Local sports fans looking for a reason to follow the 2008 Summer Olympics may find one in Auburn’s Margaret Hoelzer.The Olympics, for most mainstream sports fans, are a difficult event to understand, if only because much of the action falls outside our normal spectrum. Track and field, gymnastics, swimming, these aren’t sports most of us watch on a daily basis. So it can be a little different when, once every four years, we’re suddenly following sports we don’t fully understand, played by people many of us have never met.
Fortunately for fans in Alabama, Hoelzer gives us all something local with which we can connect — an Olympian in 2004, the Auburn grad set a new record at Olympic trials in Nebraska over the weekend, with 2:09.06 in the 200m backstroke.
“This is my first world record, it’s a wonderful surprise,” Hoelzer told reporters following the race. “I’m in awe and amazed and I’m happy to be where I am right now.”
The first-ever Auburn female to make the Olympics twice, Hoelzer has an even more intimate connection with local fans – her stepfather, Win Livingston, is from Sylacauga.
Livingston and Martha Hoelzer were both on hand in Omaha to see Margaret break the record.
The biggest story of the trials came from 41-year-old Dara Torres, who set a new U.S. record in the 50m freestyle, and also won the 100m (she announced Tuesday that she’d drop the 100).
Opening ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics are set for Friday, August 8, and closing ceremonies take place Sunday, August 24. The action will be televised on NBC.
NO HACKING, NO CRYING: “Leave the crying and hacking at home, and bring your A-game.”
Those are the words touting Lincoln’s Open Invitational 3-on-3 basketball tournament, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, August 2.
The tournament — a double-elimination event — is scheduled to be held at old LHS gym, right behind Regions Bank. The games will be played two at a time, with officials on hand ... presumably to limit the “hacking and crying.”
The charge for the tourney is $30 per team, and the deadline for entry is Saturday, July 26, or one week prior to the tournament itself.
Fans interested in taking in the action need only bring $1 with them, although, presumably, they’d need to leave their crying eyes at home.
For more information, call Samuel Green at 256-525-9787, or Danny Foster at 256-404-3046.
LET ME HEAR YOU: My friend from high school is fond of taunting me, repeatedly sending text messages reminding me of how tantalizingly close we are to the most wonderful time of the year (hint: it’s not the All-Star Break).
As with each preseason, the call has gone out across the state for ballots in the preseason top 10 in each prep classification.
To have some fun with it this time around, I’m openly asking fans from around East Central Alabama to throw in their two cents.
So feel free to email me at wheath@dailyhome.com, or email Heather (hbaggett@dailyhome.com), and let us know, in a few sentences, why your team deserves to be among the best 10 teams in its classification.
Are the preseason polls meaningless? Of course.
Are the polls meaningless all season? Absolutely.
Still, don’t be afraid to let your voice be heard. The more participation we get here, the more fun it will be.
Only eight weeks to go ...
