Kayla Harrison, an Ohio native, took home the USA’s first Olympic gold medal in Judo last week. It was her first Olympic performance, and she has been training in Judo since she was 6.
When presented with the gold, Harrison was thrilled, and could not hold back her tears.
“I was just kind of reflecting back on my life and everything it’s taken to get here and everything I’ve gone through,” she said. “”I’m just so honored to be America’s first gold medalist in judo. I’m happy to realize my dream.”
In this video from USA Today, Harrison describes her training and conviction to the martial art:
To the relief of many Pittsburgh Penguins fans, Sidney Crosby recently agreed to a 12 year, $104.4 million contract to continue playing. While some worry about what will happen if Crosby gets hurt again, Penguins co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle of Los Angeles were clearly comfortable enough with the matter to extend their captain’s career until he turns 37.
The Penguins first snatched up Crosby during the 2005 entry draft, allowing them to lock in a number one pick. Despite his medical problems and issues, Crosby has continued to impress, and Lemieux and Ron Burkle certainly had no intention of letting him go now.
Certainly, there is some loyalty that Pittsburgh shows towards Crosby for bringing them the Stanley Cup in 2009, and the owners are showing great faith that he will continue to perform and push through any medical issues that might arise. Even when he’s been absent due to medical issues, he’s remained as one of the top leaders of the NHL charts.
Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle are savvy investors; they know star power when they see it and they’ve offered up the best they can to their fans for the coming decade. And to many, that is worth every cent of the $8.7 million a season that they’re about to pay.
Most marathon runners train for months before a marathon. This is why many marathon runners keep a close eye on races a few months down the line. Two races stand out. One is the Baltimore Marathon and the other is the world famous NYC Marathon a month later. GSPN asked one runner, Frank Storch what he was planning to do. “Normally I would be training only for the NYC Marathon, but I decided to go for the Baltimore Marathon in October at a slower clip to get ready for the NYC Marathon,” Frank Storch said.
Another runner, Shlawnda Stevens echoed Storch’s view, at least as an ideal. “Yeah I think that maybe an interesting approach, but my only question would be the rebound time after Baltimore.”
Thankfully there is still plenty of time to sign up and decide either between the two or to do both.
This year’s NBA playoffs are coming to a close, with the Lakers pushed out and the Oklahoma City Thunder advancing to the finals. Watch the highlights, access and pivotal moments of last week’s playoff games here:
With the MVP candidacy looming over his head, it’s no surprise that LeBron James scored 28 points during the first three quarters of the game vs. the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday. The Miami Heat came away with a 96-72 victory, after the Raptors tied a franchise-worst with 23 points in the second half.
“They play the right way,” said Toronto coach Dwayne Casey after the game. “They have the star power to do it. My hat’s off to Miami. They’re a great team. I’m going to enjoy watching them. I hope my guys were watching and learning and that they learned from tonight and how fast and how physical the game is for 48 minutes. Not 24-minutes, 48 minutes.”
On the Raptors, James Johnson scored 18 points, while Alan Anderson brought 15 and DeMar DeRozan 12.
“First half, we brought the fight to them, let them know they were in a basketball game,” Johnson said. “In the second half, different story. They came out and brought the fight to us and they brought it good.”
As the entire nation of NFL fans surely knows, Tim Tebow has joined the New York Jets as a backup quarterback. Though there has been much discussion regarding Tebow's new role alongside the Jets QB Mark Sanchez and their future relationship, the two athletes have suggested the beginning of a strong, mutual relationship.
Tebow has expressed his excitement to join to AFC East team, getting a thumbs up from the new England Patriots and their owner Robert Kraft, while Sanchez publicly shows his respect and comaraderie for the QB as well.
In the longest, most crowded press conference in the history of backup NFL quarterbacks, Tebow opens up about his new position:
There are probably many sports celebrities who were born on Valentine’s Day but these particular five picks have been in the limelight a fair amount. Steve McNair (Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens player); Drew Bledsoe (New England Patriots; Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys); Jim Kelly (Houston Gamblers; Buffalo Bills); Kevin Keegan (ex-international football player who managed Britain’s Manchester United) and Mickey Wright (a women's professional golfer and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame).
It’s just a bit of trivia, but it’s always fun to know that your favorite sports celebrity was born on the most romantic day of the year. Kevin Keegan for example had a book written about him by Ian Ridley called ‘Kevin Keegan: An Intimate Portrait of Football’s Last Romantic.’
In his own way, Steve McNair was also quite the romantic. Married to Mechelle McNair until his death, the couple had two sons and it was true love. Perhaps Drew Bledsoe is a romantic too, having being married to the same woman for a long time with whom he has four children. We’re not too sure about Mickey Wright; all that we know is that she ended up retiring quite early (at 34 years old) partly because she felt too much pressure on her and was uncomfortable around a lot of people. Perhaps she was just a famous golfer born on the wrong day.
It seems like Green Bay Packer fans are really committed to their team. Wisconsin is the smallest city that hosts an NFL franchise but the loyalty fans have to the team is quite the opposite of small. Even religious church-goers cannot hide their dedication to their football team. They come to church indeed, but not without being clad in Packer gear – and that’s at least half of the congregants!
Even though it’s true the Green Bay Packers are definitely a great team, they did hit a rough patch and even then, the fans remained loyal. And it’s not hard to see why.
It’s very difficult to get a Green Bay Packers season ticket; people are on the waiting list for years – sometimes over 100 years – and their greatest hope is that at least their kids will maybe be able to get the ticket if their wait is “a mere” 40 years away. But one man – Jim Becker – was a bit luckier than that. He only found out recently though just how lucky he was.
So what was Becker’s story? He didn’t have much money at the time, but he was able to get a season ticket. Problem was, it was $60 a year. He worked out though, that giving a pint of blood four times a year, would cover it, since they paid between $12-$15 per pint. So that’s what he did. Every year he gave his four pints of blood quarterly and apart from the 11 family baptisms (he has 11 children), he never missed a game. During this time he saw 212 games and donated 192 pints of blood; he has records of them all.
That’s very nice. But what makes the story really incredible is that he was thereafter diagnosed with a condition called hemochromatosis, which his father had passed away from. What this means is that he had too much iron in his blood and the only way to cure him would be to remove pints of blood from him! The irony was, they told him that had he not been donating all those pints of blood prior to the discovery of his condition, there wouldn’t even be a solution! So all the good he was doing for those people requiring blood, apart from getting him a much sought-after Green Bay Packers season ticket, also saved his life! This thus proves “buying Packers season tickets doesn’t just make your life; sometimes, it saves it”; it pays to be a diehard Packers fan.”
This year’s Super Bowl is being run by NBC which has been planning over 18 hours of TV coverage from Indianapolis. It will do this through: Bravo, E!, NBC, NBC Sports (formerly Versus), Style, and The Weather Channel.
NBC will be offering various highlights throughout the coverage. For example, the first episode of “Costas Tonight” will be broadcast by Bob Costas who will be hosting football legend Dan Marino and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, aired on NBC Sports, marking the first of a bunch of interview shows by Football Night.
After the game, “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” will be broadcast live, and advance tickets are already sold out. The “Today” show will be broadcast, with Ann Curry and Al Rocker reporting live from Pan American Plaza. Others covering the event include Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales.
One might think that being a parent would come easy to celebrity types who seem to have more money than God. But it seems that it can be just as daunting for them, as it is for the regular (wo)man in the street. Indeed, in a recent article, football mogul David Beckham admitted to the task at hand being “scary,” although he did add that it is a “great experience” too.
Father of four kids ranging from six months to 12-years-old, David Beckham has admitted that while watching his kids grow up is great, it’s also scary because he “can see Brooklyn getting different interests. Wanting to go out with his friends, wanting to talk about girls, growing up into a young man.” Still, however tough it may be for the famous football star, he said it’s way better raising 3 sons and 1 daughter as opposed to the other way round.
Beckham also said how different it has been raising Harper (so far) than the three boys whom he can throw up in the air, but with his daughter it is different and she’s clearly very feminine in everything she does. He concluded by saying that he was “glad she’s got three older brothers and a dad to look after her”!
