Eight student athletes from the university of Miami were recently asked to repay the money they illegally received from university booster Nevin Shapiro and athletics personnel. They also were given various levels of game suspensions based on the amount of money and benefits that they received.
In Roger Federer's loss today at the 2011 US Open to Novak Djokovic, Federer was asked to comment on Djokovic's winning forehand. Was it lucky or confidence?
Fred Couples has two coaches discretion choices for the Presidents Cup team. Any choice he makes is the right decision.
Imagine if your young aspiring athlete came to you and said: "Mom, can you buy me this shirt?" A t-shirt with the word "Dope" written on the front. Your immediate reaction might be to ask, Why suggest to the world that you lack intelligence? More frighteningly, you worry that your kid thinks advertising drugs add up to "cool" and perhaps wonder if he/she could even be lured into taking drugs? Then your child says no mom, "dope does not mean I lack intelligence or take drugs", it refers to my "cool" moves on the skateboard.
In the Master's this year, Tiger Woods strained his knee while trying to hit an awkward shot.
Was this injury the result of unfortunate bad luck?
For every great champion who plays while injured or sick, there should be a disclaimer: "Professional athletes only. School kids and any other nonprofessional should follow doctors order's: stay home and get better."
A few years ago, I worked with a young high school runner who experienced severe Achilles tendon pain every time he ran too long or too hard. His parents and three different coaches all wanted him to recover, yet pressure from this group of adults for him to continue running was also very strong. Fortunately, one of the coaches recognized there was a problem and asked me to help with a pool training program.
As adults over 50, we all "remember" how hard we used to work and practice our sport. Many of those workouts ended with the coach asking for one more sprint, just as we thought that we had nothing left. Presently, many high school athletes are asked to do the same workouts that we remember, but their seasons last for twelve months not two or three. Kids sometimes play on two teams, the weekend team and the school team. One program leads to another program. Additionally, there are conditioning coaches and a plethora of private coaching and training programs available to increase a child's chances for athletic success.
It is easy to be either realistic or cynical when watching all of our heroes or those we look to for leadership or inspiration tumble down the harsh slope of their own crushed reputation. Let's remember that everyone seems to have a skeleton in the closet, the 800-pound gorilla sitting in the room. That's the reality. We're cynical because we have become used to and almost expectant that anyone and everyone in the limelight will be accused of illicit or immoral behavior.
The past six months have been heartbreaking for sports fans and cancer patients who have hitched their loyalty, aspirations and hopes to one of the greatest sportsmen this country has ever known - seven-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. The recent whistle-blowing comments of disgraced tour champion Floyd Landis have cast a shadow on a career that has literally helped thousands, if not millions of cancer patients through funding, greater public awareness, and, most of all hope.
