Word: sports
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...couples therapy. If I'm going to spend two weeks watching something, I want to see some people pouring Champagne on one another and some people crying at the end of it. That's why I watch the baseball playoffs and Girls Gone Wild. How damaging to sports is the Olympic spirit? After all these events, I have no idea who won. Sure, NBC sometimes flashes a "medal count," but that is the stupidest way of measuring victory since the Electoral College. Gold, silver and bronze all count as one point? Then why make different medals? Sure, it practically guarantees...
America's pastime, baseball, and its sister sport, softball, will be banished from the Olympic program after Beijing. But flag-waving Americans shouldn't be dismayed. For on Aug. 20, a new event will debut at the Olympics, a quintessential U.S endeavor that will make all the red-white-and-blue-blooded citizens proud. America, introduce yourself to BMX cycling. Or more simply, dudes on dirt bikes...
...That sport was a hit, so NBC is giving BMX cycling the Phelps treatment. The bikers will race during breakfast in Beijing, and NBC will air it live in prime time on Aug. 20. Track won't get that kind of placement...
...Robinson is the rider to watch. Besides biking for gold, he's shooting to shift the stereotype of extreme-sport athletes. "I hope we can bring some edge," he says. "But we're not a bunch of punk kids riding around town vandalizing stuff." That's nice to know. "I'm not the typical action-sport athlete," he says. "I like to sing and dance. That's who I am; that's my personality...
More athletes than ever are competing in Beijing under flags (and, in many cases, names) different from the ones under which they were born, bending the very notion of national identity. For some observers, this growing trend is a symbol of how sport transcends national borders, giving athletes a chance to escape hardship, train with better coaches, or compete in sports that are saturated with talent back home. For others - including, in some cases, the Olympics' governing body - it can be a violation of the very spirit of the games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) now requires a three-year...