Olympic News: Team USA Fencer Daria Schneider to undergo eye Surgery as part of the LASIK FOR GOLD Program.

US National Team member Daria Schneider recently posted on her facebook fan page:

Just put on what will probably be my last pair of contacts EVER!!! So excited to be a part of LASIK For The Gold! Follow my journey to 20 20 vision without the help of contacts on my facebook fan page Daria Hyla Schneider! I’m scheduled for surgery next Thursday at EyeCare 20/20!

Daria is participating in a program that has now helped numerous Olympians to receive free Lasik eye surgery in hopes of improving their performance via improved vision.

About the Program:

In the fall of 2009, Dr. Silverman treated 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist BMX rider Jill Kintner. Since then, word of Dr. Silverman’s services has spread and athletes from sports of all sorts, from across the country, have traveled to EyeCare 20/20’s state-of-the-art facilities for their own LASIK surgery. 

EyeCare 20/20 has a great deal of respect for those athletes who choose to dedicate themselves to their respective sports simply for the love of the game. For all of these kids, it’s not about the money, because for most of them compete in sports that have very little potential for financial gain. They do what they do because they love to compete, because they want to be the best, because they want to test themselves against the top athletes in the world their sport has to offer to see where they stand. We admire that a great deal and are honored to play even a small part in helping them accomplish their dreams. For these athletes, the gold medal is indicative of the highest level of accomplishment in sport. That’s why we created LASIK For The Gold.

Check out their website: http://www.lasikforthegold.com/

What do you think of this interesting program?

 

 

 

 

Olympic News: Iran calls London 2012 Logo “Racist”

Kind of funny? (But, super sad for their athletes if this happens)

Iran said they might boycott the 2012 Games because the London 2012 logo resembles the word “Zion”.

Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=6167220

What do you think?

Vintage Fencing Video: 1984 Interview of Olympic Fencer Peter Westbrook

Really interesting interview of US Olympic Bronze Medalist Peter Westbrook from 1984 after the Los Angeles Olympics.  He talks about how the European judges wouldn’t give him a touch until he begin refusing to fence unless they refereed him fairly.

Olympic News of the Day: President Obama to Address US Winter Olympians at White House

President Obama will address Team USA 2010 Olympians and Paralympians (April 21, 2010) from the White House South Lawn.

We can all share in their amazing experiences.  Watch the live stream of the President’s address on www.Teamusa.org tomorrow at 3:30pm ET.

Olympic News of The Day: XBox Stolen from Olympian!

 

It’s been pretty much one great thing after another for Steven Holcomb since winning the bobsled gold at the Vancouver Olympics. Well, at least until this week.

Holcomb, who is a big-time computer nerd and video gamer, discovered that his prized Xbox 360 and games had been stolen out of his car. And while the $4,000 worth of gear and games has him a little queasy, what really makes him sick are the hundreds of hours of saved games that he had on the console.
(Full Article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20002612-56.html)

In other Holcomb News…

Shelter Dog Reunited with Olympian

While he was visiting the Today show after the Olympics on March 5, he fell head over heels in love with a dog. During the weekly rescue segment, a 2-year-old Golden Retriever caught Holcomb’s eye. At the end of the show, the show announced Holcomb had offered to adopt the dog.
(Full Article: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/pawprintpost/post/2010/03/shelter-dog-is-reunited-with-olympian-holcomb/1)

Quick Quiz: How Much Money Did NBC Lose on the Vancouver Olympics?

NBC lost $250 million!

I was a little surprised by this considering how popular this Olympics seemed to be, but apparently they had a lot of production expenses and the $820 million cost to buy the rights to the Vancouver Games for TV and online means that they had to do REALLY REALLY well to make a profit.

Rating did  improve 14 percent from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, but that wasn’t enough to make it profitable for NBC. 

World Champion Lukashenko Retires and is Coaching Japan

Saber World Champion Lukashenko of Ukraine has apparently called it a career after being offered a coaching job in Japan.  He will apparently be the new head coach of the Japanese fencing team.    He was one of the most feared fencers in the world from 2000-2009, finishing in the quarter-finals of the world championship just this past year in Turkey.

Also rumored to be retired and searching for a coaching position in the United States is 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Zsolt Nemscik of Hungary.    

Men’s saber is rapidly becoming younger with world powerhouses Russia, Ukraine and Hungary fielding almost entirely new teams.  It’s also likely some of France’s 2008 men’s saber Olympic championship team might retire  after the Paris World Championships in October, 2010.

All this retirement of the people I grew up admiring and fencing against is making me feel old! (There are some other high-profile retirements out there, but you’ll have to figure those out yourself!)