insightsports

When you start seeing track and field highlights on ESPA and read the headlines in USA Today, it can only mean one thing. The Summer Olympics are close at hand. Just in the past few days there have been stories in the media about Olympics wrestling, basketball, volleyball and of course, track and field. Most recently was the report of Dayron Robles of Cuba setting a world record in the 110-high hurdles, clocking 12.87 seconds in the Golden Spike track meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Now be honest with yourself, when is the last time you saw something in the paper about the 110-meter high hurdles. I’d wager it was four years ago, the last time the Summer Olympics rolled around. No problem, though. I like a good dose of track and field every four years. Not too much, not too little. Here’s to Beijing in August.

For all of you armchair athletes, ESPA has come up with the remote to solve all your viewing problems. Dubbed the ESPN Ultimate Remote, this little gadget is packed with features. And no, I’m not getting a cut on any of the sales, but I thought you would want to know about it. For a mere $300, you can get all of this: wireless connection to the Internet that allows you to text message, send and check e-mail plus watch television via the 2-inch screen. It will even turn itself on when it senses nearby movement and automatically adjusts the brightness of its screen based on surrounding light. How could you possibly get along without it?

Alex Ovechkin, the sensational left wing of the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League, has picked up not one, but two Most Valuable Player awards. Ovechkin, who set an NHL scoring record for left wings this past season with 65 goals, won both the Hart Award from hockey writers and the Lester B. Pearson Award, which is determined by a vote of the players. Ovechkin’s fantastic play this year resulted in the Capitals making the playoffs for the first time in five years. He says his next quest now is to bring the Stanley Cup, NHL’s highest honor, to the nation’s capital.

When Michelle Wie tied up a golf ball to compete in the 2000 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, she was 10 years, 9 months old. At that time, it made her the youngest players ever to compete in a U.S. Golf Association championship. She can no longer claim that distinction. On June 16, Allisen Corpuz of Kapolei, Hawaii shot an 81 in the first round of the same tournament that Wie competed in eight years ago. Allison was 10 years, 3 months old. Allison’s 81 was followed by an 88 in the second round and she missed the cut by 9 strokes, but it was still quite an accomplishment. I case you were wondering, Allison began playing golf at age 4. She hits 200-yard tee shots that are straight and true and her skill with fairway woods is excellent. Once she hones in on her short game a bit more she’s going to be a force to reckon with, so keep this name in mind for the future—Allison Corpuz of Hawaii.

Heavyweight boxer Larry Holmes, whose 20 consecutive defenses of his heavyweight title from 1978 to 1985 was second only to Joe Louis’ 25, was finally inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. For a boxer who had a 69-6 record with 44 knockouts, the accolade was long overdue. Consider some of Holmes’ accomplishments. First off he won the title in 1978 with a hard fought battle against Ken Norton. He won that fight even though he had torn a ligament in his left arm a week before the fight. He went on to defeat Earnie Shavers, who Muhammad Ali had called the hardest puncher ever, as well as Leon Spinks and Ray Mercer, an undefeated challenger and 1988 Olympics gold medal winner. At one point Holmes, nicknamed the Easton Assassin, was 48-0 and fell one win short of tying Rocky Marciano’s record.

Denver Nuggets star forward Carmelo Anthony has been named to the U.S. Olympics basketball team, making him a repeat member of the team. The rest of the squad is expected to be named this week and must be submitted to the Olympics committee by July 1. Then the team will convene for a mini-camp in Las Vegas on June 27-28. The first game for the U.S. team in the Olympics will take place on Aug. 10 against a very challenging Chinese team. Anthony averaged over 25 points a game for the Nuggets this season and was the leading scorer for Team USA in both the 2006 World Championships and the Olympic qualifying tournament last summer.

Jake Deitchler isn’t a bit intimidated by his elders. The 18-year-old whiz kid from Minnesota has qualified for the U.S. Olympics Greco-Roman team as a 145 ½-pound wrestler. The high school youngster has become the first high schooler to make the Olympics wrestling squad in 32 years. Quite an accomplishment for the young man who pulled off two major upsets during recent competition in Las Vegas. Greco-Roman wrestling is a lot different from the freestyle wrestling that most of us are familiar with. For one thing, experience plays a big part in success—that’s why the youngster Deitchler’s win is such a big surprise. To illustrate the experience factor, consider that 37-year-old T.C. Dantzler made the Greco team for the first time at 163 pounds—that’s an age difference between the two first-time Olympians in the same sport.

Fantastic catcher Buster Posey of Florida State has been voted as the nation’s top college baseball player…hands down. Consider these stats if you think he doesn’t deserve the accolades—nation’s No. 1 batting average of .460; nation’s No. 1 in home runs (26); nation’s No. 1 in RBIs (92); nation’s No. 1 in hits (114); nation’s No. 1 in runs (88); nation’s No. 1 in on-base percentage (.564); nation’s No. 1 in total bases (220). The 6-2, 220-pound Seminole is also one of the nation’s top defensive catchers, with only eight errors in 474 chances (.983). Earlier this year against Savannah State Posey played all nine positions in the game. He’s made eight appearances as a relief pitcher, earning six saves. Watch for him next year in a San Francisco Giants uniform. The Giants made him the number five pick in this month’s draft.

Justin Henin is gone and Venus Williams, last year’s Wimbledon Champion isn’t likely to repeat in a couple weeks, so the All-England championship is up for grabs. There are four big favorites as far as I can see. I’ll list them in order of my own power ranking and we’ll see how close I can come to predicting it. First off, I love the Serbians, so I see them finishing first and third. And then there are the Russians, and I see them at two and four. Here’s How it is going to end up: 1) Ana Ivanovic; 2) Maria Sharapova; 3) Jelena Jankovic; 4) Dinara Safina. I love them all and I hate to see any of them lose, but there has to be a winner and I see Ivanovic continuing to roll over her competitors the same way she did in Paris. What about the U.S. Open in August? Well, reigning champ Henin has put her racquet on the shelf, so it won’t be her. Right now I’ll stick with the same four listed above, but I’d really like to see Jankovic take one of these two majors. She seems to be a continuous also-ran and she deserves better.

Rafael Nadal took it to Roger Federer a couple weeks ago at the French Open. Rafe was brilliant and dominated Federer like never before. But that was on clay, which happens to be Nadal’s favorite surface. The final two majors—Wimbledon and the U.S. open—will be played on surfaces that are more favorable to Roger Federer. The Belgian is way overdue for a big win and I think the friendly grass of London will welcome him. Federer is the defending champion and I see him continuing to continue his reign for another year at least. He also won the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows last year and barring an injury he’ll repeat there as well. You heard it here first and I’ll keep you posted on developments.