By Jennifer Eisenbart
Sports editor
It’s hard to believe we’re three weeks into April already.
For whatever reason, the start of 2012 has flown by. Time has slipped past, and in two weeks, we’ll be closer to summer than away from it.
Every four years, the summer means something more, because it means most of the world will gather in one place and what is commonly referred as a “spectacle of sport” will be celebrated – the Olympic Games.
Admittedly, the Olympics aren’t what they were when I was growing up. It used to be when you hit the “every four years,” you’d get the Winter and Summer Games, and two chances to root for the home country.
After 1992, though, the International Olympic Committee split the games into alternate years – so you get an Olympics every two years, but with still a four-year gap between the respective Winter and Summer Games.
It’s a little harder to get quite as excited as I used to for other reasons. National pride still stands, but as I’ve grown older, the Cold War ended – and with it, a lot of the natural animosity that came from rooting against East Germany and the Soviet Union (now competing as separate countries, like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc).
With opportunities existing in other countries now, United States athletes with dual citizenship are representing other countries. It’s a little hard to get worked up about the USA vs. Russia in women’s basketball when there’s an American on the Russian team (as there was in 2008).
Still, for all of its faults – and yes, even the Olympic Games has its fair share – it’s hard not to catch on to the excitement as the buildup to London occurs. As usual, there are a handful of Wisconsin athletes headed at least for the Olympic Trials, if not to London.
Nine athletes from Wisconsin represented the state at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, and there’s a good chance some Wisconsinites will be in London as well.
Alyssa Lampe, a former standout in high school wrestling for Tomahawk, has an even-odds of chance of representing the United States in women’s wrestling at 105.5 pounds. Lampe defeated the 2008 Olympic gold medalist earlier this year, and is one of four American wrestlers who could be the lone U.S. rep in the weight class.
Dezerea Bryant, who set almost every sprint record in the book running the last four years for Milwaukee Bradley Tech, is now an All-American at Clemson after finishing sixth in the 60-meter dash and seventh in the 200-meter run at the NCAA Division 1 indoor championships. Bryant has represented the country on the international junior stage before, so she could be considered as a relay possibility in London.
For a local tie, former Delavan-Darien standout swimmer Emily McClellan has qualified in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke for the Olympic Trials June 25-July 2 in Omaha, Neb. McClellan likely won’t contend for the Olympic team, given the quality depth in both events, but as a college sophomore, McClellan made tremendous strides this year and will have the chance to compete alongside some of the best in the world.
Wisconsin’s best chance in 2008 for an Olympic medal appeared to be Paul Hamm, who captured Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 in the men’s all-around in gymnastics. Unfortunately, Hamm was injured in 2008 and just recently confirmed his retirement from the sport, ending any chances for an Olympic repeat.
That said, the race to London will be crazy enough. There’s just 99 days until the opening ceremonies, and then the best in the world will show off for us all.
-
-
-
-
-