Posts tagged competitions
what would you call a highly skilled activity, requiring daily practice, flawless teamwork and athletic abilities; which enjoys a point system during competition?
is that not a sport?
Cheerleaders may still wear short skirts and wave pom poms when the home team scores a touchdown, but the athletic side of cheerleading has grown complex enough that doctors are calling for it to be considered a sport in order to cut down on injuries.
“Although the overall injury rate remains relatively low, cheerleading has accounted for approximately 66 percent of all catastrophic injuries in high school girl athletes over the past 25 years,” said the American Academy of Pediatricians.
Plus, Emergency room visits for cheerleading injuries have quadrupled since 1980 among girls aged 6 to 22, according to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Those injuries include severe sprains, broken arms and legs, neck injuries and concussions.
all injury aside, a U.S. federal appeals court said cheerleading would not qualify as a sport under Title IX. How does that make you feel?
Small Worlds Never Before Seen
This year, a few entrants to Nikon’s Small World Competition were able to capture images they claimed were the first of their kind.
In some instances this simply meant a traditional subject was photographed using a new technique. In other cases, the competitor captured the best image of a subject to date. Finally, some competitors claim to have taken the first ever photograph of their subject.
From bat embryos to blood-brain barriers, photographers captured some astounding images this year.
Lance Armstrong’s Cat-And-Mouse Game
The cancer survivor from Texas personally directed a doping program while riding for the U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel Cycling teams from 1998 to 2005 when he retired with seven Tour victories, and then again during his return to the sport from 2009-2010.
Armstrong built a complex web of secret bank transactions, motorcycle-riding drug couriers, sophisticated scientific regimens and retaliation against teammates who challenged the code of silence, or “omerta,” about doping, according to the case laid out by U.S. anti-doping officials on Wednesday.
He wasn’t just a user of performance-enhancing drugs. He encouraged, solicited and pressured his teammates to follow suit, according to the U.S. Anti-Drug Agency’s “reasoned decision” regarding Armstrong that totaled more than 1,000 pages of testimony and supporting documents.
as today seems to be a “human achievement” kind of day…
there are rarely accidents, and they’re extremely well trained. so cool.
Human Castle Building in 25th Year: Big Pic
Since the late eighteenth century, Spain has had human tower building in the Catalan region, and over time it developed into a competitive sport. The Catalan tradition is believed to have originated from human towers built at the end of the 18th century by dance groups and is part of the Catalan culture.
This year makes the 25th Tarragona Castells Competition.
The competitors build what are called castells, which means castle in Catalan. The goal is to create the largest and most complex castle possible. They can have between one and five people per level and will sometimes have as many as ten levels.
The bottom of the castle is called the “pinya,” and serves the dual purpose of providing support for the castle and a human safety net for the castellers.
The surfing dogs are attempting to break two world records this weekend!
This Sunday, America’s best canine surfers will compete at the 7th Annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon, the largest competition of its kind in the United States.
