Track and field Olympic hopefuls Amy Acuff (high jump) and Suzy Powell (discus) talk about training, competing in China, and representing the United States of America in this news interview.
High jumper, Amy Acuff, is trying to qualify for her third Olympic games at the age of 32 (she turns 33 this summer). Discus thrower, Suzy Powell who is turning 32, was the highest Olympic qualifier in 1996.
Athletics Canada is the national governing body of Track and Field in Canada.
Their Run Jump Throw program is a fundamentals program that teaches boys and girls the technical skill progressions for athletic events. The primary goal is physical fitness, health and physical development for children 6-12 years of age in Canada.
It is also a foundation program that all youths can benefit from with the basic skills of running, jumping and throwing, and designed to increase transferable physical skill abilities to other sports including soccer, football, and basketball.
In short, any sport that involves speed, strength, and agility.
The program provides individual assessment for participants and is a terrific tool for physical education, special education or adaptive physical education programs. Moreover, it is a great after school or Saturday morning program in which parents can participate as volunteer officials.
Every province has their own Provincial branches. More information can be found at Athletics Canada.
A 4:42 min video (352x 240) is presented here by the Alberta branch of the Run Jump Throw program :
The Summer Olympics are just over a year away and the buzz around the hopefuls is already starting. AT&T has dedicated part of their AT&T Blueroom site to highlighting athletes on their”Home Turf” - including Olympic hopefuls Nastia Liukin (gymnastics), Marlon Shirley (Track) and Sanya Richards (Track).
In the Home Turf feature with Nastia Liukin, host Dione Sanders shows up at Liukin house in Texas at 7 am ready to go with Nastia to the WOGA gym at 7:30 am. We get to see part of Nastia’s training and lots of cheesy commentary from Dione himself, but really, the whole thing is very cute and my gymnast daughter loves it. It is almost worth watching just to see the gorgeous house Nastia lives in.
Another feature of the Blueroom is the Behind the Team series. The first episode is on TEAM USA Gymnastics and is called Heart of a Champion. It features some of the more well know faces of USA Gymnastics such as Mary Lou Retton, Marta and Bela Karolyi, John Roethlisberger and gymnasts like Nastia, Jana Bieger, Chelsea Memmel, Shawn Johnson and more.
I’m sure as we get closer to the Olympics we will get to see more athletes in action and more behind the scenes action.
