Audio interviews: Women’s Sports Foundation’s red carpet event

Check out some of the interviews from the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports red carpet event last night… (Click links below pictures to listen to the interviews).

Apologize in advance for the lack of “depth” in my questions (interviews are very short). Please understand I was being trampled upon by other media personnel and didn’t have enough time to prepare. However, that said, there are some great quotes here and definitely worth listening in.

Jessica Mendoza Interview
Softball left fielder and Women’s Sports Foundation President Jessica Mendoza discusses the importance of social media in female athletics.  Jessica is an avid member of WomenTalkSports.com and is responsible for inviting me to the red carpet event.

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Nancy Lieberman Interview
Nancy Lieberman, ESPN women’s basketball analyst/Olympian discusses the “family” of female professional athletes and the importance for women to continue to support the Women’s Sports Foundation.

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Sacramone knocks guy unconscious. Costas loves it.

I just finished watching Bob Costas’ December 17 show of CostasNow on HBO, where he highlighted the best sports moments of 2008.

It is a 90-minute show (dominated by men) includes Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods,  Ryan Howard, Michael Strahan, Charles Barkley, John McEnroe and Rocco Mediate.

It also features Dara Torres, Alicia Sacramone and Nastia Liukin.

It’s obvious that one of Costas’s favorites is the below YouTube video of Alicia Sacramone who was dared to punch a guy in the face. She followed through with the dare, knocking him unconscious.

Take a look:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QA6s7p-zU8

Hahaha. This is pretty funny. Great job, Alicia.

Maybe next year Costas will (instead) point out how incredible you are as an athlete.

Her Sports Rounds… The Best of Women’s Sports

Below is my roundup – hope you enjoy!

Lauren at Feministe discusses the beauty and power displayed in the image of female bodybuilders – an image that “isn’t that of a delicate orchid.”

Jane from Pretty Tough gives a great recap of what’s happening in the women’s figure skating industry. I know I’ve said this before, but I think Jane probably has the best coverage of women’s sports out there.

Diane from Women Who Serve talks about “who’s hot and who’s not” for women’s tennis in ’09. This is a very interesting read, and a great blog – I’m so glad Diane decided to start this blog – a life-long fan of women’s tennis… what a great way to express her passion.

Rob from the Athletic Women blog discusses the importance of strength training for female athletes.

Apryl Delancey from Women Like Sports discusses how Lisa Guerrero from Inside Edition and TV Guide has decided to become a sports blogger!  I hope she takes the lead in covering women’s sports!!!

Ted and Sara at the Women’s Hoops Blog give great recaps of what’s happening in college hoops – check out their post from November 23 – what great coverage!

Lyndsey from Girls Dig Sports (B5 Media) says that Alicia Sacramone, from the Olympics gymnastics team, is considering a reality show with Lou Reda Productions.

Erica Ortiz discusses what she’s thankful for at Horsepower & Heels.

Keri Mikulski heads back to Texas for a book signing at The Ronald McDonald Tournament which benefits the Ronald McDonald House in Houston.

Our Bodies Our Blog linked to me this week – blogger Christine took a liking to a YouTube video I posted this week about five year old basketball phenom Milan Simone Tuttle.

Sara from Rock Climber Girl is attempting to bring together the rock climbing community by to making a directory of climbing-related Twitter-ers.  I think Twitter is awesome – I’d love to see a community of female athletes raising influence on Twitter.

Stanford FBC gives us the back story on how a musician (Bud Anderson) and a graphic artist ( Sarah Boruta) are the new videographers for the Stanford women’s team.These two seem to be responsible for Stanford’s viral videos and possibly a music video for the team.

Adam Jacobs at The Final Sprint discusses corruption at the top of the track and field industry. He came out with Part III and Part IV of his Dysfunction Run Amuck series. I highly recommend you read them – very, very interesting.

PostSecret, Gymnastics and the Olympics

I came across this on the PostSecret Myspace blog and thought I’d share it with everyone. It made me laugh.

USA Women’s Gymnastics: What Happened?

On Tuesday night, we all watched in anticipation: could the USA women’s gymnastics team clinch the gold from China, to win their first since 1996? Apparently not. Instead, the girls walked out of National Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Tuesday with the silver. So what happened?

Earlier in the night, USA’s chances looked pretty good. They entered the final two routines with an excellent shot at snatching the gold from the Chinese. But their hopes came crashing to the floor as captain Alicia Sacramone fell off the balance beam, and subsequently fell in her floor exercise.

And the Chinese won, 188.900 to 186.525. This is the first Olympic gold medal for China’s Olympic women gymnasts.

But we can’t truly say that the gold isn’t tainted. Every athlete knows that there’s nothing better than a home court advantage, and now we all know that this is especially true when it comes to presentation of passports at the Olympics.

The Chinese continue to face questions about the age of three of its six medal-winning athletes, and Beijing Olympics officials are assuring critics that they turn 16 this year, as required under Olympic rules. This was all spurred from a report by the New York Times last month that showed online records that indicate two members of China’s women’s team, He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan, may be only 14. Personally, I think they look like they’re about seven or eight years old. But maybe that’s just me.

In a sport where many of the athletes are under the weight of 80 pounds, I’m not so sure what goes on in women’s gymnastics is all that healthy.

Many experts say that the reason women’s gymnasts’ bodies look so small is due to the huge amount of stress they undergo at such a high level of competition. That’s precisely the reason they reinstated the rule in 1997 that athletes must be 16 during an Olympic year in order to compete in the Games.

But really, let’s think… these girls train for many years before they get to this level (as is common for most elite athletes), so what’s the rule doing for their overall well-being anyway? It’s still destroying their bodies.

Interesting quote from Helene Elliott of the Tribune Olympic Bureau…

“It’s difficult to write about female athletes who compete in sports that put a premium on small, compact body shapes. Calling them tiny seems disrespectful and sexist. They’re athletes who happen to be small, no less an athlete than a basketball player or swimmer. These Chinese gymnasts are tiny. Pre-teen tiny. Haven’t-lost-all-their-baby-teeth-tiny.”

Yes, they’re tiny, which is different. And Lord knows we don’t (especially in America) accept anything that is different.

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that these women work very, very hard. And it has to be difficult for Sacramone, especially as captain of the American team. They should be congratulated on their hard work, shake hands with their (possibly younger) opponents, and keep their heads up in pride.

After all, the “honor is in competing,” (not winning) right?