AP Photo
They are called the Olympic trials.
But a more apt name would be the Olympic Trials and Tribulations.
America’s potential Olympians have been running, jumping, throwing, diving, swimming, flipping and twisting over the past week to try to win a precious spot on the team going to London for the July 27-Aug. 12 Summer Games.
It’s tough to make the roster of the country that won the medal count at the 2008 Beijing Games and is attempting to regain supremacy in the gold medal count, which it lost to mighty China four years ago.
In the major trials of track and field, swimming and gymnastics, the qualifying format is unforgiving. If an athlete trips over a hurdle, falls off the balance beam or gets out-touched at the wall after...
Alan Webb caught himself looking at a list not long ago. It was a list of Americans who had run four-minute miles, and he noticed that it had grown exponentially since he first eclipsed that barrier as a high-school senior in... more »
In terms of raw, tear-jerking drama, few events in sports top this week's survival-of-the-fittest U.S. Olympic trials. You win, you travel. You lose, you take up gardening. This is the way it has long been with the U.S. trials.... more »
Nick Symmonds is irritating. He’s a shameful self-promoter. He doesn’t seem to understand that when he points fingers and opens his mouth, he’s disturbing the big, corporate money that supports everything he does. He... more »
Every major sporting event in this country has a signature personality trait we can immediately identify. There's a little touch of sadomasochism (U.S. Open golf) and the grandiose spectacle (Super Bowl). There's the... more »
Swimming splashed its way to a new level of prominence in the American sporting hierarchy in 2008 on the broad shoulders of Michael Phelps. In a seemingly antithetical plot twist, the sport is bidding for an even larger share... more »
Email
Print
Share