A Winter Olympics Glimpse Into Greatness

Over two weeks and three weekends, the Beijing Winter Olympics will fill our hearts and television screens with plenty of excitement. For my household, much of it will take place on the Olympic figure skating ice.

Mixing colorful costumes and loud music with a mixture of elegance and athleticism, there’s bound to be plenty of thrills along with a few spills and disappointments, but enough flash and panache to make it all seem worthwhile. 

Thanks to the 13-hour time difference between Beijing and the U.S. east coast, we’ve tuned in to watch figure skating following our nightly dinner – during prime time – and the just-completed team competition kept us up past our bedtime the past few nights. Sometimes, we watched on our living room TV and other times on my iPhone while laying in bed. Learning about the human side of many of the Olympic figure skaters who are competing as well as gaining an appreciation for what drives them to excel on ice has been fascinating. 

Sunday night (Monday morning in Beijing), during the final day of the team skating event, we had the pleasure of watching 15-year-old Russian phenom Kamila Valieva become the first woman to land a quadruple jump in Olympics competition. She landed a quadruple Salchow as her opening element during her free skate program performed to Ravel’s “Bolero.” 

While making history, the Moscow resident Valieva helped lead the Russian Olympic Committee team to a gold medal in the team competition by finishing first in both the short program and the free skate.

“I believe that I am coping with this pressure,” Valieva said afterward. “And sometimes it even pushes me forward. It helps me.”

The images of the five-foot-three-inch Valieva lifting her arms above her head as she spun, accented by her blurred red gloves, seemed effortless. Yet, it’s obvious she’s put a lot of time and dedication into perfecting each element – each quadruple jump – of her routine. To her credit, Valieva proved human – and not just a jumping machine – after she fell to the ice when she attempted her third and final quadruple jump. She shook off the mistake, put it behind her, and continued her program. Her score was more than 30 points higher than second-place finisher Kaori Sakamoto of Japan. 

It’s nice to learn from newspaper reports that Valieva sometimes giggles during her interviews with Olympic media. The other day, she entered the media area following her short program clutching a stuffed animal. Remember, she’s just 15. However, it’s been her dream to be an Olympic champion since she was about three years-old. 

After practicing gymnastics, figure skating and ballet as a child, Valieva liked figure skating the best. She once said that “gliding on the ice and the speed are awesome.”

With Valieva’s goal of becoming an Olympic figure skating champion coming into the spotlight, no doubt she will draw plenty of attention next week when the women’s individual competition takes place. It won’t surprise me if Valieva wins the gold medal and stands on the top step of the medal podium at Capital Indoor Stadium. Winning gold seems to be a Russian tradition among women’s figure skaters – and to her credit, Valieva exudes a winning combo of brains and brawn.

In her own words: “I believe that my next dream will come true, too.”

Screenshot photo courtesy of NBC Olympics video.

To watch highlights of Valieva’s team competition performance: https://youtu.be/hda3vvmqQHQ

Remembering the eloquence of Jack Whitaker

Jack Whitaker / 1924-2019

I spent some quiet time Monday morning reflecting upon the life of legendary sports broadcaster Jack Whitaker, known for his eloquent commentaries, who passed away Sunday at age 95. What a wonderful life Whitaker lived crafting broadcast essays about sports, inspired by writers he admired like Alastair Cooke and Heywood Hale Broun. You have to be of a certain age to remember these masters of the writing craft – and I am of that certain age.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, where he got his broadcasting start after graduating from St. Joseph’s College, Whitaker was a decorated veteran of World War II, fighting in the Normandy Campaign and was wounded by an artillery strike. He went on to a career as a sportscaster with both CBS and ABC.

Whitaker was regarded as “The Talking Head” of sports – long before David Byrne ran with the moniker and named his American rock band The Talking Heads. He broadcast football, golf and horse racing, among many sports. “I know that I’m regarded as The Talking Head,” he once told Sports Illustrated during a 1977 interview. “I’d like to be exactly that and say something that people will remember or get excited about. I’d like to bring sports into the thinking process.”

Jack Whitaker

On the eve of the Kentucky Derby horse race one year, Whitaker waxed poetically about the mood and feeling of one of America’s most iconic sporting events: “America never looks better than on a spring afternoon at the horse farms around Lexington.

“The bluegrass fields and limestone-permeated water has given strength to 81 Derby winners. Just up the road is Churchill Downs in the city of Louisville. In Louisville, America thrives. It was here that Americans discovered how to blend golden corn, barley, malt and rye into bourbon whiskey. It was here that baseball’s National League was founded and where they still make the famous Louisville sluggers. And it was in Louisville that the Kentucky Derby thrived and grew into something beyond a horse race.”

In perusing Whitaker’s obituary in Monday’s print edition of The New York Times, I learned that he “reserved his greatest passion for golf,“ and loved to weave historical imagery into his accounts. 

For instance, in commenting about the British Open at Troon, Scotland, for ABC’s World News Tonight in 1982, he spoke: 

“Through all the years, the British Open has changed very little. The biggest addition has been the tented city, looking like Henry V’s camp at the Battle of Agincourt. Here you can buy among other things lawn mowers, cashmere sweaters and Champagne, which is replacing tea as Britain’s national beverage. But basically the British Open is the same as it was in 1860 when they first played it down the road at Prestwick. Playing in the British Open is like reading American history at Independence Hall or studying opera at La Scala. It’s golf at its most simple, its most pure, its most magnificent.“

Rest in peace, Jack Whitaker. You shared a marvelous passion for sports with us for many years. I’ll remember what you said once about the sport of golf that you loved so much: “Golf accommodates itself anywhere. It travels better than Beaujolais. Golf is the most moveable feast of all.”

On sports: Zeina Nassar is fighting for her dream

Zeina Nassar didn’t change for the rules. She helped change the rules.

The German-born boxer of Lebanese parents lives in Berlin, where she has been training diligently for the 2020 Olympics while keeping up with her university studies. However, Zeina’s far from being your stereotypical 21-year-old college student. That’s because as a Muslim, who is devout to her faith, she wears a headscarf – a hijab – both in public and in the boxing ring. And that’s where things get tricky and complicated.

“I don’t want to be reduced to my looks, or my hijab,” says Nassar, in a Nike-produced video posted on her Instagram profile (@zeina.boxer). “It really doesn’t matter which religion I practice. In the end, what matters to me is my sport.”

Fascinated by both the discipline and elegance of the sport of boxing, the 2018 German champion says, “We live in a time where everything should be possible, and you have to fight to make changes in society.”

In an interview with Material magazine, Nassar said she was looked upon as “an absolute misfit” in the ring when she began boxing. However, she said, “I didn’t let that discourage me. It’s those fallacies I want to tackle and, hopefully, someday, get rid of for good. I believe that everyone should have the right to do whatever it is he or she pleases to do. Simple as that.

“Personally, I feel empowered through boxing. Even though I have had to face all kinds of unfairness, I never held back from doing what I believed in just because it may have crossed someone else’s opinion or expectation of what I could or could not do.”

When Nassar first participated in a boxing competition in 2013, according to regulations, she was not allowed to compete in a hijab. She remembers she often had the feeling she needed to prove herself twice as hard as the others.

“My first coach fought for the boxing regulation to be changed in Germany,” Nassar recalls. “And since then, all women are allowed to compete in boxing.

“Back then, I really had no idea what I started, but today I’m more and more aware that I am a role model for a lot of kids and adults. When I was 13, I didn’t even think about whether I would be allowed, wearing a hijab, or not. For me, it was just normal, same as for all the other kids. I had a dream and wanted to do it.”

Now, Nassar is featured in Nike’s new “Dream Crazier” ad campaign, which launched worldwide via social media on Sunday. The Nike swoosh is prominantly displayed on Nassar’s hijab that she wears when she competes.

Just last week, Nassar scored a huge victory outside of the boxing ring. That’s because the International Boxing Association rewrote the rules, allowing women all over the world to box while wearing hijabs. No longer will Nassar’s hijab be an obstacle for her in the ring.

“It’s a huge win for me and for women across the world,” she wrote on Instagram. Her fighting spirit lives on.

“My ongoing contribution to the world is that I want to continue to inspire people,” Nassar told Material magazine. “I want to encourage people, especially women, to not take ‘no’ for an answer. I want women to feel strong, brave, independent, victorious. I want women to see me and say ‘Hey, if she can do it, so can I.’ Every day, I receive messages of people telling me how much I’ve helped them with conquering fears and doubts. It gives me so much pride, hope and happiness. It fuels my own motivation to fight. Not only in the ring. Not only for myself. But for all of us.”

Photos: Courtesy of Zeina-Nassar.com, Nike.com.

Falling in love with the Olympics, again and again

Opening ceremonies at the 2016 Rio Summer Games were full of color.

Every four years, many of us fall in love with the Summer Olympic Games.

Count me among them.

Last Friday, the athletes of the world representing 207 nations gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – the country for Carnival – for the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games. At times, it resembled a giant street party complete with samba, funk, passinho and maracatu. 

Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the
Olympic cauldron on Friday night.

It's time to fall in love, again.

The French educator Pierre de Coubertin, who was most responsible for the revival of the Modern Olympic Games in 1894, once said: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

While there's much focus in my country – the United States of America – on celebrated athletes such as the swimmer Michael Phelps, the basketball player Kevin Durant and the soccer (football to the rest of the Olympic world) player Carli Lloyd, to name just a few, I find just as much joy in rooting for the lesser-known Olympians – especially those from other countries who might have overcome an obstacle or hardship to be able to compete. For instance: 

• Swimmer Yusra Mardini, an 18-year-old Syrian refugee representing the Olympic Refugee Team, had to swim for her life just last summer when – on her journey to safety after fleeing her homeland – the boat she was in started to sink. Along with her sister, both trained swimmers, she jumped out and pushed the boat for three and a half hours until it safely reached the Greek island of Lesbos. "I want to represent all the refugees because I want to show everyone that, after the pain, after the storm, comes calm days." 

Mardini's personal story is remarkable and one we should all spend time learning more about. 

Jamaica's Toni-Ann Williams and her coach Justin Howell
enjoy a happy moment during the gymnastics competition.

• Closer to home, there's Toni-Ann Williams, 20, a young gymnast from the University of California, Berkeley, with dual U.S.-Jamaican citizenship, whom I've watched thrive collegiately the past two seasons. She was born in Maryland of Jamaican parents. Williams is Jamaica's lone representative in the women's gymnastics competition – in fact she is Jamaica's first gymnast in Olympic history – and the reason I woke up at 5:45 a.m. Pacific Time Sunday morning to watch a live video stream of her Olympic competition on my iPad.

I wouldn't have missed it for anything. 

With a score of 50.966 in the all-around qualification, Williams placed 54th, which wasn't high enough to advance to Tuesday's final competition. Still, it didn't diminish her Olympics enthusiasm. "I am very, very excited," she said afterward during an interview with a Jamaican journalist. "I'm happy to represent Jamaica. I gave it my all. Hopefully, my performance today can be a trailblazer for the kids to keep the program going in Jamaica."

Egypt fielded its first women's beach volleyball team in Rio.

• On Sunday, history was also made as Nada Meawad and Noaa Elghobashy became the first women's beach volleyball pair from Egypt to compete in the Olympics. They were easily recognized by their long pants and sleeves – compared to the standard bikini uniforms worn by most countries – and Elghobashy wears a hijab. She never gave it a thought. "I've worn the hijab for 10 years," said Elghobashy after competing on the Copacabana venue against Germany. "It doesn't keep me away from the things I love to do and beach volleyball is one of them." The Egyptian duo lost to Germany 21-12, 21-15.

As Herb Elliott, the Australian middle-distance runner who won a gold medal in the 1,500 meters at the 1960 Rome Olympics, once said: "It is the inspiration of the Olympic Games that drives people not only to compete but to improve, and to bring lasting spiritual and moral benefits to the athlete and inspiration to those lucky enough to witness the athletic dedication."

And that brings us to the story of Sarah Attar.

Sarah Attar marched in the Opening Ceremonies of the
2012 London Games representing Saudi Arabia.

Four years ago, an Olympic milestone was achieved at the 2012 London Games as the first woman track and field (athletics) athlete representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia competed. Sarah Attar, then 19, born in the United States of a Saudi father and an American mother and who bolds dual citizenship, ran last in her heat of the 800 meters.

A cross-country runner at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, where she studied art, history and graphic design, the 5-foot-5-inch, 115-pound Attar finished her 800-meter heat in 2 minutes 44.95 seconds, about 41 seconds behind the first-place finisher. I remember watching her performance on TV. It brought tears of joy just to see her finish. It didn't matter that her time was the slowest of any 800-meter runner. 

Attar said she wanted to represent Saudi Arabia at the Olympics as a way of inspiring women. "This is such a huge honor and an amazing experience, just to be representing the women," said Attar after the conclusion of her race. "I know that this can make a huge difference."

Sarah Attar competed in London wearing a white hijab and
a black and green track suit that covered her arms and legs.

Attar competed while attired in a white hijab and a black and green track suit that covered her arms and legs. She received a standing ovation from many in the crow at Olympic Stadium as she crossed the finish line alone, well behind the others in her heat.

Fast forward to 2016. "A lot has changed since then," Attar said in an article she wrote for Marie Claire. "Oiselle, an athletic apparel company for women, sponsors me, and I am living and training full-time with an elite group of distance runners in Mammoth Lakes, California."

Now 23, Attar is back at the Olympic Games in Rio, once again representing Saudi Arabia, along with three other Saudi female athletes – all who train outside of the country due to government and religious restrictions placed upon females competing in sports. However, this time, Attar will compete in the Olympic marathon instead of the 800 meters, a distance (42195 kilometers / 26.219 miles) she feels she is better suited to run. Her personal best in the marathon is 3 hours 11 minutes 27 seconds, which she ran at the 2015 Chicago Marathon. The Olympic women's marathon will be run on August 14.

"The marathon is such a beautiful challenge,"
says Sarah Attar.

"The marathon is such a beautiful challenge and I am really diving into marathon training to see what I am capable of at this distance," Attar told Like the Wind magazine.

In a recent Washington Post feature, Attar's coach, Andrew Kastor, credited her with "the right amount of spirit and courage I see in most seasoned and mature marathon racers," and with eagerness as "a student of the sport, learning all she can from her mentors on the team."

In the same article, Attar said: "The Olympics was always what these amazing, elite athletes do, that I just watch on TV, and I observe, and then to be a part of it, where I never would have anticipated that in my life was just, like, so wild."

Sarah Attar will compete in the women's
marathon on Sunday.

More and more, Attar has begun to realize her place in history. 

"There is a whole generation of girls in Saudi Arabia who now have a female Olympic role model to look up to – that didn't exist before. 

"They'll grow up knowing that competing in the Olympics is a possibility, and that's what means the most to me," said Attar, in a recent Firstpost.com story. 

May the next two weeks be filled with friendship, respect, good sportsmanship and fair play. May it be a peaceful gathering of nations. May it be filled with many new stories to share in the years to come. 

After all, every Olympic athlete is a winner in our hearts.


Photos: Courtesy of Google images. 

A Memo extra: Прощай, Сочи (Goodbye, Sochi)

Citius, Altius, Fortius / To the victors went the gold medals.

Прощай, Сочи. 

It's time to say goodbye, Sochi. Over the last two weeks and three weekends, the Sochi Winter Olympics were filled with lots of excitement. 

Sometimes, it was loud, sometimes it was elegant. There were plenty of thrills and excitement, just a few spills and disappointments, but enough flash and panache to make it all seem worthwhile.

We tuned in to the Winter Games at all hours of the day and night via television. We watched online. We kept up-to-date while going about our daily lives with the aid of our smartphones, mining for scores and results. For those of us who cared, the lessons we learned about Russia's history and of its culture were a real treat.

Sometimes, even in the Olympics, history has a way of repeating itself. Canada proved its superiority in ice hockey, while the Dutch masters from the Netherlands  -- the Oranje crush -- were untouchable in long track speed skating. And, host Russia, culminated by their sweep in the men's 50-kilometer cross country ski race and gold-medal performance in the four-man bobsled, won the most medals overall with 33, including 13 gold.

Thank you to the youth of the world -- such as 19-year-old figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, the first Asian male to win an Olympic figure skating gold medal.

Thank you to the young at heart -- like Norway's Marit Bjøergen, 31, the most successful female winter Olympian of all time, who won three gold medals in Sochi in cross-country skiing, and now has amassed 10 total medals spread over four Winter Games. On Sunday, Bjøergen received her final gold medal during the Closing Ceremonies before over 40,000 appreciative fans. She was truly touched by this unforgettable moment. 

And, who can forget Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjøerndalen, who at age 40 claimed his 13th Olympic medal to become the most medaled Olympian in the history of the Winter Games. He won his first medal at the Nagano Games in 1998 and has kept earning medals since, including two gold medals at Sochi.

Finally, thank you to all of the world's elite athletes who competed fairly while pursuing their Olympic dreams. Faster, higher, stronger still means playing by the rules. And, in the Olympic sport of curling, a game of skill and traditions -- the one played with the funny little brooms -- curlers played to win but never to humble their opponents, in following the etiquette of the game. For those who did compete fairly on the snow and ice, each of you left us with many wonderful memories that we'll cherish for a lifetime.

Спасибо, Сочи.

Two wheels good: Citius, Altius, Fortius?

Two wheels good / A simple two-wheeler is the bicycle of choice
 for residents navigating the narrow streets and canals of Amsterdam.

With the London Summer Games just days away, it is with great interest that I read of the triumph of Bradley Wiggins, the first British winner in the storied history of the Tour de France.

Cycling's premier event finished its annual, three-week endurance trek Sunday afternoon under bright, sunny skies along the famous cobble-stoned Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

The Tour has become controversial in recent years due to doping allegations against seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong as well as the suspected and apparent use of performance-enhancing drugs in more recent years that has seen two champions ~ Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador ~ stripped of their titles. In fact, until this year, only two Tour de France champions since 1995 ~ Carlos Saestre in 1998 and Cadel Evans last year ~ have not become embroiled in controversy surrounding performance-enhancing drugs. Thus, it was very refreshing to see Wiggins, 32, vehemently deny that he was doping during this year's Tour.

Looking good in yellow /
Bradley Wiggins rides into Paris.

Wiggins won the Tour de France the old-fashioned way:

He e-a-r-n-e-d it.

Which brings us to the subject of the London Summer Games. The Olympic motto is the hendiatrus Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Faster, Stronger, Higher". The motto was introduced for the Paris Summer Games in 1924. Fast forward more than eight decades and, certainly, today's athletes, for better or worse, emulate the Olympic motto. They run faster, they are certainly of stronger build than ever before, and athletes definitely can leap higher, too.

But is it really necessary? Is it worth paying this price?

Through the looking glass /
Cyclists enjoy their ride
along Binnenamstel
 canal in Amsterdam.

Just for a moment, imagine this: Picture a modern-day Tour de France being contested using a simple, two-wheeler like those that are refreshingly commonplace in cities like Amsterdam, the Dutch capital of the Netherlands. Sure, it might take more than the currently-alloted three weeks to complete the Tour, but who cares? And, ask yourself, too: How would a modern-day Tour cyclist handle the demanding climbs of both the Alps or Pyrenees mountains riding a simple two-wheeler?
The answer is simple:
It wouldn't be easy. Yet, it sure would be pure sports.

Citius, Altius, Fortius?

Let the London Summer Games begin.

Amsterdam photographs by Michael Dickens, copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
Photograph of Bradley Wiggins courtesy of The Guardian.