"Saudi Arabia's First Female Olympians" by Joboy Quintos

This is historic. Saudi Arabia will be sending two female athletes to the London Olympics. The oil-rich Middle Eastern kingdom was the last to heed the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) moves to end sexual discrimination in sport, following Qatar and Brunei. Judoka Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani and middle distance runner Sarah Attar will the first Saudi female Olympians.

Read: "Olympic first as Saudi Arabia names two women in London 2012 team"

Early this month, reports surfaced that the U.S.-born equestrienne Dalma Rushdi Malhas will be London-bound. The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) clarified the rumors. It turns out that Malhas' horse sustained an injury, ruling her out of the London Olympics.

Read: "Dalma Rushdi Malhas (SAU, Equestrian)"

Although this is a groundbreaking move, the fact still remains that the rights of women in hardline Saudi Arabia are not at par with that of the more liberalized nations.

On a wider perspective, the statistics look promising. The IOC, according to a CNN report, noted the gradual rise in female participation in the Olympics through the years. The first time London hosted the quadrennial event in 1908, women comprised 1.8% of all athletes. The percentage rose to 9.5% in 1948 and, most recently, 42% in Beijing.

Article by Joboy Quintos

Source: 

CNN

"Kathrine Switzer the Pioneer" by Joboy Quintos

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer became famous as the first female runner to complete the Boston Marathon. A furious race organizer tried to stop Switzer from completing the race, shouting "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers." Her boyfriend came to the rescue and shoved the official aside.

Fast forward to 2012, 45 years after that incident in Boston, women outnumber men 269 to 261 in the U.S. Olympic Team. 

That's what you call progress!

Article by Joboy Quintos

Sources
Kathrine Switzer's Wikipedia Profile
Huffington Post

The Netherlands Olympic Hockey Team

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word hockey is the movie "The Mighty Ducks." Ice hockey, thanks to pop culture, is a more familiar subject. I must admit that the first time I saw its summer sport variant played on TV, I felt indifferent. 

Then the Dutch Women's Olympic Hockey Team took center stage in London.

They are more than just eye-candies, mind you. Women from the Netherlands have won eight out of the ten European Championship titles since 1984. Since the sport was introduced in the Olympics in 1984, the Netherlands topped the coveted podium thrice (1984, 2008, and 2012), on top of its lone silver medal (2004) and three bronzes (1988, 1996, and 2000),

The ladies' performance on the field more than measured up to their popularity in London, as they successfully defended their Olympic golds, blanking their Argentine opponents 2-0. 

The London Olympics Netherlands Hockey Team:

Kitty van Male
Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel
Kelly Jonker
Maartje Goderie
Lidewij Welten
Maartje Paumen
Naomi van As
Ellen Hoog
Sophie Polkamp
Joyce Sombroek
Kim Lammers
Eva de Goede
Marilyn Agliotti
Merel de Blaeij
Margot van Geffen
Caia van Maasakker

Additional Videos:

Match highlights vs. Belgium (London 2012)

Photo and video montage (London 2012)

Source: 

Wikipedia

An Iraqi Olympian: Dana Hussein Abdul Razzaq دانة حسين عبد الرزاق (Abdulrazaq Danah)

My blogs have been getting quite a lot of hits thanks to Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussein Abdul-Razzaq دانة حسين عبد الرزاق  (Abdulrazaq Danah). Dana had the honor of carrying the Iraqi flag at the London Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

Read: "Track Beauty of the Week - Dana Abdul Razzaq"

Dana definitely has the talent to excel in the world stage, having personal bests of 11.76s and 24.49s in the 100m and 200m. Remarkably, Dana trains in Iraq despite the security situation.

At the 2011 Arab Games, Dana came second to Lebanon's Gretta Taslakian. 

The Iraqi sprinter's hopes of an Olympic medal might be dim at the moment, but in light of the circumstances of her home country, her mere presence in London is an achievement in itself.

Godspeed, Dana!

EC2012 Triple Jump: Olha Saladukha (Olha Saladuha Ольга Саладуха) takes gold

I love watching the triple jump because of its highly technical nature. The way the athletes hop, skip, and step to amazing distances is a graceful exercise that evokes wonder for this athletics aficionado. 

However, the event has not been given the same attention as the more popular disciplines like the men's 100m dash. I got thoroughly pissed off while watching the Adidas Grand Prix, a Diamond League meeting, last month. The directors of the telecast opted to air round-after-round of a pedestrian long jump competition over the women's triple jump competition!

Thankfully, the same mistakes were not repeated during Eurosport's broadcast of the 2012 European Championships in Helsinki. Ukrainian Olga Saladukha (Olga Saladuha Ольга Саладуха) went tantalizingly close to the 15 meter barrier, as she leaped to 14.99m to outclass the rest of the field. Patricia Momona (14.52m) and Yana Borodina (14.56m) came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Simona La Mantia (14.52m), Dana Velďáková (14.24m), and, Niki Paneta Νίκη Πανέτα (14.23m) comprised the subsequent places.

The 2011 European U23 Champion, Voula Papachristou (Paraskevi Papachristou Παρασκευή Παπαχρήστου) finished in a disappointing 11th place (13.89m).

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The Triple Jump"

I am particularly excited about the upcoming slug fest in the women's triple jump in London. An in-form Saladukha will be hard to beat. But with the likes of 2010 World Indoor Champion Olga Rypakova Ольга Рыпакова, two-time World Champion Yargelis Savigne, the South American Champion Caterine Ibargüen, and the inspired hometown bet Yamilé Aldama in the fore, the competition has the makings of classic.

Track Beauty of the Week: Olga Rypakova Ольга Сергеевна Рыпакова

Olga Rypakova Ольга Сергеевна Рыпакова is this week's Track Beauty!

The Kazakh triple jumper is one of the best in her event. Rypakova has jumped 15.25m outdoors and 15.14m indoors, both Asian records. She also has a world-class personal best in the long jump at 6.85m. Olga is the 7th best triple jumper all-time. 

Photo from Erik van Leeuwen

Aside from the triple jump, the Kazakh has had respectable performances in the long jump and the heptathlon. In fact, she started out as a long jumper, making her international debut at the 2000 World Junior Championships in Chile. As a youth heptathlete, Rypakova missed the podium at the World Youth Championships in Debrecen back in 2001.A year later at the World Junior Championships in Kingston, the then 18-year old Rypakova snared a silver medal in the heptathlon.

Learn more about Rypakova

The Kazakh had won Asian Games titles in the triple jump and heptathlon and an Asian Games silver and bronze in the long jump, demonstrating her dominance in continental competition.

She came into prominence at the 2010 World Indoor Championships in Doha, outclassing Cuba's Yargelis Savigne in the final. Rypakova's two best jumps of 15.14m and 14.93m were enough to put the Cuban out of contention. With her victory in Doha, Rypakova climbed up to third place in the World indoor all-time list.

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The Triple Jump"

Since her breakout 2010 season, Olga has yet to go beyond 15 meters. In the runup to the London Olympics, Olga (14.73m SB) is trailing world leader Olha Saladukha Ольга Саладуха (14.99m SB), Cathrine Ibarguen (14.95A SB), and Kseniya Dziatsuk (14.76m SB) in terms of season's bests. Nevertheless, her strong showing at the Daegu World Championships (2nd place) and the Istanbul World Indoor Championships (2nd) puts her in strong contention for Olympic gold.

Additional Link:
Focus on Athletes - Olga Rypakova

Sources:

Olga's IAAF profile

Wikipedia

Holly Bleasdale vs. Yelena Isinbayeva

Pole vault world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva (Елена Исинбаева) always makes her first jump when everyone else had made theirs. The Russian usually isolates herself from the other competitors, opting to cover her face with a towel and nap. British Olympic hopeful Holly Bleasdale was not amused. She called Isinbayeva "disrespectful" and likened her to a "tramp."

Read Tom Battaglia's column on Bleasdale's comments 

Holly Bleasdale at the Palais des Sports d'Orléans. (Photo from Defeder)

Track athletes nowadays feature non of the banter and trash talk prevalent in other sports. Although Bleasdale's words could somewhat help in drumming up interest in the sport, it would have been better if she had been a little more respectful of Isinbayeva.

Yelena Isinbayeva at the Doha World Indoors. (Photo from Erik van Leeuwen)

The sight of tens of thousands of British spectators cheering for a Bleasdale victory would be a sight to behold. I would love to see Bleasdale on top of the Olympic podium, but I'll have to root for Isinbayeva on this one. Despite Yelena's tag as the most dominant female vaulter in history, she has not been in top form of late, showing chinks in her armor the past few years.

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The Pole Vault"

After everything that Yelena has been through it would seem just for the Russian to strike gold one last time.

Christine Sonali Merrill’s Balancing Act and Olympic Hopes

Christine Sonali Merrill deserves a shoutout.

Christine Merrill. (Photo from Djh57/Wikimedia Commons)

The American-born Sri Lankan hurdler will compete in the London Olympics as a wild card, having missed the Olympic “B” standard by almost two-hundredths of a second. She has a personal best of 56.83s, set during the preliminary rounds of the Asian Athletics Championships last year in Kobe. Merrill eventually wound up in 3rd place, thanks to a strong finish.

Click this link to read the full article...

Expelled

London-bound Triple Jumper Voula Papachristou (Paraskevi Papachristou Παρασκευή Παπαχρήστου) has been expelled from the Greek Olympic Team because of a racist tweet.

The following was translated using Google:

 She also retweeted a post by a right-wing Greek politician.

Papachristou has apologized publicly, but the Greek authorities seem steadfast with their decision:

“I would like to apologize to all my friends and fellow athletes, who I may have insulted or shamed, the National Team, as well as the people and companies who support my athletic career. Finally, I would like to apologize to my coach and my family.”

Things do get lost in transation. If you can read Greek, read the original tweet below:

Xue Chen 薛晨 and Zhang Xi (CHN, Beach Volleyball)

Beach volleyball is one of the youngest sports in the Olympics. Because of its unique setting and interesting play, the event has seen its following grow the past few years. 

 

Xue and Zhang at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (Photos from leon li)

The duo of Xue Chen  薛晨 and Zhang Xi are China's best beach volleyball pair. Since their partnership began in 2006, Xue and Zhang had won bronze medals in the Beijing Olympics and the 2011 World Championships, on top of an Asian Games gold in 2006. The Chinese duo also have two Asian Beach Volleyball Championships titles.

Xue, the more popular of the pair, is younger by Zhang by four years. In 2006, the then 17-year old Xue grabbed Women's FIVB World Tour "Top Rookie" award.

They had a memorable run in 2010, when they broke the winning streak of the Brazilian pair of Franca-Silva at the FIVB World Tour Women's Final in Finland. 

Xue and Zhang will again compete for flag and country at the London Olympics. Grouped in Pool C of the preliminary round, the Chinese pair is slated to go head-to-head with Russia (Vasina – Vozakova), Switzerland (Kuhn – Zumkehr), and Greece (Arvaniti – Tsiartsiani).

Source:

Wikipedia

Track Beauty of the Week: Irina Davydova Ирина Давыдова

Irina Davydova Ирина Давыдова is this week's Track Beauty!

Irina with her European Championships gold medal. (Photo from sport.mos.ru)

Coming into 2012, Daydova had a relatively humble personal best of 55.48s in the 400m hurdles. Davydova made heads turn when she made her outdoor debut in Sochi last May. The Russian clocked 53.87s for her first ever foray under 54-seconds, shedding 1.61 seconds off her erstwhile lifetime best. In fact, she had yet to go under 55 seconds prior to this year! Her performance in Sochi propelled the 24-year old to the top of the 2012 world rankings.

Click here to watch the ECH 400mH W Final

Davydova lived up to her favorite tag at the Helskinki European Championships late last June. Irina was dominant, stopping the clock at yet another personal best of 53.77s, the fastest time in the world as of that month. Denisa Rosolová (54.24s) and Anna Yaroshchuk Ханна Ярощук (54.35s) were far off Davydova's pace. Yaroschuk beat Daydova to the World University Games hurdles gold in 2011.

Perhaps the indication for the newly-crowned European Champion's sudden rise is the improvement in her flat out 400m speed, which merited a selection to the Russian squad to the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, where Irina made it as far as the semifinals. 

Considering the fact that Helsinki was Davydova's major championship debut, the maturity that she displayed was impressive. 

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The 400m Hurdles"

With the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics barely a week away, Davydova is ranked as the second fastest intermediate hurdler this season, behind compatriot Natalya Antyukh (53.40s). Should Irina maintain her momentum, an Olympic gold medal is within reach.

Additional Link:

Irina's IAAF Biography 

Sources:

IAAF

Wikipedia

Godspeed, Darya!

Photo from Nigel Chadwick

Russia and the former Soviet Union has a storied history in women's long jumping. The 7.52m world record of Galina Chistayakova Галина Чистякова still stands. Tatyana Kotova Татьяна Котова, and Tatyana Lebedeva Татьяна Лебедева occupy prominent positions in the all-time list. Out of the nine Olympic medals at stake the last three Olympic Games, Russian women had won a staggering five. The troika of  Lebedeva, Irina Meleshina, and Kotova even made a clean sweep of the podium at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Hence, it is hardly surprising that the recently concluded Russian National Championships in Chekosbary featured so much depth. The top six athletes all had personal bests of beyond seven meters. Yelena Sokolova Елена Соколова won gold with a best mark of 7.06m. Anna Nazarova Анна Назарова (6.88m), Lyudmila Kolchanova Людмила Колчанова (6.87m), Olga Kucherenko Ольга Кучеренко (6.81m), Darya Klishina Дарья Клишина (6.81m) and Kotova (6.66m) rounded up the next five places.

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The Long Jump"

For all the advantages of having a solid field, it is also a selector's nightmare. 

As a big Darya fan, I am particularly concerned about her Olympic prospects*. Nazarova, Kucherenko and Sokolova are amongst the very best long jumpers this season. Although Klishina is a veteran of several major championships and is the reigning European Indoor Champion, the credentials of the aforesaid jumpers are not particularly far behind.

Read: "Darya Klishina and Superb Senora"

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for decision favorable to Darya. A healthy Klishina has what it takes to leap the winning distances in major events. 

*Note: Klishina and Kucherenko failed to make the final cut. Read the full story here.

Additional Links:

IAAF Long Jump All-Time List

IAAF article on Russian Championships

Muse – Survival (Official Song of the 2012 London Olympic Games)

I got goosebumps watching this. Let the Games begin!!!

Godspeed, Darya!

According to Darya Klishina's (Дарья Клишина) Facebook page, Darya has been training in the Russian resort town of Sochi. Her status updates seem upbeat and positive. Judging from the training clip below, it seems as if Darya has shrugged off the ill-effects of the injury she sustained last year. 

Read: "Track Beauty of the Week - Darya Klishina Дарья Клишина"

The Olympic long jump competition will be tough, considering the fact that five women have jumped beyond seven meters outdoors this year. Darya, according to the IAAF statistics, apparently has not made her outdoor debut yet. Is she hiding her cards right up until the last possible moment? 

Read: "Darya Klishina: The Next Big Track & Field Star"

Darya en route to fourth place finish at the Istanbul World Indoors. (Photo from Erik van Leeuwen)

As the London Olympic Games near, the prospect of a nail-biting long jump grows more exciting with each passing day. 

Godspeed, Darya!

Vamos, Leryn Franco!

It's not easy juggling an athletics and a modelling career. Leryn Franco, the Paraguayan javelin throw record holder, is a veteran of numerous international championships. Leryn has considerable major championship experience, having competed at the 2003 World Championships in Paris and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Read: Leryn Franco answers the 10-for-10 quiz

Leryn Franco is not just another pretty face. Franco is dominant in South American circles.

Read: "Track Beauty of the Week - Leryn Franco"

Leryn on fashion model-mode. (Photo from Tetsumo's Flickr/Wikimedia)

On top of her impressive modelling repertoire, Franco has won medals at the South American Championships - from the Youth, Junior, U23, and Senior levels. In the run-up prior to the London Olympics, the Paraguayan star set a new national record (57.77m), en route to winning silver at the Ibero-American Championships in Venezuela.

Source: 
Leryn's Wikipedia profile

Dalma Rushdi Malhas (SAU, Equestrian)

In Saudi Arabia, "women cannot drive, marry, leave the country, go to school or open bank accounts without permission from a male guardian." Saudi Arabia, in fact, prohibits women from taking part in sports. It is certainly groundbreaking for such a conservative country to have a female representative to the Olympics.

Read: "Saudi women allowed in Olympics for the first time"

Dalma in action. (Photo from Sky News)

Dalma Rushdi Malhas is world-class equestrienne. She originally held Palestinian citizenship, but has obtained a Saudi Arabian passport. The American-born Malhas, according to recent news articles, was pitted to be Saudi Arabia's first female Olympian. However, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) came out with a statement saying that the 20-year, in fact, has not qualified for the London Games. 

Read: "Pioneering Saudi woman to miss Games"

Malhas's mother was herself a renowned equestrienne.Dalma was exposed to horses at an early age. It wasn't surprising for the young Dalma to follow the same path. Malhas made history in 2010, when she competed - and won bronze - at the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. 

Read: "Dalma Malhas breaks barrier with a winning ride"

Regardless of whether she competes in London or not, Dalma Rushdi Malhas is a beacon for women's rights, not just in Saudi Arabia, but to the rest of the world.

Sources:

Dalma's Wikipedia profile

Bangkok Post article

Washington Post article

Indian Muslim Observer article