XXX Olympic Games 2012

The real XXX Olympic Games – sexy sports women

Ian Thorpe Will Swim On After London Olympics Bid Ends in Failure

March 19th, 2012

Ian Thorpe reacts after seeing his time in the 100m freestyle heats, which failed to get him a place in the semi-finals and propel him to a spot in the Olympic team. Source: Getty Images

Ian Thorpe reacts after seeing his time in the 100m freestyle heats, which failed to get him a place in the semi-finals and propel him to a spot in the Olympic team. Source: Getty Images

Five-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe said he’ll continue his swimming comeback after missing out on a London Games berth at the Australian selection trials.

Thorpe blew his last chance to secure a spot in the squad by failing to advance out of the 100-meter freestyle heats in Adelaide yesterday. The 29-year-old also failed to make the 200- meter freestyle final three days ago.

Thorpe had been bidding to compete in his third Olympics and first in eight years. He returned to racing in November, five years after retiring from swimming as Australia’s most successful Olympic athlete.

“I’ve missed out on what was a huge goal for me to accomplish in this short period of time, but still the desire I had before this, it’s still there,” Thorpe said in a news conference. “I still want to swim.”

Thorpe, who needed to finish in the top 16 to reach the 100-meter semifinals, posted the 21st fastest time of 50.35 seconds. World champion James Magnussen went quickest in 48.26 in the heats before topping last night’s semifinals with a season-best time of 47.93.

Australia’s policy is to pick the top two from each event at the trials, with a top-six finish in the 100-meter or 200- meter freestyle securing a place on the Olympic relay squad.

“Thorpie’s been someone I’ve always admired as a swimmer so it is upsetting for him and the rest of us do feel his pain,” said Magnussen, who is the bookmakers’ favorite to win the 100-meter freestyle Olympic gold this year. “It would have been great to have him there in London.”

Thorpe had last raced at a major meet in January 2006 at the Australian Commonwealth Games trials, 17 months after winning two golds, one silver and one bronze in Athens to lift his Olympic medal tally to a national-record nine.

No Regrets

After announcing his comeback 13 months ago, Thorpe wasn’t eligible to compete again until November. Even after missing out on the Olympics, he said that he’d still made the right decision to return after an extended period away from the sport.

“I don’t regret giving this a go,” Thorpe said. “Compared to how I’ve raced and how I’ve competed and the success I’ve had, this does look like doom, but I’m glad I was willing to put myself out there to give this a shot.”

Thorpe said he would take some time off before discussing his next targets with Leigh Nugent, the head coach of Australia’s swim team, and his coach Gennadi Touretski.

The 15th world championships take place in Barcelona next year before the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

“What he’s attempted was incredibly difficult and coming here and doing what he’s done is an achievement in itself,” Nugent told reporters. “He got to the point in his races where he committed himself but just couldn’t go on with it and that’s a training and condition factor. He’s got it all. You’ve just got to train it.”

source: http://www.businessweek.com

Olympics-Gymnastics champion Liukin spurred on by Beijing silvers

March 3rd, 2012

Nastia Liukin treasures her 2008 Olympic gymnastics all-around gold, but the trio of silver medals she also took away from Beijing has fuelled a comeback bid to reach the London Games, the American has said.

Liukin has not competed in two years but has set her mind on winning a spot on the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team.

“I had these visions about a year ago,” Liukin, 22, told reporters on Friday ahead of the American Cup gymnastics meeting at Madison Square Garden.

Olympics-Gymnastics champion Liukin spurred on by Beijing silvers

Nastia Liukin

“I figured I’ll be in London either way, and I didn’t want these thoughts of sitting in the stands, watching Team USA walk out on the floor and wondering, ‘what if?’ Those two words are the scariest words for me.

“I didn’t want to have any regrets. I felt like I owed it to myself to try.”

A taller, more solid Liukin than the Beijing version poured herself back into training after last October’s world championships following a lengthy period promoting gymnastics and fashion interests, appearing on television, doing gymnastics shows and enjoying life.

“My training is back to normal, the way it was,” she said, acknowledging some concessions to age by abandoning her weakest event, the vault, and focusing on her strengths.

“Because I’m not doing all four events this time around, instead of spending seven hours a day, it’s probably closer to five hours a day. I run every single day and do extra conditioning.”

Mary Lou Retton, whose 1984 Olympic gold in the all-around helped launch a long stretch of U.S. success in women’s gymnastics, marvelled at Liukin.

“I respect the heck out of her for even trying,” Retton told Reuters after posing with Liukin and Carly Patterson, the 2004 Olympic all-around champion, in what famed coach Bela Karolyi described as an American “bouquet of champions.”

“She’s got a different body, she’s got a different mind,” Retton said about the post-Beijing Liukin.

“Once you leave the sport a little bit and experience life outside the gym it’s hard to get that frame of mind, that discipline.

“But if anybody can do it, she can. She’s an extraordinary young athlete.”

Liukin, who was expected to return to competition at the U.S. Classic in Chicago on May 26, said her London quest was purely for the challenge.

“I’m not doing it for media attention, not doing it for sponsors, not for money,” said Liukin.

“It’s because you absolutely love the sport.”

Liukin, whose grace and artistry set her apart in 2008, said she has often watched tape of the Beijing performance.

“I know I’ll never be exactly like how I was at the 2008 Olympics, that was my prime,” she said.

“The Olympic finals in Beijing was my absolute best.”

Liukin said she had to convince her father and coach Valeri Liukin, a double gold medalist on the Soviet team in 1988, that she was serious about making the comeback.

Now he is on board in the drive to reach London, and turn silver into gold.

The U.S. women’s team, which also featured world champion Shawn Johnson, finished a narrow second behind China, and Liukin took second in the individual competition on bars and beam.

“Knowing we were so close to winning, that would definitely be a dream of mine to help USA win a team gold medal, and winning silvers in bars and beam, I feel there’s a little bit of redemption in there,” said Liukin.

“That’s what’s motivating me is those three silver medals.”

source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com

Olympic Skier Lindsey Vonn in sexy Swimsuit (gallery and video)

February 28th, 2012

Lindsey Caroline Vonn (née Kildow, born October 18, 1984) is an American alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team.
She has won three consecutive overall World Cup and downhill championships (2008, 2009, 2010), the first American woman and third woman ever to accomplish this. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman. Vonn also won three consecutive World Cup season titles in Super G (the first American woman to do so), and two consecutive titles in the combined.

Vonn is one of five women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing – Downhill, Super G, Giant slalom, Slalom, and Super combined – and, as of February, 2012, has won 50 World Cup races in her career. Only two women have more World Cup victories in their careers, Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll with 62 and Swiss Vreni Schneider with 55, both retired from active racing.
With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 / 2011), and three overall World Cup titles, Vonn has become the most successful American skier in the history of alpine skiing.

Photographed by: Warwick Saint for http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Alpine skiing-Women’s GS second run postponed

February 24th, 2010

The Olympic women’s Alpine skiing giant slalom will be decided on Thursday after mountain fog forced Wednesday’s second run to be postponed.
After repeated delays due to poor visibility, and skiers huddled for two hours at a lowered start point in the hope that conditions might improve, officials gave up on attempts to complete the race in one day.
“The plan now is to do the second run tomorrow,” race director Atle Skaardal told reporters, with the new start set for 0930 local from the regular hut.
“We knew it would be a very difficult day today. We know also it will be a similar difficult day tomorrow,” said Skaardal.
Asked what would happen if the run could not be held on Thursday, the Norwegian said it would have to be discussed within the Games’ emergency group. However, he said the race could not be valid without a second run.
Slaloms are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, although the men use a different piste. Skaardal said he was flying home on Sunday.
“We were quite lucky and were able to do a good and fair first run and due to the weather change were not able to pull off a second run,” he continued.
“The jury were unanimous in the decision and nobody felt it would be fair to cancel the first run.”

CLOSE BEHIND
Elisabeth Goergl, who could become the first Austrian to win Olympic gold in the discipline since it was introduced in 1952, led France’s Taina Barioz by 0.02 seconds after the first run, with two more Austrians close behind.
“I think it is a fair decision from the jury to do it tomorrow because we don’t want a lottery at such an important race like this,” Goergl told Reuters. “Let’s hope that we have fair conditions tomorrow and a good race.”
French coach Yves Dimier said the decision was also good news for Barioz.
The regulations state only that “whenever possible” both runs should be held on the same day.
The decision to proceed with only the second run, rather than a completely new race, ended any hopes of American Lindsey Vonn being able to return after crashing out of the first leg.

source: sports.yahoo.com/olympics

Snowboard: Australia’s Bright wins women’s halfpipe

February 19th, 2010

Torah Bright won Australia’s first gold of the Vancouver Games in women’s halfpipe Thursday, ending long-standing US domination of the sport.
Bright’s winning score was 45.00 points, with 2006 champion Hannah Teter of America scoring 42.4 and her team-mate and 2002 gold medallist Kelly Clark on 42.2.
“I was standing up there, and was like ‘there’s nothing I can do now, whatever will be, will be’,” she said as she recalled how she felt going into her last run.
“I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet.”
Bright, who notched just 5.9 points in her first run of the final and went first in her second run as a result, heaped the pressure on everyone else in the field and none of the riders was able to respond.
In an error-strewn final, almost all of the boarders failed to match their qualifying scores in front of more than 3,500 spectators under the lights on Cypress Mountain.
Bright’s win was only Australia’s second medal of these Games and followed men’s moguls silver for Dale Begg-Smith in freestyle skiing.
The 23-year-old, who was fifth in Turin, is currently fifth in the World Cup rankings.
A strong Chinese contingent, currently dominating the World Cup standings, entered the final with high hopes and Liu Jiayu finished just outside the medals. Her team-mate Sun Zhifeng was seventh.

Torah Bright

Torah Bright

Highly fancied US snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, silver medallist in Turin, only managed 14.7 after falling both times.
The United States has taken every Olympic gold in men’s and women’s halfpipe since the Nagano Games in 1998.
US star Shaun White took gold in the men’s competition Wednesday.

source:www.vancouver2010.com

Alpine Skiing: Vonn wins women’s downhill gold

February 18th, 2010

American Lindsey Vonn won the women’s downhill gold at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Team-mate Julia Mancuso took the silver with Austrian Elisabeth Goergl winning the bronze.
Alpine speed queen Lindsey Vonn lived up to expectations by winning the United States’ first ever Olympic gold in the women’s downhill on Wednesday.
Vonn, the winner of five consecutive downhills in the World Cup this season, produced a flawless performance on the technically challenging Franz’s Run to finish in a winning time of 1min 44.19sec.
Teammate Julia Mancuso finished second at 0.56sec to take a surprise silver with Austrian Elisabeth Goergl winning the bronze.
An ecstatic Vonn said her victory was made even better by Mancuso finishing second.
“It’s one of the most incredible moments of my life,” said the 25-year-old American. “When I crossed the finish line and saw my name in first and Julia’s second, it was just the coollest thing.”
Vonn’s maiden Olympic medal comes four years after her bid was hampered by injuries sustained in training for the downhill during the Turin Games in 2006.
As well as making alpine history for the US, Vonn is also the first American woman to win Olympic gold in an alpine speed event since childhood hero Picabo Street won super-G gold at the Nagano Games of 1998.
Against expectations, Mancuso fired out the start hut to produce an inspired run that was enough to knock Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl of Austria off the top spot of the provisional podium.
Goergl had started with bib number five and went on to scorch the course, however the Austrian just avoided a spectacular crash when she landed after the last big jump with her ski tips pointing dangerously downwards.
Mancuso, the giant slalom champion from Turin, has been searching for good downhill form all season but she was eventually guaranteed a medal after Anja Paerson crashed and then Maria Riesch failed to shine.
Paerson was in silver medal position going into the final jump just before the finish line but the Swedish ace, like many of the field, found big air and landed awkwardly on one ski, eventually crashing out.
The Swede, who won three medals including slalom gold and downhill bronze in Turin, was immediately taken to hospital by a doctor for checks, according to organisers.
The only other racer left to challenge Vonn, German rival and friend Riesch, failed to produce the kind of challenge most were expecting, finishing way off the pace.

source: www.vancouver2010.com

Snowboard cross: Ricker hands Canada second gold

February 16th, 2010

Maelle Ricker became the first Canadian woman to win Olympic gold on home ground when she claimed victory in the snowboard cross on Tuesday.
Two days after Alexandre Bilodeau’s win in the men’s moguls freestyle had ended the hosts’ long, painful wait for an Olympic title after two barren campaigns in Montreal in 1976 and Calgary 1988, Ricker made up for the disappointment she suffered in Turin four years ago.
At those Games, she crashed in the final and was treated in hospital for concussion.
France’s Deborah Anthonioz took silver while Olivia Nobs of Switzerland claimed bronze.
“I tried to explode out of the gate. I really wanted to get out of that gate as fast as I can,” said 31-year-old Ricker, a native of Vancouver, and the current World Cup leader.
“It was really, really hard today to get a clean run all the way down the course, but I just held on and did my best. I was really just focusing on doing the run going through.”
The event proved one to forget again for American rider Lindsey Jacobellis, who lost gold in Turin when, celebrating too early, she fell and had to be content with silver
On Tuesday, she fumbled a landing off the first jump in the semi-final and missed a gate.
World champion Helene Olafsen of Norway was edged out of the podium, crashing in the middle part of the course when she was fighting with Nobs for the silver medal.

source: www.vancouver2010.com

XXX Olympic Games 2012

The real XXX Olympic Games – sexy sports women