mickey baobao

The Olympic Torch has been lighted for five days. After the holy Priestess lit the flame, using the sun’s rays and a parabolic mirror in front of the Temple of Hera on the historic grounds of Olympic, where the ancient Olympic Games took place, the Torch has been passed in several cities, such as Messologi, Agrinio, Amfilochia, Menidi, Arta and Ioannina. The first runner of the 2008 Beijing Torch Relay passed the tomb of Pierre de Coubertin. The torch will be stopping in 21 cities around the world and more than 100 places in China, and then it will enter the Olympic Stadium in Beijing during the Opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games.

It is a great honor for every torchbearer. “The feeling of running the torch must be completely deferent from others”, almost all the torchbearers expressed their feeling like that when being asked. Yes, running the torch is very proud, but we should never ignore the potential danger, in other words, we should heighten our vigilance during the Olympics to protect the process goes successfully. As we know, when mayor Liu qi announced in Greek the news of torch passing, three Tibetan’s provocation of independence suddenly broke out. They acted as journalists, and shown the flag of independence publicly. Of course, that was an accident, a well planned premeditates, but maybe we should think about it, the reason of their action…and I think we should learn some things from that, and then try our best to prevent every danger during the games…

Tracing back to the history, torch passing was first held in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At that time, Hitler just wanted to use it to publicize Nazism. But now, the aim has been changed already. The flame is the symbol of peace and friendship all over the world. So I do hope that the torch passing in 2008 can be a safer one and can fully spread the theme of communication and friendship around the world. And I do hope there is no accident at all then, because we are devoting ourselves and doing what we can to serve the world, to unite the world then. That is not our Chinese’s must, but also all world citizens’ obligation and final goal.

accessed:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-03/26/content_6565284.htm

In addition to the 90,000 polices and thousands of military personnel, more than 600,000 security volunteers, including retirees, students and guards, are working for Olympics now. The organizers of Beijing Olympic Games announced that they would do their best to hold a successful event in this August. Of course, money spent on security problem is very much. The government of Beijing has not detailed the exact costs until now, but the state media reported last year carried early estimates about $300 million, in 2004 Athens Olympics $1.8 million were spent on it. No terrorist actions had happened, but much hearsay has been heard. People felt unsafe, especially in such a special time.

As we know, China is the only great red country in the world, and we Chinese have a different kind of ideology from others. Many foreigners don’t know our country; even know nothing about Beijing and Shanghai. It doesn’t matter because it is better than having a wrong forecast of our country. The Tibetan and Taiwanese want very much that Tibet and Taiwan to be independent respectively, and the East Turki do the same thing in Sin kiang. They even said that they would do something in this August in Beijing. These days, conflicts broke out between the Han and the Tibetan minority. And the central government in Beijing said that they will take military operation to prevent the Tibetan’s so-called independence action. Because of this, the Japanese compared our country to the German governed by Hitler then, and French said they possibly will not take part in the 2008 Games. There are some other similar examples which we can not list them all. But our Chinese government will do the same thing like the UK government did in the Northern Ireland and the US did in the year of 1861. It is absolutely legitimate. Meanwhile, in my opinion, conflict appears at any time, every where, and it is normal to see, so we Chinese should not afraid of it first, then always be cautious, and never broadcast negative ideals to destruct ourselves. We should adopt the peace settlement and do our best to protect the country safety and all human beings lives first. Then if it is necessary, I think we should not declare the non use of real power.

accessed: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031003134_2.html

Are you shocked when you heard that Roger Federer lost his first match in Dubai yesterday? I am shocked. He has always been champion and people who have watched his match may hardly consider he would be defeated now. But an English boy changed all that yesterday. He is Andy Murray. Before the match, when he was informed that he would face Roger Federer in the first round of the Barclays Dubai Championships, maybe he was shocked too. However, he won the match finally, defeating Roger Federer with the scores 2-1. And the scores of each set are 6-7, 6-3 and 6-4.  It was Roger Federer’s first beaten in the opening round of an ATP tournament since August 2004 in Cincinnati and his opponent was Dorminik Hrbaty then. I can’t remember how many matches he had won since his last lost on the grass ground. What I remember is the match that he lost to Rafael Nadal in Roland Garros Court in the year of 2007. But it was on laterite ground. If you are not a fan of Roger, you may very happy to hear that he was defeated. Every player, or team, who has won so many matches and never lose one in a long period, will be a public enemy. Before his or its match, people may talk about whether he or it will win again. 

 It is not just to Federer. Another example is Michael Schumacher. He was the champion of FIA Formula One Grand Prix World Championship from the year of 2000 to 2004. A new title, “what time he will be defeated”, has been remembered. It resulted in a controversy: Whether a player can be so perfect that no one can keep pace with? Of course everyone has his or her own opinion.

accessed: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article3479131.ece

Running From Despair？ It may be hard to understand, but in some poorest part of America, like Navajo Nation running is one of the best ways for people to go out of poverty.

With the score of 108-89, yesterday, Rockets won easily over the Atlanta Hawks, leading by as many as 33 points. Yao Ming alone contributed 28 points and 9 rebounds. That was the 10th consecutive victory of the total 11 games lately. McGrady and Yao all think they played well, and they are getting better and better day by day.

There are several shining points I want to mention here of that match, concretely, the spirit. They never look down upon the opponent, thus they always played hard during the game. So although they have already dominated 25 points in the first half of the match, they continued to expand the disparity to more than 30 points during the 3rd quarter. Their offence was also very strong, which made the shooting rate of Atlanta Hawks ended of 28% only. Not until the last quarter did the core players of Rockets went to rest, and the substitute played well too. That was the spirit Houston shown in the match.

As we know the Houston Rockers now ranked 8th among the NBA team in west origin. That is a not good rank as compared to it’s before. So the team manager introduced some famous players from abroad into the team. Day by day, they go back to the former track again. Although it still hard for them to regain the championship about 9 years ago, they are trying their best.

Now more and more Chinese players go abroad and contribute their athletic career to sports .so I hope they can enjoy the game all the time, and the team I support can have a bright future.

accessed: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5528397.html

Yesterday was the derby day in Manchester for two clubs, the United and the City. Before the start of that match, the Manchester United had a chance to return to the top of the Premier League table. But they lost, 1 to 2, to the Manchester City at Old Trafford, where is the home of the United. Vassell got the first goal in the 24th minute and Benjani Mwaruwari confirmed their advantage in the 45th minute. At the last of the game, Carrick got one but it was too late.

What is derby in the match? There is a story. In the 18 century, the horse riding was hold in the Derby County, and horses came from the Derby County were the most excellent. Days and days passed, the competition of the horses came from Derby was called “derby”. And now, we call the match of two teams in one city “derby match”.

Audiences are always very excited when the derbies hold, especially in a city where the two teams are counterbalanced. Of cause, players are tenser than usual. There are many reasons, not only for sports, but also for politic and religion. For example, the Spanish derby, the match of the F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid. This match is famous for its politic reasons. As we know, Barcelona is a city in the Catalunia region where is in Spain. But they want to be independence. And the Real Madrid is the deputy of Spain and the king. It is a competition between the Catalunia and the king of Spain in the football match. Every side wants to win.

There are many famous Derbies in other countries as well. For example, Milan Derby, London Derby and Buenos Aires Derby (the derby in Argentina).

accessed: http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_2861259,00.html

I’ve always in favour of watching snooker as well as playing it. Actually, what we play is not a real snooker, but an 8-ball game and easier than snooker. Especially, after China’s young snooker player Ding junhui became the champion of 2004 Games, I became more and more like this game.
Today i read the news “Selby - new Masters champion”, knowing that he became the first Masters debutant to win the tournament for 19 years. In fact, only John Spencer (1975), Doug Mountjoy (1977), Terry Griffiths (1980) and Stephen Hendry (1989) had previously won the event at the first attempt, so his success was not an easy thing, as he once said “I don’t think I’ve ever played better than that”. I think his relaxed mental station and his confidence were the most important element for his success, once he felt relaxed, he maight feel playing at the practice table, and he could deel the emergencies easily. But pressure was also a good thing, because under that situation, your mascle is in tense, and you may well control every ball… Anyhow, Selby won by his own ability, he is a deserved champion and his rivals will respect him more now for winning this title .
This recalled my memery of China’s Ding junhui, he won the championship when he was only 19, but he may have no chance to win this title. He is a challengable player as well, and i hope he can gain more confidence, and paticipate in more world games, because he is still young and he is the leading future of china’s snooker.

After a match in Dubai , Kaka’ was reported that  maybe he would miss the match in this Sunday evening. The match, A.C. Milan vs. the national team of United Arab Emirates , in Dubai was hold only for some commercial purposes. As the most famous player in A.C. Milan, Kaka’ won the Golden Ball in 2007, and then he could not miss this match because many fans came to Dubai to watch his performance. However, he was injured in the training one day before this match. His condition became worse.

After knowing these news, I bethought Antonio Puerta. He would be 23 years old if he was still alive. But he was killed by the heart attack two days after collapsing during his team’s clash with Getafe CF. He was cantering and fell down, after a short time of  treating, he managed to get to his feet in order to be substituted. At that time the tragedy happened, he collapsed again and this time, he never got up. He is not the only player who died during a football match. Vivien FOE, a Cameroonian, and an Austria player who was in a Portugal club and several players that I don’t know what their names were, but knowing all of them died of heart attack.

Maybe we should know how many matches they must play. When they are in their clubs, they must take part in the leagues’ matches and to win the cups in their countries and UEFA champions cup and UEFA cup abroad. Besides those matches, the Euro cup and the World Cup are in their schedules as members of their national teams. Of course, they need to have some commercial games for their chubs’ interests. So they have a match per week, and sometime two games in a week in average. That is why more and more player injury and died during the match. They need to have a rest.

accessed:

On Friday in Westchester County, the former track star Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison for pleading guilty to two counts of perjury. That will be followed by two years of probation, and she was ordered to do community service working for 800 hours with young athletes to spread an anti-drug message. We all know that in year 2007 she admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs in her guilty plea and returned the five Olympic medals she won in 2000. Next, the IOC and track and field’s federation wiped her results from the books starting from the summer of 2000. But Jones herself explained that she had been given a substance by her coach, Trevor Graham since2000, and he told her it was flaxseed oil, in that way, she was unconscious that she was using drugs— steroid THG. However, lead Balco investigator provided the judge with evidence that Jones’s drug use went further than THG. From the doctor’s test we see Jones had used the blood-boosting drug and human growth hormone. Thus the judge could hardly fully trust Jones’s words now, meanwhile, her coach was sentenced to prison as well. Although Jones was very regretful and very sad, she could not change all these. Her super woman image from then on faded away, the only thing we feel is pity, how can we say…just owing to drugs. I do think the judge’s action was right. Even though he was pity too, he should do as that, because athletes in society have a very high status, they inspire the society, and serve as role models for the whole world. So once they cheated, they not only ruined their own reputation but also acted as a bad model for the society, and their influence were more than you can imagine.

Anti-doping has always been an eternal topic in sports field and I hope all the athletes as well as the society pay high attention to this problem in helping protecting a good environment. Jones has paid a terrible human price already, never more.

accessed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/sports/othersports/12jones.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin