Summer Olympian

The big news this week for Human Interest Saturdays is of course the startling decision by Court of Arbitration for Sport to allow double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius the chance to qualify and compete in the Olympic…

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Last Tuesday the United States Olympic Committee brought in Chinese cultural experts to speak to about 35 athletes. Their message: “Be good ambassadors. Don’t do anything that would offend.” Our first thought was what did they really learn? We love learning what’s…

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Did you get your mother a card and some flowers for her special day? Well here’s another gift from the…

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While your watching the your favorite athlete at the Beijing Olympics this year the cameras will inevitably flash to his/her nervous parents. Maybe one of them has left their seat out of anxiety, maybe one has their eyes covered, or maybe they’re…

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Performance-enhancing drugs and the Olympics. The proverbial elephant in the room. Someone’s not afraid to talk about it and it’s none other than Victor Conte, head of the infamous Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) lab and supplier to countless would-be cheaters. In…

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The Wall Street Journal has had the most thoughtful, insightful, and interesting Beijing Olympics coverage of any English language news source. Their nonpareil work continued today with this excellent Page One article about the Puerto Rican…

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Mia Farrow, of all people, becomes a key player in the Olympic protest movement with the delivery of a speech scheduled for Friday at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club. The subject of the talk is to be Sino-Sudanese relations and…

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Now if you thought the Sunday New York Times’ front page article “Witness in Track Doping Case Is Ready to Name…

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To paraphrase the ad, “We’ve come a long way, baby.”

A long way, that is, from the days when the likes of Ted Williams lent likenesses to tobacco companies to push more cigarettes. For not only have most athletes…

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Ottawa-based public opinion research firm Phoenix SPI, upon releasing its most recent numbers, announced that “most Canadians would like to keep politics out of the Olympic Games, and do not want Canada to boycott the Beijing…

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This week: Clinton wants a boycott, Obama kinda sorta does, McCain might, and Bush ... ah, he wouldn’t tell you anyway.

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The April 13 Sunday New York Times was a veritable indictment of Beijing 2008 and the Olympics movement. How bad could it have been? The front page upper left hand corner article’s title was ”

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Today UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon said he would not attend opening ceremonies for the Olympic games in Beijing. His position adds to the list of world leaders publicly committed to skipping the ceremonies. British Prime Minster Gordon Brown announced yesterday his…

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Did you spring for that 46” high-definition plasma or LCD extravaganza of a TV for Christmas this year? Maybe you balked but then realized you just had to have it for the Super Bowl? Or maybe you were a savvy buyer and held…

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A woman in London commented to the BBC that she felt, “bashed about a bit” as protesters attempted to disrupt the torch relay this weekend. The demonstrations in London also included several fire extinguisher wielding protestors. That’s a new tactic…

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