2016 Williams Watch- In The Wimbledon Semis!

I told y'all the All England Club was the personal tennis playground of the Williams sisters, and in this 2016 Wimbledon tournament they are proving it.   For the first time since 2009, the Williams sisters, who have eleven singles titles combined, are in the Wimbledon ladies singles semifinals at the same time.

World number one Serena won her Centre Court quarterfinal match with Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 to punch her ticket to the semifinals against another Russian in Elena Vesnina.

Meanwhile over on No. 1 Court, eighth seeded Venus was pushed a bit and was down 2-5 in the first set tiebreaker, but regrouped and won in straight sets against Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 to make it to her semifinal match with number five seed Angelique Kerber

It was the first time since the 2010 US Open that she has made it to a Grand Slam semifinal,

We'll see on Thursday if both Williams sisters make it to the ladies singles final on Saturday.

They are also still in contention for their first 'Williams'-don doubles crown since 2012, and dispatched the Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 6-3 in their third round ladies doubles match

They will face in the ladies doubles quarters the winner of the Barbora Strycova/Michaella Krajicek - Elena Vesnina/Ekaterina Makarova match.

TransGriot Update:  They will face in the Wimbledon doubles quarters the number four seeded Russian duo of Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova.

2016 Williams Watch- Serena And Venus In The Wimbledon Quarters!

The Williams sisters are still alive in this rain delayed 2016 edition of 'Williams-don' and are both in the ladies singles quarterfinals cruising toward a possible All-Williams Wimbledon finals matchup for the first time at the All England club since 2009.

Number one tournament seed Serena handled her third and fourth round business by blitzing Germany's Annika Beck in straight sets 6-3, 6-0 and 13th seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-0 in the same fashion on Centre Court.

The Kuznetsova match was noteworthy because it was Little Sis' 300th Grand Slam match win, and ensured she would keep the number one world WTA ranking for the 300th consecutive week.

Serena will now face 21st seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who knocked off Yulia Putintseva, 11th seeded Timea Bacsinszky, and 27th seeded Coco Vandeweghe to get her shot at the world's number one player.

Should she get past Pavlyuchenkova, she would face in the semis the winner of the Dominika Cibulkova- Elena Vesnina match.

Meanwhile eighth seeded Venus, after surviving two three set matches, found herself in the fourth round facing 12th seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.   She had to endure a first set tiebreaker, but this time finished her business in only two sets and closed out her match serving for triple break point.  

Big Sis' 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 sent her to a quarterfinal matchup with Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, who has knocked off Julia Gorges, 17th seeded Elina Svitolina, Sabine Lisicki and 28th seeded Lucie Safarova to get to the quarterfinal round.

Should she get past Shvedova, Venus' semifinal match would be another tough one.  She would have to face the survivor of a quarterfinal match between number 4 seed Angelique Kerber and number 5 seed Simona Halep.

The Williams sisters are competing for their first Wimbledon ladies doubles title since 2012 as a warmup for the Rio Olympic tennis tournament, and are now in the third round of this doubles competition after knocking off the Belgian duo of Elise Mertens and An-Sophie Mestach in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

They will face the sixth seeded Czech duo of Lucie Hradecka and Andrea Hlavackova for a spot in the ladies doubles quarterfinals.

So far things are looking good for them at their 'Williams'-don playground, and we'll have to wait and see if my fave tennis playing siblings are hoisting trophies this weekend at SW19.

2016 Williams Watch- Still Playing At Wimbledon

We've reached the first weekend of The Championships, AKA 'Williams'-don as I love to call the third Grand Slam of the tennis season because of my fave tennis playing siblings utter domination of it,

While it has been a little bumpy at times for both number one seed Serena and number 8 seeded Venus, they are still around and still playing at the All England lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as the ladies tournament seeds keep falling.

Number 2 seeded Garbine Muguruza?  Gone in the second round along with No. 7 Belinda Bencic (retired due to injury), No. 14 Samantha Stosur, No 15 Karolina Pliskova, No. 16 Johanna Konta, No 17 Elina Svitolina  No. 20 Sara Errani, No. 22 Jelena Jankovic, No. 30 Caroline Garcia and No 32 Andrea Petkovic.  They join  No. 23 Ana Ivanovic and No. 31 Kristina Mladenovic who went out in the first round and third round casualty Daria Kasatkina

Serena started her quest for her 22nd Grand slam title by dispatching Swiss qualifier Amra Sadikovic in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to move on to her second round match with fellow American Christina McHale.  

That match was tougher than she expected, because McHale not only took Little Sis to a first set tie breaker, but snatched the first set from her. Order was restored in the tennis world as as a pissed off Serena resumed her usual dominance and punched her ticket to the third round clash with Germany's Annika Beck with a 6-7 (9-7) 6-2, 6-4 win over the plucky McHale

On the other side of the ladies singles bracket, Venus was also dismissing her first round opponent Donna Vekic of Croatia in straight sets 7-6 (7-3) 6-4, but had to endure a first set tiebreaker to do so.

She then sent qualifier Maria Sakkari of Greece packing with a 7-5. 4-6, 6-3 three set win to send her to a third round clash with Russia's Daria Kasatkina.

That match featured a marathon third set, but she survived again 7-5,4-6, 10-8 to face No. 12 seed Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain in the fourth round.

As they did in the French Open, they are also playing doubles, and got thorough their opening round ladies doubles match with their 7-5, 6-3 straight set win over the Slovenian duo of Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik.   They face in the second round of the doubles tourney Belgian qualifiers Elise Mertens and An-Sophie Mestach

Will Serena keep rolling to another final and FINALLY get that 22nd Grand Slam title?  Will Big Sis continue surviving and advancing through the bottom half of the 'Williams'-don ladies singles bracket?

Stay tuned.

2015 Williams Watch- Welcome To 'Williams'-don

It's the start of the third Grand Slam of the 2015 tennis season in London, known to the world as The Championships, but what I call on these electronic pages 'Williams'-don.

It will run from today until July 12, and the start of it was delayed a week to give players time to adjust to grass from the clay surfaces of Roland Garros.

The All England Club has been such a personal playground for both Venus and Serena they have won a combined ten Ladies Singles titles, five Ladies doubles titles and the 2012 London Games singles and doubles gold medals on those hallowed grass surface courts that seem to be tailor made for their power tennis games.

But the last time world number one Serena took the Venus Rosewater Dish home was in 2012, and Venus' last win was in 2008.  

You can bet both sisters wish to change that dynamic.  Serena lost last year in a third round three set   upset loss to Aliza Cornet, and in 2013 lost a three set battle in the fourth round to runner up Sabine Lisicki.

Venus is hoping that she can get back to playing the consistent tennis she needs to play to make a deep run in a Grand final again.

We will find out as the Wimbledon fortnight progresses.

2014 Williams Watch- Off To A Great Start At 'Williams'-don

While some of you are watching World Cup 2014 action from Brazil, I also have my eye turned toward the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to watch my fave tennis playing siblings in their first week of 'Williams'-don action.

Serena served notice to the tennis world that she's  put the disappointment of Paris behind her and wants that sixth Venus Rosewater Dish. 

Number one seeded Little Sis took only 61 minutes to blitz fellow American Anna Tatishvili in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. 

And blitz was the bet way to describe a match in which Serena blasted 16 aces past her opponent who is ranked 112 spots below her.   She moves on to a second round clash with South African Chanelle Scheepers.

But it's Venus who has been making some noise and news in this edition of Wimbledon.

30th seeded Big Sis started her fortnight in search of her sixth Wimbledon title with a three set 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over Spain's Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor.    She then after a slow start beat in straight sets Japan's Kurumi Nara 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 to punch her ticket to the third round and a date with sixth seeded Czech Petra Kvitova, who won the 2011 Wimbledon singles title. 

It was the first time in 18 months that Venus has reached the third round of a Grand Slam, and we can only hope that she'll be around in the Ladies Singles past this weekend.

The eighth seeded Williams sisters play their first round doubles match at 11 AM CDT today against the duo of Oksana Kalashnikova and Olga Savchuk

TransGriot update: Little Sis blitzed Scheepers 6-0, 6-1 to join Venus in the third round of the Ladies singles tournament.   In their doubles match with Kalashnikova and Savchuk, the Williams sisters advanced after a 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 result.   

2013 Williams Watch-'Williams'-don Starts Today

Break out the strawberries and cream, The Championships or as I call them,'Williams'-don start today and run through July 7.   

Let me get the bad news out of the way now.   Venus withdrew because of recurring bask spasms, so that means that not only will Big Sis not be there for the first time since 1996, they won't be able to defend their 2012 doubles title.  

That leaves Serena to uphold Williams family honor and their tradition of beating down all comers in the women's tennis world at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.  

Where the French Open and its clay courts have been a house of horrors for them, Wimbledon and its grass courts have been the mirror opposite. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club has been the  Williams sisters personal tennis playground to the point that 10 of the last 13 Wimbledon singles crowns have been won by either Venus or Serena in addition to five doubles titles and the single and doubles gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

Serena comes into this tournament as the defending singles champion, the number one ranked player in the world, the number one seed and fresh off a dominating performance across the channel in Paris.

She starts her quest for her 17th career single titles and sixth Wimbledon title with a first round match against Mandy Minella of Luxembourg.

Considering the way she's been playing lately, I wouldn't bet against Serena holding up another Venus (Williams) Rosewater Dish at the conclusion of this tennis fortnight.
   

TERF"s RadFem Hatefest Booted From Another Venue

Ever wondered what would happen if you tried to hold an international trans hate conference and nobody wanted to host it?  

Ask the Trans Exterminationalist Radical Feminazis Feminists how that feels after they got rebuffed for the second consecutive year   

Our least favorite trans oppressors had planned on using the London Irish Centre to host their RadFem 2013 hate event.   The 2012 edition got cancelled from Conway Hall last year (snicker, snicker).

The 2013 event is on track to suffer the same ignominious fate because they got derailed by their own hate scribblings and the potential venue, The London Irish Centre did their due diligence and researched the movement on their own after complaints from our transpeeps. 

And what the Center saw of the TERF"s they didn't like.

Quite a few of the complaints were from the transgender community and then a men’s group cam along the other day a hand out leaflets about why the event shouldn’t be held here.
We did some research into RadFem and discovered certain language was used and some statements were made about transgender people that would go against our equalities and diversity policy.
- David Barlow, Director of The Irish Centre

FYI TERF's, in Britain there's a law on the books called the 2010 Equality Act of which transpeeps are a protected class.  

Translation: You can't discriminate or hate on us across The Pond like you can get away with over in parts of the United States without repercussions.  Good luck finding a venue that's willing to violate the Equality Act..

Of course, the TERF's are crying White Women's Tears about being 'oppressed', but naw, you're just mad because you can't show your azzes, parade Sheila Jeffreys transphobic behind on stage, are still searching for a conference venue across The Pond and won't be able to express your trans hate to a disco beat.for the second straight year.   

Job 4:8 - Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

And you TERF's have been plowing iniquity and sowing wickedness for over four decades, and it's past time you reaped a bumper crop harvest of what you planted back in the 70's and 80's.

2012 Olympic Watch-Semenya Gets 800m Silver

I was eagerly watching along with the rest of the world the women's Olympic 800m final race to see if now 21 year old Caster Semenya's drama would end with a golden result. 

Alas it didn't.

She was dead last for 600m of the race and waited a little too long to start her finishing kick and ended up with the silver medal behind Russia's Mariya Savinova in a time of 1:57:23.   Defending Olympic champ Pamela Jelimo of Kenya faded badly down the strtch and finished fourth.

The tactics she use in this race has led to speculation by BBC commentator Colin Jackson that she's holding back in order to not win races in dominating fashion, and avoid a repeat of the international drama that sidelined her for 10 months after the 2009 world championship victory.   .

Atlanta Olympian Michael Johnson disagreed with Jackson's theory on Semenya's motivation.


"Why would she prepare and come here and not want to win? She showed in 2009 she was a fighter. I am not buying that. I don't see that in Semenya," Johnson said.

I'm not buying that either.   But damn, Semenya is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't win big.  

What I was happy to hear is that Semenya's coach is now the great Olympian Maria Mutola of Mozambique, who faced her own gender drama back in the day as well.

And yes, there's Rio four years from now.     

2012 Olympics Watch-Williams Sisters Defend Olympic Doubles Title

If there was any doubt as to just how great the Williams sisters are and what their tennis legacy will be, they just added to it yesterday and silenced their Hater Tots chomping critics at the same time..

Venus and Serena won a 6-4, 6-4 straight set rematch of their recent Wimbledon doubles championship match yesterday against the Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka to become the first tennis players ever to win four gold medals.  

In addition to the unranked Williams sisters knocking off three ranked doubles teams and not dropping a set enroute to the 2012 London Olympic doubles crown to add to the wons they won in Sydney in 2000 and Beijing in 2008, they also extended their Olympic tennis doubles record to a spotless 15-0.

Don't hate.  They are all that.   Just imagine where their legacy in the sport would be if the my fave tennis playing siblings had been able to stay healthy.  .

And yes, they are thinking about going for the doubles golden threepeat in Rio in 2016.  Should be fun to watch if that happens.  

2012 Olympic Watch-London Blowout

Team USA's mens b-ballers are 2-0 in Group A play and despite a comfortable 98-71 win over France and a 110-63 win over Tunisia, there were two things I had been worried about with this team.

I'd been concerned about the slow starts of the starting five players, who were being majorly outscored by the bench brigade 180-10 and the abysmal three point shooting so far. 

The new FIBA 3-point line is a foot shorter than the NBA distance and I was wondering if that was impacting them  After yesterday's record setting 156-73 game against Nigeria that tore up the Olympic basketball record books, I'm not worrying about their three point shooting abilities for the rest of this tournament.  

Their winning margin of 83 points beat Team USA's previous Olympic best of 72 points against Thailand set during a 101-29 win in 1956.   Kobe Bryant got an initial 13-0 scoring run started with a three ball on the opening possession of the game as the USA lit up a Nigerian team that started the game packing the paint with a record setting 29-46 barrage from 3 point range (63 percent) and shot 71 percent for the game.

Team USA scored 49 points in the first quarter, had 78 by halftime, passed the 100 point mark midway in the third quarter and after Andre Igoudala hit another (ho hum) three pointer with 4:37 left in the game to give them a 139-68 lead, they surpassed the previous Olympic record 138 points Brazil scored in a 1988 game with Egypt. 

The 78 first half points broke the old Olympic record of 72 scored by that same 1988 Oscar Schmidt led Brazilian team against China. 
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Oh yeah, considering FIBA basketball quarters are only 10 minutes long, unlike the 12 minute ones you get in the NBA, the numbers are eye popping to say the least. 

Carmelo Anthony's 37 points in 14 minutes of work thanks to 10-12 three point shooting broke the 31 point US Olympic record set by Stephon Marbury against Spain in 2004. 

The 2012 Team USA even one-upped the 1992 Dream Team. The 83-point margin of victory eclipsed the 79 point spread that the Dream Teamers put on Cuba when they beat them 136-57.

But playtime is over for Team USA with games against Lithuania on Saturday and Manu Ginobili-led Argentina waiting for them on the schedule.   

2012 Olympic Watch-Gabby's History Making Golden Moment

When the 'Magnificent Seven' were on their way to winning the women's team gymnastics gold medal during the 1996 Atlanta Games, one of the members of that gold medal winning squad was Dominique Dawes who four years later at Sydney won bronze.

Dawes became the first African-American gymnast to win a Summer Games gold medal and in the process became a role model and an inspiration to a generation of African-American girls who dreamed of gymnastics glory similar to what she'd experienced.

One of the girls she inspired to dream and reach for Olympic greatness was one from Virgina Beach,.VA named Gabrielle Douglas.

In order to pursue that dream, she moved away from home at age 14 to train in West Des Moines, IA under 2008 Olympic silver medalist Shawn Johnson's coach Liang Chow.   She came close to quitting during one low point in her journey that her sister Arielle talked her out of doing.

It's a good thing she did.  Two years later Gabby's Olympic gymnastics dreams have become a reality during this one magical week in London.  

One part of that dream came true in her leading the 2012 gold medal winning USA women's gymnastics team that will forever be known as the 'Fab Five' that won the team title Tuesday by a remarkable five point margin. 

The Fab Five lived up to the pre-Olympic hype and beat the Sports Illustrated cover jinx as well as their competition with a 183.596 score while Russia finished second with a 178.503.

Gabby then proceeded to handle her all around competition business Thursday at the North Greenwich Arena.   She beat out her Russian competitors Victoria Komova and her teammate Aliya Mustafina who took the silver and bronze medals.

www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/03/2928618/gabby-douglas-wins-gymnastics.html#storylink=cpy

With the golden win Gabby made history.   She became not only the first African-American gymnast to win the Olympic all around gold medal, she became the first American gymnast ever to win both the team and all around gold medals in the same Olympic games.     .

Her name joins Mary Lou Retton (1984), Carly Patterson (2004) and Nastia Liukin (2008) as USA Olympic all around champions.
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And somewhere in this nation of ours a little African-American girl watched this event like she did back in 1996 and is now thinking about replicating what Gabby Douglas did today at a future Olympic games.

I sure hope so.

 

2012 Olympic Watch-USA Women's Vollyballers Beat China

The number one world ranked USA women's volleyball team has embarked on a mission in which no USA women's Olympic volleyball team has gone before:  Getting to the top step of the medal podium.

Team USA clinched a spot in the quarterfinals after beating number 3 world ranked China in Group B play in straight sets 26-24, 25-16, 31-29. in a battle of Group B unbeaten teams.

Destinee Hooker did much of the damage scoring 22 points wit Megan Hodge added 18 points to help them go to 3-0 in pool play with matches remaining against 0-3 Serbia on August 3 and 1-2 Turkey on August 5.

If Team USA wins their remaining two matches, they would finish at the top of the group and would face the number 4 team from Group A in their opening knockout quarterfinal match..

2012 Olympics Watch-Mixed News Day For The Williams Sisters

Yesterday in the Olympic tennis tournament being played at the All England Club was a mixed bag news day for my favorite tennis playing siblings.

Venus was in a third round match with Germany's Angelique Kerber, but had a bad day and it cost her as she lost 6-7(5-7),6-7(5-7) to end her chance to win the London singles gold medal   .

Big Sis had a 5-4 lead in the first set against Kerber with triple set point but failed to convert them and ended up in a tiebreaker.  She had a 5-1 lead at one point in the first set tiebreaker but lost six consecutive points to lose the tiebreaker and the first set.  .

Venus regrouped and charged out to a 3-1 second set lead but Kerber charged back to eventually force another tiebreaker and win the match.   Venus' usually reliable serve took a vacation at the wrong time as well double faulting twice in the second tie breaker to set Kerber up with match point..

“I made a few errors and she hit a few winners, and things can go quickly in tennis,” Williams said.

Her quest for a fourth tennis gold medal is still alive because she and Little Sis are still in the mix for a repeat doubles title.

Speaking of fourth seeded Little Sis, she had a better day.  The roof was closed on Centre Court and that was bad news for her opponent, Russia's Vera Zvonareva.  Serena took only 51 minutes to execute a dominating 6-0, 6-1 win in which she unleashed 12 aces on Zvonareva and hit 32 winners to move to the quarterfinals.   

Serena faces eight seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark later today and then teams with Big Sis to play a doubles quarterfinal match with the number 2 ranked Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.

TransGriot Update: Serena knocked off Caroline Wozniacki 6-0,6-3 to get to the semifinals against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus

2012 Olympics Watch-Great Day For The Williams Sisters

It was a great day at the All England Club for the Williams Sisters in the London Olympic tennis tournament and a bad one for their haters.  

Venus Williams got her quest for a fourth overall Olympic tennis gold medal started properly by taking only 63 minutes to beat ninth seeded Sara Errani of Italy in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 in her first round match that was postponed a day due to Sunday's heavy rain. 

She faces Canada's Aleksandra Wozniack in a second round match that will determine whether she joins Serena in the round of 16.

Just to remind y'all, Big Sis was the 2000 Olympic singles champ at the Sydney Games in addition to capturing the Olympic doubles titles with Little Sis in 2000 and 2008.

Speaking of Little Sis, Serena Williams took only one hour and 13 minutes to win in straight sets her second round match with Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-3.   Fourth seeded  Little Sis wasn't playing with Agnieszka's baby sis in this match.  She served up 8 aces and hit 26 winners to complete to her July sweep of the Radwanska sisters and move on to play Russia's Vera Zvonareva in the Round of 16. 

Serena beat Zvonareva for the 2010 Wimbledon ladies' singles title, just you give you haters something else to chew on. .

My fave tennis playing siblings then headed to Court 2 a few hours later and successfully got their quest for a third Olympic doubles title off to a winning start.   They opened the defense of the Beijing doubles title by beating the Romanian duo of Sorana Cirstea and Simona Halep 6-3, 6-2 to advance to their second round doubles match versus fifth seeded Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki of Germany.

TransGriot Update: Venus Beat Wozniack 6-1, 6-3 to move to the round of 16 and face Angelique Kerber of Germany.

more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/30/4674900/williams-sisters-win-opening-olympic.html#storylink=cpy

2012 Olympics Watch-The Games Open

After the spectacular opening ceremony Beijing pulled off four years ago, the world was watching to see what London would do when it was their turn to host the Games for a record third time. 

Well, it was spectacular.  It weaved in elements of British history, culture and iconic images from Mary Poppins to James Bond and Queen Elizabeth II.  

And yeah Beijing, you didn't have JK Rowling, Sir Paul McCartney, the Beatles or Soul 2 Soul's 'Back 2 Life' as part of the music track.

Did I mention the image of the Queen and James Bond skydiving from a helicopter over the stadium?

The torch lighting even had London homeboy David Beckham involved. 
He drove a speedboat up the Thames to his old neighborhood where the Olympic Park now stands

Yeah London, you definitely get two thumbs up for that opening ceremony and the interesting way you lit the torch.   Now it's time to settle in and watch the competition over the next two weeks.

Semenya To Carry South African Flag During Olympic Opening Ceremony

When the 2012 Summer Olympic Games kick off on July 27, one of the parts of the ceremony I look forward to is the Parade of Nations and which athletes have been given the honor of carrying their nation's flag into the Olympic Stadium.

When the South African team marches into London's Olympic Stadium, the South African flag will be carried by now 21 year old Caster Semenya, who beat out double amputee 400 meter runner Oscar Pistorius for the honor. 

"It's such a privilege for me to do such a big thing like that," Semenya said in an audio message. "To carry the flag for the team, it's such a big thing."

Yes, it is considering the drama she went through three years ago when she exploded onto the world scene and won the 800 meter world championship in the fifth fastest time ever run in Berlin.

She was sidelined for 11 months as the IAAF ran controversial gender tests on her, and she fought through injuries to win silver at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu last year.  

She's considered one of the favorites to take home a gold medal from these games, and after all the drama she went through, I'll be rooting for her to do just that.

Gabby Douglas Makes US Olympic Gymnastics Team

While I was flipping through the cable channels last night discovered there were two African-American gymnasts competing for spots on the US Olympic Gymnastics team.  One of them was 16 year old Gabrielle Douglas of Virginia Beach, VA  and the other was Elizabeth Price of Coopersburg, PA.  

I ended up watching the rest of the trials from the point I stumbled upon it because Gabrielle was leading the Olympic trails competition with two rotations to go over Jordyn Wieber, the current world champion.  

Douglas has been compared in gymnastics circles to Olympian Dominique Dawes, who was the first African American to not only make a US Olympics gymnastic team but won an individual gymnastics gold medal in floor exercise and a team gold as part of the 'Magnificent Seven' at the 1996 Atlanta Games. 

Douglas won gold at last year's Pan Am Games and hopes to make history by repeat the feat in London.   She eventually won one of the two automatic spots on the team by holding on to her lead over Wieber.   Elizabeth Price made the team as a replacement athlete as well.

It also gives me a heads up on another event and athlete I'll be keeping my eyes on when the London Games get started on July 27. 

2012 Olympic Women's and Men's Basketball Tournament Draw Held

We're getting closer to the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on July 27 and the USA women's and men's basketball squads already know who will be in their respective groups when the basketball competition starts

For the four time defending gold medalist USA women, who are seeking their fifth consecutive gold medal in these games they will be in Group A that consists of Angola, China  and three of the qualifiers from the FIBA women's tournament that will be conducted in Turkey June 25-July 1.   


Group B on the women's side is shaping up to be the 'Group of Death' with Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Russia, and the two remaining FIBA Olympic tournament qualifiers.

The Canadians are still alive for an Olympic women's berth.but will have to play in the Qlympic qualifying tournament in Ankara to get it.  They are in Group D with France and Mali and will either have to finish first or second in the group to advance to a matchup with whoever comes out of Group C between Croatia, Korea and Mozambique. 

For the FIBA world champion USA men, they will be seeking back to back Olympic gold in this tournament but will be missing Derrick Rose who just tore his ACL in the NBA playoffs and Dwight Howard who had back surgery and is out.    They are in Group A and will face Manu Ginobili and the Argentines, Tony Parker and France, Tunisia playing in their first ever Olympics, and two qualifiers from the FIBA Men's Olympic qualifying tournament to be conducted in Venezuela 

Group B on the men's side will consist of Australia, Brazil, China, the host Great Britain, Spain an the third FIBA qualifier 

The Men's Olympic qualifying tournament will be conducted in Caracas, Venezuela July 2-8.   In addition to the host Venezuelans will have perennial African champs Angola, who were shockingly upset in the Afrobasket tournament final by Tunisia.  

Nigeria, Russia, Lithuania, Greece, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Macedonia, Jordan, New Zealand and Korea round out the list of nations battling for the last three London Olympic basketball tournament spots

In both the women's and men's Olympic tourneys, top four teams in each group advance, then the four remaining teams play knockout games with the Group A winner facing off against the fourth place team in Group B, the Group A Runner up playing the third place team in Group B and the Group A third and fourth place teams squaring off in knockout games against the Group B winner and runner up. 

Winners keep playing until they get to the gold and bronze medal matches. 

The Olympic basketball competition will last until August 12, and I'm so looking forward to it.

One Year Until London 2012

One year from today's date, we will witness the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.  It will be the first time since 1948 that the city has hosted the Games and the third time it has done so.  


After over 10,000 athletes parade into the Olympic stadium in alphabetical order with the Greeks going first and the host nation Great Britain last, we'll witness the torch lighting ceremony.   Ever since Barcelona used an archer to light the Olympic cauldron in 1992, it has been getting more and more creative with every passing Olympiad.   During the 2008 opening ceremonies for the Beijing Games Li Ning 'skywalked' to the Olympic cauldron.   How's London going to top that one?.

It will also be interesting to see what British Olympian will get the honor of lighting the torch.

And another question the trans community around the world will be asking is will this be the Games a trans athlete finally qualifies for their nation's Olympic team?


I've been an Olympic junkie ever since I watched the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics and later that summer the Mexico City Games.  I'm looking forward to seeing it take place not only in London, but watching some events like the tennis competition taking place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, or seeing the marathon run past world famous London landmarks and the soccer final in Wembley Stadium

But most of all I'm looking forward starting one year from today until August 12, 2012 to world class competition in 26 sports composed of the world's best athletes all battling for gold, silver and bronze medals.

And of course I want the USA grabbing its share of them.

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