Monday Morning (USA Time) Olympic Tweets: Shawn Johnson is Wearing Hot Pants

 

Wow! We had a real hard time loading these images! They are of: a) Misha the Bear, the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics (we seem to be popular in Russia for some reason) b) Icelandic handball star Arnor Atlason;. Iceland beat the host Great Britain in men's handball today by a score of 41-24 and c) American gymnast Shawn John who won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics; she is not competing in London, but she has been watching gymnastics events in the stands at the Olympics.

As a Turkish-American, it was interesting to see one Turkish newspaper "The Daily Hurriyet" express optimism as Turkish women's sprinter Nevin Yanit, 26, who competes in hurdles finished first in her preliminary race yesterday, while another Turkish newspaper "Today's Zaman" was expressing pessimism as a tweet from the publication pointed that Turkey has yet to medal at the Olympics so far.

 

So, here are some of the things we have learned about the games on Twitter today; they do or may contain SPOILER ALERTS!

 1) @dominquedawes (Dominique Dawes): "Victoria Komova of RUS is up and ready and she definitely wants to redeem herself after the silver in AA."

2) @AlisonMitchell: "Got a feeling in my stomach like I used to before school. And, I'm not even competing! #goBeth #gymnastics" (This tweet is in reference to British gymnast Beth Tweedle, a contender for the bars event).

3) @bradplumer: "A few Olympic rule changes explain why so many gymnasts have been falling on their faces."

4) @nprnews: "Let's catch p: U.S. women's basketball Blowout, and Maroney's vault woes" (This is in reference to American gymnast Makayla Maroney falling on her second vault).

5) @ISROlympics2012: "Eran and Gideon in 11th place after 8 races" (This is talking about the Israeli men's sailing team of Gideon Kilger and Eran Sela. A later tweet from American tv reporter Christiane Amanpour said that Vojdan Shaherkan, a 16-year old female athlete from Saudi Arabia, one of Israel's main rivals had provided the first win for a female athlete for her country as she upset Melissa Mojica of Puerto Rico in judo. But, the result is not expected to change women's sporting rights in the kingdom.)

6) @shawnJohson (Shawn Johnson): "Hot pants! We're color coordinated."

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com 

http://timesofisrael.com 

http://www.todayszaman.com 

http://www.dominiquedawes.com 

http://www.shawnjohnson.net 

Quote of the Day/Week- John Ford

Today, in honor of the Oscars broadcast in late February, we are quoting Oscar-winning film directors, and we start with John Ford (1894-1973). Though he was known primarily for his westerns, none of the record four Oscars that Ford won came from films within that genre. And, only one of those films, "The Quiet Man" (1952) featured his frequnet collaborator John Wayne.

The other three films Ford Oscared for include "The Informer" (1935), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) and "How Green Was My Valley" (1941).

Ironically, Ford did not win for his two most acclaimed films "Stagecoach" (1939) and "The Searchers" (1956). Many film historians also consider his film "How Green Was My Valley" which also won an Oscar for Best Picture to be the most dubious in Oscar history since "Citizen Kane" also came out in 1941. But, Orson Welles, who directed "Citizen Kane" considered Ford to be both a major influence and one of his favorite film directors.

We also highly recommend two BFI books by Ed Buscombe (full disclosure: he taught a class on westerns that I took at Hollins University in Roanoke, Va.) on "The Searchers" and "Stagecoach."

Here is Ford's quip:

"How did I get to Hollywood? By train?"

SIDEBAR: For some reason, both former American Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes and country singer Dolly Parton, who were both subjects of entries on this blog, are among are hot links this week!

Special Quote of the Week- Dominique Dawes

Today, in honor of Black History Month, we are going to start a month-long series of quotes from African-American athletes, past and present.

In may sports, an athlete can still compete at age 34, but that's not the case with gymnastics!

Nevertheless, Dominique Dawes, who won Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, is still very active in the public speaking circuit.

Her alma mater, the University of Maryland (Dawes did not compete for the school) faces their EAGL rivals from the University of North Carolina on Saturday. The meet between the Terps and the 'Heels will be at 7:00 p.m. in Chapel Hill.

Last week, Maryland finished third (in a four-school meet) in Ann Arbor, Mich., in which the host Wolverines won. But, the Terps had standout performances from Kesley Cofsky, who scored a 9.8 on bars. Gymnasts Kaitlin Joseph and Ally Krikorian scored a 9.7 each on the same apparatus.

As for UNC, the 'Heels beat William and Mary at home last week with solid scores from Morgan Evans, Elizabeth Durkac (who happens to be from Yorktown, Va., which is near the campus of William and Mary) and Emily Cornwell. Alas, our favorite Tarheel gymnast Christine Nguyen graduated last year.

Dawes has been very vocal about the need for young women to view themselves positively and her quote here certainly reflects that:

"I found through research that between 50 and 70 percent of young girls who describe themselves as overweight are actually normal weight."