rower Marcos Sarraute returns to the water with inspiration.
View this post on Instagram

Las cosas fluyen hacia donde tienen que fluir. • • • • No necesita filtro verdad? Hoy se volvió a fluir, sentir, reír, hoy, se volvió a vivir... volvimos al agua, y con más ganas que nunca□□

A post shared by Marcos Sarraute (@marcos_sarraute) on May 11, 2020 at 5:01pm PDT

News Recap:  Week Ending July 24 2016

7/17/2016

 
Picture
France Wins European U-19's Again
The annual European U-19 championship finished this week in Sinsheim, Germany with France winning their third-ever title with a 4-0 victory over Italy. France had previously won in 2005 and 2010, and had won four other titles in earlier iterations of the tournament. Seven other nations participated, including Portugal (losers to France 1-3 in the semifinals), England (1-2 loss to Italy in the other semifinal), Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Croatia.

Picture
The U.S. Dominates Athletic U-20's
The World U20 Championships in athletics ended this week in Bydgoszcz, Poland with a familiar presence at the top of the overall medal table - the United States, with 21 total. That total far outclassed the field, with Ethiopia a distant second with ten and then Kenya in third with nine overall. In all 47 nations won at least one medal, including Jamaica's eight total, Qatar with three (including two gold), Barbados, British Virgin Islands, India with a gold in javelin, and Ecuador with a silver from Jhonatan Amores in the 10m walk, continuing a walk tradition for that nation.

​U.S. Wins Tenth World Softball Title

Team USA won its tenth-ever title at the World Softball Championship this week, after ​a 7-3 win over Japan in the gold medal match. Japan was the two-time defending champion, but before that, the United States had won seven straight titles dating back to 1986. Host Canada (Surrey) won the bronze medal in a tournament featuring 31 (!) nations, including Uganda, Ecuador, Austria, Ireland, and Kenya in the opening round. 

Picture
Chris Froome Wins Tour de France a Second Time
Great Britain's Chris Froome won his second-straight Tour de France, and his third-ever (his first was 2013). Coming into this year, he already had been the first Briton to win the Tour more than once; in fact, the only other British winner was Bradley Wiggins in 2012. The 103rd Tour featured 21 stages over 3,529km. Frenchman Romain Bardet finished second, just over 4minutes behind, followed by Colombian Nairo Quintana and Brit Adam Yates.

<<Previous

    About This Blog

    Highlights from the world of Olympic sports, focused on the athletes, and as seen through the cheeky lens of this one particular, passionate fan.

    Navigate It

    ​A Little Roundup
    Links to Olympic sport headlines and news, with a focus on the athletes

    Athlete Worth Watching
    Finding emerging names and stories in Olympic sports to keep an eye on

    Let's Get Social
    Sharing intriguing and provocative posts from Olympic sport athletes

    ​Ramblings and Things
    ​
    I have my own thoughts on Olympic sport news and athletes sometimes!
    Read more on me here.

    Picture
    At Rio 2016's Barra Olympic Park
    Header: Kallimamaro stadium in Athens, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896

    Follow Me

    Picture
    Tweets by @GamesandRings

    Picture

    Picture

    Favorite Sites

    The IOC
    The Olympic Channel
    The Olympic Museum
    ​
    Team USA
    World Athletics
    WADA
    ​Athletics Integrity Unit
    Court of Arbitration
    Around the Rings
    Inside the Games
    GamesBids.com
    NBC Olympic Talk
    NY Times ​Olympics
    USA TODAY Olympics
    ​AP Olympics
    Wiki Summer Olympics
    Wiki Winter Olympics
    ​Athlete365
    ​Olympic Historians
    World Olympians Assoc.
    ​Games Architecture​
    Art of the Olympians
    Olympic.org Results
    ​Olympedia
    ​Olympstats
    ​On This Day in Sports
    ​Olympic City Project
    ​
    Keep the Flame Alive
    ​Totallympics Fan Forum
    ​Lost Olympians
    ​
    Olympians 1964 to 2020
    Outsports
    ​
    Queerstory Files
    Rio 2016
    Pyeongchang 2018
    Tokyo 2020
    ​Beijing 2022
    ​Paris 2024
    ​Milan Cortina 2026
    Los Angeles 2028


    Categories

    All
    A Little Roundup
    Alpine Skiing
    Aquatics
    Archery
    Artistic Swimming
    Athens 1896
    Athens 2004
    Athlete Spotlight
    Athlete Worth Watching
    Atlanta 1996
    Badminton
    Baseball
    Basketball
    Basketball 3x3
    Beach Volleyball
    Beijing 2008
    Beijing 2022
    Biathlon
    Bobsled
    Books & Media
    Boxing
    Breaking
    Canoeing
    Cross Country Skiing
    Curling
    Cycling
    Cycling BMX
    Cycling Mountain Bike
    Cycling Road
    Cycling Track
    Diving
    Equestrian
    Fencing
    Field Hockey
    Figure Skating
    Freestyle Skiing
    Golf
    Gymnastics
    Handball
    Ice Hockey
    IOC
    Judo
    Karate
    Let's Get Social
    London 1908
    London 1948
    London 2012
    Los Angeles 1984
    Los Angeles 2028
    Luge
    Melbourne 1956
    Mexico City 1968
    Modern Pentathlon
    Montreal 1976
    Munich 1972
    Nordic Combined
    Olympics
    On This Date
    Other
    Paralympics
    Paris 2024
    Rhythmic Gymnastics
    Rio 2016
    Rome 1960
    Rowing
    Rugby Sevens
    Sailing
    Seoul 1988
    Shooting
    Short Track Speedskating
    Skateboarding
    Skeleton
    Ski Jumping
    Snowboarding
    Soccer (football)
    Sochi 2014
    Softball
    Speed Skating
    Sport Climbing
    Squash
    Surfing
    Swimming
    Sydney 2000
    Table Tennis
    Taekwondo
    Tennis
    Ternnis
    Tokyo 1964
    Tokyo 2020
    Track And Field
    Trampolining
    Triathlon
    Volleyball
    WADA
    Water Polo
    Weightlifting
    Winter Olympics
    Wrestling


    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014


    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly