By Marlene Taveras

Lin Miranda, actor principal del espectáculo ganador de los Premios Tony 2008, “In The Heights,” le presentó una botella personalizada de Johnnie Walker Blue Label al catcher de los Yankees, Jorge Posada al terminar una reciente presentación de la obra. Posada, quien ha estado con los New York Yankees por 13 años, aceptó su regalo el cual portaba un mensaje personal de parte del elenco.

El grabado en la botella lee “paciencia y fe,” un mensaje ubicuo a lo largo del show. Johnnie Walker tiene una larga tradición de celebrar el progreso personal de los Latinos y ayudar a preservar la historia e inmensurable influencia que tales jugadores y actores han tenido en el público Hispano. Celebra a las personas que te inspiran.

Lin Miranda, lead actor of the 2008 Tony award winning musical “In The Heights,” presented an engraved bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label to Yankee’s catcher, Jorge Posada after a recent performance. Posada, who has been with the New York Yankees for 13 years, accepted the gift that featured a personal message from the cast members. The personalized bottle reads “patience and faith”, a message that is ubiquitous throughout the musical. Johnnie Walker has a longstanding tradition of honoring the personal progress of Latinos and helping to preserve the history and profound influence that such players and actors have had on the Hispanic population.

Celebrate the people that inspire you.

At least 12 Premier League football players are gay but are afraid to admit it, a former star has claimed.

The dozen are afraid to admit their homosexuality to their team mates for fear of the reaction they would receive, former Chelsea and Celtic star Paul Elliott said.

 

	Paul Elliott, pictured here at a news conference on racism, is an adviser to the Equality and Human Rights Commission
While Elliott refused to reveal their names himself, the stars were challenged to come out to help rid football of homophobia. The comments came at a forum, organised by the FA, to launch an anti-homophobia drive. The FA extended its Kick It Out campaign, which has set up in 1993 to tackle racism, to combat homophobia - dubbed the 'last taboo' in the English game.

The move comes after fans hurled abuse at Portsmouth player Sol Campbell at a game against Tottenham Hotspurs, his former club, last month. Hampshire police and the FA are continuing to investigate the event.

It is clear that Elliott, who advises the Equality and Human Rights Commission, wants homophobia to be addressed with the same vigour as racism.

Justin Fashanu, the first major football player to openly admit he was gay, committed suicide

'One or two footballers have come to me to ask for advice over my time in football,' he said. 'Quite simply the next step of action would be to do exactly what Kick It Out has done. It's not re-inventing the wheel.

'The conversations I have had with FA Chairman Lord Triesman have left me very impressed. It is clear he intends to be proactive on the subject of homophobia.' Justin Fashanu, the first football star to come out and openly admit he was gay to the public, committed suicide in 2000.

The rising star, who some believed would have gone on to play for England, experienced hostility from other players in the 1990s when his sex life came into focus. He was questioned by American police when a 17-year-old accused him of sexual assault.

Although the charges were later dropped, Fashanu protested that he was presumed guilty and wrote in his suicide note that he 'did not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family'.

Human rights activist Peter Tatchell, 56, said: 'Bigotry has no legitimate place in sport. 'The FA could privately sound out several gay and bisexual Premier League players about a collective coming out.'

England goalkeeper David James, 38, said football is one of the last professions where homosexuality is still a taboo. He said: 'In every other entertainment industry we have gay stars. Why should football be any different?'

But former manager Alan Smith warned that being openly gay would be a heavy burden to football players. 'You can get drunk and beat up your wife and that's quite acceptable, but if someone were to say: "I'm gay," it's considered awful. It's ridiculous.'

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SYDNEY, Australia: Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, who won a gold medal at Beijing with a remarkable final dive at the Water Cube, says he is surprised but understands why more athletes have not admitted to being gay.

"I was actually very surprised I was the only 'out' male at the Olympic Games," Mitcham, 20, said in Wednesday's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

 

"It's a little bit sad, I think, because statistically there should be a lot more but, it's each to one's own. I'm not going to pressure anybody else to come out of the closet because it's their own choice. I'm proud to be there ... that lots of other people can look up to." Mitcham scored four perfect 10s on his final dive to win the 10-meter platform and prevent a Chinese sweep of the eight dive gold medals at the Olympics. The Australian hit the toughest dive anyone did on the final night — a backward 2 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists.

Mitcham recently signed with sports manager Dave Flaskas, who looks after the career of five-time Olympic gold medal swimmer Ian Thorpe. Flaskas says he expects similar offers that he would get for other athletes he represents, including Tour de France and Olympic cyclist Cadel Evans and swimmer Leisel Jones. "They all have different challenges, they all have different personalities, it's not going to be a quick grab for deals (but) obviously there is a priority because of the financial situation," Flaskas said. Mitcham says having some sponsorship money will give him more training time as he prepares for the 2012 Olympics in London. He juggled his training for Beijing with an office job. "Money was a huge stress leading into the Olympics for two years and for that to not be a massive burden on me leading into the next Olympics would be nice," Mitcham said. "But that's an ideal world and who knows what's going to happen?" Source link

 

Washington has been chosen as the host city for the 2009 Gay Soccer World Championship, local media said on Friday.

"On behalf of the residents of the District of Columbia, we look forward to hosting this prestigious event," said Washington D.C. mayor, Adrian Fenty.

The International Gay Lesbian Football Association tournament is scheduled to take place June 14-21 next year. The city held the first ever Gay Soccer tournament in 1997.

"In addition to promoting good sportsmanship, it affirms our city's reputation as being inclusive and tolerant. We look forward to welcoming the world to our nation's capital," Fenty said.

This year, the Gay Soccer World Championship was hosted in London, with 40 teams representing 13 countries. The English side Stonewall Lions beat Argentinean side SAF Gay 5-0 in the men's final.

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Africa had to wait until day seven of competition to win its first gold medal of the 2008 Olympics.

By Adnan Nawaz

The entire continent celebrated as Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the women's 10,000m in the Bird's Nest Stadium, and then, on day eight, there was more glory for Africa to enjoy as Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry took gold while setting a new world record in the women's 200m backstroke.

It had been a long wait for Africa, but when triumph was finally achieved there was great evidence of continental solidarity among the African media here in Beijing.

It got me wondering, is there a greater sense of continental kinship in Africa than anywhere else in the world?

I asked a few of my fellow journalists whether they thought African solidarity was a greater force than European solidarity. African journalists certainly agreed with that premise, whereas European journalists were a bit more reluctant to agree, although often after a few minutes conversation, they too seemed to grudgingly accept that it might possibly be true.

What do you think? For example, imagine you're watching the final of the 1500m and the competitor from your own country comes fourth in an agonisingly close blanket finish. You're obviously disappointed, but would you take any solace from the fact that a runner from your own continent actually won gold in the event?

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BEIJING - WHEN she steps onto the starting block at Beijing's Olympic Water Cube pool, Cameroonian freestyler Antoinette Guedia will be up against much bigger rivals and a pool twice as long as she's used to.

 

Aged 12 years and 10 months, Guedia is the youngest athlete competing at the 2008 Games and she can count the number of times she's competed in an Olympic-sized pool on one hand.

'It is a bit overwhelming. I'm little,' said Guedia in lilting French, fiddling with the green, red and yellow-beaded 'Africa' necklace she wears as a lucky charm.

She will be up against swimmers of all ages in the women's 50 metres freestyle on Friday, including 41-year-old Dara Torres who has already won silver for the United States in the 4x100 freestyle relay.

'To be here at my age is amazing. I'm proud,' Guedia told Reuters at the athletes' village, where the volleyball players and weightlifters strolling by dwarf her tiny, girlish frame.

Nicknamed 'Champion' by her excited schoolfriends in Cameroon, Guedia still trains in the same 22-metre hotel pool that she first learned to swim in, aged 8.

The outdoor pool is the biggest available in Douala, Cameroon's biggest city, where her family lives. Before arriving in Beijing, Guedia had only swum in a 50-metre pool the day she competed in the 2007 African Games in Algiers.

Not that a lack of legroom has ever held her back.

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BEIJING - Lisa Leslie set a U.S. Olympic record going 7-for-7 from the field as the women's team continued its unblemished run through the Beijing Games with a 97-41 victory against Mali.

Leslie finished with 16 points as the U.S. won its 28th straight Olympic contest; the last loss was against the Unified Team in the semifinals of the 1992 Barcelona Games. The Americans have run over their first three opponents winning by an average of 47 points. They routed the Czech Republic, China, and now Mali.

 

Aminata Sininta of Mali tries to make some room between Katie Smith, left, and Lisa Leslie, during the United States' 97-41 victory in an Olympic preliminary round game Thursday in Beijing.

"We continue to stress our defense and really work hard at that end of the floor," U.S. coach Anne Donovan said.

Katie Smith (2000) and Nikki McCray (1996) held the record for highest field goal percentage, each going 6-for-6 from the field.

"Another record?" Leslie said with a smile. "Oh well, records are meant to be broken. It feels good, but we just wanted to get the win. We wanted to come out and perform well."

The U.S. plays Spain next on Friday.

The USA's Sylvia Fowles (13) steals the ball from Mali center Nagnouma Coulibaly, right, during the second quarter of the Americans' 97-41 win.

"They are getting better each game, and what you can expect from Spain is -- they are athletic, they play with a lot of passion and energy and feed off it," U.S. coach Anne Donovan said. "We've played them quite a bit through the years and we know we'll have to play well to move on to the next game."

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Togo has hailed French-born Benjamin Boukpeti for winning the West African country's first ever Olympic medal and said it would make sure he was suitably honoured.

Until the white water kayaker's bronze medal triumph, many Togolese had no idea who he was bar the odd mention in the sports pages of local newspapers.

 

Born to a Togolese father and resident in France, Boukpeti has been to Togo only once, as a baby.

Boukpeti, 27, who chose to compete for Togo in Beijing when it became clear he was too old for France, said he now had a "very good reason" to visit the African nation after stunning the field and spectators at the Olympics.

The first non-European male kayaker to win an Olympic slalom medal, Boukpeti – the world number 56 in his sport – received by far the biggest cheers from the packed crowd.

"We are very pleased with Benjamin Boukpeti's achievement," said Eloi Salakoffi, director of sport at Togo's Sport and Leisure Ministry.

Benjamin Boukpeti of Togo breaks his paddle as he celebrates his third place in men's kayak final at the fact that won his country's first ever Olympic medal.

"We will have to make sure he is suitably honoured," said Salakoffi, adding Togo would do all it could to arrange for Boukpeti to visit the country to celebrate.

"I've never heard of this person, but having a compatriot win a medal at the Olympic Games is a real honour for us," said Yves Gbetounou, a high school science student in the capital Lome.

Boukpeti's Olympic medal victory was a rare sporting success for Togo.

The national football team made it to the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006 only to go on strike over pay and almost miss a match, causing the coach to walk out.

A year later the sports minister, football officials, fans and journalists were killed in a helicopter crash in Sierra Leone after an African Nations Cup qualifying match.

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By Grahame L. Jones

BEIJING --The width of a crossbar made all the difference in the world on Wednesday.

Had forward Charlie Davies’ last-minute header off a Dax McCarty free kick been just a couple of inches lower, the U.S. might have tied Nigeria and earned a place in the quarterfinals of the Olympic men's soccer tournament.

Maurice Edu of the U.S. and Nigeria's Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi, right, fight for a header during their Group B game Wednesday evening in Beijing. Photo by: Petr David Josek

But the ball clanged off the bar at the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing and rebounded away, taking with it American hopes as Nigeria survived to win the match, 2-1, in front of 48,096.

That result, combined with the Netherlands’ 1-0 victory over Japan, sent the Dutch and the Nigerians through to the last eight and ended U.S. participation in the tournament.

The American team’s hopes were dealt an early blow when defender Michael Orozco was ejected by German referee Wolfgang Starg for throwing an elbow into a Nigerian player just three minutes into the match. The foul occurred at midfield and was totally unnecessary.

The red card caused Coach Peter Nowak’s side to have to play short-handed for 87 minutes plus stoppage time. It was too great a wall to climb, even in China.

But the Americans gave it everything they had. Goalkeeper Brad Guzan was in phenomenal form, time and again making world-class saves.

There was nothing he could do about Nigeria’s two goals, however. The first came in the 39th minute when Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi, Nigeria’s liveliest player, got around defender Michael Parkhurst to the right of the American net and then provided the pass that left Promise Isaac with the simplest tap-in for the goal.

Maurice Edu of the U.S., right, fought for the ball with Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi of Nigeria during their match on Wednesday.

The second came in the 79th minute and again Parkhurst was the unfortunate victim, this time slipping and falling in the penalty area while trying to tackle the ball away from Victor Obinna, who curled a shot past Guzan at the far post.

The U.S., playing inspired soccer considering it was exhausted from having to make up for Orozco’s absence, managed to pull a goal back in the 88th minute on a penalty kick by Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan after Nigeria goalkeeper Ambruse Vanzekin had fouled Maurice Edu.

The Americans kept pressuring Nigeria in search of the tying goal that would have sent them into the quarterfinals at the expense of the Dutch, but their luck ran out when Davies’ header sailed just a little too high and hit the crossbar instead of the back of the net.

Overall, Nigeria outshot the U.S., 20-8, but it had only a 5-4 advantage in shots on target.

The U.S. finished with four points after defeating Japan, 1-0, and tying the Netherlands, 2-2, and while the team did not make it out of the group play, its performance in the tournament was worthy of a quarterfinal place.

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By M.A. Mehta

BEIJING - When Cullen Jones powered through the water Sunday night, chasing history, the charismatic kid who learned to swim in Newark could hear the roar from a half a world away. Amid the deafening cheers from the thousands squeezed into the National Aquatics Center, Jones felt the support from the scores of people that he touched along an incredible and unlikely path that began in inner city pools and led him here to the world's biggest stage.

An ambassador for African-American swimmers, Jones wanted to shatter stereotypes one lap at a time, eager to spread his message that, yeah, black kids can swim, too.

He also wanted to help out a buddy on his own personal mission.

Jones accomplished both by helping the 4X100 freestyle relay team win the gold medal in a comeback for the ages. In a race soaked with drama and subplots, the Americans shattered the world record they had set just hours earlier in the prelims, blistering through the water in 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds.

Trailing after three legs, anchor Jason Lezak erased a huge gap to overtake and out-touch French world record holder Alain Bernard to set off a wild celebration. A few days after Bernard declared his team would "smash" the Americans in the finals, the U.S. team authored a stunning chapter in these Olympics.

"We beat a team in most people's mind was not beatable," said U.S. coach Eddie Reese. "It was amazing. (Lezak's leg) had to be the best ever and it was the best ever. That's the kind of anchor you dream of."

Jones became the second African-American swimmer to win a gold medal as the team kept Michael Phelps' quest for an unprecedented eight golds alive. But it was Lezak's fastest split in history at 46.06 seconds and mad dash in the final frenzied moments when he hunted down Bernard after being behind by more than eight-tenths of a second that had everyone buzzing.

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Lomong's parents who had, long ago, assumed he was dead, held a funeral and buried what remnants, like a child's beads, that he had left behind. Last December, Lomong participated in a burial in reverse as his plot was unearthed and blessed.

By Thomas Boswell

For seven years, China has dreamed of orchestrating every detail, athletic and political, of its glorious Opening Ceremonies to the Olympics. Now, one lean 1,500-meter runner from the United States, chosen by his teammates in an act of open defiance, may steal the show. Lopez Lomong, one of the Sudanese "Lost Boys" and a member of the anti-genocide group Team Darfur, has been chosen by his 595 U.S. Olympic teammates to carry our flag on Friday. What, we couldn't find a Tibetan monk on the team?

What a coincidence. Just hours before U.S. team captains met to decide on the flag carrier, Chinese officials rescinded the visa of Joey Cheek, a speedskating gold medalist who carried the U.S. flag at the Closing Ceremonies at the 2006 Winter Games and later co-founded Team Darfur. After that slap at Cheek, U.S. athletes here had almost nothing to say on the topic. One even referred to the subject as "the question they warned us about."

Perhaps they didn't answer individually. But the entire U.S. team gave its answer -- as a group and in capital letters -- with Lomong's selection. You jerk Cheek's visa. We put Lomong in your face. And do it proudly.

You have to hand it to the Chinese Communist Party: They certainly know how to muzzle Americans. Cheek, a Princeton grad, might have held a seminar. Four billion people around the world will see Lomong carrying our flag.

Far more than that, untold millions of people, in the next few days, will hear Lomong's life story, in his own words. In a half-hour monologue here on Friday, just 10 hours before he was to carry the flag, Lomong told a tale of grief, endurance, redemption and almost unimaginable hardship that captures in human terms every aspect of the Darfur tragedy. And without Lomong saying a single "controversial" political word, he highlighted China's culpability by cynically supporting the Sudanese regime as partner in the vast oil company PetroChina

When U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth was asked if the selection of Lomong was an expression by U.S. athletes about their views on China's human rights abuses, Ueberroth said: "The athletes can answer that better themselves. But either way, it's fine. Either way it's good. Lopez earned the right to carry the flag. You [media] folks can go with it. We'll get out of your way."

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Programs for minority youth, such as sailing, become off-limits

By Felicia Thomas-Lynn

Holly Davenport faces the same prospect each summer.

Davenport, director of the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, which offers free lessons to low-income, primarily African-American youths, struggles to fill the slots.

The reason: Many can't swim.

A combination of factors - including parents who can't swim, limited access to pools and even a lower socioeconomic level - are largely influencing a minority swimming gap, according to a new survey.

Almost 60% of African-American children living in metropolitan areas can't swim, nearly twice the rate of white non-swimmers, the survey says.

John Cruzat, national diversity specialist for USA Swimming, the governing body of competitive swimming in the U.S., which commissioned the survey, said when the agency looked at the field of competitive swimmers, it lacked diversity.

"Communities of color typically didn't gravitate to the sport," Cruzat said.

That, coupled with staggering statistics that show African-American children drown at a rate nearly three times that of white children, made finding the reasons for the swimming gap more critical, he said.

Locally, from 2004 through 2007, five out of the six children who drowned in Milwaukee County were African-American.

Garry Henning, grandfather of one of those victims, Quadrevion Henning, said that although his 12-year-old grandson knew how to swim, his friend, Purvis Virginia Parker, 11, who drowned alongside him, did not.

"They concluded that he had drowned trying to save Purvis," said Henning, executive director of the Quadrevion Henning Parker Foundation for Child Safety and Awareness.

The USA Swimming survey, which included responses from 1,772 children ages 6 to 16, found that 31% of white children, 58% of African-American children and 56% of Hispanic children surveyed were considered at-risk because of their lack of swimming skills.

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Cullen Jones was 5 when a horrific water park accident became a lifelong motivation.

By Brad Townsend

The inner tube Jones was riding pinned him upside down. His father, Ronald, and a lifeguard pulled him out and resuscitated him.

Cullen Jones nearly drowned while swimming as a child. He hopes his Olympic efforts help raise awareness about USA Swimming's campaign to promote youth water safety.

Now Jones, 24, is headed to Beijing as a member of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team, the second male African-American Olympic swimming participant ever and an advocate for a very personal cause.

As spokesman for USA Swimming's Make A Splash campaign, the Bronx native informs anyone who will listen that nearly six in 10 black Americans cannot swim, and that African-American children are three times as likely to drown as white kids.

He hoped to make a more visible statement by qualifying in two events. But after setting the 50-meter freestyle American record in a U.S. trials preliminary heat, he finished third in the final.

"But I think because there's so much buzz around Beijing, that is really going to help the African-American community when it comes to swimming," he said. "There's going to be more and more people tuning in."

Jones' father died of lung cancer in 2000, so he never saw his son earn a scholarship and degree at North Carolina State or become the first African American to hold a long-course swimming world record.

Jones has "41," his father's basketball jersey number, tattooed on his back because "I always wanted him to be part of my swimming career."

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By Andrew Downie

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Some co-workers are sitting around their office here on a recent Monday afternoon, dissecting the weekend’s soccer matches and picking their top players.

One of the men likes a talented fullback. Another wants a player who has been scoring regularly for a top second division team. And the boss is keen to sign a teenage defender whose contract is up soon.

It could be a fantasy football draft in any office in America — only these trades are real. This is the office of Traffic, a Brazilian company leading a new, and controversial, wave of investment in Brazilian soccer.

Armed with 20 million reals of their own money (about $12 million) and another 20 million reals they hope to get from investors, Traffic is buying up contracts of young soccer players all over Brazil. They then lend the players to teams, who pay the players a salary and also allow them to showcase their talents. If they are recruited by a big European team, Traffic and its partners reap the largest share of the transfer fee. (The player, as usual, gets any signing bonus, and an often hefty salary.)

“Instead of investing in the stock market or real estate,” Julio Mariz, Traffic’s president, said, “these people are investing in buying the economic rights to football players.”

Similar efforts to invest in individual athletes have been discussed in baseball in the United States and in soccer in the United Kingdom recently, but none of those efforts has taken off as they have in Brazil.

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Tyson Gay, 200 metres world champion, had his dream of an Olympics double end in agony when he crashed out of the US 200m quarter-finals in Oregon.

Gay, who had already qualified for the Beijing Games in the 100 metres, had run only 12 strides, about 40 metres, of the 200 metres when he grabbed at his left hamstring and tumbled to track with a severe cramp.

The 25-year-old lay there for several minutes before he was taken away from the track in a cart.

"Before I went out on the track I felt a little tightness in my hamstring so I had kind of a bad feeling," Gay said in a statement.

"When I came off [the first part of] the curve the first two steps were fine, and then I felt it, sort of a pull, about 40 meters in.

"Once I was on the ground it didn't hurt as much as when it happened."

The sprinter immediately returned to his hotel room to begin treatment with ice and compression.

"I'll just get it worked on for a few days," said Gay.

The injury was a major blow to US track hopes in Beijing since under the strict qualifying procedure of the trials only the top three finishers qualify for the Olympic team regardless of circumstances.

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By by Andrew McGarry

When it comes to media coverage of the Olympics, athletes' names can be an absolute minefield. Some cause commentators to twist their tongues in knots, while others ... seem to trigger unfortunate results on internet websites.

Tyson Gay became the unofficial world's fastest man on the weekend after clocking 9.68 seconds for the 100m at the US Olympic trials, beating the previous all-time record of 9.69 seconds set by Obadele Thompson of the Bahamas in 1996.

Neither run constitutes a world record since they were wind-assisted by more than the legal limit of 2m/sec.

Unfortunately for the people at the American Family Association's OneNewsNow.com, the Christian website's style for stories is to replace the word gay with the word homosexual. So when Associated Press wrote some colourful copy on Gay's success at the Olympic trials, it triggered chaos.

References to "Tyson Homosexual'' were quickly plastered across the website, prompting complaints from a variety of sources including OutSports.com, a Web site dedicated to gay athletes.

The errors have now been fixed, except for the fact that typing "Tyson Homosexual'' into the search engine at OneNewsNow.com still brings up the following headlines:

* Homosexual breaks Greene's US record in 100 at trials

* Homosexual sets US record in 100 with 9.77

* Close call: Homosexual barely averts major flop in 100

This has to be a nightmare for news organisations and all people covering the Games. This case is an example of inappropriate internet filtration, but the reaction of most Games reporters could well be "There but for the grace of God go I''.

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By Jeff Faraudo

EUGENE, Ore. — No one in track and field has been more of a sure thing over the past four years than Jeremy Wariner.

But the defending Olympic and world champion was dealt an unexpected blow Thursday night in the finals of the 400-meter dash at the Olympic track and field trials, upset by 22-year-old LaShawn Merritt.

Merritt took the lead on the back stretch and never let Wariner catch him, crossing in 44.00 seconds as a stunned Hayward Field crowd of 20,927 cheered. Wariner ran 44.20.

"I'm not surprised I won,'' Merritt said. "I train to win — that's my motto. I didn't feel like I was the underdog coming in. In my mind, I'm always the favorite."

Wariner, whose goals for this season are to repeat as Olympic gold medalist and break Michael Johnson's world record, waited nearly an hour before coming to the interview room.

Shawn Crawford and LaShawn Merritt of the USA run together during a training session ahead of the Melbourne Telstra A-Series meeting at Olympic Park February 21, 2007 in Melbourne, Australia.  Photo by Aaron Francis

"Everybody wants to come out and win. My main goal was to have fun and make the team,'' he said. "You win some, you lose some."

Merritt said Wariner was gracious afterward. "Jeremy's a great guy. He's not a poor sportsman. After every race we congratulate each other, no matter who wins,'' he said. `"We're all going to Beijing, that's the good part.''

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African American Jack Johnson, defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in 1908 in the World Boxing Championship. This initiated the quest to find a "Great White Hope" to defeat Johnson. James Jeffries, a leading white fighter, came out of retirement to answer the challenge. Johnson won their fight on July 4, 1910.

 

News of Jeffries's defeat ignited numerous incidents of white violence against blacks. However, black poet William Waring Cuney captured the exuberant African American reaction in his poem, "My Lord, What a Morning":

O my Lord
What a morning,
O my Lord,
What a feeling,
When Jack Johnson
Turned Jim Jeffries'
Snow-white face
to the ceiling

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By Matthew Futterman

Cullen Jones, born in the Bronx to compete in Bejing

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Perched atop a starting block in his black, full-body racing suit, Cullen Jones waits for the signal, then switches off all thought for the next 22 seconds, letting his body tear through 50 meters of flat blue water without a single breath.

"When I'm up there now," says Mr. Jones, "it's got to be all about Cullen."

Cullen Jones, a favorite at next week's U.S. Olympic trials, is trying to make the team and a difference in public health.

And yet, as hard as he tries, it never will be. For most of the 1,200 swimmers at the Olympic trials next week in Omaha, Neb., only their individual hopes are on the line.

But when Mr. Jones competes for the 50- and 100-meter freestyle races, he feels as if he will also be swimming for millions of black children in the U.S. whose health and welfare are at stake. Mr. Jones, 24 years old, is a key figure in the effort to combat a longstanding problem: the high drowning rate among black children, which is more than three times the rate of white children.

In recent weeks, the Centers for Disease Control have issued new warnings about the problem. In 2005, there were 3,582 unintentional drownings in the U.S., according to the CDC. More than one in four fatal drownings were children 14 and younger.

No black swimmer has dedicated himself to this issue more than Mr. Jones, who last year was hailed the second-fastest swimmer in the world when he took silver in the 50-meter freestyle race at the world championships. Now, after an up-and-down winter, he must go up against proven Olympic veterans in races where only the top two winners get to go to Beijing.

If he gets to Beijing and excels there, Mr. Jones will provide the African-American community with a champion swimmer it can hold up as a symbol of the absurdity of old biases about blacks and swimming. Anthony Ervin's gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle race in Sydney didn't resonate in that way; he is one-quarter African-American.

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By Rick Broadbent

The cast list for the attempted rebirth of sprinting at the Olympic Games is down to a trio. In one corner is Tyson Gay, the fastest ever man in the United States and the 100 metres world champion on the back of receiving training schedules from his jailbird coach. In the other is the tag-team Jamaican combo of Usain Bolt, the new world record-holder, and Asafa Powell, the old one. “You can expect some real fireworks,” Powell said as he previewed the expected three-way battle in Beijing.

Bolt won his showdown with Powell at the Jamaican trials, but their impressive times of 9.85 and 9.97sec respectively were overshadowed by Gay's contribution in Oregon. The softly spoken sprinter ran 9.77 in his quarter-final at the US Olympic trials, breaking Maurice Greene's national record and sending a signal to the only two men to have run faster than him.

However, such is the cut-throat nature of the US trials that Gay was not assured of his place in the Olympic team going into the final in the early hours of this morning. He needed to finish in the first three to be assured of his place and, while that may have appeared a formality, Gay almost failed to make it to the quarter-finals.

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