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15, No.2
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What was the highest-rated televised sports program in the Los Angeles market during the weekend of July 24-25, 2004? Was it the local favorites, the Dodgers, or their neighbors the Angels? Was it the much-touted Red Sox-Yankees series that the East Coast media told us we should care about? Or, could it have been NASCAR? No, it wasn't any of the above, nor was it golf, tennis, boxing, beach volleyball, horseracing, any form of auto racing or the Tour de France. In another example of how Latino and Latin American sports events fly under the radar of most English-language sports media outlets, yet still attract significant stadium and television audiences in U.S. cities, the ratings winner on both Saturday and Sunday was the broadcast of soccer's Copa America. Add Copa . . . Saturday, as reported by the Los Angeles Times (July 30, 2004), the over-the-air broadcast of the Copa America tournament consolation game between Colombia and Uruguay, from Lima, Peru, enjoyed a Nielsen rating of 4.3 and a 10 share. That topped all other offerings over-the-air or on cable, including three baseball games involving four California teams — the Dodgers, Padres, Angels and Giants. The consolation match drew more viewing households in Los Angeles than the broadcasts of tennis's ATP RCA Championship, golf's U.S. Bank Championship and the NASCAR Busch Grand National 200 combined. Add Copa . . . Sunday it wasn't even close. The Brazil - Argentina championship match on Los Angeles's Spanish-language KMEX, part of the Univision Network, pulled a 9.0 rating and an audience share of 21. The Dodgers - Padres game came in second with a 3.2 rating and 7 share. Approximately 482,000 Los Angeles households tuned in the Copa America final. That eclipsed the combined total number of households that watched Sunday's three Major League Baseball games and the IRL Menards A.J. Foyt Indy 225. Add Copa . . . Nielsen reports that the Sunday July 18 broadcast of Mexico's quarterfinal match against Brazil drew even more Los Angeles viewers than the Copa America final. The rating was 11.3, totaling 610,455 homes. The share was 21. Last Copa . . . Univision also claims to have scored well nationally with its coverage of the Mexican soccer league's summer season. Univision spokesperson Christina Romano told SportsLetter that the June 13 broadcast of the Chivas - Pumas championship match attracted more male Latino viewers in the 18- to 49-year-old age group than did the 2004 Super Bowl.
An 11th-hour deal has made it possible for at least some people in Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous nation, to see the Athens Olympic Games. Local broadcasters had balked at the rights fees, claiming that they had used most of their budgets on soccer's 2006 World Cup and the 2004 European soccer championship. They also complained that multi-sport competitions have failed to achieve good ratings because Indonesian viewers really only care about a few sports such as badminton and soccer. On August 7, however, Kabelvision, an Indonesian cable company, announced an agreement with the Asia-Pacific Broadcast Union giving it broadcast rights to the 2004 Games. While the arrangement is better than nothing, it still will leave most Indonesian viewers without coverage because Kabelvision's reach is confined to only a limited number of subscribers in and near Jakarta.
Whodunit? . . . The media call it suicide. The deceased's father doesn't think so. After all, why would England's best athlete kill himself on the eve of the 1908 London Olympic Games? Solving that conundrum is at the heart of M. J. Trow's "Lestrade and the Deadly Game" (1999), one of a surprising number of fictional murder mysteries that take place at — or have some connection to — the Olympic Games. Reference librarian Susan Schlaeger, of the Montebello branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library, has compiled a list of 23 such titles on the eve of the 2004 Athens Olympics, including James Patterson's "See How They Run" (Moscow – 1980); Jeffrey Deaver's "Garden of Beasts" (Berlin –1936); and Robert Parker's "Judas Goat" (Montreal – 1976). These and other (gory) works can be checked out at county libraries; go to www.colapublib.org to view branch locations. The top three gold-medal contenders in women's pole vault at the Athens Olympics — American and defending Olympic champ Stacy Dragila and Russians Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbayeva — have two things in common. They all have held the world record and they are all former gymnasts. According to the Arizona Republic, Dragila took up gymnastics after she watched Mary Lou Retton's performance at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Feofanova was a "gymnast for 11 years and an alternate to the 1996 Russian Olympic team," while Isinbayeva "was a gymnast at the level of most U.S. collegiate gymnasts." Add vault . . . Actually, the connection between gymnastics and the pole vault goes beyond flying through the air. In the late 1920s the international gymnastics federation battled the international track and field federation for the right to conduct the pole vault competition in the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee, in April 1929, settled the matter in favor of track and field. The meeting minutes state, "The Committee unanimously decided that it was unable to take any action to deprive the International Athletic Association of its rights to retain the Pole Jump in the Athletic Programme, the Association having included that event since the beginning of the Games without any complaint ever having been made against it for doing so."
Olympic wannabes . . . Making a pitch for a spot on the Olympic Games program is always good for some media coverage, and we at SportsLetter are happy to play along. The Association of Professional Tossers sees a Five Ring future for its sport — coin tossing. And, the tongue-in-cheek Poker Nation has staked its dubious claim for inclusion in the Olympic Games. An online poker-playing website has posted a petition asking something called the "International Sanctioning Committee" to make poker an Olympic event in 2004. "Poker demands the focus of the archer, the endurance of the decathlete, and the skill of the gymnast," the petition reads. "Our athletes train like other athletes, save for a slightly higher intake of nicotine, whiskey, and corndogs . . . They deserve a place in the world's sporting spotlight." Add wannabes . . . Meanwhile, on a more plausible note, Skateboarding USA vice president and board legend Tony Hawk tells the Los Angeles Times (August 4, 2004) that "discussions were underway to have skateboarding as a demonstration sport in the Olympics, perhaps as soon as 2008." Hawk adds, "We have a much stronger foundation than we had 10 years ago." If freestyle skiing can be in the Winter Games, skateboarding in the "summer" Games is not so farfetched. The only problem with Hawk's scenario is that the IOC, at its 1989 Session, decided to eliminate Olympic demonstration sports. In the event that the IOC reverses this policy, it is more likely that wushu, a sport of Chinese origin, would be added as a demonstration sport in 2008. I want to pump you up . . . With his recent comment about "girlie-men" state legislators, the rhetorical swagger of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has become a national phenomenon. In his January 2004 State of the State address, the Governor proclaimed, "I am a salesman by nature … I can sell anything." Well, maybe not "anything." Schwarzenegger promoted the Klagenfurt, Austria, bid for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Schwarzenegger was born and raised in nearby Graz. In this instance, though, his salesmanship failed. The IOC chose Turin to host the 2006 Winter Games. But, at least the bid gave us a photo of two of Austria's most manly-men: the Terminator and the Herminator, Olympic gold medallist Hermann Maier. Food for thought . . . Athens organizers have declared victory in their race to complete Olympic Games preparations, but as you will see by clicking on this link not everyone is convinced. Add food . . . Note the disclaimer stating, "Obviously, Smith's is not an official sponsor of the 2004 Olympic Games." No kidding. The Australia-based company is owned by Frito-Lay, which is a part of Pepsico, the main beverage rival of Coca-Cola, an official sponsor of the 2004 Olympic Games.
David Wallechinsky
"Pass the Wallechinsky" doesn't exactly roll off one's tongue, but it is a phrase frequently heard this time of year. Beginning with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, writer-historian David Wallechinsky has produced the bible of the Olympic Games — a fact-filled compendium of stats, analysis, and anecdotes that has become a must-have for journalists and Olympic aficionados. The most current version — "The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics: Athens 2004 Edition" (Sportclassic) — has just been published. Wallechinsky grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Palisades High, about which he co-wrote (with Michael Medved) the book "What Really Happened to the Class of '65." He attributes his avid interest in the Olympic Games to his father, Irving Wallace. The famed novelist took his son to the 1960 Rome Olympic Games; they watched boxing and swimming events, as well as the Opening Ceremony. "It was fantastic," Wallechinsky remembers. Now 56-years-old, Wallechinsky has written 16 non-Olympic books. He also writes athlete biographies for the IOC website. He lives with his family in Santa Monica and Provence, France. SportsLetter caught up with him as he was getting ready for the Athens Olympic Games. —David Davis SportsLetter: You co-wrote the original "Book of Lists." Now it seems as if every newspaper and magazine publishes a list of some sort; Fox Sports Net even has a half-hour show that is just about lists. What do you think of this? David Wallechinsky: We had no idea it would be like this. I now have a collection of 150 other book of lists - the U.S. Marine Corps book of lists, the Beatles book of lists, and so on. It started when my father and I wrote "The People's Almanac." One chapter was lists, and it was really popular. It just seemed like, in an era of information overload, that the list was a simple way of organizing and bringing together disparate information. I guess we were right. SL: Do you trace your Olympic interest to the 1960 Rome Games? DW: It goes before that. I do trace it to my father even before he took me to Rome. As much as he loved baseball and football, he loved the Olympics. He gave me books about the history of the Olympics and raised me with the stories of [marathoner] Dorando Pietri and others. I couldn't get enough of that. Also, my father had been the ghostwriter for Jim Thorpe and showed me memorabilia that Jim Thorpe gave him. I was 12-years-old when we went to Rome. Seeing the Opening Ceremonies was my favorite — it made a huge impression. I also remember going to see boxing. One of the boxers was Italian, and all of the fans in the arena were chanting for him: "Lo Popolo." SL: When did you next attend the Olympic Games? DW: I didn't go again until 1984. I had signed up to be part of a tour to go to the 1980 Games. After the boycott was announced, it happened that a part of the world that my wife and I had hoped to visit [northwestern China] opened up for Westerners for the first time. So we decided to go there instead. SL: When did you first get the idea to write a comprehensive history of the Olympic Games? DW: In 1960, on the way to Rome, we stopped off in London, I found the British Olympic Association report on four previous Olympics, prepared by Harold Abrahams. It had statistics on the top and stories about the Games on the bottom, and I just soaked it up. As 1984 approached, I knew two things: the Olympics were going to be in my hometown and I finally had the time to do the research. I was excited because I knew that this book did not exist. I started thinking about it in 1980 and compiling information in 1981. I had a lot of problems finding a publisher. When I finally got a deal, I worked on it non-stop for 2 ½ years. The first one came out in the winter of 1983 because, at the time, the book included information about both the Winter and the Summer Games. SL: What was the biggest obstacle? DW: In the early years, pulling together all of the statistics was extremely difficult. Getting event information for the early Games was just a mess. The IOC did not have a library. The USOC kept its records in a converted depot. The British Olympic Committee had its information in a shed with ivy growing on the wall. I came across a fantastic scrapbook complete with articles from newspapers and magazines about the 1908 Games — and they had no idea they had it. Now, thanks to Dr. Bill Mallon [one of the founders of the International Society of Olympic Historians], my job has gotten easier. What Bill did over the years was to complete two remarkable projects. The first was, in the absence of Official Reports of the Olympic Games in the period between 1896–1920, he created unofficial official reports. And in the years when there were Official Reports — in 1908 and 1912 — he went back and corrected mistakes and published them with McFarland. The second project was to head an all-volunteer group to compile a date base of all of the names of all of the competitors, as far as we know. That is now possession of the IOC. It was completed in 2002. SL: So the mission is complete? DW: Well, it's ongoing because you turn up new information all the time. And we still have mysteries to solve. The most enduring one involves the [pair-oared shell with coxswain] rowing event at the 1900 Paris Olympics. The Dutch pair realized that they were slower than the French team because the French were using children as coxes. Their boat was lighter. So the Dutch kicked off their heavy cox, grabbed a French kid off the street, and won. We have a photograph of the kid with the Dutch team — it's in the book — but then he walked off into the streets of Paris and we have never found his name. He may the youngest winner in Olympic history. SL: What's new in this year's edition? DW: I have a new publisher — this is my third one — and the formatting is different. Instead of listing all of the sports in alphabetical order, we break them up into different categories, like aquatics, combat sports, team sports. Also, the publisher used wider spacing. The book is longer, but it's easier to look at. So, I like these changes. Also, with Lexis/Nexis and the Internet, I did research on every gold-medal winner in every event. So there's a lot of material that's new prior to Sydney. This keeps it fresh. SL: The cover of the North American edition features two athletes: swimmer Michael Phelps and sprinter Marion Jones. Whose choice was that? DW: I didn't know about it until I saw it on Amazon. I called up the publisher and asked them: Why didn't you consult with me on the cover? They said, we thought you were in the loop. I thought it was a bad decision. I never had a cover that I didn't approve. Too late now. I'm sitting here with the British edition, which has six photographs showing a range of athletes from different sports on the cover. I would have gone in that direction. SL: Do you plan to publish an Internet version of your book? DW: No one's made me an offer. That's why it hasn't happened. It would be easy to do. SL: In what other languages is the book published? DW: It is still English-only. It has never been translated. SL: You recently wrote an article in Sports Illustrated about how a planned Chinese-language edition was scuttled after you refused to cut certain passages in the book. You've visited China eight times - did you expect that reaction? DW: That was the first time another country had bought the rights, and I was curious to see how they would respond. But I've spent enough time in China to know what it's like. Look: a lot of people want to forgive China. They've opened up economically. They supply American companies with cheap labor. But they're a Communist dictatorship. The publisher wanted to remove my comments about China's human rights violations. Also, in the front of the book, there's a list of the Olympic athletes who have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. They wanted me to remove one name from the list — Wu Dan — because they have never told the Chinese people about this. That's outrageous. SL: How many sections of the book did the Chinese publisher want to remove? DW: Seven. I just said: if you can prove that this information is untrue, I give you permission to eliminate it. Of course, it's all true. SL: You write another list entitled "The World's 10 Worst Dictators." This year, you rank Hu Jintao, China's leader, third. Do you think that had any impact on the publisher's decision? DW: No, I don't think so. That's separate. SL: And yet, you remain supportive of China hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. Why? DW: I remember when Jimmy Carter announced the boycott of the 1980 Olympics. I was very much opposed to the boycott because I felt that that wasn't going to do anything to change the ways of the Soviet Union. All the boycott did was punish the athletes. If the United States wanted to affect change in the Soviet Union, they should have sent as many western tourists as they could to talk to the Russian people and to go to the events and hold up Afghan flags. We could have done that. That would have been something the Soviets would find hard to control. In the case of China, it's the same thing. I would like to see Americans flock to Beijing. They should flock aggressively. SL: Are you looking forward to Athens? DW: Despite all the negative press, I think it's going to be very exciting with wonderfully dramatic moments. You're seeing the best athletes in every sport in every event, with the exception of boxing and soccer. Plus, having the Opening Ceremonies in Athens should be incredibly special. Having said that, I am concerned. "Ready" is a relevant term. In terms of security, I'm concerned. I was close by when the bomb when off in Atlanta. At the same time, I did encourage my family to go. SL: You're a track and field fanatic: what events are you most looking forward to? DW: I always like the events that are 800 meters and longer. They don't run in lanes so strategy comes into play. In the 1500 meters, I'll be watching [Morocco's] El Guerrouj: is he over the hill or did he have an allergy? And, of course, I'll be watching the 10,000 and the marathon. SL: When you're in Athens, do you work on the next edition of the book? DW: I don't do any writing — that comes later. At the Games, what I do is collect everything I can — books, magazines, press guides. One thing I do is try and get each country's team book because they list all of the competitors by name. In my free time, I go around the international center, visit the office of every country, and ask them if there are any stories that their people are really following. And it's a fascinating experience. When you visit the Iranians, they always have the greatest pistachios. With Cuba, they usually have speeches of Fidel Castro blaring in the background. SL: Will you be doing any radio commentary this time? DW: Yes, I'm doing commentary for Westwood One/NBC, as I have since 1988. My duties are the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and track and field. I'll also do some work for MSNBC. SL: What are you packing for Athens besides your Wallechinsky? DW: Lots of sunscreen. A camera. And my favorite electronic device: a pockey, which is an 80 gigabite hard-drive that fits in your pocket. SL: What's your next project? DW: I'm working on the book version of the world's worst living dictators. And, my sister [Amy Wallace] and I have just completed a new "Book of Lists." The U.S. edition will be out next year.
Stacy Peralta Growing up in southern California, Stacy Peralta learned to ride boards from an early age. As a teen-ager, he surfed the Cove at Santa Monica's Pacific Ocean Park. As a member of the Zephyr Surf Shop team, he was part of the first wave of skateboarders to fashion an alternative-sports niche. In the 1980s, Peralta directed and produced skateboard videos that became cult classics. That experience served him well when he decided to make a documentary about the origins of Southern California's skateboard culture. In "Dogtown and Z-Boys," Peralta used archival footage and contemporary interviews to chronicle the beginnings of skateboard culture, as experienced by the now-legendary Zephyr skate crew. Released in 2002, the film won Peralta best director honors at the Sundance Film Festival. This summer, Peralta returns with "Riding Giants," a documentary about big-wave surfers. Featuring such surfing holes as The Mavericks of Northern California to Oahu's west shore, the film became the first documentary to open the Sundance Film Festival. The San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Meyer praised it as "a thrilling, informative history of a sport-subculture." Called a "guru of the board-sports culture" and "the Ken Burns of rad," the 46-year-old Peralta lives in Santa Monica. SportsLetter spoke with him as he toured the country to promote "Riding Giants." —David Davis SportsLetter: A lot of movie-industry people see you as a skateboarder-turned-director, but you shot and produced a lot of early skateboard videos. How did those experiences help you make the two feature-length documentaries? Stacy Peralta: Doing the skateboarding videos taught me how to be a filmmaker. That was something I didn't know I was capable of doing. I only made them out of necessity. At the time, we were trying to figure out a way to show the world how the products we made [at Powell Peralta] could be used. I had never shot or edited film before, so I grew into that. Because I was not formally taught and didn't have a bunch of people telling me how I was supposed to do things, I developed organically. I must have done something right. Later, working for commercials and television, I learned that filmmaking is a business. People who give you money to make a film want a return on that investment. They want you to make the project you said you were going to make, in the time you said you would make it and within a certain budget. SL: Both "Dogtown" and "Giants" feature lots of original footage: how did you track down that material? SP: When you're a documentarian, you're also part investigative reporter. You have to go out and talk to people and discover what footage is out there. You have to find out who was there that day and who had a camera. Then you have to track these people down and convince them to license their footage to you. It's hard work. A lot of that footage is rare and these people have to trust that you're going to use their footage respectfully. SL: Is that work - the sleuthing - the unglamorous side of documentary filmmaking? SP: Documentary filmmaking isn't glamorous at all. It's really hard work. I don't know what's glamorous about it except premiere night. But it's really rewarding, especially if you can act and be independent. What I didn't like about working in TV, I didn't have a lot independence. It was very difficult to do anything original because they condemn originality. With the last two films, I was very fortunate. I was able to make the films I wanted to make. It took me a long time to be in position to do that. SL: When did you decide to do a surfing documentary? SP: Number one, I never expected "Dogtown" to succeed. When it ended up doing well, it was a great surprise . . . I originally set out to do another story about surfing. I was going to do a documentary about Mickey Dora, a very controversial figure who's sort of the dark prince of surfing. After we made the agreement, he was hit by devastating cancer and passed away. I had interviewed [big-wave surfer] Greg Noll for "Dogtown." He was so funny and charismatic, I thought, well, gee, why don't we use this to do a film about the history of big-wave surfing. At the very least, the general public will marvel at the size of these waves. I spent the remainder of 2002 getting financing and we started filming in 2003. SL: Why big wave surfing? SP: From a filmmaker's point of view, it has everything. It has adventure and discovery. It has life and death. It has resolution and overcoming and learning. There's a lot of drama in that. Big-wave surfing also has some great moments - like Jeff Clark's solo rides at Mavericks — and some of the great characters in surfing, from Greg Noll to Laird Hamilton. On top of that, big-wave surfing parallels the history of modern surfing. There's just a lot of material. SL: A recent article in the Los Angeles Times intimated that former professional surf champ Shaun Tomson cut out a crucial snippet of archival footage that depicted Greg Noll's famous 1969 ride at Makaha — what many people consider the biggest wave ever ridden. What do you think happened to the film? SP: I don't know. I don't know if it exists or not. It's funny because the mythology of that — whether Shaun has that shot or doesn't — is now approaching the mythology of Greg's ride. The evidence suggests that maybe he does have it. I was on my way to finding it. I was a few waves from finding it when the screen went white. I don't know if I'll ever know. SL: What other material did you have to leave out? SP: There were a couple of segments. What was really difficult was to take all this material and make a film that's an hour-and-a-half long. We didn't have the flexibility of a Ken Burns — someone who gets to tell a story in a 10-part series. We had to focus on who we wanted to focus on. So we left out a number of big-wave surfers that I wish we could have used. All in all, we had 100 hours of footage. It was a process of going through everything and piecing together a story, with good pace and velocity. SL: Your film traces big-wave surfing to its present-day incarnation, with towropes, foot straps and jet skis that transport riders out to the biggest waves. Does this technology take away from the accomplishments of someone like Laird Hamilton? SP: No, I don't think so. First of all, all the old-timers support them 100 percent. If they could have done it, they would have. It's a mixed bag. What they've done is eliminate some of the dangers in big-wave surfing, like not sitting in the lineup and not getting trapped by sneak-up sets. On the other hand, they're riding waves that are so big that when they wipe out, it truly is life and death. Before, no one could imagine riding waves this big. SL: There have been many surfing films over the years, including "Endless Summer," "Five Summer Stories," and last year's "Step Into Liquid." Were you worried about how your film would compare? SP: The thing is, I've never seen a film like the one I just made. I made the one that I wanted to see. "Endless Summer" is the touchstone film. It's the film that all others are measured against. But it's more of a travelogue. I wanted to give a deeper history of surfing, so you get to know characters over a long period of time. "Step into Liquid" is also more of a travelogue. I didn't worry about it as competition. I thought it would help pave the way. It would introduce surfing to a lot of people and whet people's appetites for more. SL: Surfing seems like a natural for an IMAX type film. Will that happen? SP: Absolutely. The IMAX people want to do a surfing film as well as one about skateboarding. It's just a matter of time. SL: After doing two documentaries about board culture: what's next for you? SP: I have two projects right now. I wrote the fictional screenplay for a film called "Lords of Dogtown," based on the documentary. They just finished shooting, and it will be released next summer. I also signed a contract with Sony to write and direct a feature film based on Greg Noll's life. I'm writing that screenplay now. We hope to have the screenplay done this fall. I don't want to stop doing documentaries. I like the form. But I'm excited to try something new, and I'm interested in working with actors. SL: What's the status of you making a film based on Allan Weisbecker's book "In Search of Captain Zero"? SP: What happened was, I was going to do the adaptation. Because of the timing, we ended up hiring a screenwriter. If it happens, I will direct it. SL: With the X Games coming to Los Angeles again, what's your reaction to the commercialization and mainstreaming of extreme sports? SP: It's good and bad. It's good in that they expose the sport to more and more people. But I also feel the networks exploit this for profit. At heart, they don't care and they're in danger of ruining the soul [of extreme sports]. ESPN presents skateboarding just like pro wrestling - one thumping beat after another. I have no interest in that whatsoever. They can't show me anything I haven't seen before. SL: Do you think we will see skateboarding in the Olympic Games, like snowboarding? SP: I think they're gonna have to get involved because every kid is doing it. A huge part of the Olympics is the need to capture the public's imagination, especially with youth. The Olympics is a business: they can't fall behind or they're going to lose the young viewers.
Recent scholarship on the XFL, elite sport and the female labor force, revolutionizing school athletics, and sports stadiums in urban redevelopment. Even Better than the Real Thing?: The XFL and Football's Future Imperfect. Joshua I. Newman, Andrew D. Grainger & David L. Andrews. Football Studies. 6 (2) October 2003 The launching of the XFL, "a brazenly contrived conflation of sporting and media entertainment practices," must be understood in the context of the "broader reorganisation of late capitalist sport in accordance with corporate values and a logic of profit maximisation." While the XFL "may not have lasted long on the cultural landscape," it "was a potent indication that we should not overlook the economic, technological and political forces that come together to structure our experiences of professional sport culture. Viewers may have turned away from the XFL in droves because it too openly blurred the lines between melodrama and sport, but the veneer of authenticity that envelopes leagues such as the NFL may themselves be crumbling: beneath the surface, it seems, all is programming." Work and Play: International Evidence of Gender Equality in Employment and Sports. Michael W. Klein. Journal of Sports Economics. 5 (3) August 2004 There is a "statistical relationship" between the "relative labor force participation rate of women" and the "performance of women in international sports competitions." "Countries in which women participate more fully in the labor force tend to be ones whose women performed better in the Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000 and whose women's teams were more likely to qualify for the 1999 Women's World Cup and performed better in this event. This effect holds when controlling for factors shown, in other research, to determine national Olympic success, like income per capita and population," as well as other variables. The Case for Revolution in School Sports. Jeff Mitchell. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. XXXI (1) 2004 Injuries to young athletes have "massive economic and social consequences." One study estimated that in 1997 the "costs arising from injuries sustained in 29 different sports among children under the age of 14 totaled more than $49 billion. "Unfortunately, we have allowed our school athletic programs to be commandeered by the spirit of competition, and the result has been a narrow culture of sport that tends to undermine the educational and hygienic aspects of physical recreation … [W]e should adopt an approach that stresses healthful forms of physical recreation … It would be futile to try to forecast the exact forms the healthful approach to school sports might take." "Like all genuine cultural transformations, this one would require creative contributions" from many sources. "The worst excesses of the cult of competition could be combated by a number of policy changes." These would include the elimination of recruitment and athletic scholarships in college sport, and legislation outlawing exorbitant coaches' salaries and bonuses for producing winning teams. Sport and the Façade of Redevelopment in the Postindustrial City. Michael T. Friedman, David L. Andrews & Michael L. Silk. Sociology of Sport Journal. 21 (2) 2004 Many cities have initiated redevelopment plans that include sports stadiums. Despite their seeming vibrancy, these new developments remain "disconnected from the realities of those living in impoverished neighborhoods." Oriole Park at Camden Yards is one such example. "Although the industrial blight of Camden Yard has been replaced, urban residents have not had increased access to health care, and their life expectancies continue to decline. Despite the gentrification of some urban neighborhoods, the middle class has not returned to the city." In short, OPCY is a façade and an "abdication of the city's responsibility to its citizens."
And you thought Barney was bad. Meet the unnamed elephant mascot of the recently concluded Children of Asia International Sports Games in Yakutsk, Russia.
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