Olympic Sports Report
Gymnastics and Winter Sports
Gymnastics: Women’s National Team members Alicia Sacramone (Winchester, Massachusetts) and Melanie Sinclair (Orlando, Florida) again proved the depth of the U.S. program by venturing to the first World Cup meet of the season in Ghent, Belgium, and bringing home two silver medals. Sacramone finished second on vault with a 9.387. She trailed Olympic champion Monica Rosu of Romania, with Olympic bronze medalist Anna Pavlova of Russia taking third. Sinclair distanced herself from the field with a 9.650 on the uneven bars, good enough for the silver medal. She trailed only Chinese Olympian Li Ya (9.713), who placed fifth at the 2004 Olympic Games. (November 9) Carly Patterson (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) was named to Glamour magazine’s 15th Annual Glamour Women of the Year. The Glamour Women of the Year Awards, sponsored by L’Oreal Paris, honor extraordinary and inspirational women from a variety of fields, including entertainment, business, sports, music, science/medicine, education, and politics. (November 9) Seven U.S. athletes have qualified to the World Cup Final, slated for December 11–12 in Birmingham, England. Paul Hamm (Waukesha, Wisconsin) and Morgan Hamm (Waukesha, Wisconsin) qualified in both the floor exercise and horizontal bar events. Courtney Kupets (Gaithersburg, Maryland), Terin Humphrey (Bates City, Missouri), and Chellsie Memmel (West Allis, Wisconsin) qualified for the uneven bars event, with Carly Patterson qualifying for the balance beam final and Annia Hatch (West Haven, Connecticut) qualifying for the vault final. Additionally, the U.S. has petitioned for Alicia Sacramone to qualify for the vault final based on her victory at the Pacific Alliance, which was not credited toward her World Cup qualifying points.
Hockey: (November 4) USA Hockey named 12 players to the U.S. National Junior Team that will represent the U.S. at the 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The tournament features the top under-20 talent from 10 nations and will run from December 25, 2004 to January 4, 2005. (November 8) USA Hockey announced the six players that were added to the 2004 United States Women’s Select Team to bring the final roster total to 21. The team will defend its title against teams from Canada, Sweden, and Finland at the Four Nations Cup in Lake Placid, New York, November 10–14. (November 9) USA Hockey announced that Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Paul Mara (Ridgewood, New Jersey) has been added to the 2004 United States Men’s National Select Team, slated to begin defense of its title at the Deutschland Cup in Hamburg and Hannover, Germany, November 10–14. Mara joins 16 other National Hockey League veterans on the squad and brings the roster total to 23.
IOC: (November 3) Three days of briefings organized by the International Olympic Committee were successfully concluded in Beijing, China, where Athens organizers have been sharing the lessons of their successful summer. Under the auspices of the IOC’s Transfer of Knowledge program, the organizing committee for the games of the XXVIII Olympiad, led by ATHOC president Gianna Angelopoulos–Daskalaki, shared insights and experience on areas including sports, finance, games identity and vision, venue planning and operations, games-time operations, test events and the paralympic games. (November 3) The ticket sales for the Torino 2006 Winter Games have begun. Through the site www.torino2006.org/tickets, or the 3,000 branches of the Sanpaolo, and banks of the group (main sponsor of Torino 2006), the 400 sales points of the TicketOne network (official sponsor of the ticketing services) and the Torino 2006 Call Center (848.88.2006, active from 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m., Monday–Friday and 12:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. on Saturdays), tickets and booklets of tickets can be ordered for the 177 sports events and for the opening and closing ceremonies of the XX Olympic Winter Games, February 10–26, 2006.
Luge: Verizon and USA Luge are challenging winter sports fans to experience the thrill of luge and take a shot at glory. As the U.S. luge team prepares for the upcoming 2004–2005 international racing season, Verizon is introducing thousands to the sport this winter through the Verizon Luge Challenge. Families and winter sports enthusiasts can experience the fastest sport on ice at six U.S. ski resorts, in a safe slope-side setting, with help from USA Luge international medalists, athletes, and coaches.
Allen University Sports Recruiting.
This article is in five parts. This is part 2:
Part 4: The world’s fastest skaters will be showcased in this sprint world championship competition.
Once a student athlete is recruited what advantages does the scholarship athlete receive at college?