Cheerleaders at the Beijing Olympics.


Cheerleaders! – Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics

Originally uploaded by kk+

Not all the cheerleaders at the Beijing Olympics are Chinese. Here’s some pics from Flickr user kk+ of some Eastern European Cheerleaders. They might be the ‘Red Foxes’ from Lithuania. I’ll see if I can find some more pictures. You can also find more at this blog post on the Olympic Cheerleader Trials where they had a dance off to see who would get to be at the Olympics.

Plenty more at some of the links above.

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Mark Spitz feels snubbed by lack of Olympic invite

Mark Spitz is sitting around pondering whether Michael Phelps is going to break his record for gold medals in one Olympics and feeling a bit left out of things apparently:

“I never got invited. You don’t go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am,” Spitz told AFP in Hong Kong.

“I am going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record anonymously? That’s almost demeaning to me. It is not almost—it is.”

Actually I think if he went on his own it would show more about his character and sportsmanship than just sitting around watching it on TV, but maybe I’m wrong.

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First drug cheat in Olympics found, cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno on her way home

coming soon enough.

Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno has become the first athlete to fail a drugs test at the Beijing Olympics.

Moreno, who was entered for the women’s road race and individual time trial, tested positive for the endurance-boosting drug EPO.
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Awesome US win in 4x100m against trash talking Frenchie–Jason Lezak clobbers his opponent!

Wow.

That was just absolutely awesome. The US mens 4×100m free (with Michael Phelps) came back from nearly a full body length in the last leg of the relay to outstretch the French swimmer by mere inches. The last split time by Jason Lezak was 46.06 seconds, a new record split for any relay in swimming.

France takes the medal for Foot in Mouth with their comments earlier in the week

“The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for.”

They lost by .08 seconds.

See you in 2012.

Just an awesome race to watch. Check out the video on NBCOlympics.com

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Lin Hao almost didn't make Olympic Opening Ceremony parade

The story of Lin Hao has made headlines around the world as his cute face and smile captured the hearts of many around the world. But today we learned the whole event almost didn’t happen as security guards, unaware of his role in the parade, refused to admit him to the stadium. As people grew more and more nervous about him not arriving, finally a senior official had to go out and physically drag him in past security.

Lin is a second-grader at the Yuzixi Primary School in Yingxiu Town, Wenchuan County. Wenchuan was the epicenter of a devastating earthquake on May 12 that killed over 69,000 people. Lin is credited with keeping the spirits up of his trapped classmates by singing songs and after he was freed he went back into the rubble to help rescue two of his fellow students.

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Chinese media acknowledges Olympic murder…after 24 hours

Calls to China last night were met with a bit of disbelief on the receiving end. Seems the murder of an American tourist at the Olympics was not exactly front page news in China. It wasn’t even news. We were met by surprised comments by more than a few folks.

Today CCTV International service finally acknowledge that there was a killing in Beijing. I didn’t get the whole translation but it looks like it is finally out in the public in China (CCTV-4 broadcasts Internationally and domestically in China).

President Bush raised the issue with his Chinese colleague Hu Jintao and praise the police for their quick response. The motive for the murder remains a mystery.

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Russia and Georgia share Olympic medal platform, call for peace

An early leader for the Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship is a pair of shooters, one from Russia and one from Georgia, who shared the medal platform today in the Womens’ 10m air pistol. Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze and Russia’s Natalia Paderina, former teammates on the USSR team, collected the bronze and silver today respectively, but took a moment to appeal for peace in the trouble South Ossetia area.

“I am very nervous today. It’s very difficult for my people,” said the Georgian.

“If the world were to draw any lessons from what I did there would never be any wars.

“We live in the 21st Century, after all,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes as she put her pistol down after her final shot of the event.

“We shouldn’t really stoop so low to wage wars against each other.”

Dress like an Olympian with the Polo Ralph Lauren US Olympic collection

If you’ve ever seen Chariots of Fire, you’ve seen much of the 2008 Olympic team’s wardrobe, sans the hat. The opening ceremony suits and slacks look very familiar to the 1924 US Olympic team’s wardrobe, with the exception they wore straw hats and the Americans had something a little more trendy (Driving Hats).

The US Olympic Committee has a full range of Beijing 2008 Polo’s outfits that you’ll be seeing over the next few days. There are (surprise) Polo shirts, and jackets and the driving hat and other things.

Ralph Lauren’s website also has the full range available for sale, and a few pictures of the opening ceremonies from last night.

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