Recently in Track & Field Category
Imagine winning an Olympic gold medal all because of a little help from Nike. Now you can sink those three point shots all because of a 369g Hyperdunk basketball shoe... or even get that chance to be the first to cross the finish line while saving the environment! Nike's new Swift Suit has been engineered by performance-enhancing technologies to include an aerographics mesh system made from 100% recycled polyester yarns. Go fast, and go green!
As the Bejing Olympics grow closer, companies such as Nike have been continuously working on lighter, faster, and stronger products for competing athletes.
"In designing the uniforms and footwear for the Beijing Olympics, Nike worked closely with the China Olympic Committee, the China Federations and the athletes themselves. In Beijing alone, hundreds of feet were scanned to determine the specific morphology of Chinese feet.
The Nike Sports Research Lab collaborated with research institutions in Beijing and Shanghai to look into the most common injuries in sports. Nike also interviewed the athletes about their likes and dislikes in terms of equipment. Performance-enhancing technologies such as Aerographics, Flywire and Lunarlite foam were integral to the creation of the apparel and footwear for Beijing 2008.
Throughout the four years of development, 22 federations and 54 designers were involved, and a total of 22 uniforms and 32 pairs of footwear were created."
Too often our view of sport is jaded. At the current time, our media focus is on Barry Bonds, Rickey Williams, ARod and OJ Simpson. We forget the pure joy and motivation of sport. Watch the following clip taken from the Ohio State Cross Country race. It is good to remember that sport creates a context where the human spirit can overcome obstacles.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highschool/news/story?id=3111847&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab8pos1
The International Olympics Committee is considering not giving anyone the gold medal from the women's 100 meters in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Marion Jones won this medal but was then stripped of it after she admitted she used steroids. Although the original second-place finisher normally would be upgraded to the gold, the International Olympic Committee is reluctant to give the medal to Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou because she was caught up in a doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Games.
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MADRID, Spain -- Future record books may show there was no winner of the women's 100 meters at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
IOC officials said Thursday they are considering the unprecedented step of leaving the gold-medal spot vacant following Marion Jones' confession that she used performance-enhancing drugs.
"That could be a solution," said IOC board member Denis Oswald, a member of the three-man disciplinary commission dealing with the Jones case.
Although the original second-place finisher normally would be upgraded to the gold, the International Olympic Committee is reluctant to give the medal to Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou because she was caught up in a doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Games.
"In a way, it's logical and consistent that we should just move her up, but there is another feeling," Oswald said in an interview during a break in the world anti-doping conference. "We'll see how insistent she [Thanou] is. The best way would be not to do anything and just leave it as it is and there is no gold."
IOC president Jacques Rogge told The Associated Press no final decision had been made but that "anything was possible," including leaving the result blank.
Last week, Rogge said the IOC only would upgrade athletes who were determined to be "clean."
Jones won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 and the 1,600-meter relay in Sydney, as well as bronzes in the 400 relay and long jump. After acknowledging last month that she started doping before those Olympics, Jones returned all five medals to the IOC.
Thanou and fellow Greek runner Kostas Kenteris set off a major scandal at the Athens Games when they failed to show for drug tests on the eve of the opening ceremony and said they were injured in a motorcycle accident. They eventually withdrew from the games and later were suspended for two years.
Oswald, a Swiss lawyer, said Thanou's situation presented tricky legal and moral issues.
"In 2000, although there were some suspicions already, nothing was established," he said. "At that time, there was no positive and nothing against her. We never did anything to challenge her silver medal. The rules say you move up. Legally, it's pretty clear. But it's more an ethical issue."
Finishing behind Jones and Thanou in the 100 in Sydney was Tanya Lawrence, with fellow Jamaican Merlene Ottey fourth. They also stand to move up one spot in the placings.
Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas won the silver behind Jones in the 200, with Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe third and Jamaica's Beverly McDonald fourth.
The IOC is awaiting recommendations from the International Association of Athletics Federations before deciding on how to revise the medals. The IAAF council is scheduled to consider the case next week.
The IAAF and IOC also must decide whether Jones' American relay teammates should lose their medals. Jamaica finished second in the 1,600-meter relay, with Russia third and Nigeria fourth. France was fourth behind the United States in the 400 relay.
The IOC ruling could come at the Dec. 10-12 executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. If not, the next IOC board meeting is in April in Beijing.
WADA director general David Howman, meanwhile, cited the Jones case as an example of how police investigations are increasingly crucial in catching drug cheats. He noted that Jones only confessed after being accused of lying to investigators about her steroid use and her association with a check-fraud scheme.
"She is an example of how an athlete can beat the system of sample collection," Howman said. "One-hundred-sixty samples were taken from that athlete and not one resulted in an adverse finding. ... It was only when faced with the unenviable prospect of going to jail for a long time that the athlete confessed that she had cheated."
from espn.com
This year's Chicago Marathon was faced with a tremendous weather challenge. The overwhelming heat and humidity caused many problems for the runners. In fact, the race was shut down about 3 hours into the race meaning most runners were not allowed to finished half the race.
Tragically a runner who suffered a heat related injury was picked up by a suburban ambulance service. Because of the size and scope of the event, using additional medical personnel was a very good idea. However, this ambulance was not given proper instruction to where they should deliver injured runners. The ambulance got lost while trying to get to the hospital and the runner died.
As event managers, this should not happen. The athlete and spectator's welfare must be the highest priority. The fact that the ambulance did not have the correct information is inexcuseable.
MSNBC reports that Beijing organizers plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history - an 85,000-mile, 130-day route that would cross five continents. The Olympic torch is traditionally lit at Olympia, Greece and carried by relayers to the host city. It has gone out Twice in the past, but this new torch technology is designed to hold up to gale-wind forces...
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BEIJING (AP) -Beijing organizers are designing a high-tech Olympic torch capable of withstanding gale-force wind, torrential rain and even the oxygen-thin air atop Mount Everest.
To eliminate chances of the flame going out, authorities have set up a torch design lab under the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday...
Washingtonpost.com is reporting that Marion Jones a three time gold medalist has admitted to using steroids. According to sources she is going to be pleading guilty today to two accounts of lying to federal agents. Jones is said to have been taking the steroid known as "the clear" for two years starting in 1999. Admitting to steroid use is putting Jones' 5 medals that she won at Sydney in jeapordy and she is definatly facing jail time.
Although Jones confessed to using steroids she said that she did not know that she was actually taking them. She said that her former coach Trevor Graham told her it was a nutritional supplement that should be taken under the tongue. "The clear" is a very popular steroid, both Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield have admitted to using it and even the great Barry Bonds had a similar situation in which he says he did not know he was taking it.
Jones will face up to 6 months in jail but the real question is will she be able to keep her medals and will she lose all credibility?
