Page 2 of 13 FirstFirst 123412 ... LastLast
Results 16 to 30 of 182

Thread: 2012 London Olympics

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Slightly OT

    What is it about middle eastern women and martial arts?

    Afghan women fight it out in Herat
    March 8, 2012 | 4:19 pm


    Every day on World Now, we choose a remarkable photo from around the world. On International Women's Day, we spotted this striking shot of Afghan women doing martial arts, part of a celebration in Herat.

    "Many people may think that these activities are only for men, especially in such a country," Sakhi Attaee and Rooz Zia wrote on the WomentoBe.org website. "However, they are indeed very popular in Afghanistan, particularly among young women."

    Afghanistan is far from a feminist paradise. Last year, gender experts ranked it as the most dangerous country for women in the world. Yet Afghan women say there has been progress.

    Martial arts is one bright spot: One of the first Afghan women to participate in the Olympics, Friba Razayee, was a judo competitor. She went to the games in 2004 along with runner Robina Muqimyar. Her martial arts training began in Pakistan, where her family had fled after the Taliban took control.

    This year, the country is sending a female boxer to the Olympics in London -- 17-year-old Sadaf Rahimi.

    "I will try to show that an Afghan girl can enter the ring and achieve a position for Afghanistan," Rahimi told the Associated Press.

    Not all countries are making the same strides toward including female athletes: Human Rights Watch is pressing the International Olympic Committee to set firm rules before Saudi Arabia can participate in the Games. The country has never sent a female athlete to the Olympics.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Canada!
    Posts
    23,110
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    What is it about middle eastern women and martial arts?
    What is it about middle eastern men treating their women in a sub standard way so much and to the point that the women seek a way to protect and defend themselves from the harshness of their overarching gender based crappy cultural experience?

    Kung Fu is good for you.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Shaolin at the Olympics

    I know. It's a reach. I just couldn't resist ttt-ing this with this.
    Lally readies himself for Olympic qualifier

    Kenny Lally warms up with coach Bob Pegues during a practice session at the Shaolin Boxing Club inside the Connaught Youth Centre on Monday evening. Lally and Pegues are travelling to Puerto Rico and Equador with the Canadian national team this month.

    By Alistair McInnis - Prince George Free Press
    Published: April 02, 2012 6:00 AM

    Kenny Lally has left his hometown to start another boxing journey.

    The 22-year-old could return to Prince George as a qualifier for this summer’s Olympics in London, England.

    The final qualifier for the 2012 Summer Olympics is May 4 to 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Lally left the city on Wednesday to begin a trip to Windsor, Ont., where he’ll compete in a card on Saturday. Lally, Canada’s A team representative in the senior open 52 kg division, will train in the region for two weeks.

    Lally has been involved in a fitness program for the last nine weeks. He hasn’t had a match outside of the city since winning gold at the Boxing Canada Senior (Elite) Championships in Cape Breton, N.S., in January.

    “I could’ve stayed in Prince George to finish off my camp here, but I got to do something big if I want to quality, like going to Windsor and training there,” he said.

    Lally’s first Olympic qualifying event was the World Championships from Sept. 22 to Oct. 10 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Since falling short in that attempt, he’s been hungry for another shot at London.

    “Ever since the Worlds, I’ve become a total different fighter,” he said. “I’m training twice a day. I never used to train twice a day.”

    The World Championships was an educational experience for Lally.

    “I learned so much after that loss. After the Worlds, the biggest thing that changed in my game is my footwork. I’m constantly on my toes now and I’m way more balanced, and I can throw a lot harder now because I’m on my toes.”

    After training in Windsor, Lally will travel to Puerto Rico on April 8 to start a three-country training camp with the host Puerto Ricans and the Bahamian team. The Canadian team will compete against Puerto Rico in a dual match on April 14 and 17.

    Boxing Canada was looking into hosting the Canadian team in Montreal beginning April 24 until they leave for the competition in Brazil on May 1. But that wasn’t confirmed as of Wednesday, and there was still a possibility Lally would return to Prince George for a little downtime before travelling to Brazil.

    The Olympic qualifying tournament in May includes countries from North, South and Central America which haven’t qualified. There are two spots remaining in Lally’s weight class, meaning he’ll require a gold or silver medal in Brazil to qualify.

    Family support may provide a boost to Lally in his attempt to advance for the Olympics. His mother, sister and aunt are planning to travel to Brazil for the qualifier.

    Acclimatizing could be challenging, but the training in Puerto Rico will help.

    “I got to do something special and the temperature down there is so hot, same with the humidity,” Lally said.

    On Saturday’s card in Windsor, Lally will step in the ring against Jorge Puebla of Toronto’s Champions Boxing Club in a 56 kg bout. The training will feature practices with Canadian Olympians and fellow national team members. The team will also travel across the border to Detroit for sparring sessions.

    Lally’s national team coach is Adrian Teodorescu from Toronto’s Atlas Boxing Club. Teodorescu has been to the Olympics eight times, once as a boxer, six times as the Romanian naitonal team coach and another time taking Canadian gold-medal winner Lennox Lewis.

    Bob Pegues, Lally’s coach in Prince George, won’t be travelling with him over the next six weeks. But Pegues is hopeful he’ll join his boxer in London.

    “This whole trip he’s lined up here, he’s lined it up himself. He’s lined up sparring, he’s lined up fights so he’s in good shape,” Pegues said. “His maturity level has gone up so much in the last few months, last year really.”
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    strangely titilating...

    I have a new appreciation for this sport.
    London 2012 Olympics: British women's water polo team study martial arts to be fighting fit for Games
    If the Spanish women’s water polo squad seem surprisingly watery-eyed at this summer’s Olympics, it is unlikely to have anything to do with chlorine in the London pool.
    By Simon Hart
    9:03AM BST 03 May 2012

    In a pre-emptive strike against the ‘wedgies’ commonly delivered by female players – where an opponent’s swimming costume is yanked violently and painfully upwards — the Spanish have apparently taken to pulling up their own costumes before they set foot in the water.

    “You get a lot of wedgies with cossies being pulled up your bottom,” explained Frankie Snell, who, as Britain’s last line of defence at centre-back, has been known to dabble in a few underhand tactics herself.

    “A lot of girls pull their costumes up and give themselves wedgies just to stop somebody else coming along and doing it. The Spanish girls tend to do that.

    “I’m sure everyone’s going to find it very entertaining seeing them walking down the poolside with their cossies right up their bottoms. I know that some of my friends who saw them play were very impressed with the Spanish girls and how they wore their costumes.”

    Water polo has never been a sport for wimps. Indeed, what goes on under the water, away from the prying eyes of referees, is as much a part of the game as the action above it.

    And very often the nefarious practices going on in the murky depths are not only illegal but wince-inducingly violent. In the men’s game, where there is not much costume to get hold of, there is only one thing left to grab.

    “All the time there is holding and grabbing,” said Fran Leighton, who has captained the Great Britain team for nine years. “You’ve just got to remember: ‘Face of an angel out of the water and then who knows what your arms are doing under the water.’”


    Team GB captain Fran Leighton

    For the most part, injuries tend to be confined to scratches, bruises and friction burns from costumes being pulled and stretched — hence the Spanish wedgie tactic – though things took a nastier turn during a recent match between Britain and Australia when GB right-wing Alex Rutlidge suffered a broken rib when she was on the receiving end of an underwater kick from an opponent.

    “The Australians are known for being the dirtiest,” Snell said. “We were recording the game and we’ve got it on film. You can see the girl pull Alex in towards her and then boot off her ribs. You saw Alex almost sink under the water.”

    Hostilities with the Australians will resume tonight when Britain meet them in the opening round of the official Olympic test event at the Water Polo Arena in Stratford, where a crowd of 4,000 in the 5,000-seat temporary venue should provide some extra spice.

    The United States and Hungary are also in action in the mini-Olympic dress rehearsal, which will give Britain’s women the chance to test themselves against some of the world’s top nations, and also some of the most physical.

    To underline just how rough things can get, the British squad have been working with a martial arts expert since the end of last year to improve their combat skills.

    “We do a lot of wrestling out of the pool,” Snell said. “We have a proper instructor and we have to do proper grappling and learn all the wrestling moves because a lot of it is about fighting.

    “You can be lying with an opponent almost horizontal in the pool holding onto each other’s shoulders, so we practise a lot of fighting.

    “We do it in these all-black skin-tight suits so we don’t burn our skin, so if anyone walked in and saw us rolling around on the floor they’d wonder what was going on. It’s really physical.”

    Snell, who was born in New Zealand but has a UK passport through her English mother, needs all the fighting know-how she can get because her job as centre-back is to mark the opposing centre-forward, often the biggest and most physical player in the team. While not petite, Snell usually gives away a big size advantage.

    “Obviously, there are some big girls I have to play against who can be at least double my size – big, strong girls, especially the Hungarians and the Australians,” the 25 year-old said.

    “It’s an advantage for them when it comes to fighting but, when it comes to being quick and going on counter-attacks, it’s an advantage for me to be smaller and lighter because if I can get in front of them I just sprint off and get a counter-attack going. But something I personally have to work on is the fighting.”

    If that means stretching the boundaries of legality to the limit, and sometimes beyond, so be it. Snell, who is the personification of charm out of the water, once broke an opponent’s nose in a match and laughs when asked if it was intentional.

    “Um, maybe 50-50! You’re trying to protect the ball by swimming with high elbows and if somebody is coming in to try to steal the ball you do a sort of half-aggressive elbow in their direction. This time it just clipped the girl’s nose and broke it.”

    Leighton believes the key is to push the laws to the edge without conceding a foul, which can lead to a powerplay for the opposing team or even dismissal for the most blatant act of violence, and not to allow yourself to shrink from the physicality of opponents.

    “I think at first a lot of the girls thought ‘oh my goodness’,” she says. “I think now, we don’t get in there first but we know how to take it and give as good as we get.

    “The last thing you want to be is an easy target so you have to start strongly and take no nonsense.”

    Britain’s women certainly appear to be giving as good as they get if their results are anything to go by. While the men’s squad continue to struggle against the world’s top water polo nations, the women qualified for this year’s European Championships for the first time in 15 years and were far from humiliated in finishing seventh in Eindhoven in January.

    “All of our games were competitive and hopefully in the next few months we can get to the stage where we can start turning defeats into wins,” Leighton said.

    “Maybe with a home crowd behind us, that can swing things a little bit in our favour. If we have the best two weeks of our life, I think we can beat anyone.”
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Ontario
    Posts
    22,250
    Women and water...truly Olympic !
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    it's triple dubya, s_r

    Women, water and wedgies.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Ontario
    Posts
    22,250
    Remember the women's water polo calender craze?
    The USA for example:
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Thanks for the reminder

    They should shoot this wedgie duel from underwater.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Judo to MMA?

    LONDON 2012: For some judo Olympians, Mixed Martial Arts may offer a new career after London
    By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, July 10, 7:19 AM

    LONDON — While most judo fighters at the upcoming London Games will be focused on trying to win a medal, others may use the Olympics as a way to establish themselves before switching to a more lucrative career in mixed martial arts.

    London-bound American judoka Travis Stevens says he is definitely thinking of jumping into MMA — but only after he wins an Olympic medal. Stevens is ranked eighth in the world and regularly trains in the fusion combat sport.

    “It really helps me with my transitions from stand-up to ground. It gives me so many more options that most judo players don’t know or understand,” Stevens said. “That gives me an edge.”

    MMA incorporates techniques from disciplines like boxing, wrestling, kick-boxing, jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, karate and judo. Its matches are often held in a cage and routinely draw more fans than boxing and professional wrestling.

    Since MMA fights often end up on the ground, judo’s throwing and grappling tactics are particularly useful. But its trash-talking, highly commercialized side isn’t for everyone and some Olympic fighters dismiss it as a distortion of martial arts.

    For others, switching to MMA may be an issue of practicality.

    After winning the United States’ first Olympic medal in judo at the 2008 Beijing Games, Ronda Rousey took a break from the Japanese martial art and became a bartender.

    “I thought that if I won an Olympic medal, life would be good,” Rousey said. “But I won the medal and life went on and nobody cared.”

    Rousey eventually got an offer to try MMA and had her first professional fight last year. She has since defeated all her opponents with a judo arm lock in less than one minute and is now a champion in the combat sport.

    “MMA was a good opportunity to use my judo skills to make a living,” she said, adding that if that didn’t work she had planned to become a rescue swimmer.

    Kayla Harrison, an American medal contender in London, said Rousey’s new career was inspiring.

    “I’m super proud of (Rousey) and super happy for her,” Harrison said. “She’s taken MMA, put it right on her shoulders and she’s going to carry it all the way.”

    Still, not all Olympic judoka are sold. Five-time world champion Teddy Riner has no plans to try MMA.

    “Fighting in a cage doesn’t appeal to me,” said the Frenchman, adding that MMA lacks the traditional respect in a martial art and promotes brutal attacks not allowed in judo. “There is no moral code in MMA.

    “I am a warrior on the tatami, but you always have to respect your opponent.”

    American taekwondo athlete Diana Lopez said she wasn’t impressed by the quality of kicks she saw in MMA fights and joked she is available for kicking tutorials.

    “You could get a lot of knockout kicks to the head with taekwondo because not a lot of MMA people expect good kicking techniques,” Lopez said.

    Her brother Steven agreed that the precision and power of taekwondo kicks could help MMA fighters. Lopez is a five-time world champion with two Olympic golds and a bronze but said he has no interest in getting into MMA, partly because it’s not specialized enough.

    “Most MMA fighters have a Thai boxing kick,” he said. “It’s very strong, but if they miss, they’re off-balance and cannot counter.”

    Taekwondo fighters, on the other hand, are known for speed and landing kicks both as part of offensive and defensive tactics.

    Lopez, once named by People magazine as one of the world’s 50 most beautiful people, also cited a less technical reason for his aversion to the cauliflower ear risks of MMA.

    “I like my face a little too much to get into MMA,” Steven Lopez said.

    ___

    AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta contributed to this report.
    OK, this is wrong: "After winning the United States’ first Olympic medal in judo at the 2008 Beijing Games, Ronda Rousey..." The U.S. has won several Olympic medals in judo.
    1964 James Bregman BRONZE
    1976 Allen Coage BRONZE
    1984 Edward Liddie BRONZE
    1984 Robert Berland SILVER
    1988 Mike Swain BRONZE
    1992 Jason Morris SILVER
    1996-2004 Jimmy Pedro BRONZE
    Perhaps the author meant the United States’ first Olympic medal in WOMEN'S judo

    BTW, I was at the Women's Gymnastic Olympic Trials in San Jose two weeks ago. It was awesome.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Grand Rapids, MI
    Posts
    981
    I agree with the woman who said MMA kicks suck...
    "The true meaning of a given movement in a form is not its application, but rather the unlimited potential of the mind to provide muscular and skeletal support for that movement." Gregory Fong

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Creating conflict

    If Munoz failed to make the Olympic team twice, what's his point? Some extraordinary athletes can be Olympic medalists as well as succeed in the cage. Ronda Rousey is a perfect example. And some athletes can only perform in one or the other. Most of us can't succeed in either. After failing to make the cut, you can't make the point that Munoz is an example of MMA is siphoning away Olympic talent.
    Wrestling in United States falls victim to mixed martial arts
    By Mark Emmons
    memmons@mercurynews.com
    Posted: 07/10/2012 10:53:32 AM PDT
    Updated: 07/10/2012 11:44:52 PM PDT

    Mark Munoz will be a little wistful when he watches the upcoming Olympics on television. A two-time state high school wrestling champion from Vallejo who later won an NCAA title at Oklahoma State, Munoz twice tried to make the U.S. Olympic team.

    "My dream was to win a gold medal representing my country, but it didn't happen," Munoz said. "I'll always consider myself a wrestler. But these are the cards I was dealt, and my storyline is different now."

    Munoz isn't complaining. He has found a second, more lucrative career in the rising sport of mixed martial arts. Munoz will fight Chris Weidman in the featured middleweight bout on the UFC on Fuel TV card at HP Pavilion on Wednesday.

    Like many of MMA's biggest stars, including South Bay heavyweight Cain Velasquez, Munoz and Weidman made the jump from amateur wrestling. They are part of a trend that has resulted in a curious juxtaposition. MMA is booming while wrestling, one of the ancient Olympic competitions, has become an endangered sport in the United States.

    "It's very hard to make a living as a wrestler," said Munoz, 34, a father of four. "I tried, and it's tough. You end up living paycheck to paycheck each month, and you really weren't even getting paychecks, just a stipend. But with MMA, you can make pretty good money."

    And as wrestling gets its 15 minutes of fame at the London Games, it's an open question if MMA is siphoning away potential American medals.

    "Does it hurt our Olympic team?" asked U.S. freestyle coach Zeke Jones. "Maybe you could say that we're losing some of our best talent. But who knows if Cain Velasquez or any of those MMA fighters would have made the team if they had kept wrestling?"

    In fact Jones prefers to view the MMA phenomenon as a potential recruiting tool that can help resuscitate U.S. wrestling, which has high hopes for London.

    "The way I look at, we get a lot of exposure through MMA," Jones said. "There's no question that wrestling gave them tools to become great fighters, and everybody notices that."

    After dominating international freestyle wrestling for decades, the United States has been in a drought -- winning just one gold medal in each of the past two Olympics. Financially strapped collegiate athletic departments have cut programs, and there's little money to be made by Olympic hopefuls as they toil in obscurity.

    Munoz knows firsthand. He tried to wrestle, raise a family and coach at UC Davis. He describes a system in which the limited financial support available was directed toward the top contender in each weight class.

    "It was impossible," he said. "If you actually are the No. 1 guy, you can make it work. But if you're not, it's a totally different story."

    Five years ago, with his own Olympic goal behind him, Munoz figured it was time to become a full-time coach when former UC Davis wrestler Urijah "The California Kid" Faber told him he would be perfect for MMA.

    "What's MMA?" Munoz asked.

    Now fighting with the nickname of "The Filipino Wrecking Machine," Munoz easily made the transition as he learned the striking element of the combat sport. He takes a 12-2 record into this fight against the 8-0 Weidman, a former Hofstra All-American who competed in the 2008 Olympic trials. Weidman, 28, decided to switch to MMA rather than keep training for this year's trials.

    Leaving the mat for the steel cage has become common. According to the UFC, more than 68 percent of its fighters wrestled at least in high school. Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz are among the former collegiate wrestlers who became MMA trailblazers -- helping to make the sport palatable for the mainstream public.

    Velasquez, who was an All-American at Arizona State, points out that there's only one high school and college sport that puts athletes on a path for MMA: wrestling.

    "It really does give you a little taste of what it takes to be a mixed martial artist," said Velasquez, 29, who will fight to reclaim the UFC heavyweight title in the fall. "You learn the value of hard work and just how hard to you can push your body. It's the same thing in MMA."

    The bonus is being able to pay your bills. But Jones, a 1992 silver medalist, counters that Olympic glory can be priceless.

    "You're representing something more than yourself," Jones said. "I'm sure there's a lot more money and certainly a lot more media attention in MMA. It's just so much bigger. But we have a group of wrestlers who love the sport because of the same values they had as little kids."

    Boosters also have created a Living the Dream Medal Fund to encourage wrestlers to stick around. The reward system includes a top payout of $250,000 for an Olympic gold medal. Performances have improved as the United States finished third at last year's world championships and now heads for the Games led by defending 74-kilogram world champion Jordan Burroughs.

    Someday wrestling might even be joined in the five-ringed circus by its MMA cousin. UFC head Dana White is in favor of his sport becoming an Olympic event. But the process of adding sports to the Games is lengthy.

    Meanwhile, Munoz will be paying close attention to the wrestling competition in London.

    "I know all those guys on the team," he said. "I do miss the camaraderie of the wrestling world. Those were the best times in my life."

    But now he has business in the cage.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Judo crib notes

    Now I can just read this and I'll be able to act like I know my stuff if any judo gets televised in the U.S.
    2012 Summer Olympic Games Preview - Judo
    One of three different martial arts to be included in the Olympic Games, judo is a combat sport with an ultimate goal of taking down an opponent and holding them in submission using a number of different techniques.
    By Sports Network; The Sports Network
    Published: 07/10/12 2:01 pm

    One of three different martial arts to be included in the Olympic Games, judo is a combat sport with an ultimate goal of taking down an opponent and holding them in submission using a number of different techniques.

    Judo was originally created in Japan in 1882 by Dr. Jigoro Kano who used the ancient Japanese martial art of jujitsu as inspiration. Kano took some of the more dangerous aspects of the combat style to create judo, which translates to "the way of suppleness."

    It took a great deal of time before judo became an official Olympic sport with it first making an appearance in the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo. It would not become a permanent fixture in the Olympics until 1972 after being left off the program during the 1968 Mexico City Games. Women's judo waited even longer, not being added until the 1992 Barcelona Games.

    Historically, Japan, has dominated the sport it invented with 35 gold medals, which is more than three times as many as the second best country -- France (10 gold medals).

    Those trends didn't change much in 2008 as Japan took home the most gold medals (four) and total medals (seven) during the judo competition in Beijing. South Korea finished with four total medals and Brazil claimed three, although all were bronze.

    Japan will again be a force in London as one of three countries, along with Brazil and South Korea, that have a judoka in each of the 14 weight classes. Japan will be especially dangerous on the women's side where they have the top-ranked qualifier in four of the six weight classes.

    Russia will also have a good shot at getting some athletes to the podium especially in the 66kg weight class where Alim Gadanov and Musa Mogushkov are both ranked at the top of those that qualified for the London Games.

    Returning with his sights aimed to improve for Brazil will be Leandro Guilherio (73kg), who has earned bronze medals in each of the last two Olympic Games and comes to London as the top ranked fighter in his weight class.

    The United State has never been able to capture the gold in judo, but has 10 medals (three silver, seven bronze) in the sport.

    This may be the year that the U.S. has its best chance at getting a gold medal with expectations higher than ever heading to London. Those expectations are especially elevated on the women's side.

    Kayla Harrison (78kg) enters the London Games ranked No. 2 in the world and is also the first USA judo athlete to go into the Olympic Games as reigning world champion since current USA coach Jimmy Pedro did so in 1999.

    Harrison captured gold at the 2010 Senior World Championship as part of a heavily decorated year for the 21-year-old. Harrison also won gold at seven different competitions including the USA World Cup and the U.S. Open in 2010.

    She has kept it up this year winning the 2012 World Cup in Budapest, and after being slowed by an MCL injury while training in Japan in March, has clearly rebounded after taking the top spot in the 2012 Rio Grand Slam in June.

    Marti Malloy (57kg) may not have as many medals but comes into this year's games with some success under her belt after earning the gold in the 2011 USA Judo World Cup as well as the silver medal in the 2011 Pan American Judo Championships.

    It won't just be the women contending for medals for the U.S. this year, though.

    Travis Stevens (81kg) gives the men their best chance at a medal. He is currently ranked No. 5 in the world and had a strong year in which he earned a number of gold medals. More important than those finishes may be the silver medal Stevens won in the Moscow Grand Prix, an event that best recreates the level of competition Stevens will face in London. He also turned in a second- place finish at the 2012 Rio Grand Slam in June.

    Nick Delpopolo (73kg) and Kyle Vashkulat (100kg) are also both solid competitors on the men's side. Expectations are not as high for these two even though Delpopolo finished tied for fifth in the 2012 Rio Grand Slam. Vashkulat's best finish in international competition is team bronze medals at the 2010 and 2009 Senior Pan American Games.

    For Team Canada, opportunities for medals will be more numerous as it sends eight judokas to London highlighted by Nicholas Tritton (73kg), who will be making his second Olympic appearance after also competing in the 2008 Beijing Games.

    Tritton lost to Yuko in the first round in 2008, but he'll be looking to improve on that result to build on the medals he won at the 2010 and 2011 Pan American Judo Championships.

    Also representing Canada on the men's side will be Sasha Mehmedovic, Sergio Pessoa, Antoine Valois-Fortier and Alexandre Emond.

    Like Tritton, this will be the second time around in the Olympic Games for Mehmedovic (66kg), who also competed in Beijing. The 27-year-old had a better run in 2008, making it all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual silver medalist Benjamin Darbelet of France.

    Pessoa (60kg) is the son of Sergio Pessoa Sr. who competed for Brazil in the 1988 Seoul games in the same weight class as his son. This will be Pessoa's first taste of Olympic competition. It will also be the Olympic debut for Valois-Fortier (81kg) and Emond (90kg).

    Amy Cotton (78 kg) gives the Canadian women their best chance at a medal. Cotton lost in the quarterfinals of the 2004 Athens Games, but did not appear at the Beijing Olympics. At 32, Cotton is one of the older athletes in the event, but with a gold medal in the 2012 UF Grand Slam in Moscow she clearly has enough left to compete in London.

    Joliane Melancon (57kg) and Kelita Zupanic (70kg) will be able to look to Cotton for leadership as the two make their first Olympic appearances.

    Melancon at 26 has some extensive experience on the international stage with four years as a senior athlete for Canada. Melancon's top result in those years was a silver medal finish at the 2010 Hungaria World Cup. In 2011, she earned bronze medals at both the Miami World Cup and Pan American Championships.

    Zupanic is the youngest judoka fighting for Canada in London in 2012. The 21- year-old was a four-time national junior champion before making it to the senior circuit. She appeared at the 2011 World Championships and placed second in the 2011 World Cup Sao Paulo.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  13. #28

    2012 Summer Olympics

    This is what the Summer Games are about:


  14. #29
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Ontario
    Posts
    22,250
    Lets not forget water polo:
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Ontario
    Posts
    22,250
    And the pole vault:






    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •