Topic: Sports | VivirLatino

So Much For Everyone Loving a Hockey Mom

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:00:35 -0500

Peep the people booing, thumbs down, and Obama signs in the background. I feel bad for the Palin kids pero not for Sarah Palin. I mean did she seriously think peeps would give her a warm welcome? This ain't no McCain rally.

Via / Culture Kitchen

Paralympics Begin in Beijing

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:40:41 -0500

Like most U.S. citizens, you probably weren't aware that the Paralympics began this past Saturday in Beijing, China. What are the Paralympics? Originally billed as the "Parallel Olympics" to signify the fact that they ran "parallel" to the Olympics, the Paralympics is a two week long sporting event that centers disabled athletes. Modifications are made in different sports to accommodate the needs of physically, mentally and learning disabled athletes, including lowering nets in volleyball, and using bells to guide blind athletes.

Cuban Athlete Ousted for Kicking Referee

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:43:46 -0500

Taekwondo isn't a sport for the faint of heart, but the violence needs to be kept in the ring and the kicks directed at your opponent. But Cuban martial artist Ángel Matos apparently doesn't see it that way. When Matos was down for count during yesterday's finals match due to an injury, the ref called time, giving the win to opponent Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan. As Chilmanov celebrated jumping up and down, Matos jumped up himself and began screaming at the referee. His trainer joined in in the belaboring of the ref. Then the stadium went still as Matos delivered a huge kick to the referee's unexpecting face.

Both Matos and his trainer, Leudis González, have been banned from ever participating in the Olympics again as a result of the attack. According to Spain's El País, González insists that Kazakhstan "bought" the judges, bribing them into ruling in favor of their team.

Via / El País

Image via Reuters/El Pais

U.S. Defeats Spain for Basketball Gold, Argentina Takes Bronze

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:07:40 -0500

Not too many of us will have had the energy to stay up all night to watch the game, but I'm here to tell you that the U.S. men's Olympic team was unstoppable in the final match-up with current world champion, Spain. I was only able to catch the last quarter, and it was a super tight game. Spain and the U.S. were both at the top of their game (Spain was down an average of only 6 points) and it was disputable whether or not The Dream Team would actually win this one up until about 2 minutes before the final buzzer. In the end, the stars of the NBA triumphed over the Spaniards 118-107.

Spanish media is calling Spain's loss a win, referring to the game as "the most dignified defeat" and "a golden silver medal", given the fact that they were so very close to winning against the world's most storied basketball team.

Argentina is also celebrating its triumph as bronze medal winners in basketball, stepping up to the podium in third place. An excellent representation for Latin America in one of the Olympics' most watched sports.

Via / El Pais

Image via El Mundo

Latino Henry Cejudo Gets Olympic Gold, Gets Stereotyped

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:04:26 -0500

Latino wrestler Henry Cejudo took home the gold for the U.S. in men's freestyle wrestling in a dynamic win today over opponent Tomohiro Matsunaga.

According to The L.A. Times, Cejudo, the son of undocumented immigrants, invoked his Mexican heritage as he spoke about his win:

"This is cool. Coming out of a Mexican American background, it feels good to represent the U.S.," said Cejudo, whowasborn in Los Angeles. "Not too many Mexicans get the chance to do that."

Cejudo's parents divorced when he was 4 and he saw his father, Jorge, only one more time before he died in Mexico City. But his mother, Nelly Rico, raised a family of six children on her own, bouncing from low-paying jobs in California to New Mexico and Arizona, where the family sometimes slept four to a bed.

It's a nice story, indeed. But what I personally don't care for is the way his win is billed as "The American Dream", supported comments from people who know him make it seem like that it's a miracle he didn't turn out to be a criminal in light of his family background. In fact, that's exactly what they imply:

"He has done an unbelievable job coming from the environment that he came from," his coach, Terry Brands, said. "Could be in prison. Could be a drug runner. Could be this, could be that. He's done an unbelievable job of not being a victim.

Is this because he comes from a situation of adversity or because he comes from a situation of adversity and he's brown? Way to taint an otherwise uplifting story...

Via / LA Times

Argentina's Olympic Women's Soccer Team Gets on the Hate Bandwagon

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:32:29 -0500

When the Spanish sports teams did their offensive eye posing, it was easy to dismiss the racism as coming from Europeans with their own history of conquest. But now the women's Olympic soccer team from Argentina has been caught doing the same exact "slant-eye" pose, we have to wonder just what the hell is going on that makes people think that this is ok?

Besides the gesture being obviously offensive, there is the dismissal that all three teams have made: that they didn't mean to offend. Which begs the question, what exactly did they intend? To make us laugh with their antics? To get us excited about China? To reveal a deep desire to be Chinese that they all have? To show us how stupid they are?

In this case payback is a bitch, as they say because Argentina's women lost 2-0 to China. In fact, they lost all three of their matches.

Via / Who Ate All the Pie

Spain and Chile Triumph in Men's Tennis

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:26:50 -0500

Spanish Rafa Nadal is officially the number one tennis player in the world, having swiped away the title from Swiss Roger Federer at Wimbledon a few weeks back. And he further proved his dominance this weekend as he picked up the gold at the Olympics for men's tennis. Here he is yuckin' up with the press with the Queen of Spain looking sporty at his side:

Rafa beat Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, but the defeat left Chile in not such a bad spot: taking home the silver medal for men's singles. Watching Gonzalez get his medal -- the first one for Chile in these Olympics -- is quite moving.

Congrats to Rafa and Fernando!

Via / YouTube

Spanish Olympic Tennis Team "Winks" in China Too

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:00:34 -0500

Seriously, Spanish Olympic sports teams, cut it the f out! Now the Spanish Olympic Women's Tennis team poses making "slant eyes" for a camera. Well actually it's not a new pic, but one that is a few months old.

The latest photo to emerge shows Spanish women tennis players pulling the pose, apparently in anticipation of their Federation Cup match against China in April…

It was apparently taken after the team defeated Italy in the quarter-finals of the competition - the premier team contest for women tennis players - in February. Wine glasses are visible on the table in front of the party…

The photo is still visible on the official website of the Spanish Tennis Federation, where it was spotted.

The original is captioned “Estamos preparados para China”, which translates as “We are prepared for China”.

Via / The Latin Americanist

This is Why I Don't Follow the Olympics : Spanish Basketball Team "Winks" Offensive

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:54:30 -0500

No, no according to the Spanish Basketball team, they aren't making an offensive, stereotype promoting gesture in that team photo. Your eyes and sensibilities are wrong. They are not making "slant eyes" they are "winking" and felt it was an appropriate gesture and felt that it was "somewhat loving".

Someone needs to smack the Spanish basketball team with a serrano ham.

Olympics in China Have Officially Begun (Yawn)

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:49:13 -0500

Excuse me for not getting all excited about the Olympics. I'm just not a sports person (except for South American futbol) and the whole scene of President Bush going to China to support U.S. athletes and speaking about human rights is just a little surreal, to put it mildly.

That said, the 2008 Summer Olympics have begun in China with an over four hour opening ceremony.

The BBC seems to have some of the better coverage but good luck trying to see the events online.

Image Via / BBC

Latin@s Underrepresented on Olympic Team

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:37:20 -0500

Apparently it's a problem that Latin@s are not as represented on the Olympic team as they are in the general populations. Our lack of Olympic involvement probably has something to do with our evidently overwhelmingly sedentary ways.

I'm really not sure what is going on with the constant influx of news stories about fat, lazy, unhealthy Latin@s recently, but I'm getting kind of sick of them. Especially since nobody really seems to know what a Latin@ even is.

Witness the following paragraph from the SI article:

Swimming, unlike track and field, has a scarcity of both blacks and Hispanics in its upper echelons - the 56-member Olympic swimming and diving squad has one black and no Hispanics. USA Swimming, the sport's governing body, has acknowledged the problem by launching extensive learn-to-swim programs in black and Hispanic communities.

I guess that Latin@ swimmer, Dara Torres, doesn't count as "hispanic"? Sure, one Latin@ is not much better than no Latin@s, but it's really hard to take an analysis of underrepresentation seriously when the most obvious example of representation is completly omitted. What other Latin@ Olympian has been completly written out of existence to make a point?

Border Patrol Goes After Nascar Crowd for New Recruits

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:23:19 -0500

Not to stereotype or anything, but what kind of recruit does the U.S. Border Patrol hope to find by sponsoring a NASCAR racer? The same kind of candidate that they would get by having a Blackwater sponsored racer?

Why not recruit from the San Diego Minutemen? Seems they have the whole speech down packed based on how they acted outside the NCLR conference.

If NASCAR wants to gain fans in Mexico they may need to rethink their approach.

Via / Machochip, The Spy Who Billed Me, Citizen Orange, NASCAR

More on the Tour de France

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:20:38 -0500

It was a thrilling finish today for Spaniard, Carlos Sastre. The thirty-three-year old charged away from the peloton on the last climb of the day and eventually won the race by over two minutes. Although his current lead looks strong (and probably would have ensured a biker like Lance Armstrong the overall win) Sastre is not taking anything for granted:

"I want to take things day by day. Tomorrow I think we'll spend our time regaining as much energy as possible.
"In the time-trial, against riders like Evans and Menchov, I don't think I have much of a chance. Right now, I don't want to think about 1:34. All I want to do is recuperate ahead of Saturday."

The man I was really rooting for, Alejandro Valverde, looks as if he is riding at the top of his game right now, in spite of losing time in the final standings. He finished with the main group of riders, and seemed to be coordinating attacks against Tour favorite, Cadel Evens, with Sastre's teammates. Taking one for Spain like the true King of the Mountain he is.

The True King of the Mountians

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:36:09 -0500

This year's Tour de France is the most competitive (and hence, most interesting) it's been in years. I admit to being obsessed with this year's tour (it has nothing to do with large groups of men in skin tight suits pumping up huge hills. I swear.), especially with my main man, Alejandro Valverde and his team Caisse d'Epargne. Valverde and Caisse d'Epargne have both taken some hits this Tour: Valverde began the Tour with a huge crash and Caisse d'Epargne just lost one of it's strongest members (Oscar Pereiro) to a horrible crash. But Valverde has vowed to fight on. And in yesterday's stage, he did exactly that, fighting through the uphill climbs in the Alps to move up into 9th place from 14th. The best part was when Tour announcers breathlessly proclaimed Valverde was "biking like the true Spanish King of the Mountain he is."

I love anybody who can be proclaimed a 'true' King of the Mountain. Mhm.

A-Rod Divorce Getting Uglier, Madonna in the Mix?

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:05:08 -0500

Baseball star Alex Rodríguez a.k.a. A-Rod, is getting divorced, as you probably already know. Most celeb divorces are messy, but this one is proving to have even more juicy twists than we bargained for. The Material Girl is all up in the mix! Reports The Sun:

Cynthia Rodriguez, 34, who has hit the New York Yankee with 50 million divorce suit, has copies of the messages New York Yankee Alex sent the married singer.

A source said: "They were instrumental in convincing her that he was besotted. The messages could be released if things get really ugly."

Her legal team say the association was not sexual. Madonna, 49, denies an affair.

A pal of ace Alex, 32, told how he acted like a "smitten schoolboy" as he swapped texts.

Meanwhile, C-Rod, A-Rod's ex, is allegedly linked to Lenny Kravitz and there are rumors that all of this is just a huge publicity stunt designed to benefit Madonna's tour and a new Guy Ritchie movie.

Via / The Sun

Image via ABCNews.com