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

Mao Asada struggles, Carolina Kostner leads in Nagoya

October 23rd, 2010

Japan's Mao Asada performs in the ladies short program at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Nagoya

Japan's Mao Asada performs in the ladies short program at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Nagoya, central Japan, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa) Photo Credit: AP Photo

World champion Mao Asada could only finish eighth in the women’s short programme at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya as Carolina Kostner took the lead.
Japan’s Asada finished the day on just 47.95 points after two-footing the landing on her opening triple axel and singling a triple flip.

Italy’s Kostner heads the standing at the halfway point of the ladies’ competition at the first of six grand prix events this season after she earned 57.27 points for her programme skated to Galicia Flamenco.

World junior champion Kanako Murakami of Japan is second with 56.10 points, with the USA’s Rachael Flatt third on 53.69.

“Tonight was not perfect,” Asada said of her routine with new coach Nobuo Sato. “I’ve been feeling only 50 per cent with this routine at practice. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.”

USA’s Meryl Davis and Charlie White lead the ice dance category after the short dance. The Olympic silver medallists scored 66.97 points to top the standings ahead of Canada’s Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje (58.69) and Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov (56.89).

“I think it was a solid performance given that it’s early in the season,” Flatt said. “I feel pretty good about my chances.”

The pairs short programme is going to form with world champions Qing Pang and Jia Tong of China claiming the lead with a score of 67.10 points.

Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov of Russia were second with 60.16 points, while Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran of Japan were third with 57.23.
Eurosport

source: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com
ckjapan

It’s a Japan, Korea skate-off

February 21st, 2010

The worst thing for future U.S. prospects in ladies figure skating was not that Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa won the gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics and spawned a generation of spinning, spiraling, jumping Japanese skaters.
The worst thing is the rise of Kim Yu-na, the reigning world champion who enters Vancouver as the heavy favorite for gold.

Kim is from South Korea.

So not only do you have two Asian nations with a legion of pony-tailed pipsqueaks rushing to the nearest rink, but you also have two Asian nations that don’t exactly care for one another and consider no greater ignominy than to lose to the other in anything. You have plenty of little girls dreaming of becoming an ice queen, and plenty of money and motivation to cultivate them.
Entering the 2006 Games, Asian women had won two figure skating medals — a silver by Japan’s Midori Ito in 1992 and a bronze by China’s Chen Lu in 1994. Now Asian women are forecast to sweep the podium this week and claim gold for the second straight Games while a U.S. team led by Del Mar’s Rachael Flatt is not expected to win a ladies single medal for the first time since 1964.
“The conclusion is that I was right,” said Ottavio Cinquanta, the Italian president of the International Skating Union who a decade ago pushed to promote Asian skating by sending more high-level events there. “Countries have understood skating is a sport for Asian athletes, better than basketball or soccer.”
It makes sense for all disciplines of figure skating — the bronze here by Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi was the first Asian to medal in men’s singles, and China went 1-2-5 in pairs — but especially with the women, the sport’s marquee event.
You have a massive female population with small physiques, low-fat diets, an increased emphasis on jumps since the elimination of school figures in 1990, and little dilution of the talent pool by other women’s sports. And perhaps something else.
“I think the Asian population — including Japanese, Chinese, Koreans — has respect for the aged, respect for the elderly,” Japanese national coach Nobuhiko Yoshioka said yesterday. “They will practice and do whatever their teacher or coach tells them to do. Perhaps that’s what has enabled these young athletes to diligently and seriously embody what they are told to do.”
“This is the type of sport that in the past the Anglo-Saxons, the Caucasians, were very adept at. Now the Asian population is very adept at it.”
Russia’s Nikolai Morozov concurs. He coaches Japan’s Miki Ando, the 2007 world champion who was the first woman to land a quadruple jump in competition.
“Japanese skaters have a very good body structure for skating,” Morozov told Japanese media last month. “They have a little bit lower center of gravity. So it’s much easier for them to jump.

Miki Ando

Miki Ando

“And Japanese have great discipline, so when you tell them what to do, they just listen and do it. Americans (who are) 15, 16 years old won’t do this. They want to go out. They want to go to the movies.”
Of the last nine women’s medals at the annual World Championship, Asian women won seven. Kim’s toughest (and maybe only) competition here is thought to be Ando or Mao Asada, the 2008 world champion who plans to do the elusive triple axel in both her short (Tuesday) and free (Thursday) programs. Akiko Suzuki, the third member of Japan’s team, finished third at the Grand Prix final and is considered a medal contender as well.
The real impact, however, might not be felt for another decade, when all those girls idolizing Kim and Asada and Ando fill all the rinks being built.
Kim is considered South Korea’s most famous athlete, with an annual $8 million endorsement empire that includes Nike, Hyundai, a bank, electronics firms, a jewelry line, even a bakery. Samsung launched a special “Yu-na” touch-screen mobile phone last spring and sold a reported 500,000 in the first 80 days. A major department store chain orders branches to play her short and free program music at least 20 times a day to put shoppers in a good mood.
Asada was considered the queen of figure skating four years ago but missed the Olympic age cutoff by three months. Now that she’s here, a South Korean is favored to win the gold.
Kim, Asada recently said, “has been a good source of inspiration for me.”

source: www.signonsandiego.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

U.S. Women Must Deal With 2 Olympic Spots – Long Program VIDEO

March 31st, 2009

Rachael Flatt, a 16-year-old with round, ruddy cheeks and uncontainable perkiness, did not win a medal for the United States at the world figure skating championships.
But when she finished her long program Saturday night, she beamed and giggled. She placed fifth over all and was the top American woman.

With the 2010 Vancouver Games less than a year away — and only two spots, instead of three, available for the United States women — her ranking among Americans meant everything.
“It’s exciting to even think about the fact that I actually could go to the Olympics,” Flatt said as she stopped for a moment to stare into the distance. “I think it will definitely be a hard year training-wise, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Right now, no Olympic spots are guaranteed for any skater, but the world championships gave them a gauge of how close they were to a possible trip to the 2010 Games — or how far.
For the skaters at or near the top, the worlds were a test to see what their chances might be at winning an Olympic medal. Kim Yu-na of South Korea won that test, hands down.
Kim, 18, dominated, winning with a record-setting performance that brought the crowd to its feet and tears to her eyes. She won by more than 16 points, an overwhelming margin.
Kim was equal parts technically sound and artistically lovely, landing jump after jump so gracefully and softly, it was as if the law of gravity did not apply to her. Afterward, South Korea’s president and its prime minister called to congratulate her.
“I can’t say there isn’t going to be any pressure, because there are a lot of fans expecting me to win,” she said of the coming Olympics. “But if the preparation goes well, just like it did for this championship, I believe that I can win again, with confidence.”
Joannie Rochette of Canada finished second, and Miki Ando of Japan was third.
Mao Asada of Japan, the 2008 world champion and Kim’s rival, cried after finishing fourth, nearly 20 points behind Kim. But not all was lost: her team fared the best among the women. Japan was the only country to secure three entries for its skaters in the Olympic women’s event, increasing their odds of standing atop the podium in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The United States men also earned three Olympic berths, with the help of the newly crowned world champion Evan Lysacek. Teams from the United States and Japan are the only two that will have three skaters each at the Games.
Heading into Vancouver, two American ice-dancing teams will be favorites to win medals. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won silver at the worlds, and Meryl Davis and Charlie White were fourth.

Rachael Flatt – Long Program – 2009 World Figure Skating Championships

But the American women still remain the biggest question mark. Based on the performance of the two United States women at the worlds, Flatt and Alissa Czisny, only two Americans will compete in the women’s event at the Olympics for only the second time since 1924.
Czisny finished 11th Saturday, the worst showing for a women’s United States champion in decades. The United States failed to win a medal in the women’s event at worlds for the third year in a row, a streak last held in 1964.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a disaster,” Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, said. “I think the U.S. is in between generations right now, with a lot of older people and a lot of younger people. But I still think we have a deep pool of talent we could pull from. It will be a year of growing.”
At 24, Sasha Cohen, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, is talking about a comeback. Kimmie Meissner, the 2006 world champion, is struggling with injuries. She is 19.
Two talented American 15-year-olds — Caroline Zhang and the 2008 national champion Mirai Nagasu — did not qualify for the worlds. Nagasu has been trying to adapt to a recent growth spurt that has thrown off her jumping abilities.
Now all of them must vie for two Olympic berths, when a third one could have turned out to golden.
If the United States women had had only two spots at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, Sarah Hughes would not have competed because she had finished third at the nationals, where the team was selected. Instead, she took that third berth and went to become an Olympic champion.
“Having two spots is definitely going to make the next year very interesting,” said Yamaguchi, who said she still had faith in the young skaters on the United States team. “A lot can happen when you are that young. Look at Rachael Flatt. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a skater who has been more consistent, and now she has a whole year to improve and grow. Her experience here at worlds will be priceless.”
She added, “The U.S. skating fans shouldn’t give up hope.”

source: nytimes.com

South Korea’s Kim Wins Short Program at Figure Skating Championships

March 28th, 2009

When her score popped up on the monitor at the world figure skating championships on Friday, Kim Yu-na could hardly believe it.
She buried her face in her hands. Her jaw dropped. Her coach, the two-time Olympic medalist Brian Orser, grabbed and shook her.
In front of a crowd filled with South Korean fans waving South Korean flags, South Korea’s Kim dominated the short program here Friday, winning by more than 8 points. Her score was 76.12, the best ever for a woman. It easily eclipsed her previous best score of 72.24.
Joannie Rochette of Canada finished second, with 67.90. Mao Asada of Japan, the defending world champion and Kim’s longtime rival, was third, with 66.06.
“I was very comfortable when I was skating,” Kim said of her reaction to the audience, many of the fans from the sizable Korean community here. “I felt that I was able to do well because of all the people cheering me on in the stadium.”
Kim, 18, had come into worlds expecting her biggest competition to be Asada, but she had no competition at all. Her performance put her in perfect position to win her first world title on Saturday, less than a year from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Skating in a black outfit that sparkled in the lights, she landed each of her jumps, but her moves in between were what mesmerized the crowd. She effortlessly floated from one element to another, often with a smile, always with grace.
“It’s one of those moments in skating people will always remember,” Orser said.
The United States team had a night to forget, with its hopes of earning three spots at the Olympics likely slipping away.
The Americans must finish at least a combined 13th for the team to be awarded three Olympic entries. After the short program, the Americans are in 21st, combined. The last time the team brought only two women skaters to the Olympics was in 1994.
Alissa Czisny, the national champion, fell twice and is 14th going into the long program. She had 53.28 points.
“Today was disappointing because that’s not the way I’ve been practicing,” she said, devoid of emotion. “I have higher expectations of myself, and it just didn’t happen.”
Rachael Flatt, who finished seventh, stepped out of a triple flip and flubbed her first combination jump. But it did not ruin her night. Flatt, 16, said she was excited, not nervous, for her first senior-level world championships. She scored 59.30 points.
“I was hopping around out back, saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool,’ ” said Flatt, who has been studying for her A.P. chemistry test and writing an English paper on “The Great Gatsby” during her down time.
The United States men could rest easy. They secured their three spots for Vancouver on Thursday. Evan Lysacek’s gold medal certainly helped the cause. At 23, he will go into the Olympic year as the gold-medal favorite.
Lysacek skated brilliantly to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” landing eight triple jumps as the crowd roared. He became the first American man in 13 years to hold the world title.
“To perform it just how I imagined it hundreds of times and visualized it,” he said, “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

source: nytimes.com

Female ski jumpers renew call for Olympic inclusion

March 26th, 2009

Female ski jumpers continue to fight an uphill battle in their quest to compete in the Winter Olympic Games.
In an attempt to advance their cause, two elite jumpers — Katie Willis of Calgary and 2009 world champion Lindsey Van of Park City, Utah — appeared at a Wednesday media conference in Denver to urge International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge to meet with them.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Van said. “We didn’t get to meet with Rogge, but we got our idea across to the media that we want to meet and don’t really want to go ahead with a lawsuit, but that’s where we’re headed.”
Van and Willis are among 15 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that is to be heard April 20 in B.C. Supreme Court. The lawsuit was filed in May by female ski jumpers who maintain that they should be able to compete at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Male ski jumpers have been in the Olympics since the inaugural winter Games in 1924.
Rogge is in Denver for IOC executive board meetings, which began Wednesday and are to continue until Friday. The plaintiffs sent Rogge a registered letter last week, but he did not respond to their request for a meeting.
“That’s just how they work,” Van said. “The top guy in IOC is not going to make an appearance for some athletes that he doesn’t want to be in his Games, anyway.”
The International Ski Federation gave a resounding endorsement of female ski jumpers in 2006, voting 114-1 in favor of their inclusion in the 2010 Olympics. The IOC was not swayed, however, maintaining that ski jumping at the women’s level had not developed to the point where it was of Olympic caliber.
The lawsuit has been filed against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee. The suit contends that the exclusion of women is discriminatory and in opposition to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The reason it’s not (filed against) the IOC is very simple: Nobody has any authority over the IOC,” Women’s Ski Jumping USA president Deedee Corradini said Wednesday. “They can do whatever they want, so we had to look for another way to get this done.
“As our lawyers took a look at what our options were, VANOC, we feel, is the right place.
Our belief is VANOC can control whether the women jump or not. If this goes our way, VANOC is just going to have to tell the IOC, ‘The women have to jump. You can’t break the laws of Canada and we are subject to those laws.’ ”
Vancouver organizing officials contend they should not be the defendant because the IOC dictates the composition of the Winter Olympics. The IOC has not budged.
“If you have three medals, with 80 athletes competing on a regular basis internationally, the percentage of medal winners is extremely high,” Rogge told reporters on Feb. 28, 2008. “In any other sport, you are speaking about hundreds of thousands, if not tens of millions, of athletes at a very high level, competing for one single medal.
“We do not want the medals to be diluted and watered down. That is the bottom line.”
Corradini said there are close to 100 women from 18 countries competing at the elite level. A total of 166 women are registered as active jumpers with the International Ski Federation.
Since 1991 the IOC has demanded gender equity from any sport it adds.
However, ski jumping has been grandfathered, or “grandmothered” in this case. Ski jumping and Nordic combined (which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing) are the only male-exclusive sports in the Winter Olympics.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Willis, 17. “We’re doing whatever we can. We’ve gone through all the steps. This is the last step so hopefully this will be the thing we want.”
The first women’s ski jumping world championship was held Feb. 20 in Liberec, Czech Republic, with Van winning the gold medal.
The IOC has said it is amenable to adding women’s ski jumping for the 2014 Winter Olympics, earmarked for Sochi, Russia, providing its criteria can be met. Van is not prepared to wait that long.
“I need to get out and move on with my life if this isn’t going to happen,” the 24-year-old Van said. “I’m not going to wait for a bunch of old guys to decide my future when I can take it into my own hands and move on from ski jumping if it doesn’t happen now.”
For 2010, the women are asking for one event to be held on the normal hill in Whistler, B.C. The men’s event includes competition on the normal hill and large hill, as well as a team event.
Corradini — a former mayor of Salt Lake City — cannot understand why the IOC members are not open to that request.
“They would be heroes,” she said. “Everybody would shine. The lawsuit goes away. Why don’t they do something so simple?”

source: vancouversun.com

XXX Olympic Games 2012

The real XXX Olympic Games – sexy sports women