The World Competes

Back in April, I wrote about Natalie Coughlin’s impressive swimming record, and how she was involved in other things, such as appearing on View from the Bay and getting married (she trains at Berkeley). At the time, I was not sure whether she was training for London 2012 or not. A recent report at TeamUSA.org notes that she is planning on competing in the 2012 Olympics.

Not only that, she will have the chance to set some records. Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres both have twelve medals each. Coughlin has 11. One more medal, she ties the other swimming greats, two more medals, she becomes the most decorated female swimmer of all time.

Coughlin took a break from swimming after Beijing, but today, she is back in the pool, and has just about reached her Beijing times once again. If she keeps up the hard work, two medals probably won’t be that difficult.

She has two years left to train: the London Olympics are now two years away.

Still a few days until the Tivo schedule arrives for the beginning of the Youth Olympic Games, but I’ve been hearing some chatter about how you’ll be able to watch the games. According to a Facebook conversation that I was able to read, NBC owns the rights to the Youth Olympic Games in the United States, and some of the parents were told that the games would be covered on television. How much of the games will be covered remains to be seen. Since this is the first Youth Olympics, many of us don’t know what to expect. I have seen commercials on YouTube for coverage, but I’m not sure where those commercials are coming from.

The Youth Olympics will be streamed live over the Internet. I like to watch my television via Tivo, so that’s not going to work well for me. If they podcasted the YOG, that would work well too. Then I could just download the events to my iPod. That’s doubtful, as the Olympic organizers (at least in the past) haven’t been hot on letting their stuff be electronically distributed like that.

I know that Universal Sports is going to be streaming it. There should be some television coverage according to recent reports, but how much, I don’t know yet.

The Youth Olympic flame was just lit a couple of days ago in Greece, and already it has made its way to Berlin and Dakar (I had to look up Dakar, it is the capital of Senegal, which is located on the west coast of Africa). There are still 20 days to go until the Youth Olympics begin… perhaps once the flame makes its way around the world, they will have a torch relay in Singapore. That would make sense.

If you’re on Facebook, the Youth Olympic Games have their own page, and you can see pictures of the event. I’m not including the pictures here due to copyright reasons.

The modern Olympic flame did not originate with the first modern Olympics in 1896. It was re-introduced during the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. The torch relay began with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

If you ever get the chance to take part in a torch relay or Olympic flame ceremony, I highly recommend it. I was able to take part in the torch relay kickoff in Los Angeles for the Atlanta Games in 1996, and although most of the day was a blur, I do remember getting to run into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum carrying the American flag, and it was awesome.

On July 23rd, the Youth Olympic Flame was lit for the very first time. The ceremony took place in front of the ancient temple of Hera, where people dressed as ancient priestesses lit the flame using a concave mirror. Photos of the flame lighting ceremony can be seen on Facebook.

The flame will travel to Mexico City, Berlin, Dakar, and Seoul before it heads to Singapore for the game’s beginning on the 14th of August.

What I’m wondering is why do the Olympic organizers only think there are five continents? Has there been a change in international agreement on what a continent is, in the same way that Pluto was demoted to a “dwarf planet”? I’ve always been taught that there were seven continents. Obviously, there aren’t too many people interested in the Youth Olympic Games in Antarctica, but why aren’t they visiting both North and South America? Instead, the organizers lump North and South America into the “Americas”. if we’re going to go by that mindset, we should lump Europe and Asia together into one big supercontinent called Eurasia.

The flame is making it’s way around the world though. If you live near one of the cities that it will travel to, hope you get a chance to see it.

USA Gymnastics has just reported that Alicia Sacramone is trying to make a comeback into gymnastics at age 22. At age 20, she was one of the older (if not the oldest) competitor on the 2008 Beijing Olympic team.

Sacramone won the silver medal, along with the rest of her team in 2008 (although if He Kexin or any of the Chinese teammates are discovered to be underage, that may be upgraded to a gold in about a decade, like the 2000 team). Many of her teammates, including Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, are also competing, but they were much younger when they competed in the Olympics.

She is doing the same beam routine that she did at the Olympics, and is now working on her floor exercises.

Her first challenge will be to make nationals. She has to do well at the 2010 Covergirl Classic, which will be held on July 24th. If she does well there, she can compete at the 2010 Visa Championships in August.

Sacramone didn’t do her best performance in Beijing, and it’s good to see her getting back into the game, especially at an older age. I wish her luck.

One of the things that I love about the Olympic Games is getting the chance to meet (vicariously) all the athletes. Sophie McKinna is an athlete from the United Kingdom that will participate in shotput in Singapore, but hopes to take the games home in 2012, when they will be in London.

She’s 15 years old, and one of the top athletes in the world at the Junior Level. The Singapore Games will give her the chance to enjoy competition at the highest levels.

I wish her good luck (though I want the US to beat her, personally). Making the UK team in 2012 may be more difficult than making the Youth Olympic Team, but she’ll have the opportunity. You can find out more about McKinna on BBC Sport.

If you live in the UK, it’s time to get psyched up! This weekend is open weekend for the London 2012 games. There will be games-inspired events occurring around the country between now and the time of the Olympics.

You can see the schedule at London2012.com. If your family is looking for some free fun, check out the calendar. You can try out a variety of sports. I’ve always wanted to try out luge… wrong season though (I did go down a waterslide last week on an inner tube, I wonder if that counts.

You can look up the events by location, date, and by type.

For us that live outside the UK, we’ll just have to live vicariously through your experiences.

The first Youth Olympic Games are only about 25 days away, and the United States has announced who will be attending (assuming that nobody gets injured). The US will be sending 82 athletes, representing 28 states. You can see the full list of YOG delegates at TeamUSA.org.

One person on a message board I visited questioned why there were only 28 states represented, and not 50. With only 82 athletes represented, it is only likely that less populous states like Alaska and Wyoming would have less of a chance to be represented. Furthermore, the Olympics are not a democracy. While the Youth Olympic Games are not intended to be as competitive as the main Olympics, we should be sending the most talented. It is likely that many of these athletes will compete in London in 2012; it’s better to send people that could use the experience in international competition.

There are two people from Arizona, although none of them are in gymnastics. We are only sending four gymnastics delegates; they represent both the artistic and rhythmic sides of the sport.

The Youth Olympic Games are only 26 days away. Some details, like the mascots and such, have been revealed, but there’s still a lot that remains to be seen. The above preview of the Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies may provide a few clues about what awaits.

The opening ceremonies look like they will be a little edgier and younger than the traditional Opening Ceremonies. It does look like they will be injecting some local culture, but at the same time, they are including the unique aspects of youth culture (which I suppose varies around the world, but in many places has a lot of similarities, especially in this networked world).

I have mentioned before that the Olympics need to take advantage of technologies like the Internet and YouTube. Perhaps the Youth Olympics will act as a wedge to kick that door open and bring it about.

You don’t have to overcome hardships or have a terrible family life to be an inspiration to others. We can all be inspirations when we decide to do good and help others. Whether our accomplishments are broadcast over the world or not, somebody notes our deeds, whether they ever say anything or not.

Cullen Jones is an athlete that has decided to help others. He was part of the gold-medal winning 4×100m freestyle relay team that won gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While Michael Phelps may have overshadowed Jones (and every other swimmer during that Olympics), Jones is one of those individuals that has become an inspiration not because he can swim, but because he chooses to serve.

Cullen Jones wasn’t always an excellent swimmer. He nearly drowned when he was five. He has used his status as a world-class swimmer to start the Make a Splash foundation, which teaches African-American children how to swim.

70 percent of African-American children either can’t swim or can only swim very little. I’m not sure why this is, but I do remember that in boot camp, there were quite a few of my African-American shipmates in my boot camp company that had to go to swimming lessons. Perhaps they have very little access to water; maybe they have less money for things like swimming lessons. Whatever the reason, I’m glad that we have one Olympic athlete that is taking time to help others.

In a world where there are so many people who reach a certain level and use their fame and popularity for themselves, it’s nice to see someone take some time out for others.