At nine years old, Jessica Ennis went to a summer training camp at the Don Valley Stadium and decided she did not want to choose between running, or jumping, or throwing. She wanted to do all three.

Just seventeen years later she is an Olympic gold medallist, but the stadium where she was discovered and it all began could be closed and knocked down.

Snob Coe made enough out of the London Olympics and he did attend Tapton Secondary Modern School in Sheffield. You would have thought he could put his hand in his big pockets and lend his old Council a helping hand.

Where Will The NEXT Jessica Ennis Start?

Worth remembering that this happened just yesterday.

Update: It IS to be closed in September.

It’s not like SHE couldn’t put her hand in a pocket for once!

It was an accomplishment few people thought was possible just a few years ago.

“Three to four years ago, when most of my competition and rivals and teammates were training for the London games, I was in a coma,” Arlen told WBZ-TV’s Dan Roche from her Exeter, New Hampshire home. “I was fighting for my life.”

Arlen, now 17,  grew up in Hampstead, New Hampshire a lover of all sports. With two triplet brothers and another older brother, it was kind of hard not to. She grew up playing whatever was in season, with her two favorites swimming and hockey. She loved the Olympics, and from a young age had dreams to one day represent the U.S. in the pool.

She was living and loving life, and was full of dreams and aspirations. But everything changed one morning in 2006.

“I had everything going well for me at the age of 11, but that all kind of changed when I woke up to find that my legs weren’t working,” Arlen explained. “After that followed a lot of strange symptoms, and I became completely paralyzed from the waist down.”

For the next three years, as doctors struggled to figure out what was wrong, things only got worse for Victoria. She suffered various complications and ended up in a vegetative state for nearly two years — suffering multiple seizures throughout.

“I was kind of locked in my own body,” she said, “so I was there, but I wasn’t there. I wasn’t really living, I was kind of existing. I knew sort of what was going on; I know my Dad would always come and hang with me in the hospital and he would put on sports. I would watch sports with him, so I was there but I wasn’t in a way.”

“When Victoria first got sick, I just had this feeling that we were in for something,” her mother Jacqueline said. “I wasn’t quite sure but I just kind of had a feeling. It was so devastating.”

Road To Recovery: [worldnow id=8508218 width=385 height=288 type=video]

For Jacqueline and her husband, Larry, frustrations mounted as they were told by doctors their daughter was dying, and there was nothing they could do.

With Victoria’s condition still puzzling the medical minds, the Arlens turned to holistic methods for the answer.

“As parents we never took ‘no’ for an answer,” said Larry Arlen. “We didn’t believe modern medicine was just not there.”

“I’ll never forget (being) in Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital, in the parent room,” he continued. “(My wife) basically put me up against the wall, telling me that ‘you have to trust me on this.’ And that’s what we did. Not that we’d known we were ever going to come into this amazing journey.”

Shortly after, Victoria was diagnosed with traverse myelitis — a rare neurological disorder of the spinal cord. If diagnosed within the first three months the symptoms Victoria suffered could have been prevented and she would have been able to walk. But in her case, it took doctors three years.

“By the time they diagnosed it they were like ‘get used to being in a wheelchair,’” she said. “At that time I was so sick and just so bad off they didn’t really know what my prognosis for the future was.”

But Victoria and her family kept faith she would overcome. And slowly but surely, she did.

“I was determined to live and I was determined to get back to my old life,” she said. “I had seen what my friends were doing, what my brothers were doing and I wanted to get back to doing it. So I slowly fought back and started to talk again. And move and function, and eat again – because going five years without eating was a bit difficult, because I love food.”

Victoria eventually returned to school, but after missing five years was behind her two brothers. This, in Victoria’s mind, was not going to hold her back from graduating with them.

“I’ve always grown up kind of leading my brothers and I through everything, so I was like ‘oh no, no, no. I need to graduate on time with my brothers,’” she said. “I doubled up my courses so I could catch up to them, and now I get to graduate this year in three years instead of four and on time with my brothers, which is exciting.”

But what kept Victoria going was her love of sports, and the hope she could one day be back to doing what she loved most.

“When I was paralyzed — or told I was paralyzed — and I would be in a wheelchair, I thought my sports career is over. Among many things that most people think about, I was like, “OK, well there goes my sports career.’ And that was the hardest thing.”

As her father will tell you, no one should ever say “no” to Victoria. In late 2009, even before she re-gained her ability to speak, Victoria made it clear she wanted to get back into competitive activities.

An issue of the University Of New Hampshire Magazine had arrived at the Arlen household — where Jacqueline went to school — featuring paralympic sled hockey player Taylor Chace, who was left with partial paralysis after a hit into the boards in 2002.

Chace had just assisted on the game-winning goal at the 2009 Sled Hockey Championships in Norway, and he was about to get credit for another assist.

“When my alumni magazine came to the house it had sled hockey and Taylor Chace (in it) and [Victoria] printed ‘I’m doing this.’ And I’m like ‘OK,’” Jacqueline said with a chuckle. “So she wasn’t even really speaking that much at that time.”

“I signed my Mom ‘I want to be an athlete again, I want to get back into this.’ So I worked really hard that summer,” said Victoria.

She couldn’t push her own wheelchair when she made that request, but soon after she was on a sled playing hockey thanks to the help of the Northeast Passage — a private non-profit organization affiliated with UNH whose goal is to create an environment where individuals with disabilities can enjoy recreational sports with the same freedom of choice, quality of life, and independence as their non-disabled peers.

It wasn’t long until Victoria was on the ice, first with her father pushing her around, and then eventually, on her own. Just eight months after she first took up sled hockey, Victoria was named to the 2011 Women’s National Team.

It was that feeling she had when on the ice that eventually rejuvenated her thirst to return to the pool.

At first, Victoria was terrified at the thought of returning to the water since she no longer had the use of her legs. But thanks to her new coaches and, of course, her family, Victoria soon made that splash — literally.

“My sled hockey coaches inspired me to get back into the pool, (along with) my brothers also chucking me into the water — like literally. One brother had my arms and my other brother had my legs and swung me into the water,” she recalled. “We had a pool at the time and they just got me back into swimming. It was hard at first; I was always a huge swimmer beforehand but didn’t think it was possible now that I didn’t really have function in my legs. So I started re-training my technique and different strokes with my coach.”

“(I) got back into swimming and would compete with able-bodied swimmers. At first I was really slow, so I got beat by 8-year-olds, which was really degrading,” she said with a big smile on her face. “But I was like, ‘you know what, I’m back. I’m swimming.’”

From there, the goals got even bigger. It was time to fulfill that Olympic dream she first had as a five-year-old. It was her hope to be participating in the London games the following year.

“I always want to be the best I can be; at swimming and everything I do,” she said. “It was about a year out to the London Games that I had heard about London, and heard it was where all my family is from – we have a lot of family in Great Britain. The emblem was pink, and that’s my favorite color. There was a lot of signs for that. I said to my parents, ‘I really want to make it to London and swim in the Paralympics.’”

Her parents were taken aback by the request, but believed in their daughter. Victoria entered a local Para-meet, where she went on to win seven gold medals.

After the event, a coach asked her what the next step was. He had obviously never heard Mr. Arlen’s warning about using the word “no” with his daughter.

“I told him I wanted to make it for London. He took me aside and he’s like ‘sweetie, you don’t stand a chance.’ I was like what do you mean and he said ‘you came in way too late in the game. People have been training for this for years… let’s maybe think for Rio. Maybe not this one.’”

“I’m sitting there like ‘excuse me, no. I want to make it to London; give me a shot,’” she said. “The thing with me is if somebody tells me I can’t do something or kind of doubts me, I’m always determined to prove them wrong.”

A bit discouraged by having someone unfamiliar with her situation tell her she couldn’t do something, Victoria turned to her family.

“(My mom) pulled over the car and said ‘don’t you let anyone tell you you can’t do something. If you believe you can do it, you can do it.’ So from there I just trained really, really hard and a month later I broke my first record and qualified for trials for London,” she said. “I made the National team and then just kept training and training.”

Victoria relocated to Beverly, Mass. to train with a team, and from there started to break records – both American and PanAmerican. Not long after that she was off to the trials, where she broke two World records — something she didn’t even notice at the time —  and qualified for the Paralympic team in London.

Her life-long dream was coming true, but was far from over.

“Really, I just wanted to make the team. I wasn’t expecting to be a medal contender,” said Victoria. “My first event was the 400-freestyle and I got a silver medal. Then I swam the 5-freestyle and got silver, and then the 4-by-100 relay, which was really cool because I was not expecting to even be on the relay team. I found out the morning of the relay that I was on the team. Here I hadn’t practiced with anyone, so I was so scared but it was great. We got silver.”

It wasn’t until her final race — the 100-meter Freestyle – that Victoria took home the gold, setting another world record in the process with a time of 1:33:33.

“On the last night of competition I won Gold and broke my own World record,” she said. “It was amazing. At the time I didn’t realize I had broken a world record – that seems to happen a lot. That whole day I was like, ‘I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.’ It was my time and I was totally in that mindset. I just went out there and just handed it over and just trusted and just went out and had fun. I touched and looked under and nobody else had touched, and I knew. I looked up and I didn’t even look at the time, I just saw the #1 next to my name and I didn’t even know how to react. I’m like crying, I’m laughing; it was like the Talladega Nights movie with Ricky Bobby, ‘I don’t know where to put my hands!’ I didn’t know where to put my hands!”

Gallery: Victoria Arlen At 2012 Paralympics In London

“I was just totally oblivious to it all and I cried like a baby on the podium,” she recalled.

Arlen On 2012 Paralympics In London: [worldnow id=8508062 width=385 height=288 type=video]

The gold medal has not appeased Arlen’s appetite for competition. Victoria is back to training for the World’s team this summer, though that means her hockey career has had to be put on hold. She is on a women’s team, coached by her father, and recently got the chance to play on the TD Garden ice.

While she’s best known for her swimming, she’ll never forget that sled hockey was what got her back into the pool.

“I always tell people I’m just a hockey player who learned how to swim,” she joked. “My coaches would call me ‘Happy Gilmore.’ So now I’ve kind of accepted the title of a swimmer and a hockey player.”

“I love it, I call (hockey) my aggressive sport and I call swimming my majestic and pretty sport,” she said with a smile.

Through it all that she went through, Victoria’s passion for sports and her competitive nature are what got her to where she is today.

“It was a whole mind, body, and soul thing for me because it was like ‘I’m truly back’,” she said. “Getting back into sports was like that one ‘you can do everything else.’ That was that one checklist thing where I said ‘alright I’m officially back and I’m officially capable of doing great things.’”

Great things are certainly in Victoria Arlen’s future. After bringing home gold last summer, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch declared September 21 “Victoria Arlen Day.” Aside from her accomplishments in the pool,  Victoria is a straight-A student, and hopes to attend either Harvard or UNH. She’s also trying her hand in acting and modeling.

It’s been a long and remarkable journey for Victoria, but she has plenty left of drive left. Even though she’s already brought home a gold medal, it’s safe to say the best has yet to come for someone that has already concurred so much.

For more information on Victoria Arlen log on to her website and follow her on Twitter: @ArlenV1

[cbs-norefresh]

Farah holds the European track record for 10,000 m, the British road record for 10,000 m, the British indoor record in the 3000 m, the British track record for 5000 m, the British half-marathon record, and the European indoor record for 5000 m. In July 2010, Farah won Britain’s first-ever men’s European gold medal at 10,000 m. He followed this with a gold in the 5000 m, becoming the 5th male athlete to complete the long-distance double at the championships and the first British man to do so. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, he won silver the 10,000 m and gold in the 5000 m. He became double Olympic champion at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, taking gold in both the 5000 and 10,000 metres.

This TV presenter, however, doesn’t seem to know any of that, and makes an all time TV blunder asking him ‘have you run before?’ Mo Farah thinks he is hearing things, and asks her to repeat her question! 

Well worth a watch!

Being the world’s fastest man is clearly not enough for Usain Bolt.

The Jamaican sprinter – who will be going for gold in both the 100 and 200 metre events at the London Olympics this summer – has unofficially released a rap song, “Faster Than Lightning,” that features his speaking voice Auto-Tuned over a Jamaican beat from DJ Steve Porter, of “SportsCenter” fame.

The laid back 26-year-old has no plans to officially release the song, though he has made a video for it, which you can watch below…

httpv://youtu.be/fVeYY6qu1GQ

Some of the lyrics include: ‘I need to go faster, I need to work harder, I need to keep driving to the finish.

‘No matter who you are, no matter what you’re doing, you’re not gonna catch me, you’re not gonna beat me.’

He goes on: ‘When I hit the top speed I turn on the afterburner.’

Inspiring stuff.

Okay, not personally.

And, not me.

NEVERTHELESS, two Academy Award winners thanked a Nina in their speeches tonight.

For someone who never hears her name on television, except that bitch on 24, and it was pleasing to hear it from the lips of Kiefer Sutherland, tonight was a big win for me.

Twice.

Tonight comes very close to another occasion that is very near and dear to my heart, the 2012 London Olympics, in which I swam.

Okay, not me.

NEVERTHELESS, a Friis swam in the 2012 London Olympics and you better believe that the announcers said it a few times… and pronounced it correctly.

Mm, sorry, I’m starting to get emotional. And here comes the film score, playing me off.

There have been many magnificent moments at London 2012. The City of London, Usain Bolt – the medals, the bravado, the showman; Chris Hoy, surely the greatest track cyclist ever; Anna Meares, the greatest female track cyclists; Sally Pearson; Andy Murray finally winning a major tennis tournament; Australian sailing… We all have our own list and now sadly the festivities have ended.

Amongst these great moments though, has been the (dare I say it, usual?) negativity of the Australian media. What is it that the Olympics represent? Shouldn’t they be a celebration of athletic prowess, participation and sportsmanship and a way of uniting as a country? Instead, London 2012 for Australian audiences has been lost in arguments over economics, funding, our worst Olympics since Barcelona, etc. What has been most disappointing about the Olympics is the media’s obsession with Australian ‘failures’ over the last two weeks. I’m not sure if the media reflects the thoughts of a nation or if the thoughts of Australians drive the media but what has been unmistakable is the arrogance and negativity that has become the key message of Australia’s 2012 Olympic campaign. Some of this arrogance and negativity has been created directly by the athletes, but where do these attitudes begin if not through how they represent themselves in the media?

The Olympics began two weeks ago with our collective attention focussed on the Australian Swim Team. Our collective excitement at the beginning of the competition quickly turned to disappointment, not in their results, but in their arrogance. In many ways, James Magnussen and co, been the architects of their own downfall. There is little doubt that if you label yourself ‘The Missile’ and tell the Australian public how good you are, and then fail to deliver, you have set yourself up for a monumental failure. We can only hope that Mr Magnussen and his colleagues have learnt the valuable lesson of humility in all of this. It is even possible to mount a defence of Magnussen. He is after all just a young bloke who is far too full of himself, but there is something about his behaviour that suggests what we saw during the Olympic relay is the man’s true character. Magnussen and his swimming colleagues have discovered that it is easy to be a big fish in a small pond, but Olympic Swimming is not a pond, it is an ocean populated with the world’s biggest fish. Let’s hope if they leave anything behind in London, it is their arrogance. We want to see our Olympians proudly competing and most of us consider an Olympic Silver or Bronze a world class effort and one to be proud of, not cry over.

As the Olympics draw to a close, the media is choosing to focus on the amounts of funding that are poured into Australian sport. There is no doubt that this is an important debate but it fails to take into account the feeling of pride and joy in following our Olympic athletes through the highs and the lows of their respective campaigns. Watching Anna Meares claim Olympic gold is one of my most memorable Olympic moments and one of the rare times I have found tears in my eyes watching a sporting event. What about the emergence of Australian sailing? Or Sally Pearson, our ‘Golden Girl’.

Perhaps it is to one of the classic texts of English Literature that we need to take heed of a lesson that is highly relevant to this debate. Charles Dickens, through the much loved Ebenezer Scrooge, taught us that the important things in life cannot be measured. Our collective joy at cheering our athletes on, sharing in their joys and tears cannot be accounted for in monetary terms. As we celebrate these Olympic Games and the many Australian success stories, let’s also ensure we shed this attitude of arrogance and negativity before Rio 2016.

Published by http://www.theroar.com.au 14/8/12

Boasson Hagen or Eddy Boss as he is affectionately known is an inform rider who could easily get into a break away and take the Gold medal back to Norway. Boasson Hagen rode a great Tour de France working for Bradley Wiggins, setting some blistering tempos that saw many riders drop off and there is no doubt about his ability to read races. Let’s also not forget whose wheel Mark Cavendish launched himself off on the Champs Elysee on Sunday. That’s right, Boasson Hagen. I agree that Boasson Hagen can’t out sprint Cavendish but let’s be honest, who can? Obviously as an Australian I would dearly love Matt Goss or Simon Gerrans to take victory but in a break away Boasson Hagen is a contender for Gold.

Boasson Hagen’s two stage wins in last year’s Tour de France came from breakaways. He’s the Norwegian Road Race Champion, and he has won stages at this year’s Volta ao Algarve and Tirreno-Adriatico. He can time trial, he can sprint and he can very well win the Mens Road Race.

Published on http://www.theroar.com.au 28/7/12

Five members of Australian men’s 100m freestyle swimming team have admitted to taking the sleeping drug Stillnox during the London Olympics as part of a “bonding session”. Those five members, including Tommaso D’Orsogna, who confessed to not taking Stillnox, had purposely disrupted members of the women’s swimming team by knocking on doors, running into their bedrooms in their underpants, and making inappropriate phone calls.

The insider, who we will name “Davina”, says that these stories and the confessions have been set up to re-instill faith back into the swimming team.

“I know this sounds outlandish,” says the source, “but following the performance of the swimming team, and especially Magnussen’s performance in the London Olympics, the Australian public lost faith in the men’s swimming team.”

She claims that the confessions and behaviour of the men are likely to provide the public with “excuses” to justify their poor performance at the Olympics.

“The boys were under tremendous pressure at the Olympics. They were hyped and hyped to no end. So, it makes sense that they succumbed to the pressure and took Stillnox, acted the way they did. It was pressure. This is an easy story to fake, and whether or not the public believe it is a story, subliminally it will be there as an excuse and you’ll be more lenient toward them.”

Virgil Devereaux

PRETORIA (Reuters) – A witness heard “non-stop shouting” in the home of South African athletics star Oscar Pistorius shortly before his girlfriend was shot dead, the detective leading the murder investigation said on Wednesday.

Warrant officer Hilton Botha, a detective with 24 years on the force, also told the Pretoria magistrates court in a bail hearing that police had found two containers of testosterone and needles in Pistorius’ bedroom.

The athlete’s defense team disputed the finding.

By David Dolan and Peroshni Govender | Reuters

Pistorius, a double amputee dubbed “Blade Runner” because of his carbon fiber racing blades, sobbed uncontrollably as Botha presented his testimony about the death of Reeva Steenkamp, 29.

The law graduate and model was in the toilet of the athlete’s home when she was shot dead in the early hours of February 14 – Valentine’s Day. She was hit in the head, arm and hip.

Reeva Steenkamp

Video:

http://news.yahoo.com/pistorius-bail-hearing-restarts-pretoria
-081412153–finance.html;_ylt=As_L8jIbVcK7LCKGZxN30Lms0NUE;_ylu=X
3oDMTNsZG5uOWNrBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBGUARwa2cDOW
Y3MDliZmItZDlmMC0zNjA4LWE2NzctODU5Mzk0YTcxYj
U4BHBvcwMzBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyA2VhMTNh
MDc0LTdiNmUtMTFlMi1iNjlhLTg2ZjhmZGE4OTdhMA–;
_ylg=X3oDMTJmbDZwOGgxBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZw
Nlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3
NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QDaXB0Y19za3lzY3JhcGVyX3JlbGF0ZWQ-;_ylv=3

The shooting and allegations that have emerged at the hearing have stunned South Africa and millions of people around the world who regarded Pistorius, who has no lower legs, as the epitome of triumph over adversity.

“One of our witnesses heard a fight, two people talking loudly at each other … from two in the morning to three,” Botha told the court. Pistorius’ first call after the incident was to the manager of his high security complex at 3.19 am, Botha said.

In an affidavit delivered on Tuesday, Pistorius said he woke in the middle of the night and thought an intruder had climbed through his bathroom window and entered the adjoining toilet.

The 26-year-old said he grabbed a 9-mm pistol from under his bed and went into the bathroom.

Pistorius – the highest-profile athlete in the history of the Paralympics – then described how he fired into the locked toilet door in a blind panic in the mistaken belief the intruder was lurking inside.

After four hours of testimony, the hearing was adjourned until Thursday. The hearing is expected to conclude this week, after the defense and prosecution have outlined their central arguments. It may then be several months before a trial. If convicted of premeditated murder, Pistorius faces life in jail.

TRAJECTORY

Botha, who arrived on the scene an hour after the shooting, challenged Pistorius’ affidavit.

“I believe he knew she was in the bathroom and he shot four shots through the door,” the detective said, adding the angle at which the rounds were fired suggested they were aimed at somebody on the toilet.

Pistorius had said he moved into the bathroom on his stumps – the reason he felt so vulnerable – but Botha said the shots went in a “top to bottom” trajectory, suggesting Pistorius was wearing his artificial legs when he pulled the trigger.

“It seems to me it was fired down,” he said.

One of the spent rounds was recovered from the toilet bowl, Botha said.

He also cited a witness on the upscale gated community near Pretoria where Pistorius lived as saying he heard a shot, followed 17 minutes later by more shots. Another witness spoke of a shot, followed by screams, followed by more shots, he said.

After vigorous questioning from Pistorius’ defense team, Botha estimated the distance between the witnesses and Pistorius’ home at 300 metres.

Lead defense counsel Barry Roux also disputed Botha’s reference to “testosterone”, saying the substance was a legitimate herbal remedy called “test-composutim co-enzyme”.

Details on the makeup of testo-composutim co-enzyme were not immediately available but administering testosterone as an anabolic agent is banned at all times under World Anti-Doping Agency rules for sports people.

ANGER

The case has drawn further attention to endemic violence against women in South Africa after the gang-rape, mutilation and murder of a 17-year-old near Cape Town this month.

Members of the Women’s League of the ruling African National Congress protested outside the Pretoria court on Tuesday, waving placards saying: “No Bail for Pistorius” and “Rot in jail”.

The arrest of Pistorius stunned the millions who had watched in awe last year as the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter reached the semi-final of the 400 metres in the London Olympics.

But the impact has been greatest in sports-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who had transcended the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

He carried South Africa’s flag at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, and U.S. magazine Sports Illustrated named him as one of the most inspiring figures of the year.

“Many questions are being asked, but we have no answers,” Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said in a statement.

The sprinter’s endorsements and sponsorships included sportswear giant Nike, British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler and were thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

In his affidavit, Pistorius said he earned 5.6 million rand ($630,500) a year and owned properties worth nearly $1 million.

However, Nike and Mugler both said they had dropped Pistorius from advertising campaigns, while cosmetics firm Clarins said it was recalling its “A Man” perfume range out of “respect and compassion towards the families involved”.

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Pope Benedict XVI

What?! …The Pope doesn’t want to be the pope anymore? …Oscar Pistorious is in court, six months after the Olympics, charged with premeditated murder?

Both these news reports beggar belief.

Last weekend, if I had asked anyone if they thought the Pope was “in post” for life and if they thought Pistorious was a hero, it would be fair to say the results would have been a resounding “yes”. But this week, these two unrelated news stories have changed all that; they have shaken two widely held beliefs to the core, leaving us bewildered, baffled, blindsided.

Core beliefs are the essence of how we see ourselves, other people, our world. They develop over time; they are strongly held, rigid, inflexible, and are often maintained by a tendency to focus on information that supports that belief. The last time a pope resigned was 600 years ago, and millions of us watched Pistorius, a double amputee athlete, sprint down the track at the London Olympics – pretty convincing stuff.

Oscar Pistorious – London 2012

Have we put the Pope and Pistorius on pedestals? Undoubtedly. The Pope was placed there by his peers; Pistorius ran all the way up the steps. Being the pope for life is a “tough gig”, and the pressure of celebrity must be enormous for both of them. It now appears our widely held beliefs that “popes are for life” and “athletes are heroes forever” need changing. Changing a core belief is actually quite easy; you simply stop believing them. It doesn’t take much time… In these two scenarios, it was a matter of days.

Catholic Church (England and Wales) / Foter.com /

CC BY-NC-SA Sum_of_Marc / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Nathan Sorrell starred in one of Nike’s biggest commercials of the London Olympics.

Through last year’s London Olympics, Nike launched what is called one of the best social media campaigns of 2012.

In this campaign, used through mostly Twitter and Youtube, Nike posted pictures, videos, and inspirational messages about how anyone can “find greatness”. The main idea behind the campaign was to show that anyone can become whoever they wanted, possibly like some of the Olympic athletes that millions of people were watching religiously on TV. In one of their most successful advertisements, Nike had a minute long commercial starring Nathan Sorrell of London, Ohio (how ironic) and shows him running down a farm road. Sorrell most likely isn’t the smallest kid in his class, and some people found this degrading. However, in the big picture, Nike and millions of people found it as motivation to strive to become a fit and active person and achieve greatness. While doing so, hopefully wearing Nike products, of course.

The ad, which is on Nike’s YouTube channel, now has over 1.6 million views.

Personally, this type of advertisement is perfect for the event they were marketing it in. Nike aired these commercials throughout the Olympics, and rightfully so. Using video and tweets to their advantage, Nike reached the greatest audience through social media during this time. Young, active, sports-enthusiasts were tuning into the Olympics on a daily basis for a couple of weeks, and were bombarded by these videos with a hashtag. When logging on to Twitter and tweeting about the events (as most Olympic/sports nuts do), they saw promoted hashtags and tweets by Nike about #FindYourGreatness. Getting behind a campaign that was inspirational for millions of views and that promoted being active was popular amongst the Olympic viewers.

Just as Shama Hyder Kabani said in her book The Zen of Social Media Marketing, “Social media is where the people are.” And on YouTube and Twitter during the 2012 London Olympics was where the best possible audience was for this marketing campaign.

Overall, I’d nominate Nike for the best social media marketing campaign of the year for these sets of advertisements. They marketed their brand and product to their target and primary audience, and did it at the perfect time, during the 2012 London Olympics. Using the concepts of active, fit, young people and the inspirational mood set things off for Nike. I wouldn’t do anything differently, and they should definitely do this (or something similar) for every year there are Olympics.

The murder took place on February 14,2013 in which Pistorius was arrested without bail.

The world is stunned.Just last year Oscar Pistorius won the 400 meters at the Paralympics on the same track where he advanced to the 400 semifinals in the London Games.He was nicknamed the Blade Runner and was the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics.

He was given numerous endorsements and considered South Africa’s Golden Boy.Numerous billboards and advertisements were taken down after Pistorious was arrested.

Family and friends were also shocked.Following the hearing his family and London management company released a statement.

“The alleged murder is disputed in the strongest terms,” the statement read. The statement did not elaborate.

The statement also said Pistorius wanted to “send his deepest sympathies to the family of Reeva.”

“He would also like to express his thanks through us today for all the messages of support he has received — but as stated our thoughts and prayers today should be for Reeva and her family — regardless of the circumstances of this terrible, terrible tragedy,” the statement read.

Oscar Pistorius claimed he had mistaken his girlfriend for an intruder in the bathroom.He shot her 4 times through the bathroom door.

Earlier last year on November 27,Pistoria joked about killing an intruder,less than three months before the Olympian’s girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead at his Pistoria home.

Pistorius tweeted:”Nothing like getting home to hear the washing machine on and thinking its an intruder to go into full combat recon mode into the pantry! waa.”

The safety conscious athlete reportedly kept a pistol by his bed and a machine gun by his window. According to official figures, 13 in 100 people own a gun in South Africa.

Police had previously been called to the home of Oscar Pistorius because of incidents “of a domestic nature,” a police officer confirmed.

The murder weapon has yet to be found.

Follow us on Twitter

Like us on Facebook

Watch us on Youtube

Today we’re celebrating the Will Blog For Food Blog turning One Year Old!

My friends and family know I’m a modest man so I didn’t have big plans for celebrating this milestone, but the staff at Will Blog For Food had other ideas. This morning they presented me with a surprise anniversary celebration, complete with a candle in my favorite dessert, Peanut Butter Cups:

You’re probably asking yourself, “What the hell is he celebrating? He constantly mentions how his stretch goal is to get 45 page views in a single day.”

C’mon, you know that’s just my self-deprecating way of making fun of my own failures before someone else beats me to the punch. If the website that hosts my blog, WordPress, is telling the truth with all its stats, this has in fact been an extremely successful year. Let’s take you through some of the highlights in number form:

• 16,606: Number of views my website got in its first year. And no, I don’t think the 16,603 times I clicked on the blog myself counted towards that stat.
• 551: Number of views my site got in its first month alive. Not bad, right?
• 2,551: Number of views my site got in its 12th month alive. I dare you to find another company who grew its customer base by nearly 500% in one year. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
• 112: Number of countries where at least one person has clicked on my blog.
• 193: Number of countries in the world that the United Nations recognizes.
• 58: Percent of the world’s countries that I’ve “captured in one year. If blogging was a game of Risk, my friend Ben would be screaming and flipping the board over because it’s not fair how easily I’m rolling through all the countries.
• 12,000: Number of views out of the 16,000 that the United States has accounted for. Still love ya, U.S.A.
• 239: Number of views that the non-English-speaking country with the most views of my blog has accrued. That country is India.

Clicks and Pageview stats are nice, but what about the most successful individual blog posts? I’m glad you asked. Out of the 180 posts on this website, here are the five best that I’ve written based on the number of views they’ve received:

1. A Thorough Examination of Bird Poop Being Good Luck: I don’t know what it is about this blog, but it’s singlehandedly putting my kids through college. This particular post gets a minimum of 25 views per day. I think it’s due to the fact that there’s no good info on the web about why people say being shat on by a bird is good luck. After monitoring the success of this post for the last nine months, I walk around all day praying to get bird diarrhea all over my head. I want a reason to write a second post about this topic. It might take my monthly views from 2,500 to 25 Million.
2. Perfectly Good Excuses For Leaving Work Early: What does it say about the American work ethic that this blog post has been at the top of the standings since I wrote it 10 months ago? I guess people hate their jobs enough to be googling for excuses. If you hate your job like I did, stop making excuses and quit. Then move to a really expensive city, adopt a dog that racks up twice the amount of expenses as you were expecting and continue to plan vacations long after your money has run out. Worked for me.
3. My Life is Complete: Boo Urns!: Pretty self-explanatory, right? People love The Simpsons. People love reading about other people who love The Simpsons. I never thought seeing that license plate on March 23, 2012, would be such a life-changing moment.
4. Bob Costas is Literally Murdering the London Olympics: If I was making an “Editor’s Pick” for favorite blog post, this might be it. I still LOL and LMFAO when I think back to how awful Bob Costas’ opening monologue was on the NBC broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies. In my entire history of blogging, that goes down as the quickest turnaround from when I saw something blog-worthy happen to when I posted the blog. I literally ran to my computer when I heard him defecating all over the London Games. Well done, Bob.
5. Adoption Process Complete: Announcing Our Little Bundle of Joy: I think there was an initial spike in views on this blog post because people saw the title and freaked out over the possibility of me adopting a human baby. Luckily I have no interest in raising a human baby. This blog also tugs at the heartstrings of every dog lover out there. Posting about Molly has always been an easy pageviews boon and I will continue to exploit her for my own success. By the way, anyone who has seen Molly in person in the last few months and knows how big she is, go back and look at the pictures in this first Molly blog. Unbelievable that we chose a dog who went from 23lbs to 90lbs in six months.

As far as the lowlights from year one, I’d say any time I allowed a guest blogger to write something it was an unmitigated disaster. I’m not saying I’m the only person capable of successful blogging. I’m just saying the particular people I chose to feature on my blog throughout the year never really found the tone I was looking for. Submissions are still welcome by outside bloggers, but this year I’m going to be a lot more cutthroat about who has what it takes.

So what’s coming in year two of the fastest-growing blog on the web? Probably a lot more of the same. But maybe I’ll start to delve into some entertaining childhood stories. After all, you guys haven’t heard about the time I ran face-first into a parked car and knocked all my teeth out (silver lining: I got to eat only McDonald’s milkshakes for days) or the time my parents gave us a puppy only to maliciously take it away from us three weeks later and return her to her original owner (I was so scarred from this that I wrote multiple college papers on this traumatic period of my life). There’s also the time my asshole brothers convinced me to wear my jean shorts backwards to a family event because I’d be “as cool as the guys from Kris Kross.” Or how about the time that I thought my older brothers and their friends were saying “condoms” when in reality they were saying “condiments.” I ran home to Mom and Dad and told them about the bad words they were saying. I’ve also given my Mom at least two near-heart attacks by convincing her that my brother Aaron was failing out of high school and dead (two separate pranks that went a little too far).

See, there are plenty of shenanigans from my childhood to write about in order to milk more page views from my readers. I’ve just barely gotten started. Thanks for all of your loyal reading and don’t be shy about spreading the word.