One World One Dream – Can China Play By The Rules of The Civilized World?

 

Meeting the challenge of preparing a city for the Olympic games is a monumental task. Getting buildings,stadiums, pools, and all that must be built to host such an event, but to reach for a dream there are also responsibilities. By rewarding China the bid to host this 2008 Olympiad, is the same horrible mistake that the International Olympic Committee made in 1938 when it awarded Hitler’s Berlin their Olympic Games. According to an article written in Time Magazine by Pico Lyer China has expelled 3 million of it’s capital’s residents and is spending $200 billion on reconstructing the city….this raises terrible questions about what costs are legitimate in the pursuit of social and sporting acknowledgment.The hope in every Olympiad is that the host city will learn that if it is eager to appear on the global screen, it must meet the minimal standard devised by the international community.“Olympism”, as Boutros Boutros-Ghali said when he was head of the U.N., is a “school for democracy”……So can China play by the rules of the international community? The Olympics will go on and athletic feats will be witnessed by the world, records will be broken and athletic heroism will endure…..I only hope that the People’s Republic of China, Tibet, Mongolians and millions of Han Chinese can endure and live in a free world filled with brotherhood and peace

Thank so much…OVER 10,000 READERS

I WANT TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND WONDERFUL COMMENTS ON MY BLOG. IN JUST 7 SHORT MONTHS I HAVE EXCEEDED OVER 10,000 READERS…THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. IT IS READERS LIKE YOU THAT KEEP ME WRITING. I WILL CONTINUE TO SHARE WITH YOU AND HOPEFULLY WE CAN ALL LEARN FROM MY EXPERIENCES. I STILL FEEL A CLOSE CONNECTION TO SOUTH FLORIDA AND TEAM WESTON THROUGH MY BLOG….SO I’LL KEEP WRITING AND YOU KEEP READING

SWIMMINGLY, COACH PETE……..

So Now that the JO’S and the Sectionals are over what do you do now? In my opinion…..take some time off, go to the beach, spend some time on vacation, go and have some fun…..because right around the corner is the beginning of the new season Only 115 days until the Florida Gold Coast Winter Championship – Plantation – November 20-23, 2008. So enjoy the time off, enjoy the Olympics and watch closely to the great technique they use on their strokes, turns and starts….Then when you get back into the swing of things, put all of what you learned into action. Have a good break and have SAFE fun…………

Olympic Splash Bash….Sounds Like great fun

Sunday, August 10th 2008
9:00 PM to 12:30 AM

Dara Torres Coach Extremely Sick

Olympic swim coach fighting rare medical condition

Miami Hearld July 25 —

This should have been a glorious week for Michael Lohberg. The six-time Olympic swim coach was scheduled to leave Fort Lauderdale on Friday for Singapore and a training camp with his best-known swimmer, 41-year-old Dara Torres, and then he would have gone on to the Beijing Olympics to guide Torres and seven other swimmers who train under him at the Coral Springs (Fla.) Aquatic Center.

Instead, Lohberg, 58, was suddenly fighting for his life after being diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder that could be fatal.

He planned to be on a friend’s private jet at 3 a.m. Friday en route to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to see if specialists could save him.

“It’s really, really bad,” Lohberg said by phone late Thursday. “They told me I might last only weeks, or maybe even days. It’s bad. I knew something was wrong because I was very tired and out of breath, but I thought it was from my herniated disk and all the stress. Turns out it’s a disaster.

“I have nothing left in my blood, and I have to get to the specialists by 8 a.m. Friday because without treatment, I might not make it to Monday.”

Torres, a five-time Olympian who has trained with Lohberg the past two years, was devastated.

“It’s so awful, really, really terrible,” she said by phone from California. “I can’t even talk about it right now. I haven’t stopped crying.”

Lohberg said he tried to reach all his swimmers so he could tell them himself.

“I didn’t want them to find out from the media,” he said.

Aplastic anemia is a disorder in which the bone marrow stops producing enough new blood cells, leading to fatigue, higher risk of infection and uncontrolled bleeding. Treatment can include blood transfusions or a bone marrow transplant.

Lohberg said the past three weeks had been particularly tiring, but “I’m always tired,” so he figured it was nothing serious. He said his doctors in South Florida “can’t do anything more for me,” so he is hopeful the specialists will be able to prolong his life.

“I have always had a good outlook on things, so I will fight this as hard as I can and see if I can make it,” he said. “I am still thinking of the Olympics, and very happy that Dara and I were able to accomplish our mission.”

In addition to Torres, Lohberg coaches Olympians representing five other countries – Anne Poleska (Germany), Vlad Polyakov (Kazakhstan), Sharntelle McLean (Trinidad and Tobago), Josh Laban (U.S. Virgin Islands) and Arlene Semeco, Leo Anrada and Eric Volcan of Venezuela.

Lohberg’s illness is the latest blow for the U.S. swimming team, which was on a high note after the Olympic trials but has had several pieces of bad news since.

First, breaststroker Eric Shauneau announced that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer before the trials. He was cleared to compete in the Olympics.

And Wednesday, it was revealed that Jessica Hardy, who finished second behind Torres in the 50-meter freestyle at the trials and won the 100-meter breaststroke, tested positive for a banned substance.

When you play with fire….you just may get burned

Unless you have been living on another Planet you have heard that Jessica Hardy has tested positive for a drug called,Clenbuterol it is a selective beta-2 agonist/antagonist and bronchodilator. What this means is that Clenbuterol stimulates your beta-2 receptors.

USA Swimming now has issued a statement: USA Swimming has been notified of the anti-doping proceeding involving a U.S. athlete. The matter is being handled by USADA and we are hopeful that the matter will be resolved expeditiously. Out of respect for the hearing process, USA Swimming will have no further comment at this time.

Jessica has indorsed and promoted  a product called AdvoCar. She said that she has used 12 of the company’s products.

Could this be the problem? who knows?….In 2002 the NCAA banned the use of AdvoCare  product. I truly hope that her testing positive was a mistake…..But then again when you play with fire you just may get burned!

It’s Crunch Time….Only a few days to the JO Meet

OK, you have qualified for your JO’S and you have only one shot at getting it right? Think about the time and effort that goes into qualifying for the JO’S. The following information could help you reach your personal best time and get into the finals.

Success at championship meets is largely dependent on preparing effectively to meet the challenge. You must be physically prepared. No one can expect to do their best, without doing those hard yards in workouts in training months in advance. The key to physical preparation of a swimmer is, your training in workouts should be more challenging and demanding than the physical demands of the competition

Training sets and intervals need to be tough and challenging you must swim your workouts out of the comfort zone. If you are prepared in the manner, there should be no challenge that you will face at the JO’S

Prepare Mentally for the meet, without a doubt the mental aspect of swimming successfully at a championship meet is crucial. I would like you to think about the JO’S as just another meet. The pool is the same length, the water is still wet, the event is still the same. The fact that there are more swimmers entered in the meet, a few more clubs from different areas, and a bit more noise makes no difference: the job is a simple one: if you are prepared for the reality of the meet environment you could relax knowing that you will swim fast when you need to.

Prepare technically- Races are won and lost by fractions of and inch. Swimmer who win at championship meets are those who have prepared to do the little things well under the pressure of the race by practicing them well in training

For Example:

• Not breathing inside the flags during starts, turns and finishes
• Streamlining until your feet go past the flags on every push off
• Learning to kick at a high rate of speed under water in fly, back and free

At championship meets ….there are no little things, everything can make a difference

Two Divers Sue to be Selected to USA Olympic Team…..

  Laura Wilkinson and Jessica Livingston are in the process of a legal suit over the selection process of the Olympic Team as reported in an article in the Houston Chronicle….

July 17, 2008, 12:21AM
OLYMPICS
Divers challenge picks
Gold medalist Wilkinson joins Livingston in appeal

By DAVID BARRON
Houston Chronicle

2000 Olympic gold medalist Laura Wilkinson and Woodlands Dive Team member Jessica Livingston, who were passed over last week for the U.S. Olympic team in women’s synchro platform diving, have asked an arbitrator to overturn the decision of a USA Diving selection committee and put them on the team for the Beijing Olympics next month.

A hearing on the complaint, filed Tuesday night with the American Arbitration Association, will be held Friday morning in Los Angeles.

The 10-page filing against the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Diving asks that Wilkinson and Livingston be placed on the team or that USA Diving be required to hold another competition to determine whether they or the team of Haley Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay should compete in Beijing.

Ishimatsu and Dunnichay, who train at the federation’s training center in Indianapolis, the headquarters of USA Diving, were named to the team last week after they split four competitions with Wilkinson and Livingston at a selection camp in Knoxville, Tenn.

Even though Wilkinson and Livingston had a higher average score for the four lists, 329.88 to 327.32, a USA Diving selection committee picked the Ishimatsu-Dunnichay team because it had the best individual score (346.98) of the four rounds of dives and because it had a higher score under a formula known as “projected competition score,” according to the complaint.

Attorneys for Wilkinson and Livingston say in the complaint that USA Diving’s selection criteria are too broadly drawn to meet the standard required by the USOC for team selection proceedings. They also say the committee violated its own procedures and that the use of the projected competition score is a less effective means that the average score on which to base the selection process.

It’s Junior Olympic Time in South Florida

 Wake up and smell the Coffee, it’s only a week away from the big meet……Remember one of my posts when I reminded you that you had 98 days to go to the JO’S

Well 90 days have passed…..what have you been doing these past three months …..In just 8 days it begins at Plantation, I do hope you are prepared…..I would wish you good luck, however luck has nothing to do with being prepared!…..Taper well this week and work on the little things…Like turns, starts, and finishes !!!!

What Olympic Champions Eat

The following facts were compiled by Amy Paturel & Brierly Wright from their Diet & Nutrition Article…..

 

Dara Torres…Favorite Recipe is: Mixed Greens, Turkey Lasagna, Garlic Bread & Green Beans. She got this recipe from a cook book she used in college called”Where’s Mom Now That I Need Her?” it can be purchased on Amazon.com

Erik Vendt

 

Two time Olympic silver medalist and the first American to break the 15 minute mile. Favorite Power Breakfast after a workout is:

4 egg Omelet with Cheddar Cheese, Peppers, Onions and Tomatoes