The afterglow of the Beijing Olympics has caused me to cogitate on some of America's great victories. This most important of international competitions on a world stage has been shrunk this year to the size of a personal computer in all corners on Earth.
In no particular order of importance, here are some of the greatest American victories we witnessed on television and on the computer during the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
1) Basketball's Dream Team prevailed in the finals against a stubborn Spanish team 118-107 to restore America's claim as the best hoops power in the world. Led by an all-star cast that could compete with Hollywood, the sting of finishing 3rd in the 2004 Athens Olympics will soon be forgotten.
For once, for America, all of the individual statistics and personal glory of the National Basketball Association's elite players were set aside. Credit U. S. coach Mike Krzyzewski with bringing the world's best players together, including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. Krzyzewski is coach of the Duke Blue Devils during the college basketball season.
2) Basketball's Supreme Team (so dubbed by Lisa Leslie) won the gold medal for the 4th consecutive time in Olympic competition, and Lisa Leslie picked up her 4th gold medal as a member of the teams in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and now Beijing.
America's team, with point guard Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm, won 8 games to get to the finals and then destroyed Australia 92-65 to win the gold medal. Bird is 1 of only 6 women to win an Olympic gold medal, a NCAA championship and a WNBA championship.
3) Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh successfully defended their gold medal title in Beach Volleyball at the 2004 Athens Olympics by defeating the Chinese team in Beijing. May-Treanor and Walsh have been called "the greatest beach volleyball team of all-time". May-Treanor has won more tournaments than any other female player with 103 career wins.
4) Goaltender Hope Solo's play helped the American women win the gold medal in soccer by shutting out the heavily favored Brazil team 1-0 in overtime. The victory was great for America and great for Solo, given the controversy after Brazil's 4-0 romp in last year's World Cup semi-finals when Solo was famously benched.
5) Angelo Taylor won the 400-meter hurdles and gold in track and field competition, and Taylor was followed by Kerron Clement (who took the silver) and Bershawn Jackson (who took the bronze) for a perfect 1-2-3 sweep.
6) LaShawn Merritt upset defending champion Jeremy Wariner to lead an American sweep in the 400 meters. Two-time world champion Wariner struggled to win the silver and David Neville did a head-fist dive across the finish line to win the bronze.
7) Merritt, Wariner and Neville would later team up with Angelo Taylor to win the 4x400 meter relay and set an Olympic record in 2:55.74. Wariner anchored the relay with a 43.18 split, the fastest of all competitors.
8) Sanya Richards, who had to settle for a bronze medal in the women's open 400 meter, ran a come-from-behind anchor leg to lead an American victory in the 4x400 relay. Mary Wineberg was the leadoff leg, Allyson Felix ran the second leg in 48.55, the fastest leg among all 32 women competitors, Monique Henderson ran third and Richards got the baton several steps behind the Russian leader. Richards brought the crowd to their feet as she closed the gap and passed the Russian in the final 10 meters to win by 89 one-hundredths of a second.
9) Michael Phelps led the United States swim team to glory in the pool by winning 8 gold medals, setting 7 world records and 1 Olympic record. Many Olympic watchers thought Phelps' performance was the greatest of any athlete in Olympic history.
Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
Some of the greatest basketball tournaments are scheduled by the NCAA for the college conferences. These are so numerous that there is rarely a day goes by, during the course of the season, that there is not a game being played.
From the beginning with all the Conference games right through to March Madness and the Final Four, the NCAA have one of the most passionately fought basketball tournaments that you can imagine. It is not only the teams who are a part of all this, but the fans and supporters too. As the teams are all college teams, there is a great deal of support from the students at the various colleges. This, combined with the followers from the town and area, guarantees that the games are all well attended and passionately supported. The NCAA tournament really is huge. In Division 1 there are 341 colleges in 31 Conferences so just the scheduling of the games for the tournament is not easy. The sheer numbers of colleges that take part means that to get into the Final Four is a real achievement. By the time the Final Four have been decided and come together in battle, there will have been three weekends of very exciting college basketball.
The Big 12 Tournament is a round robin tournament involving eight of the teams from the Big 12 Conference of NCAA basketball. These eight teams are split into two groups of four and the winner of each group will meet in the tournament final. This has been the format of the Big 12 championship for just a couple of years. Prior to this there have been other formats including elimination rounds. Until 1999 only six teams were involved in the Big 12 Tournament. Although 메리트카지노 this is only an inter conference championship, it another of the well known basketball tournaments and the winner will go through to the NCAA Championships.
With the arrival of the Womens National Basketball Association in 1996 a women's league was started. Play in this league began in 1997 and one of the best know basketball tournaments for women is the WNBA playoffs leading onto the WNBA Finals. Each conference will put forward a team to the finals. This team will be chosen by a system of playoffs between the four top teams. These take place in August and September, after the end of the regular season and culminate in a best of five play off to establish the winner of the WNBA league.
There are so many basketball tournaments that it would be impossible to list them all here. As well as the NCAA, the NBA and the WNBA there are hundreds of High School and smaller leagues who are playing regularly during the season. You will never have to look very far if you are interested in supporting a local team.