Win Prizes for Best Fancy Dress at Dubai Rugby Sevens
Win Prizes for Best Fancy Dress at Dubai Rugby Sevens.

Official Beijing Olympics Feed
Official Beijing Olympics RSS Feed

Next Stop: As Olympics Loom, Sochi Hurries to Be Ready
A number of projects are readying this Soviet-era resort town on the Black Sea to play host to the 2014 Winter Games.

Concerned Resorts Putting Winter Vacations on Sale Early
Even as many ski and snowboard fanatics hide credit cards in a drawer, we are also frantically surfing the Web for vacation deals at winter resorts. …

21 Sep 2008 - ZION Snowboard’s POP Program SNOWBOARDERS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CHILD SEX SLAVERY
  Wouldn’t it be rad if you could help make someone else’s life better by doing something you love? While you’re out shreddin, making turns and having a good time with your friends, someone’s life is making a turn for the better. We have come up with something pretty epic and it’s called the ZION POP Program (People of the Planet). The POP Program is people driven and is all about Social Justice. We have made it our mission to help out our fellow humans who have been dealt a bad hand.

Wearable Electronics
Motorola and Burton Snowboards have teamed up before releasing their Audex Bluetooth Jacket Series, it was a success, so they are doing it again. Expanding their wearable electronics collection, enabling easy wireless communication and music entertainment from snowboard apparel. The new electronic fashion for 2007 will include Audex Bluetooth Stereo System that streams downloaded music

Custom Skateboard Wraps

The first steps in designing your skateboardwraps.com. Beginning with opening the template in Adobe Illustrator and adding a quick design layout.

Skate My WorldSkaters Unite and Change Our World!
SPONSORED BY: theSkateboardMAG, Pharmacy Boardshop, DVS, Lakai, BonesSwiss, Alien Workshop, Crimson Boards, OGIO, Powell Skateboards, Active Mailorder, Blackhole Boards, Mechgrip, & Imperial Motion.

Why couldn’t skaters be the next BAND~Aid (SKATE~Aid), consistently coming together to make a difference in our World? SkateMyWorld.org believes they can & hope they will!

Skaters can participate in monthly Charity Raffles, for as little as $1, raising donations for skate My Worlds Global Organization of the month. And, in this Spirit of Giving, donating skaters could Win a Cash GRAND PRIZE (up to $10,000) and Great Skate Prize Packages from their Sponsors.

SkateMyWorld.org is raising donations, now, for African AIDS Orphans, benefiting 3 African based Organizations featured in CNN’s Documentary, “Where Have All the Children Gone”. their First drawing will be held on May 1st, 2008. It only costs a buck!

COME ON SKATERS, LET’S DO THIS THING!

Pommel Problems?

When the U.S. men’s team was announced yesterday, sans Sasha Artemev, the first question on many people’s mind was pommel horse. Who will Team USA put up in team finals and, perhaps more importantly, can they qualify to finals with the pommel team they’ve now assembled?

Justin Spring doesn’t do horse. Period. Which means that all five other gymnasts on the team must do pommels in prelims, including Jonathan Horton, who finished second-to-last on the event at Trials with a low 13.71 average (high of 14.05 for his 5.2 Start Value set).

The U.S. will hope to count the team’s other four scores, which include Kevin Tan, who averaged a 13.98 between Trials and USAs (weighted totals), notching a high of 14.55 for his 5.6 Start Value set.

“I’m ready to do what they need me to do,” Tan said of potentially doing pommels in team finals, as he did in 2007. “If that’s what the team needs me to do, I will do it, and do it well.”

Joey Hagerty also has a potential 5.6 Start Value, but only attained that once in the four days at USAs and Trials, recording a high of 14.3 twice, and averaging the same as Tan (13.98).

Morgan Hamm is currently the team’s best pommels performer, averaging a 14.47 for his 5.7 Start set, with a high of 14.9. (Hamm, Hagerty and Tan all had falls that brought down their averages.)

The major question mark is Morgan’s twin, Paul. In his one performance at USA’s on horse, when he was totally healthy, Paul posted a 15.5 for his 6.0 set, the highest total in the competition.

Assuming Team USA can match their best scores in Beijing—and that’s a large leap—that’s a team horse maximum of 59.3.

So, is pommel horse a problem? Well, yes, but what the Selection Committee undoubtedly saw was that even though Artemev led the horse standings, even with three out of four falls, he also only averaged a 14.83—less than four tenths better than Morgan—with only a single score breaking the 15-mark for his lone hit, which went 15.65.

So, while Artemev could have theoretically added 1.35 to the team total, there was only a 25 percent probability of that occurring (based on his Nationals and Trials results), and a far better shot that he’d bring three tenths, or less, to the table, if he continued to struggle. The fact that Artemev was also wildly inconsistent on his other events, meant those were odds the Selection Committee didn’t want to bet on.

Why All Alone?

The online gymnastics world was abuzz after NBC showed a shot of Shawn Johnson sitting alone at the U.S. National Championships, seemingly distant from her fellow gymnasts, who were all laughing and talking to one another at the other end of the floor.

“Yeah, I definitely heard a lot about that,” Johnson said. “It’s just what I do at a competition. It’s just to help me stay focused. If I sit in the group and talk and stuff, I lose focus easy. When I sit off and kind of visualize my routines, it helps me compete better.

“It’s not [me] being shunned, or anything like that,” Johnson added with a laugh. “We’re great friends and it’s just the way I prepare for a competition.”

Star Treatment

As the women departed the hotel this afternoon to head to the Wachovia Center for their final day of competition they were mobbed by fans wanting photos and autographs. As the elevator doors opened and the gymnasts emerged, usually looking confused, flashblubs popped and hotel security created a human hallway for the girls to pass through in an all-out dash to their bus.

Now, they know how Britney Spears feels.

Boxing on Kimbo’s Mind, Manager Addresses Auction
Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson has a hankering to try boxing, he told host Dan Le Batard on Sports Talk 790 The Ticket Wednesday

NCAA Basketball 09

Ultimate Basketball Resources Updated
Click Here For Latest Additions - 2007 NBA Mock Draft (NBADraft.net) - 2007 NBA Mock Draft (Inside Hoops) - 2007 NBA Mock Draft (HoopsVibe) - NBA Draft Rumors (HoopsHype) - NBA Draft 2007 (HoopsHype) - 2006 Int. Draft Prospects (DraftExpress) - 2006 NCAA Draft Prospects (DraftExpress)

UFC 91: Dustin Hazelett vs. Tamdan McCrory
UFC 91: Dustin Hazelett vs. Tamdan McCrory

Auberlen, Hand sign with Rahal Letterman Racing:
BMW is returning to the GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series with the fire-breathing M3, and it has signed Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen to race for BMW Rahal Letterman Racing.

Ultimate Hockey Resources Updated
Click Here For Latest Additions - NHL Player News (SportsRant) - NHL Player News (TMR) - Fantasy Hockey News (RotoWire) - Stat Rat Ratings (TMR) - Hockey Player Ratings (TheHockeyRating) - Goaltending History (Goalies Archive) - 06-07 Top 50 Keepers (FantasyHockeyCafe)

Blues C McDonald out 8 weeks (AP)
St. Louis center Andy McDonald is expected to be sidelined eight weeks after breaking his left leg during a 3-2 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday. Blues coach Andy Murray said Monday that McDonald was hurt when he crashed into the corner boards late in the first period. MRI results revealed no further damage and surgery is not required.

NHL 2K7
Though it feels more like an add-on than a new game, the current-gen version of NHL 2K7 succeeds due to its solid predecessor and bargain price.