1920 — Cornell’s Ivan Dresser was a member of the three-person United States 3,000-meter relay team that claims a gold medal at the Antwerp Games. Dresser would ultimately become one of the top global executives at General Motors.

1959 — Michael Storm was born. A native of Arlington, Va., the Penn graduate won a silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games in team modern pentathlon. He also finished fifth individually. Added to the Olympics in 1912 to “bring the armies of the world closer together,” the event combines riding, fencing, shooting, swimming and running. Unfortunately, the next scheduled Games of 1916 were scuttled because of World War I. The only American, male or female, to medal in the event since Storm is Yale’s Emily de Riel in 2000. Storm once said, “To be good in the pentathlon, you have to be almost at the national level in five events.”

2004 — The United States men’s eight did exactly what its crew thought it could do — dominate. And with a victory in the final, Princeton’s Chris Ahrens claimed the League’s first gold medal of the Athens Games. On the women’s side, Harvard’s Caryn Davies and Princeton’s Lianne Nelson won silver medals in the eight boat, which fell in the final to Romania. The only Ivy League women to earn a medal in the eight before were Anne Warner (Yale) and Marion Greig (Cornell), who claimed bronze together in Montreal in 1976.

The sport of skiing played a large role in her enrollment at Dartmouth, but Kristin Luckenbill wound up with an Olympic gold medal… from the Summer Games.

One can forgive Dartmouth’s admissions office if they thought they were only getting a skier when they accepted Kristin Luckenbill, a graduate of the Stratton Mountain School, a renowned ski and snowboard academy. Instead they admitted, arguably, Dartmouth’s greatest soccer player.

For Luckenbill the choice of Dartmouth was obvious. “I was recruited by a lot of large schools with good soccer programs,” remembers Luckenbill, and “came very close to going to Penn State.” But “soccer, ski racing, and academics were the most important things to me when I was choosing a college. Dartmouth was the only school that excelled in all of those categories.”

Luckenbill, in turn, excelled both athletically and academically at Dartmouth. Calling herself a “consistent carnival skier,” she nonetheless had several top 15 finishes at the Eastern College Carnivals, and was a silver medalist in slalom at the 1998 Eastern Junior Olympics.

As goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team Luckenbill did more than excel. Named Ivy Rookie of the Year in 1997 and Player of the Year in 1998, she led her team that year to an Ivy League title and the NCAA tournament final eight. “When I chose to go to Dartmouth over some bigger soccer schools, I never thought a season like that would be possible,” she said. Luckenbill led the Big Green to another championship in 2000, equaling the number won by Dartmouth in the 19 seasons before she arrived.

A geography major, Luckenbill had to be an “organized person and an efficient worker” to successfully balance athletics and academics. It was “was definitely tricky at times,” she recalls, but “sometimes you actually are able to focus more on school when you are in season. You are too busy with classes and training to get distracted by other things.”

A four-time first team All-Ivy and three-time All-American selection, Luckenbill drew the attention of the nascent Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA). Founded in the wake of the US Women’s Team’s World Cup triumph in 1999, the league held a draft in preparation for its inaugural 2001 season. The Carolina Courage selected Luckenbill. “Growing up and in college, I never thought it possible,” she says. “I was with the ski team at Colorado training camp. When I found out [about being selected] I quit skiing.”

WUSA was “totally unbelievable,” says Luckenbill. The league had “the greatest players from all over the world.” She thrived in the highly competitive environment. Quickly becoming starting goalkeeper, she was named Carolina Rookie of the Year in 2001. In 2002 everything came together for Luckenbill and her team. She was named a WUSA All-Star and Goalkeeper of the Year as she helped the Courage capture the Founders Cup, the WUSA championship.

But after playing one more season the WUSA disbanded. “It was really disappointing,” says Luckenbill. “I thought my career was over, and moved to Colorado to coach skiing.” Then in January 2004, she received a fateful phone call.

Luckenbill’s complete profile can be found at Ivy@50.

1884 — Chandler Egan was born. He discovered the game of golf at the age of 12, and with his brother Walter, built a makeshift nine-hole neighborhood course the following summer. It served the two Harvard grads well as each would earn an Olympic gold medal at the 1904 Games in St. Louis. Chandler, the favorite to win the individual title, was stunned by Canadian George Lyon, who was a long hitter and took Egan out of his game. But the Egans were both members of the team championship. Chandler would move to Oregon to run an orchard, but would find himself gravitating back to golf course design. In 1929 he partnered with legendary gold architect Alister MacKenzie to renovate Pebble Beach Golf Links for the 1929 U.S. Amateur. The 45-year-old Egan would advance to the semifinals of that event.

2004 — The United State men’s foil team — which featured Columbia’s Dan Kellner and Jed Dupree — nearly claimed bronze medals on Saturday, coming up just short, 45-38, in the bronze-medal loss to Russia. After DuPree was even with Renal Ganeev at 5-5 heading into the final match, the score was 40-37 with Kellner needing a big showing against Youri Moltchan. But Kellner fell 5-1 as the Russians claimed the bronze. It was the best finish by a U.S. men’s team since 1956.

1920 — The United States epee team, which included Harvard’s William Russell and Princeton’s Henry Breckinridge, was in action at the Antwerp Games. Breckinridge would serve as Charles Lindbergh’s attorney during the Lindbergh kidnapping trial and would defeat President Franklin D. Roosevelt — opposing the New Deal — in the 1936 New Jersey Democratic Primary. He would lose badly elsewhere and ultimately endorse Republican nominee Alf Landon in the general election. It didn’t help.

2004 — Tora Harris of Princeton failed to qualify for the high jump finals in Athens, a disappointing turn of events for the nation’s top high jumper in 2002. Harris had never lost a Heps championship, indoor or outdoor, capping his career with a clearance of 7-7 at outdoor Heps at Navy in 2002. He actually didn’t begin to jump until all his competitors were finished. Harris also won at the Penn Relays that year, leaping 7-6 1/2 in front of more than 45,000 fans. He failed to make the U.S. Olympic team this year. He would have been a huge hit in Beijing, given that he speaks Chinese fluently. Below is Harris’ all-time best clearance of 7-7 3/4 at the USA Nationals in 2006.

They were state high school champions together, but twins Brenda and Lindsay Taylor took different paths to different colleges. Yet together they won 23 individual Heps titles. For some who were accustomed to thinking about Brenda and Lindsay Taylor as inseparable, it may have come as a surprise when the pair announced that they were going separate ways for college. But when Lindsay fell in love with Brown, and Brenda chose Harvard, the two were neither surprised nor disappointed that their college lives would be spent on different campuses.

“All of our lives we did the same things and were known as the ‘Taylor Twins,’” recounts Brenda. “We were both swimmers, both state champions [out of Boone, N.C.]. By college, we were ready to take separate paths.”

When they decided on schools that were only 45 minutes apart it provided an opportunity for frequent visits, yet each was on a campus where she felt most at home. Both vividly remember a defining moment in the college selection process when they visited Brown. Upon hearing that Harvard was also high on their list of choices, a Brown student posited this difference, “The difference between Brown students and Harvard students is that Harvard students will lead the world, but Brown students will change it.”

“When I heard that,” recalls Lindsay, “I knew I was home. Brown was my first choice… my only choice.”

Brenda ultimately felt that she was more suited to the culture at Harvard. Although she also planned to be someone who would make a difference in the world, she was attracted to the opportunity to do that from a firmer springboard. “I liked the structure at Harvard. I loved the core curriculum and the fact that I would be required to take certain courses that I might not choose on my own. I felt I would grow from that.”

She also instantly loved the sense of history she felt the moment she stepped inside the gates of Harvard Yard. “You just felt that you were in a place of higher learning. And I liked that everyone there was ambitious and it’s out in the open. I felt at home.”

It would have been almost unfair to the other seven track and field programs in the league if the two had chosen to matriculate together and consolidate their formidable athletic talents on one team. Between them, they won 23 Heps titles in individual events over their eight indoor and outdoor championship meets. Their influence was even greater if you consider their relay duties.

Taylor’s (along with her sister’s) complete profile can be found at Ivy@50.

1882 — Harry Groman was born. Then a recent Yale graduate, he was the early leader in the 400-meter dash at the St. Louis Games in 1904. But he faded in the closing stages and was passed by gold medalist Harry Hillman before being clipped by Frank Waller at the tape. Groman would become a third-generation physician in Hammond, Ind., while Hillman would serve as the track coach at Dartmouth from 1910 to 1945.

1906 — Dernell Every was born. Known as a living legend in the sport of fencing, he served as a competitor, sportsman and administrator. The Yalie competed in four Olympic Games, taking a bronze medal as a member of the foil squad at the 1932 Los Angeles Games. Every was a long-time administrator with the Amateur Fencers League of America and was credited with being a principle reason that the sport remained alive in America through the World War II years.

1920 — Dartmouth’s Howard Cann failed to earn a medal in the shot put at the Antwerp Games, but he would go onto to great fame… in the sport of basketball. He was the Helms National Player of the Year for NYU, the same school where he’d become a National Hall of Fame coach for three-and-a-half decades. Another Big Green athlete — Canadian Earl Thomson — would win gold on the same day, winning the 110-meter hurdles.

2004 — One centimeter. That’s the distance that separated Adam Nelson from a gold medal at the Ancient Stadium in Athens, Greece. A former football player and Heps champion at Dartmouth, Nelson earned a silver medal after hanging onto a slim lead all day, but Yuriy Bilonog of the Ukraine matched Nelson’s best throw of 69-5 1/4 on his last attempt to tske the gold. Nelson’s final throw looked to be well over 70 feet, but a foul was called.

1920 — Yale’s Dick Landon — who met his future wife Alice Lord on the boat to the Antwerp Games — took gold in the high jump. His future partner, a diver, did not medal. Princeton fencer Henry Breckinridge collected a bronze medal in the team foil competition as well.

1982 — Charley Ackerly passed away. The Cornell grad, who lost the EIWA finals to Penn’s Sam Gerson in 1919 and 1920, finally got revenge against the Red-and-Blue nemesis and it came at the right time, in the gold medal match in the freestyle featherweight class at the Antwerp Olympics.

2004 — Yale’s Sada Jacobson became the first American female to win a fencing medal with a bronze medal performance in the individual sabre event. Jacobson, the event’s top seed, defeated Catalina Gheorghitoaia of Romania, 15-7, to make history. Teammate Mariel Zagunis made a little history of her own moments after Jacobson’s win by claiming gold in the championship bout.

1957 — Mike Evans was born. The Princetonian and his twin brother Mark won gold on Canada’s 1984 coxed eight. In a New Yorker story in 1996, he told the author the following story: “Last month, we were doing an offering for an athletic-footwear company and a colleague introduces me to one of the guys from the company and says, ‘Oh, you two have something in common,’ and I go ‘What’s that?’ and he says, ‘You both won gold medals in the Olympics.’ And I just looked at the guy, and he was the softest-spoken, humblest guy you can imagine, and he didn’t have to say anything. I knew what that meant to him in his life. What an enormous event that must have been for that guy, back in 1960. I didn’t say anything, and neither did he. We both just knew what it meant.”

2004 — Brown graduate Jimmy Pedro became the League’s first medalist at the Athens Games with his bronze medal-winning victory over Daniel Fernandes of France in the 73kg/161 pound judo competition. Pedro, a four-time Olympian and bronze medalist in 1996, competed in six contests on the day. His 2004 medal makes him the first U.S. judo athlete to win two Olympic medals.

Her school knew about her before she knew about the school, but in the end, Olympian Dawn Chuck loved her experience and brought distinction to Brown University.

“We live in a different world in the Caribbean,” asserts Dawn Chuck. “I hadn’t heard of Brown, didn’t know it was in the Ivy League.”

Brown, however, had heard of Dawn Chuck.

A competitive swimmer in Jamaica since the age of six, Chuck was attending a stroke clinic given by a visiting American coach, arranged by her longtime coach, Jacqueline Walter. Her coach had an ulterior motive in arranging the stroke clinic. “She wanted me to go to college in the U.S.” says Chuck. “She thought the facilities were better.”

The American coach mentioned he could pass Chuck’s name on to college coaches, and soon Brown coach Matt Kredich invited her on a recruiting trip. “I loved everything about the school and the team,” says Chuck, “I knew that I wanted to swim throughout my college career but also be able to focus on my academics, so Matt and the swimming program at Brown definitely had a great impact on my decision.” She decided on Brown, turning aside offers from Villanova University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

She and Brown both made fine selections. Chuck won outright or shared in four Ivy swimming championships during her time at Brown. In two events — the 400 and 800 m freestyle medley — her 2001 teams set Ivy records that still stand. Chuck is also a two-time Olympian, swimming for Jamaica in the 2000 and 2004 Games. “I was young for the [2000] Sydney Games,” says Chuck, “I didn’t know the Jamaica team or what to expect. Athens was different. The first day we went sightseeing and saw the Acropolis. I don’t impress easily. I’m thinking ‘this is amazing.’”

It didn’t come easily. “My whole life has been about time management,” says Chuck. With swimming taking up at least three-to-four hours a day, you know that the rest of the time has to be devoted to your classes and school work.” And she adds, “I would have liked to have done a semester studying abroad.”

After graduating with a degree in psychology in 2002, Chuck headed to the University of Florida, where she worked as a swim instructor while earning a Master’s degree in sports psychology in 2005. She then became an assistant swim coach at Duke University. “I’m the only assistant [coach] for 50 athletes,” she laughs. “I do everything — recruit, do paperwork, compliance, make travel arrangements — when I’m not on deck coaching technique.”

Chuck’s complete profile can be found at Ivy@50.

Courtesy of San Jose Mercury News

Kendra Zanotto is a big believer in the power of the Olympics. But the Columbia graduate (‘08) and 2004 bronze medalist has been shaken after the Chinese government denied her application for a visa to travel to Beijing for the Summer Games.

The Los Gatos native and St. Francis High graduate was set to work as an expert synchronized swimming reporter for the Olympic News Service, an official arm of the Beijing Games. But she says her visa application was refused Monday because of her affiliation with Team Darfur, an athlete-driven group that seeks to call attention to the crisis in western Sudan.

“It’s hard to explain that I’m blacklisted – I’m such an Olympic advocate,” Zanotto said just after learning her application had been rejected by the consulate in San Francisco.

Zanotto, in fact, said she joined the group – started by the gold medalist speedskater Joey Cheek – precisely because it argued against a boycott of the Games. According to the group’s Web site, “Team Darfur calls for a celebration of the Olympic spirit, not a boycott.”

The consulate didn’t tell her why her application was denied. But the firm that handled her hiring told Zanotto the government was uncomfortable with the Team Darfur affiliation.

Consulate spokesman Defa Tong declined to comment about Zanotto’s application because he said he didn’t know the specifics of it. But he said denying visas without explanation is common around the world.

“If denied, it is not necessary to give any reason,” Tong said.

China is bracing for an estimated 500,000 visitors and as many as 20,000 reporters for the Olympics, which begin Aug. 8. At the same time, the government remains hypersensitive to anything that would cast the Beijing Games in a negative light, and it has tightened visa restrictions in recent months.

With issues such as the conflicts in Tibet and Darfur causing an undercurrent of criticism from the West, Chinese authorities have tried to subvert any protests, leading to fears that these might be the most restrictive Games in modern history.

To learn more about Zanotto’s situation, head to the San Jose Mercury News.

Will the third time be a charm for Dartmouth graduate Adam Nelson?

The two-time Olympic silver medalist will go for his first Olympic championship in Beijing by virtue of a valid throw in the qualifying round as the Track and Field competition officially opened today.

The Ivy Leaguer made short work of the morning session by launching a 20.56m throw. Automatic qualifiers must throw at least 20.40.

He will go for the podium in tonight’s evening session in Beijing local time (which for those on the EST will be tomorrow morning).

Qualifying a disappointing third at the 2008 USA Olympic Trials, the former Dartmouth standout will hope to catch lightning-in-a-bottle and unleash one of the herculean throws that propelled him to the medal podium in Sydney and Athens.

Finding the power that once launched the shot 72′ 4-3/4″ would certainly help in that regard.

He showed up at Dartmouth primarily known as a football player, but now people are surprised to learn he played that sport. That’s because Adam Nelson became a World Champion and two-time Olympic medalist shot putter.

“It wasn’t until eighth grade that I started in track and field,” begins Dartmouth alum Adam Nelson. “I have to be honest. I went out for the track team because I didn’t make the baseball team. It turned out all right.”

What an understatement. Nelson is a two-time Olympic medalist, winning silver in the shot put in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, as well as the 1997 NCAA championship. He holds the Dartmouth shot put record of 19.89 meters, more than two meters better than the previous record (17.45), set in 1973. Nelson also played football for Dartmouth, lettering all four years (for a total of 12 letters). In his junior year, he helped Dartmouth football to a perfect season, a record 10 wins, and an Ivy championship.

Yet in high school in Atlanta, Ga., Nelson had never heard of Dartmouth until “I began receiving letters from some football coaches recruiting me to play at Dart’MOUTH’ College. Honestly, I didn’t even know how to pronounce it until I heard someone else say it.” He soon learned how to pronounce Dartmouth correctly, choosing it “because it was a great school with a great reputation for athletics.”

Recruited primarily for football, Nelson soon caught the attention of long-time field coach Carl Wallin. “He pulled me aside and said he could see a level of potential he hadn’t seen his whole career,” remembers Nelson. “It was he who encouraged me to pursue my first Olympic team.”

Nelson “finished dead last” in the 1996 Olympic Trial, but Wallin wouldn’t let him get discouraged. “He said to give it a shot, three years. The stuff Ivy grads do — the banking, consulting — will wait.” Nelson took Wallin’s advice, and still seeks it. “We still communicate regularly. He has been a constant source of inspiration, motivation, and education for the past nine years,” says Nelson.

Graduating with a degree in government in 1997, Nelson found another role model to guide his athletic career. “Alex Ghanotakis (a 1996-97 Dartmouth All-American in the hammer) was my teammate” according to Nelson, who went ahead to California, settled down, and began training. “He knew the coach, and laid the foundation I could build upon,” says Nelson.

The rest is history. Nelson medaled at Sydney in 2000, and earned a second silver in the 2004 Olympics. The 2004 competition was held at the Ancient Olympia, the stadium where the original Olympics took place. What was it like to compete where field events had taken place over 2700 years ago? “It was an amazing experience,” says Nelson, “You go through a tunnel and arch, and into a grass bowl filled with people. I still think about it 10 times a month.”

Nelson’s complete profile can be found at Ivy@50.

Brown’s Jimmy Pedro is one of the most successful American judo competitors in the Olympics, having won two bronze medals (first in Atlanta 1996 and again in Athens 2004).

In 2004, Pedro became the League’s first medalist with a bronze-medal winning victory over France’s Daniel Fernandes in the 73 kg/161 lbs competition. A four-time Olympian, Pedro became the first U.S. judo athlete to win a medal in two different Olympic Games.

The following video shows how the former World champion fought through the adversity of the 2000 Sydney Olympics to rededicate himself to the sport and make the medal stand again in Athens in 2004.

2004 Bronze medal match (not in English)

She went from Alaska to Manhattan to attend Columbia and became an Olympic rower in the process. And Stacey Borgman has her mother to thank for that.

Stacey Borgman came by rowing at her mother’s suggestion. “Mom really didn’t know anything about rowing,” remembers Borgman, “but she thought it was the perfect sport for me.” Her mom was right. “I fell in love with it from the beginning,” she says.

Paradoxically, the fact that Columbia is not an Ivy rowing power worked in Borgman’s favor. “It was less competitive, so I got more attention,” Borgman says. Another plus was her teammate and roommate, Erin Breznikar. “She really challenged and pushed me. We pushed each other to do optional workouts. Erin really inspired me to work harder and go farther than I thought I could.”

Rowing led to spending Friday evenings in the library, though. “We had practice on Saturday mornings so I spent Friday night in the library getting my homework done, and then after practice on Saturday I was free for the rest of the weekend,” says Borgman. This regimen also “helped my grades improve throughout college.”

After graduating from Barnard with a degree in Political Science and Italian Literature/Studies in 1998, Borgman decided to just see how good a rower she could become, noting “the difference between being good at college and as a an elite athlete didn’t deter me.” It was the non-athletic aspect of becoming an elite athlete that challenged Borgman. “It was a struggle to get a job, pay the rent,” says Borgman, “rowers need to train two or three times a day.”

Her solution? Work at the Home Depot, which has a program for elite athletes. “I worked in the garden section,” she remembers, “they gave us the financial stability of a job, and the flexibility to train. With rowing we moved around a lot [to train], and I worked at stores in San Diego, Princeton, and Portland, [Oregon].”

And Borgman moved up the ranks of elite rowers. In 1999 she won her first national title, then followed that up with silver medals in the 2000 and 2001 FISA World Championships. In 2004 she and teammate Lisa Schlenker won the lightweight women’s double sculls at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trial, making Borgman Columbia’s first-ever women’s Olympic rower. What was it like? “Really isolated,” says Borgman. “We were over an hour away from the main stadium, and very focused on our event.”

Borgman’s complete profile can be found at Ivy@50.

The first important factor leading to her championship fencing career at Yale came before she was born. It was in the early 1970s, when Sada Jacobson’s father, David, took a peek through a door on campus.

At the 2004 Summer Olympic sabre competition Sada Jacobson made history. She and teammate Mariel Zagunis became the first American women to medal in fencing when she took the bronze medal and Zagunis (daughter of Penn rower and 1976 Olympian Cathy Menges Zagunis) the gold. Yet for Jacobson, the first step towards this achievement may have happened at Yale some 34 years before.

David Jacobson, Sada’s father and then a freshman at Yale, “peered through the door of the fencing room,” according to an account in Yale’s 2000-2001 Fencing Media Guide. Yale’s new fencing coach, Henry Harutunian, “grabbed Jacobson and invited him into his salle (fencing room).” Jacobson became Harutunian’s first All-American in 1974, and led Yale’s sabre team, with Steve Blum and Edgar House, to a bronze medal in the 1974 U.S. National Championships.

Jacobson graduated, and set aside fencing as he went to medical school and settled in Atlanta, Ga., where he is an endocrinologist. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Harutunian, who came for the Olympics, visited and revived Jacobson’s interest in fencing. Two years later Sada Jacobson tried fencing. “I’m sure I never would have become involved in the sport if he had not introduced it to me — I just never would have thought of it,” she says.

Her ascent was rapid. In 1999 she was a member of the U.S. team at the first Women’s Sabre Cadet/Junior World Championship. When it came time to choose a college, the choice was pretty obvious. “I knew the Yale fight songs even as a little kid,” remembers Jacobson. “I also had a relationship with Coach Harutunian and knew that I would be happy fencing for him.”

She continued her success at Yale, winning the NCAA sabre championship her first two years and garnering first team All-Ivy and All-American honors. But it wasn’t easy. “My freshman year I remember competing 10 weekends in a row” she recalls. “Eventually I found a balance, but I was pretty sleep-deprived for the first couple of years.”

The 2004 Olympics loomed. In order to make the team, Jacobson would need to compete in World Cup competitions, and would need to train. “Once I had decided I wanted to go for the Olympics, it was kind of a no-brainer,” she says. “I knew there was no way I could do school and fencing at the same time. Also, the training situation I wanted required that I move back to Atlanta to fence at the club there and work with my coach, Arkady Burdan.”

Jacobson’s complete profile can be found at Ivy@50.

U.S. fencer Sada Jacobson became the first Ivy Leaguer to claim a medal in Beijing, as the Yalie captured the silver in the women’s individual sabre at Day One of the Games.

Jacobson, who took home a bronze in the first-ever women’s sabre event four years ago in Athens, was defeated by fellow American Mariel Zagunis in the gold medal match. Becca Ward took the bronze, giving Team USA the sweep.

Both Zagunis and Jacobson are daughters of standout Ivy League athletes. Zagunis’ mother, Catherine Ann Menges Zagunis, was a Penn rower who participated in the 1976 Montreal Games. Jacobson’s father, David, was an All-American fencer at Yale in 1974.

Click here for the complete story.

1928 — Twenty-four-year-old Princetonian Herman Whiton was a member of the mixed six meter United States sailing entrant which finished sixth. He would eventually win gold… 20 years later in London! Whiton — who would later fund the development of the sport — would repeat gold in Helsinki in 1952 at the age of 48. Whiton would later help finance development of the sport and now the Olympic training center for sailing in Miami, Fla., is named the Herman F. Whiton Pavilion.

1981 — Two Ivy Leaguers — Brown ice hockey player Pam Dreyer and Princeton rower Andreanne Morin — were born on the same day. Dreyer won bronze in Turin in 2006 as a backup goaltender. She was projected as the starter until a torn rotator cuff required two surgeries and an intensive rehabilitation. Morin, representing Canada, rowed in the Athens Games in 2004 on the eight-woman boat.

As the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games begin final preparations for tonight’s opening ceremonies, it is always interesting to see how different countries convey the message of the Olympic spirit.

The following two videos show highlights of the various presentations of the Summer Olympic Games Opening Festivities since 1980. How will Beijing rate against the more recent spectacles?

Only time will tell.

They ran together in high school and at Yale — literally finishing within a second of one another on numerous occasions. Now Kate O’Neill hopes to run with twin sister Laura once again — this time at the Olympic Games.

“We’re really good at pushing each other in workouts,” says Kate O’Neill of her twin, Laura. “I would not have made it as far without a constant training partner. Laura motivates me.”

They pushed each other to a total of 13 All-America selections and twin CoSIDA Academic All-America women’s cross-country/track and field first-team selections. They also set Heptagonals (the Ivy League’s track and field championship) records in different events. Laura won the 10,000 meters three times, while Kate won the 5,000 meters three times. The pair was named the most outstanding performers at the 2003 Outdoor Heps.

In addition, Kate won the Connecticut NCAA Woman of the Year Award and was a Honda Award cross country finalist for her consistent senior season. She placed second in the NCAA Cross Country Championship, second in the NCAA Indoor 5000 meters, and second in the NCAA Outdoor 10,000-meter championship. She then placed second in the USA 10,000-meter championship and then qualified for the Olympics at the Trials.

Kate’s fondest Olympic memory is the Opening Ceremony. “I don’t know what other experience like that I could have in my life — with so many people from all over the world.”

Her race did not go as she would have liked. She finished 21st with a time slower than she had run earlier in the year and felt somewhat intimidated by the competition, as she remembers, “I wasn’t going for a top-10 finish. I felt the whole front pack was out of my league.”

But O’Neill believes women distance runners get better in their late 20s and early 30s and expects her best Olympic performance is yet to come.

O’Neill’s complete profile can be found at Ivy@50.

Courtesy of Sports Biz with Darren Rovell, CNBC.com

Ever since Waldi entered our world at the 1972 Olympic Games, mascots have been an essential part of this event. Most of the time, the host countries go out of control with these characters, getting away from the simplicity that’s needed in something that is best sold in plush. So without further to do, here are my top five Olympic mascots. Unfortunately, the five “fuwa” from this year’s games didn’t make the cut.

Darren’s selections can be found on his blog – Sports Biz with Darren Rovell.

Do you agree with Darren’s selections? Disagree? Head over to the IOC page and check out all of the mascots since Schuss’ unofficial debut at the Grenoble Olympics of 1968. And then prove your case.

Compile a Top-10 list of your best mascots (with compelling reasons) and send it over to alex@ivyleaguesports.com along with your name and email.

The rules are very simple:

1. Be creative.

2. A submission is only official if 10 mascots (along with reasons for selection) are incorporated, along with the person’s full name and age.

3. No suggestive or inappropriate material will be accepted.

4. By providing a submission, you are permitting the Ivy League to distribute your intellectual property (with appropriate citation), along with your name, via the website http://iviesinchina.com.

5. Deadline is August 12th at 5 pm EST.

The best submission (as determined by an unbiased panel) will be featured on IviesInChina during the Games. AKA – you win absolutely nothing except bragging rights. Awesome.

The Ivy League reserves the right to alter any chosen submission for spatial considerations.

Courtesy of Mike Tierney, Special to NBCOlympics.com

It’s a time-worn Olympic backstory plot line: Parent who once excelled in a sport introduces it to offspring before the little bugger begins teething. Kid parlays expert tutelage with the head start over other children, winds up wearing a necklace of some precious medal.

By contrast, there are the fencing Jacobsons. Any swords Sada Jacobson, growing up, crossed with father David had to do with her rare failing to complete chores or homework. In fact, not long after parrying and riposting with the 1974 U.S. National Team while a student at Yale, he stashed away his bagged gear and forgot about any fencing other than the type bordering the backyard.

Fast-forward to the 1996 Summer Games, which altered the lives of countless metro Atlanta residents — few more so than Sada Jacobson’s. As the just-turned-teen soaked up the events on TV from their suburban home and wondered how she could climb aboard the grand Olympic stage one day, a house guest arrived. He was Dad’s former college coach.

The two men, merely for old time’s sake, fetched their weapons of sport and went at it in the driveway. “We were just goofing off,” David, an endocrinologist, recalls.

Sada and her two kid sisters watched . . . and walked away, more amused than smitten.

How, then, did Jacobson, who nowadays is sharpening her blade and competitive instincts for the Beijing Games, become the first U.S. swordswoman ranked No. 1 globally, collect World Cup titles, claim in Athens the first individual American Olympic fencing medal in two decades?

“I’ve just been extremely lucky,” she says. “It’s a lot about being at the right place at the right time.”

For the complete story about about the Jacobson’s, head to NBCOlympics.com.

A beautifully nostalgic article about the Courtneys that also features a telephone interview (audio!) with Terin.

I like how the article (which is pro-UGA) makes the Courtneys look like OMGYAY they’re BFF!!

McCool and Humphrey had a love-hate relationship. Woo.

McCool is not making a run for Beijing, and the article reiterates the sad truth that Kupets may very well not try either. Excuse me while I go cry.

And if there were people out there holding out for a Humphrey elite comeback (no, I am not one of them) the answer is No. Says Terin:

My body is almost done, so, I’m just gonna be done after this.

(“This” meaning her senior year at Alabama.) 

The interview was conducted before the UGA-Bama meet, in which the Gym Dawgs beat the Tide PARTLY BECAUSE TERIN WASN’T THERE (she was out sick, plus the previously mentioned back injury).

Part 2a.

So, what about Beijing?

Well, before I go around naming people right and left, let’s look at the history books. (I did some research for this, so I had better be rewarded for my pains someday. Ha.)

2001-2004 Period
2001 World Team: Bhardwaj, Heenan, Miles, Schwikert, Tidd, Yim
2002 World “Team”: Humphrey, Kupets, Postell, Sheehan
2003 World Team: Humphrey, Kupets, Memmel, Patterson, Schwikert, Vise

2004 Nationals Top 7 AA: Kupets, Patterson, Humphrey, McCool, Ishino, Tricase, Yim
2004 Trials Top 7 AA: Kupets, McCool, Patterson, Yim, Ishino, Bhardwaj, Humphrey

2004 Olympic Team: Bhardwaj, Hatch, Humphrey, Kupets, McCool, Patterson

The fun began in 2002, with Kupets and Humphrey going to Debrecen; Hatch made her comeback at 2003 Nationals, McCool and Patterson burst onto the scene in 2003, and Bhardwaj triumphantly returned in 2004, literally right before the Games.
Out of the six girls on the team, Kupets and Humphrey had the most Worlds experience in that quadrennium. Patterson and McCool came into the Olympic picture later in the time frame–Carly only had major international success in 2003, and Courtney M. in 2004. Hatch and Bhardwaj were veterans without much international exposure (Bhardwaj in 2001 Ghent, and that was it).

So that makes two internationally seasoned gymnasts (Kupets and Humphrey), two “young guns” (McCool and Patterson), and two long shots/veterans from past quadrennia that were selected for vaulting ability (Hatch and Bhardwaj, although in Mo’s case being a decent all-around gymnast didn’t hurt).

Now compare that to this quadrennium:

2005 World “Team”: Bieger, Liukin, Memmel, Sacramone
2006 World Team: Bieger, Kelley, Liukin, Memmel, Priess, Sacramone
2007 World Team: Hong, Johnson, Liukin, Peszek, Sacramone, Worley

Obviously the 2008 Nationals and Trials haven’t happened yet, so let us look at this year’s Nationals results:

2007 Nationals Top 7 AA: Johnson, Worley, Liukin, Hong, Sloan, Stack-Eaton, Peszek

In this four-year period, Nastia and Alicia have been in all three World Championships up to this point; it would seem that could make them this quadrennium’s equivalent of Kupets and Humphrey. Shawn’s the new Carly.
So, assuming that the hypothetical Beijing team mirrors the Athens team, we will have two gymnasts from each of the following categories (I am not counting the gymnasts who do not appear in the lists above, e.g., Pama, Stageburg, Trani, Flohr):

Internationally seasoned: Bieger, Liukin, Memmel, Sacramone

Young Guns: Hong, Johnson, Peszek, Sloan, Worley

Long shots: Kelley, Priess, Stack-Eaton

Looking at the teams this way, one might conclude that Nastia and Alicia are basically locks for Beijing, as is Shawn (yep, she’s the new Carly!). That leaves three spots–one more “young gun”, and two long shots.

Realistically, Chellsie and Jana, despite their international exposure, are long shots for the moment, with Chellsie still recovering from shoulder injury and Jana not in good shape. They do, however, have the potential to come roaring back next year. I hope. But if Natasha Kelley and/or Ashley Priess can do a really big clean-up and get their act together…both Priess and Kelley have the skills, just not the polish or the experience or consistency we see from Sac and Nast.

As for the newcomers, Ivana and Sam Peszek are also still question marks. I think Shayla has, barring injury, a better chance than Sam and Ivana do, as she can break 15 on UB and BB; Sam’s only real great contribution to the Worlds team was vault, and Ivana couldn’t break 15 in Stuttgart. (I would actually consider Sam a long shot if I didn’t know that she is capable of doing better.) Bridget is an unknown variable, because her international (and national!) exposure is so limited, although she’s certainly got talent. We shall see how she does at the Beijing Test Event.

COMING SOON: Part 2b, or, Getting Inside Martha’s Head

The Gymblog reported that it’s confirmed and official: Emilie Le Pennec, the first French woman to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics, is retiring…

Although I speak French, I had to watch the darn thing twice before I understood all of it.

Emilie has certainly become a lovely young woman. Even if the news report made it sound like someone DIED or something; it was so drama queen-y and stuff about her ending her career.

Anyway, although she is leaving, the French team is in good hands. I’m hoping to see Isabelle Severino still going strong à la Chusovitina and Cassy Vericel stepping up to the plate for France. Marine Debauve also is making a comeback, so I’ve heard.

I’ve forgiven Emilie for besting Terin and Courtney in Athens. I will miss seeing her and her Def. It was a pretty good Def too.

Bonne chance, Emilie, et merci!

Kristin Luckenbill (Dartmouth) and the U.S. women’s soccer squad captured its first gold medal since the 1996 Atlanta Games with a thrilling 2-1 win over Brazil in overtime Thursday. Abby Wambach notched the game-winner for the Americans in the 112th minute with a header off a corner kick from Kristine Lilly. Lindsay Tarpley put the U.S. team up early with a goal in the 39th minute. Brazil’s Pretinha answered with the game-tying tally in the 73rd minute.

Luckenbill’s gold medal is the first for an Ivy female in the Summer Games since Cristina Teuscher swam the fastest leg on the U.S. gold medal-winning 800-meter freestyle relay at the 1996 Atlanta Games.