Friday, September 21, 2012

2012 Paralympic Games - Stories for the "able-bodied"....



World’s biggest sporting event, the Olympic Games were concluded successfully few days back, with the United States topping the medal list with 46 Gold Medals and altogether a tally of 104 medals. What prompted me to write this article was not the breathtaking run of the Jamaicans in neither the 4x100m men’s relay nor the fact that Michael Phelps broke the long standing record of Larissa Latynina for the highest number of career gold medals (18, which he ended up with 22).
The 2012 Summer Paralympics, which was held alongside the Summer Olympics and was concluded on the 9th September was the sole reason behind this post, as this year it featured few athletes whom I believe deserve some mentioning for their dedication and the “never-give-up” attitude which has led to their success, despite being disabled. Before we inspect details about those athletes, here are some interesting facts about the history of Paralympic Games.

The first official Paralympics for Summer Olympics were held in 1960, at Rome, Italy; while the equivalent in the Winter Olympics was held in 1976 in the Swedish city of Orndkoldsvik. However, there have been previous occasions where athletes with some form of disability have competed in Summer Olympics.
It was in 1988, that the Paralympics were held soon after the year’s Summer Olympics, which is the current trend being practiced.

Initially following the success of the first official Paralympics, a body was formed in 1964 to govern the athletes who would take part in future Paralympics, which was then known as International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD). This was subsequently reorganized as the International Paralympics Committee (IPO) in 1989.

Paralympics have a unique flag dedicated to them with blue, red and green colours, while their motto is outlined as “Spirit in Motion”.

A set of notable para-athletes have taken part in Summer Olympics too. Firstly, George Eyser, the American gymnast who had an artificial leg when he competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, and ended up winning three (3) gold medals. Subsequently in 1984, New Zealand archer Neroli Fairhall competed in the 1984 Los Angeles games. 

I would like to highlight the below mentioned athletes who competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and who I believe, had that additional skill, hardwork and effort which enabled them to outshine others. However, I would like to take this an opportunity to salute all the Paralympic athletes for believing in themselves and displaying what a person could achieve if they commit to it.


Alex Zanardi (Italy)

Alex Zanardi is an Italian paracyclist, who was formerly engaged in Formula One racing and CART Racing Championships. In 2001, during a CART racing event, Zanardi met with a crash which resulted in him being in a coma for over three days before recovering. Due to the nature of the damage caused he lost both his legs from around the knee.

However, since his recovery he was engaged in cycling events as a Paracyclist, and in 2012 Summer Paralympics, at the age of 45, Zanardi bagged the gold medal in the Paracycling event which he took part. 
  
The combo of pictures above displays Alex Zanardi's accident in 2001 and his gold medal winning moment in 2012 Paralympics
His achievement was highly applauded by the audience, media and the general public. Imagine the courage levels one should have to wake up from an incident such as what happened to Zanardi. Hats off to you!!!



Oscar Pistorius (South Africa)

South African born Oscar Pistorius was certainly was the “athlete of attention” coming into the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Having competed in the 400m event in the Summer Olympics, alongside able-bodied men, Pistorius became the first ever double amputee athlete to compete in Summer Olympics.

He lost both his legs due an inborn disease and was a double amputee since age 11. He was determined to make it to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics in 400m, but failed to surpass the minimum expected time limit. However, he came back to win a place in the 2012 competition and made it to the semi-finals of the event. He was a part of the country’s 4x400m relay, while they finished with a season’s best timing. 

Above: Oscar Pistorius and the South African relay team of 4x400m, Below: Pistorius competing in the 400m men's semi finals in 2012 Summer Olympics
Pistorious was chosen as the South African flag bearer for the closing ceremony in the Summer Olympics.
In the 2012 Paralympics, he won the gold medal in the 400m (T44) event and silver in the 200m (T44) event where he was surprisingly beaten by the Brazilian, Alan Oliveira.



Pradeep Sanjaya (Sri Lanka)

Pradeep recorded the first ever medal from a Sri Lankan in Paralympics Games, by winning the bronze medal of the 400m (T46). Uniqueness of his achievement was that he was an army soldier who lost his left arm as he was injured by an LTTE rocket propelled Grenade at Kilinochchi in 2008. 

Above: Pradeep Sanjaya having won the Bronze Medal in 400m (T46), Below: The race winner Gunther Matzinger completing the race with Sanjaya in the background on left
Thus, he won all hearts of the Sri Lankan citizens by displaying what he could do, and showed the well-able bodies how it has to be done after one would fall apart in life. He was out of a sponsor at the time of accomplishment, and I seriously hope and wish that he and the rest our Para-athletes will have the financial strength of a sponsor in quick time. 

Apart from the above three athletes, Jacqueline Freney  achieved the amazing feat of winning six gold medals in a range of swimming events in the 2012 Paralympic Games, making her the best athlete of the tournament.





Friday, December 2, 2011

Ranathunge Karunananda...."The Athlete with a Brave Heart"....

Being a Sports enthusiast since School days, there were so many “Sporting Idols” that I really admired. The bottom line of playing or enjoying a sport is that it enhances the values we have within us as human beings. Most of the sports are team ones, thus they bring up the team spirit, “never give up” attitude and that level of determination, as the legendary Michael Jordon had very rightly quoted, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed”.
This post is once again about a sporting hero, from our little nation (YES, you’re right, from Sri Lanka – though such athletes exist in little numbers nowadays) who taught such a lesson of determination and highlighted the spirit of Olympics. It once again emphasizes that what matters is NOT whether you win or lose; it’s the amount of effort, heart and soul you put in. I must thank Varuna Gunasekera, a classmate of mine, who had shared the story of Karu, in his blog, which punched me to rewrite it in my own words with some more research.

R.J.K. Karunananda (Ranathunge Karunanda) hailed from a remote village close to Nattandiya of North Western Province. He represented Sri Lanka at the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo in Men’s 10,000m race. Unlike these days, no heats were held for this event at that time, and the whole bunch of 29 athletes from 17 nations competed for a prestigious Gold Medal of the most fascinating sporting event of the entire world.
The Gold Medal was won by Billy Mills of USA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1964_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_10,000_metres), and our little hero was neck and neck to the Gold Medalist at the time, Billy finished the race. 

This was not because he was close to winning any of the medals, but because Billy had lapped him four times during his feat of winning the Gold.
The crowd had sarcastic feelings over Karunananda, who was way behind the other athletes who competed. However, our “Marathon Karu” was not to be stopped and bothered by anyone. He completed the rest of the laps, one after the other, much to the cheer and delight of the Japanese crowd, who at the end when Karu finished the race, stood from their seats to salute, in the name of the spirit he showed to the Olympics. He clocked 32 minutes and 21 seconds, in completing the race, falling behind Billy’s then Olympic record of 28 minutes and 24 seconds.

The courage and determination shown by Karu was widely admired over the world, and he was subsequently, taken as a role model for the Japanese children in teaching them on courage and determination, while back in Sri Lanka as to now, he is barely remembered by anyone on his feats and achievements. Even though Karu was later offered a job in Japan, however he was not lucky enough to take it up as he died (certain media reports that he was murdered) in 1974. Karu could have been praised for generations, had he been born elsewhere, and this was the way we Sri Lankans showed the gratitude to this legend.

On a final note, I hope at least those who are reading this post, will take time to think about such people of our society, and contribute towards ensuring that their memories and aspirations are never forgotten from our days…..

Friday, November 18, 2011

Rugby Teams and their nicknames...

I'm writing this post as per few requests I received for me to note down the "nicknames" that are being commonly used for in the international arena. So though the post is gonna be small, I hope this will add value to at least some of you guys.
Here it goes!!!

(Please feel free to let me know if you've come across the nicknames for any other team, other than those listed).
{from L - R; clockwise - The Azzurri (Italy) , The Sea Eagles (Samoa), The Pumas (Argentina), The Red Dragons (Wales)}
 
International Team
Nickname
New Zealand
All Blacks
Australia
Wallabies
South Africa
Springboks
Wales
The Red Dragons
Argentina
The Pumas
Italy
Azzurri
Japan
Cherry Blossoms/ Brave Blossoms
Tonga
The Sea Eagles (kale Tahi)
France
Les Blues
Samoa
Manu Samoa
Fiji
Flying Fijians
Romania
The Oaks
USA
The Eagles
Namibia
Welwitschias/ Biltongboere

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Rugby World Cup 2011 - Statistics...

The idea of writing a post related to the Rugby World Cup was something that I’ve been always having in the priority list, since the New Zealand All Blacks won the distinguished William Webb Ellis for the second time this October.

New Zealand captain Richie McCaw with the prestigious Webb Ellis trophy

The All Blacks have more often than not been the favorites to win the tournament since it began in 1987, however were denied by unexpected defeats mostly in Semi Finals (1991, 1999 & 2003), Finals (1999) and even in the quarter finals (2007). Now that the World Cup has reached the hands of a nation who thoroughly deserves the trophy, let me highlight some of the key statistics obtained in relevance to the Rugby World Cup 2011.
  • The 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC) was held in New Zealand, the second time they hosted it, since they hosted and won the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. They got the preference ahead of Japan and South Africa, in the bidding process which was held in 2005. 
  • The opening game of the RWC 2011 was held on the 9th September in Eden Park, Auckland, and was played between the host nation New Zealand and the Pacific nation, Tonga.
  • At the end of the tournament, England’s Chris Ashton and French wing Vincent Clerc has score six (6) tries each, making them the highest number of try scorers of RWC 2011. In the history of RWC, All Black Jonah Lomu (in 1995) and Bryan Habana of South Africa (in 2007) have score eight (8) tries each, making them the highest try scorers.
  • The RWC 2011 also featured the youngest ever captain of a nation in the history of RWC, when Welsh Captain Sam Warburton (23) led his side upto the Semi Finals, and was controversially awarded a red card in Semi Final playoff against France.
  • South African Morne Steyn scored the highest ever points for RWC 2011, with 62 points. The highest ever points scorer across multiple RWCs is the British fly-half Johnny Wilkinson, with 249 points.
  • The RWC 2011 Finals, which was held in Eden Park, Auckland, saw New Zealand edging out France by 8 -7, which is the lowest margin on which a nation has clinched a RWC. The Final was refereed by Craig Joubert of South Africa, while the award for Man of the Final was presented to the French captain Thierry Dusautoir. 
  • The 2015 RWC will be held in England while in 2019, the tournament will be held in Japan, the first time it would be hosted by an Asian nation.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Top 10 Billionaires of the World...

To start off, extremely sorry for the long delay in making a post. As some of you already know, I was diagnosed with Dengue fever in mid-June and that wasted a whole month of mine. But the point is that after all that mess, I’m ready to post something which is pretty interesting I’m sure, at least for some of you guys.

Few months back I heard through the radio, that the World’s richest man has increased his wealth further from his earlier numbers, way above the second person in that list. When the radio fellow announced the net wealth of this person, it just struck me like lightning since that value was about 1 ½ times of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Sri Lanka. Phew!!! That’s amazing isn’t it?

You might have already guessed what my topic for the day is. YES, it’s about the top “billionaires” of the world as at now. So let’s dig into some facts about them.

from top left clock-wise - Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison & Carlos Slim
  • World’s richest man as at August 2011 is the Mexican, Carlos Slim. His net wealth stands at US$ 74 billion (as per Forbes Magazine) which is about 1 ½ times of the GDP of Sri Lanka which stands at US$ 48 billion as per the estimates for 2010. He owns two telecommunications companies (Telmex and America Movil) and his group company is known as Grupo Carso SAB.
  • Second in the list is the owner of the software giant Microsoft, Bill Gates. His net wealth stands at US$ 56 billion. Other than Microsoft, Gates is also the owner of Corbis Plc and Cascade Investments (an investment management company).
  • Renowned investor, Warren Buffet is third in the list with a net wealth of US$ 50 billion, with his investments in Berkshire Hathaway.
  • Surprisingly, the list of “Top 10 Billionaires” includes two Indians. Lakshmi Mittal and Mukesh Ambani are placed 6th and 9th in the list respectively. Mittal has a wealth of US$ 31 billion through his steel company Arcelor Mittal.  Ambani is the renowned owner of Reliance Group in India and has a net wealth of US$ 27 billion. He is also the owner of the Mumbai Indians team which plays the Indian Premier League (IPL).
  • Placed 8th in the list with a net wealth of US$ 30 billion is the Brazilian Eike Batista. His major business interests are on mining, and he is the CEO and owner of the Rio de Janeiro based logistics company EBX Group.
  • The only woman in the list is placed 10th, with a wealth of US$ 26.5 billion. Christy Walton is the wife of John Walton who passed away in 2005 leaving his wealth of US$ 15 billion. John is the son of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-mart, the highest ranked company in terms of revenue as per the Fortune Magazine for 2011.
The complete list of “Top 10 Billionaires” could be summarized as follows.


No.
Name
Age
Net Wealth (US$)
Country of Origin
1
Carlos Slim
71
$ 74.0 billion
Mexico
2
Bill Gates
55
$ 56.0 billion
United States
3
Warren Buffet
80
$ 50.0 billion
United States
4
Bernard Arnault
62
$ 41.0 billion
France
5
Lawrence Ellison
66
$ 39.5 billion
United States
6
Lakshmi Mittal
60
$ 31.1 billion
India
7
Amancio Ortega
74
$ 31.0 billion
Spain
8
Eike Batista
53
$ 30.0 billion
Brazil
9
Mukesh Ambani
55
$ 27.0 billion
India
10
Christy Walton
55
$ 26.5 billion
United States




Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Grand Slam Tennis - 1

During the last few weeks, I saw some riveting performances on clay, where Novak Djokovic defeated the current world number one, Rafael Nadal twice in two weeks (Madrid Masters - 7/5, 6/4 & Italian Masters 6/4. 6/4). This together with the fact that the 2nd Grand Slam tournament for the calendar year, French Open is just around the corner gave me the idea of posting something on the records of Grand Slam Tennis.

I guess it's not easy to jot down all those records and highlights in the history of the Grand Slam tournaments through a single post. Therefore, I've names this as "Grand Slam Tennis - 1". I will continue the topic with few more posts in the near future. So here we go!!!
(Clockwise) Maureen Connolly, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Roger Federer and Rod Laver
  • The Grand Slam tournaments in Tennis are the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, played in that order. Currently, both the Australian Open and the US Open are played on hard courts, while the French Open is played on clay, and Wimbledon is played on grass.
  • Winning all four majors with an Olympic Gold medal is known as a “Golden Slam”, and in 1988 Steffi Graf achieved this rare feat by winning all four majors and the Gold Medal in 1988 Seoul Olympics.
  • Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have all won these four majors, but NOT in a single calendar year.
  • In 1938, Don Budge became the first ever tennis player (male or female) to win a Grand Slam in a single calendar year, by winning all four majors.
  • Maureen Connolly is the first woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments, when she won all of them in 1953.
  • Rod Laver of Australia is the only tennis player to have won all four Grand Slam majors twice, in a single calendar year, by winning them in 1962 & 1969.
  • Frank Sedgeman and Ken McGregor are the only men’s doubles partners to have won all four major tournaments in a single calendar year in the history of tennis (1951).
  • Roger Federer, whom I consider as the greatest tennis player of all time, holds the record for most number of Grand Slam titles (singles) in the history of tennis with a total of 16 titles. Federer also holds the record for the most number of Grand Slam finals (singles – men) with 22 appearances.
  • Margaret Court holds the record for the most number of Grand Slam singles titles in the history of tennis (male or female) with a total of 24 titles.
  • The table below outlines the most number of Grand Slam winners in each of the majors.
Tournament
Most Number of Wins (singles)
Men’s
Women’s
Australian Open
Roy Emerson (6)
Margaret Court (11)
French Open
Bjorn Borg (6)
Chris Evert (7)
Wimbledon
William Renshaw, Pete Sampras (7)
Martina Navratilova (9)
US Open
Bill Larned, Bill Tillden, Richard Sears (7)
Molla Mallory (8)