The toughest kid ever

While the major sports writers in America get to deal with idiots the likes of Bobby Backstab Petrino, some get to watch truly great athletes. Glad ESPN took notice of Claire Markwardt.

ONE IRON MAN

The next time you feel like it's tough and you don't know how you're going to make it through another day at work, or whatever, listen to the story of Scott Johnson. His lungs didn't work and he was about to die. Resigned to it. Then they put someone else's lungs in him. Now he does triathlons. Like the little girl with cystic fibrosis in Australia in the story, I've added Scott Johnson to my list of favorite athletes. This is worth a listen.

MORE ON OSCAR PISTORIUS

This is a good blog - The Science of Sports. Above is their take on Pistorius. The link to the main page of the blog is here:

http://scienceofsport.blogspot.com/

OSCAR PISTORIUS UPDATE

Abled, disabled or ultra-abled? That's the question about Oscar Pistorius. The South African sprinter's back in the news again as he pursues a ruling on being able to run against guys with legs. The story above is the NYT's excellent look at the question from back in May. There's a British update from yesterday here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article2903673.ece
Not sure where I come down. Some people are just born with unfair advantages - Indurain and Lance Armstrong aren't normal humans - they have some genetic screw up that makes them superhuman. Same for Yao Ming - abnormally tall. Unfair? Not really.
This guy was born without regular legs and what he's got are prosthetics. Not really that much different from cyclists who are born with super VO2 max, and then capitalize on that by having the better bike than the other guy.
OK maybe not - his legs are metal and springy. But it's an interesting question.

UM, WEIRD, BUT AWESOME

Old ladies playing hoops. Cool.

NOW, THIS IS A SPORTS HERO

Dara Torres, getting older but swimming faster. Nice profile in The New York Times.

NYC MARATHON

A run in the park compared to living in Sudan

THIS GUY'S BUSTING UP A STEREOTYPE

They should play the Ride of the Valkyries when this guy carries the ball.

SA RUGBY WINGER FASTER THAN CHEATAH

My choice for most interesting thing about the world-cup-winning South Africa rugby team is that one of the Springboks' wingers, a guy named Habana, raced a cheatah and it looks like he won. I've watched this race a couple times, though, and the result is due mainly to the cheatah's lack of technique. He wastes probably two or three strides by jaunting sideways a bit a couple of times. With some really good form coaching, this cheatah could just be the fastest animal on Earth.

RYAN OUT AS US WOMEN'S COACH

Watching Briana melt in the Brazil game you knew this was coming. When you set a goal of winning the World Cup and you don't, no 45-1-9 record will save you, I guess. Personally, I don't see how you fire a guy for one incredible blunder when he has that kind of record, if the firing is based on outcome alone. (I don't know what kind of internal struggles/personality conflicts might be going on, though.) But If I won as many games as he did and lost as few (ONE LOSS, I REPEAT, ONE LOSS), I'd be pretty happy. OK, technically, they lost two on his watch. They lost a penalty shootout to Germany, but for some reason that counts as a draw.
Soccer America has a different take, and makes an interesting case - that it wasn't the record, or even the Brazil loss, but the style (or lack thereof) of play. Check that out:
http://www.socceramerica.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=24082

S.A. TAKE RUGBY WORLD CUP

The Springboks are world champions of rugby. I watched the final in delay today - good match actually. England had a try that they weren't awarded, but the 'Boks probably would have won anyway. Everything you want to know about it is in the story you read by clicking the link above.

RUGBY W.C. FINAL PREVIEW

It's England v. South Africa this weekend to see has the best rugby 15 in the world.

WHEN THE GAME MEANS MORE THAN THE GAME

Today's soccer story is actually from April. This is why you love soccer.

IN HONOR OF THE START OF NHL SEASON

Hockey used to be one of the big four sports in the States, but now it has honored "other sport" status and therefore can be talked about freely on this page. In my opinion, hockey was ruined when it went south, trying to market itself to people who didn't grow up with the game. Hockey should be played in Montreal, Buffalo, Philly, Boston and Chicago not Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix and Tampa. But whatever.

ENGLAND JOINED BY SOUTH AFRICA, FRANCE AND ARGENTINA

World Cup semis are set

ENGLAND FIRST SEMIFINALIST IN RUGBY WC

England are through to the semis in France. Is it me, or has this tournament lasted like 5 months?

AN AMERICAN WOMAN TO WATCH FOR FUTURE WORLD CUPS?

Ashley Harris is leading a resurgent Florida

US WOMEN HAVE EASY TIME WITH ENGLAND, GO THROUGH IN WORLD CUP

The US got second half goals from Wambach, Boxx and Lilly and will face the winner of Australia-Brazil. England had some goalkeeping blunders and possession problems, and faded in the second half.

WOMEN'S WORLD CUP UPDATE

Ives Galarcep has this update on the WWC on his Jersey soccer blog. Most of today's games have been postponed because of Typhoon Wipha or whatever it's called.

US NAMES SOFTBALL TEAM FOR GOLD DEFENSE

RUGBY WORLD CUP UPDATE - FIJI EKE OUT WIN OVER JAPAN

Go Fiji.

WOMEN'S WORLD CUP SOCCER UPDATE

USA Today's overview of where the US sits in the WWC.

HAN SOLO SAYS ALL IS JUST FINE

Hope Solo says, essentially, sometimes at the highest levels, you just make a little mistake, like letting the ball go through your hands. And she's happy overall with the way she played. Here's her blog from the World Cup

WE HOPE SOLO SHAKES OFF THAT GOAL

When I saw the highlights of the USA women in the World Cup yesterday I couldn't believe the first goal Hope Solo let in. But in the highlights you couldn't tell how bad the conditions were. I watched the game later - it was pouring, turning what normally would be routine saves into adventures she mostly handled well. It was really weak midfield play, poor tackling in midfield and defense and loose marking in the back that let us down. The game really showed how much Abby Wambach adds to the squad - both PRK goals came while she was on the bench gushing blood.
North Korea had a player named Un Suk - which was a nice summary of their team. They didn't suck. Here's a more positive take on the US game from SI:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/mark_bechtel/09/11/us.nkorea/?eref=mostpop

US now has a must-win situation with Sweden - finishing second in the group means having to face Germany too early. Germany, in case you missed it, beat Argentina in a laughable 11-0. Maradona has no daughters and Messi and Tevez no sisters I guess. GK Correa had a particularly tough day, knocking 2 in herself. And Germany's Prinze is now tied with Michelle Akers for leading all-time women's world cup scorer with 12 career goals.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6912377,00.html

RUGBY WORLD CUP - US LOSS TO BRITS IS MORAL VICTORY

The Eagles showed well Saturday against defending world champion England. Tonga is next for the Americans, who felt good despite their loss at the weekend.

WOMEN'S WORLD CUP SOCCER TOURNEY OPENS TOMORROW

Will Kim Jong Il be watching as the U.S. women take on his favorite team? Or will he be at the palace, thinking, "Ronery, I'm so ronery?"
http://www.willisms.com/archives/teamkim.jpg

THEY'RE NOT WATCHING FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

In case there's any question what's on the collective minds of all 4.2 million New Zealanders today (actually it might be tomorrow there), check out the front page of TVNZ. Of course they have the story of the Marseille massacre with the All Blacks thorough destruction of Italy, followed by today's rugby World Cup stories - all 29 of them.

RUGBY WORLD CUP - EAGLES ABOUT TO KICK OFF V ENGLAND

In the world championships of the planet's toughest game waiting for USA to kick off against England and enjoying the replay of last night's France v. Argentina match I can't help but wonder if they have blood banked on the side to replace the gallons that are lost on the pitch.
The Italians have had a tough start - getting absolutely crushed by New Zealand 76-14. The All Blacks had a rediculous 11 trys.
http://en.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtures/round=100/match=10074/report.html#all+blacks+launch+blitz+opener

The US takes on reigning world champion England later today. Hopes are dim for the Sammys. Here's the preview:
http://en.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtures/round=100/match=10076/preview.html#reigning+world+champions+face+americans

NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER - PRESEASON TOP 30

It's maybe a bit of a rebuilding year for FSU, they drop to 8 in the SoccerBuzz preseason poll. But UF at 7?

SWIMMING'S NEXT BIG AMERICAN STAR?

MaxPreps has a profile of Pan-Am quadruple gold medalist Kathleen Hersey

DECATHLON HEROES UNHERALDED

When I was growing up I knew who Bruce Jenner was - everybody did. He was on the Wheaties box and in a lot of commercials. What happened? Why are decathletes no longer cool?

WORLD T&F CHAMPS - WARINER IS WORLD'S FASTEST MAN AT 400 M

Texan Jeremy Wariner is the world's fastest 400 meter runner, but he's still not Michael Johnson.

TODAY'S (SORT OF) AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

The Chicago Trib's soccer writer ranks the MLS teams' songs. I don't care about his rankings, but he does us a service by allowing us to listen to them all. I think they're all pretty much terrible.

WORLD CHAMP FAIRY TALES - THE 39-YEAR-OLD DISCUS CHAMP AND THE HIGH JUMP LARK

Donald Thomas of the Bahamas is an incredible athlete. And we can all be inspired by a 39-year-old discus champ, if only we knew more about her.

32-YEAR-OLD IS 1500 CHAMP

A story for aging athletes everywhere. Take 3 years off from serious competition and come back to win your first championship ever.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

The Much Lousy Soccer (MLS) Soccer league (I stole that from a British newspaper columnist) is getting less lousy. But now they want to further thin out the talent at the top level by adding another top flight team. What they need to do is follow the British model from 100 years ago and start adding teams at lower levels. Then they can adopt a relegate/promote system so you truly have the best teams at the top level and all the others play to their home crowd only and don't bother the rest of us trying to watch a good game on ESPN.

DENG SLUMMING WITH BRIT HOOPSTERS

OK, there's plenty of NBA coverage out there, so I intend to generally ignore it. But Luol Deng is such a refreshing opposite to so many of the thugs playing the major professional sports. This article is also funny because, while the NBA is trying to take advantage of the increasing popularity of basketball around the globe, it's clear it has a long way to go in Britain. Who is Lebron Jones?

ON THE ROAD: MAJOR LEAGUE LACROSSE (OR IS IT MINOR LEAGUE)?

You know how guys who've played minor league sports or small college sports talk about the trials and tribulations of travel of the small-time circuit? The guys who play for the Denver team in Major League Lacrosse had a hell of a time getting to this weekend's semifinals in Rochester. The side fell off the bus.

GAY IS 100 WORLD CHAMPION, BEATING POWELL

USA's Tyson Gay passes Asafa Powell to win the world championship in the 100

YOU'VE FOUND HOFFA

He's in Osaka, winning the world shot putting championships. USA Today has good coverage of this mammoth. By the way, it's Reese Hoffa, not Jimmy. The USA went 1-2 in the shot put.

THESE ATHLETES ARE ALL GOING PRO IN SOMETHING ELSE

Life for athletes in the other sports, captured well by the NYT

TODAY'S OTHER AMERICAN GOALKEEPER STORY

Kasey Keller's headed back to England. With Moenchengladbach relegated, Keller decided the great food there wasn't enough to keep him interested. He's headed to Fulham, who need to keep their place as team America in the prem after the loss of Brian McBride.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY: Howard only bright spot for Sams

Most observers agree the current USA squad needs a lot of work in a lot of places. Bad reviews were all around this morning for the defense in particular, and nobody particularly caught anyone's eye up front either. The lone bright spot right now is the play of Everton keeper Tim Howard. Jeff Carlisle's take is above.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY: US looks for rare win in Europe

Today's American soccer story is an obvious one, the US men take on Zlatan Ibrahimovic (and I guess the rest of the Sweden team) this afternoon (our time) in a friendly. We're looking to improve on our woeful record in matches on the European continent, where it's something like 3-1,179-4. Most of those losses were Jeff Agoos' fault. Jonathan Spector and DaMarcus, put us right.

CRICKET: Yahoo! beats Google in Internet co. one-day test match

I've been in mourning all week because my favorite search engine Google went down to rivals Yahoo! in a one-day cricket match in England. The Yahoo! team apparently was faster, although Google probably had more googleys. In the final, Yahoo! drew with an Internet travel company, but who cares, my boys from Google were on the sidelines by then.

CRICKET - Old guys trying to run sport ruining it for young American players, typical

Loyal The Other Sports Page reader Joe Follick is demanding more cricket coverage on this blog, or he'll stop reading. Since he's one of only about two regular readers, I'm trying to oblige. Most readers won't be very familiar with cricket, and reading a story about an actual match requires a glossary at a minimum. I thought I'd start with an easy story - an update on efforts to grow cricket in the United States. Only trouble is, that effort's run into trouble. You see, old guys trying to run the sport, as they so often do, have screwed things up for the young guys (and girls) trying to play it. The US missed out on the U-19 Americas competition in Canada this month because it was banned. Surf around on www.cricinfo.com for more info.

SUMO'S GRAND CHAMPION IN TROUBLE WITH TRADITION-BOUND SUMO OVERLORDS

No doubt you've been following the troubles of Asashoryu, grand champion of this summer's Nagoya tournament. He said he was injured but then showed up playing in a charity soccer match in his native Mongolia. It's a huge scandal in Japan. The story above gives you all the background. Then today comes this: he has dissociative disorder and supposedly is only saying "ah" and "ugh". http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20070821TDY24004.htm
There's also this from Japan Times: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ss20070821a1.html

U.S. MEN'S GYMNASTICS TEAM MIGHT NOT MAKE BEIJING

The Washington Post on the team the U.S. is taking to the gymnastics worlds in Germany, which are the qualifier for the Beijing Olympics. Short version: we have a young team without much international experience and there's the prospect there won't be a U.S. men's gymnastics team in Beijing.

TRACK WORLD CHAMPS OVERVIEW

A decent preview of the upcoming track world championships, with the reminder that you won't be able to see most of these champions on TV.

ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS

Olympic speed skating medalist Joey Cheek makes my point - hard-working athlete (won an Olympic medal), not breaking laws, doing good things for the world and you've never heard of him.

SO YOU THINK YOUR TRAINING ENVIRONMENT'S TOUGH?

The athletes of Sudan - including at least one from Darfur - head to Osaka. The world championships are a world away from what these athletes have to deal with at home.

GYMNASTICS - Follow the Hamm brothers

From the land of sky blue waters, the Hamm brothers have come back to gymnastics. They're trying to make the Beijing Olympics. It's not a news story, but they have a Web site where you can track their efforts.

TODAY'S OTHER AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

While I include this because it's nice to see an athlete who has a hint of the value of an education, I mainly put it here because Burse is from Louisville - he played his high school soccer (as a forward) at St. X and was a star for the club team Javanon.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

Expectations are high for the U.S. women in the upcoming World Cup in China, despite the gold jerseys.

ENDURANCE NUT

This weekend's NYT Play Magazine gives us this article which captures a little of the psychology of being addicted to playing a sport. I know it well.

TRACK: Will this white boy be faster than Michael Johnson?

A recurring theme: you've probably never heard of Jeremy Wariner if you live in the United States. Even though he's the fastest man in America, maybe the world. He's got a good shot at breaking Michael Johnson's quarter mile world record this month in Osaka. But you have to read Pakistani, Australian and other foreign newspapers to get any news about him. The funniest thing about this Qatari news story - it points out that Wariner isn't black. Since there's no picture of him, I think that's a legitimate thing to mention, even if if it does make you feel like you're in 1955.

TRACK WORLD CHAMPS: Steffenson ready, and cocky

After admittedly getting his arse kicked in London, this Aussie sounds a bit cocky heading to Osaka. In case you didn't know it (thanks, American newspapers), the track and field World Championships are coming up in Japan. These are the fastest men and women on the planet, but if they don't wear helmets, you likely never heard of them.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

Jozy, meet Becks. Jozy Altidore is going to be blogging for The New York Times and today's his first crack at it. He's a much better player than writer so fortunately this bright young star has a future on the pitch. This blog, however, is just as interesting for the comments posted by readers. Red Bull has a few followers.

RUGBY UNION: Before they can sing and drink, US scrummers will actually have to play in World Cup

Real men, playing one of the toughest sports, with little padding.

TODAY'S SOCCER STORY: Becks gets first goal with no English TV coverage

The American soccer story of the day is an easy one: Becks bends it like Beckham, nets first Galaxy goal. SI's Grant Wahl has the best coverage.