Olympics, cricket, AFL, netball… Yep! It’s sport time in Australia! And it’s yet another view!

More Winter Olympics (from an Australian view point), more cricket and more other sport. It’s another view!

The Winter Games are a little beyond half-way over – these are a collection of random thoughts and observations through Sunday’s action – also, I’ve included a current Medal Count because there should be something of value within these ramblings.
Highs

 Shaun White — You don’t have to know anything at all about the Half pipe to [...]

Olympic Hockey
The 2010 Winter Olympics kicked over the weekend with a tremendouly boring opening ceremony. The city of Vancouver should have invested more money in making sure that they produces enough artifical snow instead of having some guy dressed up as Thor playing the violin in a canoe, while his “shadow” played 10 seconds ahead [...]

A brief one as I have become caught up in the spectacle that is the Winter Olympics. Still, enough sport here for everyone. Enjoy the view!

As the Winter Olympics begin from Vancouver, BC Canada, the IP Sports team is gearing up for the festivities. Here is what we poised to the IP Sports Roundtable this week:
What are you most looking forward to in the Winter Olympics?
Steven Gepp – Let me start off by saying that I am an unashamed fan [...]

With the Vancouver Olympics gearing up to begin in a few days, there is going to be a worldwide swarm around the games. Sure because many countries cannot compete in the winter olympics because they have no snow/ice to practice with it is an inspirational story that one man from Kenya, Philip Boit, is going [...]

February 13th is the magic day. It is when the Preliminary rounds for the Womens Ice hockey begin and the official start to the ice hockey events. February 28th is the date when it all will be decided. Now I do not follow womens ice hockey, so my input there is pretty much useless.
Now [...]

It’s the best of the Noughties in Australian sport! Countdown 25 to 1 and see what I thought was Australia’s crowning sporting moment!

It’s rant city! What’s wrong with soccer! What’s wrong with greedy Australian Olympic officials! What’s wrong with telecommunications! I clearly hate everybody! ARGH! And it’s long. Sorry, everyone…

Here are a few interesting news stories and my views on them.

Better late than never. Here’s two week’s ago… this weekend’s whenever. Sorry, guys!

Tailgate Crashers is going to be running a “Current Top Athlete Tourney”. It will be held in the same fashion as the NCAA Tourney – 64 athletes. The TGC staff will determine the 64 and arrange the seeds from the athletes picked by our readers. All voting will occur on the Inside [...]

Recent Trends in TTM
I’ve looked across the web to see what players have been signing and what players have been sending stuff back unsigned. The numbers following the info (1/2 for instance) show how many were signed and how many were sent. I tried to list how long they took if a date [...]

Settle down for a long read. I rant about Australian rules football, and give my best and worst of 2008! Lots to go through, and I hope you are at least intrigued enough to abuse me for my decisions. Leave all the comments you can!

With Alex Rodriguez coming clean about steroids, some of the Tailgate Crashers staff look at the issue of steroids a little more in depth…

Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed the Olympic great inhaling from a marijuana pipe.
The sport’s national governing body also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective Thursday.

Slovakia routs Bulgaria 82-0 in women’s Olympic qualifying hockey…Landis, team in negotiations for 2009 comeback…

Braylon Edwards is a fantastic wide receiver. A master gambler, he probably is not.
Before the Olympics, as Braylon and Phelps were hanging out somewhere talking about all things Michigan (take that, Miami of Ohio!), they struck up a bet. Braylon wagered that he’d score twice as many touchdowns as Michael Phelps would win gold [...]

A weekend parked in front of the television when I wasn’t out training. More sport than I needed, with AFL finals, final rounds of the NRL and SANFL, some other sporting bits and pieces… Sometimes it’s good to be in a sport obsessed country… especially if you’re sport obsessed yourself…

SAN ANTONIO — Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones has been released from federal prison after completing her sentence for lying about her steroid use.

Sorry this is a little late; I’ve been holidaying on glorious Kangaroo Island. If you ever manage to make your way down here to Australia, you could do far worse than this 100 mile piece of real estate off the South Australian coast. So I am in a good mood…

Arm-in-arm, they climbed onto the middle of the medals platform, the spot that for so long was U.S. private property.
Some players flashed their Olympic medals to the crowd. One pretended to take a bite, just to make sure it was real.
Yep, it was gold — the color the Americans always used to win but hadn’t [...]

Well, the Olympics are over. At least, from an Australian viewpoint they are. We’re not going to win anything else, so as far as our media is concerned, that’s it, pack up the barbie, throw the six-pack in the boot, time to go back to our real jobs. And let’s not think about them again [...]

Sylvia Fowles and the U.S. women’s basketball team were too big for South Korea to handle.
Fowles scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the U.S. to a 104-60 rout of South Korea on Tuesday night and advance to the semifinals of women’s basketball.

Clear some more space in that pile of pretty Olympic medal boxes. Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin are bringing home more loot, including a gorgeous gold of Johnson’s very own.
Johnson beat her friend and teammate on the balance beam, the last women’s gymnastics event at the Beijing Games.

Monica Abbott pitched five perfect innings, Crystl Bustos, Jessica Mendoza and Tairia Flowers homered and the U.S. Olympic softball team extended its winning streak to 20 with an 8-0 win over the Netherlands.

In Michael Phelps’ mind, the unimaginable was imagined. But was it possible? Only he knew the answer. And now the world knows. Phelps had the Olympics of a lifetime, winning eight gold medals in Beijing thus breaking Mark Spitz’s record. The deal is done. Phelps is the absolute best.

The U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team has clinched first place in its group and remained unbeaten in the Beijing Games with a 119-82 victory against Spain.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica easily broke his own world record in the 100 meters to win the Olympic gold medal Saturday night, slowing up to celebrate and still finishing in 9.69 seconds.
Bolt stretched his arms out wide and put his palms out, then slapped his chest just before crossing the line. He came in well [...]