In great news for the 2012 London Olympics, Rafael Nadal has announced that not only is he planning on representing Spain in the 2012 Olympic Games, but he’s skipping the 2012 Davis Cup to help prepare himself for the event.
The Olympic tennis competition will be held at the All England Club, site of the well-known Wimbledon tennis tournament, and the grass courts are very familiar to the world’s top players.
In an interesting and fun turn, the London 2012 Olympic Committee decided to make all the field hockey pitches blue with pink sidelines areas for the events at the London Olympics. Eye strain and seizure inducements aside, it’s a fun choice – grass is so boring when it’s all green.
Read more at ESPN
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was quoted as saying: “You guys want me in London. I am there and I’m ready to defend. And then when you guys need me to put some points on the board, I’ll do that, too.”
Coupled with the comments by LeBron James and Dwight Howard, it looks like USA Basketball is reloading for the defense of their 2008 Gold Medal from Beijing.
Four-time Olympic gymnastic medallist Shawn Johnson announced she will return to competitive action and try out for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team. Johnson has taken two years off to rest, and her return will be delayed by reconstructive surgery on her knee – but she told local news that she’s always planned on returning. “I’ve always said gymnastics was my life, I’ll never live without it,” she told the Des Moines Register. “I went two years trying to find an excuse to get away from it. But there’s something about it that just pulled me back.”
Welcome back, and good luck!
photo by bleublogger
Congrats go out to Federal Washington and the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center for being selected as the location for the 2012 US Olympic Diving Trials. More than 100 divers will compete for spots on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team.
Federal Way also hosted the trials in 2000, and was selected over Indianapolis.
That’s the dilemma now facing Team USA officials, and the result no one wants. LeBron James and a few other stars plan on skipping this Summer’s World Championships due to other commitments, but they still want to play in the Olympics. USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo responded by saying there will be no “free passes” to the 2012 London Olympics. Any player who skips prior USA Basketball commitments does it “with an understanding of the risks.”
What do you think? How bad would it be for Team USA if LeBron James and Dwayne Wade weren’t on the team?