Chicago is OUT of the running!!!

[Dianne]

That's fine. I honestly don't care that much either way. Not only that bit it's 7 years from now... too long away for me to be excited over anything.

Just odd for me to see people on an American forum cheering an American failure.

We didn't get the olympics... woohooo party... ... break out the champagne

I was happy to see chicago fail because of all the corruption behind the push for Chicago. The city itself would not benefit from the olympics, but oh how Obama's corrupt friends would. If he would move half as fast getting the soldiers out of Afghanistan as he did to get the olympics; I might take another look him.

Here is why Obama with his wife and Oprah of all people pushed Chicago:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,558222,00.html

And this:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/30/an-illustrated-guide-all-the-presidents-olympic-cronies/


A majority of Chicagoans who live in pay-for-play-plagued Cook County oppose public funding for the Olympic party. The city has more than a half-billion-dollar deficit – and just received word that its Olympic insurance policy will cover only about $1.1 billion of the $3.8-billion operating budget drawn up by Daley. Cost overruns, fraud, and union-inflated contracts are inevitable. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended President Obama’s all-out campaign for Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid by claiming America will see a “tangible economic benefit.”

But as is always the case with sports corporate welfare disguised as “economic development,” an elite few will benefit far more than others.

Take senior White House adviser and Obama campaign guru David Axelrod. He’s been a Daley loyalist since 1989, when he signed up as a political consultant for the mayor’s first run. Axelrod’s public relations firm, Chicago-based AKPD Message and Media, has pitched in work for the Chicago 2016 committee. It is unknown how much AKPD has received for its services – or how much they’ll make in future income if the bid is successful. AKPD currently owes Axelrod $2 million.

The head of the Chicago 2016 bid committee is Patrick Ryan, chairman of the Aon Corporation and a co-chair of Obama’s deep-pocketed presidential inaugural committee. (Under Ryan’s watch at Aon, the company settled a massive corruption probe with 3 states for $190 million. More here on Ryan/Aon/Daley dealings More on corruptocrat Chicago Republicans like Ryan and others here.)

Also on both of those committees: Obama confidante Penny Pritzker, who in addition chairs the Olympic Village Subcommittee and is president of Pritzker Realty Group – a mega-developer in Illinois that could reap untold millions in project work if the Daley Machine/White House campaign succeeds.

Former Pritzker executive and Obama campaign treasurer Martin Nesbitt is also on the bid committee – and serves as Mayor Daley’s chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.

Another bid committee member, Michael Scott Jr., is “trying to develop a for-profit real estate project that would sit within feet of the cycling venue if Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Games,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

It takes a crony-filled White House to raise a Chicago Olympic village. Daley and Obama will get the glory. America will get stuck with the bill.

Posted in: Michelle Obama, Olympics, Valerie JarrettPrinter Friendly comments (59) trackbacks (10)
See what others have said

 

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Now let us boycott the Olympics. Fun 'n Games are grossly inappropriate while we are treading bullshit in the Middle East and hovering on bankruptcy at home.

Our new global neighbors will call Obama a Poor Sport and Lousy Loser, which he is.

 

[YumYum]

it's wrong for a libertarian (not saying you are one) to cheer for a team because of nationalism. I don't watch the Olympics because it is boring when you watch it this way.

X-Games > Olymnpics

I thought that if you are a Libertarian you can cheer for whoever you want to. Who makes up all these crazy rules? Being a Libertarian is sounding more and more like being a Jehovah's witness. "You have to do this, you can't do that." Do Libertarians excommunicate members that are non-conforming?

 

[STAND-or-fall]

Yeah ,Yumyum I'm starting to get that same feeling here. LIBERTARIANISM is becoming just another conformist religion.

 

[aravoth]

I thought that if you are a Libertarian you can cheer for whoever you want to. Who makes up all these crazy rules? Being a Libertarian is sounding more and more like being a Jehovah's witness. "You have to do this, you can't do that." Do Libertarians excommunicate members that are non-conforming?

Actually, the very nature of Libertarians is to do what you want and mind your own business. So if you'd like to root for team USA, please, get a bull-horn, and cheer for the team.

People that say libertarians don't do this and that, are trying to point out flaws within the ideology. The problem is, they don't understand the ideology, because to them, everything is black and white.

I'm not saying Auto-Das is not a Libertarian, I'm just saying that there are no rules per say.

Thats why they rallying libertarians is like trying to herd cats.

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Yeah ,Yumyum I'm starting to get that same feeling here. LIBERTARIANISM is becoming just another conformist religion.

Don't listen to YumYum he is a provocateur. Check his post history, so take that with a huge grain of salt. Libertarians aren't a conformist religion. To be a libertarian you must follow certain principled positions, if you don't follow them, then you are not a libertarian. It's a simple concept really. Even among libertarians there are two sects; Minarchists and An-Cap's. Within these two sects they share 95% in common. So there is still dissent among libertarians.

You are being led by the opposition. Look closer!

 

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Actually, the very nature of Libertarians is to do what you want and mind your own business.

Yep.

And someone else's unwanted pregnancy is NOT Your/generic business.

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Yep.

And someone else's unwanted pregnancy is NOT Your/generic business.

Non-Aggression Axiom is libertarian. It would appear that this axiom takes precedence.....

 

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http://www.axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/16538

Now more than ever, Olympic teams go multinational
10.3.09

Christa Case Bryant and Danna Harman
CSMonitor Staff writer and Correspondent

(AXcess News) - The Olympic torch has traditionally ignited nationalistic rivalry and pride, with citizens across the globe glued to their TV screens rooting for "their" athletes. But just as globalization has made everything from T-shirts to Toyotas a hybrid of efforts from around the world, so, too, are Olympic teams becoming a multinational product.

Increasingly, athletes are switching national alliances - sometimes for money, but also for better training opportunities or a chance to compete in a sport that's too saturated with talent back home.

"It's definitely a growing trend," says Olympic historian David Wallechinsky. "The coaches want to coach the best athletes; the athletes want the best coaches."
The phenomenon began in the mid-1980s as the Soviet Union was crumbling, leaving highly trained professional athletes and coaches free to take advantage of more lucrative career options elsewhere. It was accelerated by foreign athletes who, drawn by generous scholarship packages, began flocking to US universities - making the NCAA a de facto Olympic development pipeline for other countries. Most recently, oil-rich Gulf states have started luring top athletes with hefty salaries.

Qatar, with its shopping-spree approach to creating the best Olympic team, is often cited as the country that perfected what one expert disparagingly calls the "athletic mercenary" strategy to success.

The tiny oil-rich kingdom, vying to host the 2016 Games, won its first Olympic medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, when Somali-born runner Mohammed Suleiman finished third in the 1,500 meters. In 2000, Qatar won its second bronze with Angel Popov (competing under his Arabized name, Saif Saeed Asaad) - one of eight Bulgarian weight lifters whom Doha reportedly recruited for $1 million the year before. And Qatar wooed world-class Kenyan steeplechaser Stephen Cherono with a reported $1,000-a-month stipend. In 2003, he broke the decades-long Kenyan domination of the event by winning the world championship title for Qatar.

Wealthy neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates seemed to think Qatar was on to a great idea and began recruiting from Africa themselves. Bahrain's top female track hopeful this year is Maryam Yusuf Jamal, an Ethiopian woman who lives in Switzerland.

This phenomenon is not confined to the Arabian Peninsula, however. The 596-member US Olympic team in Beijing includes nearly three dozen foreign-born athletes, including British rower Jen Goldsack and long-distance runner Bernard Lagat, who won Olympic medals for Kenya in both Athens and Sydney.

US Olympic Committee spokeswoman Lindsay DeWall says the team is a great example of America's unique diversity. "The United States is a country that was founded by immigrants looking for a better future and it continues to welcome people from around the world," writes Ms. DeWall in an e-mail from Beijing. "It is a country that is constantly improved by the talent, diversity, and attributes of its citizens - including those who are foreign born."

That's reflected at the collegiate level as well. Many up-and-coming swimmers, track stars, tennis players, and skiers come to the US to get an education - and take advantage of world-class facilities, coaching, and training opportunities. The trend is controversial: Foreign recruits raise the level of competition for US collegiate athletes, but they also fill scholarship slots that otherwise would go to American athletes - a practice which, some argue, undermines US Olympic chances. In 2004, for example, three of the four swimmers that won South Africa's first-ever relay gold - besting the favored US team - had competed for the University of Arizona, and the fourth was headed into his freshman year there.

If US athletes are disgruntled, perhaps they could take a page out of the Chinese table tennis players' book. Crowded out by talent in their own country, many Chinese have emigrated to other countries - including the US, where five of the eight players at this year's Olympic trials were born in China. US basketball star Becky Hammon reverse-engineered that tactic, joining Russia's 2008 Olympic team when she failed to make the US squad for Beijing.

But for countries, it's harder. They often watch helplessly as other countries take off with athletes they've invested a lot of time and money in, says Abby Hoffman, a council member of the International Association of Athletics Federations, which has approved nearly 300 changes in citizenship over the past decade and is tinkering with its rules to make them as fair as possible.

"What we're worried about is particularly young athletes in countries with far more talent than can be stuffed into their Olympic team ... going to a country with lots of money which is picking these athletes, giving them instant citizenship, a passport, a new name, and naming them to their Olympic teams," says Ms. Hoffman, a four-time Olympic runner for Canada in the 800 meters. "Sometimes it's the home country saying, 'We're not stamping out cookie-cutter athletes so that other countries can come buy the athlete - and pay the athlete, not the federation."

It's important, however, to see the phenomenon in a larger context, says Hoffman. "If you think on a global scale, people are moving around for business reasons, because they're refugees, because they're dislocated by wars. We can't have a system in sport that fails to recognize that global migration is a reality."

But for some - perhaps because at the Olympics, more than at any other sporting event, athletes represent not just themselves but their country - the notion of switching allegiances doesn't pass the "smell test" as Olympic historian Bill Mallon puts it. "These are people who are basically being athletic mercenaries," he says.
The International Olympic Committee seems to disagree, however. In recent years, it has institutionalized the cross-pollination of expertise between countries through the Olympic Solidarity Program, which uses its $200 million budget in part to bring athletes and coaches from less wealthy nations to countries with better opportunities.
Maria Mutola, a middle-distance runner from Mozambique, skyrocketed to international prowess after the Solidarity program brought her to an Oregon university in 1991. Since then, she has won more than a dozen world championship titles, as well as Olympic gold in Sydney.

"For every Maria Mutola, there are lesser athletes that the IOC does the same thing for," says Wallechinsky. "I don't think the Olympic movement was really meant to promote nationalism."

Anthony Bijkerk, secretary-general of the International Society of Olympic Historians, sees both sides. "I can see the frustrations of both nations losing athletes to other countries, and local athletes losing slots to foreign-born ones, but whether or not this is interfering with good competition or not is really a matter of perspective," concludes Mr. Bijkerk. "It depends on the athlete and the reason they are switching teams. True, when someone does it only for the money, I don't like it - but when switching countries is an athlete's best chance to compete ... well, then I think it only enhances competition."

Which is a long way of saying that, bottom line, the Olympics are no different than Politics or Governance or Justice or Health or War. They are principally about Money.

 

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To the extent that the Olympics no longer signify the nations laying down their arms and competing "the old fashioned way," their pageantry should ABSOLUTELY be interrupted during international crises such as no-end-in-sight war and no-end-in-sight recession.

 

[james1906]

Myths About Landing the Olympics


By Stefan Szymanski
Sunday, October 4, 2009

LONDON -- So you didn't get the Games, Chicago. Relax. It's not as tough a break as you think. We Londoners should know. Watching the festivities in Copenhagen on Friday, I couldn't help but recall the International Olympic Committee's announcement in Singapore in 2005 that, to the astonishment of the world, our city had beaten Paris for the 2012 Summer Games prize. Four years later, the Parisians have come to terms with their loss, while U.K. taxpayers have learned to curb their enthusiasm for an event that is currently estimated to cost $15 billion, though many expect that price tag to go even higher. For the triumphant Rio citizens, there are many lessons about the burdens of hosting that you will have to learn for yourselves, but here's a head start.

1. The Olympics will pay for themselves.

Nope, they never do. The Olympics have always needed a public subsidy, but in recent years the cost has ballooned as the number of cities vying for the big prize has grown. This is no coincidence. More competition means brasher promises and bigger purses. Representatives of national Olympic committees, governments and other interest groups are fond of saying that the revenues from ticketing, broadcast rights, sponsorship and merchandising will cover the operating costs. This leaves out the cost of the Olympic infrastructure -- the stadium, velodrome, aquatic center and the rest. London is building a 12,000-seat handball arena. Most Brits don't even know what handball is. Add to that all the transportation that has to be created or enhanced to get an estimated 250,000 fans into and out of the Olympic site quickly and safely. Operating costs are the tip; infrastructure is the iceberg. Moreover, much of this infrastructure has limited value after the Games and will never generate much income. In 2007 the U.K. government announced that the real cost of the Games would be closer to $15 billion than the $4 billion they had initially promised. Olympic accounting is shrouded in mystery, but since Los Angeles in 1984, there have been no cases where the Games can show a net profit.


2. Winning the Games means a gold rush of jobs for the host city.

The truth is that the local economy doesn't get much of a boost while those shiny new athletic venues are being built. Many of the jobs created are filled by specialists who come in from outside -- to construct a BMX bicycle track, it helps to have built one before -- and they take their pay home with them. To the extent that local labor is tapped, suppliers are taken away from other projects in the area, raising costs in the process. It would be nice to think you could create an Olympic city by hiring an army of the unemployed, but mega-projects like this do not work like that.

3. The Olympics will boost local tourism.

For most foreign visitors, attending the Olympics is a proposition that costs thousands of dollars. Demand is just not that great. True, many foreigners and Olympics die-hards will come, but far more of the attendees will be locals taking the chance of a lifetime. And of those who do travel from abroad, many will be what's known as "time-switchers": people who would have come anyway but plan their trip to coincide with the Games. Tourist arrivals usually fall after the Olympic circus leaves town. When Athens hosted in 2004, Greece didn't see visitor numbers recover to their pre-Games level until two years later.

4. Playing host to the Olympics changes the landscape of a city forever.

Maybe, but it's not a legacy worth much. Athens has struggled with unused venues; the Beijing Bird's Nest is mostly empty. London is building an 80,000-capacity Olympic stadium for 2012 only to strip it down to 25,000 seats immediately after the Games. Even Sydney, which staged one of the best Games of recent decades, has torn down a number of venues. In the end, the cost of maintaining unused buildings is so high that demolition is often the only sane option. The Olympic Village does have some value after the fact. London will be selling off around 4,000 Olympic properties at a price that will more or less cover their costs. But for the most part, the athletic venues and the new transportation systems don't reshape a host city for years to come. The infrastructure carries a construction premium -- facilities must be built to time (contractors ruthlessly exploit this) and to the IOC specifications, which many not be what the city needs.

5. The Olympics inspire greater participation in sports.

In recent years concern about the obesity crisis has offered another crutch to bid-city boosters: The Olympics will make us more active and therefore healthier. It's hard not to be skeptical, though, about claims by any organization whose major sponsors are Coca-Cola and McDonald's that what it does is good for your health. We admire Usain Bolt, but we are not likely to go to the track and start sprinting because of the records he's broken. And when did you last watch a bout of Greco-Roman wrestling and say to yourself, "I fancy a go at that"?

It is true that many Olympic athletes were inspired by watching the Games, but most of these people had athletic talent to begin with. For everyone else, the effect is more likely to go in the opposite direction -- the Olympics can reduce participation in sports. Public subsidies that might have gone into boosting local facilities are diverted to the Games. In the U.K., national lottery funds traditionally devoted to local investment in sports facilities have been committed to funding the Olympics over the next 10 years.

Maybe it's for the best, though, that the Games don't actually inspire a generation of Olympic hopefuls and host-city boosters. As public debt continues to mount, the cost-effectiveness of hosting the Games will come under increasing scrutiny, and by 2020 the IOC might be struggling to find credible bidders.

 

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Non-Aggression Axiom is libertarian. It would appear that this axiom takes precedence.....

And I'll call that keepin' a vigilant eye on the small picture and either failing or refusing, ironically, to keep an eye on the ball.

Lower case libertarians are awfully picky-and-choosy about which aggression they "cannot" tolerate.

I'm seein' a lotta Faux Christianity and round heels when it comes to a backdrop of perpetual war.

SEND MORE MONEY! OUR CANDIDATES ARE DIFFERENT THAN POLITICIANS THROUGHOUT RECORDED HISTORY!

 

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http://www.axcessnews.com/index.php/.../show/id/16538

Now more than ever, Olympic teams go multinational
10.3.09

...That's reflected at the collegiate level as well. Many up-and-coming swimmers, track stars, tennis players, and skiers come to the US to get an education - and take advantage of world-class facilities, coaching, and training opportunities. The trend is controversial: Foreign recruits raise the level of competition for US collegiate athletes, but they also fill scholarship slots that otherwise would go to American athletes - a practice which, some argue, undermines US Olympic chances. In 2004, for example, three of the four swimmers that won South Africa's first-ever relay gold - besting the favored US team - had competed for the University of Arizona, and the fourth was headed into his freshman year there...

http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=1140

41 Trojan Athletes are Competing in Beijing

Another 10 Trojans, including a two-time Olympian for China, are serving as coaches.

Release Date: 08/12/2008

By ALEX COMISAR
August is a high stakes month for the 10,500 athletes who are competing at the Beijing Games. While enormous attention has been given to the selection of Beijing as the host city and China's massive preparations for the Games, now the focus is on the athletes. This year, 41 current, former and future USC student athletes will represent the U.S. and 15 other countries on their quadrennial quests for gold. Along with its beloved gold medal streak that dates back to 1912, this year, USC can also tout its record-setting Olympic representation, which exceeds that of any other collegiate sports organization in the world.
“If USC competed as a country,” says USC’s official Olympic press release, “its 236 medals would rank 19th most in the world while its 112 gold medals would be tied for 12th most.” Americans know that sports are never a frivolous matter for the Trojans. But every fourth year brings another opportunity for Southern California to showcase an array of student athletes.
Basketball icon Lisa Leslie is the best known of the Trojans in Beijing this summer. She's already helped American teams to gold medals in 1996, 2000, and 2004. She gave birth in June 2007 and joined the U.S. squad in October. She was the Most Valuable Player in the Women's National Basketball Association in 2006, but sat out the next year while she was pregnant.
Most of the athletes, like Leslie, represent the United States, but some compete for their native or adopted countries. Ankur Poseria is one such student athlete. Poseria is an international relations who is specializing in Chinese politics and language. He's a dual citizen of India and the United States and graduated from Hoover High School in Canton, Ohio. Poseria will compete in the 100 meter butterfly. Another member of the USC swim team, Ous Melloui, will represent Tunisia. Eva Orban is one of best hammer throwers in USC’s history. She has proven strong and resilient throughout, never placing lower than third in any postseason event. Having broken the school record in that event, she heads off to Beijing to represent her home country of Hungary against the best throwers in the world.

Amy Rodriguez earned accolades as a USC women’s soccer player. She was a favorite of both fans and her coaches and teammates. Nonetheless, when she was invited to train with the U.S. Olympic women’s soccer team last year, she left USC and set her sights on Beijing . The risk worked out. Rodriguez made the cut and is set to compete this month.

Many of USC’s Olympians share a similar story. Risking falling behind in their studies, athletes leave Los Angeles to travel around the world, competing in trials and exhibitions, all the while knowing that at the end of the day, their sacrifices might amount to a disappointing flight home before the ultimate competition even begins. Olympians from around the globe give everything for the chance to compete. But for some, the thrill is teaching.

Hongping Li never won Olympic medals as an athlete. He represented China in two Olympics, placing fourth in the 1-meter springboard event at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. He subsequently came to USC, though and has coached many athletes to success. Since taking over as women’s diving coach in 1999, Li has coached six divers to 26 combined All-American honors and five NCAA titles. Li helped prepare the U.S. Olympic diving team in 2004 and is in Beijing now to assist the U.S. Olympic Committee. Nine of Li's coaching colleagues are working to support their teams.

In other words, America trains AND educates athletes who compete for other countries WHILE they are being trained and educated in America.

Elsewhere someone suggested that we import Asian scientists. Fiddle de dee. We have plenty 'o kids right here at home that could be 5.0's, given relentless pushing. We import Stars, to be sure. But we especially import out-of-country tuitions.

Americans are poor and want scholarships.

 

[cheapseats]

http://www.texassports.com/genrel/080108aaa.html

Twenty-eight Longhorns to represent seven countries in 2008 Olympic Games

Twenty-two current or former University of Texas student-athletes and five coaches will compete for their respective countries in the Beijing Olympics.

Aug. 1, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas -- Twenty-three current or former Longhorn student-athletes have earned spots on their respective country's 2008 Olympic team and a total of 28 athletes and coaches will represent their country from Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, China. There are 18 former Horns that will represent the U.S.A., which eclipses the most-ever qualifiers for Team U.S.A. that The University of Texas has provided, one more than the 17 Horns that participated in 2000 (Sydney). Texas also had 16 representatives in 1988 (Seoul). The other countries represented by Longhorns are Antigua, Jamaica, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zimbabwe.

"It's always a thrill watching our student-athletes competing at the various Olympic Trials and to see so many of them making the team," said UT Men's Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds. "It's a tribute to all of our great coaches and staffers as well as the hard work and dedication of the student-athletes to achieve such a life-long dream. We're looking forward to following all of them in Beijing."

The five coaches representing UT in Beijing are Kim Brackin (head coach, swimming, Zimbabwe), Gail Goestenkors (assistant coach, women's basketball, U.S.A.), Eddie Reese (head coach, men's swimming, U.S.A.), Bubba Thornton (head coach, men's track and field, U.S.A.) and Matt Scoggin (assistant coach, men's and women's diving, U.S.A.). It marks the third time Reese has served as head coach of the U.S. team, having previously led the squad in 1992 (Barcelona) and 2004 (Athens). He also served as an assistant coach three times: 1988 (Seoul), 1996 (Atlanta) and 2000 (Sydney). Brackin is making her second appearance as Zimbabwe's head swimming coach after serving in the same position in 2004 (Athens). Thornton previously served as an assistant coach in 2000, while Goestenkors was an assistant coach for the American team that won the gold medal in 2004.

"What a thrilling Olympic Trials for the Texas Longhorns," said UT Women's Athletics Director Chris Plonsky. "Few things compare to witnessing the grit and sheer competitiveness of future, current and former student-athletes in these pressure-packed settings. To represent your country during the Games in Beijing is the ultimate experience. And for those who fell short of that goal, they also did us proud. We salute their efforts and know they will be cheering on their teammates in August."

Featuring world record holders Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Aaron Peirsol, the Longhorns men's swimming team leads the group and all schools nationally with seven current, former and future student-athletes earning spots on the 2008 U.S. Team. Peirsol and Crocker will make their third straight appearances at the Olympic Games, while Hansen is heading to his second.

At the U.S. Olympic Trials, Peirsol broke his own world record in the 100-meter backstroke (52.89) and tied Ryan Lochte's 200-meter backstroke world mark (1:54.32) on his way to victory in those events. Peirsol won gold in both events at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Crocker, a silver medalist in the 100-meter butterfly in 2004, who set the world record (50.40) in 2005, finished second to Michael Phelps at this year's trials in that event. Hansen, the world record holder in the 100-meter breaststroke, earned his trip to Beijing by winning that event in 59.93. Hansen set the world-record mark of 59.13 at the 2006 USA Swimming National Championships. He claimed a silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and a bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2004 Games.

Garrett Weber-Gale secured two spots on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team by winning the 50 and 100-meter freestyle events. Weber-Gale set an American record that was later broken in the 100-meter freestyle before setting another American record in the 50-meter freestyle finals (21.47).

The four Texas Exes will be joined by a couple of current Longhorns in rising juniors Ricky Berens and Dave Walters and future Longhorn Scott Spann, who transferred to UT after competing at Michigan the last two seasons. Berens and Walters each earned Olympic berths by landing top-six finishes in the 200-meter freestyle at the trials. Berens took third in 1:46.14 while Walters placed fifth in 1:46.64. Berens and Walters will be in the 800-meter freestyle relay pool. Spann, the son of former UT swimming NCAA champ Scott Spann, Sr., punched his ticket to Beijing by winning the 200-meter breaststroke at the trials.

The seven Texas men's swimmers will be joined in Beijing by former UT men's diver Troy Dumais, who qualified for a third Olympiad on June 21 by winning the three-meter springboard event at the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials.

The men's track and field team had three former student-athletes make the American team, one qualify for the Antiguan team and one qualify for the Netherlands. Brendan Christian will be making his second Olympic appearance for Antigua after reaching the quarterfinals in the 200 meters at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Trey Hardee became the first Longhorn to earn an Olympic berth in the decathlon, posting a career-high 8,534 points to finish second at the trials. High jumper Andra Manson tied for second at the trials with a leap of 7-5 1/4. Although Manson will be the first Longhorn high jumper to compete for the U.S. in the Olympics, UT has had high jumpers represent other nations in each of the last three Games and five times overall. Leo Manzano capped off the trio of Longhorn Olympic men's track qualifiers with a second-place finish in the 1,500 meters. In a tight race throughout, Manzano broke away from the pack on the homestretch and held on strong to clock 3:40.90 and finish just .53 seconds behind defending World Champion Bernard Lagat. Manzano becomes the first Longhorn 1,500-meter runner to make the U.S. Olympic squad and the second UT miler to earn an Olympic bid. Paul Craig competed for Canada in the 1976 Olympics.

Another former Longhorn will take part in a distance race when the Netherland's Kamiel Maase will compete in the marathon. Maase, who won two indoor conference crowns in the 5,000 meters and two outdoor league titles in the 10,000 meters, competed for the Horns from 1994-95 and scored at the national meet both years, including a second-place finish in the 10,000 meters in 1995.

Three former women's track and field athletes claimed spots on the 2008 U.S. Olympic squad and one former Horn will compete for Jamaica. Sanya Richards, the top 400-meter runner in the world, earned her second bid to the Summer Games with a first-place finish in the 400 meters. Richards paced the field finishing almost a full second ahead of her nearest competition with her season's best time of 49.89. The five-time NCAA Champion and American Record holder (48.70) in the event won a gold medal as a member of USA's 1,600-meter relay team in 2004. She also finished sixth in the 400 meters at the 2004 Games.

After a near miss in the 100 meters, Marshevet Hooker earned her first Olympic berth, lunging across the line for a third-place finish in the 200 meters (22.20). She is the seventh Longhorn to qualify in that event over the last four Games. Hooker missed out on a berth in the 100 meters at the trials, crossing the line fourth in 10.93, just .03 seconds behind the second and third-place finishers. Michelle Carter became a second-generation Olympian after winning the shot put with a personal-best and U.S.-leading mark of 18.85 meters (61-10 1/4). The seven-time All-American is the daughter of 1984 Olympic shot put silver medalist Michael Carter. Carter becomes the first UT shot putter to earn an Olympic berth and just the fourth non-sprinting female Longhorn to qualify for the Summer Games.

Melaine Walker will make her first appearance for the Jamaican Olympic team in the 400-meter hurdles. She is currently the world leader in that event with a time of 53.48, which she set in winning the Super Grand Prix event in Monaco on July 29.

The women's swimming and diving team landed one former Longhorn diver and one future swimmer on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team. Laura Wilkinson, a gold medalist on the platform at the 2000 Sydney Games, secured her third trip to an Olympic Games on June 21 when she claimed the platform event at the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials in Indianapolis. Kathleen Hersey (Roswell, Ga.), who will enroll at UT immediately following the Beijing Olympics, nailed down a spot on the U.S. Olympic swimming team by placing second in the 200-meter butterfly.

The women's swimming team also produced two international competitors in Hee-Jing Chang (South Korea) and Susana Escobar (Mexico). This is Chang's second Olympic appearance after competing as a 13-year-old at the 2000 Sydney Games. The five-time All-American at UT will compete in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle events in Beijing. Escobar registered the Horns' top individual swimming performances at the 2008 NCAA Championships, placing seventh in the 500-yard freestyle and 10th in the 1,650-yard freestyle. A participant at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Escobar will compete in the 400-meter freestyle and the 400-meter individual medley in Beijing.

Former Texas softball pitching standout Cat Osterman is making her second Olympic appearance in Beijing after helping Team USA to a gold medal at the Athens Games in 2004. The 6-2 lefthander has led the U.S. to two World Cup Championships (2006-07), a pair of Pan American gold medals (2003, '07) and the 2006 World Championship where she registered a championship record six victories. Osterman is the NCAA all-time leader in strikeout ratio (14.34 strikeouts per game) and a five-time National Player of the Year who led the Longhorns to the Women's College World Series in 2003, 2005 and 2006.

Taylor Teagarden became the most recent addition to the U.S. Olympic squad when USA Baseball released its roster on July 16. The catcher will become the third former Longhorn baseball player to appear in the Olympics joining Calvin Murray (1992) and Kip Harkrider (1996). Teagarden was a three-year letterwinner at Texas from 2003-05. He was a leading catalyst on the Longhorns' 2005 National Championship squad, batting .333 with 52 runs, 22 doubles, seven home runs and 33 RBI. He was clutch en route to the College World Series title, earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the Austin Regional and being named to the CWS All-Tournament team. He is currently a member of the Texas Rangers organization playing for the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks.

There are, celebrate the pun, SCORES of examples.

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

And I'll call that keepin' a vigilant eye on the small picture and either failing or refusing, ironically, to keep an eye on the ball.

Lower case libertarians are awfully picky-and-choosy about which aggression they "cannot" tolerate.

I'm seein' a lotta Faux Christianity and round heels when it comes to a backdrop of perpetual war.

SEND MORE MONEY! OUR CANDIDATES ARE DIFFERENT THAN POLITICIANS THROUGHOUT RECORDED HISTORY!

I assumed you were talking about abortion. Abortion is not about christianity. It's about the rights of the unborn. I'm also unsure about what you are insinuating? Are you trying to say that libertarians are moving more neo-con? I would say that you are WRONG, and we are moving more and more to having An-Cap widely debated at the least.

Clarify what you are trying to say. It's not about Christianity. Remember the GOP used to be people like Robert Taft.....and...Christian Just War theory.

 

[max]

I get a bit of an anti-American vibe on this forum at times.

When the US competes against other countries in the olympics - who do you root for?

I always root for athletes of European descent

 

[BlackTerrel]

it's wrong for a libertarian (not saying you are one) to cheer for a team because of nationalism. I don't watch the Olympics because it is boring when you watch it this way.

Seriously? I didn't realize being a libertarian meant I had to give up allegiances to all my sports teams.

 

[BlackTerrel]

I always root for athletes of European descent

hahahaha.... We get it, you love white people, and you don't like anybody else. Done.

One of my all time favorite Max quotes is still "I can't be anti-semitic, I gave Peter Schiff $100".

 

[Bruno]

Seriously? I didn't realize being a libertarian meant I had to give up allegiances to all my sports teams.

He was talking about nationalism and didn't say anyting about giving up allegiances to all sports teams. quit being silly

 

[YumYum]

Don't listen to YumYum he is a provocateur. Check his post history, so take that with a huge grain of salt. Libertarians aren't a conformist religion. To be a libertarian you must follow certain principled positions, if you don't follow them, then you are not a libertarian. It's a simple concept really. Even among libertarians there are two sects; Minarchists and An-Cap's. Within these two sects they share 95% in common. So there is still dissent among libertarians.

You are being led by the opposition. Look closer!

I have been exposed. I am a shape shifting reptilian humanoid from the Alpha Draconis star system. My targeted purpose here in the U.S. is to gather and to examine cerebella cantitode endorphins from Americans, in pedal depressed, panchromatic resonance, using electro-hydrodynamics and other highly ambient domains. The Libertarian humans have presented a significant challenge by fantasizing about an unattainable dimension that we reptilians have identified as Free Market Utopia. This is a closed system where humans worship capitalism, abhor government intervention, obsess over guns and government mandated health care, and believe that when pure capitalism is practiced, the nature of man will turn to doing only good. Dr. Ron Paul is the leader of the Free Market Utopia order, and Wal Mart is considered the premier example of capitalistic success. My research must now continue……