Word: sporting
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...been this way for a while: before we see the athletes soar we must first watch them squirm. This time, Australia's pre-Olympics scandal centered on whether five of its male cyclists had injected themselves with banned substances in room 121 at the Australian Institute of Sport cycling facility in Adelaide last year. The five were cleared last month by an investigation headed by a former judge. One of them, Sean Eadie, faced a separate charge of importing human growth hormone (hGH) from the U.S. in the late '90s. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled there was insufficient...
...hurts, yes. My Olympic memories begin in 1972, with black-and-white images of Shane Gould and Beverley Whitfield, Australian champions of the pool, and snippets of overwrought Norman May commentary. Right up to early adulthood, each Games fired imaginings absurdly beyond my reach. So I settled for sports writing, which I did exclusively for 11 years. It was during that time, interviewing hundreds of athletes and observing in many of them the same traits - tunnel vision, self-absorption, extreme determination - that I realized how far from purity sport had traveled. Most disturbing were the attitudes of some coaches...
...robot.'" Some purists aren't smiling, labeling Stevenson a showboat. But he says his antics are what the vault needs. "I'm just having a great time," says the Stanford economics grad, who plans to start his own business. "I'm not taunting anyone. This is a professional sport--it needs help. It needs fans. And if someone says, 'I heard this crazy pole vaulter that does these dumb dances is going to be at a track meet. Let's go check it out,' I've done something right...
Despite the new wave, there are lingering weaknesses that are hurting the sport. In the middle-and long-distance events, the U.S. hasn't had a star in decades. In Alan Webb, 21, who in 2001 broke the high school mile record that had stood for 36 years, the U.S. has its best medal chance in the 1,500 m, although it's unlikely he will beat the dominant African runners. Some fans are fed up with the drug headlines and will tune out no matter how many kids approach the starting line. "I acknowledge this reality," says Craig Masback...
...cows--and he wants us to know it. As they chomp through the bitterbrush of California's high desert, their ears waggle a plastic ID tag adorned with a tiny American flag. And when steaks from Wood's 1,500 Angus are sold in markets out West, they sport a bold red-white-and-blue label: BORN & RAISED IN THE USA. "American ranchers raise the safest and best-quality cattle in the world," says Wood, a fifth-generation cattleman. "Consumers deserve to know where their meat comes from...