[Vision2020] [SPAM] Some Interesting Olympic News

Wed Aug 13 16:00:54 PDT 2008

And the U.S. women's gymnastic team got beat by China's team, all of whom 
will be 16 years of age this year.
Rigggggght, nod-nod, wink-wink.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 2:43 PM
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: [SPAM] [Vision2020] Some Interesting Olympic News

> Georgia beats Russia - at beach volleyball.
>
> If only all wars could be settled by attractive women in bikinis.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
>>From the the TimesOnLine at:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5unfxt
>
> -------------------
>
> http://tinyurl.com/GeorgiaRussiaVBall
>
>>From left: Georgian player Andrezza Chagas, Russians Alexandra Shiryaeva
> and Natalya Uryadova and Georgia's Cristine Santanna embrace before their
> beach volleyball match
>
> -------------------
>
> Russia and Georgia at war... in beach volleyball
>
> A truce may have been declared in South Ossetia, but tell that to the
> female beach volleyball players of Russia and Georgia. Hours after the
> guns fell silent in the disputed border region a few thousand miles away,
> insults were flying between the two countries as they extended their
> hostilities to a sandpit in central Beijing.
>
> In a hot and steamy arena in Chaoyang Park, the combat gear was skimpy
> bikinis and victory meant a place in the next round of the Olympic Games.
> Away from the reality of geopolitics, the battle of the beach babes
> resulted in Russia being overpowered by superior firepower and Georgia
> striding on as conquerors.
>
> Or was that Brazil? It was if you listened to the Russians as they
> grumpily licked their wounds in defeat, for it turns out that the Georgian
> pair had been imported from the sunny shores of Rio de Janeiro. The Black
> Sea is not known for its beach volleyball. Having gained dual citizenship
> three years ago, Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Chagas go by the nicknames
> of "Saka" and "Rtvelo", which put together spell the Georgian word for
> Georgia. Cute, perhaps, if you have not just been beaten by them. "We were
> not playing against the Georgian team," Natalia Uryadova, of Russia, said
> after losing 15-12 in the third and deciding set. "We were playing against
> the Brazilian team. If they are Georgian, they would have been influenced
> [by the war], but certainly they are not."
>
> It might have been all friendly hugs at the start of the match, but by its
> end the barbs were out. Weary of comparisons between the match and world
> affairs, Alexandra Shiryaeva, Uryadova's slightly less sulky team-mate,
> was adamant that events back home had played no part in the
> contest. "There was no politics in this game. After all, these girls are
> Brazilian," Shiryaeva said. "I don't suppose they even know who the
> Georgian President is."
>
> Santanna, aka Saka, snapped back across the press conference dais: "Of
> course I know who the President is. It's Mikheil Saakashvili and I was
> with his wife here two days ago in the village." Take that.
>
> Santanna was not finished. "I feel Georgian," she said. "I've got a
> Georgian and a Brazilian passport and we did this for the Georgian people.
> I really didn't want this situation between the players. I don't want this
> to be a war between us."
>
> Too late. The Russians were back on the attack. "It was stupid of Georgia
> to start a war," Shiryaeva said. "We're big and they're small. But it's
> always been that way through history. I am just a volleyball player. I
> don't know anything about war. This is just my opinion, from one Russian
> girl."
>
> While claiming empathy with the Georgian people, the Georgian/Brazilian
> pair did admit that they had only twice visited the country whose flag
> they are flying - once to collect their passports - but they promised to
> go after the Games for at least two weeks.
>
> Their Portuguese accents and Brazilian addresses will not dampen Georgian
> celebrations, however. Their Olympic team need all the morale-boosting
> they can get. Having initially voted to return home after the outbreak of
> war last week, the athletes were persuaded to stay to compete in the name
> of the Olympic spirit. Few, though, have been able to keep Georgia off
> their minds.
>
> "It's hard because nobody can compete here," Levan Akhvlediani, president
> of the Georgian volleyball federation, said. "We had the world No1 in judo
> but we got no medals because it is too psychological. So any small win is
> a great win. I have slept two, three, four hours since the war started.
> But when we are in the village, we have to concentrate on the Games even
> when we are at war."
>
> The context for this contest could not have been more absurd. As if a
> dozen pom-pom wearing beach girls shimmying around in bikinis during time-
> outs were not tacky enough, the choice of music between points displayed a
> lack of understanding of the wider picture.
>
> Tom Jones's Sex Bomb was probably not a wise choice of track, but
> Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones was going too far. And if you are going to
> pick one line from Robbie Williams's Let Me Entertain You, in the
> circumstances, it probably should not be: "I'm a burning effigy of
> everything I used to be." But this is the Olympics, where sport is
> distinct from politics, or so the Chinese organisers keep telling us.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
> students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."
>
> - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> This message was sent by First Step Internet.
>           http://www.fsr.com/
>
>
>

> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
Kai Eiselein
Editor, Latah Eagle 