2012 Page 29 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Playing Basketball For Team USA Sure Seems Like Fun
From USA Today Sports, which has its own Pinterest board(!), comes this sunny photo gallery of Team USA basketball players practicing in Spain. We'll never know if this iteration of the Olympic team could have beaten the '92 Dream Team, but I think it's safe to say that the 2012 team has the edge i...

Marathon Man Without A Country Will Run In London Olympics
Guor Marial, a refugee of the Sudanese civil war and native to the newly independent Republic of South Sudan has been granted permission to participate in the London Olympics. His status was in question for some time because the Republic of South Sudan has not yet set up a national Olympic committe...

U.S. Open Videobomber "Jungle Bird" Checks In At The British Open
When last we saw "Jungle Bird," he was caw-cawing his way through the trophy presentation at the U.S. Open. The deforestation activist has now made his way to Royal Lytham & St. Annes for the 2012 British Open Open Championship....

Not Even Kate Middleton's Family Is Safe From The Olympic Branding Gestapo
We all know the Olympic folk are very touchy about their trademarks. No non-sponsor companies allowed in the Olympic village. No posting Facebook photos or Youtube videos from the games. No small businesses using any two of the terms "Olympic, London, 2012, summer, or games."...

Doping, Cheating, And Insta-Celebrity: The Story Behind The First Great Sports Action Photograph, Taken In 1908
I grew up in a home without a television. When my parents’ TV went on the fritz, the story goes, they didn’t bother to get it fixed. So my earliest visual sports memories came not from watching television, but from gawking at the photographs in oversized books like The Wonderful World of Sport....

Why Your Team Sucks 2012: Denver Broncos
Some people are fans of the Denver Broncos. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Denver Broncos. This 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here....

Dancing, Jiggling Hurdler Lady Is The World's New Favorite Hurdler
Here is Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke's warm-up dance at the world junior championships on Sunday. "She's certainly happy about performing here," narrated the BBC announcer, wiping flop sweat off of his brow and tugging at his suddenly too-tight collar....

We Made Up With The Mean Dressage Guy
On Tuesday, I told you about my encounter with Ken Braddick, proprietor of Dressage-News.com and the guy who haughtily dismissed my request to use one of his photos. I called Ken an asshole, because, frankly, he was acting like an asshole. I had no problem with his refusing to allow us to use one of...

Sure, God Made The Universe. But Can He Coach An American Marathoner To Olympic Gold?
March 29 was a busy day for Ryan Hall, the fastest American marathoner ever. He was 137 days and roughly 2,100 miles of road training away from representing the country in the London Olympics. He had to be up early for drug testing....

Ann Romney's Horse Hangs Out With Assholes
So, part of my job as a Deadspin intern has involved writing some those fun Olympic field guides that you may have seen on the site recently. Today I started writing one about Ann Romney's dressage horse, Rafalca, who will be competing in the London Olympics. I wanted to get a nice photo of Rafalca...

Whoa, We're Halfway There: The Grierson & Leitch Top 12 Movies Of The First Half of 2012
Shockingly, we are more than halfway through 2012. (It's a backloaded year: Olympics, election, total global catastrophe—all stacked up from late July on.) As always, the best, most "prestigious" movies won't be released until November or December, because the people who vote on the Oscars are senil...

Why Your Team Sucks 2012: Oakland Raiders
Some people are fans of the Oakland Raiders. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Oakland Raiders. This 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here....

Pregnant Malaysian Woman Will Handle Live Weapon At London Olympics
The New York Times has the story today of Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi (left), a Malaysian rifle shooter who will compete in the Olympics later this month. When she picks up her gun in London, she will be eight months pregnant....

Olympics Field Guide: Jordan Burroughs: The Best Wrestler In The World Who Isn't Afraid To Say It
Name: Jordan Burroughs...

The London Olympics Website Does Not Want You Linking To It Unless You're Going To Be Nice
As a mega-moneyfest, the Olympics demand a massive amount of corporate sanitizing. For spectators, this means having anything you didn't obtain from an official Olympic sponsor confiscated, but this has been going on for years and for the most part, that's the Faustian bargain you make in order to ...

Bristolmetrics: <i>ESPN</i> Navigates The Dark, Sportless Days Of Summer
When last we met, SportsCenter finally covered the Jerry Sandusky case, we found out if the Rose Bowl will stay on ESPN (it will), and Outside The Lines aired one of the year's most fantastic features. What would this week bring? ...

Olympics Field Guide: Aya Medany, The Only Athlete In A Hijab
Name: Aya Medany...

These Animated Olympic Athlete Profiles Are Delightful
Duck Studios, a Los Angeles based animation studio, just released a series of promotional videos for the U.S. Olympic team. The videos are short profiles of U.S. Olympic or Paralympic athletes, accompanied by some eye-catching animation....

London Streaker Whips Out Own Olympic Torch During Relay (NSFW?)
The London Evening Standard describes the scene from Henley-on-Thames: "Children had been given time off school to watch the proceedings and were given a prime viewing spot on the banks of the Thames." All just to see some mad bloke's winkle....

"Please Don't Shoot Missiles Off Our Roof," London Residents Ask Of British Military
In effort to ward off potential airborne terrorists, the British military has plans to use a residential apartment building as a missile base. Understandably, the residents of the building are up in arms about this decision, considering that, according to The Herald, nobody really bothered to ask t...