August 21, 2008 - Long before Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, long before there were age limits for competition, and long before the convoluted judging system used today, there was a young Romanian gymnast who received a perfect score during Olympic competition.

Nadia Comaneci, performing on the uneven bars, was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history. The year was 1976, the Games were held in Montréal and Comaneci was fourteen years old.  Coached by Bela Karolyi, Comaneci would earn six additional 10s at the Olympics, en route to capturing the all-around, beam and bars titles and a bronze medal on the floor exercise. A much better result than her early firing on last season’s “Apprentice”.

The revised age-eligibility requirements in the sport, along with the new scoring system (how does that tiebreaker work again?), make it currently impossible to break her record. So without further ado, here’s what the first perfect 10 looked like:

Filed under: Gymnastics, Olympics, Profiles by jane
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August 12, 2008 - Back in May, we posted an article called See Mommy Run in honor of Mother’s Day. Taking the theme one step further, we wanted to shine the spotlight on some of the Medaling Mamas competing in Beijing at the Summer Games.

Xian Dongmei is the first mother to capture a gold medal in China. She already had one under her belt for judo from the 2004 Games but after an injury she retired. Xian gave birth to her daughter last year and claims to be the only “mama judoka” in China. She couldn’t stay away from the training center and the 33-year old won her second gold medal on Sunday.

2008 marks the fifth Olympics for Uzbeck turned German Oksana Chusovitina - a gymnastics record. Her son, Alisher, 8, was diagnosed with leukemia at age two and Oksana used her gymnastics earnings to pay for his treatment.

Just how many “mommy” Olympians are out there? On the U.S. Olympic squad alone there are at least 20 - most with kids under the age of 6.  Here’s a list provided by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Basketball
• Lisa Leslie is the mother of Lauren Jolie Lockwood, born June 15, 2007. A three-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time MVP of the WNBA, and the first woman ever to dunk in a professional basketball game, Lisa Leslie is considered one of the greatest players in the history of women’s basketball. 
• Tina Thompson is the mother of Dyllan, born May 2005. She is a 2004 gold medalist, 2002 World Championships gold medalist and won four WNBA titles with the Houston Comets.

Equestrian
• Show Jumper Laura Kraut has a son, Bobby.
• Eventer Gina Miles has two children, Taylor and Austin
• Dressage rider Debbie McDonald has a son, Ryan.

Judo
• Valerie Gotay began competing at the international level by the age of 14 and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team in 1992 at the age of 18. After the Barcelona Games she retired from competition to pursue a degree in psychology. In 1996 Gotay got married and gave birth to her first of two children.  She returned to competition in 2004 and converted much of her home into a training facility to better help her juggle motherhood and competition.

Shooting
• Brenda Shinn’a son, Kenneth (born January 16, 1987) is the oldest child of a current American Olympian mother. Shinn, 46, is competing in her first Olympics.

Soccer
• Kate Markgraf, defender, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (living in Milwaukee, Wis.), has one son Keegan, who is 21 months. 
• Christie Rampone, defender, Point Pleasant, N.J. (living in Redondo Beach, Calif.), has a daughter Rylie, who is almost three years old. 

Softball
• Stacey Nuveman, catcher, La Verne, Calif., has one son, Chase, who was born June 6, 2007.
• Jennie Finch, pitcher, La Mirada, Calif., has one son, Ace Shane Daigle, who was born May 2006.

Swimming
• Four-time Olympian Dara Torres has one daughter (Tessa) who was born in April 2006. Torres, a four-time Olympian with 9 (now 10) medals under her belt, never dreamed of competing after she had children. She used swimming as a way to stay fit during her pregnancy and discovered she still had the drive, and, apparently, the talent to compete with the best.

Tennis
• 2000 Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Davenport, Laguna Beach, Calif., has one son, Jagger Jonathan Leach, born June 10, 2007.

Track & Field
• 2008 Olympic Trials marathon runner-up Magdalena Lewy Boulet (son, 3).  She made the Olympic Team in the women’s marathon. An immigrant from Poland Boulet was sworn in as a citizen on 9/11/01.
• 2005 World Championships silver medalist Chaunte Howard has a child  who is almost 1.
• Aretha Thurmond: 3-time Olympian in the discus has a son, Theo, who was born in June 2007. She competed 18 days later at the 2007 Outdoor Championships.
• Tiffany Ross-Williams: Two-time USA champion in the 400m hurdles (’07 and ’08 Olympic Trials) has a daughter Samya born 2005.
• Joanne Dow: Four-time USA outdoor champion (including ‘08 Olympic Trials Champion) has two children: Hannah (born 1989) and Timmy (born 1992).

Volleyball
• 2004 Olympian Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, Honolulu, Hawai’i, has one son, Jordan Nohili Ah Mow Santos, who was born on Feb. 2, 2003.  During the 2004 Olympics, she kept a portrait of her baby under her uniform.

Weightlifting
• Next time you think you have a busy life consider that of Melanie Roach for some perspective. She’s the mother of three small children under the age of six, one of whom is autistic, owner/operator of a gymnastics training facility with over 500 students, wife of a fourth term incumbent Washington State House of Representatives legislator, Sunday school teacher and a U.S. Olympic Hopeful.

How fortunate we are to be living during a time when moms can be anything, do anything, and succeed at any age. These gals are truly an inspiration and proof that just because a woman is someone’s mom, that doesn’t mean she can’t kick your a**.

Check out this great photo gallery from NBC Olympics.

Filed under: Beijing Summer Games 2008, Entertainment, General, Profiles by jane
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August 1, 2008 - For 10 days in June, Stephanie (Lopez) Cox knew she wasn’t going to the Olympics. For the next days 10 days it appeared she might. And then she was headed to China. What caused the rollercoaster ride and how did the star soccer player deal with the ups and downs?

Stephanie’s story deals with personal setbacks, overcoming obstacles and second chances. It’s about playing with passion and reaching for the stars. It’s a story of inspiration and happily, one of triumph.

If you’re not familiar with Stephanie Cox, you should be. A leading player at the Univ. of Portland, she had an undefeated season and won an NCAA title. As a member of the Women’s National team, she started all six games of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup and was a more than likely candidate to make the 2008 Olympic roster.

But in a meeting with the U.S. coaching staff this spring, Cox was told that she had not made the final roster for the Summer Games. Head coach Pia Sundhage felt Cox had lost some passion for the game and that a break could help her recapture the vitality that had made her one of America’s top young players.

Devastated, Cox flew to Denver for a previously arranged speech on behalf of her sponsor Nike. The theme for the speech: Overcoming Obstacles.

On the podium in front of the Colorado Rush Soccer Club, Cox talked about playing in two youth world championships and not winning gold. She talked about her undefeated season at Portland, but also about falling short the other three years. She talked about the crushing semifinal loss at the Women’s World Cup. She spoke with passion and towards the end of the speech came the kicker.

“Despite all of these setbacks on the field, I’ve always made every team and continued up the ladder with the National Teams,” said Cox. “But just two days ago, I experienced my greatest personal loss as a soccer player. Two days ago, I found out that I didn’t make the roster for the Olympics, so I won’t be able to pursue a gold medal.”

Cox explained that she had given her best at every level and the fact she was at peace with that knowledge.

She finished to a standing ovation.

“It was one of my proudest personal moments to give that speech because I let it all out there,” she recalled. “It was hard to do, but I knew that even without the gold medals, it’s really about the process and the journey, about who you become as a person and the relationships you make along the way.”

Exactly a week later, Cox received a call informing her of the injury of a teammate and inviting her to play in the Peace Queen Cup. During the tournament, she was officially added to the final roster for the Summer Games and offered renewed hope of Olympic gold.

The lessons in all this? There are many. But surely not all goals are realized and many dreams don’t come true. But if you traverse the valleys as well as you celebrate the ascents to the mountain top, both journeys can be equally beneficial.

So true, and so well said.

Full story at ussoccer.com

Filed under: Beijing Summer Games 2008, Int'l Soccer, Profiles by jane
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July 17, 2008 - Our Pretty Tough Pick of the Week may seem a bit odd but read on….

Kay Ryan , an award-winning poet and self-described “modern hermit,” was named the next U.S. poet laureate today. The Library of Congress announced that the lifelong Californian, whose compressed, metaphysical poetry has been compared to Emily Dickinson’s , will become the 16th U.S. poet laureate, starting in the autumn.

How she became a poet, however, is closely tied to her love of cycling. In her twenties, she and a friend left California on a 4,000-mile cross-country bicycle trip, which would give her time to think about whether to devote herself to poetry as a vocation.

As the friends pedaled through Colorado, the repetitive, rhythmic exercise gave Ryan a sense of oneness with her surroundings. In that moment of heightened awareness, Ryan, realized  she liked writing better than anything else.

Since then, Ryan has fashioned a life conducive to poetry, one in which the essential elements of that bike trip - repetition, expansiveness, and large intellectual leaps - shape both her daily routine and her voice as a writer.

And since that ephiphany on the seat of her bike, Ryan has been the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as numerous prestigious literary awards. Not bad for a woman who was once considered too independent to be accepted by her college’s poetry club.  Ride on Kay….

Filed under: Book Club, General, Mountain Bike, Profiles by jane
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June 27, 2008 - With movies like “Girl Fight” and “Million Dollar Baby”, one has to wonder why female boxing is so underrated. Men and women alike have criticized the sport saying that the women were unskilled, untrained, and most of all unentertaining. Every once in a while there’s an athlete that defies the stereotype, an undeniable force not to be ignored. LaTonya King, 19, is that athlete.

LaTonya decided at 11, she would learn to box in order to protect herself. A year later, she would become the first black woman to ever win a Golden Gloves title match. By the time she was 15, she had six national titles under belt. With a training regiment that consisted of three hour sessions - five days a week, she refused to let her boxing interfere with her school work. She not only played clarinet, joined the cheerleading squad, and maintained straight A’s, she graduated valedictorian of her high school.

With boxing idols such as Roy Jones, Jr. and Laila Ali, it’s no surprise that her skills mimic those she admires. Emanuel Steward, Boxing Hall of Fame instructor, can not deny her talent. In Jet magazine he was quoted as saying ‘”She makes me more excited than any other boxer. I never thought in a million years I’d be training a girl.”

At 18, she became part of Nike Women’s Work 2 Play campaign highlighting female athletes from all sporting genres. Work 2 Play gives insight into just how hard these female athletes work to maintain their athletic edge.

As it stands now, King has earned eight national titles, three of them being Golden Glove titles, a Ringside National Championship, as well as an International Boxing Championship. At 19, she is pound for pound the best boxer in her weight class. With a record of 25 wins, 0 losses and 5 knockouts it isn’t hard to imagine that she would be much more than just a boxer.

You may be asking yourself, ‘What’s left for LaTonya King?’ Who knows, maybe she’ll turn pro.

Filed under: Boxing, General, Profiles by Rachel Greaser
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June 26, 2008 - Via RizzoSports comes a great interview with California’s Jessica Hardy who has a chance to be a shining star for the U.S. Swim Team at the Summer Olympics.

1. Jessica, first off how did you get involved and when did you start swimming?
My mom would take my younger sister and I to my gated community’s swimming pool when I was around 7 years old, when I noticed a team would come in the afternoons and I immediately asked my mom if I “could go beat them.” I guess my competitive nature started young.

2. Do you have a meet-day or pre-race routine?
I usually like to grab a cup of coffee on the way to a meet, so that I can drink it while I stretch and listen to music. I generally do the same warm up before every meet, and do a lot of socializing before my race… so I guess that is as close to a routine as you can get.

3. What events will you swim, or hope to swim at the Olympics?
Hope to swim the 100 breaststroke and the 50 and 100 freestyle.

4. What event is your favorite to swim?
The 50 breaststroke! Too bad it’s not an Olympic event

5. During the final 25 meters can you hear the crowd or sense your position?
I can hear the crowd and sense my position pretty much during the entire race. I feed off of energy so I really like loud crowds; however, I have to remind myself to not pay attention to where others are and focus on myself.

6. You’re an attractive blonde from SoCal, competing in one of the Olympics’ marquee events. You could be the center of attention in August. – Are you ready that?
I’d love it! I am obviously focusing more on my performances at this point, but any attention would be an honor!

7. With that said, do you feel the extra pressure or think about the opportunities that could come along with winning Olympic medals?
No. I have a performance-based contract with some of my sponsors, where the better I do, or the more medals I win, the more I get paid….which could lead to anxiety. The way I handle it is to honestly block all of that out while I am training and competing. I think about what’s to come after I finish my races and only assess what it means then.

8. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not swimming?
I am very easy going. I really like am happy doing almost anything as long as it’s in the sun. I love the beach and spending time doing water activities. Also enjoy shopping and fine dining, what girl doesn’t! I’d be happy doing anything as long as I’m with my family or friends.

9. Ok, final question – If, hopefully when, you win a Gold Medal how will you celebrate?
I’ll worry about that after it hopefully happens! I don’t think I’ll have a problem celebrating, though!

Follow-Up: Jessica also swims for the University of California Berkeley, where she is a stand-out athlete. Every Olympics the USA seems to have a break out star in the pool, if Jessica can bring home gold, she surely will be one of the most popular athletes in any event. Most of the swimming events take place during the first week of the Games, so be sure to look for Jessica.

More at RizzoSports

Filed under: Beijing Summer Games 2008, Profiles, Swim by admin
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June 9, 2008 - Our friends at Cooler Magazine chat with etnies queen of BMX, Nina Buitrago, about getting dirty, dislocating shoulders and taking on the boys…

Learn about Nina’s biggest setbacks, achievements and inspirations. Find out what essentials she always packs in her suitcase (e.g. a nice outfit ’cause you “can’t always look like a dirty bike rider.”) and what’s on tap for the summer. Will the Dew Tour allow girls to ride this year?

Filed under: BMX, Profiles by jane
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May 20, 2008 - Motocross rider Tarah Gieger chats with Cooler about being the best, beating the boys and riding very, very fast…

Find out how she got into motocross, read behind-the-scenes dirt (no pun intended), and learn what plans she has for the future.

Also, check out Tarah dirt-biking at Three Palms and Grant Langstons during March 2008. Thanks Cooler!

Filed under: Motocross, Profiles by jane
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May 1, 2008 - More and more, elite female athletes are taking on a challenge greater than sports. They’re returning to the competitive world of sports while juggling motherhood.

Soccer moms have led the charge. The U.S. Women’s National Team has consistently featured mothers on its roster since 1994, when Joy Fawcett became the first “Soccer Mom” to give birth and continue playing at the highest levels of international soccer. Carla Overbeck and Danielle Fotopoulos also had kids while on the U.S. team, and more recently, three moms have played for the USA in defenders Kate Markgraf (mother of Keegan), Christie Rampone (mother of Riley) and Tina Frimpong (mother of MacKenzie).

Though retired from competitive play, Mia Hamm joined the Soccer Moms Club when she and husband Dodgers player Nomar Garciaparra welcomed twin daughters last March. Two years ago, Brandi Chastain became mom to little Connor and earlier last year Julie Foudy, former captain of the US Women’s soccer team, had a baby girl named Isabel. Former captain Kristine Lilly is sitting out this year’s Olympic games because she’s about to become a mom.

Obviously, competitive women aren’t waiting until their athletic careers are over to start families. And while the physical and emotional challenges of motherhood can be difficult, most athlete moms wouldn’t have it any other way.

(more…)

Filed under: Entertainment, General, Profiles by jane
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Editors Note: Baylee Grace Alldredge is one Pretty Tough player. With her winning essay in the recent Screwball contest (be sure to check out the new YA novel Screwball by Keri Mikulski), we’re proud to profile this softball player from Alabama.    

Name: Baylee Grace Alldredge
Hometown: Boaz, Alabama
Nickname: BayBay
Age: 9
Height: 5′2″  
Fave Sport: Basketball 
Other Sports: Softball, Soccer and Pin Dodgeball 
Career Highlights:  Softball: 16 career homeruns so far, my team won the City and County Champs in 2007 and 2008. I am  the pitcher for my softball team. Basketball: My team was first place this year in my town, I also play in another league and we were first place this year also. I play Center.  I scored 13 of our 15 points for our city championship win. 
Fave Car: Red Kia Sportage
Fave Magazine: Fastpitch Softball
Fave Athletes: Jennie Finch and Candace Parker
Fave Pro Team: Team USA Softball
Fave College: The University of Alabama ~ Roll Tide
Fave TV Show: Reba
Fave Vacation Spot: Gulf Shores, Alabama
Fave Subject: Math
Fave Book: The Giving Tree
Fave Place to Shop: Claires
Fave Thing to Do: Play sports, drawing and shopping
Dream Job: Professional Basketball Player
Pet Peeve: Silly girls
Fave Girly Thing to Do: Manicures
Fave Quote: “It doesn’t matter how good they are, you’ve just got to want it more than they do,“  says my Dad (and my coach) 

Filed under: Contest, Profiles by keri mikulski
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