Archive for September, 2008

Drug free Olympics – Is it possible?

USADA won’t rest despite presumably clean Olympics

The Beijing Olympics ended a month ago and still, not a single American athlete has been reported for a positive doping test.

A reason to celebrate? Not quite at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, where good news — all news, really — is looked upon skeptically, and bigger goals are always out there.

“I think there’s a premium to one day being able to show that someone can potentially prove they’re clean instead of just saying they passed a drug test,” USADA’s CEO Travis Tygart said in an interview with The Associated Press. “That’s the ultimate dream.”

That dream will come at a cost and might not be realistic. The most logical way of reaching it would be for USADA to vastly expand its pilot testing program, the regimen that 12 American athletes, including Michael Phelps and Allyson Felix, signed up for before the Beijing Olympics.

Read the rest of the article here.

I don’t know if it will ever be possible to have an Olympics that is completely free of performance enhancing drugs.  There will always be someone that is trying to cheat.  But I think we are getting closer and closer to controling the problems and making the games as fair for everyone as possible.

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Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 olympics, steroids 6 Comments

Tickets for Vancouver Olympics available soon

Reseller market not cowed by 2010 organizers plans to crack down on scalpers

VANCOUVER – People who fail to nab any of the scarce tickets that will be available for the 2010 Olympic Games shouldn’t worry, says a leading Vancouver ticket broker.
He’ll have them for sale – and soon. Despite Vancouver Games organizers’ repeated claim that they’ll police tickets sold outside authorized channels, going so far as invalidating them, the resale market will not be cowed, said Mario Livich of ShowTime tickets.
“We’ll be very active in selling thousands of tickets for the 2010 Games,” he said.
“It’s a legal business, the buying and selling of tickets, and it’s a much-valued service in the marketplace.”
Tickets for the Vancouver Olympics go on sale Oct. 3 through an application system that will allow people just over a month to decide how many and which tickets they’d like to buy for the Games.
For those events where demand exceeds supply tickets will be sold via a lottery system.
While tickets for single events will be for sale, organizers are also promoting 58 different “Olympic experience” packages which combine multiple events at prices ranging from $140 to $1,267.
Package orders will be filled before individual events, so organizers say the best shot at some of the most popular and expensive seats will be to buy packages.
The lowest price for a single sporting event ticket is $25, while the highest is $775 for a gold-medal hockey ticket. That’s not including surcharges or the cost of transportation, numbers that won’t be available until closer to Oct. 3.
Over a million Olympic tickets will be available to the masses, but organizers have admitted that at events like gold-medal hockey, the vast majority of seats are being sold to “Olympic family” members, including sponsors and officials. The number of tickets that will be allotted to the public for each event has not been released.
Read the rest of the article here.
I don’t think you could ever do anything to stop tickets from being sold in a secondary market.  As long as there are people willing to sell them and people willing to buy them, there will always be ticket scalpers.  If the tickets go on sale on October 3, I wonder how long it will take before we start seeing the tickets for re-sale on ebay and craigslist.

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Saturday, September 27th, 2008 olympics, tickets 4 Comments

Winter Olympics vs. Summer Olympics

Statue of the Olympic Rings

Statue of the Olympic Rings

Someone recently mentioned liking the Winter Olympics better than the Summer Olympics. I thought it would be interesting to see how others felt about it. So tell us what you think….

Summer Olympic events -

Archery, Athletics (Track & Field), Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak Flatwater, Canoe/Kayak Slalom, Cycling BMX, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Cycling Track, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Football, Gymnastics Artistic, Gymnastics Rhythmic, Trampoline, Handball, Field Hockey, Judo, Modern Pentathlon, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting, Softball, Swimming, Synchronized Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Triathlon, Volleyball, Water Polo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

Winter Olympic events -

Alpine skiing, Biathlon, Bobsleigh, Cross-country skiing, Curling, Figure skating, Freestyle skiing, Ice hockey, Luge, Nordic combined, Short track speed skating, Skeleton, Ski jumping, Snowboarding, Speed skating

So leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

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Friday, September 12th, 2008 events, olympics 20 Comments

Let the Games Begin!

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