Other than the fact that the Beijing Olympics of 2008 were one of the most corrupt games I’ve ever watched [I’m only 31] because I love so many athletes from so many countries and am simply a die hard sports fan I still couldn’t pull away.

I am more than pleased with the entire Canadian team. I was going to write a rant during the Olympics asking people to shut the fuck up about our lack of medals in the first week, I was about done listening to people around me and the media not to mention the CBC commentators speak negatively about our athletes, the commentators weren’t so much saying negative things as they were just talking in agro voices, it was annoying.

WHO in Canada doesn’t know that we are a winter sports country? I wish we were an all sports country but it will never happen, sure because all eyes are now on us the Canadian athletes will probably get more money for a few years maybe enough for us to grab upwards of twenty medals in London 2012 but after London things will go right back to exactly how they are which is pathetic. If the country isn’t going to support the athletes properly then stop bitching when they only achieve like the most personal bests and Canadian records in maybe ever. Seriously people HOW could that not have been good enough? Breaking a PB is one of the best feelings EVER I can’t even imagine how insane it would be to spend your life training for something, perform your very best, break what WAS your very best and have it NOT be good enough for your country. Disappointment and being tired of seeing only personal bests and Canadian records fall are two different things.

I’m already annoyed by all of the talk of topping the Beijing Olympics, the big one being the opening ceremonies. Ok - what? So you want us to put on a computer generated fireworks extravaganza, destroy a young girl’s confidence probably for life with a bullshit lip-syncing so called pretty girl, you want us to fake the age of some of our athletes robbing the rightful owners of their gold medals AND you want us to have even worse corruption than was just demonstrated over the last two plus weeks?

Unless nothing else is on, hardly anyone watches the Olympics anymore. What, with the drugs and the mockery being made of the judged sports. I know that both have always been there, always been a problem and not just at the Olympics but what I don’t understand is why we don’t do anything about it.

When it comes to how Vancouver is treating its people we are right on up there with the Chinese. I don’t think we’ve torn down any homes that people actually own and were living in yet but it’s probably coming. All I could think watching the pre shows on how the middle class and lower class and homeless were being treated in Beijing was what I’m sure most Vancouverites were thinking - OH FUCK. When your city is known world wide for its homeless problem, the east side, skid row, whatever you want to call it you really would think the government would want to do more than try and HIDE the problem but dreaming is probably still free for a reason.

It got to the point with the judged sports that we had to start watching them in moderation to keep tempers calm. I am a lover of many athletes from many many countries it is hard for even me to keep track of them all, so I am not just talking about Canada when I say the judging in my opinion was the worst we’ve seen this century, I can’t see it being the worst ever but it’s up there. And I am sorry but it may take the full eight years they have to find out what they are on but all of the Jamaican male sprinters are drugged out, they use better Visine than Ben Johnson did but yay, if it was only Bolt that was fast that would be one thing but the ENTIRE team. If you watched the Olympics, think back to Phelps, notice the natural progression of his stamina his endurance level, the boy looked tired you could tell he was working his ass off and then some. Bolt and his boys were show boating cruisers. Everything and everyone is faster and stronger in this day and age but not that much.

Out of curiosity I thought out loud “I wonder how many of China’s gold medals were in judged sports”. Turns out to be approximately half of their 51, in Athens as a nation they won 63 medals in TOTAL. But to be fair let’s compare with another power house, let’s compare with the United States. Of their 36 gold medals in Beijing approximately 3 of them were a result of judged sports. In total The States won 110 medals, in Athens they won 102. Seems like a natural progression of improvement to me. Something just isn’t right with how many judged golds China won and the fact that they went from a total of 63 medals to a total of 100 at their own games.

I personally have a bigger problem with corruption in the judging than I do with the drugs, but please do not get me wrong I have MAJOR issues with both. At least with drugs when you are caught you not only embarrass yourself you shame your entire country. You are stripped of your medal. You have to live with what you did forever. You are marked forever. In my opinion if you are caught once with drugs you should NEVER be able to compete again, screw a suspension. And I agree with my father who thinks if one of them is caught doing drugs the whole team should be sent home. That would put a stop to it all pretty fast.

It really bothers me that sports like softball are being removed from the Olympics yet NOTHING is being done to change judged sports or stop the corruption.

For example, WHY does gymnastics even need judges anymore? Why not take the maximum score have exact deductions for falls, misses, step outs, incompletion of compulsory moves and add em up at the end and then the person who has the least amount of mistakes and did all the moves gets the gold. I guess that would be too complicated.

It wasn’t all bad and there were some very touching moments, moments that were my favourite just like I have from every Olympics I remember watching. I don’t know why but my favourite moment of all was when Ian Thorpe turned around and gave Mrs. Phelps a hug after Michael won yet another gold. I thought that was pretty good.

Gus is sitting on my lap pawing at my legs and I’m watching the Beijing Opening Ceremonies, I haven’t cried yet but it is inevitable that I will. Medal races in the swimming start Sunday, that’ll get me if nothing has before then.

My love of sports and athletes is huge but I still have mixed feelings in regards to the Olympics and their politics but I try and make it a point not to talk about politics on my blog. I see what’s happening in Beijing, I see what is happening in Vancouver to the people, to the city. I know I’m not alone in feeling a certain amount of dread when the cameras are turned onto our city and highlight the government’s despicable testing taking place right now on how best to deal with the homeless. It did not comfort me at all to see the people of Beijing going through similar and heartbreaking experiences just to put on a spectacle for the world.

Sometimes it isn’t just the politics it’s the drugs. I may not be competing now but my therapists insists I am an athlete and should address myself accordingly it is just hard for me having such a nagging injury [another post..]. Sometimes I’m glad that I had a shitty attitude when we moved to Terrace because I never had to deal with the pressures of drugs. I had very limited running competition in Terrace, whereas in Smithers I was always second best and instead of using it as a challenge and running against older, faster more experienced runners and learning from it and growing I became an arrogant asshole and almost stopped running AND skiing all together. The Terrace ski hill is nothing when compared to the Smithers mountain and I got bored. I look back and wonder how my parents even put up with me through my seriously wasting my potential phase [I’m not really sure it was just a phase though]. Before I met Adam I dated some guys who considered themselves hard core, they were jerks to me but at the same time they loved being with a woman who could keep up to them but the difference is that I never took anything beyond protein powder and ibuprofen. I do not think ANY of the guys I dated took steroids but I could be wrong who knows. One dude had completed an iron man and one used to train with Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist Simon Whitfield’s coach. Both of these guys took creatine which is a controversial supplement and it bothered me, if guys taking creatine bothered me I bet you can guess how strongly I feel about professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs. The disappointment, anger and embarrassment I feel when athletes are caught is intense to say the very least. I put so much time and energy into the athletes I admire and love that I feel genuinely let down when I find out they’ve been using.

Even though I find myself yelling obscenities at the tv over most of the stupid commercials and idiotic statements made with voiceovers by Morgan Freeman I try real hard to separate myself from all the bullshit and enjoy the fact that it is the only time that I can see almost all of my favourite athletes in one place for two fucking weeks man! I live for moments like this:

American Triathlete Sarah Groff & Canadian Olympic hopeful Carolyn Murray

I probably won’t post much else on or about the Olympics but if you are interested in following my excitement you can find me on Twitter, a social media platform I have very mixed feelings on but don’t seem to be able to break away from using or feeling upset over when someone un-follows me much like how I feel when people delete me off their Facebook but that is also something for another post.

Last Sunday I spent some of the best hours of my life to date watching the Triathlon World Championships [Airing on CBC at 1pm Pacific Standard time, Saturday June 14^th].

Seeing this event meant a lot to me and although I knew I would be emotional I didn’t know just how emotional.

My dad did triathlons and duathlons when I was a kid, his last triathlon was in the Cook Islands in 1998, he then moved on to half and full marathons. I dedicated the set of photos to him on flickr for Fathers day. Happy early fathers day Dad!

I am extremely glad that the day before the elite/BEST IN THE WORLD were to perform I went out and took some photos because it gave me the confidence to get in there the following day. Those first photos of the empty course and stadium, the uniforms and shots of the different nations flags were the best I thought I’d get and I came back to the apartment with tears of happiness flowing down my cheeks whilst trying not to hyperventilate and tell Adam how absolutely incredible it had been, how many people had been out, how many athletes and bikes and that THE WORLD WAS HERE! And he said “and you voted no for the Olympics” and I said “I stand by that, but but… you are right I was crazy to think I’d be leaving the city.” I uploaded the photos and declared that we should TRY and go out the following day and see if we could get close and get some decent photos. Knowing how much I hate crowds and how hard it is for me not to flip out all over the place I’m sure he figured I wouldn’t go. But I had to, the day before had me so pumped up. I watch triathlons and iron mans, marathons, track and field and the Tour De France on TV whenever they are on and Adam is kind enough to set reminders for me or put one on and lets me tell him my same running stories over and over and over again, and makes fun of me when I cry because I cry EVERY SINGLE TIME. I even wore my ugly old prescription sunglasses to try and hide the water works I knew were coming.

I knew that the women went off at 1pm, I watched the helicopters from out our living room window and decided we should head around 2:30 because I knew the men went off at 4:00 and I figured from where the helicopters were circling that the women were likely well into the run.

Walking towards the course I was already getting emotional and there was an open spot RIGHT where the women were coming around the corner and I opened the camera and just started shooting but I was crying so I had no idea what athletes I was getting, my batteries died so I actually watched for a bit and took some of it in while I started to clap mildly for the participants.

I decided it was time to head for the beach; we weren’t going to get close standing around watching the last of the ladies come in. I was in GO mode already in shock over getting that close to the action. We both had our phones in case we got separated and it was decided I was leading the way.

We were almost past the barricades that marked the do not enter area and where I could see finished athletes conversing and being interviewed by the media when I noticed a break in what I guess was security and I walked in and started taking photos and they let me. I thought Carolyn Murray was going to tell me to fuck off until I said “excuse me, I’ve been standing here taking your photo for five minutes and you’ve been so gracious may I please shake your hand and say congratulations” through you got it….. tears! She then shook the crazed fan’s hand. I swooned and looked back at Adam only to catch a fan having his photo taken with Lauren Groves [from Vancouver!!] and thought OMG why did I not ask for my photo with Murray??? HERE I COME GROVES!!! I approached and oh yeah uh huh I got my photo taken with her I got my photo taken with her and youuuuuuuu didn’t!

Thankfully Vancouverites are late to almost everything and we found PERFECT spots RIGHT NEXT to the V.I.P area. By the time the top seventy-seven male tri-athletes in the world had taken center stage right in front of my eyes I had the pleasure of proving myself a triathlon pundit explaining such things as lengths and order of the three legs to people who didn’t know and sharing information such as the divers under some of the buoys and other safety measures taken for the swim. Needless to say I was in my GLORY.

I thought I had my emotions under control and was even getting in some deep breaths, picture taking was going well until Simon Whitfield came out of the water, I swear I heard them announce him come out first but I saw him coming up in second and dropped the camera, Adam quickly stopped it from smashing into the fence and I started screaming and crying and clapping so hard I thought my wrists would break and I was gone so far into the moment the natural high was seriously better than getting a tattoo.

I was shaking and unable to control myself any longer or take clear photos or catch the men on the bikes because they were so fast it was insane. Adam took over the camera taking the cycling and mens running photos and I took over sneaking up to the rails.

I quickly lost myself again cheering for them ALL from every country, the women next to me said, “we are cheering for Mexico” by the end of it I had the entire row of people cheering for the same people and countries I was, it was crazy. I even had the row chanting U.S.A U.S.A when one tired looking American ran by. The only country people wouldn’t join me in cheering for was France which of course pissed me off but then I had to remind myself that not everyone was there for the love of sports in general some where there JUST for their countries. Of course I wanted one of the Canadians to win, but I am happier with how the Canadians did as a whole. All of the ones I saw gave it and gave it hard.

It was exhilarating to be so close to all of those amazing athletes, some of them personal favourites. If we had better cameras we’d have photos of the sweat coming off their shoulders.

Watch for us during the men’s swim, [we are on the athletes left coming up the beach] good chance you’ll see me freaking out.

Back in January, the 15^th to be exact I started wee write ups on some of my favourite athletes and I had intended it to be a once a month series that will at one point cover my most and least favourite commentators as well, some former athletes and some, and some… well there are just some. I realized after I put Part One up that I had included a retired athlete, I’ve been thinking that had I been thinking I would not have done that, so this post will include a retired male and when I eventually get to my favourite retired athletes I will only do FIVE of each sex.

© samcloseup on Flickr

Roger Federer, Swiss, Current Rank World No. 1, Tennis

I started following the career of Roger Federer in 2004 which just happened to be the year his career exploded. This was back when the live Wimbledon matches aired at some insane time, I think it was 4:30am and I was up to watch them, regurgitating all of the band wagon knowledge I had picked up on my new favourite player to Adam who hated tennis at the time but didn’t tell me until the next year when I yet again got up at I think 5:30am to watch Federer annihilate his competition. As of March 2008, that No. 1 ranking he gained himself when he won Wimbledon in 2004 still stands. A record 218 weeks. Federer has had a rough go of it this season, his health has been ailing and I suspect lady troubles. I always enjoy watching him face Rafael Nadal because he seems to be the only player that can realistically beat the Rog. It does get a little boring watching him win allllllll the time and I think it is natural for athletes to have slumps. I’m also a HUGE fan of his friendship with Tiger Woods. The commercials they do together = priceless, seeing them at each others events = priceless, hearing them talk about each other in interviews = priceless. Why shouldn’t two of the worlds BEST athletes be BFFs? There is really nothing I do not like about Federer, he supports many charities and started his own, The Roger Federer Foundation. Although he can be an emotional player he is always humble and when he actually loses it is always with grace.

© ETW Corp

Tiger Woods, American, Current Rank World No. 1, Golfer

My love for Tiger Woods was already well formed before I even started golfing. Which I guess doesn’t really mean anything, it is probably a pretty common statement, or close, a lot of people who have never picked up a club still love the Tiger. When I did start to golf back in 2000 I was able to draw a lot of inspiration from Tiger and still do. I remember when Tiger used to be a very very emotional player, a club thrower, you could read the swears from his lips, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him take it as far as I’ve seen John Daly go but he has thrown some pretty good tantrums. Watching him mature over the years has been a huge help to my golf game. When Tiger went through his slump during the 2003 and 2004 season I was constantly angered by the remarks made about him, I don’t know if it is just because I am a woman, but I KNEW it was related to his family life and what was still [until late 2003] his hot model girlfriend and not to mention he completely changed up his swing.

© Alexandre Despatie Photo Album

Alexandre Despatie, Canadian, Olympic Silver Medalist, Diver

In 1998 I was at home visiting my parents when 13 year old Despatie stunned Canada into and instant love affair when he won gold on the 10m at the Commonwealth Games. I remember that moment in diving like it was yesterday and I have been a fan of his ever since. He became the first man in Canadian history to win an Olympic medal in diving, winning the silver in Athens on the 3m and is a hopeful to medal in Beijing, although realistically the Chinese divers may already have those medals covered but the fingers are still crossed. In 2003 Despatie had won the gold on the 10m, making him world champion, at the 2005 World Championships in his home town of Montreal he added gold medals to the 1m and 3m making him the first diver to hold the gold on all three boards at the same time.

© earthhour on Flickr

Ian Thorpe, Australian, Five Time Olympic Gold Medalist, Swimmer

I did not know that Ian Thorpe had retired, yes I knew he had taken a break; I just hoped and willed him to go for the 400m freestyle Olympic gold hat-trick in Beijing as was his original plan. When I found out it was in late 2006 that he retired I became mad at myself for not knowing. What kind of fan am I? I try not to expect anything in life but I know it wasn’t wrong to dream of battles that I ASSumed would take place in the pool in Beijing between the Thorpedo and Michael Phelps [up next!]. Ian Thorpe MADE the 2000 Olympics for me and I thought that of all of the Olympic performances I had ever seen in my life that nothing would ever beat it. And you are reading a very proud Canadian’s blog who LOVES Canadian athletes [highlighting more of them is on the way don’t you worry] But I was proved wrong, watching him and Phelps in Athens was amazing. Just bloody amazing and until I found out Thorpe had retired I had been dreaming of them together side by side in the fast lanes cruising to easy finishes and medals. My dreams have been dashed. But thankfully Ian and I support some of the same charities so my admiration for him continues on. And he will, I’m sure, forever be known as one of, if not the best freestyle swimmer of all time.

© sja30044 on Flickr

Michael Phelps, American, Six Time Olympic Gold Medalist, Swimmer

I love Michael Phelps; forgive me I did not know that he has now tied Mark Spitz’s record of winning seven gold medals at one event, the 2007 Worlds in Michael’s case, but I still love him. For an athlete of his age and his stature his maturity, how humble he is, how soft spoken he is, how gracefully he wins and loses is what puts this guy on my list. I’ve had no choice, although I enjoy a lot of other swimmers, but to give him the number one favourite male swimmer position. Although my dreams of watching him once again swim against the Thorpedo are over there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that he will be a highlight for America at the Beijing Olympics. I remember hearing of him in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics because he was a hopeful at the time, super young, but he was mentioned by commentators because he was, at 15, the youngest American male at an Olympics in over 65 years. Just as Ian Thorpe made the 2000 Olympics for me the rivalry between Thorpe and Phelps with a little bit of Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband thrown in MADE Athens. Adam and I listened to A LOT of ‘Greased Lightning’ watching those boys fly across the water.

© the internet this photo is everywhere

Lance Armstrong, American, Seven Time Champion, Tour De France

I used to despise Lance Armstrong. He was basically everything I hated in an athlete: Pompous, arrogant, a sore loser, a prick to interviewers, ugly.. It wasn’t until my friend PH [now deceased] told me the story of Lance and how he had one nut and it wasn’t until he had just that one nut that he won his first Tour and how much he had overcome and that he had been given a 1% chance of survival with his cancer diagnosis. YES, ONE PERCENT! Read his first book! Now partially in honour of my dear friend, and partly because I believe that for the most part Lance has now earned his right to be a pompous, arrogant ass if he wants to, I admire and respect him to the level that he is now one of my heroes, he hasn’t reached a Terry Fox like status but he is up there. The fact that he also now runs Marathons doesn’t hurt either. He is brave, he fights for what is right, he doesn’t take no for an answer, he is loud, and he won the hardest race ON EARTH seven times against the very best cyclists in the world, all while being run off into hay fields and crashing because of idiotic fans trying to touch him while he is trying to WIN the TOUR DE FRANCE. He sits on a list with very few athletes as the best in the world at what he does and in the process carries a torch he doesn’t always even want to carry extremely high for team beat cancer a team that in one way or another I think we are all on.

With two of my favourite sports Golf and Tennis back in full televised swing and taking over the sports networks I’m reminded of how many athletes I absolutely love and admire so I thought I would share some of them with you. I’m going with current and keeping it to Track, Tennis and Golf. Nothing personal but I could go on forever, in fact narrowing down the men ‘of now’ is going to be way harder; this could turn into a 2.5 parter.

Paula Radcliffe, British, Marathoner and Current World Record Holder

Even when Paula runs a ’slow’ 2:17:42, she is still the fastest female marathon runner in the world and has been since 2002. I will never forget the excitement of running my first half marathon in Kelowna on October 13, 2002, at the same time that she was running her second marathon in Chicago and blew the previous WR held by Catherine Ndereba, of Kenya away by a minute and a half. She would later destroy her own WR in 2003 [London] by setting the current standing women’s time of 2:15:25.


Photo © bycolley on Flickr

Charmaine Crooks, Canadian, Five Time Olympian, Runner

Long retired but still a favourite none the less. It was hard not to grow up idolizing this woman having had the pleasure of meeting her when I ran for the Track team in Smithers. She gave our team some tips and hung out with us. It was one of the most memorable times of my life. She is not just a highly regarded Canadian Athlete she is also very respected in the Vancouver area for her fund raising efforts and she currently serves on the International Olympic Committee’s 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee.

Photo courtesy Bell Champions

Justine Henin, Belgian, Current Rank World No. 1, Tennis

Justine plays some of the best tennis I have ever seen, it has been exciting watching her rise through the ranks over the years. Her praised one handed backhand brings fear to the best players in the game. She is young, cheeky and don’t let her seemingly small size fool you she is a power house who keeps the court full of action. Although having been accused of unsportsmanlike conduct over a call in a match she won against Serena Williams back in 2003, I tend to disagree and think it is a shame that basically because Serena is a Williams sister it sticks with her. Henin is also an Olympic gold medalist.

Photo © ebtg bwtt on Flickr

Maria Sharapova, Russian, Current Rank World No. 5, Tennis

At Wimbledon in 2004 Maria Sharapova made jumping on the bandwagon irrelevant and brought even the mention of Anna Kournikova’s existence as a tennis player to near extinction. She makes Michelle Wie look like a little girl. She is drop dead gorgeous and when she brings her A game she will take her oppenent down in straight sets almost every time. The game face of Sharapova is one of my favourite game faces in all of sports. And yes y’all I know that the key word there is ‘when’ she brings her A game but this is a loving post.


Photo courtesy Sports Illustrated

Morgan Pressel, American, Professional Golfer

I started watching Morgan Pressel on the Golf Channel when she was an amateur. I could tell she was one to watch and so I watched her. She is very mature for her age and is a great role model for young female athletes. She was not able to turn pro without appealing to the LPGA to admit her due to being a year too young at only seventeen in January 2006 when she needed to be eighteen. In 2007 Morgan won her first Major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship making her the youngest LPGA member to win at eighteen years and three hundred and thirteen days. Turns out she wasn’t just one to watch as an amateur.

Photo © esmith132 on Flickr

Lorena Ochoa, Mexican, Current LPGA Rank No. 1

Lorena Ochoa came onto my radar in 2005. That year at the US Women’s Open she was in great position to take the tournament and put it in the water on eighteen and it just became worse and simply unforgettable from there. I remember feeling incredibly bad for her but was one of the assholes who called her O-choke-A, that was of course before with her always calm poise and method of play even when in the crapper she became one of my favourites to watch. Lorena is also the first Mexican of either gender to be ranked number one in the world in the sport of golf and is sponsored by Lacoste (drool), the greatest gator-based clothing line ever. She is like Sammy Sosa is to the Dominican aside from the drugs and the bat corking.

Photo © PGA Mexico on Flickr