Super Star Athlete Retires.....

When humans are three-years-old we're just learning how to walk, talk and identify objects around the house but three-year-old American thoroughbred race horse Super Saver has the prestigous 2010 Kentucky Derby Championship Title to put on his mantle. After winning the Derby in May Super Saver and his jockey Calvin Borel, who won his third Derby title in four years with Super Saver's victory, went on to race in the Preakness Stakes. Saver finished eighth in the Preakness race making him the most recent horse to not win the Triple Crown. The Triple Crown has not been reached since 1978's Affirmed.


Super Saver leads the race

After losses in both the Peakness Stakes and the Haskell Invitational Super Saver had a full ventenary exam, which revealed that he had bruising and inflamation in all four of his cannon bones. According to ABC News the colt would have an anticipated full recovery but owners and trainers felt that there would be a slight risk Saver would not return to the same form. ESPN said instead of racing Super Saver would become a stud horse, a stallion that is kept for breeding, but no stud fee has been set yet. Saver retires with $1,889,766 earned from 3 wins in 10 starts with two second-place finishes and one third to his name. Though fans may be disappointed in Saver sitting the sidelines, owners and trainers think he has "nothing more to prove". Hopefully he'll breed champions that will take down the Triple Crown.

Video of Super Saver and jockey Calvin Borel winning the 2010 Kentucky Derby:

Tennis witnesses change in U.S. Davis Cup Captain

After serving 10 years as tennis's U.S. Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe has stepped down. McEnroe, the 38th captain of the Davis Cup, will be replaced by 1990's Davis Cup star, Jim Courier. For non-tennis followers, the Davis Cup is an international team event in men's tennis run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) .  The United States has had the most tournament wins, with 32 victories, and most finishes as runner-up, with 29 times. Spain won the Davis Cup last year so the resignation of McEnroe may be Courier's chance to bring the Davis Cup back to the U.S. as captain.


McEnroe (left) will leave the Davis Cup Captain role to Courier (right)

The New York Times story on the captain change showed both player's respect for McEnroe and the excitement of Courier's arrival. Players like Andre Agassi called Courier “an inspired choice.” ESPN also ran the captain change story where Andy Roddick, 2003 U.S. Open Champion, tweeted: "jim courier new davis cup captain.... great choice!" In the same article Agassi also said "Jim has the experience, integrity and focus needed to bring the U.S. Davis Cup to new heights. I know firsthand that a man with Jim's credentials as a warrior and a champion will bring out the best in our players and our fans." Agassi is referring to Courier's excellence and dominance of the tennis world.  Courier won four Grand Slam singles titles and he holds the record for being the youngest person to have reached the finals of all four Grand Slam singles tournaments. In the Davis Cup alone Courier helped lead the U.S. to titles twice in '92 and '95. Courier holds a 13-1 record in Davis Cup championship play. With these kind of credentials and this kind of confidence from players, that Courier hopes will commit themselves to the 2011 Davis Cup Championship, Courier and the U.S. team look positive to come out of the championship with gold.

Top U.S. players Roddick (left) and Agassi (Right) are excited about
Courier as new Davis Cup Captain

NASCAR drivers take foot off pedal and put into sneakers

Being from the North (the great city of Canton, OH and home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame) I was very unaware of the Southen love of NASCAR. Not many people from my hometown watched NASCAR or knew anything about it. There was only one NASCAR lover that I knew of and he showed his support in his everyday wear of his beat-up Rusty Wallace hat while the rest of us stuck to the current status of King James and crew. My first step on my semi-southern school I quickly began to notice the extreme differences of the South and the North. Not only was there an extreme increase in sundresses, cowboy boots, pick-up trucks and camouflage there was also the sudden appearance of NASCAR fans. Students everywhere were wearing clothing, carrying backpacks, and talking about this sport that I had relatively no knowledge of.
Though I didn't know much about it I knew one thing was for sure when it came to NASCAR, the main concept involved people driving race cars that are traveling at a very fast speed around a track. First one to the finish won. Sounded a lot like track to me but with cars instead of humans. I began following NASCAR a little and learned a little bit about the sport. My initial discovery of NASCAR disproved my theory of track and NASCAR being similar. I didn't find as many "fit" guys as I expected to and began to question the validity of NASCAR as a "sport".

 
NASCAR drivers burn gas around the track while some have me questioning if they can burn calories

As I began to question NASCAR and the drivers who claimed themselves athletes I discovered a different brand of NASCAR drivers who were willing to compete in car and on foot. NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne, along with his charitable organization "The Kasey Kahne Foundation",  will be hosting a 5k charity event called the Five Kahne sponsored by Bank of America for the day after the Bank of America 500 in Charlotte. The Kayne Foundation benefits underprivileged and chronically ill children. The event is to held on Sunday, October 17th, at 8 a.m. where participants will run from the Bank of America Stadium to the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Ironically and luckily the buildings are exactly a 5k apart). Along with NASCAR Sprint Cup racing sponsorships, Bank of America has pledged $1 million toward education nonprofits for Kayne's Foundation event. Kahne invited all NASCAR drivers and teams to the event and so far drivers Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano and ESPN broadcaster Marty Smith have all agreed to compete with Kahne in the race.

Kahne's Foundation event and his car, sponsored by Budweiser

When I discovered this event on ESPN I began to reconsider my feelings on the "sport" of NASCAR. The one thought left that I had was "How in shape could a NASCAR driver who is sponsored by Budweiser be?" The validity of my opinion of NASCAR rested on this question and I only knew one way to solve the answer. I must Google "Kasey Kahne". I nervously typed the name into the search bar on Google, half expecting to be disappointed in another average joe driver, when I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is Kahne in shape, he was featured in ESPN The Magazine's "Body Issue" where ESPN featured the top bodies in all of sports. Needless to say Kahne helped me in allowing myself to deem NASCAR "sport" worthy again and his charity event on Sunday has me anxious to see how fast these NASCAR drivers will be able to shift gears on foot.

Kahne stands up for NASCAR drivers as fit athletes

From New England..... to just England.

Baseball fans may be surprised in discovering that the Boston Red Sox owners are in the process of purchasing the English Club Futbol team, Liverpool. New England Sports Ventures, which runs and operates the Red Sox, proposed sale to buy out Liverpool was approved by the Premier League on October 6th, 2010. Current Liverpool owners, American business men George N. Gillett, Jr and Tom Hicks, disapproved the takeover, claiming NESV "dramatically undervales" their club, but were ousted from the club by a board vote of 3-2. However, the takeover is far from over, the case next moves to the courts where the three other board members of Liverpool will attempt to push the sale through.


Two partners of the New England Sports Venture


Gillett Jr and Hicks face $455 million in bank loans and penalty chargers. If the courts overrule the takeover the owners have until Friday to repay the money or may be forced into financial administration, a form of bankruptcy protection applied in Premier League rules.When a team goes into financial administration they face a 9-point penalty deduction and Liverpool is toeing that line. If the courts approve the takeover Gillett Jr. and Hicks will lose $223 million on their investment in the club. Though the current owners will lose money, the NESV has pledged to clear Liverpool's debt and revamp the team which should make Liverpool fans happy. Except that it isn't. Liverpool fans have expressed unhappiness in the "Yanks" attempted takeover of the English club stating that the Americans only care about money not about their club. The next few months in court and the approaching soccer season will have Liverpool fans anxiously awaiting more positive results from the "Yank" owners.

Brits might not be as supportive to the takeover. This fan certainly isn't.

London prepares for the world

The 2012 London Olympic games are less than two years away and the Olympic Delivery Authority is providing the chance for the London athletic facilities to receive a face lift in preparation for the games. The London athletic facilities will receive £10m in upgrades by the summer of 2012. The facilities will be used by athletes in the Athletes' Olympic Village from July 16th to September 9th for both Olympic and Paralympic athletes spanning from over 200 countries. The facilities have been raised to "world-class standards" for the athletes using them to compete in the Olympics but the Olympic Delivery Authority has said the greatest benefit to the upgrade is the impact that they new facilities will have on the community once the Olympics are over.


"Venues will be left with world-class courts and surfaces which will serve the community for years to come," said ODA chairman John Armitt

Though £10m is an extensive amount of money, especially if thought of being used only for one summer, the Olympic Development Authority has my support since ultimately this isn't for one summer, this for an entire lifetime. The community surrounding these buildings will be able to remember the 2012 Olympics as an historic event for London AND they will be able to have access to the same facilities as the Olympians did, which is something special within itself. The amount of money spent by the ODA for these facilities is worth it because to athletes of the 2012 Olympics they will only last a summer but the community surrounding the buildings it will be able to last them a lifetime. A story on all Olympic stadiums hoping for improvement can be found here.

ODA Chairman John Armitt takes us on a tour of the London Olympic sites at Youtube (embedding not available for this video!)