Megan Smith’s highly unreliable survey of this month’s news in sports.
Swimming
Has anyone else tuned into swimming this month? The FINA world swimming championships are on in Melbourne, and I haven’t seen lycra look so good since I went for a swim last month. American Michael Phelps and his to-die-for shoulders managed to take home seven gold medals and a new world record of 1:43.86 in the 200m freestyle. Meanwhile, Ian Thorpe spent the month denying allegations of both drugs and homosexuality. Australian swimming finished behind both the U.S. and Russia, leaving many to wonder if the drought plaguing the country hasn’t dried up some of its training pools. The one exception was Libby Lenton who claimed five gold medals for Australia at FINA.
Cricket
The cricket world was rocked when Jamaican police announced that Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer had been strangled to death in his hotel room. The murder occurred after a surprising loss to Ireland in the ICC Cricket World Cup, leading many to speculate that his death may have been motivated by match-fixing. The police have not yet established a prime suspect. Despite the murder, the World Cup continues. The starting field of 16 teams has been narrowed to the Super 8. The Super 8 enter next month’s matches ranked as follows: Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England, South Africa, West Indies, Ireland and Bangladesh. The grand final match is scheduled for Saturday, April 28th. Sources close to the English side revealed that the team is shortly to announce their relocation to the Caribbean as part of an extended boycott of English winter.
Footy
Ben Cousins jets off again, though this time it’s not from the booze bus. The star midfielder will be missing from the West Coast Eagles line-ups early this season while he undergoes rehab overseas. Without Cousins, the Eagles nevertheless fended off a second half surge by the Swans to eek out a 74-73 victory in the opening round rematch of last year’s grand final. Unfortunately, my beloved but beleaguered Dockers went down to Port Adelaide 121-105. In an OUTinPerth exclusive, I can tell readers that this was a clear ploy to set up as the underdogs prior to dominating the end of the season.
Rugby
I was reliably informed by a rugby virgin who experienced the magic of live rugby for the first time this month at the Western Force-Sharks match that the Force won 22-12. Apparently, rugby is quite a strategic game once you work out what the f@*k’s going on.
Basketball
John Amaechi, a former player in America’s National Basketball Association, publicly came out of the closet in February. His coming out prompted former NBA star Tim Hardaway to comment, ‘You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known… It [homosexuality] shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.’ Hardaway later apologized for his remarks, though I feel that in addition to an apology he should be forced to endure a marathon of Idol ‘worst of’ acts.
Tennis
At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, the U.S.’s Serena Williams took the women’s title while Novak Djokovic of Serbia took top honours for the men. Unfortunately, Serena declined my request for photos of a sting bikini victory lap on rollerblades around the South Beach strip.
Surf Lifesaving
This month saw the arrival of elite surf lifesaving athletes (red and yellow is my favourite colour in eye candy) at Scarborough Beach for the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships. Spectators were out in force to enjoy the tanned hard bodies in beachwear as they competed in WA. The competition will return to Scarborough in 2008.
General News
A survey of American sports fans showed an increasing acceptance of openly gay professional athletes. In the poll 72% of the people surveyed said an athlete’s sexuality would not affect their opinion of the individual as an athlete. This figure is up from 66% in an August 2002 survey. Another survey, this time of gay men, showed that while they were equally accepting of gay and straight athletes, they were undeniably biased towards those with big feet.
