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6465. wabbit - 2/19/2010 9:50:58 PM  Australia's Torah Bright won the gold medal in the Olympic women's halfpipe Thursday, defeating American Hannah Teter during a pressure-packed second run. American Kelly Clark, the 2002 champion, won bronze.
Bright fell during her first run of the finals, meaning there was no room for error the second time. She stuck all five of her jumps for a score of 45 points, 2.6 better than Teter, the defending Olympic champion.
"It's never what you're looking to do, fall on your first run," Clark said. "But a lot of us had ourselves in that position tonight."
Bright, the 23-year-old from Cooma, Australia, won without trying the "double cork," a double-flipping jump she had been practicing all year. The jump is increasingly popular among men but has not yet been tried by a woman in competition...
Snowboarding superstar and defending champion Shaun White won the Olympic men's halfpipe gold Wednesday, dazzling the judges with his tricks - including the gravity-defying Double McTwist 1260. White scored 48.4 out of 50 in his second run after 46.8 in his first, which was in itself enough to seal the title. Finland's Peetu Piiroinen took silver with a score of 45.0 and Scott Lago of the United States won bronze with 42.8.
Maria Riesch of Germany won the women's super-combined gold at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games on Thursday. American Julia Mancuso took the silver and Anja Paerson of Sweden the bronze after race leader Lindsey Vonn crashed in the slalom. Maria Riesch of Germany took advantage of a mid-course crash by American Lindsey Vonn and an "easy" slalom run to win the super-combined and her first Olympic title on Thursday. American Julia Mancuso claimed her second silver in as many days finishing at 0.94sec with brave Anja Paerson of Sweden claiming the bronze at 1.05 only a day after a spectacular crash in the women's downhill.
US star Shani Davis became the first man to win back-to-back Olympic 1,000-metre speedskating titles with a sizzling last lap Wednesday and then showed his long feud with US rival Chad Hedrick is over. Davis, who became the first black Olympic champion in an individual event when he took 2006 gold in Torino, won in 1min 08.94secs, defeating 500m champion Mo Tae-Bum of South Korea by .18 of a second, with Hedrick third in 1:09.32. [...] Davis and Hedrick jointly held the American flag for a celebration skate four years after a bitter spat when Hedrick accused Davis of being selfish and unpatriotic for not racing with him on the US team pursuit squad at Turin.
more Vancouver Olympic news
6466. wabbit - 2/22/2010 2:05:27 AM IOC athlete equipment endorsement prohibition FAIL 6467. vonKreedon - 2/23/2010 5:01:59 PM In personal sports news, my 16 year old tennis playing son is on fire. In the last two weeks he's defeated the number 1, 2, and 4 players in the Pacific Northwest. His mental game has become rock solid allowing him to win grinding three set matches that he would have lost just a month ago. Now we are starting to look at national tournaments! 6468. PsychProf - 2/23/2010 6:32:14 PM Congrats VK... 6469. wabbit - 2/24/2010 1:17:22 AM Wow, congrats indeed! You go, VonK-son!
And how nice to see your shining moniker in these here parts, PP!! 6470. PsychProf - 2/25/2010 4:17:18 PM Hey Wabs...I will try to lurk here more often. Wasn't our Fray Party in Brooklyn a hoot? 6471. marjoribanks - 3/29/2010 7:22:48 AM Good show with your son, Kreedon.
You should read Agassi's bio. It's slightly overwrought, but also brilliantly insightful about pro tennis. Anyway, read it before your son does! 6472. vonKreedon - 3/29/2010 4:22:31 PM Thanks Marj, I'm considering buying the Agassi bio for my son's 17th birthday here in June. Why should I read it first?
In other son related news, he and I are going to Palm Springs next month for him to compete in the Easter Bowl, his first national USTA Junior tournament. His game continues to improve dramatically, so we are more and more hopeful that he's going to be able to substantially help himself pay for college with his tennis. 6473. arkymalarky - 3/30/2010 6:52:40 AM Wow, that'd be great! 6474. wabbit - 3/30/2010 4:24:00 PM Prof, wasn't that a fun day?
Well done, VonK, best of luck to your son.
I swear I'll get back to posting more often, although as of Thursday morning I'm offline until at least the middle of next week. Baseball is just around the corner...
Happy Easter, everyone! 6475. vonKreedon - 4/16/2010 11:48:45 PM We're back from the Easter Bowl an Reid played well, winning two back draw matches before losing to the #14 seed in a very tight 6-3 7-5 match. Unfortunately, in his first match, in the main draw, he was beset by nerves and missed enough opportunities to put balls away that he lost 6-3, 6-4 to a boy he in all likelihood would have beaten in a later match. In between the two loses he had two gut check wins: 6-7(2); 6-3; 1-0(5) and 6-2; 2-6; 1-0(3) (in the back draw they play a 10 point tie breaker in lue of a full third set.)
I'm feeling really bad right now because as a family we missed the deadline to register him for the other national tournament he would have been eligible for as a 16 year old. We misread the time/time zone and thought we had until midnight when the deadline was noon Eastern Time. Bummer. 6476. alistairConnor - 4/21/2010 8:28:47 PM Well! Lyon finally made the semi-final of the Champions' League (European football), having eliminated Real Madrid and Liverpool on the way... and they are playing the Bayern in Munich tonight.
The star of Bayern is French striker Franck Ribéry. He's under a cloud at the moment, having been indicted for relations with an underage prostitute... meanwhile, in the sporting arena, he has just been given a red card for a nasty late tackle.
So Lyon, who are lucky to still be on 0-0 near the end of the first half, are suddenly favourites. 6477. vonKreedon - 4/21/2010 9:48:12 PM But alas, Lyon loses 1-0, losing a man to a Red card as well early in the second. 6478. arkymalarky - 5/2/2010 12:11:19 AM Well, Wabbit, were you happy with the outcome of the Derby? 6479. wabbit - 5/2/2010 9:01:31 PM Honestly, I wasn't one of the people pulling for Borel and I wasn't sure Super Saver would get the distance. Then the track started to dry up and Borel coming out of the gate in the four slot is about as ideal a spot for him as he could have asked for. He was my wildcard pick and he rode a classic Borel race. Great ride, deserved the win.
Ice Box was my come-from-behind pick, and if he stays healthy, will probably be my Belmont pick. I had the filly Devil May Care (#11, couldn't pass that up, but she finished 10th), Paddy O'Prado (finished 3rd) and Lookin at Lucky (finished 6th). I also liked Sidney's Candy and don't know what happened to him. It's a shame all the video is focused on the winner - I'd especially like to see the iso-reel on Ice Box.
On to the Preakness. I don't expect to see Ice Box there, but we'll see what his people decide. Noble's Promise is another horse I'll keep an eye on. 6480. vonKreedon - 6/1/2010 3:21:00 AM I'm happy to announce that our son is the state 3A boy's tennis champion! 6481. wabbit - 6/1/2010 2:25:00 PM Congratulations vonK!! 6482. arkymalarky - 6/1/2010 2:46:32 PM Yay VK fam! 6483. alistairConnor - 6/1/2010 5:55:48 PM Very cool! 6484. alistairConnor - 6/15/2010 3:24:08 PM Allons enfants de la patrie, l'heure de gloire est arrivée!
The country I'm talking about is New Zealand (since I get to choose!) The glorious All Whites have entered history by scoring a last-minute equalising goal against Slovakia, thus earning one (1) point in the World Cup group stage!
(and let's not talk about my other country, and its inglorious scoreless draw against Uruguay.)
And what about you Yanks? None of you watched the glorious draw against England?
It ain't the result, it's how you spin it.
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